Knossos system, Artemis Tau cluster SSV Normandy
Flight Lieutenant Jeff Moreu was trying to get comfortable - not an easy task for someone with his less-than-sturdy bones. The fact that one could cut the tension on board with a knife also did not help - but that, he considered fair price for live-testing their stealth system against geth ships. And hopefully only geth ships this time, if I do not see that black monster again, I can die happy.
The memories of Eden Prime came involuntarily, the scenes of groundside carnage the black ship was capable of, Anderson's barked orders, the helpless, nerve-wracking waiting whether the sensors of the enemy ship would notice them and take action…
Joker brought himself back with a shudder, eyes again focusing on his displays. After a short discussion with Pressly and Tali, Shepard opted to bring in the Normandy below the ecliptic, on a slower stealthed course towards Therum, with two recon drones launched to scout the system. The recon data was steadily scrolling across Joker's display, and he could see that the Ops Alley crew were hard at work, regularly checking and updating their firing solutions. Well, even with a surprise attack, I may have to give the others a demo on why I'm the best damn pilot of the Alliance. Four frigates and a cruiser could give us a run for our money; well, ok, not with me in the pilot seat!
The pilot's eyes narrowed at the datastream from a recon drone, and he keyed his comm.
"Commander, one of our little birds has something you might want to take a look at."
"Be there in two minutes. Have Pressly present as well, Flight Lieutenant."
"Will do, Commander".
Pressly arrived first, his datapad displaying the intel they had available from the Alliance databases and their recon drones. Shepard was already suited up, his bulk dwarfing even the tall XO, and Joker felt very small when the Spectre leaned over his chair to check the readouts on the pilot's screen.
"So Leng's crew did some damage to their fleet too, eh?" Shepard's voice was laden with grim amusement.
"Yes, sir. I estimate that likely a frigate and a cruiser were destroyed by the expedition's ship, they damaged two frigates slightly - and seemingly, knocked out part of the sensor net of the cruiser." Pressly's calm, cold voice summarizing the recon report.
"Is it large enough for us to slip in close?" The headrest of the chair creaked as Shepard's fingers tightened.
"Yes, sir. We can plot a course, and Joker can definitely do any last-second maneuvering needed in case they spot us." The pilot struggled to keep his jaw off the floor - Pressly openly praising me? Did he hit his head?
"Get us in close, XO. I would like to get within half nominal range of the main cannon, preferably even closer before firing. Missile spread aimed at the blockade, then the main cannon should be enough to end the geth - provided our pilot is good enough, hmm, Joker?"
"I can do it, sir. I can do it blindfolded, even." The pilot was surprised for a second when Shepard's hand squeezed his shoulder carefully. The Spectre nodded at Pressly.
"XO, Flight Lieutenant, I'll leave you to your job. Plan for two dropsites - the Mako with our marines here" Shepard lit up a mining complex on an overlooking plateau near the excavation, "before doing a run back to orbit, then dropping me and three specialists directly over the digsite at high speed. Would that be a problem, Flight Lieutenant - and consider the possibility of GTS-rated fire from the geth."
Joker's hands brought up schematics, barrier data, maneuvering profiles on one of his screens, as he contemplated briefly.
"Yes sir, I can do it. The ground-based fire should not be an issue unless the geth either have our schematics or land a lucky shot."
"Pressly, tell Adams to have his best man doing DC. Once you dropped us, provide support for the marines. Keep the two drones working, if any geth reinforcements show up, take them out - unless it's that black ship. In that case, run. Evac the ground forces if possible, but priority in that case is you getting away with the collected data."
"Yes sir. Good luck." Pressly noted down something on his datapad, saluted Shepard, and left.
The Normandy spent the next three hours slowly crawling closer to the geth ships, using the asteroid field as cover, with Adams keeping a constant eye on the stealth system and the increasingly-overstressed cooling, while Pressly and Joker monitored the geth sensor grid, carefully navigating through the sweep pattern. A quiet chime sounded in front of Joker, and he felt his palms go sweaty as he clicked his comm for a shipwide announcement.
