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CHAPTER 15
4-11-2186
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Tali had been staring at the ceiling now for about two minutes from their bed.
The stars were beautiful. They always were.
It was common for her to wake up before John. She had a lot to do and she liked to get an early start to the day's activities.
Turning over to see if he was actually still sleeping, she smiled and smacked her lips before slipping out from under the covers. Stretching until her back popped, she shuffled her way to the bathroom to pee before going to their closet.
She undressed and tossed the clothes into the hamper before crossing an arm and tapping a finger over her bottom lip.
"Hm." She mumbled while yawning, "What to wear…"
A couple more seconds of thinking and she decided it was going to be simple. White cotton shirt. Dark green pants. Black sandals. Holding the outfit in her hands, she made her way back to John to lay it out at the foot of their bed. She made sure to give him a kiss on the forehead just because she could.
God, she loved him.
She tiptoed her way to the bathroom and made sure the door was closed before turning on the shower so she could get ready for the day.
Shower done. Towel on. Gussy the face. Brush teeth. Drink some water.
She sat at her vanity, brought her hair under control, and finally put on her clothes. Foregoing shoes for now, she went downstairs, put away some dishes, and got the kettle started. Her omni-bracelet rang and she answered the call.
"Hey, Olasie. I'm up. Just getting ready."
"Ah. Good. I'll be there soon. We've got a busy day ahead of us."
"Uh-huh." Tali said, half paying attention, "Because pedicures and a spa day constitute a busy day."
"Busy day of fun. Is that better?"
Tali felt something touch her shoulder and she whirled around only to see nothing but the stove behind her and the steam rising from the kettle's spout. It made her frown.
"Tali?"
"Still here." Tali said assuredly to Olasie, confusion visibly apparent on her face.
She felt something touch her shoulder again. "What the—"
"Tali." Someone said. It wasn't Olasie's voice because it was a masculine one.
She opened her eyes and looked up to see John hovering over her with a lopsided smile on his face.
She was still in bed. There was no two-story home with her wood floors and large open-spaced kitchen.
"You usually wake up before I do." He added.
She blinked a couple times and squinted at him.
"You look confused." He bent down a little lower, his face right above hers. He gave her a good morning kiss on the cheek.
"Guess I was just…" She sniffed and pulled the comforter up closer to her face, "Just having a vivid dream."
"Yeah? Was it cool?"
"Hardly. Except I woke up in a house. I think it was ours. Was going to get a pedicure with Olasie."
"A pedicure, huh? For those claw feet of yours?"
"They're not that bad, are they?"
"Hmph. Well." He pulled the blanket off her feet and studied them. "They could go for a good grinding."
She stared at them herself with her sleep-ridden eyes and pursed her lips. "What? Don't think they're badass?"
"Oh, they're badass. Could stab people's eyes out with 'em." He said, eyeing the gnarly-looking talons.
She stretched them and rubbed her eyes. "Stop staring at my toes." She moped embarrassingly.
"Why?" He chuckled, "I mean— holy hell, Tals. Damn. These things are scary." He sized his index finger up next to one and clicked his tongue. At John's second knuckle is where her claw-talon thing started. From base to tip was about close to two inches.
She tossed the comforter over them and gave him a snarky glare. "Alright. Enough of that."
"Okay, okay." He rose his hands up in defeat and stepped back, "Another time then."
"Come here." She brought her hands up to have him give her a hug. "I'd like another one of them good morning kisses."
"Of course."
"Hope my breath doesn't stink."
"That's okay." He said between their kiss, "I don't care."
"That's sweet, but you don't have to lie."
He walked over to their desk and carefully grasped his mug's handle before taking a sip.
Tali slipped on her omni-bracelet and skimmed through the day's schedule. She perked up when she realized what today was.
"Oh. John?" She called out.
He looked up from his tablet and coffee. "Yes, hun? What's up?"
"Happy birthday." She graced him with a beaming grin.
"Aw, man." He rose his brows in surprise. "Thanks for reminding me I'm thirty-one."
"Well. That's true. But technically it's thirty."
He walked back and sat next to her. "Yeah. I guess you're right. Did you get me a cake?"
"Nope. Something better."
"Oh?"
She pulled her shirt off and tossed it aside. It was the only thing to take off.
"Yeah," He rasped with a grin, "That's better than cake."
"But first…" She leaned in close to him and touched his nose with a pointer, "I'm going to go pee and brush my teeth."
That got her a mirthful smirk from him. "Mm."
She got up and couldn't make it past him without getting her ass smacked.
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"Hey." Olasie whispered happily at Juel when he met her, "How are you?"
"I'm okay." Juel answered plainly, "What about you?"
Her shrug told him how nonplussed her answer was going to be. "I guess I'm okay too."
"Nervous?"
"Nervous." She quipped, repeating what he said, "We're a day out from boarding a reaper."
Juel crossed his arms over his chest and chewed on his lip, "Yeah." He trailed off and they were left with a pause. "Yeah, I know."
Olasie placed both her hands behind her and leaned against the wall, "What do you think we'll find?"
"A means to an end. Honestly, Olasie, I'm surprised how fast everything's been coming along. All we need is that IFF now."
"Optimistic about our chances?" She felt for the fringe of her hood and didn't look him in the eye. "We've been calling this a suicide mission since the start."
He could see it in her that something was on her mind. "Olasie?"
That only earned him a wayward stare that looked up and not far off. "...Ever had any regrets joining the Normandy, Juel?"
His face went worried. "I—no. I can't say that I have."
Olasie couldn't tell if she felt tears in her eyes. But something kept her stare cast upward. "Even after the stuff we've seen? Or the things we've done? Doesn't it—...stick with you?"
Juel didn't give her a straight answer and he didn't need context to why she was asking about this. She was thinking about Iwia. About that girl on Horizon and the people she tried to save there. Thinking more about it, he began to wonder if her almost suicidal attempts to drag people off the city streets into cover was a way to try and recompense what happened on Hock's estate.
Juel couldn't say for sure, but he was right. She felt like her mind had been participating in a daily ritual she wanted no part of. The thought was always there. Suspended over her like a cloud. And it would, without any provocation, remind her of the shot she took to end an innocent life. Or the part where she abandoned children in the streets of Horizon as they were being taken away from their homes and family. One could argue the semantics and remind her that she was wrong about how she felt, but that wasn't going to do anything. Emotions were hard to ignore and even harder to rationalize. Pontificating about Olasie's innermost struggles, struggles which she rarely shared, was hard. But as hard as it was, he knew enough to know she'd been lying about getting better.
"To struggle with it as much you do says more than I think you realize." He said finally after a long moment between them, "Just know that no one here or the people you've crossed would ever second guess you. Your heart is one of the purest things I've ever known."
A flustered smile cracked out. Not because she didn't appreciate the gesture, but it was so unlike him to say something like that.
"Stop. You're going to make half my brain melt."
"I don't hand these out often." Juel said with a squint, "Having a hard time accepting my compliment?"
"Maybe a little." She confessed.
"It's true though."
"Is it?"
His tone was a little assertive. "Yes."
She didn't know what else to say. So she tried to steer them back to his monologue.
"You were on to something? About how we're almost... done with this?"
Thankfully, he took the bait and nodded to get himself back on track. "Just one problem away. I believe it."
She wasn't convinced in the slightest. "Really? Just one problem, huh?"
"We grab what we need tomorrow. We jump through the relay and blow the collectors up. Then we go home."
