Belly of the Beast
It's a surreal feeling when faced with life or death. It's a reaction. You don't think. You don't act. Action requires thinking. The act, in this case a rocket from a geth rocket drone, had already happened.
And so, Kaidan didn't think; he just reacted as he pushed Shepard to the deck, the alien rocket soaring over them. The heat of the rocket's impact behind them was tangible against the coolness of the mine. Ears ringing from the explosion, only just muffled enough by his helmet not to deafen him, he rolled off the commander and surged to his feet, yanking her up and behind him reflexively. How he had managed to hang on to his weapon and get a few shots out at the enemy would puzzle him later.
That was five seconds. In the next two, rock tumbled, and Shepard pushed against his back urging him forward, towards the barrage of weapons fire. They broke into a run to avoid falling rocks as the entrance caved in. Pebbles and rubble glanced off their helmeted heads and armored shoulders. He half-expected Shepard to order them to get on the bounce, but she was silent save her breathing. Her pistol was doing the talking for her as she wildly fired on the geth.
A large chunk of rocky wall smashed into his shoulder, causing him to stumble, completely miss his target and nearly tripped up the Commander, who was right on his ass. To his left, Wrex swore as they ran, the guttural sound of a krogan dialect lost to Kaidan's translator. He got the idea.
The krogan swung his arms out in a mnemonic Kaidan had never seen before. A biotic barrier flared to life around them, encasing them like a bubble as debris rained down. A particularly large chunk of the rocky ceiling bounced off the shield where it would have hit Williams.
Nice save, Kaidan thought absently.
"You're going to have to teach me how to do that, Wrex," Shepard commented.
"Asari technique," Wrex grunted. "Ask the doctor when we get her." He pushed the shield through the fallen rocks forcing them out of the way. The tunnel ended at a narrow catwalk, the rocket drone and six geth troopers.
The geth didn't let up just because there was a barrier. Geth slugs ricocheted. The red drone fired another rocket. It burst against Wrex's shield, bright and smoky. Kaidan screwed his eyes shut against the light, throwing his arm up out of reflex, spots appearing in his vision when he opened them again. He expected to smell smoke and charred flesh, but the shield held and even muffled the sound.
"Let's move," the krogan said. His stance was irregular, like he was about to keel over. "You owe me another amp, Shepard."
"Garrus, when Wrex lowers the barrier overload that drone," Shepard ordered. "Alenko, push those bastards over the railing. Williams, suppressive fire." She switched from her pistol to her HWMSG, loading a mortar round into the chamber beneath the shot gun's barrel. She took point in front of Wrex as he wavered and the barrier gave out. Wrex sank to his knees, out of the fight, and the marines tightened their ranks.
Garrus' ECM hit its mark, a shower of green and blue wreaking havoc on the drone's shields and mass effect generator.
Kaidan nudged Williams, pointing to a small tank near the most geth. "Williams, take out that cryotank."
Three slugs later, the tank exploded taking out the geth's footing. The remaining geth disappeared without the catwalk below them and rock raining on top of them.
"All targets down," Kaidan said, his ears ringing. "Let's not do that again."
Shepard snorted as she collapsed her shotgun and attached it to the slot on the back of her armor. She looked at Wrex with some concern, but her tone was teasing, light. "Why not? No harm. No foul."
Despite himself, Kaidan felt a grin stretch his lips.
"Get off me, human."
Krogan or not, honor or not, Kaidan wasn't taking "No" for an answer and scowled at Wrex. "I have an extra amp," he said, taking the cylinder out of his medkit and holding it out to the krogan. He'd purchased an extra at the last stopover in case Shepard overloaded hers again. Biotic amplifier feedback wasn't anything to sneeze at. Kaidan wouldn't soon forget almost losing Shepard on Feros. "Would you rather have your brain –"
Wrex surged up, towering over Kaidan. Shit. The biotic did not want to fight a damned krogan with a boo-boo. "This isn't Feros," Wrex grunted. "And I'm not a squishy human." His red eyes pierced the distance between them, the black slits of the pupils dilated in the dim light of the cavern. "There's a reason I'm a Battlemaster, human. The damage is repaired but the amp's gone." He yanked the dead amp out and tossed it down. It hit the catwalk with a tink then was gone, lost to the stone far below. Wrex snatched the extra from Kaidan's hand and shoved it in the slot at the base of his skull before stalking off and taking point.
Kaidan met Williams' eyes and she shook her head.
"Move out," Shepard said as soon as Wrex took point. "Let's find the scientist and get the hell out of here. I've had just about all I can take of this planet."
She swallowed. They were at least five hundred meters under Therum's surface. Without a way to get back out again.
It wasn't so much her reaction to being trapped but the fact that they were in a goddamned cave. It unnerved her, reminded her of the caves she explored as a child on Mindoir. She swallowed again, her mind racing back. Her father had called the creatures in the caves "bats" but they didn't look like the bats from her earth biology studies. I am not Batman, she reminded herself, a personal joke from childhood to ward off the fear of the "bats".
"You think there's another entrance, Skipper?" Ashley asked as they made their way across the catwalk over the chasm, Wrex at point and Garrus bringing up the rear. Some kind of blue barrier loomed in front of them and it only got bigger as they approached it.
Shepard nodded. "This is an archeological dig site. It would be stupid not to."
Alenko looked back. "Not all scientists are engineers, ma'am."
Shepard made a face. "Way to boost morale, Lieutenant."
Williams nudged Kaidan before he could say anything further. "Dare you spit over the edge."
The Commander chuckled. "A challenge has been issued," she said, mirth evident in her voice.
Kaidan hesitated. "I'll pass, Chief. Mine's bigger anyway. And we've got," he thumped the thick, blue barrier that prevented them from going any further, "bigger issues."
Shepard put a hand on the barrier, her face withdrawn. "More working Prothean technology," she murmured. She looked as if she wanted to say more, but dropped her hand and looked back at them with an unreadable expression on her face. She indicated an elevator at the back of the cavern. "Let's see where that leads."
Kaidan gave a nod, indicating the area beyond the barrier. "Those tiles remind me of a bathroom floor."
Williams rolled her eyes. "Thanks a lot, LT. Now, I've gotta pee."
"Yeah, my eyeballs are floating, too, Williams." Kaidan clapped her on the shoulder then followed Shepard further into the cavern.