A/N - I simply couldn't force myself to skip over the details of the Horizon mission, so this chapter is long and heavy on in-game content. The next chapter will be entirely original content to make up for it. :) Thanks to all those fans who've uploaded their own in-game footage to YouTube, and everyone who's added to the Mass Effect wiki, as they have been wonderful resources in writing this fic.
Again, much love to my awesome beta, Hatteress. Thanks to those who continue reading and especially to those who leave reviews - constructive criticism always welcomed! I might even take requests ;)
Garrus turned away from the main battery's primary console when he heard the doors slide open behind him. He wasn't particularly surprised to see Commander Shepard standing there – nobody else ever came to visit him, after all – but he wasstartled by the visible tension in her demeanour. A second quick appraisal reinforced his immediate impression that something had sprung loose, and Garrus turned to face her directly.
"What's happened?" he demanded immediately. Shepard ran a hand through her hair and ended the gesture with a flick of her fingers towards the control panel behind him. Discerning her meaning, Garrus reached behind him to close the doors to the main battery, locking them into isolation and privacy from any Cerberus bugs planted outside the room.
Immediately, she began pacing and talking, both rather quickly. "The Illusive Man has been in touch. One of the human colonies in the Terminus System, a place called Horizon, has just gone dark. We're en route there now... if we're damned lucky, we might get there before they finish the attack, maybe early enough to save the colonists... maybe early enough to get some decent information on these Collector bastards. I've just come from Mordin's lab... he's worked out a way to keep us safe from the seeker swarms, but he's only tested it under laboratory conditions. So we have no idea how well it's going to work in the field, but it's better than nothing." Shepard paused in her pacing, spun on one heel and looked at him with a rather cranky expression. "And Kaidan Alenko was apparently on Horizon for some mysterious reason that the Alliance are spinning some bullshit feel-good cover story for."
Garrus watched her cross her arms and glare at him upon conclusion of her explanation, and he blinked slowly. And then again. Trying for a moment to take it all in, along with Shepard's unexpectedly bad mood about the entire situation... although he rather suspected that might have more to do with Alenko's inclusion that anything else.
"Well," he drawled slowly, trying to give himself a bit more time to absorb it all. "I wasn't expecting any of that. Damn."
Shepard gave a sharp, hissing exhalation and dropped herself down abruptly onto the crate stacked against the far wall of the room. The part of him that had been paying more attention to her behaviour lately took note of the way she sat like a human man. Shepard had always struck him as... well, not masculine exactly, but certainly not feminine. She avoided the coy, mincing steps of the females of her species. She sure didn't have the willowy, long-legged grace of a turian female, nor the rampant sensuality of an asari. She hit his radar as something unique: the Commander. The Spectre. Shepard. And it was entirely not like her to be this concerned.
Garrus decided to stick to the pragmatic approach. "How long until we hit Horizon?"
Shepard leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees. "About another four hours. Long enough for Mordin to manufacture his armor upgrades. He wants to know who'll need it, other than you and I." She managed a wry grin for that. Mordin had been with them longer than Jack or Grunt; clearly long enough to have caught on that Garrus was taken for granted as a member of all missions.
The turian gave a low chuckle. "Have you got anyone in mind?"
"Yeah. I want Jack."
Surprise flared his mandibles out before Garrus could control his reaction. "Shepard, are you sure about that? Jack is... unstable at best." No, it wasn't only his personal dislike of criminals that made Garrus sceptical of the powerful biotic. Despite Jack's isolative nature, he'd managed to observe her on the few times she emerged from the lower decks to collect food or other supplies. She was aggressive, territorial, savage, crude, and violently insecure. She was a criminal, but he couldn't entirely bring himself to condemn her for that, given her history. The fact that she'd stuck around, and hadn't jumped ship the first chance she had might have had something to do with that sentiment.
"Unstable is the nicest thing I could say about her. But I want a biotic down there with us," Shepard informed him bluntly. "I have no idea what the Collectors will throw at us, and I want our skill set well balanced to take on anything we might encounter."
"Hmm," Garrus rumbled softly, eying her thoughtfully. "Why not Miranda?" He'd thought Lawson and the Commander were coming to negotiate some kind of truce over the past few weeks. There'd been less bickering, more agreement, and his surreptitious observation of Miranda had even caught her studying Shepard respectfully once or twice. Okay, just once, but it was still an improvement.
The Commander answered him honestly. "I've seen Miranda in action, and she's good. But I've never seen anyone in Jack's ballpark. She's the nuclear weapon of biotics, and I plan on taking all of my big guns on this one. Besides... I have to try her out in the field eventually."
"Nothing like a trial by fire to see if she can cut it, I suppose," the turian reflected with a thread of dark humour running through his flanging voice. He caught the responding gleam in her eyes and knew they were on the same page. "Alright, if you think she can keep it together, I'll back your call."
Shepard flicked him a quick grin that didn't do much to hide the tension he could still see in her.
Garrus hesitated. "And Alenko?"
He was intrigued to see the tension in her notch up a few levels. She stood up restlessly and went back to the pacing. "It's too much of a coincidence that they hit the one human colony he happens to be on, Garrus. I'm playing blind here, and it's starting to piss me off. If they knew that much about me, and my crew, that they can deliberately target..." Shepard trailed off in frustration, and shook her head in sharp dismissal of the useless fretting. "Hell if I know what they're up to. I guess we'll find out once we hit Horizon."
It wasn't exactly answering the question he'd been asking. Garrus wasn't an idiot, and even if he had been, he also wasn't blind. The closeness between Shepard and Alenko had been visible to anyone who paid even a modicum of attention to them. He'd been on enough missions with the two of them to take note of the blazing neon sign flashing out 'look here for two humans engaging in elaborate pre-mating rituals!' And even if Garrus had somehow missed all of that two years ago, he hadn't missed the photograph of Alenko on her desk. It was a surprisingly sentimental gesture on Shepard's part. Not knowing what to say, Garrus let the topic of Alenko pass by and pushed himself away from the console.
"Sounds like it's time for me to turn my armor over to Mordin for his upgrades. I'll drop yours and Jack's into the lab as well," the turian advised, ignoring her expression of surprise.
But she didn't protest. "Thanks. I'll be in the armory with Jacob, I want to see how he's going with the upgrades to our heavy weapons. We're going to need to pack one hell of a punch down there."
"Shouldn't be a problem, Shepard," Garrus drawled, tapping at the controls to open the door. "As long as the seeker swarms don't get through and paralyse us instantly, of course."
Shepard shot him a look as she stepped through the doors before him. "You're just a fountain of optimism, Garrus," the Commander muttered under her breath.
"I aim to please," he purred back at her.
There was something eerie about Horizon that made itself known the instant they made planetfall on the southern limits of the colony. There was an oppressive feeling to the place that Garrus could easily blame on the monolithic Collector ship rising up out of the centre of the human colony. It was a thing of nightmares – his nightmares, specifically – because the last time he'd seen something like that had been a half second before it fired the blast that killed the old Normandy. And Shepard.
Garrus swallowed heavily and shouldered his rifle more firmly. The leviathan vessel rose like a monstrous tower above them; a thing of sharp metallic lines consumed by hulking organic outcroppings. Hell, that a thing that big could land...
