Chapter 2
The escape from the cavernous labyrinth that was the Collector base rapidly became a harrowing experience for the team, even when measured against Commander Shepard's unusual standards, as they desperately fought their way back through waves of drones, inching ever closer to the Normandy.
In fact, without EDI's intrusion into the base's alien computer systems, the exfiltration very likely would have proven an impossible task. But Normandy's powerful artificial intelligence managed to ease the pressure applied to them, accessing internal security protocols and opening previously impenetrable hatchways while cutting off other corridors to slow the pursuing enemy. Even still, the opposition Shepard and the others faced was nearly overwhelming as every last Collector drone within the massive station had been unleashed upon them.
The enemy was everywhere, emboldened and enraged by the loss of the Human-Reaper they had nurtured for so long, pursuing Shepard's small force with single-minded focus. Collector drones and Assassins emerged from dark corners, were dropped from the air, or simply appeared as if expelled by the very walls of the station, throwing themselves at the team as they blitzed through the maze.
All the while, the fifty kiloton nuclear device Shepard and the others had left back in the central chamber, imbedded in the station's systems in such a way to make it impossible to disarm, continued its irresistible countdown to detonation.
Jack led them through the fray, keeping the squad moving at a furious pace as she blazed a path of destruction that made her escape from the Purgatory prison ship seem tame in contrast. She pushed ahead like a woman possessed, dealing biotic shockwave after shockwave, sending Collectors flying like so many bowling pins and clearing the way for the others to follow.
Miranda and Tali followed in the woman's path, a half dozen meters behind, covering the team's flanks. Shepard trotted along nearby them, pouring out controlled burst of fire, using his superior reflexes and battlefield awareness to pick off enemies before they even had a chance to attempt a shot. Garrus and Grunt brought up the rear of their column, but the two were actually only a few meters back from the center as the heavy resistance forced the team to contract more and more as they struggled to cover every field of fire.
Miranda, fighting for their collective lives with a combination of her own biotics as well as her beloved, heavily modified M-12 Locust submachine gun, couldn't help but marvel at the energy output Jack had been sustaining. She didn't have to like or respect Subject Zero to recognize that level of biotic endurance could only be rivaled by the most powerful asari matriarchs.
An extraordinarily skilled biotic in her own right, Miranda understood that Jack had tapped into a deep, primal reserve of energy, fueled by unbridled emotion and the seemingly limitless pent-up rage the woman seemed to carry with her. She was pushing herself well past any safe threshold, generating levels of dark energy that would burnout a lesser biotic, reducing them to a state of permanent brain damage—or worse.
But, while the display was impressive to behold, Miranda also knew that Jack's wild, unchecked use of her powers was approaching an exceedingly dangerous point.
She knew this because she'd experienced the exact same phenomenon for herself only just a few months prior.
For Miranda, the impetus for her own massively overpowered biotic exhibition had come from Captain Enyala, the day the doomed asari had made the mistake of standing between her and Oriana within that stark warehouse district on Illium. The deluge of raw, uncontrolled emotion fueled her rage, allowing her to push past all the old boundaries that had once limited her. So sudden and ferocious was her attack, that even Shepard and Garrus were caught off guard.
After Niket's betrayal and subsequent execution at the hands of Enyala, Miranda had gone on a merciless rampage, carving out a wide swath of destruction as she exacted her revenge on the Eclipse mercenaries and fought through their lines, possessed by the need to get to Oriana. In fact, she had been in such a state that it seemed as if she had stepped out of her own body and was merely an observer to the event, watching as she cut through the mercs while Shepard and Garrus fought to stay in contact with her. She had lost herself that day, ignoring all regard for her own safety or that of those around her. And it nearly proved fatal.
After she'd finally cornered Enyala, Miranda had reached back and found yet another reserve of biotic energy. So intense had her attack been that she literally annihilated her adversary's defenses, shredding the asari at the molecular level and killing her instantly.
But the cost of that prolonged and unrestrained biotic combat had been great. She had stumbled a few feet further, Oriana's image seared in her mind, and collapsed to the ground unconscious. Had she been alone, she would surely have lost her life.
A lone Eclipse sniper had remained hidden and unseen during the fight and took his time lining up the shot that would have abruptly ended the raven-haired woman's mission to deliver her sister to safety. But her companions had saved her. It was the keen eyes of both Shepard and Garrus that identified the threat as they chased after her, allowing the turian to take an impossible shot that struck down her would-be assassin before her could pull the trigger.
