A/N
Hi everyone! I hope you all had a great Christmas if you celebrate that. Otherwise I just hope you had a good holiday period and that all is well with you.
I have had a couple of people now talk about how the story is just rehashing the games right now. I acknowledge the truth in that, but it won't be doing it for much longer. No more spoilers than that, but for those who are considering unfollowing because it is not the original story that they were wanting to follow, just stick with me for a little longer and see if I can't get you back to what you want.
Anyway, if you want to read ahead eight chapters (where getting back to that original storyline may or may not have already started), you can see them on my pat-re-on, Bored Peasant's Written Works. Another chapter is getting close to finished and will be posted soon. Also, that's where to go if you want to vote for the monthly side story.
Special thanks to Amorac07, Arrimar26, Ben wanless, Blackwall, Blaine Hughes, carl hoffman, Cesar Montemayor, Chris, David C, Eligah Moreno, Endervslender, Ezoz, FallenMetalGod, Freeman, internetadik, Jebusno2, Lasted, liam darrell, liquidpotato, My Name is Klondike, Nathan Block, Nathan Duncan, Orangerazor120, Paul Fischer, Proxy, r4p16, Robert Tipton, Sand_Worm, Sith_Paladin, sonic, SupremeRuler17, The Senn Master, TheCoolest7248, Thezombiegamer707, UtopiaKnight39 and Voidwolf 1994 for their support. You are all amazing, thank you!
On with the story!
…
Chapter 52 – Virmire pt 2
(Shepard POV)
This mission had already been more of a headache than she was expecting to face.
The first part had started out fine. The initial landing and drive had not been a problem, and even Brock had stopped with his usual 'Jane can't drive' jokes that were getting a little old now. Admittedly, the smoother terrain may have had something to do with that, but that wasn't her fault! She tried to make it a bumpier journey, but there were only so many rocks and boulders to drive over.
Being able to get out and use her new Thumper grenade launcher had been an inspired idea from Wrex. It sent a thrill through her to be able to use that carnage shot. Say what you will about it, sometimes a big powerful blast like that could send just the right type of shivers down the spine. Combine that will the adrenaline of combat and the thrill of survival against a tough enemy and she had a winning combination that left her with a goofy grin
Then, finding the salarians had been the mixed bag and the headache. While finding out that they had stumbled upon Saren's base was a good surprise, even if it was heavily fortified, it meant that she was nearly there and had a chance to take out a threat to humanity and the galaxy. She was close to accomplishing her mission.
Then there were the salarians themselves, which led to a bigger headache. Apparently the STG don't consider social niceties when talking about the krogan a necessity, which of course got the krogan warlord in her party a little upset. It makes said krogan more upset when people talk about his race as a curse.
She could completely understand, of course. She had dealt with enough aliens to know that humans were not exactly thought of fondly throughout a large number of beings in the galaxy. Thankfully, her rise to the Spectres meant that they had to at least pretend to be nice. To her face anyway.
Still, she also had to accept that an army of krogan running roughshod around the galaxy was also not a good idea. Her stance had led to the biggest concern; Wrex having his shotgun in her face. Not something new for her, after nearly a decade in the military, but still not something that someone would want to face on a normal day and certainly not from an ally.
Fortunately, Brock had a way to get through to the krogan. She had never seen anyone other than a krogan headbutt another krogan before. The businessman must be short a few screws. Still, it worked, and Wrex had apologised and now they were ready to be a ground team again.
But she was not silly enough to not have the potentially volatile alien watched while in a combat mission.
While Brock had been the one to calm him down, this was her mission, therefore her responsibility. Because of this, she had Wrex be part of her squad. Though, for the moment, other than Williams who had been put with the salarians at their request, Jane's ground team was much larger than usual.
That said, Kirrahe's speech to his salarians about holding the line; that was pretty inspirational. Jane was glad she recorded it so that she could take notes.
She'd brought everyone with her for this mission. Now that they knew that this was Saren's primary base, she didn't want to take a risk of being overwhelmed by either Saren's krogan or the geth. Plus, if Saren himself took to the field, she would feel much better know that they had the means to outgun him rather than try taking him on with her normal complement of three on a ground team squad.
Mainly though, she wanted the options that a full ground team would give. The facility was massive and clearing it all out on her own would take far too long. If she needed to do multiple things at once, having enough to form a second squad would give her options to play with.