The mask might've hidden away most of her features, but the flat look she gave him with her eyes was very easy to spot. "Uh-huh."
"Am I oversimplifying?"
She nodded. "I'd say so."
He took a spot next to her and leaned up against the wall himself. "Maybe I am." He decided to say, tone low and raspy. "...Think we'll make it?"
That question had been on her mind now for days. Not for her sake necessarily, but for Juel, Tali, and her squad. She would've included John, but she didn't need to. She considered him family since his initiation to the Neema, but she didn't have to worry about him as much given how capable he was as a leader. He could handle himself.
And speaking of family, Olasie had submitted her will yesterday. In about three days' time, the Migrant fleet would receive her message. If she didn't report in by next week to claim that she was still alive, Enyah back home and her parents on the Moleh would get an even split of her belongings. The credits she'd made off of Cerberus would be donated to the fleet.
"...I have no idea, Juel." She mumbled, eyes focused intently at her feet. She reached for his hand without looking at him.
"I think we will." Juel said, grasping her digits.
"Did you update your will?"
"Yeah." Juel answered her, "Everything's gonna go to Enyah and Hiva."
"Ha." That got a smile out of her, "I did the same thing. Well. Half of it to Enyah. The other to my mom and dad."
"Good idea." He nodded. He sniffed. "You ever tell them that you were doing this? Joining the Normandy?"
"Of course. They supported my decision. They're worried to death."
He didn't say anything. He just nodded.
She gave him a bitter laugh and found herself sulking. "...I'm really scared, Juel."
Caringly, he rubbed a thumb over her hand. "I know. Everyone is."
"Thanks for being here with me."
"Sneaking down here with you in engineering? Of course."
Her laugh held a little less grief in it.
"How's Lukh?"
"Walking again." She answered, "They have him doing physical therapy right now. They gave him a cane."
His face crinkled into a smile. "They didn't."
"I'm serious. He's ambulating though. A lot faster than last week."
"Good."
"I brought something down here with me." Olasie started, standing back up and letting go of Juel's hand.
"What?"
"Here. I'll show you."
"Okay."
She brought up her omni-tool and stared past the orange glow to him. "You have to promise me you won't show this to anyone else. Except maybe Tali."
"I promise."
She sent him a selfie. She took it yesterday with Tali's permission in their cabin.
"Figured we saw you enough times. It's fair enough you get to know what I look like."
He stared at the picture for a long moment and sighed. "Wow. You're really pretty."
Olasie felt herself blush. "Thanks."
"When do you think I can see the real thing?"
Olasie reached for his waist and wrapped her arms around him. "Guess that's all up to you." She murmured.
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Mnemosyne's atmospheric distortions from its parent star bathed the Normandy with a gleaming titian glow. From the helm, John stood to give himself a moment to appreciate how regal the view was. The enriched palette of deep oranges, vibrant reds, and arks of lightning would put a sparkle in anyone's eye. Had they not been here for the reasons they were, he would have enjoyed it more.
He sighed and kept his stare forward.
Soon enough, they would enter the gale force rift of winds and make their way to the derelict reaper to extract the IFF module.
Joker flipped the switch for his PA. "Attention. We are on final approach. Vector locked. Brace for hard chop. Entering threshold for gale force winds; five hundred at forecast. Stand-by."
The turbulence was subtle at first. John could feel it radiate through his feet and jostle his bones. But soon enough, he was holding on to Joker's headrest just so he could stand.
"Getting pretty bad." John said, staring at Joker's readouts.
"EDI guessed it would be." Joker's hands remained steady, "Winds are pretty bad. We're compensating, but just barely."
"Anything else?"
Joker navigated through some of his screens and gave John a grim stare. "Yeah. LADAR's painting a second ship alongside the reaper one."
"We anticipated that. It should be the science team's vessel."
Joker just shook his head and finished what he was going to say, "Silhouette shows it's geth."
"Geth?" Shepard was honestly surprised.
"Probably explains why the science team stopped reporting in." Joker offered.
"Not so sure. The geth must've just recently boarded. Reconnaissance would've seen that." John rubbed his thumb and index together aggressively. "This complicates things."
"Orders?"
"Maintain approach. I'm heading down. Keep me posted."
"Aye, Commander."
Shepard turned on his heel and kept his center of gravity low as he made his way to the elevator.
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There would be four squads in attendance. The original plan had it for only two to assemble. But given that the geth were involved now, John doubled the force.
"Get locked in. Final checks people." John ordered, "Two squads to a kodiak. Blue and red: kodiak one. The rest in two."
The teams split. John stood between the two shuttles and put his hands on his hips. "Squad leads. Fall in."
Olasie, Garrus, and Lieutenant Dan fell in line in front of John and waited.
"OPORD has been changed. Geth appear to have boarded the ship. It's why I called you both down to join us." John said, pointing at both Dan and Olasie.
"ROE, sir?" Dan asked.
"ROE is to remain reactive. Dan, your job is to maintain security upon entry—"
The chop suddenly stopped and John found himself pleased, but confused.
"Shepard," Joker called through John's omni-tool, "We're inside the reaper's envelope. Winds are subsiding."
"Copy." John said simply before returning his attention to his squad leaders, "—Remaining squads will advance and secure the IFF. The other half of your platoon will remain on reserve if need be."
"Aye, sir."
"Olasie. You'll be jointed with Garrus' squad."
"Yes, sir."
"Guys, I hate to tell you this, but we're playing this by ear until we get penetrating scans of the ship. Count on the plan changing again." John took a breath. "Alright. Fall out. Join your squads."
They did as they were told. Olasie and Dan entered kodiak two while John and Garrus went into one.
John locked in next to Tali while Garrus strapped in beside Sidonis.
"Any updates?" Sidonis asked.
"Geth are on the reaper." Garrus answered.
"Fantastic." Folly quipped.
"We'll kill them. Don't worry." Tali assured.
"Helps to have the quarians along." Skyles mentioned.
"Attention. Attention. Cargo bay personnel: please vacate the launch space and stand behind the yellow line."
The kodiak doors closed and crew members vacated. The lights dimmed and the electronics spooled and whirred to life.
It was dark enough for Tali to snake her hand into John's and squeeze it.
"Kodiak one, away."
There was a pause over the radio. Tali watched the Normandy's bay slip from view. The soft glow from Mnemosyne's sun crept through the polarized starboard window and danced along the floor.
"Kodiak two, away." EDI reported.
"Two minutes out. Don't get comfortable." The pilot announced.
The cabin was quiet and the time passed by faster than anyone would have liked.
"We're on final. Get ready. Doors opening in five."
The shuttle touched ground and the doors opened. In an expedited fashion, the ground team rose from their seats and stomped out the exit to establish a perimeter around the landing pad. The second shuttle followed soon after.
When the last of the ground team was away, their rides took off and made their way back to the Normandy.
"Dawson. Get that airlock open." Dan ordered.
"Roger."
Dawson approached the terminal and pressed some buttons to initiate the sequence while the Cerberus soldiers lined themselves up into two columns. Everyone that wasn't a Cerberus marine maintained overwatch by scanning the perimeter around them.
Soundlessly, the doors opened and EDI's mechs filed themselves in.
"Commander, I will update you once I am inside."
"Understood, EDI."
The airlock closed and they all waited.
"Boarding a reaper." Garrus murmured, "We're crazy."
"We weren't the first." Juel reminded, "The scientists were."
"And now they're dead. And what do they have to show for it?"
