FIC: Architects Of Their Own Fortune (12)
Title: Architects of Their Own Fortune
Author: Jewels (bjewelled)
Fandom: Mass Effect
Disclaimer: Mass Effect is Bioware's. And don't they do well with it?
Summary: Rumours abound: the Omega 4 relay has been used, and signs lead to Shepard being involved somehow. Someone has to investigate, and who better than one of Shepard's former crew? On top of all that, ship crews are disappearing, and it can't be the Collectors. So who's responsible, and why?
From The Beginning
~*~
Twelve: Deep Deep Down
~*~
Garrus Vakarian had been accused of enjoying his work far too much on occasion, usually by people he was arresting. He wouldn't be lying if he said that sitting on a drop shuttle, checking his weapons, sitting across from probably the most dangerous woman in the galaxy, and about to get waist deep in a firefight, wasn't a little bit exciting. With Kaidan Alenko there as well, sitting relaxed, hands loosely resting on his knees, he could almost kid himself that he'd travelled back in time to two years ago.
Of course, two years ago, he didn't have a few hundred thousand credits worth of cybernetics fixing the damage from getting a missile to the head. It tended to remind him of the present rather forcefully whenever he realised he couldn't hear exactly as he used to be able to.
Also, Kaidan was... different. It wasn't anything obvious that Garrus could point to as a definitive personality change; Kaidan was still very much the man that Garrus remembered working with to defeat Saren. As he watched Kaidan, sitting across the passenger area of the shuttle, he could see that the man was at once more relaxed and yet more watchful than he had been in the past. It was not to say that Kaidan hadn't paid attention to his surroundings, but he seemed more settled, more focused. It rather reminded him of Shepard back when he'd first met her.
Shepard herself was leaning forward, elbows resting on her knees, staring thoughtfully into space. She said nothing, having briefed them as they were boarding the shuttle. Idle chit chat was unnecessary, and Garrus wasn't sure what he would have said anyway.
"Touchdown in three minutes," the shuttle's VI reported. "Air-barrier detected. Continue approach?"
"Continue," Shepard ordered, without looking up.
"Acknowledged. Touchdown in two minutes forty five seconds."
"What's the plan, Shepard?" Garrus said, leaning back and settling his pistol against his hip.
"Go down, find out what's down there, and shoot anything that takes a shot at us."
"Standard procedure then," he said, understanding.
Shepard smiled, ever so faintly, and the remainder of the descent passed in silence.
The VI started a countdown from thirty seconds to landing. When it set itself down, the shuttle rocked for a moment, and then the engines spun down along a descending scale, leaving the more subdued sound of the shuttle idling.
"Touchdown achieved. No lifeforms detected in local area."
"Atmosphere report?" Shepard asked, as she got to her feet, checking, with several short and precise motions that all her weapons were firmly adhering to her armour and correctly in place.
"External atmosphere is pressurised to C-standard and is breathable, however, due to proximity of planetary atmosphere and possibility of contamination, full armour is recommended."
"You heard the VI," Shepard said, "Suit up properly. I don't want whoever's here dropping the shield and killing us with an acidic bath."
Garrus's helmet was already in his hands. Fitting it was the work of a few moments, the motions habitual after years of practice. Shepard passed Kaidan his helmet, hand resting on his shoulder for a moment while he settled it into place and checked his seals. Then he nodded sharply to her, and she slapped the shoulder plate, removing her hand in order to don her own helmet. Maybe it would have passed another turian by, one who hadn't worked with humans, but Garrus had known both of these humans while they fought to save the galaxy. You got to know people very well in those sort of circumstances. Prolonged physical contact had started occurring between the two towards the end of their fight, and it was only when Liara T'Soni had commented on it that Garrus had realised the change in their behaviour over time. Behaviour that they seemed to have continued.
Interesting, indeed.
Shepard rolled her shoulders and pulled her assault rifle from her back. "Let's go, gentlemen."
Garrus hit the door release and Shepard took point, jumping the short distance to the rocky ground, bringing up her rifle and moving it back and forth, scoping out the area. Garrus and Kaidan fell in behind her.
"Spread out," she said, after a moment, "See if you can find a way deeper inside."
The cavern was wide and high, more than enough space for the tiny shuttle to land in and still have enough room for twenty heavy personnel transports to land side by side. There was no lighting other than the neon blue of the kinetic barrier that held back the roiling cloud of gaseous sulphuric acid that made up the planet's atmosphere. According to Garrus's suit's sensor package, unlike that which lay beyond the barrier, the air in the cavern was breathable to anyone who relied on oxygen for life, if a little too hot to be pleasant. The cavern itself was clearly artificial; the exposed rock was glassy, obviously carved out through artificial means. Excavation on this scale would have been expensive and time consuming, and beyond the means of the average pirate or slaver. He might have suspected them of taking over an old Prothean facility, unknown to the rest of the galaxy, but the edges of the rock were clean cut and not worn away through time.
