ONE
Clean-Up Detail
Sidon's weather is cold and merciless. To organics, this might be a problem. To the geth, it's a minor inconvenience. Atop a frozen outcropping between towering shelves of ice, curving walls of streamlined metal form a semi-circle to enclose a spinning transmitter array. This outpost is small, maybe 100 meters circumference, and arcing symmetry belies the haste with which it was built. All of it is a cold, dark metal—flecked with frost and buried a meter into the snow. Geth war-platforms big and small stand guard at the edges of the walls, utterly still as they survey the land outside. Sidon's orange sun Vetus shines back pale and cold across the arctic expanse, ever steadily dipping toward the horizon and threatening yet colder weather with the coming night. All this the geth have accounted for, their chosen platforms specifically designed to regulate temperature and prevent the freezing of servos or synth-muscle. Some of them still stalk about in symmetry, shifting machinery or clearing snow. The transmitter is the priority, if such wasn't already made obvious by the towering prime platform standing statuesque before it. It wields a gargantuan assault canon, the sheer weight of which would be unwieldy to most organics. Flanking this platform on both sides are watch towers several meters high, each occupied by a single, crimson geth platform wielding a rocket launcher. Though this is a small outpost, the local geth have reached consensus: Only a strong and determined foe will have any chance of uprooting them.
Both elements in equal measure shine in green eyes as Shepard draws her helmet over her head. She's in the personnel hold of the Mako, Tali and Liara sitting opposite. Ashley is at the helm, swerving to avoid a rocky mound and sending the rover bouncing as she does. With her helmet secure, Shepard draws her M-8 Avenger from its shoulder-lock. The rifle unfolds at her touch, a bright, red stripe running the length of its stalk; near the barrel it cuts sharply to a white N7. A check of a read-out on the side registers tungsten rounds loaded.
"All right, you know the drill," she says, voice crackling through her helmet's speakers. "Bull-rush the walls, then sweep and clear 'till we secure the transmitter. With any luck, the geth won't be quick enough for a scuttle this time."
"I don't need tell you the odds on that, Commander," Tali says. "But I'm not complaining." She draws an M-15 Vindicator from her own back-lock and unfolds it at the ready. Her armour's been recently upgraded, Shepard notes; the old, simple plating on her right arm is ballistic lining and pockets now, her shawl drawn back and a little tighter. The contours and dense outer lining suggests a level of ballistic armour far and beyond what the average enviro-suit might provide. Perks of being the galaxy's most famous quarian—and she can never have enough pockets, as she's fond of saying.
"I'll be happy enough just to blow up a few geth," Shepard answers. "But more intel is gonna make this a helluva lot easier. Gettin' tired of bouncing around the Traverse lookin' for needles."
"It seems a little strange, don't you think?" Liara adds, raising her voice above the roar of the Mako's engines. Her armour is light-weight, not much different than the gear she wore when they took down Saren. It's form-fitting, contoured, and painted snow-camo. She carries an M-4 Shuriken submachine gun. "Strange that they want us doing clean-up, I mean," she adds. "You're a Spectre, Shepard. I would have thought they had more important assignments than this."
Shepard shrugs.
"Council's never been a fan of mine, Liara—in case you hadn't noticed. Not lookin' like that's going to change."
"Especially if we keep bringing up Reapers during report meetings," adds Ashley. She glances back from her place in the cockpit, her armour the same white and red as ever. Both she and Liara wear their helmets. "Still, better than being locked in dry-dock or under house arrest. Bet Udina's still nursing a welt after that one."
Shepard flexes a fist.
"Almost envy Anderson. Wish I could've seen Udina's face."
"You could go check," says Tali, amused. "It might've left an imprint on the floor."
Liara doesn't chuckle, but her voices suggests she's holding it back. "You could save the Council a hundred times," she says, "and they'd still back-slide on the Reapers. I find it insane that they haven't even tried to take your seriously yet."
There's a fierceness in the asari's voice, and Shepard smiles a little behind her helmet. Liara's words don't come just from sympathetic frustration. Shepard appreciates the sentiment, but she doesn't let it show. Not while they're on mission. "All right, secure the chatter," she says, suddenly stern. "Check weapons and prep for a rough entry. Just because we've done this a hundred times doesn't mean we're made of titanium. We get this done quick and smart and we'll be the only damn things that come out the other side."
"Yes, Commander," Tali and Liara say at once.
"Good timing, Shepard," Ashley adds. "We're a minute out. I'll give you a countdown."
"You heard her," Shepard continues, "I want grenades primed. Liara, warp rounds. Tali, proton. That should cover armour and shields. You wear 'em down, I'll drop 'em. Got it?" When they affirm, Shepard straightens in her seat and checks her own grenade count; three disks: two EMP and one high-explosive. Like Tali, her N7 gear has been improved since her brush with death at the Citadel. It once fit a medium classification—her choice, she liked the mobility—but with Spectre resources, it now sports rigid pauldrons and segmented plating without losing its agility. It all hugs her body closely, designed to her specifications all the way down to the small, red Alliance symbol affixed to the collar. It's been a couple weeks since the attack on the Citadel and the destruction of Sovereign, but even days after Shepard could already sense it: The Council was going to push the Reaper threat aside. Again. It seems like square-one all over again, she thinks—she and her team, alone with the truth. For now, geth-hunting will have to do. She's certain the real threat is just around the corner either way.
"Ten seconds, Commander," Ashley says. As she counts down, Shepard raises a finger to the side of her helmet and prompts the comm channel to open. Time to start the party.
