Chapter 3: The Power of Guilt
It wasn't too hard finding a spot to land, even though there were a lot of skycars parked already. The only downside was that there wasn't enough space to park next to Vasir's skycar, so we had to find a spot several hundred metres away.
Liara hopped out as I touched down, before I could even shut my skycar down. "Come on," she urged, "she can't have gotten far."
Miranda and I got out of the skycar. Legion moved to follow, then paused. "Alert: unidentified targets detected on approach vector."
We followed Legion's gaze. They were right: a skycar was definitely coming in—way too fast for my liking. I quickly activated the comm, switching to the squad frequency. "Garrus? We've got company. Any chance that's you?"
"No."
"Reinforcements from the Shadow Broker!" Liara realized. "They're trying to slow us down!"
"Garrus, you better hurry," I told him before signing off. "All right: looks like they're all ours. Let's get ready."
We pulled out our weapons, loaded fresh thermal clips and watched as the mercs approached. Miranda shook her head in dismay. "They're blocking the door!"
She was right. We hadn't seen any sign of Vasir since we knocked her out of the sky. Unless she was hiding in her skycar or had broken through a window, the most likely explanation was that she escaped into this building through the doors. The mercs would beat us to—and block—the door before we could get there, which meant the only way to pursue Vasir was to fight through these mercs.
As the skycar touched down, I realized a couple things. First, the skycar was more like a platform, similar to the powered lifts used by starports to move freight supplies around. Second, that meant that the mercs—four or five of them, I counted—could storm off the platform with weapons firing, unlike the skycar we'd used.
Third, and most importantly, all the mercs were clustered together. "Miranda, Liara; you're up."
"My pleasure," Miranda replied before launching an EMP. The way all the mercs were packed together, there was no way they could avoid it. Four of the mercs lost their shields instantly. The last one kept a sizable chunk of his shields, which suggested that he was the boss of that particular band of misfits. Either that, or he'd saved up for a stronger shield unit.
Liara followed up by generating a biotic singularity right in the middle of the mercs. (1) The four mercs who'd lost their shields suddenly found themselves being yanked off their feet, spinning round and round like a boat caught in a whirlpool. Again, it was the boss who kept his feet firmly planted on terra firma. (2) I could see his shields flickering and flaring as they struggled against the biotic forces, straining as they were forced to do something they weren't designed to do.
Lifting my omni-tool, I set one of the floating mercs on fire. As I'd hoped, he also set his companions on fire whenever he bumped into them. What can I say: I like to share. Meanwhile, Legion lifted their sniper rifle and fired a shot at the merc boss. (3) Wasn't quite enough to take him out, but it certainly blew his shields apart. I finished him off with a couple pistol shots while Miranda and Liara amused themselves with the floating, burning mercs.
I was just about to switch over to one of the remaining mercs—only two, by this point—when I thought to check my HUD. "More guys coming in on our left," I warned.
"Reinforcements for us or them?" Miranda asked.
"If it's the latter, we'll take them out," Liara replied, her tone a bit too grim for my liking.
It did wind up being the latter. Unfortunately, the mercs had already landed by the time we got over. Which meant a slightly different tactic would be required. "Legion, combat drone," I requested.
The drone kept the mercs occupied while we approached. Following my directions, we opened fire, just long enough to drain the shields from as many mercs as possible. Then Liara deployed another singularity. It only caught two of the mercs, but that effectively reduced their strength by half. Especially once I dropped one of the remaining mercs in his tracks with a head shot.
We exchanged gunshots with the mercs who could fight back, keeping them more or less pinned down. I kept an eye on the mercs who were spinning around, though. As soon as I saw the singularity start to wane in strength, and the mercs begin to descend, I yelled out "Miranda! Now!"
Miranda promptly spun on her heels and sent a biotic blast flying. The singularity exploded in a blue surge of light, sending the two mercs formerly caught in its grip flying. I managed to snag one of them with a fireball. The other one flew out of sight. "I'll get that one," I told the others. "The rest are all yours."
I raced after 'my' merc, wanting to get to him before he could rejoin the fight. For once, luck was on my side: he was still struggling to his feet when I found him. He looked up just in time to meet my fists.
When I got back, I saw that my ad-hoc team had things well in hand. One of the mercs had apparently tried to deploy a combat drone to even the odds. That plan had backfired, though, as Legion had hacked the drone and sent it back on its erstwhile master. Liara was busy exchanging pot-shots with the other merc. Miranda was crouching down behind a skycar, though, blinking furiously.
I dropped down beside her. "Miranda, you all right?"
She squinted at me. "What?"
"Are you all right?"
"What?"
Ah. Guess she caught a flashbang in the face. Nothing else I could do but keep on fighting, let her sight and hearing come back and hope the mercs didn't get any more—
"Reinforcements!"
Aw, crap.
Looking up, I saw Liara was right. Two, no, three skycars. Two open-topped, one closed. "Hurry up and finish them off, people! Things are gonna get a lot hotter in a minute!"
I spun on my heels and jogged towards the inbound skycars. Miranda followed—she'd evidently recovered enough to figure out what was going on and where she'd be most useful. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Legion finish off 'their' merc with a sniper shot. Liara followed suit with a spray of bullets from her submachine gun. They'd be joining us very soon. Which was good, considering that all three skycars had just touched down.
"Garrus," I yelled over the comm as the third skycar—the one with the closed hatch—opened up, "where's my backup?"
Two EMPs exploded over the mercs—one more than I had expected. About half of the mercs got yanked off their feet—some by Liara's singularity, the rest by someone else. One merc suddenly went flying, doubled over as if he'd been hit in the stomach by something moving at high velocity.
"Never mind," I said, somewhat lamely. I guess the squad had picked up enough of my bad habits that they could follow them without my guidance. (4) Kasumi had fired her EMP at the same time Miranda did; Samara yanked a couple mercs skyward at the same time Liara made them spin round and round; and Grunt had tagged a merc with his concussive round at the same time...
