Disclaimer: I do no own Mass Effect, I do not claim to own Mass Effect, I am only doing this for fun.
Author Notes: Man what a busy month this has been. I am glad that I was able to get this done, I had to fight with myself and some exhaustion-caused writer's block. But the episode is done and "on schedule".
Episode 39: Armageddon [Part II]
Once outside the torch control structure, one glance ahead showed that Terra Nova loomed noticeably larger; its bottom edge had sunk below what passed for X57's horizon. The rock was still accelerating, but with a third of the thrust eliminated, the rate would decrease. She turned her head to look up at the torch they had just extinguished. Its phantom atmosphere was still faintly visible, stretched out into a streak. It would be some time before the plasma cloud would dissipate entirely. All of it served as a reminder that now was not the time for gawping.
She turned and marched toward the Kodiak. To say she was looking forward to walking a makeshift minefield would be a blatant lie. Why did civilians have to be so damn impatient? Heck, why did the corporate types have to think that safety measures and working equipment was a luxury? Whoever was funding this move owed the family of every single individual who died here an apology and a huge sum of money. If she had her way, the families would have everything they needed to pursue the company for negligence. Even if the engineers had done the singularly stupid thing that was setting up the radio station, the fact that the comm tower was malfunctioning was not their fault. They got broken tech, and once that was ascertained, the company had not replaced it. There was some ground for a civic lawsuit.
The Kodiak's door was already open by the time Shepard reached it, and it was a moment before she realized that she was the last aboard. As she stepped aboard, she passed her palm over the control panel to tell the shuttle to close it. Not long after that they were airborne again. Shepard made her way into the cockpit and perched in the co-pilot's seat without doing up the harness. Given how quickly the Kodiak could cover what would be just a few kilometers, Shepard did not see the need to wrestle with the straps.
It was not long before the Kodiak rounded the final towering craggy ridge, and Nihlus gave the craft a few commands, putting it into hover, so that they could inspect the torch and the surrounding plain. Shepard reached to the sensor controls. This side of the asteroid faced away from the system's sun, yet the darkness was not absolute. The plasma plume generated by the torch cast a flickering reddish glow over the plain below it. From what she could see, the installation was on the very edge of the field, with the torch itself set into the ridge, seemingly using the crags as a buttress. Far more ominously, the control facility was ringed with lit orange warning lights.
"When Atwell said a blasting caps… I expected a tight, neat grid pattern, and not this." Nihlus said. "They wanted to blast this whole plain once the torch was no longer needed."
"I still do not understand why they had to put in the charges now," Shepard replied. The marked-off area was much too big to start a mine shaft. This would have been more appropriate for an open-pit mine on an asteroid strip-mining operation, not a hollow-bore mine. X57 was meant to be hollowed out. What more, this meant there was literally no way to access the torch structure without walking right on top of the impromptu minefield. Even if the blasting caps had not been armed, who in their right mind would want to walk or drive anything over them? The miners had been asking for an unfortunate, but entirely predictable accident. Shepard would never say it out loud, but she wondered, all considering, was she saving these people from the batarians, or their own stupidity? Casting that thought aside as unhelpful, she tapped a series of keys which brought up the Kodiak's FLIR imaging. "Nihlus I'm not getting the whole field, could you adjust the heading?"
"Sure," his fingers passed over the controls and the Kodiak turned ever so slightly as Shepard watched the readout. To her complete dismay, the plain below read as a single uniform shade of grey throughout, not a single brighter splotch to indicate something warmer in sight. She switched the sensors to maximum resolution, which narrowed the field of view, but the view remained the same. "How deep did they set those explosives?" Shepard muttered, more to herself than to Nihlus. "Can you move a little closer, and a little lower? I think we can safely hover outside the line of the warning beacons."
"You are the boss," Nihlus replied.
Shepard chose to ignore his tone right then. She was perfectly aware of what happened last time she asked Nihlus to hover the Kodiak lower over a potential hazard. She was also aware of what would happen if she was wrong and the explosives went off. Still, she found it a little difficult to believe that the combat cockroach would be taken out by civilian-grade explosives. If the Kodiak could be taken out so easily, she would have some words with the engineers at the Skunkworks.
The Kodiak slowly moved closer and dropped altitude. The readout's field of view narrowed even further, now nothing more then a cone right in front of the Kodiak's nose. Yet even with that the picture remained entirely the same. "Damn it… The caps are still not showing up."
"Did you set it at maximum resolution?" Nihlus asked.
"Yes. They're either buried too deep or this rock is acting like a thermos." This was one of those times when a long string of cuss words was just on the tip of her tongue. Still, Shepard was not about to let herself lose control. Swearing was counterproductive and was basically an admission of defeat. She would not let a bunch of batarians using the impatience of a bunch of civilians get the better of her. There had to be something else they could do, she just needed to take a moment and think.
"Here is the welcoming committee," Nihlus announced.
Shepard looked up at the main view screen just in time to see five batarians emerge from the torch control facility and duck behind the containers left by the structure's door. None of them bothered raising their guns toward the Kodiaks; they probably knew they would never get past the shuttle's shields. Shepard could just imagine their radio chatter, likely wondering if they were about to see someone be blown up.
Right then the situation devolved into a bit of a catch twenty-two. The Batarians could not hope to bring down a Kodiak with infantry weapons, but the Kodiak could not press its advantage either. They could not use the Kodiak's armament for fear of setting off the charges. They could not even fly over the field, as that would mean running the same risk. The torch control facility was simply too close, and Shepard could not afford damage to it. She tapped the communication controls, "Kodiak two, this is Kodiak one."
"This is Kodiak two, reading you loud and clear, Commander." Kaidan replied.
"We are at the destination. I have bad news, and worse news. First, the bad news. There are five enemy combatants waiting for us on the ground. The worse news? FLIR imaging is not picking up the explosives buried all around it."
Kaidan hummed so low that the communicator barely caught it. "On the positive side, those five will not rush us, and we certainly have no shortage of crack-shots." Kaidan replied.
"And then you have to wonder… if there are five outside… How many more could they have inside?" Ashley added.
"They got you there," Nihlus murmured.
