So in terms of time line this is sort of a hybrid between ME1 and ME2... just go with it! Please (pretty please) leave a review. I'm not sure if I should keep writing these.
They'd landed in an abandoned warehouse, dust and debris littering the floor that was still stacked with crates waiting for shipment. It had been a trade city that sprawled across the soft sandstone of the flat plain, sitting next to an immense spaceport and dry-dock facility. Grav-cranes stretched into the sky next to stacked cargo containers ready to be moved or unloaded into the great warehouse district that surrounded them. Cavernous buildings lined the streets below, housing factories producing thrusters, Eezo cores, heat sink technology and synthetic hull materials.
Most of the large transports and civilian ships were built, or had their materials purchased from here. It was on the edge of the Annos basin, close enough to the Citadel to make the trip relatively painless but far enough away that the taint of political bickering didn't quite reach them. No doubt on purpose, as obeying trade regulations was considered an unnecessary hindrance here. The close proximity to the Salarian homeworld meant their many engineers propelled technology on the planet forward faster than the rest of the universe: all the newest drive cores, heat dissipaters and mass effect generators originated here.
When the planet had been attacked, the Alliance had panicked. Despite their avowed disbelief of the Reaper threat, EDI had found internal documents commissioned after the Battle of the Citadel that painted a sobering picture of naval readiness. Most of the battle-class frigates were still damaged from the struggle, and supplies were severely limited as each raced scrambled to repair their fleets. The SS Midway had lain in drydock for months, awaiting a new shield matrix overlay for its upper left wing. It lay on its side now, the wing completely shorn away and the hull torn open like a tin can. It had toppled off its supports with an almighty screech of metal wrenching apart as explosions blasted through its foundation. The bare skeletons of several half-built ships lay heaped around it in a warped, disorganised pile: the sum total of the Alliance's pitiful efforts to shore up their defences. It was galling to see really, it wasn't as if they hadn't been warned. Repeatedly. Anderson and Hackett had listened, but the Council and Alliance command just hadn't wanted to face the possibility of another threat of such magnitude so soon after Sovereign had been defeated.
They had been fighting for 60 hours now, clearing out the mass of husks that yawed their defiance with hoarse and desperate shrieks. Marauders had followed with another wave of husks that nearly overwhelmed them, scrabbling at their limbs until Shepard was forced to beat them away with the base of her shotgun. She hadn't had time to switch out the heat sink, or even grab her sidearm. Somehow they had gotten through it and fallen back into the darkness to try another plan of attack. Keeping to the shadows, she, Garrus and Alenko had spent the preceding night stealing through the districts on foot after abandoning the gravcar they had commandeered. Collector patrols were difficult, but not impossible to detect before they were seen. Alenko had recently coded a thermal scanner into his omnitool, powered by his corona, which had kept them mostly out of trouble. He could only run it for a few moments at a time for fear of overtaxing his amp or his energy reserves, but at last they had penetrated the complex that seemed to be the source of the horde.
Navigating through the ventilation system, Shepard, Alenko and Garrus had made it down to the basement storage unit to find six large tanks full to the brim with jet fuel. That was where the fun began. Alenko had been pale by then, sweat beading on his upper lip while he kept the thermal scanner going constantly as Garrus and Shepard set the bomb next to the fuel tank lines. It was too much of a risk to rely on a signal getting through to the device for remote detonation, so they gambled, and set the timer for a short fuse and ran.
Unfortunately for them a patrol had rounded the corner as Shepard wriggled out of the basement access shaft onto the street and all hell broke loose. Garrus who had come out first and was farthest into the street had dived into cover, scrambling for his assault rifle as Shepard grabbed Alenko's arm, pulling him through the shaft opening and dragging him by the hand around a corner of a building into a tiny alcove that just fitted the two of them. Shepard pressed his panting body into the wall, risking a look around the corner as he closed his eyes and leaned his head back against it. She snapped back to cover as a volley of gunfire missed her face by inches, crushing herself into him and holding him there until the screaming whine stopped. Obviously the stupid things had found the gun fabrication storage units. She was breathing hard now too, misting her visor until she slapped the release on the side of her head and it cycled up, revealing two dark, concerned eyes.
"Alenko? Are you alright? Kaidan?" she moved her fingers to hit the switch on the side of his helmet as well. He was definitely pale and sweaty now, lips white and thin as his jaw clenched.
"Nothing to worry about Ma'am." he ground out, closing his eyes against the sudden light. He had dimmed his visor and turned the contrast up so he could see with minimal light input. Not now. Please, not now.
"Kaidan what's wrong? Are you hit?" He could feel her hands, covered by her kevlar gloves skimming over his neck and torso as she looked for bullet wounds or blood.
" 'm fine ma'am, honestly. Just... a little too enthusiastic with the amp." he said.
She scrutinised him for a moment, holding his gaze through his half-lidded eyes and frowning a little.
"We have to move, Kaidan, we can't stay here. Are you ok to get to the safe zone? I can try and get a shuttle in..." she trailed off. They both knew that was wishful thinking.
"I'm good to go ma'am, not much choice anyway is there," he said, winking and cycling his visor down again. She didn't hear him sighing with relief as the light dimmed. She smiled back at him a little, still looking doubtful before briefly putting a hand on his arm and giving it a gentle squeeze. Her eyes had softened in the way that always made his heart beat faster, the way they only did for him. What he wouldn't give to lose himself in those eyes for a few hours...a few days, a few years. Snap out of it dammit, he told himself, wincing mentally. Middle of a firefight, oncoming migraine, bomb about to vaporise the immediate area. Stay focused.
