The accommodation unit was dark and cold. In the open, vaulted area where the scientists had kept their equipment, there was little evidence that the station had been taken over. Further throughout the unit though, Shepard began to spot the traces of a fight. Dried blood, plasma burns on the walls and damaged control panels indicated a grenade had gone off at some point, and a dead Salarian sat slumped, head twisted at an unnatural angle, in a chair by a broken window.
At the far end of the accommodation unit, behind a forced open blast door, was a hastily erected barricade that marked the beginning of the tunnels that lead to the underground complex. Shepard shuddered. A dead Marauder lay on the floor just inside, its body seemingly pointing the way down the eerie tunnel to the waiting elevator shafts. Shepard looked at it for a while, ran her omni tool over it, prodded it with her toecap and then shot it once through the head, just to be sure.
"Shepard!" Garrus game barrelling into the room, his gun levelling at the tunnel, Tali, Liara and Vega were close on his heels, each of them had their weapons drawn, focused on the corpse "What happened?" his voice was strained.
"Nothing" Shepard shrugged and waved her pistol at the body "Just making sure" she watched as Garrus harrumphed and Tali shook her head. Liara and Vega just smiled, each of them putting their guns away "What?" Shepard asked, indignant "Things give me the willies" she looked back down the dark tunnel and shuddered again.
"Are you alright Shepard?" Tali walked up to her, her eyes odd looking luminous orbs in the darkness of the tunnel entrance.
"No" Shepard said "No I'm not" she lifted her hand and indicated the tunnel, her face twisted in disgust "There is a lot of death here"
The tunnel was all smooth fused floor and arched walls as it cut into the mountain side. Blast doors made ribs along the tunnel sides, their tracks and slots carved across the floor and roof. If she squinted, Shepard could make out the elevator shaft doors at the far end of the tunnel, and the boarding points for the tram lines that lead deeper into the compound "What's the status of the compound Tali?"
Tali moved over to one of the partially destroyed consoles and began manipulating the fluorescent keypad.
"No power" She muttered absently "No heating either in the lower levels" she looked up at Shepard "I have a map of the lower compound but all internal sensors are off line. We will be going in blind"
"Yippee" she heard Vega mutter.
"So much for easy in easy out" Shepard said as she entered the tunnel, drawing her rifle and switching on the flash light connected to it "Stay here" she entered the tunnel and walked past the sets of blasts doors until she came to one of the sets of slightly ajar elevator doors. By peering in, she could see all the elevators were at the bottom. She shook her head and turned, walking back to the accommodation unit, through it and past her squad without giving them a glance. Eventually she emerged in the open. The cold air sucked the heat from her face and she shivered, having to breathe hard in the thin atmosphere "Easy in, easy out" she said to an oddly yellow coloured cloudless sky.
"The station was built using the rocks as cover and protection from the natural atmospheric storms. They built nine tram stations and eight trams. The entrance we are at now is at the base of the peninsula, above" Tali paused "station four, which is one of the three main stations, the others being one and seven, where repair and maintenance facilities exist. According to the station logs there are no trams parked at four, three or five. There are two at station one, two in seven and one each in the rest. At least that's where they should be. The Reapers may have moved them, though I doubt it" Tali indicated the Tram locations on the 3D map she was displaying via her omni tool "The stations are twenty-five to thirty-five kilometres apart, linked by twin sets of tunnels which only join up at each station. Each station is also linked to the central area by twin tunnels. The whole system is buried five kilometres down"
"So we have a central point of convergence?" Shepard looked at the map "which happens to be our single point of access to the second level?"
"Yes Shepard" Tali nodded.
"Oh this just gets better and better" Garrus put his hands on his hips and cast a glance towards the tunnel entrance.
"We take small arms only, no heavy weapons, no grenades, light explosive rounds only. Anything heavier is too dangerous in the confines of the tunnels, is that understood?" Shepard watched as everyone nodded their agreement "Everyone has the data drives location mapped into their omni tool, also a complete layout of the structure" Shepard looked at the large 3D display "We will be navigating from the central area at the bottom of the main shaft, along this short tunnel here and down this secondary shaft" she indicated a small stretch of tunnel that lead to another elevator shaft which in turn opened into a smaller compound "to where the data drives are located. A reserve team will hold point in the central area at the base of this main shaft" Shepard looked around "Understood?" heads nodded.