Shepard spared the Spectre a half-hearted glare. Did he have to sound so amused right then? She would not deny that he was right, but she did not care for the cheek. "There's a reason why I said those five were just the bad news." Let them take it as they would. She shut down the FLIR system and leaned back into her seat, "Alright, Nihlus. Set us down back there by the ridge. Let's press our advantage against these guys."
"You got it," Nihlus replied. The Kodiak started coming about even before he finished talking.
Shepard watched the batarians on the monitor as long as possible. When the Kodiak came about she tapped a key to open link to the back of the shuttle. "We are making a landing at our destination. It would seem that there are five enemies who are awfully eager to die. Garrus, Legion, this time I want your help. They have some cover, so we will need to play the angles."
"You got, Commander."
"Acknowledged."
Shepard closed the link and hummed. Somehow she did not think these batarians would have many long-distance crack-shots among them. First, before they saw an opportunity for mass murder, they came here intending to abduct people. From their choice of target and the numbers she had seen thus far, she did not think this was a big crew. Only the larger bands had the resources to invest in heavier equipment which allowed them to attack locations like Mindoir or Elysium. At the end of the day, slave runners were still a very nasty business. Their leaders had to turn a profit to keep the goons happy and make ends meet. For a location like this, she did not think they would have come packing heavy artillery.
The Kodiak touched down and the jolt started Shepard out of her musings. As the hum of its mass effect core faded she got to her feet and reached up to check her helmet seals. Having confirmed that her gear was ready for another stint in vacuum she exited the cockpit and turned to her team. Garrus was seated, but his sniper rifle lay unfolded and powered up across his lap. Legion already stood by the hatch, waiting for her.
"We are ready when you are, Commander." Garrus said.
"Affirmative."
"We are looking at five enemy combatants, and they have cover. We need to pick angles from which we can create cross-fire, eliminate their cover advantage." Shepard said.
"Shepard-Commander, we can calculate the angles required once we assess the enemy's positions."
Shepard nodded; "Thanks, Legion. That'd save us some time." Not much, but she would not say that. Ultimately there was no need for complex math; they just needed to flank the batarians. "I intend to fire from the Kodiak's roof."
"Acknowledged," Legion stated plainly.
"I might be able to do something from the other Kodiak." Garrus said.
"Alright, sounds like a plan. Are your seals good?" Shepard asked, as far as she was concerned there was nothing else to cover here.
"Yes."
"Nihlus, I'm going to depressurize the back." Shepard said calmly even as her fingers keyed in the sequence to begin depressurizing.
"Got it," the Spectre replied. "Go give those mongrels what they deserve."
Shepard did not reply. The shuttle was already depressurizing, so she barely heard Legion's huge sniper rifle whine as it powered up. A good minute later the panel showed that the sequence was complete and she tapped the key to open the hatch. Legion stepped right out and moved toward the shuttle's aft. Shepard followed at a rather leisurely pace; nevertheless she watched as the geth circled the craft and stepped closer to the plain. In the darkness, their shiny paint did not glimmer half as much as it could, but it caught something of the torch's corona, and so it seemed more reddish than normal, giving the geth a rather ominous visage.
She turned her head to look at the other shuttle; Kodiak Two had landed about thirty meters away. Garrus was already making his way toward it. She saw one of its side-doors open, but Bravo and Tali did not emerge. She figured they were taking it easy, knowing there was nothing for them to do out here as long as the batarians were on the other side of the minefield.
Shepard glanced at Legion. The geth was now right outside the line of the warning beacons, staring seemingly at nothing, though she knew he was probably scanning. With the situation assessed, she finally turned to the Kodiak and began climbing up onto its roof. The rock's weak gravity made it relatively easy, as even a tiny hold was enough to get leverage.
"Shepard-Commander, we have completed our survey." Legion announced over the communicator.
Shepard eased herself down onto her front and reached behind her back for Nike. "Any suggestions, Legion?" She asked as the rifle extended and she settled it into position against her shoulder.
"Shepard-Commander's present position is not advantageous." Legion began.
"I think what Legion is trying to say is, we need to flank them. Legion, you head about fifty meters in your direction, and I will head fifty in the opposite. We will pincer them between us." Garrus stated.
"Affirmative, Officer-Vakarian, we were going to suggest the same tactical approach. However, we recommend going to sixty meters." Legion stated bluntly.
"We can do sixty if it will make you happy," Garrus replied.
"We are Geth, we do not experience emotions. Happiness is an emotion." Legion replied automatically.
"One might argue that." Garrus went on.
Shepard watched from her position, as Garrus and Legion circled the minefield. Legion went around to her right, while Garrus went past the other Kodiak to the left.
"You will have to specify a precise time you purport to have witnessed us express emotion." Legion replied, blunt as ever.
"Are you two really going to discuss this now?" Nihlus asked.
"Thank you, Spectre Kryik. I was about to ask the same thing. This is an open link you know." Tali chimed in. "Garrus, you are not winning that argument with the… Geth bosh'tet!"
"Creator-Zorah, your use of the word 'argument' implies there is mutual antagonism. There is none. We would suggest you use the term 'debate', however for that, Officer-Vakarian would require a position based on an observation free of logic faults." The geth stated calmly.
"Oh, I see how it is," Garrus rumbled.
Shepard let out a breath she did not know she was even holding. It looked like Garrus did not take Legion's cheek too personally.
"We will pick this up later, Legion, for now… we have a job to do." Garrus finished.
"Officer-Vakarian, your tactical retreat has been noted. Shepard-Commander, we are in position and awaiting your signal to commence operation." Legion said. Their tone flat and seemingly disinterested, but the cheek continued.
"Emotionless, right, and I am the Primarch of Palaven." Garrus grumbled. "Ready when you are, Shepard."
"Stand by," Shepard replied as she peered down Nike's scope. By now the batarians had huddled around the containers and drawn their weapons, which meant they were not entirely dumb. It was a bit much to expect them not to be ready, seeing two armed individuals circle the field. Still, she could see only infantry-grade automatics, not a single HVR in sight. They were badly out of their comfort range, and Shepard knew that any one of them with a decent helmet HUD could tell that those flanking them could easily shoot them across a scant few hundred meters. She had officially rained on the idea that they could just stand there and watch as someone attempted to walk that minefield.
