I'm sorry it took me so long to get this chapter up. I have had a family member in the hospital for the past few days. With that piled on top of work I simply did not have enough time to write. But it is up now. Thank you so much to everyone that is following and has left reviews. Please R&R and enjoy.
An eerie silence fell over the Presidium as Luke crept forward. His mind raced as the distance fighting whispered at his back. Every movement he perceived caused his paranoia to grow. The crackle of the flames that decorated the destruction of the once beautiful setting he mistook for enemy movement more than once. His pistol heavy in his hand, Bailey's voice clawed its way up from the pit Luke tossed it in earlier. It's too dangerous for you to move up on your own. At least wait for a few more agents to get here before you charge off. Luke shook his head forcing the warning back out of his mind. He moved forward ahead of everyone else because moving alone in a hostile area while remaining undetected was difficult alone, impossible with a group.
"I definitely stepped in it this time," Luke said as he caught the faintest outline of a geth trooper through the smoke. The metallic demons worked to set up dragon's teeth and placed captured humans on them. It was more than Luke could take.
"Run!" Luke shouted firing several shots into the mass of geth soldiers. The humans his enemy held prisoner panicked at the sound of resumed fighting and scattered like duct-rats in a C-Sec raid.
Luke took cover behind a crashed transit shuttle as geth pulse rifles peppered the wreck and rounds ricocheted off his shields. Luke cursed under his breath and bit his lower lip. I can't risk firing blindly over this thing or I might hit the civilians. But if I come out to try and make a more accurate shot, I'll get shredded. Damn it.
Luke decided to risk it. Bringing up a barrier as strong as he could manage while still moving and raised his pistol. The geth rounds ripped into his shields and barrier leaving him only enough time to fire twice before his barrier gave out and his shields shattered. Luckily his armor stopped the round that connected with his shoulder and sent him spinning to the ground.
"Son of a bitch! How many of these suckers are there?" Luke roared. Deciding to test his luck just a bit, Luke held his pistol above his head and pulled the trigger. Only one shot. The likelihood of him hitting one of the civilians now were slim to none. Any civilian still in the area of his shot either found themselves impaled on one of the dragon's teeth or shot dead by the geth.
As Luke huddled behind the shuttle with geth troopers closing in, he heard a sound that reminded him of how a drive core sounded when a ship jumped through the relay system. The fire died down on his position as he heard an all too familiar sound. A massive engine and wheels slamming down on the tiles of the presidium walkway, but the sound that followed cause his heart to drop. The clashing of metal against metal as whatever vehicle entering the battle rolled and crashed against the wall.
Luke peeked out from behind the shuttle and smirked. The Mako. Claire to the rescue, Luke thought as he started to approach with his pistol raised scanning for the geth he had so recently been engaged with. It appeared the Mako used the geth as a landing pad for its rather unorthodox landing. Luke delivered a final shot to a geth that appeared to still be functional.
The hatch of the Mako opened and Claire fell out, obviously dizzy from the crash as she stumbled a couple times trying to get to her feet. Luke chuckled and sprinted over to her.
"Fancy meeting you here," Luke said offering her his hand and helping her to her feet.
"Luke? What the hell are you doing here?" Claire said as she pulled her rifle and scanned the surroundings.
"Site seeing. I always wanted to see the Presidium in flames. Just kind of pissed I didn't do it myself." Claire laughed shortly as Luke helped Wrex out the other over turned tank. The krogan cleared the way for Garrus who turned around to help Liara and Tali out as well.
"What's the situation here?" Claire said as the rest of the team checked their weapons. Luke kicked the tires of the Mako and looked around for a moment before addressing his sister.
"The place is totaled. So is the Mako, and after all the work I did on it too. The fleet is getting its ass kicked. C-Sec has been nearly annihilated, and as far as I know, there has been no sighting of Saren." Luke said but he paused suddenly and looked over at what he always just assumed to be a replica of the mass relays. His attention quickly turned to Tali. "Um…you think we could run a data mine or a memory back log on a damaged console?"
"Depends on how damaged it is and if I can get to a terminal," Tali responded crossing her arms. Luke looked back over at Claire grinning from ear to ear.
"You have a plan don't you?" Claire asked placing her hands on her hips.
"Why yes…yes I do." Luke turned immediately to the Avina console. The Citadel tour guide VI glitched most likely from the damage sustained during the fight. Luke knelt in front of the console and opened his omni-tool. Tali joined him and started running diagnostics on the damaged VI.
