And Hell Followed With Him
Shepard had an excellent throwing arm. Kaidan thought the Commander probably missed her calling as a baseball player.
He felt damn glad she'd missed that particular calling.
The EMC trap detonated in a dazzling show of light and sparks. Electrical pulses arced in greens and blues, radiating in a shock wave down the corridor, past the door, and half-way into the compartment as excited electrons, protons, and particles surged and bounced. Oxygen particles collided into ozone. The scent of it hit Kaidan strong and hard.
"Barriers and EMCs down," Kaidan reported as he ran up to take cover by the door again. He forced his mind on the mission, away from the worry. The compartment's barriers and the EMCs weren't the only thing down. Shepard's shields had failed under the electromagnetic assault. She let them know as she took cover beside him, a frown on her face. He couldn't read her expression. She had her Game Face on. Her barrier shimmered, but only just. He dropped down low while she took the high route, a quick glance at his HUD showed enemy hard-suit locations in red and how long until Shepard had to wait until her shields recharged to one hundred percent.
Too damn long.
This close to the deck the smell of death, the metallic stench of blood, the evacuated bowels and bladders nearly overpowered him. It mingled with the ozone and mass accelerator vapor. As bad as the slavers' pit he and his squad took down months before he'd transferred to the Normandy.
It pissed him off. The brutality of it, of what had been done to simple scientists. They were just here cataloging critically endangered animals and plant life, for God's sake. The injustice of it all. What was the point?
It disappointed him, too. All for what?
A mercenary group took out a bunker of scientists just so one guy could torture and kill another? Why would anyone go to that much trouble?
He looked up at Shepard where she stood poised, a lioness ready for her prey. She all but bounced lightly on her toes, pistol at ready. He edged closer, read the sigs on his HUD. The mercs were about to enter the kill zone. Shepard's shields were recharging. Slowly, but they were coming around again. Her barrier held. It shimmered, undulating — a technique he often wondered if she had managed to do on her own or if it had been part of her training.
Her briefing before the drop onto the planet surface had been short: The scientists being killed had been on a top-secret project on Akuze. He'd be lying if he said he wasn't worried about her. Worried about her, her frame of mind. She said she was over Akuze and had been placed on admin duty on Luna to overcome it… but, he wondered, how did someone get over something like that? How did you face each day knowing your buddies were gone and that your decisions were responsible for the fact that they were never coming home? Marines died in the line of duty. He knew one day his luck would run out. It was a fact of the service. But if something happened to one of the team—all of the team—he wondered how he would react, how he would overcome it. Especially if it was his decision to send them to their deaths.
And he wondered, if something happened to her, would he be able to overcome it just by talking to a shrink and some light duty? Would it really be that simple?
He doubted it. Shepard's aloof demeanor during this entire mission told him the scars from Akuze were still there, regardless of what she said.
He mentally shook himself. He wasn't going to think about that. They weren't going to lose Commander Shepard. They couldn't. And if he wanted to be brutally honest with himself: He couldn't. But never mind that. He wasn't going to be brutally honest with himself. They simply weren't going to lose her. He was going to do everything he could to keep her alive and functioning. As far as he was concerned, that was the number one priority of this op: Commander Shepard Stays Alive. And, yeah, she wasn't going to nearly bleed to death this time. He'd take the hit if he had to. Shepard was important. She was… well, she was special, wasn't she? Special to him, to her crew. To every-damn-thing. When had it happened, he found himself wondering. When had she become the immovable center? His immovable center? Shit.
Commander Shepard stays alive, damn it.
Yeah. He'd take the hit if it came down to it. Besides, no way was Shepard getting ahead of him on the scar tissue.
Calleigh Shepard stays alive.
He watched the HUD and watched the merc squad enter the kill zone. They stormed down the short corridor. Shepard fired her pistol, foregoing her shotgun — the spray of slugs would be too wide to really do much damage to their shields, Kaidan thought. The shots echoed off the corridor walls, made his ears ring. He ignored the sound, focused on taking them down. He fired off a volley with his rifle and wasn't surprised when the slugs did very little to penetrate the mercs' shields. They were tough, well-trained, coordinated— definitely a hit squad, though he'd never see the logo of the merc group. The EMC blast had done little to the mercs' shields; Shepard's pistol was gradually whittling the shields, but it was whittling fast enough. He had been hopeful the EMC would do more, but it wasn't unexpected. He tossed the nearest container at them using his biotics, was pleased when it knocked four of them on their asses.
"Biotics!"
