A/N Well due to your comments I tried to do this as quick as possible, enjoy! Got to write some action in this, first time in a long while...
13th June 2188 – Crucible pulse + 20 months
Miranda slowly carried Elizabeth up the stairs, cradling the sleeping baby in her arms. She had been rather fussy ever since Shepard left an hour ago, and it had taken the whole time to get her to fall asleep. She had decided not to move the cot today afterall, Miranda really couldn't be bothered to move the solid wood piece of furniture downstairs to Lizzie's bedroom on the first floor on her own. She could let Shepard do the heavy lifting when he got back. Of course that meant not waking Elizabeth up whilst ascending two sets of spiral staircases to the bedroom, though Miranda was pretty sure she could succeed.
She did manage to get to their bedroom on the top floor without a problem, turning left at the top of the stairs, past Shepard's ever growing collection of novels in the landing, and into the spacious room. Miranda walked to Shepard's side of the bed to the cot, carefully lowering Elizabeth down onto the mattress. She pulled up the furry blanket from the bottom of the cot to cover Elizabeth, tucking the baby in snugly. Miranda gave her a kiss on the forehead before stepping back, smiling fondly as she watched her daughter sleep. After a few minutes she walked passed the bed to the French doors at the far end of the room, opening them up and walking out onto the balcony. She sighed as she leaned on the railings, staring down into the sun soaked Italian valley that snaked off to the south. It was a beautiful evening, utterly picturesque.
Miranda was concerned, there was no doubt about that. Whilst she had let Shepard go, she was rather worried about him by now. Cerberus were dangerous, no matter how much disarray their forces were in after the war. There were individual operatives within the organisation that would want their revenge on those that had played a part in the downfall of the group, and Shepard would definitely appear at the top of that list. She couldn't help but feel there was something wrong, very wrong.
After a several minutes of fretting she decided she couldn't wait any longer and brought up her omni-tool to call Shepard. She selected his number from her contacts list and dialled, but a red error triangle appeared on the display screen. She furrowed her eyebrows and tried again, but the same thing happened once more. Miranda headed inside and grabbed her spare omni-tool from her bedside cabinet, turning it on and tapping her foot impatiently as it booted up. She performed the same routine a third time, and for a third time the red error message appeared.
"Strange," Miranda mused to herself as she began to run a diagnostic on both of her omni-tools. The tests assured her that there were no issues with either of her omni-tools, and that they were both connected to the extranet with a very strong signal. But then she noticed the problem, an interruption to the connection in between the device and the extranet. Miranda narrowed her eyes. "It's like a...jamming...beacon?"
Miranda ran back out onto the balcony, rapidly scanning the nearby area with her eyes for any sign of movement. It seemed clear so she ran back into the bedroom and hurtled down the stairs, barging into one of the bedrooms downstairs and out into it's own balcony. She looked out over the lake to the east, again it was clear so she walked around the corner of the house to check north. She was about to move on when she caught movement in that direction, at the bottom of the forest by the lakes northern shore. There were people, and they were clearly armed.
Miranda's first thought was of Elizabeth and she ran upstairs to grab her. She picked the baby up, carefully, and hurried over to the bathroom, kneeling down in front of the toilet and running a thumb behind it's tank. There was a tiny DNA sensor hidden there, and a high pitched ping told Miranda it had accepted her thumb print. She stood back up, turning to face the tile in the middle of the room that had popped up and slid open.
She had never told John about the hidey hole because he would probably have said it wasn't a good idea or suitable for Elizabeth, and that Miranda was being paranoid. But now Miranda was glad to have installed it, even in secret. Underneath the tile was a hole that was big enough for Lizzie, padded out with memory foam and faux fur rugs. There was soft lighting from underneath the memory foam so that Elizabeth could see without being blinded, and even a miniature music player with a playlist of soothing classical music. Once Lizzie was in there it could be completely sealed, it had it's own disguised air supply and was sound proof. It was also gas proof, shielded against explosions and temperatures of up to two thousand degrees, and a miniature and sophisticated jamming device prevented any scanners from being able to detect her life-signs – with the exception of the omni-tools belonging to a select few people. Kasumi, Liara, and Garrus all knew, and their omni-tools had specific coding to be able to cut through the jammer to find Elizabeth should anything happen to Miranda and Shepard. Unless the entire house collapsed, Lizzie should be very safe and could be rescued afterwards.
