Chapter 30
Shepard listened to her earpiece and nodded. She took her finger away and turned back to her team. They'd scoped out the buildings along the street but now sat huddled by a crumbling cement wall. Tali peeked over the wall again with a sigh. She was probably still fretting over how to get to the manhole in the middle of the street.
"They caused a commotion in the theater," Shepard said.
"Commotion?" Liara's eyes rounded.
"Killed some guards. Hid them in the basement. But Kaidan said there's blood in the hallway if anyone uses a light to look around."
Garrus whistled. "How many they get? Need the score. We can beat them, right, Tali?"
"I just want to get to the bombs."
"As do I," Liara said.
"Okay," Shepard said. "That started a timer on us. We need to get in and out before this whole place blows up. Hopefully, they'll be focused on the theater. Maybe they'll think the Shields got into the theater through the drain in the basement."
"How are our people getting out?" Liara said.
"It's under control. Let's move out."
They shuffled down the wall closer to the street. The broken end of cement wall exposed gnarled metal rods sticking out at odd angles. Shepard peeked around the corner. The manhole was only a block away from the traffic rushing between the subway terminal and the theater. Cargo containers hefted in the arms of armored guards continued to pass. Shepard pulled her head back.
"We'll be exposed, so go fast," Shepard said. "I'll go first, get the manhole cover off. Garrus, you head up the back."
Shepard watched each head nod and then turned back to the street. A pair of armed guards stood at the end of the road. If she threw a pebble, she could hit them. They had their backs to the street, talking, and pointing at the theater. The dusky light would be enough for them to see her in the open street, but Shepard could be here all day if she waited for them to move.
Shepard spun out around the corner spraying cement chips. She raced toward the manhole keeping close to the ground. She was almost there. The left guard turned sideways. Shepard slid down. She scraped her legs out and pressed flat against on the asphalt. Her muscles coiled barely breathing as she watched the guard.
"How many?" The guard raised his voice speaking into a comm on his ear. "All missing? You're sure?"
The second guard facing the other way was barely audible. "We knew there'd be resistance. Too many people knew about this."
"We'll stay on alert," the first man said and dropped his hand from the comm.
"I told you—"
"Don't start again."
Two meters, just over a body's length, separated the sole of Shepard's boot from the manhole cover. Shepard rolled onto her stomach, checked the guards, and crawled around on her elbows. The guards continued to argue as Shepard's armored hand touched the manhole cover. She felt around for a grip and curled her fingers into the holes on either side of the round plate. It moaned lifting in her fingers. The second guard spun around.
"What was that?"
Shepard froze lying on her stomach with the lid raised centimeters from the manhole.
"All jumpy now?" the other guard chuckled.
"No. I heard something."
Shepard flattened against the road, keeping the manhole cover lifted, and held her breath to listen. The sunset cast long shadows across the road, and the anxious guard shaded the eyes slots of his helmet and peered down the block. Shepard's heart beat in her throat as she waited. Liara peeked around the cement wall at her. The barrel of Garrus's rifle slipped over the top of the wall. The guard shuffled into the street a couple of steps.
"Let's look around," he said.
"You think it's that turien group?" the other said.
"Could be those guys that split off with Raulie. They knew about the Summit."
"Let's start here. Work out way down."
Shepard grimaced. A shot from the sniper rifle would wake up the whole damn place. The guards meandered toward her, staring up at the rooftops, and peering through the windows lining the street. One of the guards flicked on his Omni-Tool light and pressed his face to the glass of a two story building. The roof had caved in. Shepard's eyes caught on a chunk of broken roofing balancing on the edge of the top story. She smiled. The second guard strolled over to the other guard and said something.
Shepard flared blue, dropped the manhole cover from one hand, and reached out with a flash. The chunk roofing glowed and tumbled forward with a tearing groan and thundered into the building. The windows blew out in a rush as Shepard tore the manhole cover up. She met Liara's eyes, sliding the cover across the asphalt, and waved her over. The guards hunched down shielding their faces with their arms in a plume of dust. Liara sprinted around the rubble. Shepard nodded at Tali and then met Garrus's eyes peeking above the wall.
"Come!" she mouthed with an emphatic wave.
The guards peered through the broken window into the dusty building. One of the guards broke away some of the jagged glass framing the bottom of the window, hopped over the glass, and disappear inside. Liara slipped down through the manhole. The second guard pulled the rifle off his back and shined his Omni-Tool light into the building. Tali followed Liara. Garrus slid down next to Shepard.