Miranda had been exceedingly fortunate that day and had learned a valuable lesson. She could never again allow herself to be lost within her wrath, enslaved by her emotions, and ignore her body's limits. The risk of being left vulnerable and helpless while others depended on her was too great. And as Shepard and Garrus had been there to save her life, she had come to understand that going it purely alone, no matter how confident and skilled she was, was no longer an option.
Afterward, Miranda had committed herself to avoiding taking such selfish and irresponsible risks. She had found something—someone—important to live for and protect. She embraced the role with renewed vigor, intent on being there for her sister. Dedicated to being a part of Oriana's life.
And so it was that in the weeks after the very personal mission on Illium that Miranda undertook a renewed effort to improve her focus and quiet her mind during times of extreme trauma and combat, enhancing even further her already excellent composure under stress.
Shepard had been crucial to her training. His encouragement, coaching, experience, and commitment to her had been the rock that steadied her through it all. At first, she had resisted his help, stubbornly pushing him away and convinced she could achieve her goals as she always had before—alone. But he had been persistent and eventually coaxed her to the point where she had lowered her guard just enough and allowed him to see the longstanding barriers of self-doubt and the anxieties that held her back.
She'd never dreamt of sharing those things with someone before, terrified to appear vulnerable to anyone, least of all a man she worked so closely with, a man that she had been tasked to oversee. But he had made it easy, somehow made her feel safe. And it was that trust he seemed to engender so effortlessly that ultimately led to something altogether unexpected for her.
And as Miranda watched the reckless ferocity of Jack's assault on the Collectors, she thought of Shepard and the lessons that he'd helped her to learn and embrace. She knew she had a duty to step in and check the volatile woman's fervor before she inflicted permanent damage upon herself and, in the process, endangered the rest of the squad.
But then it happened.
Jack fired a biotic warp field so powerful it stopped Miranda in her tracks, surprising the operative with its intensity. The attack caused a thunderous detonation among a group of Collector drones ahead of the team, violently hurling them in multiple directions, smashing them against the walls of the corridor and tearing their insectoid bodies apart. But the woman had reached her limit. In fact, she'd far exceeded the red line as the toll of so many biotic strikes in rapid succession had utterly sapped her.
Miranda watched as Jack's shoulders slumped in exhaustion, her chest moving in and out, struggling to draw in deep, ragged breaths, just before she fell to her knees and collapsed. Her eyes then rolled back into her head and small trickles of blood began to leak from her nose and ears.
The enormous Praetorian that swung out from around the corner saw the incapacitated biotic immediately, accelerating to a terrifying speed as it advanced on Jack. Just a few meters behind her when she fell, Miranda and Tali acted on instinct, sprinting forward toward their squad mate as the massive flying Collector closed the distance and fired its twin particle beams.
With one long, slender armored leg outstretched ahead of her, Miranda slid in front of Jack and from her knee produced a powerful biotic barrier, deflecting the blast away from her and redirecting the energy into the tunnel's wall.
Debris exploded out from impact, peppering the group with jagged shards of composite material and molten metals. But Miranda's barrier held, shielding her, Tali and their defenseless companion and preventing the women from being vaporized by the brutal attack.
Tali then released a combat drone to distract the beast and immediately followed with several blasts from her Plasma Shotgun, striking the creature hard enough to slow its advance and damage its shields.
Stunned by the terrible force of the Praetorian's initial attack, Miranda continued to hold her barrier in place, struggling to maintain the precious shelter it afforded the group as several more Collector Assassins turned the corner ahead and began firing upon them.
"Shepard! A little help here," she shouted into the comm, trying to be heard over the cacophony of weapons fire.
Shepard, standing close by their big krogan friend, instantly recognized the urgent note in her call.
He slapped Grunt on the shoulder, alerting him to the emergency, and then swung the muzzle of his assault rifle around toward Miranda's position. Within a fraction of a second, he sighted the enemy pressing in on the women and emptied half a clip's worth of mass accelerated slugs into the Assassins, striking them down before adjusting his fire and zeroing in on the Praetorian.
Responding to Shepard's cue, Grunt turned his massive body around to face the Praetorian that was still busy engaging Tali's drone. He let out a furious battle cry and ran toward the beast, firing his Claymore shotgun from the hip as he charged ahead, picking up speed as he went.
