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Their Finest Hour	By : draygon Category: +M through R > Mass Effect Views: 8628 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: Disclaimer: I do not own Mass Effect or EA, and I do not make any money from these writings.

Chapter List
- 7
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Shepard let out a breath she had not realized she was holding as the Kodiak lifted up off the jungle floor and into the sky. Even with all it's advanced shielding and electronic buffering systems all that could be thwarted if someone looked out a window. Shepard took a deep breath and approached the door. The red access panel in front clearly meant it was locked. To the side of the door, a small panel was flipped open. It almost looked as though someone was preforming maintenance on the door recently and forgot to seal the side access panel. Shepard pressed the brightest button on the panel.

"Access is restricted. Enter authorization code."

Shepard pressed the button again, and the door slid open. "Huh..." Shepard poked her head into the doorway, looking for any sign of movement. The door seemed to open to a little used access if the piles of rubble were any indication, which would explain the lax security. Slowly she advanced into the hallway and to the right. The bridge over the gap in the floor seemed to be out of order as well, which left the side hall that led down. Slowly Shepard stepped into the large room and was greeted with a lone varen feasting on what was left of a Salarian prisoner. One shot between the eyes with her Phalanx and the scaly dog was down. "Varen," Shepard confirmed her observation as she toed the corpse off of it's meal. "The batarians must send their prisoners down here to die. I have to find Dr. Kenson now."

The room had no other exits, however, there were two controls, the cables of which led up to where the bridge should be. Shepard stepped on the controls and heard the sound of the bridge extending. Coming back up the small side hall, crossed the gap on the newly extended bridge which led to a set of stairs that led her to the upper floors of the facility. She pulled back, pressing her back against the wall as she caught the tail end of a varen darting across the hall ahead. Slowly, she followed behind, only to find that the animal had been cut in half by the lasers cris-crossing the hallway. "This place is pretty rundown... even for a prison." The crumbled walls and piles of debris on the floor spoke to just more than neglect. Obviously, the batarians attention was focused elsewhere to let a high security prison fall into such bad shape.

Another varen lunged at her from the hall to her left, surprising Shepard as she jumped back and filled the animal with tungsten rounds. So far, she had yet to run into a guard, only varen. Either security was so lax that she could just waltz in and shoot their pets, or all their security was on the upper floors guarding Kenson. Neither option presented an easy way to get the scientist out of the facility without raising the alarms and be dog-piled by batarians.

Shepard eyed the path beyond the lasers and found the way to be blocked by even more debris. She left the lasers alone and turned left down the small hallway. "Get the human into questioning." Shepard flattened herself against the wall, listening.

"Get your hands off me!"

The second voice was female and human. Shepard was definitely in the right place. Peeking in the direction of the voices, Shepard was greeted with more lasers, this time motion detectors. Judging from the dead varren, that was what the intruder would get as a reward. How charming.

Forced to find a way around, she turned away from the door and down that hall, following it as it turned to the left and found a dead end. The wall had a sizable crack in it and charring all over the floor and walls. "Ah ha!" Shepard mumbled as she spotted the source of the blackened floor. Stepping back, she aimed her Phalanx up and fired. It took several shots to crack the pipe, the resulting explosion destroying the wall ahead of her and sending jets of flame across the opening. A few moments later and the flames died down enough to let her cross, however the next door way was blocked by the flame as well. However, the hallway running parallel to the one she had just blown up was not blocked and she followed this into what looked like a better maintained part of the facility.

"They wanted to slam an asteroid into the mass relay."

This brought Shepard up short. They wanted to do what?

"Can they even do that?"

Shepard had to agree with the guard. Was that even possible? Weren't there countermeasures designed to keep objects that big away from the mass relays?

"What difference does it make? We caught'em."

'And I am about to release them. Yes, this puts my mind entirely at ease.'

Shepard followed the stairs up to a kitchen of sorts and through the door that led back to the outside. Shepard had to admit that if it weren't for the batarians, this planet would be nice. Not that she hated batarians as a whole. Just when they tried to punch holes in her with big guns. Keeping low, she crept across the courtyard, the rain muffling her footsteps.

"They've still got her down in the prison."

Shepard stopped as she listened to the guards talking.

"I'd just kill her. Interrogating a human's a waste of time."

'With torture, maybe. You might get better results with cake.'

Shepard waited for the two guards to finish what ever break they were taking and darted across and back into a door near where the two had been talking. Following the walkways, Shepard found her way back into the facility, keeping low to avoid alerting the guards to her presence.

"No way it would have worked." She seemed to have rounded on the two talking earlier. "Relays can't be damaged much less destroyed."

"Those humans will do anything to destroy us, I swear."

