"Good morning," Shepard said, greeting the small cluster of crew gathered in her quarters. She activated the holo-emitter in the center of her table, adjusting the view until it showed a hundred square kilometre area of the lunar surface. Several small outposts dotted the landscape around three bunkers in the center. "This is the Alliance Lunar training base." She grimaced. "I'm sure the Alliance would be thrilled with me sharing these details with all of you, which is why we're not in the comm room with the recorders."
"Are you sure, ma'am?" Ashley asked, her scowl expressing all her doubts. "You could end up court-martialed."
Shepard nodded. "Yeah, I could, but they've tossed a huge mess in my lap, and it's going to take all of us to clean it up."
She called up the main cluster of bunkers. "Hackett called me the other day because the VI in charge of the live fire battle simulations at this base has gone rogue. Hackett couldn't confirm that it may have evolved into an AI, but I think that's what he suspects." She let out a soft mutter of regret as she zoomed back out to the base view. "AI or not, it has killed a lot of good people. We're going to need everyone on deck to fight our way in and shut it down."
She straightened, her hands on her hips. "One major thing in our favour is that it's an older base, and the hardware isn't state of the art."
Kaidan sucked in an understanding breath. "No on-site fabricators."
"Oh yeah, that would have been a bitch," Ash agreed. "My last training stint, those mothers put out a new drone every three minutes."
Shepard nodded. "Here, the base had a compliment of two hundred assault drones, one hundred and twenty rocket drones, and a hundred mechs, so that's our maximum resistance." She shook her head and looked up, meeting their eyes. "That's not to say an AI might not have upgraded or reassigned units, changed minefield layouts and set traps. Even though we're facing a finite number of units, if the VI is self-aware the playbook has to go out the window. It's designed to analyze attacks and counter them, and it's been learning from everyone who came before us. I've looked at the logs of those attacks, and all I can say is glory hallelujah that they went in thinking that they were facing a VI."
She zoomed in on an outpost in the far northwestern corner of the base. "Our other major asset is that it is a training base. Lots of good, solid cover." She pointed out the armoured barricades and portable shield nodes. "The bunkers are set up like the interior of a pirate or raider base. Most of us have seen our share of those. Use the environment, move in cautiously, take your time. It's not a race or a timed exercise."
"Ash, myself, and every Marine on this boat has been through there a hundred times," Kaidan said. "They haven't changed the layout in those rooms for three years."
Shepard nodded. "Exactly. So have I, although not for a while, and that over-familiarity could get us killed. That's why I'm assigning a non-Alliance team member to each squad. Put them on point, and let them keep all of you on your toes. Brother Sparky, you'll have Nihlus on your team, and Ash, you'll be taking old man Urdnot. Both of them have the instincts and skills to see what the three of us might dismiss." She waited for them both to agree before moving on.
"Okay, that stuff is steps 5-10. Our first hurdle is going to be getting past the exterior defenses." She looked up to where Tali and Legion stood next to one another on the opposite side of the table. "That's where the two of you come in. Out here, at this outpost, there is an override that will neutralize the sentries and patrols . . .." She grinned, crooked and sly. "You know, once you hack your way into the shed and blow it to hell."
"Yes, ma'am," Tali replied, her smile evident in her voice.
"There's a minefield. Its previous dimensions are shown here. I'll send you the information and the frequency for the mines to your omnis with your mission data but don't trust it . . . an AI would be able to change all of it." She zoomed into a tighter view of that sector. "You're . . . we're all . . . going to be met by platoon strength resistance. Fifty-fifty drones and mechs out on the perimeters, more drones in the interiors. Do not allow any experience you've had with LOKI mechs make you complacent. These are not security mechs."
She winced inwardly as she switched to the hologram of the mechs, a vague shame whispering through the back of her head. "Traitor," it whispered. "You've been dancing along the line from the beginning, Shepard, but this . . . this takes the first step over." She cleared her throat, and gave her head a quick shake, chasing that thought away. The mission was for the good of the Alliance. They'd survive a little leaked training intel.
She dragged herself back to the briefing. "These training mechs are quick, well-balanced, able to roll and take cover, have advanced targeting software, and if they're being run by an AI they'll react and adapt quickly." Switching to the drone schematic, she pushed away from the table, straightening. "We'll be facing two types of drones as well. Assault and rocket. They're not overpowered by any means, but again, quick."
