A/N: Thank you rebelhunter7151 for the favourite and follow. I hope you're enjoying the story.
"Here they come!" Liara said quietly as the screen above the door showed that the tram had arrived.
The moment the door to the tram access was open, Kacey had fired a concussive shot blowing the soldiers to pieces. She remained focused on attacking the enemy troops, instead of wallowing in memories. She didn't know what was going on with her today; she was getting easily distracted.
"It's a trap!" One of the Cerberus soldiers shouted before being gunned down by Kaidan.
Kacey usually would've found the situation vaguely funny had the stakes not been as high as they were; truth be told, she just wanted to finish this mission as soon as possible. She shot the Cerberus troops quickly before bolting over towards the ladder and sliding down it, landing on the ground below with a slight thud.
"They've got us flanked!" Another shouted. Kacey put an end to their shouting by shoving a concussive shot in their gob.
Despite orders from their leader to regroup, the small unit of Cerberus troops were wiped out fairly quickly; Cerberus had clearly downgraded their troops lately. She found the situation ironic; she took off with two of Cerberus' best operatives after the Illusive Man tried to justify keeping the Collector base intact, and this was the best he could do as a replacement. It was sad, really.
The trio ran over to the tram and Kacey quickly go the thing moving while Kaidan and Liara fixed their helmets on (or in Liara's case a breathing mask.) Kacey fixed hers on, checking the latches three times before stopping after catching Kaidan's gaze. She didn't need coddling and she certainly didn't need more questions flung her way right now.
The weather outside hadn't improved in the slightest if anything it had gotten worse. They had already lost communications with both James and the Normandy; if they didn't hurry, they'd certainly be stuck here for who knows how long.
"Storm's getting bad, we better wrap this up quickly." Kacey said.
"The Archives are right on the other side." Liara pointed out.
"That and who knows how many Cerberus troops." Kaidan mused.
Suddenly and without warning, something blew up on the side of the tram, bringing it to a screeching halt. Kacey tripped and fell forward; once she picked herself back up, she could see a large squadron of Cerberus troops parked on the other side in front of them.
"Well, that's just great." Kacey quipped as she pulled out her sniper rifle, switched over to the incendiary bullets and opened fire on the Cerberus soldiers.
The tram was too far for any other gun to accurately hit the soldiers on the other side; case in point why Liara and Kaidan resorted to using their biotics to handle the troops while Kacey had only her sniper rifle to rely on.
"You're not getting across!" One of the soldiers shouted as they moved the other tram over towards them.
"Maybe, but you are making yourself an easy target." Kacey said as Liara placed a singularity in the Cerberus troops' tram, causing them to float around.
Once they were all dead, Kacey hopped over to the other tram and made a beeline for the controls. She had several questions, most regarding Cerberus what they intended to do with the data here. The Illusive Man must have some big ambitions if he willingly sent these soldiers here to raid an Alliance facility just as the Reapers hit Earth. And Kacey would bet with her life that they weren't good intentions.
"They certainly put up a fight." Kaidan mused.
"Yes, it confirms my assertions about the value of the data stored there." Liara replied as Kacey activated the tram.
Once the tram had indeed reached the other side, another firefight broke out with the remaining Cerberus troops. However, just like before, their formations were all over the place and they were extremely disorganised. What also did not help their case was their armour. It was bulky but lacked any defence against biotics, tech attacks or even Kacey's different ammo types. The bulky nature of the armour slowed them down as well, making them such easy targets Kacey wondered why they didn't just serve themselves up on a silver platter.
The only ones that seemed remotely prepared were the centurions, but even then, their attacks were disorganised. It definitely seemed that none of the troops were even remotely prepared to fight off anything more than a handful of security guards at most. Kacey moved away from the tram and behind a wall on the other side, trying to get a better shot at the troops hiding behind crates.
"Holy shit, that's Shepard!" One of the centurions shouted, catching Kacey off-guard.
"Well, it seems even Cerberus has its fanboys." Kacey quipped rolling her eyes as she threw a grenade at the enemy.
