The Citadel was starting to grow old. For all the cool things that one could find in there, so far it had proven to be a shithole when it came to people. Cerberus had just waltzed in and tried to get to me to do... Well, I had no clue they wanted since thankfully Miranda hadn't had a chance to do anything. But the only reason she hadn't had a chance was that some of Saren's people had decided to make a pit stop here and try to take me away. Or kill me. Or both, and I wasn't sure in what order. In the meantime, it turned out that there were a whole lot of shitty jobs being filled with indentured servants, and nobody batted an eyelash. And now, after they already knew about it, Saren's people had made it in for the second time, kidnapped freaking Liara T'Soni, and right out of a Spectre's apartment too!
No matter how much Gee and I searched, she was gone. My geth buddy had been scrubbing every source he could get his virtual hands on, until I told him to stop before he got noticed. No matter how much I wanted to dig, she was gone. Freaking gone. The mission was going downhill faster than I could come up with ways to tell the AI to go screw herself.
Yeah, the AI didn't seem to give a shit about Liara. Which was odd, because we kind of needed Liara to get Shepard out of trouble if the collectors came a-knocking. That was one thing I wasn't going to let happen, but I hadn't discussed it with the AI. She had been on my case every time I tried to make a change to the timeline she deemed too "radical", which was at odds with the whole point of me being there. Well, at least "radical" when it came to Shepard. Yeah, it was quite obvious there was a lot she wasn't telling me. Fat lot of-
Did something just move?
I turned away from my omni-tool, narrowing my gaze as I looked at the door. I was sitting on my bed, going through all the stuff Gee wanted to get down here to form a defensive perimeter. I was shocked to see that automated high-calibre turrets were illegal to own without a license aboard the Citadel. And so were most explosives. Actually, so were half the guns I had, too, but Serrus had hooked me up thanks to Nihlus' endorsement. Still, I better no go around brandishing them until-
Shit, there it is again.
It was as if something had shifted right at the edge of my vision. But when I turned, there was nothing. A moment later, the weird machine by the entrance started humming. I turned to my omni-tool again, trying to be as casual as possible, and typed a simple message.
Gee, load an overload and get ready, there's someone in here with us.
I leaned back and relaxed, right arm over my shoulder to dig under the pillow to grab my Striker pistol. Then I waited, even as my omni-tool vibrated slightly with the accumulated charge. Gee was saying that the overload was ready, so it was just a matter of-
"There!"
I threw the overload and jumped out as soon as I did, pistol unfolding in my hand as I aimed at the figure that had partly materialized under the sparking charge.
"Hands up! And decloack right now!"
The silhouette blinked in and out of view, then I heard a whirr of a gun powering up as something came to rest behind my head.
"Very good," the voice said. Feminine, playful, accented. Recognized it right away. "But not good enough."
"Kasumi Goto, I presume?" I said, making a point to raise my hands above my shoulders.
She laughed softly and hit the back of my knees, bringing me down even before I knew what the hell was going on. Only then did she take the gun from my hand, and jumped back away from me. On the opposite side, the decoy she had set up blinked out of existence. The door to my room opened, and a man walked in, gun raised and clawing at the corners as he did.
"It's fine, I have it," Kasumi said.
"Can I get up now?" I said, a little testy.
"Sure!" Kasumi replied.
The man looked at us, then stepped closer to the machine by the door, which prompted it to start humming. As I straightened up myself, I got a closer look at the thief. She looked even smaller than she did in the games, wearing the same hood and makeup. The eyes, too, looked the same. Bright clear eyes under the shade of the hood.
Little creepy.
"Was that really necessary?" I said.
"I couldn't reach up there to take your gun," she said, tilting her head slightly to the right. "You're too tall."
The humming of the machine started getting louder, so Kasumi and I turned to look at it. The man was waving his hand in front of it, almost like he was mesmerized.
"Keiji, what are you doing?" Kasumi said.
"What is this thing?" he replied.
"A motion detector, obviously. Pretty good one too, I didn't catch a thing. Where did you get it?"
