The wait had been suffocating.
An hour since Liara and Wrex had separated from Garrus and Tali. In that time, the two had trekked nearly two miles to prepare their distraction to buy them the time they'd need to procure themselves a shuttle to the collector ship.
Settled on a mountain and a view to entertain unsettled nerves, a lonely turian and quarian waited in the Mako's hold, eyes preening over their gear and the horizon since.
Weary, the woman's dead stare hovered over the port of her shotgun's breach, hand idly palpating her sternum and the marred fabric that had saved John from death.
A mild jostle of motion had her looking up to see Garrus reaching for the radio.
"Status." Came a bi-toned murmur.
A click and a squelched beep.
"Developing." Liara answered with a word.
The turian scanned the distance again before leveling his gaze upon the imposing pillar outlining the night sky. The ship stood as a far-off tower. A blackness penetrating the darkness above, the land below bowing to its magnificence.
A glare withheld, mandibles still set tightly against his face, he brought the radio closer.
"Are you in?"
"Yes."
A steady exhale. "Copy."
He hung the receiver and tried to make himself as comfortable as he could within the constraints allowed. His back ached and the ripstop from chest rig scraped slightly when he settled himself deeper into the seat.
Eyes still beholding the dark vista, he steadied his breath. "Ready?"
Tali soon sunk into her seat much like him, her own gear moving and clinking in the cabin.
"As much as a girl can be."
"Nervous?"
She answered him with a stare and the minute was spent in lead-like silence.
"We'll get him back." He said finally, rising from the stew of his bleak thoughts. His veneer was far too thin to be saying that.
This wasn't hard to dissect. The equation was brutally simple. All you had to do was look at the variables.
Four idiots taking on a dreadnaught and its army of freaks.
They weren't winning this.
A mirthless and quiet laugh from her. "Will we?"
His view broke away from the land and he faced that violet wall of glass, a warped reflection staring mildly back.
"Killed Saren. Took on the Geth. Blew up a reaper. Don't tell me that doesn't mean something."
"No." Tali felt a tear grace her eye, "No, this is different. You know it."
"We have to try."
Her stare faltered. No longer able to look him in the face, she stared up through the small canopy window to the stars above. Her gaze lingered, heart swept by a wave of something that felt like sand. Dry and gritty, she realized it was hopelessness trying to entomb her.
Hands still at her sides, they pressed into fists. "This plan isn't going to work."
"It's all we have." Was his idled reply.
One second over the other, time was beginning to claw at her resolve. Doubt continued to swirl and it was drowning her. The shadow of what lay ahead seemed to stretch further and further ahead, yawning out as if to rob them of any chance to catch up.
She wanted to break down. She wanted to lay down and cry.
John's face flickered in the back of her mind, and it mocked her against the stakes pressed against them. She wanted to believe, to cling to the sliver of hope he was still alive and that she could save him. Yet, as she sat there, besieged by her own thoughts, she was certain of absolute failure. If not from her dying, then from him already being dead.
She keeled slightly, hands now cupping her face.
She tried, vainly, to find reprieve behind shuttered eyes. To hold onto something that dared to threaten her despair. But the façade of calm she could hardly keep died and she gripped the co-pilots yoke tightly enough as if she were trying to choke and murder a poor soul caught in her hands.
"That isn't enough."
She wanted to fight. She wanted to kill them all. She wanted to channel her fears and anger and frustration toward anyone crossing her rath.
But all they'd been doing now in the eons of their waiting was sitting and driving!
He didn't face her. "What do you want me to say?"
A voice turned whimper and she yielded back. "I just want him back…—I just want him back."
He reached for his rifle propped beside him and looped the sling around his neck to let it rest across his chest.
"Listen to me." He intoned quietly, hand set on the pistol grip and the other feeling for the safety, "We're going to find him. And we're going to kill anyone who tries to stop us."
He fixed her with a look. One she needed to see. "It's that easy."
The radio squawked.
"Garrus," Liara said in a hushed whisper. "Ordnance set. Thirty seconds until detonation."
