MASS EFFECT ANDROMEDA SERIES II
CHAPTER 18
It was months after Saren's attack on the Citadel, Shepard and his team were traveling among different sectors of the Traverse to extinguished any remaining Geth pockets that may strike on colonies. Wrex and Garrus remained primarily on the Normandy to recover from their injuries they received from the final assault while Tali, Ash and Liara accompanied Shepard on their missions. Garrus was at a terminal trying to see if any messages came from Andromeda while on the Citadel. The incoming messages became less and less as they got further and further out in the depth of the system and away from comm buoys. The last he heard was that the Citadel was pretty much back to normal. They had a memorial for the fallen about a month after the attack and the remaining pieces of Sovereign were salvaged. He really couldn't tell her when there would be a shore leave back, but the Geth incursions were becoming less and less. He assumed that she returned her duties back at Chora's Den with Jenna. With Fist out of the picture, there was hope that perhaps that place would pick up since the new owner was a Salarian. Those guys didn't fool around.
"Suit up, Garrus," Ash spoke as she exited out of the elevator and made a beeline to her workstation, catching the Turian off guard.
"Trouble?" Wrex perked up from where he was working on modifying his shotgun.
"We just received a distress message from a science station in the Asgard System. Shepard wants you and me to accompany him. The news is not good." Ash began to grab her gear from her locker.
"Not anything different than normal. What's the issue?" Garrus joked lightly as he also opened his nearby locker to get his gear out.
"They are saying an asteroid is on collision course to a colony on Terra Nova. Apparently they were bringing the asteroid closer for study, but the asteroid was hijacked and now it's aimed straight at the colony city."
"You sure he doesn't want me to go instead of Vakarian here? Sounds like you need a heavy hitter." Wrex pounded his fist into his palm.
"You would be too slow, Wrex," Garrus countered.
"Shepard wants Garrus because we may need him to sniper those damn terrorists." Ash corrected as she motioned the Turian to follow her to the elevator. "We better go."
"Fine, but I get dibs on the next mission." Wrex sulked behind.
"Impact in three…two…one," Shepard counted down as the Mako descended to the drop point. Garrus braced for impact and felt the shocks kick as the rover bounced.
"We are quarter mile from the nearest facility," Ashley looked at their tracking scope. "Who would build a science station on an asteroid?"
"Better yet, who would bring an asteroid closer to their planet?" Garrus proposed.
"Is that you?" A voice came in through the vehicle's internal comm system.
"Yes. This is Shepard. Go ahead." Shepard stood up straighter as he let Garrus take over the vehicle's navigation.
"There are three fusion torches. Shut down the torches or we are all going to die." The woman's whispered, her voice straining as she pleaded. Garrus knew she was in a hostile situation if she had to keep quiet. Who exactly would do this? If it was for ransom, why hadn't there been any communication from the terrorists with their demands? Something just wasn't adding up. Terra Nova was a peaceful colony for the most part with a port for shipping and a large city. The radio cut off unexpectedly. She had to go and for the time being they were on their own.
"We have our orders. Let's get these guys," Shepard checked his rifle as he motioned for Garrus to slow down the rover.
"No movement outside," Ash spoke up as she swiveled around in her chair to get her weapons.
"Maybe we will get the drop in on these guys." Garrus optimistically said.
"I'm sure they saw our ship approaching." Shepard was the first one to exit the rover.
"They are already scared," Garrus joked as he was the second one to exit.
"LT, you go first," Shepard waved her with his hand.
"How chivalrous of you," Ash smiled at her commanding officer as she made her way up ahead with her rifle poised to take on any threat that would come her way. She moved her head from side to side to make sure there were no ambushes. Shepard followed and Garrus covered the rear.
Quietly, Ash moved to the door and waited for the others to come and then took a breath before opening the door. Inside the complex were several humanoid bipedal figures with four eyes. They turned their bulbous heads to see who was coming in. Beside them were several canine like creatures tearing into a dead body. The humanoids didn't seem alarmed by their presence. One hissed between his sharp teeth. Garrus couldn't believe his eyes at first, but Shepard spoke for him. "Batarians," the word came out as if it was poisonous.
"Harak! Chekt! Chekt!" One of the Batarians commanded to their pet varren. The varren quickly forgot about their meal and lurched forward to obey. Their iris less glassy eyes staring at the trio in the doorway with one thing in mind: Their next meal.
"Kill 'em all!" Shepard opened fire on the nearest varren nailing the dog like creature in the head. It whimpered in pain as it skidded across the floor, lifeless. Ash and Garrus took care of the remaining two.
Garrus could hear another voice further in the complex yell over to their compatriots in terror in the same language as the Batarians were speaking. One Batarian spoke up, "Teil!" The Batarians began to open fire with their rifles causing Shepard and his team to take cover.
