Beyond the Blitz
2176 - SSV Agincourt, Petra Nebula, Vetus System
Hanna Shepard smiled at her daughter as they finished up their conversation over the comm link. "So, are you going to be able to spend any time with Karin while you're on Elysium?"
Shepard laughed, "No. She's working, having to coordinate delivery of all the drugs and medical gear to the various clinics. I'm going down to Illyria with the guys in a bit. We've got four days off since we're just Jarheads and have no operational tasks right now. The pirates have been busy down here, so we've been hitting quite a few strongholds. We're due a rest."
Hanna blew her daughter a kiss. "I've got to run, Sam. Be careful down there. Say hello to Karin for me and give Culver my love next time you talk to her."
"Will do, Mom. 3rd Company's been hopping, keeping their commander really busy too. Last few times we've tried to touch base our schedules have been off. We've exchanged a few messages, but haven't talked in a couple of months. I'll drop her a text so I don't forget." Shepard smiled and blew a kiss back before terminating the link. Glancing at her chrono, she stood up and stretched, threw a last couple items in her overnight bag, holstered her standard service pistol and headed for the shuttle.
The first night passed quickly with figuring out the layout of the city, getting checked in to a hotel and grabbing dinner, followed by a night of drinking at the bar. Now that it was daylight and the crew was up and about, enjoying their first full day off in Illyria, the capital of Elysium. It was a great city; it was a beautiful sunny summer day, and though it was a human colony, roughly half of the population was non-human so there was an incredible amount of cultural diversity. Astronaut Jon Grissom had retired on Elysium and Shepard had hoped maybe they'd get to meet him. However, circumstances did not agree; apparently the dedication of the Jon Grissom Academy space station was happening and every reporter on the planet was trying to get an interview with the poor man, so he was locked away in his home and refused to see anyone. Instead, the group had spent the morning shopping and then returned to the hotel to drop off their booty. They asked the hotel concierge about a good, inexpensive place to eat and he laughed. "Ah. You need to head down to Mack's on Second and Delta; it's all things Earth. You can get pizza or a burger and they sell a local microbrew so the beer is cheap, perfect for a couple of Lieutenants and Sergeants salaries. You'll love it."
The group looked around at one another and decided it was ok to give it a go. While they should have numbered six, the Captain had reports to finish and also wanted to buy and install some tech upgrades. Since he was an Engineer Operative, they figured they could give him some slack; anything he could find to juice up his barrier and shield overload functions were more than welcome. Their infiltrator was also missing, exuding her normal attitude of 'I work alone.' Whether she had simply not bothered to show up or she was shadowing them just for kicks to see how long it took the group to figure out she was there was inconsequential. No one in the group had the heart to tell her they just didn't care for her games and they had stopped looking after the first time she pulled her little stunt. That left Shepard, a baby lieutenant engineer fresh out of school named Tim Bilyeu, and two Sergeants, Sandy Mueller and Stu Humphries.
Shepard and her three squad mates plopped themselves down at an outdoor table and placed their orders. They had all gotten a burger of one type or another, even though none of them cared to guess what exactly the 'burger' was made of, but when the food arrived, they had to agree with the hotel concierge; the food was good and the beer was cheap so Mack's went to the top of the list of acceptable places to eat. They were just finishing up when they heard the roar of engines. The four of them looked up in unison and saw multiple craft entering the atmosphere at the same time. Knowing the port wasn't large enough to handle more than five large transports as a time, Shepard immediately felt a knot forming in her gut. She threw a credit chip on the table and directed the squad. "Something isn't right guys... let's move back to the port and see what's going on."
As they cleared the last line of buildings, Shepard got a good view of the hovering spacecraft and it was very evident who was landing. Shepard broke into a dead run as she yelled, "Fuckin' Pirates! Move it!"
Military presence on Elysium was very small, restricted mostly to customs inspectors, and was augmented by local civil defense forces for actual port security. The foursome ran to the port, and soon caught up to the civilian force captain in charge of defense. He was obviously surprised that he had actual military available, and he stared at them for a second before speaking. "Where the hell did you guys come from?"
