Chapter Thirteen
Just beyond the Charon relay, Local cluster, Sol System
Normandy SR-2 Cockpit, 0539h
"The Normandy's plotted jump through the relay has been successful. The power grids are completely balanced, and our drive core remains at a stable temperature. Gunnery Chief Vakarian has informed me that our weapons systems are online and ready upon your command. Should we engage our stealth system, Commander?" EDI inquired to Shepard, who kept his eyes directly peeled upon the thousands of space crafts ahead of him.
"Can the Normandy address all of Sword that's present?" Shepard questioned her.
Joker double checked to ensure that the Normandy was staying upon her course, out of harm's way, and tapped his holo screen twice. "Traynor's already established the link through the buoy, Commander. That's an affirmative."
"No to the stealth systems, EDI. If the Reapers didn't see our giant fucking armada coming through the relay, then there's no point in our hiding one ship for now." Shepard released Miranda's hand and crossed his arms in front of his chest. "Joker, give me an update on the fleets."
"EDI, take the helms for now," the pilot ordered her.
"Already done, Jeff," the android responded coolly.
"Thanks. Now let's see here," Joker said to himself as he guided his index finger along his holo screen. "Ah. Great. Asari fleets…ready. Turian fleets…ready. Salarian fleet…ready. Geth fleets…uh…" He squinted at the peculiarly coded message in front of his eyes. "Ready, I guess. Batarian fleet…they're present as are the Hanar and the Elcor. Woo hoo, the solitary Volus dreadnought made it through! And last but not least…the Quarians are ready. We're just waiting for the remainder of the Alliance fleets to make it through now, which should be…" the pilot shifted around in his seat as he read the screen. "Oh, the Crucible's convoy is coming through the Arcturus relay right now, sir. That's everyone, then."
"Tell Sword to stand by upon my command to fire when ready," Shepard commanded him.
"Aye aye; the message is away, Commander."
Organic life is nothing but genetic mutation, an accident. Your years are measured in decades and centuries. You wither and die. Your extinction is inevitable.
"Quarian fleet is standing by," the bridge's speakers echoed as Han Gerrel replied.
"The Turian fleet will fire at will upon your word," an admiral stated.
"The Asari will engage as you wish," a Matriarch commander answered.
"Salarians are on the mark," a voice that was reminiscent of Major Kirrahe rapidly declared.
"We are prepared to acknowledge your orders," a geth prime told him.
"The Alliance is rearing for some action, Commander. Let's go get 'em," a female commander reported in.
You do not yet comprehend your place in the galaxy. Submit to us immediately. You escaped from us once before, Shepard, but you cannot do so now.
"Uh, Commander? Are you all right, sir? Everyone is pretty much standing by. You kind of blanked out on us for a moment," Joker's voice roused Shepard from his reverie once again, and Miranda touched his shoulder.
Without further ado, Shepard nodded his final approval. "All fleets fire and engage the enemy!" he exclaimed.
A nearly infinite amount of fire from the multiple fleets flew toward the capital class type of Reapers that hovered above Earth's orbit and around the Citadel. Some of them landed upon the mammoth ships, and some did not. After many rounds of direct impacts that merely breached one set of its kinetic barriers, one Reaper ship released a slew of oculi from beneath its tentacle like arms.
Shepard's next order was to release the fighter interceptors; not only did the Alliance do so, but so did the geth and the turians. The radio chatter that crossed through the Normandy's cockpit speakers was nearly overwhelming for Shepard's ears, but thanks to Traynor's and EDI's efforts, they all came through as clear as a bell one by one. When he was satisfied that the battle seemed to be taking care of itself, Shepard patted Joker's shoulder. "Okay, Joker, break us off from Sword, fire up the stealth drive, and let's make our way into the orbit so that Cortez can drop us down in London."
"Will do, sir. I was hoping to see some action soon," Joker replied with a smile.
"I have no doubt that you'll be seeing any less throughout the next few hours," Miranda spoke up. "In fact, this battle could take us days to fight."
"You know, I was kind of enjoying the whole 'ignorance is bliss' thing for the majority of our voyage or 'hope springs eternal'. Thanks for reminding me about our odds," he scowled and turned his head around to face her briefly.
"There is hope. I'm just saying that it's going to take us a long time to get to that 'light at the end of the tunnel' should you want to throw in another cheap and over used cliche." She leaned over to give Shepard a chaste peck on the lips. "I'll see you downstairs in the hangar bay."
