Rannoch was arid: the cool night setting in made for a somewhat relaxing atmosphere with the stars above shining so brightly. Kaidan wished Tali was able to join them: to be here with them on the planet she desperately wanted to see one day.
The group moved quietly, guns raised. Kaidan kept an eye on Kacey, and noted how she had her stoic persona on display for all to see. The events of last night played out in his mind; he couldn't believe looking at her now that it was the same person that was breaking down the night before. She looked as she always looked, not a single sign of anything wrong. And that worried him.
"Jamming towers. Clever." Garrus mused, "But if we towed in some asteroids…"
"Are you suggesting we drop meteors on Rannoch?" Liara said, "You would make the planet unliveable."
"The dust would settle and besides the quarians already have those suits."
"Not the point Garrus."
"But it is a point."
"Does anyone else smell a fire?" James asked.
"Yeah, and I also see geth." Kacey said, opening fire on the handful of geth troopers near the wreckage of a ship.
They dispatched the geth recon team with ease. But the surrounding ruins of Koris' ship was unnerving. It was split apart, wires sparking and the bodies of dead quarians littered the floor. The bodies of civilians. It both angered and upset Kaidan in ways he didn't think possible.
"They came so far." Liara mused solemnly, looking at the bodies.
"We need to radio Zaal'Koris if we're going to find him." Kacey said, looking away, "Let's get to that jamming tower."
She remained stoic in expression; but Kaidan knew that deep down it was eating away at her. It seemed a lot of things was bothering her lately, and Kaidan wanted to know what they were. But that was easier said than done; Kacey remained tight-lipped on matter, although he was able to get it out of her piece by piece.
His thoughts were put on hold as the squad moved down a narrow ledge and Kacey narrowly avoided the blast of a trip mine.
"You all right?" Kaidan asked worried.
"I'm okay." Kacey said, "Just watch out for more mines."
They proceeded cautiously along the path; the sounds of the AA gun broke through the silence in a rhythm. Kaidan managed to avoid the mines and caught up to Kacey. He didn't know what to say; now wasn't the time for personal conversations. Kaidan knew that. But it didn't stop him from worrying.
The squad encountered another geth squad near more of the wreckage from the ship. There was certainly more of them here than before. Kacey ordered the squad to regroup before engaging the geth.
"Okay. So we're gonna split into pairs to take these geth out." Kacey explained, "So, Liara you're with Javik, Garrus with James and Kaidan with me. And if I hear a snarky comment out of you Garrus and James, I swear I'll kick your ass."
The pair were smirking as Kacey continued, "Kaidan and I'll will go first. The rest of you follow after we've opened fire."
The squad nodded in agreement before Kaidan followed Kacey around the corner and opened fire on the geth, with Kaidan adding a cryo blast just before the rest of the squad opened fire. Kaidan watched Kacey's back as they mowed through the synthetics, with Kacey keeping a close eye on him and ensuring that no geth got within a few feet of him. The ruthless efficiency he had saw before on Mars and the geth dreadnought had returned, and Kaidan knew that the fight with Copeland earlier was at least part of the reason.
The geth went down quickly and the squad made their way through the wreckage, past the flames and dead bodies. The scene was harrowing: these civilians didn't deserve this. Kaidan walked through the area tense. The scene was making him uncomfortable. He took a quick glace at Kacey, whose expression was grim. The sight was bothering her, and he watched as she sharply looked away and ordered the squad to move forward. They walked in silence; it was an eerie one, and Kaidan couldn't quite understand why that was the case. Before he knew it, they had reached the AA towers.
"AA guns right ahead of us." Garrus said.
"And more geth." Kacey mused as she opened fire, "Stay in your pairs! Garrus, James! Loop around and catch them from behind!"
Garrus and James did as they were ordered while the remaining four fought their way through the small squadron. Kaidan knew that once they started to shut down the AA guns, more geth would arrive and as such, he withheld on using his biotics for now. He would need them later after all. Once all the geth in area was disposed of, Kacey ordered everyone back to her as they looked over the controls for the AA tower.
"So, who's disabling the gun?" James asked.
"Let's see." Kacey mused, "Hey, Liara pick a number between one and five?"
"Is this really the time for this?" Liara asked.
"Humour me." Kacey shrugged.
"Fine. Three."
"Garrus, you're up!" Kacey said.
"Right. Right." Garrus said startled, "I'm on it."
"And as for the rest of us, we need to move into defensive positions." Kacey explained, "The geth are probably definitely coming once Garrus gets started so let's move!"
…
The geth came at them from all sides. It was a difficult fight to be sure thanks to the cramped space they were in. Kaidan used another cryo blast to freeze the geth in place, just as James threw a grenade that smashed them to pieces. He kept his gun steady as he fired on the seemingly endless stream of geth that flooded the area. Kacey fired two concussive shots which knocked a handful of geth troopers into Liara's singularity, while Kaidan and James tag-teamed the recently arrived geth prime, which fired multiple rockets at the pair.
James took it head on; a reckless decision to be sure, but it allowed Kaidan to take the synthetic by surprise by using reave from behind. He pulled the geth prime apart, molecule by molecule as it dropped to the floor. Kaidan then covered James as the bulky marine moved into a better position to shoot the next wave of geth.
"Kaidan! Get down!"
He did as instructed; he got down just in time to see a rocket whiz right past him. A shotgun blast from Kacey blew the head off the geth prime in one shot, the small pieces of metal from its head scattered across the floor like shattered glass. He met her gaze; she looked pissed, but was seemingly satisfied by the synthetic's destruction. She took a deep breath before turning her focus back to the next wave of geth troopers.
"You okay?" Kacey asked as she took cover next to Kaidan.
