Tali and John took a moment to survey their immediate surroundings before staring out at the long pasture of buildings and thin trees. Out of habit at this point, the two looked up at the floating pillar of death and coincidentally happened to wonder if that was the same ship they'd been on two years ago. Tali wanted to say something or ask John if he was thinking the same thing, but decided against it. She figured the less they thought about stuff like that, the better. Her mental health right now was at a premium, and dwelling on experiences past was going to distract her, if it wasn't already.
Unfortunately, it hadn't occurred to John to practice the same courtesy.
"...Remember the meteors?" John asked solemnly without even taking a moment to face her, "The ones on Ullipses?"
She hadn't realized how good of a job she was at suppressing her memories until he mentioned that one. Tali suddenly felt weak at the knees and took a breath at the growing film of sweat licking her back. The mere mention of that nightmarish chapter in their lives was enough to darken the corners of her vision.
"That's kind of hard to forget," She intoned quietly with a raddled inhale, "Yes. I remember."
John didn't have to mention why he felt the need to bring it up now. The dead air and deafening cacophony of silence around them, the same kind of silence that accompanied them on Ullipses, was enough of a reason.
They stared down death and said nothing for a long while.
"Wonder when they'll do that again." He said at last.
Seeing that it was all clear, he motioned for the platoon to move up and continue their trek to regroup with Garrus and the other quarians. Given how far they've come since landing, it was a miracle they hadn't been found or engaged yet.
"Commander," EDI called through the radio, "I am attempting to initiate a handshake with the colony's security feeds and will gain access within the hour."
"Good work EDI. Anything else?"
"Juel and Olasie have fixed a probe to the colony's defense grid. I will analyze the necessary data and report back with my findings. Stand-by."
An unusually gentle breeze rustled the trees to John's right and it caught his attention. "Alright EDI. How long will that take?"
"I am done." She answered immediately, "Juel was correct: only eight guns remain loaded and operational. However, they must be calibrated."
"What does that entail? Can we get them to fire straight?"
"Yes. But I will require a lazed target."
The gears in John's head started spinning at the implication. "We have to manually laze the collector ship?"
"That is correct." EDI affirmed, "All guns are missing targeting matrices and manual optics. I will have to analyze and calculate a targeting solution through the Normandy's optical sensor array."
The lines on John's forehead crease a bit. EDI was going to look through a camera and plot a solution with just a laser. John didn't much understand how EDI was going to go about doing that, but he wasn't really in a position to be asking twenty questions about her methods either.
"No instruments for the guns?" Tali rose a brow, "A bit odd, you think?"
John didn't figure it was worth saying anything to her rhetorical question.
"I will instruct you with the necessary steps at the Normandy's next orbital pass; or when you reach your destination." EDI added.
"How long do we have before you pass over us again?"
"With the Normandy's current speed, forty four minutes. Garrus has been notified of all mission developments."
"Thank you EDI. Tell us when you get control of the security cameras." He pinched the bridge of his nose and tried in vain to hide the apparent disappointment he had. They'd been winging this mission ever since they'd got news of Horizon's blackout. It was bullshit. The only thing the team had been briefed on was the ROE, the town, and the personal experiences the original Normandy had with the collectors. Something was going to give and it wasn't going to be pretty when it did.
"Acknowledged commander. I will be standing-by."
John chewed on his lip slightly and stood up with Tali. They glanced at each other until Sidonis passed by them with the rest of Garrus' team right behind.
"What's the news?" The turian asked.
"Defense guns are down," John answered, "We have to laze the ship manually for EDI to draw a targeting solution."
He didn't need an explanation to know that this was going to get hard.
"Spirits."
"That means we need to regroup with the others to maintain security while we laze the target. Notify the other squad leaders."
"Yes, sir." Sidonis motioned for his team to keep moving while he radioed in the remaining squads of their dilemma. It wasn't long until John caught sight of Miranda walking up with Jacob tailing behind to come up with a game plan. He noticed Mordin kneeling by a paralyzed human and taking blood samples. Before he could look any further at what the doctor was doing, Miranda spoke.
"What are your orders, Commander?"
"Did Sidonis tell you?"
"Yes."
"We keep doing what we're doing. When we reach our objective, we establish security and paint the cruiser when EDI tells us to. That's all."
Miranda nodded and turned on her heel. "Copy commander."
There was an abrupt crack of distant rifle fire. The sound alone told John that it was Garrus' rifle. All of the squad leaders immediately halt their teams and await new orders.
