After only thirty seconds, Shepard knew she was in trouble.
She dove to one side, rolling across the ground as a metal boot the size of her torso smashed into the spot she had just vacated hard enough to crack the glass floor. Not stopping to glance behind her, Shepard fell back several steps across the platform. Her legs burned with exhaustion as she moved, much like how her arms shrieked in pain as she forced her fists up into a half-assed guard position. A blow like a hammer strike immediately smashed into her arms, nearly toppling her over as she retreated even further from her attacker. She dodged, she deflected, and she gave ground, all in the name of just staying on her feet a little while longer, but it didn't seem to matter. No matter what she did, the attacks just kept coming in a storm of overwhelming strength. Hence her problem.
Subject 01 loomed up before her like a metallic mountain. Now that Shepard had an up close view, she saw the behemoth was not only nearly twice her height, but their shoulders were wide enough that nearly her whole field of vision was full of angry cyborg. Even staying out of their reach was nearly impossible as each robotic arm extended out nearly the length of Shepard's entire body, compounded by the fact that each step of their gigantic legs equated to three of her own.
To make matters worse, Subject 01 was fast. Each punch thrown, each huge stride forwards, they all seemed to occur with a speed and sense of grace that nothing 01's size should possess. Watching them move made Shepard feel like she had been submerged waist deep in mud; even had she been well-rested, she wasn't sure she would have been able to stay ahead of them. Now, with only pure adrenaline keeping her on her feet, all she could hope for was to not get run down and stomped into the floor.
01 stomped forwards once more, and before Shepard could blink she found herself on the defensive as a metal fist rocketed towards her. Thankfully, something inside her had been paying attention and without even thinking she juked to one side before her head could be relocated by several meters. Spinning forwards, she slammed her elbow into the crook of 01's arm then snapped a biotic punch out into their steel-plated ribs as their arm buckled from the impact.
The resounding pulse of energy lit up the chamber in a flash of light as 01 shifted ever so slightly backwards. Taking the opportunity to disengage, Shepard twisted out of their grasp and rotated to stand several feet away. She briefly peered forwards, trying to glimpse where she had struck, only to frown as she saw the thick armor covering 01's chest seemed to be completely unharmed. Petulantly, she huffed out a sigh. "Figures," she muttered.
Subject 01 quickly squared up to her once again, their massive arms held up around their head in a loose guard. Taking the chance to examine 01's stance, Shepard quickly noted the slightly lower than orthodox placement of their hands, the slight bending of their knees, and the placement of weight onto their back foot. Whoever had taught them how to fight had done their job well; 01's technique was impeccable.
Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted a splash of blue amid the crowd of Cerberus soldiers surrounding her, presumably where Liara and Jack were being forced to watch the fight. Her thoughts turned briefly towards Liara, only for Shepard to shake her head in an attempt to clear her mind. Worried thoughts later, she thought. Fighting thoughts now.
As if on cue, Subject 01 stepped forwards to lash out a quick jab towards her head. Shepard ducked, feeling the rush of air from the punch rustle her hair, then with a cry she dove back into the fight. Keeping her guard up, she rushed forwards towards 01, dodging a wild haymaker then pivoting to one side to avoid a follow up kick. She lashed out with two punches into 01's thigh, then lunged forwards to sling a kick into their opposite knee. Unperturbed, 01 simply shifted stance and backhanded Shepard hard enough to send her stumbling off to one side, putting her on the defensive once more.
Shepard's blood began to roar in her ears as Subject 01 advanced. This bastard probably can't feel any of this, she thought, grunting as she leaned just out of range of another punch. Taking advantage of the subsequent opening, she ran forwards and planted her fist straight into their stomach, only to recoil as pain lanced through her knuckles.
"Shit," she gasped. "Guess this is hurting me more than it's hurting you."
Clearly not one for jokes, 01 stepped forwards to throw out a sequence of rapid fire punches before Shepard could recover. All conscious thought flew out the window as she desperately dodged or blocked as many attacks as she could, leaving her only with short bursts of awareness as she lost herself to the fight.
01 slinging in a blow from the right, duck under it. Step forwards, lean past an uppercut and throw a right hook into the ribs. Two, three steps back, block a jab, keep the guard up and move in close. 01's got the reach, so make that their problem; stay under their feet where their long arms become a hindrance, go for quick shots and stay mobile. Kick inside of the leg, swivel behind as 01 recovers, punch inside of armpit.
The play by play continued in her mind, narrated by a familiar gruff voice that wavered between the bark of her old Alliance hand-to-hand instructor and Wrex's more guttural instructions. Come on, Shepard, keep it going. A fighter that stands still is a fighter that gets laid out.
The adrenaline in her veins was singing now, washing away her aches and replacing them with a rushing sense of exhilaration. Subject 01 approached once more, testing her guard with two fast jabs and following with a wide hook; Shepard weaved between the first two hits then smashed the follow-up off course with a two-handed hammer fist infused with biotics. She danced forwards, a feral grin beginning to show as she rapidly pummeled the joint where 01's hip connected to their thigh. Somewhere inside, she realized, she was beginning to enjoy herself underneath many layers of terror and stress. Haven't had a fight this close in years, she thought grimly as she dodged 01's counter strike. Time to see what I can do.
Leaning fully into her biotics, she felt the familiar tingling rush as her power surged to the fore all across her body, and without hesitating she broke out into the most furious sequence of violence she could muster. Thoughts of slowness and exhaustion fell away as she flitted around 01's massive form, light on her feet and quick as lightning. She tested the joints of 01's armor with hit after hit, hammering away at any possible weak points in the thick steel plating before moving back into the flow of the fight. Any time 01 tried to retaliate, she would dodge, or duck, or simply flash step somewhere else and renew her assault. Shepard was untouchable, she was unstoppable; every blow a single part of the web of attacks she wove around her opponent.
Even still, she knew that this rush of energy wouldn't last forever. Her lungs were starting to burn as her breathing strained, and focusing her eyes for more than a second at a time was starting to become difficult. She needed to find a way to put down Subject 01, and she needed to find it now.
Stepping just past a backhanded slap, she lunged forwards and slammed a glowing fist into 01's ribs, just under their left arm. Not stopping for even a second, she feinted a blow towards 01's knee, then pivoted to strike their side again before twirling away. Again and again she wove through 01's assault, blocking what she could and dodging the rest, all the while pummeling away at their ribs every chance she got. The sound of ringing metal splintered through the chamber air like a hammer smashing into an anvil over and over, and even still she continued. Her fists had long since gone numb from repeated impacts, but still Shepard fought; she punched and bashed, retreated and advanced, all the while hitting 01's wide metal chest with everything she had. "One of us is gonna break here," she grunted, "and it sure as hell won't be me."
Having had enough of Shepard's furious assault, Subject 01 hastily threw a punch straight towards her, puttinging just slightly too much of their body weight behind the blow. Sensing an opportunity as she ducked out of the way, Shepard stomped as hard as she could onto the back of 01's leg, forcing it to buckle under her heel. Now panting with effort, she sprinted around 01's side, lifting a glowing fist and diving towards the spot she had been hammering even as 01 lifted a hand to defend themself.
Checkmate, you big bastard. Halfway through the swing, Shepard pulsed with biotic light as she instead charged directly into 01's opposite leg, knocking them even further off balance. Fast as a thought, she whirled around as she coiled what felt like her entire body into a single raging muscle, then released all the strength she had into a wild uppercut into 01's metal chin.
01 rocked back on their feet, knocked nearly back up to their full height from the force of the blow. Knowing she was running on absolute fumes, Shepard dove forwards once more as her entire body crackled with energy. A terrible scream tore itself from her throat, and with one final push she slammed her fists together into the side of 01's torso, detonating a blinding nova that shook the floor beneath her.