And there were also fairly recent additions to the cave.
"Shepard!" he called, looking upwards. There were footsteps and then the human woman was standing next to him, following his gaze.
Garrus shone his omnitool's light on the ceiling. "Charges. It's just a guess, but from where they're placed, if they blew they'd probably collapse the whole cavern."
His helmet commline clicked, and Kaidan's voice came through. "I've found a tunnel that leads deeper into the mountain."
"Stay put. We'll come join you." Shepard jerked her head, and Garrus followed her towards the small blue dot that indicated Kaidan's position relative to him.
The Alliance soldier was standing by what could only be described as a hole in the cavern wall. There was a perfect circle cut into the stone, extending deeper into the mountain, and a metal walkway had been placed on the floor to make it traversable.
"No sign of movement or activity," Garrus reported, after a moment.
Shepard nodded, the motion mostly hidden by her suit. "Let's go," she said, raised her assault rifle and proceeded down the tunnel.
There were thin strips of blue-white light affixed to the walls, casting eerie and elongated shadows on the floor as they moved past them. Every few dozen metres down the tunnel were more charges, wired up to a remote sensor but currently inactive, according to Kaidan's scans. There seemed to be no pattern to the tunnels, they forked and branched and doubled back on themselves. They were able to keep track of their progress with omnitools, but Garrus couldn't help but thinking that this chaotic, disorderly arrangement was quite deliberate.
"They really don't want people finding their way deeper," Shepard murmured, as they followed another tunnel around on a loop that brought them back to an intersection they'd already passed through twice. Their omnitool's sensors could only penetrate so far into the solid rock, so mostly they had to explore the tunnel network through trial and error.
"They're preparing for an invasion force," Garrus said, as they picked the only tunnel they had not yet passed through, and started walking through it, moving cautiously with weapons at the ready. "Elaborate tunnels, charges at intervals. Whoever's down here could get the invaders running in circles and then collapse half the mountain on their heads before they found what they were looking for."
"I think it's pretty safe to say that we're not dealing with ordinary pirates," Kaidan said, wry humour in his voice. "To even think about this sort of stuff is expensive."
"Cerberus could probably afford it," Shepard said, thoughtfully.
Kaidan made a small noise that Garrus couldn't decipher. "As you're very aware."
Garrus expected Shepard to come back with some defensive statement about how she wasn't at Cerberus's beck and call, not any longer, but Shepard just acknowledged the sentiment with, "This whole setup probably cost as much as my left foot."
That drew genuine laughter from Kaidan, though Garrus was too startled to join in. It was the first time he'd ever heard Shepard refer to her cybernetics in a jovial manner. In fact, it was the only time he'd heard her talk about her implants.
"Scans show this tunnel opens out," he said, grateful for something to divert his attention.
The others lapsed into silenced, and the three of them moved down the corridor silently, changing position only when Shepard gave the signal with quick, curt movements of her hand. Sure enough, after two hundred meters, the tunnel opened out into a roughly rectangular area. They hugged the tunnel walls and held position there as Shepard risked a glanced into the open space.
She cursed and yanked her head behind the lip of the tunnel for cover. "Turrets," she said, tersely. Keeping quiet no longer mattered; automated turrets didn't listen for voices.
"Looks like we're on track," Garrus said.
Kaidan was focused on his omnitool. "I'm not picking up any power signatures, or tracking sensors."
Shepard thought for a moment then held up a hand, opening her omnitool. She did something that Garrus couldn't make out, then waved her arm in front of the tunnel mouth, in clear view of the turrets inside.
Nothing happened.
Shepard stood and entered the room, the other two following behind. Since the turrets had failed to response to Shepard's electronic lure, the turrets were plainly harmless, but habit and good practice kept their weapons raised.
Inside the room were two unmoving anti-personnel turrets, standing either side to a large metal door that had been embedded in the stone wall. It was the first physical barrier they'd found.
"Inactive," Garrus said, crouching down to examine the turrets more closely. "They're not connected to a power source, though the connectors are here. They're not even loaded with ammunition."
"Not expecting visitors I take it," Shepard murmured, nudging the nearest turret with her boot. It spun unresistingly on its bearings. "Can you get us through the door?"
"I might have something to help with that." Kaidan flicked open his omnitool, holding it up to the door, presumable attempting to run decryption software on the door's control system.
"I have an unlocking package you might find useful," Shepard offered.
"Sure," he said, and the two of them stood close, omnitools throwing a sickly orange glow on their faces, as they exchanged datafiles. Time, it seemed, had not entirely dimmed their smooth way of working together.
The door slid open.
~*~
Miranda had never stood in the centre of the CIC before, on the raised platform of the galaxy map. She had been in theoretical command of the ship during Shepard's groundside excursions in the past; in practice, Joker had made the decisions about the ship, where it went and what it did. Miranda had been content with that arrangement. Joker was a combat-experienced former Alliance officer. Part of the reason that the Illusive Man had been so keen that he was on board was that there were few that could be counted as better pilots, his experience with the Normandy's predecessor notwithstanding.
