Disclaimer: I do not own or make any claim to the Mass Effect universe or the characters contained in this story, all of which are owned by BioWare and Electronic Arts. This is simply my interpretation of some events within the game universe.
[AN: Welcome back to the Second chapter!
I apologise for how long it has been since I first posted this story, it was not my intent to leave it this long without an update, in fact I had intended to have it finished by now, but life rarely works the way we want it to. So I apologise and I intend to have the final chapter up soon, but I won't make a promise I can't guarantee I can keep.
Anyway, on with the story./AN]
Miranda had gone ahead to recon the next section, along with Zaeed, Grunt and Kasumi, but what they found took even her breath away.
They were standing on the edge of the central chamber and the scans on the Normandy did not do it justice. The cavern was easily a kilometre from side to side and even with her combat visor's visual enhancements, she couldn't make out either of the far ends of the space. Thick tubes made of a strange translucent crystal ran the length and breadth of the Chamber and energy rippled along the crystalline lattice and the outer surface of the cavern, illuminating it with a rhythmically pulsing glow, adding to the already disconcertingly organic feel of the base.
But what really captivated her were the thousands upon thousands of pods that lined every wall and every surface for as far as the eye could see. She had seen pods on the Collector Ship in person but there were many, many more here.
"Well I'll be damned…" Zaeed muttered under his breath as he took in the sight, a hint of awe breaking through his jaded personality.
"Shepard, you need to see this…" Miranda said into her radio, moving to investigate one of the nearby pods as she did.
She wiped away the condensation that had gathered over the crystalline lid and came face to face with a human, asleep but not in stasis. She was wearing rugged civilian clothing common to those who lived on start-up colony worlds and it didn't take long for her to realise that these were some of the missing colonists.
The colonist stirred as light began to filter into her cocoon, her head twisting a turning fitfully as her eyes slowly began to focus. A muffled scream indicated the moment that she realised her predicament and Miranda was back in front of the canopy in an instant in an attempt to calm her down.
Contrary to her intention however, her appearance just made the young woman struggle harder, pounding desperately on the lid, to little effect.
The crunching sound of combat boots drew Miranda's attention away from the panicking woman and towards its source as Shepard rushed into the cavern.
"Shepard! There are people still alive in these pods!"
"Get them out of there!" He shouted to the four individuals standing in front of him before he activated his radio to the rest of the team.
"Everyone, we've got survivors, double time it over here," he yelled into the comm and moved to the nearest pod. He arrived just in time to see what was left of a man in a Cerberus uniform be liquefied and drained from the pod, crimson gore slowly sliding down it's translucent, crystalline surface.
Frantically moving to the next pod, he smashed through the lid with a biotically enhanced strike and tore the rest of the lid free. Catching the occupant, an elderly colonist by appearance, he lowered him to the ground and dashed to the next one in the line.
By now the rest of the squad had arrived and began breaking open the pods with biotics, knives, omni-blades, gun stocks and, in Grunt's case, foreheads. In three minutes they had cleared all of the pods along their stretch of walkway and managed to recover more than three quarters of the Normandy's abducted crew and twenty two colonists, the rest must either have been in another area or already dead; the latter more likely given the number of empty pods.
It was in one of the last pods that they found Dr Chakwas, barely conscious and eyes glazed over, whether from the stasis or shock, he wasn't sure.
"Shepard, you came for us," she murmured, half statement and half question.
"I don't leave my crew behind. I just wish I could have got here sooner, some of them won't be joining us again," he grimaced as his mind flashed back to the image of the liquefied crewman with the remains of the Cerberus logo just barely visible on his slowly dissolving shoulder.
"I don't doubt you got here as quickly as you could. How many did we lose?" She asked, her voice stronger and eyes clearer as she slowly regained her strength and wits.
"It looks like we're missing fourteen, almost a quarter of the crew."
Chakwas could only nod vaguely for a moment, before speaking again.
