Here is the first dlc chapter, Bring Down the Sky. If you want to see what happened on the mission, let me know and I will do a chapter flashback or a mission report to sum it up, but I think I hit the main points. Please r&r and enjoy.
Luke had the batarian in his sights but Claire's constant order to hold continued as long as Balak had the detonator to the bomb in the hostages' room. He could not believe it.
"Garrus, do you have a shot at the detonator?" Luke whispered. He had to struggle to keep his finger from pulling the trigger. So many people were already dead at this terrorists hands and now he was holding at least twenty more hostage. The thought made Luke sick.
"No shot. But I've got an idea. He has not spotted me yet. I can sneak out and get in a good perch to take him out while all of you go deactivate the bombs."
Luke glanced over at Claire as She tried to negotiate with the batarian, but the zealot would not hear any peaceful solution. Either he walked out and continued his campaign of terror, or he blew up the hostages then and there.
"Go." Luke whispered. He heard Garrus move as he stepped forward. "In your mind, Balak, what happens if we just let you go? You walk away and as soon as you are out of sight, you blow the bombs anyway?" Luke said. The batarian raised an eyebrow as he looked down at the new human that addressed him. "You and I walk out of here together. You with your finger on your detonator, me with a gun to your head. Once we reach the entrance to this facility, we will part ways. That way we know you held up your end and we held up ours."
Balak considered the proposal. "What's to stop you from shooting me once we are outside?"
"My commander's orders. I swear on both my holy scriptures and yours that I will not shoot you unless you detonate those bombs." Luke said showing the batarian that his finger was off the trigger. This seemed to put Balak at ease and he nodded.
"You have a deal human. What about my men?"
"Someone has to answer for this attack. Let your men have that honor even if it was a failed attack." Luke remarked slyly. The words felt slimy in his mouth as he spoke them but he had to get the batarian outside where Garrus could take the shot.
"Fine, let's go." Balak started moving along the upper footwalk at Luke followed him ground side with his pistol holding a steady aim on the alien's temple. Luke turned his head slightly. As soon as we are out of sight, jam their comms and make for that bomb. Disable it if at all possible. As soon as you do, I'll handle this son of a bitch." Luke saw Claire out of the corner of his eyes press her fingers to her ear and nod. She got it. Good.
The moment the doors to the massive chamber closed behind Luke and Balak, Claire and the rest of the team leapt into action. Tali jammed the batarian communications channels using Kaiden's omni-tool to boost the signal. Wrex unleashed a biotic blast that hurled several batarians across the room killing them on impact. Ashley, Claire, and Mallory all opened up on the terrorists with their assault rifles. Liara slow on the draw but hurled one of the last batarians with a biotic pulse that sent him crashing through some of the crates.
They raced up to the room where the batarians had been holding the others and Tali knelt in front of the bomb. Kaiden looked over it quickly too.
"This is not good." Kaiden said.
"What?" Claire asked.
"Keeh-lah, there is a timer on the bomb. We have three minutes." The team looked at each other.
"Shepard, it's Garrus. If you want to end this Balak guy, we have two minutes before he is on a shuttle and out of our reach." Garrus said over the radio.
"Alright Tali, show me your stuff." Claire said. She then turned and started to evacuate the hostages out of the room.
Tali and Kaiden worked as fast as they could to disarm the bomb. Balak could not have picked a better location to place it. It was set against an exterior wall with a mass effect nullifying agent and a large yield device, meaning if the bomb detonated, everyone inside would be exposed to the vacuum of space. They had to disarm it or it would not matter is Balak got away everyone in the facility would be dead.
Claire watched her squad mates as they typed on their omni-tools and pulled wires, applying omni-gel as they went. Claire could do nothing but pace and hope that her team could handle the task at hand.
"Claire, I have a shot. I need the go or no go." Garrus said.
"Not yet Garrus. We are still working on the bomb." Claire said.
"Time is ticking, Shepard." Garrus replied.
Claire folded her arms. She could not risk these people's lives to kill one batarian, even if he was the ring leader of the zealots.
"Shepard, bombs is disarmed!" Kaidan shouted.
"Take the shot Garrus!" Claire nearly shouted into the radio, but when there was no reply, Claire looked up at Mallory.
"Garrus? What is your status?" Mallory asked. Claire wrung her hands hoping that they would hear something.
"All clear, Shepard. No shot. Balak hoped a shuttle about two seconds before you gave me the go ahead." Claire sighed and looked down. Tali laid her helmet in her hands. Kaidan sighed and ran his fingers over his hair.