"That they were the first." Juel chuckled, "That's about it."
"Commander, the area is clear. You can proceed."
"Let's go people." John ordered, "Get inside."
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John wasn't sure what he was supposed to expect when he entered. Saying he was awed didn't seem right, but it was the word he picked. Hauntingly beautiful even. He clenched his teeth and wondered if he should be more concerned about the words he was picking to describe the place.
He hated it, if that meant anything.
"Science team didn't waste any time getting set up, did they?" Shepard stowed away his rifle and crossed his arms.
"No," Tali agreed, giving the air around her a suspicious glare, "They didn't."
Many of the ground team were pilfering through the abandoned equipment to search for anything that might help bring about clues as to what happened here. So far, they got nothing but tools laying about that no one could put a name to. Except maybe Mordin.
"Over here," Kasumi rose a hand to grab John's attention, "We've got logs."
John went to her. "From?"
"Dr. Chandana, I guess." Kasumi said, stepping back to let John see it for himself, "From one day ago. It was uploaded on their cloud."
"From one day ago." John repeated, hovering the cursor over the file, "If it was just yesterday, we might be able to make a sweep for survivors while we're here."
He clicked the video and a window began to populate.
Tali crossed her arms and waited. Then her mouth went agape.
"Mother. FUCK. It won't stop. It won't stop. I can... I can still hear it. I can still—FUCKING—" The man screamed and dropped the knife he'd been using to gouge out his ears before pressing both his bloodstained hands against the tattered flesh dangling off the sides of his face. It was apparent the guy had been using the computer's camera as a mirror. Where he did this and why he uploaded it to the cloud was beyond him. John was just glad the speakers on the computer were shit and low enough for only the three of them to make out what he was saying. Before they could see more, John closed the window and took a step back before putting his hands on his hips and letting his stare meet the floor.
Kasumi didn't speak. Tali let out a brittle sigh that no one could hear.
"Tali. Did we get penetrating scans yet?" His asked, stare still downcast.
"No."
He turned around. "Let's get on that."
Tali saw fear smother Kasumi, but didn't acknowledge it. No one had the time to be consoling people right now. She turned to follow him.
John walked up to his lieutenant. "Dan. Next step."
"Hudson," Dan called to one of his men, "Papa Sierra. Let's go."
Hudson just nodded and dropped his rucksack to retrieve the composite case he'd been carrying on his back.
He handed it to Tali and she set it on the ground to open it. Tossing aside the top, she prepared the device with her omni-tool while Hudson got to work on the tripod.
He set its legs down on the floor.
"Done, ma'am."
"Thank you." She attached the scanner to the tripod and flipped the switch.
John chewed on his lip. "How long is this going to take?"
"Not long. Should be done very soon." She said just as it flashed green. "There. Done."
"What does it say?"
She glanced up at him after studying the crudely made map the scanner made. "...Enough to know that our numbers don't do us any good in here." She said, navigating through the reaper's winding internals with a finger, "Unless we try climbing, the catwalks are our best bet."
Olasie and Juel overheard and came up from behind Tali.
"Did it see geth?"
Tali shook her head at Olasie. "Scans aren't revealing anything. Acuity in some areas is bad. Knowing our luck, whatever we didn't get back is where the geth are hiding."
Olasie glowered. "How reassuring."
"We're in a reaper." Juel scoffed, "You're not going to be getting assurances here."
Tali got to her feet. "Juel's right. We're just going to have to do this the old-fashioned way."
"It's why we brought the LOKIs. They'll serve as our forward element and minimize risk."
"That's going to be a problem." Kylie walked up to them, "We just lost radio contact with the Normandy. Mechs just powered down."
John stared passed the quarian's shoulder to see Garrus and Kasumi working on the mechs while Dan tried to reinitiate contact with Joker and EDI.
John was glad they couldn't see his face, because he was getting worried. "...Are we being jammed?"
"That's what it looks like. We're not seeing any radio propagation. Even between members of the ground team." Kylie answered.
Hell. They were deaf and nearly blind before the op even started. That wasn't the best way to kickoff a mission that involved boarding a dead reaper with over a hundred missing people and geth on it.
John breathed deeply, put his hands on a rail, and faced the catwalk that would lead them deeper into the reaper.
"What are your orders, commander?" Olasie asked.
He slowly swept a hand across the guardrail to scatter the settled dust. "Get Garrus over here for me."
"Aye." Olasie went for him.
Tali put her back up against the rail, next to John, and chortled unhappily. "Swell."
Olasie came back with Garrus right behind her.
"What is it?"
"We need to scout ahead." John said, retrieving the M8 off his back and hooking it onto his one-point sling, "Just the three of us. You up for it?"
Garrus dipped his head. "I'm your guy."
John faced Tali and bumped the top of her shoulder with a fist. "What about you?"
How was she going to say no to that?
"I'll be right behind you."
"And the rest of us?" Olasie wondered, gently wringing a wrist.
"Maintain security with Dan and Sidonis."
"What about coms?"
"Get someone back outside and get a visual on the Normandy. Don't care if we have to use morse code or flail our arms." John checked the slots for his heat sinks and cleared his throat. "Stay ready for anything."
"Okay..." She gave the three of them a worried nod, "Good luck."
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They were inside a reaper. Tali couldn't mistake how uneasy it all felt to be inside an ancient machine that'd been waging war and genocide against the inhabitants of the Milky Way for countless millennia. She tried to ignore how the walls felt like they'd been pressing down on her since they got here.
"I think this reaper is still alive." Garrus uttered as they walked.
"Was counting down how long it was going to take before one of us said something." John decided to say, keeping his rifle raised.
"We can't stay here long or we'll be cooking our brains." Tali warned.
They turned a corner and their eyes all went wide with shock. Perverted remains of two women and a man suspended by three spikes. John almost forgot about dragon's teeth. Last time he saw them was on Virmire.
"Jesus Christ." Apalled, John breathed in and lowered his gun before taking a single step backward.
Garrus said nothing and Tali averted her eyes.
"We haven't seen those in a while." Garrus said lowly.
"Who the hell is turning them into husks?"
"Geth." Tali answered, "Or they're throwing themselves on it."
The man on the pike twitched and it made John almost jump. "They're moving. Christ, they're moving."
"No way he's still alive," Garrus said, eyes wide.
John didn't say anything and just watched. The man's eyes were open and devoid of life. Whatever was making him move, it was part of the reanimation process. "He's dead. And for fuck's sake, stay away from these things."
"Don't have to tell me twice." Tali croaked. Garrus nodded and they moved on.
Tali glanced behind her to the three impaled silhouettes before gulping. "How many people were on this ship again?"
The look he cast toward Tali was perturbed. "One hundred four people."
There was a moment of silence between the three of them as they kept walking.
Garrus leveled his stare against the other end of what he could only call a catacomb. More dragon's teeth he noted. They were absent of victims. "Can't imagine what their final hours were like."
"Torture." Tali breathed.
They reared a corner and Garrus immediately rose his rifle and gasped. "Oh."
Before the turian, quarian, and human, were a sea of husks. Tattered Cerberus uniforms hung loosely from their bodies while others still adorned combat gear.
Garrus wasn't able get a headcount, but it had to be damn near fifty. Dozens of dead eyes turn and face them. Mouths outstretched, they snarled, howled, and gnashed their teeth.
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Delicately, Kylie ran a hand along her belt of sinks before guiding them back into her feeding tray and closing the cover. Each sink allotted her eighty 'rounds'. Each belt, fifty sinks. Kylie had only ever loaded a full belt once in her life from a skirmish against the geth two years ago. She was wondering if today would make it twice.
