A/N: 100 reviews! Thank you all so much for sticking with me this long. I love hearing all of your thoughts and you have my word this story has an ending, hang in there. Hands up to my amazing beta Nils, without his diligent beta skills this story would be unreadable. Also a special shout-out to LegionN7 who is not just a source of inspiration but is officially my 100th reviewer! :D
Location: Outskirts of Endeavor colony— Slums district apartment block—Ontarom.
Liam went prone and felt the wet sand mush around his elbows. Leave it to the tail-end of a rainstorm to turn the whole desert into a swamp. Ignoring the sludge beneath him, Liam steadied his aim atop the sand dune.
A few hundred feet away Elena's apartment filled his scope. He could see everything from the enemy's black, gold and white Mako to the six armed hostiles guarded the area. They held Gorgon assault rifles and were outfitted with what looked like heavy assault armor. The hostiles kept order as if they were the law. But unlike the police force they didn't seem concerned with civilian safety. A soldier kicked the back of an elderly man's knees and sent him face-first into the sand. The other tenants cowered in a group huddle, avoiding eye contact.
Shepard forced himself to sit through their plight. Finding out who these soldiers were and what they wanted was priority, so long as nobody died. The Mantis was steady on its tripod. Liam kept a cautious hand on it and brought his omni-tool to life with the other.
Cycling through the building's inner surveillance gave him nothing. Either these tenants liked their privacy or the area surrounding the apartment was being jammed. Not knowing what was going on inside made him uneasy, but rushing over there would compromise the mission, so he waited. They would have to transport whatever they found eventually.
A brisk wind sent shards of wet sand into his eyes and skin but Liam was too numb to feel the pain. Instead he quietly adjusted his aim to counter the crosswind and waited. Most of the job was waiting. Waiting for the mission, waiting for the intel, waiting for the target. It was all a pathetic waiting game. But what the higher-ups forgot was the human life that was always at stake on the wrong side of a scope. There was always someone's head on the line for every second he spent waiting.
Pushing the unpleasant thoughts aside, Liam checked the silencer and donned his recon hood. He was alone here and needed to use every advantage, especially the shadows of this dark morning.
A warning shot went into the air as two soldiers argued with a furious Mrs. Ortega. The old lady yelled and slapped against their white and gold armor but the soldiers only knocked her aside.
Shepard sighed and peered through his scope. It was now or never. The trigger slowly started to contract beneath his finger, his heartbeat slowed in tune with the enemy's steps.
The roar of an ATV pulled Liam out of his tunnel vision. The fog lights blinded him as the massive wheels kicked sand in all directions as the vehicle accelerated.
Shepard drew his Paladin at the headlights, the equivalent of using a slingshot on a charging rhino. Just when he reconciled to pull the trigger, Vega killed the lights and ran towards him with more gear.
"There you are," Vega exclaimed only to hush and crawl over when Liam gestured for silence. James' voice dropped to a whisper as he crawled on his elbows to the spotter position. "Target practice?"
"Something like that," Liam said as he checked through the scope. No one was aware of their presence. They were too far away. A flush of relief surged through him. "What are you doing here and where's your armor?"
"You forgot your present," Vega unclipped a metal tube from his rugged pack and tossed it to him. In his white shorts and cargo pants, James was practically a walking target.
Liam caught the bulky tube with one hand. The smooth gunmetal barrel was unmistakable. He had only seen this weapon in R&D reports and had the privilege of using it even less. He pressed the release and watched the M-99 Black Widow prototype unfold in his hands. It was heavier than the Mantis thanks to its solid steel frame, and supposedly even deadlier.
"Thanks but you shouldn't be here," Liam whispered back, still mesmerized by the gun's beauty. The sleek black finish, the serrated grills that housed brand new nanomolecular heat sinks which were said to reduce the cooldown period to mere seconds. "This is a sensitive op."