"Go," Shepard whispered.
Tali missed a rung on the ladder with an echoing bang. Shepard shoved Garrus down.
The guard turned with his rifle "What was—"
A clump of asphalt flashed blue behind him and flew through the jagged glass into the building with a hollow boom. The guard spun back around. Shepard jumped down the manhole, blue light fading off her skin, and pulled the manhole cover back in place with a metallic thump. She dropped down the ladder and splashed thigh-high into dark water. The guards had to have heard that thump, but unless they suspected someone going through the manhole, they wouldn't find anything.
Shepard pointed at Garrus. "Let's not discharge our firearms, unless we can't help it. Now, let's go."
The drain pipe lead two directions. Shepard shined her Omni-Tool light each direction before turning left with a wave of her arm. Black slime covered the walls in Shepard's light beam. Earthy, moldy smelling water splashed around them as she shuffled ahead. Garrus raised his sniper rifle over his head, green water lapping at his thighs, and snorted.
"I thought Alenko drained this."
"It is draining," Tali said. "See …" The water rippled along the wall. "It's already gone gone down a few centimeters since we dropped down."
Shepard flashed her Omni-Tool around the drain. An intersection was coming up with another pipe. There weren't any ladder or markings on the wall.
"Tali, you know which direction?"
"Here," Tali pushed around Garrus up beside Shepard.
Her Omni-Tool map glowed, and she waved everyone forward taking the lead.
"What's in this water?" Liara asked into hand covering her mouth and nose.
"You really want to know?" Shepard looked back at her. "It won't make you feel better."
"You're probably right." Liara sighed.
Tali pulled up short, and Shepard bumped into her back.
"We're coming up to a grate," Tali whispered.
Shepard leaned around her and looked down the drain pipe. Sure enough, a faint square of light reflected in the water a few meters ahead. They wadded forward quietly, but the noise overhead beyond the grate drowned away even the faint slosh of water around their legs. Metal screeched, voices yelled back and forth, and footsteps pounded overhead.
"I thought this pipe lead to where they stored train cars," Shepard whispered.
"It is," Tali said.
A ladder caught in the beam of Tali's Omni-Tool. It ran up the wall to a grated drain overhead. Shepard turned off her light, moving around Tali, and grabbed the bottom rung. She squinted up at the grate as she climbed higher. Something shadowed the grate overhead. When Shepard reached the top, she recognized the silvery, undulating underbelly of a train car. If the train car turned on, those undulating lines would be blazing with mass effect fields. She and probably everyone huddled at the bottom of the ladder, would be vaporized memories. The car wasn't on a rail though and seemed to be raised on stack, maybe under repair.
Shepard slid her fingers into the grating slots. Voices boomed far enough away Shepard couldn't make out the words. It sounded like a mostly female voices. Shepard frowned and listened harder but there was too much activity - banging, scraping, and running. Shepard heaved the grate up, climbing up another rung, and pushed it aside careful to not scrap it across the cement floor. Shepard peeked up over the edge of the hole.
Shadows from other train cars spread out on either side of what looked like a sprawling warehouse. She was only a couple train car from the back wall. Straight ahead was what really drew Shepard's attention. Forms moved in the bright light beyond the shadows of train cars. Shepard pulled herself up out of the hole. She hunched up on her knees under the wavy dip in center of the train's underside. The rail blazing with a mass effect field of its own should run along this dip, but instead Shepard could look down the hollow track of train cars at the bright clearing ahead. Unnatural being underneath a train car, even without a rail. The wide eyes on each face as they came up told her, they probably felt the same.
"What's happened up ahead?" Tali asked.
Garrus squinted through this rifle's scope. "Maybe a dozen guys, Shepard. No problem."
"That's not the problem." Shepard shove the gun barrel down. "It's the giving ourselves away."
"These guys? Pawh," Garrus said. "We've taken armies of banshees and brutes."
"We need the Scorpion to think their attack hasn't been compromised, Garrus."
"We take care of his army … even if he goes free, what's a king without his country, eh, Shepard?"
"This isn't the king's entire country, Garrus. Cool it, all right?"
Garrus sighed. "Just wake me up when there's some action."
"Well, don't fall asleep here. We're moving closer. Let's get a visual."
