CHAPTER 4: "FC"

The entire room erupted into a cacophony of angry- furious- shouting. Captain Ryder raised his hand for calm, but nobody seemed to notice; he had to bang on the wall several times next to the holo-board to get everyone to quiet down.

"Shut up! Everyone shut up," he said, sourly. He waited until the room's noise level had dropped to an angry, boiling murmur, and stared back at the crowd. "We've been scanning that planet for more than a week now, and two days ago one of the recon teams picked up a faint electrical and thermal signature." The image of the dead aliens was replaced with a video of the planet in question; there were only grey-black plains as far as the eye could see, with the occasional mountain range jutting out of the ground at severe angles. "UPVO's not a hospitable planet, but the atmo is breathable- barely- and the recon team investigated as soon as they got backup and the green light."

The room's lights dimmed as the feed of the planet disappeared and was replaced with first-person helmet cam footage.

"Is this thing on," the helmet wearer's gruff, deeply male voice grumbled, "or do I need to reset the- ah, here we go. Sergeant Kanu, Vanguard Recon, Third Group, Squad 2. Uh, 1320 fleet time, July 11th, 462 FP. Mission UVPO Recon-Contact One is a go." The helmet's occupant looked down to reveal the brown-grey combat gear of the Expedition Fleet and an APC with seven other soldiers in the same uniform. "Alright, you guys know the drill. Head on a swivel, don't touch anything that looks alien, don't shoot anything that looks alien, et cetera. Clear?"

"Sir," the team responded, rapping their chest rigs in response.

"Green light," the APC's driver robotic driver shouted from the cockpit.

The rear hatch of the APC hissed as it slid open, and the squad moved out of the APC, rifles at low-ready. The APC's turret scanned their surroundings at the soldiers took up positions, scanning the dusty grey-black plains and watching the similarly-coloured skies above. To the right of the APC was the only landmark in sight; a small, craggy mountain with a cave entrance in its side. Kanu moved up to the side of the cave entrance, and beckoned for the soldiers to stack up on each side of the cave. "Shark, keep that gun aimed down that hole. Rico, cam," Kanu said, and watched as on of the soldiers on the other side fiddled with his combat suit, launching a tiny drone from a pouch on his rig. The drone drifted over the cave entrance, hovered for a minute in front, then drifted back to Rico, who stuffed it back into the chest pouch he'd taken it from. "How's it look?"

Rico nodded. "Cave makes a hard right about two hundred metres in. Looks empty, otherwise. Definitely heat or other energy sources inside."

"Alright. Traps?"

"None that I could see."

Kanu grunted in response, then nodded. "Who's dead man walking this time?"

"Natalia," Shark replied from the APC over comms.

"You're up, Nat," Kanu said, and watched as a woman stacked up opposite him carefully sliced the corner of the entrance, and proceeded forward very slowly in a half-crouch, rifle raised. She made it about a hundred metres into the cave when a portion of rock at the far end of the cave before the turn slid open, revealing an emplaced gun of some sort.

Natalia dropped to the ground on her belly as the turret turned towards the cave opening. "Sharkie," she shouted, "incoming!" The turret whirred as canisters on each side of the gun barrels popped open, and with a whistling shriek a flurry of rocket-like projectiles shot out from the canisters, followed by a hailstorm of gunfire. Kanu swiveled and watched as Shark began turning the APC; the rockets barely missed the side of the APC, leaving a massive rip in its side armour; in response, Shark primed the APC's autocannon, took aim, and began firing as Natalia crawled on her belly back out of the cave underneath both the APC and her squadmates' fire. Natalia had just made it out of the cave when another barrage of rockets flared out of the cave's mouth; Shark attempted to drop the APC's turret, but was unable to lower the gun in time, and a rocket hit the attached gun with a loud bang. Still, the APC's autocannon fired once more, and the turret in the cave exploded with a blue-white crackle.

"Status," Kanu said, breathing heavily. The squad responded with muttered "clear" responses, and he turned to the APC. "Shark, you alright?"

"Fuck, that was close. Yeah," the binary responded, "I'm alright. Main gun's fucked, though."