Hundreds of meters away, a turian lies prone on a snowy hill. His M-92 Mantis rests on the edge of a frosted rock, the scope brought up to his helmet. He draws his sights over the Mako rover that just pulled into view, its wheels kicking up a cloud of snow as it goes. Any second now. He draws the scope over the geth outpost next, putting him perfectly in line with the rocket-wielders propped up in their towers. One shot at just the right angle. He can do it. He sucks in a breath, finger tracing the trigger. Any second now he'll—
"You're up, Garrus!" barks Shepard's voice from his comm-link.
He grins behind his helmet.
"Won't know what hit 'em, Commander."
The Mako leaps into view over the edges of a snow-drift, sparking instantaneous alarm among the geth. Within a fraction of a second, they've drawn weapons and formed consensus on battle-strategy; they've considered possible identities of their attackers, judged assault strength and survival probability; in less time than it takes a human being to blink, they've reorganized and reacted. But even in their speed, they are caught unawares. There comes a thunderous pop, a screech and whistle, then a red-hot bolt punches through a rocket-platform's optical sensory cluster; it's head explodes in shrapnel and off-white lubricants, leaving the bolt to lodge two-thirds of the way through the head of the other geth on the far side of the camp. Both drop from their towers promptly, forcing the rest to reassess.
With the rockets neutralized, the Mako roars into view and unleashes a blast from its mass accelerator canon. The front gate of the outpost explodes in a shower of molten shards even before the Mako's machine gun opens fire, its hailstorm of bolts cracking against defensive walls and cutting down a war-platform in a destructive pass. The geth react by retreating from the walls to tighten formation, widening arcs of fire around the breach. But the Mako plows on through, her thrusters hissing as she mounts the edge of a snow drift and sails into the outpost. Bolts from a dozen angles flash and bounce against kinetic barriers, unphasing the rover as it surges past the wall and straight for the Prime platform that guards the transmitter.
If the geth had been in greater number, they may have had the computing power to react. But the Prime does not. It throws its assault canon forward and opens a fiery salvo that glances off kinetic fields, fully bringing the Mako's shields to half-strength. This isn't enough. The rover crashes into the geth-platform and flattens it against the base of the transmitter array. The construct is bisected, shattering vital internals and leaving its upper half sprawled over the roof of the Mako. The geth are slow to react this time, the loss of their Prime decimating their computing power. Disorganized bursts fire off against the Mako's shields as its tires roar and reverse, sending its bow swinging about; it crashes against a war-platform and sends it sailing into two of its allies, knocking the lot out of the fight. And then the canon swings about, laying down covering fire as the side-door slides open.
Shepard is the first out, Avenger raised and roaring in disciplined 5-bolt bursts. The first five burst across the stalwart personal barrier of a geth shock trooper, but the four lesser platforms behind it are less fortunate. Shepard unleashes another burst that shatters the shock-platform's shielding and catches another platform in the optics, dropping it in a shower of lubricants and shattered electronics. Liara is at the Commander's side just as the suppressed geth begin to retaliate.
The asari's barrier's deflect a scattering of bolts before her hand flies out, body suddenly wreathed in a haze of blue energy. A rush of azure light erupts from behind a war-platform, crashing against it like an errant river and sending it flying, hard, into the shock trooper in front of it. Both are taken to the ground as Tali joins the fray; her Vindicator opens fire in semi-auto, popping two geth in the optics. The quarian darts off a moment later, in the direction of the transmitter array, and Shepard doesn't need to verbalize the order. They've done this far too many times by now.
Instead, the Commander charges for the downed shock trooper and eviscerates it with a spray of bolts. Liara adds her own burst from her Shuriken, downing the last geth in the group, then the both of them rush to cover Tali. The quarian has already ripped open a panel on the side of the transmitter base, her omni-tool flashing with read-outs as she gets to work. "Keep Tali covered!" Shepard shouts, taking cover at the edge of the transmitter. "We only got a few minutes!" Liara rushes to the opposite side of the transmitter base and takes cover there. And not before time. From the far side of the outpost, near a set of supply crates, a squadron of war-platforms suddenly jump to life, guns raised and firing. Shepard's eyes widen. They were hiding in the snow. A backup plan, no doubt.
She ducks instantly, feeling the transmitter shudder as a storm of bolts explode against it. The assault breaks after a moment, allowing her to chance a quick glance: At least a dozen lesser war-platforms, six shock troopers, a pair of destroyers, and, worst of all, an armature; all these suddenly jump to life and explode out of their hiding places, taking intelligent formation. They focus fire on the transmitter, and Shepard realizes she has little time.
"Ash, suppressive fire!" she shouts into her comm. "Liara, throw 'em a singularity!" Both women affirm, so Shepard squeezes a fist; her body flickers with azure energy, coalescing in her clenched hand as she peeks around the corner. The Commander throws her arm forward and up, as if hurling something heavy, and at its direction a cascading pulse of biotic energy roils on toward the geth. On impact it shatters the shields of a destroyer, sending it staggering, then continues on in a ripple that throws unshielded geth and plumes of snow wildly in all directions. An instant later Shepard spots a flash and distortion in the air above the other destroyer; the very fabric of space warps, coiling around a micro-singularity that rips geth from their feet and saps the destroyer's barriers.
It's then that the Mako rolls into line-of-sight, its mass-accelerator blasting into the back-ranks. Snow and dirt erupts skyward for dozens of meters, sending fragmented synthetics sailing. All this results in a break in the gunfire, so Shepard seizes her chance.
