The Reaper War

by Cole Price

  “I still can’t believe it,” she murmured. “Even after our last two missions, I don’t think it’s really sunk in yet. The homeworld. My world.”

  “It’s nothing like Thessia,” I admitted, “but it’s very beautiful all the same, Tali.”

  “Look at the sky,” said the little quarian, staring upward. “And the rock formations? They used to write poems about them.”

  Shepard smiled. “Maybe when we’re done, you’ll have the chance to write a new one.”

  “This is Rannoch, the Walled Garden, the home of our ancestors. We existed as part of the whole web of life here. Our bodies carried the seeds that spread the desert grass.” She paced a little distance away, her arms spread as if to embrace the whole world. “You’ve heard me say keelah se’lai? It doesn’t translate well into English or koiné. The best translation I can come up with is something like: by the homeworld I hope to see someday.”

  “If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy.”

  Tali turned and stared at Shepard for a moment. “Yes. That’s it, exactly.”

  He nodded. “It’s part of a poem, written in a human community that had been forced into exile.”

  Tali turned again, held up the fingers of both hands to make a frame. “The living room window will be right here.”

  “Something I should know?”

  “I just claimed the land.” Tali sighed. “It doesn’t mean much, I know. But when this is over, I’ll have a home.”

  “Your people have spent centuries as nomads. Do you think it will be hard, going back to living in one place?”

  “Maybe. We have gotten used to carrying our homes around with us.”

  Then Shepard did something that made me love him all over again. He bent low at the edge of the little river, picked up a stone that had been worn smooth by the water. He examined it for a moment, and then handed it to Tali without a word.

  She stared at it for a long moment, overcome. “Well,” she finally managed, “it’s a start.”

  * * *

  The geth facility was surprisingly easy to get into. We found two squads of geth patrolling the perimeter, but these turned out to be easy prey, none of the more advanced platforms. Tali got busy tearing down geth shields and interfering with their friend-or-foe targeting systems. Shepard and I smashed geth with warps, shockwaves, and his overwhelming flare technique, along with his more mundane grenades and Claymore.

  “Geth jamming towers are interfering with your signal, Commander,” said Samantha from Normandy. “I’m compensating to keep you patched in to the quarian fleet.”

  “Good work, Traynor. Thanks.”

  We climbed laboriously up the side of the facility, finding an access corridor high on its northern flank. Inside, much to my distaste, we found rocket-equipped geth platforms. Shepard solved that problem by simply rushing them, using a flash-charge to get behind their cover and take them in the flank.

  “Admiral Gerrel here. The Heavy Fleet has a clear path. All units forward.”

  “Geth fighter presence is negligible,” said Admiral Raan. “Patrol Fleet, break cover and engage.”

  We hacked a door lock, passed through the outer ring of the facility, and emerged close to the point where the Reaper signal appeared to originate.

  “Shepard-Commander. Hostile geth are closing a blast shield over the bunker.”

  Legion was right. Just as we come within line-of-sight of the Reaper installation, an enormous flat door slid across the deep silo where it waited for us. I caught just a glimpse of Reaper technology deep inside, before the door concealed everything.

  “We see it.”

  “Is there any chance Normandy could shoot through that blast shield?” I asked.

  “Not quickly enough. The geth would scramble a defense long before we could get through.”

  “We have detected an override atop the geth fortifications. From there you may be able to retract the blast shield.”

  I glanced to our right, saw the main bulk of the geth facility looming above us. “Looks like a tough fight.”

  “Nobody ever said this would be easy,” said Shepard. “Anyone get a good look at that thing?”

  “Only for a moment,” I reported. “It certainly appeared to be Reaper technology.”

  We crossed over to the fortress, taking a long but narrow bridge. For once, a narrow space actually favored the offense. An entire geth squad waited for us halfway along, but they were too closely packed. A single flash-charge and nova from Shepard smashed the lot of them. Tali and I had little to do except run to keep up, and take down one or two damaged geth along the way.

