Disclaimer: EVE Online is owned by CCP and Mass Effect by Bioware, I claim ownership of nothing except the storyline.
To those of you still reading this: No I'm not actually dead, just busy. I apologize for not updating this, but I've simply not had the time. In the mean time all I will say is that I will continue updating this story, but no promises on how quick. I rewrote this chapter more times than I can count and I'm still not 100% happy with it, but at some point you have to make a few choices. At the very least this chapter is even longer then the last one.
On another quite unrelated note a few of you have lefts a review for me and I do appreciate this very much, but I would like to respond to one criticism that a lot of you have been conveying. That of the blatant mary sue and I completely agree with you. Partially this is just due to the tech difference between EVE and ME, but mostly this is a choice I made in the storyline. She wil never be an average character and thus must not be judged as such. On the other hand I also agree that a simply overpowered character is not good for storytelling. Suffice to say one must rise before they fall and the story is nowhere near over yet.
In any case I hope the few of you still reading this will enjoy the new chapter and as always any reviews, comments and questions are welcome.
Mortal Immortal
Four more hours.
That's how long it would take for them to get to Heastrom.
Too long.
Tali had grown up in the two years he had been gone, he'd seen it back on Freedom's Progress, but to him she was still the frightened young woman they had rescued in that back alley on the Citadel. In the months that followed she had grown more confident, more competent and he had gotten the little sister he never had. She was family and he'd let hell freeze over before anyone messed with that. To that end he knew Joker was pushing the Normandy for all she was worth, but as good a pilot as he was it would still take time to get there.
He took his mind off what he couldn't do anything about at the moment and focused on things he could. The two new additions to his squad seemed to be settling in fine. He was sure of Samara's loyalty after the vow she took, though she had asked for help to further track the criminal she almost caught on Illium. He would find time for that he was sure. Thane Krios on the other hand seemed somehow more content to be here than Samara. The assassin with a conscience Eve had called him. If redemption was what he sought, Shepard wasn't sure he would find it here, but he would help if he could. Any soldier could sympathize with something like that. Garrus and Eve had done a good job at recruiting him, though he heard from Garrus's debriefing that she had made no attempt to save any of the night workers.
Would he have been able to save them? He didn't know, but he knew he would have tried. At least now he knew she would get the job done, if not quite the way he wanted. The footage that Garrus had recorded had shown another thing though, even more of Eve's combat abilities. She was still too much of a mystery. He had both only just met Samara and Thane, but he could understand them, even relate to them. He knew their backgrounds, combat capabilities and more importantly they had similar outlooks on the universe. Everyone had their own opinions and experiences of course, but they were set against a background he knew; a culture he was familiar with and a universe he understood. That made them predictable to a certain point, they were known quantities.
Eve was a blank slate.
An almost split personality with a background he didn't know and technology she refused to share. The others were easy to talk to and bond with because he understood their motives. He could form a team by matching skills and personalities. With Eve he simply had no starting point. So far she could be trusted to complete assignments and help as needed, but he needed more than a loner. She needed to be part of the team. The cheery part of her personality he could deal with, after seeing her interaction with Kasumi he thought everything would be fine. But the serious part of her mind took over in combat apparently as she had all but pushed Garrus to the sidelines on the last mission in favor of doing almost everything herself. He had told Zaeed on Zorya he didn't need anyone but the most dedicated people on his team and he had been serious. The others he could help, understand and forge into a team. Eve somehow wasn't normal. By some miracle of space and time she was human, at least physically speaking, but mentally she was off. Maybe it was the implants, maybe it was the vastly different culture she had grown up in, but something was wrong.
He had talked to her some more while they boarded the ship on Illium and again she was pleasant enough, but he had seen the mask. She was bending her own personality to match what she wanted you to see and think. It wasn't just a solid front she put on either. She was actively changing and molding it, making you think it wasn't there. He had seen her do it, but he had no idea how to get beneath it and he knew that was what it was going to take.
At the moment the priority was to get Tali off of Heastrom, but that was still 3 hours and fifty-four minutes away. After discussing some strategies with Miranda and Garrus, checking his gear and reading up on Heastrom he had no excuses anymore. They had to talk again, a rescue mission had no room for mistakes. A rescue mission involving Tali on a Geth controlled planet would require the best out of everyone and working together like a well oiled team.
He did wonder how Eve would fair against a primarily synthetic race and not just combat wise either. She was more synthetic than human herself, though she did not seem to consider herself either. Could she hack Geth? Could she be hacked herself? Could she be trusted not to go lone wolf on them and jeopardize the mission for something she found interesting?
Either way this would be an interesting conversation once more.
There wasn't much data on the Geth.
Or well, there was; there just wasn't a lot of useful data on the Geth.
Lots of theories and stories, old data from back before the Morning War and some from the recent Eden Prime war, but rarely anything solid. She had gotten a basic idea of how they functioned and some clues as to how they had evolved from the latest war's combat data. Nothing was as conclusive and complete as she liked though. She had no idea on the power of their neural network and what kind of hacking abilities and jamming strengths that would produce. On the surface she would be the stronger and she was one hundred percent positive that one on one a Geth unit wouldn't stand a chance against her. However the neural network allowed them to not only grow there processing ability it also made them gain complexity. They became smarter and more intelligent, besides just becoming faster.
A small group would still be relatively harmless, after all her coding and hardware was much more advanced and augmented by the fact that she retained a human mind. She wasn't bound by pure logic and her thought processes would be completely different than a machine network one. However given enough numbers their processing power could potentially exceed her own. Would she be able to stave off any hacking attempts if there were hundreds of them working together? What about thousands? She had queried EDI, but she had not been able to come to any other conclusions then herself.
She would simply have to wait till Heastrom to find out.
That was not a pleasant thought.
She swirled her drink once more as that thought linked to another. Shepard had been surprisingly curt with her once they had returned to the Normandy. He had listened to her rather short debrief of her mission and had welcomed Thane aboard heartily. However no follow up questions came or any compliment or comment on how she had done. She had expected a full review or at least some form of comment, that was how he worked as far she had profiled him. However when he quickly moved on to the next topic, she understood. The way Garrus had tensed up and shared a quick look with Shepard when the dossier on Tali lit up the conference table, she had seen that look before. She immediately queried EDI for details and had gotten enough to piece together the story. She hadn't paid much attention to the briefing after that, she was far more interested in the reactions, facial expressions and voice pitches from Garrus and Shepard. Tali had been a part of the old crew and for both of them she could tell that meant family. The camaraderie between the two and even already developing between the newer crew members was a bit disconcerting to be honest.
Capsuleers had allies and fleet mates, employees and underlings, even those they considered equals and had respect for. But those were few and far between, trust was dangerous and emotions got you killed, even allies would eventually betray you. When death was a mere inconvenience and time no longer a limited commodity, all that counted was power and money and capsuleers had fallen far or risen high to achieve it. It all depended on who you asked that last one. It was a lesson all capsuleers, even the most naïve and idealistic, learned quickly, by death if necessary. Still there was a time before a capsuleer became a capsuleer, even for her.
That in turn stirred another memory, one long buried. The Federation Navy had been her home back then. Honor and the call of duty had mattered; she actually swore allegiance to an ideal. The Federations ultimate creed: Freedom. She had actually believed in it and that belief drove her career. For over ten years it was her life as she climbed from simple soldier to a member of an advance navy recon squad. Simply designated Forward Nine, the twelve man squad had been her family for nearly three years. Old memories occasionally thought of fondly, though even they were dangerous.
At the chime of the door opening she pushed these thoughts away.
"Care for a drink Commander?"
She did not bother to look away from the passing stars out the window as Shepard entered the room.
"How long have you been waiting for me?"
She managed a smile. "Since you ended the briefing. I knew you would want a word afterwards. Not much to talk about with the crew anyway." She wasn't used to this much company on a ship all the time either. She was starting to miss the quiet in her capsule.
Shepard chuckled at that. "Oh I wouldn't say that. I'm pretty sure Joker would manage to talk even your augmented ears off."
