Chapter Text
Silence had descended over the group as they picked their way through the darkened corridors once again. After seeing the execution, Shepard had long stopped caring about which door she took or where it lead, the damn VI could drive her into a ambush, and she wouldn't care.
Yet again it was a life she'd failed to save. Admittedly she couldn't have really done anything at the time, but that didn't make the thought any easier to deal with. Her hands trembled slightly as she ran another hack and unlocked the next door. "Were getting close." The commander muttered quietly, her voice barely audible as she swept the room with her rifle and proceeded without a second thought.
"You don't think it's a bad idea, going where the VI says rather then trying to break into the other rooms?" Garrus finally asked as she swept through the lab and began working on the next door.
"Why? Chances are it'll just override any attempt we make, or find some other way to lock us out." The door opened a second later. Shepard ignored the drawn out sigh from the turian as she shouldered her rifle and kept moving.
Several empty rooms later, they finally reached their goal. The final door gave way to a bridge that connected the labs to the communications centre. Shepard inwardly groaned as she studied the path ahead of them.
Aside from a couple of crates here and there, there was no cover between them and the comm. centre. If the VI was smart, there'd be snipers posted to watch the bridge, from what's she'd seen it was the only way to the dish.
"I don't like this…But we don't really have a lot of choice." Melina said her voice surprisingly calm as she shouldered her rifle and began to advance. "Garrus, hold back with you're rifle and keep us covered. Miranda, you're with me."
Both nodded slightly, and Garrus was quick to change weapons as he found a safe place to hunker down and watch the bridge's other side from while Shepard and Miranda carefully jogged from one crate to the next. Each time she reached a safe place, the commander would halt and check the area ahead before proceeding, while she trusted the sniper, she wasn't about to take even the slightest chance.
They'd made it half way when Shepard's radio came to life. "Shepard. Two geth on the catwalk ahead. Doesn't look like they've seen you yet." With a quick hand gesture, the pair ducked into cover, and the commander carefully inched around the low wall she'd hidden behind.
The geth appeared to be on a patrol. Their heads slowly darting left and right as they scanned the bridge and continued on their way, eventually vanishing through a door and out of sight.
Once she was sure they were gone, Shepard and Miranda continued their advance.
Luckily they made it to the other side of the bridge without incident. And Garrus soon joined them. "Any ideas on how long we've got?" Shepard asked as she pressed a finger to her ear.
"I can't tell exactly from here. Though I'd say only about five minutes at best until the transfer is complete." The scientist they'd briefly encountered replied, his voice laced with concern that not even the static that crackled over the comm. could hide.
"Any suggestions on how we shut it down?" Melina continued as she checked her assault rifles ammo counter, and then checked to ensure a grenade was loaded and ready.
"You might be able to hack the system and misalign the dish…Otherwise just shut it down however you can."
Shepard nodded slightly, before slamming her fist into the panel, the door opened without protest, giving way to the first room. Or rather what appeared to be the maintenance deck of the station.
A series of pipes zigzagged across the room, obscuring large sections of it from view, a terminal resided in one corner, it's screen blank, presumably offline. And a number of other random catwalks and maintenance shafts that could have held any number of geth or security forces crowded the small chamber. "Eyes open. Watch for ambushes." Shepard warned, before carefully advancing into the room, one hand idly slid up the side of her rifle and tapped in a command, and the panels along the sides of the gun flared a bright red as the incendiary rounds were loaded.
Carefully picking her way around and through the pipes, Melina had almost made it to the other side of the room, just a few more feet. She was swiftly halted however by the dull whine of servos. A moment later a deep computerized voice reached her ears, and the commander cursed as she scrambled back towards the pipes she'd just vaulted over a moment before. "Online." That single word, and the voice it belonged to, filled her with dread.
Her fears were confirmed a second later as a loud booming footstep shook the room, followed by the clicking of a weapon being armed. Ducking behind the metal, Shepard closed her eyes tightly as she heard a whoosh. Followed by the room shaking again as a rocket struck the ground a few feet away from her. She could feel the heat of the explosion through her shields, which sparked and died a moment later.
The massive YMIR mech's upper body twisted around as a sniper round pinged off it's shields, and a moment later it's arm raised, it's hand split open to reveal the chain-gun hidden beneath, and a second later it unleashed a barrage of bullets that shredded the metal catwalk Garrus had, thankfully managed to evacuate a heartbeat before.
