Chapter 49 Facing into the Storm
The vorcha and krogan were not as it seemed random thugs but belonging to the Blood Pack, identifiable by the skull on their mismatched armour. And like the scavengers they were the vicious marauders were feasting upon the poisoned skeletal remains of the district with impunity. The Blue Suns had all but been vanquished the deeper into the territory the companions delved. The only way to get to the environmental controls was to cross the courtyard, filled with the mercs.
"If I didn't know better. I'd say that squirrel on coffee was trying to get us killed." groused Williams.
The same nagging feeling that her 2IC voiced infiltrated Shepard's hindbrain. She wasn't so positive that the good professor hadn't done just that. But then if he had who would restore the power to the air filtration system and distribute the vaccine? Mentally slapping herself for the lapse in concentration that could get her killed or worse her squad mates the Spectre focused on the objective. "We split up as before Aleena and I serving as vanguards drawing out the targets, the rest of you create a flanking perimeter along the stairs. Wrex, you're Tail-End Charlie. Watch for rocketeers."
Creeping up the stairs both biotics activated the cloaking shields hardwired in their omni tools. They both flung stasis fields around two vorcha flamers, causing them to go paralytic. They would die by thermal clips fired from Williams and Zaeed. Set'em up, knock'em down: a proven tactic of asari commandos. Frontline vanguards rushed, stilled the opposition with stasis fields or pulls allowing squad mates to take the kill. It was no contest to gain the best points. This was no game; it was guerrilla warfare: huntress style.
Power swarmed around both Spectre and huntress fuelling their bodies with Ee-Zo which enhanced muscle and bone. Just as they came out of cloaking, they stormed two more combatants.
"Get them! Get them!" screeched one of the vorcha troopers.
"This is how a real man fights!" roared a krogan vanguard just before charging.
"And this is how one dies!" Williams shouted back hitting the reptile with three sticky grenades. The orbs sailed like so many miniature baseballs through the air and adhered to the enemy's hardsuit's breastplate. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk.
"Oh fuck!" the krogan rumbled, his hand seconds too late as he franticly tried to dislodge the gooey projectiles.
Kablam-Splack!
The krogan was felled but did not die. Orange blood oozed from a score of different places. Even as his body struggled to regenerate, he was losing more and more blood. It would have been better had he died instantly.
Aleena looked over her shoulder saw the pathetically dying male and delivered a merciful biotic kick to the shelled head. What followed was a sickening crack of hard bone and a frightfully satisfied grin on the asari's face.
The next eighteen minutes were a nightmare. Snatches of stop-motion scenes of violence, rocket blasts, the click-skrat of thermal clips slamming into place, gunfire, roars of battle cries and grunts of pain as shields were damaged or downed and the screams of the dying echoing long after Sergeant Death took its meat.
Shepard's squad hit the top of the stairs, HUD cams in the helmets showed no heat signatures of enemy reinforcements. For a moment the flagship ground team was in the clear. Shepard looked at her squad to ensure they were able-bodied. Mostly her focus was on the newest member. He was a proven warrior yes. But the tactics of a lone gunman vastly differed from that of a proven team mate. Shepard knew instinctively he could never be a good leader, too much of a loner. In these last moments he had proven that he wasn't a true team-player. Williams had been left open far too long before Massani closed the gap, and he never made the attempt to ensure the point positions were covered.
He was a grenade plain and simple. Just as deadly to the handler as it was to the enemy. Useful yes, deadly most definitely but not wholly trustworthy nor completely reliable. Use and toss. Perhaps this was why he had come recommended by both Wrex and Aleena. It was often times regrettable but sometimes, just sometimes you needed a trooper that was expendable. Zaeed Massani thus far fit that bill.
The hall stretched out into a dead end, save for two doors on either side. HUD cam indicated four maybe five life signs coming from the left. Better to neutralize the possible threat now than leave the rear flank open for attack. Shepard and Ash took either side of the door's threshold even as Wrex and Aleena readied their assault rifles. Ash slammed her omni-tool against the doors locking mechanism allowing Shepard to toss a flashbang in as per SOP. Just in case there were friendlies in the room, the low-yield grenade was nonlethal. A bitch to the eyes and ears but not deadly.
Five voices rose in curses. Batarians. First thought what the frack were they doing this deep in Blood Pack territory? Second thought. These were the trapped men that kid Daniel had gone to aid.
"Shoot...cough…cough…the hos. ..cough…the hos…hostage!" one of the voices croaked out.
Five bodies scrambled or attempted to scramble to their feet. Most were dizzy, falling back down on their asses. One so disoriented toppled to the ground and remained there.
"Secure their weapons." Shepard ordered keeping her M-9 Tempest trained on the one she assumed was the leader, if only because he was the closest to Daniel's shivering body with a heavy hand gun in his hand.
Aleena and Ash darted in making swift work to disarm the disorientated batarians.
The leader quicker to regain his senses levelled his pistol at Daniel's head.
"Come any closer human and we put him down." a more confident voice barked. "This bastard came here to poison us."
"Wait!" the young man's yelped. "Wait! I came with the vaccine!"
"Liar!" Leader snarled.
'Are all batarians this stupid?' Shepard growled internally. One of the many reasons she actively despised the race. "Just think for a moment." She snapped. "If he was intent on unleashing the plague why the frack would he come into vorcha territory? They are immune."
"She's got a point, boss." said a voice of reason.
"We release him, we can go?" Leader kept his gun level at Daniel's head but his face was turned to the Spectre.
"You have my word." Shepard said tilting her head ever so slightly to the right, indicating a marginal if contemptible diplomatic respect for him. Or at very least the gun in his hand.
