Chapter 15: Man of War

Joker was somber as he made his way out of the armory and hurriedly went towards the cockpit, maneuvering through the urgent hustle and bustle of the crew, the remnants of sleep interrupted still on his face. The blast shutters were all up but that didn't make him feel any less anxious. He wasn't anxious for his safety mind you. It was for a friend. EDI's direct interface went off-line roughly about 10 minutes ago, just as the Eclipse begun their siege of the Normandy.

Sitting down on his pilot chair, it already felt wrong that her nagging voice wasn't there to greet him. The holo console was functional but none of the commands would pull through, stuck in a frozen state due to the cyberwarfare happening around them. Comms, controls, all busted, with EDI diverting what she could spare to safeguard life-support and the basic systems at least. Setting aside the assault rifle he got from the armory, he crossed his arms and waited. EDI will come through, he told himself. And when she does, he'll show them that nobody messes with his girl.

His ship, he corrected himself, the Normandy. Man, where did that come from?

Nobody messes with the Normandy. Not the Geth, not the Collectors, nor the goddamn Reapers. Least of all a bunch of pencil-necked techno-thugs. Oh he'll show them alright, he'll show them with both Thanix cannons at full power. Fuck this shipyard, all of those bastards are getting spaced once he can get the weapons suite online again.

His eyes wandered to where EDI would usually project her avatar, his foot tapping the floor impatiently. "Come on… Come on…" She'll pull through.

She has to.

The armory was a bustle of activity as the crew scrambled to get weapons. The Collector abduction was still fresh in everybody's minds. Well, in the ones who hadn't blocked the memory out anyway. There was a general unspoken consensus in light of this: Never the fuck again.

Ken grabbed an assault rifle and tested the weight. He wasn't a soldier, hell none of them were, but they'd all gone through basic fire training. It still didn't help the pit in his stomach. Next to him, Gabby was trying out a heavy pistol, being realistic enough to know she couldn't possibly handle the kick of any of the other weapons. She glanced at Ken's face and noticed the expression he had. He was only this serious looking when… Well, he wasn't exactly serious looking at any other time.

"Well…" She began, aiming down the sights of the gun, "If this is what it takes to shut you up, I'd rather you kept babbling Ken."

Ken suddenly jerked his head at the sound of his name and looked at Gabby, who was smiling at him. He smiled back, laughing quietly. "Well Gabby, if you missed my dulcet tones so much, all you had to do was ask."

"Let's not get carried away here…" Gabby said with a smirk, before snapping. "Now move! Double time! The damn Eclipse are practically knocking on our front door, doofus!"

"Aye-Aye!" Ken replied with amusement.

Gabby punched him playfully in the arm.

The door opened and Grunt strode in, the hangover going over quickly thanks to his krogan regeneration. Not quick enough though as he rubbed his head and scowled at all the people in the armory. "Well this is a good idea." He said, walking over to a weapons rack and pulling out a claymore. "It's on par with handing out knives to little children."

Ken arched an eyebrow as the krogan loaded the weapon. "Aren't you just a couple of months old?"

"You're a couple of seconds from dead if you don't shut it, grease-monkey."

Ken's well thought out retort was garbled when Gabby clamped his lips with the palm of her hand. "Play nice, boys." She said. "Save it for the Eclipse."

"Whatever, just get in gear." Grunt replied as he stored the claymore on his back and pulled out a vindicator assault rifle. "And hope Garrus can get his head into the game."

Meanwhile, Kelly was busy trying to figure out a shuriken SMG when she accidentally activated something on the wall. She squeaked in surprise as the panels pulled back to reveal the 3 remaining sets of assault trooper armor hanging on the rack. "Uh, guys?" She began nervously, "I think I found something we could use."

Ken walked over, whistling as he inspected the armor. "Now we're cooking with fire." He began. "I got dibs on this one!"

He was a turian, a soldier not just by profession but by birth. So when the proverbial shit hit the fan, with Shepard and Miranda not around to clean up, the chain of command went to him. He didn't even know what his official station was! He always thought he was just the gunnery chief and token turian crew mate. But he knew that he was responsible for this.

Garrus cringed as he snapped on the last few pieces of his heavy armor, his wounds still tender. It wasn't bothering him, truth be told; pain came with the job. His father had always said every soldier was going to get shot sometime or another in their life, and if they didn't, they must be doing something wrong. He picked up his sniper rifle and checked its specs, putting it on his back once he was satisfied. No, it wasn't the pain that was making his guts turn. It was the idea of taking command. He picked up his visor and ran a talon gently over the names carved onto its frame.

