CHAPTER 37: Invincible
2185 CE
Garrus led us down into the oddly organic-looking hive the Collectors had created. I'd never actually had time to ask Javik about Prothean Ship design or social habits. Might not have helped anyway, since with the Reapers controlling the relays I doubt Javik's period of the Prothean extinction actually had much use for ships, and with the constant battle for survival the only social structure was probably military in nature. Still, it makes me wonder how much of the Collectors' hive mind behavior is taken straight from the Protheans.
Maybe it was developed by the Reapers as a way to distract other sentients and throw them off their game? If so it wasn't really working on me. I'd grown up fighting Rachni. It would take more than a few bugs to unsettle me.
We headed down, Legion and Garrus taking up the rear as the snipers; in front of them were Jacob, Thane, Kasumi, Jack and Kaidan. Finally Grunt and I were out in front. While the hive itself was empty as we walked, there was a menacing buzzing in the infrasound band; Humans couldn't hear it, but they could certainly feel it as a looming sense of dread. For Krogan like me and Grunt it manifested as a slight ringing in our eardrums; all six of them. It was dull but persistent; I could hear over it but it was still annoying to deal with. Unfortunately there was also nothing I could do about it.
Garrus signaled us into position as we approached a large chamber, directing us into cover and signaling Legion and Kaidan into a flanking position.
Tali's voice came over the radio. 'I'm inside the ventilation Shaft, Shepard. It's hot in here, but it's clear as far as I can tell.'
Shepard's voice followed it. 'Second team, are you in position?'
'In position. Meet you on the other side of those doors.' Garrus replied once we were all in cover.
With that, Garrus signaled us to open fire. Since Harbinger was dealing with Shepard, we didn't get to enjoy his glowing golden possession move, but we did get to deal with Collectors; a whole shitload of Collectors.
Playing the games, something that always bothered me about the final push in the Collector Base was how few Praetorians you end up facing, even on insanity. Back when this was still all just a game, all throughout the mission I would think to myself, 'Where are the Praetorians? Shouldn't I be fighting Praetorians?'
We had found the Praetorians.
'There are only three of them! We outnumber them!' I joked to my fellow squadmates.
'How do we beat them?' Garrus asked, having not actually faced Praetorians before.
The Praetorians were already loosing their eye beams at us, trapping us in cover.
'USE MORE GUN!' Kaidan shouted, panicking as an eyebeam missed incinerating him by less than a foot.
'Should have brought the Normandy. She would've been enough gun.' Grunt grumbled as he stomped the head of a Collector into mush before rolling back into cover to avoid three different sets of eye beams.
'Strip the barriers, burn through the shields, and then whittle down their health!" I explained, throwing one of my few remaining warp grenades at a trio of Praetorians who had managed to end up grouped together.
'Focus fire on the trio! I want those Praetorians out of action!" Garrus commanded, and instantly a half dozen biotic and tech attacks launched at the trio, tearing through their armor and triggering a bunch of explosions both biotic and technological in nature.
'They're still up!' Kasumi warned.
'Assault rifles, sniper rifles! Focus Fire! Everyone else keep the drones off us!' Garrus commanded. The Praetorians didn't die easy, each one crashing to the ground before detonating and taking out a swath of the Collectors in an almost perfect sphere around them.
The Collectors were closing in, but I had a solution for that. Back on the Alarei I had had the materials and opportunity to make an absolutely obscene number of overload discs; honestly it was a truly unreasonable amount of the things. The only way I'd ever need that many discs would be if there were so many enemies that they literally blotted out the skies.
I looked up.
Not quite there yet, but certainly more than enough to use some of the discs.
'Overload!' I threw a handful of the tiny taser-like disks at the swarm, enjoying how they arced and incapacitated the Collectors, some of them falling into the abyss before they ever even reached the platform.
The team had taken out another two Praetorians by the time the discs stopped sparking. Only three left.
'Garrus here. We're taking heavy fire but we're moving forward.' He stated as he motioned us to go to flank the remaining Collectors.
We moved, shooting and using our abilities to slowly whittle down the storm while Garrus directed specific members of the squad to focus on the Praetorians.
It took almost a full minutes, but eventually the chamber was empty of every living thing save us.
Tali's voice broke the silence. 'I'm stuck. Something's blocking the pipe. Look's like some kind of gate.'
Garrus quickly looked over at me, alarmed.
I couldn't reassure him. There was nothing we could do on this side to help her.
A few seconds later, Tali's voice rang out again. 'The gate is open. Moving forward!'
We advanced to the next room as well.
I took a bit to look over the room. It was a funnel, really; a long hallway full of waist high wall of dubious utility leading to a large room beyond. Also, it was filled with Scions and Abominations.
'I'm blocked again. You need to find another valve out there.' Tali explained to Shepard over the radio.