"Weapons free!" she shouts. "Take 'em down!" She flips to full-auto, leaps out of cover, and unleashes a wild salvo of bolts. Liara is close behind, her Shuriken barking, while the Mako's machine gun roars on. More than a half-dozen geth are rent apart by the combined fire before one of the destroyers has a chance to retaliate. The one beneath the singularity is lifted off the ground as its barriers shatter, but not before it throws up its shotgun and unleashes a molten blast. The bolt sails toward the Mako explodes against its barriers, visibly warping the protective bubble as it struggles to repulse. The other destroyer, in consensus with its ally, takes five rounds from Shepard's rifle before dropping, its shotgun firing its own fiery bolt. This one hits its mark. The Mako's shields wrap and scatter into wild distortion, sapping half the force of the bolt before it explodes against the rover's hull; ablative plating boils in a fraction of a second, erupting in a flash as the bolt bores six inches into thick carapace.
The geth strategy adapts instantly. Three lesser platforms, having just recovered from Shepard's biotic attack, lay down suppressive fire that forces the Commander to duck; she takes a bolt against her barriers as she does. Meanwhile, the armature—having just crawled into line-of-sight—steadies itself and unloads a vicious salvo from its head-mounted pulse cannon. Blue tracer bolts bite and hiss against the Mako's front plating, boring holes and stripping metal in seconds.
"Shit!" Ashley shouts into the comm. Her rover's wheels roar and pull her back, the Mako's cannon spitting retaliation until reverses into the outpost wall and comes to a halt. Now out of sight, she realigns the wheels and turns the side-armour in preparation for another attack. "That was bad, Shepard!" she says. "Fucker almost cut clean into the cockpit. Need to hold back 'till the barriers are up!"
Shepard suppresses a curse, speaking instead into her comm-link. "Garrus! Could use a hand down here!" It's not an instant after she says this that another snap and screech precedes the streak of a sniper bolt. The destroyer caught in the singularity explodes, arm and shoulder severed clean from the body. A second passes, then another shot streaks into one of the three suppressing platforms; this time, the bolt explodes just short of its target, creating a pulse of smoke and snow that throws the geth to the ground with concussive force. Shepard doesn't hesitate.
Taking an EMP grenade in-hand, she snaps the ignition switch and tosses it like a disc; the grenade sails through the air by onboard targeting systems, landing it clean at the feet of the armature. "Liara, warp!" she shouts. The asari reacts without a word, her body alight and hand outstretched as she emerges from cover. The EMP flashes, sending the armature into a fit of sparking shivers as its systems overload. Liara's biotic attack strikes the next instant. There's a reverberating pulse as a violent haze of azure energy envelops the armature, flensing its armour plating with withering force. The asari turns her Shuriken on the geth still afflicted by her fading singularity, but Shepard has a different priority. The Commander's rifle unloads in an unrelenting stream of tungsten bolts, punching holes through armour and optics. She marches forward, finger clamped on the trigger. Her Avenger's heat meter climbs rapidly, recoil thuds against her shoulder, and all the while the armature staggers against the impact. Ten long seconds of sustained fire sends her rifle into overheat, but at the last moment a final bolt sails through the armature's cranial sensors and cuts them clean from its neck. The four-legged construct tumbles aside just as the Commander's EMP begins to wear off.
The remaining geth rapidly restore functionality, and with a pang Shepard realizes she's standing in the open. Her reaction is almost as quick as her opponent's. The first few bolts bounce against her barriers, the next shatter them; a bolt impacts her shoulder and stops two inches deep, throwing her back with enough force to collapse. She drops her rifle but braces against the fall, drawing a burst of biotic energy around herself as she hits the ground; she weaves it quickly into a renewed barrier that deflects the next two bolts to find her. Her right hand flashes out then, snatching up her M-3 Predator heavy pistol. Her rebuke is a rapid cascade of eight shots, ripping through two platforms and stressing the shields of a third. The last, a shock trooper, is unphased.
It fires off another burst as Shepard rolls back and onto her feet, taking a single round that sunders her shields once again. Another shot sails past her neck as she returns fire, taking down the geth's shields with two bolts and popping it through the head with a third. It staggers, firing wildly, and Shepard nearly takes a blast to the gut before another salvo of gunfire comes to her aid. Liara races into view, Shuriken raised and unloading at full-auto; tracers laced in blue light eviscerate the remaining geth, dropping it in moments. And with that, Shepard is quick to drop low and scan about, pistol readied. When no new threats present themselves, however, she sheaths the Predator and retrieves her rifle. The Avenger has already melted a hole resembling its silhouette in the snow, but the heat levels are rapidly decreasing. With this weapon in hand, Shepard gestures for her asari companion to sweep the area.
"Barriers up, Commander," Ashley says after a moment.
"Stay on overwatch, Ash," Shepard answers. "Could be more of the bastards hiding out somewhere. Same goes for you, Garrus." When both team members affirm, Shepard keeps her guard tight and scans over the geth she downed. She puts a few bolts through them for good measure, but none get back up. After a few moments, Shepard's sweep brings her back to Tali's side. The quarian is still hard at work, as if completely unaware of the firefight that just resolved around her. She'd ask, but Shepard knows better than to interrupt. It shouldn't be much longer. After another few moments, Liara returns and declares the area clear. It's a few moments more than this before Garrus' voice comes in over the comm.
"Bad news, Shepard," he starts, suddenly urgent.
"Any other kind?" asks the commander. "What is it?"
On that distant hill, Garrus still lies prone with his scope raised. He scans along the snowy dunes outside the outpost, where a plume of dry flakes is steadily rising into the air. There's a long pause before he continues: "Seeing movement. Lots of it. Can't make it out clearly, but if I had to guess: You're about to have company."
"How many?"
