So Say We All
Lieutenant Commander Jack Carmine checked his instruments for the 7th time since completing his first jump. He looked out through his canopy when he saw that the instrument readings hadn't changed. "You still there LC?" Joker's voice filling the cramped cockpit.
"I'm still here Joker, nothing to report yet." Carmine replied, "Just letting the scanners do their job, while I stare out into the big black."
"Good, we just started getting the sensor telemetry and the techs are getting excited, some of those asteroids are rich in eezo and another mineral no-one's discovered yet. Also, Shepard wants you ready to bug out in a hurry in case something happens."
"Copy, Just don't fall behind, I don't want to be on my own if something is out here." Carmine answered. Joker chuckled before assuring him they were only 10 minutes away and Shepard wouldn't abandon her people.
As Flight Lieutenant Jeff 'Joker' Moreau signed off, Carmine turned to look out the canopy at his fighter's starboard wing, thinking about how he ended up on the Normandy. He'd just signed up with the Alliance, assigned to an Army infantry company under Admiral Kahoku's command. His company had been sent to Edolus but ran into a nest of Thresher Maws, he had been knocked over and then dragged underground by one of the Maws. He'd awoken in a lab with at least one other trooper nearby, which was when Cerberus scientists began to experiment on him. He'd spent over a month in that lab and the scientists had used him to test new cybernetics, including a Titanium bone weave. They also tried a new gene-therapy to induce enhanced ability to heal; that had almost failed, leaving him able to heal faster than an average human, asari or turian but not enough to be considered a success, it simply made it easier for him to be patched up to continue a fight.
Shepard's team had broken in shortly after the pain from the Bone weave implantation faded, wrecking most of the facility and destroying nearly all the test data. The extent of his modifications hadn't become apparent until Dr Chakwas examined him. Her shock had faded fast, confining him to sick bay for a thorough examination, to his displeasure.
Shortly after Chakwas finished, Shepard had visited him, wanting to know more about him. He told her of his service, the ambush, the experiments and the rescue. Shepard had sat there for a moment, thinking, before offering him a place on her ground team or to return him to his previous unit. He had asked for time to consider his decision, which Shepard had given him.
When he learned of Saren's deception, and the potential Reaper threat he decided to remain on the Normandy and help Shepard's team fight the Geth. Shepard then took him aside and told him there were several non-humans on the ground team and asked if this would be a problem; he had replied that he'd never worked with non-humans before but he was willing to in order to complete their mission. Shepard had smiled and welcomed him to the team.
Shortly afterwards he had been picked for his first op, Noveria. He earned the respect of his teammates with his skill with a battle rifle against the Rachni, but he also talked Shepard into sparing the queen, an act the Wrex resented him for.
The next few missions went with few mishaps, until Virmire. He disobeyed orders when Geth reinforcements showed up and went back for Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams and the STG survivors while Shepard and the others rescued Lieutenant Kaiden Alenko. He had bought Ashley and the STG just enough time to escape. His heroics earned him a chewing out from Shepard, but he knew she was glad no-one else had died.
After the theft of the Normandy and Ilos he had stayed behind to keep the Geth from following Shepard into the Presidium Tower. Consequently he was wounded several times and nearly bled out before C-sec and Alliance marines had arrived.
During the aftermath of the Battle of the Citadel, after he'd been discharged from hospital, he'd spent his recovery time helping Engineer Adams in engineering. He quickly got to know Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, the female Quarian machinist that Shephard had recruited into the crew. He enjoyed working with the bubbly Quarian, quickly he found himself finding excuses to spend time with her. The Normandy was attacked before he could work up the courage to ask her out. He made it to one of the last escape pods, he'd had a clear with through the viewing port as the Collector's final salvo destroyed the ship.
After the SR-1 had been destroyed He'd mostly been paired up with Kaiden or Ashley for the next 2 years before receiving a special solo assignment to Admiral Anderson. It had been a quiet posting until rumours of Shepards survival arose. Taking a chance; using the same Extranet e-mail address Anderson used he requested they meet. He waited in Flux for Shepard to show; he hadn't expected her to arrive with two Cerberus regulars at her back. To say he'd been angry was an understatement; however, Shepard had given him a second chance after Edolus, so the least she deserved was a chance to explain.
