Mass Effect: Knight of the Old Republic

Shepard waited patiently for the airlock to finish cycling, as she disembarked she paid special attention to the fourth member of the shore party.

Revan walked silently alongside Jacob. Her features completely obscured under the armor she wore. Shepard wasn’t sure she was comfortable allowing the elf on the mission so soon after learning just how many abilities were open to the alien through her story. She also realised late after the meeting that despite Revan revealing all those powers, she hadn’t told any of them what she was capable of.

Shepard couldn’t help but scowl at the realisation the alien had played them a bit. She hadn’t lied or misled them exactly but Revan had explained the barest minimum possible and then turned the conversation so awkward that they couldn’t keep questioning her without looking like they were the bad guys.

Not a feeling she liked. Shepard would have to keep an eye out for that in the future.

“Something wrong Commander? You’re staring rather hard at me.” Revan said innocently, not even turning her head to look at Shepard.

“Noo, not at all.” Shepard replied through gritted teeth before she had a thought. “Just wondering what it was like for you growing up. You said you grew up in a religious order?” She said in a much more relaxed tone.

Revan tilted her head so Shepard could meet her eyes-to-visor. “I figured you wouldn’t want me talking about my home where anyone could hear.”

“I figured you wouldn’t mind, since you were so good about dodging questions and being vague on our last conversation.” Shepard replied, well aware of the smile on her face.

“I see...I can’t guarantee I will answer all questions. But there is little harm in asking I suppose.”

The four continued walking in a slightly awkward silence for a bit.

“So?” Jacob prodded, the first to break under the silence. “What was it like?”

All three women looked at him, acknowledging him as the weakest link in this semi-friendly social battle before Revan answered the question. “Peaceful enough I suppose. Despite my issues with them as an organisation. They spent every effort to make sure all the younglings were well trained.”

“What were you trained in? You said it was a religious order, but from what you’ve told us it seems more like a military force.” Miranda asked.

“A bit. Not that most Jedi would ever agree with you.” Revan agreed. “They called themselves peacekeepers, but no one listens to peacekeepers without reason. As younglings we were taught diplomacy, strategy, and negotiation on top of the normal piloting and combat courses.”

Shepard filed those tidbits away. She suspected from the way Revan acted earlier, but now she practically confirmed the other woman was just as skilled a politician as she was a fighter. She was half-tempted to have Revan meet the Council just to see what would happen.

“Alright. EDI, any more info about Archangel than what you found last night?” Shepard changed topics. As much as she wanted to mess with Revan, drawing attention in the middle of Omega wasn’t a good idea and they needed to start focusing on the mission.

“No updates, Commander.” EDI told the entire team through their comms, including Revan. “Besides the increasing amount of mercenaries being recruited there has been no further news.”

“Okay team, here’s the initial plan. The recruiting station should hopefully give us Archangel’s location. Once we get that we assess the situation and figure out the best way to contact him. I’d like to smuggle him out of this station without getting into a firefight with every merc here but we might not be that lucky. Questions?”

“Rules of engagement?” Jacob asked.

“Follow my lead. If I’m not shooting, you aren’t shooting. Oh, and Revan?”

“Yes, Commander?”

“Can you keep the Force powers limited to the less flashy ones? The laser swords are already going to bring you a lot of attention. I don’t want every blackops science team in the Terminus Systems hunting us down at the moment.”

“And what are considered ‘less flashy’?” Revan asked with amusement.

“Fucked if I know. Just try and keep the lightning to a minimum. Other than that...maybe just copy the Biotic techniques we’ve shown you?”

“I make no promises, but I will endeavor to try.” Shepard didn’t buy that for a second. She had a feeling Revan was going to try and find a way to do something really impressive that couldn’t be directly tied back to her.

“Right, back to Afterlife then.”

-o-

“Well this could be an issue.” Miranda murmured as they stepped out of the skycar. They had been lucky enough to catch the tail end of the recruitment drive. Which meant there was no delay in getting Archangel’s position. It also meant they now had zero time to scope out the surroundings to plan an exfiltration and were also in the middle of a small army that they might be required to shoot their way through.

