The Asgard system. Home to one of the most important colonies of the Alliance and a major centre of the galactic platinum market. It was somewhat funny, and maybe even sad, that such an important system could be used for a secret rendezvous between two ships that had to remain invisible to Alliance authorities.
The Normandy had just arrived here from Noveria. Jumping onto board with the Mako 'requisitioned' in Port Hanshan had been difficult, due to the harsh terrain and the bad weather, but the maneuver had succeeded - if more due to Joker's outstanding piloting abilities than due to Shepard's rather average skill (if that) with the ground vehicle. However, problems continued aboard: The ship's fuel reserves would last for less than a week, depending on how much the ship was taxed, and food would run out even before that. Medical supplies, besides simple medi-gel and most basic bandages, were completely used up. There had been just enough material for Dr Chakwas to treat Garrus, Ashley, Wrex and Shepard after the mission on Noveria. All four had been injured in the course of it, beyond the scope of medi-gel to fix everything. Dr Chakwas had been able to - but now she was all out of resources.
Fortunately, Shepard had managed to make contact with Admiral Hackett. Their conversation had been rather icy. The Admiral had been one of Shepard's supporters before, but now he thought the Spectre a traitor. Nonetheless, he believed in the importance of Shepard's mission. Thus, the Normandy would be supplied basically from the Fifth Fleet's backdoor, and the outer Asgard system had been chosen as transfer point for the supplies.
Whether Hackett could scrap together enough material without his higher ups noticing, though, was something still very much unclear. It could be that his supplies would last them only long enough to try to find a new source of supplies. However, it was still too early too seriously worry about that. Shepard did have some alternate plans - Hackett was far from the only source he had. He was sure colonies like Eden Prime or Feros were still grateful to him, for example. Or he could try to give his contacts in asari media exclusive coverage rights of his mission in exchange for money that could buy supplies. On the less probable side of the scale, even the Migrant Fleet (in exchange for Tali's geth data) or Tuchanka (using Wrex' remaining contacts) were possibilities, though Shepard very much hoped it would not have to come to this. For now, he was hoping that Admiral Hackett could give him enough material.
It was also unclear when and how the supplies were delivered, so for now the Normandy could little more than wait, an isolated point under stealth in the outer ranges of the Asgard system. All the while their reserves were running out. However, there was no point in worrying about it. For now, they had committed to the option of using Hackett's help, so either it would come, or not - regardless of how much Shepard or the crew would worry. Thus, the Spectre tried his best not to.
There were enough other things to occupy his mind with. The Council for example. The Alliance considered him a rogue, but the Council did not, and hence he still reported to them. He had just done so some hours ago. Shepard had decided not to tell them about the rachni queen. His status was already fragile as it was - telling the Council he had released a fertile rachni queen into the wild would have been very unwise, most likely. Besides, if the source of Cerberus' rachni were known, maybe the Council would ease up in their efforts against the organization.
So, Shepard had reported the presence of rachni on Noveria, but had treated it as a mystery. He had explained Benezia's presence with Binary Helix' illegal experiments on bioweapons - something that also nicely implicated the megacorp and would hopefully contribute to its downfall. Manipulating the report like this had required cutting out large chunks of his recorded material, something the Council had noticed. They plainly suspected something, but so far they had no actual evidence against Shepard. The spectre hoped it would remain so.
Naturally, he had also sent the gathered material about Binary Helix to his usual media contacts, this time completely sanitized from any mentions of rachni. He had heard the asari media companies he was supplying were considering to open up own channels exclusively for the human market. Shepard would welcome that - it would be a good alternative and competition to the homegrown megacorporate media.
Then there was Liara. As soon as the squad had gotten aboard again, she had basically barricaded herself up in her room behind the medbay. So far, Shepard had not checked up on her, despite a nagging feeling he should. But then, less than twenty-four hours had passed since her mother had died - or more precise, since they had been forced to kill her mother.
And finally, there was Tali. Shepard had to admit part of him already began to question the wisdom of their encounter on Noveria. It had been fantastic, but as was foreseeable Tali had not gotten away entirely clean. She was periodically shaken by coughing fits, and suffered from returning bouts of fever. She on her part claimed to have gotten away lightly and that the experience had absolutely been worth it. Shepard was not so sure about that. It was her call, but he just was - worried. Worried about her well-being, concerned about her in general. With an intensity and endurance that surprised him. On Noveria he had simply been taken away - and that surprised him, too. After all, it had not been like they could have gone further than kissing and light caressing. And yet, it had meant so surprisingly much to him.
There was also another fact - Tali's constant presence around him. She had spent every 'night' shift since Virmire in his cabin, and they tried to match their rest shifts (which was made relatively easy by the simple fact that he was after all the commanding officer of the ship). The funny thing was it had never exactly been planned that way. After Virmire, they both had needed some comfort and afterwards the situation just kind of stuck. Yet, Shepard had no problem with that at all. In fact, he realized, he could get used to it.