"If the Reapers are here, they obviously want the data drives too" Tali shrugged "We could just wait for them up here until they reappear and then take the drives"
"No" Shepard said, watching the expressions of her team, knowing they were just as apprehensive about navigating dark Reaper infested tunnels as she was "The Reapers may have been sent here because of the data drives, but they don't need them. They are here because they know we need them. They'll stay down there forever" she watched the glum acknowledgement of that truth pass across the team "Tali" she waited for the Quarian woman to look at her "I need you to stay here and focus on getting the power on. The electricity is geothermal and the power shafts are sunk about a hundred kilometres through the crust, I'm guessing there is no damage to the system itself, only the control mechanism. We are going to need some light down there"
"Aye aye Commander" Tali nodded, relived to have a focus for her nervous energy.
Shepard looked at them all. Vega, sever and impatient, wanting to stop talking and just get the job done, his scars and tattoo's making him look young but hard at the same time. Garrus, his eyes uncertain, looking at the others and scratching his face uncomfortably. Tali looked dubious, her motions quick and jaunty, nervous but focused, and then there was Liara. Her armoured frame was leant against one of the damaged control panels, her arms were crossed loosely over her chest and she was radiating relaxation. Their eyes met and Liara mouthed the words easy in, easy out at her. Shepard smiled.
Shepard would get the drives, she was determined to because they needed them for the crucible. But if it came to a fire fight, and she was sure it would, then she wouldn't shrink from it "Take five" Shepard said "Tali keep working on the power. Everyone else get your kit squared away and get ready, review the layout and wait for my command"
Shepard once again made her way outside. She took a minute to gather her composure and settle her nerves. The bodies of a few dead scientists lay scattered on the frozen ground around the entrance to the accommodation unit. The natural freezer of the world's atmosphere had perfectly preserved them. Shepard looked down at the tormented face of a human male for a moment. The light was waning and a bank of clouds coming in from the frozen sea built over the mountains made the air feel freshened. Shepard sighed and moved to return to the others, she got as far as the first room and was about to enter the main unit, when she heard firing.
She sprinted through the corridor leading to the tunnel entrance, readying her gun "What is it?" she barked into her comm. unit.
"Plasma rifle, down the tunnel, from the shaft" Garrus replied tersely.
Shepard reached the room with the tunnel entrance, and as soon as she entered from the corridor, flame splashed from the wall alongside her. She saw the brief airglows of plasma tracks just to one side of her armour, leading back down through the tunnel. Obviously whatever was shooting at them could see her. She rolled to one side and came up next to Vega and Liara who were sheltering behind a large control panel. Holes burst through the flimsy wall plates behind them, burning brightly before dimming out. The whoop of plasma fire echoed through the tunnel.
"What happened?" Shepard shouted over the din. She looked around the room, everyone was taking cover apart from Tali "Where is Tali?"
"I was accessing a control hatch in the tunnel" Tali's voice echoes in Shepard's ear "I got shot at. I'm lying on the floor behind one of the blast doors, I'm OK though"
"Good, stay down" Shepard yelled as a fan of glowing tracks spattered a line of burning craters over the inside wall behind them "Shoot! Get the weight of fire back!" all four of them fired at once. A few seconds later Shepard heard a snap, then the dopplered echo of a sound produced by superheated air. Explosions crashed from down the tunnel.
"Think that got it?" Vega shouted. His voice cut off as more fire slammed into the wall behind him. The wall was pockmarked with dark bubbling holes "Bastard!" Vega roared, firing back in short, rapid bursts.
"Keep your head down!" Shepard yelled at him "Tali I'm coming forward to the tunnel, I'll move using the blast doors" Shepard got up and ran to the tunnel entrance, crouching behind the ridge of the first blast doors. She knelt in the cover. She could see tali's feet a few meters down into the tunnel, spread out on the smooth fused floor. She listened for her gun firing then said "Tali, stop long enough to let me see where it's coming from, then hit it again."
"Ok" Tali stopped firing. Shepard stuck her head out, feeling incredibly vulnerable; saw a couple of tiny sparks far off down the tunnel and to the extreme right. She bought her gun up and fired continually; Tali's started as well. Her armour chirped and a screen lit up by her cheek telling her she'd been hit on the thigh but she couldn't feel anything. The side of the tunnel, far down at the elevator shaft, pulsated with a thousand sparks of light.
Garrus appeared opposite her, kneeling like Shepard and firing his sniper rifle. The side of the tunnel detonated with flashes and smoke; shock waves blew up the tunnel, shaking the blast doors and ringing Shepard's ears.
