A/N: Sometimes that renegade interrupt with Gerrel just doesn't seem sufficient. Even when playing a paragon Shepard. And fortunately, Morgan is no paragon. :)
Chapter 88 - Acceptable Casualties, Quarian Style
Following Tali's suggestion, they swiftly walk along the maintenance shaft, enjoying the brief respite from geth attacks, and soon enough their bantering picks up again. "So, Tali..." this time it's Kaidan who breaks the silence. "I'm surprised that they are letting an admiral going along on something this dangerous."
"They only agreed to my suggestion to ask the Normandy for help if I joined you for the mission," Tali explains. "I'm afraid that the rest of the Admiralty Board do not seem to be very fond of the Commander. It's a long story..." she adds, seeing Kaidan's inquiring stare.
"Nobody accuses my friends of treason and gets away with it," Shepard snarls, her irritation and anger with the Admiralty Board resurfacing from those memories.
"Besides, I have become quite the thorn in Gerrel's side, and he and Xen are probably happy I'm not interfering with my protests. Perhaps they would not even cry if I..." she hesitates then, thoughtful. "No, that's not fair to them." Shepard is about to ask Tali whether she has any reason to be suspicious, when the quarian suddenly stops, typing frantically on her omni-tool. "Damn it, priority message. That planetary defense tower just took down Admiral Koris' ship."
"Nooo, not the Quib-Quib!" Shepard exclaims dramatically. "Wait, I thought he was hiding in safety on the Normandy?"
"He rejoined his ship when Gerrel ordered more and more of our forces into the battle," Tali explains. "Fortunately they managed to get to the escape pods. Raan is trying to establish a link to them. She wants to speak with you, Shepard."
"Put her through," Morgan urges Tali, immediately hearing Raan's voice on the comm link.
"Shepard, this is Admiral Raan. The Heavy Fleet is collapsing! I don't know how much longer we can hold out!" comes the nervous, almost panicky report.
Why did they have to commit so much of their forces? Shepard thinks desperately, the nightmare from the night before drifting up to her mind, the image of a graveyard of quarian ships, burning around her. I won't let that become reality. Besides, unlike in the dream, nobody can accuse this of being my fault! They're killing themselves like some kind of moronic galactic lemmings! "Now that your forces are committed, you have to hold out, Admiral!" she yells a reply. "We need a little more time to deactivate the signal, just hold on for a little longer!"
When it comes, the reply is muffled and undecipherable, Raan apparently too busy to maintain the comm link. Shepard and her team break into a slow, cautious run, still keeping constant lookout for geth forces, worried that they will catch on to their crazy plan. They reach the main battery soon afterwards, stopping on Tali's command and waiting until a massive, pulsating energy shockwave blows by them, Shepard quietly praying at herself that Tali has not miscalculated the intervals between the energy discharges, even if she knows that her old and trusted friend would never make such a novice mistake when their lives are at stake.
Their run through the main battery towards the first safe pocket is probably more rapid than necessary, all five of them a little out of breath, but even Tali seems to prefer erring on the side of caution than to fully trust her own calculations. The waiting for the next shockwave is agonizingly slow, and Shepard feels a slightly suicidal urge to stick her head out of cover and look whether the gun is firing or not. Thankfully, Liara appears to sense her nervousness, 'accidentally' brushing against her side in a very distracting manner.
With Morgan's attention solely on her bondmate, the shockwave, when it finally comes, manages to startle her but quickly they charge towards the next safe pocket, repeating the pattern again and again, step by step moving closer to their destination. In one of the safe pockets, Tali again brings up the dreadnaught schematics, checking for an exit from the main battery. "Alright, I've got it," she says eventually. "Do not stop at the next safe spot, run past it. Twenty meters ahead of it, there should be a maintenance shaft to our left. It leads directly to the drive core."
"If the geth are still onto us, that's where they would have set up their positions," Liara says warningly.
"Yeah, I guess that makes sense," Shepard reluctantly agrees. "Careful when we get there."
After another particularly quick sprint, Garrus reaches the maintenance shaft entrance first, poking his head around the corner and then waving with his hand to signal that the air is clear. "Hmm, no geth," he muses, leading the others through the passage. "They are not living up to their reputation as incredibly irritating pests."
"I wish you hadn't said that," Morgan glares at him. "You know perfectly well what happens after you make a remark like that."
"Well, Shepard, they will know we're still alive and up to no good after I hack the maintenance shaft exit," Tali says, sounding a little unhappy. "And I have no option but to do so, unless you think spending the rest of your days in this narrow tube together with all of us is an amazing idea."