Would they try to go for the door? Shepard glanced over at it and found that the panel was still green; they had not bothered to secure the hatch. Likely because they were sure that whoever tried to walk the field would trigger the explosives. Shepard could not help but be amused by their overconfidence and inattention to detail. Then she saw one of the batarians shift his weight from foot to foot. He was as good as any target for her first shot, so she moved her crosshairs onto his helmet.
As Legion had said, her angle was not ideal. The batarians had done the obvious thing and hid in such a way that the shuttles had no clear line-of-sight. At best she only had an oblique angle on the side of a helmet or shoulder, but for her, and in the void that was enough. Her finger dropped onto Nike's trigger as she inhaled, held, and slowly began to exhale. The batarian shifted his weight again. Just as the sliver of helmet widened, Nike bucked against her shoulder.
The bullet flew along the side of the batarian's visor, scoring it deeply. He recoiled, but the damage was done. The gouge thinned the material there, and the pressure difference did the rest. A moment later the visor cracked open and began to vent. The batarian grabbed for the breach instinctively, but it was pointless, it would not even buy him an extra second of life. None of the others bothered to try and help, thought it was hard to tell whether it was because they knew there was no helping, did not want to risk being the next one shot, or just did not care. They just stood there and watched as he fought the inevitable for an agonizing ten seconds.
"Their lack of loyalty to each other is something," Garrus murmured.
"Indeed." Shepard replied blandly. "Garrus, Legion, feel free to ventilate them."
"With pleasure."
"Acknowledged."
A moment later she saw a second batarian jerk. His assault rifle fell from his hands as he tipped sideways out from behind his slice of cover. Shepard turned her crosshairs on him, but it was impossible to miss the neat entry hole in the side of his helmet. He was probably dead before he hit the ground.
"That is two," Garrus rumbled.
A third's helmet exploded into fragments, misting with green-tinged fumes as blood and moist brain matter boiled and evaporated in hard vacuum.
"Three." Legion stated. "Acquiring the next target…"
"I almost feel bad for those bastards, but then I remember what they did," Ashley murmured quietly.
Shepard watched as one of the two still-living batarians made a dash for the door. Even before he could make ten steps he jerked, his rifle dropped from his hands, and his knees gave out beneath him as he crumpled to the ground.
"Scoped and dropped." Garrus stated calmly.
Then the last batarian's helmet exploded into a shower of shards and gore as Legion fired their second shot. The damage was heinous; it would not be an exaggeration to say that only a raw stump of a neck was left. Shepard actually felt her stomach turn ever so slightly.
"Shepard-Commander, enemy units outside the torch control facility have been neutralized."
"Thanks, Legion." Shepard replied as she powered down Nike, stowed it behind her back, and rose to her knees. Now came the real hard part, they still needed to figure out how they were going to cross the minefield. Shepard glanced down at the ground prior to jumping, only to see Tali standing below, with Chatika floating over her shoulder.
"Is something wrong, Tali?" Shepard acknowledged.
"No, I was just thinking about the problem at hand." Tali replied. "You said that the thermal readings were not penetrating the asteroid's dust layers, but all electronics also emit a faint electromagnetic field. Perhaps the charges will show up if we scan for that…"
Shepard nodded, utterly unsurprised that the individual closest to being a combat engineer on her team was fast at work solving a problem. "Of course, but the Kodiak's sensors do not have the needed resolution for frequencies other than infrared." Shepard sincerely wished they had a Mako with a mine-clearing attachment. Reality once again only disappointed her.
"Maybe Chatika can map the field for us. The Geth sensory inside has a slightly better resolution, and it would be closer to the actual charges, so it might be easier to pick them up."
Shepard caught the way her tone dipped, "I'm sensing a but in there…"
"But…" Tali replied. "Due to issues of how far Chatika can relay telemetry… I would have to follow it onto the field."
It was difficult to miss the fact that Tali clearly was not eager to do that. Still, she did put the option forward, meaning that she wanted to help and Shepard could probably cajole her into doing it. That is, if she wanted to be a total insensitive monster. She could not, in good conscience, order Tali to do something this dangerous if she was not a hundred percent on board with it.
"Shepard-Commander, Creator-Zorah, there is another option. The drone Creator-Zorah constructed uses Heretic sensory. We can attune our sensors to those same frequencies. We could conduct those scans at a higher resolution. In addition, we do not have the same data transfer constraints." Legion stepped in.
Tali turned to the geth, "You would do that?" She asked.
"Affirmative."
Shepard could only weigh the options. Legion made the offer with their usual calm tone, the geth would certainly not be afraid of that minefield. Fear might cause someone else to make a mistake, whether in overlooking a bomb, or stepping too close to one. However, Shepard did not want to order Legion to do the task just because of that consideration. There was, at the core, a potential for the argument of favoritism here. Ideally, she should let Tali and Legion figure out which of them actually went onto the field. If that was cowardly of her, then she would admit to being a bit of a coward.
"Why?" Tali asked next.
"We detected Creator-Zorah's hesitance to perform the scans. We are not capable of the same emotional response. Creator-Zorah chose not to use Geth nanoprocessors or runtimes in the construction of her drone. We do not have the same limitations. Five hundred forty two runtimes within this platform agree that we are the logical choice for conducting these scans." Legion explained flatly. The emotive flaps that the top of their head barely moved at all, but the ocular iris seemed to narrow down as they drew near Tali.
"And the other six hundred forty one?" Tali asked, suspicion growing in her voice.
Shepard could not help but be wary as well, five forty two was less than half the runtimes inside the Geth. Shepard could see where Tali's hesitance came from. On the one hand Tali would not want to look like a coward who let someone do something for her, after she offered to begin with. On the other, Shepard could certainly see Tali still being afraid of that minefield. Shepard figured the young quarian was dithering between telling Legion to shove their offer and then do the scans, and letting the geth have one over her.
"One hundred runtimes would have us do nothing." Legion began.
Shepard blinked, stunned. She had a feeling she knew where this was going.
"Five hundred forty one would join Creator-Zorah. Conducting the scans together would ensure success, and is thus the most efficient option. However, we understand if that would not be acceptable to Creator-Zorah. We calculated Creator-Zorah's likelihood of rejecting the option to be seventy-five percent." Legion replied bluntly.
It was not for the first time Shepard marveled at how brilliant and wily the geth was. The gross majority of the runtimes within them could agree on one thing, they would do the scans; however, they were split on whether or not to involve Tali. So to fix the split, they chose to lay it out to Tali herself and challenge her to prove them wrong.
