"We are...an incalculable level of screwed."
"So what's the plan, boss?"
That was actually a fair question on Davisson's part, Garrus thought. Aside from 'meet Miranda on the surface of Baak', they hadn't discussed a tactical approach much. Though if the former Cerberus agent was on the moon, clearly something of import was there, too. The five mercenary ships they'd had to avoid to get there had been evidence enough that something was going down.
The moons of Hito had always been hotspots for merc and business activity, but it almost looked like these people were organizing a fleet. That couldn't possibly be a good thing.
"Find Miranda, obviously. Right now out main concern is what Cerberus is up to, and she'll know all about that. And I doubt she's just here on vacation, which means we should get ready for a pretty heavy engagement, possibly a base raid, given where we are."
"We're absolutely sure this isn't a trap, right?" Tali asked. "Because frankly I trust Miranda as close as I can get to outplanning her. Which is to say; not at all."
"Former operative Lawson has a personal vendetta against Cerberus." EDI chimed in. "It is unlikely that she will betray us unless we give her reason to suspect that we are not useful to that cause. Currently, we are."
"Great." Tali mumbled. "That makes me feel a lot better."
"Coming up on the drop point for the third time in a row." Joker quipped over the shuttle's comm unit. "And for the third time, are we sure these coordinates are right? It doesn't look like there's anything down there but rock."
"No reason to turn back now." Garrus said. "If this takes a turn for the worse, Cortez can get us out."
The pilot nodded firmly, adjusting the controls for flight on the spot when they were ready.
"All right…opening bay doors now." At Joker's word, the doors unlocked with an inaudible crack. Air rushed out of the bay into the vacuum along with the shuttle, but it was steady as it fell to the surface of the moon. The Normandy sped off to keep out of sight, and in only a few minutes the vehicle was alone en route to its destination.
Out the front window, a small outpost was visible a few klicks from their drop point, and on the point itself…
"Looks like a small landing craft." Tali commented. "Standard. That could be them."
However, several explosions of blue, white and red near the outpost drew their attention, and Cortez landed the shuttle shortly thereafter. Tali, EDI, Davisson and Garrus all piled out, weapons at the ready. "Radio in when you need an evac. I'll be here." Cortez informed them. Their vessel shot off with that notice, sound and feel dampened in the vacuum around them.
"All right, everyone." Garrus loaded his Viper with armor-piercing rounds. "Whatever's going on over there, it looks like we need to intervene."
They raced as fast as possible over the small craters and ridges that barred their path for only split-seconds, as the scene in front of them grew more in focus with every step. A lone feminine figure was ducked behind a crate, taking fire from three Blue Suns troopers and a Cerberus commando.
That was stopped in short order when all of their weapons stopped working, their shields failed, one burst into flames, and another dropped with a hole in his head. Garrus shouted 'Impressive!' to Davisson over the radio, mostly out of reflex. He couldn't say he wasn't impressed, but he could've made that shot, too. While sprinting like they were. Maybe. Crap.
The remaining two soldiers jumped and started pulling their triggers ineffectually at the incoming quartet of doom. The commando wised up and started to run, but Garrus dropped him immediately. Headshot on the run aiming at a moving target. Yeah; he still had it.
All four of them began firing on the last trooper, but he suddenly wasn't there anymore. Tali looked up and saw he had been tossed up at an incredible speed. Combined with low gravity, he was almost out of the atmosphere entirely when he came crashing back down with blinding speed. She winced underneath the helmet. She could almost hear the impact, and she was fairly certain that batarians were not supposed to bend that way. She had seen Renar do much the same thing in the Monastery, but had forgotten that Miranda was the one who perfected the trick. Biotics could be terrifying.
Speaking of Miranda…
The figure slid away her pistol and stepped out from cover, nodding her appreciation and accessing her omni-tool. Within moments, all of them were synched to a group conversation via communications equipment.
"Thanks for the assistance." Miranda's familiar voice rang into their helmet's auditory systems. "I was hoping the Shadow Broker would come personally, but it's nice to know he sends the best in his stead."
