Book I - Chapter 5: Bring Down the Sky
"Chasing around space monkeys was not exactly what I had in mind when I signed up with the Alliance." Kaidan grumbled as he stripped out of his filthy light Mantis armor in the cargo bay.
"No kidding." Shepard snorted. She had better reflexes than Kaidan, but she was not much better off after a day of wrestling with excrement slinging pyjaks. She broke her favourite N7 medium Onyx armor only two weeks ago; now her spare light Guardian armor was also ruined. Nothing short of an industrial grade acid wash would get rid of the smell. "Great. That's three more sets of armor I have to replace. This is getting expensive."
"Why didn't you just let me shoot those animals?" Ashley complained as she visibly fought against her gag reflex. The dark streaks of pyjak waste really showed up against the white of her heavy Phoenix armor.
Shepard gave the Gunnery Chief a regretful look. "I thought they were kinda cute, until they started throwing crap at us. Next time, I'll sit in the Mako and shoot them with a cannon." And she would have shot them from afar if she had known not to get close. Shepard didn't received this assignment from Admiral Hackett last time, so her foreknowledge did not save her from those little monsters.
Garrus came down from the crew deck to greet the shore party, but he only managed to exit the elevator before he froze on the spot as the foul smell punched him in the face. "What in the… Don't tell me you got it on the seats!" The turian put a hand over his sensitive nose and poked his head inside the vehicle for a fraction of a second before he recoiled in revulsion. "Nooo! It's on the seats! You guys trekked pyjak shit inside the Mako!"
"Believe me when I say we really didn't mean to do that." Shepard said drily. She found an empty crate with an airtight seal and biotic lifted pieces of their soiled armor into the container, not wanting to touch them with her hands. The pungent smell in the cargo bay lost some of its eye-watering edge after she sealed it shut.
"I really hope that data module was worth it." Ashley's face scrunched up in disgust. "Oh Lord, the smell is following me. I need a shower… Oh no! Please tell me it didn't get on our weapons! Damn it, I need to clean those asap!"
Shepard wrinkled her nose in sympathy. "Go wash up, Chief. I think you got some of that in your hair."
"Dear God, no!" Ashley let out a shriek as she dashed toward the elevator.
Kaidan looked like he was trying very hard not to laugh. "There are only two shower stalls on the ship. Go ahead, Commander. Garrus and I will clean this up."
"Are you sure? I don't want to leave you holding the bag."
"Positive. If you don't mind me making a suggestion though, I think maybe it's time we stop by the Citadel again. I mean, we need to air out the cargo bay, detail the Mako, and get new armor. Not counting the basic light Onyx I in every marine's locker, the only set of light armor we currently have in stock is a Phoenix gathering dust in the requisition officer's stock because no one in their right mind would buy that piece of garbage. The Chief can rock the white and pink, but it looks absolutely hideous on me."
Shepard grinned at the mental image. "Alright, Lieutenant, I completely understand. I'll make sure to pick something more aesthetically pleasing when I equip my crew. Whoever designed the Phoenix line should get their eyes checked. It made Liara look bad."
The last comment made the Lieutenant chuckle ruefully. "I know, that's how bad it is. Sirta Foundation really should stick to producing medi-gel. Even their Omni-tools and Biotic amps suck. So, um, I guess you two aren't fighting anymore? Sorry Commander, feel free to tell me to zip it. It's none of my business anyway."
Shepard was quiet for a moment, but she answered. "No. Was it obvious?"
Kaidan scratched his head, a little embarrassed. "Yeah, it was kind of hard to miss." He paused, and added, "Liara makes you happy. I'm glad things worked out for you two."
"I'm glad, too. That's very nice of you, Alenko. Thanks." Shepard said, and left to take a much needed shower.
x-x-x
Liara always enjoyed her visit to the Citadel. This ancient space station not only served as the heart and soul of the galactic community, it was also an impressive working Prothean monument that never failed to fill her heart with wonder every time she stepped on board. No, not Prothean. The Citadel was built by the Reapers, but still, it was the capital of the Prothean empire.
She was very pleased that Shepard had picked her and Ashley to assist with the supply run this visit. They didn't find anything useful in the Ward, but they lucked out at the C-Sec requisition office. A few sets of higher end armor were in stock, so Shepard snatched them up right away.
They were just about to leave after arranging for delivery when the Commander's Omni-tool pinged. Shepard stared at the message in disbelief and let out a curse under her breath before she walked briskly toward the elevator to the docking bay. Liara and Ashley exchanged a look and followed the Commander quickly.
"Is everything alright?" Liara asked when they were in the elevator.
"No." Shepard answered stiffly.
The rest of the long ride up was spent in silence. One lone figure dressed in Alliance dress uniform was waiting for them on the gangway when the shore party exited the three golden bars on the epaulettes denoted this person to be of the rank of a Captain.
"Ten hut!" Ashley automatically snapped a crisp salute at the higher ranking Alliance officer.
The Commander crossed her arms. "What the hell are you doing here?" She asked impertinently.
Startled by Shepard's show of hostility, Liara's eyes flittered between the unknown Alliance officer and Shepard, trying to decipher the source of the immediate tension. A second later, her blue eyes widened in recognition.
"Do I need a reason to see my own daughter?" Captain Hannah Shepard replied with a question.
"Yes." Shepard answered in a flat tone. "Last time I checked, Kilimanjaro is supposed to be dry-docked in Arcturus station for upgrade. You are the XO, why are you here?"
