Book I - Chapter 11: Virmire - Part 2
Back in the early days when the Alliance first had biotics enlisted, no one was entirely sure what their capabilities were. The Alliance did the only thing that made sense and hired asari commandos to help come up with a training program. Naturally, all the human biotics enlisted were trained as adepts. Those that had the skills to learn techs were later splintered off to a separate class as sentinels while those who were versed in martial arts were trained as vanguards. It took years of actual combat experience for the two biotic hybrid classes to eventually grow into their own.
Sentinels became self-sufficient versatile juggernauts with amazing lasting power on the field. As for vanguards, they were transformed to closely resemble ricocheting exploding cannonballs. At close to mid range, a properly trained vanguard could single handedly devastate a large horde of enemies in a flurry of power combos in seconds without having to fire a shot.
This kind of evolution came to pass purely out of necessity because of the Reapers. After hundreds of years hiding beyond the Perseus Veil, geth emerged with a new weapon based off of Reaper tech, and unleashed Husks to the galaxy. To fight these aggressive, mindless, undead monsters that always came in huge swarms, people had to invent new ways to deal with this threat...
… and then some guy came up with the bright idea of putting a sword in an N7's hand.
A human biotic may never have the natural finesse as a trained asari, but an N7 Slayer was fast.
Shepard did slip up a few times, but mostly she had been sticking to textbook biotic abilities that came straight out of Alliance training manuals. To survive the Virmire mission, the Commander would have to show her hand to Vasir - not all of her hand, of course, just a few biotic skills that had not made their way into the Alliance's standard training program for vanguards quite just yet.
Shadow approached their first target, a communication tower with triangulation antenna located outside of the facility that was guarded by a group of geth troopers. They would need to disable the device before the infiltration teams could use their radios without revealing their locations.
Smiling at Vasir, Shepard snapped a singularity at the group of geth, before she charged at them like a bullet shot out of a barrel of a sniper rifle. The timing was perfect. The resulting biotic explosion instantly fractured the synthetics into scrap metal. "This should mess up their triangulation." Shepard muttered to herself as she powered down the antenna.
"I didn't know you can do biotic charge." Vasir accused.
"You didn't ask." Shepard answered in a bored tone.
Vasir glared at Shepard. "This is critical information I should have been privy to before the operation started. How did you expect me to coordinate with your attacks without knowing how you fight?"
"My mistake. I thought you knew already." Shepard frowned in consternation. "It's inconceivable that you would be completely oblivious to my combat capability when you are so informed of my sexual hang-ups that no one else but my bed partners should be awared of."
The disturbed look on Vasir's face showed that she did not know what to say to Shepard's retort.
"If you've read my service record, you'd know that I am an Alliance trained vanguard. It means I was trained to use offensive biotic attacks - biotic charge being one of them. You can use the same skill, too. I don't see why this is a surprise. It's like having to explain to other people what an asari huntress can do. It's supposed to be common knowledge." Shepard said in a matter of fact way.
It was a clever lie. Alliance trained vanguards would not learn how to do a biotic charge for another year, at least. But Shepard was betting on Vasir not knowing that. Vasir might not be an outright enemy yet, but she was at best a reluctant ally at this point.
Fortunately, Vasir did not suspect a thing. "It might be common knowledge to humans, but I wouldn't know how the Alliance trains their soldiers. You need to tell me these things."
"Fair enough." Shepard shrugged and gestured Vasir to keep pressing on.
The next target was the satellite uplink dish. Once they removed it, communication between the facility and geth dropships in orbit would be significantly delayed. The Normandy could really use the precious few minutes before reinforcements arrived at the rendezvous point.
Not to be outdone by a human Spectre, Vasir launched a shockwave at the dish fixed at the roof of the outpost and broke it to pieces before the guards could react before following up with a series of ferocious charges. Shepard was content to stand back and provide cover fire, letting Vasir show off her skills without turning this into a competition. She was starting to feel a little bit guilty for manipulating her not-quite-enemy this way, so she decided not to tread on Vasir's ego too much.
"Very nice." Shepard praised sincerely.
Vasir gave her a mistrustful sideway glance.
Following the road leading toward the facility, they soon ran into a fork.
"Which way?" Vasir asked.
Shepard closed her eyes and listened. "North. I hear flyers that way. They're not moving much - could be guarding something. We should check it out."
Vasir stared at her.
"Cybernetic." Shepard explained in one word.
Vasir frowned, but did not argue with her.
"Krogans." Shepard pointed at the enemies milling about on one of the landing platform. Her singularity was only a fraction of a second faster than Vasir's shockwave. The resulting explosion staggered them and removed all of their shields. While the group of krogans were stunned and helpless, Shepard charged into them and gutted them with her shotgun. Vasir was right alongside her, raining down fire with her assault rifle. The two of them were evenly matched in term of pure speed.