She was talking to me, but I was too distracted. Keiji? Wasn't he the dead guy who... The graybox. So he wasn't dead. Not yet. Now my mind was desperately trying to pull up anything I could remember from the op where he was killed. Stealing some secrets from some rich asshole or something. The op the Alliance ran on batarian space to get reaper tech, I think.
"Mister Morgan?" Kasumi said.
"Oh, right. Yeah, just Roy. I... thought you worked alone."
She took a couple of steps back to sit on the bed, dropping my gun on it and folding hers away. "Ah, good. I was a little worried, I didn't even know how you had heard of me."
"Best thief, not the most famous?" I said, which made Keiji chuckle.
"What?" Kasumi said.
"No, nothing," he said. The machine's humming was starting to get worrisomely loud, so he stepped away from it, coming to sit by Kasumi, and leaving me to sit on the crappy chair I had salvaged and that the keepers had not bothered to fix. The microfabricator from the omni-tool wasn't exactly a carpentry bench.
Come to think of it, I could just buy a lot of furniture, although getting it down here- Wait a minute.
"How did you find me? I mean, that's the whole point about this place."
"We followed you. It's a lot easier when people can't see you," Keiji said.
"I guess..."
Her omni-tool suddenly flashed red, and she brought it up in the blink of an eye, her other hand flying over the controls.
"What-" I started to say, but she interrupted me.
"Someone's trying to hack me," she replied. "No you don- Oh he's good, but not..."
Her voice trailed off, and a moment later it was my omni-tool's turn to flash up, making me bring it up in surprise. She looked at me, and I realized what was happening.
"Gee, stop trying to hack the lady's omni-tool, she's on our side."
"Acknowledged," Gee's synthetic voice answered. And just like that, Kasumi's omni-tool powered down again.
"Who..." she said.
"That's my partner, Gee. Gee, meet Kasumi Goto and Keiji..."
"Okuda," Keiji said. Good thing I didn't actually remember his surname, or I would have probably let it slip out.
"Your partner is an AI?" Kasumi said. And there was something in the playfulness of her voice I really didn't like.
"Tamed geth, he's very friendly," I replied, flashing what i hoped was my best smile.
"Geth?" Keiji said. "But weren't the geth-"
"Not this one," I said, not even letting him finish the phrase. "Plenty of geth don't really care for Saren."
Yeah, so maybe I could have said something else, but quite frankly, I suspected Kasumi would try to steal my AI if she thought there was something unique about him. I still wasn't sure she wouldn't try, but Gee could take care of himself. The silence stretched for a bit mostly with me waiting to see what they were going to go for next.
"So," Kasumi said, her tone business-like. "You wanted to talk with us. What is this job you have in mind?"
"Ah... Just like that? I thought you'd be a little more suspicious."
"We were," Keiji replied. "That's why we've been following you. Did a background check, found absolutely nothing. Not even the Shadow Broker gave us anything. Weird, but weird is what we do."
He flashed me a smile, and his looked a lot less pleasant than Kasumi's did. I actually had no idea what to expect from this guy. I mean, he was all sparkles and rainbows according to Kasumi, in-game at least, but she isn't exactly an unbiased source.
"Right. The job is to steal the relay monument, up in the presidium."
I expected the announcement to have more of an effect, but neither of them looked surprised. I guess it wasn't the weirdest thing they had ever heard, after all, weird is what they did. Kasumi was the first one to react, a very girly cackle espaced her before she could cover her mouth.
"Interesting," Keiji said. "You have a buyer?"
"Uh, no. I just want it as far from the Citadel as possible, as soon as possible."
The two of them looked at each other, and this time they did look a little confused. Score one for team Roy.
"And why is that?" Keiji said.
"Well, it's not just a piece of modern art. It's actually an active relay. One of two. The protheans made it as a prototype, it's a backdoor to the Citadel. The twin of it is the thing Saren's been looking for, only he doesn't know it's a relay. Heh, sucker."
Once again, weird looks. I just couldn't deliver a single bit of information without getting them. Not even from the two thieves who claim weird is their thing.
"That's way too hot for us," Keiji said.
