2183: Batarian terrorists hijack an asteroid station in the Asgard system, setting it on a collision course with colony world of Terra Nova. The asteroid, propelled by three engines, now ignites the planet's atmosphere. Millions of humans may well perish within an hour. The Systems Alliance sends an elite team to divert the catastrophe. I damaged my ship's engines in rushing to help.
John steered the Mako up a slope and stopped at a cliff edge overlooking a rocky stretch to the fusion torch and station. He opened the hatch and hopped down, joined by a quarian, Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, and an asari, Liara T'Soni.
"I have faith in you," Liara said. Her twinkling eyes stared at John in what he thought was excitement. "You're the human who humiliated their race in the Skyllian Blitz."
"They'll be extra hostile because of that."
"Ready, Commander." Tali typed into her omni-tool, coding her combat drone.
They skidded down the rocky face, all but shadows until they reached the glow of the torch. Small black cylinders poked from the ground between the three squadmates and their goal.
John caught movement far ahead and raised his Tsunami assault rifle to peek through the scope. A batarian sniper took aim at him from behind a ruined turret. He shot the thing through its neck. Four batarians popped from cover and fired. Shots grazed kinetic barriers. Liara and Tali each took out one with their pistols, John the last.
The man walked forward a few meters and looked down at the forearm computers of his Mercenary armor. "Looks like all of them out here. Watch your sensors for the blasting caps."
His sensors beeped and a dot appeared on the radar grid. They turned to see a trooper step out from a row of boulders. A rocket whizzed toward them.
The projectile shattered John's rifle and slammed into his midsection. Pain and light him overtook as he flew back. More rapid beeps indicated the blast had sent him toward a blasting cap. While in the air, he saw his two comrades leap to the side and open fire.
A young woman stood at an open cupboard and shoveled out cans of food into a duffel bag. A toddler sat on the kitchen table a few feet away and wailed.
"The skycar will be here in a minute to pick us up, sweety." Her hands and knees shook.
She glanced out a window. An asteroid all but consumed the sky, gravitational mass yanking at the seas. Waves rose and crashed on the mountainside. Rocks by tons plummeted past or landed on the narrow road in front of their home. How long would the structure hold?
A wave busted through the window. She jumped onto the table to shield her son. Water splashed the kitchen interior. The child went silent, clung to her tunic.
The ceiling exploded behind. Dust and plastic pelted their backs. A small tree attached to a chunk of soil now blocked the exit.
Reality set in. They were going to die. Drowned, crushed, or incinerated in the beast's friction.
Something new came from the north, spurting smoke and flames, descending diagonally and then out of view. A ship?
Hope they died quickly, she thought. The sky brightened further. A wave gained absurd height and rushed toward their home. "Squeeze your eyes shut. Try to sleep."
The wall burst open, she registered a blur and the feeling of limbs wrapping around her and her child. They rotated about. Whatever had them took the impact as they crashed into the opposite wall. Wind and water washed over her body. The tsunami turned the house to splinters far below.
She coughed and shook herself. A man flew them upward toward the mountaintop. She ran her fingertips down the chain-link texture of his body suit, pressed in and felt metal hardness.
Kal zoomed over the edge to flat land and set his load on the grass off a highway leading from a colony town.
The boy grinned up at his rescuer.
"Thank you," the woman said. "Where are all the other soldiers with flying suits?"
"Situation's still critical," He ignored her question and pointed down the highway. "Be careful with that crowd." Humans fled by the hundreds on foot, in skycars and six-wheeled ET3's. They tripped, shoved, dropped their packs and shouted curses. The ruckus panic mostly muffled the cries of surprise from citizens who had spotted him flying.
Kal ascended skyward until he was a safe distance from the people, then aimed for the asteroid and accelerated to faster than sound. "Activate solar reserves, ninety percent." The rectangular modules along the outside of his arms buzzed and glowed.
He entered scorching flames, then slammed palms and shoulders into the rock. He mentally triggered a fiber-optic string along his spinal cord which charged the element zero stored in his every cell. The resultant energy field spread over the asteroid. He tightened muscles to their fullest and willed himself upward.
Soon, instead of an arid landscape, he saw space and stars.
"Report, Charn," Balak said to another batarian entering the room. The station shook. Everyone steadied themselves against the quake.
"Computers were right. Our course is headed back out into space. What did this?"
Balak growled and pressed the point of his pistol into the head of a human male, who was kneeling. "A question for you to answer, scientist."
The human's sister stood a few meters away, guarded by two batarians armed with assault rifles. She covered her face and sobbed.
"How should I know? You're in charge of the fusion torches now."
A scraping sound came from the portal. Onk dragged in a quarian whose helmet was blood-splattered. He dropped her in a corner, and gestured for Charn to help him. They brought in a fainted asari and an armored human.
"We caught a few vermin," Onk said. "Commander Shepard and two of his squad. Blasting caps knocked them out. Quarian probably has a deadly infection by now."
The human woman turned, mortified. "Shepard. But. . ."
"Shoot his heart with adrenaline," Balak said. "We'll see what we can squeeze from him." He turned his attention back to the scientist. "Those three were out there sabotaging our operation. Tell us how to fix the torches."
"The colonists are safe, Aaron. Their lives are worth dying for."
"I know, Kate."
"Wrong response." Balak kicked Aaron in the ribs.
Kal floated some distance away and surveyed the station with x-ray vision. Three bombs, powerful by the look of their circuitry, awaited detonation. Defense drones and batarians patrolled every room and walkway.
I could try negotiation, he thought. But the terrorists might use the hostages as shields to escape before I could convince them to stand down.
Their transport was nowhere in sight. Probably concealed in underground lead-lined walls. He needed a minute or so to even figure out how to dismantle those bombs, and the defense drones would cause more delay.
