Mass Effect 30 Day Challenge 4
Prompt 4: Favourite Storyline Mission
SPOILERS: Mass Effect 2
Angels
"You're working too hard," Shepard jammed the welder into Sergeant Cathka's back, causing the Batarian mercenary to cry out and suddenly jerk as electricity wracked through his body. He fell against the workbench alongside the gunship, then tumbled to the floor, the welder still stuck between the plates of his armor.
"Nice one," Zaeed commented, stepping over the limp body.
Miranda raised one perfect eyebrow, standing off to one side with her arms crossed. "Was that really necessary, Commander?"
"He'll live," Kara Shepard said, shrugging. "Maybe. Little shock to the system does a person good. Besides," she smiled, drawing her Shuriken pistol and checking to make sure it was fully loaded. "Now they can't repair the gunship."
"Either way, let's move before any of his friends come sniffing around," Zaeed said, drawing his assault rifle.
Shepard nodded. "Move out. Follow the freelancers across the bridge."
The trio moved past the gunship and the final barricade, where the bridge stood beyond a small drop-off. Shepard peered around the corner and watched as a group of half a dozen mercenaries jumped down and stormed the bridge, firing weapons wildly at the apartment on the far side. A sniper – Archangel, presumably – popped his head up and picked off three of the mercs with perfectly-aimed shots, but the rest of the group pressed on, heading for a set of stairs on the far side. Two carried a bomb between them.
"Looks like Archangel's running out of time," growled Zaeed at Shepard's right.
"Then let's get a move on," Miranda snapped, drawing her own submachine gun and preparing a biotic warp in her free hand.
Shepard directed them forward with a nod and the three of them dropped down off the ledge and onto the bridge. "Come on," she said, unable to resist the urge to smile and give her knuckles a solid 'crack'. "Let's give these guys a surprise of their own."
The three of them set off across the bridge, ignored by the freelancers ahead of them. Up above, Shepard watched as Archangel popped up from behind a crate once again and fired two shots in their direction. Miranda dodged to the right and Shepard to the left, but one of the rounds clipped her on the shoulder. A concussive round. Knocked out her shields, but other than that, no serious damage. She pressed forward, her team flanking her, and they made it to the other side of the bridge, catching up with the freelancers.
"That looks bad," Miranda said, and Shepard knew instantly what she was talking about. Two of the freelancers were crouched in the main room of the apartment, arming a large and unpleasant-looking bomb.
"Or useful," Shepard said. "Take cover!"
Zaeed and Miranda dodged behind two pillars as Shepard ran forward, still unnoticed by the freelancers, and she tapped into the energy of her tech shields, throwing an overload directly at the bomb. The contraption exploded, taking out the two mercs trying to arm it. Two other mercs whirled around and Shepard heard one of them yell "She's with Archangel!"
"Here we go!" Shepard yelled. "Let's move, people!"
Miranda and Zaeed pushed forward, Miranda slamming one of the mercs with a warp while Zaeed riddled one with shots from his rifle. Once the smoke from the bomb had cleared, Shepard saw a few more of the men scrambling up the stairs that led to Archangel's vantage point.
"Upstairs," Shepard yelled, flinging another warp at a merc and sending him tumbling into a bookshelf.
"We've got to clear 'em out," Zaeed said as he popped his heat sink and loaded his rifle with another clip. "Archangel's useless if he's dead."
"The obvious, Zaeed," Shepard growled, shooting the last merc on the stairs with her pistol before sprinting up two at a time towards the upper level. "You're stating it."
"Come on!" Miranda yelled. One of the freelancers peered up over the edge of the balcony rail above them and she slammed him with another biotic pulse. "Perfect!"
Shepard reached the top of the stairs and immediately dived into cover. Two of the freelancers were trying to hack the locked door on far end of the balcony while others were in front in a defensive stance, holding their rifles in front of them with as much expertise as they could muster. They rattled off shots at Shepard and her team, and even though she got off a few potshots and another biotic attack, they were pinned down.
"Fuck this," she muttered, putting her pistol away and reaching for the weapon on her back. "Zaeed, Miranda, cover me!"
Her companions popped out of cover and fired at the men in front of the door as Shepard checked to make sure her weapon was loaded. Satisfied, she flung herself around the corner on one knee and pointed it at the cluster of freelancers.
"How about THIS?" She yelled.
And she fired the grenade launcher.
Miranda and Zaeed dived for cover as pieces of mercenary armor, flesh, and chunks of the door blasted forward. Shepard spun around so her back caught the worst of the blast, then she stood up, putting away the launcher and nodding with satisfaction at the carnage on display when the dust settled.
"You sure like to make an entrance," Zaeed muttered behind her, reloading his rifle.
"Come on," Shepard said, drawing her pistol again. "Through here."
What was left of the door to the main apartment slid open, sparking from damage, and Shepard and her team entered cautiously with weapons drawn. The spacious room had two balcony areas, one looking out on the bridge and a second parallel to it that looked down into the courtyard through which they had entered the complex. Shepard signaled her team to stand back as she stepped towards the tall mercenary with the scope of a sniper rifle to his helmet.
"Archangel?" she said, knowing this was an obvious thing to say, but it was as good a greeting as any.
Archangel raised one of his hands – distinctly three-fingered, an indicator along with the shape of his helmet that a Turian existed somewhere under all that armor – and fired one last shot down below them into the courtyard. Shepard heard the croak and thud of another mercenary dropping dead, then looked back to the vigilante, who had set his sniper rifle down and was removing his helmet.
Beneath it, Kara Shepard saw the last face she had expected to see.
Piercing blue eyes to match the electric glow of his visor, thick blue warpaint-like marks across his face, the hint of a smirk around his mandible. Shepard stared at him a moment, taking him in. Even if she'd been dead for most of it, two years was a long time, and in an instant an onslaught of emotions assaulted her, feelings she had stomped down after the Illusive Man had reported his location as unknown.
Officer. Warrior. Partner-in-crime. Friend.
Garrus.
The Turian set his helmet down next to him and leaned forward, slightly out of breath, but his eyes sparkled. Shepard didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
"Shepard," Garrus Vakarian said after a long pause, his gravelly voice full of disbelief, of wonder, just as shocked to see her as she was to see him. "I thought you were dead."
Answer: Dossier: Archangel, Mass Effect 2