Shepard's War
The Cal' Alrishok is a batarian dreadnaught known as the sword of the Hegemony. It earned distinction in the reaper war after managing to shield most of the Reaper assault on Kar'shan before being crippled in the battle over the planet. It has been over ten years since that battle and the Cal' Alrishok has been called back into duty. The quarian and geth were spotted moving ships into batarian space and rumor has it that an attack is imminent from Omega.
The ship was left in the orbit of a batarian colony on the edge of batarian space. On the border of the Perseus veil. Two officers were down in hanger three spent their time gossiping about the situation. "So did ya hear?"
"Here what?" the other batarian answered. "The Omega invasion? Everyone's heard."
"I heard a quarian Admiral died in the cross fire. Some hero or what ever." The batarian says. "Tali Normandy... one of Shepard's."
"No lose there."
"Actually it left a bit of a rift in me." Before the two officers could turn around the sound of automatic shot gun fire rang throughout the hanger. The two batarians were quickly cut down.
"This is Shepard," She says coming out of tactical cloak. "Operation Wide-Awake is a go."
Cal' Alrishok, CIC:
"Patrol team come in?" said the CIC operator. "Patrol..."
"They aren't responding, Admiral Balak." A concerned operator uttered. "The patrol teams in hanger three and five aren't responding."
Admiral Balak is a committed batarian patriot, always doing what he thought was necessary for the Hegemony. He would defend his people to the end. "Send a response team to check it out. Is the 90th scout flotilla reporting any activity on the systems edge?"
"Their is a nebula cloud on the other end of the mass relay. It's interfering with proper communications. But they are slated for ship rotation in another hour. We should here something in..."
"I want it in the next thirty minutes." Balak growled.
"Um, okay." Says the operator.
"Sir! The garrison is reporting a massive spike in energy at the relay!" An operator said panicked. "Something big is coming through."
"Tell the garrison to be on high alert! Send a message to colonial command and some one get me in contact with..." The admiral was cut off by several explosions that rocked the ship.
"Explosions in hangers three, five and two!" Operators said.
"We're picking up a number of enemy ships. The garrison is retreating to reinforce our flank."
"Get GUARDIAN point defenses online!" Balak ordered.
The CIC then broke out into a chorus blaring sirens, with the loud speakers erupting with heavy sounding guitars:
Determination that is incorruptible, From the other side of terror to behold annihilation will be unavoidable every broken enemy will know, That their opponent had to be invincible, Take a last look around, while your alive, I'm an indestructible master of war!
"What the hell is going on!" Balak barked.
"We don't have control of the ships systems!" The operator says.
Balak pulled turned the operator around, and got in his face. "Then who does?"
Shepard crawled through the maintenance ducts until she found her way into what she figured was an armory. Guns and body armor lay on racks lining the walls. By now her fleet of mercenaries and pirates should be entering the system. She had a geth virus broadcasted by here ships, if they were in the system the dreadnaught's systems should be going hay wire.
She checked her omni-tool and she was in fact, in control of the ship. "Set GUARDIAN lasers to mark any batarian targets." She says, speaking into her omni-tool.
"Yes, Commander." A synthesized voice spoke.
"Engine conditions?"
"The explosions in the effected hangers, have compromised the drive core. It would be unsafe to go into FTL in this state."
Her omni-tool faded from view as she walked pout of the armory. "That is what I'm hoping for."
She committed the ship lay out to memory. Down the hall was a flight of stairs and a hall way that would lead to an elevator, and from their it was straight to the CIC. Armed with her shot gun in hand she made her way through. There were a few batarians at their work stations. Shepard shot into the ceiling. "Nobody move a muscle!" she ordered. She scanned the room, observing them all. There was maybe ten of them.
One of them popped up from behind a desk and held a pistol. Without hesitation she pointed her automatic shot gun and sent the batarian flying over his desk with two shots. The elevator doors opened up, three batarian soldiers flooded out.