This was different. Shepard had gone out of her way to tell Miranda that she was in command, rather than letting it be tacitly understood. She felt an obligation to make her authority visible, present, rather than simply stay belowdecks in her office, as she had in the past.
So far, at least, her first formal command experience was going well. They hadn't been blown out of the sky yet, after all.
"The relay just activated!" Joker's voice was raised slightly, in urgency, not alarm. He'd been too well trained to panic in a situation where the unexpected occurred.
Miranda instantly and deeply regretted her naive optimism. "What's the status of the stealth system?"
"Still functioning within operational tolerances," Joker reported, "But we're going to be pushing it soon."
Miranda frowned and opened a line to engineering. "Tali'Zorah, we've not been running the stealth that long. Why am I getting told we're close to the limits?"
"Because the ship just got through a major fight with ancient forces of evil, and I've only been able to do a patch job. We can go into combat, but I certainly wouldn't recommend that combat be with anything larger than a frigate or a cruiser if you want to push it."
Miranda's fists clenched loosely, an unpleasant and unfamiliar feeling of unease settling into the pit of her stomach. "I thought you told Shepard we were good to go."
"That was before we discovered the portside heat sinks aren't working as efficiently as they should be. I have to get back to them."
"Understood," Miranda said, hearing the click of a closing channel halfway through her word. She could give their quarian chief engineer a certain amount of latitude, given that she had put the ship back together in record time, but that didn't mean Miranda liked her attitude. She'd accepted it before, knowing that Tali resented Cerberus for their attack on the Migrant fleet, but knew the girl was professional enough not to let it interfere with their job.
But things had changed now...
Miranda mentally shook herself, forcing herself back onto the more immediate problem they faced. "What's come through the relay?" she asked.
"Silhouette indicates a cruiser-class ship of possible asari origin. It closely matches the vessel previously encountered. I would estimate a high probability of them being the same ship." EDI's voice was preternaturally calm.
Miranda endeavoured to make her own words similarly level. "Are they heading this way?"
"Yes," EDI reported.
"Any sign that they've detected us?"
"They are on a standard approach vector for planetary insertion. I am not detecting any active targeting scans, nor increased heat output characterising weapons preparation. I do not think they have detected us yet."
"Keep us stealthed," Miranda said, and tried to make it took like she wasn't gripping the railing too tightly. Part of her desperately wanted to contact Shepard, but any signals coming from them now would be detected by the incoming ship.
"Aye, sir," was Joker's response, and it was a mark of Miranda's discomfort that she didn't even notice the honorific.
~*~
Garrus's suit reported that the air temperature had dropped considerably beyond the door. There was an active environmental system keeping the air recycling, and a power source that was running the lights. It was difficult to tell where exactly the power was coming from, although it was somewhere deep below their feet. At a rough guess, Garrus would have said that the excavated base extended deep into the planet's surface.
The tunnels no longer looped in on themselves, instead becoming more orderly. It lent credence to Garrus's theory that the outer tunnels were to stop invaders. This level was clearly meant to be protected, sealed off. No doubt there would have been more defences in place other than a couple of turrets and a door in the future, when the base had been finished. It was clear that the occupants hadn't expected anyone to find them.
It meant that their chances of encountering anyone had suddenly increased even if, so far, their progress into the tunnels had been unchallenged.
They had been moving through tunnels, making steady progress, when Shepard directed their attention to a small gap in the tunnel wall. It was a room, small, unevenly shaped, with a console in the middle facing the entry and a black glossy panel on the wall behind it. They moved inside at her signal.
"See what you can pull of that," Shepard said to Kaidan, directing him to the console.
He nodded sharply while Shepard took up a position at the door. Garrus would only have gotten in the way if he'd joined her, so he moved. While Kaidan stood over the console, his omnitool open over his left hand, his right hand moving across the console, Garrus stepped past him to the darkened panel on the wall. He pressed a hand against it even though, through the suit, there was no way to determine texture. "What is this?"
Shepard stepped up next to him. "Just a window I think." There was a small round circle on the wall next to the panel. Shepard touched it, and the window went from opaque to transparent. "That got it."
"Uh..." Garrus stared through the window at what lay beyond. "These are definitely not pirates," he said, with absolute conviction.
Shepard stood silently. He had no idea what she was thinking.
Kaidan left the console and joined them at the window. "Are those... are those stasis tubes?"
That hadn't been what had first drawn Garrus's eye, but he couldn't fault the Commander's attention to detail. What had first attracted his attention was the fact that beyond the window, which was clearly for observation, was an enormous space dug out of stone. It went on further than Garrus could make out with the available light, and was anything but empty. Artificial drones of some sort flitted around the empty space between great pillars of stacked lights. He tweaked the visual pickup on his helmet, and got a magnified view of what those pillars were. They were stacked stasis pods, connected to some sort of cradle that presumably provided all their power needs. There were dozens of them, hundreds, thousands.