"Experimental technology!" Mordin's voice was babbling excitedly over his comm unit, in response to Shepard's query on the new armor upgrades. "Only test is contact with seeker swarms. Look forward to seeing if you survive!"
Garrus grimaced, and caught sight of Shepard doing the same. Jack was muttering something under her breath and from the shape her lips were making, she wasn't saying anything suitable for polite company. Shepard lifted her free hand in the 'move out' signal and they fell in behind her.
Despite his uncertainty about Jack's inclusion, Garrus was pleased to see that she fell into position easily and silently; she maintained a constant visual scan of their surroundings as they moved towards the colony, and her weapon was up and trained on anything that moved. The biotic followed Shepard's silent commands, taking cover when indicated and covering either the Commander or Garrus in turn. The vague anxiety twisting in his stomach settled into growing confidence as they negotiated their way through the southern outskirts of the colony. The colony itself was clearly a new settlement; mostly one or two-story prefab buildings linked by courtyards or covered walkways. Much of the space between the buildings was unpaved grass, and this far out from the centre of the colony, the majority of buildings were warehouses, rather than residential.
It wasn't long before Garrus' sharper hearing caught the first high-pitched buzz of the seeker swarm. His sudden tension alerted Shepard and all three of them froze, eyes intent on the seeker swarm. The alien bugs weren't moving with any kind of purpose, just flying in a haphazard formation that happened to be bringing them closer. Garrus tightened his finger on the trigger of his rifle, a hair's breadth from pulling it as he aimed directly at the closest bug. His visor narrowed the scope in on the little bastard and he waited. If those things got close enough to sting one of them successfully, they were pulling out and the damned colonists – and Alenko – could fend for themselves. He wasn't risking Shepard to the Collectors again, if they were thatbadly outgunned.
Shepard's insistent 'hold' signal kept his finger from squeezing the trigger, but damn, did he want to.Garrus ground his sharp teeth together and waited. Waited, watching them come closer. Jack was first in line, and she seemed to face the challenge of it easily enough. The tattooed biotic stood her ground defiantly, chin lifted in stubborn challenge to the swarm. Of course, with her biotic strength, it was entirely possible she might be able to just obliterate them with a thought, but all the same... Garrus had to give her points for style.
When the swarm drifted past her without anything exciting happening, all three of them relaxed. Shepard shot him a fierce grin of triumph, and in his peripheral vision, he saw Jack snarling in what was apparently her version of a 'happy face.' Then the Commander gave the signal to move out, and they were falling back into a staggered formation, heading deeper into the colony.
They didn't see any colonists for a long time, although there were signs of a hasty evacuation. No doubt, as soon as that monster had hit atmosphere, everyone had fled to a central meeting point... making them that much easier to round up. It was one of the more nerve-wracking missions Garrus had been on in a while... stalking silently through a deserted colony, knowing the enemy was around somewhere but not knowing where, or anything about them, or even if you could kill them when you found them.
"All these empty buildings," he muttered softly over the radio. "It's unsettling."
From the tense lines of Shepard's shoulders, he guessed she felt the same. Perhaps it was worse, since it was one of her own peoples' colonies. Although Jack was human and she didn't seem too bothered by it. One of the advantages of being a certified psychopath. Garrus gripped his rifle tighter and kept scanning restlessly through the scope as they moved.
The first encounter – when it came – was hard, fast and brutal. Garrus was firing before he even realized he'd spotted movement, spreading out in the opposite direction to provide crossfire. It was odd how the mind worked in battle. His entire focus was dedicated to the moment, each moment as it came; but throughout the entire skirmish, his brain continued to record details from his peripheral awareness. Even as he was sniping out the enemy, some part of his mind was taking note of the fact that these were some of the most alien creatures he'd ever seen... identifying them as Collectors, the faithful servants of the Reapers. A sudden wave of biotic energy ran down the centre of his and Shepard's crossfire, Jack's bright blue explosions obliterating the handful of Collectors in its path.
For all the sudden savagery, the skirmish was only brief; breathing sharply, Garrus moved swiftly to Shepard and Jack as the last Collector fell beneath his last round. Shepard gave him a nod; Jack actually smiled at him.
"Peaceful," the biotic murmured blissfully, looking down at a dead Collector a few feet away. "Usually takes a lot of chemicals for me to get this quiet."
Shepard gave the familiar, swift sweeping glance that analysed the state of her team, before she moved them back into position and on their way. They'd taken barely a dozen steps when Joker's voice crackled sharply over their radio, broken and interspersed with long pauses of static white noise. "Comman... -tting all kinds... –ference... We can't maintai-..."
"The Collectors are disrupting communications," Garrus deduced grimly, guessing one of the dead aliens had gotten off a warning to their base before being shot down.
"We're on our own now," Shepard sighed, and they continued on.
After that quick, adrenaline-spiking explosion of violent combat, their long passage of eerily silent progress through the empty colony seemed even longer. The desolation of the place was a like a weight that pressed down on them, sending uneasy prickles of tension along Garrus' spine. Jack made a sharp gesture as she took point coming around a corner, and he and Shepard were at her side in an instant. They had perhaps a few seconds to take in the scene they had inadvertently come across, but it was a handful of heartbeats Garrus could cheerfully have done without.
They'd found their first colonists. These humans had obviously fallen victim to the seeker swarms, for they were frozen in mid-step, trapped into stillness in the act of fleeing their attackers. Crowded around them were a half-dozen Collectors, in the process of retrieving them. There was something so obscene about the image of those poor colonists, immobilised into vulnerability, while the alien creatures shifted and carted them about like so much... cargo. It was almost a relief when the Collectors spotted them and the firing started.
Until, that is, a new breed of creature appeared alongside the remaining Collectors. Compared to the heavy, chitinous forms of the Collectors, these things were slender and almost emaciated. Long strands of glowing blue cybernetics threaded through their grey flesh in a manner that was horrifically familiar.
"These things look like the husks the geth used on Eden Prime," Shepard snarled into her comm, as she fired savagely into one. It jerked away and fell to the ground, to be finished off with another shot to the head.
"I thought the geths got that technology from Sovereign," Garrus answered as he leaped to the top of a pile of crates. He popped out the steaming heat sink from his rifle, jacking in a new one as he hunkered down into a perfect sniping position. The turian zeroed his scope in on the first of the approaching husks; they were already making a beeline for Shepard. Garrus snarled softly and squeezed the trigger; a husk which had been racing mindlessly towards the Commander's exposed back drop to the ground, damn near ripped in half by the armor piercing ammo he still had loaded into his rifle.
"Then your Illusive Man was right. The Collectors must work for the Reapers." In the corner of his vision, he saw Jack fire point blank into a husk's face with her pistol, then snap her free hand up to slam a wave of biotic energy at the last of the Collectors. Her usual exultant snarl was firmly in place, but as Shepard sighted and fired on a handful of husks closing in on her, Garrus' subconscious tripped over an anomaly. Long-sharpened instincts narrowed in on it immediately and his rifle was pointing in her direction, his bright blue eyes scanning through the scope to identify what threat existed that had caught his attention. He fired automatically at two husks and only belatedly realized they were the last two. Silence filled the air, heavy and suffocating after the rapid bursts of gunfire and Jack's ecstatic battle cries.
