~ I don't own mass effect, bioware and EA does ~
05.03.0005 PRW
Terminus Systems - The Stop
Miranda Lawson
"Bloody stairs" Miranda Lawson muttered to herself as she met the next set of stairs, she was unable to get the damn elevator doors open, so she was having to climb 7 levels while dodging enemy patrols.
After Zaire and Liara blew up most of the Armoury, suiting up for combat was impossible, so she applied stealth instead, looking to meet up with the couple on the 9th floor and move to the vault, which was where the remaining security had set up, protecting 50 or so angry crew who were eager to get their hands on the Battle Cruiser floating outside.
She shook her head, trust Shepard to come up with a bloody brilliant plan that was simultaneously insane, 'still' she thought 'this works and we end up with a Battle Cruiser and we can leave these idiots stranded'.
Deftly disappearing as a 5 man team runs past, she notes their speed and direction, the same place she was going, damnit, this was like the Collector base all over again, it was going to get explosive soon.
Tapping her Omni-Tool she called Liara.
"Miranda?"
"Heads up, a 5 Man team heading towards the vault, I'm on level 8, where are you?"
In response there was a hollow knock on the elevator doors behind her, she smiled.
"Think you could get those doors open?"
"Not without making a racket and alerting everyone on the entire floor."
Zaire added her own thoughts to the conversation.
"We can hear gunfire coming from the next floor up, it should cover the noise we would make, though you will need to make sure that no one is on the other side when we open the doors."
"Sounds like a plan."
Transferring her call to text she closed her Omni-Tool, and continued to the stairs before carefully making her way up towards the 9th floor.
Reaching the open door way, she gave a quick peek towards the elevator doors and cursed inwardly.
Two people in medium level armour were standing on either side of the doors, the moment Zaire tried to get them open she would be shot to pieces.
Quickly typing into her Omni-Tool, she told them about the issue, the reply asked if any others were nearby, which after a quick look she answered in the negative.
The final reply simply made her sigh in resignment, yep, collector base all over again.
Bracing herself in the stair well, she sent the Zaire her agreement.
The guards standing outside the elevator doors jumped as a loud knock ringed out from behind them.
Spinning around to face the noise they kept their guns trained on the doors, one of them turned to the other, clearly asking something, though what ever it was, was cut short when the elevator doors crumpled inwards with biotic force and sent flying away, taking the two guards with them.
The sound of tearing steel and the crash of two people in armour hitting the wall at several kilometers per hour, echoed down the hallways of the entire floor.
The gunfire stopped for a few seconds, as their owners pause at the loud noise, but abruptly started again after a grenade went off.
Through the shattered and smoking remains of the elevator doors, out walked Zaire Shepard and Liara T'Soni, both looking far too pleased with themselves.
"Could you have made anymore of a racket?" Asked Miranda.
Zaire Shepard
"Could you have made anymore of a racket?"
Zaire smiled behind her faceplate and pulled out her grenades, "easily, like this!"
Spinning round and throwing one down the hallway, catching the merc who had come to investigate the noise and sending him flying back the way he came with a scream of pain .
She just caught Miranda mutter, "forget I asked" under her breath.
In response, Zaire laughed as she pulled out her confiscated shotgun, and held it in one hand while placing the second grenade back onto her belt.
Moving towards the next doorway she kept count on how many people were firing guns around the vault, from the sounds of it there were around 20 or so firing on one side, with 10 to 15 on the other.
Setting a quick pace, Zaire moved past the body of the Merc she had killed with the grenade and followed the signs telling her which way lead to the vault.
Rounding another steel wall, Zaire got the first look at the situation before smoothly back tracking around the corner, checking her shotgun she spoke into her radio.
"18 mercs assaulting the vault, plus 7 bodies indicate original force was 25, Liara, signal your forces that we are engaging from behind."
Her lover nodded and after a few seconds of silence she spoke, "they're aware and waiting."
Turning to face Miranda, Shepard spoke in a no nonsense tone, "stay in cover as much as possible, let me and Li take up most if their fire."
Giving her own nod of understanding, Miranda flared her biotics and created a biotic barrier, Liara doing the same.
Finally turning back towards the gunfire Shepard reactivated her kinetic barriers before she gave some quick orders, "cover is sparse so only fire once everyone has grabbed a piece, after that, weapons free."
