I really felt like steam-rolling my way through another chapter, because this story is actually the most interesting to me out of my three, though I do have another Skyrim chapter coming up soon.
Let's get moving.
The enemy on the machine gun fell to the side as a full burst of assault rifle rounds from Shepard's Prototype Vindicator burst-rifle broke through his weaker shields and opened the side of his head without effort. The XM-15 Vindicator was set to release in another six months, but Mathias found that the prototype was already better than the M-8 Avenger model as he watched his rounds tear the shields of his enemy apart without effort.
The other Cerberus operatives that were dotted around the machine gun to give it support made a mistake then, turning their attention away from Garrus's squad to focus on him. Their error in judgment was immediately pointed out to them when the one closest to the Spectre was obliterated by the crack of a round from an M-92 Mantis sniper rifle. Immediately, the notably green enemy troops started to panic at being attacked from two different directions at the same time, some firing random shots off in the direction of the sniper shot, and one or two crouching behind cover.
Shepard slid into cover behind a crate just feet away from the enemies and put his rifle on his back, tugging out his Predator pistol and performing an "up-and-over" maneuver, hopping over the crate and landing with his full weight on top of a woman on the other side of the crate, smashing the barrel of the pistol to her head and firing twice, then sprinting forward and moving his weapon from exposed target to exposed target, getting in close with his full-on sprint. He snapped his pistol to the right and planted three shots into a man with a shotgun, a fight he wasn't willing to try surviving, and then ran past the falling form of the man to shove his pistol into the back of one of the enemies that was facing Garrus, thumping two shots into the woman's spine.
He threw the woman's body with a mighty biotic push and watched in satisfaction as her dead body smashed into the two men behind her, then he put two shots in each of those men, making sure they stayed down permanently. He managed to get the last round of his pistol out at the two remaining enemies, but missed as they stopped peaking from behind their crate, pinned by Garrus and unwilling to try snapping shots off at Mathias. The thermal clip ejecting automatically from his weapon, the Spectre walked over to the dead man with the odd Cerberus shotgun and picked it up, sneaking up to the crate behind which his targets hid. He rested the shotgun on top of the crate and waited. The Cerberus operative on his side, a dark-skinned man with a submachine gun, poked his head out to see if he could keep an eye on Shepard, and his vision was immediately filled with the sight of Shepard's shotgun.
"Boo," Shepard said. The shotgun went off and slammed into Shepard's shoulder, the recoil being unexpected from a shotgun of that size, though not unmanageable. The man's head, or what was left of it, snapped back and he flopped onto the ground without a sound. There was only one enemy left, and that meant that it was time for everyone to move up. Making sure that he was on the platoon's comms, he tapped the side of his helmet where the transmitter was, "Garrus, you're clear to move up to my position. There's one left behind this crate, but she's got a grenade launcher and I really don't feel like seeing if she can fire it when she panics."
"Roger. We're moving up to you now. One of the marines will prep a grenade for you to toss over cover. Don't get any blood on my new armor, please," Garrus responded, and Shepard watched as his squad tactically moved up, weapons trained on the crate beside which he stood, the enemy unable to move from cover without getting herself filled with rounds. Tali followed up behind Garrus, though she walked a bit more casually as she kept an eye on the doors leading into the hangar. As the squad reached his position, one of the marines pulled a grenade from his belt and tossed it to Mathias.
Shepard put a finger up to his vocalizer in a shushing motion before carefully and silently pushing the button on the side. It would be primed when he released his finger from the button. With his other hand he counted down from five for the other men and then he released the primer, counting to two and then dropping the grenade directly on top of the woman behind the crate. He sprinted away from the crates and then shouted, "Get to cover, grenade!"
BOOM
He skidded to a stop and turned around to see the crates strewn everywhere but where they had been, a few littering their supplies over the ground as the shrapnel from the grenade had prodded holes into their metal sides. The woman was completely gone save a horribly mangled torso and a half-missing grenade launcher. That was how you dealt with people behind cover.
