Chapter 10: Hold the line
General Williams Memorial Bridge – Elysium
Shepard watched as a wide smoke column rose above the mountains, coming from what used to be Fort Constantine. News stations spoke of a fire storm with intense heat that made it hard for the Alliance to extinguish it. Sometimes a survivor would be found but these were few and far between, anyone not in the vault during the bombardment was gone.
"I'm not letting her through, she's a batarian for Christ sakes!" A man yelled behind him. "Just because she has kids, that doesn't give her a free pass!"
"I know her, she's my neighbor you moron. You have no right to keep them out."
"Read. My. Lips. She's not getting past this checkpoint. Tell her to go back the way she came from."
He turned around and saw a situation that was rapidly growing out of control. A gung ho colonist was aiming his submachine gun at a frightened batarian mother with two small children hiding behind her. In front of the family was another colonist with spread arms, standing in the line of fire. This was exactly he'd feared what could happen when they got reinforced with volunteer colonists. Overzealous people gunning down their own instead of the slavers they were supposed to shoot.
"Put that gun down, now!" He ordered as he signaled some marines to join him. With their help he began pushing his way through the bystanders that had gathered around the checkpoint. The colonist was surprised when Shepard placed himself right in front of him but didn't back down.
"She could be a spy sergeant, trying to gather as much information as she can before sending it back to her masters."
"With what?" He countered. "She doesn't even have an omni-tool, or do you think that's she going to deploy smoke signals?" He brought his face right to the colonist's. "I'm not going to repeat myself. Either you put down that Shuriken or I'll send you to the other side of that bridge. Then you can ask the pirates in person if she works for them."
Realizing he was left with no choice the colonist backed off and walked away, muttering insults under his breath. The crowd slowly dispersed now that the situation was resolved, resuming their previous activities.
"Thank you human, I don't know what would have happened if you hadn't shown up." She shook her head sadly. "We always were shunned by some colonists but this war made it even worse."
"Don't mention it, I was glad to help. Are you going to be okay from here on?"
"Yes I think so, I'm going with my children to the hospital. We should be safe there." She smiled thankfully. "Stay safe, this galaxy needs more people like you."
With her children in tow, the batarian joined the last group of refugees heading for the hospital. With no signs of new refugees coming from the Illyria plains, it was safe to assume that the next person coming across the bridge wouldn't be friendly.
"This is private Logan, bridge team can you hear me?" A male voice asked over his helmet transmitter.
"Shepard here, I read you Logan."
"Sarge its bad here, the slavers have finished burning down and looting the outside settlements. They are moving up through the forest to the bridge, I'm guessing they'll reach you in ten minutes."
"Can you leave without alerting them?"
"I'm gonna try but it's almost impossible, they're moving right underneath the tree I'm hiding in. God there's so many of them. How are we going to stop them? I mean …"
Suddenly Shepard could hear the telltale sound of gunfire. "Logan! What's going on? Logan, can you hear me?"
"They've seen me! Well let's see if they like this! Yeah how do you like that you four eyed freaks, want some more?" The scout yelled over countless grenade explosions. "I'm clear I think, you better get ready sarge, there's an whole army of them coming."
"Understood, get back here as soon as you can." He ended the conversation and patched into the main channel for his bridge team, waiting time was over.
"Everyone to their positions, our guests will arrive soon. Let's give them a warm welcome." He ordered. "Wait until you see the white of their eyes, we want them to get close to us."
"Blue Devil squadron standing by bridge team, when you need us just say the word. We've got some ordnance just waiting for a mark."
"Glad to have you, stay on this frequency until we call for you." He pulled the Vindicator from his back the and rushed to the main barricade. All around him people were taking cover and preparing their weapons. Waiting for the slavers to poke their ugly heads out. This mixed group of Alliance marines and volunteer colonists was the only fighting force left between Illyria and the invaders.
Most of the colonists were inexperienced fighters but what they lacked in skill they more than made up for with their reckless enthusiasm. This was their home and they would fight to the death to protect it. The presence of Alliance marines was also a huge boost to morale, it showed the colonists that they weren't alone in this fight. In preparation of the upcoming battle, marines had begun instructing the colonists in the use of fire arms. For many it was the first time in their lives they would be firing a gun.