"Fine. Get out of here." The leader lowered his gun hand.
Daniel darted past him and practically ran into Wrex still loitering in the rearguard. "Thank you. Thank you…"
"Shepard. Special Tactics and Reconnaissance." her title caused the batarians to give nervous looks to each other. Her clipped voice brought all their sixteen eyes back to her. "Just get back to the clinic." the Spectre commanded to the human. "Dr. Solus is in need of your help, the clinic is over run with patients."
"Yes ma'am." the young man gave a look to the looming Krogan before darting down the stairwell. He practically expected to hear gun fire, but none came.
"We let him go. We're free now?" Leader diverted attention back to him.
"I gave my word, batarian. Leave."
"Nobility from a human, I didn't expect that." Leader said and much to his own surprise he hadn't scoffed at the honor shown him.
They held their hands out for their weapons but Shepard shook her head. "I said you can leave, I never said you'll be leaving armed."
"And if we run into trouble, Spectre?" the one dubbed Reason spoke up.
"I suggest you run." Williams supplied. "It's the batarian way to hit-low, snatch and run isn't it?"
Four jowly faces snarled at the slur, but they knew as it stood they were powerless to do anything but shout insults back.
Even as they were still filing out, Zaeed spoke out. "Damn mistake letting 'em off like that. Even unarmed, they'll only turn around and…."
"I gave my word." Shepard said coolly cutting off the old bounty hunter. The batarian thugs departed going in the same direction Daniel had disappeared. The way was mostly clear, even if they ran into trouble, there was that lingering dark part of the Spectre's mind that said: 'No great loss…' "Take the thermo clips, the rocket launchers, destroy the rest."
The weapons were piled in a stack on top of a crate where Ash tossed an incendiary grenade and shut the door behind her. There was a muffled POP, then nothing.
The right door. Multiple lifeforms appeared on the HUD in little ruby specks. "We do this in our own smash and run." Said the Spectre.
Hit and run, smash and run the tactics were virtually identical. As it stood it was the best option before the squad. The one rule of smash and run is to expend at least half your ammo outside your sweep area; that way the enemy is kept confused as to where you actually are—that and keep moving, do everything fast. You're always heavily outnumbered: surprise and speed are what saves you.
Ash and Zaeed were already loading their rocket launchers while Shepard called out orders. "Squad! By leapfrog! Biotics Advance!"
That left the human rocketeers with nothing to worry about for twenty seconds, so they jumped before discarded heaps of crates nearest their positions, raised the launcher to their shoulders, found targets in the upper balconies and pulled the first trigger to let rocket have a lock on its target, and pulled the second trigger and kissed it on its way, jumped back behind the crates.
Shockwaves ripped ahead of Aleena clearing a bloody swathe before her, tearing into a grouped pack of vorcha troopers, one of them a flamer. He fell hard against his fellows exposing the explosive pack on his back. The huntress saw the opportunity and took it. The stink of roasted flesh rose in the air born on a cloud of cloying black putrid smoke. The creature died with flames searing down his throat. He literally choked on fire. Those around him were caught in the explosion and ignited. Their bodies became brilliant torches assaulting the courtyard in ghastly illumination. Screams rose highly pitched and then suddenly deafeningly silenced.
At the same moment Aleena attacked with her shockwave, Shepard deployed a warp-singularity at a charging krogan as she had the fraxon shark so long ago. The battlemaster deep in blood rage shrieked as he was flung back against a bulkhead. His shelled body was twisted and torqued in a way no krogan could bend gave momentary pause to even Wrex. Shepard's power had greatly intensified its yield of dark energy. Her warp-field sustained tearing at the redundant organs within the enemy krogan. The results would be the same with reptile as it had the giant fish on Thessia. His organs liquefied. Death though instant was excruciating.
Wrex sprinted to the left flank, letting loose a barrage of gunfire. His own terrifying bloodrage roar reverberated off the walls. He sent his own biotic slam into the masses, causing two varren and one vorcha to sail into the air only to crash down with enough g-force to shatter the skeletons into so many little shards of bone.
The enemy line had lost cohesion.
The flagship team continued to leapfrog: the biotics moved forward struck, then rockets, and finally the battlemaster. In this fashion they cleared the section and moved into the control centre proper. Here they paused for they were not attacked but spoken to.
"NO! You don't come here!" the vorcha leader screeched through his piranha teeth. "We shut down machines. Break fans. Everyone choke and die! Then Collectors make us strong." he held his fists near his emaciated exoskeleton torso as if to demonstrate the promise that had been given to them.
"What did the Collectors want?" Shepard demanded.
"Collectors want plague." the beast-man screamed in a voice that sounded as if the answer should have been self-evident. "You work for doctor. Turn on machines, put cure in air. We kill you first!"
The team scattered. Ash and Wrex rolled to the left attempting to take refuge behind the pillars separating the main chamber from the alcoves and nearly ducked right into enemy hands. The same was true for Zaeed who had gone to the right.
Shepard and Aleena fell back near the door of the core control room. With no overt cover; Aleena dropped to a crouch and erected a bubble of pure dark energy to shield her commander and herself from the hail of gunfire raining down upon the position.
"Aleena, maintain it." The Spectre nearly ordered the others to fall back until saw the simmering orange shields covering both Wrex and Ash's hardsuits effectively causing the structural integrity to harden into power armor. As long as the power was active both soldiers were going to be incredibly hard to kill.
Both launched a couple of rockets into a nest of vorcha rushing from the left fan control center. With any luck one of the skulking bastards would be armed with a flamethrower. Rocket and flamer made for an explosive and quick end to saboteurs.
