"Does the death...bother you?"
Shepard brushed a trickle of blood away from her eye.
It must have come down from her forehead, she rationalized. When she examined it, all she saw was a bit of shine against the black armor of her gloves, so she couldn't tell what color it was. It didn't matter. Not then. It was just a momentary distraction.
It hadn't taken as long as she'd thought for everyone to get over her appearance. Most likely because they were simply too relieved to question it, or so she assumed. In the meantime, Vega had given her a brief sit-rep; the marines and civilians at the landing point, how thoroughly they had cleared the area, and a brief listing of who was left, mostly.
Now, she, Vega, Jacob, Dr. Cole, a scientist whom Cole had identified as Liam, and little Michelle were gathered around the 'body' Shepard had assumed was Harbinger before it deactivated itself. According to Cole, the room that the real Harbinger had emerged from was a data repository of sorts. None of them knew what he'd wanted in there of if he had even gotten it, though the brief gloating he had given Shepard insinuated that whatever his objective had been, Harbinger had succeeded.
"What do you think?" She heard Jacob ask.
She turned the metal over in her hands. It was strong to the touch, and she didn't think she could crush it with her bare hands even if she put biotics into it. It composed a roughly humanoid appearance, insofar as it had recognizable arms and legs, and a head, and a torso. The rest seemed to come from the various devices implanted on the surface in several major spots. Three she didn't recognize, on the upper extremities, one major power battery connected to a holographic generator on the torso, and what she assumed was the central processing unit on the head. Also connected to a device she didn't recognize.
"I think it's high-tech." Shepard stated simply, looking up at Dr. Cole for confirmation. She nodded absently, but seemed to be enthralled mainly by the small discs attached to the hands. "Any idea what those are?"
"I...I think it's some kind of amp." Brynn murmured, taking a closer look and scanning it again with her omni-tool to be sure.
"Wait, just an amp?" Jacob sounded confused. "You still need biotic aptitude for those to do anything, though."
Brynn shrugged. "This is the most advanced technology I've seen in a while. The only thing I can tell about it is that it has something to do with biotics. I'll need more time to perform an in-depth analysis."
"What the hell..." Shepard's throat clenched slightly. While she hadn't been initially sure what she was looking at, now it was confirmed. And confusing.
"What?" Vega asked, startled.
"Look at this." Shepard held up the head so that the others could examine it more closely.
"Is that...?" Brynn began.
"Sirta Foundation." Shepard confirmed.
"Okay, the amps I could handle." Jacob said, consternation clear in his tone. "But since when does Sirta manufacture combat-capable exoskeletons?"
"That's not their M.O." Liam spoke up for the first time since Shepard had arrived. He sounded jittery, nervous. Compared to the relatively calm demeanor of everyone else in the room, he seemed to be the only one there reacting in any way normally to what was happening. "Sirta doesn't make weaponry. Of any kind."
"Explain this, then." Shepard told him.
"Sleight of hand." Liam muttered. "Or they just made one part."
"Doesn't really matter now." Vega said. "Finders keepers. I say we take it with us."
"You want to carry this thing all the way back to the drop site?" Shepard asked him dubiously.
"Well not me, obviously." Vega put his hands up. "I'm still good to go, and I gotta save my guys. Maybe Taylor can float it back."
Jacob eyed the marine like he'd just suggested he dance, too. "Picture only having one arm to lift with. That's about what me and my blue friend can manage right now. And that thing is carbon steel, not exactly light."
"Hey, I didn't say I was logistics guy." Vega said defensively. "Just throwing it out there."
"He brings up a good point." Shepard tapped her comm unit. "We need to prioritize. All teams, report in."
Kaidan came back first. "Alpha reporting in."
Vaya quickly followed up. "Security defense, reporting in."
Blerinca's reply was almost as rapid as the fire that could still be heard pinning him down across the line. "Still getting shot at!"
Tactical positioning and mapped imagery floated through Shepard's mind, one at a time, as she attempted to formulate a plan. Her initial impression hinged on a few things, one she wasn't sure about. "Lokkan, what's your status? And be honest."
