A/N: Time for the mission on Horizon. I've tried to put in a bit more dialogue to liven up the all too familiar part of the game, but this is still one of those sections where I'm sticking fairly closely to the game plot. (The others will be Collector Ship and Reaper IFF missions) Hopefully it's still somewhat enjoyable.
Also, I'm not sure how Kaidan comes off here. I mean, I tried not to make him too much of an ass, but it's kind of hard when he does act a bit like a donkey. :)
As always thank you for reading and reviewing!
Chapter 15 - On the Horizon
"Shepard? Shepard!" Miranda's voice sounds slightly nervous on the comms. "Do you copy that, Shepard? Okeer's a no-go! I repeat, Okeer's a no-go!"
Shepard finally snaps out of her bourbon induced sleepiness and quickly reaches out to answer the comms. "What? What happened? Is he refusing to come with us?"
"Not exactly, Shepard," now it's Garrus speaking. "He's lying dead on the floor in his laboratory, looking even greener than before dying from suffocation."
"Oh. Okay," Shepard blinks, then rubs her eyes. "Yeah, I guess he won't be joining us then. That's fine, I never liked him anyway."
"You hadn't even met him!" Miranda protests. "And besides, the mission is not a complete failure. Okeer has left something behind... a prototype of what he claimed to be the perfect krogan. It's resting in a breeding tank. We need you to decide whether we should take him with us or leave him."
"Okay... does it look friendly?" Shepard asks.
"Shepard... it's a krogan," Garrus again.
"Right, let me rephrase that... does it look like it could shoot Collectors by the dozens?"
"Once more, Shepard... it's a krogan," Garrus chuckles.
Shepard sighs. They have awakened her too early, her temples are still pounding and stomach is twisting and bouncing with traces of hangover. "Just bring it onboard then... we can decide what to do with it later..." she finally says, and the comms are closed.
The shuttle arrives in less than an hour, and a huge breeding tank with a menacing krogan inside is brought on board and then safely deposited in the cargo hold. As Shepard stands in the briefing room, enjoying the taste of the elixir of rejuvenation otherwise known as coffee, she is deep in thought about what to do with the krogan, slowly getting bored with Miranda's warnings of dangers such creature presents, warnings that she repeats in regular intervals of ninety seconds.
But before Shepard can state that she has decided to open the tank and release the krogan, she is interrupted by Yeoman Chambers on the comms, telling her that Tim wants to speak with her through the newly installed QEC network. Obviously, this is an invitation that she can't refuse, and considering most of the squad are already gathered in the briefing room, Shepard does not hesitate in answering the call.
Tim delivers urgent and exciting news. One of the colonies in the Terminus Systems, Horizon, has just gone silent, and he believes that a Collector attack is imminent. He inquires whether Mordin's countermeasure is ready and then mentions something that makes Morgan's heart beat a great deal faster. "There's one more thing you should know, Shepard," The Illusive Man says. "Your old squadmate, Kaidan Alenko, is stationed on Horizon."
Shepard does not reply immediately, deep in thought. Probably on that classified mission with the Alliance, she thinks. I wonder, if the Collectors are working for the Reapers, could they be targeting him to get to me? Or is it just me being too paranoid, and this is all a coincidence? "Just send us the coordinates," she tells Tim. "We'll head there immediately."
"Make sure that seeker swarm countermeasure is ready before you move in," The Illusive Man reminds her. "Without it, this mission will fail."
Shepard terminates the call and quickly rushes to the lab to confront Mordin. "Tell me you have something," she says, praying, hoping for the reply she needs to hear. The corners of the salarian's tightly knit lips tug upwards, forming a goofy, lopsided smile. That is all the answer she needs to know.
Before they have arrived on Horizon, the countermeasure is already integrated in their combat suits. As the Normandy lands, they decide to split their forces in two teams to cover more ground, keeping constant radio contact. Shepard chooses Garrus, Kasumi and Mordin. "I think you deserve some time outside your lab," she tells the professor. "Also, to be the first one to test your own countermeasure. Not that I don't have faith in you, but..."
"Understood, Shepard. Honored by the opportunity," Mordin nods, before rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "Unless the countermeasure fails. In that case, ashamed posthumously."
