Chapter 17
Discovery Market Plaza – Discovery – Horizon
The larger shuttle landed on the surface of the colony world and immediately the doors flew open. Grunt jumped off of the shuttle and his shotgun was immediately up and aiming around, seeking potential targets. Zaeed did the same from the other side while Shepard and Jack stepped out casually.
As soon as they were free of the vehicle, Shepard reached up and slapped the cabin, letting the pilot know they were out. They immediately closed the doors and flew away. Reaching up, the spectre activated her comm. "Miranda, status?"
"We just landed. Vakarian, Tali'Zorah, Doctor Solus, and Ms. Goto are here as well and ready to go," came the XO's call from further to the east.
She looked up into the sky and saw the same type of imposing warship that had annihilated the original Normandy floating there menacingly. "Understood. You've all got your wristbands. If you get stung anyway, you have ten seconds at most before you lock up. Use the injectors to prevent it and keep each other out of trouble," she said as she felt her heart beating mercilessly at the view of the hive-like ship.
"Shepard, are you sure you can do this?" asked Miranda over the comms.
The spectre snorted, knowing she was talking about what happened in the prison. "If I was going to have a negative reaction, it would be to the ship and I'd have already had it. I'm fine, Lawson. Keep your head in the game."
"Understood," came her worried reply as Shepard pulled her assault rifle off her back.
She sometimes found herself missing her long-range weapon. Her entire career had put her at arm's distance from most of her targets. But it seemed that her combat style now mirrored her role in the galaxy. She went from being a passive observer who occasionally had to pull the trigger into heavy infantry that broke enemy lines like a bulldozer. Stealth had its time and place, and it wasn't now.
Speaking of stealth, she found herself wondering if the collector ship could see the Normandy while it sat it was dark. The one from two years ago managed to not just see, but destroy the original Normandy while it was in stealth. She found herself curious if something was different this time, or if the crew was so distracted with the harvesting that they weren't even bothering with looking for other ships.
Her gaze dropped from the ship above to the colony in front of her. "This place just can't catch a break," she said with a sigh.
Tali responded to the comment curiously. "Has this place had a history of this kind of thing?"
"The Horizon Incident," said Shepard as she prepared her heat sinks.
Miranda was quick to answer her question. "2165. Batarian extremists discretely planted a nuclear payload on the planet and detonated it, destroying the city of Orizzont and killing hundreds of thousands. It was the same year we got our embassy. And the same year the batarians lost theirs."
"Damn. Was that a response or punishment?" asked Jack incredulously as she loaded her own weapon and prepared herself.
"The Council investigated and retaliated by exiling the Hegemony from the Citadel entirely. As a peace offering to humans, they offered to give us our embassy immediately rather than waiting for a century like most species," said Shepard as she activated her device. "With the bombing taking place only nine years after the First Contact War, the Council avoided all drama with the Alliance and caved, giving us an embassy and ambassador."
Garrus responded. "Even I can't argue the Council did the right thing. Typically the extended time period is to allow a species to prove itself. Not going into full scale war after the attack on Horizon was more than enough proof they were ready to join."
"Alright, focus on the mission," she ordered as she looked around. "Everyone have their bug barriers up?"
"Affirmative on our end," came Miranda's call.
Her group nodded approval. "Well Mordin, let's hope these work with the numbers we're going to have here," she said as she saw a cloud of the insects in the distance.
"Certainty impossible. Only way to test is contact with seeker swarms. Excited to see if they work," he said excitedly, making her shake her head.
"Alright. We're the battering ram. We're going to him them like a train. The rest of you stay hidden until you see an opportunity to help. Hit them in the back unless otherwise necessary," she said as she looked down at Jack who was currently stretching. "You sure you wanna be on the heavy team?"
The convict smirked at her. "Just wait and see, matchstick."
"If you say so," she said as she activated the comm again. "Alright, let's go! Keep up everyone and stay aware of your surroundings!" she ordered as she tapped her omni-tool. Her armor, which was already heavily armored and shielded with kinetic barriers lit up with plates of hard-light armor. Even she had to admit that she looked like the messenger of death in it. But she was thankful for the armor regardless. She lifted one hand and eyed the new addition that Jacob suggested after the Purgatory episode.
Finally, she pulled her visor down and locked it into place. She began jogging forward as Miranda gave last-minute advice. "We also don't know what kind of weapons they use. Do not find out the hard way." Grunt, Zaeed, and Jack all started following her as she gripped her rifle. Her last battle against the collectors resulted in an escape so close that the Normandy's tail end was smoking. She had no idea how they fought, how they acted, whether they were hive mind or separate individuals. Hell, she didn't even know if they were organic. They could be constructs for all she knew. She had no information, and she hated that. But it was learn now, or never.
