Author Note: Here's the next instalment. Thank you for the positive reviews I've received so far, and hopefully the POV changes being shown makes things clearer. Still annoyed about fanfiction deleting my page breaks. Also, just making it clear that Tali is one of my favourite characters, but I saw a way to write something interesting and well ... you'll see in the next few chapters.
Chapter 31
As I climbed out of the skycar I felt … odd. I was in my armour once more, but it didn't grant me the normal relief it did. I hadn't realised just how … freeing it was without it. How freely my body moved after almost two weeks wearing it.
I found myself actual annoyed at having to put it on again as It seemed like, after finally making some progress, I had to go and undo it. I know that wasn't the case, but I would rather have stayed with Rielle than return to the ship. Being able to just relax with her, it was something I had dearly needed, I probably still do. Of course, If I stayed any longer I'm not sure I would have ever left, and Shepard's mission is important, so return I must. I'm visiting Rielle again when I can though, after this mission is all done with maybe.
"Fury?"
I turned around to find Shepard stepping out of another skycar, similar to mind. The sheer number of parallels between us today is getting a little ridiculous …
"Shepard," I nodded. "Satisfied?"
"I suppose, not really happy though. How bout you?" Shepard quirked an eyebrow.
"It was … good to catch up."
"Well, at least one of us enjoyed it." She muttered. I internally sighed instead of refuting her, If only things could be that simple. Today had been necessary, but not exactly fun. I didn't enjoy reliving what happened, but in the end, it was soothing. I wasn't going to explain that to Shepard though. Not because I didn't want her to know, but because she clearly had her own issues to deal with. Discussing how your corpse was handled didn't sound like my idea of fun.
We walked in silence towards the Normandy, Shepard not filling it like she normally did. Was she really that bothered? … should I ask her if she was okay? She had gone out of her way to make sure I was alright after Horizon after all.
"… do you want to talk about it?"
"I'm good." Shepard smiled wanly. Oh, thank the goddess.
I nodded, accepting her silence. This wasn't really a place I'd want to talk about things either, too easily overheard. We were at the ship's entrance as well, and I know of at least one person listening.
"Welcome aboard Commander Shepard. Fury. Decontamination initialising." EDI's monotone voice greeted us once we were onboard.
"Thank you EDI, please inform the ground team that we're having a meeting in 20 minutes."
"Of course, Commander Shepard."
"I'm just going to head to the meeting room now, feel free to follow me." Shepard commented, walking forward now that we were decontaminated.
"I need to make a stop off in the infirmary first, I need to see Karen about something."
"Oh? Sounds like an interesting story, considering you were meeting an 'old friend.'" Shepard grinned at me and I sighed. I knew she was going to take it the wrong way.
"I have a package to deliver to her. I want to drop it off before I forget."
"Boo. I'll see you soon then." Shepard nodded as we reached the turnoff where we split up. I made my way towards Karen's office leisurely, knocking on the door and waiting for her response. I didn't want to just barge in if she needed privacy.
"Come in!" She called from inside, guess she was fine then. "Fury, good to see you again. Is your leg bothering you still?"
"No, it's fine," mostly. "This will be quick. First, I have a delivery for you." I reached back behind me for one of the storage compartments on my back, opening it and handing a familiar blue bottle to her. Considering how little I used guns Vassen may have been a touch overzealous with the storage, but I could certainly make use of it for important matters.
"Oh my, you shouldn't have." Karen gasped but took the bottle immediately.
"Just make sure I get a bit of it too. I also was hoping you could apply some cooling cream for me. It's in a … hard to reach spot."
"Really?" she grinned at me. I ignored her and went to take off my helmet, knowing there was no surveillance in here, but I think I better check again anyway. I'm not … against letting people get to know me truly, but it has to be on my terms. Karen's introduction may have been forced, but something about her just made me like her.
I used my Omni-tool to send off another search and frowned at the response. Walking over, I leaned behind a counter and picked up a decently hidden device. It was different from the other tech I'd already sabotaged in the engineering bay, less polished and far less hidden.
"Seems like you have an amateur spy on board." I frowned, even as I crushed the device with a biotically enhanced clench of my fist. I wonder who was behind this? My money was actually on it not being Miranda, this was too sloppy. Miranda had been anything but sloppy, and she seemed to take medical privacy seriously.
Doesn't matter now anyway, so I put it out of my mind and took of my helmet. Then I took off the top half of my armour and finally my sports bra, making no move to cover up.
"It's on my left shoulder blade." I told the unphased doctor next to me, turning away from her.
"You got another tattoo?"
