Author's Notes: Happy N7 Day 2022 everyone! No, you're incredibly late to posting it!
A bullet left the chamber, sailed through the air, and hit the glowing red skeletal figure. The head of the figure exploded and then the figure exploded. The creature had been named an 'Abomination' by some of the Cerberus scientists on board the Normandy and the name had stuck.
"Scratch one!"
Garrus called out, dropping down behind the barricade that the fireteam had set up. Bringing his head back up, he pulled down on the trigger two more times, Garrus shot at one of the Collector creatures, dropping its shields just in time for Grunt's carnage shot explosion to finish it off. Bullets flew past each of the teams, one hitting Zaeed's shields but it was quickly returned with the Vindicator assault rifle's fire. Garrus looked down the wall of gunfire, watching the flash of shields or biotic barriers and then some form of a fightback. The wall was missing Kasumi, Tali, and Jack, but that only meant the wall had all the heavy hitters. Garrus, Grunt, Miranda, and Jacob were all giving it back just as bad as they got and the wall of bodies started to climb up. Samara blasted a clean path through the bodies of Collectors and Husks to make sure that they would have a clear way back to the Normandy. The location was a fairly difficult one to hold, it was essentially the last chokepoint of the Collector base and while they were stopping anything getting close to them, the idea of them getting overrun was a very real one.
"-Shepard to ground team, status report!"
"It's Thane," The drell assassin was the first to answer as his other squad members kept up the fire. The green-skinned man fired off several rounds while talking to the Commander. "We are holding but they keep coming, a quick exit is preferable!"
The sound of gunfire continued to ring through the halls while more enemies came toward them. The fireteam continued to fight back as their Commander responded over their omni-tools.
"Head to the Normandy and prep the engines! I'm about to blow this place sky high!" The Commander ordered, something that Garrus, and he was sure the rest of the fireteam agreed on, was more than happy to oblige. Garrus looked to Grunt, the perfect tank-bed Krogan who had the same idea as the turian. Pushing his part of the barricades to the side, Grunt stormed out of the makeshift cover and it seemed like with every step the large, hulking male took, he drew more attention to him and all the bullets as well. As the bodies focused on Grunt, Garrus and Zaeed were next, shooting round after round and thinning the herd down while Samara, Miranda, and Jacob came up with their own biotic blasts to keep the bullets away from them. Rushing up to the door and then spitting out of it, the team had a brief moment to debate what they were doing before he was to speak up.
"To the-"
"Left! Go on the left!" Miranda Lawson, Shepard's official second-in-command barked out the order and gestured towards the walkway that Shepard had come down with a biotic bubble. Samara stepped forward, going almost side-by-side with Grunt as she had been the one to guide the team down the path. She would know the way to go and the cover for them to use. Garrus and Miranda were at a close level, the pair rushing forward while they exchanged bullets with the swarms of Collectors and shot side eyes at each other. Garrus popped the heatsink on the Mattock assault rifle and slapped a brand new one in, lifting the gun up and firing off the concussive round, the group of oncoming husks was spread apart and the path was temporarily clear. Rushing forward, the team was starting to make some good progress and it was almost as if the station was running out of bodies to throw at them.
Just as they rounded the final corner and were on to the homestretch, a scream that sounded like nails on a chalkboard filled the air and then dropped down to the floor. Two massive blobs with rigid metal plates and massive jaws that were all filled with husk heads. The creatures looked up to the skies of the space station and let out loud screeches in near-perfect synchronicity.
"Oh crap!" Garrus barked, a cry of agreement followed his announcement as they dropped to the cover available. Beating one Praetorian had always been a challenge, two though. That was going to make them work for it. Samara and Miranda worked together, unwittingly, and hit the first one with two warp bubbles and then Jacob and Grunt hit it with their incendiary rounds to try and work the armor down. Garrus leaned over and shot off another concussive round at the same, already wounded Praetorian that let out an almighty bellow and dropped to the floor in a heap. The body was then washed away by the asari Justicar and they could all focus their attention on the other morbid creature. Its face seemed to swap between the left-most group and the right before it was just hammered with every single bullet, biotic bubble, and everything else that the fireteam had on its hands.