Shepard looked up as a cloud of insects swarmed around them. She gulped nervously as the swarm obstructed her view temporarily, but breathed a sigh of relief as they flew away erratically without touching any of them. "Seeker swarm repellant confirmed."
"Excellent! Unable to log notes if paralyzed or dead. Much better outcome this way," he responded as if knowing the result already.
"He's thankful not that he isn't about to be harvested, but that he can still take notes?" asked Garrus incredulously.
"We all have our peculiar idiosyncrasies. He likes to log notes, I like to listen to classical human music, you enjoy headbutting rockets…" came Tali's voice light-heartedl;y.
"Okay, that's low…" growled the turian as Shepard snorted in amusement.
But any humor in her vaporized immediately as she saw the figures of the collectors ahead. They were in a courtyard, two of them carrying one of those familiar casket-looking devices. They began to lift off and fly up towards the ship when they suddenly stopped.
"No you fucking don't!" shouted Jack as she grabbed the two. The large casket fell to the ground below as both of the flying collectors smashed into the ground hard enough to pulverize them into paste. Shepard and Zaeed both began firing on the others and Grunt let out a quaking roar. All of the collectors in the area dropped what they were doing and focused on the intruding party. They took flight, readying their weapons to fire from above.
Garrus's rifle immediately splattered one of their heads wide open, sending its corpse and weapon to the ground. Another rapidly began to freeze in midair. As soon as the cold got to the wings, it fell from the sky and shattered on impact.
Chaos broke loose as each member of the squad took on their own group. Shepard targeted one of the collectors as they zoomed in low. It fired a laser weapon directly at her, avoiding the gunfire from the others. The beam lanced across her light-based armor, surprising her as she still felt the heat. It became clear that any flying in the air were dead within seconds, so the swarm of collectors flew low to the ground. She didn't doubt they were trying to make it hard for the hidden attackers to hit without causing friendly fire.
Another targeted her and the both of them flitted around rapidly on their wings, firing their beam weapons at her in an attempt to flank her. Raising her rifle she took aim and with sniper precision she shot three times, and was shocked to find a glowing blue sheen covering their form. "They're biotic!" she warned as she fired more and blasted through the center mass of one of them. It collapsed to the ground, still attempting to grab its weapon. But another burst from her ended it permanently. It was then that its partner slammed into her. She was knocked sideways, her rifle sliding across the ground as she glared at the attacker and stood tall again.
"Shepard, I can't get the one buzzing around you. It's moving too fast for me to shoot without endangering you," said Garrus as his target zipped around her at high speeds with its wings. "Grab it with your biotics so I can take it out."
It bodily slammed into her again, its own weapon raised and priming again. "I got this," said Shepard as she held up one hand. The collector fired the beam weapon again and the laser slammed into her biotic barrier. She could feel her brain tingling as the pressure applied to her barrier weakened her slightly. But she held it until the collector realized it wasn't working.
Putting the weapon away, the bug-like assassin zoomed in and prepared razor-sharp talons for an attack. As it sped towards her at blinding speeds, the world around her slowed down slightly as her vision sharpened. Reaching out, she spun in a full circle to gain momentum before hitting the button on the device around her forearm. Immediately a long, glowing blade shot from her arm. Gritting her teeth, she swung it with full force, slicing clean through its hand that had extended to grab her, then through its head and halfway down its body before it finally snapped clean off.
The collector impacted the ground harshly, its body splitting and splashing against the ground like a water balloon. Reaching down, she grabbed her gun off the ground before hitting the button to eject the fabricated blade. She turned to the others and saw the work was almost done. Jack had ground a group of three of them into mulch by squeezing them together, Grunt tore them limb from limb, and Zaeed did what he did best by killing them with an unreasonable amount of ammo and cursing.
In less than a minute they had concluded the conflict. Shepard held up her hand to the others as she scanned the sky. After another full minute, she nodded. "So, hivemind is probably out," she said as she walked over to the container. She could barely see inside the damn thing, but she knew it was occupied. "Mordin, what the hell is this thing?"
The salarian made his way over to her and eyed the device curiously.
"Interesting," he said as he tapped his chin. "Insect-like species, commonly wrap prey in cocoon like substance before feeding. Many strange behavioral deviations."
"How?" asked Miranda as she tossed one of the laser weapons aside and shook her head, annoyed that it wasn't usable as it was.
"Collectors never used to fly ship that big," he said pointing up to the haunting hive above them. "Never used to involve selves in abduction process. Normally relied on trades with slavers," said the salarian as he began pacing thoughtfully. "Things changed recently. Built bigger ship, harvesting themselves. Collectors always interested in genetic variances. Didn't need living targets in past. Now capturing them alive necessary."
"Poor bastards," said Zaeed as he eyed the person inside.