"Ready an' waiting tae kick some batarian arse, Commander." His voice betrayed some traces of pain, but she needed it clear.
"Vaya?"
Ignoring Lokkan's outraged sputterings of protest, she took up the comm. "Given the severity of his injuries and typical combat positioning, I do not recommend Engineer Lokkan for a position on an assault team."
"All right." Shepard massaged her temples, lapsing into thought. "Garrus, Lokkan, Jacob. Take the civilians back to the pickup field. Send Liara and whatever reinforcements you can muster out of Vega's marines back here."
"I know we're in a hurry, Shepard..." Vega said. "But I notice you put everyone not a hundred percent except you in the return group."
"You're insinuating that I fall under the category of 'not one hundred percent'." It was a statement on Shepard's part, infused with an undertone to not pursue the subject.
Apparently Vega had lost any talent for picking up hints. "Yeah. You took a bad hit. You should sit down at least for a while."
"I 'sat down' for five years, James." Shepard said quietly. "I'm not going to leave anyone down here to the fight over a minor injury."
Vega started to argue again, but Jacob cut him off. "Hey, enough. It's the Commander's choice. 'Sides, you're gonna need the backup."
Vega sighed. "Yeah. Maybe."
Shepard stood up, slinging the exoskeleton over her shoulder with ease. It was fairly heavy, but nothing heavier than what she'd sprinted with before. "I appreciate the concern, James, but I've got a job to do."
They moved up the stairs and through the halls in relative silence, only Jacob's occasional grunting to keep time to their footsteps. Brynn, Michelle and Liam all kept their eyes as closed as they could. Shepard wanted to think that she felt as strongly about the carnage, but she had seen worse. And...the thought seemed so much less callous before she'd thought it.
After the half-dozenth or so sharp intake of breath, however, she felt the need to mention it. "You going to make it, Jacob?"
"I'm good." He nodded. "Legs are working fine, I just gotta remember not to move my arms so much."
"Bet that particle beam didn't tickle." Vega commented.
Jacob chuckled humorlessly. "It's sure making me miss military grade anesthetic right about now."
"Ugh, then we'd have to carry you around while you sing about lollipops or something." Vega shuddered. "I'll take a shot of whiskey over what the Navy calls 'morphine' any day."
"Yeah, sounds about right." Jacob conceded.
Kaidan was the first to greet them at the entrance to the facility; Garrus was securing a perimeter. The spectre looked like he'd just been in a day-long firefight, where only minutes ago he had only visibly been in for an hour. "Commander. Security Chief. Lieutenant." He said, nodding to them all in turn.
"What happened to you, Major?" Shepard asked, looking him up and down.
He thumbed over his shoulder. "I got thrown into a wall. You?"
Shepard shrugged. "The same, really."
Garrus brought the Atlas in close once he'd assured himself that they wouldn't be under sudden attack in the immediate future. Shepard took the moment to load the exoskeleton on to one of the tank's arms for safekeeping. It wasn't as though that would weigh it down.
She saw Garrus tap the glass, then his headset. Shepard understood, and tuned her communications to a private channel.
"I suppose you're going to tell me to be careful?" She asked, offering a humorous edge to set him at ease. They hadn't really had a chance to discuss this before rescuing Dr. Solus (for the second time, she'd been made aware of later), but she concurred with his apparent assessment that then was as good a time to air it as any.
"I wouldn't dare." He responded in kind. "You're never careful." His voice took on a sudden, slightly desperate emotional edge. "But...Shepard...come back. No matter what it takes. I'll get you myself if I have to. Just...come back to me this time."
"I..." Shepard tried to speak, but a catch in her throat stopped the words cold. Back on Earth, she'd had time to consider her actions, their effects, her past, her friends...on the Citadel, before the end, it was practically all she could think about. But that had been after the fact. This part, facing down the possibility beforehand...it was harder by far.
She mentally shook herself. No. This was a mission like any of the other dozen's she'd walked away from. Army or not, Reaper or not, this would still be a story to tell. She meant to be there for the debriefing in person this time.