Erash.

Monteague.

Mierin.

Grundan Krul.

Melanis.

Ripper.

Sensat.

Vortash.

Butler.

Weaver.

Sidonis.

His hand stopped on the last name, scratched out long ago. It evoked feelings from him, he didn't know what kind; just that none of them were any good. He couldn't forgive Sidonis, but he couldn't kill him either. Was this really as good as it gets? Maybe… He guessed he could be at peace with that, at least to let the spirits of his brothers-at-arms finally rest.

He had vouched for this place, for Ban'Torvias, when they were looking over shipyards to dock in. He had assured them and put the crew at ease. He told Shepard to trust him on this one. And now it came back biting them in the ass. This was his mess, his responsibility to get the crew out alive.

Garrus closed his eyes, holding the visor solemnly for a moment. He wasn't religious in the least, but it just seemed proper. Attaching the device onto his face, it hummed to life and projected it's HUD, synching up with his armor's CPU. "Wish me luck guys…" He whispered as he turned to walk towards the door. "Let's all hope this turns out better than last time."

There were a lot of things on his now pressing to-do-list, currently streaming on his visor, and he walked brusquely through the crew level. First things first though, he needed to check on the AI core. Kelly had told him that with nobody able to find Tali, Legion was trying to fix EDI's problem himself. Come to think of it, only EDI knew where Tali was at this point. Great. The doors to the med-bay opened, and the first thing that met him was Chakwas' disapproving glare.

"I see you're up and about, Mr. Vakarian." She said coldly. "And I see you've rid yourself of your IV."

"Doctor." Garrus greeted her, scratching the back of his neck, a sheepish smirk on his face. "I'm sorry, but things kind of got… out of hand.

"So I'm led to believe." Chakwas merely held the bridge of her nose, muttering something under her breath before speaking again. "Just… Just go. I'll be here to heal you up afterwards." She stepped aside, rolling her eyes and let Garrus through unimpeded towards the AI core. "As per usual."

The automatic doors slid open, and he found Legion standing motionless, several cables from his body interfaced with the nearest console in the AI core. "Garrus." It said, perking up as Garrus strode in. "We are hard pressed in countering the cyber-attacks of the Eclipse, but we are holding our own."

"Good to hear," Garrus replied, walking up to him. "Spare me the tech jargon and give it to me straight, Legion. How's EDI?"

"EDI is diverting her full attention towards the situation." It began. "The viruses that the Eclipse are using are state of the art and unique; as if coded just to bring EDI down. There is only one possible conclusion."

"The Eclipse are working for Cerberus…" Garrus said in a hush tone, realization dawning upon him. Up 'til now, he had been thinking that the Eclipse was somehow able to ID him during that fiasco a couple of days ago. He felt a small trickle of relief to know that this wasn't entirely his fault. "Well that was about to bite us in the ass eventually, so we should've seen this coming. How long do you need to get the Normandy up and running?"

"Inconclusive."

"Inconclusive?"

"EDI would have been completely overtaken by now, but Cerberus did not expect to deal with Geth in the system." It began, "But the virus strain, it… learns at an alarming rate. Every method we use to purge existing ones makes the next wave resistant to similar methods. Attempts to counter-hack Eclipse software proves ineffective. Conclusion, full systems shutdown inevitable after 2604 minutes, 24 seconds and counting."

"That's a very long time…"Garrus scratched his scar as he mused deep in thought. He refused to believe any situation was hopeless, least of all this one. Come to think of it, the Eclipse could have torn through the airlock anytime they wanted. Why were they holding back, relying solely on tech? Surely any collateral they inflict on the ship could easily be repaired.

Unless they weren't holding back at all…

"Son of a bitch!" Garrus blurted out, running for the maintenance ladder at the corner of the room.

"Query:'son of a bitch'?"

"Give me a ship-wide alert, Legion! I need defenses down at the shuttle bay, now!" With that, he hopped unto the ladder and made his way down.

"Ah! We comprehend now." Legion called after him, "Copy that, transmitting PSA. Attention all hands, this is an emergency broadcast…!"