"Dammit, Shepard, I said not to get blood on my new armor," he heard Garrus joke from beside him, then turned to look at the Turian. There were specks of red all over the left side of his armor, most likely from the woman who had probably stood up to try and run away from the grenade. The marines, high on adrenaline and pumped up from combat, cracked up and let their anxiety flow out through their laughter.
"Sorry, Garrus, guess I just couldn't help myself. Did you notice anything off about the regular troops?" Shepard asked, and Garrus put a talon up to his face in thought.
"The regular troops don't use shields, but the sergeants and up do. I wonder if this is just a test run?" Garrus replied, his blood running cold when he looked at the stony face of his commander, his fears confirmed.
"Cerberus isn't being serious right now. They knew they were going to lose these cruisers. They have a larger navy somewhere else out there," Shepard surmised, his countenance as hard as rock and his anger flaring again. They had slaughtered Tali's people not only to get rid of the Quarian Flotilla, but to test out their new toys.
"Ancestors... This fleet is larger than an Alliance fleet already and they have more!?" Tali worried, gripping her shotgun tightly.
"We can worry about that later. For now, we have to stop them from killing any more Quarians. I won't see them wiped out by some group of terrorists," Mathias finalized, walking toward the door to the interior of the ship.
Their first of seven hours in hell was over, now it was time to dig their way to the surface by taking the ship's bridge.
Smooth sailing.
"Sir, the Hillsbrad has just reported a boarding party in their second hangar. Hangar two was completely taken by what seems to be a group of humans accompanied by a Turian and a Quarian. Each of them is heavily armed and it seems that one of them has special forces training, perhaps N7," the communications officer of the Rising Sun said, staring at a screen in front of him and typing out exactly what he'd just said into a step-by-step report for the Illusive Man.
"That would be Commander Shepard and his crew. They've come to spring our little trap for them. Do not issue any orders to the Hillsbrad; leave them to their own defense. The men on these ships are all experienced mercenaries and Cerberus operatives. If they lose the game, it's only their own fault," Yorrich replied, yawning and watching as the battle outside grew more boring with each passing minute. These Quarians didn't put up a good fight, so he was hoping that Shepard would arrive soon enough to distract him from the monotony of flashing red and orange for a bit.
"Yes sir, relaying no orders, sir. Project Effigy reports that the Alliance destroyer is effectively evading all attempts to attack from the CAW Normandy SR-2. Whoever their pilot is, sir, he's one hell of an artist behind the controls of a ship," the comms officer replied, flipping on a channel and relaying some orders to the frigates to their port side.
"Oh, he's the best at what he does. No pilot, human or otherwise, would ever be able to match that pilot's experience. Then again, the Normandy isn't piloted by any living being, is it? We'll see what EDI can do for us in the long run. After all, that pilot is only human," the admiral smirked, moving his eyes over the viewport of the bridge as he watched the Normandy chase the Nelson, yellowish-red explosions dotting the sky as its torpedoes and front-facing cannon missed their mark, hitting Cerberus and Quarian vessels alike, a testament to the lack of care put into the aim.
All Cerberus operatives were expendable... all save Project Effigy, that was.
"Garrus, move cover to the left and make your shoulder hit the wall of the corridor; I want you melded to that hallway, rifle out! Tali, take cover in the bulkhead of that doorway! You don't pop cover unless one of them gets close! Reeds, Kenson, Donovan, you're on rear-guard. Get cover and make sure no one hits us from behind. If they do, none of us will have any cover, so it's your job to make sure that doesn't happen. Elson, Reeves, you're on me! We're making an assault push forward through the corridor. Tali, when we pass you, wait until we get past the next bulkhead and then move into it. I don't want any more casualties today!" Shepard shouted out, firing bursts from his assault rifle and giving orders at the same time.
The team had fought their way out of the hangar and into the corridors of the cruiser, but now that they were halfway to the bridge, the resistance was getting tighter and tighter. Despite the fact that cruisers weren't very large ships, these cruisers were supercruisers, basically dreadnoughts with the same speed and function as regular cruisers. There seemed to be an entire brigade complement of Cerberus troops on the vessel, and Shepard would take delight in plunging its crew and complement of more than six thousand into the darkness of space once he was done. Cerberus really had started a war that they would never win.