"What happens when they run into trouble?" Kylie asked Juel who'd been sitting next to her.
"We run and help."
"Obviously. But it's not going to be all of us." She said.
"Do you want to fight geth today?" He bounced a leg and toyed with the charging handle on his rifle.
"The marine in me is supposed to say 'hell yeah'."
"And the real you?"
"Not really." She murmured. "But what does my opinion matter?"
There was a loud, but distant, boom. Followed by a long drawn out mesh of automatic fire echoing from deep within the ship. They two quarians just kept staring down from their vantage point and didn't say anything.
Darehk, who'd been silent the whole time, slowly got to his feet. "That's probably our cue."
"Damn." Teri mouthed.
Olasie came up to the four of them and got to a knee to put a hand on Kylie's shoulder.
"Get up. We're moving." Olasie ordered.
Kylie flipped the safety on her S80 and got to her feet with Juel standing up himself.
"Who's coming with us?"
"Sidonis volunteered to back up our rear. Dan's going to maintain security. We're taking point." Olasie answered Juel.
Darehk pointed with a flat hand to the airlock. "What about coms?"
"They'll handle it. We've got to back Tali up."
"So we're just going to keep splitting up without a way to keep in contact with anyone else. Great idea."
She gave him a look. "Darehk."
"Sorry."
"Let's move."
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The name of the game was bounding overwatch. Leapfrogging in a carefully executed fashion, Garrus, Tali, and John fired and fell back before repeating the process all over again. It sounded cool and it worked, but their situation was getting a lot more frantic by the second.
"We're going to get overrun!"
"Keep firing!" John disengaged and dug through his pouch for a grenade, "Cover for me!"
Tali fired and watched her slug suck out a scientist's chest cavity. Her ejection port spat out a spent sink and black smoke.
"Empty! Reloading!"
"Whatever you're doing, Shepard, do it fast!" Mag dumping a husk clad in white armor, Garrus spared no time to reload. He dropped his M8 to have it dangle on his sling before drawing his sidearm and firing.
John threw the grenade. "Frag out!"
The trio dove behind their small bulkhead of cover and waited for John's small hand thrown ordnance to explode. Zipping shrapnel and a pounding shockwave followed shortly after. Showered with a spray of sparks and smoke from the wires hung above, the catwalk moaned and cracked before finally breaking free and falling down into the depths below. Husks from the other side of the fray screamed and howled but did little else.
Garrus stood back up and caught his breath. Seeing that the walkway was gone, it gave him time to expel his hot sink to insert a fresh one. "...How are we going to get across now?"
John gave Tali a once over to see if she was alright before answering. "Don't know. We'll figure it out."
There was a piercing howl behind them and they whirled around to see the pained and twisted face of a woman missing half an arm and jaw as she crawled up from underneath the scaffolding they were standing on. John steadily rose his rifle to end whatever remained of her, but a resounding crack of sniper fire pierced the air. The woman's head disappeared into a misty cloud of crimson flesh and platinum plated bone.
"I had it, Garrus."
Garrus was already hiding behind cover. "That wasn't me."
John face went blank. Oh.
He thrust himself back behind something and tried not to frown so intensely. Still able to stand within the safety of cover, Shepard scanned the area before tracing what he guessed would have been the projectile's flight path.
His eyeballed math seemed to have been on the money. From across the broken catwalk stood a lone geth, high above the frustrated crowd of husks meandering about.
Garrus got a look himself before inhaling sharply at what he saw.
"What is it?" Tali asked since she couldn't see.
"Geth." Garrus answered with a grimace.
"Shepard-Commander." The geth announced loudly, "We mean you no harm. Please specify combat readiness."
John couldn't help but freeze and give Tali and Garrus an impossibly confused stare.
"Did that geth just talk to us?"
"And it knows your name. That's some real psyops stuff." Garrus hissed.
John let out a crass grumble. "Psyops? Geth do that?"
"They do now, don't they?" Tali muttered with a sarcastic garble.
"Shepard-Commander. Please confirm receipt: we mean you no harm. Please specify your combat readiness."
"Well, Shepard?" Garrus tilted his head, "What are we going to do? Talk to it? Or gun it down?"
John chewed on his tongue and studied Tali to see if he could get any indication as to what she was thinking.
"Tali? Thoughts?"
"Networked intelligence. The more there are, the smarter they get. If this is some kind of trick they've managed to work up... then we've already lost this fight."
"So. Words it is, then."
"Yeah," She shrugged, partly deflated, "I'd say so."
John held his breath and shook his head at what he felt like was insanity encroaching upon him.
"We're fine," He yelled finally. "Who are you?"
"Geth." It replied.
"No shit." John muttered under his breath.
It was a little hard to hear from the sheer number of husks that'd been screeching incessantly.
"Why are you here?" John asked.
"Asset retrieval."
"What is it that you're after?"
"Quantum storage devices."
John stood from his cover and faced the geth head on. He had to put up a hand to placate Tali's worried and anxiety induced glare.
"We're after something ourselves. We're looking for an IFF that belongs to this reaper."
"Acknowledged."
It turned away and retreated into darkness. He kept his eye trained on its silhouette until it completely disappeared from view.
"It's gone." John said. Garrus and Tali, both stepping out of cover, stood next to him. The three of them were left with nothing to look at except the meandering husks and the remains of the catwalk that separated them.
The sigh from Tali was winded. "...This is insane."
"Tali?! Shepard?!"
The voice was distinctly quarian and it belonged to Olasie.
"Right here. We're fine."
"We're coming out."
Olasie's squad reared the corner with Sidonis' team right behind.
"Heard the gunfire. Came to help." Olasie informed John before taking a gander at the destruction and the husks milling about the other side. "I see you didn't need it though."
"It got close." Garrus said.
"Any luck getting in contact with the Normandy?"
John got a shake of the head from Olasie. "No. We have a visual on it though. Dan has Paul or someone out there. Flailing like you told them to."
John crossed his arms. "What the hell could be jamming us?"
"Probably the reaper. Or the geth." Juel said.
John looked back out to the catwalk from where that geth had been.
"We ran into them." John said.
"You ran into geth." Olasie tightened her grip on her gun.
"Just one. It spoke to us."
Olasie shared stares with Juel. She was having a hard time believing him.
"It... spoke to you." She leaned into her words.
"What did it say?" Juel asked, more concerned about what the exchange was about.
"Told us it was here for hard drives. Then it headed that way."
He pointed to show them where it had gone off.
There weren't words that she could use to express what she felt. So she kept her mouth shut and watched the dead men walking.
"How are you supposing we get across?" Sidonis asked Garrus, peering over the end of the catwalk.
"Not going anywhere until we take care of that." Garrus pointed with a hand at the ambling abominations.
"Just say when, boss. We'll open up."
"Shepard," Garrus called, "Let's put them out of their misery."
John looked up from the conversation he was having with Olasie. "Do it."
The screams of agony and anger were finally silenced with carefully picked shots from Garrus' team.
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It took them a total of forty-two tries to finally get a grappling hook wrapped around the base of a coupling above them so they could swing across. They volunteered a small crate to test the weight first before finally electing to send people.
When it was Tali's turn, she wrapped the thick rope around a wrist and got a running start before jumping, clenching her teeth, and swinging.
John grabbed her when she reached the other end to stabilize her momentum.
