Chapter 3 MIB
"Argggh fuck," yelled Serviceman Jeremiah Franklin while his fellow squad mate, Nirali Bhatia, attempted to pop his dislocated shoulder back into place.
"Damn it Bhatia you could have warned me before you tried to wrench my arm off completely," Franklin groaned, as he rotated his shoulder and grimaced, it hurt like hell but at least he could hold his weapon again.
"I'll take that as a thank you Franklin," Nirali scowled over her shoulder, "Next time don't get blind-sided by one of those guys and I won't have to pick up the pieces."
Nirali left Franklin to grumble to himself about her being some kind of gorilla woman, and crept her way up to where Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams was keeping watch at the window of the prefab they had taken shelter in, "You spot anything Gunny?"
Williams turned to face her squad mate, seeing the fatigue reflected in Nirali's face. It had been ten hours since the first explosion went off, and her and her squad mates had been on the move ever since. They were supposed to secure the dig site, but that had been when her squad were seven strong, now it was just the three of them.
"Nope I've not seen any more MIB's either," Williams whispered. MIB, that's what they had named the raiders that had attacked Eden Prime. It stood for Mercs in Black which is what they were. A large force of Turian, Krogan, Salarian and Batarian soldiers equipped with black armour with no identifying symbols, even their visors were polarized black.
When Williams's squad first engaged them, they had tried to remove one of the helmets to see who they were up against. As soon as the helmet locking clamps had been disconnected from the suit the body exploded, taking Werner and Yamashita with it. This frightened Williams more than anything. What kind of organization does that to its own dead? Uses them as a weapon, it sickened her to the stomach.
"Ok get ready you two, we need to keep pushing ahead to the rendezvous point," Williams said, unclipping her Lancer from its magnetic back mount, "We leave in two."
The Normandy cargo bay was buzzing with activity, with Shepard and the squad stood ready for their drop off by the cargo bay doors. Captain Anderson made his way over to them, it was close to jump time and he wanted to give the three soldiers some words of encouragement before being dropped into a hot zone.
"I know that this is going to be a difficult mission. You'll be up against a force much larger than you but if you three cover each other's backs, then you will come out of this unscathed," Anderson said, "Now I know that this is your home colony Corporal but you need to keep a level head in the field or it could cost you the mission or worse your life."
"Sir, yes sir," Jenkins barked back, "Permission to speak freely sir?"
"Go ahead marine" ,Anderson nodded.
"Sir, you said if us three cover each other's backs, what about Nihlus? Isn't he coming with us?" Jenkins questioned and looked over to the armoury bay where Nihlus was finishing preparations.
"He's here as an observer only. He'll be infiltrating ahead of you and providing support via reconnaissance," Anderson replied as the SpecTRe joined them.
"That's correct, I'll move ahead and feed you data on troop movement," Nihlus added as the bay doors opened, Eden Primes horizon whizzing past at a dizzying speed, "Besides, I move much faster on my own," flashing what passes as a Turian smile he jumped over the edge and disappeared.
Alenko shifted slightly in his spot and spoke up, "Sir, what about survivors. Are they an objective for the mission?"
"Negative Lieutenant. The beacon is your only objective," Answered Anderson, "Retrieve it at all cost. Your jump point is in two minutes, you'd better get ready."
Anderson turned and headed for the cargo elevator back to the CIC. Shepard still had an uncomfortable feeling about the mission, like a mosquito bite she can't scratch. She was going into a hot zone with no intel with a marine whose home-town was the hot zone itself and a Turian SpecTRe who was only on station to provide secondary recon information. Yeah she should have stuck with retirement.
"Alenko, Jenkins, make sure your suits are sealed and your shield generators are on maximum output. I don't want any nasty surprises taking us down when our feet hit the ground," Shepard ordered with the sound of "Aye-aye" thrown back at her in perfect unison.
Shepard watched her two squad mates carefully, Alenko was fine but Jenkins concerned her. His face looked calm but she noticed a tell in his body language, he was fidgeting with the safety on his Lancer. "Jenkins come here a second," she motioned him to come closer.
"Yes ma'am?" Jenkins asked innocently.
The kid doesn't even realise he's angry, Shepard thought to herself.
"Jenkins, I know this is your home but we are about to get dropped into the hottest zone I've been in since Elysium," Shepard spoke softly, putting a hand on the young soldier's shoulder and looking him in the eyes, "But I need you to keep your cool when we're down there, understand? Both me and the Lieutenant are trusting you with our backs and we need you frosty."
Jenkins nodded, his thumb settling under the safety button. Shepard nodded towards the opening cargo doors "Alright, let's get this beacon."
"Gunny watch out!" shouted Nirali, pushing Williams down into cover before being riddled with holes.
Williams scrambled down the dig site ramp way taking cover behind one of the pillars. She blind fired back up the ramp, hoping to catch one of the black armoured hostiles. The return gunfire was like a storm of plasma pummeling the pillar, threatening to disintegrate at a moment's notice. Rounds whizzed past William's helmet, a few clipping her shields. She needed to get out of there now or Nirali's death would have been for nothing.
Williams peeked from behind the pillar in between volleys of gunfire, and counted how many hostiles there were. OK there's six of them and one of me, not my favourite odds but I'll take em', Williams thought to herself. Peeking back out of cover and firing a burst of Lancer fire, dropping one of her assailants before they returned fire, One down, five to go.
