Chapter 3: Asari in trouble
They made their way to the elevator, which took them to the cargo bay. There the Mako stood waiting.
Tali asked: "If we're going out in that, should we land somewhere first?"
"That won't be necessary", Shepard said "once Joker brings us to correct altitude, we'll simply perform a Mako jump."
"Mako.. Jump?"
"We will simply drive out from the Normandy, once we are at the point", Jaden said.
Shepard simply nodded to confirm his statement.
"Oh Keelah..." Tali responded, sounding terrified. She clearly wasn't looking forward to it.
They drove out of the Normandy and landed without a hitch. Even Tali survived the drop.
"Got some strange readings", Joker said over the comm "like of the damn charts."
"few clicks north of the drop zone", he finished.
They began to drive towards their destination. Even though Ashley and Kaidan had lamented how 'bad' Shepard's driving skills were, the ride was actually fairly smooth. Maybe she had taken driving lessons or just didn't want to park the Mako in any of the fiery lakes of lava that surrounded them.
First sign of trouble appeared as they heard a geth drop ship, which then dropped a pair of armatures in their way. Nothing the main cannon and the machine gun of the Mako couldn't handle.
Their second obstacle was an outpost; the entrance was protected by several rocket turrets.
"Going head on would be a suicide", commented Kaidan.
"A secondary entrance would be useful", Jaded added.
They noticed a narrow pathway to their right, which was guarded by only one turret. A turret they took down effortlessly. The Mako, however, couldn't fit completely through so they had to continue on foot. The plan was to open the front entrance and disable the turrets.
Unfortunately there were quite a few geth inside the outpost.
"Jaden, Tali, see if you can open the front gate and disable or destroy those turrets."
"Ashley, Garrus, find good sniping positions and cover us."
"Kaidan, Wrex, you're with me, we are going to open that other gate.", Shepard ordered.
As soon as the first sniper rounds were fired, the geth were alerted and began to return fire.
Shepard and her group took cover behind some boxes and began to take out the geth that were coming their way.
Simultaneously, Jaden began to run towards the gatehouse, faster than anyone Shepard had ever seen. Tali ran behind Jaden, but obviously she couldn't keep up with him. Multiple geth came out from the gatehouse and took aim at Jaden. Reacting quickly, he took one of his Detonators into his hands and fired at the geth.
Strange metallic 'clink' sounds filled the air.
The small red crystal shards left fast-fading red trails in their wake as they flew through the air.
The shards were much faster than rockets and similar projectiles but slower than regular weapons.
As soon as the shards impacted the geth, they shattered which created powerful explosions strong enough to throw them off their feet and cause serious damage. One more round per geth and they were finished.
Shepard noted that while a single explosion wasn't as strong as her own grenades or the rockets that geth used, the rapid nature of the Detonator SMG was clearly advantageous.
Jaden stopped and turned around to let Tali catch up to him. That's when he saw a geth aiming its rocket launcher right at Tali.
"Tali, get down!", he warned and threw one of his Energy Swords at the geth; the blade activated mid-flight. Nimbly, Tali rolled to the side, avoiding both the rocket and the energy blade.
The rocket flew right past Jaden and his blade cleanly cut the geth in two. Jaden then reached out with his hand and like a boomerang, the sword returned to him. With a Detonator in one hand and the sword in the other, Jaden walked inside the gatehouse. A few more 'clink' sounds followed by explosions, then silence. Tali followed Jaden inside and moments later the gate opened and the turrets became inactive. As they exited the gatehouse, the gate on the other side opened as well and soon after Shepard, Kaidan and Wrex emerged from the other gatehouse.
They returned to Ashley and Garrus, then the whole team returned to the Mako and continued onwards.
After a tunnel, a few more curves and some destroyed armatures, they were approaching an another tunnel.
"Shepard...", Jaden warned.
"Keelah, Shepard! That's a Colossus!", Tali yelled.
