Paying the Price

Funny, this one was shorter when i planned it. Yet somehow ended up about the same length, maybe a tad shorter, then the previous ones. Somehow things just flow easily once i get under way. Inspiration is a strange beast indeed...

Paying the Price

Chapter Six
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Shepard cursed quietly as she slammed a fresh clip into her rifle and resumed firing The blasted collectors were using everything they had to stop them from destroying the reaper. Why this one was so important to them was beyond her, but she really didn't care for the details.

'Garrus! Hit the tubes!" She called out, knowing her rifle wouldn't be any good from this distance, she simply focused on holding back the collectors, husks and whatever else chose to rush them.

Between her and Legion, nothing was able to get close. Though that didn't mean they won hands down either. Several bullets pinged off Shepard's armour and she noted once or twice Legion would spark and stumble. Though unlike his kin she'd slain a hundred times before, he was able to shrug off minor wounds and even repair those that required it. If only temporarily to ensure no major system damage was received.

Ignoring the damages to her armour, Melina waited for her shields yet again, before rising up and cutting down another wave of husks with a well aimed grenade. This was getting almost predictable. The bastards just wouldn't, stop. A dozen fell and a dozen more rushed in.

Replacing the clip, Shepard resumed firing, this was getting almost boring, fire, duck reload, fire, duck, reload, but that didn't make any difference to the situation. She couldn't let her guard down now.

Where the hell were all these things coming from anyway? She hadn't seen another platform slide into place, but the collectors seemed endless. Every time she blasted one, another was their ready to start shooting.

Gritting her teeth as another round pierced her armour and a sharp lance of pain swept up her arm, she ducked behind the wall again and waited for her shields to recover. "Damn it!" A quick glance confirmed one of the four tubes had been shattered, though unsurprisingly, a series of metal plates had slammed down over the tubes, rendering them impervious to attack for the time being.

Shepard frowned slightly as her shields flickered back into life, a quick glance at her Omni-tool confirmed what she had seen. The shield was weaker then normal. Glancing downwards, she noted a few holes in her armour, and a few bloodstains that didn't belong to a fallen friend or foe, she'd been hit sure. But it looked like her armour had been damaged as well.

"Great…" She mumbled to herself, before leaping up to resume firing. The collectors were gaining the upper hand now. And she couldn't afford to stop and worry about something as simple as her shields not being at one hundred percent.

A loud smash cut through the fight, and Melina's gaze snapped upwards for a moment, just in time to see the plating slam back into place, a second tube was now shattered. Shepard couldn't help but grin as she dragged her gaze downwards and shouldered her rifle once again.

Between her and Legion, the collectors were being wiped out little by little. And the lack of reinforcements was beginning to show. Wherever they were coming from, the supply was running out.

"Keep it up!" She called out, she failed to notice just how strained her voice had become. The constant fighting was beginning to take its toll. Finally, she fired a careful burst, and ripped a collector in half. And suddenly everything was silent. "The hell?" She whispered, before pulling herself up to rest against the wall. Nothing, no husks, no collectors, just bodies everywhere.

"Enemy destroyed, likely regrouping." Legion's computerized voice suddenly pitched in. "Danger, scanners indicate incoming hostiles!" A second later the geth ducked behind a wall once again, and Shepard did the same.

Another smash as the third tube was disabled, just one more to go…

This was naturally a signal for the collectors, as a savage howl followed, closely backed up by another wave of the zombie like husks as they rushed towards the trio's position.

"Just once I'd like you to be wrong!" Shepard hissed, her gaze briefly snapping to the geth as it carefully dropped into place along the wall next to her.

"If Shepard commander would before, I'll not warn you next time." Legion said calmly, resulting in the spectre sighing quietly.

"Like talking to a damned wall sometimes." She mumbled, before exchanging her rifle for a shotgun, the husks were moving faster then she'd anticipated.

Steeling herself, the commander shifted upwards once again and fired, the recoil of the gun making her wince, she wasn't sure why, but a sharp pain travelled up her shoulder. Ignoring it, she simply pivoted and fired again, a second husk was ripped to shreds by the carefully aimed round, and again she hissed in pain. Something was wrong here.

