Queen's Gambit Accepted - Ch 27.1: Big Leagues (1)

What can I do? I just—how do—what should we—?

Despite bristling with the beginning stages of panic, overall Sam felt oddly detached to the whole situation. But for the scheming information broker in the driver's seat of the skycar, they could have been watching this whole thing unfold on a vid happening to someone else.

Except this was real, and Samantha Traynor was smack dab in the middle of it.

...Okay. Okay okay okay.

"Liara?"

"I'm thinking," Liara T'Soni murmured quietly as she studied an apartment blueprint superimposed over the skycar's windshield screen. She maneuvered them away from the building to avoid detection. Gloved fingers tapped together rhythmically as Liara calmly assessed.

Sam, by contrast, was anything but calm. Her teeth raked her lower lip as she hefted the Acolyte pistol in one hand, then the other. Breathing heavily through her nose, Sam tried to focus her thoughts on her brief weapons training from years ago.

Deep breaths. Slow. Steady. Sight your target. Inhale. Squeeze the trigger on the exhale.

Unfortunately, she was now also keenly aware of how uncomfortable Liara's armor was. The under armor felt tight at the neck, shoulders and hips but loose and slippery at Sam's midsection and elbows. The wobbly chest piece seemed to be constantly shifting along her torso and occasionally made scraping noises as it rubbed against the shoulder guards.

Compared to a quiet skycar and an intense asari, Sam felt loud and clumsy and completely out of her element.

What in the bloody hell am I doing here? How did I get here?

It also wasn't helping that her mind kept blaring "You are hopelessly out of your league!"on an endless loop as she watched gun-toting soldiers shuffle around Liara's target: Chris Postle. The Normandy Traitor.

...Which brings us back to the topic at hand: what do we do?

Oh God. What do I do? ...Can Liara fight off five men at once?

...you just admitted to being useless, Traynor.

Well obviously. Liara's got almost a hundred years and probably over a hundred battles on me. I have two weeks of weapons training in Basic and years of experience sitting at a console connecting people's vid-calls as a glorified operator. And, oh right, and my last weapons training exam was two years ago and I haven't fired a gun since then.

Don't forget the Shuttle Bay during the Earth invasion. Remember? When you almost shot Shepard?

Yes. Thank you. God damn it. I wish people would stop bringing that up. ...Myself, included.

...so what would Shepard do?

Be pissed off then swoop in and save the day?

Here's hoping, Traynor.

Liara finally spoke. "All right, Samantha, I believe I have formulated a strategy."

Oh thank Christ.

Her fingers flicking over the skycar's interface, Liara brought the apartment schematic into focus. She pointed at the front door. A blue NavPoint appeared just outside it. "Ashley is getting into place outside the door to cut off their escape route. You and I will enter through the balcony landing pad area. Hopefully, we can pin them down long enough for my men to arrive to take the former Normandy requisitions officer into custody. Depending on the combat situation, I will need your assistance in retrieving any incriminating data."

That... seems easy enough. Simple, even. "...is there a catch, Liara? Because I think there's something you're not telling me."

The asari nudged the screen to switch to real time video. She pointed at the wide penthouse balcony where a Kodiak transport sat waiting. "We will need to... disable their escape vehicle."

"And how exactly will we do that?"

Liara seemed to be having trouble making eye contact. "We are not equipped with offensive capabilities in this skycar. We will have to improvise."

"'Improvise,'" Sam repeated back.

"Yes."

"Does 'improvise' mean 'ram them with our car' in asari? Or is my translator malfunctioning?"

Liara allowed a moment of silence to confirm Sam's suspicions.

"Liara! You have got to be bloody kidding me!"

Icy blue eyes focused intensely on Sam, forcing the comms specialist to recoil slightly. "Our options are limited, Samantha. If you see an alternative, I would be more than open to it."

It was Sam's turn to be silent.

"I suspected as much," Liara nodded somberly. She flicked back to the blueprint and overlaid it with the infrared heat map. "It appears Officer Postle has a console within the study. Can you hack into it from here?"

Oh thank Christ. Something I can actually do, rather than pretend I'd be useful in a firefight.

Flexing her fingers, Samantha brought up her Omni-tool screen to carefully scan for open channels.

[Secure line detected]

Shit.

What if I disguise my signature as a maintenance update to ping the console without actually engaging it?

[Access denied]

Double shit.

