Chapter 37
"Hey Liara. You busy?" Shepard asked as he walked into the asari's combined lab/living quarters.
"I am. However, it is nothing that is extremely pressing. May I ask why?" She responded, turning around in her chair.
"Sure you can."
A long silence stretched between the two before Liara smiled demurely. "Quite funny, Commander. Why did you want to know if I was busy?"
Shepard chuckled. "We're twenty minutes out from Binthu. I'm not sure what Cerberus is up to this time, but I'd feel better having my scientist down on the ground with me. That, and Ash is still nursing a massive hankering for Cerberus blood after the whole Edolus thing. Thus, you two are my perfect team for this job. I just wanted to make sure that I wasn't pulling you away from any important research."
"Thank you for your concern, Commander. I am available for joining you on this mission, if you so desire."
"Great! Then come on." Shepard turned for the door and waved at Liara to follow him. As the two Normandy crewmembers made their way through the medical bay, Shepard spoke again. "Oh, and please can it with the 'Commander' crap. Friends don't call each other by their ranks; and we're friends, right Liara?" He finished this statement with his best attempt at the proverbial "puppy dog eyes."
Liara giggled quietly at his display, while a blush covered her scalp crests. Goddess, does he even recognize how cute he looks like that? His depth of character is so impressive. At times, he is an utterly ruthless, "bastard," I believe is the proper word. Yet at other times, he is as gregarious and outgoing as anyone I've ever met. Times like now, for example. Or when I saw him spending time with Tali while on the Citadel. The natural dichotomy that makes up Shepard is exceptionally . . . intriguing. It's no wonder that both Ashley and I fantasize about being his.
"Uh, Liara? Knock-knock, anybody home?" Shepard said, waving his hand in front of Liara's face.
With a start, she snapped out of her trance. "Oh, my apologies, Co- Shepard."
"No prob. What were you thinking about, anyway? You seemed really into it."
"Erm." Liara felt her scalp heat up with another rush of blood. "Nothing important, really."
"Fair enough." Shepard shrugged as the elevator opened up onto the cargo hold. "I'll grab Ashley; you can start getting geared up. Meet you at the Mako."
The Spectre then walked over towards the weapons bench, where Ashley had her Breaker VIII AR broken down and was looking over each piece, checking for any spots that she may have missed during her weekly weapons check. "Hey Ash." He greeted her.
"Commander." Ashley turned around and snapped into a salute.
Shepard sighed, and answered her gesture with something that was a cross between a salute and a facepalm. "Look, Ash, I know you want to be all that you can be and whatnot, but you really don't need to salute me every time I come down here. I know we've had some differences of opinion about certain things on this cruise, but I'm not holding those times against you. Hell, if anything I respect you more because you're willing to stick to your guns. Now, if you had continued to just carry on without trying to look at the situation with a new pair of eyes; then, we might have had a problem. But as it stands, I think you're doing a helluva job with everything." Shepard grimaced at what he was about to say, but carried on anyway. "And at the risk of sounding like a patronizing ass, I'm proud of you. A lot of people probably would have just buckled under the pressure and given up. But you persevered, and you're on your way to becoming an amazing woman, Ash."
As Shepard spoke, Ashley's back straightened and her eyes filled with pride and gratitude. "Thanks, Skipper. It means a lot to hear you say that. But are you saying that I'm not already amazing?" She shot him a wink and at the same time put one hand on her hip, striking a provocative pose.
"I definitely did not say anything of the sort, Ash. Any guy with eyes can see that you look amazing; hell, I'd be surprised if you've gone a day on this boat without getting at least one covetous look. Luckily for all of us, we have the Alliance keeping us in line. But seriously, any guy worth actually getting involved with wouldn't be satisfied with just the outside wrappings. Nobody wants a bitchy party-liner underneath the exterior. No matter how good-looking that exterior is."
The marine narrowed her eyes at her commanding officer. I am not a bitch! I'm just forceful in the way I express my opinions. Although I can see what he means. He's just saying that real men, like him, want a girl who can use her mind and broaden her horizons. That's probably what he means, that when I first came on the Normandy he wouldn't have dated me, but now the only thing keeping him in line is that fraternization is against Alliance regs. Damn it! I knew I shouldn't have replied flippantly when he asked me to kiss him that one time. It was too early in our relationship to expect him to know that I was joking. I just have to figure out some way of showing him that it was a joke. "Thanks, Skipper. You've given me a lot to think about. And no matter how amazing I turn out, a big part of it's down to you. Thanks for giving me that kick in the ass that I needed, Shepard." That's good, Ash, tell him that you're already his.
