Therum was getting long so I decided to split it into three parts.

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15: Raiders of the Lost... wait, that joke's already been made

Aleks

"Checkmate."

"That's not a checkmate," I reacted, examining the board. There had to be some move I could make to get out of check... "Huh. I guess that is a checkmate."

"Best two out of three?" Kevin offered, starting to move the pieces back into their starting positions. Chess hadn't changed much in two hundred years... well, the pieces hadn't, anyway. The rules could be completely different, but we were playing with the rules we knew.

I shrugged and replied, "Why not? We don't have anything better to do."

Well, I could be composing or playing one of the many instruments I am proficient in. Or I could be sketching or painting or gluing bits of plastic together. But somehow this just seems more... right.

As Kevin continued to drop the pieces into place, I turned to Jason and asked him, "Do you think that gun's clean enough?"

Jason had been cleaning his guns since Shepard left with her team. He would first partially disassemble the gun, then methodically squirt blue fluid out of spray bottle onto the parts and go over them with what looked like paper towel. Every single one of his weapons was polished to a mirror shine. Then again, it's not like they were very dirty to begin with.

Come to think of it, they way I treat my instruments isn't too much different.

"Probably, but this gives me something to do," Jason replied, not pausing as he picked up a rifle and worked the shoulder thingy that goes up.

"I hope Shepard's okay," Sandra muttered. She had been going between pacing and thumb twiddling for the past hour or so. I'd say she'd gone a bit loopy but nope, this is just Sandra. "It's not supposed to take this long, or is it? Is game time the same? Oh, I hope Shepard's okay!"

I waved my hand dismissively. "Relax, Sandra, nothing is going to-"

"You guys might want to strap in," Melia interrupted, somehow entering the room without us noticing. "Things are about to get a little bit rough."

"This is it!" Sandra exclaimed. "This is it!"

Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko

"...is it done?" I heard a young female voice ask as I exited the Mako. "Did you find Liara?"

It was the ditzy girl, one of the four strangers that Shepard had brought on board. Now, I'm confident in Shepard, but her decision to bring these people with us struck me as a little rash. They're civilians and probably idiots at that. But I'd already brought it up and she had assured me it would be fine. So I'm obliged to treat them as our honoured guests.

She saw me, ran up to the Mako, peered inside, and then asked, puzzled, "Where is everyone?"

Unsure of what I was supposed to say or even what I was allowed to say, I replied matter-of-factly, "They're still on the surface."

"What?" she asked.

"Kaidan came back up alone, with the Mako," one of the young men with glasses clarified. He looked at me. "Right?"

"That's correct."

The girl- Sandra, I think- looked puzzled. "But... why?"

The guy straightened adjusted his glasses. "After they reached the point where they couldn't bring the Mako any further, they probably left him with it and called for pickup. You don't leave something like the Mako lying around. It's expensive."

She paused. "I guess that makes sense."

"Look, I still don't fully understand what your role is," I began gently, "But I don't think the cargo deck is the best place to hang around."

"Right, we can observe the mission from the bridge," the British kid said, already running toward the ladder. Seeing no other choice, I followed.

Commander Shepard

"Uh, hello? Can somebody help me? Please?"

I sighed. The asari was suspended a metre or so in the air, inside some kind of shimmery blue barrier. She was wearing some kind of plasticy green and white jumpsuit. Asari can deal with heat better than humans; I would be sweltering in that. Oddly, she had eyebrows, something I'd never seen on an asari before. I wondered if they were some kind of mutation or if she just drew them on.

"Are you Doctor Liara T'Soni, daughter of Matriarch Benezia?" I called, keeping my voice controlled and professional.

"Yes," she replied, notes of panic in her voice. "I'm trapped, I need help!"

"We're going to get you out of there," I assured her. "Can you tell us anything about that thing you're trapped in?"

"It's a Prothean barrier curtain," she explained quickly. "I knew it would keep me safe from the geth, but when I turned it on I must have hit something I wasn't supposed to. I was trapped in here. You must get me out, please!"

"How can we turn it off?" I asked.

"There is a control in here that should deactivate this thing. You'll have to find some way past the barrier curtain. That's the tricky part. The defences cannot be shut down from outside- I don't know how you'll get in here."

"Commander, her mother is working with Saren," Williams interrupted. Loudly. "How do we know that we can trust her?"

"What? I am not on Saren's side. I may be Benezia's daughter, but I am nothing like her!" Liara retorted.

"We can answer that question once we get out of here," I said. "Now, let's find a way through the field."

"Commander Shepard!" Garrus called, pointing to a large device.

"What's that?" I asked.

He replied, "It's a mining laser. It should be able to blast a hole in the rock through to the other side of the field."

I examined the control panel. "Hmm, it's locked. Can you get it running?"

He gives me the turian version of The Look. "Of course I can."

"Be careful!" Liara shouted. I doubt she could hear our conversation. "There is a krogan with the geth. They've been trying to find a way to get past the barrier."

