"What?!" Mali exclaimed.
"How is that possible?" Shepard said at the exact same time, they looked at each other in shock. It wasn't really that hard to believe, if you looked at them. They both shared blonde hair and blue eyes, and everyone could tell you that they both had a knack for getting into trouble. Mali looked to Yane for confirmation, he nodded.
"It's true Mali, I knew the whole time." Mali looked at Shepard, he looked at her.
"You…you are my father?" She whispered, "what—how did—why?" She stumbled through her words. Shepard was shaking his head, tears in his eyes.
"Mali, I didn't know. I never knew." He spoke, a tear running down his cheek. He moved toward her, but he froze when thirty rifles cocked.
"All will be explained." Alenko smirked. "However, we are on a tight schedule. To the bridge!" He turned around. The soldiers enveloped them, pushing them along. Mali, for the most part, stumbled along without a fight, still in deep shock. All her life, she had wondered about her parents, all her life she had hated them for leaving her, loved them for making her, and wanted them to be there for her, but she had never dreamed of ever actually finding them; and to find out that Jacob Shepard, the hero of the galaxy, was her father, it stunned her speechless.
A man pushed her from behind, forcing her to climb the steps, they had entered into a stairwell. Mali only saw them through a haze—the entire trip up to the bridge was a blur. They climbed the stairs for a long time, Mali's legs were burning like fire, but she ignored the pain. A hand was put on her shoulder.
"Mali..." Liara whispered. They had released her on account of no longer needing stealth, she had made her way to her side. Mali angrily shrugged her hand off. Inside, there were so many emotions going on: confusion, anger, surprise, fear. She didn't know what to think. Liara frowned and was about to walk away, when Mali grabbed her hand and held it, her hand visibly shaking. Liara squeezed it once, and they continued up the stairs.
The stairwell ended and they walked through an oval door into a dark room, the only light coming from a stretch of glass panels that looked out at the burning remains of the campus. There was a large chair on a dais next to control panels. It swiveled around when they walked in. Udina sat in the chair, legs crossed, a smug expression on his face. He wore all black, and a pistol was attached to his hip. His eyes were bright with triumph.
"Udina, I shouldn't be surprised you're behind all this." Shepard spat. The aging politician raised up his hands in a shrug.
"Guilty." He smirked, he turned his attention to Mali. "My girl, welcome! I have been waiting for this day for a long time!" He then took in her appearance, the bruise on her cheek and her angry, red rimmed eyes. "Ah, I see you've found out some things already," he frowned.
"You're behind this?" Mali questioned venomously.
"From the beginning!" He shrugged happily. He was crazy, Mali thought. "This story is long, but by the end you will understand that I am gracious and kind." He smiled heartlessly.
"I doubt it." Mali shot back. Udina waved the guards away, only Yane and Alenko remained. However, on the way out, they took their guns and other weapons.
"It all started a long time ago, before you were even born." Udina started, "when my hate for your father was fostered."
"So it's true?" Shepard exclaimed. He had laid Miranda on the floor to give his arms a break. Udina nodded.
"I chose your daughter for the experiment out of spite for you Shepard. I absolutely hate you. There was no other reason. You see," he turned back to Mali, "before the reapers attacked, he was still a commando hot-shot, and in the makings of becoming a Spectre. I had my sights set on that too, but he took my spot and closed my dream. He was only eighteen, me twenty-two. Later it just grew deeper when he ruined my plans at the citadel."
"The counsel never believed me when I said you worked for the reapers!" Shepard exclaimed.
"But you still stopped me. Ruined the plan and killed the entire race of reapers…well, almost." He smirked. "It set me back, but luckily I had already put a plan into motion in case the first one failed. This is where Mali comes in."
"Anora…" Shepard whispered.
"You should have never crossed me!" Udina shouted, "The day you became a Spectre was the day you doomed your family!" He yelled spittle flying from his mouth. Mali flinched back, surprised at his ferociousness. "I took her, while you were on duty out in space. She didn't know she was pregnant when you left, but she soon found out, three weeks along she was. We started the experiment immediately."
"What did you do to her?!" Shepard yelled. He was so angry his face was turning red. As Udina continued anxiety started to build in Mali's stomach—she was hearing about her family—her mother.