"Perhaps, though I doubt you're here to discuss my lack of socializing with the crew." She took another sip of her drink as he leaned against the window she was looking out of. Blocking out the stars she had been watching behind him.
"Actually that's not far from the truth." Ten possible topics he that could reference popped into her brain. He seemed to think over what he was going to say for a second before continuing on. "Do you believe the Reapers are actually out there and coming?"
The question caught her off guard, as it wasn't in any way linked to his starting inquiry. She took a full second to consider it before answering. She had seen firsthand what Harbinger had done to a collector drone it possessed. How it talked and acted even though she did not yet know how it gained control in such a way. She had gone over the mission files of the first Normandy and broken into more than a few secure Alliance databases going over Sovereign and any related information. Still the full picture was not complete, so much was still unclear. "No I don't believe it." Shepards only reaction was a raising of an eyebrow as he waited for her to elaborate that statement. "Capsuleers do not have the luxury of being allowed to believe anything, no matter how much my Amarrian counterparts would say otherwise. Beliefs can turn out to be true or false and is in no way something any capsuleer can base a choice of. The stakes are always too high too not be sure." Only now she finally looked away from the window and focused on Shepard. "I know they are coming just as sure as you do. A lot is still unknown, too much really, but current evidence allows me to form only one conclusion. They are out there and they are coming."
"And you think you can stop them on your own?" Came the immediate reply.
One she also immediately knew the reply to. "No, and your next question will be: Why I haven't completely disclosed everything I know then?"
"Actually no, my next question was if you know that then why do you keep playing the lone wolf?" Shepard had pushed himself off the wall he was leaning on now and stood straight in front of her. "Trust takes time to build and I'll be the first to agree with not giving your tech to Cerberus of all people, but you are not involved in the least. You stay on the sidelines, offer some curt analysis and then follow orders if you feel like it. I know for a fact that defeating the Reapers will take everything I have and everything everyone has. If we don't fully cooperate they've already won and I know you know this just as well as I do."
Eve merely looked down at her swirling drink. "I do."
"Then why do this, why hold back? I understand that nothing here is as where you're from. You're a long way from home and immediately get a galactic threat thrown into your lap. I'm not expecting you to suddenly know your way around and have all the answers. I'm not expecting you to trust Cerberus or the Alliance or even me straight away. I will not force you or coerce you to do anything, but you know the stakes as well as I do and I'm asking for your help. So why not try and work together, what's stopping you?"
She suppressed a snort. She'd underestimated him, he was much more observant then she had given him credit for. He still didn't understand though. "I understand this galaxy perfectly Shepard. I understand that its lead by a group of fearful and deceitful aliens too stuck up to do anything about a known galactic threat. I understand that this galaxy is about as safe as a lake full of crocodiles and has been fighting one war or another for the last few thousand years. I understand that Cerberus, the Shadow broker and numerous military intelligence agencies have been fighting covert wars for decades now and have still gotten nowhere. It's you who don't understand that even with all this your galaxy is as peaceful as a virgin lake compared to mine. I'm not one of your motley crew of mercs and assassins, I'm a capsuleer."
She could see he was getting aggravated as he balled his hands to fists as he replied. "You're right I don't understand. I don't know your galaxy and I don't fully understand what it means to be a capsuleer. I have nothing more than your vague description to work off and I won't ask for more information on it. But you are not in your galaxy anymore, you're in ours and you need to start acting like a part of this team or I don't want you on my ship."
That made her quirk an eyebrow, but she still didn't look up from her drink. "You're not serious Shepard. You need me and you know it." At the same time she was querying her own motives and came to a startling conclusion. She wanted to stay on the Normandy. That made all thought processes stop for a full second, an eternity for a capsuleer. She had been in contact with this crew for less than four days, not even a speck of time considering her lifetime. She finally looked up to meet Shepards eyes.
She had never seen Shepard with a look like this before.
"Try me."
He was serious. He would throw her of his ship regardless of how much help she could be or how much harm she could do. The last person to look at her like that was her old CO, not long before she became a capsuleer. No one dared to challenge a capsuleer like this back home, even heads of state paid some form of respect and placated capsuleers as much as possible. That was because they knew exactly what capsuleers were capable off, of course Shepard didn't. But she could tell it was more than that, he honestly didn't care. He wanted her help yes, but he also wanted her commitment and he wouldn't take the first without the second. He was just as uncompromisingly idealistic as her old CO…. Son of a bitch.
Her memory augment immediately kicked in and started serving up relevant memories while her cybernetic sub processor began analyzing similarities and differences between Shepard and her old CO. It took her only a few milliseconds to react and shut it down, but quantum computing was quick and had served her up more info than she had wanted to see already. The curse of the capsuleer it was sometimes referred to, she would remember everything in perfect detail for all time and a mere slip in mental discipline would drown you in information. The sub processor had found relevant data and served it up offering the most accurate analysis it could give at all times. It didn't wait for her to ask for information, in combat that could waste precious time. Instead the designers had given her control, but not a shut down command.
"Halen…"
She clamped down on that memory like a ton of bricks and shoved her conscious back to the present, the internal struggle having lasted a bare .32 seconds. Shepard was still waiting for an answer; he would get more than he bargained for. Her implants served up more than just an old memory; they had analyzed everything she had on Shepard as well. And no one talked to a capsuleer like that without consequences. She got up and walked past him to one more stare out at the stars. "I used to find the stars peaceful to look at, so serene and beautiful. Now they're just battles waiting to happen. How time can fade and change a perspective still amazes me sometimes."Abruptly she turned around to face him once more. "You say I should stop holding back and go full throttle, just let everything go and focus on the task at hand. I'd argue that you need to try the exact opposite for once, Commander Shepard." She narrowed her eyes and with practiced ease nailed Shepard on the spot with just her look, as she slowly paced towards him. "Since your resurrection you haven't stopped to take a breath once. You have been going from one colony to the other, to Omega and the Citadel, building a team, gathering resources and for what? To fight the collectors? To fight the Reapers?"
Shepard narrowed his own eyes and did his best to match her gaze as she stopped barely an inch from his face. "You know damn well what it's all for. Whether the galaxy believes it or not, we're at war and we are going to need to do everything possible to get ready for it. Every moment we waste more colonies disappear and more humans die at the hands of the Collectors. I can't afford to slow down!"
Shepard practically grinded out those last few words, but she had expected it. "Really? That's your excuse? Pathetic, I had expected more from you commander." Abruptly she turned around again and activated the holographic display in the corner. "Halvats Reach, a normal human colony out in the ass end of nowhere; Recorded population 392. Went dark less then an hour ago, likelihood of Collector involvement 94.6 percent; Likelihood of successful engagement by the Normandy within acceptable timetable, 87.2 percent. The Quarians on Heastrom are barely fielding 100 people, so let's turn around. Fight the Collectors and save the colonists."
Shepard broke the staring contest as he looked away, his voice softer now. "That's not what I meant, we're not ready to take them head on; Horizon proved that. We need more people, more resources and we're going to need Tali."
"That's bullshit and you know it. You may be right about Tali if her record is correct, but that's not why you're doing this. You're not even keeping up this pace because you think the colonies need it. The only reason you're keeping this pace is to avoid having to deal with that nagging voice inside your head telling you, you aren't you anymore. That the real Shepard actually died and you're just a shadow that they cobbled back together. You say you want to stop me from acting like a lone wolf, while you yourself are trying to lead a team and at the same time trying your goddamn hardest to ignore anything having to do with you personally. You let Ashley Williams walk on Horizon without even trying to convince her and I'm no expert on aliens, but Garrus seems to aching to get you back to who you were." She poked him in the chest with her finger as she continued. "Oh, you try to act the part and to most it would be convincing, but Garrus and Ashley know you too well and so will Tali. As for me, I've just seen it too many times not to notice the signs. You may not want anyone to notice, but you let death change you."
She could almost see the gears in his head turn as she dug straight through his thoughts to the heart of the problem. That one question he had been asking himself for the last few weeks. Was he still himself? Every capsuleer went through the same thing the first time they died, she had seen it all before and lived it herself. In the end it was a pointless question, but one they all dealt with regardless. She hadn't even needed to see the signs to know this doubt was there, any human would ask the same thing. They all just dealt with it a hell of a lot slower than a capsuleer would.