Shepard shrugged his shoulders, completely missing the hidden subtext that Ashley was proving so adept at weaving. "No biggie. It's my job to look out for everybody onboard. Now get that Breaker back together and get kitted out. We're going down to Binthu, and we're gonna see if we can't catch us some Cerberus scumbags." Cerberus scumbags. Sounds pretty good. Better than "Cerberus sissies" or "Cerberus shitholes," which I'm really glad I rejected. Ooh, Cerberus sycophants. That's a really good one. Yep, that's my new favorite. Mwah ha ha, prepare to meet your doom you sycophantic Cerberus scumbags! Yeah, combining them is definitely the best-sounding option of the lot. Oh shit, I should stop wasting time and actually do the Mako's pre-flight checks before we drop.
Alright, this is the last base. Cerberus is seriously fucked up. Rachni? More of those creeper/husk things from Feros? Speaking of which, how the hell did Cerberus get those things here? I thought I killed them all before taking out the Thorian. Whatever. They die just as messily here as they did there. I wonder what it's gonna be in here? A coupla geth? Maybe a baby Reaper or something? Christ on crutches whoever's running Cerberus needs to get their head outta their ass and realize that some things are just better off dead.
As Shepard, Liara, and Ashley burst through the base doors, they came across yet another blank hallway. Yep, looks like all three bases are standard-model pre-fabs. So boring! But at least it gives us all the intel we need about the interior layouts. Gotta love lazy criminals, they make life so damn easy.
The group stacked up again, and then entered the customary holding/greeting area. Seeing nothing antagonistic, the trio headed for the corridor that connected the anteroom to the main lab. Once they had reached the other end of that traversal, Shepard popped the door open and peeked inside. Jesus. These guys are either extremely incompetent, or extremely overconfident. We've already taken down two bases, and nobody's running around fortifying security. So either they don't have a procedure in place for checking in with other bases (or it's a really shitty procedure), or they just think that nobody could possibly find them.
"Ok team. Looks like we've got about a half-dozen hostiles, judging by the motion scanners. That's not counting the three rachni in the middle." Ashley and Liara sent him exasperated looks upon receiving this piece of information. "Hey, don't look at me. I didn't put them there. At least they're inside a containment field like the last ones. I say we go in and get to cover ASAP. You two take the pillar right in front of the door, I'll move to the one to its right. Then we'll see if we can't get a bead on one baddie apiece. On my command, we go weapons hot. Questions?"
Both teammates shook their heads in the negative. "Alrighty then. We go on three. One . . . two . . . three!" The three members of the Normandy burst from their hiding spot and made for their designated cover positions. Once they reached their respective pillars, the team waited for shouting or gunfire, something that would indicate that the enemy had seen them. When nothing came, Shepard spoke up again. "Switch to snipers. As soon as you have a decent shot, let me know."
A few moments passed, and then, surprisingly, Liara was the first to respond. "I have a shot, Commander."
Shepard rolled his eyes at how Liara reverted to his formal rank, again. Probably not the best time to call her out on it, I suppose. What with the impending firefight and all. Oh look, my target's bending over. Damn that's a fine ass. Too bad she works for Cerberus. What a waste. Ashley's confirmation of a target a moment later ended any thoughts of compiling a full list of Cerberus's crimes, chief of which (in Shepard's mind, anyway) would have been recruiting hot women. "Cool. Fire on my mark." Like the preternatural calm that settles over everything before a violent cataclysm of nature, the moment before Shepard gave the order seemed to stretch out endlessly. Then, like the ethereally quiet straw that breaks the camel's back, Shepard's whispered command unleashed three tremendous blasts of sound and pain. "Mark."
At such close range, it was impossible for any of the three snipers to miss. Liara had gone for the traditional headshot, and a moment later three-quarters of her target's head disappeared. Ashley had been limited by her available sightlines, and so was forced to tear a large hole through her target's chest, directly where the heart used to be. Shepard's target was still bent over, so he took advantage and aimed at a much larger target than he was accustomed to. The high explosive round obliterated her torso and propelled the now-detached head across the room where it hit the wall with a sick-sounding "splunk." Ouch. Gives new meaning to the phrase "taking it up the ass." Chuckling a little at his admittedly terrible pun, Shepard switched out his sniper rifle for his pistol and marched forward.
On the other side of the room, Liara and Ashley were very nearly mirroring their commander. Ashley had opted to use her shotgun, given the close-quarter nature of the combat to come. Liara had pulled out her pistol and was slightly behind the human woman; her biotics emitting a slight blue glow as she readied herself for the next phase of the fight.