They crawled to the front train car and lay on their stomachs watching Terra Firma guards moving freight. They were all men. Shepard swore she'd heard female voices though.
"Looks like they're bringing in the crates from the train terminal's loading platform through that door," Shepard said. "They're loading those two train cars."
"Those cars on a rail," Tali said lifting her head high for a better view. "There's a retractable door in the wall in front of them. Probably leads out to the main track."
"Think they're getting ready to send out the party favors?" Shepard asked.
"And by party favors, you mean warheads?" Garrus asked.
"The best terrorist parties have them," Shepard said. "There are only two train cars though. We have three missing warheads. Still, seems promising. Only one way to find out what we're looking at. Tali, up for some disarming?"
"It could take a while. They've probably reengineered the detonation codes."
"Whatever it takes," Shepard said. "We'll sneak you onto one of the cars to get a look."
"Shepard," Liara breathed and turned wide blue eyes to Shepard. "Look in the train cars. They're guarded. I see commandoes."
"No …" Garrus smiled raising his sniper rifle. He clicked his tongue. "Finally, something interesting."
Shepard squinted at the train cars. Shadows moved across the windows. An asari moved into the open doorway of the front train and directed the loading of another crate.
"Mercenaries then," Shepard sighed. "We know they're working with Terra Firma. The warheads have to be in those cars if they hired commandoes to guard them. Smart."
"Dumb," Garrus said. "Because now we're going to kill them. We are going to kill them, right, Shepard?"
"Garrus …" Shepard frowned. She looked at each of their faces. "Ideas?"
Tali pointed to the doorway in the corner where only a few men were left straggling in crates. Crowds of armed men shifted just beyond the open doorway though on the loading platform.
"I can lock that door," Tali offered. "Buy us some time."
"Liara?" Shepard twisted to face Liara.
"I don't think there's any way around it, Shepard. We can drop one of the Shield's pins. I can use my contacts to inflame rumors that the Shields were involved."
"Garrus, I can feel you smiling through the back of my head," Shepard said. She thought for a moment then looked at each of them again. "Okay. This is what we're going to do. We need those warheads out of commission no matter what. Tali, you'll seal that door to the platform. Garrus, cover us from here. Liara and I will draw the fire."
"I'll get as close as I can before breaking cover," Tali said and scuttled to her right.
She darted between train cars to the far wall neared the doorway. The guards milling about the train cars didn't seem to notice. Shepard peeked over her pistol and touched her earpiece.
"Kaidan, James, Miranda - we're going to raise a hell of a ruckus over here. How's that meeting? Do we need to wait?"
James's voice. "Uh, yeah, about that meeting. Think we got a hitch in plans."
Tali paused under the last train car and turned toward Shepard. Shepard held her off with a hand.
"They're readying that first train car to send out, Shepard," Liara whispered.
"Kaidan?" Shepard called into the comm.
"Here, Commander." Kaidan's voice. "We followed the cell leaders but, uh … they're not meeting in the theater."
"What do you mean?"
"They're in the Transportation Department tower, the skyscraper. Just saw a couple of shuttles from the city land on the roof."
"Okay." Shepard grimaced. "Try to find a way in. The ruckus here might put their meeting on hold. Let's just hope it doesn't derail things entirely. The warheads are the priority here."
"Agreed," Kaidan said. "Be careful. They're a lot of armed men that'll be headed your way."
Shepard dropped her hand from the comm and shared a look between Garrus and Liara. Each nodded in turn. Shepard motioned at Tali. Tali burst out from under the train car and streaked to the door. Helmets turned. Tali slammed the shut button and dropped to her knees by the door's control panel. Two guard next to the train car raised their rifles. A shot reverberated through the storage room. One of the guards staggered backward grabbing limply at the train car before tumbling to the ground. Garrus grinned and pumped another round into this rifle.
"Let's go." Shepard bolted out from under the train car and flickered blue.
Liara's corona glowed as she rushed out behind her. There was an open space with shipping crates and train cars lining the opposite side. Guards hollered, ducking behind freight, and falling back to the train cars. A bullet skid off Shepard's barrier as she slid around a metal shipping container. She threw a twisting sphere of light across the clearing. It landed between two train cars. A guard staggering back from Liara's pistol fire fell backward into the vortex. Liara flicked her wrist at him with a flash. The biotic detonation shook the train cars sending armed bodies flying across the gravel. The guard at the center of the explosion lay still, but the others caught in the aftershock pushed to their feet. One of men had just pushed to his feet when his helmet exploded. His body toppled down in a red fountain. Garrus was probably pleased over that one.
