Chapter 13
"Rendezvous in thirty seconds, Commander." Joker called out as the squad entered the drop ship.
Sean's heart was beating hard. He had never seen a Collector face to face before. There were many fabricated pictures on the extranet, he was eager to see one face-to-face. He breathed out slowly, slowing his heartbeat. He took a seat and laid his Mattock across his legs. Sean rolled his helmet in his hands. It felt like ages since he had worn it. He gingerly brushed the dust off the black visor. He rubbed his hand against the vertical grates of the grey external re-breather. Waiting for the ship to touch down, he began to nervously tweak at bits of the mask. The drop ship slowly weaved in and out of the external supports of the enormous Collector ship before landing inside a small crevice. Sean and Shepard did one last adjustment to their helmets. Sean checked his airflow then sealed off the helmet, tapping it twice for luck. The airlock hissed open as Shepard, Tali, and Sean stepped out of the drop ship, and onto the floor of the Collector ship.
"My God." Sean said looking around at the room they were in. "It looks like the inside of a beehive."
"Shepard." EDI said over their headsets, "I've compared the ships EM signatures to known Collector profiles. It is the vessel you encountered on Horizon."
"Maybe the defense towers softened it for the turians." Shepard commented walking on ahead. Sean and Tali quickly fell into stride. All three of them walked carefully forward, their weapons still holstered.
"Keelah." Tali said shocked in stopping in mid stride.
"My God." Shepard began.
Sean turned to look and saw a pile of dead bodies before them. He instinctively brought his arm up to his mouth. What lay before him astounded him. He had seen dead bodies before, but these bodies were contorted and it looked like the life had been sucked out of them, forcibly. "Why would the Collectors leave a pile of bodies around?" Sean wondered aloud.
"These look like test subjects." Tali stated.
"They didn't deserve this." Shepard said, "We need to stop them as soon as we can." There was a short pause before Shepard walked on.
They navigated their way through various corridors until one opened to a giant chamber. The enormous ceiling seemed to stretch on for what looked like hundreds of feet, filled with glowing brown pods.
"They could harvest every human on Earth!" Sean exclaimed.
"Not if we stop them first" Shepard said, marveling at the expanse of the room. She slowly strode forward, eyes still scanning the immense room.
"There. There's a control panel on that platform." Tali pointed out.
"Wait, if the turians managed to shut down this ship, then where are the bodies of the Collector crew?" Sean asked. He then nervously pulled his Mattock off his back, checking his thermal clip. "Something doesn't feel right."
"You're right. Be ready." Shepard responded as she approached the terminal on the platform. "EDI? I'm setting up a bridge between you and the Collector ship, see if you can get anything useful."
Quickly EDI responded, "Data mine in progress."
"Uh… That can't be good." Joker said over the headset. Suddenly the Collector ship shook in what felt like an explosion. Machine parts began to come alive, moving and working. The Collector ship appeared to become back online.
"Shit!" Sean yelled as he lost his footing.
"What the hell just happened?" Shepard barked.
"Major power surge." Joker responded, "We're back up now."
Sean began to frantically scan the room, Mattock locked onto his shoulder and his finger on the trigger. "We're not alone. Shepard I think this was-"
"-A trap." EDI said, finishing Sean's sentence. The platform then shot up into the immense chamber.
"This just got bad." Sean said, holding himself steady on onto of the rails.
"EDI we're going to need some help here." Shepard said.
"I'm having trouble maintaining a connection. There's someone else in the system." EDI responded. The platform came to a screeching halt sending Shepard and Tali falling to the ground. Sean quickly ran over and helped them up. Other platforms rose up into the air, filled with Collector soldiers.
"Here they come!" Sean yelled as a Scion fired one of his blasts. Sean grabbed Tali and dove out of the shockwave. They both scrambled to their knees and made their way to cover.
"Heads up!" Tali warned as two collectors jumped onto their platform. She quickly emerged and fired two shots. Both connected with the Collectors, taking down their biotic barriers. Sean then popped up from his cover and took down one Collector with two shots straight to its head.
"Sean! I need a concussive shot!" Shepard commanded. Sean nodded and rose, priming his shot and firing it at a Collector, causing it to fly off the platform and down into the abyss of the chamber.
Sean returned to his cover, loading a fresh clip into his gun. He heard a defining screech and he peaked over his cover. Husks were unloaded off another platform and ran towards Sean, arms flailing at their sides. Sean quickly stood up and fired his entire clip at the onslaught, but he was soon overwhelmed.
"Sean!" Tali exclaimed running from her cover over to him. She quickly fired multiple bursts from her shotgun into the remaining Husks.
"Thanks." Sean said brushing the bodies off of him. "I thought they had me there!"
Tali nodded as she returned to a piece of cover behind Sean.
"Tali!" Sean yelled as he saw a Collector train its rifle on her. The beam charged and fired. It connected with Tali, damaging her shields. Sean stood up into the shot, taking the full blast of the beam. He felt the heat of the beam passing through his armor and quickly into his skin. The beam quickly disappeared as Shepard sniped the Collector. Sean let out a cry of pain as he fell to his knees. His vision grew blurry and all noise seemed to subside. He felt a heavy flow of blood running down his chest and right arm. He instinctively lifted up his left hand to cover the flow of blood coming from his right arm. As his hearing came back to him he heard a faint hiss coming from his right. He looked down to see that the Collector beam had also sliced into his Mattock rifle. He watched helplessly as the molten metal case of the rifle seeped into the loaded, and primed, concussive shot. The shot ignited, causing a large explosion and sending Sean flying backwards. His limp body connected with Tali's, sending them both towards the edge of the platform. She grabbed onto his body, struggling to right herself. Tali felt gravity overtake her as she fell on the ground by the. Sean's momentum kept him going, over the edge. Tali still clutched onto Sean's body as she felt herself slip as Sean's weight pulled her closer to the lip. She still gripped Sean's left hand tightly, refusing to let go. Tali watched Sean dangle there for a moment. Time seemed to slow down as she stared at Sean.
Sean looked up weakly. His eyes, barely open, but they still looked deeply into Tali's. He gave a soft smile. Blood was quickly dripping off his body and onto the chamber floor, hundreds of feet below. His grip weakened and Tali felt his hand beginning to slip from hers. "Sean don't-" She warned as she felt his hand completely slip away from hers. She gasped as he began to freefall.
Shepard's hand quickly shot out and grabbed Sean's wrist, stopping him mid fall. "Tali! I need your help!" She yelled as they both reached down and pulled Sean's body up and onto the platform. They quickly rolled him over onto his stomach, Sean was breathing weakly.
"Come on! Stay with us! We're going to get you out of here!" Shepard yelled over the sound of the battle, returning her attention to the Collectors.
"Stay with us Sean!" Tali pleaded, silver tears running down her face. Sean managed to lift his hand up to Tali's mask.
"You're alright…" Sean said as a small, comforting, smile spread across his pale face.
"And you'll be too. Stay with me Sean, don't leave." She begged. Sean's eyes slowly shut as his mind faded into darkness.
Authors Note: OMG WHAT WILL HAPPEN NOW! Right? This was one of my favorite chapters to write. Hope it's awesome to you guys! Plenty more chapters coming!