APRIL 18TH, 2157 CE
Colony of Shanxi
The familiar pneumatic hiss of the shuttle's gullwing door swinging open was followed by a quiet thud as Lieutenant Waters set the shuttle down on the ground, powering down the engines.
"And the Cobra has landed!" she said with a flourish, having already shaken off the worry of how close they came to destruction mere minutes ago.
"You know, Becka, it's supposed to be 'the Eagle has landed,' right?" Byrne replied, trying not to laugh. Waters huffed in indignation.
"I know that! But the only times I've ever flown the shuttle, the mood hasn't been right," she replied, slumping in disappointment before rising from her pilot's seat. "The only times I get to fly the shuttle are when we randomly find something super-important, like disused alien research facilities. It's so annoying."
Despite her foul mood, hidden under layers of armour and confidence, Erika couldn't help but smile as she checked over her assault rifle. She hasn't changed a bit.
She stood up, still feeling weighed down by her armour. As well-fitting and relatively light as it was, she still felt as though she were twice her normal size. It wasn't so bad for her, being not much taller than 5 feet to begin with, but on Lieutenants Anderson and Dah, who were both well clear of six feet tall and incredibly well-built, it made them look like walking tanks.
Dismissing her stray thoughts, she pressed her finger to her ear as the five commandos stepped out of the shuttle, activating her comm link to the Moscow.
"Moscow, this is Major Ziemelis. We have landed on Shanxi, deploying now."
She couldn't help but shudder a little. The last time she was here had been an infinitely happier occasion, discovering the planet that now housed what was undoubtedly the most famous colony among humanity, albeit for the wrong reasons. But she had not been expecting to return, especially not to attempt to liberate that colony from the first living aliens humanity had encountered.
The thought caused her to look up into the sky at the battle raging above. The Alliance ships had, by this point, seemed to have gained a substantial foothold, having apparently crippled two of the Turian ships and dealt moderate damage to another. But despite this, various ships from both sides were still zipping around the sky in formations and patterns that she couldn't even begin to fathom. Her brain was wired for combat, not tactics. Her N7 training on top of her life experience would teach her to put bullet through an enemy's skull from half a mile away, or defend herself against five enemies in hand-to-hand combat in a zero atmosphere environment. But strategy had never been her forte. The only attack plan she could effectively form was the best angle at which to punch someone in the face to best break their jaw in an instant, and even here, up against alien life forms for the first time, she would have to improvise.
Still, Shanxi was a beautiful planet. The leaves on the trees of the thin forest they had landed in were a deep reddish-brown, almost autumn-like in their colour, and the tree trunks had a greenish tint that reminded her of bamboo. The night sky carried the same pitch blackness as Earth, but she could just about see the shining light of the next closest planet to Shanxi's sun off in the distance, almost appearing as large as Earth's moon compared to the barely-visible Venus. The light chirping of insects in the grass had resumed now that the shuttle was silent, a higher, more vibrant pitch than the crickets she was accustomed to. Every now and then, the bright flash of an explosion from the battle would illuminate the sky like lightning, though the void of space suffocated the sound. With what little colour she could see, with the light from the shuttle giving some respite from the darkness, she couldn't help but wonder how beautiful the landscape would look during the daytime.
"You know, sometimes I still can't believe it," she suddenly heard Byrne's voice just to her left, and realised that the two of them had still barely spoken. Even though she was the one who handpicked him to be Thomas' XO on the Moscow, she had only actually met him for the first time a few days ago.
Still, given her awareness of her own weaknesses in a situation such as this, his presence was a huge comfort to her. His experience in the Royal Marines made him a much more complete soldier than her, even if he was out of practise. But she was well aware she could make up for that with her own skills.
"What do you mean?" she replied, her soft, faraway tone cushioning the bluntness of her question.
"Well… this. I mean, even as little as ten years ago, the whole of humanity still believed all this to be a myth. Habitable planets, alien races… we had no idea it was all out here, and now here we are."
"About to fight our first war against aliens?" Byrne chuckled lightly.
"Ha! Well, yeah, that too. But who can blame people for rushing into signing up for new colonies? The chance to make their living and raise a family on a brand new world… these people are pioneers just as much as we are. I love Earth, but I can definitely see why you'd want to get away."
She turned to him slightly, examining his wistful expression in the limited light before returning her gaze to the night sky.
"You sound like you're making plans, Commander."
He smiled, inhaling and exhaling deeply as he examined the treeline around them.
