I don't own the Mass Effect. Which sucks.
Operation: Trial Run
Date: 06-20-2182
Location: Eclipse Cruiser Imminent Death
The door silently slid aside, letting me enter the cruiser's bridge. A few officers glanced in my direction before quickly returning their gazes to their displays, the dozen plus Asari entirely focused on preparing their ship. In many ways it was a lot like the bridge of the Yare Noln, just scaled up. Roughly a box, with command consoles and displays all around the outside edges of the room, leaving the senior officers free to maneuver around the holographic table that dominated the center of the room.
Knowing better than to bother any of the rather busy crew, I moved as quietly as my light armor allowed, stepping around and past them to get to the more open interior. "Permission to approach, Captain?"
The ship's Captain was, like her crew, an Asari of average height and wearing the tan uniform that the Eclipse seemed to favor for its naval types. She had dusky blue skin, an impressively sharp jawline, and her facial tats were a new one for me, resembling a pair of cresting waves curling up and over her harsh cheekbones. She glanced in my direction before giving me a sharp nod. "Kean. I see your Commander couldn't be bothered. Again."
My lips twisted a little. "She is still running the remainder of our team through drills."
"Still dirtying up one of my perfectly good cargo bays you mean."
I gave her an Asari style shrug, my head dipping left as that shoulder rose and fell minutely. "We've been careful not to destroy anything else, and remain grateful for your hospitality."
"I'm not fucking T'Ravt, stop with that flowery shit."
"Fine." Crossing my arms, I glared at her and let some of my irritation at her harping show. "Athame's ass you fucking worry too much, it was just a few broken wall plates and we made damned sure Jack regretted her temper tantrum."
She grunted, apparently somewhat mollified. "And they're still coming out of her cut for the mission."
"We already worked that shit out. Like I said, stop bloody worrying you tit." Now, you'd think it wasn't exactly bright of me to be talking to the Captain of the ship we were hitching a ride on like this. Normally, you'd be entirely correct in that assumption, but as I'd learned over the past week, Captain Bial Hashen was a very odd Asari. Then again her father had been a Krogan, so I supposed it wasn't all that surprising. "How long until we drop out of FTL?"
"Twelve hours." She leaned over the holotable, her eyes tracking the information that made absolutely no sense to me. "We'll drop out in the outer system and run a check with the ships already present before we sail the rest of the way."
It was my turn to grunt when she shifted the display to one that actually provided me with information, showing the task force's various ships as well as the latest information we had from our target.
The Immiment Death was the largest vessel of the flotilla that Sederis had dispatched, with the next most capable ship being the smaller line cruiser Moonlit Gasp. Four frigates, including a Noln whose appearance had brought a wave of nostalgia, rounded out the escort formation. The warships only held commando teams, of which there were seven including us, it was the transport's job to carry the bulk of the ground formation. Six regiments, one per transport, most of them all too eager to finally see action after missing most of the Blue Suns war.
Our target, rotating lazily opposite the task force list, as the moon Denara. Not terribly remarkable in itself, it had an atmosphere of nitrogen and methane and was basically an iceball. What it did have was a gas giant parent with extensive helium-3 mines, and an underground manufacturing complex capable of building fusion power plants. But for the most part, that was the Eclipse's objective. We were there, along with Sederis's commandos, to deal with some of the Krogan war leaders who ran the place, hopefully making the troops lives easier in the process.
We didn't think that any of them would have pertinent information concerning Krom, or Ganar himself. But we had to start somewhere, and it seemed a simple enough set of targets for our first operation.
"Figure sixteen before we're in orbit and we can finally get you off my goddess-damned ship."
Snorting, I reached out and tapped a few controls, but didn't see anything that I didn't already know. "We won't be gone that long. Two targets, then we're back aboard and ready to return to Omega."
Her dark lips twisted. "Even more of your fur covering my decking then. And if that tattooed bitch of a human breaks my ship on the way back I'm throwing her out an airlock."
"You already threatened to do that. Twice."
"That's a promise, not a threat human." Hashen's blue eyes narrowed.
"I believe you." And I did. I also probably wouldn't try all that hard to stop her. It turns out, when you have to deal with Jack on a daily basis in real life, without Shepard around to try and bring out the 'good' in her... she was a fucking caustic, drug-addicted bitch of a human being who seemed to think that all the bad shit that had happened to her excused anything she did.
