"Alright gang, we're dropping out of FTL on my mark," Joker's voice crackled through the comm system. "Three… two… one… mark!"
Shepard lurched forwards in her place at the CIC as the ship shuddered beneath her, the engines groaning as they dropped back down to sublight speeds. Across the deck, she saw Liara and Tali equally thrown off balance by the sudden deceleration.
Shepard grimaced as she straightened back up. She was going to have to replace the Normandy's inertial dampeners again, judging by the sound of things.
"Look alive, people!" she barked. "What do we got?"
"Drive core is stable, everything is running green," Tali replied.
One console over, Liara frowned in concentration down at her screen. "Destination just ahead, Shepard."
Shepard's hands flew across her own console, and after a few moments a holographic display in the center of the CIC flickered to life. After a burst of visual static, the image resolved itself into a familiar-looking planet with a single large moon.
"Rayingri and Vahtz, just where we left them," Shepard murmured. "Good flying Joker, we're right where I wanted us."
"Just so you know, I take my thank you's both in written and monetary form."
Shepard scoffed. "How about I tell you to run a scan for other ships instead? I don't want any unplanned surprises this time around."
"Yeah, yeah, I'm on it."
Glancing up from her display, Shepard saw Tali staring towards the projection of Vahtz intently, her shoulders rigid with tension. "Shepard, you do know it has barely been more than a day since we all almost died here, right?" she whined.
Shepard nodded. "I know, I'm sorry to drag us all back out here but something Liara said got me thinking."
"Are you thinking about how many times we got shot down on Vahtz? Because that's all I'm thinking about right now, in case you were wondering."
"That's very helpful, thank you for that." Shepard shook her head, looking back towards the rapidly approaching moon hanging low in Rayingri's orbit. "After Joker picked you up, he said that you and Garrus pretty well demolished an entire Cerberus facility down there. Would you say that's accurate?"
Tali nodded. "Yes, they had some sort of fueling station surrounded by docking bays for what looked like a small fleet of fighters and other small ships. There wasn't much still standing by the time we left, though."
"Perfect." Shepard grinned and turned to see Liara gazing towards her with a puzzled expression. "Cerberus is at least partially a military operation, right? I figure there's no way they don't send people back here, if only to see what equipment they can scavenge from whatever's left of their base."
Understanding bloomed across Liara's face. "You plan to ambush whoever comes back to investigate."
"We ambush them, disable whatever ships they bring, then grab their navigational data," Shepard confirmed. "Hopefully that will point us towards whatever main base Coré is working out of."
Tali tilted her head to one side in what passed for her as a dubious expression. "What if they just send someone from their encampment down on Rayingri? Or what if we do find someone, but they don't lead back to Coré?"
"I doubt they'll send anyone from Rayingri," Shepard replied. "From what we saw down there, all they had on hand were shuttles for shipping small amounts of troops around at a time. For something like this, they'd need a ship large enough to transport personnel and still have space for anything they salvage."
"As for the other problem…" She shrugged. "If this doesn't lead us to Coré, we just keep looking through whatever we do find. Sooner or later, we'll find what we need."
Joker's voice rang out through the comms once more, cutting through the conversation. "Shepard, we got something on the sensors. Relaying data now."
The CIC display flickered as the signature boxy shape of the Normandy appeared. A moment later, several more ships appeared between the Normandy and Vahtz, all concentrated together in a cluster near the moon.
At the center of this formation was what appeared to be a large freighter, constructed in a squat rectangular shape with a small cabin set into the front. Around this freighter, no less than six significantly smaller ships flitted around in a defensive formation.
"Fighters," Shepard grumbled. "Joker, looks like you've got your hands full this time."
Liara frowned. "The largest ship seems to be just an average cargo freighter," she said. "Are we sure this is even Cerberus?"
"A cargo ship headed for a secret military base with its own detachment of fighters?" Shepard shook her head grimly. "No, this is Cerberus alright."
She input a command into her terminal, prompting a short siren to blast across the ship as she toggled the shipwide PA system. "Everybody hit their battle stations, things are about to get loud!"
The siren continued to wail for several more seconds as the Normandy drew closer to Vahtz. Shepard felt her heart begin to kick in her chest as the familiar pre-fight adrenaline started to course through her system. "Alright Joker," she said. "Time to earn your paycheck."
"Hell yes, roger that!" The deck under Shepard's feet began to rumble as the Normandy rocketed forwards in a sudden burst of speed. Belatedly, she slipped the straps of the harness attached to her seat over her shoulders to keep her locked in place.
"Remember, I need that freighter intact after all this," she called.
"Yeah okay mom, whatever."
"Wait, we're going to shoot at them?" Liara asked. "Does this ship even have weapons?"
Shepard grinned. "The Normandy's got a paired cannon and torpedo launcher, both military grade."
Liara frowned skeptically. "Is that even legal?"
"It is as long as the government doesn't know about it," Shepard cheekily replied. Liara simply rolled her eyes in response before turning back towards her terminal.
On the CIC display, the Normandy raced closer and closer towards the Cerberus ships. Shepard felt her shoulders tense as she watched silently, her heartbeat ticking ever faster. Every passing moment she felt more and more sure they would be spotted, but as the seconds passed Joker flew them closer and closer towards their target with no sign they had been detected.
With a quick input into her terminal, she brought up the targeting data from the Normandy's battery. As soon as Joker picked out a target, she would line up a firing solution and pull the trigger. She smiled to herself, remembering the phrase used to teach this procedure back in the Alliance. Pilot picks the target, gunner shoots the target, then we all go out for drinks afterward.
Joker's voice broke through her thoughts as he whooped with excitement. "Strafing run commenced, Shepard. Let's give these bastards a wake-up call!"
Text began to flow across Shepard's terminal in rapid fire bursts. Her fingers flying across the keys, she lined up a series of shots and slammed the firing key. "Punch it!" she yelled.
The engines roared as the Normandy screamed past the cluster of Cerberus ships. As they blew by, Shepard felt the whole ship shudder as the ship's main cannon fired three shots, one after another.
Lifting her gaze from her terminal, she watched as three points of light arced out from the Normandy, crossing the distance between it and the Cerberus freighter in the blink of an eye. The first shot went wide and glanced off the side of the freighter's shields. The second and third shots, however, both slammed into the freighter's rear shields, blooming into two blinding explosions over its main engines.
The Normandy fully overtook the Cerberus ships a moment later, speeding past them as Joker angled them to curve around Vahtz just ahead. As they soared away, a salvo of panicked rounds were fired off from the freighter as it desperately wheeled about. To Shepard's satisfaction, she saw that none of them came even close to landing.
"The fighters are breaking formation," Liara suddenly called, a worried pitch in her voice. "They're pursuing!"
The Normandy rocked violently to one side as fire erupted all around the ship. A wailing alarm once again began echoing around the ship, accompanied by a burst of sparks from a nearby light fixture as the ship shuddered worryingly. On the CIC display, the Normandy lit up like a Christmas tree as the cloud of fighters behind them laid down on their triggers.
"Joker, we need our ship intact at the end of the fight too, remember?" Shepard called as another shower of sparks exploded out across the deck.
"Just give me a second, alright?"
The Normandy arced upwards and away from Vahtz, twisting and turning in a complex winding line as Joker began trying to shake the fighters. The straps of Shepard's harness bit into her shoulders as she was thrown first one way, then another, and with each jerk her fractured ribs cried out in protest. She shook off the pain with a grunt, still keeping her eyes glued to her terminal. If at any time Joker painted a target for her, she needed to stay ready to fire.
