"A million dollars worth of weaponry, and all I need is one can of Raid." - Major Don West, Lost in Space, 1996
North Storm Wall Defensive Position, Hadley's Hope, Feros, Theseus System, Attican Beta Cluster, July 12, 2183
Author's Note: The Second ARC of Priority: Feros awaits! Lock and load, because shit's going to get real ugly.
And… did I really reference that shit movie Lost In Space?
Captain Jane Catherine Shepard (SAN, N7, OST) knelt by north entrance of the Storm Wall that protected the colony of Hadley's Hope, its door having already been flung opened by God knows who. The situation was foreboding as hell; even a Arc screenwatcher with a pair of eyeballs would have noticed that something was really, really fucking off with Hadley's Hope. Jannie had TEAM LION approached the colony in the General Dynamics' M-35 MAKO Armored Personnel Vehicle until they were practically on-top of the Storm Wall, going through the crags and wadis of solid ground as the MAKO left the ancient Prothean supercity and entered onto the leveled mountaintop that Hadley's Hope sat on top of. Detective Garrus Vakarian manned the Gunner's seat of the tank, and had spotted the defenders upon the wall, noticing after a very short moment that they were too still, too stiff. The redhead had looked at a secondary holographic display to arrive at the same conclusion the C-SEC Special Crimes Detective had; ad hoc turrets and dummies to look like Marines to bolster numbers and seem more of a threat. Jannie quickly got the tactic; there were real Marines interlaced with the mannequins, and there were probably active turrets dressed as Marines, probably being manned by the injured to scan and defend. It wasn't a bad plan, though who was to say how well it would work with the Geth? But Jannie could see someone coming up with something unusual to use against the Geth, pitting adaptability against unpredictability.
Garrus and Jannie both scanned the wall, and didn't find one living being upon its structure. That wasn't a good sign; Marines would never abandon a position unless in retreat or dead.
"We're not getting much further in the MAKO." Jannie told the Rapid Response Sniper, the Turian merely grunting in agreement. "Damn colony's too enclosed for any of the weapons to work, and I'm not about to have a shitload of collateral damage in case the Geth have taken over."
"Where would the survivors go if the Geth have taken over?" Vakarian asked, looking to her from his elevated position in the tank as Jannie worked the terminal beside the Gunner's cupola, a secondary terminal to fill in the crew in the main compartment on what was transpiring.
"Main complex. That's where they sent the civilians." Someone could turn one of those pre-fab complexes into an absolute bloodbath with a few traps and some barricades, holding off the Geth for days in its narrow corridors, limiting numbers and methods of approach. With people to protect, it was really the only place the Marines of the Fourth Marine Expeditionary Unit could go. "TEAM LION, listen up." Shepard broadcasted to her remaining crew, now down six. She had eleven fucking people to clear out a small colonial town with, possibly invaded by the Geth, possibly having issues with the natives due to a fucking mind-controlling Venus fly trap. Green pickle award, Auntie, Jannie's heart twisted at the thought, almost hearing Sara's voice as if she were right there, her blue eyes mirthful and a sweet smile on her lips. "There's around twelve hundred people in this colony. The wall's deserted, so that means that the Marines have bunkered down. Likely, the Geth have taken over. We're going to move in and clear out the exterior before making our way into the interior. Be mindful of traps made by the Marines meant to whittle the Geth down. Any questions?"
There were none.
"Alright, folks. Perform five-by-twenty-fives and move out!" The SPECTRE ordered as the deployment ramp of the M-35 MAKO opened, Corporal Jeanette Vasquez and Urdnot Wrex leading out with their respective heavy weapons in their hands, a Cipritine Armories' Phaeston Heavy Assault Rifle for the Krogan, and a Devlon Industries' M-56 Marshal Medium Machine Gun for the Marine. The both of them stepped out, scanning the nearby ground first and everything within five meters for booby traps before stepping out onto terra firma and sweeping the nearby area, scanning for threats in a twenty-five meter area. Vasquez called out ¡Claro! when the sweep had been completed five seconds later, the rest of TEAM LION exfill'ing from the Armored Personnel Vehicle, weapons out and ready. Eleven people formed up in a semi-circular formation, primary weapons in their hands as eyes scanned for threats as Jannie pulled the killswitch on the MAKO to prevent it from being electronically taken over by the Geth, a modification installed on the SSV Normandy so the main hard drive or battery wouldn't have to be physically removed. With the power connectors physically detached from the battery and the upload/download matrix severed from the hard drives, the MAKO was practically dead weight as Jannie removed the killswitch key, a physical key that was (in theory) a bit too dumb for the Geth to figure out. That was the theory, at least.
Shepard took the lead, her Alliance Offensive Firearms Initiative M-99 Saber Battle Rifle in her hands as her contragravity armored assault turret Bastila followed behind her dutifully while her custom-made combat drone Ghost hovered just over her right shoulder. She set a fast pace, moving in a tactical manner towards one of the doors in the storm wall, the rest of TEAM LION following her in a tight column, everyone moving in sync and with the proper distances. Jannie reached the storm wall, keeping her left shoulder about an Imperial foot away from it as she moved towards the access way, a standard-sized door that swung open instead of retracting or sliding. What bothered her was that it was wide open, indicating that either it had been broken into from the outside, or left open from the inside. Neither scenario boded well.
"Bastila? Move inside a meter and scan for life signs, organic and synthetic." The hovertank chirped its acknowledgment as it glided towards the door, turning inside and establishing itself a beachhead. "Cortana? Bring up a PiP of Bastila's main camera." A separate view came to Jannie's Augmented Reality Overlay, appearing just to the upper left of her field-of-view. She winced as Bastila scanned, slowly pivoting to give an one-hundred-and-eighty degree view from one side of the stormwall to the other, encompassing what the turret could see of the colonial town of Hadley's Hope. It took ten seconds for the contragravity assault turret to complete its scan, and reported negative life signs and zero recognition of humanoid bodies. Nothing living, dead, or synthetic in sight.
This had to be a trap. But where would the trap be sprung?
