AN:- Remember when I used to write 1000 word Author's Notes?
Chapter Nine: Priority Palaven
"Are you alright?" Liara asked quietly as they gathered in the cargo hold. Vega and Cortez were distracted getting their equipment ready while Shepard stood by the armoury.
"I didn't sleep well," she said. "Bad dreams."
"I think you're allowed," Liara said, giving her a gentle bump with her shoulder. "We can talk about it later, alright?"
"Alright." Shepard smiled at her. "I'm really glad you're here Liara."
"Me too."
Shepard snapped her pistol to her back and turned to Vega and Cortez. "Alright. The situation on Palaven is already desperate. But Menae still seems to be holding out. That's where we're going to find our Primarch. The mission is simple. We get in, we find the Primarch and get him on board the Normandy, and we get out of here."
"Wait." Vega frowned. "We get out? There's a war going on down on Palaven and we're not even going to try and help?"
Shepard felt his pain, but she kept her face impassive. Seeing the reports from the galaxy map had been one just another body blow. Reapers infested the system. Continents were burning on the planet, and every satellite or defence station had been brought down.
"The Reapers are here in almost as big a force as Earth. The Normandy is one ship still on a skeleton crew. We're not going to have any effect here by fighting, but we just might affect the war itself if we can get the Primarch out."
"Understood Captain."
"It's gonna be a hot LZ Cortez. You up for that?"
"I'll drop you on top of the Primarch's head if you want me to Captain."
"Glad to hear it."
The comm system chimed and Joker's voice came over. "Captain. We're approaching our drop zone."
"Understood Joker." She nodded to her crew. "You heard the man. Get ready for drop."
/|\
Dropping out of the Normandy's stealth bubble was harrowing, seeing the sensors suddenly light up with the thousands of red dots that indicated enemy fleets. They had surrounded Palaven completely, with hundreds more encircling all of the inhabited moons. Even as Shepard watched the screen half a dozen blue dots disappeared. She could only imagine the carnage going on outside, ships ripped apart under the Reaper beams.
"Oh no… no… Palaven." Liara had come up behind her, watching the viewscreen as it began to display hazy images of the planet below. The communications were in shambles, almost completely jammed, but they could still see the fires burning for what must have been hundreds of miles on the planet's surface.
Shepard looked back to her, seeing Vega's curious look.
"We have an old friend there," she said.
Vega came up to join them, watching the viewscreen list the ever dwindling blue dots. "Holy hell. They're getting decimated."
"Strongest military in the galaxy and the Reapers are obliterating them." She closed her eyes and spared a thought for Garrus, wherever he was.
"Was it like this on Earth?"
"Yes."
"Shepard… I'm so sorry."
There were no words.
They swept in over Menae, and the viewscreens change to show the ongoing battle on the surface. Cortez opened the channel from the cockpit. "Captain, the LZ is getting swarmed."
Shepard pulled her sniper rifle off her back and unfurled it, already itching to get into the fight. "Open that hatch."
"Aye aye."
He opened the hatch to reveal the battle raging in full force. From dozens of outposts they could see the flash of rifle fire as the turians held a last desperate defence. Husks swarmed everywhere, crawling straight up the sheer rock faces of the lunar surface. Shepard could see turian emplacements, some with soldiers still on the ramparts firing into the horde while others were abandoned.
She set her rifle to her shoulder and sighted down the scope, instantly finding an enemy. She fired and the shot tore the husk in two, splattering the black ichor across the surface. She cycled the action and the heat sink flew out and spiralled out of the shuttle.
An assault rifle cracked next to her and she glanced over to see Vega unloading into the crowd as well. Well placed bursts of fire dropped husks all over the battlefield. On his other side Liara opened fire with her submachine gun, spraying fire all along the ranks. Shepard set her rifle back to her eye and fired again, blasting a husk's head into mist.
Cortez brought the shuttle down fast, almost scraping the surface. They continued to fire the whole way along until he had found a place they could set down near the main barricade. The comms coming from Menae were confused at best but they were able to ascertain that a General Corinthus was running most of the operations from one location.
They piled out of the shuttle and Cortez pulled away, heading for their designated wait zone. There weren't many safe places in system, but they had found a place where the shuttles signature should have been masked by the intense electromagnetic fields. One saving grace of a Reaper invasion.
There were a few husks left at the LZ but Shepard barely even noticed them. She had put down enough by now that they barely even registered as a threat. Vega still seemed a little wary of them, and put nearly half a clip into both of the two he dropped.
