Chapter 7: Transit

Meghan Shepard crouched on the train as she received another message that chilled her to the bone, "Bravo here," and static interrupted as it had every transmission, "Nihulus - down. -Beware - turian - pursuing - bea-. Must locate - separate crates; Mission targ - transport. - spaceport."

"You know, it would fucking be nice to get a full, informative transmission at some point in the near fucking future," Meghan snarled, tapping on her 'tool in frustration.

Williams gestured out over the plain that was still visible from the slowly moving train. "I think that thing is doing something to our comms, Commander."

Tremaine nodded, "I think the Chief's right, Commander, ma'am. The cloud cover alone is messing with the satellite feeds. Who knows what else that geth ship could be doing."

What seemed to be plumes of smoke billowed from beneath the leviathan sized ship. It smoothly began to lift off the ground in a maneuver that would be impossible for any ship in known space. Lightning from the heavy clouds began to arc around the ship and the engines shook the ground until Shepard and her teammates had to hold on to something to stay on the train or get knocked off. Since the train was currently crossing a chasm, getting thrown off was not a good idea. The ground shook again, harder as the thing engaged its thrusters and the small team hung on to anything they could reach as the transport bucked on its rails, sparks flying from the console in front of Tremaine. He ducked his head and covered his face to protect himself. The train shuddered to a halt in the middle of the gorge.

"Murphy hates Shepards," Meghan muttered. Aloud she ordered, "All right, kids, let's get our asses in gear and hoof it to solid ground before that thing banks and drops us off the continental shelf!" The three of them scrambled off the front of the train and ran along the rails, avoiding the electrical cable down the middle that seemed to still be sparking. Meghan thanked God there were enough bracing brackets between the rails that they didn't have to slide along them. She thanked God again when they reached the other side with no one having fallen off the bridge and no geth having taken a shot at them. It was a long walk the rest of the way.


The entire god damn trip to that camp had been a wash. Alexis Shepard still fumed over that as she and Alenko travelled quietly via train at the space port, having already seen the alien dreadnought depart minutes earlier. They had learnt absolutely nothing useful from that civilian scientist and her crazy assistant that giggled in the shadows. Who the fuck giggles like that? she wondered as the image of Manuel came back to her. His thin frame rocking back and forth in place, wringing his hands together as he babbled about the end of humanity.

Just the thought of him made her skin crawl once more, and she felt her right hand curl back up into a fist. Damn it, she did not handle crazy. And to make things worse, while she had been stuck dealing with crazy Manuel and the oblivious Dr. Warren, someone had gone and fucking killed their Spectre escort. She sighed in frustration, needing something tangible to lash out against.

"Are you alright, Commander?" Alenko asked. Preferably not the attentive lieutenant, she chided herself as she felt her agitation level rise at his question.

"I'm fine," she managed through clenched teeth.

"You don't sound fine, Commander." He looked away and then back, "With all due respect, I mean."

Damn me and my big mouth. A cold snap of energy shot down her spine, the cool tingling traveling down to her fingers as she turned to look at him. "I'm fine, Lieutenant."

"Really?"

She saw an eyebrow raise again from behind his visor. She apparently was less than convincing at the moment, which only served to make her scowl in his general direction. She had no desire to talk, wanting to preserve her anger for what might be lying ahead, but he was being persistent. "Permission to speak freely, Lieutenant."

"Look, I could be wrong here, but you've seemed on edge…"

"Of course I'm on edge," she snapped, cutting him off. "We've got a dead Council Spectre now, in addition to everything else. And still nothing positive to show for us. Why wouldn't I be on edge?" Her tone was sharper than she would have liked.

Alenko didn't flinch from her words though, merely frowning some. "Is that what happened back at the camp then?" She narrowed her eyes at him, glaring silently as he continued. "I'm not questioning what you did. You said yourself that he was unpredictable, and it wasn't like we could have stayed there. But, you have been bristling ever since Manuel and uh, his nap."

"Bristling?"

"Your biotics, ma'am."

Damn it. She was not used to having someone other than her Shepards picking up on that bit. She sighed a bit. "Let's just say that crazy damages my calm. But I'll be fine."

"Are you sure?"

As observant as he was, the lieutenant still had quite a bit to learn about her, and vanguards, it appeared. She flashed him a grin. "Just find me something big and metal, and it will take care of itself."


"That is probably not a good sign, is it ma'am?" Fredricks stared up at the clouds, watching the alien monstrosity as it launched off the planet.

"No, Private, I doubt it." Ella Shepard sighed in agreement. "Since they seemed to be after the beacon too. Let's see if they left us anything, shall we?"

When the platform stopped shaking in reaction to the launch, glad we weren't on our way yet, Shepard carefully boarded the train, keeping an eye out for the mysterious turian, or geth, or husks, or some as yet undiscovered fourth new impossible enemy, while Fredricks took a look at the controls.

