Disclaimer: I do not own the Mass Effect games. This story is written with no profit in mind. I make no money from it. It isn't for sale or rent.

Chapter 4

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Part 9

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24.04.2183GS

Refinery complex

Therum

The Turian assault shuttle flew close enough to the ground that a tiny misjudgement from the VI currently controlling its flight would see at best the weapons pods sharing off the rocky landscape below and at worst – the small craft and its occupants turning into ground meat. The only thing that allowed the dangerous speedy approach was the data Normandy's sweeps and the SA maps provided. Otherwise, a slower approach complete with active sensors that would have told everyone able to detect them, where and when they would arrive.

As far as Vasir and the Turian Lieutenant were concerned, the assault approach was worth it and soon they were proven right. Ten seconds before reaching line of sight of the Refinery, the pilot opened the side door, thus allowing smoke and ash to ravage the troop compartment.

"Final approach!" The pilot announced. "Hold on, weapons live!"

The shuttle ducked over a hill and flew over a lava river low enough that if one of the troopers was foolish enough, he could touch the flowing magma. Moments later it popped up over a bend in the river and weapons put on automatic mode locked on a pair of quadruple walker milling in front of the Refinery. Missiles streaked from their pods followed by cannon bursts. Immediately it became clear that the Geth failed to detect the shuttle during its final approach. The machines were just beginning to turn when four missiles hit each in the side. Their shields popped up but not before deflecting the explosions that obscured them from view.

There was nothing but armour to meet the AP shells that the assault shuttle sent at the Geth platform farthest from the Refinery and the heavy slugs bit off large chunks of the walker. They hit something important too because while the assault transport flew behind the second one, the front legs of the damaged machine gave out and its long neck met the gravel, hard.

Vasir was barely aware of that turn of events thanks to her link with the shuttle's VI. Just as the transport flew behind the second walker, she jumped out, already engulfed by a Biotic barrier. A reflexive action was all it took to propel herself like a KEW and slam in the back of the remaining Geth vehicle. The Spectre hit with enough energy that the platform's legs bowed under the impact and the armour on its back cracked. She wasted no time and formed a field of warped space around her left fist while unholstering her shotgun. She slammed the warp into the already weakened armour and without thinking reduced her mass while jumping off. Tela saw the cracked carapace twist and break under the effect of the unstable Biotic field and while in mid-air aimed her shotgun and unleashed a preloaded carnage round. The recoil helped her gain even more distance from the walker, which was a good thing – her shot not only connected but penetrated deep within the machine before detonating in a corona of electrostatic fluid and arching electricity. The Geth unit let out an electronic screech and crumbled on the ground like a statue that just lost its foundation.

Vasir landed lightly on the gravel and took sprinted to make herself a harder target for any unseen enemies. Only then she took a moment to seek other targets. The second walker was obviously crippled – the shuttle broke whatever controlled its front legs, however it wasn't out of the fight yet. Tela saw it fold its rear legs and shake its long agile neck to shove its torso in a more or less stable position thus becoming a stationary turret. She wasted no time and charged at the machine before it could take proper aim at her. It immediately became obvious that those walkers were of a poor design – the Spectre couldn't see any other weapons besides those mounted on its large flashlight-like head. There was some kind of a plasma launcher hidden behind the light, or it was the light. She almost found that the hard way with an azure sphere of energy passing too close for comfort by her charge. She felt the heat and an instant of static electricity sparkling over the mass effect tunnel she propelled herself through before slamming into the machine's neck with enough force to shove the whole thing aside. Said neck whipped back and sent a burst of machine gun fire harmlessly into the air. Before the thing could slap back in place and target her, Vasir warped the armour at its base, unleashed couple of AP shots at it – which was just enough to crack the plating and shoved a grenade into the opening before charging again, so she would end up behind the platform and thus use it as a shield. The explosion that followed was enough to break its neck and it flopped bonelessly to the ground.

So far, the Geth's showing was decidedly underwhelming. Was this really what the whole galaxy feared over the last few centuries?!

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She should have known better than taunt fate.

"Goddess damn you!" Vasir seethed and vanished in a biotic charge before the fiendishly agile snipers could pop her barrier.

