Chapter 12

War Hero

Author's Note: Well I think that it's time to get moving with the Blitz...not much to talk about him, other than I don't really care for EA or anything that they've done in the past couple of months.

XXXXX

"Not exactly how I was planning on spending my afternoon," Charon remarked as the Rhino that he and the others were sitting in bumped against a jagged rock on their way out of the city. "I wanted to reminisce about the First Contact War, not reenact it." There was an almost bitter tone to his voice, not that anyone could blame him.

"We're about five minutes out!" Jane called from the drivers seat, "I'd get ready if I were you."

"All right, here's how this is going to work," Anderson said, flipping the safety off on his rifle, the others doing the same with their weapons. "Be selective with you fire here, there are going to be civilians in cages or in binds all over the place. No grenades, and Fawkes, I want you to be conservative with your gatling laser."

"I understand," Fawkes said.

"If a Batarian puts a gun to a prisoner's head, that means he's panicking. It may be hard for you, but the second that you get a shot you take it. Get him while he's still disoriented and don't wait for him to gather his wits, if he does then we have a hostage situation on our hands and the chances of someone dying are too high. We need to eliminate any hostiles on sight and capture the vessel so that the techs can do a sweep of it."

"Here's the battle plan, I want the heavy hitters up front, that means Fawkes, John and Jane, you're going to be taking the bulk of the fire."

"Sometimes I wish I had gone with the light infantry," Jane groaned from the drivers seat.

"Adam, you're with me on flanking duty. When the Rhino stops, you and I will split off and attack them from opposite sides, me the right and you the left. Charon, I want you to get on the gun and mow down anything with four eyes. Sheryl, I want you to stay as far away from the ship as possible and pick off any hostiles that you can get in your sights. Enemy snipers, heavy weapons and gunners are your primary targets, everything else is secondary."

"Does everyone understand?" Anderson received a chorus of nods. "All right then. I'm not sure how much time we have until the damage to the ship is complete. From what I could tell it wasn't very major so we need to make this fast in case they try to make an emergency take off. If you see a chance to get inside the ship you take it.

"Thirty seconds!" Jane shouted.

"Ok, let's hit them fast and hard," Anderson said. There was a sudden jolt as the Rhino slid to a halt, swerving as it did so that it was parked parallel to their target. The back door slid open as everyone sprang to their feet, weapons in hand. Without a word, they all jumped out.

The Batarian ship looked like it had seen better days. Some of its plates were rusting and the paint had faded all over but it still looked flight worthy. Several scorch marks were visible over the rear section of the ships, near the engine, caused either by re-entry or by hostile lasers. Three mechanics had been working on it when the Rhino had screeched to a halt before dropping their tools and fleeing inside the ship. In front of the ship were a group of cages with Standard and Necro-Humans stuffed into them, desperately trying to claw their way out. A group of guards scrambled to take cover behind metal crates that had been placed on the snow covered ground in front of the ship, one of them grabbing onto a mounted machine-gun.

Anderson and Adam split off, each heading in their designated direction while John, Jane and Fawkes charged forward, firing their weapons. The Batarian on the mounted gun began to open fire, but before he could get more than ten rounds out, a bullet tore through his head, causing him to slump onto the ground. Right next to the Rhino in a prone position, Sheryl adjusted her aim as she lined up another shot.

The Batarians opened fire at the heavy infantry, only to have three of them swiftly killing by plasma and laser fire, forcing them into cover. However, mere seconds later, a stream of bullets hit them from the sides, downing their shields and killing two of them. Adam and Anderson ran past, weapons in hand, heading for the ship's open airlock. One of the Batarians still alive stood up and aimed at them, only to be gunned down by Charon, who was tightly gripping the Rhino's machine-gun.

As the handful of survivors, who were crouching behind a different set of crates, returned fire, Anderson and Adam ran up a ramp in front the ship into the airlock, entering a poorly lit metal corridor. "You take engineering, I'll take the bridge!" Anderson shouted at Adam before running off in one direction. "If they try to take off, kill the power core!"

Adam nodded before running off in the opposite direction, quickly coming to a ladder which he grabbed onto and slid down into the lower decks. As his feet hit the ground, three bullets hit the back of his shields, weakening them badly. Spinning around, he leveled his shotgun at a Batarian with a pistol no more than ten feet away from him and fired it. The alien had no shields and the blast killed him instantly.

