by Cole Price
A deep voice, yet smooth and feminine, heavy with fatigue and pain. “Are you here to kill me?”
Shepard stood silent, his face pale with shock.
I opened my omni-tool and scanned the krogan, finding evidence of terrible suffering. She may have survived her ordeal, but it had not been by much. “Goddess. What she’s been through . . .”
“Urdnot Wrex and I are here to take you home,” said Shepard, as gently as possible.
“Why? What am I to you?”
“Have the salarians been mistreating you?”
A note of asperity crept into the krogan’s voice. “Those were my sisters you saw back there. They died in a lot of pain.”
Mordin shook his head in shame. “Did the best we could.”
“And now I know I’m the only one left.” The krogan’s eyes fixed on Shepard, glittering in the dim light. “That makes me dangerous to a lot of people. So answer my question, Commander Shepard. Why are you here? Why should you care about me?”
He set his jaw in determination, and met the krogan’s gaze without flinching. “You’re the future for the krogan species. I’m fighting for that.”
BOOM. A distant explosion, muffled by the building’s bulk. Alarms began to sound, red lights to flash.
Very calmly, the krogan said, “Then I hope you’ve brought an army.”
Chapter 15 : Gauntlet
24 April 2186, Special Task Group Base Terevai/Sur’Kesh
Shepard’s omni-tool chimed for attention. When he opened it, the face of an angry krogan warlord confronted him.
“Shepard! Cerberus is attacking the base. We need to get those females out now!”
I exchanged a horrified glance with my bondmate.
Cerberus? Attacking an STG facility on the salarian homeworld? Either they are very desperate, or they know something the salarians don’t.
Shepard shook his head. “Only one of them survived, Wrex. This place is built like a fortress. Maybe she would be safer down here.”
“What? So the salarians can kill her too? No deal! You want this alliance, you get her out of here.”
“Understood.” Shepard turned to Mordin. “Looks like we need to move. Can you transfer her back up to the loading area so we can take her off in our shuttle?”
“We’re in security lockdown,” objected another salarian. “We can’t clear any of the specimens for release . . .”
Suddenly the salarian convulsed, arcs of corona discharge skittering across his body.
“Objection noted,” said Mordin, deactivating his omni-tool. “Now release krogan.”
The salarian meekly worked with his console. The female krogan’s isolation pod began to move into the embrace of a bulky machine, a cargo elevator that led back to the upper levels of the facility.
“Must accompany krogan through release protocols,” said Mordin, rushing to climb into the elevator’s open cage. “Will not be able to cycle through checkpoints alone. Spectre authorization codes will clear each checkpoint. Hurry!”
“Got it. Double-time, people, let’s get back to the elevator.”
We hurried, dodging frantic salarians the whole way. The elevator doors opened before us . . .
“Oh crap,” shouted Garrus. “Bomb!”
All of us dove for the floor, just as the elevator erupted in chaos and flames.
As I picked myself up and checked for injuries, I reviewed the flash-image I had retained from the moment the elevator doors opened. An explosive device, clearly of human manufacture.
Cerberus indeed. I felt a surge of bitterly cold anger. The Illusive Man would naturally oppose any cure for the genophage. His troops are here to commit genocide against the krogan.
He will not succeed.
I heard Shepard’s voice. “Is there another way up from here?”
“Yes, Commander.” A salarian voice, rapid and high-pitched with stress. “At the other end of this concourse, an emergency exit.”
“Everyone all right?”
Garrus nodded, checking his Mantis. I quickly took stock and exchanged a glance and a nod with Shepard.
“Then let’s move.”
We found the emergency exit, a tall ladder. Shepard led us, Garrus right behind, while I brought up the rear.
We emerged onto the first open level, only to find chaos loose on the world. We passed a fire-team of salarians, hammering at some unseen target with their rifles. From all sides I could hear gunfire and explosions. Two gunships engaged in a missile duel, silhouetted against the distant sky. I followed Shepard . . .
Out onto a terrace, containing more angry yahg than I ever wanted to see in my life.