She wouldn't normally do it this way. Most of the time, a second squad would be on standby with the Normandy, or she would only choose two or three other people to be on a standard ground team as per her N school training. But with the Normandy grounded, it didn't make sense for half the ground team to be sitting lazily on the beach while the rest of them fought for their lives.
As a result of the bloated ground team though, she had to admit that they were making excellent time.
Going through the ravine towards the base was pretty straightforward. There were plenty of geth being used as a guard to slow them down. But when there were enough people to take out the single geth rocket troopers, paired geth drones, and four team geth squads, then those little distractions took absolutely no time to get past.
The only real annoyance that she had was that someone kept complaining about the water was leaking into their armour. Apparently that someone hadn't liked being pushed over into the water by a charging krogan when they weren't wearing their helmet, which meant water went in through the neckline.
Jane let him complain three times before she told Alenko to stop the whining or he could go back to the Normandy alone and wait there for the rest of the mission. Luckily for him, he shut his trap.
Tali had been a big help finding that geth triangulation tower. It had disrupted the geth communications and made it easier to isolate the geth from each other.
"They're calling sat strikes!" Kirrahe's voice came over the comm. "Jaeto, watch for comm stations. Williams, can you see anything?"
It sounded like they were being hit hard. Jane pushed her team forward faster. She knew that she had to take some of the pressure off the salarians, and the easiest way to do that was to be at the base so that Saren had to divert some of the forces that were attacking the salarians.
"Shepard," Tali called out as they cleared another outpost. "There is a geth satellite on the infrastructure above us. I recommend taking it out before we move on."
"Sounds good, Tali," Jane acknowledged. Her little quarian was so bloodthirsty about the geth that it was almost adorable. "You want the honours?"
"With pleasure," Tali replied with relish. She tossed a drone up to the satellite and detonated it once it was right next to the geth device. It was damaged but not destroyed, so Tali finished it off with a blast from her shotgun. "All clear, Shepard."
"So I see," Jane replied, feeling amused at the behaviour of the quarian teenager. "Let's move forward."
"Shepard," Alenko called from further into the outpost. "The path ahead is going to be restrictive. It's all metal walkways as far as I can see. That would make it an easy place for ambushes."
Jane frowned. "That's unfortunate," she said. "I guess there's nothing for it though. Wrex, you take point, Liara take the rear. If you see any targets, I want you prepared to raise Barriers. Brock and Torrin, you two have eyes up high, scour for targets. Garrus and Alenko, you're with me for ground targets. Let's move it, double time."
They pushed through, making good progress across the walkways. A few geth drones passed, but Brock and Torrin made quick work of them with their Butchers.
"Aircraft headed to perimeter stations to recharge!" Willam's voice came over the comm. "Bunker up before they come back!" It sounded like they were having a moment of reprieve.
They passed several krogan soldiers and a few more geth troopers, including a destroyer and a pair of rocket troopers. Jane was amazed at how easy these krogan were going down. It was almost like they were fighting just because they had to. They were not fighting with the ferocity that she had come to expect from the big aliens.
"Captain Kirrahe's down, he's alive but wounded!" Williams shouted over the comm. "Aegohr, form up with Jaeto. Hold that line! Medic!"
That wasn't good. Captain Kirrahe had seemed reliable and he had the whole salarian team loyal to him from the looks of it. If he was out of play, then Williams was going to have her work cut out for her coordinating them and they may not even listen to her in the heat of combat.
The walkway widened out to a larger platform with multiple paths heading off it. A few the of the hexagonal shields lining the path straight ahead, gave her a clue of where they needed to go, but the path went off in multiple directions, giving her choices of how to proceed. Go where she knows the enemy will be? Or try and find out if there is a way to flank the enemy?
"Jane," Brock called out from his position to her right, looking up a new path. "I am getting some readings of geth drones in that direction beyond the rock walls, about eighty metres out. At the peak distance of my SONAR. Permission to explore and neutralise them?"
Jane considered for only a moment. There was clearly something that way that needed her attention, but she could now see krogan forces ahead of her moving beyond the shields. She was grateful again in that instant that she had opted to have her whole ground team involved in this mission. It gave her extra options.
"Granted," she called back. "Take Torrin and Tali with you as a squad. You are lead; team designation, Bravo Squad. Search the area and report the situation. Investigate other entrances in the facility from that direction."
"Bravo Squad confirmed," Brock repeated. "Heading right now. Have your orders. Will comply."
He took off down the right gangway, disappearing around a corner, Torrin and Tali trailing after him with their weapons drawn and searching for any enemies in range.