"Copy. Stay alive. We'll be there as soon as we can."
Receiver hung, he gave Tali a final look.
"You ready?"
A sling over her own head, she gave her gun a final check. "…Let's go."
Instrumentation and engine thrumming to life, she climbed up to bring the Mako's weapon systems online.
Two embittered souls daring death, Garrus set his hands on the controls and began his descent down the mountain.
From far off, a piercing flash and a plume of smoke with fire bloomed.
The go was loud and clear. It was time to get them back.
ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ
ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ
A sapphire energy burned. Pulsing and brazen, Liara gripped air and enthralled a group of collectors crossing their killzone. Hand outstretched, she hoist them up with nothing but thought to give Wrex his window.
Gun tracing each head, a boom howled in punctual succession, a spat of skull gone from every body under his aim.
"We're nearing the perimeter," Garrus called over radio, "Report status."
"Heavy contact. They're pressing but we're holding."
"Copy. We'll get to you with wings as fast as we can."
"More!" Wrex roared, crimson eyes flaring into a bright hue of blue to send another dozen to skim the air.
Anger and fury driving the krogan's might, he pulled them back to earth at speeds superseding sound. Sonic booms boomed and crunching bodies crunched. Liquified by the force, the heat alone boiled them away into charred jets of steam.
Another squad approached.
"Wrex!"
"I know, damnit." He bellowed, stance widening and gun rising, "I'm handling them."
A cannon by any human measure, his gun spat and barked its sparks of death, 25mm HE rounds singing out to meet their targets. Vaporized under the volley, a pitter patter of both dirt and flesh rained.
Trigger held until the magazine coughed empty, his finale ended with a biotic flash, tossing another dozen of the gun wielding bugs up to soar the sky. When they fell, bodies alight in fiery flames, they landed into a breached vat of fuel. Smoke wafting, the tank of liquid ignited, and they both had to duck behind a boulder to keep themselves from being swallowed whole in explosive flames.
That wasn't part of his plan, but Wrex was more than happy to roll with it. Nothing survived the blast. Which, he supposed, wasn't much of a surprise.
Before he could give Liara a glint of a triumphant smile, the air itself drew back into uncanny silence.
Something descended.
A collector. But one unlike its brethren.
Its descent was marked by a sound that defied description. It was an otherworldly shriek interposed by the boom of a thunderclap. The ground trembled when it made impact and the earth split and ruptured. Embers and ash continued to rain, hissing as they met flesh and armor, a hellish baptism marking the arrival of something beyond comprehension.
As it rose to its full height, the collector's form seemed to distort reality around it, bending light and shadow in ways that hurt the eyes and mind to perceive. Its gaze, an abyss of something ancient, fixed upon the two invaders. It was a stare devoid of any trace of empathy or mercy and promised only death.
ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ
ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ
Max speed, the Mako crossed the chilled tundra in total darkness. A focused stare ahead to the approaching complex, he glanced momentarily to any display that could give him a read on what lurked ahead.
At the basin, they soon pass walled gates, suspiciously absent of guards, to see a fleet of shuttles and gunships of every make and model you could ever believe to have existed.
If not for the chitin walls and facilities the two couldn't put a name to, you'd think it a museum or a quarian operated space.
"Spirits." Garrus was astonished at what he was seeing, Mako pacing slowly down the gravel path to give the turian time to ogle the parked ships. "What are they doing…?"
Tali spoke to keep him focused. "See something you can fly?"
He slowed to a halt and the wheels locked, dust rushing past the windshield.
"Yes."
Punching the handbrake, Garrus stuffed a handful of extra sinks into his dump pouch before flicking a switch to pop the door.
Standing, he whittled his way past Tali to which she stopped with a hand over his.
"Garrus."
They exchanged stares and she squeezed.
"Be careful."
A hard and wordless moment between them before he clambered out into a sprint, darkness swallowing him.
Breath visible, Garrus reached his pick. A Varicus Arms, 7th generation Terracle class 806-DC shuttle equipped with a gimbled turret and hardpoints for missiles. Four of the six mounted to her, from his quick inspection, were inert and training duds.
