Part 1: Infiltration
They sat in silence in the transport shuttle. There were three of them: a Krogan, a Turian, and a Salarian. Only the Krogan maintained a cool attitude, the other two shifted nervously in their seats from time to time. It wasn't like they had seen what the Krogan had seen; he had fought the Reapers in the War of Existence about 72 years ago. Of course they were nervous: the veterans had all retired and a new generation of soldiers took their place; a generation that only knew about rebuilding and resupplying planets. The only action they've seen is the occasional robbery. They had to know that violence would once again rise. The Krogan knew at least.
It was the turian that broke the silence. He looked at the salarian, who was fidgeting profusely, "what's getting you so worked up?" he asked.
"I think the fact that is getting me most nervous is that I don't understand how they have done everything that they have done." the salarian responded. His voice was shaky.
"Well apparently they shot down one of the Quarantine fleet and figured out how our ships worked from the wreckage." The turian answered.
"I... I don't see how they could have figured things out like that so fast. It only took them a single year to build up an armada to invade those systems with."
The Turian didn't know what to say, and an awkward silence drifted over the three of them. The Krogan chuckled. "You salarians think that you are the smartest. I respect that, you cured the genophage, but you're also blind. They truly are as smart as or smarter than you are. Surely you've heard of the legend of the shadow broker? Or what about the tests that we found you doing on them on your homeworld back during the War of Existence?" the Krogan reasoned. "Let's worry about how they came to be after we deal with them."
The turian and salarian nodded. "I'm Tursk by the way." The Krogan added.
"An honor, my name is Quirinus." the turian replied.
"Likewise, my name is Jarosh." the salarian replied as well.
"Shall we go over the mission?" Jarosh added.
"Yes we should." replied Quirinus. "It will help me concentrate."
Tursk watched Jarosh's face relax, "Going over the plan before helps me perform at optimal levels as well." Jarosh began. "Our mission is simple; provide enough evidence to the Asari that the yahg are evil. On this planet we have found a prisoner camp containing all the civilians on the planet, they were all rounded up together after the yahg invaded. We need to find enough evidence to sway the asari, maybe even rescue the civilians."
"Damn Asari and their whole 'we need to see their perspective' bullshit!" Quirinus snapped. "We could have bombed the planet, rescued the civilians in a full on attack, and invaded the Yahg homeworld by now if it wasn't their councilor holding us back. And now they send us three down there to convince the asari otherwise. Agh politicians!"
"The politicians don't get it Quirinus, but they need to play their little games. Don't pay any attention to it; it's just how they work." Tursk replied. He knew that politics was the one trait that every species shared with each other. That was never going to change. Tursk eyed a vid screen in the shuttle. They had about 5 more minutes until they landed. The shuttle itself was remote piloted, just so they wouldn't have to worry about losing a pilot. It was rigged to vaporize after they left the shuttle, a little technological breakthrough thanks to the Reapers. They could not risk any more technology getting into the hands of the Yahg. Who knows what they would do with it. The interior of the shuttle again drifted to an awkward silence as they neared the landing point. Those moments were always the worst; when all you can do is wait Tursk thought to himself.
The shuttle shook a little bit, the engines stopped, and a green light signaled that they had landed. The doors opened, and the three of them rushed out onto the planet surface. They were in the middle of a great prairie of golden grass. Rolling hills covered in grass filled the area. To the left, there seemed to be a great forest of coniferous trees. Seen towering above the trees large metallic buildings stood glistening in the sunlight. Those towers were part of the colony of this planet, and that was where recon spotted the prisoner camp. The three of them set off for the forest, in the direction of the towers. As they made their way down the hill that they landed on, a bright light signaled the vaporization of the shuttle. They reached the forest line with no trouble and decided on a quick 5 minute rest.
"I wonder if they know something's up." Quirinus started.
"That would be improbable; we are too far away for any sensors from the colony to pick us up." Jarosh stated.
