Act I : VIII
Surface of Planet Therum
I think that last bump knocked out the last of my teeth and broke my one good rib.
Slade Jordan braced himself as the M-35 Mako thundered across the smouldering landscape of Therum. Everything the eye could see was either molten lava, or molten rock… or molten ash… wherever Dr. T'soni was, they could not get there fast enough. Slade felt as if his stomach was in his throat, the Mako managed to clear all obstacles thus far, but it was NOT a pleasant ride. He could not figure out if his new armour helped absorb the impact from each bump or crash, or made it worse for his body. Slade looked down at his standard issue Alliance blue combat armour and double checked each fault zone to ensure nothing got knocked loose by the Mako's rough ride. His helmet's heads-up-display confirmed his hardsuit was still intact and all fault zones were secure.
"Hey, Ashley?" Slade inquired. "You've been on this thing before. Is it usually this…bumpy?"
"Believe it or not", Ashley retorted. "This used to be WORSE. Garrus and I made a few adjustments to the suspension to make the ride less gut wrenching, but yeah, this used to be a LOT worse." Tali made a sound that Slade did not realize was actually a giggle, and only noticed after she started talking.
"Well," she teased. "It's only this bad when SHEPARD drives."
"I heard that!" Shepard commented. "I'm the commander, so I get to drive. Besides, none of you can drive stick so zip it, or I swear I'll turn this thing around and we'll go straight home without ice cream. Also, just throwing this out there, but the handling on this thing is ABSOLUTE SHIT. We're probably more likely to drive into lava than get shot. I swear, I'm not a terrible driver but this piece of crap is definitely making me LOOK like one. We can always get out and walk the rest of the way if-
"Nope!" The three of them said in unison. "Keep going, boss lady!"
The Mako's cockpit was not cramped; however, it was not exactly comfortable either. It was claustrophobic at best, and Slade figured it was at capacity with the four of them inside. Ashley commanded the weapon's interface and awaited targets from the Commander, who was in the driver's position. Slade was assigned to the navigation interface and was essentially the last line of defence from driving into a pool of lava. Tali sat towards the back of the Mako with her omnitool open and she was furiously inputting commands, earning her the unofficial title of Mako Engineer, or as she preferred to be called: The Shitcan Fixer.
"This place is crawling with Geth!" Ashley observed. "I think Pressly was right, the Asari has to be here!"
Eventually, they reached a point where the Shitcan could take them no further and Shepard stopped the Mako. Slade notified the Commander that they would need to walk the rest of the way, and she instructed them to gather up their gear and disembark. Therum was not nearly as hot as it looked, despite the pools of lava. Slade felt like he was walking around Eden Prime on a warm, summer day. A Geth plasma bolt then sailed over his head and scorched the rock behind him.
Well, at least the locals here are nicer than the ones back home. Geth might shoot you, but at least they'll be nice about it.
Slade followed Ashley as they ran to the nearest rock that was tall enough to duck behind. Plasma bolts peppered the front face of the rock and Slade was glad they were attacked from the front and not from behind.
My first real firefight! Whoah, okay calm down. I should NOT be this excited.
Slade primed his Paladin and charged the first shot in the clip. This was the first time he was going to fire the pistol outside the shooting range or a combat simulation. He peeked around the corner and spotted four Geth at the top of the hill: one rocket unit and three shock units. Slade's HUD highlighted the four Geth so even if he looked away, he could find them easily again.
"Three hostiles!" Ashley yelled. "Can anyone confirm?!"
"Four hostiles!" Slade corrected.
"Four, confirmed!" Shepard shouted over the comm. "Ashley, your HUD isn't synced with ours! The rest of us see four!"
"Damn", Ashley swore under her breath. She activated her omnitool briefly to input a quick command then readied her Lancer. "Alright, all synced up!"
Slade's HUD lit up with a few small icons and beeped a few prompts which the other's seemed to immediately understand. It took Slade a few seconds to comprehend what he saw and remember everything he learned from the simulations. The squad leader used HUD elements and prompts to communicate tactics and strategies to the rest of the squad without a need to actually talk. In this instance, Shepard was the squad leader, so all the prompts were her input orders. The first prompt highlighted all four targets with an overload icon, and was acknowledged by Tali. The next prompt highlighted the rocket unit along with the shock unit at the top of the hill with biotic icons, which Shepard herself acknowledged. The last prompt highlighted the two remaining shock units which Ashley had already acknowledged, and the final prompt was awaiting Slade's input. The icon corresponding to his prompt was an empty crosshair: eliminate the targets by any means necessary. Slade acknowledged his prompt and a five second countdown appeared on his HUD.
