"I need to kill something, Shepard!" Grunt was half-roaring, punching his open palm with his fist. "If it's not the Collectors, it'll be that little scrawny bitch down in the low decks."
Normally, Erin didn't mind dealing with the… eccentricities of some of her crew. But today she was in no mood. The SR2 was in orbit around the derelict Collector ship. She could see it out the cockpit viewport at the far end of the hall. It was still now, floating lifelessly through black space. But those massive guns, those charred battle scars along the hull… all that twisted, sharp metal -- it sent nervous chills down her spine. It seemed impossible for a turian patrol to take out a ship that big. EDI read no lifesigns or heat signatures on board, but somehow, inside, Erin knew that there was no chance in hell this mission would be easy.
A small crowd had gathered around the galaxy map. Garrus was here, along with Yeoman Chambers, Jacob, a few crew members… Miranda, who shouldn't have been out of bed.
And of course Grunt.
"Damn it, Shepard, I haven't killed anything in five days! That's my longest dry spell on record."
Oh, to be so young…wo
Shepard was in full combat armor. Her sniper rifle was strapped tight to her back, her pistol and her submachine gun holstered at either side. Behind her came Samara, equally well-armed and armored. "Sorry, Grunt," Shepard said, raising an open palm to the krogan. "Not this time." She scanned the small crowd until her eyes found their target: Garrus. "Officer Vakarian, go get your weapons and suit up. Shuttle's waiting."
The krogan unleashed a hellish noise from his throat, like a snarl mixed together with a laugh. "I'm seeing red, Shepard. Take me with you. Please, let me rip up some fleshy necks!"
"We're going into a Collector ship, Grunt. That could mean husks. I need a biotic with me to keep them under control."
The krogan bellowed. "Fine! Take me instead of the turian."
"I have to take Garrus," Shepard said calmly, fighting back rapidly growing impatience. She and Samara continued down the hall toward the airlock. They were almost halfway there when Grunt said something that made her stop dead in her tracks.
"Damn it, Shepard, you'll have plenty of time to suck off the turian after we get--"
That was when a certain resonant voice pierced the tentative veil. "Hey!" She turned around to see Garrus, sniper rifle in tow, heading straight for Grunt with fury in his eyes and predatory fire in each step. His arm was raised; his sharp talon was pointed directly at the krogan. "Your battlemaster made a decision and you're going to respect it," he growled, planting the talon on the krogan's chest. "She's your commander and your superior. She's got ten times the quads you do, and she's proven it. Don't you dare say anything so disrespectful to her again!"
A tense moment followed, with Garrus and Grunt locking furious eyes. Shepard half-expected the krogan to jump him right then and there. But Garrus did not waver. He stood straight, mandibles in full flare. His talon didn't move. His onyx eyes seemed to pierce the krogan, wither him away and slice him apart. Finally, with a long, angry breath, Grunt turned around and thumped away in the direction of the elevator.
Once he was gone, Garrus let his body relax. "Ready, Commander."
---
The Collector ship was just as empty and quiet as it had looked from the outside. But nonetheless, Shepard, Garrus, and Samara moved through the darkened hallways with weapons drawn, constantly on guard, constantly awaiting an ambush. They could all feel it. Something was wrong. The air felt chilly against their skin, despite the fact that all three were wearing full body armor and helmets. The walls surrounding them looked… unnatural -- metal fused with biological material. The halls curved and angled dramatically, unevenly. It felt impossible to keep track of where they were.
But worst of all was the silence. It seemed to creep into them and suffocate them as they moved, broken only by the sound of their footsteps. Shepard had never understood the metaphor of deafening silence until now. Every corridor they hit was empty and still, showing zero evidence of Collector activity. The rational part of her mind told her that this ship was probably empty. The Collectors must have all died or evacuated or something.
But her gut told her that she should be so lucky.
Eventually they turned a corner, and Shepard was hit by a sight she wasn't prepared for.
The room they had just entered… well, it wasn't a room at all. It was a massive, endless atrium, the size of a small city or more. The ceiling towered high above their heads; the walls stretched forward as far as the eye could see. "By the goddess…" whispered Samara. All three of them stopped dead in their tracks.
"Shepard, look at the ceiling," said Garrus, sounding utterly stunned. "It's covered in pods. Every square inch." He shook his head slowly as he crept forward. "There aren't enough humans in the whole of the Terminus systems to fill all these pods."
She felt a chill run down her spine. "That can only mean one thing."
Earth. The Collectors were going for Earth.
This mission just became that much more critical.