“Game plan Commander?”

“Easy Jacob. We’re going to see what the gangs are planning, maybe do some light sabotage and try and talk to Archangel.”

“And then?”

“I’ll improvise.”

A Batarian in Blue Suns armor walked up to their group. “About time they sent me a group that looks like they can fight. They tell you what we’re up against here?”

“The recruiters were a little vague.” Shapard said sarcastically. “Five hundred credits to take down Archangel and any details would be given on site.”

“We wouldn’t get many hires if everyone knew the truth.” The Batarian waved dismissively. “Archangel’s holed up in a building at the end of the boulevard. He’s blown out the underground passageways and sealed the doors to the lower levels. He’s got a superior position, and the only way over is a very exposed bridge. It’s a killing ground.”

“I’m guessing there’s a plan?”

The Batarian nodded. “A small team is waiting to infiltrate his hideout but we need to draw Archangel’s fire so they can move in.”

“And that's where we come in.”

“Exactly. You’ll be on the distraction team. Head straight over the bridge and keep Archangel busy so the infiltration team can sneak in behind him.”

“Sounds like a suicide mission to me.” Jacob commented from the side. Shepard didn’t like the idea much either.

“You look like you can handle it.”

Shepard managed to drag some more info out of the merc before he wandered off to meet the next skycar to land. Apparently the Suns had a gunship on top of all the guns they had here.

“Well, we might have a way in, but getting out again could get interesting.” Jacob said.

An understatement in Shepard’s opinion, but she couldn’t show doubts now.

“Let’s just find him first then we’ll figure out how to get back.”

-o-

Revan was not impressed with the three mercenary gangs.

They claimed to want Archangel dead, but they spent so much more time and energy watching eachother than they did trying to kill their quarry that a single sniper was able to hold off all three of them.

It was actually a little impressive how incompetant they were. Revan would’ve simply ordered them to blanket coverfire while teams set up barriers down the bridge. At some point there would simply be too much cover for the sniper to stop them from overrunning his position. Though considering it was likely they would end up fighting all of them in a bit perhaps it was a good thing the mercs barely knew strategy unless it shot them between the eyes.

The Commander was doing a thorough job of learning as much as she could about the gangs and what they were planning. Enough so that it soon became apparent the distraction plan was being treated as just a throwaway gambit before the three gangs simply tried to overrun the building.

Revan was looking forward to the mess that was bound to happen when they turned that heavy droid on.

Eventually their group managed to find the sergeant that the Blue Suns merc that greeted them mentioned. The Batarian was elbows deep in the components of the gunship, obviously trying to get it back in working order.

“Cathka?”

“Sergeant Cathka…” The merc corrected imperiously as he extricated himself from the machine and depolarized his vizor. “Ah...you must be the group Salkie mentioned. You’re just in time.”

“Salkie?” Shepard asked a touch suspiciously. As far as they knew no one had any reason to call their team out specifically.

“You met him back when you were dropped off.” Cathka clarified. “ You four kind of stand out from other freelancers. Anyway...the infiltration team is just about ready to send the signal. Any questions? This may be your last chance.”

Shepard took him up on the offer and asked about the plan of attack. According to him, a small infiltration team had gotten close enough to Archangel’s location that they were planning to slip through the defences and take him out. For them to do that, a distraction was needed so they weren’t killed the moment they were spotted.

While Shepard asked more questions about what exactly the mercs were hoping to accomplish with the distraction team, Revan was looking over the exposed innards of the gunship. She didn’t understand much because the technology on display was so far removed from what she was familiar with, but she did have an idea.

“What’s the matter freelancer? Never seen a gunship up close before?” Cathka asked in between questions from Shepard. Revan could feel his growing suspicion in the Force. Apparently four much better equipped than normal freelance mercenaries showing up had made him nervous. Revan’s interest in the damaged ship had simply made it worse.

“Just wondering what’s been damaged. I play at being a mechanic myself from time to time.” Revan fibbed. She pressed on his mind a bit with the Force, just enough to give her words just a little bit more persuasion.