The resulting wave of light exploded outwards across the chamber, hurling Shepard back several feet where she landed roughly on her back. With a groan, she slowly rolled over onto her stomach. As if a switch had been thrown, all of the many points of injury across her body surged back to life all at once, nearly incapacitating her with a wave of pain and exhaustion that had her vision flickering at the edges.
Lethargically, painstakingly, Shepard forced herself back up onto her feet as her heartbeat thudded noisily in her ears. She winced as her knees threatened to buckle, nearly sending her tumbling back onto the ground. Her arms felt unhealthily heavy, like they had been injected with lead, and a burning ache was starting to suffuse out from the center of her chest. Doggedly trying to catch her breath, she slowly started to turn back towards Subject 01, dreading what she would find.
The explosion had kicked a swirling cloud of dust into the air, briefly making it impossible to see more than a few feet in any direction. Too spent to even lift a hand to cover her mouth, Shepard haggardly shuffled forwards, eyes open for 01's huge form.
As she moved, the dust slowly settled back onto the floor, revealing a spidery web of cracks in the dark glass floor where the nova had gone off. A few moments later, the far side of the ring of soldiers came into view as sunlight filtered once more through the holes in the walls, and with a choked moan Shepard stumbled to a halt. "Aw, hell."
Subject 01 stood tall before her, their burnished armor as flawless and undamaged as ever save for a sizable dent now pressed into their side. Briefly, they glanced down towards this one blemish, and though their featureless helmet remained as blank as ever, Shepard saw everything she needed to know: tightly clenched fists, squared shoulders, and a slight tilt to the head. Oh yes, Subject 01 was not only still standing, they were pissed the hell off.
Despair swept through Shepard's chest like a flash flood, a suffocating wave of hopelessness that nearly buckled her knees under its weight. She struggled to raise her arms up into a guard as Subject 01 advanced, fighting both exhaustion and this unfamiliar sense of defeat. As 01 bared down on her, with no way to run and no strength left to fight, a cold realization settled into her gut like a stone.
She was going to lose.
As she grappled with this thought, she looked up to see Subject 01 now directly in front of her, their right fist already soaring towards her. The blow smashed through her weak block like a truck through a pane of glass, followed a second later by a punch to her gut strong enough to lift her clean off her feet. She fell to her knees, retching from the pain, only to look up just as 01's massive metal knee smashed into the side of her face.
The world around her flashed red and yellow as she collapsed limply to the ground. Any thoughts of fighting were long gone now, dashed to pieces as her brain rattled around in her skull like a pinball. A clanging rang in her ears, deafeningly loud, and blinking slowly she realized her face was wet with something she didn't have the presence of mind to identify.
Cold metal fingers as thick around as her wrist clamped down on her neck, cutting off her already strained breathing. Helplessly, she pawed at 01's arm as they hauled her up off the ground, dangling her in the air by her throat like a sack of meat.
Unable to move, speak, or even breathe, Shepard was forced to watch as Subject 01 seemed to pause for a moment, their right hand skimming lightly over the dent Shepard had created. Now held level with their helmeted face, Shepard watched with a morbid fascination as that same hand moved to tap one finger against her ribs, just beneath her arm.
A dull rush of fear spread through Shepard as she realized what 01 was intending. She desperately started trying to wriggle free of their grip with whatever strength she could muster, but to no avail. Trapped as she was, the only way she was getting away was if 01 allowed her to escape.
The fingers around her neck tightened, nearly squeezing the life right out of her, and as her arms fell limp at her sides she saw 01 pull back their right fist with all the malice of an executioner. Her gaze flitted back towards 01's blank helmet, eyes wide with fear meeting black, unfeeling glass. They stared silently into each others eyes for a moment, for what could have been an eternity, until at last 01's fist came soaring down like the end of all things.
Pain obliterated Shepard's world, destroying her senses and replacing them with a torrent of agony exploding outwards from her chest. She couldn't see, couldn't hear; she could only hurt, could only feel this pain, to the point that she couldn't remember its absence. The world around her vanished so completely that she would have assumed that she had blacked out if not for how intensely she could feel this hurt.
Eventually, her senses began returning to her, her surroundings reappearing piece by piece as the pain subsided ever so slightly. It was dark, or maybe her eyes were closed, she wasn't quite sure. She was laying on her back, and judging by the pounding ache in her skull and spine, she had been flung to the ground quite hard. Further down her body, a sharp and piercing pain had appeared in the left side of her chest, accompanied by a mind-numbingly strong ache that ebbed and swelled with her breathing.
All in all, not good.
Her breath hitched as she attempted to sit up, only for a burst of pain like a supernova to burn through her ribs. Crying out incoherently, Shepard fell back onto the floor. Her sense of reality wobbled for a moment, her mind dancing on the edge of passing out, and only after several seconds did the pain recede enough for her to remember who she was.
Something— no, someone, Shepard hazily realized, cried out behind her. Moments later a pair of cool hands appeared beneath her head, lightly brushing across her cheeks and lacing together to lift her up gently. Feeling herself being shifted onto something soft, Shepard groaned and cracked open her eyes.
Looking down on her, her beautiful face pale and twisted with horror, was Liara. Her wide blue eyes caught Shepard's gaze and trapped her there; as she watched, fresh tears spilled out and fell down her cheeks. "Shepard," she murmured, her voice hoarse. "Please, just-"
The floor beneath them shook as heavy metal footsteps started to approach. Groaning, Shepard tipped herself upwards enough to see Subject 01 stomping towards them with clenched fists. Panic flushed through her, and with extreme effort she gritted her teeth and forced herself fully upright.
A frown creased Liara's features. "Shepard, please, you can't keep going like this," she pleaded. "Let me help you!"
"Get away from me!" Shepard choked out. At the stricken look on Liara's face, she continued in a strained voice, "They'll kill you if I don't keep fighting."
"They'll kill you if you do!" Liara sobbed. "I won't let them do this to you!"
Subject 01 was only meters away now, menacingly closing the gap with each passing second. With shaking hands and wobbly legs, Shepard managed to force herself up onto one knee. "Don't worry about me, T'Soni," she said, hoping she sounded more confident than she felt. "I'll be fine."
With one final push, Shepard heaved herself back up onto her feet. Immediately another pulse of pain wracked through her, forcing her to bite her lip to stop herself from crying out. Hobbling forwards, she limped across the floor to place herself between Liara and Subject 01. Slowly balling her hands into fists, she wearily lifted her arms up before her and called, "Alright, you tin can piece of shit, let's dance."
Without slowing their stride, 01 simply lifted up one foot and contemptuously booted Shepard in the chest, hurling her back to the floor. Pain stabbed through her chest as she skidded across the ground, until finally she came to a stop back at Liara's feet.
"No!" Liara cried, moving to put herself in front of Shepard as Subject 01 lumbered forwards to finish the job. "This fight is over!"
"Liara…" Shepard mumbled, her tongue heavy in her mouth. From where she lay on the floor, Liara seemed impossibly small before Subject 01's huge form, like a blue flower trembling before a looming mountain of steel.
A cold voice cut harshly through the air. "Subject 01, what are you waiting for? Kill the mercenary," Eva Coré demanded. "If Doctor T'Soni interferes, finish her too."
Uncowed, Liara glared directly up towards with an intensity Shepard had never seen from her before. "No," she said. "You will not kill Shepard, and you will not kill me either."
Coré's harsh laugh grated against Shepard's ears like a saw across her nerves. "Oh, how very bold of you. Tell me, Doctor, just how will you stop me?"
Shepard weakly shifted, trying to sit up, only to slump back to the floor as her arms gave out. Staring upwards with a view of only Liara, 01, and behind her the ceiling far above, she listened as Liara proclaimed, "I'll find the last piece of the Ring of Life for you. I know that is what you want, isn't it? If I found the first two pieces, imagine how useful I would be in finding the third."