The three of them continued forward, moving down the only path available to them. After a few meters they reached a small platform. A single control panel sat at the end, glowing green against the darkness. Exactly what they were looking for. Shepard walked up to it, activating her omni-tool with a thought. "EDI, I'm setting up a bridge between you and the Collector ship. See if you can get anything useful from the data banks."
"Data mine in progress, Shepard," the AI responded with almost terrifying speed.
She couldn't really tell what EDI was doing from inside the ship, but she watched as strange, alien figures and characters streaked across the control panel. Garrus and Samara moved close behind her. It all seemed to take just a bit too long. Then…
A flash. The control panel shut down instantaneously. She heard Joker's voice in her ear. "Uh… that can't be good."
Shepard was already on edge, and this little development had not helped calm her nerves. Her muscles tensed. Her arms instinctively went for her gun. "What the hell just happened?"
"Major power surge," said Joker. "Everything went dark, but we're back up now."
EDI started saying something, but Shepard wasn't paying attention. The Spectre heard a noise above and behind her -- the pattering of little feet, creeping up in the rafters. She reacted instantly, spinning around and raising her scope to eye level.
But she found nothing except empty space. Damn it! Something was wrong.
Then things got worse. EDI said, "Shepard, this was not a malfunction. This was a trap."
At that moment there was a flurry of noise, so sudden and rapid that she couldn't keep track of it all. Another flash hit her eyes, blinding her. Garrus and Samara started moving. Mechanical sounds bounced and echoed off the walls, along with footsteps that did not belong to the three of them. An electric panel nearby surged, overloaded, knocking Samara to the ground. Shepard's years of training took over, and her body unconsciously dropped to the floor, shielding itself behind the ridge that had previously housed the green control panel.
Just in time, too. A moment later, a platform of Collectors was hovering above them.
"We need a little help here, EDI…"
She turned around to see Garrus help Samara to her feet. Then both of them scrambled for cover behind her. EDI's voice hit her ear, and the AI sounded as… uneasy as an AI could sound. "I am having trouble maintaining the connection. There is someone else in the system."
"Damn it, we don't have time for this!" Shepard growled. The Collectors had started raining down fire on their position. She cursed. She hated fighting enemies with a height advantage.
Shepard popped out of cover for a half second, just long enough to get a read on the hostiles' position. The Collector platform was moving, which made everything even worse. She counted three hostiles total. Judging by the swirling light, one of them was in the process of being taken over by Harbinger. She marked their positions in her head and fell back into cover. Movement at twenty kilometers per hour, which means 6.1 meters per second. Acceleration at five centimeters per second per second. Compensate for entropy, equalize for--
It took barely a moment for her calculator mind to run the numbers. Then she popped back out of cover, and fired a blind shot at the spot where she knew the first Collector would be.
"Nice shot!" yelled Garrus.
A few moments later, the mechanical whirring stopped. Shepard glanced out at the battlefield. The Collector platform had attached itself to the ground, and the two remaining hostiles were moving on their position. Shit. She wasn't sure whether she should be grateful they had given up their height advantage, or worried that they could swarm her squad's position.
Wordlessly, Samara lifted one of them up and out. Shepard watched as the hapless Collector floated through the air, arms flailing and akimbo, body surrounded by a layer of crackling blue energy. She stared at the creature's face. If Collectors could show fear, this one was doing so.
Then Garrus planted a sniper round right between its eyes, and Samara let the dead body drop to the ground.
Only Harbinger left. Good.
"EDI, how are we doing?" she asked between frantic breaths.
The AI responded within seconds. "Connection reestablished. I need to finish the download before I can override any systems."
"Then you'd better get it done fast." Shepard had wanted to throw a few curses in, but she knew they would be lost on the AI.
That was when Harbinger's booming voice erupted, echoing up and down the chamber. "We are Harbinger," it said coolly. "We are your genetic destiny!"
Son of a bitch… "Someone shut that fucking thing up!" With a thought, Shepard activated her cloak, draping her body in a shield of invisibility. She raised her head up and over her outcropping just in time to see a second hovering Collector platform attach itself to the ground. Three more enemies moved up. But Lord, how things were never easy!
They were moving in on her squad -- Harbinger, followed closely by the three new Collector drones. She had to keep her people safe. Counting the seconds, she waited for Harbinger to get close to her hiding spot. Then, when the creature was mere centimeters away from her invisible form, she fired a shot straight at its head.