"Yeah," I nodded, "the person I caught up with was the one who gave me the rest."
"She does fantastic work then." Karen praised and began to rub the soothing cream on the reddened skin. It wasn't too bad, but I didn't want to risk ruining the tattoo by not performing the proper aftercare Rielle had prescribed. Something about setting it …?
"You want her details?"
"Tattoos aren't really my thing, but thank you for the offer."
Karen asked no more questions about the tattoo after that, which I was thankful for. She really was good at this socialising thing, much more than I.
All in all, it only took me 5 minutes from when I left Shepard to when I reached the meeting room, quite a bit faster than I expected. I was confused why the door was shut, but I figured it was for a reason so I raised my hand to knock on it.
"It's my sister, she's in danger." My hand paused at hearing Miranda's voice, it didn't contain her normal confidence. Why was that?
"Our father is a dangerous man, and I took Oriana away from him as soon as I could." Miranda's voice was muffled by the door, but it didn't contain the same sound proofing as her office and the sensors in my helmet were powerful enough to clean it up. Permanently wearing a full helmet had some perks.
"One of my contacts reached out to me this morning, they say that Oriana been discovered and that she needs to be moved." Just who was Miranda's father? And why did Miranda sound so distressed by him potentially finding her sister?
"I would help you Miranda, but the situation with Samara is delicate and I need to be there. We already lost one recruit in Krios, I don't want to risk losing another. I can't help you, but if you need to go help her I won't stop you." Shepard sounded regretful to my ears, but she was resolute.
"That's … that's fine Shepard. I'll manage." Miranda accepted Shepard's refusal easily enough, but she sounded resigned about something. Why was she so worried that she asked for Shepard's help? Shepard is easily among the most dangerous combatants in the galaxy, so Miranda asking her specifically instead of Cerberus meant something. Miranda even bringing this up with Shepard meant something though, they didn't really get on, so asking for Shepard's help directly? She was desperate. Desperate enough to try and do it herself anyway?
The alleyway flashed before my eyes, the bloody dress vivid in my mind, but even more vivid was Rialle's smile. 'Don't become Fury again.' Miranda needed help, she needed help or she might … might end up like Rialle. She wasn't a combatant like Shepard or I were, she was an infiltrator who might be gearing up for a fight she can't win. I could …
I opened the door and stepped into the room before I could stop myself, surprising the pair.
"I'll come." I told them, before I could think of a reason to stop myself. When Rialle ordered me to 'not become Fury again', she meant how I once was, before I met the dancers, back when I just didn't really care.
"Fury? What were you … No, it doesn't matter. I'll gladly accept you help." Miranda smiled at me gratefully, her eyes showing bone-deep relief. She then turned back to Shepard with a hopeful look on her face. Shepard took a moment to respond, lost in thought about something.
"Very well Fury, if you're willing to help Miranda then feel free."
"Thank you commander." Miranda bowed her head, before raising it again. "One more thing, would you mind keeping this talk private? I'd rather my private life isn't disclosed to anyone else."
"Of course, just stay for the briefing then do what you need to." Shepard nodded, turning back to her data-pad. Miranda made her way over to me at the obvious end of the conversation, and put a hand on my shoulder, leaning her lips near where my ear was located.
"Thank you," She whispered emphatically. "follow me after the briefing, I need to meet with my contact." I nodded but didn't reply seeing as Jacob had just entered the room.
[POV: Tali]
I may have shown up a little late, totally not my fault I got distracted. Finding hiding places for things on a ship with a damned AI is difficult okay? It was only like, a minute.
"Alright, everyone's here so let's begin." Shepard stood up from the wall she had been leaning against, hands still crossed in front of her. "First of all, to those who didn't know Fury and I visited an old friend of mine, Liara T'soni." Shepard visited Liara? … that can't have gone well, and why did she bring Fury for that? "There were two potential recruits here on Illium, we are unfortunately too late to catch one of them, but that still leaves the other. They are an old Asari Justicar named Samara, an experienced bitoic."
What the hell is a Justicar?
"What makes her so special Bossman? We already have leader." Grunt grumbled, and I still hated how he was more loyal to Fury than Shepard, Shepard was the leader of the ship. That being said, never letting that nickname go. It's hilarious.
"Aside from us needing all the help we can get?" Shepard retorted, Grunt wisely didn't reply. "Justicar's are apparently widely respected among the Asari people, and some of the other races as well. That will certainly help, but it's more the reason they are widely respected. Justicar's are wandering warriors that meet out 'justice' in asari space, which gives them a good reputation. We could certainly borrow some of it."
Fury's snort was audible to me, even from the other side of the room. What was so funny?
