Yes, I know, a long time has passed since last we saw each other. I'm sorry. This chapter was fighting me and I had to step back for a while. But I think it works now. I'm also writing a book, that eats into my time a lot too.
Sovereign and Saren mostly speak the lines from the game and of course Ash's most iconic line is included. All those are copyright by Bioware. I feel kind of bad about using them and if you know your Sovereign and Saren to the bones, you could skip some stuff I guess. Those lines are just so important to the whole Reaper/Saren construct that I had to include them, even though they are not my own writing.
This chapter is over 12,500 words long, I'm so sorry. You might want to schedule some breaks in between. I tried to cut stuff or make it two chapters but the longer I looked at it, the longer it got. And I didn't even get to the fluffy sex scene in the end! So, this chapter is all action and Reapers and the cozy sexiness has to wait for - I don't even know.
Virmire was almost too beautiful. The vibrant blue of the water, the giggling waterfalls, the lush greenery, the picturesque rock formations in warm sunlight. It looked like someone had designed it in breathtaking detail as the perfect vacation spot. But there was lightning flashing on the horizon, like a warning of impending doom.
Garrus never would have thought that the doom was going to be an angry krogan pointing a gun at the love of his life.
The mission had started normally enough, drop the Mako, shoot geth, hold on for dear life as Shepard swerved around the spectacular landscape. Banter covered up the tension. They finally had a chance to catch Saren.
After a long fight with geth armatures, they found the salarian camp with the remaining troops. The Normandy landed and dropped off the rest of the team and the marines. Unfortunately, the ship could not take off again without getting shot out of the sky by powerful AA guns. Joker had tried to destroy them with the cannons but apparently the day in the dock had not been enough to actually fix them. The error message from the Normandy's VI was so severe, that he did not dare to charge the cannons again. Shepard's mood dropped considerably at the news.
The salarian team was led by a Major Kirrahe, who was disappointed that the Council didn't send an army to Virmire. Garrus swallowed a remark about how Shepard's team was the best army he could ever ask for and let the Commander do the talking.
The good news was that Saren was still here. He was holed up in a fortress, hidden among the breathtakingly beautiful rock formations. The complex was protected against outside intruders by automatic guns, shields, geth troops and krogans. According to the salarians, Saren had converted one area of his fortress to a krogan breeding facility. An army of krogan at the hands of a rogue Spectre was the bad news. They had to kill the krogan, blow up the breeding facility and destroy the cure for the genophage.
And that was why at this moment, Wrex was pointing a gun at Shepard's head.
It had happened so fast, Garrus only realized it when he heard Ashley's gun extend with a whirr behind him. He hurried to bring up his rifle and peered through the scope, to see what was happening.
Behind him he heard Liara gasp. "Ash! What are you doing?"
Ashley's voice was perfectly calm. "Protecting my Commander."
"You're pointing a gun at Wrex, our friend!" Liara yelled out, her voice tipping over. "Is that so easy for you? He's just a krogan, just an alien for you and you would shoot off his head without hesitation?"
"A merc of questionable ethics is pointing a gun at my commanding officer," Ashley said, only a hint of a rasp in her voice. "If he threatens to kill her, yes, I will shoot his head off. I have to, it's my duty and I will not hesitate to protect Commander Shepard."
"But..." Liara let out a sob, "but he... I can understand Garrus, with him and Shepard being in a relationship and turians hating krogan anyway... but you can't -"
"This is not about hating krogan, for neither of us," Ashley said quietly.
Garrus searched his mind and to his own surprise found that he agreed. He didn't hate Wrex, he even considered him a friend. He wasn't free of all prejudices but the old, natural hate of krogan that had been instilled in him since his childhood was gone. What he saw was not some savage krogan but someone who he wished to understand.
Shepard had turned off the public comm, so they couldn't hear what she said. But at some point, she lowered the pistol that she had been aiming under Wrex's chin and a chilling second later, Wrex lowered his gun too. They shook hands and Ashley and Garrus collapsed their guns with a sigh.
"That was unpleasant," Ashley mumbled.
"Yes," Garrus said, "I'm gonna talk to her." He noticed that Liara had tears in her eyes and he thought that Ashley and her needed some time alone to talk. Asari hardly ever let anybody see their tears, they were deeply private about showing their pain like that.
As he walked over to the other side of the camp, he glanced back over his shoulder. Ashley held Liara's hand and Liara leaned slowly forward until her forehead rested on Ashley's cheek. It was the most intimate he had ever seen them.
Shepard walked towards him and peered past his shoulder at the two women. "What happened there?" she asked.
"Ashley aimed her gun at Wrex."
"Of course she did, I wouldn't have expected anything else."
"But Liara was upset, she felt that it was too easy for Ash, maybe?" Garrus said, not quite able to put the situation in words.
"Because she was aiming at a krogan, not a human you mean?" Shepard wondered, raising an eyebrow.
"Yes, something like that."
"Liara isn't a soldier, despite her impressive fighting abilities," Shepard said. "Sometimes we forget how difficult this must be for her, being pulled into this. And I can see where she's coming from, Ash has her share of prejudices about aliens, Liara may not be so far off in her assumption."
"I don't think so," Garrus shook his head, "I have seen her work with Wrex and talk to him and she treats him like a fellow soldier. Except for that one time where I had to call you down, she has not acted like she distrusts him."
"That's good to know," Shepard said with a smile at him. "I trust your judgment on this. We had a lengthy conversation in the beginning about the aliens on board and this whole mission. She thinks the Council would be willing to sacrifice humans to save their own asses because humans would do exactly the same if the situation was reversed."
"That's a harsh view."
"I'd like to believe she is wrong but she is definitely right about humans and -" Shepard sighed, "can't say with the way the Council has been acting so far, its done much to convince me otherwise."
Garrus hissed out his discomfort with his second voice. The whole situation was a Spirits be damned mess. "What did you tell Wrex? He was pretty pissed about destroying the cure for the genophage."
"Having him aim his gun at me..." She laid her head back and took a deep breath. "There's a cultural difference at work here. I tend to forget that sometimes but Wrex is a krogan and dealing with something like this by threatening to shoot me - I guess that's normal for a krogan. But I must say, I don't really like it when a friend point a gun at me."
"Neither do I," Garrus spit out with an angry growl in his subharmonics.
Shepard pulled on his arm to make him walk along the beautiful beach with her. "It is understandable in a way though. To have a cure on hand for that horrible plague and then destroy it - I was expecting him to get angry about that. But I convinced him that Saren doesn't have the best interest of the krogan in mind, nothing he ever did indicates that he has an interest in helping krogan. He just wants an army of cannon fodder, slaves he can send into battle for him." Shepard let out an angry snort. "If there's one thing that Wrex doesn't want to happen, it's the krogan being slaves for anybody. I promised him that I would try to find and preserve any data about the cure before destroying the facility."
Garrus wasn't sure how she could manage to keep her word if they were going to destroy the whole facility. She was always willing to do everything for the mission but at what point would she promise too much?
"The cannon is still not working - damn!" Shepard kicked against a rock in the sand. "We could shoot this whole complex down from the sky, this is really pissing me off!"
"Do we have comms to the Council?" Garrus wondered.
Shepard shook her head. "No, there's some kind of distortion field at work, we can't reach the comms buoy. I'm not even sure I want to talk to the Council. They pretty much left us hanging the whole time, I don't feel like I need to ask their opinion."
"I agree," Garrus said. The lack of support from the Council had been the biggest disappointment on this mission so far.
