Ch 4

Conspiracies

Alliance Space: Harvest

4 Months before Reaper invasion

Dust cleared on an empty field, just a few meters from the city. Above Shepard and his squad, the Kodiak shuttle flew down from the heavens, ready to pick up its passengers. The flying brick flew gracefully through the air, turning sharply to have its side in sight of the squad. However, once it started its quick decent to the ground, plasma fire was immediately seen flying over it.

Behind Shepard and his squad, came dozens of alien infantry, all surrounding a large blue vehicle that charged after them. It spewed large blue plasma mortar shots at the shuttle. They came down like a gleaming meteorite, narrowly missing the squad and shuttle. Once they had finally reached the shuttle, Cortez didn't even wait until they were seated before he quickly pulled up, just as a ball of energy burned the ground below them.

Unfortunately, their trouble wasn't over yet. There came the sound of a moaning wails, like that of a screaming banshee, as two purple plane like ships started chasing the Kodiak. Shepard actually started to worry, as he sat down in the cockpit of the Kodiak shuttle. Working furiously at the controls, Cortez maneuvered to avoid the burning hot rapid plasma fire.

"They don't give up easy do they?" James said, strapping in his seat at the back of the shuttle.

Banking right, Cortez tried to out speed the alien fighters, but to no avail. Growing desperate, he pulled the throttle towards him, pushing the ship straight up. Suddenly, he cut power to the mass effect field generator, and the shuttle dropped like a rock. James and Ashley began to scream as the view of the sky and ground started spinning out of the still open door. A moment later, and the ships appeared in front of the shuttle. With only a few dozen feet left between them and the ground, Cortez reactivated the field generator. The shuttle stopped, as if it had hit a brick wall, and then continued straight ahead. By now, the alien ships had recovered, and were trailing behind Cortez yet again.

"I don't know if I can shake them, Commander," He said, voice peaking with panic.

"I'll contact the Normandy; tell them we need some cover." Shepard said, beginning to grow agitated. He had seen one too many near death encounters for the day. After a moment of fiddling with the controls, Joker's sarcastic voice filled the cockpit.

"Shepard, I hope things look better on your end than ours," Joker said with his signature sneer.

"Not exactly, sending you our coordinates. We have some birds on our tail."

"I'll see what we can do about that," Joker said, as the communication cut out. The occupants of the shuttle all panicked as one of the fighters scored a hit with its plasma cannon. Despite his best efforts, Cortez was unable to move the shuttle from the alien's line of fire. Suddenly, one of them engaged a boost mechanism, and zipped directly in front of the Kodiak.

Banking right, the alien turned around and headed towards the shuttle. Activating the plasma cannon's locking system, the alien pilot hoped to trap the Humans between him and his wing-man. He relished the moment once his indicator turned red, indicating a lock on the target. Hesitating a moment, he savored the last few seconds, before finishing the easy kill. However, he was stopped by a sudden explosion that destroyed him, and his shuttle. His wing-man quickly followed, and the Normandy SR-2 emerged from the clouds Thanix Cannon bulging from underneath.

"Damn good save, Joker. You had me worried for a sec." Shepard said, smiling for the first time that day.

Matching the Normandy's speed and trajectory, Cortez initiated the docking procedures. After landing safely in the cargo bay, the exhausted squad stepped out and headed for the elevator for a much needed rest. Meanwhile, after stepping out of his ship, Cortes started assessing the damage done to his shuttle. It would take him weeks to repair, and even then, there would still be visible burns on the side. Luckily, there wasn't any major damage.

"I don't know who these guys are but they sure as hell know how to fly," Cortez muttered to himself.

"Don't worry about it, slap on a new paint job and it'll be fine," James said slapping Cortez on the back laughing, before continuing for the elevator.

Waiting for the elevator to arrive, seemed like a godsend for the squad. At last a chance to rest and just wait. Once it arrived, James and Ashley pressed the button for the crew deck. After waiting for his comrades to disembark, Shepard headed to the CIC. The ride up was calm and relaxing, it was rare that he ever had a moment alone. And his normal elevator rides seemed to be the only chance he had.

Once it had stopped moving, Shepard stepped off the elevator onto the second deck, and headed directly for the war room. Again he passed crewmen running about their duties, all in a slight panic after Joker's combat flying. Upon reaching the communication terminal in the back of the war room, a holographic version of Admiral Anderson appeared.

"Anderson," Shepard said calm.

"Shepard I hope you have some good news."

"I'm having EDI send you all the data we've retrieved. Though I'm not sure how much help it will be."

EDI's voice carried out through the room, being heard by both Anderson and Shepard, "We've been able to uncover they are some sort of religious alliance of several different species. The best translation I can come up for their name is, the Covenant. I've been able to obtain specifics on most of the species that compromise their structure."

Baffled, Anderson asked "How many alien races are there?"

"Six different species have been seen in combat, but they may be led by some other race. The intercepted communications said something about 'Hierarchs'."

"I'll have EDI send you, and the Council, everything we have on the aliens and their ships. Any word on whether or not we have their fleets?"

"Yes, they're actually helping us this time." Anderson said with a hint of annoyance in his voice. "We're expecting their ships to help defend key relays and provide some additional basic support. Not sure how much help that may be, considering this 'Covenant' may not even know how to use Relays."

