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

Chapter 8

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Part 1

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29.04.2183 GS
Peak 15
Noveria
Pax System
Horse Head Nebula

The first obstacle against reaching the roof was a potentially deadly checkpoint. The only way up was through either a small service ladder or an elevator. Both could turn into death traps for anyone trying to pass through.

"Drones!" Shepard and the Turian Lieutenant Gaius spoke at the same time.

They gathered around the two combat engineers left in their group, who sent the few prefabricated drones available up. Half of them flew along the ladder. The rest cut themselves away through the roof of the elevator cart. They raced up its shaft, searching for unpleasant surprises, like Rachni or bombs.

The only surprise there was the lack of defenses or defenders.

"Wrex, Rhobb, Vasir, you're on point. Secure us a perimeter on top. Sentinel Three," Shepard turned to the heavy mech milling around, "keep this zone secure."

"Roger, Roger!" The mech answered in a high-pitched synthetic voice – apparently a joke from one of the programmers working on its VI.

Additional protective barriers surrounded the three aliens before they pilled up into the elevator, and headed up. Shepard and Gaius remained behind the combat engineers, looking over their shoulders at the pictures from the drone cameras.

The elevator reached the top without accident. As soon as the door slid open, the Krogan burst out, followed by Vasir. They swept for targets and took positions to cover the area.

"Next squad up, use both the elevator and ladder. Go!" Gaius snapped. "The engineers will go up last with the two of us."

Soon enough, the CDF force reached the door leading outside. They ran in no resistance or traps.

"What's the plan?" Vasir pointedly looked at Shepard.

He swallowed his first instinctive response – that the dog and pony show of constant tests and evaluations by the senior Spectre grew old quickly. Instead, he nodded at the combat engineers.

"Drones go in first, tag all hostiles, and look for traps. Krogans are next, their job is to distract whatever is waiting for us. You're going to use a charge to further disrupt the enemy. Then the rest of us move through the choke-point as fast as possible and neutralize all surviving resistance." Shepard stated flatly." Ideally, we would have air-assets outside sweeping the roof, however with how bad the storm is supposed to be?" He shrugged.

It might be bright new space age, however bad enough weather could still fuck up with close air support. And there were planets out there, that redefined what bad weather could mean.

Noveria was a case in point. While it had a relatively pleasant lower alpine region, most of the world was a frozen wasteland. The regular storms here made the worst weather at Earth's poles look like a spring rain in comparison.

"Sounds good enough considering the assets available. Do you agree, Spectre Vasir?" Gaius asked.

"It should work. Stack up. Krogans upfront, you're about to bash in some heads."

"That's the spirit!" Rhobb cheered and patted the heavy machine gun he carried. The large, usually squad weapon, looked almost like a regular rifle in the hands of the large alien.

The drones buzzed forward. One went to the door's control panel and activated it, while the rest darted into the storm as soon as the door began to slowly open. Between the snow and night shadows, visibility was almost zero. Thermal showed only variations of blue haze, with the metal parts of the roof a bit colder than the howling winds.

"There are no visible enemies. Stay sharp and keep your eyes open!" Shepard shouted.

"We're going in!" Wrex shouted back and the two Krogan charged through the door.

No one shot at them, and there was no sound of Rachni screeching in displeasure.

"Did the bugs or Geth freeze outside?" Gaius wondered aloud.

"We're not that lucky. Keep sharp and check everything!" Shepard barked, then followed the Turians hurrying to get through the door.

Even with the insulation and heating provided by the heavy hardsuit Shepard wore, a brisk chill tried to seep into his bones as soon as he got out and the wind hit him. He kept cycling through vision modes, trying to find the hostiles detected by the VI. An unpleasant tingle ran up and down his back, warning him that this could very well be a trap.

Thick snow covered the metal floor despite the howling winds, hiding ice that cracked loudly with every step forward. There were too many shadows for Rachni or Geth to hide, too many places for mines and other unpleasantness to ruin someone's day.