"Oh come on!" Kasumi said. "Just think of their faces! We can totally pull this off, it's not that big. We can use a high definition holo to cover up when it disappears, all we need is a few seconds of-"
"Kasumi, that's Saren he's talking about. You don't want to get mixed up with someone like him!"
"He doesn't need to know!"
I sat back and let them argue. Not that I was getting in the middle of a discussion like that, but looking at their body language, Kasumi was totally going to win that argument. Why? Because Keiji had just that look on his face. The one that said "dammit, not again."
Note to self, don't let Keiji die.
Virmire. They didn't have much on the planet. Garden world, refuge to all sorts of pirates and scum. There were no ships in orbit, which was not entirely surprising. If this was some secret op Saren was running, a fleet of geth ships would be too much of a giveaway. There were several satellites though, and triangulating the origin of the STG transmission allowed them to narrow down which ones probably belonged to Saren, and locate where the possible op was. There was some sort of base down there, but everything was heavily shielded. It was hard to make out what was on the surface, but it didn't look too large.
It couldn't be bigger than the complex where Benezia had taken refuge. Maybe they were lucky and the reason why the STG team had sent that signal was that Saren was down there for something. They had caught Benezia on the back foot, maybe they could catch Saren, too.
And drag out of him what the hell he's done with Liara.
Shepard shook those thoughts away, they weren't going to help her any. She passed her hand over her hair, noticing it was starting to get uncomfortably long. She'd better give it a trim soon, or it was going to annoy her and get in the way. She hated the curls too, always had.
"So that's all we have?" Anderson said, looking down at the surface scan.
"From this distance, that's the best we can do," Pressly replied. "We can't be sure whether the satellites can see us or not, if they have active countermeasures they might spot us if we go closer. We're only masking our heat signature after all."
"What do you think, Shepard?"
"It's well placed," Shepard said, gesturing at the projection. "Water around most of it, and the only way to get there on foot is through the narrow canyon, or crossing over the rocks. And we have no idea how much is underground."
"We could drop with the Mako and run the gauntlet," Nihlus said.
"We don't have many other choices. We can't really run silent with the Normandy inside the atmosphere," Shepard replied.
"We'll do a high altitude drop, then run low behind the high cliffs," Anderson said.
"Reinforcements?" Shepard said.
"We can't really get a fleet into the Terminus without a damn good reason, and the geth fleet isn't anywhere near this system," Anderson replied.
"So we find a reason?"
"We find a reason. Go get your team ready, commander," Anderson said.
"Aye, aye, sir," Shepard replied, saluting and scampering off.
The team took the news with their usual good humour. Going nearly blind into what looked to be a potential deathtrap? Yeah. Williams just called it Thursday. Garrus merely asked if he had to attach floating devices to the Mako. Wrex told her not to expect him to charge across three kilometres of canyon. And Alenko just got himself an extra-strength dose of painkillers for his incipient migraine.
Good times.
Still, it felt good to have the old faces back on the saddle. Williams as the navigator, Garrus in the turret, Tali behind the terminal, and Nihlus at the back.
"All systems green, commander," Williams said. "We're ready for drop."
"Hear that Joker?" Shepard said.
"Sure do. Want the bullseye or the triple twenty?" Joker said.
"Pick the flashiest one," Shepard said.
"Aye, aye. One bullseye coming up. Try not to be too awed, Garrus gets ansty if there's too much drool in the Mako."
"It messes up the calibrations," Garrus replied, not at all deterred by the self-deprecating humour.
"So do most of Shepard's landings," Tali said.
"Nah, those just break the suspension," Garrus said.
"It's fine," Shepard said, already revving the Mako. "We buy in bulk!"
That was the last anyone said, because the cargo door of the Normandy had opened, and Shepard hadn't wasted time. The vehicle lurched out at full speed, and roared through the atmospheric re-entry for a couple of seconds. They were already low enough that it didn't take them long to decelerate to terminal speed, but even then, they could be sure they had attracted the attention of every observation instrument for miles.
The Mako landed with a large splash on the shallow water of a basin, a circular puddle right in the middle of the canyon. Shepard chuckled when she looked at the projection the Mako was giving her. They had landed right in the middle of the big circle.
"Bullseye," Shepard said.