"Oh is that how it is, you bosh'tet. Come on. We're doing this. I will show you once and for all that all of your runtimes are not as clever as they calculate they are." Tali growled. It sounded like all semblance of fear left her in the face of a direct challenge from her nemesis.
Shepard could only sit and watch, as it was not her place to tell Tali that in all likelihood, Legion's runtimes wanted to do the job with her from the beginning, hence the supremely narrow split in their thinking. They chose to goad her into accepting their involvement to have their way. Shepard did not want Tali to feel foolish. She was pretty sure that everyone who was on the shared comm link would know that Legion had won that one. "Be careful you two," she warned.
"Acknowledged, Shepard-Commander."
"Don't worry about me, Shepard. If anyone is getting blown up, it's this mechanical nuisance. This sort of job requires a delicate touch. A geth wouldn't know a thing about delicacy." Tali replied.
The flaps at the top of Legion's head rose in what looked like comical surprise. But the quarian stomped toward the field with her drone in tow without even looking at the geth. A moment later the geth's emotive flaps reset and it turned to follow the quarian. Shepard watched them got a good thirty seconds before she finally pushed off the Kodiak's edge and down from its roof. There was something to be said for low gravity, she barely felt the impact of landing at all.
She rounded the Kodiak just in time to see Legion catch up and overtake Tali as the two of them stepped past the lit warning beacons. Some part of Shepard was wary, sure she did not issue the orders, but this whole thing still felt wrong to her. This was the sort of task she normally handled herself, simply because she was perfectly fine taking the chances while her team stayed out of harm's way. Still, right then she was out of her loop. She did not have the skills for finding explosive devices, improvised or otherwise. Tali would not have volunteered if she knew she could not do it. At the very least, Shepard thought Legion would have a head on their shoulders. Sure they goaded Tali into it, but Shepard hoped they also knew that she would not be happy if something happened to the quarian girl.
A few meters out on the field Chatika moved ahead of Tali, turning this way and that, pausing in between turns as it scanned the ground. Legion walked abreast with Tali, their face-light dilated to the maximum as it slowly scanned the ground in sweeping arcs.
"I knew it!" Tali chorused suddenly, her voice filled with triumph. "The detonators are emitting a characteristic electromagnetic signature that Chatika can pick up! There's one about a ten meters on my left."
"Confirmed. Coordinates logged." Legion said. "Addendum. There is a charge ten point three meters ahead on our right. Logging coordinates."
"Don't think this is a competition on who spots more, you bosh'tet." Tali said.
Shepard shook her head, Tali was a rotten liar. She wanted it to be a competition; she would not have said anything about Legion's efficiency otherwise. "Be careful you two, those are proximity charges. We do not know their yield or how close you have to be to set them off." She said, even as she approached the point at which they stepped onto the field.
By now they were about a fifth of the field ahead, around thirty five, maybe forty meters. Shepard glanced around and noted that the others had begun to gather around her.
"Should we follow along their path?" Kaidan asked quietly.
"You could. If we did not set off the charges then it should be safe for you." Tali replied.
"Legion left some rather impressive footprints. We should be fine if we walk right on top of them." Shepard said. The regolith was un-weathered and there was absolutely nothing to move it about, so someone as heavy as Legion left very clear impressions with every step.
"Ah yes. I suppose that's good." Tali replied.
Shepard was the first to brave the minefield, stepping right along and on top of the trail Legion inadvertently created. "Alright people, follow me, single file, space out, and take it nice and easy. This is not a race."
There was a series of indistinct sounds of agreement from the others, but Shepard was already some meters away. The beginning of the path was ruler straight, with stops here and there, at places where the geth and the quarian paused during their scans. She looked up; the two were still about thirty meters ahead of her.
"Creator-Zorah, stop. There is a charge ten meters immediately in front of you." Legion called, raising their voice in a semblance of alarm.
Tali stopped immediately and turned to her omni-tool.
Shepard stopped where she was as well; she would not want to catch up to them, lest they needed to backtrack.
Tali fiddled with her omni-tool for a long moment as Chatika turned to scan the ground immediately in front of the quarian. "Ah, yes, yes there is… Thanks."
"Acknowledged. We will need to divert our path. Standby while we scan our surroundings." Even before Legion finished speaking they had turned in place to scan for gaps on their right. The process was quite slow as Shepard could not imagine they could cover more than maybe a meter or two ahead at one time. Even the geth probably did not have the sensitivity and resolution to handle wide swaths of area. Tali turned to look at the geth, seemingly seeing them for the first time.
Shepard could only watch from her distance. It was no big mystery why Tali was suddenly so keen on Legion. She had not expected the geth to warn her about the mine right in front of her. The casual ease with which Legion had done it, only then to turn and look for an alternative path, was proof of some sort that the geth held no real malice toward the quarian. The problem was that Tali would likely assume Legion only did it because it was expected of them. Tali would probably reject the idea that Legion at all cared for her wellbeing, despite evidence to the contrary. Legion did not have to volunteer to scan the field after Tali had done so. They had also showed that the vast majority of their runtimes wanted to do it. Only a hundred out of one thousand one hundred eighty three had been cynical to the point of advising no action.
"Creator-Zorah, we have identified a clear path. Follow us." Legion said a moment before they turned and began to walk.
Tali did not protest as she followed the geth this time. However, Chatika continued to hover over her shoulder, still scanning as they went. Shepard waited only a little bit for the gap between them to widen before she resumed following along Legion's footprints. They would have to be very careful to make the turn at the exact same place as Legion had.
Tali and Legion completed the scan without any more excitement. Apparently the minefield had an inner ring and an outer grid of explosives. This was the reason why Legion had to steer them along a slightly different path that one time, on the edge between the two. It took another fifteen minutes to pass the remaining breadth of the field, but it was done, and not a single charge was tripped. Shepard could rightfully say she was proud of them; they had managed to put their animosity aside and work on a common task. She hoped it was the first step on a road to a more professional working relationship. They really could not co-exist on a ship the size of the Normandy if they could not be civil to each-other.
