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A Rather Hostile Welcome

Garrus let Liara lead the way back to Spike's hideout, insisting that she take a different route from the one they used to get to the factory in the first place. Miranda was the last one out the door. She shut it firmly behind her, then turned to Garrus. "If anything happens to my sister..." She didn't finish her threat, but her eyes were dark with a promise of vengeance.

Though he was sympathetic of her situation, he didn't give any sign of emotion. He held her gaze for a moment longer before heading down the alley after the others, hoping for all their sakes that no harm came to the prisoners.

When they approached Daryn's building, they entered through the front door, Miranda kicking the black door jamb from beneath the crack so it would open wider. They climbed the flights of stairs up to Daryn's level. Liara was about to knock when she realized that this door was also open. She rapped her knuckles on the door twice anyway, just to announce their arrival.

"Oh, hey guys," Daryn laughed, giving a wan smile. He was sitting at his desk, hands folded in his lap. "Didn't expect to see you back so soon."

"Well," Liara said. "Here we are. We need your help figuring out -"

"Why don't you sit down?" he cut her off abruptly. He remained seated, nodding at the bench directly in front of him. Liara was about to do so when Garrus smoothly intercepted her.

"Thanks. Don't mind if I do." He saw something flutter in the curtains. Without hesitation, he drew his assault rifle and fired off two short bursts. Behind him, the others recoiled in surprise. A batarian, clothed in black, slumped to the ground, the gun limp in his hands.

"How about a little warning next time?" Daryn whined.

"That would've defeated the purpose," Garrus said.

Samara, Kaidan, and Miranda got busy sweeping the apartment for any other agents of the Shadow Broker that might be hiding. They found none.

But it wasn't the people inside the flat they had to worry about. Daryn jumped to his feet, and Garrus saw that his hands were bound with a zip-tie. Using the knife he always kept in his boot, Garrus cut him free. The younger turian rubbed his wrists, flinching. Wimp. If he did his time in the army he wouldn't be so soft and sensitive to pain. "They've infiltrated the whole building. Like, a billion of 'em. They came in when the power went off and tried to -"

"Doesn't matter. We're getting out of here," Garrus said. Whatever the kid had to say could be explained back at the Normandy. At the moment, they had an ambush to evade.

Something red flashed in Daryn's eye. He squinted and shielded his face with hand, trying to determine the source of the nuisance. Garrus had no trouble identifying the origin. "Precision sniper, front window!" he shouted for the benefit of the others. They quickly sprang into cover. Realizing Daryn had no military training whatsoever, Garrus took two running leaps and vaulted over the desk, kicking the chair into Daryn's legs to slide him out of the line of fire. He heard the boom of the rifle across the street. Must be a Mantis. Those things are noisy as hell. Garrus ducked under the window sill just in time to hear the bullet ricochet off Daryn's desk. The shattered window rained in shards over Garrus, tinkling musically as they hit the ground. "My equipment!" Daryn practically shrieked. All the fancy tech was reduced to so many smoking circuits and wires.

Switching out his Vindicator for the sniper rifle, Garrus took up position and opened fire on the sniper across the street. For a second the laser sight hovered right between Garrus's eyes, but he squeezed the trigger twice more, and the red line suddenly jerked upwards. That was the shooter falling back, hopefully dead.

Praying no more would come to take the dead sniper's place, Garrus turned his back to the window. He heard what sounded like a thousand footsteps in the stairwell. I guess we're not getting out that way. The doorway would prove useful in funneling all their enemies into a narrow opening, but they still needed an exit route.

He grabbed Daryn. "Where's the emergency escape?" He was pretty sure the situation they were in constituted as an emergency.

"Yeah, right!" the young turian exclaimed. "These buildings haven't had -" Garrus stopped listening. You really don't need that many words to say "no."

With the only exit blocked, Garrus needed to get creative with their way out. Living on Omega, he had pretty good instincts about the best way out of a foxhole, so an idea came to him relatively quickly. A powerful kick to the window cleared out the remaining glass. He was on the verge of yelling at everyone to haul their asses out, when the door came crashing down. Everyone took cover. Amidst the gunfire, Garrus heard an animal squawk. Damn that infernal pyjak. He poked his head out of cover to fire off a few rounds with his assault rifle, and saw one of the soldiers in black grab the pyjak. It squirmed, crying out shrilly. The soldier threw it into the ground and stomped down hard, making a sickening crunch.

