The Red Moon Collection - 5 - The Empty Night

Chapter 12

Second moon of Kaddi, Tikkun System

If the ship had not already been a soldering ruin, Will would have felt bad for the command center of the Unflinching. Gunfire filled the room, scarring the already mortally wounded ship's interior even further. He counted no fewer than nine geth scattered around the room in the brief moment that he had vision of the battlefield before diving for cover behind a command console. The rest of the squad came charging in to find cover as well as the quarians held back in the hall in their cloaks, waiting for the right time to move out. After spending just a second in cover Will grabbed a grenade, primed it, and blindly tossed it over the console he was hiding behind before jumping up and aiming down his sights.

Something about the geth utterly terrified him. While there were conflicting reports on the full range of civility that the synthetics could express, the geth in front of him clearly had only one violent directive in mind. Their optical lights darted around the room as Will attempted to draw a bead on one of them. A lowly trooper was the first to find its way into his sights. He squeezed the trigger of his rifle and sent high-velocity death tearing through the robotic figure. The geth soldier was surprisingly quick and managed to find cover behind a beam that had fallen from the ceiling of the craft and was balancing precariously between the ceiling and deck.

"Hahah!"

Kallux had jumped up from behind cover with his cannon in hand. The gun began throwing heavy slugs toward the geth, inflicting immediate damage to both geth when he scored a hit and the parts of the ship when he did not. With the bulky krogan providing a perfect distraction, Tul saw his chance to lead the quarians out the hall and to the far starboard wall of the room. Still concealed in their cloaks, the HUD indicators for the three quarians scrambled around the far edge of the room as the geth were forced into cover by Kallux. T'Lees and Allison took the opportunity to synchronize their biotic attacks and send a singularity and warp combo right between a pair of charging geth on the port side of the room. White liquid splattered the wall and floor as the geth bodies were ripped apart by the biotic detonation.

Just as Will began to search for a fresh target, the remaining geth suddenly stepped out from cover in perfect unison and unleashed a deadly wave of focused fire onto Kallux. The krogan roared in pain as his shields were overloaded, sending more than a handful of bullets through his armor in various spots.

"Kallux!" Will called out.

The krogan dove behind a nearby desk and clutched the first wound he could find as orange blood poured from the various puncture holes in his armor.

"I'm fine!" He growled. "Just need a minute!"

Will took aim on one of the geth soldiers and ended it with a quick burst straight to its ocular node. Behind the geth combat line, on the far side of the room, the indicators for Tul, Sella and Dalo had passed through the forward door and into the hallway that would lead them to the server.

"Just have to keep them busy," Will told himself.

Fortunately, they were doing better than simply keeping the geth occupied. Five geth had fallen leaving only four to poke out from behind cover and fire down on them. As Will adjusted his aim another pair of red geth dropped through the hole in the ceiling. Will paid no attention at first, but a glimpse at their weapons out of the corner of his field of vision sent his eyes wide with alarm.

"Rockets!"

One of the red geth troopers readied his heavy weapon and fired. Will pushed himself back to the ground as the rocket soared over his head and slammed into the wall behind him. The explosion threw his body into the console he was using for cover and almost completely drained his shields. He moaned in pain from the bruising he would undoubtedly see on his shoulder, which had taken the brunt of his impact. Another explosion shook the room, thankfully not near him. T'Lees and Allison's shield indicators on Will's squad status display dipped, but remained healthy.

"Biotic throw going out!" Allison announced.

"I will hit the other!" T'Lees followed up.

Will turned his eyes to Kallux. The krogan had applied medi-gel to his wounds and was slowly pulling himself together.

"Tell me when!" Will called to them.

There was about a second of pause before Allison replied.

"Now!"

Will pushed himself up with his rifle in firing position, still dizzy from the explosion that had detonated nearby. With perfect timing the two rocket troopers were tossed into the air by the biotic throws, allowing Will to unload into one and kill it before it could hit the ground. The geth turned and focused their fire on him once again, but just before he ducked down the loud sound of Kallux's cannon thundered onto center stage. Two of the geth troopers were ripped apart by heavy slugs as Will readjusted his aim onto the surviving rocket trooper. The red armored geth had pulled itself back up to its feet and was bringing its launcher to bear as a heavy burst from Allison's rifle ripped off an arm and sent its weapon clattering to the ground.