"Close PiP." The N7 murmured as she voice-activated her vox, keeping communications through signals at a minimum to keep the Geth from hacking or intercepting their transmissions. "Nothing's moving inside, so I suspect a trap or an ambush. Heavies, stack on me." Urdnot Wrex, Corporal Jeanette Vasquez, and Detective Garrus Vakarian moved to infill through the door in a breach-and-clear operation while everyone else pulled three hundred and sixty degree security in place. "On three." Jannie said quietly, her vox translating her words over her throat speaker softly to minimize noise discipline. "One, two… three!"
Shepard was he first through the door as she went to the path of least resistance, entering the fatal funnel of the door and stepping inside to clear the immediate area before continuing her original direction instead of button-hooking and going the opposite. She cleared along the length of the stormwall for the first twenty-five meters, only moving forward about three meters until she pivoted port and began scanning in an arc, clearing everything from the three o'clock position to the one-thirty position. The rest of the breach team was doing the same from their own positions, their weapons up and scanning the immediate vicinity for hostiles, and then scanning long distance for any distant threats. The act took five seconds, and Jannie wasn't sure if she was happy that nothing presented itself. There was something seriously wrong, but they had yet to find it.
"Team, infill." The rest of TEAM LION moved into the door, taking position behind the breach team while 1st Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko closed the door to the stormwall behind them, taking a device that would physically secure it close. It was almost the opposite of a breach charge; instead of opening a door with explosives, it would blow up if someone tried to cut their way through or hack the charge.
"Lock is set, ma'am." Alenko said a moment later, the butterfly-looking contraption having been bolted onto both the door and wall with MetalGel, and the charge set if someone tampered with it or tried breaking down the door. "If someone tries to break in, we'll know." Chances were that the Geth would probably try to remote hack the lock, meaning that the explosives wouldn't damage any platforms. But it would still explode, letting the team know that it had been done. There was that, at least.
"Good." Jannie was looking at their situation, seeing the stormwall surrounding the colonial town, with the town itself sitting in the middle with its multiple buildings, its main boulevard, and a few obstructions that further denied them better sight into the colony. It would take at least a Marine Company to do this in a piss-poor fashion, and half a Battalion to do it right. They could spend a full Goddamn day clearing everything in this hick colony and miss shit, not to mention if someone felt like being squirrelly and move about from one unchecked location to one that had already been cleared. She was going to have to leave someone behind for overwatch, further shrinking her team and their capabilities. But she needed someone to provide both security and overwatch. "Detective? I need you to get up the wall and take position where you can see as much of the main boulevard as possible." Shepard ordered, looking to the Citadel Security Services' Special Crimes Detective and Rapid Response Sniper. "We're going to clear it, and I need eyes-on for any movement or discrepancies. If you spot a singular Geth platform and it's not engaging you, pass it off on us."
"Understood." The Turian replied as he moved towards one of the siege ladders that would take him to the top of the stormwall, the Turian climbing awkwardly due to his digitigrade legs upon a device meant for plantigrades. Still, Shepard watched as the RRU Sniper reached the top a moment later, taking a position that would afford him cover while pulling out his Kassa Fabrications' M-98 Widow Sniper Rifle, using his scope to spot for threats.
"Wrex," Shepard turned her head to look at the big game hunter, "I need you to take Kaidan, Niki, Broussard, and Nugee and clear along the stormwall, observing the interior of the colony without entering. I'll take my team starboard while you go port, and we'll meet halfway. We need to know what's changed in Hadley's Hope and have some eyes on the interior, and there's a lesser likelihood of the interior track of the stormwall being boobytrapped." That left Jannie with Private First Class Holland 'Lapdance' Hoss, Doctor Liara T'soni, Corporal Jeanette Vasquez, and Private Nathaniel 'Ballsack' Balsach. She was giving Wrex enough Humans so someone wouldn't immediately pen fire on an apparent alien, even if firing on said alien (i.e., a Krogan) was generally a bad idea. Both teams had a heavy gunner, a tech warrior, and a Biotic, as well as just enough personnel to action upon a small threat. Five people made for a horrible assault team, but there would be no way in hell they could clear a town of even a smaller size with eleven people effectively without splitting up. The split would give them a more effective means of getting eyes-on around the town, and Garrus providing overwatch would ensure that what was cleared would stay cleared. "This is reconnaissance, not an excuse to go get you some."
"Not my first action, Shepard." The Krogan gruffed, though he sounded pretty pleased with being put in charge. With Sergeant First Class Ashley Williams, Marshal Samantha Collins, and even Petty Officer Sara Ryder apparently missing in action, and Detective Garrus Vakarian manning the overwatch position, Jannie was limited on whom she could reliably put in charge. Yes, 1st Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko was a Commissioned Officer with the Systems Alliance Navy, but he had never lead anything more than a Watch crew, not to mention being a Restricted Line Officer meant he hadn't had any kind of training to lead or take command of more than that. He was a specialist that excelled in the role of explosive ordinance disposal or controlled demolition; normally a job for a very few people working together who were all just ask knowledgeable as the others. Alenko taking command of persons with different specialties and training in a situation like this would likely not go well. Wrex, on the other hand, was an eight hundred year old Krogan. Jannie doubted there was little he hadn't seen, and even if he did get into a unique situation, he certainly had the experience and know-how to assess and come upon an appropriate course of action. Despite the reputation of Krogan in general, the big game hunter proved himself to have a cool, level-headedness that turned to explosive force when someone was actively engaging. In times of tactical finesse, he was actually well-trained and rarely made any mistakes or rash decisions.
"Alright, let's move out."
Detective Garrus Kaaldor Vakarian found himself spotting in an empty town.
The Turian had spent twenty years in the Hierarchy Military, earning his way into that most elite of units, the Blackwatch Brigade, becoming even more trained and proficient in his skills and trade. Blackwatch snipers, such as himself, were generally revered to be some of the best shooters in the galaxy, and Garrus had been one of the best in the 3rd Brigade (Blackwatch). To say that he could provide long-range support was without question; he could put a round though a chosen eye socket of a Batarian at three kilometers, and he held the long-distance record on the Cit himself, having fired a round into a hostage-taker who had been in a stand-off with regular officers of C-SEC on the Kithoi Arm when he himself had been on the Zakera Arm, taking a shot from across the Citadel, having to take account for traffic for that ten kilometer hit. The round had killed the Turian hostage-taker, naturally.