"Move, people!" Grunt ordered as he strode into the elevator, assault rifle in hand. "I've been itching for a damn fight!" He looked at Samara and Jack, urging them to hurry. "Come on!"

Samara only arched an eyebrow at him as she stepped in while Jack leaned in to whisper something in the justicar's ear.

"Krogan hangovers." She whispered as she and Samara watched Grunt practically shake in place, scowling as he mumbled to himself. "I heard the best way to get rid of one was to smash somebody's skull in. If the fucker doesn't shut up soon, I might to smash his skull in."

"Indeed." Samara replied non-chalantly, taking out her assault rifle and checking its specs. "We will need a number of people to effectively help us defend the shuttle bay." She turned to look at the crew who had assembled at the CIC. "Are there any volunteers?"

Jack stepped up next to her, scratching her chin. "I have a better idea…" she began, and then called out to three specific people in the crowd. "Donnelly! Matthews! Hadley! Let's baptize that fancy new gear you got on you in blood and fire, hmmm?"

The maintenance shafts were the long route towards his destination, but he needed to keep the lift free for the others. After two years of fighting guerilla battles on Omega, the cramp spaces and sudden drops of these shafts were no impediments to him whatsoever, and he advanced in a quick pace. After a couple of minutes of crouching, sliding and sprinting, only a vent grill stood in the way of his destination. He introduced it to his boot and jumped out, finding himself next to the lift.

"Hmm, still picking people up at the CIC…" he mused as he observed the lift's controls. He took position and surveyed the cluttered shuttle bay. "Well everything seems to be in order down here… Maybe I jumped th-…?" The words trailed away in his mouth as he caught a whiff of burning metal.

The hiss of welding and the biting smell of ozone filled the air and a moment later, a beam of plasma shot up from the floor on the far side of the shuttle bay. The armor plating on the ventral section of the ship was to be one of the last things reinstalled. This was to make it easier for the crew to work on and reinforce the inner structures. It also made that part of the ship the most vulnerable. The beam started to move in an arc, no doubt to carve out an opening for the Eclipse.

Garrus rushed for cover, whipping out his sniper rifle and cursing under his breath. The engineers were going to just love this turn of events. Lucky for him, reinforcements would arrive any second now. They would have the advantage of position and the element of surprise, and the Eclipse won't know what hit them.

"Whoever's in that elevator, prepare to come in hot!" he said through his comm. "Eclipse are trying to breech the hull!"

"Ready and waiting!" Grunt replied. "Samara, Jack and a bunch of the mooks are with me! We'll be there in a couple of clicks."

Ken's voice chimed in. "Hey! I take offense to that! I'm an elite mook."

"Quiet you!" Grunt barked back. "Almost there, Garrus."

Suddenly, there was a loud spark of electricity behind him, and Garrus looked over to find that the elevators holo panel fizzled out, smoke coming from its consoles. That cannot be a good thing. "Stat-rep!" he barked through the comm.

He heard Grunt cursing in the background, and the audible thumps of what could no doubt be him trying to headbutt the door. It was another moment before Samara replied. "Garrus, something has happened to the elevator." She spoke in her serene, matter-of-fact tone. The thumping continued in the background, and Garrus heard Grunt roar. "It appears we are stuck."

"What?" A precious few moments passed as Garrus digested the situation in his head, he opened up another frequency. "Legion, the hell is wrong with the elevator?"

"Apologies, we had to re-route data overload away from life-support. The resulting collateral damage was inevitable." Legion replied. "Remote reactivation of lift systems impossible at the moment. Suggested course of action: manual override of controls."

"Did everybody get that?" Garrus asked the crew on the elevator.

It was Ken's voice that answered him through the comm now. "I'm no electrician, but I can work my way around a simple circuit. Just hang on for a bit!" The thumping still continued in the background, Grunt cursing out loud with every strike. "For the love of- Somebody, please handle him, thank you." He said exasperatedly. "Garrus! Just hold on!"

The comm was cut off, and Garrus was left there, crouched behind a console, a dumbstruck expression on his face as the beam in the background continued to curve into a half-circle. This was turning out to be another long day in a series of very long days.

Propping his rifle up on top of the console, he slowed his breathing and watched the progress of the beam. He asked himself with a mirthful grin. The beam was nearly finished, and he could still hear the distant thumping of krogan skull on metal. It looks like he was going to be on his own for the first wave of Eclipse. Outnumbered and out gunned, he only had the element of surprise and superior position to aid him. Now why did that sound so familiar?

