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Starwatch

Chapter 64: Compact: the Horizon file (I)

Summary:

Shepard and Liara struggle with the unfriendly colonists to prepare Horizon for a Collector attack.

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Horizon — Iera system, Attican Traverse

Shepard lowered her hardlight caster, inspected her handiwork, then took a step back. “Test this one.”

Liara tapped her omni-tool a few times, then held it towards the contraption. A sheet of turquoise hardlight blazed to life between this device and another set on the opposite wall, creating a deadly barrier. She picked up a small pebble from the ground and tossed it towards the barrier. A sharp hissing sound erupted as the pebble burned away into smoke. “It’s good to go.”

A curt nod. “That makes… one hundred and three.” Aaliyah tapped some commands on her own omni-tool now, then walked towards the barrier — and through it, unharmed. “Good. This is crude, but it ought to kill a few of them.”

Her asari paramour voiced her concern: “Supposing they don’t hack it…”

Shepard grunted her agreement. “If they can beat our specialist in that count we’re fucked anyway.” Let’s hope Sombra can get back up to her game. She had set up a data relay for her via the local comm buoys, but it was a poor man’s substitute for the hacker’s needs and they all knew it. She had immediately started syncing regardless.

With the alleyway now secure, Shepard and Liara moved on to the next spot in their list. They had spent the last three days working nonstop crafting and deploying these traps and other static defenses. “To think we’d be back around this place…”

The young asari stifled a yawn. She was tired. Unlike her paramour, she needed her normal allotment of sleep, and she had barely gotten any. She thought maybe it was because of lack of rest that she did not understand her now, but still she said: “I don’t remember having been here.”

“Well, not right here, but next door. This is the fourth planet orbiting the Iera star. It was on the third one where we first captured Lacroix and Reyes, before we got recognized by the Council.” After a beat, she added: “Right before I met you.”

“That seems so long ago…” She took a deep breath before asking quietly: “Shepard, what happens if we’re wrong?”

Aaliyah did not break pace. “Then the next time raiders come around they’ll be in for a big mother of a surprise.” And after a beat, she added: “And we’ll have an entire dead colony on our consciences.”

The streets and alleyways were almost deserted. Independent colony or not, Horizon’s buildings had still been built with the underground shelters humanity had learned to construct on every new settlement since the First Contact War. The only ones around were armed militia — cool and unfriendly, always muttering how insane Estevanez was being, allowing that alien invader and her government flunky to lay traps all around. Traps they would then turn against them.

Shepard ignored them, beyond glancing at their gear and trying not to sigh. She had told them several times that the Collectors were not an enemy they could defeat with the weapons at their disposal, but she had given up on trying to persuade them. Let good ole Darwin teach these rednecks, she had thought, despite knowing she would still feel guilty if they were killed or captured.

Sombra’s Spanish rang in her mind: I just managed to get a warning to the Compact.

Why? Have you picked up anything strange?

Nothing just yet. But if missiles don’t stop them, we’ll need outside help. If the Collectors throw nanites at us they might overwhelm us.

Shepard grunted to herself.  Missiles probably won’t do the job. But if we get in a few hits and outside help… 

“It was a mistake coming here on our own,” she muttered.

Liara thought she understood. “We couldn’t have gotten help and come here in time.”

Her lover agreed with another grunt. Every choice on this matter had been awful. She was hoping she had picked the lesser evil.

They found Estevanez and a militia squad at the next spot on their list, the entrance to the water supply building. The administrator had kept a level head so far, but Shepard wondered how much would it take to make him snap. “Colonel Shepard,” he greeted her. 

“Administrator,” she returned the greeting. 

“Every gun has been handed out. We have routed our comms through your AI.” This he said with some discomfort. “If… If nothing happens, will you unscramble them?”

“Of course I will. This is your colony, alright? We’re not here to plant any flags. We’re here to help.”

The man did not know whether to believe her or not, but gave her a mild nod anyway. “What else can we do?”

Shepard mentally reviewed the preparations made so far. The missiles and their long-range radar were deployed. She had personally laid traps and placed turrets everywhere. The underground shelters had also been fortified, though she harbored no illusions of holding them for long against determined assault. 