"You good?"
"Yeah," She nodded tensely before peeking down below her and sending the rope back across for Olasie and the others, "But I really don't want to do that again."
"Well, it's the only way back. So."
"Oh, I know." She watched Olasie swing herself across. John helped her the same way he did with Tali.
"That wasn't as fun as I'd thought it'd be." Olasie uttered frightfully.
"More fun when there's a lake you get to cannonball into." Shepard joked lightly.
"I'm sure." She handed the rope for John to throw back.
Darehk was next. Then Kylie. Teri. Sidonis. Folly. Skyles. Garrus was the last to cross. Morehk, the krogan, and Parland, the salarian from Garrus' squad were tasked with going back to update the security detail near the exit on what was going on. Garrus would've liked Morehk to come along, but the bastard was just too heavy to be risking their only way to get across like that. And they didn't want anyone to be alone. Battle buddies and all that.
"Let's get a headcount on the bodies," John ordered, "Retrieve dog or name tags, whatever they have. Olasie. Post up. Keep security."
"Roger."
The team spread out, collected what they could, and handed it to Kylie to toss in her dump pouch. They collected fourteen tags but counted forty-eight bodies including the ones from just across where they came from.
John guessed that it was at least six that had fallen into the abyss. Which meant their best case scenario left only forty seven unaccounted for.
They pressed on, deeper into the reaper's remains.
"So. Any idea what this IFF is even supposed to look like?" Darehk wondered aloud, staring directly above him as he walked.
"A big ol' box of data, I'd think." Juel answered, glancing behind him.
"The IFF comes second now. At least until we can figure out how to re-establish radio contact with the Normandy." Shepard said.
"Not sure how the hell you're supposed to interface with an ancient warship like this if it's them scrambling our radios."
"Leave it to the professionals, Darehk." Juel said pointedly.
John shook his head. "Not this time. There isn't going to be anything professional about it. We'll disable whatever keeps the lights on with explosives if we have to."
"Sounds like a last resort kind of thing."
"We're low on options as it is. So yeah."
Darehk gave John a thumbs up. "Solid copy."
"Just a little further to the core. Or. I think that's the core. What do you think, Garrus?" Tali splayed out her arm so he could get a better view of the map displayed from her omni-tool.
"Big room and a glowing ball? What else could it be?"
"That's what I was thinking." She said. They kept walking for a while, but she kept staring at the map. "Crazy to think how similar the reapers are to us. Mass effect drives. Kinetic barriers. Drive core. Heat dissipation systems."
"They're not gods, Tali." He said pointedly, eyes on whatever passed as a horizon, "...Sometimes I wonder if part of their success is because people keep imbuing them that way."
"You think?"
"Well, it's not helping us kill them, that's for sure."
"Yeah." She nodded slowly after a moment's reflection, "You're right. It doesn't."
John slowed his pace to fall in line next to Tali. "How much further, Tals?"
"Just up that way and to the left. Maybe six hundred meters or so to go."
They walked for a couple of seconds in silence.
"Can't stop thinking about the geth." John decided to say. "Creeps me out."
"I guess... we'll cross that road when we get there?"
"You sound like me."
"It works when you do it."
He smiled, if only mildly.
Five minutes passed in silence. Their trek ended when they reached a wire framed tent that separated them from the mass effect core. The zipper that was supposed to keep the flap closed was ajar.
They lined themselves up into a single column until John gave them the order to move. "Go."
Olasie was the first to enter. Rifle raised, she scanned her sector while the others behind her covered theirs.
"Clear."
"Clear."
They relaxed and took stock of the area around them. Research equipment adorned the walls with reaper artifacts littered about the floor and tables. John guessed that their mission parameter was that if it looked valuable, it was to be scavenged and put under a microscope here. Taped labels were attached a lot of the objects.
"Limit what you touch. Reaper tech is too dangerous to be around for too long." John reminded.
"We're in a reaper." Juel croaked for the second time today.
"We won't touch anything." Olasie agreed. Her squad rallied together into a small circle and kept themselves as far as they could from all of the piled antiquity.
"Folly. Skyles. Go back outside. Keep a perimeter for us." Garrus ordered.
"You got it, boss."
John pointed to a computer. "Tali, think we can check out this computer?"
"Sure," Tali collapsed her shotgun before letting the magnetic holster on her leg cling to it, "Thinking there might be a log?"
"Yeah. Maybe the IFFs already here."
She stepped up to the computer and pressed a button to let it interface with her omni-tool.
"Garrus," John called, "The core should just be down the hallway. Scout ahead and see what you can find."
Garrus started walking to the other end of the room. "Sidonis. Come on."
Garrus pulled the tarp aside with the muzzle of his gun. Seeing it was clear, he passed through the canvas with Sidonis just right behind.
"Where do you think the last fifty-something scientists are?" John overheard Kylie say between Darehk and Teri.
"Beats me. Maybe they fell off the catwalks and died a while ago."
"If we're lucky."
"We're inside a reaper with geth aboard, missing scientists, and no radio. We've had anything but luck."
"No one's died."
"Yet."
"John," Tali spoke up, stirring John's attention away from their aimless conversation, "It's here. The IFF. Over there. Bin thirteen."
"On it."
John walked down the line of open containers until he was in front of thirteen with Tali right next to him. Three devices sat inside. None of them made sense to him, but he inspected the labels and took the one with the words 'IFF' sprawled on it. He studied the hardware with a furrowed brow.
"Was expecting something a bit bigger."
"Why?"
He just shrugged at her. "Don't know. Big reaper. Big parts. Made sense in my head. Hmph."
She stared at the device in his hand. "What now?"
"Figure out what's jamming our radios and get the hell out of here."
He walked toward Olasie and her squad with Tali following.
"Here. It's the IFF. I want you to head back. You and your squad."
Olasie carefully accepted the device and stuffed it into Kylie's ruck. "Aye, Shepard. Let's go, guys." She set her fire selector off safety. "We'll update Dan when we get back, Shepard. Hopefully they'll have figured out a way to talk to the Normandy by now."
"You guys good?" Juel asked, "Need me to stay?"
"No," Tali shook her head, "Go with Olasie. The IFF is more important."
"Tell Skyles and Folly to come back inside when you see them, Juel." John requested.
While Olasie's team headed out, Juel gave them both a stiff nod before turning on his heel to catch up with the others.
It wasn't long until Skyles and Folly were back.
John waved a hand to have them follow. "Let's go."
"Right-o."
When they passed through the tarp to head to the Reaper core, they saw Garrus and Sidonis just at the end of the hallway.
"What's going on, Garrus?"
"Door won't open." Garrus remarked disappointedly.
Shepard stepped by them both and inspected the door for himself.
Garrus peered behind John to see if he could spot the quarians. "Where's Olasie and the others?"
"We found the IFF. They're heading back to regroup with Dan now." John answered.
Garrus felt relief. "Good—"
The door opened without warning. To say the group got a jolt of surprise would have been an understatement. Right there, just on the other side of the door, was the geth from earlier with its piercing stare and what appeared to be a barrier separating them.
John's heart thrummed in his ears and remembered the last time he was this close to a geth was on Virmire, where it had nearly killed him and Tali.
"Shepard-Commander." It spoke in its monotoned electrical rasp, "Please do not be alarmed. We mean you no harm."