"Any idea why they would need them alive?" asked Garrus who stayed at a distance.
"Unclear. Perhaps studying new genetic variation in humans. Perhaps found one, looking for more cases. Too many variables, not enough information," said the scientist as he waved the question off. "Need more data."
"Grunt. Open this," ordered Shepard as she kicked the casket. The krogan plodded over to the container and smashed the surface open in one clean maneuver. Shepard stared down into the coffin-like device and her brows rose curiously as she saw someone in grey armor not unlike her own had been years ago. "What's an N7 doing all the way out here?" she asked as Miranda also eyed the figure.
"Maybe the Alliance wanted to keep an eye on the colonies in case of raiders or pirates," said the XO with a shrug.
Shepard reached back into her belt and retrieved one of the injectors for the antidote. Reaching down, she knocked on the soldier's blacked out helmet. "Are you alive inside there?"
"Unable to move. Unable to form words, but able to make sound," said the salarian as he leaned over to watch.
As if inspired by his words, a muffled senseless shout came from inside the helmet. "They're still alive," said Shepard as she prepared to inject the antidote through a joint area in the armor, allowing it to get through to the skin.
"Should we be using these on random people?" asked Miranda sternly as she stayed off to the side.
Shepard glared at her. "They're an N7 and could probably help fight off the collectors. Even if they weren't, that's a tone-deaf question," said the spectre as Miranda looked surprised for a moment.
Turning back to the soldier in the casket, she jammed the tip of the injector into the inner thigh between the plates of the armor. They grunted in pain as it slid inside their skin and pumped the antitoxin into their blood. "Humans average of five minutes for body to become responsive again," said the salarian as he readied his gun again.
"We're going to head to the defense towers. When you can fight again, meet us there!" shouted Shepard as she snapped one of the wristbands onto the frozen soldier's wrist and activated it. They groaned as the spectre stood and nodded her head towards the large towers in the distance that weren't doing their jobs.
Outside Defense Tower – Discovery – Horizon
It had been a while since battle had surprised her. She didn't have a whole lot of information on the collectors going in, so she was expecting some surprises. But what she wasn't expecting was a group of human husks to crawl out of the woodwork and start charging at their group. Her eyes widened as her thoughts flew back to her first time seeing them on Eden Prime.
"Husks!" she shouted, not thinking about the fact that nobody besides Garrus and Tali knew what they had nicknamed them. But they seemed to respond in kind plenty fast.
Jack hurled a large ball of blue energy along the ground. It was like she was bowling, as anything in its path was hurled at least three meters into the air before causing them to smash back down. Snapping out of her stupor, she aimed her rifle and began picking them apart as they charged. They were definitely still a threat, but with the amount of crew she was pulling now, they weren't getting close at all.
Finally, the party lowered their weapons. When she looked up, she saw Garrus and Tali standing next to her like old times. "What are husks doing here? I didn't see any spikes when we scanned the colony," asked Tali as she kicked one of their destroyed bodies.
Garrus interjected as he checked his rifle to make sure the sink was good. "They might have had them on the ship. Brought them from somewhere else."
"Confirmed," came Mordin's fast clipped voice again. "Transformation from organic into machine not clean process. It devours skin, causing blood to flow from wounded areas." He tapped the cheek area of one of the dead husks. "Blood dried, congealed. Been at least few days since death."
"Are they harvesting us to turn us into husks? I don't understand," said Shepard as she sighed to herself. Then she began noticing differences. The mouth, instead of being the normal, slack human jaw that the husks had back then, they now had a glowing ring stretching the mouth open as well. Their bodies were now almost entirely tech rather than leaving a good portion as human remains. "These aren't the same as they were two years ago. They're more advanced."
"Reapers had two years to improve design," said Mordin thoughtfully.
Garrus snorted through his nose. "The question is, how did they improve?"
"Let's try not to find out," said Shepard as she pointed to the towers. "We're almost there. Let's keep moving and taking out any intruders you see."
As they moved further into the colony, she began seeing more and more of the casket-like devices with bodies in them ready to ascend. She looked around, trying to figure out where the collectors harvesting them had gone. But she only had to wait seconds as the sky vibrated with the sound of buzzing.
From over the barrier leading to the defense towers flew at least fifty of the bug-like creatures, all of them hovering menacingly in the air and glaring down at her group. Each one had a weapon of death in their hands, the laser weapons that they had used previously. She growled to herself as she prepared to get out of the way.
Suddenly, one of the collectors flew down and landed on the ground around ten feet from them. All of their weapons were trained on it, and Shepard was seconds from blasting it into dust before it began jerking back and forth. Its skin began glowing a bright gold color as it let out a metallic roar. Finally, it stood again and stared down at her with all six of its eyes. "Shepard…"
"Sorry…?" said the spectre as she went wide-eyed.
