Shepard turned on Roger's flashlight, shining the beam around the inside of the dark container. "It's a fucking meat locker." Shepard bounced her fingers off Garrus's chest again as her hands began to tremble. "We're trapped in a goddamned meat locker. I can't believe this." Shepard felt the collar of her armour tightening around her neck, her breathing coming faster and more shallow. Locked in a dark, frozen cage. Closing her eyes tight, she pushed back against the walls as they pressed in, she forced herself to slow her breathing. Freaking out wouldn't solve anything.
"We can't be locked in. Maybe it's just stuck." Garrus brushed past Shepard to throw his shoulder into the door a couple of times. "Damn."
Shepard prowled to the end of the huge freezer container, thumping the walls with the butt of her gun, trying to find another exit. They needed to get out. Damn it! She needed to get out for Tali . . ..
You need to get out for yourself, you bloody coward. Tali's got a whole squad backing her up.
She turned on Garrus, all her terror and frustration boiling over to sizzle in the flames. "This one is all on you, C-Sec. I wasn't the one who yelled, 'They went in there!'" She held out her hands and turned a slow circle, then punched what looked like a side of frozen varren. "Why would anyone come in here except to hang meat?" Rolling her eyes, she returned to the door and started banging on the reinforced metal with her gun. No one would ever hear her hand.
Walls this thick, no one is going to hear your gun either, Shepard. Face it, you're caged.
No. No, not caged, just waylaid. If they had to, they could shoot the lock off the door, surely.
Bullets will probably ricochet, and kill you both.
She heard him mutter under his breath, but her translator didn't pick it up. "What is it with you getting me trapped in deadly situations?" he asked, talons searching along the edges of the door.
"Me?" Yanking herself back off the cracking, black ice, Shepard turned to him, her flashlight cutting a path of sanity across the space. "Don't be a drama queen. The situation isn't deadly, except maybe for Tali." She winced at that last as she saw his mandibles drop. She opened her mouth, an apology almost making it to her teeth before she sucked it back. Unfair as it might be, she needed to stay pissed at him. Hell, she needed him to stay pissed at her. "We'll just bang on the door. It's a dock, someone will hear and lets us out."
Bristling, Garrus held his hand up to block her light and glared at her. "I'm sorry, it looked like they came in here. It's possible they ran into the next container."
Shepard laughed, hard and sharp. "It's possible?" She returned to the far corner, lifting her hands to cup her mouth. "Hello? Invisible Blood Pack members? Hello?" Spinning back, she fixed him with narrow eyes. "I'd say that it's definite they went into another container . . . or no container at all. Oh yeah, and then they locked us in this one." She spun away to hammer on the back wall. "It's freezing in here. You did this on purpose. You liked the cuddling for warmth on Feros, didn't you?"
He sputtered and turned away to throw his shoulder into the door. "No! I was dying of hypothermia." Slam. "You throw enough heat to replace the center of an average yellow sun." Slam. He spun back around and flung his arms up. "I didn't do this on purpose." He cast around them. "Do you see some cozy little make out nest in here, Shepard? No! You see slabs of dead animals." He shoved a carcass out of his way, sending the whole line of them swinging. "Being trapped in a meat locker with a paranoid claustrophobe is not my idea of romantic."
She returned to hammering on the walls with her rifle. "Just quit your bellyaching and start hitting the damned walls before I give in to the urge to shoot you in your assless."
He glared at her, his brow plates low, mandibles tight. "Oh, right. The terrible Captain Shepard, scourge of the galaxy." He turned back to the door, banging on the thick metal with the butt of his sidearm. "I'm terrified, baby sister." Silence dropped like a boulder. He froze statue-still for a heartbeat before spinning to face her, his expression horrified. "Shepard, I'm sorry. I didn't mean . . .. That was disrespectful . . .."
Iron submersed in liquid nitrogen, Shepard's entire body snapped cold and brittle.
