My nose itches, I raise my hand to give it the much desired attention but then bring it back down again and grip my rifle. Our rifles are new, given to us especially for this mission. I am half of a deadly infiltration team carrying out secret missions aimed at protecting Humanity's interests.
I must admit though, am not sure if some of our missions have been totally legal. Its been almost three years since I graduated from the N7 specialist training program at the Arcturus space station and plenty has happened in those years.
Commander Keys and I were the spearhead of Operation Clean Rock. Keys and I had gelled together perfectly and we were now the most lethal infiltration team in the Systems Alliance.
The Systems Alliance were rivalling the Batarian's to colonise planets in an area of the galaxy known as the Skyllian Verge. Some of the planets were already settled on by the four eyes, so it was up to us, Commander Keys and me, to make sure that the Batarian settlers didn't establish colonies on these new worlds! If a colony was established then we had to destabilise it so that a Human colony would rise in it's place.
Of course this was all discrete and if we were ever captured, there was no evidence linking us back to the Systems Alliance.
Only last year, one of Humanity's oldest colony, Elysium, was attacked by pirates. We soon discovered that high ranking figures within the Batarian government funded the attack. I felt a bit better knowing that they funded the attacks as it was similar to what we doing to them.
The attack on Elysium, now known as the Skyllian Blitz, was described as a victory. We had a small garrison established on Elysium that defended the colony until further reinforcements could arrive. From the reports I read, they did a hell of a job defending it too.
One marine though, stood out from the rest, risking her life to defend her troops. Rebecca Tinniswood was hailed as a war hero for her actions on Elysium and she was promoted to Lieutenant Commander. I haven't seen her since the graduation on Arcturus, but I hear she shows off the scar she got while fighting off the pirate attackers.
On a ships sensors passing through the Hong system, we will appear nothing more that dust or debris, junk left behind presumably from a recent pirate ship anchorage. To the naked eye, we would just look like a cargo box, drifting aimlessly through the vastness of space. Within the box were two cramped marines. Commander Keys and Second Lieutenant Gogova. Me. It was the perfect disguise for our mission as we slowly drifted toward the moons orbiting the planet Thesaca.
We were sat in the cramp cargo crate for over two weeks drifting through space, Keys decided that this was the most covert way of achieving our mission objective of reaching the moon undetected. I didn't like the idea of staying in a metal box, with hardly any room to move around for two weeks, perhaps it was even longer than that.
Keys had the box modified and fitted with twenty four manoeuvring thrusters so that he could pilot us to our destination. There was no life support functions on board even though I had protested against the decision to exclude them! In fact the thrusters were the only modifications the commander had installed to the cargo create arguing that the more functions we carried, the more likely we were to be detected by passing ships.
The commandeer was piloting our make shift space craft remotely using programmed macros on his omni tool. Omni tools were pretty amazing pieces of kit, they were holographic and like a Personal Digital Assistant but with more options to help with tasks, and were used in the battlefield by marines and engineers working on equipment.
I loaded my omni tool with seasons one to six of the Salarian show, Captain Aulus Planutius STG. I was growing bored now though, I had watched most of the episodes three times already, and the Commander was busy punching in commands into his omni tool.
And so, my nose itched, again and again. I raised my hand to scratch it, only to be stopped by the visor of my helmet. Wearing the armour kept me alive against the harsh coldness of space but it also prevented me from touching my own skin to soothe, massage and scratch annoying itches like the one I had on my nose.
"This is it!" Keys said programming final commands. "I think we will land about forty miles away from the target area." I put my hands on my helmet and tried to move my head forward to rub my nose on the helmet visor to ease my irritating itch.
"Now we can see how good these exoskeleton upgrades will be when we crash down." I started to feel nervous, the first time in a long time too. We were hurtling across space in a metal box, we were going to hit a moon, really hard, in a metal box which could just break up. Now my commander had just reminded me that our new armour upgrades were never tested before. So we were either going to be crushed to death, or our manufacturing friends at Ariake had provided us with top quality upgrades that would cushion our landing.
Our crate started vibrating as we were pulling into the moons gravitational well. My nose stopped itching as the vibrations grew stronger and even more violent. I made a glance at my omni tool to check that the ablative weave upgrade was on line, the green light on the holographic emitter was still on, it eased my nerves but only slightly as I still wasn't sure if it was going to work or not. Only time would tell. Keys closed his omni tool and put his head between the insides of his knees, his hands were locked together over his head.
"Brace for impact Gogova!" Keys shouted over the intercom, I could barely hear him over the increasing vibrating noise. I wasn't sure how much time we had left before we hit the ground, so I quickly copied the commander's bracing position. As the vibrations increased I could start to feel my armour getting heavier and heavier and I could also sense the weight of the weapons attached to it. I was feeling the effects of the moon's gravity.