"We worked off the work already tested on Subject Zero. We started element zero exposure early. Mali was barely formed when she had her first exposure. Of course, it was very painful for your Anora, we had to treat her for radiation poisoning many times actually, but Mali seemed to be fine, and absorbing it, and that's all that really mattered." Shepard fumed at the mouth. Sorrow twisted in Mali's stomach, what had she done? "When Mali was finally born, we had to cut her out actually, and that's really what killed Anora, in the end. We forged divorce papers so no one would suspect her missing." A tear slid down Mali's cheek, Liara was gripping her shoulder in a tight grasp; Shepard was practically bawling, but he stared at Udina with hatred in his eyes.
"I had succeeded!" Udina's eyes were alight with pride, ignoring Shepard. He was totally absorbed in the story, high on his triumph. "I had succeeded in creating the most powerful biotic in the world, which had been our aim, but, I never got to see how powerful." A dark shadow clouded his eyes. Shepard had withdrawn inside himself, he was looking at the floor in a blank stare. "We were in the middle of transporting her to a more secure facility when that," he pointed to Miranda on the floor, "broke into my ship and stole her from me. My own creation, taken from me." He had a crazy light in his eyes as he said this, chills went up her spine, Liara clutched Mali to her side. "For a long time I searched, they had hidden her well, but I found her in the end, and when I did, I sent someone whom she could learn to trust to watch her. My son, Yane." Shock reverberated through Mali's body. Yane just looked at her with sad eyes.
"So that day with Finnick, how did you not die?" Mali asked. Yane shook his head sadly.
"Finnick was working for me, supplying my father with silver, he never killed me, it was an act. My father had called me in, it was time for the next phase."
"So all those men, Finnick, I killed them, for no reason…"
"I told you not to Mali, I knew what it would do to you when you found out."
"You said you loved me!" Mali looked at him in anger. "I trusted you!" Yane didn't respond.
"He did his job." Udina interrupted, "I am proud of you son." Yane flinched as Udina put a hand on his shoulder. "We got you into the program so you would have a chance to learn your powers, I knew the Alliance wouldn't hesitate to train you when they found out." He smiled. "So you are trained, our work was done for us, and now you are here, finally back in my possession."
"She will never be your possession!" Liara exclaimed angrily.
"You want me as a weapon?" Mali asked, horrified. "I will never kill for you." Udina laughed.
"Is that what you think? No, that would be a waste of your power. I created you not to be a weapon, but a battery."
"What?" Mali asked, so confused. That was not the response she had been expecting to hear.
"Shepard failed." Udina said simply. "He didn't kill all the reapers."
"Impossible!" Liara exclaimed, "You are crazy Udina, there are no more. This one is dead!"
"Not this one, idiot," he scorned her, "no, one stayed behind. Sojourner, the oldest of them all. She has stayed in deep space, waiting. From the beginning she was against the attack, advising to wait longer, until the generations had forgotten Sovereign, but the rest were eager for blood and did not listen. She watched as her race was wiped out of the galaxy. She wanted to die with them, but the blast from the crucible did not reach were she was in deep space.
"It was she that gave me this idea, being a loyal servant of the reapers, she contacted me. I have been promised to reign over the new civilization that will rise from the rubble of this old one. She will come, harvest, and continue the cycle, rebuilding her race back to what they once were." A deep fire burned in his eyes, Udina was completely mad.
"You are insane!" Niles shouted. "She won't let you live, she will kill everyone! That's how they work!"
"No," Udina shook his head.
"He's too far gone," Liara looked at Niles, "nothing will change his mind, just like my mother."
"What do you want from me?" Mali asked.
"I knew that if Shepard succeeded, all the mass relays would be destroyed, along with Sojourner's path here." He responded. "I need your abilities to power a relay, so she can enter the galaxy. Without you it will take many years more, probably a century. Neither of us have that much time."
"How? That would be impossible." Liara said.
"No," Shepard interrupted, it seemed he had recovered, or at least pushed aside his emotions for the moment, "it could be, with the alpha relay."
"Precisely." Udina clapped his hands.
"But it's destroyed," Liara responded, "Shepard destroyed it himself."
"He's been rebuilding it." Niles gasped. "All the research you needed, Corwin's base, all the silver, your building it again." Udina nodded.
"The silverware." Mali murmured, thinking back to Yane's warehouse. It all made sense.
"Very good, except for one difference. It will be powerful enough to reach into deep space and transport Sojourner here."
"That's still impossible." Niles argued.
"Not with a planets core." Liara spoke quietly, "it holds massive amounts of energy and eezo, enough to be able to power a machine like that, but its passive, it wouldn't be able to be tapped into unless they had an amplified power surge to charge the core and open a channel between the mass relay and the core for a beam to be shot out. They would need a conductor, a powerful…oh no!" Liara put a hand to her mouth. "No!"