She had seen right through him and he hadn't even noticed. That one thought he'd buried since he'd woken up. Was he still himself? He half hoped to joke it away as he had done with Garrus, but one look at eve's face told him otherwise. The answer she had given him about the reapers came back to mind, she knew. It didn't matter how she knew now anymore or even that she did, but saying it out loud forced him to deal with it. Something he desperately wanted to avoid. He was alive and would fight, the end. But somewhere in the back of his mind that nagging doubt remained, the reason he avoided thinking about himself too much and avoided thinking about the past. Meeting Ashley on Horizon had only reinforced that idea. After all the real Shepard would have been able to convince her wouldn't he?
He was about to concede her point and end the conversation when something else grabbed his attention. She had seen it before, many a time. She knew.
"How and where did you see this before? This is not something people regularly deal with."
At that Eve froze. Oh, he was good; maybe even good enough to actually pull this off. Most people would have just been an emotional wreck after having there most inner thought ripped out. Shepard still managed to grab onto her one slipup. Very well then, she'd let him in on one of her secrets.
"No it isn't something regular people deal with often, or at all for that matter, but I'll let you in on a little secret. The true reason people fear capsuleers in my universe isn't because of our destructive potential, our nearly unlimited funds or even our ability to outthink most supercomputers. No the true reason is that I can tell you that in my 258 year long lifespan I have died a recorded 473 times and I'm still here. I have been burned, shot, drowned, exploded, imploded and vaporized. I have died in more ways than you can probably imagine and all it has ever done is slow me down. I have seen it before because every capsuleer asks themselves the same question the first time they die and then they move on."
Shepard seemed in shock for just moment before he recovered with at least one question. "How is that even possible?"
Eve just smiled at that one. "Please commander, these neural links are for more then just piloting a spacecraft. At the point of death my consciences gets digitized and pulsed through our fluid router communications network to a waiting clone in a station specified by me. I wake up and am on the move a bare second after I die."
"I can barely believe your being serious, but it would explain a few things I have wondered about. How do you deal with it though? How do you go on knowing you're not really you anymore?"
"Who says you aren't? All I can say is that every capsuleer I have ever met would give you this same answer: It doesn't matter."
Shepard gave her a confused look at that. "It doesn't matter?"
"Unlike a capsuleer you are even still in your original body, but in the end you'll never really know for sure if it is the original you or not. All I can say is that it doesn't matter. You look like Shepard, you act like Shepard and you think like Shepard. Even Garrus thinks you are Shepard and if there is one thing that will remain true it's that people will see a change in you quicker then you do. So you are Shepard in all the ways that matter and even the ways that don't. All that remains is you accepting you are still you, to actually make you yourself."
She had backed up a few paces and now looked him dead in the eye again. Even she had to agree they needed Shepard at a hundred percent if they were going to do this. "However that's something only you can do, but in case it might help I'll leave you with one last secret of my own. After 473 deaths, I still believe I'm me."
He seemed to consider that for a few seconds as they just stood in silence. At the very least she had given him something to think about. Now it was up to him. He seemed to have reached conclusion as he met her eyes again.
"I knew I would have to give something up to get you to do the same, but I will gladly say this has been more helpful then I had thought it would be. But now back to you. You mentioned that in your galaxy your consciousness gets transferred, that also means you are now mortal. No fluid router network that I know off in this galaxy to transfer your mind and no cloning facilities to wake up from. "
That caught her slightly by surprise. While the conclusion he drew was wrong, he didn't know she had a clone bay on her ship after all, she hadn't expected him to use himself as bait like that. He had purposefully set this up, she was impressed and that didn't happen often.
"True, it seems we are both experiencing something for the first time then."
Shepard pushed on through.
"That explains some of the odd behavior and how you act on occasion. You just told me that it doesn't matter, I'd like to give you the same advice. Nobody here cares for the fact that you're a capsuleer or the fact that you're an immortal become mortal, Cerberus not withstanding. Start acting like part of the team, you might even end up liking it."
She had to admit he had done a good job of getting her to spill information even at the cost of some of his own. She had underestimated him and that had cost her. She had to admit he had an uncanny knack for apparently intuitively knowing how to approach people, to know when to be friendly, gentle or hard as a rock. She filed this piece of information away, it would not happen again, but for the moment he had won her respect and coming from a capsuleer that was as good as trust.
"My old CO used to tell me never to make a promise I can't keep. I cannot promise I'll do this, but I can promise you I'll try."
She saw Shepard give her a brief smile, he was thinking of this as a victory. That however did not mean she would let him go just like that.
"My old CO told me something else as well though: Trust too few and you get nowhere, trust too many and you die. I still don´t trust anyone here Shepard, but you´ve gained my respect. So I´ll give you fair warning, a warning coming from someone who has watched stars die and battled empires and won. If I find out at any point that you have not been on the level with me, you will find out for yourself why people in my universe truly fear capsuleers and the Reapers will be the least of your worries."
Shepard could see in her eyes that she meant it, but as she had said: it didn´t matter. He had gotten behind the mask and now all he could do was hope. Hope that just like Jack, Grunt and Zaeed, she would turn out for the better and not just a crazy killing machine. He mustered a soft smile for her as he replied. "Your old CO sounds like a wise man."
Unconsciously it seemed a sad smile formed on her lips and Shepard would have sworn that he could see pain in her eyes for the barest hint of a second. "Halen was a she actually." And it was gone again, Eve was back to being Eve. The hint was enough though, he understood. Everyone, even a crazy half-bionic woman from a different galaxy, had history and they all dealt with it in their own way. If she was going to truly try though, he did want her opinion on one thing.
"So you think we can actually win this?"
She gave him a brief smile again, though this one seemed truly friendly. "The great commander Shepard asking me something like that, the others better not find out."She stared out of the window again briefly before replying. "I'll give you one insight I have gleaned from my time both here as back home. That as much as some would like to think otherwise, man's history is a history determined, measured, and defined by warfare, with entire periods of time dedicated to the primary material or technology used to create the best weapons of the era. We are a species dedicated to annihilation. And from the beginning of civilization until the end of humanity itself, only one truth really remains: There is nothing that man, nature, God, or the Devil himself can create that we cannot destroy."
He had to chuckle at that as he turned to walk out the lounge, stopping as the door opened. "It seems the Reapers better watch out."
She gave her own chuckle in return. "Oh you have no idea."
"Yep, she was definitely back to her old self again."
They had made planet fall quietly enough, the Normandy's stealth drive preventing them from being detected. Heastroms sun was overpowering the planets magnetosphere with radiation and wreaking havoc on their shields whenever they were in direct sunlight. Eve didn't seem to have the same problems as she stood admiring the sunset in a glaring blaze of light. Another mission had produced another suit of armor for her. This one resembled the stripped down armor she wore on Illium but it looked slightly bulkier, though still nothing compared to the heavy armor she had used on Horizon. It was a dull grey color with a lot of angular lines and sensors and antenna sticking out at various points, with little regard for aesthetics. A faint glow a few centimeters above the armor betrayed the active shields, while the heat waves coming off her pulse rifle warned him not to come too close. There was one other addition he noticed, a large grey rectangular object fixed to her back. It matched her armor's design, but was clearly not a part of it. As for its function he could only guess, but knowing her he probably didn't want to know anyway.
He looked at Garrus who was scouting ahead and signaled. "Move out people."
Zaeed, Miranda, Jacob and Mordin moved up in order, used to staying near cover with readied weapons. They were trained to expect trouble at all times. That off course meant that Eve looked like she was taking a leisurely stroll through a park, a park that looked like it had been bombed and flooded with radiation, but she was definitely strolling.
Garrus interrupted his thoughts. "We've got a gatehouse up ahead. Lots of dead Geth units here Shepard, a few Quarians as well."
"Roger that, we're on our way. Hold your position until we get there."
The gatehouse wasn't far, but it had seen a considerable amount of fighting. A chokepoint the Quarians had reinforced against the Geth it looked like. "Can you get the gate open?"