"I will."
She saw him nod, then he returned to the normal broadcast, addressing the small remainder of what had once been New Damascus. "Attention, please follow the large tank-like mechanism." Garrus called out over their links. Lokkan hopped down from the front door of a nearby building, looking none too pleased at having to go with the 'wounded train'. Jacob's group proceeded in step with the Atlas escort, Michelle in particular giving one last grateful look over her shoulder.
"Ready, Commander?" Kaidan asked, sounding uncertain himself.
Shepard drew her pistol and slid in a new thermal clip. She almost felt like smiling in her confidence, even though only minute before she had been certain that she wouldn't smile for a long time. "Always." This time, I'm not waking up. Eyes wide open.
As it turned out, a 'metric long-ass way' was just over half a klick from the living structures. Vaya had downloaded Louis and Ben's locations and signatures and given Shepard's team a waypoint. Vega in particular seemed dumbfounded by whatever series of events had led to their departure.
"Why don't you go over how you two managed to get that far off from the sector we were actually in?" He told them.
"Got lost." Ben supplied unhelpfully.
"Yeah, and chased by a group through half the base." Louis said. "Then some mechs came around and they started shooting at us, too."
"That shouldn't be a problem any longer." Vaya was back to professional, rather than annoyed. "The IFF processors in the security system have your location and are reading you as allies."
"Uh, thanks..." Louis said awkwardly, the effect of his tone still somewhat diminished by the gunfire on his end. "And, ah, sorry about-"
"Not a particularly uncommon error." Vaya said. "Nor one that requires blame. Though, admittedly, your stammering was amusing."
"Ah, c'mon, give him a break." Vega said, chuckling. Then he seemed to remember something and straightened immediately. "Uh, ma'am."
Apparently, Vaya had managed to intimidate him at some point. For whatever reason, Shepard put that under her 'reasons to respect' list without much thought.
Ahead of them, the various homes and stations began to fade away, until they reached the edge of this part of the colony. Forward, Shepard could make out two circular towers that she assumed were the anti-aircraft buildings Ben mentioned. That was where the marines were pinned.
Perhaps more disconcerting was the amount of carnage strewn in front of them. It was a fairly open area between the colony main and the towers, but almost every inch was covered by bodies. Most of them were tall, thin mechs that she recognized (and still hated) in basic design, but she also saw some organic foes strewn across the range.
What concerned Shepard the most wasn't the number of broken mechanical defenses, but the lack of diversity. Any colony that wanted to call their security system more than basic would have had at least a few FENRIS and even YMIR units...or whatever the newest counterpart was. But Shepard could only see LOKI chassis.
Kaidan apparently had the same idea. "Where's all the heavy artillery? Turrets, heavy mechs, anything?"
"They call this an effective defense system?" Vega scoffed. "A few green soldiers could do more damage than these stupid things. I mean, I know they're supposed to be cannon fodder, but what's the point unless you have the cannon?"
"Something's not right." Shepard shook her head. "Vaya, are you reading any of the colony's security defense systems?"
"Affirmative...hm." She sounded surprised. "That is strange. While it appears that the synthetic armada this colony possesses is quite vast, hardly any of them were released when I activated the system. Only the lowest tier."
"We already thought someone was tampering with security." Kaidan pointed out. "This could just be more proof that Harbinger had someone on the inside."
"Whoever they are, they're either dead or missing." That was just Shepard's assumption based on the sheer number of civilian bodies she'd seen. She wouldn't put it past Harbinger to kill his own 'allies', either.
Shepard's movements slowed when she began to make for the wide field. Something didn't feel right to her. She'd learned during the war to trust this instinct, the feeling that something was about to go wrong, but...
A smoke trail wound its way past the side of Shepard's helmet. While she didn't hear the sound of the shot right away, she dove for cover immediately. Her mouth, opened, and she felt more than heard herself yell for the others to do the same. Then she heard gunfire.
"Sniper!" Kaidan shouted back in agreement.
"Anyone see where the shot came from?" Vega asked.
