Survival of the fittest
Chapter 22
There had been no news.
Nothing to settle Janes mind, she had been busy, between searching for info on Aki and attending summits, arguing with diplomats and reassuring her crew there was barely a spare minute.
There was so much to do, so many people to help and please, jane swallowed back the mouthful of whiskey and inhaled deeply.
She was angry, angry at the world, at everything in existence, she had contacted her mother and told her nothing. She couldn't bare to tell her about Aki, couldn't break the woman's heart, not amongst all this and so she had lied and gave her sweet nothings just relieved in the fact that at least she was safe and working alongside Hackett.
Jane leaned back against the couch throwing the data pad she had in her hand down quickly looking to the door of her cabin as it opened, "sur'kesh- are you ready Jane?"
"Liara, yeah I am" she breathed pouring another drink, she motioned to the asari with the bottle before pouring her one out, liara took a seat beside her and picked up the glass slowly sipping the contents.
"how are you holding up?"
"as well as everyone else" she smiled sadly
"if she's alive, I'll find her" Liara promised
"I know you will" jane swallowed with a frown "there's a lot riding on us now isn't there"
"there is" Liara smiled "not that you're not used to it" she smiled knowingly
"thank you for being here" she placed a hand on the asari's and squeezed gently.
Jane had suited up and picked her ground team, this was going to be touch and go with Wrex, "This is the salarian home world we're headed to," jane explained as she looked out one of the shuttle's windows. "They aren't used to seeing krogan here, so let's keep it simple. We land, get the females and leave before anyone changes their mind." She looked to wrex and narrowed her eyes a little waiting for his response
"I still don't trust a word they say," Wrex said as he adjusted his gun with a soft snarl.
"Wrex, I'm begging you…be friendly. Not for them; for me." She was aware of how much this could go south.
"I can't promise you anything, Shepard."
She laughed loudly, "I know…just try."
"These females are the best and probably last hope for my people."
"We'll bring them back, Wrex." James replied with a stern nod
"I appreciate that, thanks for the help"
Garrus cleared his throat as he walked into Wrex's line of sight.
"I suppose I can make room for you too, Garrus," Wrex said as he laughed.
"Figured you'd gone soft sitting on your throne…forgot how to hold a gun," Garrus replied.
"Commander, I have the salarian base on sensors," Cortez said.
"Alight then, take us in," jane replied
Cortez brought the shuttle down low for a landing…
"Commander, salarian ground control says we don't have clearance to land."
"tell them the dalatrass authorized this herself,"
"I knew they'd never keep their word!" Wrex grunted as he walked over to the door. "Let's see them try to stop a krogan airdrop."
"Wrex!" jane shouted "for fucks sake" she muttered under her breath as he opened the door and jumped down to the platform below with a roar.
He was quickly rushed by salarian guards, Wrex drew his gun and in the same moment noticed multiple red lasers pointed at him.
He looked up and scanned the rooftop shit
Shepard jumped down from the shuttle with Garrus and james following after her.
A salarian yelled out to his comrades as he ran over to them…
"Stand down! Hold your fire!"
He approached Shepard, "Commander, restrain your colleague. We only found out about this transfer a few moments ago!"
"I'd like to avoid a diplomatic incident," she replied sternly
"As would we."
"But you have something valuable to my friend here."
"Something worth dying for," Wrex added in.
"This matter can be resolved but I must insist the krogan remains under guard," the salarian replied.
Jane looked over at Wrex, maybe it was for the best, he was too hot headed "I can handle this."
"Fine…anything goes wrong, and all bets are off," Wrex replied.
Shepard followed the salarian into the base as Wrex stayed back by the shuttle surrounded by guards.
"I'm Padok Wiks, and I appreciate your understanding, Commander. With war on everyone's minds, our people are on edge," the salarian explained
Jane looked ahead to see a team of salarians moving a cell across the room that contained a yahg.
Jane shivered at the sight. Seeing one again reminded her of the Shadow Broker and how much of a a pain they are to take down.
"As you can see, this base contains sensitive information," Padok said.
"Does that include studying lost krogan?" Shepard inquired.
"The females were in poor health when we found them on Tuchanka. They were brought here to stabilize their condition."
"This whole planet smells wrong," Wrex said as he walked past them under armed guard.
"I'd like to see them," Shepard said.
"Of course, I'll need to clear you for the lower levels. Give me a few moments and meet me near the elevator," Padok replied.
Shepard walked over to Wrex as Padok went to take care of granting Shepard access to the lower levels.
"Shepard, I don't like this. I should be the one going in," Wrex said.
"It's going to be okay…I'll take care of it," she assured him.
Wrex gave her a nod as she walked away and headed over to the elevator to meet back up with Padok.
"Alert! Threat condition two has been declared. Scramble readiness teams."
"What the hell is going on?" jane asked Padok as she approached him.
"Sensors have picked up activity on the perimeter," he replied. "Hurry Commander, onto the elevator - someone will meet you below."
never simple!
-
The elevator doors opened, and jane stepped out, scanning the room of for an escort.
She saw a familiar face, "Mordin!" she yelled in disbelief as she ran over to greet him.
"Shepard! Excellent timing. Good to have you here," he replied as he shook her hand with enthusiasm, "Eyesight still sharp. Surprise understandable. Hadn't expected to return to work."
"You're back with STG?" Garrus asked.
"Special consultant. Had to be me. Someone else might have gotten it wrong," Mordin replied. He looked around the room, then leaned closer to Shepard as he whispered, "Helped female krogan. Fed information to Clan Urdnot. Encouraged political pressure to free females."
"incredibly sneaky, STG tactics pay off" Shepard smiled to her old friend.
"Yes. Can explain later. Security warnings not normal. Need to get off world for sake of krogan."
