It was a perfect, clean head shot, right through the skull. Henry Lawson died right there. Oriana, being a civilian wasn't actually very shocked after seeing a dead body, but after all the bloodshed she had witnessed, this was nothing. And she had her sister for comfort.
"Oriana, are you alright?" Miranda's voice was filled with concern.
"Ye-s I'm fine." She stuttered.
"Henry Lawson is dead, I guess your nightmare is over now, Miranda."
"Yes, thank you Shepard, I wouldn't have gotten past all of them without your help, now I can finally rest easy knowing that bastard is dead."
"Man, still need my help huh? Soon you're going to need me around to take out one soldier." Shepard abruptly kissed Miranda, which she returned passionately. The moment was ruined however when Oriana screamed like a little girl.
"Oh my GOSH! I KNEW you were with Shepard I KNEW IT! You two are sooo cute together, I totally ship you guys!"
XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
The Illusive man was not pleased. His top agent had been killed somehow, most of his operations had been destroyed by Shepard, and he was losing resources faster then he'd ever had before, the fact that Earth, the place where 60% of his funding came from, was under attack was even more worrisome, but that could wait, he would retake Earth after the Reapers were under his control, and humanity was the dominate species in the galaxy.
Right now he had to ensure that he had the means to control the Reapers, he needed to begin the procedure, his augmentations were going to be needed for this next step. He touched the intercom.
"Get me the Docters, the project is beginning now."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
...
Your orders are to take the station, destroy all of Cerberus' resources and prevent them from disrupting any more war efforts, are we clear?" Adam asked, looking over the mishmash of species that were the best of the best, determined to take the station. Everyone saluted, this was going just as planned. "N7's, get coordinating with our Counter terrorism Units, Blackwatch, work together with the Quarians, you guys will be forcing an exit and escorting several teams into the station. And all the Krogan, your going in first, we've got a long day ahead of us, let's show these Cerberus bastards that disruption of our war effort will not be tolerated!"
The Illusive man had certainly fortified the station well, there weren't many locations where it was a viable tactic to enter, had this been an all human Op, Alyona thought this would've failed, but with the Krogan their entrance strategy was much more flexible, as Krogan were fantastic shock troopers, able to take a lot of punishment and dish out about as much, although they were very vulnerable to snipers.
That's why he decided on leading his small team of two Krogan, a Turian blackwatch sniper, and a couple of his friends from the Spetnaz into a small airlock where hallways were very close quarters. He sighed. Most CTUs had been disbanded after the Reapers hit Earth, mostly due to losing most, if not all of their members. The Reapers knew almost exactly where to hit, it's almost like they'd been to Earth before, it was actually terrifying how fast they destroyed the resistance in most cities. Now was not the time to be thinking about that though, he readied his shotgun, this was likely going to be a long mission. He wished had had an N7 to lead them, as they were a force of nature, oh well, he'd make do.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
He had the base on red alert, several infiltration teams had somehow bypassed his security and made onto the base, he made sure the labs were secure before he finished the second half of his procedure. It went just as planned, now he was the perfect human being, his new upgrades allowed him to control the motor functions of other people remotely, he had no doubt in his mind about this being the right thing to do, now he had to stop Shepard, and if he had to, he would do it in person.
"Get the ship ready, and get my top agents to it, we're going on one last mission to end the Reaper war." The Illusive man looked around at all of his scientists, most of them working frantically to secure data. He walked out the door, and sealed it on his clearance, none of them were getting out that, they were expendable. That was the only exit. He walked towards the docking bay, he had a lot of work to do. Humanity would be the dominant species in the galaxy when he was done.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
"Good work done there on Horizon Shepard, Cerberus is losing resources fast, and the attack on their main base of operations is happening now." Hackett had a rare smile on his face.
"How's the attack going?"
"Well, we've successfully infiltrated their base, we're moving to destroy it now, the only hiccup is the fact that one ship managed to get out before our team secured of the last docking bays, and it was too fast for any of our ships in the vicinity to get it before it jumped to the Relay in the system, it had incredibly advanced stealth systems, similar to the Normandy's if my Ensign is to be believed."