Isolation pod after isolation pod against one wall. Each one contained a yahg, all of them roaring in rage and frustration, hurling themselves against the walls and containment fields. Quick as lightning but very carefully, I checked to see that all the yahg were well-contained. Only then did my heart start beating normally once more.
A shadow fell across the sun. A Cerberus shuttle hovered by the edge of the terrace, soldiers leaping out under cover of a pair of smoke grenades.
I hurled a singularity into their midst, then switched to my Shuriken while Shepard and Garrus opened fire. The Cerberus troopers weren’t ready for that kind of resistance. We could advance across the terrace, heading for the elevator at its far end.
One by one, the yahg stopped to watch us as we passed. I shivered under that many-eyed regard.
Another Cerberus shuttle. More smoke and gunfire.
I crouched beside a computer console for a moment’s cover, trying not to look at the yahg staring intently at me from two meters away. Then a thought struck me.
“Shepard. Hold this position for a moment.” I opened my omni-tool, established a connection with the console.
“A moment is all we have,” he growled.
I tapped furiously at my omni-tool. No luck, but I saw a way to punch through the STG defenses. “That’s all I need, if you’ll give me your Spectre codes for a moment.”
Shepard raised no more objection, opening his own omni-tool and sending the codes.
Several gigabytes of data began to cross the wireless connection. “That’s got it. Let’s go!”
“Do I want to know what that’s about?” he asked, as he emerged from cover and began to charge down on the remaining Cerberus troops, his shotgun blazing.
“It may be nothing.” I followed him, hurling a flurry of biotic warps into the Cerberus line. The data that would change galactic history continued to download into my personal storage.
We turned a corner, came face to face with another Cerberus fire-team. Then my heart threatened to stop again. A single yahg crashed through the wall of its isolation pod into their midst. Heavily armed and armored as they were, the creature still needed mere seconds to tear them to shreds. Fortunately it seemed to take no notice of us, or else it considered us unimportant. Within moments, it vaulted over the railing and vanished into the dense forest beyond.
“Careful,” said Shepard dryly. “There goes the next Shadow Broker.”
“Could have sworn it was growling T’Soni! the whole time,” quipped Garrus.
“Not funny!”
We moved on, climbing a flight of stairs onto the next level.
“Hurry, Shepard! Cerberus attacking isolation pod!”
Shepard turned a corner, blurred, vanished into a flash-charge across the terrace. Almost too quickly, since Garrus and I had not yet reached a position to support him. We rushed ahead, to find Shepard in the midst of a wild melee with no less than five Cerberus troopers.
Crash. Crash. His shotgun barked twice, each time putting a trooper down in a welter of blood. Garrus made a snap-shot to take out a trooper about to flank Shepard. When my bondmate put still another off-balance, I used a vicious telekinetic push to shove the enemy off the edge of the terrace.
“How are you doing?” Shepard asked, as he rested his shotgun against his shoulder and tapped at the checkpoint controls one-handed.
“Pod slightly damaged,” Mordin answered. “Will try to effect repairs. Female’s vital signs holding, but not optimal.”
“I’m fine, Commander,” said the female krogan, just a hint of strain in her voice.
“Hang in there. Wrex is waiting at the top. We’ll get you home safely.”
“Why are you doing this, Commander? You don’t know me.”
Shepard raised his eyes to stare at the krogan’s shadowy figure. “No, but I’d like to. Hang in there.”
The pod rose toward the next level.
“Shepard! Look out!”
SLAM. A tremendous explosion blew in the outer wall of the terrace, where the isolation pod had just been. A Cerberus shuttle hovered just beyond, troopers pouring fire in on us.
“Getting very tired of these people,” muttered Garrus.
Shotgun, sniper rifle, blue-white biotic force, we dealt with the troopers. Then we found our way forward blocked, wreckage from the battle filling up an access corridor. After a moment, Shepard chose to go outside, out through the gap Cerberus had blown in the wall, moving along a narrow parapet dense with greenery. A few meters of very careful progress, a jump across a small gap, and we could make for the far end of the terrace once more.
