12 Thargelia 3364 AR (18 January 2198), Rhamnos/Thessia
In the dark of a stormy night, three Shadow Broker shuttles glided down out of the sky.
On a calm night, the approach would never have gone undetected. In this epoch, Parnitha drifted in the outer fringes of a great open cluster. Thessia's night sky shone with the Thousand Jewels: a scattering of bright blue-white stars, with a few orange and red giants for flavor. One could read by starlight. Against such a backdrop, an alert sentry would easily spot aircraft on approach, stealthed against radar or no.
With a tropical storm surging ashore off the Irenic Ocean, all was darkness and chaos instead.
"Comm check," said Vara. She listened to her helmet radio as three squad leaders reported in, then caught Liara's eye and nodded.
"Strict discipline of objectives," Liara murmured. "We're here to crack into Black Hand data networks. If we can do that and go home again without firing a shot, I'll be well pleased."
Vara shook her head. "Don't worry, despoina. Everyone understands the rules of engagement."
"Good." Liara noticed Miranda's expression, and gave her an apologetic shrug. "A number of my acolytes have rather strong feelings about the Black Hand. Before the Reapers, some of them would have been sisters-in-arms within Eclipse. Some of our people might personally know some of the pirates who hold Rhamnos now. There's no hatred like that within a family."
Miranda nodded, understanding that statement all too well. She looked away, out the front window of the shuttle, and tried not to think about her own strong feelings.
Three shuttles touched down in the dark and the rain. Their hatches popped open. Teams of lithe blue warriors in black combat armor sprang forth. Liara, Vara, and Miranda followed.
At once, Miranda found herself struggling with noise, wind, and downpour. She slapped her combat visor down, activating her HUD to augment what little she could see.
They had landed in an open field, perhaps three kilometers outside the polis of Rhamnos. A gentle slope swept up to the northwest, scattered with trees that lashed back and forth in the wind. At the top of the slope Miranda could make out a ruined stone building, perhaps an ancient castle. Liara's people fanned out across the slope, moving from cover to cover, making for the ruin.
Liara followed, her sidearm out but pointed down to the side in a ready-pose as she walked. Miranda could sense the asari's biotics at the ready, dark energy just short of curling into visible life around her shoulders and her off hand. Miranda and Vara exchanged a quick glance, and then the two of them moved to bracket the Shadow Broker, watching the quarters to ensure no sudden threat could leap out of the darkness and surprise them.
Suddenly, a muttered phrase snapped across the comm link, in an asari dialect Miranda couldn't quite follow. The three of them went to cover, Vara first as her commando reflexes kicked in, Liara and Miranda a split second behind.
"There's a Black Hand post in the ruin," Liara murmured. "I suppose it was too much to ask that they would forget to secure a hilltop with line-of-sight into Rhamnos."
"What now?" Miranda asked.
"Now we wait, and let the team do their job," said Vara, tension in her voice like a wire pulled taut.
Miranda squinted up the slope, trying to make out what was happening through the rain and occasional lightning-flash.
"Target comms down," said an asari voice.
Then Miranda glimpsed slim black-clad figures, running through the rain, already very close to the stone ruins. For just an instant, she saw an asari vaulting over a low stone wall, the blue gleam of unleashed biotics trailing behind her like a comet's tail.
"Clear," said the same voice. "Four down, all accounted for."
Less than ten seconds, Miranda realized. Then Vara and Liara were up and sprinting through the rain, in a terrible hurry to get to the objective now that it had been secured. Miranda followed, about three steps behind at first, long legs helping her to catch up almost at once.
By the time she arrived at the hilltop, stepping carefully around a few fallen stones, Liara's people were already hard at work. Three asari erected a tripod and aimed a bulky instrument to the west, where city lights were dimly visible through the rain. Miranda checked her HUD, and saw they had aligned their device to point directly toward the heart of Rhamnos. Meanwhile, Liara bent down by one of the fallen Black Hand, her omni-tool flaring into life.
"Good work, sisters," said Vara, collecting a set of quick white smiles in the darkness.
"Signal acquired," said one of the asari by the tripod. "We have a cross-link to the computers on board Cannae. Estimate about five minutes to defeat the Black Hand encryption."
Liara nodded, not looking away from her omni-tool. "That should be enough time to introduce some malware into their networks as well. Assuming I can recover this sergeant's private keys . . . ah, here we go."
"Your cyberwarfare capabilities have gotten even better than I remember," Miranda remarked.
Vara nodded, looking as smug as an asari could through a combat helmet's visor. "It helps that the Shadow Broker has friends on Rannoch. Some of whom are geth."
"Well." Miranda made a chilly smile. "A few Cerberus tricks couldn't have hurt."