Flipping the safety off, his finger gingerly resting on the trigger, Garrus took a deep breath as he went over his game-plan and weighed his chances of surviving. It would be standard procedure for over watch; Fire a concussive round then hit the heavies first, then anybody who looks like they're giving orders, then pick off the rest. Oh, and the Eclipse would also be using mechs, he'd have to compensate for that. He flicked a switch and a holo projection on the side of his rifle depicted that he was now using armor-piercing rounds.

The beam had almost gone full circle, and there was a loud sound of metal creaking against metal. Any second now…

"Sup?" a voice to his left piped up all of a sudden.

Garrus tensed as he let go of his rifle. One hand swiftly pinned the owner of the voice against the console while the other one was already reaching for his combat knife. He saw a now familiar pair of lips curl up into a smirk. "Kasumi! Spirit's woman, don't sneak up on me like that! I could've hurt you!"

"Yeah, uh, no." Kasumi replied with an amused tone, waggling her eyebrows as her eyes looked down towards his chest.

Garrus followed her gaze to see that her heavy pistol was pressed against the seam where his chest plate and abdominal armor met. "Oh."

"Check-mate, top predator."

"Indeed…" Garrus mused. "Wait, how did you get down here anyway?"

"Maintenance shafts; just a force of habit, really." She replied casually, eyes gleaming underneath her hood. "Never did like taking the elevator, not many points of entry and exit." She looked at the lift behind Garrus. "That and they prove to be quite a hassle when they get hacked." This was punctuated by a rather audible thump and a distant krogan roar. "Yikes."

"Tell me about it." Garrus said, still fixated on the gun pressed against his chest. Not that he ever doubted Kasumi's prowess before, but he was impressed. She only had a split second window before Garrus could grab his knife and she still beat him to it. "Nice moves."

"Um, Garrus?" Kasumi cleared her throat, making Garrus look back up towards her still smirking face. It was redder than usual he noticed, her eyes trying not to stare into his. "If you touch me there any longer, I may start charging you."

"Huh?" This was the point where Garrus' eyes widened, realizing just where he was pressing Kasumi against the console. It was soft and squishy. He also realized how close together they were. Her face was only inches apart from his. Her lips were a nice shade of pink. They were soft when they pressed against his mandibles, he remembered. And her scent… It was just too much for a man to bear.

Kasumi's smirk slowly faded as she looked into Garrus' eyes. It was as if something was coming over her. He was so strong, she thought, able to subdue her with just one hand. Not to mention that look he gave her; so dominant and self-assured, even when she had the upper hand. Her heart skipped a beat and she gulped. It was the look predators gave their prey before they were about to strike.

He unconsciously started to lean in closer to her. Wait, Garrus told himself. Damn it, what was wrong with him? He needed to focus on the situation at hand, not whatever this is. "Sorry!" He blurted out, taking his hand of off her chest as if it was a smoldering hot surface. "Sorry." He repeated in a softer voice. Seriously though, what was wrong with him?

"Don't- ah, don't worry about it…" Kasumi manage to say, still blushing, putting a hand on her chest. Why was her heart beating so fast? It wasn't because she was scared, right? She realized she was still holding the gun against him. "Oh, right…" she said as she put the gun away. "Sorry."

"No worries, it's not the first time a pretty lady showed me her guns up close." He had the urge to face-palm then and there. Spirits he did not just say that out loud, he thought.

"Well I don't show my guns up close to just any guy, I'll have you know." She replied without thinking, realizing the unconscious innuendo the moment she said it. Maybe if she closed her eyes and opened them again, this would have all been a very awkward nightmare. She did just that, only to find herself still looking at Garrus. Oh god, she thought, this was really happening.

Garrus cleared his throat and backed away from her. His hearing picked up the thumping of her heart. Shit, he didn't mean to embarrass her. "Um…"

"Er…"

"Ehe…"

"Hehe…"

They both laughed awkwardly at the same time. Both of them were practically pleading for a way out of this situation.

Garrus looked over their cover just in time to see the beam about to complete the circle. Oh yeah, that whole being invaded by the Eclipse thing. Thank the spirits. Getting back up to his gun, he watched as the section of the floor slowly started to sink. There was a wail of metal grinding on metal and the circular bit of floor finally fell with a resounding crash, a cacophony of sound streaming in from the other side of the resulting hole. Voices barking orders, guns cocking, and armored boots stomping on the cold steel floor came pouring in from outside.