"Contacts," Williams said, quickly killing the festive mood. "Two o'clock!"
"On it!" Garrus replied, already opening fire.
"Two armatures, six rocket launchers!" Tali said. "Make that four," she added, after Garrus shot another volley.
Shepard gunned the Mako, making straight towards the enemies. She didn't have time for that. They had to move along the canyon and not get bogged down in pointless fights. Garrus protested loudly in between a few swearwords her translator wasn't picking up - but which she recognized easily enough - but he kept his eye on the target, and the guns suitably hot. Neither overheated, nor wasting time with long cooldowns.
The two armatures were throwing balls of plasma her way at a rapid pace, and she had to keep moving the Mako around. Left, right, after a tight turn the Mako lost traction on the wet bedrock, and she was forced to hit the jets to avoid a direct hit. Garrus' curse was a lot louder this time, and his shot went completely wild, hitting the rocky side of the canyon and dislodging several boulders in the process. Shepard made a face at that. She hadn't had a gunner better than Roy so far. He just got how she drove, never surprised by any of her aggressive manoeuvres, and he knew how to use the guns. Splash damage for the main gun, spraying big targets or clumped up enemies which were getting close. He just did it.
And he can cook, too, she thought, chuckling at the places her mind went in the middle of tense situations. There was probably something severely wrong with her.
When the first Armature went down, Shepard ordered Garrus to finish off the small fry first - several drones had zipped in closer, and infantry units were surprisingly numerous as well - and once he did, she started driving away, letting the turian finish off the large geth unit as she drove away.
"Are we in some sort of hurry?" the stressed turian said.
"Yes! We don't want the geth to come down on us, we have to keep moving," Shepard replied.
"Commander," Tali said. "We hacked one of the satellites up there, I'm not seeing anyone coming."
"So what's that in front of us?" Shepard said.
"Well, that's a wall."
"Full of geth?"
"Full of geth, yes, but they aren't coming out."
"That's just rude," Nihlus said from the back, already preparing his weapon.
"You said it big guy. Let's go knock."
"Commander, are you there?" Alenko's voice called over the radio.
Shepard wiped the water out of her helmet's faceplate and hit the comms. The Mako had gained a new ventilation hole, but she wasn't stopping to fix it now. They were past all the fortifications, a rather numerous army of geth, and closing in onto the Normandy's position.
"Right here el-tee. What do you have?"
"Seems like we're grounded."
"Grounded?"
"Yes. We made contact with the salarians. You're coming up to the camp, they can explain once you get here."
"Roger that," Shepard replied, cutting the transmission. "Well, that doesn't sound good."
"Think the Normandy was hit?" Williams said.
"With Joker at the helm? Not bloody likely, they'd need something a lot bigger than a few AA turrets to take him down," Shepard said.
"I heard that, and you're completely right," Joker replied over the comms, making Shepard snigger.
She slowed the Mako down, as they were coming up to the camp. The Normandy was resting a few metres above the water, its rear ramp open and coming down to the sand. With a flick, she spun the Mako around, sand flying everywhere and getting a strangled yelp from Tali. The hole on the side of the Mako was right above her back, and she had been riding curled down on the floor to avoid any stray sniper fire. That meant she got a nice shower of fine silicate particles.
Not that Tali had anything to worry about concerning enemy fire, given the fact that the shields were above half strength, but Shepard didn't have the heart to tell her. It was that funny.
"Let's roll, people," Shepard said, stepping out closely followed by Nihlus.
They saw Anderson talking with a salarian, exchanged a look, and double-timed straight for them so as not to miss any of the discussion.
"We're all the Council sent," Anderson was saying. "We were here to investigate and report back."
"That's a repeat of our mission," the salarian said. "We need a fleet, not another stealth team." He turned to the newcomers, measuring them up with a quick look.
"Commander Shepard," she said.
"Nihlus Kryik, Spectre," her turian companion added. "What's the situation?"
"Captain Kirrahe," the salarian said. "Situation is that you're grounded. Every AA battery in ten miles has been alerted of your presence."