"It's good to see you," Claire said as Luke started typing on his omni-tool.
"You too, but I'm kind of confused. How did you even get here?" Luke's question seemed to cause the group to exchange looks. They seemed to be unsure of how to explain their presence.
"That's a long story," Claire said rubbing the back of her neck. Luke glanced back at her as he started to rebuild the system links between the Avina terminal and the data server.
"Ilos held one of the largest Prothean ruins I have seen. We found a VI still functional called Vigil. I wish we had had enough time to study it," Liara said softly as her gaze fell. Luke knew Liara would have sacrificed her right arm to have been able to talk to a prothean VI. Though she must have been so happy to have been present to talk to it or see it at all.
"The VI was damaged but told us the protheans built a back door onto the Citadel to try and stop the reapers. That's how we got here, through the conduit. It is basically a smaller mass relay that connects Ilos to the Citadel." Tali looked over at Luke and linked her mining program to Luke's new established data links.
"But why here? I get that the Citadel is like the galaxy capital but surely with the power reapers, they could have just taken it by force," Luke stated as he layers the data and built the 3 dimensional model.
"Actually, it's because the Citadel is a mass relay that the reapers use to come back from dark space, but the protheans screwed up their plans. Saren is trying to undo it." Garrus said crossing his arms. Luke looked up just in time to see Claire try to hide a smile as her gaze came to rest on Garrus. He suspected for some time that Claire and Garrus got along but he never considered that they might have something romantic between them.
She could do worse. Luke's thoughts caused a small smile to cross his lips. Suddenly, his omni-tool let out a loud ping as a red indicator popped up on his model.
"What's up?" Wrex asked leaning in. Luke smiled and glanced over at Tali.
"We just found Saren," Luke said smugly.
"He's in the Council Chamber. Do you think that is the main control unit that Vigil was talking about?" Tali asked.
"Great work you two. Let's go beat that son of a bitch to a pulp," Claire shouted. Luke and everyone else responded with a loud shout of approval. Luke could not help but reminisce. Only a few months earlier, Claire had formed the crew out of several strangers. Now their bonds extended beyond friendship. Family, that was the only want to describe it.
As they piled into the elevator, Luke suddenly noticed the lack of cold condescending tones. "Mallory decide not to come?" Luke asked.
"Mallory took command of the Normandy and headed toward the Arcturus system to gather as many ships as she could to reinforce the Citadel fleet. Kaiden's still recovering from his wound on Virmire so he is acting as the Normandy's copilot." Claire's voice seemed rather official yet soft. Luke couldn't tell but it seemed that she wanted Mallory there…or maybe she wanted him and Mallory to talk again. Luke simply could not see any point in the future that would have that outcome. The only thing that came to his mind when Mallory's name was mentioned was the feeling of the Normandy rocking in the shockwave of the nuclear blast and the icy fingers of grief gripping his heart. Even simply thinking about his sister caused the frigid grip to tighten on his heart.
As the doors of the elevator closed and the team began their ascension, Luke looked out over the Citadel, yet the amazing station now bore a horrifying sight. Massive appendages of the Reaper gripping down on the tower.
"Geez, how're we suppose to destroy that thing?" Luke asked.
"I was hoping the fleet would lend a hand…but we need to take Saren down first and get control of the station," Claire responded.
No sooner had Claire spoken when the elevator jolted and stopped mid climb. The lights inside the lift fell dark and even the air seemed to not be flowing anymore.
"What the hell was that?" Wrex asked bracing himself against the wall.
"Saren locked down the elevators. I can't reactivate them from here," Tali announced to the group as she studied her omni-tool. If Tali could not reactivate the system, they would have to find another way to get to the council chamber. Luke assumed flying in a shuttle was out of the question, they would be to easily shot down. The only real option appeared to be Claire's plan A. Her hand gripped her helmet as she glanced back at the team.
"Suit up, we're going outside." The team did as commanded and locked their helmets into place.
Luke glanced over at his sister and she loaded an explosive round into her shotgun. He had never seen her use the weapon before. She normally stuck to an assault or sniper rifle. Even her pistol rarely made an appearance.
The blast knocked out the reinforced glass of the elevator. If the team had not activated their mag boots, they most likely would have been sucked out along with the rest of the air. Luke sighed and watched the team file out. He hated using mag boots. It never felt natural. His feet felt like anchors while the rest of his body was weightless. It could even be nauseating. He took a quick breath and braced himself as he followed the team.