Kasumi propped up beside him, letting out a low whistle. "Sounds like we got a hell of a party heading our way."

"More like a riot." Garrus replied, then opening his comm, "We got a hull breach over here! What's your status, Donelly?"

"I won't bore you with the tech, but I'm trying to re-route the overload and slaving the program into the secondary processors which could-"

Jack butted in, "Poindexter hear said it'll take another 5 minutes."

"Brilliant." Garrus replied, then turning to Kasumi. "Anything you can do on our end?"

Kasumi looked over her shoulder to the control panel, which was still smoking and casting sparks every other second. "I can't exactly pick a lock without a keyhole." She conceded.

"Fair point." The sounds from outside seemed to be getting closer. He tapped his comm again. "We'll hold them off for as long as we can, just be prepared to come in hot."

"Who's 'we'? I thought you went down there by yourself." Ken asked.

"Kasumi took the same way I did."

Jack replied this time, her voice split between curiosity and mischief. "You don't say? Try not to watch her six too eagerly, Garrus. And try to be a gentleman this time, eh?"

"Now's not the time nor the place, Jack." Garrus answered back testily before cutting off the comm.

Kasumi blinked, "What does she mean by 'this time'?"

Garrus sighed as he cocked his viper. "One complicated problem at a time, Kasumi."

"Uh-huh…" she replied in a suspicious tone. She then perked up as she remembered something. "By the way, I brought you something neat." She said, pulling out a massive sniper rifle from behind her.

"Is that… Legion's widow?" He blinked. "Did you just steal that?"

"Borrowed." She corrected, smirking as her eyes gleamed under her hood. Garrus was beginning to wonder if that was his imagination or if they really did gleam. "Well it's not like he's going to be using it anytime soon." She said as she offered it to him. "Trade you?"

"Neat." He said as they exchanged rifles, handing over his viper for the bigger gun. "Are you a crack shot?"

"Only one way to find out." She replied with a wry grin.

"Can't fault your eagerness." He said as he set the gun to armor piercing rounds and peered through it's scope. "Do you have night-vision?"

"Please, remember who you're talking too."

"Wonderful." He flicked open his comm again. "Legion, kill the lights."

"Lessa, the hull has been breached and the stage is yours…" Tarrana Ionet, Commander of the Omega Eclipse said musically over the comm. "Do me proud, darling."

"Yes, my lady." Lessa Karr replied before her commander cut off the comm. She eyed the Eclipse troops and mechs lined before her, inspecting them as they got into formation underneath the hole in the Normandy's hull. Her days as an asari commando made her prime material for command during assault raids. Not only that but she was a wizard when it came to tech. As a result, she quickly rose into the ranks of the Eclipse as a lieutenant. "Alright boys and girls, let's go over this one more time!" she said as she paced in front of her unit, hands clasped behind her back. "We will be taking the ship from the inside out!" a Loki mech stepped forward and projected a holo of the ships layout next to her. "We will establish a perimeter here in the shuttle bay! From there, we will begin a series of assaults to push further into the ship! Fairly straight forward but effective!" She looked behind her to see a massive service lift procured from the previous owners of the shipyard sidle up next to them. "Here's our ride. Shock troopers! 1st and 2nd squadrons! We're going up first, move out!"

"Ma'am, yes ma'am!" they replied in chorus.

Over two dozen mercenaries and mechs stepped forward, hopping onto the massive lift and checking their equipment as they awaited deployment. They were bristling with weaponry, carrying assault turrets and defensive cover nodes on their backs.

Lessa glowed with biotic energy and leapt high into the air, landing into the middle of the group with ease. With a wave of her omnitool, her tech armor came to life around her, surrounding her with the protective translucent panels of energy. Taking out her weapon, a mattock assault rifle, she flicked off the safety and smiled. This was going to be a piece of cake. "Alright! Send us up!" With a hiss of hydraulics, the lift slowly ascended with its payload of mercenaries. "The rest of you!" she called down towards the remaining Eclipse. "Get ready! Advance by order of battle groups!"

"Ma'am, yes ma'am!" they called back.