Garrus takes a second to let the snow clear, but when it does he's taken aback. Dozens of war-platforms in almost every make emerge from snowy alcoves, a geth Prime at their head. When Shepard's voice barks in his ear again, he finally answers: "Too many. Get that info and exfil, Commander! I'm gonna—"
There's a flash and a resonant zap, then his barriers shatter. Garrus feels a heavy thud punch into his shoulder pad, taking the wind out and forcing him into a roll. But he moves with it, scrambling through a snow mound and throwing himself to his back. His Predator pistol is up in a second, firing wildly in the vague direction of his attacker. He glimpses a blur of movement—a white shape barely discernible against the cloud-speckled sky; it leaps out of view after a moment, but he doesn't need to see it clearly to know what it is. Still unloading in a rapid spray, Garrus throws himself over the edge of the hill and down into a brief tumble. He rolls onto his feet in a moment and assumes a crouch, mask scattered-over with loose snow. With gun raised he summons his omni-tool in a free hand, activating a hotkey that starts a backup generator in his armour; his shields flick back to life, boosted to maximum strength.
And just in time. A red tracer lances out from the cascading snow a half-second before a reverberating zap lances out from just over the hill. It explodes against the snow an inch from his foot, throwing him back to his feet. Three quick shots send his opponent scattering. A white shade whips past the snow dunes, blue gleam at its head, and a rapid bark heralds a cascade of shots. Snow and dirt explodes about him. He ducks and returns fire, trailing his opponent as it leaps and bounds. Six quick shots send dirt and snow sputtering, then a seventh blasts through metal and synthetic muscle. A geth hopper—ghost variant, Garrus assumes by the presence of a sniper-module—takes that single bolt and loses control. It bounces and rolls with its momentum, tumbling through snow drifts until it rolls back onto its hands and feet. One arm deadened, it lopes forward at half-speed, charging for the safety of a nearby mound. Teeth grit, Garrus raises his pistol and squeezes the trigger. One more shot, then a thunk and warning sirens. His pistol overheated.
With a curse, he turns abruptly and scrabbles back up the hill, tossing loose snow in his wake. He snatches up his sniper quickly and spins about, sights trained on the hill behind which the ghost has taken refuge. But he spies no movement—no unsettled snow or sudden tracer beams. If he didn't know better, he'd think himself alone again. Once more, he curses. This complicates things. It's then, after a moment of carefully watching the mound, that he realizes Shepard has been yelling in his ear-piece.
"Garrus, sound-off!" she says.
"I'm good, Commander," he answers through grit teeth. "But I got a new problem. My position's compromised. We need to call the Normandy."
"Already done. Do you need backup?"
Garrus risks a glance at the advancing army closing in on the outpost. Too many to count. When he glances back, he catches a shift—a little glint of blue light—and he fingers the trigger. When the Commander prompts him again, his answer is a cold and confident
"No."
Shepard hears the snap and hiss of sniper rounds discharged in the distance, but she trusts Garrus knows what he's doing. She has other problems. In an instant, she has a battle-plan. "Liara, position near the breach," she orders, gesturing to the hole they blew in the outpost wall. "Anything tries to get through, hit 'em with a singularity."
"On it, Shepard."
Then, speaking into her comm: "Ash, pull the Mako back and play overwatch. Suppressing fire from the machine gun only. If they get any funny ideas about flanking, you got full-reign with the M-A-C."
"Aye-aye," she answers.
As the Mako starts rolling toward the back of the outpost, Shepard rushes to Tali's side, gun trained toward the breach all the while. The quarian is still bent over in her work, but as soon as the Commander gets close enough she pauses. "Just finished, Shepard," she's saying. "Data's encrypted, though. I'll have to look at it back on the Normandy."
"Good enough," says the Commander. "Find a good spot to hide and get your tech ready. When they get through that breach, I'm gonna pull back so you can hit 'em." She nods, then rushes off to find an alcove on the opposite side of the breach from Liara. Last to find a place is Shepard, but she's not so worried about going unnoticed. Instead, she crouches behind the edge of the transmitter array and braces her rifle against it. With any luck, the geth will still prioritize destroying the transmitter; this will make them as close to reckless as gestalt machines can be. With a fist clenched, she gathers her will into a whirling knot of dark energy and thumps her fist against her breastplate. Her body pulses with abyssal light, enshrouding her in an emboldened barrier. Even still, she knows it can only take a handful of direct hits before going down. She'll have to make this count.
And she doesn't have to wait long. A minute passes before the bark of assault rifles follow a series of flashes; snow erupts into columns in a scattered pattern, ricocheting off metal and exploding about her. The shots are wild—a suppressing tactic summoned by a trio of war-platforms rushing through the breach. Shepard doesn't even bother to aim. A hand atop the rifle, she presses down hard and snaps the trigger down; the Avenger roars in furious rebuke, spitting dozens of bolts in handfuls of seconds. A platform explodes in sparks and lubricant, ocular sensor blasted over the head of its ally—who no later feels the same bite. Five shots burst through armour and synth-muscle, sending the platform spiralling. Snow erupts in a peppering hailstorm—five more bolts missing their marks as the Avenger's guidance systems work to compensate. The snow at Shepard's feet explodes, but she only reorients—a subtle shifting of the thundering barrel that sends two bolts clean through an arm and two more through the sensor array. The geth drops in time for the Avenger's heat tolerance to near maximum.
Shepard flinches as another bolt strikes inches from her chest plate; part of the transmitter explodes, glancing shrapnel off her armour. There's a glimpse of a red platform—many others behind it—and she drops to her back on instinct. Sure enough, the top of the transmitter is next to explode; a rocket collides with the peak and sends the sides splitting open, cascading sparks and wires and metal. Bolts shower the snow and charred scrap, manifesting a cloud too dense to fire through with accuracy. So Shepard rolls aside instead, dimly aware of the beating of the Mako's assault canon. A dozen bolts take flight in rebuke as Shepard presses herself against the edge of the transmitter, drawing her back against it and rifle before her visor. The heat has barely diminished, and she's not about to wait for it.