Holding his weapon in front of him, Adam continued deeper into the ship, until he came across a door leading to the ship's core, which was currently inactive. A Batarian appeared in the doorway, aiming a rifle at him, but a blast from Adam's shotgun reduced him to a corpse on the floor.

"WAIT!" a voice shouted, "Don't shoot! I'm coming out, I'm unarmed!" A lone Batarian stepped out from behind the core, holding his hands over his head. "I surrender, ok? Please don't shoot." Warily, Adam stepped forward, his shotgun still level. "I'll do anything you want!" the Batarian begged, "you want access codes to the computer? I got them! You want names? You want to know who's on top of the food chain? I have that too, just please don't shoot!"

"If I lower my weapon," Adam began stopping directly in front of him, "do you swear on your life to come quietly?"

"Of course!" the Batarian almost shouted. "I'm just a mechanic! Those two were too, my job is just to fix the ship when it's damaged. I got called out front to take care of the blasts from those lasers when you people showed up, I...I don't even like slavery that much."

Adam hesitated, before lowering his shotgun and sliding it onto his back. "Very well. A life is a terrible thing to waste, I am glad that you decided to give yourself up." The Batarian let out a sigh of relief, his muscles slacking as his arms fell to the side. "However-" before the Batarian could even blink, Adam had slammed his fist into his gut, causing him to double over in pain.

Grabbing the alien by the shoulder, Adam spun him around so that his back was to him before wrapping his arms around the alien's neck in a sleeper hold. "Forgive me," Adam said, "but I must do this. I saw that pistol that you were hiding in your pocket." The Batarian thrashed wildly. "Please do not struggle, I do not wish to harm you."

"You...fucking...bastard," the Batarian croaked out as Adam continued to squeeze, his struggles growing weaker and weaker until he slumped over in Adams arms. Gently, Adam lowered the Batarian to the ground and grabbed the pistol that was strapped to his back before standing up and looking around. He couldn't see any evidence to suggest that there were any other places that Batarians could be hiding.

"Adam. Adam you there?" Anderson's voice said through his COM unit.

"Yes Captain, how can I help you?"

"The bridge is clear, only the Captain and the first officer were there, wasn't too much of a problem. How are things on your end?"

"The engines had no guards aside from three mechanics. I managed to take one of them alive, he is unconscious at the moment."

"Really? Keep an eye on him, he could be useful. I want you to stay down there, make sure that the engines stay offline. When the others are done clearing out everyone outside we're going to sweep the rest of the ship to make sure that there aren't any stragglers."

"Understood," Adam said as he lowered his hand. As he did, a metal crate in the corner with the lid hanging off. Approaching it, he lifted it off completely to find that it was filled with thick metal shackles with a combination lock. Taking a pair out, he gave them an experimental tug before turning to look at the unconscious Batarian. "Well...I should make sure that he does not hurt someone when he wakes up."

XXXXX

Saren found himself sitting on the bed in the quarters that had been given to him. It was surprisingly spacious and luxurious, the bed was clearly meant for two people, he had a private bathroom complete with shower, a massive screen around 50 inches long right across from his bed, a small kitchen and unless it had been a trick of the light, a mini-bar. Saren found it rather odd, not to mention slightly stupid, that Had'dah was using his private yacht as transport to this unknown ship.

At the moment though, none of this was managing to hold his attention. He was typing into an omni-tool, running scans on his cybernetics. He paused as the readout appeared in front of him. "My middle finger is slightly off," he remarked, glancing at his cybernetic hand. "I knew I should have gotten that upgraded model, this one always requires recalibration." As he continued to look at his metal arm, he felt a dull feeling in his chest. A feeling of loss.

"No," he whispered, looking away, "don't think about that, focus on the present." He was broken out of his thoughts when there was a knock on the door. "Come in," he said, getting to his feet.

The door slid open, revealing Had'dah holding a datapad in his hand. "Saren, it's good to see that you are settling in nicely."

"Yes," Saren said hesitantly, staring at the room behind him, "though I can't help but question the practicality of bringing a private ship like this so close to the Geth boarder."