Miranda's team consisting of Jacob, Zaeed and Jack moves out to circle the colony from the opposite side, and Shepard leads her own squad out, wishing Lawson's crew good luck. The Collector ship has landed right in the middle of the colony, and Shepard spends a moment simply looking at it, the vessel is so alien and creepy that it is hard to even recognize the strange structure as a ship, it looks more like a giant cocoon with some freaky integrated tech bits. Thick black swarms of miniature probes surround it, and some of those clouds also pass by them, but the countermeasure works perfectly and the seeker swarms ignore them completely.
For a while, the pattern of Freedom's Progress repeats itself, the same empty buildings, the same signs of people simply walking out in the middle of dinner never to return. It is only the sight of the Collector ship in the distance that still reminds them that the enemy is here. And soon enough they make contact. "Seems like those wings aren't completely redundant after all," Shepard remarks, watching a swarm of the creepy Collector drones descending almost right on top of them, nearly succeeding in pulling off a perfect ambush.
Repulsive and intimidating they might be, but they still fall to their combined weapons fire and tech powers, at least this advanced scouting party proves easy to handle, even if Morgan understands that the opposition will become more fierce as they advance further. Lawson also reports making contact with the enemy, and being able to advance through the light resistance.
The next group of Collectors they run into contain also some old friends, namely a bunch of husks. "The Illusive Man was right," Mordin says, before launching a cryo blast at the tightly bunched group of attackers. "Collectors working with the Reapers."
"Sure seems that way," Morgan agrees, about to radio this information to Lawson's group, but then finding that the comms are down, only static crackle in her ears. "Damn, they have to be jamming our communications somehow. Probably can't raise Normandy either."
"So we're completely on our own? Figures," Kasumi grumbles, then pointing ahead at something. It is a collection of pods that Morgan has seen on the footage from Freedom's Progress, pods the Collectors used to store the paralyzed colonists. "I have a feeling what those are for," the petite thief comments, looking rather disturbed.
There is an unsettling amount of these pods, both empty and full, as they move forward, through the rows of buildings, towards the heart of the colony. They come across scores of frozen colonists that the Collectors have not yet managed to throw into the pods. "Trapped in stasis. Victims appear fully conscious. Fascinating!" is Mordin's reaction. Morgan would have settled for something like 'monstrous' or 'despicable', but then she is not a mad scientist.
"Keep a lookout for Kaidan," she tells Garrus. "Gods, I hope they haven't loaded him on that ship already."
"Friend of yours?" Mordin asks.
"Just a friend?" Kasumi, as always looking out for gossip material, chimes in.
"An old comrade, yes," Shepard replies. "And I won't even dignify that with an answer, Kasumi."
"Just a friend," Garrus helpfully explains on her behalf. "Commander here is a pervy asari fancier."
"Oh, do shut up, you," Morgan grumbles at the good-natured banter.
The next Collector group that swarms them provides more resistance, due to a particularly odd creature within that group. It's carapace appears to glow from enhanced barriers and armor, and it's combat abilities make it far more dangerous than all the drones they have faced this far. With their combined effort, finally the dangerous foe finally falls, but to Shepard's dismay, she immediately sees another regular drone suddenly transforming into the creature they have just defeated. The transformation is accompanied by a deep, metallic voice, speaking words "Assuming direct control." The voice reminds Shepard of her conversations with Sovereign.
Finally, all the Collectors fall, but they are all exhausted, bruised and in need of applications of medi-gel after this battle. "What the hell was that," Kasumi wonders, testing her sore shoulder that had taken the brunt of a biotic attack.
"No idea yet," Shepard replies, looking around cautiously. "We should probably keep moving, though. I imagine they have caught wind of some resistance, so let's not stay in one spot for too long."
"At least Miranda's crew is taking some of the heat from us," Garrus says hopefully.
In a remote hangar they come across a mechanic who has managed to evade the seeker swarms. Once he has finished ranting and blaming the Alliance for everything that has ever gone wrong in his life, he actually has some relevant information to share. Apparently, Commander Kaidan Alenko has been working on getting the colony's defense towers operational, something that could prove useful in bringing down the Collector ship. Ignoring the mechanic's paranoid ramblings about Alenko having been sent here to spy on them, Shepard and her crew quickly formulate a plan which essentially amounts to getting the defense tower targeting systems to work and then using its GARDIAN lasers to send the bits of the Collector ship back to whatever dark space hole it has crawled out of.