Sent reeling by the concentrated barrage of fire, the huge creature lurched to one side and was nearly forced into the ground. The krogan closed the gap within a few seconds and leapt the last several meters, diving upon the Praetorian's back. Grasping a horned appendage in one powerful hand and his Claymore in the other, Grunt then pressed the muzzle of the shotgun behind the creature's head and fired a devastating incendiary round. The beast collapsed in a heap, digging a wide trench into the floor, while its executioner rolled of its back with shocking agility, landed squarely on his two stout legs, and continued firing ahead of the squad's position.
"That a boy!" Garrus called over the comm, having glanced back at the action as he covered the team's rear flank. The turian was busy methodically picking off pursuing Collectors, one by one, with his deadly accurate sniper rifle.
Recognizing that their krogan companion had eliminated the immediate threat, Miranda allowed her barrier to drop and jumped back to her feet, holstering the Locust on her hip before bending down again to check on Jack. The woman was glassy eyed, barely conscious, and mumbling something unintelligible.
Then Shepard was at her side, looking down at Jack with a look of concern in his eye. "Let's get her up," he shouted and wrapped one arm around her torso, effortlessly lifting the slender woman to her feet. Miranda and Tali fell in step on either side, taking her weight from him, each pulling an arm over their shoulders.
Dazed and shaky, Jack still managed to mutter in Miranda's ear, rolling her head closer. "You're still a bitch, cheerleader," she said, though exhaustion had stolen the typical malice from her voice.
Shepard brought his weapon back up and hit his comm, aiming the Mattock rifle downrange. "EDI, we need an exit—now!"
"You're nearly there, Shepard," EDI responded. "Twenty-three meters to the extraction point—directly ahead and to the left of your current location. We are taking up position outside the egress point and extending mass effect fields to sustain atmosphere as you withdraw to the Normandy's port side airlock. However, I am currently locked out from the systems controlling the base's external doors. I will require you to establish a manual link from the interior in order to open the hatchway."
"Understood," Shepard replied and motioned the team forward again. "Come on. Push ahead!"
Grunt, still several meters ahead of the rest of the team, nodded back toward the order and resumed his irresistible drive forward, casting aside several more Collectors with a combination of shotgun fire and his bare hands.
The remainder of the squad followed in the krogan's wake, engaging enemies that were springing out of every passageway they passed. Shepard remained close to Miranda and Tali as they dragged Jack along, encumbered by the woman's unresponsive weight. "Check your corners!" he reminded everyone over the squad channel.
A few minutes later, the battered squad approached the location EDI had described and Shepard spotted their escape route. To the left of their position was a small alcove off of the corridor they had been moving along. Two sturdy, horizontally sliding blast doors sealed the access point. To the right, the path continued further on, branching off into even more tunnels in the maze-like, alien landscape of the Collector's station. Grunt had already taken up position there, dropping to one knee and covering their flank from a new group of enemies already pouring in toward the team.
Shepard crouched down as he assessed the scene. "Tali, let's get that link up for EDI."
She nodded, waited for Miranda to take Jack's full weight, and then dashed over to the doors. She breached a small panel near the hatch, fired up her Omni-tool and set to work on establishing a connection for the Normandy's AI.
Shepard moved over to help Miranda pull Jack around the corner and set her down behind an outcropping of equipment that offered a small amount of cover. Garrus, still several meters to the rear, continued backtracking toward the team, slowing down the pursuers and trusting Shepard and the others to cover his back.
A second later, Tali called out over the comm. "I've got it, EDI! Uplink established."
"Acknowledged, Tali," EDI said. "I have access. Opening blast doors now."
The two heavy doors gave a harsh cry of grinding metal and slid open, exposing the void outside and the Normandy's comforting profile beyond, hovering a short distance away.
Shepard placed a gloved hand against the bulkhead and peered through the opening. He could see the primary airlock on the ship's port side was already open. Legion and Thane were standing at either side of the hatch, sniper rifles at the ready.
"Tali, Miranda, take Jack and go," Shepard called out, turning back to look at the women. "Now!"
Tali rushed back to Miranda and helped her pull Jack back up to her feet. Again, they each put an arm over their shoulders, exchanged a quick nod, and then awkwardly darted forward with their charge dragged between them. Reaching the opening, the women both gave one final kick off the edge and jumped out into space.