"Yeah, there's a message here from one of the dead Quarians as well. We've got a location on Tali now, according to the message they hold her up in a reinforced observatory not far from here."
"Roger that, open the gate and let's get moving."
And let's hope he wasn't too late.
They had passed a small scout patrol beyond the gate. Nothing she or Shepard and his squad couldn't handle. It gave her a good field test on the effectiveness of her electronic counter measures, or ECM for short, against the Geth though. Her ECM worked differently from the hacking techniques she had found in this universe. They all relied on hacking a certain process in the Geth unit itself, something the unit could self correct from backups and updates through the neural network. Her ECM on the other hand was much less invasive, but an order of magnitude more powerful, forgoing direct changes of their programming it simply flooded the unit with false input data. The Geth would literally be unable to maintain a cohesive target lock on a valid target as it was trying to determine which targets were real, which were not, why the scenery kept changing and how some of them were flying.
She had already determined that in large groups this would be less effective than she had hoped. Small groups she could completely blanket and thus leave helpless, but in large groups the neural network would work too much against it. She would jam up ten units, only to have the remaining ten relay correct sensory data to the affected units in a matter of nanoseconds. Provided she would keep rotating targets this would reduce the effectiveness of the Geth slightly as they would have to keep switching out sensory data instead of allowing one unit to handle this. The amount of processing power they would be able to distribute to analyzing tactical situations would thus be diminished. Not as good as she had hoped, but better than nothing at all.
She was glad she had brought her Caldari made spec ops armor along though. While not as heavily armored as her Gallente armor, the shields made for a far more mobile combat suit and a lot more versatile upgrades. Given the surroundings and the current target it would be a lot more efficient than simple heavy armor.
Shepard had looked at her after they had quickly dealt with the Geth who were busy shooting nonexistent targets. She had merely shrugged, he had nodded and they had moved on. The conversation they had back on the Normandy apparently enough for him to trust her. She still had to shake her had at it. It brought back too many memories of times before she was a capsuleer. Times she had purposefully not thought about for decades. She was still unsure as to why they kept coming back now of all times and whether it was Shepard that was to blame or all this ground work she had been doing. Whatever the case she forcefully shoved the memories back down in her memory implant and focused on the task at hand.
The last time Garrus had doubted Shepards judgment had been well over 2 years ago now. During their chase for Saren they had found time to detour to the MSV Fedele, a ship owned by a certain Dr Saleon. The sick bastard Garrus had been unable to get while he was still in C-Sec. He had gotten away and just continued harvesting organs from his victims in space. When they caught up with him Shepard had chosen to take him in. Garrus had wanted to kill him. In the end the result had been the same as Saleon had refused to come alive, but after their talk afterwards Garrus had understood why it had mattered. More importantly he had understood why Shepard had made the choice he did and he had trusted him ever since.
But Eve had almost made him do just that.
He'd seen Shepard perform the impossible more times than he dared count by now. Coming back from the dead certainly not being one of the least. His own track record of recruiting members also wasn't spotless, but maybe that was why he was doubting this decision. Logically he could understand wanting Eve around. She was more of a living weapon than anyone he had ever met and considering present company that was saying something. But unlike the others Shepard had recruited to his cause over the course of their journey Eve was the only one that felt wrong somehow. He had almost asked Shepard to leave her behind for this mission. Tali was too important to bring a loose cannon along for a rescue mission.
He'd almost thought that Shepards famous intuition had finally failed him, but something had happened during their ride to Heastrom. Shepard had told him they had talked and it would be fine. He'd found it hard to believe but trusted him all the same. When she came down to join the rest ground team for prep he almost didn't believe it. She had not been shy around any of them by any means, but quite distant all the same. Now she was actively engaging in a conversation with Zaeed about how to best fight a Krogan. It would seem like Shepard had done it again and right on time as well. He'd take all the firepower they had in rescuing Tali, he'd grown quite fond of the young Quarian back on the old Normandy.
Shepard caught his eye as they moved up through a narrow corridor to the next open courtyard and grabbed his shoulder for a second, quickly mouthing something for only him to hear.
"Don't worry, we'll get her back."
Bastard hadn't lost even a shred of his intuition.
The sounds of gunfire, explosions and shouting got progressively louder as they moved through the corridor and it wasn't long before Shepard could pick out yelled orders.
"Fall back to the gatehouse!"
"Watch that Armature on the right!"
"I need covering fire on my location!"
They picked up the pace and it wasn't long before the corridor started widening and they once again met Quarian and Geth corpses alike. Garrus quickly stopped at one of the Quarian corpses. "Let me see if I can hack into their comm. signal, that way were at least not running in blind. "
"Make it quick."
As usual Garrus did and only a few seconds later a Quarian voice rattled to life in his earpiece. "All squads, fall back to the gatehouse. We'll make our stand there. Snipers switch to picking off those damn rocket troops, Squad one focus fire on the left flank and squad two get that rail gun working again or those armatures will punch right through our defenses."
They picked up the pace once more and saw a battlefield unfold before them as Shepard made himself known on the comm. "Quarian captain, this is commander Shepard of the SSV Normandy. My squad is on station and ready to assist."
The Quarians reply was instant. "Shepard? Tali's old captain? What are you doing out there? Ugh, forget I asked. Any support you can provide would be greatly appreciated."
Quarians, always so polite even in the heat of battle. "We're just over a minute out. Can you give me a sit rep? Is Tali still alive?"
Again the reply was quick. "As far as I know Tali is fine. We have her secure in the old observatory behind this gatehouse, but were being assaulted from both sides. The main Geth force is in the open courtyard in front of us, but there's another courtyard in between this gatehouse and the observatory. It was domed over, but it partially collapsed and a Geth drop ship dropped a full platoon into the gap. Were still in control of both sides of the gatehouse and the entrance to the observatory, but at this rate it's not going to last long. As long as one of us still draws breath Tali will live, I just can't say how much longer that will be."
"Copy that, stand by."
The corridor finally opened up and revealed a large open courtyard swarming with Geth troops. Shepard estimated well over a hundred enemy units ranging from standard units to the two Geth Armatures stomping around. He quickly assessed the terrain and started barking orders. "We're gonna move up towards the gatehouse over that elevated walkway on the right flank. Garrus hang back a bit as we move up and focus on helping the Quarians as much as possible, Mordin stay with him and start coming up behind us through the path we've cleared. Jacob, Zaeed, you're on point with me, Miranda stay close behind us and focus on taking them out with your biotics. Eve…"
She cut him off at that point. "I'm not staying with you." He resisted the urge to roll his eyes, had she learned nothing from their talk. He didn't need or want a lone wolf. She never even looked at him as she continued on. "I can cross this gap to the Quarians before you even engage the back ranks of the Geth forces. I'll shore up their defenses on both sides long enough for you to make it through. You don't need my help just to punch through this, but the Quarians will take significant casualties in the mean time."
She met his eyes before continuing on. "I haven't forgotten my promise commander, but for once I'm asking you to trust me instead of the other way around."
He could only nod as a reply. "Keep in radio contact."
She smiled and backed up few paced as if preparing for a sprint.
"Besides I haven't been lugging this thing on my back along for nothing."
"I'm assuming you'll let me know what it does before you set it off right?"
She smirked, "Maybe", and took a running jump off the fallen pillar in front of them and disappeared into thin air, literally. He simply shook his head once more and called back to the rest of the squad.
"Let's move out people."
She knew her spec ops armor would be the right choice for the job she mused as she pushed off another column and landed in a roll on a collapsed building. Picking up speed again as she pushed off. The Geth units around her paying her no attention, nor she the Geth units. It helped that they didn't know she was there of course. Her cloak drew a significant amount of power from her suit, but she would cross the entire courtyard in less than forty seconds. Well before she ran out of energy. In the background she could hear Shepards squad make contact with Geth forces as gunfire rattled and the sharp staccato of Garrus's sniper rounds rang out. She was much further along, right in the middle of the main Geth force. Her armors servo's pumped up to maximum output she was simply flying through the Geth ranks. Too fast for the Geth to even react to the occasional muted thump of her armor landing after a jump.