"I saw what the Collectors did to them; swarms of nanites broke down their bodies and pumped them through those tubes; while they were still alive. I think they started with the most critically wounded first; poor Phillips..." she began murmuring again, her words losing coherency as her own memories of the horrors she had seen flashed to the forefront of her mind again.
Helping to steady her, they carefully made their way over to the rest of the group.
Falling back to the more defensible hallway, Mordin and Miranda began to assess the recovered crew and colonists. Most of the crew had been recovered, including almost all of the senior staff; it looked like the security detail was the hardest hit with two thirds of their number missing.
The colonists were a different story, there was barely 20 of them, from a variety of colonies. About half were from Ferris Fields, and there were even a couple from Horizon, but the rest came from half-a-dozen small colonies in the traverse whose names were only familiar because of the regular briefings Miranda had provided for him. All in all, considering the tens of thousands of colonists taken, 23 survivors was so small a number, that it was almost irrelevant.
The worst part was not knowing if there were even more colonists in the other pods. There could well be over a million pods in that chamber, it was that immense, and it was a good bet that many of the others were filled with captured men, women and children.
Still, even if there were others, they couldn't save them, and though it tore at the very fibre of his being to admit that, it was true.
It would take weeks to search every pod, and even if they did find more survivors, the Normandy was in no shape to take on possibly hundreds of refugees; between the damage of the fight and the crash landing, along with the distinct lack of supplies, it would be struggling with its current crew compliment.
Perhaps it was really better not to know if there was anyone else in those pods when it came time to destroy the station…
Clearing his head of those dark thoughts, he turned his attention back to securing those they could save.
"Joker, this is Shepard. We've found most of the crew and some of the surviving colonists, how's the Normandy looking?"
"We've got enough systems online to make a pickup, but the nearest docking port is back from your position," the pilot's voice crackled over the squad's comms, just barely audible beneath the heavy static and interference caused by the thick wall of the Base and the radiation being thrown off by the Black Hole.
"Shepard, we can't afford to go back, any time we waste will give the Collector's even more time to prepare," Miranda stated, "besides, both routes we took were swarming with Collectors and Tali sealed the doors completely."
"The path to the docking port is entirely separate from either path Operative Lawson, but it would still be a significant detour," EDI' replied.
"We can't exactly take them with us either, and I'm not leaving them to face the Collectors alone. Joker, get the Normandy into position, I'm sending the crew to you. Mordin, I need you to get the crew and the colonists back to the Normandy. Jacob, you go with them as well; you're injured and will be more helpful with them. Take what clips you'll need and distribute the rest amongst the rest of the squad, and Jacob, give Garrus your launcher. Miranda, you're now the squad's medic. Everyone else, if you've got a weapon you can spare, share them around between the security personnel."
Jacob began to protest but recognised the wisdom of Shepard's decision. Mordin nodded and started liaising with Joker over the comm as he began to remove excess thermal clips and pass them around as Jacob did the same. Five minutes later, the entire group had disappeared into one of the nearby tunnels and Shepard was once again left alone with his squad.
Tali projected the same holo-frame image of the Collector Base in front of the group as Shepard once again began devising a plan.
"It looks like the paths diverge again and there're no bulkheads this time, but the left hand path is much shorter, less than 500 metres. I say we just rush through before-"
"That would be inadvisable, Commander," EDI interrupted. "Subsequent scans show an extremely high concentration of Seeker Swarms in that chamber; Professor Solus' countermeasures would be ineffective against that many of them."
"And something tells me all of us just taking the other route wouldn't be nearly as easy as it sounds," Garrus noted dryly.
"It's what they're expecting us to do, and it would let them focus everything they have on us," Shepard agreed. "We need to split up and divide their forces, one team to trigger the trap and the other to catch the Collector's from behind. But to do that we need a way through those swarms; any suggestions?"
"It may be possible to create a biotic field of sufficient strength to repel the Seeker Swarms, however the process would be taxing and only a small group could be effectively protected," Samara said, still managing to retain her aura of serene calm despite the newly acquired scorch marks and sprays of viscous orange ichor on her armour.