Leapfrog maneuvering was over. The advance had been pressed, all advantages of the prior assault gone. It was getting less healthy to remain anywhere even moving fast. The companions had an enormous advantage of being able to rampage in amongst the Blood Pack in a fashion that let the ground team fire at them without the fear of hitting each other while the enemy stood a great chance of hitting their own people in shooting at Shepard's people.
Nevertheless the vorcha were relentless, even barbequing their own men did not hamper them, did not derail their momentum. They simply closed the gap left by their dead and pressed forward. Wrex and Williams's supply of rockets had swiftly been depleted as had the grenades. They were now resorting to their rifles, as was Zaeed.
Aleena struggled to maintain the barrier bubble; it took all of her concentration thus prohibiting her from doing anything else. From all flanks the vorcha had taken the balconies, launching volley after volley of rocket fire.
Pinned down as they were, the Spectre became desperate to protect her squad, to push back the enemy. Instinctively her mind traveled along the length and breadth of Prothean knowledge sealed within her. Shepard's mind flashed suddenly with the memories of Regent Izu-Chuan.
She had been the Prothean overseer of Attican Beta Cluster of which the planets Feros and Quana in the Theseus system were a part. Izu-Chuan had initiated the Avatar Program. It was a highly controversial plan to best the galactic dominance and inevitable annihilation of all organic life by the Reapers. The Avatar Program relied on the success of the vinculum's capabilities to collect and store the consciousnesses of all those who had submitted.
Shepard's mind had been filled with countless memories of the Protheans. It had been the Cipher and the explosion of that first beacon that changed her mind forever. The Spectre not only had the beta waves of a Prothean, she had their biotic capabilities. Coupled with the affects of the gestalt, that power when released was unstoppable. It was in those memories, preservation and battle became a flare in Shepard's waking consciousness. She was no longer fully human nor did she think like one. Suddenly she knew exactly what to do, how to do it, but she needed more power.
'Liara!" Shepard sent through the bond "Link your biotics with me.' There was no hesitation only eager compliance from her bondmate. A surge of dark energy traveled through the mental connection pouring into Shepherd's body. "Squad, muster under the barrier. NOW!"
It took a second before compliance. Wrex and Williams retreated, scuttling backwards hurriedly to Aleena. Only Zaeed hesitated.
Shepard stepped forward to the rim of the barrier bubble. Both hands were held in front of her, her arms fully extended at shoulder height, her thumbs touching and her fingers splayed wide, she drew the life-force of her enemies into her waiting grasp, channeling them into her and absorbed their power. It was as a tsunami drawing back the vastness of the ocean before the unstoppable force surged hungrily onto the land. Shepard's eyes became the solid blue-white of an asari huntress.
Zaeed felt his chest clutch in pain, his body weakening. In sudden clarity he realized what Shepard was doing, his reluctance to obey the woman had nearly cost him his life. Falling backwards he crab-walked under the barrier Aleena was struggling to maintain. Wrex, a biotic as well lent his own barrier bubble to strengthen the asari's. The bubbles would protect them from the Spectre's reave
Aleena's own eyes went wide as Shepard unleashed the pulsating whirlwind of unstoppable fury. Great cyan waves of churning rushing unrelenting rage swept into the hordes of vorcha and krogan. The everlasting screams of the tormented filled the air in a flood of death. Bodies twisted, turned and rose spiraling into the air. It was a slaughterhouse. Bodies of the enemy were torn asunder.
Then it was suddenly silenced.
Smoldering piles of corpses littered the battlefield; the stink of burning flesh clung to the inside of nostrils as molten tar. Puddles of sticky orange blood seeped into the crevices of the floor. The Blood Pack were routed.
Shepard fell hard to her hands and knees, panting. Williams rushed out of the bubble to her skipper's side but the Spectre pushed her aside. "I'm fine." she said between great gulps of air and gritted teeth. "Get to the air filters. Complete the mission."
This time it was Ash who hesitated. The others were almost fearful to move before Wrex ambled forward. He didn't know what just happened. He in all his centuries of life had not seen anything close to this. A biotic pull-and push coiled into a singularity and had warped forward. How was it even possible? It shouldn't be possible!
It unnerved the great battlemaster. More than that, Shepard actually managed to place fear into his heart. It was a feeling he had not experienced before. Not like this. Not even during the Rebellions had he ever seen such power. What was Shepard becoming? Disliking this feeling the battlemaster pushed ahead for the core's control systems. "Massani, Williams you heard Shepard. Get to the port and starboard fans get them started."
"Wait, what the fuck just happened? What the fuck was that? " Massani demanded.
Shepard was still drawing in great gulps of air and didn't answer. Tendrils of dark energy quietly and dimly spiraled around her limbs like electricity around Tesla coils.
It was Aleena who spoke. "The Protheans."
"The Protheans? What the fuck?"
"Massani!" Wrex barked. "You were given an order. Do it! You too Williams."
Ash gave a fleeting look to her commander and friend before springing to her designated location to comply with orders.
"Massani!" Wrex's second bellow broke the hypnotic hold of the bounty hunter's awe. With a lasting glance of her shoulder the old man sprinted to the starboard fan controls.
MEMEMEMEMEMEME
Liara was on her hands and knees. She felt every aspect of her body drained. Only once before had ever she felt her connection to her biotics so utterly exhausted. Forty years ago, Liara had suffered a biotic backlash from a Prothean security device when she attempted to open a vault door on Quana. It took her a full day to recover. She suffered a migraine and her body felt as if every muscle had been drawn so taut she feared they snap, her nerve endings infested with spider-ants biting and stinging as they spun their webs. This feeling now was more so.
It was all the more potent for the connection to Samantha. She could not help but experience her bondmate's fatigue on top of her own. Her head exploding with excruciating pain she had never felt before and at once Liara knew what it was, a migraine stemming from over exertion of an incredible amount of biotic power.