A krogan, huh. Without saying anything about their race in general, going up against one in battle is always bad news. They're very difficult opponents; aggressive, tough as nails, and sometimes surprisingly crafty. It's not surprising that there are krogan among the geth, either. There are a lot of krogan mercenaries that will take any job as long as the credits are good.

"Ready, Commander."

"Do it," I ordered. A wide orange-yellow beam erupted from the front of the device and quickly bored a hole in the rock. Actually, that's not how it works. The part of the beam you see is vaporizing dust in the atmosphere and the hole is actually melted... or something like that. I'm a shooter, not an engineer.

"We're through," Garrus reported, shutting the laser off.

"Great," I replied, climbing through the hole. I touched the edge and immediately pulled my hand back. Even through my armoured gloves, it was hot to the touch. Well, we kind of did just vaporize several tonnes of rock.

The Protheans must have had a thing for tile. That's what it looked like, anyway. A tiled chamber, like the million-credit bathroom of an eccentric businessman. There was a control pedestal on each side. Probably not for the shower.

"Doctor T'Soni," I called.

She turned her head as far as the field would allow. "Oh. How did you get in here? I didn't think there was any way past the barrier."

I exchanged glances with Williams and Garrus. "We, uh, we blasted through with a mining laser."

"You did what?" the asari asked, shocked. "That was incredibly risky! You could have damaged the site."

"That's the least of our problems right now," Williams replied, irritated.

"The ruins could come down on top of us! Even if we were able to escape, it would destroy tens of thousands of years of history-"

"Do you want to get out of here or not?" Williams snapped.

"Yes, of course. I apologize. Please, get me out of here before more geth arrive." She turned and pointed at a control panel with her finger. "That button over there should shut down the containment field."

"Commander, her mother is working with Saren," Williams interrupted. Loudly. "How do we know that we can trust her?"

"What? I am not on Saren's side. I may be Benezia's daughter, but I am nothing like her!" Liara retorted.

"We can answer that question once we get out of here," I said. I almost continued before stopping myself. "Wait, we already had this exact same conversation!"

Williams shrugged. "Sorry, ma'am. I'm obliged to object."

"Liara," I motioned for her to continue. She did... just not in the way I expected.

"Oh, yes." She raised her voice. "I am not my mother. I do not even know why Benezia joined Saren. I don't want anything to do with that turian bastard!"

"I'm standing right here," Garrus commented.

"I apologize," the archaeologist called back. "Uh, I meant nothing against turians, it's just, well, he's a turian. I slipped."

"Sure," Garrus mumbled dryly.

"Enough cinematic conversation," I said to everyone. "I'm letting her out."

I walked over to the control panel that she had pointed at. There wasn't one button. There were a lot of buttons. And then the holographics came on and there were even more button. "Which button is it?"

"It's the yellow one."

"You're going to have to be more specific." More than half the buttons were yellow.

"It's a small triangle."

"Most of these buttons are small triangles."

"I don't see why you are having so much trouble. It's labelled security release."

I looked at the panel again. "All I see is a bunch of gibberish written in some dead language."

"Read them out to me."

I began reading the labels. "Arrêt, ordre le pain, paramètre fictif, tirer les missiles, réinitialiser l'ordinateur, override de sécurité-"

"Yes, that is the correct button!"

"Override de sécurité?"

"Yes!"

I pushed it. Immediately, the field dropped and the asari dropped to the floor.

"So, any idea how we get out of here?" Garrus asked.

"There is an elevator directly behind you," the asari pointed out.

"Oh."

I was already stepping onto the platform. As I brought up the controls, I heard her add, "At least, I think it's an elevator. It should take us out of here. I hope." She reached around me and tapped a few of the controls.

We began moving up, so I guess it really was an elevator. Or maybe we were about to be killed in some horrible way. Unlikely, but in my profession you couldn't be too careful.

"I still cannot believe all this," Liara mentioned. "Why would the geth come after me? Do you think Benezia's involved?"

"We were kind of hoping you would tell us," I replied slowly. Weren't we?

She was about to reply, but was cut off by some rumbling noise. "Is that-"

"Some kind of seismic event," she explained. "You must have triggered it with the mining laser." Her tone was accusatory.

"Williams, signal the Normandy," I ordered. "Immediate extraction."

"Aye aye, ma'am."

I turned to Liara. "We can discuss this on the ship. Right now let's focus on getting out of-" The elevator ground to a stop, a few of those bathroom chambers away from the surface. "-here."

"Well, this isn't supposed to happen," I said quietly. I bashed the end of my rifle against the control panel, and the elevator continued again. "Fixed."

"I did not believe that would work," Liara muttered honestly. An oddly silent minute later, we arrived at the top.

A krogan and several geth units were waiting for us. I counted one red trooper, one white trooper, and one partially hidden behind a post. They didn't open fire. Instead, the krogan marched onto the elevator. He shouted roughly, "Surrender. Or don't. That would be more fun."