...actually, we hadn't done anything yet. "Legion; sniper time on three, two..."
I didn't bother finishing the countdown, mostly because talking or breathing heavily might throw off my aim. Instead, I cloaked, raised my sniper rifle and fired. Legion fired at the same time, resulting in two more mercs losing their heads simultaneously—and literally.
Thane detonated Liara's singularity with his biotics at the same time Legion deployed another combat drone. The drone zipped forward towards a pair of mercs, only to veer off as they got trampled over by a roaring, enthusiastic Grunt. So it wound up harassing the stunned mercs who'd been thrown every which way by the exploding singularity. Miranda, Liara, Legion and I joined in. Except we harassed with bullets.
Merc after merc dropped like flies. Things were going well.
Naturally, the back of my neck started tingling.
Checking my HUD, I saw another skycar landing. "Kasumi, Liara, Legion; with me. Everyone else, finish off those mercs."
The four of us moved towards the newcomers. We were about fifty metres away when shields started taking fire and blinking out. Normally, that's good news.
Except, this time, it was our shields that were getting drained. This batch of mercs must be really good shots. We hastily took cover behind some of the skycars, moving around as they spread out. Carefully peeking around a skycar's taillights, I could see another merc doing the same thing. Only that merc was a little too exposed. I debated engaging my cloak and tagging him with my sniper rifle, only to drop that idea—that would delay my shield regeneration cycle, which I really wanted to do right now. Instead, I switched to my submachine gun and fired, carefully draining his shields in bursts of three shots. The merc, suddenly aware of his vulnerability, moved back briefly before leaning forward. No doubt he was hoping that I would be out of cover in the hopes of getting a better line-of-sight, thus exposing myself. Instead, he was one exposed. And, shortly, on fire. That guy jerked up and stumbled back, trying to pat out the flames. All he did was set a couple of his buddies on fire—forcing them to break cover and make themselves nice, fat targets—before burning to a crisp.
Looking around, I saw that things were going pretty well. Miranda had assumed command of Grunt, Samara and Thane. They'd finished off one batch of mercs and were greeting another one with EMPs, biotics, concussive rounds and bullets. Kasumi had stripped a couple mercs of their shields, just before they got caught up in another one of Liara's singularities. Legion was standing up, which didn't seem like a bright idea at first. Upon closer examination, however, I realized that they'd activated a custom shield program, one that let them soak up a lot more damage. They were using that to draw fire while sniping targets one by one.
Taking advantage of Legion's distraction, I activated my cloak—since my shields had since regenerated—lined up a shot and sniped a merc of my own.
"Damn it," I heard one of the mercs curse. "These guys are a lot tougher than the sims."
Imagine that.
"Just hang on," another merc said. "We've got some reinforcements com—urk!"
He went down with a bang, thanks to Garrus. But he'd blabbed long enough to tell me that there were some more mercs on the way. Seeing that Miranda had the remainder of the mercs under control, I motioned for my team to follow me. Time to set a little trap.
We were in position by the time the next skycar arrived. I counted down from three, then pumped my fist down. Kasumi immediately popped up and fired an EMP, hitting all five of them before their skycar even landed. Liara created a singularity a split second later, yanking four of the five mercs off their feet. Legion amused themselves by sniping one of the floating mercs while the fifth merc scrambled for cover. Unfortunately for him, he scrambled right into the scope of my sniper rifle.
I ducked down as my cloak disengaged and checked on the rest of the squad. Samara and Thane were finishing off a pair of mercs with their biotics. Grunt knocked another merc over with a concussive round before Miranda grabbed him with her biotics, yanked him up in the air, then slammed him back down.
Over on our end, Kasumi and Liara were methodically shooting the floating mercs with their pistols, making them twitch and spasm in a morbidly amusing fashion. Legion had spawned another combat drone, which was cheerfully beeping and sending electrical surges into any hapless merc that drifted within range, before drilling a hole into the head of another merc. Not wanting to miss the fun, I aimed my omni-tool, waited for a round of plasma to heat up and let it fly. That little fireball thoroughly fried my target, as well as delivering the coup de grace to the last couple survivors.
Looking up, I saw another trio of skycars headed our way. I raised my sniper rifle up and peered through the scope. Two of them had closed hatches, but were too far away for me to see inside. The third one, though, had an open-top. I could tell that that one, which was also the one in front, had another four or five Shadow Broker mercs.
I could also tell which one was doing all the steering.
Activating my cloak, I lined up a shot... breathed out... focused my aim... and fired.
The driver slumped over the controls of the skycar, which promptly lost control. It zigged and zagged for a couple seconds, dropped out of the sky like a rock, swept over our heads and smashed into another skycar—the one that had brought the first wave of mercs to greet us. The surviving mercs jumped at the last second, just before the crash. Unfortunately, momentum was not on their side. All four of them landed with a horrendous crack, snapping hardsuit plates and bones with enough force to make us wince. Clearly, they wouldn't be causing us any trouble.
"Shepard!"
I turned towards Liara, who was investigating the crash. "We can climb over the skycars to get to Vasir!"
She was right. The crash had knocked the first skycar out of the way. Not by much, but enough for even Grunt to squeeze by.
Even better, the other two skycars had landed. From a distance, I could see the rest of my squad bailing out. I waited until they joined us. Garrus looked around at all the bullet-ridden, occasionally charred bodies.
"What did we miss?" he asked innocently.
After bringing everyone up to speed, we fanned out to restock on thermal clips. Also managed to hack a bank terminal for creds and retrieved a med-kit hiding underneath the driver's seat of my skycar. Liara was practically bouncing on her feet by the time I gave the order to move out.