That left her with five of her own, and Williams off fighting with the salarian team. A little unbalanced, but she would rather have the extras in case Wrex went rogue.
"Let's keep going," she said. "Alenko and Garrus, take point. Liara, you stay rear."
Their squad pushed forward up the gangway, with Alenko and Garrus moving quickly to take a decent lead. Wrex blasted two passing geth drones out of the sky as they passed. His aim was certainly impressive.
"Shepard," Garrus spoke up. "We have an entrance into the facility guarded by some of Saren's krogan. They almost look like clones to me."
"Same here, Shepard," Alenko chipped in. "But we'd probably need Wrex to look at them just to be sure."
Wrex grunted. "Whatever. Just kill them and move on. No point wasting time if they are already working for Saren."
Jane hummed. "You heard the man. Push forward. Garrus, we're coming up behind you now. Pick your target, then I want you to take the shot. We'll light them up on your mark."
They made it to Garrus and Alenko, who had only gone about fifty metres ahead. Sure enough, Jane could see a couple of doors in front of her accessible via the walkway. Standing in front of those were a squad of four krogan, who weren't doing anything other than standing around.
Jane raised an eyebrow at that. The krogan didn't look particularly vigilant, which was unusual seeing as they hadn't really been quiet on the way here. They would easily have heard the gunshots as they went through the valley or at least as they fought against the geth on the approach to the facility.
Hell, Jane could hear the distant explosions of the salarians in the distance. Saren's krogan didn't even flinch.
"Garrus," Jane said, before he fired. "Hold your fire. There's something not right here. Wrex, take a look at them."
Wrex stomped forward grumbling and took a look at the krogan in the distance.
"Alpha, this is Bravo," Brock's voice cut in. "It looks like we have a refuelling station here for the geth drones. We're going to blow it. Detonation in ten seconds."
"Roger that, Bravo," she replied. She looked back at the krogan standing at the door. This would be a good way to see how Saren's krogan react. "Let's take a look and see what they do," she told her squad.
A few seconds later, a massive explosion came from their right, only a few hundred metres away on the other side of the stone walls. It was loud enough to send a massive thunderclap of echoed noise bouncing off the ravine walls around them. Jane could even feel the platform under their feet shudder slightly from the concussive force.
The weird thing is that the krogan barely reacted to it. All four of them looked in the direction of the explosion for a few seconds. One of them reached for the shotgun on his back, but that was it. Only a few moments later, they all turned away to look at something else or stare into the distance. It was unnatural. Sentient beings didn't respond this way.
"Refuelling station has been destroyed," Brock's voice came over the comm rather unnecessarily. "We managed to take out about twenty of the geth drones that were within the blast radius. Proceeding to the facility."
"Roger that, Bravo," Jane replied. "Proceed."
"Something's wrong here, Shepard," Wrex said, his eyes still firmly fixed on the krogan ahead of him. "Those krogan are all wrong."
"Are they clones?" she asked.
"Most likely," he replied. "Or two of them, at least. But that's not it. Even if they were only copies, they should have done more than that. It's like their minds weren't developed or, more likely, they were twisted. No krogan would hear an explosion of that size without at least talking about it. These ones, they haven't even said a word to each other."
He was right, Jane realised. She had only been focussing on how they looked. She hadn't even paid attention to the fact that they weren't speaking to each other after that explosion.
"Looks like Saren doesn't want his krogan to be able to think for themselves," she said softly, trying to emphasise her earlier points from the beach to the warlord. "If they are all clones, he doesn't want them cognizant. If they aren't clones, he wants them lobotomised. That's no future for the krogan."
Wrex rumbled to himself, but nodded stiffly. Jane was glad he had seen this for himself. Saren was doing her a favour in making it easier for her to keep Wrex from jumping ship and joining Saren in the middle of a mission. She hadn't thought that he would, however it was nice to have some reinforcement.
"When this is done," Wrex growled, "I want Saren's head on a pike."
Well, that did wonders for Jane's earlier concerns.
"Alright everyone," she addressed the group. "Pick your targets. Garrus, you have the opening. Fire when ready."
A few heartbeats later and the boom of Garrus' sniper rifle heralded the vaporisation of the head of the far left krogan. Jane fired a long burst from her scalpel at the far right one, quickly bringing its shields down and punching holes in its face. The big alien dropped a few seconds later, never even getting its weapon off its back.