"Keep it up, keep it up!" Will shouted to the others.

A bolt from Fayneer's harpoon rifle struck the wounded rocket trooper in the head, shattering its ocular node and dropping the synthetic to the ground.

"Captain Hume, we've got it!" Tul'Sorrin announced. "Everything is intact on the forward server! We're copying the data now."

Will let out an excited laugh and ducked down to reload and let his shields replenish. "Damn good news, Tul! We're cleaning up out here!"

"Affirmative, be there as soon as we can."

He jumped back up just in time to join the rest of the squad in cutting down the final two geth soldiers. As the last target slumped down Kallux let out an exhilarated shout and reached down to check the heat-sink on his cannon.

"Nicely done, people," Will complimented as he reloaded his rifle.

"Almost too easy," T'Lees said jokingly.

He chuckled. "Never going to complain about an easy fight."

Before another word could pass their lips the roar of sublight thrusters echoed into the room through the hole in the ceiling. Will jerked his rifle up, but saw nothing. The sound of the thrusters had been just like those of the geth dropship that had intercepted them upon landing a few hours earlier.

"Damn it, we might have-"

A loud thump and crash above them cut Will short. He instinctively jerked down into cover and held his rifle's sights on the hole in the ceiling as a set of steady, almost rhythmic footsteps slammed into the metal hull around them. There was a momentary silence as the newcomer paused near the lip of the hole before it came leaping down. Will stared in awe at the enormous red geth soldier. It was twice as tall as the average geth and had three lights shining from its ocular node instead of one as well as a terrifying, almost comically large version of the geth's normal pulse rifle. Two more geth soldiers leapt from above and into compartment via the hole in the top of the ship.

"Prime!" Kallux shouted into the comms.

It let out a taunting synthetic rumble as it turned to face them.

All the weapons in the room exploded in fury. Shields flared as bullets sprayed across every target one could identify, though the geth prime seemed to be able to absorb far more punishment than anyone else. T'Lees fired a bolt straight into the geth's chest cavity, only to see it ricochet pitifully to the side and tumble to the floor. Kallux roared as his cannon chipped away at the prime's shields, which only served to irritate the geth and instigate a refocus of its attention onto the krogan. Allison took down one of the smaller geth soldiers with a few well placed shots before the second diminished her shields with a shot to the chest. Another blast ripped through her now defenseless torso and punctured the far left portion of her armor, forcing her down into cover with a yelp of pain.

"The big one! Focus on the big one!" Will ordered as he readied and threw a grenade.

The geth prime must have seen the grenade coming as it raised its arm and summoned a small drone in one quick motion. The drone snapped to face the grenade that had stuck to a computer console and emitted a quick electrical burst into the explosive. Will's fears were affirmed three seconds later as the grenade simply sat dormant in place, having been disarmed by the drone's attack. T'Lees had reloaded her rifle and fired another bolt, this time striking the remaining geth trooper at the prime's side. The bolt ripped the synthetic's head clean off, dropping it instantly. Kallux, however, was locked in a deadly game of chicken with the prime as they exchanged fire. The elite geth's weapon had clearly overheated and was compensating by lowering its rate of fire and, possibly, effective energy. Kallux's cannon, however, was still blasting away at its regular cadence. Will looked to the squad status indicator and raised his brow in alert.

"Kallux, get down!" He shouted.

The krogan growled angrily and jumped into cover just as his shields flashed and died. His arm caught a small blast from the geth prime's weapon, but his armor held. The geth prime turned to T'Lees and Allison's position and held out its arm to fire a projectile toward them. At first they thought it was an explosive, but the device jumped up to hover behind them and fire its small caliber weapon.

"Turret on our position!" T'Lees called out.

She and Allison scrambled from behind their point of cover to find a new position that would, hopefully, protect them from the both the geth prime and its turret. Will took the opportunity to put a few shots into the prime only to see it turn and unloaded its sufficiently-cooled pulse cannon onto his position. The prime's weapon took his shields down frighteningly fast and forced Will to dive behind the computer console between him and his target.

"Damn it! We need to keep up the pressure!" He barked.

"The shields are almost down!" Allison informed them.