Joker pulsed the thrusters on the nose of the ship, suddenly slowing the ship's speed and spinning it around onto its side. The pursuing fighters, not ready for this deceleration, all were forced to scatter as the Normandy placed itself directly in the middle of their formation.
Immediately, the amount of fire raining down on the Normandy drastically reduced as the fighters suddenly found themselves unable to shoot without risking hitting one of their own ships. Taking advantage of their hesitation, Joker quickly dipped the port wing and swung the Normandy's nose around to face the nearest fighter.
Text once again began to flow across Shepard's monitor as the first target appeared in view of the main gun. Through the ship's speakers, Joker yelled, "Open season, Shepard!"
With a snarl, Shepard punched the firing key twice in quick succession. Twin roars of power rumbled through the deck as the main cannon fired, and on screen one fighter vanished as both shots punched straight through the small craft.
"That's what I'm talking about!" Joker crowed.
The Normandy dove sharply, flipping itself completely over to bring a second fighter into view. Without hesitation, Shepard fired again and watched with satisfaction as her target vanished in a flash of flame.
"Two targets destroyed," Liara called from her terminal. "That leaves four fighters remaining."
The four surviving ships, however, seemed to finally have gotten wise to Joker's strategy. All as one, they pulled up and away from the Normandy, leaving the ship exposed once again. A second later, cannon fire began raining down on across its hull as the fighters resumed their barrage.
"Shields at fifty percent and dropping!" Tali yelled.
Shepard winced. Watching the CIC display, she saw that no matter how tricky Joker flew or how tightly he turned, the four remaining Cerberus fighters were staying well away. With the fighters' superior maneuverability, they were free to hammer away at the Normandy as it desperately tried to outflank them.
An explosion rattled through the hull, nearly bouncing Shepard clear out of her seat. It was time to change tactics, she realized, before nothing was left of her ship but a broken husk.
"Joker," she called, "let's take this party somewhere a little more favorable for us, yeah?"
"Way ahead of you, Shepard. Time to turn up the heat!"
Shepard found herself suddenly pinned to her seat as the Normandy leapt forwards, its engines screaming as it blasted downward towards Vahtz. A second later, the ship started rattling noisily as it began plowing through the upper layer of the moon's atmosphere. Light flashed all around the ship as the turbulence increased, and on screen the Normandy's shields began to sizzle and glow from the increase in heat.
"Joker, we're way over safe reentry speeds," Tali warned, tension evident in her voice. "Shields have already dropped another five percent just from the friction!"
"I know what I'm doing, Tali," Joker snapped.
The Normandy jostled again as it continued plowing through Vahtz's atmosphere like a shooting star. A streak of flame had begun to stretch out from the stern of the ship, extending out nearly a kilometer behind them.
Above and behind the ship, Shepard saw that the pursuing fighters had been forced to pull back. Clearly unable to withstand the climbing temperature, the smaller ships were forced to skirt around Vahtz's atmosphere while the Normandy flew straight through. In only seconds, they were forced to stop shooting as they fell out of weapons range.
"Keep it up, we're starting to lose them," Shepard yelled. "Tali, how are those shields looking?"
"Holding at about forty percent, Shepard, but if we stay down here too much longer we'll start getting cooked with or without shields."
Shepard nodded. "Hear that, Joker?" she called. "Whatever you're gonna do, do it soon."
In response, the ship lurched again as Joker banked sharply upwards. Fire exploded around the Normandy as it punched its way clear of the atmosphere, only to dissipate as the ship began soaring through vacuum once again.
The ship wobbled again, nearly unseating Liara as she fell to one side with a yelp. "I don't understand," she complained. "How is there still turbulence with no atmosphere around us?"
Shepard pointed towards the holographic display, her expression grim. "Because we've got other problems now."
The upper curve of Vahtz covered the bottom of the display, with the Normandy flying above it like a small model ship. Over both of these, however, was the titanic form of Rayingri. The massive planet seemed to fill the entire CIC as its imposing presence dominated the room.
"Ah," said Liara, her voice small. "I see."
The Normandy rattled again, now caught in the dueling gravity wells fighting over the channel between the planet and its moon. On the display, Shepard saw Joker was now fighting to simply fly straight, much less do any complicated maneuvers.
"Joker, you sure about this?" she called. "This isn't exactly what I had in mind."
"C'mon, Shep, don't you trust me?" Joker cajoled.
Before Shepard could respond, the CIC display flashed as the four remaining Cerberus fighters appeared over Vahtz's horizon. In seconds, they zipped forwards into the channel behind the Normandy as their cannons charged up to fire.
"Fish in a barrel, Shepard. Light their asses up!"
With a grin, Shepard whipped up the firing solutions and slammed the firing key. Percussive blasts rang out across the CIC as the Normandy's cannon let loose four shots. Left with almost no room to maneuver in the unpredictable gravity between the two planetoids, the approaching fighters could do little but watch their doom approach in the form of four super-accelerated metal slugs.
Luckily for them, the strange local gravity didn't pick favorites. The first two shots, while on course at first, both curved hard to the side out of nowhere, sending them off into empty space. The third shot dropped like a rock as soon as it had been fired, then shot back up to nearly its original vector as if being yanked around by a puppeteer's strings. The slug then juked to the side at the last possible second, smashing through one of the fighter's wings and leaving it spinning off uncontrollably towards Rayingri.
The fourth shot amazingly flew straight and true, smashing straight through the cockpit of a second fighter and obliterating it instantly. Shepard sighed in relief. Slugs large enough for starships weren't exactly cheap, and with each missed shot she felt as if she could see her bank account draining before her eyes.
"Only two fighters remain," Liara said from across the CIC. "Oh, and the freighter, of course."
Cannonfire began to pepper the Normandy's hull as the two fighters strafed past, then started circling around for a second run. Not waiting for them to arrive, Joker drifted the ship around in a tight arc then blasted forwards back around Vahtz's horizon.
"Alright, Shepard, I got one more trick for you," Joker said. "Try this shot on for size."
A new target appeared on Shepard's monitor, and her hands immediately got to work plotting the shot before her brain caught up to what she was doing. She stopped for a moment, frowning down at the new data flashing before her. The next target Joker had selected for her was back on the opposite side of Vahtz with the entire moon sitting between them.
"Joker, now's not the time for practical jokes!" she yelled.
"I'm insulted you think that's a joke," he shot back. "What, you don't think you can make that shot?"
Shepard rolled her eyes. "Nobody's making that shot without being the luckiest son of a bitch in the galaxy. Stop messing around and get me a real target!"
"I bet Garrus could make that shot."
The CIC went silent. Glancing up from her terminal, Shepard saw Liara and Tali both regarding her with bemused expressions. Her mouth curved into an exasperated scowl, and with matching grins her crewmates turned back to their own terminals.
"I know what you're doing, asshole," Shepard growled, "and I'll have you know that what is about to happen was purely due to my own decisions and not any peer pressure bullshit."
"Whatever helps you sleep at night, boss."
She looked over the targeting data before her again, and with a groan she started lining up the most ridiculous shot she had ever attempted. She quickly started calculating the circumference of Vahtz and measuring the local gravity, then cross-referencing the speed needed to launch something into orbit. "Garrus could make this, my ass," she muttered. "I could outshoot that cocky bastard in my sleep."
She input the final adjustments to the firing line, then took a second to review her work. She paused, then adjusted the shot ever so slightly to one side. Nodding, she hovered her finger over the firing key. "Ready to go whenever you are, Joker," she called.
"Roger that," he responded. "Fire at will!"