Suddenly my head was slammed upward against the roof of our box, then I felt my weight shift downward and I was pinned to the floor again. This happened a few more times before I realised what was happening. Our crate had hit the surface of the moon, but we bounced off it again like a basketball but I was pleased to see that our crate was still together after taking a beating. Better yet, the armour upgrades were also working, they had absorbed most of the knocks and bangs of been thrown around. We finally came to rest precisely 40 miles from our first target, just as the commander had said.
The walls of the crate we had been sat in for over two weeks, sprung open violently, Keys quickly dived onto his stomach so that he didn't stand out against the horizon. I quickly did the same thing, then performed a quick status check. All of my weapons were at optimum efficiency, my armour was still holding up at 100% and my shields were at maximum strength. I was ready. "Good to go Commander!"
"Move out!" Keys shouted down the intercom then started crawling across the surface on his stomach. I followed suit, it was go time, I could feel the adrenaline cursing through my body.
I think we had been crawling along the desert of the moon for about four hours when suddenly Keys came to a halt. I looked up and out in front of his position and not far in the distance I could see a small base station with what looked like two figures guarding it and a third on top of the building doing what appeared to be DIY.
Our mission was to covertly install monitoring systems on Thehaca's moon's, it was supposed to track pirates slowing down from Faster Than Light speeds. The Alliance said that this would be the start of a larger operation to hit back at the organised pirates responsible for the Skyllian Blitz.
We had already established that the pirates were part funded by the Batarians, I had killed enough Batarian's to know what type of armour they preferred to wear. Whatever these guys up ahead were wearing, it wasn't what the four eyes were normally accustomed to wear. They didn't even look Batarian. I knew about plenty of the races throughout the galaxy, but these three looked very unfamiliar, with a silver coloured metallic armour with light blue glowing lights on top of their heads.
"Commander!" I whispered unnecessarily, in space nobody could hear us scream, let alone whisper, and we were also using secured intercoms through our helmets. "What do you think they are sir?" I was still whispering starring at the three figures. I started debating unpacking my sniper rifle from my back to shoot out at the possible threat's, but something started to trouble me, Keys wasn't responding and he was deathly still.
"Sir?" I asked and waited for him to answer me and give me a kill order, but no order came.
I shimmered myself up to the Commander's position and looked into his helmet to see what had caught his attention. Nothing had caught his attention. I could see Keys' face, and it was glistering and shinning. His skin sparkled from the reflection of the stars over the horizon and the shiny dust on the ground. I saw a small hole had been drilled into his helmet and through his skull. The air had decompressed inside his helmet and all the moisture in his face had frozen up.
Commander Troy Keys was dead.
I didn't make any sudden movements, it soon became apparent that my commander and friend was assassinated by a single sniper round. My instincts were right, I shifted to my side to unpack my sniper rifle, just as I reached to grab it on my back, there was a flashing shimmer of light and suddenly my shields were knocked off line.
I was shot at!
I laid still, acting dead so I wouldn't get shot at again. With any luck, the shooter will come to collect his prize, that would be when I could pounce, so patiently I laid still and waited. Thirty or so minutes past when finally, I heard foot steps creeping toward me, more precisely, I heard three pairs of footsteps. My intercom was now on an open frequency, and I hoped I was able to pick up communication between them once they were close enough. From their dialect, I should be able to tell where these Batarian's were from, so if one was lucky enough to escape, I could hunt him down. What I did hear though shocked me and sent a shiver down my spine. It wasn't the dialect I was hoping to hear, nor was it the language. The best way to describe what I heard, was music, cold, calculated and mechanical music. I strained my eyes to look at what was making the noise, but they still weren't in my peripheral vision. I couldn't turn my head around to look up at them, that would alert them I was still alive and they would finish me off. I think I discovered a new race, I listened intently as my intercom tried to make sense of the syntax and translate the language.
They were at the Commander's frozen body now and I could see them and I was surprised again. They were some kind of robots! The lights on top of their heads that I noticed earlier where their heads! So I hadn't discovered a new race, the Batarian's had developed new technology where they had Virtual Intelligent machines fighting for them. I watched them, learning as much as I could about their behaviour, while at the same time, slowly reaching for my pistol.
They were taking his weapons and examining them, the Batarian's might suspect the Alliance's involvement in the area prematurely and the major offensive planned would be a complete failure. I would be a failure. I could not let that happen.
My pistol was already equipped with sledgehammer rounds so I was sure it would be able to take these robots down.
"One in the head, one in the torso." I repeated to myself repeatedly in my head.
They finished looting him, taking anything of value, then one of them had an extendible spike that penetrated Keys in his torso. It must have had an electrical current running through it as his body started to have spasms. I heard him moan as the electric currents stimulated his vocal chords.