There was space enough for millions, from what Garrus could see.
"Collectors?" Kaidan asked.
Garrus felt a momentary sick feeling before he dismissed it, allowed rational thought to override his initial, involuntary feeling of fear. "The Collectors used organic technology," he said, "This... this reminds me of..."
"Ilos," Shepard said, her voice subdued.
Kaidan leaned forward, stared at the pods. "It looks like Citadel tech," he said, moving back to the console, staring at his omnitool with intense concentration.
"I guess this is the reason they were kidnapping people," Shepard said. She sounded calm, and that was always when Shepard was at her deadliest. "But why?"
She abruptly spun on her heel and marched over to the console. "Have you pulled anything useful off that yet?"
"It's all encrypted," Kaidan said, "I'm trying to see if I can read the lower level data that's less protected." He stepped away from the main console, moving over towards the processor bank.
Shepard stood, looking down at the console. Garrus wondered if she might hit it, but Shepard had never been given to such theatrics. It was a pity really, because-
Just on the edge of hearing, there was a click, just like-
Shepard dove to the right, towards cover, as a hail of weapons fire obliterated the console she'd been standing in front of. It gave Garrus precious few seconds to swear, press himself against the wall, and release his assault rifle from its mounting. There was no way to tell who their attackers were, or how many of them there were, though Garrus guessed no more than three or four, or they would have just swarmed the room. They'd been smart, not announcing their presences, and opening fire the moment they had a clear shot. Their mysterious attackers simply had the misfortune to have tried to kill Commander Shepard, of all people.
"Stealthy bastards, aren't they?" Kaidan asked, his voice carrying over the suit comms, the only way to hear him above the deafening sound of close quarters firing.
There was a brief lull; one of the attackers presumably swapping out their thermal clips. As if they were of one mind, the three of them popped out from their cover either side of the doorframe. Garrus laid down a barrage, joined by Kaidan, forcing the attackers to halt their assault and duck out of view. Shepard didn't raise her gun, instead flinging her arm upward as if heaving something towards the ceiling. Garrus felt the familiar stomach-twisting sensation of biotics disrupting the local gravity in short sharp pops all the way down the corridor. There was startled screams, and the attackers were flung into the air, driven out of cover, to be cut down in mid air by concentrated fire from the three of them.
When the gravity returned to normal, and they had stopped firing, there were nothing left in the corridor but gouges in the walls where rounds had gone straight into the stone, and three dead bodies on the ground.
"Neat trick," Kaidan said, knocking the heat sink out of his rifle with the side of his hand. It lay on the ground hissing malevolently. "Where'd you learn that one?"
"That's nothing," Garrus told him, "You should see her do her Relay trick."
Shepard grunted as she stood up and holstered her pistol. "I told you to stop called it that."
Garrus mimed a 'zooming' motion behind Shepard's back as she strode over to the bodies. Kaidan just looked at him in confusion.
"Mercs," Shepard said. She bent to pick up cold and unused clips that had been knocked free of the weapons when their owners had been hit by the biotic field. "Eclipse, Blue Suns... Garrus!"
"Not my fault," Garrus protested, stowing his rifle and accepting the extra clips she offered as he approached. "I haven't done anything around here to piss off the mercs. More likely they banded together against you."
Shepard snorted. "This isn't my normal stomping grounds. I doubt they were waiting for me."
Garrus could see Kaidan staring at them with a frown on his face, a deep set scowl that he had learnt meant that the human wearing the expression was not happy at all. Both he and Shepard had donned helmets with semi-transparent faceplates, meaning that their expressions were visible. Before Garrus could say anything, though, Kaidan stepped forward, joining them.
"Do we keep going?" he asked.
Shepard smirked. "If whoever's in here thinks this is going to stop me, they've got another thing coming. I'm pretty sure, though, that I can hear reinforcements coming."
Garrus cocked his head, trying hard to listen. It was hard to hear distant sounds these days. Chakwas kept telling him his hearing would be better than it had been when he'd finished healing from that missile attack on Omega, but he'd yet to detect any improvement. "If you say so," he said.
"I downloaded a map of the complex from the terminal before it got trashed," Kaidan said. "Nothing's labelled, but there's a large open space in that direction. A lot of power lines converge there."
"Seems like a logical place to keep your evil lair," Shepard said.
Garrus could hear the sound of running now. There were people heading towards them, a lot of them if he wasn't mistaken. "Company's nearly here," he said.
"What would our lives be," Shepard said, as she took out her shotgun, "If everything was easy."
"Safer," Kaidan said, changing his stance and a neon biotic aura enshrouding him. As new waves of mercs rounded the corner of the tunnel, he threw out his hand and twisted his arm, bodies clattered against the ceiling as the gravity inverted.
Shepard prepared a grenade as Garrus gave that some thought. "Yes," he said, "But certainly duller."