The turian was puzzled as he stood up, dropping his rifle by his side. Whatever had triggered his alarm had gone. Still slightly perplexed, Garrus swung over the crates and dropped lightly to the ground, scanning the area. Definitely nothing alive left here except the three of them.
Shepard was standing over the fallen form of one of the odd husks, her face unusually blank as he and Jack joined her. Jack lost her peaceful expression as she stared down at the husk.
"That thing was fucking human once. Is it one of those poor bastards?" Jack demanded, jerking her head to the frozen colonists they'd just inadvertently rescued.
Shepard remained oddly silent, and things clicked into place in Garrus' brain with a sudden blinding flash of awful understanding. Shepard was freaked out by husks. The oddity he had subconsciously noted which triggered Garrus' hyperalert state a few moments earlier was nothing more than Shepard's own fear of the husks, observed in some change of her manner and behaviour... an unexplained tension in his Commander.
And it was new. Nobody liked husks, but Shepard had always just mowed them down and kept on trucking. This was different, new since her return, and he didn't know why. That made him nervous, so Garrus leaped into the silence with his mouth already talking before his brain had quite caught up. "No. The geth impaled their victims on giant spikes to turn them into husks... but we haven't seen any. The Collectors must have already had the husks. They want the colonists alive for... something else."
Jack looked mildly interested by that, which made him feel slightly ill. Shepard just looked grim.
"These aren't the same creatures I found on Eden Prime," she stated softly. "They're more advanced. Evolved."
"We can still kill them," Garrus answered, just as softly. She met his eyes briefly, and Garrus knew that whatever it was about the husks that unnerved her, she'd deal with it. A quirk at the corner of her mouth was almost a faint smile - he'd take what he could get.
She straightened her shoulders and hefted her gun determinedly. "The Collectors aren't getting away with more victims. Let's move out." Her voice held the same steely determination that had let her take out Sovereign, and Garrus felt his tension bleed away in response. He and Jack fell in, slightly behind and to either side of her. Garrus didn't pay any attention to the fact that he ended up on her left side. None of the other crew questioned it anymore, and he'd long since stopped realizing he always covered Shepard's weaker side. She was right-handed, and her responses with her left hand were always a fraction of a heart beat slower. He'd picked that up years ago, and it had become habit to cover that side, long before their reunion on Omega.
They passed another collection of frozen colonists, and were now into what appeared to be a semi-residential area of the colony. Shepard stopped only for a moment, pausing to pick up what appeared to be a Collector weapon while Jack and Garrus covered her. She said nothing, but the sharp look she shot him as she clipped the weapon to her back was more than enough. He nodded back in grim approval of the scavenging, and they moved on, with the turian taking the lead this time.
He rounded a corner and saw movement above him. Garrus snapped into hyper-alertness as he recognised Collector forms mid-air. Spirits! The damned things could fly.
"Incoming!" he warned, already darting across the open, grassy courtyard to crouch behind a retaining wall. He could see Jack moving in the other direction, and wasn't surprised when Shepard took the middle point. The things were more like insects than ever, translucent wings vibrating as their armoured forms lowered to the ground. They outnumbered the Cerberus crew perhaps three to one, but at least there were no husks this time. Shepard and Jack were already firing before the first one touched ground; meanwhile Garrus went hunting for height to get a good vantage point. It didn't take long. The colonists' evacuation had obviously been frantic and sudden, knocking over crates that should probably have been carefully stacked. He found a good spot and joined the fight, the HUD on his visor narrowing in on first one then another of the enemy figures. Gloved talons squeezed in quick succession on the trigger of his rifle, and the turian watched in satisfaction as a Collector fell under his fire. "One less to worry about," he exulted softly, forgetting for a moment that the radio was live. At least, until he heard Shepard's sharp bark of laughter.
The Collectors kept coming, and he was starting to worry until he saw Shepard advance to a new piece of cover. Garrus moved forward in response, as Jack covered him, taking up a new position deeper into the courtyard. With smooth, well-coordinated steps, the three of them advanced into the face of the Collector attack. When it worked well; when you had a team who knew what they were doing, a firefight could be like a dance. It had been that way with his team on Omega, once they'd meshed into a real unit. It had always been that way with him and Shepard. Now, Garrus felt all his objections to Jack melting away as the three of them coalesced into a single unit. The Collectors fought like drones, automatons who lacked the ability to react to their collaboration. Each one fought alone, and even though they outnumbered the Cerberus crew, Garrus was still feeling pretty confident that they'd get through this okay.
Except then something changed. One of the Collectors that had just stumbled and fallen to its knees under a burst of Jack's biotic attack staggered back. Its shoulders jerked, as though under gunfire, but nobody was aiming at it. Garrus risked a heartbeat to divert his attention from the ongoing firefight, his visor zooming in on the shuddering figure. What he saw froze his heart for a second in sheer dread.
The Collector trooper was ripped off its feet, breaking apart; its armoured form cracking and peeling under some unseen force. Garrus felt his stomach turn in revulsion as he watched a glowing flash of magma-like veins filling the spaces of the mutated Collector. It staggered back to its feet and with sudden alarm, Garrus watched it unerringly pinpoint Shepard.
And then, it spoke.
"We are the Harbinger of your perfection."
The words scraped through his eardrums, as though the voice resonated at a frequency different to anything he'd ever encountered. He saw Shepard turn to catch sight of the distorted Collector, bringing her gun up, but it was already in point-blank range. Jack was occupied with another trooper, so Garrus brought his rifle up sharply, squeezing off a few rounds at the alien thing.
It slowed but didn't stop. Shepard was backing away, seeking cover, but not fast enough. Some kind of biotic pulse erupted from the thing, and he watched it break through her shields. Watched her stagger back, disoriented by the attack.
The alarm pulsing about in his head threatened to break out into full-blown panic, as Garrus jacked in a new heat sink and fired round after round of concussive shots at the thing. He wanted to stop, maybe change ammo to something that could do a little more damage, but he didn't dare pause in his barrage. The turian could see the thing stumbling back under the rounds, its barriers dimming with each impact, and now Shepard was far enough away to join in. Together, they fired relentlessly into the thing, until it staggered and fell.
It spoke again.
"You only damage the vessel. You cannot hurt me."
Again, the words were like knives inside his skull. It took a moment for their meaning to penetrate and Garrus found himself numbly watching the distorted Collector crumple into death. Shepard and Jack were still as well; for a moment, there was silence over the battlefield. To one side, Shepard straightened slowly, and met his eyes. He could read in her the same horror he felt clenching his insides, and saw it blossom into fullness as that voice resonated across the courtyard again, from another direction.
"Assuming control of this form."
Another Collector rose, staggering into the air; its body ripping and tearing in the grip of that same terrible, unseen force. The lines of magma grew between the torn-apart pieces of it, binding it into the same agonising possession; its face was a blur of orange brilliance. The recognition of what they were seeing penetrated Garrus' shocked awareness, as the thing turned unerringly towards Shepard.
Something... else... and his brain shouted REAPER with instinctive insistence... was possessing the Collectors. Just like Sovereign had possessed Saren.
And it wanted Shepard.
Not this time, Garrus snarled silently, and his rifle was in his hands and firing before the thing had even touched its feet to the ground again. Shepard's rifle fire sounded alongside his, and a savage blast of blue biotic energy ripped the thing from the ground as Jack joined in. The three of them tore its barriers apart, and as it was lurching backwards under their combined assault, Shepard shouted over the radio, "take out the others. Don't leave anything for it to control once I kill this thing."