Kanu reloaded his rifle, and sighed. "Alright. Keep an eye out, let Taxi know we've encountered hostile emplacement, possibly xeno. Make sure we've got a ride home ready to go."

"Got it, sarge."

"Alright. Who's next for dead walk?"

Natalia shook her helmeted head. "Nope. That definitely counted. I'm at the bottom of the list for at least the next two." She paused, cocking her head. "Ah, you're up, sarge."

"Fuck. Alright, slow and go. Come on." Kanu took point, rifle at the ready, slowly creeping through the tunnel, the other squad members maintaining an even dispersion behind him. They eventually walked up to the destroyed turret, and Kanu waved Rico up again. "What're we looking at? Doggos?"

Rico drew a scanner from his chest rig and placed it on the wreck of the turret, one hand still holding his rifle, and frowned. "This isn't Cerb work, sarge. The, the, uh, gun bits, they're not- the fuck is this firing mechanism? There's no internal magazine as far as I can see. The fuck is this?"

Kanu swore. "Xeno?"

"No clue, but it's nothing I've ever seen before."

"Great." Kanu paused, then shook his head. "We've got a nice cave just waiting to be explored." Kanu took point once again, and the team made their way into the cavern's depths. Thankfully, the cave was well-lit by wall-mounted lights at regular intervals, there didn't appear to be any branching paths, and despite the tension no further turrets or traps appeared. The feed skipped ahead roughly five minutes, when the team came upon a grey, sealed hatch with a single lever. The squad stacked up, and Kanu pulled the lever; there was an audible hissing noise as the hatch unsealed, revealing a large, poorly-lit room. The room- more like a small cave, really- was mostly empty, save for a few empty crates and cases scattered around the floor. Several bedrolls lay on the left side of the cave, and opposite that was a large, metal wall with a handle on one end. At the far end of the room was a simple metal hatch, cut into the floor.

"Spread out," Kanu said, "and stay alert. Rico, Lau, with me." The three stacked up neare the large metal wall, and Kanu pulled the lever. Nothing happened for a moment, but seconds later with a loud groan a section of the metal wall hissed and slid back to reveal a recessed portion of the cave, this one unlit and foul-smelling. Kanu paused as he noticed two figures slumped at the end of the recession, and raised his rifle. "Hello? Can you hear me?" He paused as there was no response, straining to see the figures from the lit filtering in from the main lights in the room. He toggled on his low-light vision, and nearly dropped his rifle in shock as he took in the sight of two clearly alien- women?- with holes in their skulls.

"Oh, fuck. Guys!" Kanu did a quick scan of the recessed area of the cave, found no traps, and rushed forward. He knelt down, examining their corpses- and they were corpses, battered, bruised, naked and clearly, if their humanoid appearance implied a remotely similar physiology, emaciated. "Guys, we are in deep fucking shit here."

One of the other soldiers swore. "Fuck, man. Alien space babes as FC and we find'em like this."

"Shut the fuck up, Loren. Doc!"

One of the soldiers rushed forward, withdrew a scanner and activated his helmet flashlight. "That's not good. Two things, sarge- these two ladies were executed point blank, but I don't recognize the bullet wound. Trauma's not consistent with any weapon I can think of," the medic said, shaking his head. "But it looks fresh. Can't have been made more than a day or two ago, I think."

"Shit. Oh, shit." Kanu scratched at his helmet, then swore a few more times for good measure. "Alright. Shark, you there?"

"Yeah, sarge, what's up?"

"Call Frontier and put me through to Captain Ryder."

"Cal- wait, what?"

"You heard me!"

The recording stopped, and Captain Ryder cleared his throat. "We sent a security detail down there to secure the area; that recording was handed to XO Tagak," he said, nodding at the suited android standing to his right. We've established small defensive line in front of that small hatch we found, and preliminary scans show it's a tunnel of some sort, no doubt leading to further into this...hideout, or base, or whatever it is. As for the aliens, we've put their bodies into quarantine and the Medical teams are sticking to non-invasive investigation. If we have to hand the bodies back to their, ah, fellow aliens, we'd really rather not hand them back in pieces. In the mean time, we figured," Captain Ryder continued, nodding at Jane and KN, "that if we're going to have to clear this space we'd better send the best we can. Pilot Shepard, Titan KN, with your Captain's permission I'd like to task you and your choice of personnel with clearing out this underground facility. While these aliens are using weapons that we can counter, I'd still rather not send untrained or under-qualified soldiers up against a foe we have no experience with."