Legion was on his feet now, his careful aim easily picking out and dealing with any husk that got to close to the group. Even Garrus had focused on the onslaught. The protection on the tube still firmly in place for the time being.

Ducking out of sight, Shepard paused to administer a dose of medi-gel into her wounds to ensure she wasn't bleeding out. The throbbing in her shoulder slowly subsided, and she breathed a sigh of relief, before sliding up onto one knee to continue firing. The recoil still hurt, just not as badly as before.

"You alright commander?" Garrus asked, in-between shots, clearly spotting her discomfort.

"Fine, just a little beat up." She responded, she'd been shot several times, and her arm was still broken. So it was anyone's guess why she was still on her feet let alone fighting as hard as she was.

Dropping back down, she checked the gauge on her shotgun, and cursed, before ejecting the spent clip and priming another. "You'd think they'd run out of these things by now, considering how many we-"She paused to blast another husk. "-We've killed."

Garrus simply chuckled, before firing a well aimed shot that felled three of them. Shepard briefly smiled. "Come on! Save some for the rest of us." She half whined, before firing several more shots, each killing another husk.

The turian's response was cut short as one of the glowing husks leapt over the cover and swiped the rifle out of his hands. Before it could attack again however, he rolled to one side and came up in a crouch, pistol in hand.

One shot was all it took to hit a weak point, and a loud boom reverberated through the platform as the trio was knocked off their feet.

Wincing as her injured arm struck the ground. Shepard staggered back to her feet and snatched her shotgun up from it's resting place a few steps away. "I really, REALLY hate those things!" She growled, images of Mordin's demise forcing their way back into her mind. She was quick to banish them however, the last thing she needed in the middle of a fight was to dwell on the past.

Luckily, the explosion had dealt with most of the husks. Though when she took aim at one of the remaining few, a distinct click was all her gun did. "Damn it!" She was already in the automated process of reloading, when she realized the clip was still fine.

The gun itself was the problem.

Gritting her teeth, she slung the shotgun over her shoulder and drew her pistol; thankfully the weapon still worked and made short work of the husks. "Thank god that's over." She mumbled, before clipping the pistol to her belt and examining her shotgun. "The hell went wrong with this thing?"

A quick examination revealed the explosion from the husk, and being dropped, had damaged it somehow, the shotgun wouldn't be working again any time soon. "Just what I need, a useless piece of scrap metal."

Sighing heavily, she compacted the weapon and returned it to it's place on her back. Favouring her assault rifle instead.

As she checked to ensure it wasn't damaged as well, the dull grating of metal on metal drew their attention upwards. For some reason, the plating on the final tube was receding, giving them a clear shot at the final tube. "Huh…You'd think that would be a permanent fixture. Maybe the stuff can't transfer while it's locked down." Melina thought out loud, her free hand moving to rest against her chin, or at least as best as she could with the helmet in the way.

"Either way…" A loud bang brought her out of her thoughts, and the tube shattered a split second later. Garrus calmly lowered his still smoking rifle. "It won't be stopping us."

The squad watched calmly as the reaper remained in place. Had EDI been wrong?

Slowly, a dull groaning was heard, and the squad slowly shuffled back a few steps as the reaper started to teeter slightly. "Were standing on a platform less then twenty feet away from that thing…Anyone else suddenly thinking this is a bad idea." Garrus commented as he watched the behemoth unnervingly sway back and forth, its weight beginning to get the best of what little support was left.

"This unit recommends immodest retreat." Legion pitched in his agreement, and despite being a machine, Shepard could almost hear the uneasiness behind it's monotone voice.

Melina was halfway through calling for a retreat, not that there was anywhere for them to go. When the supports holding the reaper up suddenly snapped in a shower of sparks and screeching metal.

Without pause, it suddenly dropped downwards, the edge of the platform, and the massive drop below swallowing it in a heartbeat.

At first they all breathed a sigh of relief, or would have, had it not been for one of it's skeletal hands suddenly slamming into the edge of the platform and almost flipping it right over.

Legion somehow kept his balance, Shepard was getting suspicious that he had gravity clamps in his feet or something, that had to be how he remained tethered in place even when stuff like this went down.

Garrus however, was sent crashing to the deck, and as the platform tipped further, he began to slide rapidly towards the edge.

