Chapter 13

Patching through to the Iwo Jima, Marshall began issuing further orders. "Commander, get Valanov, Grimes, and O'Carter suited up to provide backup as soon as possible!"

"Copy that, Captain." Smoke answered. "Want me to gear up as well?"

"Negative. If you have to break dock, you're in command."

Smoke didn't like that order, but understood it. "Aye aye, sir."

Marshall then settled in to face the immediate threat. It was quite fortunate that the mechs didn't have magnetic barriers, because otherwise their sheer numbers would have been more than enough to overwhelm the two defenders at the end of the walkway. The numbers were plenty troublesome as it was.

They were holding their ground, for the time being, but the increasing number of Ymirs was going to be a problem, especially if more Fenris were lurking back there. Marshall had... an option... he could entertain; but with Dani and Lance close by it was one he was not keen on using until it was absolutely life or death.

Dani had focused on dealing with the Fenris mechs, her shotgun suited to handle the canine analogue mechanicals as they possessed no ranged weapons, leaving Marshall to the Lokis and Ymirs. One well placed shot from his sidearm handled the Lokis easily enough, although the sturdiness of the Ymirs, even with his rifle ignoring their shields, required more active attention.

"What's your progress, LC?" He shouted over the sounds of weapons fire.

"Cerberus apparently decided that ten firewalls is a perfectly rational approach to computer security." Lance grumbled, momentarily ducking from a ricochet that came a little too close for his comfort. "Of course, it would go a lot quicker if you could keep those mechs from shooting at me!"

"Well, next time one comes close enough, I'll ask nicely if it would tell it's friends to stop." Dani groused sarcastically, followed by leaning around the corner to take out a charging Fenris with a couple blasts.

Seeing a break in the advancing mechs, the quarian woman addressed her omni-tool. While she probably couldn't help much with Lance's work, she might be able to... "Ah ha!"

As she had hoped, she gained control of one of the Ymirs, the lumbering mech turning on its kin, and firing three short bursts, before its efforts were stopped by a round from the captain's rifle, ripping through its right arm and through the processing core in its head.

"Gah! Captain, I had that one!" Dani shouted in protest.

"Sorry!" Marshall apologized, quickly changing his target and firing another rifle round into the head of a Loki as it made the turn onto the walkway.

"And it's no fair that you can kill things in one shot!" She continued.

"Remind Lieutenant Valanov to hook you up with some of our weapons, on my orders." Marshall replied. At this point, he figured Dani had earned the right to some exposure to their tech, no matter what High Command thought of the matter.

Smoke cut into the chatter. "Sir, backup is ready to be issued on your orders."

"Probably won't be needed, Commander." Lance said, "I've almost... got it..."

Not even five seconds after, the mechs started powering down, sparse fire dwindling as the order to go to standby didn't reach all units simultaneously. But once it did, Dani and Marshall allowed themselves a breather.

"Well... considering that was my first live fire experience, it went well." Dani assessed.

Marshall was a bit surprised to hear that, but quickly corrected his thoughts before he could air them. Just because Reticuli Prime was somewhat fond of hostilities roughly every forty years didn't mean Rannoch had that same inclination. "I wouldn't have guessed it was." He finally said in compliment. "You handled yourself very admirably."

That earned him a wan smile. "Thank you, sir. I take it you've seen your share of combat?"

"More than my share, honestly." Marshall replied, gesturing Dani to follow as he approached Lance at the primary console. "I hope the ends justified the means, LC."

"I have access to the classified sections of the computer." Lance said with guarded optimism. "Whether or not they'll have anything of value is another matter entirely. I'd rather transfer all this to the Iwo Jima, and study it in the more comfortable and non-mech infested environs of our ship."

"I'm in agreement on that score." Marshall answered. "We're sure these things will stay deactivated when we try to leave, right?"

"I make no promises."

That encouraged Dani to stop poking the Loki in front of her with the barrel of her shotgun, at least. Her reckless curiosity would be annoying if it wasn't so oddly adorable. Once Lance had finished his transfer, Marshall took the lead back to the docking bay, and the safety of the Iwo Jima.

"It's funny," Dani commented as she examined the damage to her armor, handing it off to Tolstoy for repair. "Just little cuts like those could have been disastrous for me had I lived just a hundred years ago. I'm sometimes amazed at how far my people have come."

Marshall didn't respond to the monologue, instead addressing Lance. "LC, once you've processed the data from this station, let me know. You, the commander, and I will have a debriefing then."