The Collector resistance grows even fiercer as they approach the spaceport. New and more advanced type of husks are thrown into the fray and their powerful shockwave attacks catch Garrus by surprise, the turian launched high in the air and landing badly bruised in a pile of empty crates. Finally, they battle their way through to the spaceport, but the resistance there is too fierce and they are about to be overrun, Shepard ready to utter the command to retreat, when suddenly she sees the Collectors diverting some forces to the other side of the spaceport. The cavalry arrives soon enough, Zaeed charges in first guns blazing, shooting husks left and right, Miranda and Jack supporting him with their biotics and Jacob covering up the rear.
The Collector forces are trapped between their two squads, quickly getting decimated, now scrambling back to the safety. They secure the spaceport and with the communications to Normandy restored, the ship's AI takes control of the GARDIAN laser targeting, about to hit the Collector ship. It is then that Shepard notices the regrouped Collector forces reappearing, following a massive flying creature that looks like some sort of grotesque fusion of dozen husks melded together. "Miranda! On your six!" she shouts the warning, but it comes a little too late. The side of the spaceport secured by Miranda's team goes up in explosions and flames, and they quickly rush to provide support.
During this most heated of battles, the GARDIAN lasers finally activate, starting to fire shots at the Collector ship. It's barriers absorb the first few hits, but not much more than that, explosions starting to rock the massive vessel. To Shepard's dismay, before it can be brought down or rendered space-unworthy, the Collector ship quickly gains altitude and then blasts off, carrying most of the frozen colonists with it.
"Damn it! Fuck!" she swears profusely, standing, watching helplessly. If only they had arrived an hour sooner, they could have been the difference between life and gruesome experiments followed by painful death for hundreds of colonists. Only a bit later she remembers about Lawson and her team. "Casualties?" she calls out to her squad who have rushed to aid the others.
"None," Mordin replies. "Severe burns. Not life threatening. Full recovery expected."
"Thank gods at least for that," she sighs, still feeling angry and frustrated at what she perceives as a defeat. Absorbed in tormenting herself over this failure, she does not even notice a very familiar figure suddenly stepping out from the shadows of a hangar and approaching her. She finally recognizes him, wanting to cheerfully shout out his name, rush forth to greet him, but there is something in Kaidan Alenko's face that makes her pause.
"Commander Shepard. Captain of the Normandy. First human Spectre," he says by the way of greeting. "I thought you were dead, Commander. We all thought you were dead. Two years... two long years, why didn't you contact me? Why didn't you let me know you were alive?"
"I tried my best to contact you, after I had stopped being dead," Morgan replies, taken aback by Kaidan's accusatory tone. "But they wouldn't let me know where you were stationed. Everything was classified."
"Yes, and now I see why," Kaidan's angry tone persists. "The rumors about you working with Cerberus are true. Garrus, too," he spots the turian approaching them. "Alliance intel suggested that Cerberus might be behind the abductions of the colonies. Then the rumor about you working with Cerberus surfaced. Commander Shepard, working with traitors! I needed to be here, needed to see everything for myself!"
"And now you've seen that it's not Cerberus behind the attacks," Garrus says, coming up to them. "Give it a rest, Kaidan. We're not traitors."
"Come with me and you'll see everything for yourself," Morgan offers. She feels hurt by Kaidan's mistrust and accusations, even if they are not made without reason.
"I'll never work for Cerberus," Kaidan shakes his head. "I'm an Alliance soldier, through and through. I'll never give up on them."
"I don't work for Cerberus, I'm helping them defeat the Collectors," Morgan corrects him, knowing that it won't make a difference. "And I consider myself an Alliance soldier as well, but they would not take me back, just because I was brought back to life by Cerberus."
"No, because they see you have not broken your ties with Cerberus," Kaidan says. "Cut those ties and come back to the Alliance, Commander. Please. I want to be able to trust you again."
Morgan lets a hollow laugh escape her throat. "And what does the Alliance plan to do about the Collectors? What's that I hear? Nothing?" she is growing frustrated herself.
"Don't take the easy way over the right way, Commander. That's not you. You've always chosen the right way of doing things," Kaidan pleads. Shepard stands silent, folding her arms across her chest. "I see. Well, in that case... there's nothing more to be said," Kaidan says, shaking his head, looking sad and dejected. "Goodbye, Commander, and good luck. Try not to lose yourself completely."
Shepard watches him leave, clenching her fists, angry, frustrated, heartbroken, helpless. Another friend gone, she thinks, choking back tears. How much more will this dancing with the devil cost me? Will Liara still trust me?