A moment later, the Mako was struck by a large siege pulse, which shook the entire vehicle and literally turned it 180 degrees; they were now facing the direction they came from. That allowed them to drive into cover, but the Colossus was inconveniently placed at the tunnel entrance.
"Okay, that's a problem", Shepard said. "the Mako is strong, but even it can't take many more hits like that."
"The Colossi are heavy variants of the regular armatures. It'll take heavy weapons to take one out.",
Tali said, recalling what she knew about the armatures.
"We could use the Mako's cannon, but it'll put us in danger of being hit by another pulse.", Shepard said.
"Tali, do they have any weak points or ways to disable them?" Jaden asked.
"They need to be damaged beyond repair or their power cores must be destroyed", Tali began "But the core is in the 'chest', under the thickest armor."
"I'd imagine the armor isn't just as thick from the sides. I need to go outside", Jaden said.
"Outside?", Shepard asked.
"Yes. And I need a distraction", Jaden said and took his Thunderbolt into his hands and unfolded it.
This was the first time Shepard got a good look at the weapon. It was definitely a sniper weapon, as Jaden had stated at the Citadel. The barrel composed of two rails with a triangular cross-sections. The scope, which still looked completely alien, was on the left side of the weapon. On top of the weapon, near the scope, there was a small control panel. Behind the scope and the panel, A part of the weapon was covered in small vents. Inside a calm hum could be heard.
"Tali just said it'll take heavy weapons against a Colossus and you're going to take it on with a sniper?", Shepard said in disbelief.
"Have some faith, Commander.", Jaden said and moved his hand to the control panel, where he made some adjustments. The hum intensified to the point where electrical crackling could be heard inside. Jaden stepped out of the Mako and became invisible.
A while later Jaden became visible again about a hundred meters from the Mako.
He said "I could use that distraction now."
Shepard moved the Mako and fired once at the Colossus before retreating back behind cover. Its shields took the shot without any problems and it began to charge another siege pulse.
That's when Jaden acted and fired.
A huge bolt of lightning erupted from his weapon and struck the Colossus right at its chest; the bolt burned through the Colossus entirely. The lightning also arced towards few geth that were too close to the Colossus, destroying them as well. The Colossus collapsed on to the ground with the large hole in its chest still glowing orange. Some geth that were far enough from the Colossus remained undamaged and began to fire at Jaden's position, though he had already become invisible and left the spot.
With the Mako, Shepard took care of the remaining geth.
Jaden returned to the Mako; The Thunderbolt was still emitting steam from the vents, but the hum had returned to normal.
"That... was impressive", Wrex said.
"I'm officially impressed", Shepard added "I can see why you would call it 'Thunderbolt'."
Others were just... dumbstruck.
"Indeed.", Jaden responded. "But don't get too excited. At maximum power like that, I can only fire up to three times. And even at lower power, the lightning tends to reveal my current position. Though it doesn't really bother me because of my abilities.
Jaden waited until the Thunderbolt was no longer emitting steam, then folded it and placed it on his back.
They continued onwards until they reached a path that was partially blocked by large rocks. The rocks meant that they would have to continue on without the Makp.
They moved through the passage, reaching an opening where they saw several geth sniper towers. Only a moment later, red lasers began to point at their direction.
"Cover!", Shepard yelled. She, Ashley, Garrus and Jaden all took their own sniper rifles into their hands and returned fire. Even at low power, the lightning discharged by the Thunderbolt could still pierce a geth-sized target and as he turned to fire at geth troopers moving towards them, the lightning could also arc to nearby geth, though only momentarily disabling them.
They arrived at the location where Joker had found the 'strange readings', but their troubles didn't end there. A new armature fell from the sky and in addition to regular geth troopers, there were also new type of geth: one that constantly jumped around and could cling onto walls. The armature kept the team behind cover most of the time, while other geth closed in.