He was now providing long-range support in a situation with no targets. This did not bode well.
Oh, he had done so before; countless of times, actually. As a Blackwatch sniper, it was his duty to provide long-range support and forward reconnaissance for those elite commandos. Sometimes he had merely observed a clear area as his ground-pounding brethren actioned upon some facility or compound, putting paw-to-clochea in the name of the Spirits, Palaven, and the Primarch. Sometimes he couldn't see much, like his tour of duty on Taetrus against the insurgent Separatists, the colony a lush tropical rain forest in between its tropics, covering nearly half the planet in question. Sometimes, such as Shanxi, he found himself spotting over plains, looking for targets that weren't likely to poke their fringes out to be emptied courtesy of a well-aimed shot. Garrus had to hand it to the Human of the Relay 314 Incident; they didn't fight in the normal fashion, what Turians expected out of most when the Hierarchy sent a unit to action and pacify. No, Humanity had deployed boobytraps, ambushes, hidden devices, improvised explosive devices, and sometimes just plain waited for Turians to walk by, playing dead until the Human in question rose up and fired upon their backs. Many a unit had learned the hard way that Humanity was willfully stubborn and not-at-all afraid to use any and every mean to make a victory as bloody as possible. What they lacked in elegance, they made up for in creativity.
Now he was in the prone on top of a wall, scoping out yet another Human colony.
This was different, of course; he wasn't at war with Humanity or the Systems Alliance this time. The old feelings of guilt and regret due to his actions and the actions of the Hierarchy laid upon his hearts as he thought about those days, his turquoise eye peering through the scope of his Kassa Fabrications' M-98 Widow Sniper Rifle, looking for threats or ideas as to what happened to the Systems Alliance Marines that once occupied the town. Garrus remembered well the 3rd receiving orders to deploy to a 'illegally occupied' planet hosting 'pirate and insurgent forces' that had supposedly tried to open an unmapped relay without any authorization. The fear of the Rachni and whatever horrors that could lay in wait behind an unlocked, unmapped Relay had been drummed into every sapient in every school in Citadel Space, from the Thessian Republic down to the Dekunnan Confederacy. Even the warlords and dark governments of the Attican Traverse and the Terminus Sectors would obliterate anyone trying to access one of the cold Relays, and especially so one of the dark ones. No one wanted to be responsible for finding another Rachni-like species, no matter the promises of riches that could potentially lay in wait behind a virgin Relay.
Vakarian knew his history well about what happened the time prior to Humanity testing the Shanxi-Theta Relay, what was known as Relay 314. Four hundred years prior, a species known as the Thark had opened a Relay not connected to the main network and discovered a spacefaring species not using Mass Effect technology that was in the process of oppressing and enslaving everything in its local neighborhood. The Republic had found out quickly when the Thark had been trading with the Kavorans, exchanging Mass Effect technology for mineral wealth, and the Republican Navy had absolutely gone tark-s'kak upon the single-system spacefaring species. The Kavorans had been pillaging Thessian Space, trying to capture Asari for slavery, and the Thark Autocrat had been increasing their standing in the political and military scene with their new-found wealth. The Republican Navy and the Hierarchy Navy had completely obliterated any Kavoran vessel outside of their system, and then stormed into the Kavoran System and destroyed any Mass Effect-utilized vessel before shutting down the Relay and barring its use with a large electromagnetic seal to prevent the containment rings of the Relay from spinning and generating the warp field necessary to propel a ship into Mass Relay Translation. As for the Thark themselves? Their entire Fleet was destroyed, as well as their shipyards and their spaceports. The spacefaring species had been grounded, and further sanctioned by the Council of Law for their transgression.
Humanity hadn't suffered any repercussions because, unlike the Thark, they hadn't actually known of the Council, the edict, or the threat.
Which was why what the Hierarchy had done to 'the Shanxians' of the Incident so much worse.
The Rapid Response Sniper kept his eye on the scene in front of him, the Spiritless town giving his fringe a twinge. Something bad had happened to Hadley's Hope, but they didn't know what, not yet. Garrus was certain it wasn't Geth; there were no Dragon's Teeth or Husks, and the Geth weren't exactly shy setting those up. No, something else happened here, something involving that creature they learned of back in the ExoGeni Headquarters. Species 37, the Thorian. He kept overwatch as he watched the remainder of TEAM LION split up and begin searching the town by skirting the inner-curve of the stormwall that protected the town; as fine a tactic as any considering their situation. Captain Jane Shepard was as advertised and more; a well-honed combatant, lethal in combat, smart, and innovating. He had known her for years, first learning of her from her sister/friend, Sara Elaine Ryder.
Sara…
His hearts ached at the thought of the young Human female that had once captured his Spirit.
Garrus had first met Sara on the Cit, back when she was an EMT for a Skybulance for the Presidium General Hospital for the Upper Presidium Ring on the Citadel. To say that she was unusual was an understatement; the first Human born on the Citadel (her Skybulance Chief nicknamed her 'Firstborn'), the first Human to be accepted into the Presidium Academy of Education, and the first Human mobile health care provider to earn herself a seat on a Skybulance. Sara was a defining point of her species, a paragon of dedication, intelligence, and goodness. Vakarian had been sent to deal with a criminal entrepreneur who dealt in backdoor black-organ trafficking, and the Volus in question had hired five Krogan mercenaries to kill the Special Crimes Detective so the Irunian could avoid his richly-deserving fate in an IsoCube. Garrus had killed the five Krogan, but had been shot several times when a Human Paramedic had come along, hearing the gunfire and responding to it personally! On foot! She hadn't even been on-shift, and yet this tiny Human female with a Systems Alliance AidBag and a Skybulance uniform had showed up on-scene and began treating him for trauma and gunshot wounds, contacting her own Skybulance Chief, Senior Emergency Care Technician Shayla Talis, to notify her of the situation while seeing to Garrus's wounds. The female had further surprised him by attending him to PresGen, and even visiting him a few hours later after surgery, while he rested in the Recovery Wing of the hospital. He had learned of the Human Firstborn then, one Sara Elaine Ryder, and had been… utterly shocked by her. An attendee of the Academy? A Human Skybulance Barber-Surgeon when he didn't know that there was one? And she had unofficially made herself his caretaker, so to speak, visiting him over the next several days as he recovered, first at the hospital, and later on (after much coaxing on her part and grumbling on his own) at his apartment. Somewhere in between being wounded and being fully recovered, he had found himself looking forward to Sara's visits and presence.