Miranda lowered her daughter into the hidey hole, switching on the lights, music, and jammer before kissing her softly on the forehead. Then Miranda slid the tile back into place slowly, DNA locking it with the switch again. She headed back into the bedroom and grabbed a Kassa Locust from her lingerie draw – having to extract it from beneath a lacy pink corset with a wry grin – and a pair of combat blades from her shoe draw. Then she headed back downstairs, picking up Shepard's hidden mantis from behind a bookcase on the way. Finally she grabbed a large pile of thermal clips from their own draw on the first floors landing before emerging back out onto the balcony.
The first of the unknown assailants were emerging cautiously from the tree line, attempting to stay hidden by moving between ditches and bushes. Miranda knelt down on the balcony and rested the sniper rifle on the railing, squinting as she looked down the modified scope. She zoomed in on the first soldier, noting with a sneer that he was indeed a Cerberus assault trooper.
Miranda froze. Internally she was terrified, had she done enough to keep Elizabeth safe? Was John safe, or had he been set up in some sort of trap as well? If not, could he get back in time? What would he do if Miranda and, god forbid it, Lizzie died? Miranda couldn't see him wanting much more of a life if that happened.
She swallowed, forcing down her fears. She hated the fact that she felt fear in combat these days, before her relationship with John she would have been completely calm and collected. But Miranda also knew that she could use that fear, convert it into aggression and power to protect her daughter.
A clicking behind her caused her to spin, but she realised it was just Legion. The dog was growling, eyes fixed ahead at the approaching enemies coming into his territory. Miranda looked at the big dog, feeling a little comfort for his presence – even if he couldn't do anything against foes in heavy armour.
"Looks like it's you and me eh?"
Miranda returned to the scope, the assault trooper had moved a further ten metres closer. She composed her face and her feelings, taking in the familiar surge of adrenaline beginning to flow around her body. She brought the aim of the rifle upwards to the head of the trooper, fixing the cross-hairs between the eye slits of the helmet. Miranda squeezed the trigger, causing his head to explode in a fountain of blood with a perfect head shot.
Miranda exhaled as she reloaded, swapping her aim to the next trooper and executing him in the same fashion. She fixed a defiant expression on her face as she killed again and again. She was going to protect her daughter, or die trying.
XXXXXXXX
Shepard had spent the first ten minutes of the shuttle journey back trying to contact Miranda, but to no success. It wasn't that she wasn't picking up, but his omni-tool just wouldn't connect. He guessed that Cerberus had jammed communications, and that only added to his worry. Now he was briefing Johnson's team who were flying in formation with Bau's shuttle.
"The house is next to a lake, the front of the house faces east," Shepard selected a 3D map of the house and sent it over to the commander's omni-tool. "The west, east, and north of the lake have mountains on them, around six hundred metres in height – they're only the foothills of the Alps, not the huge mountains like Mont Blanc. South is the descent from the house, down the valley to the village about ten minutes away."
"Can we head in from the south?"
"Negative, it's very open. There is an unhindered view of the entire valley from the house, if..." Shepard swallowed. "If Miranda is still alive and holed up in the house but Cerberus see us approaching they'll push to get her."
Bau chipped in from the pilot seat. "Right, we need to get the jump on them then."
"Yeah. The west is a no go, the descent to the house requires climbing equipment or jet-packs as it's so steep, and the east mountain is open fields owned by farmers – they'll see us coming that way too," Shepard narrowed his eyes at the map. "The best bet would be coming in from the north, through the forest."
"So where shall we land?"
"If we steer clear and low around the valley as to not be seen we can then head around the east of the kind of bowl the lake is in. We can get around to the other side of the north hills, land out of sight just off the summit," Shepard nodded to himself, it was their best plan of action. "It'll be a short walk over the summit, and then down to the lake and around to the house."
The commander's voice came across the comms again. "On the map it looks like the forest doesn't grow all the way up to the summit on the north."
"Correct, the tree line is about two hundred metres down from the summit," Shepard sighed. "We'll be exposed at the top, but if we sprint then we might get down unseen. When we're in the forest we'll be completely hidden."
"It doesn't help that it's such a beautiful and sunny evening, they'll probably see us coming a mile off."
"Yeah, but maybe that would have helped Miranda to see them coming."
Shepard sat down in the co-pilots seat, placing his head in his hands. He had walked right into this trap, he had been lured out and away from Miranda and Elizabeth rather too easily. And he had been for too relaxed about the security around the house. It was all well and good to have weapons stashed around the house, but one person could not defend the place on their own. He should have used his Councillor privileges to get automated defences for the house, or a quick response team stationed close by. He had been stupid, and there was a large chance he would pay the ultimate price.
