“I don't like releasing you this quickly, but I realize you have a job to do,” Chakwas said with concern.
“Don't worry, Karin,” Shepard reassured her, calling her by her first name. “Thanks for patching me up. Keep a bottle of Serrice Ice Brandy chilled for me.”
“I most certainly will.”
When he left, she swallowed hard in apprehension. Their plan was beyond dangerous and Shepard was in less than peak physical condition. If only they had more time.
Shepard walked to the bridge with the faintest of limps. Chakwas had done an excellent job patching him up although some soreness remained.
When he arrived at the bridge, he asked Joker and EDI a candid question.
“I take it we didn't inform the rest of the fleet at Earth, did we?”
“Correct,” EDI responded. “Informing them would have compromised the mission.”
It may have seemed cold, even downright cruel to let their allies continue their futile assault, but Shepard knew it was the right decision. The Reapers had to believe the real battle was at Earth. It couldn't have been an easy decision for Liara to accept, and judging from the way she nervously bit her lip, he could tell the guilt was eating at her.
*
“We have to vent now or we'll all be cooked!” Joker slammed a button to release the trapped heat from the Tantalus drive. “If anyone's looking, they'll see us now.”
“Bring us closer to the Omega relay, Jeff,” EDI requested.
Joker sped the Normandy forward.
“Evasive maneuvers!” he suddenly shouted. “It's Harbinger!”
A massive, black, metallic body with tentacled arms loomed before them. Harbinger. The first Reaper, the largest Reaper, well over two kilometers tall. It was he who started it all. Only fitting that here at the Omega relay, it would end one way or the other.
The Normandy pitched sharply to avoid the red energy beam leveled at it. How did Harbinger beat them to the relay? How did he know where they were heading?
“Harbinger is jamming all our frequencies,” EDI reported. “I cannot engage the destruction protocol.”
“Nor can we radio for backup,” Ashley pointed out.
A radio on Joker's console beeped.
“We're receiving a short range communication from Harbinger,” EDI informed them. “All other frequencies remain blocked.”
“Let's hear what he has to say,” Shepard said, his face tightening.
“Shepard,” Harbinger's deep, artificial voice sounded. “Once again, you've changed nothing. Have you not understood we are the harbinger of your perfection?”
“You have a twisted sense of perfection.”
“We are your salvation through destruction. Why fight against inevitability?”
Shepard felt a distinct and powerful tug at his mind.
“Trying to assume control? You should know we humans have a saying about assuming.”
“Your time has come. You will fall.”
The transmission ended abruptly.
“Concentrate all fire on Harbinger's weakest point!” Shepard commanded, his head still swimming from Harbinger's attempt to take control of his mind. “Garrus, I hope those cannons are calibrated.”
“Trust me. They are.”
“Someone's approaching with a band of ships,” Vega announced, his massive frame bulging with anticipation.
“I'm getting a weak transmission from the lead ship,” said Joker.
A distorted vidcomm revealed an angry Aria.
“Why am I always bailing you out, Shepard?” Her transmission crackled. “You owe me. Again.”
Shepard was stunned to see Aria and her group of mercenary ships. She must have seen the disturbance next to her home at the Omega mining colony and come to defend her turf. She would not lose Omega again.
“Don't pretend you're doing this for me,” Shepard told her. “I know your rule. And right now, Harbinger is fucking with Aria.”
The faintest of smiles crossed Aria's violet lips. She barked some orders to her bodyguard Bray to take Harbinger down. The transmission ended suddenly as Harbinger snuffed it out.
The Normandy fired its powerful Thannix cannon at Harbinger, who made a turn so abrupt it would have torn any other ship in half, successfully avoiding their blast.
“Even when we do hit Harbinger, I'm not sure we have enough ships with enough fire power to bring that thing down,” Garrus pointed out.
Just then a Blue Suns light cruiser in Aria's armada exploded from Harbinger's red ray, unable to escape its fatal devastation.
The Normandy fired a pair of disruptor torpedoes and this time they successfully exploded on Harbinger's back side. If they did any damage, it didn't show.
Two Eclipse warships unloaded more torpedoes at Harbinger, but its shields were too strong, the explosions seeming to do no damage against the hulking artificial life form.
“More ships approaching,” Garrus shared, trying to hide the excitement in his voice. “It's the krogan.”
Wreav tried to send a message to the Normandy, but communications were blocked. When his fleet noticed the Normandy leaving Earth, he knew something was amiss. Commander Shepard may have been human, but he was no coward.
When the Normandy went into stealth mode and he lost the ability to track them, as luck would have it, the largest Reaper in the battle retreated and soared toward the Sol relay. He followed the Reaper's path, although it was considerably faster than him. He may have arrived late, but now he and the rest of clan Urdnot would show the galaxy that the krogan would save them once again.