Bright ginger ringlets bounced, almost merry . . . obscene against the fire-red cheeks streaked with filth, tears and snot . . . against the screams. "Janey!" her name burst out shrill, lacerating the air. "Janey! Don't let them take me!"
Stumbling, Shepard fell into the frost-caked wall, the cold driving away the screams as her brow melted into it. Turning to look at him without lifting her head from the cold, she whispered, "What did you just say?" As mercurial and lithe as a puma, she leaped forward, grabbing the yoke of his armour. Flipping him over her hip, she threw him down hard on his back and straddled his waist. "How did you find out?" She seized the guard at the front of his cowl and shook him. "How fucking far into my life did you dig, Vakarian? Those records are supposed to be sealed."
All emotion bled from Garrus's face as they stared into one another's eyes. "Shepard?" He sat up, lifting her off and setting her on her feet. When she slapped his hands away, they dropped to his lap. "What are you talking about?"
She shook her head, eyes tearing away to the floor as she turned her back to him. "It's nothing. I misunderstood." Her sharp sigh crystallized as it bounced off icy walls. "Let's focus on getting the hell out of here before we lose Tali." She pounded her palm against the door. "Anyone out there? We're locked in here."
"Shepard, that wasn't nothing. Spirits, what did you think I said?" He pressed one hand to the frosty metal and leaned down, trying to meet her eyes.
She banged again, not willing to let him snag her gaze. "Help! Anyone! Open the door!"
"Shepard, we're friends." Out of the corner of her eye, she saw his mandibles drop and make a helpless looking little flail.
She cut a glance sideways, meeting his stare for a fraction of a second. Shuttering the windows, she reinforced the walls. "This isn't about friendship, C-Sec. It's about staying functional." She banged on the door. "Help! We're locked in."
"Shepa -"
She threw up a hand to silence him and closed her eyes, listening . . . straining to hear outside their prison. Boots scuffed on concrete alongside the right-hand wall. The trusty alarm in the back of her head screamed a warning, and she launched herself at Garrus, her tackle driving him to the floor.
He grunted as they hit and rolled. "What the . . .?"
Gunfire cut off the rest of his protest, bullets ripping through the side of the container as if it were made of tin foil.
"Help me," Shepard called, reaching up to latch onto one of the large carcasses. Garrus grabbed hold of it just above her hands, the meat already absorbing projectiles meant to tear them to pieces. Together they hauled it down, taking cover behind the slab of dead animal. Still, Shepard's shields sparked with impacts, going down with a flash and a whine.
She winced, preparing for the inevitable bullet impacts. Instead, the air left her lungs in a massive cough as Garrus threw himself over her, shielding her with his body.
The roar of automatic weapon fire seemed to last forever as she felt every jolt of every round that Garrus took for her. Silence felt so abruptly that it took a moment to register through the ringing in her ears. Garrus shifted and groaned.
"You okay?" she whispered. Other than having a turian elbow jabbing in the small of her back, Shepard didn't feel anything needing attention.
"Few holes, nothing major." He lifted himself off of her and hit his medigel.
The latch squeaked and drew back with a clang. Shepard shrugged Roger into her hands as she scrambled up and backed away, taking cover behind a side of space cow.
Garrus stood, moving behind another dead animal before bending down to retrieve his assault rifle.
Shepard watched the door, leaving Roger's flashlight on to shine in the eyes of whomever opened the door, but it just settled open about an inch and stayed that way. Garrus moved as if to step forward, but she shook her head. Vorcha-like breathing wheezed and hissed on the other side. They needed to wait the Blood Pack out. Not her favourite strategy, but they needed every advantage they could get.
The door squeaked open a couple of inches, a flamethrower nudging through. Shepard hid the glare of her omnitool behind the space cow and called up sabotage. She saw a low flash from Garrus's arm and knew he had overload ready to go.
"Smell blood. Human and turian dead," the vorcha declared, opening the door.
Shepard glanced at Garrus and nodded. Their omnitools flared, the blast from the pyro's tanks exploding peeled back one of the doors while the other flew into the container and slammed into Shepard's cover, throwing her on her ass.