Those walkers, Tela didn't know what the Geth thought when they designed them, but unfortunately, there was little wrong with the rest of their ground units – from heavily shielded and numerous standard platforms, to those huge – about three metre command walkers to the swarms of drones and worst of all – those hopping, cloaked snipers! The first time she encountered them a couple of minutes ago, they caught her off guard – there was no sign of their presence. It was pure instinct that made her drop to the ground and even then three of four shots managed to nail her. The first two broke through her barrier and the third popped her shield and only her heavy armour saved her from dying then and there. Even then, Vasir felt a rib crack from the sheer shock. Adrenaline, medi-gel and stimulants got her moving fast – just in time to avoid more shots from those damned snipers.

They weren't alone, of course not! Moments after she walked into the ambush, more Geth, that had to be inert until that moment because nothing showed on her sensors, came pouring into the room. Vasir snarled and dumped the emergency power into her shield's capacitors bringing them back to full strength and charged at the closest towering walker. The impact made it stagger and she wasted no time in slamming a warp into its chest.

"Vasir, Shepard. I've made contact with one of our VIP's bodyguards. She was at your target some time before the attack, intending to visit one of the other sites later." Tela's comm came to life just as she sent a shock-wave behind her back to clear a group of regular Geth.

"I'm busy, Shepard!" Vasir snapped and aimed her shotgun at the chest of the command walker. She shot at it until the weapon overheated and by that time, there was a nice sparkling hole in its torso. The spectre shifted her weight and used a Biotic throw to slide between the legs of the walker before it fell to its knees and thus provided a bit of cover.

"Shepard, we've got a Geth platoon with armour support on the ground here. We'll deal with them and secure the site before searching for the VIP." Vasir summarized the situation. She saw something moving from the corner of her eye and used her Biotics to slam it into the ceiling. A Geth sniper broke under the impact and she slammed it into the ground too for good measure. "Go secure the other possible locations along with the Turians. Be advised, we encountered extremely mobile snipers with personal cloaks – the Goddess be-damned things hop all over the place and have no issues clinging to walls, ceilings, pipes – you name it, they stick to it." She rattled out after patching the Turians in the line. If they were lucky enough to have avoided the snipers until now, it was better to not walk into them unaware. With a bit of luck, the bulk of the Geth forces remaining at the Refinery were converging at her location and thus would allow the marines to hit them from the back.

Vasir charged away just in time to avoid becoming a fireball along with her improvised cover when the rest of the Geth blew up the neutralized Command Walker with missiles and grenades.

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Part 10

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24.04.2183GS

Refinery complex

Therum

Sub-munitions detonated against shields in a cascading wave of blinding explosions. Vasir pressed the trigger again and her shotgun spat a second cluster of ordnance that blasted through the weakened defence field and impacted the torso of a standard Geth platform and cracked it in a shower of pyrotechnics, leaking fluid and discharging energy. The robot hit some kind of a large machine and bounced leaving a dent in its plating before coming to a halt at the Spectre's feet. A Biotics surrounded heel slammed through the damaged mech and collapsed its torso in a shower of glowing energetic fluid.

Turian assault rifles barked their familiar melody behind her and the distinct sound of the Geth hopping snipers answered them before the roar of a machine gun swallowed all other noise. Tela vanished in a tunnel of Biotic energy not a moment too soon – a high velocity stream of liquid metal speared through the space where she just stood – a pointed reminder that those hoppers weren't the only snipers in the enemy's arsenal. Her HUD helpfully noted the direction of the shot and the estimated origin point. No doubt, the sniper was already displacing, however, Vasir removed one of her few remaining grenades from her harness and hurled it that way before spinning and diving under the first of a towering Command Walker. She shot it from point blank range – too close for the shield to be of any use, however it was less effective than she would have preferred. While the sub-munitions were undoubtedly effective against people, being able to find purchase in the weaker parts of the armour and cause shock damage anyway, against something as heavily armoured as the bright red walker, all they accomplished was stagger it.

The Spectre used that brief opening to gather more energy around herself and blast it back with a shock-wave, which she followed with a warp to the flashlight-head before displacing.

Behind her, the machine gun went silent – hopefully to cool down and not because a Geth nailed the gunner. Vasir found herself kneeling behind the large machine she bounced off that Geth earlier and used the moment of respite to switch her shotgun to solid AP ammunition but only after loading a Carnage round. She saw the Turian Sergeant advancing covered by brightly glowing ablative armour – the newest gimmick being tested by the Turian and Salarian tech specialists. A sniper round made the woman stagger, however the armour held through her charge and it blasted in a corona of shrapnel and an overload like blast only after she slid under cover. Behind her, two more marines engaged the snipers with controlled bursts meant to keep the pressure on the enemy and extent the time it took their weapons to overload. With the snipers pinned in place, Vasir took the opportunity to charge at the approaching Command Walker before it could engage her backup.