"Have you gotten the Crucible to the Citadel yet?"
"It's there right now, we're just working it out with the council right now actually, we'll probably have worked something out soon however, everyone is tense and I don't think they're going to want to refuse."
"Well it'd be suicidal to refuse, I think I'll make a stop there just to see how it's going."
"Keep up the good work Shepard, Hackett out." The call shut off.
"Joker, get us to the Citadel, I need to meet with Bryson and it'll be a plus to see the Crucible go off."
"Yes Commander."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
"I guess I did it, right? I altered everything in just the right way to ensure the Crucible is not activated under the control of the intelligence, right?"
"Although crude, this did lead to the correct outcome, the virus will freeze the intelligence for long enough for a suitable choice to be made, we've made a backup on your Omni-tool in case of the death of Shepard." The unnamed Leviathan said.
"It's still crushing me though, seeing Earth like that...it's extremely disheartening, I wished I could've done something, anything, to make Humanity more prepared, I can just see them all pinning it all on me, in all honesty I hate it, I could've done something, and I didn't, the ruthless calculus of war may work, but it sure is a hell of a guilt trip, and I don't enjoying sacrificing people for the greater good, the ends almost never justifies the means, I've learned this through the Illusive man."
"Regret is a waste of time, as is emotion, we'd thrown those thoughts aside long ago."
"How can you say that? You're own species was hunted to extinction and you don't even grieve, where the hell did your motivation go? You sound like a machine, but I guess you have a reason because your 'beyond my comprehension' or whatever bullshit you can spew out. Remember that I'm winning this war not for you, but for the people that deserve it, like Shepard, I'm not your servant or bloody puppet, I'm someone who's about to end the Reaper war, good bye, think about what I sai-" The connection was cut abruptly.
What the hell? That was definitely not intentional, what ever, it was time to space this stupid ring and end all this crap about being a servant to the Leviathan, if there was anyone that deserved him being a servant to, it was Shepard, not some Cthulhu squid thing that thought of him as a tool more then anything else.
He spaced the ring without regret. These last few conversations with the Leviathan were starting to make him think that they were going to discard him after this war was over, he was a threat to them, wasn't he? He wasn't going to be a puppet any longer, at least Shepard earned the respect when he commanded people. The last few conversations were uninteresting at best, and completely a waste of his time at worst, most of the times it was just to talk about how they'd be glad that the Reapers would be destroyed and how effective he was.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
The war was almost over, at least that's what Hackett thought, he was definitely not expecting a Cerberus ship to suddenly materilize right next to the Crucible's docking point with the Citadel, and unfortely he couldn't take it down. It's not that the Admiral didn't want to shoot down the ships, it's that he'd risk massive collateral damage if he did, which was probably an intentional move, they had probably planned this as part of their attack
"Get me the council, now." Hackett said as he raced across the deck to get to his QED. He'd have to get them to divert C-Sec resources to the area of he didn't already, and he'd airdrop some marines to ensure they could stop Cerberus, Shepard also had to hear of this, he was the Alliance's most effective asset at dealing with Cerberus, and he'd probably be able to activate the Crucible as well.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
"Shepard, Admiral Hackett wishes to see you on Vid comm."
"I'll be right there, I'll talk later Garrus."
"I'll be here if you need me Commander." He said faithfully before turning back to continue calibrating the Normandy's main gun.
..
"What's the situation, sir?"
"That one ship that Cerberus got of their station? It managed to slip past shield fleet, it just forcibly docked the Citadel, how close are to the Citadel?"
"I asked Joker on the way up, he said around 30 minutes, we can provide support on the ground if you need."
"I do Shepard, I'll try and call up some of our allies that you've gathered to help if I can, I need you to secure the Crucible and activate it before Cerberus can disable it, is that clear?"
"Yes sir."
"Good, Hackett out."
How the hell did this happen? Shield fleet should've been able to take down one ship, what went wrong? Shepard found himself asking these questions as he walked out of the CIC and into the elevator. He'd stop them, then he'd end this war and live off the royalties of the vids, he could almost see it now, but like his mother had once said.
Don't count your chickens before they hatch.