"You forget that they are the predators on their planet, they obviously are exceptional trackers, if they don't know we are here now, they will soon." Tursk interjected. "Let's move on."
They began to head through the forest, moving from tree trunk to tree trunk. No one knew if they would stumble upon a yahg. By the time they had reached the outer walls, it was night. But that didn't mean a rest for the squad; they kept moving, eventually finding a point where the wall allowed part of a river to flow through. After a quick demolition, they were in.
As they entered, they could hear the yahg at work. They were savage, even to each other. Tursk was surprised that they could even work together enough to pull off such a military success. Thank goodness that they were stopped at the relay itself by council forces. If they had made it to that relay, who knows how far their blight would have spread. Tursk checked the area, although they could hear the yahg, there was nothing in sight. The colony had a sort of eerie stillness to it.
Jarosh projected a map of the complex from his omni-tool. He adjusted some of the settings, making a certain building begin to blink. "This is the place we want, our sensors read non yahg signatures here." He shut off the map and they made their way through the empty streets. It didn't seem that the Yahg were anywhere, just leaving behind a ghost of a colony. They snuck by several buildings, each emptier than the last. Then they reached the building Jarosh had indicated, and they saw their first yahg. Two yahg stood guard at the doors to the building, their hulking bodies covered in a sort of armor. The armor looked vaguely familiar, the designs of which probably were taken from the armor of the pilot they shot down. In addition, the weapons they had slung behind their backs looked gigantic, definitely fit for someone of their size. Their four pairs of eyes scanned the area. Tursk was grateful that those guards couldn't see them, but he knew that they would eventually if they had stayed there.
"Let's... find another way. I don't want to have to deal with those things." whispered Quirinus hesitantly.
"I concur; our chances of survival are low with a frontal assault." Jarosh chimed.
"Yeah, I don't like this." Tursk answered. They moved back and looped around to the back of the building.
They found a way into the building through the sewers. Jarosh had found an entry point after he had consulted his map a second time. Everything seemed to be going well. They reached the hatch that Jarosh had found with the schematics and successfully infiltrated the base. They seemed to be in a janitorial locker room, with organized shelves and closets containing cleaning supplies. Several lockers ran along the wall for the janitors. The door to the closet was smaller than the usual kind; in fact it probably kept the yahg out of this room, meaning the yahg didn't know about the sewer entrance. Jarosh and Quirinus flanked the door, ready to sneak outside.
"That's a bad idea; Krogan aren't good at sneaking you know." Tursk whispered.
"Don't worry, Ill cloak and run ahead and find the best places for you to go." Jarosh devised. He disappeared into thin air.
"It's funny how they sent you along, almost like they thought there would be a fight instead of us sneaking around. Instead we won't have to worry about anything" Quirinus smirked.
"Don't underestimate them, Quirinus; they are predators, and predators with advanced technology at that. They are savages; let's hope we don't get into a fight with them." Tursk quipped. They sat in silence at the door as they waited for Jarosh to get back.
The door opened, but they didn't who did it. "There's two yahg in the hall to the left, once we get past them there are another two on the right. There's also one patrolling around. They almost caught me when I was walking around, I don't know what we should do." Jarosh's appeared before them, having turned off his cloak.
"Listen; go forward without me, I'll guard this exit then." Tursk stated.
The other two nodded and left the room. Tursk sat down with a sigh, it was a good thing that there was no action he thought, but it still would have been nice for him to kill something.
No sooner had the other two left when alarms started going off. Tursk jumped the attention, grabbing his shotgun. Jarosh and Quirinus sprinted back inside the locker room.
"It wasn't us! There is no way that we set off that damn alarm!" Quirinus huffed.
"Indeed, it seems the guards are moving away. This could be our chance to make a break for the prisoner block." Jarosh added.
"Then let's move! We don't know how much time we have!" Tursk was ready for action. The three of them ran out of the closet into the empty hallway. The alarm continued to blare, and the squad could hear yahg guards communicating down one of the halls. They reached the prisoner reception area, only to find two enormous double reinforced titanium doors.