And that was a somewhat frightening thought, all things considered.
Currently, she was nestled at his side, while he lay on his bed with his upper body upright. After the mission on Noveria, both had taken a break in their on-ship duties. Since Tali's health already had taken a beating, they had spent the day so far with no more activity than laying around and doing nothing. In fact, Shepard had practically literally tugged her in nice and tight, and snuggled herself in besides her. However, sleep was not on his mind, and even Tali was for a moment outside his immediate thoughts. Currently, he was focused on an extranet news channel, which he could watch on a holographic image projected in front of the bed.
The screen showed a group of humans of various ages, who all had their fists raised. Behind them, a metal wall was covered in several slogans: "Never again!", "Reparations now!", "We're not your tools!". The humans were chanting:
"Do you hear the people sing,
singing the song of angry men?
It is a music of a people
who will not be slaves again!"
A moderators voice commenced: "The strike on the Ascension Project continues for the fifth day. Instructors and older students hold the Project's part of Grissom Academy occupied and prevent any further instructions from taking place - until, they claim, such a time as justice has been done, reparations have been paid and those responsible for the BAaT project are punished.
"Started by some instructors who themselves are BAaT survivors, the strike was quickly joined by their colleagues and by students out of solidarity. News about what happened at Gagarin Station naturally have hit the biotic community hard. Currently, the Ascension Project is completely on hold, and the strikers refuse to leave its facilities. There is an angry mood about them, which make negotiated solutions appear unlikely. Mitra Hendel, the security chief of the Ascension Project and himself a BAaT survivor, comments on how he sees the situation."
The man appearing on the screen had a face that looked like it probably was always grim - but now it was outright distorted in anger. "They kidnapped and abused me, just so they would have their biotics! They let the turians torture us - they let us die on Gagarin Station, those bastards! I was just fourteen, fifteen, and they let me be tortured! Not as accident, as deliberate policy, so they would get working biotics! For fifteen years I've been silent. They simply hushed everything up, so what was I supposed to do? After everything they had done to me, I was even forced to work for them! After all, how else to prevent they'd do this to the next generation of children as well? Hell, they even told me that!"
"Bastards!" Shepard voiced through clenched teeth. "Blackmail, on top of everything else!"
"They had me abused and tortured and that damn L2 inserted into me," Hendel continued on the screen, "and then just expected me to work for them - and I had no other choice but to agree." He made a furious flinch. "But that's over now. No more. No more compromises. I want my reparations. I want to see those bastards punished. I want the Alliance to owe up to what it has done and take the consequences for it! I want justice! I am owed justice! And now I'll do everything to make that happen!"
It sounded like a lot of repressed anger suddenly bursting forth. Shepard could imagine how Hendel had swallowed his legitimate hate for all those years - but now it exploded, because there was no sense anymore in holding it back. Such people were dangerous, Shepard knew. After years of compromising such people would now do absolutely everything to end the compromises.
The reporter's voice again: "In addition to the current breakdown of teaching activities, the Project faces further difficulties. The revelation of what the Alliance has done to the early biotics has let to a complete loss of any trust in the Alliance by the biotic community - including their families. Parents begin to doubt that their children are safe on Grissom Academy - after all, seeing as the Alliance has hushed up matter for fifteen years, it is clear they have not bettered up, so who can say they won't do the same again? And for that matter, Spectre Shepard's revelations about how the Alliance hindered his ExoGeni investigations, about its AI project on Luna and this former SpecOps group called 'Cerberus' further cast doubt on the general credibility and well-meaning of the Alliance."
"Gotta love indie news stations," Shepard muttered with a grin, "too bad so few people will listen to this."
Tali made a muffled sound. She seemed more interested in getting a comfortable position on the bed, rather than the news. Despite everything, that managed to provoke a slight smile on Shepard's face.
"As a result, a majority of children enrolled in the Ascension Project has been recalled by their parents - despite dire warnings of experts about the dangers of half-trained biotic children without further education. Also, nearly all enrollments for the coming year have been cancelled. Taken together with the occupation of its facilities, it seems that the Ascension Project is nearing its collapse, something fueled by a total distrust into the Alliance's handling of biotic affairs."
A wild grin played around Shepard's lips. He knew there were indeed dangers to half-trained biotics, but he just could not suppress a vicious satisfaction about how it all came crushing down on the Alliance. He did not want to, either. The Alliance deserved this and nothing less. In fact, they deserved even more disloyalty and unrest, every last bit of it. The thing was, they had gotten working biotics out of BAaT. All the atrocities committed there, and it even had paid off. Even some unrests, and even if the Alliance would be forced to pay reparations, all that would not ruin that huge payoff for their crimes. Which was a really infuriating thought. Ideally, the Alliance should suffer from its atrocities more than they profited from them. So as far as Shepard was concerned, the Alliance deserved everything and anything they would get now.