"We would have to resort to cannibalism sooner or later," Shepard says thoughtfully. "I wonder who could we eat first."
"Garrus is avian, so he probably tastes like chicken," Kaidan chuckles.
"Yeah, that is a good idea, Major," Shepard agrees with a nod.
"No, that is a terrible idea," Tali shakes her head. "Keelah, now I regret leading you onto this train of thought. You'll never shut up about it, now."
"Is this another one of those occasions where you feel like shooting Shepard?" Liara asks innocently.
"I think we could eat Tali after Garrus, she looks pretty plump to me," Shepard laughs, slapping her hand against the quarians hip, then ducking to avoid the playful swat Tali throws at her.
"Shepard, I thought you would be more interesting in eating Li-" Garrus starts to make an ill-advised comment, but then is miraculously rescued by Tali's victorious exclamation.
"I've got it!" she cheers as the doors finally part, allowing them passage onwards. "There should be an elevator ahead of us, leading up to the drive core."
Remembering Tali's warnings that the geth will react to them hacking the doors, Shepard and her team hurry to the elevator and punch in a command to take them to the top. They are almost at their destination, when the geth finally arrive, several rocket troopers pouring in from side passages and immediately taking aim at them, opening fire. Two shots reach their target, impacting with the elevator platform, everyone except Shepard making the jump to the safe walkway above, Morgan getting knocked in the opposite direction by the force of explosion. She quickly gets back on her feet and runs across the wobbly platform towards her friends, jumping in the very last moment before the elevator under her gives in and plummets downward. Strong pair of hands grab her and keep her from falling back into the deep shaft. She looks up to see Kaidan's face, the Major pulling her onto the platform and helping her steady herself.
"Thanks, Major," she breathes with relief. "I guess I'm collecting on the one you owed me."
Kaidan chuckles. "Anytime, Commander, anytime."
After a short and uninterrupted walk through a series of access corridors, they arrive at the drive core chamber, that for now appears mercifully devoid of geth. Their attention is immediately drawn to an object that under normal circumstances should never be present in the room. It is a strange, spiky and tentacle-infested device of unmistakably Reaper origin, plugged into the drive core, undoubtedly the source of the Reaper signal that is controlling the geth.
Tali is immediately at the drive core console, analyzing the specifics of the Reaper device and looking for ways to lock down the insidious signal controlling the geth. The quarian wastes no time in starting to input commands, forcing the device's black matted claws to retract, revealing something hidden inside it. It is a shape of a certain familiar looking geth platform, Shepard's old and battered N7 armor easily recognizable, identifying the geth as their old friend, Legion, held suspended by cables and wiring, completely and utterly helpless.
"Shepard-Commander!" Legion pulls up his flashlight head, and Shepard for a moment thinks she has somehow managed to sense desperation in the geth's voice and gesture. "Help us!"
"My god, it is Legion!" she breathes, hardly believing what she sees. "Trapped in some kind of geth bondage fantasy that you can read about on the extranet! Which I have never done!"
"Then please don't tell us how you found out about that," Tali says, almost pleadingly. "But Commander, remember that Legion might be controlled by the Reaper signal like all the geth! We don't even know how they came to be under the Reaper control."
"We can assist you, Shepard-Commander," Legion continues to speak. "We told you that we would never agree to subjugation by the Old Machines. This is still true."
"You have had dealings with this geth?" Kaidan asks, surprised, but for once not immediately condemning. "I trust you know what you are doing, Commander, but I would feel better if it could prove it is not under Reaper control."
"The architecture of this platform is too complex to be controlled by this signal," Legion explains, though Shepard is not immediately certain she should believe such a convenient explanation. "We are being used to broadcast the command signal to all geth. Freeing us will end the signal. Once you have done so, you may destroy us if you deem it necessary."
"Well, let's not resort to something so drastic," Shepard shakes her head. "Even if Legion would be controlled by the Reaper signal, it is unarmed and would not present any danger to five powerful individuals like ourselves." She turns back towards the restrained geth. "Alright, so do we just sever those connections or...?"
"No, we are secured by nearby hardware blocks on the far side of the room that shackle our operating protocols," Legion explains. "Deactivation should be simple. The geth protect them against viral attack, not physical removal."
"Suits me just fine," Morgan shrugs. "Smashing things is more up my alley anyway."