"Okay, Tali, Thane and I will go with Samara through the left passage. Garrus, you've got everyone else again; expect a trap, and just hold on long enough for us to break through the swarms and divert their attention. Communication will probably be spotty once we're inside so I'll contact you when we're through. Alright, you all know the deal, let's get this done and we'll meet up on the other side of the doors."
The distant sound of mass accelerator fire rumbled down the passageway that Team Two had entered not five minutes ago and Shepard knew it was time to go. Readying his rifle and receiving confirming nods from Tali and Thane, they approached Samara as she finished her meditation.
A bright flash was all the warning they had before they were engulfed in a small dome of biotic energy, approximately five metres in diameter. Samara's entire body radiated biotic power, the dark energy twisting and writhing across her lithe, armoured form while her eyes blazed pure white through her helmet's visor.
"I am ready, Commander. I would recommend haste, the focus needed to maintain this field is… draining," she said as she stood up and made her way to the doorway, the other three making sure they stayed within the dome.
"Alright, Tali, you focus on any doors that might be in our way and stay close to Samara, keep any husks away from her. Thane, you keep an eye out for any Collectors, the field will be hard enough to maintain without having to worry about weapons fire as well. Speed is going to be key; we get through here and then pincer the Collectors attacking Team Two. Let's get it done," Shepard ordered as he keyed the door control.
The door cycled open and their ears were immediately assaulted by deafening drone of the Swarms, a constant, pervading buzz of millions of tiny, semi-organic machines. Seconds later they began slamming themselves against the barrier, dozens at first but their numbers quickly built into the thousands. Samara recoiled from the force their sheer number provided, but she kept the barrier strong and started pushing forward, physically overpowering the blanketing mass.
The sensors in the squad's hard suits were completely useless due to the sheer number of swarms and Shepard strained his eyes to see anything beyond the living fog of the swarms; even Thane was having trouble making out anything. It didn't help that the only illumination in the cavernous space was pulsing light emanating from the tubes that ran along the ceiling and the faint roiling blue glow emitted from Samara's biotic fields.
They had covered almost a fifth of the distance when Thane spoke up.
"I saw something, twenty metres, 2 o'clock."
"Shepard, I think there's something back here too," Tali said charging her shotgun in the process, the harsh glow of the charged barrels casting harsh shadows across the landscape.
Shepard too caught a glimpse of glowing cybernetics as something disturbed the swarm on the left edge of the dome. He gripped his rifle tighter in anticipation.
"Me too; I think its husks. Be ready."
He could hear Thane carefully holster his Viper and ready his Tempest as he himself thumbed the safety on his Scimitar but left it attached on his back.
They weren't kept in suspense long.
The first husk burst through the barrier between Shepard and Thane and was quickly turned into a bullet riddled cadaver. The next came through seconds later in front of Tali, and for its trouble it had its entire torso burned away by the plasma that erupted across it. After that, the husks came thick and fast, bursting through the barrier from all directions only to be blasted back by the combined fire of the trio inside as they formed a protective circle around Samara while she kept struggling forward, blocking out the sounds of the fighting all around her.
A flash of blazing red just outside the dome flashed in Shepard's periphery and he turned just in time to see an Abomination burst through the dome. Reacting on instinct, he biotically threw the volatile husk clear of the barrier and was rewarded with an enormous gout of flame as any nearby seeker swarms were caught in the explosion and ignited, briefly illuminating the cavern and clearing the swarms enough to see through, their charred carapaces rained down around the squad.
Of course, what could now be seen through the swarms didn't make anyone feel much better.
They were approaching a narrow point in the path but between them and it were dozens of husks and abominations charging indomitably towards them. And to make matters worse, at the narrowest point there was a Scion, cannon raised and charged. Sure enough, a salvo of cannon shots smashed against the barrier seconds later, rocking Samara backwards and wrenching a cry of shock and exertion from her usually stoic lips. It also didn't escape anyone's notice that the barrier flickered slightly as the effort and concentration began to take its toll.
