First of all, my apologies for the slowing of updates – I fell a bit behind on my writing pace while on vacation (midway through Chapter 10 at 101,000 words now) and delayed this to compensate for that. Be forewarned: the chapters start getting a lot longer from here on out.
This chapter was the most fun I have ever had writing fiction, and special thanks needs to go to Sargo and Jack of the Blades for their accounts of the Akuze Massacre, both of which provided inspiration and ideas for my own interpretation.
Chapter 6: Akuze
"The planet seems largely devoid of large-scale native life: It is covered in verdant grasslands, rolling hills of red dirt and iron, and deep canyons that are abundant in platinum and iridium. Still, the lack of native animal life is troubling, and should be investigated further by pioneer and xenobiology teams." – Initial Alliance Survey of Akuze, 2172
"All contact has been lost with both the colony and the ground team sent to investigate. No distress beacons were activated, no calls for reinforcements were made. We lack the resources to investigate – recommend deploying the Ninth Cruiser Squadron to further examine the status of the ground team." – Final Akuze transmission of Lieutenant-Commander David Anderson (XO of Warsaw) to Arcturus Headquarters
Cruiser SSV Warsaw – December 4, 2177
The alarm in the Officer's Mess of the Warsaw blared through the comms system of the cruiser, forcing his eyes open as the high-pitched wail of the siren assaulted his senses. Dazed, his ears ringing, Second Lieutenant John Cameron Shepard slowly pulled himself up out of his bunk. The seven other male officers of the Warsaw were slowly rustling themselves from sleep, each taking their own turn to shout obscenities at the still-wailing alarm overhead. Planting his feet firmly on the cold, steel floor of the cabin, he slowly made his way towards the bathroom, careful to avoid the bunk of Staff Lieutenant Varlamov as the temperamental officer kicked outward reflexively. He checked his omnitool – 0540, shipboard time – and smiled to himself; he had ample time before the 0700 briefing of Officers in the CIC by XO Anderson. He'd be able to adequately shower, breakfast, and possibly even meet up with Emily before the briefing. It was difficult to maintain a clandestine relationship when stationed on the same ship, but between their own subtleness and Anderson's willingness to bend the rules in exceptional cases, they managed.
He walked into the first of the Mess's shower stalls, letting the scalding water rinse over him. To his left, he could hear as the other stalls filled and turned on. Its heat was purifying, as it cleansed the last vestiges of sleep and weariness from his body.
"Hey, can anybody tell me why the fuck we have to be up this goddamn early for a 0700 briefing? It's not like it takes eighty minutes to shower, shit and dress." Kyle Palmer's mocking incredulity was audible even over the din of water pouring through the shower stalls.
It was David Marcos who responded, his thick Catalonian accent cutting his words with precision. "Not for most of us, but for a reina de bellesa like you I'd think that you'd value every second you get." Laughter rang through Mess, and even through the oceans of steam Shepard could almost sense that Palmer's face was reddening.
Shepard smiled to himself; life had never been better. Assigned to the 3rd ARR right out of N7 training, he'd been deployed to the Warsaw after patrol duty in the Traverse, mostly spent flushing out Batarian stragglers from the aftermath of the Skylian Blitz. They'd gone groundside on seven occasions, all of which ended without any fatal casualties. Two months ago his platoon had been transferred to the Warsaw, in preparation for larger assaults against Batarian strongholds. Some of the more senior officers had heard rumors of a major operation being planned against one of the main merc bases of operation in the Traverse, possibly on Torfan. If that was the target, then the Warsaw would almost certainly be a part of it. Having previously served on the frigate SSV Cannae, he found the Warsaw – though older – to be a vastly superior ship. He loved the space, the comfort of not having to trade sleeper-pods with engineers or technical officers, the joy of being able to access the elite Officers' Mess of a ship with nearly 150 crew members aboard.
Then there were his Marines. He led a squad of ten, part of a larger platoon of over fifty spread between the Warsaw and her two accompanying frigates – the Verdun and Stalingrad. All of them had trained in the "N School" in Rio de Janiero, with the lowest of them having achieved his N6 designation nine months ago. There were his corporals: Matthew Toombs – a pure combat specialist, as deadly with his Predator V pistol as his Avenger IV Assault Rifle; Anoir Assad – a skilled Infiltrator, he excelled at avoiding enemies long enough to make them a victim of his Volkov III Sniper Rifle. There were the Erickson brothers – Adam and James, both survivors of a slaver attack on Mindoir in 2170, and Thomas Matthews – a tech expert who had studied Batarian electronics for close to five years. Nor was Shepard the only biotic in the squad – Emile Jade, Vladimir Malkin and Jasmine Singh combined their wide mix of biotic powers (Malkin an Adept, Singh and Jade Vanguards) to deadly effect.
There was Emily Mercer – the bright, studious, and beautiful girl from Elysium. Born with intermediate biotic tendencies, she had trained as a civilian engineer, before the heroic Alliance defense of Elysium during the Skylian Blitz had inspired her to join the Navy. Within three months, she had been invited to "N School", earned the official designation as a Sentinel, and when Shepard assumed command of her squad she had just recently earned her N5 designation. Even as the heat of the water dulled his senses, he could still see her rippling blonde hair flowing over her shoulders, brown eyes so mystical that he found himself lost in their depths for hours. They were special to one another, and had been almost from the beginning. Three weeks ago, while on shore leave on Bekenstein, they had discovered just how special. The feel of her skin against his, her lips on his as their unclad bodies danced together beneath the stars had been exhilarating, and they had hungered for more at every opportunity they had got. The crew of the Warsaw remained oblivious – only Anderson knew, and he had been sympathetic to the young couple, giving them as much leeway and freedom as he was able to within the confines of Alliance regulations.
Shepard stepped out of the shower, turning off the water behind him and wrapping a towel around his waist. He paused in front of the full-size mirror in front of him. As his upper body came into view, he allowed a smirk to play across his face. He'd always been considered wiry and agile during his childhood aboard Alliance vessels, but never powerfully-built. That had changed during Officer's School; his torso now rippled with muscle, the result of thousands of hours of a ruthless training regimen in Vancouver and Rio. Combined with his prodigious biotic talents, he had honed his body into a weapon that the enemies of the Alliance were right to fear.
Retreating to his bunk, he quickly dressed himself in his Alliance fatigues, sliding the black, grey and blue shirt over his head. He glanced at the clock on his omnitool again…0605. He had taken longer than he'd wanted in the shower, which left him far less time for breakfast and a visit with Emily. Grabbing his dog tags, he jogged out of the Officer's Mess, as the banter of Marcos and Mortimer echoed through the Mess behind him. Reaching the elevator, he quickly keyed in C Deck, and ten seconds later strode out into the Mess Hall of the cruiser.
It would be another half hour before the rest of the crew of the Warsaw began to trickle into the Mess Hall, which meant that for now the spacious chamber was deserted, save for a lone Fatigue-clad officer seated at the far table. Even from a distance, the profile of Flight Lieutenant Graeme MacLeod was unmistakable. The pilot turned at the sound of Shepard's booted feet, and motioned for the young lieutenant to sit across from him. Grabbing a tray of food – crisp bacon, eggs, and a heap of spiced potatoes (which the ship's cook was famous for across the Alliance) – Shepard sat down next to MacLeod. "Good morning, Lieutenant. How was the night flying?"