The soldiers spread and carefully advanced from cover to cover, tensely looking for targets.

A sharp curse came from a Turian's throat. While the translator didn't catch its meaning, the tone and warbling voice told the rest of the story.

"There's something sticky below the snow here!" The marine added a moment later.

Everyone had just a moment to tense before the floor shuddered. The ice shattered and flew in all directions, while snow exploded like a cluster of makeshift smoke grenades. Big, almost invisible forms tore their way through until now invisible gratings and surged forward. One was on top of the Turian who cursed. Multiple tentacles fixed him in place, while a large, odd-shaped mouth closed around his head, and sharply twisted. Metal alloy screeched as it warped and cracked, acid hissed, and the Turian had just enough time for a choked scream before his helmet collapsed.

Everyone opened fire at the moving shadows. Heavy burning bullets lit up the rooftop. Biological armor cracked and shattered. Alien war cries and loud hisses of pain cut through the howl of the wind.

Rachni died one after another while spitting acid and shooting serrated spikes at the Citadel forces. One of them didn't bother and simply barreled into a Turian sergeant who was too close to the edge of the roof. Both disappeared in the howling storm, the wind cutting their screams short.

The drones descended, trying to distract the Rachni, who mostly ignored them. For all the damage their light weapons could cause, they were like drops of rain compared to the heavy firepower arrayed against the insectoids.

Meanwhile, a swarm of the small, exploding acid carriers rushed forward.

Two Biotic charges intercepted Rachni, who was about to reach the Turians, despite the punishing fire. Shotguns barked at point-blank range, shattering carapace and blowing huge holes into the massive aliens. Rhobb laughed like a maniac, while acid sizzled all over his armor, and spikes found purchase into the weakened alloy. The rare HEAP rounds he used to cut one Rachni after another, turning their insides into little more than stirred soup.

Small grenades and tech powers burned a line through the roof, slowing down and blowing up many of the small suicidal critters. A few reached the Krogan, staggering them, while Vasir had to displace, using another Biotic charge.

As suddenly as it began, it was over.

"Casualty report!" Gaius snapped angrily. "Get that acid neutralized, and watch the Spirits damned floor!"

"Zeva and the Sarge are gone."

"I have Spirits fucked spikes in my hand and that acid is burning!" A Turian wailed in pain, now that he could spare the time to worry about it.

"It's not that bad. It tingles." Wrex shrugged and began pulling spikes out of his armor with one hand while using a spray to neutralize the acid with another.

"At least the medic is alive…" Gaius grumbled. "Sergeant Kairs vitals are flat. He's gone, the poor bastard." The Lieutenant announced quietly after consulting his command interface.

Shepard took a few deep breaths, while the surge of adrenaline that hit him with the Rachni's appearance began to recede. This was all fucked-up, he thought, before shaking himself back into mission mode.

"Engineers, fix the Goddess-damned lines before more Rachni decide to pay us a visit," Vasir ordered.

Shepard didn't waste time and moved forward, lighting his omni-tool and looking for the relays. The two Turian combat engineers followed suit. A few of the Marines who were mostly intact went to cover them.

They fixed the system within a couple of minutes. It took them that long only because of the storm making it harder to find the necessary interfaces and work with them.

The problem itself quickly became obvious. Someone had manually disengaged the hard lines. The responsible party was painfully obvious as well. A closer look at the floor revealed the mostly melted pieces of Geth buried in the snow. Their presence near the terminals that governed communications lines both with the deeper facility and the outside world, was more than telling.

"We're done here. Unless more Geth appear to sabotage the landlines, we're golden." Shepard announced.

"Good. Someone pick up Zeva. We're getting out of here." Gaius snapped, still quite angry with how the skirmish turned out.

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Part 2

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29.04.2183 GS
Peak 15
Noveria
Pax System
Horse Head Nebula

They returned to the HUB area in front of the administrative offices and VI servers to restock on supplies and repair compromised armor. A Turian squad escorted most of the wounded back to the main hangar and returned with a fresh squad of reinforcements. The Krogan were the obvious exception. Soon after they neutralized the Rachni acid and got any penetrating spices out of their hide, medi-gel, and their regeneration took care of the rest.

