Hiring the Right Ones
Mission VI – Saving Williams
John and Jane
The situation was bad. There was no available transport, no way of directly contacting the Alliance Command, and the overhead conflict was already waning, with the Geth fleet emerging victorious. Would they make it in time to catch Saren, before he made short work of the colony?
Meeting up with Unit 212 had only complicated the matters. The 212 had been cut to pieces, only a handful marines left standings. The soldiers themselves were whatever remained of a handful of squads, yet there wasn't a single commanding officer among them. With geth troopers running rampant, there was no guarantee that anyone would survive until reinforcements arrived. And judging by the looks of thing, the wait for reinforcements could take forever.
Taking all of them to the spaceport was out of the question - the injuries of the majority were too serious for John to even consider it. What should we do with them?
The soldiers were yet to ask Charn or either of Shepards for any identification. Neither had they give reasons for arriving from the depths of the swamps so suddenly. It was the saving of marine lives that let them escape the inquisitiveness, but that reprieve wouldn't last too long - John already noted the way marines threw concerned looks at Charn. It was only a matter of time until they had to give an explanation.
And here, a quick image editing to get a fake N7 ID wouldn't cut it. Rather, it could become a recipe for disaster by itself.
If John's memory was proving correct, the 212 was supposed to have guarded the prothean beacon at some point. Asking for confirmation on its location would not end well, for even the existence of the artifact was a highly protected secret.
As John was trying to think a way out of this mess, Jane was interrogating Bhatia on the whereabouts of Ashley Williams. Which was, in John's opinion, yet another disaster waiting to happen. However much he wanted to, he decided not to get into Jane's way. She had latched upon it with an unexpected intensity, and to top it off she was being surprisingly polite about the whole thing.
For now he would leave her alone and hope for the best. After all, it wouldn't do to get her riled up again, just as she had found a beneficial focus.
For the life of him John couldn't form a complete opinion of the woman. Not yet, at least. With her fuming very dangerously beforehand, and having a seemingly calm, polite exterior when taking with Nirali - there must have been something more, something else to finalize the picture of the woman, something she was yet to show him. He'd wait until he saw it, whatever it was.
Charn's confrontation with his counterpart was the root of her anger and their issues with one another was an entirely different can of worms to consider. The disagreement was a glaring problem that would certainly resurface again. It wasn't like he never had to deal with team members hating each other - like Jack and Miranda or Tali and Legion - but this time, he wasn't sure if a few choice words could be enough to settle the issue.
Maybe Charn was right, and they had to part ways - after this whole mess in Eden Prime would be over.
Speaking of Charn, John could see the batarian helping an injured human stand up straight as another marine was patching the wounds up, and he decided to stroll up closer.
"...a pod crashing nearby," the injured marine replied to a question of Charn's John hadn't heard. "We saw it get hit by some geth armament and go down right at one of the smaller dig sites. We were planning to investigate, but the geth pinned us down before we even had time to see anything."
"Is it far from here?" Charn asked. "If there's a chance I could find some of my crew..."
The human raised an eyebrow as the words my crew sunk in. "Wait, you're a commanding officer? The escape pods you were asking were from your ship?" John could see the way the thoughts were running. batarians rarely ever sent ships to Alliance colonies, and if the ship had a proper batarian officer for a captain, there was but one guess. "What were you planning to do here?" The hostility was barely there, but the tone was already suspicious.
"I'm sure they weren't planning anything," John piped in, hoping to steer the conversation away from dangerous waters. "After all, it was me who hired a transport to Eden Prime. We have some friends we wanted to visit and Charn's ship was the cheapest route here. We didn't anticipate this going south as much."
"No one did," the other marine said at the same time as the first one threw a curious glance at Jane.
"You're friends of Ashley?" the injured soldier asked and rubbed his chin. "You're with the military, too?"
"I know her, but we're not good friends." John crossed his arms. "I think my sister knows her better. As for your other question..." He dragged it out for a bit, looking for a lie that was close enough to truth to be believable. "I've served a bit, but these days I work as a private security consultant."
The man frowned. "A mercenary?"
