CHAPTER 39: Hold the Line

2185 CE

'There are countless versions of heroic last stands throughout every species' history. Stories of brave people who held the line against aggression until they finally died like the three hundred Spartans of ancient lore.' I began.

'We don't have three hundred Spartans. We don't have the Silent Step. We don't have the goddess Athame.' I admitted.

'We don't have any of those legends here today, because they all took one look at us and realized just how outclassed and overshadowed they would be!'

'We fight armies on a regular basis! We pull off the impossible every other day! I personally, with a little help from Joker, my Granddaughter, and Shepard, killed a goddamn Reaper. Shepard is heading up right now to kill another. For others, what we're about to face would be impossible odds!'

'But not for us.' I whispered.

'For us, an entire base full of Collectors? That's not impossible odds. That's the expected odds. It's what we signed up here to kill!' I shouted.

'We don't have the three hundred Spartans, or the Silent Step, or the goddess Athame because We. Don't. Need. Them! We're not an army at Thermopylae. We're three soldiers on the Pons Sublicius. We're Horatius Cocles an his comrades at the Bridge, and just like them NONE OF US IS ALLOWED TO DIE TODAY!' I roared.

I could see the effect on the team. The way Jacob was grinning from ear to ear. The way Grunt was pounding his fist. Mordin was smiling. Miranda was mentally judging me and assuming she could have given a better speech. Zaeed looked fired up. Even Thane seemed moved somehow.

And then Grunt ruined the moment. 'Damn it! Krell, I forgot to bring a ship!'

2185 CE

Luckily, we had several minutes before the fight began. Unluckily there wasn't actually all that much we could do to prepare for the fight that hadn't already been done.

Garrus was checking the calibrations on his Pathfinder Observer sniper rifle. Kasumi seemed like she was playing with something shiny. Thane and Samara were both praying; though not the same prayers. Mordin was fiddling with his omni-tool. Zaeed was examining his rifle for damage. Miranda was doing biotic exercises. Jacob was loading an incendiary ammo mod. Finally, Legion and Grunt seemed to be in a discussion about... viewports on ships?

I guess I haven't seen a single window on either the Collector ship or this base...

A bright hiss was the only warning we had as the door opened.

We were all in position. I'd used my jump pack to head up towards the ceiling to get better lines of sight, though no one else had followed suit yet.

I opened fire.

I had been wondering all night where the rest of the Praetorians were.

The Collectors saved the best for last.

2185 CE

There were five Praetorians. Five. Along with a flood of husks, abominations, and scions. Curiously, I wasn't seeing any Collectors. I wonder if we managed to kill them all?

That would be nice.

'We need area clearing! Don't let those abominations get close!' I yelled, my sniper rifle firing in fairly rapid tones; each shot taking out an abomination.

I tossed some left over singularity grenades at choke points. A fact that Miranda took immediate advantage off to start biotically slamming enemies to the ground.

Jacob immediately started pulling abominations into the air and then detonating them with his warp. He had a good rhythm, shooting his gun on cooldown in a nice synergy with Mordin, whose own overloads and cryoblasts combined with Jacob's inferno ammo to rip areas of enemies apart.

I took aim at an abomination that was flanking around the cover my team was hiding behind and head shot it.

Thane was showing off his abilities as an assassin. He'd switched to his sniper rifle, using his shredder ammo to concentrate on the scions and Praetorians. Every shot was a headshot, a fact that worked well for taking out the scions, and slightly less well for the Praetorians which managed to avoid the fatal results of Thane's brilliant marksmanship by the simple expedient of having around thirty heads each.

It took Thane almost a minute to take down his Praetorian, but he did it single-handedly.

Samara on the other hand had other plans for dealing with the Collector-created abominations. "I shall warp their barriers away!"

"And I'll crush them!" Grunt agreed, immediately working on stripping the Praetorian's armor with his inferno ammo.

He was in fairly close range with his Shotgun, and as the person on the Squad currently in the most danger, I switched my aim to support his efforts. The three of us managed to take down our Praetorian in fairly short order.

'Garrus, help Legion! Grunt, Samara, let's take down another. Thane, keep that last one busy!' I ordered.

Legion and Kasumi were struggling with theirs, and needed help. Garrus switched to his assault rifle and took down the shields allowing for Legion to start sniping heads in mimicry of Thane who was already on his second Praetorian.

'Yoink!' I heard Kasumi say behind me.

I looked down. She took my last warp grenade!

'Kasumi!' I yelled, annoyed. Of course, a few seconds later that annoyance was replaced by appreciation as Kasumi reappeared atop the Praetorian, shoving the Grenade into its collection of dozens of screaming skulls.

Kasumi was gone by the time the grenade detonated. The rush of biotic energy smashing the horror's internals and taking down its barriers. It began to list. Garrus and Legion immediately capitalized on the opening Kasumi gave them, taking down the rest of the skulls and causing the entire thing to blow.

I took a quick look at Miranda and Jacob. Zaeed and Mordin were assisting them with crowd control. They were focusing on a scion but it looked like they had everything handled.