“You won’t find much looking at it now. I’ve already fixed most of the damage.” Cathka said proudly, drawing heavily from a cigarette he had lit at some point and blowing smoke all over the four Normandy crewmates. “Few more tweaks and it’ll be as good as new.”

“Are you joining the assault then?” Shepard asked, waving her hand in disgust to clear the air.

“Hah! Tarak doesn’t pay me to fight. I just plan the attacks and fix the damn gunship. You freelancers get the privilege of-”

A nearby terminal suddenly interrupted him with a message. “Target is in sight. We are a go.”

Cathka ignored us to head over and activate the comms. “Check. Bravo Team… go, go, go!”

The freelancer teams hanging around the gunship started moving for the door. Moving past the ground team on the way.

“Archangel’s got quite the surprise waiting for him.” Cathka said, taking one last drag of his cigarette before extinguishing it and repolarizing his visor. “Guess that means breaks over for me. Got to get this thing back to one hundred percent before Tarak decides he needs it again.”

He moved to get back to work but found Revan standing in his way.

“I think you could take a bit of a break. You deserve it.” A crimson blade punched through his chest with a distinct snap-hiss. Revan quickly deactivated her lightsaber and caught the body before it could fall over. She dumped it into a nearby chair and then strode over to the gunship, igniting her blade once more and stabbing deep into the machinery.

Task complete she turned back to the stunned humans and motioned to the door.

“Shall we?”

Shepard was the first to recover. “Revan...the fuck?” Nevertheless she started moving out to join the other freelancers and avoid being discovered by any Blue Suns, Blood Pack, or Eclipse.

“I denied them the use of a powerful asset. Is there a problem with that?”

“No, but it's disturbing as fuck when you stab someone like that with a smile in your voice.”

“Ah. I’ll keep that in mind.”

The bridge was in chaos as freelance mercenaries did their best to cross the bridge. They were trying to cover each other as much as possible but with no cover they were easy targets. Revan watched dispassionately as a merc jerked and fell over dead. At the very least, Archangel was a good shot under pressure.

One of the mercs managed to get close enough to fire off a grenade launcher into the building. After the explosive round went off there was a brief pause before the offending merc received a sniper round through the head. Despite the accurate fire, the freelancers were actually making some headway across the bridge.

“Doesn’t look like Archangel’s got much time.” Jacob said.

“Well, let’s not wait around too long.” Miranda replied.

Another merc made a dash for the dropped grenade launcher and received a shot to the head for his trouble.

“Come on, we better give them a surprise of our own.” Shepard made to run after the freelancers, but Revan reached out and pulled her aside as the Force blared in warning. There was a flash of blue as a hypersonic round passed through the space her head had been. Judging by the results up until now, helmet or not, that might’ve killed Shepard.

“How about I go first?” Revan commented, idly disintegrating another shot with a twirl of a lightsaber.

“...yeah” Shepard seemed fully aware how close a brush with death that was but she recovered quickly. ”...everyone stick close. Revan, focus on defense. Everyone else, light them up.”

They made good over the bridge after that. Revan only had to block three more rounds before Archangel seemed to give up on hitting her group and focused on the freelancers. That or he finally noticed that the humans were cutting down the mercs from behind with a ruthless efficiency.

“I’m moving on ahead.” Revan warned them when they made it to the building interior. The infiltration team Cathka had mentioned had spread out across the two levels and Revan could sense they were already nearing who she suspected was Archangel. “Catch up when you can.”

Shepard simply responded back with a “Go!”, acknowledging Revan wasn’t going to be blocking shots anymore.

The Force flowed through her body as she gathered it to leap to the second floor in a single motion. Four Blue Suns mercenaries were crouched outside a door as they attempted to hack through it. Two of them didn’t even have time to notice Revan before she landed right behind them and bisected them with a quick flick of her wrists. The third had just enough time for his eyes to widen before a glowing blue blade stabbed through his heart. Revan’s other hand lashed out to bisect the fourth merc’s gun as he raised it to shoot at her side, leaving him with a useless chunk of metal before she took a step forward and unceremoniously lopped off his head.