Don't get me wrong, she'd definitely had a crap childhood that made my own less than awesome life seem like swimming in a placid lagoon. And from what Marcus had told me, she usually attempted to channel that anger towards people who deserved it, which was part of the reason he was utterly besotted with her. She'd killed more than her fair share of child slavers for one, and plenty of people worse than that. She'd been cagey as hell about why she'd done it, but I knew, and I was pretty sure that Voya had at least guessed. The two of them would have gotten along great if it wasn't for one small thing.
She didn't have a fucking off switch. Even Voya, as fucked up as her own head was, knew when it was time to stand down and calm down, or at least pretend to. Jack either didn't know when to stop bitching at everyone, or she just didn't give a shit.
Either way it made dealing with her a daily chore that I just didn't have the patience for.
"Did you actually need something or did you just want to point out that you're willing to kill one of our people again?"
"Your Commander wanted to know when we were within two Omega shifts of our target, and my orders are to be... accommodating." There was a short, annoyed exhale. "I was also intending to question her as to your plan of action upon arrival. I'd rather my shuttles return without holes in them."
"This is our first operation as a unit, we aren't going for a hard combat drop." Manipulating the controls further, I brought up the map of the city we'd be dropping into. For the most part the entire thing was built deep underground, taking advantage of a natural cavern system. The original colonists had had the right idea, installing massive greenhouses and other atmospheric equipment after they'd sealed themselves in with bulkheads and energy barriers before digging deeper to construct their factories. It had probably been a nice place to live by Terminus standards before the Blood Pack had smelled a profit and moved in.
Grunting, I nodded once the image stabilized and I could point out one of the shuttle sized airlocks built into the side of a mountain above the city. "That entrance leads to a security post, last record had the beachhead team holding it. We can enter through there and use it as a base of operations. If they've lost it, we'll put down in the loading docks with the main body."
The Matron leaned forwards, eyes flicking around the map as she took it in. "Good positioning on both targets from there. Here I was thinking you lot were going to fly straight into a hurricane, maybe try and breach one of the access shafts that's closer."
"We aren't suicidal." I pointed out drily.
That earned me a quiet grunt and a slight nod. "You'll have a week to accomplish your objectives, that's how long we're slated to remain in orbit. If you take longer you're finding another way back to Omega."
Rolling my eyes slightly, I nodded all the same. If everything went right we were expecting to have both of our targets dead inside of a day or two, not that any of us honestly thought things would go that smoothly. But even in a worst-case that gave us a five day buffer to work with. "I hear you Captain."
"Good. Tell your prissy bitch of a Commander the next time I summon her I expect to see her, not you. Now get the fuck off my bridge."
Turning, I waved a hand over my shoulder as I headed back towards the hatchway. "I'll tell her." Just like I'd told her the last time. And the time before that. And the one before that.
Exiting the bridge without another word, I wasn't terribly surprised to hear Hashen muttering unkind words about Ayle, me, Jack, and the rest of our team before the sliding door cut her voice off. Nodding politely to the two Asari standing guard outside, I was expecting to have a pleasantly long walk aback to the quarters I shared with Voya, but the massive form leaning against the wall just ahead gave me a bad feeling that there wasn't going to be anything pleasant about it.
"Cieran." The former priest rumbled, the pair of us exchanging polite nods. His a hair to the left, mine a hair to the right. "I see you survived your latest mission."
"Thul." I greeted the titan of a Batarian, not covering up my irritation anymore than I had for Captain Heshen. "What's the crisis?"
"Why must there be a crisis my friend?"
A muscle in my cheek twitched in annoyance. "Because ever since Ayle appointed me her fucking exec all I've done is manage her Athame damned crises."
"That isn't entirely true." He chided, turning to follow as I walked past him. "She stepped in when Shyeel complained about her sleeping arrangements."
"Because I was out of patience and about to shoot her."
"Yes." Thul chuckled, stepping behind me to let a trio of crewmembers move past in the other direction. "And perhaps you were a tad blunt in your explanation."
I rolled my eyes turning my head into the Batarian pose for disdain. "All I told her was that she couldn't room with Jack and Marcus because she'd end up drowning herself in their drug stash inside of an hour."
"True, yes, but not terribly tactful my friend. Perhaps we should discuss a few sayings from the Pillars of Kin and Heart?"