There was a turian fortification ahead of them, with one soldier still manning it. Two dead turians lay against the back wall, their armour ripped open and blood staining the deck.
"Soldier!" Shepard called. "Which way to your commanding officer?"
"Straight ahead and around the corner, past the first barricade."
"This position isn't going to hold, you should fall back."
"Not until I receive orders to that effect."
"You're about to be overrun."
"With respect, I follow my orders."
Shepard bit the inside of her cheek and nodded. "Understood."
Vega took the lead as they moved forward, Shepard and Liara staying close. It was close quarters on the uneven moon, with a lot of outcroppings of rock that might hide an ambush. Overhead turian fighters twisted and spun, firing almost constantly at the Reapers ships. They were clearly losing, and even as Shepard watched one of the fighters broke apart, fire gouting from breaches in the hull.
They rounded a corner and in the distance saw a Reaper, flying down to the surface of Menae. It seemed like the Reapers had finally realised where the turian military was.
Liara gasped as it came down. "That Reaper is enormous."
"Saw bigger ones on Earth," Vega said gruffly. "A whole lot of them."
"Goddess."
"We have to keep moving."
Up ahead they could see the barricade, soldiers on the walls and several mounted turrets. One of them swivelled towards them and her heart jumped for a moment, but then it turned away and she heard a voice from up above. "Hold your fire, friendly inbound."
A section of the wall began to fold down, giving them an entrance ramp to enter into the compound. All around there were turians racing, some carrying ammunition boxes, others trailing cables or metal panels. She overheard one of the soldier talking about a downed communications tower, and another talking about a front breaking and falling.
General Corinthus was easy enough to spot. The main pre-fab shelter that served as his base showed signs of battle damage. There was a pile of bodies alongside it and a burning stack of husks off to one side of the base. Clearly the defences weren't going well.
As she marched up the ramp to join Corinthus he was barking orders to his subordinates.
"Tobestik, get your men up on that north barricade. Sergeant Bartus, find a way to get that comm tower operational."
Both turians hurried off to carry out his orders and he turned to her. She immediately felt the calm cool presence of an authority figure. She snapped a salute almost on instinct. "General."
"Commander Shepard. Heard you were coming, but I didn't believe it. General Corinthus."
She didn't bother to correct him on her title. "I've come to get Primarch Fedorian."
Corinthus looked away. "Primarch Fedorian is dead. His shuttle was shot down an hour ago as it tried to leave the moon."
That's gonna complicate things.
"We need a Primarch," she said.
"The turian hierarchy provides very clear lines of succession," Liara said.
"General?"
"With such heavy casualties, it's hard for me to be certain who the next Primarch is. Palaven Command will know." He opened a screen on his command table to show her the error messages. "However, at the moment, contacting them is impossible. The comm tower is out. Husks are swarming that area, we can't get close enough to repair it."
"We can get that tower up."
"Thank you Commander. I'll hold the fort here as best I can."
She cast a look back around the camp. "How bad is it General?"
"We just lost about four hundred men in half an hour. We set up camps on this moon as an advance position, to flank the enemy. A sound strategy, just…"
"Irrelevant."
"Exactly. The sheer force of the Reapers seems to make them immune to that sort of tactic. The Primarch and his men found that out the hard way."
"I'm sorry," she said. "I hear he was a good man."
"And a friend. He would have been an outstanding diplomat." Another officer ran up and Corinthus turned to speak with them. Shepard turned back to her squad.
"All right, let's go."
They tramped out of the command centre, heading for where the comm tower rose out of the landscape. It was visible for miles around, making it an easy target for the Reapers. Shepard was surprised it hadn't been shot down entirely by any of the fighters, but she would take whatever small victories they could get.
The barricade opened again to let them out and they raced for the comm tower, clambering over rocks and boulders. It was on the highest level around, which made sense, and would have helped with fortifying it. There were bodies strewn all around, turian and husks. Spent heat sinks and broken weapons and all the signs of a hard fought battle.
One last group pf turian soldiers was at the top of the incline, near the comm tower. One of them was down, the other two guarding his body. "You here to help?" One of them called as he saw their team approaching.
"That's the plan."
"We've got husks all over that thing. They overwhelmed us. It's like they came out of nowhere."
Shepard looked over and saw a small group of husks clustered at the base of the tower. "We have some experience with this," she said. "Vega, snipers. Liara, be ready."
"Yes Shepard."