As soon as she was out of ear range, Joker glanced upward at his superior. "Compared to her, Shepard, I am an optimist. Garrus finally removed that stick out of his ass, but I think that he may have unintentionally flung it across the galaxy and shoved it up hers. No wait, scratch that, Miranda has alway had one, and now it's started to grow out of her-"
"Enough, Joker. Focus," Shepard groused and spun upon his heel.
"Wait, sir." The pilot hobbled out of his seat and rose to his feet. "I just wanted to say that no matter what happens down there…I mean…good luck, Commander. It's been a privilege." He raised a somewhat shaky hand to salute Shepard.
"We'll be back before you know it, Joker. Stay sharp." Shepard did the same, and afterward, he extended his hand towards his friend. "Pain in the ass that you've been from day one, I thank you both for your loyal service and your friendship."
"No, Commander, thank you." Joker accepted his hand and pumped it excitedly. "For EDI, for saving my life three years ago, for-"
"Look who's becoming sentimental," Shepard beamed and shook his head. "I never thought I'd see the day when you'd value a person over a ship. And before you even think about it, Joker, permission to play chicken with a Reaper is denied, even if I don't come back."
"But sir-"
"Denied, Flight Lieutenant Jeff Moreau. As you were," the commander bowed his head and gestured with it that it was time for Joker to resume his duties.
Skies above London, U.K.
Kodiak UT-47A shuttle, 0652h
Cortez smoothly guided the shuttle through Earth's blackened atmosphere, and the shuttle's four occupants checked their weapons a number of times. "Satellite images are coming through, Commander," the pilot informed Shepard. "Looks pretty grim."
Shepard made one final adjustment to his new delmucore overlay goggles and arose from his seat to get a closer look at the vid screen. "Holy shit. That doesn't even look like Earth," Vega exclaimed and squinted at the images. "I can't even tell what that planet is."
"Still want to plan for that trip down to New Zealand?" Shepard tore his eyes away from the screen to glance at Miranda. She tightened her ammunition holsters upon her weapon belt and gave him a puzzled expression. "Don't you remember? Before I got captured by Cerberus, we talked about visiting Earth. You didn't want to go to Australia because of your father and suggested that we instead go to the home of the kiwi and what else have they got there…uh…sheep?"
"They also happen to have quite a few wonderful vineyards, remarkable verdant scenery, a gross of pubs, and a sport that I'm sure you might grow rather fond of watching. The sport did have its origin in England, but it's something of a phenomenon down there. It's something called rugby, but most of them just call it football," Miranda retorted.
"Oh, hell yeah, Loco. You'd love it. I've played the game before, though right now I can't remember many of the rules because I was a little drunk when I learned to play," Vega nodded his approval. "I can't even remember where the hell I was now. That was so long ago."
"War does that; it makes you feel older," Garrus spoke up and shifted around in his seat next to Vega. "That's something that all cultures or races share."
"Scars, where most of us put on age by the day or minute, you do it by the second ten times to that power. Your face proves it all." The marine pointed to the turian's ragged mandibles.
"All right, Vega, where's the worst place you ever got shot?" Garrus jabbed him in the arm with a wide digit.
"Well-"
"You take a rocket to the side of the face while we're down here, and then we'll call it even."
Shepard's rich laughter filled the shuttle; Miranda even cracked a smile since she had been present during that particular mission. "Simmer down, you two, and let's focus on our objective," he gently rebuked them. "Now, we'll be providing cover for the other team that-"
Suddenly, Cortez momentarily jerked the shuttle to the left, and Shepard would have nearly lost his balance if he hadn't been holding onto the ceiling. "Sorry, Commander. We're taking fire," he told them all. Another blast of the Hades cannon made the shuttle lurch up and down almost spasmodically. Shepard turned his head to glance over his shoulder at his pilot.
"Damnit, the cannon just took out that other shuttle!" Cortez yelled.
"Change of plans, folks. Looks as if we'll be taking out that sucker for ourselves."
"But how would we even-" Garrus started.
"The other shuttle will likely be carrying heavy weapons. I'll take us as close as I can to their crash site and away from as many ground troops as I can," Cortez stated.
"Shepard, I'll scout out ahead of your unit and see if I can secure the shortest route to the shuttle," Miranda offered. "That way, your pilot can stay out of harm's way."
"What? No!" He removed his goggles, and his eyes flooded with panic. "You're staying with us."
"I'll be fine." Her azure eyes met his, and she activated her omni-tool. With a double tap to her screen, her entire body camouflaged, and he felt her fingers tickle the back of his neck.