Shepard narrowed her eyes at the Enforcer before smirking. "Something to add Fury? My knowledge on them isn't exactly in depth." I can see why, I hadn't even heard of the term before today, but our resident Asari should know.
"If I must. Keeping it simple, the Justicar are effectively a religious order. They forswear having family and all worldly possessions except armour and weapons. Instead of a god though, they swear themselves to the Justicar code, which requires them to wander Asari space and right any wrongs they witness."
Firstly, that was the longest I'd ever seen Fury speak. Secondly, that description didn't exactly fill me with comfort.
"Saying they are widely respected is also a bit of a generalisation. A justicar has no supervisor, no leader to give them orders. They obey nothing but the code, so if they see something they deem unjust, they must right it. You can possibly see where government officials might have a problem with that?"
"I don't know, sounds like my kind of religion. How do I sign up?" Garrus joked.
"Did you miss the part about abstinence?" Shepard smirked at him. "Please continue Fury, this is valuable information."
"The key thing to know is that this part of the code means they make enemies everywhere they go, fighting a constant battle wherever they go. Did you see how long Samara has been a Justicar?"
"… more than a hundred years?" Shepard squinted her eyes, probably doesn't remember clearly.
"A long time then. In a job that regularly kills them in the first few years. Samara will be formidable to say the least. I have heard of maybe 3 other Justicar's lasting that long."
Well, that's an endorsement.
"Really? How would she stack up against you?" Shepard let her curiosity get the best of you, and even without seeing Fury's face I could tell she sent a flat look at Shepard. She's rather good at emoting without a face, even I use eyes.
"I could take her. She will still be better than basically any other biotic we meet. There's also a handy little bit of the Justicar code you can use to recruit her. Something about a worthy cause? I can't remember. Just talk to whoever's been keeping track of her, there will undoubtedly be someone acting as a clean-up crew. Liara probably mentioned someone?"
"She did. Thank you Fury." Shepard nodded, then turned back to face the rest of us. "Now, Samara is currently being detained in a police station, but she will only stay there for another 6 hours so we will have to hurry. I don't expect to get into a fight, but I want to take Garrus and Grunt with me just in case. With my luck, I'm bound to need it." Shepard sighed. Wait why is she taking those two? What about the literal expert in residence?
"Why not take Fury with you? She clearly has more experience with them." I asked, seeing as no one else was going to. Shepard paused at my question, before glancing in Fury's general direction.
"Fury is helping Miranda out with something else." Shepard replied without explaining further. What are they all hiding, and why can't see that Fury is suspicious?! Miranda is clearly up to no good, she's part of God-damn Cerberus. Shepard already died once, I don't want it to happen again so if she isn't going to take proper precautions then I will.
I need to know more about Fury, so let's see what her Omni-tool tells me, shall we? I opened my Omni-tool casually, as if I was reading something but I activated one of my subtle programs. It was designed to hack into Omni-tools without letting them know, then copy the data directly to mine. It's cracked more than a few devices in its time, so let's see what Fury has to hide.
Wait … what? Why isn't it working? It should have cracked the security within a few seconds, what kind of security program does she have? It can't be a normal one, I preprogramed all the standard issue security suites that I could find into my little hacking program. It must be custom. Fine, let's do this the hard way then.
I kept half an ear out for the rest of the briefing, but nothing important was said and before I knew it the meeting was over. Damn it! I was getting close to cracking it, but I had no time to finish. I closed out of the software as casually as I could, standing up as everyone else did so as to not rouse suspicion. I'm just lucky I was sitting at an angle that no-one else could see my screen on, sitting next to the behemoth that was Grunt had been a coincidence on my part, but one that paid off for me.
Just you wait Fury, your security's good, but I'll find out what you're hiding soon enough.
[POV: Jack]
"What do you currently know?"
"Not much," Miranda frowned. "I received a message from an Asari named Lanteia this morning, she's one of my contacts. She didn't want to risk the message being leaked, so she requested we meet in person. That's where we're going now."
I nodded, accepting her explanation. We spent the rest of the trip in silence, Miranda was in no mood to try and broach one, and I didn't particularly feel like it either. I know I'm not asking for many details here, but I didn't need them. As far as I could tell, all we were really trying to do was make sure an innocent girl escapes the clutches of her bastard of a father, and I was just fine with that. I also just wanted something to do, I'd been sitting around the ship for days now and it was starting to feel stifling. I didn't like just sitting around like that, and I had done enough introspection today, I needed to let off a little steam.
