Solar winds carved swathes over the star's surface. Flashes of white slowly demising into hazes of red laced with ringlets of black illustrating the sweeping currents of the solar winds. All those details and a hundred more did not go unnoticed under his watchful, artificial eyes as the quantum entanglement communicator initialised and a spectre shimmered into view behind him. "Shepard" the Illusive Man spoke, turning his gaze. "I wish I had more information for you. I don't like you going through the relay blind…" He seemed somewhat sour. "But we don't have much choice."
"I'm not going alone" Shepard said determinedly, "I've got some of the best working with me. If we stick together, we'll make it."
The Illusive Man allowed a small smile show his impression at her resolve. "I knew we brought you back for a reason; I've never seen a better leader. Despite the danger, this is a great opportunity; the first human to take a ship through and survive."
Shepard bristled and her expression hardened, she wasn't going through to further any greed. "I'm going to destroy the Collectors" she warned the Illusive Man, "to stop their attacks on humanity."
"Understood" The Illusive Man said, deftly defusing her implication. "It's still impressive. I just wanted you to know that I appreciate the risk you're taking. Regardless of your opinion of Cerberus, of me, you are an invaluable asset to all of humanity."
Shepard knew she was standing before the image of one of the greatest liars and conniving individuals in perhaps the entire galaxy and yet somehow, his words seemed to hold a surprisingly genuine touch. For however fruitless it was, a small flame of hope flickered in her that maybe he would be able to help her stop the Reapers once and for all. Despite everything he had come from, all he had done, Shepard decided that there was, or at least had been, some good in whatever beat beneath his chest. It would be the last time they ever spoke with a united purpose.
"Be careful Shepard" he boded, seemingly taking an extra second to study her in the same fashion. She wondered what he was thinking of her. He met her eyes briefly, and then quickly cut the communication before either of them could say anything further.
"Approaching Omega 4 Relay, stand by" Joker reported through the ship-wide channel. Ahead of them, the scarlet light of the relay dominated the space in front of them, bathing the ship in its colour, blinking as the rings completed another orbit. It was beautiful, and a warning. Countless ships had made the voyage they were about to undertake, and none had ever returned.
"Let's make it happen" Shepard ordered, standing over his right shoulder. Joker nodded at her command, preparing the ship to receive the massive charge. His fingers were purposeful and swift at activating the various prompts.
"Reaper IFF activated" EDI reported, "signal acknowledged." There seemed to almost be a hum in the air, like static electricity was building somehow all around them.
"Commander!" Jacob reported from his temporary station in engineering. "Drive core just lit up like a Christmas tree!"
"Drive core charge at critical levels" EDI corroborated urgently.
"Re-routing!" Joker acknowledged, directing the excess power wherever he could. Tali looked up as the lights above her brightened and hummed with a greater intensity, this challenge would not defeat her capacity for engineering, she swore.
The Normandy was beginning to tear through space now towards the relay, there was no stopping, not turning back now; their approach was locked. Shepard felt her whole body began to tense as the relay grew larger with the approaching proximity, the Normandy was barely a droplet compared to the pool of energy housed within the massive superstructure. The first burst of energy leaped from the relay and struck the ship, then another. Zaeed lowered his drink at the bar as he witnessed the red storm of lighting striking the ship from the starboard.
Joker watched as every meter and gauge he had begun to reach the red lines, this was the most precise jump he had ever had to make, threading the Normandy through the eye of a needle of black holes. He waited half a heartbeat longer, exhaled, and fired the Normandy forward. The ship launched forward, surrounded in the blue storm of FTL. All of reality seemed to stretch out in front of them, warped by their incomprehensible speed. A counter of the milliseconds before they would reach their destination rushed downwards.
"Brace for deceleration!" EDI ordered.