The rest of the squad took their targets, hitting them all with a myriad of attacks, including a team up from Liara and Wrex, who threw out different biotic attacks that engulfed one of the krogan in a large explosion of twisting biotic energy, ripping the alien's armour to shreds and dropping it to the ground.
Jane had to admit, that did look pretty cool.
"Wrex, take point and move up," Jane barked.
Wrex glowed blue as he covered himself in biotic energy and charged across the gangway to the facility, the rest of the squad pushing up hard behind him.
Jane moved over to the door, with Alenko and Garrus taking covering positions, Garrus to her rear left, with her fellow Alliance soldier moving to the right of the accessway. The remaining two members of the squad moved to take their positions behind her.
"Wrex," she called out. "Take Liara and head over to the second door over there." She nodded to the door that was only twenty metres away. "You two take entry positions there. Match with me on my mark."
"Alpha, this is Bravo," Brock's voice was heard over the comm. "We have an entry to the facility approximately two hundred metres to the west of your position. Preparing to breach."
"Roger," she called back. "Breach on my mark." She watched as her biotic support both went to the far door and got into position. "Mark."
She keyed the door and pushed into what looked like a storage area, filled with large boxes. The roar of a krogan drew her attention to one of Saren's krogan charging at her from fifty metres away. The combined firepower of her and her two squad mates dropped him before he made it ten metres. Jane took a leaf out of Brock's book and shot the krogan in the head once it was down. No need to risk a big angry krogan coming up from behind.
Twin angry krogan roars from the right made her look over to see that Wrex was once again covered in blue biotic energy and charging at another of Saren's krogan. They duked it out from close range for a few seconds before Wrex smashed a fist covered in biotic energy through Saren's krogan's face in a gruesome shower of blood and teeth.
"Clear," Alenko called. Liara echoed him a moment later from her position.
"Looks like this is the way forward, Shepard," Garrus said, his rifle tracking a staircase off to one side."
"Roger," Jane said, already moving that way. "I have point. Liara, with me." She would rather have a solid biotic at her side for the moment.
Good thing too. They no sooner rounded the corner than they found a large geth waiting for them; a Juggernaut.
She let loose a long burst from her Scalpel, which dropped its shields. Liara threw a Warp at it, that Wrex followed up with a biotic Push. The two biotic attacks collided and another blue explosion engulfed the large geth machine. Garrus and Alenko both fired into the explosive cloud and Jane joined in, firing another long burst.
"Grenade out!" Wrex shouted over the weapons fire, tossing a disc at the damaged machine.
Jane ducked behind cover and Liara raised a Barrier just as the grenade exploded, both of them being protected from the blast.
"Clear," Wrex called out letting Jane stand up.
She looked at the Juggernaut corpse lying on the ground. She was really starting to get annoyed by the geth. Maybe Tali had a point.
They pushed further into the facility. They had to find a way to get the pressure off the salarians and their attack so that they could keep alive in the face of the geth and Saren's krogan.
Jane wasn't going to let Saren succeed here today.
…
(Brock POV)
I have to admit, having Jane send me and Torrin off made things a lot easier for me to move around this facility. It also made it easier for me to send a message off to the infiltration team that I had nearby, even with Tali tagging along for the ride.
I'd had a team from the ship that was trailing us, or more specifically me, land on the dark side of the planet and move towards us in stealth mode. I'd also sent an order even before we came through the Relay that I had wanted a stealth shuttle to be used to help me out with getting the beacon and saving the crew member that would have died from Jane's choices later in the mission. If I could prevent anyone from dying, especially me, then I was going to do it.
It was one of the reasons I wanted to make sure that the drone refuelling station was destroyed. I know from the games that if you didn't destroy the refuelling station then Kirrahe was killed along with a bunch of other salarians. I had heard the radio calls earlier and Kirrahe was down, but still alive and now back in the fight. So I guess there was a bit of an overlap in the games about it. I was glad that Kirrahe had made it though. From what I remembered, he was the one that committed the STG to help Shepard in Mass Effect 3 when the dalatrass refused to lift a finger because they cured the genophage. Not having him alive was going to make things harder than they needed to be after the reapers launch their invasion.
We made our way through the facility, moving through the upper level. I could see research stations below us, but not the cages so we weren't in the indoctrination centre. I don't know where we were in relation to that though. It's not like I had a minimap nearby. I looked around to verify that there was no one nearby and switched on SONAR.