  “Shepard-Commander, do you require assistance?”

  “We’re fine, Legion. What’s your status?”

  “We are experiencing no significant difficulties. We will endeavor to direct you once you are inside.”

  “Thanks.”

  I frowned for a moment. “Shepard, doesn’t it seem odd to you that Legion is cutting through geth defenses so easily?”

  “Well, it is a very advanced platform.”

  “I’m just glad Legion is on our side,” said Tali.

  “Never thought I’d hear you say that,” Shepard chuckled, as we moved through another corridor.

  I didn’t have time to think about it any further. We entered the geth fortress itself, and the enemy’s resistance grew more intense. We found ourselves flanked, Shepard having to fight alone against a fire-team of advancing geth, while Tali and I dealt with more platforms on a balcony to our right.

  “Admiral Gerrel to all ships. We’ve got geth frigates inbound on the Civilian Fleet!”

  “Koris here. Civilian escorts are on an intercept course. Don’t worry, Gerrel, we’ll hold them.”

  Shepard reached the override control for the blast shield doors. Unfortunately that turned out to be insufficient, as Legion needed us to disable a second panel before it could take control of the doors. At the same time we came under attack from a wave of more advanced platforms, including more rocket troopers, and geth armed with flame-throwers.

  We tightened up our formation, supporting each other almost by instinct, years of practice making us an efficient combat team.

  We reached the second panel and smashed it. At once I could feel the whole facility trembling, as the blast doors began to lock open once more.

  “We’ll be back out in a minute,” Shepard called.

  “Negative. The path behind you has been sealed. An elevator nearby can take you to the upper level. From there you should have an acceptable line-of-sight for targeting.”

  “No way out but through,” Tali muttered.

  As we approached, the elevator arrived at our level. Carrying a geth platform.

  “Prime!” I shouted, and dove for cover.

  One geth, and it proved a tougher opponent than the whole squads we had faced before. All three of us stayed in cover, popping out in turn to hammer at it with gunfire, grenades, biotic detonations. Nothing seemed to slow it down as it advanced on our position. It stood mere meters away from Tali, about to pass her cover, when Shepard’s flare finally tore down its last defenses. Tali huddled, her arms protecting her head, as the platform went rigid and exploded.

  “Admiral Raan to all ships. The Patrol Fleet has broken the geth flank. Permission to pursue?”

  “Granted!” exclaimed Admiral Gerrel, a warrior’s grim pleasure in his voice. “Good hunting, Raan.”

  Shepard took a deep breath as we climbed into the elevator.

  “Hopefully that’s the worst of it,” I told him.

  “You know you shouldn’t say such things,” Tali chided me.

  The elevator opened onto the upper level, an open space, full of machinery. At once I saw a gangway leading from the elevator all the way out to a ledge, which I thought must be the vantage point Legion had mentioned. Other corridors led o
ff to either side.

  I also saw three Primes, one directly in front of us, some distance away but with a clear shot into the elevator car. Two more converged on our flanks.

  “I told you so I told you so . . .” Tali screamed, as she hurled herself into what minimal cover she could find.

  Shepard shoved me bodily into cover and then coordinated our fire. We concentrated on the Prime in front of us, ignoring the ones moving in on either side. Those two came much too close by the time the first one went down. Shepard broke cover when they already stood at point-blank range, leading us in a desperate sprint down the gangway we had just cleared. The sheer audacity of the maneuver probably saved our lives, as the remaining Primes failed to fire on us in that moment of utter vulnerability.

  Undeterred, the remaining geth advanced inexorably upon us. One fell, then the other, but by the time the second Prime went down, they had almost pushed us right off the end of the gangway into empty space.

  “I told you so,” said Tali once more.

  “I’ll never do it again. Shepard, will this ledge do?”

  “Perfect.” He strode out onto the ledge, unlimbering the targeting laser as he moved. There he crouched down, firing the laser like a rifle, down into the pit where the Reaper installation lurked. He held it steady for a long moment.