Liara let them have it with a perfectly timed singularity. A woman in heavy armor flew through the air, shields disabled. The woman only grunted. Well-trained. Professional. Garrus took her out in one shot with his pistol. The singularity tossed her limp body like a rag doll. She bounced a few times—armor clacking, blood splaying against the deck—before coming to a rest a few meters behind them. Kaidan heard the single shot of Williams' shotgun — just to be sure the woman wasn't ever going to get up again.
At the same time, Shepard threw a lightly armored merc into the thick glass of the corridor's walls. Cracks spider-webbed across the glass from the intensity of the throw. A red light flashed, an alarm sounded. The bunker's VI cautioned an atmo pressure leak.
"Fall back! Fall back!"
Kaidan watched the team move on his HUD, in sync, in a formation he'd never seen before. Shepard cursed from beside him as her faceplate came down, pressurized her hard-suit just as each of the team did without being told to go to full SCABA. The door ahead closed, sealing them off from the rest of the bunker.
"Special Forces training," she said voice clear on Kaidan's comm. She looked at him then, odd-colored eyes clear behind her helmet's visor. "Someone trained at the Luna Depot. Maybe all of them."
"Your formation?" Williams asked. She tipped her head to the side.
"Yeah." Shepard cursed again. She tapped her palm on the side of her helmet, thinking. "I read five sigs. Confirm."
Everyone nodded.
"We're not splitting up," she said. "They'll be trained to pick us off, lure us into designated quadrants. Garrus, Liara, see if you can't tap into security. Give us an idea of the layout. They've got it jammed, but see what you can do."
Garrus brought up the bunker's VI on his omni-tool while Kaidan and Williams inspected the dead mercs in the corridor. Kaidan gave a low whistle at the armor and weapons.
"Kassa Fabrication weapons," Williams said. She picked up a rifle, sited down on the barrel. "Armax Arsenal Predator armors." She toed a merc with her boot.
"And Serris Council omni-tools," he said removing an omni-tool from one of the dead. "Jeeze. All for one scientist?" He looked over at Shepard again, met her golden-green eyes with his brown ones. He voiced a thought that had been nagging him. "Commander, you think Cerberus might be trying to shut them up? Make it look like a serial killer's after them? Otherwise… why go to all this trouble?"
Her eyes went hard, flat with suspicion. Kaidan could almost see her thoughts. It made no sense. And what the hell was Cerberus hiding?
Before she could answer, Garrus spoke. "We're in, Shepard. It looks like they've regrouped. They seem to be waiting just beyond a partition on the other side of the door. It doesn't look like they've tapped into security. They must have thought they permanently disabled it." If he were human, his grin would have been candy-eating. "Showed them. Right, T'Soni?"
"Well," Shepard said, brushing off imaginary dust. "Ready to walk into a trap?" She checked her weapon.
"Wouldn't be the first time, Commander," Liara said.
"Yeah. Well," Shepard said, checking her Spectre-issue shotgun. "Doubt it's the last either."
"What's the plan, Commander?" Williams asked.
They gathered around Garrus's omni-tool as Shepard laid out the plan of attack. "Five of us, five of them. They're better equipped." She pointed to the dead mercs in the corridor. "So use their weapons. Garrus, Kaidan, you're on point. Ash and I will guard the rear after Liara. We take them one at a time. Don't let them flank us." She studied the security feed thoughtfully.
"Liara, we'll need that singularity of yours. Don't hesitate to hit them with it if you think they're getting an advantage over us. How tired are you?"
"You don't have to worry about me, Commander." Liara took a sip of energy drink from her canteen. "I can do this."
Shepard studied her for a moment and Kaidan felt a twinge of jealousy coil in his gut. He swallowed and forced himself to deal with it. When the mission was over, when they brought Saren to justice, he and Shepard were going to part ways. But for now, his mission priority stayed the same: Commander Shepard stays alive.
"She's held her own so far, Commander," he said in Liara's defense, and Shepard's eyes flicked to his. There was something unreadable there for a brief second, and then it was gone.
"True enough" was all she said before giving the order to move out.
The battle was long and tiring. The mercenary squad tried to flank them, but each time they pressed, Liara released a singularity that kept them from gaining the upper hand. As a last resort, Kaidan and Garrus tapped into a decommissioned Hahne-Kedar security mech and diverted the mercs' attentions. Shepard's carnage mortar took out the mech and the remaining stragglers. The southeast quadrant of the compartment had caved in and squashed at least one. Go Team Shepard.
As the dust settled and the red sigs on their HUDs winked out, Shepard sat, back flat against a crate, legs out in front of her, and bumped the back of her head on the crate. Her chest heaved with exertion. "Remind me to requisition more Spectre gear," she said as she brought her breathing under control. "We're not having another mission like this."
Cables dangled precariously. Overhead lights flickered, their lamps buzzing ominously, threatening to shut the squad in the dark. Sparks showered from panels blown open in the blast while beams creaked and whined under stress, threatening another cave in.