"How did the Reapers gain control of your people, Legion?" Liara asks, Kaidan and Garrus already starting to move towards the far side of the chamber.
"They did not. The creators attacked us," Legion explains. "The geth wished to live. The Old Machines extended an offer. In the end, we chose to ally with the Old Machines. Gaining consensus was very difficult. Had the creators not attacked, it would not have been necessary."
"Goddess... they only joined the Reapers to save themselves!" Liara explains, unable to stop herself from shooting a glance at Tali, who of course interprets it as accusation.
"Damn it," the quarian's voice is tearful when she speaks again, shoulders trembling lightly. "I begged them to negotiate rather than attack, I did! But they did not care, did not listen... I hated feeling so helpless about changing their minds, I hated myself for being unable to do anything!"
"I'm sorry, Tali. It sounds like you've gone through some really rough past months," Shepard says apologetically, putting her arm around Tali's shoulder. "But you can still make things right. That's why we're here, remember? To help you and your people."
"Of course, Shepard..." Tali manages to recover quickly, slipping out of Morgan's embrace and setting to quickly follow Garrus and Kaidan. "Let's just get Legion out of there and disable that signal."
Kaidan is busy overriding the data core as Shepard and the others catch up with them, Tali immediately alerting the other admirals that the signal is about to go offline, to which Admiral Han'Gerrel responds with a short message of gratitude. Meanwhile, Morgan watches Legion slowly extricating himself from the Reaper device, nimbly climbing out of its prison, and then standing near one of the data consoles, making Shepard a little worried about its intentions. As she starts to move towards the geth, however, she is stopped by a spectacular sizzle of energy as the power in the drive core winks out.
"As a gesture of cooperation, we have disabled the dreadnaught's drive core," Legion informs them. "All weapons and barriers are offline."
The joy and relief that they all feel at these news is short-lived, however. Heavy clonking sounds announce arrival of geth reinforcements, great many of them. "I'm guessing Legion's friends disagree with this gesture of cooperation," Garrus mutters angrily, quickly assessing the situation. "Damn, we've got Primes. This could get complicated."
"We should probably fall back," Morgan suggests, as they all drop in cover, facing a rather overwhelming opposition of determined geth. "Uh... what was our escape plan, anyway?"
"Err, I think we planned to return to the Normandy shuttle, after disabling the signal at the operations center," Kaidan says hesitantly.
"Well, we're not crawling back through the main battery," Garrus shakes his head. "Besides, the elevator is out, so that's not an option."
"There are geth fighters in the port-side fighter bay," Legion suggests. "Shepard-Commander, I can take you to safety in one of the geth fighters."
"Okay, let's try to edge towards the exit, I would prefer a strategic withdrawal now that we have fulfilled our mission objectives," Morgan orders, leaning out from the cover for a scant second to quickly put down a geth hunter, after it's shields had been disabled by Tali.
Tali continues to receive updates from the other admirals, forwarding their conversations to Shepard's omni-tool to keep Morgan updated with the situation in the field of battle. "The geth fleet is destabilized," she hears Xen's voice. "I can confirm that the signal is offline."
"Civilian Fleet, prepare to withdraw," Raan gives her order, having assumed control in the absence of Zaal'Koris. "The Patrol Fleet will cover you once the Heavy Fleet is in position. Whenever you're ready, Admiral Gerrel!"
Pfew, at last they are doing the right thing and getting the hell out of there, Shepard breathes a sigh of relief, as together with her team, Legion included, they attempt to flank the geth while trying to press towards the exit. The geth are quick to react, however, increasing the pressure on the right flank, trying to cut off their escape route, both of the Primes moving there to intercept them.
At Shepard's command, they concentrate their firepower towards the already slightly damaged Prime, Legion and Kaidan both suffering from the return fire, but fortunately their injuries are light, while the Prime crumbles and eventually explodes, and they quickly focus to bring down its equally dangerous colleague. In their desperate attempts to bring down the Primes as quickly as possible, they have neglected the other still numerous geth forces, and a rocket trooper manages to catch Morgan, instantly shattering her kinetic barriers, and one of the cloaked hunters immediately seeks to profit from her vulnerability, the bullet grazing her helmet as she hastily ducks back to cover.
One of the hunters suddenly reappears right behind Liara, but the asari somehow senses it, rolling forward just as the geth is about to smash her head in with the butt of its rifle. Shepard and Garrus immediately make the synthetic pay for its boldness, as Raan's voice echoes on her comms, sounding alarmingly shocked and dismayed. "Admiral Gerrel, what are you doing?" she is shouting, the reason for her reaction revealed shortly, once Gerrel responds.