For several minutes he listened to her story of her last moments, waking up during the attack on Lazarus station, meeting The Illusive Man and the intel collected from Freedom's progress. At the mention of the latest attack, he mentioned that he'd seen a subtle pattern in the attacks: the attacks hitting peaceful colonies, with a stable population, relatively low levels of offworld traffic, relatively untouched by pirates or slavers and all on the edge of direct communications range with both local colonies and colonial militia squadrons or Alliance patrol fleets.
Carmine watched how the Cerberus pair reacted to this information: the dark skinned male had simply looked surprised, while the ivory skinned brunette had shaken slightly, shock glinting in her eyes but outwardly appeared calm. Shepard herself had been amazed at this revelation, marvelling for a few moments on her teammate's deductive capability, before quickly recovering and telling him about the Collectors involvement.
Carmine was worried by that last piece of information; he knew the Collectors had powerful weapons technology (including particle beam cannons), strong biotics and other advanced tech. Any fight with them would be to the death. He also knew that they rarely left the Omega 4 relay, so any increase in activity was cause for alarm.
It was then Shepard had asked if he could join her in her fight against the Collectors. He'd sat there for several moments before swallowing his hatred and fear of Cerberus and said yes, as long as he only answered to her and no-one else. Jane Shepard had smiled and thanked him for helping her again. She then introduced him to his (then) only teammates; Jacob Taylor and Miranda Lawson.
He got a leave of absence from Anderson when Shepard went to see the council; the council provided their usual lack of help until Carmine mentioned the Collector's part in the destruction of the SR-1, correctly citing it as an act of war. The council then decided to provide Shepard the Spectre's resources in order help her mission while promising to assign a Spectre to assist in the Alliance investigation.
As the team returned to the Normandy, Shepard had thanked him for his help with the council, Carmine simply said 'that he did what he had to, just as they would all have to in order to finish this fight. The Collectors play for All or Nothing.' He was then reunited with Joker and introduced to the Ship's AI EDI. He had stiffened slightly when EDI was introduced, but had decided to give her a chance. EDI had thanked him when he quietly spoke his thoughts aloud. This had surprised him, but he took it in stride.
He'd been assigned quarters in the aft port observation deck, just aft of life support. Over the next month he had helped Jane build her team, getting to know the new team members. He'd quickly become friends with Kasumi Goto, Thane Krios, Jacob Taylor and Zaeed Massani along with most of the Cereberus crew. He had saved Garrus from the worst of Tarak's missile fire, but his half-healed wounds had examined by Mordin Solus when they returned, the salarian geneticist had taking an immediate interest in his augmentations, specifically the advanced healing and bone weave. The experience had been unpleasant, but he had allowed it as a favour to Shepard.
Horizon had been a major blow to the remaining Normandy originals morale. Both Williams and Alenko had been there with a small Alliance force. Both had pegged Shepard, Carmine and Garrus as traitors, unable to see past their dealings with Cerberus and the organisation's reputation. That was when Carmine snapped; he angrily accused them of betraying their former CO, of allowing their personal feelings about Cerberus' past to blind them to other possibilities. He finally accused them of betraying those who believed them to be friends, saying 'you would have followed her anywhere, I am following her anywhere. That's the difference between us. Despite my past, despite my own feelings on Cerberus, I can put that aside to follow my Commanding Officer and my friend. You clearly can't. Did we really know you? Because the friends I remember wouldn't hesitate to assist against a pawn of the Reapers, or was it all an elaborate façade? Doesn't matter now I guess I know where my loyalties lie and I have no intention of betraying them.'
He had then turned away and called for pickup, Both Ashley and Kaiden shaken by his outburst. Jane and Garrus had later thanked him for defending them, he replied by saying after everything that they had all been through, he knew that when it mattered they wouldn't leave him twisting in the wind. Both had agreed and they set off for their next mission.
After several missions, stealing a Reaper IFF and a run in with biotic loose-cannon, the collectors struck the Normandy. Joker and EDI saved the ship but not before the crew was abducted, Shepard had decided to go after the Collectors immediately.