Where the collectors had procured this dated turian tech was anyone's guess. But, given who they were dealing with, it was something he supposed he should've expected.
Scanning his entire radial a final time, he yanked on a lever that would allow him entry.
"Head on a swivel, Tali?"
"Yes."
"See anything?"
It was a theatrical cue. During her steady pan of the Mako's periscope, she saw a loose formation making an approach toward them.
"Yes. We got contacts."
Periscope set aside, she brought the gun to bear, a dark frown creeping.
"You ready?" She asked.
"Send it."
155 millimeters of warhead raced out to meet its target. Bodies atomized by the resulting blast, the rest were scrambled by its compressive force.
Now inside the ship, he approached, hand working to saddle his gun behind him before scanning the array of controls before him. It was familiar enough, but years of disuse and obvious modification had warped it into something fairly unrecognizable.
His experience with this model had been piecemeal at best. He picked this one because it was the one the academy had trained him on. Big caveat however, was that he was trained within the limitations of a simulator. He'd never actually flown one before.
Having said this, it was much better than the alternative— commandeering a collector made vessel having never even interfaced with one? Would that even be possible?
Movement caught his eye. Through the blast shield, he saw more and raised Tali over comms.
"They brought friends."
"I see them."
He ran through what he remembered. Turning knobs and flicking switches in proper sequence, he settled his hands over both the turn keys before inhaling and closing his eyes, half-expecting nothing to happen.
For a moment, silence reigned, save for Tali's impetus raging outside. Then, with a whine that crescendoed into a full-throttled roar, the shuttle's systems came to life. He managed to scoff out a wry smile when the displays flickered and stabilized into a hushed green.
A piercing crack of another mass accelerated slug sang its screech. Collectors subsumed in the blast, frayed and warped shrapnel cloaked the air, nicking a gas-line off a nearby ship and unintentionally igniting a chain of events that lead to its engine caterwauling a scream of thrust that hurled it off to collide with another parked ship. The dance of boiling metal and white fire culminated into a ground pounding detonation that shook the earth.
Grimacing at the display, he leaned a bit to get a clearer view of the Mako somewhere off to his left.
"Could you be a bit more subtle?"
"No."
What was going to be a spry remark was cut off by a desperate voice drenched in static instead.
"Breaᴛ̶̷̸̿k-breᴛ̶̷̸̿ak-break, wh I⃫eᴏ̶̷̸̲̲re are you?!"
He felt his heart plummet.
"Still getting a ship," Garrus answered, "What's going on?"
"—ɪ̶̷̸̿ᴏ̶̷̸̿ᴛ̶̷̸̿e'rS⃫T⃫I⃫ᴜᴘ̶̷̸̿ᴛ̶̷̸̿ɪ̶̷̸̿—ᴜᴘ̶̷̸̿ᴛ̶̷̸̿ɪ̶̷̸̿Wrex—ᴜᴛ̶̷ɪ̶̷̸̿is—ʀ̶̷̸̲̲ᴍ̶̷̸̲̲T⃫I⃫T⃫I⃫ ᴛ̶̷̸̿ead—!W—ᴏ̶̷̸̲̲ᴍ̶̷̸̲̲ can't hold out—ᴛ̶̷̸̿ɪ̶̷̸̿ᴏ̶̷̸̿ɴ̶̷̸̿"
"Liara?"
Static.
"Wrex? Are you there? Respond."
More static.
"What do we do?" Tali asked him.
"I need more time. Lock in on their position and back them up. I can get this running by myself."
"You want us to separate? You're joking."
"This isn't the time to be debating. Go. Now. Get them. I'll meet you at the pick-up point."
A word she never used spat from her mouth.
"Fuck."
Slinking her way back to the driver seat, she pulled the Mako around in a tight turn and made her way deeper into the labyrinth.
When she turned the bend and disappeared from his line of sight, he went through a hastily drawn up pre-flight checklist in his head.
Primary power croaked on. Inertial dampeners whined to life. Life support coughing a musty scent of disuse. Weapons spooling hot.