Four.
The Geth were relentlessly eroding the rock Slade and Ashley were using for cover with an endless barrage of plasma bolts. Slade wondered if the rock would actually give way.
Three.
A rocket exploded behind the Commander and Tali, showering them both with rubble. Shepard looked more irritated than shellshocked.
Two.
Slade took one last look at his pistol and double checked whether it was charged. It was indeed charged.
One.
Tali overcharged her omnitool and arced an overload that chained to each of the Geth, disabling their shields and rooting them in place while their servos seized: they were frozen and helpless. Shepard unleashed her biotics to lift the rocket unit and hurl it into the closest shock unit as if it was a torpedo, reducing them both to a pile of mangled scrap metal. Slade sprang out of cover, sighted down the closest shock unit and pulled the trigger. The round pierced through the chest of the unsuspecting Geth and removed the leg of the one unlucky enough to be behind it. It collapsed to the ground and Ashley marched over in order to mercilessly blow its head off, showering the vicinity with artificial fluids and bits of metal. Slade looked back at his first confirmed kill. The Geth sported such a huge hole in its chest, it looked as if it was a set of limbs arranged in a very specific layout: the torso had simply ceased to exist.
"Keelah!" Tali exclaimed. "What did you do to your pistol? Load it with dreadnought torpedos?" Slade smirked under his helmet with a sense of pride.
"Actually", Slade retorted. "I loaded it with rocks from Eden Prime. I'm not technically enlisted with the Alliance, so I don't get a paycheque and the rocks were all I could afford to load into the pistol." Tali rolled her purple eyes as they all started to walk up the hill to join Shepard.
"That was a nice shot, Slade", Ashley complimented. "Garrus can't claim credit for that one! Not bad for a first kill, now you definitely can't forget it." Shepard pretended to cry through her helmet.
"I know", she fake sobbed. "They grow up so fast! Just yesterday he was blowing holes in practice dummies, tomorrow he'll be shooting down frigates with a slingshot!" They all shared a quick laugh before heading to the next hill, which was also swarming with Geth.
I know I shouldn't be enjoying this as much as I am, but I really am enjoying this.
/
Commander Zoey Shepard was not happy; in fact, she was absolutely livid with rage.
"Try up, up, left, right", Tali suggested.
"I already did!" Shepard snapped.
"But, are you certain about that?" Tali retorted. Shepard inputted the sequence into the mining laser, but was rewarded with a negatory beep and silence yet again. The oversized hunk of junk was seriously testing her patience. Zoey let out an exaggerated groan and kicked the command console just hard enough to shake it.
"Tali", Shepard called. "Are you one hundred percent CERTAIN there's no other way around and you can't bypass the console?"
"Positive", Tali stated. "Unless you see a break in the bedrock somewhere, but we've all looked everywhere. The only way through is to blast a way inside and we don't have the ordinance for that. The mining laser COULD do it, but I can't bypass the interface because it's directly hardwired into the laser. It's weird, the console isn't even locked, it just requires a very specific command sequence. If it was just locked or encrypted, then yes I could easily bypass it but that is not the case here. We're just gonna have to brute force our way in, Shepard. Eventually, we'll find the correct combination, there are only so many possible sequences." Shepard groaned loudly again and raised up her hand in defeat.
"Alright", Shepard said as she extended her hand out and offered her palm. "Someone, tag in. I give up."
"Tsk, tsk, Commander", Ashley teased. "So quick to throw in the towel? We'll never catch Saren with that attitude." Zoey smirked under her helmet.
"Well", she replied. "We could always-
Zoey was interrupted as Slade walked past her and stood at the console. She joined Tali and Ashley in looking over to observe him. Slade keyed in two inputs and was met with a familiar negative beep that Zoey had become all too familiar with; however, his third input made her jump has the mining laser flared to life and carved a tunnel into the bedrock in front of them. Ashley walked towards the new tunnel to inspect it while Shepard and Tali walked towards Slade.
"So", Zoey started. "What was the winning combo?" She could tell Slade wore a mischievous grin under his helmet.
"Up, up, up, up" he sneered. "We had an old fashioned command input like this one back on Eden Prime. I overheard an engineer mention it was so old school that it was difficult to reprogram - which is also why Tali couldn't bypass it - so most of these consoles just use the factory default sequence as the command prompt. The few we had back on Eden Prime were either down, down, down, down or up, up, up, up. I just tried every direction and the "up" sequence worked on this one." Ashley viciously facepalmed her helmet.
