"Commander? I've detected something strange that I think might interest you,"
Specialist Traynor's cool voice broke Shepard of her daze, slinging her back to the present of reality. She nodded for the Specialist to continue, which unfolded into a situation in which it seemed like Grissom Academy was under siege by Cerberus. Fury sparked inside her gut as she thought of the different reasons why the Illusive Man would want to invade a station full of biotic kids, but she wasn't going to waste time sitting on her thumbs thinking of the "why's" when she could be there rescuing them. Joker set a course for the station, and they arrived just in time for Shepard to call Liara and Garrus to the cargo bay and gear up.
She would've said it was just like old times, the three of them going off together. But this war and its changes twisted even nostalgia into something perverse. Just as she clipped on her shotgun, Cortez signaled that the shuttle was ready for them to head out. Once inside Shepard briefed her team on the situation.
"As this is a biotic specific area of the academy, Liara will be in charge of setting up any necessary aid to any students we encounter. Garrus, expect to come in contact with multiple security measures against us along the way,"
"I'd be disappointed if we didn't, Commander,"
"Right. Remember, this is a rescue mission first and foremost, but that doesn't mean we can't make some of the bastards pay along the way either," all three smirked at that, with all of them having a personal vendetta against Cerberus. The shuttle was ready for landing, and the team boarded the station.
The mission was tough. Just like anything involving Cerberus, simple tasks became complicated processes. Systems were jammed and there was no way off the station without alerting the entire Cerberus fleet surrounding them. Not the ideal circumstances for a rescue. After encountering two or three stragglers along the way, the team finally met up with the bulk of the students along with their teacher: none other than the foul-mouthed half-naked Jack.
"If it isn't my favorite girl scout!" she called down, recognizing the red stripe of Shepard's armor from across the expansive room. The stairs were leaped down in short order, and a swift punch found its way to Shepard's jaw. "That's for going back to the damn Alliance instead of starting our own pirate gang," Jack explained, though was nowhere near apologetic.
Rubbing her jaw under her helmet, Shepard couldn't help but smile as Garrus came up and pointed out that Jack was now in fact Alliance as well.
"Bite me Garrus. Or better yet, bite her. Probably how she likes it," Jack scowled through her remark, obviously on edge with Cerberus so close to her guys. "I warned you about them, Shepard! I told you to never trust Cerberus. They just used us to-"
"You aren't saying anything I haven't already told myself, Jack. And I never trusted them. We used them, remember?" This got a smile out of the Psychotic Biotic, which finally cleared the air enough for them to form a plan to safely get the students off the station and into evac.
It was a brutal fight. The students, along with their teacher, were in the safety of a balcony above, only adding support as absolutely necessary, meaning the rest was up for Shepard's ground team to take care of. It didn't get too dicey until two Atlases showed up at once, accompanied by centurian and engineer escorts.
"They're getting desperate!" shouted Liara behind cover, putting one engineer in stasis before he could activate a turret.
"Must be their final push-take them out so we can get the hell outta here!" Shepard's voice was like a war cry as she cascaded herself in blue biotics, shouting for covering fire as she charged into the other engineer, effectively knocking him off their platform onto the many floors below. She rolled into cover behind a planter as a centurian turned her way, but didn't get a chance to fire a shot as Garrus lined his helmet in his crosshairs. This left an opening for Liara to begin her assault on the other ground tropper, hitting him with a warp as Garrus primed for a concussive shot. BLAM. Shepard's close range shotgun blast reverberated off the walls, leaving little of the cerberus logo on the trooper's helmet still legible.
"He was mine!" Garrus complained, now turning his concussive shot on the Atlas closest to Shepard, showering her cover in automatic fire.
"You're getting slow in your old age, Vakarian!" the redheaded human laughed behind her cover, getting ready to charge into a better position. A missile blasted the planter, rattling Shepard and disrupting her charge. As she staggered there, the other atlas fired its missile, knocking out her shields. The shock of the impact knocked her back down behind cover, just in time to be shielded from a blast: Jack had forgone her cover and sent a biotic warp so powerful it crushed through shields and stunned the operating pilot within. This made the already firing atlas turn into the other, hitting it right in the sweet spot of the fuses, creating a blast that echoed through the entire area.
"Well I think that means we're clear, right?" Garrus popped his head around his position, checking for the validity of his statement. With Cerberus now unable to block their way, the team and students were able to make their way to Cerberus shuttles-their means of escape through the blockade. Jack's team was in position to make a run for it, Shepard gave them the signal and off they went. For good measure, Liara was sent to cover them as Shepard and Garrus sealed the exits behind them and checked security vids of incoming rooms.
"Hold on, it looks like there's someone in the hall up ahead," Garrus tried to clear up the footage. From there they saw two young girls huddled together, a Cerberus trooper keeping them still at gunpoint.