"They can talk?" asked Tali, also in shock.
"Destroyer of Nazara. Your scurrying is heard once again," said the presumed leader of the collectors.
"Nazara?" asked Garrus curiously as he took aim through his scope.
"Do we know each other?" asked the woman as she hefted her battle rifle and stepped forward.
"We know of you. A statistical anomaly soon to be corrected," it said as its biotics lit up. "Do not be foolish. The evolution cannot be stopped. You will be as we are."
"What the hell does that even mean?" asked Miranda as she held her gun level at the figure.
"We are the harbinger of your destruction," said the creature as it raised its weapon to fire. But it was blasted from every angle. It was torn to pieces in seconds, its body losing its glow as it fell. "This body is meaningless. Your ascension is inevitable…" it finished before finally splattering to the ground.
"Zaeed…" whispered Jack right next to her.
"Wazzit?" asked the mercenary.
"See that hydrogen fuel truck?" she asked with a smirk.
"Two steps ahead of ya. A bloody nutter you are," he said with his own smile as he reached back slowly and pulled a belt of incendiary grenades off.
Within seconds of the leader's body hitting the ground, the massive swarm of collectors dove in for the kill. But Jack interrupted their attack as she grabbed the hydrogen truck and hurled it directly into the middle of the group.
Zaeed pulled the pin on the belt and hurled it right in with the truck just as Jack started squeezing it, causing the fuel to begin erupting from cracks in all sides. Shepard's eyes widened in horror as she realized their plan. She shot both hands forward, dropping her rifle and putting up as big of a barrier as she was able to protect them all.
But her barrier folded immediately as the grenades ignited, causing an explosion that nearly fried her sound dampeners. She and everyone else was hurled off into the distance as a billowing fireball erupted, consuming all the oxygen it could before imploding back on itself, a rush of wind forcing the dark cloud into a mushroom shape.
Shepard coughed, tasting blood as she tried to get to her feet. Her leg throbbed slightly as she recalled her previously broken bone. But it stood strong as she finally stood to her feet and surveyed the scene. The swarm of collectors was broken. Many were still buzzing around, but most of the massive army were now permanently implanted into the ground or buildings of the area from the force of the explosion. She also noticed that her crew were nowhere in sight. Reaching up, she tapped her comm, praying that it still worked.
"Headcount, who is still alive?" she ordered as she looked around for her weapon. But the only thing in her area were collector corpses.
"Me and Jack are here," came Miranda's call. "She's too pissed off to be dead."
"Goddamn right I am," growled the woman as the sound of her spitting could be heard.
Next was Garrus. "I'm over here with Grunt. Partially deaf now, but I can still see down a scope."
"Tali reporting in. Ugh… have I saved up any leave yet?" she asked with a heavy sigh.
"Massani here, alive and still kickin' somehow," came the mercenary's call.
"Kasumi checking in. The good doctor is alive as well but his communicator was taken out in the explosion," said the thief.
Shepard sighed to herself as she heard that they were all okay. But her concerns were immediately shelved as the remainder of the collectors gathered themselves and began swarming out to attack. "Incoming collectors! Fight them however you can!" she snapped as she looked around desperately for a gun she could use.
Three targeted her and zoomed in to attack. Triggering her biotics, she activated her weapon again, causing another searing hot silicon-carbide blade to slide out of her wrist. She immediately noticed that the farthest one began glowing again, its body starting to writhe as whatever was controlling them took over.
As the first of the three zoomed in to attack, she reached out with her hand and gripped it with biotics. It stopped dead in front of her before she slammed it into the ground and buried her blade into its skull. Yanking it free, the heat from the blade evaporated whatever kind of blood and flesh was left behind.
She immediately noticed that they didn't have their laser weapons anymore. Perhaps the explosion sent them flying as well. The second of the two flitted around her in circles, attempting to dodge her blade attack. She stood still her biotic field expanding, but not to attack anything. The moment the collector entered the field to attack, she felt it. Swinging around, she slashed with her blade and sent the creature's arm flying.
Not waiting for another shot, she slammed it tip first straight between its eyes as it stared, stunned, at its arm. Snapping the blade off again, she ejected the rest of it before preparing to create another. Turning to the third, she noticed it had fully transformed again. "So, you're a reaper then?"
"We are the harbinger of your destruction," said the glowing collector.
"Yeah yeah, I've heard that before from Sovereign before I killed him," she said waving off his words. She had no idea how to tell if her statements bothered him. But she was more than willing to try to throw him off his game and buy time for the others to show up. "You've called us foolish and insignificant. But tell me, Harbinger, what kind of idiotic artificial intelligence runs headfirst into enemy territory only to get destroyed?"