“There’s one last thing we can do. Have you repaired your heavy-duty fabricator?”

He shook his head. “I’m sorry, but we don’t have spare parts for it. Our omni-tools aren’t military-grade like yours. We can’t make them of good enough quality ourselves.”

Shepard bowed her head, thinking. Those parts were even beyond their equipment to make. “Alright. This is what I have in mind.” She explained briefly. During the battle for the Citadel, Javik had fashioned shield drones that projected screens capable of burning nanites to ash, and those things would probably help greatly now — both against nanites and the insect-like flyers. The problem was that the limited tools available to her there simply were not up to the task of creating enough drones for every colonist. “Pick your best twenty militia and send them to me. I can craft those for you.”

Estevanez nodded. “I’ll do that.”

Shepard turned to Liara. “I’ll work on this. You grab some rest.”

The young asari bowed her thanks, gratefully and uneasily at the same time. She sat on the ground against the wall, rested her head over her arms, and fell asleep at once.

Instead of twenty men, a single one came — turning out to be none other than Williams. Shepard had half-expected that, but decided to waste no time in trying to reach an understanding with her. Dryly she asked: “Patch me through to your omni-tool.”

Ashley glared relentlessly at her. Nonetheless she did as she was asked.

The former Starwatch colonel held a small drone on her left palm. It was unlike anything Williams had seen: it was a strange blue-greenish contraption resembling an icosahedron, full of sharp edges. “And this is supposed to help how?”

Shepard tapped a few commands on her own omni-tool for Ashley’s benefit. The drone floated upwards, and circled twice around Ashley before projecting its hardlight barrier around her.

“Have you watched the video I showed to your militia?” Williams gave her a cold, unfriendly nod. “Collectors will try to capture as many live prisoners as they can. They’ll unleash these flying ticks or even nanite swarms to paralyze everyone. The barrier of this drone has been fine-tuned to burn small particles to ash.”

Ashley kept her unforgiving eyes on her. “Sure thing. Then it’ll make it easier for your fellows to arrest us. No moving around if these things can burn us.”

Aaliyah ignored the barb. “This barrier will not block gunfire. It should help you keep flyers and nanites out of a room if you stake the doorway, but it won’t protect you from getting shot. Tell your men that.”

Williams wanted to tell that traitor to go fuck herself. She had yelled at Estevanez for allowing Shepard to have the run of the place, but far from intimidating the administrator, she had gotten him to become even more stubborn in his refusal. He had been appointed overseer, not her, and he had appointed her as security chief himself. If he could not trust her to follow orders then she was adding to their problems now.

“You’re fucking wrong!” She had exploded. “That bitch has sold us out, like she’s sold herself out to the Citadel!”

“It’s MY call to make. Not yours.” 

Ashley had had to struggle not to knock Estevanez down. “Then when they come and take over it’ll be on your head.”

“Then thank me for sparing your conscience. Now go. Get the men assembled.”

She clenched her teeth tight. She wanted so badly to shoot this bitch and put Estevanez in cuffs. But Ashley’s word had value, and she had given it. It indeed was the administrator’s decision, not hers, and despite all her pleading and yelling and advice she had not been able to change his mind.

With great reluctance, she bowed to the inevitable. The die was cast now. But nothing in her loyalties said she had to accord Shepard any measure of respect.

“You’re so cool about it,” she muttered angrily.

Aaliyah did not bother to answer the thinly veiled accusation, already at work crafting the next droid. “Being all hysterical about it won’t help.” 

Despite herself, Williams watched Shepard work and hated herself for being mystified by her meticulousness. “What’s so valuable about this place?”

Shepard did not feel like indulging her. “Valuable to whom?”

Ashley could not hold herself back. “Your bosses.” Bitch!

Without stopping, Shepard asked quietly: “What happened to you, Williams?”

“That’s none of your fucking business.”

“You’re wrong. Soon we’ll be up to our eyeballs in Collectors and I need to know you can be trusted.” 

Ashley grinned coldly. “That’s rich, coming from you.”