"Well, damn," Shepard said. It was one thing for Joker to be in the air, but once he was grounded, getting the Normandy up to speed wasn't a particularly fast task. They were sitting ducks. "So what's going on?"
"My team was investigating Saren, came across his base. Main base, much of his ground forces are here. We have to destroy it, he has an army of krogan at his disposal."
"What?!" three different voices called in unison.
Kirrahe didn't miss a beat. He blinked rapidly as he took all three non-salarians in, and kept talking. "Yes, must be destroyed, we wanted reinforcements but got you instead."
"How did Saren get an army of krogan?" Shepard said, already eyeing Wrex. The krogan had caught wind of their discussion, and was stomping their way.
"Probably some weak clan looking for a leg up," Wrex said.
"No, bred krogan. He's found a cure for the genophage, not good."
"What?" Wrex snapped, echoing the thoughts of the other three but much faster and louder than any of them. "How?"
"Don't know, it doesn't matter. He must be stopped. Saren releasing a cure for the genophage would be a mistake, the galaxy-"
"We are not a mistake!" Wrex roared, stepping closer to Kirrahe and pointing at the salarian's chest.
"Wrex," Shepard said.
"No! If Saren has a cure, my people need that!" Wrex said.
Before Shepard could respond, Wrex turned around and stomped away, heading for the water.
"Is he going to be a problem?" Kirrahe said.
"He's not," Shepard said, not linking what she heard in the salarian's voice. "Are you?"
"Commander, that base needs to be destroyed. We can't waste time here."
"I'll handle it," Shepard said.
She exchanged a look with Anderson, and took off after Wrex, her steps calm and measured. The krogan was muttering loud enough to reach her ears, although it wasn't particularly coherent. Every other word was punctuated by a blast of his shotgun against the water, and he was pacing furiously.
"Wrex?" Shepard said. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Williams moving behind the krogan, assault rifle in her hands. She gave her a quick look, but the chief didn't back down.
She couldn't blame her.
"This isn't right, Shepard," Wrex said. "This isn't right. My people are dying, if Saren has a cure..."
"We have to stop Saren," Shepard said. "I know this can't be easy, but-"
"You know?" Wrex roared. "What do you know!"
He raised his shotgun, pointing at the commander, and she mirrored the gesture, raising her pistol with a smooth move. The two of them squared off, guns pointed but looking each other in the eye.
"Wrex, don't do this," she said.
"Why not? Saren has a cure, Shepard. Why shouldn't I? Help me out here, I'm having trouble making friend from foe."
"Stop!" a third voice shouted, and Grieco came to stand between the two of them. Neither Wrex, nor Shepard lowered their guns. "Commander, Wrex, what the hell?"
"Step aside Grieco," Shepard ordered.
"No! Come on Commander, you know Wrex is right. We should get that cure!"
"We can't side with Saren!" Shepard snapped.
"Fuck no!" Grieco replied. "We should steal it. Come on Wrex, you know I'm on your side. You think Saren is? He's going to use the krogan, not help them. Look at what he did to Eden Prime."
For several seconds, nobody moved. Grieco stubbornly refused to step away, despite both guns pointing his way. It was Wrex who made the first move, lowering his shotgun and grunting in annoyance.
"You're right," the aged battlemaster said. "Saren would just use us, like the Council did. That's not what my people need."
For once, Shepard didn't mind showing the enormous relief she felt. She lowered her own gun, taking a deep breath, and another when Williams lowered her own. Wrex either hadn't seen her, or didn't really care.
"Doesn't mean we can't steal the cure under his nose," Grieco said. "Right commander?"
"Damn straight," Shepard said. "Just keep your eye on the prize. If we don't destroy this place none of that will matter."
"Heh, blowing a base up. That brings back memories," Wrex said. "I'll be ready, Shepard."
"Good. Come on Grieco," Shepard said, slapping the marine on the shoulder. She waited until they were some distance away, and gave him a sideways look. "I know why you did that, but don't make a habit of pulling shit like that," she deadpanned, her voice suitably dry. "Understood?"
"Y-Yes sir," Grieco said.
She got back to the command post, where Anderson and Nihlus were studying a three-dimensional projection of Saren's base.