One such enemy poked their head out from around the corner of a large piece of medical tech, and another leaned their head and shoulders out from behind cover. Both enemies were able to fire off a short three round burst from their assault rifles, which splattered harmlessly against Liara and Ashley's shields. Reacting with instincts honed by combat, Ashley leveled her shotgun at the Cerberus employee behind the medical machine, and the powerful Sokolov IX barked twice, reducing every part of the enemy that was not behind cover to nothing more than pulped meat. Liara was slightly slower in reacting, due to her lack of years of formal military training. Her attack, however, was no less deadly. With a push of her hand, the asari sent a large wave of biotic energy at her adversary, which, upon impact, sent the unfortunate man flying backwards until he met the immovable side of the shelter. His collision with the wall shattered most of the bones in his upper body, and resulted in several splinters of rib poking through his lungs. The unnamed Cerberus defender died choking on his own blood.
Across the room, Shepard's enemy had decided to charge the Normandy's commander, and made to get close enough for his shotgun to penetrate Shepard's robust armor and shields. Unfortunately for the Cerberus stooge, Shepard was ready with a sabotage tech attack. With his weapons reduced to nothing more than an overpriced club, the enemy combatant attempted to bash in the Spectre's brains. Once again, the human special ops veteran was more than capable of handling such a basic attack. Spike moved just enough for the overhanded blow to sail by his body, and then struck out with his own shotgun against his assailant's back, sending the other man to the floor. With a flash of movement Shepard dropped a knee into the downed enemy's back, drew his combat knife, and severed the man's spinal cord. That done, the N7 specialist stood up and walked around the corner to meet up with his team.
Once the trio had been reunited, they turned and looked at the containment field, which held three rachni. "So . . . How're we gonna deal with them?" Ashley asked.
Shepard grinned cheekily at her. "I recommend shooting them."
"Hardy har har, Skipper. Seriously?"
Shepard shrugged. "Okay, seriously, we're gonna shoot 'em. We'll take up position in a line off to the side of this console, I'll drop the shield, and then Liara lays down a singularity in the middle of them. Once they're in the air, you can use overkill on your omni-tool with your AR equipped, I'll do the same with my pistol, and we'll riddle the bastards full of holes. Then, purely for shits and giggles, if Liara feels like it she can detonate her gravity well with a warp attack."
"Ok then." Ashley said, looking slightly crestfallen at the ease with which Shepard had analyzed the situation and come up with such a simple yet effective plan. And that's why he's in charge. If it were me, I would have just dropped the shield and then had us dodging rachni acid while we tried to take them down.
"Righty-ho. Everybody ready?" Shepard moved to the nearby console and checked for nods of affirmation from his team. Upon receiving confirmation that the ladies were, in fact, ready, he made quick work of Cerberus's security and released the containment field. As soon as the blue field disappeared, Liara had created a miniature black hole in the center of the three overgrown cockroaches. Within a second, both Shepard and Ashley had opened fire with their weapons, riddling the rachni with so many holes that the bodies had become more air than meat. Several seconds later, the singularity disappeared and the decimated carcasses fell to the ground.
Shepard looked over at Liara, quirking an eyebrow in silent question.
Liara just shrugged her shoulders, having no better reason for not detonating her singularity other than that she didn't feel like it.
Shepard shrugged his shoulders back, and moved forward to look at the body that was clearly visible behind the rachni remains. With a start, he realized who it was.
Kahoku! Those fucking bastards! What kind of fucked up individual locks a person up with three rachni? As he got closer, Shepard knelt down to examine the body more closely. Fuck! Those aren't rachni bites on his arm, those're fucking needle tracks! Who knows what these Cerberus pricks put him through before he died? Seeing this kinda shit, I can understand why most of the galaxy doesn't trust us. This is one of our own, one of our leaders! And a damn good 'un, at that. Damn it, days like these really make me hate my fucking job.
With a sigh, Shepard looked up at his companions. Liara's eyes were filled with tears at the sight of the Admiral's desecrated body. Ashley's face on the other hand was a rictus of righteous fury, and Shepard noticed that her hands were clenched in tight, shaking fists. I'm pretty sure that Ash hates Cerberus more than ever now. Not that I blame her in the least. Those fuckers are gonna pay for this, some day. "Look, you two don't need to be here right now. Go look around, see if you can find anything useful. I'll radio Joker and have him call the Alliance for a proper pick-up and burial. Now go."
While the girls went about scouring the base for useful tech and resources, Shepard stayed on one knee next to Kahoku's body. This whole thing makes even less sense now! They had an Alliance Admiral hostage, who somehow managed to find them. Is it so hard to believe that somebody else maybe could have done the same? And even if not, they had a friggin' Alliance Admiral as a hostage! Did it never occur to them that someone may decide to, oh I don't know, rescue him?! Sweet motherfucking gods, these people are the biggest fucking wastes of space I've ever seen. And I've met the Alliance beancounters! Fuck. No matter their level of general uselessness, they managed to get Kahoku. Sorry I wasn't faster, Admiral. R.I.P., sir. "Joker? Get the Alliance on the horn. I've got some bad news."