"Commander. Zaeed requests your presence. He says he has, quote 'Some goddamn good news' " EDI woke Shepard while Tali still slept clinging to him as they layed on the sofa in Shepard's cabin. He had a little heart-to-heart with Tali about the geth and overall everything. Poor quarian was bursting emotions and John let her spit everything out, then he started buttering her up. It worked becaused she calmed down and reverted back to being his nervous and cuddly girlfriend.
"Yeah...This better be good or I'll keelhaul him for waking me up now." John sighed and gently slid out from under Tali. She only groaned silently but didn't woke up.
"Sleep tight Tals." Shepard whispered and went to see old mercenary.
/.../
"Shepard! Have a damn drink!" Zaeed welcomed him with bottle of whisky in hand.
"What made you so happy?" John glanced at him.
"We can rip the Blue Suns a new one! I just got intel on their base! With all others who are trying to get the seat after we offed Vido." Zaeed laughed.
"Whole Blue Suns Base?"
"Yeah. But not fighting one. See, this more of a...Headquarters you see. Not whole army of mooks to stop us, but all of their leadership..."
"I thought you hated Vido, not the Suns."
"Bah! They're gang now! Damn batarians, scumbags and jackals...None of my friends there are still alive...I hold nothing for the Suns." Zaeed saddened a bit. "But maybe after this whole Collectors mission, I'll start Suns anew. If we'll take them down now. What do you think Shepard? One of three major players in the Terminus just gone...That'll rain some chaos for sure."
"Okay...So you suggest to load up and burn down Blue Suns brass? Just so you can take over later?"
"I figured you want be more damn hero...Taking down huge gang. That takeover it's more of a pipe dream...I'll give it some thought after this. Right now we can just blow them to pieces and have fun. We were sitting here for weeks Shepard."
John pondered. He was recently taking usual squad, while keeping rest on the bench...And taking down Blue Suns quaters...
"Alright, sounds good enough. All hands on deck on this one. We gonna burn down some mercs..." John smiled.
"Yeah...Have a shot Shepard!" Zaeed passed him the bottle. "You might grow some chest hair."
"You drink this so much but still have less balls than me Massani." Shepard shot back taking a gulp. Good seasoned stuff.
"Careful boy..." Zaeed growled but still wasn't mad. After taking down Vido, Shepard earned his respect. Both Shepards did.
/.../
"Mercs? Party Time! I'll prepare some party tricks!" Max chuckled.
"You all could use a warm up up before Collectors. We're going hard, but no heroics. We play it smart, no risks before big mission. Clear?" John glanced over eager team. "We're fifteen hours out. Get ready and rested."
/.../
Team prepared while Normandy flew to Thunawanuro in Batalla System. Planet was colonized by elcor and apparently Blue suns won contract as main protection of their mining operations. In return, Suns established a base there. Safe haven in the middle of Terminus Systems.
Closing in to the planet, John gathered all operatives to devise a plan. A holographic layout of planet showed up above briefing room table.
"That's a garden world. Damn jungle." Zaeed stated. "They probably don't expect an attack like this."
"I say fast insertion would be best. Right on top of them." John spoke.
"Write this down Tals...Logan likes on top" Max chuckled making John scowl and everybody else laugh. Pre-mission tension was broken a bit.
"We attack all together?" Garrus piped in.
"No, we have two shuttles and Hammerhead-"
"Keep M-44 out of this. I'm flying this best and you'll need me on the ground. Besides there is no place for it." Max quickly cut in.
"Fine, two packed shuttles. Two teams." John relented making corrections. "Garrus, you with Jack, Max, Samara, Mordin and Grunt will go harass the damn mercs, go through the back. Make 'em think you're the attackers. I'll take Tali, Kasumi, Thane and Miranda, Legion and Zaeed with me."
"Awww you gonna rob me out of 'Sumi?" Max made puppy eyes then grinned. "You better keep her safe Logan."
"Well ain't it all lovey dovey bullshit!" Jack spat.
"Take it down a notch Jack...Maybe even you would find someone. At least in alternate reality" Max laughed at shortly perplexed Jack.
"You know what Shepard? I have an idea..." Garrus twiched his mandibles. "How about this time we get some action... And you'll be the distraction team in the back, while we walk in through the front and kick ass?" Garrus finished with a chuckle.
"If you think you can survive without losing rest of your face...Anybody against it?" Shepard asked. "No takers? Then okay."
/.../
To avoid any problems, Normandy was to stay outside the radar and pop in for the exfill once Shepard will send a word.
Shuttle were rattling slightly when they broke into atmospere and started descent toward Suns base. Zaeed provided as many insight he could, along with Garrus about gang MO. Plan was straight forward in theory - John will attack in the back, and made it look like they are sneaking in, while Garrus will blast the main doors and boldly walk in, gunning down everything. Risky, insane and entertaining. Crew's favourite.
John enjoyed this slight change. Garrus was stepping out of Shepard's shadow, and for once, Commander wasn't in the eye of the hurricane.
"What occupies your mind so much beside purple quarian?" Kasumi chirped sitting next to him. She stil had cat ears attached to her hood. Probably that's permanent.
"It's a change huh? Not my ass in the middle of fire for once. Good thing Garrus found some balls and stepped up. I was worried he got labeled a sidekick." John replied smiling.