Garrus Vakarian, who had killed over a hundred Humans on Shanxi during the First Contact War, found himself infatuated with a young Human woman.
For months, they saw each other, keeping their tryst a secret. For Sara, it was from her First Contact War Veteran father she kept the relationship from, the man disliking Turians intensely. For Garrus, it was his own family for much the same reason, though none of them were Veterans of the Relay 314 Incident save himself. Spending time had evolved to tentative dates, dates turned into the holding of hands and talons and tentative kissing (which Turians didn't do like Humans did, but Garrus found himself enjoying it none-the-less), and kissing led to the day when Sara eventually guided him to his bedroom, pulling him on top of her, accepting him. Being a male Turian in the Deathwatch hadn't certainly hurt his chances or prospects for favorable one-time matings with Turian females, and being a Special Crimes Detective and in the Rapid Response Unit hadn't derailed that, either. But Sara had been… different. Most Turian females looked upon him as a bit of a trophy (which he hadn't minded at all) or as a conquest (again, no objections there). Yet the Human female had been different, had treated him differently. She had wanted him for him; Sara Ryder had been interested in Garrus Vakarian, not the Blackwatch member or the RRU Sniper. Being with a Human had certainly been exotic, and yet Garrus had found himself bonding with her in a way he had never really felt with another female. He enjoyed the scent of her, the sound of her laugh, her boundless thirst of knowledge, the way her blue eyes looked at him when they met up or during intimate moments. Oh, there had been some hiccups and some less-than-desirable moments, but Garrus knew within four months that he had found a female worth the trouble that pairing with a Human would undoubtedly bring.
Unfortunately, neither one of their families were nearly as receptive at the thought. Not at all.
It had been four years since those days, and there hadn't been a female he had rubbed spurs with that had come close to easing the ache in his heart.
Garrus watched silently as the teams moved through the inner perimeter of Hadley's Hope, keeping his scope on the center of town while using his peripheral to keep their backs cleared. These strange creatures he found himself working with weren't like the other Detectives in the Special Crimes Unit, mostly a mix of Turian, Asari and Salarians, nor were they like the Officers in the Rapid Response Unit, mostly Turians with a couple of Asari. He had never worked with a Krogan or a Quarian before, and had only really worked with Sara when it came to Humans. Yet the highly-eclectic crew of the SSV Normandy was in some ways like the Blackwatch, dedicated elite combatants oriented towards the mission. But in some ways they were like a family; joking with one another, razing with one another, telling stories and lies. He had been included into that strange little family, at first by Sara, but eventually others warmed up to the thought of a Turian amongst so many Humans. Twenty years in the Hierarchy Military, with fifteen of them in the Blackwatch, and another twenty in C-SEC, with fifteen in Special Crimes and Rapid Response, and yet there was something different about the Normandy, something that hadn't been present in Turian Birds of Prey. Perhaps it was the presence of so many non-Turians, so many cultures in such a little space, no reprieve or escape, forcing it to make it work until it came like second-nature. He had stood shoulder-to-shoulder with all of them at one point of time or another, and he would do so again, gladly.
If he found the vracking sireless sons of goats that dared to hurt Sara, Sam, Ash, or Raeka, he would take a small vacation from his normal professionalism and shoot them in the vnark just so he could listen to them scream.
"Captain, I saw something." That was Doctor Liara T'soni, who was in the middle of Captain Shepard's group for her extensive and powerful Biotic capabilities. Her voice was light but sure.
"Anything more descriptive?" The SPECTREs' response was dry. As far as SitRep's went, 'I saw something' was terrible. Then again, the Protheantologist had never been military.
"Something small, behind that cargo loader to my left." The Asarikin did her best, and Garrus immediately spotted the cargo loader in question, a heavy duty… what did Humans call them again? Fork lifts? He spotted with his scope a small figure hiding behind one of the large wheels.
"It's a Human hatchling, female type." Garrus replied.
Doctor Liara Delphoria E'shora of House T'soni moved forward thoughtlessly at the description of a singular Youngling in such a terrible ordeal.
"Doctor!" Captain Jane Shepard hissed through her helmets' vox when Liara ran forward to the loader in which she had seen something blue and small ducking behind the large circular wheel. All Liara could think of was that there was a Daughter in danger, a Daughter without her Mother, in such a situation as this. The Asari Maiden could feel her Biotics humming through her body as she pushed out her will to create a barrier to void threats as she moved to where she had seen the Human Youngling. The Doctor stopped when she rounded the wheel and saw the little Human female, her face dirty and streaked with tears.
"Little one? I am Doctor Liara T'soni, I am here to help." The Protheantologist said the first thing that came to her mind as she holstered her Hydra Armaments' M-113 Drake Assault Rifle to her chest, reaching out with an armored hand towards the Youngling. The little Human child looked at her with wide blue eyes, eyes that were frightened. "Are you alone, little one? Are there others?" Liara hoped that her tone sounded more assured than she felt. The lack of persons in the colony was unnerving, and who would let a Daughter wander by themselves? The Protheantologist feared the worst; for the colonists, for the Marines, for their team members… for Ashley.