A krogan, his face bleeding and torn to hell, stumbled in the door, roaring at the top of his lungs. Shepard scrambled to get onto her feet, but knew within a heartbeat that she didn't stand a chance. Blood rage and flaming armour bellowed at her and charged. Shepard rolled to the side, using her momentum to flip onto her feet, fully expecting her bones to be pulverized into flour about the same time she stood.
Instead, the sound of armour smashing into armour was followed by the sound of armour hitting metal and no pain.
"If you could shoot him . . .." Garrus grunted, flying backwards to slam through a varren and two space cows to hit the wall.
Shepard launched her drone to distract the krogan from Garrus and opened fire, circling around toward the door. Keeping up three round bursts to avoid overheating Roger, she riddled the krogan's head with bullets, blinding him. "You up, C-Sec?" she called.
"Yeah, and moving." The harsher cough of his sniper rifle barked, echoing metallically off the walls. The krogan flailed then went down, most everything above his shoulders reduced to red putty. Shepard pressed against what was left of the one door and peered out. She didn't see anyone else waiting for them.
"We're clear," she called over her shoulder. When Garrus limped over to her, blood ran down the right side of his head and stained his armour in a handful of places. She grabbed hold of his shoulders, not liking the dazed look in his eyes. "C-Sec, look me in the eye. You okay? Did you hit your head?" She pulled him down to look at the wound in his head. It didn't look too bad, but who knew what hid under those plates.
"Repeat after me, Brother C-Sec. Glory be to the Enkindlers."
He met her gaze squarely, his pupils reacting to the light when she shone her flashlight square in his face. His one brow plate rose as he pushed her gun away. "I'm not saying that."
She grinned. "Well, you can't be too out of it, then. You feeling sick? Head hurt?" she asked. When he didn't answer, she patted his cheek. "I think I'd better call the Normandy, have them come get you."
He shook his head, wincing as he did. "I'm okay, Shepard. He just threw me against the wall hard enough to rattle my brain." He switched guns and reached out to give her shoulder a reassuring pat. "I'm good to go."
After watching him for another few seconds, she sighed, then nodded. "Okay, let's move, but if you start feeling sick or your head ramps up, tell me. Don't try to tough it out. We've got a long way to go, and I need . . .." She turned abruptly to her omnitool and called up Tali's tracker. "They've got a hell of a lead on us." She took off at a smart jog, covering ground in long, loping strides.
When Garrus caught up to run at her side, he cut a glance over at her. "Hey, about before . . . even though you hide it pretty damned well, and you have most of the rest of them fooled, never think I don't see all the anger and pain you hide under the good-ol'-crazy Shepard routine."
She clenched her jaw as he slammed into her wall, knocking a huge chunk out of the corner. Damn him and his perceptiveness. Shaking her head, she threw the piece back into the hole and boarded it up. "My pain is my business, C-Sec. It's not open for discussion."
A rumble escaped his second larynx. "Fair enough, but if you ever want that to change, you know where to find me." He stared at her for a couple of strides before turning his attention back to watching the path ahead.
Shrugging, Shepard swallowed what felt like a cluster of pinecones, waiting until they reached the bottom before she nodded, one rigid jerk down then back up. She glanced sideways, then snapped back to eyes forward, searching for ambush, mind on the mission. Still, the damned warmth his words forced down through her shields refused to dissipate, just settling in her gut.
She cleared her throat. "And C-Sec . . . thanks. I appreciate the turian shield, but you aren't expendable. You can't just keep throwing yourself between me and anything that comes along."
His brow plates and mandibles dropped. "You're not expendable either, Shepard." They paused at the end of a street, checking to be sure the way ahead was clear before rounding the corner.
"That's kind of you to say, but it's just plain not true." A finger raised from her gun cut off his protest. "I'm the most disposable person on this mission, C-Sec. I have no credibility. I can't bring this galaxy together other than from behind the scenes. You have a tremendous amount of credibility. Add your father to that . . .." She glanced over and smiled in response to his chuff. "Oh, come on, you know it's true, and you know he'd support you."