The closest way to Vasir's skycar was along a walkway built out of expensive wood panels and into an even more expensive suite, so that's where we went. It was one of those open-concept designs: big living room with an adjoining kitchen tucked next to the bedroom. And by 'big living room', I mean huge. It was almost twice the space of my cabin. Most of the furniture—made in the most modern fashion and covered in the richest fabrics imaginable—took up one part of the room, which left a ton of room.
A half dozen LOKI mechs lay strewn on the floor. Guess they were security. Judging by the way they were riddled with bullets and lying in a mess of torn wiring and leaking conductive fluid, I'd gathered they weren't particularly effective security. (5)
I was just in the middle of poking through the kitchen for the creds in the wall safe—though why someone would store their valuables next to their edibles is beyond me—when I heard something.
"Please let me live. Please let me live."
More to the point, someone.
"I'll do the mantras every week. I'll give to charity."
Someone doing a good job of hiding, but a bad job of staying hidden. Motioning for the squad to follow, I headed towards the voice, emptying a med-kit along the way.
"I'll go back to the Citadel and get a good job, I swear!"
The voice came from a large bedroom. Two people were hiding by the side of a very expensive bed. One of them, an asari, was the one I'd heard earlier. She looked up and whimpered. Then she scrunched herself up into a ball, squeezed her eyes shut and clammed up. Her companion, a male human, threw up his hands defensively. "Hey, we're unarmed," he insisted. "We didn't see anything."
"Okay," I nodded amiably. I glanced around the room. Nothing here to loot. Nothing here to see...
...
...um...
...nothing except a vid-screen showing a bunch of asari in skin-tight clothing dancing. And writhing in front of a very attentive audience. And doing things that made their... curves... look very, very appealing.
"Liara?" I said slowly as several pics of neon-lit ads with words like "CASINO" and "LIMITED TIME OFFER" screamed out, "what kind of place is this?"
"The Azure Hotel," Liara replied. "It's a luxury resort with an… exotic edge."
I raised an eyebrow as a row of asari joined the neon lights and began a series of synchronized high-kicks. "You don't say."
"'Azure' is slang for a part of the asari body in some areas of Illium." (6)
A sudden surge of mischief swept through me. "Where?" I asked.
"Mainly the lower regions. Near the bottom."
I gave Liara a wicked smile. "I meant, where on the asari body?"
Liara returned my smile. "So did I."
...
...
...
Well.
That plan had just backfired horribly.
By the time I'd recovered, the squad was shooting me knowing looks... and Miranda was shooting daggers out of her eyes.
"Um... just a little bit of fun?" I tried.
Those daggers turned into broadswords.
"Uh huh," Garrus chortled.
"Psst! Shep!" Kasumi stage-whispered. "Maybe you oughta stop while you're only neck deep!"
Sage advice. Hoping my face wasn't as red as, well, hoping it wasn't red, I left the bedroom and headed for the door. Not the door I came in, but the other one. The one that led to the area where Vasir crashed. (7)
As we crossed the living room, Tali caught up with me. "Good job," she offered.
"Thanks," I muttered sourly.
"Well, that too," she laughed before getting more serious. "I meant keeping Liara alive."
I cast a surreptitious glance at Liara, who was already rummaging through Vasir's skycar. "Remember when she used to be so quiet and gentle and…"
"Just a little too innocent for her own good?" Tali finished.
"Yeah," I nodded. "Now she's all angry and violent and obsessed. I don't think I like this new Liara."
"Maybe the old Liara's still there," Tali said hopefully. "Just buried really, really deep."
"You think so?" I asked.
"I hope so."
"Yeah. I know what you mean."
At that point, we'd arrived at Vasir's skycar, so we had to wrap up the conversation. Liara handed me a couple power cells and a datapad with schematics for some kind of upgrade, no doubt hoping that I'd skip straight to the hunt now that someone had done the looting for me. I did a cursory search anyway, but I didn't find anything else inside the skycar. What interested me was what I found outside the skycar.
"A blood trail," Garrus murmured. "Vasir must have gotten hurt in the crash."
He was right. There was a trail of blue droplets, almost invisible in the shadows cast from the surrounding lights. And my hardsuit sensors identified the DNA as asari. I breathed a sigh of relief. "That should slow her down."
The blood trail led around the walkway. In some areas, that trail became a veritable stream of blood. I wasn't the only one who noted that. "She's lost a lot of blood," Liara observed. "We have to be getting close."
"She's tough, I'll give her that much," I said.
"She's a Spectre," Miranda pointed out, coming up beside me. "What did you expect?"
"Fair enough," I allowed. I looked around. No one else was within earshot. Just in case, I opened a private comm frequency. "Miranda? We okay?"
"Of course. Why wouldn't we be?"
"I just thought you might have, well, misinterpreted my joke earlier."
"I didn't. A bit immature, perhaps, but I know it was all in good fun."
"Exactly. Nothing more."
"Nothing more."
"I didn't mean anything by it."
"Yes, I know. Now can we focus? We're trying to catch up to Vasir, remember?"
"And I don't want us to be distracted by lingering issues."
"Then stop worrying. Because there aren't any lingering issues."
If only I could believe that. It really was just a bit of fun. A joke—even if the joke was on me. That's all. I certainly didn't harbor any feeling towards Liara. Nothing romantic, at least. Anything I did feel was concern at how Liara had changed—and not for the better. But I couldn't figure out how to say that, or how to reassure Miranda that she didn't have to worry about my straying, without digging my own grave. (8)
A scream rang out before a couple—human; one man, one woman—ran past us in varying degrees of undress. We backtracked their movements—and followed Vasir's blood trail—to another enormous suite full of expensive furnishings, expensive paintings and a lot of broken mechs. I guess a wounded Spectre shooting up security would kill the mood. The couple was in such a hurry to leave that they left their personal datapad behind—which happened to have ready access to a small account of creds. Note to self: never leave your financial details lying around where any shameless kleptomaniac could find it.