"What?" Vega exclaimed, only to be hushed again. This time he dug for binoculars and peered downrange. His low whistle of amazement told Liam all he needed to know. "Who the hell are those guys?"
The white diamond flanked by a black and gold wing wasn't on any Alliance insignia and nobody used the color scheme, according to his omni-tool data. They were likely special forces, but those units were ghosts. They didn't harass civilians.
A guard shoved another man who was carrying a little boy. Liam watched as the father took the brunt of it by tossing the kid clear. As the man scrambled to get up the boy started to wail, rubbing his bruised knee.
Vega radioed for backup and Liam felt his heart sink even lower. This was supposed to be a quick recon, a firefight would mean casualties and a bunch of dead bodies wouldn't tell him where Elena was at. But there were civilians...
"We need at least one of them for interrogation," Shepard ordered as he peered through the upgraded sights. The targeting VI marked all six enemies on the field and lit up with real-time wind data. It was like a HUD within a scope and Liam was in heaven.
Vega relayed the orders and turned back to him. "The others will be here in ten."
Liam took aim and saw his world turn yellow in full focus. The helmet of an enemy bobbed into view just before his sights were wrenched down. "What the hell are you doing?" Liam demanded.
"I was about to ask you the same," James bristled, keeping a beefy hand clamped on the barrel. "We should wait for backup."
Liam wrenched the Black Widow away and tossed him the Mantis. "What we should do is rescue those hostages. I'm not going to sit here while—"
A shot echoed from the complex. Liam and Vega promptly shut up and peered through their scope and binoculars respectively. The civilians were screaming, pleading and panicking as a growing pool of blood seeped into the sand where the father used to be. Now the soldier was approaching the hysterical kid while his buddies kept guns trained on the others.
"Ah shit," Vega swore angrily beside him.
"What do you say, Vega," Liam said mirthlessly as he aimed at the soldier's jugular, "still want to wait for backup?"
James replied by extending the Mantis and finding his own target. Liam took a steadying breath then squeezed the trigger.
Downrange, the enemy soldier jerked back as a spray of red splattered his white armor. Swaying momentarily, he dropped on both knees while clutching his throat.
The little boy frightfully scooted away from the bodies and resumed crying in fear. Two follow-up rounds from the Black Widow broke a soldier's helmet, each leaving symmetrical gaping holes where eye sockets used to be.
Three more soldiers came running from the back but dove for cover behind their Mako just as a Mantis round hit the ground beneath their feet.
"Take it slow," Liam guided as they waited out the cooldown period. "They're not going anywhere."
Vega fired another shot that grazed the Mako. The three pinned soldiers were now effectively cut off from the civilians who scrambled towards the warehouse. Mrs. Ortega and another man grabbed the little boy and booked it with the rest.
"Can you get the fuel tank?" Vega asked, keeping his sights locked and giving the civilians cover.
"Negative." Liam shook his head as he swept the Mako's exterior. Even the vulnerability VI couldn't detect a weak spot. "It's too heavily armored on the Mako, unless you're hiding a concussive shot?"
"Two actually. But not at this range, Loco. That's your specialty." A brave idiot tried to return fire but was forced back into cover when Vega's round tore through his shoulder. "Though if we got closer..." James pondered.
"Good shot," Liam congratulated as he considered the option too. There were three of them left in total with the possibility of two actually posing a threat. Most of the civilians already put footprints between the storage blocks and the apartments, some held the doors open as others rushed in. There was no longer a pressing need to hold high ground, but at the same time he didn't want to give the enemy a chance to board their own Mako in the time it would take them to drive over there.
"What did you bring?" Liam asked, hoping a full inventory of their arsenal might change his mind.
"I grabbed a Raptor." As Vega fired, his dog tags jingled and reflected in the first signs of sunlight.
"That's it?" Liam was surprised, prior to today he couldn't see Vega leaving home without a full loadout. Now here he was with no armor, an assault rifle and a prototype sniper rifle that had never seen action.
