Meet Your Maker
The Shadow Broker's ship wasn't of a manufacture that any of them were familiar with. Fleetingly, Garrus wondered if Tali, Legion, or even Daryn would have been able to recognize it and shed some light on the situation. As it was, they had to rely on a rough outline downloaded from the security terminal. Between the three of them, Liara, Garrus, and Mordin had guessed the approximate location of the internment sector. But their decision was based on a number of assumptions, which were all technically rooted in some kind of logic or another, but from the way the rest of the team saw it, they were going in blindfolded with bright red targets painted on their backs.
And they were right.
They kept a loose formation within the halls of the Broker's lair, ready to lay down a line of fire in any direction. The dimly lit corridors revealed little about the nature of the Shadow Broker's base, shrouding it in a cloud of mystery much like the one that surrounded the Broker himself. There were twisting turns, doors with no discernible way of being opened, and dead ends that forced the team to retrace their steps and pick a new direction at random. It felt like they were crawling into the winding intestines of some foul creature with hot, dank breath. The belly of the beast. Garrus was reminded of the omnipresence of fear and darkness on Omega, though as he made his way deeper behind enemy lines, he felt it more acutely; as if every step he took was a planned route towards something calculated and sinister.
Garrus was about to lead the team of twelve around a corner when Thane motioned for him to hold up. The others flattened themselves against the walls, weapons raised in case of attack. "Hostiles around the corner. A squad of seven, I believe." Thane's senses had been carefully and painstakingly honed to detect exactly this kind of thing – Garrus trusted him. He selected the stealthiest among them to take the guards out. Kasumi and Thane crept to the other side of the hall, putting the guards in their sights, while Garrus and Mordin started to edge around the corner, the sheer blackness of the standard-issue armor camouflaging Garrus with the shadows.
"On my mark," Garrus breathed. He could hear the rest of the team fidgeting anxiously. "Three... two... one... now." The boom of his Widow synchronized perfectly with the soft chink-chink of Thane's Viper, taking down two at once, while Mordin unleashed his tech incineration. Four bodies hit the ground. Garrus and Thane lined up their next shots, firing as soon as the cross-hairs aligned with the agents' helmets. One left standing. Just as Garrus was reloading and trying to mentally account for Kasumi's kill, a slim black form suddenly materialized out of thin air. Ah. Sneaky one. Omni-tool prepped for attack, Kasumi whacked the rather alarmed agent over the back of the head, putting him down for the count. She waved cheerily, and Garrus imagined her tattooed lips curving in a smile behind the black recon hood.
Garrus signaled for the team to move up. Kasumi moved to regroup, trotting towards them victoriously, when, without warning, the wall to her right blew open, torn apart by an explosion from the other side. Kasumi was thrown into the opposite wall, her shields visibly crackling as she crumpled to the ground. Gunfire started up like an orchestra of violence.
Heavy ordinance. Someone knew we'd come through here. Garrus didn't have time to speculate at how or when they'd been discovered. Honestly, it wasn't that hard to imagine. "Take up positions and return fire! Go!" he ordered. The team charged forth, racing to the opening created by the explosion. Thane sprinted to Kasumi's vulnerable body, seizing her round the waist and dragging her behind cover.
The room on the other side of the wall was a wide, gaping annex; rows upon rows of storage crates line the floor, and narrow catwalks hung from the ceiling. Garrus had no means of estimating exactly how many enemies they were dealing with. He realized that it was the perfect place for an ambush. In the corridor's tight spaces, the Broker's numbers wouldn't have amounted to much, not when they were all funneled and bottle-necked into the line of fire. As soon as we stepped foot on this ship, we've been corralled to this point. All the turns and locked doors... like animals in a slaughter-house. But Garrus had no intention of becoming shredded meat.
First things first: they needed to make sure that they weren't pinned down. "Jack, Grunt, Samara: secure that cover!" If they were going to have any chance at all, they had to move forward. Grunt sprang out from behind the exploded section of wall, massive feet thundering audibly over the din of battle. Samara and Jack followed, forming a three-pointed arrowhead that penetrated the Broker's first line of defense. Jacob and Liara brought up their six, taking out the closest threats. Zaeed, Garrus, and Thane had whipped out their sniper rifles and were picking off the agents further out that popped up to empty their clips at them.