“Well, guess what. You hate me, you have your reasons. But I’m what you’ve got.” Now she did stop to give Williams a tired look. “Can’t you deal with this later? Please? We’re horribly outmatched here. We can’t go into battle against these odds like this.” 

Williams squared herself. “Unlike you, I’m loyal.”

“Yet now you wish you weren’t, don’t you.”

“You have no goddamned fucking idea.”

Shepard returned to her work. “You’ll get your chance.”

Ashley wanted to press her point further, but she saw through her hatred that it would be futile. She sighed. “The moment this is over you’re off this rock.”

“I can live with that.”

Aaliyah had crafted six other drones when a strident alert rang on both Liara and Shepard’s omni-tools — causing Liara to startle back into her feet: “Are they here?!” 

Sombra’s voice spoke urgently in Shepard's mind: Something tried to tamper with the comm buoys. I’ve cut my connection and wiped it. 

Shepard looked upwards. It was difficult to believe that danger would come at them from such a crystal-clear, cloudless sunset. “Yes.” She turned next to Williams. “Sound the alarm. They’re coming.”

A switch was then flipped on Ashley, as she changed on the spot from cold antagonist to professional military officer under attack. She sent a command to the local network, and raid warning klaxons started blaring all over the colony. Then she hoisted her assault rifle: “I’ll make sure the evacuation is complete. Can you give us an advance warning of where they’ll strike from?”

“When I know I’ll tell you.” She cursed her forgetfulness: if she had thought earlier of the shield drones she could have distributed a few more, but they only had about ten available now. Except for two she gave them to Ashley. “I’ll try to put together a few more of these drones before they arrive. Remember what I told you—”

“They block the tick flyers and nanite swarms, not gunfire.”

“Good.” She took a deep breath. “Please don't get yourself killed, Williams.”

Ashley turned on her heel: “I don't need to hear that from you.” Then she left. 

Shepard did not resent her. She saw herself in Williams, as she had been in another life, when she had been forced to work with Reyes. Except that now the roles had been swapped, after a fashion. 

She hoped she would get a chance to know why and to build trust between them. 

Sombra’s warning pulled her back into reality: I have missile lock on something about to enter the atmosphere. It’s big. Like, really, really big.

Had she been organic and alive, Shepard would have felt ice in her marrow. A Reaper?

No. This is something else.

As had been the case with the missile battery Reyes’ team on Iera III had used to try to shoot down the Starwatch task force, the one supplied by the Alliance consisted of a tracked launcher. It was served by an attending truck filled with reloads and a batch of omnic worker frames to handle the reloading. Shepard had deployed the battery atop a hill, and so had a clear view of the launcher tubes swiveling on their mount and raising their angle until they were nearly vertical — and then, with a flash of light and fire, the first salvo of six projectiles streaked upwards.

Shepard had already been a veteran before the First Contact War, but for the first time in over a decade she felt naked. It was not the first time she had to lie in wait for the raiders to assault a place she was protecting — but these were not ordinary slavers or raiders.

Liara read Shepard’s expression. “That won’t be enough, won’t it.”

Aaliyah shook her head without looking at her. “Sombra says whatever’s coming is huge. 91s can’t really hurt things too big for planetary flight.”

Her young partner’s eyes followed the trails as they rose higher and higher on the sky. “Maybe if Sombra is guiding them she can steer them towards a weak point…”

 Shepard took a long moment to answer. “That would be great, but I get the feeling this doesn’t end that way.”

There were some flashes up in the sky as some of the missiles exploded. Shepard did not need to see to know that point defenses on the incoming ship had intercepted their attack. The launcher atop the hill flared again, and this time two six-missile salvos leapt upwards. 

Then a shape became vaguely visible in the sky… 

…only to grow clearer and more defined as it approached the colony… 

Terror paralyzed Liara. It was not just big. It was monstrously huge. 

And alien. No ship she knew of had huge slabs of rock as part of its hull.

Shepard was focused on something else. A haze and some dark clouds seemed to precede the ship… 

But these were not natural.

She clutched Liara’s wrist: “To the shelter. Hurry!”