"Hey, if I knew we were ready to tango I would've dressed for the occasion." Vega scoped and fired at a retreating limb.
Liam took a moment to put a three round burst into one of the Mako's tires. But before he could reply, something chopped through the wind and rippled up above.
It wasn't until a sudden sandstorm stung their eyes that Liam and Vega looked up. Hovering mid-flight was a helicopter with the same white and gold markings as the enemy.
Liam fired an overload as he tackled Vega out of the machine gun's line of fire. They both rolled down hill near the Mako and ATV as the helicopter fought for control and re-adjusted its targeting.
The two of them were sprawled in the sand, but before Liam could scramble to his feet the chopper fired a rocket at the Mako. Liam and Vega were thrown into the air and crashed into the dune.
His head felt like someone used it as a stove top. The heat, from the inferno that was once a Mako, ignited the oozing liquid from his ears. He fought for air but choked on a mouthful of sand instead.
The helicopter swept a spotlight over the area. Liam tossed another overload in the general direction of light before a coughing fit overtook him, making his headache worse. The chopper lost control and swirled in mid-air, raising more sand in the commotion as the pilots tried to maintain altitude. The sound was so deafening that for a moment Liam swore he felt a blade swipe above his head.
Liam weakly tried to push up but staggered as his vision swam.
"Shepard? Shepard!" The voice drew closer until rough hands hauled him up to a standing position. Liam felt one of his arms thrown over bulky shoulders and together they staggered downhill as the chopper disengaged. "You okay?"
Vega slumped them against the ATV where they both took a breath. The sandstorm died down. Liam puked, exchanging a gob of bile and sand for fresh air. "Ugh, we need to get down there. Take those people to safety," he croaked, accepting the canteen of water Vega passed him.
"How? We lost our wheels and weapons." Vega hovered into view. He had a black eye and his clothes had seen better days, but he seemed fully functional otherwise. "Shit, you don't look too good," James remarked, taking a swig of water too.
Liam patted the ground for his rifle but it was nowhere to be found. Only the solid weight of the Paladin at his hip gave him comfort. Vega hefted his Raptor and did a quick sweep of their surroundings.
"We need to move," Liam said, feeling control return to his body. He stood and checked the skyline. "If that chopper doesn't come back, you can bet the three stooges below will come to greet us."
"We can hold this place," Vega said, even though he started checking the ATV controls. When the engine came to life a big smile ripped his mouth.
"We're on low ground. If they repair that Mako and get it up here we're dead," Liam yelled back. With one last hopeless look around for his rifle, Liam climbed into the driver's seat. "We can't wait for the others. Our only option is to take the apartment."
Vega nodded in acknowledgement before climbing onto the back. "You know, I've never been to ICT. Any tips on how to shoot from the back of a moving ATV?"
"Just hang on." Liam gunned the engine and the ATV lurched forward. Liam could see the white outline of the Mako and sped towards it.
"Whoa, keep it steady, Loco," Vega complained. Shepard could feel the rifle bump into his shoulder as James swept the area ahead. A part of him wondered if he'd be missing a limb by the end of this mission. Maybe having Vega ride shotgun wasn't...
His thought was cut short when a round pierced their tire. Shepard fought to control ATV but it continued to speed forward and flipped, tossing them mere inches from the enemy Mako.
"You know, we really gotta stop travelling like this," Vega quipped as he pushed himself up and reached for the Raptor. A round buried itself in the sand just inches above his hand. "Sniper!"
"I noticed," Liam said, drawing his Paladin. From the angle of the shot it seemed like their friends were in cover on the second floor, third window down. Elena's single bedroom unit.
