A/N: In the wake of the news about Dr. Ray and Dr. Greg retiring from BioWare, I just wanted to use this opportunity to thank them for all the amazing games they have given us over the almost last 15 years. While we might not always agree with the decisions that BW makes, they certainly are very good at creating memorable characters and fascinating worlds, making us care about them... or else we wouldn't be here, writing and reading. :)
I'm sure there are plenty of doomsayers out there right now, however, I'm focusing on the positive part. Announcements of Omega DLC, Dragon Age 3, a new ME game and a brand new sci-fi IP? YES PLEASE!
Chapter 56 - Escape From Sur'Kesh
"God, I hate Cerberus," Shepard growls, critically looking over her armor, dented in places. "Planting a bomb in the elevator? Now they're just pissing me off."
"As if you were not willing to kill them before," Liara smiles thinly, having been shielded by Garrus and Shepard from the blast of the elevator bomb.
"Well, these guys just found out how angry we are," Garrus says, pointing at the corpse littered floor behind them on the path towards the first quarantine checkpoint.
"There are just so many of them," Liara shakes her head. "The upper levels must be completely overrun, I can't imagine Wrex would have backed off from a fight otherwise."
"We'll just have to thin them out, no way around that," Shepard says grimly, listening to the message on her omni-tool. "Mordin's pod will soon arrive at the checkpoint and the Cerberus are lying in wait."
"Then let's hurry!" Liara exclaims, breaking into a run but then suddenly halting sharply as she enters one of the labs, forcing Shepard and Garrus to crash into her back. "Goddess..." the asari exclaims as she sees the contents of the lab. There are several angry yahg imprisoned in their pods, one of them starting to smash his massive fists against the glass, trying to break through, and Liara instinctively presses back into Shepard's comforting arms. "What are they doing with these monsters?" she whispers.
Garrus browses through some of the research notes on a nearby console. "You're going to love this," he says. "Species 732 - the yahg - have been authorized for covert uplift. They are ideal candidates for expanding salarian influence with full deniability. The risk is minimal."
"The risk is minimal?" Liara blinks, her face flushed with anger. "I can't believe it, but for all the salarian intelligence, the yahg have them fooled."
"Yeah, this is pretty insane alright," Shepard sighs. "You know, even if we save the galaxy from the Reapers, these crazy lizards will just one day blow it up with their mad experiments."
"I'm sure they would have ensured full deniability in that case," Garrus adds his customary sarcastic comment, then raising his hand in warning as he moves to scout a little ahead of the others. "More Cerberus," he whispers.
Morgan and Liara quietly sneak up to see two Cerberus troopers patrolling down the corridor in front of them, but they don't even manage to formulate a quick strategy, when suddenly a massive dark shape crashes though the glass wall next to the troopers. The yahg simply punches one of the Cerberus' men so hard that he flies through the window and to his death below, before grabbing his surprised companion and ripping him to pieces in a single motion. Before anyone has had a chance to react, the yahg is gone again, escaping from their view.
"Great, one of those beasts is loose," Liara mutters, looking a little lighter shade of blue.
"Worried they might want to reclaim the stolen mantle of the Shadow Broker?" Shepard asks, wrapping her hand across the asari's waist. "Don't worry, Garrus and I will protect you, won't we Garrus?"
"Of course," the turian replies, his mandibles twitching in amusement. "I could have sworn that thing was muttering 'T'Soni' the whole time."
"That is not funny," Liara replies tersely.
"Sorry babe, but it kind of is," Morgan chuckles, then leading her squad onward. "Come on now, we're running out of time. I don't want Mordin to arrive at the checkpoint when it's teeming with Cerberus."
Garrus, walking ahead, raises his hand to warn them again. "The yahg hasn't cleared path for us here, Shepard. We've got at least a dozen of Cerberus, waiting for Mordin's pod to arrive, ready to fire."
"This might get nasty... unless..." her eyes fall on the holding cells on this part of the lab. "Aren't those varren in the pods?"
"That's correct, Shepard," Liara nods. "What are you... oh, I see. Yes, that might work."