"It doesn't take much more than two hits from the rocket drones to kill you," Kaidan said.
Shepard nodded and changed the hologram back to the overview of the lunar surface. "Tali and Legion, you'll take the Mako along with Jenkins. We'll drop you a klick back from the minefield. Go in, blow the entire shed where the controls are housed." She highlighted their target.
"Sparky, Ash, our teams are going to assault the installations at the other three perimeter outposts. Just disembark, dig in and try to distract some of the patrol units from Tali and Legion. The VI probably won't commit many units to protecting our positions, because there isn't anything truly important at any of them. There is, however, an APC at each one. Take out the resistance and grab a ride."
"If they're functional," Ash said. "The VI may have disabled them in the previous assaults."
Shepard shrugged. "It may have, but the other teams didn't even attempt to take out the external forces, so we might get lucky. If not, we'll have to risk the Normandy to take out the missile turrets on the roofs of the three bunkers and then Joker can pick us up and give us a lift." She paused. "Questions up to this point?" When no one said anything, she nodded. "Good. Okay, we'll rendezvous outside the range of the missile turrets and go in together, all three APCs, to take out the missile turrets on our bunker. Once those are down . . . Sparky . . . bunker one. Ashley . . . bunker two. I'll take Garrus and two Marines into the last bunker.
"The previous teams tried to take out one at a time, hoping that they could weaken the defenses, but the opposite happened. The VI boosted the defenses and increased the number of units from room to room, bunker to bunker. We'll go in at maximum strength, split into three teams and just take it damned slow. This is not a barn storming." She looked into each set of eyes staring back at her, waiting to see agreement there before moving on.
Over the next half hour, they hashed out their plan, buttoning everything up as tight as could be hoped for. As Nihlus had told her weeks before: plans were great until about a minute after they hit the ground.
One minute . . ..
One minute after Tali and Legion hit the ground in the Mako—five minutes after Shepard's team jumped down out of the Normandy—a plume of flame and black smoke billowed a hundred metres into the air above their position.
Air stopped flowing into Shepard's lungs for three seconds, even though her finger didn't stop squeezing the trigger, bullets peppering a rocket drone trying to deke around her cover on the left.
"Shepard!"
"I saw it!" she yelled back without looking toward Garrus's position. "Keep them off me for a few seconds!" She lifted her hand to the side of her helmet and opened a channel. "Shepard to Team A. Tali, Legion, Jenkins . . . come in." Only static answered. She glanced over her cover, but Garrus and the Marines had the drones well under control.
"Come on, people. Someone answer me. What's going on over there?" Shepard shouted over the link. She popped up, sweeping the area again. Why weren't there any mechs? They'd been attacked immediately by twenty drones, but each of the outposts should have had a contingent of mechs as well.
"Tali! Come on, someone give me some good news from over there." Her brain began to spin, coming up with a new plan to take out the shed if Team A had failed. She vaguely registered the sound of Droney dying and opened her omnitool, respawning it even as she flipped through the options to take out the shed.
She glanced over at the outpost's Mako. It looked undamaged. They'd have to finish off the drones and head over themselves . . . deal with whatever they found and get it done.
"Shepard! Mech at your nine o'clock. Four metres out," Garrus bellowed.
She glanced to her left and sure enough a mech marched toward her, shots from its SMG pinging off the other side of her barricade. "Where the fuck did that come from?" she shouted back.
"They just appeared. Ten of them. Must have been cloaked."
Shepard hit the closest with an overload, tearing down its shields, then fired four volleys of round into it. "All teams, look out for cloaked mechs. They've been upgraded."
"I don't think they're Alliance mechs at all," Ash yelled back, the sounds of gunfire loud in the background. "They're tough as hell, but sabotage seems to make them hurt."
"Roger that." Shepard queued it up then leaned out, Roger taking out the thing's glowing optics before she unleashed the sabotage and it went down, squealing a mechanical death warble.
"Team A to Shepard," Tali's voice came through, thready, but most definitely alive. "The Mako was destroyed by enemy fire, but we got out and are in cover." The line went to static for a few seconds as Shepard moved on to a new target. Seven mechs closed on them and fast. They had time to take maybe another one each before the mechs overwhelmed their cover.
