The Battle of the Collector Base
We left the Normandy and stepped onto the rocky outer hull of the Collector Base, heading for the shaft that would take us inside. EDI was working hard to scramble communications within the base to try and limit the numbers of Collectors we would be facing. The base was almost as large as the Citadel which had a population of over 13 million people. There could very well be millions of Collectors waiting for us inside. We all dropped through the shaft one by one without incident and located the point where the path forked and split into the two different passages that we were to take. I helped Tali into the ventilation shaft and wished her luck by touching the forehead of my helmet to hers, but then it was back to our terrible business.
Miranda, Jacob, Mordin, Samara, Thane and Grunt headed off down the left passage while I took Garrus, Jack, Zaeed, Kasumi and Legion with me down the right. The hope was to hold off firing our weapons until the need was absolutely dire, but as soon as we rounded the first corner, we found ourselves coming under a barrage of fire from Collectors in cover along the walls of the passage,
"Ferris, this is Horizon," I said over the comm, "we've been engaged by Collector forces. Be advised, it won't be long until they're on you as well."
"Horizon, this is Ferris," Miranda responded quickly, "thanks for the warning, we'll keep our eyes peeled."
I popped out of cover and slotted a Collector with my Mattock before pushing ahead from cover to cover. My squad covered each other as we took turns to move up and when I picked off another of the Reaper slaves, I noticed movement in the vent above our heads,
"Tali, you ok in there?" I asked.
"It's hot in here," she came back, "but I'm moving forward. I might have a problem though, there's something blocking the shaft up ahead, looks like a heat capacitor. I won't be able to disable it from in here."
"We'll fight on ahead and find a terminal to open it," I told her as bullets whacked into the ground and walls around me.
"Gardner-Commander," came Legion's voice, "we have detected a control terminal ahead that will allow us to disable obstructions for Creator-Zorah."
"Let's pick up the pace people," I ordered my team, "when we get there you take down the capacitors Legion."
"Affirmative," Legion said as it drilled a Collector between its third and fourth eyes with its pulse rifle.
"Tali," I said over the comm, "we'll reach a terminal momentarily, Legion's gonna take it down."
"It's really heating up in here, Scott," she said disconcertingly.
A Collector threw a biotic blast towards us, but Jack deflected it and incorporated it into her own attack which disintegrated the enemy in the blink of an eye. Zaeed and Garrus were working in tandem and put down a horrifically effective crossfire which enabled Legion and I to dash for the terminal. I hunkered down and nailed three of the enemies until there was a great hissing noise behind me as the capacitor was cleared.
"You are clear to proceed, Creator-Zorah," Legion told her.
"Moving forward," Tali confirmed. A Collector appeared suddenly from the other side of my cover and threw itself at me, but despite the element of surprise it simply ended up with my Omni blade tearing up its insides.
"Keep moving forward!" I yelled to the team and we all started moving up in two groups of three, one covering the other as they advanced.
The passage was long, straight and unchanging the entire way and I felt like we weren't making any progress at all. The only thing that let me know we were definitely moving forward was the ventilation shaft and the terminals that we found. Poor Tali was being cooked alive in that shaft and I pushed everyone hard to try and keep just ahead of her, disabling the heat capacitors as we went. I received word from Ferris Team that they were now being engaged by considerable Collector forces, but Miranda was keeping a cool head and they were fighting on together. Nothing would stop our teams.
Four capacitors down and I saw Tali dart on ahead right above me as the shaft moved from one side of the passage to the other. That was when Garrus shouted out to me,
"Commander, right ahead of us! Another one of those Collector captains that we saw on Horizon."
I saw the Collector coming down the passage towards us with a mass of Husks and more Collector troops. Its body seemed to be aflame and its sickly green, yellow eyes burned with hate as they came to rest on me. Just like on Horizon I heard the deep, demonic voice call out to me,
"I will destroy you, Gardner, and all those that follow you will become our slaves!"
The threat was followed up with an enormous biotic attack that missed me by millimetres and blew a great hole in the wall behind me, showering us with debris and dust. Zaeed, Garrus and Legion mowed down the Husks in droves as they charged mindlessly into our field of fire. Those that did get closer were either picked off by Kasumi's sub-machinegun or shredded by Jack's shotgun and biotics. However, while the Husks and Collector soldiers threw themselves at us, the captain stayed put and kept us dodging its powerful biotic attacks.
Jack put up a barrier several times to withstand the sheer force of incoming fire, but even being the super-biotic that she was, it took a lot of strength for her to fight against the pressure being put on by our enemy. I drew my Widow rifle and tried to line up a shot on the captain, but in the chaos of this close-quarters battle it was proving impossible. We were pinned down and unable to advance, and all the while Tali was heading deeper and deeper into the base, leaving us further and further behind, further and further from our help.