"All hands, brace for high-speed combat maneuvering."
"Targets locked, XO, weapons ready." Specialist Draven managed to almost completely suppress her excitement and fear.
"Weapons free, Specialist! Joker, flank speed! Course…." Pressly's voice was drowned by the warning klaxons, as a sixth enemy ship appeared on the Normandy's ladar, heading out from the asteroid field.
The Normandy shuddered as its missile salvo was launched towards the geth fleet in orbit, then the ship surged forward, speeding towards Therum.
The geth, unsurprisingly, reacted with mechanical precision as they began the evasive dance of counter-missile measures, their ECM systems coming online to batter the human ship with electronic noises, garbage data, false spectres of ship signatures to throw off the incoming missiles. The sheer scale of the effort would have been enough, as the Normandy's targeting systems would have lost lock after lock, leaving the missiles easy prey for the GARDIAN lasers of the geth ships. However, the systems required a precious second or two to reach full power, and the missiles were not getting their targeting data exclusively from the Normandy, but from the two Hermes drones as well - thus the missile salvo stayed on course.
"Transfer fire control for the main cannon to my console, Talitha." Joker grinned as his hands flew over the control panels, his ship, his extended self dancing closer and closer to the enemy. The Ops Alley behind him was in controlled chaos, the techs working frantically to keep the targeting data flows running despite the surprisingly - or not, they are machines, after all - efficient ECM, all the while guiding the missiles through the laser defence grid of the geth ships. Pressly barked orders to them, directing the effort, leaving Joker and Adams to squeeze the most from their respective systems.
Down in engineering, the Tantalus drive core lit up, spinning increasingly faster, as Adams fed more power to both the engines and the main cannon, keeping a careful eye on the diagnostics. Up in the cockpit, Joker's grin became wolfish, hungry, as an incandescent blue light shot out from the Normandy's main cannon, the shot hammering into a geth frigate a fraction of a second after the missiles detonated, the dark of the void illuminated by the blue-white crackle of collapsing kinetic barriers.
The geth ships were well-built, powerful vessels with enough firepower to batter the Normandy to chaff in a normal engagement - at closer range, as close to being surprised as AIs can get, they had very little chance. The hole in their sensor grid, which may have been there as a trap intended to lure in would-be attackers was closed too late, after the human operators and targeting computers already managed to guide all six missiles through it. Each frigate was hit once, the warheads strong enough to collapse their barriers, while the somewhat battered cruiser suffered a direct hit to its drive core, the explosion tore apart the cruiser in a swiftly expanding fireball, that incinerated a slow to react frigate.
A second frigate was cut apart by the Normandy's main cannon, the beam of coherent light evaporating plating, bulkheads, internal systems before it reached and caressed the ship's drive core, turning it into a ball of plasma.
"Geth cruiser coming in from the asteroid field, bearing…" Joker toned out the Ops Alley voices, as he guided the Normandy weaving through the GARDIAN laser fire, blasting apart the third frigate, the human ship's kinetic barriers lighting up as the return fire from the last frigate grazed them. Joker's hands flew across his panels, the ship dancing in response, evading most of the fire from the closer geth ship, and throwing off the target lock of the cruiser approaching from behind them. The pilot grinned, satisfied with the performance, throwing the ship into another sharp evasive turn - directly into the path of an incoming shot.
The Normandy's kinetic barriers collapsed in a crackling flash of electricity, the energy of the hit enough to make the ship tumble, despite Joker's lightning-fast course correction - the frigate used the microsecond to aim and practically shear off the outer right engine with a precise shot from its GARDIAN array. The pilot cursed, alarms howled across the ship, as he forced the Normandy into a turn much sharper than any other human vessel was capable of, the groaning, moaning of the stressed hull joining in the crescendo of noise aboard the vessel.