"Maybe. I mean, even if we survive this, things will never be the same. And I've finally got something to live for… maybe it is time to cut and run."
Erika smiled knowingly, looking back to the shuttle where Waters was helping the rest of the N7s unpack various supplies from the shuttle.
"You and Waters, huh? You know, she's awful at keeping her bedroom tidy." Byrne laughed, shaking his head.
"Oh, I know… you can always tell which bunk she's been in. But for someone who can be so obnoxious, she's got a hell of a good side. She really keeps me on my toes."
"She was never boring, I'll give her that," Erika nodded in agreement. "But she's a great catch. I wish you both all the best."
In the corner of her eye, she saw Byrne shift his gaze towards her, a smile forming on his lips.
"Thanks, Major. That means a lot."
He seemed to take a short pause before speaking again, as if working up the courage to say what was on his mind.
"You know, the Captain always spoke really highly of you."
The remark stopped her dead in her tracks, and her expression turned ice cold in an instant as her stomach tied itself in a knot.
"What did he say?" she replied without looking back, her voice lowering an octave as she clenched her jaw involuntarily. Although she was trying to put her anger at the situation aside, it was still a fresh wound. She sensed Byrne hesitate slightly before he replied, seemingly sensing that all was not well.
"He said… he wouldn't be who he is now if it hadn't been for you. That you gave him the strength to become who he wanted to be."
His words quickly began resonating around her mind, a whirlwind of conflicting emotions whipping up. A part of her wanted to run back to the shuttle, lock the door behind her, and simply curl up in the corner and hide from everything. Another part of her wanted to run into the forest and never come back.
She knew, of course, that she couldn't do either of those things. She had to remain professional, to keep her bulletproof mask on for the sake of the mission. The whole concept was still fairly new to her, and she hated it. The benefit of being an explorer was that she always had her own private space to fall back on whenever she struggled to cope. But life as a soldier? Having to hold her impenetrable facade 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for the sake of those under her command? She wasn't sure she could ever get used to it.
Instead, she simply took in a long, deep breath to hold her composure, looking back towards the sky wistfully as a tear stung at her eye. She closed for eyes for a second, and she it felt roll down her cheek, dripping off her upper lip. Right then, she decided that was the only tear she would shed today.
Lowering her head towards the ground, she reached over her left shoulder to remove her sniper rifle from her back, and as she took her grip on it, she opened her eyes and looked straight ahead, towards the colony. If eye colour could show emotion, hers would be a glowing bright red of determination.
"Let's get moving," she simply said, without looking back.
Every time a twig snapped under her feet, she shuddered. There was no telling what kind of traps or surveillance gear the turians had managed to set up around their perimeter in their short time on Shanxi, but given that they were now within a mile of the colony with no sign of any kind of long-range defence, she was feeling optimistic. It was clear that the turians were not expecting a counterattack.
"Can't believe we've gotten this close with no trouble," Anderson said quietly in her earpiece, echoing her thoughts. He was quickly shushed by Byrne.
"Don't say that! You'll jinx it!"
Although she was inclined to agree, Erika still couldn't help but feel a little apprehensive. She was glad that the mission was going off without a hitch so far, but she was still very aware of the flashes from the space battle raging above their heads lighting up the landscape and potentially blowing their cover.
"Just keep your heads down," she whispered. "You never know what might happen. Stay focused."
Silently acknowledging her commands, the squad continued to glide through the undergrowth, and it wasn't long before Erika could just vaguely make out moving shapes among the lights of the colony. Without even realising, she picked her sniper rifle from her back, the pneumatic hiss making her flinch a little as it unfolded.
"You see them too, Major?" Lieutenant Dah's deep voice filtered through the comm. She nodded in reply, not daring to speak at even a whisper. Another bright flash lit up the sky, and she immediately heard a sharp intake of breath in her earpiece.
"Hold up!" Byrne said, almost shouting and whispering simultaneously, startling Erika. All other sounds of movement immediately ceased as the entire squad froze. "Turians, a hundred metres to my left."
Erika's eyes immediately darted to the left of the squad. Being on the far right, she couldn't see the shapes of the figures through the darkness, but when she looked hard enough she could faintly see tiny red lights moving amongst the bushes.
"How many? Can you tell?" she whispered.
"I'm not sure. Two, I think."
Just two. Easy enough, in theory.
If they were human, Erika would have no qualms about taking them on herself in a head-on attack. But not only was the mission too high-risk to take a gamble like that, they were still fighting a mostly unknown force. No-one knew anything about the physical strength of the turians, after all, but what she'd seen of the report into Thomas' discovery on that moon, she didn't fancy her chances.