Shepard moved her eyes out from behind the building she'd jumped behind. Wherever the sniper was, they had to be near or on the towers; they were the only structures past the battlefield. Even worse, the jungle planet's signature dense foliage concealed most of what they could make out anyway. The perfect position for a long-ranged engagement.
"The towers." Shepard muttered.
"How quick you figure we can move?" Vega suggested.
Kaidan shook his head. "Not fast enough. One good hit will go right through our shields."
"Our shields, maybe..." Shepard said. "But not a strong enough barrier."
"Do you have a...plan, Commander?" Kaidan sounded apprehensive.
"We can back up a runner with a biotic shield." She explained. "One person at a time, two barriers."
"You sure that'll work?" Vega inquired.
"No." Shepard admitted. "But I'm open for better ideas."
Neither of them responded to that.
"Good." Shepard said. "Vega, get ready."
Louis was having a bad day.
It wasn't as though he hadn't been shot at before, or pinned behind cover. That was part of the job. But getting tossed out of an exploding ship, getting pinned down in a shanty for days, and then sprinting over a load of bodies while some raging batarians emptied more thermal clips at him than he could shake an omni-tool at had most definitely not been on the Alliance brochure.
Though, neither had the possibility of being killed in action, and yet he'd prepared for that one.
Almost automatically, he moved his pistol around the wall next to the doorway he and Ben were standing behind, and traded a few shots with guy number twenty-four or whatever the name of his next sparring partner was. He might have considered shutting the door after every volley, but it had already been blown off of its hinges some time ago.
Ben spun half of his body out of cover and joined in on the action. Louis was still wondering whether to admire his lack of fear or wonder whether he actually knew how his shields worked. The sniper had been forced by the relatively small entry point to swap to his weak sidearm, so maybe he was just too angry at that turn of events to care.
Ben flinched back when the kinetic barrier directly in front of his face shimmered and completed the motion into a full duck behind the wall. He exhaled and tapped his foot, waiting for the shield to recharge like it was a cup of coffee.
"Any bets on when they're gonna push?" Louis asked, tossing a ball of flaming plasma around the corner. To nobody's great surprise, it hit absolutely nothing.
Ben shook his head. "No bet."
"Oh come on, man, gimmie something, here." Louis said, exasperated. He could never get the guy past his terse, abrupt manner, no matter what he tried. And for the life of him, he still couldn't tell whether it was annoying or endearing.
Ben sighed. "Fine. Heavy's pissed. Probably going to charge. Cut him off?"
Louis shot him a cocky grin that he didn't much care couldn't be seen past the helmet. "I got the tech for that."
No sooner had the words left his mouth than he heard someone outside the tower screaming something incoherently. Louis wasn't sure if that person would be ending the fight anytime soon, but he could end that guy in a pinch.
The miniature seismic waves that the batarian's footsteps were producing increased in potency as he approached. Instead of counting the steps, Louis counted the time between the shockwaves bouncing off the ground and into his own soles. At the point of no return, he stuck his arm out and activated his omni-blade.
Searing plasma and a razor edge - the classic melee engineer's mark - erupted into midair. The hapless batarian couldn't stop himself in time to avoid impact, and easily decapitated himself. Fortunately for the sanctity of Louis and Ben's attire, the wound also cauterized instantly, preventing a potentially messy situation. They still had the body, but like Ben said, you couldn't win everything.
Usually.
Which was why seeing their C.O. leap out of the brush and tackle half the group was more than a little surprising.
Vega was, at that moment, big, sprinting, and lit up like a blue christmas tree. He didn't look like the typical cavalry in that there was only one of him and he could only clothesline two out of the five remaining in the enemy squad. That did, however, put the battle at even odds. With nearly instinctive rapport, both Louis and Ben ducked out from behind the walls again and opened fire. Ben had better aim, so his target dropped first. Vega didn't bother to draw his rifle, instead opting to leave his engagement at fisticuffs. With all the muscle he put behind his fists, it worked particularly well.
"Ben, get out here!" Vega shouted over the fracas. "I need you countersniping!"