~*~
Part Thirteen
Author: Jewels (bjewelled)
Fandom: Mass Effect
Disclaimer: Mass Effect is Bioware's. And don't they do well with it?
Summary: Rumours abound: the Omega 4 relay has been used, and signs lead to Shepard being involved somehow. Someone has to investigate, and who better than one of Shepard's former crew? On top of all that, ship crews are disappearing, and it can't be the Collectors. So who's responsible, and why?
From The Beginning
~*~
Twelve: Deep Deep Down
~*~
Garrus Vakarian had been accused of enjoying his work far too much on occasion, usually by people he was arresting. He wouldn't be lying if he said that sitting on a drop shuttle, checking his weapons, sitting across from probably the most dangerous woman in the galaxy, and about to get waist deep in a firefight, wasn't a little bit exciting. With Kaidan Alenko there as well, sitting relaxed, hands loosely resting on his knees, he could almost kid himself that he'd travelled back in time to two years ago.
Of course, two years ago, he didn't have a few hundred thousand credits worth of cybernetics fixing the damage from getting a missile to the head. It tended to remind him of the present rather forcefully whenever he realised he couldn't hear exactly as he used to be able to.
Also, Kaidan was... different. It wasn't anything obvious that Garrus could point to as a definitive personality change; Kaidan was still very much the man that Garrus remembered working with to defeat Saren. As he watched Kaidan, sitting across the passenger area of the shuttle, he could see that the man was at once more relaxed and yet more watchful than he had been in the past. It was not to say that Kaidan hadn't paid attention to his surroundings, but he seemed more settled, more focused. It rather reminded him of Shepard back when he'd first met her.
Shepard herself was leaning forward, elbows resting on her knees, staring thoughtfully into space. She said nothing, having briefed them as they were boarding the shuttle. Idle chit chat was unnecessary, and Garrus wasn't sure what he would have said anyway.
"Touchdown in three minutes," the shuttle's VI reported. "Air-barrier detected. Continue approach?"
"Continue," Shepard ordered, without looking up.
"Acknowledged. Touchdown in two minutes forty five seconds."
"What's the plan, Shepard?" Garrus said, leaning back and settling his pistol against his hip.
"Go down, find out what's down there, and shoot anything that takes a shot at us."
"Standard procedure then," he said, understanding.
Shepard smiled, ever so faintly, and the remainder of the descent passed in silence.
The VI started a countdown from thirty seconds to landing. When it set itself down, the shuttle rocked for a moment, and then the engines spun down along a descending scale, leaving the more subdued sound of the shuttle idling.
"Touchdown achieved. No lifeforms detected in local area."
"Atmosphere report?" Shepard asked, as she got to her feet, checking, with several short and precise motions that all her weapons were firmly adhering to her armour and correctly in place.
"External atmosphere is pressurised to C-standard and is breathable, however, due to proximity of planetary atmosphere and possibility of contamination, full armour is recommended."
"You heard the VI," Shepard said, "Suit up properly. I don't want whoever's here dropping the shield and killing us with an acidic bath."
Garrus's helmet was already in his hands. Fitting it was the work of a few moments, the motions habitual after years of practice. Shepard passed Kaidan his helmet, hand resting on his shoulder for a moment while he settled it into place and checked his seals. Then he nodded sharply to her, and she slapped the shoulder plate, removing her hand in order to don her own helmet. Maybe it would have passed another turian by, one who hadn't worked with humans, but Garrus had known both of these humans while they fought to save the galaxy. You got to know people very well in those sort of circumstances. Prolonged physical contact had started occurring between the two towards the end of their fight, and it was only when Liara T'Soni had commented on it that Garrus had realised the change in their behaviour over time. Behaviour that they seemed to have continued.
Interesting, indeed.
Shepard rolled her shoulders and pulled her assault rifle from her back. "Let's go, gentlemen."
Garrus hit the door release and Shepard took point, jumping the short distance to the rocky ground, bringing up her rifle and moving it back and forth, scoping out the area. Garrus and Kaidan fell in behind her.
"Spread out," she said, after a moment, "See if you can find a way deeper inside."
The cavern was wide and high, more than enough space for the tiny shuttle to land in and still have enough room for twenty heavy personnel transports to land side by side. There was no lighting other than the neon blue of the kinetic barrier that held back the roiling cloud of gaseous sulphuric acid that made up the planet's atmosphere. According to Garrus's suit's sensor package, unlike that which lay beyond the barrier, the air in the cavern was breathable to anyone who relied on oxygen for life, if a little too hot to be pleasant. The cavern itself was clearly artificial; the exposed rock was glassy, obviously carved out through artificial means. Excavation on this scale would have been expensive and time consuming, and beyond the means of the average pirate or slaver. He might have suspected them of taking over an old Prothean facility, unknown to the rest of the galaxy, but the edges of the rock were clean cut and not worn away through time.
And there were also fairly recent additions to the cave.