None of them would leave a child alone, this I know, Liara thought to herself as the child looked at her. A small pink hand went into her armored one, and Liara smiled at her, forgetting that the helmet of her Hydra Armaments' Lindworm Medium Armor would not let the Youngling see the act, only a visor that showed the eyes. The Doctor pressed the button that would disengage the helmet, the protective covering collapsing towards the rear before being tucked into her armor's high collar. The child's eyes went wide at the sight of her, no doubt seeing her teal-colored scaled skin and hardened crest likku following the contours of her skull.
"T-there were others, Miss T'soni." The little Human child replied, her voice rough and filled with grief.
"Come, little one. Let us move to some place safer." Liara smiled at the Human child, leading her towards where TEAM LION was holding up near the south end of the colony. They had been near where they would meet up with Urdnot Wrex and his team, and the Protheantologist guided the lost Daughter towards where she could see nine sapients congregating by the stormwall, holding a defensive position. Captain Shepard moved forward, hoisting her M-99 Saber upward with the buttstock of the weapon on her armored hip, the glowing faceplate of her visor surrounded by armored bands fashioned after some video game character giving her a rather heroic appearance. The little Human child gasped at the sight of the Lion in her HMWA MasterGear SPECTRE Mk. IV Armor, no doubt recognizing the sight of a Council Agent.
"Another SPECTRE!" The Youngling claimed as Liara took her to the middle of the formation, where it was safest. Liara took a knee in front of the Daughter as she looked into the Human's youthful face.
"You have met a SPECTRE before?" The Doctor asked.
"Yes! Miss Sam and Miss Sara!" The child exclaimed, looking to the SPECTRE, and then to Doctor T'soni. "Miss Sam had Turian drawings on her face, and Miss Sara did a doctor check-up on me and gave me a lollipop." That had Liara look to the Captain as Shepard deactivated her helmet, exposing her face to the little Human. "Oh my gosh, you're the Lion!" The awe on the girls' face was palatable. Liara knew that Captain Jane Shepard was a hero amongst her species, as venerated as, say, Sister Lysha D'ahra of the Order of Justice, the Justicar being very venerated for her acts for rescuing the Daughters of Thessia from the grips of chattlry. "Miss Ashley talked so much about you! Miss Sara did, too!" Liara and the Captain shared a look, both of them obviously thinking the same thing; this little girl had met Marshal Samantha Collins, Petty Officer Sara Ryder, and Sergeant First Class Ashley Williams. Likely that meant she had seen Agent Zevin Raeka as well.
"What's your name, kiddo?" Jane got to one knee as well, close enough to the young Human female to keep it quiet, but to show that the Council Agent cared.
"Newt! My name is Newt." That was… an odd name for a Human, was it not? Liara brushed the thought aside. "I was in the main building when the bad Marine lady forced us in." Her tone went from happy to grieving quickly in that one sentence. Ah, Colonel Samantha Hulick, that was who the Daughter was referring to. "Miss Ashley said that they'd come to check on us, to make sure that we were okay." The Asari and the SPECTRE shared another look. The Protheantologist very much doubted that any one of their team members would leave a child behind, unguarded and unprotected. "She said you would come for us." Newt burst into tears, sobbing loudly.
"They're all gone! Mister Chad, Mister Brian, Miss Janice, Miss Kathy!" Those must have been colonists of Hadley's Hope. "Mister Bill was always so angry, using potty language and arguing. He… he threw something at Miss Sara and it opened the door, and…" The tears came, and Liara embraced the little girl.
"We need to know what happened, we need to know what we face." Captain Shepard said quietly, looking to the Asari. "I don't think it was the Geth."
"Let me, Captain." Liara pulled Newt away a little, looking to her blue eyes with her own sapphire eyes. "Newt? I need to know what happened. Miss Ashley, Miss Sara, Miss Sam, and Miss Raeka are our friends. We are here to help the colony, but we need to know what is going on in order to best help. Can you do that for me?"
"Miss Ashley said you were special to her." The little girl confessed, her tone sheepish. "She… she looks like… she looks like my Mom, but she was so tough and brave and…" Oh, you poor child, Liara thought, her hearts twisting in her bosom. This girl had no one else, and had went to someone she felt she could trust; she went to a Human woman that looked like her mother, but someone who could protect her with more than words and hugs. It had been Ashley Williams that Newt had gone to, and the Doctor knew that Ashley would be standing right next this child if she were able to.
"Can you show me? Can you share with me?" Liara asked, knowing that while permission was not necessary to do a meld, it was taboo amongst Asarikin not to secure it. "It will not hurt, little one. I will merely see things with your eyes, as if I were there."
"O-okay." The girl looked to Captain Shepard, who nodded once. "Will you help them?"
"Yes." There was no mistaking the tone in Captain Shepard's voice. Someone or something would catch a bad case of Houxin's personal attention courtesy of the Lion, and the Goddess Herself would likely not wish to be in the way.
"Relax, little one, and look into my eyes." Liara smiled as she placed a gentle hand around the nape of Newts' neck to comfort and support her. "Our minds will touch, and I will help you with your sorrow as you show me how we can help our friends." Liara pushed forth her Biotics gently, letting her bioelectric charge mesh with the little Human child's, reaching the proper attenuation where a meld was possible. "It will be a little confusing at first, but you will feel peace." Newt shivered a little as Liara seeped her energy into Newt, a gentle push of will to where they were linked together and Liara felt the world dissolve around her as they embraced eternity…
The Command Post, July 10, 2183
"Only way out is the vent shafts! Too tight for us!" Mister Chad shouted as he shot Miss Sam's XD Pistol at a monster. "Newt might make it out!"
"On it!" Miss Ashley shouted as she fired her big rifle, Newt whimpering as she kicked in a vent cover before smashing it open with a stomp."Newt! Honey! Get in the vent!" Miss Sara was firing her revolver as she grabbed Newts' arm and led her towards the vent. Newt cried out in pain as she felt her other arm being pulled on.
"What about the rest of us?" Mister Bill shouted. "You can't fucking leave us here to die!" Miss Sara snarled and smacked the man in the face with her revolver. Newt was guided to the vent, green monsters filling the room as Miss Ashley fired into the creatures with a shotgun.