More Cerberus troops appeared, this time at a considerable distance. Garrus took the opportunity to show off a little, falling into the zone and working his Mantis like a precision instrument. Boom – boom – boom and I could see fountains of blood and gore in the distance, three perfect headshots in as many seconds. Shepard and I used our biotics to disrupt and destroy the rest, clearing the path.
“Damn. I miss my old Volkov,” said Shepard as we moved.
“Yeah, I remember you used to be passable with a sniper rifle. Not up to the Vakarian standard, of course, but then I am rather one of a kind.”
Shepard snorted. “These days I’m more of a wrecking ball.”
“To each his own.”
Up to the third level . . .
We saw a salarian, casually murdering a Cerberus trooper twice his mass in close-quarters combat.
“Major Kirrahe!” greeted Shepard.
“Greetings, Commander. I said I was looking forward to fighting with you again, but I didn’t expect it to be within the hour.” The STG operative frowned. “Very suspicious, for Cerberus to appear at exactly this juncture. How did they learn about the krogan?”
“A mole in the STG?” I suggested.
“Possibly. Could be indoctrinated. Might also explain how they got through planetary and perimeter defenses so easily.”
All of us heard voices from around the next corner: human, distorted by helmet comms. Cerberus.
Kirrahe produced an unusual weapon, a pistol, and whirled out around the corner. Phut – phut – phut. Three blue-glowing charges went flying down-range, striking and adhering to Cerberus soldiers.
Crack-crack-crack! The charges exploded, and three troopers went down in rapid succession.
“Go on, Commander!” shouted Kirrahe. “I’ll cover you.”
“Why do I not have one of those?” muttered Garrus as we sprinted onto the next terrace.
Right into the middle of a Cerberus cross-fire.
This time they had combat engineers, ready with high-powered turret emplacements to block the terrace against our advance. The field rapidly became a hell of gunfire, enough to kill any of us almost instantly if we exposed ourselves.
“Take out the engineers!” Shepard ordered.
“Shouldn’t we take out the turrets?” I gasped, in between brief attempts to fire my Shuriken in the right general direction.
“That would only give them time to set up more,” Garrus explained, leaning out a few millimeters to give his Mantis a chance to fire. A Cerberus engineer forty meters away suddenly spun in place and went down.
I wasn’t much use against the turrets in any case. I concentrated on laying down a singularity or two, disrupting the Cerberus troops and giving my friends a chance to take them down quickly. Once the troops themselves had been thinned out, Garrus sent a wave of overload charges down-range, tearing down the turrets’ kinetic barriers. Major Kirrahe moved up and fired more proximity charges, placing them directly on the turret mechanisms with superb accuracy. Soon enough, the four of us could move forward.
“What is your objective, Commander?” the salarian asked when we had a moment to breathe.
“Professor Solus is with the last krogan female. We’re moving to clear her pod through the checkpoints so she can evacuate aboard our shuttle.”
“Sound strategy,” judged Kirrahe. “I will assist you.”
“You’re more than welcome,” said Shepard warmly.
“Interesting that Mordin would risk his life to help krogan. Always thought he was a bit of a cloaca.”
Shepard chuckled. “I’ve worked with him too, Major, and I would tend to agree. But he’s our cloaca. His heart’s in the right place, and he’s got talent to burn.”
“Agreed on all counts. Even in the STG he has a considerable reputation for getting the job done.”
“Let’s hope his reputation holds,” I said quietly.
We found the next checkpoint under attack once more. Cerberus had cut the power to the lift as well. Once we defeated the Cerberus squad, we had to find the power shunt and reset it before we could proceed.
While Shepard worked with the power shunt, Kirrahe suddenly moved to a side table and picked up another Scorpion pistol, apparently left behind by one of his fellow STG agents. He tossed the weapon to Garrus without a word, smiling broadly. Garrus caught the pistol, examined it closely, and then holstered it with a nod and a gleam in his eye.