"I'd prefer security consultant." John offered a small smirk and then laughed. "Just kidding - you can call it whatever you want, the gist of it never changes. I rent out my weapons for money. You don't have to worry, though, I'm doing this war for free, since we happened to be in the neighbourhood." He glanced at the burning ships in the orbit. "Geth shot my transport down, earning your side a full discount," he added, drawing a few weak grins out of his public.
"Why Eden Prime, though?" The marine was still curious. "The Alliance doesn't like to deal with mercenaries."
John sighed. "We weren't looking for work on Eden Prime," he said finally. "But... I do have a few contacts I need to meet here. Mostly, to negotiate about the jobs that need to be done elsewhere." He raised his hands to gesture around them. "The war didn't change that." He glanced at Jane and then at Charn. "I guess we'll be moving on soon."
"What about the escape pod?" Charn said, returning the conversation to its start. "We need to check it out."
John swallowed a complaint, but since he had redirected most of the suspicion to himself, the marines at least didn't try to investigate the batarian's origin further. "I did say we would keep an eye out for your crewmen," John admitted finally. "Was this smaller dig site far?" he asked of the soldiers.
"Just there, down the rocky slope," the marine gestured with his hand. "There should be a decent overlook spot somewhere in that direction, too."
Finished with his first aid, the other man moved on to the next patient, but not before giving Charn a short thanks for assistance.
"I'll go check it out," Charn said impatiently. "I have good eyes, and if I see anything of note, I'll contact you."
John looked doubtful.
"It will get me out of the way of all these humans," Charn pointed out. "Its a matter of time until Jane says something or they get too curious. I'm not going to get close, and if no one is alive, I'll get back to you."
"Fine," John said and nodded. "Take note of anything interesting, and I'll try to get Jane moving. We need to reach the spaceport before the geth do."
"Understood," the batarian replied, unsheathed his weapon and darted in the direction of the overlook.
John steeled himself for yet another conversation where he would have to thread a thin line between getting some useful information, softening the tempers and keeping their secrets, and started walking towards Jane.
He needn't have worried, for Jane looked to be completely in control of the conversation.
"As soon as I get the idiot moving," she said just as John joined the two women. "We're going to go there and get Ash out of the bind safely, you'll see."
"Good to know that Ashley has friends that can help," Nirali nodded at John, without paying him too much attention. She was still moving stiffly due her injuries, yet still standing without anyone's help. "But we haven't heard anything about them since the Dog Squad split up at the dig site."
"You heard the woman," Jane said, then gestured at Nirali and opened up the tactical map on the omni tool to show John. "They're going to slowly fall back towards the dig site they were supposed to be guarding, and we're going to clean them the way there." She pointed the marked path. "We need to move out yesterday. Have you finished with whatever you were doing?" She shook her head. "No matter, let's go."
John glanced at her suggested route. It would mean straying away from the most direct way towards the spaceport and the true location of the beacon, but he understood her wish to save Ashley Williams. If she truly needed saving this time around - after all, things hadn't yet been quite as he remembered.
And if Charn-
Their channel beeped as Charn started a broadcast. "No sight of my crew yet, but there's a turian snooping around the wreck. Weren't you heading here to find some suspicious turian? That one fits the bill, doesn't he? Want me to check it out?"
John bit down a curse. Saren, the beacon, or Ashley Williams?
Jane and John
Charn's words echoed in Jane's mind as she froze. Could it be that Saren was this close? Too convenient. "Are there any geth with the turian?" she asked. "Any geth in the area he's at?"
"There's a single recon drone watching at the distance," came a quick batarian's response. "Don't have a good visual on the entire crash site, though. The wreck is blocking my view - there could be. I see a possible approach from the eastern side - shouldn't take me long to get closer."
"Can it be Nihlus?" Jane said, turning at John. "I've all but forgotten about him."
"If your guess is true, he could give us a link to the Citadel Council." John tapped at his chin, his expression focused. "I think it's worth a small detour - to make sure he makes it out alive and can file a proper report."
