Deliverance-Chapter 3

The small, uninhabited planet seemed even more desolate, inhospitable and dismal than the digital images they had seen-and those had seemed pretty bleak, to be sure, but they did no justice to the actual locale. Rocky crevasses of rock so dark red it almost seemed black-until one squinted their eyes and looked a bit closer-alternated with flat expanses of baked orange-tinged earth, dotted with the occasional darker-shaded dunes where-presumably- thresher maws burrowed in and out of the ground. All that was overshadowed by a bloody red, sunless sky that rendered the landscape into an even grimmer, almost ominous red haze of a light  that seemed to restrict visibility and confuse distances remarkably. It was impossible to tell if the next dune that the naked eye meandered to was a few paces away or a few dozen miles.

The shuttle landed, a little less aptly than usual in a small crevice between two rocky hills of crimson stone, a good distance from their destination. "Sorry about that landing; hard to judge distances in this light," Cortez sighed.

"Yeah, not one of your best there,"Vega teased, though he was not in the mood for jokes himself. "This is got to be one of the most gloomy planets I've ever set foot on," the large lieutenant remarked, as he stepped out of the shuttle first, wanting to look around. "You need to blink constantly just to make sure your eyes haven't gone out on you," he snorted.

"Use your helmet filter, Jimmy," Garrus pointed out, coming outside himself. "Won't take away the red glare completely, but you'll at least be able to see where you're stepping…Wouldn't want you stepping into a thresher maw because you were blinking," he added, unable to resist the teasing.

James chuckled. "Why are we landing half a planet away, anyway?" he asked, glancing back into the shuttle where Shepard and the others were still gearing up-Shepard busy on the shuttle terminal, frowning at something on the screen.

Everyone had wanted to come along; Shepard herself had been inclined to go alone, as per the message's demand, but pretty much everyone else had argued against that. It had taken more than a fair amount of convincing and a lot of active arguing to get her to let some of her squad tag along-but the commander was clearly not too well-pleased at having been overruled there. She was enough on edge with this mission and the all-too tantalizing prospect of it being exactly what it promised to be to want to add concern for her squad-her friends- if it all turned out to be a trap. And, of course, everyone pretty much sensed that, knowing her as well as they did, and in some cases, like, say Javik and EDI, actually physically sensing something was amiss.

"We're landing half a planet away," she finally said now, abandoning the computer, "because we don't want to alert Cerberus or whoever else is out there that we've arrived. They're expecting me, alone, and that's what they need to think they're getting". She paused, checking the ammo in the pistol she was carrying, before continuing. "If this is a trap, we're setting one of our own; and secondly, EDI ran a few thermal scans of the planet, especially the part of it that concerns us and there's extensive thresher maw activity underground. Flying a shuttle right over a valley full of thresher maws…would attract attention we're better off without".

"No kidding," Vega muttered back, glancing out to the impressive vista ahead; it seemed peaceful, he thought, too peaceful for that matter, but they knew better. "Won't thresher maws be coming after us regardless?" he asked now. "I mean, bad to go in by shuttle, OK, but running from threshers on foot…"

"Thresher maws detect vibrations on the surface, yeah, but it's unlikely they'll detect the sparse footsteps of people on foot through the plains," Garrus shrugged. "If you feel the ground shaking, though, run as fast as you can towards the nearest rocky patch of earth you can see," he continued coolly.

"Reassuring," James rolled his eyes amusedly.

"I try,"  Garrus retorted with a faint smirk.

"Hate to be the bearer of bad news, Scars, but your bedside manner sucks," Vega replied smoothly.
"Enough chatter; we need to go over the plan," Shepard said, a bit more sharply than normally, giving both males a frown as she did so.

"Why bother? You know our plans rarely ever work as they're supposed to, Shepard,"  Garrus smiled back at her.

Her frown didn't dissipate; if anything, it grew just a bit more ominous. "Garrus, I am really not in the mood for levity right now; this is more likely to be a trap than what it seems to be and I don't want to take any chances. Sass me right now and you're staying in the shuttle, I'm sure Cortez will appreciate the company".