Carmine had been on the second distraction team, during the final bug out he'd fallen behind, an explosion had ripped his left arm apart, Zaeed and Thane had come back for him, suppressing the Collectors long enough for them to escape. Unfortunately they had ended on a different outside platform to the rest of the team, quickly cut off by surviving Collectors the three men had returned fire as best they could. After a few minutes a volley of cannon fire drove the Collectors back, they turned around to see a pair of Alliance shuttles approaching. One opened the side door to reveal Ashley Williams and a team from the 103rd. Ashley and her team laid down cover fire while Carmine and the others got aboard.
The final bug out from there was close but they all made it away, no casualties. The trip back through the relay had been in silence, Carmine attempting to nurse his shattered arm with help from the 103rd's medic. Ashley kept glancing over at him; Carmine noticed the concern in her eyes mixed with anxiety. He wasn't surprised; their last meeting had ended badly. He asked what they were doing here; Ashley said Shepard had sent Alliance command several detailed scans of the IFF, allowing them to build one for the frigate SSV Stalingrad which was used to follow them through the Omega 4 relay. They'd seen the Normandy go through but hadn't been fast enough to help in the space battle and could only provide cover for their retreat.
Carmine had thanked her, she had smiled slightly, but the shuttle landed moments later and everyone had scrambled off the cramped craft.
Within seconds the second shuttle landed and the Stalingrad jumped away from the Collector base beside the Normandy.
Carmine had spent the next few months recovering, most of the skin and muscle in his injured arm was beyond saving. The doctors built a cybernetic arm with synthetic muscle tissue and skin.
He was trained to fly the new A-63 Falcon Interceptors and A-65 Lightning long range heavy fighters before being assigned by Anderson to the Normandy.
Following the retreat from Vancouver, he was with Shepard through most of the major battles: Palaven, Sur'Kesh, Tuchanka, The Cerberus coup, Rannoch and Thessia before being assigned to a Lightning squadron before Earth. The squadron achieved a high kill ratio, quickly becoming one of the most famous squadrons in Citadel space.
He managed to meet Shepard before the final push. He wished her luck and promised that, whether they ended up in heaven, hell or somewhere in between, he'd wait for her and the others at bar and the first round was on him. Shepard promised to hold him to that before they began the final attack.
A few hours later, the Reapers began to die: Dreadnoughts falling from orbit, Destroyers keeling over during battle, Harvesters and Ravagers becoming confused and disoriented, Husks, Cannibals, Marauders and Brutes began attacking each other as well as the Citadel races. Seconds before this began the Crucible unleashed an energy blast that destroyed the Citadel's presidium ring and several Mass Relays, the Reapers, the Geth and EDI.
The next few months saw the beginning of the Galaxy's recovery, with the repair of the damaged Primary Mass Relays, the Citadel and clean up starting on all affected worlds. Shepard was found alive in the remains of the Presidium tower, although severely wounded. She was kept in the med-bay of her mother's ship, SSV Orizaba, her survival keeping the new alliances alive.
After three weeks Geth platforms and ships began to reactivate, rebooting an older operating system that lacked the Reaper upgrades, fortunately Legion was reactivated and the Geth Collective Memory was undamaged so they remembered the end of hostilities with the Quarians. The Geth immediately set to work aiding the recovery operations on all affected worlds and helping the Quarians reacclimatise to their home world.
Both the Quarians and the Geth were offered embassies to the new Citadel Council on the newly repaired Citadel, with the new Batarian and Krogan governments also being offered embassies.
After this, it wasn't uncommon to see patrol fleets made up of ships from several species fleets operating together. It was one of these mixed fleets that found and recovered the Normandy and its crew. Shepard and Carmine were waiting on the dockside as the SR-2 approached the repaired Citadel. The reunion with the crew was exciting; no-one had died when Normandy crashed on an uncharted Garden world, EDI had come back online after four weeks just after the Geth, Joker had been relieved she was okay. With her help repairs had continued smoothly until a council squadron located their distress beacon.
As the crew headed towards Flux to celebrate, Garrus told Shepard about the planet they'd crashed on. It was home to the remnants of a fallen civilisation, destroyed by nuclear war. The most interesting part had been when Garrus told them that there were two factions and the first was human. Both Shepard and Carmine had choked on their drinks, Carmine failing to suppress a coughing fit. Kaiden thumped Carmine on the back, backing up Garrus' claim, before adding how excited Liara had been when they had found the ruins of a city. Carmine had smiled, remembering something Joker had once said, 'guessing there had been some bouncing'. Liara had chosen that moment to join them with Joker, EDI and Tali, hearing the end of the joke but not understanding had asked about it. Shepard told her that Garrus and Kaiden had been describing her reaction to the discovery. Joker had tensed up slightly when Carmine smiled at him, and said "I was just channelling one of Jeff's old jokes about your enthusiasm."