John drew a breath and gave Tali a look. "Not good."
Tali stared at Shepard. "What now?"
Before John had the chance to reply, Garrus squawked over the radio.
"Break, Break, this is Spearhead actual to Hellfire," Garrus said hastily, "We're compromised. Wherever you're at, you need to double time it, how copy?"
With a grim frown, John answered. "Full copy, Spearhead. We're on it."
Just as John was about to turn away, Tali reached out for his arm and held it. "John?" She whispered at length, "…I love you."
The look on her face told him a million things. And the one that stood out above them all was the dread of what was about to come for them.
He gave her an unfaltering stare. "We'll be okay."
"I know."
He looked up to the platoon of men and women, shouldered his rifle, and began moving. "Double time it people! Move!"
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"Talukh, what do you see?"
"Nothing we're going to like." He answered before stepping down from his perch, "We need to spread out. You know what Tali said about these things. Like geth, but only worse."
The frown on Juel and Olasie didn't look like it could get any worse.
"Spread out!" Garrus shouted from a rooftop, sensing their conversation, "They'll be on us in a moment!"
The three quarians nodded to the turian and huddled up for a game plan. Talukh was the first to speak.
"I'm going back up there," He pointed with a flat hand to a vantage point, "I'll provide cover as best I can and whittle them down." He began threading a suppressor onto his rifle. Olasie unslung her magazine-fed bolt action cartridge rifle and handed it to him.
"Remember," Olasie warned as he accepted the gun, "Red taped magazines are armor piercing. Blue for subsonic hollow points."
"Gotcha." Talukh disappeared in his cloak and left Juel and Olasie to plan their miniscule firing line.
Juel looked up to the turian and his set up. "How long we got you think?"
"A minute!" Garrus yelled back.
"Oh Keelah," Olasie mumbled with a sudden creeping thought, "There's people lying all over the place. They're going to get hit in the cross-fire."
Juel weighed their options. Try to help the forty or so people lying around the courtyard, or fortify their own positions in the time Garrus suggested they had.
"...I'll set up here." Juel offered, "Drop your gear and drag any kids you see behind something."
"I—I don't have enough time—" Olasie intoned with desperation as she hurriedly took off her chest rig, "Goddamnit, cover me as I do it!"
Olasie started running to the closest pile of people.
"What the hell is she doing!?" Garrus demanded angrily, "We don't have time!"
"She's getting kids and putting them behind something!" Juel said, "Cover her!"
"WE DON'T HAVE TIME!" Garrus repeated, "Olasie! Get back here now!"
"Negative! I can do this!"
A collector took the corner and rose its gun right at Olasie. It was summarily cut down by a round to the head from Garrus.
"Damnit Olasie! GET BACK HERE. NOW. NOW!"
Olasie found the first kid, a boy about the age of 12 with blonde hair lying underneath a chair. She immediately grabbed for his shirt and put him in a fireman's carry.
Juel almost shouted before pointing up at the sky. "We got two flying in!"
As soon as they touched ground, Talukh fired. The first round caught the collector in the cheek and it lurched forward with a violent twitch. Before the second collector even had time to raise its gun, the quarian fired again and gave the collector a fist sized crater in its chest. The exit wound from the back was about double that. Like the last, it stumbled and fell flat on its face.
She swung around a truck and tossed him in the bed before running after another.
Garrus growled in disbelief and scanned the area again. This woman was going to get them killed.
Olasie found a girl this time. Probably thirteen or so. Again, she grabbed the shirt first and pulled them up over her shoulders.
"Don't worry, young one," Olasie cooed with a tear of exertion forming at her eye, "I'm putting you somewhere safe."
She stuffed the girl next to the boy and went again.
This time a squad of a dozen or so collectors came sprinting around the corner. Olasie had to dive to the ground behind a slab of concrete to save herself from the surprising hail of bullets coming her way.
"Holy fu—Keep them off me!" Olasie screamed as she hugged the concrete, "I'm pinned down!"
Juel shouldered Olasie's gun and felt an unsettling pit fall into his stomach.
'Like geth, but worse.'
They were like machines, but weren't. Like robots, but organic. What could convince a living thing otherwise? They way they moved and acted wasn't doing the large insects any favors. When Juel fired, Tali's stories proved true. They didn't bother hiding or taking cover from Juel's covering fire. They absorbed his storm of bullets and kept marching like braindead mechs. He managed to drop two until they noticed his existence and fired back at him.
Juel grit his teeth and took a moment to reload, re-equip, and relocate. "They're on me! I'm moving!"