Habit was too well established. Despite his reluctance to break off when that thing was still capable of movement, Garrus swung his rifle around and scoped out another Collector. Jack's biotic blast knocked one off its feet, and then slammed it ferociously into a wall. Through the scope, he saw his own target fall. The turian swung his rifle back towards Shepard's attacker, but it was falling beneath her deliberate combination of gunfire and biotic blasts. Garrus kept his rifle at the ready, talon pressing hungrily against the trigger... just in case... but she had it under control.
"This changes nothing, Shepard."
The sound ate away at his hearing like violent metallic bugs, and Garrus felt bile rise at the back of his throat. After that, nothing could have stopped him from firing, but the concussive shot he squeezed off savagely was just an afterthought in the end. The thing... the Collector... had already fallen to Shepard's gun by the time his shot impacted, and its death was clear in the sprawl of its unmoving limbs and blank alien eyes.
Shepard lowered her weapon and turned to look at him. The turian emerged into the clearing, as Jack approached from the other direction. But the Commander didn't say anything; she didn't need to. Or maybe she didn't know what to say.
"It knows your name." That was all Garrus could get out, the flanging quality of his voice emphasised by his tension. The turian felt his free hand curling into a fist, the talons pressing against the reinforced material of his gloves as if they wanted to dig through them.
"What do you know, I have a reputation," Shepard retorted drily. Jack snorted in amusement, but Garrus wasn't buying it. The look in her eyes matched what he knew was in his; vaguely haunted, deeply disturbed. He watched her push it down, and knew he couldn't do the same as easily. This was too damn close to his nightmare to shrug it aside that smoothly.
"So what the hell was that thing?" Jack demanded.
Garrus' gaze was steady on his silent Commander as he provided the answer she couldn't articulate. "A Reaper."
Jack gave a low, impressed whistle and glanced around hopefully, no doubt itching for the next fight. Garrus knew Shepard wanted him to let it go, and he knew there was nothing she could say anyway; certainly not out here in hostile territory. The best he could do was follow her orders and hope like hell that he could get that thing under his scope in its real form, and take it down for good. Preferably before it split Shepard open like an overripe melon.
Shepard met his eyes and nodded approval at whatever she saw there. "Let's move out. We still have a job to do here," she said firmly, scanning their immediate surroundings deliberately before moving out. Garrus grimaced and fell in at her left; Jack mimicked him on the right.
They moved even more cautiously now, and this time, they scanned the sky as well as their surroundings. There were no more Collectors, but they used every bit of cover available to them, staying under covered walkways, and keeping out of aerial view as well as line of sight from the ground. They couldn't afford anymore incidental fire fights. The Collector ship loomed above them wherever they went. Its presence was a silent reminder of the danger, and of the fact that this wasn't just any ordinary mission. These were the things that destroyed the Normandy. That ship was the same as the one that killed Shepard; the thing that haunted his nightmares. Garrus could feel his spine itching, shoulders stiff and tense against that towering reminder of what they were up against. He refused to let himself think about failure. Whatever happened, this thing would not kill Shepard again. Even if they lost all the colonists, he would still count it a win if they managed to get Shepard out of here alive.
Shepard held them up for a moment as they approached a more open area. She eyed a larger, blocky building that seemed to be some sort of garage, and probably offered a more concealed path than the open courtyard.
"Through there," Shepard decided, gesturing to the wide, closed doors. Garrus' fingers twitched against the familiar weight of his rifle as he covered her while Shepard hacked the door controls. Jack waited to take out anything lurking within, pistol in one hand and the other glowing an eager blue.
The interior of the structure was dim and silent. The three of them moved in cautiously, their vision adjusting slowly after the bright midday sunlight outside. It was almost chilly in comparison to the balmy heat. Garrus saw Shepard jerk her head up, turning sharply to face a darkened section of the garage.
"Company," she muttered, weapon at the ready. Garrus had to make a deliberate effort not to target and fire instantly, and that alone told him how on edge he was. He kept a careful grip on his rifle, as Shepard made a sharp gesture to the shadowy form hiding in a corner. "Get out here. Now."
The figure emerged nervously; a human male. He had the rough look of a colonist, and the shell-shocked gaze of someone who'd been through hell. Garrus took the time to survey the garage carefully, and only half-listened in as the man identified himself as a mechanic named Delan, and defensively explained how he had sealed himself into the building to stay safe from the swarms. He heard Shepard pull out her 'soothing voice' as she tried to calm him down enough to get some decent intel out of the man.
Garrus lowered his rifle slowly and took the moment to try to calm the adrenaline surging in his system. The mission had thrown him for a loop... or rather, the Reaper had. Finding out that there was one, and it could possess or control Collector drones... any Collector drones, apparently... Oh yeah, and it was gunning for Shepard. Getting the personal attention of a Reaper struck him as a very bad thing. The real problem was that he didn't have a clue how they were going to retrieve the colonists, or destroy the Collector ship. And now Garrus had started to worry about his ability to keep Shepard alive on this planet.
"... it's the Alliance's fault! They stationed that Commander Alenko here and built those defence towers. It made us a target!"
Delan's ranting broke sharply in on his mental review of the situation, and Garrus snapped his head sharply towards the man. Shepard had done the same; beneath the dual gaze of Shepard and Garrus, Delan faltered swiftly into silence.
"Tell me about the Colony defence towers," Shepard said sharply.
"A gift from the Alliance," the mechanic replied bitterly. "High powered GARDIAN Lasers, supposed to keep hostile ships from landing near the colony... They had to build a massive underground generator just to give it enough juice. Only we couldn't get the targeting systems online... So the Alliance gave us a giant gun that couldn't shoot straight." Delan grimaced. "Stupid sons of bitches."
Shepard shifted eagerly. "If you have defences, we can use them against the Collector ship."
"You'd need to calibrate the targeting system first," Delan protested. "It's never worked right!"
Garrus felt his patience begin to waver. "One of us should be able to figure it out. We just need the location," he urged, using his own version of a calm voice; the one he'd perfected when questioning witnesses and bystanders during his time on C-Sec.
The turian watched Delan hesitate a little longer, but whether he eventually decided the three of them could handle themselves, or they were suicidal and not really his problem, Garrus wasn't sure. Either way, the mechanic shrugged his shoulders and answered slowly. "Head for the main transmitter on the other side of the colony... it's pretty hard to miss. The targeting controls are at the base."
Garrus bit back a fierce grin. Big guns. A set of really big guns and a Collector ship in the scope. This day is looking up, he decided. He listened in without surprise as Shepard grilled Delan on Alenko's presence here. The mechanic's colonial paranoia came through strong and clear, but Shepard's questions underscored the glaring anomaly of the planet Horizon, and probably answered the question of why the Collectors had come here, specifically.
It just didn't make sense for the Alliance to spend so much money and effort building a weapon like that out here in the middle of nowhere. The Alliance had responded to the attack on human colonies in the Terminus systems by tightening their security on colonial worlds in their more immediate vicinity. They weren't going to start worrying so much about breakaway colonies at the far edge of nowhere, to the point they'd gift them with expensive state-of-the-art weaponry... and a decorated war hero to babysit them.
