"Stop squirming," Nihlus said.
"You suck at applying medi-gel, did you know?" Shepard said.
"I can't help it, you humans are so… squishy."
"I didn't hear you complain until now."
"Not complaining, just saying."
Nihlus was crouched next to the bed, where Shepard was laying, face down and butt naked. Two bite marks on her back had spilled a little blood, but a bit of medi-gel seemed to have fixed it. Or, rather, a lot of medi-gel. Useful as medi-gel was, Nihlus wasn't used to applying it on humans. He didn't even need the plate epoxy to fix her, something he had seemed rather amused about.
So, he had made a bit of a mess. With the medi-gel, too.
Shepard turned to her side, propping herself up on her elbow, and looked at Nihlus up and down.
"What disturbs me the most is how quickly you got back into your armor," Shepard said.
"We turians like our carapace. It's comfortable, really."
"Ah, it's not that you're afraid at all I'll bite."
"You do bite."
"Complaining again?"
"Not complaining, just saying," Nihlus repeated. He wiped his hands and stood up. "I'm going to get some more medi-gel."
Shepard watched him walk, a new appreciation of the peculiar gait of the turians now that she knew everything that was underneath that armor. The bites she had gotten were starting to bother her. No, they didn't bother her per se, but they did itch.
When Nihlus opened the door, he stopped dead on his tracks, looking down. After a second, he bent down, picked something up, and walked back inside, closing the door behind him.
"What's that big guy?"
"It was on the ground," he said, looking at the items. A small bag, and a datapad. He handed the bag to Shepard, and started reading the datapad.
"Let's see. Uh, medi-gel. A few skin patches. And this…" she pulled a strange stick-like item from the bag. There were actually two of them, one red, one blue.
"Those are epi-pens," Nihlus said, reading through the datapad. "So the reason why… hmm… Shepard are you itching down i-"
"Give me that!" Shepard said, snapping the datapad off Nihlus' hands. She started reading and humming to herself. "Hm, that makes sense."
She passed the red epi-pen to Nihlus, and injected herself with the blue one.
"I should probably thank Chakwas," Nihlus said, hitting the underside of his chin with the medical tool.
"Yeah, I'm sure that won't be awkward at all!" Shepard replied in her all-too-happy voice. "Trust me big guy, pretend this never happened and all will be well."
"Do you think she knew, or made this just in case?"
Shepard chuckled and looked at Nihlus. "I'm pretty sure the entire freaking Normandy heard us."
Before Nihlus could say anything, the chirp of the intercom interrupted them, and Joker's voice followed right away.
"Commander, we're about to drop FTL, ten minutes from the Mu Relay."
"On my way!" Shepard replied immediately, jumping off her bed and already looking for her clothes. "Nihlus, get Garrus and Tali to prep the Mako. I'll go upstairs directly."
"By the time the lift gets down and up again, I'll have missed everything," Nihlus half joked as he made for the door.
"I hope there's nothing to miss! We're the goddamn Normandy, we're supposed to use stealth!"
She didn't expect an answer, and Nihlus didn't give one. She was barely thirty seconds behind him, in full uniform and trying her best to get her rebellious hair under control. The fact that it was short didn't make it any less plucky. As she did, her fingers found a bitemark on the back of her neck, right at the edge of her hairline. Rats, Nihlus had missed that one.
As soon as she stepped on the bridge, all eyes fell on her. It didn't take long for those eyes to give her a good examination. Yeah, yeah, didn't matter. If they knew what was best for them, they'd keep their traps shut.
Despite those thoughts, and the fact that her mind had kicked up three gears to get combat ready, she couldn't deny she was in a good mood.
Freaking turians…
"Commander, we're about to enter the target area," Pressly said. With a few strokes on the console, he brought up the local map. Markers appeared around the relay they were heading to.
"What am I looking at," Shepard said, her eyes darting over all of it.
"The relay, six geth cruisers. No other activity in the system."
"Not much of a system, there isn't a planet in three light years around," Shepard said. "Just six cruisers?"
"That's correct."
"Joker, can you run silent by them?"
"As long as they don't look out the window," Joker replied. "Until we hit the relay, that is."
"Go ahead. Pressly, do we have a destination?"
"Yes commander," the Navigator replied. The holoprojector view shifted to a map of the galaxy, and a plotted course appeared. "According to the information I have gathered, the likely location of Ilos is in a region called the Pangaea expanse."
"Close to the core," Shepard said. "Is it going to be a problem?"
"No sir," Pressly replied.
It wasn't an idle question. They didn't have an exact location for the Ilos relay, and system density was higher the closer one got to the core. In those circumstances, finding the right pair from a primary relay could be difficult. Specially if the Mu relay was a primary one connecting to hundreds of systems. Then again, if someone could manage it with no mistakes, that was Pressly.
"All right then. Joker, take us in. Fast and quiet."
"Just like the Captain likes it," Joker replied, his tone the trademark mix of amusement and tension when he was concentrating on something hard.
For a few minutes, nothing much happened. Nihlus reported that the Mako was ready, and so was the ground team. He even had time to make it up the lift and to the CIC while they were still on approach. Turian efficiency.
Yeah, he's damn efficient when he wants to, Shepard thought, her mind deviating from the mission for just a moment or two.
The Normandy dropped out of FTL so hard that even with the inertial dampeners, Shepard felt herself pulled forward, and had to hold onto the handrail. The pilot had dropped them damn close to the relay, and the geth cruisers patrolling around it. It struck her that the geth did not look to be in particularly high alert. Too few ships, given how widely spread they were.
On the one hand, it shouldn't surprise her. The Mu relay was as hidden as relays could be. On the other hand, it could be a warning. Of whatever awaited them on the other side.
"Approaching the relay," Joker announced.
"Locking coordinates," Pressly replied, already working his console.
Shepard kept her eyes on the geth cruisers on the map. As she expected, it took but a moment before the geth turned around and headed straight for the Normandy. The interface with th erelay had blown their cover to hell.
"Pressly?" Shepard said.
"Just a second, commander," the navigator replied.
Make it a short second, Pressly…
Joker hadn't stopped the flight, but Shepard could see he was slowing down, keeping a tangential vector he could nudge towards the relay, or push to speed away from the enemy. Four cruisers was too tall an order for anyone on a frigate, Normandy and Joker included.
And they were getting closer.
"Pressly…"
"Almost there," he muttered.
"Joker, move to the relay, now."
"Commander?" Joker said, although he was already obeying the order.
"Pressly will have the target for us. Move it!"
"Aye aye, commander," Joker called.
Nihlus gave her a curious look, which Shepard returned with a grin and a wink. Lies, all of it. Internally, she was anything but calm. They were committed now. They could very well end up on the wrong system, at best, or fuck up and end up as floating debris, at worst.
"Approaching relay, initiating sync," Joker announced.
Come on Pressly.
"Relay's hot, transition in five, four, three…"
Come ooooon!
"Two… one…"
"Pre-"
"Locked!" Pressly announced.
Pressly hadn't finished announcing it when the Normandy shuddered, the instant feeling of vertigo coming and going in the blink of an eye as a side effect of the relay transition. There was a flash of blueshift at the front, and the map dissolved in a cloud of pixels as the computer updated their location.