"Warships would attract even more attention that my yacht, military forces this far away from Council space is something that rarely happens, but private ships can go wherever they want in the galaxy without it seeming odd. That's why I chose to use this ship, several military vessels disappearing for several days would've attracted attention."

"That may be the case, but if mercenaries or pirates attack us, we'll be hard pressed to defend ourselves."

Had'dah chuckled, "I highly doubt that we will have to deal with pirates so close to the Geth boarder, there aren't any settlements out here for them to raid. They might've come out here for something as large as a warship, but I'm hoping my ship will fly under the radar."

"And what if we happen to run into Geth?"

"If we run into Geth that we have much bigger problems to worry about, but that is highly unlikely, the Geth haven't been seen beyond the Veil in 300 years, I don't see any reason why they would suddenly reveal themselves now." Had'dah looked at Saren with interested eyes. "I must say, you seem to be rather paranoid."

"I am a Spectre of the Council, and since the formation of the Council there has been a species of insects that threatened to overrun the galaxy, a race of savages that attempted to do the same thing, a machine race that reduced their creators from tens of billions to seventeen million, pirates, slavers, warlords and countless other things. The galaxy is a dangerous place, I have every right to be paranoid."

"Perhaps. Anyway the reason that I wanted to see you is that I wanted to give you the data that my initial recon team was able to acquire on the ship that we will be surveying." He handed the datapad to Saren, "I am sorry to say that it was not very detailed due to the limited equipment that they had, but I imagine that you will find it very fascinating nonetheless."

"Thank you, now if you don't mind I would like to be left alone for a minute." Had'dah nodded his head as he stepped out of the room.

Saren sat down on the bed again and activated the datapad, a wall of text filling the screen. "Initial scans on the derelict ship are complete," he muttered as he read the report, "unable to confirm exact age of ship, but estimates suggest that it is at least several hundred years old." Saren paused, "it could be a Geth ship that was disabled during the Mourning War," he guessed before continuing to read.

"Initial scans also picked up a spinal mounted cannon and kinetic barrier generators, indicating that the ship is of military design. Oddly enough though, there is no sign of battle damage, the ship, in fact, seems to be perfectly intact. What makes this even more confusing is the ships massive size, well over two kilometers long...what!" Saren reread that last line, making sure that he had not imagined what he had saw.

"A...a whole two kilometers long? He stammered, "and it's a military ship?" Saren forced himself to take deep calm breaths, telling himself not to get too excited about it. But he couldn't help but imagine the possibilities that would spring from this, massive technological advancements for the Council and dreadnoughts that would make the Destiny Ascension appear tiny by comparison.

XXXXX

"Is that everyone?" Anderson said as Fawkes ripped off the lock to a cage that a teenage boy was in, who hastily scrambled out.

"Pretty sure, I checked all over the cargo bay and there were only a couple of people there," Jane remarked, looking up at the sky. "Funny, there weren't any dropships around when we showed up, any idea why?"

"It could be that they dropped off as many as prisoners this ship could carry and got called back to provide backup for their forces back in the city," Anderson suggested. He and most of the others were outside of the downed Batarian frigate, doing everything that they could to help the recently freed captives. Charon had managed to find the ship's store of food and most of the civilians were gathered in a small group, munching on bits of cold meat and sipping water.

"So...we have to stay put again?" John asked, looking at Anderson.

"I'm afraid so. There's around forty people here, they won't be able to fit into the Rhino. We need to stay here to make sure that the Batarians don't try and grab them again."

"Uh, I don't think that we will need to worry about that too much," Adam said, pointing at the distant city. Around a dozen dropships were flying upward, heading for the skies. "It looks like they're retreating."

"Hold on a second," Anderson said before putting his hand to his ear. "Anderson here, I need an update on the space battle. What? Confirm that please. I see...very well." He lowered his hand. "Well, it looks like we were able to hold out long enough. Our fleet was able to regroup and inflict heavy damage on the Batarians, they're running for it."

"Good to hear," John said. "What now?"

"Before we can make our next move, we need to find out where the slavers are taking their prisoners."

"Prisoners?" John asked.

Anderson sighed. "Sadly...despite our best efforts the Batarians were still able to escape with Coalition citizens. Our estimates say about a hundred. Maybe two."

"Well...we're going to get them back right?"