"You will regret your resistance, Shepard. You stopped one of us, but you cannot stop us all. We will darken the skies of every world," he began again before Shepard cut him off.
"God you guys are repetitive…" she groaned as she lit her biotics again. "It took one human ship to destroy your vanguard. What do you think is going to happen when I get the whole galaxy to go to war with you?" she asked, almost smirking at this point. "You really think you're going to stand a chance?"
Throwing out one arm, the collector shot a glowing mass of destruction. Shepard swung her arm and catapulted it into the building next to them with her biotics. Zooming forward, Harbinger slashed at her with his scythe-like claws. But she vanished instantly, leaving him standing in confusion. Suddenly, a blade ripped through his back and exploded out of his chest as she slid it home. She yanked it upwards, carving its chest cavity open and causing tech and guts to spill out. She lifted her foot and kicked it off the blade before standing over its dying head.
Kneeling down, she tapped it in its head. "Hey, Harbinger. Assuming you are a reaper, I want you to tell all of your buddies out in dark space something," she said before she held up her blade again. "This is my galaxy. And if any of you step foot inside of it, you'll all experience what I gave to Sovereign." Finally, she sank the blade deep into its head. The light vanished, and it went immediately limp.
As she stood, she noticed something streaking through the air above. Her eyes widened as she saw the collector ship dropping something to the surface. "Shepard! We've got a problem!" shouted Miranda over the comm.
"What is it?" asked the spectre as she sprinted out of the small alley where she had faced off against the leader of the collectors. But almost as soon as she left, she saw what the problem was.
"We've got new enemies on the field!" shouted Garrus as the sound of his rifle firing echoed over the mic.
She stared up in horror as a massive figure stood before her. It was a husk, but bigger. Its head was human, but the body looked more krogan. It even had an enormous blue, glowing hump on its back. As she soaked in the sight, it shrieked before it waved an arm at her. A wave of biotics slammed into her and sent her skidding across the ground. She wheezed as she rolled over to get up, but before she could even try, another hit her from behind, sending her cannoning towards the blackened ground where the explosion had taken place. Mercifully, she landed on one of the collector corpses, which cushioned her fall. But she wasn't long for this world if they kept hitting her like that.
Gritting her teeth, she pushed herself to her feet again. Stepping forward, she held up her blade. But she felt her foot kick something as she did. Looking down, she saw one of the large collector weapons from before. Suddenly, her mind reeled again as she found herself on a different battlefield. She was the commander of her forces fighting off waves of invading machines she knew were called the Zha'til, created by the Zha people. She sent her troops into battle before charging herself on a hovering vehicle from above. As soon as she was in range, she held her weapon up and fired, sending a beam of light out that carved through enemy forces.
She snapped back to herself as she looked down at the gun again. Ejecting her blade, she reached down and grabbed the collector weapon. Activating her biotics, the weapon lit up as well. Aiming directly at the massive hulk in front of her that was screaming its agony to the universe, she fired. The beam of light instantly lanced through the enemy and cut the entire thing in half when she adjusted her aim. It fell in two, its parts pulverizing as they were exposed to open air.
Turning to the other, she aimed as it began to wave its hand again. But the laser slashed through its arm, sending it tumbling to the ground. Firing again, the light beam pierced the skull and drilled all the way through the body and out the other end, making the creature let out one more pitiful croak of agony before it fell backwards.
Breathing heavily, the spectre eyed the weapon curiously. "Looks like not all prothean tech was gotten rid of in the harvesting," she said before she sprinted to find the others.
Defense Tower Gateway – Discovery – Horizon
It didn't take long for her to carve through the rest of the collectors that survived the explosion. The others covered each other well, something she was proud of. She stepped up to Jack and Miranda who were breathing heavily from their use of biotics, no doubt having obliterated their opponents with them.
The convict slung her assault rifle over her shoulder with a smirk, the massive, humped husk torn to shreds behind her. "You're not bad with your biotics, Jiggles." Miranda rolled her eyes and just turned to Shepard with a look of exasperation. "Wouldn't mind hitting that if you didn't have your pretty little nose stuffed up the Illusive Man's ass."
"Nothing stopping me from hitting you," growled the XO as Shepard patted her on the shoulder.
"Just stay calm. She's baiting you," said the spectre with a grin.
"I know…" sighed the woman as she wiped sweat from her brow.
The others finally approached as well. Shepard looked around to make sure everyone was present and nodded approvingly. "Good. No worse for wear," she said as she used her tongue to try and make sure she had all her teeth after that explosion. "Jack, good improvising, but next time a little warning would help."
"You want a warning, get the cheerleader to do it. I'm here to kill stuff," she responded with a sneer.
"Yeah, try not to include us in that 'stuff'," said Garrus as he shook his head. "Ears will be ringing for a week."