Shepard, having only stumbled, saw this happening, and felt her heart stop for a moment as she saw the turian sliding towards his death. "Garrus!" Without thinking, she began to run forwards, though there was no way in hell she could match his insane speed.

Taking a a deep breath, she leapt forwards, the wind being knocked out of her as she slammed into the metal platform and began to slide after her friend.

Luckily the stabilizers had kicked in and the ground was slowly righting itself. Though not fast enough to stop their decent into hell.

Garrus hit the edge and a second later so did Shepard. Her hand lashed out and found a gap in the platform, a loud yelp forced it's way out of her as she suddenly jerked to a halt, her already broken arm being stretched to it's limits, and likely being dislocated by the sudden and painful jolt.

The other extended over the side, but she knew it was hopeless, Garrus was already over the edge and gone. Time seemed to halt as she lay their, staring at the edge, though in reality it was only a heartbeat. He was gone, just like that…

Suddenly she was abruptly pulled forwards another inch, her teeth gritting as her arm was extended even further, a loud crack was heard and she barely resisted screaming in pain, though the sudden weight on her shoulder and arm could be only one thing.

"Garrus!" She swiftly lifted her head and peered over the side, sure enough by some miracle he'd managed to grab her at the last second and stop his downward decent. Though she couldn't say this was any better, she was already losing her grip on the platform, her arm growing numb and weak.

"Commander…" Melina's gaze snapped around to focus on Garrus, and she reconized the look in his eyes.

"Don't, even, fucking THINK, about it!" She snarled, before putting all of her effort into dragging the turian back onto the platform, as a result, she finally lost feeling in her left arm, and slid towards the edge herself.

"Melina…You know you can't do it." Shepard gasped as she finally halted, now half over the edge herself. That had been the first time Garrus had used her firs time. Hell it was the first time anyone had used her first time, save Liara.

"I'm not going to drop you. Now stop being stubborn, I'm pulling you up, or falling with you." She almost pleaded with him, before making another attempt to pull him up.

This was it, if she couldn't do it this time. They were both dead for sure, she wouldn't let the stubborn bastard die cause of her weakness. Sure enough, her arm failed to support her, and she felt herself inching towards the edge once again.

Just before she slid forwards again however, she felt a pair of hands suddenly grip her legs, and she was dragged a few inches backwards. Glancing over her shoulder, she saw, and felt Legion tighten his grip, before signal handily pulling both of them back onto the platform…Damn he was stronger then she thought.

"Think I saw my life flash before me eyes." Garrus commented, a smile, or what passed for one, twisting his features.

Shepard simply rolled her eyes as she shakily rolled onto her back. "Vakarian…When we get back to the ship…You're going on a bloody diet." She tried to sound mad, but a laugh still found it's way into her voice and betrayed her amusement.

"Whatever you say ma'am."

Melina winced and bit her tongue to stifle a howl of pain as Garrus carefully reset her shoulder. Sure enough, the sudden jolt when trying to stop herself had dislocated it. Sadly he couldn't fix the bones, but at least she could use the arm again, albeit painfully.

She carefully rolled her shoulder to get feeling back into it, while Legion toyed with his Omni-tool. A second later a life sized hologram of the last person Shepard wanted to see sprung up next to him. Unsurprisingly, he was busy smoking a cigarette, when wasn't he?

"Shepard, you've done the impossible." The Illusive Man said, the barest hint of a smile forming as she sunk to one knee and began accessing the main control system, while she'd been getting patched up, Legion had managed to find and hack the terminal, giving them unobstructed access to it.

"I didn't do it alone…And some of them gave their lives to pull off this mission." Her hands halted for a moment, she hadn't heard anything from the others, were they still alive? Did they get picked up? Or was the team still fighting? What was going on back there.

"I know. Their sacrifices will not be forgotten, but thanks to them you managed to acquire the collector base!" She paused again, her hand having extended for the device Legion was holding, all she needed to do was hook it up, make a few adjustments, and the core was as good as blown.

What made her stop, was the way he spoke, something was off here. She got the feeling she wouldn't like the rest of his words. "I've been looking at the schematics EDI uploaded. They were building a reaper-" She rolled her eyes, tell us something we don't know already. "That knowledge, that framework could save us!"