Alenko, what are you doing out here? Garrus found himself wondering, and could almost hear the echo of the thought from his Commander. He met her eyes briefly, and gave an uncertain shrug. The Alliance was definitely up to something out here, and the only one who could answer that was Kaidan Alenko himself.
Garrus watched Shepard grimace in frustration, and turn back to Delan. "It's probably just better if you stay out of the way," she directed.
The frightened mechanic agreed immediately, almost pushing them out the door in his eagerness to be rid of them. Garrus couldn't blame the poor bastard. He'd just seen his home ripped to pieces, and alien monsters cart off his friends. In his position... okay, truth be told, in his position, Garrus would be sniping the hell out of those sons of bitches, but Delan was just a civilian, and probably deserved some slack on that basis alone.
Shepard turned to him as Delan sealed the doors closed, locking them out of the garage. "Get up high and get me a direction, Garrus," she instructed, her gaze resting briefly on the visor covering his left eye. Garrus threw her a confident smirk in reply and darted off obediently.
A few moments later he was perched on the roof of a building, pressed flat against it to avoid creating a noticeable outline. Delan had been right in one respect; it wasn't hard to find the starport. The GARDIAN lasers were a distinctively militant outline against the prefab constructs of the colony buildings. The turian took a good directional reading with his omni-tool, then swiftly descended to Shepard.
"Ten clicks south-east," Garrus drawled happily. He knew the dangers this planet posed, and having a weapon in sight that could possibly take them down was fast restoring his faith in their potential success here.
"Lead the way, big guy," Shepard instructed.
They were surrounded by husks. Garrus hadn't even had time to get to a decent sniping position before they had been flanked by the damned things, and he was too busy fighting for his life – and his team's lives – to do more than react to each oncoming body. He and Shepard were back to back, keeping their exposed flanks protected. Jack had erupted into a snarling fury, sending burning blue shockwaves from her hands, screaming obscenities as she mowed down the repurposed corpses.
Getting to the Starport had been child's play. Shepard had elected to take the stealthy approach when they started spotting Collector patrols, which was probably the only way they'd gotten this close. They'd fought through a handful of Collectors outside the entrance to the Starport, and barely made it inside before being overrun. Now, they were within sight of the main transmitter, and fighting wave after wave of husks to try to get to it.
"What the fuck is that thing?" Jack screamed above the gunfire. Garrus half-turned at the same moment as Shepard, and was struck still as he saw what had got Jack's attention.
It wasn't a husk... and yet it was. Or rather, it was like three husks grafted together, fused around a pulsating blue sack of organic matter. It had only two legs, and it moved in a sluggish, hulking manner... carrying the weight of three torsos on those two spindly legs apparently slowed it down. Garrus acted on auto-pilot, firing off a short burst at an approaching husk, as he struggled to comprehend what his eyes were seeing.
Then, quite suddenly, the thing was joined by another of its kind. The twin horrors moved towards them, even as Garrus' peripheral awareness caught Shepard taking out a husk that had gotten in close. He was about to turn back to help her, when one of the hulking monstrosities moved deliberately and a wash of blue fire struck out from it in violent speed. He could barely track it, but he caught Jack flying backwards under the assault all too well. She landed in a broken heap against a tumbled pile of crates, swearing weakly.
Damn. Those things have biotics?
He spun and met Shepard's eyes for a moment, looking for instruction. Garrus could read identical shock in her expression, but she was Commander for a reason. She didn't take time to react; she just responded to the new situation. Shock and surprise could be dealt with later, when they weren't about to be slaughtered.
He saw Shepard's gaze flick upwards, and Garrus was off instantly, racing for height and a good vantage point. He didn't like leaving her, with the husks around, but she could handle them. By the time he'd slid into position, Jack was also back on her feet... presumably thanks to a helpful injection of medi-gel. Or maybe just sheer determination. The girl had quads bigger than a krogan.
Garrus switched his ammo, and jacked in a new thermal clip, narrowing the scope in on the first of those monstrosities. Shepard and Jack were behind cover and focussing their fire on the other, but he didn't have time to check on how well they were doing.
The thing lumbered into his scope and Garrus narrowed his eyes deliberately. Exhaled. Squeezed the trigger and landed a round of armor-piercing ammo directly in the centre of its body. It jerked back viciously, but it wasn't enough. Garrus switched his target, moving up and to the right, focussing on that blue organic mass on its body. The thing didn't seem to have shields or barriers, but like the Collectors, its hard skin provided some protection from gunfire. The blue sack bled under his attack, but it didn't slow his target down. The turian found himself gritting his teeth in frustration as he selected a new spot to target... on the right 'shoulder' of the thing, where a husk head was fused on at a twisted angle.
He was about to fire, when a brilliant lightning-white stream of energy burned out part of his vision. Garrus saw the other monstrosity drop, and looked across the battlefield to see Shepard holding the Collector particle weapon she'd picked up, looking rather as surprised as he felt.
Hell, why not. Use the bastards weapons against their own.
"One less to worry about," Shepard's voice sounded exuberantly in his ear, where the radio unit was embedded in his visor. Garrus found himself chuckling softly, startled into laughter, even as he fired deliberately onto the shoulder-head of the other alien.
A sustained burst of armor-piercing ammo had the thing jerking like a marionette on its strings, and when he relaxed his talon around the trigger, it fell to the ground in a heavy thump.
"All clear down here," Jack called into the echoing silence that followed.
Garrus gave himself a moment to slump against the crate in relief, closing his eyelids tightly and letting his brain blank for one long, blissful moment. These things weren't like fighting mercs, or soldiers, or anything that thought even remotely like themselves. It was more like Feros, coming across the thorians for the first time and diving headfirst into a nightmare of alien creatures they could never hope to comprehend.
Every time they turned around on this planet, they seemed to come across something even more horrific, more disturbing, more... evil.
Garrus pushed himself back to his feet and made his way back down to the other two. This section of the Starport was an open quad, filled with raised loading platforms, and scattered with piles of unloaded cargo, and a few trucks. The centre of the quad was a raised circular platform, with the transmitter pointing straight up at the sky in the middle of it. Shepard and Jack were already on the transmitter platform, and Shepard was busy hacking away at the transmitter controls by the time he reached them. Jack was leaning a bit too heavily on the control panel at the base of the transmitter, and Garrus shot her a hard look.
"Back off, blue. I'm fine, the bastard just winged me," Jack grumbled back at him, waving a hand at him in dismissal. Garrus smirked faintly in response; if she was well enough to bitch, she wasn't doing too badly. Instead, he turned his attention to Shepard, watching her carefully and deliberately hack her way through the transmitter security in order to break through the communications lockdown and establish a link with the Normandy. It was colonial level tech, but the Alliance – Alenko, he reminded himself – must have upgraded the security protocols to Alliance spec, because it still took her a few minutes.
Eventually, Shepard closed down her omni-tool and activated her radio hopefully. "Normandy. Do you copy?"
The response was immediate and relieved. "Joker here. Signal's weak, Commander, but we got you!"
"Time to show these things we give as good as we get," Shepard answered fiercely. "EDI... bring the defence towers online."
"Errors in the calibration software are easily rectified," EDI's synthetic voice replied. "But it will take time to bring the towers to full power. I recommend a defensive posture. I will not be able to mask the increased generator output."