"We have the alarm controls," Jane's voice came steady over the comm. "Deactivating the alarms now." I didn't notice any alarms in our particular area, but I suppose that there could be silent alarms. Though, the lack of enemies storming our way was a pretty good indication that there were no alarms going off in our location.
Looking around with my SONAR, I could see several krogan and geth troopers milling around different parts of the facility and… oh hello there. I spy with my little eye, a prothean beacon, about seventy metres away. It was at the peak of my vision with the SONAR and I couldn't see a direct route from where we were, but I could head that way and make my play for it. Though, I guess I didn't really need to. Jane needed to interact with it to get a fuller picture of the reaper invasion and then leave before Sovereign makes it here.
Sometime before that happened, the nuclear bomb would be detonated. It was a very tight window but if we wanted that beacon, then risks would need to be taken.
"I think, this is the cloning area," Torrin spoke up softly as he was looking down at the research centre blow us."
I turned to see where he was looking. "What makes you think that?" I asked.
He pointed at some of the beds and research stations. "Those look like they have been made for krogans, or something krogan sized. It's too big for it to just be turians or someone our size. And I don't see the geth needing a medical bed."
I nodded at his assessment. "Sounds reasonable," I responded, feeling pleased at his tactical assessment. My young turian friend had come a long way from when we first met.
"There's an elevator over there to get down to that level," Tali said, point further down the walkway.
We headed to the elevator and descended to the research area.
"Okay, hold them here," Kirrahe's strained voice came over the comm, to my relief. "Fill those holes Jaeto! Come on, Shepard. Make it soon!"
I headed straight to a terminal off to the side and booted it up. I couldn't log in normally so I activated my hacking program and got in through the system. I took a brief look through the data that I was seeing. It looked like I was staring at scientific research into cloning. I opened another file. Bingo. Genophage research. Time to keep my promise.
I connected my omnitool to the terminal and started a download of all information I could get off the server. It looked quite comprehensive. I was going to be here for a couple minutes. Torrin would understand, but I wasn't sure how Tali would go with it.
Time for a distraction.
"I need a couple minutes here," I called out to the other two, not looking away from the terminal. "Look around and see if there is anything that you can find that will be useful."
The two younger aliens gave me a verbal acknowledgement and wandered off to see if there was anything of note in the area. I decided to keep going through the terminal files to see if there was anything else that would be useful. Then I stopped.
I have a formerly indoctrinated asari matriarch on board. I was going to deal with indoctrinated people in the future. And Saren used this place to research indoctrination on his captured salarians.
I ran through a bunch of files quickly. Most of it was basic stuff, things that a quartermaster would look into. Water pressure reports, foodstuffs, facility construction.
Then I hit another secured file. I activated the hacking program again. This one took longer to crack, but eventually the file opened. Bingo.
There was a decent amount of data on indoctrination in this file. I would need this to show the Council to prove that indoctrination was a real threat and it wasn't unique to Saren alone. I started a copy on it too. It was slower to do both downloads, but it was better than forgetting.
"Brock," Torrin's voice came from behind me. "This is definitely the cloning lab. We have about a dozen clones being grown right now. They look about halfway done and if I am reading this display right, they will be finished in a few days."
"They look really gross," Tali added. "I don't really want to see this."
"Can you find a way to shut off the cloning machines?" I called back. Not that it mattered with the upcoming explosion. If they don't exist anymore, they could technically be considered 'off'.
"That should be easy enough," Tali responded. "We can just separate the power sources from the cloning devices and it will stop the whole thing."
"Good," I said. "Shut them all down." We might be blowing the whole facility up anyway but I wanted to keep these two, specifically little Tali, distracted for a minute.
"Is that really necessary?" Tali asked. "The whole facility is going to be destroyed by the salarian's bomb soon anyway. We don't really need to waste time shutting off individual cloning machines."
I considered it. "Fair point," I replied. "Are any of the cloning machines not being used?"
"Uh, a few?" Tali replied, sounding uncertain. "Why do you ask?"
"Well," I replied slowly. "It just seems to me that this is very valuable tech that is going to be destroyed. I don't need the krogan, but if we could get the Normandy crew to pick up a few of the empty cloning machines, it could be useful later on."
"There are eight unused cloning machines," Torrin reported. "Do you want me to send the request to the Normandy?"
"Sure," I replied. "Give them our exact position and see if they have any explosives to blow the roof off and get them that way. It would be the fastest way."