"Shepard!" he called, looking upwards. There were footsteps and then the human woman was standing next to him, following his gaze.
Garrus shone his omnitool's light on the ceiling. "Charges. It's just a guess, but from where they're placed, if they blew they'd probably collapse the whole cavern."
His helmet commline clicked, and Kaidan's voice came through. "I've found a tunnel that leads deeper into the mountain."
"Stay put. We'll come join you." Shepard jerked her head, and Garrus followed her towards the small blue dot that indicated Kaidan's position relative to him.
The Alliance soldier was standing by what could only be described as a hole in the cavern wall. There was a perfect circle cut into the stone, extending deeper into the mountain, and a metal walkway had been placed on the floor to make it traversable.
"No sign of movement or activity," Garrus reported, after a moment.
Shepard nodded, the motion mostly hidden by her suit. "Let's go," she said, raised her assault rifle and proceeded down the tunnel.
There were thin strips of blue-white light affixed to the walls, casting eerie and elongated shadows on the floor as they moved past them. Every few dozen metres down the tunnel were more charges, wired up to a remote sensor but currently inactive, according to Kaidan's scans. There seemed to be no pattern to the tunnels, they forked and branched and doubled back on themselves. They were able to keep track of their progress with omnitools, but Garrus couldn't help but thinking that this chaotic, disorderly arrangement was quite deliberate.
"They really don't want people finding their way deeper," Shepard murmured, as they followed another tunnel around on a loop that brought them back to an intersection they'd already passed through twice. Their omnitool's sensors could only penetrate so far into the solid rock, so mostly they had to explore the tunnel network through trial and error.
"They're preparing for an invasion force," Garrus said, as they picked the only tunnel they had not yet passed through, and started walking through it, moving cautiously with weapons at the ready. "Elaborate tunnels, charges at intervals. Whoever's down here could get the invaders running in circles and then collapse half the mountain on their heads before they found what they were looking for."
"I think it's pretty safe to say that we're not dealing with ordinary pirates," Kaidan said, wry humour in his voice. "To even think about this sort of stuff is expensive."
"Cerberus could probably afford it," Shepard said, thoughtfully.
Kaidan made a small noise that Garrus couldn't decipher. "As you're very aware."
Garrus expected Shepard to come back with some defensive statement about how she wasn't at Cerberus's beck and call, not any longer, but Shepard just acknowledged the sentiment with, "This whole setup probably cost as much as my left foot."
That drew genuine laughter from Kaidan, though Garrus was too startled to join in. It was the first time he'd ever heard Shepard refer to her cybernetics in a jovial manner. In fact, it was the only time he'd heard her talk about her implants.
"Scans show this tunnel opens out," he said, grateful for something to divert his attention.
The others lapsed into silenced, and the three of them moved down the corridor silently, changing position only when Shepard gave the signal with quick, curt movements of her hand. Sure enough, after two hundred meters, the tunnel opened out into a roughly rectangular area. They hugged the tunnel walls and held position there as Shepard risked a glanced into the open space.
She cursed and yanked her head behind the lip of the tunnel for cover. "Turrets," she said, tersely. Keeping quiet no longer mattered; automated turrets didn't listen for voices.
"Looks like we're on track," Garrus said.
Kaidan was focused on his omnitool. "I'm not picking up any power signatures, or tracking sensors."
Shepard thought for a moment then held up a hand, opening her omnitool. She did something that Garrus couldn't make out, then waved her arm in front of the tunnel mouth, in clear view of the turrets inside.
Nothing happened.
Shepard stood and entered the room, the other two following behind. Since the turrets had failed to response to Shepard's electronic lure, the turrets were plainly harmless, but habit and good practice kept their weapons raised.
Inside the room were two unmoving anti-personnel turrets, standing either side to a large metal door that had been embedded in the stone wall. It was the first physical barrier they'd found.
"Inactive," Garrus said, crouching down to examine the turrets more closely. "They're not connected to a power source, though the connectors are here. They're not even loaded with ammunition."
"Not expecting visitors I take it," Shepard murmured, nudging the nearest turret with her boot. It spun unresistingly on its bearings. "Can you get us through the door?"
"I might have something to help with that." Kaidan flicked open his omnitool, holding it up to the door, presumable attempting to run decryption software on the door's control system.
"I have an unlocking package you might find useful," Shepard offered.
"Sure," he said, and the two of them stood close, omnitools throwing a sickly orange glow on their faces, as they exchanged datafiles. Time, it seemed, had not entirely dimmed their smooth way of working together.
The door slid open.
~*~
Miranda had never stood in the centre of the CIC before, on the raised platform of the galaxy map. She had been in theoretical command of the ship during Shepard's groundside excursions in the past; in practice, Joker had made the decisions about the ship, where it went and what it did. Miranda had been content with that arrangement. Joker was a combat-experienced former Alliance officer. Part of the reason that the Illusive Man had been so keen that he was on board was that there were few that could be counted as better pilots, his experience with the Normandy's predecessor notwithstanding.
