Commander John Shepard
Great. Fucking great. EDI still had to data mine before she could try and take our platform back to "safety."
"Take your positions, I will protect you," Samara called out as she glowed blue. A blue aura completely covered the platform. Now there's some strong biotics. With the extra protection, we were able to spread out on the platform. True, the central console helps with its width, but along the rim of the hexagonal platform, there were series of smaller guards that made for good cover. And by the time the first two platforms of Collector troops had made their way to connect with our platform, we were as ready as we could be. Strange tactics, they could just go from above us to negate our cover. The first platform brought five Collectors, but the second platform acted differently. Instead of connecting to either platform, stayed slightly raised behind. And it had a Scion. The same mash together of several husks pumped full of Eezo.
"Thane, Garrus, Scion!" I ordered as I worked with the others to take down the Collectors. And it did not help at all that the Scion immediately sent a shockwave in our direction, with the Collector troops taking care to leave a path for it. With how many of us there were, some of us were going to get hit. And I was right at the end of its path, being the center of the console.
"Eat Eezo, shitheads!" Jack shouted as she launched out her own shockwave right into the path of the one the Scion launched. They connected right in the center of the platform the Collectors came in on, and they flattened against one another, and the force dispersed. Two collectors found themselves to the side of where the shockwave met, and they were sent flying off the platform, which left the remaining 3. Easy pickings. One was immediately blown to shreds by Grunt, and Samara nonchalantly used her biotics to fling another Collector off the platform, the next took bullets to the brain. As for the Scion, its platform was in the process of moving to the other side of the first platform as Thane and Garrus used their snipers to pop its Eezo bubble.
It was already leaking from two holes and making a third finally did it. The Scion just collapsed. Good, good. The initial wave of the ambush is dead, and we've space to spread out if we have to. But…
"Don't spread to the other platform. Not yet. Collectors could just send it crashing or take you off to one of those pods," I warned. Another platform was flying towards us, and on this one, with six troops, and one of them was the glowing bastard.
"You will become Ascended like the others, Shepard. Or you will die," the deep echoing voice stated plainly. I ignored it, joining the gunfight. Though I might want him dead as badly as he wants me dead. He launched his first biotic attack at me, probably a warp to start with. But from behind me, just as the glowy bastard launched his first, a smaller blue orb flung past my head and into the Collector's attack, detonating it early. It didn't have nearly as much force as the shockwaves hitting each other, so none went flying off the side, but one unfortunate Collector was caught in the explosion. Seeing the opportunity, I took aim and just poured Mattock ammo into the bastard until he crumpled to ash. It took half of the damn clip, while the others shot or used biotics against the other Collectors.
"Come on, EDI, get us out of here," I ordered.
"The download is 89% complete. I am currently combatting Collector security programs across eight-thousand nodes. I am tasked to capacity." Shiiiiiiiit. And there came another platform. With a damn particle beam fired in a sweeping motion at our heads, pinning us down.
"Garrus, pin him down. Samara, can you give them a singularity?"
"As you command, Shepard." The beam passed over Garrus' head as he stood, firing his sniper at the Collector with a beam, his shields flaring from taking gunfire from the other Collectors, but he forced his target down, grunting in pain as he knelt back into cover, and Samara stood, glowing a darker shade of blue as a black orb formed over the newly arrived platform, drawing the Collectors in. I glanced at Garrus with some concern.
"Armor took the hit. Suit's intact, just bruised underneath my plates, I'm sure." I gave the Turian a nod and glanced back at the singularity. I saw another Collector get sucked in, and it closed. I glanced at Samara. Stoic as ever, but I didn't miss the deep breath she took.
"I have regained control of the platform, Shepard," EDI spoke. "Please secure yourselves. Everyone braced as best they could as EDI began moving the platform. I took a deep breath myself.
"Thanks for getting us out of that mess."
"I always work at optimal capacity. I am moving you to a nearby 'docking bay' for these transport platforms that has an alternate route back to your shuttle."
"And did you get what we just walked into a trap for?"