"Raan, check your screens," comes the reply. "The dreadnaught is helpless, no barriers and the main gun offline! We can remove their flagship if we strike now!"
"Damn it, this is our chance to withdraw the Civilian Fleet to safety!" Raan screams back at him.
"What are they talking about?" Tali shouts in the comms, trying to remind her fellow admirals about her apparently forgotten existence. "We're still onboard of the dreadnaught!"
"We can't waste this chance," Gerrel responds coldly. "Heavy Fleet, forward. Take out the dreadnaught!"
"Patrol Fleet, hold position!" Raan orders in protest. Please, please, do grow a spine, Raan,
Shepard prays silently, for a moment forgetting to fight back against the geth, too disturbed by these new developments.
"You do that and the Heavy Fleet gets wiped out!" Gerrel yells back at her. "And if we die, a simple retreat won't save you from the geth retaliation!" C'mon, don't believe him, don't believe him, damn it, he has to be bluffing, he must be!
There is a brief silence in communications. Then she hears Shala'Raan swearing angrily. "Damn you, Gerrel," her voice is resigned and Shepard's heart sinks at the realization of what is about to happen.
"Welcome to the ranks of acceptable casualties, my friends," she exclaims angrily, staring at Tali in particular, the young quarian stubbornly continuing to fire at the geth, refusing to show any emotion. Her heart must be breaking. Betrayed by her own people, their leaders, Shepard realizes, feeling the desperate need to say or do something to lift Tali's spirits. Well, getting off this ship alive would probably be the best thing right now. Though looks like that might be a tall order.
The Heavy Fleet by now has opened fire on the geth dreadnaught, and the drive core is one of the prime targets of the quarian frigates, parts of the chamber are starting to collapse, including the core support that crashes down and conveniently buries most of the attacking geth under the rubble. Shepard and her squad immediately use this opportunity to dash towards the crumbling exit and to the access shaft leading to the fighter bay.
The dreadnought is slowly collapsing in on itself, whole sections coming down around them in fire and explosions, they have to be constantly aware of bits and pieces of metal scraps and debris falling all around them in fragments large enough to crush them to immediate death. "I don't suppose it is worth asking the Fleet to hold fire?" Liara asks, breathless by her side.
"Gerrel was perfectly aware we were still onboard," Shepard snarls, enraged to the point of seeing everything through a red mist. "I'm going to teach him a thing or two about acceptable losses as soon as we get the fuck off this wreck."
"Access to the docking protocols has been gained," Legion speaks, as they arrive at the fighter bay, by some miracle still alive. The passageway ahead of them leading to the giant bee-shaped fighters has partly collapsed, a nasty hole gaping in the middle of it, and Shepard waits for all of her friends to take a jump across it before attempting the leap herself. She makes the jump, only to have another part of the passageway collapsing underneath her, and she finds herself falling down into the darkness, accompanied by Liara's anguished scream... then fortuitously landing on a similar walkway about ten meters below, spike of pain driving through her head, shoulder and hip from the powerful impact.
"Commander, we can only launch the fighter from the upper level!" Legion warns her, and she is back to her feet immediately, looking around for a way to get back up, fortunately immediately spotting an intact walkway leading upwards. Explosions resound all around her, one of the geth fighters plunges down from above her and cuts off the walkway a few meters behind her, and Morgan knows that if she had been a second slower, she would have been a small red smear on the metal plating.
"Everyone, get into the fighter, I'm almost there!" she shouts on the comms, seeing that Liara is hesitating to get in, nervously pacing and trying to spot her. "Liara! Get inside!" she yells again, as the ship is rocked by a particularly nasty explosion.
"We've lost the environmental fields," Tali exclaims, watching Liara floating helplessly into the air, but then Legion is there next to her, reaching out and grabbing the asari by her shins and holding tight. Shepard also flies through the air, but fortunately the velocity is still propelling her in the direction of the fighter, and as she floats just above her bondmate, Liara reaching out and grabbing her, pulling Morgan down towards her.
"This is kind of romantic in a 'you are completely nuts' kind of way," Shepard manages a nervous chuckle, embracing Liara as Legion unceremoniously drags them back towards the fighter.
"Only you could think of that when the dreadnaught is collapsing around us," Liara shakes her head at Morgan, but never breaks her returned embrace on Shepard.
"Joker?" Shepard activates the comms to the Normandy. "We're leaving in a geth fighter! Don't shoot us down, okay?"