Time passed, feeling like hours although Miranda knew it could only have been minutes.
Then: "Uh-oh," said one of the asari by the tripod.
Miranda glanced down at Liara, still in the middle of building and deploying exploit code. She stepped over to the tripod. "What is it?"
A young asari glanced up at her. "I'm not sure, but I think we just found a tripwire in the Black Hand networks."
"Found? You haven't triggered it?"
The technician glanced at her displays, then at her omni-tool, then back at her instrument. "I . . . I don't know. I can't tell."
"Better assume you have, then. Vara, we may be about to have company."
The petite commando nodded, and issued a quick series of orders.
Miranda made a quick evaluation, and decided she was superfluous where she was. As the Shadow Broker's commandos moved down the slope toward Rhamnos, she followed, finding a convenient stone behind which she could take cover. She still couldn't see much with her unaided vision, but in her HUD she could see a skirmish line taking shape to either side of her.
"Here they come!"
The night lit up with gunfire and flashes of blue-white light.
Three Black Hand icons lit up in Miranda's HUD, small and very fast, scouts riding two-man grav sleds. The moment they came within range, the Shadow Broker's people opened fire. One icon went to ground, then two. The third took on the blood-red color of fatal damage before vanishing.
Then a wave of new icons appeared, less than a kilometer away, already moving fast under cover.
"Rapid reaction force," Vara commented. "Goddess, for what we are about to receive, may we be truly thankful."
Miranda would have chuckled at that, if she hadn't been so busy putting gunfire down-range.
It was a very asari sort of fight, at least on the part of the Black Hand. Lots of individuals moved from cover to cover, without much care for a disciplined line. They melted away from concentrations of fire or biotic power, formless, only to coalesce once more as soon as the pressure let up. Their gunfire was, admittedly, very accurate. Miranda soon felt very grateful that she had arranged for good front cover, turned her kinetic shields up to maximum, and put up a strong biotic barrier.
Occasionally Miranda could see one or two icons peel off from the main body, charging up at the Shadow Broker's positions, dodging fire in a death-or-glory bid to come to close-quarters range. It generally didn't work.
Vara had deployed her forces in a very un-asari manner: a solid double line, with fields of fire carefully interlocked to create kill-zones, and biotics or heavy-weapons specialists ready to provide fire support as needed. Disciplined tactical doctrine, as opposed to brilliant but unruly improvisation.
Asari fighting like Alliance Marines. Three guesses where they got that.
It seemed to be working. One Black Hand warrior fell, then another, then another, and the enemy's advance stopped dead. Miranda couldn't see any fatalities among the Shadow Broker's force, not yet.
"Secondary objective attained," said Liara's cool voice over the comm. "Two minutes on primary objective. Hold the line."
"Holding," answered Vara.
Then Miranda saw a knot form in the Black Hand positions, about a hundred meters down-slope.
"Incoming!"
The world went up in fire and lightning.
When Miranda could take inventory once more, she pushed herself off hands and knees to a low crouch, and looked around. A barrage of grenades and biotic warps had slammed into the middle of the Shadow Broker's line, tearing up the ground and stunning a half-dozen commandos.
No deaths. Although my ears may take an hour to stop ringing.
A flying wedge of icons ran up the slope, half a dozen Black Hand taking advantage of the momentary distraction, already much too close.
Miranda opened fire. So did the asari on either side of her. For a moment the response remained ragged, enough to send Black Hand barriers shimmering with impact, not enough to tear any of them down.
An asari soared up into the air in front of Miranda, her exposed face wild and wide-eyed, apparently unconcerned with the driving rain. Blue energy swirled around her clenched fist. Her other hand held a wicked-looking combat knife.
Miranda didn't have time to think. Fortunately, she didn't need any.
Muscles surged, throwing Miranda into a spin. When the commando came down, Miranda wasn't there. The biotic warp zoomed off into darkness, while the knife hissed through empty space where the woman had stood a moment before.
Miranda completed the turn on the ball of one foot – careful, the ground is slippery – and used her momentum to launch a high kick. One black boot slammed into the base of the commando's spine, knocking her off balance.
Without thinking about it at all, Miranda made a control gesture. Biotic power surged, exploding into the face of the second commando who had just appeared on the scene. Then she made a full-body dive, generating another miss for the burst of gunfire that followed.
Damn, they're fast.
She rolled, her pistol coming up – slam-slam-slam, went the recoil at her wrists – and a Black Hand sister took three incendiary rounds center-of-mass. She shrieked in sudden, but mercifully brief agony.
"Demons take you, doulē!" screamed the first attacker, recovered and pouncing on Miranda with her knife.