"I saw an undamaged command console in the room we just passed," Shepard says, quickly running back and wasting no time in hacking the routinely encrypted system. "Alright, releasing all specimens in Lab Section 7-B. Uh... I hope that was the one with the varren, and I just didn't release all the yahg."
"Shepard!" Liara hisses.
"Babe, you're so easy to bait, sometimes I'm starting to feel guilty for doing so," Shepard grins broadly at Liara's exasperated expression. "You need to trust me more, you know."
"It was the varren, alright," Garrus says, observing the developing carnage at the checkpoint, snarling and growling varren charging the surprised Cerberus troops. "Let's use this mess to our advantage." He drops in cover, lining up a shot at a centurion, trying desperately to hold off a varren from tearing out its throat. His shot impacts with the exposed head, the varren giving a perplexed howl at his suddenly quite dead victim.
"Teach them to fly, babe," Morgan grins, watching Liara lay down a singularity in the midst of the heavy melee, Garrus immediately using the opportunity to target those sent flying and causing chain overload of their shields, making them easy pickings. Meanwhile, Morgan activates her cloaking and sneaks around the now empty warren cells, trying to get in a position from which to reach two of the troopers left alone by the varren, trying to take potshots at Liara and Garrus. One of them falls to her sniper rifle, the other is trapped by Liara's stasis bubble, rendered helpless and immobile, as they quickly clear up the rest of the lab. Garrus then steps up and executes the last trooper as soon as the stasis breaks, clean shot through the head.
"That one doesn't count," Shepard says, watching the containment pod with the krogan female and Mordin slowly starting to come into view. "If anything, that one belongs to Liara."
"Fair enough," Garrus nods. "I'm still ahead by two, by my reckoning."
"Not for long," Shepard mutters, starting to work the quarantine checkpoint consoles. "Not for long, my dear avian sidekick..."
"I love you when you're being mean to Cerberus," Shepard chuckles, giving Liara a fond stare as they advance towards the second quarantine checkpoint. The asari had just managed to place a singularity inside the cargo space of a Cerberus shuttle arriving with reinforcements. Instead of jumping out under the suppressive fire, the Cerberus troopers had uselessly flailed about, letting her and Garrus shoot them out of the air, watching the dead bodies tumble down into the waterfall below.
"Oh is that so?" Liara grins back. "That reminds me, I never did tell you how I escaped when Cerberus came hunting for me on Hagalaz. Feron and I loaded the Shadow Broker's ship full with explosives and sent it crashing into the Cerberus cruiser. There were no survivors. How does that make you feel?" the asari adds teasingly.
"You know, if Garrus wasn't with us, I would just pin you against the wall right here and ravage you on the spot," Morgan winks, making Liara blush slightly.
"Don't mind me, Commander..." Garrus adds helpfully. "I'm sure I can, uh, stand guard for a while. Though, there's the matter of Cerberus killing Mordin and the female while you two are making out."
"Yeah, duty first and all that bollocks," Shepard nods. "Mind you, I'm still wondering why Mordin said that the Cerberus mole in this base might be indoctrinated. That kind of shoots down my theory about the human supremacy angle."
"If they are indoctrinated, they would be aiding the Reapers. But it would mean that those within Cerberus approving of this attack are also indoctrinated," Liara muses. "Surely this is serious enough to come from the very top. You don't think that..."
"I wouldn't rule out anything, Liara," Shepard shrugs. "It would explain a few things. Like what did he really want the Collector base for."
"Fighting in the lab ahead," Garrus interrupts their banter again. "Some salarians are putting up a fight, but it looks like they could use our help!"
"Alright, let's save them lizards!" Shepard speaks, leading her squad onwards. As they arrive at the scene, they see the last of the surviving salarians firing shots from an odd looking pistol. The large slugs attach themselves to their target's armor and the hapless Cerberus centurion struggles to get the projectiles off, when suddenly they explode, making a gory mess out of the centurion and a trooper behind him, providing supporting fire.
"Excellent timing, Shepard," the salarian says, turning back towards them and they recognize Major Kirrahe. "With my squad gone, I was not sure for how long I would be able to hold them off."
"Major, good to see you," Shepard nods. "What's the situation?"