"Ashley!" Newt cried out as Miss Sara got her to the opened vent, pulling away to hug the Colonial Soldier, wrapping her small arms around Williams' neck, hugging her fiercely. No, not you too!
"Get out of here, kiddo!" Miss Ashley begged, her brown eyes filled with tears as she held Newt with one arm, hugging her back. "You crawl and you don't look back, Newt. Do that for me." Miss Ashley gave her a fierce kiss on her forehead as Miss Sara engaged the oncoming tide of creatures with her rifle. Newt slipped inside the vent, sobbing as she heard gunfire echoing through the vents as she crawled and cried. She crawled in the dark, her hands and knees hurting as the gunfire seemed to disappear.
Miss Ashley, the little girl felt her heart break, sobbing as she crawled. Miss Sara, Miss Sam, Mister James, Miss Raeka… Newt didn't stop, crawling through the ducts, going down several turns. Miss Ashley had been so nice to her, had told her jokes, had shared her awful Army food but wonderful smile to her. She looked so much like Mom but she had been strong and tough and brave. Newt had loved the Soldier's stories, the way she looked at her, it had made her feel safe, loved. Her Mom and Dad were gone, Timmy was gone, and her heart hurt so bad, but Miss Ashley helped with that.
Now she was gone.
Crawl, Newt, a voice told her, sounding like the Soldiers'. Crawl and don't look back.
And crawl she did.
Newt crawled until she was hungry, and she crawled some more. At some point in time she had been too worn out and had fell asleep in the ducts, bone-tired. She crawled when she woke up, finding light at the end of the ducts and making her way outside. After a week in the Complex, Newt knew that the Marines were still there, that they could help Miss Ashley, Miss Sara, Miss Sam, Mister James, Mister Chad, and the others. Even the mean Marine woman would listen if her people were in danger; that's what Marines did.
All Newt found were strange big green eggs on the ground around the colony. Lots of big green eggs.
Oh no… Newt had to bite her tongue to keep from crying out. She stayed in the duct, looking through the grate, not seeing one Marine, but plenty of the eggs. No, there was a Marine! A man with a missing arm! But… his face was webbed with green. He had been breathed on, being led by others with green faces. Newt's heart shuddered when she saw Miss Sam directing others, her white-marked face marked with a web of green lines. There was Mister James, directing green monsters towards Marines who were lying on the ground. Newt had to bit her finger to keep from crying out when she watched the monsters vomit some sort of white fluid on some of the green-faced Marines, covering them. Miss Raeka was leading more green-marked Marines along with Miss Ashley, both of their faces webbed with green lines. Newt tried hard not to cry, remembering the Soldier that had cared for her as the Marines laid to the ground, green monsters coming to spew their white fluids on their bodies. She saw what was happening; the Marines were being coated by the fluids and they stiffened over the bodies.
That's where the eggs were coming from! Newt felt… horrified. They were breathing on people and turning them into eggs!
But what came out of the eggs?
Newt saw one of the eggs move, the green-skinned object pulsing and swelling as the skin split open, and what Newt saw had her almost scream out in terror.
A green monster had come out.
South Storm Wall Defensive Position, Hadley's Hope, Feros, Theseus System, Attican Beta Cluster, July 11, 2183
"Oh Goddess!" Liara blinked away as she slowly ended the meld, being as gentle as she could to a child so young. What Newt had seen? It was absolutely horrifying! It took her a moment to remember where she was, blinking rapidly as she saw Captain Jane Shepard looking at her with some concern, the Council Agent frowning. "I… I saw what happened, Captain. It is… what we feared, I am afraid.
"Newt may be the only survivor not under the grips of the Thoi'han."
"Everyone?" The Captain asked, the Human's green eyes focused on her. Liara knew whom came to Shepard's mind, just as Liara's thoughts went to someone as well.
"I am afraid so." The Asarikin replied, feeling her hearts being squeezed. Ashley… She had not actually seen Sara Ryder, but the Protheantologist felt she knew the Corpsman enough to know that if the other Normandiers had been infected with the ancient species' infectious spore, the Corpsman would be, too. The Maiden doubted that the Firstborn would let her friends do such things. Sara would have fought back until captured or dead. "Captain, I know of this species; there is a class in the Academy of some of the ancient extinct species. The Thor'rian are believed to have been eradicated by the Protheans before they too went extinct. Archaeological evidence suggests that… that the Prothean Empire had burned entire worlds to eradicate the threat of the Thoi'han. In terms of danger, they are as threatening to the galaxy as the Rachni… possibly worse." Goddess, the Thoi'hans still existed! The historian in Liara was thrilled! Everything else was absolutely terrified. That class was not given to bore students about species once long dead; it had been given in case something such as the Thoi'hans, the Metacon, or the Rachni were ever to resurface, and the Alumni of the Presidium Academy expected to use their positions and influence to make sure the dead stayed dead. "Garrus needs to know, Captain. It is a part of our sacred duty as Alumni to make sure this creature is exterminated immediately."
"No arguments there." The Council Agent replied, her tone as hard as Iridium. Good, there was no need to convince the Level Three SPECTRE of the importance of this. No doubt more than a few Academy Alumni had made it into the ranks of the Council Agents to action in on a request such as this, not to mention that all three Councilors themselves were Academy Alumni. But they could not afford to wait for another vessel to arrive, to possibly infect others… to give the Thoi'han the possibility of escaping and infecting others.
They could not leave until the infection was completely eradicated.
Liara found herself comforting the child as the Captain ordered Detective Garrus Vakarian to meet them in the middle of the colony, knowing that whatever it was that was waiting for them, it was not waiting for them on the surface. Shepard was giving orders, looking to her team as she looked to Liara last, the Protheantologist still holding the child in her arms. Newt was grieving, having lost everything. Her mother, her athintar, her male sibling… Ashley. Ashley, Liara's hearts twisted at the thought. She had seen Ashley infected in Newt's eyes, along with Marshal Samantha Collins, Agent Zevin Raeka, and Lieutenant James Vega. It was an extremely likely possibility that Petty Officer Sara Ryder was as well. If they had been truly contaminated… then they had to be eradicated as well, regardless of personal feelings. Raeka and Sara were Academy Alumni, and had been through the same classes as both Garrus and herself. They understood the threat, and would know what would need to be done if the worst should happen.