He took a good look at Shepard. Her shoulders were sagging forward, as if the weight was too much for her. Garrus put his arm around her shoulders and gently pulled her towards him. He rested his head against her forehead, spreading some of his mating scent on her. She sniffed the air and sighed and he felt her shoulders relax.
"Thanks," she whispered with a smile, "thanks for... well you know."
"Yes," he hummed.
From one of the tents, Kaidan was waving at them, gesturing them to come over. Reluctantly, they let go of each other and walked over. Kaidan and a salarian soldier stood around a big contraption that looked like some kind of makeshift project. The way Kaidan and the salarian were handling it, it appeared to be dangerous.
"What is this?" Garrus asked.
"A bomb," Kaidan said, "at least it's going to be one. The salarians converted the drive core of their ship. It will be a bit tricky to arm but it will definitely be effective in destroying this fortress."
The commanding officer of the salarians, Major Kirrahe, came over to them.
"Unfortunately we can't just drop the bomb from air," he said, "not only because of the AA guns, but the bomb has to be armed manually."
"The AA guns are our first priority," Shepard mused, "once they're down, the Normandy can bring the bomb right into the middle of the krogan breeding grounds. But we are not enough soldiers for a full-on frontal assault."
"I agree, Commander," Kirrahe said, "that's why I have another suggestion. My troops, with some support from you, will launch an attack as a distraction, while you and a small team work your way into the facility from the back."
Shepard grinned at the salarian. "I like that, what kind of support do you need?"
Ashley and Liara had joined them, quietly overhearing the conversation.
The salarian continued. "We need heavy firepower, and we need one of your officers, who is familiar with Alliance procedures and communications."
"I volunteer!" Ashley and Kaidan called out at the same time.
Ashley rolled her eyes. "Not so fast LT, the Commander needs you to arm the nuke, I'll go with the salarian team."
"With all due respect," Kaidan bit back, "that's not for you to decide."
Ashley shot him an angry look. "Why is it whenever someone says 'with all due respect', they really mean 'kiss my ass'?"
"Stop fighting, kids," Shepard grumbled, "Ash is right, Kaidan, your tech expertise predestined you for the bomb. Ash will go with Major Kirrahe. Oman and her favorite rocket launcher and Carlsson will go with you too." She looked over to Liara. "I want you to stay on board the Normandy. Madhav and Langenfeld will have the Mako prepared for emergency evac and I want you to provide protection for them if needed."
Garrus knew her well enough to see in her eyes that she ordered Liara to stay on the Normandy to keep her out of the fight. Liara was not a soldier.
Liara nodded, her hand straining towards Ashley's. Ashley gave a respectful nod and turned around, taking Liara's hand in hers. The two women walked out of the tent, finding a little corner for themselves to share an embrace.
"Wrex, Garrus, Kaidan, you're with me. We're also taking Smith and Siddig with us. Tali - " she hesitated, "- Tali comes with us too." She turned back to Major Kirrahe. "Prepare your men, we'll be ready to go in twenty. Stock up on incendiary ammo and grenades, highly recommended for geth."
"Of course, Commander." The major turned and gave some orders to the supply officer.
Twenty minutes later, the fighters and marines of the Alliance Navy listened to Major Kirrahe give a rousing speech to his troops. Garrus had never considered salarians to be effective soldiers and this group had been dangerously cut down in numbers by the geth. But they all looked well trained, well prepared and were exceptionally well equipped.
The frontal assault group took off first. It was an odd looking group, Ashley and Omar in front, towering over the salarians. Omar's rocket launcher was almost as long as one of the salarians. Carlsson stayed in the back, he kind of looked like a salarian himself, slender and lithe. Only his differently shaped helmet gave him away.
Shepard watched them take off, hiding the worry on her face by sliding her helmet closed. She climbed into the Mako, the rest of the group following her. Madhav was supposed to drive them as far as possible and then take the Mako back to the Normandy. Next to him, Langenfeld was working on the shields and watching the scanner. She would man the guns if necessary.
The Dynamic Duo, Smith and Siddig, entered last, plunking down on a seat next to Wrex. They gave him a nod, let their heads fall back and closed their eyes and seemed to have fallen asleep on the spot at the same time. Garrus had worked with them only a few times, they were seasoned fighters, inseparable and worked together like one person with four arms.
The Mako took off with a jerk, driving full speed towards the compound Saren was hiding in. Garrus manned the cannon and took out most of the geth on approach. The remaining geth were quickly gunned down by the troop on foot. They worked out an efficient approach by having Wrex and the Dynamic Duo take the vanguard and just plow through the enemies. It was almost too much fun.
Finally the road ended on a network of walkways through rock formations. They had to continue on foot into the facility. Madhav and Langenfeld took off with the Mako, to return to the Normandy.
The walkways were built perfectly for sniper nests and surprise attacks from above, below and the sides. A sensible setup if you wanted to protect your krogan breeding facility, a pain in the gizzard if you wanted to enter it. Shepard split up the team in two, having one stay on the walkways and the other stay below on the sandy beach.
The 'Wrex plus Dynamic Duo' team as the ramming head with Tali's tech attacks from the background were working on the ground, while the rest stayed on the walkways. Garrus was a little worried for Tali but after watching how Wrex took care of her, protecting her and keeping her inside his barrier, he relaxed. The two shotgun wielders were doing just fine.
Shepard and Garrus both had gotten upgrades for their omni-tools from the salarians. They made a game out of who could initiate the biggest Overload. Kaidan noticed it and made a point in aiming a Warp at their targets, ripping the geth apart in biotic explosions.
"Nice, Kaidan!" Shepard called out after a spectacular explosion killed the biggest geth they had ever seen. "I hope we don't see many more of these guys, these... primal-ass-fucker-geth."
"I doubt the Alliance will go with that name," Kaidan said, chuckling quietly.
"Fine, lets call them Prime." Shepard opened her omni-tool interface and typed something into it. She seemed to open a comm channel, she had the habit to lay her head to the side when she spoke to someone. "Shepard here, how are you doing, Major?"
She listened for a little while and a deep scowl appeared on her forehead the longer she listened. Finally she raised her eyes back to her troops. Wrex and his gang had joined them on the walkway, no new geth had attacked them for a while.
"Kirrahe has some problems, we should take as much heat off him as we can." She hesitated for a moment. "Ashley has been hit. She can still fight but she's limping."
Wrex let out a loud grunt. "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's give Saren's troops something to do."
Shepard grinned at him. "Let's do it!" She reloaded her gun and took point.
They took the base by a literal storm. Shepard never stopped running and the rest of the team had trouble keeping up. But inside of the base, they came to a stop. Until now, they had only been fighting geth, but inside the first building, they met asari and salarians.
Garrus hesitated for a second, these had to be members of Major Kirrahe's contingent. "Kirrahe said he lost some men. Maybe we can talk to them?"
"Honestly doesn't look like it." Shepard shot a salarian in the leg but he kept on shooting at them, dragging himself over the floor without any sense of self preservation. He only stopped shooting at them when Shepard shot him in the head. "They seem to be brainwashed or something worse, like someone else is controlling them. How did Shiala call it? 'Sovereign can dominate minds, indoctrinate them'." She clenched her fingers around the barrel of her rifle, a deep frown visible behind the visor of her helmet. "That is a terrifying thought. What if one of us falls under that influence?"
Garrus had to suppress a shudder on that thought, he had to agree, that was a terrifying thought. "But Shiala said that it took weeks to manifest, so we might be safe if we don't stay too long."