"Leave with us and you both live. You're on your own and too weak to resist us," the mechanical undertones in the trooper's voice sent chills down Shepard, remembering the husk like features of them that she witnessed on Mars.
The younger girl whimpered. "I just want to go home…"
"We have to get in there!" Shepard ran towards the door, but Garrus caught her arm.
"Shepard, there's a platoon of them further down that hall. If we go that way, our own students wouldn't make it. Liara already diverted them ahead and they are almost to the shuttles. If we don't bug out now we are going to be overrun," his hand lingered on her arm, hoping that his touch would ground her to reason.
"We're not leaving them, dammit! We can't!" she tried to tear free of his grip, but he only spun her around to face him, hands grasping her shoulders to look at him.
"We have to. I'm sorry, Shep-"
"You freaks better be two seconds away from this shuttle or I am leaving your asses!" Jack cut through their comms, which distracted Garrus from his grip just long enough for Shepard to slip away and blast through the door into the hall. She charged in before he could pull her back, smashing into the trooper threatening the girls, sending him flying back to his platoon. This effectively had the entirety of the pack turn methodically in her direction, guns raised.
"Go ahead, bitches. Make my day,"
As if on cue, Joker buzzed in her comm. "Normandy to ground team, the cruiser isn't taking our bait and is coming around back to the station. Somebody must have tipped them off to what's going down in there. You better get out now before they blow this place to hell!"
It was too late for that now. "Liara, get the students on to a shuttle and get outta here now!"
She threw a shockwave at the group of white armored demons, giving her time as she snatched the girls and rolled into cover. "Stay down no matter what happens. Do not move, do not try anything," the girls nodded, recognizing her as Commander. Shots were buzzing over their heads, too many to roll out for return fire. The station began to rumble as it came under fire from the cruiser, alarms beginning to blare and flash. A shot whizzed past her, but from the opposite direction.
Garrus hit a centurian between the eyes, knocking him back into the shields of two guardians. As he reloaded for another shot, Shepard sent a pull that tore away their shields, but took damage to her own as the rest of the platoon rained shots down on her. Sending out an overload to shake them up, Garrus took a hit to his own shields. Rage flared and Shepard charged into the bulk of the white uniforms, some soaring from the impact, others knocked completely down. She let the wave of it carry through her as she smashed her residual energy into a torrent of force in front of her. Cerberus troops were left stunned or dead on the floor.
"Shepard, watch out!"
A combat engineer rolled out from behind a crate, as a turret sprang up from behind it. Garrus threw another overload at the turret as Shepard rolled into a crate to her left. She looked back at the girls in time to see that their cover was the target of the turret's full assault, chipping away the flimsy barricade as the bullets rained down on them. The combat engineer gave just enough fire power to give her and Garrus pause as they tried to take down the turret. The crate chipped away more. One of the girls screamed. Shepard called to Garrus to cover her as she went back to them, just as a little blue bubble rose up around them. A barrier, weak but spreading. The girls must have been young biotic students.
Just as Shepard was about to roll around her last crate to them, she heard a clicking. A frag grenade, the last effort of the combat engineer to take them out before Garrus laid him out instead. The trajectory went past the turian and over Shepard as she watched, horrified, to see its intended target.
The weak blue barrier was no match for the blast as it fizzled out.
Everything was ringing. Garrus saw Shepard screaming, tears running down her darkened face, before he heard her. His heartbeat pounded in his ears as he ran over to her, throwing her over his shoulder, making towards the shuttles. It was like a dream where no matter how hard he tried, everything was still moving slow motion. His legs were slow, the pounding of Shepard's fists against his back were slow. Blurred lines of the hallways and ringing ears were all he could see and hear. His target, the shuttle, that's what he focused on. The thuds of Shepard's fists pounded still, like a frenzied drum at a distance. The pounding of the cruiser's fire was growing louder, more severe. It was a shot too close to their location that knocked Garrus back to his senses. A crackling voice on his comm told him that Liara unlocked a remaining shuttle and that they were already en route to the Normandy. It should be a straight shot to the hanger bay now, just the red alerts blaring, reminding him that this station was falling apart and to keep moving, despite Shepard's insistance to the contrary. She begged to go back to the girls.
With the shuttle control's already unshackled, it was a simple task to drive the bird straight off the station and towards the Normandy. With conformation that the station was clear, a blast resounded out of the gun battery that cut the Cerberus cruiser cleanly in half, sending it straight at Grissom. Though out of the blast zone, the shuttle still felt the turbulance that resulted from the impact, sputtering them onward towards their target. Seeing the explosion through the holodisplay, Shepard's face turned to stone.
No one said a word as they boarded the Normandy. Even Jack was at a loss.