Mars, Wednesday
Kaidan shook his head, echoing wry smile still on his face. "Allie? Watch those big doors down there. Dean? You think you can convince the guys on the other side of the com-- walkie talkie that we're some of theirs, the evil Alliance types are dead and we want across?"
Allie
As entertaining as the Shepard and Kaidan show was, Allie headed towards the doors. "On it." If she was close enough and focused, she'd be able to hear anything coming at them long before it became a threat.
Dean
"Aye-aye, Cap'n," Dean replied with a mocking little salute.
Jack
"Where should I be?" Jack asked, as he watched Allie and Dean take their places.
Kaidan
"Same as Shepard, Liara and me," Kaidan said, nodding over towards a spot near some boxes down below. "Let's make sure we can flank them."
He was already moving in that general direction as he spoke.
Shepard didn't even bother pitching in a token 'that's a good idea, major' - he went, too.
Dean
Dean cleared his throat for a performance that he felt would have been at least Emmy's worthy in convincing the, okay pretty dumb, people on the other end of the line that he was one of theirs and also wasn't dead.
Truly, it was so epic that a comment could not hope to contain it.
Kaidan
Even Kaidan looked impressed for about half a minute, there.
Then the Cerberus convoy and their tram slid into port, and for a while, there was nothing but the firing of guns-- then their departure by tram, and then more gunfire yet again.
Eventually, they arrived in an enormous chamber - staggeringly huge, in fact, because it was necessary to hold the giant Prothean artifacts at the center of the room.
Shepard and Liara took off towards the consoles at the center. Kaidan didn't. "Dean, you're on me," he ordered. "We're checking the perimeter. The rest of you-- stick with Shepard."
At that, he took off.
Allie
"And what should we be doing Commander?" Allie asked as she looked around the room and listened for anything that might be considered a threat.
Jack
Jack was staying near Shepard ... in a way. He didn't dart off or anything, but he was more interested in the artifacts than in anything else. "What is that?"
Shepard
"It's a Prothean storage archive," Shepard said, as Liara rushed forward to take the controls. "It's the heart of th--"
Behind him, a system fizzled to life. Blue light shot out from within, slowly coalescing in an image - a 3D rendering of a man, in shades of blue.
The man took a drag of his equally-blue cigar. "Shepard," he said.
Allie
"Is there anyone in this universe that doesn't know who you are?" Allie tried to at least look on the bright side. At least this guy couldn't shoot at them.
Liara
Liara's reaction was as quick as it was pointless: she drew her pistol and spun around. "Illusive Man?!"
"Fascinating race, the Protheans. They left all of this for us to discover, but we've squandered it," the projection said. "The Alliance has known about the Archives for more than thirty years, and what have they done with it?"
Jack
Jack's hand came away from his gun, since it looked like no one was getting shot right then. It was disorienting to talk to someone with no scent beyond the faint buzz of electrons.
"What were you going to do with it?" he asked. "You sound as though you've given it some thought."
Shepard
The Illusive Man's hologram looked up at the enormous statues in the center of the room. "To start with, the data in these artifacts holds the key to solving the Reaper threat."
"I've seen your solution," Shepard snapped. "Your people are turned into monsters."
"Hardly. They're being improved."
Allie
"I wouldn't call making people into mindless killing machines improving them. You didn't even give them a choice to see if they wanted them," Allie added angrily. She might have some strong feelings about that.
Shepard
"They all signed on to help better humanity's chances," the Illusive Man said, gesturing with his cigar. "Much like Shepard once consented to help us."
"Because you were fighting the Collectors," Shepard snapped.
"Yes," the Illusive Man said. "And you played your role admirably."
Jack
"Played his role," Jack repeated. "As in, it's over, and he owes you nothing anymore. Thankfully."
Shepard
"Agreed," the Illusive Man said pleasantly. "He played his role, and now, like the rest of the relics in this place, it's time for Commander Shepard to be put to rest."
"We can work together to destroy the Reapers," Shepard said, frowning.
Allie
That...didn't sound good.
"Don't you have bigger problems to worry about right now then tying up loose ends?"
Shepard
"Ordinarily, I'd say yes, but Commander Shepard here has proven to be a very consistent problem," the Illusive Man said. He looked at Shepard. "As for working together... no. I have no interest in destroying the Reapers, but in controlling them."
Jack
Jack blinked at that. "What we saw on Earth didn't look terribly controllable," he observed acidly.
Shepard
"Small-time thinking," the Illusive Man said. "Controlling the Reapers will cost more effort and research, to be sure, but the benefits humanity could reap dwarf the costs."
"The ends don't justify the means here," Shepard said. "There's no reason to believe anyone could control the Reapers."
Liara
"Shepard?" Liara said, her voice alarmed. "The data isn't here!"