A noise made them turn around. A salarian, his helmet cracked in half, stumbled into the open from behind a pile of storage containers. When he noticed them, he began fumbling for his weapon. His movements were erratic, like a robot that had trouble with his servos. His helmet fell to the ground and they all drew in a shocked breath when they saw his face. His skin had turned a sick dark green, blue glowing veins seemed to grow out of his skin and his eyes were lifeless and glossy. His mouth moved but all that came out was an animalistic moan.
He finally found a grip on his weapon but before he could raise it, he fell from a shot from Wrex's shotgun.
"Never liked salarians much but these guys are even worse," Wrex mumbled. "Creepy shitters."
Nobody disagreed.
They pushed forward and Shepard's face turned grimmer the more salarians and asari they met. People were fighting them crazy and possessed, they fought like suicide warriors. It was sickening to shoot them down like cannon fodder, all these people who were just shells under the influence that Saren somehow had on them.
They finally reached the laboratories and here they met a krogan for the first time. The laboratory was full of husks in examination systems, protected by a powerful asari and an enraged krogan. He came at them like a battering ram, roaring in uncontrolled anger but stopped short when he saw Wrex.
"You!" he yelled, "Don't you see what we build here? A cure for the genophage!" He ripped off his helmet and they all gasped when they saw his face. There were blue glowing veins criss crossing along the skin of his neck and his eyes had an artificial blue glow. He stepped in Wrex's way and for a moment, nobody moved. "This is for the good of our species, you fool!" the krogan roared.
Wrex held his gaze, his biotics shimmering around him. With a move so fast, it was just a blur of biotics, he threw the krogan away from him and tackled him to the floor. A knife appeared in his hand, long, lean and curved. He thrust the knife under the head crest of the krogan, right between the eyes, twisting it upwards. The krogan spasmed once, and lay still.
Wrex pulled the knife out and stood up, letting it disappear in some part of his armor. The team had shot the remaining threats of asari and human husks during the fight and the laboratory was quiet except for some beeps and pings from the machinery around them. Wrex kept looking at the krogan at his feet.
Shepard walked over to him and his head snapped around, his red eyes fixing on her. "I just hope we stand on the right side, Shepard," he barked at her. She held his gaze and something shifted between them. Wrex kept looking at her but his tone was softer when he spoke, "I just hope you're right."
"I know I'm right," Shepard said and Garrus was sure that only he saw that tiny flicker of doubt in her eyes. She was unmovable conviction to anyone but him.
Wrex turned away. "I think I knew him," he mumbled, "Clan Terrnok, used to work for the Blue Suns." He threw another look at the dead krogan. "Idiot."
There was no time to further dwell on the situation, they had to push forward, using the distraction Major Kirrahe provided as best as they could. Enemies were still aplenty and it became noticeably harder to fight them. They met more krogan and asari now. The asari had been asari commandos and the influence took nothing off their abilities. Krogans were difficult to fight anyway. But the worst was that the geth seemed to learn from them.
The geth used the krogan as the first line of attacks, had the asari roll up the field with biotic shockwaves and used the resulting chaos to sneak up on Shepard's squad by employing shields that made them practically invisible. The attacks sent them scrambling for cover, narrowly avoiding death in much closer combat than comfortable.
The Dynamic Duo and Tali had to find other cover than Wrex's biotic shield, they needed the krogan and Kaidan to counter the biotic attacks from the asari commandos. When they finally reached the underground entrance near the sewers, it was suddenly so quiet, that it took them a while to actually relax. The air smelled of sewage waters but they still were grateful for a short break.
"Is everybody else also fed up with these asari commandos?" Lieutenant Siddig asked, as she fixed a burn wound on Smith's hand. He had gotten in the way of the fringes of a biotic shockwave and it had caused an energy burn right through his armored gloves.
"Yep," Shepard bit out. She leaned against a wall and typed something up on her omni-tool. She had taken off her helmet and her face reflected the anger and frustration she felt. "I don't have a problem with shooting geth but brainwashed salarians, krogan or asari? Done with that."
A strange noise, a kind of cough came from one of the cells that had looked empty on first sight. They all jumped up, guns ready and reexpanded the helmets. Shepard took a few careful steps forward, following the noise to one cell on the far left. When she stopped before it, a salarian stepped up to the glass wall, his face partly hidden from the light.
"Now you come, now..." the salarian hissed but stopped when he saw them, "No, you're not one of them, you're not... who are you?"
"I'm Commander Shepard of the Alliance Navy, we are here on a Council mission to stop Saren."
"Someone came? They said someone would come but..." the salarian deflated, the sudden excitement gone. "It's been so long, so many voices..."
Shepard caught Garrus' look and he could read in her face what he was thinking as well. Something was wrong with that salarian.
The young man visibly pulled himself together. "My name is Private Menos Avot, I was on a reconnaissance mission when the geth caught me and brought me here." He stopped and looked around as if he heard something. "Six days I've been here, I think and I heard... there have been voices, whispering."
"They experimented on you?" Shepard asked, her pistol in her hand at her side.
"I don't know!" Avot screamed, slamming his hands against the glass wall, making them all jump back a step. "What could they wish to find out? The effects of incessant whispering on my shortening temper? Who knows!"
Garrus turned away from the cell and whispered to Shepard, "There's definitely something wrong with him."
Shepard nodded in agreement, not looking away from the salarian. Wrex mumbled something about this one being even more crazy than other salarians.
"Let me out!" Avot yelled, hitting the glass once more. "I can help," he said quietly.
Shepard shook her head. "I can't let you out, I can't trust you. We'll come back and -"
"No!" the salarian screamed and ran with so much force against the glass wall that his head crashed against it with a sickening crack. He fell down, bleeding from his head and didn't move anymore.
Shepard opened the cell with a punch on a button on the side of the cell and knelt down next to the salarian, scanning him. "He's dead, he cracked his skull," she stated, no emotion in her voice. That was a telling sign for Garrus, how shocked she really was.
She stood up, her Commander mask settling over her face. "No matter who we find in cells like this, we can't let them out. We don't know enough about the influence and how it messes with their heads. Do not engage with anyone." The squad members nodded and voiced their agreements.
A worried gloom had settled over them, killing all banter and jokes as they continued through the laboratories. They found more salarians in various states of mental confusion and Shepard stayed true to her order. She didn't let anyone out, despite the protests and pleadings from the most sane ones. An angry line had settled firmly on her forehead.
During a short pause in a firefight, Garrus took her hand and pressed it, trying to get through her solidifying wall of anger. "Hey, Shepard, you okay?" The question felt silly because she was very obviously not okay.
She looked at him and he saw with hot relief how the anger slipped from her face and made room for a tiny smile for him. "That bad, huh?" she asked.
"You look like you're about to punch someone to a pulp with a dead krogan," Garrus said, trying to find a way back to their usual banter but it felt quite inadequate.
"It better be Saren," she said with a sigh.
"Punching to a pulp or punching with him?"
A little laugh trickled out from her, almost too quiet to hear it. "God, I wish it could be both." Her face turned serious again. "Saren is going to pay for all this, for fucking with all these people."
Garrus nodded. "He's close, I'm sure about it."
Shepard took a sip of water and closed her helmet. "Let's do it then. And let's find out everything we can about this influence he has on these people." She looked over to Wrex. "And not to forget the genophage cure. As unnerving as Saren's krogan are, I don't think we can keep Wrex interested if we lose that information."