"All in order?" Anderson said.
"Absolutely," Shepard said, giving Kirrahe a sharp look. "Wrex is one big softie."
She heard a smothered peal of laughter behind her, but didn't turn to look at Grieco. Later. Much later.
"Good, Captain Kirrahe has a plan."
"Yes," Kirrahe said, picking up the thread of the conversation. "We do not have the ordinance to take down the base, but we can jury-rig our ship's core to explode. The force would be the equivalent of twenty megatons in your units."
"Nice," Alenko said, the Lieutenant having come up to join them just a moment ago. "Drop a nuke from orbit, they'll never see it coming."
"Not quite," Kirrahe said. "The facility is too well defended, strong shields, the only way to guarantee destruction is to blow it from the surface."
"You want to scoot a nuke into a highly fortified facility?" Williams said. "That's not going to be easy."
"Will be necessary. We cannot risk dropping the explosive. If we mistime it and it doesn't blow close enough to the base, the underground facilities might survive. If it's taken down by surface defenses, we will have wasted our time and warned Saren. Besides, the Normandy cannot fly until we take down AA defenses."
All this was said as such rapid pace that nobody had a chance to argue a single point. That salarian was probably high on stims, bad enough with him being a salaraian too.
Squirrel on steroids, Shepard thought with an internal chuckle.
"And how are we going to get in?" Shepard said, and turned straight at Nihlus, "and don't even think about saying it."
The turian started laughing, and shook his head in a very human gesture. "Your op, Shepard. Remember? I'm just here to evaluate."
"And shoot stuff," Shepard added. "Good."
"We'll create a distraction," Kirrahe said, not particularly amused by the Spectre's and his human companion's antics. "Attack from the front while the Spectre team sneaks from the back of the facility."
He pointed at several spots on the map as he spoke, highlighting the defensive positions. The defenses were very strong on the surface, and for what the STG had gathered, the geth numbers were worryingly high. It didn't even look possible to break into that place. The route he had highlighted around the back wasn't great either. While the static defenses were more sparse, it was a series of platforms above rocky outcrops, narrow and highly exposed gangplanks. Still not as crazy as the frontal assault.
"You're going to get shredded," Shepard said.
"We can get the job done," Kirrahe said. "Don't underestimate us, Commander. But it will be though. Which brings me to my request." He turned to Anderson and squared off. "I will require one of your officers to come with us, to help us coordinate and lead the assault."
"Sir?" Alenko said. "I'll volunteer."
"I don't think so, el-tee," Willaims said. "That sounds a lot more like my job than yours."
Anderson turned to look at the two officers, who were standing ramrod straight. He then noticed the two marines standing right behind Williams. "What are you two doing?" he said.
"Sir, the chief comes with two marines, free of charge," Grieco said.
"Hell of a bargain, sir," Felawa added.
Anderson chuckled and looked at Shepard. The meaning was clear, she was leaving it up to her, since it was her team. Shepard looked at them for a few seconds, her mind working. She didn't like sending her team out there for such a dangerous mission, but they needed the distraction to be successful. And strengthening the team made it more likely that all of them would come back alive.
"All right Williams, you're up." She made a point to look at the tree of them, one at a time, with the best bulldog officer look she could muster. "No heroics, I want the three of you the perfect picture of professional efficiency, and all of you back aboard the Normandy with the rest of the STG team when this is over. Understood?"
"Yes, sir!" the three of them said in unison.
"Good."
They turned to the map, working the rest of the plan. The Normandy would swoop in once the AA batteries were disabled on the Eastern side, and plant the bomb on the open courtyard over the North-east corner. It was a narrow fit, but despite Kirrahe's misgivings, Anderson didn't even blink at that. Joker wouldn't have a problem parking the Normandy on a dime, the open end of the courtyard was practically a landing strip for him.
While the salarian started giving his troops an uplifting speech, something about holding the line and getting the job done, she went to check on her team. Wrex was a given, he was never going to let the opportunity to find a cure for the genophage pass. The real problem was whether to bring Alenko or Tali. She needed some tech expertise if they were going to steal everything they could on the genophage cure, but they needed to arm that bomb too.