  Normandy swept down out of the sky from the south.

  “Target locked,” said EDI.

  The ship flashed by in a moment of thunderous noise, almost too fast to see. Two Thanix missiles dropped into the pit, exactly equidistant from its sides, a perfect shot. They detonated, and a storm of fire leaped out of the pit.

  We immediately discovered that we were too close.

  The ledge where we stood rattled, buckled, and gave way. All three of us plummeted toward the ground, a dozen meters below. I had just a moment to call up my biotics, catching all three of us in a telekinetic field, cushioning the fall.

  Impact stunned me for a moment, filled my mouth with the taste of blood as I bit down on my tongue. I spat indigo out onto the ground, levered myself to hands and knees, saw Shepard and Tali doing the same a short distance away.

  Wait. Why is the ground still shaking?

  I heard it then.

  Boom. Boom.

  A blare of terrible noise, like the scream of a wounded world.

  Something erupted out of the pit, soaring into the air, huge and black and many-jointed.

  “Reaper!” shouted Shepard.

  Just then another object appeared, off to our left, not far from where we had first mounted our assault on the fortress. A geth transport.

  “Shepard-Commander. We have acquired an escape vehicle.”

  “Roger that. Everybody get to the hovercraft! Move!”

  Shepard sprinted for Legion’s vehicle, the two of us just behind him. A shadow passed overhead and I glanced up, saw one of the Reaper’s limbs pass over us to slam into a wall of the facility to our left.

  Oh Goddess oh Goddess I’m not running under a Reaper again . . .

  Shepard passed a geth platform huddled on the ground, which suddenly activated and stood, drawing its weapon.

  In one smooth motion, Tali drew her boot knife and buried it in the geth’s main information bus. She didn’t even slow down.

  I stopped for a split second, fired my Shuriken at the thing to make sure it stayed down, and then made the mistake of looking behind us.

  A wave of geth had just emerged from the facility in hot pursuit.

  I turned and sprinted, faster than I had ever managed in the annual agon at university.

  Tali and I hurled ourselves into the rear compartment of Legion’s vehicle, but Shepard was nowhere to be seen. “Where’s Shepard? Where’s Shepard?”

  “He climbed up to the gun emplacement,” said Tali, out of breath.

  “I’m in place!” came his voice over the comm. “Legion, go!”

  “We will attempt evasive maneuvers,” said the geth, and the vehicle jolted into vicious acceleration. A moment later, we flashed through a tunnel, past the side of the facility where we had come in, and out across the Rannoch landscape.

  I called up an external display, and immediately wished I hadn’t.

  The Reaper had emerged completely from its hiding place, standing almost two hundred meters tall on its tripod of legs. It emitted another great, terrible horn-blast, and then moved to pursue us.

  Apparently a destroyer-class Reaper could move very quickly when it wanted to.

  “Shepard to the Migrant Fleet. This isn’t a Reaper base, it’s a live Reaper! I need an orbital strike!”

  Then we could hear the hammering of the mounted gun, as Shepard fired at the Reaper in an attempt to dissuade its pursuit. To no avail, but Legion’s driving did what Shepard’s gunfire could not. We gained a slight lead, opening the distance between us and the advancing Reaper.

  “We’re clear! Fire at will!”

  At first I thought nothing would happen, but then something struck the Reaper from above and to the right, like the hammer of a vengeful deity slamming down from beyond the sky. The thing stopped dead in its tracks, staggering under the blow in a vast corona of crimson energy discharge. It crashed to the ground, setting everything trembling even at our distance.

  “What did we hit?” asked Admiral Gerrel, rather plaintively.

  “It looked like the thing’s firing chamber,” said Shepard. “It might be a weak point while it primes for its next shot.”

  “Damn it. That was nothing but a lucky accident. Their jamming towers have us targeting manually. Is it dead?”

  “I hope so, but I doubt it.”

  “We may escape before it recovers,” suggested Legion.

  “No,” said Shepard flatly. “Pull over.”