Revan cast out her senses, but the gunfire downstairs had gone quiet and Revan could sense Shepard’s and the other’s presences moving towards the stairs. The only other presence was the one on the other side of the door. Revan could feel the exhaustion and grim acceptance in the Force. It seemed their potential recruit believed he was about to die.

“Christ, those things really don’t care about armor do they?” Revan turned to see the humans warily walking up to the door, skitting past the dismembered corpses.

“So our guy is through that door?” Shepard said rhetorically as she opened up her omnitool. “Think he’s ready to talk?”

“Either that or go out in a blaze of glory. He feels exhausted.”

The humans turned to look at her.

“That’s something you can tell?” Jacob asked.

Revan smiled under her helmet but said nothing. It was quite fun dealing with people who didn’t even have rumors of Force users.

The door pinged and opened. Revan stalked through first, lightsabers ignited and Force senses searching for any hidden traps. The ground team filtered in behind her guns raised and ready.

At the windowsill there was a blue armored Turian facing the group with a long barreled rifle leaning against a wall and a pistol in hand.

“Well now, can’t say I was expecting someone good enough to block sniper fire with swords of all things. Or for you to shoot your friends in the back.” Revan could hear the exhaustion in the Turian’s voice.

“Archangel?”

“That’s what they call me. A little nickname for my good deeds.” Archangel said, pulling off his helmet and placing it on a nearby table. “Although if you prefer you could call me-”

“Garrus Vakarian?!” Shepard exclaimed.

“Shepard?” Archangel seemed just as surprised to see the Commander as she was to see him. “I thought you were dead.”

Since it seemed like there wasn’t going to be a fight, Revan deactivated her lightsabers and edged closer to Miranda.

“They know each other?”

“Garrus Vakarian was part of her team on the first Normandy. We actually lost track of him a while ago. I never thought we’d run into him on Omega.”

“Well at least that means it should be pretty easy to convince him to come with us.” Revan commented, turning her attention back to the other conversation.

“-tried to shoot me! Multiple times!”

“I didn’t know it was you, and I missed! Your friend with the glowing swords made me miss! And where the hell did you manage to find someone who can block sniper rounds with a sword?”

“Oh no, you're not changing the topic that easily. You-”

“Although it seems the Commander might hold a bit of a grudge.” Revan continued, blocking out the rest of the argument.

“Looks that way.” Jacob agreed. “So what now? We got in fine, but we still don’t have a way out.”

“Right, about that.” Garrus said, jumping on the topic like a lifeline. From Shepard’s scowl, this wasn’t the end of that discussion though. “That bridge has been saving my life. Funneling all those witless idiots into scope. But it works both ways. They’ll slaughter us if we try and get out that way.”

“So we just sit here and wait for them to take us out?” Miranda asked to get the conversation moving forward.

“It's not that bad. This place has done a good job of holding them off this far. And with the four of you…” There was some energy returning to Garrus’s voice the longer he talked. “I suggest we hold this position, wait for a crack in their defences, and take our chances.”

“So keep doing what you’ve been doing.”

“Hey, it’s not a perfect plan but it’s been working so far.”

Revan politely didn’t mention that his plan was only still working due to the ground team’s timely arrival.

Garrus retrieved his rifle and made his way back to the window. “Let’s see what the mercs are up to.”

Revan decided to do the same, the optics in her visor magnifying the end of the bridge so the several figures coming out of cover were visible. Several droids were making their way down the bridge. From the simple movements and positioning Revan could tell they were around the level of some of the lower end battle droids. Good enough as disposable troops, but not smart or sophisticated enough to be considered sentient. Although that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing for simple scouting missions in urban environments.

“Looks like they know the infiltration team failed. Take a look. Scouts. Eclipse, I think.” Garrus said, passing his rifle to Shepard.

There was a gunshot and one of the droid’s heads exploded into scrap.

“Well that’s one less at any rate.”

“Indeed.” Garrus accepted the rifle back with a smile in his voice. “I’ll stay up here. I can do a lot of damage from this vantage point. You…” He turned to look at Shepard. “You do what you do best.”

The Commander gave an amused huff then turned back to the others.