Ignoring the ringing in her ears, Shepard lifted herself up once again and fired a quick burst at the mech, again its shields absorbed the blow, but it drew its attention back to her, giving time for Garrus to reposition, and Miranda as well to find a safe place to shoot from.
The mech didn't even bother ceasing fire, instead it simply shifted it's aim back towards the commander and laid waste to everything in-between the catwalk and the pipes Shepard was hiding behind.
Melina cursed again as she was driven back behind cover, one of the pipes took a hit and burst, a hot flash of steam stung her face, but she ignored it, instead ducking further down to avoid any further damage as she waited for the hailstorm of bullets to cease so she could fire again.
A flash of blue light briefly drew her gaze, and she watched as a blue orb of biotic energy struck the mech and with a flicker, it's shields died. A moment later Garrus took advantage of Miranda's attack and fired a round, which sadly only glanced off it's head and caused the hulking robot to cease fire.
Instead of changing targets however, it simply switched arms and locked onto Shepard with another rocket. Knowing her choice of cover wouldn't hold, she sprung to her feet and broke into a sprint, beeping of the targeting system stopped, and she heard the rocket fire.
The commander only made it a few steps, before she leapt to one side and rolled behind a support beam. She'd barely made it behind the beam before the rocket slammed into the ground less then a foot away and sent her stumbling back, just in time for another burst of chain-gun fire to strike her shields.
Shepard again was forced to seek shelter behind the pillar just as her shields failed, one r two rounds struck her arm and shoulder, but she shrugged them off for now and simply pressed her back firmly against the beam, and silently hoped it wouldn't crack under the bullet storm.
By some miracle, it didn't. And Shepard offered a relieved sigh as the slight flicker on the edge of her vision confirmed her shields were recharging.
And not a moment to soon, as she heard the familiar clunking of footsteps as the mech slowly closed in on her. She could try to relocate, but where could she go? Her gaze snapped left and right as she tried to pick a new position. The cracking of a sniper rifle informed her Garrus was off to her right, and the occasional flash of blue confirmed Miranda was close by, but she couldn't find a suitable location to retreat to where the mech couldn't see her. And she was running out of time…
A heartbeat later, the YMIR's arm slammed into the pillar and Shepard ducked as s shower of dust and rubble struck her head and clung to her hair. Correction, she was out of time. Ignoring the imminent burst of chain-gun fire, she broke into a sprint straight for another section of pipes in a vain attempt to get out of the mech's line of sight.
Bullets struck the ground around her as she skidded to a stop and dropped into a crouch behind the pipes. The mech was already closing in, but she ignored it, instead she waited for the barrage to stop once again, and swiftly stood, her rifle snapping to her shoulder as she opened fire.
The first few bullets glanced off its armour. Though several also cut deep, resulting in several sparks as they cut through the plating. Obviously she'd struck something vital, as the mech stumbled and halted for a few moments. Just long enough for Garrus to put a sniper round through its optics.
"Oh heck." Shepard ducked as the YMIR exploded, the shockwave of the blast ended up knocking her off her feet. Though thankfully her armour absorbed most of the impact.
As she pulled herself upright using a nearby pipe however. The commander winced as pain flared up along her left leg, and a stab of pain in her right shoulder made itself known. Her leg was obviously her still healing wound from the collector base, her shoulder though she swiftly realized was from the chain-gun round that pierced her armour. There would be time for fixing that later however, it wasn't bleeding to heavily, and she had more important things to worry about.
Luckily the mech had been guarding the main elevator that lead to the control room of the relay. Shepard had to admit, the place was, smaller then she'd anticipated. But that mattered little; they had a job to do.
As the commanders gaze wandered the expansive room, she quirked an eyebrow as Miranda instantly made her way to a terminal and began tapping away at the controls. While she couldn't argue with her trying to help, the fact that she seemed to know exactly where to go was somewhat unnerving. After all, she hadn't been here before, but knew which computer to use...
Pushing the thought aside for now, Melina simply approached and peered over the Cerberus agents shoulder as she worked. "Can you stop it?" She asked after a moment, her gaze shifting to the terminal, she hardly recognized the information scrolling across the screen, luckily it seemed Miranda did, for better or worse.
"The VI's locked me out…I can't shut down the transmission from here." She cursed, before the screen cut out a moment later, the words *corrupted files detected* flashing up briefly in red, before even that was claimed by the sudden wash of darkness.
