Shepard could feel the blood pumping through his head as if his heart was in his brain. The torn-up field that felt like a No Man's Land that they had to cross felt way too expansive and the facility walls way too far away.
If the squads of marksmen behind him haven't managed to pick each of the guards off flawlessly, then things would've gotten hot quick. Even with cloaking tech, he didn't want to get caught in the middle of a firefight in an open field.
Especially when the firefight could involve enemy ships that were hovering just overhead in the near distance.
It also didn't make it easy when the field was resistant to Shepard's efforts to move onward. He cursed underneath his breath each time one of his wheels caught a small rock or when a bit of grass got snared into the axles. He could sense Lortelle trying to eye him from behind every couple of seconds whenever he grunted from his frustrations.
Yeah, yeah, I know.
"Lortelle, you think you can help me out a bit?"
"Yes, sir."
The heavy soldier tried for the bars and managed a strong grip, then twisted Shepard around so that the human-quarian hybrid was looking back at the hill where they came from. It was easier for him to pull rather than to push.
"Let's make it quick, we got to get over that wall before they realize we're here."
"Yes, sir," Tracks answered alongside the heavy.
Shepard felt it embarrassing to be dragged through his mission. Perhaps it would be even more embarrassing if the marksmen squads back at the scouting position could see him.
Thank you, stealth tech.
He could see the wall over his shoulder get ever so closer with each passing moment, and just in front of it, he could see fallen guards bloody bodies soak the grass. His excitement only grew when the wall finally got within arm's length. But it also posed a major problem.
How do I get over this thing?
The wall was in two parts. One part was a tall barrier that the guards walked on, and Shepard couldn't even see the top of it from where he sat. The second part was a general platform that was more or less about eight feet high attached to the front of the barrier, a little out of his reach. But not out of the reach of his fireteam.
"You two, give me a boost," he ordered. He flexed his core to embrace any pain.
"I got something better, Captain," Tracks answered instead. Shepard sensed the invisible marskman extend his arm, and out of it came a wave of purplish-blue light that reached below Shepard's seat. Carefully, the waves lifted him up and off of the ground and over onto the platform.
Biotics? That's nice to know.
Shepard kept himself low and waited for the other two to join him. He was grateful for the biotics, both from a maneuverability standpoint as well as a tactical edge. It made it so he wasn't going to need to use his painkillers so soon, and if things like this continued smoothly, he might not even have to use them at all.
ZIP!
He heard the slight hiss of a sniper shot and jerked his head to see where it came from, only to see a puff of red smoke and meaty fluid spray onto the platform in front of him. A moment later, and an unseen Rogue guard lacking a head fell from the wall to meet it. The body made a slight bounce, and inertia caused it to fall even further and off into the grass with the rest of the other corpses.
Shepard looked back at the hill, and with a squint through his hazy vision, he could see a sniper giving a thumbs up from the grass. He gave one of his own but then realized that the marksman couldn't see his invisible hand. He cringed in embarrassment of himself.
"Come on!" Shepard hissed to his fireteam, who had finally reached the top of the platform. "Let's move!"
"Yes, sir."
Shepard rolled his eyes at the words and felt his seat lift once more to the next part of the wall.
Once on top, he could see the circular gardens and the refugee sorting center from the last time he was here down below him. The water pools to the garden had been refilled, but this time around it was murky and dark. The backdoor was underneath it all, and the security panel to open it was on the far side.
Shepard called for another lift down to the garden once Tracks and Lortelle reached his position.
The wall was making him feel like he was riding a biotic elevator. It made him feel like a useless leader, with not being able to move much and having to rely heavily on the abilities of his team. But he had to remind himself that he was doing this for the right reasons, the sense of dignity would have to come later.
They had successfully made it inside of the facility when they hit the ground on the other side. The dirt was softer here on the garden platforms, which made Shepard careful not to fall into the water pools that surrounded them. This caused the next difficult part, which was getting to the security panel. Each circular garden platform was attached together by long stretches of connectors that acted as bridges, and those bridges hovered just below the garden platforms and rode the surface of the water. There was a high potential for slipping.