“We should split between levels. Two up here to assist Garrus, two in the lower level so nothing sneaks up on us. Revan-”

“I will be going to the lower level.” Revan interjected. “I don’t care who else joins me.”

“-will hold the lower level.” Shepard accepted seamlessly. “Miranda, watch her back. Jacob and I will keep as many from getting close as possible but I’m worried about those dig teams. They should be clearing out the last of any rubble pretty soon.”

“We’ll keep and eye out.” Miranda promised and fell in step with Revan as they headed to the lower level.

“What’s the plan here then?” She asked as Revan took a more detailed look over the first level floor plan. There were several counters and appliances that turned the level into a slight maze of cover and flanking routes. That would have to go.

“I will handle the majority of any enemies that make it past the bridge. You should focus on staying near the stairway and picking targets of opportunity.”

“That doesn’t leave me much cover.” Miranda said neutrally. “My barriers might be better than practically every other human but they aren’t enough to stand in the open and take shots.”

“They won’t have to be.” Revan replied. “We will simply restructure the battlefield to be a little more accommodating.”

Revan reached out with the Force and began tearing the obstructions from the floor and rearranging them so the only defensive position was guarding the base of the stairs. Anything that was more firmly attached was quickly detached through liberal use of a lightsaber.

Miranda watched the casual display of power with wide eyes before she shook herself and began strategically welding some of the structure Revan was creating with the use of her Omnitool. Revan noticed there was a sudden increase in the amount of explosions and gunfire in the distance but oddly they didn’t seem to be impacting the building.

“Commander, we’ve just about fortified the first level. How are things on the bridge?” She asked through the comms.

“Eclipse looks like they're throwing everything they have at us!” Shepard yelled over the sound of gunfire. “That heavy mech we sabotaged is really messing the- Garrus, rocket on the left! -it’s messing them up pretty bad!”

“Are they breaking through?”

“Negative! We can hold them.” There was another explosion, one that seemed to rock the entire building.

“What the hell was that?!”

“Damn it. They’ve breached the lower level.” Garrus cut in. “Well, they had to use their brains eventually. We need to close down the emergency shutters or we’re going to be overrun.”

“I’ll take care of it.” Revan said. “I’m leaving Miranda to cover the first floor.”

“Wait what? No! Revan take her with-” Revan closed the comm line and turned to the Cerberus Operative. “No offense to you, but I can’t guarantee I can keep you safe. Besides, Shepard needs someone watching her back.”

“You have command.” Miranda replied. “Just do us a favor and let us know if you get in over your head. I’d prefer to know if we need to send help before they make it past you.”

Revan gave her an affirmative head tilt and headed to the lower level.

She quickly found herself in a three way intersection and the first shutter straight ahead. An alarm blared as she began the emergency shut down and a squad of Blood Pack mercenaries appeared through the far door. They screamed in fury at the sight of Revan and tried to rush through before the shutter activated. Revan didn’t bother igniting her lightsabers, simply smashing the Vorcha into the walls with a Force Push and frying the Krogan leading them with Force Lightning.

Seconds later a heavy metal shutter descended from the ceiling and closed off that hallway.

“That’s one closed. Two more to go.” Garrus reported. “Better hurry, the Eclipse mercs aren’t letting up and they managed to destroy the heavy mech. We’re holding them for now.”

“Alright. Heading to the next shutter now.“ Revan replied. She backtracked to the intersection and went left towards the garage.

The door opened and Revan immediately threw herself forward as gunfire filled the area she had been occupying. Several Vorcha and a pair of Krogan were halfway through the garage accompanied by a pair of fishlike canines, Varren if Revan remembered correctly. She ignored the cries of ‘kill the human’ and ignited both of her lightsabers. The blades weaved themselves into a veritable wall of light, blocking the incoming fire.

Revan grabbed one of the Vorcha and yanked him closed with the Force, using his body as a shield from the others. She might’ve overestimated their care for their fellow mercenaries since the other Vorcha didn’t slow their rate of fire at all. One of the Varren lept at her from the side but was decapitated with a flash of blue.