Harbinger reared back, stunned but still standing. Of course it was still standing. Now visible, Shepard let her sniper rifle drop to the floor. 2.3 seconds to reload… too long. Instead she swung out her pistol and raised it to eye level, planting five carefully aimed shots on the creature's body. She paused. The light surrounding the possessed Harbinger faded, and the now-empty Collector body slumped to the ground.
Shepard didn't have time to congratulate herself. While she'd been busy with Harbinger, a third platform had arrived. To make matters worse, the three drones with Harbinger had slipped past. Now they were threatening to flank Garrus and Samara.
No, not threatening. They had done so, she realized with dread. "Shields down!" Garrus yelled.
Shepard's stomach tightened. She grabbed her rifle and refreshed its heat sink mid-run. There were more Collectors firing on the far side of the platform, but she didn't care. She felt a few dull thumps against her back. Enemy rounds slammed into her body, repulsed by her shields. She was out of cover. Fully exposed.
This move was… illogical. But she had to protect them.
Had to protect him.
"Fifty percent," said EDI, but Shepard wasn't hearing her. Garrus and Samara had taken cover behind a rectangular outcropping near the end of the platform. Shepard couldn't see her squad, but she could see three Collector drones filling their position with gunfire. Her breath caught; her body tensed. Garrus and Samara were getting torn apart!
But then she saw one Collector get thrown back violently by a stream of blue energy, its body slamming against the far wall. Another one stopped and slumped to the floor. A fresh sniper hole sat in its head. As Shepard got close, she raised her rifle and blind-fired the third.
But the last Collector didn't fall. Instead, it spun around and locked its glowing white eyes on her. Shepard froze. She'd missed? What? She hadn't missed such a close target since… well, before Eden Prime.
She was forced back into action when the Collector opened fire, sending more dull thumps against her chest. Hell! Her shields were already depleted from the run back; now they were almost gone. She had in her hands a sniper rifle that she didn't have time to reload. At current rate of fire, she had… 0.7 seconds to find cover before she'd be defenseless.
That was when the corner of her eye caught a swirl of movement. The Collector was dead before she -- or it -- had even realized it. She only got a glimpse of Garrus's head before he dipped back into cover.
Moments later, Shepard joined him and Samara behind the outcropping. "Status report!" Her eyes scanned Garrus's body for signs of damage.
"We're fine, Commander," the turian said.
She took half a second to catch her breath. "You said you lost shields, and I saw the hostiles opening fire on your--"
"We're fine, Commander. We had it under control." Garrus studied her carefully with onyx eyes. "What about you? I saw you take some nasty hits right there."
As she glanced at the readout on her helmet, Shepard let out a long and slow sigh of relief. "Kinetic barriers held at… eleven percent." She cursed herself in her mind. Too close, Shepard. Way too close. Stupid, careless move.
Refusing to dwell on it, Shepard reactivated her cloaking device and got to her feet, watching the enemies on the far side of the platform through her scope. There were four Collectors. Two drones, an assassin, and… son of a bitch!
Harbinger.
She scowled. No chance of taking that out with a single headshot. Carefully, she trained her scope over the next biggest threat, the assassin. She steadied her rifle and… fired.
The four creatures immediately trained their attention on her. It was a full second before she realized what had happened and ducked. God DAMN it!
She'd missed again. What was wrong with her?
Soon, the echoes of gunshots and shockwaves were booming against the walls, resonating up and down the antechamber. Shepard glanced at her squad. "Samara, use your assault rifle and give us covering fire. Garrus… you know what to do. On three."
The turian nodded.
"One… two… three."
On three, the squad leaped out of cover in unison and started running. Samara sprayed wild bursts of automatic fire at the Collector position. Garrus and Shepard simultaneously raised their sniper rifles to eye level. Right, thought Shepard. Garrus always goes right. She went left, choosing, aiming, and firing at one of the creatures all in under a second. Thankfully, she hit it this time. Garrus nailed his target too. Two Collector drones dropped to the floor, and the two snipers dropped their spent heat sinks in near-perfect synchronization. Samara fired a wave of biotic energy at the Collector assassin that left the creature immobile and in what looked like excruciating pain.
"This hurts you, Shepard," proclaimed the Harbinger drone. Was that… pride in its voice? Shepard looked up just in time to see a blue wave of raw biotic energy ripping through the air.
Heading right for her.
"Erin!" She felt something slam hard against her shoulder, and before she knew it, she was on the ground with a dull thump. Garrus's powerful frame was hunched over her. The turian dropped his sniper rifle and grabbed his pistol, firing a constant spray of bullets at Harbinger's lit-up form. "We need help, Samara!"