"Come on, baby, don't fall apart on me!" Joker whispered, his eyes tracking the tactical plot - huh, maybe I should get Talitha something, she's very good - and fired as the target lock turned green. The shot burned through the last geth frigate, turning it into a cored, drifting husk.
"Joker, slight change of plans." Shepard's voice was calm in his comm. "No idea when and if geth reinforcements come in, so I want you to drop us off as we planned."
"You are aware of the geth cruiser chasing us, sir?"
"Eh, you can ask one of the Ops Alley techs to blindfold you, Flight Lieutenant." Joker gaped for a moment, then laughed.
"Aye-aye sir, I'll get you on the ground - and in one piece. Good luck, sir." The pilot clicked his comm, contacting Engineering.
"Adams, I need all the power you can give me for the engines." Another click, another channel. "Navigator, plan a flank speed course for insertion, and put it on my screen."
The Normandy flashed towards Therum, slowly distancing itself from the pursuing geth cruiser.
Therum, E-A Mining Complex T-03
Kaidan Alenko was worried about a number of things - the orbital battle, the surely incoming geth reinforcements, the situation of Shepard's team, and not the least his own position. The mining complex did have a good view of the digsite and the camp of the expedition, so his marines could make the approach a sheer hell for the geth - and the machines were coming, he could see that. He thought they were lucky that only a half dozen geth were stationed at the mining complex, likely to monitor the comms and sensor equipment. The flashlight-heads were reduced to scrap by now, and his crew took only a few light wounds - likely due to the fact that Ashley did not hesitate in using the Mako's lascannon to "flush out" the geth.
His troops were finding cover, digging in as best as they could - he estimated about 10-12 minutes before the incoming geth were in range for small arms fire...meaning that in just a few minutes, the machines would be in effective range of the Mako's cannon, then Ashley's sniper rifle. He ducked into the Mako, checked the sensors for a headcount of the incoming geth, then assigned Jenkins and Tanaka to the IFV. After that came the hardest part of every such encounter - waiting and trying to ignore the headache his implant gave him when he gathered his energies.
The staff lieutenant checked his omnitool to see if Tali's tailored viruses were ready, then started munching an energy bar as a precaution for the undoubtedly excessive biotic usage he'd have to perform soon.
"Geth coming in range, Lieutenant. Wow...there's a LOT of them, sir." Tanaka's voice was even, a craftsman about to begin his work.
"All right. Jenkins, large geth are your priority - do not let those reach the complex, especially the colossi need to be blocked. Ashley, I want you to keep a lookout for their drones - as soon as those appear, deal with them. Negulesco, assist Jenkins as soon as the flashlights are within rocket range."
Kaidan found satisfaction in the first exploding geth walker - then cursed, as the Mako's second shot was blocked by a hexagon barrier. His HUD showed an indistinct mass of geth approaching rapidly - scores of drones and small, mobile turrets closing in, fast. No way Ashley could stop them alone.
"Watch the sky, people, we got incoming! Short, controlled bursts, work in pairs!"
Another explosion sounded, closer than the previous one, as the colossi entered the range of Negulesco's rocket launcher - their barriers could definitely stop either the rocket or the lascannon, but both of those, aimed at the same walker put it down for good.
Kaidan counted the geth, while he primed his omnitool for an overload charge. The numbers did not make him happy - three colossi, about a dozen Juggernaut and Destroyer types, as well as close to a hundred normal platforms. Well, we definitely will earn our pay today.
A green flash and the shimmering crackle of the Mako's shields signalled that the geth were in range - and damn the bastards for being clever enough to deploy a LOT of those annoying hexagonal barriers to cover the colossi while they fired, and used both that fire and the rocky terrain as cover in getting closer. The staff lieutenant's hand began to glow blue, his body tensed for the gesture to smash a large geth into the ground, as he noticed a small flicker to his left on his HUD, along with a heat-haze shimmer. His reflexes were almost fast enough to dodge the small, limber, off-white geth that jumped on him, the three-fingered hands missing his throat by a few centimeters...then the geth lit up blue, and flew back to crunch against a building.
