Massive Disaster 5-17

“Well…” Heat wafted over him, a physical wall of it that made him frown for a second before his Mantle auto-adjusted. 

Unshielded and unplated, it would have been a bitch and a half to deal with — at least if you weren’t a synthetic. Probably enough to bake the moisture out of your corneas and shove the smell of sulfur and slow-roasted rock down the back of your throat until your dry eyes were fighting for the right to water.

He stopped, boots grinding to a halt on the edge of the rock face, frowning down at the orange glow far below. A river of magma pulsed slow and heavy below the catwalk spanning the chasm, a precarious stretch of prefab-standard metal already wavering from the stress of whatever chain reaction the Geth had set off and Jane Shepard had aggravated.

“Well, well…” Zedd narrowed his eyes, blue lenses of his helmet polarizing against the glare of magma. “This seems structurally sound.”

“I think we have bigger things to worry about.” John Shepard raised his M-8. “Much bigger.”

Not wrong. Zedd’s finger went to the trigger of his Full Stop.

For one, the path wasn’t empty, either.

The far end of the narrow metal bridge was choked with white synthetic plating, the Geth once again showing all the way out for a mission that was supposed to be a simple fetch quest. How important is this Asari?  Because Zedd knew Geth to some degree — it would be insane to not keep up on the basic info of an ‘evil’ race of AI that had wiped out their creators — and the ferrite fuckers were not sending out standard infantry fodder this whole mission. Seriously, does Saren have a crush on this girl?

Geth Shock Troopers held the bottleneck, rifles held high as they spit annoying streams of phasic shardfire back at them. 

“Snipers, high ground!” John Shepard didn’t miss a beat, commentary perfect as always as he dropped to a knee behind the archway. 

As usual, they weren’t alone as — because the Geth loved a diverse portfolio — high above them, clinging to the cavern walls, were Geth Snipers. Four of the bastards with glowing red optics, their rifles aimed downward. 

“Shock troopers, bottleneck!” John’s M-8 snapped up, already spouting off. “Kira, can you give us some cover?”

“On it!” Cobalt biotics crackled before the last syllable left her, flaring so bright it cast blue shadows against the magma’s orange glare. Both hands reached out toward the cavern wall to their left and a discarded industrial mining drill, bolted into the stone and weighing enough that Zedd knew it’d make him fight, groaned.

Kira gritted her teeth, veins so deep blue they were nearly black against her neck, and ripped her hands backward in the distinct motion of a biotic Pull.

Bolts sheared off like rifle fire, metal groaning as it tore free from the rock. The hunk flew towards the four of them for all of a single held breath before Kira thrust her arms forward in a Throw. The entire assembly flew down the catwalk, a makeshift battering ram.

Geth Shock Troopers opened fire, the shards doing all of nothing before the thick mining equipment took out half their number. Shepard moved immediately, assault rifle barking in controlled bursts, dropping the shielding on a Shock Trooper before Kai took out the platform with a single near-silent shot from his Rogue.

A blue barrier flared to life around John’s shoulder, a sniper shot absorbed as his biotics took the hit for him. The Commander kept moving without so much as a flinch, one-handing his rifle in his right while his left flared blue. 

He thrust a gloved palm forward.

A Throw of his own tore past the wrecked drill, a concussive shockwave slamming square into the chest of a Sniper. Magnetics did little to hold the Geth frame to the wall, the synthetic torn backward over the flimsy railing; the magma below a long drop. 

N7 Training really is good shit. Zedd’s approval lasted all of a second before he had to duck low again, distortion from a sniper shot too close to his head for comfort. Shiiii… He trusted his Mantle, as much as he trusted any of his builds, but there was only so much head trauma he was fine risking without a full suit. 

Even without his big helmeted head as a target, the snipers were still on the move, still tracking for targets. So, he wasn’t surprised when two red beams painted Kira’s chest as she caught her breath from the strain of the tandem three-ton Pull and Throw.