"Tali, get your drones and turret out there, we need to take that Scion out! Thane, cover us and keep the husks away from Samara," Shepard shouted hurriedly over the roaring of the Scion's second volley and the incessant droning of the swarms.
Tali responded immediately, lobbing one of her proto-type disposable turrets next to the Scion while ordering a pair of combat drones to harass it. The Commander sent a shockwave cascading through the husks and quickly followed up with a pair of frag grenades near the hulking mass of flesh that was blocking their path as Tali's drones darted around it and confused the husks while flaming napalm lashed out from the small flamethrower on her turret, sending clouds of embers and smoke spiralling into the air as the swarms in its path ignited.
Before long the air in the cavern was wreathed in fire and smoke, accentuating the already hellish appearance of the room. The husks were falling before the squad's onslaught but the Scion was absorbing the shots that were thrown at it, even as plasma scoring and mass accelerator impacts continued to gather on its armoured skin.
It was thane that finally cracked it, literally, by generating a viciously unstable warp field inside the Scion, ripping its insides apart and cracking the armour. Finally the fire being poured into it broke through and started to rip into the exposed innards of the amalgamated monstrosity. Conductive fluid and cybernetics began to gush out of the torn open chest cavity as the Scion collapsed, crushing a trio of unfortunate husks beneath its bulk. With the main threat neutralised, Shepard and Tali could turn their focus to the remaining husks, including a pair that had gotten far too close to comfort to Thane while he was focusing on the Scion. They were quickly put down and between the three of them, the husk influx was effectively stemmed as they neared the final stretch.
Shepard cast a glance over to Samara and could see that the continued exertion was starting to seriously take its toll on her. She was bent over double and breathing heavily as she struggled to maintain the field and push it forward against the weight of the Swarms still crashing against it. The Justicar had never looked so frail or drained, and the fact she wasn't even trying to maintain her composure was reason enough for concern
"How are you holding up Samara?" He asked, despite the answer being plainly obvious.
"We will need to reach the end soon, I'm not sure h-how much longer I can hold this field for," she forced through gritted teeth, her voice faltering slightly.
"Okay people, the doorway's just ahead, lets triple time it. Tali, as soon as we get there, get that door open, we'll cover you."
Drawing on whatever physical and mental reserves she had left, Samara powered forward, eventually breaking into a slow, loping run as she forced the swarms back while the other three picked off husks that were trying to climb up the sides of the pathway or follow them down the path.
They hit the door still firing and Tali had it open in under five seconds. She rushed through and prepared to close the door once everyone was through while Thane and Shepard took up positions on either side of the doorway, keeping a constant stream of fire on the oncoming horde.
Samara reached the doorway, keeping the bubble in a position to block any of the swarms getting through as she turned to face the oncoming husks. Her entire form was obscured by a raging, intangible mass of Dark Energy as she concentrated it around herself and, in an immense display of power, directed it as a solid wall of force at the foes in front of her, effectively blasting a 30m area of space clear of hostiles before staggering back beyond the door threshold as it slammed shut, locking the husks and swarms out.
Samara managed five more steps before she collapsed against the wall and slumped to the ground. Shepard and Tali both rushed to her side while Thane kept watch over the other tunnel entrances. They eased her to a sitting position and Shepard offered her his canteen of energy drink and a ration bar, which she promptly consumed after removing her helmet.
"I will be fine, Shepard, I simply need time to rest; maintaining the field was… exhausting," she assured them, as her breathing, while still laboured, began to even out and her voice began to regain its usual stable tranquillity.
"Alright, you and Tali stay here and cover our flank while Thane and I go help Team Two," Shepard said as he stood up and moved towards the door before keying his mic again. "Garrus, this is Shepard. We're through the swarms and are making our way to you now."
"Got it, Shepard. The Collectors have us stalled about two thirds of the way through. Just like we thought, they were waiting for us. We're holding our own for the moment but I'm not sure if we could push through without casualties," Garrus' voice sounded through the comms along with the booming of weapons fire and explosives.