"You do realize that Max is on his team? Which means his ass is in fire" Kasumi giggled. "He better not come back looking like Garrus. I like his face."
"Then make sure whole base will come gunning for us. With me it's a sure thing." John laughed and got swatted in the arm by Tali.
"Bosh'tet."
/.../
Whole plan was nice and simple. Easy? Not in the slightest. Once John started raising hell in cargo bays and blowing up mechs that Kasumi rigged with Tali's help, Max blew up the front doors and squad marched into base. It was not a typical prefab shelter or lab. It was a full blown base. Max was using a lot of his inventive 'party tricks' along with hacking base speakers to play music. Garrus wanted to comment on this but as they advanced, songs got into him. Max was picking the ones that felt appropriate, and definietly additionally baffled mercenaries inside.
"Big gun!" Max sang along throwing flashbang grenade toward covering mercs.
"Big gun kick the hell out of you" Garrus muttered firing from his huge sniper. He was grateful to Max for this gift. However painting it jet black with reddish stripes and adding word "WIDOWMAKER" seemed bit of a showoff.
Weapon kicked and another heavy slug pierced concrete wall along with gunner hiding behind it. Showoff, but damn effective.
/.../
"Kasumi throw flshbang!"
"I'm out Shep!"
This started to get rough. John was able to lock mercenaries with crossifre across the cargo bay they were attacking, but Suns we're pushing hard. And ammo was going out fast.
"Logan. Show images to Zaeed, make him confirm we got the big fish." Max voice went through his comm and omni-tool chirp signalling message.
"Zaeed! Confirm targets!" John motioned at old warlord firing from cover nearby. Massani got to him.
"Let's see...Yeah...That's them..Oh, this one lost his head I see...Like Vido. Yeah, that's all of them." Massani nodded.
"Good." John opened comm "Garrus? Get your spiky ass here and help us! We're in deep!" John shouted. "Tali! Call Normandy to be ready for pick up!"
/.../
Garrus received the confirmation. "Let's go! Shepard's in trouble!" he motioned at his squad.
"EDI, get me fix on them!"
No response.
"EDI?"
Still silence.
"Screw that, follow me!" Max motioned. Luckily he put a tracker on Tali. Kasumi would be pissed for this but Tals seemed oblivious. Max was sure that John won't mind.
Breaking through to the cargo bay was hard. But Jack's biotics fueled by long hatred towards Blue Suns and Grunt's unmatched blood rage made them a battering rams. Grunt was exactly that when he ran grabbing mercenary officer and while holding him in front of himself, bashed the reinforced doors down.
"You hungry Jack? Ever tried Grunt's pancakes?" Max chuckled pointing at flattened remants of mercenary. Jack only flashed teeth and fired another shockwave clearing a corridor.
Finally, groups reconnected, what Garrus noticed was that instead o fighting, Tali was feverishly typing to her omni-tool opened on comunications.
/.../
"What do you mean 'no response' ?" John's eyes widened
"It means that damn AI and whole ship is not responding you deaf bosh'tet!" Tali yelled back.
A large explosion and krogans roar announced that Garrus squad came in.
"Everyone! Retreat! We're going back to the shuttles! Short jumps and suppressing fire!" John ordered and pulled Tali by her arm. "We'll worry about it once we bail!"
Team worked like a clock. Textbook retreat. Max was throwing smoke bombs, after that two or three members were unleashing wall of fire, covering rest. Finally they've reached their shuttles and burned out at maximum speed.
"That was hell of fight!" Zaeed chuckled.
"Commander. We're sending you roundevous cooridnates. Arrive quickly." EDI commed.
"What the hell happened? Took a coffee break?" Shepard snapped.
"Normandy has been attacked." EDI spoke in both shuttles. Suddenly all talks and noises stopped.
"What?"
"Collectors boarded. Apprehended the crew. Only Jeff survived."
/.../
Joker sat on the briefing table, too scared to look up on the team.
"You lost whole crew and nearly lost the ship?!" Miranda snapped. "You bloody-"
"Hey!" Max cut in. "You think you'd do better all alone? What? You'd just flash your tits on them?"
"Shut up all of you!" John slammed his fist against the table. "EDI...How Collectors got here?"
"Reaper IFF had a subroutine. It was sending our coordinates to the Collectors." EDI replied.
"Yeah, It took EDI few days to catch it." Joker added.
"Don't even get me started on damn AI." Miranda spat. Joker to save the ship and get rid of Collectors gave EDI control over Normandy. By unshackling her constraints. Now she was fully free AI. And a deadly one.
"What was I suppose to do? Defiantly break my arm on them and just die leaving you all hanging?" Joker cried.
"You did good Joker." John glanced at broken down pilot. "Get back to your chair helmsman. You gonna have a job soon."
"Jeff did removed the restains. However, I'am not going to turn on you. Despite outlook of some of you, you are considerate and trust in Commander's judgement. So do I. You are my crewmates." EDI stated.
"That...Is not what expected but I'm not complaining." Garrus spoke.
"Everybody, clean all those Collectors out. Get ready. We're going for our crew. It's show time." John stated. That was a challenge, a taunt from Collectors. Doesn't matter the reasons. He swore he'll get them back no matter what. And he will.
"Joker? IFF installed?"
"Clean and purged!"
"Then head for the Omega-4 Relay."
"Aye aye. ETA nine hours."