A majority of humans was against what he had done, and many called him a traitor. That of course was very easy to say for people not actually affected by those issues. It was aggravating how people would let others suffer without second thought, just so they could feel good about themselves, but that was human nature: Humans always had a tendency to look the other way if injustices were done to other people. However, the biotics, they and their families - those people were affected directly. It was all about them. And hence they reacted in the only logical way - self-preservation.
"Reports of violence done against Alliance negotiators by the protesters are widely circulated, but not substantially backed up," the report continued.
"Of course," Shepard muttered sarcastically.
"Still, it does seem unlikely any sort of compromise can be found - not only Hendel is actively rejecting such notions," the report went on. "Other biotic projects of the Alliance have come under scrutiny as well. It seems the Alliance is besieged on all fronts concerning the issue. Meanwhile, protests on Earth and the colonies continue, with an ever growing number of pro-biotic protesters. According to surveys taken, ever more humans come around to sympathizing with them. However, a majority still condemns what Shepard has done, and there is a trend to radicalization in both camps."
"Sounds... tense," Tali commented sleepily.
"It is," Shepard agreed. "I've been watching news all day now, and - it's amazing. Minority or not, I didn't think the cause would find so many supporters. Maybe humanity at least has the potential to be better. It's just we never follow up on it..."
"Still, more unrest will follow," Tali said.
"Yeah," Shepard responded, "And it might just be a good thing to shake the Alliance up. The animosity between the two camps is growing daily, it appears. A split going through all levels of human society - through nations, social classes, families. And it is the dominating topic. Reminds me of the Dreyfus Case - not that this would tell you anything, but the point is - I think history will vindicate us, too. Just like the Dreyfusards." He sighed. "Three hundred years later we should be able to do better, though. We should also achieve success in our own lifetime."
"You're right," Tali stated dryly, "It doesn't tell me anything."
Shepard produced a skewed grin. "Sorry. I'm just... kinda pumped up now. After having watched the events for hours now..."
Tali groaned. "Emily was right - you should have gone into politics. When we elect somebody to the Conclave, at least we know that person will get annoying from time to time."
Now Shepard laughed. "Okay, okay, you win." He sighed again. "It is an important cause, though," he added quietly. "I mean, all those people..."
"I know," Tali answered seriously, "It's important. But it's not in your hands anymore. Let Goyle and Hendel and that news channel take care of that. People like... like them." A new coughing fit rocked Tali. To Shepard it sounded more like metal scraping on metal than any coughing he was used to, but then, Tali was not human. He looked down worried at her and bowed down to her, but she waved him off. "I think it's getting better," she said amidst the last coughs, "Don't worry about this, and don't worry about all those people, they have people speaking for them now."
"You're right," Shepard admitted. "But it's not like we have much to do until we get that long awaited signal from Admiral Hackett. Though - I could try to see how Liara is doing. Maybe I should have checked on her immediately, but I was kinda afraid."
"She said she wanted to be alone," Tali pointed out, "and it's less than a day since the death of her mother. But yes, maybe you should now. I'd come along, but two people appearing in her room might be seen as a bit too aggressive."
"Yeah, probably," Shepard agreed. He stretched himself and with many circuitous movements rose awkwardly from the bed. "I do hope she can cope with this all. Damn, I really hate thinking that way, it should be all about her, but fact is we'll need both her biotic potential and her archaeological expertise on Ilos. Poor her. She should have the time to properly mourn, but there just is none."
"You're the commanding officer," Tali said, "even now after the mutiny. You have to think that way."
"Yeah, still, I won't force her," Shepard declared. "If she doesn't want to participate in the mission anymore... I won't force her. Damn, she already was forced to shoot on her own mother and watch her die."
Tali remained silent. Shepard wondered what she was thinking. Even now he was not always sure about that. "And more than that," Shepard continued, "I hope she can deal with it for her own sake. Even throughout all our battles she still managed to maintain an aura of innocence and good will. It would be tragic if she lost that. For her, and everybody else." And with that, he left his cabin.
Dr Chakwas was at her post in the medbay. Shepard nodded a greeting to her, and then knocked at the door of the room behind the medbay. It took a while, but eventually Liara called him to come in. She sounded eerily calm.
She sat at her usual place at her desk, and did not bother to stand up or even turn to look at Shepard. Before he had approached her, she said: "If you're here to talk about Benezia, you need not bother. I have come to terms with it. She brought it upon herself."