The Illusive Man smiled. "Goodbye, Shepard."
His hologram flickered out.
Kaidan
Kaidan had been inching around the perimeter with Dean, rifle drawn. Now frowned as his omni-tool bleeped. "I'm picking up an upload coming from--"
He stepped around and glanced inside a small office... where a woman was clearly messing around with a console. Shit. "Hands off the console!"
Dean
"You heard the man, lady," Dean snapped, gun ready.
Kaidan
The lady - who looked a lot like the Eva Coré from earlier recordings - responded by slamming her hand through the console, then taking off at high speed--
Happily kicking Dean on her way out so she could rush on past him and up out of the building.
"After her!" Kaidan snapped, and took off at a dead run, Shepard and Liara not far behind.
Shepard
They chased her straight through the building, firing bullets and biotics as much as they could - but Eva Coré was fast, much faster even than the humans. They hit topside soon enough-- and she was still ahead.
Then she jumped. Straight off the ledge. Straight into a Cerberus shuttle that'd been waiting for her for some time.
"Damn it!" Shepard yelled, slamming his fingers into his omni-tool, trying to reach someone. Anyone. "Normandy?! James?!"
Kaidan
James' voice might have sounded distorted through the omni-tool, but oh, it answered. "I've got it!" he snarled.
Kaidan stared up at the sky, and-- there he was. Flying their shuttle. Flying their shuttle at great speed-- at Eva Coré's shuttle. "Vega!"
Their only reply across the comms was a loud, angry shout as James slammed his shuttle into the Cerberus vessel, sending both crashing back down to the platform in a ball of fire and metal.
Kaidan ran towards it immediately.
Allie
The woman was Sarren levels of fast, Allie had to admit reluctantly when even she couldn't catch up.
When the shuttles crashed she started after Kaidan but an instinctive fear of fire kept her from getting too close to the wreckage. "Be careful."
Kaidan
Kaidan was about to call out, something in the affirmative... and then he spotted something in the smoke. He approached, weapon drawn, frowning. "Stop right there!" he yelled.
Then he saw her. Eva Coré - or rather, her robot body. The disguise had worn off in the crash like it had been only a thin veneer of paint; she looked scorched and black and all metal.
Which was the last observation Kaidan got to make.
In a flash, she grabbed him by the helmet, lifted him up off his feet, then turned and slammed his head three consecutive times into the bulkhead of her crashed shuttle.
She dropped his body to the ground, where it sprawled like a rag doll.
Shepard
"Kaidan!"
Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit--
The robot came barreling at Shepard. Time seemed to slow. He stared.
Allie
Apparently sheer rage was all Allie needed to get that little extra burst of speed. In a blur she slammed into the robot taking it to the ground where it sparked once and stopped moving.
Jack
Jack would let Allie take care of the robot, and thank God for her. He hovered over Kaidan, grateful he could at least hear breathing.
"We need an evac," he said shakily into his commlink, hoping someone would hear. "Alenko's down."
Dean
With robo-bitch out of the way, Dean holstered his weapon to give Kaidan a once over for his injuries. You didn't spend most of your life patching up yourself and your family without being able to do a few basics with the stabilizing shit.
"Now would be good," he added.
Shepard
Shepard snapped out of his daze. Shit. "Grab that thing!" he yelled, gesturing James towards the robot. He ran to join the others by Kaidan's side. "Kaidan? Kaidan!"
Moments later, he'd flung the man over his shoulder.
Jack's - and everyone's - commlink flared up in answer. "Shepard, we've got Reaper signatures in orbit." That was Joker.
And... that was the Normandy, lowering itself down.
Shepard didn't hesitate this time - he went to the ship, not stopping until he reached medbay and he could put Kaidan down in one of the beds, as gently as possible.
Liara
Liara watched. She watched Kaidan's face, unresponsive in every way possible; she watched Kaidan's friends; and she watched Shepard, hovering above Kaidan's body, not acting.
She bit down on her lip. Should she--?
Yes.
She leaned forward until she was in Shepard's field of view. "Kaidan needs medical attention," she snapped.
Little reaction from Shepard. She bent forward further. "We have to leave the Sol system."
Shepard
That jarred him. Shepard looked up. "I know," he said simply.
He took a deep breath. Had to get himself centered. "Get us to the Citadel, Joker."
The pilot replied instantly. "Roger that."
Shepard pulled himself away from the table. "Hold on, Kaidan," he said. He looked up at Liara again. "You, see what you and EDI can learn from that thing."
Another voice over the comms. This time it was female. "Commander, I'm receiving a signal over the secondary QEC. I believe it's Admiral Hackett."
Shepard stretched up. "Patch me through," he snapped. He gave Kaidan's friends a cursory glance. "You can stay here," he said.
And with that, he ran out of the room.