"I wouldn't worry about the third piece," Coré replied, her smug grin clear in her voice. "I do appreciate the offer, however."
"You won't be able to use it." Liara stepped forwards, still staring up towards Subject 01. "Without my help, the Ring will be as worthless to you as any other rock. In fact, it might even be actively dangerous."
A pause. "What are you talking about?" Coré asked, clearly skeptical.
"The first piece nearly killed Shepard when we found it," Liara insisted, "and without my assistance she'd likely be in a coma as we speak. Something about them seems to impart information through a mental connection, similar to the asari meld, and an unprepared human mind could find itself destroyed from the pressure."
She turned, dismissively scanning the throng of Cerberus troops lining the platform. "Luckily for Shepard, I was able to help her through the process safely. It doesn't seem to me that an all-human group such as yourselves would have anyone to help you, however."
With a shrug, she turned back towards Subject 01 with an unimpressed frown. "How unfortunate."
A prolonged silence filled the chamber as Coré considered this, giving Shepard plenty of time to imagine all of the most painful ways they could die here. A sluggish, oozing fear began to course beneath the haze of pain consuming her, providing helpful images such the entire ring of Cerberus soldiers opening fire at once, or 01 stepping forwards to crush Liara into the floor, or even—
Coré let out an annoyed sigh, cutting off Shepard's rambling thoughts. "What do you suggest then, hm? Shall I just give up and call back my men? Leave you free to escape and inevitably interfere in my plans at some later date?"
"No," said Liara with a shake of her head. "I had the first two pieces of the Ring in my bag. Allow me to see them, and I will activate them for you."
Shepard blinked slowly, a confused frown working its way across her face. As far as she had seen, the stone fragments they had found hadn't done anything of any kind other than glow ominously every once in a while. "Liara," she coughed, wincing against the pain as she once again struggled up to rest on her elbows. "Liara, don't-"
Liara turned and silenced her with a look, then mouthed trust me with a small, scared smile before turning forwards once more. "Well?" she asked. "What will it be?"
Now able to see Coré, Shepard watched as her intense stare seemed to flicker between suspicion and open hunger for what Liara was promising. "Fine," she snapped. "Return the doctor her bag."
The sound of rustling armor filled the air as a Cerberus soldier pushed forwards through the crowd, Liara's satchel in one hand and a pistol held ready in the other. They stepped forwards slowly, their heavy boots clomping loudly on the glass floor, and Shepard watched with mounting nerves as every soldier in the chamber seemed to raise their rifles as one.
Liara, for her part, seemed largely unaffected by all this as she took her bag from the soldier with a quiet muttering of thanks. As said soldier quickly scurried back to the firing line, Liara turned back towards Shepard and slowly withdrew first one, then two curved fragments of stone.
Her hands are shaking, Shepard dimly thought as she watched Liara cradle the stones like newborn children. Why are her hands shaking?
Forcing her gaze up higher, a pang of sympathy struck Shepard full in the chest as she saw Liara's face: a determined frown and a stubbornly set jaw, offset by quivering lips and tears threatening to fall at any moment as she desperately held back the fear so obviously about to overwhelm her.
Shepard inhaled sharply, wincing as the pain in her chest flared in tandem with the motion. Suddenly filled with a desperate need to reassure her, Shepard futilely reached out with one hand. "Liara…" she croaked, only to stop as a wave of dizziness swept over her. She winced, clutching her head as her chest burned with pain. "Ah, shit."
"Come now, Doctor," Coré called, "enough with the suspense. Some of my soldiers have awfully itchy trigger fingers, it must be said."
Turning the pieces over in her hands, Liara's brow furrowed as she flickered her gaze between them. She lifted one closer to her face, squinting as she tried to read the spidery runes carved into its side, when suddenly her eyes widened as she went completely still.
Shepard frowned, sucking in a deep breath to try to fight off the haze of dizziness clouding her mind. Tentatively, she called out, "Liara?"
Liara blinked, her eyes seeming to scan around the room blindly. Suddenly, she stiffened, her head tilting to one side as if listening to something only she could hear.
Swallowing down a flare of panic, Shepard called out once again, "Liara, talk to me. What's going on?"
Her words seemed to fall on deaf ears as Liara continued staring off into space with an unfocused frown. A moment later, her hands started to move as if of their own accord; they hefted the stone fragments, flipped them over, and then ever so slowly slid their fractured edges together.
Where the stones touched a blinding line of golden light exploded into being, sending a shockwave blasting outwards across the chamber. In a split second it washed over Shepard, flattening her back onto the floor as several soldiers all around her stumbled backwards with cries of alarm. Moments later, a horrendous low noise rumbled up through the floor and out from the walls; the deafening roar they had heard back in the first chamber of the pyramid, now seeming to vibrate the very bones in Shepard's body as the entire pyramid seemed to scream all around her. She quickly clapped her hands over her ears, screaming in both pain and sheer terror as the roar obliterated her entire world.
Finally, after an agonizingly long wait, the sound faded away once more, leaving Shepard breathing heavily on the glass floor as her ears rang painfully. Forcing herself up onto one elbow, she blearily peered forwards to see Liara still standing before her, unmoved and unresponsive with her eyes closed.
"Liara?" she rasped. "What-"
Liara's eyes flew open in a blaze of light, stunning Shepard into silence. Where her cobalt irises had been, only moments ago, now only a warm golden glow shone forth. All signs of worry and distress melted away, relaxing her face into a blank mask of cool indifference.
Her head tilted, angling down to peer towards Shepard with the faintest trace of interest flickering across her face. Before Shepard could think to speak, or move, or do anything really, she looked away once more and held up the prize clutched in her hands: A single, curved piece of glowing stone where only moments ago there had been two, curving together to form two-thirds of a ring.
Liara's mouth opened, revealing a golden glow emanating from within her to match the artifact in her hands, and as Shepard watched she spoke a single word.
"RISE"
Shepard fell backwards with a cry as Liara's voice washed out across the chamber like a golden wave. The word she had spoken seemed to linger in the air like an incantation, setting Shepard's nerves on edge as the hair on her arms began to stand on end. Even the sound of her voice seemed somehow richer, as if suffused with power that put all other voices to shame. It was as if Shepard had gone her entire life listening to poor imitations of spoken words and only now was experiencing the true depth and energy of a voice.
The newly reunited pieces of the Ring of Life pulsed with light, slowly floating up out of Liara's hands as they cast a golden glow out across the chamber. The artifact suddenly flared a blinding white, and as Shepard averted her gaze she saw that the dark glass floor beneath her had lit up with a familiar ghostly teal glow. Leaning down, she saw the new glow seemed to shift oddly beneath the glass, flickering in several spots as dark shapes seemed to twitch and spasm under its surface.
The sound of shattering glass knifed through the air, snapping Shepard out of her haze of pain with a jolt of adrenaline. Glancing over towards the center of the platform, she saw the spot where Subject 01 had nearly stomped her to death a minute ago had now exploded upwards in a hail of glass shards, sloshing glowing waves of viscous teal fluid all over the surrounding area. Seconds later, dark shapes with gangly limbs and grasping hands began surging out of the new hole in the floor, flopping over each other awkwardly and stiffly rising to their feet.
Not shapes, Shepard realized with a jolt. Corpses.
The newly risen corpses, as if given their orders all at once, flooded outwards in a wave of shambling bodies towards the dumbstruck lines of Cerberus troops. In moments, nearly half of the innermost ring of soldiers were overwhelmed, suddenly fighting for their lives against this tide of desiccated undead. Gunfire and distorted yells began to ring out, pounding at Shepard's ears, followed only moments later by more shattering glass as a second hole burst through the glass floor to release even more corpses into the fray.