Shepard rolled her eyes and questioned the man's competency. How did he not know the SSV London Cruiser Flotilla was on tour doing supply and anti-piracy runs, and more specifically, that the Agincourt was currently in orbit over his planet? He was supposed to be the Port Security Captain! Her frustration showed in her response as she yelled at the man, "Who the fuck cares where we came from? We're here! What do you need us to do?"
The captain looked bewildered. "All I've got is civilian police and a few customs agents. Just go to the front and start yelling orders, they'll listen to you!"
Shepard shook her head, "We're here on leave. The officers have service pistols, but our two Sergeants don't have anything. What have you got to spare?"
The captain ran them to the armory and broke open a weapons cabinet. He started handing over shotguns and clips. "Sorry. All we have are riot control weapons. No autos, semi-autos or heavy weapons."
Shepard took whatever he handed her. "Whatever you've got is better than our bare knuckles. We'll take 'em!" Redirecting her comments to the squad, she grimaced. "Let's go do what we do best, guys!"
As they charged to the front, Shepard quickly took stock of available forces and tried to organize a defensive line. There was a short watchtower at the town wall and she turned to her engineer. "Tim. Get your ass up in that tower to give yourself better line of sight. Work as fast as you can at overloading shields. With shotguns and small arms, we'll need all the help we can get taking down their defenses."
The troops consisted of civilian policemen and military customs agents, few of which had any front line battle experience. She quickly split the defense into two teams, sending Sandy to the left and Stu to the right. "You guys just need to exude confidence and help them hold the line. They need you to set the example so they know what the hell they should do and how they should act. We just gotta hold a defensive line until the Agincourt can get us more support from the Flotilla." She saw the questions in their eyes. "I don't know how long that will be, so just keep plugging. I'll float back and forth to provide support in the center seam and wherever it's needed most. My charge will let me move around fast, as required." A final glance between them and they were all off to their positions.
Fortunately, the attacking pirates were no different than anything Shepard had seen to date; they relied completely on fear and intimidation. They had no hard core experience or military style leadership, relying solely on overwhelming mass and firepower; still, the situation was daunting with the pirates outnumbering them three to one, and some of them carried heavy weapons. In contrast, the civil defense had some stun grenades in addition to standard arms, but that was it. Their very survival depended on receiving reinforcements, and despite what she told the troops, Shepard wasn't positive that was a given. Her hope was based on the SSV Agincourt surviving the initial assault to send a distress call. Based on what pirate vessels the Flotilla has seen so far in the Petra Nebula and what ships dropped through the atmosphere to deliver the invading force, she assumed the Agincourt would be able to defend herself, but she also knew assumptions could get you killed if you were wrong.
The pirates advance was relentless; for every one of them shot down, two stepped forward to take his or her place. They were obviously there to pillage, not take slaves, as they killed anything that crossed their path; loss of life did not concern them and more dead meant more people to pick clean of their possessions. Confident in their overwhelming force, bullets just sprayed the wall of defenders and heavy weapons were launched indiscriminately; the pirates didn't even bother to aim. As a Vanguard, Shepard wanted to be out in the front line. It chaffed at the very core of her being to hide behind a wall and play defense, but having no armor really limited her options.
The line broke to the right and she pulled on her biotics to charge down the line, crushing one of the pirates who broke through and blasting a second with her riot gun. Even a riot gun was lethal at close range. In a flash of inspiration, she told one of the customs officers to strip the armor off the dead pirates and give it to someone about the same size. "Damaged armor is better than no armor. The minute you get a female armor set, you find me!"
What followed was a massacre in every sense of the word. She was forced to watch the line slowly crumble as defender after defender went down to enemy fire. As time dragged by, Shepard watched the defenses get slowly dismantled, wave after wave of pirates hitting the line, the sheer numbers working against them. They scavenged armor from every pirate they killed, and now most of the defenders had at least a chest and back plate on but it didn't really matter, their numbers were dwindling fast. Still, Shepard was the epitome of a hardened leader; now with had a front and back plate, leggings and greaves she could function as a true Vanguard again. Back in her element, she pulled on her biotics to charge up and down the line, giving constant support to the troops, and personally reinforcing the line wherever it broke until someone could shift to fill the gap.