"We'll have to get up to the dish and try to shut it down directly. There's got to be a way to disable it." Shepard muttered as she set off for the door that connected the control room to a series of catwalks that would take them to the top of the relay dish.
"Come on. Were not going to do anymore good here." She spared a glance at her Omni-tool as she stepped out onto the first catwalk, and cringed as a sudden gust of wind knocked her back a step. This wouldn't be easy. Focusing on the display again, she noted they only had two minutes until the VI connected with it's goal and escaped off world.
Ignoring the precarious nature of the path ahead, Shepard broke into a jog with the others close behind, her boots clanged loudly against the metal steps as she topped the first catwalk, spun on her heel and started up the next one, all intentions of stealth and sneaking set aside in favour of simply getting to the top as fast as possible.
As she reached the top of the dish and instinctively ducked behind a row of power couplings, her head perked up a moment later so she could peer over the top and take in the area. The dish itself was huge, and now she realized they were actually standing on it. That thought alone made her pause.
"Doctor, how the hell are we supposed to shut this thing down? The computer isn't responding so we have to take it down manually." She pressed a finger to her ear as she tuned out the howling wind, and the loud alarms that suddenly kicked in, likely to warn them the transmission was about to go out and they had to leave.
"You'll have to disable the support struts." The doctor's voice filled her ear. "They each have their own capacitor, try blowing them up." Shepard nodded slightly, before springing over the power cables and breaking into a jog. She could just make out the first capacitor in the distance.
"Got it. This shouldn't take-" She skidded to a halt as several bullets struck the deck just in front of her. "Long…" Cursing her own lack of caution, she started running again, the capacitor was still a fair distance away, but there were a few stray transformers and random pieces of construction they could take cover behind.
She didn't even have a chance to reach the next safe location as a bullet struck her shield and caused her to stumble. That had been a high calibre round, a sniper shot if she had to judge.
A moment later she stopped running and shifted her weight backwards as her momentum propelled her forwards. Her body struck the floor and she slide the final few feet and ground to a stop behind a low wall. Another burst of what she presumed to be assault rifle rounds struck the cover a moment later, the commander winced as a piece of metal was dislodged and struck the side of her face.
Ignoring the stinging sensation that flared up as a result, she briefly peered over her cover and noted several security mechs blindly marching towards her position weapons raised and firing aimlessly in her direction.
In the distance she could see a handful of geth leapfrogging from one piece of cover to the next. One however remained in place, a rifle resting against its shoulder. Before she could blink he fired and her shields flared and died. With a curse, she ducked out of sight as a second round pinged off the wall. "Damn it, Garrus! Take out that damn sniper!" Shepard called out before lifting herself up once again, this time her rifle was at the ready and she fired a short burst which easily ripped a mech in half and showered the one next to it in metal shards and sparks.
Melina ducked again as she heard the distinct crack of a sniper rifle. Though when nothing struck her, or her cover, she propped herself up once again. The geth sniper was gone. A quick glance to one side gave her a brief glimpse of Garrus as he reloaded his rifle. "Got him commander." He called out, before firing again, a second geth crumbled as its optics were shattered by the impact.
Once Shepard was sure her shields had recharged, she stood once again and resumed firing, her shots easily downing mechs and geth alike as they rushed towards her position. Time was running out however, the alarms were growing louder and Melina had little doubt they were mere seconds away from letting the VI escape.
"Miranda!" She called out, the rapid booms of the Cerberus agents heavy pistol cut off a moment later. "Get to the capacitor and disable it!" Miranda didn't argue and swiftly started sprinting towards the target, while Garrus and Shepard kept the VI's minions busy.
Another mech exploded, and a geth responded with a well aimed grenade that forced Melina out of hiding. A second later a burst of assault rifle fire cut her shields down and pierced her shoulder, though she paid it no heed and instead fell into a crouch behind another piece of cover, if she didn't know any better she'd think this place was designed for this very situation…
A loud wailing alarm cut through the battle a second later, the other alerts abruptly ending as this one took priority. Shepard spared a glance towards Miranda, and noted the capacitor was now a smouldering ruin, the protective plating having been withdrawn.
The final geth unit fell as a sniper round struck it and severed its head. Silence followed as the trio reloaded and the commander took in her surroundings. "How many more of the support struts will we need to disable?" She asked quietly, more to herself then anyone else. Already the alerts were starting to pick up in volume again, clearly even the loss of a support unit wasn't enough to delay the transmission for long.