Will could hear her rifle discharging from across the room. He checked his shields and took a deep breath before jumping up and joining in. T'Lees was still being suppressed by the turret that the prime had sent out, and by the sounds of it Kallux was still dealing with his own shields and wounds. Together, Will and Allison unloaded their entire remaining thermal clips into the prime until its shields finally let out a vibrant jolt and failed.

"Shields down!" Will shouted.

He popped in a new clip as fast as possible and placed a few more shots into the geth, but was met with stiff resistance from the prime's heavy armor.

"We have a lot to chip down!" Allison said with a pained grunt.

Will looked to see her kneeling back down, either to reload or to let her shields recharge. The geth prime, seeing no other immediate targets, turned to Will and leveled his pulse cannon. Just before either of them could fire a ripple appeared in the air beside the prime. Tul'Sorrin uncloaked standing atop a command console no more than two meters from the geth prime, and with his heavy pistol aimed level at the geth's head. Tul's weapon glowed for a fraction of a second before letting out a crack and yellow flash of light. Will squinted involuntarily but could plainly see the prime's head blown apart by the gun. The colossal geth stumbled and attempted to spin in search of the sudden attacker, but without its sensors was left completely helpless. Tul lowered his weapon's sights to the prime's torso and pulled the trigger once more. This time the pistol charge for a few seconds before firing and ripping into the geth's heavy armor. A third shot a moment later caused the prime to seize up and slowly collapse to the ground. Somewhere off to Will's side he could hear the prime's turret explode as a harpoon impaled it against the wall of the compartment.

Tul'Sorrin made a quick visual sweep of the room before lowering his pistol and jumping to the floor with Sella and Dalo uncloaking nearby. The quarian holstered his weapon and let out a small laugh with his mic switched over to local broadcasting.

"You got the shields down for me," he commented. "Very nice."

With a heavy pant Will lowered his rifle to his side and stepped out of cover. "It's about damn time you showed up," he remarked thankfully.

Tul'Sorrin waved Sella and Dalo forward. "We were a tad busy completing the main objective of this entire mission," he quipped.

Kallux groaned and pulled himself up to his feet. Blood had seeped through a few of the bullet holes in the breastplate of his armor.

"Damn, this stings," he growled.

"So you got it? You got the data?" Will asked as he approached the quarians.

Though he couldn't see his face, Will was certain Tul'Sorrin was smiling proudly. "Yes, we have everything."

"Good, then let's get the hell out of here," Will replied. "I don't want to find out what the geth send after you kill one of those things."


The hike back to the Kodiak was made in relative silence, as was the flight from the moon up to the rendezvous point. They waited only a minute or two past the designated meeting time before the Aberrant flashed into existence before them, having made a near-perfect drop from FTL. Tul watched through the viewport as the ship appeared on target and curved its trajectory toward them.

"As graceful as ever," Tul'Sorrin said to himself.

Will chose not to respond.

"Shansa's sending the signal," Kallux announced. "I'm bringing us up to the forward airlock for docking."

The two vessels approached nose to nose as the airlock that allowed external access to the Aberrant cargo bay slid open. A bright, sterile light poured from the airlock chamber as the Kodiak floated gently through the doors.

"Is the ship clean?" Dalo asked nervously.

"Clean enough," Kallux said as the cargo bay doors shut behind them. "But I wouldn't suggest taking your suit off."

"I wasn't going to," Dalo said flatly.

Kallux opened the Kodiak's external air intakes to cycle in the white, misty decontaminant that filled the airlock chamber. Tul stepped out of the cockpit to where Will stood in the rear compartment waiting for the Kodiak to land so he could open the shuttle's side hatch. Will glanced over to the quarians and raised a brow.

"Shansa and Eleena. They're both here?" Tul'Sorrin asked quietly.

Will gave him a nod. "Yep. Probably both up on the operations deck." He reached over and tapped a button on the hatch controls. "You nervous?"

"Of course I'm nervous," Tul said with a shake of his head. "They probably hate me. I'm surprised you don't."

"Never said I didn't," Will reminded him.

Tul'Sorrin straightened himself and nearly took a step back from the remark. Will felt a guilty knot form in his stomach as he shook his head.

"I don't," he clarified. "I really don't, Tul. You were one of the best friends I've ever had, and that still means something to me. But I can't promise you how they'll react and, quite frankly, I wouldn't be surprised if they aren't as forgiving as I am." Will looked away. "Wouldn't blame them either."