"Sir." Jane and KN said, saluting. Jane raised a hand, and Alec nodded at her. "KN and I will be happy to clear a path; the footage mentioned that the wound was inflicted recently. Assuming that these two alien women were, captured, maybe, would it be safe to assume that the perpetrators will be nearby, or on-site?"

Captain Ryder scowled. "I'd put money on it. And thank you," Captain Ryder said. "I appreciate the assistance. Captain ED?"

Captain ED nodded. "Permission granted."

"Excellent. Until we get further intel, there's not much we can do. Signals, keep an eye out for any jump signatures- if whoever did this tries to get off-planet, I want to know. Tagak, Senai, with me- I've made a speech for the rest of the crew about the FC and I need a second opinion. Pilot Shepard, Titan KN, you remember the way back to the hangar?"

"Yes sir," both responded.

"Excellent. Gear up, grab your crew, and meet back in the hangar once you're ready." Captain Ryder stared bleakly at the image of the two dead aliens which was once again on the holo-board. "Dropship'll bring you down to the LZ and hopefully we can unfuck this situation before it gets any worse. We'll brief you on-site but the short version is- try not to kill anyone. Sargent Kanu will be with you- he'll help if you have any questions. Move."

Jane and KN both saluted Captain Ryder; Captain ED and XO Lawson nodded at them, and the two took off at a jog back towards the ship's main elevator as the CIC's centre security hatch unsealed. After a quick elevator ride, they arrived back in the hangar and sprinted back onto the Demeter, ignored Steve Cortez's confused greeting, and went up a deck to the Combat Team's barracks. Jane opened the door to find the entire team in full combat gear; most of them were checking their rigs and examining their weapons.

"Hey, Pilot," PFC Crosby said, looking up from his rail-rifle. "We got a mission?"

KN shook his head. "Yeah, but it's pretty ugly. FC, but the aliens are dead." The Combat Team began muttering and swearing quietly amongst themselves; KN let them continue for a few seconds before cutting them off. "Jane and I are going to kit up. Brass wants us to try and stay non-lethal, so grab some stun ammo, maybe skip the frags. Final check, take a leak, do what you need to do. Meet us in the hangar." The team began to stow away their loose gear and check their equipment as KN and Jane ran back to the elevator, and found both Cortez and a bald, dark-skinned man they'd never meet before waiting for them.

"Hey," Steve said, waving the pair over. "Been talking with Usul here- he needs to have a word with you. You guys going hot?"

"Yeah," Jane replied, turning to Usul. "Pilot Jane Shepard, this is Titan KN," she said, turning to the other man and offering a hand.

"Usul Ishiwatari, Combat Supply Ops for the Frontier," the man said, shaking Jane's hand. "I understand you'll be engaging in some up-close infantry fighting, but if you'd like I can have KN's Titan chassis on standby for titanfall."

"I'd appreciate that," KN said, nodding. "I don't expect to be using it, but it wouldn't hurt to be ready."

"Excellent," Usul said, pointing to an empty drop chute in the corner of the Frontier's hangar. "Park it in there and we'll prep it just in case." He turned, nodded to Cortez, then took off at a sprint towards the Demeter's belly ramp.

"Haven't touched any of your stuff, "Cortez said, returning to his console, "but let me know if you need anything."