He crouched behind the barricade besides Rachel and Lee. Both were scanning the forest with their sniper rifles. Anyone unfortunate enough to be walking into their crosshairs wouldn't be living to tell about it.
"You guy's ready for this?" He asked with his trademark smirk.
"Please, I was born ready Shepard you know that. The only thing I'm scared of is that miss perfect here will be stealing my kills." Lee replied.
"Guess you'll have to punish me then, if you can catch me that is." She teased back.
"Oh I think I can mange that."
"Save that for when this is over and I'm in a different system." Shepard suppressed a laugh while they kept flirting, somehow he liked it better when they were hiding their romance from him. That's what you get for being a diplomatic leader.
At first he didn't hear much activity, that changed when the slavers stumbled upon one of the many hidden minefields. Simultaneous explosions began going off in the forest, wreaking havoc and death on anyone unlucky enough to step on them. The M10 Claymore mines seemed to live up to their deadly reputation. In the Alliance military these mines were also known as Straight to heaven mines because the poor soul stepping on it was pretty much guaranteed a one way trip to the sky.
"I wonder if they know that some of them have a delayed explosion." A marine questioned. When multiple explosions detonated, he let out a loud victory roar. "Guess not, don't you just love that sound, OORAH!"
It didn't take long for a large group of slavers around hundred men strong to breach the tree line with guns blazing. They continued to keep this up until their officers yelled for them to stop. The complete lack of return fire was clearly confusing them, this was supposed to be the main point of resistance. Where was the Alliance?
Shepard watched as they began arguing amongst themselves, trying to decide if they should wait for backup or keep advancing. The slavers began moving again when a batarian leader shot one of his men and shouted for the rest to move. This mixed group of krogan, batarians and vorcha had no idea of the ambush they were about to walk into.
"Snipers be ready to pick of their leaders, engineers wait until they are all on the bridge, then you can set of the mines." Both units gave a short confirmation response.
"Wait for it, wait for it." The slavers were now halfway over the bridge, still blissfully unaware of the trap. Some were even laughing amongst themselves, clearly thinking that this was going to be another walk in the park. They couldn't have been more wrong.
"OPEN FIRE!" He leaned over his cover and began shooting straight at the approaching pirates. The noise was almost deafening when his entire bridge team joined the fight, opening up with everything they had. The heavy machine guns especially did the most damage, taking down multiple pirates at once, even the heavier armored fighters like the krogan couldn't handle this level of punishment.
His first victim was a vorcha, the inferno rounds he had installed on his weapon were gruesomely effective on the poor creature. It frantically tried to put out the flames before it was unceremoniously pushed aside by a charging krogan.
"Charging krogan with a Revenant." He called out, ducking behind his cover when bullets whizzed at him.
"Got him in our sights." Lee replied, carefully taking the shot. "His shields are gone, my lady would you like the honor of making the kill?"
"Always the charmer Lee." Rachel's shot struck both the krogan's hearts, who staggered forward for a split second before falling to the ground. It's place immediately taken by another slaver.
The combined firepower of the marines and colonists decimated the head of the enemy column before any of them even got halfway across the bridge. The slavers in the back ranks heard the fighting ahead of them and stormed forward, just when the engineers detonated the concealed minefield. The entire bridge shook under the force from the resulting explosions. More than half of the slavers now lay dead on the bridge, those that were wounded screamed for help but were ignored by their comrades. Officers yelled for their men to continue the assault, making them easy to locate for Alliance snipers. Panic spread among the remaining slavers when they saw how their leaders were cut down were they stood. Several of them dropped their weapons and ran for their life, trying to reach the safety of the forest.
"Hold fire, hold fire, they're retreating with their tails between their legs." Shepard wasn't about to let his men shoot the slavers in the back. Even though some of them would probably deserve it. The battlefield fell silent as the fighting briefly subsided, granting everyone a moment of pause. Now that the vanguard had been beaten back, it wouldn't be long before the rest of the pirates would show up in force.