"Thul."
"They both speak on the proper manners for delivering unwanted words," He continued as if I hadn't spoken, which was a depressingly common occurrence. "It may also make your interactions with Madame Nought go far smoother."
"I'm more than capable of tact when I need to be." I growled, turning down a side corridor. "You can't blame me for being annoyed at being given a goddess-damned team. I expected you to get that job."
"I will ignore your blatant change of subject only because it is also worth discussing. Ayle wouldn't have placed you in command of half of us if she did not believe you were the best choice."
Dividing our small squad into a pair of teams had been one of the first things she'd done after we'd elected her our leader. As I'd said, I'd entirely expected her to put Thul in charge of team two, and had been rather taken aback to have been given the post instead. Instead of trying to specialize either group she'd gone more towards a pair of balanced units, splitting our two biotics between us. I'd mentally praised Athame when she'd taken Jack, and she'd naturally taken Marcus as well. The bounty hunter wasn't much of a hacker but he could do it in a pinch, and Voya had lowered herself to teaching him a few tricks. Toss in her two cadre members in Ullak and Hesh, both carrying what heavy weapons we had, and she had a solid little group provided Jack actually followed orders in a fight.
Of course, that left me and Voya with Thul and Shyeel. The former, despite his earnest attempts to 'help' the pair of us, wasn't all that bad. The latter... was still going through dust withdrawals nearly a month after she'd finally stopped using the crap. Which meant she was moody, bitchy, and desperately in need of something to kill.
"I'm not going to dignify that with a response."
He let out a rare whistling sigh through his teeth, revealing he wasn't quite as composed as he was pretending. "Cieran, you are quite capable as a combat leader despite having no formal training. The Pillar of Knowledge teaches that experience is the best teacher, and you have seen more combat than any of us besides Ayle over the past few years."
My lips twisted a little at the reminder that I'd been in more firefights since I'd woken up in Nos Astra than most fucking soldiers did in a similar time frame.
"I know that you are not a natural warrior," Understatement of the fucking century there. "But you are both cunning and intelligent, and I am quite sure that you will have no problems directing us in combat."
It wasn't as if he or Ayle was giving me much of a choice. I'd attempted to talk her out of it, twice, and been told in no uncertain terms to shut the fuck up and go deal with the latest problem that she couldn't be bothered with. "Glad you're confident then. And you never did tell me if there was a crisis or not."
"Nothing that you need to deal with."
Reaching up, I pinched the bridge of my nose for a long moment. "Thul."
The Batarian let out a deep, rumbling chuckle. "Voya took exception to a comment that Hesh made. They've been separated, and his Tarath'shan reminded him not to antagonize your companion. Ayle believed she owed you for once again braving the ship's captain for her."
I snorted, a little relieved that it had apparently just been a minor spat. My blasé words to the Captain or not, Jack's temper tantrum had trashed more than a couple of bulkheads and it wasn't an experience I wanted to go through again. "Heshen is easy, just be as rude to her as she is to you. I don't understand Ayle's issue with her."
Thul gave a little Asari-style shrug to his left. "I cannot claim to know her mind either."
"Well at least I'm not the only one confused then. Where's everyone now?"
"I believe our Commander has Shyeel and Jacqueline sparring once again, along with both of her cadre." Which was probably a better use of her time than dealing with Heshen if I was being totally honest. Neither Jack nor the withdrawing Asari was any good at hand to hand without their biotics, and it was good endurance training if nothing else. "I will admit to not knowing where Jarick or Marcus are, but I believe Voya is at the gunnery range."
"I'll head that way, see if I can't make sure she's not going to try and kill him in his sleep."
He chuckled again. "Likely a good idea. Although, speaking of sleep, are you resting well?"
My good humor faded, a dark tide dragging it away. "Well enough."
"Cieran, I would be more than happy to talk with you about-"
"Thul." He shut up when I let out a hissing breath between my teeth. "Drop. It."
He did so, but didn't look particularly happy to do so. Which was very him, he just couldn't leave shit well enough alone, insisting on trying to help in his own way. My nightmares and sleeping problems were just that though. They were mine. I'd deal with them without meditating on the wisdom of the Pillars or reading copies of their inscriptions or whatever the fuck he wanted me to do.