She took cover behind one of the desks, while the batarians fired at her. She flared her omni- tool, hoping their shield's weren't any stronger than standard issue. She peaked out of cover and waved her hand at them, overloading their shield's. She drew her pistol and fired two shots each at the batarians. Hitting two of them in the chest, the wounds being inches apart and hitting the other once in the stomach, and again in the head.
She popped a heat sink and began to speak into her omni tool. "Lock down all elevators and signal my ship to board, for a pick up in five minutes."
"Lieutenant Vakarian is en route."
She took the elevator to the CIC. She took a remote controlled mine and stuck it to the roof of the elevator. She had plans for it later. As she got further up the dreadnaught shook, the battle out side must have started. Shepard's face widened into a grin at the thought of the batarian ship captain's being fired on by their own dreadnaught. "The quarians and geth really do have a talent for cyber warfare." She thought to herself.
The elevator stopped and the doors swung open. Unlike most ships, older batarian dreadnaughts held their CIC in the middle of the ship. While navigation controls were on the levels below. Leaving a weakness for, Shepard to exploit. If the CIC is cut off from the rest of the ship, orders cannot be given to navigation and no comm signals can be sent out. Muting them from the rest of the fleet.
The CIC was staffed by operators who were still trying to combat the virus in their systems. Up ahead a batarian admiral was barking orders. He was wearing a grey batarian military uniform, the sight of him filled her with rage. "All of you out!" She snarled.
Balak immediately recognized the human woman. Wearing a similar set red and black armor she wore when they first met. A woman that now has the Hegemony on the edge of war. "Do as she says." He growls.
They all file in past, Shepard into the elevator. Balak stayed put, waiting for Shepard. "I figured this day would come."
Shepard's omni-tool flashed, the floor rattled beneath her feet as the elevator has no doubt crashed into the floor below. "This is war batarian. I don't suppose you'd beg for mercy. After all you never showed any to them."
The admiral growled. "Terra Nova? That was almost twenty years ago, Shepard."
"Yes and almost twenty years ago you nearly destroyed a colony. And got away with it." Shepard got closer holstering her pistol. "You serve on a ship for awhile, get lucky and make admiral. Where is the justice in that?"
"And Torfan? No justice was exacted for that."
Shepard smirked. "Now that was even longer ago. " She looked pointedly at the batarian, her eyes full of hate for the man she saw as a terrorist. "And I served fifteen years in an alliance prison to make the new council happy and to invite you blinks back to the, Citadel."
"My reward for saving the galaxy."
She looked away from, Balak for a moment and heard a slight noise, like a blade being unsheathed. "Die!" Balak charged her with a knife in hand.
Quickly, Shepard grabed his wrist and twisted it upwards until she heard a snap. Balak dropped the knife. Shepard landed a hard strike to his ribs and pulled his head down, slamming it on her knee. She wasn't done, she pulled back his arm, whipped around him and launched her elbow into his arm. Breaking it.
The batarian howled in pain. Shepard then hit him with a kick to the chest that slammed him into the wall. She brandished a combat knife she had strapped to her boot. She quickly held it to Balak's stomach, just under the rib cage.
"The way I see it you owe me four lives." Shepard said, in an almost feral tone of voice. She plunged the blade into, Balak. "One for each engineer that died on X57. I remember them all."
She then pulled down on the blade, down to his pelvis. "Montoya gunned down by sniper."
She pulled the knife out and stabbed him again a few inches to the right, pulling the knife back down to his pelvis. "Doctor Hymes was caught in an explosion."
She repeated this two more times, leaving four long jagged incisions in the batarian. "That last one was for, Aaron Bowman. The boy you murdered in front of his sister."
Balak slumps to the floor, quickly bleeding out. "I... have... have done these things human."
Shepard ignores him and goes to the ships controls. "Remember this... Shepard. " He says weakly. "When...a victim... of yours... comes for you."
AN/ She doesn't pull any punches does she? This is a Shepard I wrote in a story a long time ago. Kinda wanted to revisit her in this one shot. The song I threw in there was "Indestructible" by Disturbed. (Thought it was a fun way of freaking the batarians out.)
Anyways, thanks for reading and please review.