At the same time, the Spectres, Lieutenant Gaius, and the combat engineers gathered around the main VI terminal. It projected a detailed schematic of the reactor core.

"That's pretty good killing ground." The Turian Lieutenant concluded.

There was a single entrance, leading down a short corridor. It ended up with a remote diagnostic and observation station. That was also a good place to put mines, remote explosives and cover the whole area with turrets.

A single catwalk to the left, led to another, a bit longer corridor. It served for maintenance purposes and led up the stairs to the second level. There was a control center in the far end, with larger catwalks giving access to various parts of the reactor core. They were also good high ground to shoot down at anyone dumb enough to storm the place.

"The good news is the reactor core is relatively hardened. Standard light arms should cause no major issues as long as we don't use AP or Inferno ammo. Heavy weapons are a no-go. Biotics, save for Warp should be fine. The same goes for tech attacks – overload should be harmless. Incinerate and cryo-blasts might weaken the wrong part of the reactor core, making it vulnerable to small arms."

"Standard small arms. Disruptor ammo. Use the Krogan as tanks. Vasir, you're providing defensive Biotic support. Your Wrex, Rhobb – your job is to give us combat engineers an opening. We'll be using everything safely to diminish the Geth threat – overloads, hack packages, IFF scrambling, the works. We're sending the drones first again, and this time we're likely to lose them all." Shepard brainstormed.

"We can fabricate light drones for as long as we've got fabricator stock. However, their quality and endurance will be a far cry from the standard ones we've been deploying so far. No swarms as well. One of the fabricators at the hangar can mass-produce them, however, all available resources are still busy building anti-Rachni support." One of the Turian engineers pointed out.

A single glance where most of their unit was busy replacing much of the outer layer of their heavy armor if not whole sections of it were case in point. While the fabricators brought down from the fleet were fast, they didn't flash-forge equipment like an omni-tool. Doing so would have resulted in much brittler and lower quality gear. Considering the damage the Rachni caused, cutting corners that way would have produced at least an order of magnitude more avoidable casualties, so that was a no-go.

"That's not a great plan, however, I don't see us having many options until heavy reinforcements arrive. If we compromise the reactor, we'll make our work much harder." Vasir scowled. "The only bright spot is a catastrophic failure won't destroy much beyond the reactor core, it's built that way."

"However, without power, we'll be stuck trying to do an aerial insertion in the storm, which from what we just saw, might be a great way to commit a pointless suicide." Gaius pointed out. "We will suffer casualties for certain even if no one contests such insertion attempt, and we don't have the manpower to spare."

"The hard way it is then." Vasir nodded. "Leave the heavy weapons and grenades here. We're going in using standard small arms. Disruptor ammo only…" The Spectre turned around and began issuing orders.

=DC=

The armored door leading into the reactor chamber opened slowly. Turian marines rolled smoke grenades inside. Within moments, hissing smoke and chaff filled the small corridors. Drones whirled through the concealment, and within moments, their camera feeds lit up with confirmed threats. Targeting sensors swept the corridor within the chamber. Ordinarily, invisible laser-trip wires crisscrossed the whole area, attached to mines. A cluster of hovering Geth drones opened fire, followed up by four turrets attached at the far end of the corridor.

"Vasir, Wrex, Biotic barriers in the corridor. Engineers, we dash in volley attack programs, and dash out." Shepard ordered.

The drones dueled, with the Geth winning due to being larger, better protected, and armed. Two blue Biotic walls sprang to life in the corridor, close to the open door. Shepard was the first to dash in. He launched a heavy overload, followed by an attack package meant to scramble Geth IFFs. A Turian followed suit, then a second stepped in for a moment, unleashing two hack packages, before getting out of the way.