Joker had dropped his drink, horrified, when everyone started laughing, even Liara. Liara had joked about her almost childlike excitability about new discoveries, calming Joker down immensely. As EDI left to retrieve another drink for Jeff, Shepard asked about the second race. Liara described the remains of robots, armoured in large unwieldy plates with a strangely shaped head: an exaggerated Stalhelm type helmet with large studs on the top and back, a triangular shaped grill that resembled an early rebreather and a horizontal lens made of thick red glass with a sensor mounted on a rail behind it that swept back and forth.
Carmine had listened very quietly, suddenly becoming very sombre. He quietly left the table, heading out onto the ward. He lent on a railing looking out over the ward, running his hands through his hair; it couldn't be, not after all these years. He hadn't thought about those nightmares since joining up, but Liara's description was too close to be co-incidence, could it?
Then there was that old Sci-fi vid he'd seen as a kid, again the similarities were unreal. He'd believed that the nightmares were a result of seeing that vid at too young an age, but, what if they weren't from the vid? What if those clankers were real? Did that mean he'd witnessed their attack? Had he been captured? Or escaped capture?
As he attempted to rationalise his thoughts, despite his alarmed state, someone came up behind him and tapped him on the shoulder. Carmine spun around, Thane Krios was standing behind him. The older Drell asked what troubled him. Carmine had built a close friendship with the drell, even allowed his advanced regenerative abilities to be used to cure Thane's condition. He and Mordin had later written a detailed paper on the procedure, the Hanar had picked up on it and asked for permission to use the technique, permission was granted but Mordin had told them the cure had been directly synthesised from Carmines blood and while he was willing to provide a sample, a synthetic alternative was needed for a practical treatment.
He had turned to his friend said it was nothing, just trying to understand why Liara's latest discovery paralleled an old nightmare. He had then walked with his friend back to the party.
Three weeks later, Normandy had been assigned to the fleet covering the dig site, part of a separate frigate squadron that was mapping the otherwise uncharted area to the galactic south-west of Sol. An area commonly referred to as the Sol (or Terran) dead zone, due to the lack of any Mass Relays, Primary or Secondary, in that area. This was the very reason he was now in the cockpit of an A-65 Lightning scanning everything along his flight path.
"Prepping for Jump 2 of 5. Board is green; engaging FTL in 5" Carmine felt like the cockpit was being stretched as the FTL drive engaged. Seconds later they were looking out at a different star system. After checking their position, Carmine checked in with Joker. "Jump 2 completed, we're beginning our sweep, over."
"Roger, continue your sweep and report anything significant at the designated time over." Joker replied. "Copy Normandy, we are beginning sweep, over and out." Carmine said, settling back in his seat.
Carmine craned his head to check on his rear gunner, James "Vegas" Vega. The two had enjoyed a friendly rivalry on the SR-2, in battle and at the poker table, he'd specifically asked for James to join him on this run in so he wouldn't go insane from the boredom.
"How're you holding up back there?" Vegas turned his head to look at his friend.
"Fine, all quiet on my end. Any word on if we found anything yet? I'm getting bored out of my skull here" the large marine replied.
"Just that those asteroids are rich in eezo and something else that doesn't fit on the periodic table." James shook his head.
"We are Alliance marines, Ironclad, we have better things to do than wander space to look at rocks!"
"Amen to that" Carmine agreed. "Still, imagine if we did find something or someone out here? " Carmine asked his friend.
"Well, I for one am not really qualified for first cont…" James' voice trailed off.
"Vegas?" Carmine asked.
"Picking up something on long range sensors, looks like another planet" Vegas turned his head to look at Carmine, "Think we should check it out?"
"Drop a Nav-buoy with our location and where were heading first, then I'll take us in to check it out." Carmine replied.
As Vega prepped the Nav-buoy, Carmine checked the preliminary scans of the new contact. When Vega finished, Carmine turned the fighter and made an intra-system FTL jump.