Mordin turned around and started walking signalling for Shepard to follow him.
"Females had weakened immune systems. Side effect of Maelon's cure," he continued. "Not all survived."
"But what about Maelon's research? I thought we saved it?" jane asked "did it not help?"
"Indeed. Data saved, but not complete. Lacks crucial details to reconstruct cure, but still useful for synthesizing from living tissue. Couldn't save them all."
"I'm sure you did everything you could, Mordin."
"Arrived too late. Cannot delay now. One survivor. Immune to genophage. Can synthesize cure from her tissue."
"She's still here?"
"Yes. Last hope for krogan. If she dies, genophage cure-problematic."
They entered the room where the female krogan was contained. Jane walked closer to the containment glass, "Please be careful. Krogan slow to trust," Mordin cautioned.
Shepard looked at the krogan before her, "I'm Commander Shepard. Alliance Navy."
"Are you here to kill me?" she calmly inquired, her voice was haunting in its soothing nature.
"Urdnot Wrex and I are here to take you home."
"Why? What am I to you?" she retorted
"You're the future of the krogan race. I'm fighting for that."
"Then I hope you brought an army," she replied as the sound of alarms filled the air.
"Alert! Unidentified vessels have breached the perimeter."
The salarians in the room rushed around securing data files and scrubbing others.
Shepard ran over to one of them, "What's going on?"
"We have multiple ships inbound," the soldier replied.
"Shepard, it's Wrex. Cerberus troops are attacking the base. Get the females out of there now!"
"Only one survived, Wrex. It might be safer down here," Shepard replied over her comm worried, this could all go to shit.
"What?! So the salarians can kill her like the others? No deal. If you still want this alliance, get her out of there!"
God damn it wrex!
Shepard turned off her comm and looked up at the solider, "Release the female. We're leaving."
"I can't. Protocol states during lockdown no specimen-"
Mordin zapped the solider with an electric current from his omni-tool.
"Objection noted. Now, please release krogan," Mordin stated coldly
The solider opened the door and Mordin walked in as he spoke out to Shepard, "Need to monitor pod as it clears quarantine procedures. Meet us at next checkpoint, Shepard."
Shepard and her squad made their way through the various rooms and levels…fighting Cerberus troops along the way, they were throwing everything at them, endless swarms of troops being deployed at every turn.
"Shepard, it's Wrex! I took the shuttle! Do whatever it takes to get the female up to the landing pad!"
"Working on it!" she yelled over the gunfire
They continued to punch through the lines of assault troops, doing their best to protect the female krogan as they cleared checkpoints for mordin.
The next room they entered was being cleared of Cerberus troops by the yahg which had made its escape and presence known.
"liara would be cringing if she was here"
"yeah her and yahg's aren't on good terms"
"Shepard, get cracking! I'll try to draw some of their fire!"
"Doing my best, Wrex!"
They continued to fight through troopers, centurions and armoured turrets, the gunfire never letting up. The trio had to reactive power terminals along the way to keep the container moving through the checkpoints.
"Shepard, get your ass up here! I can't fly around forever!"
"The female's on the way up to the landing area!"
"You pull this off and I'm making you an honorary krogan."
"I'll hold you to that"
Shepard and her squad made their way back up top to the landing area, they took out the troopers and centurions that arrived in the area before authorizing the pod for clearance to the landing zone.
"Shepard! Heads up! You've got incoming!"
An Atlas dropped from the sky and aimed its guns at Jane, "Take cover!" She roared as she ran and ducked down behind the nearest metal crate.
"That's some serious firepower. Maybe we can crack it open!" Garrus shouted.
"lets do it!"
"Shepard, I can't land until you deal with that thing! It's too dangerous!"
"I'm working on it, Wrex!"
Once they took down the Atlas and cleared the room of the new wave of troopers, jane sighed in relief as Wrex brought the shuttle in for a landing.
Wrex walked over to join them by the container pod, the pod opened and Wrex held his hand out for the female, "Let's get you out of there."
Shepard laughed under her breath at unusual tone in wrex's usually grumpy voice, he sounded almost sincere, It was the oddest thing to hear coming from a Krogan especially him.
The female stepped down as two Cerberus troopers ran in from the right side, jane went to reach for her gun, the female caught sight of them, grabbed Wrex's gun, aimed it at the troopers and shot them down with ease before shoving the gun back in Wrex's arms.
"I can handle myself, Wrex," she stated with a low growl as she walked over to the shuttle and climbed aboard.
Wrex looked over at Garrus and scoffed, "Women."
Garrus laughed softly following Shepard back into the shuttle.
As soon as she got aboard the Normandy, she was informed by Joker she had a waiting vid comm from Admiral Hackett. She made her way straight to the comm room and signalled the channel waiting for Hackett to appear.
"Commander, I'm hearing chatter you're brokering a treaty between the krogan and the turians?"
"If I get krogan boots on Palaven, the turians promise me their support."
"And how did Cerberus get involved?"
"I have no idea. The Illusive Man is up to something though and I don't like it."
"Then keep them at bay. I can't overstate what a victory this treaty would be for the Alliance. We'll need all the help we can get."
"How's the Prothean device coming?"
"Alliance R&D had officially begun construction. The team has dubbed it 'Project Crucible'. We're throwing everybody who knows how to hold a hammer at it. This is going to be the most ambitious undertaking in human history."
"Will we get it done?"
"I'm not saying it won't be a challenge…but our researchers tell me the designs are…elegant. Massive in scope, but strangely simple as well. We can do this, Shepard. You can do this. Never doubt that."
"No, sir." She frowned "sir, has there been any news about my sister?"
"nothing yet Shepard, we have major issues within the fury squad too, if she turns up let me know. Hackett out"