"Seriously, Commander"? Ashley scoffed. "You didn't think to try that?"
"I thought something like that would've been too obvious!" Zoey exclaimed. "I mean, come on that's like setting your password as 'password'! Nobody does that!" Tali shuffled her feet and coughed softly, causing everyone to look at her.
"Tali…" Slade began.
"Don't worry", Tali sighed. "I'll change it." Zoey laughed as she walked over to Ashley.
"It's a one way drop, Commander", Ashley pointed out as she beckoned to the fresh tunnel. "If we go in, we'll need to find another way out of this place."
"We didn't come this far just to turn around and find an easier way in" Zoey replied. "Let's go. Benezia's daughter is still waiting for us to bust her out."
/
Slade Jordan was no longer enjoying himself; moreover, he finally realized why Doctor Chakwas did not want him in frontline combat. Not only was the cave collapsing around him, but there was an angry, biotic krogan attempting to reduce him to a bloody mess. All the Geth had been dealt with, but even Slade's team of four combined could not seem to do more than anger the krogan further. Tali stayed back at the farthest end of the room with Doctor T'soni in order to protect her from the krogan wrecking ball. Ashley, Slade and Shepard pushed forward to the centre of the room attempting to keep the krogan away from them, but it was not an easy task. The krogan leaped out of cover and started another push forward, protected from gunfire by his biotic barrier. Shepard sprung out of cover and used her biotics to attempt to warp the krogan's barrier. He staggered, but not enough to stop his threatening advance towards them. Shepard fell back down against the metal pillar she was using as cover, obviously exhausted as she looked as if her legs were heavier than she was accustomed to.
Shit. The Commander is reaching her limits. Ashley and I won't be able to hold up against the giant bastard without her help.
The krogan seemed to agree with Slade's conclusion and relentlessly pushed forward towards Shepard, he was a Mako's length away from her now and Slade was getting worried.
Shit. SHIT. I know the Commander is tough, but a krogan is still a krogan. If that thing grabs her…
Slade immediately stopped himself from contemplating any further, he did not like the conclusion he seemed to be reaching towards; however, the mental image he had in his mind of Shepard's broken corpse, sprawled across the ground caused fury to coarse through his veins.
No. You don't get to touch her.
Slade's body sprinted out of cover and sped towards the krogan, who was now at arm's length from the pillar Shepard was hiding behind. He didn't need to think, his body was autonomously reacting and he followed its lead.
"GO, SLADE!" Ashley yelled. "I'VE GOT YOUR BACK! TAKE THAT FUCKER OUT!" Slade did not turn around to make sure Ashley was following him, he did not have time. He fired his Paladin mid sprint at the krogan who was now on the other side of the pillar, but did not land a single shot.
Idiot. I've never fired this thing while walking, let alone at full speed. I shouldn't be surprised I missed but this is definitely not the time for me to start failing, the Commander is in real danger.
The krogan rounded the pillar and charged at Shepard, who managed to throw out one last biotic warp before rolling out of the way, losing her Lancer in the process which skid across the floor. The warp knocked the krogan off balance and he stumbled long enough for the Commander to get to her feet. Slade readied another shot but Shepard was now in his line of fire and he could not risk shooting. Shepard gathered an immense amount of energy and began to radiate with a blue aura. Whatever she was planning, it looked like it would drain her remaining biotic potential, so Slade hoped it would work. Shepard charged forward with inhuman speed and focused all her power into a single, focused energy blast that she released from her right fist as she punched the krogan in the gut with all her strength. A small biotic explosion emanated from Shepard's fist as the krogan fell to his knees and groaned in pain. His chest plate was mangled and dented from the impact and cracked around his abdomen, which began oozing dark, orange blood that dripped slowly down his front. Shepard primed and charged her M-6 Carnifex - preparing to finish the krogan off - but the krogan acted first. He lifted his arm and fired his shotgun, catching Shepard in the shoulder and flinging her violently to the ground. Shrapnel and deep, red blood settled on the floor: her barrier had failed and allowed the shot to pierce her armour. The sight of the Commander's blood filled Slade with primal fury, and with her out of his line of fire, he discharged the remainder of his thermal clip into the krogan's head. More orange blood, and fragments of what looked like bone splattered the floors as the krogan fell backwards and crumpled to the ground.
Stay down, you motherfucker.