"A powerful biotic like Mali." Udina finished.
"It would burn her up! Kill her!" Liara gasped.
"Why do you think I created her? To schmooze on a beach with umbrella drinks?" Udina laughed. "And now my plan is almost ready. The mass relay is almost finished, I have all the missing components. All we need to do is get there. Strojnik, set a course for the Bahak system."
"Yes sir." Alenko types on the control panel behind the chair for a few seconds, then turns back around. Horror grows in Mali's stomach, in only a few seconds she has had all her questions about her life answered, and finally everything makes sense, more or less. She had been born to die. That fact horrified her the most.
"We are ready." Strojnik complies. Udina presses a button on the arm rest of his chair.
"Smith, are all the prisoners on board?"
"On board and secure." A man's voice answers. Udina turns back to them, an insane smile on his face.
"A little welcoming gift for Sojourner. You may take off." Mali shuddered. The engines roared and the ground shook as the reaper husk lifted form the ground and shot into the atmosphere. Hope left Mali as they lifted off, they were trapped on this beast.
"You are a sick, indoctrinated fool!" She screamed at him. This man was responsible for everything she had been through. He had killed her family, made her live on the streets. Like a whip Udina rose from his chair and rushed her, intent on hitting her, but he was thrown back by a biotic push from Liara, who had stepped in front of her, wreathed in flames.
"I am many things, yes, indoctrinated, yes, sick in the head, but not a fool. I managed to fool all of you for the majority of your lives, and I will rule this universe, so, not a fool." Udina wiped his mouth as he got up from the floor.
"Take them away." He waved. Soldiers filed in to take them form the room. Suddenly, on impulse, Mali secretly unclipped her omni-tool from her wrist and pressed it into Liara's hand. The asari hid her surprise and closed her fist around the small object. Hands grappled at Mali's arms, she wrestled against them.
"You can't win Udina, the council will stop you! They will send the Alliance once they find out about the campus!" Shepard yelled.
"The council? They won't be any help now. I've indoctrinated them with a reaper artifact that Yane here tracked down and provided me with. No one will come." They started pulling them out of the room, but then Udina raised a hand and pointed at Mali.
"Wait! Don't take her to the prisons," Udina said, speaking to Mali's guards, "take her to the holding cell instead, it gets a better electrical current there."
"What are you going to do with her?" Shepard asked angrily.
"In the files of Subject Zero, we found that multiple electrical shocks to the body stimulate biotics better, and make one more powerful for a short time." He said with glee, rubbing his hands together. He was actually enjoying himself, Mali realized with horror.
"You are going to electrocute her?!" Liara shouted, horrified. She tried to lunge toward Udina, but solider wrestled her back. Anxiety pushed its way up Mali's throat but she pushed it down, not showing any of it.
"I'll be fine." Mali tried to reassure Liara, but she couldn't.
"No!" Shepard broke free and ran for Udina, pushing guards out of his way. So great was his focus on the villain that he didn't see Yane coming up from the side. He jumped and tackled Shepard, and Strojnik hit him on the side of the head with the stock of a gun, knocking him unconscious.
"Get them out of here!" Udina yelled. The soldiers pulled them away.
"No! Mali!" Liara shouted, struggling to get free, throwing people with her boitics, it took seven guards to force her out of the room.
"Liara, go! I love you mom!" Mali shouted. She didn't know why that word had come unbidden to her lips, but she shouted it anyway. The door shut behind her, Mali collapsed into the arms of the guards holding her, tears trickling down her cheeks.
"Take her to the cell." Udina ordered. He bent down over her, "You better stop crying girl, water is an excellent conductor of electricity." He smiled wickedly. "We will be in the Bahak system within a couple hours."
I
Shepard awoke smelling dirty socks in the air. He was laying on a hard surface, probably a floor, and dampness had seeped through the seams in his armor and into his clothes. He groaned, pain pulsing in his temples.
"Shepard." Liara said with surprise, sliding over to him, "you're awake." He tried to sit up but an intense pain spiked behind his eyes.
"Ow!" He hissed.
"Here." Liara slid over and placed his head in her lap.
"Thanks." He said. They were quiet for a moment, water dripped above their heads.
"Where are we?" He asked.
"The prison cells. It's quite dirty. We must be in another section, because the rest of the cells around us are empty." She commented.
"That's why I smell dirty socks."
"Just like your room on the Normandy." Liara teased. They both chuckled.
"How long have I been out?" he asked.