"No promises, Vakarian. You roll with me, you take the hits," said the convict as she looked back to Shepard. But Shepard wasn't having any of her nonsense. Jack's expression soured. "Goddammit, fine," she pouted as she crossed her arms.
"I've already lectured Wrex about recklessness. Don't become my next target," said Shepard with a smirk as she led them to the gateway into the defense tower grounds. When she tried to open it, it was locked. "Hmmm…" She thought to herself for a moment before testing it to see if she could hack into the door's controls. But much to her annoyance, whatever was stopping the door wasn't electronic. Turning around, she eyed the krogan. "Grunt."
"Hmm?" he asked curiously as he perked up.
"Smash," she said, pointing to the door.
"Heh heh heh," he chuckled as he put his gun away and took a few steps back. Clenching his fists, he charged forward and annihilated the hinges of the door as it caved inward. Grunt continued to charge until he and the door both hit the far wall.
"Shit!" snapped an unknown voice from inside.
Shepard held her new weapon up. "I know you're in here. Step out where I can see you," she ordered as she fired a warning shot up near the ceiling.
"Son of a…" groaned a man as he stepped out with his hands up. He was older, maybe in his midlife. He wore a maintenance uniform, one common to ship mechanics as well as a baseball cap on his head. When his eyes scoped the door, he looked like he was ready to wet himself. "The hell did you break the door for?! Now they can get in!"
"Anything out that way is dead," said Miranda as she crossed her arms. "The seeker swarms have retreated back to the ship."
"So, all that explosion racket was you guys?" he asked, his backwoods accent betraying his terror.
"We were killing collectors and keeping them from taking any more colonists," said Shepard as she walked past him and began prying the bar off of the other door into the defense tower courtyard.
"Collectors? You mean… they're real?" he asked as he scratched the back of his head. "I thought they were propaganda. The Alliance trying to keep us in Alliance space, you know?" He shook his head violently. "No! They got Lilith! And Sten! They got damn near everybody!" he snapped in horror.
"Human," snapped Grunt as he stepped up to the man. He nearly cowered as the titanic krogan stood over him. "What do you do here… uh…" he started before looking down at his name tag. "Delan?"
"I'm a mechanic. I worked in the motorpool and check on the power grid when it needs it," he said as he scooted back on his rear. "We had a power fluctuation before the attack. I went down the hatch to check on the power grid," he said as he pointed towards a hatch leading into the ground. "When I came back up, I heard the screaming. Lilith tried to run out and save a kid, then Sten ran out after her. The bugs got both of them. After they froze up, I sealed the doors," he said as he covered his head with his hands.
Shepard shook her head at his admission, then turned back to the door. "We're going to turn the defense towers back on. That should help get the ship away from the planet."
"Those towers," growled the man as he pointed at Shepard. "It's the Alliance's fault they came here! Putting those towers up made us a target!"
Miranda shook her head as well. "Choosing to live in the Terminus Systems made you a target," she said in annoyance. "I have no love for the Alliance, but the guns were literally the only thing that would save you from pirates and raiders."
"Yeah, look like they're doin' a lot of good now," spat the man as he huffed angrily. "Those damn towers and that damn Staff Lieutenant…"
Shepard's brow rose as she turned to him. "You mean the N7 we found?"
"Yeah, that's her. Of all the people to survive…" he grumbled to himself as Shepard finally pried the door open. "They came here and dumped a giant gun on our doorstep and then made us dig up half the colony to build an underground generator just to run the damn thing! Stupid bastards…"
Shepard turned back to him and nodded towards the hatch below. "You get back down there and see if you can block access until we come back. Once the collectors are gone, we'll gather everyone left and see what we need to do."
"Good idea," said the man as he got to his feet and opened the hatch. "Good luck, you're probably gonna need it," he said before disappearing down the hole.
Shepard kicked open the door and looked out over the courtyard. The admin computer for the defense towers was across the way, which was riddled with boxes and boxes of parts that laid all over the place. Garrus chuckled as he saw the mess. "No wonder it isn't working. They haven't even unpacked half of it yet."
Shepard smirked and gave him a quick elbow. "Let's get moving. The sooner we get the towers up, the sooner the collectors are gone." Taking her heavy weapon, she slapped her helmet a few times to make sure it was secure before bolting out of the cover of the gateway. Keeping her weapon low, she moved in a beeline from the entrance straight to the targeting computer. Luckily for her, it looked like all the remaining collectors had flown to attack them outside of the tower building. More of the casket-like devices lay around the area, most of them empty. But she would worry about that later when the menace above them was gone.
She pulled up on the open air terminal and opened it. "EDI, can you figure out what's wrong with the defense towers?" asked Shepard over the comm.
"I can diagnose the cause of their malfunction. Being able to fix it is its own quandary," said the AI as Shepard reached down to her omni-tool and linked it into the computer.