Garrus fired and turned his target's head into mist. Just like old times, Garrus reminded himself grimly. Except that fighting the collectors was the shittiest of all the old times and he was doing it with three quarians he barely knew. As kindhearted and well intentioned as Olasie was, she wasn't thinking about the potential consequences of what she was doing. The difference she was making here wasn't going to amount to anything measurable. If they survived this, he was going to remind her of that. They weren't here to play hero, as ironic as that sounded, given their monumental undertaking. They were here to defend an asset for EDI and Shepard's team. If they couldn't do that, it didn't matter how many kids Olasie was going to put in that truck.
"Olasie, you're done! You have a duty to return to your post and take up arms! Our objective is the guns right now; not the people! How copy, over!"
Olasie stared on in horror at the men, women, and children lying helplessly in the streets before squeezing her teary eyes shut. She had to bury her overwhelming compulsion to scream.
"Fine! Okay! Give me the go to move back!"
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The skirmish Garrus and his team were putting up with was starting to sound ugly. But moving any faster than they were already would be a mistake. Rushing into combat without checking your corners was one of the fastest ways to earn an early grave. John didn't know enough about them to wonder if they even yielded the capacity to stage an ambush given the way they fight, but he wasn't going offer them an opportunity for that either.
The long column of soldiers came to a halt when they reached the end of the street. When John turned the corner, he came to an abrupt halt and froze in his spot when he saw about twenty collectors idly lifting lifeless humans onto a gunship.
Almost comically, he reversed back to his corner and inhaled sharply before signing to the team with instructions.
-HALT AND STEADFAST. TWENTY FOOT MOBILES. LOGISTICS VEHICLE IN VICINITY. BLEND OF NONCOMBATANTS. PREPARE TO ENGAGE. VERBAL ORDERS TO FOLLOW.-
Tali took in the deepest breath that her lungs would allow and swallowed when she received everything he said in full. This was it. At least it was finally their turn to get a jump on them.
John ordered Kylie'Pass and a cerberus marine with the name of Stephen Mandala to get into position. The quarian slowly deployed the bipod on her crew served weapon and lay prone on the ground with Stephen doing largely the same.
When it came time to sight down her gun, she damn near lost her gum. The collectors looked like the kind of thing that would chase and hunt you down in your darkest and most torturous nightmares.
A long while back when life was a tad more normal for Kylie, the rumors of Tali's travels and adventures with the commander had circulated among the crew of the Neema. Naturally, Kylie caught wind of them. The seldom and reluctantly told story regarding Zorah's experiences was enough to make you sit and think for a while. It got fuzzy around some parts, with the missing details and whatnot, but the thing that Kylie thought most about was how everything had ended for her. To be stranded, kidnapped, and lose over half your family and ship? Kylie wondered about it sometimes when they would exchange the occasional pleasantry in the hallway. Made her wonder how the woman she kind of looked up to managed to maintain even a modicum of mental sanity. Kylie also supposed that maybe social platitudes weren't a great form of criteria to judge someone's mental disposition. Regardless, it made it easy for Kylie to put day-to-day problems into perspective.
Kylie also assumed that her days of perspective were done starting today. She was facing the enemy that had plagued Tali's life and was probably going to experience pain in some form or another in the coming days. Kylie also knew that her ponderings sat under the assumption of whether or not she was even going to survive at all.
Focusing back at the more prudent task at hand, it also made her wonder how Olasie, Talukh, and Juel were faring at the moment. The erupting staccato of gunfire coming from her friends told her enough to know they were at least holding.
John knelt down by Kylie and took aim. Zaeed took the rear behind Stephen with his rifle.
"Kill shots only." John murmured, "Ready? ...Fire."
Shots rang out and the collectors began falling.
Kylie fired in short bursts and widened her eyes in total shock at what she was seeing. At first she choked it up to the idea that maybe their shots weren't hitting home or that maybe the collectors had some kind of kinetic barrier that stretched the width of the street. But no. Their rounds were marking their targets and the collectors weren't retaliating. Like mindless machines, they kept loading their live human cargo onto the ship, heedless of the hail of fire they were receiving. The group watched the collectors stumble and fall. And yet, bleeding and dying, the collectors, without yield, attempted to finish their task.
It was an unnerving slaughter to witness. A deserved one, no doubt, but a rattling one nonetheless. The remaining one suddenly appeared to have some kind of epiphany to acknowledge the attack and to try and fight back. The four of them cut it down shortly after.