"The Pangaea expanse," Pressly announced. His tone hadn't changed one bit, but for some reason, Shepard thought it sounded like he was suppressing a massive shit-eating grin.
"I don't see any ships in the system," Shepard said.
"There aren't any," Pressly confirmed.
"Did we beat him to the punch?" Shepard said.
"Or we're too late," Nihlus replied.
"I love your eternal optimism, big guy," Shepard said, winking at him once more.
The bitch of it was, he was probably right. Not that she was willing to admit it to his face, of course. It was time to get boots on the ground.
"Morgan-Messenger's physical condition is below required parameters. Further optimization recommended after current mission is complete."
"You telling me pal," I muttered, huffing and puffing as I climbed up the ladder.
Slow or not, I would have paid good money for a lift right about then. Climbing the freaking Citadel Tower was a lot more tiring than I would have imagined, despite the fact that gravity was just about twenty percent of normal. Usually it was kept at around thirty percent, but things seemed to be going downhill fast. The service elevators were down, and I wasn't sure why. There wasn't much information Gee could get me, the geth were actively keeping him out.
He seemed rather puzzled about it. He kind of reminded me of Legion when he discovered heretic runtimes in the geth consensus. But… not as much. I wondered.
"Gee," I muttered, trying to catch my breath on the platform. "Did you expect the heretics to attack here?"
"Morgan-Messenger informed us of incoming heretic attack."
"Yeah, but I wonder if you expected it before." With a huff, I got back on the ladder. "Like this would be happening anyway."
"...no data available."
"Man, I wish you'd trust me a bit with… hang on."
Another bulkhead. The service tunnels had been blocked, much the same way the sewers had been, but with the geth rocket launcher I was making good progress. Or so I thought, until I brought it up and got a nasty reading on the HUD.
"No freaking ammo?!"
"Ammunition block reserve is depleted."
"Shit. How do we get past this thing?" I said, giving the bulkhead a whack.
"Explosives will be required."
"We don't have any left, just…" I trailed off when I looked at the rocket launcher, thinking. "Gee, first time I shot at heretics I broke a shotgun and it exploded rather violently. Any ideas if we can do that with this thing?"
"Damage to power cell amplifier could backfire in element zero chamber. Result would be catastrophic destruction of weapon."
"All right… How do I do that? Other than randomly shooting it?"
It wasn't hard. I pulled a couple of parts, Gee reprogrammed the internal software, and after I placed it against the bulkhead, I dropped down the ladder and got into cover. And with a tap on my omni-tool, the useless rocket launcher exploded, sending shrapnel flying left, right and center, and even under cover a couple of pieces pinged off my shields.
When I looked up, there was a hole.
"I really hope that's the last one," I said.
"Heretic activity behind bulkhead indicates presence of active platforms."
"Right. We're finally here. Is Saren back there?"
"Negative."
I beat him to the top. I couldn't fucking believe it, but I got to the top before him. Now all I needed was not to get killed long enough for Shepard to get back.
"All right Gee," I huffed, unfolding the pulse rifle. "Are you ready?"
Are you ready? - AC/DC
"Gee, you're officially taking it too far," I said with a chuckle.
Too Far – Kylie Minogue.
"What the- Gee!" I said, laughter making it hard to speak.
Gee – Girls' Generation.
That was too much. I had to stop so I could laugh, while what sounded like a girl band from Japan or Korea or something sang some hippity happy song in my ear.
"Seriously?" I said in between laughter. "This is your song?"
"Yes," Gee deadpanned.
It took me a moment to sober up, mostly when Gee announced heretic units were trying to access citadel controls. Shit. No more time to wait or catch my breath. I squeezed through the hole we had blown, secured the rifle against my shoulder, and took a deep breath.
Here we go. To the tune of a girl band to boot.
With a wave of the omni-tool, I opened the hatch and moved in, rifle at the ready. Markers popped into my proximity radar, over a dozen red blips covering the ground from the back entrance of the council chambers all the way to the lift. The place was a goddamn mess. There were a couple of fires going, the smell of burned electronics and plastics filtering into my envirosuit even with the high grade air filters. I considered for a split second whether I should seal the suit completely, but I had more important things to do. Between the debris and the fires were several geth, spread out as if guarding the place.
One of them was at the podium, where the controls of the Citadel were originally hidden. I wasn't sure if it could even use them, but I couldn't risk it. We had to stop them.
And there were no friendlies anywhere. Not even bodies. Just geth, and me.
"Gee, some cover!" I yelled, running inside already looking for some cover for myself.
Shields flared as bullets bounced off it. There were six geth troopers within spitting distance. I slid down behind one of the large tree planters, letting loose with the pulse rifle. I didn't hit shit, but I just wanted to keep them back. I had emerged at the very back of the room, right besides the area where the Council sat. Or stood, really. I traded fire with the geth while moving around, just buying time. Too many for me to take anything down. Until the marker on the corner of my HUD blinked. Overload ready.
Getting out of cover and firing the overload was all a blink. The charge flew straight and hit the geth at the main terminal dead to rights. I heard the zap even through the helmet of my envirosuit, and parts went flying as the internal systems of the geth blew up.
I would have stood there gaping like an idiot if I hadn't heard – or, rather, imagined – Ash's voice yelling at me to move my ass and get to cover. I went down, picking a second geth to shoot at while the confusion lasted.
"Freaking hell Gee, you're not holding back!" I yelled.
"Morgan-Messenger will be overrun by heretic platforms unless maximum efficiency is maintained."
"You telling me!" I said. More geth.
I got out of cover, firing again, but a burst caught me from the side and threw me on the ground. I crawled quickly back into cover, hiding behind one of the columns. It wasn't ideal, to my right it was all open space with the glass floored drop in front of the Council's platform. To my left, all the geth were starting to come my way. It was a good thing they weren't in a hurry, but there were so many that even from the distance the scattered fire was starting to become a problem.
No time like the present. I had to move and not get cornered. Gee gave me a second overload, and as soon as I fired it, I rushed out of my corner, heading for the stairs. I remembered Ash saying that would be good cover in case of an attack, and I was trying to hold back a hell of an attack. Another fried geth, another one riddled with holes, and another beating for my poor suit. The shields didn't hold completely this time, and I yelled in pain as several bullets hit my suit.
But one thing I had learned was what bullet hits actually felt like. And the difference between a bullet that hit me, and a bullet that stopped at the suit's plates.
This was the latter, but it had been too damn close. I couldn't get my head out without having it getting blown.
"Gee, any ideas?"
"Disruption of heretic consensus is possible with runtime upload," Gee replied.
"No, no," I said, watching the shield gauge on my suit while wishing for it to freaking recharge already. "Last time we did that you didn't come back in one piece."
A sudden impact behind my cover interrupted our conversation. That was a massive shotgun blast. I peeked over the edge to see a big destroyer coming my way, shotgun at the ready.
Shit.
"Gee! Can you blow up that freaking shotgun?" I yelled, firing and ducking down into cover again.
"Acknowledged. Weapon will require external force for explosive discharge."
"I have to shoot it?"
"Morgan-Messenger has previous experience with the procedure," Gee said.
Well shit, I did it once, and by freaking accident.
"Okay, okay, let's do it!"