"Look, I need to move if I want to catch up to Williams," Jane replied irritated. "But you can go ahead and try to convince the Spectre, while I shoot the hostiles." She gave herself a second to quickly double check her equipment. Her armor was battered and fractured, but it had to suffice. "I'm going."
And she sped further down the path, ignoring the still noticeable weakness in her legs. The injuries from the Prime's weapon were still giving her some trouble, even as the Cerberus implants worked overtime to fix her.
"Charn, don't approach the turian on your own," John broadcast through their channel, but she didn't even look back. "I'll get to you soon."
Her heart beat with a single thought - to find Williams and get her away from the geth. It wasn't rage fueling her thirst for battle. It wasn't anger forcing her to increase her pace, running even faster than her condition allowed. This time, it was her inability to save both of her crewmen on Virmire that drove her forward.
Soon, she found her first targets - geth scouting drones were in abundance, and ever so often she would find a rare platform she had to take out. It seemed that the path she chose was decent enough - for even if she had to seek cover twice now, Jane was making steady process.
Minutes passed. Their channel was quiet - perhaps another jamming attempt, or John had nothing to say. She broke the radio silence herself.
"I'm going to reach familiar territory any second now, John," was her short message, as she descended a steep, rocky slope.
"Good," a reply pushed through the interference. "We're stuck on the defensive for a moment, geth are massing up for some reason. Might have noticed Nihlus same as we did. At least they're leaving the 212 alone. We're going to try and draw them further away, towards Nihlus. Couldn't reach him yet, either." John's voice was slightly strained. "Any problems at your end?"
"All peachy," she said. "Making a good time."
Jane glanced around - there was but a single geth drone floating in the distance, yet the ground betrayed heavy fighting had taken place. No dead marines, though - only a handful of scrap metal.
Curious. As far as she knew, the 212 retreated via a different route.
Perhaps this was Williams's squad's handiwork? No - the place was too eerily familiar. Further along, the rough path was littered with drones, and the way led up to a massive tree line.
Wasn't this where we landed the first time?
A heat trail on the sky drew her attention away from her memories. "John," she broadcast instantly. "There's a dropship heading your way. Get your head down."
There was no reply.
"Fuck." She grimaced, and pushed on. Before she even fired onto the drone it hid behind the tree line, so she summoned a biotic barrier, just in case.
There were no more surprises, no ambushes, even as the dropship zoomed past a bit to her left. Instead of a geth squad waiting in an ambush, she found her first dead human on her path.
She wouldn't have given him a second glance, but something about it made her pause. Jane did a double take. "The hell," she muttered into the helmet.
She ran up closer. The dead body didn't change nor disappear on her approach. Corporal Jenkins.
She skid to a halt next to a one of the huge trees. This was a different place - the ambush had to have come just as the squad from the Normandy reached the tree line.
Normandy's crew is planetside. The thought beat at her mind, as she tried to get her nerves under control. This similarity was not something she expected to find. I can do this, Jane clicked her tongue, and pushed forward.
"Found Jenkins," she tried to add for John's benefit, but received no reply. The dropship must have been jamming their signal. Again.
There was only one thing left to do. Save Williams.
Sounds of an intense firefight reached her ears, and she doubled her speed. When she finally emerged to the opening where she and Alenko had found Ashley, there were no geth to shoot at. Even the drone that had evaded her grasp was blown up to pieces along her pathway.
Only three humans were there, right next to the approach towards the dig site. All three turned towards her approach. Her biotic shield flickered and faded out of existence.
She recognised all of them. Two out of the three were her crew - Ashley, slightly silly looking in her white and pink armor, and Kaidan, taken aback at the arrival of another biotic. The third one of the three had his rifle trained directly at her.
"She's a hostile," he said and the other two had her in their sights instantly. "I'll be taking my weapons back, Shepard." Without any further warning, Commander Volkov opened fire.
John and Jane
After but a few words for the 212, urging them to follow Jane's path - for John wanted to make sure she'd have backup in case the resistance proved too much - he quickly pushed through the overgrowth, reaching Charn's position.