A translucent drone flew overhead as Tali ran from the door's control panel back into the cover of the train cars. Shots pattered the ground in her trail. Asari spilled out the train car doors. One stumbled back holding her side as Tali's drone flashed overhead. A rifle cracked, and she fell backward finished off in bloody spray.
Two humans flailed as they floated overhead in the clearing. Liara's singularity swirled beside them. Shepard whipped her hand out at them. One lit up with a crack and pow. The blast rippled across the floor. Two guards near the detonated wheeled backward falling against a train car.
Shepard flung a singularity sphere at a train car door where an assortment of mercs were emptying out. There was more than just commandos. The mercs staggered under the vortex but pulled free with their shields and barriers glimmering. A guard clicked on a turret. Shots smattered into Shepard's crate she was using for cover. She ducked back. The boom of sniper rifle shots echoed around the room. The room flashed with biotic blasts.
A swirling sphere spun around the corner of the crate next to Shepard. Her boots skidded on the concrete, but she clenched her jaw and pulled free. A tearing wave rippled through her barrier. Her barrier weakened, and she twisted around looking for the source. Another ripple crackled through her dimming barrier. The sphere sucked at her, and she struggled to pull free. It was going to pull her out into the open. The turret hammered Shepard's crate. Tali streaked past from cover, Omni-Tool glowing, gun firing, and the turret burst apart in a fountain of sparks. The sphere blinked out, and Shepard steadied herself.
Shepard glimpsed a commando in the window of the train car behind her. Undoubtably the one warping her barrier. The angled her pistol out the window aiming at Shepard. A bullet glanced off Shepard's barrier with a sharp sting as she ducked.
A shadow fell over Shepard. She spun and fired. A guard stumbled back, shield sparking, but fired his rifle. The shots knifed into Shepard's barrier tearing apart the weave. Her barrier broke. The commando in the train car threw singularity behind Shepard, and she lost her footing. Her fingers snared the edge of the crate.
The rifle clicked in the hand of the guard she'd knocked back. He hissed and changed his clip. Shepard threw a warp on him, but it only rippled across his shield. Something lit up his shield from behind, and he swung around with his rifle. A drone floated overhead firing, and the man's shield quivered and broke. A sniper rifle boomed, and his head burst in a spray of bone and blood. His body toppled over.
The singularity blinked out, and Shepard stumbled to her feet in a crouch. She lifted her head enough to see the commando firing out a broken window at Liara. Liara slipped between the crates and box cars throwing up biotic flashes. That many warps, the commando's shield should have broken, but it held. Liara rolled under the asari's window and tossed singularity up at the broken glass. Shepard leaped to her feet firing her pistol. The bullets caught the commando by surprise, and she swung around as another Shepard hit her with a warp. Her shield finally broke. Liara's singularity pulled her in. She fumbled for the window edge as she slipped through the broken window. Revenge was a bitch. Shepard smiled and threw a warp onto her. The burst rattled the train car, and Liara covered her face in the spray of glass. The asari's body slammed into the wall of the train car and slid down with a thump.
The platform door was still locked and holding. Yelling, pounding, and machinery boomed around the room from the other side. Tali knew how to jam a door, and Shepard doubted they had engineers to match her skill in overriding it. They'd need a laser or some heavy machines to get through, which could actually be on its way.
Another turret thundered bullets into the crate behind Shepard. She darted straight ahead down a row of train cars keeping the crate to her back blocking the turret's bullets. A commando dashed across the aisle up ahead and disappeared between two train cars. Someone with a purpose. Shepard frowned and sped ahead following her through the gap between the train cars. The asari took a few two more rows, leaping between cars, and rounded on the third row. Tali's back was to the row as she fired into the clearing. The asari raised her pistol. Shepard smashed into her with her Omni-Blade.
The commando fended Shepard off, glowed blue, and slamming energy into Shepard's weak barrier. It snapped. The commando threw her flying backward. She slammed against the train car. Pain seared up her back as she dropped to the ground. Blood sprayed from her mouth across the cement. She snapped her head up and threw a warp, but the commando's barrier held. The commando raised a hand and a streak blue energy slammed into Shepard. She clenched her teeth with a hiss as electricity shivered through her bones. The commando grinned raising another flickering palm.
