"Captaaaain…"
Tali's voice trembled slightly as our Mako charged the obstacle at full speed. She didn't have time to say more, because a biotic construct began forming ahead of us—one we climbed higher and higher until we were above the blockage.
"Contact!"
Jane shouted it, and I immediately lay flat against the armor, minimizing my silhouette. We were above the enemy, making it harder to hit me, and the Mako—shielded from below by a barrier—was hard to hit too.
"I'm dropping the barrier on zero."
"Tali, mark targets."
Jane decided to give the quarian advice. She didn't respond, but I doubted she'd dare disobey her direct commander.
"Three, two, one, zero…"
On the last word I dropped the barrier. The Mako's thrusters kicked in, tilting it so its nose angled diagonally down, and the targeting system began firing at marked targets.
The second Mako repeated our maneuver. Soon, on the small ledge with rocky outcroppings, there wasn't a single intact geth platform left. Then both Makos slammed down onto the ground—which was unpleasant for me.
"Khh…"
"Captain?"
Jane asked, worried.
"Fine. Just tell Chifuyu not to forget she's carrying the captain on the outside. That landing was rough—I think I bruised a couple ribs."
"Understood."
Chifuyu answered almost immediately.
"Alright. Give me two minutes to catch my breath, then we move…"
As I recovered, I also checked frequencies and caught asari profanity—directed at the geth and krogan that kept coming despite orders to stop pushing forward.
"This is Captain Shepard. Moving to assist you. Sending coordinates. Report the best route."
A couple seconds of silence, then more swearing on their end—this time at me.
"So you're the one we've been waiting for?"
"Affirmative. Cavalry's almost there—two Makos."
"Two Makos?!"
The speaker's voice was loaded with sarcasm.
"We've got an army coming at us!"
"Step back."
Liara addressed her subordinate in a strict voice and immediately got to business.
"John, we're pinned in the Prothean ruins. The geth and krogan are trying to reach us. You won't be able to get to us in a Mako. At least not from your side. You'll have to drive to the elevator and descend, and you'll need to do it in several groups—the elevator isn't that big. Sending the map."
"How are you holding up?"
"What do you think?"
She said it casually.
"They can't do anything against a platoon of commandos, especially since Mom has been drilling all her people so hard in recent years… you know that yourself."
"Alright. Hold. We'll be there soon."
"Waiting."
Liara sounded a little worried, but tried to hide it. Soon she wouldn't have anything to worry about.
"How much fuel in the boosters?"
"Enough, Captain."
Chifuyu answered first.
"Landing might be rough if the drop is really high, so you should get inside, but we won't crash—definitely."
"Good. Forward."
Chifuyu and Rebecca punched it. We hit the gas so hard that we simply plowed through a folded Colossus as it began to unfold. I didn't even need biotics—they just shot it from point-blank range. Tali mostly targeted the legs, while the second Mako's gunner hit the head first, then the legs.
"Snipers!"
Jane shouted as a laser shot splashed across my biotic barrier without harming us. I didn't wait for the Makos to deal with the small, agile targets. I yanked the first geth sniper I found toward me and suspended it directly in front of my Mako cannon.
One shot, and there was no more strange cloaking sniper.
"I've never seen geth like that!"
Panic was in Tali's voice.
"We probably won't be able to take them apart right now…"
I covered myself from another shot on the right and pulled the geth into the second Mako's line of fire, while Tali spotted another and the Mako's targeting automation opened up.
"…But if you think it's important, we can pass information about these geth to the Migrant Fleet."
"Yes! Thank you!"
Joy and overwhelming gratitude rang in the quarian's voice.
"Careful, Captain, or that little one's going to fall in love with you, and then what will you do with me after what you pulled?"
Jane allowed herself a light tease. I thought for a couple seconds what I'd pulled. The only thing that came to mind was the first order—telling her to strip. She couldn't possibly have realized I'd planned something else too… could she?
And no, I wasn't only planning to fuck her—if I could seduce that red-haired beast—but also a small surprise.
"I… never… Captain… you…"
Tali got flustered and seemed to poke at a couple wrong spots on the console, because the cannon fired at positions where there were no hostiles.
"Tali, easy. No need to panic like that…"
Jane hurried to calm the quarian.
"…There's nothing between me and Captain Shepard…"
Did I hear a hint of sadness?
"…So even if you decide to seduce him, the road is clear."
"I…"
"Easy. Don't start shooting at empty space again. I'm joking a little—just don't be offended."
"I'm not offended…"
Tali sounded like she wanted to sink through the floor.
"Good."
Meanwhile, I pulled two more snipers into the second Mako's fire, and it all went quiet.
"No standing around! Let's go! Let's go! We need to move!"
I slapped the hull a couple times, and the Mako's engine roared again as we headed for the elevator.
"Five seconds! Four, three, two, one…"
On zero, the Mako punched through a flimsy barrier with its nose and dropped, dropping fast. Inside, Tali squeaked quietly, which was odd considering we'd dropped from higher earlier. The second Mako dropped after us on a slightly different path. I watched the enemy forces raise their heads at the noise, stunned. The organic ones, anyway. The geth… no, judging by the fact they didn't open fire, the geth were stunned too. A short circuit somewhere in their electronic brains.