Garrus looked at the building in front of them. "If the architecture makes any sense, that building should be administration or some laboratories. The terminals in the lower sections we came through had nothing on the actual cure. Hopefully..."
"Yeah..." Shepard nodded. She squeezed his hand one more time before opening the comm to the squad: "Break's over, let's take that building. Hack every terminal, copy every datapad, we want all information we can find. Let's go."
The team acknowledged the order rather quietly and Shepard shook her head. "Oh, this just won't do, people. Are we here to kick Saren's ass or not?"
A loud "Booyah!" was the answer, even from Tali and Wrex.
The fights continued in a routine, the team working together with practised ease. It was a gruesome business, a path of death and destruction they took through the buildings. More krogan charged at them, accompanied by geth and asari. At least the salarian contingent seemed to have been exhausted by now.
After rushing through laboratories and maintenance areas, an unassuming door took them into a nice, sunny office with windows overlooking beautiful rock formations. The elegance and cleanliness was a stark contrast to the damp and greasy areas they had been running through so far.
The office appeared to be empty at first. But a quiet whimper pointed them to an asari hiding under the desk.
"Please don't shoot!" she cried out as she stood up slowly. "I'm not like them, like the others."
Shepard didn't lower her pistol. "I've heard that before today."
"I... I just work here!" the asari stammered, "My name is Rana Thanoptis, I'm a neuro specialist." She wiped a shaky hand over her fringe, the dark purple patches on her face revealing how nervous she was. "This job isn't worth dying for, or worse."
"Worse?" Shepard asked, slowly lowering her pistol.
"You think the indoctrination only affects prisoners? We all are exposed, we all hear it." She shook her head as if she tried to shake something off.
"So this isn't just a breeding facility," Shepard stated, an angry undertone growing in her voice.
"Not on this level. We are studying Sovereign's influence on organic minds." She wiped over her fringe again and Garrus wondered if she tried to wipe away the influence from her mind. "At least I think that's what Saren wanted to study, we weren't told much."
Shepard's voice had dropped to dangerously low levels. Her anger crackled around her like a physical force. "This influence, from Sovereign, you call that indoctrination?"
"Yes," Rana gasped out. "It changes the mind, the thoughts. Direct exposure for a time turns you into a mindless slave. The signal is undetectable but it's there. Like an energy field. It's a degenerative influence, the subject becomes less capable the longer it is indoctrinated. It affects everyone who has been exposed for a time but my studies indicate that -" she hesitated, wiping hard over her fringe, "my study showed that asari are especially susceptible to it, more than any other species."
Shepard made a note on her omni-tool before fixing her gaze on the asari again. "Why is Saren studying this effect, I thought he controls it?"
The asari let out a forced laugh. "Oh no, it's not Saren, it's the ship! The signal makes the indoctrinated obey Saren but I don't think he controls it. I think he's scared that it might be affecting him in just the same way."
Rana became more nervous by the minute, her arms fidgeting. "It's like a tingling in the back of your mind, a voice that you almost can't hear but it's always there and it wants you to do things and it's so hard to ignore, and if you keep resisting it gets worse and it would be so much easier -" She wiped over her fringe again, this time so hard that her that she left scratches on the scales on her skin. Her breath became ragged and she whispered: "I can't even trust my own mind!"
Shepard grabbed the asari's arm and made her look at her. "Focus! We need all files on the genophage cure and the indoctrination. Show me where everything is and then run cause I'm gonna blow this place sky-high."
Rana Thanoptis stared for a second before leading them to another office and opening access on all files. "There's an elevator in the back that leads to Saren's private lab, that's where he... I don't know, he was there a lot..." She ran off, mumbling and babbling to herself.
Shepard typed furiously on her omni-tool while the files from the main computer downloaded to hers and Garrus' omni-tool. The worry and anger made her face look like a wall of steel. But that didn't worry him, it reassured him. This was Commander Shepard, working on setting things right.
As they made their way across another bridge towards an elevator, Garrus noticed how quiet it had become. The wind made whispers around columns and corners but there were no other sounds. No birds, no other animals and also no sound of battle. They had not heard from the other team in a while and Garrus checked the text comm. He saw that Shepard had sent out a query not long ago and that Ashley had answered with a short reply that they were still on their way but had to remain silent for the moment. Apparently they had some kind of trap in the making.
The lack of outside noise made him aware of a sensation in the back of his mind. Not a noise but something that felt like a sound, like the glimpse of a memory on the edge of awareness. He tried to focus on it, to remember what it was but it kept slipping away. He stumbled and realized with a start that Shepard stood in front of him, staring at him wide eyed.
"You feel it too?" she whispered. "Something in the back of your mind?"
"Yes, like something I need to remember, like I have forgotten something -" he stopped himself with a gasp. "Is this the indoctrination field?"
"I've been feeling something for a while now and it's been getting stronger the closer we got to this section," she said quietly. "I just couldn't put my finger on it. There is also -" she hesitated, searching for words, "like some part of my mind is fighting this. I can kind of push it away."
"Maybe that is from the beacon or the Cypher? Some kind of protection against the indoctrination field."
Her face lit up. "That... that would be great! Maybe we could develop some kind of protection against this!" She squeezed his arm, the familiar childish excitement he loved so much, back on her face. "Maybe this fucking with my head is not just some useless hocuspocus to make me dream of fire and death," she bit out.
Before she opened the elevator door, Shepard turned to her team, looking each one into the eyes, one after another. "I assume you all feel something in the back of your mind, like something that you should focus on."
After a short hesitation, each of them nodded and looked relieved when they saw that the others nodded too. Even Wrex nodded his head, spitting out an angry grunt.
"I think this is the indoctrination field and we have gotten closer to its source. It's normal that you feel this, it affects everyone. Try to ignore it," she said.
The squad members nodded one by one. The Dynamic Duo punched each other hard on the arm, to the surprise of the rest of the team. They grinned and Smith said: "That's what Miss Wilhelmina taught us. She always said 'when you can't focus, give yourself something else to focus on' and then she made us pinch our arm. Works all the time."
The rest of the team stared at them until Wrex broke out in bellowing laughter. "You humans!" he laughed out, "You humans are like tiny, crazy krogan!" He took a step towards Smith and Siddig and lowered his head invitingly. It took the Dynamic Duo a second to realize what he was offering but then a giant grin appeared on Smith's face behind the faceplate of his helmet. He pulled his head back and then slammed against Wrex's headcrest in a beautiful krogan headbump. Siddig laughed out loud and did the same, hitting her helmeted head against the krogan's.
Humans and krogan, Garrus thought to himself. It's almost uncanny. How can two species be so different and so much alike?
Shepard grinned and gave a hand signal. The squad fell into position behind her as she opened the elevator doors. The ride up was filled with banter and jokes, helping them cope with the growing tension and the poking in the back of their minds.
The elevator brought them up to a level of the building that felt big and empty. It was cold and damp and it had to be open at one side because a wind was going through it with the smell of saltwater. They carefully walked around the corner and came into a hall that seemed to have been built hastily from prefab walls and windows. A gallery stretched over part of the room, ending opposite a column in the ground that looked like a long, erected spine.
"Commander," Garrus called out, "that looks like the beacon on Eden Prime."
Shepard stared at it, her eyes dark and angry. "Yes, it does. So, I guess I have to touch it. Not like that was ever unpleasant before."
Tali walked towards the edge of the balcony, her omni-tool alight. "I'm sorry, Commander, I get nothing on my scans. It seems to be inactive."