"You were right, Shepard," Tali said, the channel connecting again. "The VI changed everything up. There are landmines all through the area. We have a couple dozen drones on us, and reinforcements moving in on us from all sides. Units just appeared on the scope. ETA twelve minutes. Jenkins has an idea to get us across the minefield once we get these drones down. It's a little crazy, but we don't have time to come up with anything else."
Shepard pressed her palm to her brow, smoothing out the furrows as she packed down her relief. "Do what you need to. I trust you to get the job done, Tali. Good luck."
"Yes, ma'am. Tali'Zorah, out."
"Shepard, you're going to have to move," Garrus called. "They're all converging on you."
"Shit." She glanced out. "I've been identified as command." She traded Roger for Ingrid, taking some fire as she lined up a headshot that took down the closest mech. "Cover me, I'm going to move to the barricade ten metres to my seven o'clock."
"Roger that." The turian's sniper rifle let out a deep boom, and a mech's head disintegrated.
Taking a handful of quick, deep breaths, Shepard coiled, springing out from behind the cover, her boots digging deep furrows in the loose footing. Praise the Enkindlers for the gravity compensator in her armour. Bouncing across the moon was no way to fight or move with any speed. Even so, the mechs' gunfire whittled her shields down faster than she could move. She dug in, straining every muscle fibre, her heart banging hard and fast against her ribs. A long mission still loomed ahead, not leaving the option for taking even a handful of bullets.
Then the barrage stopped. Barely resisting the urge to look back, she tweaked her compensator and dove for the barricade. Ducking her head, she rolled over the top of it, reset to standard grav, then popped up, Ingrid ready and eager in her hand.
She saw the reason for the cessation of fire in the form of Garrus fighting backward toward her position. "Get behind the barricade, dammit," she hollered. "Sweet baby Jesus, C-Sec. How many times do I have to tell you not to do that?" She took out two mechs with two headshots, overheating Ingrid, but it cut down the fire enough for Garrus to make it to cover.
"Drones are down," Gladstone called. "Three mechs remaining."
"Shepard," Joker called, adding his voice to the chorus. "Permission to use GARDIANS to give Team A some air support? They've got a lot of ground units converging on their position."
"Permission granted. Just a couple of passes and stay well away from any installations. Buy them some time." She and Garrus took out another mech.
"Roger that, ma'am. Normandy, out."
Exactly two minutes and forty-five seconds later, according to Shepard's HUD, the last mech went down. "Let's get that Grizzly fired up, Brother C-Sec." As she strode toward the APC, she opened a channel. "Team B, report. How are you doing, Sparky?"
"Cleared out here, Captain. Couple of minor wounds. Mako is running. We're ready to go."
"Good work. Meet you there." She switched to Ashley's frequency. "Team C, how are you doing?"
"On our way to the rendezvous, Captain. No casualties, but Pakti rebroke his hand," the chief reported.
"Okay, does he need medevac?"
Ashley grumbled. "He says he doesn't. It's splinted, and it's his non-dominant hand. He could pull drag and keep an eye on our backs."
"Okay, I'll leave it to your judgement, but tell him he has to deal with the wrath of Shepard if he gets himself killed. Good work, Ash. Shepard, out." She climbed in the back of the Mako, taking a seat on the bench in the back.
"Not driving, Shepard?" Garrus asked as he took a seat at the canon and started up the electronics.
"No. I'm sure Gladstone can get us to the bunkers without driving us off anything too steep." She buckled herself in and opened a channel to the Normandy. "Joker, report. How are things going with Team A?"
"They're pinned down, but we've bought them twenty minutes. Do you want us to make a pass at that shed?"
"No. I don't want to risk the Normandy. Who knows what the AI has up it's sleeve. A powerful generator and computer core like that . . . could put out an EMP that drops her right out of the sky. We'll signal you once we've got everything wrapped up. Shepard, out."
One more call to make. Her heart sped up a little as she opened Tali's frequency. "Team A, report in."
"We're just about through the defensive units, Captain," Tali replied, her voice laced with pain and fatigue. "We think we've got a way to clear a path through the mines. Hopefully, this outpost will be a smoking crater in the next five minutes."
"Good work, Team A. Report in when you're mission is complete."
"Yes, ma'am. Tali'Zorah, out."