The Spectre sent a fabricated grenade at the walker – it was more flash than bang, meant to distract it, nailed it with the Carnage round and a warp. Despite the flashes of the resulting explosions, her helmet managed to filter out enough of the distraction to show her that the machine's shield broke. Vasir pumped three AP rounds in its right left and let go of her overheated shotgun. Before the weapon could hit the ground, Tela was sprinting at the staggered Geth with a heavy pistol in one hand and Biotic energy condensing around her fist. Four shots and two hits later, Vasir slid past the Command Walker and slammed a fist in the side of its knee joint. The resulting discharge of energy was enough to shatter the leg and made her arm up to the shoulder go numb. The Geth crashed on the ground and before it could do more than flail in an attempt to get up, the Spectre charged at it from her prone position. A corona of dark energy exploded from the impact sending the platform crashing into a nearby wall before Vasir ran up to it and finished it off with a few well placed shots from point blank range.

A sniper round caught her in the small of her back and sent her smashing face first into the wall just above the dent made by the Command Walker. Both her barrier and shields popped by the strike, yet the heavy armour held if barely. Tela wasn't sure if the flexible plating covering the nanotube weave was the only thing that cracked, however both her feet went numb. She wasn't sure if it was her centuries of training, experience or some ancient instinct that made her roll away while surrounding herself with Biotic barrier, what she knew was that doing it saved her life. A shimmering thin stream of metal passed in front of her unfocused eyes close enough to trigger her defences and pierce therm like a needle popping a balloon before slicing through the mostly intact chest of the neutralized Command Walker.

The Turian machine gun chose that moment to roar again and in desperation, Tela used her Biotics to tear off a chunk of the floor to use as cover. Multiple overloads threw long shadows all over the battlefield and a hopping sniper found itself skittering on the ceiling above Vasir. It didn't pause to take aim at her and instead it continued to run pursued by large bullets tearing chunks of metal and concrete right on its heels. Without really thinking, Tela used her improvised cover as a club and smashed the hopper into and through the ceiling. Then she was rolling away, hoping to avoid another sniper shot.

A shot that wasn't forthcoming.

"Clear. I think." A flanging voice sliced through the suddenly quiet battlefield.

"How many snipers did we get?" A distinctly female voice asked.

"Not enough. There's at least one cloaked bastard. Keep your eyes open." The Lieutenant ordered. "And someone check on Neeris. He got nailed."

"We lost the doc, again?!" A third voice exclaimed sounding utterly aggravated.

"He's still breathing."

A sniper shot echoed through the large room immediately followed by the retort of four more guns.

"Scratch one more sniper." The aggravated Turian growled. "We'll need another medic too."

"Spirits damn it!" The Lieutenant snapped.

Vasir dragged herself to the wall and into a siting position and let her armours medical subroutines do their magic while scanning everything for more cloaked Geth.

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Archaeological site

Therum

Shepard parked the Mako near the entrance of the mine where Dr T'soni was hiding. Immediately it became clear that retrieving her wasn't going to be as simple as going in and dragging her out an up to the Normandy. There was a Turian shuttle parked at the entrance with marines in defensive positions around it. Their commander – a Sergeant and a tech specialist were conferring at the mouth of the tunnel.

It wasn't had to guess what had them stumped – the entrance was collapsed.

"It can never be easy, can it?" Alenko grumbled. The LT looked around and nodded at what was left from a few large machines. "I'm guessing that this was what they used for excavation. We'll have to haul in diggers from one of the other mines unless there is another entrance large enough for people to use."

"I hope there is one." Shepard muttered. He only hoped that the Geth weren't aware that T'soni was in this location otherwise their remaining frigates might do their best to take out the area from orbit. Needless to say, such an asset denial strike would be fatal for everyone in the vicinity.

"Agile Actual, Strike-Two Actual. We've got the location of the VIP. We'll need to dig her out the hard way. Please provide orbital cover until we are able to extract her. We'll potentially need to fly in digging equipment and someone qualified to use it. Strike-Two Actual, over. Normandy Actual, Strike-Two actual. Please check with the survivors we picked up if they know how to operate digging machinery and if not, request they facilitate locating of local specialist and procurement of necessary equipment. Our VIP is buried in a mine with a collapsed entrance. On that note – check if they know where we can find plans for it and if there is an alternative entrance. Strike-Two Actual, over."