Yet…
Liara… she was falling in love with Ashley. She did not think she could do it.
Then there was the the fact that there was a Level Three Council Agent who saw her Second as a sister; Captain Jane Shepard would never okay such an order. Liara also highly suspected that Garrus and Sara had been in a relationship before; not a merely casual relationship, but a fully romantic one that she believed ended due to external forces and pressure. Family, if she had to guess. Garrus was an incredible shot, a brilliant Detective if reports and rumors were true, and a very intelligent male Turian who himself was an Alumni. Liara did not think Garrus would let Sara die, no did she think he would watch someone kill her, Thoi'han or not. The signs were there that the Turian was likely still quite quite affectionate for Sara Ryder. Trying to stop Jane Shepard and Garrus Vakarian at the same time when she had her own doubts would not end well for her, no matter how powerful she was biotically. If they were only infected, then they were merely under the control of the Thoi'han. The course was clear.
They would have to destroy the Thoi'han to free their friends.
Goddess give her strength for the plan that she was going to have to enact in order to do so.
Seaman Monica Valerie Negulesco was tactically bounding forward with her hands wrapped around the grips of her Winchester Arms' M-96 Mattock Auto Assault Rifle, the Navy Corpsman's eyes scanning her sector of fire as TEAM LION moved down the main boulevard of Hadley's Hope, split in half so five were moving down the port side of the boulevard, while the other half did the starboard side. Monica was currently in between Private First Class Louis 'Brassiere' Broussard and Specialist Niki'Raan nar Tombay, in the middle of the five-man team with the big game hunter Urdnot Wrex taking the lead and 1st Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko providing rear security with his Milkor SuperSix M32 MPML Grenade Launcher in hand. As the team medic, she was placed in the middle of the formation for the most protection, having one of the more unique professions for ground forces. In normal Marine formations, she would have likely been placed by the Platoon Leader or the Platoon Sergeant, who would have been in the middle of a formation for most effective command-and-control. For TEAM LION? It was the generally the highest-ranking individuals who took lead in a stack, as was pretty typical for Special Operations, as Nugee understood it.
Well, being in a stack being led by the Lion certainly didn't make one feel that their odds were low!
Urdnot Wrex was a bit of an enigma, not at all like the rumors and stories of Krogan, and not like the one or two that Monica had met on Elysium. Instead of being loud, conceited, forceful, and antagonistic, the big game hunter was introspective, watchful, thoughtful, and led with actions instead of words. He wasn't one to give into manly boasts of prowess or accomplishments. Instead, Negulesco noticed that whenever someone was training or working, he would keep an eye on what they were doing and then give helpful suggestions on how to accomplish the task in a more efficient manner, or pointing out small flaws to improve upon to gain better effectiveness. Though he never called anyone by their name (save for the Lion, she had evidently earned herself that distinction in the Krogan's eyes), he was never condescending or petty.
It was as Chief Ryder had said about Wrex; he was like a warrior grandpa, gruff and tough, teaching the 'young whipper-snappers' how to do it right with tough love and a kind soul. She knew Wrex kept an eye on her particularly, one of his red eyes always rotating every few seconds to spot what she was doing while the other continued to scan (supercreepypasta, that!). Yet Monica knew why he was doing it; she was the youngest, the least experienced, but held an important job that she was slowly earning her keep in. During the clearing op of the ExoGeni Headquarters, Wrex had been paired with Doc Nugee both for protection and experience. The Lion had wanted their most veteran combatant to not only to keep an eye on her, but also help mold her, too. During that horribly long and exhausting operation, the big game hunter had watched over her, both for her safety and to turn her into a better Navy Corpsman. He had given dozens of quietly-spoken helpful tips on how to hold her weapon better, how to use all of her senses to know when something was off, how to scan in several different patterns to fight against assumptions, and a helpful story on how to make a Turian retreat (that one almost made her pee herself). He had never demeaned her actions, correcting her methods without admonishing her, and giving her praise when she got it right.
Wrex also gave useful tips on how to get females of several different species to the mating couch. Monica blushed hard at those suggestions.
Monica's Mattock continued to scan in a zig-zag pattern, sweeping port-to-starboard as she kept an eye on her sector of fire, then sweeping upward in a diagonal to look for threats above the horizontal plain, seeing the pre-fab buildings' roofs and keeping an eye on any threats that were on the high-ground, sweeping over the balconies before diagonally going back downward to sweep back through ground-level in a pattern Wrex called 'the klen'tash' (hourglass, she suspected, the pattern drawing that figure). She knew a dozen scanning methods as well as different hand placements for her weapon, which ones were better for longer-range engagements or rapid target acquisitions. Those tips had worked out well in ExoGeni as Doc Nugee found herself engaging Geth and Husks in the ExoGeni Headquarters, fighting alongside a Krogan with his Turian-made Heavy Assault Rifle and super-large Krogan shotgun that blasted things silly in one round, only the largest of Geth able to survive the first round or two from what he liked to call 'the Mawkiller'.
Wrex led, and the team followed without question.
The boulevard was choked with potential threats; doorways and alcoves, equipment and containers decorating the path, and then there were the pods, dozens of them. Each one looked to be almost the size of Detective Vakarian, but they were split in half, some sort of goop having leaked from the organic containers and spilled over the ground. According to Doctor T'soni, people once were inside those pods, changing them into something she called 'Thor'rian Creepers'. That had Monica very quiet; something was turning people into monsters, much like the Geth were doing to make Husks. She hadn't seen the assimilation of a Human into a Husk (thankfully, she had heard the story of what happened to Lance Corporal Jeong), but she had seen over a hundred of the converted creatures as they had come in ragged bands from behind corners and crawling through ducts to try and kill them, or worse, stab them and assimilate them. They weren't Human anymore, and every one that Nugee had shot had gotten a prayer and a request for forgiveness for the soul that was once a normal Human Being. If she had turned into one of those things, she would profusely thank whoever ended her to prevent her from harming another soul.