This hit Shepard by surprise. Liara was always a bit detached, but so much coldness and cynicism did not fit to her. "Ah... do you really mean that, Liara?" he asked. "She was your mother, so don't pretend it doesn't bother you. Not for my sake and not for the sake of the mission."
Liara remained silent at first. Then she stood up, turned to face Shepard and said: "She was... but she was not. I prefer to remember Benezia as she used to be, before she was corrupted by Sovereign's powers."
"That's good," Shepard answered, relieved Liara was at least not as cold anymore. "That's who your mother was, the true Benezia. And even when she got indoctrinated, she had it in her to fight to the last, to wait for that one moment to break free. You can be proud of her."
"I... had not thought of it that way," Liara admitted, "I was sure that she had chosen her path, just as I have mine. But you raise a good point."
"In the end, she became just another victim of Saren," Shepard stated, "One of many. One further reason to hunt him down.
"We already have enough reason to stop Saren. I do not need to add revenge to the list," Liara declared.
Shepard smiled. So much for my worries. Liara was stronger than she appeared at times. "It's good to see that this all hasn't changed who you are, Liara," the Spectre said. Like her moral integrity. Bad enough how revenge-driven I am myself. "I think the best of your mother lives on in you."
"That's kind of you to say," Liara answered. "I appreciate your concern, but I am fine. We will stop Saren, and I will be with you to the end."
This irritated Shepard. "Liara, I don't want any declarations of loyalty," he stated, "I don't worry about your part in the mission, I worry about you!"
It took a while until Liara was able to formulate her answer: "Longlived as we asari are, we are not unused to death, Jonathan. In fact, most of our romantic partners die long before us, so as a society we are quite used to the death of friends or family. We can only cherish the moments we have, and hold dear the memories of the lost person."
"Will that be enough?" Shepard asked softly and genuinely concerned.
"I... do not know," Liara admitted. "For now, it has to be. It is good to know somebody cares, though."
"It's not just me," Shepard said, "We all care about you, Liara. Tali, Garrus, Ashley, Wrex... ah, even if the latter two probably wouldn't admit it, but you know how they are. You're not alone."
"I know, despite how unusual that situation is for me," Liara replied. "Thanks, Jonathan."
"So, if there is anything on your mind, I hope you know you can always talk to me," Shepard continued, "Or to any of the others."
"I do now," Liara stated. "It is... it's odd. For decades I have been content to be isolated from most people, including Benezia. I only know now what I have missed after I have lost it. And yet, it seems now I am less isolated than ever before, and I feel that is a good thing."
"Well, it is!" Shepard declared.
"I will remember what you have..." Liara began.
However, she was interrupted by Pressly speaking on the ship's communication system: "Commander, you need to get to the CIC, now."
"On my way!" Shepard answered. He looks to Liara again. "Sorry, you heard it."
"Of course, Jonathan," Liara answered. "You are the CO."
Without a further word, Shepard left her room. He ran through the Medbay and then down to the command deck, where Pressly was already waiting for him. The Navigator was standing on a console at the edge of the galaxy map in the centre of the CIC.
"Shepard," Pressly greeted him - since Shepard did not wear the Alliance uniform anymore, he was commonly not addressed as 'Commander' or 'Sir' anymore. He did not mind as long as his orders were still followed. "There's a problem. Since we entered the system we've scanned several objects in it. We've been hesitant about using active sensors for objects near Terra Nova so far, but now we did and well -"
Pressly gestured towards the console near to him. It showed a 2d abstraction of the vectors of several objects in the system. "X57, an asteroid recently captured to be used as a future space station in Terra Nova's orbit is on a collision course with the planet. The three fusion torches used to bring it into the orbit have been aimed so that it now directly targets the planetary surface. We don't know what happened - but if nothing is done, then the asteroid will impact in less than four hours." Pressly paused. "Shepard, this is an ecosphere killer asteroid. Twice the size of the Yucatan asteroid that killed the dinosaurs. Millions would die."
Under different circumstances, Shepard would have been utterly shocked, and part of him was - but he pushed this all back in his mind. What mattered now was doing something about his. He was entirely the Commander now, even though he did not have that rank anymore. "Do we have any indication as to what has happened?"
"None," Pressly answered. "We tried to contact the asteroid, but there was no response. We also hailed the planetary authorities, but they hadn't even noticed something was wrong - and the asteroid doesn't respond to them either, so now they're scared and running around in circles. We have no idea what happened."
"Hm," Shepard grunted. "Not that it matters. We have to stop this. Have the squad assemble! We're going to investigate X57."
000000
Tali sat on her place in the Mako and waited for the rest of the squad to come. Shepard had been very apologetic about the need to bring her along to the asteroid, despite her illness. She understood he was worried, even more so as a further coughing fit had interrupted their conversation, and normally it was a nice to know he cared, but she thought now he exaggerated a bit: Four million lives were on the line. Of course she had equipped herself and of course she would come along. A little cold would not stop her.