Vega didn't have quite her skill with a rifle, and his rifle didn't pack quite the punch of hers, but his aim was good enough, and he blew one of the husk's heads clean off as Shepard's shot punched through two of them at once. As the husks turned to find where the shots were coming from Liara threw out a pulse of biotic energy and a singularity opened up in the middle of them, crushing the bodies together.
Shepard and Vega reloaded, scanning the field to see another group of husks emerging from behind a cluster of rocks. They fired again in unison and two of the husks dropped dead. Liara opened fire and stitched a line of submachinegun fire across the front row. Vega switched to his assault rifle and the heavy crack joined the chatter of Liara's gun. Shepard grabbed her pistol and dropped the last few husks still standing with precise headshots.
Maybe a dozen husks. She couldn't believe that was the force which had driven back the turians. She signalled for her team to stay on guard, then signed Vega forwards. He moved slow, sweeping his gun from side to side and covering his corners.
There was a huge rocky outcropping that cut the flat plain in two. Shepard switched to her submachine gun and motioned for Liara and Vega to stay on course while she took the other path. It was empty as well, though she could see where the dirt had been churned up by hundreds of feet trampling over it.
They reconvened at the tower, checking the panel to see it had been savaged by the husks. Another small mercy, they didn't understand that to fully disable the tower they needed to do more damage than just to the access terminal.
"We can't repair it from this panel," Liara said.
"Vega, you're up for tower repair."
Vega nodded. "On it. Might take me a while but I'll do my best."
He headed up the tower while Shepard and Liara gathered up the few heat sinks that were scattered around the base. As she had expected, the second Vega started to make his repairs there was a metallic screech from the cliff edge and husks began to emerge, clawing their way up and over and sprinting for the tower.
Liara glowed and a singularity appeared out over the drop-off, yanking the husks off the cliff and dropping them down again. Shepard opened fire, knocking down any that avoided Liara's attack. When her submachinegun was empty she switched to her pistol and took another dozen down. Liara fired as well, helping her to keep them back.
Something grabbed Shepard's ankle and she looked down, seeing a thin grey hand wrapped around her leg. She kicked to free herself but more hands erupted from the dirt, yanking her off her feet and holding her down. She lashed out with her arms and legs, trying to free herself, but there were dozens of them, holding her down and pulling her into the earth. Heads broke free and she stared into the gaping maw of a husk as it leaned down over her, screaming.
Bullets kicked into the dirt and the husks began to let her go. A hand grabbed her wrist roughly and yanked her to her feet and off the dirt, pulling her safely onto the metal base of the comm tower. Shepard shook herself and made sure she was still holding her pistol, reloading it and looking down to see more husks pulling themselves out of the ground.
Gunfire roared from above and she looked up to see Vega firing down at their position. Liara and Shepard fired together and they started to make a dent in the horde. Over by the cliff again she could see more of them rising, dozens of glowing blue eyes and hanging mouths.
All at once volleys of fire started to come in from the side, and she looked over to see a line of turians up on the ridge to the left, firing down into the crowd. Between their combined fire the mass dropped to the ground and after several seconds the ridge was still again.
Breathing deeply Shepard activated her comm unit. "General do you read, the comm tower is now operational."
"Much appreciated Commander." The line came through clear and strong. "I'll contact Palaven Command."
"Let me know when you've got something. We're coming in now."
Liara helped her to her feet and spat into the dirt, clearing her mouth of some of the sharp tang of adrenaline. Vega dropped down from above and reloaded his gun. "That was hairy."
"Only the beginning LT." Shepard reloaded as well and straightened. "Come on, back to the command post."
Her nerves were all on alert as she led the way back through to the central base, but they weren't attacked again. The gunfire from the area around them was constant now though. Clearly the husks had broken through another line. It ate at her to know they were about to ask the turians to lose a leader on a half-baked plan, but the three of them weren't going to turn the tide of the battle. The Normandy wouldn't turn back the Reapers.
They sprinted through the barricade and raced over to Corinthus.
"What have you got?" Shepard said as they reached the command table.
"As your partner said, succession is usually simple. But right now, the hierarchy's in chaos. So many dead or MIA."
"I need someone, I don't care who." She knew she sounded callous, but she didn't care. "As long as they can get us the turian resources we need."
"I'm on it Shepard." It was a voice she knew, and her heart leapt to hear it. She hadn't realised how scared she had been. "We'll find you the Primarch."
"Garrus!" She turned to see him limping up the ramp, grinning at her.
"Vakarian sir!" The General snapped to attention. Shepard raised an eyebrow to Garrus, but he didn't respond. "I didn't see you arrive"
"At ease General."
