Operation Demeter
This latest three-parter runs parallel to the story Mindfields, shining the spotlight on Cadrina Shepard's parents. It is another chapter in the Interface storyline and contains strong language, violence, some spoilers and alternate speculations for Mass Effect 3.
Miranda Lawson joins forces with Hannah and Dylan Shepard to launch an assault on Cerberus headquarters, hoping to end its relentless pursuit of their daughter Cadrina…
I
Ever since Cadrina Shepard left the Earth, they had clashed with her at every turn:
Cerberus troops.
From the planet Sur'Kesh to the moons of Palaven and even through the blasted ruins of Tuchanka, wave after wave of black and white armor-clad soldiers came at her with guns, grenades, heavy weapons and mechs, further complicating her already Herculean efforts to battle the Reapers and rally the citizenry. Many of her teammates and crew believed the Illusive Man was out for revenge against the commander for defying him. However, it made no sense to others that at a time when all should unite against a common foe, an organization that claimed to champion humanity seemed dead set on eliminating the one human who could end the war. It was their conclusion that Cerberus had fallen victim to indoctrination, reducing them, and perhaps even the Illusive Man himself, to lap dogs of the invading armadas. Whatever the reason, the attacks only increased in ferocity as Cadrina began searching for a mythical prothean weapon called the Interface. The strain on her was beginning to show.
Hannah Shepard was not about to let this continue. Frustrated by their interference, the wily captain of the dreadnought SSV Orizaba proposed taking the fight to Cerberus. Her daughter tried to talk Hannah into remaining at her side, but Hannah was adamant. The Illusive Man needed to be stopped and striking at his main headquarters could draw away some of his troops and disrupt coordination of intelligence and supply lines, assuming there was no indoctrination. Hannah's husband Dylan, seeing an opportunity to find out what Cerberus knew about the Reapers, joined up with her against Cadrina's wishes. Only one other individual went along with them after a fierce debate of her own with the commander of the Normandy 2. Someone with the knowledge needed to pull off this attack:
Former Cerberus agent Miranda Lawson.
Aboard the Orizaba Miranda, Hannah and Dylan decided on a Trojan horse ploy to disable the Cerberus space station's defenses in order to pound it from long range with the dreadnought's array of armaments. A shuttle would be mocked up to resemble a Cerberus transport, transmitting IFF codes provided by Miranda to bypass the station's sensor net. The three of them were to venture in, tap into the mainframe and hijack the station's systems. Dylan could then gather as much data as possible before the bombardment commenced. After a few amendments to the overall plan, Hannah ordered her helmsman to lay in a course…
Dylan huffed as he observed his wife sitting across from him in the cockpit of their shuttle go through yet another full check of her assault rifle, a heavily modified Falcon M8. "You're good - you didn't miss anything!"
Hannah finished and held her weapon, caught in a flush of adrenaline "And I don't intend to miss when I unload on that son of a bitch!" She chambered a slug in her rifle. "Playing Frankenstein with our daughter for two years, toying with her, then sicking his dogs on her…!"
"If he's even there," Dylan interrupted as he piloted the craft.
"Yeah, you're right. Shouldn't get my hopes up," Hannah settled "But I'm still for reducing his base to slag, which is what bugs me about your little scheme. You wanna poke around their servers for intel, fine. But you actually wanna recruit these people?"
"We need as many allies and resources as we can find. They can't all be marching in lock step with the Illusive Man; surely they know how bad things have gotten back home. Once we've taken over the station, maybe we can convince them to sign on with us. Stranger alliances have formed in desperate times."
"…riiiight…"
"...or I can let you convince them…" Dylan hinted. Hannah grinned with satisfaction, remembering her ship's main gun.
"Riiight…. 'Sunday Punch;' locked, loaded and waiting. With their pants down, the threat alone should more than help get their priorities straight. If this plan of yours backfires, my ship has orders to send over one last 'Fuck You!' barrage before she bugs out!"
Dylan raised his brow and shuddered at this last resort of Hannah's "…let's just hope it doesn't come to that!"
Husband and wife snickered quietly and faced forward. After a minute passed they turned to the shuttlecraft's small hold where Miranda sat with her forearms draped over her lap, eyes looking down at the deck, preoccupied. She had not said a single word since leaving the Orizaba. Something was eating away at her. Dylan had seen this look before in other desperate soldiers: the look of deep reflection, the weighing of life choices and remaining options.
"Miranda… are you all right?"" he asked. Miranda snapped out of her reverie and sat up straight to acknowledge him.
"Ready to do this? "inquired Hannah "Not having regrets about your old pals, are you?"