"What do we do now? We are blocked!" Tursk grunted. He prepared his shotgun.
"No! Don't fire! We don't want to give away our positions!" Jarosh pleaded.
"Then what do we do? We can't just stop here!"
"But we have to, back to the sewers! We can try again later!"
Tursk lowered his shotgun, and Jarosh backed off. Before Jarosh could act however, Tursk shot the doors. "I won't be kept out like this, not when this could be over! The longer we stay here, the more likely we are to die to those… beasts!"
Jarosh began to pull on Tursk, "It won't work! The doors are too strong! We will die here if we stay!"
Tursk looked at Jarosh with a menacing glare. "There are guards coming!" Quirinus interrupted. Tursk cut the look, "Looks like we have to go then." He huffed. The three of them sprinted off back to the janitorial closet. As they made it through the door, they could hear a roar behind them. As they climbed down the ladder back into the sewers, everything shook. "They must have breached the closet" Jarosh shouted. "We need to get out of here!" They sprinted down the sewer tunnels. "Shit, we have to go topside to get out of here." Quirinus yelled. Out of the frying pan and into the flame Tursk thought.
The squad made it back to their point of entry to the sewers. It was a ramp for the vehicles that filtered the sewers. The ramp lead up to the inside of the sanitation building, a building located near the walls of the colony. The building itself was a victim of a yahg bombing run back when they initially invaded the planet. Quirinus checked the corner that lead up to the ramp. "There's a single yahg up ahead, I think the three of us can take him." He whispered. The other two nodded.
They approached its back. Tursk aimed his shotgun and was ready to take the shot. The yahg's keen senses knew of their approach however. Using its large weapon as a club, it spun around and knocked Tursk's shotgun out of his hands. Jarosh and Quirinus pulled Tursk back, just in time for the weapon to smash the ground where he was standing just moments before. Quirinus began letting loose his assault rifle. Shots bounced off the yahg's armor, and even if the shots hurt the beast, they only served to anger it more. It charged at Quirinus, who dove out of the way. Jarosh pulled out his sniper rifle and took a shot. The bullet connected with the yahg's face, and it let out a guttural yell. It was not dead yet however. Within two steps it was directly in front of Jarosh on the ramp and it picked him up. Tursk had never seen such a quick and brutal opponent. He charged and rammed the yahg. Both fell over in a heap, but both got back to their feet rather quickly. "Jarosh! Find my shotgun!" Tursk yelled as he wrestled with the yahg. He knew that his strength would fail before the yahg's and he needed a quick way out of this fight. Jarosh grabbed the shotgun. "I've got it! Catch!" He cried and he tossed it to Tursk.
Except that Tursk wasn't in that spot by the time the gun reached the location. Tursk was instead on the ground, trying to hold back the yahg's attempts to crush him. Quirinus however, was able to make it to the shotgun. "Die you son of a b***h!" He cried as he blasted the gun at point blank range into the yahg's face.
Its body slumped over lifeless on top of Tursk. Tursk shoved the body off. "Gosh, stronger than a Krogan, smarter than a Krogan, I thought at least that we smelled worse than they do." He joked. Jarosh smirked, while Quirinus laughed. They picked up their guns and began to make their way through the streets. They reached their entry point, and the sounds of a battle inside the colony raged on.
"Maybe we should go help whoever that is. An enemy of our enemy is a friend right?" Quirinus reasoned.
"Yahg suffer from stability issues due to their violent nature. Even though they become subservient to the dominant yahg, there are still some that fancy revolting against the dominant ones so that they might become dominant." Jarosh stated. "This could be simple a power struggle. Best stay out of it"
The squad sat down outside the blasted entrance. The area was safe for the time being, especially since the battle raged inside, drawing the attentions of any yahg that might see them. Quirinus began cleaning his gun, and Jarosh began studying his schematics of the colony. Tursk just sat and went over the previous battle with the yahg. No wonder Commander Shepard and Liara T'soni had so much trouble with the Shadow Broker. They were legendary, and yet still had trouble with just one yahg. Tursk liked thinking of him on the same level as the Commander himself, but he knew he was nowhere close.