Jack lifted a Husk into the air with her mind and threw it at an incredible speed into another wave of them and bought us a few seconds. I dropped a Collector soldier with my Widow and raced over to Jack's position as a biotic blast hammered into the ground just behind me,
"Jack," I said, "I need you to open a clear firing lane for me towards that captain. Tali's dead if we stay here any longer, we have to keep moving!"
"What the fuck d'you think I've been trying to do, Gardner?" she responded in her usual charming way.
"Then try harder!"
She looked at me as if she was about to tell me to go fuck myself, but by now she knew better than to second-guess me.
"I'll… There's something I can try," she told me, "just don't blame me if it all goes to shit!"
To my amazement, Jack leapt out of cover when the Collector captain unleashed a biotic attack. I ran over to grab her and drag her out of the way, but Jack raised a hand in my direction and pushed me back into cover. She fired up her biotics to their maximum power and caught the enemy's biotic attack as it hit her. The resulting explosion sent me, my team and all of the enemy forces flying to the ground in equal measure. However, when I looked back up, Jack was still standing there and was channelling the energy from the Collector's biotic attack into her own. When she unleashed her power, it surged along the passageway as a great destructive wave that vapourised every enemy it hit. The few that were still alive attempted to stand back up, but were quickly shot down by Garrus, Zaeed and I.
When I saw the glowing figure of the captain slowly getting back to its feet again, I lined up the shot with my Widow and fired two heavy shots into its head. The captain was finished. I ordered everyone to keep charging forward and put Jack's arm around my shoulder to help her along, fielding an attack that large had really taken it out of her.
"I'll be fine," she argued as I carrier her along at speed, my pistol ready in my other hand.
"Jack you can barely walk," I told her, "we need to keep moving and I'm not leaving anyone behind. Tali," I got on the comm, "what's happening?"
"Legion's just disabled another capacitor and I think I have a straight run at the objective," my Quarian specialist reported.
"Good, we'll see you on the other side," I said.
"You'd better," Tali said quickly.
With the exception of a few Collector stragglers, the rest of the way to the doors at the end of the passage was relatively clear.
"Ferris," I radioed, "what's your situation?"
"Nearly at the doors, Commander," Miranda replied, "a lot of Collectors behind us."
"They're coming in behind us too," Garrus pointed out just as bullets started to thud into the doors and walls around us.
"I'm through the ventilation shaft," Tali reported in, "I'll have the doors open soon."
"Get on it, Tali," I said, "everyone else dig in and hold them off until we're through!"
We all ducked behind cover and hit back at the Collectors that were trying to rush us. Their bodies began to pile up in front of us when I heard over the radio that Tali had gotten the door open for Ferris Team.
"Moving to your door now, Scott," Tali said breathlessly.
"Ferris' door shut and secured," Jacob said from the other side of the doors, "we're ready to cover you, Commander."
Jack had regained a bit of her own strength again and was giving our enemy hell while Garrus, Legion and Zaeed sniped away to their heart's content. Kasumi fired an overload charge from her Omni tool and hit a Collector in the chest, electrocuting it and frying it from the inside out. With her technical wizardry, Tali had the door opened for us before the encroaching Collectors and Husks were on top of us.
"Everyone give them covering fire," Miranda ordered at the front of Ferris Team, "don't let any Collectors through that door!"
As my Horizon Team ducked inside the huge blast doors, Ferris Team lay down a hail storm of bullets that took down every oncoming enemy that dared to try and get us. Incoming fire from the Collectors was increasingly heavy and the racket from their bullets hitting off of the door was deafening. Tali was working away furiously on the door control and the heavy metal doors began to close. Miranda took a bad hit to the chest and a grenade landed on our side of the door. I launched myself at Tali and covered her with my own body just as the grenade went off. As my body suddenly began to burn with pain, I screamed out and Tali moved to see to my wounds, but I shook her off,
"The door, seal the door!" I told her. Tali darted back to the door control and within a few seconds the doors slammed shut, giving us a chance to catch our breath.
I battled to my feet and placed a grateful hand on Tali's shoulder,
"Good job Tali, I knew you wouldn't let me down!"
"I couldn't let that happen," she replied. I called to the rest of the squad,
"Jack, that thing you did earlier with your biotics was the most badass thing ever! Nice job. Everyone alright? Anyone wounded?"
I went over to Miranda, as she had been hit, while everyone checked in. All of us were carrying wounds of some sort, but none were as serious as the Cerberus Operative's.
"I'll be alright Commander," she said shakily, but I saw past the strong facade and knew that the wound was definitely as bad as it appeared. However, there was no way to get her out of here right at that moment, so I applied a healthy dose of medigel and led everyone further along our route. It was only a matter of time before the Collectors would be on us again so we moved quickly.