I bumped out of cover once more, my omni-tool shooting the micro-charge and hitting the nearest geth. As soon as it did, it set a chain reaction, hitting several geth including the destroyer. For a moment, guns stopped firing all around me.
All except for mine.
My rifle started spitting rounds as I tried to get on target. Shields flared as my bullets rattled on the geth troopers, all getting in the way of the shot to the destroyer. I got through finally as my rifle started to overheat, one trooper fell, then my shields suddenly flared as the geth programming repaired the weapon damage.
"Shit!"
I dove across the platform to take cover on the opposite side, trying not to get boxed in. Gee didn't say a word, but with infinite aplomb, he just brought up the timer until the omni-tool would be ready again. Ten seconds. Ten really, really long seconds.
Shields, shields, shields!
Three seconds gone. Geth were getting way too close. I popped out and started shooting, dove in again, and came out to the side of the planter I was using as cover. Still too many. Got through to one, and did some damage, but was forced back. I wasn't doing enough. The geth were methodically advancing on my position, and they didn't seem to be in a hurry. Five seconds. The blast from the shotgun reminded me that I had to get shit done. A trail of bullets followed me as I rushed to the nearby column, hitting my shields as I ran. Too many freaking enemies. Too goddamn many of them. Eight seconds.
"Gee, let's make it count!"
Heatsink at full capacity. Now or never. Geth were at spitting distance now, my shields got a beating but I gave as good as I took, hitting one, two, three platforms. I wasn't trying to take them down, just make room. I had to get to that destroyer. I ducked into cover for a moment right when the destroyer fired his shotgun at me, not even stopping to wonder how I had managed to time that without even thinking, and didn't waste time going out again. Shields were close to depleted, but I had to make the shot.
The marker on my HUD finally hit zero. I fired one last burst to get a trooper, my shields broke, and I fired the sabotage charge. Like before, it hit the nearest geth, and the ensuing reaction overheated guns in a radius of ten metres.
Unlike before, I didn't have shields when the last stray bullets hit me. The burning, sharp pain exploding on my right side almost threw me off my feet. Shit. I didn't have time. I put a knee down, and aimed. Bursts from the rifle found targets completely unopposed, until the final burst, just as it overheated. Pieces of polymer went flying as I left a trail of impacts through the destroyer's shotgun.
It didn't explode.
Shit!
I dragged myself to cover again. Medi-gel, sweet nectar of the gods. An injection later, and the effect was almost immediate. I was really low on it. One, maybe two more applications. Fucking goddamn C-Sec, I had so much shit ready for-
"Morgan-Messenger, immediate engagement is required," Gee called.
"But-"
"Retaliation imminent, immedite engagement required," Gee insisted.
Shit! Wait, did I say that already?
I bolted out of cover, rifle at the ready. Gee was just geth, but I had a feeling that if he had been organic he would have been screaming at my ear. What I didn't expect when I jumped out was to find that the geth were all bunched together and aiming their guns right at my face. It was so unexpected that I didn't react when guns started shooting, or when a huge explosion threw me back on the ground, under a shower of geth parts.
"Pain…" I muttered. "Goddammit Gee, what the hell…"
"Reaction on sabotaged weapon was delayed. Input by geth platform designation destroyer was needed."
"Man you could have warned me," I grunted.
I struggled to my feet and took a peek. Yeah, whatever juice the geth put in those shotguns, it really packed a punch. Other than the immediate destruction, there were several geth troopers that had been damaged to some extent. I leaned against the pillar, knee on the ground, and started shooting, finishing off the smaller surviving geth. There wasn't a functional shield to be found anywhere. Not even mine, it took several seconds before it could recharge.
"What's… next…" I muttered, breathing hard.
"Elevator platform carrying sixteen geth platforms will arrive in twenty seconds."
"Well fuck me!" I yelled.
I got to my feet, hand on the column to keep on my feet, and looked around. There. I grabbed a geth pulse rifle, and started running for the lift, which was slowly coming to a halt.
"Gee, make this thing blow!" I yelled.
"Acknowledged," my geth buddy replied.
As soon as the door opened, geth platforms stepped forward, shooting in my general direction. I threw the pulse rifle, and unfolded my trusty original as I slid into cover. Despite the fact that I had been out less than a second in the line of fire, my shields had once again taken a beating. And once again I cursed loudly while thinking of the goddamn awesome shield with the prototype armor C-Sec had fucking stolen from me, and even the freaking Predator armor Serrus had gotten me. Any of those would have been better than the freaking envirosuit.
Despite the upgrades Shepard had put in it.
… she had probably saved my life with them.
Not what I needed to think about.
I hit the controls of the omni-tool, and as I had done before with the rocket launcher, the gun exploded, in the midst of the newly arrived geth. However, the explosion was a lot more subdued than the previous two, probably owing to the fact that the gun was a lot smaller.
But it created enough confusion that I could get out and start shooting. The geth at the front hadn't suffered much damage, but even then, the mess the explosion had created had been considerable. I kept my finger on the trigger, rifle firm against my shoulder in full auto mode. The recoil was nothing at that range, so many targets to hit. I fired until I overheated the gun, and threw an overload right before diving for cover.
Unnecessary. According to the radar, all the geth were down.
"Holy crap I can't believe that worked," I said, peering from the corner.
The lift was filled to the brim with scrap, and the lift itself was worse for wear. It occurred to me that it'd make Shepard's trip up a lot harder, then I realized she wasn't making the trip up if the conduit was at the bottom of the Citadel.
She'll be back. Come on, she's got to.
"Morgan-Messenger, current use of geth weaponry as exploding ordinance is not optimal," Gee said.
"You have a better idea?"
"Use of Gee-terminal omni-tool-unit to fabricate explosives will provide improved yield."
I looked at the omni-tool, then at the absolute mess around me. There were definitely enough shit around to get a dozen barrels of omni-gel. Damn. Maybe-
My thoughts were interrupted by a sudden lurch of the whole damn tower, accompanied by a loud clang and a groan of stressed metal. I looked around, and when my eyes caught sight of the large windows at the end of the chamber, my stomach twisted itself into knots.
The reaper had landed on the tower.
I'm not a religious person by any means, but I muttered a quick prayer to anyone who'd listen, hoping that the reaper alone couldn't mess with the Citadel.
Round one tally: most of my medi-gel gone, holes on my side, and the envirosuit already needing to get some damage patched up. But I had held.
For now.
If Shepard had to sum up Ilos in one word, it'd be eerie. They had found a handful of geth platforms milling about, but other than that, the place was completely empty. A sprawling city covered much of the continent, which kind of reminded her of Feros. Unlike Feros, however, Ilos wasn't particularly imposing. The planet had been devastated, and the ruins were covered by the remains of scrawny overgrown vegetation, and a thick layer of rust-coloured dust.
It was the city time forgot.
"Liara would love this place," Shepard said, swerving the Mako to avoid a fallen piece of rubble.
"I bet, we should bring her here after we find her," Nihlus replied, apparently having grown immune to driving near-death experiences thanks to Shepard's tendering ministrations.
"What do you think those things are?" Tali called from the back.
Shepard looked up through the window, up the walls of the strange canyon they had driven into. The place was dotted with small holes, too regular to be natural or accident.
"Pods of some sort," Nihlus said.
"Like the sleeping pods in the Normandy?" Tali said.