Tali's breath was shallow. In the silent lull that followed, she stared at the geth's exposed components to what should've been a breastplate. As eye-catching as it was, the thing that got her the most was what it used to repair the hole in its chest. It wasn't something you could really miss. Its shoulder sported the pale white and blood red stripe of an Alliance N7 shoulder pauldron. Where it managed to find that was beyond her.
Seeing it was incredibly unsettling. Clearly, just by the look on John's face, whatever thoughts he had, she had as well.
"What are you." John muttered, grip wound tightly around the handle of his rifle.
"Geth."
"That's not—" John cut himself off, held his glare, and inhaled. It was apparent it didn't understand social cues. Elaborating was just going to carry them in circles. It was best to ask questions related to their mission and nothing else.
"—Have you learned anything about this place?"
The geth observed him and spoke.
"Yes. Any vessel to attempt an approach toward the old-machine will be ensnared or sheared away by its kinetic barrier."
"How?" Gregg spoke aloud, lowering his rifle slightly, "Is the reaper still alive? Is it trying to kill us?"
"Unknown. We do not believe this to be a deliberate attempt to incapacitate, however. It is likely the old-machine is decaying from corrosion and aging. This is predicted to excite other system modules; namely the present jamming of radio propagation. Destruction of the old-machine's mass effect core will void active barriers and terminate obstructive EM radiation."
Tali clenched her teeth. She didn't like where this was going. "At the cost of altitude."
"This is correct, Creator-Zorah. Tidally locked orbit around the gas giant will be lost. We will fall."
A cold sweat licked the back of her neck. It knew her name. Her name.
"...You know who I am." She said as more of a statement than a question.
"We watch and observe organics."
"Just you? Or all geth?" Garrus asked.
"We are all geth."
Garrus didn't look impressed with the answer.
"You know those really simple VI convo-programs you can talk to on the extranet?" Skyles spoke up, "It's like talking to one of those."
Greg gave Skyles a haughty look. "The hell are you doing in your spare time, dude?"
The geth stared at Skyles. "We must not delay. The effects of indoctrination are still present." It turned around and started walking toward the core with the barrier still keeping them out.
"Where are you going?" Shepard demanded.
"We have installed shaped transient electromagnetic ordnance around the core. Powering these charges will require power that this platform will provide. We will be deactivated, but the data collected here will be transmitted back to the Perseus Veil."
Tali's eyes went wide. "Keelah. What about us?"
"You will have three galactic standard minutes until this old-machine reaches crush depth."
John's face was a mere inch away from the barrier. "How long before you detonate?"
"In four minutes."
John's mind reeled. Christ. Would that even be enough time to run back and tell the others to prepare for a freefall that would occur soon after? There was a million things that could go wrong without any advance notice. Sure, radios would be back up, but how long until they actually worked? If at all?
John put his hands up against the barrier, grimacing.
"You have to give us more time to tell the others. We can use our own explosives. Let us help you."
"Negative. Further delay is not an option. Proximity to old-machine accelerates the manifestation of indoctrination. We are within its walls. Data collected here suggests those previously were lost to these effects after four hours. You are nearing this expiry period." It reached for a power cable, attached the plug to its hip, and dropped to the floor, completely inert.
Shepard took a disbelieving step back, turned on his heel, and pointed at Garrus.
"Get back to the others. All four of you. Make sure that IFF is secure with Kylie before time runs out. We cannot afford to lose it in this god-forsaken place."
"And what about you?" Garrus said, already trotting backward with his team, "What are you doing?"
"Tali and I will stay. We're going to try and stop it if we can."
"But the geth just sai—"
John didn't let him finish. "—I know what it said and I don't care. We still need more time than the seven minutes it gave us."
Garrus gave them both a hard stare, but didn't say another word. He and the rest of them hightailed it out of the hallway and disappeared.
"John." Tali swallowed, "What now?"
"Get your grenades. All of them."
"I only brought two."
"Give them to me."
With two hands, she gave them both to John. Getting on a knee, he fashioned all their grenades together with duct tape.
"Your multi-tool, Tali."
She extended the knife and handed it to him.
"Seven grenades." He muttered, slicing the roll of tape away from the wrapped explosives, "This should do it. Should either blast through the barrier or beat up the bulkhead enough for us to crawl through a hole. Sync them up Tali. Have them all explode at the same time."
She brought up her omni-tool. "Got it."
He shoved the bundle into the weakest looking part of the door.
Several scans and key presses later, they ran back to the tent and took cover behind a table they flipped onto its side.
"Ready?"
"Yeah." He nodded, "Go."
She keyed the detonator.
The sound was absolutely piercing. Completely deafening. The shockwave and vibrating metal shook Tali's bones and jarred her so much, it made her cough. Dust and black smoke spat out from the hallway and settled over their gear and the artifacts around them.
Two minutes left, John." Tali gulped.
"Come on. We have to get in there." John stood and helped Tali up.
"Keelah," Tali sputtered as they ran back down the hallway, "if we don't make it—"
"We'll make it." He assured her.
Reaching the end of the hallway, they surveyed the damage and knew they had made progress. The barrier was gone. But the frame was mangled beyond repair. John immediately started to shed himself of gear.
"Through there." John pointed, "Looks big enough for us to crawl through."
Tali set her shotgun down and pried away the plate carrier from her chest. With only her sidearm clipped to her belt, she carefully made her way through the warped and frayed metal.
One minute thirty seconds left until detonation.
She made it past the last of the metal and stood back up.
"Go Tali." John was still tearing off his gear, "I'll be right behind you."
In a frantic sprint, she ran to the geth, skidded to a halt, and tried to search for anything that might stop this madness.
Dropping to her knees, she groped the geth's shell with her hands and decided to try the easiest stuff first.
She grasped the thick wire with both her hands and planted her feet against its leg before heaving.
Nothing.
It wasn't budging.
She tried again. And again. She tried until her arms, legs, and wrists burned with pain.
"Anything yet, Tali?"
"No!"
One minute left.
She got back to her feet and turned the geth over to expose its back. She felt a muscle twinge in her back from the amount of force she had to exert. The platform must've weighed close to a hundred and fifty kilos. Way more than your average platform.
Breathless, she surveyed the back plate before eyeing its exposed chest cavity. Its architecture didn't look familiar, but she could see its power core from here, but just barely. To power it off would require her to remove the plate, but with it damaged, there wouldn't be enough time to even get it off. She could jam her hand in there to try something, but touch the wrong component and you just might outright kill yourself in the process. Add in the damaged internals, and it only increased your risk of nicking something you shouldn't have. The idea of just shooting it dead came to mind, but then its most basic failsafes would likely kick in and detonate the ordnance prematurely.
John had finally caught up and was behind her now.
"Anything, Tali?"
She shook her head idly, hands limp, and sobered herself with the realization that failure was now inevitable. "John… I—I can't. There's nothing I can do."
"We can't give up." He searched around him instead, eyes wrought with angst and fretfulness, and ran toward the first thing he thought could help.
He found a long and sharp lump of serrated metal and towed it behind him toward the wire drawn between the geth and charges.
He was going to try and cut it.
"John. No."
Thirty seconds.
"Look at me." She stood up and blocked his path, "There's enough power running through that cable to kill you if you pierce it. You're not going to slice through that thick of a gauge of wire in time even if it was safe. We have to go, John. We have to go now."
He glowered. He wanted to grab the pistol off her belt and just shoot the damn cable, but he stayed his hand. Now wasn't the time to be applying metaphors, but he realized that Maslow's hammer probably applied here. So he relented.
"Tali, we have to try something." He dropped the metal and reached for the plug and started to yank with all his might. "Help me."