MacLeod was a bit of an oddity among the pilot class of the Alliance. Where most flight officers stood just over five and a half feet tall, MacLeod's 6'4" frame towered over even Shepard. He had to wonder how the lanky pilot would have survived in the cramped cockpit of a Frigate. Graeme shrugged his shoulders, his short, dirty-blonde hair shaking against his temples. "Uneventful. Ben dozed off two or three times, so it's good that Commander Sprague was asleep, or he would have gotten a lot more than a simple poke to the ribs." The pilot chuckled at the thought – though Commander Phillip Sprague was understanding when it came to his crew, the CO of the Warsaw had no patience when it came to negligence on duty, and his disciplining tongue-lashings were infamous throughout the fleet. His breakfast finished, the flight officer bid Shepard goodbye, before returning to the bridge. Shepard waited until MacLeod was well out of sight before turning to look into the corner of the room. Absent-mindedly, he quickly keyed something into his omnitool. He waited, staring into the corner until he heard soft footsteps approaching behind him.
A cool hand rested on his shoulder, "Good morning, John." Even as she groggily shook off sleep, Emily's voice was music to his ears. He stood up, turning to gaze into her beautiful face; he put his arm around her neck and drew her in close for a kiss. Despite how early it was, he thought she looked beautiful. Her tall frame fit wonderfully into an Alliance uniform (though he knew it was even better without any uniform at all), and her eyes seemed to sparkle with vitality. A warm smile played across her lips, as she leaned in to kiss him again. "How was the sleep in the officer's quarters?"
He shrugged his shoulders as she sat down beside him, moving as close to him as the bench would allow. "Decent, though the 0540 wakeup call is starting to get to me." Her hand reached around his shoulders, and he responded by drawing her in close. "I almost preferred being a grunt – didn't have to be up for 0700 briefings, didn't have to do the rounds on subordinates…"
"Didn't have to sneak out to the Mess Hall half an hour early to break fraternization codes with said subordinates," she laughed to herself, causing Shepard to pull her closer. When they weren't on leave, they were limited to precious seconds between shifts, or else shore leave every fifteen days was their only chance to be together. They sat in silence for five minutes, just basking in the joy of being with one another. At long last, as the sounds of other crewmen heading for the Mess Hall became audible, Emily unfolded herself from his arms, and gave him one last quick kiss.
"I'll see you after briefing," Shepard managed before she slipped away from him and back to her quarters further along the deck. It was just in a nick of time too; he turned to see three fellow members of his squad approaching. Adam Erickson immediately rushed for the food, his eyes practically salivating as he relished the thought of a decent meal after two days out on field exercises. Vlad Malkin and Anoir Assad both made for Shepard's table, sitting themselves down.
"What's up, LT?" Malkin asked, as Adam returned with food for the four of them. "Any news on where we're headed next?"
Shepard shook his head. "Nothing yet, briefing's in half an hour though. Probably another Terminus recon drop."
Adam rolled his eyes skyward. "Sprague would avoid giving away hints before the briefing. Boy am I glad that you're the one who has to sit through those and not me." Anoir nearly choked on his eggs as he attempted to simultaneously laugh and wolf down his meal. Shepard could see Malkin struggling to keep a straight face as the corporal regained his composure, and he smiled a bit at the antics of his squadmates. Adam kept talking, "I hope it is prep for retaliation for what happened at Elysium." The Skylian Blitz held special sway in Shepard's memory – it was what had inspired Emily to join the Alliance – but it was doubly so for Adam and his twin brother James. The two were from Mindoir – a farming colony that had been raided by Batarian slavers seven years ago. The two of them had been among the only survivors of the attack, and both still spoiled for revenge against Batarian criminal elements for the slaughter wrought on their families.
"Well, we'll know when we know. If there's action against a base on something like Torfan, Warsaw will definitely be a part of it," said Anoir, who had recovered from his mini-battle with the eggs. He leaned in close, drawing his voice down to a whisper so that only the four of them could hear it. "You didn't hear this from me, but Joel from down in engineering thinks we're en-route to harass pirate supply lines."
Malkin scoffed, "Ramsey told you that? Shit, you know not to believe a word that comes out of his mouth. If you gave that guy an enema he could sleep in a pill container."
"Still," Anoir responded, ignoring Malkin's jab at the engineering crew, "it'd be nice to get some light combat in before a full-out assault on a major operating base."
Shepard rose from the table, leaving his fellow Marines to enjoy the company of other members of the detachment, who were just now entering the Mess Hall. Shepard enjoyed the camaraderie that he shared with his squad, and it showed in their proficiency in combat.
Twenty minutes later, Shepard calmly seated himself in the CIC alongside the other officers of the Warsaw. In addition to Varlamov, Marcos, and Palmer – two squad commanders and a weapons specialist – they were joined by Christine Hartman – the Chief Engineer, Piotr Maczek – the Navigator, as well as Major Christopher Burrows – the commander of the Marine Detachment aboard the Warsaw and Shepard's immediate superior. Holographic images of Lieutenants Edward Gillespie and Sean Watson joined the group, as they streamed the meeting from the decks of the Stalingrad and Verdun. The room fell silent as Lieutenant-Commander David Anderson walked into the room. The XO of the Warsaw, Anderson had acted as a mentor to Shepard ever since the N7 Academy, and had specially requested the young lieutenant for service in the Marine detachment of the cruiser.
Anderson walked up to the holo-projector of the CIC and quickly keyed in his own password on his omnitool. "Good morning, ladies and gentlemen," Anderson intoned in his characteristically deep and authoritative voice. "Captain Sprague is currently in his cabin in a meeting with Vice Admiral Zhukov, so I'll be handling the briefing this morning." The hologram projected an image of a small planet, running through reams of vital data on the side: The planet was slightly larger than half the size of earth, with a much drier atmosphere and a slightly higher average temperature, and an orbital period of six years. Located in the Draco Nebula, Akuze was the fourth planet in an otherwise barren system. "In 2172, the Alliance staked a claim to Akuze, a small planet in the Draco Nebula. Apart from some large deposits of iridium, it was an unremarkable planet. At one point, the intention was to establish a surveillance outpost on the planet, similar to our stations now on Ontarom. The planet possessed no substantial native animal life, and the plant life was limited. Eventually, several mining outposts were established to extract the minerals present on the surface." The hologram swivelled, zooming in on the capital of New Solitude, a small prefab colony of about 200 people. "Forty eight hours ago, Alliance Command lost contact with New Solitude. Pioneer Teams were doing something in terms of experimentation on the planet, but we aren't entirely sure what – and the data is still highly classified. Twenty four hours ago Admiral Thrawn deemed re-establishing contact with Akuze a Priority One Alert. Six hours ago, Warsaw and her battle-group were ordered to the system. The Marine Detachment will be going groundside to investigate at 1500 hours. Any questions?"
Major Burrows indicated that he wanted to speak. "You said the Pioneer Teams were doing some sort of tests on the surface of Akuze. What exactly were they doing?"
Anderson shook his head, "we don't know. The files around it are heavily classified – even Commander Sprague doesn't have the necessary clearance. All we know is that the colony dropped off the grid several hours after the tests began. No distress beacon or emergency channel communications were attempted, and there were no reports of Pirate activity in the area."
To Shepard, it sounded suspiciously like a slaver attack. It had been the same routine at Elysium: the colony had dropped out of contact as the mercenary army jammed communications, before a single emergency transmission got out to the Fourth Fleet. Given the ongoing buildup for a major offensive against Batarian positions in the Traverse, a retaliatory strike by slaver interests wasn't entirely out of the question. "Commander, does the sequence of events we do know about at Akuze fit into any sort of pattern, perhaps with Mindoir or Elysium?"