Lord, please give me the strength to carry on, to see this through, Monica asked as she scanned an empty pod for any threats, finding just an empty shell covered in goop. She tried not to think of a man or a woman inside the thing, trapped and… mutating. That almost made her want to regurgitate, but she was made of sterner stuff now. TEAM LION continued down the boulevard, passing a location with a neon sign flickering 'BAR' with smaller words indicating 'and grill' underneath, Captain Shepard's team checking the location for a few minutes before coming back empty-handed and without a shot fired. Doc knew what that meant; they hadn't found anything. Only four of them had entered as Doctor Liara T'soni remained outside as four Humans breeched the Bar and Grill, the Asari Protheantologist protecting precious cargo; the only living soul they had found in all of Hadley's Hope. Little Rebecca 'Newt' Jorden simply would not leave the Maiden's side, and no one was questioning it at all, not even the Lion. Something utterly terrible had happened here, and Newt was its sole survivor.
Monica's heart went out for the little girl, knowing that she was an orphan now. Much like the Lone Wolf, Newt had inexplicably pulled through what others had not due to circumstances and the fact that she had been stuffed in a ventilation shaft. According to the little girl, 'Miss Ashley' and 'Miss Sara' had kicked in a vent cover, pushed her in, and stalled an advancement of monsters to give the girl her escape, defending her with their lives. The thought of Chief being… attacked by these monsters both angered and frightened Monica. Chief was a good woman and her friend, and the thought of the Angel being hurt by strange creatures had Monica very worried for her friend and supervisor. That Chief Ryder and Sergeant Williams had given their lives to save just one person hadn't surprised Doc Nugee at all; that was just the kind of people they were. Negulesco really hoped that they were okay, only so they could watch TEAM LION absolutely obliterate whatever had done this to the colonists and Marines of Hadley's Hope.
"We're here," came the voice of the Lion over her helmets' vox, the glowing faceplate of the armored visor looking to the door to the Main Complex as the ten members (plus one child) reached the entrance. Monica got into a defensive position along with Niki'Raan, the blue-suited Quarian Pilgrim hoisting her lightning gun in her three-fingered hands, monitoring the north end of the colony where they could both see a lone Turian figure bounding towards them in a search-and-sweep pattern down the middle of the boulevard for maximum distance from any flanking threats at the risk of complete exposure. It only took him a few moments to reach them from the far end of Hadley's Hope, being covered by more than a few weapons from TEAM LION as he approached, his talons cradling his ERCS M-15 Vindicator colored in C-SEC fashion. The Turian C-SEC Detective integrated himself with the rest of TEAM LION, his visored helmet looking over the situation, no doubt his ovaloid eyes absorbing all.
"Team? Listen up." The Lion spoke up, everyone pulling security as they listened to their Commanding Officer. "We're going to assault this place and kill anything and everything that doesn't resemble a recognized Citadel species. If you see someone who may be infected or affected by Species 37, orders are to incapacitate and detain for further evaluation. There have been way too many losses against the Geth just to write people off. I'm getting sick and fucking tired of these Pyrrhic victories. We need a win, folks."
There was a round of 'yes, Captains' and 'aye aye's' from TEAM LION. Humanity had already lost so much with the Assault on Constant, the Attack on the Dig Site on Therum, the ACV Horizon, and the Battle of LaGrange Point Two. While each one had been a victory for TEAM LION, each one had been a loss for Mankind as a whole.
"Knuckle up, folks." Captain Shepard said quietly, her armored visor sweeping over her team. "Doctor? Keep Newt next to you, and prepare for the worst. This is going to get ugly."
Author's Notes: This was a chapter that was a little fluff, a good deal of establishment of history and character (Wrex gets a little spit and polish, and I like making him a ladykiller), and some meat for the team.
The Codex in the first game suggests that the Thorians and the Insuonnan may have existed during the same cycle; there is a planet (Eingana) that had spaceships of three different makes; possibly the Insuonnan and the Thorians fighting the Reapers, though it wasn't verified in the game. LogicalPremise's "Of Sheep And Battle Chicken" used this as a unique mission over a few chapters to make another Thorian, where the Turian Hierarchy was practically doing the same thing as ExoGeni, feeding people for knowledge of the Prothean Era. Instead, like the mythical Metacons, I made these two alpha species go head-to-head in which the Protheans went to eradicate the Thorians much like the Krogan did the Rachni (who, according to canon, existed during the Prothean Era, too).
Asari mindmelds weren't very detailed, descriptive, or described other than the 'embrace eternity' thing. There were personal suggestions of intelligence-gathering and perhaps even mental coercion, but no confirmation. For Liara, it was a way to describe Newt's experiences through the eyes of a child without dialog; being able to see with her eyes instead of reading her thoughts. I think I suggested this somewhere in Dig Site Alpha with Sara and Irissa, but don't go into details much since there really aren't many to use Canonically.
This marks the first time I've officially confirmed that Sara and Garrus were in a relationship previously, having dropped hints in Center Of The Known Universe II, as well as when Garrus mentioned that the 'shots' that Ballsack would be receiving for having unprotected sex with a dextro-chiliary being would indeed hurt because he had, in fact, found out the hard way when having unprotected sex with a Human woman himself (the woman in question being Sara Ryder). This was written out for two stories that were a part of the Sara Ryder: Milky Way tryouts that accumulated into what is now "Of Lions And Angels", one being My Binary Star, and the other Citadel Blues, where the Red Harvest will come up. In both stories, Sara Ryder and Garrus were 'seeing' each other, though in Citadel Blues it was awkward dating while in My Binary Star, they were actually in a physical, romantic relationship.
Would someone include a child into a military kill team? Only if there was no other possible choice, such as no actual safe location, enough people to look out after them, or something of the like. This has actually happened to me during my first tour in Iraq when we pulled a little girl our of a really terrible scenario while on a foot patrol.