"Well… Geronimo!"
Right before the Mako's thrusters started braking, I used a biotic dash, pushed off the armor, and launched myself at double speed toward the nearest krogan.
"Kha!"
He didn't manage anything. My omni-blade went straight into his forehead, punching through the bone plate. The krogan died instantly. Covered in biotics, I grouped up and rolled across the ground.
"Well? Who's going to tell me a human isn't a bird? Nobody kicked me, and I still flew right to you!"
Under my helmet I wore a slightly mad smile, and they opened fire on me at once. The Makos had already landed and opened fire too. There were a lot of enemies, but they were infantry, and they were firing at me. I had a biotic barrier.
"And that won't do…"
I shook my head. When the enemy realized they couldn't break me, they tried to focus on the Makos. I dashed again and ended up in the thick of it. This time I chopped a krogan's leg off. He screamed, and I shoved a pistol into his mouth and fired several shots.
"This kind of fun without me?! I am krogaaaaaan!"
Wrex climbed out of the Mako and charged the enemy. Somewhere behind us, single sniper shots cracked, and a couple biotic lifts hit the enemy—meaning Kaidan was out of the Mako too.
They focused on me again, and several krogan rushed my way. I calmly tossed myself upward and aside with biotics and came down on a geth, crushing it to hell.
"Come on, come on!"
Wrex slammed into the enemy mob.
"Show me what you've got!"
I smirked under my helmet as Wrex started to work himself up. His shotgun kept spitting, destroying geth, and his fists drove krogan brow plates into their skulls. It was glorious, because we had a strong ally on our side.
"Kid, toss me!"
He got close and pointed at a crowd of geth he wanted launched into, and I didn't ask questions. Biotic energy wrapped him, and he flew. I ducked behind cover for a couple seconds, because his bulk weighed a lot. Throwing him hard enough, even a short distance, wasn't easy. Not like building stationary constructs.
"Yah-ooooo!"
The krogan plowed into the enemy, clearly delighted.
"Advaaaance!"
A beautiful female voice shouted a command somewhere in the enemy rear, and a combined biotic strike slammed into the geth and krogan, crushing them from both sides. They didn't have heavy equipment in the rear, but we had two Makos.
Sure, a Mako isn't exactly heavy armor, but in our case—when the enemy had nothing like it and tried to win with numbers—
At some point we pinned them against a rock outcropping. The geth were ready to fight to the last platform, but the krogan weren't and raised a white flag.
By then there were only ten to fifteen of them left.
"Fuck…"
An asari stood beside me, wiping sweat from her brow.
"We did it…"
"Almost."
I turned to Tali.
"Tali, contact the Normandy. Have them check these krogan's records. If there's nothing truly serious on them, we'll let them go. But if they're dangerous repeat offenders…"
"You want to waste them?"
The asari looked at me with interest, and as I threw her a quick glance, I realized I didn't know her. Probably a newcomer among Benezia's commandos.
"John!"
I turned a little more and saw a young asari walking up fast. Without caring that I was in armor, she wrapped me in a hug.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you!"
She was clearly extremely grateful.
"Easy…"
I patted her back carefully.
"Liara, what is it? It's fine…"
"There were so many of them that, honestly, I didn't think we'd survive. We could've stayed in defense for a long time—supplies and our numbers allowed it—but sooner or later they would've brought something stronger than rocket launchers. And then…"
Letting me go, she shook her head.
"Alright, don't worry. Better give the order for everyone to pack up. It's only your people here?"
"Yes. Me and two dozen commandos—only the best, though there are a few newbies. Everyone, pack up! And plant explosives everywhere! I don't want these ruins falling to the ones who attacked us!"
"But, ma'am…"
"I take responsibility. As a Spectre, I can authorize that."
"What? Spectre?"
The asari looked at me.
"Oh… so they did give you the title?"
"Yeah. Not without pressure from Aria and Benezia, from what I understand, because Tevos gave me her opinion. But they recognized me as a Spectre. So plant charges and don't worry. Just extract every scrap of data you can first."
"Did you hear him?! Move! Move!"
The commander in Liara woke up—then fell back asleep just as quickly.
"Oh… I…"
"Don't worry."
I patted her shoulder.
"Tali?"
Turning, I looked at the girl hurrying toward me.
"John, they…"
She held up her omni-tool with bounties displayed—wanted dead or alive. That answered my questions.
"Tell Jane she knows what to do."
"Understood!"
Three minutes later we opened massed fire on the krogan. I sealed off their routes with a biotic barrier. Minutes later they were all dead.
"Jane, while there's time, record all their faces. When we're back on the ship, during my report I'll inform the Council I didn't just fly out here for nothing—not only did I rescue Liara, but I also cleaned Citadel space of some degenerates."
"You think the Council is clean?"
Wrex said it with a dark look.
"The flyers weren't from the Council. If they were, I'd think twice. Mostly they had notes saying the crimes were on colonies—border colonies, or those in the Terminus Systems. And it also says they're wanted for slaving."
"I see…"
Wrex calmed down a little after my words.
"You can confirm everything on the ship. And yeah—Tali, contact the Normandy. Have them send shuttles. It'll be faster getting out."
"Understood!"
Geth Sniper