Liam deployed his tactical cloak and stepped from cover. A bullet grazed his shin just as he dove back behind the Mako and ripped off his recon hood. The sniper definitely had a thermal scope. They needed a distraction but there was nothing at their disposal. He had no explosives or smoke screens and Vega's concussive shot was stuck in a rifle that was off limits now. The sunlight peeked over the horizon and flooded the sky with the first of its rays. Shepard squinted and reached for his dog tags, only to find they weren't there. Looking to Vega he motioned for his tags. "I have an idea."
Once they were in position on either edge of the Mako Liam tested the light on his omni-tool and gave Vega the go-ahead. "This better work, Loco," James mumbled as he crouched just inches from his rifle.
"Now or never," Liam flicked the light on and bounced the reflection at the sniper's post inside. "Go!"
"Got it!" Vega yelled from behind him. As soon as he fired, Liam leapt from cover, gun drawn and ran towards the building entrance with his buddy close behind.
The two men hugged the wall on opposite sides of the doorway. Vega seemed like he was having the time of his life and Liam was just glad they were keeping their heads this morning. He had the overwhelming urge to look back at the storage facility where the civilians were, but N7 training kept him focused on the task at hand. Eliminate the enemy first, provide aide second.
"I'll take point," Liam said, raising his weapon as Vega's rifle signaled the end of cooldown. "Ready?"
"Like hell, Loco," Vega protested, breathing heavily. "You're seriously messed up right now. I'll take point."
The trickle of blood caressed Liam's neck but aside from the pain in his inner ear he felt fine. The military enhancements were doing their job so there was nothing to worry about, all soldiers knew that.
"Look, first of all you don't have any armor, second you're breathing sounds like a death rattle and third I'm in charge so shut up and get behind me." Liam didn't wait for a reply as he stepped through the threshold and cleared the entrance. Vega fell in next and swept his sights down the hall.
What used to be a respectable lobby now looked like ground zero of a demolition. There wasn't a single intact window or piece of furniture without a bullet hole. Ugly wires hung where lights used to be, while a big puddle of blood behind a desk reading 'security' told him all he needed to know on that front.
They carefully stepped over some upturned couches and took cover. Liam motioned towards the staircase, ignoring Vega's confused look. "What? Don't tell me we're not doing a room-by-room here first?"
Shepard pointed to the trail of blood where Vega currently crouched and how it ascended up the stairs. That seemed to satisfy the arms master and gave Liam some relief. He wasn't about to go into the details of what he needed from the second floor. Whatever these goons found, it was likely to be in Elena's room.
Keeping aim overhead, Liam took the first step onto the stairs only to be peppered by rounds from the sides.
Suddenly the main hallway exploded as the two soldiers from before rushed out. "They're here!"
Vega fired at the most vocal soldier and dove for cover. Liam did the same and they found themselves in yet another standoff just inches from the stairs. Judging from the footsteps there was only one soldier left standing. Upstairs there was likely still a sniper who any minute now would make his way down and get away with whatever they found in Elena's apartment.
"You still have that concussive round?" Liam whispered, when Vega crouched down from another burst of return fire.
"Yeah, been saving it for a special occasion," Vega frowned as bullets hit the mortar above them, "Why?"
"Use it and give me cover. I'm heading upstairs," Shepard returned fire and felt the metal grip in his hand begin the cooldown.
"What the hell, Loco?" James looked sour now. "What's so important up there that can't wait till we're finished with this guy?"
"A sniper!" Liam retorted, but to his dismay that James wasn't buying it. Heck he felt like crap trying to keep all this hush-hush. But the middle of a firefight wasn't the best place to come clean about a special op. "It's one guy, James. You can handle him. If that sniper comes down though, we'll be pinned."
Understanding flickered in Vega's eyes as he ducked just as a round grazed the top of their cover. "I know how to do my job, Loco. But you owe me some answers."
"As long as you keep your head." The ping that announced the end of cool down rang and Vega fired the concussive shot. At the same time Liam sprang from cover and bounded upstairs.