"Not really, no," Cortez shook his head, coming to the shuttle door to see what was going on. He shrugged apologetically to the glare Shepard gave him over her shoulder.

"Fine, fine, let's go over the plan already," Garrus sighed casually. "But you know I'm not staying behind, Shepard, even if you order me; and strictly speaking, you have no authority to do that".

"Right, so the plan,"  Liara stepped in before Shepard could retort to Garrus-and she was well on her way to do precisely that, she could tell. "The Commander goes in on her own, taking the most direct approach to the compound; go slowly, let them see you coming in," she nodded to Shepard, who nodded back. "While whoever there have their attention focused on Shepard, we break into two groups; Garrus and Javik take the back route approach EDI mapped out after comprehensive scans of the surrounding area and make their way to the rear of the compound; once there, they can provide support to the Commander and take out any lurking hostiles. Meanwhile, me and Lieutenant Vega will shadow Shepard, but keep a safe distance from the compound, and rendezvous with the other team once she has made contact".  

"Nice and simple," Vega shrugged.


"Yeah, and it will go wrong in more ways than we can predict, probably; be ready for anything," Shepard herself sighed a short moment later. "Sorry for snapping at you, Garrus," she added with a sigh.

"No worries, Shepard; you're on edge and it is understandable," the turian smiled back. "Do me a favour, though…be careful out there," he added with a sigh of his own.

She nodded. "Will do; same goes for all of you; now, let's get this done". Now that they had actually arrived here, it was almost impossible to control her impatience, she thought with a sigh, as she started off first, moving slowly away from the shuttle in a slow, careful place.

In the distance, and with the help of the specialized filters EDI and Garrus had managed to program into the ground team's helmets and visors, she thought she could see the glare of the crimson sun bouncing off something metallic; it was in the direction of the mining settlement, to be sure, but there was no way to tell for sure, the way distances and light played games with the eye here. She glanced over her shoulder back towards the shuttle, where the other two teams were preparing to move; Garrus raised his rifle in farewell, before he and Javik headed off in the opposite direction, moving away from the shuttle and her.

This was most likely exactly what the turian and most of the others were pretty much convinced it was: some well-planned ambush for yet another party that wanted a piece of Commander Shepard to get their hands on her, she thought, a little gloomily; and yet, there she  was, walking right into that possibility…and not being able to control or quench the rogue hope in her heart  that what  the message had promised to entice her here was true.

"Human nature for you," she murmured to herself, focusing on the trek that lay ahead of her. The expanse of packed crimson, lifeless earth that spread out before her, as she left the narrow rocky cliff side seemed almost too quiet; had she not known what lay beneath the surface, she might have considered the landscape almost serene. As it were, she knew she would need to be exceedingly careful crossing the no-man's land to her destination-and for more reasons than one.

The mining settlement looked like any other similar settlement they had seen around the galaxy, Shepard thought as she drew closer, taking it slowly; she still had a way to go, but she could make out key features of the place she was headed for. A large, solid metal construction with no visible windows dominated the center of the small, neat arrangement of buildings. Previous experience said that it had been put up first, for the express purpose of safeguarding the mining tunnels stretching beneath. Said tunnels, aside from mining, could be used for a variety of purposes and, more importantly at the moment, could easily be used to conceal a whole army out of sight. Shepard winced at the thought, reflexively checking her weapons, as she walked on.

There were smaller buildings, arranged in a small, tight cluster around the central facility; container-sized, standard expedition-type housing and perhaps research units, as far as she could tell. The way they had been set up bespoke of defensibility and a desire not to allow the settlement to spread out too far.  