"Nor would I," Tul'Sorrin agreed. "I just hope they'll listen to what I have to say."

The Kodiak jostled as Kallux set them down on the floor of the cargo bay.

"Me too," Will said earnestly.

With another tap to the door controls the Kodiak's side hatch pinged and lifted up.

"We're secured," Kallux said into his comm link.

"Roger!" Shansa replied over the ship-wide comm. "We're going to take the FTL charge slow, but be prepared for an emergency jump if any friends show up."

Tul had been on the Aberrant on a handful of occasions between the time he had requisitioned it from Narenthus Antarian and when he had left to return to the Migrant Fleet. He had, in fact, set up many of the same automated control and security systems that the Hyperion had also boasted before it was destroyed. As such, the quarian stepped down onto the deck of the Aberrant cargo bay and took a slow look around the room as the others piled out behind him.

"It's just like how I remember it," he said. "Except… what is that?"

The quarian turned and pointed to a huge piece of hardware sitting on the far port side of the cargo bay. Kallux stepped up beside Tul'Sorrin and grinned.

"A little piece of cutting-edge weaponry that we picked up only a few days ago," the krogan informed him. "And if the reports about the Reapers are correct then we didn't get it a moment too soon."

"I see," Tul acknowledged, clearly quite interested.

"Captain Sorrin?" Sella asked.

Tul turned to his lieutenant. "Yes?"

She hesitated briefly. "Will you be bringing us back to the Fleet?"

Tul'Sorrin nodded slowly. "If Will and the others do not object, yes. As we discussed, you two will need to relay the story of the the loss of Unyielding and its crew. Well, everyone that isn't you, of course." He crossed his arms. "We should go over everything in full before we deliver you."

"Aye, captain," Dalo replied. "Until then?"

"Until then you can poke around the ship," Kallux answered. "But don't take anything apart." The krogan turned to Will. "Come on, let's get Tul up to the bridge. We've got a lot to run by Shansa and Eleena."

T'Lees and Allison, who were merely standing beside the Kodiak, exchanged a shared look of desire to join them and observe the reunion. Allison, however, forced the thought back and shook her head.

"We should let them talk undisturbed," she suggested.

T'Lees let out a deep sigh. "Yes, yes, you are probably right."

Will looked to Kallux and gave him a nod before setting off toward the cargo bay's interior door with the krogan and quarian in tow. All three of them walked in silence. They entered the elevator in silence. They stepped onto the bridge in silence. Will could feel Tul's anxiety every moment of the journey. At the far end of the room Shansa sat in the pilot's seat, only her red hair poking over the top of the chair to indicate her presence. Eleena stood behind the copilot's seat, clearly leaning in a way to keep the strain off of her injured foot.

"This has me worried more than it should," Shansa admitted.

Eleena shook her head and eyed the engineering panels that she and Shansa had been investigating. "You're right about that," the asari agreed. "You definitely should not be worried. I looked at those capacitors first hand and I can promise you they're rated for nearly double what the ship's software is limiting them to."

Will, Kallux and Tul'Sorrin walked around the meeting table at the center of the room and slowed as they approached the cockpit. Eleena and Shansa had certainly heard them by now, but it took some force of will for the asari to finally tear herself away from the console and their debate and look over her shoulder to greet the arrivals.

"Hey, glad you two-"

She stopped short and spun to face the trio, having not expected to see anyone that had not departed on the shuttle eight hours earlier. Shansa glanced over to Eleena and raised a brow.

"El?"

She spun the cockpit seat around and rose out of the chair in what seemed like a subconscious response.

Will cleared his throat. "Allow me to declare the mission a success."

Eleena stared the quarian down. "Is that…"

Kallux and Will looked to Tul'Sorrin. The quarian stood still briefly before raising his shoulders and stepping forward to stand directly between the four others.

"Yes," he said timidly. "It's me."

Eleena looked him up and down. "Get over here," she demanded flatly.

Tul took a few reluctant steps toward the asari. Eleena continued to stare him down until he finally stopped within arm's length of her.

"I shouldn't be letting you off this easy," Eleena said. "But by the fucking goddess, Tul…" She reached forward and wrapped her arms around him. "You're here."

Tul'Sorrin was as shocked as anyone else on the bridge and took a few full seconds to recognize and return the embrace.