Deciding that it was in her best interests to suddenly be anywhere else, Shepard began shuffling away from the riot brewing around her as quickly as she could between debilitating waves of pain. Before she could move more than ten feet, however, a cool pair of hands latched onto her shoulders, followed shortly by a lovely voice worriedly asking, "Shepard, are you alright?"
Looking up towards the source of the voice, Shepard smiled loopily as she saw Liara's face appear before her. I'm fine now that you're here, she thought dreamily. Somewhere between her mind and her mouth, however, something seemed to be out of alignment, so when she opened her mouth to reply all that came out was a strained, "Mmmffyuhh…"
Liara frowned, then leaned to one side to yell something that Shepard missed over her shoulder. As she did so, however, Shepard blinked up at the sight of the stone fragment now floating ten feet up in the air, glowing like a beacon as it pulsed with light at regular intervals. "Is that thing supposed to do that?" she asked, her words slurring together.
"Who gives a shit?" A second pair of hands wrapped themselves under Shepard's arms, and between them and Liara's hands she found herself hauled roughly up onto her feet. Glancing over her shoulder, she saw Jack had appeared from the melee surrounding them, her face set into a strained frown. Jack grunted, starting to work with Liara to drag her bodily towards the edge of the platform. "Jesus, would it kill you to skip a few meals or something?"
"Fuck off, it's muscle."
"Whatever."
They moved together as quickly as possible, hobbling like a strange four-legged and three-torsoed creature through the maelstrom of violence exploding all around them. Wherever Shepard looked, all she could see was flashes of gunfire, writhing corpses, and orange and white body armor all mixing together in a way that made her already aching brain feel like it was turning into a warm soup. Periodically, a burst of biotics would ruffle her hair or a pistol shot would sound just off to one side as Jack and Liara worked together to clear a path, but soon even focusing on that became nearly unbearable as the fog of dizziness in Shepard's head seemed only to intensify with each step taken.
Through all of this, a glint of metal caught her eye as she was dragged backwards. Squinting and peering through the crowd, she blinked as she saw Subject 01 towering over the crowd, plowing their way through snarling corpses without even breaking their stride. Behind them, visible through gaps in the violence, was Coré, looking only mildly irritated as she followed in 01's wake. Following their path with her gaze, Shepard frowned as she realized the two of them had scythed across nearly half the chamber towards the floating relic, and in only moments they would have their prize.
"Liara," she groaned. "We gotta go back, they're getting the Ring."
Lolling her head to one side, she saw Liara shake her head with a resolute frown. "We're getting you out of here, Shepard. Anything else can wait."
Shepard's brow furrowed in confusion. The whole point of coming in here had been to get those dumb rocks, so why would they give up on them now? Besides, she felt fine if she ignored the debilitating chest pain, crippling headache, and all around sense of nausea slowly building up in her chest. Really, they should go back and finish the mission while they still could.
Before she could voice these valid points, however, she found herself tossed roughly to one side as Jack released her with one hand. A moment later, a series of biotic shockwaves thudded through the crowd around them, and taking advantage of the gap Liara and Jack dragged Shepard the rest of the way out towards the edge of the platform where it met the pyramid wall. Glancing over her shoulder, Shepard winced as she found herself staring out through one of the many gaping holes now riddling the side of the pyramid, feeling the sun on her face for the first time in what felt like days. Far, far below, the dunes of Rayingri stretched out into the horizon, with the Cerberus outpost far below looking more like a miniature replica on a tactical map rather than the real thing.
"Right," Liara said, sounding suddenly unsure. "I suppose this is where we jump?"
Jack snorted, only for her skeptical frown to melt into something resembling more of a grimace as she asked, "Wait, you're kidding, right?"
Liara shook her head glumly, looking between the sheer drop below them and the roiling fight behind with a face that could only be described as glum. Shepard, now dizzy enough that she wasn't sure she could stand on her own given the chance, raised a skeptical eyebrow and mumbled, "Damn, yeah, why not?"
Jack shook her head, looking suddenly desperate. "Miranda's still back there with those fuckers, though. I'm not leaving until I've turned that bitch inside out the hard way."
Limply flopping her head onto her other shoulder, Shepard looked over towards the Cerberus shuttle Miranda had disappeared into only to see it swarming with malformed corpses, all crawling across its surface like upsettingly large roaches. "Yeah, I don't think she's going anywhere any time soon."
A pair of corpses lurched into her field of view, only to be cut down by a series of frantic shots from Liara's pistol. "There's no time to argue!" Liara yelled. "We have to leave, now!"
Jack turned to stare down the inclined slope of the pyramid wall, stretching down and away to the sand far below. "Ah, shit," she groaned. "Hanging around you guys is the fuckin worst, you know that?"
A raspy hiss rang out behind them as a wave of corpses fell upon them. Both sets of hands around Shepard's arms tightened to the point of pain, and then the world seemed to lurch around her as, together, the three of them tipped out through the hole in the wall and fell screaming into empty space.
The roar of rushing wind filled Liara's hearing, almost completely blotting out her screams as they plummeted towards the ground. By her side, she faintly heard Jack grunting strained curses in innovative combinations. Between them, however, she saw that Shepard had a loopy grin on her face, somehow looking as if she was enjoying the view of the ground below rushing up to meet them.
A moment later, they slammed into the slanted outer wall of the pyramid and began sliding downwards at a dizzying speed. Rough stone bit into Liara's back as they careened towards the ground, punctuated every few seconds by painful impacts against small chunks of stone sticking out of the wall. Even still, the dunes of sand below seemed to grow horrifically fast as they fell. Liara blinked, trying to fight off the wave of terror seeming to ice her brain into a useless lump of meat. Surely, she should be doing something about this other than screaming her lungs out, right?
"Shit!" Jack screamed over the wind. "We got incoming!"
Tearing her eyes up from her imminently approaching death, Liara looked up to see a half dozen Cerberus shuttles all swarming around the top of the pyramid like vultures. As she watched, one by one they began to peel off from their formation and race after towards them, shuttle bays opening to reveal squads of heavily armed troopers inside.
"Make a barrier!" Liara yelled, flaring her own biotics as she did so. "We have to hold them off until we hit the ground!"
Jack nodded, her biotics roaring to life even as Liara extended her free hand outwards. A moment later, a bubble of biotic energy snapped into place around all three of them as their biotics combined, providing instant relief from the sandpaper-like coarseness of the stone sliding past underneath them. A half-second later, however, the chatter of gunfire filled the air as the shuttles began to open fire, and with a grimace Liara quickly found herself hard pressed to maintain concentration on the barrier.
"Oh, look," Shepard shouted. "It's sand."
Looking away from the shuttles firing on them, Liara's eyes widened to the size of saucers as she saw the tops of the closest dunes now almost level with them with the ground not far behind. Frantically, she threw all her strength into the barrier around them. Either this barrier would save them, or she simply wouldn't have to worry about anything else for the rest of her very short life.
Less than a second later, their biotic bubble slammed into the ground hard enough to plow a crater several feet deep into the sand. For just a moment, the pain building up at the base of Liara's skull exploded into an excruciating spike, only to dissipate as their barrier squished, flattened, then finally popped like an overfilled balloon and spilled all three of them out across the ground.
Liara stood, groaning as she spit out a mouthful of sand. Her whole face felt as if someone had punched her with boxing gloves made of steel wool and her head throbbed with ominous portends of headaches to come, but the good news was that she was alive to complain about these things. By her side, she saw Jack struggle out from underneath where Shepard had fallen on her, angrily muttering to herself as she shoved her away. "I think I liked you better when you were comatose," she spat.