"Not without help," Sam admitted. Concentrating deeply, Sam drummed her fingertips on her chin. I miss my goody bag of algorithms and hacker exploits. I really wish I hadn't left that bloody data chit on Earth… And I wish I had EDI.

Wait, why don't I have EDI?

Sam quickly opened a comm link to the Normandy bridge. "EDI? What's your operating range? Can your cyberwarfare suite extend to mine and Liara's location on the Citadel? I need your help with a... project." Sam's eyes flicked to Liara's before returning to her Omni-tool.

A glowing blue orb appeared above Sam's wrist, the holo projection of EDI's AI consciousness. "Hello, Specialist Traynor. My active range is subject to signal degradation at your current altitude and distance from the Normandy's AI Core. Without a signal tether, my cyberwarefare capabilities are only at 11% effectiveness based on your current location."

Triple shit. 11% is... what? Maybe a modest increase in hacking success? An extra stream or two for database scanning?

It was Liara who asked, "Can you provide any assistance? The matter is urgent. Please." Her soft plea was laced with desperation.

A thoughtful silence followed, before the EDI orb pulsed in reply. "While my autonomy and full capabilities are hindered by distance, I can still provide analysis and hacking support via Specialist Traynor's Omni-tool. Real time data-lag can be improved with a power source if one is available."

Well, that's something at least. I won't be completely high and dry while doing insane, illegal things.

Liara nodded back at Sam. "That will have to do. Now, Samantha, I need you to open up a comm channel for us. Unfortunately, this might alert them to our presence, so it will have to be as secure as you can make it without being military-grade."

"...Okay!" Sam squeaked as apprehension hit her. Oh God, this is happening.

And not the good kind of happening, either.

Shut. Up.

She tried to put some courage in her voice. "This is a thing I can do." Her (newly) gloved fingers combed through a familiar library of comm protocols on her Omni-tool. It took both thinking and digging to find the right suite with the level of security and discretion Liara required.

Ah, the Ariake Short Range Securi-tech Pro 7900XT license. It's been far too long, old friend, since I used you to help the Lind Hall intramural women's lacrosse team coordinate a midnight strike against those cocky bitches from Davis Hall.

Yea… no. Not the same thing, Traynor. Not by a long shot.

Plugging in the IPs for "T'Soni, L" and "Williams, A" (and don't forget "Traynor, S!" ...yes, thank you.) into her command line, Samantha finished prepping the communication socket. Running a mental checklist of comms protocols also helped silence the pounding of Sam's heart in her ears. Her anxiety had returned, but she tried to shove it under military instinct. Oo-rah.

"While I do pride myself on quality and consistency, I'm afraid it's a little risky to do an equipment check for the comm channel. The second I hit 'Broadcast,' we're go."

Liara took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She murmured what Sam could only interpret as some sort of prayer, though the few words she heard were "justice" and "Goddess."

No pressure.

Maybe I should pray or somethi—?

"Let's proceed, Samantha."

[Broadcast]

"We're live! " Sam croaked before clearing her throat and repeating a little more forcefully. "We're live. Williams, what's your position?"

A husky voice hissed into the two women's earpiece implants. "Making the last hike to Postle's floor now. Haven't encountered any secondary security, though. You've got eyes on him, right?" Ashley appeared as a blue blip on their map, though she was still a dozen floors below the penthouse.

Liara reported the number of hostiles and their locations while Sam tagged each for Williams' and Liara's linked HUD implants. You too, Traynor. You're supposed to be helping.

It was so strange seeing that little, round radar map on her own Omni-tool. Just a simplified map with targets marked …for death. Now, Sam was responsible for helping take down those red blips directly. Rather than just passively observing.

What are the odds, huh?

Well, three to one you shoot yourself in the—

I was being rhetorical.

Liara had also apprised Ashley of their bold plan ("Ballsy, Doc. Ballsy. I approve.") and was about to give the order to set it in motion. EDI volunteered to sabotage the building elevator, which would force any escapees right into Williams' crosshairs in the stairwell.

Everything was set.

"Initiating landing maneuvers," the asari announced as Sam held her breath. This whole thing was unfolding so quickly. Is this how these things always are? From arrival to vague plan to "charge forth and smite them?"

If Shepard is any example, then... absolutely.

The skycar view immediately changed to a normal windshield. The horizon dipped when the car lurched into a higher gear. As the apartment balcony surged up to meet them, Samantha found herself pushing back in her seat and gritting her teeth.