A bright flash in the sky caused both Shepard and Liara to turn their heads — and see a cloud of smoke rising from the aft of the incoming ship. I scored a hit on something critical, Sombra reported. That thing won’t be flying out of here today.

Shepard grunted an acknowledgment. Let’s hope that doesn’t come back to bite us in the ass.

The shelter they were going to was one of several in the colony, and it was housed underneath the main administration building, dead center in the maze of traps and obstacles they had spent the last three days creating. Shepard and Liara ran down three flights of stairs, raced through the doorway to the shelter, and yelled to the militia guarding it: “They’re coming! Seal the doors!”

The woman who seemed to be in charge at once punched a large button on the wall. Shepard recognized her as Bargas, the woman who had tried to shoot her when Ashley had first challenged her. Klaxons started blaring and rotating lights warned to stay away from the heavy blast doors. With a whining of servos, the doors slowly sealed closed.

Liara, a bit winded, leaned  against a wall to catch her breath. Shepard looked around: “It’s only the four of you here?”

“Half a dozen inside, helping out,” was Bargas’ answer. She still regarded her coolly, but the reality of what was happening was starting to get to the militia.  

Estevanez walked over to them. He looked pale, but his voice was still steady. “Williams reports all the colonists are in the shelters.”

“Good,” Aaliyah breathed. “How long can you stay sealed down here?”

“About two weeks. We can purify our air and recycle our water, and we have a small fusion reactor here, but we don’t have food to support four hundred-odd people for any longer than that. And we’ll have to ration it.” The administrator walked them through the halls and corridors. The colonists were huddled in groups or sitting on the ground. A few were armed but they were disabled, or too young, or too old to be part of the militia. Their eyes were glued to them, their expressions both hopeful and fearful. You’ll protect us… Right?   

Estevanez had used a corner of the huge common hall to set up a makeshift office, including a few screens. He tapped his omni-tool and one of the monitors brought up a geographical map of the area. Sombra tapped into the computer without being told and placed a warning icon some thirty kilometers to the north-east of the colony — the meaning of which the administrator understood immediately. “That’s where the raiders will land.”

Shepard was studying the map. “Probably. Our battery scored some hits, but it didn’t destroy them. We might have disabled them if we’re VERY lucky.”

Liara’s eyes followed hers. “If only we knew whether they have shuttles…”

“We wouldn’t get close enough to make a difference. You and I could, maybe. But the ticks and the nanites would get to the militia long, long before they could set up an ambush.” Conflicting thoughts clashed in her mind. She had to warn the two shelters closest to the route the invaders were likely to take… but… “Estevanez, I need some advice… Williams asked me to tell her where the raiders would come from. Do I tell her?”

The administrator at once grasped what she meant. “She tried very hard to change my mind, but ultimately agreed to help setting up the missile battery and the security network you laid down.”

“So, you think she won’t do anything crazy…” 

“I don’t know. I never saw her this angry.” He regarded Aaliyah for a few moments. “This is not the moment to ask, but I’d like to know what happened between the two of you.”

“Administrator, I don’t know that myself,” she replied sincerely. “But I can guess. She hates me because I worked with the aliens that destroyed her colony and ruined her family’s life. I don’t blame her.” She stood still for a moment. Foreboding possessed her. An undercurrent of anxious, fearful whispers and hushed voices filled the shelter; elite combat veteran or not, she could not isolate herself from the colonists’ fear. 

Liara could not help but feel achingly self-conscious after hearing that. Not being able to meld with Shepard meant her innermost thoughts were unknown to her. And having seen the events her paramour alluded to on their melds did not stop her from feeling very uneasy. And ashamed. Because she knew Shepard meant no ill— 

“Liara, what do you think?” Shepard asked in a quiet voice. The gleam in her lover’s eye told the young asari she was very much aware of what was going on in her mind.