Shepard spit out a bitter laugh. "Oh no, it's not inactive, trust me, far from it. I can feel it." She took a deep breath and walked down the ramp towards the beacon. Her steps slowed down as she came closer and it looked like it didn't react to her presence at all. But just as she wanted to turn away, the beacon lit up in green light and a force field grabbed her and pulled her up from the ground.
Garrus ran forward on instinct but Wrex grabbed his arm and held him back. "Wait, turian, you can't help her right now."
Finally, the field dropped her and Garrus rushed over to her. She knelt on the ground, drawing in air in gasps.
"Shepard." There was nothing else he could say. He helped her up and let her rest her weight on his arm until her breathing had normalized. She gave him a weak smile and whispered, "Garrus." Something snapped in his chest and he could finally breathe again.
Tali's voice came from the top of the balcony. "Commander, there's a change up here."
"Copy," Shepard said and straightened her back. They walked up the ramp to Tali, who stood in front of a red glowing, holographic interface that looked unlike any interface Garrus had ever seen before. It looked like a visual representation of Saren's ship, Sovereign.
"This is not good," Garrus mumbled more loudly than he had intended.
"You are not Saren," the voice from the hologram boomed, hollow and loud.
"Is this some kind of VI interface?" Tali wondered.
The voice increased the feeling of pressure in the back of his head. Garrus gnashed his teeth. "I don't think this is a VI."
The voice boomed again. "Rudimentary creatures of blood and flesh. You touch my mind, fumbling in ignorance, incapable of understanding."
"Definitely not a VI," Garrus mumbled. Beside him, Shepard's face was a mask of calculated indifference, not showing any emotion.
"There is a realm of existence so far beyond your own," the voice droned again, "you cannot even imagine it. I am beyond your comprehension. I am Sovereign."
Shepard turned around to look at her squad. "You know what I think? Sovereign isn't just some Reaper ship Saren found, it's an actual Reaper!"
"Reaper?" The booming voice sounded like it almost wanted to laugh but there was something so unemotional to the voice that laughing was just not part of its build. "A label created by the protheans to give voice to their destruction. In the end, what they choose to call us is irrelevant. We simply are."
"Pretentious asshole much?" Shepard mumbled under her breath.
To everyones surprise, Tali spoke up. "The protheans vanished 50,000 years ago. You could not have been there. It's impossible."
"Organic life is nothing but a genetic mutation, an accident. Your lives are measured in years or decades. You wither and die. We are eternal."
Shepard turned away from the display to hide her eyeroll. The hollow voice continued to speak.
"We are the pinnacle of evolution and existence. Before us you are nothing. Your extinction is inevitable. We are the end of everything."
Shepard raised her head in that distinct human way that looks so wrong to a turian. "We will not bow to you. You'll have an entire galaxy of races united and ready to face you."
A red glimmering wave ran over the hologram. "Confidence born of ignorance. The cycle cannot be broken."
"Cycle? What cycle?" Garrus asked.
"The pattern has repeated itself more times than you can fathom. Organic civilisations rise, evolve, advance. And at the apex of their glory, they are extinguished," Sovereign droned on. "The protheans were not the first. They did not create the Citadel. They did not forge the mass relays. They merely found them, the legacy of my kind."
"The fuck?" Shepard hissed out and typed something into her omni-tool. She looked up again. "What is the point of that? Why construct the mass relays and then leave them for someone else to find?"
"Your civilisation is based on the technology of the mass relays, our technology. By using it, your society develops along the paths we desire. We impose order on the chaos of organic evolution. You exist because we allow it. And you will end because we demand it."
A huff came from the Dynamic Duo. "Harvesting us," Smith grumbled.
Siddig nodded, "The name Reaper makes a whole lot of sense, suddenly."
Shepard scowled at the hologram. "What do you want from us? Slaves? Resources?"
"My kind transcends your very understanding. We are each a nation, free of all weaknesses. You can not even begin to grasp -"
"Yeah, yeah, I get it," Shepard interrupted, "we are unworthy. Who built you? Where did you come from?"
"We have no beginning. We have no end. We are infinite," the Reaper continued, the light of the hologram shimmering in waves. "Millions of years after your civilisation has been eradicated and forgotten, we will endure."
"Where are the rest of the Reapers? Are you the last of its kind?" Shepard asked.
"We are legion. The time of our return is coming. Our numbers will darken the sky of every world. You cannot escape your doom." There was an almost smug undertone to the mechanical voice.
Shepard turned away from the display and rolled her eyes. "I'm getting really tired of this shit." She turned back to the hologram and sneered. "You're not even alive. You're just a machine and machines can be broken!"
"Your words are as empty as your future. I am the vanguard of your destruction. This exchange is over." The voice stopped talking and the red translucent interface disappeared. The silence was threatening until, with a tingle of a thousand shards, all the windows exploded inwards.
Joker's voice came over the comm. "Commander, we got trouble."
"What else is new?" Shepard said with a sigh. "What's the matter, Joker?"
"That ship, Sovereign? It's moving," Joker said. "I don't know what you did down there but that thing just pulled a turn that would shear any of our ships in half. It's coming your way and it's coming hard. You need to wrap things up in there - fast."
"On with the plan then," Shepard said, rolling her shoulders. "Breeding facility, AA towers, nuke. Let's go."
They fought their way back to the office and over a bridge to another complex. More krogan came into their way along with geth and geth turrets. But the squad was a well oiled machine by now and when Kirrahe warned them over the comm that the geth had turned back from them, obviously alarmed to the real threat, Shepard just shrugged.
"Let them come. Let's hope they bring Saren along," she hissed threateningly.
The breeding facility was a half-circle of buildings around a courtyard that was now flooded with water. Why it was flooded and where all the water came from was unclear and it annoyingly hindered their movements. Sloshing through water, they cleared the area of geth and krogan and deactivated the AA tower so that Joker could land the Normandy on the far side of the courtyard.
Shepard conferred with Joker while the marines and technicians placed the bomb near a reactor. "Can you help Williams and the salarians? Can you see their position?"
Joker sighed before answering, "Negative, sorry Commander. The area is just too rugged and as long as the AA towers over there are still operational, I can't get close enough. But I see the enemy coming towards this position."
Shepard opened another comm channel. "Williams, take down those AA towers. The Normandy can't get to you otherwise."
Ashley Williams voice came over the comm, the sound of gunfire and screams mixed in with static. "We'll do what we can, Commander, but the geth have us pinned down here. We're taking heavy casualties."
"How far away are you from the rendezvous point?"
"Too far, Commander, we'll never make it on time to -" a wave of shots and screams interrupted her.
"Disable the towers, I'm getting you help," Shepard yelled into the comm.
"On it," Williams answered through gritted teeth, "just take care of the bomb. I never want to see a huskified krogan again."
"Me too, Williams, me too," Shepard sighed. She closed the line, shutting out the noises of the fight and waved the marines Madhav and Langenfeld over to her. Madhav had his elbow in a supportive cast but he had the same kind of look of determination on his face that all humans marines had. Garrus twitched his mandibles in a grin, any turian squad leader would be proud of marines like that.
He stomped through the water over to Wrex and Tali, who stood a bit to the side, watching Kaidan and the engineers setting up the bomb. Krogan were harder to read than humans but the look on Wrex's face practically came with a warning sign of 'enraged krogan - do not engage!' on it. But Tali was not disturbed by it, or she didn't notice his rage. She was calmly talking to the giant krogan and Garrus mentally went through all the procedures he knew of how to take down a krogan without killing him. There were only two, to his knowledge, and they were usually painful to the one executing them.
