Jade jogged to catch up with the scientist. She'd faced Reaper forces before, but never with that monstrous machine hanging over her. She flinched as its reverberating horn blew seemingly just over their heads and Wrex laughed at her. She flipped him the bird, not sure the gesture would translate, but at this point not really caring either, and checked the heat sink in her Mattock. A moan rose around them.
"Contact left," she began firing controlled bursts into the advancing cluster of husks. "We've got husks and cannibals incoming people!"
"Protect the female," Wrex bellowed, throwing a group of husks into the air with his biotics, allowing Mordin to pick them off easily.
"Mordin! Stay with Eve," Jade shouted over the chatter of gunfire and the Reaper's roar. "Wrex, play vanguard with me. We can push through this wave. Looks like we've run into the tail end of that Shepard's drawing."
They fell into loose formation around Eve and pressed through the horde, leaving devastation in their wake.
"There!" Mordin shouted. "Lab through that passageway."
"Great, then let's move!" Wrex bulled through the remaining husks scattering them like tenpins.
Jade tapped Mordin's back to let him know she'd cover their rear. "Go, I got it!"
Eve and the salarian disappeared down the hall as Jade mowed down the few husks still on their feet. She backed through the door and punched the door lock, making sure it locked with a scrambling program from her omni-tool. Probably an unnecessary measure, but what the hell. You never know when one of those smart bastards will show up. Gotta remember to thank Traynor for showing me how to use this thing.
She moved down the hall, stepping over husk corpses and clearing side rooms. Mordin was already bent over a workstation, muttering to himself, when she finally entered the lab. Wrex covered the second exit.
"How much longer will this take?" She shouted as the structure shook under Reaper footsteps. Dust rattled down from the ceiling panels and coated everything.
"Nearly finished," Mordin's already clipped speech had become almost telegraphic. "Jade, need you here."
She vaulted a toppled table and took the tray he thrust at her and followed his imperious gesture to where Eve sat on an examining table. He typed furiously on his omni-tool and Jade watched, fascinated by the dexterity in his three-fingered hands, so different from her own.
It's actually really amazing we can communicate at all. Evolution shaped all of these species so differently. We're all at the top on our own worlds, but we got there via such wildly varying paths. I wonder what they thought of us, with all of our extra digits and our body hair and general … squishiness. Bet there are a lot of 'aliens' out there who are just as grossed out by us as we are of them.
She was so lost in her own thoughts she didn't realize she'd been spoken to until one of those fascinating hands flashed before her eyes, palm up, in a clearly impatient gesture.
"What? Oh shit, sorry Doc," she looked at him sheepishly.
"Fine, need plasmid microinjector," he replied, not looking away from the readings on his display.
"Um," Jade glanced down at the tray covered in colorful ampoules and tools all laid out in neat rows, and gulped.
"It's the blue one with the orange markings," Mordin seemed to have instantly grasped Jade's dilemma and adjusted tack immediately.
"Next time will bring own assistant. Padok Wiks likely a good choice, if a trifle … enthusiastic," he muttered as Jade handed him the proper item. "Still, must make do with assets on hand."
After that, it became a blur of tools and autoinjectors passed between them. Half the time Jade was sure she would screw something up just by being so close to suck delicate work. The other half was spent desperately trying to keep up with the salarian's rapid-fire demands. Occasionally, she would hear Wrex shouting at Shepard of the muffled boom of his shotgun, but she was too busy to let it concern her. Some indeterminable time later, Mordin's patter finally slowed to a stop.
"Finished," he said simply. "Status?"
At that moment, they felt a massive impact rattle the facility.
"Shepard's done it!" Wrex crowed as a second impact rolled through. It made Jade think of the time she'd been in the middle of a howitzer firing line during an op in Afghanistan. The Maw Hammer has the same bone-rattling quality to it. It was heavier and, somehow, more reverberant than even the steps of the massive machine outside. Within a minute, the second hammer began pounding out its primal beat and together they set up a syncopated one-two beat that must have been felt for miles.
"Need to move," Mordin shouted over the din. "Wrex, stay with Eve. Jade and I will go to Shroud."
He frowned, looking at the facility schematics as they exited the lab. "Will have to disperse cure from main control room to bypass STG sabotage."
Jade glanced at him they at the tower above them. It looked like it had taken a lot of damage from the Reaper.
"Lemme guess," she said, lips twisting in a sardonic half smile. "The control room isn't somewhere on the ground floor, easily accessible to us poor grunts."
"Correct," he replied, echoing her grin. "That would be too easy."
"Course it would," she chuckled then drew her rifle. "Better get humpin' then."
By this time, they'd seen enough of each other's fighting styles to move like a team, taking down hordes of husks, cannibals and even the odd marauder without so much as breaking stride. The near constant stream of banter and gunfire was punctuated by the Maw Hammers' heavy beat.
They were halfway across the facility when they felt it, a tremor unlike either the hammers impact or the lighter feel of the Reaper still two stepping above them, harried by the return of Artemic Wing.
"Sounds like Kalros decided to return our cal- OH SHIT!"