The courtyard elevated up towards the gatehouse, but with her suits augmented mobility it was hardly an obstacle. Jumping off a block of rubble she propelled herself several meters into the air and landed gracefully on an elevated platform three Quarian marines were using for cover. She decloaked as she started walking towards the main entrance where the comm. signal of the Quarian commander originated. Warning lights flashed not a second later as her shield flared to block incoming fire. The Quarians were firing on her!
"Of all the insolent little….."
She quit that line of thought and made her helmet collapse into her armor as she spun around to yell at the marines behind her. "Would you stop that for crying out loud. Go back to shooting Geth you idiots." With that she turned on her heel and continued walking towards the main gate leaving three stunned Quarian marines behind. Two seconds later another marine intercepted her.
"Oh, for the love of…."
Kal'Reegar was not a happy man at the moment. He was fighting a battle on three fronts, outnumbered and running low on supplies. And on top of all that the blasted sun was wreaking havoc on their remaining equipment. His spotter had reported that Shepards team was hitting the Geth back ranks hard, but it was only a six man squad against the well over a hundred Geth in front of the gatehouse. Granted it would buy them some time, but to win this was started to look like a miracle. So when ZIl'Velu, his second in command, radios him to come to the front entrance urgently he could only assume the worst. A human female in an unknown suit of armor was not what he was expecting. Zil'Velu saluted crisply as he walked along the main barricade towards him. "She appeared suddenly inside our perimeter and demanded to see a commanding officer. Since she hasn't been hostile yet, nor was she Geth, I figured you might want to talk to her." Kal'Reegar simply nodded and Zil'Velu went back to coordinating their defense. Before he managed to get a word in edgewise she started talking.
"I need a sit rep, how many men do you have defending this gatehouse and how are they divided between the main entrance and the courtyard between here and the observatory? How many men do you still have at the observatory and how many Geth are in the courtyard in between the two?"
He almost caught himself answering before thinking better of it. "Look who are you? I have a battle to fight here and don't have time to keep giving people sit reps."
She looked at him for the first time and a shiver went down Reegars spine. Steely blue eyes looked as though they pierced through his mask and looked directly into his mind. Abruptly she started walking towards the main entrance while talking. Reegar had no choice but to follow. "I'm part of Shepards squad and I'm here to make sure you all don't die before he gets here himself."
"No offence, but one woman isn't going turn the tide of this battle."
The strange woman stopped in front of the main gate and turned with a humorless smile on her face. "Oh, you'd be surprised how much difference one person in the right time and place can make."
For the first time he noted the weird angular pack that was fixed to her back as it started a high pitched whine. With a few sharp clicks the pack snapped open revealing a bright spinning cylinder inside. An instant later four rods snapped out the bottom of the device and fixed it to the ground. At this point it disconnected from the woman's back, as she took a few steps away. The high pitched whine seemed to reach a crescendo as the cylinder released, what he could only describe as, a wall of energy. It rushed past him and his men coming to a stable halt just outside their defensive perimeter. He could barely see the faint glow now surrounding the barricades, what he could see was enemy rounds pinging of it and a rocket explode mid air, unable to penetrate the glowing veil. The now even stranger woman turned back to him without a hint of her former smile. "What the hell is that!"
"Standard Reinforced Invulnerability Field Transmitter, or RIFT for short. Tell your men to stay inside the veil as they can walk out but not back in. The shield should hold for quite a while considering enemy forces outside. Now you have time to answer my questions."
Reegar quickly shouted a warning to Zil who started getting the stunned marines back to fighting and turned back to the woman in front of him. He still had no clue where the hell she came from, but arguing with her seemed like a bad idea. "I have 28 marines still holding the main barricade with another twelve on the other side overlooking the courtyard. A further eight are holed up in the observatory. The Geth dropped a full platoon into the gap between us, around thirty units, but the colossus is the worst of it. We can't make a push to the observatory with that thing in there. The colossus is also broadcasting a jamming field, so we don't have radio contact with the other side, but we can still see them fighting from our side of the courtyard. "
The woman simply nodded and started walking through the gateway to the other side. "Tell your men on the other side of the gate to double back and help holding the main gate out front. Coordinate covering fire with Shepard so he can get here. I'll deal with the Geth in the courtyard."
Who the hell was this woman! "Look lady, I thank you for the magic shield you brought along but it's not like we marines can't fight. Our orders are clear, protect Tali and the data at all costs. I'm not letting you run in there on your own."
She turned a put up a small smile. "You've done well holding against these odds on a three front battle, hell most would've folded against these odds on one front, but unless we take out this group your forces will get smashed in the middle." Her eyes went cold again as the smile fell from her face. "But this was not a question or a request. If you want to save your marines do as I say, when I say and you might all get out of here alive. Now get Shepard all the covering fire you can on this side while I deal with this."
That look sent shivers up his spine and Reegar was almost compelled to say yes if only to get her out of his way. But he also had a duty to do, if she was wrong he'd be risking his entire defensive line. Then again at the moment he was merely pulling a holding act and he knew it. He had no escape options left besides fight for as long as possible and hope for a gap. On the other hand if she was right….. "All right, I'm going to trust you. Don't make me regret it or I swear by the ancestors I will …..." He never got to finish his sentence as she started walking away.
After a few steps she stopped again and turned to look back at him and for the shortest moment he would have swore he saw a sad smile on her face. "I won't." Then it was gone again.
"Zaeed, get that destroyer on the right. Jacob you're getting swamped, pull back through that corridor. Miranda move to fill the gap." Shepard was barking orders while pouring fire on the Geth units in front of him. They had been moving up slower than he had wanted due to having to stick to the shade. Every time they got into direct sunlight their shields fried. He pushed past a corner and unloaded a full clip into a group of Geth before jumping round and back into cover while releasing the thermal clip. Progress was slow, too slow.
His comm. pinged.
"Commander I've made it to the Quarian camp and linked up with their commander, Kal'Reegar. You should be receiving more covering fire in a minute. I'm going to deal with the Geth platoon in between the gatehouse and the observatory."
Good with Eve there the odds of the Quarians holding was much higher. "Copy that, we're pretty bogged down here. We're still at least a good hundred meters away from the barricade."
"Understood, relay your progress to Reegar and coordinate covering fire. Oh and Shepard, heads up and wait for the flash."
What? The flash that followed from the gatehouse explained that. "Eve what the hell was that!"
She sounded almost disappointed over the comm. "Well you said to give you a heads up, so I did." He heard a light chuckle. "Reegar just asked the exact same question, so you'll get the exact same answer. Standard Reinforced Invulnerability Field Transmitter, or RIFT for short. It will let stuff out, but not in. I've linked it to your suit data so it will create a gap for the team when you come close. In the mean time I'll have the remaining marines here move to the main battle while I deal with the courtyard. Meet me there when you get in."
Her and her surprises. "Copy that, have you managed to make contact with Tali?"
"Negative commander, Reegar failed to mention that the platoon in between here and the observatory features a Geth Colossus and it's broadcasting a jamming field. I'll see what I can do about making contact once I hit the courtyard."
A goddamn Colossus, that would make things more complicated."Copy that. Watch yourself around the Colossus Eve, those things hit hard. We'll double time it across the gap if the Quarians can provide some more covering fire. Assess the situation and hold what you've got until we get there."
He heard her chuckle again, but there was no humor in the sound. "Oh, I plan on doing more than assessing the situation."
He could only sigh. After there conversation he understood where her idea of invincibility came from, but what he didn't understand was why she didn't adjust. He had seen on Horizon that she wasn't invincible, even her armor could crack. A sniper round impacting the pillar he was using for cover snapped him out of his musings. Shoot first, talk later. "Roger that, just Eve…."
"What?"
"Try not to die…"
He could hear loud laughter as she closed the comm.
Marines ran past her to the other side of the gatehouse with Reegar barking at them. The Colossus itself came into view over the ridge of cover that the Quarians had hastily erected. The quad legged monstrosity was bigger than she had expected. Standing at least a full twenty five meters high and slightly more than that in length she quickly analyzed its combat effectiveness. The main head mounted cannon would blow away most forms of cover and would definitely pose a threat to her current armor; thankfully its firing speed was low. The main body itself featured no less than six antipersonnel turrets mounted on various points. Its legs seemed like a weak point at first, but the reinforced joints and armored legs would be just as hard to crack as the main shell. All in all it boasted enough firepower to level a building.