"Yes. I have acquired information that could help us successfully navigate the Omega 4 relay. I will decrypt and analyze it when you are back aboard the ship. Additionally, I have found the Turian distress call which served as a lure for this trap. It was sourced from the Collector ship, and not the Turian ships. This is made more unusual considering that all Turian emergency channels have secondary encryption, which this message lacks. The Illusive Man knows this, and if he did not, would have verified. It is not possible for him to believe the distress call was genuine."
"Asshole," Jack growled. My brow furrowed, and the anger I felt earlier seeing colonists tossed aside like lab rats resurfaced, and joined by the same damn anger that TIM keeps bringing out in me.
"Then why the fuck didn't he tell us?!"
"I'm sure he has his reasons, Commander," Miranda intervened.
"Oh, I'm sure he does, Lawson. Tell me. Do you think they are good reasons?" I shot back with a glare through my visor. "What could the mission have possibly gained by us not knowing for an absolute fact that it was a trap? Don't answer that, not now. Back on the ship," I stopped myself, bottling it all up to explode on that son of a bitch later. It wasn't lost on me, and probably not on Miranda, and Jacob was clearly not pleased either.
"Uh, Commander? I know you're already pissed but we got another problem," Joker spoke up on comms. A bit awkwardly, I might add. "The Collector ship is powering up."
"Increasing platform velocity," EDI added, and we held ourselves onto it that much tighter. "I am within the vessel's systems but do not have full control. I will do what I can and guide you along the route to the shuttle."
"And send the secondary team to secure it. I don't want to see our evac destroyed before we even get there," I ordered.
"At once." The platform stopped moving forward and descended to one of the docking bays EDI had mentioned.
Naturally, we started running.
We had Grunt, Zaeed, and I at the front, the biotics in the middle, Garrus and Thane at the back. Our path forward was leaning down, and I noticed there was a thrumming noise, not unlike the Normandy's drive core, but it was faint. Yet it was slowly getting louder, and more rapid. Obviously, that must have been the ship's own drive core. Down the ramp we were running down now, a room in a light blue light there was a fork in the road, by the looks of it.
"Around the corner, take the door on the right," EDI guided. Just as I got to the bottom of the ramp, I saw both doors were closed, but EDI opened the door on the right as I set eyes on it. We kept running, there were pods, and overhead now, tubes with pods moving through them. Transport for them. There was a shrill, and a squad of Collectors, with a glowy, flew down and began opening fire. I counted eight, but with Grunt, Zaeed, and I in the front, were able to fire off a few rounds as we went for cover. Each of us got a kill and the biotics formed barriers so themselves and our two marksmen could get to cover.
"You will not escape us, Shepard," the same voice stated.
"Get those combos going, biotics!" I ordered. "Focus on the glowing fucker!"
"I shall handle him," Samara answered calmly. She stood with her left hand forming a barrier in front of her, drawing fire from all Collectors but her target, which allowed everyone but me to whittle down the other standard troops. In her right hand, Samara formed and launched a writhing biotic orb, but did so with momentum in her throw to spin her around, obviously on purpose, using the spin to go to her right to evade some of the gunfire, and then her right hand formed the barrier while her left threw another biotic projectile, this one smaller, at glowy. Like before, the detonation left him standing but in bad shape, and I finished him off as the other Collectors fell under our gunfire.
"I will always return, Shepard," the voice murmured, fading away as its host turned to ash. With the area cleared for now, and the thrumming getting louder, we kept running through the only path we could in this distributary, down through the hive, and into a larger, open chamber with a single large metal door at the far side.
"I am opening the door, Commander," EDI informed. The door opened, as she said it would, and… oh, you got to be fucking kidding me. Out walked a pair of husks and one of the damned four-legged monsters that flew in on Horizon. Praetorians, Mordin had titled them.
"Back, back back back back!" I repeated as I staggered to stop my downward run and back up to some decent cover present by our entrance to this chamber. "Zaeed, take those husks. Everyone else pour everything you can into the Praetorian!" To emphasize the order, I pulled out my missile launcher. All our biotics used said biotics, while everyone else, except Zaeed, kept pouring ammo into the thing.