The gunfire continued downstairs but Liam forced himself to move forward and secure the apartment. He felt horribly ill equipped for close quarters. A single shotgun blast would tear through his armor like paper so he slowed down and did an infrared scan with his omni-tool. It revealed one hostile slumped at the edge of the stairs.
Liam stepped from cover and aimed his pistol at the heaving body. It was the guard Vega shot through the shoulder earlier. The wounded man attempted to raise his rifle but Liam shot him Mozambique style with two bullets to the chest and one to the head.
The body slumped and Liam inched forward without a second glance at the bastard who made a boy fatherless today.
Coming up to Elena's apartment he crouched, engaged his omni-tool and ran a quick scan. They had enough surprises for one day.
"Loco, he's down and I'm moving to your position now. Don't do anything stupid." Vega's voice cut through his neural comm and made Liam jump. His ear pulsed in agony, but at least the integrated comms that all Alliance personnel had surgically implanted into the ears still worked. Even within the jamming field.
"Copy that. You better haul ass or there won't be anything left." Liam shivered from a draft emanating from the open window down the hall. But it wasn't the cold that had him in a dilemma. There was no explaining the importance of this one apartment without betraying the Captain's request for secrecy. However, Vega had a right to know why he was risking life and limb.
Shepard trained his pistol on the staircase until Vega's head popped up. Using hand signals to indicate one enemy inside the apartment, Liam moved towards the door. It wasn't a complete lie because he was sure this was the general area of the sniper's post, even if the scan revealed nothing.
James took a defensive position and nodded.
Liam cautiously hovered the omni-tool over the door console. There were no active explosives on the other side this time, yet he couldn't quell the uneasy feeling in his gut. As the hack overrode the door controls, he could feel the cool sweat cascading down his neck and re-moistening the dry blood. The thumping pulse in his ears sounded like blades cutting through the air. Wait blades?
He listened closer and noticed Vega's growing curious expression as the sound got louder.
The chopper reappeared at the window and opened fire. There was no place for cover and Liam felt his shields drop as high caliber rounds made impact.
Vega tackled him and they both crashed through the door and into Elena's apartment. Liam landed hard and felt the sickening crunch of bone at his side. Liam felt a painful trickle of ooze at his side and didn't need a medical degree to know what that meant.
"Vega?" He looked to James who was sprawled on the floor beside him and writhing in agony. The bullets were embedded below his right lung and a crimson flower spread over his white shirt and seeped through his fingers. Vega tried to speak but only hacked up a bubble of blood. "Shit, you're hit. Don't move," Liam ordered as he tore a pack of medi-gel and tried to keep his friend still as he applied it.
~O~
"Leave him, that's an order!"
"We can't just..."
"It's an order, marine. We need to move," Brock bellowed. "Now!"
The man convulsed in Shepard's arms, his skin turning white as he reached out...
~O~
Shepard drove his fist through the wood beside Vega. The added pain pulled him from the memory and back to the sights and sounds of the chopper doing another sweep.
The medi-gel was sealing Vega's wounds but he was still way too pale for his liking.
"Loco, use this, leave me." James thrust the rifle into his hands but Liam slung it over his shoulder, holstered his pistol and tried to help Vega up.
"I'm getting you out of here," Liam said, throwing an arm over his shoulder. Vega hissed in agony but otherwise continued to stand.
"What..." Vega swayed and Liam pushed him into cover behind a living room wall, "what about the sniper?"
Peering out with the rifle trained at the window, Liam saw two rappel lines. "Gone. We just missed them." He ducked as the chopper did another pass, then another. Satisfied that no one else would fire, the blades receded but didn't fade completely.
Liam motioned for Vega to stay down as he crawled to the rappel lines and peered through Elena's open window.
On the ground below, two soldiers wearing yellow and gold ran towards the waiting chopper, carrying something heavy in a big sack between them. A Volkov slung over the guard's back, identified him as their earlier sniper.