Liara knew her bondmate felt the crippling headaches from time to time, more so in her childhood than now because of the treatments for Cyan Syndrome. But Goddess the pain was overwhelming! How had Samantha ever survived with this torment, especially as a child? Liara gasped in pain, holding her head, willing the agony to leave her. Spots of searing white light sparkled and strobbed beneath her eyelids.
Garrus and Tali sprinted to the asari's side as soon as she toppled to her knees. Worried glances to each other spurred their next actions. Garrus scooped the agonized woman into his arms and carried her to the loft's bedroom and laid her down on one of the lower bunks. Tali sprinted to their food stores grabbed one of the blue-foil MREs and a canteen filled with a highly potent energy drink as well as one filled with water. She rushed back to the bedroom so quickly she dropped one of the canteens which clattered loudly to the floor causing her and Garrus to wince when Liara moaned in pain for the echoing sound of it. To her it must have seemed over a hundred decibels of sheer auditory torment.
"Sorry." Tali cringed and scooped up the offending container. She handed it to Garrus who opened it up and tried to bring it to trembling purple lips.
"Here, try and take a few sips," he said tenderly.
But Liara shook her head, as she curled up into a fetal position. Garrus looked over to Tali who shrugged; she was at a complete loss at what to do. He capped it and set it aside for the moment.
"It must be Shepard. Something happened to her." Tali said softly. "Something bad."
"You don't think…" Garrus couldn't bring himself to utter the words: 'she's dead.' It felt a betrayal to even think them.
"She's still alive." Tali said firmly, unwilling to entertain any other possibility. The unspoken words were there to read in the turian's face and Tali hated herself for thinking them as well. Even if it was just for a moment. "It's their link, their biotics. You saw it. Liara was all glowing then she stopped and fell. Shepard must have pulled a lot of energy from her."
"But why would Shepard need that kind of power? What was she fighting a thresher maw on foot?" the turian wondered aloud.
Tali shook her head. Gingerly she crept closer to Liara's prone form. "Liara, I know you don't want to but you should drink something. The juice or water. You need to get your electrolytes back up. You need to get hydrated. Just try, okay? It will make you feel better." Tali handed the last canteen to Garrus. "I promise."
A blue trembling hand reached out to take one of the canteens. Liara held it but she was shaking too hard to even attempt to bring it the short distance to her mouth. Garrus took over, he held the back of her neck to support her and tilted the mouth of the canteen over Liara's and spilled a small portion of the dark ruby liquid into her throat careful not to choke her. Some of it spilled down the corners of her mouth which Garrus wiped away with the pad of his thumb. He looked back over his shoulder to Tali, her body language mirrored his own expression. One of fear and worry.
If Liara was this bad, how much worse off was Shepard?
MEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEME
Shepard swallowed back the wave of nausea and emptiness now consuming her. Never before not during that last battle at Elysium, not with Sovereign falling down upon her in the Citadel Tower had she used her biotics in such a way. Never had she encompassed such power. Never before had she felt the raw glory of dark energy filling her. Never before had she felt so utterly drained.
Someone touched her. It took several heartbeats to realize it was no friendly. The hand too rough, too strong to be anything but a krogan's and it wasn't Wrex.
"DIE!" The bestial battlemaster bellowed and then he threw her.
Shepard flew through the air, so fast so hard she had no time to brace herself for impact. She struck one of the supports of the left hand alcove, so hard it bent the metal. Though her hardsuit had taken the brunt of the abuse, it was only due to her reinforced skeleton and bio-synthetic organs that she did not die on impact. She landed with a hard bounce against the metallic floor and rolled to a stop.
She looked up to see a body coated in orange blood, it leaked from eyes, ears, it streamed from his great maw in steady rivers. His barrel chest was caved in as if by a great fist struck its center mass and yanked out his gut, leaving a dark blistered cavity behind.
Aleena's biotics were as exhausted as Shepard's. Nothing left. Her head dizzy from maintaining the barrier bubble to protect them all from the warp-storm. She could not stop him with biotics. A shaking hand reached for her Disciple shotgun.
The krogan had Shepard again by the back of the neck. Again he flung her into the support structure. There was no crash. No cry of pain, no onomatopoeic sound of meat and armour slamming into metal. Shepard flew! She flew up. Gravity betrayed the battlemasters great rage.
A shot rang out. The krogan looked down. Looked behind him and saw an asari teetering on unsteady feet holding a shotgun. He fell to his knees. The last image he saw as his head turned upwards was Shepard standing on the wall near the beam he meant to crush her against.
Aleena followed his gaze and laughed almost hysterically at the sheer absurdity of the situation.
The grav-locks! Of course!
Shepard had insisted that each hardsuit be equipped with the GLs. They were not on unlike mag-lock boots but didn't require a metal surface to function. In the GL training the soldiers of the Normandy had learned to use the leveler to fall 'up' to slow their 'descent' to a controllable fall, then to fall 'down' again onto whatever surface they wanted if they desired to stay on it for awhile. The ground-troops partiality those without biotics learned that they were essentially using the equivalent to a biotic lift without a time limit. As Tali once explained the GLs do not level gravity as so much as lock it in a micro-fractional bubble. It neither creates nor alters the actual acceleration of gravity merely redirects it without loss.
In this case, when Shepard was thrown, she had microseconds to activate the GL allowing her to fall down onto the I-beam rather than slam into it. The effect was the amount of force of impact. The landing merely knocked the wind from her lungs again rather than suffer head and spinal trauma.
She staggered down the surface of the support structure until she met the floor and deactivated the GL.