My omnitool pinged with an incoming message. I looked it over and saw that it was my infiltration team in the stealth shuttle. They were coming up on the facility and wanted a location.
I didn't have to worry about them being spotted on the approach. Chop had really come through on this shuttle. He had taken the basic stealth device that turned a person to near invisibility and added a whole bunch more heat sinks and boosted the output massively.
As a result, it would work for something the size of a shuttle. The heat output of the stealth device was massive and the heat sinks took up about half the available crew space in the back where passengers would go. That reduced capacity to a max total of four people. The pilot, the copilot and two passengers in the back, with their cargo, or a third passenger if there was no cargo.
Seeing as they were going to be blasting through the roof, cargo was indeed aboard.
The shuttle sent me an acknowledgement and then went dead. That was fine, though. Radio silence was crucial right now. Until we managed to clear a lot more of the geth out, I didn't want to risk the team, especially while they were setting up the explosives. They all had their own SONAR so they wouldn't need me to continue giving them directions. The only time I needed to contact them now would be to tell them to blow the roof and pick up the beacon, which I couldn't do until Shepard had used it.
It was going to be tight, but I had trust in my people.
Finally, my omnitool pinged again, letting me know that the data transfers had been successful. I disconnected from the terminal.
"Done," I replied. "Let's keep going."
We turned back, only to see the elevator coming down, with a krogan inside. I hadn't paid attention to my SONAR while I was downloading the files. Woops. We all drew our weapons.
The krogan spotted us the moment the doors opened. "What are you doing?" he demanded. "Are you sabotaging my work?"
I shrugged. "Kinda," I replied easily.
He roared. "That is important to my people!" he bellowed. He charged at us in a rage. The combined firepower from us all stopped him before he got halfway to us and he collapsed. "No," he wheezed softly. I shot him in the head with a slug round, putting him down for good.
We went up the elevator and pushed through the facility.
"Looks like we found the indoctrination centre," Jane's voice came over the comm. "We found the remaining members of the salarian ground team that had been captured. Saren's done a number on them. Their minds are completely gone."
A geth rocket trooper made an appearance alongside a krogan that charged the moment we made an appearance. The Butchers were more than enough to take out the lumbering alien, and Tali seemed to have fun taking out the geth.
"We have a survivor," Jane continued. "Says his name is Menos Avot. He is mighty jittery and talking about voices."
"Leave him in the cage or put him down, Jane," I said over the comm. "From what I have gathered from some of the data I could get here, he is in middle stages of indoctrination. After that becomes a loss of all cognition. It would be kinder to put him out of his misery."
"Roger," Jane replied.
I have no idea if she would do it. I think it was more likely that she would just leave him there and let the bomb do its job.
We kept heading through the facility, taking out geth and cloned krogan whenever we came upon them. Finally, I found a place that we could set off an alarm. The only problem was that it would obviously mean that the geth and krogan
"We have a beacon," Jane announced over the comm. "Like the one on Eden Prime. Saren had another one ready to go."
Oh, good, that made it easier to figure out things in the time scale. First, Jane needed the beacon, then she was going to have a short chat with Sovereign, and after that, I could have my team retrieve the beacon for ourselves.
They weren't going to go far with it. It was part of my compromise with Persei. They would go and drop it off about twenty-five kilometres away, which was a safe distance away from the radiation and heat of the twenty-kiloton bomb that the salarians had cooked up, then zoom back to provide extraction if need be. They could pick up whoever Jane left behind with her 'big choice'.
That being said, if there were nine of us on this ground team she might send another ground crew to go support them. In this case it would likely be Alenko, as Ashley was with the salarians and the smart thing to do would be to choose to save the salarians instead of the loner on the bomb.
My Bravo team passed through a courtyard area that looked like it had been attached to the hydroplant, judging by the pipes all around the place. Other thana few geth drones, our path was clear. We made our way to the rooftop area that matched the design of the games; a place where the Normandy could land and the bomb could be planted.
Conveniently, Joker came across the comm. "Comman… uh Spectre, we got trouble."
"What is it, Joker?" Jane came back as my team moved halfway along the roof and stood in the shade behind some concrete protrusions as cover.
"That ship, Sovereign?" Joker sounded urgent. "It's moving. I don't know what you did down there but that thing just pulled a turn that would shear any of our ships in half. It's coming your way and it's coming hard. You need to wrap things up in there fast!"
That was as good a time to but in as any. "Joker, this is Bravo team. Do you have an ETA for when Sovereign reaches us?"