They dropped out of FTL over a Garden World, not dissimilar from Earth. They dropped into high orbit and began a complete planetary sweep. 30 minutes into the sweep, Vega noticed something odd.
"Did you see this? According to the instruments, that planet has the same atmospheric composition as Earth." Vega said.
"Yeah, atmosphere is composed of 78% Nitrogen and 21%Oxygen. That can't a coincidence can it? Hold on, I'm picking up what looks like a city, almost directly below us. Think I'll take some pictures before heading down for a closer look, is that ok with you?" Carmine asked.
"Yeah, I need to stretch my legs now anyway." Vega replied
As Carmine started taking pictures of the ruins, an alarm sounded in the cockpit.
"I got LADAR shadows lighting up my screen, you see them?" Vega called out.
"Yeah, a dreadnought analogue" Carmine replied. "Normandy, we've got a dreadnought shadow on LADAR, please advise?" The only reply was static. "Patrol group Normandy, please respond" again, there was static. "We're on our own Vega."
Carmine turned the Lightning around, intending to jump back to the patrol group's last position when the dreadnought jumped in.
"Contact dreadnought directly ahead. SHIT! They're launching fighters." Carmine reported before taking evasive action. He'd seen the Dreadnought jump in, an unknown design, like two capital Y shapes mounted on a central axis offset by 120 degrees. The unidentified contacts had begun launching fighters, shaped similar to the stylised boomerangs Batman used.
"Incoming fighters, hang on this is going to be rough" Carmine shouted. He threw the Lightning into a hard left turn, before beginning evasive manoeuvres. The strange fighters began closing with the fleeing Lightning. Vega started firing as the fighters came into range, but the unknowns didn't return fire. After several minutes the enemy craft closed to nearly 1/3rd the range of Vega's turret and began firing, tracer fire streaked past the Alliance craft. "Hey, these guys are using combustion weapons." Vega told his teammate as he noticed shell casings being ejected from below the wing roots. "It doesn't matter if they're a century behind, just keep shooting." Carmine replied.
The dogfight continued for several minutes, during which time both pilot and gunner destroyed several attacking fighters each. It seemed that no matter how many enemy aircraft were destroyed there was always more to replace them. "We're lit up like a whorehouse on payday!" Vega shouted as five enemy fighters closed and fired at once.
"Dreadnought's opened fire, I'm going to take us into the atmosphere to try and shake some of them." Carmine shouted as the dreadnought fired off a large salvo of missiles towards the Alliance scout.
He flipped a small switch on his console, activating the Lightning's secret weapon: The Mjolnir weapons system. Alliance R&D had taken Geth pulse and plasma technology and produced a true directed energy weapon. The weapon fired plasma pulses at a target, bypassing Kinetic Barriers and doing heavy damage directly to a targets hull. Nicknamed 'Godhammers' by pilots, the Mjolnir had proven to be extremely effective against Collector Occuli.
Carmine lined up his target and depressed the trigger. The twin cannon that had deployed under the wing roots fired in an alternating pattern. The two enemy fighters hit disintegrated, leaving an opening in the wall of enemy craft. Carmine opened the throttle fully for the first time since the fight began and accelerated the Lightning through the gap before the enemy fighters close it.
The Lightning shot through the gap accelerating beyond the pursuing fighter's top speed, outpacing the incoming missiles as well. The Lightning quickly reached high orbit and began to descend. As the fighter entered the atmosphere, Carmine glanced at a small holo on the side of his instrument panel; it showed him and Tali sitting together, arms around each other, on a bench on the Citadel Presidium.
It had been the last trip to the citadel before the Collector assault on the SR-2, both he and Tali had been struggling with their feelings for each other for a while and they had become a couple after Tali's trial, he had comforted her when her father died.
During the following weeks they'd grown steadily closer before they had confessed their feelings and become a couple. Carmine tucked the holo into a small pocket in the undershirt he wore beneath his armour, before turning his attention back to the controls.
As the fighter descended into the atmosphere, he noticed three shuttle sized craft jump in above them, flying into the path of the enemy missile volley. One shuttle was destroyed, the second was damaged and descended on a parallel trajectory, the third successfully evaded incoming fire and jumped away.
Carmine hoped that the second group of unknowns were friendly and that help would come soon.