It seemed Vasir was also made aware of this fact. This incensed the senior Spectre to no end, if the resentful downward slant of her tattooed lips was any indication. Shepard politely pretended to be ignorant of Vasir's sentiments.
They found the geth flyer fueling platform at the north end of the walkway. The large fuel tank was only lightly guarded by a few drones. If they took them out now, fewer flyers could mobilize in the second half of the operation. This reminded Shepard that she should probably report in to update the other teams. She activated her helmet comm and began, "communication tower disabled. Satellite uplink destroyed. Geth flyers ahead…"
Vasir punched out a shockwave before unleashing a hail of bullets at the drones. Shepard joined in the firefight with a warp, dodged away from a rocket strike, and retaliated with a well-aimed shot that blew up the fuel tank. The spectacular explosion knocked all the flyer drones out of the sky. "... and geth flyers destroyed."
Satisfied with the sabotage, they followed the walkway and headed straight for the facility. There were more guards outside than expected. The noise of the fuel tank exploding was different enough from the usual lightning strikes to attract some attention.
Clenching her hand into a fist in a gesture to stop, Shepard signaled Vasir to wait at the blindspot of the platform where incoming guards couldn't see her immediately. The Commander herself took the north walkway and fired off a couple of shots at the facility's direction before retreating back onto the platform. Soon they could hear heavy footsteps accompanied by familiar soft whirring sounds coming towards them. While their enemies were lined up nicely on the narrow walkway, Shepard trapped them with a singularity. The next moment, Vasir bulldozed them over in a streak of blue light. The scene could only be described as life-sized bowling where the pins blew up after the strike. Those that did not die immediately were injured enough to be quickly picked off by Shepard's shotgun.
Having taken out most of the guards outside, they made it into the facility with minimal opposition. Inside, Shepard found a working console that controlled the doors to the warehouse. After fiddling with the console for a minute, an alarm went off inside the facility while all the doors unlocked.
"What did you do?!" Vasir snapped at Shepard.
"Relax, Vasir. No need to bite my head off." Shepard turned on the helmet comm and reported in. "Stay put. We triggered a false alarm at the far side of the facility. Shadow is going in."
Vasir frowned at Shepard. "You could've said so before you did it."
"At some point, you will learn to accept that I know what I'm doing." Shepard said with an eyeroll.
They continued onward. Inside the warehouse, they found salarians in STG uniform shooting at them on top of the usual geth and krogan guards. To say Vasir was perturbed by this turn of events was an understatement. "This makes no sense." The asari Spectre nudged one dead salarian on the floor with the tip of her boot. "No outward sign of torture. The uniform looks genuine. What is going on?"
Shepard sighed. This was the unpleasant part of this mission she could not have prevented even with her foreknowledge. She turned on the comm and updated the crew, "found your missing men. I'm sorry. They are gone. Saren destroyed their minds."
Vasir gave her a sharp look. "Explain. You know something."
"There are probably more of them inside. It looks like cloning krogans is not the only thing Saren built this research facility for. Brace yourself. If my guess is right, it's gonna get ugly, fast."
The sight was just as ghastly as she remembered. They found rolls of cells filled with broken salarians. Those were the elite soldiers, hardened professional spies the Council employed to do the most difficult black ops that few others could take on. Saren's experimentations had turned some of them into screaming, spitting mad beasts, and others into mumbling, drooling imbeciles. All of them were mindlessly shuffling around inside the cells. None paid the team any attention.
The horror stricken expression on Vasir's face summed up what she felt about the situation acutely.
In one of the cells, they found the one salarian who not only appeared to be completely lucid, but also alert and intelligent. "Hello? Is anyone there? Well, you are not a geth, and you're not in a lab coat. I guess I'm glad to see you. Lieutenant Ganto Imness of the Third Infiltration Regiment, captured during recon. I assume the fleet was called in to destroy the base?"
Shepard exchanged a look with Vasir. The latter scrunched up her face as if physically punched in the gut. "Sorry, we're all you've got. The transmission wasn't clear. The fleet is not coming. Commander Shepard, Tela Vasir, Spectres."
The captured salarian was crestfallen. "I see. I know the captain. He will want this facility destroyed. My team was altered, indoctrinated. He knew about the breeding grounds. But the indoctrination is a bigger threat, and far more horrifying. I watched good people reduced to mindless husks. There isn't anything left. Others died during the experiments. I envy them."
"What kind of experiments were they conducting that could do this to people?" Vasir asked with disgust clear in her voice.
"They were studying indoctrination. Symptoms, progress. Saren uses it to control his people, but I don't think he fully understands it. I don't know much else. Please, let me out. I can't stay here. They'll turn me into an empty husk just like they did to the others." Ganto sounded desperate near the end.
"The others are gone, that much is obvious. What I don't understand is why you seem fine." Shepard asked.