The Captain shrugged as a smug grin slowly stretched across her face. The casual gesture was identical to the one the Commander usually made. Liara's brain hurt to see it done by another person. "Are you checking up on me now? I didn't know you cared."
Liara could tell Shepard was trying very hard not to get worked up. The muscles along her jaw jumped as she clenched her teeth together to keep her temper in check. "Why. Are. You. Here?"
Standing next to Liara, Ashley was doing her best to appear invisible.
"I'm on shore leave. I thought I might as well drop by and congratulate you in person. Humanity's first Spectre. Good job, kid. I'm proud of you." Captain Shepard said sincerely to her daughter.
The younger Shepard stood very still. Her mother's approval seemed to have been so unexpected, that it stalled whatever scathing retort she was building in mind.
"The Normandy looks amazing. Care to give me a guided tour?" Captain Shepard asked with her eyebrows raised expectantly. Liara swore she had seen that exact same look on her Shepard's face before.
"Sure." Commander Shepard said with a sigh. She straightened up and gestured with a courteous open palmed invite. "After you, Captain."
The crew received the senior Shepard's unexpected visit with predictable disbelief, served with a healthy dollop of awe on top. There she was, the woman who had birthed their commanding officer. Every pair of eyes were doing the exact same thing Liara's had done earlier - jetting back and forth between the two Shepard's. It was impossible not to see the family resemblance. It was all there; the same shape of their noses, the exact shade of green of their eyes, the identical set of determined eyebrows and high cheekbones. They even walked with the same swagger. It was surreal.
Captain Shepard appropriately ooh'd and aah'd at the various features installed in the Normandy. She seemed especially impressed by the large Tantalus drive core as she made the comment that instead of unwieldy heavy cruisers, it would be a better use of resources if the Alliance were to build more Normandy class frigates instead.
That comment earned her a lopsided smile from the junior Shepard. "Now that I've given you the tour, are you going to tell me why you are here, or would you like to keep me guessing?"
Captain Shepard made a noncommittal sound at her daughter's question, and kept her attention on the various monitors in the engine room. "The Normandy's IES stealth system is powered by the Tantalus drive, yes? This ship can drift for days without showing up on a sensor. Excellent feature for a reconnaissance vessel. She could ferry you to hell and back and no one would be the wiser."
Commander Shepard narrowed her eyes. Liara could tell from the way her gaze sharpened that her Shepard was picking up on something she could not quite follow. "She could. But I wasn't given command of the ship just so I can go on a joy ride. I have many other tasks to complete. Stopping Saren, the decrepit old lion, would be on the top of that list."
"Jane," Captain Shepard called her daughter's name softly. "We need to talk."
"I figured there must be a reason why you are here." Commander Shepard let out a soft snort. "My cabin. We can have some privacy in there."
Captain Shepard nodded, and left the engine room with her daughter.
Liara loitered in the mess hall, waiting anxiously as the two Shepard's held a lengthy conversation inside the Captain's cabin. The two did not come out for a long time. When they finally did, both of them looked a lot more at ease with each other. It seemed they had reconciled.
Seeing them together reminded Liara acutely of Benezia. It was a depressing train of thought that would only bring pain to herself, so Liara stopped.
"Take care of yourself." Captain Shepard said, her eyes tracing her daughter's features with an intensity reserved only for her child. For a brief moment, Liara felt the weight of those eyes on her. It was gone as soon as she felt it.
"I will. You take care of yourself, too." Commander Shepard replied.
Captain Shepard gave her daughter a smirk. "I've been a marine since before you were born, kid. No need to worry about me."
"I'm not worried." Young Shepard frowned.
"If you say so." Captain Shepard said, waving a hand dismissively. "I'll walk myself out."
Liara swore Commander Shepard sulked as she watched her mother leave.
x-x-x
Her mother's unexpected visit had derailed her original schedule for the day. Shepard was still reeling from the shock over the big secret her mother revealed to her in private. With all her foreknowledge, Shepard never suspected her mother was hiding something this important from her for almost thirty years. Last time, her mother had kept her silence even though there was no need to anymore. Perhaps that was precisely the reason why the woman had stayed quiet - because it was too late already.
So what had changed?
Maybe it didn't matter. There was no need to dwell on the past, on the might-have-beens. She needed to focus on adjusting her plans to best make use of this new piece of information.
Shepard suited up in her newly acquired Predator M armor and went to grab Liara and Wrex for another visit to the Citadel. With all that scheming, she was finally ready. She had collected enough bargain chips to pay the devil's due.
It was time to visit Barla Von.
The little volus banker did not seem surprised to see her. Shepard was counting on that.
"I had heard of your recent exploits, Spectre. Most impressive." Barla Von said knowingly to Shepard.
"Why am I not surprised you are so well informed?" Shepard said drily. "Here I thought you were only a humble banker."
Barla Von raised a finger to make a regal gesture. "Only one of the best."
"Operating completely within the confine of the laws, too." Shepard said.
"Of course. My clients demand it." Barla Von said with a bow.
Shepard rubbed her chin in a show consideration. "I have accumulated quite a bit of funds recently. Killing geth has net me a lot of goodies. Their techs fetch a pretty price in the market. Other than keeping my crew equipped and my ship running smoothly, I have no time nor interest to manage those credits myself. I do realize what I see as a fortune must have seem a pittance to you. Still, I'm hoping maybe you can help me out."
"Commander Shepard, I believe you are quite mistaken. It is not the amount of credits I manage that sets me apart above my peers; it is my client list. To use a human expression, you, the first human Spectre, will make a very colourful feather on my cap."