Shepard leaned forward, her hand gripping the shoulder of the pilot's chair like iron. Samara added a layer of strength to her barrier, disturbed from her mediations. Reality flooded back into perception as the ship exited FTL straight into a massive debris field. "Oh shit!" Joker cursed, forced to swing the Normandy madly out of the way to avoid a collision. Joker's usual humorous expression was gone, replaced by a fiery intensity as he continued to navigate the Normandy past each obstacle, finding a gap and forcing the ship through it. Joker arced the Normandy of the next piece of debris and was met with a clear space of blood red light. The swinging shadows thrown by the debris were behind them now. Joker finally let go of a breath he hadn't realised he had been holding as he sat back. He could feel beads of sweat dampening his cap. "Too close" he finally remarked. Jax looked around briefly before unclipping himself from the crew safety harness in the armoury, continuing to work on the weapons and demolitions for the mission ahead.
Shepard finally released her hold on Joker's seat and stood up straight again, stretching. Her eyes fell on the debris outside the ship and narrowed, trying to discern their nature through the shoals of dust. There were odd indentations and violent jaggers, but there were also too many rounded corners and smoothed finishes to be the result of natural circumstance. A piece turning over itself revealed an insignia and then Shepard with cold horror what the debris field was made of.
"These must be all the ships that tried to make it through the Omega 4 Relay" Joker said, voicing her thoughts in a state of awe. They were in various states of decay but there were signs of violent destruction. Scorch marks from beam weapon fire, frayed structuring from being ripped apart by the forces of the relay and the surrounding black holes, fracturing from being smashed within the debris field. "Some look ancient."
"I have detected an energy signature near the edge of the accretion disc" EDI suddenly reported, cutting in. It wasn't hard to see, the massive structure loomed in front of the perpetually eclipsed sun.
"Has to be the Collector Base" Shepard surmised. She looked down at Joker. "Take us in for a closer look, nice and easy."
Joker glided the Normandy softly forwards, a sleek shadow cutting through the scrapyard of destruction. Everything was quiet for a few tense moments before suddenly an alert blared on Joker's screen. "Careful Jeff" EDI warned, "we have company."
It didn't like wrong for her to be proven right as red laser blasts streaked past the ship's starboard. Joker yanked the Normandy off its course sharply up as the group of drones pursued them. "Taking evasive manoeuvres!" Joker reported, shifting the Normandy again, dipping it under the next salvo of bursts. Mordin was forced to hold onto his samples to prevent them from scattering everywhere. Joker gunned the engines forward but the drones remained in hot pursuit, forcing him to evade further. He gritted his teeth as the readout showed two had flanked him and were now dead ahead. "Now they're just pissing me off!" He complained, confirming the targets and blasting them both into fragments and dust. The rest were still chasing though, the Normandy spiralling through a helix of enemy fire. "EDI, take these bastards out!" Joker yelled, rolling the ship past a beam by barely metres. The ship suddenly shuddered as blast caught the Normandy squarely on the body, branding a line down its flank.
"As long as the new plating holds" Miranda remarked from behind Shepard, seemingly impervious to the imbalance caused by Joker's twists and turns.
The ship shook again from another blow but held firm. "They want another round?" Joker asked his vessel, "then let's give it to them." Another blow came from the drones, catching the engines. Grunt and Jack both were thrown off balance by the force of it. Joker kept the Normandy moving as he pulled it into a loop but the ship suddenly shook much more fiercely; what had just hit them was no laser.
"Alert" EDI called out, "hull breach on Engineering Deck."
"It's in the cargo hold!" Joker cried out, dismayed.
"I'll take a team and deal with the intruder" Shepard assured him. "You get the rest of them off our tail."
Shepard was purposeful as she approached the elevator, save for a couple orders made through taps of her omnitool. Thane was already waiting as the elevator reached the Crew Deck, he joined her wordlessly as he pushed a round into his sniper, already preparing for the armour he would have to penetrate. Grunt had already taken it upon himself to engage the drone, his eagerness to prove himself against opponents far larger than himself to test his worth was usually worrisome but in this instance, Shepard wouldn't begrudge him it. His armour was radiating steam from the heat from the laser as Shepard and Thane entered, the drone leaving him for the moment to assess the two new threats that had begun to assault it. Shepard drew its attention with a barrage of fire allowing Thane to flank it, firing a volley of shots in exactly the same point before following it up with a warp. The cargo bay was a mess, the shuttle was lying awkwardly amongst falling on debris, most of their supplies had been sucked into vacuum and those that hadn't were lying everywhere. The vent system in the middle of the room still could provide valuable cover though. The drone backed off slightly, almost surprised by the damage to its armour that it had sustained. "I want more!" Grunt managed to yell as the drone hastily retreated out of the hole in the wall.