"Maybe," the turian replied.
"Think there's prothean remains in there?" Shepard said. "We haven't- Crap!"
She hit the brakes hard, swerving the Mako as it came to a skidding stop. The corridor had been cut by an energy barrier.
"Garrus! Heads up!"
"Nothing on the combat scanners," Nihlus said.
"Visual's clear," Garrus added from the turret.
"Keep your eyes open, why did Saren put a barrier here?"
"I doubt it was Saren," Nihlus said. "He would have left explosives, not just a barrier."
"That's reassuring," Garrus said.
"… I don't like this," Shepard said. "Garrus, stay on the gun. Everyone else, let's go."
The team filed out of the Mako, keeping their eyes open and looking for the trap. There didn't seem to be one. No geth appeared, no automated defenses were triggered. Nothing. An opening on the side of the corridor led them to a lift, and to an interminable ride down.
When the platform came to a stop, all four of them – Wrex, Nihlus, Tali, and Shepard – were waiting guns ready for anything to come at them. Nothing. The lift landed on a platform above what looked like a bank of computer cores.
"Working prothean computers," Shepard said.
"We really need to give Liara a tour of this place," Nihlus replied.
"One thing at a time big guy," Shepard said, lowering her gun and advancing.
She hadn't made three steps when the terminal at the end of the platform flared to life, prompting an immediate response of guns raised and pointed at it.
"You are not Prothean. But you are not machine, either," A strange, disembodied voice spoke. The projection on the terminal flashed in and out, nothing but badly maintained static. "This eventuality was one of many that was anticipated. This is why we sent our warning though the beacons."
"Who are you?" Shepard said.
"My name is Vigil. You are no longer safe. The Conduit is closed. The reapers will return."
"The Conduit!" Nihlus said. "What's the Conduit?"
"You must first understand. The Citadel is the heart of your civilization, as it was of ours, and countless other civilizations that came before us. But it is a trap. The station is a mass relay, one that links to dark space beyond the galaxy's horizon. When it is activated, the reapers will pour through, and everything you know will be destroyed."
Nobody said a word. The revelation was too stunning. The return of the reapers, Shepard had imagined someone finding a few of those ships, finding a planet where they resided. It wasn't. Everything Sovereign had said, it had new context now, and it was terrifying. The Citadel itself was the trap.
"The Conduit is a prototype mass relay, one that connects this facility to the Citadel itself. When the reapers came, they took the Citadel, and used it to shut down the entire mass relay network. One by one our words fell, until we were the last. Hundreds of Protheans went into stasis, waiting for the reapers to pass. But it took many years for the reapers to leave. One by one, I disconnected their stasis pods, to save energy and preserve the most essential personnel. Eventually, only a dozen remained."
"What does that have to do with the Conduit?" Nihlus said.
"The last survivors used the Conduit to return to the Citadel, study its secrets. They devised a way to close it, so that the reapers would never return. When the time came, and the reapers tried to activate the relay, the keepers ignored the signal, and the Citadel remained dormant."
"You said it was too late, why? If the Citadel is closed, we can deal with just one reaper," Shepard said.
"The one you call Saren, he passed through the Conduit with his army of machines. He took the secrets of the Conduit, and it closed behind him. If nobody stopped him, he can disable the blocks we put in place. And when he does, the reapers will return."
"We need to go back…" Tali muttered. "Shepard, we need to go back!"
"The Conduit is not active. You will have to return by starship. It might be too late."
"No, it won't. How do we stop the reapers?"
The front of the terminal opened, producing a surprisingly clean and polished prothean data disk.
"Take this. It will allow you to regain control of the Citadel's systems, and close the door to the reapers."
"Thank you," Shepard said. "Where are the controls?"
"They sit in the room atop the central spire," Vigil said.
"The- Shepard, that's the Council chambers," Nihlus said. "If the Citadel's under attack, they will be evacuated. Saren will have no resistance if he wants to go there."
"Move it people, back!" Shepard called. She hit the comms to the Normandy. "Joker! Can you get through to the fleet?"
"Negative, Commander," Joker replied. "No signal's getting through. Either the geth knocked down our new buoys, or the relay's not working."
"Let's hope it's the former, Joker. Get ready to pick us up, we need to get back to the Citadel."
"Already? I didn't even get to buy a souvenir," Joker replied.
He always had to have the last word.
I don't know how long I had been at this. Days. Weeks. Years. At least that's what it felt like. I was absolutely exhausted. I pulled my helmet off, and without hesitation, plunged my whole head into the water of the fountain. It used to be pristine, clean water. A way for everyone to forget this was nothing but a tin can in space. Now, it was a foul puddle of murky water, the soot and debris from the fighting had turned it into a mess. Still, water. It tasted like shit, but I had to drink. I was drenched in sweat, even with the envirosuit doing its best to keep me cool. Eventually, it'd reabsorb and recycle the water, as it was designed to do. But not if I kept the pace. I had spent hours working hard in that thing during the mining days, but this was a lot harder.
"I need some fucking gene mods," I muttered, dropping on the ground and letting the water run down my hair.
"Further optimization of Morgan-Messenger's organic platform would be advisable."
"Yah. Thanks, pal. Tell me that was the last of them."
"Heretic runtimes are currently engaged with C-Sec personnel."
"Are we winning this time?"
"Negative. Estimate twenty minutes until Heretics overrun C-Sec units."
Damn. Damn, damn, damn. They were going to get killed. It kept happening, someone would mount a counteroffensive, then the geth would pull together and crush them. And shit as I should feel about it, and I did, all I could think was thank goodness it would at least give me a respite.
"All right," I muttered. "Five minutes, and back to work. Are there any gaps in the perimeter?"
"Affirmative. Number of explosives is insufficient in three locations."
Gee put three markers on my HUD, pointing out where I had used up all the explosives. Thanks to him, and a lot of scrap recycling, I had mines all over the goddamn Council chamber. Not the most sophisticated piece of gear, I had to hit them with an overload to set them off since they had no trigger mechanism, but they worked.
In fact, if it wasn't for Gee, I'd probably have been killed a dozen times over. He had been hacking heretics, giving me tactical advice, making explosives, driving the omni-tool, everything. And I was still racking my brains about it. What did he want out there? The geth consensus was happy enough to let the heretics do whatever the hell they wanted. Legion seemed shocked to find out the heretics had infiltrated the general consensus instead of being open about it. Not Gee. He was out here helping me, or rather, helping Shepard. Stop the old machines. A split from the consensus. My only guess was that he wanted to prove to the consensus that they were wrong. But why the secrecy about it? Wouldn't gathering data be not a big deal? They're geth, they love that shit.
"Well, no time like the present," I said, standing up. "Let's- Wait."
A shadow passed over the chamber's window, and I felt the pressure on the back of my neck that came with the presence of Nazara. The reaper was back. Shit. It was the third time, and the previous two came with an awful lot of geth.
"That's the reaper," I said.
"Affirmative."
The room shook and groaned as the reaper attached itself to the tower. I had to keep them back. Whatever happened, I had to keep them back. It was clear that the reaper couldn't take control of the Citadel without someone on the inside. I shook my head to get some of the water out of my hair. Time to face the music.
"Come on, come on," I muttered, looking around. "Where are you going to come from."