The Merc squad continued their concentrated fire on William's cover, slowly whittling it away and forcing her to dive to the pillar on her left. She couldn't take on the five attackers, if she was going to make out alive she had to make a run for the woodland on the outskirts of the colony . William's checked her grenade belt, one grenade left, this was going to be her one shot at surviving. She picked her moment, waiting for the Mercs to gather closer to her position before tossing the grenade in among them. She had set the detonator to proximity and waited the half a second for the explosion to go off before sprinting for the surrounding woodland.
"Jenkins, get down now!" Shepard yelled but it was too late. Jenkins had been caught in a storm of gunfire, leaving a large, angry wet hole where his chest should have been. Shepard leaned out from cover and let her Lancer rip, the ugly bark of automatic fire resounding through the quiet woodland, taking down the gunman who took down Jenkins. Alenko caught two of the black clad hostiles in a biotic lift and suspended them high, picking them off with his Predator pistol.
The skirmish was over as quickly as it had begun, the ambient quiet almost deafening after the gunfire. Jenkins lay where he fell, chest torn to shreds, blood pooling quickly around him. Alenko leaned down, closing his eyes to show his respects.
"Poor kid, he should've never taken point. He wasn't experienced enough regardless of if he knew the area," Alenko said to himself somberly, his voice tinged with regret.
"Don't let it shake you Alenko, we need to keep moving and get that beacon," Shepard said coldly.
"With all due respect Ma'am, Jenkins deserves a moment of silence and a tag so that we can come back and make sure he gets a decent burial," Alenko spoke out, shocked that the woman who had taken the time to make sure Jenkins had his head straight before the mission could be this cold now.
Shepard stepped up to Alenko's chest, her silvery eyes firing a cold stare into his dark brown ones. "With all due respect Lieutenant," Shepard shot back, "I would rather leave his body to rot and finish this mission than waste my time with tagging him for burial which might mean letting the bastards responsible for turning his home into a war zone escape and losing the beacon he just lost his life for. Now which do you think he would prefer," with that Shepard jogged off towards the settlement, leaving Alenko having to almost sprint to catch up.
As the duo came up to the tree line they came across a surviving Marine being chased by two black armoured assailants. The woman had managed to get into cover behind a rock formation just as her pursuers opened fire, the ground exploding where her feet had been only five seconds earlier.
Shepard nodded towards two outcroppings just at the edge of the trees, signalling Alenko to take position behind the one on the far side. The two positioned themselves and waited for the enemy to get closer to the surviving marine before revealing themselves via lethal crossfire. The two hostiles scrambled back towards the archway they had come through, giving the marine an opening to lean out and gun them down, landing a head shot on one causing it to explode like a tomato.
Shepard vaulted from her cover and jogged over to the female marine, Alenko bringing up the rear. She holstered her Lancer on her back and approached the woman who had slid down to the floor against the rock she had taken cover behind, offering her hand out to the exhausted marine, who took it gladly and pulled herself to her feet.
"Thanks for the save, if you didn't turn up when you did I would have ended up like the rest of my squad," the lone marine panted.
"We happened to be in the area marine", Shepard shrugged, "Are you the only survivor?"
"Of my squad? Yeah, I survived thanks to a good friend's sacrifice," replied the marine bitterly, "I don't know about the colony though, they should have been evacuated to the space-port."
Shepard frowned, if this woman was the last marine in the colony then it made it hard to mount a counter offensive. The mission took precedence but she couldn't leave the colonists alone to fight an unknown force. Anderson didn't specifically say they couldn't sweep the route they were taking for survivors. Shepard look over to Alenko then back to the marine, they were a man down and could use her help.
"What's your name marine," Shepard asked.
"Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams of the 313, Ma'am," Williams answered, standing to attention on instinct.
"OK Chief, me and Lieutenant Alenko here have orders to recover the Prothean beacon that was uncovered here. You have an idea where the dig site is?," Shepard inquired.
"The dig site? Thats back that way," Williams pointed behind her back towards where the Mercs had tried to take cover, "But that's where I came through but I didn't see the beacon."
"Any Idea where the beacon was taken?" Alenko questioned.
"Probably to the spaceport with the rest of the evacuees LT," Williams replied, "You need to head up the ramp to the cargo transport but it's full of MIB's."
"MIB's? Is that who attacked the colony Williams?" Shepard asked, hoping to gain some information on the faceless enemy.
"No Idea what they call themselves Ma'am, it's what my squad was calling them, you know on account of the all black. It stands for Mercs In Black," Williams almost spat, anger rising like molten metal.
Ok, so we both know nothing about these guys, Shepard thought to herself. This was more than a three-man infiltration team was supposed to handle, well a two-man squad with Jenkins down. Shepard began heading towards the dig site, Alenko falling in a few paces behind and to the left of her. "By the way, the names Shepard, Williams, you coming or are you going to stand there and wallow in self-pity about your squad", Shepard threw back over her shoulder.
Williams blinked in shock, taken aback by the revelation that she had been saved by her personal hero before shaking it off. "Try and stop me Ma'am," Williams shouted back, flipping the safety on her Lancer. "Time for some payback."
A/N
Thanks to Lady Amiee Krios for deciding to help a poor soul and taking on my chapters for beta. On another note the next chapter is going to be combat heavy and I'm hoping to have it out by Wednesday, also going to try and make Kaiden a little less boring as the story goes on but I'm not promising anything :D