Before he could say anymore, Shepard was on her feet and facing the Illusive Man, her eyes blazing with fury. "They liquefy people! Turn them into something horrible, we have to destroy this abomination of a base!" She snarled, no way in hell could this place stand! They had to destroy it!

"Don't be short sighted. We can use the collectors were working with the reapers we can use their own technology against them!" Her teeth quietly ground together, Garrus looked appalled at the idea.

"So Cerberus suddenly wants to kill innocent people and build their own reaper?" He growled, his mandibles twitching in anger as he glared at the hologram, how he wished he could punch the smug bastard.

Shepard slowly took a deep breath. "I lost half my squad, those people were my friends…My family!" She snapped, her hand easily snatching the device out of Legions hand before she spun around to begin working on the terminal once again. "Fuck you and you're plans, I'm not letting this place fall into the wrong hands."

"A timed radiation pulse could wipe out the collectors and leave the technology intact! Think about it Shepar-" Before he could finish, the hologram suddenly died and vanished. Shepard finished adjusting the console, and the hologram on the terminal changed.

Studying it for a moment, she contemplated what the best option was, don't be short sighted Shepard…On one hand, all she had to do was plant the charge and blow the place sky high…On the other, what if they could gain some use out of the place.

She sure as hell wouldn't trust Cerberus with building a reaper, if she got wind of that she'd burn the place to the ground and cut the Illusive Man's head off with a blunt knife.

On the other…She began tapping I the commands for the purge. "Shepard…You can't be considering this?" Garrus asked quietly, sinking to one knee next to her.

"Not exactly. But we can't throw away an opportunity like this. Much as I hate Cerberus, and the Illusive Man…We need every tool we can get to fight the reapers with."

Garrus was silent for a moment, before nodding reluctantly. "I hope you know what you're doing commander…"

"So do I…So do I."

Finally she finished inputting the commands and a timer appeared on her Omni-tool. "Alright, we got ten minutes to get out of here." Rising to her feet, Shepard reached for her comm. unit. "Joker, were do-"

A loud boom shook the platform, followed by another. The trio slowly turned around to face the edge they'd almost fallen off of earlier. "The hell?" Shepard mumbled, before slowly advancing, the others right behind her.

Another boom, whatever it was, it was getting louder. Had the pulse started early? No that didn't sound right.

Suddenly a clang was heard, and the platform shook as cold metallic fingers gripped the edge, metal grated on metal as a second clang, and another hand gripped the other side.

"No, no we killed it! It wasn't even operational!" Melina almost screamed as she stumbled back a step, a hand flying to her pistol, not that it would do any good.

A second later, with a loud inhuman shriek, the human reapers head flew up over the edge of the platform; it's once cold empty sockets now blazing a brilliant crimson as power began to flow through its body.

As its hands pressed down on the platform and slowly brought more of It's body into view, Shepard, Garrus, and Legion stumbled backwards, terror evident in their eyes as the reaper's mouth opened into a snarl as a bright orange glow formed deep inside it's gaping maw.

"GET DOWN!" Shepard barked, before diving behind her suddenly precious low wall. A second later the world around her shook as a barrage of missiles struck the platform and threatened to snap it in two.

Shivering in a mixture of fear and pain, -she'd landed on her injured arm again- Shepard lifted her head up to peer over the edge, the reaper was gone. "Where di-"

Another loud clang, and her eyes slowly moved to the side of the platform, the same metal fingers now gripped the edge mere feet away from her, a second later the reapers head reared up in front of her, it's eyes gleaming with blood lust as the other hand closed into a fist and came rushing down towards Melina…
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Yeah i decided to give the reaper battle it's own separate chapter. For one it builds suspense, seeing as everyone will have to wait to see the battle (Though we all know how it's going to turn out :P ) And for another i want to ensure the reaper battle is as epic as possible, coming from me that'll be difficult, but it'll still do my best.

Anyway, tell me what you think, i was trying to build a little on Garrus and Shepard's friendship, to me at least their quite close in the game even if you don't take the romance path. But i'm not sure how well that turned out. So i'll leave it up to my readers to decide.