"I am," he repeated with a small laugh.

Eleena stepped back and shook her head. "It's been years. Years since you just fucking walked off and left everyone to wonder where you were going."

"Almost eight," Tul sheepishly interjected.

"The shock is going to wear off sooner or later, and then I'll have to tell you how I really feel," Eleena added. "But for right this second..." She smiled. "It's damn good to see you again, old friend."

"Yes," Shansa finally spoke. "I see you're alive and well."

Tul turned to face Shansa and the pair locked eyes. After a few seconds she stepped forward and held out a hand. The quarian took the offering and shook once.

"Welcome back, Tul," she managed to say. She seemed shocked at even her own words.

"Shansa," he quickly replied. "I didn't think you would even want to see me. The fact that you're not livid-"

She pursed her lips as he spoke and chuckled cynically. "Oh, I am angry, Tul. Part of me wishes you'd never sent that message a few days ago, and another part wishes we hadn't answered." Shansa crossed her arms over her chest. "And just like Eleena said, that angry part of me is going to come rearing its head in hard. You bastard. But if Will and Kallux brought you here then I know there's gotta be a damn good reason."

"Shansa, I can explain what-"

"No," she quickly interrupted. "You'll have your time to explain whatever it is you want to explain later. But right now we're going to stay civil because I'm dying to know why you're standing here on the bridge of my ship."

"I think we can fill you in on that one," Kallux's gravelly voice chimed in.

Shansa's eyes glanced to the krogan. "Was I right about his message? There was a reason Tul sought us out, wasn't there?"

Will nodded. "Yes, there was. But I think he should explain it himself."

"Perhaps we should gather around the meeting table?" Tul suggested.

Eleena pointed down to her foot. "I'd prefer to stay here."

The quarian glanced down to her bandages. "I see. Well then." He stepped to the side as to no longer stand in the dead center of the circle. "I suppose I should tell you everything I told Kallux and Captain Hume."

Shansa raised a finger. "Hold that thought."

The pilot turned and leaned over the flight controls. "The FTL drive is charged. I'm setting a course for the relay and punching it. If that has to change because of whatever Tul tells us we can drop and course correct, but we're not hanging out over this moon any longer."

"No objections here," Will stated.

She cleared her throat and activated the ship's comms. "All hands: prepare to jump."

Her hand danced across one of the control panels to finalize the jump sequence.

"Hitting FTL in five, four, three, two," she stopped before one and engaged the FTL drive. "We're clear."

Shansa checked a handful of readings before turning back to the others. "Alright, Tul. Go ahead."

Tul'Sorrin turned to face Eleena and Shansa as he relayed the entirety of his side of their mission: the intelligence gathering run, the discovery of the geth's monitoring of the raloi, the shootdown of the Unyielding, and finally their rescue. Shansa and Eleean seemed inclined to hide their thoughts on Tul's command of his own ship and crew, at least for the time being. After finishing the tale that ended with them landing in the cargo bay a few minutes earlier, Eleena acquired Tul's attention and raised a brow.

"This is a lot to think about," she admitted. "But I have to ask: how the hell did you contact us without alerting the geth or the Migrant Fleet?"

Will gave the asari a slick grin. "Good question. I asked him the same thing, but only got 'later' as a response."

Tul nodded. "That part was quite… brilliant, if I may say so myself. It was a combined effort between me, Sella and Dalo, the members of my crew that I mentioned earlier."

The quarian turned and began to pace from side to side as he spoke with his hands wrapped behind his back. Will smiled softly at the mannerism. He hadn't seen it from the quarian in nearly eight years.

"Avoiding the Migrant Fleet was the easy part," Tul explained. "Because we actually transmitted via some geth networks that we had hacked into. Years ago we found that the geth was using an intriguing proxy-like system to communicate through the extranet, and the Special Projects fleet managed to replicate their transmission protocols fairly easily. Their encryption, however, has yet to be cracked."

"How the hell did you transmit the messages without the geth realizing that it wasn't one of their own?" Kallux asked.

Tul shook his head. "To be honest, that was the biggest risk. We are unclear what kind of monitoring occurs in their transmissions, but we obviously fooled whatever they use. My guess is that our message was so low-profile that it was lost in a sea of data that the geth use to communicate to their other platforms throughout the galaxy." He paused and looked up to the ceiling. "Where was I? Ah, yes! Sella, Dalo and I were able to replicate one of the geth transmissions and send our message. We were honestly unsure if it would work."