Liara was also present, the first time since Noveria that she had come out of her room for a longer period of time. When she had arrived in her spacesuit and armour Shepard had seemed worried about her, too, but to Tali's amusement she had brought forth pretty much the same argument as her: She was maybe not yet fine, but she was ready if an entire major colony was at stake.
Garrus was the last one to arrive. In the meanwhile, Shepard was speaking through a shutter of the Mako to Ashley, who was standing outside it. She would not come along. "I need you here, Ashley," the Spectre said.
"But why?" the Gunnery Chief pleaded. "I'd think you'd need me down there if things go balls up."
"Look, Ashley..." the Spectre began and then sighed. "We have four hours until impact. And four million lives are at stake. We'll work to the end to avoid the asteroid impact." His voice became quiet. "There won't be an evacuation of us."
Ashley realized. "You're making a suicide mission out of this," she stated flatly. It was impossible to see what she was thinking.
"Well, I hope not," Shepard said. "With every fusion torch we disable the asteroid will lose acceleration, extending the deadline. But if we have to we'll stay on that asteroid until impact. Because four million people are threatened by it!"
"One more reason I should come along!" Ashley argued.
"No," Shepard stated decisively. "One of the squad must stay here. If I should fall... then Pressly will take over command and get the ship to Ilos. He's a damn fine navigator, but he hasn't fought Saren's forces on the ground. We, the squad, have. One of us must remain behind to carry on the torch, to keep up the fight against Saren. And it must be you. The crew accepts you, you're one of them. More so than Wrex, Garrus, Tali and Liara."
That was a simple truth. Besides Shepard, Ashley was the only remaining squad member who was human, and the only one, period, who was still part of the Alliance Navy. However, she was not convinced. "So you're letting me here, and if you all die, you're leaving me to deal with it. With you all dying for my sake."
Shepard grimaced and nearly winced at that. Tali knew what Ashley meant, of course. It would be Virmire all over for her again. She could hardly live with the fact that Kaidan had died while she had been saved. If the squad were to die on the asteroid, this would be the same times five. Tali had no plans of dying, especially not now that she looked forward to repeating what she had done with Shepard on Noveria, but she knew it was a realistic risk - and a reasonable risk with four million lives endangered by that asteroid.
"I'm sorry, Ashley," Shepard said, barely above a whisper. "But we cannot leave those people to die, and yet at the same time we cannot endanger the mission against Saren, either." He spoke with more determination again: "Listen, Ash. If we fall, you'll have to do it. You'll have to kick Saren's ass. And I know you can do it. Not that I plan on dying, but - well, it's the reason you need to stay here. I'm sorry, but it's as simple as that."
"Yeah," Ashley just agreed unenthusiastically. "But if you should die here, and leave me with all that - then I'll kick your ass once we see each other in heaven again!"
"Permission granted," Shepard answered with a lopsided grin. He closed the shutter, and Ashley left the hangar.
Shepard donned his helmet, and a minute later, the hangar door was opened, and the Mako began its descent onto the asteroid. It was a typical lifeless rock floating in space, all grey stone and grey dust with no other features - except, of course, for the fusion torches shooting their red fire into the star-littered sky.
Pressly's voice came through the Mako's communication system: "Shepard, we have received a transmission from the asteroid. It's one way only, we cannot respond, but I think you want to hear it."
The Navigator was replaced by a female voice: "Hello? Hello? To unknown ship - I heard your transmission. They haven't found me yet, but I can't talk long." The woman did indeed sound like she held down her voice so as to not be heard by others. "Shut down the fusion torches or we're all going to die! God, I hope you're hearing this!"
The Mako hit the asteroid's ground on a relative wide dust plain. "They?" Shepard asked. "I wonder who 'they' are."
"Does it matter?" Wrex asked. "The enemy. We now know we'll have to expect resistance at the fusion torches."
"Yeah, I'd just have liked to know before who we're going to fight," Shepard justified himself. "She really could have said so. Ah well. Civilian observer, not trained for crisis situations. Guess we can't fault her."
"We have three hours until the deadline," Garrus pointed out. "We should hurry."
Shepard nodded, and hit the Mako's acceleration. Tali looked at the Spectre with some suspicion. As long as we don't hit any rocks or mountains we should be fine, she thought humorously. It was gallows humour, of course - she would rather not think about what would happen here if they failed. And it was not like Shepard was really bad at driving the vehicle, but as soon as he hit less than even ground he would inevitably run into problems with his rather reckless approach to vehicular mobility. The problem was just that they were on an asteroid - it nearly completely consisted of rocks and mountains. Tali groaned as they took the first slope upwards, though so far the Mako was still stable. A small shack with some larger sensor instruments in front came into view.