"Good! I needed another firefight!" Garrus yelled over the gunfire as he moved up to fire a few rounds.
"I hate these guys!" Ash dove across to take cover at another position, catching one of the Batarians off guard and took him down quickly.
Garrus took a moment to check on the Commander. The man's face was dark and his brow furrowed. He seemed to have an icy glare at their enemies. As if this firefight was personal. Garrus almost pondered as to what causing this sudden change in their leader. He didn't know much about the Commander's past but John was acting as if he was getting revenge on these strangers. John didn't seem to indicate that he knew these exact ones. He shook the contemplation out of his head and decided to shelve it for after the mission and returned his focus to the fight at hand. The guarding Batarians were now dead and the room filled with several more to avenge their fallen. They screamed at the invaders in their language and charged at the trio blindly. Garrus moved back as he noticed the point of entry for them was a ramp at the end of the complex. He switched to his sniper rifle and set his sights on one Batarian that just came down the ramp. He pulled the trigger and struck the foe straight in the head, making his cranium explode. "Scratch one!"
Shepard used his rifle as a weapon as he delivered a hard uppercut to one catching the Batarian off guard before he turned the rifle and shot him point blank. The complex now remained silent. "I should have known it was them. They hate us." Ashley spat as she kicked one of the dead bodies to the side as they made their way to the upper platform. Garrus remained silent in hopes that Shepard would be the next to speak up to tell of his past meetings with the four eyed aliens but they were in vain. The commander remained focus as he made his way into the room and saw a panel that controlled one of the propulsion torches. He wasted no time in scanning the panel with his omni tool and placing in the correct code for disablement.
"One down, two more to go. Let's move, "Shepard said with a smile.
The fight for the remaining torches seemed harder. The terrorists were become desperate as it seemed after communication with the hostages at one point that one of them was executed. Time was of the essence! If they didn't reach whoever was in charge, then more of them were going to die. The good news was after the shutting down the final torch, the asteroid was no longer on a collision course and Terra Nova at the moment was safe. Just as they were heading to lead out of the third facility, a voice called over to them. "Stop right there." Three armed Batarians were standing there. But unlike the ones they encountered earlier on, these three were smart. They were not quick to start fight against someone they were bound to know now they could not stop. Shepard and his team had the upper hand but it may not stop these three to be one of the last resistance. The one in the middle halted them with his hand. "Don't come any closer. We can do this the hard way or we can do this peacefully." Garrus eyed the other two to make sure this wasn't a trick to catch them off guard. Their fingers remained on the triggers of their weapons but they were not tensing their muscles so they were a bit relaxed. The one on the right had a scar on his face and he glared Garrus for leering at them too long.
"I didn't think you Batarian scum knew what peacefully meant?" Ash spat. Shepard held up his hand to calm her down.
"My name is Charn Prak'saros," The one in the middle called himself. "My compatriots are Bakis Drag'rewar and Sh'sk Bek'tall. Hijacking this rock wasn't my idea. This was supposed to be a quick slave grab and nothing more. I'm only following orders here."
"Why don't you take your men then and go?" Shepard asked.
Charn shook his head. "I don't think so. Balak would skin me alive and sell my hide out of spite. Balak wants you three dead and whatever Balak wants, Balak gets." Garrus noticed that Sh'sk's hands tightened more on his weapon. Things were about to set off. He held his breath.
"I just killed lot more of your kind to get to you. Do you really Balak is worth dying for? I am going to find him and kill him." Shepard held his head up higher as he straightened his shoulders to almost make himself look bigger.
Charn paused as he turned to his friend on the right for guidance. Sh'sk studied the three without a pause in breath and then nodded his head, grunting slightly. Charn sighed and then turned his focus back to their uninvited guests. "It's not worth dying for today and if Balak is dead then I have nothing to worry about." He reached out and handed the commander a keycard. "This will get you in the main facility."
"Good. I suggest you get back to your transport and get the hell out of here before I change my mind. If I come out of that facility after I deal with him and I hear word that you three are still lurking about, believe that I will be coming after you next. Are we clear?" The commander replied in a threatening tone. Garrus noticed that Ash was biting her tongue to fight off a rebuttal. She didn't think he would let any of the terrorists simply walk away.
"Perfectly," Charn motioned for this men to follow him. "Let's get out of here."
Shepard remained guarded until he and his friends were the only ones left in the complex. He wouldn't put it past the Batarian to ambush them now or outside the facility when they were on their way back to the Mako. "Let's head back to the Mako and take down Balak," he finally spoke up.
The main facility held majority of the Batarian troopers. They were taking from all sides so Shepard divided his team up. Garrus ran to the left and quickly took out three approaching varren. The fight seemed like it went on forever until the complex remained calm. He met Shepard and Ash in the center as they looked around to see if every hostile was accounted for. "You humans," A Batarian spoke out nearby. They turned their heads to see a green and yellow skinned four-eyed standing at the steps with two escorts beside him heavily armed. A varren growled viciously at his side. "You're more trouble than your worth."
