Time gets funny when one is confined to a cell. Garrus being shot in the leg and barely given medigel for it wasn't making it much better. On top of all of that, he was sharing a cell with Joker. The pilot wasn't a bad guy, they got along well enough. But he just talked so much. Not just inane chatter, but he would go into long, overly sarcastic tangents that the turian had trouble following. He tried to give the benefit of appearing to listen, but it was more likely that Joker just needed to vent.
It was also appearent he was concerned about EDI. Now Garrus didn't have the full picture, but it sounded like Shepard had been pushing EDI and Joker into being a sort of a couple. He couldn't quite imagine trying to do or say anything intimate with a synthetic, but EDI made it a policy to surprise them all from time to time. Garrus was more worried about Tali. He couldn't be certian how exactly it happened, but he and Tali had suddenly found themselves becoming very close and cozy.
It could be analyzed any number of ways. They were both dextro- based beings, in fact the only two on the Normandy at any given time. And maybe they had an affection for each other that had slowly built up over the three short years they had known each other. Sure, at first they had some differences, but they also had shared many things. They also had Shepard heavily influance them both, changing both for the better. While Garrus wasn't an Admiral or anything big like that, he wasn't a ruthless vigilante filled with regret either. Just regretted fewer things is all.
They had each other's backs, were a comfort to one another. Hell, right now, he wasn't worried so much about Shepard- she'd bust them out in a few minutes then they could all laugh it off in the med bay or preferably in the lounge. Right now, he was thinking about Rannoch. Tali had already picked a few nice places to build a house. Maybe he could learn how to hold a hammer and help her build it. Maybe a beach house too, if they were feeling especially restless.
...
Shepard for her part was dreaming of the beach. A sunny sky over what might be a Caribbean beach. Liara was there, in a stunning two piece bikini that was leaving little to the imagination. The human moved to join her lover by the water when the dream abruptly ended. The human let loose a blood curddling scream of pain as she was shocked back into consciousness. Strapped to an interrogation chair, wounds somewhat treated to keep her alive to be tortured.
She still had no idea what they stood to gain from this. The Reapers were defeated, Cerberus had been thoroughly whipped, and the Illusive Man was dead. Like Saren, she even convinced him to kill himself. Sadly, it meant he wasn't the villian inside he was twisted into. Just another victim in it all. Tired violet eyes surveyed what her limited field of vision would allow, unable to focus on anything. She heard grumbling, but could not make out the words. What was it they had planned?
'Just leave the Normandy out of this... leave Liara alone. She deserves to be free of all the pain I've caused her at least.'
In a twist of cruelty, a door behind the Commander opened, and two struggling people were forced inside. They didn't have to say anything for her to know who it was. Her skin paled, tensing up in the restraints. Brought before her was two people she thought were still on Earth: Major Kaiden Alenko, and Dr. Liara T'Soni.
Shepard couldn't recall how long she had been in this chair, let lone her second time in Cerberus custody, but she tried to focus to hear what one of the troopers was saying, but her bloodshot eyes widened. Still blurry, she saw a Hornet put to Kaiden's head.
...
Solumn silence. Despite the hum and the occasional turbulance felt by the shuttles, no one felt like breaking the silence. Even Wrex was in what seemed like a contemplative silence. Everyone had their reasons for coming along, even if they did not know SHepard like a few did, they had to do it. If the war with the Reapers was not a big enough obstacle to overcome, then this was the defining moment of their lives.
I helped save the savior of the galaxy.
But no one thought that right now. It wasn't about pride. It was more like returning one of many, uncounted favors the collective galaxy owed to Commander Shepard. They had a plan, one that would work. They had the troops: Wrex and Grunt, several turians including Hyrawl's partner Tarkus, the unnamed geth prime, geth hunters and other troop platforms to assist. James was on a turret in a shuttle providing cover fire when it came time to extract the infiltration teams and the hostages. Admiral Hackett had traded his uniform for armor, an appropriated Mattock rifle in hand.
Many seemed against the Admiral's personal assistance in this mission, but he plainly state rank was no longer important. Shepard was the important thing in the whole equation. The shuttles set down several kilometers from the base, well out of sight. The Normandy was providing overwatch from orbit as a particularly nasty storm was moving into the area. Ground based sensor were going to be useless, the storm could even interfer with an installations internal security and poweer network. Which was playing well for the infiltration team.
...
Well ahead of the remaining ground strikeforce, an infiltration team composed entirely of geth and Hyrawl silently picked their way through unforgiving terrain toward a horrible looking prefabricated structure and surrounding fortifications. The geth were nice enough to loan the human one of their steath units, allowing all of them to creep in on the structure. Most of the guards were inside already, only a few left now.
One trooper had scaled the roof of the building and was flooding the external sensors with artifacted data, coinciding with increased intensity of the coming storm. In a moment, outside comms were cut off. Security was hacked and the bulk of the infiltration team slipped in via several maintainence access doors. The remaining geth outside took a sniping position with a borrowed Incisor rifle, keeping a close eye on the remaining guards outside. The inside team quickly seperated into two teams. The prime, a hunter and Hyrawl dove deeper into the base through unmonitored access shafts while two geth hacked into the internal networks.