Even despite his earlier thoughts on ignoring dignity, Shepard didn't feel like asking for another biotic lift. So he clenched his core and dropped onto the wet connectors. It was indeed slippery, but years of near-death experiences kept him confident enough in his ability to move across some simple bridges. With his wheelchair skills, he was able to garden hop from one platform to the next until he finally reached the panel.
Shepard jammed his fingers into the buttons, eager to drain the sickly water and reveal the backdoor.
"Watch our backs, Lortelle," he ordered.
"Yes, sir."
Oh my God.
"Do you guys say anything else?" He asked, masking his irritation with curiosity as the backdoor to the facility was fully revealed from underneath the pool. "Can't you say, 'Roger?' Or, 'Will do?'"
"Will do," they both replied, with not even a slight hint of comedy in their tones.
Shepard grunted in irritation anyway.
He signaled for Tracks to lift him down to the now drained passage with his biotics. Lortelle followed right behind him by going down a nearby ladder, and Tracks followed them soon after that.
He had to admit, as strange as his fireteam was, Shepard was glad that they followed orders concisely. And he had to commend Tracks's ability to use biotics continually. The two of them were proving themselves capable thus far, but something still told him that they weren't regular soldiers. They were stoic and cold.
He was going to have to ask Jana why they seem so stripped of their humanity when he got back. Either way, he just had to make sure he didn't wear them both down too quickly before they reached the courtyard. He was going to need them for when the time came.
Shepard opened the backdoor, and at the same time, he heard a garbled grunt and a sound of heavy impact on dirt and leaves on one of the garden platforms in the distance. He assumed the snipers must have taken out another guard that was unfortunate enough to pass by.
It wouldn't take much longer now until the Rogue Faction took notice of their men getting chewed through on their front doorstep, then they would send out larger teams to figure out why. The sniper squads would then have to all fall back to avoid being spotted, and Shepard would lose his backup.
"Inside!" He ordered.
"Will do."
Shepard let out a breath of air he didn't know he was holding in once he and his fireteam closed the doors behind them. They all uncloaked, returning to view, and Shepard turned to the familiar hidden passageways of the facility that slaughtered innocent victims in the name of science, progress, victory...
Control.
He scoffed.
He wondered what Mordin would have thought of such an abomination of a place, and as painful as the thought was to him, he was glad that the old salarian doctor didn't have to see something so putrid.
Miranda's warning isn't enough. When we're out of here, this place needs to be destroyed. It can't be used by anyone else ever again!
He made a mental note to remember that sentiment.
Passing a set of doors, he arrived at a control center that overlooked a large room for lab functions behind a wall of glass. The memory of corpses crawling all over it from last time only made the note even more apparent in his mind.
This was the same control center where he first found out the refugees were being turned into husks, and even now it still made him feel sick in his stomach. Remnants of his previous fight through the facility was still evident by the decaying skeletons of the husks that were littered about just beyond the glass, oozing black residue that stained the metal floors.
The refugees here had suffered a fate worse than death. Living as a husk must have equated to living in hell, and Shepard hoped that wherever they were now, that they were thankful that he had ended their misery. He knew that he would if the same had happened to him.
But there was still more misery to fight. The misery that was the becoming of slaves to the Rogue Faction.
They must be reusing the pods to create their soldiers...I don't know what's worse, becoming a husk...or becoming brainwashed.
He realized how little the difference was between the two outcomes.
Shepard took note that the power for the control station was still flowing, and static images of the empty pods were playing on the monitors. He remembered them being recordings rather than video streams, and could only guess how long it would be before the Rogues would throw Chimeran prisoners in to be brainwashed.
Perhaps they already were.
Shepard moved onto the next door that led to a different section of the control center. When it opened, echoing garbled voices reminded him of an old console. He wheeled over to where he remembered and found that it was no longer relaying Miranda's warnings about Sanctuary from months ago, instead, it was relaying different voices. Voices less decorous. Very unlike those formal rhythms of Cerberus generals and leaders that he had come across in the past.
Soldiers.
It thrilled him as he might have found a way to listen in on the enemy. Perhaps he could get a better idea of troop placements. He quickly reactivated the console's camera systems to see what the voices could tell him.