Garrus bit back a tired groan; Jack didn't bother.
"We'll stop them," Shepard said confidently. "Easy enough."
If an AI could sound concerned, EDI managed it. "Maybe not. Enemy reinforcements closing in. I suggest you ready weapons."
Garrus felt the strain of the day's activities and the myriad minor injuries he'd taken weighing down on him. But a glance at Shepard brought his strength back almost immediately. Once EDI started, the Collectors would call in everything they had in the area... which undoubtedly meant Collectors, husks, more of those insane merged husk-things, and very probably something even worse. But Garrus knew for certainty that the Reaper would show its face again. Once it confirmed Shepard was here, it would take over every Collector it could to get a clear shot at her.
Tension was curling low in his stomach, as he surveyed the area and picked out a half-dozen decent vantage points he could work with. There was no real need to discuss strategy; the turian was already moving for his best position, even as Shepard and Jack found cover closer in to the transmitter base.
Then it was just a matter of waiting.
It took about a minute before the husks began lunging through the various entrances into the quad. Garrus steadied his grip on the rifle, took aim and began firing. Short, controlled bursts of fire, taking leg shots and body shots as much as possible. Jack was the first to spot the Collectors, following hard on the heels of the husks.
"Bypassing fail safes and attempting emergency power up," EDI announced over the radio. "Please hold the defence tower."
There were more Collectors than ever before, and they swarmed over Jack and Shepard immediately, forcing the two women to retreat to opposite sides of the quad. Garrus was firing almost continually, jacking in new thermal clips every few minutes and gritting his teeth in savage concentration. And that was where it started to go downhill again.
"Direct intervention is necessary."
The Reaper. Garrus' nerves were strung higher than ever before, adrenaline pounding through his system as he fought between keeping an eye on Shepard and taking out as many of the non-possessed Collectors as he could. He remembered Shepard's command from earlier. Take out the rest, and leave no body for the thing to inhabit. But what good would that do if its current host managed to get a good shot at Shepard?
His stomach took a sickening dive as he saw the Reaper-controlled Collector send a biotic wave racing towards Shepard, knocking her back off her feet. The enhanced image provided by his visor showed him Shepard staggering, clearly disoriented, and the Reaper advancing on her immediately.
"Shepard's hit!" he yelled at Jack, diverting his attacks immediately to the Reaper. The tattooed biotic amped up her own attacks, picking up the slack as he went to Shepard's aid.
"If I must tear you apart, Shepard, I will."
Not on my watch. Garrus fired on the Reaper... and fired and fired and fired, and didn't stop until his rifle was heating up under his grip and the Collector's body was disintegrating under his prolonged assault.
Shepard was back on her feet now, and behind cover. Jack had got the last of the other Collectors, meaning there was nothing around at the moment for the Reaper to inhabit again. The turian exhaled sharply, and absently switched his thermal clip again. He'd be running low soon, if this kept up much longer.
"Thanks, Garrus," Shepard said quietly over the radio. Even her voice sounded tired, and from his position, he could see her pumping herself full of medi-gel.
Garrus grimaced. "Get ready. Gotta be more soon."
As if his words were prophetic, they heard the high-pitched insectoid buzz of the flying Collectors. Their heavy bodies swooped to the ground, just as EDI announced that the anti-ship batteries were at 40%.
"Reinforcements," the turian muttered with a weary sort of sarcasm. "It's nice to be noticed."
Jack and Shepard were positioned close to the transmitter, and his angle was wrong from this position. Garrus had breached his cover and was heading for a secondary position, when the brain-scraping sound of the Reaper's voice consuming a Collector drone sounded again.
"Keep going, Garrus. I've got this one," Shepard advised, as she also left cover, heading away from the transmitter. As he slammed the butt of his rifle into a husk's head, Garrus couldn't work out what the hell she was doing. Jack was firing determinedly into any Collectors who got close to the transmitter, while the Reaper tracked Shepard towards the far end of the Starport.
Garrus swore softly as he found a new vantage point and surveyed the battlefield.
"I am Harbinger. You will not stop me."
She was luring it – the Reaper, this 'Harbinger' – away from the transmitter, knowing it was more interested in taking her out, than in saving its ship. It was a brutal move, damned near suicidal, and Garrus made a mental note to yell at her for it later on. Later, much later, after they'd all washed the mud and blood and grime of this Spirits-forsaken dirt ball off their bodies, and were safe and sound on the Normandy.
"GARDIAN anti-ship batteries at 60%. Syncing targeting protocols to Normandy's systems. Continue to protect the tower," EDI instructed calmly.
All he could do was divide his cover fire between Jack and Shepard. Jack was doing fairly well; he took out a few husks that had managed to flank her before she erupted into biotic meltdown and fried them all.
But Shepard... Harbinger had her on the run, diving behind cover and barely avoiding its aggressive biotic attacks. Garrus saw her stagger and fall behind a crate, watched Harbinger advance on her eagerly.
"You will know pain, Shepard."
Snarling a denial of that promise, Garrus stood up to get a clear shot and fired on the Reaper, exposing himself to the few Collectors still alive. He felt return fire from one of them take out his shields, but he didn't stop. He jerked under the impact of a second shot, but didn't stop until he spotted Shepard firing as well. Then Garrus dropped back down to his knees, behind cover, and watched his Commander fire the Collector weapon at the Reaper. It stumbled back with a vehement "you cannot kill me, Shepard," before its second body disintegrated around it.
"GARDIAN anti-ship batteries at 100%. I have control."
EDI's announcement was like a blessing. Garrus found himself grinning in relief, surveying the corpse-strewn Starport in pleasure. Shepard was limping slightly as she made her way back towards the transmitter, but it didn't look like anything major.
Which Garrus knew was more good fortune than any of them deserved today.
The huge GARDIAN lasers powered up with a loud, metallic whine. They swivelled around to target the colossal alien ship. At first, Garrus assumed all he was hearing was the massive guns about to tear the life out of his enemies, and his heart hummed with satisfaction. A savage gleam burned in his eyes as he watched the turrets rise up to orient on the Collector vessel... except...
Except what was that strange, fast-moving speck heading unerringly towards them?
"Shepard..." he warned in alarm. "Enemies incoming."
Except it was only one. A single, alien entity that looked even more insectoid than the Collectors did, and even more horrifying than the fused-husks. It had a multitude of limbs that hung down from its massive frame and when it landed lightly in front of the transmitter, he could see that its panel of eyes were multi-faceted blue shells, lighting up from within as it swung its heavy, oversized head from side to side, tracking... looking for...
It hovered on Shepard and stopped. Of course. It seemed everything on this planet had a hard-on for killing Shepard.
Harbinger had made him feel helpless, hopeless in the face of something so godlike that wanted his commander dead... but this thing terrified him the second it started attacking. Those glowing blue eyes lit up, brighter and brighter like a blue star turning supernova, and then it erupted into azure lightning – twin jets of it screaming like fiery death, aimed directly at Shepard's heart. She dove to cover a half-second before it would have obliterated her, and Garrus stared in numb shock at the gaping, smoking hole where a loading dock had been a moment before.
One shot from that thing, and she's dead, he told himself silently. The thing rose up, as Shepard crawled around her minimal cover, but it didn't matter... it wouldn't matter where she took cover, because the uber-Collector would just hover over it and take an aerial shot.