Shepard grinned at the volus. "Excellent." She pulled up her Omni-tool and set up a credit transfer. "Here is the credits and instructions. I know I said I have no interest to manage them myself, but I do have some preferences if you don't mind."
Barla Von read the messages on his Omni-tool and hummed thoughtfully to himself. "Not a problem, Commander. This is a very reasonable request. Hmm, how interesting." He looked up at Shepard, his body language showed clear surprise. "Your last instruction. It is very thorough of you to consider such matters so far in advance."
"Is it? I thought it's an eventuality everyone needs to be prepared for. The Council asked me to stop their most decorated former agent, who, by the way, has an entire army of geth to do his bidding, without so much as giving me the funds to arm and armor my crew. I would think they would rather see me fail."
Barla Von recoiled at the knowledge. "You want me to believe the Council has given you nothing?!"
"The Alliance gave me permission to use the Normandy, and they paid for the docking fee here on the Citadel. They also paid their military personnel onboard the Normandy their normal wages. I use my personal funds to equip my crew, as well as paying for all expenses related to refueling, restocking, and maintaining my ship. The Council, instead of the Alliance, pays me my monthly salary now that I'm a Spectre. So no. Other than my normal wages, and a shiny title of Spectre, the Council has provided me no additional resources. All the credits I just transferred over to you to manage, I earned that with the help of my crew."
"This is… unbelievable. They didn't even give you information on Saren?" Barla Von asked faintly.
Shepard gave the volus a wry smile. "Other than, 'we think there might be geth in this area, so you should probably check it out,' nothing."
"That does not make any sense at all. The Council has no reason to see you fail." Barla Von sounded genuinely confused.
Liara spoke up. "Actually, they do. I can see it now. Saren and his geth are hiding in the Traverse, a large area outside of the Council's direct control. The Council does not wish to waste resources on asserting influence outside of Council space. What would be better than sending a human Spectre to an area with mostly human interests? If Shepard succeeds in stopping Saren, then the Council looks good by appointing the right person for the job. If Shepard fails, then the Council can use this as an excuse to make the point that humanity is not ready to have a Spectre, much less a Council seat. They do have more to gain if Shepard fails, but either way, they would always come out the winner. This is despicable."
"Politicians." Wrex summarized with one word.
Shepard shrugged. "I knew what I signed up for. They even slapped me on the wrist for telling reporter Khalisah al-Jilani at the Westerlund News the truth that Saren was responsible for the attack on Eden Prime. Their former agent's reputation, and by extension, the Council's own reputation, is apparently more important than human lives."
Barla Von tilted his head as he regarded the Commander with obvious fascination. "You didn't just come here for banking, or ranting about your boss, Spectre."
"No." Shepard smirked. "I'm repaying a favour I owe to you. You told me that Saren had betrayed the Shadow Broker. I'm here to tell you that the Council is not exactly enthusiastic in their pursuit of taking down Saren. I think the Shadow Broker might find this piece of information enlightening."
"I am honored. Not very many people have the curtesy to do what you just did. I will be sure to relay this message." Barla Von said.
"One other thing." Shepard took out an OSD and handed it to the volus. "I have a job offer for the Shadow Broker. I already have the payment ready. One caveat - I only wish to deal directly with you. I will speak to no other agents. You understand. I have trust issues."
Barla Von carefully tucked the OSD into his pocket. "You are wealthy in the currency of knowledge, Spectre. Very well, I will pass on your job offer. Happy hunting."
x-x-x
The Normandy's next destination was the Amaranthine in the Horsehead Nebula. Shepard had put off the meeting with crime boss Helena Blake for a very long time. This delay was intentional because she needed extensive preparation to pull off a highly risky maneuver.
With Liara and Wrex flanking her sides, Shepard politely knocked on the door of the mercenary hideout.
Helena opened the door, addressing the Commander with a coy smile while her subordinates waited in the back, weapons at the ready. "Commander Shepard, it's good to see you again. I thank you for taking care of my former colleagues."
"My pleasure." Shepard said coolly.
"Here is a small token of my gratitude. Under my leadership, my organization will restrict itself to only gambling and smuggling. No more red sand or slavery." Helena said as she took out a credit chip to hand to Shepard.
The Commander didn't take it. She looked into the crime boss's eyes, and let a smug smile show on her face. "I forgot who, but someone once said to me, 'between credits and a favour, always pick the favour'. Don't you agree?"
Helena's neatly trimmed eyebrows shot up in surprise. "This is… unexpected. I believe you have me at a disadvantage. How may I help you?"
"Consider my previous service free of charge as a show of goodwill. I have a business proposal for you." Shepard took out an OSD and waved it at the crime boss. "I have eight empty Athabasca class merchant freighters docked in Eden Prime, ready to be put to work. I also have a very long list of exact coordinates of valuable minerals that are begging to be extracted. Technically, they are claimed by the Alliance. However, due to bureaucratic inefficiency, it is more than likely they will just sit in a limbo for a very long time before anyone could get to it. Finders keepers, right?"
Helena looked flabbergasted. "But you, I thought…"
"What, I'm the Hero of Elysium, so I must be this paragon of virtue everyone imagined me to be? Please, Miss Blake, you are not that naive."
The wide-eyed look on Helena's face only lasted for about two seconds before it morphed into a look of intense concentration. Shepard could almost picture the gears turning inside the crime boss's head. "No, I'm not naive, but I'm a very good judge of character. You can pretend you are not a hero, but you are. You are not doing this for the credits. You want something else from me."