Which was probably frustrating for him, come to think of it. I knew that he'd also approached Jack, Shyeel, and Voya, and none of us had been even slightly receptive to his offers. Not that he'd ever actually shown if he was annoyed or not, seeming to always be cheerful or quietly accepting of whatever we said.
We walked in silence after that, taking a lift down two decks before following another corridor towards the ship's various cargo bays and hangers. I eventually muttered something vaguely apologetic before we parted, but he waved it away with a cheerful grin before reminding me that the Pillars did not look kindly on someone who simply gave up.
I may or may not have twitched slightly at his words, muttering far less apologetic things about his potential parentage as I entered the room that had been setup as a shooting range. Currently three of the small booths were occupied, while one of the ship's marines lounged in a chair near the door. The Asari gave me something like a deferential Batarian nod, waving a hand towards the two far stations before returning to whatever she was reading on her omni-tool.
Quietly thanking her, I shuffled past where another one of the crew was carefully dismantling an Acolyte, the glowing sign above our heads indicating the range was in cool-down for the next five minutes, before continuing on to where my allies were occupied checking over their own weapons.
The man on the right was about my height but was far more built, his long black hair easily reaching past his shoulders and working damnably well at complimenting his tanned skin. His roguish mustache complimented the rest of his face well enough that Jack had had to threaten more than a few of the human, and Asari, crew who'd looked at her man a little too long for her tastes.
The woman on the left as about as much of a contradiction as you could get. The petite Terminus Quarian was wearing a lightweight suit from the neck down, a fighter pilot style mask visible where it covered her nose and mouth. It left her wild mane of stiff white hair free to cascade down her back, while her oversized and glowing eyes flicked in my direction as she noticed me.
"Cieran. Where the fuck were you?" Like everyone but Jack and Marcus she spoke in the Asari's main language, though her accent wasn't as clipped as mine.
"Dealing with Heshen for Ayle. Again."
"She still making you do that?" Marcus Smith set his heavily modified Predator down, turning his head to glance at me. "Shit man, that sucks."
"Speak for the goddess." Exhaling, I reached up to run a hand through my long hair. "It's getting fucking old, that's for sure. We're two shifts out by the way."
The former bounty hunter grunted, quickly turning back to the range. Neither he nor Jack particularly liked talking with me, not so much because of the language I spoke in but rather because I held myself like a Batarian rather than a human. Apparently it was rather unsettling to talk with someone who held himself rigidly and only moved his head in ways that were distinctly odd for them.
"About time." Voya muttered. "I still say we shouldn't have had to wait that extra week."
"We've been over this." I sighed. "It'll be easier to find and kill both of our targets if they're more worried about an army than if it was just us trying to sneak in."
"Not that the planet is suited to sneaking." Marcus backed me up. "Went there once, chasing some idiot Turian down. The only way into the city is through the ship locks, and those are pretty fucking hard to sneak through."
Voya grumbled some more, but nodded tightly to accept the point. On her right, Marcus picked up his pistol again, checking over his suppressor before snapping his omni-tool to life to run a scan on it. While he occupied himself, I moved over to lean against the wall behind the Quarian, glancing at her scores for the morning.
"Solid."
One of her slim shoulders twitched. "What do you want Cie?"
"For you to not kill anyone before we land."
She let out a low growl. "Hesh would deserve it, the sarcastic bosh'tet."
"Probably, but he's still on our side."
There was another vibrating noise, this one deep enough that she winced slightly. Even a few weeks after her surgery and her vocal cords weren't entirely healed, even if she could at least spend most of a day talking if she was careful not to raise or lower her voice too much.
Her lips curled in displeasure, hands collapsing her pistol before shoving it back onto her belt. Shaking my head, I followed her as she shut down the station and stalked out, giving the guard a tiny nod as we passed her.
"You're getting more irritable." I kept my voice low as we entered the hallway, turning right towards our cabins. "I know Hesh can be an ass but he's not stupid, he wouldn't say anything to you that was over the line."
"He..." Three fingered hands threw themselves up in the air. "Fine. I overreacted."
Voya? Overreact? Impossible. "Voya."
"Cieran." Her tone made it clear she wasn't going to elaborate on what had been said. Or what had happened. Dusky gray skin reflected the light as she turned her head away from me, staring pointedly ahead as we walked. "Is the plan still the same?"
"We'll know in twelve hours, Heshen is pulling us out in the outer system to link with the local buoy."