Ganto answered with self-loathing. "They isolated me on purpose. Control group, they called it. I got to watch them torture my men with my faculties perfectly intact."
Shepard thought for a moment and opened the cell. Ganto was in tears when the cell door slid open. "Here, take my spare pistol, but don't use it. You remember what the indoctrinated ones act like, right? Imitate their movements and head for my ship. Go upstairs, head towards the corridor, exit the warehouse, head east and follow the trail of broken geth on the ground. Keep your face blank and move like you're in a trance. You can start running after you clear the walkway. Go."
The salarian did not waste time and left immediately.
Shepard updated the crew over the radio on the new development. "Found a live one! Lieutenant Ganto Imness. They used him as a control group. I'm sending him your way. Follow protocols."
"Are you sure your good deed of the day is not going to come back and bite you in the ass?" Vasir asked.
Shepard scoffed at her. "You thought I freed him out of the goodness of my heart? Please. I need the Council to listen to his testimony." The unspoken part was that the Council would not believe a word their newest Spectre said, so maybe they would listen to a salarian STG operative. Shepard was willing to risk Ganto raising an alarm and giving away their position in exchange for a credible eye witness when reporting back to the Council.
This reply seemed to stymie Vasir. "The Council is normally… less critical of their Spectres." The fellow Spectre said diplomatically.
"Let's keep moving." Shepard did not dignify this weak attempt to excuse the Council's deplorable attitude towards her with a response.
They went back to the security office and rode the elevator up to the next level. The first thing that greeted them when the elevator door opened was the grisly sight of a husk standing inside a full-body medical scanner. They immediately readied their weapons and assumed combat position when they laid eyes on the undead creature. However, the husk did not react to their presence at all.
Shepard signaled Vasir to wait inside the elevator. The two held their breaths as they listened. Except for the quiet humming and beeping noise associated with a medical lab, and the highly disturbing low moans from the few husks inside the lab, they heard the distinctive voice of a krogan muttering to himself. "Regeneration, acceptable. Metabolism, high. Cloned protein deterioration rate… high. Estimated lifespan… two years. Better than the last batch."
Slowly, the two crept forward towards the krogan scientist in silence. The previously docile husks sprang into action as soon as they detected the intruders when they came in proximity.
Swearing inwardly to herself, Shepard reflexively used her biotic to throw the closest husk back. The loud crash attracted the attention of the krogan and his asari assistant. She left the few husks alone for Vasir to take care of and charged across the room to dispatch the two scientists. The krogan was in a lab coat instead of armor. Shepard managed to stun him long enough to take him out with a shotgun blast. Similarly, the asari was unable to react to the sudden attack, and was killed when Shepard warped her insides into goo.
While Vasir was at the other end of the room dealing with a small group of husks, Shepard quickly typed into her Omni-tool and instructed Kasumi to collect data from all the terminals inside the lab and then wait for Archangel. From here onward, Shadow was about to get involved in some heavy combat, and Shepard did not want Kasumi to get caught up in the crossfire. The thief acknowledged her order and quickly began her task.
"Found the cloning lab. Wrex, if you're listening, I'll have you know I just killed a krogan scientist. I think he might be the only one in existence in the whole galaxy." Shepard reported in as she walked toward Vasir.
"Krogan scientist are rare. Can't say I've seen many of them." Vasir said, eyeing the down husks on the floor with obvious distaste. "This organic-synthetic Husk creature. I've read about them in your reports. Individually, they are weak, but I could see them being deployed as terror troops in large numbers to inflict psychological damage on the battlefield. Geth are more devious than we thought."
Shepard looked around the lab and noticed all the medical scanners. "More importantly, why are they being studied here? I thought they were made with geth tech. If that were true, then Saren would have had complete access to the technology, seeing how the geth regarded Saren as their prophet. Something doesn't add up."
Vasir scowled. "Unless it's not made with geth tech."
"You're thinking that husks are made from Reaper tech, just like indoctrination. Saren has access to the techs, but he doesn't really understand how they work. That's why he is researching them here. Great. If the Council had believed me before, they wouldn't believe me now. This information is going to be buried because it messes with their plan to blame everything on the geth. Eden Prime? Geth. Feros? Geth. Noveria? Geth again. I bet you they're going to say that Sovereign is a geth ship." Shepard let out an exasperated sigh, having already foreseen how this was going to be covered up again.
The asari Spectre pursed her lips, and refrained from making a comment.
In the edge of Shepard's field of vision, Widget changed colour and spat out a message from Kasumi. The thief had successfully extracted all the data from the lab.
"We're almost there." Shepard said and headed for the door exiting to the communication tower.
There were a few guards patrolling outside the cloning lab, but they did not slow the Shadow team down the slightest. One singularity later, the guards were yanked over the railing and soon plunged to their death.