"Of course not," Miranda responded "My only regret was not having the chance to tender my resignation in person!"
Miranda's eyes flashed with emotion for an instant; she had lost much in this war. So much was lost and so much changed for everyone involved and yet throughout it all, Hannah and Dylan somehow kept their faith in the cause. Kept their faith in Cadrina and supported one another. In the time spent with them, Miranda managed to build somewhat of a rapport. Hannah was still a bit distant, not sure whether to fully trust the ex-Cerberus agent or not. Dylan was more accepting and came to her defense when Hannah indulged in verbal jabs at her expense. Now the trio was about to engage a major player in galactic affairs, each having their own reasons for taking on the mission. Hannah and Dylan sought retribution for their daughter, though he seemed content with only harnessing Cerberus resources while she would settle for no less than their total annihilation. Miranda was looking for redemption. It wasn't enough that she had already proven herself to Cadrina and her team; she wanted to prove to herself and the warriors before her conclusively that her former employer no longer held any sway.
"Not to worry, I'm fine. You can count on me." Miranda said, more to herself than to answer Cadrina's parents. "We should focus on the mission… I might… talk about it later… when it's over…"
She began to check over her armor and weapons to bury her feelings. Hannah contacted her ship, advising radio silence and that it remain in its current position on the edge of the Cerberus station's sensor range. She also reiterated her orders to fire upon the station if they were lost or at her discretion, whether she and her team were clear or not. Dylan checked the long range scanners – they were only minutes away now. The IFF codes provided by Miranda were queued up to broadcast in case the shuttle was pinged by enemy scans. As Dylan locked in a course, he grudgingly prepared himself for battle once again for the second time in so many years…
He and his wife visited Cadrina in her prison cell days before her trial. They were familiar with her official report of what took place at the Bahak system, finding it very suspicious that Cadrina's mission log clock showed a two-day lapse without updates or having checked back in with the Normandy 2, the only physical evidence to back up their daughter's story of being incapacitated. Dylan tried to get Cadrina to look up at him, wanting to know if there was any other action she could have taken. When she finally obeyed her father, her bloodshot, tear filled eyes provided Dylan's answer and broke his heart. She had tried her utmost to adhere to her parents' example, failed, and now had to answer to them and the rest of humanity. Hannah comforted her family, telling Cadrina that she did not fail; that she was failed by those she tried to help and warn of the Reaper invasion.
Dylan was silent after leaving the high security detention center, still having trouble believing that Cadrina was in effect framed by ancient, malevolent machines. Hannah pressed him on his thoughts about Cadrina's ordeal. He hesitated and then began to recount how he once planned and carried out a mission to depose the ruler of an uncooperative government in his younger years. Dylan had confessed to Hannah of his past involvement in black military operations, but had never before given any details. He began to weep as he revealed how this leader was later found hanging from the neck with the North American flag inside his cell. This man who figured out who had tricked him into leveling a town of innocent civilians he was convinced held terrorists, leading his people to believe he had gone insane, to arrest him and put him on trial. A good man, who was only trying to protect his country, sentenced to death by his conscience. Dylan concluded his tale believing what was happening to Cadrina was punishment for his own sins.
To watch his daughter's spirit die a victim of the same tactics he had used himself.
Hannah reminded him that he was no longer a cold, calculating operative, that he could never be again and that they would somehow find a way to help their child. The way turned out to be the ship under her command. SSV Orizaba, flagship of the Fifth Fleet, outfitted with an experimental rail gun she christened Sunday Punch, which annoyed the ship's tactical officer to no end. When word reached her of the Normandy 2's escape, she defied orders and ordered her crew to break off and track down the ship, saving her husband and his search and rescue team from their own Husk-overrun vessel along the way…
Hannah and her squad mates stood hunched in the shuttle hold slipping on their helmets, each checking over their preferred weapons. The bluish, sunlit silhouette of the Cerberus base could be made out in the distant black as the shuttle closed in, looking like a grand, ghostly chandelier listing in space. The shuttle's VI altered the flight path to avoid collisions after the shuttle grazed some debris. Alerted by the thudding against the hull, the three gathered in the cockpit to see parts of starships and bodies flying past, twinkling as they spun about in zero gravity reflecting the sunlight beside larger, hulking fragments.
The shuttle reduced speed. Miranda took in the wreckage "Looks like someone else had the same idea, but didn't fare so well…"
"Who, aside from Cerberus and us, knows the station's even here?"