"Damn good thing you remembered that." The huntress said nodding to the small discus sized device on Shepard's utility belt.
"You're telling me. Good shot by the way."
"Easy shot." Aleena corrected. "Nothing like shooting a corpse with even more holes than he already has."
The others came running even as the asari finished speaking. "We heard shots fired, and a roar. What the hell's going on? Skipper you all right?
Shepard shook her head. "I'm fine. The battlemaster here didn't know he was dead. Aleena and I just had to explain it to him."
Wrex was still wary of the power he witnessed but Shepard was his friend. And he trusted her. "Looks like you got tossed around a bit."
Shepard nodded.
"Ah the wonders of redundant organs."
Shepard rubbed the back of her bruised and sore neck. "Yeah humans don't have that."
"Must have hurt like hell then." Wrex snorted sympathetically.
"I'll live." It should have hurt like hell. The pain only lasted moments before she was on her feet, this wasn't right. Something was wrong. The Spectre felt queasy but…she should be out cold. "I hear the fans kicking in." Shepard changed the subject. "I take it we have joy on the vaccine disbursement."
"All systems are go." Williams confirmed. She took a step closer to her CO. "Skipper, are you sure you're okay? Seriously you look like you're going to pop your cookies."
Shepard gave her a look.
"I'm just saying."
"Zip it Williams." the voice suddenly became stern. It was the voice of command and filled expectations of obedience. "Let's get back to the professor. He'll want to know about this."
"Pretty damn sure the Professor already knows about the enviro-units coming back on line. What I want to know about is how in hell you pulled off that biotic storm, Shepard. And what the god damn hell did your lackey mean it was Prothean?" Zaeed Massani growled.
"Need to know, Massani and right now you don't need to know the details." Shepard said utterly dismissing the older human. "We have a beta team we need to rendezvous with, a professor to get back to my ship and an operative to collect. I neither have the time nor patience to explain anything to you this moment. We move out."
Wrex and Ash having known their commander longer, knew Shepard was not only hiding the pain her body was in but her own fears of what had just happened. How she was able to control such enormous biotic power. They could read it in her electric blue eyes, Shepard was terrified of it. In those orbs they also saw dread for her beloved bond-mate. She was all but chomping at the bit to return to Liara's side. Whatever the Spectre had done had equally affected T'Soni.
"Here." Aleena handed Shepard one of her protein bars knowing as a medic that had she told the human to eat the suggestion would have been dismissed or rather placed: 'yeah in a moment' category. Handing Shepard a half unwrapped bar, she'd automatically bite into it and eat it without noticing she was doing so. Considering the bars left the mouth feeling father dry and gritty feeling, Shepard would take care of drinking from her canteen on her own.
Shepard's mind boggled. Why wasn't she in more pain? Why wasn't she incapacitated? Hell, she shouldn't even be moving; her head should be killing her. The neurological, biological and implant upgrades to stave off Cyan Syndrome should not have completely taken away the after effects of what she had done.
The voices of her companions droned on and on as she sought out the solutions to the questions she already knew the answers to. Liara had taken her pain, taken her exhaustion, her suffering from the biotic backlash.
"She aint talking, but you three know what the hell happened back there. I want answers." Zaeed demanded. "What the frack was that? And don't give me no Prothean bullshit either."
"Shepard said need to know, you'll know when and if she's ready to let you know, Merc." Williams shot back. "Not before then."
"I knew signing on to this crew would be bad news." Massani groused. "All I can say you people better damn well deliver your end of the bargain."
"Shepard keeps her word." Wrex rumbled.
There was no response from their leader either to confirm that Massani was to have his Intel, orders to keep his teeth together or walk. Nothing. Not that the members of the ground crew actually expected her to, at least not after that storm-wave she had created. Her distraction was understandable. The three who knew her wanted answers just as much as Massani did, and the answer of the Protheans was getting old and very worn. But if Shepard didn't understand how she came to use such a phenomenal force how could she explain it to anyone else?
'Liara.' Shepard whispered through the bond that linked her soul to her beloved. 'Liara this isn't your pain. Love, pull up your barriers. Do not suffer this.'
MEMEMEMEMEMEME
"Not until you're out of that…place." Liara swallowed hard. The migraine was so intense it was difficult to talk, to think to do anything but succumb to the pain.
Garrus looked quizzically at his friend. "Liara?"
"I said no!" Liara's hands flew up to her skull. Her eyes screwed shut her teeth gnashed together. "Argh."
Tali grabbed Garrus by the arm. "I don't think she's talking to us."
"You think she's talking to Shepard? I thought that was all in here." he tapped his head. "It's all internalized."
"She's probably not aware she's talking aloud." Tali answered. "Something happened when Liara was all glowing. I don't know what Shepard did, but it had to be big. Something to do with biotics that created one hell of a backlash."
"Like what happened to them when their baby was killed and the scare with CS." Garrus responded. "Spirits, that was barely a month ago and yet it seems like it happened a hundred years ago."
"I don't think it does to either of them. They are still suffering from their baby's death. Their hearts still are mourning." Tali murmured. "The shock of the attack, connected to their child's soul when she died, then trauma of CS, there is only so much pain a person can take before…"
"…before their friends pick them up, dust them off." Garrus finished the thought. "When Shepard admitted what was going on with her, I looked up more on Cyan Syndrome. It was damn lucky Chakwas caught it in time before permanent damage set in."
"I know." Tali uttered softly. "I did it too."