This was different. Shepard had gone out of her way to tell Miranda that she was in command, rather than letting it be tacitly understood. She felt an obligation to make her authority visible, present, rather than simply stay belowdecks in her office, as she had in the past.
So far, at least, her first formal command experience was going well. They hadn't been blown out of the sky yet, after all.
"The relay just activated!" Joker's voice was raised slightly, in urgency, not alarm. He'd been too well trained to panic in a situation where the unexpected occurred.
Miranda instantly and deeply regretted her naive optimism. "What's the status of the stealth system?"
"Still functioning within operational tolerances," Joker reported, "But we're going to be pushing it soon."
Miranda frowned and opened a line to engineering. "Tali'Zorah, we've not been running the stealth that long. Why am I getting told we're close to the limits?"
"Because the ship just got through a major fight with ancient forces of evil, and I've only been able to do a patch job. We can go into combat, but I certainly wouldn't recommend that combat be with anything larger than a frigate or a cruiser if you want to push it."
Miranda's fists clenched loosely, an unpleasant and unfamiliar feeling of unease settling into the pit of her stomach. "I thought you told Shepard we were good to go."
"That was before we discovered the portside heat sinks aren't working as efficiently as they should be. I have to get back to them."
"Understood," Miranda said, hearing the click of a closing channel halfway through her word. She could give their quarian chief engineer a certain amount of latitude, given that she had put the ship back together in record time, but that didn't mean Miranda liked her attitude. She'd accepted it before, knowing that Tali resented Cerberus for their attack on the Migrant fleet, but knew the girl was professional enough not to let it interfere with their job.
But things had changed now...
Miranda mentally shook herself, forcing herself back onto the more immediate problem they faced. "What's come through the relay?" she asked.
"Silhouette indicates a cruiser-class ship of possible asari origin. It closely matches the vessel previously encountered. I would estimate a high probability of them being the same ship." EDI's voice was preternaturally calm.
Miranda endeavoured to make her own words similarly level. "Are they heading this way?"
"Yes," EDI reported.
"Any sign that they've detected us?"
"They are on a standard approach vector for planetary insertion. I am not detecting any active targeting scans, nor increased heat output characterising weapons preparation. I do not think they have detected us yet."
"Keep us stealthed," Miranda said, and tried to make it took like she wasn't gripping the railing too tightly. Part of her desperately wanted to contact Shepard, but any signals coming from them now would be detected by the incoming ship.
"Aye, sir," was Joker's response, and it was a mark of Miranda's discomfort that she didn't even notice the honorific.
~*~
Garrus's suit reported that the air temperature had dropped considerably beyond the door. There was an active environmental system keeping the air recycling, and a power source that was running the lights. It was difficult to tell where exactly the power was coming from, although it was somewhere deep below their feet. At a rough guess, Garrus would have said that the excavated base extended deep into the planet's surface.
The tunnels no longer looped in on themselves, instead becoming more orderly. It lent credence to Garrus's theory that the outer tunnels were to stop invaders. This level was clearly meant to be protected, sealed off. No doubt there would have been more defences in place other than a couple of turrets and a door in the future, when the base had been finished. It was clear that the occupants hadn't expected anyone to find them.
It meant that their chances of encountering anyone had suddenly increased even if, so far, their progress into the tunnels had been unchallenged.
They had been moving through tunnels, making steady progress, when Shepard directed their attention to a small gap in the tunnel wall. It was a room, small, unevenly shaped, with a console in the middle facing the entry and a black glossy panel on the wall behind it. They moved inside at her signal.
"See what you can pull of that," Shepard said to Kaidan, directing him to the console.
He nodded sharply while Shepard took up a position at the door. Garrus would only have gotten in the way if he'd joined her, so he moved. While Kaidan stood over the console, his omnitool open over his left hand, his right hand moving across the console, Garrus stepped past him to the darkened panel on the wall. He pressed a hand against it even though, through the suit, there was no way to determine texture. "What is this?"
Shepard stepped up next to him. "Just a window I think." There was a small round circle on the wall next to the panel. Shepard touched it, and the window went from opaque to transparent. "That got it."
"Uh..." Garrus stared through the window at what lay beyond. "These are definitely not pirates," he said, with absolute conviction.
Shepard stood silently. He had no idea what she was thinking.
Kaidan left the console and joined them at the window. "Are those... are those stasis tubes?"
That hadn't been what had first drawn Garrus's eye, but he couldn't fault the Commander's attention to detail. What had first attracted his attention was the fact that beyond the window, which was clearly for observation, was an enormous space dug out of stone. It went on further than Garrus could make out with the available light, and was anything but empty. Artificial drones of some sort flitted around the empty space between great pillars of stacked lights. He tweaked the visual pickup on his helmet, and got a magnified view of what those pillars were. They were stacked stasis pods, connected to some sort of cradle that presumably provided all their power needs. There were dozens of them, hundreds, thousands.