Four metallic towers stood roughly on either corner of the small, spare settlement. Shepard checked her omni-tool, confirming what she already knew: there was a low frequency signal transmitting from each of the towers, the vibration covering a good distance surrounding the mining expedition's buildings. As far as her scan could tell, the signal created a solid square of protection around the settlement; recalling what Liara had briefed them about, she knew that protection didn't reach more than a few metres below ground. She ignored the occasional minor tremors she felt as she crossed into range of the sub-sonics, more concerned with the seemingly abandoned complex that now stood a bit too close for comfort.

She made for the main building, keeping a watchful, practiced eye around her for any sigh of movement, however small. There was none she could see and her equipment seemed to agree with her senses. Perhaps this had been a red herring after all, or perhaps the message had been sent some time ago and whoever had been the sender had moved on by now-a thought that made her heart sink just a little bit, even though cold reason said it had probably never been a real chance anyway.

The sound of a mechanized door open, deafening in the otherwise eerie quiet of the small compound made her start, her assault rifle drawn and ready in the span of half a heartbeat. She had paused at the foot of the worn metallic ramp leading up to the mining building and moved to the side, by the solid metal railings,  where cover was handy.

A small contingent of heavily armored men filed out of the door, forming a line between her and the doorway behind them, the door sliding shut with a hiss behind them. They carried heavy weapons-no less than what Shepard herself was carrying- which made the Commander frown, though she wasn't overly concerned; she had faced far worse odds, after all, she knew, her trained eye already scanning the hostile force for weaknesses. Some bore Cerberus insignia on their armor, she noticed, which wasn't exactly reassuring, but she had been expecting it.

She stepped out of her improvised cover as one of the men stepped forward, coming halfway down the ramp to meet her; none of them had weapons drawn, so she lowered her rifle, though she made no motion of putting it away.

"Commander Shepard?" the man asked, pretending not to notice, though he watched her as intently as she was watching him and his  comrades.

"That's me," she said coolly. "I believe you have a package for me". She made sure to keep her tone neutral, and just a bit cold- if they didn't already know, there was no reason to let them know how much their 'commodity', as they had called it, meant to her. In fact, letting them know could make things take a turn for the worse and she couldn't afford that right now.

"Package? A friend of yours, a valuable companion and member of your crew and you refer to him that way?" the man asked, clearly amused. "You're stone-cold, Shepard; I like that," he nodded his approval.

She shrugged as indifferently as she could manage-and it wasn't easy, part of her wanted to just shoot the lot of them and then storm the mining tunnels…see if they really had the man they said they did. Javik was right, damn him, she thought; she was too emotional in this and getting it under control wasn't as easy as any other mission she had been on. She drew in a deep breath before rolling her eyes at the man still watching her.

"I don't have all day," she said drily. "And I want my friend back, make no mistake. But I don't give a damn about pleasantries. You wanted to do business, so get on with it. What do you want?"

The man nodded back towards his men and the door behind them. "Why don't we move this conversation inside?" he suggested.

Shepard glanced around, at the abandoned settlement, before turning her gaze back to the man across from her. "Why don't we stay right out here? Afraid someone will overhear us?" she asked, a bit sarcastically. Walking blindly inside a series of mining tunnels, with who knew how many hostiles might be waiting to gun her down or worse was a mistake not even a rookie would make, after all.

The man shrugged. "We don't mean you any harm, Commander; if we did, someone would have shot you down as you came close, we've had eyes on you the whole time. As for going inside…Your friend has undergone some rather serious surgical procedures, he isn't exactly mobile; and I figured you'd like to see him before we deal".

Shepard almost swore under her breath; she should have seen this coming, she huffed inwardly, of course they'd not bring Thane-still, assuming they had him-outside for her and her team to conveniently grab  and run if-when- things went south. Garrus was going to kill her for this, she was sure-unless he was too happy to be proven right when saying their plan would get screwed up somewhere along the line, she thought, grimly amused, before nodding to the man.

"Fine, let's go," she said coolly.

The small line of armed men broke ranks, the door behind them opening with the ominous sound it seemed to like to make again. Shepard took the opportunity to type a quick command into her omni-tool, hoping to let EDI know what was going on, before following the men inside the mining tunnels.