The wreckage and bodies were too burnt and torn for Dylan to readily identify anything from Systems Alliance, the Turian Hierarchy or any other military organization. Providence seemed to hear their thoughts and provided the answer in the form of a scorched Husk corpse passing by the shuttle. Hannah could feel the tension in the air rise with the awareness that the station ahead could be crawling with them.
She tapped Miranda and Dylan's shoulders with a fist. "We've come too far to turn back now. We stick to the plan. Get ready!"
The three warriors checked their armored suit systems and wished each other good hunting. Dylan caught another glimpse of Miranda's eyes. There was that slight twinge of sadness again, then nothing.
In the space station's main control room, a frazzled officer picked up a blip on his console. Keying in commands to enhance the reading, he identified a Cerberus transport on an approach vector. He opened a com channel to his commander.
"Lieutenant Krosso… ma'am!" he whispered tensely " I got something on the scopes: mid-range transport coming in!"
A companion of his looked over his shoulder to confirm. "Blast it, stupid! Could be another one jammed full of those undead shits!"
The officer continued signaling as the shuttle closed in, but the lieutenant was busy suppressing a batch of Husks that had broken through a barricade deeper within the station. His friend was growing impatient.
"Well, if you won't shoot it down, I will!" she said as she went to her console and brought up what was left of the station's deck guns.
"… Pierce, what are you jawing about?" Krosso finally answered over the speakers, the Husks eliminated.
"Problem, ma'am: transport coming in to dock with the portside cargo bay. She's transmitting some outdated codes, but they check out."
"It's about to become one less problem, ma'am!" Pierce's companion interjected as she targeted the shuttle.
"Hold it, Kowalski," barked Krosso "Any life readings?"
"Zero, ma'am." said Pierce "No life signs, no weird signatures or signals – nothing! Shuttle doesn't seem damaged; looks like it's on VI… it's starting the landing cycle. How do we handle this one?"
"…Dammit, I can't spare anyone to check on it! Let it land and then seal off the bay, nothing gets in or out. Keep a close watch on it. If by some miracle we can finish these monsters off and it's really empty, we can use it to get off this deathtrap!"
Kowalski groaned in disapproval.
"Stand down, soldier!" repeated the lieutenant.
"… Yes, ma'am…" complied Kowalski, keying off the weapons systems.
The shuttle slipped in past the bay doors and gently touched down on the landing pad, the VI accessing the bay controls to begin sealing and pressurizing the bay. Once the doors shut, Pierce entered commands to lock down the cargo bay but allowed pressurization to complete. The occupants of the shuttle were now trapped until anyone cared to look in on them. The shuttle engines and landing lights cut off. Ten minutes passed without the shuttle door opening. Pierce then returned his attention to the other remote cameras with Kowalski. No more incoming vessels, just the same debris as before. One particular piece escaped their notice as the shuttle landed, drifting very close to a maintenance hatch beneath the station.
Miranda held fast while Hannah and Dylan used exhaust from assorted fire suppressors and air tanks to steer their commandeered flotsam, her breathing pattern betraying her efforts. Hannah almost seemed to relish the experience.
"To think you wanted to stay on the shuttle and miss out on this!" Hannah teased as she touched her helmet to Miranda's after expelling another burst from an air canister. Not chancing anyone listening over bandwidths for com chatter, they utilized the vibrations the sounds of their voices made against their suit helmets.
"Looks like it made it to the cargo bay," Miranda reported.
"And with luck, that's where it'll be," said Hannah "Safe and sound, waiting for us to make our getaway!"
Dylan touched his helmet to theirs after peeking over his side "All right… get ready to ditch this thing in three… two… one…!"
The three pushed off the wreckage and righted themselves to the outer wall of the station. Their magnetic boots activated and took hold. They circled the hatch and looked up briefly at the fragment they used as cover falling further away into the dark. Miranda knelt down and opened a panel beside the hatch, engaging a hand crank to open its door. Trace gases vented out and the three huddled and touched helmets again over the opening. Miranda brought up plans for the space station on her omni-tool.
"Wonder what the damage is inside… Which way, Miranda?" asked Dylan.
The former Cerberus agent consulted her map. "The hatch twenty meters ahead leads to an airlock. Past that will be a transfer junction that connects to the ventilation system shafts; we can use them to get to the mainframe up on Level Six." Miranda traced the hologramatic plans with her finger "This shaft will take you to the munitions area… this one to the main control room… and this shaft… leads to the Illusive Man's office. Once we've hacked the mainframe, we can lock down the station…"
"All right then, let's move out!" barked Hannah as she started to back away but then touched her helmet to her companions' again "You think this way in's safe?" She looked on Miranda with a mischievous gleam in her eye.