"Father or no father, I can't run a war by myself, Shepard." Garrus pressed his back to the wall as they came to a half-open door that twitched and sparked across the only street entrance for blocks.
They took cover to either side of the street. The entrance to the district at ground level formed a natural choke point. Shepard's gut tightened. Perfect place for an ambush. If the Blood Pack had holed up in - Shepard glanced up at the sign - Kima District, they'd have guards watching the entrance from strategic positions.
She nodded to Garrus. "Watch my back, I'm going to try to flush out their sentries."
"Make sure to live long enough to explain your 'Shepard can't fight and win this battle' theory." His mandibles' uneasy flutter and the wariness in his gaze underscored his words.
Shepard launched her drone through the malfunctioning gate first. Nothing. No enemies laid in wait. No pedestrians walked between buildings. No cars moved through the air above. She swung around the gate, stalking forward, eyes in constant motion, but she saw nothing, felt nothing. Black, empty windows stared down, sightless eyes on the faces of the dead buildings. Nothing moved. Nothing even breathed. At the end of the block, she waved Garrus up to join her.
"This district is creepy as hell," he muttered under his breath.
She nodded, agreeing completely.
Tali's tracker stopped moving several blocks ahead, near the center of the district. Hopefully the young quarian was able to plant the bug on one of the leaders before Nihlus moved in to pull her out. A soft smile brought a little colour to her cheeks as she realized how far they'd come in just a couple short weeks. When they started out, she hadn't trusted Nihlus as far as she could have tossed him. Now, she knew without a doubt that he'd get her people out or die trying.
She dragged her attention back to the endless, empty streets. "They do not undersell the whole Omega is a dump angle," Shepard whispered. "Look at all this, a whole district, just abandoned."
"Too far out to fall under the protection of one of the less notorious gangs," Garrus agreed. He loped along beside her, his stride easy and steady, allaying her fears that he'd gotten himself concussed or worse. "Good place to hide out if you're a criminal organization."
Shepard grinned. "Or a renegade organization hiding from the council to fight the Reapers." She shrugged when he glanced over at her. "What? A girl isn't allowed to dream a little? Imagine it, C-Sec. An army holed up on Omega where the council fears to tread. Docks filled with geth and quarian built cruisers and dreadnoughts, Alliance and turian built stealth frigates." She grinned. "Oh yeah, we could give the Reapers pause, my friend."
The certainty of it filled her and she nodded again. "We could give the Reapers pause."
Another three streets along, Shepard slid to a halt, motioning for Garrus to do the same. She strained, trying to hear the faint noises over the blood rushing through her ears. "Do you hear that, C-Sec?"
He nodded. "Shouting, overlapping voices."
"Bal'Nara!" Tali's voice shouted in Shepard's ear. "Bal'Nara!"
Shepard took off running, her heart dropping into her boots as gunfire erupted like fireworks on a quiet evening. They were still so far away. Lungs working like a forge bellows, legs churning, feet pounding against the pavement, she drove herself harder and faster toward the firefight. Why was there a firefight? What had gone so wrong that Tali needed to use her panic word?
"Damn," Nihlus called out on the squad's frequency. "They've got Tali upstairs. Alenko and Jenkins, get up there, we'll cover you. Wrex and Williams, keep pushing into the interior."
Holding her fear clutched tight in an iron fist, she leaped over a bench and climbed a hastily built barricade. On the other side, she dropped down onto a bridge. A handful of dead vorcha and a dead krogan lay strewn the length of the bridge, and as she looked up into the building at the other end, Shepard could see shadows moving in the frenetic dance of battle.
"Ashley's down!" Nihlus called on the radio. "Alenko, pull her back. Jenkins, move up to take her cover. Keep the pressure on."