The two of them had just enough time to get out before the barriers collapsed and a hail of heavy slugs tore through the corridor.

At the same time, the overloads cracked over Geth shields, draining them. The hack packages slowed down the platforms, while their runtimes struggled to compensate. One of the drones opened fire at everything that moved, followed by a turret. The resulting fratricide wiped out a third of the first defense line.

Then the barriers came to life again, followed by more attack programs, and a Turian fire-team stacking into the small available space. The Biotic walls failed while the Geth units were still active, however, they simply lacked the endurance and firepower to cut through the Turians' heavy defenses. One after another, the Geth platforms blew up, leaving the CDF troopers to deal with a corridor chock-full with explosives.

The solution to that problem was very straightforward. The third set of Biotic barriers provided some cover, while flash-fabricated drones went after the traps in suicidal charges. Meanwhile, Krogan opened fire at any detected mine, shredding their electronics.

It took them ten minutes to clear the first small section of the reactor chamber. Then they had to carefully bypass parts of the catwalk, where the odd explosive detonated, shredding it.

The small passage leading towards the next catwalk was not only exposed to fire from above, it was covered by stealthy Hoppers. A squad of Geth Troopers, led by a large, red Prime, provided an additional obstacle.

"Options?"

"Smoke 'em, snake'em, and we charge to tear them apart, while the rest of you cover us," Wrex suggested.

"Snake?" Shepard asked in confusion.

The Battlemaster gave a brief explanation, and it now all made sense.

"It's an as good idea as any. We can't afford a prolonged firefight here." Vasir agreed.

"Barrier, to soak up some fire, smoke, line assault." Gaius agreed.

More smoke grenades hissed, releasing their contents. A blue wall of Biotic power came to life, followed by a Turian charging into the fray, firing in controlled bursts. The Biotic wall failed under Geth's onslaught. The Turian on point took a few more steps and intentionally few forward while he kept firing. Halfway down, his shields popped, and rounds slammed into the heavy plating protecting his chest and head. Behind him, a second Turian was jogging forward, as fast as she could while hitting her target with every burst. She collapsed right in front of the point man, a chunk of her leg missing, yet the third marine was already advancing and firing.

Tech attacks slammed into the Geth position, followed by Wrex and Vasir charging into the fray.

A Turian fell, his faceplate shattered by a Hopper's shot. The agile machine failed to displace in time, and Rhobb's shotgun nailed it with a disruptor round, smashing its flashlight head. Multiple Geth platforms poured fire into him from above. The Krogan ignored them, and advanced at a quick pace, followed by more Turians and Shepard. His shields failed, bullets bounced off, or shattered on his heavy plating, quickly weakening it. Plasma rounds struck, ablating large chunks of the top layers, yet leaving the heavy hardsuit below relatively intact.

A cascade of overloads staggered the Geth upstairs, allowing a hack-pack to slip through and scramble the targeting routines of a heavy gunner.

The resulting brief disruption allowed the Citadel forces to mop up the remaining resistance on the lower floor, and focus on the Geth above. Vasir and Wrex vanished surrounded by coronas of Biotic power, and the Turians led by Gaius charged up behind them.

A mine shredded the Lieutenant's legs and sent him flying briefly only to land hard after bouncing off the wall. The blast wounded a second Turian, who collapsed. Several overloads crackled upon the stairs, hopefully scrambling any other unpleasant surprises. The rest of the unit bypassed the wounded Turian, with the last in the group, pausing only for as long as it took him to apply medigel.

Shepard left one of the combat engineers to try and stabilize the crippled Lieutenant and ran up the stairs as well, shooting at anything resembling a Geth platform.

The brutal close-quarters fighting lasted only a minute longer. That was enough to see two more Turians fall victims to advanced Geth weaponry. However, in exchange, the reactor core was now secure. And as far as anyone could see, intact.

"Get medics up here and see to the wounded. Engineers, go up into the control center with me. First, we sweep for more explosives, then check up for software surprises!" Shepard took charge.