"Shepard? The fuck do we do now?" Another Cerberus trooper asked in an almost panicked tone.
"Kill her!" The centurion shouted back, pulling a grenade out.
"Hah! I'd like to see you try!" Kacey shouted tauntingly as she whipped out her pistol and shot the grenade the centurion was holding in one fluid motion.
The grenade blast did kill a few of the troops, allowing Kaidan and Liara to wrap things up quickly with the remaining assault troopers while Kacey turned her attention to the two guardians that appeared as reinforcements. Carefully and keeping a steady hand, the ruby-haired commander shot both guardians in the head through the small, mail-slot like gap in their shield, killing them instantly.
"That was…impressive, Shepard." Liara said, walking towards Kacey.
"I guess? Thanks, Liara." Kacey replied turning red.
"You don't have to be so modest, Shepard." Kaidan added, "Those shots were impressive."
"You flatter me." Kacey deflected, "Come on, let's go."
She was so used to hearing that. Impressive this, amazing that. It was tiring and so incredibly unnecessary. Anybody could do what she did with enough skill and practice. Shooting a grenade in somebody's hand was a possible feat. So was shooting through those thin slots in those shields.
But it was certainly easier for her than anyone else.
The trio moved into the Archives carefully, following standard procedure. Kacey was pleased that the matter was dropped for now, deflections aside. As they entered, the place was empty; there was no sign of Eva nor any Cerberus soldier. It put Kacey on edge.
"Kaidan." She said. The biotic got the message clear enough and began to search the perimeter of the room.
The trio removed their helmets, Kacey glad to be in a breathable room as both herself and Liara approached the main terminal to the Prothean Archives. Liara typed away frantically as Kacey looked on, desperately searching for the answer to their life-threating situation. Completely unaware of the holographic display changing behind them.
"Shepard."
Kacey whipped round at the sound of a familiar voice. One that she despised and had not heard for about six months now. Liara turned; her pistol raised at the holographic while Kacey glared back.
"Illusive Man?" Liara questioned, her grip tightening on her pistol.
"Fascinating race, the Protheans." The Illusive Man mused, "They left all this for us to discover, but we squandered it. The Alliance has known about the Archives for more than thirty years, and what have they done with it?"
"You want me to guess?" Kacey scoffed, "What the hell do you want?"
She was livid; but decided to, at least for the moment, keep a lid on her anger for now. No point getting worked up. After all, it only fed into the Illusive Man's plans.
His gaze turned towards the large pillars in the centre of the room, "What I've always wanted. The data in these artefacts holds the key to solving the Reaper threat."
"I've seen your solution; your people are turned into monsters." Kacey snapped.
"Hardly." The Illusive Man deflected, "They're being improved."
"Improved?" Kacey scoffed with a smirk on her face, "Your soldiers can't aim for shit, and you say their improved?"
"That's what separates us, Shepard." The Illusive Man continued, "Where you see a means to destroy, I see a way to control, to dominate and harness the Reapers' power. Imagine how strong humanity would be if we controlled them."
"You're deluded and you've gone too far." Kacey retorted, "The Reapers will kill us all if we don't stop fighting each other!"
"I don't expect you to understand, Shepard." The Illusive Man sneered, "And I'm certainly not looking for your approval. You were a tool, an agent with a singular purpose. And despite our differences, you were relatively successful. But like all the relics in this place, your time is over."
"You trying to bore me to death?" Kacey scoffed, "Enough talk. Liara?"
"Don't interfere with my plans, Shepard." The Illusive Man threatened, "I won't warn you again."
"Is that a threat?" Kacey scoffed before her tone took a more threatening approach, "I already told you; you can get in line or stand aside but don't get in my way."
"Shepard!" Liara called, worried.
"What?"
"The data. It's not here!" Liara said frantic as the holographic image of the Illusive Man disappeared, "It's being erased!"
"Damn it!" Kacey cursed, "How's he doing it?"
"Its local." Liara explained, "Someone is uploading the information."