"Thanks," the pair responded. Jane ran up to her and KN's section of the hangar, popped open her equipment locker, and pulled out her gear case; with practiced ease she stripped down to her combat undersuit, plugged her jump kit into her waist, pulled on her Pilot suit, clipped her helmet to her belt, and checked the seals on her chest rig. KN simply walked into his infantry-chassis cradle, and waited as armour plates, spare batteries and a full-body rig loaded with weaponry and ammunition were installed directly into his body. KN stepped out, charging cable still attached, flexed his arms and legs, then scratched at his metal head. "How do you wanna do this, Shep? Don't think your usual marksman thing is gonna work this time." He paused, then turned to his Titan chassis as the charging cable popped out of his back and snaked back into its holster. "I'll prep my Titan chassis- you just get your guns sorted." KN fired a grappling hook from his left arm, and flung himself directly into the open cockpit, while Jane shut her gear case, and pulled a weapon rack out of her locker. She stared intently at the rack for several seconds, then began grabbing weapons from it. As usual, her HUD displayed small readouts in the bottom right as she took hold of the weapons and began holstering and clamping them to her body.

Mastiff-P -IS Bullpup Autoshotgun w/ Adjustable Choke, Dual Magazines. Shells: Arc (Nonlethal), Shard (Lethal). B12-R Wingman Rail-revolver. Smart Pistol -R Semi-Automatic Rail Handgun w/ Smart Targeting. Arc Grenades. Electronic Countermeasure Explosives. Gravity Stars.

Satisfied with her weapons, she stuffed her rig full of spare shells, revolver cylinders and handguns magazines, slid the weapon rack back and shut the locker. She watched as KN parked his Titan chassis in one of the Frontier's drop-chutes, then waited for him to sprint back into the Demeter's hangar. The two checked each other's gear for a moment, before the elevator opened, revealing the eight-member Combat Team. They ran over to Shepard and KN; they gave the team a quick examination, and once satisfied, took off at a jog back down the Demeter's belly ramp and into the Frontier's hangar once more. They were met by two of the Frontier's soldiers wearing all-brown gear; Jane recognized them as members of the recon team she'd watched earlier. The two soldiers unsealed their helmets, revealing two men; one old, with dark brown skin; the other was a younger, pale-skinned man. The older man saluted sharply, then kicked the younger one- who saluted in turn with far less excitement. "Sergeant James Kanu, Corpsman Isaac Frost, reporting for duty, Pilot."

Jane nodded at the two. "It's good to have you with us. Where's our ride?"

"Over there, ma'am," Frost said, jerking his head at a weather-worn dropship bearing the Vanguard emblem , its brown paint almost completely scratched off, revealing the metal beneath. "XO Tagak is on board- he'll brief us." The assembled group made their way to the dropship as its rear hatch unsealed, and an android in fatigues with human-like features similar to Captain ED's- if rather less feminine and more androgynous- waved at them. The group made their way aboard, seated themselves, and watched the hatch shut behind them.

"We're clear, Helmsman," Tagak said, knocking on the door leading to the cockpit.

"Understood," replied the binary, and the dropship retracted its landing clamps, and took off. Tagak watched out of the cockpit as the dropship entered the airlock, waited for the doors to cycle, then took off at full speed towards UVPO, dodging the other ships in the Vanguard fleet.

The dropship shot through a cleared lane in the traffic, made its way into UVPO's orbit, then did a quick jump to skip re-entry; a few minutes later, the ship clamped onto a makeshift landing pad several hundred metres from the cave where the recon team had found their first contact. A small defensive perimeter was being set up around the mouth of the cave; from the dropship's window Jane could see a few dozen engineers assembling pre-fab bunkers, barracks and gun emplacements, as well as a long-range transmitter. The dropship's rear hatch light switched to green, and Jane re-checked her helmet seal before hitting the hatch release button, letting it open and jumped down onto UVPO's grey-brown ground. The rest of the dropship's passengers followed suit and the combined crew jogged towards the cave's entrance. Several engineers paused in their work to look XO Tagak, as well as Jane and KN; most, however, remained busy with their work. The original alien wall lights inside the cave were all removed, and had been replaced with utilitarian field floodlights; Expedition Fleet scientists, all armed at minimum with a sidearm, were scattered throughout the tunnel, taking rock samples and checking handheld scanners. The grey, airtight hatch leading into the "hall" of the cave was already unsealed, and a large gun emplacement was aimed straight down the cave tunnel. A helmeted soldier sitting next to the gun emplacement noticed the assembled team, waved the group over, stood up, and saluted.