The massive thresher maw breached the planet's surface and seemed almost to fly at the Reaper. Jade and Mordin stood a moment in awe of the sight before beating feet to the tower. They dodged falling debris as the machine threw the maw bodily into the tower.
Fuck, that's not going to do us any favors on our way up. Jade thought as they ran.
For a moment it seemed the Reaper had done the impossible and driven off the massive animal. But Kalros wasn't so easily defeated. She rose from behind and landed on the invading machine like an avenging angel. Jade saw her wrap it up in a death coil dragging it below the surface and let out a ragged cheer.
"Did you fucking see that?" Jade shouted as both Reaper and Maw disappeared under the churning earth.
"Yes. Now must move quickly," Mordin replied. "Tower took additional damage during fight. Structure likely to collapse soon."
"Fuck me," Jade breathed, still overwhelmed by the sight of the battle but she was once again moving toward the tower.
"Didn't realize you were interested," the old salarian deadpanned, keeping pace and mowing down the remaining Reaper forces. "Unfortunately, salarian sex drive relatively low, likely to be a disappointing encounter for all involved."
Jade choked on a laugh then shot back. "Sure Doctor, that's just what you say to keep all the crazy xenophiles at bay." She dropped another marauder. "I bet you're really a wild man in the sack, you just don't want to have to deal with the hassle of women throwing themselves at you whenever you leave the house."
"Who said I liked women?" Mordin was grinning openly now. Both of them were riding high on their victory.
"Ha! You sly dog!" Jade laughed. "It's always the quiet, nerdy ones you gotta look out for. They're always the closet freaks."
They reached the tower's doors and Mordin rushed ahead.
"Stay here," he said. "Hold lobby, I will go to control room, release cure."
"Fine, just make it quick," Jade took up a post just inside the outer doors and waved at Shepard where she stood inside the lobby proper. "I don't like the look of the sway the tower's developing."
Mordin nodded and made his way toward Shepard. Jade turned her attention back to the courtyard. She took the opportunity to limber up her sniper skills, popping the few remaining husks as they shambled through the wreckage.
/Harmon, you got the Shroud entrance?/ Garrus' voice carried all the exhaustion of the day in it. /Shepard sent us back to the truck. We're just waiting for her to call for a pickup./
"Roger, Mordin's with Shepard and on his way to the control room with the cure." She let her smile show in her voice. "We did it. The genophage is finished."
/That's the best news I've heard all day./ Some of the tension had bled from his flanged voice at Jade's assurance. /Stay on that exit. We'll pick you up as soon as Shepard gives the word. We've already got Wrex and Eve./
/Reaper forces have thinned,/ Javik reported. /Extraction should present no problems. The Normandy is on standby./
"Ah, Javik, I knew we could count on you to focus on the practical at a time like this." Jade grinned at how annoyed the prothean sounded with this whole mission.
An aftershock shivered through the facility. Field temporarily clear, Jade spared a glance at the tower. She caught movement as the elevator raced up the side of the facility. Explosions shook the tower, but didn't seem to slow Mordin's ascent.
"Go, cat, go," she whispered. "Then get that narrow ass back down here so we can celebrate properly."
Just then, Shepard came barreling through the doors and nearly plowed right into the other woman.
"Let's go," she ordered, grabbing Jade's arm and hauling her along through pure momentum. "Garrus and the others are on their way."
"Mordin's not back yet though," Jade dug in her heels after only a few steps, confusion twisting her face. "We have to wait for him."
Another tremor from below set off a chain of explosions throughout the facility. The tower's superstructure creaked and groaned alarmingly and Jade heard an ominous popping as supports finally began to succumb to the abuse they had taken over the last several hours.
"C'mon," Shepard tugged at Jade's arm. The tomkah had pulled up and was visible through the main doors. "We have to go."
"Mordin's still in there and I'll be damned if I leave a teammate behind." Jade yanked her arm out of Shepard's grip and turned to face the other woman fully. Hard gray eyes boring into green as she breasted up to her superior. "You would be too if you were any kind of leader."
As soon as the words left her mouth, Jade knew they were the wrong ones. Shepard's eyes softened for a fraction of a second with some emotion Jade couldn't name before hardening again with determination.
"You have exactly one second to get your ass into that truck or, so help me Harmon, you'll wish I'd left you here with the maw." Shepard hissed, jamming a stiff finger into Jade's cuirass. "I will hand you over to Alliance brass for the scientists to dissect and test so fast your head'll spin. I will not tolerate insubordination on my ship or in my command. I don't give a freeze-dried vorcha shit about how fucked up you are from your stint in cryo or how fucking tough your life was before you volunteered to go under. This is my op and these are my rules. You follow them or you get the fuck out of my way. Is. That. Clear."
Jade narrowed her eyes, pouring every ounce of disgust into her glare as she snapped a salute. "Aye aye, Commander."
Then she took the only option available to her. She turned stiffly on her heel and sprinted for the open hatch of the truck wondering if she really had seen the other woman dash tears out of her eyes before turning to follow.