They hadn't been the only one on the flagship ground team that had done a bit of research. In fact all of them had. What they discovered about the illness was profoundly troubling. Victims of CS suffered devastating emotional states. All emotions were felt with such intensity it became overwhelming. Even if Shepard was only borderline CS sufferer she had been prone to the early affects of the illness. And they had seen how turbulent her emotions were: swift anger which should only have been a mild annoyance. Rage from anger. Inconsolable sorrow from sadness, the love of friendship into luminous lust, what was pure love became possessive jealously guarded passion.
All that was little more than a month ago. This whole exercise with capturing Miranda Lawson had been birthed during Shepard convalescence from CS. While fundamentally the capture of an enemy agent was a sound idea, the rage that coincided with it was troubling. But the Shepard's team would go along with it, not because it was expected but because they believed in her. She was a part of them even as they were a part of her.
At the end of the day, they were just that a team whose connection was stronger than family. What worried the rest had it been Shepard's visceral reactions against Cerberus for that was explainable as was not only her own angst she was feeling but Liara's as well. Shepard and T'Soni were so connected, what happened to one happened to the other. What one felt so too did the other, physically and emotionally. Shepard's obsessive drive to take Lawson came from Liara's insatiable hunger for revenge.
In truth, it was Liara's reaction that become greater the concern, for in some aspects she was not the young asari they knew a year an a half ago. T'Soni had become a woman of rage and vengeance. Gone was the sweet innocent, socially awkward archaeologist found in a Prothean security bubble on Therum, in her place was a woman who would not hesitate to flay someone alive with her mind.
Liara's reaction now was the prime disquiet. The bond with Shepard had debilitated her with crippling migraines. Her body was responding as if suffering from physical trauma and fought to repair injuries that were not there.
"Liara," Tali tried reasoning with the older woman. "I know you're trying to help Shepard, but you can't, not this way. Your body isn't hurting, there is nothing wrong with you, but there will be if you don't filter the bond. I know Shepard wants you to, so listen to her and block out her pain. Without knowing how injured she is she'll do even more damage to herself. On top of that she can't be treated properly if you don't."
"Where she is, if I let go of her pain and return it to her, she will be vulnerable." Liara asserted.
"Then do so gently, not all at once." Garrus suggested. "But she needs to know her limitations."
Part of Liara's imagination toyed with what Shepard's response might be to such a statement. That she couldn't afford to have limitations. In that moment she saw her beloved crawling, inching her away across war torn ground, her body broken, bloody breathing its last as she struggled to finally put an end to the Reapers. And as she stopped them, explosions and destruction all around her, her life eking out like the blood from a gaping wound. The dog tags she wore rose from a crushed chest…
'You will not end like that.' Liara vehemently swore. 'All our little blue babies need their sire.'
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A flash of anxiety stuck Shepard hard before it was peeled back and controlled. 'Li? It's okay, the way is safe I'm not in danger.' She responded mistaking her bondmate's dread of her immediate situation rather for the future nightmare Liara had entertained. 'We have Morden and on the way back to Omega proper. Liara you must stop. Pull the filters up to our link."
'I'll try.'
Shepard grunted. Her breath came in pants of air. It was getting shallower. Pain lanced her mind causing her to fall to her knees.
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The color was rapidly returning to the asari's face now and her breathing was becoming deeper ad more regular. "Good Liara. Keep blocking the bond, you'll get better." Tali took Liara's hand.
The pain in Liara's head was already leaving. "I'm so sorry Samantha." she whispered more to herself than the others. Even if they had not heard the words, Tali and Garrus heard the guilt in the tone of the asari's voice.
"You did was for the best, for both of you Liara." Garrus tried to soothe. "Her suit's computer will register her vitals and Chakwas will be aware of what's going on and can treat her properly now. The doc was probably concerned over your false readings."
"It made her vulnerable, when she can not afford it." Liara lamented.
"What she can't afford is not knowing her limitations." Garrus pointed out. He thought asari were supposed to be the smartest in the galaxy. But sometimes Liara could be incredibly dense. A look to Tali and he amended his last thought. It was the act of love that caused both Liara and Shepard to do stupid things. Would he do the same for Tali, he hoped he had the courage to do so.
He was a turian it was expected of him to protect his squad, to die for them if necessary, certainly to kill for them. If there was one person still alive at the end of the battle it was worth it. So few other races got that, the krogan did surely but the others not so much. Garrus always thought he made a rather poor turian. Not because he was unwilling to kill and die for his squad but because sometimes he didn't follow orders. At least he hadn't in C-Sec, he had failed there. But out here with Shepard he was a good…man.
He looked to Tali once more and knew deep in his gizzard he'd be as stupid in attempting to shield her, protect her as Liara and Shepard. He'd do it not because he was a good man or a lukewarm turian but because he loved her.
He. Loved. Her!
"She's not alone, Liara. Ash, Wrex and Aleena are with her, they will make sure she's…okay." Garrus whispered softly knowing that Liara needed to hear the words.
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The entire lower half of the viewing window was filled with the semispherical edge of red giant class M star. The brilliance nearly dominated the field of stars behind it and gave the inner sanctum of the Illusive Man's base a rather (and some would say appropriate) sinister glow.
To the kingpin of Cerberus it was the epiphany of what the galaxy truly was. Beautiful, glorious and most certainly deadly. The star was in its last vestiges of its six-billion lifecycle. When it gave up the ghost it would implode upon itself creating a massive black hole in its corpse. Whereas its birth had created moons, planets and asteroids, its death would wipe them all out. The entire system would collapse, for nothing could escape its gravitational pull into darkness.
The Illusive Man was not going to allow that to happen to humanity. He had promised this long before when Hislop and Core were killed more thirty years ago. They died as they lived protecting humanity to the last. And what they helped discover not only confirmed everything the Illusive Man believed then and now. It proved to him beyond a shadow of a doubt, that there is something out there to protect humanity against.