"Cerberus are heavily entrenched at the next security checkpoint," Kirrahe explains. "Centurions, troopers, and several engineers with portable turrets. Those killed most of my men, their fire is deadly."
Shepard winces. "Ugh, that sounds nasty. We could use the help," she looks at the Major.
"Of course," Kirrahe nods, looking at Garrus, noticing the turian staring longingly at the beautifully crafted heavy pistol of the same model as Kirrahe's in the hands of one of the fallen soldiers. "If you think you will use it, just grab it, Vakarian," the salarian says. "He's not going to need it anymore."
Garrus bends down and picks up the pistol from the salarian's limp hand. "Thank you. Always wanted to have a toy like this one."
"Right, so how do you want to play this?" Shepard asks.
"I will concentrate on overloading the shields of the engineers," Kirrahe says. "They pose the most danger."
"Garrus, help with that," Morgan orders. "Liara, you know what to do with those softened up," the asari nods at her. "I'll see if there is an opportunity to flank them."
The plan proves in dire need of readjustments as soon as they experience just how deadly and dangerous the turret fire is. It is practically impossible to leave the cover for even a moment at the risk of having their shields immediately disabled. And under the suppressive fire of turrets and centurion smokescreens, the Cerberus troopers are growing bold, starting to advance on their position, fortunately Liara's biotics keeping them at bay.
"We need to take those turrets out," Shepard says, gritting her teeth.
"Those engineers have quite a supply of them," Kirrahe shakes his head.
"Well, they just can't pull them out of their asses, can they?" Shepard speaks quickly. "They need time to set up, and all I need is a brief moment. C'mon, Garrus, on three, overload the left one. Major, you take the right one, Liara follow it up with warp field." The asari gives her a worried look but then nods. "Alright, one, two, three, go!" the protective shielding of the turrets winks out and the one on the right explodes when Liara hits it with her biotics. Morgan launches a plasma discharge from her omni-tool at the turret on the left hand side, watching it crumble in a pile of useless metal parts. There is a price to pay for their exposure to enemy fire, however, Kirrahe falling backwards with a spray of green blood, clutching his shoulder tightly, alive but injured.
"Keep up the pressure!" Morgan shouts, activating her cloaking and then fluidly moving around the enemy lines, the troopers and centurions advancing and leaving the two engineers unprotected behind them. They are busy setting up new turrets, when one of them suddenly finds the tip of Shepard's omni-blade protruding from his chest, stabbed with a powerful blow from behind. The other engineer drops his work on the turret, shouting as he reaches for his weapon, but Morgan is already aiming her Carnifex at his head, two shots are enough to break his shields and the third one shatters the helmet, causing lethal wounds. She quickly dives for cover as two troopers react to the warnings and turn around to open fire at her.
Without the support of their engineers, however, the Cerberus forces are less dangerous, and also now finding themselves at positional disadvantage. When Kirrahe rejoins the fight, patched up by medi-gel, the last of the Cerberus resistance falls quickly, and they gather at the consoles of the second quarantine checkpoint, waiting for Mordin and their precious cargo to arrive. "Clearing you through, Mordin," Shepard makes an urgent report to the salarian professor.
"Just the landing pad now, Commander," she hears Mordin's reply. "Hopefully Urdnot Wrex still waiting."
"I don't think there's a force in the universe that could keep Wrex away from a fertile female," Shepard replies, smiling. "I'll make sure the landing pad is clear and see you up top, Mordin."
"Understood, Shepard," Mordin replies, as they leave the checkpoint and rush for the stairs leading back up towards the landing pad, Shepard frantically tapping on her omni-tool.
"Wrex, where the hell are you?" she shouts.
"Shepard! Get your ass up here, quick!" Wrex roars back at her. "There's at least two dozen of them, I can't get near them in this shuttle! Give me a distraction so I can land!"
"Draw their fire, huh? Alright, but you'll owe me big time for this," Shepard replies hurriedly, running all the way back to the stairs.
"Shepard, you pull this off and I'm making you an honorary krogan!" Wrex promises solemnly.
"Sounds good, as long as I don't get any more breeding requests," Morgan manages a chuckle.
"What breeding requests?" Liara asks curiously.