"Trust me," she whispered into his ear. Her warm breath gave him goose bumps, and he literally shivered. Shepard twisted his body around, trying to get a fix on her position. Seconds later, she reappeared just where she had previously been sitting.
"Where did that tech come from?" Vega's eyebrows furrowed. "We don't have that onboard the Normandy."
"I might have bumped into a mutual friend of ours, who gave it to me as a gift on her way out of a Cerberus base."
"You saw Kasumi?" Shepard inquired dubiously. "No kidding."
"Well, she let me see her. I doubt that anyone else on that base did."
"She didn't mention it when I worked with her on the Citadel."
"Well, you also didn't mention that either." Miranda shifted herself around uncomfortably in her seat. "But this meeting occurred after you recruited her services."
"Uh-huh. Did she give you any advice?"
"It was a relatively simple task to interface this with my omni-tool. I don't understand what you're-"
"I meant about the two of us," Shepard clarified. "The last time I saw her aboard the Normandy before the Alliance impounded it, she told me to be gentle with you."
Miranda shook her head 'no.' "She said nothing of the sort to me. I shouldn't follow any advice that I haven't been given."
"Okay, Miranda. That sounds great." He gave her a winning smile and reattached the goggles to his face. "The Alliance always skimped their funding with intel; it'll be nice to get some from a source that I know will be 99.9% right."
"No pressure, Lawson," Garrus joked.
"And it doesn't hurt to add a new flavor to the radio chats. Having someone who can insult a person into a pile of crap onto the floor will be nice," Vega added.
"She did actually fire her weapon, too, Vega," Shepard got in the last word as the shuttle came closer to the ground. Miranda arose, pulled out her submachine gun, and gave one final glance to Shepard. She mouthed the words "be careful"; he returned it with "you too" and she cloaked herself. The shuttle hovered directly over the ground, and she jumped out onto the rubble before Shepard could vocalize anything else.
"Okay, Commander, it looks like we're about two klicks away from the grounded shuttle. That's the closest that I can get ya without any immediate Reaper threats in the area," Cortez told them all. "Are you all getting out here, or do you want me to chance it and try to get you any closer?"
Since Miranda was apparently already gone, Shepard removed his assault rifle from his gun rack and signaled his squad mates that it was time to go. "No, Steve. Once we're out, get the hell outta here. I'm sure you heard Miranda's plan, so if you can provide us air support, it would be much appreciated. But if it gets too hot, you cut loose ASAP. Understood, Lieutenant?"
"Aye aye, sir." The three men made their exit without looking back and immediately took in their surroundings. The kodiak disappeared into the sky seconds later.
"Miranda, how's it looking?" Shepard whispered.
"You've got about a dozen Reaper troops waiting for you that are sparsely dotting the area. I'm scaling the remains of an apartment building at the moment, so I can't give you specific numbers or types," she replied. "But let me get to the top here, and I'll get back to you ASAP."
"What do you want to do, Commander?" Vega demanded and crouched behind a corner of a crushed statue at the bottom of some stone steps. "Wanna flank 'em?"
"Stand by, Lieutenant. She'll only be a moment," Garrus said and looked through the scope of his sniper rifle. "Damn, all I can see is more rubble and debris from here. I'd have to move to see something."
Shepard watched Vega's hands go towards one of the frag grenades upon his belt and gave him a fierce but wordless scowl. "Wait," Shepard hissed.
"All right, I'm in position, Shepard," the Aussie's voice finally came through their radios. "Three marauders are all hiding west of your current positions, and the other nine cannibals are scattered just north of you. There appear to be plenty of heat sinks all around the area, too, should you run low on ammo."
"They could be empty ones. How do you know?" Vega interjected.
"I've got better than 20/20 vision without any sort of correction, and I'm wearing infrared contact lenses."
"Got any more Cerberus tech that you didn't tell us about?"
"Focus, Vega. Let's do this. Miranda, go on ahead and let us clear out the area," Shepard barked. "All right, James, go ahead and toss that puppy to get this party started." He gestured to the frag grenade that was sitting in Vega's gloved hand. "Garrus, stand by with your omni-tool to give the marauders an EMP charge."
"Yes sir," Vega responded.
"You got it," Garrus answered.
Half a second after his team mates confirmed Shepard's orders, Vega hopped up to get a fix on the cannibals. Finding Miranda's information to be correct, he threw it right at them. As soon as it blew up, the marauders all stood up in alarm. Garrus extended his omni-tool outward with an overload in response to their actions, and Shepard started to fire his assault rifle upon them.