"Lance Corporal Nirali," the woman said, "reporting to deliver briefing."

XO Tagak nodded back. "At ease. Go ahead."

The soldier escorted the team over to the metal hatch, which itself had no less than six gun emplacements aimed squarely at it. "There's not much to say, XO. We've sent a few micro-drones through the cracks in the hatch. The hatch opens into an 15-foot drop before hitting solid ground; there's a metal ladder that looks fairly sturdy on the far side of the hole. It's fairly well-lit in the tunnels, and it looks like there are a couple of branching paths, some of which are dead ends and some of which have small supply stockpiles. There doesn't seem to be anybody down there, although at the far end of the tunnel system we did find another door. Airtight- couldn't get the drones through. I have a copy of the automap data." Nirali pulled a small black cylinder from her chest rig, and passed it to Tagak, who in turn plugged it into their own chest. Tagak waited for a moment, eyes flashing, then passed out similar cylinders to the assembled members of the reconnaissance team.

"Thank you, Lance Corporal," Tagak said, eyes returning to normal. "The recon team will take it from here." Nirali nodded then returned to the gun emplacement aimed down the tunnel; Tagak turned to the team and sighed. "Your job is simple- get into that tunnel system, see what's down there and where it goes. You all have FC training- use it. I'm not going to stop you from defending yourselves is something down there is hostile, but try and keep things non-lethal if you can. Once you clear out the first section, ping topside and we'll send some people down to recover the supplies and set up another defensive line. Questions?"

"What happens if we bag a xeno," Jane asked, "and we're not done clearing out the tunnel?"

"Ideally you'll have cleared out enough of the tunnels that it'll be easy to call down QT to have them extract xenos back topside," Tagak responded, shrugging. "Otherwise, well- you've all got restraints. And if those don't work, you'll have to improvise. Anyone else?" The android paused, and nodded solemnly when nobody answered. "Best of luck," the XO said, stepping aside from the hatch.

Jane paused as she plugged the datastick into her chest rig, and pulled the map up in her HUD. After a moment, she nodded to herself, satisfied. "Alright. Tunnels are wide enough for four across," she said. "No branches sit opposite each other; we'll clear each one at a time. KN and I take point until we hit a branch. Then you guys cover us, and we clear it out. Same goes until we hit the sealed door. From there, it's SOP: breech and creep. Gear check and get ready." Jane checked both sidearms; satisfied, she unslung her shotgun and took a deep breath. "Jenkins, Darzi, hatch, then stay up here. KN, shield drop."

KN nodded, and chambered his machine railgun. The pair backed away from the hatch and watched as Pakti and Crosby lifted the hatch open; as the hatch opened, they both fired their jump kits, rocketed in a perfect arc into the hatch, and landed feet-first in the tunnel, vortex shields primed and weapons raised. They both scanned the tunnel, and crept forward a few feet. "Clear," KN said through comms. Up top, Seargant Kanu gingerly tested the ladder, then climbed down into the tunnel.

"It's solid," Kanu said, joining Jane and KN. "Move."

Each remaining member of the team quickly clambered down the ladder and regrouped; once everyone was down the hatch, the group set off at a measured pace into the depths of the tunnels. The first few branches the group reached were dead ends; a few tense minutes later, Jane and KN arrived at one of the aforementioned stockpiles- really a collection of crates and loose objects. KN knelt down, scanned the goods for traps, then gingerly picked up a pouch of some sort; it was made of a material that resembled a plastic or vinyl, and had several lines of alien script on both sides. He shook the package, then carefully set it back down. "Rations, maybe?" He shrugged.

"Crates," Jane said, voice neutral.

KN popped open one of the crates; inside were several disc-shaped objects, roughly as wide as two hands placed side-by-side, as well as what looked like a pair of sidearms, and a rifle of some sort. "Small arms. Explosives?"

"Tag'em."