Soon, Lessa's boarding party was engulfed by the blackness of the Normandy's shuttle bay as the lift came to a halt. "Hmm, the overload must've killed some of the generators…" she mused. "Alright, switch to night-vision! Set up the perimeter!" She and her men scampered off the lift before it descended again to retrieve the next wave of mercs. Just as she thought, this was going to be a piece of cake.

Her night-vision turned on just in time to see a small cylindrical object flying into the air above them. "Fuck all kinds of-!"

The flash bang grenade detonated, engulfing the darkness in a sea of sound and blinding white light. And with their night visions on, the effects of the flash on the Eclipse was multiplied by a hundredfold. Even the video receptors of the mechs were momentarily scrambled.

Garrus popped up from behind the console, bringing the widow heavy sniper rifle to bear. He waited for the flash to dissipate before activating his own night-vision. The Eclipse were all squirming and screaming in pain as they clutched their eyes, their mechs whipping to and fro confused.

Fish in a barrel.

Scoping out a target, he pulled the trigger and a mech torso shattered, the round going through it with ease as it proceeded to blow off the arm of the merc behind it, and shatter the skull of the merc behind that one. He pulled the slide and the spent thermal clip popped out, slamming in a fresh one before taking aim once more. Another pull of the trigger and several more dead bodies littered the floor in pieces. He may just have to buy one of these rifles for himself, he thought.

Next to him, Kasumi was unloading with the viper, taking several shots each before tagging a kill. Fortunately, the gun's extended ammo capacity more than compensated for her inexperience. "This is harder than it looks!" she said, reloading after a dismal attempt at a headshot.

"I'm sorry I make it look too easy." Garrus grinned as he pulled the trigger, netting several headshots from several hapless mercs and mechs who happened to fumble into a straight row. "It's a gift, really."

"Oh dear, Garrus' ego is showing." She said as she set the rifle aside and pulled out her locust SMG. "What a shocker."

"Don't let it intimidate you too much. Deep down, I'm a really sensitive guy." He said while reloading. "Be ready, there's bound to be more coming up."

"Heh, I have enough thermal clips to last us for days." Kasumi replied before unloading into the crowd of Eclipse.

"A girl after my own heart." He said before he could stop himself. Did he really just say that? Shit.

"What was that?" she asked, "Couldn't hear you properly, the widow's been making my ears ring."

"Ah…" Garrus said as relief washed over him. "I said you're pretty good with that thing."

"Well duh, it's just point and click, silly." She said as she did just that, showering a mech in thermal rounds.

Lessa gritted her teeth as she crawled blindly on the floor, past the pieces of the dead and broken. Her vision was reduced to a curtain of stainless white but the ringing in her ears was slowly subsiding. The cry of her dying men wasn't the best of alternatives to hearing loss. "This is Lessa!" she barked desperately in her comm, "Send up the Ymirs!"

"What's going on up there!" a distraught voice replied. "There are screams and gunshots and…!"

"Did you fucking hear me you daft moron?" she screamed as a freshly dead body collapsed on top of her. "SEND UP THE YMIRS!"

Below, the support crew quickly shooed off the next group of mercs from the platform and herded three Ymir heavy mechs onto it. A salarian sergeant signaled the okay and they began to ascend towards the Normandy.

Garrus pulled the trigger again, making a salarian torso explode like an over ripe fruit. The mercs had scattered a bit now and started to fire blindly in every direction. More shots were killing off their own comrades then they were even aimed at Garrus' general direction.

Kasumi had whipped out her heavy pistol as she dual wielded to unload more shots into the hapless mercs. She almost felt sorry for them. Almost. "Bring back any memories?" she asked Garrus as she reloaded.

"Hmm?" Garrus asked as he shot a hole in an asari's chest. "What do you mean?"

"Of your time here in Omega." She clarified.

He was quiet for a while, reloading the widow. "Yeah…" he said, taking aim once more. "Some good ones." He said, pulling the trigger. "Mostly bad."

"I heard about your squad… I'm sorry." She replied, instantly regretting the question. "I know how much loss hurts."

"Yeah..." Garrus nodded. "I'm sorry, too."

She chewed on her lip. This was not the place, nor the time, but fuck social norms. "Hey, If you ever want to talk about it…"

Garrus looked at her, and she turned away. He knew enough about women to recognize one who was nursing a deep scar. He gently placed a hand on her shoulder and squeezed gently, causing her to look back at him. "Later." He said, flashing Kasumi a quick smile.