The creature lifted itself up off of the ground, floating through the air to move and look around to try and focus on one of the attacking team members when Grunt let out a roar that would have made Urdnot Wrex jealous. The tank-bred rushed towards the Praetorian and barged into the closest leg of the creature, making it drop back to the ground. It let out a shriek of what Garrus could have considered pain and as the team moved back to hit it with as much firepower as they could do, Grunt did his best and grabbed hold of the joint between its leg and its base. The boy screamed as he tore the leg apart and then he managed to rip it clean off of the creature. A series of warp bubbles hit the monster before Garrus fired another armor-piercing concussive round to finally kill the thing.
The monster faded into nothingness like all of the other Reaper creatures and the defending fireteam was gifted the escape route back to the Normandy. The sight of the Cerberus cruiser powering up and flashing to life was a sight for sore eyes and as more rounds of what could be considered bullets tore past him, Garrus looked over his shoulder and fired off one quick explosive overload blast which was doubled by Miranda lifting the shocked Collector's up into the air and then slammed right back down. The team hurried forward and as the loading ramp descended, one by one they leaped onboard, a very small ground team of the marines on board offering some return fire while the suicide squad quickly hurried over to some form of cover. One of the Cerberus marines, Vasquez or something, moved forward and shot off three rounds from the grenade launcher and actually managed to wash the Collector's away. Garrus brought up his omni-tool to call to Joker but the Normandy's pilot beat him to the punch.
"Okay, everyone strap in, this is going to get dicey!"
The ship spun to the side, banking hard and no doubt moving to grab the Commander and their fire team. The crew, still shaky on their feet, were all rocked from side to side, prompting Thane, Samara, and Garrus to catch the closest humans to them. Steadying them as the docking ramp moved up, the group hurried everyone to the elevator at the back of the loading bay, hurrying them up to the third level where an equally shaky Dr. Chakwas was waiting for them. The silver-haired human woman shook them away with her hands and the elevator quickly ascended to the second level where the docking port was waiting for them. Miranda and Garrus rushed forward, moving past the rest of Shepard's suicide squad and moving straight to the tube. Joker was on his feet as well, hobbling towards the tube and grabbing one of the assault rifles on his way, Garrus was ready to move in and stop him but the pilot had already rushed to the port, the door closing and then locking behind him.
The turian turned to look at the biotic woman, who seemed to share the same look with him. A few moments passed and then the door slid open and Joker rushed back in with the Commander and the members of the team that had accompanied the Commander. As soon as the crew came in, Shepard and Joker rushed back to the cockpit of the Normandy and the ship had soon turned in a 180-degree spin so it was now facing the Omega-4 relay. Joker was gunning it and soon the energy of the mass relay attached to the Normandy and they were on their way. Shepard finally took their helmet off and the incredible human started to take in some deep, heavy breaths. Garrus and Miranda shared another look before he stepped forward and planted his hand on the Commander's shoulder.
"You did it Shepard. No casualties."
Shepard looked over their shoulder to Garrus before they casually dumped the helmet onto the floor. Sighing, the Commander looked over to the former vigilante and smiled.
"C'mon Garrus, let's go home."
"Uh? Roger that Shepard?" Joker called out, looking past his large chair and towards the pair.
"You can come too Joker. Let's go."
Garrus chuckled at the Commander's comment, Joker too had a wide grin on his face as he got back to work. The ship was rushing through the FTL channels and would soon be rocketed back to face the Omega space station. Until then, they had the ship to themselves and he had the feeling that Shepard would make sure they all worked hard. There was still the issue of the tear in the cargo bay and the damage caused by the Oculus and the general care of the crew but it was a long trip home. It would be done and the team would all be back on their feet by the time they were back in the Terminus systems.
Of course, there was still the issue of convincing the rest of the galaxy about the Reapers coming but that was going to come later. As of now, Garus had to deal with talking to his father. The pair had had issues but ever since Garrus called him before Shepard saved his hide, Garrus felt like there was the start of something there. Garrus looked to the floor, almost in wonder as to what to do when Miranda walked past him. She cast a look over her shoulder to him before hustling up to the Commander, practically drooling at the opportunity to pour over the details of shipwide maintenance and duty rosters. The battle-scarred man would have smiled if it wasn't for the agony over his body. He ran his hands over his armour before he shook it off and his turian sense of duty and honor came back. Garrus snapped his assault rifle and sniper rifle back to the compact size, he attached them to the back of his armour, and then, he began the trek down to the forward battery.