Running over to her side, Liara put one of Shepard's arms around her shoulders and hauled her up to her feet. With a groan, Jack took up Shepard's other arm, and together the three stood fully upright at the base of the pyramid. Looking upwards, Liara frowned as she saw the Cerberus shuttles now circling above them, each of them descending towards the ground with each passing second. Her mind racing, she glanced instead towards the nearby set of ruins, now only fifty or so feet away from where they had landed.
Her mouth settled into a grim line, and as the roars of shuttle engines grew ever louder she turned to face Jack across Shepard's slumped form. Meeting her gaze, Jack's face settled into a similar expression. "Run?" she asked.
Liara nodded. "We run."
Shepard huffed out a rasping laugh that caused Liara's heart to squeeze uncomfortably. "Nice," she wheezed. "I'm great at running."
The crackle of gunfire started up once more, kicking up small puffs of sand as bullets began to strafe the area all around them. Not hesitating to look back, they immediately took off at a run, with Liara and Jack essentially dragging Shepard over the sand. Bullets rained down around them as the pursuing shuttles swarmed overhead, forcing them to keep their heads held low and focus on simply sprinting as quickly forwards as they could manage towards the nearest set of ruins.
The roar of engines overhead suddenly multiplied, and glancing up Liara saw even more shuttles beginning to pour out of the top of the pyramid behind them. Feeling her heart sink, she glanced forwards to see they had only made it halfway to what looked to be a partially collapsed wall as more and more bullets zinged past her head each second. They needed cover of any kind, and they needed it now.
Liara's biotics flared to life in a rush of power, and with her free hand she held up a barrier above their heads. Blue light exploded into being over them like a glowing umbrella, and immediately she felt the strain of holding back a torrent of gunfire start to take its toll. A moment later, she saw Jack light up electric blue to match her as she started slinging blasts of energy past the barrier as they ran.
An explosion rang out above them, much closer than Liara would have liked. Glancing up, she watched as the starboard engines of one shuttle gave out from Jack's assault, forcing it to veer hard to one side and slam into a second shuttle. Together, the two flaming vehicles smashed into the sand behind them, exploding once again as Jack let out an exhilarated whoop.
In response, the soldiers in the remaining shuttles laid down their triggers, pouring down even more gunfire onto Liara's barrier. Gritting her teeth, Liara doubled down on her biotics even as she pounded her boots into the sand, desperately pushing forwards the last stretch of open ground. Finally, the three of them dove forwards beneath the slanted wall before them, letting it take the brunt of the attack as Liara let her biotics dissipate with a flash.
"Alright, we're not dead yet," Jack panted. "What the hell do we do now?"
"I'm working on that, gimme a sec," Shepard slurred. With a grunt, she slid herself to sit upright against the fallen pillar supporting the collapsed wall above them, then raised a finger to toggle her earpiece. "Normandy, this is Shepard. What's your situation?"
There was a long pause, giving Liara plenty of time to think about how easily the wall above them could crumble at any moment, before finally Joker's voice crackled to life in her earpiece. "Shepard, this is Normandy. We just finished picking up Garrus and Tali and are on our way to the designated LZ. Chakwas already has Garrus in the med bay and is prepping for surgery as we speak."
Liara started, suddenly remembering with dread the earlier emergency call from Tali. Oh, Goddess, she thought, was Garrus hurt that badly?
Shepard, however, took the news in stride. A look of concentration appeared in place of the hazy expression that she had worn a moment ago, and with a much stronger voice she barked, "Scratch the LZ, we're changing plans. We need a combat pickup ASAP, you read me?"
"Roger, on our way. ETA's ten minutes." He paused for a moment, then asked, "Also, how hot a landing zone are we talking? I've been getting pretty bored just sitting on my ass up here, I could use a challenge."
Shepard scoffed. "Hot enough that if you don't get your ass down here, there isn't gonna be anybody left to pick up."
"Got it, pedal to the medal. See you all in ten."
Shepard looked over towards Jack. "Our ride's on the way, but we gotta hold out for ten minutes."
Jack frowned. "Wasn't your ship in orbit already? What type of slow-ass ride you got that's gonna take ten minutes to get here?"
Shaking her head, Shepard replied, "I mean there's this thing called reentry speed, you know? I don't have insurance for 'my ship vaporized from going too fast in-atmosphere.'"
"Great." Jack turned to look towards Liara. "Guess Blue and I are doing all the hard work then."
Liara nodded grimly. "Ten minutes isn't so long, I suppose."
Shepard grinned and weakly clapped Liara on the shoulder. "I knew there was a reason I liked you."
Engines flared and wind whipped through the air off to one side of their little shelter. Peeking out past the pillar Shepard was leaning on, Liara frowned as she saw multiple shuttles had started to land on the sand. Apparently having given up on blasting them from above, they instead slid open their doors and disgorged several squads of troopers onto the ground.
Light flared to life by Liara's side, and before she could react a Jack-shaped comet of biotic energy hurled forwards and bowled over the first wave of soldiers. Drawing her pistol to assist, Liara moved to kneel next to Shepard and opened fire into the crowd, taking advantage of their distraction as Jack began throwing troopers around like ragdolls. Her hands shook as she frantically squeezed her trigger again and again, but with the number of soldiers swarming before her accuracy hardly seemed to matter.
Cerberus bodies quickly began piling up on the sand, either collapsing from Liara's panicked shots or being smashed into the sand by Jack. Every thirty seconds or so, another shuttle would land and drop off a fresh squad of enemies, only for them to quickly be overwhelmed by Jack's rampaging assault. Settling back behind cover to reload, Liara's brows raised in morbid fascination as she watched the other biotic fight. It was almost like watching a small hurricane swirl around, accompanied every so often by furious cries of "I will destroy you all!" and "Eat shit, fucker!"
By her side, Shepard let out a pained chuckle. "You know, I think I'm starting to like her."
Liara frowned. "Didn't she threaten to murder you once?"
"Oh, we're way past just once now, but who's counting?" Shepard said, waving one hand dismissively.
Liara's forthcoming speech in which she would encourage Shepard to choose better friends was, unfortunately, delayed by a series of loud explosions, followed by a yelp of, "Oh shit!"
Peeking back out from their little shelter, Liara saw a flash of movement as Jack went sailing across the ruins and smashed through a dusty wall. Another set of explosions roiled across the ground after her, and looking up Liara saw that several more shuttles had arrived to begin bombarding the entire area from the air.
A bullet zipped past her head, slamming instead into the fallen pillar and exploding into a cloud of stone shrapnel. Flinching back, she threw herself onto the ground next to Shepard as one shuttle parked itself a few feet above the sand. The doors on its sides slid open, revealing a fresh squad of soldiers that promptly opened fire into their little hidey-hole.
Dust, sand, and painfully sharp chunks of rock exploded all around Liara like a maelstrom as the wall above them shredded under the torrent of bullets. By her side, Shepard grunted as she too was pelted by shrapnel. They slid together farther down behind their quickly deteriorating cover, now nearly laying flat across the sand to try to hide.
"Give me your gun!" Shepard shouted over the noise. "I'll draw their fire so you can get away!"
Liara shook her head vehemently. "I am not leaving you behind, Shepard!"
Shepard's mouth twisted into an angry frown, drawing Liara's attention to how oddly blue her lips seemed. Blinking, she quickly ran her eyes over the rest of Shepard's face only to find that her skin had become deathly pale, leeching her of her usual warm complexion. A sharp pain seemed to radiate from her, gathering in the lines of her mouth and eyes, and every few seconds or so she sucked in a shuddering breath.
Shepard winced suddenly, grasping at her chest with one hand as she shifted her weight to her other side. With a sinking feeling, Liara realized that she must be hurt far worse than she had assumed.
"We have to get you out of here!" she yelled, hefting her pistol as she crept towards the mouth of their shelter.