"Just hold still for a minute," she said. "We need to be cautious here, but we should engage. Suggestions?"
"Can't we just gun them down?" Rodriguez muttered. There was an almost audible groan from nearly everyone else in the squad.
"Kinetic barriers, remember?" Byrne said calmly. "In the time it takes gunfire to bring them down, we might attract too much unwanted attention."
"But that only stops projectiles, right?" Dah interjected. "Surely we can sneak up on them and take them by hand?"
"I wouldn't risk it, as much as I'd like to," Erika replied, gritting her teeth. "Even if we used knives, we've still got no idea what we're physically up against. They could be a lot stronger than us for all we know."
There was a few seconds of silence as the crew considered the situation, before Erika hit upon an idea.
What if…
"If I can get a bit closer, I might be able to hack their barriers," she said quietly. "Make it a bit easier to vent their skulls."
"You can do that?" Anderson and Byrne said simultaneously, both as surprised as each other. "How?" Erika rolled her eyes.
"Seriously, am I the only one who bothered to learn anything about these omni-tools aside from using that damn translator?" she replied, waving her arm in the air. "There's so much potential in these things it's scary. It shouldn't be a problem."
The rest of the squad murmured an agreement, and with a deep breath, Erika began to creep through the undergrowth towards the turians. She knew that this idea was a big risk; at any time, the intermittent flashes from the sky above could give away their positions. Not only that, but as soon as she flared her omni-tool, she could easily give her position away to both the targets and any watchers at the colony, if any of them happened to be looking in the right direction at the time. She knew there was no margin for error and that she would have to work fast.
"Byrne? Do you have night vision on your rifle?"
"But of course," he immediately replied, reaching for it to remove it from its holster on his back. "Want me to get a look at them?" She hummed and affirmative into her mouthpiece, and he immediately hunkered down onto his front to make himself almost invisible before raising his rifle and peering down the scope.
"They're wearing helmets, can't see their faces," he said, before letting out a low laugh. "Probably best, I reckon they're ugly as hell. They'd probably break my scope."
Erika restricted herself to a smile before continuing to crawl through the bush. She noted her heartbeat speeding up a little and immediately began taking deeper breaths to calm it down. Deep down, she was well aware of the likely consequences of screwing this moment up and the huge number of ways to do that, but she couldn't let it distract her. She simply kept stalking through the undergrowth, squinting her eyes to allow herself to see as well in the dark as she could, searching for the perfect spot from which to launch the assault.
She had so many things to consider. She had no idea if there would be snipers in the base, now little more than half a mile away. She knew if there were any surveillance, they might see the glow of her omni-tool when she activated it and raise the alarm. She also had to be wary of the nearby invaders catching the bright orange glow of the tool, given that she knew she'd need a few seconds to lock onto and disable their shields. She needed to find a spot that was out of sight of both.
Can't be that hard in a forest.
Sure enough, within a minute, she'd found a suitable spot; a tree trunk large enough to hide herself from both the invaders and the colony, and as she approached it, she was pleasantly surprised to find it had enough undergrowth at its base to hide most of her body in. Slowly, she crouched down almost without a noise, smiling a little as she realised the foliage reached up to her shoulders.
Perks of being short!
"I'm in position," she said quietly, taking extra care to keep her voice down, knowing full well that she couldn't possibly know how good the turians' hearing was. Carefully, she peered around the edge of the tree trunk, immediately withdrawing as soon as she caught sight of the invaders, who had now moved to within 30 feet of her position. Her heart skipped a beat.
"Beginning the hack. Engage on my mark."
Immediately, she pulled up her omni-tool and got to work, locating the invaders on her scanner and hacking into their hardsuits within a few seconds. She found herself surprised at how easy it was, and realised it could only add fuel to the idea of the aliens' technology being the same as theirs. She made a mental note to bring it up with Drescher later.
After just a few more seconds, she'd isolated the right command to bring down the shields of the invaders, and she poised herself, ready to launch the attack.
"Ready to disrupt shields. Fire on my mark." She took a long, deep breath, becoming unconsciously aware of her teammates raising their weapons in the direction of the intruders.
"Three… two… one…"
She tapped the button, and immediately, a loud, electrical crack pierced the night air along with a bright flash as the turians' shields overloaded.
"FIRE!"