Anderson put his hand on John's shoulder. "Yes, we are. We are going to do everything in our power to hunt down the ones that got away, find out where they're hiding and get our people home. Speaking of which," he turned to face Adam, "how is our guest?"

"Last I heard, Charon was keeping him in the cargo bay. He should wake up any second now."

"Good, keep an eye on things out here, I want to have a little chat with him." Without another word, Anderson turned and walked up the ramp. He took a sharp right turn and walked into a massive room filled with empty cages. Charon and Sheryl were both sitting on metal crates, the Batarian mechanic not far away against a wall with his head slumped over, his arms behind him in heavy metal shackles.

"I don't believe you," Sheryl said bluntly.

"My right hand to God it's the truth," Charon said, "the kid shot the Behemoth right in the face with a Fat Man, the entire building behind it got covered in blood. It's a true story, I even threw myself in a radioactive river to get clean that's how messy it was."

"But you're a Necro-Human, how is that a big deal?"

"Well...yeah, but back then there was a popular theory that Necro-Humans that were exposed to too much radiation went feral," Charon explained.

"I see. I wasn't talking about that though, I was talking about the other time."

"That was true too, Fawkes took down another one all by himself with his gatling laser. I think he hung onto a blood sample from it if you don't believe me."

"Fine, fine, you don't need too...wow," Sheryl said, catching herself mid-sentence.

Charon cocked his head slightly. "Is something wrong?"

"No...I just...I just realized how easy this is."

"I don't follow."

"It's just...back in my village, many of the people who lived there...well they refused to talk to me. They were very superstitious and...I was...different." She pulled her face wrappings down slightly, revealing her pale white skin, which contrasted noticeably with her blood red eyes.

"I know the feeling," Charon said, gesturing to his swollen red face, "it's not fun, people make judgements about you and think that you're something that you're not because you look different."

A look dawned on Sheryl's face that was difficult to describe. It vaguely resembled a cross between surprise and happiness. "Yes...exactly," she said softly.

"Hope I'm not barging in," Anderson said, prompting the two of them to glance in his direction, "but I need to have a little talk with our friend here."

"Hold on for a second," Charon remarked reaching into a pocket and pulling out a small capsule. "I found this while looking through the ship, apparently someone sold these guys smelling salts somewhere down the lane." Approaching the unconscious Batarian, he flipped the capsule open and held it under his nose. Almost immediately, he began coughing as his eyes snapped open. He immediately began to struggle, but quickly stopped as he realized the situation that he was in."

"Don't hesitate to shoot if he tries anything funny," Anderson said as Charon backed away slightly. The Captain walked forward, stopping in front of the Batarian. "A lot of people got captured by your friends today."

"Good," the Batarian grunted, "that's what we came here for."

"I imagine that it is, but the thing is I find myself in a position where I need to get them back, so I would appreciate it if you could tell me where they were taken and where they are going to be sold."

"What makes you think I'm going to tell you anything?" the Batarian demanded. "I heard about what your ambassador said to the Council, how that slavery was a disgrace. Now you want me to help you obstruct my people's right to practice it?" He spat at the ground, "Slavery is an internal part of our culture you racist son of a bitch."

"Yes, well it's part of our culture to prevent our citizens from being sold as slaves and to kill those who try to do it," Anderson said dryly, "so we're at a bit of an impasse."

"So what? You didn't join the Council, you lost your right to complain. If I could have it my way, all three of you would be cages and on the market and there wouldn't be a damn thing that you could do about it legally." His eyes were drawn to Sheryl, who was sliding her face wrappings back into place, "especially that one."

In the blink of an eye, Sheryl slid her crossbow off of her back and fired a shot. It slammed into the wall an inch away from the Batarian's face, imbedding itself there. "Watch your tongue," she hissed, "I can't stand people like you. The next one won't miss."

"Not quite," Anderson said, ignoring Sheryl's actions, "the Coalition still has a voice in galactic politics even though we're independent. In fact that makes what you did even dumber," Anderson pointed out. "You attacked a sovereign power, you won't be answering to the Council's laws or the Hegemony's laws, but to our laws. You're looking at...I'd say twenty years in a Coalition prison, and that's if you're lucky. You'd be in the same prison as Meta-Humans and Deathclaws, and let me tell you, slavers are despised even among our criminals."