Seeing that they were clear of any immediate threat, John and Kylie stood up and found themselves staring at each other dumbly in shock. The only one who looked more or less fascinated was Mordin (As anyone would have guessed).
"What in fuck was that," Zaeed grimaced with a grunt, "They a braindead lot?"
John, with a glossy and unfixed stare, clenched his gun tightly and shrugged. "Don't know."
This meant something, didn't it? But what could this even imply? What the hell were the collectors? How far down did this mystery go? Tali stepped up next to John and let her eyes do the speaking for her. Understanding her cautious and concerned glare, he shook his head and shrugged.
"Maybe we'll figure it out, maybe we won't. All that matters is we stop them."
"They're being controlled by something," She intoned with a whisper, "And it's probably a reaper."
His reply was late. "That's the theme these days isn't it?" John said stoically as he looked at a rock lying by his foot, "TIM might be right after all."
Tali skimmed over her old thoughts and remembered the collector whose chitin skin had been charred away. The one that would spawn inside its fellow brethren and speak deeply of their impending doom. The one who looked like a devil that had crawled from the deepest pits of a mad hell.
It reminded her of Saren and their final fight against him. The way his flesh had melted to reveal the reaper machine that he'd become underneath.
Tali had made up her mind about them. They were colluding as pets of the reapers. Until further evidence of the matter provided otherwise, that was what they were from here on out.
Tali stared emptily at the grass around her feet. "No maybe. Just is."
"How can you be so sure?"
"How could you not be?" She argued with a tone voided of emotion, "The lines are there. Right in front of us."
Anything he thought to say died on the road to his tongue. A deep and desolate discord of howls rang out, forcing the entire complement of John's men and women to widen their eyes and raise their guns.
The cold stare John and Tali shared never faltered at the distinctive and piercing wails for blood. It was a sound they couldn't ever possibly forget.
Husks.
Never at any point in Tali's life had she wanted to be so glaringly wrong about the collectors until now. If it wasn't obvious the reapers were behind all of this, it was now.
"Husks!" John yelled as he faced his men, "Assemble a firing line. I need men on rooftops now."
Sidonis decided to volunteer his team to vertical support, "Second squad! On me! Move!"
"Third squad! Column formation!"
"Fourth squad! Watch the rear!"
John faced his squad, a misfit of the galaxy's best, and suddenly realized he was in good company. He met each one of their determined stares and nodded to all of them.
"Let's do what we do best."
Grunt shouldered his claymore shotgun and grinned like an idiot.
Two dozen screeching husks bound over a brick fence and drop down in the road and began leaping over empty cars.
"Over the wall! Look alive!"
Anyone who hadn't known what a husk was had their faces pale slightly.
The automatic riflemen immediately cloak the target area with a steady hail of precision gunfire.
Soon, a dozen husks turned to two dozen. Then to three. Then six.
When Kylie had gotten to exchanging barrels, she gasped when the brick wall burst from the growing horde.
"Be advised!" Sidonis announced from the roof a building, "We've got foot mobiles on approach! Platoon sized engagement of collectors coming from the east!"
John pointed to the biotics. "I need you all in a line! Make a hole! We are out of time!" John demanded, "Krogans! Back them up!"
Miranda, Jacob, Jack, and Samara form their line, the one they had practiced only a day prior, and sauntered forward. Grunt and the krogan from Garrus' squad took the rear and followed.
Tali quirked a brow when husk parts started flying haphazardly across the street.
John faced Sidonis and pointed at him. "How we looking?"
"The collectors are going to be on us at any moment now!"
John grabbed Kylie's shoulder. "Get up there with Sidonis. We need a base of fire and you're it."
"Aye sir!" Kylie turned on her heel and bolted to the stairs that would lead her up to join Sidonis and his team.
Sidonis yelled to get an answer from John. "What are your orders, sir?"
"I'm sending her up there with you. You're overwatch so cover us as we move up! I will give you the go to get back down here when the time arises!"
"Roger!" Sidonis nodded and disappeared from view.
"The rest of you! Fall in! Move!"
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Talukh nearly lost his head when a yellow laser passed over him. With a frantic look in his eye at the overwhelming display of odds that were suddenly against them, he shouted indignantly. "Where are they!? We can't keep this up!"
Garrus fired and watched his round pass through the collector wielding the death noodle gun. "They ran into trouble. You're clear, Get up!"