She sat, clutched the wire next to John's hands, and pulled with all her might.
Thirteen seconds.
Veins bulged and their faces flushed red, but they continued to twist and turn the wire. Metal and plastic began to snap and pop.
"It's… it's working!"
Five seconds.
"Don't stop, Tali! Don't let up!"
The plug buckled under their grip and it finally snapped away. But it was too late.
One whole second too late.
There was no explosion. Only a discharge and shutdown of the mass effect core.
Weightlessness overtook them.
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The loss of gravity was instant. Anyone and anything not tethered to the catwalks was sent upward without a thing to stop them. Equipment and people alike rose higher and higher. Raised brows turned to fear. Then to panic.
The only thing the ground team heard in spite of the shrieking metal, shouts for help, and the now howling wind, was the squawking radio and Garrus broadcasting his voice over it.
"Miranda! Can you hear me? Hello?"
Miranda frowned. "Garrus? What the hell is going on? Wh—"
He cut her off. "—Is the IFF secure? We're in freefall! You need to brace!"
"Where are you?"
"Running back to you! Is the IFF secure?" He repeated again.
Kylie, overhearing their exchange, gave Miranda a quick thumbs up to show it was fine.
"Yes," Miranda answered, "It's secur—"
She was cut off again, but this time by Dan pointing ahead of him and screaming. "Jesus Christ! It's coming down! Move!"
Miranda looked up. The reaper shell flexed and forced the catwalk to flex with it in ways it was never designed to. It buckled and caved. Pieces snapped. And like stacked dominoes, sections were flung around like a madman smacking mailboxes with a bat.
Anyone unlucky enough to be standing on the long strip was catapulted.
Kylie didn't even have time to try and run from the carnage. All she had time for was to lock eyes with Miranda and get thrown violently into darkness.
Miranda's heart sank. "Oh god..."
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"Grab my hand." Tali ordered, extending a hand for John to reach. He clasped her arm while she drew her sidearm, locked her elbow, and faced it toward the ceiling.
Dumping rounds until her heatsink was tasked to capacity, it provided her with enough momentum to send them back toward the ground. By now, the reaper began to convulse and moan. Tumultuous tremors pounded the hull and began to throw them off their balance.
This was not looking good.
They made their way steadily back to the wrecked door.
"Get through, Tali. You go first."
She glanced at the mangled mess of metal and frowned. The hole they'd crawled out from had been further warped by the reaper's fall. It might've still been big enough to berth her... but there was no way in hell Shepard was going to get past that as well.
"I don't think we can make it through."
He faced her and put both his hands on her shoulders. "You have to try."
Tears began to blot her vision when he went over to grab onto whatever he could to widen the crawlspace. "Go. Do it. Now."
"I'm not leaving you."
"Tali. You need to go."
She saw what he was doing. He was going to try and do it again. To go die and have her survive. Again.
Despair subsided. She began to feel outraged even as their world fell apart around them. "No. Not this again. Don't you dare."
"I'm not going to ask you again." He demanded, scowling, "You need to go. Now."
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"Miranda," Jacob pulled Miranda away from the last of the buckling girders before whipping around to have her face him. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine—" Miranda gasped and stared up at him, "We just— we lost Kylie. She had the IFF."
He stared at the darkness and frowned. "Shit."
"We have to get her."
"We have to call in evac." Jacob corrected, "We can find her in the meantime."
Slowly, Garrus' voice began to bleed back through the radio. "—randa, can you hear me? Miranda?! Answer me! Is the IFF still secure?"
"Negative on that," Miranda breathed, "IFF MIA. Stand-by."
"Miranda." Jacob reminded.
She only nodded. "Normandy, this is Lawson. Are you there?"
"This is Normandy," EDI answered her over the radio, "We are pursuing. Kodiaks are already underway."
"Affirmative, Normandy." Miranda stood at the edge of the crevice and was about to dish out orders to find Kylie at the exclusion of all else, but realized Olasie's squad was already on top of it.
The quarians anchored themselves to a secure part of the reaper with rope and propelled themselves toward Kylie's last known location.
"This is Olasie, we're looking to retrieve Kylie and the IFF. Stand-by, over."
Those who survived the onslaught of thrashing metal were already engrossed with finding anyone that had been floating helplessly above and around them. Samara guided anyone she could see back down with her biotics. Others used rope and flares to light up the area around them.
Torches out and searching, the four of them scanned the pipes above and below them to search for her.
"Kylie. Report. Can you hear us?"
"I can still hear you," Kylie coughed over the radio, "I'm okay. I hit my back pretty hard. I can see you all."
"Kylie, respond, over. Can you hear us?"
It was apparent that her signal wasn't going out, but she was still receiving.
Kylie weakly reached for her chemlights, snapped them in steady succession and set most of the aside. She kept one in her hand to wave with.
The growing but soft glow of light revealed a bubbling mass of blood encircling her. Kylie followed the trail.
Suit breach.
...Her calf had been snapped in half like a twig. She hardly even felt it.
The others could see her silhouette now and gnarled up leg.
"We're coming to you, Kylie. Just hold on." Juel cooed. They were off by about thirty degrees and a meter too high. Juel corrected Olasie's flight path by pushing her toward Kylie. When she was within reach, Olasie reached for Kylie's trauma handle and pulled on her rope to guide them both back to relative safety. Bundling their ropes, the quarians regrouped and made their way back together.
Kylie's murmur was fragile and low. "The IFF... is it okay?"
Juel touched her on her shoulder. "I'm going to check."
He dug a hand into her ruck and retrieved only dust and crushed pieces.
Juel held his stare and watched the crumbs float away from his hand. Past the crushed granules and dusty soot was Olasie's expressionless gaze. As they neared the exit, Olasie brought up her radio and swallowed. "This is Olasie... IFF is a no go, Miranda. It's gone."
Garrus spoke over the line. Olasie could see him vaulting toward the exit. She noticed it was only him and his team. Shepard and Tali were nowhere in sight.
"Say again, Olasie... IFF is lost?"
"It's gone, Garrus. Where's Tali? Where's Shepard?"
"Still back at the core. We'll wait until they're here to exfil."
Shepard's voice, for the first time since losing coms, came on. "Belay that. You will all leave at soonest availability. Over."
"Shepard. The IFF is gone. Get out of there."
"Don't worry about us, Garrus."
The urgency Garrus had died on him. Hearing John's tone wasn't leaving much to his imagination. He wanted to say something, but to say goodbye felt wrong. So he didn't say it. "Copy that, Shepard. I'll see you both back on the ship."
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Tali refused to move even an inch.
"Tali," He hissed, "You need to go. Are you not listening? Please."
"You're not going to make that decision for me," She rebuked, the hull around them groaning from the tormenting winds, "Not again. Not like this."
He let go of the rubble and stepped toward her, "If you don't g... holy shit." He went wide eyed and stopped talking when he noticed what was walking behind her.
"P̶̷̲̅ʟ̶̷̲̅ease step away-̶̷̲̅y, Shepard-Commander ᴀ̶̷̲̅ɴ̶̷̲̅nd Creator-Zorah. We will m-M̶̲̅r i̲̅emove the obstacle blocking your path."
Dumbfounded, they both stepped aside and watched the geth tear away at the metal until there was just enough room for the both of them to escape through.
It took several paces backward to give them their space. And only a mement after, its reserve power was depleted. Its eye flickered and waned until it glimmered out of existence.