All four of the Batarian's eyes widened. "Deathclaws?" he whispered, "t-those things that can kill me with one swing of their hands?"

"Yup," Anderson said, "and if the warden of the prison you're sent to really doesn't like you, you'll probably end up sharing a room with one." Anderson talked about this in a way that could only be described as casual. His legs were crossed and he seemed to be leaning back in a slightly lazy manner. "And that's even if you get there. There's a couple dozen people out there that you tried to turn into property and I'm not going to shoot civilians if they try to attack you. And that's if this young lady right here doesn't slip your throat in your sleep."

"W-wait a minute-"

"I want to ask you something, is slavery something that you've spent your whole life practicing? Is it something that you want to hold onto until you die? Somehow I don't think so, you seemed more like you were hired for a one time job, if you were a regular you would've been more well equipped. I'll make you a deal, tell me where to find my people and I'll put in a good word for you, get you a lighter sentence. I might even be able to get you off completely if your information is really good."

The Batarian hesitated for a moment, bitting his lip. "If...if I talk, powerful people will be pissed at me. They'll want my head."

"There are dozens of other Batarians that served on this ship, any one of them could have been captured and interrogated," Anderson pointed out. "No one will know that it was you."

The Batarian hesitated again before talking. "Fuck it, you would've figured it out when you cracked our computers anyway. The gang that I was working for has a base on Torfan, it's underground."

"Underground, that's helpful. Do you have anything else to tell us?

"I...I...yes," the Batarian said hesitantly. "If you take out the base on Torfan you'll probably stop all raids in the Verge, pretty much all of them originate there...but by the time that you get there your people will be gone."

Anderson raised an eyebrow, "what do you mean by that?"

"There's a reason that this raid was so big, the demand for slaves, particularly from the Coalition, was through the roof, so much that the gangs were willing to pay big money to outsiders to help, like me."

"Why is the demand so high?"

"Because...because in two days there's going to be a fair on the planet Oenomaus, it's one of the largest colonies that we have. Every year there's a massive fair there, the wealthiest people in the Hegemony go there and they pick from the finest slaves that have been captured and bought over the months. The government wanted specimens from the Coalition, so they paid the slavers at Torfan to-"

"The government!" Anderson shouted, causing Sheryl and Charon to jump in surprise. "T-the Batarian government contracted you to attack this colony...how do I know you're not lying?"

"Don't believe me? Check the main computer to the ship, the password is 197254268426743."

Anderson paused before getting to his feet. "I'll be right back, don't let him out of your sight," he said quietly before turning and walking away. Even as he walked towards the main database in the ship, he had a gut feeling in his stomach. He knew that the Batarian was telling the truth.

XXXXX

CODEX UPDATED

ENTRIES ADDED

First Contact War: In 2715 Humanity attempted to activate the Shanxi relay, but before they could do so they were discovered by a Turian patrol fleet. As the activation of any Mass Relay without the permission of the Council is illegal in Council Space, the patrol fleet responded violently and opened fire, starting the First Contact War.

General Desolas Arterius led the Sixth Fleet in an invasion of the Coalition colony world Shanxi, wiping out most of the defending ships and killing hundreds of ground troops. However, before Desolas could seize complete control of the colony, Vice-Admiral Marcus arrived with reinforcements and overwhelmed the Sixth Fleet with sheer numbers. Brigadier General Williams simultaneously launched a counter-attack on the ground, killing General Desolas and forcing the Turians to retreat. A few days later, Vice-Admiral Marcus led a raid on a Turian refueling outpost, destroying the station as well as many of the defenders before retreating.

The conflict was brought to an end when Matriarch Benezia led a diplomatic envoy to Shanxi, extended the hand of peace to the Coalition. This lead to the Coalition sending their own envoy to the Citadel, resulting in first contact with the Council and the signing of the Treaty of Shanxi.

Cybernetics: While there are many distinctions between Coalition and Council cybernetics, both technologies operate from similar bases. On average, cybernetics are self powered and made out of strong alloys. Cybernetic limbs tend to be stronger than the organic limbs of most species, although there have been exceptions when it comes to Elcor, Krogan, Deathclaws and Meta-Humans. Cybernetics do not necessarily need to be maintained on a regular basis, but doing so will increase the time they remain functional by several years. There are also unconfirmed rumors that the Coalition is developing cybernetic arms that have integrated energy weapons.