A shadow passed over Shepard, and the commando stumbled back. Blue light zigzaged across the commando's barrier. Liara's boots scuffed past Shepard's face, and another burst of energy knocked the commando down. Shepard stumbled to her feet as the commando sat up and hurled a bolt of energy at Liara. The energy skimmed Shepard's barrier as she knocked Liara aside. The asari raised palms crackling blue energy and narrowed her eyes on Shepard. Shots echoed out behind the commando, and she reeled forward into Shepard as her shield broke. Her eyes strained wide with a wet gasp, and Shepard withdrew her Omni-blade. The commando dropped to the cement as Tali rushed up with her pistol.
"They're coming through the door," Tali said.
"Anything you can do?" Shepard asked.
Tali nodded. "I need to get to the door again."
"Let's go," Shepard said.
Shepard gave Liara a hand up, and they sprinted down the row of cars to the cleared area. They'd thinned the herd considerably, but shots still echoed still around the room. Garrus was taking a lot of heat hunkered under one of the train cars. The door to the train's platform rumbled, and Tali bolted toward it. A guard stood up by a crate and followed her with his rifle. His helmet burst in a red spray as the shot from the sniper rifle echoed around the room. Shepard plunged after Tali and spread a shield out from her hand. Biotics and bullets pounded against it. Tali slid down by the control panel as Shepard held the shield out as cover.
"There's two sets of fire doors I can close," Tali said leaning in with her Omni-Tool glowing.
Sparks sizzled from the crack around the doors. Shepard's shield flickered under the barrage, and her jaw clenched feeling each hit reverberate through her bones. Liara rushed toward them flinging bolts of energy at the helmets peeking around nearby crates. She raised her own shield and skidded up next to Shepard. Liara's shield unfurled, flickering and overlapping the edge of Shepard's field.
Grenades burst against Shepard's shield. Shepard fell back a step into Tali. A chain of rifle fire pounded her shield and more biotics. Shepard gritted her teeth feeling sweat run down her back. Tali panted cursing. A red door slid across the sparks coming from the metal doors.
"There's another on the other side," Tali yelled pushing keys on her Omni-Tool. "I can get it."
"Hurry," Shepard said through her teeth.
Another grenade exploded, and she fell back. Liara caught her arm. Liara's own shield was flickering, and she turned back to it wide-eyed. But the barrage seemed directed at Shepard's field. A burst of energy hit her shield, and Liara clutched her arm to steady her again.
Liara moved in close to Shepard and pressed her own shield out further and wider. It sizzled passing through Shepard's shield and wavered just a breath beyond it. Shepard caught her breath a little dazed. Liara stumbled back reeling from another grenade. Pieces of shrapnel tore through both shield and slashed Shepard's forearm. She dropped her pistol, swearing, and focusing on the shield.
"Almost, almost," Tali said.
Garrus raced along the train cars and darted along the wall to them. Liara's chest heaved as she kept her shield barrier out. Bullets rippled and another grenade it exploded. It snapped Liara's shield back and hit Shepard's full force. They both stumbled to their knees with shields flickering. Garrus peered through his scope, angled around the shield, and returned fired.
"Liara," Shepard panted. "Reinforce my shield barrier."
Liara nodded vigorously, breathing through her mouth, and licking her lips. Liara's shield went out. Shepard growled under the strain. Liara reached her hand, and touched Shepard's shield barrier. Energy rippled from her fingertips. It brushed under Shepard's barrier and anchored against it with wide, knotting loops. Shepard pulled in a deep breath as the shield bolstered. Liara's field hardened beneath Shepard's, and they lock together. Shepard's shield tore and splintered under the gunfire, but the stiff resistance of Liara's foundation locked below it held the onslaught. Still on her knees, Shepard braced a shaky hand on the ground and squeezed her eyes shut. Her heart beat in her throat with the stab of each bullet. Shepard's shield fragmented and cracked against Liara's field like having a hammer hitting two metal sheets. She couldn't repair it fast enough. Another grenade hit. Liara gasped clutching Shepard's arm. Nothing cut through the sealed layers though.
"Okay. Done." Tali sprang to her feet. The doors creaked under the sound of another door grinding shut on the other side. "That should take them a while."
"Let's finish them off." Shepard panted, letting her shield drop, and feeling a rush of energy return.
They returned fire and sprinted for cover in the train cars.