Once the team rid the enemies of the immediate area, Miranda's voice came on over the radio. "Shepard, I'm sending you a new location to your hard suit computer. Follow it, and you should be clear of any threats for the moment. The path Lt. Cortez marked for you is now littered with hostiles." Some rapid gunfire came through her microphone.
"Miranda, what's your 20?" he inquired.
"It's not me firing, Shepard. I'm just above a squadron of marines that's getting pinned by a harvester. My cover's not blown yet. Going silent for now."
Shepard checked the data through his goggles and led his team forward through some narrow alleys at a jogging pace. They were now about half of the way to their goal. He wanted to go help those marines that Miranda had seen but knew that doing so would compromise their mission. The Hades cannon had to be taken out ASAP.
One area that Miranda had previously scouted to be safe was unfortunately now full of husks and cannibals. Shepard laid down an enormous shockwave to the husks while Vega and Garrus efficiently gunned down the cannibals. And unfortunately, just after this wave of enemy troops, a harvester spotted them. "Son of a bitch!" Vega yelled. "I thought that we were supposed to be free and clear here!"
"I don't know about you, Vega, but I can see that thing's got a pair of wings. That means that it can move a helluva lot faster than Miranda," Garrus shot back, rolled over towards an upside down Mako, and used it for cover.
"No, problem, Commander, I can take it out from here," Cortez suddenly broke in. The kodiak whizzed by overhead and fired two missiles at the harvester. One nailed the creature in the neck, and the other hit it in the heart. Unfortunately, that only took out its barrier and half of its armor. "Whoops, gotta bug out. I've got company on my six."
"Thanks, Cortez," Shepard returned. "Hit the bastard with everything you've got now!" His team sprayed the harvester with all of its ammunition, and the bird-like abomination finally came crashing down ten seconds later. Two brutes angrily growled in the distance and came charging towards the three team mates. Shepard quickly switched to his shotgun and unloaded two shells into one that came dangerously close to himself and Vega. Garrus hit the other with a proximity mine as well as an entire heat sink. "I'm out; could use some help here!" he yelled.
Vega sprang out of his crouch, threw a frag grenade upon the brute's shoulder, and rammed his shotgun's bayonet through the creature's back. His distraction proved invaluable to Garrus, who quickly reloaded his assault rifle, and continued to punish the abomination until its head made contact with the pavement.
The other brute that was in the area began to close in upon Shepard. Its armor plating was at about half strength, and the marine knew that he'd need more than two more bullets to put it down. So he quickly fired those, charged into the mutant, and slammed his fist with a biotic punch into the beast. "Shit, it's not dead yet!" he screamed in surprise and rolled away.
"Now it is," Garrus announced proudly and added another few rounds into its thick skull. "When are you ever gonna make good on all those drinks you owe me, Shepard?"
Shepard straightened, refilled his empty shotgun, and pumped it up. "Thanks, Garrus. 'Fraid I'm a bit strapped for cash and doubt that we'll find a place down here that's got anything cold."
"Shepard, here's another nav point," Miranda informed them. "The ground shuttle is less than one klick away from you now. I'm closing in on the position but can't get too close right now. It's completely infested with Reaper ground troops, but the good news is that the shuttle's heavy weapons are intact. I can't tell how many are specifically scattered among the wreckage, but maybe if I get a bit closer…-" Some static garbled her transmission.
"Wait, Miranda," Shepard ordered. "Hold position. I'm losing you."
"What? Repeat your last message, Shepard."
"I said to hold position," he demanded more slowly and doubled the volume of his voice.
"I copy, Shepard. I'm still safe, don't worry."
"Roger that. We're making good time, and it looks like," he calculated the distance in between the two points, "we can meet you in about five minutes."
"If we sprint, maybe," Vega muttered under his breath. When Shepard cut off his radio's mic, he made his way over to his other squad mates. "Look, Loco, I appreciate you wanting to get to your woman ASAP but have a heart, man! Scars and I are just barely catching our breath here, and you're promising Legs a house with a little white picket fence and a garden already…-"
"Can it, Lieutenant. I want to take out that cannon, and I'm not losing sight of our target here. The faster we do this, the faster Hammer can land and kill that goddamned Reaper in front of the conduit," Shepard spat. "I've had enough of your smart-assed comments today. And I'm sick of telling you that that's what my mind is focusing on, and not Miranda."