"Watch for infiltrators!" His shout almost came too late - half dozen geth were among them, decloacking, brawling with his marines. Kaidan's omnitool flashed, the charge overloading one platform, his Phalanx felling another one. The third tossed Crosby's body aside, the marine's grenade launcher in its paws, aiming for the Mako, then the geth slumped, its head blown off by Ashley's shot. Dubyansky killed another with a long burst before the geth could finish Negulesco - even so, Kaidan could see that the woman's right arm was broken. The last two geth fell to rifle fire and Kaidan quickly took stock. Crosby and Negulesco were out of action along with Laflamme, leaving him with just five marines, Ashley, and the Mako to stop the geth, who used the distraction of the infiltrators to close into range, their shots pinging off the complex walls, kinetic barriers, the IFV's armor.
The lieutenant grabbed Negulesco's rocket launcher, nodded at Draven when he saw the woman taking Crosby's grenade launcher, then ducked as the geth salvo cratered the complex walls. The Mako's cannon answered, joined by the IFV's machine guns, the fire transforming a Colossus into scrap metal.
"Lieutenant, we can't keep this up much longer, the shields are under forty percent strength." Jenkins sounded much calmer, colder than before Eden Prime, his voice punctuated by the geth shots peppering the complex.
"Noted, Jenkins. We are staying; you just concentrate on the big bastards."
The geth fire intensified, the machines were getting ever closer using precise covering fire and those damn hexagon barriers. Ashley did a good job at thinning the geth, as were his marines, but Kaidan still counted around seventy or so smaller platforms, with nine large geth and the two Colossi. The situation was not improved when Tanaka failed to dodge the green lightning of a Colossus, and the Mako's barrier collapsed, the IFV starting to smoke. Another hit, maybe two, and it's out of action; damn, the odds are not good.
A flash of light from orbit, and the geth seemed to falter for a second. Kaidan took a deep breath, tossed the rocket launcher to Lowe, and half-closed his eyes.
"Williams, coordinate for a minute, keep them off me." The acknowledgement was lost to the blood pounding in his veins, as blue arcs started to crawl along Kaidan's fingers, up the arms. The lieutenant's mouth was a bloody grin, blood started to leak from his nose, his ears, his eyes as he gathered every scrap of energy he could, ignoring the pounding in his brain, the red tint of his vision. He was unaware of the explosion as Draven and Lowe managed to take down a Colossus, did not hear the cheer as Jenkins blew up the last walker. He did not see Tanaka fall while crawling out from the burning Mako, did not hear Jenkins as the man howled in agony as his armor burnt from the geth plasma and the IFV's melting armor. He was barely aware of Dubyansky pulling him further away to another cover as his previous position was riddled with geth pulse rifle fire. His face a mask of blood, body outlined in blue fire, Kaidan Alenko let his power go with a gurgling scream, the geth stopping in a blue flash of discontinuity. Someone was panting and gurgling nearby, and he felt as if his brain was leaking out his ears, his lungs felt filled with fluid, he could hardly breathe. Hold on, concentrate, just a second or two more, give them time, hold them steady, focus…
Ashley was half-blinded for a microsecond by the blue flare of Kaidan's power, as her HUD compensated, then she moved. She threw Jenkins and Tanaka away from the melting Mako, spared a glance at Kaidan, saw that he was still holding on, then she switched her Indra to full auto and fired. The burst cut apart a Prime, stitched across four smaller platforms, felling them. Draven and Lowe blew apart another Prime and three Destroyers, before switching to their rifles, as Dubyansky and Chase raked the geth line with their rifles. The blue light of biotics dissipated, as Kaidan dropped to the ground, unconscious or dead. The geth were confused again, the stasis and the loss of some larger units slowing them down for a few precious seconds - seconds they did not have, with the marines pouring fire into them, destroying the larger specimens, throwing the machines into another short loop.