I didn't reply. Instead, I grabbed Liara with my left hand, dragging her behind the control console, and tossed a grenade at the krogan with my right. Williams and the turian followed my lead, scurrying for cover and opening fire.

They recognized that the red geth was dangerous and took it out quickly with assault rifle fire. That left a white geth, a normal geth, the krogan... and a geth sniper that I didn't notice and it nearly took my head off. I fired back, tearing down its shields and then its head with my assault rifle. And now the krogan was charging right toward us.

Amateur, I chided myself. You shouldn't be making this kind of mistake. Shepard, pull yourself together!

I got about nine rounds off before my rifle overheated. It didn't take down the krogan's shields, let alone actually hurt him. I grabbed Liara again and pulled her out of the way, nearly landing on top of her as the krogan barreled past and slammed into the centre post, ominously shaking the platform and momentarily disorienting the brute.

I switched to my shotgun, which took a precious second to unfold. I fired once into the krogan at point blank, collapsing his shields, then racked the forearm and fired again. Shotgun nearly overheated, but the krogan was injured. He roared and charged at me again.

I ducked out of the way, diving to the side. As he slid past me, I raised my shotgun and fired into his underside. I don't know if it pierced his armor or not, but he barely noticed, deciding that shooting back was probably a better idea than trying to hit me and firing his own shotgun. I felt the pellets slam into and weaken my shields.

I stepped around the central pillar, firing again into his face. That hurt him, but seemed to piss him off more than anything. I fired again and he still wouldn't go down. Krogan are tough, sp this is not unexpected, but it's still annoying to put it mildly.

Then, suddenly, a hole appeared in his head and he crashed to the floor, shaking the platform again. I looked up, and Garrus was standing there with a smug... grin, I guess, on his face. I looked at him. "Really? Again?"

"It's, uh, kind of my thing," he replied cryptically.

"We should probably get out of here!" Williams shouted. The rumbling had intensified, and rocks were starting to drop from the ceiling onto the catwalks.

"Agreed. On me, double-time!" I shouted back, dashing out of the chamber and onto the metal framing.

My armoured feet pounded against the metal as I ran. I could go faster, but Liara was already lagging behind. She was fit, but not military conditioned and enhanced. Rocks sprayed down onto us, bouncing off my armour.

"Move, move, move!" I shouted as we ran into the entrance tunnel. Seconds later, I heard the catwalk break away behind us. The tunnel was shaking dangerously. I ran to the control panel and hammered the open button, and though the door was quick it felt way too slow.

The Normandy was already waiting for us, hovering just outside. I noticed that the four strangers were standing in the cargo bay, along with Lieutenant Alenko.

"You're going to have to jump," I told Liara. To my surprise, she nodded, leaping into the air, lighting up blue, and landing gracefully in the cargo bay. Of course. Biotics.

"Vakarian, go!" He was less graceful, but landed safely with some distance to spare. I heard somewhere that they were descended from birds, but I had no idea if that was true.

"Williams!" She wasn't graceful at all. She ran, jumped, and landed in a half-roll half-sprawl. Still, she made it with about a metre or two to spare.

Then it was my turn. I took a deep breath, ran up, and leaped toward the open hatch. Just as my feet left the metal, it broke away. Instead of a nice straight jump, I leaped at an angle, which meant I wouldn't travel as far. I landed with the top half of me in the ship, the bottom half of me outside the ship.

I didn't let myself panic, though it might have looked like it. My hands scrambled against the deck plating, which was too smooth to grip. As I slipped over the edge, I felt another hand grab mine. I looked up, and the British stranger was standing over me.

"Gotcha," he said confidently, before his expression turned painful. My hand began to slip in his. "Oh shite, you're too bloody heavy!"

"Of course, she's carrying more battle rattle than I did!" the big one shouted, kneeling down and grabbing my other hand. "Jesus fucking Christ you're heavy!"

"Uh, are we clear to depart, because the ground's about to become a volcano," Joker remarked from the cockpit.

"No, no, Shepard is still hanging halfway out the back of the ship," the girl said back.

"...Say again, cargo bay?"

"The Commander is halfway out the goddamn door!" the big guy shouted back. "Damn it, Alex, pull! This is Shepard's life on the line!"

"I am pulling! I am pulling as hard as I can!" the Brit shouted back. He grabbed with his other hand, and then the ship rocked a bit and he lost his footing. "Ahhh!"

He stumbled, thankfully falling backward onto the deck. I was now supported entirely by one large hand which was rapidly losing its grip. Then I started glowing blue and felt myself being lifted up into the Normandy. Biotic lift. As soon as I was clear, someone hit the ramp control and it began to close.

Liara was standing there, body still glowing biotic blue. She turned to me. "I don't mean to offend, but is your crew always this... uh... unusual?"