'Samara! Take down the barrier on that Praetorian, and keep it down! Grunt and I will handle the rest!' I ordered.

The Praetorian flared with blue biotic light as Samara warped its barriers away.

The sound of Grunt's claymore immediately drowned out the rest of the noise in the chamber as it roared its refrain; flaming rounds stripping away the armor. I concentrated fire on the skulls. One shot, one skull. At task made simpler by the skulls being bunched up in a way that even stray shots usually hit something.

Soon enough the Praetorian blew just like the rest. Thane had managed to once again take his down while we were busy.

I took a brief look around. The Collectors had recovered and were now approaching from the flank with Zaeed and Mordin, weapons hot.

I adjusted my jump pack and leapt off the wall nearest to me, flexing my powerful legs to get as much added momentum as possible.

'Shepard to ground team! Status Report!' Shepard called.

I didn't have time to answer. The Collectors were almost there.

'Mordin! Heads up!' I shouted as I crashed into the ground directly in between him and the latest wave of Collectors; activating my fortification program as soon as I hit the ground.

An absolute wave of fire shot at me, but my bulk was more than enough to shield Mordin behind me.

'It's Thane. We are holding, but they keep coming. A quick exit is preferable.' Thane advised, realizing that I was busy.

'Head to the Normandy! Joker -- Prep the Engines! I'm about to overload this place and blow it sky high.' Shepard instructed.

'Roger that, Commander.' Joker acknowledged.

I threw a frag grenade, knocking the Collectors back for a bit of breathing room.

'You heard the commander! Advance in an orderly fashion! Break through! Focus on the right flank!'

The retreat was orderly, but it wasn't anything resembling easy. Every room was filled with husks and abominations. Collectors flew after us, taking pot shots from above; disrupted only by the occasional grenade or overload disk. The Biotics in the squad were focused on clearing us a path through the endless waves of formerly human terror weapons.

Suddenly Shepard's voice came over the radio once more. 'Let's move! We've got 10 minutes before the reactor overloads and blows this whole station apart!'

'You heard Shepard! Double time!' I ordered. We were nearing the entrance, but with the husks in the way it was slower going than I wanted. We had slowed almost to a crawl.

Miranda and Jacob were exhausted. Kasumi was panting. I was practically carrying Mordin. Garrus was doing fine, but he probably wouldn't be for much longer. I couldn't see Thane, or Zaeed for that matter. Grunt was happily tossing husks to the side as a single Krogan wrecking ball, the point man of our advance, but he couldn't get us to the Normandy alone.

Suddenly, a loud high-pitched yodel pierced the air.

'Yahooooooooooooo!!!!!'

I looked up.

A biotic meteor slammed into the ground in front of Grunt, scattering the husks.

It was Jack, holding an unconscious Shepard in one arm and Tali clinging desperately to her leg.

'Never again. Never again!' Tali muttered over and over again.

'Someone call for the fuckin' cavalry!?' Jack yelled, unleashing a shock wave that cleared the remaining path to the ship.

'No?' Jacob replied, possibly concussed.

'We'll take it anyway!' Miranda quickly corrected her partner as we caught up, running the last distance toward the ship.

'I fucking love jet packs!' Jack grinned jumping into the air and rocketing down to the ground to take the head off a husk with a full force biotic kick.

I decided not to correct her on the actual mechanics and terminology of the jump pack I'd made for her.

I could always do that later.

'Do you copy? Come on, Shepard, Don't leave me hanging. Do you copy?' Joker interrupted.

'Shepard's down for the count, but we have her with us.' I replied.

'Got it. Opening the airlock now.' Joker acknowledged as we finally came into sight of the ship; with nothing left in front of us to block the way.

Grunt made it in first and turned to man the door with his rifle; joining Kaidan in laying down suppressive fire behind us from inside the ship.

One by one the squad made it in, Jack lifting Shepard and hurling her into the airlock in a way that probably would have been medically unsound even without Shepard being unconscious, only for Kaidan to catch her just in time.

I looked around. the entire squad had gotten in safely. If Kaidan had already made it...

'We're clear! Take us away!' I ordered.

'No problem! I've been wanting to blow this popsicle stand since I got here!' Joker confirmed.

The airlock closed.

'Kaidan, get Shepard to Chakwas.' I ordered.

EDI's Voice rang out loud and clear. 'Detonation in three minutes fifteen seconds.'

Grunt dropped into the co-pilot's seat.

'No need to count it down, EDI! Just punch it!' Joker cut her off.

As we sailed back towards the relay I finally breathed a sight of relief.

We did it.

The suicide mission was over.

Author's Notes: So, the fight against the Human Reaper is pretty well trod territory. It's hard to make "Shoot it with the Cain a few times using the extra ammo you brought because you knew you were fighting a Reaper" into an entertaining fight. Jump Packs make the sequence where all the platforms fall out from under you a lot less hazardous too. Luckily there are two fights going on during this sequence, and only one of them ended up detailed in the games. I already did an anti-climax with Saren, so I didn't wanna do another one.

The chapter title is of course a song by Toto. It doesn't fit perfectly; after all, Jack's love of her jump pack arrived precisely on time.