There were also a couple med-kits lying around. What exactly did Azure think would happen that would require easy access to medi-gel? On second thought, I decided, I didn't want to know.
The most important thing to note was the blood trail, which had grown from droplets to the odd stream to actual blue, bloody footsteps. Looked like Vasir was actually stepping in her own blood and tracking it behind her, whether because her movements were becoming increasingly unsteady or because she was just losing that much blood. On the one hand, that was good—a wounded target was a lot easier to track. On the other hand, a wounded target could be the most dangerous, because he—or she, in this case—had less and less to lose. Especially when cornered.
We tracked the bloody footsteps out of the suite and along the wood-paneled walkway to an outside restaurant. People of various races—mostly human and asari—were dressed in the most elegant and formal attire, wining and dining away, laughing without a care in the world. Completely oblivious to the armed asari bleeding through their midst or the equally armed—but not bleeding or limping—squad hot on her heels.
I was about to order the squad to spread out and shadow her. Hopefully, we could find a quiet, secluded place to cut her off without all the civvies in the line of fire—
"Vasir!" Liara shouted. "It's over!"
Aw, crap. So much for that plan.
Vasir slowly turned around, almost succeeding in masking the slight, almost imperceptible limp in her step. I could see the wheels in her head spinning as she assessed her options. Her eyes narrowed as she saw a nearby waitress.
Again—aw, crap.
"Hey! Hey, you!" she called out. "Come here." A biotic field shimmered to life around her. It suddenly flared with a brilliant light…
…and then she…
…she suddenly appeared right behind the waitress! Like a freaking teleporter in one of those sci-fi vids. What the heck just happened?
All I know was one second, she was at least ten metres from the waitress. The next second, she was right behind her; arm around her neck, pulling her off balance, pistol out and aimed squarely at my noggin.
"What's your name?" Vasir asked the shocked waitress.
Out of the corner of my eye, I glimpsed the crowd jump up and run, finally realizing that their elegant dinner party had been thoroughly crashed. At least all the civvies would get out of harm's way. Now we just had to get out of the goddamn hostage situation that Liara had forced us into like some hothead. (9)
"M-Mariana," the waitress stammered, finally realizing the predicament she was in.
"Mariana, you want to live, don't you?" Vasir purred. "Tell those people that you want to live."
"Please…" Mariana whimpered.
"We'll get you out of here safely, Mariana," I soothed. Somehow. My eyes started darting around, trying to get a sense of the terrain and what I had to work with.
"Well, that's good to hear," Vasir smiled. "You know, Shepard, this could have been avoided. All you had to do was walk away. But you just had to follow me, didn't you? Now…" She jammed her pistol into Mariana's head. "Now it gets ugly."
"Please," Mariana whimpered. "I have a son."
"A son?" Vasir repeated in mock horror, a cold smile spreading slowly, cruelly over her face. "I hope he gets to see you again. I've heard losing a parent is just horrific for children. Scars them for life."
Silent tears trickled down Mariana's face, her body quivering in fear and horror. Liara was quivering too, but for a completely different reason. "I'm going to end you, Vasir," she seethed.
"It's okay, Liara," I said. "We'll handle it." I lifted my pistol and pointed it at Vasir. "The usual way." (10)
Vasir raised an eyebrow as the squad followed suit. "You want Mariana's little boy to grow up without a mommy, Shepard? Thermal clips on the ground, now," she snapped, her voice abruptly hardening. "Power cells, too."
An idea came to mind. I quickly ran it through, formulating it on the fly. Yes. Yes, it could work. All I had to do was keep this standoff going a little longer while I set my plan in motion. And what better way to do that than to open my mouth and let it loose? "Hiding behind a hostage, Vasir?" I laughed, surreptitiously activating my HUD. "What's the matter? You scared? No stomach for a real fight? Figured as much. What else could you expect… from an asari?"
"Drop the thermal clips, Shepard," Vasir repeated.
"You girls should really just stick to dancing, shaking your booty, whoring yourself out to anyone and anything with a pulse," I sneered. "You know, play to your strengths."
Vasir was looking slightly confused—and alarmed. Guess none of the reports she'd read about me had ever mentioned anything like this. Which, to be honest, was sort of the point. "Drop the clips!" she shouted.
"Here's how things'll play out," I told her. "I'm gonna kill your hostage, Vasir. And then I'm gonna show you how a real Spectre gets things done."
"You're bluffing," Vasir hissed.
"Am I?" I grinned.
Mariana let out a sob.
Vasir's aim shifted, briefly moving away from Mariana and towards me.
"Now!" I shouted.
With a gesture and a sudden blue flash, Liara yanked the table that she had been levitating with her biotics into motion. It shot forward like a rocket, hitting Vasir at just the right angle to jar her loose from her hostage and knock her into a nearby shallow pool with a large splash.
We quickly ran to Mariana, who had fallen to her hands and knees. I gently, but hurriedly, lifted to her feet. "Sorry about that," I apologized. "I didn't mean any of that. I just had to distract her. You okay?"
She looked at me numbly. "No?" she offered at last, shaking her head.
"Fair enough," I sighed. "Look, you've probably had enough of this place for one day. Go home. Hug your son."
She mutely nodded before stumbling off. I watched her leave, grateful that we'd managed to avoid any casualties.
Then I felt a tingling sensation at the back of my neck.
"Shepard!" Garrus yelled out.
I turned around. The pool that Vasir had fallen into had gone from a few calm ripples to a seething, frothing mess of bubbles. Everyone instinctively aimed their weapons.
With a fierce cry, a blue field of energy exploded from the pool, surging upwards before briefly pausing and hovering. Before any of us could think to pull the trigger, the energy blasted away to the far end of the courtyard. The energy quickly dissipated, revealing a seriously pissed off Vasir.