Her blood singing in her veins, Ashley laughed as she danced among the remaining geth, her sniper rifle firing bursts of disruptor rounds before overheating. She dropped it, grabbing her Avenger from its maglock, the first burst ending a geth, as she pirouetted between the return fire. So many partners, so much fun, I could definitely get used to this, I haven't felt this good since Eden Prime, or even earlier…
"...ma'am, do you hear me?"
Ashley snapped out from her dazed, giddy state and realized a marine - Dubyansky, her mind supplied - was and probably had been talking to her. The geth were scattered wrecks, her own armor scorched in multiple places, her Indra and Avenger unusable with their heatsinks melted from the sustained rate of fire. Lowe was kneeling beside Alenko, the man's helmet on the ground, his face a mask of blood. The medic was working frantically, injectors hissing as she pumped various stabilizers and stims into Kaidan.
"Is he going to make it, Lowe?"
"If we can get him on the Normandy within an hour or two, Doctor Chakwas has a good chance of putting him back together. Provided, we do not run into more trouble..."
The medic's voice was interrupted by the tremors they all felt beneath their feet, and from the peak of Mount Kondratiev a plume of smoke rose up.
"You just had to say it, didn't you Lowe?" Ashley's voice was sarcastic, as she clicked through her comm channels, finding the one that mattered now. "Normandy, you there?"
Static. The tremors continued, and the plume of smoke was still rising, maybe even getting thicker.
"Normandy, do you copy?"
"Yes, Williams, we hear you." Pressly's voice, static-laden and in pain.
"We need evac, sir, fast. And likely the commander's team will soon, too - the volcano is starting to act up."
"On our way. Joker, what's our ETA?"
Ashley relaxed a bit, stepping to check the other wounded before sitting down on the partially-melted Mako.
Mount Kondratiev, ruins
Seeing the expedition camp's remains did not improve Shepard's mood, even if he had to agree with Wrex that the security team had been very good - not that he expected otherwise from Kai Leng and his soldiers. The huge krogan had been almost giddy with happiness as they stalked through the ruined camp towards the mountain, his maw twisted into the eager, hungry smile of an apex predator. Garrus was more detached and clinical, his armor sensors and omnitool programs questing for possible survivors, data caches, any storage devices that remained - to no avail. The geth were thorough in destroying the findings and data recovered by the expedition.
The only possible silver lining was that there were traces of asari blood, leading from the camp towards the mountain, into the ruined Prothean complex. Hopefully, T'Soni was still around, and not as a husk, corpse, or abductee. The Spectre was almost sure that his old N7 partner managed to get the doubtlessly "strategically important" asari into safety - and he still wondered what the ruins or T'Soni's brain contained that merited this much investment from the Alliance.
Shepard quietly chuckled as he thought back on the discussion with Alenko and Pressly on the Normandy, as he told them he'd take only Wrex and Garrus with him. Obviously, the main point of contention was Garrus - nobody dared question the competence or work ethics of Wrex, but the turian, by his mere race, was considered a liability. Still, he managed to convince the others, and he decided he'd treasure their expressions as he told them that this way, there'd be much fewer witnesses if he had to put Garrus down should circumstances demand it. He was somewhat sorry to have left Tali on the Normandy, but Adams was right, the quarian's experience with ships would be more important than having another specialist on his team - besides, if the geth had something that he, Wrex and Garrus could not handle, the suit-bound quarian would likely be more of a liability than an asset.
The geth did not neglect leaving sentries around the campsite, but the Normandy's sensors were good enough to spot them even during the brief pass of the drop, and once spotted, the dozen remaining guards were not really an obstacle. Too easy, even with the bulk of the geth gone to take out Alenko's team. Wonder when the geth will spring their trap on us.
He signalled his companions, and the trio entered the tunnels under the volcano. Shepard took point, followed by Wrex, with Garrus bringing up the rear - and the human silently lamented his waning sanity, willingly allowing a competent turian sniper behind him. He focused forward, following the asari bloodtrail, as something pinged on his sensors; a signal, that would likely lead them to the asari, and if he was still alive, to Kai Leng.