"Freeze!" Kaidan said suddenly, "Step away from the console!"
Kacey had almost forgotten that Kaidan was patrolling around the room. She looked over to where she heard his voice.
"I won't ask again." Kaidan said.
The next thing Kacey knew, the power to the Prothean Archives went out, and she could see Eva running off towards the exit.
"She's got the data!" Kaidan shouted.
"Come on let's move!" Kacey said, quickly putting her helmet on as Eva ran past her.
"She's faster than she looks." Liara said.
"So am I." Kacey muttered as she took off after Eva.
Kacey had a habit of forgetting how fast she was able to run; like most of her so called 'impressive and unusual traits and skills', she was in a league of her own. She vastly outran both Kaidan and Liara, closing the gap with Eva extremely quickly. Eva looked back briefly was seemed surprised by the only one-meter gap between her and Kacey. She ran through the small security office, locking the passage around the office and closing the door to it. Kacey opened the door and, upon seeing a glass screen blocking her path, she jumped through it, something that her body would pay for later.
"There she is!" She could hear Liara faintly as Kacey was already done climbing the ladder to get outside.
Eva attempted to slow Kacey down with bullets; but the ruby-haired commander simply avoided them by rolling to the side and continuing her pursuit. She slid over the crates, not losing speed as she closed the gap between her and Cerberus agent very quickly. Eva was almost within reach.
A Cerberus shuttle came down alongside Eva and Kacey and began to open fire; Kacey tossed a grenade inside the shuttle and jumped over a proximity mine that landed near her feet before it exploded. She continued to pursue Eva as she attempted to establish contact with James.
"James? James, do you read me?" Kacey said frantic.
She could her some static through the comms; she slid over another crate and up another ramp.
"Cerberus has the data!" She said hoping he could hear her, "Radio the Normandy. Get them down here now!"
She climbed up the ladder quickly and chased Eva, once again, they were only a meter apart. They were now on the roof, with nowhere else to run. But unfortunately, another shuttle arrived to extract Eva.
"She's getting away!" Kacey shouted furious as Eva leaped aboard the shuttle, "God damnit! James? Normandy? Anybody?"
Her prayers were answered as, before the Cerberus shuttle could even leave, James arrived with their shuttle making a beeline for the white one.
Kacey bolted backwards towards Kaidan and Liara as James crashed their shuttle into the Cerberus one, blowing it up. The ruins of the Cerberus shuttle narrowly missed the trio as James flew around.
"Everybody okay?" Kacey asked. The pair nodded in response.
Kacey turned to face the shuttle, using her arms to tell James to move his ass over to where they were. As James landed the shuttle with a crash, Kacey walked over to the bulky marine, who hopped out of the dented shuttle.
"Normandy's en route." James said, "They'll be here soon."
"Yeah, I bet." Kacey said as she led James around the other side towards the burning Cerberus shuttle, "I assume that was part of the plan?"
"Yeah? Kind of?" James said, "Hey you did say—"
James was interrupted by a large banging noise, that only got louder as it continued. Kaidan, who was holding onto a scuffed-up Liara turned his attention to the burning shuttle. The door was then kicked clean off, tossed aside like tissue paper as the silhouette of Eva appeared from within the flames.
What happened next, Kacey could neither believe nor put into words.
It appeared that, despite how many times the biotic would say otherwise, Kaidan recklessly pulled Liara's handgun out of its casing, and opened fire on Eva, tossing Liara aside. The bullets bounced off Eva as she ran towards Kaidan, revealing herself to be a synthetic. She grabbed the gun and threw it out of Kaidan's grasp and grabbed onto his helmet with one hand, lifting him into the air.
"Kaidan!" Kacey shouted as she pulled her gun up, pointing it at the synthetic, "LET HIM GO!"
The synthetic ignored her and instead radioed the Illusive Man over the comms, "Orders?"
Kacey could hear the Illusive Man over the synthetic's comms and her blood boiled upon hearing his response.
"Dispose of him."
"No!"