Shepard shook her head. If only these batarians knew exactly what humans were actually fighting then they would be on board. At least the civilians would be. The Hegemony was much to set in their ways to budge an inch in their political views.

"We have to make this one an example to the others. We can't respond kindly to terrorists."

Shepard swore under her breath. She had to hurry if she was to get Dr. Kenson out alive. Slowly she crept around the corner to the doorway to the room the two guards were stationed in. Both had their backs turned to her and they were watching the rain fall outside. Quietly, she slipped past the door and into the walkway outside.

"There's a shuttle incoming." Shepard listened as one of the guards announced the arrival of a shuttle over the comm. "Clear the hangar bay." She didn't stop to wonder who it was arriving, she just kept going.

"I heard there was an artifact found in that asteroid belt." Shepard kept still and listened again. "Think the humans got it?" Apparently, the batarians were still in the dark as to what Kenson had found. That was both a good thing and a bad thing. If the batarians understood just what was at stake, how would they act to keep the Reapers from using their relay to gain a foothold in the galaxy?

Past the locked door, Shepard found a set of lifts, moving one out of the way so she could get down, then another to open the way to an accessible door. She had to wonder if all batarian prisons were constructed to make moving through it as difficult and convoluted as possible. Going through the door, her way was again blocked by lasers. If she even put one toe through those, every guard would be alerted to her presence and descend upon her and Dr. Kenson would be dead.

Shepard crept around to the left and found a security alcove. The log seemed to have been updated recently, so she hit the playback key and listened. Apparently the deep-cover agent had gotten sloppy and failed to encrypt her transmissions. That was unlike what Hackett had described her as. The part where the guard mentioned her interrogations only producing frenzied ramblings was puzzling.

Shepard found a console to shut off the security lasers and slipped through the hallway quickly to avoid drawing attention with her continued presence. Shepard ducked down as she heard more voices. "This one is clearly the mastermind. If she doesn't talk, kill her."

Shepard didn't like the sound of that. Stowing her pistol, she took a quick peek into the room. Apparently it was joined by reinforced glass to the room where Dr. Kenson was being interrogated. The two observing were probably the ones who arrived on the shuttle. Shepard, slowly crept up behind the two, and took them out with as little noise as possible. She would have to remember to thank Thane for giving her a few pointers in stealth kills. They were definitely coming in handy.

"I'll ask you again," the guard was obviously frustrated, "where is your base."

"You're wasting time! The Reapers are coming!" Shepard understood what the batarians were calling frenzied ramblings. They had no idea what they had stumbled upon.

"The Reapers are coming here. To this relay." Shepard was reminded of Councilor Velarn and had the urge to punch the guard in the face.

"Every moment you keep me here brings them closer."

"So I should let you destroy the relay, then? Just destroy this system?"

"Do what you want to me, batarian. Torturing me won't save you!"

Shepard hesitated for a moment. Was destroying the relay what Dr. Kenson was planning or was this more propaganda from the Hegemony? Right now, she couldn't tell.

"No. But it will amuse me."

Shepard sneered. It would amuse her to send that guard out an air lock. Quickly, she made her way out of the observation room, left down the hall and left again until she came to the door to the interrogation room. Punching the control to open it, she walked in, and calmly knocked the guard out with one punch to the head. So much for batarians having harder heads.

"Who are you?" Kenson was obviously confused, blinded by the apparatus around her head. "What are you doing?"

"Dr. Kenson?" Shepard moved around the back keeping her voice level to keep from spooking the woman strapped to the platform as she worked on disabling the device with her omni-tool. "I'm Commander Shepard. I'm here to get you out."

"Commander Shepard?" Shepard had long since gotten used to the disbelief that news of her return caused. "I had heard you were alive. Hackett must have received my message."

"We're not safe here. Can you walk?"

Kenson stumbled forward as the restraints were released, testing the strength of her legs. "I'm fine. Just give me a moment."

"We have to go." Shepard handed Kenson a spare Carnifex she kept on her person just in case. "Now."

Kenson tested the pistol's heat sink and ammo like any good soldier would. "If we can find a console, I can hack security... make us an escape path."

That sounded about as good as what Shepard had planned. "Then we'll find one. Go!" Shepard watched as Kenson finished the job and stomped on the guard's throat.

"Ready." Shepard smirked. Definitely not a shrinking violet.

Shepard winced as the loudspeaker blared into the hallway. "The ringleader escaped! Get your asses out there now!" Someone was not happy. A single guard sent a shot high and wide, giving Shepard just enough time to put him down. It was entirely possible that most of these mercs were green recruits and easily spooked. If so, they would be more dangerous to themselves than to her. Shepard motioned Kenson to follow her down a set of stairs and into another hall way.