Our path ran along the side of the open expanse that was the central chamber of the Collector base. When we had been on board the Collector ship and seen the millions of pods that they used to transport their victims from their colonies to the Collector ship, I remembered feeling horrified at the prospect of them capturing so many. Now, however, the Collector ship paled in comparison to what we were seeing in here. I imagined that the populations of entire nations on Earth could be abducted and crammed into this chamber. I did not voice this to the rest of the team, although I was certain that most of them could well be thinking the same thing. That was when I noticed that there were now pods appearing on our left hands side, most of them were empty but I started to notice that there were shapes inside some of them.
"There are people in there!" I alerted the team.
We all rushed over to the pods and looked inside.
"Scott," Tali called out, "it's Kelly Chambers!"
"I've got Mess Sergeant Gardner over here," Kasumi called from another pod.
"The whole crew is here, Commander," Thane called out.
"Some colonists as well," Garrus added, "we have to… by the spirits!"
He sounded shocked,
"What is it?" I asked as I went over to him.
"Something's happening, Scott," the Turian said, "the pods are filling with… something. I can't describe it."
"Get them out of there," I ordered without waiting to find out what was happening, "get our people out."
The colonist woman that Garrus had pointed out suddenly woke up and started looking around frantically as her pod began to fill up with some sort of gas. I tried to smash the glass-like lid of the pod with the butt of my rifle and then tried to pry the bastard open, but I could not do it fast enough. In a spurt of boiling blood and flesh the woman suddenly began to scream as she literally melted before my eyes.
The team knew what was happening as more pods began to hiss and began to fill up with the disintegrating gas,
"Step on it guys! Come on!" I yelled and I began to hammer on the pod containing Engineer Daniels. The seal cracked and I hit it with everything I had until I could reach in and pull Gabby out. The rest of my squad was racing around pulling out more of the crew and then moving to another pod. Grunt was invaluable for his sheer brute strength as he was able to tear the seals off of the pods by himself before another member of the team helped our poor crew-member out. Legion, being a computer, was able to calculate the exact location to hit the seals to inflict maximum pressure so that it could be broken with ease. Working together, we had the entire crew out and gathered together.
They looked absolutely terrible, but considering what they had been through since they had been abducted three days ago, I should not have been surprised.
"Crew dangerously malnourished. Weak," Mordin told me, "should not remain on the base."
"Joker, you read me?" I radioed my ship, "is the Normandy able to do a pickup? We've found the crew."
"We've got enough systems back online, Sir," he came back, "but we would have to land back from your position to get them."
"We'll… we'll never make it," Kelly said weakly. I knelt down beside her and comforted her,
"We came to get you all out of here, and I'm not leaving without you. I'll have someone escort you all back to the Normandy."
"I'm not sure that's a good idea, Commander," Miranda said, "we're going to need every gun we have for the rest of the mission."
I looked over as Ken Donnelly helped Gabby up onto her feet, both of them so exhausted, so demoralised, completely helpless,
"They won't make it 5 minutes once we move out," I argued, "we came here for many reasons and one of them was to rescue our crew. And you Miranda, you're wounded. I'm sending you and Jacob to get the crew back to Joker and EDI. We've lost no one so far, and I'm going to make sure that goes for the crew as well."
Miranda looked back at the crew and saw that I was right. She was upset that she was getting sent back to the ship, but I went over to her and told her,
"You've done enough Miranda. You got Ferris Team through efficiently, don't throw your life away now. Get our people back safely."
"Understood Commander, and good luck," she said, gripping her rifle with renewed purpose.
Miranda and Jacob headed off with the crew, twenty-four of them in total, and we held our ground to make sure they set off without incident before I radioed the Normandy again,
"EDI, we're preparing to head towards the core, any Intel on what's ahead of us?"
"The path ahead splits into two parallel passages as before. However, both passages are filled with millions of individual heat signatures, the Collectors have flooded them with Seeker Swarms."
"My counter-measure inadequate against such numbers. May also have updated Seeker scanners since encounter on Horizon," Mordin informed me.
"They must have a weakness," I said as I looked around my team. When I came to look at Jack and Samara, who just happened to be standing next to each other, I had an epiphany,
"What about biotics? Could we create a shield around us to get through them?"
"It would be possible," Samara answered, "I could not get the whole team through, but a smaller contingent would be within my abilities."
"I could do it too, Scott," Jack said confidently.
"Good," I said, "Samara will take one team and Jack the other, everyone else stay inside the shield and keep the enemy back. Samara, you're with me. Tali, Grunt and Mordin as well."
Garrus was about to argue that he wanted to come with me, but I stopped him,
"Garrus, I want you leading Ferris Team with Jack as your biotic. You led a crack team on Omega against an army of mercs for months, use that experience now."
My friend agreed and shook my hand,
"You can count on me Scott, see you at the core!"