Once on the other side of the minefield, Shepard took a moment to inspect the environment. This torch control facility structure seemed smaller than the previous one. It did not take long for her to notice the console set on a crate by the door. It was such a weird place to keep a computer that she was instantly drawn to it. It took about five minutes to figure out that the batarians had moved the control mechanism for the minefield outside. It made sense, as this way the guards would have been able to disarm the field when necessary, likely in the event of seeing allies coming in, or needing to evacuate the facility. The terminal was in standby, but still logged on, so Shepard only needed to input a general shut down command to disarm the charges entirely.
Shepard was amused at how undisciplined some batarians could be. Their ego and empty belief in their superiority was their bane. She had seen very few who bothered to put their money where their mouth was. She had seen even fewer who displayed rigorous discipline of the sort that she would call 'well trained'. Though admittedly, there were some talk that the rabble who ran in the slaver gangs was often the cast-offs from the Hegemony military to begin with. Which would make them only a little better than the typical mercenary in terms of skills. Still, those were just idle rumors that one ought not to build a strategy around.
"I expect them to have a welcoming committee similar to the one we encountered at the first torch. Complete with varren." Nihlus said.
"I think that's a safe bet," Shepard agreed.
"We handled them there, and we'll handle them here." Kaidan murmured.
"Damn right," Ashley added.
"How are you holding up, lieutenant?" Shepard asked. She would not want Kaidan to run out of steam at the worst possible moment.
"I am fine, ma'am. I had some calorie bars during our flight, and the pain is nothing some painkillers can't suppress." Kaidan replied. "Besides, this is more important than one of my headaches."
Shepard nodded and moved toward the doorway leading inside the torch control facility. It only took laying her palm over the panel for the door to open for her. Inside, the anteroom was arranged in exactly the same manner as the one at the previous facility, though there were fewer EVA suit lockers here, and all of them stood empty. The inner door leading deeper into the facility was locked and sealed. Once everyone was inside, Kaidan and Ashley made their way toward it without needing to be prompted, and Kaidan keyed in the sequence so that the airlock would start cycling.
"Just like last time, people. Mind your cover and watch out for each other," Shepard said as she looked around while waiting for the anteroom to pressurize.
"You got it, Commander." Ashley said.
"They will not know what hit them." Jenkins added as the marines took up positions on one side of the door.
Shepard put her back to the wall on the other side and drew Sin. At that moment she heard the first external beep indicating that the airlock had pressurized, and then the door panel switched to green. When Shepard was sure that the rest of the team took up cover behind her, she nodded toward Kaidan whose hand hovered in the vicinity of the control panel. A moment later Kaidan duly tapped the panel. The inner door opened onto a room cast into murky red-hued twilight. The batarians had turned off the main lights, but they could do nothing about the dimmer emergency lights, including the red blinkers along the floor which showed the way toward the exits.
"Well, well, well…" Shepard could not help but drawl. "They're not as dumb as we thought."
"Batarians have better night vision than us, right?" Jenkins wondered.
"Does not matter, they're still subject to the same limitations. Use the flash-bangs if you got them." Shepard replied. Yes the batarians had slightly better low-light sensitivity, by virtue of having twice the light-sensitive tissue to send signals to the brain. But flash-bangs were universal in their ability to temporarily overload optical nerves and wreck someone's night-vision. Only Krogan had a sort of limited resistance, simply because their eyes were so widely set apart and they had a redundant nervous system. Their optical nerves got over the shock quicker. Flash-banging a krogan was truthfully just a very good way to anger them more.
"I've got three on me," Ashley said.
Shepard inched closer to the jamb and turned her head just enough to peer beyond out of the corner of one eye. This facility was also packed with containers, creating a disruptive labyrinth to dodge and weave around. The dim lighting was barely enough to navigate by and it deepened and lengthened all the shadows. The one thing Shepard could not hear, no matter how much she strained her ears, was any indication of varren. No barking, growling, snuffling, or even tell-tale scratching of razor-sharp claw points on hard floor slabs. Just as she was about to point that out, she saw two dim, slightly offset beams of light move across the wall immediately to the right. There was only one thing those could be, "They've got drones," she announced.
"Yes… but on the plus side, I do not hear any varren," Garrus said.
"So they swapped one for the other, is that really a plus side?" Ashley wondered.
"It is to me. Much fewer germs," Tali said.
"I stand corrected."
"We know you are there. Your snipers will not help you now." A voice shouted from inside.
"They figured out how to use the security cameras." Shepard murmured, not bothering to restrain her base impulse of rolling her eyes. Then she saw another beam of light pass along the floor immediately in front of the door. The twin beams of light along the wall were still there.
"Congratulations on your one smart thought. Let me show you what you've won." She called back and stepped around the doorjamb, whipping Sin up into firing position in the same smooth motion. Sure enough there was a pair of batarians with a drone right in front of the doorway. Both had their assault rifles aimed at the airlock. She turned on one and pulled the trigger. The batarian's shields flared, and both obeyed their basic impulse to duck behind whatever cover they had closest to them. "Go!" Shepard ordered even as she pulled the trigger again, nicking the same batarian's shields again, causing them to collapse. Her third shot caught the batarian in the arm just as he ducked behind a stack of crates. He yelped, but hurried deeper into the cover.
Shepard turned her gun on the other, to make sure he would not get funny ideas, but she only saw the drone. The machine turned on her, and its integrated weapon's barrel extended out.
"We got you, Commander." Ashley announced as she whipped up her assault rifle into firing position and pulled the trigger, aiming right at the drone. The drone's shields flared and it wheeled on the more imminent threat and returned fire. Shepard side-stepped, but caught sight of Ashley with her shields flaring. A second rifle began to bark a wild staccato from the airlock as Jenkins joined the fray.
The combined firepower whittled down its barrier, and then the bullets pierced through the machine, cutting off its rapport before it could do any real damage to the marines. Both took that as their cue to let off on their triggers. Then the drone's mass effect field failed, and it dropped out of the air like a brick, bounced off the floor once, and dropped down again, smoking and sparking.
The batarian Shepard had wounded poked his rifle out around his cover and opened fire. Both Ashley and Jenkins side-stepped his blind spray. Shepard trained Sin on him, but from her angle she had no line of sight on anything vital. Ashley, now well clear of the blind barrage, moved forward. Shepard turned her gun on the other batarian's hiding spot, just in case.