While the Mako opens fire, bolts glancing off its barriers, Shepard folds her Avenger onto her back and draws her Predator instead. It's jet black, dented and scuffed in places, with accents of white streaking nears its edges. An over-sized heat sink makes the pistol slightly heavier, but the increased capacity is a worthy trade. A check of a read-out confirms high-penetration rounds. Along the pistol's barrel, scratched through the paint and down to the gun-metal, are the words: "King Me." She draws her fingers over the phrase. A reminder: She's killed worse than geth.
Shepard leaps to her feet and opens fire. Five rounds fired before the first bolt ripples her barriers. A geth head explodes, a rocket fires haywire. Three more shots, a destroyer's chest-compartment ruptures. Two rounds wrack her biotic fields. A ninth shot, a geth arm severed. A tenth, an ocular module. She fires two more rounds and puts down another destroyer before a round finally strikes deep. Her barriers shatter and the impact hits her like a punch, embedding square in her gut and knocking the air from her lungs. She dives into the transmitter and drops behind it, her free hand patting down the injury for signs of blood. Instead, she finds a smouldering bolt submerged in layered plating. Looks like Spectre requisitions are worth the money after all, she thinks.
Ashley guns down the remaining geth with the Mako's canon, but it's only a matter of time before that's no longer an option. Shepard thinks as much, and it's only a moment before she hears the Chief's voice through her comm.
"Commander! Armatures! Over the walls!"
Garrus fires a bolt and sends snow erupting high into the air. A laser-streak flashes by and strikes the dune at his feet, throwing him off balance. The geth hopper leaps from cover and takes aim, its tracer falling over the turian's leg. But he isn't slowed; Mantis up, he snaps a setting and fires blind. The bolt impacts at the hopper's feet and explodes in a globe of concussive force, throwing the machine into a tumble. Garrus takes his chance to reorient and throws up his sights, standing now as the snow falls about his shoulders. The hopper whips about wildly—half in recovery and half in evasion—before Garrus takes a shot. The bolt skims over the geth's foot and into the snow. Snap! Another shot. Snap! Another. On a fourth, a tone blares from his rifle—a heat warning—and the hopper dives into the loose snow about its feet, tunnelling beneath. Garrus curses and dodges aside, eyes darting toward another snow dune nearby. That tracer-beam will pop up any second, he can't stay in the same spot.
It takes him a second to dive for his new position, and not before time. He sees a red flash and drops prone. A zap and a beam skims over the crest of his carapace, blasting through the dune in a vapourous streak. He rolls to his feet and throws up his Mantis, launching another concussive blast. This time, the snow before his sights is blasted away with the impact, revealing the crawling shape of the geth platform. It leaps away, firing wild streaks of bolts in its opponent's vague direction. The blast must have disoriented it, and Garrus won't waste that advantage.
A bolt bounces off his barriers as he fires another round, this time ahead and a little above the geth. Sure enough, machine leaps high and directly into his cross hairs. The bolt streaks through its shoulder and severs an arm, spitting sparks and lubricant in a glittering spiral. Garrus fires as the geth tumbles, skimming past it on the first shot but nailing it on the second. It rolls over twice and comes to a halt, gleaming eye dropping limp and sputtering out. It does not move again. Suddenly, the gentle wind seems deafening. Gunfire reigns in the distance, but Garrus doesn't dare take his scope off the geth. Its eye stares his direction, unmoving. He's not willing to leave it up to chance. A final shot bursts the eye to fragments.
With that, the turian retracts his scope for a moment and glances around. He has to clean his visor of snow, and when he does he looks carefully for more tracer-beams. For a long moment, he remains—crouched—where he is. No threats, at least for now. Spirits only know how many hoppers might be out there. Either way, he doesn't feel good about showing his back to open snow-drifts anymore. Moving carefully, Garrus slides down the larger dune from before and presses himself into the snow as deeply as he can. Some of it is firm enough to carve-out into a de facto seat, so he lowers himself into it and scopes-in again. At this angle, he's lost the height advantage. Still, he can do a fair bit of damage from here. As his crosshairs drift over diverse war platforms, all converging on the outpost, he sets his sights one the battlefield and fingers the trigger.
Two armatures are mounting the sides of the outpost when Shepard dares a glance out of cover. Her barriers are back, immediately deflecting a bolt as converging geth fire on her. The Mako might've been enough to take care of them, but Ash has since turn its canon onto the advancing armatures. They peak over the top of the wall, maybe only a dozen feet apart from each other, and from their heads pulse canons open fire. They concentrate on Ash as she surges the Mako backwards, firing a MAC round as she goes. It blasts away an armature's barriers instantly, but the gunfire continues. Ash won't last long, but Shepard can't fight them all at once. From her hip, she draws another grenade—high explosive this time—and judges her throw to the nearest armature. The small platforms, meanwhile, rush through the hole in the wall.
Liara and Tali have been hidden in cover all the while, but as the first of the geth platforms properly breach the defences, the former stands up. Wreathed in dark energy, Liara throws her hand upward with fingers splayed; the air above the constructs ripples, collapsing into a point of infinite mass in a fraction of a second. Air, snow, and geth alike are ripped from the ground levitated upward, drawn inexorably into the maelstrom above them. Shepard steals her chance. Leaping from cover, she hurls her grenade-disc toward the unshielded armature and promptly drops to a crouch with Avenger drawn. The armature turns its canon toward the commander, but it's already too late. A clink of impact, then a thunderous boom blasts snow and air in a mighty flash. The armature's leg is rent from its body and tossed high, sending the construct, screeching, over the side of the wall.