There's definitely something disconcerting about facing the flaming red forms of a mass of abominations, knowing that the only defense against them was to keep them at a distance. There was strategy at work here, the Scions would rain down a hail of explosives to keep us distracted while the Abominations advanced. I wasn't a fan of this new development. I hated it when my enemies got clever.
Tali's voice rang out over the radio a few seconds later. 'Nice work Shepard. Continuing down the tube.'
'Grunt, Jacob, Jack, Krell. I want you on point with Shotguns. Blast those damn firetraps before they get to us. Legion thane and I will pick off the artillery. Everyone else, work on Crowd control.' Garrus commanded and we went to work immediately blasting our way down the hall.
'I don't have a shotgun.' I reminded Garrus.
'You have grenades! That's just as good for killing those damn things!' Garrus snarked back.
He had a point.
'You know, when you all recruited me for this suicide mission, I thought there would be a lot more thieving involved!' Kasumi complained, firing her Kassa Locust at the Collector monstrosity coming towards us.
'But you've been constantly stealing, Kasumi! You've stolen all of our hearts!' I teased back over the roar of my NK-47.
'Those have very little resale value, Krell!' She shouted before firing an overload and taking out three more abominations.
'Hey Garrus, Something's been bothering me. You ever figure out what true love was?' Kaidan asked as he threw an Abomination into another, blowing them both up in one move and clearing a swathe in the army arrayed against us.
Had Kaidan been snooping on Grunt's foe-tossing lessons? Because that was exceptionally efficient of him.
'Krell-Professor has provided us with a definition of love.' Legion replied.
'Legion! I was joking when I said that!" I cut off, trying to limit the damage as I switched briefly to my Widow to headshot a Scion.
'No, go on, Legion. I want to hear this definition.' Garrus urged, unhelpfully.
'Definition: 'Love' is making a shot to the knees of a target 120 kilometers away using a widow sniper rifle with a thermal scope... Love is knowing your target, putting them in your targeting reticule, and together, achieving a singular purpose against statistically long odds.' Legion recited; exploding the head of the last Scion in the process.
Silence took hold of the hallway.
'Wow, Gramps. That's kinda really fucked up.' Jack stated when it was clear no one else would.
'I told you, it was a joke!' I protested,
'Looks like another one of those things in the way. Gotta help me out again, Shepard.' Tali providing a well-timed distraction as she notified the Commander over the radio.
Garrus smirked at me before activating his own comm unit. 'Garrus here. We're making good progress. Meet you at the rendezvous.'
'All clear. Moving on.' Tali suddenly announced.
We advanced towards a set of huge mechanical doors, an oddity in this otherwise barren hive of rock and chitin.
'We're in position. Just waiting for the doors to open.' Garrus radioed the other teams.
'You think there's any way to fly this base through the relay?' Grunt asked as we funneled into the next room. A ramp. No cover at all, no railings, just an open ramp.
'I think we have bigger problems.' Kaidan replied as he caught sight if the ramp; and the Collectors flying towards it on our left.
'Alright. It's a small swarm. Weapons free. Let's take 'em down here and move on.' Garrus commanded.
'I'm blocked again. You need to find another valve out there.' Tali's voice crackled from the comms.
We unloaded our fire at the Collectors, managing to shoot about half of the small swarm of sixteen or so down before our comms crackled again.
'Hurry Shepard! It's heating up in here!' Tali complained.
I don't think anyone else realized what it would be like, knowing that Tali's life was in the hands of Shepard and there was nothing we could do about it. We had trusted our lives to Tali's skills and now there was another wrinkle to it. We all trusted Shepard, but even so there was a nervous sort of resentment to the knowledge.
I can't imagine what it would feel like for someone who wasn't expecting it; someone who wasn't loyal. Like a gnawing pit opening up beneath them unexpectedly, perhaps. It would certainly be enough to throw someone off their game.
'The gate is open. moving forward.' Tali announced as we cleared the room.
The worry was there of course; worry for a friend; a squadmate. But we all knew Shepard. We all trusted Shepard. So we weren't afraid in any serious sense of the word.
Our lives were in Shepard's hands, and all of us, even Kaidan, felt sure that Shepard wouldn't spend them foolishly.
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2185 CE
'One more valve to go, Shepard. You know the drill.' Tali radioed in as we entered the last room. I didn't like it. The whole thing was shaped like an amphitheater with the locked door to the rendezvous point at the very bottom of it. The controls thereto weren't visible; but we all knew that wherever it was Tali would reach it far begore we ever could.
There was cover at the bottom of the room, but a waist high barricade was piss poor protection when all your enemies had the high ground on almost all sides.
'That's a fucking deathtrap.' Jack cursed.
'Looks like the ventilation shaft opens right there in that kill zone.' Kaidan observed.
'Fuck.' Jack agreed.
'Fuck indeed, Jack. Fuck indeed.' I agreed.
'Okay. I know how to handle this.' Garrus decided, activating his comms.