"Come on, you old bird," he muttered, coaxing the vessel to life and tapping the static soaked screen, "One last dance."
ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ
ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ
She was alone now.
Sweat along her brow, she banked the corner, wheels scrambling for purchase against loose sands, headlights ablaze and flooding her view ahead.
A maze of chitin formations and walls alike blurring past, she stomped the pedal to the floor, torque throttling up to meet her demands for the last of its reserved power.
Teeth clenched in a fanged scowl and eyes a steeled focus, it all soon bled away from view. Silence and resolve steering her, there was a moment of sharp and undeniable clarity.
This was it. She knew. Their final moments alive. Each of them facing the end and dying alone.
It had to be.
Pulled from her own inwardness, she heard a thick whistle come up from behind. An arc of light slicing through the night, a projectile struck the ground beside the driver wheel with a resonant thud, rebounding with a burst of sparks and careening off into the horizon.
An impulsive overcorrecting veer from the shrilling shot, she realized she was being pursued.
"Keelah."
Two hovercraft, guns glowing hot, giving chase. It wasn't leaving much to the imagination on what they were capable of doing.
A sharp turn to break their line of sight, wheels drifting and slipping toward a path now teeming with collectors.
She didn't slow. A sneer born from rage, she watched them get sucked under her six wheels and pounded by the composite windshield.
A deep and ugly laugh at the carnage, her foot pushed harder and deeper into the pedal already hammered to the floor, a scream of unbridled rage as if that alone could help burn her path ahead.
"ᴅɪᴇ. DIE. DIE! 𝘿𝙄𝙀!"
Dozens eaten by hungry tires, a cacophony of thuds continued to pound the windshield. What was left was a wet trail of remains and a windshield she could hardly see through.
"Garrus," Tali called over the radio after composing herself, jets spraying over glass to clean her view, "Report status."
"Stl̖l̵̦ l al ve and ą͙̦͕ lmost airborn e̴. Some Tͫ̏ hing's try ingto jI⃫I⃫am us."
Another round sailed past and she almost could feel the boiling heat radiating through the glass.
Another swerve left down a narrowing alley. She was getting closer to Wrex and Liara.
"Liara," Tali cried, "Please tell me you're still alive."
"—ᴍ̶̷̸̲̲I⃫g…gᴛ̶̷̸̿ɪ̶̷̸̿ᴛ̶̷̸ɪ̶̷̸̿ jI⃫I⃫"
An illegible response, but a response. A mere 800 meter dash to reach their position. She'd get to them soon.
"Garrus, please hurry."
"c͙̙ͬopy. I'm wo̳̭rk ng a͑s . fas͕̬̅ͮ͟t a̋s̹͓͟ I̮̽ c̻an."
600 meters.
"Liara."
"T̶͒̐a͐ͯl̶͐i̱̓ͮ,̀ h̄u rͬr̄̓ ÿ́!̻͋̐
400 meters. A gate ahead and a battle waging.
"I'm almost there."
She could see silhouettes now.
200 meters.
"I s̽̚͞s̘̺̄e͋̂ e you!" Liara answered, "k̼͒iill it! kill it! kill it!"
A black hellspawn centered in an open field with its pawns closing on Liara and Wrex. She knew what to do. She did not let up her speed.
A hit and run in the making, the Mako burst through the gate with a shower of sparks and she screamed.
The lesser were devoured by her wheeled onslaught. The devil incarnate tried to leap away, but was caught on the Mako's front glacis and cleaved in half after she slammed them both into a wall of rock. A hoarse cough from the concussive force of the crash, pain raddling her chest and a tear falling from an eye, she watched its legs sleuth into a wet plop on dusty ground.
"Behind us!" Wrex bellowed.
Another winded fit of wheezes as Tali fumbled to unclasp her harness, hands and legs scrambling to claw her way to reclaim control of the turret.
Brought to bear, she swung the gun around to engage her pursuers. Firing solution calculated in all of half a second, she fired, a pounding jolt of recoil shuddering the Mako, warhead sent sailing to cavitate the first floating tank into a blazing ball of fire and twisted metal.