The initial punch through had been successful: Grunt tossed the final agent, flailing, over a large metal crate, declaring the piece of cover his own. They laid down cover fire while Zaeed switched for his assault rifle then joined the others, blind-firing into the distance as he ran. Garrus turned to Kasumi, who was receiving an application of medi-gel from Thane. "Can you move?" he asked her.
"My right shoulder's no good!" she replied. Bits of shrapnel had embedded themselves into her armor, probably sticking in the top few layers of skin as well. It was her omni-tool hand, too. She hefted her heavy pistol into her left. "I can move and shoot fine. Don't worry about me!" Thane helped her to her feet.
To be on the safe side, Garrus told her to keep behind cover as much as she could. He knew Kasumi could take care of herself, but he didn't want to take any unnecessary risk. As soon as they were ready, Garrus led them out into the fray.
The twelve of them clung desperately on to the little patch of the ground that they'd managed to take. Garrus waited for some kind of break in their enemies' advance, but the Broker's forces didn't come in waves as much as one constant, battering storm.
"Hit them with everything you've got!" Garrus ordered, his voice carrying across the open space. Incendiary ammo set agents aflame before they could breach the perimeter. Concussive rounds pummeled black-clad soldiers into the ground, sending their weapons spinning out of their grips like they were children's toys. Both flash-bang and inferno grenades were lobbed into clusters of the agents, disrupting their offensive and rendering them momentarily defenseless. Biotics decimated the battlefield, tossing agents into the air and sucking them towards infinitely massive singularities. No one was safe from the carnage.
But they couldn't keep their assault up for much longer. The Shadow Broker agents were coming at them from every side, filling the empty space left by their fallen comrades as they unblinkingly threw themselves at the infiltration team. They trickled forth like thick black oil from the cracks of a barrel, threatening to overflow and overwhelm the comparatively tiny opposition. Garrus felt that they were barely making a dent in the exponentially superior numbers of the Broker's offensive. As many agents as they were able to kill, a dozen more came to take their place.
Already, three of their own had been taken out. Garrus thought so, anyway. He'd heard at least that many anguished cries, signaling the fall of yet another squad member. He didn't have time to take a casualty list. He could physically feel their power diminishing, their unity fracturing. No. We're not losing this to numbers alone. We can hold out, just a little longer... But they were running low on thermal clips. Samara and Thane had switched to relying solely on their biotics, and Mordin was only able to get off a few shots in between his tech attacks. Garrus had run out of ammo for his Widow, and he was on the last clip for his assault rifle. There were more agents where they didn't use to be. They were getting closer and closer to the barriers before they were taken out.
Shepard. He was so close to her. They were on the same ship. Had she somehow found out that her team had boarded the Broker's base of operations? That they were coming for her? Did she, too, realize that they could only be separated by a wall or two? Garrus took out the nearest agent with a head shot, loosing a single burst from his rifle. Would it be worse if she lived the remainder of her life, however short it may be, thinking that he had decided not to at least try and rescue her? He had exactly eighteen rounds left until he had to pop the final heat sink. I just want to see you again. To hold your hand in mine...
An elite squad of asari commandos, accompanied by four krogans even bigger than Urdnot Wrex, approached. Apparently it had been decided that their opposition had gone on long enough. All the death and destruction would be brought to an end. Each member of the team steeled themselves. They'd all been ready to die for Shepard. The time had come for them to prove their worth.
Garrus let his trusty Vindicator clatter to the ground, overheated and empty. He drew his heavy pistol. There were only a few heat sinks left – he'd emptied most of its thermal clips into his Widow. Make 'em count. He got to his feet, completely exposing himself in order to line up the perfect shot. He aimed right for the middle asari's forehead. She was no Ardat-Yakshi, but she would be a suitable vessel for the Archangel's revenge. Before she could light up her biotics, Garrus planted a single bullet in between her eyes. That was all he could manage before an explosion from the barrel of a shotgun flattened him, slugs finding their way into the seams of his armored plates. The raw force slammed him into the ground and opened up his old wounds, gushing blood into his under-weave.
"Stay down, Blue!" a grating voice shouted. Garrus blinked. Jack. A slim, silver visor shielded her eyes. She was holding some sort of weapon he didn't recognize at first. It was enormous. After a moment, it clicked into place: she was charging up an M-920 Cain. Red warning lights danced frantically. It was ready to blow.