"Damn it! We don't have time to try and find all of them…We'll have to split up." Shepard muttered bitterly, if they ran into anymore geth or mechs, they wouldn't stand a chance out on there own…But at the same time, they couldn't just pick their way across the dish and hope to find all the supports before it was to late.
Despite the rather stupid plan, neither Garrus nor Miranda bothered to argue. Much to Melina's relief. A moment later the trio split up and set off across the dish in search of the remaining supports.
Luckily it seemed either the VI hadn't planned for their presense, or maybe was just slow to react. As Shepard easily found the next capacitor and pressed the switch to remove the security shield without incident.
"Okay, found the next one." A quick burst from her rifle easily overloaded the capacitor. "Dealt with." Another wailing alert was sounded, closely followed by a second a moment later.
"This ones down." Garrus confirmed. "Heading to you now commander."
"Commander, run into resistance over here. Almost at the support…" Shepard barely resisted groaning when the agent spoke, of course, there was always something wasn't there? She was about to set off, when the dish abruptly shuddered.
"Got it! This place is going to come down in a second, you'd better think about moving ma'am!" Miranda warned, the sound of gunfire crackling in the comm. Before Melina could respond, the dish began to sway slightly as the supports holding it up began to falter.
Ignoring the imminent collapse of the ground beneath her feet, she simply focused on Garrus as he jogged towards her. "No, were coming to you. Just hold on."
"There isn't time, this whole thing is about to come down! I'll be fine there's another catwalk here, just need to get through the mechs." Shepard paused for a long moment, before nodding slightly as she waved Garrus towards the bridge that connected it to the main research facility.
"Alright, we'll meet up with you back at the labs." Without waiting, she spun on her heel and started running, the turian right along side her. The groaning of metal was more then enough to spur them into motion. Though Shepard noted it wasn't just the relay dish that was coming down.
Sizeable chunks of the platform above and around them were beginning to buckle as well. And as she ran, a sizeable piece of, something she really didn't have time to think slammed into dish mere feet away, the resulting shockwave almost knocked her off her feet, though by Garrus was quick to grab and steady her before she slipped to far.
"Keep, moving!" She shouted as the dish itself began to buckle and snap. The edge was almost on them, and she realized with mounting dread that the catwalk that should have taken them to safety, had been ripped in half at some point, leaving them with no other alternative but to jump and pray for the best.
And that's exactly what the commander did. Without pausing to think, for she knew she'd reconsider, she leapt over the side and prayed there was something below, and close by that would break her fall.
Thankfully it seemed fate was being kind for once, as a moment later she slammed into a different catwalk, thankfully a safe distance from the relay. Fate wasn't exactly being generous however, as she continued to slide and ended up crashing head first into the wall of the labs.
"Shepard?" The commander groaned quietly as she finally came to, albeit with a hell of a headache. As her eyes cracked open, she was surprised to find Garrus leaning over her, concern written into his features.
"I'm fine, I'm fine stop worrying." She grumbled, before pulling herself up into a sitting position, a hand instinctively moving to rub the back of her head, which naturally still throbbed painfully from her impact with the wall.
"Whatever you say commander." With a offered hand, he pulled Shepard back to her feet, before focusing on the sizeable pile of rubble that was the comm. tower. "Looks like we pulled it off, just in time too."
"Yeah…Any sign of Miranda?" Shepard couldn't help but worry about the Cerberus agent. Despite their differences, she'd come to depend on the woman, somewhat over the course of the mission.
"Nothing yet, though considering how well our, landing went. It wouldn't surprise me if she ended up in a similar mess." Garrus sounded unconvinced, though Melina somehow missed it.
"Probably. Keep an ear on your comm. though." She briefly checked to ensure her own was still working.
Her system check was interrupted a moment alter by the sound of boots on metal. And both whipped around expecting to see Miranda approaching. Instead they were greeted by a unfamiliar face. A balding man in a Cerberus uniform. "Excellent work commander…Though I wish the situation had been easier for you, at least the VI is trapped here for the time being." He commented slowly, his gaze shifting to the ruined communications building.
"Yeah, now I think it's time we get some answers." Shepard recognized the voice more then anything else. The scintist that had sent them on this crazy mission. "Dr Archer I presume?"
He nodded slightly, before gesturing towards the catwalk behind him. "Yes, follow me, and I'll explain everything."