"Let's say you are right about me being a hero. Then you must understand playing the hero is an expensive hobby, Miss Blake. Sometimes the dragon is too tough for one knight in shining armor to slay. One might need an army for that, and no army will march on the promise of glory alone."
Helena studied the Commander carefully. "Is former Spectre Saren the dragon you are trying to slay?"
Shepard tilted her head, and smiled. "No."
Helena looked taken aback by the reply. "No?"
"I would hardly need the help of an army to take down one washed up turian has-been, Miss Blake. I need you and your boys to help me rescue princesses."
Helena let out a bark of laughter. "Rescuing princesses? Commander Shepard, you jest!"
"I wish I were." There was no trace of humor in Shepard's voice. "By my last count, the number was around six hundred and eighty thousands damsels in distress. If you count their guards, it pushes the number up to about a million."
The crime boss almost choked on air at Shepard's admission. "One million! I have sixty men! Have you lost your mind?"
Shepard stared into Helena's eyes; her voice was low and velvety like a caress. "I didn't say I can save them all."
Helena sputtered. Whatever she wanted to say died in her suddenly dry throat when she saw the shadows in the Commander's haunted green eyes.
"Think on my proposal. It will be dangerous work, but you and your men will be well paid. You can find more details in this OSD. We'll talk again soon." Shepard said, and handed the disc to Helena before she left with her squad.
Once they got back into the Mako, Wrex began laughing his ass off at the ridiculousness of it all.
"What's so funny?" Shepard asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Just happy I'm right in the thick of all this action. You are one funny human. Saren, geth, Cerberus, Shadow Broker, and now you are tangling with mercs too? Damn, you are one walking trouble magnet. I hope you know what you are doing. The odds of you coming out of this in one piece is looking slim."
Shepard grinned cheekily at the krogan warlord. "You forgot to count the Reapers."
Wrex grinned back. "No need. You'll have to be alive to worry about the Reapers."
"Fair enough." Shepard conceded.
"Shepard." Liara finally spoke up. She had been very quiet during the entire exchange. "This one million lives you spoke of, who are they? Instead of hiring mercenaries, shouldn't you ask the Council or the Alliance to help them?"
The smile on Shepard's face disappeared. For a brief moment, the Commander allowed some of the bitterness and frustration show on her face. "I doubt the Council or the Alliance would spare any resources to save batarians."
Liara gaped at the Commander. "After Mindoir and Elysium, you are doing all this to save batarians?"
"Three hundred thousand batarians, plus another six hundred and eighty thousand cattle that are not considered people in their population census."
It took a minute for Liara to find her voice again. "Why do they need to be saved? What are you saving them from?"
Shepard clamped her mouth tightly shut. What could she possibly say to Liara that would make her understand? That she knew of a batarian state secret regarding the Alpha Relay and how it would be destroyed in two year's time by the Alliance's 103rd Marine division to prevent the Reapers from invading through every mass relay simultaneously while delaying their inevitable arrival for a precious six months? That all the inhabitants of the Bahak system would soon be sacrificed as collateral damage for a better chance of survival for trillions others? That without a grand gesture of goodwill from humanity, the batarians would stubbornly refuse to cooperate with the rest of the galaxy even when pushed to the brink of extinction because of their fragile pride?
"I'm saving them from themselves." Shepard finally said after a long silence. And that was all she would allow herself to say.
The Normandy landed to pick up the Mako at the rendezvous point soon after. Before the shore party exited the Mako, Shepard had one more request. "Please keep this to yourself. No one else needs to know. Especially not the Alliance."
"Sure thing." Wrex grinned. "Not gonna spoil your fun."
Liara held her hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze. "Anything you ask, Shepard."
"Thank you." Shepard gave the two a grateful nod and climbed out of the Mako.
Maybe after the Reapers were defeated, when they had old age and blue children to look forward to, maybe she would finally tell her beloved the story about the impossible choice she had to make a lifetime ago. But before then, she would keep her silence and shoulder this burden by herself.
She would hold the line.
x-x-x
On Shepard's order, the Normandy stayed in the Horsehead Nebula for a couple more days in stealth mode to conduct surveillance. Unfortunately, there was nary a whisper of geth activity in the area. After much scanning and analysing with nothing to show for, Shepard began to doubt if her memory from last time was faulty. Noveria was as quiet as ever. Benezia was nowhere to be found in the entire Nebula.
A little disappointed by the lack of result, Shepard expanded her search to the neighbouring Exodus cluster, hoping to catch an early warning if Benezia were to come through this mass relay to get to Noveria.
Shepard did not expect to find terrorists instead.
The Normandy's sensors found Asteroid X57, propelled by three fusion torches, deliberately being sent on a collision course with Terra Nova. If the asteroid were not diverted of its current trajectory, millions of people would die in four hours.
Shock was not enough to describe what Shepard was feeling upon hearing this. Nothing like this had happened last time. Terra Nova was the most prosperous human colony in the galaxy, if even a threat of this sort was attempted, it would have been all over the news. She should have at least heard of it. But no, this was completely new to her. Shepard did not want to believe her actions this time had somehow triggered this attack, so the next most logical conclusion was that the same terrorist attack did happen last time, and someone else had stopped it quietly.
The only name came to mind was Cerberus.
It made sense. Despite all the deplorable deeds Cerberus had done in the name of advancing humanity, the organization would never have allowed such a large scale attack to happen on their own backyard - not when Cerberus had committed so much resources in Terra Nova already.