As soon as Talukh stood to keep up his base of fire, he took a round to the chest and stumbled backward with a gasp. Instinctively, he clutched the wound with a hand and fired a couple of pot shots before retreating back behind his wall of cover. Drips of his blood fall and boil over the spent sinks littered around him.
"Keelah, Lukh." Juel said over the radio "I saw that. You alright?"
Talukh grimaced in pain and wiped the blood away from his hand. "I'm okay," He lied as he looked down to see his armor plate had shattered underneath, "—just had the wind knocked outta me."
Clenching his jaw, he took in a ragged breath, stared at the impossibly large army of collectors they were fighting, and disappeared in his cloak to relocate. "I'm moving."
"Make it qui—!" Shrapnel slashed Juel across the face and cracked his visor into four separate pieces. Static filled his ears while his tactical displays splintered into white noise. Air seeped from his helmet and he growled.
"Fuck. My suit's been breached."
Olasie immediately turned to see Juel fumbling with the release clamps on his helmet.
"What are you doing!?"
"Taking my damn helmet off."
"You asking to die?!"
Juel flinched from an explosion full of chipped concrete and faced her with his broken visor. Tracer fire rained above their alcoves of cover and effectively had them pinned down. If they wanted to peek out, it would be suicide.
"Olasie, if we don't make it out of this, I just wanted to say that I would have loved to have taken you out to dinner."
The helmet came off and he set it aside. He was bleeding above and below his brow. She stared at his naked face and put a trembling hand on him.
"I know."
Juel dug a hand into his pouch and dug for his IFAK. Inside it was a plethora of antibiotic tablets, small five minute oxygen tank, medi-gel, flare, and a comm bead for his omni-tool. He hadn't ever imagined he would actually have to use the thing, but glad he hadn't ever thought to throw it away either. He swallowed a pill and put the bead in his ear before syncing it up to his omni-tool.
The amount of damage Juel's cover was absorbing was immense. If either of them wanted to peek out to try and exchange fire, it would be their last attempt to try.
"Garrus," Juel said over the radio, "There are too many of them. What the hell do we do?"
The quarian saw the suppressor on Garrus' rifle was beginning to glow red from overuse.
"Stay alive. Shepard will be here soon."
Juel drew his knees in close and gulped before reloading. "Right."
A pair of insectoids dove down from the air and sprint toward Juel's position. Garrus barely had time to get a sight picture on them before disappearing from his field of view. "Watch it! You've got two more moving on your POS!"
Talukh dropped them with hits to center mass. They were dead before they even hit the ground at Olasie's feet. Staring at their empty and sickly yellow eyes made her feel hideously ill.
What the hell were they even fighting.
"Garrus, Grunt jumped the gun," Shepard managed to say after the turian managed to catch a glimpse of the krogan from somewhere across the courtyard, "He's running to you."
The sound of a claymore shotgun boomed and a collector was flung across the road with about over half its arm and chest missing. Relievingly distracted by the burly dinosaur who'd just entered the fray, Garrus and the three quarians were able to actually start returning a meaningful amount of fire.
"Probably should have had him tag along with us. We almost ran out of time."
"You're never out of time with me around, Garrus. Shepard out."
Garrus smirked and casually dispensed the smoking sink from his rifle. He was beginning to notice they all usually ditched radio discipline when shit started getting sticky. Guess with a group as small as they were, nobody had time for it.
The quarians stopped firing when they realized Grunt was handling without them just fine. Honestly, he was straight up slaughtering them. And, given the enormous size of the brute, the quarians were amazed the tank bred moved as fast as he did. And to do it all with that leering grin and throaty laugh? It sounded kind of maniacal.
He curb stomped a collector and its brain oozed out.
"Keelah." Olasie wheezed at the awful sight and tried to swallow down the pang of nausea pressing at her insides.
"Don't pay attention to that," Juel grumbled as he picked up his mask, "Think we can fix this?"
Olasie stared pitifully at the shattered thing and bit her lip.
"Juel... It's mangled."
He stared on with disappointment as he shook his head and stuffed it into his pack. Ironically, he hadn't felt all that worried. He always imagined that if something like this were to happen, he would have been riddled with anxiety being at the mercy of filthy air. It was probably because he was still fighting off nerves.
Olasie kept staring at him and he finally brought himself to look at her.
"What are you looking at." He mumbled.
"You."
"You've seen me before."
"Yeah. But you're not in a hospital bed." She said with a sad and partly forced smile.
"You're embarrassing me."
They heard a staggered breath behind them and turned to see Talukh lumbering toward them with blood dripping from his hands and leg.