Years ago a turian named Desolas brother to Saren had warned humans that the stars look warm and inviting to humanity. Places to be explored, knowledge to be hand, riches to be made. But humans will not always be welcome. Those who came before may not be willing to share. It was as always the inevitable way of things.
There is nothing more elusive than the obvious fact. Thirty years ago The Illusive Man knew a dark time was coming and humanity tested. At the time he did not know who would be doing the testing or why, only that humanity had to be ready to meet the challenge. Humanity had to meet all others and succeed because to do anything else would be inhuman.
That was when the Cerberus manifesto began, the vow to watch the dark places-and bring illumination. To make it happen technology had to be mastered. Tools that humanity had to master. Not just to survive but for the betterment of mankind. Thirty years ago the Illusive Man made the promise - humans can and will take their rightful places in the stars. It was his manifesto.
His words had stirred hundreds, nay thousands over the years. The opportunity to avenge the wrongs from the First Contact War had filled the ranks of Cerberus troopers. Seemingly limitless budgets and top-of-the-line equipment and resources brought in engineers, scientists and specialists. Opportunities brought in many more, havens from the oppressive alien conformists had brought still more eager personnel in. And some came because they needed, wanted hope. To them Cerberus was a sanctuary.
The Illusive Man took a long drag from his cigarette, pulling in the smoke to fill his lungs before hissing it out in a plume of blue-gray haze. Miranda Lawson had been at sixteen one of the latter. She sought out the Illusive Man to help her save her baby sister form her father. She vowed her service to the Cerberus Manifesto if only little Oriana was saved.
Hennery Lawson had grown complacent and rebellious. Taking his daughter from him, a daughter he would not have had had it not been for Cerberus's clandestine scientific resources was poetic justice. The Lawson legacy was within Miranda's DNA, which she submitted in accordance to standard operating procedures. A legacy that would be adapted as needed.
The babe was handed to two employees at Hislop and Core Corporation on Illium so she might live a normal life. It was not an unreasonable request and the benevolence to the teenager was granted. In return Cerberus had gained an exemplar agent, moulded into the perfect operative by the Illusive Man's personal mentorship.
Until now. Lawson had gone AWOL.
Perhaps it was the Lawson Legacy at work, not the perfect genes, but becoming rebellious and complacent in the power given because of station. Kelly Chambers a seemingly benign girl had been sent to Lawson's ship to watch the operative and report back her emotional state. After a rather disturbing and albeit juvenile taunting from none other than Commander Samantha Shepard: Council Spectre, Lawson's demeanour radically changed.
She had become more cold and withdrawn, making her former Ice Queen reputation look warm and cosy by comparison. Any minor infraction by the crew was severely punished. It appeared to the Illusive Man that the plain to push Shepard over the brink had backfired substantially and struck Lawson full on.
And he knew why. His agents on the asari world gave a very concise report that Lawson's sister had been taken by the Spectre and a team of asari commandos. Lawson was behaving precisely the way Shepard should have after the death of her asari lover's child-a rebellion reengaged. Chambers admitted she was growing concerned for Lawson's mental and emotional health. When asked if Miranda's loyalty to The Cause was in question, Chambers denied it.
For now the orders stood, allow Lawson to feel as if she were off the lead and allowed to run and rescue her sister. When his errant operative caught up to Shepard, he'd reel them both in.
He took another long pull from the cigarette caught between his fingers. His attention now focused on the discoveries of Dr. Chandana in the Thorne system of the Hawking Eta cluster. The 37 million year old Reaper has been a boon to Cerberus's long term agendas. If was only after Shepard's proclamations did the Illusive Man understand truly what they had in their possession. A Reaper, just like Sovereign. Only this one was dead, a derelict and ripe for the plucking.
"Sir. I have growing concerns of the Reaper's continued capabilities of indoctrination. My people are still suffering from headaches and now they seemed to be sharing memories."
"Your people, Doctor?" The Illusive Man drank in more smoke from the cigarette. "The WNISCE and HAARP ceased being effective?"
WNISCE-White Noise Indoctrination Stimulus Control Experimentation. Based upon the documentation study of Reaper victims. It was an effective means to insure utter obedience in the new cloned shocktroopers. HAARP the acronym for High Frequency Active Aural Research Program was yet another technology based upon mind control. This one born from the research of one of Earth's greatest scientists, Nichola Tesla which was carried on extremely low frequency (ELF) radio waves. Cerberus scientists had discovered this was how the Thorian controlled their thralls. The Illusive Man ordered counter measures. Measures he had ordered Chandana's team employ against possible Reaper influence.
"Sir, those measures have been exhausted by the Reaper's still active capabilities."
"And what of the specimens? Any change in their reactions." The Illusive Man did not allow his voice nor face to give way to his emotional state. After all this time the 37 million year old Reaper was still capable of influencing minds. Astonishing! It was an inconvenient accounting that his people had to suffer its effects, but sacrifices were necessary. As many sacrifices as were needed to protect humanity and ensure its advancement and dominance.
"Yes sir. Very intriguing results sir. There was submission from them for a week before the Reaper reasserted its control."
The Illusive Man's face grew grim. "Unfortunate that you are unable to extend this dominance and thus failed so abysmally. Fortunately you are an intelligent man and understand there is a benefit to failing, you learn from it. So you will understand that Cerberus can broker no further failures. I will further remind you your task is not only to uncover this Reaper's technology but to overcome its overall control over its thralls. It is imperative we find away to assume direct control. The future success of Cerberus forces depends upon your successes here, Dr Chandana. Humanity is counting on your successes to safeguard them against further threats. "
"Yes sir. I understand that. But the fact is while we can use partial husk-convergence on the tank-bred clones to create the Centurion and Guardian class troopers, we simply do not have the means to employ this on minds already fully developed without causing severe brain damage. Drug therapy can only go so far. And whatever discoveries that rogue Spectre Saren might have uncovered on Virmire was destroyed when Shepard nuked the place.