Miranda took her queue and commented "Well, I was going to go in first…" Hannah clapped her shoulder.
"That's my little decoy!"
"Hannah!" Dylan scolded.
"Ohhh, un-pucker woulda, Dyl?" Hannah shot back.
Miranda sprayed a laugh past her lips and quieted down again, finding their exchange humorous in spite of herself. Hannah's eyes met Dylan's as they laughed in reaction to Miranda. Dylan's bride winked; Hannah often used humor to dispel any excess tension prior to and during missions.
"C'mon! Let's go teach this dog a new trick!"
She disengaged her magnetic boots and took hold of the lip of the hatch going into a handstand and pulled herself in. Dylan and Miranda followed, sealing the hatch behind them.
Pierce and Kowalski finished another security sweep on their consoles. An intermittent blip appeared to be winding through the maintenance shafts and then disappeared completely. The damage from gunfire and explosions skewed some of the internal sensors. They believed the blip was probably a glitch or Husks fumbling through the shafts. Kowalski was itching for another fight after being denied the chance to shoot down the landed shuttle. Pierce anxiously awaited the word to vacate the station, having had his fill of gunning down the Reaper-constructed atrocities and then later having to listen to more of his friends dying over his comset. He nearly jumped out of his seat when there was a sudden audible knocking on the door of the control room. Pierce was very still as was Kowalski. A few seconds later there was more knocking.
"Who the fuck is that?" grumbled Kowalski as she pulled up a view of the exterior door. Pierce bolted over to her console. He squinted as he focused on the image of the raven-haired woman standing before the door with her weapons holstered.
"… I don't believe it…" Pierce exhaled, drawing his pistol and heading for the door. Kowalski called after him, cursed aloud and then went after him with rifle shouldered. As she left, a floor panel near her console began to bend and warp as something on the other side worked to remove it. Kowalski joined Pierce at the door, aiming at its center as Pierce unsealed it. As the door finished recessing into the walls, he aimed his pistol at the woman's head.
"Miranda Lawson," declared Pierce "Never thought I'd see you here again!"
"Just my luck to find you cowering here, Irving!" Miranda retorted.
Pierce thrust his pistol at her. "Don't try anything stupid, doll! Your biotics aren't faster than a bullet at point blank range!"
Miranda calmly placed her hands on her head, eyes fixed on Pierce.
"You know her?" blurted Kowalski.
Pierce sneered "Do I know her… she was pretty big around here. The Illusive Man's little squeeze until she hooked up with Shepard and dumped his ass! Thought you could come back to screw us over even more?"
Miranda snarled in disgust at his insinuation. There was a hint of truth; the Illusive Man seemed to have a physical attraction to her at one point, but it was never acted upon, perhaps in the interests of maintaining her loyalty and efficiency as one of his best agents.
"Nice try, honey!" said Kowalski, "That took a lotta balls, but I doubt you did this all by your lonesome…" She cocked her rifle and tensed up. "Where're your friends?"
All of a sudden Kowalski grunted aloud, feeling a sharp blow to the base of her neck as someone came behind her and used their free arm to hoist up her rifle. It discharged into the ceiling as she collapsed, out cold. As Pierce whirled to his left to spy a figure standing over his companion's body, a blue glow enveloped Miranda's arms. Before he could fire, she flung an arm outwards at him and his pistol was knocked out of his hand. Miranda thrust out her other arm and he was tossed back, slamming into a console halfway down the length of the control room. He slumped down to the floor, twitched and then went unconscious. The figure standing over Kowalski removed the slug and thermal clip from her rifle and then tossed it to one side.
"I never did like him," scoffed Miranda "'The Illusive Man's little squeeze?'"
"Well… he knows better now not to talk shit about you!" said Dylan as he looked where Pierce landed and then to Miranda, who smiled proudly. Dylan keyed his comset earpiece and contacted Hannah to let her know that the control room was secured and had a bare minimum of staff that was easily tricked and subdued.
"Rookies," Hannah's voice tinned over her teammates earpieces. "Fooled by a simple signal mask; doesn't Cerberus teach its pups anything other than 'point and shoot?'"
"Only to graduate level obedience school students." joked Miranda as she dragged Kowalski over to a secluded corner of the control room while Dylan went to recover Pierce.
"Hah hah! Now you're learning, kid!" Hannah chuckled "I've just made it to the mainframe. Had to cut through a couple of Husks along the way; freaks got tangled up in the wiring."
"Well, the easy part's over," Dylan said as he laid Pierce down by Kowalski.
"Just gotta figure my way into this bucket while you guys handle the hard part, helping and recruiting these idiots," Hannah exhaled "… Are there any left?"