"As you can see behind me Maya, Alliance forces have successfully beaten off an attack on the bridge." Shepard's jaw dropped when he saw the reporter and his drone join his group.
"Using deception and clever tactics, sergeant Shepard and his bridge team have made clear to the pirates that they've gotten more than they bargained for." Nuke directed his lens to him, beaming his stunned face to hundreds of families on Elysium.
"That is correct, the extra help of the volunteer colonists has proven invaluable to the Alliance." Shaw answered to the unseen news anchor. "Most of the colonists I've spoken to are adamant about one thing, this bridge will not fall. After seeing them in action, I believe that more than ever now. Back to you in the studio Maya."
"Well Shepard, I think you just became an instant celebrity on Elysium." Lee commented, smiling sympathetically. "How does this make you feel?"
"Like punching every reporter on sight." He replied with a groan. "Where did he even come from, I thought he was still at the hospital."
"I'm a reporter Shepard, I go where the action is." Shaw jumped in. "This is where I need to be, letting the people at home know what you guys are going through. Besides it helps to be busy otherwise I'd be driving myself insane with worrying over my family."
"I get that, just give me a warning next time." He could understand that Shaw tried to drown himself in work, he'd been in that same position before.
"Have you defeated them already?"
"We've beaten of the advance guard, there is still an entire army of them out there."
"Are you sure? A white flag usually means a willingness to surrender don't you think?" Shaw pointed out.
Shepard wouldn't have believed it if he wasn't watching it with his own eyes. A batarian slaver walked over the bridge with a large white flag in his hands. It was the most surreal thing he'd ever seen in his life.
Nobody shot at the slaver who made his way over the bridge. Maybe because everyone else also didn't believe what they were seeing. Stopping at a safe distance from the barricade, the envoy's amplified voice was loud enough for Shepard to hear.
"I want to talk to the person in charge." He demanded, grinning his teeth widely.
"Well this should be fun, somehow I don't think he wants to talk about peace. I'm not sure if they even know that word." Lee commented, sharing a worried look with Rachel.
"Let's humor him, at the very least it'll buy us some more time." He switched his omni-tool to the Alliance channel so that every person under his command would be able to follow his talk with the pirate.
"The moment he tries anything funny me and Lee will put a bullet in him." Rachel assured him.
"And I'll be filming it, this is history in the making right here." Shaw's drone spun around to film the batarian, who wasn't liking the media attention and made that very clear. "Nuke, could you blur the middle finger on his right hand, my producers can't let that air."
"Well here goes nothing." Shepard vaulted over the barricade with his weapon drawn, walking up to the slaver. The envoy had his arms crossed in front of him and judging by his unamused look wasn't happy to be playing diplomat.
"You are the leader of this bunch of misfits?" The slaver asked bluntly. "I expected someone more important than an average Alliance grunt."
"Well I was expecting someone more intimidating than a garden variety batarian slaver, guess I didn't get what I wanted." The slaver's mouth twitched at the insult.
"My boss send me here to tell you that is no point in further fighting, he is willing to discuss a surrender."
Willing to take us all prisoner and then selling us to whoever pays enough was a more plausible explanation of this offer. It was clear that they wanted to keep their easy advance going, with the Sixth fleet on the way, time was precious to them.
"We would like to accept your surrender, believe me we really do. But we simply don't have enough room to house you all." His radio channel exploded with people laughing at the slaver's comical baffled expression. "So tell your boss that I respectfully decline his offer of surrender."
"You'll regret this human, mark my words." Without saying another word the envoy threw the flag on the ground and walked back to his lines, yelling some curses that Shepard's auto translator couldn't recognize.
"I never get tired of your negotiating style Shepard, insult the enemy and then hope for the best." Lee said, wiping the tears out of the corners of his eyes. "Can't remember the last time I laughed so hard."
"So what happens now?" Rachel asked, looking away from her sniper rifle.
"Wait for them to make the next move, we can't do much else for now."