That must have been how she was able to get to Mariana so quickly. She didn't teleport, as I had thought. No, she had somehow used her biotics to set a new record for sprinting. (11)
Then she pulled out her assault rifle.
Aw, crap.
Maybe at some point she had thought of nothing else but running. She who lives to run away, lives to serve the Shadow Broker another day. Or something like that. But clearly she'd changed her mind. Apparently, I was too damn stubborn for my own good. So now she was gonna take me out. And Liara. And my little squad too. (12)
Great.
By this point, the squad was well-versed in dealing with biotic adversaries. They knew that the first order of business was to take out the barriers. Concussive rounds to jar the biotic's concentration. Fighting biotic fire with biotic fire. Even bullets—either the kind enveloped by a warp mod's biotic field or the kind that came in a rapid barrage. That sort of tactic usually worked just fine.
Of course, most of the biotics we'd faced were courteous enough to either stay still or move around at a normal place. Vasir only stayed in one spot, firing a couple pot shots at us until Miranda tagged her with a biotic blast before zipping to the other end of the courtyard. "Catch me if you can," she hollered.
I quickly swung around, hoping to get her in my sights and fire my sniper rifle before the cloak wore off. Unfortunately, that didn't work out, though Legion did manage to hit her with their sniper rifle before she shot off like a rocket again to, well, somewhere. We didn't really know where she'd gone, though the random bullets ricocheting off our shields told us that she was definitely nearby.
Then the back of my neck started tingling, just before I glimpsed a flash out of the corner of my eye.
"Surprise!"
"Son of a bitch!"
"Get her!"
"Damn it, she's moving too fast!"
The next thing I knew, Grunt was stumbling back. It seemed that even someone as big and massive as he was could be pushed around by an asari charging into him at hyperspeed. Especially when that asari had been secretly targeting him in the midst of her supposedly random gunfire, reducing his shields down to a sliver. One good hit took down his shields and one carefully aimed round penetrated a weak point in his hardsuit. He wasn't dead—through my HUD, I could actually see his bio-signs spike as his regeneration kicked in—but he'd be out of the fight for now.
Vasir took advantage of our confusion to shoot a couple random shots—and several more not-so-random shots at Miranda—before jetting off again. "Is that the best you've got?" she laughed.
"I'm fine," Miranda said before I could even ask.
"Then let's talk about splitting up the battlefield," I replied.
"Because we can't afford to have the entire squad try to move around," Miranda nodded.
"Which they do every time Vasir changes location."
"Thus allowing her to temporarily take Grunt out."
"While we've barely made a dent in her barriers."
"So we need a game plan."
"How 'bout splitting the squad into teams?"
"And each team into…"
"Fire-teams."
"I was thinking sub-teams."
"No one calls them sub-teams."
"Fine. Whatever. As long as each 'fire-team' is responsible for a different area."
"Done."
The squad was very receptive to our suggestions. Probably because they were made just after Vasir had mocked us for being 'too slow.' It didn't take long before our change in tactics started to pay off. Vasir was still zipping around the battlefield like a firefly on red sand, but at least we were hitting her more often. No matter where she went, there were three or four people waiting for her. As a result, she had to superspeed around a lot more often. And her barriers were definitely starting to fluctuate, I noticed.
"Argh!"
"Why can't she just stay still?"
On the other hand, she wasn't taking things lying down. Zaeed had somehow gotten himself knocked out. (13) So had Samara, though that wasn't a mystery. Her shields had shorted out after several minutes of intermittent targeting by Vasir. So she decided to take cover and let her shields regenerate rather than take an unintended nap. Made sense, I thought as Vasir screeched to a halt next to one of the shallow pools in the courtyard.
Then Vasir unleashed a biotic shockwave that knocked Samara out of cover. Before she could take cover, Vasir had emptied an entire thermal clip into her midsection. "Is that the best you can do?" she taunted over the sound of gunfire.
Did I mention she kept up a steady stream of smart-mouth? I could almost admire her, if she wasn't trying to kill us all.
By the time she'd rocketed away, Samara was doubling over and coughing up blood. Naturally, she refused Garrus's offer of medi-gel. I exchanged a look with Garrus. We silently agreed to let Samara's hardsuit administer the usual micro-doses of medi-gel and see how that worked out. If things didn't improve, Garrus would give her a full pack of medi-gel. No ifs, ands or buts. For now, though, Samara was down for the count.
That was fine as far as Grunt—who had returned to the fight—was concerned. More chances for him to hit that damn asari, he said. At least he wasn't trying to charge after her. Believe me, he'd finally agreed to the plan Miranda and I had cooked up, but only after a lot of complaining. Not surprisingly, he was the loudest and most vocal whenever anyone hit Vasir. When he got her with a concussive round, I thought my eardrums would shatter.
As the fight continued, I noticed something going on with Liara. Her mouth kept moving and her fingers kept twitching. It was like she was trying to rehearse something. She'd make a few gestures, shake her head in frustration, then try again.
"Liara?" I asked.
"Just an idea," she said simply.
"One that can help us?"
Liara shook her head again. "Not yet. I'm trying to figure out a way to perfect it."
"No substitute for battlefield trials," I suggested.
"The battlefield is hardly the appropriate place to try untested methods," she rebutted.
I had to admit that she had a point. Prototypes should be tested in the lab first, then out in a carefully controlled environment. After that, maybe—maybe—we could think about trying it out in the battlefield. Of course, the universe was rarely so accommodating.
Before I could say anything, though, Vasir rocketed up—literally—to what must have been the top floor of Azure. "Back in a bit," her voice echoed down. "Have fun!"
'Have fun.' What the heck was that supposed to—
—the back of my neck suddenly tingled again. I quickly looked around. Nothing. Then I looked up. A small swarm of drones was swooping in, providing escort for another skytruck. (14) "Incoming!" I hollered.