Piercing the atmospheric force field of the hatchway, they plunged through the black void between the station and the Normandy, thrust forward by their momentum. A split second later, Samara emerged from within the airlock beside Thane. The justicar shot out her arm, caught the three women in a biotic pull, and gently guided them the remaining distance into the ship.
Shepard leaned halfway out the doorway and watched Miranda and the others make the crossing, his gaze fixed on their forms until he'd confirmed they were safely within the ship. He then turned back toward the rest of the team, quickly spotted another Collector drone, and dropped it with a rapid burst of fire. "Grunt, you're up!" he shouted.
Grunt whirled around, slapped his shotgun firmly into its slot on his back, and charged back toward Shepard and the open hatchway. The deck quaked under his feet as the krogan thundered ahead and hopped through the opening, sailing across the distance and sending the crew huddled near the Normandy's airlock scrambling for cover and diving out of the way.
With another smooth, practiced motion, Shepard slapped a fresh thermal clip into his Mattock and pulled back on the action. Garrus was approaching fast, backpedaling as he continued to fire, and joined him near the open hatchway.
Backs against the wall, the two brothers-in-arms exchanged a nod of understanding, needing no words to initiate their next move, and leveled their rifles toward the horde bearing down on them. Simultaneously priming the weapons, they let loose a pair of concussive shots, scattering the oncoming enemy, before spinning back around and kicking out of the opening.
Flying across the gap to the Normandy as particle beams sizzled around them, the two men rotated mid-flight, trained their rifles back toward the opening they'd emerged from, and continued to fire. Behind them, Thane and Samara again leaned out of the big frigate's airlock, preparing to haul their squad mates inside, but were driven back by the hail of gunfire striking the hull. A second later, Shepard and Garrus slammed hard against the Normandy's outer hull, their heavy armor sending a minor tremor through the ship.
The turian was halfway through the airlock when Thane shot an arm out and pulled him the rest of the way. Shepard clung just outside of the hatch, his left hand grasping the edge while he continued firing the Mattock with his right. His tenuous grip was just beginning to fail then Miranda's gloved hands shot out from behind the bulkhead and seized his arm. Augmenting her natural strength with the crackling of her biotics, the Normandy's XO hauled him the rest of the way into the ship before the two collapsed into a heap upon the floor. A hard slap to the nearby panel from Samara sealed the hatchway with a rapid swoosh.
Shepard rolled over to one side, half pushed himself up with his elbow, and looked at Miranda, a gleam in his eye. "Do I know how to show a girl a good time or what?"
Miranda, breathless on the floor beside him, shot him a withering glare. "Ass," she said, rolling her eyes and then turning her head toward the cockpit. "Moreau, we're clear. Get us the bloody hell out of here!"
"Copy that!" Joker shouted back over his shoulder from the pilot's chair. "Hang on to something back there."
The Normandy banked sharply to starboard and flared her navigational thrusters. A stream of superheated exhaust pelted the base's exterior and slipped through the open hatchway the team had left behind, inflicting one final measure of punishment on the Collectors inside. A moment later, Joker gunned the massive antiproton thrusters, driving the big frigate toward the Tartarus Debris Field and the mass relay beyond it, putting hundreds of kilometers per second between them and the doomed station.
Author's note:
Okay, so we're finally out of the Collector base! I love Jack's character, so we'll definitely be seeing more meaningful content from her in the future—certainly more than what we got in canon ME3. Despite their obvious differences, Jack and Miranda have some subtle things in common too. The conflict between those two characters is something we'll see more of.
Also, I know that Mass Effect wiki says the Praetorian is "slow moving," but in my universe it's pretty swift. So, there's that.
The next few chapters will build more of the foundation for the story ahead, focusing on adding detail and nuance to what happens between the end of the ME2 timeline and the beginning of the Reaper War.
I have some fairly ambitious ideas, including some drastic changes to the Arrival mission. In fact, part of me wants to scrap Arrival all together, but I think I need it or something very similar to its impact in order to make the rest of the story flow. Hopefully I can pull most it off…
I've also mocked-up some content that takes place earlier in ME2's timeline, so we'll be flashing back to those scenes in the future (It'll mostly be Miranda-Shepard focused).
Anyway, I'll try to get the next chapter out by the weekend. Thanks for reading!