Dylan stood over another console and punched up a cross section of the station and scanned for life form readings. He located his, Miranda's and the two officers in the control room and also confirmed Hannah's signs at the mainframe. He panned all around but could not find any more human signals, only clumps of other readings - Reaper Husks. Dylan then zeroed in on a small group of human signs gathered in an area about two levels beneath the Illusive Man's office with other masses inching their way towards them including a larger signal.
"A few… which'll be even fewer if we don't' hurry!" He motioned to Miranda as he sprinted for the door.
"Don't get in over your heads before I'm done!" advised Hannah as she signed off.
Lieutenant Krosso expended another thermal clip on her shotgun removing the head of an oncoming Husk as her men fired from cover behind support columns and stairwells. Probing for weaknesses, the creatures pushed through a bulkhead into her area. One after another they piled in, some managing to power through the hail of bullets and eviscerate hapless soldiers. The drive to force the Husks back through the hole they came through was failing. Krosso had her remaining men form up closer; their final stand. More rounds emptied into the horde. It was clear to everyone left alive that soon the last clip would be ejected and it would all be over.
An explosion tossed up a few Husks in the rear getting attention from all present. From another corner in back singularities were cast, drawing in and crushing those who strayed too close into oozing chunks of flesh and circuitry. The horde turned and now directed its fury towards Miranda and Dylan. Dylan took up position above the crowd on a walkway with a Python sniper rifle aimed and started drilling Husks through the cranium. Miranda from her perch alternated between biotically slamming opponents onto the floor with one hand and firing suppressive rounds from an M-5 Phalanx pistol held in the other. The Husks packed further to the new combatants, giving Krosso and her men more room to maneuver. She shouted to break them out of their haze.
"'THE FUCK ARE YOU WAITING FOR! GET OFF YOUR ASSES AND HELP THEM!"
Krosso directed the soldiers to form crossfire to fence in the Husks. Acknowledging her strategy, Dylan radioed Miranda to move around the walkway to his end to force them back through the hole they came through with her biotics while he lobbed two more grenades. The tide of battle was turning in favor of the humans. Dylan's comset crackled to life again.
"Dylan, Miranda! I'm in! I've got control!" said Hannah triumphantly.
"Little busy right now!" shouted Dylan as he shredded the kneecaps of a shambling Husk that was once a krogan.
"And looks like not a moment too soon – hang on…"
Dylan and Miranda's earpieces went silent a minute as the firefight continued then abruptly cut back in with "Oh-hoooooh, I think I've got this zombie problem licked! Are they almost back through the bulkhead?"
"Whatever's still moving, yes!" screamed Miranda as she levitated and shoved a Husk back through.
"Just give the word and tell your 'friends' to hang on to anything bolted down!" The comsets went quiet again.
The last Husk on their side of the wall fell with a shriek on top of several other bodies. Miranda pitched up a temporary biotic force barrier to keep additional units from entering. Dylan promptly stowed his weapon and threaded his arm around a railing support. The other remaining humans reloaded their weapons and began to advance to the bulkhead. Dylan yelled down to them.
"BAAAACK! EVERYBODY BACK AND HANG ON TO SOMETHING!"
Krosso and her men slowed and then scrambled for spaces behind the stairwells and benches. Miranda crouched by Dylan, securing herself as he did.
"Oh, God; she isn't!" she griped.
Sliding and slamming sounds from moving panels echoed around them faintly and loudly, egging on stragglers to get to safety. The station's hatchways and vents were being reconfigured.
"She's insane!"
The barrier Miranda cast earlier faded out with one last swipe from the other side. Dylan crooked his arm tight and touched his earpiece.
"That's Hannah for you – NOW!"
The Husks began to come through the bulkhead again when suddenly a wind kicked up, increasing to high speed and volume, drawing them back through. The creatures struggled to climb back using parts of the broken wall and other clawing Husks only to fail and get sucked out. Others were hit by body parts or jetsam. Everyone in the room strained to keep from being swept out along with them. Miranda's hair whipped around wildly. Dylan gritted his teeth and strained. Then the winds and turbulence started to die down, more and more until the air was calm once more. A dull brown panel clanged down to seal up the bulkhead.
The doorways and vents around the base reoriented as the humans loosened their hold and wobbled upright, grateful that the struggle was over. Miranda cleared hair from her face and eyes, Dylan tending to her. She looked askew at his balding pate. Dylan was self-conscious as he smoothed it down.
"I'm sure that must've cost a few more hairs!"
