Chapter 22:
Losing Control

Hollister monitored the battle in space using the command center's vid screens. He scowled at some of the Cerberus ships that they lost, and nodded at the Alliance ships that were destroyed, but he never showed any more emotion than that. He was conditioned much better than that. His calm, cool demeanor was in stark contrast to the other command center officers, who were running to and from the ends of the room, giving and receiving battle reports with an urgency that could only be read as panic. Hollister sighed slightly. How did he get put in charge of such fucking amateurs?

The radar on the far wall beeped in alarm. The proximity detectors. Someone had broken into Akuze's atmosphere. One of the technicians read off the report frantically. "We've got an Alliance Kodiak inbound!"

Hollister smiled. Shepard. He had the nerve to come after him after all. Time to show him exactly what he was dealing with. "Arm the anti-air cannons," he said cooly. "Bring them down over the jungle."

The technician turned, confusion spreading across his face. "Why wouldn't we just destroy them?" he asked.

Hollister rolled his eyes as he pulled out his pistol and shot the officer between the eyes. Cries and screams of panic sounded as he holstered the weapon and pointed at another technician. "You," he spat. "Shoot them down over the jungle."

The technician nodded, fear spreading over her face. "Y-yes sir." She went over to the AA controls and began operating the cannons, searching for the intruding shuttle. It only took a few moments of searching to find the Kodiak heading for the base. "Target located."

Hollister grinned. "Fire."

So far, the mission was going smoothly. There were no signs of any hostiles, and Shepard allowed himself to feel confident about the situation. Despite being back on Akuze, he was pretty calm. Maybe it was the determination to finally put this thing to rest. Or maybe it was time.

His thoughts were interrupted by a sharp beeping at Joker's console. "AA cannons have locked on to us!" He said, fingers frantically flying across the controls.

The shuttle began weaving sharply, trying to throw off the cannons' aims. It worked, for a while, and they were able to keep the Cerberus operators guessing as to where to fire. Then an especially close shot shorted out their shields, along with many of the Kodiak's systems.

"What the hell was that?" Alenko asked nervously.

Joker'a eyes narrowed at the reading on his console. "We've lost most of out primary systems," he reported. Then he continued to pilot the shuttle, pointing it downward slightly. "Everybody strap in!" he shouted. "We're going in hard!"

With the throttle systems being one of the systems that were taken out, there was no way to slow the shuttle down before impact. They were going to hit the ground much faster than the recommended speed. Looking around for a good place to land, Joker spotted a field not far from the base, but with enough cover to hide them from its view. At their speed, however, the impact would kill them. Noticing that he shields were regenerating with just enough juice to soften the blow, Joker aimed for the trees just before the field.

"What are you doing?!" Callus shouted, hanging on to his straps as tightly as possible.

"Slowing us down," Joker replied. An instant later, the shuttle crashed into the trees, its shields taking the full impact while slowing it down. As it hit the ground, Joker braced himself for hellacious pain, but was surprised to feel only some bruising. A look at the console showed that the shields had just now finished draining. The shuttle was completely vulnerable, but it was okay, at least for now.

In the back, the three soldiers groaned. "Let's try not to crash again," Callus muttered. "Ever."

"I second that," Alenko replied.

Hollister smiled in self-satisfaction. Shepard was now in his palm. All he had to do was squeeze. "Send out a squad to retrieve them," he ordered. "Bring Orion and Shepard alive. All others are expendable."

Immediately, a small team was put together and sent to the crash site. Victory was close. He could feel it. He could also feel a strange pressure in his hands. As he looked down, he noticed he was squeezing the bar at his post so tight, it was almost bending. Frowning, he let go and straightened. Now was no time to lose his composure. He still had a job to do. "Time for your part, Callus Orion," he muttered aloud.

The squad was made of six soldiers, each unique in their combat abilities. There was a soldier, specializing in each weapon and wearing heavy armor; an adept, wielding only a pistol and light armor, but with a knack for biotic abilities; an engineer, good with pistols and shotguns, as well as incineration, cryoblasts, overloads, etcetera; a vanguard, which was decent with most guns, but preferred her biotics; a sentinel, which had tech powers, but he relied more on his biotic powers to take a target down; and an infiltrator, who used a combination of tech and combat abilities in every fight.

They approached the crash site slowly, carefully. The infiltrator activated her cloaking. The adept and vanguard glowed blue with their biotics. The soldier, the engineer, and the sentinel armed their weapons, aiming them at the door. The soldier held up two fingers together, then pointed toward the shuttle door. The adept crept forward, readying to wrench the door off its hinges.

Before she could do anything, however, the door suddenly opened. She jumped back, startled, and flared her biotics further. Inside, she was greeted by silence. There was nothing. No sign of life. The soldier frowned. He turned to inform Hollister of the situation, and was met with a turian fist to his face.

Callus turned the soldier around, using him as a shield from the immediate counterattack from the Cerberus troops. The soldier's shields were strong, and were able to withstand the assault, which allowed Callus to return fire unhindered.

The infiltrator snuck around to the side, drawing her knife to strike the turian down. She spent eight years studying turian physiology, and she knew where she could stab them to cause a hell of a lot of pain, but keep them alive. She raised the pistol as she neared him, but she never got the chance to strike. A biotic throw blasted her off her feet, destroying her shields, and sent her headfirst into the trunk of a nearby tree. It splintered on impact, killing the infiltrator instantly.

Shepard stepped out from behind the shuttle and opened fire on the remaining ambushers. Their attention turned to him, giving Callus the upper hand. Twisting sharply, he snapped the soldier's neck and fired upon the remaining troops while running to cover. Kaidan then joined the fray, firing on the ambushers. All those that were left, however, had strong shields and barriers, making it difficult to bring them down. Using their abilities, they whittled their numbers even further. Kaidan was able to warp the adept's barrier down, allowing Callus and Shepard to finish her off. Callus overloaded the engineer's and sentinel's shields, and Kaidan pushed them both into Shepard's mine that he placed before the battle. All that remained was the vanguard, who took cover in the shuttle.

A moment later, she was marched out of there by Joker, who held an assault rifle to her head. Muttering something about Alliance assholes, she dropped to her knees. "Kill me and get it over with," she spat.

Shepard shook his head. "We don't kill unarmed prisoners," he replied. He brought the butt of his pistol to the back of her head, and she slumped to the ground unconscious.

The battle over, the group pulled the bodies into one area. "Alright," Shepard said as they were done. "That's one part of the plan finished. Now for the tricky part."

Callus frowned. "What do you mean?" he asked.

Joker pointed to two of the corpses. "Think these ones'll still work," he called out.

"Work for what?" Callus demanded.

Shepard turned to him. "For getting us in undetected," he explained.

As Callus realized what he meant, he nodded in understanding, but frowned immediately after. "But what will I do?" he asked. "I'm not exactly sure Cerberus has turian armor."

"Well, Callus," Shepard replied, brandishing a pair of omni-cuffs. "That's something I don't think you're going to like."