"Shepard," He looked up as Bau called his name. "Miss Lawson is tough, and rather skilled from what I've heard. I'm sure she's holding out for now."
"I damn hope so."
They lapsed into silence for several minutes, but it was interrupted by commander Johnson.
"Councillor, one of my guys has come up with an idea."
"I'm listening."
"All of my men carry snipers, the majority of the unit are crack shots. We could drop a third of my men on the east mountain, a third on the west, and a further third on the north with you. The ones on the other hills could set up a sniper cross fire to engage any enemies visible either outside or inside the house."
"And the rest would be with me to infiltrate the house?"
"Exactly, we can take any exterior guards out silently before you go in - give Miranda more of a chance."
"That's a good plan, do it."
"Aye."
A tense twenty minutes later and they were all on the ground in their planned landing sites. Shepard, Bau, and the nine men with them jogged up from the shuttle to the summit of the hill, lying down on the ground to stay hidden whilst peaking over the top of the hill to view the house. The clear and sunny weather gave them a perfect view of his home. Shepard grabbed his mantis and zoomed in, he counted a pair of troopers on the closest side of the house, and another four were hiding by the front door. They were taking cover underneath the windows, so Shepard hoped that was an indicator that Miranda was still alive and fighting.
Shepard checked the chronometer on his omni-tool, it was counting down to zero. With the communications jammer that Cerberus had the teams could not communicate with each other, so they had to pre plan their attack and hope for the best. When the timer hit zero the snipers were going to take out anyone outside and downstairs of the house and Shepard and his team would make for the building.
"Bau, what can you do? Specialist wise, I mean."
"Tech powers – cryo blasts, neural shocks, incineration blasts, EMP's."
"Good," Shepard nodded his head, the counter was down to ten. "Everyone, get ready."
The final seconds ticked by before the counter finished. Literally, as it hit zero, all of the Cerberus troopers dropped dead to the ground, the silencers ensuring that the shots couldn't be traced. Every single one had been a perfect head shot, Johnson hadn't been lying that the squad were crack shots.
As one the team jumped up, sprinting down the hill towards the forest boundary. They cleared the open two hundred metres very quickly, taking about half a minute to do so. Upon reaching the trees Shepard slowed, indicating for the men to follow him closely. The conifers were packed closely together and once you were in the middle of the woods it was difficult to find your way out to where you wanted to go. Shepard knew the quickest way through to the bottom after many long walks with Legion and Miranda.
As quickly as they could the team moved through the forest. They covered the steepest part of the woods pretty rapidly, descending to the flatter areas by the side of the lake. Shepard cornered around a tree but stopped dead in his tracks as he noticed movement ahead. He raised a fist to order the others to stop and began to creep forwards whilst crouching down. Shepard went another few metres and passed around the right of another tree to discover the source of movement.
About forty metres ahead was the edge of the forest, the house just about visible through the conifers. But there was a Cerberus team just in front of him, he could currently see seven men. They didn't notice the presence of the Alliance team creeping up on them, they were all busy searching the west and east mountain top for the source of the sniper fire. Four of the enemy were nemesis snipers and two assault troopers assisted them in the search. The final man was a centurion officer, Shepard guessed he could be the leader of the group.
He was about to order the men to attack when he realised there was an eighth man in front of them, crouching down just behind the snipers. He was a combat engineer and he had his omni-tool deployed as he worked on a small box in front of him. Shepard was pleasantly surprised, it seemed they had stumbled across the jamming device.
He gestured for three of the Alliance troops to go on his right flank with another three on his left, taking point himself with Jondam and the remaining troops. Slowly they advanced, until they were only a couple of metres away. Then Shepard struck, jumping upwards with a cry and heading straight for the centurion in the middle.
"EMP, now!"
Bau complied with his order, firing his omni-tool neatly at the Cerberus officer. Not only did it remove the shields of the centurion, but the blast jumped to the nearby engineer and overloaded his own shields as well.
Now that the centurion was open for attack Shepard fired a concussive round straight at his chest, knocking the enemy backwards and rewarding Shepard with a cry of pain. The centurion tried to recover but wasn't quick enough as Shepard followed up with a burst from his Harrier rifle, ripping apart the hole in his chest plate initially caused by the concussive round. The officer didn't even get a chance to fire his weapon before Shepard finished him off, ramming his omni-blade through the Cerberus' troopers neck guard. The blade sheared right through the armour and into the flesh of his neck, blood spurting out from the sliced artery.