"I'm only getting started, you sick bastard," LT growled through her clenched teeth. Garrus kept his eyes peered for any upcoming ambushes. Balak seemed to be pretty smart and coming out without firing was not a good sign. He glared particularly at Shepard and Ashley with distaste. Apparently the hatred between the Batarians and Humans still ran deep despite the years that came between them. And he thought the Krogan and Turian hated each other. He guessed there had to be someone. Not everyone could get along. The galaxy was definitely not a utopia despite everyone's efforts to deem it so.
"I'm leaving this asteroid. If you try to stop me, I'll denote these charges. I'll kill all the hostages you came to release," Balak spoke calmly.
"How does killing innocent people justify this? Is your kind that warped? Shepard asked angrily. Balak had placed them in a difficult situation.
"I could ask you the same question. How did the killing of innocent Batarians on Torfan solve anything?! Did you forget about that?"
"Torfan was in retaliation to what happened on Elysium!"
"Enough! I'm done talking!" Balak shouted over him. "I'm walking off this asteroid."
"We will disable those bombs and then I'm coming after you," Shepard gripped his rifle closer.
"You will try," Balak hissed.
"Garrus?" Shepard asked.
Before knowing the next part of the question, Garrus knew the request. "I'm on it!" He dashed and Ashley followed him as he made his way to the first bomb. Ash began to open fire on the Batarians that obstructed their path while Shepard went the opposite direction to draw some of their opposition while keeping his focus on Balak's location. The first bomb was easy to get it and Garrus knelt down and began to hack the system with his omni tool. Ash stood beside him to watch for any surprise fire. Several Batarians were coming their way and the dark haired woman knew she couldn't hold back all of them.
"Hurry up, Garrus…"
"Almost…got it!" Garrus yelled in relief as he stood back up to assist her. "Let's go get next one!"
"We got three minutes!"
"Never do a countdown to me!"
The second bomb was tucked away in one of the empty rooms. Garrus had little opposition there but the last one was squarely placed in the room with the hostages. The despairing humans trembled and cried as Garrus and Ash came crashing into the door. The sound of gunfire made everyone inside stay put in fear of being instantly killed. Ash remained at the door and broke a Batarian's jaw with the butt of her gun. Garrus tossed a calm smile to the hostages as best as he could to reassure them as he focused on disabling the last bomb. "Come on…come on," The Turian began to panic as he watched the countdown get closer and closer to detonation. Finally, the chime announced that he wanted to hear. It was disabled. "Done!"
"Good because our friends out here are not too happy!" Ash dove back inside as waves of rounds shot across the hallway.
"Friends now? We only met really three of them…well four if you count the lovely host, Balak," Garrus teased as he whipped around the door frame to shoot back catching a few Batarians off guard. They cried out as their armor got ripped up. Ash jumped back into action to join him.
"More of them dead," Ash panted and then turned her head to look over the railing. "Where's the Commander?"
"Over there and it looks like he was able to stop Balak," Garrus pointed. They ran as quickly as they could to help out their leader as the attacking forces were finally depleted.
Balak coughed as he got up with a gun shot in his side and arm. "You humans think you are so superior. But you are no better than us." Without a word, Shepard lifted his side arm and fired, grazing another bullet across Balak's left shoulder. He cried in pain as he grasped his shoulder as red blood came spilling out. "You think killing me will stop the Batarians? We are done hiding. Thousands more support the cause." Shepard shot again, this time hitting Balak in the other shoulder. Crying out louder, Balak slid down as the rush of pain overcame him. "What do you want?! Details?! When the vids show your colonies burning, you will know the Batarian rebellion has begun." Balak coughed louder as he wheezed. "Just leave me to die."
Shepard shrugged and turned around to leave the facility. "Fine." Garrus and Ashley exchanged puzzled looks and then moved to follow John out.
Balak was in shock of his fate as he cried out again almost in fear and despair, "You really going to leave me here to die?"
"I would have killed him. All the Batarians are the same," Williams said out loud as they continued to walk back to the door that led to the Mako. The Commander not even once turned back to address Balak anymore. They could hear laughing as they left the main room.
"Letting him bleed out is a good punishment," Garrus countered. He honestly agreed more to Ash's side but he figured there was a reason as to why Shepard decided the path of Balak's fate. "To your point, Ashley, I agree with you. I never came across a good Batarian yet. I don't think I could ever truly trust one enough. Can you make that in writing when you get more squadmate dossiers for future missions, Commander? No Batarians?"
"Noted," The commander replied shortly.
END OF MASS EFFECT 1….TO BE CONTINUED