It did not take Ashley long to find the injured batarian. He wheeled on her and fired, but Ashley fired right back. His shields must not have kicked back yet as it took only a brief burst before Shepard heard a body hit the floor.
It was then that the other batarian decided to stick his head out and fire at the gunny. Ashley's shields flared, and she hissed something as she whirled and ducked into cover just in the nick of time before her shields finally failed.
"I got that guy," Jenkins called as he opened fire, driving the batarian back into cover even as he moved in on him.
Shepard lowered her gun when Jenkins crossed into her line of fire.
Just then a metal canister came flying from the batarian's hiding spot.
"Grenade!" Jenkins shouted as he looked widely for whatever cover he could grab.
"Jenkins stay still!" Kaidan shouted as he bolted forward, glowing like a candle. Kaidan swept his arm through the air and there was a resounding whomp as the grenade went flying back and detonated just short of hitting the back wall. The emergency lights nearest to the blast blew out, plunging that corner of the space into near total darkness.
"Why don't you just die?!" The batarian shouted as he rounded the crate barrier, his rifle raised into firing position.
Ashley was quicker; her rifle came to life, barking full automatic right into his shields. The batarian recoiled, clearly not expecting the quick response. He shouted something just as his shields failed, but none of them could make out what. A moment later he toppled, dead before he even hit the ground.
"There might be more of them. Bravo, with me." Kaidan ordered without missing a beat as he moved deeper into the room.
"Roger," Jenkins chorused automatically.
"Everyone else, with me!" Shepard ordered as she turned to her left. She would go along the wall separating this space and the airlock. Soon Bravo was out of her line of sight due to the stacks of containers. Then a light beam fell along the floor from behind her, but the cool blue hue told her that it was Legion. Ahead the stacks gave way to a wider passage. Shepard had just drawn to the corner when there was a staccato rattle and her shield flared.
"Yikes!" Shepard whirled out of the way, pressing her back to the crates.
Garrus' rifle gave a reply burst, peppering the crates ahead of her, but it did not last long. Garrus was not one to waste ammo on a target that was not there. He meant to drive whoever was in there back into cover. The slaver must have known that as well, as a moment after Garrus' rifle fell silent he came around the corner, raised his gun, and pulled the trigger. His second burst caught her shields again.
Legion was suddenly there, their frame slid into the spray with unbelievable casualness. "Kinetic barrier energy draw limits lifted…" they announced as the light beam from their face-lamp narrowed and their emotive plates rose and flared at the back. "Your efforts are futile."
The batarian kept his finger on the trigger and Legion's shields continued to ripple from the barrage. It was a long three seconds before the batarian's rifle finally clipped out.
Shepard stepped around the geth, brought up Sin, and fired back. The first shot merely caused the batarian's shields to flare; the second passed through and shattered his chest armor as the slug went into the torso. The batarian jerked with the force of impact and his weapon slipped out of his hands. Shepard raised Sin's muzzle to point between his eyes. All four widened and she squeezed the trigger. His head whipped back with the impact and then his knees gave way and his body hit the floor. "Thanks Legion," Shepard said as she ejected Sin's clip and reached behind her back for a cold one.
"Gratitude is not necessary."
"Keelah," Tali murmured in the background.
Shepard did not feel the need to ask the geth whether they were alright. All the bullets the batarian had sent at them simply did not go through their overcharged shield. This was the same geth who took a shotgun blast to the back, near point blank, and remained standing. She was not surprised that their shields were seriously robust.
"Commander, are you alright?" Kaidan asked.
"Of course," Shepard replied.
"Our side is clear, we are proceeding along the back wall," Kaidan continued.
Shepard knew why he chose that moment to make that report; it was his way of getting everyone back on the task at hand. She was thankful for that, this way she did not have to say a thing about it. A moment later Chatika floated out in front of her. Shepard turned and holstered Sin. A pair of turian-shaped shadows fell along the floor at her sides. She did not say anything as she proceeded along their side of the room.
"We haven't found anyone else here, Commander." Kaidan went on.
"I think most of them went outside to watch us try the minefield." Jenkins added.
Shepard thought that if most of the batarians had gone outside, hoping to see someone die to a mining charge, it would explain the discomfort and bravado of the ones they had just gunned down. They had no choice but to intimidate their enemies, especially after watching their compatriots be gunned down without mercy. The bravado might have been a grim sort of determination to go out swinging. "Be that as it may, looks can be deceiving, keep your heads."
"Roger," Kaidan replied.
The silence returned as Shepard drew near to the corner along their side of the facilities. Was it really possible that there was absolutely no one left in here? As she turned the corner she got a clear line of sight on the opposite corner. Like in the first facility the door to the control room was closed, but not locked. The second door, leading into the tunnels connected to the torch's reactor room, was locked and sealed.
She turned and made her way toward the control room, still sweeping every nook and alcove with her pistol. Though she knew that even if there was someone huddling in one of them, they would not be huddling for very long. Nihlus walked on her right, shotgun at a ready. At close range that weapon would make mincemeat out of anyone unfortunate enough to end up at its business end. A few meters short of the door she looked to her right and spotted Bravo at the place where the middle passage between the stacks opened up. Shepard nodded to Kaidan and he flicked his hand, indicating Bravo should follow him. Just like that, the marines ducked into that central space to sweep it as well. Shepard turned her attention to the task at hand. She laid her hand on the control panel to open the door.
This control room was much like the first in layout and equipment, thought it was somewhat smaller the previous. Her eyes automatically went to the bodies sprawled out in pools of their own now-dried blood along the back wall. Both victims wore hardsuits that bore the same patches identifying them as members of the X57 project, except with an added ribbon denoting they had been security. Their side-arms lay on the ground where they fell. Judging from the bullet holes in the server cases and the overturned desk, they tried to put up a fight. Shepard gave the surrounding walls a quick once over, but she could not see any non-human blood stains or spatter, there were no batarian bodies either. Whatever resistance the two guards mustered to put up, it simply did not last long before they were overwhelmed and shot multiple times each. In the end they never stood a real chance, being outnumbered and equipped with civilian-grade gear.
"Garrus please note their names, and that we found them here." She ordered as she turned toward the consoles at the right side of the room.
"Already on it," Garrus replied.