"This is a cell block." Kenson seemed able to hold her own, much to Shepard's relief. "There should be a console here somewhere."

Shepard nodded, keeping close to the wall. Taking a quick look she spied a guard on the far end of the hall. Taking the Incisor from it's holster, she carefully aimed and sent a three round burst toward the guard's head. She popped the heat sink as his body hit the ground. As the other guard found his partner on the ground, Shepard lined up another shot and smeared him across the same wall. "Quick, clean, silent," Shepard mouthed to herself, remembering Garrus' mantra as he showed her how to use the sniper rifle without beating someone to death with it.

As she crossed the facility, an entire pack of guards came through, forcing Shepard and Kenson to take cover. So much for the quiet route. Stowing her sniper for her Mattock, Shepard used the assault rifle's sheer power to tear through the incoming guards. It took only a few minutes to chew through the guards. Kenson used a few tricks to incapacitate the guards hiding behind a concrete divide, their corpse still smoking as Shepard and Kenson made their way past and into an alcove housing the security console for this block.

Shepard looked over Kenson's shoulder as she opened the console. "They know we're here. Keep them off of me while I hack us a way out." Shepard nodded and went back out to the alcove's opening, making sure she had a fresh heat sink.

"Suppression Teams to Cell Block B, now!" Shepard readied herself as the loudspeakers blared orders to more guards. She picked the first few off with her Incisor as they followed the way she and Kenson had come.

"We need to close the door we came in through." Kenson's voice came through Shepard's ear piece. "Keep them out." She nodded and sprinted toward the doors and punched the controls just in time as another wave came through. Shepard had to suppress a smirk as the sounds of several bodies hitting the door filtered through to her. "Now they're coming up from below!"

"Just like cockroaches." Shepard muttered as she got out her Incisor again and sniped a few who had put themselves out in the open. "Flying cockroaches." Shepard chuffed and shook her head as she put a bullet into the head of one jet pack wearing batarian, his now lifeless body careening into his comrades on the deck, exploding into a ball of flame.

"Unlocking all doors to the hangar. Still need more time." Shepard smiled. She had been thinking the exact same thing. Shepard kept her incisor trained on the opening as one tried to use the lift to get to their level. He didn't last long enough to start running. "Bringing down their orbital tracking network."

"Watch the other side!" Shepard looked down as several batarian guards appeared on the platform below her, moving out of the way just as they fired on her. She moved to a better position and used her Incisor again to chew through their numbers. "There's an elevator that leads up to the hangar. I'll bring it down to us." Shepard could hear the strain in Kenson's voice. "Almost done." Shepard hoped so as she took out the last of the heavily shielded guards. She waited behind cover, waiting for her shields to come back on line, not moving until she heard the electric buzz and saw the shimmer in front of her before she took out the last guard.

"That did it!" Kenson sped past her and toward the elevator. "Let's move."

"Head for the hanger." Shepard growled as the voice came over the loud speaker. "Do not let them escape!"

"Oh! One last thing." Kenson chirped as she stepped up beside Shepard on the elevator. "The hangar doors are hard-locked. We'll have to get those open the old fashioned way."

"Leave that to me." Shepard and Kenson dove behind a docking transport as an entire squad rushed them in the hangar bay. Slowly the two chipped away at the squad' strength, forcing them to keep themselves behind the crates to keep from having their heads blown off. Shepard growled and launched herself over the transport's flat bed and rushed the closest guard, slamming her rifle butt in his face with a satisfying crack. Another guard went up in flames inside his own suit as Shepard fired a blast from her Mattock at two more until they stopped moving.

Satisfied that the bay was finely clear, Kenson approached the shuttle, an older model Kodiak in faded red and black paint. Both stopped, listening as they heard the clicks of several pistols being armed. Shepard smirked and motioned for Kenson to get into the shuttle. Using her Incisor, Shepard blew the two hard locks keeping the doors closed and dove into the shuttle. Kenson, already in the pilot's seat, aimed the rear thrusters at the advancing guards and punched the accelerator, incinerating them where they stood.

Shepard smirked as their shuttle lifted off from the prison and left the planet's atmosphere. "Engaging autopilot." Kenson sighed and leaned back in her seat. "We should be well out of range before they get their security measures unscrambled."

"Do you think they'll come after you?"

"I'm not taking any chances." Kenson got up and walked out into the shuttle's main holding area. "Batarians don't take kindly to humans who plan to destroy their mass relays."

Shepard narrowed her eyes. "So the charges against you are true."

"Well," Kenson ran her hand through her hair. "to be fair, that's about half the story. My people and I were investigating rumors of Reaper technology in the fringes of this system."