"Well, it did," Will said. "It's possible the geth even knew but didn't stop you."

"Possible," Tul considered. "But unlikely. With the war I imagine they simply cannot afford the processing power to monitor these 'hidden' extranet channels intently."

Shansa had remained silent since Tul had begun recounting his story. At last she let out a sigh and looked around to the others.

"So all we have to do is bring Tul to the Citadel?" She asked, bringing them back on subject.

"That's all I ask," Tul'Sorrin answered. "This is important, Shansa. You know that."

Shansa's eyes drifted to the side as she mulled over Tul's assertion. "If what you're saying is true, then I agree, that this is important. I don't know about everyone else, but since Kallux and Will brought you here then they must at the very least be willing to consider it."

"That's about right," Will said. "Eleena?"

The asari eyed Tul carefully. "I need to get to a med center soon," she reasoned. "With that in mind, I don't see a reason not to find one on the Citadel and give Tul a lift in the process."

"Then I guess we'll do it," Shansa said quietly. "But what about your friends? Sella and Dalo?"

"I would prefer it if we could return my crew to the Fleet," Tul answered, hoping that he was not asking too much.

"We're headed back to the relay," Shansa said as she looked down at her omnitool. "Eleena needs a doctor and I'm not delaying that another twelve hours to bring them out to wherever the Flotilla is located. However, on our way in we were intercepted by squadron of quarian ships. Would it be okay if we dropped Sella and Dalo off with them?"

Tul seemed apprehensive but nodded. "That would work. But how the hell did you get past them to begin with?"

Shansa rolled her eyes. "Let's just say T'Lees is masquerading as a Spectre in the Tikkun System at the moment."

"Then the ships at the checkpoint should be more than happy to see that a Spectre was able to rescue some of our people," Tul reasoned. "Sella, Dalo and I will talk to confirm their stories. I will make sure they speak highly of this mysterious Spectre."

"As long as they don't mention her by name," Shansa said with an amused smile.

The five of them stood quietly for a moment before Kallux let out a small chuckle.

"Look at this," he said as if recalling a fond memory. "The five of us here again, crowded around and talking about a new job."

Shansa couldn't help but let her smile grow. "This does bring me back a few years," she admitted.

Will smirked. "I'd say it's like being back on the Hyperion again, but let's face it, this ship is way nicer than that old bird ever was."

Eleena sighed happily. "Goddess, I loved that engine room. Always a new disaster to find or fix in there."

Tul had let his eyes drop to the floor. "Would you all hate me if I got some rest? Sella, Dalo and I were up for nearly three days straight."

"I'll set you three up with a place to grab some sleep," Kallux offered. "Shansa, that okay?"

Shansa looked as though she had just become lost in her own mind as a billion thoughts danced through her brain. After a second of absentminded staring she blinked and looked up to the krogan. "What? Oh! Yes, of course."

Tul nodded in thanks. "I'm eternally grateful. And one last thing." He took a deep breath. "I do plan on telling you all what happened to me. I've wanted you to know for years now. But I really must rest first."

"I could use some sleep as well," Will agreed. "So don't worry about it. We've been wondering for years where you evaporated to. We can wait a few more hours."

The quarian nodded in thanks as Kallux led him out of the commander center and toward the elevator. After they had left, Will and Eleena turned to face Shansa. She gave them a confused look and raised a brow questioningly.

"What?"

Will crossed his arms. "Are you okay?"

"Me?" Shansa asked. "Yeah... yeah, I'm okay." She thought for a moment and nodded. "I'm really, really okay. Angry, of course, but I'm fine. I was expecting to feel a lot more of something seeing him again, but it was just like seeing an old friend that you hadn't spoken to in years because of bad blood."

"That's kind of how I felt," Will agreed.

"Either way, we'll talk more to him tomorrow," Shansa reasoned. "Maybe everything will come rushing back after I get some sleep."

"You turning in?" Eleena asked.

"Yeah. Been a long, long few days," Shansa said with a small smile.

"No guarantee that'll change tomorrow," Eleena reminded her.

Shansa walked past them toward her cabin and let out an exhausted laugh. "Bring it on."