"Enough!" Shepard barked and stopped firing. Tali stopped, so did Liara and Garrus. Vega put in one final burst then stopped, too. Shepard ran out across the dark floor of the tunnel and past the blast doors where Tali lay. She used the protrusion of the blast doors edges to manoeuvre further through the tunnel.
Where their target had been, there was a scatter of dull red shards lying on the floor, cooling from the heat of the rifle fire that had torn them from the wall.
"Get down here" Shepard heard the footsteps of her squad behind her. Tali was up on her feet and flattened to the wall behind Shepard. Vega was scanning his rifle to and fro across the tunnel as if expecting another attack to come through the walls. Liara had her biotic barrier charged and ready to defend the squad if needed.
Shepard started forward, keeping her back to the wall. The wreckage of some of the tunnel wall was still glowing like hot coals scattered across the floor. A wave of hot black smoke passed overhead, wafting slowly up the tunnel. Shepard looked to her side to see Liara had followed her "Stay here" she said.
Shepard walked down the side of the wall to the first of the two elevator shafts, they had been firing at the second one, on the far right, and it's partially open doors were buckled, covered in craters and scars. On the floor was a half melted plasma rifle. Shepard frowned and looked through the gap in the doors. Right on the very lip of the elevator shaft, between the scarred and holed doors, surrounded by a sea of dull red-glowing wreckage, she was sure she could see a pair of hands. Turian looking, sharp and blood covered, but without a doubt, hands. It looked like someone was hanging inside the shaft by the tips of their fingers. They didn't move and she edged closer, rifle ready. One of the hands moved slightly, as if trying to get a better grip on the lip of the tunnel floor. Shepard's heart thudded. She went towards the doors, her feet crunching on the warm debris and saw a pair of oddly plated arms as she moved closer still, then the top of a long, scarred crest. With a rasping noise the hands moved, one of them disappearing completely. Seconds later it flashed up again, this time holding what looked like a pistol. At the same time the Marauders head looked up and out, straight at her. She started to duck. The pistol cracked, it's round missing her by a few centimetres. Shepard shot quickly, ducking and going to one side. Her incendiary ammo blew out all around the lip of the elevator, smashing into the mangled hands and causing the Marauder to cry out as it let go. Light flickered briefly in the shaft and Shepard ran forward, stuck her head between the doors and looked down.
The dim shape of the falling beast was lit by the guttering fire still burning on its plated hands. Somehow it still held the pistol and as it fell, screaming, it fired the small weapon, the cracks of its shots and the flashes from the muzzle drawing further away as the creature holding it whirled, limbs flailing, into the darkness.
"Shepard" Liara shouted from behind her "Are you ok? What was that?"
"I'm fine" Shepard said. The Marauder was a tiny wriggling shape deep in the shafts tunnel of vertical night. Its screams still echoed and a few thuds recorded the hapless creatures contact with the sides of the shaft as it fell.
"What's that noise?" Tali asked.
"Marauder was still alive. It shot at me, but we got it" Shepard told them, walking away from the elevator doors "It fell" she paused "it's still falling, down the shaft"
"Shit" Vega breathed, still listening to the faint echoing scream "Hell of a way to fall"
"Yeah" Shepard inspected the damage to her armour. There was a burn on her right thigh, a millimetre deep and a couple of finger breaths wide, but save for the unlikely chance of another shot falling on the same place, it's integrity would hold "A great start" Shepard muttered. She was about to say something else when the lights in the tunnel flickered to life and the rumble of power vibrated through her.
"Powers up Shepard!" Tali shouted from a few meters down the tunnel.
"Good work" Shepard replied, glad beyond measure that she didn't have to find a way down that elevator shaft in the dark.
They clustered in front of the other elevator shaft doors and waited for the carriage to arrive. Now they had sensors Tali assured them the elevator was empty, but Shepard didn't trust sensors. She stood there, rifle butt pressed into her shoulder, finger itching.
Thankfully the door pinged open without event and they stepped in.
They reached the bottom some time later and Liara pried the malfunctioning doors open five kilometres below ground level. Shepard mulled on that thought and decided she didn't like it. The group stepped into another darkened corridor where the lights from Garrus and Shepard's suits were the only illumination. The cramped space was full of electronic equipment, the walls covered with screens and controls. Thick cables snaked over the ceiling and along the walls, metal floor plates covered conduits filled with more electrical equipment. There was a thick acrid smell of burning in the corridor and a long black, sooty scar had printed itself onto the wall above charred and melted cabling. She noticed a smell as soon as the doors had opened and she felt gall rise in her throat. The odour was faint and could not have turned the most sensitive of stomachs but Shepard had known what it was.