Anderson shook his head again. "We've got surveillance buoys monitoring the system, and as far as we know no unidentified vessels have entered or exited the system, apart from a freighter that dropped supplies on Akuze eighty-four hours ago." Anderson eyed the assembled officers. "I suspect that we'll find out what's down there when the marines deploy. Be ready for deployment by 1420. Officers dismissed."
Shepard filed out of the CIC with the other officers and pulled up his corporals on his omnitool. "Toombs, Assad, this is Shepard."
Toombs's handsome features came into view over the omnitool, with Assad crowded in behind him – clearly in the cabin for the male members of the Marine detachment. "LT, what's going on?"
"We've got our deployment orders. A colony in the Draco Nebula dropped out of contact recently, and we've been sent to investigate."
Assad's face dropped in mock disappointment, "that lying bastard. I was so certain we were hitting pirate supply lines this time."
Shepard shook his head, "we're going groundside at 1500 hours. Can the platoon be ready by then?"
Toombs glanced around the room, "honestly Shepard, it would probably be better if we were going groundside earlier than that. You know how restless Emile gets when he has to sit in the armour and do nothing for several hours at a time. But yeah, we'll be ready."
"Good. Don't let me down."
Akuze – 15:02 Hours Shipboard Time – December 4, 2177
The surface of Akuze was a scorched plain devoid of vegetation. The intense heat from the F-Class star Beta Draconis bombarded the surface with ultraviolet radiation, rendering all but the most resilient plant life incapable of surviving in the harsh environment. What few native species existed on the planet came out only by night, and were typically small enough to hide beneath the rocks that littered the surface to prevent overheating in the day. Surface water had long since evaporated, and what few deposits there were of groundwater were typically buried beneath kilometers of basalt rock. In 2172, deposits of Iridium and Copper had been discovered on the planet, prompting a mineral rush by the Alliance to claim the desolate planet for their own. Three years later, the mining community of New Solitude had been established on the planet's surface, with Ashfeld Mining in charge of a small consortium of companies tasked with exploiting the mineral wealth of the planet.
By 2176, the small colony was beginning to see a bloom of investment from offworld creditors. The initial deposits of Iridium had proven much larger than initially anticipated, leading to a small – but controlled – resource boom that saw corporate interests flock to New Solitude. Built to hold fifty miners and their families, the small colony quickly found itself ballooning to over 200 people, pushing the town to the very edge of its capacity. The boom had brought with it newer mines – four such installations now dotted the surface around New Solitude, and smaller enterprises were often set up by scavenging miners – and just as quickly shut down by a resolute corporate security.
But in December 2177, New Solitude suddenly dropped off the grid of the Alliance; no communications, no distress beacons, no emergency channels, no warnings of activity from the surveillance buoys guarding the entrance to the system. Akuze was in the heart of the Attican Traverse, and it looked suspiciously like the working of slavers or pirates, possibly retaliating for the crushing defeat inflicted upon slavery interests in the Terminus Systems during the Skylian Blitz. When contact was lost for more than twenty four hours, the Alliance was sent in.
The five Kodiak drop shuttles carrying the detachment of the Third Advanced Recon Regiment Marines from the Warsaw's battlegroup slowly descended towards the surface of Akuze, their pilots guiding them to a landing zone at New Solitude's small spaceport. Inside the third shuttle, Shepard and his squad prepared to disembark. They had been issued with a full set of brand new weapons: M-8 Avenger Assault Rifles, H-12 Sokolov Shotguns, and X-9 Volkov Sniper Rifles. Standing at the front of the passenger compartment, Shepard surveyed his teammates as they readied themselves; the Erickson brothers methodically cleaned and double-checked their mixed weaponry, as Assad and Toombs did armour checks on the soldiers under their command. Shepard shouted forward to their pilot – Flight Sergeant Miles Backlund, "any scans on the drop zone?"
Backlund's voice was barely audible over the din of the Kodiak's engines, as the shuttle wavered back and forth in the heavy wind of the upper atmosphere. "Not much! K-1's scans aren't picking up any life signs, but K-2's not detecting any significant structural damage at the spaceport either. Get ready for deployment, we're forty seconds out from the drop zone!"
Shepard knelt down, pulling out his new Sokolov shotgun and testing its mods, making sure its heat sinks and targeting VIs were active and properly functioning. The shuttle rocked back and forth violently, throwing Emily into him. She smiled weakly as she got back up, subtly squeezing his shoulder as he helped her up. Regaining his composure, Shepard turned to his squad. "We're deploying directly below the landing pad of the spaceport. We'll sweep the grounds while Beta and Charlie Platoons clear the building. Assad, take your squad along the wall of the spaceport and cover Toombs and I as First Squad clears the perimeter. Rendezvous with us on the far side of the grid and we'll advance towards the main square of New Solitude."
"Twenty seconds!" Shepard turned to look through the tinted windows of the drop shuttle. The Kodiaks were kicking up a lot of dust, making it virtually impossible to see the surface of the planet from the shuttle. He could make out the faint outline of a towering communications spire next to the landing pad. The Kodiaks circled around the spaceport, and as the door to the compartment opened Shepard and Assad were thrown back by the force of the dust being kicked up around them – both grabbed onto the ceiling rails to stabilize themselves. "Ten seconds!" Behind him, Shepard could hear his squad priming their weapons, as mods were activated and thermal clips spent. "Five seconds!" the shuttle floated to a stop three feet above the landing pad, and Shepard could see in the distance as B Platoon disembarked on top of the spaceport complex, quickly securing their perimeters and moving inside. Shepard counted down the final seconds inside his head, grinning with satisfaction as he heard the Kodiak's engines disengage and he felt the craft stabilize. "Get out there ladies, and good luck!"
"Go! Go! Go!" Shepard's platoon deployed rapidly, Assad's squad quickly rushing to the far wall against the spaceport while Toombs and Shepard made for the perimeter fence surrounding the complex. When they reached it, Emily quickly used her heavily-modded omnitool to cut through the titanium wire, making a hole large enough for the platoon to slip through. When they were on the other side of the fence, Shepard activated his comm-link and paged Major Burrows. "Warsaw Alpha, this is Shepard and Delta Platoon. We've crossed the perimeter and are awaiting confirmation from Beta and Charlie Platoons. Do you read?"
Burrows's voice came in through the audio system in his N7 helmet. "Delta One, this is Major Burrows. I've got confirmation from Varlamov that Beta Platoon has cleared the spaceport. Watson and Charlie Platoon are completing their sweep now. Sweep around and rendezvous with Echo One. I've uploaded coordinates to your omnitool." In the palm of Shepard's hand, a holographic map displayed the features of New Solitude. The main avenues linked at Denali Square, which was indicated as the meet-up point for Delta, Echo, and Beta Platoons. Shepard was quickly rejoined by Assad, whom he motioned to move towards the ridge overlooking New Solitude to scout the area. His Onyx I armour began to glow, as he slowly camouflaged into his surroundings, a key feature of Infiltration specialists with N7 training. Matthews moved with him, as the highly-skilled engineer could easily detect his corporal's movements and provide cover.
"Charlie Platoon here," Watson's voice rang out over the comms, "we've reached the archives rooms of the spaceport. Corporal Griffin and I are going to try and extract the black-box data to see if we can learn anything. We'll rendezvous at the rallying point. Over."
It was Marcos who responded. "Copy that, Charlie One. Alpha Platoon has reached the main road into New Solitude. See you at the rallying point."