He ordered his krogan to bring down Harbinger—at any cost.
“We need to shutdown Harbinger's jamming device!” Shepard shouted as he watched an Urdnot shuttle explode in front of them. Joker veered and just escaped the impact.
“One thing at a time,” Joker replied. “I'm too busy keeping us in tact!”
A blue energy pulse struck one of Aria's Blood Pack warships, the sound of a deep fog horn shaking in its wake. It enveloped more of the mercenaries, pulsing through several Eclipse, Blue Suns, and Urdnot ships.
What was that blue ray? Then, without warning, the affected ships turned on each other. Friendly shuttles and cruisers fired their weapons at one another. Their ragtag armada dwindled as allies took out allies.
“Stay away from that blue pulse!” Shepard yelled. “It's some kind of indoctrination beam!”
The Normandy veered sharply as Joker pulled off wild maneuvers to keep away from the not-so-friendly fire.
“That extra fire power has turned against us,” Garrus muttered in dismay.
“Careful what you wish for,” Joker noted under his breath.
The Normandy shook as two mercenary torpedoes rocked its hull. Joker spun the Normandy downward to escape the other missiles speeding toward them.
“More ships incoming. Is that the geth?” Miranda asked surprised, pointing to a location on her display.
“Better question—are they here to help us or harm us?” Kasumi asked wryly.
A geth dreadnought sped in front of the Normandy, exploding as it bore the brunt of Harbinger's red beam.
“I guess that answers that question,” Joker remarked. “The geth just saved us!”
Geth cruisers and dreadnoughts picked up the assault against Harbinger. Blue waves surrounded them as Harbinger struck them with his indoctrination beam. But the geth seemed unphased.
Were they impervious to its effects thanks to the Reaper code upgrades Shepard had allowed Legion to make?
“EDI, any luck on transmitting the destruction sequence?” Shepard asked brusquely.
“I still cannot override the jamming signal.”
“How do we shut that signal down?” Shepard asked seriously. “And not get vaporized while we're at it?”
The Normandy took a hit from an indoctrinated Urdnot ship. Joker returned in kind, firing a barrage from its Thannix cannon, aiming for their weapons systems. An explosion rocked the shuttle as its weapons and engines were destroyed, leaving the shuttle in tact. Joker shook his head slowly. They may have been indoctrinated, but it didn't feel good firing on one of their own.
“What's that human phrase?” Liara asked suddenly. “Two birds with one stone? There's only one way to disable its jamming device and one place Harbinger can't blast us to pieces. We have to go inside it.”
It was a wild idea, but it was viable.
“Liara, Garrus, suit up!” Shepard barked. “Once we're inside, it's up to us to disable the jammer. Joker, blow a hole through that Reaper!”
Joker concentrated his fire on Harbinger's underside, launching every disruptor torpedo he could while simultaneously firing the powerful Thannix cannon.
“We were born to destroy this enemy,” Wreav shouted to his crew as he understood the Normandy's intentions. He held his three fingered hand high in the air. “This battle belongs to Clan Urdnot. Ramming speed!”
Urdnot ships, the ones left unaffected by the blue beam, flew into Harbinger one by one, death being preferable to indoctrination or utter extinction. When Wreav's frigate finally slammed into Harbinger's underside, it managed to puncture a wide hole in it.
“There's our opportunity,” Wrex said with excitement, seeing the hole on the computer's readout. Wreav may have been a pain in the quad, but his sacrifice made him proud to be krogan.
“Harbinger's not going to let us just dock with him,” Shepard pointed out.
“I know a way,” Joker responded.
“That is a highly risky move, Jeff,” EDI warned, already understanding Joker's idea.
“What's your plan, Joker?” Shepard demanded.
“We're going to crash head first through that hole Wreav made for us. We can reroute non-critical power to the kinetic barriers. I know what the Normandy can handle. I got this, Commander.”
Shepard nodded to his pilot in trust.
“Joker, get us inside.”
“You might want to brace yourselves. This will hurt.” He pat his console tenderly, as if to apologize to his ship for what he was about to do.
The Normandy's engines emitted a burst of blue light as it dodged a red ray of death and then raced toward its target. Liara gripped the handle in the air lock just as Joker crashed its nose through the breach.
The ship buckled and shook from the impact, pieces of itself becoming intertwined with Harbinger. But it worked. When the airlock opened its damaged doors, they were greeted to the inside of a black, alien ship.
Securing their weapons, EDI issued a warning.
“Shepard, being inside a live Reaper will no doubt subject your mind to the strongest of indoctrination attempts. I suggest haste.”