She smiled back and turned to look at the fray. "Oh, looks like we got some new guests to the party." She said, pulling out another flashbang. "Good thing I brought a lot of party favors."

"Wait…" Garrus said as he looked through the scope. "Ah hell…"

"What?"

"Ymirs."

The massive mechs slowly rose up from the hole, lumbering onto the shuttle bay and crushing the dead underfoot as they walked. Garrus fired a shot at one, only to have it's shields shimmer as it took the brunt of the damage and give away his position. The three Ymirs leveled their rocket launchers in their direction.

Kasumi cursed under her breath. "Mother fuckeeeeeeeeee-" Her curse turned into a shriek as Garrus bodily grabbed her and slung her over his shoulder, running out of cover and out of the way as three rockets hurdled across the shuttle bay and sending their cover up in flames.

"Shit, we're going to have to kite them!" Garrus said as he got behind a storage crate. He put Kasumi down and brought out the widow once more. "I need a fresh clip." He said, holding out his palm expectantly.

Kasumi looked at him, then towards the now flaming ruins of the console. "Yeah, about that…" She began, clicking her tongue. "I left all of the clips over there."

"You what?"

"Well I couldn't actually grab anything with you slinging me over your shoulders like a bag of potatoes!"

"Well excuse me for saving your life!"

"Argh!" Kasumi growled at him, then stopping as she reached a realization. "I could take some from the Eclipse! Wait right here!"

"Kasumi!" Garrus tried to stop her, but she had already gone invisible. Stowing away the widow, he pulled out his assault rifle and peaked out of cover. He opened his comm again. "Kenneth, it's been more than 5 minutes! What's taking you so long!"

"Almost there!"

"Be advised we have three Ymirs in the shuttle bay!"

"Almost there!" Ken repeated.

Garrus growled as he turned off the comm, the mechs still looking for them. He couldn't risk an assault knowing that Kasumi might be caught in the crossfire. He just had to wait and pray.

Lessa staggered to her feet as she slowly regained her vision. She could make out movement and shapes now. That was a stark improvement to her current predicament. She heard the arrival of the Ymirs, and after that huge explosion, the sniper fire had stopped. Okay, this was a disastrous start, but she could still turn this around. "Send up the next squadron, bring medics." She said as she sat up against a storage crate. Even in the darkness, color was returning to her, and she could make out the dead around her feet. These bastards were going to die for this, she thought, every single fucking crewman on this ship. Suddenly, she noticed something odd. Was that thermal clip floating? "Cloaking…" she mumbled, staggering back onto her feet as she brought up her gun as she saw the warped image against the bodies of her dead men. She punched in the shimmering silhouettes direction and a neural shock blasted from her omnitool.

Kasumi screamed in pain as electricity ran through her body, bringing her down to her knees. She saw a pair of legs striding to her direction. Casting her gaze upwards, she saw it was an asari holding an assault rifle looking pissed as hell. She tried to raise her gun, but found that she couldn't even move a finger.

Garrus had swung out of cover the moment he heard Kasumi scream, bringing his gun to bear. "Kasumi!" he caught sight of her kneeling as an asari walked up to her. Before he could get a shot off, one of the Ymirs saw him and opened fire with it's heavy machine gun. "Fuck!" he roared as he rolled out of the way, a few shots tagging him but failed to penetrate his shields and armor. All three mechs converged on his position and he retreated behind the storage crate. He tried dashing out of cover but the moment he'd expose himself, gunfire would pepper the area. He was pinned down. "Kasumi!" he yelled over the din of the gun fire. No, not this again, he thought. Spirits please, don't let them take her too.

The asari drew her leg back and kicked Kasumi in the side of her head, sending her sprawling on the blood soaked floor. "You bitch…" Lessa hissed as she kicked the downed woman in the gut. "Your friend is too busy being killed right now." She said as she kicked again. "Too bad, 'cause I'm going to make a show out of killing you…"

Her hands glowed and she levitated Kasumi off the floor, only to slam her down hard. Again. And again. And again. Until Lessa tossed her violently at a storage crate like a rag doll.

Kasumi slumped against one of the many storage crates around them, and could only watch in horror as Lessa raised her rifle, aiming it at her face. "Keiji…" she murmured as tears welled up in her eyes. At least they'd be together again.

Bang.