"Opening access now. Tell me what you can find," she ordered as she turned around with her weapon ready.
"Shepard! You have incoming!" snapped Joker urgently.
She looked up and saw another black spot fly down from the ship. It looked like it was going to impact the ground, but it stopped right above it. Then it let off a massive biotic bubble that exploded, toppling Shepard and likely half her crew.
As she rolled back to her feet, her eyes narrowed as she felt her battle mode ignite again. Everything began slowing down. Even as EDI spoke to her, the AI's voice seemed to draw out as she focused on the crystal clear picture of her enemy. It stood on four legs like an insect instead of any quadruped she knew of. Its body was one giant mass rather than having segments. Its face was alight with glowing orbs that looked read to fire at a moments notice, and in an opening below the glowing orbs were reaperized human faces. It looked like a giant floating scarab.
It hovered in the air for a long moment as a shield formed around it. Then it turned to her. Reaching up, she activated her comm. "Everyone spread out and take its shield down. Don't get cornered by it."
"Hey Shepard," came Jack's voice over the comm.
"What is it, Jack?" she asked as she prepared her laser weapon.
"If you really want to see why I'm on the heavy team, take its shield down and let me have it," said the young woman.
"First come first serve, Jack. If you get to it first, you can have it," she said as he hovered towards her slowly. Immediately gunfire began to pepper its shields from all sides. From the looks of it, they didn't seem to be harming it all that much. "It's putting out a powerful biotic barrier. We'll have to think of something else," she said before raising her own weapon and firing it. The laser slammed into the floating tank's shield, but it still held fast.
It's glowing orbs lit up, and Shepard saw what was coming. Right before the lasers fired, she vanished from her location and appeared right below it. Firing straight up, she hoped that the underside was weaker than the front. But it still didn't seem to even scratch it. Her eyes widened as an electric charge ran across its shell. Sprinting, she dove over a bunch of boxes holding mechanical parts. But the electrical blast did its job. She immediately felt her limbs and muscles convulse as the energy went through her body.
She breathed heavily and could feel her armor smoking. Getting to her feet, she lit her biotics again before making another jump to its backside. Everyone was hitting it with their strongest weapons. Even Miranda had joined in with her own biotics, but even that couldn't crack the nut open. Shepard glared at the creature's brightly lit eyes as she growled, ready to jump again, but knowing that it was futile if they didn't have a plan.
Suddenly, an explosion rocked the creature. It lurched to the side and its biotic barrier flickered momentarily as it let out a loud shriek. "Hit it now!" shouted Shepard as she tossed her weapon to the ground and reached out with her own biotics. Miranda gripped its other side and together they tore at the shield while everyone else fired relentlessly on the impenetrable fortress. Then another explosion hit it, causing the shield to weaken. She found she had a grip on it now and wrenched with everything she was capable of.
The shield vanished like a bubble popping on a needle. The next explosion smashed it into the ground. Though it didn't get away unscathed, it didn't look like that did anything but slow it down.
Finally, Jack jumped out of cover and boosted herself into the air with biotics. As the bug stood once more, she came down right on its head with a biotic powered fist. As soon as she unleased it, the entire creature's body flattened under the force of her raw power. Shepard watched wide eyed as the sole punch from the convict brutally crushed the nigh impervious creature. Jack landed on the ground and rolled forward, popping onto her feet next to the spectre. "That's why I'm on the heavy team."
"Noted," said Jane as she reached down and grabbed her laser weapon again. Aiming it, she made sure it didn't crawl back out of the crater Jack had put it into.
"Anyone know where those explosions came from?" asked Tali over the comm.
Garrus answered her. "Yeah. Our N7 friend decided to join the fight and pulled out a heavy weapon. Approaching from your west, Shepard."
The spectre turned towards the defense towers and looked up as the cannons began aligning themselves. "Targeting has been fixed, Spectre. Firing now."
Within seconds, the lasers began firing up into the abyss. The collector ship dropped more of the armored bugs to try and take them out, but they were vaporized before they hit the ground as the GARDIAN lasers hit them midflight. When all the ground troops were incinerated in the sky, the four beams slashed across the sky and carved away at the outside hull of the collector ship. She couldn't tell if they truly penetrated the hull or if they were just doing superficial damage. But either way the game was up now as the material making up the hive-like appearance caught fire, creating a massive beacon in the sky. The ship wouldn't survive the onslaught for much longer.
As if to confirm her suspicions, the collector ship began powering its engines up. Within seconds, they hit FTL speeds and were gone. Shepard sat on her butt and leaned back against the control console before yanking her helmet off. Reaching up, she wiped the sweat from her brow. Mordin stepped up as he watched the streak across the sky that the ship left behind. "Got what they came for. Most of colonists still on board."