And with that Shepard quietly moved round the corner and headed for the cover on the far right of the entrance. Liara kept to the left while moving forward towards some barricades that had been abandoned, while Miranda kept further back but in the middle, preparing to launch biotic warps, singularities and pulls and throws.
Taking a deep breath, Zaire held up her hand, palm flat as she waited, the vaults defenders were currently firing, the fire paused and the mercs took advantage to pop up and return fire.
As the first rounds started heading into the vault Zaire closed her hand into a fist, pushed up and rested her shotgun on the barricade and pulled the trigger.
Her target, one of the male mercs, never saw the armour piercing wedged shotgun round coming, as it entered the back of his armoured head and prayed a mix of metal, bone and brain matter over his nearby comrades.
Taken by surprise, it took them a few seconds to realise that they were exposed, and another of them, also male, was dropped before they turned to face the new threat.
Sadly this only gave Miranda a better target as using the heavy pistol she always kept on her to take down shields and hurl warps at those left exposed.
Liara hadn't been wasting time either, and on her bondmates signal had leaned out from the alcove she had taken cover in to spray concentrated suppressive fire, using her SMG's akimbo, trying to drop the shields that protected them from her and Miranda's powerful biotic attacks.
By the time the mercs realised that they were being attacked from behind and grabbed cover, 5 were already dead and another was bleeding out on the floor, her friends not willing to expose themselves in order to help her.
The 12 remaining mercs split themselves into teams of two in an attempt to face both the defenders and the new attackers at the same time.
Unfortunately for them, the vault's defenders started shooting again taking down another one and destroying the shields of his companions, who was finished by Shepard's shotgun as she steadily advanced towards the mercs position.
As Miranda and Liara each picked off another of their number the remaining mercs must have realised that they were dead if they stayed where they were, and attempted a suicide charge, at Zaire's group.
The six remaining mercs probably expected Zaire to either back up or find cover, so they were unprepared for her when she sped forward, gunning down one of their number at point blank, and using him as a meat shield as she moved forward, firing her shotgun twice more before needing to reload.
Instead, Zaire placed it in its holster and drew her meat shields pistol, a M-6 Carnifex, which she expanded, aimed and fired one handed, taking two more out in seconds.
The remaining two mercs were ensnared in a singularity from Miranda, Liara finishing them off with a warp.
Silence fell as the singularity exploded, sending the chard mercs into the metal wall behind them, killing them instantly.
Opening her faceplate, Liara called out to those in the vault, "all hostiles dead, confirmation code: A-243891!"
A few seconds passed before two Turians and an Asari stepped out, the Asari was clearly the leader with the two Turians as backup, or Lieutenants, Zaire didn't really care at the moment, she stepped up to the only surviving member of the mercs and point blank shot him in the face.
She then stepped around the body and grabbed some of the thermal clips lying around, her shotgun went through them faster than a Hanar went through water.
While she was grabbing ammo, her girlfriend was talking to the Asari Commander, she didn't even recognise her until she went to check on progress.
"Yano L'voke?"
Said Asari Commander turned to face Zaire, her expression irritated, "What do you want human?"
In response Zaire laughed as she removed her helmet completely, exposing her face to the now surprised and similarly laughing Asari.
"The hell are you doing here?" She questioned, giving her a good hug.
Commander Yano L'voke was an old friend of Shepards, as they had met on a cross species training program between the Human Systems Alliance and the Asari Republic Commandos, which had turned into a joint counter attack when Batarian slavers had attacked the colony while their military was away.
After saving the colony and killing most of the slavers and their ships, they had remained fast friends, and had kept in contact when they could.
"I could ask the same, Zaire, I thought you were declared dead?"
In response Zaire snorted, "since when has the Alliance ever been reliable on reporting my death."
That comment caused Liara to snort as well, which also redirected Yano's attention towards Zaire's lover.
"And you must be Liara T'Soni, Zaire has told me a lot about you, and I can assume that you were the one that requested our presence?"
Liara blushed, though she still had a smile on her face and replied, "yes, we were going to meet at the Wonderer" she turned to Zaire, "surprise?"
Zaire laughed again, "nice try T'Soni."
"So" Yano clapped her hands together in a rather Human gesture and asked, "I hear that a Cruiser needs a new crew?"
06.03.0005 PRW
Terminus Systems
SSV NORMANDY SR2
Spectre Ashley Williams stood in the CIC, watching the progress of the Normandy and going over STG reports on typical Shadow Broker forces.