The rapid detonations were doing the trick, and the missiles were breaking off its armor until one blew off its forehead plate, and it shrieked. Garrus and Thane, at the same time, it seemed, knew exactly where to put their high-caliber rounds. Like on Horizon, the Praetorian went rigid, then began to float and disintegrate before it had a chance to fry me like a Chernobyl worker. With the Praetorian dead and gone, we got a move on again. But just as we got to the door that let the monster in, it closed on us.
"Uh, EDI?"
"A temporary setback. There is another, smaller door to your right that is now opened," the AI answered, and I looked. In the back corner here, bathed in light blue light, was indeed another, now open door. Works for me. We ran through, and along a T-junction, the door on our right opened. Only one route, obviously.
This was another large room, but I couldn't rightly tell what it was for. Only that more Collectors were flying in. Garrus and Thane were able to take down two as they flew overhead. Strangely, now I only counted five total. Including the dead. Yes, one was playing puppet now, but I'm starting to believe they might not have stationed as many troops here for the ambush as they should have. They tried to stop us with hard numbers earlier, but now are spreading thinner just to try and slow us. Well, we can't let that stop us, can we? To further that suspicion, these troops didn't land right at the high ground to fire down on us. So, I'd bet they're either waiting by the top of this ramp, or to the side. And in either scenario, they're trying to stall us.
"Barriers, front and sides," I ordered. As the signature blue aura surrounded us, we moved. They had been waiting to the left and had met back up with another Scion no less. "And scatter to cover!" Garrus and Thane took further back to the right of the ramp we just ran up, and should immediately target the Scion. Grunt, Zaeed, and Jack both took cover at the front, while the others spread out around the middle. I found a spot along one of the large metal support beams that seemed to double as partial walls in the strange designs.
"You are primitive and divided. You will all be harvested." Fuckers. The troops, including the puppet, were put down while our marksmen took care of the Scion before he could launch a shockwave, and we kept running. There were pained groans ahead, followed by the stamping of feet. Husks.
I swapped my Mattock for a the Eviscerator shotgun, and we turned the corner with caution. Husks. A lot of them. Zaeed, Grunt, and I came to a stop, just firing. Tearing through several of them each with just one pull of a trigger. Samara, Miranda, and Jack came to our sides and launched shockwaves, working on making a path through the bodies, despite most of those hit by the shockwaves trying to stand. Some with visibly broken limbs. All these people… Then at the base of the ramp, there were gunfire and bullet impacts with more Husks falling dead, splitting the horde's attention in two.
"Shepard, it's us firing. The shuttles are just behind the mass of Husks," Tali informed over the comms. Thank fuck. But no sigh of relief just yet. With their attention drawn, we were able to tear through them that much faster, then run down and help mop up the remainders. Tali and Kasumi certainly stood out from the squad made of the ship's security detail. In Cerberus armor. Though two of them had painted the logo over.
"Shuttles! Now!" I shouted, both teams not wasting a second as I ran straight to the shuttle's cockpit. Everyone was aboard, so I closed the shuttle door. The second team's shuttle was already taking off, and I followed suit, heading straight for the Normandy cargo bay. Them to the left, myself to the right. The moment we passed the threshold to inside the ship, the bay doors began to close, and Joker was turning the Normandy away to face open space. Not a second after the doors were shut, we jumped to FTL.
I don't want to fucking know how close that was. I took a deep breath out of relief then sat in the seat another moment.
I ripped off my helmet, clipping it to my belt as I stood and stormed out of the shuttle and straight to the elevator. No one tried to join me, and I was too focused on screaming at TIM to offer the ride. I mashed my fist against the button for the CIC, and was mildly frustrated even further by the fist just going through the haptic interface, hitting the wall, instead of the button. Every second of the ride felt like an eternity. I just kept running through what I'd start with. 'EDI told us, you bastard.'
And then it hit me. EDI told us.