She felt the eyes of Estevanez and the nearby colonists on her. When Aaliyah had secreted a part of her nanites in Liara’s blood, she had bestowed on her some of her combat skills and military expertise — without any effects on her soft personality at all. “Well—er… I think it’s unfair, I mean—haven’t you done a lot to fight the Reapers? And the Collectors? Haven’t you pursued Saren, thwarted his plots? By the Goddess, you even—” she almost said ‘died’, but stopped herself just in time: “You almost died in Erinyes, rescuing Jacqueline and doctor Ziegler! She may feel justified, but you don’t deserve it! At all!”

So far, even those few locals that had deigned to regard her as someone coming to help —as opposed to an alien invader— had seen her as a passive, somewhat meek companion of Shepard’s. But now, the indignant fire in her eyes and voice surprised those looking. 

Her lover felt moved. She had meant to ask her something else —namely, whether to trust Williams with the information or not—, but she welcomed her confusion. She had not realized just how necessary those words had been.

Suddenly a wave of panicked moans rippled through the colonists as the lighting went off for a dreadful moment, then blinked erratically back on. Estevanez almost jumped out of his skin: “What was that?”

“I’m trying to find out.” Shepard was querying the backbone network she had set up as part of the defense grid. Parts of it had also momentarily blinked offline. EMP?

Pretty much, was Sombra’s answer. Gotta be careful. That can hurt real bad.

Aaliyah bit back a groan. Her nanite collective form gave her a combo of unique strengths and advantages but also came with a side serving of weaknesses. The encounter at Omega had been a wake-up call, reason for which she was actually wearing a suit of armor instead of ‘fashioning one’ out of nanites.

Again the lights blinked off and on. This time the people taking shelter there were quiet, except for some crying infants and toddlers. Older children, Liara noted, were quiet. "Administrator… you face raids often, don't you."

Estevanez bowed his head. "That's why we welcomed Williams… We're all armed here, but we didn't have anyone with proper training. She whipped our militia into shape."

 That finally helped Shepard make up her mind. "Tell her the raiders will be making planetfall to the north east. But that doesn't mean they'll come from that direction. These fuckers have wings."

Seconds ticked away into dreadfully slow minutes. The wait was terrifying. Whatever conversation there had been died away.

Aaliyah's eyes were on the holographic colony map displayed by her omni-tool. At any time now, some of the traps and sensors would be tripped by the enemy— 

"Shit."

The first trap to go off was a hardlight turret to the south. It blinked on her map for a few seconds, then it turned red and a warning icon flashed to signal it had been destroyed. 

She raced to the fortified blast doors: "Stand to!"

"They here?" Bargas asked tersely. 

"Any minute now." She fished her shield drone out of its satchel and deployed it. "Liara, you too," she told her, then to the militia: "Take positions behind us. Our shields are better and we're protected against nanites. You're not."

Bargas shook her head. "It’s our home. We ain’t hidin’ behind you."

Shepard did not allow herself the anger. "Nobody said that. We’ll work together better that way. We're better protected than you, but we just have two guns. We need yours."

That was more effective. "Alright, we'll do it your way." The militia leader gestured at her men. At once they took positions behind some makeshift barricades made of crates and containers. 

Shepard had set up two layers of hardlight screens on the doors of each shelter — one over the door proper and another half a meter inside. She ran a final test on those defenses, and another on the half-dozen turrets she had deployed on the ceiling, then took her own position.

Without looking, she reached for Liara’s hand, and held it tightly for a moment.

Minutes of tension again trickled by, the silence only punctured by the occasional voice coming from deeper inside the shelter. 

Eventually, even those died away. Dread stalked them all now.

Rigid discipline and a lifetime of training and combat experience kept Shepard in control of her emotions — to the point it took an effort for her to realize that she was afraid too, even if not exactly human anymore.

She had a moment to wonder briefly at this. Then the visage of Amélie Lacroix appeared in her mind. 

Is this what it’s like for her… No, it’s not. 

But is she afraid, too?

Then her senses picked up some muted, indefinable sounds coming from the other side of the heavy blast door. Something scraping at it. She froze in place — and Liara and the militia noticed it and further braced themselves.

Then, a loud metallic clang.

And next, a piercing whine of creaking metal — and a spot dead center in the middle of the heavy door turning from red to yellow to burning-hot white. Shepard immediately recognized this for what it was:

“Shit! INCOMING!