There was no point in shooting since they were out of range with this level III weapon. Wishing he still had the Black Widow, Shepard raised the Raptor and peered through the scope trying to get a good look at the package.
Ripping his recon hood, Shepard searched the horizon but there was no sign of backup. No one was coming for them or those survivors.
That's when the collapsed storage facility caught his eye. What was once a solid warehouse was now a crumpled mess of bricks, metal and wood. He blinked rapidly and looked again in disbelief. They had to move, now. If there were any survivors in that wreckage they needed medical attention. Activating his omni-tool, Shepard was met with a squelch of static.
Jammers. No wonder no one's here.
Moving from the window, he saw Vega breathing heavily but sitting up now. He raised his omni-tool as well. "Mine's messed up too."
"Great." Shepard collapsed the rifle and took another step away from the window, "How are—"
Ribbons of blue power danced across Shepard's shoulders, growing in intensity. He was confused at first, thinking back to the many times Fiona played pranks on him. But there were no biotics on this battlefield and his sister was back on Earth.
Suddenly the aura constricted around him and yanked him through the open window. He heard Vega's yell over his own as he was hurled into the air.
The momentary suspension was exhilarating until gravity took over. Blood rushed to Liam's head as he entered freefall head first. Liam closed his eyes just as the ground rushed to meet him. There was no time for second thoughts, for life's memories, for anything. His mind blanked from shock.
And then he hovered in place.
Opening his eyes, he felt the bright yellow sand graze his hair. Next thing he knew, his head was twisted into it like a cork screw atop the grainy ground not painfully but none to gently either.
"Well look what we have here," A voice boomed behind him.
Liam couldn't move but the surrounding biotics spun him to face the originator. Disoriented and blinded by the rapidly rising sun, Shepard had to squint to see his captor.
The upside down image of a tall man with sandy blonde hair and a formal suit entered his vision. He had to blink before noticing the suit's sleeves were hacked off and the vicious arms protruding through it glowed bright blue.
"We move now, Banes!" One of the soldiers yelled over the chopper blades. "Hurry it up."
"Why rush such a momentous occasion? It's not every day I get to train on an N7," Banes flicked his wrist and Liam was launched upwards like a rocket. The strange feeling of falling up made him dizzy, he tried to move against the blue energy but it was useless.
As soon as he passed the apartment's roof, gravity snagged him back. Liam rushed head first again until Banes caught him biotically.
"Thank you, thank you!" Banes said, bowing to an imaginary audience. "Now for my next trick, I'll make—"
"Backup has arrived, move NOW!" The co-pilot yelled but not before a burst of biotics slammed him into the cockpit. The two guards inside started to return fire as the chopper lifted into the air.
The moment of distraction earned Banes a biotic blast to the gut. Liam fell head first into the sand but suffered no damage from such a minimal height.
He drew his pistol on a downed Banes but was rammed with a biotic throw. Shepard tasted the sand dunes again as he skid to a stop at Casey's feet.
"Commander, are you okay? Where's Vega?" she asked, keeping her rifle downrange. Glen rushed a biotic charge for the helicopter, but it was already in the air.
"Inside...hurt bad," Liam panted as he scampered up beside her. Her biotics and outstretched hand clued him as to who just pissed off this Banes guy.
Banes was up and furious now, his anger manifesting into biotics as they swirled all around his body. His arms pulsed under the strain of energy before it engulfed Banes completely. In one sweeping motion Banes brought his hands together and the entire complex shuddered from explosion of blue light.
The three of them dove for cover but the shockwaves sent them flying across the sand. The chopper groaned under the impact and spiraled past Liam in mid-air.
Shepard landed hard and banged his head for the umpteenth time. He came to but found his eyelids heavy. Blue energy still permeated the air every time he blinked. Liam tried to get up but his body refused and not even the genetic enhancements kicked into gear.
"Shep...move...coming..." He heard voices from all directions as the comfort of darkness kissed him to sleep.