Shepard inhaled deeply, exhaled, then slammed the firing key. The deck shook beneath her feet, and a moment later she heard the signature bassy refrain of a torpedo being launched. Looking up towards the viewscreen, she saw the glowing missile flash once before quickly zooming out of sight over the horizon.
Immediately, the Normandy banked hard to one side and shot off in the opposite direction of the torpedo. Moments later, the two remaining fighters descended behind the ship like a pair of angry bees. Fire flashed across the Normandy's hull once again, and much to Shepard's displeasure she saw the signature splashes of scoring across the outer hull of the ship's boxy prow.
"Alright, you've had your fun," she barked. "Time to stop playing with your food and finish this."
Joker sighed. "You're no fun sometimes, you know that?"
Shepard jerked forwards in her seat as the Normandy blasted its nose thrusters once again, bringing the ship nearly to a halt. A split second later, opposite pairs of thrusters kicked to life across both sets of wings, sending the ship into a wicked spiral just as the fighters caught up. Unable to halt their momentum, each fighter found itself swatted aside by the Normandy's wings like bugs running into a skycar's windshield. Twin explosions bloomed on either side of the ship as the hull shuddered from the impact, leaving behind only clouds of debris in the Normandy's wake.
Shepard winced. "You know that's not what I meant, right?"
"Everybody's a critic."
Joker flared the main engines, once again sending the Normandy racing around the curvature of the moon. Apparently unwilling to sacrifice any more of the ship's kinetic barriers, he skated the ship just around the very outer reaches of the atmosphere as they screamed back around Vahtz. Pushed to nearly it's maximum sub-light speeds, the ship groaned and rattled across space like a used car making its swan song.
A slow, painful pounding began to grow behind Shepard's eyes with each passing second as the ship continued to jostle around. She winced as the symptoms of her concussion began flaring up again, accompanied by the pangs of pain radiating out from her chest with each bump of the ship. I'm starting to feel as banged up as the Normandy, she mused with grim humor.
Shepard saw Liara send her a worried glance as the turbulence increased with each passing second. She shot back a pained smiled and shook her head, then turned back towards her own terminal. Just gotta keep it together a little bit longer, she thought.
"The Cerberus freighter appears to be where we last saw it," Liara called from her station. "It should be appearing over the horizon in approximately three seconds."
"We must have damaged their engines with that first pass," Tali added. "It's probably a safe bet to assume they won't be able to maneuver much without making repairs."
Shepard nodded sharply. "Got all that, Joker?"
"Roger that, loud and clear."
"What's the play, then?" she asked.
The ship rumbled beneath her feet as its trajectory suddenly straightened out. Looking up towards the CIC display, she saw they were now on a straight course headed directly for the freighter. A second later, text appeared on her screen as Joker targeted the prow of the larger ship. "Time for the head-on approach, I think," he said. "Let's kick that thing's ass!"
The Normandy blazed forwards like a ship-sized missile even as Shepard finished her calculations. She slammed the firing key once, twice, three times before readjusting her aim slightly and firing again. Shot after shot streamed out from the Normandy's prow and arced out across empty space towards the squat ship floating motionless in the distance.
A second later, the prow of the Cerberus ship began to flash repeatedly as they opened fire in return. The space between the two ships lit up as massive rounds traveling in opposite directions began shooting past each other at a fraction of the speed of light. Not to be outdone, Shepard fired off two more shots then leaned back in her seat. "Brace for impact!" she yelled.
The first of the incoming rounds starting raining down on the Normandy like hailstones in a thunderstorm. The first impact nearly threw Shepard forwards over the CIC display as it slammed directly into the Normandy's nose. Alarms started blaring across the bridge once more as the incoming fire continued, leaving Shepard with nothing to do but to stare grimly at the holographic display and pray that the Cerberus gunner had bad aim.
Another impact jostled the deck as a round glanced off their port shields. The next two missed the ship entirely, only to be followed up by a hammerblow directly midship. The barrage continued in much the same manner, with each shot that missed the Normandy being matched by one that ricocheted off the shields, or worse, slammed straight into the ship and detonated. More carbon scoring appeared across the Normandy's boxy prow, and with each rattle through the hull Shepard clenched her teeth in sympathetic pain.
Looking across the CIC display, however, she saw that the Cerberus freighter was faring no better. Shepard's barrage had been right on the money with the vast majority of her shots driving straight into the belly of their cargo bay without remorse. While the first few shots to land were driven back by their barriers, with each successive shot she saw more and more damage start to appear across the freighter.
"Shields down to twenty percent!" Tali screamed over the deafening explosions rocking their hull. "We can't go on much longer like this!"
"Don't worry," Shepard called back. "Neither can they."
Shepard's final shot slammed into the Cerberus freighter's shields directly over their bridge and exploded violently. The ship reeled backwards from the impact, its shields flickering sadly as they held on for dear life. Before they had the chance to recover, a flash of light appeared over Vahtz's horizon behind the freighter and raced towards the ship like it was destined to arrive at that very moment.
Shepard's impossible shot had finally arrived.
The torpedo tore through the freighter's weakened shields like a sledgehammer through wet paper and punched straight through the engines into the guts of the ship. A split second later, it reemerged through the prow of the ship like a conquering hero and blasted clear out of the fight and into empty space. The glass of the bridge shattered outwards as the entire ship violently depressurized, followed by an explosion like a small supernova as the reactor of the ship gave up the ghost and exploded for all it was worth.
"Yes!" Shepard yelled as Tali and Liara both began to cheer. She smiled savagely, feeling the thrill of victory course through her veins. "Tell Garrus to come talk to me when he's made a shot like that!"
Joker laughed over the comm. "Guess this makes you the luckiest son of a bitch in the galaxy, huh?"
Shepard grinned. "Nah, this one was all skill."
She turned towards Tali, feeling her grin slip as she shifted back into command mode. "Right, let's get on this before any reinforcements show up. Joker, pull us up alongside and prep the ship for boarding. Tali, I want you in the tube ASAP and ready to scavenge whatever you can from what's left of their bridge computer."
"Roger that," Joker confirmed as Tali nodded in agreement. "One freshly-killed Cerberus ship, coming right up."
Shepard nodded, satisfied her crew would get the job done. Leaning over her terminal, she thumbed the activation switch for the shipwide PA system. "Alright people, listen up," she barked in her best command voice. "I want to see everybody on the crew deck in thirty minutes for a mandatory meeting to plan our next move. Attendance is not optional."
She paused, then leaned back down into the microphone. "That includes you, Jack."
Across the CIC, Tali had already started moving towards the elevator with a casual salute as she passed by. Following behind her, Liara stepped forwards and laid a hand on Shepard's arm. "I'll be studying my notes until the meeting if you need anything," she said, then stepped away.
Shepard nodded, then turned her gaze back towards the image of the corpse of the Cerberus freighter. "One ship down, one army to go," she muttered to herself, then turned away to follow her crew into the elevator.
Liara sighed and adjusted her notebook in front of her, absentmindedly flipping between pages as her eyes sightlessly ran over her notes. It was fortunate that she had mostly memorized her findings at this point, because over the last half hour she had found no success in concentrating enough to study.
She surreptitiously glanced up from her notes and, as she had done so often in the last few minutes, found herself studying Shepard instead. Much like the last time she had checked, Shepard was still standing on the far side of the large table in the center of the deck while she reviewed her omni-tool with an intense scowl. Every so often, she would wince and raise a hand to massage her temples as the effects of her concussion seemed to briefly swell before fading away once more.