"Think I can get us going, ma'am." The soldier finally looked up. "This thing isn't designed for much besides shuttling back and forth. I think."

"Shuttle away, Mr. Conductor." Ella tried not to snicker at his shy grin. Damn, kid looks sixteen. I feel old. Did I look that young when I was a shiny new Louie? How the hell could the Major stand it? And why the fuck do I keep thinking about Kyle today? Shit. Cannot be a good omen. Shepard dug out another power bar to gnaw on as they started to pick up speed, rushing towards the port in the distance.

Damn smugglers mentioned the noise with the ship. I wonder...

"Bravo to Alpha. Bravo to Charlie. Approaching spaceport. Status? Over."

Ella grinned in relief as Meghan's voice came through the comm, clean and sharp and static-free. "Charlie here, copy. Also enroute."

"Alpha, en route to spaceport." Alexis' voice followed right after Meghan's, equally clear and crisp.

"Glad to hear your pretty voices. Nice to have comms again, now the giant space lobster took off."

Meghan snorted at Ella's description. "Fucking big assed ship nearly shook us into a ravine."

"Is everyone ok?" Alexis' voice was cool as always, the hint of worry probably only noticeable to Meghan and Ella.

"You know me, always land on my feet." Brash Meg was a very comforting sound. Having my Shepards as back-up is almost awesome enough to make up for this fuck-up of a mission. "But yeah, Charlie's intact as of acquiring the chief."

"Good to hear," Ella could hear the slight smile in Lex's voice. "Not sure on our ETA to the port. Keep me posted on any other developments. Shepard, Out."

Ella's lips curved in a smile herself, "Over and Out." She settled down next to Fredricks, both tight behind the main console of the train.


Williams flung herself behind an out cropping of rock and Tremaine crouched low and headed for higher ground. Meghan Shepard squatted and peered over the edge of her rock while the rain of bullets from a geth ambush pelted them. "Didn't we just leave this party?" she muttered, switching her shotgun for her pistol, the former being useless at this range. Aloud, she yelled, "Williams, do you see any of those creatures Bravo reported?"

"No, ma'am, not yet."

"Good, let's see how many of those flashlight heads we can take out. Crow's nest in position?"

"Aye, ma'am." Tremaine's soft and cocky voice came over the comm link.

"Then what're you waiting for? Target practice, Crow's nest." Meghan turned to Williams on the other side of the path. The Chief was firing in slow and steady bursts to prevent her weapon from overheating. "Williams? Cover me."

"Ma'am?"

"Those fuckers are going to take pot shots at us all afternoon, they're here to slow us down. What if the beacon was on that ship? What if it's awaiting shuttle transport once that ship is in orbit. What if that ship went after the Normandy?"

Meghan could see Williams' jaw clench under her helmet, "Prepared to utilize suppressive fire on your mark, ma'am." Meghan nodded and carefully glanced around her rock outcropping. Tremaine's rifle report cracked through the sudden silence in gunfire. She could count up to five geth crouched behind cover ahead of them, all of them refusing to duck out, lending credence to her idea they were just a stalling tactic.

There. Two of them had crouched behind the same rock. Shepard threw one of her grenades as hard as she could to make it over the rocks. When it reached the two geth, she hit the detonator in her 'tool and the explosive device took out both unshielded machines. She stood up, still crouched over and headed around the other side of her rock. The remaining three geth seemed to be concentrating on Wiliams' position and on keeping their flashlight heads down out of Tremaine's range. Charging around her boulder, Shepard prepared the mnemonic for throw (lift maybe, if it's going up in the sky for the sniper?) and managed to get one of them airborne where Tremaine's sniper rifle ended its artificial existence. Before the other two could train their weapons on Shepard, she charged forward at a run, firing her shotgun at the same time. One of the black-painted metal bodies fell at her feet the other managed to completely knock out her shields before Williams' bullets decimated it. Shepard stood panting, her overheated shotgun in her limp grasp.

She heard Williams and Tremaine approach, "Well, that was exhilarating." The small group turned to continue up the path, but a metallic shrieking sound froze Shepard in her tracks. "I really hope that's not what I think it is."

Williams brought her weapon up, and Tremaine peered through his scope. "I'm afraid you're right again, ma'am," the chief replied, her voice strained.

From behind the treeline several quickly moving grayish corpses came running. Running straight for the three soldiers, however, they made easy targets. A few of them managed to get close enough to let off the lightning storm of a surge they'd been warned about but were shot down before they actually managed to build enough charge to blow up. It didn't take them long to wipe out the handful of mechanical husks that had charged them. "Were these colonists?" Tremaine sounded ill.

"Or marines?" Williams sounded equally nauseated.

"You can't think about it. Let's go."


