Chapter 21: Regrets

Benning was once a thriving human colony, but the Reapers have rounded up a large portion of the populace for processing. Some pockets of civilian resistance still elude the Reapers, however, and rescue attempts are underway. A "resistance radio" established during the early days of the attack continues to broadcast, exhorting survivors to band together and discussing rumors of safe havens. Unfortunately, these rumors have begun to result in ambushes, increasing the desperation of those who remain free.

Through all this, Benning's automated agricultural systems have continued to operate, leading to unprecedented stores of food in the planet's granaries and warehouses.-Codex

Miranda gave a deep sigh, she was going to the planet where her sister was abducted, she knew her mission, but that didn't make it any less painful. She then felt her hand being gripped, it Jacob giving her his usual 'it'll be alright' look, Miranda smiled softly to show him she was okay. Once Hackett spoke up, she snapped back into what Joker and Kasumi like to call 'ice mode'

"Shepherd, Cerberus strike squads have infiltrated Joughin, the capital of Benning" Hackett said.

"Any idea what they want?" Shepherd asked.

"Initial reports indicated they were recruiting civilians, but further reports suggest they are being taking against their will"

"That's strange…Cerberus policy is to never force a person to our ranks, it was to limit Cerberus' enemies" Jacob said.

"That was until Grissom Academy…" Miranda said.

"Mister Taylor may be on to something; Cerberus is denying responsibility and condemning the action" Hackett said.

Jacob scoffed. "Nice to know they still have a conscience, not that it matters now"

"They're either lying or we're dealing with a rogue faction"

Shepherd frowned. "And innocents are caught in the crossfire"

"Exactly, secure the area so we can establish a rescue lifeline to the rest of the city" Hackett said.

"Approaching the drop site, Commander" Cortez said.

"Roger that" Joughin, the capital of Benning and the bread and butter of the colony's economy due to the now destroyed Arcturus Station being only a system away. It was one of the biggest creators of ships for the Alliance other than Earth and Shanxi. Joughin was also known as the 'the Engineer City' as most of the locals were engineers for either private companies or the Alliance. And it showed, the city was a huge maze of shipyards and apartments, it was quite common for people to live across the street from their jobs and have several co-workers from the same job to be next-door neighbors. With how maze-like the city itself was, the civilians probably thought they could hide from Cerberus. The shuttle land on the port in the middle of the city and Shepherd and team jumped off.

"Commander, fielding an avalanche of SOS requests from Civilians, the bulk of it is on Upper Street to the east" Cortez said. "Shit, Cerberus forces are wiping them out, better hurry!"

Shepherd nodded. "On our way, keep me updated"

"Understood"

They went to the east and saw some civilians running away only to be gunned down by Cerberus. When they got there they could only gasp at the sight, limbs were all over the street from Cerberus tossing grenades at them, the bodies that were intact were shredded from gunfire. There were some who tried to fight back and had shots to the head for their trouble; it was nothing short of a bloodbath. There was a single wave of Assault Troopers, supported by a Combat Engineer and a Centurion.

"Wipe them out" Shepherd said icily. Turret scanned for them and fired on them, while the Centurion threw smoke grenades to obscure their vision. Due to the building interlinking with each other, the squad had plenty of cover, but so did Cerberus. Miranda activated her shield and went for the turret first, with the turret fired on her; Shepherd stripped it of its shields while Jacob zipped across the street charging any trooper that tried to flank Miranda. Miranda destroyed the turret with her flamer, a grenade was thrown and exploded breaking her shield, while she got to cover Shepherd froze the troopers with his stasis field and Jacob charged them, sending them flying.

The Centurion threw grenades causing the team to scatter while the Engineer tried to set up another turret. Shepherd drained the Centurion's shield and Miranda shot him in the head, meanwhile Jacob charged moved from cover to cover shooting the turret with his incendiary enhanced pistol. When the turret was destroyed, he charged the engineer and double tapped him. Shepherd raised his com. "Cortez, no good here…Cerberus wiped the civilians out…."