It wasn't any of the upstairs hatches. It wasn't the service access. There was a flash, and the entire front window exploded into a million shards of glass as something hurdled right through it, crashing down the stairs and onto the rapid transit terminal plaza. I was thrown off my feet, my helmet went flying, and would have been sucked out of the room by the sudden loss of pressure if Gee hadn't hit my magboots. Even so, I felt my head swimming as the pressures changed so swiftly. A kinetic barrier fell over the broken windows, and air returned swiftly to the chambers.
"What the hell," I muttered, dragging myself to my feet and coughing. "What is- Shit!"
A transport ship had crashed through the window, geth design not much bigger than a rapid transport shuttle. I didn't even have time to wonder, its door was blown open from the inside, and out stepped the last thing I wanted to see.
"Saren," I muttered.
He had stepped out without as much as a blink. Gun in his hand, walking like there wasn't any danger. I opened fire immediately, only to see my bullets bounce off his biotic shields like a gust of wind.
I stopped shooting when he turned to look at me. That wasn't Saren. Not like he was supposed to be. Machine parts everywhere, blue glowing circuitry, he had been turned into a reaper… thing.
"Morgan," he grunted, his voice raspy and metallic. "I shouldn't be surprised. You have been a pest ever since Eden Prime."
Without even answering, I raised my rifle and started shooting again. Saren didn't even flinch, he kept walking, his biotic barrier flashing with the impacts, but after a second or so he flared his biotics, raised his right arm, and with a wave, lifted and threw all sorts of debris my way. I dug behind cover as shit crashed all around me, and a moment later came out of cover to shoot again.
"Do you even know what you're doing?" Saren shouted, raising his gun and shooting at me.
Unlike my bullets, his were deadly accurate, and took bite after bite off my shields. I had to get back in cover, and crawled back out of view while he kept monologuing.
"You almost doomed us all!" Saren shouted again.
"Me? You sold us to the reapers!" I replied. I peeked out of my new cover, a column on the side platform, and fired. I wasn't really aiming, just wanted to keep him irritated.
"There's no escaping the reapers!" he said. Once again, he threw a piece of debris at me with his biotics. I could swear he wasn't really going all out. "You haven't seen their power. Their numbers! There is no stopping them."
"I've seen them, Saren," I replied. I got out of cover, but didn't shoot. He kept walking. Good. "I know everything about them. Surrendering means death. It means becoming them! Look at yourself!"
Another biotic push, and a dead geth came bouncing my way. He didn't hit.
"You know nothing! The reapers need us, Morgan. That's what I am. I am the future, our destiny!"
How did it go? What did Shepard said?
"It doesn't have to be! We can still stop Sovereign. We can stop the invasion."
"We can't! Not forever! The protheans couldn't stop them, what hope do we have? They're too powerful."
"So that's it? When it gets hard you just give up? You're a Spectre! You're supposed to protect the galaxy, not sell it out!"
"I… I can't! It's too late!"
"It's not! You know what you have to do!"
Saren hesitated. And for a split moment, I felt as if the air had thinned out so much it had become a vacuum. He then looked up, and in that instant, I knew what was coming.
"I do. DIE!"
Three bullets hit my barriers in the blink of an eye, and a fourth would have broken through if I hadn't expected it. The instant he had raised the gun I had done the same with my omni-tool. While he shot bullets at me, I shot an overload.
At his feet.
And the mines there.
I was in cover as the explosion shook the floor, and saw the red marker on my HUD fly back several meters. I peeked out of cover, already firing blindly in the general direction of Saren. I saw the blue flare of biotics through the dust cloud. His return fire was more accurate, but more scattered than it had been. Then, the dust parted as a glowing pulse of biotics rushed at me so fast I couldn't even blink before I was shot back against the wall.
"Benezia's commandos said you had some shield, that you were immune to biotics," Saren said, his voice punctuated by shots from his pistol. "Did you leave it home?"
I threw another overload, the accompanying explosion far enough that Saren didn't seem to be too affected by it, and with a grunt, pulled myself up and jumped over the railing of the platform. The fall was short, but even then, I nearly broke a leg with how tired I was. No time for it, I stumbled along the lower level, and emerged at the fountain.
Only to immediately come under fire from Saren. I ran across the corridor, trying to get into cover. I felt impacts on my shields, I felt them break, and just as I slid down to get behind the railing, a last one hit the suit.
My leg.
I yelped in pain as I fell over, pain flaring through my leg. A quick look and I saw the splash of red on the ground, showing the bullet had gone right through. What fucking kind of gun was Saren using? I didn't waste time, while I was riding the adrenalin, I raised my omni-tool and threw another overload. There was no explosion. Wasn't the point. Saren fell back quickly as soon as I shot it, fearing that there would be an explosion, which gave me a moment to catch my breath. I was out of medi-gel. I just did what I could with omni-gel, fabricating a foamy mesh to work as a bandage.
"Repairs to Morgan-Messenger's system insufficient for organic regeneration," Gee said.
"I know."
A grinding sound caught my attention, and I saw the crashed shuttle enveloped by a glow of biotics.
"Oh shit!"
Pain or not, I had to get out of there. I was about to bolt, when Gee planted a marker on my HUD. Red target marker, with a flashing Overload Ready sign on it. I didn't stop to try and guess what he was aiming at, I just threw the overload, trying to run and get out of the way. The pain in my leg was slowing me, but I had to try. I had to-
The explosion, the shuttle crashing on top of me, the few mines that were still left there, I don't know what happened. It was complete chaos. All I knew was that I was thrown off my feet, crashed on a wall, and felt the weight of the world fall on me.
So much pain.
For a long while, all I could do was try to breathe. That was it. I couldn't process anything. Just breathe. A distant sound became more and more clear, the familiar metallic cadence of a synthetic voice.
"Gee," I muttered, grunting in pain. It hurt to breathe. Among other things.
"Morgan-Messenger. Saren-Prophet is still functional."
"Shit. Gun. Where… ugh. I can't…" The rifle was out of my reach, and I was pinned down hard. "Gee, an explosive please."
"Morgan-Messenger possesses no means of explosive deployment."
Smoke was starting to fill the room, either the environmental controls were overwhelmed by the amount of it, or we had fried them. Either way, it obscured the view enough that I couldn't quite tell what state Saren was in, but he was up, and walking my way. He was limping.
"I can't let him win," I muttered. I stopped trying to get up and leaned against the wall again. I was so desperately tired. "No matter what. Have to stop him. Give me that bomb."
"Acknowledged, fabricator engaged."
Even with Gee's improvements, the microfabricator of my omni-tool was rather rubbish. All the upgrades were on processing power. It would take far too long for the explosive to be ready, I had to stall. Somehow. Just think of-
Well, that'll do.
"You look like shit, Saren," I said. I wasn't joking, his robotic arm was dropping sparks, and some of his flesh on that side of the body had been burned off, showing the cybernetic circuitry underneath.
He stopped walking, looking at me. He was smack in the middle of the room, and took a look around before turning to me again.
"I was wrong about you, Morgan. You have conviction. I never thought you would go this far."
"Someone-" I was interrupted by a painful fit of coughing, and took me a moment to pull myself together. My cough tasted like blood. "Someone's gotta save the galaxy. Since you gave up. Might as well be me."
