Torfan
The solitary moon of Torfan was far from an idealistic place to visit. But it was remote and easily overlooked which made it an ideal stomping ground for pirates, slavers, and all manner of space faring criminal in the Traverse. The local Batarian contingent had over time managed to build an impressive Fort on the barren moon. Miles beneath the hard rock surface, it could stand up to a full fledged assault. And that is precisely what it was facing now.
The Alliance fleet had arrived in retaliation for an attack on the Elysium colony. The glory of their successful defense of that settlement only served as a stark contrast to the dreaded failure looming over their current engagement. Being underground, the design of the Torfan stronghold made it so attacking from an orbiting fleet would be little more than a waste of firepower. Short of shattering the entire moon, there was no way to breach the defenses from orbit. That meant any assault had to take place on the ground. But of course the Batarians were expecting that.
"Damn these Batarians!" Major Kyle swore, he had been placed in command of all the ground forces in Torfan, and so far all he could do at this point was get his men killed. As a result he was growing more and more frustrated, the toll of dead soldiers was beginning to weigh heavily on him. "They are far too entrenched, their defenses are too strong. Every unit we've sent in gets slaughtered."
"There must be another way." One of his officers tried suggesting, Kyle didn't even bother to look up to see who it was.
"There is no other way!" The Major yelled, "Unless you want to spend years drilling into solid metal heavy rock cliffs, the only way into that fort is on foot. It was intentionally designed so you could only reach it with a ground team. But they turned the only entrance into a massive killzone, anyone we send in there will just get ripped apart." Deafening silence descended on the entire command room after the Major's outburst. There was nothing anyone could say that would make Major Kyle's words any less true.
"I'll do it sir." A female voice shot through the room with such strength and confidence, Kyle had to wonder if he had heard it at all.
"Lieutenant Shepard." Major Kyle said as he looked over at the source of the voice. "I know you haven't had much experience with command but even you can't be that foolish. Do you really want to throw your men onto the sacrificial alter like that?" Lieutenant Shepard was dressed in standard Alliance issue light combat armor. Despite being at full combat ready the only weapons she carried with her was a large sniper rifle on her back and her sidearm. She was taller then the Major had expected, and her raven black hair made her brilliant blue eyes seemed to stand out even more then normal, making her gaze that much more piercing.
"No sir." Came Shepard's quick military response, "But like you said, sir. This is the only way. We need a ground team to assault the base, and I think me and my men can do it, sir."
"Then tell me." Major Kyle said in a measured tone, "What makes you think you'll succeed where everyone else has thus far failed miserably? Go on, tell me how you plan to do the impossible?"
With a simple nod Lieutenant Shepard walked forward standing right across from Major Kyle with only a map display of the engagement area between them. Looking down at the map, Shepard only studied it for a moment before placing an armored finger down on an icon that represented one of the ancillary turret nests on the far west side of the complex.
"There" She explained, "We come in from the side. They should have tunnels connecting this point to their main base, otherwise they wouldn't be able to maintain their killzone. If we can push through hard enough we should be able to make it all the way inside."
"No, I don't like it." Major Kyle said, "It's too risky."
"With all due respect sir." Lieutenant Shepard shot back, "Of course it's risky, but we have no choice, we're not going to be able to take that fort by playing it safe."
Major Kyle considered the upstart Lieutenant for a moment before finally giving her a frustrated sigh, "Fine, if you want to go get you and your unit killed, I'll give you the go ahead." Vaguely remembering the mission orders that brought them here Major Kyle then added, "If you do manage to breach the Batarian defenses feel free to kill them all. But at this point I'll be shocked if you even make it out alive."
Lieutenant Sara Shepard, if she were to be completely honest with herself, was still not used to being in a command position. It was like she joked with her friends back in the Academy, the only real problem with getting a promotion in the military is that they actually expect you to make use of it. Even now the biggest concern that filled her mind was not if she would be able to pull off what she promised, but that the men and women she had been put in charge of would be willing to follow her on what was for all practical purposes a suicidal plan.
She had sent word to her unit to gather for a mission briefing in ten minutes so she could address them all. She would have made it five but she wanted the extra time to consider what she would have to say to her men. As she thought about it she decided to hit up the Alliance database so she could learn more about her enemy this day.
She would have to be honest with them, Shepard thought to herself. Not only did they deserve as much but Shepard was the sort of soldier that preferred to be brutally honest whenever possible. It was part of what made her such an effective officer thus far, even if it rarely made her any friends. But at least anyone who ever served with her knew they could always trust her, and that, Sara felt, was more important in the long run.
