Slowly coming to, Shepard felt immense pain in his side. Someone was dragging him through the broken ground of Therum, where the Normandy's Thanix Cannon had ripped through the buildings and caused several explosions, leaving the ground a charred black, and a few small fires still remained.
Attempting to move, Shepard cried out in pain. He felt himself stop being moved, and one of the people dragging him smirked.
"Don't worry. It'll all be over soon. After we gouge out your eyes, break your fingers, and make you pay for what you did to the batarians."
Suddenly, a sniper shot rang out, and Shepard heard something drop near him, but he slowly lost consciousness again, for about a minute.
This time, Shepard awoke to the face of Garrus, who slowly helped him up. His face and armor was coated with Therum's heated dirt, and a few scrapes were present on his face. His armor had a few dents in it, and his neck was sore, but nothing serious was injured or broken.
"Here." Garrus said, pulling out a medi-gel and applying it to the tears and holes in Shepard's suit where his main wounds are. Slowly, he got up and got his first real look at the damage the Normandy had done. Bodies lay all around, mostly batarians, scorched by the fire, or killed from the collapsing buildings.
"Jesus, what did I do..." Shepard said, sighing.
"It was the only thing you could do. And damned effective." Garrus said, attempting to reassure his Commander.
Garrus didn't seem too badly injured. The left side of his armor had a few large dents, likely from debris, but otherwise, he was free of any damage.
Shepard's eyes widened when he saw the body of Miranda, laying in a small hole. He rushed over to her, and fell to his knees as he checked for any signs of life, a pulse, breath. Anything.
But there was none.
Her body had been slung from Shepard during one of the explosions, and she'd likely died of blood loss or exhaustion.
Shepard slowly lowered his head and sighed, closing his eyes for a moment. Then, suddenly he slammed his fist into the ground in anger that he'd let one of his team die.
"Damn it!" He shouted.
The worst part was, he was doing this for the Alliance. The Illusive Man had no idea his best was just killed on a mission.
"Cerberus is going to want answers..." Shepard said.
Garrus kneeled. "We're here for Alenko, and the Alliance. Come on, Shepard, We have a mission to finish."
Shepard nodded, and turned to see Thane limping toward them. His jacket was pretty beat up, with the right sleeve completely torn off, and he had a few deep gashes on his chest. He was clutching his hand, and as he got close enough, he revealed his wounds to them: His two little fingers on his left hand were cut clean off, and a sharp piece of debris had impaled his leg, but he'd managed to pry it out.
"Where were you? You just disappeared!" Shepard shouted, clearly angry and upset.
"Doing what I do best. I got to the other side and wiped out their forces on the far side of the base. You would've been swarmed and killed a lot sooner, had I not gone." Thane replied, applying medi-gel to his hand and leg, giving a small whimper as he did so.
"We have to move on." Shepard said, grabbing his assault rifle from the ground and leading his team toward the underground entrance. Everyone was tired, hot, and angry, but Shepard was feeling remorse, guilt, and overwhelmed. Not only were the Reapers coming, but he'd lost one of his best squad members. He managed to keep himself together, for now. They had to find Alenko. He was here, somewhere.
As they slowly ventured into the underground cavern-like area, they noticed hallways had been created, and transformed into something resembling a very crude makeshift prison. A few computer terminals were set up, but what resembled cell were lining the halls, and clearly were in the finishing stages of being prepared.
"My god..." Shepard said, looking at the cells. "This whole mission was a set up. The batarians are creating a prison here, on one of the alliance's own worlds! They're starting to take prisoners! Alenko was the first! We were next!" He said, turning to his team.
"Glad we got here when we did. We can stop this." Garrus said, cocking his sniper rifle.
"This one, yes. But the batarians are dangerous, tactical, and unpredictable. Who knows what other System's Alliance planets they are invading? Taking prisoners on?" Thane questioned.
"But why here? This is a remote world, there's hardly any life, or humans here." Garrus asked, clearly confused by the batarian's methods.
"That is precisely why they chose this one, and why Alenko was taken prisoner here first." Thane responded, analyzing and figuring out the batarian's plans. "If things went sour here, not only is there nobody here to stop the batarians, but they knew the alliance would send others to rescue any prisoners." Thane said, shaking his head. "It is a crude method of practice, but an effective one."
Suddenly, two batarian captains appeared at the end of the hall. Shepard quickly dove for cover, while Garrus brought up his sniper rifle and aimed down the sight, quickly firing off a shot that hit one of the captains in the chest, but his armor was tougher than it looked.
"Damn!" Garrus shouted as they opened fire, taking cover just in the nick of time.
Thane quickly used throw, sending one of the guards flying backwards through a large piece of glass at the end of the hallway, before bringing up his pistol. The other captain fired first, and brought Thane's shields down, forcing the Drell to seek cover inside one of the cells.
Shepard popped out and sprayed the captain with assault rifle fire, though it did little than absorb into his shields.
"We need bigger firepower!" Garrus shouted.
Shepard was already one step ahead. He turned and sent a grenade flying directly into the captain's chest, exploding on impact and blowing the captain sky high, his blood now staining the walls.
Shepard moved out of cover and led his team down the hall. The other batarian that had went through the glass now lay at the bottom of a very long fall, dead.
"That takes care of that." Thane said, holstering his pistol.
"C'mon." Shepard said, moving down the only hallway they could find.
As they rounded the last corner, they entered what appeared to be an interrogation room, though it was only half-finished. What was inside the room, however, caused them all to aim their weapons.
The batarian captain stood with the end of a sniper rifle pressed against Kaidan Alenko's head, who was strapped into a chair and could hardly move. His eyes widened as Shepard and his team entered the room, a hint of hope in what he had thought would be his final hours.
"Shepard." The batarian captain said. "You and your team have destroyed my base! But little do you know...you have done nothing but justify our accusations, and reasons for starting this war!" The captain said, keeping his finger on the trigger.
"Listen to me," Shepard started, "the reapers are coming, and we need to unite as a galaxy to stop them, now is not the time to be starting wars!" Shepard shouted, keeping his pistol carefully trained on the captain.
"You killed one of our colonies! You are a murderer and you started this war!" The captain shouted, his anger and hatred palpable. Fear was growing more and more evident on Kaidan's face.
"Unless you want to see your friend's face be blown all over the wall, drop your guns!" The captain demanded, his trigger finger twitching, just aching to fire.
Shepard could sense how serious the situation was, and sighed, before throwing his pistol to the ground, and watching it slide to the batarian's feet. His teammates followed with similar actions.
"Good...now." The captain said, before kicking a button on the side of the restraining chair Alenko was in. Alenko's restrains were retracted, and he was free to move, though large red marks on his wrists made it evident how tight they were.
In one swift motion, the batarian captain picked up Shepard's pistol, and tossed it at Alenko, who caught it, before quickly resuming having his sniper rifle aimed at Alenko.
"If you kill your former Commander right now, I will call off the batarian invasion, and you will never have a problem with us again. You can lead the defense against the reapers, and we will fight side-by-side." The batarian offered.
Kaidan looked down at the pistol, and then up at Shepard, with eyes questioning what he should do.
"How do I know you're not lying?" Kaidan asked, questioning the batarian's trust.
"I have my radio right here." The batarian replied, tapping his earpiece. "I can call it off in a heartbeat, the minute Shepard drops dead."
Kaidan slowly stood up, gripping the pistol. This decision wasn't going easy on him, he was at a total loss, and had no idea what to do.
After a moment passed, he slowly raised the pistol, aiming it at his former Commander, his friend, John Shepard.
"Shepard...I'm sorry."