With careful timing, they shut down internal sensors, leading the cause to increased interferance from the storm. Electrical interferance was expected for a hastily assembled base, and Cerberus did not appear to try and repair the systems with any great urgency. All the better for the geth. The larger team moved in to surround the detention area that Garrus, Joker and the other crewmen were held, waiting for the signal.
Hyrawl and the prime split, the geth holding position in a hallway that connected to the large circular room Shepard was in. An observation room with a single soldier observing the torture of COmmander Shepard. A silent shade slipped into the room, crouching like a predator opposite the snickering soldier. The circular room's door opened, and the soldier lowered his weapon his weapon to watch as two people were marched in. Shepard was aggitated now, and the Cerberus soldier laughed.
What a hollow sound, how insulting. Hyrawl shut off his cloaking unit. Now was the time to sum up hs short life in a violent action. His biotic amp came online, mechanical mandibles twitching as he took a runner's stance. Shepard was shouting, and a man was trying to comfort her. A channel was opened by the geth prime, but said nothing. Hyrawl did.
"Attack," came the simple command from the fearsome armature, startling the singluar soldier int he room. The rest of the base was under alert in a moment, and in higher levels a short burst of gunfire. Hyrawl growled like a hateful beast, a blue biotic field wrapping around him. He then lunged, his biotics launching him throw the tempered glass, taking the soldier with him. He was flung like a ragdoll, dead as he hit a bulkhead with great force.
The one holding the gun to Kaiden's head tried to point it at the thing that just crashed through the window, but it spun on it's heel, right arm raised up to bring down. From the outer edge of the forearm a 14 inch hardened blade came down on the soldier's head, cutting through armor easily and killed him easily. The geth prime entered from the door and shot the other troops dead with it's pulse rifle. The room was secured, with the help of the hunter and prime, Shepard, Liara and Kaiden were rushed out of the room.
The upper levels were evacuated, shuttles coming in to pick up the hostages and portions of the infiltration team. A cheer rose as the geth prime came out with Commander Shepard and the last of the hostages. Battered but still alive, the unconscious commander was loaded into the shuttle with James and Hackett. The large cluster of shuttles hung in the air, waiting for the last member of the team to exit the building. The ground side entrance did not open, and one of the shuttles reported movement on the roof.
All shifts ascended to look down upon the roof, doors opening and mounted turrets aiming down onto the roof. Atop the roof Hyrawl stood, right arm blade still out, left arm thrown back to extend a much larger, angled blade as he stared down a singular man.
The Illusive Man.
"This will change nothing," the formerly dead man said, his voice more a mix with a Reaper. Though no one was around to confirm it, it was in fact, worse than anyone could possibly imagined. Harbringer had taken refuge in the indoctrinated body as a last resort, barely surviving the Crucible's assault. But if one still lived, it retained the power of the countless. And one human wasn't going to stop Shepard from dying. "We will restart the cycle. You will stop nothing, you will join us."
"I will not fight," Hyrawl said, seeming to grin through the armature. "But these hands and the blood in them will. You are finished."
The form of the Illusive Man began to twist and distort. Like every indoctrinated being the Reapers took control of, cybernetics seemed to sprout from no where, twisting and growing into a grotesque abomination. James tried to pull the things attention with a burst of turret fire, but a biotic barrier absorbed the fire. Hyrawl waved the shuttle off, flicking on an omnitool. Before he even could type in a single command prompt, Yasea screamed out at the top of her lungs. She knew what he was planning, and if getting him inside the suit didn't kill him, what he was planning would.
The words 'BERSERKER' appeared in vibrant red on his body, followed by a howl as the biotic lost control to what many concidered base instincts. In this case, the urge to kill. The familiar blue biotic field erupted from Hyrawl as he lunged into the Illusive Man's twist body.
...
"Normandy, shuttles have made minimum safe distance," Admiral Hackett said in the transmission once they cleared the storm. EDI sat in Joker's usual seat, odd concidering she was in essence a part of the ship. But she wanted to do it this way, to assure herself. The Normandy was holding geosynchronous orbit over the base, bow facing the planet. Specifically, the dangerous end of the ship that held Garrus' Thanix Cannons.
"Confirmed, Admiral, now beginning firing protocols online," EDI replied, typing and wirelessly powering up the cannons. The mass effect core flared to life, pouring the needed power to cut through the atmosphere and melt down the base and everything around it for several kilometers. For extra measure, she gave the shuttles a few extra seconds to get to safer altitudes before firing. Two piercing beams of energy raced out from the frigate's bow, rushing through and pushing clouds away.
The beams hit the facility roof dead center, initially exploding and then melting and sinking deep into the remainder of the facility. The beam kept going, soon deep fissures spiderwebbing from the point of impact. After almost a minute of fire, the Normandy rights itself, and decends to lower orbit to start taking on shuttles with the rest of the taskforce.