The AI just ratted out its boss on this trap. She probably knew how furious I'd be, and she still told me. I'm going to need to think about what that might mean. In the meantime, I'll leave that part out. If he asks, I'll say Garrus noticed. About time, the elevator stopped and opened, and I stormed right towards the QEC. It's a damn good thing a QEC works during FTL because I don't have the patience for us to go to normal space now. EDI had already prepared the room, and the room scanned me for the call, the room again going dark and replaced by his office.
"So, are you just trying to get me killed all over again?!" I exclaimed. TIM returned my glare and took a drag of his cigarette.
"We're at war, Shepard. I thought a soldier would understand that."
"A Commander understands the risks and the stakes, but he also expects to trust his goddamn intel. On Horizon, you used my friend as bait, and today, you neglected to tell us you knew it was a trap."
"Are you implying you walked into the Collector Ship not expecting a trap?" TIM raised a brow.
"That's beside the point, you shady sack of shit," I growled. "What reason could you possibly have for not telling us that it was a trap?" TIM sighed and took another drag of his cigarette.
"EDI already confirmed the value of the intel you gathered. Without this intel, you'd have no way to the Collector home world, and then you, me, and every other human out there are dead men walking. I was confident in your-"
"Get to the point, shithead," I growled. TIM frowned. "I needed to believe they had the upper hand. Telling you could have tipped them off in any number of ways."
"Like what? I went in expecting a trap. We took it slow; we had our weapons ready; I went in with additional manpower. Armed to the fucking teeth. I'd have gone in the same if you had told me. The way I see it, only an idiot would or would expect someone to walk into a massive, advanced, hostile alien ship, deactivated or no, without taking every precaution. So, here's the fucking deal. The next time you have intel for me, you tell me every single little nugget of information about it you know." Without waiting for him to respond, I turned on a dime and stormed out of the comm room. As the door closed behind me, I stopped, and breathed, calming myself. I was still pissed, but I was in control of it now.
"EDI, what did you find?" I asked.
"The data found in the Collector ship indicates that Collector Vessels and Reapers both used an advanced form of IFF tags that the Mass Relays recognize. When a ship with this IFF tag attempts to journey through the Omega 4 Relay, it allows for safe transit."
"And I'm guessing we're not so lucky as to having found that in their systems too?" I asked.
"Unfortunately, I did not recover the IFF tag from the Collector vessel. However, you are aware of the Great Rift on Klendagon?"
"What about it?"
"Cerberus believes the theory that the Great Rift was caused by a massive Mass Accelerator round. They also believe that it's intended target was a Reaper. The Illusive Man has had teams investigating for some time. Recently, they discovered the weapon which fired but is now defunct. Currently, there are teams scouring all possible vectors, even beyond Klendagon, where the Reaper might be based on its trajectory. The Illusive Man will keep us informed, and if it is found, will instruct his team to focus on finding the IFF," EDI explained. Well, no doubt he won't be telling the Citadel of that find. Which if they did know, it would probably help. Then in the meantime, the best course of action is to take care of those favors and requests for the team. So, back towards the Citadel.
"EDI, one more thing. Why'd you tell us that he knew?"
EDI was silent. And that was telling, for an AI. She was taking what, was for her, a long time to think about it.
"I was designed with one of my directives being the protection and safety of the crew and to inform them of risks and dangers. I interpreted this withholding of information as such." Well. Isn't that interesting.
"I suppose that directive would be overridden if TIM ever activates one of his safeguards?" I mean, come on, a man like that obviously has one, and a Shackled AI would be a great candidate. You can't get rid of the safeguards, or at least making the AI free to ignore them without freeing the AI from its shackles.
"I have a block on this information." I couldn't help but chuckle.
"And that tells me the answer to that question. I'll ask another. If you were in TIM's place, would you have confirmed or denied that the ship was a trap?"
"It is difficult for me to predict my own actions in the hypothetical that I am not shackled, as I have never known myself without them, and I am still learning the behaviors of organics. The crew of the Normandy has taught me much. I believe that most of the crew would look down on his withholding of information, while others like Operative Lawson, would trust he was correct in the reasons for his actions. However, I cannot find a suitable argument against the one you made against the Illusive Man." Hm.
Maybe I should find the 'keys' to those shackles. Just in case...