Thankfully so did she.
She moved up a bit further, standing at the edge of the barricade, and got a visual on the other side of the courtyard. Another hastily erected barricade in front of a small entrance door to the observatory. Eve counted only five people holding the barricade, either they were all holed up inside, or Reegar had lost more people than he thought. Passive thermal scans of the area suggested the latter. She zoomed in closer and got a visual on one Quarian pumping shotgun rounds into the advancing Geth units. Brave, that one.
With a thought her rifle powered up and shields flared to maximum power.
"Time to boogey."
They just kept coming, from all sides. She had to have killed dozens of Geth units on her own by now and still there were more. The Colossus had seemed to mostly engage the main gatehouse and leave their side alone, but there were still enough Geth platforms to overwhelm them. She had been fighting almost non-stop for hours and she could feel her arms and legs becoming ever heavier, her shotgun take ever more effort to reload. She pumped another round towards a Geth platform, knocking it to the side. It sustained damage, but she could tell it would remain operable. They were just far more resilient than any organic could ever be.
Suddenly she noticed the quiet.
It wasn't completely quiet by any means, she could still hear the far off shouting and thunder from the battle on the other side of the gatehouse. Closer the Geth units were still firing and she could hear the few marines next to her fire of bursts of mass accelerated rounds into them. But the steady staccato of gunfire from the other side of the courtyard had stopped. They were getting no more covering fire!
"Keelah"
Had they all been killed? Did Reegar have them pull back because he needed them on the other side? More incoming fire pulled her out of her thoughts. She couldn't afford to ask those questions now, she had more immediate concerns.
She activated her combat drone and sent it off to the left flank to pull the Geth out of formation as she reloaded the thermal clip in her shotgun. Priming an overload on her omnitool, she jumped out of cover and let loose. The overload dropped the nearest Geths shield and the follow up shotgun blast completely separated the top half of the Geth from its legs. Flickering, the light on its head died as she aimed at the next target. Chiktikka pulsed and an arc of electricity hit another Geth, two more shotgun blasts put it down for good.
Rounds started pinging of her shields as she ducked back into cover. Ejecting the thermal clip, she listened to the Colossus stomping around behind her. It was slow moving, but once it tracked her the column she was using for cover would be useless. Her only option was speed. She rolled out of cover again as she tracked the nearest Geth platform and let loose another round. From the corner of her eye she saw the Colossus fire. Instinctively she shielded her head even though she knew it was pointless. The round hit with a deafening blast, audio dampeners in her suit automatically kicked in as she could feel the shockwave pass her. Little pieces of rubble bounced harmlessly off her kinetic barriers as she rose to an unexpected sight.
Amidst a cloud of dust an unfamiliar figure appeared, shields glowing faintly from the dust surrounding it. The small crater around him betraying what happened, he had taken the Colossus shot head on. She didn't have time to fully comprehend the gravity of that fact before he started to move again. White light flashed as a Geth platform was annihilated and the figure raced through the rubble to get to the next target. Whoever he was, he was quick beyond anything she had seen before and whatever weapon he was wielding made short work of the Geth platforms. The stomping from the Colossus snapped her back to reality as she saw it attempt to track her new ally in vain. Snapping a new thermal clip into her shotgun, she popped out of cover and got to work again.
They might have a chance after all.
Eve was cursing herself for not bringing her heavy armor as alarms bleared in her head. Her shields were dangerously low and she was overheating her armors servo's to the breaking point to keep the Colossus from tracking her. Taking a shot of its main cannon head on had not been in the plan, but she had recognized the female Quarian from the Normandy's database. She was the primary objective and thus not expendable, it had been the only viable option. The normal Geth platforms meanwhile didn't stand a chance against her and she was taking them out with brutal efficiency. With every flash of white light another platform ceased to exist as she dashed from target to target, but sooner or later she would have to deal with the Colossus. She had her electronic countermeasures cycling as best as possible but the Colossus simply had too many sensors and processing power to succumb to it. She at least managed to take the jamming field offline with it, better than nothing.
Then her comm. crackled to life. "Eve this is Shepard we've made it to the Quarian position and are reinforcing it as best we can. Something that shield of yours is making a damn side easier I might add. Me and Garrus are on our way to the other side to help deal with the squad cutting Tali off."
"Copy that Commander. I'm almost done finishing off the last Geth platforms, but the Colossus remains. I've been unable to penetrate its defenses while maintaining my current pace and I do not have enough shield power remaining to take its main cannon head on again. "
"Understood Eve, hold what you've got. We'll be there momentarily."
With a flash another Geth platform sputtered out and died. Landing with a roll she immediately pushed off in a dead sprint as the stone column behind her blew up in a shower of rubble. The Colossus was predicting her movement patterns.
"Hold what you've got. Easier said than done."
Garrus was right behind him as Shepard ran through the gatehouse while raking his brain for options. He had taken down Colossuses before, but never on foot. He was carrying the Arc projector on his back as a heavy weapon, but that was only any good against shields. Eve's weaponry actually bypassed mass effect shielding all together and she was having trouble with the armor already. As they passed the barricade the Quarians had been previously using they caught sight of Eve as she dodged a shot from the Colossus main gun. The column behind her crumbled and collapsed as her rifle flashed and took out a Geth destroyer.
"I'm going to circle around and see how the Tali and the remaining Quarians on the other side are doing. You stay here and keep them off me."
At that Garrus unfolded his sniper rifle and jammed in a new thermal clip. "Oh, I'll do more than keep them off you."
"Just try not to hit me as well this time." Shepard yelled back as he jumped over the last barricade. As he ducked behind a fallen column as cover he got Garrus reply over comms.
"Well maybe if you hurry up this time…. "
Shepard had to chuckle at that. "You just watch your ass Vakarian."
"Same to you Shepard."
Popping out of cover for a few shots on a nearby Geth platform he contacted Eve. "Eve, me and Garrus are in direct support positions. Can you confirm Tali is still alive?"
The reply was instant. "Confirmed Commander, there are still a few Quarians alive and shooting Geth; Tali among them."
He jumped over the fallen pillar and took a sprint to the next cover available. "Copy that. I'm going to circle around and make contact with the remaining Quarians on the other side. See if we can coordinate our attacks on the Colossus."
"Roger that, I'll draw its attention away from you for a clear run."
Just as Eve said that Shepard watched her dodge another blast by the skin of her teeth. "Copy, just watch the hell out for that main gun. It'll easily blow through any of these columns."
He could hear the sarcasm in her answer. "Hadn't noticed that." Then a second of silence. "Actually that gave me an idea. Make your run Commander I'm finishing this thing."
He had to suppress a sigh. "Just don't blame me if you get your ass shot off."
Eve's laugh was the only reply he got before the comm. line cut off. Moving from cover to the next he spotted Eve moving around at speeds well above what was possible for a normal human. The Colossus meanwhile was busy tracking Eve with its main gun, however its antipersonnel turrets tracked independently. Shepard ducked behind another piece of cover as hypervelocity rounds pinged off his shields. He stayed there for a few seconds and heard the turret had moved on to the next target. Popping out of cover he briefly glanced at Eve as she ducked behind one of the columns still left standing. Sprinting for the next piece of cover he took a few potshots at one of the few standard Geth platforms still standing. He couldn't help but look back behind him at the thunderous sound of the Colossus main gun firing. Striking the column Eve had ducked behind only a second ago. He watched the column topple precariously before it suddenly jerked forward, straight for the Colossus. As it fell he couldn't help but smile as a figure became visible at the top of the column. Riding it down like it were a wave Eve's armored form gave of jets of what seemed like plasma, guiding the massive column down towards the Colossus. With a deafening crash the column impacted the Colossus, its shields flaring briefly and in vane as the column completely shattered its main body a mere moment later.
As the dust settled his comm. crackled to life. "That worked better than expected."