Shepard dug in harder, leaping over the dead bodies in her path. Bullets peppered her shields as she hit the far side of the bridge and the entrance to the building. She took cover behind a pillar, leaning out to note the enemy number and position. Looking to Garrus, she motioned for him to jump through a blown out window and try to circle around to a flanking position. When he moved into the open, she leaned out, firing across the Blood Pack's positions then concentrating on a varren that charged down the stairs from the second floor.
"Sparky, watch your nine," the call came from Wrex that time.
Garrus pinged her radio when he reached cover on her right flank. She gave him to the count of three to settle himself then dashed up to the next cover. Another varren charged down the stairs. She launched her drone. At least they were pulling some of the pressure off the rest of the squad.
She took down two vorcha as her drone drove them out of cover, moving up into what looked like a lobby and cafeteria area. The fighting upstairs sounded as though it were directly overhead. Three more vorcha went down before the main floor was cleared. Moving to the stairs, she and Garrus stayed in cover behind the railing.
"Shepard and Vakarian coming up the stairs," she alerted them over the radio. Standing for a moment, she launched her drone into the room above the exit. The fighting was concentrated there.
"Nihlus is down!" Kaidan called. "Jenkins, can you get to him?"
"No. Krogan between us."
Shepard darted up the stairs and down the hall, taking cover against the door jam. Ducking out into the room, she spotted her team members, their backs all to her, but for Nihlus who was down over by a balcony overlooking the bridge. A krogan stood over him.
The Blood Pack Warrior lifted a foot to stomp on the turian Spectre's head. Shepard hit him with overload, throwing him off enough that his foot came down on Nihlus's chest instead. Still, the sound of bones and plates cracking under the pressure nearly made her throw up. She channelled it into unleashing first sabotage and then bullets, lots and lots of bullets, tearing up the krogan's armour and plates until he finally went down and didn't get back up.
A moment later, the gunfire died out.
"All clear," Kaidan called.
"All clear," Jenkins replied.
"Clear," Ashley groaned.
Shepard leaped out of her cover and ran over to Nihlus, her hand reaching up for her radio even before she hit the ground on her knees. Blood bubbled from the Spectre's nose and mouth in a cobalt froth. Shepard hit his medigel with one hand.
"Normandy. We need immediate medevac on my location. Nihlus has been critically wounded." Shepard glanced over at Ash. "How are you doing?"
"Couple of bullet holes in my leg," she said, grunting with the pain. "I'll live, but I can't walk."
"Normandy, Williams requires medevac as well." Shepard hit Nihlus's medigel again. Hopefully it would help ease his internal bleeding. She checked him over with gentle hands, finding a lot of shotgun damage to the belly of his armour. She left the armour in place, not wanting to move him. She stroked his neck. He moaned a little, one hand sliding across the floor to lay over hers.
"Don't worry," she said, keeping her voice soft and confident. "You're going to be fine. Dr. Chakwas is on her way to lock you back in medbay prison for a couple of days." She took his hand and held it.
"How is everyone else?" she asked, looking up. "Any other injuries?" She glanced back at Garrus, but he shook his head, indicating that he was fine.
"The rest of us are fine, Captain." Alenko said, crouching next to her.
"Tali?" Shepard looked for the young quarian, finding her standing next to a male quarian, her arms crossed.
"Very angry," Tali replied, "but fine, Captain."
Shepard wanted to rip the place apart, find out what the hell had gone wrong, but held her peace. Nihlus didn't need people freaking out around him.
"Where do you think you're going?" Tali barked, grabbing the other quarian's arm. "Sit, and don't move." Shepard's eyebrows rose. She'd never seen Tali so furious.
"Don't . . ." Nihlus whispered, his voice thick and clotted, air gurgling through blood.
"Sh," Shepard said, caressing his brow gently. "Don't worry, I'll take care of everything once the doc gets here." She smiled. "You know me, I've got some pretty impressive skills. I'll figure it out. You just save your strength."
The doctor arrived with three helpers a few minutes later.
Shepard bent over to kiss Nihlus's cheek. "I'll see you back on the Normandy," she said then stood and got out of the way.