The minutes flew by faster then she would have liked. Soon she was standing before her assembled unit who were waiting for her to say something. She took a deep breath then took a good look around the room at every single person in her unit. When she finally spoke she did so with unwavering confidence and determination. She believed wholeheartedly they could beat this mission, and she had to make sure her men knew it.
"Listen up everyone! We have our orders. We get the privilege of assaulting the main Batarian fort; we're going straight into the maw of hell. Our plan is simple. We go in tight, we go in hard, and we punch through their defenses."
"I'm not going to lie to you, I'm not going to stand here and say we're going to win. The truth is we may all die this day, chances are most of us won't be coming back. So I understand if you're afraid, I don't blame you. If you you're not ready to risk your life for this mission then request a reassignment and I'll approve it, no questions asked. No hard feelings here, there's nothing wrong with being human after all."
"But before any of you decide to leave I want to share with you what we're fighting for. You all know, officially we're here in retaliation for the attack on Elysium. But that's just the last straw. Fact is these Batarians and their allies have no qualms about attacking every human planet they come accross, they keep pushing and now we get to push back. This assault has been a long time coming for these bastards."
"Eight years ago there was a beautiful thriving human colony on Mindoir. I say 'was' because eight years ago the colony on Mindoir was destroyed. Attacked by Batarian slavers, many of whom are on this rock today, laughing at us from behind their fortified walls. The Batarians killed thousands of people, entire families. Everyone but the children. They let the children live only so they could cram subjugation implants into their heads and turn them into slaves. The only survivors of Mindoir were forced to suffer a fate worse then death. You see those pens we've recovered outside? That's where Batarians like to keep their slaves when they're not using them. Make no mistake, they treat their varren dogs far better then any human they've ever captured."
"If you don't believe me you can ask the soldiers who went to Mindoir as part of the rescue operation. Ask them about what they saw as the Batarians held them back, unable to do anything but watch the slavers torture and kill the very people they had come to protect. But I suggest you take my word for it, many of those soldiers where never the same after that mission."
"Yes, this is likely a suicide mission. But I will do everything I can to bring you all back home when this is over. However we can't lose sight of the bigger picture here. We have to make these slaver assholes regret ever setting foot in a human colony. We need to let the entire galaxy know that you can't just step on us, or else pretty soon we'll step back, hard. I have no intention of seeing any of you die today, but I took an oath when I joined the Alliance forces to do anything I had to do to protect humanity from those who would seek to destroy us. Every single soldier in here took the same oath, and I swear to you all I will accomplish this mission no matter the cost."
Shepard let her words hang in the air for a moment. She quickly realized there was nothing more to say about this mission, further words would only belabor the point, and these soldiers had enough on their mind as it was.
"Take your time, think this over." Shepard said finally, "Like I said, I understand if you want to leave, there's nothing wrong with being human. And at the end of the day that's exactly what we're fighting for here." After a brief pause she added, "Those of you who are staying get battle ready and meet outside for deployment in twenty. Dismissed."
Moments later Shepard found herself in her tent preparing her gear for the coming battle. Forefront on her mind was not the hard fight ahead, but the inevitable wave of transfer requests she was expecting. Most of the men and women who served under her were still quite young, none of them had ever faced such a deadly mission. With death looming so close she was certain many of them would choose to back down.
"Pardon me, ma'am?" Service Chief Ethan Masson, the second in command of her unit, appeared at the entrance of Shepard's tent with a datapad in hand. He was handsome soldier, the sort that looked like he had just walked off one of the Alliance's cheery recruitment vids, and he had the charisma to match. But he was second in command for a reason. Shepard had quickly recognized his skill in battle, even if his style was more about brute force compared to Shepard's own surgical strike preference.
"Yes Chief, what is it?" Shepard said as she motioned for her second to enter the tent.
"I went ahead and gathered all the reassignment requests I could find from the rest of the squad, figured you'd want to deal with this as soon as possible."
Shepard let out a sigh, she had been expecting this, "Very well, let's get it over with. How many did we lose?"
Chief Masson handed the Lieutenant the Data pad which she quickly began to read with a stoic determination. Shepard's expression soon began to change as the subtle and not so subtle hints of surprise and confusion began to play across her face.