The second robot was on guard, scanning the terrain for more possible targets while the third started marching toward me.
This was it.
I was ready.
Pistol in my hand.
Shields fully charged.
It was next to me.
I memorised the positions of the other two robots. I spun around on my back. Raised my pistol. The robot looked down at me. I didn't hesitate. I pulled the trigger once.
The round hit the tin man in the head, smashing it's light, carrying him a few feet in the air before crashing back on the surface in a broken heap.
I sprung onto my feet and the commander's body was still having spasms. I ran over to the other robot holding the spike to Keys' body and tackled it to the ground.
The guard robot wasn't oblivious to what was happening and fired at me from his sniper rifle. I was hit with one round depleting my shields again.
These robots were not agile and the one I tackled to the ground was still struggling to get up.
I did a forward roll before the sniper robot could get a second shot off and threw a grenade set to detonate on contact. The machine aimed it's rifle at me again just as the grenade detonated exploding the machine into pieces.
I turned my attention to the mechanical warrior I had tackled to the ground earlier, it was now back on its feet, raising it's own weapon at me. I fired my pistol aiming for the head, it fell on the ground in a heap, I heard scrap metal power down as sparks flew from the damage caused from the shot.
I breathed a big sigh of relief, these weren't Virtual Intelligent machines, I was pretty sure they were Artificial Intelligent beings, able to think on their own as an individual and not from some batches of programming like a Virtual Intelligent fighter. They couldn't be with the Batarian's, this was way too advanced and sophisticated for them.
I was sure AI was illegal throughout the Citadel Space, so these must have come from the rogue Terminus Systems. I set my omni tool to motion capture so that I could gather intelligence for the Alliance. Am sure they'd have some nut job technician analyse it and work out what I just fought.
Happy that I recorded enough information, I turned my omni tool back to the stand by position and turned to look down at where Commander Keys' body lay.
It wasn't there! I looked up to see him standing looking at me. It didn't quite look like the commander, he had been altered with what looked like computer components protruding from his body. He had been re-animated. Those machines had brought him back to life, but he wasn't himself. Re-animated Keys was looking straight at me, but I don't think he recognised me. He started fidgeting with his armour, trying to take it off.
"Sir what are you doing?" I asked him "You will die if you take your armour off!" I was looking for some sign of recognition. "Troy? Can you even hear me?" Who was I kidding? Troy Keys was dead! Well the Troy Keys I knew was.
The robots had turned him into a robot too. Well that's what I thought. He had now stripped completely naked and was still starring at me. If I could sedate him with a punch to the head or something, maybe the big wigs at Arcturus could cure him and bring him back.
A spark! A burst of energy just expelled from Keys, I saw the energy move through the ground reaching a circumference of around two meters.
It didn't touch me, but it was enough to startle me and aim my pistol at the commander. It was tough for me to accept, but the man in front of me was behaving in a hostile manner. I tried to communicate with him again.
"You are Commander Troy Keys! Your mission is to protect the interests of the Systems Alliance! Respond!"He shuddered slightly and his skin starting flaking from his body like leaves from an autumn tree back on Earth.
I was expecting to see his flesh and veins, but was horrified to see a silver metal type skin. His veins were replaced with tubes emitting a blue glow, I could see computer components attached to his body. Or maybe they were growing from his body. He, or rather it, was opening and closing its mouth as though trying to whisper something.
I lowered my pistol slightly believing I had made some progress with it, but then it let out an ear shattering screech. I instinctively put a hand to where my ears would be positioned, forgetting I had a helmet with a sound filter unit. I made some quick adjustments to the helmet before raising my pistol again, this time targeting its throat to shut that screeching sound it was making. It didn't matter that it was still making that dreadful noise, I could no longer hear it.
Troy's eyes started to glow blue and he was still screeching out from what I could tell. It made a few steps forward and stopped screaming.
"Troy?" I called out again, hoping. He started waving his arms wildly, and barely missed clawing my helmet.
"Stop Troy!" I shouted out "Don't make me kill you!" I didn't want to shoot the man, he taught me everything I knew about stealth and espionage. Keys expelled another burst of energy, this time the circumference area was much greater than before and I was in it. My shields dropped.
He started running at me and I knew what had to be done. Again, I didn't hesitate. My eyes wide open. I squeezed the trigger of my Raikou mark seven pistol. Four shots hitting Keys in the throat. He fell to the ground.
"Keys!" I started to fill with emotion. I shot my superior officer. In normal situations, I would be court marshalled but am sure nobody could blame me for my actions.
I looked down and around me at the four fallen figures slumped on the ground. I was paying more attention to the robots.
I knew the Alliance had never encountered them before, maybe the Citadel Council would know more perhaps, but I didn't have time for Council or what they tried to teach us. I'm sure they are afraid of us Humans, that's why they made many rules that were holding us back within the galactic community.