"Okay, what in the great land of fuck happened here?" She strode over to Tali, checking the quarian for injuries. "You're sure that you're all right?"
She nodded, looking ready to kill someone. "My father is what happened, Shepard." She tossed a furious hand at the quarian seated next to her. "We had everything under control. The Blood Pack just got me back here, and he appeared out of nowhere and started shooting."
"You were their prisoner," a heavily accented, male voice protested. He jumped up as if to admonish his daughter, but Tali just pushed right back.
"I was bait in a trap that would have lead us to the rest of our people!" Tali shouted. "That's why five people jumped in when you opened fire, you . . ..." She bit off the rest. "Sit down before you make things worse."
"Okay." Shepard held up her hands to still the argument. She looked up at Garrus. "You need to go back with the doc anyway and get your head looked at, so will you please transport Rael'Zorah back to the Normandy and make sure that he stays out of trouble?" Leaning down so her face was at a level with the admiral's mask, she pressed in on him. "If Nihlus dies because of your interference . . .." She shook her head. "Well, you'd better just hope he doesn't."
"I'm a member of the . . .." He protested, standing up and pushing her back.
Shepard raised both index fingers, shutting him up instantly. "A member of your admiralty board has already tried murdering me. Trust me when I say that particular argument won't get you anywhere." She nodded to Garrus. "Get him out of my sight before I lose my temper."
Garrus grasped the elder quarian's upper arm, hauling him toward the shuttle. Shepard turned her back to the admiral's indignant protests, missing what Garrus grumbled in reply as she looked over to where the doctor readied Nihlus for transport. Her heart sank into her gut at the expression on Chakwas's face, but she blinked back the burning in her eyes and clenched her jaw. No reason to mourn yet, and she could freak out once everyone was safely back aboard the Normandy.
"Jenkins, Wrex, Sparky, Tali. Strip this place. Take every single thing that isn't tied down. Hopefully we can find something to lead us to Saren." That said, she strode over to Ashley. "Can I give you a hand there, Chief?"
Ashley reached up, locking wrists. "Thank you, Skipper." She pulled herself up, then slung an arm around Shepard's shoulders. "Hm, you're the exact right height." A tight, pained smile accompanied her jest.
Shepard chuckled. "I knew being size small had to be handy for something other than crawling through ducts and tunnels." She helped the chief limp to the waiting shuttle. "What's your take on what happened, Ash?"
Williams shook her head. "Just what Tali said. We were shadowing, stay back, then guns were going off. Nihlus moved us up, and we fought our way in here. Got here fast enough to save Tali and the rest of the quarians. Nihlus put himself between them and the krogan. We took most of them out, but that one closed faster than we could shoot."
"Wait . . .." Shepard stopped and raised her eyebrows. ". . . and the rest of the quarians?"
Ashley nodded toward a room on the other side of the stairs. "Six of them. Just scared kids. Jenkins ran them out while Nihlus held off the krogan."
"We're going to need another shuttle." Shepard sighed. "Okay. When you get aboard and are being patched back together, please ask Verblovski to find us seven cots, blankets, etc. We'll let them bunk in the gym." Once Ash was settled in a seat, Shepard returned upstairs, meeting Dr. Chakwas and Nihlus's gurney at the top of the stairs.
"How is he doing, Doc?" she asked, reaching out to give the Spectre's fingers a gentle squeeze.
Chakwas gestured for the Marines to precede her down the stairs, waiting until Nihlus was out of earshot before she spoke. "It doesn't look good, Shepard, but I'll do what I can." She started down the stairs.
Shepard nodded, not making eye contact. "If you need anything, just shout."
Chakwas turned back. "Actually, Shepard. There's supposed to be a gifted Salarian surgeon on Omega. Runs a clinic in one of the other districts. I could use his help if you can find him. His name is Solus."
"Consider him found, Doc." Shepard opened a channel as she jogged back into the bunk room to wave Tali over. "C-Sec, I know your head is probably killing you, but are you up to another little adventure?"