"Johnson? He was already reassigned weeks ago to be with his wife and newborn," Shepard gazed critically at the Chief, "Why are you bringing me a month old request?"
"Well like I said," Ethan said with a cocky smile curving up his lip, "I brought you all the reassignment requests I could find, and from the entire unit that was the only one I found."
"You mean..." Shepard quietly considered the fact that there were no transfer requests coming, not from her entire unit.
"It's like you said, ma'am," the Chief continued, "We all swore an oath to protect humanity from the bad guys, and this is about as bad as we've ever seen. The men knew the risks when they signed up, none of them plan to shy away from that now."
"Chief, if it wasn't against regulations I'd kiss you right now." Sara smiled mischievously.
"Well damn, if I had known that I would have put in my own request." Ethan shot back with a smile of his own.
This is hell. Ethan was still trying to work out precisely which level of hell this was, but there was no denying this was brutal hell. Even trying to come into the target on flank, the whole unit was forced to go through a killzone. Shepard, to her credit, kept the whole unit moving forward. Determined and methodically, she had the whole unit running from one cover zone to another, moving closer to the target every time while avoid as much return fire as possible. But it was impossible to remain completely safe, already he'd seen two good marines die just getting to this point.
They were just a stone's throw away from their target turret nest, with little more then a mound of moon rock between them and the pirates shooting at them. By now it seemed every single criminal bastard in the entire complex was shooting at their unit. Word must have gotten around their base of the encroaching Alliance troops, and once the Batarians realized how close they were every single fortified gun was shooting at them.
One of their fellow soldiers - Private Lori, Ethan recalled - got up to one knee, firing feverishly from her assault rifle. Her shots scored big as Ethan noticed a couple of the red dots on his HUD disappear. The victory was all too short lived as a hail of return fire shredded her armor and most of her torso behind it. Her dead body fell back amongst the rest of their unit.
"Oh my god we're gonna die!" Another Private just inches from where Lori's body fell began to cry out hysterically. His confidence shattered the private began to shuffle backwards unknowingly into harm's way, Ethan knew the Private was lost to be just another casualty if he didn't get a grip, and soon.
"The Hell we are!" Shepard yelled back, despite all of the mass accelerated bullets raining down on their position, the strength of the Lieutenant's voice cut through the din of battle so everyone in the unit could hear her. To everyone's surprise, especially that shaken Private, Shepard grabbed him and yanked him to the ground behind cover. As she pinned him down she continued to yell at the private, with her entire squad was listening. "The only way you're going to die is if you keep telling yourself that soldier. We're still alive and the only way these Batarians fucks are gonna beat us is if we let them!"
"Yes ma'am." The private blinked, his voice still shaken, if it had not been for the default response drilled into him everyday since boot camp, Ethan knew he would be speechless right now.
"If you truly believe you're gonna die then stay here and get yourself killed." Shepard continued to yell, the private still locked in her deadly grip. "I don't believe that, and I WON'T believe that until they put a bullet in my head! Are we clear private!"
"Ma'am! Yes ma'am!" the private yelled back. A trained military response to be sure, but Ethan could tell the private was at least starting to regain his composure under fire. He might just live past this hell, Ethan thought to himself, though he considered that unlikely.
Shepard let go of the Private and unexpectedly moved to Private Lori's dead body. Ethan could see her looking into the dead marines eyes for a moment before she moved her hand to close them. She then reached down and grabbed Private Lori's handgun. Though it was much softer then her usual battlefield command voice, Masson could still hear Lieutenant Shepard speaking to the dead private, "I promise you I'll make good use of this."
"Masson, Richard!" Shepard's sudden use of her battlefield yelling voice momentarily shocked Ethan, but like a good soldier he instinctively focused on Shepard who was now pointing at the turret nest with her newly requisitioned gun, "Suppressive fire, now!"
"Aye aye, ma'am" Without hesitation Masson leaned over the cover just enough to get a line on the turret nest. He barely had the target in his sights when he started firing furiously, pausing briefly only as needed to prevent his assault rifle from over heating. Next to him he could hear Corporal Richard doing the same.
He wasn't sure what Shepard's plan was by that point, but the last thing he expected to see was the Lieutenant jumping out into the open and running as fast as possible straight at the turret nest. As she fired her pistol up towards the nest with one hand, she lobbed a number of grenades with the other, both tactical and regular explosive. The grenades sailed smoothly over the lip of the emplacement followed moments later by a series of satisfying explosions.