By this point her meatshield resembled ground meat more than not. One of the Krogan fired a shotgun into the riddled corpse and nearly split the thing in half. Revan responded by telekinetically lifting a random crate in the garage and slamming it into the alien’s shoulder. It staggered under the sudden strike and Revan took the opportunity to throw the Vorcha corpse at the other Krogan and stab the one she struck through the heart.

With half of their numbers killed the remaining Vorcha lost what little unit cohesion they had. They scattered and Revan sprinted towards the last remaining threat. The Krogan roared in challenge when it saw her approach. Revan sidestepped it’s shotgun blast and bisected the lizard-like alien with a lightsaber.

The remaining Vorcha tried to individually get the drop on her. But with no cooperation they were easily dispatched. Only the comparatively smarter ones tried attacking at the same time the final Varren jumped at her from on top of a crate and that was nowhere near enough to match her. A few seconds later Revan had sealed the door and was walking back through the garage.

“Garrus, Shepard, I’ve sealed the second shutter. Heading to-” The Force screamed but Revan was too slow to react. A shotgun boomed and Revan felt something punch into her shoulder. The shot failed to penetrate her durasteel armour but it did whip her around and launched her off her feet.

Revan hit the ground but rolled so she was facing her attacker, lightsabers springing to life and ignoring the yelling in her ears as Shepard tried to get her attention. The first Krogan was back on its feet, gun still aimed in Revan’s direction but the one handed grip and charred hole through its chest made her wonder just how the thing was still alive.

“Forgot about our redundant biology didn't you, you damned human?” The Krogan ground out. “It’s gonna be the last damned mistake you make before I piss on your corpse.”

“I didn’t know about that actually. Tell me, how does redundant biology handle lightning?” Revan asked as sparks jumped from her fingers.

She triggered her comms again as she walked away from a charred husk of meat a few seconds later. Instantly she was assaulted by Shepard’s voice demanding a status update and her preparing to send Miranda and Jacob after her.

“I’m fine, Commander.” Revan interrupted the human’s hurried orders. “Krogan are apparently tough enough to shrug off a lightsaber through the heart with a little time. It’s been dealt with. I’m heading to the final shutter now.”

“Copy. Hurry up Revan. The Eclipse are starting to pull back since we got Jaroth, but the Blood Pack are starting to cut through some of the other doors. I had to send Jacob to back up Miranda already.”

“Acknowledged.”

Since time was now limited Revan sprinted across the lower level towards the final shutter. She rounded a corner and immediately jumped back as a gout of flame filled the narrow corridor. A quick Force Barrier prevented the last of the flames from reaching her. When the flames died out Revan saw two Vorcha with flamer type weapons strapped to their backs and a few more further down the hall.

“Others tell us about Human’s swords.” One of the pyros hissed. “Lets see human deal with this!” and he fired his flamer again. In another instance Revan might’ve played around with the Vorcha, but with the knowledge that the others were in danger of being killed Revan wasn’t willing to risk a mission failure. If there was one thing that Revan could be sure of in this new galaxy it was that she didn’t lose. The flames parted harmlessly around her Force Barrier before she reached out and ceased hold of the flame. As Revan fed more and more power into the fire around her she started sending it back down the hall towards the rest of her enemies.

The two Blood Pack pyros cut their own stream of fire when they realised what was happening but it didn’t stop the growing firestorm backed by the power of the Force. The Vorcha tried running, but the unnatural flames proved to be much faster. Soon enough the Blood pack mercs were carbon as Revan tiredly placed a hand on a wall to support herself.

‘Still too quickly tired out from pyromancy. I’ll have to work on that.’ She thought.

She took a moment to collect herself and went to close the final shutter.

-o-

Shepard bit back a curse as a stray shot from one of the last remaining Eclipse mercs pinged off her shields. She shifted her aim and pulled the trigger, blowing through the merc’s own shields and putting a few through his head with the borrowed Vindicator rifle she had picked up. She might’ve preferred to use a shotgun, but that didn’t mean she was any less deadly with another weapon.

“So how the hell’d you end up in this mess anyway?” She called over to Garrus, still caught between thrilled to have found a member of her old team and pissed he almost shot her.