Liara barked "Brace for impact!" as their vehicle aimed for the Kodiak idling on the landing pad. Its steaming engines swung into abrupt focus before Sam and Liara plowed into the transport. Shuddering from the crash, the skycar spun on its axis and ricocheted off the tall apartment wall. Sam screamed as their vehicle rolled over, nausea jumping to her throat.

Just as the car rolled back upright, Sam blacked out. Only for a second! But that second was long enough for the skycar to grind to a halt on the balcony, its nose a full 180 from where it started. Sam tried to blink away the darkness, before she started violently shaking. A dull ringing assaulted her hearing.

"Samantha. Samantha! We must hurry." It was Liara, both shouting in Sam's ear and roughly shaking her shoulder. There was a bitter tang in Sam's mouth; she'd bitten her tongue in the confusion. The pain helped wake her up, though the world was still hazy. Sam didn't so much step out the skycar as she fell out of it.

Get it together, Traynor!

A second after EDI announced into their comm channel for Ashley to engage, a series of pops exploded around them. Liara demanded they both "Get down!" (though Sam was already crouched from her near-fall).

The perspective from the balcony was almost too serene to be a battlefield. On one side, there was a bubbling water feature and leafy ferns tastefully lining the veranda landing area as the setting sun, Widow, bathed everything in gold. However, on the other side of the red skycar...

"Warp Ammo," Liara murmured into her own Omni-tool as she genuflected beside their wrecked vehicle. The asari straightened, glanced over the hood then returned to a kneel all in the span of a fraction of a second. "Ashley, I see two moving toward the stairwell." A readied heat sink hissed into Liara's submachine gun.

"Light 'em up!" The newest SpecTRe shouted into the comm as gunfire echoed in the distance.

Sam hazarded a peek around the skycar's rear. She saw bobbing shadows inside the apartment occasionally obscured by muzzle flashes. A squeak of fear escaped the comms specialist's mouth when she felt metal flecks strike her chin. A bullet had struck only centimeters from her face, leaving stinging shrapnel.

Liara was suddenly at Sam's elbow. Snagging Sam's Omni-tool wrist, Liara jutted a finger through the holo-window to a wide, flat section of the wrist armor itself. "Sentinel tech armor upgrade. Battery is limited, but it should protect you." She pressed thin slivers of buttons along the Sentinel battery case, which glowed a dull red in response.

Orange-yellow hatch patterns bloomed outward from Samantha's wrist. Holo plates encased Sam's body (and head, judging from the glow in her peripheral vision) within moments. A ricocheting bullet sparked orange as it sheared near Sam's cheek then bounced harmlessly away. The sudden increase in armor calmed the fluttering in her chest a little. She felt safer. Protected.

Though I wish I'd known about it sooner. This might have reigned in some of my initial pants-wetting.

"Might have."

Shut up.

Ashley warned, "Watch your 3! Hostile withdrew through a side corridor."

Eyes swinging to her Omni-tool, Sam confirmed a red blip approaching from the right. Before the comms specialist could even get her bearings, the asari next to her had leapt up and flung a Singularity at the hidden mercenary. A few pops were followed by a triumphant SpecTRe's voice crowing in their ears: "That's one down!"

One. Okay. Okay okay okay. There's what, four left? One down within the first 10 seconds. Based on that ratio (number of soldiers left times number of seconds passed), this should be over in 40 seconds. A minute at the most.

Easy, peasy.

Samantha tightened her grip on her pistol and took a pair of deep breaths. Just as she inhaled for a third time and started to stand up, a hand on Sam's wrist stopped her. "Stay down, Samantha," Liara growled. Her fierce eyes softened briefly. "I need you to try to get into Postle's system from here. This will all be for nothing if we don't find any evidence."

But I was about to—Maybe I can—

Stick to your strengths, Traynor.

Humbly accepting getting benched, Sam gratefully holstered the Acolyte heavy pistol at her side. She quickly returned focus to her Omni-tool to reengage hacking the Normandy Traitor's system. All the coy probing from before was abandoned, as were any attempts at subtlety.

Sam unloaded every line of attack code in her arsenal, from denial-of-service dumps to firewall decrypters to packets of keylogger algorithms. Anything and everything to bog the console down long enough to break into the hard drive. Sam found herself craving EDI's intervention, but the AI was using her limited processing power to bolster Sam's efforts (and keep the apartment elevator locked down).