He found an isolated corner on the top landing. He closed one eye and activated the miniaturized oculus in the other. A beam shot from his pupil and burned a hole in the metal roof large enough for him to enter.
Kal sucked in his stomach and dove inside. He turned a corner and entered a room housing the first bomb. Convoluted wires, tubes, and chips filled the contraption, but its design seemed overall human. Everything else slowly faded from his consciousness as he worked out the puzzle.
"I see." He shot a pin-sized beam at the right spot and turned the bomb to junk.
Something flashed and hit his shoulder. That stings, he realized.
A drone had spotted him. More shots came his way. He dodged, zoomed at the machine, and punched it. Done.
Extreme use of his powers had worn on him. Electrically-charged element zero heated his cells to possibly dangerous levels. He needed to keep himself in check until he could heal, and use his powers sparingly. A challenge, considering the terrorists knew an intruder was present.
The second bomb rested in a room across an expanse which dropped to the first floor. Panels in railing along the wall walkways and center bridge could serve as cover. He ran out and instantly met three batarians to his right. To take the bridge meant moving closer to them and being exposed to gunfire on his way across. But a round-trip might cost time he lacked.
He tore two panels from the railing, one in each hand, and raced toward the enemies, who loosed a flurry of molten bullets. His crude shields held.
The man crouched as he traversed in a calf-over-shin jog, shields extended to either side. A guard appeared at the far end, and the other three ceased fire. "Give our heat syncs a few seconds to cool. We'll get him. Whoever the hell he is."
Throwing distance. He flung a panel horizontally at the guard who stood at the destination and bolted forward, holding the remainder behind him for wise measure. The object made contact with the batarian's face, causing him to drop his gun, which Kal caught in one hand and slammed into the guard's head.
The group was already well across by the time Kal entered the room. He deactivated the bomb, turned, and found himself trapped as batarians gathered at the door.
When things are tense, take deep breaths. The exhale threw them from their feet, but Kal was winded. He repeatedly pulled the trigger of his stolen assault rifle, aimed for hands.
When the situation seemed to be in his favor, a guard stepped out, an aura radiating from his body. Kal's rifle had overheated. The biotic raised his arm and the energy flared. Kal felt his body go rigid.
He dropped the rifle, fell to the floor, and struggled to break from the stasis web, but was paralyzed. Biotics canceled out his own eezo-based powers. Fallen batarians stood up. A second biotic used telekinetic push to escort him alongside the party while the first kept him in stasis.
"We're done for if the Alliance mass-produces whatever kind of suit he's wearing," a captor said. "Guy's kinetic shields are insane. Best I've ever seen."
They arrived in an antechamber where three wounded leaned against a wall. Two human hostages were present, one a man on his knees.
"Balak, sir. This human infiltrated the station, took out a few of us and dismantled two of the bombs."
Balak shot the male hostage, who crumpled over dead. The woman screamed and ran at the fallen man, but a couple underlings held her back.
"Bring him over."
Kal saw motion from the human soldier against the wall.
Shepard set his feet on the floor, leaned forward, and lunged at the nearest biotic. He snatched a pistol from the alien's belt before they had time to respond, and, in the next instant, shot the batarian biotics dead.
Balak discharged a shot into Shepard's exposed head. The soldier fell.
The field faded from Kal. Here was a chance to use the last of his reserves. He zipped to Balak and brought his knee up to the alien's outstretched arm. It shattered at the elbow. He then zoomed to Charn, picked him up by the throat, and hurled him at the last armed terrorist.
He super-sped to the last bomb, ruined it, and walked back to meet with Kate. She sat beside her brother's body and stared up in amazement.
"I'm sorry you had such a rough day. Wish I could've saved him."
She shook her head. "Aaron convinced me to come work at this research facility. He said it'd be an adventure. He was right."
Liara opened her eyes and squinted against bright light. She felt comfortable, but a bit sore. Someone had dressed her in a loose gown, slits down the sides. Bandages soaked in some slippery substance were wrapped around her forehead and hips. She turned and saw Tali on a bed beside her, hooked to various machines by tubes.
A middle-aged doctor holding a datapad walked over. "Our database says you're Liara T'Soni, daughter of Matriarch Benezia. That right?"
The asari nodded and tried to occupy herself by retying her gown. Talk of her mother made her nervous these days.
"We applied medi-gel to the worst wounds, but you'll need relocated to a proper hospital ASAP. Scanners revealed heavy amounts of shrapnel in your abdomen." He nodded to Tali. "Your quarian friend over there? She's the one I'm worried about. Exo-cybernetics are way out of my league."
"The help is much appreciated," Liara said. "Please send a message to the Normandy, telling them we require immediate transport off the asteroid." She straightened. "Where is the Commander?"
The doctor grimaced. "Damn. I thought one of the women already told you. We declared him dead about ten minutes ago."
Dread gave her new vigor. She slid from the bed and grabbed the doctor by his shoulders. "Where is he?"
He wriggled away and turned to point at an bed across the room. "He was right there. The scientist, Kate, said there was another guy here before we came. A secret agent, or something. Maybe he would know?"
Kal had taken off John's helmet and beheld a face eerily similar to his own. A supernatural sign, or advantageous coincidence?
He stood in shadow beside a cliff, wearing John's battered armor over his body suit. "I promise to reveal this deception to the galaxy, eventually. You deserve to be remembered as you were." Impersonating the man who saved you, for any reason, was ethically dubious. Guilt would follow wherever he went.
He walked up a slope and stopped at the crest to watch Terra Nova shrink.
I come for you. . . Brainiac.
AUTHOR'S NOTES
9/25/14 - Grammar adjustments