“Zee!”

“Gotcha, Blue!” Metal grating screamed under his soles as he crossed forty meters of open bridge. The remaining Shock Troopers pivoted, another one taken out with quick shots from Kai and Shepard both.

Zedd dropped his shoulder as he slammed directly into the side of a Shock Trooper. The chassis crumpled instantly, a heavy hand palming the optic a second before a single tug tore it free. Without wasting a moment, Zedd hurled the half-crushed head up, the sound of it bonking off metal followed immediately by the squealing of a sniper as it crashed to the ground. 

“Clear!” John’s voice echoed down the metal tunnel, the Commander finishing off the last trooper with a three-round burst to the brainpan.

The elevator at the very end of the catwalk sat waiting, a welcome pocket of relative safety as they all piled in, John slapping the descent control.

The drop was quick, and surprisingly smooth even as the lift car groaned with each tremor that shook the whole of the mountain. Fifty-fifty… Zedd bit back a wince as dust and pebbles rained down on his shoulders, eyes firmly on the floor numbers. Fifty-fifty this box snaps its cables before we hit bottom.

It didn’t.

The rusted doors hissed open, steam venting into their sealed faces as they made their way out of the lift into a lower level. A maze of humming power conduits stood in front of them, ruptured pipes seeping out gas amid heavy machinery.

The red optics were almost expected by now.

“Shit!” Zedd spat the curse before Shepard could give his usual commentary, another half-dozen Geth swarming up. “Drones!”

Assault Drones — floating turrets held in the air with thrusters on all three legs — burst up from a wide shaft set into the floor, and opened fire.

“Move!”

Zedd bit back a swear at Shepard’s obvious command, diving hard to his right. He slammed shoulder-first behind a thick power conduit, heat from at least five near-misses washing over his back and the half-ceiling height barrier. Goddamnit, I need some drones of my own.

His left hand came up with a grunt, the sapphire on his ring finger flaring to life as it synced with his lenses. “Kai, draw their fire! John, suppress! Kira, on my mark!”

The assassin darted from one piece of cover to the next, a blur of black and blue as his quiet pistol thwipped with each major motion. A third of the drones turned to track him, drawing a barrage of shards away from the center.

John jumped out from cover, taking the order as if he was used to them from Zedd, and laying down a punishing stream of rifle fire. Each triple-burst of shards sparked, drones diverting essential processing away from their weapons and into maintaining their barriers.

“Now!” Zedd jumped up, ring aimed up at the ceiling above the cluster of drones as the mental code he pushed into the Casting Device on his finger was fed back to his HUD. 

→ acquire: airborne_targets(count ≤ 6)

→ solve: cluster

→ emit: gravity_anchor(origin: overhead, radius: 2.4m, g: 40.0)

→ shape: vertical_pull(cone: narrow), lateral_bleed(minimal)

→ sustain: 2.0s

→ on_end: collapse

Anchordrag.

The sapphire pulsed, a drain from Zedd’s body and brain making him blink. At the same time, a tight field of blue — psions packed into a semi-circle — snapped in place above the drones; a gravitic field snapping into place.

Forty Gs slammed down from overhead, all six machines frozen like they’d been nailed to the sky. Lift engines shrieked loud and thin as they fought against a level of gravity they were fundamentally never designed to counter. Triangular bodies trembled in place, stabilizers jittering and thrusters burning hot as they screamed against Zedd’s sudden and impossible math.

A grin spread wide as he worked his magic. “Blue, double up!”

Kira didn’t need a second order.

She didn’t need to aim either.

Not as a shockwave of warp fields flew from her hands directly into the cluster of immobilized drones.

Biotic explosions tore through the pack in a cascade of indigo; overlapping fields ripping armor, shredding plating, and detonating power cores in a blinding shower.

Literal seconds later, the sparking wreckage of twisted metal clattered against the floor grates.