As he came closer, Tali stopped talking and they both looked over to him. Garrus hesitated. He was a turian and his kind weren't exactly known for their good standing with either of their species. But he had hoped that they had come past that in the last weeks.
Tali waved him over and he noticed with relief that Wrex seemed to have calmed down. Whatever Tali had said to him, it seemed to have dissipated his rage. "Garrus," Tali said, her hand making a complicated movement in the air. "Wrex and I were worrying about Ashley. Wrex thinks we can't arm the bomb and pick them up on time."
Garrus nodded, glad that his worry had been unfounded. "I have been wondering about that too. But I don't know more than you, she's keeping it to herself."
Wrex let out a grunt before staring at Garrus with his red eyes. "She always does that. Close up when shit comes at her from all sides. It's not good, you have to talk to her, turian. It'd be good if we knew the plan."
"Agreed," Garrus said, looking over to Shepard. She gave the marines some instructions as they boarded the Normandy. The bomb was secured in place, bolted to the floor next to an energy reactor. Garrus walked over to her, making waves with each step. At least the water wasn't cold and the suit could regulate the temperature without problems.
"Commander!" he called to her, hiding his worried subharmonics under the official designation. Shepard sent the marines away and came over to him. Her face was hard, the wrinkles on her forehead edged in deep. He placed his hand on her arm for a second, just to show his support. He let out a sigh when he saw her features relax ever so slightly.
"What is it, Vakarian?"
Garrus lowered his voice. "The squad is worried, it may be advisable to let them in on your plan as long as we have a minute to breathe here."
"You're right." She raked through her hair with a tired smile. "It was Wrex who got you to talk to me, right?" she said with a smile.
"Kind of, yes. But Tali and I are worried too," Garrus said. "Once the bomb is armed, our window of time is pretty short. How are we going to pick up Kaidan, the salarians and Ashley in time? And we still haven't found Saren."
"That pisses me off too," Shepard grumbled. "Ok, squad meeting." She called the team together, gathering them around the bomb as Kaidan worked on the circuitry. "Here's the plan," she announced. She took a look around, making sure that she had everyone's attention. "A large section of the attackers have broken off from Williams and Kirrahe's squad. I hope that Saren is with them and I want to go towards them and give them a nice welcome. Meanwhile, Kadian, Siddig and Smith, you protect the bomb until we come back here and take off with the Normandy before the bomb fries us all. While we fight, Madhav and Langenfeld will drop the Mako as soon as the AA towers are down and get the other squad."
The squad acknowledged the orders with grim determination and Shepard ordered the helmets back on and ran towards a set of stairs leading out of the courtyard. Behind them, the Normandy flew away in a gust of water. As they ran over a bridge towards the forest, a geth ship appeared over them and flew towards the courtyard. Shepard stopped and warned Kaidan.
"Alenko, you have a geth reinforcements coming towards you."
"They're already here, Commander. We're under heavy fire."
"Shit!" Shepard stopped short. "Can you hold them off?"
"Not for long, they're swarming us. Help Ashley, Commander, and find Saren."
Ashley's voice cut in through the comm. "Forget it LT, we can hold this position. Protect the bomb, it has to go off!"
Shepard gritted her teeth, biting out a "Quiet!" Her hands closed around a railing, her armored gloves creaking under the pressure. "The AA towers, Williams?"
"Too heavily protected, Skipper. We in too much shit already."
Shepard studied a map of the area on her omni-tool. "Williams, Kirrahe, I've sent you an update to your map. Fall back towards that ridge, Joker, go behind that ridge as close as you can, drop the Mako. Madhav, are you ready?"
"Ready, Commander."
"Pick up the squad and drive back behind the ridge. The Mako's shields and the ridge will protect you."
Garrus swallowed any remark that wanted to rise in his throat. No turian commander would risk so many lives just to rescue a small team. Every turian soldier knew that the mission would always come first, no matter how many lives it took. The humans on the other hand, always fought to leave no man behind. For a second he had not been sure if Shepard would act like a turian or a human in this decision.
"Understood, Commander," Madhav answered. "We'll be ready to drop in two."
"Joker?"
"On my way, Commander."
Ashley's voice came over the comm with an unusual uncertainty, "It's too risky, Commander..."
"You can always file a complaint later on, Chief."
"Wouldn't dream of it, Skipper."
"That's what I thought." Shepard turned on her heel and ran back towards the stairs they had just climbed up. The sound of gunfire and the pop of biotic effects carried through the air towards them. "Kaidan, we're coming back towards your position."
Kaidan's voice was almost inaudible over the sounds of heavy fire. "We could sure use your help. The bomb is safe but I'm activating it now so that it goes off no matter what."
Shepard gritted her teeth and said nothing. She was clearly not happy with that decision but this was neither the time nor the place to discuss it.
"The bomb is armed," Kaidan said. He paused for a second and they could hear another hum of biotic effects. "Commander, there's something else coming, some kind of small platform -"
"We're here," Shepard interrupted as they rushed around the last corner of the staircase, shooting geth that had managed to come this close. Kaidan and the Dynamic Duo had hunkered down behind some containers but dangerously close to a fuel tank. Shepard ordered them to move behind the reactor, just in time as the fuel tank exploded, ripping a sizeable hole in the geth troops.
But the reinforcements kept coming, there seemed to be no end to the flood of mechanical bodies stalking and gliding towards their cover. For their defence, they relied heavily on the combination of Tali's and Shepard's tech Overloads and biotic Warps from Kaidan and Wrex. If they timed it right, the biotic fields exploded, taking out many geth at once. But Kaidan was injured, his strength waning and even Wrex began to show signs of fatigue.
"Vakarian, cover me!" Shepard ordered, indicating that she planned to get on the left flank of the approaching geth. Garrus switched to his assault rifle and sprayed the oncoming forces with suppressing fire. He didn't like this at all but he knew that they needed to get an advantage. She ran over the courtyard to a boulder on the side that would provide solid cover and give her a new angle to shoot.
It looked like a good idea but as she ran over, a new force was shooting at her. A floating platform with one bulky person on it, flew over the courtyard. It was Saren and he concentrated all his fire on Shepard. Garrus could see her shields dropping rapidly into the red on his visor. She dodged and evaded his shots as best as she could and fired at him at the same time. But Saren seemed to have an incredibly strong biotic shield employed, not a single shot touched him. On her last blip of shield in his visor, Shepard made it behind the boulder.
Saren jumped off the platform and stalked over to her cover. Garrus kept shooting at him but he waved his shots away like annoying insects. Shepard leaned around the corner and aimed her tech attacks at him. Finally, when a Warp from Wrex and an Overload from Shepard exploded around him, he stopped his approach.
"What a clever plan, Shepard," Saren said. "My geth were utterly convinced that the other team were the main attackers. You made it quite far. You won't stop me of course."
The turian looked different than what Garrus remembered from his pictures as a Spectre. Blue glowing cables snaked around his body, connected to some kind of cybernetic implants. His one arm looked entirely artificial and something about his face and his mandibles made Garrus feel uneasy just looking at it. But he didn't have much time to study the turian, they were still under constant attack by the geth as Saren kept talking to Shepard.
"I can't let you disrupt what I have accomplished here. You can't possibly understand what's really at stake."
Saren stood in the middle of the flooded courtyard as if nothing could ever hurt him. The rest of the squad was kept busy by the constant geth attacks and Garrus could only vaguely concentrate on what Saren and Shepard talked about.