The trio descended further, the roughly shaped stone here and there giving way to off-white, smooth metal, the tunnel ending in a visibly damaged, but serviceable elevator. Wrex chuckled darkly as they stepped in, checking the setting of his enormous shotgun, muttering about pyjacks and barrels. The elevator deposited them on a ledge overlooking a vast cavern, whose main features were the bullet-riddled storage containers and tents, the trampled, smashed scientific equipment, and the track-mounted, inactive mining laser. The Spectre's armor sensors detected about two dozen geth - all of them Destroyers or larger ones, and a sizable organic lifeform. In the southern edge of the cavern, facing the mining laser, a shimmering green-white energy field closed off a cylindrical metal tower, and behind the energy field hovered an asari.
Garrus moved off to a better sniping position, while Wrex and Shepard prepared for the charge down, when the sizable organic lumbered into view - and Shepard felt rather than heard the furious rumbling sound of Wrex. Wait, there's something weird on that krogan's hump...
The krogan lifted his hand to his hump, and threw something metallic away, and Shepard's eyes went wide for a second as the wave of skin-crawling, vomit-inducing, nauseating wrongness washed over him. Wrex snarled, his maw a rictus of hate, while Garrus swayed, mandibles flaring open. The geth moved into firing positions, and the enemy krogan's bloodthirsty, insane laughter filled the cavern.
"Come on you little pyjack, show me your fury!" Shepard's mocking voice was accompanied by a blue flare of a barrier shimmering into existence in front of them, stopping the first geth volley. The krogan's furious roar seemed to shake the cavern itself, intensifying as Garrus placed two quick shots into a geth Destroyer, putting it down for good. Wrex blurred forward in a blue flash, crashing into a Prime, staggering the huge mech, before he ripped its head off with one hand while his shotgun boomed and turned the Prime's torso into chunks of unidentifyable parts. A quick gesture of a blue-lit fist ripped apart a Juggernaut, the warp field dissipating along with the machine.
Shepard strafed right, away from Garrus, his sniper rifle spitting disruptor rounds, wreaking havoc with the geth shields, while the turian switched to explosive rounds that shredded the shieldless geth mechs. The quick double-teaming took down three Destroyers before the geth rallied from the shock of losing a Prime, and then the ledge was saturated with pulse rifle fire. Garrus dodged and ran his way back to the elevator, finding some cover there but not before his shields collapsed under the sustained fire, his omnitool working on preparing a little packet he got from Tali. He ignored the blood dripping from his side and arm as he again raised his rifle, sighting down at another Destroyer.
Shepard jumped downwards, his biotics flaring so he could land without breaking anything, his shields winked out as the geth shots brought it down before he sprinted towards the krogan, his head pounding from the implant-induced stress. A gesture with his omnitool overloaded a Juggernaut, the mech slumping down. The krogan roared as it stamped towards him, and the Spectre could see a deep scar along its chest, while its hump was a biomechanical nightmare, a humanoid shape crudely fused into the beast, cables snaking from it to the krogan's armor, the nauseating, clammy crawling sensation becoming stronger as he zig-zagged towards the krogan, changing his rifle for his Executioner.
Wrex blurred towards the second Prime, the displaced air booming as he slammed into the mech, then went flying as the back-staggering geth locked a hand around his arm and threw. His shot went wide, cratering the cavern wall as he grunted when the pulse rifle shattered his shields with a blue crackle, ate through his barrier, and bored into his armor. The old krogan could feel the rage and adrenaline rising in response, and with a roar, focused himself again as he threw a warp field at the mech, shredding parts of it, then the second gesture detonated the biotic field, again staggering the Prime before the shotgun boomed again, ripping the thing apart.