[[ nfb, nfi, ooc-okay, continued from here; violence to a PC under the cut. taken from the mass effect 3 mission 'Priority: Mars'. ]]
Allie
As entertaining as the Shepard and Kaidan show was, Allie headed towards the doors. "On it." If she was close enough and focused, she'd be able to hear anything coming at them long before it became a threat.
Dean
"Aye-aye, Cap'n," Dean replied with a mocking little salute.
Jack
"Where should I be?" Jack asked, as he watched Allie and Dean take their places.
Kaidan
"Same as Shepard, Liara and me," Kaidan said, nodding over towards a spot near some boxes down below. "Let's make sure we can flank them."
He was already moving in that general direction as he spoke.
Shepard didn't even bother pitching in a token 'that's a good idea, major' - he went, too.
Dean
Dean cleared his throat for a performance that he felt would have been at least Emmy's worthy in convincing the, okay pretty dumb, people on the other end of the line that he was one of theirs and also wasn't dead.
Truly, it was so epic that a comment could not hope to contain it.
Kaidan
Even Kaidan looked impressed for about half a minute, there.
Then the Cerberus convoy and their tram slid into port, and for a while, there was nothing but the firing of guns-- then their departure by tram, and then more gunfire yet again.
Eventually, they arrived in an enormous chamber - staggeringly huge, in fact, because it was necessary to hold the giant Prothean artifacts at the center of the room.
Shepard and Liara took off towards the consoles at the center. Kaidan didn't. "Dean, you're on me," he ordered. "We're checking the perimeter. The rest of you-- stick with Shepard."
At that, he took off.
Allie
"And what should we be doing Commander?" Allie asked as she looked around the room and listened for anything that might be considered a threat.
Jack
Jack was staying near Shepard ... in a way. He didn't dart off or anything, but he was more interested in the artifacts than in anything else. "What is that?"
Shepard
"It's a Prothean storage archive," Shepard said, as Liara rushed forward to take the controls. "It's the heart of th--"
Behind him, a system fizzled to life. Blue light shot out from within, slowly coalescing in an image - a 3D rendering of a man, in shades of blue.
The man took a drag of his equally-blue cigar. "Shepard," he said.
Allie
"Is there anyone in this universe that doesn't know who you are?" Allie tried to at least look on the bright side. At least this guy couldn't shoot at them.
Liara
Liara's reaction was as quick as it was pointless: she drew her pistol and spun around. "Illusive Man?!"
"Fascinating race, the Protheans. They left all of this for us to discover, but we've squandered it," the projection said. "The Alliance has known about the Archives for more than thirty years, and what have they done with it?"
Jack
Jack's hand came away from his gun, since it looked like no one was getting shot right then. It was disorienting to talk to someone with no scent beyond the faint buzz of electrons.
"What were you going to do with it?" he asked. "You sound as though you've given it some thought."
Shepard
The Illusive Man's hologram looked up at the enormous statues in the center of the room. "To start with, the data in these artifacts holds the key to solving the Reaper threat."
"I've seen your solution," Shepard snapped. "Your people are turned into monsters."
"Hardly. They're being improved."
Allie
"I wouldn't call making people into mindless killing machines improving them. You didn't even give them a choice to see if they wanted them," Allie added angrily. She might have some strong feelings about that.
Shepard
"They all signed on to help better humanity's chances," the Illusive Man said, gesturing with his cigar. "Much like Shepard once consented to help us."
"Because you were fighting the Collectors," Shepard snapped.
"Yes," the Illusive Man said. "And you played your role admirably."
Jack
"Played his role," Jack repeated. "As in, it's over, and he owes you nothing anymore. Thankfully."
Shepard
"Agreed," the Illusive Man said pleasantly. "He played his role, and now, like the rest of the relics in this place, it's time for Commander Shepard to be put to rest."
"We can work together to destroy the Reapers," Shepard said, frowning.
Allie
That...didn't sound good.
"Don't you have bigger problems to worry about right now then tying up loose ends?"
Shepard
"Ordinarily, I'd say yes, but Commander Shepard here has proven to be a very consistent problem," the Illusive Man said. He looked at Shepard. "As for working together... no. I have no interest in destroying the Reapers, but in controlling them."
Jack
Jack blinked at that. "What we saw on Earth didn't look terribly controllable," he observed acidly.
Shepard
"Small-time thinking," the Illusive Man said. "Controlling the Reapers will cost more effort and research, to be sure, but the benefits humanity could reap dwarf the costs."
"The ends don't justify the means here," Shepard said. "There's no reason to believe anyone could control the Reapers."
Liara
"Shepard?" Liara said, her voice alarmed. "The data isn't here!"
The Illusive Man smiled. "Goodbye, Shepard."
His hologram flickered out.