"Relay exit in two minutes"
"Thank you EDI, do a scan of the system once stealth has been engaged."
"Affirmative"
Ashley sighed, she wondered how the hell Shepard managed to cope with the constant stress as a Spectre, although extremely rewarding, the stress would get to most soldiers of the Alliance.
She gritted her teeth, bloody Shepard, she still didn't know how she was pardoned after working with a terrorist organization for two years, there was no way she was 'resurrected' as she claimed.
Just one more thing to ask after she brought her in, War hero or not she wasn't going to let Shepard wander around the galaxy, spilling secrets of every major allied race to whoever happened to be near her at the time.
The Shadow Broker, on the other hand, was going to be either excellent news, or terrible news, though from the little they could gather on Illium, he was going to be meeting with Shepard face to face.
Catching the Shadow Broker and delivering him to the Citadel Council would be an excellent addition to her record and get her some proper respect, as most people saw her as nothing more than Udina's unsuspecting pet.
"exiting relay in 3, 2, 1 ... relay transition complete, we are now engaging stealth mode and preparing to scan for refueling stations"
Williams hit the icon to show the system on the main screen, and as new data slowly started to fill in the gaps, mutters started to spread around the whole CIC.
"EDI, what the hell happened here?"
"one moment, scanning and comparing data"
"Someone has appeared to have moved through this area and destroyed all space capable vessels, ma'am"
Williams sighed, "can you tell me what it was and the status of the Space Station were here for?"
"The Stop, appears to be relatively intact, though there are multiple hull breaches and the main docking area has been destroyed"
"And the attackers?"
"From the left over emissions I calculate it was most likely a cruiser weight vessel, plus corvette weight vessels much nearer the station, which matches known boarding tactics"
"Get us closer to the Space Station and see if there are any life signs, I want people to interrogate since Shepard has probably already left."
"Yes, ma'am"
30 minutes later
"no life signs detected, ma'am"
Williams sighed, Shepard wasn't there, "Hear that Vega?"
"Yep, we'll go in weapons hot anyway."
"Good, once you've done a brief look and ascertained what's happened we'll come in to do a more though search if Shepard's location can't be located."
"Roger that, Vega out."
Ashley cut the transmission and sighed tiredly, where ever Shepard went it seemed, destruction followed in her wake.
"EDI, can you access the station's network, I need security tapes, log books, anything else that can tell us who was here and when."
"Negative, the station is hard lined, so I will need someone to physically give me access"
"Then update Vega on that as well, please."
"Yes ma'am"
"Right, then I'm going to update the Board of Directors, they're going to want an update soon."
"Confirmed, Spectre Ashely Williams stands relieved, XO David Heartgrave is in command"
Sighing in relief Williams stepped down from the command podium and headed for the QEC room, heading through the war room, where multiple people were coordinating the ground team and going over misson data.
Entering the separate room, she hit the button to shut the door behind her, as the conversation was going to have to be private.
"EDI?"
In response the QEC projection flickered to life with the universal please wait sign, with the Spectre seal underneath, straightening herself, Williams set her shoulders and waited.
It only took three minutes for the full Board of Directors to respond to her call.
"Status?" Asked Director Quimius clearly not in the mood for anything other than business.
"As far as we can tell, someone else got here before us and attacked the station, we've found ship wrecks and an abandoned space station with no life signs, I have Vega on it looking for Shepard's location, but I'm not holding out much hope."
"Any idea on the attacker?" This time Dera Von spoke.
"Attack vessel was Cruiser weight and was carrying multiple Corvette weight vessels for boarding, apart from that, I'm waiting on Vega for bodies to identify."
There was a collected pause as everyone as they all processed the information, until finally Director Quimius spoke again.
"How did they know where Shepard was located before you?"
At this Ashley shrugged, "I would assume that they were closer when they got the information than we were, as we weren't very subtle on Illium in our haste."
The collective Directors of the Citadel Armed forces nodded before Director Dera Von spoke again, "contact us if you only need reinforcements, with the Shadow Broker in play we cannot assure operational security, good luck Spectre."
With that the holo shut down as the 4 Directors hung up, Williams blew out a breath she didn't realise she was holding.
"Great, more problems, just what I need."
And that's the end of this chapter, thank you for reading, as always, please review, you 300+ people who I know are reading this!
Anyway, I'm going to have some extra time coming up so I will push to get more chapters out.
So please feel free to review and thank you for reading and until then next chapter.
~ JunkMail