Vega bit the inside of his cheek and swatted his hand in the air dismissively at Shepard, who gave him a bitter glare.
"Well, I for one am ready to go," Garrus pointed to himself. "You're not going to let some old turian outrun you to our goal, are you, Jimmy Vega?"
The younger marine's irreverent smirk returned. "Hell, no, Scars. Right behind ya."
Minutes later, they came within range of the grounded Alliance shuttle. And just like Miranda had told them, there was a deep pervasion of Reaper forces waiting for them. After they cleared them out, Shepard led his team to the shuttle. The Hades cannon made another deafening blast and shook the ground as his eyes scoured the debris for any scattered heavy weapons. When he finally found one, the sound of a dissipating cloaking field alerted him to Miranda's presence. She jumped down from a rather tall pile of rubble and joined him. "Fancy meeting you here, Commander Shepard," she smirked.
"What's this?" His forehead crinkled as his eyes searched her body for wounds and pointed to a tear in her suit as well as a large gash.
"I got caught on a fence. It's just a scratch," she shrugged.
His teeth pressed themselves firmly against each other for a few seconds. Then he relaxed and lifted up his shoulders in surrender. "If you say so." Shepard whirled around and primed the Cain. "Uh, by the way, I think all of you might know this, but just in case you don't remember, this baby is a mini-nuke. You might want to cover your ears-it's three times louder than hearing that cannon fire," he yelled through another blast.
The other three took cover and waited for him to make his shot. Five seconds later, the Cain finally followed through, and the projectile landed perfectly down the Hades cannon's throat. Just as the cannon was about to fire into the sky again, it exploded into millions of pieces. "Hooah, right on the money!" Lt. Cortez exclaimed over the radio. "Hold on, Commander, I'm coming to extract you!"
"Thanks, Steve. We'll hold the line for now," Shepard replied.
"For crying out loud, Shepard, will you stop using that damned cliche?" Garrus groaned and loaded a fresh heat sink into his assault rifle. "It's getting older than a bunch of expired power cells."
"Hey, Scars, what was your last count during that last bout?" Vega inquired and picked up a few frag grenades that were scattered among the remains of the Alliance shuttle. "I think I was at fifty-nine."
"I'm surprised that you could get past the number two," the turian shot back.
"Oh yeah? Well, if you run out of ammunition, you can always switch to the stick up your-"
"Heads up!" Shepard screamed as a harvester just dropped about a dozen enemies in their area. A handful of marauders and cannibals began to close in, and the team prepared themselves for immediate combat.
"Ha! Numbers sixty and sixty-one are in my sights!" Vega yelled and fired his shotgun several times.
"Not bad, Vega. Too bad that I'm on seventy already," Garrus laughed, overloaded a marauder's shield, and Shepard biotically pulled it towards their line of sight. Miranda nailed the creature with a hail of bullets.
A blood-curling scream filled the streets as a banshee floated towards them all.
"Oh damn. Just when this couldn't get any worse," Shepard muttered and checked his pouches for his ammunition.
"How much have you got left?" Miranda asked and crouched next to him.
"No more than three clips," he responded despondently. "Those banshee bitches take a lot of firepower to bring down."
"We'll start with biotics, Shepard. Come on, we'll make it outta here."
He nodded reticently and double checked his assault rifle. Miranda kept her eyes peeled upon the beast and launched a concentrated warp field upon it. Moments later, she followed through with a spray of bullets. "Garrus, I need a proximity mine on the asari zombie," Shepard ordered. "And Vega, toss a grenade over to me if you can."
"Yes, sir," both squad mates replied in unison.
Garrus threw out his proximity mine, and Vega rolled the explosive carefully onto the ground over to his superior officer. Shepard unfortunately was in the middle of firing his rifle; he couldn't retrieve it, so Miranda skirted herself around him and did so. "Cortez, give me an update. Where the hell are you?" Shepard demanded as he took the grenade from her.
"I had to evade a patrol of harvesters just a minute ago, sir, my apologies. Looks like I'm clear, no, oh Mary, mother of God…-" the pilot yelled.
Suddenly, the kodiak went sailing past their fight. Its aft thrusters were clearly on fire. "STEVE!" Shepard shouted in panic.
"I'm okay, Commander. I just gotta land this bird soon; looks like I won't be able to pick you up. Sorry, sir!"
"Damn! Stay out of sight, Lieutenant."
"Yes, sir, I will."