Before Kacey could react, the synthetic turned and pounded Kaidan multiple times into the side of the shuttle. On the fourth one, Kacey, whose patience had thinned and whose anger had reached breaking point, ran towards the synthetic, ignoring the pleas of Liara and James and rammed her body at full force into synthetic, who dropped Kaidan the moment Kacey's body made contact with it.
It tried to attack her; unfortunately, Kacey got there first and punched a dent into its face and nearly ripped one of the arms off, leading to the synthetic being deactivated, for the time being. Despite still being in a pissed off mood, Kacey turned her attention to Kaidan, who was lying motionless on the ground.
Anger was starting to be replaced with a mix of fear, anxiety and worry as she approached Kaidan, hauling him up above her shoulders. She then looked at the synthetic, desperately resisting the urge to smash it into pieces.
"Grab that thing and bring it with us." Kacey ordered, her tone firm and clearly angry.
James didn't bother to argue as he grabbed the beaten-up synthetic body and all three headed towards the Normandy, which had just arrived.
"Shepard, we've got multiple Reaper signatures in orbit." She heard Joker over the Normandy's intercom.
"Get us out of here, Joker!" Kacey said as she headed towards the med bay.
"Yes, ma'am." Joker replied as Kacey entered the lift.
…
The Normandy didn't have a full crew. If it did, then Kaidan probably would've been in a better position and Kacey would've at least been put at ease. But instead, the med bay had no medical professionals within it, meaning they would just have to make do with what they could do.
Kacey was no doctor; her understanding of medicine was limited to First Aid and basic medical knowledge that even a seven-year-old knew about. She sat Kaidan down on the bed, not removing the helmet or any of his gear for the obvious reasons. He was still unconscious, but his vitals signified that he was breathing…but only just.
Liara and James had followed her up, and Kacey was livid that James had brought the synthetic up not only in the med bay but also near the A.I Core. She just had to hope that EDI was able to resist any hacking attempts by the blasted thing.
"James, can you move that thing away from the A.I Core before I toss it out of the airlock?" Kacey said, pissed off and so fucking done with everything.
"Yes ma'am." James said, slightly hesitant before catching Liara's gaze and doing as Kacey asked.
Kacey observed Kaidan carefully; she hated being in this position. Seeing those she cared for like this; hurt, beaten, on the brink of death…she hated it.
Liara carefully removed Kaidan's helmet to assess his injuries; the black eye and several bruises around his face did not bode well. Kacey knew a concussion was likely, and all she wanted was to smash the damn robot up for catharsis if nothing else.
"Kaidan needs medical attention." She heard Liara say. But she ignored it. She didn't want to think about it.
She let this happen. It was her fault. Had she just reacted quicker, faster, maybe he wouldn't be lying here. But naturally she knew why the Illusive Man gave the order. She knew the reason why.
"Alenko was the perfect target for the Collectors, and his presence on Horizon was the perfect lure for them."
Of course, that bastard ordered the synthetic to kill Kaidan. The signs were all there from the very start. She just hoped she could've kept him safe from it this whole time. How very wrong she was.
"Shepard, we have to leave the Sol system." Liara said, leaning closer towards Kacey's face to try and catch her attention.
"I know." Kacey replied firmly.
Liara looked at Kacey with sympathy; Kacey didn't want it right now. Liara pulled herself back before adding, "The Citadel is our best chance. We can find help there."
"You heard Liara, Joker." Kacey said, "Get us to the Citadel."
"Roger that." Joker replied.
"Just hold on, Kaidan." Kacey muttered quietly before turning her attention back to Liara, "See what you and EDI can learn from that thing before I throw it out the airlock."
"We might need to fix the damage you did to it before we can get anything out of it." Liara replied.
"Do whatever you need to." Kacey said, "But if that thing wakes up and starts attacking people, I'm tearing it apart."
"Of course." Liara said, "But, please try and get some rest before we arrive at the Citadel." before heading towards the synthetic.
"Commander, I'm receiving a signal over the secondary QEC." EDI chimed over the intercom, "I believe it's Admiral Hackett."