The Batarian gestured at the turian figure. It seemed that Jane's guess had proven correct and it was indeed Nihlus. John allowed himself a content smile as he combed his faraway memories. Nihlus, as far as he could recall was a reasonable turian, and his choice of a human candidate for Spectres spoke volumes more about his attitude.
Yes, the turian would surely see reason.
He would have said something more, but Nihlus opened fire with his shotgun. Not at John nor Charn, rather at some hostiles behind the wreckage.
John raised his sniper rifle and took down the single visible opponent - the Geth drone that was already turning toward the turian.
"We're helping him?" Charn asked calmly, bracing his assault rifle against the rocky cover, scanning the area for things to shoot.
John nodded. "We'll have to get a proper line of sight to his position," he said. "Can you provide cover from here?"
Charn shrugged in response, but John was already on the move.
Down below, the turian was fending off an assault of what looked like a full squad of the geth platforms - at least judging from the amount of fire he was on.
What was the aim of these geth? Had they arrived to make sure no survivors remained on the wreck? It doesn't make sense, John shook his head in confusion. They hadn't joined the fight against the 212, either.
"Geth, at sixty degrees," the batarian transmitted via short range channel "A destroyer with four supporting platforms." Two o'clock, Shepard translated automatically, as he turned to focus his sniper rifle on the indicated direction.
John launched two shots in a row, removing the shields from the destroyer, switching to an assault rifle as his sniper rifle overheated. Charn added his own salvo to the equation, hitting directly at the destroyer's head with his armor piercing rounds, sealing the deal.
This time, the resulting commotion, unlike with the previously downed drone drew Nihlus attention. Having lost confidence about his current position, the Spectre started his retreat.
John frowned, realising that the turian wasn't retreating neither towards him nor Charn, rather taking sideways path that would let him get cover from both geth and the two of them, eventually escaping further still.
Meanwhile, he did his best to cover the turian's retreat, downing another combat platform. On the edge of his vision, he saw movement, and his instincts had him activate the adrenaline package, before he fully understood the situation.
A red beam of a geth sniper flashed where he had been seconds before, but he was already changing position. The enemy, seeing his move, leaped towards the cover of rocks. Stalker. Still under the effect of the adrenaline package, John turned and gunned down the annoying geth machine mid-jump.
Once again, his weapon overheated. No wonder we switched to heat sinks.
As he waited for his weapon to cool off, Nihlus reached safer ground, and Charn had taken down yet another geth.
Another look over the battlefield proved that even more geth were incoming. Some, John noted, arriving from the side of the spaceport. Was there something important they wanted taken? From the batarian pod?
He took his time on the next salvo, looking around for more clues, ignoring the few hits on his kinetic barrier. The pod, seemingly, had crashed into a small dig-site, carving a trail of dirt, opening some stone structures that had remained untouched by the excavation.
There must have been something else to be found on Eden Prime, other than the Beacon Saren was after - John wished he had access to Liara - that would have sped up things considerably.
With his limited knowledge of the Protheans, the place looked something like remains of a bunker - with a dash of Ilos' foreboding atmosphere. John muttered a curse under his breath. He was overthinking things. The geth must have been here both now, and during his first attack on Eden Prime. I simply haven't read about this site on a report, or have forgotten about it entirely.
Yet another squad appeared in his view, and John sighed. Retreat was starting to look as the only sensible option. Especially when Nihlus was leaving them to fend off alone.
"I'm going to reach familiar territory any second now, John," Jane gave him a status report. He figured she wouldn't have bothered.
"Good," he replied quickly, adding his own status report for her benefit. "We're stuck on the defensive for a moment, geth are massing up. Might have noticed Nihlus same as we did." Either that, or there's something we're missing - remained unsaid. "At least they're leaving the 212 alone. We're going to try and draw them further away, towards Nihlus. Couldn't reach him yet, either," John grimaced as he said it, unhappy with his choice of retreat. "Any problems at your end?"
"All peachy. Making a good time."
"Charn, we're retreating," he broadcast on the other channel, and then switched yet again - to Nirali's squad frequency. "There's geth massing to the north of you. They're busy for the moment, but you should move out as soon as you can."
