"How many?" Shepard asked, crouching beside the open door.
"I'd say half a dozen," her companion replied, adjusting the setting on his rifle.
"Why don't you take a peek and get an accurate number," she suggested.
"And risk scuffing my beautiful helmet? I just replaced it, you know." He looked anyway, pulling back just as bullets pierced the air where his head had been. "Seven."
"Guess your estimate was wrong."
He looked out again, this time firing two short burst from his rifle. A thud sounded and he returned to cover.
"Half a dozen," he said smugly.
Shepard rolled her eyes. "Show off."
"You're so hard to please."
"Some people have standards. What's the layout?"
"Two on the upper walkway – one a sniper. A heavy behind the steam tanks on the right. Last three are using the piping coils in the middle for cover. One's an engineer. Impressed now?"
"Can you tell me their eye colors?"
"I liked you better when you still were in awe of me."
Shepard snorted. "And I liked you better when you still pretended to be silent and hard assed. Move on my count?"
He gave her a nod, and she leaned out, firing at the steam tanks. A flash of color in the corner of her eye signaled her partner moving forward. He shot as he ran, taking out the sniper before the mercenary could take the shot at Shepard. His long legs crossed the floor quickly, but cover was sparse, and Shepard saw his shields flicker out of existence just as he slid into a gap between some pipes and a radiator. He needed time.
Shepard rerouted more power from her omnitool, giving her shields a slight boost and moved, exposing herself to draw attention. Hot steam hissed from the holes she had made in the tanks, obscuring her view of the heavy. A rocket burst from the steam, reveling the mercenary's location and she rolled sideways, blindly activating an overload at the spot it had come from. A scream let her know that her aim was true, as the steam, no longer held back by shields, hit the heavy at full force.
The sound of her own shields breaking pushed her forward, ignoring the desire to retreat back behind the wall. Her competitive side would likely get her killed one-day, but today she merely took a hit to her shoulder before she slammed into a pipe coiling.
A snort came across the comm. "Very graceful."
"Thanks, I try." Her shoulder went numb, a sign her armor had activated her medigel.
"We're down to two in the pipes. I got rid of some while you were playing target." He appeared on her left, moving forward and grabbing the salarian engineer who had moved to far out of cover. He snapped his neck. "Never mind. Just one."
"Good to know you're still useful."
"There's more. I've got new contacts appearing on my sensors. Someone called for back up."
"Fuck. Didn't anyone tell these guys their boss is dead?" Shepard checked her ammo. Low, but enough.
"I'm thinking Harper might have a partner we missed. Or they are pissed I blew out the engines on their transports."
"Now why would you go and do that?" Shepard asked in a growl. If he had blown out all the transports, that probably included hers. Prick.
"The ships were being loaded with shipments. I didn't want to let them get away. I planned to get rid of this problem in one go, not flounder around after the escapees."
Shepard caught movement behind some pipes and opened fire. The movement stopped. "How long to we have?"
"A minute. Maybe two. They're moving pretty quick. We could take the walkways back to the shuttle bay. Might avoid more that way."
"Not an option. They only go part way."
"You've got schematics of the station?" he asked, surprise clear.
"You don't?"
"Hey, who's the one with the better sensor? I spend my funds my way, you yours."
Shepard sighed. "You haven't changed."
"I like thinking on my feet. Keeps the mind limber. Heads up."
The reinforcements entered the room and met bullets. The first two dropped, and the remaining scrambled for cover. Except for the krogan. He just roared.
"Krogan," Shepard was informed.
"You think?" She did not pull back, simply kept firing at the now charging krogan.
"Shepard."
She ignored him, still firing. The krogan's armor broke and blood sprayed. It did not slow.
"Shepard!"
Four feet. She kept firing. Two feet. One foot. Something slammed into her from her left, sending her sprawling, armored turian on top. He twisted, tossed a pair of grenades, and covered her head. The resulting explosion shook the room, and, by pure luck, overloaded one of the radiators. That explosion took out a good portion of the room, and collapsed the wall with the blast doors and part of the ceiling. The krogan did not make it, nor did the other mercenaries taking cover by the now fallen wall.
"I softened him up for you though," Shepard said.
"Spirits, Shepard, what were you thinking? What were you going to do when he reached you? Head butt him?"
"Seeing how my head didn't break on your thick skull, yah, that might have worked."
"Shepard."
She wiggled, trying to get out from under him, and he sighed, rolling off. Shepard glanced at the back of his armor and winced at the damage. "Your armor's shot. You'll have to buy a new set."
"Better my armor than you," he muttered. "I thought I beat that reckless streak out of you."
"I wasn't being reckless," she replied hotly. "His friends weren't going to shoot me while I had his attention, and I would have taken him. I ran with a krogan for a few months recently. Learned a few tricks."
"I'm sorry then. Next time I'll let the krogan beat you into process paste."
"I would appreciate that. Besides, remember who it was that tried to play one man army on a Blood Pack base just because he thought it would impress the asari commando he wanted to get into bed?"
He snorted and some amusement snaked back into his voice. "I remember. I also remember she was more impressed with your intervention with the rocket launcher. Honestly, I couldn't take you anywhere."
"Not my fault asari go for the better deal."
"Right," he drawled, glancing around the destroyed room. "Hmm, we're going to have to take the walkways. Our other exit is blocked."
"Thanks to you."
"I try."