"We're almost there lieutenant," she said, reaching to lower her visor as well. "I've got your back"
Her hand was still on his arm, a gentle pressure of her fingers seconding her promise. He tried to form a coherent response from behind the growing veil of pain that was enveloping his brain and the hypersensitivity to her touch.
"I know, ma'am." he said, and he could hear the smile in his voice, and see the shadow of her own behind her lowered visor.
Shepard's last grenade, held until the fuse ticked down and well placed in the doorway the husks were emerging from collapsed the structure and let Garrus sprint over to them. With a grunting effort and a wave of nausea Kaidan pulled up the thermal scanner, only able to hold it for a moment before he sagged against the wall, breathing hard.
"Down there," he said, pointing down a darkened alley that had yet to be lit with the fluorescent strips that turned the rest of the city into daylight. "Most direct route, can... can go through the maintenance tunnels."
Within a minute they were climbing down a manhole, Garrus leading the way with the flashlight on his rifle, Shepard following and Kaidan with his eyes now shut tight and gripping the rungs of the old fashioned ladder hard beneath his clenched fists. His right eye was blurred now, just a little in the middle, the way it always was before a big one. He stumbled on the third last rung, collecting Shepard as he fell backwards and hit his head on the concrete wall, hard. White-hot fire erupted in his brain as he cried out, streaking from his temples to behind his eyes and settling into a throbbing rage at the top of his skull. In a moment Shepard was up, despite having taken the brunt of the fall and pulled him up by his arm. He staggered against her and hit the wall again with a grunt of pain. His legs just couldn't carry his weight anymore, the heat was spreading from his amp port down his spine and tendrils working their way down his back.
Blood thundered in his ears as he struggled to swallow down the bile in his throat, ripping off his helmet with fumbling fingers and drawing in deep lungfuls of icy air. It stung his face until he could just open his eyes again in the dank tunnel, feel Shepard pulling his arm over her shoulder and beginning to tow him down the shaft, cramming the helmet back over his face.
"Move it Shepard, two minutes to go!" Garrus yelled, dashing back towards them to help Shepard support Kaidan's weight until she barked at him.
"Light the way and watch for goddamn husks Garrus!" It rang through Kaidan's ears, crashing and resounding until he thought the echoes and waves of deep, lingering fire would never stop.
And so they ran. Kaidan doing his best to keep one foot moving in front of the other, Shepard taking most of his weight and somehow keeping them upright as they sprinted clumsily down the tunnel that sloped gently downwards, towards the bay that lined one side of the city. Garrus kept his rifle up, splashing yellow light over the exposed concrete and checking his map every moment to see how close they were to the safe zone.
With thirty seconds to go Shepard gave up on towing him and with an almighty effort lifted him and sprinted for the mouth of the tunnel they could see again. Garrus dropped the gun into its mount and grabbed Kaidan's other arm and, with him supported between them, they ran the last remaining metres to the mouth of the tunnel.
"Fuck!" Shepard swore, looking out of the opening to the sea of water and a ten metre drop to the surface. There as nothing around them but smooth rock face, no way up or down or back. "Fuck, fuck, fuck!"
"We'll have to jump!" yelled Garrus, motioning to his omnitool. "We'll still risk catching the edge of the blast in here, we're too exposed!"
Shepard looked desperately at Kaidan, biting her lip at the sound his rapid breathing and clammy face that lay in shadow beyond the helmet. There was nothing she could do, no way out but to jump. Kaidan was so weak he would risk drowning without support, particularly with the weight of his full combat armour and the weapons at his hip and back. Her jaw clenched as she hit the opening mechanism on the side of his helmet, and it slid open with a hiss. Sealed suits hadn't been necessary for the atmospheric conditions so it would just fill with water and suffocate him faster. Her eyes were bright when her own visor lifted, holding him steady by his upper arms and staring into his.
"Don't you fucking die on me Alenko, you hear?" she growled softly, moving a hand up to rest at the juncture of his shoulder and his neck. "Just keep fucking breathing!" He could see the desperation in her eyes, the guilt that she had asked him to push himself so hard, to risk his life for this.
She leaned close, moving them to the edge of the drop and finally wrapping her hands around his waist and locking her wrists together with clutching fingers. Her arms tightened and her face was suddenly buried in his neck before the world lurched and cold air was whipping around them.
It seemed to take an age, that fall. A tremendous booming blast sounded as they cleared the tunnel opening, great tongues of fire leaping into the air and curling around them until Kaidan thought he would scream. All he could feel were Shepard's arms wrapped tight around his waist, her shaking shoulders as they fell and she prayed to some unknown god that they would survive this.
They twisted in the air, Kaidan's legs flying loose and arms struggling to stay close to his body while they fell. His eyes snapped open an he could see the water rising up too fast to meet them, the promise of a landing as hard as concrete from that height. His arms finally wrapped around her at the last moment, clutching her to him in terror and pain. Then the realisation that they had twisted again, and her back was to the dark water that was almost upon them, and he screamed, trying to pull her away with his weight and stop her taking the impact of both their bodies hitting the surface.
But it was too late. There was nothing he could do.
He took a deep breath, clenching his eyes shut and crushing her to him.
Then-