“Keep going.” The Commander of the Normandy was already moving, eyes focused on the heavy blast doors at the far end of the path. “We’re almost at the core.”

Zedd followed right after him, Kai and Kira on his tail as those same doors parted open with a slow grind a few short seconds later, the central chamber of the catacombs right in front of them. Huh.

As wide open as the chamber was, it was also far more cluttered than Zedd would have expected; filled with enough half-broken platforms that the place was almost as much of a maze as it was a room.

Almost.

Still, though, maze or not, the platforms weren’t enough to pull his eyes off the main attraction in the dead center of the space.

Huh. The word echoed in his head at the sight of an Asari, about as young as any maiden he’d ever laid eyes on in the Terminus, stood out immediately; the blue-skinned alien in a gray-and-whtie bodysuit as tight as he expected. Wouldn’t be an Asari if she wasn’t trying to be sexy, I guess?

Seduction didn’t seem to be the biggest priority of this Asari, though, the maiden currently trapped — floating in a translucent blue forcefield; the kinetic barrier as heavy-duty and robust as he’d ever seen outside of a major military installment. In such a small space, though? Zedd blinked slow, taking the mechanism in. Man, those Protheans, I guess…

He shook his head a second later as they walked closer, Shepard popping his helmet off and bearing the heat as he sped up his pace. Eyebrow raised, Zedd raised his hand to his right temple, his own helmet retracting and sliding in on itself until all he had was a pair of silver aviators on his face in place of a silver helmet.

Thankfully, his Mantle still kept the heat from making him sweat, but judging from Shepard’s grunt and already-damp brow, the man couldn’t say the same.

Zedd turned his head back to the Asari. Dr. T’Soni, huh? 

It was rare to see any maiden do something with their insanely long lives that wasn’t just fucking or fighting and, personality-wise, they tended to be more… well, more like Kira honestly.

And that was before the Asari DNA too. Hell, he’d noticed the personality difference in her after the gene-modding. Old Kira wouldn’t have been caught dead in pig-tails. Either way, getting a degree was insanely low on the things he would expect from the long-lived lascivious ladies of the Milky Way. 

Especially for one that was actually pretty enough to almost make him understand the overwhelmingly overblown galactic hype for the blue aliens. 

Pretty to him, even, which was weird. Features more delicate than most Asari stood out on bright blue skin, a soft face that was downright cute gaping at the sight of them. Saren might actually have a crush on this Asari.

On top of that, she actually had eyebrows… which was a plus. 

Wait… He frowned at that thought, quickly realizing he only thought that because she looked more human than most Asari he’d seen. Man, maybe the Council was right. I really am a space racist.

Before Zedd could think more about that and where it led, a pair of intelligent eyes went wider at the four heavily armed killers approaching her. “Stay back! I… I’m warning you!” 

Zedd raised an eyebrow. Well, that’s definitely different.

If there was one thing that defined a maiden past the two Fs, it was their unwavering and almost suicidal confidence, adolescence stretched out over centuries with a little sprinkle of cosmic power on top to keep that arrogance from getting squashed. This particular Asari was definitely more restrained in a lot of ways, her voice a mix of natural uncertainty and actual fear.

Even the words themselves — light, breath-soft, and over-articulated — made it sound like she was lecturing a classroom while holding a live grenade. “The field… It… it’s old and… a-and highly unstable! Any impact could trigger a catastrophic discharge… a-and kill us all!”

Well, that’s just bullshit. I mean, lie better. Zedd blinked slow at the unshifting wall of force that — apart from its strong hum and large draw of power — looked like it could weather anything short of a ship’s main gun. “Why do I doubt that?”

“No need to scare us off, ma’am. We’re here to rescue you.” John holstered his rifle, the magnetic lock on the back of his hardsuit doing its job as he stepped forward with both hands visible. “Commander John Shepard, Systems Alliance.”