"Goddess" Liara muttered as the passed the burnt, mutilated corpse of a Salarian tucked away in a melted alcove of the tunnel wall. Shepard tried not to look.
The lights were out because the power cables had been melted, but Shepard could see the end of the corridor and the illumined space of the central area.
"Follow me" Shepard said stepping forward and levelling her rifle "Keep ten or fifteen meters back. Don't bunch up, keep the blast door protrusions in reach and watch your arcs. Have smoke grenades ready and retreat to the elevator under cover if you need to" Shepard moved forward, listening to the footsteps of her squad as she pushed on.
When they reached the central area they fanned out, eyeing the damage and wreckage. The space was clear and they crowded round the jury rigged central mass of a main computer terminal that was located in the middle of the room. Wires and light fibres were tangled about it, and attached to the top was some sort of cannibalised screen, now plugged directly into the terminal. The screen lit up as Liara fiddled with its controls. After a few moments she turned around and shrugged "The console doesn't seem to be connected to the main network anymore"
Shepard stood next to the elevator doors that lead to the room below where the data drives were housed. With a grunt she forced the doors open and peered down the elevator shaft.
"Tali" Shepard spoke into her comm. unit "Any power to second elevator?"
"No Shepard" Tali replied "There is some damage to the car, It's actually above you, I can't get it to move"
"Excellent" Shepard muttered and turned around to face Garrus "Garrus, you and Vega hold here" she looked at Liara "Can you get us down the shaft with your Biotics?"
Liara moved to the edge and looked down into the inky shaft.
"That's a long way down Shepard" she glanced at the Commander "But more importantly, it's a long way back up" she thought about it for a moment, her delicate fingers rubbing her forehead "Ok"
"You sure about this Shepard?" Garrus looked between her and Liara.
"Yes" Shepard moved to the lip of the shaft.
"Commander" Liara held out her hand to Shepard "I'm ready when you are" she held Shepard to her, smiling as Shepard twisted, rested her feet on Liara's boots, facing away from her and drew her pistol as Liara stepped off into the shaft. Shepard was enveloped in a crackling biotic field as they descended a little too quickly through the night-dark depths of the shaft. Shepard could hear Liara's laboured breathing behind her, feel the warmth of her breath on the back of her neck,
"Take it easy" Shepard whispered as they slowed a little. Moments later they dropped onto the chill stone silence of the tunnel's black throat, clasped like lovers. Shepard turned around in time to catch Liara as she staggered forward, sweat beading on her brow "Hey" Shepard shifted, wrapping her arm around Liara's waist and pulling her close "You ok?" she asked quietly.
"I will be" Liara lay her head on Shepard's shoulder for a moment, her breath coming in ragged bursts.
"Stay here" Shepard manoeuvred her into the tunnel and out of the shaft. She placed her hand at the back of Liara's neck and lowered her to the ground, sitting her gently against the tunnel wall. The lack of protest from the Asari alarmed her.
"I'll be alright in a moment Shepard" Liara looked at her.
"Well it will only take me a moment to get the drives" Shepard placed the gentlest of kisses on Liara's lips "Plus you're in no condition to fight if it comes to it, and I won't be at my best if I'm worried about you getting hurt"
"Shepard" Liara went to stand up but a firm hand on her shoulder pressed her back.
"You know I'm right" Shepard watched as Liara leaned her head back against the cool metal wall. Her eyes closed.
"Liara!" Liara wasn't sure what was going on. She'd been sat on the tunnel floor, eyes closed as she got her breath back, but now Shepard was stood over her, shaking her shoulders and screaming in her face. Her eyes were wild and splats of blue covered her cheek and matted her hair "Liara wake the hell up!" her fingers dug painfully into Liara's shoulders and she winced.
"What?" she shook her head, trying to clear the thick cloudiness that was hanging over her.
"I'm up to my ass in husks here"
"What?!" she jumped up, wobbling slightly as a wave of dizziness hit her.
"I've got one thermal clip left and we are out of time" Shepard said.
"Hold on" Liara encased them both in a biotic field and propelled them up the elevator shaft. She felt sick and her head hurt. Off to her side she caught sight of several husks, their glowing limbs twisting at unnatural angels as they climbed the shaft walls, keeping pace.
"Garrus, Vega, we have incoming, Husks on the shaft walls, be ready" Shepard spoke into her comm.
"Aye Aye Commander" Garrus replied tightly.