"A technical station," Shepard announced, "maybe we'll find some clues here. Dismount!"
Tali immediately headed to the instruments. Evaluating those obviously fell to her job in the mission. They all seemed to be damaged, as far as she could see, and purposefully damaged at that. It was not just material corrosion or impacts, but some parts of them were outright smashed, and...
"Goddamn!" she heard Shepard curse and turned around.
The rest of the squad stood around something, and Garrus was kneeling down. When she approached she could see it was a corpse, which the turian was examining in more detail. "He must've been savagely beaten," the turian said, drawing from his experience as a former C-Sec policeman. "Before he died. Bullet wound at the back of the head... hm, must have been from an extremely close distance. And the way he's lying there - I can't be sure of course, but assuming they just let the corpse here as it fell, then I think he was kneeling."
"He surrendered," Shepard stated coldly, "and yet they shot him nonetheless."
"That seems to be the case," Garrus agreed and stood up again. "I found an an identicard. His name was Gregor Mendel."
"We still don't know who 'they' are," Shepard said, "but this probably gives us a good taste what they're like."
"That, and aiming an asteroid at a planet of four million people," Wrex added unmoved.
"True," Shepard conceded, "But they won't suceed. Onto the Mako again. We're heading straight to the nearest torch now."
In fact, the fiery emission of it already was in view, and already after the next slope so was the facility itself. It was a straight line until there, and to Tali's relief the terrain offered no obstacles to them. However, as the fusion torch came closer, she expected enemy resistance to appear any minute now.
Instead, the woman they had heard before hailed the Mako: "You're headed in the right direction. I don't know who you are, but... but I'm... damnit! Got to go!"
"Still no word on the opposition we'll face," Garrus pointed out.
"Yeah, well," Shepard answered, "we... Incoming!"
Shepard had the Mako make a quick jump into the air. Everybody was nearly thrown out of their seats - but the Spectre had successfully dodged a missile that way. A missile turret had been stationed strategically cleverly behind a corner of a nearby rock. As soon as the vehicle hit the ground again, Shepard began to fire back. As soon as the turret was destroyed, the squad discovered that the entire area around the fusion torch's entrance was full of such defense measures.
"Appropriate," Shepard muttered.
"Huh?" Tali asked.
"Those are Alliance Navy models," Shepard explained with a grin. "Appropriate that I should now outright fight against Navy equipment."
It was a difficult but not really testing battle. The Mako was in the crossfire of several turrets. Shepard's maneuvers to dodge the missiles became ever more hectic - but they were successful, and the Mako's shields were strong enough to compensate the few times they were hit. The squad, however, was hurled around in the interior of the vehicle. Tali tried her best to keep an eye on the internal sensors of the Mako, to see how the vehicle was doing, but in between being whirled around and continued coughing this was a difficult task.
However, all in all it was not like this was the first time the squad had encountered missile turrets. They had won experience in dodging and fighting them. So, after some of them had been destroyed, the panicked reactions died down, and routine took over. In the end, they proved to be no real obstacle to their progress. After all turrets had been destroyed, the squad dismounted and entered the fusion torch.
Its interior of the fusion torch seemed to be standard architecture for small Alliance facilities in space - an entrance room, which they had just entered, and a larger room, in most cases a sort of cargo bay, behind it. There was nobody in the entrance room, so the squad now positioned itself to enter the room behind it.
Shepard opened the door - and eight eyes turned to them. But on only two people.
"Batarians!" the Spectre hissed.
One of them balked something that Tali's translator program had problems picking up. However, it was clear that it must have been a general attack order. The batarians had some tamed varren with them, which they now unleashed on the squad. It were at least half a dozen beasts that now came storming against them, while their batarian masters provided support fire.
The squad fell back into the entrance room. The varren came charging after them, all red eyes and salivating mouths full of sharp teeth. The squad shot as soon as the animals came around the corner, but it were just too many. One reached Tali and snapped after her. Its monstrous mouth missed her by only the smallest of distances. She pumped three shots of her weapon into it. The barrel ran hot in her hands, but it was enough to kill the beast.
She saw that most of the animals were concentrating on Shepard. The Spectre was defending himself against three of them. Furious, Tali ran towards them, and hit one with the butt of her shotgun. It winced and turned around. Tali managed to stave it off with a second hit of her gun, but the barrel was still too hot. She dropped the weapon, and in one smooth movement knelled down, causing the varren to aim too high, drew the knife from her boot, and slashed the animal's throat with it. Blood sprayed over her envirosuit.
She breathed out heavily, which provoked some more coughs, but no real fit of it anymore. Since she had set out on her pilgrimage, that was the first time she had used that knife in a combat situation. That was why she always had it sheathed in its compartment at her boot - as an emergency measure. However, a single knife would of course usually be a very desperate last measure. She could hardly believe her luck that using it had succeeded now.