Miranda delighted at his self-deprecating comment and then her expression changed to recognize something happening behind him. Dylan turned about and saw a panel a few feet away come loose and fall on to the walkway. A woman in combat armor began to emerge from a port in the wall, having found her way through the vents. Dylan and Miranda helped the woman down. As she found her footing, she retracted her helmet to reveal a late middle-aged woman with short brown hair.
Hannah Shepard.
"Damn, that was fun! Got the whole base on remote now," she said, rattling her omni-tool before them "Wanna go again?"
Dylan and Miranda vocalised and signed their refusal with raised hands. When asked about the remaining Husks, Hannah brought up a map of the station on her device to verify that they were all cast into space. Except for one; the large Husk Dylan discovered earlier appeared to be trapped in a vent.
Hannah complained "Aw, crap - always the one turd that just refuses to flush…! Well, he's not goin anywhere, the rest are spaced, which just leaves…"
Weapons were heard taking aim and locking in thermal clips. Hannah took on an annoyed look, blinked and jerked her thumb in the direction of Krosso and her men while still staring at Dylan.
"…them…"
"Okay, heroes! Down the steps nice n' easy!" commanded the lieutenant.
"Put your guns away!" ordered Dylan as he and his friends slowly came down the stairwell from the walkway and moved to the middle of the room. "We're all human here!"
Krosso directed her men to detain their rescuers, grasping their shoulders and pointing weapons to their sides. They were adorned in a mixture of Cerberus and assorted, unmarked armor plating, some with bandaged heads and arms. Including Krosso, only ten survived the last attack. The soldier handling Dylan spied an emblem on his armor, an inverted V with three stars in a triangle pattern underneath.
"He's with Systems Alliance!" she announced.
"Brilliant deduction," grumbled Krosso. She stepped up to Dylan until her face was an inch from his.
"What're ya doin' here, Alliance?"
Dylan responded evenly "We were in the neighborhood. Thought we be good Samaritans and give you guys a hand."
"Really? Well bless your bleedin' little hearts! You'll excuse me if I have some trust issues." Krosso examined his features more closely and then it dawned on her who he was. Her superior had referenced him every now and again.
"I know you... you're Commander Shepard's father. You were all over the news coupla years ago…" Krosso's voice became louder and mocking "Big man here really went to pieces when he lost his little baby!"
Dylan stood unflinching. Hannah motioned towards Krosso, her guard holding her back. "Lay into him again… and I swear to God, I will RIP you in half!"
A soldier standing further away had an epiphany. "Aw, Jesus; I knew she looked familiar!" he cried out "That's Hannah Shepard! Her mother…!
His eyes darted about to Dylan, then to Miranda and back to Hannah. His teammates watched as he pointed an arm to each of them in a growing panic.
"Shepard's… shit! Her whole god damn family's here!"
Krosso spun about. "Barnes! Relent!"
Barnes choked back a gasp and pointed to Hannah again "She CAPTAINS a DREADNOUGHT!"
Murmurs and whispers went through the gathering as they came to understand his implications. Krosso snapped to Hannah. At her directive, the guards about Miranda and Hannah backed down along with rest of the group.
"That's right – puugghh!" Hannah puffed in imitation of an explosion, passing her hand in front of her, flexing her fingers. She lit up her omni-tool and shook it to further demonstrate that her squad was in control now. Dylan capitalized on Hannah's opening.
"Our gripe is with your boss, not you." he told Krosso "You can come along with us or you can take your chances with him. Your odds aren't looking very good right now."
"Our odds'll be worse if we shack up with you," said the lieutenant defiantly.
"We're fighting for our lives out there! Yours, too! And you're gonna keep taking orders from him? You're supposed to be about defending humanity… it could use your help right now!"
"Not with your kid leading the charge! She's a damn trouble magnet; everyone's gunning for her!"
"She's been fighting these Reapers from the beginning. She's looking for a way to stop them. She needs us! All of us!"
"C'mon, lieutenant! Let's just go with 'em!" Barnes pleaded in favor of Dylan, wanting to leave the station as much as the unconscious Officer Pierce did. Barnes tried to get in more words in edgewise.
"We help Shepard... we help Shepard and we are ALL… SCREWED!" dismissed Krosso, still fixed on Dylan. "…you saw for yourself…"
"What did you see?" Dylan pressed.
"There's a lot more goin' on than you think, Captain." warned Krosso.
"No, no, don't tell 'em! They'll waste us!" Barnes desperately tried to keep his commander silent.
"Tell us what?" Hannah continued.
"What did the Illusive Man show you?" demanded Miranda as she came forward to side with Dylan along with Hannah.