The squad scrambled for cover, dragging along Zaeed—who was still out cold—and Samara—who had finally stopped bleeding. Jack took it upon herself to start waking up Zaeed by swearing at him and slapping his face. I honestly wasn't sure what she enjoyed more. Meanwhile, Garrus was administering a dose of medi-gel to Samara, who was suddenly more compliant. My guess was she was too woozy from all the blood she had lost to put up much of a fight.
Speaking of fights, we had another one on our hands. That skytruck was unloading another squad of the Shadow Broker's mercs and we couldn't do anything about it. Not until we dealt with all the drones weaving around and shooting rockets at us.
Drones… "Tali, Legion; launch your drones at the mercs," I yelled. "Everyone else, take out the swarm!"
Lifting my submachine gun, I squeezed the trigger, firing short bursts to minimize the chances of missing the highly maneuverable buggers. After downing one of them, I spared a moment to glance over at the mercs. As I had hoped, all four of them were occupied with Chikitta and whatever Legion had named their drone—assuming they had bothered naming their drone at all. The drones wouldn't last long, but they were buying us time to take out the rocket drones. Which, I suppose, was all I could ask.
As I watched, I realized that there were only one or two rocket drones left. All the others had been taken out. "Miranda, Kasumi, Garrus," I called out. "Target the mercs."
All three of them promptly swiveled on the spot and launched a trio of EMPs before returning their attention to the drones. Two of the mercs lost their shields, while the other two suffered some serious shield damage. Without waiting for my orders, Mordin absently aimed his omni-tool in the general direction of the mercs and lit one of them up. Approving grin on my face, I activated my cloak, lifted my sniper rifle… then realized that it was still running my warp ammo mod. Ideal against biotic barriers, not so much against shields. Suppressing a shrug—that would throw my aim off—I fired anyway. Didn't quite kill the merc, but it smashed through what was left of his shields and left a nice big dent in his forehead, one that Miranda punctured with one shot from her heavy pistol.
"Miss me?"
Vasir had returned from wherever she had gone off to. Barriers still relatively strong, hardsuit unscratched, assault rifle loaded with fresh thermal clips. And we still had two mercs to finish off.
"Um, Liara," I said. "Whatever you had planned, I think we should try it."
"But it's not perfected—"
"Liara," I interrupted as Vasir fired off a half dozen shots at me. "Just do it!"
Liara took a deep breath and nodded. Turning towards Vasir, she raised her arms, summoning up a miniature whirlwind of biotic sparks. Vasir's entire body lit up with her own biotic energies as she prepared to jet off to who-knows-where—probably in response to the concussive round Garrus shot into her midriff. As I watched, Vasir's body grew brighter and brighter and…
…
…came to a complete and utter halt.
I rubbed my eyes and looked again. Vasir was still doing a very good imitation of a statue. A statue covered in white energy, stuck in the middle of a hemispherical white mass effect field. "What the heck just happened?"
"Oh good. It worked."
"Liara?" I prompted.
"I put Vasir into stasis."
"Oh."
"Well, technically a stasis bubble. It was inspired by the safeguard that trapped me on Therum, where you found me, Shep—"
"All right, all right," I hastily butted in before Liara could give us a dissertation. "All that matters is that we can shoot her while she's all frozen."
"Well, actually…"
Those words were interrupted by a bloodthirsty Grunt, who promptly emptied a thermal clip into Vasir. It didn't really seem to do anything. In fact… I recalibrated my sensors and did a quick scan… I couldn't get any reading on Vasir at all!
"…the stasis field also prevents the subject from being harmed in any way," Liara finished.
"Just like Therum," I groaned.
"Just like Therum," she confirmed.
"Well that's kinda stupid!" Jack burst out. "What the fuck's the point of freezing her if we can't shoot her?"
"It'll give us a chance to set up properly," I replied. "Miranda, Garrus, Grunt, Samara, Thane, Jack, Zaeed, Liara; get ready to hit her once the stasis field collapses. Everyone else—"
I ducked as a couple shots bounced off my shields. "—everyone else take out the last few mercs."
Kasumi, Legion, Jacob, Mordin and Tali promptly dealt with the two surviving mercs while the rest of us moved to a spot with a better line-of-sight. A slight flicker was the only warning we got before the stasis bubble collapsed. "Now!" I shouted.
Vasir stumbled and dropped to the ground. Partly in shock over having been frozen, partly from receiving a sustained barrage of biotics and concussive rounds. All hitting the exact same spot in her barriers. It was my sniper shot that dropped her barriers, I was proud to say. Though that was mostly because I shot last. Had to refocus my aim after giving the order to shoot, you see.
Mordin promptly sent a fireball her way. The plasma splashed over her hardsuit as two combat drones flickered to life—courtesy of Tali and Legion. The two drones promptly began assaulting her with foul, chirpy binary language—or whatever passed for speech amongst those guys—and high-voltage electrical shocks. Vasir promptly used her assault rifle and a searing biotic shockwave to rip them apart. We took advantage of her distraction to score a couple more shots.
Glaring at us, she activated a comm on her hardsuit. "Are you here yet?" we could hear her snap. Then came a pause. "Well what're you waiting for? Get in here and kill Shepard, damn it!"
With that, she flew up, up and away. Just in time for another two skytrucks to start their final approach.
"Everyone know what to do?" I asked.
"Yep."
"You bet."
"Sure thing."
A second before they touched down, the mercs on both skytrucks got hit by two EMPs each. A second later, the mercs who looked like they were in charge lost their heads to a couple well-aimed shots from sniper rifles. A second after that, the suddenly leaderless mercs found themselves floating in mid-air.
And then they got set on fire.