"About an hour." He rubbed the side of his head.
"Ugh, it feels like I just fought my way through a rachni nest."
"With all you've learned, you have been." Liara responded quietly. "Shepard," She hesitated, "I'm sorry. For acting so cruelly when you first came, I was just hurt."
"I know, I did that to you." He said.
"But now I know why—you were just scared. Of the same thing happening again like Anora, but now you know what really happened. She loved you to the end." Shepard sighed.
"We were so young, so impulsive. Sometimes I wonder if we rushed things."
"That is the human way." Liara chuckled.
"And now I suddenly have a daughter." His voice was broken, a tear slid from the corner of his eye.
"Hey," Liara slid her fingers through his hair like she used to to comfort him, "you didn't know."
"I should have!" He exclaimed hopelessly, "she's my flesh and blood. She was around me this whole month, how could I have not known? And now she's gone. You know, the first time I saw her, I was struck with how much she looked like Anora. Same eyes, same nose and lips. Beautiful." Another tear trickled out, Liara had never seen the commander so emotional before. "And now she's gone, and there is nothing I can do." He murmured.
"Not so fast." Liara smiled, holding out her hand. "Here." She passed him Mali's omni-tool, their hands briefly touching. "She gave me this right before we were separated. I think she wanted us to use it." Shepard sat up with some difficulty, examining it.
"Have you tried to send a message with it?" He asked.
"Of course. The reaper blocks all signal." She said. Shepard strapped it on, having to extend the cord to fit around his larger wrist. He activate it, and the ice blue glow filled the cell. He scrolled though the files searching for any pirate piggybacking programs, but there were none.
"There's nothing on this that we could use." He sighed dejectedly, leaning back against the wall. Liara put a blue hand on his arm.
"We will figure something out."
"Maybe I can help you." A female voice spoke. Shepard and Liara looked around but there was no one else.
"Is there someone out there?" Shepard asked, looking around.
"In the omni-tool, Shepard. I am Victoria, Mali's VI.
"Mali has a VI?" Liara asked, raising an eyebrow, "when was she planning on telling me that?"
"There are a lot of things Mali hasn't told you yet; such as being a millionaire and her web site." Both adults looked at each other.
"Millionaire?" Shep pursed his lips, "I thought she was a street kid?"
"I can tell you about it some other time. If Mali has given me to you then it means she is in deep trouble."
"Yah, we are being held in a reaper right now." Liara frowned, still troubled about the Mali-not-telling-her-things comment.
"I thought as much. I can't get you out of here, these cells are old fashioned, not connected to the mainframe. However, I can hack and piggyback the network, giving you access to other systems, as well the abilities to send a message." Shepard nodded, thinking.
"Alright Victoria, establish a link to General Anderson of the Alliance. We will just have to go straight to the source if the council is indoctrinated. "
"Please record you message now."
"Anderson, this is Shepard. I know I'm not on good terms with the Alliance right now, but I need your help. The N7 campus on Thessia has been attacked and taken over by a reaper husk. Udina is behind it. He has taken us prisoner, and we can do nothing. We are on our way to the Bahak system, where he plans to resurrect the alpha relay to allow a reaper access to the galaxy. We need the fleet, now. I will attach a recording I took of Udina outlining his plans, we will be there within an hour. Do not trust the council, they have been indoctrinated."
"Sending it now, with the added information off your omni-tool." Liara gave him a look.
"You were recording a message that whole time?" She asked with a small smile.
"Are you impressed?" He relied with a sly smile.
"Are there any other messages you would like me to send? We must make this quick before they realize what we are doing." Shepard started type out a message on his to furiously omni-tool.
"Ok, send that one to the address." Liara raised an eyebrow.
"Who was that one to?"
"Joker."
I
"Get in there!" The guard pushed Mali into the cell, into a puddle of water that had collected on the floor. The bolts squealed as he shut the cell door.
"It's like it's the Stone Age here," Mali murmured, she turned after the receding guard, "hey! Haven't you ever heard of the twenty-second century before?!" She kicked the cell door with a clang and then plopped down into the puddle of water with her back leaning against the greasy cell wall. She hoped that Liara had started to work with Vicky to get the out of here. She had given her to her because, shorty, she was to be electrocuted, and she was pretty sure that her omni-tool wouldn't survive that. She wasn't too sure about herself either.
