The Vanguard
Ashley, Liara, and Tali skidded into a small room. Tali quickly stopped and locked the door behind them with her omni-tool.
"What are you doing?" Liara asked when Tali kept typing into her tool.
"Jamming the door," Tali said quickly. "Done." As soon as Tali stepped back, Ashley stepped forward and, with her pistol, shot the control panel on the door. The panel exploded in a shower of sparks. They heard heavy banging as Sovereign tried to tear the door down.
"That'll hold him," Ashley said contently.
On the other side of the door, Sovereign looked at the control panel. If he could not tear the door down he will hack it! There was a sliding noise as long, thin tentacles extended out of his fingers and stabbed the control panel. Using the geth systems he was given, Sovereign began to hack the door.
Tali rushed over to a small control panel at the side.
"We can't let Sovereign get off the ship," she said in panic. "I'm creating a feedback loop in the ships Mass Effect core."
"You're trying to blow up the ship?" Ashley asked.
"Yeah," Tali said.
Sovereign roared furiously as he retracted his tentacles. The door was too badly damaged to be hacked. There only one thing to do. Sovereign formed an orb of biotic energy in his palm.
Suddenly, the door behind Tali tore blasted and Sovereign stepped through.
"Time to go!" Ashley said, grabbing Tali by the arm and trying dragging her down the hall.
"We must get to the escape shuttles," Liara said as they, once again, sprinted down the halls.
"Look out!" Tali screamed as a piece of metal detached from the ceiling and flew at them.
Wrex stiffened as all the Krogans in front of him kept aiming their guns at his head.
"You can kill me, but it'll mean nothing," Wrex growled.
"If we kill you, we will have avenged the Krogan race," the krogan with the shotgun said.
"Then, you will have avenged nothing," Wrex said. "I did what I did for the Krogan race."
"By destroying the one thing that could save them?" the Krogan roared. "Because of you, the Krogan race might die."
"We may die, but we will die fighting!" Wrex argued. "That is why I destroyed the cure for the genophage! If that cure was not destroyed, who would have been in control of it? A turian! That Turian, Saren, would have used the cure to enslave all the Krogan! What I did may have condemned the Krogan race to their extinction, but we will die fighting! That's what I fought for! That's what Shepard died for!"
Sovereign tore open another door and stepped into the hangar bay. The Reaper looked around the room, searching for his prey. As he turned around, a massive metal plate fell from the ceiling and landed right on top of him! As Sovereign fell to the ground from the sheer weight of the metal plate, Tali, Ashley, and Liara jumped out of the shadows.
"That was easy," Ashley said, smiling.
"Too easy," Tali whimpered when she saw Sovereign begin to stand up. Before anyone could do anything, Sovereign jumped back to his feet and fired a blast of biotics straight at them! The entire room lit up as the blue biotic energy beam sliced through the air. Ashley and Tali closed their eyes, almost ready to take the lethal blast. Suddenly, Liara jumped in front of them and created a biotic shield. She was almost thrown backwards as Sovereign's biotic beam rammed into the energy barrier, but she stood firm. Liara could feel the biotic blast; hear its menacing hum as the stream pressed into the shield.
"Go!" she yelled back at Tali and Ashley.
Sovereign smiled as he continued his biotic attack. He could feel the Asari's power begin to buckle.
Liara began to gasp in desperation as she resisted Sovereign's biotic attack. If she does not hold the shield, Tali and Ashley will be killed in the blast. This thought echoed in Liara's head. She already lost Sheppard she was not ready to lose more of her friends. She may not have been able to protect Sheppard, but she can still protect Tali and Ashley. Sovereign was stunned when Liara suddenly summoned a massive biotic shockwave that sent him flying back into the wall. Sparks showered the room as the biotic blast hit the wall. Sovereign jumped back to his feet and sent a massive wave of biotic shockwave at Liara. The Asari picked dozens of random items all over the room and used them to create a wall in front of her. The wall blocked the shockwave but shattered it into pebble-sized debris in a cloud of dust. Liara sent every piece of debris flying back at Sovereign like a wall of bullets. Sovereign created a biotic shield and watched as the debris bounced harmlessly off of it. As soon as Sovereign lowered his biotic shield, Liara sent a massive biotic blast at the creature. The blast sent Sovereign flying back into the wall as the explosion rocked the room. Liara, Ashley, and Tali watched as debris from the ceiling fell upon Sovereign, burying him in a pile of rubble.
"We better get out of here," Ashley said. The three of them turned and got on an escape shuttle. As the three women ran for the shuttle, a black hand rose from the pile of debris.
Ashley was the first to reach the shuttle. She immediately ran for the cockpit as Tali and Liara got on. Tali turned around to close the door but she froze at what she saw.
"What is it?" Liara asked when she saw Tali stiffen with fear. The young Quarian watched as Sovereign rose from the pile of debris. His unseen eyes glared at Tali menacingly. As Sovereign stood up, Tali slammed the button that shut the door. She and Liara heard the engines start up.
"We're getting out of here!" Ashley yelled. As the shuttle began to rise they heard a heavy thud on the bottom of the ship. "What was that?" Liara quickly looked out one of the ship's windows and saw Sovereign firing bolts of biotic energy at them.
"Go faster, Ashley!" Liara yelled at the cockpit. There was an even louder thud that shook the ship.
"What was THAT?" Tali yelled. Liara looked back out the window.
"Sovereign's vanished!" she gasped.
"What!" Tali exclaimed, looking out the window for herself. It was true, Sovereign was no longer there.