Shepard is up again in a second, unloading dozens of rounds to join Liara's own gunfire. The two of them blast through barriers and plating, synth-muscle and circuitry, rending wire from casing and eye from processor. The geth are made scrap in seconds, prompting Liara to silence her black hole and shower the next wave in the innards of their comrades. Shepard almost stops to admire it. Instead, she drops low as bolts skim past her head. Her next rounds are controlled bursts of three, sundering barriers and impacting plating. More platforms are already rushing in to replace the last, and as they turn their weapons on Liara the asari is forced to duck into her alcove. Tali is up next, then.
When the geth pass her, the quarian emerges from cover and throws out her hand with omni-tool activated. There's a flash as the geth's collective oculi stutter, their bodies seizing as Tali's malware attacks their systems. It won't last long, but it's all Shepard needs. Her Avenger opens fire even as she throws out a hand, unleashing her shockwave of pulsating biotic energy. It careens into the stunned geth and obliterates the first of them, tossing the others into spirals through the air. Liara and Tali both rejoin the fight, guns barking in furious rebuke. A half-dozen platforms drop before the first begin to recover, but the counter-atttack is only maintained until yet more platforms crest the hill beyond the breach. Two bolts strike Tali's shield, a third hitting Liara's, and both duck for cover once again. Shepard takes two against her own barriers before she finishes off another geth, but as the gunfire intensifies she looks to cover once again.
And not before time.
"Commander, duck!" Ashley shouts. Shepard only needs a glance to realize why. The last armature, sparking and staggered from a newly-received MAC round, charges up a mote of blue light near its oculus. Shepard leaps aside as the mote is ejected. It whips toward her, an angry wisp of azure light, and skims her shoulder as she sails toward the ground. When it impacts the snow the ground explodes, blasting dirt and flakes high into the air and fully shattering the Commander's barriers with the force of it. Dirt and snow cover her visor as she rolls aside, but she barely has time to clear it away before her eyes catch on a new threat. She's on her back, looking up toward the glacial cliffs, and affixed to ice and snow hangs a humanoid shape with a single, crimson tracer-beam. Her breath catches, but all she can say is "damn it."
Snap! The hopper explodes, limbs shorn clean from metal and synth-muscle. The ice behind it shatters with the impact, its body careening down toward the walls and dashing against the side. Shepard flinches, then pushes herself up hastily and hugs the side of the transmitter. More hoppers jump about, repositioning, and she very nearly turns her rifle to fire on them when another snap echoes on the wind. A hopper explodes, and then so does another. And another. Shepard gets her breath back, thanking God—or whoever might be watching—that her turian is a crack shot.
With a deep breath, Shepard summons her biotics once more and beats a fist against her chest. This time, she feels a strain—like some deep, unknown muscle has been taxed to its limits—and a faint throb suggests a migraine is shortly on its way. But right now, she doesn't care. Her body enveloped in biotic power, she leaps from cover and sets her sights on the first geth she sees. They're moving in on Tali's position, coming to flank on both sides. Shepard doesn't hesitate. A good dozen shots unload in trio bursts, blasting through the first and demolishing the second. The third geth turns to retaliate, missing his opponent by a hair and taking three bolts through its eye. When it drops, Shepard spins about and executes another close on Liara's flank—then another on the opposite side.
She kills two more before her Avenger overheats, and this time she throws it down in favour of her pistol. The armature moves in her periphery, charging up again, but she doesn't have to duck this time. A mass-driver round streaks through its neck segment blasts out the other side, embedding itself in the outpost wall. The machine staggers, taking a hail of assault-canon fire as Ashley charges the Mako forward. Over the comms, her voice is a muted shout. "How do ya like this?"
The Mako slams full-speed into the side of the armature, driving it hard against the outpost wall and crushing it between. Ash reverses and unloads from the canon again, obliterating the construct's head before turning it toward the advancing geth. Among them, a geth prime. Before Shepard can warn against it, Ashley is already turning about. The Mako races toward the breach and slams through two advancing platforms, its curved front striking the prime in its chest. The platform launches toward the outpost wall and slams hard against it, barriers shattered. This move disorients the prime, but puts the rover in perfect view of the remaining armatures. And the geth do not waste the advantage.
Two wisps of blue light careen into the Mako, the first sundering its shields and the second blasting a hole clean through the side. The wheels reverse suddenly, MAC firing haywire, and as Ashley crashes into the side of the breach a third mote of energy strikes the bow. The Mako comes to a sudden stop, and Shepard's heart lurches.
"Ash!" she shouts, rifle raised and firing. She downs a geth making to round the side of the rover. Its partner makes to fire, but before it can an envelope of biotic energy whips it from its feet and hurls it high over the outpost walls. Liara, aglow, comes charging to Shepard's side as her attention turns to the recovering prime. It wields a massive assault canon, almost a match to the Mako, and even as Shepard opens fire she realizes it's already too late. That is, if it weren't for Tali. The quarian's omni-tool flashes and the prime's raised canon suddenly seizes, sparking and flickering as its circuitry malfunctions. More malware in the nick of time. Shepard's pistol barks in rapid spit-fire, joined by Liara and Tali while the chance remains. Metal and lubricants blast from the prime's hide as it recognizes its chances and changes tactics. Its head dips, body tenses, and with frightening speed—despite the bolts that sail through it—the platform leaps into a sprint and charges them.