The blatant apathy leaving bodies where they fell displayed that the batarians simply breezed through. Shepard really did not need more reasons to want to kill every last one of them on X57. She had to tell herself that she should not sink into the abyss of wishing she could kill every last batarian, period. Still, this was dealing with the same sort of people who showed up at Elysium. Because of that she was finding it difficult to keep the violent murderous rage at bay. She took a deep, soundless breath, hoping to anchor herself and turned to the monitor on the right side of the room. The system controlling the fusion core below was similar to the one at the other torch, so it was not all that difficult to get into the controls and begin the shut down sequence.
"Shepard-Commander, may we make an observation? We request input for consideration." Legion spoke, breaking the silence for the first time in what felt like forever.
"Sure Legion," Shepard replied. Anything was better than silence right now. She would even take Legion asking a question that she could not readily answer. Legion would take a non-answer and ponder it anyways. They seemed to take everything around them as something to ponder.
"We have observed that you tend to draw enemy aggression at a rate much higher than any other member of the Normandy ground team."
Shepard looked over her shoulder. That was the beginning of something, but what? Where were they going with that one?
"It has to be the light armament. They see the Commander as an easier target." Nihlus stated, though the tone of his voice was teasing.
"Sure, laugh it up, Nihlus," Shepard muttered as she turned back to the console. "Just remember what I can do with my light armament."
"Yes, but they do not know that." Nihlus replied.
"Acknowledged. We have considered that possibility. They are making an error of logic. We recognize the significance of the mark on the top right of Shepard-Commander's torso plate. The Alliance's N-seven designation denotes units that underwent extensive training and conditioning. We would not make the same error." Legion stated.
"Could be that or they recognize Shepard is the leader. Eliminating the leadership is a sound tactic." Garrus slipped in. "Of course we would not let anyone harm the Commander."
"That is the second logical possibility we have considered. Furthermore, we are aware of the reasoning behind Officer-Vakarian's and Spectre-Kryik's dedication to ensuring Shepard-Commander's continuing safety."
"Of course, she is-" Garrus blurted hurried.
"Vakarian do not justify it!" Nihlus cut in coolly. "Legion, that has no bearing on the matter."
"Mechanical bosh'tet… did you even understand what just came from your vocal processor? Or how it sounds?" Tali asked.
"We have, Creator-Zorah. Our apologies, Officer-Vakarian, Spectre-Kryik, we did not mean to insinuate, we were making an observation."
"Oh Keelah…" Tali groaned.
Shepard was perfectly aware of how methodical the geth was with their choice of words. Just what did Legion think Garrus' and Nihlus' reasons were? Garrus seemed very uncomfortable with the observation. Nihlus had shut him down before he could give context, but there were only a few things that could put Garrus on the defensive like that. He was conscious of his rank and position on the Normandy, and still struggled with ditching the formalities. So did he think Legion insinuated something improper in that context? As for Nihlus, whatever he got from that, it made him bristle like a porcupine.
"I'd be careful, Commander. I think this geth is planning something."
"Creator-Zorah is correct. We have determined that Shepard-Commander requires hardware augmentations to assist with the above average operational hazards inherent to her unique operational conditions." Legion stated, blunt as a bag of hammers. "However, we have not yet achieved consensus on what augmentations to recommend. Our current data is insufficient." Legion replied.
"And I reserve the right not to take your recommendations." Shepard stated.
"Acknowledged. Furthermore, we are aware that the present time is not appropriate for such discussions. We will submit our proposal when we have achieved a consensus and at a time when such upgrades can be carried out," Legion replied, utterly unbothered by her refusal.
The console in front of Shepard seemingly chose that moment to beep, announcing that the core was in the final stage of ramping down. The fusion rate had slowed down to about a quarter of its normal output, and continuing to decrease. There was a warning on the screen about diminishing plasma output and the increasing propulsion imbalance between the thrusters. As Shepard watched the core reached ten percent, and the console displayed a red-bannered warning about the level of plasma production. By then it was simply too little to provide any thrust at all, but continuing diversion risked damaging the core's conduits. Finally the safety regulations kicked in, bringing the torch offline completely.
"Torch two is down," Shepard announced.
"Two down, one to go," Nihlus said.
As if on cue the ominous creaking started as the heated ducts that connected the facility to the underground began to resonate. Then there was a crackle coming from the built-in communications equipment.
"Are you there? You must be. I just registered the second torch turn off. Listen… there is no time to celebrate. You've really pissed them off." The same female voice whispered into the communicator, though her tone was far more urgent. Shepard raised her hand to sign everyone to remain quiet. She did not know if the recipient was in position to hear anything. For all they knew, her speakers could give her away.
"You have to hurry." Kate continued, without asking for acknowledgement. "Their leader's setting charges everywhere. I think he's going to blow this whole place. If he damages the main network, we will not be able to coordinate the counter-burn."
Ah, so there was the spanner in the works. Shepard had been waiting for it to drop in there. She would give the leader of these scumbags just a little bit of credit, he figured out the only way to make them win the battle, but lose the war. Without a counter-burn the rock would continue at Terra Nova, and catastrophe would follow. He must have realized what was inevitable, and was actually doing a passable job of counter-playing against her. It went without saying that the bombs could also act as a form of insurance policy. He would want to leave this place alive, to have his cake and eat it too, proverbially speaking.
Suddenly there was a thunderous crash over the communicator, so loud that it made Shepard jump. It brought her out of her mental calculations. A male voice shouted in alarm as something crashed against the floor.
"Get away from there!" A batarian shouted, his voice much deeper and guttural than any human's could be.
Shepard clenched her jaw, grinding her molars together. Exposing that Kate actually managed to contact anyone would not help the woman. However, if the batarians decided to talk near an open comm link, she might get an idea of what was going on over there. Still, the odds did not sound good.
"Don't shoot. Please." Kate begged. There was static and a burst of feedback, followed by what sounded like scratches from a scuffle. Shepard defiantly kept her hand up, telling everyone not to make a sound. It was the most difficult call she had to make, but there was nothing else they could do.
Multiple sets of footsteps came over the comm, faint, but distinct enough, telling Shepard that there were three, if not four other individuals in the room with Kate. The human voice she heard must have been another of the project team.
"Who's shutting down the torches?" A batarian demanded in a dangerous hiss.