"Understood, we're leaving the position." there came a strained reply in a female voice, and the channel went silent once more.
"John - " The next transmission from Jane came mangled with static "- dropship - your way - head down."
"Double time," John added for Charn's benefit, and started pulling towards Nihlus escape route. "A dropship might block our comms, be ready."
He led the batarian between the rocky terrain, all the while laying suppressing fire towards the Geth position. Some had moved to follow them, others looked to be fortifying the place.
No more twenty seconds passed when the he saw the dropship zooming close. As soon as it was overhead the dig site, four geth armaments were deployed with a single synchronous crash.
"No countering that kind of argument," Charn quipped, as they scrambled to get even further away.
"I wish I had our Mako with us," John replied as they finally were out of sight of the Geth - a blast to the nearby rocks showered them with pebbles, but it did not look like the armaments were going to follow. The dropship, as well, was touching down planetside.
"What now?" Charn asked. "I'm not going back there, not without overwhelming air support."
"Now," John scanned the area, without stopping for a second. "We find Nihlus."
"You found him," came a voice tingling with turian metal undertones from further ahead, and the red-armored turian strolled into their view. "I think I read about you in the London report. Looking for a rogue Spectre, are you?" Nihlus had a shotgun aimed directly at John's chest. "Care to elaborate?"
Jane and John
They were fast, faster than Jane expected them to be. Both Volkov and Williams started their heavy firing mere second one after the other, and as she nearly managed to recall the barrier for defence, Alenko slammed a biotic push right into her chest.
Jane half-choked out half-shouted a loud laugh, as her feet slipped on the muddy surface, and she slammed into the nearest tree. Her attempt to hide behind a barrier ended in a failure, but at the same time, Kaidan's maneuver had moved her closer to cover.
Under heavy fire, her kinetic barrier broke, but she paid it no heed, as she grabbed onto the trunk she had just slammed into, and pulled - combined with the power of shots hitting at her armor, and her own considerable strength, she managed to maneuver herself in a half-spiral, darting into the cover of the enormous trunk.
The very next second Kaidan's push wore off, and she fell in a couch, behind the safety of the tree. Her omni-tool flashed a short warning, but the Cerberus mods were already trying to patch her up. Her laughter stopped.
"Hey, Volkov," she shouted from behind the tree, as she finally called a biotic Barrier for her protection. "Why the attitude?"
Ashley was safe, Jane grinned to herself, even as she could feel the soldier in question trying to flank her on Volkov's gesture. It was what she would have had Ashley do.
There was no reply.
"You got Ash here out of the frying pan, right?" She pressed on. "That gives you a pass in my book. Want to talk about it?"
"You're still a wanted terrorist, lady," Volkov finally replied. "You're also surrounded. I might accept a surrender. Throw down your weapons, and we can talk."
"See now," Jane said, as she darted from cover, slid under a biotic throw of Alenko's and returned an identical, yet stronger one back at him. She aimed it carefully so as not to hurt the man too much. "You're not in a position to make demands."
Whatever shots were sent her way splashed harmlessly at her barrier and she slid back into cover - in a slightly better position than before.
"I could do this all day, Kaidan," she added in a playful voice. "But those L2's of yours will give you a headache if you keep it up."
"What is your point?" Volkov asked, and judging from his voice he was strolling ever so closer. "You can't win this fight."
"I don't want to win this fight," she said. "Idiot."
There was a pause, as Volkov strolled closer still, mindful to stay in cover. Jane considered switching to a shotgun.
"Look," she started once more. "We all have more important things to watch out for, here. Didn't I say the geth were going to invade? Would I have warned you, if I was on their side? Do you think I would have written Hackett that message?"
There was a pause in the man's footsteps. Williams, however was still on the move. In the distance, a geth vessel took out a set of AA guns with an explosion loud enough to hear at their position.
"Ash," Jane shouted louder so as to push through the background noise. "I met up with your squad a short way back - they're heavily bloodied, but some of them made it - you are not a single survivor. They're going to pull through, you'll see."
That was enough to make the soldier stop. "They're alive?" were the next words out of William's mouth.