Shepard threw the grenade at the banshee, who just started to travel closer to their party. He hugged the wall that he and Miranda were sharing while she continued to pierce the creature with bullets and another warp field. Garrus and Vega held off some more cannibals and a marauder. "This is Commander Shepard, requesting an immediate extraction. My team's getting low on ammo, and that cannon is permanently off the London map You can now initiate the landing of Hammer forces."
"Hang on, Shepard, we read you. It's Anderson; we've got a fix on your location and are currently headed towards you," the admiral answered.
The banshee's barrier was finally down, and Shepard emptied his second to last clip upon it. Miranda's eyes frantically scoured the area's refuse as he reloaded. Finally, she spotted a pile of fully loaded heat sinks, but unfortunately, the banshee was far too close to it. "I've got something, Shepard. I'll head for the ammo if you'll cover me." She shoved her fully loaded submachine pistol into his hands, activated her cloaking field, and vaulted over the lower section of the wall. Thankfully, his reflexes were quick enough that he caught the pistol with one hand and shot upon the banshee with the other.
Garrus and Vega held their own against more marauders, husks, and cannibals that just seemed to appear out of nowhere. The banshee's armor was now losing strength finally; Shepard was now completely out of ammo. He threw down the rifle and tried to keep an eye upon the thin outline of Miranda's cloaking field as she crept towards the heat sinks. She successfully scooped up several and lined her pouches with them around her weapon belt. Unfortunately, the banshee grew tired of launching its biotic attacks futilely against Shepard and now became extremely interested at the smaller opponent whose cloaking field just disappeared to its left. And the prey wore very little armor.
We are the harbinger of your ascendance. Nothing stands against us; our power is unmatched.
The banshee screamed again and launched itself towards Miranda. "NO!" Shepard cried and let an entire clip loose from the submachine pistol. It merely drained the creature's armor to half, and he cast the weapon aside to the ground as well.
There is no pain, there is no fear. We fight as one.
He gathered all of the biotic strength that his mind and implants could muster to charge into the banshee. A heavy warp field from Miranda slammed into the banshee next, and Shepard removed the shotgun from his back. Although it carried no ammo, it could still be utilized as a blunt instrument. He bashed the gun across the banshee's chin and deflected some blows from its claws upon himself. Finally, upon one more hit from the shotgun, with one last scream, the banshee fluttered to the ground. Shepard whipped himself around to see where Miranda had gone next; she hopped over a heavily charred desk in order to claim her fallen pistol.
Embrace perfection, Shepard, and I will show you true power. That which you know as Reapers are your salvation through your destruction.
One cannibal had broken loose from the group that was keeping Garrus and James occupied; it headed straight for her. Aw, shit, not again! Shepard thought. Why the hell didn't they have any armor in her size the last time we were at the Citadel?
The sound of an incoming kodiak shuttle from the sky above did not deter Shepard from his goal. He shot himself across the battlefield towards the cannibal that was about to launch a grenade upon a completely oblivious Miranda, who was reloading her weapon. He unfortunately only came into contact with the arm that was throwing the grenade. After mashing his fist with a biotic punch into the cannibal, he instinctively rolled on top of her and shielded her body with his from the brunt of the grenade's blast. That same cannibal recovered from its fall and headed for the two of them; thankfully, James had turned to witness this and saved them from it with a blast from his shotgun.
"Commander, they're here!" he shouted.
Shepard lay panting on top of Miranda and groaned. "Sorry," he coughed, managing to keep his mouth away from hers somehow. "Are you okay?" he breathed.
She could merely just nod; the wind had been totally knocked out of her.
"Can you both get up?" Garrus demanded. "They can't stay here too long! More Reaper troops just keep coming up like weeds!"
"Yeah, Garrus, we're coming," Shepard said and tried to turn his head. When he did, his body reminded him that of his previous heroic actions and rewarded him with pain. He grunted and felt Miranda's hands creep about his sides to find the secondary release on his weapon belt for some medi-gel. "Aw, that's not it," he shook his head. "To your right. No. Ah, I think you've got it. Good. Wish that those hands could be elsewhere right now."
"Come on, Shepard!" the turian exclaimed and looked about himself. Vega manned the shuttle's turret to begin to fire upon the Reaper ground forces that had begun to close in upon them all.
"In a bloody second!" Miranda found her voice. "He's in pain!" Her fingers finally found the button, pushed it, and three seconds later, he groaned in relief. Garrus hurried over towards them and yanked Shepard off Miranda. He offered a hand to her as well, but she shook her head 'no', and arose. The two of them helped Shepard into the shuttle, and the aircraft finally took off