"We're sitting ducks out here!" Joker said, exasperated. An idea dawned on him as he saw a shaft of light through a maze of shadow. "I have to lose them in the debris field" he called, gunning the engines and pushing the Normandy towards the constantly shifting mass of destroyed ships, sliding easily through the first gap. The drones hastily chased after him, one being caught as the hole closed up again behind him.
"Our kinetic barriers are not designed to survive impact with debris that size, Jeff" EDI advised.
Joker checked the readouts, seeing one less drone on his tail. This was the right move. "Well I guess it's a good thing we upgraded" he replied, "we're going in!" His heart began to race as he drove the Normandy forward, ducking it down as the gap suddenly halved with a massive block flying across his path. The next drone behind him was less adept, disappearing in an insignificant fireball. The Normandy began to shudder from its efforts to repulse so much matter with its barriers, forcing Shepard to grab onto anything to steady herself. The next drone had no such barriers however, colliding with a beam laid diagonally across the path Joker was fleeing through. There was a hideous screech as a piece managed to push through the barrier, scraping down the side of its armour with a burst of sparks. "Come on, find some room!" Joker urged his girl, leaning forward. This was his test, his challenge. Shepard was the best fighter in the galaxy, but she needed him to deliver her to the fight. Joker swore he would not let her down. He was a colony kid, Gunny still lived on Tiptree, she would never have to fear anything like the Collectors ever again.
"Kinetic barriers at eighty percent" EDI warned.
"Re-route non-critical power!" Joker ordered, looking ahead at the remainder of the task he had set before him. He gritted his teeth and dispelled any notion of doubt. "This is going to hurt."
Joker pushed the Normandy forward, the debris field around them was so thick and dense there was no sunlight with them now, it was only the Normandy lighting her way through the depths. Joker kept moving forward, narrowing his eyes. He needed to find a ray of light that would show him the way out. The Normandy rose, pushing anything before it aside, amending towards the light, to freedom. Joker pushed at her controls, guiding her as best she could as power control reached critical levels. Kasumi looked up at the drive core, the whine as it struggled to keep up with the ship's power demands was growing but she stayed steadfast at her post. Joker found the shaft of light and accelerated, victory lay before him as the ship burst out of the other end of the debris field in a burst of light, sailing to smoother waters. "Damage report!" Joker called out.
"Kinetic barriers steady at thirty percent" EDI reported, "no significant damage."
Joker allowed himself a sigh. "Take the helm EDI and keep it slow, see if we can avoid any more attention" Joker ordered, re-routing power to where the ship needed it the most.
"I have detected an enemy heading for the cargo hold" EDI reported, thwarting that hope.
"That thing again?" Joker asked. He shook his head. "This one's up to Shepard." The Normandy wasn't in a shape to go another round right now.
Shepard gritted her teeth as the oculus floated back into her ship, the barriers and life support keeping the environment from failing through the breaches in the hull. Its armour was barely scratched, and they couldn't afford a prolonged firefight with the potential damage that thing could do to the Normandy. Shepard looked around at her environment, wondering what she could use when she came upon a solution with the potential to be more destructive to the problem. The oculus had seemingly identified her as a primary target, constantly pursuing her, she could use that to her advantage. She leaped over her cover and sprinted for the rear corner of the cargo bay, hearing the hiss of the laser scorch along behind her as the oculus wheeled and chased after her. Shepard dove behind a crate and modified her ammunition to incendiary, waiting for the right moment. The oculus hovered over her for a brief second, flying past her to get a better vantage point, exactly where she'd predicted it would go. Shepard raised her gun at the oculus, turned ninety degrees and fired a flaming concussive shot. She watched as the shot curved towards its intended target and struck the shuttle engine sweetly. The shuttle engine ignited with a roar and there was a screech of metal against metal as the shuttle strained against friction to be free. The second engine suddenly burst into life as the shuttle shot forward as Shepard dived out of the way. The oculus had no such agility as the shuttle slammed into it with a massive crash, driving it against the wall. The oculus struggled against the crush as Shepard lined up another fiery shot to the engine, destroying the shuttle and the oculus in a fireball that was quickly vented away.