The turians briefly looked around in confusion and spoke in a tone that, although thoroughly alien, was undoubtedly panicked. Both reached for their weapons but were quickly stopped by the hail of silenced gunfire from the squad, and the muzzle flashes lit up the darkness as their bloodied bodies fell to the ground.
Immediately, a flash of panic flew through Erika's mind.
I really hope no-one was watching that, or we're fucked.
"Hit the deck!" she hissed, slumping quickly into the undergrowth around her, followed by the rest of the squad collapsing in their own spots. She knew she'd be fine herself, but it was the bulkier members of the team, particularly Anderson and Dah, that worried her a little. Thankfully, they seemed to hit the floor within a second of their targets.
From the undergrowth, she allowed herself to raise her gaze to check for spotlights, laser pointers, any sign that their actions had been seen. A small part of her was relieved that no signs materialised, but at the same time, she knew there was no way of predicting what they were up against.
"Do you think they spotted us?" Rodriguez whispered into the comm, obviously as apprehensive as Erika was.
"I'm not sure," Anderson replied pensively. "I can't see any lights or signs that anyone's looking this way…"
"We can't assume anything," Erika quickly cut in, not wanting anyone to get too confident. "We have very little clue what kind of capabilities the turians have. They could have caught our radio signals and be listening in for all we know."
Slowly, she began to rise to her feet, taking another look at the base. The one thing she felt comfortable assuming was that the patrollers had been in radio contact with the forces at the colony. Which meant it was only a matter of time before they realised the patrol was missing.
"We can't stay here," Erika concluded out loud. "Byrne and I will take sniping positions, everyone else fan out and regroup half a mile ahead. If you see anyone else, call it in."
Steadily, the squad rose to their feet, taking care to make as little noise as possible. Erika unhitched her pistol from its clip on her leg, just in case. She suddenly became aware of her heart beating just a little faster than normal, and she took a few deep breaths to calm her nerves.
"Stay as low as you can," she whispered, and the squad cautiously began to move.
The tension among the team was starting to become apparent. The jovial mood that filled the air upon landing the shuttle after its close shave with destruction had been replaced by a growing sense of nerves as the newly minted commandoes edged ever closer to their meeting with history. Erika herself had been battling a growing sense of nausea for the ten minutes it took her to reach a good spot to survey the colony from. She raised a finger to her ear to break the radio silence that had overtaken them.
"Byrne, I've got myself a spot," she whispered. "What's your status?"
"I was just about to say the same thing," he replied. "I was right, they really are ugly as hell. Can see them pretty clearly from here, take a look."
She knew it was risky, but Byrne's comment had piqued her interest, especially given that the previous pair of turians they'd seen had been wearing helmets. She grabbed her sniper rifle and raised the scope to her eyes as it unfolded, quickly getting a good look at the invaders. She could clearly see two turians standing guard at a gate to the colony, and her heart skipped a beat. She'd seen the skulls of the aliens previously known as Species C, but they were barely recognisable from the faces of the aliens ahead.
"Wow, they really are…" She quickly remarked. "They kind of look like turkeys with really sharp faces."
Erika heard the unmistakable sound of the crew attempting to muffle their laughter, and she allowed herself a small smile too. Gotta allow ourselves a little bit of humour, right?
"Come on now guys, focus," she said softly, regaining her composure. "I'll update the brass on what's happening."
A range of murmured affirmatives followed, and she lowered the block on the ship's communications.
"Moscow, do you copy?"
"We hear you, Major. What's your status?" The firm, reassuring voice of Admiral Drescher filtered back through her earpiece.
"We're about half a mile away from the colony. We've already taken out one turian patrol on the way here. They definitely seem to be of avian descent somehow. They're quite large, definitely bulkier than a human and they look better armoured than us too."
She could only imagine what kind of thoughts were going through Thomas' mind right now, knowing how much he'd enjoy a peaceful meeting and seeing the aliens he'd discovered for himself. She found herself wishing she could share that enthusiasm, rather than examining them and trying to pinpoint potential weak spots in their armour and physiology as she was actually doing.
"What's the status of the colony as far as you can see? Any ideas for a plan of attack?" Jon Grissom cut in, shaking her out of her reverie and reminding her of the mission at hand.
"The colony looks basically intact. They've set up some guard posts and vantage points but no major defences. Myself and Byrne should be able to take out the guards from long distance," she replied confidently. "Do you have any schematics of the colony? We'll start forming a plan from there."
"We'll send them to your Omni-tools now. They're accurate as far as our scanners can tell from here."