"Commander!" Ashley shouted as she ran over to Shepard's limp body. "Slade! Make sure the son of a bitch is dead! I'll get the Commander!" Slade didn't need to be told twice, his blood was still seething with rage. He marched over to the dead krogan and inspected his handiwork. The krogan's head plate had taken two shots from Slade's pistol and was marked with two large bullet holes just above his right eye. Just like before, the rounds did not fail to pierce through the cinderblock of a skull the krogan had, and left his head plate fractured and broken around each entry point. The bits of bone-like fragments that littered the floor around them were actually bits of his head plate that had splintered and showered the area. Slade did not feel the need to double-tap - there was no reason to - as the krogan was unmistakably dead. Suddenly, a large heap of rubble fell from the ceiling and crashed into the ground next to Slade, close enough to make him feel a gust of warm air wash over his leg.
We're going to join the dead bastard if we don't get the hell outta here.
Shepard looked over to Tali and saw her leading Doctor T'soni over to them while evading falling rocks.
"Now would be a VERY good time to leave!" Tali remarked. Slade nodded and moved over to Ashley and the Commander. Williams had applied medigel to her shoulder and sealed the wound to the best of her ability.
"Chief Williams to Normandy!" Ashley barked over the comm. "Shepard's been hit! Have Chakwas on standby! We're on our way to the surface!"
"We're up here waiting!" Joker shouted over the comm. "But try not to take your time!" Slade and Ashley each grabbed one of Shepard's arms and hauled her out of the ruins, following Tali's lead. Halfway to the surface, Shepard's legs started moving again and she began running along with them.
"Let me go!" she ordered. "I can move on my own and we're too slow like this! Run! FASTER!" Slade and Ashley reluctantly released her arms and they all sprinted through the entrance tunnel, which was not easy considering its uphill incline and unexplained rising temperature. Slade got to the top and looked back, instantly regretting his decision: the tunnel behind them was now filled with lava. Shepard yanked him out of the tunnel and they stumbled down the entrance ramp.
"ARE YOU CRAZY?!" She screamed. "KEEP MOVING!" The Normandy had touched down at the start of the ramp and Tali, Ashley and the Doctor were already on board, waving to the two of them to hurry. Slade could feel a wave of heat behind him and knew they were steps away from molten lava. The Normandy jerked upwards and was now hovering a few feet off the ground, too high off the ground to jump. Tali and Ashley reached down from the landing ramp and left their arms dangling off the edge.
"COME ON!" Ashley bellowed. "HURRY! JUMP THE FUCK UP HERE!" Slade and Shepard prepared to jump, but were suddenly lifted off their feet and pulled into the cargo bay. They collapsed to the cold metal floor which actually made Slade shiver after being almost close enough to touch lava. The landing ramp raised and locked, while the Normandy sky rocketed back into the atmosphere of space. Slade looked up to catch a faint glimmer of biotic aura around Doctor T'soni.
"Thanks for pulling us inside, Doctor", Shepard gasped gratefully. "We definitely wouldn't have made that jump without you."
"You rescued me from both a krogan mercenary and an active volcano", replied Doctor T'soni in a calm, mystified voice. "There is no need for thanks, it was the least I could do to repay you for saving my life. And please, call me Liara." She bent down and offered a hand to Slade, which he gladly took and was raised to his feet. Liara T'soni was a typical asari with smooth skin of a light, mellow blue. Her lab coat was burnt and ripped in a few places, but otherwise looked like it was always kept in a pristine state. Her pale blue eyes gave off a feeling of mystery and wonder, almost as if she was not corporeal, but a sentient spirit that was given a physical body. Slade was glad he had a helmet on, because he felt his jaw drop just from the sight of the asari. She almost did not seem real, she was just TOO perfect to be an organic, living being. Her biotics also gave Slade another reason to immediately trust her, which only made him more inclined to care about her. Slade was broken from the spell Liara had him under as Shepard called out to him.
"Ummm…Slade?" Shepard started. Slade looked over in her direction to see Doctor Chakwas was kneeling down next to the Commander with her omnitool activated. "I don't think the good doctor has forgotten about me kidnapping you…"
"No", Karin growled. "I have not." She injected something into Shepard's arm which made her go limp and slump to the floor with an audible thump. Chakwas then turned her attention to Slade.
"Specialist Slade Jordan", she hissed. "You WILL follow me up to the medbay without so much as a single complaint, or I shall administer an identical tranquilizer onto you. Am I clear?" Karin had so much venom in her voice that everybody in the cargo bay had stopped what they were doing and silently stared at her.
"Yes, ma'am" Slade obediently said. He did not even need to think of a response, Chakwas had effortlessly made her point.