Silence reigned for a good three seconds. Shepard heard another muted thud as something hit the floor. Kate was still near the microphone, it picked up what sounded like a faint squeak from her, but then there was only silence. Shepard had an overwhelming sinking feeling right at that moment. It took everything she had not to leap in there, though without being there in person, she could not do much. At the end of the day, she could make things worse. The batarian wanted to know whom he was facing; it would not do to arm him with that knowledge.
"I won't ask you again," he hissed.
The silence continued. The microphone caught what sounded like a sniffle. Then there was a single loud gunshot. Shepard closed her eyes as her jaw muscles practically seized up. This was almost exactly how Arthur had died. She heard the shot that fatally wounded him, but she had been unable to do anything about it. She could practically hear the shot echo again. These monsters were really keen on testing her self-control.
"Find this problem and deal with it!" The batarian ordered. "And someone get her out of here. Put her with the rest!"
Shepard looked up, so the batarians had not shot Kate? Shepard felt very much responsible for the woman's safety right then. She had tried to help, risked her life and safety when the batarians might not have known she was loose. She could have remained hidden, especially after realizing that someone was out there working on resolving the situation, but no, she chose to warn them about the bombs. That took a lot of courage and a clear head. Still, it had cost her, now the woman found herself in some real peril. Add to that, the batarians knew that she might have made contact with someone on the outside. It was all the reasons needed for trash like them to take their anger out on her.
Shepard could just imagine what was going on through the other woman's mind right at the moment. Someone got shot in front of her, likely right in front of her. That would not be easy to deal with. Now she would be thinking about what they would do to her. She might go into shock, and the batarians would not develop empathy and a conscience. With each passing second Shepard was finding it increasingly difficult to reason away why she should not murder every last one of those bastards on sight.
There was another scratch and a burst of feedback, for a moment Shepard thought that the batarians were about to start barking threats into the ether, but then the comm link closed and silence was restored. Shepard slowly lowered her arm. "I better not recognize that particular batarian anywhere. Because if I do… I'm going to make his death slow and excruciatingly painful." She would shoot him through all four limbs and watch as he bled out. He would be lucky if she could maintain control of her anger enough not to do something worse.
"Easy, Shepard. I do not blame you, but we must keep calm here." Nihlus said.
"Oh I'm calm, Nihlus." She was as calm as the weather ahead of a storm. Her mind was already running away with idea on how to make sure the leader of these batarians regretted being born. She knew enough about their religions and superstitions to make sure he would not get the last words or laugh. The batarians believed that shortly after death their soul left the body through the eyes, but if the eyes were damaged, the soul would remain trapped for all eternity. It did not take much to damage the eyes enough for him to die thinking he would never go to the afterlife.
She took another deep breath, hoping it would help her swallow the rage. There were still things that needed to be done before she could pursue the ringleader in earnest. She turned back toward the console. By now the fusion core had ramped down to a trickle rate of one percent, just enough that the fusion reaction would not cease entirely, as re-starting it would take way too long. She tapped into the administrative controls and quickly locked out the acceleration sequence with the same password she had used on the first torch.
Only once she was satisfied that the console was locked down, she stepped away and turned back to the others. "We still have one more torch to deal with." She said. If her voice was cold right then, it was only because bottling up was the only way she could retain a modicum of control.
It was then that she noticed that in the midst of it all, Bravo had joined them in the control room. Shepard had not heard Kaidan, Ashley, or Jenkins come in.
"We handle that last torch, and after that, we clear the main facility. I do not mean to waste Kate's final warning. It's either as she said; they are trying to blow up the place to make counter-burning difficult, or… Well, I think it is more likely that they intend to use it as part of an exit strategy, or some sort of bargaining chip."
"They lost the right to negotiate anything," Kaidan stated bluntly.
"Even if I was inclined to negotiate, we have no time. Needless to say, I'm one of the worst people to send to negotiate anything with batarians." Shepard replied. Admiral Hackett would have known that she would not be able to negotiate anything with them, because of the potent mix of personal distaste for their cultural norms and a very personal enmity. If there was any species that came closest to pushing her tolerance boundaries, it was batarians.
"I just don't understand how they could possibly think this will be a win for them." Tali murmured.
"They probably think they can make the Alliance back down, surrender territory, or something of the sort." Ashley explained.
"Yea, we'll do that, and pigs will learn to fly." Jenkins stated.
Shepard did not feel the need to add anything to that topic; instead she simply stepped past the marines and exited the control room.
"Shepard, wait!" Nihlus called after her.
Shepard ignored him. The more she thought about it, the angrier she became. The injustice of the whole situation and the fact that the batarians considered their psychopathic tendencies acceptable all served to fuel the perfect storm of rage inside her. If these terrorists thought she would waste time talking, then they had a real shocker coming. There was no talking with extremists of their sort; it would make her look weak and do more to amuse them. Kate had risked her life to tell her of their intentions. Shepard would not disrespect the woman and toss the warning aside for the idealistic pipe dream of a peaceful resolution when she had a carte blanche to paint the walls with batarian blood. The slavers thought they could back her into a corner and outplay her. She would not stand for it. This would not be the first time she manipulated a situation to her advantage, and she had done so with fiercer individuals against her.
By the time she reached the airlock she was unashamedly angry. She ended up pacing along the outer wall as the others gathered around and the airlock began to cycle. It was another good fifteen minutes before they were back with the Kodiaks. Shepard led the team along the same path that Legion and Tali cleared for them. It was a simple precaution, as even with the charges disabled she was taking no chances. It did not take much to make a console say anything one wished it to.
Once aboard the Kodiak, she joined Nihlus in the cockpit. A few minutes later the shuttle took off. Everything about this situation reminded her of Elysium. The more that thought lingered, the more she felt herself regress back to that last night. She was beginning to feel a little sick to her stomach at the prospect. She did not want to associate the mere thought of batarians with Elysium, with that long night, and yet whenever she had to handle them, the association seemed to make itself. That certainly did not help their case; in fact, Shepard could not help but loathe them even more.
Author Notes: This episode was problematic because of this plot hole I saw in the DLC. When Kate mentions the explosives, it is a red flag to anyone with any sort of training; it is something to pay attention to. But the game kind of tosses it aside; makes Shepard ignore the warning. It is very much done to force Shepard into making that rather contrived difficult choice. I intend to fix that.
General Notes:
None this time…
Chapter Notes:
Shockingly none…