"Damn it, Liara, wait!" Shepard crawled forwards, a stricken look on her face. "What are you going to do?"
Liara smiled ruefully. "Nothing intelligent, I imagine."
Her biotics flared to life with a dull hum, pooling around her fists like two cerulean bonfires. Rising up onto her feet, she quickly lunged forwards out from underneath the fallen wall. Bullets immediately began spraying the area all around her, but before any could find their mark Liara raised her now-glowing fists and smashed them into the ground.
A huge plume of sand erupted into the air as her biotics discharged, throwing up a massive smokescreen of dust around her. The hail of bullets falling around her lessened as the soldiers lost their line of sight, and without hesitating Liara broke out into a sprint. She burst out of the side of the dust cloud, using the small reprieve she bought herself to examine the area as she ran.
Before her, the lowest Cerberus shuttle hovered menacingly in the air, flanked on either side by dozens of troopers now entrenched behind what parts of the ruins still stood. To her left, she spotted the wall Jack had been hurled through, which looped around before collapsing to form the leaning bunker she had just exited. To her right, a series of free standing pillars jutted up from the sands, whatever they had once supported now long since destroyed.
An idea suddenly popped into her head like a bolt of lightning. Banking hard to the left, Liara dug her boots into the sand and sprinted alongside the curving wall. A moment later, a distorted shout rang out followed closely by several rifles opening fire at once. Sand and stone immediately began exploding all around her, forcing Liara to coat herself in a thin barrier as she ran.
Reaching the point where the wall collapsed, she leapt upwards over a pile of rubble, landing gracefully upon the slanted stone currently covering Shepard. Not stopping even as bullets skittered off the stone and deflected off her barrier, she ran doggedly up the makeshift ramp. Her blood roared in her ears between sharp breaths, and as she neared the peak of the ramp her vision tunneled into a single point: a ten-foot pillar jutting up into the air several feet ahead.
She exhaled as time seemed to slow around her. Approaching the top of the ramp, all her worries and fears seemed to drain away. For just one single moment, her world sharpened into crystalized clarity of purpose. Reaching the top of the fallen wall, she planted a foot into the jagged stone and leapt with all her might.
Time seemed to slingshot back into its regular pacing as Liara flew through the air. Seemingly instantly, she slammed into the side of the pillar with a grunt as the lip caught her in the gut. As her fingers scrambled to gain purchase on the rough stone, bullets rained down on her from all sides as seemingly every shuttle in the area opened fire on her. One such bullet slammed into the barrier at the back of her head, knocking her head forwards to bump painfully into the pillar.
Feeling the strain begin to build, Liara quickly hauled herself up on top of the pillar to find herself balancing on a skinny circle of stone barely wide enough for her to stand upright. Looking forwards, she now had an excellent view of the line of freestanding pillars extending across the ruins before her like a series of tiny platforms. In every direction, the skies of Rayingri were filled with Cerberus shuttles swarming around her like large, angry bees.
Glancing downwards, she saw Jack struggling out from beneath a pile of broken stone with a dazed expression. Her foot shifted as another pair of bullets glanced off her barrier, sending a pebble bouncing down towards the ground. Seeing the movement, Jack glanced up and, with an incredulous expression, grunted, "What the fuck?"
Liara exploded into motion, trusting her body to move on its own even as she focused on executing her hare-brained scheme she had cooked up in the last thirty seconds. Dropping her barrier, she instead focused her biotics to lighten her own mass, enabling her to leap gracefully from pillar to pillar like a dancer. Bullets scythed through the air just inches away and at every step the stone crumbled beneath her feet, but Liara continued sprinting forwards like none of it could touch her. Her eyes saw none of the rifles aimed towards her or pillars wobbling beneath her, focused instead only on the shuttle still laying down suppressing fire towards Shepard.
In mere seconds, she found herself soaring towards the last of the pillars; beyond it, only more piles of rubble existed before they too disappeared into the sand. Landing on her right foot, she twisted her heel before shoving off at a forty-five degree angle to her left. She soared through the air, her arms extended out at her sides like wings as the sandy ruins passed by below her. Just as she reached the peak of her jump and gravity seemed to take hold of her once more, something underneath her flashed past. Rolling into a ball, she landed lightly and somersaulted up onto her feet to see that she now stood atop the shuttle like one large metal platform.
Not hesitating for a moment, she moved over towards the nearest engine. Drawing up next to one of the starboard thrusters, she gazed for a moment at the metal casing around the blazing hot blast of flame jetting from the opening at the bottom. She kneeled, extending her left hand to rest just an inch above where the thruster connected to the body of the shuttle, then allowed the full force of her biotics to pulse through her hand. Her body flashed into a blinding corona of energy as a tingling rush of power flowed through her, suffusing deeply into the molecular bindings of the metal. Grimacing with the effort, she clenched her fingers into a fist and pulled, warping the very atoms of the shuttle as harshly as she could manage.
A pained metallic screech rang out as the thruster's mounting seemed to collapse in on itself like a tin can. Immediately, the engine started sputtering in sad blasts of heat like a dying animal. The world tilted around her as the shuttle started to spin sickeningly underneath her, and from somewhere inside she heard muffled shouts of alarm from the soldiers inside.
Still maintaining the warp with one hand, Liara raised up her other hand to aim to place her pistol up against the crumpled metal. Fury welled up within her, filling her chest and racing up through her throat like a burning wave. A guttural scream tore its way out of her mouth, and even as her biotics flared she began squeezing the trigger as fast as she could manage.
The bullets tore through the weakened metal like styrofoam, punching jagged holes completely through the shuttle's chassis like it wasn't even there. Shards of metal splintered off and electrical wires sparked as, in only seconds, Liara shredded through the entire metal bar and snapped the thruster clean off.
The shuttle reeled beneath her, tilting sharply to one side and throwing her completely off her feet. Bracing her arms around her head and neck, she fell backwards into a roll and tumbled across the metal roof of the shuttle even as it careened around the ruins haphazardly like a dying animal. Sparks and gouts of smoke belched from the open wound where the thruster had been a moment ago, and up above her the hazy yellow skies of Rayingri swirled dizzyingly.
As she rolled and rolled across the shuttle, Liara found she had just enough time to think, Hm, perhaps this was a bad idea-
The shuttle slammed into the side of the row of pillars, flinging Liara off of it and out into open air. She tumbled in free fall for a split second before slamming into the sand with a grunt. Somewhere off to her right, she heard stone crumbling and metal crunching, but for the moment found that she was too dazed to worry about that just yet. She winced, forcing herself to roll onto her back as she spit out a mouthful of sand. Wasn't sand supposed to make for a soft landing?
A pair of strong hands latched around her shoulders and pulled her up into a sitting position. Liara blinked, halfheartedly slapping at her assailant, only to stop as Jack's grinning visage appeared before her. "Damn, Blue," she said, "I didn't know they taught this kind of shit at asari college."
Liara blinked as Jack gestured over her shoulder. Leaning past her, she saw the shuttle she had been thrown clear of was now a twisted wreck of metal and plastic, half-buried beneath a row of shattered stone pillars. All around the crash, several Cerberus soldiers were strewn across the ground like toy soldiers with broken armor.
Shrugging modestly, she stood with Jack's help. "Well, it really depends," she replied. "The trick is picking the right extracurriculars."
The crackle of gunfire cut through their conversation, providing ample motivation for them both to scurry back into their makeshift bomb shelter. As she slid underneath the fallen wall, Liara saw Shepard was now laying flat on her back with her eyes closed. Her short hair was plastered to her forehead with sweat, and somehow her face seemed even more deathly pale than before.
Feeling a surge of panic, Liara quickly crawled over to her side and gently cupped the side of her face. "Shepard, can you hear me?" she asked.