"Hold your position Garrus, we'll be there ASAP and give them something else to worry about."
Samara rose to her feet, her characteristic grace and composure returning as she drew her rifle and took position behind a raised rock formation while Tali set up her turrets and drones before overriding the door and letting the pair through.
Thane and Shepard ran through the narrow tunnels, guns up, following the sounds of the firefight ahead. It wasn't long until they reached the rear of the Collector position and ducked behind some available cover.
"You deal with the flanks; I'm going to go straight through the middle," Shepard said as he readied his Scimitar and focused a barrier of dark energy around himself, giving Thane ten seconds to get into position before charging into one of the snipers at the back of the Collector's ranks.
The first anyone of Team Two knew of Shepard and thane's arrival was when they saw one of the snipers pinning them down with Particle Beam fire go flying over its cover after a crushing impact while another's head exploded as a pair of high velocity rounds blasted through its skull, ripping it apart as the rounds shattered inside.
With the sudden loss of their heavy firepower and enemies on both sides, the Collectors were now the ones trapped.
Now free to return fire on the off-guard Collectors, the members of team Two unleashed a withering volley, catching a number of foes completely unprepared. Thane and Shepard continued to tear through the back ranks while Grunt and Jack quickly caught on to what was happening and charged into the fray, decimating anything unfortunate enough to be in their path.
While jack focused on the Collectors, Grunt made it his personal mission to obliterate the two Scions that had been causing the team so much trouble. The first he dispatched by gouging a sizeable hole out of its chest with a Carnage blast, before crash tackling it to the ground and reducing its head to little more than charred and pulverised flesh with a blast from his Claymore.
The second was far more… visceral.
Grunt tried the crash tackle approach once again, but this Scion was ready for it. It batted the half-tonne of charging Krogan into a wall with a vicious swing of its cannon-arm. Undeterred by the blood leaking from his various wounds, the young Krogan advanced again, more cautiously than before. This time, when the Scion swung, Grunt was prepared. He sidestepped the wild blow and then stepped in towards the Scion and grabbed the weaponised appendage. Then he started twisting. With a guttural bellow of effort and a keening cry from the Frankenstein-esque titan, the Krogan shattered the bone and cybernetics holding it in place and ripped the limb off entirely, hydraulic fluid combining with its unnatural ichor as it flowed from the newly sundered region. Heaving the immense weapon aside, he levelled his shotgun at the Scion's knee and blew the joint apart, laughing in twisted glee as the now unsupported construct crashed to the ground. The fight was ended when Grunt drove his foot clear through its warped skull, grinding it into the rocky floor.
While that was going on, the rest of the Collectors had been largely dealt with, and it wasn't long until the last one fell to a measured burst from Zaeed. Without a word, they all fell in behind Shepard and jogged back to the Junction, where Tali secured the door behind them as they entered.
Shepard gave everyone ten minutes to rest, dress any wounds and re-arm before they started on the next phase of the mission.
It was less than five before the Collectors started to try and break through the door.
Fifteen minutes later and the squad had put another two sealed bulkheads between them and the Collectors and finally reached an opening to the true central chamber of the station, the one that housed the power generator and mass effect core, as well whatever it was that all the colonists were being processed for.
According to the scans they had, it wasn't as big as the pod-filled cavern they had skirted around earlier, but it was still immense; reminiscent of a dystopian version of the Presidium.
"Commander, Joker here. The Normandy is mostly ready to fly again and Mordin and Jacob just arrived with the crew and colonists, no casualties," the pilot reported, much to the relief of John; the crew making it back safely was the best news they'd had all day.
"Good to hear, just be ready to get them out of here if this all goes to hell. Now EDI, can you get us to the central core?"
"Yes, I have access to a number of the station's systems and have gained control over three transport platforms. Also, I have locked down alternate routes to this location in an effort to slow the Collector counter attack."
"Nice work EDI, can you tell me anything about the core?"