"He was…busy." Garrus said evasively. "What's your situation?"
"This outpost leads to an underground lab system. It looks like Cerberus is housing several important experiments inside, which means it obviously can't be allowed to exist." She motioned to the corpses. "Resistance is fairly light. I don't think they expected anyone to get past the mercenaries."
"How did you?" EDI asked.
"Stealth systems. We dropped right on top of them with no hostiles the wiser."
"Shit, does everyone have those now?" Davisson sounded annoyed.
"Wait." Garrus held up a hand. "'We'?"
It was a fairly extraordinary coincidence that a mercenary chose that moment to run past them at top speed, arms waving above his head. Clearly, he was screaming his head off and in fear for his life. Unfortunately, the biotic shockwave was slightly faster. He was hit with the force of a demolition bomb and sent flying into the distance.
"Nice try." A new voice sounded in on their group channel, and a second female figure in armor much like the first's (flat gray and light) came around the side of the outpost.
"These the reinforcements?" Jack asked. "About time. I was ready to charge in."
"Jack." Garrus said genially. "Never thought I'd be glad to see you. In a manner of speaking. Still using that swear jar?"
"Go to hell, loverboy." She muttered, then looked his companions up and down. "Looks like you brought in some random jarhead and the quiet hackers." She looked at Miranda. "Tell me this didn't just turn into a stealth mission."
"It might be, but not wherever you are." Miranda said thoughtfully. "This could work out better than I envisioned, actually."
"What are you thinking?" Davisson asked roughly, clearly miffed at being referred to as a 'random jarhead'.
"I can take Tali and EDI in a back entrance and quietly get control of their systems. I know Cerberus bases - the main security consoles are going to be near the exits. They'll want to make sure the scientists and engineers by those operational quarters get out safely. The three of you can take the front and cause a distraction. Less security for us, more enemies for you to shoot."
"And everybody wins." Jack rotated her neck around, cracking her knuckles inside the gauntlets. "So what are we standing around for?"
"Sounds like a plan to me." Tali nodded. "Just be careful about it, all right? This suit is brand new."
"We'll keep them suppressed and meet you in the middle." Garrus motioned to the front entrance. "Jack, you-"
"I know the drill." Jack held up a hand and drew her shotgun. "Just stay out of my way when the bullets start flying."
The initial few rooms and hallways were largely devoid of enemy forces. Though the security systems were still active by the time Jack, Davisson, and Garrus were in, which meant that they were undoubtedly going to have more company, and soon.
So, naturally, the best thing to do was small talk.
"So, Jack." Garrus began. "Still teaching?"
"Yeah. We got a new place near Widow." She brought a biotic fuse to bear as she turned another corner…and extinguished it when she saw no guards. Again. "Guess the Council finally decided to be useful. Had some graduates, had some newbies…barely even notice I've been there so long, most days."
"What are you doing here, though?" Garrus asked.
"Taking a sick day. Yeah, this is how I spend my vacations. Comment, I'll find a standard turian stick and lodge it back up your- …Face."
"Spirits know I don't mind spending free time taking down Cerberus operations. But they've been scarce; any ideas as to why they're around now?"
"No idea." Jack grunted. "The cheerleader just called me up two days ago. 'Want to go blow up some Cerberus moon base' was all I got."
"Rah." Davisson paused to open up the comm channel. "I don't like this quiet. Infiltration team, what's our status?"
"Closing on the Control Room now." Tali whispered. "No hostiles."
"Okay, if all of their patrols are taking a piss at this particular moment, I'm a rachni." Davisson muttered. "They know we're here."
"The only question is where they're setting the trap." Garrus finished, nodding.
"No way we're going to walk right in." Jack muttered. "Hey cheerleader, step on it."
There was a pause, then the sound of sudden gunfire on the other end. "Dammit!" Miranda shouted. "This could take a while! They have mechs swarming the area! Garrus, trigger some security systems and get them off of us!"
"Uh." Davisson looked around. "When did we become bait?"
"When bait became necessary." Garrus replied. "Let's go find some trouble."