"Are you sure? Because I getting a life sign in that area, but it's faint" he said. Shepherd and team looked around and saw nothing but dead civilians, Cortez's readings must have been off. The team then heard a faint whimper and movement in the corner of their eyes. They found an asari crawling from the shadows to an asari dead before her, bleeding a lot from her side. Miranda went to her and patched her up with some medi-gel.

"Cortez, we found a civilian, an asari, Miranda is patching her up now" he said. "Standby"

"Roger that" Miranda was patching the young asari, she was hysterical until her wounds got the better of her.

"I'm sorry for your loss…who was she?" Miranda asked.

The asari sniffed. "My mother…we were trying to escape, trying to get to the space port so we could be with my father on the Citadel…he was one of the few that survived the attack on Arcturus" she said. The asari then looked at Miranda closely and then her eyes went wide. "Y…you look like Oriana…"

Miranda looked at her. "How do you know my sister?"

"My name is Nja Simpson, I'm a friend of Oriana…we had class together" Nja said. "She told me she had a sister…is she alright? When I heard about her parents…and the fact she disappeared days after that…"

Miranda looked away, she didn't know what she could say, she didn't know if her sister was alright, she didn't even know where she was…Nja gave a sad look. Miranda gave a hollow smile. "She's fine…you might just see her…on the Citadel" she lied.

"That's good…I would like to see her again…" She closed her eyes, talking when she had a bad wound had tried her out. Jacob walked up to Miranda and looked at the asari.

"Is she?" Jacob asked.

"No, she's just out cold…"

"Sorry, I overheard the whole thing, are you sure about lying to her about Orianna?" he asked.

"She doesn't need to know…it's for her own good…" Miranda said. They went back to the shuttle and placed the young asari in the shuttle.

"Anymore civilians?" Shepherd asked.

"I'm tracking civilians fleeing the city with Cerberus troop's right behind" Cortez said.

"Where are they?"

"Updating your Nav-point. It's in the south" Shepherd nodded and the team went back out and saw Cerberus troops attacking a group of civilians to the south. When they heard gunshots when they got closer, they double timed it and found that Cerberus had killed all but two when they struggled. They cleared out the area of hostiles and spoke to the colonists. Jacob stayed with the civilians while Shepherd and Miranda were on look out.

"Are you here to help us?"

"Yeah, we'll get you out, try to stay calm" Jacob said. The civilians looked scared and looked at the dead before them. They didn't seem convinced they would get out, according to them a squad of Alliance troops promised them the same earlier and they were slaughtered by Cerberus. Either way they kept calm or at least tried to.

"What…what should we do?" Shepherd and Miranda came back.

"Just stay down" Shepherd said. "Jacob, Cerberus reinforcements are coming, we're going to have to fight our way out"

Jacob frowned. "What about the civilians? They can't fight back"

"They'll have to stay in cover, Cerberus will be surrounding us soon…" Shepherd said grimly. "We hold the line here, and that will give them time to escape"

"Commander, they're here!" Miranda said. Shepherd nodded and gave Jacob his arc projector.

"Any Cerberus bastard that comes close, fry them" he said. "Miranda, you're with me, burn them, freeze them, I don't care, but clear a path, got it?" Jacob and Miranda nodded, as the Cerberus troopers flooded the area. Shepherd lifted the Cerberus troopers with his singularity field, and Miranda blew them back with a warp field. They then came from the side and Jacob pulled the trigger and electricity stunned them and then he charged them, pushing them back.

"Shepherd, we're going inside, there's more cover" Jacob said.

"Good idea, Miranda take point, I'll take the rear, follow Jacob" The team got inside the building, Cerberus tried to get inside from the front and Miranda burned them with her flamer. Shepherd froze the troopers with his stasis and blew them back with a throw. When it was cleared on Miranda's front, they ran out with Jacob and Shepherd covering the rear.

"Landing pad clear, hurry, we'll follow!" The civilians made a run for the landing pad, with the team close behind and unfortunately Cerberus.

"Cortez, we're at the extraction point, get us out of here" Shepherd said on his comm.

"Sorry, Commander, I can't land until Cerberus is dealt with" Cortez said.