By the time the centurion's body had hit the ground Shepard was all ready on the move towards the engineer, though this time the enemy was more prepared. He tried to follow through with the momentum from his prior kill with his omni-blade but the engineer brought up his own omni-tool with a shield like function to parry the blow, before jumping backwards and drawing his shotgun. Shepard approached again with his omni-blade, ignoring the shotgun salvo that bombarded his shields during his charge. The gun was raised to fire at his exposed head so Shepard ducked down, ramming his omni-tool upwards towards the engineers chest. The move was blocked once again, this time by the specialist desperately shoving his shotgun into the way of the blade and catching it in a lock. Shepard didn't care about that though, the engineer had fallen into his trap. As they struggled in the lock Shepard used his free hand to grab his pistol, pumping rounds into the engineers unshielded stomach. The enemy dropped his weapon and fell to his knees, clutching his stomach where blood was freely flowing. Shepard used the momentum from the lock to swing downwards and sideways, decapitating the engineer in one swift and savage move.
As Shepard looked up it became evident that they had caught the Cerberus team by surprise, the Alliance troops had finished off the rest of the squad without any issues or injuries to themselves. Shepard walked over to the jammer whilst drawing his shotgun, pumping a trio of rounds into it to destroy it. His communicator immediately crackled to life, and he spoke through it to get to the sniper teams.
"This is insertion team, we just removed a Cerberus team in the woods and took out the jammer. Heading to the house now."
"Roger that, this is sniper west," There was a pause. "We have removed all hostiles on the outside, though we reckon there is one or two hostiles left in the house."
"Got it, moving now."
Shepard nodded to the team, breaking from cover quickly and sprinting towards the house. As he went he noticed several bodies of Cerberus troopers, all with pulverised heads that indicated perfect head shots. These hadn't been done by the Alliance snipers though, Miranda must have shot these ones herself. He was pretty impressed with her work, for all the times he had teased her she could indeed use a 'proper' gun.
He rushed to the front door, crouching to the right of it. The team took up positions to breach the door, several of them covering through the kitchen windows. Shepard took a breath and bolted around and inside the door, sweeping his rifle left and right as he passed each door. The soldiers behind him moved to clear each room as they progressed inside, all calling out that the ground floor was devoid of hostile contacts. They moved to catch up with Shepard but he had stopped in front of the spiral staircase, crouching down with a saddened expression.
Legion was lying at the bottom of the stairs, several impact wounds across his flank. The big dog was still alive but was breathing in a very shallow way, and he was losing blood fast. Shepard lightly stroked his head, giving the dog a tender smile – unless he got medical attention he wouldn't survive. But he knew he couldn't delay now though, Miranda and Elizabeth were his priorities. He nodded to the others and began to ascend the stairs carefully.
Upon reaching the first floor Shepard rounded the corner and bumped straight into a Cerberus phantom that was heading in the opposite direction. Shepard ducked backwards from the swing of it's sword and back into the stairs as the close combat specialist followed – coming face to face with eleven assault rifles. The trooper didn't survive long at all, the storm of bullets ripping through it's barriers and armour almost instantly and the body dropped to the floor with blood pouring everywhere.
They moved to secure the first floor and again it was devoid of life, completely clear. Shepard moved to the spiral staircase again, bringing out his scanner. It told him that there were two life signs on the floor above, in their bedroom. He was about to put it away when he noticed one of the life signs flicker and die, prompting him to swallow nervously. Either they were all safe, or he had just lost everything.
Cautiously he ascended the stairs, heading around the spiral slowly. As he reached the top he turned left past all of the bookcases, carefully pushing the door open whilst covering the room with his rifle. As he headed on in he couldn't see anyone, but he knew someone was still up here. On the floor were several bodies, two phantoms and an assault trooper were piled on the rug. Underneath however he could see an unarmoured shape underneath them, and his heart momentarily stopped.
He took a step forward, passing through the door. Suddenly he heard motion as a knife was pressed at the front of his neck, digging down and biting in his flesh. He expected it to carry on and slice through his main artery but after cutting in a few millimetres the knife stopped and was dropped. He turned around in surprise as a tangle of raven black hair shot towards his face and Miranda buried herself in his arms.
"Shepard!"
XXXXXXXX
"Stay still John!" Miranda chided him as she worked on cleaning out his neck wound, that she herself had inflicted.
"That tickles!"
Miranda rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah."