"Momo!" Daryn screamed, leaping forth from his relatively safe position. Garrus went after to him, grabbing the kid by the cowl and throwing him back. His shields crackled, drifting dangerously low, but before any real damage could be done, Liara plugged the entrance with a massive singularity.

"That'll hold them for now, but we need to leave!" she said. "What's the plan?"

Garrus jerked his thumb at the window. "There's a dumpster down below. Jump. They'll have guards on the streets, but get to the Normandy as fast as you can. Take the kid."

Samara and Miranda rushed to the window and got to work repositioning the dumpster below the window, pushing and pulling it with their biotics. "What about you?" Liara asked, a note of fear creeping into her voice.

"Alenko and I will hold them off." There were people in the stairwell, shouting. "Now go!"

Liara did as she was told, leading Daryn away from Momo's smushed body. When she gestured at the window, he protested. "No way in hell are you getting me to jump that far," he proclaimed, his pubescent voice cracking. "No way in -"

Without warning, Liara wrapped an arm around his waist and launched themselves out the window, no doubt using biotics to cushion their fall. Garrus shifted his focus to the ruins of Daryn's apartment, all his finery torn to bits from the skirmish. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the Prothean ball still intact, rolling around unfazed by the gunfire.

Garrus kicked over Daryn's desk, creating a halfway decent cover in a direct line to the door. He quickly set a timer on his omni-tool. "We'll give them forty-five seconds. After that, jump out the window and don't look back." The singularity wavered, about to fizzle out. "Got it?"

A conflicted expression crossed Kaidan's face. "I'm not abandoning you." Dammit, man, just do what I say.

"That's great, Alenko." He crouched behind the cover, setting his assault rifle on top to stabilize it. "But I'd rather you follow my orders."

Kaidan slid into place next to his turian comrade, mimicking his position with his own rifle. Huh. Looks like he upgraded. Just before the singularity died out, he said, "Garrus, I need to -"

"Hostiles, dead ahead!" As soon as the doorway was no longer blocked, they opened fire, hailing the first wave of agents with a deadly storm of bullets. Seizing a split-second window of opportunity, Garrus hit the shields of an approaching enemy with a tech overload. He charged closer, reaching the barrier Garrus had created. Pulling the trigger, Garrus was about to put a round in his skull when his gun clicked empty, the thermal clip thunking out of the cartridge. Oh shit. He rushed to reload. Just before he was about to get a shotgun blast in the teeth, a throw field hit the attacker in the chest, bowling him into several other agents in the doorway. Garrus saw Kaidan's biotics flare. If we make it out of here alive, I should thank him.

For thirty more seconds, a pile of bodies started to amass in the front of the apartment, making it difficult for other enemies to enter. The size of the Shadow Broker's force would have terrified Garrus, but he was sort of used to it; hell, three different mercenary groups had banded together to take him down. Serving with Shepard, it had always been just a team of three against armies of countless geth troopers. Being outnumbered was nothing new. But there was something unnerving about the cold, calculating air of the agents that attacked, stepping over their fallen comrades unblinkingly as they moved in for the kill. Garrus knew that, despite how their numbers had already been thinned, he and Kaidan would soon be overwhelmed.

His omni-tool beeped. Perfect timing. "Kaidan, go!" He did, without hesitation. Garrus covered him, slowly getting to his feet and retreating back towards the window. But without Kaidan providing supporting fire, the room quickly flooded with more agents. Exposed and unable to suppress the approaching hostiles, Garrus's shields drained to zero, leaving him completely vulnerable.

To Kaidan's advantage, that meant the turian was also susceptible to biotic attacks. Straddling the window sill, Kaidan pulled Garrus towards him biotically, not wasting time on a warning. Garrus flew backwards, right into Kaidan. His momentum carried them both out the window and out of their enemies' line of fire. Garrus felt Kaidan's arm cinch around his abdomen, transferring his biotic barrier as they fell through the air. They were barely in the air for a second before they landed inside the dumpster, bouncing off its contents and rolling onto the street.

Kaidan felt drained from his biotic display, but there was no time to recover. He was yanked to his feet by Garrus, and the two of them took off sprinting down the streets of Illium, which was getting to be a bit of a habit for Kaidan. Assault rifles booming as they took out several agents posted on the corner, Garrus grinned, despite the situation. Hey. We make a pretty good team.