I addressed the whole team,
"We've been through a lot of hell already but we're here now with no losses. That does not change! I want to see everyone at the core. You hearing me?"
The squad called back to me energetically and the two teams split apart again to begin the fight through the Seekers. We were getting close to finishing this.
Samara, Tali, Grunt, Mordin and I gathered at our respective door and Samara enveloped us in a large bubble of dark energy. This time we had the opportunity to patch EDI into the door controls and she hacked through the systems in seconds, flinging them open and unleashing the Seekers on us. Samara's barrier came under relentless assault from the tiny metal insects. Inspecting the barrier around us, I was reminded of the surface of a pond during a downpour of rain, ripples appearing all over the place and contesting with each other. It was difficult to see outside of the bubble for any approaching threats, but I was not about to ask for our barrier to be taken down so I could have a look.
That was when the first Husk broke through the barrier. It had had to fight its way through but it eventually managed, and we greeted it inside our bubble with a shot to the head and a swift butchering with Omni blades.
"They could be all around us," I told the team, "keep a watch on all sides."
I heard Tali's shotgun go off as another Husk appeared and the creature crumbled in a heap on the ground. With the high demand being placed on Samara, she was struggling to move much faster than walking pace and I could see the sweat running down from the top of her head. We were all slick with sweat, but I did not think I could ever imagine the kind of mental and physical strain that biotics had to go through when performing high intensity actions such as this. The damn Seekers were only adding to Samara's battle. A Collector burst through and ran straight into me, unable to bring its gun up in time. I grabbed it and threw the beast on the ground before slotting it in the head with my pistol. I could barely make out more on the outside of the barrier and I called out to everyone else,
"Collectors about to break through on my side. Get ready."
As one, the Collectors forced their bodies through the shield and after a few shots were fired, they were in close enough for fists and feet to become the main weapon of choice. Tali and I wielded our Omni tools against our foes while Grunt crushed, squished and squashed whatever came in range of his hands. The Collector that dived on Mordin received a neural shock and went limp as a boned fish. As I rushed over to help the Salarian, a bullet burst out the back of the Collector's skull, Mordin did not need help. For the sheer weight of numbers that the Collectors had in the form of their mindless drone soldiers and the zombie-like Husks, they lacked any wit, guile and resourcefulness when it came to the fighting. Every member of my team had their own unique skills, tricks and experiences to draw upon when things became desperate, and it was really counting for a hell of a lot now. Each Husk and Collector that made it through was quickly and efficiently eradicated before they could harm Samara which would result in our barrier, our life-line, coming down.
As we slowly progressed along the passage, I suddenly realised that there were no walls on either side of us, just a massive empty expanse coupled with a drop of what could easily have been hundreds of metres. Samara was moving on as best she could, but it was extremely tough going on her endurance. Through the barrier and clouds of Seekers I saw a light emanating from beyond and I knew that it was the end of the passageway, our objective. I radioed Ferris Team,
"This is Horizon. We're approximately five minutes from the rallying point. How are you guys progressing?"
"We're about the same," Garrus said, "meeting a lot of resistance but we're taking care of it and Jack's barrier's keeping up! We'll meet you there."
"We need to hurry," Samara said to me through gritted teeth, "have to… reach the door soon."
She bowed her head and sped up to a jog, forcing herself onwards against the storm that raged just outside our protective field. We all upped our pace to keep up with Samara and the enemies were having a tough time trying to get inside the bubble, a few were not careful enough and ended up being forced off the side of the path and into the abyss below. All of Samara's energy, all of her strength and all of her considerable willpower went into the last few hundred metres as we made the final dash towards the blast doors at the other end of the passage.
"Come on, Samara," I said next to her, encouraging her, "you can do this! Not far to go and we'll be done with the Seekers."
Samara's field was visibly weakening and the Collectors were having an easier time of getting through, but even on the run we were able to dispatch them before they became too much of a threat. I even chanced to fire my Mattock at some pursuing Collector troops that were outside the barrier and found that the bubble was weak enough for my shots to pass through. I dropped one then another before I instructed Tali, Mordin and Grunt to do the same. The more we killed now, the less there were for when Samara's shield would inevitably have to come down once through the door. I dropped to my knee and took a few shots at some troopers before darting forward again as Samara soldiered in.
All four of us repeated this pattern all the way to the door, and when we were just about there, I noted with satisfaction that we had left one hell of a body count behind us.
"Almost there, Samara," I told her as her head was still bowed and her eyes closed with concentration, "one more push and we're there."
With an agonising groan, Samara lengthened her strides and we moved even faster towards the door, shooting all the way. The door was twenty metres away, I dropped to my knee and shot a Collector straight through the neck then got back up to catch up with the Asari Justicar. Ten metres lay between us and the end of this nightmare of being trapped in a biotic cage with enemies infesting the ground all around us.