Tali focused on hacking and sabotaging the closing geth, while everyone but Shepard, Garrus and Jaden finished what Tali started. Shepard, Garrus and Jaden focused on the new geth 'hoppers'. Hitting such a small and fast moving target posed quite the challenge, though they eventually prevailed.
As a display of skill, Jaden even took one out mid-jump by throwing his energy sword at the geth 'hopper'.
Finally only the armature remained.
"Mind using the Thunderbolt again?", Shepard asked.
"That would be an overkill", Jaden replied, dual-wielded his Detonators and turned invisible.
Soon, out of thin air, red crystal shards appeared and hit the armature. Jaden fired about twenty crystals at the armature.
This time when the crystals impacted, they didn't shatter or explode, however. They were simply embedded in the armature.
Jaden became visible again behind cover and told others to remain in cover as well. Then he tapped something on his Detonators.
The crystals that were embedded in the armature began to glow red. The glow intensified until it was almost too bright to look at. Then the armature was consumed in a large fiery explosion, that even dug a small crater into the ground. What was left of the armature, was unrecognizable scorched junk.
"All clear", Jaden stated.
They entered the complex.
After walking downwards who knows how long, the walkway finally leveled and turned into a catwalk. As they entered the large cavernous area, a geth sniper accompanied by few troopers appeared and took aim at the team. This time, Shepard, Garrus and Wrex were first to react and took down the geth, with Wrex using something he calls 'carnage' from his shotgun.
They took the stairs down to the same level as where the geth were.
As they approached an elevator, Wrex remarked "Sterile white. Protheans sure build things homey."
They took the elevator down to another catwalk. About halfway to the second elevator, Jaden seemingly without a reason threw both his energy swords. Few geth drones appeared from underneath just in time to be cut in half by the energy blades, which then returned to Jaden's hands.
They took the second elevator which broke down just before reaching the bottom. They jumped off. As they landed on the catwalk, they heard a female voice under them:
"uh- hello? Can someone help me?".
They jumped one level down. There they saw an Asari, suspended mid-air behind some kind of barrier. She didn't look too well, which implied she had been there for a good while.
She called out again: "Can you help me? I'm trapped, I need help!"
"Liara T'Soni, I presume?", Shepard asked.
Jaden brought up his red and black omni-tool. From his fingertips, small red lasers were pointing at Liara, moving up and down, from side to side. He was scanning her.
"Yes", She answered. "Listen, this thing is a Prothean security device. I activated the barrier when the geth showed up. But I must have pressed something else too and I became suspended here. Please help me.", she pleaded again.
"Your mother is working with Saren. Whose side are you on?", Shepard asked.
"I'm not on 'anybody's' side! I may be Benezia's daughter but I haven't spoken to her in years. I'm just a Prothean researcher. Please get me out", she started to sound desperate.
"You trust her?", Ashley asked from Shepard.
Of course Ashley would ask that, Shepard thought to herself.
Jaden gave his response: "We were going to get her either way. She has been there for at least six days. No food, water, nothing. Even if she was known to be on Saren's side, she is hardly in condition for questioning."
"Jaden's right. We'll find a way to get you out", Shepard reassured her.
"Careful, there are geth here. And a krogan.", Liara warned.
"Speaking of the geth", Jaden warned and fired at two geth that were standing in a line by the tents in the distance. The cavernous area was briefly illuminated in white light and both geth collapsed.
Shepard and others took care of the rest and she said to the group: "see if you can find any way to get to the other side of the barrier."
Tali approached a mining laser that was conveniently pointing to the direction of the barrier, a level down from T'Soni's location. "Maybe this helps", she suggested.
After Shepard approved her suggestion, Tali meddled with the controls for a moment. Then, the laser fired and blasted through the rock, revealing a level below Liara's location.
They took the elevator to Liara's level, who didn't believe they actually made it through.
"How did you get here? I thought there was no way through the barrier", she asked.
"Superior firepower", Shepard replied.