"I think it's going to stay dead this time" Thane remarked at her handiwork.
"Better get back up here Commander" Joker radioed, seeing the threat was clear.
"We're about to clear the debris field" Miranda told her.
Shepard reached the cockpit just as the last two pieces parted out the Normandy's way, revealing the expanse occupied before them with one notable obstacle.
"There it is" Miranda said, "the Collector Base."
Every second they grew closer, the Base grew larger. "See if you can find somewhere to land without drawing attention" Shepard told Joker.
Joker looked at an alert to his right. "Too late, looks like they're sending out an old friend to greet us."
As they watched, a fragment of the base broke away, pulling clear before swivelling around. The Collector Vessel had absolutely dwarfed the Normandy, smothered it in its shadow and it was barely the size of a flea next to the base it made berth with. Shepard stared straight down at the vessel which had taken her crew, the last Normandy, her own life from her and she did not cower. The Collector Vessel had different ideas from a stare down though, blasting a beam directly at them. Joker deftly wove around it, keeping the Normandy safe as the beam swung harmlessly over the ship.
It was time to fight back. "Time to show them our new teeth" Shepard said. "Fire the main gun!"
Garrus' pride, the thanix cannon, emerged from the Normandy at Joker's bequest. They locked on, requesting target confirmation and Garrus in the main battery was only too happy to oblige. A blaze of brilliant blue shot forward from the ship, racing forward as it collided with the Collector Vessel with an eruption of flame. It was only a glancing blow from the ship's evasive manoeuvres but it had been more than effective. It was far too unwieldy a ship to dodge it entirely and it had suffered for it.
"How do you like that you sons of bitches!" Joker yelled.
Shepard was like a shark; she could smell the blood in the water. "Get in close and finish them off!" She ordered, an order Joker revelled in.
"Okay hold on" he called excitedly, "it's going to be a wild ride!"
The Normandy raced forward, its pace at close range far too quick for the Collector's beam weapon to keep pace with as it instead destroyed a fragmented derelict far behind them. Flying in close, Joker locked on again. "Give 'em hell girl" he told her, hammering the prompt to fire with a fist. The cannon blasted clean through the ship, ripping a hole through it. The damage was severe and only increased as a further series of explosions began to erupt from its hull. The ship was disintegrating before their eyes.
"Look out!" Miranda cried.
The Vessel disappeared in a massive blaze of white, a shockwave ripping it apart and throwing the Normandy like a pebble. The crew was thrown sideways as the mass effect fields went down, exposing the ship to the unmitigated force that followed it up. "EDI!" Joker yelled, barely holding the Normandy under some semblance of control. "Give me something!"
"Generators unresponsive" EDI apologised as the ship was caught in the gravitational pull of the Collector Base. "All hands brace for impact."
Jax barely managed to re-strap himself in before the Normandy collided with a piece of the station, throwing everything astray. The ship suddenly lurched the other way as it crashed onto the station, the noise threatening to split his eardrums as the Normandy slide across the steel surface with a hailstorm of sparks and flames before finally coming to a stop.
Shepard shook her head as she picked herself up off the floor. "Joker!" She called, "you okay?"
"I think a broke a rib" Joker groaned as he pulled himself upright. He pressed a hand against his torso and was filled with instant stinging regret. "Or all of them."
"Multiple core systems overloaded during the crash" EDI reported, "restoring operation will take time." Shepard and Joker exchanged a look.
Miranda sighed. "We all knew this was likely a one-way trip."
Shepard was undeterred. "Our primary objective is to destroy the station and stop the Collectors" she said gritty, "at any cost."
Joker looked up at her, taken aback by her intensity. "Well then we're off to a good start" he remarking, regaining his composure. "What's next?"