Garrus exchanged a frantic glance with Jack and came to a swift decision. "Shepard, stay in cover. It wants you. Keep out of its line of sight," he commanded and jerked his head in Jack's direction. "We'll take it out."
Jack grinned back at him, looking more like a savage than ever. But that was what they needed right now, because this was nothing near the realms of civilized warfare. This was death incarnate, with Shepard's name on its lips.
"Firing anti-ship batteries at Collector vessel," EDI announced calmly.
Well, at least the Collector ship would take a beating, no matter what happened down here. Garrus felt a little surge of triumph, knowing that they'd managed to do something right on this mission. Then the entirety of his attention was focussed on the Collector... thing... attacking Shepard.
The deafening roar of the GARDIAN lasers almost overpowered the seething scream of the alien's particle beam. Garrus and Jack made several experimental attacks, evaluating its weak points, while Shepard continued to lead it around the quad, taking her own shots where she could. The Collector weapon she'd claimed did some damage, but the thing had armor like nothing he'd ever seen before. It was like trying to penetrate a ship's hull with a handgun. After a time, Jack holstered her own weapon and relied entirely upon her biotics, preferring the relative safety of hit-and-run attacks. Garrus also abandoned a sniper's attack, because this enemy moved too much for him to risk being out of line of sight for too long. The turian loped across the quad in long, ground-eating strides, using cover when he needed to but mostly striving to flank his target and penetrate it's armor. It was basically ignoring him and Jack, which pissed him off even more. Seeing that particle beam eating into whatever piece of cover Shepard was sheltering behind was not pleasant for him.
"Multiple impacts. Collector vessel is taking damage," EDI assured them. Garrus spared a glance upward to see bursts of orange flame erupting from the monolithic Collector vessel at several points.
"Garrus, now!" Shepard yelled suddenly and he spun back around, firing on the damned bug monster before he even knew why. She had it pinned down with her stolen particle beam, and Jack caught on in time to send a burst of biotic shockwave careening towards it. It was hovering, dropping down under their combined assault, and struggling to stagger back upwards. But it was no longer firing its particle beam, and all three of them targeted it determinedly. Jack pulled out her heaviest weapon and it jerked futilely under the triple assault. Garrus watched in grim, exhausted satisfaction as it dropped heavily again, emitting a high-pitched scream, before it collapsed in a burning heap of slagged chitin.
"Fuck me." Jack stumbled against a convenient wall, her tattoos blurred by streaks of blood, and her eyes were strangely frightened despite her defiant tone.
"Everyone okay?" Shepard asked heavily, her eyes on Garrus.
"Nothing a little medi-gel and a two week paid vacation won't fix, Commander," the turian responded automatically. But he managed a weary grin that actually did reassure her, and all of them turned their attention skywards.
Under EDI's deft control, the GARDIAN lasers fired a relentless barrage at the Collector vessel. With no real idea of where the ship's weak points might be, EDI had apparently elected to shoot for maximum coverage in expectation that something vital might be hit.
Garrus couldn't deny the sense of satisfaction he felt in watching that ship bleed and burn. His mandibles pressed sharp against his face in a happy snarl as another explosion erupted from the length of the vessel. The explosion made him close his eyes for a moment, and when he opened them, there was an even brighter pulse of white-hot fire blasting from the tail of the ship.
"They're pulling out!" Garrus shouted, even as the heat of the launch rolled over them and all three raised their arms to shield the exposed flesh of their faces. Behind his raised arm, Garrus saw it lift itself like a burning star into the sky, a dark streak punctuated by that flaming tail. As it rose higher and higher into the atmosphere, it shrank slowly to a single fireball against the blue sky.
Jack was staring blankly at the shrinking ship. Shepard's face was twisted into a grimace, and he knew that look.
It hit him suddenly, and he felt the failure swamp him. The colonists were still onboard. Alenko was probably on board that thing. Whatever those bastards wanted human colonists for, he knew without a shadow of a doubt, it was something truly evil. Something that was going to have those people screaming for death long before their ends came. The Collectors, and the Reapers, knew nothing of mercy.
The fading throb of the Collector vessel's engines filled the air when he sighed and looked back at Shepard. She was composed now, her expression somber, but controlled.
"There's no reason to stay," Garrus said quietly into the silence. "Most of the colonists were on board. They got what they came for." Everything except Shepard. And he wanted more than anything to get the hell off this planet so he could relax and let himself breathe again.
"NO!" The shout came from behind and Garrus had almost shot the human mechanic, Delan, before he recognised the man racing across the Starport. "Don't let them get away!" the colonist protested, staring in horror at the escaping ship.
"There's nothing we can do," Shepard answered wearily. "They're gone."
The man staggered to a halt, staring futilely up at the sky. "Half the colony's in there! They took Egan and Sam and... and Lilith! Do something!" Delan pleaded, casting his desperate gaze from the sky to Shepard. He looked at her as if she could do something; Garrus knew that look. Something inside of him cringed at the pressure that silent, impossible demand placed on her.
"I didn't want it to end this way. I did what I could," Shepard said quietly.
"More than most, Shepard," Garrus told her firmly. He imbued his voice with all the confidence he had in her, and was rewarded by seeing her straighten slightly in response. Standing behind her as he was, he couldn't see her expression, but Garrus had long ago mastered the art of reading her body language.
"Shepard?" the mechanic asked suddenly, and turned to stare at her. "Wait... I know that name... Sure, I remember you. You're some type of big Alliance hero."
"Commander Shepard. Captain of the Normandy." Kaidan Alenko looked very much alive, and very much unharmed as he emerged from the smoking debris edging the quad and walked towards them, his eyes fixed intently on the Commander. "The first human Spectre. Saviour of the Citadel."
Garrus heard Shepard draw in a sharp, hitching breath.
"You're in the presence of a legend, Delan," Alenko continued smoothly, shooting a sidelong glance at the sour-faced mechanic. Garrus watched his former crewmate turn back towards Commander Shepard, saw the man's expression harden. "And a ghost."
"All the good people we lost, and you get left behind. Figures." Delan's voice broke with futile anger. The man waved his hands in dismissal. "Screw this. I'm done with you Alliance types," he growled at them all, and turned his back on them.
Garrus didn't pay the departing mechanic any attention. His focus was devoted entirely to Alenko. The turian couldn't deny how glad he was to see the man, nor the warm relief he felt at knowing Kaidan wasn't on board the Collector ship. Something went right. For once, something went right, Garrus found himself thinking gratefully.
Alenko was advancing on them again, his eyes on the Commander. "I thought you were dead, Shepard. We all did." Alenko stopped before Shepard, standing closer than was probably polite by human standards... Garrus watched on curiously, as Alenko reached his arms around the Commander and pulled her to him.
It was a gesture he'd seen humans do many times, but never with the Commander. Most humans seemed small to him, but Garrus had never considered the Commander in such a way. Her presence was so vivid and strong, that the fact that she was actually quite diminutive was overlooked almost immediately. But as he watched Alenko enfold her in his arms, and saw how much bigger Alenko was than her, Garrus was suddenly struck by how tiny she actually was. Even in her armor.