"Delta Two here, I've got a visual on New Solitude. Delta One, you're gonna want to see this." Even through the patchy connection of the comms, Shepard could hear the urgency in Assad's voice. He motioned to the rest of his platoon into a forced run, with Toombs even going as far as to break into an open sprint.
The scene when they reached the top of the ridge brought back memories of Salak, of surveying the damage wrought by Batarian slavers on the small infant colony; New Solitude was in ruins. Once a small cluster of prefab shelters and orbital-drop modules, all that remained of many was a burning morass of twisted steel, shattered glass, and mangled polymer panels. Fires burned openly on the southern side of the colony, as the remains of the shelters slowly decomposed back into the hot wind of Akuze. "My God, this is bad," Shepard muttered absent-mindedly. He flicked on the visual recorder on his helmet, streaming the image back to the other platoon commanders who had gone groundside. "Anderson, Burrows, you guys getting this?"
"Good Lord, Shepard. What the hell happened down there?"
"Not sure Major. Delta will investigate. Radio Echo One and tell him that we're going to need more manpower to figure out what happened here."
"Echo Uno here, señor. We're on our way, ETA dos minutos." Marcos always made a habit of cutting in and out of his native Spanish, and despite the presence of auto-translators, it drove other Marines to distraction.
As they entered the shattered remnants of the colony, Shepard couldn't help but notice a number of oddities in the devastation. He could clearly see dried blood on the frame of several prefab shelters, yet there were no bodies whatsoever to speak of. The structural damage to the southern side was catastrophic, while the northern side of the colony was basically intact – a few broken windows, the odd bulkhead bent out of position, but nothing near the cacophony of destruction that they were walking through now. Assad seemed to echo his thoughts as he checked back in. "Assad here, I'm in the main square. This is really weird. No bodies, no structural damage beyond Denali Square, plenty of blood, but no traces of weapons fire. It's as if Pirates simply beat everyone to death, took the bodies, and then torched only one side of the town just for fun."
That certainly didn't make any sense; it flew in the face of every piece of combat logic he'd been taught during N7 Training. His platoon walked through the colony in virtual silence, awed by the sheer scale of destruction around them. "Anderson, a lot of what we've got down here looks pretty similar to orbital impacts. You said that the buoys didn't pick up any unknown activity?"
"Negative, Shepard. The last activity they pick up moving through the system at all – Warsaw excepted – was a registered Ashfeld freighter just over one hundred hours ago. Akuze was definitely still in contact when that happened. Unless the Hegemony has developed stealth technology without the Salarians knowing about it – which is doubtful – there weren't any ships involved."
They reached Denali Square, where they were joined by Marcos, Gillespie, Burrows, and the full company of Alpha and Echo Platoons. The Major pulled off his helmet, breathing in the scorching air of Akuze for the first time. The three platoons in the square did the same; several soldiers complained about the excruciating heat. The major motioned to his platoon commanders, who joined him inside one of the intact prefab shelters on the northeast side of the square. "We've got no idea what happened here. Whatever it was, it was definitely bad, but I want to find out more details. When Beta and Charlie get here, they'll start setting up a perimeter in the square. In the meantime, I want Alpha and Echo Platoons running patrols of five around the perimeter."
"Charlie One here. Griffin and I managed to extract some of the black-box internal comms data. The time-map points to unusually high energy readings from two points northwest of New Solitude – the Ashfeld Refinery about two clicks west of us, and another unknown site a further click north of that."
Major Burrows paused, giving his platoon commanders a strange look. "Unusual energy spikes? Do they coincide with Akuze dropping off the grid?"
Shepard could hear Watson pause on the other end of the comm channel, either choosing his words carefully or double-checking the data. "The first spike is about two hours before contact was lost – that's at the Refinery. The second spike is north of there, and happens about forty-five minutes before the colony went dark. Want us to investigate?"
Burrows shook his head. "Negative, I need Beta and Charlie Platoons to rendezvous with us ASAP, we need to set up perimeters in the colony, and then we'll get patrols going. Delta Platoon will investigate." Burrows turned to the three Lieutenants. "Marcos, Gillespie, you're dismissed. Start running patrols and establish a perimeter. Shepard, stay here." When the other two Lieutenants had left, Burrows sealed the door behind them, and faced Shepard honestly. "I don't like this, Lieutenant. Energy spikes of that magnitude are odd, unless they were running experiments or tests of some sort. I don't need to tell you what the implications of that would be."
He certainly didn't – covert experimentation was frowned upon, especially if even the Alliance didn't have the clearance to know what was actually going on. Not only had it put Human lives at risk, it also had the potential to cause negative repercussions with the Council as well. They would not take kindly to the knowledge that humanity had allowed lethal and dangerous tests to go on without any knowledge from the authorities. "I'm not sure what these miners got themselves into," Burrows said, "but we need to find out fast, or this is gonna become a political shitstorm." He pulled up his holo-map of the surrounding area, flagging the refinery and the unidentified second location. "I'll send Watson and Charlie Platoon to investigate the refinery in an hour or so. In the meantime, get your platoon ready. I want you to investigate the source of that second energy spike. Find out what happened, and where the hell everyone's gone."
CLASSIFIED LEVEL 3 LOCATION CLASSIFIED km west northwest of New Solitude, Akuze, 1842 Hours.
"Shepard? Delta Two here, I've found footprints. Thermal scans suggest they're less than twelve hours old."
"Finally," Shepard exclaimed aloud. They had left the perimeter of New Solitude close to two hours ago, and had deftly navigated the series of ravines, valleys, and ridges that pock-marked the area. Shepard had taken Emily, Assad, Toombs, and Singh along with him, while Jade, the Ericksons, Malkin, and Matthews ran perimeter patrols at the base camp. A simple two click journey had taken close to two hours, and all five of them were thoroughly exhausted, sweat pouring from their armour and their muscles aching against the sterile heat from Akuze's fiery sun. Shepard's armour was becoming increasingly uncomfortable, and he found himself struggling to keep up with Assad, who was taking point on the walk to their objective. They had yet to find any sign of life, or indeed of human activity, thus far, until Assad noticed the footprints.
"They lead in the direction that we're going. We should probably follow them."
The rest of Shepard's platoon formed up behind him, as they traversed another granite ridge. Their map software indicated that the energy spike had come from a narrow gully about 100 metres in front of them, and within five minutes they were descending the steep cliffs into the valley. Well over fifty feet deep, the gully cut another thin scar into the endlessly malleable terrain of the planet. Sparse plant life clung to the sides of the cliff, desperate to avoid prolonged exposure to the intense heat of the sun.
"Holy shit, whoever went down here must have been suicidal. There's no way that a sane human being would ever try and scale down this cliff." Shepard found himself agreeing with Singh's assessment.
"Jasmine, you'd have to be insane to live on this planet in the first place," Toombs retorted. "The only reason none of us are dead from heat stroke yet is because these damned suits of armour keep moisture and circulation going so well."
It was Emily who responded, "They certainly came here for a reason. John, my omnitool scanners are picking up all sorts of weird readings in this ravine. It's like the ground underneath us is almost hollowed out." She maneuvered out of the way as Singh tumbled down the cliff beside her, catching herself against two outcroppings of rock. "Do you think they were mining in here?"
"Not likely," Assad responded, himself much farther ahead of Shepard and the rest of the platoon. "I have yet to find anything resembling heavy mining equipment. If there's big hollow spaces beneath our feet, they're likely natural catacombs."