Krosso puffed in disbelief at the triumvirate "The Illusive Man?"
There was a loud rumble as the floor beneath them shook, knocking all off balance. As they regained their footing, the rumbling and pounding became rhythmic. A few soldiers aimed at the floor ready to open fire. Something was pushing its way up to them. Hannah brought up her omni-tool and locked in on a vector graphic of their section with a large red signal underneath.
"Mega Zombie's loose!" she screamed.
The metal paneling on the floor sparked and erupted as a ghastly behemoth broke through with a chilling bellow, sending Barnes and other soldiers falling backwards. The Alpha Husk took up about half the room easily, resembling an overgrown, mutated mixture of krogan, asari and batarian with mottled brown-grey skin and an overdeveloped upper torso stomping about on squat stumps for legs. Dylan and Miranda scrambled back up the nearby stairwell to higher ground with Hannah. The last of the human holdouts tried to crawl away or fire their weapons only to be crushed underfoot or flung into the walls. Krosso un-holstered her shotgun and circled the front of the monster, pumping rounds into its chest. The Husk flailed backwards from the shot impacts. The instant Krosso stopped to eject a spent thermal clip, it struck back. It raised its massive claw hand and squashed her into the floor, her bones shattering audibly.
Having killed off everyone on the lower floor, the creature now pursued the three humans on the walkway bordering the room. Its four glowing blue eyes sighting them, the humans dodged its fist plowing into the wall behind them as they ran. Hannah called out to Miranda and Dylan to take positions around the Husk with Miranda at the center point. The beast now zeroed in on Miranda. Hannah drew her Falcon rifle and shot out one of its eyes causing it to shriek, luring it away. Dylan neared the spot where the Husk damaged the wall and fired at its head with his own Phalanx pistol to get its attention. Hannah stopped on the walkway opposite him and fired again.
Confused by the back and forth between the Alliance soldiers, Miranda shouted over her comset. "What are you doing?"
Hannah gritted in between shots "Getting it… to put its back to you!"
Miranda guessed at her strategy "But I've never tried with anything this big before!"
"Don't slam it… float it! We can get underneath and skewer the bastard!"
"With what?" cried Dylan as he loaded up another clip. He fired a round that scraped the Husk's nasal opening as it lumbered to Hannah's end of the room, compelling it to lean back and turn towards him. It now faced completely away from Miranda. Hannah signaled to her biotic teammate.
"Do it, Miranda!"
Miranda drew in a large breath and a blue glow swirled about her. She tensed as she put her arms out to envelop the creature in dark energy fields. Slowly the Alpha was lifted into the air, screeching and thrashing in vain against the forces that seized it. Hannah and Dylan dodged and ducked its wild swings. Crouching low, he crawled to the stairwell while minding his head and scanned for things that could impale the Husk.
"I think I see something," he broadcast "But the thing's swinging too wild!"
"Dammit!" Hannah cursed as she holstered her rifle and climbed up onto the railing. She bent her knees and then leapt onto the Alpha's back, bracing its very short neck.
"HANNAAAH!" Dylan screamed.
Miranda gasped at the dreadnought captain's valiant, foolhardy charge but kept the Alpha suspended in the air. "…Hannah… Hurry…" she moaned as fatigue set in.
The Husk tried to swat her off its back, having trouble reaching her but Hannah held on tight. Its attention diverted, Dylan scrambled downstairs, sidestepping corpses, and positioned a few bent floor panels beneath. Hannah made sure she had a firm hold then aimed her left fist at the Alpha's head. Her omni-blade flashed to life and pierced its skull. The Husk cried in agony as Hannah repeatedly stabbed, spraying black fluid on her.
Dylan finished setting up and ran to safety. "I'm clear! Drop it!"
Miranda raised her arms and swung them down as she released her hold of the Alpha. The entire room rattled as it hit the floor kicking up dust and debris, the upturned floor panels placed by Dylan tearing into it. Gurgling and snorting, it squirmed, inhaled and then expelled its last breath. Still holding tightly, Hannah opened one eye and looked around. Both her eyes opened as she stumbled and then pulled herself upright on the back of the dead Alpha. She was met by a marveling Dylan and Miranda coming down the stairwell. Miranda was slightly dizzy from exertion. Hannah smiled proudly, caked in black ink, and pointed to the massive body.
"Through the head… only proven, effective way to kill a zombie!"
"Ohhhgh, the head... I can identify with that feeling," said Miranda, groggily rubbing her temple "You wouldn't happen to have any medication on you for this, would you Dylan?"
Dylan shrugged and met his wife's gaze "Sorry; used up my last pill coping with the missus!"