Shepard was not at all concerned about Cerberus's role in preventing a terrorist attack. It was the fact that she was completely unaware that something this important had taken place that had her reeling. All of her plans were made based on her foreknowledge. And now she just got clobbered over the head with the fact that her all-important foreknowledge was severely lacking. It was a sobering thought.
What else did she miss?
"Wrex, Liara, suit up. Joker, drop us on that rock. Stay quiet and close. Pressly, alert the Alliance and start the countdown." Shepard said in a clipping tone.
"Ma'am, should we contact Terra Nova to start the evacuation?" Pressly asked.
Shepard shook her head. "No, there is no time. We'll only create a mass panic if this gets out. Worse case, concentrate fire at the fusion torches and blow the whole thing sky high if we can't pull the rock off its collision course."
"Aye, aye." Pressly acknowledged his commanding officer's order with a salute.
This Mako drop felt a lot more intense than any previous ones she had been in. For one thing, the backdrop of the blue planet that four million people called home was a constant reminder what consequences they would face if this mission failed.
Near the drop site, they found a human body with a bullet hole in the back of the head.
"Execution style." Wrex grunted.
Shepard's fists clenched. She had a feeling who those terrorists might be.
Batarians.
"Let's hurry." Shepard said flatly.
Shepard led the squad back to the Mako and began to approach the nearest torch carefully. On the way over, the Mako's comm system picked up a distress call. This woman begged the squad to shut down the torches in a hushed voice. It was obvious she was scared out of her mind not just for herself, but also for the four million inhabitants on Terra Nova.
"Turrets. Wrex, focus fire. Liara, keep an eye on the shield." Shepard ordered as she drove in a loose circle to dodge multiple armor-piercing rounds flying toward them. The proximity turrets were quite annoying, but they were also slow. Having had to dodge thresher maw acids in a Mako before, dodging turret fire was not that much trouble to the team.
Shepard's suspicion was confirmed when they disable the turrets and snuck inside the torch station. "Why am I not surprised?" She muttered darkly to herself. It took a stupendous amount of effort and self discipline to not scream at the batarians in a fit of rage.
Why did it have to be batarians again? She was trying so hard to do the right thing, to unite all the races to fight against the Reapers. Why did the batarians always have to make it so damn hard? It made her question why she even bothered to divert her already very limited resources to save batarians, instead of putting them to better uses somewhere else.
Shepard was sorely tempted to change her plan and pull all her resources out of Operation Exodus. When the Reapers come in two year's time, she would just tell the batarians to go fuck themselves. The galaxy would be better off without the batarians around.
With a snarl, Shepard pulled up a singularity with one hand and a shotgun with another. Batarian troopers and their war varrens lurched back mid-charge by her mass effect field, all of them flailing helplessly in the air before they were torn apart by concentrated gunfire.
A second group of batarians attempted to charge right after the first group, hoping to catch the squad off guard before they were ready for the second volley. Unfortunately, Liara was too fast for them and lifted the entire group with a wave of her hand. Wrex followed up on the attack and created a warp field before blasting the weakened enemies with his shotgun.
The few stragglers were easy to pick off after that. In a fit of sadistic pleasure, Shepard froze the last batarian sniper in a stasis before she walked up to close range and unloaded a full clip of incendiary bullets into the batarian's gut. She didn't stop until she felt a hand on her back.
"Shepard." Liara's voice was soft and calm. It brought a moment of clarity amidst the haze of battle lust.
Shepard lowered her arm and turned around slowly to take in the look of concern in Liara's eyes. All of a sudden she realized her face had contorted into a mask of fury while her breaths came in harsh puffs of ragged gasps. It took conscious effort for her to smooth out her expression and slowed down her breathing. Still, her body shook from the after effect of the adrenaline rush and could not be calmed in the span of a few seconds.
Liara reached over to the back of the Commander's neck and pulled her into a hug.
Even when fully armored, Shepard could feel the effect of this physical contact. Her tense shoulders relaxed and the shaking stopped. A very different type of tension took the place of battle lust and began to set her blood to boil. Her face flushed, Shepard hugged Liara tighter as the sudden need clawed at her belly.
"Easy there, Shepard. If human bloodrage is anything like krogan bloodrage, you might want to step away from the girl. That will have to wait." Wrex commented with obvious humour in his gravelly voice.
Shepard jumped back out of the hug as if burnt. This had happened many times before. During the Reaper invasion, they would often seek comfort in each other's arms at the end of the day after each battle. Sometimes after a particularly difficult mission, their encounter would devolve into a state of frenzy that edged on aggression until they were both mindlessly lost in bringing each other to screaming release.
There were still a few thin scars on her back from the night after Thessia.
But this Liara was not yet hers. This young maiden was still innocent and unscarred by horrific losses inflicted upon her by war. It would be selfish and wrong to burden Liara with her own needs in a moment of weakness. She had promised to be patient and she would keep that promise.
More importantly, this was not the time nor the place.
"Sorry, Liara. Don't touch me until this mission is over." Shepard shook her head a few times to clear the cobwebs.
It was apparent that Liara did not understand what was wrong with Shepard because she looked even more concerned than before. Still, she trusted Shepard enough to not argue with her request.
Shepard bit her lower lip until she tasted blood. The pain brought her mind to a sharp focus. "I'll explain later. Right now we need to focus on the mission."
Later, she might need to draw a flowchart to help her explain the step by step process of getting extremely emotional in the heat of a battle, getting lost in a state of rage and fury, slipping into a caveman state of mind, and wanting to channel that aggression by having loud, violent sex with the woman she had been lusting after for the longest time. It was called battle lust for a reason. This might be a straightforward concept to understand for battle hardened war veterans, but probably not to a virgin.