I shot a Husk in the head and then lowered my rifle to take out its legs when it refused to go down, then I was back on my feet and running through the vast doorway.
"Tali, get the door closed," I ordered, "Samara, you just have to keep the barrier up a little longer, barricade the doorway."
"I will do better than that," she said as she shrunk the shield down into a tight ball of energy in her palm and unleashed all of it at once back up the passageway, blasting the Collectors, Husks and Seekers away with deadly consequences. Tali got the door shut fast and Samara sank to her knees, gasping for air as if she had not been breathing the entire time that we were in the bubble.
"That was amazing Samara!" I told her, "take a second to catch your breath, we'll get the door open for Ferris Team and then we'll be planning our next move."
To my surprise the Justicar then stood up and looked at me,
"I… will be ready whenever you need me. You shall not need to wait on me."
Tali hacked open the door for the other team and they all poured through with Garrus coming last. While they filed in, I did a head count and was relieved that everyone was still accounted for. The second door slammed shut and everyone was suddenly doubled over, sucking in huge gulps of oxygen,
"Everyone alright?" I checked on my squad.
"We're all here," Garrus replied, "and we kicked some Collector ass along the way!"
"Would be disappointed if you didn't," I slapped him on the back. I then radioed the Normandy,
"Joker, we've reached the platforms leading to the core. Everyone's still alive. What's the situation on your end?"
"Miranda, Jacob and the entire crew just arrived, Sir. Looks like they had to fight their way here but no casualties to report."
My heart soared in my chest, if our luck could hold like this for just a short while longer, then we could set this abominable base to be destroyed and get out of here with everyone alive. We could do this, we could really do this. Ever since I had started recruiting these warriors, these heroes, for my mission I had had no illusions about casualties being inevitable. But here we were, almost at the end and everyone was still standing.
We were all bloodied, bruised and battered, but we were still here. I had been through a lot of battles and seen some of the worst horrors that occur during wars. But this battle on the Collector base was by far the hardest fight I had ever endured. I rallied my beleaguered friends around me and spoke to them,
"This is it! We're almost at the end now. EDI will hack the platform and get me and a team to the core. That is all that stands between us fighting for our lives here and getting back to the Normandy. The ones who remain here will have to hold their ground until my team gets back, look to each other for the strength to carry on! Remember how many lives are depending on us right now at this very moment," I gazed out at the warriors arrayed before me.
"Our failure means the senseless slaughter of millions of innocent men, women and children. And not just Humans. The Collectors are slaves to the Reapers. Eventually they will target all species and more innocent lives will be exterminated. We are fighting for them! For their right to live!"
The nerves of my people were steeled and they prepared themselves for the final engagement.
"It's been a long journey," I said, "and none of us are coming out of it without scars. But what we do here today is more important than anything that has ever come before it in the galaxy's history. It ends here today, with us and the Collectors destroyed. I've come to trust every one of you with my life. Make me proud. Make yourselves proud!"
"We're ready, Scott," Garrus spoke for everyone, "just take who you need with you and the rest will tear the Collectors apart here."
"Garrus, Tali and Legion, you're with me," I said, "I'll need tech experts for where I'm going. Zaeed, you're in charge on the defence. When they breakthrough that door, they don't set a foot past you. Understood?"
"I'll gut them before they get past us," the mercenary veteran replied.
The platform that I was on with Garrus, Tali and Legion suddenly broke loose of its berth and began to hover its way towards where the massive energy signature was coming from, the central core of the Collector base. As we floated away, I watched the squad that I was leaving as my rearguard set themselves up on the other platforms and on the outcrop of rocky ground to which they were attached. Any Collector which came through that doorway was going to get torn to pieces in seconds. Zaeed, Kasumi, Mordin, Thane, Samara, Jack and Grunt would hold the line. I trusted them to get the job done. Even in the horrible event that their defence was overwhelmed, the price the Collectors will have paid would be astronomical.
I turned away and looked forward to where we were going. A huge chasm opened ahead of us and dead in the centre of it was the power core for the base, a huge spire with a flat top from where we could get access to the core and plant our charge to overload the entire thing.
"What are these tubes for?" Tali suddenly said and I became aware of the large number of tubes that were coming from all over the base and convening in the chasm ahead of us. When I looked closer, I saw that there was some sort of fluid being pumped through them, and when I realised what this fluid really was, I had to fight being sick.
"That's the Humans they've abducted in those tubes," I told them with a dark voice.
"What?" Garrus said, hoping that he had not heard me right.
"The colonists," I looked at him, "that's what the Collectors are doing to them. Melting them down into some sort of genetic material and using it."
"What would they do that for?" Tali said, her voice quiet with shock.
Her question was answered in the most despicable way when we went deeper into the massive chasm, easily four kilometres tall and wide.