“And I’m the guy who’s about to get you out of that bubble before this whole mountain comes down on our heads.” Zedd strode past John, eyes on the blue containment field while his glasses went to work tracking energy flows. “So, if we could kindly skip the introductions…”

“I… I am Dr. Liara T’Soni.” 

Zedd blinked, looking around to make sure he hadn’t just said that in his head. I know I just said something, right?

“I was trying to protect myself from the geth…” The maiden kept speaking, explaining her situation like she wasn’t the one currently playing the part of a captive audience. “I activated the security field, but I must have hit something, triggered something I… I wasn’t supposed to.”

“And you trapped yourself?” Kira snorted from behind Zedd. “Nice job, doctor.”

“We’re looking for your mother, Dr. T’Soni.” John barreled past Kira’s snark, tone gentle as he tried to maintain diplomacy in a situation that Zedd doubted needed it all that much. “Matriarch Benezia. We have reason to believe she’s working with Saren and the Geth.”

“My mother? That’s why the Geth are here?” The maiden blinked, clearly confused at the sudden information. “I… I haven’t spoken to her in years. We had a… a disagreement. Many of them, actually. I may be Benezia’s daughter but I’m n- ”

A tremor shook the chamber, Dr. T’Soni’s words drowned out as dust and jagged chunks of rock rained from above.

“Can we hurry up with the back-and-forth when we’re not in a collapsing volcano!” Zedd snapped, eyes going from the data flow he just finished tracking up to the ceiling and back down again. “We’re running on less time than I thought!”  Three minutes. Maybe less. 

“I’m surprised you didn’t expect that.”

Zedd’s head snapped again — this time to his right side — to stare at the normally silent assassin watching his back. “You choose now to tal—” He shook his head, cutting himself off with a grunt. “Not the point! Let’s get her the hell out of here before we’re dead!”

“Yes, I believe th-”

“You be quiet!” The doctor was silenced once again, this time by Zedd as his omni-tool opened with a flare of blue, data trails visible to him leading to the terminal behind the suspended Asari maiden. “I got this.” Fingers flew across the omni-tool, the data in front of him surprisingly easy to decrypt and manipulate. Considering how everything in the galaxy was based off remnants of Prothean tech, it was all surprisingly intuitive when you stopped treating it like software and more along the lines of spatial geometry. Be real easy to Independence Day the Protheans if they ever showed back up, too.

With a final press of a haptic key, the shimmering blue field around the doctor collapsed inward and she dropped to the ground. “How…” She stared down around her and the Prothean panel still active with green light behind her. “How did y-”

“No time.” The cave rumbled again. “Us! Leave! Now!”

“The mining laser!” Liara blinked as she stumbled forward to join them, urgency mixing with the fear in her eyes as confusion fell away. “The Geth! They must have activated it before you arrived. That’s what’s destabilizing the cavern system. We have to get out of here. Now!”

“You heard the doctor,” John commanded, already turning back the way they came. “Move!”

Zedd collapsed his omni and kept pace with the pack. “I just said that!”

“Shepard to Shepard!” John slapped his comm unit as they sprinted for the elevator. “We have the asset. She’s safe. We’re on our way back up! What’s your status, Jane?”

“We’re holding!” Jane’s voice crackled through the comms, nothing calm about it as a firefight raged on in the background. “But we’ve got some Geth over here with rockets doing their best to keep things… interesting. A little help would be appreciated before they drop the roof on my head.”

“On our way.” John’s promise came quick as they neared the elevator.

Before they fully reached it, the doors of the lift opened with a hiss. 

Zedd stopped dead, everyone else shuddering to a stop around him as they stared at the non-empty elevator.

Stomping out was a massive krogan, old enough to be fully-plated and decked out enough to be a battlemaster, a custom shotgun resting casually on the shoulder of his dark armor. Flanking him, crammed into the tight space of the elevator car, were four Geth Shock Troopers, their weapons already raised and humming with electrical charge.

Zedd let out a long, exhausted breath, racking the handcannon just to vent the thing.

“…oh, great.”