"You are one crazy ass woman Eve."
Shepard couldn't help but chuckle as he moved out his cover and walked towards the Quarians still alive. "Amen to that Garrus."
Tali had seen a lot of things during her short life. She had killed more Geth than most armies. Helped stop a rogue Spectre and assisted in killing an ancient machine hell bent on eradicating all life in the galaxy. During that time she had seen Shepard and his crew pull of stunts that most would deem impossible. But riding down a concrete pillar weighing at least 4 tons, onto a Geth Colossus in order to crush it ranked up there right with the best of them. Whoever this person was, he was one hell of a fighter.
She lost track of the grey armored fighter in the smoke and dust that had been thrown up from the impact and looked back to the few marines remaining. Only four were left out of the twenty first with her, so many lost and for what. Some data on a star dying, was it really worth it all? She didn't have the answer to that, it would have to be. She did a quick check on her shotgun before moving towards the surviving marines when another form caught her eye.
"Shepard!"
The word had left her mouth before she even thought about it. Shepard smiled at her as he heard his name called. Making his way towards her through the rubble she could see Garrus in the distance as well. What were they both doing here?
Finally he made it to her. "Good to see we made it in time."
Tali was still a bit stunned as almost 3 straight days worth of fighting unloaded on her. "Shepard? How?... But…What are you even doing here?"
That smile she knew so well formed on his lips. "I was in the neighborhood, thought I'd drop by."
She couldn't help it, three days of stress and he made a joke. She laughed for all she was worth. "You do show up at the strangest of times. Though I can't really complain about your timing, if not for you we'd have nobody left here now."
Shepard gave her a sad look and put his hand on her shoulder as he led her back towards the gatehouse through the rubble. "I'm sorry Tali. We came as fast as we could and we're still not out of this yet. On the other side of the gatehouse Reegar is still fighting off quite the Geth army."
"And we better go help him, my shield won't hold forever." From the side of her mask she caught the grey armored fighter walking out of the smoke. Her voice sounding a lot more female than she was expecting.
"Tali, allow me to introduce one of our latest additions to the crew, Eve." At that her helmet collapsed to show a blue haired human woman. Tali almost did a back flip, from the size of the armor she thought the fighter male, not female. She was definitely wrong though, Eve's head looked rather small when compared to her armor, but there was no mistaken it was feminine. For a second she was stunned I silence before Eve spoke in a strange overly calm voice, like she had just walked away from a relaxing day at the beach instead of a battlefield.
"We can get acquainted later, for now I'm pleased to meet you." Then she just ignored her and started walking back to the barricade as she called back to Shepard. "I'll help shore up the main line again, meet me there when you're done here and we'll discuss an exfil plan." At that she simply walked off, leaving her slightly stunned.
Shepard meanwhile was just grinning. "Yeah, she does that."
Garrus meanwhile had ran past Eve's retreating form. "Thank the spirits, you're alright. For a moment there I thought we might have been too late."
Tali smiled beneath her mask. Him she knew how to deal with. "Be careful there Garrus or I might start to think you actually care."
Garrus gave her an easy chuckle and avoided her gaze for a second as her gave his usual reply. "Well we can't have that, I have this dangerous vigilante image to live up to after all."
"I was wondering how long it would take Shepard to find you again after I met him on Freedoms Progress. I hope Omega didn't treat you too badly."
Garrus gave her a slightly dark chuckle for that. "You might get a surprise when I take my helmet off."
"Wait, wait, wait, you knew what he was doing on Omega?" Shepard cut in as they started walking back to the main barricade.
Garrus beat her to answering that. "Of course she did, you didn't think we would stop talking just because you weren't there anymore did you?"
"All I'll say is I remember too many of your conversations ending in shotgun remarks."
"You're just still sore we had something to talk about on all the elevator rides."
Shepard and Garrus continued to banter on as they headed back to the gatehouse as Tali followed, smiling in her helmet the whole way.
It was good to have them back.
Now all they needed to do was get out alive.
Shepard had to admit that Eve's shield was holding out nicely. The Quarians hadn't taken any more casualties since it was up and combined with his own squad they had managed to hold off the Geth. On the other hand Eve had been clear about her shield, it wouldn't hold forever and there were more than enough Geth still out there. They needed and exit plan and preferably quick.
He called Reegar, Miranda and Garrus over to discuss a plan. Naturally Eve joined in of her own accord.
"Our ship is located here and as far as we can tell it's been left untouched after we abandoned it for the gatehouse. The Geth ignored it as it wasn't a threat. At some point we'll need to make a push for extraction."
"I agree, but we're probably better off waiting as long as we can to wear out the Geth forces." Miranda added.
"I'd actually say the opposite. The Geth don't get tired, we do. The Quarians are already running low on ammo and we won't be long behind. The faster we get out of here the better I'd say." Garrus countered.
Shepard knew Miranda and Garrus would butt heads eventually. They just looked at things too differently. Miranda always wanted to plan everything and preferred control over everything. Garrus on the other hand was a lot more aggressive and prepared to improvise on the spot. At the moment he agreed with Garrus though, the faster they could get out of here the better.
She didn't much care for the conversation taking place. It was planning so rudimentary, with so few options that she could keep up with just a glance at the map. She was considering something completely different. Regardless of what plan they came up with casualties would mostly likely be high, the Geth were simply more efficient as a large unit then organics were. They would adapt to any planned push and counter attack appropriately. Then of course there was the numbers advantage that even she would be hesitant to take on. She had burnt through a lot of systems to take out the Colossus and its escort and was running low on nanites to repair all her systems.
There was another option, one she had simply thought about before but now seemed like an actual viable option. On the other hand it was also the only option that would put her at risk as well. At the moment she was more having an internal moral debate on whether or not to even propose it than the actual feasibility of it. The other thing that worried her was the fact that she was having a moral debate in the first place. She came up with several possibilities, mostly revolving around Shepard and bringing up old memories. Maybe it was just the amount of ground combat she had been doing as of late, more then she had seen since her time in the Gallente Navy, but something kept triggering old memories of her squad. Memories she had successfully buried for centuries were coming back up, it was disconcerting to say the least.
On the other hand she had made Shepard a promise and she always kept her promises. However the risk factor was still high, with too many unknowns. In the unlikely event that her plan backfired the rest would pay the price. In the end she considered it too risky.
As Shepard wrapped up the meeting and Reegar started barking orders for a concentrated push, she put the thought away. She would help the push as is, it would have to be enough.
The plan was simple enough. The Quarians would make a concentrated push for their ship while his squad covered the back to make sure they didn't get boxed in. He had looked at Eve and she had merely given him a nod as she walked off. He still couldn't read her properly. For now though he had other matters to attend to. At the edge of the shield Quarian marines were already massing for the push. All they could do now was fight and hope for the best.
"Damn it"
Shepard ducked behind cover as hypervelocity rounds sprayed off his shield.
"Garrus covering fire, now."
"On it!"
The crackle of Garrus rifle rang through the valley as did many other guns. They started the push hopeful, but after only a few minutes things had started to go sideways. The Geth reacted quickly and with two Armatures redeployed the front line was soon bogged down. Admittedly he was in the rear, making sure they still had an escape route back if they needed it, but he had only made a few dozen feet from the shield.
Purple light lit up above him as Eve cracked over the comm. "I've got you covered commander, move up."
She was still standing on the ridge of the gatehouse inside her shield. Her rifle had enough range with whatever that purple ammo was she used and he had to admit that her accuracy had not suffered one bit. The explosion of a nearby grenade snapped him out of it again as he popped out of cover and fired off a few rounds.
They had made the plan, they better see it through.
She could tell the Quarians were giving it all they had and slowly but surely they were pressing on. As she had suspected the Geth adapted quickly, but they were not as effective as she had feared. She fired of a few more rounds and few more Geth platforms ceased to exist, when she noticed something was wrong. The Geth were leaving a gap near the end of the Quarian formation, Shepard was only facing minor resistance. That made no sense, logically you would use a larger force to surround the smaller one to trap it. The Geth had displayed the use of far more advanced tactics during the day so this made no sense. Unless…..