"Lies," Volkov said. "All you ever do is lie."
"Really?" Jane laughed. "Do those geth look fake to you? Look around you and tell me I told a single lie before coming here."
"Akuze," Volkov replied instantly. "You lied about that."
"It was a - misunderstanding," she said, hesitantly. "Forget about that - I meant when I talk about more important things than my identity." It nearly hurt her, calling Akuze unimportant, but if that was what took her to get these three to listen. If only Volkov weren't there, she knew she could have made both Ashley and Kaidan listen to reason. Now - she was not so sure.
At the same time, she knew, if she killed their commander, there would be no finding common ground - thus she needed to convince him first and foremost. "I know more about what's going on than you do. You're looking for a prothean beacon, are you not?"
Volkov let out a hissing breath, but said nothing. Nor did he advance on her position. Yet.
"This isn't about military secrets, it's about survival," she stressed. "The geth are here because of the beacon, and if they get to it before us, it's not going to end well."
"And what are you going to do with this artifact if you found it before the geth do? Take it for safekeeping?" Sarcasm rang in Volkov's tone, yet there was something, something that hinted he was interested in what she had to say.
That gave her hope.
"Nothing. You can take it, destroy it, use it, do whatever you wish. I'm here to make sure they don't get it first. That's all that matters now."
"Commander?" came a pained Kaidan's voice, and Jane vinced - he must have had a landing a lot rougher than the one he inflicted upon her, even while she was holding back. It stood to reason - this Kaidan was a lot less experienced than the one she knew. Only the second human Spectre. "Maybe..."
"Maybe what, Alenko?" Volkov bit before Kaidan finished. "She's insane and dangerous."
"With all due respect, sir," Kaidan pushed further. "She's a more potent biotic than I am. The way I underestimated her - I could have been paste already, yet she's obviously holding back." Jane hazarded a look, and saw the lieutenant gesturing at the rock formation behind him. "Maybe she's really here to fight geth, as she said?"
See, Alenko's smart. Jane smiled. Now, commander, listen to the smart lieutenant.
Volkov didn't look convinced yet.
Her channel beeped, and a distorted Nirali's voice echoed in her speakers. "-anyone copy?"
"Hey," Jane shouted, turning on the comm, transmitting at the same time as she spoke. "Ash, turn on your unit's frequency, would you?"
"Shepard?" Nirali's voice beat through interference again. "What was that about Ashley?"
Williams broke into a hysterical laughter.
"See," Jane said as she lowered the channel's volume with a flick of her omni tool, and took a step out of the cover. "I did not lie about meeting the 212. I am not trying to trick you about the beacon."
Volkov glared at her.
"If you want," she added with a sigh. "I could give you your pistol back. For saving Ashley."
There was a long pause as Williams interrogated Bhatia on the state of the unit. Both Jane and Volkov were locked in a staring contest. Kaidan didn't seem to to be able to stand still, fidgeting nervously, with biotic energy dancing on his fingertips.
Another explosion from the direction of the spaceport drew their attention back to the present. "Well?" she asked. "We need to be there yesterday, before the geth destroy the whole spaceport."
"You have until we reach the beacon." Volkov grunted as if it caused him physical pain to give her this much. "Then I'll bag you and give to the brass to figure out."
"We'll see how that works out for you when we reach it."
"Shut up and take the point, if you're such a smartass." Volkov snapped at her. "Remember, do as much as put a toe out of line, and god help you woman, I will put a new hole right into the back of your stupid head."
Jane only laughed at that.
A/N: Another unexpected update, is it?
I'll get to updating my other stories, too, don't worry, I'm not dead or completely insane.
I kept waiting for my timetable to clear out, making space for writing, but since it's not happening, and won't happen any time soon, I figured I'll try improvising, and making time where there was none. We'll see how that works.
As a heads up, there's a fourth DLP anthology that's supposed to appear soon (a matter of days now, I think), with a story of mine in it. As soon as it does I'll add a link in my profile if anyone is curious.
If Ashley had been a private, we'd have a chapter name "Saving Private Williams"... Alas, that was not to be.