An outdated network node proved to be the system's undoing as Sam gleefully latched on to her advantage. Profiles were hacked, connected and analyzed. Her victory was short-lived when Samantha realized Postle's console was running a complete system wipe.

Shitshitshitshitshitshi—!

"EDI, I need a Search and Gather protocol on this system. Hit it with everything you've got."

A blue orb reappeared outside of her Omni-tool hacking window. "Understood, Specialist Traynor. However, this channel connection is severely degraded by distance and cannot handle large influxes of upload data. Interruptions may occur which will result in—"

"Okay, I get it," Sam interrupted, though her fingers had not stopped methodically running scans. …Lowest numbered file headings take priority. Cross-check the timestamps. Set filter parameters for hidden file caches. Scrub deletion history log for fragments…

She paused a moment before deciding, "I need you on data retrieval duty, EDI. Anything and everything you can download from this system as I diagnose it. We'll analyze it later where there's more time and fewer bullets."

To punctuate this point, several loud bursts exploded just above her head. Sam flinched in response, her heart pounding as she remembered what was going on around her. Bloody hell, how am I supposed to get anything done around here?

Her tunnel vision briefly ending for a moment, Sam was brought back to the real world with a jolt. She remained where she'd left herself: crouched behind the crashed skycar next to one very focused asari.

Darting up out of cover, Liara made calm, quick shots from her M-4 Shuriken then bobbed down to safety. Lather, rinse, repeat. The comm chatter was concise and professional as Ashley and Liara traded fire with the men in the apartment.

"How is the evidence coming along?" Liara asked casually before flinging a Warp over the car hood.

Well, I didn't want to have to tell you this, but… "Not well. I got in, but there's a system wipe running. Trying to snatch and grab what data I can while trying to block the erasure protocol. Or at least slow it down. …how are things—?" Sam jutted her thumb above her head and behind. "—out there?"

"Not well," the asari returned. "There is too much cover for them to hide behind. These mercenaries also employ an unusual number of attack drones. It is proving problematic for myself and the Lieutenant Commander."

A third female voice swore into the comm. "Sons-of-bitches!" Huffing in pain, Ashley trailed off in a flurry of creative curse words. From the sound of things, another drone had struck Ashley with a charged current before it met its end on her rifle butt. "These guys are really pissing me off, T'Soni. If you want Postle captured rather than full of holes (just on principle), we need a better, less annoying plan. How soon 'til your reinforcements get here?"

An irritated hiss from Liara. "Their transport is delayed."

Shit. …quadruple shit?

"Just can't find good help these days," Ashley deadpanned after a staccato of gunfire. "Maybe you should make Chris's guys an offer, Doc. Isn't that what you information brokers do? Buy your way out of fights?"

Sam winced at the marine's abrasive ribbing, but Liara took it in stride. "You'd be surprised how often that actually works. Unfortunately, I must have left my credit chit reserved for bribes back on the Normandy."

Is she joking? She seems so serious all the time.

There's so much I don't know about Liara.

…there's so much I don't know about Shepard.

"Suppressing fire!" Ashley suddenly barked. Into the comm, she quietly murmured, "The mercs figured out there's only you guys over there, so they're trying to flank you. A few Inferno Grenades have dissuaded them from doing a headcount on my end. Make some fireworks or something, Doc."

Liara launched a Singularity with a flick of her wrist. Sam's eyes followed the small orb of light over to the double doors leading to the apartment. Three nearby shadows dove to the ground to avoid the blast, though one mercenary had made it through the shattered balcony window. Liara chased the man's fleeing footsteps with gunfire, but he rolled to safety behind a thick column.

Time's running out, Sam soberly realized as she studied her feeds. She hadn't been able to find any suspicious encrypted files on the system, and the wipe was 48.5% complete. She just wasn't fast enough at scanning.

But EDI is.

And she'll overload the channel if she—

Power source, Traynor.

Sam swore at herself under her breath. Switching over to her Omni-tool settings, Sam connected to the Sentinel remote hub on her wrist armor. She quickly found the ["Power Transfer"] option within the control panel and inhaled sharply.

I'll be naked again.

Still wearing armor. Unless that disappears, too, and leaves you in your knickers.

Oo-rah oo-la-la, then.