Shepard's eyes fluttered open, revealing her warm brown irises that seemed to glow in the desert sun. "Hey, you," she murmured. "I see you've done something intelligent to that shuttle."
Liara huffed out a soft laugh, feeling the iron bands of concern around her chest ease just a bit. "I'm glad someone was paying attention, I suppose."
Shepard's eyes twinkled. "Of course, Doc. I'm a model student, after all."
"Hey, I think we got a fuckin problem," Jack cut in, "so if you two could stop being disgusting and come help I'd appreciate that."
Liara quickly helped Shepard upright, then together they shuffled forwards to sit next to Jack. Peering out from under their wall, Liara frowned as she saw easily a dozen shuttles still swarming over their position. Every few seconds, she also saw a flash of white and orange as troopers on the ground shifted from cover to cover. Even with her lack of experience in military matters, she could see that not only was there no safe escape for them, but in seconds they would be completely overrun.
A sudden low roar caught Liara's attention, cutting through the chatter of assault rifles and whine of shuttle engines. Frowning, she tilted her head and began scanning the ruins for the source of the noise, but to no avail. "Do you all hear that?" she asked, an unsettling sense of trepidation starting to build in her gut.
Jack frowned in concentration for a moment, then nodded. "Yeah, sounds like engines maybe. Could that be your ship?"
Shaking her head, Shepard grunted, "It's only been seven minutes. Normandy's not gonna be here for–"
She stopped suddenly, recognition sparking across her face. "Oh, shit, everybody down!"
All three of them hit the ground just as the wall Jack had smashed through earlier exploded outwards across the ruins. Wincing through the clouds of sand whirling through the air, Liara peeked up to see where the wall had been a moment ago was now empty space as two boxy, tank-like vehicles smashed through the ancient ruins to come to a stop only twenty feet away. Atop each vehicle sat a massive cannon nearly the length of the tank, and as Liara watched each one opened its doors to disgorge squads of Cerberus troopers holding large riot shields in one hand and submachine guns in the other.
"Alright, yeah," Shepard grunted as the troopers began to approach, flanked on either side by even more soldiers emerging from cover. "This is bad."
As one, the Cerberus troops unleashed a maelstrom of bullets into the air. Slamming her head back into the sand, Liara gritted her teeth as the ruins seemed to disintegrate all around them. A moment later, explosions started to shake the very ground beneath them as the shuttles up above resumed their bombardment. Panic started rushing through Liara's veins like an injection of ice water. Only seconds remained before Cerberus completely destroyed these ruins with them in it, but where could they go?
An ear-splitting screech pierced through the chaos; a simultaneous ripping sound of air combusting and a familiar roar of engines that Liara had never been happier to hear in her life. A deep thud of cannonfire punched Liara in the chest, and a moment later nearly half of the shuttles overhead exploded into balls of flame. Across the ruins, the soldiers cried out in alarm and dove for cover as flaming chunks of debris fell all around.
A split second later, a massive shadow swept over the ruins as the Normandy screamed past, its boxy prow glowing with heat as flames licked at the edges of its wings. As it vanished across the ruins, Joker's smug voice crackled to life in Liara's earpiece. "Normandy to ground team, the cavalry has arrived!"
A spark of hope flared to life in Liara's chest even as Shepard let out a relieved laugh. "Slow down, asshole," she yelled with a grin. "My goddamn ship is on fire!"
"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Bill me for the replacement paint job once you escape certain death."
Shaking her head with a rueful smile, Shepard turned to face Liara and Jack. "Alright, gang, time for us to make our exit. Any ideas?"
"Yeah, I got one," Jack said with an evil grin. With a roar, she vaulted out from beneath the fallen wall, her biotics a flaming corona of death as she charged towards the Cerberus troops. Still reeling from the Normandy's attack, the horde of soldiers scattered before her like ants before a hurricane. In no time at all, the ruins were full of biotic explosions, screams of fear, and soldiers being chucked around like ragdolls as Jack carved a path of destruction towards the nearest tank.
Turning away from the carnage, Liara placed her hands around Shepard's shoulders and said, "I believe it is time to go."
Shepard turned towards her with a smile, and from this close Liara could see the haze of pain clouding her eyes. "My hero," she slurred, a loopy smile on her face. "If this is what it takes to be your damsel in distress, I should get hurt more often."
An overwhelming warmth bloomed out across Liara's cheeks and spread down her neck. Blinking, she realized with a start that Shepard's face had somehow moved to be only inches away from her own. Her gaze flickered down towards her lips, tantalizingly close, only for the warmth in her cheeks to be matched by a low heat pooling in her gut. What were they supposed to be doing again?
"Hey, assholes!" Liara blinked, jerking her head away from Shepard and turning to see Jack rip a Cerberus trooper out of the driver's seat of the nearest tank. Whirling around with a furious scowl, she pointed towards the now empty vehicle and shouted, "Be gay later, get in the fucking tank now!"
Her face a mortifying shade of violet, Liara slung Shepard's arm over her shoulder and began dragging her across the sand towards the tank. All around them, Cerberus soldiers lay in the sand, some groaning and some deathly still from their tangle with Jack. Up above, the shuttles still were reeling from the Normandy's drive-by, giving Liara and Shepard the precious few seconds they needed to cross the open ground unaccosted.
As they drew up alongside the vehicle, Shepard groaned and lifted her head from where it had been resting against Liara's shoulder. "Put me in the driver's seat," she gasped. "I'll get us out of here."
Liara stumbled to a stop with a skeptical frown. "Shepard, I don't think that's a great idea-"
Shepard shook her head stubbornly. "Look, unless you or Jack got your certifications for operating a Mako when I wasn't looking, I'm the only one here that can even drive that thing."
Forced to concede the issue, Liara shifted Shepard in her arms and hoisted her up into the front seat, then quickly ran around the back to climb into the empty passenger hold. Moving as far forwards as she could, she stood behind the two front seats and stared nervously out through the viewing screens.
A moment later, Jack slid in from the other side to fill the gunner's seat, only to stop as she saw Shepard with her hands on the controls. "Wait, who the hell said you could drive?"
"No time to argue," Shepard wheezed, her hands dancing across the many instrument panels to engage engines and flip ignition switches. "Just man the turret."
A savage grin sliced across Jack's face like a piece of broken glass. "I can do that." She punched a command into the console before her, and as Liara watched Jack's half of the front viewing screen flashed red as a targeting reticle appeared.
As Shepard worked her magic, the doors all around the Mako hissed shut and locked into place with an ominous click. The engine revved, and as Shepard locked her hands around the steering joysticks an urgent question popped into Liara's head. "Shepard," she asked tentatively, "how long has it been since you've driven one of these?"
Shepard flashed a tired grin over her shoulder. "Oh, probably four or five years, why?"
Liara gulped nervously. "Oh, no reason." Glancing forwards, she frowned as she saw the remaining shuttles above start to congregate worryingly above them. "Shouldn't we be going?"
"Right." Shepard turned forwards, doing her best to blink the haze out of her eyes. "Hold on everybody, this might get a little bumpy."
She stomped heavily onto the accelerator, forcing Liara to clutch the back of her seat tightly to avoid being thrown back across the passenger hold. Unfortunately, standing at the front was no better as it provided her with an excellent view of their Mako rocketing forwards through the ruins straight for a crumbling wall. "Shepard!" she shouted. "Turn!"
Less than a second later, the Mako plowed straight through the wall like it was made of paper. Loud thumps rang out across the vehicle as chunks of stone went flying like confetti, and as Liara desperately attempted to keep her balance Shepard began giggling maniacally. Glancing to her right with a grimace, Liara met eyes with Jack and saw her own mounting horror echoed back at her. "Maybe we should slow down a little," she suggested. "Perhaps avoid the walls, too?"