Kaidan dove into cover next to Garrus, flinging a hasty biotic barrier over the pair of them. Liara and Thane did the best they could for the others, who had flattened themselves, or perhaps fallen, to the ground. Miranda was at Jack's side, biotics sparkling around her, arms raised determinedly. The barrier she'd put up to protect Jack was dropped a second before the Cain's trigger released.
A small, spherical projectile, like a tiny yellow star, left the Cain, leaving a golden trail of energy in its wake. For the briefest instant in time, surprise registered on the faces of the asari commandos and the rest of the Broker's forces. They'd never seen anything that could ever compare to the brilliant ray of light that burned like sunshine in the heart of the Shadow Broker's lair. It was... beautiful. Radiant. Utterly divine. Each of the black-clad soldiers was convinced that the white-gold orb had come to swallow them up and ferry them away to the afterlife. They all looked upon it in awe as it reached the center of the annex and proceeded to obliterate them all in the most magnificent blaze of cleansing heat and glorious fire that had ever existed on the mortal plane.
"Stay with me, Vakarian." Omega. He couldn't feel his face. Or any of his limbs. The only thing he was absolutely certain of was her. "You're almost there. Don't give up now." He could make out the well-defined features of her face, her gray eyes like lighthouses on some distant shore. Her lips brushed against his blood-encrusted forehead, the ends of her hair tickling his nose. Soft panting breaths graced his skin like a warm summer breeze straight out his childhood memories on sunny Palaven. Gently, she reclaimed her lost lamb. "I need you now. Get up, Garrus. Get up..."
"Garrus." Enormous brown eyes hovered inches from his face. "Thank God you're alive. Get up!" Kaidan pulled him to his feet, steadying his friend when he seemed ready to fall over. Still swaying, Garrus looked around and assessed the damage. The annex had been consumed by the blast of the Cain. Bodies that hadn't been wholly eradicated lay in charred fragments, ravaged by the unforgiving flood of power. The crates that had once hidden and provided cover for legions of soldiers were reduced to brittle metal stumps, their contents burned beyond recognition. There seemed to be no hull breaches, but the walls were blackened from the effects of combustion. None of them had ever seen destruction on such a same scale.
Jack grinned, proudly surveying the room she'd laid to waste. "Looks like I just... Cain."
Oh Spirits. "That... that was..." Liara began, words seeming to fail her. A dribble of dark blood ran from her lip. "I can't believe we're alive."
Garrus clamped a hand down on Jack's shoulder, using her as a momentary support. "Good work, Jack." The battle had been literally seconds away from being brought to an end when she'd fired that thing. He had no idea how she'd even managed to sneak it off the Normandy. He was just glad that she had.
She looked up at him, one eye squinting crookedly, the same maniacal smile on her lips. "I try."
Everyone was more or less in one piece. They'd all survived the Cain, but none of them had been so lucky as to escape unscathed. Among the most serious injuries were Thane's, who'd received a spray of assault rifle fire to the his left hip and abdomen while protecting Kasumi, and Jacob, whose knee had been snapped biotically by one of the asari commandos. Cradling his wounded arm, Mordin got to work fixing the Cerberus agent up with a makeshift splint.
"What's the next step?" Miranda asked, approaching Garrus as the rest of the team patched themselves up as best they could with the medi-gel available to them. Garrus noticed that both she and Jack had received mild burns along their faces and necks that must have been caused by the heat wave of the Cain. He wondered absently if it would leave scars on either of them.
Garrus glanced down at his omni-tool, coughing out a bit of ash in his lungs before saying, "The internment sector isn't too far from here. I'm guessing a majority of the Broker's forces were concentrated in this area to take us out. If that's true, we won't encounter much resistance. We'll be able to get Shepard out without too much difficulty." If we can find her first, he wanted to add. But he didn't. It went unsaid that while they'd cleared a major hurdle, there was still a battle left to fight.
"Here's hoping no more of this shit pops out at us from behind a corner," Zaeed proclaimed, waving his hand at the blackened expanse before them.
"I second that," Jack said, hefting the Cain. "This baby is all outta juice. A one-squirt kinda deal, if you catch my drift."
"Well, what are we waiting for?" Grunt demanded gruffly. "Let's go roast the next suicidal idiots that get in our way."
Grunt was right – they needed to get moving. As many agents as had lost their lives in the annex, there could still be more on the ship. It was the Broker's headquarters, after all. Garrus had Samara shoulder Jacob so that he could hobble along on one leg, heavy pistol in hand, and Mordin held onto Kasumi with his good arm. Jack kept next to Thane, in case he needed to lean on her for a moment. She nudged him in the ribs, eliciting a low groan. "Aren't you glad I brought that damn thing along after all?"