"This it?" I questioned the woman beside me. We were outside a rather upscale looking bar called 'Eternity', the skycar having dropped us off nearby. Miranda had put a jacket on over her catsuit, so she blended in well enough, but my armour kind of stood out. It's probably a good thing my weapons are largely of the concealed variety – the only firearm I carry a pistol.
Because of that, I was only getting stared at instead of being asked to leave by the Asari behind the bar.
"She's over there." Miranda muttered from beside me, catching my attention. She subtly gestured to an Asari in a red dress off in a corner, with only one spare seat.
"Go speak to her, I'll wait at the bar."
Miranda nodded and walked off, leaving me alone. Seeing as I had nothing better to do, I stepped over towards the bar and took a seat. Taking a look at all of the bottles on offer, most of them are unfamiliar to me but I spot a few names I know, rare names.
"Can I get you anything?" The bartender asked me, having walked over in the time I perused her wares.
"Depends, you sell anything by the bottle?"
"For a price." She grinned at me lazily, leaning on the bar. Of course, well in for a penny …
"How much to deliver as well? I have something else to do at the moment."
The bartender blinked at me a few times, then frowned as she thought it over.
"I'm willing to discuss it, but it will have to be after my shift ends in a few hours."
"Then I'd like 1 bottle of ad astra and 2 of Ryncol delivered to the currently docked SR2 Normandy. How much would that be?"
She didn't reply, instead tapping away at her Omnitool for a minute, then making it display the screen to me with a figure on it. I groaned internally at the price, but confirmed the transaction using my own omni-tool. Aria had been looking for a bottle of Ad astra for years now, it was hard to come by even in Asari space so when I saw this bar had it, I figured it was worth a shot. You better be grateful for this mom. The Ryncol, which was far cheaper even for both bottles, was for Grunt. It had come up in conversation at one point that he was interested in trying the stuff. I've had it before, potent stuff, but I figure it might be nice to just … share a drink with him. I've grown fond of the Krogan, and I think he deserved that bit of trust, so little of the crew showed it to him. Shepard was the only one not wary of him, even if only a little bit, and while he didn't mind it personally I personally knew it was nice when that wasn't always the case.
"Pleasure doing business with you. Will you be onboard at the time?" she grinned at me, for good reason. She just made a very good tip.
"Unlikely, just announce the delivery to the VI on board, someone will handle it." I grunted, stepping away from the bar. I turned around to find Miranda coming my way, the conversation apparently over. She was frowning at whatever had been said and jerked her head for me to follow her out. It was only once we were in a skycar again and the destination was set that she turned to me.
"We have a problem. My primary contact for Oriana, Niket, messaged Lanteia. My father has eclipse mercenaries sweeping the docks, looking for her. Niket is handling moving Oriana and her family himself, but it's risky. We need to go make sure everything goes smoothly." Miranda's jaw clenched and she looked to the side, her knee bouncing up and down.
"Oriana's family?" I queried, not knowing about them. Miranda glanced at me, eyes tense before she sighed, leaning back into the seat beside me.
"I am older than my sister, much childhood was … terrible, because of my father. The things he did, what he demanded of me …," Miranda trailed off before shaking her head. "I didn't want that for Oriana, so I took her away from him when she was a baby. I wanted to keep her with me …" Miranda closed her eyes, sighing. "It wasn't safe for her. Cerberus was willing to help keep us hidden from him, but that required that I work for them, and I didn't want Oriana to grow up in Cerberus. I still believe them necessary!" Miranda opened her eyes and looked at me pointedly "but it would not have been a pleasant life for her."
Miranda trailed off here, falling silent for a minute in contemplation. I let her be, waiting patiently. This was hard for her to tell me, I could see that. She was trusting me with this information because it was important to helping Oriana, who Miranda seemed fully devoted to helping. I could admire that about her.
"I didn't want to, but I couldn't look after Oriana, so I let her be adopted by a family through a fake orphanage. As far as they're aware, she was just a normal baby that they took into their family."
Wait, does that mean …?
"Does Oriana not know?" Miranda looked at me with a pained smile, her eyes tight.
"It was too risky to tell her." she commented casually, trying so hard to keep up the mask I could see cracking. That was more info than she needed to tell me, so I decided to let it be.
"Does that mean we are trying to take out the mercenaries subtly?"
"That would be preferable." Miranda nodded, slipping back into mission mode. "But the most important thing is that Oriana and her family get away from here. The parents had to know about the situation so we could get them to enter 'witness protection' willingly. We haven't told them the exact truth, but enough of it."
Miranda grimaced at having had to do that, clearly it wasn't her preference, but when the situation requires.