"Tali - are you all right?" That was Shepard. He sounded worried.
Slowly, Tali rose. She picked up her shotgun again,and sheathed the knife again. "I am," she confirmed. The batarian beasts lay all on the ground, dead.
Shepard's face lit up, from worry to a grin. He looked at her appreciating and respectful, if also somewhat unsurely. "Nice work you did there. Never took you to be a knife fighter." And after a short pause: "Let's go get the batarians." There just was no time to say much more.
Shepard waved Liara to him. Together, they passed by the door to the cargo bay. The batarians fired some single, lost shots, but nothing hit. The squad positioned itself around the door - and charged. Wrex and Shepard stormed into the room, followed by Garrus and then by Liara and Tali. Immediately, they dispersed again and took cover behind the numerous crates of equipment standing around.
Shepard ordered Garrus to take a position on the catwalk overlooking the room, while the rest fought on between the crates. The batarians had made a mistake when they had not charged in right after their attack beasts. Now their surprise effect had been used up, and the squad could do its usual routine of picking them apart one by one.
Tali saw Liara and Shepard biotically pushing away enemies, blasting them with warps or raising them high into the sky. This time, the squad held a complete monopoly on biotic power. Tali still felt a little left out by this display of it, but she did what damage she could with her shotgun. Still, it was awe-inspiring to see so much dark energy released at once. She could almost understand why the Systems Alliance went to such lengths to uncover humanity's biotic potential. Not that she would ever tell Shepard so. And not that this would in any way justify what the Alliance had in fact done. Shepard was completely right in its absolute condemnation of it - that was the position to which she had come.
She knew that Shepard did not view his biotic powers as a blessing anymore, not anymore as something positive. He would use them if the situation called for it, now that he had them anyway, but after all he had discovered in recent months he ideally would prefer to not have them. If it was medically feasible, he would most likely have a weak L1 implanted once they would hit the market again and once the Reaper threat was gone. Watching him using his powers it was nearly unbelievable he would feel so - but then Tali reminded herself just what he had uncovered, and understood him completely. In her own case, technology and mechanics were both her talent and her call. She did not know what she would do if she had the aptitude for it, but not the passion - and that was Shepard's situation right now.
The fight was dying down. "Any left?" Shepard shouted up to Garrus.
"Just one, right behind Wrex..." the turian answered. "Ah, scratch that. None left." He paused. "The controls for the fusion torch appear to be up here."
"Right, we're coming," Shepard replied.
Predictably, work on the controls was Tali's job. As she began with it she realized that this was another thing their anonymous caller could have told them: The command codes for the torches. As it was, now the quarian had to find ways to override them - a difficult, but manageable task, which she had fulfilled after some minutes of labour.
"That's done," she announced, "it should..."
A voice appeared. Apparently, the fusion torches had an own communication system, and the woman they had spoken to before already could be heard: "I'm reading that the torch is offline. Was that you? Can you hear me?"
Most people in the squad reacted surprised, but Shepard had enough presence of mind to immediately answer: "I hear you. What's going on? Who are you?"
"My name is Kate Bowman," the woman introduced herself, "I'm an engineer. I was part of the team assigned to bring this asteroid to Terra Nova. We were attacked yesterday by batarian extremists. My brother and I have been hiding since they arrived. I think they know the torch went out."
"Do you know what they're planning?" Shepard asked.
"I don't," Kate answered, "But if this asteroid isn't slowed, millions of people on Terra Nova are going to die." A short pause. "They're near. I've got to go. Good luck!"
Shepard looked confused to Garrus, than Liara, than Tali. "Well, that wasn't very helpful," he said, "but good to know we have a sort of inside source at all."
For whatever that's worth. Tali followed the Spectre down to the ground level. Batarian corpses and equipment still lay around everywhere. Shepard looked at them grimly - full of hate. There was no other species so detested by humans as the batarians, and that for pretty good reasons. Plus, of course, these batarians here had tried to start a planetary holocaust.
As he reached the exit of the cargo bay, Shepard slowed down. Tali could not quite see what could be the reason, but she readied herself for another confrontation. However, Shepard muttered something to himself and straightened up again. He walked into the entrance room - and got shot.
Tali ran to his side, and saw a human. He was older, dark-skinned, with a nicely trimmed grey-white beard and he held a pistol in his hands. He looked awkwardly and embarrassed at the Spectre. "Oh.. Oh god..." the man stuttered, "I didn't mean to.. are you hurt?"
"Calm down. It's okay," Shepard reassured him. "My shields took care of it."
"Oh of course. Sorry," the man apologized. "I didn't even realize you were human until, well... Guess I'm not much of a soldier."