He stop this war first, then he could relax.
...
"Liara, Garrus, Tali, Tom, James, EDI and Kaiden, suit up, we're about to stop Cerberus from disabling the Crucible and finish this war, get down to the shuttle bay and suit up."
...
Fighting was brutal on the ground, now Shepard hadn't regretted taking his entire team with him, he's needed the extra firepower, Cerberus was mowing down anyone who got in their way, on the Presidium where they landed were several squads of troops, and two giant atlas mechs, it seemed like they were a blockade force as they weren't progressing at all and were shooting anything that breathed.
"Garrus, Tom get on top of that balcony to our right, I want to make sure we've got some snipers up there to counter any they may have, everyone else on me!" Shepard shouted before shooting a Guardian through his shield. Shepard and co. managed to provide exellent cover fire as Garrus and Tom made a push for the stairs that led to the balcony that ran the length of the battlefield.
"Set up shop Garrus, I've got your back." Tom said as he pulled out his pulled out his Mattock which he was going to use as a DMR with the scope he had added on. There were two Nemesis snipers up here, both of them were more concerned about Shepard and his squad, and they weren't looking when Garrus and Tom had made a push to the balcony.
"When I say now, overload one of their shields so I can take the shot."
"I gotcha."
"3...2...1...NOW!" She lost her shields, after that she lost her life.
Unfortunately the second sniper noticed this and started shooting at them, Garrus managed to get an overload to break her shields but was forced to take cover after that. Tom started blind firing and when he eventually stopped he noticed that the other sniper wasn't even shooting anymore, he looked up and a little bit of her dead body was showing, slumped over the railing he had scored a lucky headshot.
"Both snipers down, let's start sniping them now."
Shepard and his squad had taken down most of the ground troops, now it was just the two mechs that were giving them trouble since their armor was taking quite a lot of punishment. With Garrus and Tom though that advantage was mitigated as a couple rounds from a Widow broke the glass, the pilot inside the first Atlas immediately died after that, and then the second Atlas fell easily as well due to the same fatal flaw.
"Nice work up there boys, now get down here with us, we're near the Crucible."
The only reason they hadn't landed ON the Crucible is because Cerberus had forcibly shut every single one, there was only that one elevator that Hackett had told Shepard about on the Citadel that they could go from, and it was heavily defended. Fortunately there were no Atlas mechs due to the corridor being too tight to fit one, but there was no cover and a ton of troopers with their guns pointed at Shepard and co.
The firefight was purely who shot first due to there being no cover on both sides and the elevator being occupied, meaning that no Cerberus goons could take cover in it, Shepard's squad won purely due to having more powers, either biotic or tech, and that made it much easier to kill the Soldiers when they were either on fire, frozen or screaming as they were ripped molecule for molecule, or just pure meat from a grenade.
"Any injuries?" Shepard said after seeing the hallway clear.
James spoke up. "I took one to the gut but it didn't get through my skin and Kaiden took one in the leg."
"Take my Medigel, you're going to need it, now we're going to need to have some people defend this point so they can't follow us up when we use the elevator, Garrus, Tali and Tom come with me, everyone else, hold this elevator, make sure no one else gets through, I'll radio if we need help or when we're coming down, is that clear?"
There was a respectful silence as the people being left behind nodded.
"Good, good luck down here, let's end this war."
A/N: No chapter next week since I have a life and am going on vacation. Also, don't ask about the ending. I decided to do the ShepXLawson pairing because I find it's seldom done, and needs a bit more attention since it's neat to see Lawson under all that cold ice.
Reviews:
redcollecter: I think this chapter just answered that question.
stormdragon981: More guns are better, right? The more the merrier. And plus Tom didn't actually need to make too many significant changes to alter the outcome to be better then the Crucible being activated on Earth.
Guest: Yeah, Bryson is going to stay alive, but I'm not at a liberty to say where he is, he is healthy and not dying though. There was so much wasted potential in character development there, I hate games where they introduce a somewhat important character only to kill them off immediately, it wastes so much there. Thanks for being fair and telling me you're the same guy by the way.
general-joseph-dickson: Learned what exactly?