Carefully, the platoon reach the bottom of the gully, taking care to leave arrester cables leading back up to the top, so that they would have an easier ascent. In the depths of the canyon, the rays of sunlight played with the clouds of chemicals above them, colouring the sky a deep hue of orange. The clouds seemed to part, giving Shepard a clear view of the slowly-merging stars. The view differed on every world, and the dusk sky on Akuze was incredible. The multicoloured rings of the Cat's Eye Nebula glistened brightly even with the sun still out, giving off a dazzling display of colour.
Emily moved to stand beside him, giving his hand the lightest of touches. "It's beautiful," she muttered in awe. She looked up at him and smiled; even fully armoured and covered in dust and sweat, she was still beautiful to look at. John smiled to himself; there would be plenty of shore leave after this deployment, and a chance for them to enjoy each other's company for the first time in too long.
"Lieutenant? Assad here; I believe I've found something, a cave entrance, I think. You might want to come take a look at this."
The moment passed, John once again became Lieutenant Shepard, Emily reverted to Private Mercer, and they continued onward. Toombs and Singh followed close behind, taking care to keep their balance in the narrow confines of the canyon floor. Without the sun to act as a guiding light, it became disorienting to try and positionally navigate such a claustrophobic space.
"Look at this," Assad noted as Shepard approached. A thin veil of foliage – the first green they had seen in their entire time on the planet – gave way to a small opening in the canyon wall. The chamber was spacious, large enough for a fully armoured Marine to crouch comfortably, and quickly twisted off into a cavernous set of labyrinthine catacombs and passageways.
They could get lost in there for hours, perhaps even days, and never find the exit. Shepard turned to Assad, "Did you bring flares?"
The young corporal smiled. "I thought you'd never ask," pulling a stack of two dozen flares out of a compartment on the back of his armour. "I knew there was a reason I chose to forego an assault rifle – I could carry more of these things." He quickly struck the first one, placing the glowing orange flame at the entrance to the tunnel. Slowly, the five of them moved further into the chamber, with Assad placing flares every ten feet to keep their exit well lit.
Shepard briefly stepped back out of the tunnel, picking up a shaky signal to the rest of his squad. "Jade? This is Shepard. We've found the source of the energy spike –it's emanating from some sort of underground cavern. We're investigating."
"Roger that, Shepard. We're completing our patrol and returning to New Solitude. Emile out." Shepard felt the signal weaken as he stepped back into the tunnels, the fifty feet of sheer rock above them blocking even the most hardened comms units.
Cautiously, the five of them entered the confines of the tunnel, taking care to place flares periodically to make sure they didn't get lost in the labyrinth of catacombs. "Shepard," Emily said, "I'm getting some funny readings here, electronic magnetic waves. There's electronic equipment of some sort down here." She bent down, picking her way through the dirt until she found what she was looking for. A narrow electrical cable ran several inches below their feet, winding its way further into the catacombs. "Should we follow it and see where it leads?" Shepard nodded, and Emily moved in front to lead the way, her omnitool acting as a guide as it read the electromagnetic impulses coming from the cable.
It brought them to a hollowed-out chamber about two hundred metres from the entrance. Where the previous tunnels had been barely large enough for a fully-grown soldier to move through, this chamber was enormous. A vaulted dome-like ceiling stretched at least twenty feet into the air, their footsteps reverberating around the cavernous room. As they crossed the threshold into the space, several banks of lights flickered on, flooding the previously dark corridor with blinding iridescent light. Banks of monitoring stations lined the walls, and several cots and mattresses rested in the middle of the chamber.
Singh moved towards one of the terminals, examining it closely with her omnitool. "What on earth were they doing here?"
Shepard tried to key in general network access, but was greeted with a warning that his access attempt had failed. "Whatever it was, it wasn't the Alliance doing it. I don't have access to their network." He moved to a large, central bank of computers, one of which was flickering on and off. Beside it, the workings of a makeshift sonic resonance device lay in shambles. "Possibly trying to image the catacombs? Looking for valuable minerals?"
Assad nodded. "Whatever it was they were doing down here, it looks like they're long gone. Thermal imaging is minimal – I'd guess we're the first people in here in well over forty-five hours or so. Chronologically, that would line up with the colony losing contact with Arcturus."
Toombs walked up to stand beside Shepard. "Any chance we could try and hack these?"
Shepard shook his head. "Doubtful. Encryption this sophisticated will take a long time to break, and Major Burrows wants us back in the perimeter before nightfall. Emily, see if you can get a data-mine going on the terminals. If we have to bug out, we can upload the data to the Warsaw once it's done decrypting the information." Emily went to work, pulling a small domed device from her armour, she methodically attached the device to the back of one of the computer terminals. After keying in several complex formulas on the holographic keyboard, the device beeped several times, and then camouflaged in with the rest of the computer terminals.
"There we go. Not sure how long that will take, but once it's done we just send a shuttle around and recover the data-disc. The data will be fully decrypted, so we won't have to waste our time with the Alliance bureaucracy."
"Excellent work Emily. Everyone, let's move out. If they want us back by nightfall, we'll need to double-time it back to the colony. Let's move Delta Platoon!"
New Solitude, Akuze, 2013 Hours.
Shepard sat in the makeshift war room with Major Burrows, Gillespie, Marcos, and Varlamov. Watson had opted to remain at the Ashfeld Refinery through the night, in order to better monitor some of the data they were receiving from the terminals there, as well as get a recon force out the next morning. The remaining forty Marines were encamped around Denali Square, calmly setting up shelter for the harsh night that was to follow, cleaning their weapons, and logging as much intel as they could gather from their meagre surroundings. He surveyed the officers in the room, noting how differently each of them handled the stress of uncertainty. Marcos calmly tossed his combat knife up and down in the air, catching it both by the blade and the hilt in an alternating fashion; Varlamov and Gillespie were huddled in the corner, pouring over the reams of data they were slowly getting back from the Refinery. On a table near a sealed bulkhead, a comms amplifier broadcast incoming chatter from Watson and C Platoon. Burrows simply watched, waited for one of his lieutenants to break the deafening static silence in the room.
It was Marcos who broke the silence, catching his knife and plunging the blade deep into the floor. "So what do we know? What happened to the colonists?"
"We're still getting data back from Watson and Charlie Platoon over at the Refinery," Burrows responded, "and the data-mine that Shepard put in place is slowly cracking through the encryption on the files they found. Based on the footage you got me, Shepard, I'd say that they were conducting some sort of seismic imaging tests, probably trying to map the catacombs."
Varlamov turned away from the data in corner. "Right, but that still doesn't answer what the hell happened to the colonists. The entire time we've been here, we haven't seen any bodies, any signs of human activity, or anyone who survived."
"That's not entirely true," Shepard retorted. "One of my corporals found footprints leading towards the tunnels that we investigated. Their time-stamp coincided with the loss of contact."
Burrows pondered this new information. "I don't like this, Shepard. We're sitting here in the middle of a half-destroyed colony, and all the information we need to actually do our job is either missing or classified."
"We'd best hope that Watson manages to find something over at the refinery," Gillespie added. "Even if we could get a sense of what went on here, that would at least be something to go on."
Burrows nodded, "If there are no new developments by morning, we're going to broaden our search patterns. I've asked for the Warsaw to air-drop a couple of Grizzlies for us, so at least we can cover more ground. We'll stay holed up here – if nothing else, we're close to the ExFil point."