The train lurched to a stop as it arrived at the spaceport, the docking platform eerily quiet and vacant. Welcoming party must be elsewhere, Alexis mused to herself with a silent laugh. She then hopped off the train and took point as she led the way to the ramp leading up towards the causeway that connected the docking platforms to the rest of the spaceport. She readied her assault rifle as Alenko fell in step behind her.

As they neared the top of the ramp, she could see on the far side of the causeway another walkway, littered with crates, that looked like it led to the actual port terminal. The entire expanse followed the length of a structural wall, and, despite being open to the immediate environment, offered ample hiding places. Great for another fucking ambush. She and Alenko kept low, wanting to take advantage of what little cover was available.

As expected, they had not gotten halfway down the causeway when they began taking fire from geth troops that had been hiding behind the crates. She ducked quickly behind a low metal plate she was passing, feeling the warmth of the lieutenant's leg press against hers as he squeezed into cover beside her. Enemy fire ricocheted loudly against the plate as the geth bore their weapons down on the position.

"Damn it…" She peered to the end of their path. There wasn't much there as it led primarily to the crates the geth currently were holed up around. The other way was a dead end, just another small platform with a crate and a wall brace, but it sure as hell beat the exposed area that they were trying to utilize. "How fast can you run?"

"Fast enough, ma'am. Where to?" he asked over the continued barrage of fire against their small barricade.

"There," she leaned in closer to him as she indicated the dead end, catching a hint of aftershave as it mingled with the his now familiar scent of sweat and scorched ozone. "Move on my mark," she ordered. She heard his quiet acknowledgment as she listened to the cadence of the weapons. There was no distinguishable rhythm or pattern, but she had noticed before that there was the slightest of pauses every dozen seconds or so.

Three. Three. Four. Four. Five. "Go," Shepard ordered as she sprang from cover, bringing her rifle around for a quick burst of suppressing fire. She then sprinted towards the end of the path, matching pace with the lieutenant as she grabbed one of her grenades. Their sudden movement took the geth by a bit of surprise and they were unable to adjust their fire as the crates they used as cover became an obstruction for both sides.

As they neared the end of the path, the weapons fire ceased, and she skidded to a stop just before the edge of the first crate, grabbing hold of Alenko's arm to keep him from moving beyond her. She gave him a quiet shake of her head as she waited half a heartbeat before she chucked the grenade in her other hand.

"Move it, soldier," she called out to him as she detonated the grenade. She used the distraction of the grenade to allow them to fall back into the dead end. She quickly dropped for cover behind the crate as Alenko slipped in behind the wall brace.

She leaned out from cover briefly; firing off another barrage of suppressing fire at the geth that faced them head on down the "new" path. In the distance, a large, bulky geth stood apart from the others. It was hard to discern what was different about it, as it was at the far end of the path. She ducked back behind the crate as the geth began a new wave of weapons fire in their direction. "Shouldn't these things have left with their ship?" she shouted

"Sorry, Commander, I guess they missed their flight?" Alenko shouted back as he leaned out to fire his pistol.

"Apparently, no one's pointed out they've worn out their welcome!" Shepard threw a geth trying to sneak up on them.

Alenko grunted as he threw another, "I guess that's our job, ma'am!"

Alexis leaned out long enough to shoot another geth, "Sometimes, Lieutenant, our job sucks!"


Thank you, god, for shipping crates. Ella Shepard ducked behind a large grey box, glancing over at Fredricks where he was using a support beam for the upper levels of the 'port as cover of his own. The platform at the spaceport had been quiet, but as soon as they'd started up the stairs to the shipping complex they'd found a proper swarm of geth awaiting them. They'd made their way through the maze of walkways to a large open warehouse, where the machines were oddly concentrated at the far end, refusing to advance and confront the marines directly. Almost as if they're protecting something?

"Let's try something different, Private Slow and steady should be a decent change of pace, right?" The commander moved over just long enough to trigger a lift at the closest geth.

"Whatever you say, ma'am." Fredricks leaned sideways and poured bullets at the floating trooper with his assault rifle. They both paused for a moment, back in cover, until they heard the crash of the dead machine as it hit the ground.

"You're very agreeable, Private," Shepard commented, as she eyed the mass of shipping containers shoved all around the warehouse for the best route forward. Catching his eye, she pointed toward another pillar at 11 o'clock with her chin, then lifted five fingers and started counting down. At one, she pointed him in the right direction, and popped up to give him covering fire as he dashed across the short stretch of open floor.

They leapfrogged carefully through the storage facility, slowly getting more and more of the troopers in range of their weapons fire. Finally there was just one group of geth remaining, several of the now familiar blue-black geth version of infantry, as well as two that seemed to be a dark red in tone.

"See if you can work your way back behind that crane." Shepard suggested quietly from behind the latest batch of crates. "I'll jump around and wave my arms and try and keep their focus over here."