The first of her squad to fall was Tim, when a well placed explosive rocket took down the whole damn watch tower. The falling pieces injured a number of other defenders as well, a significant blow to their already dwindling numbers and left a significant hole in the line. She charged into the breach calling for additional help as she swapped out her shotgun for her pistol and her omniblade. The breach was too large and the pirates were coming too fast; the shotgun didn't have a quick enough fire rate to keep up with her needs. In spite of the inherent risk with so many enemies in close proximity, the situation was desperate so she slipped into a meditative battle trance and called on her Asari martial arts. She didn't need to see the enemy, she could sense them and countered their moves before they even really got started. Her motions turned to water as she flowed through the enemy; the pirates were completely unequipped to deal with the tsunami she became. In her private time dimension, the battle slowed and she moved through it with little resistance, cutting pirates down like paper targets. Lift. Charge. Explosion. Kill lingering survivors. Repeat!
Between the time when she called for reinforcements and when the gap was filled, Shepard had eliminated an uncountable number of pirates, by herself. As time returned to normal, she looked to assess the situation and realized Stu had also fallen as the pirates surged through the gap. She tapped her comm, "Sandy, we lost both Tim and Stu on the right with that last rocket attack, so I have to stay on this end to shore up the right flank."
"Damn it! I sure hope the London gets here soon with some help!" Sandy's response was broken by the discharge of a shotgun before she continued. "Not sure how much longer we're gonna hold."
Not sure if she was speaking the truth, Shepard said it anyway. "They'll be here."
The minute the breach was fully closed and their defensive perimeter fairly stable once more, a group of medics rolled in from the local hospital. As far as Shepard was concerned, they were the true heroes. No military training at all, yet there they were on the front lines trying to provide aid and keep the defenders standing. Shepard tried to brush them off, telling them to help others first, but one of them grabbed Shepard by the front of her armor, amidst her protests. "Ma'am! If you don't let me help you, you're going to bleed to death."
That got her attention and she knelt down and peeled her armor off. The one serious limitation to using the meditative battle trance; adrenalin and biotics scream so loud in the fight, it overpowers everything else, including pain. She didn't even realize she had sustained multiple gunshot wounds. The only thing that kept her on her feet was absolute force of will. The medic started working frantically and Shepard hissed repeatedly as he worked to remove bullets and squeezed medigel into her numerous wounds. She continued to scan the line, trying to ensure she didn't leave anyplace vulnerable while she was down. Eventually the medic waved something in front of her eyes to get her attention. "Drink this while I finish up. It'll give you back some of your energy."
Shepard focused on his hand and took the container, realizing it was a biotic electrolyte boost. She slammed it down as he put on the last of the necessary bindings and helped her get her armor back on. He offered his hand to help her get back up and once they were both standing, their eyes met one last time and a thousand words of fear, encouragement, hope and blind faith were exchanged in a glance. He made a fist and struck her once on the side of her shoulder; with a quick nod, he was off to help the next person.
The medic had actually been pretty efficient, and her prompt return to the battle was in time to see a second major breach of the defensive line. She charged back into the fray, biotics blazing and shotgun roaring, ending in frantic hand-to-hand combat. She couldn't afford to drop into a battle trance a second time because it made her too vulnerable with the sheer number of pirates now inside the wall. The number of dead and dying was appalling, the smell of blood and death so thick in the air she could taste it. The odds grew worse by the minute, yet Shepard fought on, refusing to give in. Just as survival of the colony looked impossible, the first military reinforcements showed on the horizon, and the pirates outside the wall began their retreat, realizing the cause was lost. Those inside were in a fight for their lives and any attempt at retreat would just get them killed, so the close-in battle raged until the last pirate fell.
Shepard glanced around in the sudden crushing silence and tapped her comm. "Sandy." Shepard's heart fell as she listened to the deafening quiet. "Sergeant Mueller." Damn it.
Finally letting her biotics drop, Shepard collapsed to her knees in fatigue and surveyed the scene; she already knew her three squad members had perished, but all the military customs agents were also dead and the entire Elysium police force was reduced to roughly twenty members. The only good news out of the fiasco was that the millions of Elysium civilians were safe.