["Transfer Initiated"] dissolved the holo exoskeleton wrapped around Sam's body into orange dust before disappearing altogether. Just then, the skycar at the women's back shuddered from an influx of rifle fire. Probably wasn't a good idea to do this right this second…

But at least it worked. The connection integrity with EDI surged from 11% to 59%. Enough for the AI to cheerfully assume control of data mining. Sam switched over to her comfort zone: analyzing data. Switching holo screens, the comms specialist set a wide net of search parameters: anything and everything that might conceivably be useful. She paused long enough to theatrically crack her knuckles.

Then Sam's heart stopped when a lobbed cylinder clinked its way down to her feet. It came to a stop half a meter from her stylish boots. Sam could only point mutely (and stupidly) as Liara turned to look.

Grenade!

Before Sam pretended covering her face would do any sort of good in this scenario, a globe of blue burst at her feet. Strands of white-blue energy encased the grenade before Liara clenched her fist tightly. The bomb, strangled by the asari's biotic Stasis, dropped harmlessly to the ground in a puff of debris.

I think—I think my heart just barfed.

…This is no place for an asthmatic.

Liara swore ("By the Goddess!") and her hands glowed blue before discharging once more over the car hood. She followed up with bursts from her submachine gun. "Hostile down! But I can't tell who I—" The doctor hesitated, briefly panic-stricken.

"Not Postle, Liara," Ashley reassured. "That little bastard is over at your 11 using one of his mercs as a shield. Three left. Piece of cake."

Once Sam's breathing managed to start back up, she returned focus to her Omni-tool. Oh God, I hope there's (more) good news.

["System Erasure: 64.2% Complete."]

SHITSHITSHITSHITSHIT—

And if that wasn't enough, the mini-map window flashed a proximity warning: ["Incoming vehicle"]. The alert from EDI was followed by a bunch of fun facts. Kodiak. Heat signatures indicate eight men aboard. Approaching the upper balcony on the north side.

"Um, Liara? I have bad news and possibly worse news. The bad news is Postle is nearly done wiping his hard drive. I'm grabbing what I can, but I don't know yet if we got anything useful." Sam's fingertips wandered to the download packet she and EDI had managed to recover so far. 30.8% of total data.

I don't like those odds.

"And?"

"And a Kodiak just arrived carrying eight men. Please tell me they're yours and we can all go home."

Liara was silent. Sam was afraid to look at her. Her brown eyes slowly worked their way up white boots, a stylish coat and a delicate blue neck to a pensive asari face. Liara's cerulean eyes narrowed with worry.

Is that a no?

"…I'll take that as a no, then." Sam set her Omni-tool to auto-filter and slowly unholstered the loaner heavy pistol. She put a lot of effort into sounding nonchalant, though her shaky breaths betrayed her bravado a little. "Well, let's get this over with."

Boots loudly pounded along the upper terrace while men hustled into position. The hail of gunfire on Sam and Liara's skycar surged into a torrent. A bullet sizzled across Sam's left shoulder, her armor rattling as it absorbed the blow. And it hurt where it reverberated from the loose shoulder guard.

Quintuple shit.

Better than being dead, Traynor.

Kinda missing that fancy holo armor about now.

...brilliant.

A flash from her wrist stayed Samantha's trigger (such as it was). ["Scan Complete"] pulsed back, piquing her curiosity. Clutching the weapon loosely, Sam pecked away at the interface with her pinky and ring fingers.

["Available files matching keyword filters: 5,028.

Data packets recovered: 1,209.

Encrypted files detected: 810."]

"Liara! I've got something." Sam skimmed over the most promising documents, and even allowed a sigh of relief. "Parts of financials. Dating back three years."

The asari met this news with a stone face. "Anything incriminating?"

A triumphant smile pulled at Sam's cheek. "It looks like… monthly kickbacks. From a variety of sources." Examining further, Samantha scrolled to a data fragment that sent a chill up her spine. A few metadata tags and filters solidified her suspicions. "Liara. I need to interface directly with Postle's console ASAP to confirm, but… one of the first deposits into this account… There's no sender account information yet, but… it—it posted the day after the Normandy was—" ...destroyed.

Liara's face briefly contorted into rage. She jumped out of cover, her right arm pulled back. Released from the throw was a ball of light that arced over the upper balcony to strike a soldier who was immediately imprisoned in a Stasis field. The asari's submachine gun crosshairs found him a moment later, followed by a half dozen bullets. Sam spotted crackling blue fade away as a man dropped out of sight.

Damn.