Shepard wasn't done, as soon as she was close enough she jumped up grabbing the edge of the nest wall with her free hand she vaulted herself over and into the nest, firing her pistol in midair. From his viewpoint Ethan could just make out what happened as he saw Shepard kicking one of the remaining pirates to the ground as she landed. She quickly moved to her feet, pulling out her other pistol and using both weapons to kill anything that moved.
From the cover of the turret nest she looked back at where she had left her unit and yelled back at them, "What are you boys waiting for, scented invitations? Move forward, now!"
"Let go!" Ethan cried out as he ran forward, "Death and Glory time."
Like clockwork motion hard learned from their boot camp obstacle courses, the entire unit of marines quickly made their way into the turret nest and down the tunnel behind it, which as Shepard had concluded, led them deep into the heart of the pirate complex.
The Bataraian paced furiously around the large room that served as the control center for the entire complex. At first glance any non-batarian would have assumed he looked like any other Batarian, but he had the tell tale golden pigments on his skull that cemented his position as their leader to all other Batarians. The non-batarian criminals he worked with were quickly convinced of his position of authority, often at the end of a gun. Everyone knew was a military man, his presence here was the result of covert placement by the Batarian government to help lead their cold war against the humans.
At this point he was not happy. Like the good commander that he was he had demanded regular status updates at the first sign of trouble. Lately those reports had been troubling indeed, and more to the point, dwindling rapidly.
"What the hell is going on out there?" He yelled, "This place is designed to be impenetrable, we have all the advantages, why are we losing so many men? Someone start talking!"
"It's the humans," Another Batarian spoke up, his race was all the complex leader respected about this man, beyond that he was nothing more then some petty criminal, and a rather spineless one at that, "They sent some elite squad of soldiers in or something. They got past our defenses and have been killing everything they run into."
"Are you kidding me?" The Batarian leader continued to bellow, "One squad? One squad of soldiers got this far? We have an entire Batarian army in here and we can't kill off one stupid squad."
"We've been killing them!" Another pirate, this one a Turian, tried to explain, "We must have killed half the squad by now, but the survivors just keep coming, they're not stopping. Every time we try to finish them off they get the jump on us. They've been able to anticipate everything we've thrown at them."
"No I refuse to believe this, we're talking about humans here." The Batarian leader continued his rant, "Stupid pale skinned, weak little humans. And no matter what it takes, we will kill them. We will gather every available body we can find and get rid of this problem once and for all." As a military man he expected action for his subordinates, what he got instead was a number of terrified stares and a reluctant silence that told him these criminals had something else in mind. When no one offered to say what they were all thinking he yelled out, "What is it?!"
"They've already killed everything we've thrown at them," That cowardly Batarian finally spoke up, "At the rate they're going we're all going to be dead before the last one of them drops. Even if we manage to kill them, they broke our defenses and there's an entire Alliance fleet waiting for us outside. I say we cut our losses and surrender."
"No! never!" The thought of surrendering Torfan made the Batarian leader completely irate, "I'm not about to surrender our strongest foothold, our best stronghold, over to these pathetic humans. I'm not even going to consider the notion I don't care how good a reason you can come up with!"
Almost in response to his words, the Batarian's head suddenly exploded as a large caliber hyper mass accelerated metal shard tore through what was once his brain.
Some distance away Sara Shepard looked up from behind the scope of her sniper rifle with a slight smile. Her entire unit had been forced to fight under brutal close quarters fighting all the way from the moment they breached the fort. This was the first and only opportunity she had to use her sniper rifle, and she decided she would make the most of it.
"You sure that was him?" Chief Masson said next to her as he observed the aftermath of the Lieutenant's shot. They're entire unit had gone through layer after layer of hell making their way through the deadly tunnels of the base. So many of them had died along the way, Ethan had stopped counting a while ago. He knew many of them wanted to quit, but Shepard had managed to keep everyone moving forward, pushing them hard to keep going despite their great losses. As a result they were rewarded with more enemy kills then they could have imagined, not a single criminal, pirate, slaver of any kind was left alive. But with all they had lost, Ethan knew they needed some good news.
"He sure looked like the guy in charge by the way he was yelling at everyone." Lieutenant Shepard said nonchalantly.
"Well he was definitely someone important going by how much everyone's still freaking out over there." The Chief replied in an equal tone.
"Good, time to finish this." Shepard handed her sniper rifle to her second in command knowing she would not need it for now. Casually, though emanating a scary sense of determination, she walked out from behind over, both pistols ready in each hand.