Kacey rolled her eyes, "Patch me through."
"I'll forward it to the comm room." EDI said as Kacey bolted out of the med-bay.
…
"Shepard, are you reading me? Commander?" Kacey could hear Hackett over the comms, despite the static.
"EDI can you clear this up?" Kacey asked as she entered the comm room.
"I'll do my best." EDI chimed.
"Admiral?"
"Did you get to the Archives?" Hackett asked.
"I was there. So was the Illusive Man." Kacey responded through gritted teeth.
"That explains your tone." Hackett replied, "I was worried Cerberus might try something."
"Would've been nice to know that before we went down there."
Kacey had known Hackett since she was a child, mostly through her parents. Both her father and Hackett served on the same ship at one point, during which she had first met the Admiral at around seven years old. Kacey suspected that because of this, the Admiral put up with most of her nonsense and smartass attitude rather than kick her out like anybody else would've done. But it also meant that Hackett was able to see through Kacey in more ways than one.
"I didn't know for certain." Hackett replied, "Anyway, did you get the data?"
"Most of it." Kacey replied, "He downloaded some before I could stop him. EDI and Liara are analysing what we recovered."
Right on cue, Liara entered the comm room walking up next to Kacey.
"What have you learned?" Hackett asked, "Was it worth the effort?"
"Preliminary evidence suggests that the data is a blueprint for a Prothean device." Liara explained.
"Device?"
"A weapon, massive in size and scope, that's capable of unquantifiable levels of destruction. I wish I had more than that, but somebody smashed up the synthetic that contained it." Liara looked at Kacey.
"Me?" Kacey mused.
"You didn't…" Hackett sighed.
"Hey, it shouldn't have attacked us."
"You shouldn't have rammed yourself right into it." Liara countered.
"Send me the data you have." Hackett said, "We'll do our own analysis. If Liara's instincts are right, this might be the key to stopping the Reapers."
"I hope so." Kacey said as Liara swiftly left, "Major Alenko was critically wounded. We're taking him to the Citadel."
"That explains your bad mood." Hackett mused, "I'm sorry to hear that, Kacey. But we both know this is just the beginning. Talk to the Council. Show them what you've found. With luck, they'll give you all the support you need."
"Wishful thinking." Kacey quipped, "What happens when then don't?"
"Do whatever it takes to get them on board."
"I'll try my best, sir."
"I'll be in touch soon. Hackett out."
The call ended there. Kacey sighed; going to the Council was pointless and a waste of time. They never helped before, why would they now?
"Kacey." Liara said. Kacey kept her back to the asari, she wasn't in the mood, "EDI is extracting data from the Cerberus machine, repairs are also being made to it as well. We'll have details to present to the Council by the time we reach the Citadel.
"And Kaidan?"
"I've done what I can for him." Liara replied, "He needs proper medical attention soon."
Kacey sighed, "I know."
"The Admiral's right. It's going to get worse, isn't it?"
"Unless we stop the Reapers. Yeah." Kacey said as she turned and left the comm room, with Liara close behind.
"I've looked at the data." Liara said, following Kacey, "This weapon could be the answer…if we can build it. I just get the sense you don't quite believe it though."
Did she? It was hard to imagine yes. But she didn't think it was truly impossible.
"You didn't see what they did to Earth." Kacey countered, "How is one weapon supposed to stop them?"
"What are our options? You know we can't win this conventionally."
Kacey let the silence hang in the air, let it suffocate. Liara was right and she herself knew it was true. But after everything, everything she did to warn, prepare, and delay, nothing was done. Precious time was wasted. Heads were buried in the sand hoping it would go away but it came. It still didn't feel real. The Reapers were here, now. Burning and destroying everything.
And she felt that she was to blame.
"Kacey?" Liara said as Kacey looked away, "Is it not worth trying at least?"
"I'm going to check on Kaidan and James." Kacey replied walking off, "Make sure we're ready to present our findings to the Council. For whatever good that'll do."
"I'm sure the Council will see the need to help."
"It'll be a hell of a short war if they don't."