"I am grateful that the gods saw fit to grant you the gift of foresight, Jack."
"Gods? Pshh. Pure skill is what that was, frog boy."
"Of course."
Garrus, Liara, Kaidan, and Miranda led the party of twelve through the aftermath, winding their way through the debris field towards the other end of the annex. It wasn't easy – they had to maneuver themselves around a quarter of a mile of jagged metal and still-smoking corpses. The floor was uneven, small craters created by the blast or preexisting ground storage cupboards, making it especially difficult for the wounded. Despite the rough terrain, they were able to make good time. At the other end of the annex was an ammo cache, with enough thermal clips for each of them to reach half capacity. Garrus hoped that it would be enough for whatever else they encountered in the Shadow Broker's lair.
The hallway that the annex emptied out into was different, somehow. The air pressed down more heavily around them, and the sudden halt of the alarm system was unsettling. Garrus felt his breaths grow shallow in his chest. They were nearing the end. He could feel it. But it was brought to his attention that their final destination would not be where they expected it to be.
"We're heading in completely the opposite direction of the internment sector," Liara said in a low voice, eyes darting around nervously. They'd stuck to the route Mordin planned out as best as they could, yet they'd still managed to get turned around.
Garrus looked up from his omni-tool. "They know we're here."
Miranda clenched her submachine gun, the hair on the back of her neck bristling. Garrus confirmed her suspicion that they were being guided through the ship by some unseen force, a master puppeteer behind the curtains. Perhaps it was even the Shadow Broker himself pulling the strings. It had been the same way with the entire mission; from the hostages on Illium, the execution of all those prisoners, and now finally the rat maze within the Broker's own lair... they were all pieces on a chessboard and only the Shadow Broker knew the rules.
But the game had changed. They'd put up one hell of a fight and forced the Broker to adapt. The ambush in the annex was meant to take them out for good, Miranda knew. Failing that, they were about to pitted against an even more formidable force. The team was proving more difficult an adversary than the Broker had anticipated, but he was an old pro at this. Miranda was betting that he still had a few tricks up his sleeve. Her hands automatically checked her weapons, reassuring herself that everything was in place. Whatever the Broker had left to throw at them... they'd be ready.
"What do we do?" Kaidan asked, his brow creasing with worry. If the Broker, or his minions, were in control, he just didn't see themselves walking out alive with Shepard. Especially not if the Ardat-Yakshi was involved. When he closed his eyes, he could still see her cruel amethyst eyes narrowing as she moved in for the kill, an apex predator out for blood...
"We only have one option. We have to move forward." Forward and into whatever the Broker had waiting for them. Forward, to Shepard. The rest of the team agreed. There was no turning back. There was nothing to go back to, anyway. Everything was riding on rescuing Shepard. Even if it meant facing the Ardat-Yakshi. Even if it meant dying. Because once they committed themselves to a mission, there was no way they were backing down.
Garrus looked to Kaidan, his aquamarine eyes silently asking if they were still in it together. Kaidan nodded. He hadn't gone that far only to stall on the final threshold. His commander could be in the next room.
It wasn't long before they came across a wide hallway, more of an antechamber really, that ended with two massive doors. Sound and bullet proof by the looks of it. Possibly vacuum sealed as well. The lock was disengaged, flashing green and inviting them in. Garrus knew, without a trace of doubt in his mind, that they'd come to the final passage of their journey. They all paused to take in the moment. "This is it," Garrus said quietly, almost to himself. Then, with more conviction, he said, "This is it. We're... we're here."
Liara put a hand on his shoulder. Everything they'd worked for was leading up to that point. Garrus remembered holding Shepard in his arms, reluctantly releasing her when she left to meet up with Kaidan. He wished he'd held her just a little longer. He remembered putting a bullet in Liara's secretary's skull, the soft, exhaling sound she made when the life left her body. He remembered receiving the news that Tali and Legion were critically wounded and might not make it. And then making the choice to continue with the mission anyway. Most painful of all, he remembered the people that died as a direct result of his actions: Officer Laurel Tracit, laying on the floor of a penthouse, entangled in a conflict she had no part in. And Daryn. Daryn Forsythe, who sought redemption and honor, who was a greater hero than anyone back on Palaven would have ever thought.