"Oh my god," Olasie's face went numb, "Lukh!"
Garrus stood from his perch and noticed two bad things.
Juel was missing his helmet and Talukh looked like he was about to bleed out. He packed his stuff back into his chest rig and headed downstairs. He could hear them outside frantically telling him to calm down and that everything would be alright between the booms from Grunt's shotgun.
When he passed through the front door, he found them snipping away part of his envirosuit to expose the man's chest. Garrus grimaced when he saw the wound.
"How bad?"
"Looks like they nicked him pretty good," Juel said, grumbling as he tried wiping away the pooling blood from Talukh's skin, "And… he's breathing fine. I don't think they got anything serious."
Garrus stared at Juel's naked face and sighed. "What happened to your helmet?"
"Took shrapnel." He said between applying medi-gel to Talukh's wounds.
Olasie monitored her omni-tool and breathed a sigh of relief. "You're going to get sick. But they got nothing but an artery Lukh. You're gonna live."
Talukh winced and put an arm over his face to shield himself from the sun. "Then stabilize me and get me back on my feet. I still got fight in me."
Garrus knelt down by the downed quarian, pat his shoulder, and looked proud. "Welcome to the Normandy, bud."
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"Commander, I have finally breached Horizon's firewalls and now have access to the city's security system. It appears you have cleared this quadrant of combatants. However, the collectors are massing at several hard points and look to be preparing a counter-offensive."
John stopped and propped himself up against the wall of a building and let the column of soldiers start passing by him.
"How many do you think?"
"I approximate at least four hundred able bodied infantry."
Shepard almost felt like he'd been punched in the gut. "EDI. We can't face that. Those odds are ten to one."
"There is a garrison of security droids on stand-by. With your permission, I will deploy all available units and stall their advance."
"How many mechs?"
"Two hundred thirty seven mechanized units, equipped with M-8 Elkoss Combine arms. I will supersede their programming and control them manually. This should enhance combat effectiveness."
Tali would have had some serious reservations about letting EDI doing that, but what was the alternative? Could it be any worse otherwise? They were already giving her control of the defense guns. Plus, with EDI controlling them, the mechs would actually be a sizable force to behold, even against the collectors. It would be interesting to see what would happen to say the least.
He wiped the sweat from his brow and put himself back in line with his team.
"Do it. We'll be ready to laze that target soon, EDI."
"Acknowledged Commander. I will remain on stand-by."
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Twenty five minutes later.
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Garrus waved to the entering group to grab their attention. John and Tali waved back and began dispersing the team to start establishing a perimeter.
"Good to see you again, Garrus." John intoned with Tali next to him before patting the turian on the shoulder, "How bad?"
"Talukh took a round to the chest. Juel lost his helmet. Four human casualties from the crossfire." Garrus said, leaning slightly toward the direction of the dead humans. John looked to see the blood smeared and splattered along a wall and bench. John, accepting the information, nodded solemnly.
"Lay them down right and clean their faces. Have second and third squad start putting people around here somewhere safe."
Tali's hands were shaking slightly. "Where's Juel and Talukh?"
He pointed. "With Olasie inside that house. Like I said, Juel's helmet got destroyed and Talukh is getting treated. You should get Mordin to help."
"Go Tali. I need to stay out here and plan our next step."
Tali briskly started walking in that direction while Garrus and John moved over to a flat surface to display a map of the city. Miranda, after having ordered her men to start rounding up the men, women, and children, joined the Commander in their next phase of planning. She caught Shepard between a sentence.
"—EDI says they're building up here, here, and here." John explained as he pointed at the map as he briefly glanced at Miranda, "Some of the mechs EDI deployed don't have guns, so she's searching the compound to find equipment from the civilians here. Hopefully a shotgun or pistol by a bed."
Garrus nodded and kept his arms folded. Miranda's steely look remain focused, despite the sweat that lined her brow.
John rubbed the stubble on his chin thoughtfully and took a moment to drink deeply from his canteen. When he was done, he decided to bring Miranda up to speed. "Lukh is down. Juel is also without a mask."
"Talukh says he can still fight." Garrus mentioned.
"We'll see about that." John said, taking another sip, "No dead on our end. The krogan and biotics helped make that happen."
"How long until the Normandy passes over the city?"
"Twelve minutes, sixteen seconds. We're guessing that the collectors are going to find out what we're about to do as soon as we laze their ship."
Garrus spread his feet slightly and kept his arms crossed. "That's swell. So what's stopping them from shooting a sabot at us?"
