Chapter 2.
"Damn those geth, they are persistent and mindless like varren during mating season." Shepard thought to himself. "I am starting to regret leaving Garrus and Ashley to guard the entrance. The last three units managed to ambush me while I was distracted by the drones. This shoulder wound is going to be a problem, even after the application of medigel. Let's hope I won't need much more of it."
As Shepard moved lower into the dig site, he finally started to see some of the uncovered structure, it must be prothean in nature. The completely white chambers give a feeling of being covered in tiles, but it seems like that is not the case. John saw a strange blue glow on the lowest visible chamber, however the elevator stopped just one chamber above the lowest floor, it seems like the rails were damaged, it is stuck now. The walkway was destroyed by falling debris. John jumped down, as he stood up to look at the chamber he heard a distressed voice.
"Uhm, Hello! Can somebody help me! Please!" The voice was coming from a sky blue asari suspended several feet in the air, in what appeared to be a stasis field.
"Can you hear me out there! I'm trapped I need help!" She sounded desperate and almost ready to burst into tears, her eyes were glued to Shepard.
"Don't worry I am here to help. Dr. Liara T'Soni I presume?" John answered, he had a strange feeling about this alien, he has seen many asari before, but this one was different somehow.
"Thank the Goddess! I did not think anyone would come looking for me!" She sounded relieved. "Listen, this thing I'm in is a prothean security device, I cannot move, so I need you to get me out of it alright?"
"There is some kind of propulsion field in the way." John examined the faint blue wall of light covering the entrance to the chamber completely.
It's a prothean barrier curtain, I knew it would keep me safe from the geth. When I turned it on, I must have hit something I wasn't supposed to. I was trapped in here, you must get me out. Please!" She pleaded. It was clear that she was under stress and showing multiple signs of dehydration. Shepard could only guess how long she has been floating here.
"Any idea on how to get you out?" John asked, inspecting the edges of the chamber.
"There is a control in here that should deactivate this thing, you'll have to find some way past the barrier curtain, that's the tricky part, the defenses cannot be shut off from the outside. I don't know how you will get in here. But be careful, there was a krogan with the geth, they were trying to find ways to get past the barrier."
"Stay calm, I'm going to get you out of there in a minute." said Shepard.
"The krogan does spell trouble though. I saw the mining laser slightly in the back of the cavern, maybe I can..."
Shepard's train of thoughts was interrupted when sever shots flew by him and hit the barrier curtain, the mass effect propelled slugs disintegrated in the field. Shepard tumbled to the right, without looking around, he jumped behind a thin layer of metal that was once a piece of the walkway. John took a quick glance outside of his cover.
The good news is, the mining laser is intact and in the correct position. The bad news is, it's guarded by 5 geth who have him pinned down. Shepard prepared for an assault, hoping for the shields to hold. He jumped out from the cover and yelled "Catch!" as he threw a high powered explosive core grenade at the group of synthetics. As the grenade tore 2 of them to pieces, the other three started to move and change position. "Smart bastards, but not smart enough." A few precise shots from the assault rifle threw 2 more geth in eternal reboot cycle. The last one managed to get a shot off with his sniper rifle before his flashlight of a head exploded into many tiny pieces. The kinetic barriers could not completely stop the high powered rifle shot, and neither did the armor, John was bleeding from a puncture wound in his shoulder. "Dammit! Why do they always aim for the same shoulder?" Shepard grunted as he applied more medigel to the open wound. "Let's not keep the doctor any longer" John walked up to the laser and activated it. As the high powered beam burned through rock and dirt, Shepard felt the whole place shake. "That can't be good."
John stopped the laser, as soon as he was able to see the glow from another white chamber. He moved down through the newly created tunnel and through another prothean chamber. The inside of the structure turned out to be round and was still powered, it was astounding. Luckily, the platform of the inside structure was also an elevator. Meddling with controls for a minute John was finally able to figure out how to get it to move up. Soon he reached Dr. T'Soni's chamber.
"You are here! But how did you get in?" She sounded more relieved then curious.
"I improvised." John said with a smile and pressed the release button. As the gravity trap released it's victim, he walked up and caught the debilitated asari in his hands. She was pale, her lips were dry and her eyes were dim, John could tell she spend at least a couple of days in that containment field. John was impressed that she did not pass out from exhaustion yet.
"Thank you… uhm…" She said staring curiously at John with her sapphire blue eyes.
"Commander Shepard." John said without thinking,
"Thank you Commander" She said and gave him a faint smile.
"Just call me Shepard." Shepard replied as he lowered her on the chamber floor and pulled out his personal flask.
"Here Dr. T'Soni, it's water." She looked hesitantly at John at first, but accepted the flask and drank it down in one go. "Goddess that was the most delicious water I ever tasted." A bit of color returned to her face. John pulled a military issue energy bar out of one of the pockets and a secondary flask, he had to get her in shape for transportation.
"This will give you some of your strength back, it's an energy bar, special issue to all Alliance military personnel." Shepard tore the wrapper, filling the air with a scent of chocolate. Liara's eyes widened a bit, and John heard a distinct stomach growl. Liara blushed with a faint lavender color, "I am sorry, it's just..." John interrupted her, "Don't be. just eat it you will feel better." She nodded and took both the flask and the bar, quickly stuffing the flavored bar in her mouth and almost choking before being able to drink it down with water.
"You're a real life saver Coma... Shepard." She smiled
"My pleasure Dr. T'Soni" He smiled.
"Please, just call me Liara."
A violent seismic shake interrupted the conversation.