KN made a note in his HUD's map, then returned with Jane to the main tunnel; the group continued forward. The other branches resulted in similar finds; ultimately the group found two more stockpiles filled with various alien items of unknown purpose, as well as a makeshift barracks with three bedrolls and empty storage crates. The last branch before the air-tight hatch was another dead end, though a set of empty manacles were chained to the walls. Jane stopped in front of the next hatch, and pinged Tagak. "XO, this is Pilot Shepard."

"Pilot, this is Tagak. Go ahead."

"We've cleared the first section, standing by to enter section two. Tagged a couple of stockpiles- we could only identify the small arms."

"Any guesses on the other items?"

"Rations or medical supplies? Can't say for sure."

"Understood. Should we send down a retrieval and perimeter team?"

Jane did a quick scan of the tunnel, and looked at KN, who shook his head in return. "Negative. The only egress is the entry hatch- if we need to fall back fast, it'll already be crowded just with the ten of us down here. If you've got one on-hand, put a fast-rope down the hatch, too."

"Alright. It's your call," Tagak replied. "Tagak out."

"Stack up." Jane waited until the team was waiting and ready on both sides of the hatch, then joined KN in standing in a ready position a few feet back from the hatch. "Kanu, door."

"Three, two, one, go!"

Seargent Kanu yanked on the hatch's lever, waited until the airtight seal broke, then flung the door open; KN and Jane flung themselves through the doorway and into a kit-boosted slide into the room, guns raised. The new room was not an extension of the original tunnel as Jane had guessed; rather, it was a massive, obviously artificial cave- maybe half the size of the Demeter's hangar- and an unadorned, rectangle-shaped, shuttle-sized grey ship of unknown make sat on extended landing clamps at the far end of the cave. The room was lit with floodlights mounted on the walls; at the far end of the cave was a massive set of closed metal doors big enough to let the ship through, and to its right was a small heap of what looked like bodies. "XO, this is Pilot Shepard. Looking at a hangar of some sort- got a ship, might be xeno. Possible dead FCs," Jane said sourly.

"This is Tagak. Understood. Keep investigating."

Jane frowned, setting her shotgun to load stun rounds. "Move up." The team moved into the cave and spread out in a staggered line, weapons raised. They slowly crept towards the ship, and Jane hissed viciously as her augmented vision made out the precise details of the heap.

It was indeed a pile of bodies; maybe two dozen naked blue aliens, most with several gunshot wounds, like the ones the original recon team had originally found, dumped unceremoniously into a pile. A large patch of blue stained the floor and wall around the pile.

Jane pushed the anger out of her mind, and returned to focusing on the ship. She did a quick scan of it with her HUD, searching for an entry point around the back and sides, finally settling on a section of the ship's hull that had a small, inset handle with several written lines surrounding the handle in the same alien script she'd seen on the stockpiles. She motioned to the rest of the team to join her; the group stood around the handle for a minute without saying anything as Jane scanned the handle.

"So, uh, who's dead man?" asked Sergeant Kanu asked uneasily.

"Stack up," KN said calmly. "I'll do the door, Jane takes point. How's it look?"

Jane shrugged. "Green across. It's all yours." KN moved towards the handle as Jane stood over his shoulder, shotgun raised; the rest of the team stacked up a bit further away from the pair. "Go." KN grabbed the handle and attempted to turn and push it; when nothing happened, he pulled the handle and it slid out slightly, and with a quick half-turn clockwise a blue light began blinking on the ship's hull as a small section of the hull slid open and a ladder popped out of the open section of hull. Jane paused for a few moments, then pulled a small microdrone from her chest rig and tossed it into the newly opened section of ship; the drone's feed showed a hallway that was dimly lit- what she presumed were the main light strips on the ceiling were dark- with what appeared to be red backup lighting. She recalled the drone, stuffed it back into her rig, then backed up away from the hole in the side of the ship. "Same as before. KN and I go in first." The pair rocketed into the ship's interior, and began sweeping the hallway they landed in; satisfied that the hallway was clear of traps and sensors, they motioned at the rest of the team and watched as they proceeded up the ladder. Kanu drew a pulse blade from his belt; KN shook his head.