"I guess you found something." Shepard sighed, thinking that this just kept getting better and better.

"We found proof that the Reapers will be arriving in this system. When they get here, they'll use it's relay to travel through out the galaxy." Kenson locked her eyes on the relay in question as it glowed in the shuttle's small view port. "We call it the 'Alpha Relay.' From here, the Reapers can invade anywhere in the galaxy."

"So," Shepard was having a hard time coming to Kenson's conclusion. "you decided to destroy it."

"Exactly," the finality in Kenson's voice hit Shepard square in the chest. "Doing that would stop the Reaper's invasion. Even at FTL speeds, it'd be months or even years before they got to the next relay. We came up with what we just called 'the Project': a plan to launch a nearby asteroid into the relay and destroy it before the Reapers could arrive." Kenson closed her eyes. "Of course, the resulting explosion would probably wipe out the system."

Shepard sat down, trying to take all the information in. "Why do you think destroying the relay would destroy the entire system?"

"Mass relays are the most powerful mass-effect engines in the entire galaxy. The energy released from a relay's destruction would probably resemble a super nova. This is a remote system," Kenson sat down opposite Shepard. "but just over three hundred thousand batarians live on the colony where they held us. The explosion would undoubtedly kill them all."

Shepard sat back, rubbing her temple with armored fingers. "How did you plan to launch an asteroid into a mass relay?"

"Moveing an asteroid just requires thrust and guidance, which are readily available in Omega's salvage yards. Get the right amount of power and a good VI to drive it and, you can pretty much just point and shoot."

"I've always heard that mass relays are indestructible."

"I've heard that, too. But I think it's more that nobody's willing to find out what happens when one is destroyed."

Shepard had to hide the scoff. 'Can't possibly imagine why.'

"And, well... we planned to slam a small planet into the thing at very high speed. By our calculations, that's more than enough."

"Is the project still operational?"

"I," Shepard didn't like the hesitation in Kenson's voice. "imagine it is. We were only one button-press away from launch when the batarians arrested me."

"How were you caught?"

"We've been smuggling ship parts from Omega. Thrusters, guidance, an after-market eezo core. The batarians thought that looked suspicious. A few days ago, I took a few of the men on a scouting trip, and the batarians pounced on us. They never found our actual base."

Shepard shook her head. "I still don't see how you learned about this supposed invasion."

"The evidence came from what we call Object Rho, a Reaper artifact we discovered among the asteroids near the relay itself. When we get back to Arcturus Station, I'll explain everything and provide copies of all our notes on the artifact."

"What's a Reaper artifact doing in an asteroid?" Shepard couldn't imagine that the Reapers could 'forget' something like that near their entry into the galaxy.

"We don't know," Kenson shook her head, a hint of sadness in her voice. "or even what it's purpose is. Somethings are just too old or large to comprehend. Even a Reaper thousands of years dead contains power. Their artifacts are worthy of study, regardless of their purpose."

"How, exactly, does a Reaper artifact give you proof of an impending invasion?"

"It showed me visions of the Reapers' arrival... much like your Prothean beacon, I imagine. The Reapers are coming, Commander. That much I know for certain."

"If you're working near a Reaper artifact, how have you avoided indoctrination?"

"We've been very careful," Kenson put up her hands, seeing Shepard's caution. "We know what we're dealing with. You're not speaking to a child, Shepard. I saw what Sovereign did at the Citadel. Trust me - I know what's at stake."

"Then you know that the stakes are too high. If you were willing to destroy an entire system over this, I need to see your proof."

Kenson sighed, smiling as though she knew Shepard would insist. "I guess I can't argue with that. Give me a moment." Kenson strode over to the comm terminal, opening a channel. "Kenson to project base."

"Good to hear your voice, Doctor." Shepard could just barely hear the voice on the other end of the comm. "You coming home?"

"Affirmative. And," Kenson seemed to smile slightly. "I've got Commander Shepard with me."

"Shepard?" The incredulity in his voice was plain as day. "Really?"

"Tidy up the lab, the Commander needs to confirm the artifact."

"Right," Shepard chuckled at the tone on the other end. Like every man who hates being told to clean up their room. "I'll get everything set up for your arrival. Project base out."

"All set." Kenson reassured Shepard as she sat back down. "Just sit back and relax. We'll be there in no time."

Shepard didn't relax. How could she relax? Not only were the Reapers scheduled to come through this 'Alpha Relay' any day now, but she had just learned of a plan to destroy said relay. She suddenly knew why she had had such a bad feeling about this whole operation. Nothing good ever came out of anything even remotely connected with the Reapers.
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Their Finest Hour