"Yeah," Garrus said drily. "I don't think I could take another dinosaur."
Shepard gave a snort that might have been a laugh then got to her feet. "Let's see if the scientist still lives." A slight limp in her gait worried Kaidan, and he discreetly ran a diagnostic.
"I'm fine, Lieutenant."
Kaidan looked up from his omni-tool, right into her eyes. Caught. "Uh. Aye, ma'am." He shut his omni-tool. "I… ah. I was only…"
"Understood." She held his gaze a moment more before turning and heading toward the back of the bunker to the remaining rooms where a lone red hard-suit sig glared on their HUDs.
Her limp was more pronounced now. Kaidan swallowed, a frown forming under his breath plate. Risking censure, he reopened his omni-tool and continued the diagnostic. He sucked in a breath and bit back an oath. The rent in the commander's armor was slowly depressurizing her suit, and the medical suite was set to dose her with a low-dose of pain killers and medi-gel in fifteen minutes. Remembering the powerful cocktail in her system on Therum and satisfied he wouldn't have to worry about his commanding officer OD-ing on the battlefield, he left the meds alone and fiddled with her suit's medi-gel disbursement. Fifteen minutes was too long to wait to plug that bullet hole.
"I hate synth-skin," she complained when the suite did its job and covered the wound in her leg and oozed to block the tear in the armor.
"Better synth-skin than no skin, Commander," he said keeping his voice cold. He marched over with a tube of omni-gel. She knew. Damn her, she knew her suit had been losing pressure and had done nothing about it. He pushed the tube into her hand and went on, ran diagnostics on everyone's medical suites for good measure. Their suites were operating within proper perimeters.
"Waiting for orders." He couldn't keep the temper out of his voice, and he didn't know why he bothered trying. So far this had been a Hell of mission. Living nightmare upon living nightmare.
Saying nothing, Shepard motioned them forward and the squad moved as one. Kaidan stepped over the body of a fallen mercenary, the white handprint symbol on the armor glaring at him. Who were they? He found himself wishing Shepard had chosen to bring Wrex along.
Then again, this mission had called for reconnaissance — something the krogan merc had very little patience for.
Still, Wrex would have enjoyed the dinosaur, Kaidan thought with mental shudder. He was certain, however, Wrex would have threatened bodily harm to everyone, especially Shepard, at the plunge off the side of the cliff. That had definitely been a rush.
Advancing into the corridor, a smudge of red marked their path to the final room where a sadist was at work. He wondered what they were going to find on the other side of the thick door. No way to know. No way to see.
"Unknown Subject took the scientist here," Garrus said, pointed to blood splatter. He scanned the splatter with his omni-tool, then the smears on the floor. "Dr. Wayne's DNA presence confirmed, Commander. Not sure how much will be left of him, though."
"So much blood," Liara murmured. She turned and looked at Shepard. "How many liters of blood does the human body hold?"
Shepard gave the figure. "This isn't very much. Body shot, looks like."
"I can reconstruct the assault based on blood splatter." Garrus seemed to be at ease doing police work, but Shepard shook her head.
"No time now. Get digitals for your report. Reconstruct it once we get back to the Normandy." She gestured to the security station on the door. "Alenko, find us eyes and ears. I want to know what's going on in there."
Kaidan tried to circumvent the security system, to find the eyes and ears into the room Shepard needed. "Unable to comply" was as far as he got before Garrus pointed out the blast marks from a carnage mortar.
"Well, shit." No wonder the mercenaries hadn't tried to use the surveillance system.
Kaidan watched his HUD. The lone hard-suit sig hadn't moved from its place on the far side of the room. Another, weaker, life reading glowed blue. Beyond that, they didn't have a clue as to what was happening on the other side of the door.
He looked over at Shepard, tried to see her eyes past her face plate, and saw the dark smudges of fatigue illuminated by the glow of her own HUD. The dark under her eyes told him what he already assumed: She hadn't slept well the night before and this mission seemed to be killing her. But he knew this mission was just as much for her as it was to stop a deranged soul from murdering another.
"We're going to have to go in without knowing what's going on, Commander."
"Fine. Open the door. Get in, secure the room, and secure Dr. Wayne. Get out." Her voice was flat, emotionless as she stepped aside so Garrus could get the door. "Joker, tell the Fifth Fleet we need a ship for pick up."
"Aye, aye, Commander. You'll have Alliance boots on the ground in twenty minutes, ma'am."
"Make sure there's a medic with them."
"Copy that."