"Well, at least you have the actually stealthy one accompanying you. I imagine Shepard would greet them with an assault rifle, maybe a grenade or two."
Miranda scoffed at my little Joke, but there was a small smile on her face that wasn't present before. The silence we fell into was more comfortable than before, but it didn't matter anyway, we were nearly there.
I could see the docks in the distance, the different ships moving in and out of it reminding me of swarming insects from this distance, the docks their hive. Our approach continued for a minute, the view growing in size the whole time before Miranda cried out:
"There are eclipse gunships down there!"
Wait, what? I looked where she was pointing and sure enough, gunships. There must be half a dozen of them, a bad sign. They weren't impossible to deal with, but it was generally easier if you could just avoid them –
Our car shook violently from an unknown impact, throwing Miranda into me even as the car began spiralling out of control.
"They bloody shot us!" Miranda growled as she took hold of the steering wheel, trying to steer us. It was less than successful, as we were still falling rather quickly, but at least she stopped the random flailing.
"Hang on!" she yelled over the blaring alarms the car was putting out, giving the steering wheel one last jerk for a reason unknown to me. I had never been in these cars much, and I wasn't the biggest fan of crashing in one. What I did know was that this was going to hurt, we were falling quickly, too quickly. Shit! Miranda wasn't armoured like I was. Ignoring the blaring alarms and swaying vehicle as best I could, I flooded biotic energy into my hands and, holding them flat, slammed my palms together. This was the best I had managed to figure out for stasis, a biotic technique requiring a bit finer control than I liked. The best I had been able to figure out was forming a spherical stasis around my form with a copious amount of energy. It wasn't something I would use in combat as it froze me as well, but it should at least help here.
That was the last thought I had before we crashed into the ground, the skycar bouncing up and down and ultimately flipping over before slamming into something with a viscous impact. The contents inside of the car were only somewhat held together by my field, Miranda and I included. This wasn't my best stasis, I had only had a split second to create it when I normally took 2 seconds. What that translated to was that I was thrown into the front of the car, my armour digging into it a little and what felt like a massive bruise forming where the last had finally begun to fade.
Considering how violent the crash had been, it took me a moment to realise there was a squirming body on top of mine, wrapped in my arms. I must have subconsciously held on to Miranda in an effort to protect her.
"auugh…" she groaned into my ear, I currently didn't have the air to join her, the wind being knocked out of me, but trust me when I say I would have joined her. Finally, I was able to gasp in some much-needed oxygen.
"Fuuuckkkkk."
"Fury?" Miranda coughed a few times from above me. "Alive?"
"For now. We need to move." I pulled myself up, releasing Miranda and letting her roll next to me. She cried out as she did, injured, but I didn't have the time to check on her. We were just shot down by something, presumably one of the Eclipse Gunships, and they could be hovering nearby for all I know. I glanced around the car just to see which way would be best to exit. It was somewhat tilted, the chassis having deformed significantly on impact, and a total wreck. I'm not paying for that. Both doors looked crumpled in their frames, their was no way they were opening normally.
"Shit!" Miranda cursed, trying to open her door without any success. It was the only one not facing the ground/wall? So out it we go.
"Move out of the way, I'm going to have to force it." Miranda nodded, moving as far from the door from possible with a wince. There was also some blood dripping down the side of her face, but only a little bit. If her head wound was serious then there would be far more than that. It must be noted that, as this was a 2-person skycar there wasn't much room, so Miranda ended up beside me. Using the mangled seats and steering wheel, I got myself into position with both feet planted on the door. I pulled on the energy within me, flooding it into my body. I didn't have the room or time for any real technique, so brute force it was. I channelled a significant amount of energy into my body, my form enshrouded with the energy and visibly glowing as I tensed up, beginning to push. I pushed harder and harder, using more and more biotic energy untill I felt the door begin to give, then I let the energy in my legs explode out from my feet in a burst of energy that knocked the door right off, slamming into the ground couple of metres away.
"Move!" I ordered Miranda, pulling myself out of the car before helping Miranda down after me. Briefly glancing around, I found the ground littered with debris from the skycar and the damaged ground nearby. I also quickly noticed the Mercenaries just standing there, waiting for us.
"It's good to see you Miss Lawson!" the obvious leader called out once he saw we both noticed him. I swear, if he was the one who shot us down I am going to murder him.
"I'm afraid we haven't had the pleasure of meeting. Who are you?" Miranda moved in front of me, drawing the attention towards her. I could use this.