"ETA sixteen minutes," Joker said. "It was closer to the Relay, but it is moving damn fast. You need to get what you need to get done, done."
"Roger," I replied. That was much less time than I was hoping for, but we could make it work. I hit my SONAR again, and took a look around, trying to see Jane or her team through the walls. No luck though. I couldn't exactly remember which entrance she was going to come through, otherwise I would move closer to her and clear the way. All I could do was keep to the plan.
I turned around so that I had my back to Tali and activated my omnitool, sending a message that I had already prepared to the infiltration team. Begin in sixty seconds from this message. Good luck.
"The geth are turning!" Kirrahe spoke up excitedly. "Shepard must be nearing the target. Jaeto, keep them here. Circle around and…" it cut off in a burst of static.
I turned back to my team to see that Torrin was throwing me a sideways glance, but Tali was looking around, trying to see if there were any enemies approaching. Looked like I was in the clear.
Actually, seeing Tali gave me an idea. "Tali," I said. "Can you send your drone up high and try see if we can find Alpha team?" it was risky, as she might stumble across my team as they made off with the beacon, but it could give her a distraction that didn't have her wondering about.
Tali straightened up. "Of course!" she said, opening her omnitool and tapping away.
An explosion could be heard in the background somewhere. "First AA gun is down," Kirrahe's voice came over the comm. "Well done, Shepard. Commencing our assault on the second one."
I have to admit, I felt a little guilty, standing here doing nothing while the others were in obvious combat. But other than wandering around and looking for more geth or krogan to kill, there is nothing really for us to do from our position. Not until Tali could pinpoint Jane's team.
That said, I did see the little drone fly away towards the explosion so she clearly had the same though as I did; that if Jane was being congratulated for bring the gun down and the explosion came from a direction that was not roughly in the same place as the beacon, then that was the way to go.
Another explosion came over the rooftop, this time from the rough area of where I had seen the beacon with my SONAR earlier. That was likely my infiltration team getting to work. I grinned, knowing that my expression was safe behind my full helmet. To quote a certain fictional colonel, I love it when a plan comes together.
"Should I check the second explosion?" Tali asked as she piloted her drone via her omnitool.
I shook my head. "No," I replied. "Stay focussed on the AA cannons for now. Looking out for Alpha team is a higher priority than whatever Saren or his people are blowing up somewhere else right now. As long as it isn't near us or heading towards us, focus on Alpha team."
"Right," Tali nodded, focussing on her omnitool.
I shared a look with Torrin and he gave me a subtle thumbs up out of Tali's line of sight.
"Got them," Tali said. She pointed back down the roof to the left. "They are coming through that way."
I started moving to where she was pointing. "Then that is where we are going to go to make sure Alpha has a clear path."
The other two fell in behind me and we jogged off to where Tali was pointing, which turned out to be an open doorway.
"Gun is clear," Kirrahe spoke up from the comm. "Set the charges. Keep us clear of the geth."
We made it through a passageway, down an open air path. Several geth stalkers and a destroyer were in cover ahead of us. Bad news for them though, they were obviously in cover for when Jane's team came through the path from what looks like an elevator further down. That meant that the geth were completely exposed from behind.
Tali threw out another drone at the nearest stalker, hitting it before it thought to jump away and blowing a hole in its brain. I turned my Butcher on the destroyer, with Disruptor slug rounds, punching massive holes in the chassis of the geth war machine. It went down with an electronic cry, the same time as the final stalker was obliterated by Torrin.
"The charges are set," Williams called out. "Everyone get low and keep your heads down."
The elevator opened at the end of the path and Alpha team exited, weapons at the ready, though they lowered them when they saw us. Jane nodded and stowed her weapons, sprinting towards us at what was likely her top speed. She left Alenko in the figurative dust, but the aliens all managed to keep up with her, though Liara and Wrex were both glowing from biotic output to do so.
I waved them over and led the way back to the rooftop. As we stepped into open air, we heard a muffled explosion.
"All right, nice work!" Joker broadcast for us. "That's one less thing to worry about. Spectre, I'm bringing us in. I'll get us as close to the site as I can."
Our combined team moved further along the roof, keeping a vigilant watch for any geth that decided to come by. Once we were about halfway along, we stopped as we could hear an approaching ship. Sure enough, a few seconds later, the Normandy appeared above the building and started to descend to land on the rooftop.