It is worth noting that receiving cybernetic implants is known to be a very traumatic experience, especially when it is done out of an emergency to save a person's life. This is not helped by the fact that most cybernetics are very noticeable to the average passer by. While cybernetics do posses artificial nerve endings, many cyborgs have described that touching someone with an artificial hand feels "dull" and lacks the same "feeling" as an organic hand. Also, cybernetic limbs take several weeks for the body to adjust to, as they have a different "feel" than organic limbs.

XXXXX

Author's Note: I've never played Tomb Raider in my life but I want to talk about it for a second. Even I know Lara Croft is a freaking sex symbol, so when I heard that the new Tomb Raider was going to make her a teenage girl with a reasonable chest size, and that her new storyline would be darker I thought "hey, that's a neat idea, I might actually buy this game". However, a couple of days later I found a bunch of people tearing up a storm that this new Lara was sexist...what?

Yeah, some of the arguments that I heard was that the new Lara suggested that women with big boobs were less Human (I...I...I don't even) that the statement that "We want you to want to protect her and not project onto her" was sexist because it made her less of a character and implied that the people playing would only be men...ok, that's a fair argument, I guess women don't give a shit about helpless teenage girls after all. I'm just saying, I never "projected" myself onto Master Chief or Commander Shepard, I felt like I was controlling them, maybe that's why this doesn't bother me. And let's not forget people saying it's sexist because she get's hurt and nearly gets raped. Ok, first of all, the main character getting hurt a lot is good, if the main character has everything go lovely for them and nothing bad happens to them I tend to care less about them. As for the rape thing, first of all it's more like she gets tackled and groped before the guy gets shot and second of all, it's a bunch of vicious killers on an deserted island and I'm pretty sure there aren't any women around, what the Hell do you want them to do to her? Ransom her? No wait, that'd be sexist too.

I don't know, I just get the nagging feeling that if it was a teenage boy in her boots we would be hearing a lot less complaints. Some people seem to think that anything bad happening to women in fiction is sexist, for crying out loud some people are comparing this to Metroid other M. First of all, the new Tomb Raider takes place at the beginning of Lara's journey, not at the end, and in the trailer I saw her kill 3 guys with a bow and arrow and 6 with a shotgun, she's hardly portrayed as weak and helpless, there aren't any big burly space marines with plasma cannons saving her, she saves herself. Also SHE'S A TEENAGE GIRL! Do you want her to gun down hordes of people without any trouble, spouting off one liners all the way? Would that make this game better for these people? That'd make the game bloody absurd, from what I can see it has a survival theme going for it and survival doesn't work when the character isn't portrayed as helpless. Fallout isn't survival because by level ten you probably have a nuke launcher.

Ugh, and people wonder why the majority of video game protagonists are 30 something males with brown hair, because every time a woman is in a video game it's sexist for some reason or another. I'm all for equality, but sometimes I think people take it WAY too far. Not every single video game character has to be an unstoppable badass you know, the Silent Hill games didn't need them. Why is it when they show a helpless male it's shown as riveting but when this game shows a helpless female it's sexist? I dunno, some people just seem to think that all women have to be strong and independent and if you decide that you want to write one that isn't you therefore hate women. It's not like this happens after all of her previous adventures as I said before, SHE'S A TEENAGE GIRL! She has, without a doubt, never killed anyone before and this is a whole new experience for her and she suffers a lot because the creators are trying to make her into a Woobie. No one complained when Tali was a Woobie but she's still badass.

Anyway, this is all just my opinion and this next bit is also my opinion. If you want to get angry about sexism, the new Hitman game is a far more serious offender. Seriously, the fuck was up with that trailer? It's 47 doing nothing but killing an assassination team comprised entirely of women dressed like strippers. It's made even worse by 47 putting on incredibly conservative clothing as the women strip, he even wears gloves for fucks sake. Those girls look liked they were dressed for BDSM, not an assassination mission, why did they ditch the normal nun outfits for BDSM nun outfits? The second one does nothing but look sexy at least with the first you can blend in, appear harmless and probably conceal a weapon. THAT is sexism.