On second thought, it might be easier if she pretended nothing was wrong. She didn't want to heap undue pressure on Liara when she talked about how much she wanted to rip off her clothes and fuck her brains out.
They search the building and found the terminal that controlled the fusion torch. As soon as she disabled the torch, she was contacted by the same woman who sent them the distress call earlier.
"Those batarians, you've pissed them off. Be careful. They're here… I-I need to go." The woman - Kate Bowman - warned in a fearful whisper before she hastily disconnected.
Shepard grinded her teeth as she felt red hot anger simmering in her chest again. "Two more. Let's go."
They did one last check to make sure there were no more batarians hiding inside the facility to turn the torch back on, and moved out. Their exit was interrupted by a gunshot from a skittish human male in the entry way.
Shepard looked down on the blue ripples pulsing across the kinetic shield of her armor, and then looked up at the terrified human holding a pistol with shaky hands. "Really? Do you think that would have been enough to slow down a squad of batarian troopers?"
The old man pulled his hands up in a gesture of peace. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to! I thought you were..."
"Batarians, yeah, no. I'm Commander Shepard, Council Spectre, human. You are?"
"Simon Atwell, chief engineer of Asteroid X57." Simon introduced himself. He was about to say something else when he did a double take. "Wait, you're the Commander Shepard?! My granddaughter asked for your action figure for her birthday…! My family. They are on Terra Nova. Oh God, we have to shut off those torches! Otherwise, millions are going to die!"
"That's what we are here for. Calm down. Do you know anything else that might help us out?" Shepard asked, pretending not to hear about the part about her action figure. She could freak out about that later.
Simon thought for a second and nodded. "Yes. There are blasting caps surrounding the central torch station. We were planning to do some excavating before the batarians came. You'll have to approach on foot. Oh man, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to make your job more difficult than it has to be."
Shepard waved him off. "Not your fault. At least now we know not to drive in on Mako. Anything else?"
Simon hesitated for a moment before he asked, "I know there are more important things to worry about, but if you see any of my engineers… They were out doing surveys. They could still be alive. Those batarians are ruthless. I've seem them smashing up the faceplates of guys working vacuum. And those varrens… Nasty beasts."
"A woman called Kate Bowman contacted us. Is she one of yours?"
"Katie is alive?" Simon looked happily surprised. "Yes, she is my best engineer. Her brother Aaron works security. He might be alive, too."
"Let's hope we find them before the batarians do. Lock yourself in the control room and guard the console. If more batarians come, shoot the console. We can't let them turn the torch back on. You think you can do that?" Shepard asked.
Simon gripped his pistol tighter and squared his shoulders. "Yes, Commander. I can do that for my grandchildren and all the lives on Terra Nova."
"Good man." Shepard said, and left with her team.
The Commander understood she had just asked a civilian who could barely shoot straight to sacrifice his own life for million of others if push came to shove. She had done the same thing during the Blitz, rallying untrained colonists - elderlies, underaged teeangers, farm hands and dock workers who had never held a gun - and organized them into militias that could hold off slavers and pirates that were thirty times their number.
She hoped she could take out the terrorists first before it came down to that.
Simon's warning about the blasting cap was a bit redundant but still appreciated. Her onboard helmet sensor was good enough to mark out the location of each mine on the HUD. The slight complication was the batarian snipers raining down fire at them from a distance as they navigated across the minefield.
Shepard took a deep breath and charged. Brilliant blue streaks of biotic energy surrounded her body as she shot across the minefield, sending a group of three batarians flying in all directions. Two of them died instantly upon impact. One follow-up biotic punch later, and the last batarian sniper was killed when his faceplate caved into his skull.
Liara and Wrex gaped at her with their jaws hanging loose.
"Now that proves you're part krogan, Shepard." Wrex was impressed. He turned to give Liara a sympathetic look. "I hope you are part krogan, too. Not sure if you can handle her by yourself if you're not."
"What? Why? I don't understand." Liara looked very confused.
"Don't worry about it. Let's get moving." Shepard said with a growl. She had been very careful not to show too much biotic proficiencies in front of people, but now her blood was hot and her biotic was roaring through her body in intoxicating waves, it was very difficult to rein herself in. Shepard silently berated herself for the momentary lack of restrain. The last thing she needed was to draw more eyes on her by showing abilities she was not supposed to have yet. It could have seriously compromised her plans.
She was lucky it was Liara and Wrex who saw her. If Kaidan were on the squad, he would have asked so many uncomfortable questions.
They disabled the blasting caps from the terminal near the door and entered the second torch station. There were a couple batarian engineers inside, and the first thing they did was to overheat their weapons. This would have been a sound strategy if their opponent were not powerful biotics.
Keeping a tight control over her surging biotics, Shepard slipped into a semi-meditative state of hyperawareness. In quick succession, she lifted the group of batarians troopers and their war varrens, created a singularity a little further away to ensnare the two batarian snipers hiding behind crates, warped them while they were clustered together mid-air, and threw them all back with enough force to kill them in one hit.
The beeping sound of her overheated pistol finally died down after the bodies hit the ground. She had killed five batarians and two varrens without firing a shot.
While she was busy dealing with the enemies charging at them, Liara was covering her flank with her biotics. Wrex didn't have the patience to wait for his assault rifle to cool down and switched to shotgun to assist Liara. By the time Shepard rejoined the battle, there were only a couple snipers hiding on the second floor. Shepard dashed up the stairs and unceremoniously threw them off the balcony.