“My emotions got the better of me. It’s a long story.” Garrus called back. His rifle barked and another Eclipse mercenary went down. “I’m still more curious where you found a human that can block bullets with a sword.”

“Another long story. We can trade once we get out of here but I’ll let you know now she isn’t human.” More shots spattered against the window frame. Shepard fired a Lift field and dragged the offending mercenary out into the open. Half a second later Garus put a round through his head.

“Odd, she doesn’t look like an Asari.”

“Not Asari either. Like I said, long story.”

That seemed to throw her friend for a loop and Shepard took a chance to check in on Miranda and Jacob. “How’s the first floor looking?”

“We’re holding for now Commander but pretty soon we are going to need to fall back!” Jacob called over the sound of a Biotic explosion.

”Commander, I’ve closed the third shutter. Tell the other two to hold out for a few more seconds and I’ll be right there.”

“You hear that Jacob? Hold out until Revan gets there, but fall back if you need to.”

“Rodger, Commander!”

Garrus’s rifle barked again. “That’s the last of them!” he crowed.

Shepard smiled seeing him more energetic than when even just a few minutes ago. That Garrus had been resigned that he was going to die and was just looking to take a few more with him. The Turian in front of her was still exhausted but was much closer to what she remembered her friend being like.

She only hoped he hadn’t changed too much over two years.

“Only a few Blood Pack and the Blue Suns left. Think we have a chance if we try the bridge now?” She asked and pushed her doubts into the dark corner in her mind.

“We actually might,” Garrus smiled. “Tarak has the toughest group, but nothing we haven’t faced before.” He shifted so he was able to watch over the first level and cursed. “Shepard, that's the Blood Pack leader Garm. We might need to get down there and give those two a hand. I’ve fought him before and he’s a freak. I put twelve rounds into his chest and he just managed to regen through it all.”

Shepard considered it before shaking her head. “I have a different idea,” and triggered her comms. “Jacob, Miranda, fall back and focus on the foot soldiers. Revan, there’s a big Krogan down there. Think you can take him?”

“Without a doubt.”

Garm roared and charged into the first room, his shields shrugging off the few shots her squad was able to get off, before crashing into the makeshift fortifications Revan and Miranda had set up. The large Krogan easily tore through the simple welds and was strong enough to break down the cover so his soldiers had somewhere to hide as they trickled in behind him. He would’ve continued up the stairs but that was the moment Revan burst out from the lower level and threw him across the room.

The remaining Blood Pack all shifted fire to the exposed elf, but once again her swords blocked the incoming fire.

“Cover fire! Hit those Vorcha!” Shepard ordered and opened fire. Jacob and Miranda joined in with a cooperative display of Biotics and gunfire.

“That’s just bullshit. One round I can kinda see. Automatic weapon fire? Shepard you need to tell me where you found her.” Garrus complained as he picked off another Blood Pack merc.

“You haven’t seen anything!” Shepard promised as she watched Revan stalk towards the recovering Krogan.

She could honestly say Garm was one of the fastest warriors she had ever seen as the Krogan lunged at the sword wielding elf, it was just a shame he was completely outclassed. Revan leaped over a shotgun blast and bisected the weapon in the same moment. Then she ducked under Garm’s arm when he tried to use the remaining weapon as a club before removing his arm. He screamed in pain before his voice shifted and Shepard recognised the beginnings of a bloodrage.

Garm lowered his head and charged Revan with the intent on either crushing her or beating her into a bloody pulp. Before Shepard could call out a warning, Revan counter charged the massive Krogan and her swords flashed faster than even Shepard’s cybernetically enhanced eyes could follow. Somewhat after the fact she realised two glowing orange lines had appeared on Garm’s body before it slid apart into three pieces.

“Holy shit. I’m glad she’s on our side.” Jacob said over an open channel. Shepard was about to reprimand him even if she agreed when the glass on the second level shattered under an assault of heavy machine gun fire.

The line of tracers started to quickly sweep the upper level causing her and Garrus to flop to the floor to avoid it. Risking a glance, Shepard managed to see a smoking gunship outside the building.

“I thought I took that thing out already!” Garrus yelled as the gunfire cut off and the gunship moved to reposition.