With the kind of top secret missions I had been sent on, I was sure day would be coming where Humanity would rise up and the Council would have to respect us.
First we had to make sure the Batarian four eyed scum would pay, and pay heavily for attacking Elysium. Then we would show the rest of the Galaxy that Humans were not naïve children in the community and we mean business.
I was still looking down at the robots, especially the one closet to me and noticed the weapon. It was some kind of sophisticated pulse rifle. I had never seen anything quite like it. I wanted it. I bent down and forced it from it's deceased owner' grip. This weapon was now mine. I wasn't going to include it in my mission debrief, it was my trophy, my secret amongst a service record of secrets.
I buried the robots in a ditch I had dug out and made a separate grave for Commander Keys' body. Once the mission was fully complete, the Alliance could send a team to collect Keys and give him a real burial, a military burial, with honours and with everyone who knew him. He deserved that and not to be forgotten on some desolate moon. As for the Robots, am sure an Alliance tech team would want to study them or do what ever it is they do.
Keys had dropped his Omni-tool when he was transforming and stripping naked earlier, his omni tool had all the mission objectives, parameters and way points, so I took it and attached it to my left fore arm.
I had wasted a lot of time dealing with these machines and still hadn't reached the first way point so now I was rushing to get to there and set up the scanners. I didn't have time to crawl like we had done when we landed. I clipped the alien rifle on to my back, I was sure it was the one used to kill the commander. I started to jog, knowing I wasn't as cautious as before. I think part of me wanted someone to try attack me, I would make sure it was going to be the last thing they ever did.
I was changing, my personality, I could feel my self becoming more sinister, without care or remorse. I started to think about Elysium, I started to think about the beautiful Rebecca Tinniswood being posted there at the time of the attack and the story's of her fighting off hordes of pirates to defend her own troops and the ugly scar she got doing so.
If there was no attack on Elysium, Rebecca would not have been injured, the Alliance wouldn't be planning a major offensive, I wouldn't be assigned to this flipping dark lump of rock to install sensors and most importantly Commander Keys would still be alive!
I arrived at the first way point and activated the sensor through my omni tool after I buried it just below the surface. I made a silent promise to myself to that pirates and Batarian's, any Batarian would suffer for the attacks on Elysium.
I unpacked my prototype missile launcher from its housing clipped at the upper spine of my back.
"A millions ways to clip weapons to a marine." I mused out loud as I configured the three sensory probes using Keys powerful omni tool. I put the probes into a rocket casing and placed it in the launcher's firing tube.
I wouldn't jeopardise any mission I was going to be given in the future.
I made a few more programming commands to the launcher from the omni tool, so that the probes would bury themselves two meters under the surface of the other three moons in orbit of Thesaca.
I will go wherever the Systems Alliance would send me, but I would also make sure they knew that they could count on me to eliminate any hostile Batarian.
I fired the launcher from my position on the cold and dark moon and watched as the rocket spilt into three individual rockets. The rockets would impact the other moons in orbit of Thesaca at a force gentle enough for the probes to bury themselves into the moons soil. This would complete my mission. I'm sure the moons had names, but that wasn't important for me to know, even though it was on the mission brief, I wasn't on a Geography lesson.
I would still uphold to the core values of the Systems Alliance, but all that diplomacy, peaceful solutions and crap they taught us at basic, had gone out the window. It doesn't work, it's nonsense!
I didn't know who or what the robots were, but all this started with the Batarian's and their unprovoked aggression. I was going to be aggressive to them, I would volunteer to go on the dangerous missions, I would kill as many Batarian's as possible making sure they all suffered for the lives they took on Elysium and for the Commander, the Instructor and close friend they had taken from me.
I had been walking for three days to the last way point, a position on the moon that was a sensor blind spot from Thesaca, the main planet', sensors. An Alliance space craft, most likely a frigate would eventually come and collect me, I still had over 90 minutes to wait.
The light from the Hong sun didn't shine on this part of the moon and I was covered in complete darkness. As I waited for my pick up I allowed myself to be consumed by the hurt, the anger and aggression swelling up inside me. It felt good. I knew it was wrong to focus on these thoughts and if it showed up in any of the debrief physic evaluations, I'd be ordered to see a councillor.
I didn't need a councillor, I needed to kill Batarian's.
In the silence, I started to picture my future, yes I could be court marshalled and prevented promotion but at the same time, I think the Systems Alliance's needed marines like me and my lunatic mate John Shepherd, and to balance it, they also had the hero of the Skyillain Blitz, Commander Tinniswood.
I was turning into the darkest, nastiest, but yet possibly the most effective weapon the Alliance would ever posses against the Batarian's.