Jaden pressed a button that would disengage the suspension field and Liara's was fell onto the floor. Now that she was free, everyone fully realised the condition she was in; she was barely able to even stand.
"She is ice cold.", Jaden remarked. In mid-air, he did a gesture with his hand, as if he was placing his hand on a table. A strange orange aura appeared around Liara. Even though she was in her own suit, Shepard could feel the warmth that the aura created. At least that prevent her from freezing, Shepard thought.
They got up to the elevator and Liara asked "why would the geth come after me?"
Kaidan answered "Saren's looking for the Conduit. You're a Prothean expert. He probably wants you to help him find it."
"The Conduit? But I don't kn...", the whole cavern shook violently.
"What was that?", Ashley asked.
"These caverns are unstable. That laser must have triggered a seismic event.", Liara answered.
Shepard quickly called Joker over the comm: "Joker! Get the Normandy airborne and lock in our location. On the double, mister!"
"Aye aye Commander, ETA 8 minutes."
"If I die here, I'll kill him", Wrex threatened.
The elevator moved upwards.
"Incoming", Jaden warned and turned invisible.
As they reached the top, they saw a krogan and a group of geth approaching. A barrier was activated behind them.
"That's a battlemaster, they aren't pushovers", Wrex whispered quietly to Shepard.
The battlemaster moved closer; with a hand gesture, Shepard told her team to wait.
"Surrender. Or don't. That would be more fun.", The battlemaster started.
"What do you want?", Shepard asked though she already knew.
"Hand the doctor over. Saren wants her, anything Saren wants, he gets."
"I think she'd rather stay with us", Shepard replied sarcastically.
"Not an option. Kill them", the battlemaster ordered. "Spare the asari, if you can. If not, won't matter."
The battlemaster and the geth drew their weapons. Then, on the battlemaster's right side near the wall, a burning voice said:
"All right tough guy. Let's see some action."
Jaden reappeared. The battlemaster twitched slightly; he realized that Jaden was something... different.
"Unless", Jaden continued, lowering his voice "You aren't worth the effort it would take to fight you."
Wrex twitched slightly as well; he knew that those words were more than simply words.
In a fit of rage, the battlemaster charged right at Jaden, letting out a battle cry.
At first it seemed as Jaden wasn't going to do anything to stop the krogan's charge. Shepard looked at Jaden, not believing he would allow the krogan to smash into him.
Then she noticed; Jaden had his right hand behind his back. His hand curled into a fist and simultaneously, strange red energy enveloped his fist.
Just as the battlemaster was about to strike Jaden, he moved faster than humanly possible and punched the battlemaster with his enhanced fist, right into the battlemaster's faceplate.
The impact generated a shockwave that shook the caverns even more violently and knocked everyone else, including the geth, onto the floor, except Wrex who managed to remain standing.
The battlemaster's lower body slumped onto the floor, with yellowish liquid spilling everywhere. The mangled and twisted upper body of the battlemaster was flown on the other side of the area, on the floor, spilling yellowish liquid as well. The barrier seems to have gone inactive too. Shepard and others got up, while Wrex was already dealing with the remaining geth.
Now the caverns really started to shake.
"Okay, these caverns didn't like that, let's move. Fast.", Jaden said and moved towards the catwalk. Others followed him and Shepard looked down. Lava was starting to flood the lower levels. On the upper catwalk, two geth appeared and took aim at the group.
Without slowing down, Jaden threw his swords at the geth, who miraculously managed to dodge the initial throws. But what they didn't account for, was that Jaden jumped on to the upper catwalk, grabbed his swords while mid-air and slashed at geth again, this time decapitating both geth.
"Jaden!", Shepard yelled.
"I'll deal with them, just get out of there!", Jaden responded
He saw several more geth coming down, firing at him. Apparently they didn't care about the lava rising. Still running upwards, Jaden switched to his Detonators and aimed carefully. He didn't want to miss, not in a place like this. One crystal aimed directly at the center mass of the geth, was enough to take them out.