Shepard left the building, going outside and walking directly towards the rapidly-setting sun. Despite the last vestiges of dusk slowly edging over the horizon, the surface of Akuze was still uncomfortably hot – probably thirty or thirty-five degrees. The dust had at least died down, as the afternoon wind subsided with the sun. He quickly went to where his platoon had set up camp, passing by Toombs and Malkin as they brewed a large barrel of coffee, in preparation for a long night of being constantly alert. The chatter from C Platoon was being broadcast over the still-functioning comms system for the main square, allowing the entire detachment to be aware of what was happening at the refinery. Even in these conditions, Shepard had to admire the efficiency and professionalism of the forty men and women that made up the Warsaw's marine group; no one openly complained about the heat, and they silently (if grudgingly) prepared for their duty.
Shepard sat down next to Emily, as she was checking omnitool data. "Anything come in yet from the data-mine?"
She shook her head, "not yet, and the signal's been pretty weak with all the interference from the rock around it. Hey," she touched her ungloved fingers lightly against his arm, "you okay?"
He took a long time to answer. "Yeah, it's just that I hate walking blind into something like this."
"It could be worse." She lithely slipped her fingers into his hand, "one of us could be here without the other." She rested her head against his shoulder, and Shepard reached around and put his arm around her. "It'll be nice to get more shore leave after this, won't it?"
He smiled, "it will be. Are you sure you want it to be like Bekenstein? I don't want to pressure you unnecessarily."
She chuckled softly to herself. "I thoroughly enjoyed the last time you applied pressure. Just like Bekenstein, but let's not wait until the last six hours this time."
He cupped her chin in his free hand, and brought her lips to his. They tried to kiss and speak at the same time, making it so they didn't as much hear the words as feel them. "I promise you that."
Without warning, the chatter on the comms system flared up. "Hold on, something's happening. Keyes, what did you do?"
"Nothing, LT. The seismic scanner's been running resonance readings of the catacombs for close to an hour now. I haven't touched the damn thing in forty minutes."
"Are you sure? We just got a spike in the readings, like some sort of noise is being emitted. Try calibrating the resonance imager again."
"This is Major Burrows. What's going on at the refinery, Watson?"
"Major, the seismic imaging equipment automatically turned on about an hour ago. It's been mapping the catacombs underneath the surface. They're definitely not natural – too many sharp turns and angular cutoffs. We've got a ping in the imaging."
"Charlie One Watson, this is Charlie Seven Keyes. The mics in my helmet just picked up whatever that equipment did. It's not a hardware error."
"Shit, whatever that noise is, it's heading our way. Holy hell, it's heading our way fast."
"Warsaw, this is Charlie One Watson. We've got large-scale unknown readings heading through the catacombs towards us. Requesting permission to bug out and return to perimeter. I repeat, we are requesting permission to, holy f-."
Watson's request for orders was cut off by a deafening roar over the speakers, as if the fury of a thousand voices were overpowering the platoon. They could hear the screams of humans, of Marines, yet over it all they heard a guttural scream, a primal din the likes of which none of them had ever heard before. The entire camp was on their feet within seconds, weapons pulled out and orders being shouted to Marines. The screams went on for what seemed like an eternity, chilling the nerves of those who could hear them through the artificial confines of the communications link.
Then all at once, it stopped as quickly as it had begun. No one spoke, lest a slight detail be missed. Every pair of eyes was fixed, rapt, on the speaker in the centre of the square. No one loaded their weapons, no one checked their omnitools. After nearly a half minute of silence, Watson came over the comm system, his voice panicked and frantic. "This is Lieutenant Watson. Charlie Platoon is dead, I repeat: Charlie Platoon is dead! We have encountered unknown hostiles, I repeat: Unknown hostiles. Recommend you get the fuck off this planet as soon as poss-." The rest was drowned out in static, as the line went dead.
Forty seconds of absolute stillness followed; no one said a word, and no one moved a muscle. It was Varlamov who finally broke the silence. "Major? Whatever they were picking up, it's heading our way." Shepard's attention went to the surface, as the ground beneath them started to shake. It was slow at first, but the seismic tremors rapidly became more pronounced; Marines began to lose their balance, and the composure of many of the younger solders in the detachment began to ebb away. Shepard joined his platoon at the east edge of the perimeter, their rifles loaded and pointing outward.
Burrows came sprinting into the centre of the square, quickly trying to establish a link to the Cruiser. "Warsaw, this is Major Burrows. Charlie Platoon has encountered extreme hostiles; all Marines in the platoon are presumed dead, Lt. Watson included. I am requesting an evac for all units of the Warsaw's battlegroup currently deployed to Akuze. Get the Kodiaks down here as soon as-."
He never finished his sentence.
Shepard watched in horror as the ground beneath Denali Square split open, in a hellish cacophony of concrete and shrieking. Out of the darkness it rose. The head was something out of a nightmare, with rows of spined and spinning teeth flanked by two powerful mandibles that pulled the Major into their depths. Jaws of bioluminescent blue snapped open, emitting a piercing shriek to the heavens that caused every Marine in the colony to freeze with fear. The monstrosity kept rising, collapsing the centre of Denali Square into a massive sinkhole. Its body was long and serpentine, its massive frame easily as thick as the largest of tree trunks back on Earth. Shepard felt his knees give way, as primal impulses commanded that he be awed and terrified of the leviathan that continued to rise from the depths. it was impossible to tell through the dust and chaos how long the thing must have been in total, but Shepard would have guessed easily a hundred feet. The creature rose sixty, maybe seventy feet into the air, before twisting itself back around. It dove, acid spraying from its jaws as it came down hard on a group of five marines from Echo Platoon. Shepard could hear their screams, hear as they were torn apart by row upon row of razor-like serrated teeth, as their flesh quickly boiled off their skin from the exposure to the acid. Just as quickly as it had come, the thing was gone, its body disappearing back into the depths.
All hell broke loose, as once-disciplined Marines felt the urge to survive take over their senses. A group of five from Alpha Platoon broke into an open run for the spaceport. They made it twenty yards, when a second monstrous serpent burst through the ground, consuming them just as quickly as the first group had died. A third one emerged from the now-burning ruins of a prefab shelter, smashing through the reinforced steel as if it were cardboard. It caught Varlamov and half of B Platoon with a burst of acid, burning their flesh down to the bone in a matter of seconds.
Shepard had heard stories of these things. The Alliance had never encountered them before, but they had a long and storied history in the fiery wastes of Tuchunka. Even the mighty Krogan were said to know fear when these leviathans erupted from beneath the battle-scarred wastes of the decimated planet. It could survive anywhere, even in the vacuum of space, live in any soil conditions, go decades without food or water, and were virtually impervious to gunfire, weapons-fire, temperature extremes, and even ship-mounted cannon fire. It was a word whispered with fear by surveyors on any new potential colony: Thresher Maws.
As the two-hundred foot leviathans continued to lay waste to the remnants of New Solitude, smaller crevasses erupted in the surface of the planet. Smaller, infant Thresher Maws – barely twenty feet in length – emerged from the bowels of the earth, pulling individual soldiers down with them. A corporal from Echo Platoon struggled frantically as the infant Maw quickly coiled itself around him, pulling both of them under into the crevasse. The screams continued for three or four seconds, then stopped abruptly, replaced by the sound of bones splintering.
Assad fired at anything that moved, hoping to at least stun even one of these infant monstrosities. He caught one that was advancing at Lt. Gillespie square in the side of its spinal plates, eliciting a roar of annoyance from the (comparatively) tiny creature. The thing leapt at him, its mandibles splayed wide and ready to tear into flesh. Shepard and the rest of Delta platoon poured fire at it, slowing it down in an indelible hail of bullets. After what seemed forever, the beast finally stopped advancing towards them, and gave a final quiver before collapsing into the ground in a pool of green blood. The ground beneath it boiled, as the highly-acidic blood mixed with the earth to sink the Maw's body back into the tunnels.