Shepard considered her options. "How long until the Collectors find this landing zone?" She asked.
"I do not detect an internal security network" EDI replied, "it is possible the Collectors did not expect anyone to reach the base."
"And if we're lucky, their external sensors were hit like we were," Joker said, "they might not know we're alive."
Then we'll let them know with a bang Shepard thought.
Jacob grabbed the pistol off the table and checked the slider. Across from him, Miranda was doing the same as she checked the sights and looked across to meet his gaze. Jacob gave her a determined nod.
Around them, a dozen more of the deadliest individuals in the galaxy were similarly preparing, Grunt pushing rounds into his shotgun, Tali checking the protocols on her and Legion's drones, Mordin measuring the vitals of the crew around him. Jax was kitted up in his brand new armour. It was thicker than the last suit, afforded him more protection but somehow was still just as light. Glinting blue streaks of light ran through the material, evidence of the armour's shielding capacity in the nano-circuitry. A filled built in grenade belt ran over his right shoulder while a wheel mount was fixed onto the left forearm for a roll of det-cord. The suit was predominantly black with orange stripes running down the torso and arms. It seemed of a similar design to the new design Jacob had been sporting as of late. He took out each grenade, arming and disarming it before replacing it in its holster. Across the table, he saw Garrus checking the scope on his rifle. Jax sighed, he had to make this right.
Making his way over, Jax nodded at Garrus who looked up as he approached. "What I said before" Jax started, "I didn't mean it, and I was wrong. You've been there for me longer than anyone else has, you gave me a team, twice, and without you I would've been long dead for nothing. However rough this journey's been, I'm on it because of you and it's been for the better. I just wanted to thank you for all the chances you've given me. I can only hope I never give you cause to regret it again."
Garrus laid the sniper rifle down. Jax extended a hand to shake but Garrus embraced him, pulling him into a firm hug. "I've made a lot of mistakes in my own journey," Garrus told him, still holding him. "You will never be one of them. I only wish Sensat could see the man you've become; I know the pride he'd feel."
The pair split apart and Jax looked at his leader. "Archangel was about freeing the defenceless from the terror of helplessness caused by the powerful. Let's see that mission finished."
Garrus nodded as the door hissed open and Shepard strode in. Garrus straightened as she walked past him to the head of the table. "This isn't how we planned this mission" Shepard started, looking up to see the eyes of all of her crew. "But this is where we're at. We can't worry about whether the Normandy will get us home; we came to stop the Collectors and that means coming up with a plan to take out this station." She turned the table in the centre. "EDI, bring up your scans."
At her command, a holographic display of the station appeared before her. The station seemed almost minuscule to Jax in that form, until he saw the mere blip on the station labelled SR2 showing them the scale of what they were up against. "You should be able to overload their critical systems if you get to the main control centre here" EDI informed them, highlighting a point near the top of the station.
"That means going through the heart of the station" Jacob continued, activating his omnitool. "Right past this massive energy signature." He highlighted a section that hollowed out into a massive open space.
"Has to be the central chamber" Shepard surmised. "If our crew, or any of the colonists are still alive, the Collectors are probably holding them in there."
Jax thought about the estimated abduction count so far, tens of thousands of people all herded into that one room like cattle for slaughter and felt nauseous. He pictured Kelly among them and the nausea was replaced with a wave of anger and determination.
"Looks like there are two main routes" Jacob continued, the hologram displaying his exposition. "Might be a good idea to split up to keep the Collectors off-balance, then regroup in the central chamber."
"No good, both routes are blocked" Miranda said, pointing at a blockade. "See these doors? The only way past them is to get someone to open them from the other side."
Shepard shrugged, she was a soldier, there was nothing she couldn't plough through. "A few well-placed explosives should clear a path."
"There is insufficient ordinance on board to create an explosion capable of damaging the interior walls" EDI replied.
"Not necessarily" Jax said, interrupting. He felt nervous as suddenly a dozen eyes all turned to him. He stepped up to the table, still reviewing the holograms. "EDI is right, technically; we don't have enough to blow through the doors, or the walls."