I traced the tubes all the way to the other side of the power core and saw a massive superstructure, the tubes were all feeding into it. At first, I could not make out what the structure was, it was like the skeletal beginnings of a building. It was easily about two kilometres tall and was of a very sleek and elegant design, but there was something familiar about it. At a glance the whole thing would have looked unassuming, but as my eyes moved down the construct towards the centre there was a very large and very powerful looking processing unit, and below that the form of the construct split off into five different limbs.
I was struck with the horrible realisation that I had seen one of these things before, and I had seen what it was capable of. As I looked at the skeleton, I pictured it in my mind in a far greater state of completion, with an outer shell and the tentacles stretching out to unleash their deadly weapons. The Collectors were building a Reaper.
"It looks like Sovereign. The colonists are being melted down into a genetic paste and used to build a Reaper," I said to the others grimly.
"That's…" Tali began, but failed to even say anything. Garrus and Tali both looked at the Reaper skeleton in horror, speechless in the presence of such a monstrosity.
"Scans indicate that this Reaper is in a very early stage of development," EDI told me, "significantly more Human material will be needed to complete it."
"How many?" I asked, then thinking that I would rather not know.
"It is impossible to give an accurate figure, but my estimates put the number of humans required in the hundreds of millions."
Garrus and Tali heard EDI's information and looked at me with pity. The Reapers and Collectors were targeting my species specifically, and over a million must have perished already at the hands of their abductors.
"This place is an abomination," I said out loud, "EDI, is there any way to speed the platform up? The sooner this place is wiped off the map, the better I'll feel."
There was a jolt as the platform suddenly raced forward and I landed right on my ass,
"A little warning next time, EDI," Garrus quipped.
The indomitable figure of the Reaper-spawn drew closer and closer until the hovering platform hit the core and landed us on top of it.
"Expose the core and get the charge in place," I ordered, before contacting Zaeed back where we left him, "Zaeed, What's the situation?"
"The bastards got the door open and they're pouring through, but we're hitting them hard and holding position. You at that bloody core yet?"
"We're there and we're prepping the charge."
"Hostiles inbound," Legion suddenly said, "platforms approaching our location."
"Zaeed," I said, "we're gonna have to take care of some old friends first. Hold on, we'll come back for you!"
"Make it quick, Gardner!" Zaeed said, the sounds of heavy fighting raging in the background.
Just as Legion had warned us, several platforms suddenly flew into view, all swarming with Collector soldiers.
"We've got no cover here!" Garrus said,
"As soon as they land, we all concentrate on capturing one," I told them, "we use that as our firebase and hold them off until we can get out of here."
We had to abandon placing the charge, and when the first platform crunched into the side of the base's core we leapt aboard. There were at least a dozen Collectors with us and the fight for control of the platform was short and vicious. Tali and Legion bunkered down and fired back while Garrus and I moved around the side to gain a better firing line on our enemies. We had to hurry, the Collectors from the other platforms would soon be attacking us from the rear and we had our asses hanging out for them to shoot at.
A well-placed grenade from my hand dispatched a few of our enemies and opened up their flank. Garrus and I exploited the opening and while Tali and Legion had their fire drawn away from us, we got in about them from behind and shot them all to pieces. Once our platform was clear, we used the heavy cover it provided to fend off the Collectors coming in from the other seven platforms. They wanted us dead so badly that they were running madly across the open ground on top of the core like a Japanese banzai charge way back in World War 2.
While my three friends took down the Collectors that were rushing in, I switched to my Widow to deal with the few troopers that had stayed back and were putting down accurate fire from their positions. With the brute force of the Widow, one of the Collector's heads exploded when my bullet hit it dead centre. Another vaulted over its cover and joined in the dash towards our position. I aimed slightly ahead of the bastard and nailed it right in the chest.
"We've got a chance now, Scott," Tali shouted out when she finished putting down a Collector, riddling its chest full of bullet holes. I bolted back to the core and raised the main control unit out of the huge power plant,
"Garrus, the charges! Joker; move in and pick up Zaeed's team now, we're almost done here." I ordered through the comm as Garrus ran up just behind me. My friend handed me the charges and I began to install them into the control unit when Joker suddenly came over the comm,
"Commander, I've got a call from the Illusive Man coming through. Patching it through to you now."
Tali's Omni tool lit up and she brought up a holographic screen with the Cerberus leader on it. I looked around and saw those bright, robotic blue eyes staring at me.
The Illusive Man had a crooked grin on his face that immediately aroused my suspicions, and when he spoke I was already listening for any hint of lies, deception or secret agendas hidden between the lines.
"Commander Gardner," the Illusive Man started, "you've done the impossible!"
"I was part of a team," I corrected him, "and we're all still fighting thousands of Collectors so make it quick."