The screen on the console didn't show the lab where Kai Leng hunted Miranda like last time, but instead showed a small section of the facility that was exposed to the outside where two guards were patrolling. Shepard couldn't quite tell where they were, but he could guess that it might be somewhere near the courtyard, considering he was wandering the midpoints and haven't come across any of them thus far.
"I don't get why we have to stand around here," came the voice of one of the troopers. "The boss hasn't even sent out the message yet. We could be doing something better...like being on break."
"Dude, we're waiting around in case Shepard shows up," said the other. "Don't you want to put a bullet in that jackass?"
"Hell, yeah!" Defended the first. "Guy killed my pal when he was stuck on Ontarom! I'm just wondering why we should be standing around here now when the boss hasn't even sent out the message. Hell, even when the boss does, we wouldn't be shooting, 'Mr. Savior,' from here."
"True, I guess."
"We'd have to be up on the walls, and I'd hate to have that long walk back for a sandwich."
"True, too."
Shepard left the console. The troopers had left the sight of the camera and their voices had become inaudible, so there was not much else but to find the next console.
So no alarms have been raised yet, and they still haven't sent out a ransom broadcast, Tali and Garrus must still be safe...for now. Best to get as far as I can before they realize that the real Chimera is here.
He directed his fireteam down a small set of stairs and through another door. When it opened, he was met with the sight of the husk skeletons from earlier. Further on and into the large lab rooms were more Reaper remains, including a few marauders, a ravager, and a banshee.
The tubes that signified Reaper modification were nothing more than ash that swam in the black gooey remains of flesh. More puddles of dead matter dripped down the sets of stairs.
The area must reek of death.
Which brought to question why his olfactory systems weren't working. Not that he wasn't complaining, of course.
Shepard shook his head and moved past the large lab room of rotting biomass, only asking Lortelle for help whenever it came to going up stairs.
He had hoped he wouldn't have to look at another Reaper again, alive or dead, but the remains kept piling up even more as he looked for the next console. It almost came to a point where they became ubiquitous, and Shepard had noticed that Tracks and Lortelle didn't seem in any way phased by the gruesome sights. He couldn't tell from their helmets, but he could imagine their faces. Still stone cold.
The Illusive Man must have really messed them up from whatever experiment he had them go through.
He didn't know if they ever did go through an experiment, but it was easy to assume it must have been one by how offputting they seemed, and considering their lookalike squads, it made a strong case.
But still, he wasn't so sure. Perhaps their cold neutral nature stemmed from losing friends to the Rogue Faction. That would be more likely, considering he was in a similar if not the same silent mindset for Tali and Garrus.
If that was the case, then he could understand somewhat. But he decided not to ask. There would be more time to get to know each other after the mission was complete.
So the fireteam continued onwards and found themselves in a research room. It was covered in the thick residue of decaying Reapers. They had to wade through more remains of marauders and now cannibals. All of them causing small oily floods of black blood on top of lab tables and in the cubicles. Something about it sent icy shivers into Shepard's chest. The quiet, the death. A single loud noise could cause his hairs to rise off his neck, like something would happen, or go wrong, or be summoned.
It was one hell of a way to revisit a nightmare.
They were getting closer to the tower now, and the next console had appeared. Again, loud voices other than Miranda's could be heard coming from it. He reactivated the camera systems, and similar to the last console, there were troopers walking down an open space. This time there were several of them, and they were being led by an officer of some sort. But it wasn't just them, trailing behind them was something big.
Shepard couldn't see what it exactly was, for it was covered by a black tarp. But it was cubic and imposing. He had to guess that it had something to do with this weapon the Rogue Faction had that corrupted the memories of their victims. Even though the console was loud, he brought himself close to pay better attention to what they were saying.
"Did y'all see the turian?" One trooper asked.
His knuckles clenched and brought himself even closer, peering upwards at the screen with a vicious focus.
"Yeah man, that shit is creepy as hell."
"Right? Just the way you can only see his eyes just...staring at you."
"What turian, you guys mean Vakarian?" Asked a different trooper.
"Yeah, yeah."
"Huh. Not gonna lie, kinda wanna see."
"Well," the officer started. "I think I heard something about him being at the drop off point in the courtyard, dunno if the boss wants anyone near 'em though."