The justicar appeared in the corner of Shepard's vision. "Do not worry. I have it." Samara's body sparked with blue energy, and she launched a powerful shockwave right back at Harbinger. Then she fired a steady burst of assault rifle rounds in the same direction.
After a few moments, the asari lowered her gun. "It is dead." Shepard let out the breath she'd been holding.
Garrus quickly got back to his feet and lowered his arm to help Shepard back to hers. "Are you alright, Commander? I saw that shockwave and I thought…"
"I think I'm fine." She brushed herself off carefully. No visible wounds. "Err... thanks, Garrus."
That was when EDI's voice returned to her ear. "Download complete. I have regained control of the platform, Shepard."
"I knew you wouldn't let us down, EDI."
"I always work at optimal capacity." The AI's voice beamed with pride, moreso than Shepard thought was possible... or was comfortable with, really, from an AI. But after a short silence EDI spoke again. This time she sounded almost... surprised. "Shepard, there is something else. Something I think you should--"
Joker cut her off before she could finish. "Uh… Commander. We've got another problem. The Collector ship is powering up."
Shepard's blood froze. Of all the fucking…
"You need to get out of there before weapons come online," said the pilot. "I'm not losing another Normandy!"
EDI said, "I do not have full control of their systems. I will do what I can. Sending coordinates for shuttle extraction."
None of this was good news. But Shepard shouldn't have expected anything less. "Come on, squad. Let's move!"
---
The battle to the exit went much quicker than showdown they'd just had on the platform. Small squads of Collectors repeatedly tried to ambush and attack them, more in an attempt to slow them down than in hopes of actually killing them. Harbinger would pop in occasionally and say a few kind words before someone blasted his face in. The fighting turned into an almost constant, simple rhythm.
Even so, it was clear that Shepard was not on her game. Her mind ran calculations as fast as ever, but her concentration was… off. Too many distractions gnawed at her head. She was spraying sniper rounds all over the place, shooting like a recruit straight out of the academy. She didn't let her mind dwell on it long enough to figure it out… but there was something wrong.
After a few minutes, they came to a dimly lit chamber where the air was uncomfortably still. Shepard moved forward with caution. EDI's voice hit her ear. "I am opening a door on the far side of the room."
"It looks clear, Commander," said Garrus as he scanned the chamber through his scope.
Then she heard it. That reverberating, hellish sound, like hardened lightning scraping against icy metal. A solid blue beam burst into the floor in front of her. Instinct sent her diving for cover. Sure enough, moments later, she saw what looked like a dark and menacing medusa hovering in the air in front of her, its crooked tenticles swaying and its four white eyes fixed on her position. She'd seen this only once before, and that was on Horizon.
"Praetorian!" she yelled at the top of her lungs.
Without a moment's pause, Shepard raised her sniper rifle and sent a round directly into the creature's eye. Dark liquid bounced out; the monster let out a pained grunt. Success. As she inserted a fresh heat sink into the rifle, her mind started running numbers.
Eye eighteen centimeters in diameter. Time to aim -- 2.5 seconds if quick. Three seconds max of solid beam fire before shields go down. She took a breath. Doable.
A second later, Shepard rolled out of cover, her scope firmly glued to her eye. Her vision became flooded with blue light as the Praetorian activated its beam on her. As she took aim, her eye dropped to the shield meter at the edge of her HUD. It was plumetting straight down. One second. She secured the scope firmly on the creature's eye.
But her balance was just slightly off, and she lost it before she could fire. Two seconds. The beam kept hitting her. She had to go back to cover. But she had to shoot this thing, now or never. Thoughtlessly, she stabilized herself and raised her aim one, two, three centimeters up. She fired. Direct hit.
Three seconds.
She instantly became aware of a dull burning sensation in her torso, mixed with what sounded like shredding fabric. Ignoring the pain, she pushed off the floor with her feet and threw herself into cover. When she hit the ground, streaks of pure flame ran down her body. Holy shit, it hurt! "I'm hit," she said aloud, glaring down at the spot on her left ribcage where the pain was worst. There was a black char mark on her armor, six or seven centimeters in diameter. The beam had burnt clean through the fiber material. It had reached raw flesh. The skin around her wound was blackened, and red blood poured out freely, like someone had turned on the high-pressure pump.
Her omni-tool instantly sent medigel to the region, the sweet stuff flowing through the cybernetic implants Cerberus had implanted across her body. After a few seconds, the inferno began to die down. The pain was still there, but she had to put it out of mind. "Squad!" she yelled. "Status report!"