Both hardlight screens blinked off a moment before a blazing hot beam of angry red-white punched through the massively heavy blast door, then through every wall, door and obstacle all the way through the shelter — and immediately behind it, a smoky cloud and dozens of small tick-like flyers tried to sneak in— 

—but the defensive screens had blinked back on immediately after the beam attack, and burned the tiny attackers to cinders the moment they touched them.

Still the militia went all white with horror. “Oh… oh… omigod… what… what—how—how do we—how do we fight that?!”

Shepard had fought ‘that’ before. Back in Erinyes, Tracer had tried to blow to bits the monstrosity firing those deadly beams, only for the wreck to turn into a cloud of nanites before their eyes and reform into a specter out of her nightmares — Reaper. 

Would he turn up now…? Or would they assemble into a Collector…?

They’re all over the colony now, Sombra’s Spanish told her.

Liara was looking behind her, trying not to heed the echoes of panicked screams that came from deeper inside. She saw the hole it had punched through every wall, from end to end of the shelter… 

…then looked at the ceiling… 

How deep are we here?

She had already been pale, but the realization that exploded in her mind almost sickened her: “By the Goddess… they don’t have to blow a way through the door, they can just punch in holes from the surface!” 

The cloud of smoke was slowly coalescing into something.

A deep, grating, flanging voice rang.

Hello, “colonel.” We meet again. 

“You.” Shepard clenched her jaw. “Where’s Reyes?”

The hooded, masked wraith let out a derisive laugh. Right here. Don’t trust your own eyes?

Aaliyah did not look behind her. “Liara, grab Estevanez and go to the main hall. Deploy hardlight screens on the ceiling and walls! Go!”

The young T’Soni wanted to refuse, but knew Shepard could not be in both places at the same time, so she nodded and raced away.

Bargas was terrified, but she stayed at her post. Her rifle was trained on the masked wraith on the other side of the door. “What—what do we do?”

Reaper stood in silence, without moving. Dread gripped Shepard as she realized he was amused by the preparations.

“I’ll handle him. You shoot anything human-sized or larger,” she answered tersely. “They’ll appear.”

Aren’t we too full of ourselves, here.  

“I want Reyes. Give him to me or I’ll lock you away forever.”

You’re welcome to try. 

Aaliyah did not wait for his attack. She went ablaze with blue-green fire, and a coruscating singularity turned the specter into a tightly-packed lump of darkness. A translucent bubble then— 

Suddenly glowing yellow-red cracks appeared on the black lump:

“ASSUMING DIRECT CONTROL.

Then, as blatantly wrongly and impossibly as if in a movie played in reverse, the lump decompressed and reverted to the hooded, masked wraith it had once been — only this time crisscrossed by burning cracks and lines, the empty eye sockets glowing a fierce, unholy red.

Without ado, and completely ignoring the effects of the singularity right next to it, the thing brought its twin shotguns to bear—

GET DOWN!” Shepard dove for cover— 

—and fired. Screaming and shrieking immediately erupted to Aaliyah’s right, but she could not spare that any time now. She blazed blue-green again and loosed a lancing attack at the singularity. The coruscating orb exploded violently, smashing the monster against a wall; Shepard dashed towards it, but the thing had been neither distracted nor winded by the detonation, and would have straddled her with another shotgun salvo had she been any slower. A brutal biotic punch knocked the guns away, and then a point-blank hardlight blast left a gaping hole where its chest had once been. 

However, even if horribly damaged it was still moving, trying to disengage and clear away, but Shepard then fired another point-blank hardlight blast. The legs were torn away.

The rest of the thing crumpled down to the floor. 

Then the head moved. The eyes sought their enemy.

SHEPARD. 

“DESTROYING THIS BODY GAINS YOU NOTHING.

The glow on its eyes died away. The monster dissolved into ash. 

Shepard stood over the pile of ash for a second, momentarily in overload.

… 

… 

FUCK!