Inside the security office leading to the tower, they found an asari scientist hiding under her desk. "Don't shoot! Please, I just want to get out of here before it's too late."
"Get up and start talking." Shepard demanded.
The asari with black facial markings answered nervously, "Rana Thanoptis, neurospecialist. Please, I just want to get out of here. This job isn't worth dying for, or worse. You think the indoctrination only affect the prisoners? Sooner or later, Saren would want to dissect my brain, too."
An irate growl made it past the Commander's clenched teeth. Shepard took a step forward and pointed her pistol at the scientist's head. "I've seen the salarian test subjects. I know Saren is experimenting on them to study the effects of indoctrination. Tell me something I don't know."
Thanoptis flinched back in terror. "Goddess, please, just don't shoot. I'll tell you everything. Saren's dreadnought, Sovereign. It emits some kind of… signal. Undetectable, but it's there. Direct exposure to the signal turns you into a mindless slave. Even in proximity, the signal can still cause damage, although it takes longer. The process of indoctrination remains unclear, but it can be subtle. By the time the effect becomes noticeable, it's usually too late. One of the first brains I got to dissect was my predecessor's."
"Is that it? Anything else you want to tell me?" Shepard lowered her pistol.
Thanoptis let out a relieved sigh. "This elevator behind me goes to Saren's private lab. I can get you in." She hurried over and unlocked it with her access card. "See? Full access. All of Saren's private files. Are we good? Can I go?"
Shepard put a bullet between Thanoptis' eyes without fanfare. "Go to hell."
"Shocking." Vasir commented with her eyebrows raised. "I thought for sure you would let her go."
"Why would I?" Shepard asked as she scanned the room for useful loot, genuinely puzzled by Vasir's speculation. "You heard her. She helped Saren experiment on salarian captives. Her predecessor was indoctrinated due to prolonged contact with the Reaper ship. It was a distinct possibility that she was also indoctrinated, too. If I was right, then I've done her a favour by putting her down clean. If I was wrong, they she was fully responsible for her actions and therefore deserved to be executed. Anything less than death would be injustice."
"You are full of suprises, Shepard. Here I thought I've had you pegged as an aspiring hero with a savior complex. Who knew you could be quite the renegade when the situation calls for it?" Vasir said with a smirk.
Shepard frowned at the asari. "I'm no savior. I only did my duty."
"I didn't hear you dispute the hero part."
Shepard resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "Your definition of hero is very skewed if you think blowing an unarmed person's brains out after she surrendered qualifies me as one. I'm an N7 marine bred Spectre, not a bleeding heart good guy."
"You misunderstood." Vasir clarified. "I never said you were the good guy. You're not afraid to get your hands dirty to get the job done. I respect that."
Shepard was uncertain what to say to that. It sounded almost like approval, and she had no idea where that came from. If shooting someone in cold blood was all it took to earn Vasir's respect, Shepard didn't know if she wanted it. "In any case, we should get going."
They went through the security office and took the elevator up to the top level of the communication tower.
"What is that thing? It looks… Prothean." Vasir walked towards the beacon in fascination. Her advance was halted when Shepard physically took a hold of her arm and stopped her from getting too close.
"Wait."
Vasir pulled her arm back from Shepard's grasp and glared at her. "What's the meaning of this?"
"I'm saving your life. That is a working Prothean beacon. If you get too close, it will download the psychic message into your brain. Since you're not a Prothean, the best case scenario is that the thing will incapacitate you for at least half a day. I'd have to leave you here to die. If I try to carry you on my back while fighting my way through hordes of geth and krogans on my own, we'll both die. The worse case scenario is that the beacon will fry your non-Prothean brain and your head explodes. You'll die a very messy death." The Commander explained calmly.
Vasir looked slightly flustered from the close brush with death. "This is an utter waste of critical information. Fucking politicians. We are about to destroy a working Prothean beacon because they wouldn't give us the backup we needed. Wait 'till the Matriarchy hear of this." The six-hundred plus year old asari matron muttered with a dark glower.
"I'll do it." Shepard said.
Vasir's head whipped around, her stormy purple eyes flashing with restrained fury. "You will do no such thing, you imprudent child."
Shepard placated the angry woman with a hand held up in a gesture for peace. "Hear me out. On Feros, I've received the Prothean Cipher through a knowledge meld. I can think like a Prothean. Whatever is stored in that beacon, I will be able to understand it as well as a Prothean could. Chances are, I'll be completely fine. This is a risk we should be willing to take."
"If this kills you…"
"Feel free to tell everyone we were overwhelmed, and I got hit by a bunch of rockets. Nothing you could've done to save me."
Vasir pulled her lips back in a vicious snarl. "I swear I will leave you here if you're knocked out. Don't think for a second that I won't."