The three then stopped in sick bay on the third deck, more as a matter of procedure than anything else. Surprisingly, none of the three had taken any serious injury despite the amount of mass accelerated metal that had been fogging the air. Apparently, a hundred years of armor and weapons advancement actually meant something. A little medical gel to nurse the few nicks and cuts was plenty.

From there, Marshall allowed Lance to take the elevator back down to the fourth deck and engineering, then once it returned, he and Dani took it up to the second deck. The elevator door hadn't even fully opened before Jessie was in full sprint towards the two, abandoning any sense of proper protocol. Marshall didn't have the heart to chide her about it.

She nearly screeched to a stop as both officers stepped off the elevator. "Lieutenant! I'm so glad you're okay!"

"I'm glad I'm okay too." Dani said, color rising to her cheeks at Jessie's worry. "I... am fine, however. I appreciate your concern."

"I wasn't concerned!" Jessie replied. "You were with Captain Brasser! He's faced a lot more dangerous situations than a bunch of century-old mechs! I'm just glad you weren't hurt!"

"Back to your post, Lieutenant Michal." Marshall finally ordered, more to break up the chatter than anything else. The last thing he needed was Jessie spouting exaggerated war stories. "You too, Dani."

"Aye aye, sir." Both women replied.

Dani took her station at the nav computer, trying very hard to ignore Chipper's smug grin.

"Told ya." The pilot finally said.

"Shut it, woman." Dani answered flatly, keeping her head straight forward, even as a hint of a smile crept across her lips. "You're just jealous that I proved I can handle a firefight."

"The Lieutenant represented herself admirably." Marshall agreed. "I can only hope that Nimea training is equal to that of Rannoch's if it comes to that. Although her lack of self-preservation both before and after the altercation left something to be desired."

The quarian colored as Smoke couldn't help but press the issue. "Oh, this I gotta hear."

"Silence, bosh'tet."

"Make me, fucker."

"Bosh'tet!"

"Fucker."

Marshall finally interrupted. "Enough!" Staring down Smoke, he added, "Damn it, it's like I'm serving with two of you now." He couldn't fight back the chuckle betraying his thoughts, then said, "This girl here..." he said, gesturing at Dani, "started poking one of the mechs with her gun after they were disabled, trying to see if she could make it fall over. That's nothing to say of her actively scanning the things before they went live, after learning that the computer was already on high alert, after knowing she was on a Cerberus station, knowing how they viewed alien lifeforms..."

Smoke belted out in laughter, "Yeah, that does sound like something I would do."

"But at least she didn't cower behind a console crying like a little girl like our brave chief engineer..."

Lance cut in from Engineering. "I heard that. You try hacking a console through live fire."

"Have, actually." Marshall retorted. "On three separate occasions. The commander can vouch."

"He did." Smoke confirmed. "And he did it with me covering his six."

Dani jibed, "That must have been terrifying, Captain."

Marshall shook his head. "All kidding aside, there's a reason Commander Takei is here, and why I wanted him here. You don't get much better, combat seasoned, specialists than the commander here. Don't let his cheery disposition fool you... there isn't a man in this galaxy I'd rather have keeping my tail clear."

"Stop it. You're gonna make me blush." Smoke said.

"Anyway... let's return to our normal course, and get back on schedule. Lieutenant Dani'Arah, work your magic."

During the jump back to their original course, Lance informed Marshall that he was ready for their meeting.

Smoke and Marshall were already in the conference room on deck two when the lieutenant commander arrived, and they spent the first part of the meeting putting together what all three of them had been given by High Command.

"Yeah, they didn't exactly tell me about the self-destruct option." Lance said, referring to the codes given to both Smoke and Marshall in case of a Reaper encounter. "I mean... I kinda guessed they'd have something like that in place... but didn't know how or where."

Marshall could see how that would be a bit upsetting to the chief engineer. The two people above him in the command structure could freeze him out of his engines and force the Mobius Core to overload; people who wouldn't have had a third of the understanding of the engines at that.

"So, basically, High Command didn't trust any of us three." Smoke concluded. "Makes you wonder why they gave us the commission in the first place."

"Oh, I know exactly why I was sent here; because I wanted to go, and gave my colleagues a way to push me out of R&D." Lance said. He explained further before either of his superiors could ask, "I had butted heads on more than one occasion with the administration at the department as to the direction of the projects we were taking on. The sentiment lately has been to shift to more 'practical' applications... I was with a camp that insisted we still needed to focus on military development as long as Sedin still existed."