Then the screaming filled her ears— “AIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! IT HURTS! IT BURNS! GET IT OFF MEEEEEE!” —and jarred her back into reality. She hurried towards Bargas, who was kneeling next to one of her militia. The man had been grazed on the right side of the stomach by the shotgun blast, but that was far from being a mere gunshot injury — black ichors were now spreading around the wounds and below the skin, like the worst gangrene imaginable taking root a hundred times faster than normal. 

Shepard shoved Bargas away: “DON’T TOUCH HIM!”

“WHAT? Why?! What’s happening to him?!”

“That monster hit him with flesh-eating nanites! All it takes is touching it!” She shook her head. This was right out of her nightmares—no, worse than that—but no, this happened before, her memory told her, recalling how Reyes had consumed several Shadow Broker mercenaries fighting them during Tali’Zorah’s extraction from Nos Astra. Her first impulse had been to fashion a syrette with a nanite shot, but would it do any good? There’s no stopping this, Sombra, is there?

But before she could get an answer, the noises of steps on the stairs leading to the surface reached them: “CONTACT! COVER THE DOOR!” 

“But Jankowski—”

“YOU CAN’T HELP HIM! HOLD THE DOOR!”

The hacker now answered in Spanish: I can try to hack that nanite swarm, but even if I succeed it’ll be too late for this man. 

Shepard could see it. The man was not begging for help anymore, his eyes feverish and desperate — there was only screaming now. 

Hack it anyway. I don’t want this shit down here with us. She clenched her jaw tight for a moment, then brought her hardlight caster to bear and shot the militia point-blank in the head. 

Bargas heard it happen: “WHAT ARE YOU—”

At that moment something howled from the other side of the blast door. A militiaman shouted a warning and squeezed off a burst; a piercing screech filled the hallway before fire was returned, and a feminine scream was cut short by another barrage — and Shepard turned around just in time to see Bargas’ head exploding in a shower of gore. “ Fuckers!” She dashed towards the door and yelled on her omni-tool: “ Liara! I NEED YOU HERE!” 

Something pounded the multi-ton blast doors with enough force to make them quiver. A monstrous bellow halfway between a beastly roar and a mechanical blare, and another loud clang. Cracks appeared on the walls around the doors.

The militia panicked: “Wh—wha—what is it?!” 

Stay where you are! ” Shepard had not looked back. Her eyes were on the hole the beam had punched through the doors — she could not ascertain what was pounding at the door. But it was without a doubt enormous.

Liara arrived: “Shepard, I’m here!”

“Stay on cover! Protect the militia!”

A sickening wail of strained metal filled the air as the blast door finally gave way and a form that would not be out of place in Shepard’s worst memories forced it open. Barely able to stand straight under the low ceiling, with a gorilla’s hunched gait, the monstrosity was partly covered in thick metal plates—and had been a Krogan once… except for the head of a Turian sitting atop a stupidly flimsy-looking neck…  

Out of reflex the terrified militia opened fire on the monster — only annoying it, as it took a single step backwards and again it let out a mechanical, beastly roar before—

“FIRE IN THE HOLE!”

Shepard had an array of explosives of different yields available, but using the kind of ordnance needed to take down this horror was downright suicide in such a tight space—and thus her weapon of choice was an incendiary grenade that went off dead center on the beast’s chest. A deafening wail of pain and rage filled the air, and the berserk monster lunged at her with a swipe of its now-ablaze clawed arm. Aaliyah rolled out of the way and dodged the attack, only enraging it further. Another blindingly fast swipe missed her, then another wild swing, and another—

—and an unexpected backslap. The impact sent her flying against a wall. The beast howled in triumph and charged at her, but as had been the case with the specter that had hijacked Reaper’s nanite form, that did not disorient Shepard. She turned around shortly before the monster swatted her with one of its massive arms—

—and she timed her escape just right, rolling between its legs. The powerful swipe only found the wall. The monster roared in frustration and tugged momentarily, its huge claws still stuck— 

—and Liara seized the opening. The asari blazed violet-blue, and a cascade of blasts pummeled the beast. The monster was knocked off-balance momentarily; most of its armor plates, already weakened or even partly melted, crumbled away into splinters. Shepard moved in for the kill: a hardlight blast, and its head disintegrated—

—but that did not stop the beast. Depriving it of sight whipped it into a frenzy, wildly flailing and swiping around, effortlessly tearing chunks of concrete off the walls. Aaliyah saw that precision strikes just were not going to get the job done, so she chucked another incendiary grenade at the monster, and followed up with another hardlight blast aimed at its legs.