I was programming the timers for the charges, giving us enough time to escape before the base was annihilated in what would basically be a nuclear explosion.
"I'm looking at the schematics of the base that EDI uploaded," the Illusive Man said, "a timed radiation pulse would kill everything aboard but leave the base's machinery and technology intact. This is our chance, Gardner. they are building a Reaper. That knowledge, that framework, could save us."
I rounded on him, anger flooding my body,
"They liquefied people, turned them into something horrible. This base has to be destroyed!"
Illusive Man shook his head,
"Don't be short-sighted. To have any chance against the Reapers we need to turn their own technology against them."
"Some warrior of Humanity you are," Garrus said venomously.
"If we ignore this opportunity, we'll be betraying all the countless souls who've died at the hands of the Collectors," Illusive Man insisted, "who knows what information is buried away on that base. This base is a gift, we can't just destroy it."
"No matter what technology we might find, it's not worth it," I said back.
"Damn it, Scott," the Cerberus leader saw that I was not coming around to his way of thinking and there was something in his voice that sounded an awful lot like fear.
"You died fighting for what you believed in. I brought you back from the dead so you could keep fighting," Illusive Man said, "some would say what we did to you was going too far, but look what you've accomplished! I didn't discard you because I knew your value, don't be so quick to discard this facility. Think of the potential!"
For a moment I wavered. The Illusive Man had a point. If he had not invested so much in me then there was very little chance that anyone else could have brought together such a powerful force and brought the fight to the Collectors, nobody else had the right amount of experience and ability to fight the Reaper slaves. If he had not brought me back then I could not continue the battle against them, and what would happen when the Reapers themselves finally arrived and laid waste to the galaxy? Who would lead the effort against them? Who else would stand to bear such a great burden?
However, as I looked at the face of Garrus and saw Tali and Legion watching me, expecting me to do the right thing, I made my decision.
"We'll fight and win without it," I told the Illusive Man, "I won't let fear compromise who I am."
"You can't do this, Gardner!" Illusive Man raged, "think about what's at stake. Think about everything Cerberus has done fo…"
I signalled Tali to cut the call short and she did so without hesitation.
"We're destroying the station," I told my peers.
"Humanity was offered transcendence, but you refuse," Legion said, "Organics are more like Geth than we thought."
"We're all in this together, Legion," I told my Geth friend, "there's the fast, easy way forward and then there's the right way forward. Let's get out of here."
I initiated the countdown on the charges and inserted the control unit back into the power core. It was time to go.
"Joker, EDI, have you picked up Zaeed's team yet?" I said.
"Affirmative Commander!" Joker radioed back, "A few wounded but everyone's alive and onboard!" Just waiting on you."
"Rodger that! We're on our way. EDI, get our platform back to the passage."
The four of us jumped back aboard our platform and it soared back towards where we had left Zaeed and the rest of the team. However, the Collectors were hot on our heels and a few platforms came after us with their payload of Reaper slaves. Shots pinged all around us and we hunkered down to stay out of sight until our platform had landed.
Something happened then that made me certain that our luck had finally run out. Another of the hovering platforms came hurtling in from the side and smashed straight into ours, sending it crashing down like a fighter that had been shot out of the sky. We were spinning around uncontrollably and I got my three squad-mates to link arms to keep together as we got nearer and nearer a lower down pathway.
The moment that the platform thundered into the ground below, I was sent flying through the air and hit the wall with a terrible crunch. When I landed on the floor several feet below, my body ached and screamed with pain, but we were not out of danger yet. I scrambled to my feet and searched around for Garrus, Tali and Legion. The Turian was already on his feet and was man-handling Legion up from the ground. But there was no sign of Tali. I searched around our crash site frantically looking for my Quarian love, but I was coming up empty. Then Legion's voice proved my salvation as the Geth started to shift a pile of rocks and rubble,
"Creator-Zorah is buried under this debris, Gardner-Commander."
The three of us worked furiously to uncover Tali and soon her hand came reaching out to me and I pulled her free.
"Can you run?" I asked her.
"I… can try," she replied bravely. EDI contacted Legion digitally and showed the Geth the way to the Normandy. The Geth took point in front of Garrus and I sent Tali just ahead of me so I could cover our backs. We were caught in a confusing network of corridors like a maze, but Legion raced onwards along the path shown to it by the Normandy AI and we followed faithfully.
Collectors were everywhere, but even they seemed unsure of exactly where we were. Often, we were able to race past a side corridor full of hostiles who did not realise that it was us straight away. Never-the-less, I still had to gun down more than a few Collectors that got too close and a couple of well-placed grenades put us further ahead of our pursuers. I was absolutely knackered and could barely breathe by this point. After all the physical demands of this mission, every stride forward took more and more of my strength away. Tali was beginning to slow down as her wounds were becoming too much, too painful.