Garrus saw the geth platforms hesitate again at the loss of the Prime, and charged out from cover, his rifle shot turning a Juggernaut into scrap metal, before he leapt towards the cavern floor, omnitool flaring as it deployed the finished damping beacon before the geth could fully recover, the small beacon blanketing geth frequencies in the area with contradicting pulses, garbage data, electronic chaff. The turian hissed as he landed and rolled, blood spattering on the bround, his leg buckling when he tried to stand, forcing him to half-stagger, half-crawl towards cover.
Shepard managed to dodge the krogan's charge, receiving only a hard jab to his side that still was powerful enough to crack both armor and ribs. Up close, the unnatural sensation was almost overwhelming, the Spectre was forced to recall all the focusing tricks and litanies he knew. The krogan turned faster than he thought possible, its Revenant spitting a hail of slugs towards the operative, and he couldn't dodge it completely, the burst put him off-balance enough for the krogan to move in, and Shepard hissed as the brute grabbed and dislocated his arm , his pistol falling down from numb fingers. The krogan's maw opened wide in a triumphant grin, then it blinked as Shepard's other hand blurred towards its maw, omniblade folding out to impale the roof of its mouth, burning through its brain, a biotic-enhanced kick to its stomach sending it stumbling away before it could reflexively bite off the human's arm.
Less than a minute later, the cavern was silent again.
Liara was more and more certain that recent events were not simply products of her overstressed, possibly-addled brain. The bizarre trio who managed to massacre the geth limped up the ramp to stand before the barrier curtain, the human stepping up close, putting away a half-eaten energy bar.
"Doctor T'Soni, I presume?" The voice was tired, yet Liara fancied she could discern humor and good mood in the gold-flecked brown eyes. "We came to get you out of here."
"Thank the Goddess! I didn't think anyone would come looking for me." The human looked as if he wanted to say something, but Liara continued. "This thing I'm in is a Prothean security device, and I'm afraid I'll need your help to get out, all right?"
"Shepard, can we trust her? Her mother's working with Saren, according to the data you showed us." The turian's words left her reeling. Her mother doing what, exactly? With whom, exactly?
"You are the detective, Garrus, you tell me. But I'm inclined to trust her, as this" the human gestured towards the cavern floor "looks a bit too costly and elaborate just for the chance of saddling us with a mole." The turian's mandibles flexed, then he nodded, and the human turned back towards Liara.
"Well, I'll definitely want to hear how exactly you got trapped like this, but the more pressing issue is how to get you out of there. Any suggestions?"
"The control panel behind me should be able to switch off the field, if you can get inside the barrier curtain; that's the tricky part. I can walk you through the necessary commands once you get to the terminal, but the defences cannot be switched off from the outside." Liara blinked as the krogan barked a deep belly laugh.
"Well, Shepard, there was a toy back down we could use to bypass the curtain."
"You got a point, Wrex - just hang in there, Doctor, we'll be back in a minute or two."
Liara blinked as they left her, tired mind whirring through possibilities, before her eyes went wide. Surely they can't mean the mining laser, that requires careful…
The wide, coherent beam of light illuminated the cavern, stabbing into the bedrock somewhere under Liara's position. The whole cavern groaned, and dust fell from the ceiling. A minute later she heard an elevator whine behind her, then approaching steps. She turned her head as far as it would go, and spoke.
"Please, get me out of here before more geth arrive, or the whole mountain comes crashing down on us. That button over there…." She trailed off as the human walked up to the console, pressed something on the holographic interface, and she fell forward, whimpering as her wounded arm hit the floor. The human stepped to her, helping her stand up.
"Allow me, Doctor." The human offered a medigel injector, pointing at her arm. Liara nodded, and sighed as the medigel did its work. "Now, do you have any idea how we can get out here, apart from that entrance?"
"Well, the elevator you used to get up here should bring us up to the entry level, and with the barrier gone, we can then walk out. Come!" Liara started towards the elevator, slowly at first, her legs still waking up. The sight of what the krogan was carrying made her queasy - a legless, mutilated human body, face hidden behind a mask, the rise and fall of his chest indicating he was still alive. Her eyes widened, and she gasped, trembling, as she recognized the insignia of the two interlocked hexagons, and the small device around his neck.