"I know that. I never accuse you of having a savior complex." Shepard countered with clear humour in her smooth voice.
"Fine. Go ahead and stick your fingers into the socket. See if I care." Vasir crossed her arms while glaring at the young human sullenly.
Shepard turned on her radio. "Shadow is in the communication tower. We've found a… sensitive spot that guarantees to attract a lot of attention. I'm going to poke it. This is it, Archangel. Move out. And good luck." Taking a deep breath, she walked up to the beacon's green holographic console, and put her hands on it to activate the device.
Power. Raw, unadulterated power surged through her body. Shepard arched back and choked on a silent scream. The sheer force that poured out of the beacon levitated her up in the air, locked her in place, and split her consciousness wide open.
And then she saw everything.
Every communication signal that ever went through this beacon, touched her mind in a the span of a heartbeat. The entirety of the Great Prothean Empire that spanned the whole of the Milky Way galaxy, lived, prospered, died, and faded away. Dust in the stellar wind.
It was beautiful, and so so sad.
The next moment, Shepard found herself kneeling on the floor, gasping. The beacon's green interface panel was gone. Above her, the sinister red holographic image of Sovereign hovered silently in the air.
The Commander got back on her feet and climbed up the stairs for a chat with the devil.
Vasir tore her eyes away from the holo image of a Reaper to give her a quick once over. "Well, you're not dead. I guess it went well?"
Shepard gave the asari a tremulous smile. The vision was intense. It left her feeling naked and vulnerable. It would most likely give her a raging headache later. But for now, she was fine. "It's not what I expected, but yeah, I suppose. I'm still standing. But that," she pointed at the red holo image and said, "is not so good."
The familiar malevolent low growl that had given her many nightmares, began. "You are not Saren."
"Way to state the obvious, genius. And you are not a VI." Shepard quipped glibly.
Sovereign mocked them, flaunting its own perceived superiority with this opening speech. "Rudimentary creatures of blood and flesh. You touch my mind, fumbling in ignorance, incapable of understanding. There is a realm of existence so far beyond your own, you cannot even imagine it. I am beyond your comprehension. I am Sovereign!"
"Pretentious title you got there. Are you sure that's your real name? Something more pedestrian, like Nazara, would suit you better. That's what the Protheans called you, wasn't it? You're not just a ship. You are a Reaper, a sentient machine AI." Shepard spoke with undisguised contempt.
"Reaper? A label created by the Protheans to give voice to their destruction. In the end, what they choose to call us is irrelevant. We simply are. Names and titles are of no consequence to us."
The purple of Vasir's face had turned a shade paler. "The Protheans vanished 50,000 years ago. What you claim is impossible."
Sovereign replied in its arrogant monotone. "Organic life is nothing but a genetic mutation, an accident. Your lives are measured in years and decades. You wither and die. We are eternal. The pinnacle of evolution and existence. Before us, you are nothing. Your extinction is inevitable. We are the end of everything."
"We organics are very adapted at surviving. Your hubris will be your undoing." Shepard snarled.
"Confidence born of ignorance. The cycle cannot be broken." Sovereign chided.
Shepard took a step forward, even though she knew the image was nothing more than a hologram. "The cycle of extinction you are so proud of cannot be sustained. Have you forgotten that we organics are the products of genetic mutations? How many times has the pattern repeated itself? They were not all the same, were they? You built the Citadel, you built the Mass Relays, you tried to guide and control how organics evolve and advance, but you can't really control organics, not completely. We always surprise you. We always fight back."
Sovereign's deep, mechanical voice took on an irate tone at the rebuttal. "We impose order on the chaos of organic evolution. You exist because we allow it. And you will end because we demand it."
"You and what army?" Shepard taunted, even though she knew the answer already. This was done for Vasir's benefit.
"We are legion." Sovereign boasted. "The time for our return is coming. Our number will darken the sky of every world. You cannot escape your doom."
Vasir could no longer reign herself in. "You are harvesting us! Letting us advance to the level you need, then wiping us out! Why? What could possibly be your purpose? Slaves? Resources? What is it that you want from us?"
"My kind transcend your very understanding. We are each a nation. Independent, free of all weakness. You cannot even grasp our existence." There was no mistaken the smugness in Sovereign's reply.
Shepard spat. "You are just a machine, and machines can be broken. Whatever purpose you were created for, you've outlived it. You are obsolete! This time, your kind will be the one facing extinction. Mark my words."
Sovereign did not take threats well. "Your words are as empty as your future. I am the vanguard of your destruction. This exchange is over."
The image of the Reaper winked out of existence, and the next moment a shrill screech comparable to a Banshee's scream pierced through the entire facility. The force of the sound blast was enough to blow out thick ballistic windows. If Shepard had not been wearing her helmet, her eardrums would have been ruptured.