  My eyes went wide. “What?”

  “Shepard-Commander?”

  “If we run away, and that thing is still active, then the geth stay under Reaper control and the quarians are dead.”

  “Shepard, we don’t have any thresher maws to throw at this one!”

  “No, but we do have the entire quarian fleet.” A pause. “EDI, patch the quarians into the Normandy targeting system. I want my laser synched up to every ship they have.”

  “Acknowledged, Commander.”

  “Do you require assistance?” asked Legion.

  “Just stay down and keep Tali and Liara safe. I’ll take it from here.”

  “Oh Goddess,” I moaned. Tali took my hand and held it tightly as Legion drove us to a safe distance.

  Of course, as soon as possible I commanded Legion to stop. I climbed out and onto the back of the vehicle, watching back the way we had come. If Shepard planned to pit himself against a Reaper on foot, his bondmate would not flee. She would stay and await the outcome.

  It felt like the longest three minutes of my life.

  Of course, I couldn’t see Shepard. He was too far away, concealed from our position by a ridge of stone. I could hear him, though: harsh breath sawing in his throat as he ran, the occasional sound of impact as he threw himself into a roll to the side.

  The sound of rock being pulverized by the Reaper’s main gun.

  “Shepard, we need a target!” shouted Gerrel from space.

  I could see the Reaper, rising to its feet, turning to face Shepard, firing its weapon at him. I moaned in agony, not seeing how he could possibly survive a hit.

  But the Reaper continued to move, continued to aim and fire. I reminded myself that as long as the monster continued to attack the man I could not see, that man still lived.

  I also reminded myself that Shepard had to draw the thing’s fire, get it to open its firing chamber so the quarians could take a shot. I could hear his tactics over the comm. He would stand still to draw its fire. Then, once the Reaper’s weapon lashed out, he would roll and dash to one side or the other, so that the beam veered wide while he painted the target.

  As always, Shepard remained cool and crystal-clear, using his situational awareness to pu
ll victory out of the teeth of defeat.

  None of that helped me at the time, of course. I trembled, knowing I might hear the sound of his death at any moment.

  Another strike from orbit, not quite on target. The Reaper staggered, recovered, took a few steps closer to Shepard’s position, and began to fire once more.

  Another strike, and another, the thing advancing after it recovered each time, until it must have been looming directly over Shepard’s position.

  Damn that thing to the abyss. Why won’t it die?

  Then it did.

  Shepard must have hit precisely the right spot, for just long enough. Another strike poured down from orbit, so close to Shepard’s position that I fell to my knees in horror. The strike slammed into the Reaper, and this time the monster did not merely stagger. It swayed, turned, and pushed itself back to its full height – just in time for a second barrage to arrive from beyond the sky. Admiral Gerrel must have gambled on Shepard’s targeting.

  The explosions seemed to go on forever, but I kept my attention riveted to that simple sound, coming over the comm: the noise of breath still moving in Shepard’s throat.

  The Reaper went down in a pile of limbs and hull plating, the shock so great that it nearly knocked me off my perch half a kilometer away. Crimson energy grounded itself out to all sides, and then faded away.

  The echoing thunder of that fall faded away into the distance. Dust rose far into the sky.

  The Reaper did not move.

  As soon as I could believe it, I hammered on the hull of the vehicle. “Legion! Take us back!”

  I nearly fell off when the geth turned and gunned the engine. Fortunately the gun mount had several safety bars in place for me to grab. I pulled myself back up and stood tall, squinting as I faced into the wind.

  The first thing Shepard saw as we arrived was his wife, standing like a figurehead on the geth vehicle’s back, grinning like an utter fool.

  * * *

  Of course we had to investigate. Shepard led us out onto the very edge of the terrace from which he had fought the Reaper. We could look down onto the plain where the Reaper had stood, seeing the scars of the quarian bombardment: craters, pulverized stone, and the colossal wreck. Great clouds of dust still hovered in the air, lending the whole scene an uncanny aspect.