"If something hostile's in here, better to not let'em know we're coming," KN said, motioning for Kanu to put the tool back. He paused, cocking his head in thought. "Ship's not that big. Engines are presumably in the rear given our ingress point. Probably an airlock ahead, then the ship proper? Could split up," he said, looking at Jane, who shook her head. "Mmm. Alright. Sweep it is. Move up?"

"Yeah," Jane replied. "KN on rear, I'll take point. Eyes open." She moved away from the rear of the ship, arrived at the first door, and found a button next to the door; she pushed it, and nothing happened. She pulled what she guessed was an emergency lever on the door itself; it hissed as it opened, and the team moved into what KN had guessed was an airlock. Once through, the crew slowly crept through the red glow of the ship's cramped interior, pausing every few feet to scan the area ahead. They passed through several corridors, each empty save for the occasional sign written in the alien script. Two tense minutes later, they stepped into an actual room; what Jane surmised was a barracks of sorts- several wall-mounted protrusions that resembled beds, a three-legged table and a large, metal crate adorned the otherwise empty room. Jane motioned for the team to take up a defensive position, walked over to the crate, pulled a scanner from her chest rig and waited until it flashed green. She knelt down, looking for a latch or a button, and found a small indention on the crate's side; she put the scanner away, pulled out her data-knife and prodded the indentation. The crate unsealed with a sharp hiss, revealing a padded interior holding several translucent containers containing some sort of greyish-blue meat. She did her best not to think about the implications, shut the crate's lid, and got back up. "Not a trap," she said as neutrally as possible. "Keep moving."From the barracks, the group moved into another tiny corridor with two doors; one on the left, and one straight ahead. They stopped at the left door; KN took point as they entered the room and stopped abruptly.

The room was, like the rest of the ship, poorly lit, but its purpose was obvious.

A large metal wall with a viewing slit was pushed to one side, leaving the back half of the room exposed; several mounting brackets for chains like the ones the group had seen in the cave were attached to the far wall. The walls themselves transitioned slowly from their gunmetal grey to a dark, faded blue the further back Jane looked, and there were several small holes- for drainage- placed beneath the restraints.

Jane ignored the urge to set her shotgun to lethal.

The team left the room wordlessly; several of its members were holding their weapons much, much more tightly. KN opened the next door and the group found themselves in a cockpit; two seats were at the far end of the cockpit in front of a series of consoles. A blue-skinned alien woman was tied to the right chair; despite her tattered clothes and heavily bruised face, she was still breathing, though Jane guessed she was unconscious. Another alien, this one with a more masculine profile and wearing all-grey armour with some sort of alien firearm attached to its back, was- angrily, she guessed again- trying to fix one of the piloting consoles, alternating between scanning the assorted wires and computers with some sort of wrist-mounted tool she didn't recognize, and rooting around the tangled mess of wiring. The alien was engrossed enough in his work that he failed to notice the team entering the cockpit, and KN motioned for the team to stay back.

"A-wall," he said to Jane over comms, "over the blue one. Grav star above the grey one, we arc him, and then both do takedown?" Jane nodded in return and raised her left arm, shotgun still firmly held in her other hand. She gave a quick mental command, and a small pod slid out of her pilot suit, and silently swiveled towards the grey alien. KN quietly pulled a small cube from his rigging. "Three, two, one, go." KN tossed the cube in the space between the two seats and a glowing, orange wall flared to life between the two seats; the grey-armoured alien shot to its feet and rushed towards the wall, but bounced off it and was sent to the floor. Jane fired a neon-blue shuriken from her projectile pod at the cockpit's ceiling, and it burst into a swirling blue cloud. The grey alien shouted in surprise as it was suddenly yanked off its feet and slammed into the ceiling, suspended there by the gravity well. Jane fired three arc-shells, two at the alien's chest and one at its head- and blinked in surprise as a blue-purple barrier surrounding the alien flickered and popped audibly. KN simply raised his rifle and fired a salvo of stun rounds, and the alien stopped struggling and began flailing as the stun rounds began working. KN and Jane both shot forward with their jump kits, grabbed the stunned alien and pulled it from the gravity well, slamming it back into the ground with an audible thud; Jane mag-clamped the alien's arms and KN clamped its legs together. KN attempted to pull the firearm from the alien's back, and grunted as he struggled to pull it free. With another sharp tug and a surge of shock from the tasers in his hands, he yanked it free and tossed it back towards the cockpit's entrance. "Thing was clamped pretty hard," KN said sourly.

