We got moving after the skirmish, a hole had been blasted in one of the walls of the vault and Shepard had made the decision to keep moving. We moved quickly, we met some resistance, but it mattered little.
Resistance to our escape was met with overwhelming aggression from our squad.
The Eclipse Mercenary Company was started by Jona Sederis, a bonafide psychopath and a force to be reckoned with. She was an effective commando, a damn effective leader.
When she's not locked in a Citadel Cell like she has been for the last year. This ain't her first time in the clink, and every time she does the quality of her recruits goes to shit.
I'd come across her troops multiple times over the last couple decades. Enough to where the two of us are on a first name basis when we cross paths.
" FUCK! IT'S HARRISON!" one of the older mercs shouted out and there was a grin that grew on my face that was filled with bloodlust.
"UNCLE AXIOS IS HERE TO PLAAAAAY~! " I cackled, earning a particularly accurate burst of fire impacting my shield.
What? You thought I wasn't a maniac? You don't go a millenia without going a little wonky upstairs, kid.
"Harrison, quit playing with your food!" Shepard cut in, I responded by booting a fuel canister into their front line and hitting it with an API round. It went up in a blast of fire that incinerated three of those poor bastards.
Our push continued until a pair of YMIR mechs decided to make things interesting. Shepard immediately sent a Shockwave that was strong enough to stagger the pair of mechs whilst Kasumi set her ammunition to disruptor. I moved to flank, draw their attention and keep their subroutines focused on firing upon me, the heavily armored tank of the squad instead of the pair of lightly armored specialists.
Unfortunately, I forgot about the YMIR's missile launching capabilities. A missile impacted a container I was vaulting over, the blast wave sending me flying back into the vault.
" Are you alive, Old Timer?!" Kasumi exclaimed through the comm, and I groaned as I dragged myself back to my feet, finding myself lying in the shattered display that held my king's spear and helm. My fist closed around the spear with nary a thought.
"I'm on my way back." I growled out, sprinting back into the fray.
By the time I rendezvoused with my compatriots, Kasumi had clambered on the back of one of the YMIRs. With cabled jacked into her omni-tool and wrapped around her other hand, she must've spliced into the manual control of the mech, using which she was unleashing unceasing firepower upon the other YMIR, assisted by Shepard unleashing biotic hell upon it with biotic pulls and warp detonations.
They're effective. Extremely so. It was a pleasant surprise, which, looking back, was caused by arrogance on my part. Shepard was the first human Spectre for a reason. She was trained by Anderson, had gone through the rigors of battle and passed the selection process to become an N7. A powerful biotic in her own right, she had a reputation as an idealist, a paragon of mercy and heroism.
Kasmui was a master at her craft, and an effective skirmisher in her own right. A knife in the dark, she would cloak and her target would be dead before they hit the ground. Her experience getting past security systems granted her technological experience enough to use the environment to her advantage, a crane dropping a fuel cell, a forklift suddenly surging revealing a mercenary using it as cover.
A YMIR mech turning on its support.
The two mechs reduced each other to scrap and detonated shortly after with Kasumi backflipping off of her mount with a flourish.
"What did I say about playing with your food, Kasumi?" Shepard asked, mag-locking her weapons now that we had a moment of peace. She sounded more amused than anything else.
"You told that to Harrison, not me, Boss."
"The point still stands!"
"To be fair, Shepard, she fumbled her landing a little."
"Not helping, Axios!"
We resupplied our thermal clips from the fallen, and made our way to the cargo dock, where we'd be able to call in a shuttle for extraction. We faced only token resistance before we reached open air.
" Fine! I'll handle this myself!" Hock's voice is projected through the loudspeaker of a Mantis Gunship that rises from an underground hangar. Mass Accelerator rounds pepper the cargo dock, tearing rents in the dock itself and shredding through the paltry cover of shipping containers. We move constantly, a single second still and our personal shields would flare, my own omni-shield was beginning to show signs of destabilization.
We had to take that damn bird down.
"We got mechs inbound!" Kasumi called, taking pot shots at the LOKI mechs that were attempting to advance on us. A slug apiece would take them down, but the issue of the gunship remained.
"His guns will overheat soon, when that happens he'll switch to rockets. When that happens, we make our move and take that gunship down, got it?!" Shepard called, prying a rocket launcher from a dead Eclipse mercenary's hands. That'll work.
"Give me a chance to get close, and I can bring it's shields down." Kasumi declared, and both Shepard and I gave resolute nods.
In battle, a single moment can feel an eternity. When the Mantis' Mass Accelerators whined with the hissing of steam, things moved in slow motion. Kasumi cloaked, Shepard darted out of cover, I rushed out as well, shield held at the ready.
I saw the guns of the Mantis glowing red with the rippling of hot air distorting their image, it's shield forming a visible sheen around the gunship itself.
I saw the missile pods open, their payload lighting it's engine.
A millisecond too late. Shepard's rocket crashed into the Mantis. Shields stop the shrapnel of a rocket going off, but they don't stop the force of the explosion itself. The shockwave sets off a chain reaction, the primed rockets detonated prematurely, sending the gunship rocking in the sky, and sinking it to just past the edge of the cargo dock.
This is where Kasumi made her move. A master thief's athleticism is on full display as she vaults onto the cockpit of the Gunship, and wreaks hell upon its flight systems and remaining shields. As Hock struggles to keep the Mantis in the air, she gives a jaunty salute, and vaults back off of the ship.
"Shields are down, let's tear that thing apart!"
Shepard handles that, her pilfered ML-77 unleashing the remainder of it's payload. Six rockets impact the Mantis, and it enters it's death spiral.
" DAMN YOU!" Hock shouts, even as his ship is about to hit the ground. I hear a light 'pop', like a pressurized can being opened, before an explosion rings our ears, fire bursting in a cloud that clawed at the loading dock.
We were about to call in the shuttle when fate gave us a treat.
In the form of Donovan Hock falling into our lap. Almost literally.
"I didn't know the Mantis Gunship had an ejector seat installed." I muttered,
"They don't. Coward must've had it installed custom." Kasumi quipped, I stepped forward now, stalking towards hock.
He was strapped down to his seat, more focused on shooting at me than trying to get out.
A Kessler Pistol, a backup piece of paltry iron that he likely used more for intimidation than any real power factor, as the entirety of his thermal clip did naught but flare my shields. I took my king's spear from my back, the bronze spearhead glinting in the setting sun.
"Hey now, why don't we talk about this?" Hock pleads to deaf ears, pulling at his harness even when its too late. I place the tip at his chest, his hands try to push me away, gripping at the shaft but finding no mercy.
"You don't have to do this! I can get you whatever you want!" He begs, and I say nothing, simply beginning to apply pressure.
It's slow. The skin parts, he tries to plead, then his ribs crack and his face contorted in pain and horror, his begging turns into a wheezing gasp for air as his lung is pierced, then his heart.
I watch him. Eyes locked on his as the light slowly leaves them. It takes maybe fifteen seconds until he's no longer there, and I remove the spear.
"Bloodied for the first time in millennia…against a coward. Pfeh" I spit on the ground at Hocks feet.
"You just executed a man in cold blood, Harrison." Shepard states, voice accusatory and I turn to face her with a raised face of stone.
"Shepard, I hoisted Jesus of Nazareth up on Calvary. With a smile on my face. This…this is nothing."