A figure in dark armor approached her with a missile launcher over their shoulder. She stood back up and eyed them curiously. "Thanks for the help. You really saved our asses," she said as she held out her hand.
The mysterious N7 looked down at her hand before reaching down and gripping it tightly. Putting the weapon away, they released the seals on their helmet and pulled it free. Shepard's eyes widened as she saw the face of Ashley Williams looking right back at her. Tali saw her and immediately ran up to greet her. "Ashley'Williams!"
But Ash didn't take her eyes off the spectre for a single moment. Her brows furrowed as she stared her up and down before finally locking eyes with her. "Is it really you?"
Shepard's jaw clenched tightly at the question. She had asked herself the same thing many times over the last few months. "As far as I'm aware," she responded solemnly.
"I saw the Normandy burn up with you on it. I saw from an escape pod as your body entered the atmosphere of that world. How the hell did you survive?" asked the N7 as she crossed her arms.
"From what I've been told, the frozen planet put my remains in cryo. And from there it was a battle royale over my body between the Shadow Broker, the collectors, and Cerberus. Cerberus got me and managed to put me back together over the last two years," said Shepard, not expecting Ash to believe her.
"So you work with Cerberus now?" asked Ash firmly.
But instead of answering immediately, Shepard let out a loud roar of anger. Ash took step back in surprise. "No! Goddammit, I'm not working with them!" she snapped before reaching up and rubbing her forehead out of frustration. Inhaling deeply, she let out a heavy sigh to clear her mind. "I don't work with Cerberus. They are a resource I'm using to find out why humans are being harvested. The same way I'd never work with the Shadow Broker, but I've used them as a resource in the past."
Ash nodded silently before turning to look at both Garrus and Tali. "And you two, what do you think?"
Tali was the first one to speak up. "I had my doubts when I first met her, but after being around her for a week or so I can say confidently that she's the real Shepard."
Then Ash turned to Garrus. "You know what makes Shepard special, right?" he asked the N7. She nodded to him. "There's no chance in hell that Cerberus would be able to build her like she was before. Any attempts to clone a new Shepard would have resulted in failure," he said as he stepped up to Ash and looked down directly into her eyes. "You can question whether or not she's working for Cerberus. It might be a valid question given how little info you're working off of. But I'm here, on the ground fighting alongside her because she's Shepard. I'd never follow a clone or a fake of any kind. And just like you, I'd be able to tell if she were a fake."
The two stared at each other for a long moment before Ash finally sighed. "Alright," she said with a shrug. Turning back to Shepard, she gave a genuine smile. "It's good to have you back, Commander."
The spectre let out a sigh of relief at her friendly words. "Thanks Ash," she said as she eyed the woman from head to toe. "Wait, when did you become N7?"
Williams smirked and gave a playful shrug. "All the training you put me through paid off. I was top marks in training throughout the entire course. Of course, we never got to the asteroid survival training before you… uh… died," said the woman awkwardly. "But with Anderson's assistance I came out clean."
"Glad to hear it," said Shepard as she turned to her crew. "Lawson, Massani, form three person parties and find the rest of the colonists that haven't been abducted. Grunt, go with them to get the caskets open," she ordered, waving them all off.
As they began forming teams, Ash stepped up closer to Shepard and watched them. "So, what have you been doing since you've been alive?"
"Aside from wrangling in a lot of criminals, vigilantes, scientists, and thieves into a party ready to fight the collectors? I've mainly been trying to get my own head on straight. I didn't come out of the first Normandy's destruction clean," she said as she crossed her arms.
"I'm sorry to hear that. But hopefully having most of the squad back can get most of those kinks worked out," said Ash worriedly.
"Well, if you're ever interested, you're free to come join me again," said the spectre with a hopeful smile.
Ash immediately covered the woman's face with her hand. "Don't even try it, Shepard. I've got my own responsibilities now. I need those taken care of before I go riding off to save the galaxy again."
"Your loss. If we kill another reaper, you'll miss out," said Shepard, getting a grin from the N7.
"I'll be fine," said Ash as she shook her head. Finally, she let out a heavy sigh. "I.. We've missed you, Shepard. The galaxy wasn't the same without you in it."
Despite her sorrowful words, Ash's face was as stern as stone. Shepard nodded gently. "I imagine it'd feel the same of anything happened to any of you. I know it certainly wasn't the same after Kaidan was KIA."
"True that," she said before finally turning to her and holding out her hand again. "It was good seeing you again, Shepard. Hopefully the next time I see you we'll be working together to burn Cerberus to the ground. Until then, you can get ahold of me through my old number or Anderson if I'm out of reach."
Shepard smiled and gripped her hand tightly. "Same, Ash. It was good to see you again too."