The minutes ticked away as Garrus's omni-tool flared a cracking code. Kaidan let his mind wander. From the dark fatigue that had settled under Shepard's eyes, he knew the Commander was anything but emotionless. Most of what happened on Akuze was classified. He swallowed. What little he did know of it was enough to give him the chills. Especially after what had happened on Edolus. Shepard, for the most part, seemed to have put the past behind her, though he knew it had taken a toll on her to do so. She had to fly a desk until she was fit for command again.
"Door's jammed," Garrus confirmed, his voice hissing in a whisper. Kaidan schooled his thoughts back to the priority at hand.
Shepard nodded. "Alright. Pressurize the corridor and that room—" she hooked a thumb back to the door on the opposite side of the long hallway— "then blow this door. I want everyone in there to stay alive. Mission priorities remain the same: Secure the room, secure Dr. Wayne. Question his captor."
"On it." Garrus got to work, omni-tool active, gloved claws flying over the GUI.
When the bunker's VI confirmed pressurization, Williams hit the green interface of the other door and ducked inside, checking for unfriendlies. "Clear."
Shepard began to set the charges around the target door. Kaidan, Garrus, and Liara fell back to Williams' position, took cover to protect them from the blast.
"Thirty seconds," Shepard said and fell back. Her armor brushed Kaidan's when she took a knee next to him. She took off her helmet, dropped it at her feet. Her dark hair was slick with sweat. She looked tired and haunted; a frown, deep sun burn, and bloodshot eyes further marring her features. He wanted to say something, anything really, to lighten the mood.
"You picked such a romantic spot for our second date." He roughened his voice with mock-lust as he looked into her eyes. With all the death around them, he didn't know what it said about him that he stopped pretending to want her in the instant their eyes met. Did she know how sexy she looked with a sun burn highlighting her freckles? "Really puts me in the mood, Commander."
Shepard rewarded him with a ghost of smile and a roll of her eyes while Williams snickered, "I'm all randy, too."
"Williams, take point."
"Gee thanks, Skipper." The Chief's frown was immediate. "Lord. What a nightmare."
"If you spew in your helmet, you'll never get the smell out" was all Shepard said. Williams and Liara took the advice and tossed their helmets down. Kaidan didn't want to know what god-awful odors were on the other side of that door. He left his helmet and breather plate in place.
The nightmare began as soon as the charges blew and the squad swept in to secure the room. Whatever Kaidan was expecting, whatever Cerberus was trying to cover up—
"Mother of God."
This wasn't it.
"Goddess. No."
What the Hell had they walked into?
He could only assume the broken and bloodied man strapped nude to what appeared to be an operating table was Dr. Wayne. His torturer, a thick and sturdy rock of a man in a battered yellow hard-suit, stood over him with what appeared to be a rescue knife. Blood splatter decorated the table and his hard-suit and pooled at his feet where his helmet lay. He wore a streak of red—more blood—across his cheek like a warrior of old.
One of Wayne's arms looked like nothing more than a piece of meat. Kaidan nearly gagged at the sight of it, was thankful he hadn't removed his helmet or breath plate. This much blood, the sour stench of death and body fluids— He mentally shivered and knew his sense of smell would definitely trigger a migraine after the fatigue of the intense battle. He focused on Wayne's captor.
He was mumbling, paced back and forth holding aloft the knife. "I don't have maw acid for you. No. No acid for you, Dr. Wayne. The screaming. Stop the screaming. I want to sleep, damn you. Damn you. You did this. The screaming. I want to sleep."
Williams closed in on them, pistol out front and ready. "Drop the knife and step away." Her voice was demanding, cold.
The man with the knife didn't appear to notice, continued to mutter about wanting to sleep. His eyes were vacant and bloodshot as he sliced another piece of flesh off Wayne's arm. Dr. Wayne moaned weakly. Blood splattered to the deck.
"I say again: Drop the knife and step away. Now." She was closer, within the mercenary's line of sight.
The mercenary turned, a pistol in his other hand and directed at Williams. His eyes were alight with insanity. "Stay back! I've got no grief with you!" He stared coldly at the mutilated man on the table. "All I want is this bastard!"
If the blood wasn't staunched soon, Dr. Wayne would bleed out. They might have already been too late to do much good. "Please," he said, voice frail, accented. "He's a madman. Mr. Toombs, you're insane. You need help."
They had a name, now, Kaidan thought. Now they could—
Shepard gasped and froze, face paling, when Mr. Toombs whipped back towards Dr. Wayne in a rage.
"Shut up!" He raised the knife. "You don't get to lie. You don't…" Toombs trailed off, eyes wild, disbelieving, and Kaidan felt the world drop away. "Shepard? My god, Shepard, is that you?"
"And I looked, and behold a pale horse;
And his name that sat on him was Death,
And Hell followed with him."
-Revelation; the Bible