"Aw, really?"
"I mean I dunno. You could probably check it out once we get there."
"Hopefully."
A pause.
"Any of you guys know what this thing is exactly?" Continued the trooper, referring to the thing under the black tarp. "Guy back at the ship said it was the boss's, 'Ultimatum.'"
"You're not allowed to know," the officer responded.
"Oh come on, it's just a peek! It's not like anyone's around to see us."
"I am," the officer argued. "And I'm not feeling like risking my head 'cause you're curious."
"Yeah, I don't wanna die, dude," piped in one of the troopers from earlier.
"Me neither."
"Tsk, pansies."
The troopers had finally passed off the side of the screen and Shepard practically threw himself away from the console to a ladder behind him.
What the hell do they have Garrus under? Damn it!
"Tracks, get me up this ladder," he ordered urgently.
"Will do."
Shepard groaned. He agonized over what could be happening to Garrus at that very moment. It doesn't matter. Get Garrus out, break their weapon, kill the P4 son of a bitch, find and rescue Tali. Go home...then figure everything else out.
There were more Reaper bodies to sift through after Lortelle pulled him up another set of stairs after the ladder. The more Shepard saw, the more he could hardly believe that he, Tali, and Garrus were able to fight through so many the last time around in such small spaces. Then again, they managed far crazier things than this.
They did everything together in the past four years. They were a team and he needed them.
And they needed him.
The thought had caused his chest to finally ache.
Keep focused!
Shepard snarled to himself and cleared his head, pushing his wheels forward once more. There was an open door ahead of him, and if he recalled correctly, he was finally arriving to the chambers where Cerberus cruelly converted the civilians into husks.
He could still hear the recorded screams.
Hold on...that's still going...
...and it's not recorded!
On instinct, he reached for the pistol underneath his seat and dived out of view from the open door, blood instantly pounding in his head again. Looking back, he saw his Chimeran fireteam had followed his lead and hid behind some machinery. They nodded to him and kept quiet.
Shepard listened on in anticipation, wondering what caused the scream. He didn't have to wait long for an answer as another one sounded a few seconds later.
Through the opening in the door, Shepard saw a woman getting dragged by two soldiers. A scientist followed close behind and inspected a datapad. He looked up promptly, ignoring the woman's cries, and directed the two soldiers to put her somewhere just out of Shepard's view.
"No! Stop! Please! I'm a loyalist!"
The soldiers said nothing and disappeared behind the other side of the doors. Shepard could tell by the silencing of her thrashing feet that she was being lifted into something, presumably a pod where she would be brainwashed.
"Alright, gauging Sanctuary's conversion systems for somniferous input," the scientist observed from his datapad. "After the six-hour preliminary tests, we'll move onto stress testing for mass production."
"Chill, Doc," one of the soldiers answered. "Us guys speak English. You should give it a try."
"I'm not conversing with you two grunts," the scientist responded arrogantly. "I wouldn't expect your anserine encephalons to comprehend this pertinent data anyways!"
"Our what-whats?"
The scientist traded his annoyance for a sly smirk. "Oh don't worry, just secure the test subject."
"I'm not a test subject! None of us are!" The woman cried.
The soldier ignored her. "Alright," he half sung half yawned in response to the scientist, followed by a loud hitting sound on metal.
Shepard heard the hiss of a closing pod over the woman's wailing fear. The kind that made your heart wrench at the prospect of losing your personality, your sense of self. Everything that you are.
He had to rescue her.
He twirled his arm to grab Tracks and Lortelle's attention. They saw him, and he gave them quick hand motions to tell them to engage on his go. They nodded their understanding and readied their guns. Satisfied, he turned back towards the door, waiting for the two soldiers to return to sight in the opening.
He gave the signal once they appeared.
Shepard revealed himself from cover and pulled the trigger of his pistol on one of the soldiers, only to be dumbfounded when the gun didn't fire. He had a quick heart attack moment when one of the soldiers noticed him and instantly raised their weapon.
"Hey!"