While everyone else was distracted by the approaching frigate, I looked over at Wrex. As if he could feel my gaze, he turned his head and looked back at me. I gave him a short nod, which he returned, before we both focussed back on the Alliance vessel in front of us.
Alenko and a group of Alliance soldiers carried the bomb down the garage ramp, dragging it through the rushing water to sit on the rooftop a short distance from the Normandy. At the same time, I got a ping from my omnitool. I looked at it to see a received message. Objective success. Circling back. Available when needed.
The infiltration team came through. I just hope that it was hidden enough for Sovereign to miss it. Though, with the explosion, he probably wouldn't care about it and would assume it was destroyed with the rest of the facility.
"The bomb is in position," Alenko said, activating his comm to warn the salarian team. "We're all set here…"
"Spectre, do you read?" Ash's voice came through urgently.
Jane put a hand to up to stop all chatter. "The nuke is almost ready, Chief," she answered back. "Get to the rendezvous point!"
"Negative Shepard," Ash replied. "The geth have us pinned down on the AA tower. We have heavy casualties. We'll never make the rendezvous point in time."
"Joker, go get them out of there," Jane barked over the comm. "Now!"
"Negative," Ash cut in. "It's too hot. You can't risk it. We'll hold them off as long as we…" the transmission cut short in a burst of static.
"It's ok, Shepard," Alenko said. "I'll need a couple minutes to finish arming the nuke. You go get them and meet me back here."
"Alpha squad, up to the AA tower!" she ordered the team. "Move! Bravo, cover Alenko in case the geth come back!"
I didn't have time to protest as Jane and the other four members of her team sprinted off to the AA tower.
Great, stuck babysitting Alenko. At least he was going to be too busy doing stuff with the bomb and wouldn't both me too much. I didn't need to hear that sort of whining. Not when I knew geth were going to be coming.
"Tali, Torrin," I said firmly. "Find cover. If the geth come, I don't want them to risk us being caught in the open. And if you have anything that can be used as a booby trap, set it up now."
There was no way I was going to risk dying for Lieutenant Hair-Gel. And it looked like I wasn't getting those cloning tanks after all.
I frowned. Actually, the shuttle might have time. I rapidly tapped out a message to the infiltration team and asked them to get in through the roof and pick up a cloning machine if they thought they had time, but only if they had time. I included the coordinates of the cloning facility in the complex, which was, rather luckily, far away from our current position. I wasn't going to risk them any more than I needed to for my own desires.
I got a confirmation and turned back to watch Lieutenant Hair-Gel work. Now I only had to wait for the geth to show up. Piece of cake.
…
1 film, 4 reviews
Pacific Rim
Thessian Suns Publication
By Helia Mis'audis
I wasn't sure what to expect from this vid. I will be the first to admit that it is not the type of vid that I would pay to go see. However, it certainly appeals to a large audience, of a certain type. And I do suppose that it was enjoyable in a 'turn your mind off and watch it happen' sort of a way. Either way, it doesn't rate highly for my personal tastes, but it is a solid contribution to the action vid genre.
Sur'kesh Leaf Script
By Silarn Moduk
Fascinating concept of portals underneath the ocean. I did read before this that even today, only forty eight percent of Earth's oceans have been fully explored and they are still managing to discover new aquatic species. While extremely unlikely, the vast possibilities that such an ocean provides could, in theory allow for the things that we do not yet understand.
My apologies, I let the science and probability get away from me. In short, the vid was entertaining, fascinating in concept of technology and design, but short on script. I would pay for it once, but probably not a second time, unless I was doing a paper on the possibilities of either oceanic life, or on the theoretical application of portals appearing in nature. Or just really into big monster vids.
Palaven Daily Call
By Marticus Lossus
The technology seems fascinating in this vid. While not particularly difficult to follow, nor is it a winner in complicated or engaging storylines, this vid is enjoyable in the sense that it is either a smart dumb vid, or a dumb smart vid.
Although, having sentient being controlled weapons like those mechs would be a game changer if a military had these at their disposal. Though, the two 'pilot' design is inefficient and could be improved upon. I may need to make a recommendation to the Hierarchy military.
The Krogan Word
By Ognut Grax
Hell. Yes.
Fighting massive monsters by punching them in the face? That is my dream! Hey STG nutters. I found a new wish. This. Just do this. Drop it on Tuchanka and we won't forgive you of the genophage, but it's a start.
…
A/N Please Review and Follow/Favourite as you like.
Have a Happy New Year everyone! See you all soon.