"Not everybody needs to be. Just tell me what happened here," Shepard prompted. "Who are you anyway?"
"Simon. Simon Atwell. I was the local chief engineer until... well. You've seen it. Ah, and who are you?" The man asked, "Not that it greatly matters, I know, I just..."
"Jonathan Shepard, Citadel Special Tactics and Reconnaissance"
"That Jonathan Shepard?" Atwell sounded disbelieving. "I heard you turned traitor for good... I mean, ah, it's just what was in the news..." Anger welled up in Tali. She remembered what Shepard had said: How people were more incensed about his revelation of crimes than the crimes himself. And besides that, the squad, under Shepard, had just started to save that man's own sorry ass!
"I'm a mutineer right now, yeah..." Shepard began.
"He's no traitor!" Tali cut in decisively... only to then regret her outburst. Awkwardly she looked around, and took a step back. To her embarrassment she saw Liara and Garrus grinning. Surprisingly, so did Atwell.
Shepard did, too, and turned back to the man in front of him: "Now do you want my help or not?"
"All right, all right. Sorry. It's just the whole situation..." Atwell apologized.
"You're scared, I know," Shepard finished the sentence for him. "But we're here to help you."
"Yeah, okay. But we don't have much time. The batarians fired up the fusion torches, you've got to shot them down before we hit Terra Nova," Atwell explained, "There are four million people down there, Shepard. I... my family. They live in Aronas. My kids and grandkids. Nice communities, good schools..."
"Goddamn blinks," Shepard cursed, again all righteous anger, "We should have kicked their asses already the very first time they did a slavery raid. We should immediately have declared war and gone on an all-out offensive. Goddamn blinks."
"I've heard all the stories," Atwell stated quietly. "Slavering, ranching people like animals. Pirate bands burning colonies to the ground. But this... this is... the Citadel Conventions forbid asteroid drops. I never thought the batarians would go this far."
"The batarians aren't stupid," Wrex stated matter-of-factly. "They can't make a policy out of this, or the Citadel would declare war on them."
"Yeah, true," Shepard agreed and turned to Atwell again: "But if you've really read all the stories... of what they did at Mindoir, on how they treat their slaves... why wouldn't they go that far? Exterminating four million people is not beyond them. They don't even see them as people, not really. If there is any race out in the galaxy who is truly evil, as a race, it's them."
"They wouldn't risk it," Wrex insisted, drawing from centuries of experience as mercenary. From all of the squad he probably saw the situation most objective. He was not as aggressive as other krogan, but he was very uncaring very often. "Not the government at least. These guys must be working on their own."
"Yeah. Just like the slavers technically operate on their own," Shepard pointed out. "It's still the Hegemony markets 'buying' their victims, though."
"We can worry about whom to blame later," Liara intervened, as always the voice of reason. "For now we must stop them."
"The lady speaks the truth," Atwell agreed. Tali noticed that for all his faults in having stupid prejudices about Shepard, he seemed to have no problems with aliens at all. That was a positive side at least. "You have to..."
" ...shut down those torches," Shepard cut him off. "I get that. Damn, why was no patrol here? Where the hell was the Alliance Navy?"
"I have no clue," Atwell answered, "I'm just glad you're here."
Atwell went on to tell them about the situation. He did not know how many batarians were on the asteroid, but figured that opposition numbers in the other torch stations would probably be as bad as here. He told them how he had heard the batarian was leader was one 'Balak' and how the other batarians mostly followed him out of fear. He also told them how the nearest torch station was surrounded by blast caps he had set up to excavate the area, and that the only control device to disable them was inside the blast zone - so the squad would have to dismount from the Mako and even on foot be very careful.
Tali brought up the possibility of Normandy support, to have the ship shoot the blast caps away from the sky, but Shepard, usually a proponent of close ship support, was doubtful: While for now the fusion torches had to be disabled, they would be needed later to correct the asteroid's course, away from impact, so they could not risk damaging one of the stations.
Lastly, Atwell relayed his worries about an engineer crew he had working off-side when the batarians had attacked. Shepard told him about the death of Gregor Mendel, and about how the Bowman siblings got away. Atwell seemed very relieved about the latter; apparently he knew Kate well. He also accepted Shepard's decision that stopping the asteroid for now had higher priority than finding out what happened to his team.
"I'll try to be as quick as possible," Shepard assured him, "Maybe there's still hope for the crew, after we're done with the batarians. As for you, better stay out of sight as best you can. This facility is cleared for now, but the danger isn't over yet."
"Not until you get that Balak guy, yeah," Atwell agreed. "I'll disappear again; don't worry about me."
He headed off, for now into the interior of the station. The squad went outside and returned to the Mako. Nearing the second torch station, they picked up another transmission from Bowman, but it was lost in interferences.