Assad turned to Shepard, "Thanks for the assist. Turns out you can kill these things." Yet he had left himself dangerously exposed, as another infant Maw erupted from the surface behind him, throwing itself jaws-first directly at the young corporal. The razor-sharp mandibles grasped around his neck, severing the spinal cord just above the shoulder-blades. His headless body was pulled down into the dust, as the Maw disappeared back into the tunnels. Twenty paces from them, a marine had gotten separated from his platoon, and was caught in the open in a group of six marines – including Lt. Marcos. They lasted a matter of seconds, as another of the massive horrors descended on them, its jaws open. The Maw plunged through the ground, carrying their six broken bodies with it into the depths.
"This is Lieutenant Edward Gillespie, Alpha Platoon. Evacuate the colony! Retreat to the spaceport, shuttles are on their way from the Warsaw. I don't care how you get there, I don't care who you get there with, just get the fuck off of this planet! Carlyle, watch your six, there's another of the big Maws on your tai-."
Shepard didn't need to be told. "Delta Platoon, get to the LZ! Move!"
He ran, not even because he had been ordered to, but because it was the only instinct his adrenaline-filled body would listen to. The destruction grew worse all around him, as the gargantuan horrors slaughtered what was left of the battlegroup; they were shredded alive by the spinning rows of teeth, dissolved in acid, or simply crushed by the sheer weight of the leviathans. To his left, half of his platoon sprinted for cover, as the remnants of the prefab colony were demolished around them.
He saw Emily trip and stumble into the dirt, saw as Adam Erickson slowed his pace to help her to her feet, watched in horror as the shadow of an enormous Thresher Maw darkened the sky above them. Her beautiful eyes connected with his for a single moment, filled with fear, regret, and sorrow. Time seemed to slow, as he gazed on her beautiful face for what he knew was the last time. As darkness incarnate descended upon them, she mouthed three words: "I love you." Then she was gone, buried in an inferno of dust, ash, and teeth. Shepard turned away, his eyes filled with tears. He pulled his gloved hands over his ears, willing himself to blot out the screaming emitted by his dying love.
He scrambled through the nearest prefab shelter, joining Toombs and the remaining four marines of his platoon. He saw Erickson attempt to duck left into another shelter, but was forced to watch as it too was consumed in a burst of acid from the nearest Maw. He saw the pained expression on Toombs's face, and knew that the young corporal would never be the same again. If they got out alive, none of them would be.
"Toombs, take Jade, Matthews, Malkin and Singh. Sweep around the far side and back to towards the shuttles. It's our only chance of escape! The Alliance needs to know what happened here!"
"Shepard, we have to search for survivors!"
"If we do, we're done for. There are maybe ten other marines still alive. If any of them made it out of the main square, they'll meet us at the spaceport. You heard Gillespie – it doesn't matter who we get there with, just fucking get there! Move move move!"
The five of them bolted through the back door of the prefab shelter. All around them, the night sky grew red with the fire from the smouldering buildings. They ducked, darted, twisted and dove through the wreckage of the colony, dodging bursts of acid as they made a desperate attempt to make it back to the shuttle. They were halfway to the edge of the settlement when the Maw burst through the ground directly in front of them. Malkin and Jade were killed instantly, as shards of twisted metal pierced right through their armour. He felt the impact of shards of rock and metal hitting him, heard the screams of Malkin and Singh, and then only silence as he lost consciousness. Falling, falling, forever falling.
New Solitude, Akuze, December 6, 2177, 0640 Hours
Pain, an agony unlike any he had ever felt before swept through his body, his nerves screaming as if they were on fire. His lungs gasped for air, and yet burned furiously, distilling their rage at their disturbance into his throat. He could barely feel his hands or feet, and wondered if had indeed lost them. Blood hazed over his vision, obscuring his view of the sky and turning the bright, young blue star into an orange eye of hate, vengefully staring down at the shredded remnants of New Solitude. Slowly, he became aware of his surroundings again. He was pinned under a massive metal beam, his torso feeling the strain of the added weight; he was almost certain that several ribs were cracked. He tried to lift it with his own strength, but his wounds, his exhaustion, and his mind-numbing pain inhibited him. Reaching into his subconscious, he tried to call up some flare of biotic power, anything that would get this damned beam off of him. He found nothing – no last reserve of strength, no final flare of awesome power. Resignation washed over him; he would die here, die on this blasted world that he had been sent to.
He would join them here, the nine men and women he had served with these past eight months. They had all died, slaughtered around him in their vain dash to find shelter. James and Adam Erickson had survived everything – the destruction of their homeworld of Mindoir, the Skyllian Blitz, the Ison Corridor Run – but had found their graves beneath the ruins of New Solitude. He had seen the few survivors disappear in a torrent of dust kicked up by another of the other-worldly horrors; no one could have survived that. Emily had been the most painful, the most bitter. Twelve hours before, they had been talking of their future, of the life they planned to build together, of the dreams they hoped to fulfill with each other, and now she was dead, her body mangled and broken by these…things. Unchecked, tears streamed down his face, conveying dozens of emotions – despair that all of his dreams had been taken from him in that one instant, rage at the unknown, unseen force that had decided that he would be the one to suffer this. Rage welled up inside of him, giving him that last reserve of strength; summoning every inch of biotic power he could muster, he threw the beam off. His legs screaming agony, he slowly lifted himself up, staring at the devastation in front of him. Nothing had survived –no building, no road, no person. Fires burned in the distance, lighting the dawn sky with hues of red and gold.
For the first time, and hopefully the last, in his life, he was completely and utterly alone.
"This is the Alliance Cruiser SSV Cape Town. Does anyone read? I repeat: Does anyone read?"
The voice over his comm-link jolted him back into reality: help was on the way. Slowly, struggling, his throat burning as he tried to speak, he responded. "This is Lieutenant John Shepard, N7 Marines, of the Third Advanced Recon Regiment, attached to the SSV Warsaw. I'm the only one left."
Silence on the other end, then incredulity. "Can you confirm, Lieutenant Shepard? Say again, you are the only one left?"
"Yes. Our detachment was attacked by Thresher Maws and wiped out. I just regained consciousness." His head felt like it was about to split open from pain; he could now definitely feel that several of his ribs were broken. His armour was cracked and disjointed; the plating below the knee was gone in its entirety,
"Uh…roger that, Lieutenant. We're deploying a Kodiak shuttle to the spaceport in New Solitude. Will you need medical assistance?"
"Yes, just…just get down here ASAP." Slowly, taking deliberate steps, Shepard began to limp back towards the spaceport. The sun's Western rising gave him the only hint of his location, and he followed the ruins as far as he could. The colony had suffered even further damage than when he had arrived. Virtually no building remained standing, and the soil was scarred with the signs of acid burns. The ground beneath his feet had become cracked and buckled, as the Maws had emerged from their tunnels time and time again. Bodies lay strewn all around him, most of them in gruesome stages of dismemberment. It took him a full ten minutes to reach the edge of the ruins of New Solitude; he was losing blood, fast. On the horizon, he could see the telltale engine pattern of a Kodiak Drop Shuttle, its small frame speeding towards him.
"This is K-4 of the Cape Town. Lieutenant, I've got you on my visual. Check your six! Good God, what is that thing?"