As she sat there waiting on the reinforcements to breach the wall and come to their aid, Shepard started to shake from exhaustion. She caught sight of an Alliance Navy commander and assumed he was leading the reinforcements. As he approaching her, she struggled to stand to greet him. She didn't get very far; having absolutely no fuel left in her tank, the minute she snapped into a brace position to salute, her world spun and she collapsed into darkness.
2176 - SSV London, Petra Nebula, Vetus System
Shepard awoke to a pounding headache, augmented by an insistent steady beeping in the background, both intrusive and annoying. As she cracked her eyes open she was assaulted by bright light that seemed to drill right through her eyes into her brain, so she reflexively slammed her eyes shut and issued a disgruntled groan. She tried to raise an arm to block the light, but her arms felt leaden and nonresponsive. She was tempted to go back to sleep but then she heard the voice; a voice that didn't belong on the medbay of the Agincourt.
"Welcome back, Lieutenant. Seems you can't stay out of my medbay no matter how hard you try." The crisp British accent of Karin Chakwas was music to Shepard's ears.
Without opening her eyes, Shepard attempted a weak smile and whispered, "Your medbay? Since when did you get transferred to the Agincourt, Doctor?"
Karin let out a brief laugh. "Oh my dear, you are not on the Agincourt. You've been moved to the London. You're suffering extreme biotic exhaustion. For a change, I don't have to order you to stay in bed. I doubt you could move if you tried. Your limbs probably feel like you're under restraint, and I imagine you have one hell of a migraine... Oh my! I didn't think that through!"
Shepard immediately felt relief as the light trying to pound its way into her head dimmed significantly. Karin spoke again, "That's probably much better... Sorry. I neglected to compensate for your expected light sensitivity. That will last for a couple of days, so I'll note your chart to keep anyone from turning that back up on you."
Shepard cracked her eyes open and looked at Karin, not comforted by the concern she saw etched in her face. "Ok, Doc. So give it to me in full. How bad is it this time? How long will I be here?"
Shepard figured she was in deep when Karin sighed and pulled up a chair. It seemed this was going to be a long conversation. "It's not bad. Not really. But it is very complicated. A lot of moving parts. So much so I'm not even really sure where to begin. Some of this should be relayed by someone other than me, but everyone's busy, so I'll just tell you and ask forgiveness later if I make anyone angry."
"When you came aboard you were in rough shape. Your collapse may have reopened some of your gunshot wounds, but most likely your last big fight did it and you just didn't realize. Your blood pressure was in the basement; you were on the verge of bleeding out...I don't know how you stayed awake and on your feet as long as you did." Karin paused to take a deep steadying breath. Shepard felt terrible for causing her friend such anguish and made a supreme effort to reach a hand toward the doctor, who saw the effort and met her halfway, clasping the offered hand tightly as she continued her narrative.
"On the bright side, the London had an ample supply of synthetic blood so fate intervened and you were brought here, to me, instead of to the Agincourt." Karin gave her an endearing smile. "You were exhausted, but your L3 handled the load well, so you'll have no permanent neurological damage. You'll just have to put up with me for a solid month of a very gradual recovery period."
Shepard's jaw dropped at that announcement, and she snapped it closed again and queried, "A whole month? We'll be back at Arcturus by then!"
Karin chuckled, "Yes, my dear, but you don't need to worry about that. Let me finish and you'll understand why." Shepard got a petulant look on her face, but silenced herself so Karin could speak without interruption.
"Ok. I'm just going to give you a summary of all that has transpired since we finished putting you back together. First, I ditched all your newly acquired merc armor and removed all your personal items before sending your clothes through a cleaning cycle. We found your hotel key and they sent someone to check you out of the room and collect all your personal belongings, along with those of all your squad mates..." Karin's expression reflected great sadness for the briefest of moments before she replaced it with her professional mask. "Shepard. Every other member of your squad is gone. The Captain and your infiltrator, Lt Fizer, were at one of the other colonies and also perished in the assault. I'm sorry."