X X X
Trouble wasn't hard to find. As it happened, the guards and foot soldiers that had been in various sections of the base were now in one place. They had re-purposed an open cafeteria into a war zone, complete with cover and ammunition deposits. Even worse, multiple hallways lead to this location, meaning being flanked by either mechs or more Cerberus platoons was frankly inevitable.
Absolutely none of it helped.
Davisson picked off another shock trooper from his hiding place atop the roof of the cafeteria windows. The white-clad man had been hilariously easy to dispatch, being helplessly in the air. Their 'cover' was scattered all around the room, some of it still floating from Jack's repeated biotic pulses. Garrus was firing constantly at immobilized opponents, unloading headshots like they were going out of style. The last remaining member of the defensive line backed up against a wall and shot at Jack ineffectually before she turned his head into pulp.
Their glorious makeshift battlefield had lasted a minute. At best.
Muffled explosions came from behind the door they had entered. Apparently the reinforcements had arrived and been immediately disposed of, courtesy of Garrus having far too many proximity mines on his person.
Davisson rolled off the roof and slid away his rifle. "Davisson to infiltration team." He said casually. "Status?"
"Finally inside." Miranda responded. "It looks like we have some control over their security systems and personnel tracking…fully half of which just switched to K.I.A. Was that you?"
"If you mean did we just annihilate a room full of Cerberus forces, yes." Garrus said cheerfully. "Sounds like their mechs ran into our trap, too."
"We noticed." Tali told him. "A dozen of them rushed off just a minute or two ago. I guess they saw you."
"Joke's on them." Jack said. "Where do we go now?"
"Accessing mapping file…" Miranda's voice subsided briefly, then came back. "Leave the cafeteria via the opposite side of where you came in. It looks like there's a stairway that leads to a lower level. Experimental labs, maybe. Too classified up here to tell."
"What about you?" Garrus asked.
"There's an emergency exit to the lower levels on our side. We can hack through there."
"Acknowledged." Garrus raised a pistol and removed the head of a LOKI mech that made the mistake of being slightly slower than its fellows and turned to the other door. It was unlocked.
It led to more hallways ("Joy." Jack remarked) and finally a descending staircase. They didn't encounter any more enemy forces, which worried them, though none of them voiced it.
After a solid minute and a half of slowly proceeding down so that nothing surprised them with a sudden death, another door stood in front of them. The area was calm. Too calm.
This door, too, was unlocked.
"Hey, remember when I said this was a trap?" Davisson pointed at it. "Well this is the mother of all obvious traps."
"True." Garrus nodded.
They paused.
"We're going in anyway, aren't we." Davisson said resignedly.
"Well, yes. But keep behind cover and watch for bombs."
"Eh." Davisson readied his shotgun and shrugged. "The biotic can just toss 'em."
"'The Biotic' has a name." Jack said.
"Right. Sorry, Jan."
"It's Ja- Wait. Is this payback for the 'jarhead' comment?" She scoffed at him. "Real mature."
"Wow, that almost made me feel like an idiot. You really are a teacher."
"Oh shut up." She growled.
"I'm going to open the door before you two kill each other." Garrus said. He tapped the green panel and it slid open silently. In front of them was an observation room (empty, of course), leading outwards via two doors on either side. They walked forward slowly, stopping in front of the glass that looked down on a huge medical facility below them.
At first, Garrus thought they were just putting up small ammunition barrels. Geth design, maybe. Then he saw the movement of a lone spike retracting into its slot. And something else.
"Miranda." He said urgently into the comm. channel.
"I know." She sounded angry. "We see them too."
Davisson squinted at the horde moving about below them. "Are those…?"
"Husks." Garrus said softly. "Dozens of them."
"Fuck." Jack responded.
[Author's Note: Sorry that it took so long, folks, though thank you for your patience. I'm also sorry that this chapter is comparatively short, though the next one should be longer (and thus also take me a while as well, hopefully not nearly as long as this).
And yes. I do intend to at least introduce in passing pretty much all of the Trilogy survivors.]