The turian tilted his head and studied them as the embrace stretched on. On the one hand, there was something very right about it; he could see the way the smaller human female fit perfectly against the larger frame of the male. It was very human, two pieces of the same whole fitting together. Yet on the other hand, there was something very wrong with the fact that it was Shepard. It didn't look like Shepard just then, even in her armor. Shepard wasn't small, or cuddly, or soft.
Garrus watched in bemusement as Shepard finally drew back and Alenko reluctantly released her.
"It's been too long, Kaidan. How've you been?"
There was something different in her voice, too; the tone all low-pitched and full of warm affection. It suddenly dawned on Garrus that he was seeing a very private, surreally feminine side of Shepard in her reunion with a lover. It was so alien to the Commander Shepard he knew, that it felt as if he were violating her privacy somehow and he felt abruptly embarrassed. The turian looked quickly downwards, scuffing one foot at the dirt as he tried not to listen to their conversation.
Unfortunately, turian hearing was quite good.
"That's all you have to say?" Alenko asked. His voice did notsound warm and affectionate. It sounded incredulous and hurt. "You show up after two years and just act like nothing happened? I thought we had something Shepard... something real. I... I loved you."
Garrus shifted awkwardly, earnestly wishing he had followed the mechanic away. Jack didn't seem at all bothered by what was going on; in fact, she was watching with open fascination and a slight grin. He wanted to drag her away and leave the two of them to resolve this in private. As much as Alenko's plaintive tone grated on his nerves, Garrus simply didn't know anything about human mating rituals, or their interpersonal relationships. Maybe that was normal in this situation.
"Thinking you were dead tore me apart," Alenko continued, still in that wounded tone. "How could you put me through that? Why didn't you try to contact me? Why didn't you let me know you were alive?"
"Not my choice," Shepard answered regretfully. "I spent the last two years in some kind of coma while Cerberus rebuilt me."
The cold, hard truth of that statement made Garrus look up to see how Kaidan would react. To his confusion, he saw Alenko back away slowly, the man's face fixed in an expression of disbelief.
"You're with Cerberus now. Garrus too?" Alenko's gaze darted from Shepard to the turian, his voice sounding vaguely sick. "I can't believe the reports were right."
"Reports?" Garrus asked sharply, deciding he was allowed to join in since he'd been addressed. His eyes narrowed behind the visor in sudden understanding. "You mean, you already knew?"
Alenko knew what Shepard had been through, knew she'd been dead... and had still greeted her with accusations and recriminations. Garrus felt a flash of anger that washed away any discomfort and his gaze on Alenko turned hard. He had promised Shepard he'd have her back. He had no intention of letting her fight this one alone.
Alenko diverted his gaze very briefly to the turian, then locked it back onto Shepard. "Alliance intel thought Cerberus might be behind the missing human colonies. They got a tip this colony might be the next one to get hit. Anderson stonewalled me," he explained with frustration. "But there were rumours that you weren't dead. That you were working for the enemy."
Shepard's voice was a little harder this time. "Cerberus and I want the same thing. To save our colonies. That doesn't mean I answer to them."
Alenko closed in on Shepard fiercely. "Do you really believe that? Or is that just what Cerberus wants you to think? I wanted to believe the rumours that you were alive... but I never expected anything like this."
Garrus' anger rose with every word Alenko uttered. He had to clench his jaw firmly shut to avoid interrupting again. What does it matter where she's been? She's alive, she's here now! Garrus could only remember the blinding relief he'd felt on Omega, seeing Shepard in his scope coming over that bridge. He hadn't spent even a second wondering where she'd been, or what she was doing there. All that had mattered was that she was back. The rest had taken care of itself.
Kaidan shook his head angrily. "You turned your back on everything we believed in. You betrayed the Alliance. You betrayed me."
How can you question her loyalty? Her dedication? Garrus silently snarled at him. She's back from the dead and the first thing she does is take up the fight against the Reapers again... while you sit here whining like a neglected child! Garrus struggled not to unclench his jaw and let the angry words roll out. He had to admire Shepard for keeping her cool, though he could hear the tension in her voice when she answered finally.
"Kaidan, you know me. You know I'd only do this for the right reason. You saw it yourself. The Collectors are targeting human colonies. And they're working with the Reapers!"
It was surreal, listening to her argue the cause with Kaidan Alenko, of all people.
"I want to believe you, Shepard," Kaidan answered with low-voiced urgency. "But I don't trust Cerberus. They could be using the threat of a Reaper to manipulate you. What if they're behind it? What if they're working with the Collectors?"
Garrus felt his anger break through. "Damn it, Kaidan!" the turian snapped hotly. "You're so focussed on Cerberus that you're ignoring the real threat!"
"You're letting how you feel about their history get in the way of the facts," Shepard agreed softly, her voice gently persuasive. Garrus had heard her use the same voice to talk down gunman, and convince countless individuals to trust her.
Alenko looked from Shepard to Garrus and his expression grew stubborn. "Maybe. Or maybe you feel like you owe Cerberus because they saved you. Maybe you're the one who's not thinking straight."
"You've changed," Alenko said regretfully, looking down at Shepard. "But I still know where my loyalties lie. I'm an Alliance soldier. Always will be. I've got to report back to the Citadel. They can decide if they believe your story or not."
Garrus watched in sick disbelief as Alenko backed away further, and Shepard let him go. Reacting badly to Shepard still being alive was one thing, but this... He kept waiting for her to speak up, to ask him to come with them, to offer him a position on the ship... Garrus thought of the photo of Kaidan sitting on her desk, and stared at Shepard in alarm.
"So long, Kaidan," Commander Shepard said quietly after a long moment.
Alenko paused; maybe he had thought she'd let him go without another word. "So long, Commander." He hesitated a moment longer, looking from Shepard to Garrus and back again. "Good luck."
Then he stepped around the corner and was gone.
The Commander lifted her hand heavily to touch the comm. unit by her ear. "Joker, send a shuttle to pick us up," she said flatly. "I've had enough of this colony."
Garrus couldn't say anything in the silence that fell. He watched Shepard uneasily, striving to understand what had happened. He wasn't human. Shepard might choose to understand Alenko's sense of personal ethics, but as a turian, Garrus never would. The goals of the unit always superseded the desires of the individual. To reject his commander, abandon the mission and turn his back on his team made Kaidan Alenko a traitor. There was no excuse, and no forgiveness, for such a betrayal.
The roar of the shuttle breaking atmosphere overhead was as much a reprieve to him as it seemed to be to Shepard. Garrus couldn't disguise the wash of relief that surged through him when the shuttle door sealed itself behind them. He took one look at Shepard, safely buckled into the restraints, and felt the rumble of the shuttle that meant it was launching free of Horizon.
We survived.
Garrus let that single truth wipe away the shock of seeing Alenko, the horrors of what they'd been through on Horizon. He watched the planet fall away beneath them, and wrapped his brain around that single truth.
We survived. Shepard is alive.
The turian looked up at his Commander, and was surprised to see her watching him in return. The slow curl of a smile tugged tiredly at her mouth.
"At least we saved half the colony," Shepard said softly. "That's not so bad."
Garrus felt tension easing away as he smiled faintly back at her. "Better than most, Shepard," he replied honestly and saw her smile widen briefly.
Screw Alenko, he decided, as they both went back to watching Horizon fall away. We survived.