He used his time to check on the status of his units, most of them had come through the attack without a scratch. Aside from a few light wounded colonists, the pirates hadn't done much damage to his bridge team.
"Sergeant, we've got movement in the forest, heat signatures reveal five armored vehicles." An engineer reported in.
"What kind of armored vehicles, do you mean tanks?"
"We've got a small recon drone trying to get a visual, standby."
Colonist and marines alike leaned out of their cover when a ominous rumbling noise came from the forest. Whatever was coming their way, it was big. Those that had missile launchers scrambled to find and arm them.
Good that we have plenty of those available, more than enough to take out a group of armored vehicles. Then why did he have this nagging feeling that something was wrong.
"This isn't good. The engineer said over the channel. "Sarge they're not tanks! Repeat they're not tanks. We have confirmation of five mobile artillery units in the forest, where did they …. Shit get your heads down, they're opening fire!"
Every eye was drawn to the sky where a series of rounds made their way upwards before arching towards the Alliance positions. Shepard had just enough time to yell for everyone to get in cover when the first rounds slammed into the ground. The entire riverbank transformed into chaos as the artillery barrage continued. Automated turrets and even Mako's were picked up and thrown through the air as if they were small toys. Trees were cut in half and fell over, making several units abandon their cover to avoid been crushed to death. Others ran through the barrage to help their wounded friends assisted by Alliance medics.
He tried to reach the engineer again while the ground under him shook in every possible direction. After what felt like an eternity, a connection was established.
"Corporal can you hear me? What is your status?"
"Corporal Hendricks is gone sir!" A panicked voice yelled back. "A round hit his foxhole directly, none of them made it out of there!"
"Try to stay calm, I'll send some people to help. Just stay where you are!" He assured the marine.
"We'll try, please be quick, we've got wounded here. I don't know if ...!" The connection cut off instantly. He had to do something about those mobile artillery units before he lost any more of his men.
"Blue Devil, do you copy?"
"Loud and clear sergeant, do you need backup?"
"As soon as possible." He admitted. "We're under heavy artillery fire from mobile units hidden in the forest. Can you make a bombing run on them?"
"Definitely, just sit back and relax. Those guns will be history before you know it."
Seconds later Shepard saw a group of five Mantis gunships fly over in a V shaped formation, heading directly for the slaver held forest.
Squadron leader Samantha Kyoko was leading the formation send to support the bridge team. Every one of the Blue devils had grimly anticipated another fight against the slavers, it was time to settle the score with them. When Fort Constantine was destroyed countless of her pilots had been killed, most of them were amongst her closest friends. The seventeenth gunship squadron that once had over a hundred units available could now only field twenty five Mantis gunships.
Sam would never forget the sight of a large smoke cloud over Constantine after the bombing, large enough to cover the sun. When she flew over it there was only a sea of fire and debris below her. At first she was shocked, wasn't there supposed to be an entire defense grid and a fleet to prevent a disaster like that? Now she only wanted revenge, something those slavers would experience real soon.
"Spotted the artillery vehicles Sam, look at your eight o'clock." Her wingman reported.
She banked her Mantis into a hard left turn, trying to get a visual on the pirates between gaps in the clouds. A grin appeared on her face when she finally found them. All the artillery trucks were set up in a neat semi-circle, partially hidden by the trees. The lack of AA-fire meant that they hadn't seen her gunships yet, better make use of the surprise element while it lasted.
"Follow my lead Devils and pick your targets carefully. Let's go get some payback."
The entire wing descended like vultures on the unsuspecting slavers. Those that saw the gunships barreling towards them ran for their lives. The ones who weren't so smart opened fire, which the kinetic barriers on an Alliance Mantis could shrug off without a problem. One by one the artillery trucks were ravaged with rocket fire and bombs as a Blue devil dropped its deadly cargo. The slavers were basically sitting ducks and it didn't take long before the last one exploded into flames. The gunships hovered over the smoldering wrecks for a few minutes, finishing of any stragglers that were still alive. Once Sam was satisfied that their work was done, she opened the comm channel again.