“Understood, EDI.”
Shepard, Liara, and Garrus rushed inside Harbinger, their weapons drawn and ready. Husks poured at them from every angle.
Garrus switched to his Mattock assault rifle, firing off rounds so quickly his motions seemed to blur. Liara's SMG, the N7 Hurricane, emptied itself again and again as she popped thermal clip after thermal clip. The M-22 Eviscerator shotgun exploded over and over as Shepard expertly took off the heads of his attackers. But the husks kept coming.
“There's too many!” Shepard called out. “Liara!”
Understanding the order, Liara unleashed a singularity in front of them that instantly pulled the unlucky husks into it.
“Garrus!”
Garrus fired his heavy concussive shot into the singularity, causing a massive biotic explosion that sent the remaining husks flying.
When it was over, Shepard's entire reality shook. At first he thought it was due to the exploding singularity, but then he knew better. Colors swirled together to form oily shadows in front of him, just like in his dreams. The pressure beating at the back of his skull was tremendous. It felt like his head would cave in at any moment.
Garrus waved Shepard on, his other hand gingerly caressing the back of his own neck.
They advanced through the blackness of Harbinger to where the communications array would most likely be, interrupted only by the occasional husk or marauder which they quickly gunned down. If it weren't for the massive war raging on Earth, Shepard was sure there would've been more infantry aboard.
“Do you see him?” Commander Shepard asked, no longer able to tell reality from hallucination. The image of the star child, also known as the Catalyst, was directly in front of him, smiling.
“See who?” Liara shouted, her own mind struggling against the weight of Harbinger's mind control. Was that her mother in front of her? It couldn't be. Matriarch Benezia was dead.
Sluggishly they pushed forward, struggling to maintain a grip on the task in front of them. Black panels were highlighted against crimson tinted lights. They needed to disable Harbinger's jamming signal, but where was the communications relay?
Shepard's nose erupted with pouring blood. Liara watched as the white's of his eyes turned red, his pupils rolling upward.
“No, Shepard! Resist!”
Shepard was losing control. Out of everyone in his crew, possibly more than anyone in the galaxy, he alone had been exposed to more Reaper technologies and indoctrination attempts than any other person. Liara once told him he was remarkably strong-willed, but how strong was he? Every man has his limits. He felt his eyes rolling backwards once again, threatening to lose consciousness. Darkness consumed him.
“Embrace eternity!” a voice boomed beside him.
Liara held Shepard tightly in her arms, her mind and senses connecting to his.
The union jolted Shepard awake. Liara!
His head swirled in confusion, but now Liara's thoughts were his thoughts. They must stop Harbinger.
Shepard stared into Liara's completely black eyes and wiped the blood from his nose. He would resist. He could feel Liara's resolve strengthening his own.
What was it he was supposed to do? A device. The Crucible? No, that wasn't it. It was something else.
He looked at his right hand clutching the M-920 Cain mini-nuke. Everything wavered in front of him like an oil spill.
“It's here!” Garrus yelled, pointing to a communications beacon some twenty meters away. It was the last act he did before collapsing face first to the floor.
Pushing her biotics and will to levels she didn't know were possible, Liara battled against the indoctrination attempt with Shepard's mind linked to hers. Their strength feeding each other, she turned Shepard to face where Garrus had indicated. Thank Goddess she was a quarter krogan.
“There, Shepard. Fire!”
Shepard's arms shook as he attempted to raise his weapon, but the pressure against his skull pulled his arms downward.
Suddenly the boy appeared before him, the same harmless, quiet boy who escaped the Reapers' attack through a ventilation duct on Earth. How could he possibly fire at a helpless child?
“It's not real, Shepard!” Liara's voice blasted through his mind as she saw what he saw. “The boy isn't real! You must fire your gun!”
Infused with Liara's determination, Shepard's arms struggled upwards. He raised the M-920 at the boy's face and took aim. He just needed to pull the trigger.
The boy stared at him, suddenly afraid.
Shepard wavered. As a Spectre, some of his decisions meant innocents would die. But shooting a child point blank? He couldn't murder a child, could he?
He remembered watching that boy scramble aboard a shuttle as Earth was assaulted. He remembered how no one stopped to help him. No one seemed to see or care about him. But Shepard would help. Shepard cared.
“No, Shepard!” Still linked to his mind, Liara raised Shepard's memory of the shuttle exploding as a Reaper beam destroyed it.
Click.
The M-920 Cain erupted. Time slowed as Shepard watched the payload soar through the illusion and onto the communications relay. It couldn't be the child. That child was dead, killed in the shuttle's explosion, if he existed at all.
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