"I know of a salarian doctor by reputation, a Professor Mordin Solus. I have read many of his journals. He made extensive studies in the field of Reaper indoctrination and other methods of mind control. Perhaps if we consult with him, he may see a flux in the patterns we do not."
The cigarette in the Illusive Man's fingers was now a butt that he extinguished in the inset ashtray in arm of his chair. "That may be an avenue we may be forced to take. Continue your work Doctor." With a flick of his finger he cut the com-link to Chandana.
Perhaps a fresh perspective was due. Rather than looking at a new pair of eyes, the direction Cerberus should be going into wasn't so much as knowledgeable men but where the technology came from. The Collectors had superior tech for a millennia, tech with Reaper foundations. Tech that allowed the insectiods to leapfrog into new frontiers of sciences and warfare. The specimens recovered from Freedoms Progress were a prime example of the capabilities of the Collectors utter dominance over their prisoners.
Cerberus needed that technology in order to succeed, in order for humanity to succeed. They had to catch the Collectors during a raid, and more The Illusive Man needed the data stored within the bugs' computers. How to gain it however was another issue entirely.
Another command was tapped into the keyboard, one that brought up captured images of the Collectors taken by that quarian kid.
Of course!
Nothing was as elusive as the obvious fact.
The Collectors were desperate to capture Shepard. All that had to be done was to let a few doctored details slip on the extranet, the Collectors were sure to pick it up and investigate. They had shot down the original Normandy (before the names were changed by that farcical coup pulled by the Council) believing Shepard to be aboard. When they did not find the body of the Spectre in the wreckage, they placed her capture on the back burner as it were.
Their primary agenda was the harvesting of human lives. For whatever purpose was still vexingly unknown. It wasn't enslavement, any race could have been chosen for that. It had to be something more nefarious. The Geth had been choice because they were not simply servile they were synthetics and infinitely more reliable than the bio-synthetic keepers.
But why humans?
Thus far there was no pattern to which colony in the Terminus Systems would be next. If somehow, the Illusive Man could force them to strike a particular target. One Shepard was on; she would put a stop to their action hopefully mid way through their attack just as she had with the pirates on Elysium. This meant key pieces of Collector tech would be left behind, which meant Cerberus agents could reap the benefits from the interrupted harvest. Shepard then pursues the Collector vessel, boards her and seizes control of her data banks. The data if Lawson was in the right place at the right time would come back to the hands of humanity's truest protector, The Illusive Man himself.
Lawson's redemption in her going AWOL lay in her retrieving that data. The execution of the plan could not have been better had it been deliberately orchestrated by the Illusive Man's own mind. Shepard was deliberately inviting the viper into her midst and willing it to bite her. Or so it would appear. What intrigued The Illusive Man the most was that humanity's first Spectre seemed to be playing the Game for the Game's own sake. But surely Shepard's honor and superlative self-righteousness would never allow her to be so extraordinarily duplicitous.
And if she were, who then was her mentor?
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Miranda knew time was not an ally and that it was only a matter before it caught up to her. She had gone AWOL, but how much of a leap was it to assume she had gone rogue as well? The Illusive Man would assume the worse and send another agent after her. Not Jacob Taylor, he was more prone to volunteer his aid in her endeavour rather than reel her back in. The Illusive Man was more likely to send Kai Leng.
Next to her he was one of Cerberus top wet-works operatives. And like her, he was discreet, and knew how to plan and implement complex and delicate operations. Unlike her he was a callous ruthless killer with a strong predilection for brutality. That slippery sadistic little bastard, Mirada despised him.
Best to be prepared to expect him. Better to be cunning and capricious when dealing with the likes of Leng, more so now than ever before. She'd have to be just as cunning and capricious against Shepard. The Spectre proved able to wield such capabilities with her deceptions back on Ilos with the dropping of the Geth ship on the retrieval operations, and again on Illium when she took Oriana. Shepard had an extraordinary military mind, keen and very duplicitous.
The trap she set up on Omega would not be straight forward. How upsetting it would be to walk-up unarmed to the Normandy's docking bay and surrender herself in exchange not only for Oriana's safe return but her freedom.
It would not be so easy as that, the Normandy would be docked within a hidden place and cloaked. Shepard would want to be found but it would be in a location far from the public and innocent lives as not to be caught in the crossfire.
Gaining the knowledge of that location meant dealing with the one person Miranda disliked dealing with nearly as much as Kai Leng but for different reasons. Aria T'Loak the Pirate Queen
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AN1: Sam's Prothean biotic attack in the environmental control room is taken directly from the inspirational asari's melee attack in MP. As was the moments my squad managed to put in stasis, reave, pull and use lift grenades on a target at the same time. I have Sam doing something similar here though without the aid of lift-grenades for a bit of drama. As for the Prothean power, Sam used and the words some may say "Javik couldn't do that." Well Javik was a soldier, we don't know what a Prothean adept is capable of. Remember I set in my own fanon that all Protheans like all asari have biotics; some simply do not choose to fully train in it. Javik didn't specialize in it as an adept would have.
AN2: Love ME3 Multiplayer! Truly helps to work with a proven and trusted squad. Though they may not have known it my squad of whom I've grown fond of helped me immensely to picture combat in my mind. Cookies all around…especially to our captain, who is a very good and proven leader and our second in command, who ensures no one is left behind. (Picked up a ton of points because of her actions.)