After they shut off the second torch, Kate Bowman contacted them again. Her message this time was far more ominous than the previous one. Shepard held her breath as she listened to the batarian terrorist leader demanding to know who was responsible for shutting down the torches. When Kate refused to answer, the batarian executed one of the hostage in cold blood. Shepard could imagine how terrifying it must have been for this civilian.
The Commander made a silent promise to do her best to save this woman.
They exited the building and headed toward the last active torch station. On the way over, they found two more bodies. One was shot in the back by a sniper while running away, the other one was killed by explosive when the woman had barricaded herself inside the survey shack.
Shepard scowled as she listened to the audio recording of the woman's last words before she was killed in the blast. "Explosives and hostages. This is not a good combination. They also have skilled engineers to hack into the torch stations and enough troopers to guard them. Whoever planned this attack knew what they were doing. They are also very, very stupid. This is the part that scares me the most."
Liara gave Shepard a questioning look at the last comment, but she only shook her head.
They continued toward the last fusion torch station. They were met with similar resistance as at the previous two locations. Knowing exactly what to expect by now, the team cleaned up the place in no time and shut off the torch. However, something unexpected happened on their way out. A group of batarians were waiting for the squad with their weapons down.
"Hold your fire! This doesn't have to end in bloodshed." The leader of the group shouted across the room with his hands up.
Shepard holstered her pistol and slowly approached the group. She gave the leader a once over before she fixed her gaze a little above his nose, right in the middle of his four eyes. With a deliberate tilt of her head to her right to show her superiority, Shepard said in an authoritative tone, "I am Commander Shepard, Spectre of the Citadel Council, commanding officer of the Alliance frigate Normandy. My station entitles me to your rank and name, batarian."
The batarian leader stiffen his posture defiantly for a moment, before he finally tilted his head to the left to show respect. "I am Charn Korragan of Camala, second-in-command under Balak. Look, I thought we were going for a quick slave grab. I never signed up for this."
Shepard kept an even stare. Her green eyes were cold and flat. "Your crime of attempted slave raid in human territory is enough cause for me to execute you on the spot. Make your appeal. Explain to me why I shouldn't kill you right now."
Charn's eyes darted downward in deference. "I've made the mistake of following Balak's lead. The guy is a mean bastard. I don't want to kill millions of innocent people just to make a point. If you let me and my men go, I will give you my word I won't come back to human territory again."
Shepard crossed her arms, a gesture to show she intended to negotiate and not to draw her weapons. "Not good enough. Honor demands your punishment to be befitting of your crime. Your words as a fool is as empty as your sightless eyes."
"I am not a blind fool! You dare to insult my intelligence, two eyes?" Charn straighten up his posture, his hand balled into fists. All four of his eyes darted around in anger.
"You are a fool, for you followed a fool. You are blind, for you do not see the the consequences of his actions. Do you only perceive the millions of innocent humans on Terra Nova to be the victim of Balak's ill-conceived scheme? You might as well poke out your own eyes if that is all you foresee." Shepard said, narrowing her eyes at the angry batarian.
Seeing the look of displeasure on Shepard's face, Charn unclenched his fists and tilted his head back to the left once again.
Shepard pointed a finger at Charn's face, a batarian gesture reserved for imparting knowledge to an inferior from a superior. "Humans are vindictive and vengeful. Ever since the very first batarian slave raid in human territory, humans have been looking for an excuse to start a war with the hegemony. This attack on Terra Nova will be the perfect reason for humans to exterminate the batarians without incurring the Council's disapproval. Batarians will follow the fate of the Rachnis. Billions of batarians will die because of one batarian's zeal. Tell me, Charn Korragan of Camala, what is the appropriate punishment for facilitating your own race's genocide?"
"... Death." Charn replied. He knelt down, take out his folded assault rifle and shotgun, and lay them in front of him.
One by one, all the batarians followed Charn's lead and knelt down before disarming themselves. Including Charn, Shepard had twelve batarians kneeling before her.
Shepard bit her tongue to prevent even a trace of her surprise to show on her face. She had hoped to pressure Charn into giving her information on Balak or even helping her save the hostages. Not in a million years had she expect to have all these batarians throwing themselves at her feet to pledge willing servitude.
Back in the Reaper War, she had helped a batarian preacher recover their religious artifact from Kite's Nest. Out of curiosity, she had read through the batarian holy text, Pillars of Strength. The content gave her some insight regarding batarian culture and customs. Most interesting of all, was their integral caste system involving slavery. At the time, she thought it was fascinating to learn of their rigid social structure and intricate body language. She never thought she would one day apply that knowledge to practical use.
Shepard walked up to Charn, pulled out her pistol, and lightly pressed the muzzle between his eyes. "I accept. Your life is mine. Your subordinates' lives are mine." She declared solemnly, and withdrew the pistol. "I will use them as I deem fit. You may call me Master."
"You are wise as you are powerful. I will not bring dishonor to your name, Master." Charn replied, bowing his head low.
Shepard gestured the kneeling batarians to stand. "Charn, inform me of Balak's defence at the main facility."
Her newest indentured servant began with a warning. "Balak is fond of explosives. Before I left, he ordered his men to put up charges around the facility. A couple of his subordinates are very good engineers. You can expect more turrets and defense drones. He also has three hostages. I suspect he will use them as bargaining chips now that his plan has failed." He took out a pass and handed it to Shepard. "You will need this to get inside the main facility."
"Good." Shepard let a bloodthirsty grin show on her face. "Wait here and guard the torch station in case Balak sends more men to turn it back on. I'll come back to give you more instructions once I pull out Balak's eyes for his transgression."