"Could you waggle the wings or something so I know which one is you?" Joker asks them jokingly.
"I don't think there are any other geth escaping the dreadnaught in a fighter," Shepard retorts quickly. "Transmitting rendezvous coordinates."
"I just hope that the quarians don't decide to fire on us," Kaidan decides to voice something that has been worrying Shepard ever since adopting this plan.
"I think they are too focused on the dreadnaught to notice a single fighter escaping," Tali replies, unable to hide her nervousness. "Uh... I hope..."
The Admiralty Board reconvenes in the Normandy War Room, planning to discuss their tactics now that the dreadnaught has been destroyed and the geth fleet is in disarray, but Shepard pushes past them rudely, ignoring the admirals as she hurries to the comm room to contact Hackett on the QEC.
"They fired on the dreadnaught while you were onboard?" Admiral Hackett asks, just to make sure, after she has clearly relayed the whole matter to him.
"As I said, Admiral Han'Gerrel's orders nearly got us killed, sir," Shepard reiterates once more. "Myself, Major Alenko, Garrus, Tali and Liara, we came a whisker away from dying. And without us, there would be nobody left who could effectively take command of the Normandy!"
"That does sound like Gerrel. He's been causing troubles along the turian border for years," Hackett nods, looking disgusted. "But Shepard, we need help if we are to win this war. We need a fleet and the quarians have the biggest one out there."
"What are you saying, sir?" Shepard looks at Hackett, feeling a little stunned.
"I'm saying that we need the quarians on our side, and that you're going to get their support, Shepard, no matter how," Hackett states, stone-faced.
"So, after they try to kill me and my squad, I'm expected to kiss their asses and make nice, is that what you're saying, Admiral?"
"Shepard, I know it must be feeling raw right now, but-" Hackett starts to speak sternly, but gets interrupted.
"Sorry, sir, I can't make out what you're saying any more, getting far too much bullshit on this line," she says swiftly, severing the connection and stepping away from the consoles, breathing heavily. Damn it, how can I do this, how can I stop myself from blowing Gerrel's brains out? she thinks hurriedly, her hands shaking from anger. There was no reason for him not to wait until we got off the dreadnaught! He never even asked how much time we needed! He just pushed the attack as soon as he could get a clean line of fire, as if he hoped that Tali and I went down with the ship!
Fuck. Fuck that bastard. Alright, I'll try... I'll try to make nice... but if he tries something like that again, and we both survive this and the war against Reapers... there might be reckoning. She takes another deep breath, straightening her back, feeling her anger subsiding a little, dropping to the point where she is certain she can control it while conducting her talks with the Admiralty Board.
The quarians are arguing bitterly in the War Room, Raan pointing an accusing finger at Gerrel, as she probably senses that their ally is not impressed by the Heavy Fleet trying to take them out together with the dreadnaught. "Your unilateral strike endangered us all!" she admonishes her fellow admiral. "I should charge you with treason!"
"I was within my authority as admiral of the Heavy Fleet!" Gerrel shouts back, clearly unrepentant.
"You were willing to risk the lives of Shepard and Tali'Zorah!" Raan is not about to let go easily.
"They escaped unharmed!" Gerrel protests, then turning towards Morgan as she approaches them in the War Room. "Shepard! The mission parameters changed. You're military, you understand that!"
The red mist is back clouding her eyes immediately as Gerrel's words reach her ears. Not even an apology, that fucking bastard! She is upon Gerrel before anyone can even move a muscle, her body acting on its own, as if disconnected from her brain, unable to exert any self-control to reign in her rage. Gerrel doubles over with a heavy grunt from the first powerful punch to his midsection, but it is not the last. She continues to pummel him like a helpless sack of grain, hearing cracks of fracturing bones and feeling something giving in as her fists continue to connect with Gerrel's abdomen.
"Shepard, what are you doing!?" she can vaguely hear Raan's terrified cries.
"Stop, Shepard!" Tali's voice is pleading, and it manages to get through, she lowers her hands, watching Gerrel's body twist and turn, toppling face first into the consoles, resounding loud crack as his faceplate hits a hard edge and breaks.
"Somebody get that animal off him!" Xen shouts, as Shepard slowly comes back to her senses, watching Admiral Han'Gerrel's badly beaten frame twitching at her feet. Wait, she suddenly realizes, as the red mist dissipates and some clarity is restored to her brain. I was supposed to try diplomacy first... wasn't I?