"That was the last of them, nice work. She complimented. "Time to head back home."
Every Blue devil turned their Mantis around and flew back towards the Alliance lines. Sam was about to join them when she saw movement deeper inside the forest, more pirates maybe? She told her wingman to stay with the others, it wouldn't take long to check it out.
"Oh you've got be kidding me." She mumbled to herself when she finally got a closer look. It was another group of artillery trucks who were in the process of preparing themselves for action. Right behind them was a command and control IFV, used for directing the artillery fire. She could count as much as ten trucks, even if she wanted to it was impossible to destroy them all.
Maybe if she took out their command vehicle, the artillery guns would be less accurate. The odds weren't in her favor though, these pirates wouldn't be caught sleeping like the first group. Sam put her Mantis in another dive before she could doubt her plan even more, she had to do something. With the speed of a comet her gunship dived for the command vehicle.
She saw groups of missiles flying straight at her, without thinking about it she put the Mantis through evasive maneuvers. Most passed by harmlessly but a few impacted their intended target. Red lights began going off in her cockpit as her onboard VI reported various system overloads. The concentrated ground fire took a toll on her Mantis, the kinetic barrier dropped to fifteen percent strength in the blink of an eye. Even so they were to late to stop her.
A swift press of the button and her last bombs dropped from the belly of the gunship. Each of them hit home, penetrating the light armor and killing everyone inside. Sam smiled when the VI projected a most pleasant image in front of her. The force of the explosions had lifted the vehicle into the air, were it stayed for a brief second before dropping back to the ground. Disappearing in a ball of fire.
She didn't have much time to savor the small victory though when another volley of missiles was fired at her. This time however there was no time left to evade them. The Mantis buckled under the simultaneous explosions from the rockets but stayed in the air. It was becoming increasingly difficult to keep it that way.
Her VI provided a bleak report on the ship integrity. There were critical hull breaches all over the gunship, the kinetic barrier was gone and her engines were damaged beyond repair. As she navigated her damaged Mantis, she grew more and more concerned. The noise from the engines behind her was growing louder with every passing minute. She wasn't sure if the gunship could hold it out much longer.
Come on girl, hang in there. We're almost there.
Sam let out a sigh of relief when she spotted the bridge, maybe she might make it after all. Landing her gunship would be another matter entirely though when her VI reported yet another problem. She glanced a worried look at her control panel, the overworked engines had finally ceased to work. It was a miracle they'd gotten her this far, she immediately felt the loss of gravity as her Mantis dropped from the sky.
As the bridge grew closer, she said a silent prayer.
It was hard not to join the others when they jumped up and down, cheering loudly as the Mantis group did a victory roll when they flew over. The artillery fire had stopped completely, giving medics the chance to evacuate the wounded and engineers to assess the damage. He looked over to Lee who finally had managed to pull himself from the crushing hug Rachel had locked him in.
"Remind me to buy those pilots a drink when this war is over." He said with a nod to the gunships in the distance. "They've earned it."
"Yeah they sure did." Shepard replied as he watched the other side of the bridge. The pirates had become suspiciously quiet when the barrage stopped, something was up.
"This is squadron leader Sam Kyoko, I've taken heavy damage to my gunship! Engines and shields are down and I'm losing altitude rapidly. If you can hear me, I'm going to set her down at the bridge."
A Mantis with a trail of black smoke behind it came into view, from what he could tell it was pretty beat up. It's pilot made a few course corrections, trying to land on the bridge. A smooth landing could've worked if the pirates hadn't seen the Mantis and unloaded on it.
Parts of it dropped off when a explosion tore of the tail section, sending the gunship spiraling out of control. With a hard impact the cockpit crashed on the concrete bridge, rolling over its own side several times before it fully stopped. Flames slowly began to spread along the outer hull, without help that pilot wouldn't survive.
"Great, now what? Lee said. "Trying to reach that Mantis without cover is a fast way to get killed. What do you think Shep?" Before he even got an answer, Shepard jumped past him over the barricade. Making a mad dash towards the Mantis.
"Shepard you're crazy!" He yelled after him. "Come on people, give him cover fire!"