Liara found her eyes following this movement, roaming her eyes across Shepard's strong hands before moving further up her arms. She still had yet to put on anything more than a thin black tank top after her visit to the med bay, leaving the gloriously developed muscles of her biceps and shoulders exposed to the world. Her mouth suddenly dry, Liara noted that Shepard's short, dark hair was still tousled and unkempt from their fight with the Cerberus ships, giving her an adorably windblown look.
As she watched, Liara found her eyes riveted to a bead of sweat slowly rolling around the sharp curve of Shepard's jaw and down towards the hollow of her throat. A dull, pulsing heat began to spark low in her belly, and with a cough Liara shifted in her seat. Was it getting warmer in here, or was it just her?
Movement in the corner of her eye caught her attention, and looking over she blinked as she found Jack staring at her out of the corner of the deck. Jack's eyes flitted for a moment between Liara and Shepard, then after a moment a leering grin split across her face.
Liara attempted to smile and awkwardly did a little wave. Jack, in turn, waggled her eyebrows and made a gesture with her tongue between two fingers that caused a blush to erupt so strongly across Liara's cheeks that she thought she might pass out.
The creaking, rattling groan of the elevator cut through the silence, followed a second later by the scrape of the doors sliding open. Saved from her mortifying interaction with Jack, Liara turned to see Tali and Joker walk onto the deck. Tali's omni-tool was active and the two of them were excitedly chatting about whatever information it was displaying.
Shepard looked up as they approached and closed her omni-tool with a flick of her wrist. "Good, you're back," she said. "Any problems getting the data?"
"The bridge was a lot more exploded than most other ships I've been on, but I made it work," Tali replied. "Some of the data was corrupted from the blast, but I got most of what was left and sent it to you."
Shepard nodded. "Yeah, I've been going over what you got. There's a lot here, good work."
Liara shifted over on the couch to make room for Tali to sit next to her as Joker took a seat further across the table. "So did we get what we need?" she asked with a hopeful expression. "Do we know where Coré's base is located?"
Shepard merely winked. "All in good time, T'Soni," she said. She glanced around the deck, cataloging all the faces now turned towards her. "Right, I guess this is everyone then?"
"Not quite everyone," a voice called.
Every head in the room turned to see bright white light pouring through the open door to the med bay. A second later, the tall form of Garrus gingerly stepped out onto the main deck with Chakwas following closely behind him. Bandages still covered nearly his entire torso, wrapping up around his neck and across the right side of his face, but even still he somehow managed to flex his free mandible in a turian grin. "Can't start the party without the only person here who can shoot worth a damn, now can we?"
"Garrus!" Shepard called, an ecstatic grin spreading across her face. She quickly rounded the table to come up to him and gave him a friendly slap on the shoulder. "It's damn good to see you back on your feet. How are you feeling?"
Garrus groaned in mock pain and rubbed his shoulder. "Well I was feeling fine right up until a second ago, but I guess I'll live."
Shepard hiked up a brow skeptically and turned instead towards Chakwas. The doctor chuckled and said, "Don't mind his whining, Shepard. Garrus has pulled through the worst of it and is officially on the mend. As long as he doesn't overexert himself, he should make a full recovery."
Shepard nodded, looking happier than Liara had seen her in weeks. "Where would we be without you to take care of us?" she asked with a wry grin.
"Oh, in an early grave somewhere no doubt," Chakwas quipped. "Still, let's try to not think too hard about the morbid possibilities, shall we? It sounded to me like we have another mission brewing."
"Yep, and this one's a big one," Shepard confirmed. "Take a seat and I'll get this briefing started."
Chakwas nodded and moved to sit on Liara's other side, while Garrus slid in next to Tali. Shepard looked around the room, taking the time to look each member of her crew in the eye before moving onto the next. Liara stiffened briefly as she met her gaze, feeling a thrill of energy course through her as Shepard's intense eyes seemed to pin her in place. Gone was the injured and beaten Shepard who had seemed so small laid out in her bunk in the med bay. Here instead was Shepard the leader, and by the iron in her posture and passion in her eyes it was clear that she meant business.
"Alright, people," she began. "This is what we got."
She activated her omni-tool and with a press of a button projected an image of a large planet out over the table they all sat around. "Using the flight logs Tali salvaged from that freighter, we were able to trace its path back to where it originally came from: a Cerberus facility on Therum. Based on how many shipments were made and the level of daily traffic sneaking in and out of the area, it's a safe bet that this is the main base for Project Achilles."
Liara frowned. "Shepard, I've been to Therum before to study Prothean ruins. The only civilization on the planet is one small settlement to support the local mines."
"Right, New Yekaterinburg," Shepard agreed. "It seems our Cerberus friends here have been shipping their equipment through the city piece by piece to avoid unwanted attention, then shipping it out to where they're hiding."
Tali leaned forwards, tapping on the chin of her mask thoughtfully. "According to this data, the colonization effort hasn't spread much past the city and various mines scattered across the planet," she said. "If something was way out in the middle of nowhere, it's possible that nobody has ever really been out that far to find it. After all, there's not much incentive to explore empty plains with regular volcanic activity for no reason."
Shepard nodded. "I think that's exactly what we got here. The data gets a little fuzzy here, but it suggests that Cerberus found themselves a big set of ruins way out at the edge of a lava field on the far side of the planet. There, out of the way of prying eyes, they've set up shop and been using it as a base for all Project Achilles operations."
The holographic display began to move as the planet rotated and zoomed in on one specific section. After a few moments, a huge lava field running past the base of a distant volcano came into view, followed shortly after by a blinking nav point of the Cerberus base right on the lava's edge.
"The edge of these ruins, along with what Cerberus thought to be the front door of some kind, pushes right up to the shoreline here," Shepard said, gesturing towards the map. "The interesting thing, though, is that instead of using the main entrance Cerberus has set up a tram system out across the lava plain to ship equipment and troops in and out of the far side of the ruins."
Garrus frowned. "Why risk hauling things over the lava if the front door is just right there?"
"It is possible that Cerberus could not open the door," Liara chimed in. "None of the ruins we have seen so far on this adventure have been particularly welcoming to prying eyes, and I doubt most people Cerberus would hire have the education required to find their way inside."
Shepard shrugged. "Whatever the reason, they've decided the risk of setting up the tram was worth it and are now using it as their only way in and out of the ruins. That means it's the only way in or out for us, too."
Everyone in the room peered towards the display with reluctant expressions. Even without very much experience planning tactical missions, Liara felt her nerves start jittering uncomfortably at the thought of only one escape route. "This means that this entrance will be well defended, correct?" she asked.
"Very," Shepard confirmed with a grim expression. "Odds of us getting in there without a fight just went way down."
"Speaking of defenses," Garrus cut in, "what are we looking at here?"
Shepard keyed a command into her omni-tool, prompting information to start reading out across the map. "The freighter didn't have any data about that, but judging from what we've seen so far I think it's safe to assume that a full garrison of troops will be waiting for any unwanted visitors."
"What about ships?" Joker asked. "If this is just some cell of Cerberus, there's no way they have an infinite allowance of fighters just sitting around waiting for us, right?"
Shepard shrugged again. "Now that we know they have any sort of naval presence at all, I think we have to assume that they'll have some more waiting in reserve."
Joker sighed. "Great, now I'll actually have to look at all those scans we do."
Shepard shot the pilot an unimpressed look, prompting him to backpedal. "Not that I already don't!" he said quickly.
"Right," she drawled. "Anyways, that's all we have to go on for the outside." She turned to Liara, her mouth curving up into a little grin that seemed to double Liara's heart rate. "Liara, what do you think we're looking at inside this place?"
