//------------------------------// // Cannon // Story: Mass Effect: Element of Kindness // by CommanderApplejack //------------------------------// Chapter 181 Cannon "I need support now, Wrex!" the turian Primarch nearly shouted at the krogan leader as he was clearly getting more desperate. "And we had a deal!" Wrex rumbled back to him, not budging an inch. "No krogans will be headed towards Palaven as long as the genophage has not been cured!" "The cure can wait now you have the female, my people require immediate support or we risk total collapse!" the turian shouted back, Fluttershy winced as she'd tried prying information on Palaven's status out of Garrus but he hadn't budged. Knowing the planet was at its breaking point... that stung somewhat, regardless of her never been there. "That was not the deal, you can accept my demands or not expect any support at all!" Wrex roared back at him. Fluttershy leaned forward against the table, "Wrex-" "You know I am very fond of you, Fluttershy, and I know you and Garrus are a thing but not even you can change my mind about this. If we help them now and we win they'll just go back on their word about curing us," Wrex cut off the pegasus, though his volume was much lower than when he was talking to the turian. Fluttershy sighed as looked over at Shepard and Mordin who had joined them too as the two leaders of their respective species had their shouting match. "How long would it take to finish the cure, Mordin?" Shepard asked as he could see they weren't going to change Wrex's mind here. "Need to synthesize base antigen from female. Will also require male krogan for samples," Mordin quickly summed up. "You're looking at it," Wrex, of course, said without hesitation. "Acceptable. Will require you to remain here on Normandy while I work," Mordin said happily as he got another challenge to dig his fingers into. "You're sure you can make the cure in time, Mordin?" Fluttershy asked before the turian councillor could. "Yes. Always worked well under pressure. Will get it done, don't worry," he reassured them. "Will be in the medbay if needed. Expect to need those samples soon." "You'll get them," Wrex grunted, Mordin nodded and left. "Now, is there anything else?" "There's a small matter concerning a ship we've lost contact with which we could use some help locating. I would prefer to discuss the details in private." the turian councillor replied. Wrex huffed. "Turian problems don't even get near the problems I've got. Some of my krogans went missing but I'd like to discuss that in private." Fluttershy sighed as the two leaders of their respective butted heads and refused to even remotely work together. The two of them left the conference room to coordinate their respective war efforts, leaving Fluttershy and Shepard alone in the room. "This is just going to be a major headache after another isn't it." "Nobody's going to make it easier on us," Fluttershy sighed. "I'm just glad they're at least friendly to us, if it was hostility all around it would be impossible." "Agreed," Shepard sighed. "On another note, Traynor and your friend found some Cerberus activity down on Tuchanka. Seems to be local and a small force, I wanted to ask you if you could take Garrus and find out what they are doing there." "Borrow us a shuttle and consider it done," Fluttershy stated. "You're an angel, Fluttershy. I'm going to deal with Wrex and the Primarch, good luck down there," Shepard too left to head into the war room where the two leaders had set up to ask what they wanted him to do. Fluttershy let Shepard's last sentence echo for a moment. "An angel... Angel of death..." she muttered, heading out the other direction to the war room, through the security checkpoint, and into the CIC. Traynor though was not located at her usual spot near the command station. "EDI, where is Trainor right now?" "Specialist Trainor and Twilight Sparkle are currently in the mess discussing signal intelligence over lunch." EDI replied. Fluttershy chuckled and shook her head. "Of course they are." Taking the elevator down to the lower deck Fluttershy headed over and joined the two. "...It was a very nice catch." "Well, their attempt at masking it along the krogan transmissions was good but they were too clean. Krogans' tech usually has a bigger failure rate," Twilight replied with a blush as Fluttershy took a seat. "I hear you two have something for me. Cerberus activity on Tuchanka?" "Ah yes, we found suspicious communications going off-planet. An estimate of force would be about three squads of Cerberus soldiers," Trainor answered. "They have taken position at an old orbital cannon." "Any reason for that?" "We're not sure, but they seem to be working to bring it back online from what we can gather," Twilight answered this time. "From the records we've been able to get from the turians, those things can gut a dreadnaught so we don't want it in their hands." "Definitely not," Fluttershy agreed. There were vessels of various navies still around Tuchanka and if Cerberus could take them out it would just inflict unnecessary casualties. "Can you two send everything over to me and Garrus? we're going to take a peek down there." Twilight bit her lower lip, holding back a question. Fluttershy immediately noticed the gesture along with the emotions flowing from the unicorn and shook her head. "No." "I didn't even ask anything!" she exclaimed. "You were going to and I could see it was something reckless," Fluttershy deadpanned. "If you're interested in seeing what goes down when we're on the ground I can give you a hot seat safely from here." "Really?" Twilight's ears perked up. "Yes. I can stream a video feed directly from what I see." Fluttershy's eyes lit up as she activated a set of lenses that were contacted to her omni-tool activated. "You could even feed tactical information from orbital sensors over to us while we advance." "Do you record everything too?" Twilight softly asked. "Twilight, please don't..." "But-" "Yes." Fluttershy closed her eyes and sighed deeply. "Yes I do. I use the footage to evaluate all my actions, check if there was anything I could have done better. I sunk to a very low point when I was on Omega, Twilight, there's some absolutely gruesome stuff I have saved away. Please... just leave it be Twilight." Tailor had fallen silent as the two ponies stared each other down, a deep pain behind Fluttershy's eyes. "Liara is probably going to accompany Shepard down on whatever the Primarch or Wrex has in store for him. We can ask