Kacey darted out of the room with Miranda close behind. The sooner they dealt with the intruders, the better. She could only hope that Jacob could keep Garrus alive until they got back. As capable as a fighter Garrus was, it was the amount of mercs being thrown at them that concerned Kacey. Salkie mentioned that Garrus was getting tired, which led to him making mistakes. And it was only a matter of time before one of those mistakes became fatal. In her eyes, splitting up the teams would lead to both parties having support. And a better chance at survival.
She opened the door under the stairs as Garrus had instructed. On the other side it led into a small hall which led to three different areas. The place was eerily quiet, keeping Kacey and Miranda on guard.
"Get to the console and close that shutter before they can get through!" Garrus said through the radio.
Kacey bolted down the hall to reach the large shutter in front of her. A faded red-light sign saying 'exit' hung above the door as Kacey hit the shutter button. Once she had done so, Miranda had opened fire on some of the mercs.
"Vorcha incoming!" she shouted as Kacey began to shoot at the Blood Pack mercenaries.
Almost as soon as they had arrived the shutter promptly closed itself, blocking the mercenaries path.
"There's two more shutters." Garrus said through the radio, "Get them closed fast!"
Kacey darted to the right heading towards the Garage. Once she opened the door, bullets were whizzing past her at lightning speed. She dived behind cover and began to open fire on the vorcha pouring through into the Garage. A few krogans were sprinkled throughout the waves of vorcha heading towards Kacey and Miranda.
"They just keep on coming!" Miranda said.
"Yeah, and it doesn't look like it'll stop anytime soon." Kacey replied, "I've got an idea though."
"What is it?"
"Grenades." Kacey said, "Use grenades to kill them quickly then I'll cover you while you hit the shutter. After that we fight them off until it closes."
"You make it sound so easy." Miranda replied.
"Nothing worth doing is ever easy." Kacey responded, "Ready?"
"As I'll ever be."
Kacey darted out behind cover, pulling out her grenade launcher and launched grenades all over the Garage, killing all of the mercenaries. Miranda darted between the blasts as she ran towards the shutter controls a hit the button. Kacey ran up and threw two grenades at the krogan approaching from the other side. The shutter closed as the grenades blew up the krogan on the other side.
"Seems like Aria had a good reason to be worried," Kaidan laughed, "I can't believe you blew up a garage!"
"It sounded like a good idea at the time." Kacey yawned, "And besides, it worked, didn't it?"
"Well, that was a success." Miranda mused, "Could've used less grenades though."
"Maybe." Kacey replied, "Come on, we need to go and close the last shutter."
"Are you sure leaving Jacob with Garrus was a good idea?" Miranda asked following Kacey out of the Garage, "We could've used the extra help and Garrus is more than capable—"
"I know Garrus is capable." Kacey answered sternly, "Believe me, I know. But we can't risk him getting killed. You heard what that Salkie said; he's getting tired. It won't be long before he ends up making a fatal mistake. It's better for him to have some back up rather than leave him alone. Besides, we can handle a couple of mercenaries surely."
"That was more than a couple Shepard." Miranda said, "You can be very reckless, you know."
"I do." Kacey replied, "But that was a necessary risk."
They opened the door leading to Utility, which revealed a narrow corridor. Several vorcha littered the narrow hall, forcing Kacey and Miranda to hide behind the narrow pillars nearby to avoid the bullets. One vorcha even had a flamethrower and was hiding around the corner, firing at both women when they drew near.
"Oh, that's so not fair!" Kacey said agitated as she dived back into cover to avoid the fire.
"I'll draw him out!" Miranda shouted. She ran forward and drew the vorcha away from Kacey, who was able to fire at the huge fire-tank on the vorcha's back, lighting the alien on fire.
"Are you okay?" Kacey asked.
"I'll live." Miranda replied.
They continued to dodge gunfire as the ran down the hall, with Kacey hitting the shutter button as Miranda caused a vorcha's flamethrower to explode; killing all that was there before the shutter slammed down.
"Phew!" Kacey said, "Come on, let's—"
"Get back here, Shepard." Garrus said urgently, "They're coming in through the doors!"
"Hang tight, Garrus! We're on our way!"
…
"Watch my back!" Garm roared at the vorcha near him, "I'll deal with Archangel!"
The vorcha next to him dropped to the floor as Kacey and Miranda revealed themselves. The korgan growled as he lifted up his shotgun and began to fire at Kacey, while heading for the stairs.
"I'll handle the vorcha!" Miranda shouted, "You go and get that krogan."
Kacey nodded and pulled out her own assault rifle, using cryo ammo to weaken him. Miranda was able to dispatch the vorcha quickly thanks to Garrus and Jacob, the latter of whom ran down the stairs to help Kacey kill Gram. Once the Blood Pack leader was dead, Garrus radioed Kacey.
"They've stopped. Come find me."
Kacey ran upstairs to Garrus at lightning speed. She found the turian standing patiently, waiting for her.
"Thanks, Shepard." Garrus said calmly as Jacob and Miranda arrived, "They hardly got through to me. And we took out Gram and his Blood Pack. This day just gets better and better."
"You knew Garm?" Kacey asked.