Glaring back at Sam, Liara ejected the heat sink from her weapon. "I want that human alive. I don't care what it takes. But we are taking Postle in."

All righty then.

Samantha resumed her mantra of "Deep breaths. Slow. Steady. Sight your target. Inhale. Squeeze the trigger on the exhale." But she had to hunker down to safety before even getting to "sight your target" when the lull in spraying bullets abruptly ended. Dull thuds continued to rock the poor wrecked vehicle at the women's backs. Ashley shouted into the comm that she didn't have a good position to assist.

Sam's heart had resumed pounding in her ears. There was so much going on all around them. She didn't know how soldiers dealt with this much stimuli: dull shouting, popping gunfire, acrid smoke, spent heat sinks flying.

They don't, Traynor. Focus. One enemy at a time. ("One day at a time," remember? Same concept.)

Another strike to Sam's shoulder sent her sprawling backward, exposing her to a mercenary up top. The comms specialist quickly rolled back under cover, but not before a stream of gunfire pelted her torso. The loose armor struck her ribs rather than absorbed the blow. Searing pain radiated agony from her chest while dark spots pierced Samantha's vision as she fell heavily against the side of the car.

Useless! Ruddy useless!

Pulling Sam to her feet, Liara studied the comms specialist intently. Sam could only wince, her arms immediately wrapping protectively around her chest that felt ablaze with pain. Sam felt an examining hand press to her back for a moment. "You don't seem to be wounded. Samantha! Are you all right?"

"Can't—breathe…" Sam sputtered as she doubled over. Bright orange glowed in her peripheral vision. Just Liara administering an Omni-tool scan. Sam's eyes followed the round holo interface as it stopped at the dented chest plate. The asari's brow furrowed at the scan's readings before she reached for a compartment on her wrist guard. A sudden coolness swept over Sam's chest as Liara wrapped a thin pack of icy gel around Sam's midriff that seeped through the under armor.

Medi-gel.

"I'm sorry, Samantha. This is the best I can do until we seek medical assistance for the superficial damage to your ribcage. But I need you to stand up. Can you do that?" The earnest desperation in Liara's voice made Sam sigh with resentment. But she complied with the asari's request and straightened as best she could.

Buck up, princess. You're in the military. And you still have data to recover. Or did you forget between all your hiding and bellyaching?

Screw. You.

"Look alive, ladies! You wanna live forever?" Ashley shouted into the comm. "I don't have eyes on the new arrivals. Tell me you and the rookie have it covered, Doc. I can't keep Chris occupied and save your asses at the same time. Marksmanship and grenades only go so far."

"Rookie?!"

If the boot fits…

But they don't fit!

Exactly.

I hate you.

Although her breathing was still shallow and strained, Sam waved Liara away with a wheeze. "Thank you, Liara. I'll be all right." She even managed a feeble smile.

Ashley interrupted their tender moment with a bark. "What was that? Report."

"Samantha's been injured," Liara clarified. "It is not life-threatening, but still serious considering the circumstances."

"Shit," the SpecTRe grumbled. "This is making me wish Garrus was here. That smug, chicken-legged sniper would have Postle knee-capped and all these idiots dead by now. Assault rifles aren't exactly designed for non-lethal crowd control."

Returning fire with her submachine gun, the asari retorted with a wry smile. "That is truly saying something coming from you, Ashley. Admitting your shortcomings and missing Garrus?"

"I know," Ashley admitted. "Hell is freezing over."

Liara held up a sympathetic palm when Sam attempted to raise her pistol. Sam took the hint and returned to her Omni-tool.

Stick to your strengths, Traynor.

The console was still approaching the 100%-erased mark in Sam's holo window. And there was little the comms specialist could do in her current state. While the Medi-gel was pleasantly numbing as it coursed through her system, the accompanying biting cold did not make breathing much easier.

Samantha just felt... wrong. The under armor was still strangling her elbows and armpits (and now chest), her ribs throbbed with each breath, a headache hammered her temples, and Sam was just too slow for this. For all of this.

And throughout this entire ordeal: Sam had yet to fire a single bullet.

A relatively brilliant comms specialist. A dreadful information tech. And a downright remedial soldier.

The Alliance's best and brightest, my arse.

Suddenly, an incoming transmission hit Samantha's comm channel.

[Permissions request: "Shepard, A"]

Oh, bollocks.

No, wait! This is a good thing!

…Is it? Is it really, Traynor?

Only one way to find out.

[Allow]