"Is it me, or are the sounds of battle coming closer?" Quirinus asked. Tursk listened to the battle, and it was true the battle did seem to be getting closer. And fast. Jarosh picked up his sniper rifle and went to the breach; he used the scope to see if there was anything up.
"See anything?" Tursk and Quirinus asked in unison.
Jarosh intently surveyed the scene until it became apparent to Tursk and Quirinus that he saw something.
They both walked up closer. "What do you see Jarosh?"
Jarosh gulped and lowered the rifle. "I see... I see asari commandoes running from yahg. They're coming right for us."
"WHAT? I thought the Asari were staying out of this! What are they up to?" Quirinus questioned. All of his nerves turned to anger. "I can't believe it!" He cursed.
"Should we help them?" Jarosh asked.
"Yes we should, we will need all the help we can get to get to the prisoners." Tursk replied.
Jarosh raised his rifle and fired a shot. BLAM! The look on his face told Tursk he had felled a target. He reloaded and aimed again. BLAM! Another hit.
The sounds of the battle now grew very close. Jarosh waved his hand into the opening, and three Asari commandos flew through the hole. The hole was too small for the yahg, but it would only delay them.
Without a word, the squad and commandos ran through the forest, never looking back.
They reached the beginnings of the prairie around morning. Tursk judged the day cycle to be around the same as the one on Tuchanka, around 21.4 Earth Hours. Judging from this, he knew that they needed to find a place to camp, otherwise exhaustion would overcome them. The previous night's events had tired everyone out, especially the asari. The group was silent, except for the static coming from Quirinus' communicator.
"Hey Tursk, it seems they found a way to jam our signals." Quirinus stated. "What are we going to do now with no backup or exfiltration?"
"We need to find a place to make a camp. Once there, maybe you could explain yourselves asari." Tursk stated. He turned toward the forest to see if there were any tactically advantageous places.
"Perhaps we want to know why you are down here as well? Your forces agreed not to engage the yahg." An asari voiced challenged.
Tursk began to laugh. "HA! We were sent on a mission to find evidence to convince your people that the yahg are bad. And yet, HERE YOU ARE!" He laughed even harder. He walked away, with Jarosh and Quirinus in suit. He expected them to go their own way, but they didn't. They stuck to the group. They found a cave in a small mountain in the forest and decided to camp there for the night. Upon inspection, the cave went on infinitely, but it seemed safe for a night. They moved far enough into the cave not to attract any attention. Tursk beckoned the others to sleep; he decided to stand watch over them. The asari that had spoken back also decided to stay awake.
Tursk inspected the asari. It was clear that she had seen a lot of action, and there was no doubt that she was certainly deadly. "So what's your story?" He asked her. He was only trying to be friendly to an ally.
She shrugged and turned away. "There is no story, nothing that you would care for anyway. We were detected and worse of all we were saved by a citadel squad lead by a... a Krogan." She seemed disgusted at the thought of that.
"What do you have against my people?" Tursk challenged.
"Everywhere you go, you're people always bring trouble." She replied.
"And what did my people ever do to you? Our races fought the Reapers together! Your race has no qualms against mine." Tursk responded. He didn't understand why his attempt at camaraderie was rejected.
"Humph" she began. "I have my own reasons. This conversation is over." And so the conversation was over. Just like that. Tursk turned his attention to his gun. Things became silent, save for the sleeping of the others. The silence covered the forest like a blanket. There weren't many life forms on this planet. Pretty much only the vegetation and some small animals existed on the surface. Tursk then fell asleep.