Finally, at the entrance at ground-level, Jaden turned to face back down and saw the rest running up as fast as they could. Even Liara, despite her ordeal in the suspension field, decided that she wouldn't want to be consumed by lava, and moved as fast as she could.
They all exited and ran towards the Normandy, which Shepard being last, to make sure everyone else makes it. All but Jaden and Shepard had made it into the Normandy when the ground between them and Normandy broke, revealing a river of molten rock. The Normandy rose several meters to avoid being damaged by the lava.
"Bollocks.", Jaden cursed.
"Damn it!", Shepard cursed as well.
The others who were already on board, shouted them to think something, find a way to get onboard.
"Listen, Shepard.", Jaden started "Do you trust me?"
"Of course."
"I need you to do something. Run towards the lava river, no matter how crazy it seems and jump when I say so."
Shepard inhaled deeply, wishing this wasn't the end, but did what Jaden told her to do.
As she was almost at the edge, Jaden said "Now!".
Shepard jumped and at the same time Jaden moved his hand, as if he was trying to lift something.
Shepard was flung upwards and forward right into the cargo bay of the Normandy.
Jaden himself began to run towards the lava river and right at the edge he jumped, his jump flung him towards the cargo bay and he made it as well. The Normandy closed the cargo bay doors and exited Therum.
Later, the team had a meeting in the conference room.
Liara expressed her gratitude. She also wished to join the team to take down Saren, which Shepard allowed.
She also offered to help Shepard to understand the visions Shepard received from the Prothean Beacon. But for now she was in need of proper rest.
The rest of the team introduced themselves to Liara.
After the meeting, Shepard contacted the Council, but she didn't like their tone, so she told Joker to cut them off.
pushtrak1: If there is dialogue from two different characters in the same line (i have to double check it), it's my mistake, not intentional. And thanks for notifying.
Notes
All right, we got Liara in the team now. And hanging up on the Council, who would have though.
And yes i know in the game you can actually drive the Mako inside the outpost.
(You could also drive it through the very narrow passage in the end, but it would take a bit of effort.)
This was also the first time where Jaden appears to be more than 'just' a vigilante.
Apologies if some parts seem too 'cheesy', like the part where Jaden rescues Shepard or Tali.
If someone is wondering, if anyone in the team ever gets hit by anything. They do but so far nothing serious. And i admit that constantly writing "shields down to x" etc. sounds quite dull to me.
Now that Jaden has used his Detonator SMGs and the Thunderbolt sniper, i might as well reveal their inspirations:
The Detonators are my version of Halo's Needler weapons. The way i imagined it is that the Detonators would look like 'normal' SMGs.
The shards would be much smaller, faster and non-homing. They could also be fired either singularly where every shards detonates on impact or stacked to large explosion,
which can be triggered at will, not after a relatively short period of time.
The Thunderbolt is my version of the Bolt Sniper in Crysis 3. In Crysis 3, it is a powerful weapon that can take out practically anything, especially if it hits a weak spot.
This version however, would have a variable power level setting, which can be changed, depending on the enemy Jaden is facing.
Jaden can fire his Detonators (Thunderbolt would be too powerful for that, even at low power and the blades of his energy swords would be at least partially visible),
while invisible, but it puts him under a greater strain than if he was visible, meaning he won't be able to use his other abilities, like telekinesis, to same extent. So most of the time he chooses not to fire while invisible.
===============================possibly minor spoiler below===================================
The way how Jaden's abilities work, is different from regular ME Characters (at least Shepard's team). Normally Shepard has a cooldown on his/her abilities(ME2/3) and others have a global cooldown (if i recall correctly. And Shepard also has a global cooldown in ME1)
Jaden has a single 'pool of energy' which recharges over time. Different abilities use different amounts of this 'energy', but as long as he has it, he can perform his abilities without any type of cooldown. Though so far at Citadel or Therum, he hasn't even come close to depleting this 'pool'.