Before he knew it, the soldier was met with a sniper bullet putting a gaping hole in his chest, and a muffled scream sounded from the excitement. Because of it, Shepard released the trigger on his pistol, which sent a barrage of gunshots into the room. The next soldier was in the line of fire, and the number of rounds made quick work of his armor, the last shot landing dead center on the forehead of his helmet.
"Oh, Christ!" Shouted the scientist, who fumbled with a pistol on his hip for a moment until he managed to aim it at Shepard, who didn't have the time to react.
Instead of the scientist's pistol, a shotgun blast sounded, and the man's left arm that was holding the gun was torn apart into red liquid and flesh. His eyes widened to the size of dinner plates and his remaining hand dropped the datapad.
He looked down at the place where his limb was just a second prior, his shoulder also missing. All that it was left with was a small red geyser of blood that spurted out periodically from his torso, each spray in time with a heartbeat.
"Oh, Christ," he whispered.
With those last words, he fell to his knees, keeling over onto his side where the light faded from his eyes. The stump of his arm gushing blood onto the floor and pooling around his face.
The encounter was over in a moment, and Shepard felt the shock and the much-needed adrenaline pump throughout his veins.
Truthfully, he didn't expect the scientist to have a gun. He was hoping to only have to kill the soldiers, that way he could pull information out of the man when he was most frightened. But if it wasn't for Lortelle, Shepard could've been seriously harmed.
The last thing he needed was more bullet holes that could further impede his progress.
He gave his thanks to the heavy soldier and returned to look at the scientist. His death was brutal, and a shame. But Shepard couldn't feel bad for him, not with what he was doing anyway with making puppets out of innocents. He wouldn't even have the time, either, for there was another source of information right next to him stuck in a pod.
He turned to order Tracks and Lortelle to get the woman out of the pod, but was shocked when he found that there were two others in a similar situation on either side of her, both frozen in ice.
Shepard focused on releasing the woman out of her pod and tasked Tracks and Lortelle to get the other two, a younger man and another woman of the same age. Their eyes were blank...staring.
"Hey, hey, easy," Shepard comforted as the woman fell out of the tube in a shivering fit of panic. "You're safe now."
"They...they could've made me one of them!" She sobbed. "They could've made me forget who I am!"
"It's alright," Shepard continued. "Are you with Chimera?"
The woman's face was plastered with another layer of shock. "No! I would never be with these...monsters!" The woman responded heatedly, looking at the dead soldiers. "I only said what I said because I was scared!"
Shepard reminded himself that the Rogue Faction also called themselves Chimera. He didn't know how long these people were held in prison, but it must've been long enough for them to start relating the name with the enemy. "Of course," he backtracked. "What I meant was, are you with Jana?"
"Jana? She's alive? Yes, yes of course! Is that why you're here? Why are you here? Why would she send a quarian in a—?"
She cut herself off hastily before she could say another word. She didn't have to. Shepard understood but didn't let it get to him.
"I'm here to put an end to all of this." He answered. "Is there anything you can tell me about the Rogue—I mean, Chimera?" He then asked, thirsting for more information. "Weapons? Troops? Other Captives?"
"N-no, I...I just know that they took us when they mutinied. They had us all s-separated into groups. I-I was just thrown in to be one of the first testers of this...abom-m-mination," she stammered, standing up and looking back at her fellow victims stuck in the pods. "We were kept in the dark, we don't know anything else."
Shepard gave a disappointed sigh as the two other captives were released, falling to the floor in a stagger and pulling themselves up in a cold and confused haze. They must have suffered worse.
"What? Where...?" The younger man started. "I was remembering...having a...very real...feeling...dream." Despite his slight shivering, sweat dripped around his face, and he took notice of the guards.
"Why are they...dead?" He asked, almost out of concern.
His memory must have been severely affected. Shepard didn't even know where to begin explaining to him that the soldiers were not at all friendly, and were the reason why he was trapped in a pod. This caused a pang of sorrow in Shepard. He didn't know what the kid saw, but hopefully, whatever it was, the kid could move past the realization that it was all entirely fake.
"You three," he addressed the captives, "This place is very dangerous, you need to leave. Follow the path down that way." He pointed off into the direction he came from. "It should take you out to the front of the facility. Avoid all soldiers you see that look like this, they are not as they seem...or remember."