"Tali," Shepard said. "You're on the Normandy. I want that bomb ready to go when we need it, no matter what. Make sure it's perfect."
"Sure, Shepard."
"Wrex, Garrus, Alenko, you're with Nihlus and I." She looked at Fredricks, who was giving her a mopey look. "Fredricks, you're with Tali. Once the Normandy moves in to plant the bomb, you stick to her and make sure she stays safe."
"Aye aye, sir," he replied. She could tell he knew it was a simple babysitter job, but he didn't complain.
"Let's roll!"
"Oh Spirits no," Garrus said. "Not the poor Mako again."
The back of Saren's facility was just what Shepard had expected. Plenty of geth patrols, not a lot of cover, and they were forced to move fast and hard. The hard part was not difficult, given that they could use a krogan battlemaster as a battering ram. The fast part, however, was something else. Three stations were down, and that was garnishing a lot of attention. The geth were a hive mind, there was no way the rest of the consensus hadn't taken notice of them. And they had.
But that was nothing compared to what she was hearing on the comms. The frontal assault wasn't going too well. Yes, her people were still kicking ass and taking names, but they were rapidly rising towards the top of the target list. She could follow the banter well enough. The calls from Williams and Grieco for the others to give them help or cover were increasing in frequency and urgency. Felawa was good on support, but he was just one marine. Despite what Kirrahe had said, she didn't put that much stock on the STG team when it came to open combat.
It was the main reason why she wanted to get things done fast on her end. Once they were inside she was going to start tearing that place apart.
"Commander!" Williams called, yelling over the sound of a barrage of explosions. "We've got incoming drones! We can't take them down fast enough, they're coming from the back of the base! Can you do something?"
"We're on it," Shepard said, assault rifle up and dashing forward to take point.
Nihlus fell into step and caught up with her. "You're not going to rush in blindly, are you?"
"Of course not, I like to see them bleed before I shoot them!" Shepard replied, her breath hard but regular.
"They're geth, they don't bleed," Nihlus replied.
"We'll see about- Contacts!"
She dropped behind a narrow railing, and so did Nihlus next to her. They had come up to an open area, with large pressurized tanks, and a whole array of geth drones hopped straight into the air, laying down suppressive fire all over.
"Alenko! I want those tanks in pieces!" Shepard called, swapping weapons in the blink of an eye to get her sniper rifle out. "Garrus! Nihlus! Shooting gallery!"
There were a lot of drones, and their cover was much too flimsy for it to allow her anything more than a split second to shoot before having to move. The first drone went down on her second try, and the rest of her team wasn't faring much better. A rocket hit her cover as she took a second drone down, and she was nearly thrown off her feet, shields flaring and the VI pinging angrily at her. She tried to roll away, but a second hit threw her completely off, and broke her shields down.
A taloned hand pulled her up and away, fast but expertly done so that she could simply roll away with it. If they hadn't had an armada of geth drones raining on them, there would have been more barbs and jabs at that, but as they were, Shepard could only think on getting to freaking cover. It seemed like every drone was trying to finish her off, having found a weak spot in the enemy formation. Nihlus planted himself between her and the bullets, his shields absorbing what their poor cover couldn't.
Even so, Shepard felt impacts, three of them painful enough she knew they had hit flesh. On the third. Wrex let out a bellow loud enough to be heard on the opposite side of the facility, and charged right out, biotics flaring as he played pinball with the nearest drones. Soon after, a gigantic explosion engulfed half of them, and the ensuing chaos had the rest of her team moping up the remaining drones with much less difficulty.
"Commander!" Alenko called, hurrying to her side and falling on one knee next to her. His omni-tool flashed as he started scanning.
"I'm fine," Shepard said, hissing when Alenko turned her left arm. "Good job with the drones."
"Okay, two went clean through," he said. already applying medi-gel. "Third one is stuck in your side. I'll stop the bleeding but you're going to need Chakwas to look at that, and soon."
"Fine, let's go," she said.
"Not yet, let the medi-gel set first."
"Dammit," Shepard grunted, and hit the comms. "Williams, hows it looking?"