“More Blue Suns trying to take the first level, Shepard!” Miranda called over the comms. “Should we fall back to you?”

“Negative! Garrus and I can take the gunship, you keep those mercs off us!”

“You want us to take out a gunship alone?!” Garrus cried in disbelief.

“You managed it before already!” She countered, “And it’s more damaged than you think. Revan fried the shield unit before we crossed the bridge.”

“Oh well this will be easy then.”

The gunship stopped to hover at window level again and opened up with its cannons. Shepard rolled out of the way before opening fire on the exposed panel Revan had weakened already. Sparks burst out as her rounds damaged already compromised mechanics and Tarak pulled back temporarily.

“Garrus, can you cripple that thing?!” Shepard shouted.

“Yeah! But I need a clear shot!” Garrus called back. “I need you to draw his fire for a bit!”

Of fucking course he did!

The gunship pulled in for another run and Shepard left cover and started shooting wildly at the cockpit. The light caliber rounds sparked harmlessly off the specially treated glass but she got Taraks attention.

Bullets traced their way towards her before she dove out of the way. The couch that had been behind her exploded as the rounds tore through the soft material and rained down on Shepard’s head.

“Anytime now Garrus!”

Rather than answer her, Garrus took the shot and hit something important as there was a small explosion and flames started shooting out of the ship’s interior. But the gunship refused to go down.

“Archangel!” Tarak raged over the loudspeakers. “You think you can mess with the Blue Suns? This ends now!”

The cannons lit up and chewed through Garrus’s remaining cover. Shepard tried to force the gunship off by shooting into the damaged panel, but Tarak ignored it for the single minded purpose of taking Garrus out.

As the last of his cover gave out, Garrus tried to run to a new location but stumbled when a round slammed into his leg. Several more rounds connected while he was out in the open and purple blood splashed in the air when his shields gave out.

Shepard shouted in frustration and began unloading every weapon she had into the ship. Something else sparked and there was another small explosion. The gunship started to wobble violently in the air.

As a last ‘fuck you’ Tarak fired an a rocket into the building. The explosion picking Garrus up and throwing him a few feet through the air. Shepard saw red and lashed out biotically, trying to simply rip the visibly damaged components out of the gunships frame. It was the last straw for the heavily damaged ship. The entire thing exploded as cascading failures caused more small explosions on the inside. The ship was down but Shepard barely cared as she rushed to Garrus’s side.

When she saw he wasn’t breathing her heart almost stopped.

No, it couldn’t end this way! She had just found him!

She had lost two years and everything she had ever known she couldn’t lose Garrus too. She immediately ordered her squad to raise Joker and make sure they got a medical team here, asap. She was about to start praying to every religion she had ever even heard mentioned when Garrus took a gasping breath.

He was alive!

But he might not stay that way. Even now she could hear him struggling to breath as blood started to fill his lungs. Shepard desperately started applying Medigel to the worst of it but even she knew subconsciously it wouldn’t be enough.

Which was why when a pair of armoured hands firmly started pushing her away from her friend, she didn’t hesitate to try and punch the offending person.

If...if she couldn’t save her friend. She would at least be there with him dammit!

Infuriatingly, Revan simply leaned back allowing the punch to fall short before punching Shepard out of the way.

“Commander, I can help him but you need to move out of the way.” She said gently but firmly. A tone Shepard never thought she would hear from the Sith.

“Don’t lie to me.” Shepard hissed. “Unless your fucking Force can fix this then there is nothing you can do that I can’t. I’m not leaving his side.”

Revan’s inscrutable black visor met her glare with ease and Revan raised a single hand that started glowing in a white light.

“As it turns out the Force can fix this, so please move. Unless you want the Turian to keep choking on his own blood?”

The frank admission of another power rocked Shepard back onto her heels but the faintest embers of hope bloomed in her chest.

She shuffled out of the way and watched as Revan placed a hand on the worst of Garrus’s injuries. Miracuously, they started to mend together under her touch and Shepard allowed herself to relax the slightest amount.

Revan could heal her friend.

Garrus would survive.