"What's he talking about?"
"Once you get out," Shepard continued, "run in the direction where there are a lot of trees. If you keep low and keep heading that way, you should find refuge with Jana's forces." He picked up the rifle from one of the dead soldiers and planted it in the first woman's hands.
"Will you be alright?" He asked, sincerity in his heart.
"I-I think so," she said, looking down on both him and the weapon, seeming to get a better grip on herself. She looked back to her semi-brainwashed friends, the other woman curiously staring at a nearby husk skeleton through a window in a nearby lab. "Do we go now?" She asked urgently, hefting the gun up to her shoulder.
"Sure, be careful out there."
"We'll try. Come on guys, let's finally get the hell out of here!"
Shepard watched her grab the other woman by the arm and pull her away from the dead husk down the corridor, the young man following in her footsteps, still confused.
I have to stop this.
Shepard remembered the datapad that the scientist had, and wheeled over to his body where it lay soaking in his blood. He carefully picked it up and gave it a once over.
Preliminary Tests: INITIATED/IN PROGRESS
Test Subjects: 1 and 3.
Stimulation Target: Amygdala...Wipe Complete.
Simulate Fear Memory: Human, Shepard...Complete. Aggression: Positive
ERROR, INTERRUPTION DETECTED. FEAR MEMORIES CORRUPTED. RESTART REQUIRED.
Simulate Fear Memory: Quarian...ERROR, INTERRUPTION DETECTED.
Simulate Fear Memory: Turian...ERROR, INTERRUPTION DETECTED.
The list continued to include any species that were not human, but the first lines of the report gave him a sudden stunning realization. The young man and the other woman were programmed to be aggressive towards him.
If their brainwashing hadn't been interrupted within the next six hours, then they could've become hostiles.
Damn.
He was also stunned to realize that, due to his interruption, the two of them were no longer fearful of, well probably anything. The only things they could possibly be scared of now is whatever managed to leak out of the corruption in the fear memory tagged to him. This could very well explain their responses to the death in the room.
Still, he could hardly imagine such a thing was even possible. Hopefully, their new lack of fear won't become too difficult to handle for the first woman who was lucky enough not to get affected.
Still scrolling, the datapad continued to include reports on other parts of the brain, with memory simulations preloaded to make them the ultimate super-soldiers completely loyal to the Rogue Faction. According to the pad, the first sleep cycles would alter their memories to make them loyal to the Rogue Faction, as well as identify certain individuals and species as hostiles. After that, the next sleep cycles would train them in all forms of combat and various technological and strategic skills.
The more he saw the list go on, the more Shepard felt his stomach dig down and hollow itself out. These people weren't just becoming super-soldiers, they were becoming super-geniuses. Their sole purpose to kill Shepard and everything he held dear. They would undo everything he had worked so hard to protect in the past four years.
My God. I made so many enemies without even realizing it.
He dropped the datapad back on the floor, and as if on command, the omni-tool on the dead scientist's remaining arm began to flash. Shepard rolled it over with an edge of a wheel to get a look at the display's urgent message, reading it with a squint.
ALL HANDS!
Our location has been discovered by Jana's forces! Shepard's presence unknown! Guards converge on the facility's entrance! Remaining troops take up positions around the tower! Get your asses on the move!
-P4
Shepard was first concerned about the victims that he had just rescued, but the name caught his eye, causing him to quickly rally up his fireteam.
P4! He mentally spat the name. Let's get to finally killing this asshole!
Although their presence was now known, Shepard had to admit that they got a lot farther into the facility than he expected. The tower was very close now, only a bit further in and they would leave the passageways and be inside the tower itself.
Not bad for a surprise attack. All he had to do from there was find out how to get into the buildings that surrounded the courtyard, find Garrus, and figure out the rest of the plan.
But even that was easier said than done.
Shepard moved the fireteam through the next doorway. They found a large gap, with their exit door on the far right on the other side. But thankfully, the scientist and the soldiers must have brought back the lift that transported more pods throughout the facility, enabling Shepard to use it as a makeshift train once more.
