Chapter 52
For the second time in less than an hour, the miniature mass relay stationed proudly in the middle of the Citadel's Presidium lit up with eldritch fire. The crackling blue energy lanced out and struck the walls, floor, and water in random patterns, leaving black char marks on any solid surface it touched. After a few seconds of wanton discharges, the indiscriminate lightning strikes stopped, and the blue energy coalesced around the center of the relay. Within moments, a massive bolt of energy suddenly leapt out towards the Presidium elevator with a brilliance that blinded any nearby eyes, be they organic or electronic. Once the flash of light had dissipated, and all nearby irises had returned to their optimum settings, there was a new addition to the Presidium's scenery. The new decoration was revealed to be a battered, bruised, and mostly broken infantry fighting vehicle rolled halfway onto its back against a low wall.
Several seconds of silence ruled the area, until the mechanical "thunk-click" of a disengaging, previously-locked door echoed eerily across the water. The unexpected noise was quickly followed by movement, as the Mako's rear access ramp slowly opened, moving parallel to the ground as opposed to its usual perpendicular path. As soon as the door had locked in place, a green and black camouflage helmet poked out of the opening, looked around quickly in order to take a visual scan of the surrounding environment, and then was followed out of the vehicle by a slightly-unsteady Commander Shepard. In short order Tali and Garrus followed the Spectre out onto terra firma, both looking and feeling slightly the worse for the wear suffered during their journey through the Conduit.
"I vote we never do that again." Shepard said when all three commandoes were extricated from their metallic conveyance and were once again upright. He then looked back at the underbelly of his beloved vehicle. The two rear wheels on the right-hand side of the vehicle were twisted around each other, with their axles twisted beyond repair. Both front wheels were detached, although only one of them was visible. I wonder if the other one is stuck floating between here and Ilos. Better it than us! Spike thought wryly. Miraculously, the Mako's other two wheels looked completely undamaged. The commander couldn't resist a brief comment regarding the fate of his faithful steed, and drew his companion's attention to its wrecked state with a nod of the head in its direction. "I don't think Makos are designed with mass relay travel in mind."
"Seconded. To both." Tali said, glancing around nervously in an effort to get her mind off of the harrowing journey she had just experienced.
"I'll make it unanimous." Garrus commented, looking over his armor for any damage suffered during the Mako's unique trip.
Shepard nodded briefly in acknowledgement, and then rolled his neck and shoulders before pulling out his pistol, giving it a quick once-over, and walking forward. His two teammates complied with his nonverbal order, pulling out their preferred "general use" weapons; the HMW AR for Garrus and the shotgun from the same manufacturer for Tali; and moving with him.
The trio had only taken a few steps when the unnatural sound of a Dragon's Tooth being activated drew their attention to a trio of the infernal Reaper devices. Once the terrible apparatuses had come to a halt, three glowing husks stood up from their metallic platforms and began shambling towards the approaching team from the Normandy. The husk on Shepard's left fell almost immediately to several short bursts fired by Garrus. On Shepard's right, the husk was able to get another step closer before two quick reports from Tali's shotgun removed its head from its shoulders. Spike just continued to walk towards the approaching monster, not even bothering to raise his weapon. The commander's two comrades worriedly watched as he appeared to uncaringly enter melee range with the creature, where husks were at their most dangerous. Before either Tali or Garrus could say anything, the husk bent over and placed its hands on its knees in preparation for unleashing one of its devastating electrical discharges which would surely strip Shepard's shields down to nothing. Moments before the activation of its attack, though, the commander suddenly came to life wielding one of his favorite weapons.
Spike reached his left hand over to his right vambrace and drew the wicked-looking combat knife from its sheathe. At the same time, he took his next step forward and to the right, moving him firmly within arm's reach and just off to the side of the husk. Without ceasing his motion in drawing the knife, Shepard's arm flowed towards the husk's exposed neck with deadly grace. Just before impact, the commander rotated his wrist slightly downwards, exposing the razor sharp matte-black edge of the cutting implement. Never stopping his movement, he drove his hand, and the knife within, firmly towards the ground. Whatever desiccated, mutated material the husks were comprised of, the facsimile of flesh and bone stood no chance of stopping the deadly tool's attack. Still continuing his original motion, and without breaking his forward stride, Shepard's left hand once more reached over towards his right arm and replaced the knife into its original home. As he moved past the crumbling corpse, the separated head rolled away to rest against the Mako's lone visible detached wheel.
Tali and Garrus looked at each other, silently asking if either knew why Shepard hadn't used his HMW pistol. When neither appeared to have any more information than the other, they resumed walking forward at a faster pace in order to catch up with the commander. The collective silence held until all three members of the team had entered the elevator and Shepard had entered his Spectre code. The code allowed him to override the Citadel's automatic lockdown and get the elevator moving upwards.
"Was that wise, Commander?" Garrus asked. When Shepard indicated his desire for clarification with a subtle tilt of his head, the turian provided it to him. "I mean, was it wise to use your Spectre credentials to re-engage the elevator? Saren will now know you're here, and be able to set up his defenses. Wouldn't it have been easier to just hack the elevator's controls?"