A string of curses rang out, each more inventive and descriptive than the last. I don't think Vasir expected us to eliminate her backup so quickly. Just a hunch, you see. The curses lasted a good minute before abruptly stopping.
I looked around. "What just happened?"
"Maybe Vasir ran out of swear words?" Garrus said wryly.
"And maybe she'll stop shooting if we ask her nicely," I replied.
"We're wasting time," Liara burst out. "Vasir's probably getting away."
"On it," I assured her. "EDI, can you tap into Azure's surveillance systems?"
"Standby," EDI said. "Access granted. Vasir is heading for the elevator. An analysis of the Azure Hotel blueprints indicates that she is three floors from the rooftop parkade, where several skycars are currently parked. It is likely that she plans to use one of them to affect a getaway."
"Tap into the elevators," I ordered. "Make sure it takes a while for the elevator to arrive and even longer for Vasir to get to the rooftop. You need to buy us enough time to beat her to the roof."
"Understood, Shepard."
I turned to the squad. "Let's go."
I don't know why Vasir chose to run away (again) after making such an effort to fight. Maybe she changed her mind after realizing that we were tougher than we look. Maybe she got an order from the Shadow Broker to break off and skedaddle with the data. Maybe she just wanted a change of scenery.
Whatever the reason, I'm pretty sure she wasn't happy to see us when the elevator doors opened. And she certainly wasn't going to lie down and call it a day.
"Whoa!"
"Watch out!"
Nope, she charged out of the elevator car, guns blazing. Knocked more than one of us flat on our ass.
"Gah!"
Thankfully, Liara was able to put her in stasis again before things got ugly.
"Everyone okay?" I asked.
The squad—and Liara—said they were fine. Most of them, I believed.
"Ow! Shep!"
Ignoring Kasumi's protests, I finished administering a dose of medi-gel—Vasir had managed to penetrate her shields. One millimetre to the left and she would've severed Kasumi's carotid artery—and pulled her to the back of the squad. Just in time, as Liara's stasis field was about to shut down.
Now that we had had a chance to get our bearings again and line up our shots, things went better. A full assault of biotic force and hot, hot plasma cracked open one of her armour plates. Before Vasir could make a move, Thane knocked her off her feet with his biotics. That gave us a few more free shots. Okay, maybe several more free shots. Vasir managed to get to her feet, only for Samara to smash her into the wall with the biotic equivalent of a battering ram. Not to be left out of all the fun, Grunt charged forward and trampled over her. That much weight—and blunt force trauma—was the final blow.
"Damn it!" Vasir cursed, collapsing to the ground. She tried to get up, muscles straining, before they gave out. "Damn it!"
Liara wordlessly walked over, reached down and grabbed an OSD from Vasir's pocket, batting aside Vasir's feeble attempts to stop her. "Sekat's personal database," she offered when we looked at her. "Yes, yes it's all here. This has what we need to find the Shadow Broker."
"You're dead," Vasir called out as Liara walked away. "The Shadow Broker has been in power for decades. He's stronger than anything you've ever faced!"
"Is that why you sold out the Council to work for him?" I asked.
Vasir's eyes blazed in fury. "You think I betrayed the Council? Like Saren? Go to hell!"
"Then why?" I challenged. "Why all this?"
"The Broker's given me damn good intel over the years," Vasir rasped. "Intel that saved lives and kept the Citadel safe! So if the Broker needs a few people to disappear, I'll pay that price without hesitation!"
"A few people?" I snorted. "Is that what you call blowing up a building full of innocent people?"
"Colla... collateral damage," Vasir coughed. "All in a day's work for a Spectre. We get our hands dirty so the Council doesn't have to. Oh, the councillors might complain about our methods to soothe their consciences, but they never look too closely."
She had a point. TPTB did love to put their heads in the sand. Not that that justified anything that Vasir had done.
Speaking of which, she was still talking. "Besides, you're with Cerberus. You have any idea what your terrorist friends have done?"
"Your intel's obsolete," I told her. "Cerberus and I parted ways a while ago. And I know who they are. What they've done. From experimenting on colonies to kidnapping kids. That's why I never bent over backwards for them like you did for the Shadow Broker. I accepted Cerberus intel, but I didn't blindly accept missions in return like you did. I used Cerberus resources, but I never killed innocent people like you did. I worked with Cerberus out of necessity, but I never took the easy way out like you did.
"'Cause that's exactly what you did. You took the easy way out. You sold your soul. And you failed. I want that to be the last thing you remember. You. failed."
"You... d-don't you... dare judge me!" Vasir choked. "Don't you..."
She slumped over, her eyes growing dull and lifeless. We left her body behind.
When we caught up with Liara, she was playing an audio recording on her omni-tool. "Eliminate T'Soni and retrieve the data," a deep, rumbling voice said. "Civilian casualties not a concern."
That would explain the Dracon Trade Centre. And Azure. As for the whole running away part… maybe Vasir thought that, as long as she had the data, one out of two was good enough. I dunno. It wasn't as if we could ask her.
"Vasir's dead," I told Liara.
"I'm putting the data through to the Normandy's computers," she replied. "We can be at the Shadow Broker's base in a few hours."
Liara headed quickly towards the elevator. "He'll know about Vasir before long. If he decides to kill Feron..."
"We'll get Feron out of there alive, Liara," I assured her. "I promise." (15)
"I know," Liara said bitterly. "You're here to help. Just like always."
"And that's a bad thing?" I asked.
Liara turned to face me. "When we first met on Therum, you saved me from the geth. You fought a krogan battlemaster while I cowered in fear."
"You did more than cower," I reminded her. "As I recall, you put up quite a fight yourself."
"But I wouldn't have succeeded without you," Liara said. "The only reason I got out of those ruins alive is because you came after me. Now you're doing it again. And I'm still leaning on you for help."
"That's what friends do, Liara," I pointed out. "They help."