Desperate, Miranda's right hand dropped the pistol and lashed out to grab the commando's wrist. The two of them rolled over in the mud, the asari on top, then Miranda, then the asari again, fighting for control of the knife. A hate-filled face hovered mere centimeters away, streaked with crimson mottling, white teeth bared in a snarl.
Miranda slammed her visor into the asari's face with brutal force.
Well. Even a stone-cold fanatic commando will react when her nose is suddenly smeared across half her face.
A surge of effort, and the thrashing weight flew away. Miranda didn't bother to hunt for her pistol. She called up a ferocious warp instead, discharging it at almost touch range.
Breathing hard, she looked around and saw no more immediate threats. Only then did she query her HUD once more. She took three steps and recovered her sidearm from where it lay in the mud.
"Primary objective attained," said Liara. "Retreat to the shuttles for extraction."
Another black-clad asari came pelting out of the rain, almost getting shot for her pains until Miranda had a moment to check her HUD. One of Liara's people.
"Are you all right, Ms. Lawson?" the maiden asked, looking concerned.
"I've been through much worse," Miranda said honestly. "Come on, let's get out of here before they try again."
Dawn was nearly at hand by the time Miranda returned to Liara's house, put her armor and weapons away, and claimed time in a refresher to wash away the sweat and stink. This time her mood was much improved.
She was not exactly happy. In truth, she wasn't certain she had ever in her life felt simple contentment. Still, she felt a certain satisfaction in having made it through yet another firefight with her skin intact, and with a few of her enemies lying dead on the ground in the process.
It wasn't a Cerberus thing. Cerberus had taught her to be coldly professional about combat: to avoid it unless it was necessary, to win at any cost, and then to move on to the real objectives.
She had not permitted herself to acknowledge the feeling until years after she had abandoned Cerberus. Ironically, it had been Jack who helped her understand what her subconscious was trying to tell her. By that time, the two of them had let go of their contempt for each other, and become something almost like friends. So when Miranda had half-accused Jack of enjoying a fight, taking pleasure in killing, the renegade biotic had (for once) been positively eloquent in response.
Well, cheerleader, for one thing, those sick bastards your ex-boss had raising me? They conditioned me to get turned on whenever I win a fight. Did a fucking good job of it too. Twenty years later, smashing some asshole into paste against a wall still feels better than a good lay.
But there's more to it. Every time someone comes for you, someone you know plans to kill you, and they're the one ends up dead? Lizard brain notices that. Lizard brain is happy about that. Means you get to survive one more day, and now it's time for your reward.
It isn't just poor fucked-up Jack who feels that, cheerleader. Everyone does. Even you. Admit it.
"Yes, Jack," Miranda whispered, as she luxuriated in the warmth. "I admit it."
She tried not to think too hard about the other desire, the one that wanted someone to share this feeling with. She had gotten a lot of practice in setting that one firmly aside.
Bathed, dressed, ready for some food and then some sleep, Miranda made her way down to the common rooms. She found the sun rising over the ocean, shining through the kitchen windows, bathing the Shadow Broker in white and gold as she sat alone at the big table.
"Liara."
The asari glanced up from the tablet she was using, giving Miranda a nod in greeting. "Good morning. Thank you for coming last night."
"I wouldn't have missed it. How are Amara and Myrine?" Miranda asked, naming the two acolytes who had taken serious hurt in the fight.
"They're both going to be fine. We were fortunate to catch the Black Hand off-balance." Liara's cobalt-blue eyes looked shadowed for a moment. "Are you all right?"
"It will take more than a couple of glory-hound maidens to do for me," said Miranda flatly. "Besides, I owed them a bit of payback for Yesira."
"Perhaps I can promise you more than that. We now have malware implants deep inside the Black Hand networks, working themselves further in by the hour. It shouldn't be long before we uncover any connections they may have with Cerberus."
"Good."
Miranda raided the pantry and the refrigerator, turning up a pair of baked pastries and a bottle of fruit juice. While she scavenged, she heard Liara's tablet chime.
"What is it?" she asked, as she sat down at the table to eat.
Liara wasn't smiling, but years of acquaintance had taught Miranda to read her moods. The Shadow Broker was more than a little pleased.
"There has been a response to yesterday's events," she said, paging through what must have been a lengthy message. "It seems Erato has been very persuasive. Some of the University faculty, and apparently all the students, have gone on strike. So have technicians, actors, and musicians at most of the clubs and theaters in the Eurotas district. Not to mention all five of the major guilds of hetairai. Another protest march is planned for this afternoon, and Erato and the other leaders have issued a public statement that they will be prepared to deal with any renewed violence."
Liara looked up and caught Miranda's eye.
"We appear to have a revolution on our hands after all."