Behind him, the rubble of one of the prefab buildings shook, as an infant Thresher Maw wormed its way out of the wreckage. It spotted him immediately, rearing its mandibles in an aggressive stance. All at once, the adrenaline returned to him, giving his muscles a much-needed boost as he drew his pistol. With one hand he fired concentrated bursts at the creature's head, while with his left he summoned his biotic strength to him. He deployed his barrier just in time, as the Thresher Maw's lethal acid swirled around him, greatly sapping his strength but causing no actual harm to him. He trapped the Maw in a pull field, rendering it helpless as he guided it up off the ground. Holstering his pistol, he brought his right hand into a fist, drawing the energy together to summon a Biotic Warp directly at the infant Maw. The force of his biotics tore through the creature's carapace plating, drawing screams of rage and pain from its neon mouth. It thrashed in the air, desperately trying to overcome the field it was trapped in. Its thrashings served only to cause it more pain, as Shepard fired repeated rounds from his Kessler III directly into its softer underbelly, where the plates were not yet fully formed. At long last, the thing went limp, Shepard bringing it back down to earth with a thundering crash.
That got their attention. He could see the form of a fully-grown Thresher Maw in the distance as it arced up through the surface before burrowing again. The ground beneath him shook, as the rage of the planet's parasitic predators made itself known. Even the shuttle pilot could sense it. "This is K-4. The LZ is too hot. Get to the roof of the spaceport and we'll pick you up there."
Shepard bolted for the security of the building, leaping over the wall directly through a broken window. He criss-crossed the freight area with ease, knocking several crates out of his way with biotics as he ran. The ground was beginning to shake more violently now, and the telltale roar of the Thresher Maw could be heard in the distance. He took the nearest elevator, ascending to the highest level he could possibly go to. He ascended a final set of stairs to the roof of the spaceport.
The Kodiak waited at the edge of the roof, hovering two feet above the spaceport and waiting for him. Two marines – both marked in the insignia of the 5th Frontier Division – stood waiting to help him into the shuttle, while a medical officer was seated on the far side of the shuttle. He sprinted desperately across the roof, willing every aching muscle in his body to outrun the Thresher Maws that were quickly approaching the building. He jumped for the shuttle, connecting with the floor plate just below his shoulders. He heard a sickening crack, and knew that one of his ribs was now definitively broken. The two soldiers grabbed both of his forearms, hauling him into the shuttle as the spaceport behind them dissolved in a morass of teeth and scales. The shuttle's pilot gunned the engines, throwing the shuttle skyward and barely managing to avoid the leaping body of the Thresher Maw. The shuttle door closed behind him, sealing the compartment from the stiflingly hot air of Akuze.
The medic quickly came to examine him, tearing his chest armour open and pressing two fingers against his ribcage to feel for the broken bones. Shepard winced in pain as the broken rib flared up. The medic quickly scanned his chest with his omni-tool. "One broken rib, two additional cracked ones. Given enough sedative and time, you should be fine. Likely six weeks for a full physical recovery."
"You gave us quite a scare down there, Lieutenant." A fourth individual entered the compartment from the cockpit, bearing the unmistakable insignia of a Lieutenant Commander. "What the hell happened down there?"
Shepard could feel himself rapidly losing consciousness, as the pain from his wounds overwhelmed him. "We were…attacked…Thresher Maws…colony destroyed…all dead. They're all dead…tell my XO… I'm sorry." He collapsed in a heap as the medic applied a heavy sedative and painkiller to him, and his world went black.
SSV Normandy – 2183
"I woke up in an interrogation room, my hands and feet chained to the chair. They pressed a light into my face, bombarded me with questions: What were we investigating? Why had we been deployed? Why weren't proper safety protocols taken? How were the fifty best men and women in the Alliance wiped out in the space of five minutes? They put me in front of a Board of Inquiry – they thought the whole thing had been my fault."
He clenched his fists together, a subtle flare of his biotics accompanying his rage. "For six years, I was treated as mentally unstable, as a liability and a risk, someone who couldn't be trusted. For six years, every time I try to sleep I see the faces of my Marines staring back at me, accusingly, blaming me for their deaths."
Liara sat across from him, completely silent. Her eyes never left his face the entire time he spoke save to wipe several tears from them. Hers were tears of sorrow, for a life so completely torn apart and shaped by such horror.
"Those twelve hours changed my entire life. I'd never tell the Alliance this, but I've never fully recovered from that day. You're the first person I've told that to in its entirety. You must think me a coward, for locking those memories away, for avoiding any possibility of them being brought up."
"Shepard, I-," she paused, feeling a lump develop in her throat that seemed to prevent the words from coming out. "Goddess, I never knew. I'm so sorry for prying, I…I had to know."
"And now that you know, what do you think?"
Her eyes stared into his own. Strangely, he found himself becoming lost in their blue depths, mesmerized by the way the light seemed to dance in them. "There is something compelling about you, Shepard; I noticed that even when you first brought me on board the Normandy. You showed a remarkable will to live, you survived what others could not."
Shepard shook his head, "I was lucky. Nothing more, nothing less. Better men than me died on that planet."
Liara put both of her hands on his shoulder, pulling him so close that he could practically feel the heat of her breath against his face. "Listen to me. You were meant to survive Akuze. I don't know why, but you survived for a reason. In Asari understanding, every action is part of a greater, conscious whole. It didn't just happen because of luck; you survived because fate needed you to survive." She looked directly into his eyes, seeing the fire begin to return to them, "I need you to believe that. We all do."
Shepard was silent for a long time, his internal conflict visible in his expression. "I'm sorry I burdened you with this, Liara. I thought I'd managed to shut this all away a long time ago, but seeing Toombs alive, and realizing that the entire thing was a damn setup…it was too much." He removed her hands from his shoulders as he stood up and slowly walked towards his terminal. "But thank-you; you're the first person I've ever told about Akuze. I needed to get that off my chest."
Liara walked towards the door. "I appreciate it, Shepard. I care about you, and I don't want this to consume you." The door opened, as she returned to her quarters, "Goodnight, Shepard."
Shepard waited until the door had shut behind her, before returning to his bed. He hadn't realized just how much he had needed that catharsis, that release of pent-up emotion that had lingered for the five and a half years after the end of the formal investigation by the Alliance. It felt oddly freeing, to even just have told someone what happened on Akuze. It felt as if a great weight were being lifted from his shoulders, a burden that at last was not being lifted alone. No one – not his mother, not Anderson, not Hackett – had ever managed to pry those secrets loose, and yet Liara had done so. To be fair, no one had ever persisted in tying together the woven threads of his past nearly as much as she had, yet he felt as if it worked both ways; just as she had yearned to know, he had found himself wanting to tell her, wanting her to understand what he had gone through. She was different than the rest of the crew aboard the Normandy; she seemed drawn to him in a way that no one else on the ship was.
And he was beginning to feel drawn to her too. He had been puzzled when her eyes first appeared in his clouded and dream-filled vision, breaking the hold that the former Delta Platoon had once held on his subconscious memory. Yet there was so much about her that made it less surprising. She understood his connection to the Protheans, something that no one else on the ship could say, and she seemed to trust him implicitly. Shepard lay back on his bed, closing his eyes and slowly drifting off into sleep. He subconsciously waited for their faces to appear again, to stare at him accusingly, haunt his vision…
But they never did. For the first time in months, he slept a dreamless sleep, save for a single image that burned with a fire in his mind: Two bottomless, beautiful, azure Asari eyes.
Next – Chapter 7: Matricide