The alien stopped spasming, and let out an audible groan before it appeared to realize its situation, and began struggling against the restraints and shouting. "Lek sin! Lek mahak sin! Ah-sarr-ee, karak oheri sulek ajak kin! Veyek? Ahdey!"

The alien continued screaming in its language; KN knelt over it and kept a hand on its back. "Check on the blue one." Jane scurried over to the a-wall, waited as KN deactivated it, and lowered her shotgun. She reached out and lightly prodded the blue alien.

"Hey," Jane said, with as calm a voice she could muster. "Hey, you're alright, it's okay now." Jane prodded the alien again; the blue alien's eyes opened slowly. The alien looked at Jane's helmeted face with glazed eyes, and mumbled something under her breath as Jane cut her restraints with her knife. The alien blinked several times, and examined her chafed blue arms, rubbing her wrists before her eyes snapped back to Jane, the still-screaming armoured alien on the ground, and the sealed helmets of the rest of the combat team. The alien shrunk bank into her seat for a moment, and blinked a few more times.

"Ei atha, ei atten asaree. Ei oyen ilos asaree," the alien said, slowly and with nervous edge. She shook her head, then looked around the cockpit a few times before taking a deep breath. "Ei oyen ilos nassan asaree. Oyen." The alien looked at them again, and pointed at its own face and mimed removing a helmet.

"Corpsman," Jane said, clamping her shotgun to her chest rig, "how safe is the atmo in here? I remember it was supposed to be breathable- but we didn't get a briefing on how much so."

"Breathable," Frost replied. "For us grunt types it's a bit hard to breathe, but we can make do. Your augs would make easy work of it."

"Alright. I'm gonna pop my helmet- you guys just stay ready in case this doesn't work out." Jane pointed to herself. "I'm going to remove my helmet seal," Jane said, as reassuringly as possible, and commanded her helmet's faceplate to open. It did so with an audible hissing noise, and Jane's HUD lit up with a quick notification that her air filtration and lung output optimization augmentations were now online.

The blue alien said nothing, eyes widening in shock and her breathing suddenly becoming very heavy. She stood up from the seat, wavering slightly, and put a steadying hand on the console behind her. "Oyen asaree," the alien said quietly, shaking her head in disbelief. "Athame ayan sura," she whispered, sitting back in the chair.

The grey-suited alien took notice of Jane's revealed face, and managed to wriggle its helmeted head to look at KN's chassis, and began struggling furiously again. "Ahdey! Geth! Geth!"

The blue-skinned alien stood back up and nearly collapsed; Jane offered an arm, and the blue alien took it, supporting herself while staring intently at Jane's face. The blue alien turned to the grey-suited one, and hobbled over with Jane's help, before stomping as hard as she could manage on the grey-suited alien's helmeted head; there was little force behind it, but the intent was clear as the grey-suited one howled and- presumably- cursed furiously.

"Well, I don't imagine that you understand what I'm saying," Jane said, pulling the blue-skinned woman back before she attempted to attack again, "but I need to bring you to our fleet." The blue alien looked at Jane, frowning, pointed at Jane's mouth, then shook her head. Jane nodded, pointed at the assembled group in the cockpit, pointed up several times, then tapped the ship's hull and made a sort of "big" gesture with her hands. The alien looked at Jane, clearly in thought, before nodding in some sort of understanding.

"Tagak, we've got two aliens with us, one restrained and the other in..not great condition, but co-operating." Jane said into her comms, doing her best to remain calm. "We're headed topside and need to get back to the Frontier ASAP for FC debrief, xeno-medical scans and prisoner containment."

"I...uh, okay," Tagak responded, clearly at a loss for words. "Um, wow, right. Of course. This is Tagak, understood. The shuttle we arrived in will take you back."