"Don't feel threatened, Liara, Shepard's not really my type," Wrex speaks. "She does have her share of admirers on Tuchanka, however..." Shepard just presses her palm against her face, as Liara breaks out in laughter.
The Cerberus forces on the landing pad do not appear to have noticed their approach, divided between watching the pod with the krogan female slowly approaching, or taking shots at the Normandy shuttle, trying to prevent Wrex from landing. This allows Shepard and her team to take the enemy by surprise, hitting them with an array of biotics and overloads. There is limited cover in the middle of the landing pad, and by the time the Cerberus troops manage to scatter, there are not enough of them left to provide meaningful resistance. Mordin's pod arrives scant moments after the last of the troopers die as the explosive slug fired by Kirrahe detonates, stuck to the trooper's helmet.
"Must hurry, Shepard. Authorize the specimen release," Mordin says quickly as the pod comes to a grinding halt. "Enables transport to the loading area."
"Coming in to landing, Shepard... no wait, heads up!" Wrex roars. "You've got something incoming!"
"What the fuck..." Shepard breathes out angrily as something large and heavy crashes in the middle of the landing pad, wide cracks opening in the floor, the impact throwing them off their feet. "Oh, come on! Atlas! Scramble, people!"
The heavy mech slowly turns around, the Cerberus soldier piloting it having some difficulties in orientating himself in the surroundings after the impressive drop. He seems to be searching for the krogan female, but failing to find her, settles for Liara and Garrus, running for safety behind some crates that prove to be totally inadequate cover from a rocket launcher. Morgan yells unintelligible swearwords as she watches both of her friends tossed several yards through the air, struggling to get up.
"Damnation, they are not taking my female, not after all this!" Shepard suddenly sees the shuttle returning, Wrex kicking aside the doors and launching himself into another impressive krogan airdrop, falling right on top of the Atlas, headed to finish off Liara and Garrus. "Choke on this!" Wrex roars, his biotic-charged punch shattering the glass protecting the pilot, then throwing a frag grenade that lands right in the trooper's lap. The Cerberus pilot makes a desperate attempt to grab the grenade and toss it back out through the narrow hole, but it explodes in his hand just as Wrex throws himself off the back of the heavy mech. As the air clears after the explosion, Shepard sees the pilot's seat of the Atlas covered in a gooey red paste of blood and tissue.
With the corner of her eye, Shepard notices Wrex pushing Mordin aside as the salarian tries to help the female out of the pod, clearly mistrusting the professor even after all the help he has provided. They help the coughing, stumbling female back towards the shuttle, and by then Shepard is already at Liara's side, seeing multitude of bleeding cuts covering her armor, blue blood seeping through in many places, but fortunately there are no life-threatening injuries, and Liara is just mostly dazed.
"I'll be fine," the asari speaks in a weak voice, opening her eyes to reassure Shepard. "Check on Garrus. I saw him hitting his head against one of those crates."
"Vakarian is unconscious, but I can't find any serious injuries," Kirrahe reports, leaning over the prone form of Garrus. "I think he will be fine, though proper medical care is recommended."
"We're getting him and Liara to Chakwas in a moment," Shepard says, bending down next to Liara. "Hold tight, babe. We've won. I won't have you getting seriously injured when we need to celebrate victory, do I make myself clear?"
"Very clear, Commander," Liara winces, trying to muster a smile, but failing. "Don't worry, Morgan... will be fine..."
"Sure you will," Shepard says, gathering the asari in her arms and bringing her to the shuttle. "Major, could you please carry Garrus? We want to be off-world as soon as possible. With the female away from Sur'Kesh, Cerberus attacks should cease."
"Let us hope so," Kirrahe adds, then grunting quietly as he picks up Garrus, the weight of his heavy armor noticeable. "It was a pleasure working alongside you again, Commander. Though great many salarians fell today, our cause was just. And my offer of aid for your project still stands."
"You honor me, Major," Shepard says, moved by Kirrahe's great commitment. She spares a look towards Garrus, dangling limply in the salarian's arms. "He's going to be so pissed off when he comes to."
"Why do you say that, Commander?" Kirrahe asks.
Shepard chuckles before answering. "I beat his score by exactly one kill..."