Tali sprinted past him and slid into cover behind the bulkhead of a side-door leading to a barracks of some sort, the men from which had already been killed or severely wounded in the hallway ahead. Garrus, true to his commander's orders, banged the pauldron of his armor up against the wall of the corridor and made himself as small a target as a Turian could be without cover. The rear-guard found cover in the doorways leading into random holds of the ship, ducking back into the room every time a round strayed too near to their heads. Finally, Shepard and his two marines made a death-push straight forward through the corridor, unloading assault rifle rounds into the Cerberus mercenaries in front of them and relentlessly tearing through their ranks, the superior training of an N7 Spectre and two Alliance marines outweighing that of green mercenaries.
Mathias pounded three bursts into a sergeant that had started barking orders out and then turned the rifle to the left to empty a burst into the private beside him, stepping forward and firing again at a mercenary that had almost successfully slid into safety behind a bulkhead. The first two men hadn't even hit the ground before the third started to fall as well. Each of the three of them slammed into the corridor at the same time, two rifles and a submachine gun falling beside them with a loud clatter. It hardly made a difference, as the moment the three of them went down, another fireteam came out of a room behind them and replaced them. Now there were four of them, a testament to the name "Cerberus," Mathias presumed.
"Garrus, target the sergeants as they appear. Don't waste ammo on the rankers unless we're in a desperate situation. Reeves, load incendiary ammunition; I want that LMG firing a constant stream of flaming rounds!" Commander Shepard shouted through the vocalizer of his helmet, tapping the thermal magazine out of his Vindicator and slamming another one into it in less than a second. Immediately, the sound of a light machine gun took over all sound in the corridor and the enemies were forced to stay behind cover lest they be shredded by a hail of superheated rounds.
"Shepard, an officer just peaked cover but his shields stopped my round cold and he ducked back in to avoid the LMG. The bastards are using top of the line shields on the officers. You'll need a lot of firepower to take them down," Garrus's voice came in through comms, though Shepard barely registered it as he shot forward with the two marines, closing in on the enemy position as quickly as possible.
"I've got it handled, Garrus. Squad, move up, same strategy. Rear-guard, move slowly. Don't make a mistake just because you're advancing. Move out!" Shepard commanded before grabbing a Cerberus private he'd managed to get close to and tossing him into the corridor to be torn apart by machine gun fire. The man screamed as he was tossed like a ragdoll into the line of fire, but was silent in just a few seconds. The marine with the LMG stopped firing to reload and immediately there were five Cerberus operatives out of cover and firing.
His shield took a few rounds from a submachine gun before he managed to react, but he instantly dialed in on the priority targets and started firing bursts from his rifle faster than he ever had before. He was pissed off that this was happening to the Quarians of all people, the ones that had been screwed over by council space for more than three centuries, and most importantly the people that raised his girlfriend to be the way she was. Two privates had fallen before any more shots could snap his way and he watched with chief satisfaction as their sergeant's head practically exploded, the sound of a sniper rifle echoing throughout the hallway. Garrus had done exactly as told, and it was paying off.
He was forced behind a bulkhead when the Cerberus captain threw a biotic pulse through the hallway, blowing the other two marines backwards. Fortunately, Garrus and Tali were on the situation before anything else could happen. The sniper pinned the officer down with a shot from his rifle and Tali put two rounds into the last private in the corridor, turning her gun on the officer and pinging a round off of his cover as her shot went wide. It was all the time that Mathias needed to move forward and deal with the situation himself.
He sprinted up the corridor toward the captain and put his gun on his back, catching the officer by surprise and grabbing the man by the back of the neck. He didn't run into the bulkhead, instead continuing to run past the door with his arm and the head of the captain extended to his left. He charged his biotics and as soon as it seemed like the man's head would slam into the doorway, he launched the man forward with a blue shockwave, listening as the snapping sound of bone filled his ears, the officer's face hitting the doorway at speeds faster than sound.