They quickly took the elevator down and held their positions at the entrance. The guards they had attracted were forced to line up in a neat single file on the walkway. Only one or two enemies could attack at the same time without inflicting damage to their own force.
"You are the most reckless, most absurd person I've ever met, Shepard!" Vasir yelled at the Commander as she alternated between slinging out biotic shockwaves and firing her assault rifle at the never ending stream of enemies. "What the hell compelled you to bait a fucking Reaper?"
"Why the hell not? It's a fucking Reaper. What could it possibly do to me? Threaten to kill me deader? We were supposed to get their attention, remember? I would call this mission accomplished." Shepard yelled back. Thrumming with energy, she lashed out a warp and followed up with a throw in rapid succession. The resulting biotic explosion knocked a few geth flat on their back. Before the ones lined up further behind could climb over the fallen bodies, Shepard created a singularity a little off to the side of the narrow walkway. This mass effect field yanked a few krogans off their feet and flung them over the protective railing. Once the effect wore off, they unceremoniously plunged to their death.
They held the defensive position for what seemed like hours when in fact it was only minutes. Broken bodies were starting to pile up outside, and the only reason the heap had not blocked off the doorway was due to the steady supply of rocket drones that kept reducing the dead bodies into smaller bits. For the two heavy biotic-based Spectres, Geth troopers and krogan clones were much easier to deal with than the drones. Shepard was sorely tempted to whip out her Omni-tool and energy drain those annoying flyers in front of Vasir, but she thought better of it. The last thing she wanted was for the Shadow Broker to be aware of her tech power and begin to scrutinize her intel for better authenticity. Her cover for her future plans might be compromised if the yagh dug too deep.
Garrus' voice through the helmet comm cut above the noise of gunfire like ice water on a hot summer day. "Archangel to the Normandy. AA guns are disabled. Drop in Red Rover. We're going back for Shadow!"
Joker replied, "roger that. Hurry, Archangel! The dreadnought just took off and pulled a turn that could shear any of our ships in half! It's heading for the Commander! You need to get her out, NOW!"
A grin broke out on Shepard's flushed and sweaty face. The plan had worked beautifully. She interrupted Joker and issued an overriding command. "Belay that! Stick to the plan and head to the rendezvous point instead. Assist Red Rover. We can handle ourselves!"
"I'm not leaving you behind!" Liara all but shouted. Her melodic voice held the same stubborn note of desperation as the time when the Collector attacked the original Normandy. Shepard would never forget that tone. It replayed in her mind in endless loop as she slowly suffocated in the black, all the while wondering if Liara had made it to the escape pod...
No, she could not risk getting the other team trapped here. Her squadmates were more than competent, but they did not have a vanguard's mobility. They needed to start moving now.
"You're not! You are helping me by drawing fire away from my position. Trust me!"
Her reply seemed to be enough to calm Liara down. Wrex, on the other hand, decided to issue her an ultimatum through the comm. "If you die, Shepard, I'm gonna kill you myself!"
Shepard did not have the time to continue on with the banter. She was too busy dodging multiple rockets from drones. Unlike the ground troops, those flyers were not constrained by the walkway. "Time to run! Full speed ahead!" She shouted at Vasir over the loud booms of multiple rockets going off near her location.
They ran like hell. One biotic charge phased them across the walkway. Shepard aimed her charge a bit further than Vasir did and landed herself right inside the small security office where it was positively jam-packed with enemy troops.
"You moron!" Vasir screamed at her from outside the room.
Shepard pulled her fist back and slammed it down on the floor. Her barrier exploded outward in a powerful nova that not only knocked back, but also stripped all the enemies of their shield within the effective radius. Consider the size of the room, that meant every enemy. While her opponents were stunned by the brutal attack, Shepard generated a singularity in the middle of the room and slam down her fist again to detonate a biotic explosion. After the second nova, none of the enemies inside the room were left alive.
Vasir's cover fire took care of the drones on Shepard's back. The asari retreated inside the security office, locked the door behind her, and then proceeded to bite the human's head off. "Whoever taught you how to use biotics should be warped inside out! This goes against every biotic combat theory! You never fucking strip yourself of all barrier in a fight! Are you insane?!"
Kirrahe's status report through the comm channel saved Shepard from an epic chew out. "All defenses in position. Red Rover will hold the line! We are primed and ready!"
Joker urged again. "Hurry up, Commander! It's raining geth out there!"
"You heard him. No time to chat." Shepard took a moment to gather her tattered barrier back to full strength.
Nova was one of those rare biotic attacks used exclusively by human vanguards, the most aggressive biotic fighters of all the races, krogans included. An N7 vanguard was trained with the mantra that "the best defense was a good offense." Every asari who had ever fought alongside her had remarked on the seemingly irresponsible move that went against conventional wisdom that on the battlefield, a biotic without barrier was a dead biotic. It was the very first lesson every asari youngling learnt when they were taught to control their biotics at their mother's knees.