Liara blinked, taking a second to remember her name before scrambling for her notebook. "Ah, yes, of course." She opened the pages to where she had last stopped, then shook her head as she belatedly remembered that she had, in fact, memorized all of this already. "Right, excuse me."
All eyes in the room were now on her, adding another thrill of nervous tension in her chest that had nothing to do with the warm, lopsided grin Shepard was now sending her way. She sat silently for a moment, debating on if she should summarize her findings or leap right into answering the question, before finally Tali lightly slapped her arm with the back of her hand. Flinching, Liara decided to force herself to begin speaking before she could question herself any further.
"We know one thing for certain about these ruins, as well as two more pieces of information that are very likely to be true," she began. "We know that these ruins, whatever they may be, are the base of operations for the cell of Cerberus that has been following us across the galaxy as we have hunted for the Ring of Life. This would strongly imply that one, Eva Coré is likely stationed here to lead the cell's activities herself, and two, the third and final piece of the Ring of Life will also be found here."
"How do you figure the second one?" Shepard asked.
"It was something Coré said when she confronted us on Rayingri," Liara replied. "When I offered my services in finding the third fragment in exchange for your life, she seemed very confident about discovering its location. If they have known about this secret set of ruins this entire time, I believe it is entirely possible that they have had the third piece since the beginning."
"Hold on a sec," Jack called from her spot at the back of the deck. Liara blinked in surprise, having forgotten Jack was present at the meeting at all. "We all can count, right?" she asked. "If they already had the third piece and we just gave them the other two, then wouldn't they have all three already?"
An ominous silence settled across the deck. Liara nodded, feeling cold fingers of dread start seeping in at the base of her neck. "Yes, if my theories are correct, then Cerberus now possesses every piece of the Ring."
"And that's not something that we can allow," Shepard added. "Not after what we've seen from the individual pieces."
"Hold on now, not all of us have gotten to see this thing in action," Garrus said, crossing his arms as he did so. "All I've heard about this thing is some ancient mythological mumbo jumbo and ghost stories. Do we know what it even does yet?"
All heads turned towards Liara, who swallowed nervously and clutched her notes slightly tighter in her hands. "If you had asked me six months ago, I would have told you that likely the Prothean Masterworks were simply advanced pieces of technology that have vanished across the ages. Now, however, I am not so sure."
Garrus frowned. "What do you mean you're not sure?"
Liara sighed and shrugged her shoulders. "It is something I discussed with Miranda when we found what appeared to be notes left behind regarding the Ring," she said. "Ever since we found the very first fragment, strange phenomena with no scientific explanations have begun to occur around us with increasing frequencies. The first piece nearly left Shepard catatonic by overwhelming her mind with visions, and it clearly reacts to the death of any living thing nearby. We barely even saw the second piece before Cerberus stole it, and even then it seemed capable of interfacing with the first fragment to somehow reanimate corpses."
"Wait, I thought all the legends around this thing said it was supposed to make you immortal," Tali said. "Why would something called the Ring of Life be surrounded by all these death cults and dead bodies?"
"Perhaps something was lost in translation along the way somewhere," Chakwas offered. "These legends have been around for nearly fifty thousand years, after all. Some details were bound to get garbled in the meantime."
Shepard crossed her arms and regarded Liara with a thoughtful expression. "You said you and Miranda found information about the Ring?" she asked.
"Yes, we found a rather confusing set of notes carved into a wall before Cerberus captured us," Liara replied. "It seemed to assert that each fragment of the Ring served its own purpose, with each part relying on the others to function."
Shepard nodded. "Alright, well what do they do?"
"Assuming for the moment that any of this is even possible, the notes seemed to detail some kind of process performed by the Ring," Liara explained. "The first fragment clearly functions as a power source, which we know both from our own observations of its behavior and the notes we found referring to it as a battery of some kind. After somehow absorbing power from being in the presence of death, the first fragment then transfers this power over to the second fragment to be put to use."
"What do you mean, put to use?" Shepard asked.
"That temple on Rayingri was fully dead before we arrived," Liara responded. "Once we brought the first piece inside, the whole structure came alive around us. Furthermore, the closer we brought it to reuniting with the second piece, the more things began to wake up all around us."
"Those nasty ass corpses," Jack breathed. "You're telling me we made all those things come to life?"
"Functionally, yes," Liara confirmed. "There are too many connecting details for our arrival to be merely a coincidence."
"What, so instead of making you live forever, the Ring just brings you back to life every time you die?" Garrus asked. "I guess that's one type of immortality."
Liara shook her head. "No, I do not believe that the relic brings anyone back to life. None of the reanimated corpses we saw demonstrated any sign of intelligence beyond the urge for violence, not to mention…"
She shuddered, feeling tingles of horror run down her spine at the memory of the mindless creatures shambling towards her in the dark. "Something about them simply feels wrong. No living person should exist the way that those things do."
Joker scoffed and rolled his eyes. "Yeah, alright, they're messed up and everything, sure. But what's the point of it all, you know? If they were trying to make a way to live forever, I'd say they dropped the ball pretty damn hard."
Shepard stiffened suddenly. "Maybe they thought so too," she mumbled.
Liara frowned curiously. "What do you mean, Shepard?" she asked.
Shepard was silent for a moment, nodding to herself as an idea seemed to unfold in her mind. "This whole time we've been treating this like some sort of super-relic left behind for us to find, right? After all, with how advanced the Protheans were, they must have done whatever they did on purpose, yeah?"
She leaned forwards, planting her hands on the table as an excited grin began to spread across her face. "I think that's where we've been going wrong this whole time. You're right Liara, no sane person would make a device that feeds off of death to turn corpses into monsters. I think that the Protheans really did try their best to make a way to achieve immortality, and I think they messed it up so badly that they had to hide the pieces away so that nobody would ever see what they built instead."
Liara gasped as a flood of new possibilities began to race through her brain like bolts of lightning. "Goddess, of course! That could be the reason why no one has ever found the Masterworks before, while so many other Prothean relics have been found across all corners of the galaxy. Nobody found the relics because their creators did not want them to be found."
The crew all sat back in stunned silence, letting the weight of this revelation settle in on their shoulders. Liara's thoughts started moving a mile a minute, bouncing from theory to theory as she considered this new hypothesis. More and more questions began bouncing around her head, each more concerning than the last. Could the Protheans really have made such a terrible mistake? Were all the Masterworks equally terrible devices hidden away from the galaxy, or could they be even more horrible?
After nearly a minute of tense silence, Shepard shifted and looked towards Liara with an expression bordering on nervous. "Liara," she asked, "what do you think the third piece does?"
Liara sighed, taking a moment to gather her thoughts before replying. "I can't say anything for certain, unfortunately. Based on the incredible things we have seen the first two pieces do, it appears that anything may be possible."
"Yeah, but I'm asking what you think," Shepard replied with a slanted grin. "You're the expert here, T'Soni. Whatever you think is going on here is gospel truth as far as I'm concerned."
Liara ducked her gaze to hide the blush blooming gently across her cheeks. How could Shepard always have such unyielding faith in her? "Well, I suppose I have one theory," she eventually said. "It seems to me as if the three pieces of the ring exist to function as one single device, therefore enacting one single process."
At Shepard's confused expression, she continued, "The first piece gathers power, correct? And as we have discussed, the second piece seems to take this power and apply it by reanimating any corpses in the area. These undead husks, however, seem to be feral and violent, and would be a danger even to the person wielding the Ring. What would the point of using such a relic be if all that awaited the user was a painful death at the hands of their own creation?"