"The mountain of plastic explosive we bought you back on the Citadel won't it?" Shepard asked.
"It would have" Jax said, "if we hadn't stored all the munitions down in the cargo hold."
"The oculus" Shepard realised.
Jax nodded. "I did a stocktake, nearly everything was sucked into vacuum before the environment barriers went up, I've got precious little left with which to destroy."
"So if you can't get through the base" Miranda said, "what do you propose?"
"It looks like the doors on the station operate exactly the same as here on the Normandy" Jax explained, "they're held together by a reverse electromagnetic seal; that is, the door is held together with a magnet. When someone tries to open the door, a current is run through the magnet to deactivate it and the door's metal components are no longer held together, letting us open it. In the event of a total power failure, the doors stay sealed."
"We're aware of simple ship mechanics" Miranda lambasted, "get to the point."
"I don't need to blow through the door" Jax told her. "If I can blow far enough through the wall or floor to reach that circuit, we can activate the power manually and the door will open on its own, allowing us to access the chamber directly. Without having to put someone in that thermal vent which we all know is your next best option."
"What happens if you blow the circuitry as well when you blow through the wall?" Shepard asked.
"Then no one or nothing can open that door until it's totally repaired" Jax realised. He looked back at Shepard. "But putting someone in the vent of a base this size is basically a suicide mission."
"I volunteer" Jacob put in.
"I appreciate the thought Jacob but you couldn't shut down the security systems in time" Miranda rebuffed him. "We need to send in a tech expert" she told Shepard.
"Or you could trust me" Jax said. "I can do this."
"And if you fail, we'll be stuck on the outside with no place to go" Miranda told him.
"And if the tech expert fails, we'll be in exactly the same position" Garrus replied to Miranda somewhat irritably. "The possibility of failure isn't uniquely applicable to Jax, all of us can make mistakes."
"Enough!" Shepard commanded, quieting them all instantly. "I've made my decision. Garrus is right, Jax is no more likely to fail than anyone else here." Garrus and Jax straightened with pride at her support. "Miranda is also correct though" Shepard said. "If he fails, we'll be cut off and the mission will be a failure. Therefore, we won't depend on either of them because we're employing them both." Shepard turned to a new face. "Kasumi, there's no system you can't hack, you'll be going in the vent."
The master thief nodded, her skill set about to be put to perfect use. "I won't let you down."
Shepard turned back to Jax. "Whatever explosives you need to get that door open, make sure you have them."
Jax nodded. "I'll be ready."
"The rest of us will break into two teams, one for each infiltrator and fight our way down each passage" Shepard continued, "that should draw the Collectors away from what you two are doing."
"I'll lead the second fire team Shepard" Miranda volunteered. "We'll meet up with you on the other side of those doors."
"Not so fast cheerleader" Jack finally butted in. "No one wants to take orders from you."
"This isn't a popularity contest" Miranda said impatiently, "lives are at stake. Shepard, you need someone who can command loyalty through experience."
Shepard nodded, she knew who the crew trusted to lead, and who needed to trust himself to lead again. "Garrus" she said softly. He looked up at her. "You're in charge of the second team."
An initial flicker of worry and hesitation flashed through him. Shepard knew what he was reliving, the horrors he had experienced. She watched him closely to see if he could rise above that failure and embrace the man he could be, who he already was. Steely resolve took command of his eyes and he nodded wordlessly. He knew what he had to do, and more importantly, she and Jax had rebuilt his belief that he could do it.
"I don't know what we're going to find in there but I won't lie to you" Shepard told her team. "It's not going to be easy. We lost good people, we may lose more. We don't know how many the Collectors have stolen; thousands, hundreds of thousands, it's not important. What matters is this: not one more. That's what we can do, here, today. It ends with us. They want to know we're made of? I say we show them, on our terms. Let's get our people home!"
Jax watched as the crew, inflated with self-belief, proceeded out the door. "God she's good at that" he muttered to Garrus, "she just makes you want to go out and fight a galaxy for her, that's some strong leadership."
"That", Garrus replied, his eyes glittering, "is Commander Shepard."