"He was one tough son of a bitch." Garrus replied, "We tangled once. Caught him alone. None of his gang to help him. I still couldn't take him out. I've never seen a krogan regen that fast. He's a freak of nature. He just kept at it until his vorcha showed up. It was close, but I had to let him go. Not this time."
"Only the Blue Suns are left." Kacey replied, "I say we take our chances and fight our way out."
"I think you're right," Garrus responded, "Tarak's got the toughest group, but nothing we haven't faced before. Besides he won't be expecting us to meet him head on—"
The sound of roaring engines cut Garrus off. All four of them turned around to see a large gunship hover just outside of the hideout. Kacey ran behind cover as the gunship opened fire.
"Damn it!" Garrus shouted, "I thought I took this thing out already. They're offloading troops! Watch your back, Shepard!"
It didn't take long for Kacey, Miranda and Jacob to dispel most of the ground troops. Her assault rifle packed with incendiary bullets helped immensely as Miranda and Jacob's biotics helped to quickly kill of the mercs with ease. Once the ground troops were slaughtered, the sound of roaring engines of the gunship returned.
"I'll never forget what happened next. How angry I felt, how worried I was. It reminded me of what happened during the Skyllain Blitz. I couldn't believe what I saw when it happened."
"Archangel!" Tarak shouted as the gunship pulled up from behind Garrus. Before Garrus could even react, the machine guns on the gunship had already opened fire on Garrus, successfully shooting the turian.
"You think you can screw with the Blue Suns?!" Tarak continued to shout as Garrus crawled over to hide behind the sofa.
"This ends now!"
Garrus briefly left cover to shoot at the gunship but never got the chance as Tarak fired a rocket at Garrus. Garrus was knocked back by the explosion, unconscious.
"Garrus!" Kacey shouted worriedly.
The gunship continued to fire at them, blocking Kacey's path to Garrus. She quickly reloaded her grenade launcher.
"Alright. Let's finish this!" She growled.
Miranda had already dropped the shields when Kacey finally began to fire grenades at the gunship. Jacob had switched to using his SMG instead of his pistol for efficiency. By the time the gunship had finally hit the ground and exploded, Kacey was somewhat satisfied by the result. She was already at Garrus' side by the time Miranda and Jacob had joined her.
The sight was something that, while a familiar sight, was not something she had ever wanted to see. Garrus was lying in a pool of his blood. As Kacey kneeled down, Garrus gasped for air as his eyes opened. It filled her with slight hope and relief.
"Garrus!" she said worriedly.
Garrus briefly grabbed his rifle before letting go and rolled over. Miranda already had her omni-tool out to apply medi-gel and assess his injuries.
"We're getting you out of here, Garrus." Kacey said, her voice shaking a bit, "Just hold on."
Garrus' breathing was still unsteady as Kacey tried her best to remain level-headed.
"Radio Joker." She said to Jacob, "Make sure they're ready for us."
"We better hurry." Jacob mused, "He looks bad."
…
It had already been a few hours since they returned to the Normandy. Kacey was pacing up and down the Briefing Room, unable to focus on anything else. Garrus was still being treated as far as she knew, and she just wanted to know if he was going to be fine. Her head had been an absolute mess these past three days and she just wanted some straight answers. However, what she did have was questions for the Illusive Man.
The Cerberus leader had said he hadn't been able to locate Garrus. Yet the first dossier she got led her to him. She had her suspicions before, but now she was more concerned than ever. She had to ensure that she kept the Illusive Man at an arms distance or more for now. Until she can figure how to get Cerberus off her back.
"Commander." Jacob said, breaking Kacey's line of thought. She turned to face him as he stood at the other side of the table.
"We've done what we could for Garrus, but he took a bad hit." Jacob explained, "The docs corrected with surgical procedures and some cybernetics. Best we can tell, he'll have full functionality, but…"
Jacob trailed off as the door opened. Garrus entered the room, with large scars down the right side of the turian's jaw. The same side of his armour had a large hole in it, with the surrounding area burned to a crisp. He walked into the room as if nothing had happened and Kacey sighed in relief.
"Shepard." He said calmly.
Jacob laughed. "Tough son of a bitch. Didn't think he'd be up yet."
Kacey smiled at Garrus as he walked towards her.
"Nobody would give me a mirror. How bad is it?" he asked.
"Hell, Garrus you were always ugly," Kacey joked, "Slap some face-paint on there, and no one will even notice."
Garrus laughed, "Ha-ah! Oh, don't make me laugh, damn it. My face is barely holding together as it is. Some women do find facial scars attractive. Mind you, most of those women are krogan…"
Kacey shook her head laughing. Jacob was quick to salute the Commander before leaving the pair alone. Once Jacob was long gone, Garrus' face grew more serious.
"Frankly I'm more worried about you." Garrus said, "We've seen what Cerberus has done before and I've only heard bad things about them these past two years."
"It's not like I'm here by choice, Garrus." Kacey replied, "Cerberus brought me back and have blackmailed me into compliance."
"With what?"
"Noveria, the rachni queen and Kaidan." Kacey said. As vague as it was, Garrus was more than aware of what she was referring to as she said that.
"Well, that's not what I was expecting to hear." Garrus mused, "You're in a tight spot."
"That's why I'm glad you're here Garrus. If I'm walking into hell, I want someone I can trust at my side."
"You realise this plan has me walking into hell, too." Garrus laughed, "Hah. Just like old times."