"We better get out of here Liara, I don't think that mining laser helped the volcanic instability of this area."
Liara took a look around. And noticed the platform Shepard used to get up.
"We can take the prothean elevator further up."
"Sounds like a plan." John said as he picked her up in his arms again.
"Shepard, I am sorry for this inconvenience, I don't think I can walk just yet." Liara wrapped her hands around John's neck for stability.
"It's alright Liara, it is not every day that I get to carry asari doctors around." John said failingto make the situation less awkward. The color had returned to Liara's face, she was now trying to look anywhere but at Shepard, obviously not used to this much close contact with another person.
They got to the elevator, and with another press of a button started moving up. The whole place was shaking as they moved higher and higher. It won't be long now till the whole dig site collapses, much to Liara's dismay. As they reached the final level of the prothean structure, they could see the exit tunnel leading to the outside. It was just further into the cave, right behind that korgan battle master and his four geth minions.
"This may be difficult." John turned to Liara, trying to think of a plan. He was in the middle of an open space with an asari on his hands, not exactly a tactical advantage.
"Surrender the scientist, or not, that would be more fun." Barked the krogan and let out a small laugh.
"Shepard I have a plan." Liara whispered into his ear.
"I'm listening." He answered, staring down the battle master.
"Throw me up in the air as high as you can."
"What?" Shepard blurted out in surprise.
"Just do it!" Liara said frantically.
The krogan got impatient.
"Very well human, you just signed your own death wish."
There was no other options, John decided to trust Liara, he lowered her a bit forward to get some momentum and then threw her straight up in the air, as hard as he could. A sharp pain in Shepard shoulder let him know that the wound reopened. The krogan and his geth were distracted but only for a moment following Liara with their eyes and flashlight looking oculars as she flew straight up into the air, and just as the gravity was about to take over, a field of biotic energy covered her entire body and instead of falling down, she started to slowly float downwards. It gave Shepard enough time to take cover and shoot down one of the geth troopers.
The enemy dispersed shooting at Shepard's cover and luckily ignoring Liara, who now safely landed on the floor of the elevator, John saw her face, her eyes were closed, looks like the use of biotics took out the remaining strength she had and she passed out. Shepard threw a grenade around the pillar he was taking cover behind. detonating it right under another one of the geth, the explosion left a splatter of synthetic blood on the floor of the chamber.
John felt moist inside his suit in the shoulder area, he was bleeding. He looked from the other side of the pillar and made a few quick shots, another geth trooper fell down, with it's ocular shattered. There were only two enemies left now.
Suddenly Shepard heard heavy footsteps approaching fast, the krogan was charging at him from the other side, the geth were just distracting him. John rolled to the side, as the krogan smashed into the pillar with a monstrous force, the impact left a large dent. While the krogan was regaining his footing John unloaded a long a barrage of shots into him, the battle master's shields went down and several bullets hit the krogan from the side, his armor was protecting his weak spots. The krogan turned to Shepard and unloaded a shotgun round right into him, the blast knocked Shepard back, the shields broke, but the armor managed to protect him, however the next shot would be lethal. The krogan smiled as he his shotgun was cooling down for another shot, his victory was close. Shepard smiled back and said "Not today you neutered bastard" and pressed a button on the grenade detonator showing it to the krogan. The battle master's face only showed surprise, when a grenade exploded right next to him killing him instantly and shielding Shepard from the blast. Shepard laughed, happy that not so bright battle master did not notice a grenade Shepard left on the pillar he was hiding behind before he rolled away, however Shepard's victory was short lived as he saw a laser sight leading to his forehead.
The last of the geth was aiming dead center of his head with a sniper rifle, there was no way John could dodge or shoot back at the geth, the sound of a rifle shot broke the silence. John looked at the geth's head exploded in a fountain of synthetic blood and parts. He then saw both Ashley and Garrus standing at the entrance to the dig site, with Garrus holding a sniper rifle. Both sprinted towards Shepard and Liara.
John stumbled onto his feet, picked up his assault rifle and quickly walked up to Liara, he checked her pulse, it was present and she was breathing. With a sigh of relief John picked her up, hissing at the paint in the shoulder and started moving towards Ashley and Garrus. A loud rumbling noise resonated around the area, debris started to fall from the ceiling, the whole place started to shake. Shepard called the Normandy "Joker we need pickup, now!" the pilot's voice answered quickly "We're on our way Shepard, homing in on your signal, ETA two minutes."
Ashley ran up to Shepard, helping him move, "What took you so long skipper?" she asked, glancing at Liara. "We gunned down like twenty geth troopers while you were gone."
"Sorry to keep you waiting, I ran into some trouble down there, and miss T'Soni needed some help." John said catching his breath.
Garrus ran up from the other side and helped Shepard move as well, "Why does everything around you tend to explode Commander?"
"I don't know Garrus I think it's a medical condition." John replied as they were running up the ram to the exit of the dig site shaft.
The four ran out of the shaft, a wave of dust followed closely, Normandy already hovering in front of it with the cargo bay opened. They all jumped onto the open hatched and into the bay, the doors closed shut, just in time to hear the rumbling of the whole dig site collapsing.
John thanked both his squad mates and headed for the elevator to the med bay, leaving a trail of blood on the floor, Ashley and Garrus still supporting him. When they walked into the med bay, John walked up to the nearest med bed and lowered Liara on it. Doctor Chakwas already prepared to administer triage to Shepard. Confident that Liara was in good hands now, John collapsed on the floor, losing consciousness.