Only three seconds and Shepard ducks, a fist like a speeding truck sailing inches from her head. Its other hand flashes out and strikes her gut, knocking her halfway unconscious and sending her tumbling. Liara's hand flashes out—a biotic throw—but the prime's grip is lightning. It snatches her by the wrist and pulls. She shrieks and Tali strikes—a burst of five rounds cut short as the prime's hand whips out, ripping her rifle away and tossing it. She stumbles. Liara's SMG unloads, wild bolts that skim past armour or miss entirely. The prime wrenches her aside and she slams against the Mako, dropping her at its feet. Shepard is up as the platform's foot raises—poised to end the asari. A scream proceeds the last of Shepard's biotic strength leaping to the fore, her fingers splayed and hand outstretched. A force like a freight train is pressed to the point of a palm, flattening the prime's chest and sending it sailing against the side of the Mako. It bounces once and lands on unsteady feet, falling to a leg. Tali doesn't hesitate.
With Shepard on the opposing flank they charge; omni-tools flash and blades extend—orange shards of light that cut with razor perfection. Shepard unloads three shots and ducks as the prime flashes out, skimming past her head. Tali strikes—a cleft through circuits and wire—then her barriers shatter as a lightning-fist skims her shoulder. She falls. Shepard slices upward, cleaving limb from platform to the menace of a guttural screech in geth-tongue. The prime jumps up, but its movements are stilted and uneven. Shepard back-steps from a punch and shoots twice, punching holes through mangled chest-plating. A duck, a swipe; a shot, a slash. On a lunge for her, Shepard ducks and weaves, slicing clean through a leg and dropping the prime to a knee. It stumbles into a lunge and Shepard back-steps, but as her gun comes up—poised for its head—the hand flashes out again. It strikes Shepard across the wrist and knocks her pistol aside, allowing the platform the barest moment to react.
It leaps to unsteady feet and snatches up Shepard by the shoulderpad, hauling her into the air and into the motion of slamming her back down. Shepard feels her gut seize, her migraine pierce through the veil of adrenaline and hit her with all force. She feels her unseen muscle seize and deny any further function. For a moment, its as if she hovers in free fall. And then a boom and flash blasts the prime's arm from its shoulder. Shepard hits the ground hard, but she leaps to her feet nonetheless—in time for a white and red shape to rise from behind her attacker. A boom, a flash, and the geth's upper back erupts into a shower of cybernetic gore, dropping it to its knees. From behind, Ashley—armour blackened and cracked on a shoulderpad—aligns her shotgun with the prime's head and obliterates it.
"You all right, Commander?" is the Chief's first question. Shepard, however, barely gives it a thought. Instead, she rushes for Liara's insensate form, brushing past Ashley as she does. When she gets close enough, her worst fears are denied; Liara stirs, groans, and tries to roll to her side.
"Steady, Liara," Shepard says. "Can you move?"
"Barely," says the asari through grit teeth. "Goddess, I n-need some..." She doesn't finish the request, but Shepard gets it. A flash of her omni-tool administers a dose of medi-gel, but its a bandage at best. They're not out of this yet. When she glances over, Shepard notices Tali—recovered now—taking cover at the edge of the Mako. She has a chance to peek out, so Shepard rushes to her side.
"How many more?" she asks.
"Keelah, Shepard," Tali says, panting. "Dozens. Fifty, at least." She pauses, meeting Shepard's gaze between their visors. Even with the faint shroud that obscures her features—like a purple fog ever-present in her mask—Shepard can see the desperation. "I don't... can we survive this?"
"We've survived worse," Shepard says. Then, with a hand on her shoulder: "I'm not letting anyone die today, Tali. Hold it together."
"Y-Yes, Commander."
"How we lookin' on ammo?" Shepard says, addressing all of them this time.
"Just fine," answers Ashley, voice a little sour this time. "I'm more worried about the Mako. Not sure she'll drive again after this."
At the thought, Shepard's eyes light up.
"Okay, new plan," she starts. "Ash, does the Mako's gun still work?"
"Sure, but the mass-effect fields are down. No barriers until we get 'em fixed."
"Climb back in and wait for my signal. The geth must think they took it out, since they haven't been shooting at it. Meantime, the rest of you fall back on me. We make it like we're retreating, draw the geth into the outpost and form a choke point. Once they're close enough, Ash can open up with everything the Mako's got left. That'll thin 'em out, at least. Give us a chance to hold out 'till Joker gets his ass down here."
The rest of the squad share looks, but eventually they nod. "Aye, Commander," Ash says. She makes for the Mako again, leaving Tali and Liara to rush after Shepard. The asari is still limping a little, and the sight makes Shepard's migraine worse. But she pushes the pain from her mind and retrieves her rifle from where she left it. With that, the lot of them find cover behind some geth supply crates, just off to the side of the transmitter. From there, Shepard can already see the remaining platforms advancing. She just hopes Joker will get here in time.
Wrex stands in front of the Normandy's cargo-bay doors. His crimson armour is polished and reinforced—perks of the renown he's earned with Shepard—but the real improvements are less obvious. His shields power up—manifold layers that strengthen his already-considerable toughness. He holds an M-300 Claymore shotgun, itself overclocked for increased velocity at the cost of increased heat. Though he'd prefer it otherwise, he slips on his helmet to complete the armament. Sidon isn't exactly hospitable at the best of times, to say nothing of the geth. With weapon raised, he steps forward and takes a deep breath; his plates itch, fingers twitche in anticipation. He's been idle for too long.
"Thirty seconds to drop, Wrex," comes Joker's voice over the ship's speakers. Then, more quietly, as if to himself: "Just hold on, Commander."
"Don't get your quads in a twist," Wrex murmurs. "Shepard doesn't have my permission to die."