There was space enough for millions, from what Garrus could see.
"Collectors?" Kaidan asked.
Garrus felt a momentary sick feeling before he dismissed it, allowed rational thought to override his initial, involuntary feeling of fear. "The Collectors used organic technology," he said, "This... this reminds me of..."
"Ilos," Shepard said, her voice subdued.
Kaidan leaned forward, stared at the pods. "It looks like Citadel tech," he said, moving back to the console, staring at his omnitool with intense concentration.
"I guess this is the reason they were kidnapping people," Shepard said. She sounded calm, and that was always when Shepard was at her deadliest. "But why?"
She abruptly spun on her heel and marched over to the console. "Have you pulled anything useful off that yet?"
"It's all encrypted," Kaidan said, "I'm trying to see if I can read the lower level data that's less protected." He stepped away from the main console, moving over towards the processor bank.
Shepard stood, looking down at the console. Garrus wondered if she might hit it, but Shepard had never been given to such theatrics. It was a pity really, because-
Just on the edge of hearing, there was a click, just like-
Shepard dove to the right, towards cover, as a hail of weapons fire obliterated the console she'd been standing in front of. It gave Garrus precious few seconds to swear, press himself against the wall, and release his assault rifle from its mounting. There was no way to tell who their attackers were, or how many of them there were, though Garrus guessed no more than three or four, or they would have just swarmed the room. They'd been smart, not announcing their presences, and opening fire the moment they had a clear shot. Their mysterious attackers simply had the misfortune to have tried to kill Commander Shepard, of all people.
"Stealthy bastards, aren't they?" Kaidan asked, his voice carrying over the suit comms, the only way to hear him above the deafening sound of close quarters firing.
There was a brief lull; one of the attackers presumably swapping out their thermal clips. As if they were of one mind, the three of them popped out from their cover either side of the doorframe. Garrus laid down a barrage, joined by Kaidan, forcing the attackers to halt their assault and duck out of view. Shepard didn't raise her gun, instead flinging her arm upward as if heaving something towards the ceiling. Garrus felt the familiar stomach-twisting sensation of biotics disrupting the local gravity in short sharp pops all the way down the corridor. There was startled screams, and the attackers were flung into the air, driven out of cover, to be cut down in mid air by concentrated fire from the three of them.
When the gravity returned to normal, and they had stopped firing, there were nothing left in the corridor but gouges in the walls where rounds had gone straight into the stone, and three dead bodies on the ground.
"Neat trick," Kaidan said, knocking the heat sink out of his rifle with the side of his hand. It lay on the ground hissing malevolently. "Where'd you learn that one?"
"That's nothing," Garrus told him, "You should see her do her Relay trick."
Shepard grunted as she stood up and holstered her pistol. "I told you to stop called it that."
Garrus mimed a 'zooming' motion behind Shepard's back as she strode over to the bodies. Kaidan just looked at him in confusion.
"Mercs," Shepard said. She bent to pick up cold and unused clips that had been knocked free of the weapons when their owners had been hit by the biotic field. "Eclipse, Blue Suns... Garrus!"
"Not my fault," Garrus protested, stowing his rifle and accepting the extra clips she offered as he approached. "I haven't done anything around here to piss off the mercs. More likely they banded together against you."
Shepard snorted. "This isn't my normal stomping grounds. I doubt they were waiting for me."
Garrus could see Kaidan staring at them with a frown on his face, a deep set scowl that he had learnt meant that the human wearing the expression was not happy at all. Both he and Shepard had donned helmets with semi-transparent faceplates, meaning that their expressions were visible. Before Garrus could say anything, though, Kaidan stepped forward, joining them.
"Do we keep going?" he asked.
Shepard smirked. "If whoever's in here thinks this is going to stop me, they've got another thing coming. I'm pretty sure, though, that I can hear reinforcements coming."
Garrus cocked his head, trying hard to listen. It was hard to hear distant sounds these days. Chakwas kept telling him his hearing would be better than it had been when he'd finished healing from that missile attack on Omega, but he'd yet to detect any improvement. "If you say so," he said.
"I downloaded a map of the complex from the terminal before it got trashed," Kaidan said. "Nothing's labelled, but there's a large open space in that direction. A lot of power lines converge there."
"Seems like a logical place to keep your evil lair," Shepard said.
Garrus could hear the sound of running now. There were people heading towards them, a lot of them if he wasn't mistaken. "Company's nearly here," he said.
"What would our lives be," Shepard said, as she took out her shotgun, "If everything was easy."
"Safer," Kaidan said, changing his stance and a neon biotic aura enshrouding him. As new waves of mercs rounded the corner of the tunnel, he threw out his hand and twisted his arm, bodies clattered against the ceiling as the gravity inverted.
Shepard prepared a grenade as Garrus gave that some thought. "Yes," he said, "But certainly duller."
~*~
Part Thirteen