Soldiers, I thought with a small smile. No matter the species, they all speak the same language.
Finally we reached the top level once more, all of us sprinting wildly toward the sound of the guns. We arrived not a moment too soon. The isolation pod had come under the fiercest attack yet, almost two full squads of Cerberus troops dug in and pounding it with gunfire. The pod’s barriers already looked blotchy and flickering, about to come down.
Goddess, what a desperate fight. One at a time, no Cerberus trooper could match even me, much less my heavily armed and combat-trained friends. This enemy outnumbered us three to one, and we had to win fast, before they broke into the isolation pod and ended the last hope for the krogan people. At least the enemy had their backs turned, concentrating on their objective. That proved our only advantage.
Shepard vanished from sight, blurring into one flash-charge after another, faster than I had believed possible. At first I could find no cover, so I simply ran forward as well, my corona blazing white as a star, hurling telekinetic force to all sides in a desperate attempt to keep the enemy off balance. Garrus and Kirrahe switched to their assault rifles for the sheer volume of fire, raining death wherever they could.
Then the enemy realized his danger, and turned to the counterattack.
I had only an instant to grab an exposed trooper with my mind, hurling him away over the edge of the terrace. Then a hurricane of gunfire pursued me as I fled for cover. My biotic barrier fell, my kinetic shields, and then a single bullet punched straight through my armor just as I slid into safety. Pain like fire ran all down my left side, indigo blood everywhere, and I choked out a snarl as I slapped the medi-gel tab on my softsuit.
Goddess, that was close. A few centimeters to the right and it would have been through my heart.
I could still hear a battle. I reached up, levered myself into a half-crouch with my one good hand, and peeked around my cover to see what was going on.
Garrus and Kirrahe advancing, one covering the other in rapid succession, picking off Cerberus troopers one at a time.
Shepard flash-charging into the midst of a Cerberus knot, smashing one to the floor, the other two flying backward with the force of his arrival.
I gritted my teeth, reached for my biotics and couldn’t quite get control of them. Once my kinetic b
arriers had recovered, I braced myself against my cover, brought my Shuriken to bear, and began firing back. Fortunately, shock never quite took me out of the fight. I could even stand and move up a bit, once my friends had broken the Cerberus line and the storm of hostile gunfire faded away.
Just in time for an Atlas mech to slam down on the outer terrace.
It moved up ponderously, its pilot spotting the isolation pod where it waited to be opened at last. Then Shepard, Garrus, and Kirrahe attacked it, drawing its fire.
I hurried to support them, as best I could with broken ribs and a gunshot wound along my left flank.
The mech turned, passing behind a support column, then standing at the top of a shallow staircase where it could look down onto the terrace. It raised its right arm, the rocket launcher pointing directly at me. I could hear the screech of the launcher’s capacitor charging to maximum.
Then little blue-white spheres festooned the enormous mech, half a dozen of them at least.
Garrus and Kirrahe fired their Scorpion pistols as rapidly as possible, covering the Atlas with proximity mines.
The pilot turned his head. Despite his closed helmet, I could sense consternation.
Crack! Crack – crack – crackcrackcrack!
A wave of explosions blanketed the mech. Shepard fired his shotgun at it from point-blank range, and then hurled a powerful biotic shockwave to knock it off its feet entirely. I even managed to raise my Shuriken and pepper it with bullets.
It fell, its self-destruct charges kicking in a moment later to blow it to scrap.
Shepard noticed the blood on my armor. “Liara!”
I waved him off. “It looks worse than it is. I can stay on my feet until we get back to Normandy. See to the krogan.”
He ignored me, rushing over to put a supportive arm around my waist. I admitted to myself that I was glad for the help, even if it did hurt like fire.
Our shuttle landed once more in its place on the outermost terrace. The hatch opened to let Wrex strut out, every line of his massive body speaking of deep satisfaction. “Well, Shepard, you had me worried there for a few moments. Thought you might have gotten soft since we took out Saren. Although I have to admit, your pilot is pretty damn good.”