"You have seen the vision from the beacon!" the rogue Spectre droned on. "You, of all people should understand what the Reapers are capable of. They cannot be stopped. Do not mire yourself in pointless revolt."
Shepard peeked around the corner. "Pointless? It's not pointless to fight."
"For some petty idea of freedom, you are willing to sacrifice everything?" Saren let out a bitter laugh. "The protheans tried to fight, and they were utterly destroyed. Trillions - dead. But what if they had bowed before the invaders? Is submission not preferable to extinction?"
"As if the Reapers would let us live, you can't really believe that!" Shepard called out, still hidden behind the solid wall.
"We organics are driven by emotions and not logic. We would fight even when we know we cannot win. That's why I never came forward with this to the Council. But if we work with the Reapers - if we make ourselves useful - think how many lives could be spared."
Shepard leaned around the wall, still careful not to expose herself. "What makes you think you will be spared, once you have lost your usefulness? You studied the indoctrination, you know what they do."
"I was aware of the danger when I joined Sovereign but this is the only way to avoid total annihilation." Saren's voice had lost some of its conviction. "I used this facility to study the indoctrination."
"You thought you could find some kind of protection against it, didn't you?" Shepard asked, a quiet understanding in her voice. "But it didn't work, did it?"
Saren had stopped pacing and stood still on a walkway across the courtyard. The geth had stopped firing and stood motionless, waiting for commands. The turian seemed to be lost in thought for a second, the blue lights on his cybernetics were blinking. With a hum he straightened himself and turned back towards the boulder that Shepard was kneeling behind. "The stronger the indoctrination, the less capable the subject becomes. If I wasn't capable, I would not be useful for the Reapers. Sovereign needs me to find the Conduit. That is my saving grace. My mind is still my own. For now."
"But you can't be sure!" Shepard interrupted. "The effect is subtle, that's what your research showed. You are already indoctrinated, a puppet the Reaper plays with for as long as it can use you. You have to fight it, together we can stop Sovereign!"
Saren looked up to the sky as if he saw it for the first time. "I no longer believe that Shepard. The visions cannot be denied. The Reapers are too powerful. The only hope of survival is to join with them."
Shepard stood up, sliding the faceplate of her helmet back and stepped out of the cover. "You were a Spectre. You swore to protect the galaxy! And now here you are, just trying to save yourself!"
Garrus switched to his sniper rifle, aiming for Saren's head with the dim hope of making it through his shield if necessary.
The rogue Spectre snapped around, an angry growl emanating from his cowl. "I'm not doing this for myself. Don't you see, Sovereign will succeed. It is inevitable. My way is the only way any of us will survive. I'm forging an alliance between us and the Reapers, between organics and machines, and in doing so, I will save more lives than have ever existed."
"That's what Sovereign wants you to believe," Shepard yelled, standing tall, her hand on her pistol. "Your mind is not your own anymore, it hasn't been for a while, Saren."
"You would undo my work, Shepard. You would doom our entire civilization to complete annihilation." Faster than Garrus could shoot at him, Saren ran towards Shepard and ripped her off the ground by her throat. He pulled his arm back to throw her when he stopped and sniffed. "You... you are mated? To a turian?" His head snapped around to the reactor were Garrus knelt in cover. "To him?" he spat out with foul disgust in his voice.
A bitter laugh broke out of Saren as he brought Shepard's face closer to his. Garrus could not stop the possessive growl rising from his second voice, Saren was almost touching her forehead!
The pale turian sniffed again and hissed through his teeth, "There's nothing your species wouldn't do, is there? You especially, with so much failure in your life, you would do anything to not let that happen again, wouldn't you? Even rutting with the enemy just to have a bit more help."
Shepard let out a strained laugh. "You know nothing. You know nothing about love or friendship. The only friend you ever had - you shot in the head."
"Nihlus?" Saren loosened his grip on Shepard's throat, letting her down so that her feet touched the ground. Only now he seemed to notice her pistol pointing at his stomach. Even the best shield would not protect him at this short distance. Saren took a step back. "I didn't kill Nihlus, you did."
There was a split second of hesitation before Shepard answered to that accusation with a sly grin, "Is that what Sovereign told you? That's a lie, you shot him."
"No," Saren squeezed out. He seemed to have trouble breathing. His mandibles drew tight against his face.
"Oh yes, you did. Your student, your friend," Shepard said bitingly, stepping closer, her pistol still aimed at him. "You shot him in the head when he had his back turned to you."
"No, never!" Saren let his arm drop and clasped his artificial arm as if he was afraid that it would move on its own.
Shepard looked into Saren's blue glowing eyes. "Sovereign is lying to you. He lied about Nihlus, he lies about you saving anybody."
A loud keening escaped the turian, such an unlikely sound coming from him. "It can't be. My mind is my own..." he mumbled. He froze, staring into the distance.
"Saren," Shepard called out to get his attention, "we can stop him, we can -
"Commander!" Kaidan interrupted, "The bomb, we have ten seconds."
That pulled Saren out of his trance and with a vicious snarl he lit up in blue glowing biotics and held Shepard immobilized in a field. "You would undo everything I have achieved, and for that, you must die!" he yelled at her.
Shepard eyes were wide, it looked like she couldn't even breathe. The geth retreated, Saren turned to call his platform over and Garrus took his chance. His vision was focused only on the turian holding Shepard trapped in the field and he ran over to them as fast as he could and rammed into Saren with his shoulder. The former Spectre stumbled and the field collapsed. Shepard's arm thrashed forward, hitting him on his mandible. Saren stumbled backwards but stopped his attack and turned to jump up on his floating platform to get away.
"Six seconds!" Kaidan yelled as the Normandy swooped over them with the Mako pull-cables extended. A net with a bar holding it apart had been attached to the cables and Garrus more or less threw Shepard over his shoulder and grabbed hold of the net. At his side he saw the Dynamic Duo, Kaidan and Wrex doing the same, Smith holding Kaidan by the neck of his armor. Tali hung limp from Wrex's arm but the krogan held her securely as the cables pulled the net in.
As soon as the mass effect field had closed behind them, Joker let the Normandy climb through the atmosphere as fast as possible. The impassive voice of the Normandy's VI announced the commanding officer to be back on board. The Hangar door closed, just as a bright light appeared, followed by the low sound of the explosion blowing a massive hole into the ground.
Shepard fell to the floor, still desperately breathing in. Despite her coughing, she opened the comm and yelled, "Madhav, do you read? Williams? Mako, systems report."
After two excruciating seconds, the comm crackled to life. "Madhav reporting in. We, ouch, shit, we took a bit of a tumble but we're fine. Under the circumstances." He took a short breath and the familiar sound of the Mako's thrusters told them that the little tank was still working. "Requesting pickup and medical assistance, Ma'am."
"You got it, Madhav, stand by," Shepard said, relieve making her voice sound wet. "Joker-"
"Way ahead of you, Commander," Joker said over the ship's comm. "Get your crap out of my hangar bay and take that embarrassing net with you. Mako pickup in fifteen seconds."
Shepard let out a tired laugh and stood up. "Alright." She winced in pain and stumbled. "Kaidan, what kind of fucking biotic effect was that, I feel like death."
Garrus helped her out of the Mako's parking space. A nurse rushed over to scan her while Doctor Chakwas and her nurses were busy treating Tali and Kaidan. The Dynamic Duo and Wrex cleared the hangar for the Mako and lined up the pull cables. As soon as they had left the area, the mass effect field went up to protect the rest of the cargo bay.