"Understood, Master." Charn gave her a sideway nod in submission.
"Let's go." Shepard said to her squadmates, who had been watching the entire exchange in stunned silence.
They left the station, entered the Mako, and quickly headed toward the main facility.
Wrex finally found his voice. "I've lived for a very long time, I've seen all kinds of weird shit go down. Can't say I've seen anything like this before. I know you have a silver tongue, Shepard. I didn't think it was possible to talk a dozen batarians into calling a human Master."
"You think you are surprised? Fuck, I can hardly believe it myself." Shepard let out a hysterical laugh. "Did that really just happen? I was only following what their holy text said I should do in this kind of situation. 'Show power. Show wisdom. Flaunt thy superiority through better rule. Master over your lessors. Honor thy station through deeds. Unyielding, be one Pillar of Strength.'"
Liara gave her an open mouth stunned look. "You've read the batarian religious text?"
"Yeah. I couldn't sleep, and the thing was right in front of me. I thought it would knock me out like a light." Shepard said a bit defensively. "Ah, crap. How am I gonna explain this to the brass?"
"You don't. We'll keep our mouths shut. No one would believe you anyway." Wrex said simply.
The main facility was guarded by six proximity turrets. By now, Shepard was very sick of those machines. Instead of being extra cautious when facing armor-piercing cannon fire, she stepped on the gas and drove mad circles around the oversized guns, dodging while returning shots. Perhaps it was a good thing Garrus and Kaidan were not part of this mission, otherwise they would have screeched her ears off.
The first thing Shepard did upon entering the main facility was to activate Widget's cyberwarfare function and left it running in stealth mode. Once again, Shepard was very glad to have brought Liara along because Balak's engineers were overheating their weapons again. She decided to targeted them first, leaving all other enemies in her squadmates' capable hands. As she was running around the place, dodging rockets while trying to track down all the batarian engineers, Widget had marked out the location of all the bombs inside the building and began ripping out their remote detonation algorithm from the onboard micro-frame.
After she killed the engineers, the rest did not pose much challenge. Shepard resisted the impulse to charge at the shock troopers located across the room again. Instead, she lifted them above the crates and shot them with her pistol.
Balak made his dramatic entrance with a few bodyguards after Shepard's squad dispatched all of his men. "You humans. You are almost more trouble than you're worth!" The terrorist leader growled menacingly at the Commander.
Shepard tilted her head to the right, and made it extra insulting by sneering at Balak while casually brushing her hands. "I'm just getting started."
"Predictable. But this is over. I'm leaving this asteroid. If you try to stop me, I'll detonate these charges and your helper and her friends are all going to die." Balak said, confident in his gambit.
Shepard's lips pulled back in a snarl. Through her cybernetic eyes, she could see Widget had already disarmed the last bomb located inside the room where the hostages were locked in. Whatever leverage Balak thought he could use against her was gone. "Over my dead body. You don't get to leave. Not after what you've done."
Balak looked outraged. "What I've done? This is nothing compared to what's been done to the batarians."
Shepard had no patience for a madman's rambling. "You call killing millions of innocent people nothing? You are starting a war, you dimwit. A war that will lead to billions of batarians dead. We humans are stronger than you batarians. Or are you too arrogant to see reality? All we need is a good reason to go to war. And you are dumb enough to hand us a perfect excuse on a silver platter. Even the peace loving Council would not stop this war if you had dropped this rock on Terra Nova."
"You lie! Humans will be weakened and demoralized. We will take back what is rightfully ours!" Balak barked at the Commander.
Shepard interrupted his incoherent rant with her own retort. "Your comments only serve to demonstrate your ignorance. You know nothing of humanity. We are the most vindictive, tenacious, resilient, indomitable sapien species in the galaxy. Kill a million of us, and we will kill a billion of you. We always fight back. This is a fact."
She pointed at Balak's face with a finger, addressing him as his superior. "You have three choices. One, I can arrest you in the name of the Alliance and you will stand trial for your crime of attempted genocide, inciting war, and multiple counts of murder. Two, I can execute you on the spot with the authority granted to me as the Council Spectre. Three, by the law of batarian, I can exact righteous vengeance for the disgraceful deeds you've committed and pull your eyes out so everyone will see you for a blind honorless coward that you are. Which one do you choose?"
Balak pulled up his Omni-tool. "Die! Humans!" He shouted and activated the detonation sequence of all the bombs inside the facility.
Except, nothing happened.
"Three it is." Shepard said, and dropped a stasis over Balak.
His bodyguards died quickly. Liara was fast with her biotics, and Wrex was even faster with his shotgun. Less than twenty seconds later, Balak was the only enemy left.
Shepard stood in front of the frozen batarian with her eyes closed in concentration. A brilliant glow of cyan blue enveloped her as she used her biotics to reinforce her body. The moment the stasis expired, she punched him dead centre between his eyes. Her fist crushed through his skull, and the sheer force expelled all four of his eyes out of their sockets in one sickening squelch.
Balak's body crumbled bonelessly on the ground, facing up. Though out of their sockets, his eyeballs were still somewhat connected to his head through thin strands of nerves and muscles. This macabre sight of her fallen enemy provoked a deep sense of sadness within her.
"I let him choose. He chose this." Shepard said softly.
"He did." Wrex said, shaking his head. "Miserable bastard."
x-x-x
A/N: There isn't much canon material on batarians, so I'm taking a lot of liberty. Hopefully my headcanon is close enough.