to set up in her room." "I guess..." Twilight sighed. "I'll go set it up with her, I'll let you know when we're going down." Two loud thuds rocked the shuttle even as the cannon was still quite some way away. "Damn, they already got the things working." Garrus cursed as he went in for a landing a small way out. "Twilight, can you figure out what they're shooting at?" Fluttershy asked, opening up the shuttle and leaving prematurely to check the landing site for activity. "Checking it now, I'll get back to you when I find the target." the unicorn replied over the comms. "Copy, we'll move forward," Fluttershy replied before turning to Garrus. "Landing site clear, I'll fly ahead and make sure our path is clear." "Just like old times," Garrus replied with obvious amusement. "'Old times' meaning not all that long ago," Shy shot back with equal amusement. "Feels like a lifetime." "Touché." Fluttershy had engaged her active camouflage but kept close to the ground, scanning for any Cerberus forward positions, the wrecked surface of Tuchanka giving plenty of places where one could hide. "Shy, I've got an update on that cannon fire. There's a Cerberus cruiser making its way down to the planet's surface and the cannons are clearing the way for it. EDI informs me that that thing could do devastating damage if it manages to bombard the krogan!" Twilight stated, sounding fairly alarmed. "You have half an hour at best!" "Right in the nick of time," Garrus commented as he put on some further speed. "Why do we get in these situations where we cut it this close..." "No rest for the wicked! We may be able to use the cannon to knock out that cruiser though," Fluttershy replied as she took on some altitude and using her sniper rifle to tag enemies. "I can take over the main control centre but I don't think I'm proficient enough with big guns like these to score a hit on that cruiser." "I'm sure I can though. You go around and cause chaos, I'll make my way to the control centre," Garrus told Shy as they approached the gun's outer perimeter. "Will do, good luck!" Shy called out as she flew off. "Luck? I've got bullets!" Garrus shouted back with a laugh before his marefriend could get out of earshot. Shy shook her head and went for the closest group of Cerberus infantry, flying straight above them before dropping herself like a brick. "Shy, what are... you... doing..?" Twilight fell silent as the first trooper was impaled, the second kicked in the knees and then shot in the head by heavy pistol, the third and fourth getting suspended into a biotic field before getting executed as well. "Causing chaos. If they focus on me Garrus can get into the control centre with minimal resistance," She replied, propping up her sniper rifle and loosing two more deadly accurate shots. "B-But..!" "Twi, I'm sure you saw the bulletin report about the augmentations the Cerberus troopers undergo. They aren't themselves anymore and there's no reversal to reaper augmentation," Shy explained as she nailed three more Cerberus operatives. "Garrus, status?" "Almost there, there's a small squad in the way. Taking care of them now," the turian replied, any sound from shots that were fired were drowned out as the orbital cannon fired again. "Fluttershy, there's a squad coming at you from the north!" Twilight warned, her voice still shaky but giving Fluttershy just enough time to turn and put up a shield against a trio of grenades thrown in her direction. "Thanks for the heads-up!" Shy grunted as she activated her cloak and disappeared into the dust cloud that was thrown up by the trio of explosions. "Spread out!" The Cerberus officer shouted at his troops, only for an omni-blade to appear from his chest as he got stabbed from behind. The rest of the troopers spun around and shot at where they'd briefly seen the pegasus appear, hitting nothing but thin air. "Damnit, they cut off the power to the control systems." Garrus cursed as the massive cannons stopped firing too. "Hold up, I can find the source!..." Twilight quickly stated, a new marker appearing Fluttershy's map a few seconds later. "There! I traced the supply to a set of relays through which power needs to be routed!" she exclaimed full of pride. "Well done Sparkle! I'll hold the control centre, you go get me power, Flutters!" Garrus stated as Fluttershy had already started heading in the relay's direction. Shy's motion sensors lit up brightly with all sorts of dots as she approached the marked location. "There's quite a few of them here, how much time do we have left before that cruiser gets too close?" Shy asked as she took cover across from the Cerberus forces that were entrenching. Turrets having been set up with overlapping fields of fire and portable shield generators for fire positions. "Seven minutes until the cruiser is below the firing envelope of this gun," Garrus reported. Fluttershy briefly closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Shy?" Twilight asked, her feed having gone black too as Shy had her moment of calm. "I'm going to get to those relays, Twilight... that's not going to be without violence," She stated matter of factly as she loaded a new thermal clip. "I-I know..." Twilight replied. "But by doing this we get to save a lot more people, right? I don't like how it's the only answer here but this isn't Equestria anymore... Go save the krogan down there." Shy didn't reply as she lobbed two smoke grenades over at the entrenched line and popped out of cover. Four rapid shots in succession took out the turrets that were keeping overwatch, giving a clear path to the pegasus to come forward. The Cerberus troops blindly fired into the smoke, getting taken out by Fluttershy systematically as she traced back the fire to their origin. Tossing two singularities at the better dug in positions too, Fluttershy charged at the power relays and broke into the boxes. A quick rewire later, before the Cerberus troops could get their bearing, the power was restored. The two massive orbital guns ground as they adjusted their angle to aim at the incoming cruiser. "Charging the shot now..." Garrus said. Another ear-deafening shot later a bright flash could be seen in the sky. "The cruiser is breaking up..." Twilight reported, sounding very tired. "The krogans are sending some people to clean up the site and see if they can salvage those guns." "Then we won't stick around. I'm sure Shepard will want to get that cure for the krogans out there as soon as he can. We'll hook up at the shuttle, Shy." "Agreed, see you in a bit."