"Heh... heh... heh…" squinted Hannah, her head pivoting about. She reached up to wipe off some muck that began to run into an eye and flicked it off her hand.
Krosso gasped painfully on the floor, coughing up blood as her eyes snapped open. Miranda sprinted over to check on her. Dylan cautioned not to move her as he knelt beside the fallen lieutenant and ran a medical scan with his own omni-tool.
"She's too far gone," he pronounced somberly, switching off his device "We can't help her…"
Krosso labored to move her hand to Dylan, her eyes to the ceiling. She grazed the search and rescue captain's arm and clenched it.
"….sh-sh-Shepaaard… it's… not him… It's… not… sh-Shep…"
Her grip loosened and her hand slid to the ground. Lieutenant Krosso was dead. The three survivors ruminated over what she was trying to tell them as Hannah brought up her station map again. A lone human blip was in the office of the Illusive Man.
"I know who we can ask…"
A man, covered head to foot in Cerberus armor, was seated in the dim office chamber with a blue star shining through its large, wide viewport. He punched in commands to a virtual console, making a rectangular block with a segmented neon band near its top - a server bank - rise up from the reflective floor a few feet in front of the chair. The man then rose from the chair to walk over when the hiss of the chamber entrance surprised him. He grabbed his pistol from his side, spun around and fired towards the floor. Miranda jumped out of the floor entrance, dodging the first shot. Hannah's kinetic barrier absorbed the next few as she blocked her face. Miranda summoned her biotics to wrestle away the pistol and toss the armored man against the server block. Dylan pulled something from his side, placed it in the barrel of his Phalanx, aimed at the man and fired. A spinning drill bit dug into the man's right shoulder before he could get up. His helmet muffled his screaming as the drill penetrated his armor, then his flesh as it pinned him to the block. Soon the drill stopped. The man panted and grabbed its exposed end as Dylan poised above him with Miranda and Hannah at either side of him. Miranda recognized the drill as one of Cerberus' more insidious interrogation tools.
"Should I ask where you got that?" asked Miranda of the usually even-tempered med tech.
"No," was his curt answer as he kneeled beside the impaled man. The man's head bobbed upwards, recuperating from the pain of his injury.
"I think we can dispense with introductions," said Dylan "We know who you are… and you know damn well who we are!" He raised his right hand to show the remote control for the torture device.
"Grant one simple request… and we just might let you walk."
Dylan leaned closer with the remote by his face.
"Call off… your dogs..."
The man began to shudder and rasp. Dylan could not believe what he was hearing. Even with a pierced shoulder, through his pain, the armored man was actually laughing at him.
He grabbed the man's helmet angrily and pulled it off "Maybe you didn't hear me through this thing – I said…"
The man's helmet bounced twice on the floor and roiled on its side. Cold dread filled Dylan's being. The only sound in the chamber was the man's wheezing laughter. Miranda's eyes went wide.
"It's not him… who is he?"
Instead of Miranda's former superior, on the floor before them was a balding man in his seventies with a grizzled, ashen beard, piercing dark eyes, sunken cheeks and a squared jaw. The little hair he still had was bound up in back. His face overall gave the impression of chalked granite, his sneer simultaneously seeping contempt and satisfaction at seeing an old associate of his again.
"…Marcus…" Hannah whispered.
Dylan steadied himself on the server bank with his free hand "…General Dienz…"
"GOD how I missed the old you!" said Marcus with relish. He reviewed Dylan and his companions. "Heh heh heh… Hail, hail… the gang's all here!"
He grinned upwards at his tormentor.
"Welcome back to the party, Dylan…"
End of Part I
Author's Notes and Thoughts:
- IFF: Identify Friend/Foe – signal similar to what the Collectors used in Mass Effect 2 to safely travel through the Omega Relay
- The title of the story was inspired by the Greek myth of Demeter and Persephone, which tells of the goddess of the harvest (Demeter) and her quest to rescue her daughter Persephone from the clutches of Hades. Much like Hannah, she had abandoned her duty for family. And soon Hannah will discover that Cadrina, like Persephone, has been corrupted.
- The name Krosso for the Cerberus lieutenant was taken from the game No Gravity: The Plague of Mind. It's the race that the player represents in its space battles.
- In every war movie, it seems like there is always some soldier named Kowalski in the platoon or company. So I threw one into this story as a joke, only this time out Kowalski is female.
- Powers Boothe's appearance in Sin City (minus his character's Illusive Man-eque eyes) inspired Dylan Shepard's former commanding officer Marcus Dienz
Coming soon: Part II - Corruption