Mali was definitely mad at herself. So far, her plan wasn't going so well. Suddenly she was signed up for death row and Liara and her father were down in a cell somewhere, waiting to be harvested by the incoming reaper that she was going to help get here. And to make it all worse, her butt and legs were soaked from this stupid puddle. Mali pulled her knees up against her chest and buried her head in them. "Hey." A voice startled Mali from her thoughts. Mali looked up to see Yane crouched down through the bars.
"What do you want?" Mali scowled. Yane frowned.
"Mali…I was just doing my job."
"You were playing with me! You lied to me!" Mali screamed. "I THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD! I killed people to avenge you! Mourning for you consumed me! I pushed everyone away, I ruined my life, I was almost executed! I DID THAT ALL BECAUSE I THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD BUT YOU WEARNT!" Mali turned away.
"I don't expect you to understand," Yane slouched against the bars, "but please listen. All my life, I've been underneath my father's rule. I have always done what he said. When I was enlisted to help, I was only eight years old, I didn't know any better. After that it was just too hard to tell you the truth, at least living with you he was too far away to beat me anymore."
"Then why don't you leave him? Let me out and you can come with us." Mali pleaded. Yane shook his head sadly.
"You don't understand, he still has my mother somewhere. He has always used her against me; I was taken from her a long time ago—I dint even know if she's still alive—but for her sake I have to obey my father. He is a tyrant, but he is still my blood." Yane frowned. Mali turned back away.
"Then we are enemies." Mali said coldly. It was as if something closed off in Yane, he became stiff and cold.
"Fine. I was sent to bring you to the bridge."
"I thought I was supposed to be fried in here." Mali replied.
"Not anymore, Udina wants to watch." Mali shuddered, disgusted. Yane unlocked the door and cuffed her. "Don't try anything, I know how you fight." They walked down the hall and into the elevator. They didn't talk, there was nothing to say. The doors opened and they walked back onto the bridge. To the right of the dais was a contraption Mali didn't like the look of. It looked like a pull up bar, but it had cuffs attached to the bar, and the legs were made up of coils of wire. Two cords ran from each end to the walls of the reaper. Udina sat smugly in his chair, Alenko at his side.
"Only forty minutes toll your death." He laughed, "And these minutes here will not be pleasant."
"I think of it as only forty minutes till I don't have to be around your ugly face anymore." Mali put a brave face on. Udina frowned.
"Hook her up." Yane walked her over to the coils and uncuffed her, latching her wrists into the contraption, which then lifted the bar higher so her feet dangled in open air. Mali grimaced as her shoulders took the strain of her body weight.
"I promise that you won't enjoy this." Udina laughed cruelly. Mali steadied her breathing. She tried to calm herself by thinking about lying on the grass at the campus, wind in her hair, eating popcorn at a movie theater, laughing with friends. She tried to get lost in the fantasy; but when the shock came, it tore through every memory, leaving only pain. Mali screamed.
I
"What are you doing now?" Liara asked, bent over his shoulder. Shepard, with the help of Vic, was flicking through all the security cameras on the ship.
"I'm looking for her." Shepard did not need to say who "her" was. "I need to know where she is so that we will be able to get her out." He scrolled though a few more, finally finding the bridge. "There." He said. Liara gasped at the sight.
"Goddess help us." She breathed. Mali was hooked up to some contraption, her back arched in pain as electricity dug it's fingers into her flesh; her mouth was open in a silent scream. Udina was clapping his hands in glee, his eyes reflecting the insanity inside. Alenko was stone cold, empty; the boy, Yane, had a permanent grimace etched into his face as he stood there, stiffly watching. The shocking stopped, giving Mali a reprieve. She slumped down, head lolling to the side, her body slightly smoking.
"No. Mali…" A tear slid down Liara's cheek. Shepard felt an anger more intense than anything he's ever felt before rise within him.
"I'm going to kill him." He spat. "I'm going to kill all of them." Suddenly the cell door in front of them opened with a creak.
"What the…" Liara stared. A woman in a dark hood materialized in front of them.
"Kasumi?!" Shepard exclaimed.
"I came with Joker. He got your message. I've been called in to rescue you guys."
"Called in by who?" Liara asked. Kasumi didn't answer. She tossed them helmets and guns.
"How did the Normandy get so close without begin detected?" Liara asked.
"The thing about dead reapers is that their dead," Shepard smiled, "half their systems don't even work anymore, such as radar." He finished.
"Is Miranda really alive?" She asked, the steely glint of her eyes betraying nothing of the hope that was in her voice.
"Yes. She's being held with the other prisoners, a couple levels from us." Shepard and Liara go to their feet. "You need to get everyone out of there and onto the Normandy. Is Anderson here?" he asked.