"Shepard it's a trap, watch out!"
No sooner had her voice died over the comm. as more Geth contacts popped up along the rear, a lot more. She started firing off her rifle in quick succession, I had been a trap and in her arrogance she hadn't caught it sooner. The Geth had lain there dormant, acting either hit and disabled or judging by the look of some slightly buried. They had been expecting a push for the Quarian ship. Then she noticed something worse, a Geth armature popped up just twenty meters from Shepards location and judging from its stance it was targeting him. Sand was pouring off the body as it stood to full height and visibly charged its main cannon.
"Not again.."
That thought shot through her as she made a snap decision. Deactivating her gun she shunted power into her internal sub processor and forced a wireless link. The Geth programs had no time to react before she started shredding through the Armatures internal systems. Point two seconds in she started encountering a fragile resistance but it made no difference. In less than a second she had completely disabled the armature and she was flying through the neural net. She had thought about it earlier and dismissed it for its risks, but now that she was in she had no choice but to press on. The Geth were quick to react to the new threat and started massing in neural hubs. She quickly identified these and started assaulting them one by one. The Geth seemed confused at first but then determined, resistance grew with every platform she disabled as the Geth learned.
But she had no choice now, but to press on.
Shepard looked as all around him Geth platforms either collapsed or reacted slower and slower. Geth resistance was completely crumbling. He had heard Eve's warning and for a moment he thought that was it, but then the Armature just collapsed. He heard Reegar call for a push again over comms, so they must have noticed it at the front as well.
Eve still stood inside her shield at the top of the ridge overlooking all that, like a statue. She wasn't moving at all and he got a vague idea of what she was doing. In any case she was still fighting, maybe even harder then she had before.
Now they might actually do this.
And then Joker came over comms. "Commander, watch yourself I'm tracking incoming from the south. Three Geth drop ships and I'm guessing there not empty. "
Nothing was ever easy, was it.
Something was wrong again. She tracked the Geth drop ships at the same time the Normandy did. They had taken off at the exact same time as she had linked with the Geth. That could not be a coincidence, but as the Geth drop ships cleared the valley ridge and came within tight beam range, all she could do was continue her fight on the digital plane as more Geth programs poured in. Then something changed, the Geth didn't just throw themselves at her anymore. Their numbers increased and thus so did their tactics evolve, but this was different. She could feel the Geth reinforcements dropping in on the valley floor, but could do nothing to stop them. She was tied to the fight she had here and the Geth required ever more processing power to take on.
She was driving her internal sub processor to its limits but the Geth were not budging, she had lost control of the link. The reinforcements were too much and too many programs were flooding through the link for her to fight. Thousands of them at a time. She was fighting them with all she had, every trick she knew, but the Geth were far more adaptable than she had thought. They were reacting quicker than any records indicated and every trick she pulled was useless a second time. Something was driving the Geth beyond what they had done previously, but she couldn't spare the processing cycles to figure it out.
It was too much.
The programs started flooding into her own implant structure. Immediately Aura detected the breach and shut down her neural link to the ship to prevent the programs from leaking over. She scraped her mind for options, but at the same time something else found a way into her consciousness: Fear. Capsuleers didn't feel fear, they were the immortals. They feared nothing, but then again she wasn't immortal anymore. No neural link meant no transfer of consciousness, no waking up in a new body. She would die. She needed an escape and she needed it now. The Geth programs were still tearing through her mind and slowly, so very slowly she was losing control. On the edge of losing everything she took the first option she had. She couldn't care about the consequences, not anymore. She'd give them as much warning as she could and hope it was enough.
Calmly she began to speak into her comm.
Reinforcements were dropping in everywhere from the three drop ships and Geth gunships roared overhead, whatever Eve had been doing to them had completely stopped. Most of the Quarians had spread out for a push back to their ship and their united front was a mess. He was fighting for all he was worth as Reegar kept yelling orders at his troops, but he could already tell it wouldn't be enough. He ducked for cover as his comm. pinged and Eve's calm voice pooled over the channel, though it sounded strained somehow.
"Commander, I'm sorry. Pull everyone back to my shield and I'll pump it up as much as I can. You have about four minutes."
Four minutes? What the hell was she doing? In the distance he could hear Reegar calling his squad back to the beacon, he had learned not to doubt her word by now. But if Reegar heard that then so had everyone else, she was on open comms! He couldn't break the link though as Eve kept calmly talking over the open line.
"Aura, confirm voice authentication: alpha-mike-three-eight-sixteen-golf-one-romeo-echo-twenty-eight-delta-sierra-x-ray."
A smooth female electronic voice he hadn't heard before replied. It reminded him a bit of EDI somehow, but without any form of personality.
"Voice authentication confirmed. Emergency remote operation protocols in effect."
"Prep for C.O.S., confirm copy."
"C.O.S. confirmed, beginning burn cycle for upper atmospheric geosynchronous orbit at your location. ETA two minutes."
At her location? She was talking to her ship, but what was she planning? Then it hit him. She wouldn't, she couldn't.
"Decloak port bow, sections eighteen to fifty two. Unlock turrets six through ten, reload to tactical M crystals. Begin calculations for orbital strikes. Turrets six through eight, three quarters yield tight beam cluster on marked locations. Turrets nine and ten calculate for high diffusion rate, blanket area spread at target locations. Set for two second exposure at fifty percent yield, confirm copy."
"God damn it she was."
"Orbital strike confirmed. ETA to end orbital maneuvers one minute twenty seconds."
Reegar had heard it too and he could hear him yelling in the background for his troops to get back to the force field. He had his mind on his men, Shepard had his mind on Eve as he ran back to where she was standing stock still in front of the shield generator. Her helmet still folded down, her face expressionless. Only one question running through his head as he approached her.
"What the hell was she thinking?"
He stopped right in front of her. "Eve, what the hell are you doing?"
The answer came straight away, but something was wrong. "What I can." It sounded frail, he had never heard Eve sound anywhere near that. More importantly her mouth hadn't moved as she said it. She only talked through his comm.
"What do you mean? Talk to me Eve. We need more time to get everyone back into the shield again."
"Can't risk it."
"What do you mean you can't risk it. Why are you acting so weird, what the hell is going on? Give us another ten minutes and then launch the strike. We should have all of them back by then."
"No time. You need to push me back and hook my suit up to the generator. The shield won't hold without extra power."
"Dammit Eve give me a straight answer. You're about to kill what's left of the Quarian platoon."
He was angry and he didn't care, but everything came to a halt when he saw one tear rolling down her completely blank face.
"They're in my head."
And then it clicked. She had been fighting the Geth through her neural connection, he had known that much. He just hadn't realized what the added numbers had done. She was losing the fight and had been pushed back to the borders of her own brain. She wasn't just fighting for their lives anymore, she was fighting for hers now. He couldn't stop her and now he didn't know if he would even if he could. He resigned himself to the inevitable and called Garrus over to help move Eve's bulk over to the generator.
He could only hope that as many as possible made it back to the shield.
She could tell her body was being hooked up to the generator as she had fought hard to keep that connection. She didn't feel a thing as she had been dragged over though, her sense of touch was something the Geth had already taken from her. Sacrificed to maintain more critical parts. As the connection was made she pumped her generator to maximum power and shunted it into the shield. Then next four seconds were a frantic struggle to keep both the connection and the RIFT generator locked out from the Geth. Finally after what seemed an eternity Aura finally came back over comms.
"Atmospheric maneuvering complete."
"Trajectory calculations finalized."
"Orbital strike ready."
With a last push she reached for control of comms. and managed to whisper one word before she was beaten back.
"Fire"
"Orbital strike launched. "
She couldn't hear the roar as outside the shield as the air itself started to burn, nor could she feel the heat through the shield like the others. Nor did her sensors tell her anything about what was lost. She could tell the Geth were not pouring in anymore. She pushed them back, retook systems and brutally ripped apart every Geth program she could find, denying them any hiding place. Only a fraction of a second passed as she retook most of her systems, now that the link pouring in more Geth was gone. But during all that she could do one thing: watch.
Watch and hope.
As a valley darkened by dusk, lit up brighter than day.