"Too much collateral damage. They came here to take people. What they're after is too precious to kill."
"That a cost-benefit analysis we're really willing to bet all our lives on?"
John didn't meet Garrus' eye and knew that whatever he said to alleviate the turian's concerns wouldn't be good enough. He knew enough about Garrus also that you don't sugar coat shit with him either.
"Yeah. That's what we're saying."
Jacob, who'd been standing nearby in the shadow of a limp tree, decided to speak up. "If it were my guess, they'd rather take you alive or your body. They're not going to get that by atomizing us."
Garrus actually nodded a little bit at the idea. "Plausible. But they'll be exhausting a lot of resources for one man."
"Wouldn't be the first time. The whole escapade we had with trying to find the Commander's body should be evidence enough."
John scoffed and turned back to the map. "Thank you for enlightening us, Jacob. Now, it looks like we've got a game plan then. It should only take a minute or so between the time we laze our target and have EDI shoot."
"Let's see how long we'll hold." Garrus said.
"We'll hold." John affirmed. "EDI. We're ready for instructions. Relay at your ready."
It took EDI a moment to respond. "Acknowledged Commander. Please find a location for you to stabilize your range finder and PEQ."
John detached the laser from his rifle and asked for the tripod they'd found in someone's house. They walked to an empty patch in the field and set it all up.
"So, EDI." John began as he stabilized the legs on the tripod, "How are you doing this exactly?"
"I must determine the trajectory in which each gun needs to fire. I will determine the distance the payloads must travel, their time of flight, and angles of reach. I require only from you the target's range and the degree in which the laser is pointing. Basic geometry and trigonometry will be used to triangulate the needed vectors after we determine the laser's point of origin in relation to it's MGRS coordinate."
"Mm. The good ol' Pythagorean theorem."
"That is correct."
John carefully aimed the inert rangefinder toward the collector ship and frowned. It may have felt good to know they were finally going to hit back after all these years, but he wasn't doing it under the terms with which he would have preferred. He had to remind himself there were humans aboard that giant stain in the sky.
"Tell me what I need to give you."
"Please provide me the range and measure of degrees."
"Ranged at five point eight four kilometers. We're sitting here at sixty eight degrees."
"Thank you Commander. We are now accelerating and will be over the city in nine minutes. Please prepare your defenses accordingly. The mechs are in position and are awaiting your go to initiate an attack."
"Roger EDI. You have full discretion, but retain current ROE. Out."
John pointed at Miranda and Garrus. "Tell everyone what's going on. I'm gonna help the others move people."
He turned on his heel and saw Tali waving John over to help her move an old balding man with a welt on his face.
When he lifted him up by the shoulders, she took his ankles and began moving him inside where over three dozen other unconscious humans lay.
"How's Juel?"
"Normal," Tali finally decided to say, after searching for the appropriate word, "But no mask."
"Can he still fight?"
"Yes."
They climbed the small flight of stairs and passed by several other men trotting down to get more people.
"What about Talukh?"
"He's stable. They're right up here."
When they made it to the second floor, they set the old man down next to a long line of others and walked over to the quarians.
Teri, Kylie, Olasie, and Darehk hovered over Talukh with Juel reorganizing his gear on a table. Some of the other members of the team that weren't quarian stared at the man's face curiously as they walked by. Tali could hardly blame their curiosity. Nobody ever really knew what a quarian looked like. Hell, quarians hardly even knew what other quarians looked like.
Shepard came up from behind them and crossed his arms. "How's he holding up?"
"Fine, sir." Talukh answered for them groggily as he clutched his side, "Mordin said I'll get through this. Offered me some herbal tea just for us quarians."
"Is that so?"
"Apparently it helps the immune system." The wounded quarian fumbled through a breast pocket on his chest rig and fished out a baggie of tea infusers. "Hope it's not that homeopathic crap."
"I doubt Mordin would give that to anyone here, Lukh." Darehk said as he pat his friend.
John turned to Juel who'd busied himself with stuffing his rig full of heat sinks and a spare ammo block. The first thing Shepard noticed was the cropped haircut. Of all the races in the Milky Way, quarian faces looked the most human, aside from the asari. As a matter of fact, John remembered reading a periodical from somewhere that touched up about why the majority of the species in the known galaxy were predominantly bipedal with two legs, two arms, and heads with almost identical organ and sensory symmetry. Had something to do with convergent evolution or something; John couldn't exactly recall. Maybe when he had the time, he would look it up again.