Shepard went over to Kaidan, he had blood on his arm and his stomach was bruised but the areas were already glistening with medi-gel and the bleeding had stopped. Kaidan lifted his head to speak but let it fall back with a painful grown.
"Ouch, I guess my stomach muscles don't like that."
The nurse scowled at him. "I told you not to strain those."
"Sorry," Kaidan said and turned to look at Shepard. "I think he hit you with some kind of Stasis or Reave field. I thought only asari were able to do stuff like that but Saren must have made improvements to his biotics."
"It feels like I've been put through a straw cutter. Everything hurts," Shepard said and fell on a stretcher.
The nurse kept scanning her but shook her head. "Apart from superficial scratches and burns, I can see no injuries. But your muscular system looks like you overdid a workout, there is a high level of lactic acid in your system. I'll give you something for the pain and a high dose of magnesia to work against that."
"Whatever it takes," Shepard groaned, "I need to contact the Council and tell them what we know."
Garrus squeezed her hand, ignoring the nurse fussing over him as best as she could. "The Council won't like this at all."
"It's gonna be really difficult not to hang up on them," Shepard mumbled. She checked her omni-tool and suddenly cursed loudly.
"What?" Garrus asked.
"Did you make a recording of the Sovereign interface when it spoke to us?"
"Of course."
"Check it."
Garrus looked through the files on his omni-tool and selected one to play. There was a glimpse of the red translucent display and then it went dark and fuzzy. "Futuo, it seems to be broken."
"Mine too," Shepard said, "and I bet it's the same for everyone in that room. Must have been some kind of distortion field. Now I can't even proof that Sovereign is a Reaper! All I have are my notes and who will believe that? At least I have Saren's speech recorded, the Council can listen to their favorite Spectre losing his mind in all its glory." She let her head fall back on the stretcher. "And I have this new vision. Maybe Liara can make sense of it." Shepard tapped the comm once and then a second time with an annoyed scowl. She looked up and addressed the Normandy's VI, "Normandy, locate Liara T'Soni."
The calm voice of the VI answered, "Liara T'Soni is on not on board the Normandy. Dr. T'Soni has left with the Mako on dispatch -"
"What the hell?" Shepard grumbled, sitting up with a wince. "Silly romantic girl," she said quietly.
The hangar doors opened and the cables shot out. They hung slack for a moment and then tensed, pulling the Mako back on board. Dr. Chakwas and her nurses waited anxiously for the mass effect field to drop while the hangar door closed again. The Mako door opened and the salarian team slowly climbed out, exhaustion edged deeply into their faces.
Next Omar came out, her giant rocket launcher slung over her shoulder, followed by Carlsson. Their armor showed a lot of wear and tear but otherwise they seemed to be not seriously injured. Carlsson helped Dr. Chakwas up the ramp into the Mako. Shepard scowled and made her way over to the Mako with a limp. Garrus supported her with his arm, worried about how severely Ashley was injured if she had not come out by now.
As they came to the ramp, a nurse came back down, a stretcher floating behind her. Liara followed the stretcher, her eyes never leaving the woman on top of it. Ashley was covered by a blanket, only her face, unnaturally pale, was visible. But the mass effect field over her lower left leg indicated that something bad had happened to it. Dr. Chakwas followed them down, looking at readouts on her omni-tool.
"How does it look, Dr. Chakwas?" Shepard asked.
"Severe trauma on her lower leg. I can treat the worst of it but she needs to see a specialist on the Citadel," Dr. Chakwas said. "There's only so much I can do in the Normandy's med-bay. If we can't get her to the Citadel on time, she might lose the leg."
"We're going back to the Citadel right away," Shepard promised with a rough voice. She stepped up to the stretcher and took Ashley's hand. "Hang in there, Chief."
"Of course, Skipper," Ashley said, her speech slightly slurred by the painkillers. "Don't worry, I won't leave you alone with all these amateurs, Commander."
"You better not, Chief," Shepard said and forced a grin. She let Ashley's hand go and the stretcher floated to the elevator. Liara followed it, her hand hovering over Ashley as if she was afraid to touch her. Shepard watched, her face hard like a mask.
"Liara," Shepard called after her, "I need to see you at the debriefing."
Liara stopped still, her hand hovering in the air. As the stretcher moved on, her hand began to glow in blue biotics, faint tendrils extending from it after the stretcher. "But... Commander..." she said, looking from Ashley to Shepard and back.
"I know, Liara," Shepard said warmly, walking over to her and putting her hand on her arm to calm her. The blue biotic glow shimmered and died down as Liara focused on Shepard's face. "I won't keep you long but I need your help with this new vision from the beacon."
"Another prothean beacon?" Liara asked, suddenly very interested. "Yes I will.. but..." she looked to the stretcher disappearing in the elevator and then back at Shepard, torn between her love for a human woman and her love for prothean history.
"Ashley is in good hands and you can go back to her right after the debriefing," Shepard said reassuringly. "Get yourself cleaned up and come to the comm room in ten minutes."
"Yes, Commander, I will be there." Liara nodded and hurried over to the elevator to ride up with Ashley.
Shepard walked back to the lockers and took off her armor. The team was unusually quiet, each lost in their own thoughts of what they had seen on the planet. Further down the side, the salarians had set up camp, using a spare locker to clean their armor and a workbench to inspect their equipment. Only a few members were left of the salarian team but those at least looked fairly healthy, apart from some scrapes and burns.
After setting her locker on the cleaning cycle, Shepard walked over to the salarians and spoke to Major Kirrahe. Garrus watched her as he prepared his own armor for cleaning. He could see that she was still in pain, not only from the biotic attack. Her underarmor showed enough rips and burns to send her to the med-bay but he knew that probably would not happen. He stuffed two extra packs of medi-gel into the pocket of his underarmor, planning to use them on her later on. She would forget about it and just fall asleep, making the injuries worse.
He watched her hopple over to the elevator and hurried to catch up with her. She just stared ahead as the elevator doors closed, hardly acknowledging his presence.
"Hey," Garrus said quietly, "have you got a minute?"
"Not really, sorry, I have to send a quick report to the Council and schedule a conference with them and I -"
"Hey, Sunshine," Garrus called out, grabbing her hands that were about to rip out her hair. "Let's take a breather, just a few minutes. You need a break."
Shepard stared at him with a streak of mania in her eyes. "I can't, I have to -"
"You need to clean up and change and I'm gonna help you with your injuries and then you can contact the Council," Garrus said, trying to put conviction into his voice without sounding like he was trying to order her to do something. "Ten more minutes is not going to make a difference for them."
Shepard kept looking at him, her eyes flicking around. Her hands were twitching, probably trying to rake through her hair again but Garrus kept holding them and brought them up to his mouthplates. He kissed her knuckles as best as he could and she visibly deflated. A careful smile appeared on her face and the manic expression faded.
"Okay, okay, you got me," she whispered and there was a dip in her voice that made it sound like she had just stopped crying. "A breather, I can take a breather." She leaned forward and kissed his mandible. "Thank you, my Angel."
"Anytime, Sunshine," Garrus whispered, "I'm here for you whenever you need me."
Yes, Ashley lives! I have plans for her.
Now, my friends, I'm afraid the next chapter won't be here until mid-December. I'm writing a novel for NaNoWriMo again and that will take up all the words I have in me. If possible, I will squeeze out a little thing for you but I can't promise.