Shepard closed her eyes just briefly before reopening them and giving Karin's hand a squeeze as a cue to continue. "Then the Admiral stopped by to see you...you're going to hate it Sam, but there is nothing to be done about it, so just take it with grace and move on. They're calling you the Hero of Elysium for stepping up and organizing the defense, for holding out while vastly outnumbered until the reinforcements arrived...and for stepping alone into a massive breach that should have seen the city fall. With nothing more than your biotics, an omniblade and a pistol no less... You have been described as everything from the Devil's Wind to an Angel of Vengeance."
Shepard groaned when she heard Karin's next statement. "They're giving you the Star of Terra."
Shepard shook her head, already aggravated about all the attention that would soon be heaped upon her. "Fuck. They should be giving it to the damn hospital medics. Those guys came out there with no military training, no protection, no weapons... and they kept us all standing, at great personal risk to themselves. They're the real heroes. I just did my job, Karin. It's what we do. We protect those who cannot protect themselves." Shepard would have pulled her hand back from Karin if she'd had the strength, but Karin didn't allow it...she acted like she didn't even feel the slight tug Shepard was able to muster. Shepard whispered wearily, "They better give the same to those who gave their lives to accomplish the goal."
Karin was chagrined. "You know that won't happen, Sam. I do have one last thing I need to mention. You won't be returning to the Agincourt. The ship steward is arranging to have all your possessions moved to a room on the London. You are now listed in patient status and assigned to me. I'll have full authority over you through your recovery and return to full duty... and once I clear you, they're sending you to N school."
Shepard's face went completely blank before her brow furrowed and her lips pursed. "I've been on the Agincourt less than three months. This was my first deployment with the fleet. They're moving me already? Wait... to you? You're going to be my boss?" Shepard smirked and rolled her eyes in mock frustration, actually relieved that she wouldn't be shucked off to some hospital with a physical therapist she didn't know.
Karin sighed at Shepard's juvenile antics and shook her head. "Did you not hear what I said? They're sending you to the Interplanetary Combatives Training course at the Vila Militar in Rio de Janeiro. You're starting with the next class. They're going to make you an N7 Operative... " Karin's lips twitched up into a smile, "...assuming you graduate, of course."
Shepard grimaced. "That makes no sense. That means I'll graduate N school with only six years active service. I'll still only be a Lieutenant. I can't run my own N7 squad as a Lieutenant, an N3 or 4 maybe, but not an N7. So what the heck will they do with me until I get the necessary rank? I don't want to be some damn Admiral's 'special assistant,' that's for sure!"
Karin outright laughed. "Samantha Shepard! Don't let them hear you say that. They'll promote you early, of course. You'll only be twenty-four and you'll be one of the youngest, if not the youngest Lieutenant Commander in the Alliance Navy!"
Shepard let out a tired sigh. "Great. Something else to make me 'special.'" Shepard's eyes drifted closed, still tired and achy from the battle, and now exhausted by all the news thrown at her so soon after waking.
Karen didn't think it was possible; Samantha hadn't stirred an inch since she woke up, yet somehow she seemed to slump even deeper into the bed with her last statement, like she somehow deflated a bit more with the weight of the expectations being put upon her. "You need to get some sleep, so I'll leave you to it. I'm going to contact your mom, let her know we're alright. Anything you need before I go?"
Shepard's eyes fluttered open again. "Mom? Yeah. Tell her I love her, and ask her to get me some white sage. She should be able to get some from Earth..." Shepard had a hard time keeping her eyes open.
Karin looked at her questioningly. "White sage? What's it for?"
As Shepard's eyes closed hard for a final time, she mumbled, "Cleansing. Tell her I must have grabbed Dwyn's attention again..."
Karin was still confused. "Dwyn? Who's Dwyn, and what's he got to do with sage?" Getting no response, she just chuckled and tucked the sleeping Shepard's hand back under the covers. "I guess I'll just have to ask Hannah."
Karin stood and stretched her back. It had been a long day with much still unfinished. While very happy that Samantha was alive and relatively well, many other souls were not so lucky; she needed to close out their records for final disposition. Won't get it done by standing around, but Hannah's first. Karin left to make the call, the weight of the dead heavy on her shoulders.
Notes: Dwyn = Celtic God of tricks and pranks... There will be some early McCormick history about this in the next QuickShot.