"Block that with your shields, you bastard," Shepard prodded, unholstering his pistol and starting to walk down the corridor, only holding up for a second as the rest of the team caught up. They would have another five minutes of walking to do before the next fight. Shepard figured that they should make the most of it. The marines looked at one another and then down at the officer as they passed him. They would have to remind each other never to piss off their commanding officer.
"Shield capacity at fifty percent, Admiral. The small-arms fire is draining our shields, but it won't damage our hull. We can't take a shot from that dreadnought, though, or else we won't even have any barriers to protect us," a Quarian navy officer said to Han'Gerrel, the admiral leaning forward and looking at the report for himself.
"I hope that Alliance destroyer we picked up on scanners can pull off a miracle, or else the Quarian people may not live to see Rannoch again. Get me a report from each of the other admirals. I want the status of the entire Migrant Fleet- casualties, ships, everything. I need to know just how much we're losing because some asshole wanted to test out his new fleet," Admiral Gerrel replied, palming his mask in frustration as he knew that the losses would be unacceptable.
"Sir, would you like someone to hail the Alliance vessel on comms?" another officer called from the other side of the room.
"We don't know why it's here or who's on it, but I don't really care so long as they can give these unknown bosh'tets a run for their work. Still, it would be nice to know who's basically throwing their life away for us. See if you can get comms connection with them and put the conversation up on all of the admiralty ships," the admiral ordered. The officer hailed the Nelson, and a moment later, Joker's voice came through the comms and his face on a screen to the side. All of the admirals would be able to see and hear him, and speak into their own comms.
"SSV Nelson here! You ordered a savior on a silver platter?" the jokester pilot jested, leaning a bit to the left as he piloted the ship to port side to avoid the Normandy SR-2's main cannon.
"Alliance ship SSV Nelson, you're a human vessel, and a reasonably new one at that. Not that we don't appreciate the help, but there's a massive full-scale war going on outside. Who is your commanding officer and why are you assisting us in fighting them?" Admiral Rael'Zorrah's voice filtered in through the comms feed, Tali's father being rather cautious of the good intentions of the Nelson's intervention.
"Oh, easy questions, huh? Why don't the in-combat quizzes ever challenge me? I'm Joker, the best goddamned pilot in the galaxy, thanks for asking. Our commanding officer is the Hero of the Citadel, Lieutenant Commander Mathias Shepard. As for why we're here, well... Personally, I think Shepard just wants another item on his long list of nicknames, "Savior of the Quarians" or something, but the official reason is that he's pissed off that these guys are picking on the Quarians," Joker replied.
"The Hero of the Citadel is here to fight for the Quarian people? What interest does he have in our survival?" Han'Gerrel asked, though he had a feeling he knew, given how Shala'Raan had come to him to excuse Tali for service with Shepard.
"Oh, well, he's got a slight vested interest in the Quarians, seeing as our head engineer, Tali'Zorah, is a Quarian. Any other questions? Give me a hard one; I've always wanted to take a test and fly a destroyer like a fighter at the same time," Joker... joked.
"Tali is on that ship with him? That bastard drew my daughter into this suicide mission?" Rael'Zorah sternly asked, his voice strained from contained distress.
"No, sir, Tali'Zorah isn't on the ship right now. In fact, neither is Commander Shepard. They're both on the Cerberus cruiser all the way to the left. It's a great tourist spot, you know- perfect view," the pilot replied, leaning to the right as he steered the ship to starboard, forcing the Normandy to destroy one of Cerberus's own frigates due to the lack of care from the commanding officer inside.
"We'll talk about this later. First, let's focus on surviving this damned conflict. Your help is appreciated, Nelson. If your man can get those cruisers off of that dreadnought, we should be able to face it down without too many losses. See to it that the job is done. Admiral Han'Gerrel, closing comms," Han'Gerrel stated, and then the communications officer shut off the comms channel. Admiral Gerrel sighed and read the first casualty report of many, though his mood was slightly more upbeat as he thought of the conversation.
With the Hero of the Citadel on their side, the battle had just tilted slightly more in their favor.
Hopefully.