Time was a premium here, now more than ever, but John stood still and let his mind race. Above his mixed feelings of partial relief, swelling kernel of hope, and growing dread, was something he realized he had to do first.
Shepard took a step toward the geth.
"John."
He put up a reassuring hand and kept walking to it. Face to face, he stared it down before grabbing an arm and bracing himself to carry it. "We need to take it with us."
"Why?"
"You heard Garrus. They lost the IFF. It might be our only chance to get one somewhere else. Now help me."
Crushing her inner struggles, she did as she was told.
They supported the now weightless geth with their arms and pushed it through the opening. Tali followed. Then Shepard.
When he made it through, he reached for his rifle that'd been clinging to the ceiling.
Still supporting the weight of their new and recently defunct friend, she turned her head as best she could to face John. "What now?"
"Can't make it back to the others. Joker's going to have to get us himself."
"How?"
"With luck. Might need to buy lottery tickets after we pull this off." He brought up his radio.
"Shepard to Normandy, do you read?"
"We're right here, Shepard." Joker answered, "Where the hell are you? What's going on? Why aren't you with the others?"
"Joker," John berated to keep him focused on what was more important, "Stand by for location paint. We're going to need you to pick us up. It's going to be a little unconventional."
"You best hurry the hell up then. The winds are getting strong and the Normandy won't be able to keep up forever."
Dragging the geth along behind them, they ran down the hallway, passed the tent, and headed back outside to the howling orange sky. Tali gazed out into the distance and stared. Bowing to the fiercely growing waves of wind, the furthest parts of the reaper were coerced into swaying violently to and fro.
"Up here."
They climbed the small flight of stairs and ran until they were at the edge of the catwalk. Before them was nothing but the void of space and their hoarse breaths.
"Joker: painting now. It's going to be a tight fit for her." He held his rifle out to point the laser, "Now please, get us out of here."
"Copy, Shepard. We see it."
John set the barrel shroud against the railing and faced Tali with a dead geth between them. "Hey."
She looked at him.
He gave her a smile. "We're almost out of this."
She didn't say anything.
The Normandy came into view and approached as close as it could.
"This is as good as it gets." Joker told them as the Normandy's aerobridge door opened. There was about six meters of space separating them. Knowing that they were going to have to jump that distance felt like they were asking for a miracle.
"On my go, Tals."
They balanced the geth as best they could and tossed it toward the open door. It ragdolled its way across the expanse and finally crumpled against the airlock.
"Go, Tali!"
Tali got a running head start and jumped. Hands and feet outstretched, she crossed the gap, landed, and planted a foot against the geth to keep it from floating off before waving to John to go next. "Come on!"
He launched himself toward the Normandy. Tali caught his hand and pulled him in.
When his feet touched the Normandy's metal floor, he turned back around to get a final look of the hell they escaped from and nodded with relief. "We're in. Close it."
The Normandy began to pull away and the airlock closed.
They did it. They made it out.
As the cabin began to pressurize, John let out the breath he'd been holding and wiped the sweat away from his brow. "Joker, where are the others?"
"Still in the shit, Commander. They're getting out right now."
"Good." He nodded and put his hands on his knees to catch his breath before turning to see how Tali was faring.
"Tali?" He said with a little gruff in his voice, "You good?"
She only glanced at him, having been so intensely focused on staying alive and watching the geth. She wanted to say she was fine, but that would be lying. And right now, she wasn't in the mood to lie.
"No. No I'm really not." She breathed, bitterness dripping from her lips. She didn't know what to do with her hands, so she kept them at her sides.
"...Is it about the geth?"
"No. It's about you." She put a single pointer on his chest and stillness stood between them. "John. Don't you ever tell me to leave without you again." There was love behind those piercing eyes, but they weren't without anger. "Your life is not a game."
He knew it wasn't. But he also knew when a point was being made. "...I'm sorry."
She backed away from him and ran a hand against the glass that sat over her face. She shook her head and couldn't look him in the eye anymore. "I don't want an apology."
He just stared at her, frowning.
Her face was still plastered with anguish from the updraft of thoughts coursing through her head. She didn't know how to explain how she felt, so she decided to give him context first.
"Freedom's Progress. You promised you wouldn't leave me no matter what. You—" She stammered and balled her hands into fists because it hurt her to say it. "You almost broke it. So stop making promises to me if you aren't going to keep them." A tear fell from her eye, "Just—you have to stop."
"What did you want me to do?" He countered, hands open as he reflected over her words, "To just... have you stay trapped with me?"
"Yes." She found the courage to look him in the eye again with her knife-like stare. "I can handle dying, John." She grabbed onto his hand and held onto it like her life depended on it. "Do you understand me? I can handle it. Please."
As upset as she was about all of this, she was keenly aware of the knife they balanced their lives over. She wasn't going to feign or profess ignorance to herself anymore. Garrus, in his own way, had reminded her of it with his talk all that time ago.
Which meant that if it really came time for fate to reap them of their life, so be it. But to have her spend the last few precious moments trying to escape an inevitability while she left him behind? To even contemplate that was unthinkable. Whatever was in store for John would be a demise they would share together. No ifs. No buts.
He felt himself crumble under her gaze. The way she pleaded to him tore at his innermost fabric. Lost for words, he pulled her in and hugged her tightly, lip trembling.
ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ
ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ
They set Kylie down as carefully as they could despite the almost panicked rush of the ground team as they boarded the two shuttles.
"I'm sorry, boss." Kylie winced, teeth clattering, "I should have put it somewhere safer." Her blood floated about the cabin because no one had the time to actually bandage her.
"It's okay." Olasie crossed her legs and held her head up while Teri and Darehk worked on finally getting her leg under some control, "The blame isn't yours to take."
Stuffed with people, Miranda stepped aboard, scanned their immediate surroundings, and brought her hand up to signal everyone was on.
"That's it. Let's move."
The kodiak doors closed and they took off. The reaper began to recede from view. Olasie managed to get a final peek of it as it fell into Mnemosyne; with its monstrous arms outstretched like a battered wind sail helplessly flailing against the winds of a hurricane.
Casualties were high. Only one life was lost, however. A Cerberus soldier with the name of Armani Dyer. She had been pinned between two warped girders. They didn't have time to retrieve her body. Everyone else was accounted for.
Zaeed lost his hand and broke his ankle.
Kasumi suffered a fractured wrist and a stab wound to her lower abdomen.
A deep laceration had been drawn across Jack's back that bled profusely.
Corporal Ted Hornady suffered head trauma.
Specialist Arthur Montoya also suffered head trauma, but only seemed to be half conscious.
Lastly was Private Miley Inman with three crushed fingers and a broken toe.
Two of the six mechs were lost. The rest were salvaged by EDI and already aboard the second kodiak.
"Keelah." Kylie groaned as she shivered "...I'm so glad we're gone from there. The place was giving me a headache."
"It's going to be okay, Kylie." Teri hummed quietly, sitting on her knees and watching her vitals with her omni-tool, "Just relax for us, okay?"
Kylie stared at her jutting compound fracture and just nodded before closing her eyes to shut out the world around her.
Juel's hands were marred with Kylie's coagulating blood. He tossed behind him his eighth red soaked bandage and sighed frustratingly.
"Juel?" Olasie asked with a murmur.
He met her stare and tore open another bandage with medi-gel. "What the hell happened down there, Olasie?"
"I don't know." Olasie murmured, caressing Kylie's shoulder to help soothe both their nerves, "Just... focus on the bleeding."