"Unless…" She took a deep breath, trying to force down the nervous energy welling up inside her chest. "Unless the third fragment functioned as a way to control the husks the Ring creates."
Shepard's eyes widened in shock. "You could build an army with something like that," she whispered.
Liara nodded, her expression grim. "An army of fearless, deathless creatures that would obey only you."
"You'd never run out of troops," Garrus breathed, his free mandible quivering nervously. "Any casualties would just become soldiers for your side as soon as they died. You could overrun whole platoons with their own men!"
"Whole planets," Shepard corrected, her arms crossed in disbelief. "Civilians would get caught up in this too, right? It would be like a flood of living corpses sweeping across entire cities at a time, only getting stronger with every battle fought."
"Wait, this is insane," Joker said. "Something like that just isn't even possible, right? Like so unbelievably, unimaginably ridiculous that it's not even funny." He looked around the deck, taking in the shocked faces of the crew around him. "Right?"
"We've already seen it happen," Shepard said hoarsely. "Jack and I saw enough corpses in the basement of that pyramid to lay siege to any city you could think of, and more were waking up by the second." She shook her head, seemingly dazed by the implications of such a power. "No, I think Liara is absolutely right on this one."
Joker wilted in his seat, clutching his arms around himself as he stared worriedly at the table. A few seats over, Garrus shifted to lean forwards with a frown. "This must be why Cerberus was after the Ring in the first place," he said. "With forces like that at their disposal, they could just take whatever they wanted with brute force instead of hiding in the shadows."
"We won't let that happen." Shepard slammed her hands onto the table, jarring Liara out of the terrifying thoughts clouding her mind. "This is something that cannot happen. This is something that will not happen. Cerberus has proven to be dangerous enough with the resources they already have. If they get their hands on something like this, there's no telling how many innocent people would get hurt."
Across the deck, Jack stiffened and crossed her arms with a stubborn frown. "Hey, I didn't sign on to your shitty squad for some kind of suicidal peacekeeping mission," she protested. "I don't give a shit about whatever Coré or anybody else might do with this fucking thing, okay? I'm just here to kick Cerberus where it hurts."
"You won't be alive to kick Cerberus anywhere if we don't stop them from using the Ring," Tali argued.
Jack shrugged. "I don't plan on sticking around long enough for them to catch me. You're all free to go kill yourselves like idiots later, but after this I'm out."
Tali scoffed and moved to respond, only for Shepard to cut her off with a sharp hand motion. "Nobody's dying here, got it? Not today and not later."
She stared intently towards Tali, who settled back into her seat with a petulant huff. Shepard nodded gratefully, then turned back towards Jack. "Look, you don't care about the Ring? Fine, I get that. You're here for your own reasons, and nobody's here to force you to do anything."
Jack narrowed her eyes in confusion, clearly expecting more resistance than she received. "Okay, well… good then," she said after a moment."
Shepard nodded, then turned to address the rest of the group. "In fact, we all started on this path for different reasons," she said, starting to pace as she spoke. "For some of us it was to hunt the truth, wherever it may be buried; others of us just wanted to fulfill a contract on yet another job."
She stopped and turned towards Liara with an achingly soft smile. "And some of us just wanted to follow the most amazing woman they had ever met."
Liara's blush returned in full force as a host of butterflies swept up through her stomach and swirled around her heart. Tali bumped her shoulder with her own, and as she turned to look she found the entire crew of the Shepherds regarding her with warm grins and nods of approval. Liara, now in danger of crying from the sudden surge of affection she felt for the people around her, simply smiled and bumped Tali's shoulder back.
In the background, Jack pantomimed gagging but no one paid any mind.
"What really matters, though, is that we are all here now," Shepard continued. "Together, right here, all on this day. All of us have been targeted by Cerberus; all of us have been hurt by Cerberus, whether we've been hunted or tortured or shot, but we have all survived to make it here to this very moment."
Liara's pulse began to kick upwards as Shepard spoke, motivated by the strength she somehow poured into every word. All around her, she noticed the crew began to straighten up in their seats and lean forwards with expectant expressions. These people had served with Shepard for years, she realized, and they had seen her work her magic before. Shepard was building up to something, and to do it she was invigorating her crew with that same force of will she seemed to exude in her every action.
Shepard resumed pacing as she spoke, deactivating her omni-tool to be able to more emphatically gesture with her hands. "Now we all have a chance, here, today, to finally push back. We can stand up, here and now, and show Cerberus that they don't get to mess with our lives and get away with it. We can be the ones to show Cerberus that they can't try to run the galaxy on their terms without people like us showing up to kick their shit in!"
Liara nodded, a fierce smile beginning to spread across her face. Looking around, she saw that Joker and Chakwas were now nodding along with similar expressions, and Tali was now rubbing shoulders with Garrus as the two of them exchanged conspiratorial looks.
"We can't do that, though, unless we do it together." Shepard whirled around, making sure to look each person present in the eye before moving on. "I've fought and bled and lived and nearly died with every single person here. I can say without a doubt that I trust each and every one of you with my life, and I hope that you all know you can trust the same to me. I know what we're all capable of, and believe me, it's nothing to sneeze at. Even still, unless we stand together we don't stand a chance of pulling this off."
She stopped pacing and returned back to lean onto the table with her hands spread wide. "The good news is that I've got a plan. It's not an easy plan, and I wouldn't even say that it's a good plan, but it's a plan that I know we can pull off. It only works, though, if we're all willing to go to bat for each other. We have to be there for each other, with no doubts and no reservations about ourselves or each other. If we can't trust each other, if we can't trust ourselves, then Cerberus will tear us apart and run rampant across the galaxy."
She smiled then, a beautiful and electric grin that lit up the room and made Liara's heart skip a beat. "But if we can commit to believing in ourselves and backing each other up, to really relying on one another and pulling each other's asses out of the fire, then we'll be able to do something truly spectacular together. I really do believe that all of us together can shake this galaxy to its core, and that not even Cerberus can get in the way of that."
She stood back from the table, arms crossed and expression expectant. "So what'll it be? Do we all just give up right here and go home, or do we go out there and give 'em hell like they'll never forget?"
Shepard's words echoed around the deck as she fell silent, the challenge she offered hanging in the air like something huge and dangerous looming over them all. Liara sat back in her seat, feeling Shepard's presence seem to wash over them all and soak into each member of the crew. All of the doubts in her own abilities she had been carrying with her no longer seemed quite so important, not now that Shepard's unyielding faith was there to burn them away. If Shepard could believe so incredibly strongly in her, what was stopping her from believing in herself?
Garrus stood, moving slowly and intently to avoid disturbing his bandages. Tali briefly reached out and squeezed his arm in support, and he laid a hand over her own for a moment before stepping forward with his head held high. "I'm in," he proclaimed.
"Me too!" Tali chirped, leaping up to stand at Garrus' side. "Wherever you go, we go."
Joker and Chakwas quickly followed in similar fashion, chiming in their support as they moved to stand by their crewmates' sides in a show of solidarity. Even Jack, after several seconds of angry grumbling, eventually stood and moved further towards the center of the deck. "Don't look at me like that," she growled as the rest of the crew eyed her warily. "This is a one-time thing, got it?"
Shepard nodded in appreciation, then turned to grin towards Liara. "So, T'Soni, you in?"
Liara looked up towards the woman before her, her expression nearly reverential. Shepard seemed fully revitalized under the weight of her crew's trust, with a radiant sense of warmth that filled Liara like the sun and made her heart race. Truly, she thought, this is the most beautiful woman I have ever met.