Shepard sank into her seat a little. Why could nothing ever just be simple?
One minute . . ..
One minute into their assault on the bunker, Garrus brought up a fist, halting them, then pointed to a small cluster of blinking lights attached to the side of a crate.
Shepard cursed under her breath. Damn, she hated being right. Traps. "Can you disarm it?" she whispered.
He shrugged, then got down on the floor and opened his omnitool and scanned the device.
"Shepard to Teams B and C, we have traps. Small devices at floor level." She crouched down, nudging Garrus gently as he reached out toward the trap. "Careful. It's probably got proximity or motion detectors," she warned him. Her heart beat fast and light, her hands tingling, every nerve alive even as she winced, awaiting the boom.
"Then get back. And stop jabbing me while I'm messing with dubious electronic devices." He glanced back. "Here, make yourself useful and have a look at these scans."
Shepard opened the file when her omnitool beeped, scanning the tech inside the small box. "It's not a bomb. No accelerants or triggers, no boom anywhere." She peered closer. "It's also not Alliance. All their components are proprietary—Alliance marks on every piece. This is completely clean." She stepped around him. "It definitely has a proximity detector though. Probably triggers something further in. Joy."
His omnitool sprouted a small knife that he slipped in behind the device, popping it free of the crate. "Well, they know we're here now." He got to his feet and looked it over then passed it back to her. "Do we proceed?" He nodded at the glowing force field blocking the door on the far side of the room. "Maybe they trigger the barriers?"
Shepard popped the back off, searched out the circuit to the power source and disabled it before shoving it into a pocket. "Let's go. Whatever it is, we'll find out eventually." She looked up to find him watching her, or at least facing her direction. It was hard to tell with the blacked out face plate of his helmet. Still, the reaction in her gut said that he was watching her. "What?"
He chuckled. "I forget you're an engineer." Turning back toward the exit, he shrugged. "It's sort of sexy."
"Oh for pity's sake, C-Sec, we're working." Despite her grumble, a wide, stupid grin snuck up on her. At least until she heard Gladstone snigger. She spun on him, a fiercely pointed finger stopping a centimetre from his face plate. "Stow it, laughing boy, or someone's going to get hurt real bad. Focus."
He cleared his throat, quailing as all humour fled before her wrath. "Sorry, ma'am."
It took six overloads coupled with sabotages aimed at the shield emitters around the door frame to get the barrier down. Shepard scanned the tech with her omnitool. "Blessed Enkindlers, someone upgraded the crap out of these."
"Are they the same as the device?" Garrus asked, his back to her as he watched the short corridor to the next room.
Shepard shook her head, a growing sense of disquiet gnawing its way into her gut. Still, her inner alarm remained twitchy but silent at the base of her skull. "No, this is all Alliance. I think the AI upgraded this after the last attack. Slow us down enough to bottleneck us." She keyed up a tool, the micro-fabricator creating a small arc device. "We're going to have to sabotage them badly to make sure they don't just spring right back up behind us. Get the emitters on the other side. Just fry the living shit out of them." Cutting and soldering, she made sure that the emitters on her side of the door would need to be replaced in order to work. Finished, she sent a text warning to the other two teams to follow suit.
"Okay, move slowly," she said, stepping over the threshold. "We'll scan as we go. I do not want to get trapped in here when we open the door on the other side."
They found two more sets of emitters along the corridor. Shepard shook her head, slow knots tying themselves into every inch of her gut. No VI would go through such lengths to protect itself. A virtual intelligence answered the problems posed in the scenario according to its programmed choices, but it possessed no creativity, no will to survive. Those emitters screamed self-preservation.
We're fighting our way in here to kill a brand new life.
She packed that whisper down tight, swallowing the sick, bile taste of guilt. New life or no, people had died and more could die. Her people could die if they didn't get the thing shut down. Looking up the corridor to where Garrus worked on the last set of emitters, she steeled herself. She'd charted her course.
Lifting a hand to her radio, she checked in with the other two teams. Neither had progressed as far as they had, but were taking their time to disable the traps as they went. Both also reported no contact with drones or mechs.
"Team A to Shepard," Tali's very welcome voice called in Shepard's ear. "The exterior defenses are down. Scans show all mechs, drones, and automated defenses disabled outside the bunkers. You don't have to worry about a rear assault."