"It's not who I am that matters, it's who I work for. You see, I work for captain Enayla." The armour man explained pompously. Man he's drawing this out, but I can use it. I made sure I wasn't moving my head, but I looked as far around as I could behind my opaque helmet. There was some cover a little while back in the form of raised garden beds, weird spot, but far more useful was the fuel tank above the group of mercenaries in front of us. There was 5 of them beneath the tank and a few further back keeping watch on the surroundings.
"My father's lapdog." Miranda spat at the mercenary.
"He pays well," he shrugged, "but I think that's enough pleasantries. We can do this the easy way or the hard way, and between me and you, your father would prefer to regain Oriana over you."
You know what they say, no one ever looks up …
This is going to be a little tricky. I ease up on the grip I kept on my biotics, letting the energy flow a little. Not much, just as much as I could without creating a visible aura around me. Wearing full-body armour prevented my glowing skin from giving up the game. It still wasn't useful as it was, but if I concentrated it to a point? Well, now we have something useful.
"I'd like to see you try!" Miranda spat at the mercenary as they all raised their guns in preparation to begin the firefight. Guess it's my turn. I immediately surged the energy suffusing my body, directing it all towards my right fist in a visible spiral of energy flowing along my body. Simultaneously I punched out that hand, both actions finishing at the same time and releasing a volatile bolt of energy that shot right at the fuel tank above the mercenaries.
"Move!" I shouted at Miranda, lunging forward to grab her around the waist before I flung us to the left, behind the closest raised garden-bed. I hadn't been fast enough to prevent a few quick shots hitting me in the back, but my shield took the blows with a loud whine, strained but with more than enough strength left for the explosion that came next.
"Look out-" The leader realised what was happening too late as he just glimpsed the red of the fuel tank above him. It was the last thing he saw as my bolt struck in the next moment, setting off an ear-ringing explosion. The fuel burst out in a fiery conflagration that consumed the 5 mercenaries beneath it, accompanied by a sharp pressure wave that I felt even protected as I was by the garden bed. It was more like a slap to the back of the head than a sucker punch to the gut though, and my shields held up well.
"A little warning?" Miranda grumbled as she rolled back onto her feet with a grunt. She then edged her eyes and gun over the garden bed and began to fire. Instead of responding, I slammed my fists together and let the blue flash encompass me, before standing up fully to get a better look at the outcome of my little trick.
The 5 closest to the blast took the worst of it, their blackened and bloody husks decorating the ground. The ones further back were less effected, but the sudden flash of light and noise, accompanied by the concussive wave, knocked a few to the ground and disoriented the rest. Miranda was taking the opportunity to shoot them while they were distracted, which I followed suit.
Targeting the two with the best armour, I channelled more energy into my limbs, enshrouding them with energy, then I slammed my foot down in front of me and thrust both hands forward. The two mercenaries were thrown back violently into the building behind them, crumpling to the floor in a broken mess. One of them now sported a distinctly broken neck and the other didn't look much better, but I would have to get closer to check. Which I could, as Miranda had finished off the last of them currently here. Seeing we were now alone, Miranda lowered her gun and put one hand on her side, grimacing.
"You alright?"
"Cracked a rib I think. Doesn't feel broken." Mirada grit her teeth as she felt around the area.
"How bout your head?"
"My head …?" Miranda lifted her hand and felt around, drawing it away to find a little blood on it. "Only a little blood. I'll be fine, just let me use a numbing agent then we can keep moving."
I somewhat doubted the wisdom in that, but it was her decision so I didn't stop her. I also didn't mention how she would have benefitted by wearing proper armour, but I really wanted to.
"Alright, let's go. There will be more on the way, the explosion wasn't exactly subtle." She sent a look my way.
"Neither was crashing a sky car."
Miranda sent me another look, this one sardonic, but I chose to ignore it.
We had to pick out way through the corpses as the entrance was that way, Miranda stopping to shoot a few in the head and rummage through them for something, not sure what. I was keeping an eye on our surroundings. I was used to knowing the exact layout of where I was working, where all the hiding spots and ambush points were.
"We have to go down the elevator." Miranda said, having consulted her Omni-tool. This just sounds like a bad idea. Even so, we got into the accursedly slow device as Miranda started fiddling with the device she picked up from the dead mercenary. Now that I was close enough I could see that it was a communication device of some sort. At least, I could see the ear-piece part of it.
"… they …" it suddenly started making noise, static appearing. Miranda narrowed her eyes before tweaking one more thing on her Omni-tool, which she'd hooked up to the device.
"I repeat, we have hostiles inbound. It's Miranda Lawson and one associate. We lost contact with squad Bravo. Be on your guard and keep an eye out. I am also authorising the use of the mech's. Good hunting people. Enayla out."