"Come, Doctor, we need to get both of you to medical care." Liara nodded, still staring in dumb horror, moving on autopilot. "Here, drink a bit. Slowly, just sip it." The water was warm, but after the days of privation, it felt delicious to Liara, and it took all her willpower to sip slowly, instead of guzzling it down. The elevator was moving up, while at first minuscule, then increasingly powerful tremors shook the mountain. The heat was rising.
"Shepard" she blushed at the familiarity of using the human's name without proper introduction "we should hurry as soon as we arrive up top. You may not have been aware, but this is a volcano, and the mining laser may have stirred it up from dormancy."
"Agreed, Doctor" the human clicked, switching comm channels in his helm. "Normandy, we need extraction, ASAP." Liara couldn't hear the answer, only saw that the man's face hardened for a second. "Ok, Flight Lieutenant. ETA?"
"If he lets us roast, I'll eat him." The krogan - Wrex - grumbled, flashing his toothy grin.
The elevator finally reached the top level, and by that time, the trembling was very noticeable, the air starting to become suffocating. Liara froze on the platform, as a dozen geth took aim at them, a yellow-colored krogan battlemaster smirking at them from among the geth.
"Surrender! Or don't, that would be even more fun!" The rumbling voice dripped with bloodlust, as the krogan brandished a familiar, shimmering blade.
"Kill the geth!" And Liara gasped as Shepard moved, his hand at her waist, tossing her into cover at a console. Wrex blurred towards the largest, blood-colored geth, a boom of displaced air signaling the charge, followed by another boom as the krogan's shotgun vaporised the upper half of the mech. Garrus darted to the left, omnitool flashing as a blue arc overloaded the two closest mech, slumping them, then the turian brought up his rifle, a boom, and a fourth geth was down. The yellow krogan roared towards her, and before Liara could bring up her barrier, or react in any way, Shepard again moved, the human seemingly teleporting in the krogan's path.
Liara tried focusing on her biotics to bring up any biotic trick she knew, but she knew she wouldn't be fast enough, not with how exhausted she was. The human would be torn apart, his companions overwhelmed, and… Her eyes went wide, as Wrex smeared a geth into a wall with a biotic field, seemingly oblivious of the hits he took from the other machines. Garrus weaved between covers, his shields flickering but seemingly holding, as he switched to a different rifle, and put short bursts into the geths, one after the other. Shepard and the yellow krogan fought a vicious dance, the human bleeding from a number of shallow cuts, his armor dented where the krogan punches hit him, while the brute sported a dozen or more cauterized slashes where the burning omniblade of the human scored a hit.
The human flashed a blood-stained, hungry grin at the krogan, his eyes behind the bloody faceplate seemed to glow with a golden light. Impossibly, the temperature dropped, making their breaths plume, hoarfrost spiralled out from the two duellers, and Liara only perceived snatches after that. The shimmering blade arcing through the air, trailing blood. The sound of bone crunching, followed by a krogan howl. The shimmering blade in Shepard's hand, slicing away half the krogan's skull. A pulse of blue light followed by bone snapping. A whirlwind of golden-orange flame around the krogan.
From the corner of her eyes, she was aware of the remaining few geth, and released the energy she spent the last seconds building up. With a shout, the familiar singularity formed - not as powerful as earlier when she was attacked, but certainly strong enough to incapacipate mere mechs. Especially since Wrex and Garrus did not just stand and gawk.
Then it ended, and Liara fell forward, the edge of her vision started to go black. Someone grabbed her, and she whimpered as her wounded arm was jostled.
"Come on Doctor, we are leaving!" She looked into a pair of gold-flecked brown eyes, then shuddered as the human's eyes flashed gold, and they moved.
Bruised, battered, bleeding, they made it out to find the Normandy waiting, hovering. Liara felt proud that she could hold out until they were on the ship before fainting.