"At least she isn't stupid then." Voya's little nose flexed as she exhaled. "What's our plan until we arrive then?"
"Message Ayle and tell her for one. She'll definitely want everyone up and mobile for when the information pull happens, was planning on trying to sleep until about an hour before then." The key word there was try. "Probably the last chance we'll have for a long rest for the next week or so."
"Assuming you actually sleep." She pointed out.
"Assuming you actually sleep." I countered. She might not have as many nightmares as I did, but the ones she did have tended to be... bad.
My companion gave a tiny little snort. "We could always spar first. I'd be happy to knock you unconscious, it might even tire me enough to sleep soundly."
"I think I'll just smoke some chehala, thanks." She sighed in disappointment, which made me grin a little in bemusement. "Look at it this way, in less than one Omega day you'll be able to kill people."
She cocked her a head a little at that, and I didn't need to know her half as well as I did to know that she was grinning beneath her mask.
Nos Astra News Tonight
The latest news from the fighting in the Terminus and Traverse continues to see the new Krogan Empire pressing against its opposition, particularly in the eastern Terminus. Worlds where fighting was already occurring between Warlord T'Ravt and the Blood Pack have seen the Lady Warlord dragged deeper into the surf as blockade runners continue to land more and more Imperial warriors on those worlds. While in some locations her people have held their ground, reports indicate that in many locations she is being forced to withdraw and consolidate her people into tighter defensive cordons.
Closer to home, the Eclipse's primary battle fleet remains in our system, ensuring that no raiders will attempt to strike at their headquarters. While none have dared so far, other worlds in the lucrative Omega to Illium corridor have not been so lucky, with the largest fighting occurring on the world of Denara, where the Eclipse garrison is supposedly barely holding on while a relief fleet rushes to reach them in time.
After the break, we will speak with our expert panel, asking just how Warlord Ganar Yulaz was able to draw so many non-Krogan ship captains to his side, and just what that will mean as the war continues to rage.
Next up is Trial Run II
Sorry, chapter names won't be as inventive in this story, at least as far as the Operation sections go. The interludes in between the ops will be a bit more colorful.
Anyways, back on point. This chapter was mostly filler and letting everyone see all the chars again, hear Cieran's descriptions of them, so on and so forth. Next chapter will be jumping right into the action when they land on Denara (which is a play on Denerim, expect a lot of self-indulgent Dragon Age references in this one).
One more note, while they won't matter much (at all really) in terms of the story, my outline has the operations and their interludes divided into 'phases'. As a tease, here's phase 1 operation names: Trial Run, Uninvited Guests, Blitzkrieg
Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."
Thanks, Kat
Addendum: Forgot to put this in the intro originally, but I am drawing some inspiration from LogicalPremise's work with permission. If you see something in my stories that is quite similar to his, all the credit to him for whatever awesome idea it was. Known things I'm using from his verse: non-Batarian & non-Quarian biology, Phase disruptors & grenades, and the Citadel governments (partial).
Review Responses:
5 Coloured Walker → That would explain so much... as for the chars, I tried to limit the number of names I dropped to not reveal too much, and there are still several chapters after the prologue's time period so it's entirely possible that people alive then won't be in the very near future.
Gods-own → I'm assuming you mean Joa. There's a reason she got a bit more info that the other chars. Part of that is that she's a new OC, part of that was to tease a bit of a change in Cieran's mindset by that point in time.
Guest → The story is going hard into AU territory from this point onwards. Some events will be familiar, some will be new, but the main game plots will begin interacting with Cieran's story now that we're in the appropriate timeframe.
BJ Hanssen → I'm going to keep trying, make myself do at least a bit of work on my own stuff every week. Get at least slow progress going.
Fan-Rei → Good catch on the parents thing, that was one of the little teasing bits I tried to sneak in there. :)
Guest #3 → We haven't seen the last of Nynsi Shaaryak, not by a longshot. ;)
Legendary Junk Mail → It was mildly confusing to write too, if that helps lol. Trying to tease things without revealing things and remembering what my outline side and who I should put in and gah. I'm glad it worked but I don't know if I'll do that again.
Jemdeamon → Not just ME2, ME1 won't be the same either. As for Cieran's survival... it's entirely possible he won't live through the end of any of the remaining stories, they're all going to be pretty vicious.