Well, shit.
"Things just got a little more complicated. You've dealt with eclipse mech's before?" Miranda queried me, frowning.
What? I lived on Omega.
"… Yes." Something else was bothering me though, it left me a little suspicious.
"How do they know who we are?"
"I'm … not actually sure. Maybe one of the mercenaries managed to a message out or had a body-cam." She mused, but I had some doubts.
"Would that be enough to confirm it was you though? Did anyone else know you would be here today?"
"No-one I don't trust completely." Miranda commented. "I was the one who abducted Oriana in the first place, my father likely told them to look out for me and gave them some of my old photos. I don't look terribly different from when I was still living with him."
Fine, if she's so sure that she can trust her informants, then fine. I'll be suspicious for the both of us.
I stepped out of the elevator doors first when they finally opened, my barrier raised. I didn't see anyone with a quick scan, so I moved forward to a crate I could hide behind, Miranda following me.
"They just exited from the elevator on floor 3A, tango squad move on their position." The jury-rigged radio Miranda was now wearing buzzed into her ear and through the speakers in my helmet. Shit! I looked around for what gave us away and found a cleverly hidden camera drone hiding near the upper left corner of the cavernous room.
"This is going to turn into an attrition match." I mused as Miranda cursed beside me.
"They have better equipment than I thought." She scowled.
In mutual agreement neither of us acted any different from before, walking around the floor carefully as if trying to avoid notice. Having access to their comm's channel was useful and we didn't want them to suspect we did. It would cost us the only advantage we had.
"How do you want to play this when they get here?" I had a few ideas myself, but I was trying to get used to following someone else's orders. I was far too used to doing as I wanted to, and on the missions Shepard was taking us on that could get someone killed. This was also personal to Miranda, and what she wanted goes here.
"They're going to be watching us the entire time with those blasted drones of theirs and judging by the number of gunships outside, Enayla has the bodies to spare. Try to keep as many tricks hidden as you can. How are you with your pistol?" I rotated my hand back and forth. It wasn't something I used much, and I'm probably a little out of practice.
Miranda closed her eyes in thought for a moment, pondering.
"Use it anyway, but only if you must. Just try to support me as best you can with your biotics, without giving too much away. Similar to Horizon, but only with basic techniques." That I can do. Does leave one question though.
"What about my Omni-blades? Surprise?"
"A rather nasty one." She grinned at me maliciously, which I shared. I was … far too fond of them, more than I probably should be.
We continued to make our way through the room undisturbed, to my surprise. What's taking them so long?
"We are in position, tango squad moving in on the target."
Ah, there we go. I shared a glance with Miranda, and we just happened to start walking towards the closest bit of good cover. Purely a coincidence, I assure you.
I could hear the squad now, the noise they were making in the otherwise quiet room standing out. I snapped my head up and looked around, quickly spotting the squad emerging from a door more than a dozen metres away from us. Miranda and I sprinted the last couple metres before we reached the industrial loader filled with small metal crates that looked rather useful. I also remade my barrier. I'd let it fade since the opening fight as we had encountered no immediate resistance. There was no point in keeping it up If I didn't have to, it was easy to maintain but it costed me at least a little effort.
"Create a basic singularity and throw it at them!" Miranda ordered and I nodded, letting my arms swing out as I channelled biotic energy in front of me. I condensed into the potent technique by rotating my arms and bringing them together, throwing the singularity at the grouped-up mercenaries shooting at us. I had to move slightly out of cover to do so and was shot three times as punishment. My barrier did flare a bit doing so, but the combined protection of even my average barrier plus the expensive shields I used shouldn't be underestimated.
I was able to see when the singularity struck, catching three of the Eclipse men in its grasp. The two on the left were able to dive out of the way seeing as they were the least blocked in. Miranda used my distraction to start shooting at the trapped mercenaries, but it only had so much effect. She was using a decent pistol, but it wasn't outstanding, it was a pistol. She only whittled away the shields of the first mercenary before the other two still free were in position again. Miranda turned to deal with them, but I waved my arm at her.
"I've got them. Finish the three off."
Letting loose a stream of energy within me, I let it surround me as I focused on the crates in front of me. Several of them began floating and with each thrust of my arm were hurled at the pair that had just begun to fire on us again. This took a fair bit of my concentration as multitasking was something I very much still struggled with, but it did sell the image we were trying to sell of me being a typical biotic. A skilled one, sure, but not to a crazy extent for an Asari.
What that translated to was that I was able to throw a crate roughly every two seconds, which was just enough that the two mercenaries had no time to shoot back at us, too busy dodging the crates and the shrapnel formed from the crates. My apologies to whoever's deliveries I just ruined.