Garrus remembered everything. He wished, more than anything, that the mission hadn't claimed so many lives. But he also knew that there was no choice. Shepard was perhaps the one person that the galaxy needed: needed her to fight its battles against the Collectors, the Reapers, the slavers and whatever else was out there. When it came to getting Shepard back, there was no limit. Garrus would be lying to himself if he said he didn't feel guilty about it, but at the end of the day, it was justified.
More than that, though, Garrus was willing to do whatever it took to rescue the woman he loved. He opened the door to face whatever lay beyond.
"Here for your commander?" At the other end of the room, behind a long, curved desk and a veritable battle station of data terminals, sat an enormous hulking creature, the likes of which the team had never seen before. It was the size of two elcor stacked on top of each other, minus the lumbering apathy; clearly, the alien before them was more akin to a krogan, built for strength and violence. Two wicked horns crowned its massive, scalloped face. Its body was bulky, muscular, and dangerous. Enormous fingers, each one the size of a human arm, sat folded on the desk, motionless. "And you brought the whole crew. Reckless, even for you, Archangel." The creature was none other than the Shadow Broker himself.
The team was quiet, sizing up the enemy. They were very aware of the presence of roughly a dozen guards, surely the Broker's top field operatives, all armed to the teeth. Most notably among them was the Ardat-Yakshi, who Samara and Kaidan had no trouble recognizing. She was flanked by the turian with black X's painted on either side of his face, the silent, brutish krogan, and a tall, broad-shouldered human female who carried only a pistol. Above them, a cryogenic energy capacitor lit up the room like a chandelier, humming unnaturally and providing an ambient back-drop for the exchange.
"Ah, Dr. T'Soni," the Broker continued, his low, throaty voice reverberating throughout the entire room. "Your interference caused all this. It's pointless to challenge me; I know your every secret, while you fumble in the dark."
Liara stepped forward, finally confronting the one she'd hunted for two years. The one who'd taken Feron, and then Shepard, from her. The pain he'd caused... he was going to pay. "Is that right?" Her voice carried confidently across the room. "You're a yahg. A pre-spaceflight species quarantined to their homeworld for massacring the Council's first contact teams." The flaps of skin by the yahg's neck fluttered. Liara pressed on, gaining momentum. "This base is older than your planet's discovery, which probably means you killed the original Shadow Broker sixty years ago, then took over."
The squad of black-clad agents looked at Liara, then back at the Broker. Garrus took it that this was all new information to them. Sensing that she was getting a reaction out of them, Liara continued. "I'm guessing you were taken from your world by a trophy hunter who wanted a slave..." Her deep blue eyes never wavered from the yahg. "... or a pet. How am I doing?"
She'd gotten under the Broker's skin, Garrus could tell that much. The yahg shifted where he sat, completely unprepared for the asari's knowledge of his origins. But the Shadow Broker kept his composure, maintaining his iron grip of control on the situation. T'Soni had made her move. She was good, but he was better. No one in the galaxy had more information than him. No one. As it happened, the Broker held the trump cards that were key to putting down their infuriating little insurrection.
"You've done your research, T'Soni. But it has amounted to nothing. It's too late for your friends. Feron is dead. And soon, so will the rest of them."
Before Liara could unleash a barrage of biotics on the Shadow Broker, Garrus reached out and stayed her hand. The team looked at him, holding their breath. "Give us Shepard, and we won't kill what little is left of your private army."
The yahg's black eyes flitted to Garrus, settling on the turian and scrutinizing him carefully. "It's a shame you got the Forsythe boy killed. He had talent. I might have even let him work for me."
Garrus was glad he'd kept the helmet on. There was no way he was going to let that bastard have the satisfaction for even a second. He drew his assault rifle, its barrel pointed straight at the yahg. "Where is she?" he demanded. Behind him, he could hear the team readying their weapons.
The Shadow Broker didn't say a word. He leaned back slightly, then motioned to the Ardat-Yakshi. Kamala flashed a subtle blue and for a second, Garrus thought she was going to attack. But then, the human female to her right stepped forward. She was wearing light armor that was black as night and hugged her curves, much like that of an asari commando. Undoubtedly, she was a powerful biotic. Garrus trained his sights on her. There was something familiar about the way she held herself, the lethal grace with which she moved...
"I'm right here."
Shepard.