Corinthus nodded and went back to ordering his men around while Garrus and Shepard stepped aside to talk.
Shepard almost pulled him into a hug on instinct, but settled for squeezing his forearm. "Good to see you again. I thought you'd be on Palaven."
He shook his head. "If we lose this moon, we lose Palaven. I'm the closest damn thing we have to an expert on Reaper forces, so I'm... advising." He sounded thrilled at the idea.
She turned to the rest of the squad. "Vega, this is Garrus Vakarian, he helped me stop the Collectors. He's a hell of a soldier." That was about the mildest way she could have phrased it.
Garrus nodded to him, and she recognised the caution in his tone. "Lieutenant." He shifted his gaze to Liara and his face broke into a genuine smile. "Good to see you too Liara."
"Good to see you in one piece Garrus." She actually did hug him, though he looked stiff as a board while it happened.
"General Corinthus filled me in. I know who we're after."
"Glad someone does."
Corinthus came back to join them. "Palaven Command tells me that the next Primarch is General Adrien Victus."
"Victus?" Liara nodded. "His name's crossed my desk."
Shepard was going to have to talk to Liara about her resources. "Know him Garrus?"
"I was fighting alongside him this morning. Lifelong military, gets results. Popular with his troops. Not so popular with military command, has a reputation for playing loose with accepted strategy."
She didn't want a loose cannon on the team. And if Garrus described his tactics as 'playing loose' she didn't know what this guy might be like. "What do you mean?"
Liara answered. "On Taetrus, during the uprisings, his squad discovered a salarian spy ring about the same time the turian separtists did. Rather than neutralise the ring he fell back. He even gave up valuable fortifications, which the rebels took."
Shepard at once saw the strategy. "Then the rebels attacked the salarians." Garrus confirmed her suspicions. "And when both groups had worn each other down, Victus moved back in. didn't lose a man." Good strategy.
"Bold strategy," Corinthus said. "But wild behaviour doesn't get you advanced up the meritocracy."
"Primarch Victus," Garrus said, grinning again. "That should be something to see."
She got to the meat of it. "You think he can get the job done?"
"We both know conventional strategy won't beat the Reapers. Right now he could be our best shot. And I trust him."
And that was a recommendation she could trust. "Okay. Let's get him on the shuttle and get out of here."
As they stepped out of the command post her comm buzzed again and Joker's voice came over the line. "Captain! Shepard come in!"
"Can this wait Joker? We're in the middle of a war zone."
"We've got a situation on the Normandy Captain. It's like she's possessed, shutting down systems, powering up weapons. I can't find the source."
That wasn't comforting. In the middle of a battle ground they needed the Normandy at full operational capacity, not breaking apart.
"Should I go back and take a look?" Liara asked.
The last thing she wanted was for them to be separated again, but it made sense. And it was probably safer for Liara to not be in the warzone. Shepard nodded. "Do it." Liara hurried off, already signalling the shuttle. Shepard turned to Garrus. "You said you were with Victus this morning?"
"Yeah, but we got separated, he went to bolster a flank that was breaking. Could be anywhere out there."
"We're trying to raise him Commander." Corinthus called from the command post.
As Shepard was trying to cycle through her best options Vega suddenly shouted, dragging the rifle off his back. "Incoming Harvester, heading for the airfield!"
She had no idea what a Harvester was, but it very quickly became obvious. A monstrosity of too many legs and mechanical bat-like wings. As it whipped overhead she remembered the encounter on Tuchanka with the Thresher Maw. They had fought something called a Harvester then as well. Clearly the Reapers had taken to stealing more than human bodies to make their husks.
It was gone from overhead before any of them could even get a shot off, disappearing just beyond the horizon. She turned to Corinthus. "General, tell Primarch Victus we'll rendezvous here. In the meantime let's go take care of whatever that thing dropped off." At his nod she turned back again to her squad. "Coming Garrus?"
"Are you kidding?" He had his sniper in his hand and a broad smile on his face. "I'm right behind you."
They ran again, heading for the airfield. As they jogged Shepard could hear Vegas panting hard. They had been at full tilt for a while now, and while her implants left her able to deal with that he had no such aid. She couldn't resist a little dig. "That you breathing so hard Vega?"
"Atmosphere's a little thinner than I'm used to is all." They reached the barricade and it lowered to let them out into the airfield. "Adrenaline's better than oxygen any day."
AN:- The biggest addition to this chapter was probably the husks coming out of the ground at Shepard and dragging her under. It just seemed like a suitably creepy addition to the situation.