"Nearly there" Shepard looked at Liara. Her eyes were shut tight, and she was frowning, face etched with concentration. She wanted to reach out, to touch her, but was afraid of breaking the tenuous hold she had on her consciousness and biotic field. Shepard could see the edge of the shaft approaching and sensed them speeding up. When they reached the lip she was thrust forward with surprising force as Liara's biotic field expanded and tossed her against the wall. She bounced off some cabling and winced. The sound of gun fire echoed through the room as Garrus and Vega took down the Husks that crawled over the lip of the shaft behind them. Liara lay, unmoving on the ground between the two men.
"Liara" Shepard was next to her in a second. With care she turned her onto her side, grimacing at the twin lines of blood blue that were seeping from her nose and dribbling from her ears "Back up!" Shepard shouted, wrapping Liara's arm around her shoulder and lifting her onto her back. With a grunt she stood up, bracing her knees against the dead weight "Back to the main elevator! There's too many of them" Shepard jogged forward through the central room and back down the tunnel they had emerged from earlier. A whoosh of hot air on the side of her face, and the burning line of a plasma round impacting on the back of the lift wall in front of her, made her pause slightly. Her gut churned with the sickening realisation that there was more than just Husks down here with them.
"Go!" she screamed as Vega switched to rapid fire.
She reached the lift and dropped Liara on the floor to the side of the door. She crouched, using the door for cover as Garrus and Vega followed her in, pinning themselves to the opposite wall. The doors took an age to close and just as they were about to seal completely, a set of clawed talons reached through, grasping the insides in an attempt to pry them open.
"Let go!" Shepard leapt forward and bought her fist down hard on the Marauders hands, punching them over and over, hard enough to dent the inside of the doors and send thick streams of blood splattering across her forearms and face "Tali get this lift moving now!" she screamed as the Marauder refused to let go.
There was a shuddering, wracking gasp of electronic motors bursting to life and the lift moved, rocketing up through the shaft and eliciting a terrific scream from the Marauder as one of its arms came tearing loose, falling to the lift floor with a sickening wet thud. Shepard looked down at the severed limb with distain.
"Yeah!" Vega gave it a kick and sent it flailing out through the partially open doors and into the lift shaft "Yeah" he yelled, face beaded with sweat, eyes wild with adrenaline.
When the lift reached the top, Shepard lifted Liara again, refusing to let Garrus do it. She lead the way through the tunnel, out into the accommodation unit where Tali stood wringing her hands in concern, and out to where Cortez was waiting in the shuttle.
"Get her buckled in Garrus" Shepard lay Liara on the floor of the shuttle with infinite care. She bent over her and wiped some of the blood from her lips and nose.
"I'm ok" Liara murmured groggily as she regained consciousness "Just overloaded that's all" she shifted slightly and sat up.
"I know" Shepard nodded "Cortez" She moved towards the pilot and accepted something from him.
"Where are you going?" Garrus asked.
"I'm going to make this place a crater" she hefted the bomb in her hands "I'm going to guarantee the reapers down there never see the light of day again by collapsing the tunnel entrance"
"Hurry up Shepard" Garrus nodded "I'm sick of this place"
"Yeah" Shepard walked forward, paused at the entrance to the accommodation unit and placed the bomb on the floor. Once she had finished setting the time delay she straightened up. On the floor in front of her she noticed she had cast two shadows. Two shadows from two suns. She mulled over that, thinking of how appropriate it felt. Two shadows.
She knew what she had to do, what she had to be to win this war. She had to be the personification of a concept; the adaptive, self-seeking urge to survive, to bend everything that could be obtained to that end, and to remove and to smash and to create so that one particular need could be meet. So that humanity could move onwards and keep deciding, knowing that -if nothing else- at least it would continue.
And that's exactly what she was, two shadows for the two separate parts of her, the need and the method. The need was obvious to her; to defeat the Reapers. The method was the taking, and bending of materials and people to fit that one need. The outlook she had to have was that everything and everyone could and should be used in the fight; that nothing could be excluded, that everything was a weapon, a tool, even Liara - who she hurt to have to use. To find those weapons, those people, and choose which one to aim, fire and abandon, that talent, that ability to sacrifice and use and twist, was her curse. It was what had made her great, and she hated it.
"Shepard!" Vega hollered from the shuttle door "We're ready"
Shepard nodded and waved her hand, bruised fingers sending lancing pain through her arm. She swore to herself and bit down hard on her lip, tasting blood. She would give herself a few more moments of quiet reverie before facing her demons in the shuttle.