Shepard grinned. "Excellent work, Team A. Join us in the third bunker at your earliest convenience."
"We're already on our way. ETA: two minutes. Team A, out."
Shepard let out a breath she felt like she'd been holding since she saw the Mako destroyed. One less thing to worry about. Why then did her alarm spike a little higher with every passing second? Cracking her neck, she rolled her shoulders and stretched her jaw. Focus. She needed to relax and focus on what lay on the other side of the next door.
"The bulk of the attack will come in this next room." She nodded. "Can that hidden room scanner of yours tell us if there's a welcome wagon waiting directly on the other side?"
He nodded and keyed it up. "Nothing. Appears to be a small alcove with access to the main room on either side."
She nodded, the battle high starting to hit her blood. Enough creeping around doing fiddly work. As adrenaline hit her bloodstream, her entire body began to chant in time with her heartbeat. Time to put a whole lot of bullets into things. "The second we step around that wall, we're open to take fire from pretty much the entire room." As she spoke, an alternative presented itself, and she grinned. "How good are you at climbing?"
Not waiting for an answer, she turned to Gladstone and Chase. "You two go around, to the right, take cover and get their attention. We'll go up and see if we can't surprise them." When they answered to the affirmative, Shepard set her shoulders, let the adrenaline's sweet music sing through her blood, and signalled Garrus to open the door.
One minute . . ..
One minute after the last echo of gunfire died, Shepard pushed herself up off the stack of crates, reaching up to grab hold of one of the beams along the ceiling. Stalking along the edge, she used her bird's eye view to make sure they'd cleared the room.
"All clear up here," Garrus called from the next wall of crates over. He chuffed, the sound coming out like a rifle shot. "Although, if those cloaked mechs are in here . . .."
Shepard nodded and clambered down. "I didn't see any visible shimmers or anything, but we didn't spot them at all outside either. Just keep sharp." She started across the room, her eyes and Roger sweeping back and forth without resting. The drones and mechs hadn't given them an easy fight to take the room, coming at them from every direction, but still, not the sort of fight she anticipated. Part of her hoped that they owed the ease of victory to the AI not being an AI after all. The other part squirmed in the grip of ice-cold claws sinking into her spine. The whole mission felt as though someone kept throwing just enough bait in front of them to keep them moving.
Shepard shook off the dread, muttering, "It's not like we have any choice."
Focus on the fight, Janey. Get in there, get it done, and keep moving. Your people are just as tired as you are.
"Chase and Gladstone, take positions at four and eight. Watch our backs. C-Sec, my ten. Five metre spread." When they moved into position, she signalled them forward, keeping their advance as silent as possible. Several times they stopped, Shepard sending two of them to check an alcove in the crate maze, or cover behind a bank of computers. They arrived at the far door unmolested.
"Okay, let's get this barrier down and get this over with." She didn't need to tell anyone where to be, Garrus stepping up next to her to start tearing down and taking apart the barrier emitters, the other two watching the room. Just like every other corridor, they found two sets of inactive emitters dividing the space into thirds. One last gold/red barrier waited behind the door at the end. On the other side, a cross corridor led to the two rooms where the VI's conduits awaited destruction.
Shepard started fusing the circuitry, the slight hiss and crackle of the sparks from their arc devices the only sounds bouncing around inside her helmet, but then, gradually enough that she mistook it for her own heartbeat at first, another sound whispered into her consciousness. A steady drumming grew louder and louder, the floor trembling in time to its rhythm.
The whir and whine of servos and mechanical joints joined in, strings layering under the percussion.
"Mechs incoming," Chase called. "Lots of them. They're uncloaking all through the room. How didn't we run into them?"
"Taking fire," Gladstone added. "They're closing fast, Captain."
Fear galvanized Shepard, shoring up weary joints and lacing steel cables through muscle. "Close up." She deactivated her omnitool and stepped over the threshold. Closed doors blocked both ends of the hall. The one to her right contained the core.
"Garrus, you and Gladstone take the room to the left. Destroy those conduits. Chase, come on. We'll go right, take out the core." Shepard glanced behind them in the split second before she turned the corner into the cross-corridor. Mechs marched toward them, spilling out of the spaces between crates, their advance halfway across the room. Metal feet beat against the floor in double time, their impact setting the entire structure trembling. SMGs lifted in perfect synchronization, the first bullets zipping through the space Shepard had occupied the moment before.