Even the most ruthless asari vanguard would rather charge away to get to a better position than to gamble on an area attack that would stun all surrounding enemies at the expense of one's barrier. It was simply not done. Hit-and-run was the standard military doctrine for asari. Keep-hitting-until-you-are-the-only-one-standing had never made it into their playbook. Shepard had no problem showing Vasir this technique because she knew the older woman would only see it as her weakness, rather than her strength.
Vasir gave her a withering glare that reminded Shepard so much of her grandmother.
Years ago, the school principal had called the elder Shepard in to pick her up after she had got in trouble fighting again. The fourteen-year-old had put the three school bullies in the hospital by breaking their arms, while she suffered a huge migraine from her uncontrolled biotic rampage. She never told the principal that one of the bullies had pulled a knife. It would have only landed her in deeper shit. She did confess to her grandmother about it after they left the principal's office. The "I can't believe you were this stupid" look was the exact same one Vasir was giving her right now.
Shepard pretended not to notice, even though she could literally feel the outrage pouring out of Vasir like a cloud of angry wasps. Her aura sensing ability was only at its infancy. But Vasir was projecting so damn much it was impossible to ignore just how ticked off the asari was. She was pretty sure Vasir was doing that on purpose, too.
The diversion tactic worked in their favour. Shadow met token resistance on their way to the rendezvous point since most of the enemy troops had been summoned to the bomb site to deal with the greater threat. It took them far less time to dash all the way across the facility now that there wasn't an army blocking their path. They made it down to the breeding trench in good time.
Shepard's eyes automatically sought out Liara amidst the chaos of the battlefield. The mere sight of her lover filled her with giddy excitement and injected her with a boost of energy. The very talented Prothean expert already had a group of enemies trapped in a singularity, and was now firing at geth assault drones zipping around the trench. Chaining biotic combo attacks with Liara was something Shepard had done countless times during the Reaper invasion. Without having to stop and strategize, the Commander charged at the group of trapped opponent and detonated the primed targets, sending bodies flying in all directions.
"Hope I didn't make you guys wait too long?" She said, grinning winningly at her squadmates while holding another wave of enemies off with shotgun blasts.
"Jane!" Liara sounded absolutely thrilled to see her.
"Shepard!" Garrus called out in delight.
"'Bout damn time!" Ashley shouted with a rambunctious cheer as she helped the Commander finished off the group of charging krogans.
Vasir charged into the trench and stopped next to the two mariners. "You are one ridiculous human, Shepard!" The asari Spectre sounded a bit winded.
Shepard ignored Vasir's hostile attitude in favour of giving out orders through the comm. "Red Rover, we are coming in. Get ready to pack up. Joker, where is Sovereign?"
"Three more minutes and it's gonna be right on top of us!" Joker replied.
"All hands, on the double!" Shepard shouted, and everyone obeyed without a moment's delay. The Commander herself did not use biotic charge to close the distance. She took it slow and made sure all her squadmates, including Kasumi and Vasir, made it safely into the cargo bay.
"Shadow is home!" Shepard reported to the Normandy's comm channel.
"Archangel is home!" Garrus also reported in.
"Red Rover is home!" Kirrahe announced in the short, clipping tone a salarian typically spoke with. There was a noted tone of elation in his squeaky voice, too.
"Normandy, take off!" Joker announced cheerfully.
The frigate vertically levitated off the ground as the cargo bay door swung up to a tight seal. A fraction of a second later, the ship took off like a bat out of hell.
Sitting on the cargo bay floor in an exhausted heap, Shepard turned on her Omni-tool and synced the display to show the view outside. The sight of the gigantic fireball on Virmire made her grin like an idiot. She hoped the nuke had set Saren's pants on fire.
x-x-x
Though the Normandy's med bay was way more crowded than it had ever been, the general mood on the ship was jubilant. Not one soldier had died. For a risky operation of this calibre, it was unheard of.
A large part of this was due to the combined efforts of XO Pressly and Dr. Chakwas. The two of them had organized the non-combatants on board to form a medical response team. The moment a soldier was down, the team rushed in and transported the injured combatant up to the med bay to receive immediate treatment. Without this, two of the salarians would have died from internal bleeding when a rocket went through the crate they were hiding behind.
After the battle, Shepard had gone straight to the med bay to check on the wounded. Dr. Chakwas was still too busy to chat, but she gave the Commander a quick run down as she worked over a salarian with burnt hands.
"Mostly flesh wounds. Blood loss, a few broken bones, some mild to moderate concussions, a couple blown eardrums, and a lot of burns. Other than scars, there was nothing permanent. The most serious trauma was from a rocket launcher. That got a bit messy. Thank goodness most people on board know some first aid, otherwise I would've been swamped. We will need to transfer them to Huerta Memorial when we get back to the Citadel, but frankly, I am amazed nobody died." The older woman finished patching up the wounded salarian and gave him permission to leave.