"Oh, yeah. Real reassuring, big guy. Just don't let her hear you say that."
Wrex chuckles. Then, grumbling to himself: "Serves her right for leavin' me on baby-sitting duty." There's a rumble as the Normandy's inertial-dampeners compensate for rapid descent, and Wrex can feel it in his bones. The ship rips through Sidon's atmosphere in a sharp descent-arc, cutting through cloud-cover and coming quickly into view of the battle below. The GUARDIAN lasers are powered up, targets marked and lit, but Wrex is conscious of none of this. None save for the shifting of the cargo-bay doors and the imminent approach of battle.
The Mako's assault canon roars as Shepard ducks behind cover. Tali and Liara are close at her side, pressed near to supine against the side of the geth supply crates. Snow and dirt erupts in a horizontal hailstorm of bolts, rending synthetic limbs and circuitry with indiscriminate and overwhelming force. Stray bolts punch holes through the supply crates, some whizzing by Shepard's shoulder or embedding near her feet, but all she can do is hope it won't last long. By the time the geth spin about to retaliate, the Mako's canon makes short work of them. Over a dozen reduced to scrap in mere seconds. The canon quiets and Shepard pops from cover, unleashing preemptive bursts in three-rounds each. The first skims passed a geth leading the next wave, the second downs it. Another platform quickly takes its place, but Shepard is already moving; she ducks and Tali replaces her, executing the approaching geth a mere moment before taking a bolt herself. Liara is next, and when she ducks one of the others replaces her. It's a game of feint and prediction—in which the geth, without their prime, are at a marked disadvantage.
But that only matters for a few seconds. Ashley is exiting the Mako, taking out a geth as she goes, when Shepard spots it: Another armature, this time climbing over a different portion of the outpost wall. The instant its head peeks over, saturating assault-canon fire rips through the snow and dirt. A bolt punches through a supply crate and cracks against Shepard's barriers, then another bounces off Liara's when a crate is overturned. Under fire like this, they won't last long.
A shockwave shatters the air suddenly, preceding a gust of wind so fierce it threatens to barrel Shepard over. The suppressing fire halts, and the Commander dares a glance. Hundreds of meters above, the sleek, aquilline shape of the Normandy swings into view. Mass effect fields strain to absolute limit, pulling the vessel in a shuddering arc that brings her to a violent halt—winds whirling behind. From her flank, crimson flashes streak ground-side, blasting geth into molten slag and sundering the barriers of the attacking armature. The synthetics scatter, formation broken and gestalt mind disrupted, but the Normandy isn't done yet. With her remaining momentum she zooms in over the outpost, cargo-door unfolded.
A roar precedes a flash of crimson plate dropping from above, body wreathed in biotic energy. Wrex drifts low and drops hard, dispersing his shimmering bubble with a snap and a flash. Claymore raised, he blasts apart a war-platform in one motion, then bats aside another. Bolts glance off his barriers as he charges around the Mako, bloody-roar on his lips. Shepard is up and running in a moment. She rushes the geth Wrex downed and executes, making room for Ash—who'd dropped prone—to leap to her feet and join her. Together, Tali, Liara, Ashley, and Shepard charge after the head-strong krogan, emerging through the breach with guns roaring and biotics flared. An armature is crawling up beyond, but, with its neural network disrupted, it responds all too slowly. Wrex charges with a roar and unleashes a blast of bright red energy from his shotgun. The bolt impacts his foe's shields and shatters them, making room for a flash of biotic light flowing at the behest of a raised hand. A current of gravitic propulsion sends the machine sailing into the air, and Shepard is quick to take advantage. With a shouted order to open fire, she drops to a knee and unloads her Avenger across the hovering target. Tali drops at her side, blasting away plate and circuitry with controlled bursts of three. Liara flenses metal with a scouring spiral of biotic energy—bearing the innards of the armature's face-plate to direct fire.
Ashley drops low all the while, shotgun raised and roaring as a pair of geth retaliate. One impacts her shields, the next threatens to shatter them, but neither lasts longer than a moment. She bisects one with a well-aimed blast, then decapitates its twin. Wrex is fairing even better. With two rounds glancing off his shields, many more exploding through snow about his feet, he charges rightward and barrels through a couple shock-troop platforms. They're knocked aside, sent into a roll to recover, but they are still too greatly slowed by their recent attrition; as the neural network reacts, Wrex is already blasting. One of the geth explodes through the middle, scrap and lubricants showing behind it; the next takes Wrex's shotgun across the occulus, cracking its lens and sending it spiralling. Another roar precedes his charge, and quickly he falls upon the machine with a flurry of punches. Two shatter its lens, a third snaps the face-plate, and the fourth strikes clean through to dirt and snow.
With that, the geth are shortly mopped-up as the Normandy comes about for another attack. On its left broadside this time, more GUARDIAN lasers flash to life, incinerating targets with absolute precision. Without any rocket platforms or other such artillery, the Normandy may as well be invincible. So Shepard takes a moment to breathe, relaxing just a little as the battle finally subsides.
In the distance, a lone geth hopper lies—statuesque—in the snow. It watches the battle from over a kilometre away, eye zoomed-in to analyze every detail. It even spots a camouflaged turian emerging from his snowy outcropping, back turned. The geth could strike, but it does not. Instead, as it spies a krogan charging through a trio of platforms—crushing one underfoot and gunning down another—it packs away its data into encrypted files for transfer. Failure has not been unforeseen, but the Old Machines demand results. The plan will have to change. As it zooms in to the N7 symbol marked on thick, contoured plating, it backs into the snow and prepares to make for the secondary transmitter. The Emissary must be informed.