"Shooting at them might be more effective, Commander," the young man suggested shyly.

Shepard had to swallow a bark of laughter that would have echoed gloriously through the open metal room. "Thanks for the advice, Fredricks. I'll keep that in mind. Now, shoo."

"Aye aye, ma'am," he nodded as he slipped off to the side.

Heading in the opposite direction, Shepard stopped trying to move quietly, and opted for a loud thudding run, shooting through the crates every time she had an opening. She had been thrilled to be capturing their attention so successfully, until she saw a familiar plume of smoke from one of the red figures, and dove desperately across the floor, rolling behind the nearest crate as the splash damage from the bloody fucking rocket scorched her toes, overloading both her shields and barrier.

Well, that was fun, Ella panted to herself as she waited for her protections to recharge before attempting another dash. At least Fredricks would know what the red troopers were capable of, and no one had died to figure it out. Oooh, look at me, channeling my inner optimist. Hi there, jelly-bean. Haven't seen you much the last thirteen years. Blowing out one short breath in preparation, Shepard ducked out of cover, shooting a lift at the closest red geth before continuing on her zig-zag path through the warehouse, trying to get close enough that they couldn't aim another rocket at her.

The sharp report of Fredricks' sniper rifle taking out the flying rocket trooper signified the soldier's successful attempt to find a good vantage point. Ooh-rah Private. I love having a decent sniper as back-up. The next batch of infantry were relatively easy pickings, but Shepard noticed with growing unease that his last few shots had all come from about the same location. Get yourself moving, Fredricks, can't count on them being too stupid to find you.

Peering around her latest batch of cover, Shepard saw the last three geth all facing in the wrong direction. Towards Fredricks. One red rocket trooper, protected by two standard blue infantry models, and what looked like a rocket launcher up on its shoulders.

"Move it, Private!" Ella shouted through her comm as she charged out of cover. Please let this work, please let this work, seeing the plume of smoke from another rocket being fired, fucking hell please let this work and not be too late. Shepard prepared her least favorite mnemonic and attempted a singularity, hoping she'd actually get the result she was going for. She'd only had about a week to learn the damn thing from an asari guest instructor at N training, and it almost never did quite what she expected.

As the field she'd flung in their midst contracted, all three geth started floating, then spinning slowly around the steady blue core, mechanical limbs waving helplessly through the white corona surrounding them. Throwing an illegally modified grenade at the heavy red geth in the middle, Shepard ran right past them, heading towards the rocket's splash zone to check on Fredricks.

She ducked behind the smoking remains of the crane he'd used for his first bit of cover, avoiding looking too closely at the twisted, overheated struts so as not to encourage her imagination's contemplation of the same thing happening to human limbs. Her squad read-out had never reloaded after the husk explosion, but her radar was picking up his suit's signal several yards ahead of her. He's still not moving. Why isn't he ...

Her worried thoughts stumbled to a halt as her grenade finally detonated behind her, an unusual sizzling sound continuing after the blast. Risking a careful glance back over her shoulder, Shepard paused a moment, eyes wide as she saw the metallic forms sparking and smoking, extremities dissolving into embers from the thermal paste Powell had handed over when he thought she was going to shoot him. Damn, I need to get more of that. As an added precaution, Shepard fired a few extra rounds into the bodies after the singularity failed and they fell to the floor with a clatter. That seems to be that, she sighed with relief, her radar clear of anything beyond one solitary blue dot. Let's hope Fredricks is in better shape than expected as well.

Finally tracking down the private's signal, Shepard found herself in the far corner of the warehouse, the young man still and flat against the wall. Fucking hell ... not again. She felt a surge of relief when she got close enough to recognize the locked joints of a suit in stabilization mode. It only bothered triggering the full medical program if the body inside was still alive. Of course, it only did a full lock-down if there was severe blunt trauma and the programming thought the likelihood of cracked bones and internal injury was high, but he was breathing and had a pulse, according to the hasty diagnostic she ran, which was about the extent of her medical and tech skills combined. That was just going to have to be good enough for the moment. Course, the private's got himself heavy armor, and a locked suit is not very mobile. Hope we don't need to go anywhere else, as I doubt I can drag him very far without killing him.

Turning in a slow circle, Shepard was relatively pleased with their location. The blast had blown him close to the back wall, behind some crates, with as decent a view of the rest of the warehouse as she was likely to get. She walked around the crates sheltering Fredricks, looking for the best location to wait until she could call in an extra pair of hands. More crates. Nothing to climb, nothing to move for extra fortifications, nothing at all, really.

Except a heavy cylindrical piece of tech that the bad guys were trying to guard ... Shepard took one step closer to the unknown object she'd discovered in a corner, before hearing her comm sputter back to life with a message from Charlie. Aw fuck.