Shepard gave the doctor an affectionate smile. "No one died because you are the best, Doc."
"No, that would be because you have a terminal case of savior complex, Shepard. I'm afraid it might be fatal." Vasir commented in an acerbic tone. The senior Spectre ambled towards her junior colleague, scanned her with a critical eye, and leaned back against the bulkhead. "How's your head?" She asked, concern clearly showing on her tattooed face.
Vasir's question caught her completely off guard. Out of reflex, Shepard gave a candid response without thinking, "like an axe is lodged in it," and immediately regretted doing so.
Dr. Chakwas was in her face in a flash, examining her with a portable medi-tool. "Your vitals are normal. No concussion, no internal bleeding... some unusual brain activity. What happened, Commander?"
Vasir replied before Shepard could get a word out. "Miss No-barrier here decided to explore the new frontier of stupidity and found herself in Andromeda."
"Hey!" Shepard protested. "First of all, ow! That was mean! Secondly, it was a calculated risk. Last, but not least, my barrier is just fine, thank you very much."
Dr. Chakwas seemed irritated by the non-answer. "I can give you some painkillers for the headache, but you still haven't answered my question yet."
"We found a Prothean beacon in Saren's private lab, and I, umm, interfaced with it." Shepard explained, scratching the back of her neck while looking away from the doctor's stern gaze.
The older woman palmed her forehead, stunned speechless for a minute, before she finally found her voice. "Let me get this straight; last time you accidentally stumbled across a beacon on Eden Prime, you were knocked out for over a day. This time, while in a middle of an extremely time sensitive mission, you decided to voluntarily interface with another beacon. Did I miss anything?"
"When you put it that way…" Shepard trailed off. What could she possibly say? She knew she would be fine from prior experience, but that was hardly an excuse she could use. From a bystander's point of view, her decision to access the beacon came off as quite the risky gamble if not downright irresponsible. "It's a working Prothean beacon. I couldn't just let it be destroyed. It contained critical information pertaining to my mission to stop Saren." Unable to think of a better justification for her action, Shepard fell back on the tried and true "mission trumps all" defense.
Dr. Chakwas clicked her tongue in clear disapproval. "And what good would that information be if it had killed you? You have people who care deeply for you, Commander. Please do take better care of yourself."
Shepard winced. Liara was going to be so mad at her when she found out. "I should go get cleaned up." She said, and not so gracefully attempted to escape.
"Don't forget your painkillers." Dr. Chakwas reminded her.
"Right, thanks." Shepard obediently went back to the physician to get her medication, before stealthily slipping away while the doctor's back was turned.
Vasir followed her out to her weapon locker on the crew deck. "So what was in that beacon?" The senior Spectre asked.
The beacon had been a hub. Through it, Shepard had peeked into the entirety of a once great empire that spanned the whole galaxy. Whatever the Crucible had done to her to send her back through the beacon on Eden Prime, it made her far more attuned to this psychic based Prothean communication device than a human had any right to be. One mental touch with a functional beacon, and every single message that had ever been transmitted through this particular device was downloaded into her head.
Saren must have relocated the priceless relic to Virmire for safe keeping at some point in time. The first message sent through the device was a confirmation of the beacon's successful activation on Eletania - a planet that used to be an important Prothean world famed for cutting edge scientific research, now a level one toxic world infested with shit-slinging pyjaks. Since its activation, the beacon had seen a steady flow of information for almost three thousand years, a witness to the glorious height of the Prothean empire, until the Reapers had come to extinguish their civilization. As soon as the Protheans realized that the Reapers could locate even the most isolated pockets of populations by tracking the beacon's unique signals, all communications ceased.
The very last message received by the beacon had been a distress call originating from Ilos, three hundreds years after the beginning of the Reaper invasion. It was also the only message her human mind could comprehend the last time around.
Shepard briefly wondered how much of herself could still be considered human. Somewhere between thirty to fifty percent of her physical body had been fitted with cybernetics and bio-synthetic materials, whereas her mind had been through the meat grinder enough times, it felt like an eventuality before she ended up locked in a padded room.
"There was way too much information all at once. I'll need time to process it." Shepard settled for an evasive answer. The pounding inside her head had gotten steadily worse. Maybe after a hot shower, some food, and a nap, she would feel well enough to have this talk. "I'll see you at debrief in four hours," she said, rubbing her temple tiredly. "For now, I would prefer to clean up and lie down in a dark room."
Vasir relented. "Fine, I can wait. We'll talk later." She said, and left her alone.
x-x-x
A/N: That's it for Virmire. I hope everyone enjoyed reading this mission as much as I enjoyed writing it. Next up, the aftermath of the Virmire mission.