Rather than voice all this, however, she simply smiled and stood to her feet. "What is the plan?" she asked.
Shepard's smile widened, her eyes going soft as she looked towards her crew all standing before her. "Alright then, let's get into it," she said.
She began to speak then, quickly and efficiently outlining the details of her plan. As she spoke, she reactivated her omni-tool to bring up the map of Therum, using it to signal where and when each member of the crew would be operating. The rest of the crew quickly crowded forwards as she talked to peer intently towards the display, paying close attention to each step of the plan as she relayed her instructions.
After only a few minutes of this, Liara's eyes widened as her impression of the plan went from intrigued to worried, then jumped even further to full on skeptical disbelief. Saying that this plan was dangerous was an incredible understatement, she realized, and glancing around the deck she saw that everyone else had begun to realize this too. From what she had heard so far, this would potentially be the riskiest thing any of them had ever even attempted, much less survived. A cold core of dread began sinking through her stomach as she stared towards the holographic map of Therum. How did Shepard think that they would be able to do this?
Shepard glanced up from her display as she continued to explain her plan. Her eyes caught Liara's, and upon seeing the hesitation there she merely smiled and nodded encouragingly. Immediately, Liara felt the tension in her shoulders bleed away and be replaced by a new sense of resolve. It was as if Shepard had planted a fire within her, and by merely being in her presence Liara had been given some of the unshakable confidence of the leader of the Shepherds. The nervous tension in her gut remained, but as Liara watched the plan unfold before her she realized that for the first time, she wasn't feeling fear or apprehension for the coming conflict. Instead, all her worries had been replaced by a focused, fearless anticipation for the task ahead. With this crew around her and Shepard by her side, there was simply no room for fear in her heart anymore.
After nearly fifteen minutes straight of explanations and tactical plans, Shepard finally fell silent and deactivated her omni-tool. After several seconds to allow her crew to contemplate what she had said, she asked, "Well, what do we think?"
Tali, the first to respond, simply shrugged. "Logistically, it makes sense to me," she said. "Who knows if we'll survive or not, but I'm in either way."
By her side, Garrus nodded emphatically. "We'll make it work, Shepard. We always do."
"What, that's it? This plan's a cakewalk," Joker protested with a shit-eating grin. "I thought you said that this was gonna be dangerous."
Chakwas, however, seemed much less enthused than the pilot. "I don't know, Shepard. A lot of this involves you all being in places where if you get hurt, I might not be able to get to you in time to save you."
Shepard shrugged one shoulder indifferently. "Hey, that's most of the jobs we've done together. I trust you, Doc, and I know you'll put us back together again no matter how many pieces we come back in."
Chakwas let out a halfhearted chuckle. "Yes, well, as few pieces as possible would be nice."
The crew turned towards Jack, who shot back an unimpressed glare. "Yeah, whatever, I'm in," she grunted.
Shepard nodded, taking each crew's response one by one before turning back towards Liara with an expectant expression. Liara nodded in turn, a nervous grin on her face. "Let's do it," she said.
Shepard nodded and began to pop her knuckles in anticipation. "Alright, I guess that's that then. Joker, get back up to the helm and set a course for Therum. The sooner we can get there, the less time Cerberus will have to change anything up on us."
Joker saluted smartly and left to head for the elevator. Turning towards the rest of the crew, Shepard continued, "Everyone else, I want you all back here in twelve hours, fully suited up and ready to roll."
The others nodded and began to filter away from the meeting table. Jack immediately took off for the elevator, while Tali and Garrus moved over towards the messy kitchen on the other side of the deck. There, Liara noticed, they sat together and began a quiet conversation of their own, their hands interlaced between them.
Liara smiled, happy to see her friends together. It seemed as if they had found time to figure some things out after all.
She blinked as someone softly brushed past her, and turning she saw Chakwas regarding her with a warm smile. "My apologies, my dear, just passing through," she said with a gesture towards the nearby med bay. "It seems I have some things to prepare before we attempt this harebrained scheme of ours."
"It is good to know that we are in safe hands, Doctor," Liara replied. "If anyone can keep us alive through this, it will be you."
Chakwas smiled softly. "Funny, I was about to say that about you and Shepard." Her smile suddenly turned wry and knowing. "Speaking of which, I noticed that our intrepid leader seems to suddenly have some time on her hands. It would be a shame for such a good opportunity to go to waste, don't you think?"
Liara's cheeks suddenly flamed purple as her eyes widened in mortification. "I'm sure I don't know what you're suggesting."
"Right, of course not." Chakwas' eyes twinkled with mirth as she stepped back to continue on towards the med bay. "Well, either way I'm sure you'll do what you feel to be right."
With that cryptic statement, she vanished back into her lair and shut the door behind her, leaving Liara alone to simmer in her own flushed embarrassment. What was it about humans that drove them to so relentlessly mortify their friends?
She glanced over her shoulder to see Shepard still standing by the meeting table, clearly lost in thought as she stared down towards its surface and methodically cracked her knuckles. Liara smiled at the habit, feeling her earlier surge of affection for Shepard start bubbling up inside her once again. Perhaps Chakwas was right to suggest she speak to her, but what would she say?
Unbidden, the memory of their earlier discussion floated through her head. When we're both ready, they had said, unknowingly agreeing to haunt their every interaction with the ghost of their feelings for each other. But how would she know when she was ready if every day with Shepard felt like falling into something vast and unending? How could she know herself if she was too afraid to peer into her own growing affection and see what might be there, waiting to be discovered?
Liara breathed slowly and deeply, taking a moment to truly examine the depth of emotion welling up inside for the woman standing before her. There was attraction, yes, along with a healthy amount of apprehension, but as she looked deeper she was surprised by the depth of passion and care she found already swirling around her heart. Yes she was nervous, both of the danger ahead and of the strength of her feelings, but even more than that she knew that whatever happened, she truly cared for Shepard in a way that seemed to color every aspect of her life. Come what may, she knew that her feelings for Shepard were no passing fancy but something significant and sturdy, a foundation that would weather the test of time and come out stronger.
Ah, of course, she thought, seeing the answer appear before her at long last. How simple it was, a statement so small yet so powerful as to change her life forever.
I love her.
At this revelation, she felt something buried deep inside her chest begin to relax and unravel, if only a little. Perhaps all love felt this way, she thought. Perhaps the whole value of it was not to love someone when it was easy, but to do it when it was difficult and frightening. Shepard had never turned away from the unknown the entire time Liara had known her, and that was one of the things she loved most about her. Maybe, if she really tried, she could do the same thing for her.
Oblivious to Liara's musings, Shepard started rubbing at her temples with a pained expression. Liara frowned in concern, and without thinking she moved across the deck to stand by her side and lay a hand on her arm. "Shepard, are you feeling alright?" she asked.
Shepard looked up towards her with a tired grin. "Yeah, I'll be alright," she said, briefly covering Liara's hand with her own. "Thanks for always checking in on me, though. I know I'm not exactly easy to take care of."
Liara smiled, feeling a bit of warmth begin to prickle in her cheeks. "It is no problem," she promised.
Shepard nodded gratefully and squeezed her hand once, then released it. "Right, well, I should probably head off to get some rack time. Gotta rest up and everything before–"
"Shepard, wait," Liara interrupted. "I have something I need– that is to say, there is something I wished to talk to you about." She bit her lip, feeling a jolt of fear start jolting through her uncomfortably. She smiled tightly, doing her best to look casual and not like her shoulders were beginning to fuse together from awkward tension. "Could I speak to you in your cabin?"