The explosion bloomed like a deadly flower, petals of flame and shrapnel unfurling in terrible beauty.
But physics was not done with its deadly dance. The hovercraft, stripped of its antigravity thrusters, fell. It was a fall given terrible momentum, and when its hull bit the earth, it became a twist of destruction that sent the craft spinning end over end.
Her mind screamed to move, but her body refused to listen.
Rooted to place, she watched each rotation bringing the flaming wreckage closer, its massive bulk eclipsing the sky in a stroboscopic nightmare.
A crescendo of screeching metal and shattering earth, it continued to kiss the ground, each impact sending a shower of dirt and rock into the air, before making its final, terminal, leap.
The burning hulk sailed over the Mako. She could feel the heat of its passage, hear the scream of tortured metal as it passed mere inches above. With a thunderous crash, it made its landing. It crushed the Mako's forward section, the driver and passenger compartments vanishing in an instant, oily fire spilling through splintered glass and igniting crushed instrumentation into an inferno.
Reeling from the impact, she snapped to when the acrid smell of burning circuits and melting polymers hit her olfacs. That alone had her deducing immediately that becoming a quarian flambé was emphatically not on her to-do list.
Dismounting from the TCS, she crawled to the exit, heat pressing against her before landing her hands around the emergency release lever and heaving it downward. What was supposed to be a hiss of locks unclasping was silence instead.
It refused to budge.
"Nonono— 𝓭𝓸𝓷'𝓽 do this to me."
Floor against her back, she planted both feet against the door and, unsure of what else to do, stomped. The flames drew ever closer, tongues of light licking the edges of her vision.
On the sixth kick, heat nearly unbearable, clothes moments away from catching, the door finally gave way. It flew open with a screech of a bolt releasing, revealing a broad silhouette of Wrex framed against the smoke and ash burning outside. His hand immediately engulfed her ankle in a rough and reassuring grip before plucking her out from her fiery prison to the marginally safer hell that still roamed outside.
A surprised yelp from her as she landed in the soft straw of cool grass before a crackle of static from Garrus over the radio and a boom of engines overhead.
"𝑫𝒊𝒗𝒆𝑫𝒊𝒗𝒆𝑫𝒊𝒗𝒆!"
Another shockwave rippled the ground, carbonizing the second tank with a missile, Garrus' bird screeching overhead.
The resulting shockwave had Tali nailing her eyes shut from the force.
It was done. They were finally clear.
For now.
"Wrex. Thank you." Tali mumbled in a daze, still flat on the ground.
"Wasn't going to let you stay in there." He remarked plainly.
Liara hurriedly knelt down, hands clasping both her shoulders and hugging her.
"Oh, Tali. Thank goddess you're okay."
"Not even a scratch." She said, a muffled sigh through her shoulder. Liara helped the woman to her feet while Garrus circled around to land.
"I can see more coming," Garrus warned, bringing the ship in close, "You need to hurry and get in."
Waiting for his approach, the three of them turn to see the black filet cooking under the burning wreckage and Tali rose a brow.
"What did I kill?"
"Something ruthless." Wrex said warily, "It'll be back."
"How so?"
"Seems any collector can turn into one. Something's controlling them."
With the grace of a drunken elcor, Garrus brought the ship down with a shuddering thud. The door hissed open and they quickly clambered in.
A rough pat from Wrex against Garrus' shoulder. "Get us going."
"Settle in." He said with a glance behind him.
A groan from her old engines, her thrusters roared and they ascended once more, the fields below they'd so narrowly escaped shrinking into a patchwork of fire and shadow.
As they climbed, the panorama of destruction was gradually eclipsed by an even more ominous sight. The Collector ship, a cosmic predator by proportion, was a figure centered amongst the destruction and it loomed before them. Its shape defied logic. A nightmarish fusion of technology and flesh that dwarfed their tiny craft.
Their shuttle, a mere mote against the behemoth's hull, continued its ascent, bringing them closer to its oppressive presence.
They were flying into a giant maw of death.
And they all knew it.