Kaidan
Kaidan had been inching around the perimeter with Dean, rifle drawn. Now frowned as his omni-tool bleeped. "I'm picking up an upload coming from--"
He stepped around and glanced inside a small office... where a woman was clearly messing around with a console. Shit. "Hands off the console!"
Dean
"You heard the man, lady," Dean snapped, gun ready.
Kaidan
The lady - who looked a lot like the Eva Coré from earlier recordings - responded by slamming her hand through the console, then taking off at high speed--
Happily kicking Dean on her way out so she could rush on past him and up out of the building.
"After her!" Kaidan snapped, and took off at a dead run, Shepard and Liara not far behind.
Shepard
They chased her straight through the building, firing bullets and biotics as much as they could - but Eva Coré was fast, much faster even than the humans. They hit topside soon enough-- and she was still ahead.
Then she jumped. Straight off the ledge. Straight into a Cerberus shuttle that'd been waiting for her for some time.
"Damn it!" Shepard yelled, slamming his fingers into his omni-tool, trying to reach someone. Anyone. "Normandy?! James?!"
Kaidan
James' voice might have sounded distorted through the omni-tool, but oh, it answered. "I've got it!" he snarled.
Kaidan stared up at the sky, and-- there he was. Flying their shuttle. Flying their shuttle at great speed-- at Eva Coré's shuttle. "Vega!"
Their only reply across the comms was a loud, angry shout as James slammed his shuttle into the Cerberus vessel, sending both crashing back down to the platform in a ball of fire and metal.
Kaidan ran towards it immediately.
Allie
The woman was Sarren levels of fast, Allie had to admit reluctantly when even she couldn't catch up.
When the shuttles crashed she started after Kaidan but an instinctive fear of fire kept her from getting too close to the wreckage. "Be careful."
Kaidan
Kaidan was about to call out, something in the affirmative... and then he spotted something in the smoke. He approached, weapon drawn, frowning. "Stop right there!" he yelled.
Then he saw her. Eva Coré - or rather, her robot body. The disguise had worn off in the crash like it had been only a thin veneer of paint; she looked scorched and black and all metal.
Which was the last observation Kaidan got to make.
In a flash, she grabbed him by the helmet, lifted him up off his feet, then turned and slammed his head three consecutive times into the bulkhead of her crashed shuttle.
She dropped his body to the ground, where it sprawled like a rag doll.
Shepard
"Kaidan!"
Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit--
The robot came barreling at Shepard. Time seemed to slow. He stared.
Allie
Apparently sheer rage was all Allie needed to get that little extra burst of speed. In a blur she slammed into the robot taking it to the ground where it sparked once and stopped moving.
Jack
Jack would let Allie take care of the robot, and thank God for her. He hovered over Kaidan, grateful he could at least hear breathing.
"We need an evac," he said shakily into his commlink, hoping someone would hear. "Alenko's down."
Dean
With robo-bitch out of the way, Dean holstered his weapon to give Kaidan a once over for his injuries. You didn't spend most of your life patching up yourself and your family without being able to do a few basics with the stabilizing shit.
"Now would be good," he added.
Shepard
Shepard snapped out of his daze. Shit. "Grab that thing!" he yelled, gesturing James towards the robot. He ran to join the others by Kaidan's side. "Kaidan? Kaidan!"
Moments later, he'd flung the man over his shoulder.
Jack's - and everyone's - commlink flared up in answer. "Shepard, we've got Reaper signatures in orbit." That was Joker.
And... that was the Normandy, lowering itself down.
Shepard didn't hesitate this time - he went to the ship, not stopping until he reached medbay and he could put Kaidan down in one of the beds, as gently as possible.
Liara
Liara watched. She watched Kaidan's face, unresponsive in every way possible; she watched Kaidan's friends; and she watched Shepard, hovering above Kaidan's body, not acting.
She bit down on her lip. Should she--?
Yes.
She leaned forward until she was in Shepard's field of view. "Kaidan needs medical attention," she snapped.
Little reaction from Shepard. She bent forward further. "We have to leave the Sol system."
Shepard
That jarred him. Shepard looked up. "I know," he said simply.
He took a deep breath. Had to get himself centered. "Get us to the Citadel, Joker."
The pilot replied instantly. "Roger that."
Shepard pulled himself away from the table. "Hold on, Kaidan," he said. He looked up at Liara again. "You, see what you and EDI can learn from that thing."
Another voice over the comms. This time it was female. "Commander, I'm receiving a signal over the secondary QEC. I believe it's Admiral Hackett."
Shepard stretched up. "Patch me through," he snapped. He gave Kaidan's friends a cursory glance. "You can stay here," he said.
And with that, he ran out of the room.
[[ nfb, nfi, ooc-okay, continued from here; violence to a PC under the cut. taken from the mass effect 3 mission 'Priority: Mars'. ]]