Juel turned around and smirked and it took Shepard by surprise. He may have gotten used to Tali, but seeing another quarian still had kind of a shock factor.
"Like what you see?"
"Depends on whether or not you're going to catch a cold." John said, crossing his arms. He never gave it much thought until now, but he never really ever tried to think of what Juel looked like until he actually got to saw him. Maybe he wasn't much of a judge of what was supposed to look good for a quarian (with the exception of Tali), but John had to say he didn't look half bad.
"My throat tickles a bit, yeah. Just being around you is enough for some pneumonia."
"You're around all of us." John said flatly as he stared at all the sweaty aliens around them.
"I know." Juel said. He pulled out a baggie of tea himself and pointed to Mordin to show where he got it from. "Think this'll work?"
"Hmph. What doesn't that doctor know?"
"He made that bug spray work," Juel said as he put it back into his pocket, "Can't imagine it'd be that hard to fix our immune system."
"Much different task," Mordin supplied as he busied himself with some not-so-obvious task, "Would require test subjects."
"You got a bunch of quarians. I'm sure we'd be more than happy to volunteer our bodies. And see? Talukh and I are already your variables."
Mordin blinked.
"Commander, the collectors are beginning their attack." EDI said over the radio, "I will engage them momentarily."
John looked out the window. "Keep me posted EDI and stall them for as long as you need to."
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Tali and Olasie stepped off the porch stairs and stole themselves a moment to finally collect themselves since landing on this forsaken place. Even more so for Olasie who'd been fighting longer and more desperately than anyone else here.
Tali took in one of Olasie's hands and squeezed. "How do you feel?"
Olasie couldn't meet Tali's gaze and kept staring at the ground. In a way, her reaction reminded Tali a lot of herself.
"Everything these past few weeks, Tali. It's so much to take in. Between killing Reena and... seeing all this."
"I know. But we're making a difference here. You're part of that difference."
"I sure made a difference in Reena's life didn't I?" She countered angrily, exasperated with herself, "And all of this? Right here right now? Does this feel like enough? Because it isn't." Olasie choked, "And with Juel nearly losing his head and Talukh almost bleeding out?" Olasie put her open hands along her visor and sniffled. "Keelah. I know it's no different with geth... but the geth aren't this despicable. They kill you and get it over with. No ulterior motive to worry about. But these psychotic freaks just... take you away and experiment on you or something worse. And here we are ready to blow up what probably could be a third of the city on that ship."
Tali, crestfallen and painfully aware of what the woman was going through, put an arm around her. "Follow me."
Olasie followed until they were at the perimeter of the compound. Tali turned her around so that way they were facing inward from the outside so she could see the outfit carry unconscious souls into shelter to keep them away from the coming battle that lay ahead of them.
"You say we're not making enough of a difference here, but look." She stretched out her hand and pointed to a girl that was being brought inside. "We're making a difference for that one." She pointed to another. "And that one. And that one. And that one there."
Olasie looked over to the truck where she'd managed to safely lay two young children into its bed. A cerberus marine carefully hoisted one over his shoulder and headed inside.
"That in itself is a victory, Olasie."
Olasie said nothing and made an attempt to internalize her words. Tali took a single step forward and stared off toward the horizon with a faint glint in her eye.
"You asked me once how I kept myself sane after everything I've been through. This is it right here. The people around us and small victories like this." She looked Olasie in the eye, truly in the eye, and gave the woman her most sincere smile she could ever hope to make. "The Normandy isn't special because of the legends that happen to follow us. It's special because of people like you. People like Juel. People like Shepard and Talukh. Ordinary men and women. That's what we are Olasie. Ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. Nothing more and nothing less."
Tali laughed a little at her own words and crossed her arms. "I mean, I know it sounds like bravado. And some of it is, but I mean it. You don't ever have to accept what you can't fix. But don't let it consume you like it did with me either."
There was a distant uproar of gunfire several blocks away. EDI had started her ambush against the collectors. Soon enough, they saw a defense gun closest to them turn to take aim at the collector ship.
Collectively, all eight of the guns they'd been fighting so hard to turn on, fired. The booms drowned out the small arms fire and a litany of explosions blanketed the hell that hovered above them.
"Come on," Tali waved, "We've got a fight ahead of us."
They passed by Samara and stepped down the flight of stairs.
"Gotten over your fear of the collectors, have you?" Olasie asked, wondering.
Tali looked up at the collector ship, or whatever she could see with the bombs bursting, and actually found herself smiling.
"Maybe."