Ben summarily holstered his pistol and rolled forward. When he landed upright and kneeling, he took out his favorite rifle and squinted down the scope at a sixty-odd degree angle, straight at the upper levels of the tower across from theirs.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a batarian that Vega had knocked down aim his firearm at him. Ben wouldn't have been able to turn around quickly enough to get a shot off, but perhaps if he dodged...
He didn't get the chance to act; the second individual part of their reinforcements arrived, announcing her presence with a hostile barrier that shot up around the would-be shooter, containing him in an enclosed, solid blue field. His hide saved for the moment, Ben looked back down the scope. By sheer chance, he saw a brief muzzle flash and adjusted his aim further upward. His finger brushed the trigger, and he heard as well as felt the familiar motions and noises that came with a successful shot.
He waited, counting seconds upon seconds for a reaction insinuating that he'd missed. Nothing. That flash before fire had been the enemy sniper's last act, if one didn't count breathing. Ben looked around again. Louis, Vega, and whoever that N7 operative was had made very short work of the squad formerly known as suppressors.
One last friendly, a man in blue armor who they remembered from the Outskirts, rushed to the center of the clearing just a little too late. Everyone stopped to catch their breath. Louis was the first to speak up. "So, funny thing, it seemed like there was a lot more of them when they were shooting at us."
"It doesn't take a whole lot to pin you down, just a whole lot to kill you." Vega said.
"There were only seven of them." Ben told him.
Vega looked around at the bodies, then up at the sniper's perch, clearly counting it out mentally. "...Yeah, okay, that's pretty embarrassing."
"Any firefight with no friendly deaths is a win." The N7 woman said.
"'S one way to look at it, I guess." Louis admitted. "Thanks for the assist, boss, Major...and, uh...?" He waited for the other two to introduce themselves.
Vega tensed up, like he was trying to give them a nonverbal order. WHat it was, though, Louis had no idea. "Commander Shepard." The woman said.
There was a fairly dramatic silence from both of them, though Ben's posture slowly rose to a bemused salute.
"You're dead." Louis said stupidly.
Ben smacked Louis across the back of the helmet with the hand that he wasn't saluting with. "Remember who you're talking to, Private."
"Right." Louis nodded. "You're dead...ma'am."
"So I've been told." Shepard said. "It didn't take."
Kaidan tapped his headset while Louis and Ben were busy trying to get over their combined shock. "Corporal Vaya, this is Alenko. The towers are clear. Is there any way you can activate them and destroy the ships in orbit?"
"Negative..." Vaya sounded as though she was manipulating the defense systems while they were speaking, and that this action required no small amount of concentration. "It appears that I am locked out from that section of the grid. I believe that this is also a result of tampering. You will need to activate them manually."
"Any suggestions on how to aim past the foliage?" Kaidan asked.
"Based on these schematics, the towers operate on a very powerful three-dimensional imaging scan projected around the planet from the colony. Or," She went on. "They possess a satellite which projects a video feed to a central control console."
"I think the first option is the best one." Kaidan said. "The signal jammer might prevent the satellite from working properly."
"My thoughts precisely." Vaya said. "I hope you've kept up to date on the latest intrusion techniques. The lockout of this system is fairly complete, and I will be unable to help you commandeer either tower."
"We'll do our best from here." Kaidan said, shutting off his end of the conversation.
"News?" Shepard asked.
"We need to activate and reconfigure the towers," Kaidan explained. "But without initiation codes or authorization."
"Sounds like a hacking job." Vega supplied.
Louis looked up, snapping out of his thoughts. "Hacking? Finally, something I can do nice 'n easy!"
"Get to it, private." Vega said, waving him off. Louis dashed into the tower behind them immediately.
"We should probably do intro." Vega cleared his throat and indicated Ben. "Commander Shepard, Lance Corporal Beniamin Blerinca, long-ranged support."
"Pleasure, Corporal." Shepard said, taking his hand firmly.