I couldn't see clearly, not with the thin layer of smoke covering everything. But I could swear Saren wasn't so sure about himself anymore.
The Normandy was an absolute wonder. Not just the ship, but the crew that served aboard it. Even with the reduced staff, they had managed to sneak past the geth cruisers on the return trip to the Mu Relay, plotted a light-second accurate path back to Alliance space, pushed the ship beyond the specs with nothing but intuition and caffeine, and were now seconds away from jumping to the Citadel while leading the entire Fifth Fleet in.
Her crew was amazing. If someone could save the galaxy, it was them. They had wasted far too much time on a milk run to Ilos, but they were back now, and carrying the key to stopping the return of the reapers.
All this for a simple data disk.
She wasn't sure what would be waiting for them on the other side of the relay. The Citadel fleet was the largest fleet in the known galaxy. Maybe they had managed to stop the reaper. Or maybe they were still fighting. Maybe they had fallen and it was up to them to clean up the mess.
Or maybe there was an unimaginably large fleet of reapers waiting for them on the other side.
"Joker, move us in, link with the fleet," Shepard said. She had her eyes fixed on the holoprojector, gripping the rails atop the platform.
"Aye aye, commander," Joker replied.
"Pressly, it'll be at least ten seconds before the fleet follows us. Make sure you update them with absolutely everything we can as soon as we're through."
"Aye aye, sir," Pressly replied. He didn't seem bothered by the fact that Shepard was repeating what he already knew. In truth, it was more to reassure herself than anything else.
"Relay's hot," Joker announced. "Moving into position. Five. Four. Three. Two. One."
Blink and you'll miss it.
The transition through the relay was smooth as silk, but the arrival, not so much. The relay spat them in the middle of a debris field. Joker was yelling through the comms, Pressly was replying so fast Shepard was missing half of what he was saying. The map in front of her was updating at blinding speed, and there was a lot to keep track of. The Citadel fleet was in complete disarray, but they were still holding. The Destiny Ascension was between the Citadel's arms, and if Shepard didn't know any better, she would think they were actually hiding behind the defenses of the Citadel itself. She hit the controls of her terminal and got a status report on the ship. She wasn't wrong. The ship was in very dire straits.
"Commander, we're ready," Pressly said, taking a moment to grab onto the nearest handrail as the Normandy banked sharply, after something bounced off the kinetic barriers. "Transmitting information to the fleet."
"Where's the reaper?" Shepard said.
"We don't- Wait," Pressly replied.
The Normandy shook again, and the whole ship shuddered as the main guns discharged. She wanted to help, do something, but all she could do was stay in her post and let Joker do his thing. She had given him discretion, all they had to do was stay alive until the fleet arrived.
"Commander, where's my fleet?" Joker said. "Believe it or not there is a limit to my awesomeness!"
"We've called them Joker, be a good boy and wait," Shepard replied.
Joker banked the Normandy along the debris of a large cruiser, mass accelerated rounds hitting the destroyed ship as he avoided the shots.
"Javelins, all tubes!" Joker called.
A moment later half a dozen of the rather expensive missiles shot from the Normandy, impacting along the surface of the cruiser and exploding. The attack finished destroying the superstructure, and debris went flying in all directions.
"Hah!" Joker shouted, and Shepard saw markers disappearing on the map. "Tinheads have no imagination. We've- Shit!"
Another impact shook the Normandy, and this time Joker didn't have time for any quips. From her position she could only see Joke's back, and his hands flying over the controls. If it weren't for the inertial dampeners, she was sure they'd be plastered all over the walls by now.
"Commander, look!" Pressly shouted, at the same time changing the projection on the holo in front of her.
"The reaper, what is it-?"
"It's attached itself to the Citadel Tower," Pressly said. "The arms are starting to close!"
"What? No!" Shepard replied. "Where's the damn fleet?"
"They're deploying-"
"There's no time! Signal them, they need to go in now! Joker, I need to get to the Tower!"
"I'll just ask the reaper to scoot over, no problem!" Joker replied.
"No need, I have a better idea," Shepard replied, and hit the comms. "Ground team, report to the Mako! Joker, you're going to love this."
"You're Making a mistake, Saren. It's not too late."
He was ignoring me. The fact that he had left me where I was was more than a bit galling. Like I wasn't worth killing. It was a stupid thought, how could I be annoyed at not being killed? It did make me feel a bit stupid that I had an explosive ready and nothing to throw it at. Saren, in the meantime, was still working on the console. After a few seconds there was a jolt, a deep rumbling sound followed, and I could swear the entire tower moved. The feeling was indistinct, I couldn't really tell if it was real or not.
"It'll be over soon."
"No, don't be stupid, don't give in! Ugh…"
"Don't exert yourself, Morgan. You don't want to die before the end."
"That's it, isn't it? You just couldn't hack it," I said. "Couldn't find a way to save the galaxy. So fuck it, everyone dies."
"Not everyone," Saren said, still working his console. Goddammit he wasn't stopping. "Some of us will be saved. We're useful to them."
"Useful? They've been doing this for a billion years! How special do you think you are?"
"I have seen everything, Morgan. Everything! This is our only future."
"This is not a future! You've seen it? They're the malfunction of a broken AI, you idiot. You're giving up the galaxy to a runaway computer glitch!"
Saren didn't answer. Not with words, at least. He gave something between a yell and a roar, slammed his hands on the console, and turned to look at me.
I… guess I have his attention.
I wasn't sure what I was trying to do. As I was, all he had to do was get his gun out and shoot me in the head. I couldn't even get to my feet. But that was all I could do. Stall. How fucking long was Shepard going to be?
Was she even going to get here in time?
Without another word, Saren stomped towards me, the blue glow of biotics surrounding him. I tried my best not to have any sort of incident with my underwear when I saw that. He raised his arm, and the shuttle pinning me down started to glow. It floated above, a sharp jolt of pain accompanying the movement as my leg was freed. I should have been amazed at the display of biotics, but instead I was having a million thoughts racing through my head. He hadn't shot me. He hadn't crushed me with his biotics. Instead, he had just tossed it aside to walk right up to me.
He pulled me up to the wall by the throat with his metallic arm, another guttural roar accompanying the action.
"SILENCE!" he shouted
The vice grip on my neck tightened. I tried to free myself, but he didn't even blink, even as I attempted to punch him. It hurt me more than it hurt him, I just didn't have the energy.
He pulled me closer to his face. If I had been able to breathe, I would have been able to smell it.
"L...gh… dgh…"
"I said silence!" he repeated, squeezing harder. I reacted by punching him on the face, but he didn't even blink. Everything was tarting to go fuzzy, and the pressure inside my head was becoming unbearable.
"Gh… Dgh…"
"What is it? What can you possibly tell me now that would stop me?"
The pressure on my neck eased, and I managed to breathe in a couple of mouthfuls. I felt like my head was going to explode.
"Look… down…"
Childish? Stupid? Both? I wasn't thinking straight, the pain of my broken leg was almost overwhelming, and I felt like my head was going to explode. But I enjoyed the stupid look on his face when he looked at me, looked down, and found an explosive attached to his chest.