Blood splattered on Kasumi's face.

It was strange, she thought, death didn't feel any different. Looking up past the barrel of the assault rifle to her shooter's face, she noticed there was something strange about her eyes. They seemed lifeless. She heard a gun cock behind the asari, and a second gunshot sent more blood splattering down on her. The asari staggered, before falling into a crumpled heap next to Kasumi, revealing Tali standing behind where she was, pumping her shotgun.

"Nobody touches my friends, you filthy bosh'tet." Tali announced to the asari's corpse, before approaching Kasumi and offering a hand to help her up. "Are you alright?" she said, voice full of concern.

"Ta-Tali?" she said, not able to believe her eyes as she grabbed the quarian's hand, staggering back onto her feet. "How-? Where did you come from?"

Tali pointed with her thumb over her shoulder to a recently opened storage crate behind her. "I've been laying low in there for a while," she began, "Last thing I remember was the whole Normandy shaking and I hit my head. I opened my eyes and next thing I know, there was a firefight happening right outside my damn secret workshop."

Kasumi had a lot of questions, but something urgent came pushing past all of that. "Garrus!" she said, whipping around to where the Ymir's had cornered him. "We have to help him!"

"On it!" Tali said as she brought up her omnitool.

"We have to do something, quick!" Kasumi said, trying to run but the effects of the neural shock dampening her movements. "Shit…"

"Don't worry," Tali replied, "Nobody's faster than Chiktikka vas Paus." With that, an orange combat drone shot out from her omnitool and raced towards one of the Ymir's. "Aim for the optics, Chiktikka!"

Kasumi wondered what a small combat drone could do, but she could only watch helplessly and believe in Tali.

Chiktikka broke past the shields of the Ymir and floated in front of it's optics. Before the Ymir could react, the combat drone flashed and sent a pulse of electricity exploding around it. Stunned, the Ymir's shields were knocked out, leaving it wide open for hacking.

Tali typed furiously into her omnitool, bypassing the Ymir's firewalls and getting into it's IFF. "Got it." She said triumphantly as she pressed enter.

The Ymir deactivated for a moment, before reactivating once more and looking at its two comrades who were still firing away at Garrus' cover. Activating it's weapon systems, it unloaded it's payload from behind. Oblivious to the hacked Ymir's treachery, the two other were helpless as they were bombarded with rockets and gun fire. It didn't take long for their shields to shatter and receive the full brunt of the assault. The two mechs exploded, leaving only the hacked one still standing.

Kasumi's jaw dropped at the scene. "Wow…" she said, it being the only word she could find to describe this situation. "Wait, there are more coming…" she continued urgently, looking at the breach in the hull.

"Oh I don't know…" Tali said as she made the Ymir lumber towards the hole. "You never know what life could drop into your lap at any moment." The Ymir teetered over the edge, before belly flopping down. An explosion from outside followed soon after. "Like so." Tali said grimly.

"Yeah, um, wow." Kasumi said as she looked over her friend. "Guess you're the tech expert for a reason, huh?" she winced as the pain from her thrashing slowly started to take it's toll on her body. "Ouch…"

"Easy…" Tali said as she rushed to her side and slowly eased the other woman to the floor, putting her head on her lap. "Keelah, you're hurt bad."

"Kasumi!" Garrus yelled urgently as he ran towards them, gun drawn. "I saw the two Ymirs explode and the third one jump down. How'd you manage to- Tali!"

"I'll explain later. She needs medical attention, Garrus!" She said as Garrus knelt beside them. "Until then, do you have medigel on you?"

"On it!" He said as he set aside his gun and applied liberal amounts of medigel onto Kasumi.

Kasumi's face winced, and then she opened her eyes, seeing Tali and Garrus looking down on her. "Oh. Hi." She said, focusing on Garrus.

"Hello yourself." Garrus replied, relief apparent in his voice.

Tali looked between the two of them, thanking the ancestors that her visor obscured her expression. Oh boy, was her women's intuition kicking in.

The moment was interrupted when the elevator doors finally opened and Grunt came storming out, with Jack, Samara and three men in Cerberus assault armor close on his heels.

"Eh?" Grunt said as he surveyed the gory battlefield. "Damn it Garrus, you didn't save me any!"

Garrus could only face palm as Kasumi sniggered.

Tali arched an eyebrow. "Can somebody please tell me what the hell is going on?"