The whole time I'd been doing this, Miranda shot at the trapped trio of mercenaries. The sharp cracks of her pistol interspersing the crashing noises of my crates. I couldn't really see how successful she'd been as the other pair had moved to far over for me to spare a glance, but she must have made some considering how many shots she'd fired.
"Damn it!" Miranda cursed, slipping beside me once more. "The singularity expired before I could finish the third, they have expensive armour."
"Alright." I grunted before finally nailing one of the bastard with a crate. "Ha!" Apparently they didn't see the humour, and my only response was a shot to my head that threw it back a little. It also made my barrier waver violently so I let myself fall back and behind cover.
"The fuck was that?"
"The mechs, I believe." Miranda snarked, currently peaking around the corner of the loader.
"I don't suppose you brought any grenades?"
"I brought two. Why don't you have any?"
"My techniques could set them off. I deemed it too risky." And wasn't that something fun to learn. It was a good thing I had been wearing my armour and using a very strong barrier at the time, but then again the barrier is what set it off in my hand. Turns out that my biotic energy is decently volatile when compared to normal, something about the way the facility enhanced me.
"Give them to me, I'll throw them right at their feet." Miranda didn't bother arguing, seeing as it was somewhat urgent. I also reformed my barrier, the previous having lost a decent portion of its energy from both the gunfire and dissipation to the environment.
Holding one in each hand, I channelled even more biotic energy into my body, concentrating it into my muscles. I used extra care to make sure I was keeping it controlled and within me, but mostly as a precaution. Grenades had been made with biotics in mind so them was some room for error, but I didn't want to risk it. Having prepared as much as I could, I rotated around the side of the loader and searched for my targets. The mercenaries had all grouped up together again, but this time they were accompanied by two mechs. There were 4 more of the things marching toward our position, and I activated the grenade in my right hand and threw it at them immediately.
Even as I threw the grenade I began sprinting towards the right, my enhanced muscles propelling me forward with enough speed to avoid the targeted fire from all the mechs. They had far greater reflexes than the mercenaries, almost instantaneous. I don't care what you say, mech's are far more dangerous than the average grunt even when limited by their own mechanisms, but you certainly paid the price for it.
I weaved my way through the crates and other objects littering the floor, jumping occasionally from location to location in an odd manner that threw off the targeting algorithms of the mechs. I didn't need to do it for long as the grenade finally landed, going off between the grouping. It exploded in a pulse of fire and noise, shattering the somewhat delicate mechanisms of the mechs. That was partly because Miranda used some seriously good grenades, the adaptive display in my visor briefly darkened from the flash of the light and the audio cut down how loud it was. The other reason is that these were cheap mechs. That meant that they were still effective at taking out targets, but on the lower end the main difference between mechs was how many redundancies they had and the durability of their systems.
I couldn't stop to finish them off though, the two mechs further back still fully functional. The three remaining mercenaries had also finally reacted, but it was too late for that. I coiled my leg beneath me as I landed on one of the higher points in the room, releasing a pulse of energy that flung me forward at great speed. I flipped around as I did and grabbed onto the side of another large crate with a convenient handle, using it as a fulcrum to throw me up once more where I threw the second grenade. It exploded in a similar fashion to the first, taking out the mercenaries and their mechs comfortably. I rushed over once I landed though, finding one of the mech's still somewhat functional and trying to re-aim at me. I jumped up and slammed an enhanced knee into its head with another pulse of biotic energy destroying the head in its entirety. Looking back, I found Miranda had finished off the other mech's, finally finishing this fight.
Miranda looked at me with a little awe in her gaze even as she approached, but she hid it quickly.
"That was … impressive. Let's keep moving."
We quickly found another elevator that we would be forced to take, which I entered with a sigh.
"You alright? Those movements were clearly enhanced in some fashion, does it take a toll?"
"Not at the level I was using it. I am … physically gifted." I think the facility may have done something to my musculature as well, it was just a little too good. It took a lot of work to keep myself in the shape required to do things like this, but my body seemed to respond just a little better to the exercise than it should, grow a little stronger that it should.
"You still not willing to explain how you do some of the things you do?" Miranda asked sardonically, but I could see the hope in them.
"Probably, … but I'm not sure you would be … capable of them." That was the most delicate way I could put it.
"Of course." Miranda sighed. Then the Elevator ground to a halt and its lights went out, plunging us into darkness lit only by dim red emergency lighting.
"The elevator that contains our two assailants has been frozen with them stuck in it. All squads aside from my personal guard … move in."