He woke up to the asari complaining about him. As he got up, she shut up but the damage was already done. It was beginning to get dark out, and everyone agreed that they needed to do some more recon of the area with the darkness to cover them. They gathered the little belongings that they had and began to set out of the cave. Something didn't smell right to Tursk, however that only added to his urge to leave the cave. Quirinus and an asari lead the group out of the cave. It was only then that the smell was clear enough for Tursk to tell what it was: yahg. Within seconds, Quirinus and the asari with him were blasted to bits by an explosion. Tursk jumped back, now fully aware of the trap that was laid out for them. The yahg must have surrounded the cave entrance, and surround it they did. With a roar, several yahg charged at the rest of the group still inside the cave. Everyone left alive fled further into the cave, with the yahg in close pursuit. The tunnel winded but never branched off, offering no chance for the chased to evade their prey. One of the yahg grabbed another of the asari; there was no chance for a rescue, all they could do is run. As he ran, Jarosh motioned to cracks in the walls of the tunnel. Tursk got the idea and threw several grenades into a crack ahead of them. By the time they had passed it, the grenades exploded, causing a tunnel collapse.
The group had made it, and Tursk looked back to see a pile of rubble in place of their pursuers. Some of the rubble began to part however, revealing a single yahg that had become crushed under the rocks. Tursk put his shotgun to the yahg's head. The yahg looked up at him, offering no signs of fear. Tursk pulled the trigger. "That was for Quirinus you son of a whore." The now headless body of the yahg slumped down.
The group continued on through the tunnels.
"These tunnels seem fabricated, not natural" Jarosh stated. "Perhaps there is something at the end of this tunnel."
"I sure do hope so." Tursk replied. They continued on through the tunnel.
Tursk was deep in thought about losing Quirinus. He didn't know much about him, due to the rather short time he knew him, and all he could do was play the thought of him exploding over and over again. Such a sudden death scared Tursk, as he wanted to make peace with himself and others before he went, and yet he had no control when that would happen. Clearly, he reasoned with himself, he would have to be in a constant state of peace, something that he was not ready for. Jarosh nudged him, "You ok?" He stated. Tursk just grunted a non-answer. He actually didn't know himself if he was ok or not. Death always brought him back to the War of Existence, where death was the only constant of the time. After several minutes of walking, the group began to see some light emanating from further down the tunnel.
The end of the tunnel brought them to a vast wide plain, similar to the one that they had landed in. The tunnel's end was part of a rocky plateau. Off in the distance were the walls of another enclosure. The tunnels must have served to connect the two enclosures. "These plains will clearly be our bane if we seek to travel through them." Jarosh began. "We also need to get back to the first colony enclosure. I think we should split up and each group will go a different side of the plateau to maximize our chances of getting to the enclosure." The leader asari scoffed. "And how will splitting up maximize our chances? It will serve as our doom."
"But if we split up, we will force them to track two separate groups instead of one." Jarosh replied. "You saw their demonstration of their tracking skills! They are probably on their way here already!"
The asari went quiet. "Then you two can go and we can go." She stated after a short silence.
"Well about that." Jarosh hesitated. "Now Tursk don't get offended, but my expertise involves sneaking. I believe that it would be beneficial to us if I had an asari accompany me rather than Tursk."
Tursk saw the logic in the idea, but he didn't like it. He didn't want the salarian getting in any trouble without him. He partly felt responsible for him.
The leader asari also grunted. She probably doesn't like it either Tursk thought. The asari spoke up. "Then we might as well do that." she spoke. "I'm with the Krogan, so I can keep an eye on him."
Tursk didn't like that plan at all, but he wouldn't argue. Maybe he could find out something about the asari's mission on the way or maybe why she hated Krogan so much.
The two pairs then set rendezvous coordinates, and started off in their respective directions. Jarosh took the eastern route around the plateau, and Tursk took the Western. The sun began to rise, and Tursk wondered how much longer he would be on this planet with the yahg.
PART 2 COMING SOON.