Once on the other side, they opened another doorway to find debris still dispersed around from Cerberus's fight with the Reapers. The short catwalk that Shepard recalled from before connected to the other side of the room was still broken and sunken into the floor.
And what else, between them and the elevator to the tower, was more Rogue Faction troopers. Some inspecting the remains from a couple of dead brutes that Shepard had killed last time.
One of them noticed their entrance.
"Intruders!"
Of course.
Shepard dodged a hail of fire coming from the riflemen, pulling Tracks alongside him to a side of the door with Lortelle covering the other end. The heavy soldier's shields deflected the incoming projectiles, and he saw the riflemen's fire and raised them some shotgun blows, forcing some of them to take cover as well.
Now that Shepard had a better understanding of how his pistol's, "full auto," mode actually worked, he put in a new thermal clip and tugged on the trigger, holding it for a few seconds, then twisted his arm around the doorframe and blindly sent a barrage of bullets into the room, providing fire support for Lortelle.
It didn't take a strategy expert to see that the fireteam was in a bad spot. They needed to get in the room but it was impossible with the bottlenecked entrance and the broken catwalk. Tracks's biotics were ineffective as well, as his light armor posed a heavy risk of him getting hit if he was even slightly exposed.
But it did give Shepard an idea.
Lortelle switched to an assault rifle and fired wildly into the room, suppressing the enemy behind barriers. "What do we do, Captain?" He asked over the noise, just loud enough for only Shepard and Tracks to hear.
"On my mark, stop firing! Tracks, launch me across!"
Again, Shepard was surprised when they gave no sense of opposition. Lortelle kept firing and Tracks got into position behind Shepard. "Will do!" They answered simultaneously.
Shepard switched to the Mattock looking rifle on his seat and got a good look into the room, finding the enemy positions behind the barriers. Once he got an idea, he prepared to initiate one of his craziest offense tactics yet.
"Mark!"
Lortelle stopped firing, and like a well-oiled machine, Tracks followed up with a biotic blast to the back of Shepard's wheelchair, sending him clear across the broken catwalk and right next to the enemy behind the barriers.
It wasn't a smooth landing, however. His wheelchair toppled over and his stomach stung from the impact as he hit the ground on his side. But even so, the adrenaline was enough to help Shepard perceive everything quickly and readjust his weapon to send multiple slow shots into the skulls of the enemy, exploding them on impact and sending a shower of red energy with brains and pieces of helmets.
So that's what this gun does.
ZIP!
Shepard had missed one, but Tracks made quick work of them and launched himself over to Shepard, pulling him and his wheelchair off the floor. "You alright, Captain?"
"Yeah," Shepard wheezed slightly. His stomach still stung but it was already starting to fade. He hoped he didn't cause too much damage. "Let's get to the tower."
He stowed away his rifle and took a few moments to catch his breath, then lead his fireteam to the final stop, an elevator that reached upwards to the bottom part of the tower. The place where Miranda killed her father.
He pulled out his pistol again and ordered Tracks to do the same. Lortelle also switched to this shotgun and the three of them cautiously entered the elevator. None of them spoke. Shepard couldn't tell if it was just the anticipation, or if it was just how his fireteam was.
I don't want to think on this anymore. He groaned.
In all his years serving on the Normandy, he did the one thing he never thought he would do. Initiate a conversation on an elevator.
"You guys ready?"
"Yes, sir," they answered in unison.
"Worried?"
"No, sir."
"Anything you two want to say before we fight it out?"
"No, sir."
"Well...alright, then...I guess...I just want to say that...it's been an honor to fight alongside you two?"
"Likewise, sir."
Well, this has been a fulfilling conversation.
The elevator slowed to a halt and Shepard readied his pistol, with Lortelle coming up behind him and Tracks covering his sides.
The elevator door opened, and the three of them walked in to only find the control center of the tower to be strangely empty, save for one soldier tapping away at a nearby terminal.
The soldier sighed without looking up, "What do you guys want?"
Shepard and the fireteam shared a glance, with Shepard nodding to Lortelle. The heavy casually strolled over to the soldier and came up behind him. Before he could turn his head, Lortelle shoved his helmet down into the desk, knocking him out cold.
"Alright, look for an opening, the courtyard should be just above us."