I put my Mattock away and drew my pistol so that I could support Tali with my free arm. I carried her along with me through the bullets and explosions, weaving along the winding route that Legion was leading us on. Soon, however, we left the confines of the corridors behind and before us was a long straight passage heading up at a steep angle, and at the top waiting for us was the Normandy. I pushed Tali ahead of me,
"We're going to have to run and jump," I yelled ahead to her, "one last push Tali, go!"
Despite the agony that she was in, the Quarian took off on her own two legs and managed to stay just ahead of me. Legion made it to the top and leapt off into the low gravity conditions and sailed straight and true into the open airlock door. Garrus followed suite and then, to my great relief, Tali took off and landed safely on board our ship. I had just a few more feet to go before I was ready to jump, I was so close that I could almost taste victory.
Pain shot through my back and chest as a Collector bullet penetrated my shields and armour on my back and shot out through my abdomen. I stumbled and fell to my knees and tried to drag myself the last few feet to freedom. That's when the second shot got me through the shoulder and drove me flat on the ground. My eyes were bleary with tears of blinding pain and I could barely lift myself back to my feet. I was not going to make the jump to the Normandy unless I went back down the passage and took a full run up again, but the Collectors were not about to let that happen.
"Joker," I radioed, "lower the Normandy, I'm going to have to drop down to get in."
"Sir, that won't work," my pilot said back, "the airlock's a small target to hit, I'm not sure you can…"
"I wasn't asking, Joker," I grunted, "lower the Normandy now."
Miranda and Jacob had just appeared at the airlock opening with rifles in hand and were keeping the Collectors back as best they could. When the Normandy dropped down below the end of the passage, they beckoned me to move and I took a carefully timed step off the edge.
I fell for less than a few seconds, but it felt like forever. I was concentrating so hard on trying to grab the ledge of the airlock and when I made contact with the ship, I barely managed to get a pinky-hold. With my body feeling like it was on fire, I dangled there for a few perilous moments before Miranda and Jacob grabbed an arm each and hauled me inside. I was home.
"Detonation in 10, 9, 8…" EDI started.
"Yeah, yeah, I get the gist, EDI," Joker said quickly, "Let's get out of here!"
The Normandy's thrusters were brought to full power and we shot through the central hollow of the base and back out towards open space. I was lying in the corridor just inside the airlock along with Tali, both of us wounded and feeling weak.
"Let's get you two to the med bay," Garrus said as Miranda, Zaeed and Jacob came over to help take us down.
"No," I said, "I want to watch this."
"So do I," Tali joined me and after we had been pulled to our feet, we both limped to the bridge and looked back at the monstrous base. With great satisfaction and pride, I saw an enormous explosion erupt from with the centre of the space station.
A chain reaction spread throughout the rest of the base and soon it was all ripped apart by a massive, blindingly bright blast. EDI was putting the images up on every screen throughout the ship and the entire crew, wounded or not, let out great cries of happiness and cheered when the station was vapourised. The fireball, big enough to engulf the Citadel, was racing after us, but Joker booted up the FTL drive and boosted the Normandy out of the galactic core and to the nearest system, leaving the nightmare of what we had just been through far behind us.
I gathered Tali to me and hugged her tightly, the sensation of completing our mission against the Collectors too overpowering to resist, not that I wanted to resist. I wanted all of us to forget professionalism and protocol for this great moment in our lives and just savour every second of it while we could. I moved over to Joker's chair and hugged him around his shoulders as well while he tried to fly. I thanked EDI for everything that it had done for us and for making it far easier to get everyone out alive.
Moving through the ship, I warmly welcomed the crew members that were fit enough to be at their stations back to the ship. They were full of praise and thanks for all of my squad and I for saving them and not leaving them for the sake of the mission. Every second that the Normandy was powering through space took us further and further from that hell-hole that was the galaxy's core, and with every second my mood and the moods of everyone else soared to new heights. Even in the med bay, everyone was as cheery as they could possibly be despite the gruesome wounds that some of the crew had suffered when the Collectors had boarded. EDI played the footage of the explosion on a loop for a while and everyone drank in the immense feeling of pride. Pride that each and every one of them had earned.
My squad-mates that had been injured were also there but were all in great spirits. A lot of high-fiving, hugging and friendly shoulder slapping was going on, and I was not going to stop it. A full tour of my battered ship, and a check up on my worn and exhausted crew, proved to me once and for all that all of our struggles and battles had been worth every second. I had led these men, women and even a Geth on the most dire and dismal suicide mission in recorded history and brought every single one back alive! I could not help but feel that this victory over the Collectors was even greater than that over Sovereign over two years ago. There had been times that I had wished that I could live a simpler, less-action packed life. But right now, I would not have traded my place with anyone other living soul out there.