Shepard tilted her head to one side, her face a halfway point between amusement and confusion. "Yeah, of course," she said after a moment. Gesturing forwards, she smoothly strode across the deck towards the door to her cabin with Liara in tow.
Shepard stepped into the dimly lit room and moved forwards to sit on the edge of her bed. Liara walked in a moment later, nearly jumping as the door slid shut behind her. Her heart rate spiked as an irrational thought of being suddenly caged floated through her mind. Goddess, I'm being ridiculous, she thought. We already know how we feel about each other, don't we? Shouldn't this be easy?
"So then," Shepard began, not quite succeeding in keeping her own nerves out of her voice. "What did you want to talk about?"
Liara stood quietly, clasping her hands tightly together before her. She breathed in and slowly exhaled once, twice, feeling the gentle burn of a blush spread across her cheeks and down her neck. This is no time for fear, she told herself. It is time to leap to see if we can fly.
Stepping forwards slowly, she came to stand just before Shepard and reached out shyly with both hands. Without hesitation Shepard responded in kind, gently interlacing their fingers together as an adorable shade of pink began to spread across her own face.
"Liara?" Shepard asked, her voice achingly soft.
"I suppose I have brought you here on somewhat of a false pretense," Liara began. "We have already spoken on the matter that I wish to discuss, if you remember."
Shepard tilted her head to one side, a lopsided grin beginning to spread across her face. "Now what matter would that be?" she asked impishly.
Liara rolled her eyes good-naturedly. "You know perfectly well what I'm referring to," she said.
"Sure, but it doesn't hurt to be reminded."
"Of course it doesn't." Liara kneeled, bringing herself down to eye level with Shepard as her expression shifted into something tender and exposed. Her heart thundered in her chest, yet somehow she left oddly peaceful. "Cameron Shepard, I think the world of you. You are the bravest, most determined, and most compassionate soul I have ever met."
Shepard's eyes widened as her flush deepened from pink to a beautiful crimson. "Liara…"
Liara shook her head and placed a hand lightly over Shepard's mouth. "We are running out of time, Cam," she said. "We both have expressed the connection we feel, but between our escapes from Cerberus and the injuries both you and Garrus have received, it feels like something is closing in on us. I– I need to say this, if only because this may be my only chance to do it."
Shepard frowned, conflicting thoughts crossing her face as clear as day. After a moment, however, she relaxed underneath Liara's touch and nodded. Smiling in thanks, Liara retracted her hand and laced her fingers back into Shepard's grip. "I have been fascinated by you ever since we met," she said. "First on a professional level, then as a friend as you welcomed me onto your ship. But even still, my feelings for you have grown beyond all of this."
She ducked her eyes towards her hand, then forced herself to look back into Shepard's eyes. She would be brave, if only because Shepard deserved to hear this more than it scared Liara to say it.
"I am ready, Shepard." She smiled then, like all the pining and tenderness and love in her body was beginning to pour out of her. "I am ready for us to build something together, whatever that may mean. I am ready because… because I love you, Cam."
Shepard stared towards her silently, eyes wide and sparkling with emotion. Her mouth had fallen open and her body had gone completely still, like she couldn't breathe for the weight of what Liara was revealing to her. Her warm brown eyes seemed to bore into her, gazing in shock straight towards where Liara had offered up her whole heart before her as an offering.
Liara shifted then, suddenly feeling impossibly exposed. She cleared her throat, and after a second added nervously, "I do not want to put any pressure on you, of course. I- I simply thought it would only be fair to you to share my feelings on the matter of, um, you. I mean, how I feel about you and how I think you feel about me. Not that I assume you necessarily feel the same! Oh, Goddess…"
Shepard smiled then, and shifted a hand up to cup Liara's jaw. Liara sank into the touch, her eyes fluttering as Shepard's fingers ghosted across her skin. "I am rambling," she pouted.
"Sure are," Shepard chuckled, "but that's okay. It's one of the things I love about you."
Liara froze. Her heart skipped a beat, then suddenly kicked into overdrive as if to make up for the fact. "You love…?"
Shepard leaned forwards, her expression soft and her smile kind. "Of course I love you, Liara. How could I not?"
Liara found herself leaning in as well. They were close enough now that she found that she could feel Shepard's breath puffing across her lips. "Are you sure that you are ready?" she breathed.
A second hand raised up to cup her other cheek, gently holding her face between Shepard's hands the way one would hold a priceless treasure. "Oh, Liara," Shepard murmured. "I don't think I'll ever be ready for you."
They leaned in as one, and in a single moment Shepard's lips met her own as they kissed.
The world seemed to fade away from Liara as her lips moved gently against Shepard's. All that remained was the points of contact between them: her hands on Shepard's powerful legs, Shepard's hands caressing her face, and the sweet taste of Shepard's impossibly soft lips on her own. Her eyes fluttered close even as a rush of emotion seemed to well up inside her, so quickly and so powerfully it seemed she must burst to make room for it all. Was this love, she thought? How could one person feel so much without being destroyed from the strength of it all?
She shifted, slotting her lips against Shepard's more comfortably and moaning softly as the kiss deepened. Shepard gently but firmly pulled her forwards to sit on the bed beside her, allowing the two of them to hold even more tightly to each other. A dull, rushing energy began to course through Liara, starting low in her stomach and racing ever upwards. She was a roaring fire, she was a trembling sapling in an earthquake. If not for Shepard's arms around her, she felt as if she would soar off into space and be lost.
Shepard's hands began to roam down from her face, tracing burning lines down her throat and across her arms. They paused for a moment on her upper back, and to Liara's incredible disappointment Shepard pulled back from the kiss with a worried expression. "Is this okay?" she asked, her voice alluringly husky.
Liara nodded quickly, her eyes glued to how puffy and swollen Shepard's lips had already become. "I trust you," she said. The passion roaring in her chest began to pound in her head, her mind already desperate for the embrace of Shepard's as her eyes began to blacken. "Do you trust me?"
Shepard nodded resolutely. "Always."
"Then embrace eternity," Liara whispered, already leaning back in to kiss Shepard again as their minds intertwined.
A supernova of emotion exploded in the mindscape between them, a pulsing warmth made of mutual love and respect, longing and passion, laced throughout with an iron bond of trust running between the two. Mutual shyness and nerves were burned away, replaced only by deep affection and support echoing between two minds made one. Two bodies grasped for each other; two sets of lips found each other in the dark. Clothes were shed and skin revealed to tender hands, leaving behind only gentle caresses and promises of care and love. No doubt was too strong, no insecurity left to stand. All that remained was love, and love was their everything.
Their bodies began shifting against each other, both of them learning the other as if learning themselves. Heat built between them, mirroring the cascading peals of love ringing out in their meld. Neither could tell any longer where one body ended and the next began, where one's love for the other started or stopped. Why even bother, when instead of existing apart they could be a single, rapturous whole?
There was no need for words, now. The passion between them had begun to crescendo, both between their bodies and between their hearts, now beating as one. Even still, a single word rang out in the meld, a memory brought forward from their very first meld.
Beautiful, they thought, and as their passion broke around them they rode through it together, bravely and fearlessly into the beginnings of something new.
A/N: we finally made it! the girlies figured it out lets fucking gooooooo! im gonna be honest i didnt really know if i'd ever actually make it to this point, so i'm thrilled that we finally got here! anyways hope you guys enjoyed this bc its the closest i'll probably ever get to writing anything explicit lmao.
also hoped you enjoyed the little space battle at the beginning! can't have a mass effect story without joker getting his time to shine, right? (also this is my official shoutout to all the halo novels i read as a kid and all the weirdly tactical space battles they have in those things)