John peered over to the other side of the dining table where Elizabeth was seated in her high chair, happily glancing around the room. Shepard found it quite amusing that she was completely oblivious of the situation she had been in, and of the bullet holes and blood stains throughout the house. He looked back at Miranda as she continued to work diligently.
"Great thinking with that hidey hole for Lizzie though, I mean it," Shepard hissed lightly as Miranda pressed some antiseptic into the wound before it cooled back down. "Though why didn't you tell me about it?"
"Because I thought you would think it's over the top and unsafe for a child. It was only for very much worst case scenarios."
"Hardly," Shepard sighed, had he really appeared that relaxed about their safety? "I don't see how you could've protected her and fought off Cerberus at the same time, it definitely saved her. But if it had of been the reverse situation, with me there instead of you, I wouldn't have known."
"Yes, I know that now. Though you've only had Lizzie on your own at the flat not the house, but yes you're right," Miranda reached for her needle and stitches, beginning to work on binding the wound. "I didn't mean for it to be like a secret, sorry. But also, you would've been better at holding the house on your own, you were trained to be a front line soldier, I was a specialist operative – not really suiter for prolonged combat."
"You did a great job Miri. But don't worry, we got through it," Shepard moved a hand onto her thigh, rubbing reassuringly. "But maybe we have to sort out some better security, just in case there's anyone else out there who wants to harm us."
"Agreed, we've been too relaxed by far," Miranda stopped, dropping her head. "If anything had of happened to Lizzie, I would never have forgiven myself."
"And if I had of lost both of you..." Shepard mused, being silenced by a finger on his lips.
"Don't, I know where you're going with this John," Miranda gave him a reassuring kiss. "We just have to sort things out, our house needs to be completely safe."
"But we're not moving right? It won't take much to repair the house, and we can sort out some better security," Shepard looked into Miranda's azure eyes, brushing a loose strand of hair behind her ear. "This is a fantastic place to raise kids."
Miranda raised an eyebrow. "Erm...Kids? Plural?"
"Well, maybe we'll have some more kids. If you want, I mean there's no pressure or anything but..." As he explained rapidly Miranda silenced him with another kiss.
"Definitely," She pulled back with a grin. "Now let me sort your neck out."
"Who was the unarmoured woman in our room?"
"An operative like myself, she was in the similar kind of catsuit thing but you wouldn't have seen underneath the bodies of the phantoms. I think she was the ring leader, but once an investigation is under way we'll find out."
"I thought she was you at first."
"And I thought you were another assault trooper," Miranda grinned. "That's my excuse for almost killing you."
A few minutes past as Miranda worked carefully, and she was soon finished. Afterwards they spent some time playing with Lizzie, enjoying the fact that they were all safe. They weren't interrupted until about an hour later, when a medic who was from Johnson's team entered the room.
"Uhm, excuse me," They both turned to face the man. "There's someone who'd like to see you."
Before Shepard could say anything he saw Legion limp slowly into the room. The dog came to sit by him quietly, looking up with big, soft eyes. Shepard was about to stroke him when Miranda jumped down to sit on the floor next to him, hugging the dog closely.
"John, he threw himself between the troopers and I. He almost sacrificed himself for us," Miranda looked up at him with a smile. "Seems you picked the hero pup."
"Oh most definitely," Shepard stroked the dog's big head whilst looking up at the medic. "Thank you so much."
"Well, I'm no vet – I just did battlefield medicine. You'll have to take him to a vet soon though, just to be sure. It was just lucky that I could guess how to help, and that he was a pretty strong guy."
"It definitely was."
"Well, I've been told to let you know that we have been ordered to stay here for a good few hours. Clean up mostly, as well as security. We have called in some glazers for the windows, and some other guys for building work here. Once we're done, you won't even know there's been a fight."
"Right, great," Shepard smiled. "Thank you."
The man snapped off a quick salute before heading out of the room, Shepard raising an eyebrow to match Miranda's all ready raised eyebrow.
"Since when have Alliance troops repaired stuff?"
Miranda snorted. "Well you never did."
"Oi!"
"Ha!" Miranda laughed as she got up off the floor, settling herself in Shepard's lap. She placed an arm around his neck and began to kiss him happily, pulling back with a smile. "Love you."
Shepard grinned. "Not as much as I love you."
Miranda rolled her eyes. "We're not teenagers now, are we John?"
"You make out like one!"
A/N There we go! I don't have enough of a George R R Martin streak to kill off Miranda, at least not yet. Plus it would make for a very depressing rest of the story I think, and there's a hell of a long way to go in my plan just yet.
As ever guys, feedback is really appreciated.