"Will do," Lortelle responded.
Shepard contented himself with inspecting the area. The glass was still broken from where Miranda threw her father out a window. For a fleeting moment, he was tempted to look over the edge, but given the lack of cleanup around the rest of the facility, he opted to stay clear away from it.
"Captain..."
"What do you have for me, Tracks?"
The marksman was inspecting the terminal that the unconscious soldier was working at. Silently, he urged Shepard to take a look for himself.
He gave it a quick glance, there were two screens. One he instantly recognized as controls for a communications scrambler, and the other as a video feed to the courtyard above.
Yes! This is exactly what we needed!
"Do you think these controls are to the jamming signal?" He asked Tracks.
"I believe so, it would make sense for them to move it off a ship to defend it. I'm guessing the moved it to the top of the tower."
"Think you can disable it?"
"Yes, sir."
Tracks quickly got to work on taking down the jamming signal while Shepard continued to watch the video feed. The camera panned around to look at the courtyard.
And boy it was sure defended. The Rogue Faction had combat engineers line around the steps to the entrance, with a few nemesis snipers around the doors. Many assault troopers had taken up positions around the openings, with centurions and guardians holding key positions. And of course, there was a pair of Atlas mechs, some dragoons, and some phantoms to boot.
Come on!
The camera continued to pan around, and while it did, something caught his eye.
"She...ard? Shep...an you hear me?"
Underneath a supporting pillar for the tower lay another one of those pods that the victims were stuck in to be brainwashed. It was covered in ice, and some of the troopers nearby couldn't help but look at it every few seconds.
"Sh...pard? Cap...ain! Are...there?!"
There was another soldier next to it, not quite like the others. His armor was different, but Shepard had seen it before. Similar to that of the Rogue attacker on the Citadel. He paced around in front of it, clearly strutting his command over everyone else. Shepard glared at him.
P4.
He knew what he was doing, and he knew who was in that pod.
"Shepard! Can you hear me?"
Jana's voice finally broke through the comms, interrupting Shepard's train of thought.
"Yes, Jana, I read you loud and clear," he responded.
"Jesus," she gasped. "What the hell were you thinking?!"
"We're inside the tower. The mission is almost complete. I have Garrus just above me, as well as that assassin. Once we get Garrus and kill P4, everything will get a little chaotic. We're going to find Tali then rendezvous at the top of the tower. I'm hoping to see the shuttle by the time I get up there."
"Excuse me?"
"Have your soldiers met up with the sniper squads yet?"
"Y-yes b-but—"
"Then have them surround Sanctuary's walls. When I give the go, have them fire on the facility."
"But I thought we weren't doing a full assault?!"
"It's not an assault, it's a distraction!" He yelled in frustration.
Shepard started to explain again, a little calmer and slower. "Listen, the Rogues won't be looking at a shuttle if they're being attacked from the ground, After I get Garrus and confirm P4's death, I will give the go on the distraction."
His volume began to rise and his words started going faster. "I just need enough time to find Tali and destroy the Life Emulator, after that, I will be on the roof. I just need the shuttle there while the distraction is going on so we can get, the, hell, out of here!"
Jana went silent over Shepard's anger, her heavy breathing giving the only indication that she was still on the comms. The frustration with the other became a mutual feeling over the lack of words.
"Okay, fine!" Jana finally hissed. "But you better damn well help me get my people back after this!"
"Had no intention of leaving the job unfinished," Shepard promised. All he wanted was Garrus and Tali safe. Once they were, he would be happy enough to do all the missions in the galaxy.
"Okay," Jana simmered down. "Let me know when to initiate the distraction."
Before Jana could get off the comms, Shepard remembered something and quickly blurted out his last request. "Call the Normandy! They can help us out."
"Sure thing, Jana out...Oh, and just so you know, don't underestimate the bastard."
He sighed as the comms shut off. Shepard was now more than ready to fight the assassin above him. His blood was riled, his focus adrenalized. A little longer and this hiccup will be over. He turned from the terminal and nodded to Tracks, gesturing him to follow.
"Sir! Found an opening to the surrounding buildings!" Lortelle called from the edge of the room.
Perfect. Let's go confront this guy.