"We're being herded," Garrus shouted.
"I know. Just take the conduits out. Once the computer goes down, the mechs won't be a problem." Shepard pushed Chase ahead of her, the thunderous marching bearing down. Palming the door control, Shepard sent out a prayer to anyone who might be listening, asking that they wouldn't slam straight into a barrier.
Chase rebounded off the glowing barricade, slamming back into Shepard.
"Just once!" Shepard cried, cursing as she keyed in an overload, taking out the first emitter, then bringing up a sabotage right behind it. Only two were down when the first mechs turned the corner and started firing. "Would it kill the universe to make things easy just once for fuck's sake?"
"Team A to Shepard," Tali called. "We're in the main room, coming up fast behind those mechs. Hopefully we can pull a few off you."
"Use the team frequency, Tali," Shepard called, overloading and sabotaging the third emitter. "Chase, keep them off me the best you can." Shepard shields sparked as she turned, shrugging Roger into her hand to fire while she waited for the cooldown.
"Your omnitool shields, Shepard!" Garrus reminded her.
Shepard waited until her armour shields failed, then stuck Roger between her knees, activated Garrus's overclocked shields on her omnitool, and set in to take out another emitter.
One of the mechs in the front firing line suddenly turned on its fellows, seeding chaos into the ranks. Praise be to the sweet baby Jesus for team members with hacking skills. That mech bought Shepard enough time to take out the fourth emitter before the rest concentrated fire on her again.
Her overclocked shields began to send failure warnings, but a quick check showed her armour shields recharging. Then, to Shepard's right, Chase went down. Grabbing the woman's armour, Shepard dragged her out of fire, protecting Chase with her own shields. Another two mechs turned their guns from Shepard to fire on their own.
"Come on. Come on, comeon, comeon," she muttered, overloading the fifth emitter. Then Tali appeared beside her.
"I'll get the last one, Captain." Deft, quick fingers took out the emitter, the barricade falling. "I'll hold the door," the quarian called.
Shepard dragged Chase out of the line of fire, bringing Roger around to aim at the first conduit. Four bullets and it went up in a shower of sparks. One after the other, smooth as clockwork, the conduits went down. Shepard ran to the core. "Are the conduits down in that room?" she called into the radio.
"Yes, ma'am," Gladstone answered.
Shepard opened fire on the computer core, bullets tearing through all four wings and the main column. Even after she heard the mechs in the corridor stop firing, she kept going until she reduced the damned thing to a smoking ruin.
"Damn." She sagged against the console at her back, every muscle in her body aching with exhaustion. "Teams report in. Everyone okay out there?"
Her radio let out a sharp peel of sound that stabbed through her head like two gauge wire rammed in one ear and yanked out the other. Folding in half, she clapped her hands against the sides of her helmet, but then the sound died. "Fuck, what the hell was that?" Cautiously, she opened a channel again. "Did anyone else just have their ears taken out?"
No answer.
"Shepard to any team member." She pushed herself up and stepped around the ruined core, heading for the door. Tali and Legion held Chase in a chair carry between them and were hurried toward the exit. "Anyone hear me?"
No answer.
"Crap, that thing fried my radio." She stopped a couple metres inside the door and took a quick scan of the air quality. All good. Proper pressure, composition . . . no poison or dangerous gasses. She popped the seals on her helmet and lifted it off. "Hey. Did the rest of you lose radio just now?"
She strode toward the door, slamming into a shifting blue barrier that sprang up across the portal as she tried to cross the threshold. Reeling back, she stumbled, searing arcs of electricity skipping along her armour as she tumbled onto one knee, a hand braced against the floor. The shocks faded, and she looked up, staring at the strange, almost water-like barrier.
"What the hell?" She staggered back to her feet, spinning around as she heard something whir to life. For a long moment, she didn't see anything, but then a chime sounded and a drone appeared, a spinning and whirling ball of light and force fields, just like her own. Along the far wall, a line of mechs dropped their cloaks, their weapons raised and firing as they stepped forward.
"Oh crap." Shepard ran backward, diving into cover behind a crate just inside the door. "Ummm . . . people, I appear to be in some fairly serious shit here."
One minute . . ..