He let go of me the moment I fired my overload. The explosion caught both of us, and we went flying opposite ways. Or so I imagine. I didn't actually become conscious of it until much later, I just got my wits when I was laying on the ground, several meters away. I felt like an anvil was laying on my chest, and I couldn't make heads from tails. All I could think of was Saren.
Did I get him?
I managed to find Sanen. He was on the ground, same as me. But unlike me, he was moving. When he stood up, I felt my heart hit my shoes. He was still alive. I had my kinetic barrier and the suit, he had the explossive strapped directly to his chest, and I still had come worse off.
So, in the end, I had failed. There was nothing else I could do, and Saren was still alive. Those damn reaper upgrades. If only I could have some of that tech…
That was an odd thought, because it clashed with hat I knew about the reapers. Those thoughts kept going through my mind even as I saw him look at he, then apparently decided there was nothing else for him to do. He turned around, and made for the console, while I couldn't even move.
All I could do was watch. And what I was seeing was hard to believe. A shadow appeared on the emergency fields that had replaced the windows, growing bigger by the second. Saren saw it too, and stopped walking, just looking at it. He was still looking when a Mako came flying through the field, and crashed right on top of him, skidding along the floor until it hit the column to the side of the Council Chamber.
Shepard.
Always making an entrance.
"Is everyone alive?" Shepard shouted, and grunted in pain as she tried to undo her restraints.
"I'm not," Garrus replied from somewhere in the back.
"Neither am I," Tali said.
One by one the rest of the crew made similar snide remarks as they tried to get back on their feet. They had crashed rather spectacularly, but Joker had managed to fling them exactly as she had told him. And he had hit the bullseye.
"Let's get out, we have no time," Shepard said.
"What in the spirit's name did we hit on the way in?" Nihlus said
"No idea."
She stumbled once, was pulled back up by Nihlus, and then made for the door. It didn't open, so she had to hit the emergency release, and the charges on the hinges sent the door flying back several meters.
It might have been her imagination, but she was sure she heard Garrus whimper behind her.
Rifle in hand she was the first one out, closely followed by Nihlus and then the rest. There was the smell of smoke in the air, as well as the distinct aroma of burned chemicals that accompanied most explosives. Anywhere she looked, there were geth parts strewn about, and signs of battle. No organic bodies.
"Garrus, Tali, go find Roy. Wrex, Nihlus, with me, I need to open the Citadel."
"Roy?" Tali said.
"Look at this," Shepard said, gesturing around. "I bet you a million credits it was him. Again."
"No bet," Garrus said, already moving down the stairs.
Tali hesitated, then followed Garrus, shotgun in hand. Shepard headed straight for the console in the centre of the Council area, pulling the prothean datadisk out of her armor's webbing as she did. However, when she got to it, she realized she had no idea what to do.
"Nihlus," she called. The turian responded by rushing to her side. "Any idea?"
"Yes, these are the controls of the Citadel," Nihlus replied. "Why?"
"You can read this?"
"Yes, you can't?"
"It's all gibberish," Shepard replied. She stepped aside and pointed at the console. "Go on big guy, I'll cover ya."
"Give me a moment… S'kak."
"What?"
"Something about initializing a signal, I have to-"
His explanation was interrupted when a blast of energy surged from under the Mako, sending the fallen beast flying across the room. In its place, a robotic humanoid stood, blue circuitry glowing in the darkened room.
"What the…"
"Finish that!" Shepard said. "Wrex, with me!"
She raised her rifle and started shooting, rounds hitting the metallic frame and seemingly bouncing off without much of an effect. As she did, Wrex's shotgun blasted it with a carnage shot. That one did make a dent, which was far less than she'd have expected.
That gun can put holes in thresher maws, what the hell is this thing? Reaper tech?
The robot jumped. That's what Shepard's brain was telling her, but in reality, the leap was at least ten metres, from a standing position. It secured itself to the wall, and turned to look at her. She continued shooting, but when the robot opened its mouth, she was forced to rush into cover when a beam burst from it, carving a deep gouge though the ground where she had been standing.
"Fuck's sake! Tali! Garrus! Where are you!"
"We've found Roy, Shepard," Garrus replied. "He's in bad shape."
"We're going to need help here or we're all going to be in bad shape!" she replied.
"I'll be right there!" Tali replied over the comms.
Shepard folded her assault rifle and reached back for her sniper. It was close quarters, but she needed more punch. She pulled the scope out and threw it away, already following the robot's movements. It turned towards Nihlus, which made Shepard's mind sharpen into focus in an instant. Securing the rifle to her shoulder, aiming, and firing all happened in an instant. Her shot hit the robot on the face, and the beam it shot went wild and off-target.
Her attack was quickly followed by an overload flying overhead and hitting the robot dead to rights. Arcs of energy jumped around, coursing through the robot's body but not stopping it. All it managed was to get its attention.
Better us than Nihlus.
It leaped again across the open space, landing on the opposite side of th chamber's wall. It fired another beam immediately, and this time she had a clear shot at them. It hit Wrex even as he tried to dive out of the way, and there was a splash of blood when his left arm dropped to the ground.
"Wrex!"
"I'm fine!" the krogan shouted. "That damn thing, it's going to take weeks to regenerate that!"
Good for you, I'll be shocked if we last that long.
The entire room shook unexpectedly, and the robot lost its purchase and fell to the ground. Shepard steadied herself and shot it repeatedly, forcing it to leap away in retreat. She thought there was some damage, or at least it was sparking more obviously, but she couldn't tell. Her HUD was giving her nothing on that thing, no info whatsoever.
"Citadel's opening," Nihlus announced. "It's done."
"Then help us with this thing!" Shepard replied.
"You're welcome," Nihlus deadpanned, already obeying orders. "Are you always this crabby after?"
"After… Crabby?!"
"Yeah, isn't that the right word?" Nihlus replied.
You freaking featherless chicken, when we're out of here I'll-
Her thought derailed when the robot started attacking again. With the four of them they were finally starting to turn the tide, but they were still on the back foot. Shepard pushed to the front, two shots of her rifle hitting the robot on the chest. Hard to aim at the head while moving. She got behind a column when the robot shot at her, and used the time to check the situation.
For all the shit she'd put it through, the Mak was still on, and after the last trip, standing upright.
"Tali! Nihlus! Get in the Mako, and give him the beams! I'll distract him!"
Nihlus protested. "Are you crazy? That thing will-"
"Move it!" she replied.
She swapped weapons again, going for the shotgun, and bolted out of cover. One, two, three shots. She had its attention. Four, five. A carnage shot hit it on the back, distracting it and making it turn to Wrex.
"Dammit Wrex!"
"Don't hoard all the fun, Shepard," the krogan replied.
"You're missing an arm!"
"I still have my quad."
Instead of continuing the pointless dialog, Shepard resumed her attack. They weren't exactly winning, but between the two of them, they were definitely keeping him busy. That was what Shepard thought until the robot jumped right at her from the wall. She managed to avoid it by rolling out of the way, but as soon as it landed, she was hit by a blast of energy as it exploded around her mechanical foe.
She shouted in pain, and her legs gave under her without ever having a chance to fight. She saw the robot stand up again and turn to her, and she struggled to get up again. Fotunately for her, and unfortunately for the robot, Wrex came barreling through and charged right at it. The impact was loud enough that Shepard winced internally, but the synthetic was thrown back a substantial distance. The krogan emphasized the point by discharging his shotgun repeatedly, until the robot stood up again and jumped away.