"While Tali or I could probably have hacked the lift's controls, that would have taken time." Shepard gestured through the clear side of the elevator. "Time we don't have. We can all see that the Citadel's arms are closed, but only Sovereign is inside. Which means that there's probably a fleet of geth warships outside the station beating up on the Council's fleets, and not a single surviving vehicle that can threaten Sovereign as the situation stands. Nor do we know where the Council is. They could be hiding somewhere, or being held hostage by Saren, or somewhere else. If we can save them, it'll probably help keep us out of trouble for absconding with the Normandy in the first place. You can control just about every important facet of the Citadel from that area too, so that's also where we should be able to find Saren. So we need to get up to the Council's Chambers and open up the Citadel. When we get that done, we then have to hope that either the Citadel defenders have managed to wipe the floor with the geth or that Joker was able to get ahold of Hackett. Otherwise, we're in serious trouble. Does that answer your question?"
"I understand, Commander." Garrus said with a nod.
Now that the silence had been broken, Tali's anxieties about Shepard's casual dismissal of the dangers posed by the husks down below compelled her to interrogate her boyfriend about his actions. "Any particular reason you didn't use your pistol to deal with that husk down there?" She did her best to keep her tone of voice from implying that she was demanding an explanation, and was surprisingly successful.
"Yep." It might be funny to leave it there, and wait for her to ask the obvious follow-up. Could lighten up the situation I suppose. But on the other hand, her body language is telling me that she's feeling pretty tense and more than a little wound up. Giving her grief at this juncture may result in me suffering from the well-documented phenomenon of "girlfriend's wrath." Granted, we can't do anything sexual, so she can't cut me off; and we're not sharing a bed so I don't have to worry about sleeping on the couch. However, she is a master technician and engineer, and probably one of the five most intelligent people I've ever met; so there are undoubtedly a galaxy's worth of ways she can make my life miserable. Or she could just decide that putting up with my crap isn't worth whatever the hell she's getting out of dating me, and leave my ass. I'm pretty sure that's the worst-case scenario. So let's leave the sarcasm and wit out of this conversation, eh Spike? "I'm more than a little brassed off about my Mako being destroyed, and I find stabbing things to be much more therapeutic than shooting things."
"Technically, you cut that husk's head off, you didn't stab it." Garrus interjected.
Shepard turned a withering gaze onto his turian friend, which was quickly joined by a glare from the quarian. Garrus fought to avoid cringing under their combined attack. After letting the turian stew in his own juices for a short time, Shepard got back to answering Tali's question. "Fine. Slicing things is more fun than shooting them when I'm in a bad mood. Happy Garrus?" Shepard paused in order to let the turian nod, and then continued. "Also, it's been a while since I've used my good knives. Geth aren't that much fun to stab or slice or cut, because it just doesn't feel right. And while I did manage to take Saren's eye out on Virmire, I did that with one of my throwing knives. It's been too long since my blade has tasted blood." He followed that last statement up with a short, evil laugh.
Tali rolled her eyes at the antics of her man. Before she could respond with anything more substantial, though, the elevator suddenly screeched to a halt.
Shepard shook his head in resignation. "Well so much for that plan." His two comrades nodded their heads in agreement. "There's nothing else for it but to go outside. Everybody activate your boots' mag-locks and take cover. Blowing a hole in this window, or the resulting pressure differential, is probably not going to be fun."
After Tali and Garrus were sequestered in opposite corners, Shepard put his pistol away and pulled out his sniper rifle. "I sure hope this works." He said as he moved to stand in front of Tali and activated the Assassination protocol on his omni-tool. Garrus took note of the commander's instinctual move to protect Tali, and added it to his collection of evidence of the relationship between the two. Although it was circumstantial at best, since human history was rife with examples of a code of honor requiring males to protect females; the turian was getting a strong feeling that something was different about his two companions.
Unknowing of Garrus's analysis of the situation, Shepard fired at the floor-to-ceiling window. The massive detonation of Inara's high-explosive round was deafening in the enclosed space, and would have done serious damage to all three of their senses of hearing were it not for the protective subroutines built into their armor. The force of the impact spider-webbed the glass, and for a tense half-second the trio held their breath as the pattern of cracks crept along the window pane. The next instant, the structural integrity of the window failed and it exploded outwards into the low-pressure semi-atmosphere of the Citadel's upper reaches. Once the disturbance had settled, and an equilibrium was once again obtained, Shepard led the way out of the cabin and stepped onto the side of the elevator column. For a moment, he experienced an unsettling sense of vertigo as the world suddenly rotated 90-degrees. Used to the sensation from the Alliance's zero-G training, the commander was able to acclimate to the strange feeling and move forwards (what had previously been upwards only a few seconds ago).
Tali and Garrus shortly joined him outside the elevator, taking a few deep breaths to center themselves. The three commandos then pulled out their weapons and resumed their trek upon Shepard's oddly upbeat command of "Allons-y!"