Shepard only floored the gas, hollering in exhilaration as she yanked on the steering to whip the tail of the Mako through another set of pillars. Straightening out, she set the nose of the Mako towards the nearest sand dunes and gunned it into the desert. "Sorry, what was that?" she called back. "I couldn't hear you over those rocks or whatever."
Liara shook her head, suddenly feeling rather ill. "Oh, nothing, never mind."
Seemingly satisfied with her answer, Shepard nodded and reached up with one hand to toggle her earpiece. "Joker, this is Shepard. We're in the Mako that's hauling ass out into the desert, so we'd appreciate that pickup any time now."
"Roger that Shep, we got you on our scanners. Making our turn now to come back around and pick you up."
A moment later, his voice reappeared in Liara's earpiece. "Shit, we got a swarm of bogeys coming out of that compound just past the ruins. You guys are about to have a whole lot of friends drop in."
"Great," Shepard drawled. "Just get back here as fast as you can." Turning off her earpiece, she turned and grunted to Jack, "We got incoming, left side!"
Jack yanked on the joystick before her, swiveling her screen around towards the area Shepard had mentioned. Up above, Liara heard a mechanical whirring as their turret mirrored her actions. "I see 'em," Jack said. Peering towards her screen, Liara felt her breathing quicken as she saw no less than ten Cerberus ATVs, accompanied by another Mako.
A sudden flash illuminated the screen. A split second later, a dune of sand just off to their left vaporized into a glass crater in an explosion strong enough to nearly send Liara flying off her feet. "Fuck!" Jack gasped. "Their tank's shooting at us!"
"What are you waiting for, then?" Shepard yelled. "Fire back!"
Jack's mouth twisted into a murderous frown, and with one swift motion she pulled down the trigger on her joystick. Immediately, a boom loud enough to set Liara's head ringing exploded just above them as their own turret returned fire. Several hundred feet away, an ATV vanished into a blast of flame that sent its riders hurtling backwards across the sand.
"Hell yes!" Jack shouted. "Eat missiles, you motherfuckers!"
Again and again she fired, the concussive blasts of their cannon rattling around the walls of the Mako painfully loudly. Many of her shots went wide or were intercepted by dunes of sand rearing up between them and their targets, but just as many found their mark with deadly accuracy. Soon enough, the sands behind them were littered with a trail of flaming wrecks as ATV after ATV found their end by Jack's hands.
Glancing away from Jack's screen, Liara instead looked over towards Shepard with a worried frown. Despite her mostly steady grip on the controls, Shepard's entire face was now a light shade of blue to match her lips, and every few seconds she sucked in a deep, rattling breath like she was having trouble breathing. Each of the many bumps and jostles of their ride seemed to pain Shepard intensely, as every time she winced or groaned softly, but still she clung to the controls like a lifeline. With a sinking feeling, Liara realized that Shepard must be putting her complete focus into simply keeping them moving in a straight line.
Something slammed into the side of the Mako in a deafening explosion, sending Liara flying into the wall of the passenger bay. Her shoulder slammed painfully against the metal wall before she slid to the floor with a grunt. From up front, she heard Shepard growl as she fought to keep them moving forwards even as Jack swore and returned fire towards the Mako trailing them. Pain lanced through Liara's shoulder, but after a moment she shook her head and forced herself upright once more to stand behind the front seats.
As she stood, a sound like metallic rain began rattling around the inside of the Mako even as alarms began to wail. "Shit," Jack grunted, "those fucking shuttles are back!"
Shepard growled in frustration. "Shoot them down then!"
"I can't, I'm busy keeping the other Mako off our ass!"
"Shit!" Shepard reached up to toggle her earpiece with one hand, desperately swerving around a sand dune with the other. "Joker, we're getting hammered down here!" she barked. "Where's that evac?"
As if on cue, streaks of light began flashing across the sky above them. Moments later, explosions began to dot the skies as shuttle after shuttle exploded like fiery piñatas. Relief flooded through Liara as the rain of bullets falling down upon their Mako immediately stopped, and as she looked forwards a familiar shape started to grow just above the horizon ahead of them.
"One incredibly heroic evac, coming right up," Joker chirped. "The bay doors are open, so if you wouldn't mind jumping that dune I see there just ahead of you…"
Shepard's mouth twitched up into a tired grin. "Way ahead of you, Joker." Angling the Mako towards a tall, thirty foot dune arcing up before them, she slammed on the accelerator and sent them rocketing forwards. "Just don't miss, you hear me?"
Liara frantically clutched the seats before her, her fingers going numb from the strain as the Mako tilted more and more upwards. "Funny," Joker's voice said in her earpiece. "I was about to tell you the same thing."
A missile screamed past them, missing by a matter of feet before vaporizing a chunk of the dune just off to their left. Ignoring this completely, Shepard's gaze sharpened into a look of utter focus. "Alright everybody," she called as she reached towards a large red button on her control panel. "You all might want to hold on to something!"
Just as Liara was about to ask what specifically she should be holding onto, Shepard slammed her fist into the red button. A horrific roar exploded into being at the rear of the Mako, and in moments Liara found herself nearly flung completely off her feet as the tank flew forwards at a speed faster than she had thought possible. In mere moments, the entirety of the dune disappeared before them, and before she knew it they were rocketing out into open air.
Screaming filled the interior of the Mako as all sense of weight and gravity seemed to vanish. Liara wasn't quite sure if she was screaming or if they all were screaming, but someone was definitely screaming as they flew through the sky like a tank-shaped missile. Whether it was from fear or sheer exhilaration, Liara would never know. All she knew at the moment was in that moment everything seemed to disappear around her except for the infinite sky in all directions.
A shadow swooped in from above, filling their view screens with a dark shape that quickly blotted out the horizon. Squinting her eyes at the sudden loss of light, Liara blinked as she saw an open maw descending towards them, almost like a massive storage container soaring through the air and waiting to eat them. Surely, she thought, we aren't doing what I think-
Before she could even finish the thought, the Mako soared directly into the open cargo bay of the Normandy just as it swooped down from above. Instantly, Shepard yanked the steering hard to one side and slammed the accelerator as far as it would go in a desperate attempt to cancel their momentum. Once again, Liara found her arms nearly ripped from their sockets as she was nearly flung across the passenger bay. Behind her, the engines of the Mako screamed worryingly for just a moment, before finally they slammed into something solid with a sickening crunch.
Liara tumbled to the floor, jarred loose from her death grip on the front seats. She landed with a grunt, banging her jaw uncomfortably against the metal floor. From up ahead, she heard both Shepard and Jack grunt in pain from the sudden deceleration. Metal creaked all around them, like the Mako itself complaining about the rough landing, before finally something settled and everything went silent.
Rather than stand back up immediately, Liara simply lay still and enjoyed the simple pleasure of being alive and not a wet splotch somewhere against the underside of the Normandy. One of these days, she was going to have to have a talk with Shepard about the proper way to board a ship.
A wet cough rang out from the front of the cabin, reminding Liara all at once of Shepard's condition. In a surge of panic, she forced herself roughly up to her feet and staggered forwards to see Shepard slouched limply against the side of the Mako. By her side, Jack sat unmoving in her seat, staring out the front of the vehicle with a blank stare. "Holy shit," she muttered to herself. "Oh, god…"
Shepard coughed again, then halfway through the motion began to weakly chuckle. "Well," she wheezed. "I'd say this went pretty smoothly, all things considered."
Then, to Liara's horror, she promptly slumped forwards and passed out.
A/N: so i did have a rough patch here of being unable to force myself to write for a while but i finally figured that shit out and wrote the second half of this chapter in like one week yeehaw. also if anybody here actually knows shit about martial arts im very sorry and please just pretend that i know what i'm talking about thank u very much. anyways as always thanks for reading and i love you all and i'll see you next time!