As Ethan watched one of the pirates - it was the Turian who first noticed her and reacted - tried to get a shot off from his assault rifle, but Shepard quickly leveled her pistol and fired two shots into his chest before he could line up a shot, even before he could react to the bullets in his chest Shepard put one more bullet into his head from her other gun. A Salarian ran around the corner to see what had killed his fellow slaver only to share the same fate as soon as he came into view; two in the chest, one in the head. Shepard just continued walking forward.
Another Batarian who had apparently become isolated to one side opted to run out of cover, hands in the air, yelling, "I give up, I give up, don't kill me!" Shepard didn't even look in his direction as she lifted a pistol to her side and fired. The bullet hit the batarian right in the middle of all four of his eyes, he was already dead by the time it left his skull on the other side.
Ethan saw two more Batarians pop their heads out of the main room to see what was going on. They must have barely caught a glimpse of Shepard, but nothing more. Ethan wondered if they even heard the two gunshots that killed them.
Everything seemed clear now so the Chief quickly moved up behind Shepard just as she was rounding a the corner and moving into the main control room. Of all the criminals in the area, the only two Batarians left alive where now cowering in the corner of the room they now stood. The one closest to the human marines began groveling almost immediately.
"We surrender, we surrender, we accept any of your terms. Please just don't kill us." It seemed he would keep begging for his life indefinitely had his words not been suddenly cut short by another loud gunshot from Shepard's pistol. Now sporting a new hole in his head, the dead Batarian slumped over quietly.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!? We Surrender!" The last Batarian cried out in shock.
"Surrender? You don't say." Shepard's words dripped venomously, "Tell me in all of your slave runs on human settlements how many humans surrendered to you? How many people did you see beg for their lives? How many children did you witness crying for their parents, fathers and mothers that YOU killed. Now tell me what did you do with all those humans who begged for surrender?" Four Batarian eyes went wide at the Lieutenant's words. Chief Masson wondered if the slaver was remembering his own part in what Shepard was talking about, He imagined how the fear must have spread through the Batarian at the thought of sharing the same fate, but Ethan knew he would not be so lucky.
"Most of my unit is dead because of you," Shepard continued with stoic suppressed rage, "That's still a drop in the bucket of all the humans you and your friends have killed, tortured, or enslaved. And now you seriously expect me to simply let you surrender?
"But you're Alliance," The Batarian stammered out, "The Council regulations, ... you have rules against this."
"Council law doesn't apply to you any more." Shepard shot back, "Isn't that what you like to claim to justify your actions? You made your choice when you cut yourselves off from the Council. You certainly aren't going to follow their rules, why should I?" When the Batarian could offer no answer Shepard continued, "More importantly there's nothing in my mission parameters that says I have to accept your surrender. My mission is to make sure you never bother another human colony again." Another gunshot marked the end of the last remaining slaver, "And that's exactly what I'm going to do."
Sara Shepard turned around to see Chief Masson standing at the door. Ethan knew he had made a good show of looking like he was watching her back, covering all the vectors, making sure no one surprises them, but he had no doubt that Shepard knew he was really more interested in her dealings with the now dead criminals.
"Status?" Shepard ordered.
"There's still a few pockets of resistance throughout the complex." The Chief responded quickly as he checked the reports coming in with his Omni tool. "They're putting up a fight, but they're clearly shaken up something fierce. I guess none of them figured we'd get this far. And now that they have no one coordinating them it's like a bunch of headless chickens running around. They're still a threat but even with our reduced numbers." He couldn't help but pause for a moment as the memories of all the friends he'd just lost flashed in his mind. "Well, they shouldn't be problem."
"Good." Shepard said simply. Ethan could sense a breath of releif and sadness coming from the Lieutenant. Both of them were glad it was almost over.
"So not gonna even let them have their tribunal?" Ethan asked as he motioned his dead towards the Batarian bodies.
"Any human court would give them the death penalty even if it's only to avoid riots on every colony we have." Shepard explained, "It's not like the Council is gonna waste their time making sure these filth ridden monsters get a fair trial. I'm just saving some tax payer money, that's all. Plus you know as well as I do they deserve no better then this." Without skipping a beat, she walked past him and kept talking as she moved down the next tunnel. "We have our orders Chief, we're turning over every shit stinking rock in this hell hole and killing anything that moves."
* Bioware owns Mass Effect and all related IP, cause they're awesome like that.