"I'm fine." Kaidan replied, "Are you?"
"Good question." Kacey mused as she threw a grenade.
He let the matter drop for now; her response made it was crystal clear. He was well aware that she wasn't, and it seemed that Kacey was starting to realise that herself.
"Alright! I'm done!" Garrus shouted as the last geth trooper went down.
"It seems like all that time you spent calibrating that gun was worth it." Kacey quipped, "Come on, let's shut down the two by the tower."
They bolted down another narrow path, avoiding the carefully placed trip mines that littered the path. It was hard to see what was up ahead in such a dark enviorment, but as they reached the end of the path, the squad came across more dead bodies in the wreckage.
Despite it being deathly silent, Kaidan could hear the sound of heavy breathing. Kacey looked back towards the squad and gestured for them to proceed carefully. As they approached another narrow path, Kaidan could see a quarian slumped against the wall, breathing heavily.
"You…you heard my message?" He said through deep breaths, "Sent out a distress call…"
He was bleeding heavily; battered and bruised. Kaidan watched quietly as Kacey kneeled down in front of the quarian, concern and empathy across her face.
"Radios are down." Kacey replied, "You a solider?"
"Maintenance. Dorn'Hazt." Dorn'Hazt said, "I clean engine parts."
"This place is filled with geth. You should have hidden." Liara said.
"I thought I could buy the other civilians time, fight some geth." Dorn'Hazt explained, "There were so many…First time I've ever held a gun."
"Don't move." Kacey said empathically, "We've got some Medi-Gel."
However, Dorn'Hazt instead shuffled away a small bit, adding, "I've lost too much blood. Go, look for the admiral. Destroy that jamming tower and you can radio him."
"We'll find him, don't worry." Garrus said.
"Please, listen." Dorn'Hazt pleaded, "The Civilian Fleet didn't want this war. If there's even a chance that Admiral Koris can get us out alive…and my son, tell him…Tell Jona that his father made it to the homeworld."
His body went limp; Kacey looked away before standing up. Kaidan could see it was killing her inside. But she didn't let it show, instead she looked determined as she led them towards the tower.
…
The controls to the tower were guarded by an army of geth, which meant it would take a while to reach the controls. Or at least that would've been the case if they weren't under the command of Commander Shepard that is.
Kacey's most reckless idea yet seemed to have the desired effect; first, Kacey and James would shower the geth in grenades, followed by Liara and Kaidan using singularity and cryo blast respectively to absolutely annihilate the geth while Garrus and Javik rounded up the stragglers. The giant blast from the several dozen grenades coupled with a biotic and tech attack could've endangered the squad, and probably should've had Kacey not been as precise as she was with her orders. The crazy idea had managed to successfully punch a hole in the geth's formations and allow the squad access to the controls for the tower.
"Okay! Garrus, pick a number between one and four!" Kacey said, shooting through a geth shock trooper.
"Is this really the time, Shepard?!" Liara said.
"Yes. Why do you ask?"
"Two!" Garrus shouted as he fired a concussive shot right into the head of a geth prime.
"Kaidan! Gun's yours! Shut it down!" Kacey shouted, "We'll cover you!"
"On it!" Kaidan shouted as he made his way towards the controls.
He hadn't hacked through geth technology in years; and it looked like they got some improvements to their technology. He quickly searched through the terminal looking for a way to shut down the AA guns, and eventually found it.
"Hm. That's odd." Kaidan muttered. It seemed like both of the AA guns could be shut down from here, but he would have a pretty tight window to do it.
He carefully scanned through all of the different types of modules looking for the ones with the correct code. Easier said than done; the shootout behind him was very distracting. He carefully pulled out the correct pieces of code and used his omni-tool to help filter out the exact ones he needed. He quickly imputed them into the terminal, causing both guns to stop firing just as the last of the geth was wiped out in a blaze of glory, likely caused by Kacey and James throwing nearly a frigate's worth of grenades at the blasted things.
"Managed to get both of them offline." Kaidan said as the squad reconvened.
"Good work. I'll signal the shuttle." Kacey said.
They took the small window of time that it took for the shuttle to destroy the jamming tower to prep their weapons and take a breather, before another voice could be heard through the comms.
"Dorn? It's Zaal'Koris. Are you there? Dorn!"
"This is Commander Shepard." Kacey said, her expression grim, "Dorn didn't make it, Admiral."
"He didn't…I see." Admiral Koris sighed.
Kaidan headed towards the shuttle, reluctantly. He kept an eye on Kacey as they both got on, her expression unreadable.
"I'm coming in with a shuttle. Where are you?" Kacey asked.
"My surviving crew found their way to a clearing. I'll upload their location."
"Stay together, we'll meet you there."
"No, the geth have cut me off. I hear another wave approaching." Admiral Koris said.
"Give me your coordinates." Kacey replied.
"Leave me." Admiral Koris replied, "My crew will be overrun."
"So will you."
"My people are noncombatants, Shepard!" Admiraal Koris argued, "They'll be slaughtered! Rescue them."
Kaidan caught Garrus' glance; he knew they were both thinking the same thing. The biotic could see it was having an effect on her as she sighed.
"Admiral, I need you leading the Civilian Fleet if we're going to end this fight!" Kacey argued back.
"Civilians? Our entire race took up arms for this insanity! It's too late for us."
"Its only too late if you die down there!"
"You can't possibly think you can stop this war!"
"Watch me! I know I can't do this alone; I know that I can't do it without your help!"
There was a long pause; the shuttle was silent. Kacey had shouted those last few sentences and it seemed that she had just realised that herself.
"Ancestors, forgive me." Admiral Koris said, "Uploading my coordinates."
"We're coming." Kacey said, "Just hang on tight."