Ignoring everything I had said, Liara tried to make another go for the elevator. "I can get us there, based on Sekat's data. The Normandy's stealth drive will keep them from detecting us. The Shadow Broker's agents are still shooting their way through Illium. With luck, they won't notice we've left until it's too late."
"That's a little cold," I frowned. "They killed innocent people."
"You know what I mean," Liara said.
"Do I?" I challenged her. "When I hit the ground at the trade centre, you went after Vasir without looking back once."
"A little fall wasn't going to kill you," Liara replied. "I had to stay on Vasir. I had to stay rational. Make the call. Like I did with Sekat."
She walked over to the rooftop ledge and gazed out at the cityscape, glowing with neon brilliance. I joined her, leaning on one elbow to look her in the eye. "That's Vasir's fault, not yours."
"Sekat had no idea what the stakes were," Liara said sadly. "I put him in harm's way to get the data I needed. I got him killed. And I'd do it again."
She pushed herself off from the ledge. "But from here on, things will be simple. Get in, get Feron, get out."
We walked back towards the elevator. "And kill anyone who tries to stop us," she added.
"That's it?" Garrus asked, speaking for the first time.
"That's it," Liara confirmed.
"Liara!" Tali gasped.
"Will you just stop for a second?" I burst out. Lunging forward, I grabbed her arm and yanked her to a halt. "We'll be jumping several light years to get to the Shadow Broker. There's time to talk."
"About what?"
"How about you?" I said. "You haven't been the same since I came back, Liara."
"What do you want me to say, Shepard?" Liara asked, struggling to keep her voice steady. "That I mourned you? That I feel guilty because Feron got captured?
"I made mistakes, Shepard. I lost people. I helped get you back and I want—I need to do the same for Feron! I'll sit and talk once he's safe. Until then, enjoying the scenery is an insult to the man who saved both of us."
"This isn't about enjoying the scenery and you know that," I said softly. "This is about your guilt."
"My what?"
"Guilt. Guilt over 'letting' me die on the original Normandy when you know there was nothing you could have done. Guilt over the fact that Feron had to sacrifice himself so you could retrieve my body. Guilt that you had to hand me over to Cerberus to bring me back.
"That's why you're so angry, isn't it? Why you're so cold and ruthless now? Why you're so obsessed with getting revenge against the Shadow Broker?"
"So?"
"So if you're too caught up in your guilt, you're going to make mistakes. If you keep drowning in guilt instead of coming to terms with it, you'll never move on. You'll just keep spiraling downwards until there's nothing left. And then it won't matter who you've saved, because you'll have lost yourself."
Liara's face bore this painfully exquisite mixture of emotions. Anger. Fear. Hope. Relief. Pain. Looked like I was onto something.
Sometimes I hate it when I'm right. "Just... think about it, okay?" I asked.
"Of course, Shepard," Liara replied. She took a deep breath. "Now then, we'd better hurry."
"Okay," I nodded. "Let's go."
We shuffled into the elevator and headed back down. Surprisingly enough, there was no music chiming overhead. I was relieved, to be honest. We had enough on our mind as it was.
Some more than others.
(1): Singularities of this nature are caused by a mass effect field that is powerful enough to warp the space-time continuum, creating a localized gravity well that can draw unprotected enemies into its grip. The gravitational forces of the singularity can also strain the integrity of any shields, armour or biotic barriers over time. At the risk of coming across as immodest, I must say that generating the necessary concentration of dark energy to create singularities is a difficult skill to master.
(2): 'Terra firma,' a phrase from the ancient human language known as Latin for 'solid earth.' In this case, Shepard means that one of the Shadow Broker mercs managed to keep his feet on the terrace, as any 'solid earth' was several stories below.
(3): That would be the Widow Anti-Material Rifle. Legion was the only other member of Shepard's squad strong enough to wield it without suffering any injuries from the recoil. Well, except for Grunt, who wouldn't be interested anyway.
(4): One sapient's 'bad habits' was clearly another sapient's sound tactical doctrine.
(5): To be fair, LOKI mechs were an economical form of security that were effective against standard threats. Spectres and the Shadow Broker's mercenaries, unfortunately, were anything but standard.
(6): For humans, 'azure' is simply a hue of blue. Curiously enough, humans also have a slang definition for the colour pink. I am given to understand that it covers a similar region of the human body.
(7): If I had known it was that easy to fluster Shepard, I would have done it earlier.
(8): I believe Shepard was both on and off the mark. Miranda was irritated by Shepard's remarks, and all the allusions and flirting they implied. Having said that, she also knew that Shepard wasn't trying to fool around with me, simply because she trusted him, an act that is staggering in and of itself.
(9): Shepard's words, while harsh, were understandable and completely deserved.
(10): By which he meant that he would use his usual tactical brilliance to improvise a solution.
(11): It is not clear how Vasir was able to perform such a feat. She may have used her biotic abilities to create a mass-free corridor, similar to a mass relay. Alternatively, she may have manipulated the gravitational fields around her to lower her mass. Whatever the nature, it was clear that she had a biotically-enhanced degree of mobility unmatched by any adversary Shepard had faced thus far.
(12): An allusion to a line uttered by the 'Wicked Witch of the West', a villain from the 1939 human movie 'The Wizard of Oz.' This movie, in turn, was based on the 1900 book of the same name by L. Frank Baum.
(13): While Shepard and Miranda were formulating their plan, they—and the rest of the squad—had succeeded in dealing a little more damage to Vasir's barriers. Unfortunately, Zaeed had taken several hits while pulling Jack out of the line of fire. In his attempt to avoid any further injuries, he accidentally collided with a lamppost and knocked himself out.
(14): In Alliance terminology, a group of friendly drones were termed a 'flock,' while enemy drones were called a 'swarm.'
(15): Readers may be aware that Shepard rarely made promises. At least, he rarely made them out loud.