"Boshtet." Tali snarled.
"Hey, Tali, Kaidan, don't beat yourselves up about this. You disarmed a bomb that was going to kill everyone. And you disarmed it in just over two minutes. It's nothing to be disappointed about." Claire said.
000
Luke sat in the mess hall across from Garrus as they ate their meals. The former C-Sec officers had been silent through the debriefing and had turned in their mission reports without a word.
"Once Saren is taken care of, I want to go after Balak." Garrus said taking a small bite of his food.
"I hear you. I know it wasn't really Claire's fault, but I want the batarian's head. He just took Saleon's spot on my list." Garrus looked up at his friend with a partial turian smile.
"Yeah, well, Balak is my kill." Luke smiled tossing some of his food with his fork.
"We'll flip a coin." The turian grunted as Luke took another bite of his meal.
"What are you two talking about?" Claire asked settling in next to Luke with a tray of her own food. Luke glanced at Garrus and gave single, subtle head shake to diswade honesty and Garrus took a drink from his cup faking lik he had to wash some of the food down.
"Just talking about those Cerberus connections that you said we were going to track down. Looking forward to kicking those bastards right in the-"
"Easy there Luke. No need to get vulgar." Claire said playfully putting her hand over Luke's mouth. She immediately removed her hand squealing in disgust. "Did you just?"
Luke started to laugh nodding his head. Garrus looked at his friend but quickly realized that Luke had pulled a brother move and licked Claire's hand. He had done something similar to his sister when they were younger. Apparently Luke and Claire were trying to relive the childhood memories that they had lost.
"You are such a twit." Claire said giving her brother a playful shove.
"Oh, that much was definitely apparent." Mallory added in as she sat down on the other side of Claire. Claire immediately turned in her chair and wiped the hand Luke had licked on Mallory's uniform.
"Oh, I'm the twit?" Luke said nudging his sister. Claire shrugged as Mallory studied her uniform trying to figure out what Claire had wiped on her. Judging from how hard Garrus was trying not to laugh, she assumed it had to be something rather gross.
"Real mature you too. To think Claire is the commanding officer and Luke is the cop and I just happen to be the most mature." Mallory scolded.
"And the least fun. Come on, Mal. Loosen up a little. We're heading to tear down some Cerberus cells. It'll be fun." Luke said making a goofy face. Mallory sighed and turned to her meal. Luke got up and collected his tray. Nodding to Garrus, who immediately got up and followed his friend.
"Why not tell her? She would probably want in on that." Luke looked over at the turnian before glancing back at his sister.
"Claire needs to be the shining example of humanity. That is why they chose her to be a spectre…the first human spectre. She has to stand as an example of human virtues for the galaxy to see, both feared and respected. Me, I'm her damaged brother. I doubt there are too many people other than the Normandy crew and some of the top brass that know that Claire and I are related. I can be the bad guy. Claire is the hero, not me." Luke set his tray down and the two made their way back down o the Mako.
"I can see that. We just can't take it too far. Sometimes doing the right thing, may not be the right thing." Garrus said as the elevator door closed.
"I hate politics." It was a conversation they had had a few times before, normally it had been shouted at them by Captain Palten. Sometimes they had to let the corrupt, drug-dealing politician go because it would cause too much of an up roar or start a war. Sometimes there was information that just needed to be kept in the dark.
"Yeah, but you probably should have thought of that before you went after that gang." Garrus said crossing his arms.
"Which one?" Luke said as the doors opened. He knew exactly what Garrus was reffering to but he hoped that Garrus had forgotten.
"The gang that the tip source was one of the gang members on the power trip. What was her name again? Helena Blake?"
Luke sighed and nodded as he climbed up on the Mako and ran a diagnostic on the engine and shield systems. "Yeah, she gave me the locations of her two partners so that I could arrest or kill them."
Garrus chuckled. "She thought she was playing you but didn't you end up taking down the entire gang?"
"Convinced her to disband what was left of the gang and she is now serving a sentence of community service rather than jail time, but I think I got a tongue lashing for taking them down because they were the main supplier of restricted prescription drugs to the embassies on the Presidium." Luke smiled as he adjusted the thruster output.
Garrus chuckled. "I thought you got yelled at because it was the former Executor's business partners."
Luke looked up and rubbed his chin. "That might have been it too." He had to admit, he was not sorry about taking down the gang, or exposing the politicians affected.