"Honor's mine, ma'am." Vega thought idly that Ben was really pulling out the long sentences that day. He usually kept it to one word or less, so the inter-personnel running joke went.
"The hyper gerbil you just saw running into the tower's PFC Lewis Louis, technical troubleshooter." Vega pointed at where Louis had just been. "Or...wait, is it 'Louis Lewis'? They're pronounced the same, so everyone just calls him Louis, or Lou."
"Technical troubleshooting, hm?" Shepard wasn't entirely surprised. His manner seemed perfectly suited to following along with fast bits of data. Or connecting similar streams and plugs. She wondered if those logic-puzzle security systems were still in vogue.
"Yeah, well, we're the ones who actually shoot trouble." Vega indicated himself and Ben. "But that's the term."
There was a noise of jubilation from inside the tower. Louis strolled out, checking a series of data lines on his omni-tool. "Yep," He said. "We're in business. They open in sync, so I gotta work on number two, but the system isn't as hard as I thought it'd be. I'd get inside, though. From what the procedures said, this is gonna be loud."
"You stopped to read the instruction manual?" Vega asked.
"Well, yeah, it's not like I've done this before." Louis said before moving toward the second tower, humming cheerfully.
"Did he just say what I think he said?" Vega turned to look at the others.
"He doesn't know what he's doing." Ben grumbled.
"Yeah, that's what I thought, too." Vega sighed.
"Well, I haven't read the instruction manual, so I'll take his advice." Kaidan said. They all followed Louis into the second tower, closing the door behind them.
"Now, from what I gather..." Louis informed them, tapping away on the central console. "These ground level rooms are soundproofed. We'll feel it, but we shouldn't hear too much of the fire."
"'From what I gather'." Ben quoted, his tone ash-dry. "'Shouldn't'."
"If you want to stand out in the sunshine, Ben, be my guest." Louis grumbled.
He adjusted the last few controls, and held up his hand, lowering one finger after another. Shepard grabbed a nearby section of wall to be safe, and he activated the towers. "Now, I primed the targeting centers right," He said. "So all we have to do is- woah!"
No sooner had the words come out of his mouth than the entire room shook like it was in the center of an earthquake. True to his word, the actual sounds of anti-aircraft fire were significantly muted, but the backlash most certainly was not.
It only took a short time for the feeling to subside, after which the five of them stood their ground nervously, quite ready for another blast but feeling nothing. "Is...that all?" Vega asked aloud.
"I hope so, with power like that." Kaidan murmured. "It should have only taken two shots to level a vessel, even in orbit and heavily armored."
"Normandy to ground team, come in ground team." Shepard was relieved to hear Joker's voice, and responded immediately.
"We're here, Joker. What's going on up there?"
Louis brought up a holographic image from the satellite, showing them the footage of a massive dreadnought falling in flames to the surface of Eros. At the same time, Joker filled them in from his perspective. "One of the ships jumped through the relay. I think you might have scared it off. The other one exploded, and EDI says the jamming just...cleared up."
"The other ship left the system?" This revelation left a bitter taste in Shepard's mouth.
"Uh, yeah." Joker asked a background question before returning to the forefront of the conversation. "Why, should we have chased it?"
"Maybe not." Shepard exhaled slowly. "But I'm almost positive that Harbinger was aboard."
"So we lost him again." Kaidan summarized. He shook his head. Shepard shared his sentiment.
And when Liara finally arrived, it was to see the image within the tower, of a ship crashing like a glorious beacon, and five victorious soldiers who hadn't really won anything that day.
[Author's Note: For the rest of however long it takes me, rather than working on Chapter 27, I will be going back through my archives and making adjustments. Only one major change will be implemented (a gap of five years instead of ten between ME3 and ATF), and I use 'major' loosely, as it won't change any story elements. Other than that, I'll be adding things that are necessary, removing things that aren't, and generally polishing up what needs to be polished. I hope for a more comprehensive story by the time I'm finished.
For those of you who have been reading for a while, these changes won't mean you'll have to go back and read it again unless you want to. The story isn't being retconned beyond the above, so the gist you've gotten is the gist you keep.]