"I'm fine, Shepard," said Garrus. "Taking cover behind a small wall a few meters to the left of you."
Good. "Samara, where are you?" No answer. "Samara, status report!"
"I am behind an outcropping near the far wall." The justicar sounded almost… panicked. "The creature is moving toward me, Commander. I need help."
Shit. Shepard tightened her grip around the sniper rifle and reached into her off-hand pack for a fresh heat sink. As she felt around for the cylindrical object, she realized that she only had one left. This one had to count.
Activating her stealth cloak, Shepard moved swiftly out of cover. The Praetorian had its back to her. It was floating over to the far wall, heading straight for Samara. She had to turn the thing around and get to its eyes. "Garrus, give it a few pistol rounds."
Garrus did so almost instantaneously. Sure enough, the lumbering mound of flesh turned around in midair, fully exposing its glowing white eyes to the invisible Shepard. She took a breath. She raised the rifle to eye level.
But her finger slipped, and she pulled the trigger too early. The round hit the middle of the creature's body. Damn it!
Now fully exposed, Shepard let go of the sniper rifle and grabbed her pistol as she ran. The Praetorian's beam hit the floor behind her. She disappeared into cover just in time. "Samara, it's got its back to you. Now's your chance. Hit it with… everything you have."
She couldn't afford to poke her head out of cover and watch, but she heard an explosion of raw biotic force more powerful and glorious than she could have imagined.
When Samara spoke again, the asari sounded breathless. "I am spent, Commander."
"It's on us now, Garrus." Holding her pistol tightly, Shepard poked half her body out of cover. The Praetorian was about halfway between them and Samara, but its eyes were trained directly on Shepard. It was moving slower than before -- Samara's biotic blast had debilitated it. But it was still as dangerous as ever. Allowing herself only a moment to take aim, Shepard fired six rounds into the creature's fleshy body. To her left, Garrus placed a sniper round straight in one of its eyes. The Praetorian let out a shrill noise of pain.
"I think it's hurt, Commander," said Garrus.
Maybe so, but they needed it dead. As the creature reactivated its hellish blue beam, Shepard took careful aim with her pistol. She squeezed the trigger tightly, and kept it pressed until she had emptied her weapon's entire heat sink into the creature's eye. Then she dropped back behind cover.
After a few seconds of rest, she peered out again. The Praetorian looked like it was in bad shape. It was floating erratically, a few of its wounds spilling dark liquid out onto the floor. But it was still maintaining its beam. Its...
That was when she realized that it wasn't her the creature was aiming at.
"I need help, Shepard!" It was Garrus.
The Praetorian was just meters away from Garrus's position. Its beam skimmed the edge of the wall he was hiding behind. A few more seconds, and it would have a clear shot at Garrus himself. Shepard's heart began to slam against the walls of her chest. Taking a quick breath, the Spectre did something she absolutely loathed doing, something she only did in the most desperate of situations.
She grabbed her SMG.
There was no need to aim. This gun was impossibly inaccurate as it stood, and the Praetorian was a big enough target. "Hold on, Garrus!" she yelled, tightly squeezing the trigger. Wild rounds tore into the creature's body. It made a sound that was something like a shrill, childlike scream. But it kept up its beam, refusing to relent. This goddamn thing would not die! Shepard fired her SMG to the last round and yelled out in frustration.
Her mind was silent. It had stopped running numbers. Logic left -- there was nothing left to calculate. There was only one thing to do.
"Fuck this!"
She didn't bother activating her cloak. Instead, she got to her feet, raised her shoulder and ran straight for the Praetorian. She charged at it with every bit of strength her body possessed, slamming into the creature's armored side with the force of a thousand rounds from the Widow. The impact sent both her and the Praetorian reeling back. Searing pain blasted her shoulder, but she didn't care. She raised her SMG and expelled the weapon's last white-hot heat sink.
Right into her hand.
The cylinder glowed fiery orange-red as she closed her palm around it, 5500 degrees kelvin of raw, searing flame. It burned through her glove in a second and started eating its way through her skin. Again, she didn't care. In fact, she barely even felt the pain as she stared at the Praetorian. It was curious. If such a creature could show emotion, she would say this one was… confused. Its four white eyes looked like they had gone wide with shock.
Erin Shepard raised her hand. She slammed the flaming heat sink into the creature's largest, whitest eye. The creature shuddered; it screamed out and turned a deep shade of blue.
And then it burned away into nothing.