"He's on his way to the Bahak system, yes." Kasumi answered. "We will be there in a few minutes."
"Good, get everyone onto the Normandy, than come back for us." He said, "We'll be on the bridge. It's good to see you." He smiled.
"Where are you going?" Kasumi asked in confusion as he ran out.
"I'm going to go save my daughter." Shepard answered.
"You guys finally got together again?" Kasumi smiled. "Congrats on the baby!" Liara rolled her eyes as she stormed out after Shepard.
I
Mali wanted to die, right there, right then. Her body felt like it was on fire, her heart was going so fast she was surprised it wasn't tearing out of her chest; she collapsed for the fourth time as they shut off the power. She should be used to the pain by now, she ruefully thought, but every time they turned it on it was like she had never felt it before. Mali had tried on several occasions to reach for her biotics, but every time it was like they floated out of reach, she couldn't even tell what was biotics anymore, with all the different energies running through her system.
"Beg for it to stop." Udina sat forward on his chair, his eyes intent upon her. This wasn't the first time he had goaded her, it was like he had some sick vendetta to turn her into a groveling wimp.
"No." Mali replied, her voice hoarse.
"Do it! Beg, and we will stop." He replied.
"Never."
"Father…" Yane tried to intervene.
"Shut up boy!" Udina turned on him "Shut up if you know what's good for you! Beg!" he turned back to Mali. She didn't reply, just started at him with hate.
"Fine," he cackled, "the fun continues." Mali braced herself for another round as his hand hovered over the button.
"We have entered the Bahak system." An electronic voice issued.
"Sir…" Alenko said.
"One more." Udina had a sick twisted look in his eye. His finger flexed to push it. Shepard and Liara suddenly burst through the doors in a roar of gunfire. Udina was shot in the shoulder, he never shocked her again. Alenko and Yane dived for cover, pulling out their weapons, calling for backup. Udina slithered form his chair to hide behind his son, who bravely returned fire at Shepard. Shepard continued to shoot as Liara rushed to Mali's side. She threw up a biotic shield as Alenko shot off some rounds at her. She unclipped Mail's hands and the girl sank into the asari's arms, both of them sinking to the floor.
"Liara…" Mali breathed quietly. "You came…" Liara smiled, bent over her. She smoothed some hair back from Mali's clammy forehead. The girl's muscles spasemed uncontrollably for a second.
"You're such a cheese ball." Liara teased, a tear trickling down one cheek, as she held her. Mali laughed a horse laugh; her body spasemed again.
"Liara!" Shepard yelled. The asari was lurched back to reality, bullets were flying everywhere. Soldiers were flooding into the room with rifles high.
"Mali, I've got to go help your dad. You just lay here, ok? Everything's going to be fine." Mali nodded. Liara placed a biotic shield around the girl, like a turtle shell. She would maintain it for as long as she needed to.
"We've got to close that door!" Shepard yelled to her from where he was pinned down by a barrage of bullets.
"I've got it!" Liara ran for the door, throwing people out of her way with biotics. She grimaced but didn't stop when a bullet that got past her shields skimmed her shoulder, tearing it open. Shepard moved from his cover and protected her back as she crouched by the control panel, hacking into its systems.
"Just like old times, eh?!" He shouted as he shot a soldier down, grinning.
"Unfortunately, yes." Liara grimaced as a bullet missed her head by millimeters. She hacked in and closed the door, shutting off the flow of enemies. Now it was just them against thirty odd others. "Great." She unstrapped her pistol from her armor.
All the shooting and banging was working its way through Mali's fuzzy brain. "Ugh." She tried to sit up, but her muscles wouldn't work. She just stared up at the ceiling above her. She could hear screams of pain and blasting, but she couldn't turn her head to see. Frustrated, Mali, forced her jelly-like limbs to move and she weakly flopped over to her stomach. She flinched back as she came face to face with a dead guard, with only Liara's blue shield between them. Mali infused herself with biotics and weakly reached out of the shield, grabbing for the pistol clipped to his hip, but because of her bleariness she didn't see the form rushing at her. A hand suddenly grabbed her wrist and pulled her from the shield, flinging her onto his back. The cold feel of metal reached through to her brain. Alenko.
"Get her to the relay!" Udina screamed over the noise. He was slouched behind his son, clutching his bleeding shoulder. Alenko rushed for the door, blasting it open with some kind of cannon from his metal hand.
"No!" Mali heard Liara scream. Her head banged against his hard shoulder as he ran, taking her from them, toward her certain death.