Again, he didn't let either Marshall or Smoke interject. "Make no mistake, I'm not some war hawk that spent his entire time diddling with weapons research without ever really learning the damage they can do. I spent the entire Oceanic War as a field mechanic. My parents were Sedin political refugees. I know the crimes against humanity that nation committed, and continues to commit. We can't just stop now that we think we have the upper hand."

Locking eyes with Marshall, Lance added, "You know just as well as I do what Sedin is capable of."

"Neither of us were questioning your motives, LC." Marshall answered, while not really answering. "Rest assured, the two of us have as much reason to dislike our sister country as you do. I suspect that was the reason High Command didn't mind us leaving the planet for a good long time as well. Neither of us could possibly be in their good graces due to the Day After Affair."

"Hide the warts long enough to try and find a more 'peaceful' solution." Lance grumbled. "Like it's even possible."

Marshall wanted to think there was a way to end the sporadic aggression on Reticuli Prime, allowing the entire planet to pool their resources together, and that his war-trained mind just couldn't see it. Because he was definitely of Lance's opinion; Marshall had personally experienced the sort of atrocities Sedin engaged within their borders, and he also knew it hadn't stopped with the end of the Oceanic War.

But now was not the time for that sort of dwelling. Whether it was politically expedient or not, they had a very important task to accomplish in front of them, and it was a mystery that was not solving itself. "Let's turn our focus to the here and now. Did our foray onto Hercules Station give us anything useful?"

"It did... in what it didn't tell us." Lance answered, calling up pertinent data onto the holographic display. "As far as the station was able to determine, The Pulse was nothing more than an orange-red visible light phenomenon. It didn't radiate any other detectable energy other than that."

"But we know that can't be true." Marshall replied.

"Obviously. Now, what caught my attention was what followed. Thirty-seven microseconds after The Pulse passes, there is electromagnetic static on a very narrow frequency band, here." Lance said, pointing to the anomaly in question. "It's damn near at the top of the spectrum that the station could detect. It in and of itself didn't do much more than a particularly small solar flare would; disrupted communication and possibly caused some interruption of power."

The image shifted to an exterior representation of the station. "Now here's where it gets interesting. This static came from the exact opposite direction of The Pulse." The model demonstrated visually what Lance was describing... the orange-red pulse, then a white wave from the opposite direction. "This wasn't coincidence. My theory it was an echo of sorts... the residual bounce back from a wave of much higher intensity on a band beyond what we could detect... a band that Reaper technology, or in fact, most synthetic life operate on at a base level."

"What would it take to prove this theory?" Marshall asked.

Lance snorted. "Damn near nothing. After a century, all we're going to find is the residual magnetic fields were currently seeing, and I doubt anything from back then would have been able to detect whatever this actually was. Hell, I doubt we have the technology to detect whatever it was now if it happened again. And that doesn't even begin to explain how or why The Pulse ripped up the mass relays without leveling a third of the damn galaxy."

"So the answer is... there is no answer?" Smoke said. "Yeah, High Command is going to love that."

"Yeah well, sometimes answers aren't wrapped up in a pretty little bow." Lance remarked. "You'd be amazed at how much you think is 'knowledge' is just a carefully worded educated guess."

"Leave how High Command takes the news to me." Marshall replied.

High Command was... disappointed by Lance's appraisal, and no doubt had their own analysts poring over all the data taken from Hercules Station. That really didn't concern Marshall at that point, anyway.

What was concerning him was the Damacles System, within the Orion Cluster. Like all the other systems with mass relays, said relay was torn asunder. It was getting predictable to the point that it was no longer distressing to see.

His concern was more accurately focused on the planet Novi, the third planet in the system. Old Alliance records had very little information on the world, from what was there it was described as a research effort into terraforming. Little headway had been made on that score before the Reapers attacked the galaxy en masse.

What made the small colony notable wasn't that there was no life forms, Marshall had expected that, but that it didn't show signs of any Reaper attack. There was an off-chance something else caused the die-off, potentially evidence of a third party that would explain how both the Alliance and the Reapers wound up losing damn near everything.

"Commander, Valanov, Grimes, O'Carter. We're going planetside." Marshall ordered. "Be careful. Novi is still a largely untamed world. There's no telling what natural dangers could be down there. Lieutenant Commander Toole, the bridge is yours once you get up here."

"Not to mention any unnatural dangers." Smoke said under his breath as he followed Marshall to the elevator, and to God-knows-what below.