Every member of the bridge team followed the order, doing everything they could to distract the pirates from the lone man running over the bridge.
"Oh no you don't." Rachel dropped another slaver, trying to aim at Shepard who was almost at the Mantis. She still wasn't sure if it was the bravest or dumbest act she'd ever seen a marine do. Could be both.
Shepard ran as fast as he could, hearing the sound of near misses only made him run harder. There was only one thing that was important right now, he had to reach that gunship, nothing else mattered. The last few meters cost him his shields, making him even more vulnerable as he slid himself besides the wreck.
The glass from the cockpit had large cracks all over it, from what he could see through it the pilot inside was still alive. He yelled a warning and slammed his rifle butt against the glass which immediately began to give way. After several blows the gap he'd created was wide enough for him to crouch through it.
"Everything alright?" He carefully removed the pilot's helmet, revealing a black haired Asian woman.
"My gunship is gone, I'm convinced that my legs are broken and we're both stuck on this bridge. So yeah I'm peachy." She wiped away some blood that was coming from her head. "You the sergeant I talked to earlier?"
"The name's Shepard." The medi-gel he applied stopped the bleeding but how was he going to get her out of here? "Thanks for getting rid of the artillery fire, you saved countless lives."
"There is more of them on the way, at best we bought you some time." She answered. "I got their command vehicle though, so the next barrage should be less accurate than before."
"If that's the case then we can't stay here, if the pirates won't kill us the fire will." He replied as he glanced outside.
He removed the safety harness from her body and carefully pulled her out of the wreckage. Even so Sam seemed to be in a lot of pain but he didn't hear a single sound of protest once. She was a strong person, he had to give her that. Getting out of the Mantis was the easy part, getting back to the barricade wouldn't be. Even with cover fire from his bridge team it would be a long shot, he wouldn't even get halfway with the pilot in his arms.
Staying here also wasn't an option, when the slavers would launch another attack he wouldn't stand a chance. Leaving her behind didn't even cross his mind, he would never forgive himself if he did. While he pondered their next move his eyes drifted to the sky above him. As if the answer would come falling through the clouds. So when that happened he couldn't believe his luck. Four gunships thundered over him and opened fire with their mounted machine guns, carving through anyone foolish enough to move towards the downed Mantis. When that threat was eliminated, they targeted other slavers who were in cover. Aiming to keep them there.
"It's my people, they came back for me." Sam supplied with a pained grin.
He picked her up from the ground and moved her into his arms so she wouldn't fall. With the slavers attention diverted, this would be their best chance of escape. After taking a last breath he stormed out of their cover back to the barricade, never running in a straight line in order to make himself a harder target. Behind him the gunships used their last rockets on the slavers, creating new craters were they impacted. There was still enough resistance but their primary objective was completed when Shepard got behind the barricade.
Together with the assistance of another marine, he helped her inside an already waiting Mako. A medic started working on her wounds right away, stabilizing her broken legs and applying medi-gel to prevent any further infection. Satisfied that she was in good hands, he jumped out of the Mako.
"Shepard wait!" Sam sat up, getting her a disapproving look from the medic. "Thanks for rescuing me, I would be dead right now if it wasn't for you." She winked shortly. "Should you ever need air support or someone to buy you a drink let me know. I'll be glad to return the favor."
"I'm going to take you up on that promise. Take care Sam." He closed the hatch and slammed his hand against the Mako. It roared to live and pulled on the main road, speeding off to the Alliance camp.
He started running back to the barricade when the slavers opened up with another artillery barrage. This time most of the rounds harmlessly fell in the river or the forest behind the Alliance positions. Maintaining control over the bridge had just become slightly easier. When the pirates would attack again, they would have to do so without artillery support.
He was still thinking on ways to hold off such an attack when without warning a stray shell landed ahead of him. The resulting force send him flying backward on the concrete road. For a split second he lay dazed on the ground, his brain trying to catch up to what happened. As his entire world became black and he started to lose consciousness, he was sure of one thing.
This is really going to hurt when I wake up.