Numb - Gary Clark Jr.
Damn, this guy has a good shot. He's definitely going to be a good addition.
From the sidelines, Jacob was observing Archangel's shooting. Whoever he was, he was clearly a highly trained sniper: every shot he fired landed either on the forehead or between the eyes, and the untrained mercs were dropping like flies.
No wonder these guys were so desperate to get recruits. He must have taken hundreds of guys down already.
"Are we gonna get in there or what?" Zaeed growled to Jacob as they kept watch while the Commander sabotaged the merc's gunship. "I have an itch to kill some of these guddamn idiots."
"I feel you, Massani. But the Commander is right: sabotaging their gunship is going to help us a helluva lot."
Zaeed patted his assault rifle affectionately. "I prefer this to playing with any toys."
"Alright men, let's get out there. We have a turian to save."
Shepard jumped over the blockade. She took a few jogging steps before launching into what Jacob called 'combat mode', where she dove into cover and directed her men and her own biotic moves with perfect choreography. Jacob had never met a more skilled commander with such a natural sense of the battlefield. He sat behind cover and observed her dance: she stood out of cover, threw a singularity into the middle of three mercs, jumped over that cover, ran forward to take the helpless men out with well-aimed pistol headshots, used a biotic throw on a fourth merc to send him over the edge of the walkway, and rolled into an advanced cover.
Jacob jumped when he felt a bullet whizz past his head and a merc directly beside him dropped to the ground.
"Get your head out of your ass and watch my six!" Zaeed growled as he ran forward to meet up with the commander.
Jacob cursed his lack of attention and used a biotic pull to launch the last merc helplessly in the air before one of Archangel's perfect headshots took him out.
They ran forward into Archangel's small base, weapons out, scanning the room for any potential threats. Jacob called the room out as clear, and Shepard collected a medi-gel packet before jogging up the stairs. She had come out of 'combat mode' now, and he saw a surprising eagerness to her expression beneath her helmet.
Jacob jogged behind Shepard down the hallway, passing untouched bins of medi-gel and ammo. She stopped and watched the sniper take out one last merc before crossing her arms and lifting her chin. "Archangel?"
He turned to face them, sitting and resting his feet on a crate with his rifle beside him before removing his helmet.
As soon as he did, Shepard removed her helmet and her face completely lit up, changing from his hard-as-nails Commander to the happiest woman he had ever seen.
"Garrus!" she cried out, at the same time as Archangel breathed out, "Shepard."
Archangel - or Garrus, Jacob supposed - stood and the two jogged towards each other. Abandoning all notions of professionalism, Shepard threw her arms around the turian, pulling him into a tight embrace.
"Am I dreaming? Or am I dead?" he whispered into her hair, his subharmonics purring. He took a moment to enjoy the hug before pulling away. "I thought you were dead, I went to your funeral."
"I take it you two know each other?" Zaeed mumbled in the background.
"I was, but Cerberus brought me back. Long story," she said, responding to his quizzical expression. "I didn't know where you were either; I was so worried that you could have been dead..."
"This is a real sweet reunion," Zaeed interrupted, "but don't we have to find a way to get the hell out of here?"
"Right." Shepard nodded firmly, her face returning to its normally stoic expression. "Just like old times, eh Garrus?"
The turian laughed. "Let's get to work."
Time slowed to an agonizing pace.
Shepard watched, helplessly, as the gunship's rocket made a clean shot at Garrus, directly at the right side of his face.
She immediately dove out of cover, making a beeline to him. Panic seized her lungs, making it difficult to breathe.
When she reached him, his head was surrounded by a pool of blue blood. She quickly swiped her omni-tool over him; vital signs were detected, but they were weak.
"I hate to interrupt, Commander, but this damn gunship is still shooting at us!"
"Then take that bastard down!" She shouted to Jacob. She leaned down to whisper into Garrus's ear, "I'm going to get revenge for you, Garrus, so I need you to hold on just a little longer. The world needs you. I need you." The last words came almost compulsively, and she felt that she faintly recognized them but she wasn't sure from where. But they made sense; humanity needed someone like Garrus to help take down the Collectors, and she knew that she needed her unofficial second-in-command on her ship. There had been emptiness in her life and on the ship since she had been brought back by Cerberus, but the second she saw Garrus that emptiness left her. He was her advisor, her best soldier, and her best friend. It only made sense for them to jump into the fire together.
A renewed sense of conviction flowed through her veins. Shepard always worked best when she was angry.
She pulled out her grenade launcher to fire a shot at the gunship, hitting it directly on the glass before it flew out of her line of sight. When it returned, it dropped off a small group of mercs before flying to cover again.
"Jacob, switch to incendiary ammo and then use pull on the merc at your 2 o'clock. Zaeed, concussive shot on that leader. I'm going to use shockwave in the middle of the group, so prepare to hit any of the stragglers."
Although Jacob stumbled and missed his biotic pull, he hit another merc directly in the face with his shotgun. Zaeed was proving to have an excellent shot and was absolutely ruthless. Their styles were very different, but Shepard was pleased to find them working well together.
Not as well as Ashley, Garrus and herself, of course.
The gunship came back for another piece, so Shepard sent two more grenades its way before switching to her pistol. "Jacob, hit that gunship as much as you can, I need your incendiary ammo. Zaeed, work on taking out any ground troops."
Within minutes, the gunship and all troops had been taken down, and Shepard was back by Garrus's side, radioing Joker. "I need a pickup fast as a racehorse, Joker, Garrus is Archangel and he's hurt."
"Garrus?! I... right away, Commander."
Shepard took hold of the armour covering Garrus's cowl and lowered her forehead onto his chest. She could hear that each breath was laboured. "Don't worry Garrus, just a few more minutes... Hang in there. We need you on the team; I need you as my advisor, just hang in a little longer. We even have Doctor Chakwas, so you know she'll take the best care of you, you'll be up and running in no time..."
Although he was unconscious and couldn't hear her, Shepard's constant flow of words was more of a comfort to her than to him.
"We can do this, Garrus. You'll be ok. You have to be ok."