"Much better," the chief replied. "We're moving on to the Northwest, let us know when you're ready. We'll have the breach charge in place in two minutes, we'll storm in on your mark."
"Roger that," Shepard said. "We just need-"
A high pitched, ungodly roar of an alarm suddenly broke through the air, the sound ear-splitting loud despite the fact that it was still almost a hundred meters to the base. Alenko and Shepard exchanged a surprised look, then Shepard hit the comms.
"Williams! What's going on?!" Shepard shouted.
"Commander!" Williams' voice answered, the background of battle substantially larger now. "What the hell happened? We have geth pouring out!"
"It wasn't us!" Shepard said. In different circumstances, there would have been more laughter at her child-like retort. "I swear!"
She got to her feet, wincing in pain as she did, and ignoring Alenko's protestations. "We're moving to the facility now, let's go people! Williams, hang on!"
"Trying!" the chief replied. "Grieco! Take point! Watch- Krogan!"
The litany of curses Shepard was spitting was not doing Williams any favours, but that was all she could do. They had to get to the base, take the static defenses, and hit the geth hard from behind before they took her team down. Shit, shit, and more shit. This was all FUBAR, and the worst part was that she had no idea who had tripped the goddamn alarm.
"Move it!" she called, and took off at a run.
Author's Notes: Virmire, part one! I've taken stock of what's still to come, and think that this is a good place to split it. Yeah, so this reads a lot like canon, but without Roy there, there really isn't much to differentiate it from the game mission really.
Yet.
(Muahahaha!)
In the meantime, Kasumi is on board with the plan to steal the relay monument, and if she's in, then what chance do you think Keiji has? But the interesting thing is not spelled out here. The interest thing is that Roy's about to give the best (but not most famous) thief in the galaxy a blueprint of the secret passages under the Citadel.
Now that should scare you.
Anyway, you know me and my cliffhangers. Sowwy. This one I hope will be worth it! Because shit's going to go down, let me tell you.
...
Actually, you're totally letting me tell you. As soon as possible, if you had the choice, right?
*Cough* Anyway, thanks a lot for all the reviews! Let's poke at them with a stick, shall we?
Zeru'Xil: Yeah, the Shadow Broker thing's going to boil over at some point. For one thing, Roy did exchange information for that job, and it didn't get completed.
general-joseph-dickson: Think I'm giving them too much shit? I probably am, but seriously... "Geth do not intentionally infiltrate". They're even worse than the Council!
LordGhostStriker: Benezia blew it up! That's why they had to catch up to her later on. And why they still don't have the location of the Mu relay.
BJ Hanssen: I just blew a gigantic hole on the side of the mission. No Mu relay, or Liara. Erm, whoops?
bdrivermp: Thanks a lot! That's very high praise indeed. I hope I can deliver :)
Uemei: Hah! I kinda made that pun about the sniper rifle on Crossover, but... You might be on to something. Later. Much later! I'm letting the Kasumi/Roy thing take a backseat for now while I concentrate on Virmire. Ah, and the gambling AI, I wonder... Heh, actually, I can totally work it in if I track it now. How? Hint is in this chapter! I had "barbaric medical idiocy" on Divergence, it'll probably come up at some point here during convergence. Anyway, thanks for all the thoughts!
dandraft15: Hah! I love it, you went through the whole fic, but the thing that got the review was Roy's idiocy of giving the shield away. Remember, Roy's got those moments when everyone goes "dude, what the hell's wrong with you?" :D
1529: Thanks! Divergence's eventually going to go off the rails, it's just building a little slow (putting lots of things in place at the moment). As for Convergence, the idea was having the AI brownbeating me into canon - for reasons, all will become clear - mostly as a hat tip to the more classic SIs in Mass effect. Still! Thanks for the thumbs up, glad you're enjoying them.
Toothless is best, bluemarlin, eurodox59, thanks for the reviews! Always appreciate them, trust me.
So, next time? Well, not to toot my horn too much, but next chapter, the fecal matter is going to hit the oscillating blades. Big time. Expect a huge splatter. Stay tuned, and thanks for reviewing, following, and specially reading! This story wouldn't be here without you!