"Hang on!" Ashley yelled as she fired up the engines. The shuttle rushed out of the ship just as it exploded. The explosion slowly died and the damaged shuttle flew off. Ashley's radio suddenly crackled to life.
"Joker here," Joker said over it. "What just happened?"
"It's a long story," Ashley said.
On the Destiny Ascension, the mechs surrounding Cyclops took aim at one of the doors.
"Get ready," Cyclops growled as he drew his gun. They all opened fire when the door burst open and Garrus, Sidonis, Anderson, and a squad of C-Sec officers came through. The room turned into a fire storm as bullets flew across from both sides. "KILL THEM!" Cyclops yelled psychotically. "KILL THEM ALL!"
There was another bang behind him and suddenly a squad of Krogan charged through with Wrex! The Councilors, Ambassadors, and Advisors all ducked to the side as bullets rained on the mechs. Cyclops watched as the mechs were torn apart from the storm of bullets. He realized that there was no way to win the fight. A squad of Krogan and C-Sec had him cornered. Then it occurred to him, there was still a way out.
Garrus put several more bullets into the face of a mech and watched it fall. The finally noticed Cyclops was still standing. Garrus would have simply put a bullet into the Batarian's head if Cyclops was not holding Ambassador Udina in front of him with a gun to the Ambassador's head.
"Hold your fire!" Udina said as Cyclops began to slowly back up.
"I think you better do what he says," Cyclops said. "You wouldn't an incident, would you?"
"Let him go," Garrus said. Cyclops scoffed when he heard this. "I will shoot you," Garrus warned.
"No, wait!" Udina yelled. "I'm sure we can negotiate this!"
"Do you really want to risk shooting your precious ambassador?" Cyclops jeered. Garrus chuckled.
"I'm not aiming at him," Garrus chuckled, then he pulled the trigger. There was a loud bang as a bullet flew out of Garrus's gun and into Cyclops's head! The Batarian fell to the ground lifeless as Udina glared at Garrus, unable to believe what the Turian just did.
"That was over the line!" Udina roared.
"You're welcome," Garrus said flatly.
"I will make sure the Council knows of this." Garrus groaned in annoyance for he knew that Udina is now going to go on ranting. "I will not let this go unpunished! You have risked the life of an ambassador without any reason!" Garrus has heard enough. His fist suddenly flew up and smacked Udina across the face. The Ambassador fell unconscious to the floor.
"Man, that felt good," Garrus chuckled.
"You should've been there when I did it," Anderson laughed. Garrus and Anderson took in that brief moment of relief. They knew that they still had to stop Bane. "So, where is Bane now?"
"I think I know," Garrus said.
Bane strolled down the hall with Sin and Snu-Cal following him. His omni-tool lit up as he approached a door at the end of the hallway. This door leads to a hangar bay that will let them escape. It was time. Everything has gone according to plan. Now Bane and his team must make their escape. As the door opened and Bane and his team stepped out they saw dozens of C-Sec officers outside. All the officers had their guns drawn. Sin and Snu-Cal froze in their tracks when they saw this. Bane simply smiled. He recognized Garrus, Anderson, Sidonis, and Wrex among the crowd of C-Sec officers. Bane could feel the eyes of unseen snipers watching them from every corner of the hangar. The bounty hunter put a finger on his omni-tool, ready to press a single button.
"You're surrounded, Bane," Garrus said over a loudspeaker. "It's over, you've lost."
"You're mistaken, Garrus," Bane said loudly. "Or, should I remind you who is still in control? I have planted a series of bombs on a number of civilian ships. One false move and I detonate them all." Garrus's jaw dropped when he heard this. He had waited for this one moment when he could finally stop Bane merely to find out that the bounty hunter had planned an escape.
"He's bluffing," Wrex said.
"We can't take that chance," Anderson said. Garrus looked at the officers then back at Bane. If he was lying they could simply take the bounty hunter out right now. If he was telling the truth then hundreds of innocent people would die. Was it worth the risk?
"Holster them!" Bane roared. Garrus looked at the radio in his hand. A single command will take Bane out or let him go. Was it worth the risk? Garrus clicked the radio on and gave his command.
"Stand down," he said. "All units, stand down." All the C-Sec officers lowered their weapons." Bane smiled as he led Sin and Snu-Cal forwards, still ready to press a button on his omni-tool. Everyone heard a loud click as a ship docked. The doors opened and Bane saw Carmine waiting for them. Garrus glared at Bane angrily as the doors closed behind the bounty hunter. The bounty hunter had escaped again.
Bane looked at Zaeed, who was sitting the side.
"Long time, no see, Zaeed," Bane said.
"Just get these cuffs off me," Zaeed grumbled.
"Before you do that, I believe that you have to fulfill your end of the deal," Bane said in a dark tone. "After all, I don't work for free."
Garrus angrily walked through the hangar as C-Sec began a final check of the ship.
"He got away," Garrus grumbled to himself.
"He's got away from everyone," Wrex said.
"And now he's free to do whatever he wants!" Garrus growled.
"Garrus!" a voice called. Garrus looked up and saw Mindor limping towards him. Garrus was stunned to see Mindor alive. "Heck of a job you did. You led the C-Sec officers against Bane and nearly got the guy. I owe you one for that"
"Bane still got away," Garrus said angrily.
"It's not the first time and I doubt it'll be the last," Mindor coughed. "I would have recommended a promotion if you were still in C-Sec."
"Told you, you shouldn't have resigned," Wrex said to Garrus.
"If there's anything I can do…"
"Actually…" Garrus said thoughtfully. "Is there a cruiser we can use?"