"Commander, are you there?" Joker's voice came through the comms.
"Not a good time," she grunted in response.
"The Citadel's opening and we're moving in. Hackett wants an update down there, the Council's asking for help, and the Reaper's still attached like a tick."
"I don't know Joker, we're kinda busy!" Shepard replied. She had gotten to her feet, and was trading shots with the robot again. "Citadel's been deactivated, it's not going to jump any other reapers in. That's all I can tell you!"
"Aye sir, will tell the Admiral to do whatever the heck he wants. Joker out!"
One of these days…
"Shepard, we're ready," Tali called.
"Then kill that thing!"
The first shot of the Mako made the ground tremble. Shepard and Wrex dug into cover, while Nihlus let out a second volley. The robot was jumping all over the place, much faster than what Nihlus could manage with the Mako.
Shepard brought her omni-tool up and started manipulating the interface. She put a marker on the wall above her, far enough to avoid splash damage if the Mako hit it.
"Nihlus! Aim there, I'll try to herd it into sight!" Shepard said.
"Got it," Nihlus replied.
Shepard hit the fabricator and took a moment to catch her breath. Two seconds later she had a tech mine in her hand. Time to face the music. She jumped out of cover and threw the mine, immediately grasping her shotgun and firing two shots. The explosion didn't touch the robot, and neither did her shots. He jumped to the opposite side of the Mako, far from the cannon's aim.
"Wrex! Around!" Shepard called.
The two of them rushed around it, firing blindly to try and herd the robot away. Their combined effort was enough to make it jump a second time, but not to get it to the right point.
"Dammit, you stupid tinhead!" Shepard shouted. "Just die already!"
A loud report echoed through the chamber, and at the same moment a bullet hit the robot where it was, hard. It clambered desperately as the unexpected shot made it lose its balance, and both Shepard and Wrex pressed harder, shooting repeatedly with their shotguns. Garrus shot again with his sniper rifle, and the robot fell rolling on top of the Mako.
With a metallic roar, the robot blew up another charge, electricity arcing around and hitting Shepard's shields. He followed with another shot, the beam glancing at her armor as she dove away. A piece of her chest plate fell to the ground, half-melted and smoking.
"Shepard!" Garrus shouted.
"I'm fine! Take him!"
More shots. The robot started shooting back, until the Mako suddenly jerked, its surviving tires spinning and making the beast lurch. The response from the robot was instant, it jumped back to safety. All three of them – Garrus, Wrex, and Shepard – reacted as one and started shooting. The robot jumped around aimlessly, trying to avoid all the guns. It was hurting, that was for sure.
Then, with a deafening boom, the Mako let loose a shot. And instead of the robot, all Shepard could find were debris and a large dent on the wall.
"Nice shot big guy," Shepard said.
"That was me!" Tali replied over the comms. "Nihlus is driving!"
"I should have known," Shepard said.
"What can I said, I learned from the worst," Nihlus replied.
"Shut up."
While they were having their argument, the entire tower shook, impact after impact making the entire building tremble. There was one final lurch which send everyone to the ground, then the shaking stopped.
"What the hell…" Shepard muttered. She looked outside the window, and even through the barriers she could see something. A huge shadow had fallen over it.
"The reaper's moving," Nihlus said.
"Joker, what's going on up there?" Shepard called.
"Not a good time Commander," Joker replied. Behind his voice, Shepard heard the familiar din of a ship in full combat. "Can I call you back?"
"Don't leave a girl waiting," Shepard replied.
"Just sit back and watch the fireworks. I'll make it-" he stopped for a moment when a loud boom echoed through the comms. "I'll make it look good!"
She watched through the window, looking at the battle outside. It was all blurry, the reaper was being hammered, and it looked like they were winning. Despite the fact that other ships kept blowing all around the reaper, the attack was relentless. Then there was a blindingly bright flash, she looked away, covering her eyes, and when she looked again, something big was heading straight towards the window.
"Shit. RUN!"
She turned to run, she caught glimpses of the others running out as well. Then the entire universe seemed to fall on her head.
Author's Notes: Well, this chapter just seemed to go on and on and I didn't want to break the action until the end of it. Well, mostly end. It's not much of a cliffhanger, since this is where the ending cutscene kicks in-game. We can mop up the aftermath in the next chapter, which I'm quite looking forward to writing.
Oh, and Merry Christmas!
On a different note, when I went looking for a soundtrack for Gee, I went to one of those lyrics online sites, and simply typed "Gee" in the search bar. The result was as you saw. It was so unexpected, and so perfect, that it had to go in. Gee isn't quite getting the idea of the soudtrack yet. But he will, I hope. One thing that keeps happening to Roy is ending up way over his head. Not much he can do about it other than push through, or maybe there's better things he could do but he's just being subborn. Or maybe it's just me.
Also, now you know why I added that bit about the shotgun exploding all the way back on the second chapter. I needed a Chekov's gun for this encounter! :D
Anyway, plenty of reviews! Thanks a lot everyone! On that note:
Tahkaullus01: Gotta remember, bitchy Shepard just got laid. She's slightly less bitchy at the moment :D
Toothless: Not exactly epic, but having a kickass Geth companion on your omni-tool does help a lot.
LordGhostStriker: :( (If it helps, in the far, far future, things get better).
BJ Hanssen: I tried! To tell you the truth, I always saw the important part of the Conduit to be Vigil. The relay was useful, but Saren could have ridden the Reaper all the way to the Citadel without a blink.
Rainsfere: You're close to the mark! I'll explain more in the near future. Don't want to spoil it :) And yeah, Shepard and Nihlus will be talking about it. They're bumping uglies, after all!
Mizuki00: Thanks! Lots of action here, but there'll be lots of feels in the next chapter. Please don't hurt me too much when you read it...
MrHam31: Oh you bet! Roy might normally just take it, but every so often someone pushes him a bit too far. And I'd say Nihlus has joined that exclusive club.
general-joseph-dickson: Yep! Call it karma, so much shit goes wrong that eventually something has to go right :D
ThemyThink: Stay tuned!
bluemarlin: I get to do all the work, and Shepard gets all the glory. How typical, isn't it?
OBSERVER01: Kasumi's da bomb. And she's going to give KEiji a heart attack one of thse days.
Uemei: No guts, no glory. And even without the glory, someone's got to do what needs to be done. And yeah, he did get his ass kicked, after a while.
anon: Thanks!
Fanfiction Reviewer Man: I see what you mean, but I couldn't resist the quip about it being a mirror of Shepard's "original" Virmire choice (save Mika or save the Galaxy), and then turning out there was no need to worry. All about subverting expectations. Shepard getting back, well, I went with someone needing to hit the controls from the Citadel Tower for the relay network to shut down, not just having the reaper attached to it like a leech. I think that's canon, but I'm not sure. Just went with it . Anyway, thanks a lot for the thoughts!
Allrighty, that's it for today! Hope you enjoyed the chapter, and as always thanks for reading, reviewing, and supporting! Next chapter? We're getting some aftermatch, some feels, some arguments, and a massive purchase. It might end up a very disjointed chapter. Until then, ta-ta!