"Well that's a first, why would they help us with this but not the Collectors?" Shepard inquired, puzzled of the Council's motives.

"When our colonies were first disappearing, it was a mystery as to who was responsible. At the time only rumors about the Collectors arose, we had no proof of any sort of disappearance other than the lack of people. This Covenant wasn't quiet, they didn't even attempt to hide. They came right at us, and they aren't taking prisoners like the Collectors. According to your reports, and several others, they've begun to destroy the planet entirely."

"That's something I wanted to ask you, Anderson. According to the orbital drone scans, they're focusing their military somewhere in the western hemisphere. That's the opposite side from any population centers or valued targets."

Looking down in a slightly shameful manner, Anderson continued, "Yes I may have a reason for that. Soon after we received word of the Covenant's arrival I was informed of some sort of highly classified project occurring on the planet's surface."

"What type of project?"

"I don't know. There were only a handful of individuals who knew about it. All I know is that there is a base over some sort of ancient alien ruin." Anderson continued to explain while a holographic map of Harvest appeared next to him. It zoomed in on the continent in the western hemisphere. It continued into some flat hilly terrain. There, in the middle of nowhere, was a group of small buildings, all with the Alliance logo on their roofs.

"What could be there that the Alliance needed to hide?"

"I don't know, Shepard, but you need to go and find out. We had contact from a squad still in the facility; we need you to pull them out along with any research there. We need to know why the Covenant want this planet so bad, and more importantly, what they want in that facility."

"Understood Anderson," Shepard said, stepping back and beginning his trek towards the door. Glad I didn't bother to take off the armor, he thought to himself, annoyed about dropping back into combat.

Chuckling, Anderson shouted at him as he left, "Sorry, Shepard. You were growing annoyed about the shore leave." Without another word, Anderson's hologram vanished from its spot on the pedestal.

"EDI get the squad ready and in the bay, I want the Normandy to drop us off just outside the enemy's front line."


Harvest: Alliance Military Research Outpost

Ducking behind a wall, Church grimaced as another plasma bolt sailed past him. There was only one way into this outpost, and the aliens continuously tried pouring into it. He, and part of his squad, were the only ones left alive after the Covenant overran the outer perimeter. All that remained was himself, Erin, Manny, and Samuel with the rest of their squad lying dead outside.

At the moment, every one of them focused their fire through the caved in metal door. Wave after wave of the small ape aliens came at them, never seeming to end. Their progress was only stalled, by their inability to crawl over the dead piled at their feet. Without much options left, Church gave the order to fall back further into the base. After traveling through a small security room, the squad came upon an elevator in the next room that led underground.

"Erin, get the elevator open, Sam cover us," Church shouted as he and Manny physically shut the door to the elevator room. Sam continued firing through the crack as the other two struggled to firmly shut the door. He fired a biotic singularity out, blocking the front hallway and preventing any more of the aliens from entering. Gasping, Church and Manny finally managed to shut the door, with a loud thud. They leaned against it to catch their breath, all of them had been fighting for hours now. Their exhaustion was only quelled by their urge to live.

"The elevator, Erin?" Church said, struggling to come over his squad mate. She sat on her knees, trying to hack the door with her omni-tool.

"We never had clearance to go past the front door, I have to go through dozens of fire walls just to open the stupid thing, and then there's the control…"

"I don't think we have that kind of time," Sam said, pointing to a screen in the corner of the room. It was security footage that showed the room before them. They could see dozens of the small aliens pooling in, followed by the larger ones with tentacle like faces. One pulled out some sort of device, and began cutting the door with a purple plasma flame.

"Got it," exclaimed Erin as the elevator doors slid open. They all piled in as she pressed one of only two holographic buttons used for control. Immediately, the door closed and the elevator began its descent deep underground.

"This is bull-shit," Manny cursed under his breath, "They make us defend some secret bunker at the ass end of the galaxy and they don't even tell us why."

"Manny!" Church glared, wishing his subordinate would fall in line.

"No he's right Church," Sam said, coming to his defense, "For all we know these guys are trying to find lost property."

"Doesn't matter anyway, once they get down here we're all dead." Erin piped up, forcing them all into a grave silence.

Growing tired of their moment of solace, Church asked, "Were we able to get a signal out?" to no one in general. Instead, he checked his omni-tool. After several minutes of fiddling with the radio the device began to talk.

"This is Commander Shepard, can anyone respond?"

"Commander, this is Lieutenant Commander Church Reynolds. Damn are we glad to hear from you."

"We're on our way to your location, what's the situation?"

"Situation? Sir, we're fucked. There are only four of us left, and they've completely over run the base at the ground level. We were forced to retreat underground."

After a moment more of silence, Shepard responded,"I need you and your squad to make sure that elevator doesn't come back up until we reach it."

"Understood sir. You're here for a rescue right?" Church said, looking over his squad. They were in no shape to fight, in a single battle they had lost over half their squad, and far too many friends. The physical exhaustion was bearable, the realization of death was not.

There was a long pause before Shepard responded, "We're also here to gather intelligence, I need you to stay where you are. We'll come to you."

"Aye sir," the radio went dead. The mood in the elevator soured further. Manny looked pained as if he was abandoned and alone. The rest of them tried to hide their emotions, but they all showed the same face. They were forced to keep fighting after they had already lost this base. And it didn't look like they would make it home any time soon.