"Got it, we're to clear the landing pad, do whatever it takes" Jacob and Miranda nodded. The civilians took cover in the far corner with the most cover as the troopers flooded the area. The Centurions threw smoke grenades as the troopers flanked the team and blasted them. Jacob charged at the troopers and shot them with his shotgun; Miranda lifted the enemy and slammed them to the ground. Shepherd threw his lift grenades and threw a warp field to the troopers, causing them to drop like flies. To the corner of Shepherd's eyes saw engineers setting up their turrets while the troopers gave them cover with gun fire and grenades. Jacob shot them with the Arc projector frying the turret and the engineer's shields while stunning the troopers. Shepherd tossed a grenade and Miranda sent out a warp field causing an explosion that wiped them out. After the battle, it was quiet.

"Cortez?"

"No hostiles detected" Cortez said. "Reinforcements are moving in to secure the evac route"

Shepherd gave a sigh of relief. "Good work everyone"

"Picking you up now, Commander"

The Normandy

The team and civilians was back to the Normandy, they were on their way to the Citadel to drop off the civilians. Dr. Chakwas and Mordin checked on them for injuries other than the asari gun wound to the side they would make a full recovery however the mental images of the carnage Cerberus caused would haunt them for a long time. Surpringly enough Eve volunteered to help with the civilians despite her weakened immune system much to the chagrin of Mordin. Miranda was in her room looking at a picture of her sister and her parents, looking so happy. She remembered Oriana asking her to come visit her one day because she wanted to add Miranda to the family photo. She refused because she wanted to protect her and she had a lot of enemies, looking back on it now she regretted that, because it could never happen now. The door opened and Jacob came in.

"Hey, babe…"

Miranda smiled sadly. "Hey…" Jacob sat next to her and she laid her head on his shoulders.

"Penny for your thoughts…"

"Nothing, just thinking about Ori, wondering if we'll find her…" Miranda said. Jacob kissed her forehead.

"We will, Liara is using a lot her network to find her, don't worry…" he said. "Unless something else is bothering you"

Miranda signed. "I'm really no different than my father…"

Jacob frowned. "That's not true, Miri…"

"Really? How many lives have I ruined, because of my pissing match with my father?" she asked bitterly.

"That's your father's fault, not yours"

"Orianna, her asari friend, her adoptive parents…" Miranda said. "You and Niket, after all the crap I've you put you through, how could ever stay with me…?" Jacob raised her head and gave her a deep kiss on the lips.

"Easy, I love you and I want you to be happy, if it means going through hell, then so be it" he said. "But I won't let your bastard father win, and you shouldn't either, we'll stop your father and save Ori, and you know Shepherd and the others will help also"

Miranda smiled. "I don't deserve you…" she said giving Jacob a hug. "Thank you for the pep talk, love"

Jacob smiled. "Anytime…"

The Citadel

Udina was alone in his office, reading reports on Earth; it was bad and getting worse and worse. Whole major cities were going silent one by one, so much so that the resistance led by Anderson was avoiding huge population centers. When the reapers weren't slaughtering civilians, they were rounding them up in containment camps to be processed into reaper troops. It was just Earth, it was all their colonies, some decided to kill their whole colony themselves included to deny the reapers access to more troops. He sighed and opened his omni-tool. "Stella, you can go home for today"

"What about the reports sir?"

"I will handle it, now go"

Stella nodded. "Of course see you later, Councilor" Udina then opened a new window and a man in a dark suit was on the screen.

"Ah, Councilor Udina, to what we own the honor?" the man asked.

"Have you heard what Shepherd is trying to do?"

"Of course, trying to achieve a truce between the krogan and the turians, a fool's errand" he said. "But I'm sure you know this, otherwise you wouldn't be calling us…"

"My homeworld is burning and the Council is sitting on their asses and twiddling their thumbs, I won't stand for this…" Udina said. "Even if I must work with you people"

"Please Udina, you insult us, after all we are ultimately on the same side" the man said. "Name your price…"

"I need extra resources for Earth…"

"Before we agree to this, we want something from you also…" he said. "It's only fair, as business partners…"

"Name your price…." The man gave a cruel grin.