'Tali, your vent empties out into a kill zone. We can't defend it long term, so we're going to grab a defensible location as near as we can. Warn us before you get out and we'll be there to cover you as you head for the door, okay?' Garrus ordered.
'Yeah. I can do that.' Tali agreed
Garrus turned to us.
'We're gonna take that right corner of the room. It's closest to Tali's tube, it minimizes the distance we'll need to cross. When I give the signal advance to the cover at the bottom of the room and hold until the door opens.' Garrus ordered.
We breached cover shooting, choosing a path towards our preferred corner. The Collectors streamed in quickly as we dashed for the goal; the bright blue actinic discharge of our shields defending us from their shots until we could get to cover.
The Collectors were starting to fill up the room at an unsustainable pace. Unsustainable for us, anyway. I just hoped it was also unsustainable for them.
'You know, next time someone offers to pay me to go on a suicide mission I think I'll say no.' Kasumi uncloaked already in cover as I arrived.
I snorted as Kaidan arrived beside us, tossing a biotic throw behind him and taking a second to recharge his barriers.
'Hear that, Kaidan? Suicide missions. Just say no.' I teased.
'Krell, no shuttle could possibly be worth all this, right?' Kaidan complained.
He seemed to lack perspective. Well, that was easily remedied!
'You know, you're right.' I agreed.
'I am?' Kaidan asked, shocked as he fired his pistol over the barricade.
'Yeah. I gave you a chance to enjoy some of the best fights in the Galaxy, and a chance to save your race from destruction by a vastly technologically superior foe interested in turning you all into their toys because of your prowess in battle. That really is worth far more than my shuttle, isn't it?' I pointed out, subtly, as I handed him some overload discs from my belt pouch full of them.
'Well, when you put it that way...' Kaidan trailed off, accepting the armaments.
'When I put it that way what, Kaidan?' I asked, tossing another overload disc over the cover at the oncoming drones.
'Oh look, Krell! There's Tali! What a wonderful distraction.' Kaidan finished dully, as he joined me throwing his own discs.
'You've finally given up pining for Shepard then? I cannot support you in this suit. I have pledged Garrus my support prior to your asking.' I let Kaidan down, gently.
'What? No! That's not what I meant at all, Krell!' Kaidan protested.
My worst fears were realized. Kaidan took my refusal so badly that he's denying his suit ever existed! Revealing his crush ended up becoming so awkward that he's just going to pretend it never happened!
I frown. Maybe I've gone too far in teasing Kaidan. But it would be really awkward to try and talk him through the experience.
Damn it! If only there were a conveniently timed distraction!
'Alright! Everybody in traveling order. Hug the wall. Get to cover quickly.' Garrus ordered just as I needed a convenient distraction!
He really was perfectly suited to command.
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Author's Notes: Pat Benatar is really underrated. So, there are 42 Chapters (more or less) in the ME2 arc (including ME1 chapters, I'm too busy to count how many of those there were). That's with me speeding through fight scenes, by the way. I can write a lot better fight scenes than this (and indeed I did so in the Kaidan mission), but the focus here isn't to write a really satisfying fight scene, it's to write a fun action sequence that builds up to a satisfying fight scene at the end.
There's a trade off with these chapters in terms of what you can accomplish. a good fight scene takes a lot of words to write. It also takes a lot of choreography and physical detail. Those physical details run in direct opposition to banter. Banter needs to flow freely. It doesn't work if one guy says one thing, then there's five paragraphs of physical detail before the snappy response.
The Collector Base assault lets me focus on what missions look like without Shepard in them, with a large cast of squadmates in a large group. Because of that, I decided to prioritize banter and character interaction. Does that make the fight scenes worse? Absolutely. But hopefully it makes the chapters more enjoyable and humorous instead of a dense slog of extremely detailed fight scenes. There's a danger here that the Collector Mission is going to feel like a log And the way to fix that is to severely abbreviate the fights. Each fight can, theoretically be summed up with a sentence or two.
I'm trying to strike a balance here and I don't think I've got it quite down yet. The Marvel films actually strike that balance really well, and for all the flack they get nowadays on the internet, that's incredibly hard to do. I'm writing this story to challenge myself and improve my skills, so inevitably I'm going to find areas where I'm not up to where I think I need to be. Finding those areas is, in some respects, the entire point of doing this.
I think in these sorts of cinematic fight scenes are a weakness of mine which I'm going to have to address through practice. Luckily, ME3 is going to give me a lot of freedom to try and work on them. Since I'm not releasing any of that until it's finished; I can spend the time I need to make them land better.
As a final note, in ME1, Kaidan has no powers other than Biotics (he can do shit like Stasis, but he can't use anything else but Biotics and pistols). In ME3 Kaidan has Reave, Overload, and Cryoblast. That implies that he spent his time in ME2 not just practicing and getting better with his biotics, but also learning enough about tech and engineering to be useful as a combat engineer. Honestly, it's really impressive and I just wish that the actual narrative in ME3 had, you know, mentioned it at all.