"How is it going up there? I've noticed it getting quieter, I hope you've worn them out already," Byrne asked.
"Don't concern yourselves with that, everything's fine on our end," Drescher replied. "Just concentrate on your own mission and we'll do the work up here. Moscow out."
"I'm not gonna lie, these guys seem like they're pretty well-drilled," Anderson said, a hint of nervousness in his voice, despite his best efforts to hide it.
The squad had been observing their entry point to the colony for twenty minutes, and Erika still hadn't noticed any particular weak points in the turian defence. Anderson was right; the turians maintaining watch over the lands surrounding the colony seemed vigilant and well-armed. The battle overhead, although it was quietening down now, had nonetheless put them on maximum alert, and that was without even knowing whether they knew how outnumbered they were in the skies. And Erika was well aware of how outnumbered her squad was.
"Definitely," Dah replied. "They're being pretty careful. It's not a bunch of mercs, that's for sure. They're definitely a military force."
"Come on guys, let's not write ourselves off before we've even started," Erika interjected, feeling the need to infuse some positivity into the situation.. "We're the best that humanity has to offer right now. We can take them. Byrne, can you tell anything from the schematics? Any idea how to get to the shield generators?"
"Yeah, I can see them," he replied, although his tone didn't sound too reassuring. Erika's heart sank.
"What's wrong?"
"It's heavily guarded, over by the far right wall from here," he said. "It won't be hard to take them out, but getting there might be an issue."
Just as he finished talking, the radio crackled in her ear once again. The voice that came through made her heart skip a beat.
"I have a suggestion," Thomas said quietly, clearly conscious of who would be listening.
"Let's hear it, Captain," Byrne replied chirpily, completely oblivious to the tension between Thomas and Erika.
"If Anderson, Dah and Rodriguez spread out and engage the turians from a fairly safe distance to draw attention…"
Erika cottoned on to the idea almost immediately, even with her emotional state rising by the second. She took a deep breath and clenched her jaw.
"…ahh, then myself and the Major cut around and sneak in the back door?" Byrne said before she had a chance. "I like that. I've missed pulling a Magnet. Works nearly every time."
There was a moment's silence before anyone could reply.
"Uh… a magnet?" Anderson replied hesitantly.
"Oh, sorry," Byrne responded. "I forgot I wasn't with my old squad for a second. The Magnet is what we used to call a bait and switch; luring them into one place to sneak in behind them."
"Ahh, I see."
"Sounds like a good plan, Captain," Admiral Drescher's voice filtered through the comm, immediately adding a little calmness to Erika's mood. "You're cleared to begin when ready. Good luck to all of you."
As the comm line crackled away, Erika couldn't help but close her eyes and take a deep breath, doing her best to maintain her composure. Her brain was torn in two right now; half of it was trying to focus on the mission, while the other half was attempting to heighten her emotional state in the wake of her proximity with Thomas and the situation between them. It was a constant conscious battle almost as fierce as the one raging in the skies previously.
"Anderson, Dah, Rodriguez," she began sternly, working out the logistics of their plan as she went along. "Head towards the main gate, then spread out, find cover and under no circumstances reveal your position. Combat distance, 100 feet. Silenced weapons only. Engage on my mark."
A set of whispered affirmatives rang through her earpiece.
"Moscow, have you got the schematics for the colony? Any idea what our best way in will be?"
"Hold on a second, Major," Grissom replied. "We're formulating a plan."
As the frontal assault squad set off at a crawl, she began tapping her finger impatiently on her leg. For once, she hadn't had the foresight to download the colony map and schematics onto her Omni-tool, and she was definitely regretting it now.
"Well, if the others are attacking the southwest entrance… I'm sure there's one at the northwest," Byrne chimed in. Unbeknownst to Erika, he'd been scanning the perimeter of the colony with his rifle. "I'd say we should go northeast but I doubt they'll divert their forces that far. It'll just mean having to skirt around almost the whole base to reach the generators without being seen, but I'm sure we can manage that."
"I was about to suggest the same thing, Byrne," Thomas said approvingly. Erika bristled at the chipper tone in his voice. This is no time for good moods, especially not for you.
Completely oblivious, Byrne chuckled. "Great minds, sir. What do you think, Major?" She mumbled an affirmative response, grudgingly admitting it was the best course of action. She flexed her fingers, feeling an increasing need to kill something. Her teenage bloodlust was rising.
This won't end well for several people. We need to not be any of them.
Screwing the silencer onto her sidearm, the two began to move.