But even still that did not suffice to put it down: the monster thrashed wildly on the floor throwing swipes blindly at her, the screams of pain and rage turned into terrifying mechanical screeches now that its head was gone. Shepard dodged two of the savage strikes, ducked under a backhand blow, and blazed blue-green: “Why won’t you just DIE!” The beast abruptly let out a hiccup-like sound before the air filled with a sickening crunching noise. A moment later all there was left of it was a charred lump reeking of burned flesh and heated metal.

There was no time for rest: the very next moment, four insectoid-looking Collectors with gossamer wings fell down the wrecked stairwell, immediately laying down a curtain of gunfire — but these simple troopers were no match for Shepard and Liara, who quickly disposed of them by means of trapping them first with a powerful singularity and then detonating it.

Aaliyah watched intently through the wrecked blast door, waiting for the enemy that would inevitably come, but as nothing was appearing for the moment she quickly fashioned a couple of hardlight turrets with her omni-tool and hurled them through the hole in the door, to stick them on the opposite wall. With that done, she quickly checked on Liara and the remaining militia. The latter ones were white as the paint on the walls. One of them grasped his rifle shakily, his knuckles white, unable to take his eyes off the blackened lump that seconds ago had been a bellowing monster.  

“Shepard—”

“I’m okay, Liara. Thanks.” She looked behind her shoulder briefly. The shelter was full of screaming and crying — the beam that had punched through the door had also carved holes through every wall in sight, so most likely… “What happened back there?”

Her asari partner shook her head. “It’s… it’s ugly.”

“W—what?!” The militia around were terrified. “How many?!”

Shepard’s first impulse was to tell these wrecked and terrified people to sober up, but that would accomplish nothing. “Go inside,” she told them. “See what’s happened and help if you can.” They did not need to be told twice. Aaliyah watched them run inside, then closed her eyes and breathed deeply once.

Liara ventured quietly: “Maybe we should call Sombra…”

“She’s not back at her 100% yet.” Mentally she queried the hacker, not wanting to distract her attention from her post: I take it things have gone to hell on the surface.

It’s not good, coronel. You are the sole reason your shelter hasn’t been captured.

Anger filled her. “Shit…” If she had had two more operatives of Liara’s caliber, she would have rushed to help the others, but she was tied to her position. 

That also… includes Williams, doesn’t it.

Yes, coronel. I’m sorry.

Liara was watching her intently. Her agile mind filled in the gaps. “We have to focus on trying to save those we can.” 

Shepard grunted her agreement reluctantly. Seconds ticked away with malicious lentitude, punctuated by the crying and voices coming from inside the shelter. Like a coiled spring, she waited, expecting more enemies to turn up very soon…

This lull unnerved Liara: “Why aren’t they coming?”  

“They don’t need to. They know we are tied to our post here.” If Shepard could have seen her own face, she would have wondered why her burning gaze had not melted another hole through the blast door. “We’re the last morsel. They’ll come for us after they’ve gotten everyone else.” She turned away. “We got work to do. You didn’t get much done in the mess hall, I guess.”

Liara was not as tender anymore. The experiences and stress and horror from her stint on the Compact were enough to turn her into a veteran, but still she would not have hardened up if Shepard had not invested her with the key that had allowed her to bring her lover back. 

And fear still gripped her in spite of all that. Next came a morbid fascination of sorts. “You aren’t… aren’t you afraid?”

“Like hell I’m not!” Aaliyah snapped back angrily. “Damn if I’m not scared. I died once already, don’t want that to happen again, or worse. Not with that fucker Reaper about. But fuck me if I give up!”

Notes:

A sincere, heartfelt thank you to my proofreaders - brokenLifeCycle, kyro2009 and donmuertes. Thanks for sticking with me!