"There is little information about it in the system, but scans show that all of the processing tubes lead in to that area, and there appears to be both organic and in-organic energy signatures emanating from it. I will continue to analyse the results and will notify you if I learn anything more."
Shepard's brow furrowed in thought for a moment as he considered the implications, before thrusting them to the back of his mind in order to focus on more pressing issues.
"Thanks EDI. Transfer control of the platforms to my omni-tool and get the Normandy as ready as possible, we're probably going to need leave in a hurry if this all goes to plan."
"Understood, control transferred. Logging you out, Commander."
Shepard hopped up onto one of the strange hexagonal platforms attached to the side of the chamber that they now bordered and the rest of the squad quickly took notice and turned their attention to him.
"You were all recruited to take the fight to the Collectors and that's what we've done, here, today. We're standing inside the Collector's base of operations, beyond the Omega-4 Relay. I can't count how many times I was told it was impossible, but here we are. All that's left is to blow the core," he said, pausing for a moment to let the achievement sink in, before continuing, "I want to give everyone here the chance to back out now; you've done your part, your contracts are fulfilled. You can leave now, get back to the Normandy and get out of here safely. I consider you all friends and squadmates, so I'll only ask for volunteers to come with me, and to stay here and hold this position."
Tali and Garrus had already stepped forward before he'd finished the sentence.
"We're with you Shepard, all the way," Tali said as she joined him up on the platform and Garrus nodded in agreement as he did the same.
"As am I," Samara stated as she too stepped forward.
"I will follow you, Battlemaster," then Grunt…
"My gun is yours Shepard," …closely followed by Thane.
"This platform will continue to assist Shepard-Commander," Legion's synthesised voice sounded as it stepped forward, head-flaps twitching and Widow rifle cradled easily in its hands.
"I'm right with you ,Shep," Kasumi said as she readied her Locust and hopped forward.
"Our mission was to destroy this base; I'll see it through to the end," Miranda stepped forward as well.
"I guess this is the part that constitutes being 'Big, Guddamn Heroes'," Zaeed grumbled as he pushed off the wall he had been leaning against and walked toward the group.
"Well fuck, if you're all staying then I may as well, too. You find good fights anyway," Jack muttered as she too moved closer to the platform.
John nodded his head slowly as he surveyed the group. A disparate group for sure, but they had all come together to face something that the rest of the galaxy refused to acknowledge and they were on the cusp of succeeding. As much as he wished Kaidan, Wrex and Liara could have joined him again, it was now that he truly realised he couldn't have asked for a better team.
Clearing his mind of the clinging sentimental thoughts, John laid out the plan.
"Alright then, Tali, Thane; you're with me. Garrus, I hope you're ready to go three for three because I'm leaving you in charge of the holding action, I imagine you can find a use for two of these platforms?" He asked rhetorically, before addressing the group as a whole.
"After today, we'll have done more than just beat the Collectors, we'll have taken the fight to the Reapers. Today we show them that we aren't insignificant, that we won't fade quietly into obscurity. Make me proud, and more importantly, make yourselves proud."
Before Garrus could hop off the platform though, he caught his attention and quickly leant in to talk to him privately.
"Get them out of here safely, hold for fifteen minutes or until I tell you we've reached the core, then go."
Garrus balked at the order but the pleading look from Shepard, visible even through his polarised visor, shut down any argument he had. Garrus nodded, placed a hand on his Commander's shoulder, then hopped off the platform and began organising defensive lines. Thane silently leapt up to take his place and Shepard guided it out, quickly moving out of sight of the rest of the squad and hoping it wouldn't be the last time he saw many of them.
[AN: And there you have it, tell me what you think.
Next up is the Reaper Battle and End Run. this section has changed substantially from the original because I am firmly of the opinion that the Human Reaper design was ridiculous and also because the End Run really could have been a bit more intense (in my opinion, at least).
If any of you are also following my Mass Effect prequel story, that should be updated soon as well; the chapters are much shorter so editing is a much quicker process.
Thanks again and I hope you enjoyed it. /AN]