Chapter Thirty-Seven – Just Like Her Brother
The battle of Ilopan had lasted for more than 20 days, and Jack had kept her team in the middle of the action for all that time. Every single one of them was exhausted, physically and mentally. Even Prangley had to admit that his body had reached its limit. They were sleep-deprived and their senses were constantly working because they always had to be on guard.
Besides the physical and mental fatigue, Kurt had suffered a serious leg injury, which wasn't fully fixed by just slapping some medi-gel on it. He needed surgery, but the medi-gel would have to hold for now. Kurt still wanted to fight as much as the others, but his usual quick feet had been replaced by a bad limp that only seemed to get worse. They really needed to get him to a medical facility soon. The rest of them only had minor injuries. But every little scratch, burn and bruise was quickly draining their energy and belief that this battle could possibly end well.
In fact, the reapers had been pushed to the edges of the city, and the turian fighters had regained control of the air space. But every night, without missing a single night, the reapers had been throwing themselves at the defenses. Their numbers didn't seem to dwindle at all, and they obviously didn't worry much about losing their soldiers.
Fortunately, the krogan were dug in good, and the reapers were having a hard time pushing through. Once in a while, they did manage to find a weak spot and make their way into the streets of Ilopan. These were the times when Jack and her team had been injured the worst.
Jack suspected that the only reason that the reapers hadn't already taken Ilopan back, was because their destroyers were busy elsewhere. If a couple of the big reapers laid siege to the city, they would be done within a short amount of time. The turians didn't have any dreadnoughts near Palaven, which would have been their only chance of fighting off a reaper destroyer. Luckily, the destroyers were gone for now.
This particular evening had been relatively quiet so far. Jack and her team were guarding the western approach to Ilopan, close to where they had entered the city themselves almost three weeks earlier. They were almost out of fresh thermal clips, so they hadn't bothered to bring their assault rifles, which would have drained their remaining clips way too fast. Instead, they had to rely on their powers and their pistols until the turians could bring in more ammunition.
This particular night, the western part of Ilopan was mostly quiet apart from a few sporadic attacks along the perimeter. In the other end of the city, to the north-east, they could hear loud explosions going off constantly. Jack was about to order her team to that area when a turian comm specialist came running towards her with a radio in his hand.
"Lieutenant! Lieutenant! Incoming call for the human lieutenant!"
"Yes?" Jack said, snatching the radio from the exhausted specialist.
"Jack? This is Major General Tequex of the Palaven High Command! Your Alliance wants to pull your team out!"
"What?!" Jack spat into the radio. "We're not done here!"
"Your team is an Alliance asset, and as such, it can be used for whatever purpose the Alliance finds necessary. Your work here has been greatly appreciated, but the Alliance is calling you away to aid a human colony," the turian major general answered.
"We can't leave now!" Jack shouted. "I thought this was bigger than race! Why would one human colony be more important than Palaven!?"
"Enough!" the turian interrupted. "You will do as you are told. One of my men is flying your shuttle to you as we speak!"
Then the line went dead, and Jack handed the radio back to the comm specialist, who shrugged.
"It looks like we're leaving," Jack told her team.
"We heard," Charles said. "Any idea which colony?"
"No," Jack answered, wondering why she hadn't thought to ask about that.
Five minutes later, the Shit Shuttle landed in the middle of the street, and a turian pilot jumped out.
"Are all human shuttles this terrible?" he asked, looking happy to be out of the dangerously worn vessel.
Jack took her usual position at the controls, and Charles sat beside her in the co-pilot's seat. The rest entered in the back and strapped themselves in.
"Where are we going?" Jack shouted out through the still open door in the side of the shuttle.
"Tiptree!" the comm specialist holding the radio answered. "Wherever that is!"
"Where the fuck is Tiptree?" Jack muttered and closed all the shuttle doors.
-X-X-X-
Tiptree turned out to be a small human colony in the ass end of nowhere. Fortunately, the Psychotic Biotics were able to hitch a ride on a salarian transporter, which took them to an asari colony where they hooked up with an asari matriarch, who had taken it upon herself to find out what had happened to the team of commandos that had been issued from Thessia to Tiptree to save the human colonists.
The matriarch, who was simply referred to as Matriarch Lita, was a renowned doctor, widely recognized among her species as one of the best scalp-crest surgeons on Thessia. Her ship was small, but very luxurious, and there was enough space for the Shit Shuttle in the cargo bay.
The matriarch being a medical professional turned out to be a stroke of luck. Kurt could finally get his leg fixed, and the rest of them could have their minor injuries seen to.
The matriarch's ship didn't have a real medical bay like the one on the Normandy. But Matriarch Lita was traveling to a battle zone, and she came prepared.
When Kurt was treated, he was simply laid on top of the dinner table while the asari worked on him. He was only in his boxers, since the matriarch needed access to his injured thigh.
"Are you blushing, Nielsen?" Jack asked, as Matriarch Lita's soft blue hands ran over his bare leg.
"Would you prefer it if your friends left the room?" the matriarch asked softly.
"I don't think we're the ones making him blush," Prangley chuckled.
"I'm not blushing," Kurt hissed.
"Oh," Lita said, realizing what they meant. "I assure you, I'm a professional."
"Good," Jack said and clapped Kurt's shoulder. "You don't want to excite this one. He's a bit of a pervert."
"Jack!" Kurt yelled, and turned to Lita with an apologetic face. "I'm not, I swear."
"Mhmm" Lita hummed, continuing her inspection of his leg. "Whatever you are, your rectus femoris is torn. No wonder you can't walk properly. The muscle fibers need to be rejoined."
"How?" Kurt asked, able to ignore her hand on his thigh.
"Surgery," the matriarch said. "Simple procedure, local anesthetics, nothing complicated."
"Great," Kurt sighed. "Can you do it?"
"It'll take me less than five minutes, but you'll need to take your underpants off."
"What? Why?!"
Lita smiled.
"Just kidding. Relax!"
With no further warning she plunged a syringe into his thigh, and within ten seconds Kurt's entire leg was completely anesthetized.
"Thanks for the heads up," Kurt whined ironically.
"Big baby," Matriarch Lita sighed. "You're lucky I don't knock you out completely so I can cut you up and look inside you. I've never operated on a human before. I'm curious."
"Sorry, please just fix my leg."
"As you wish. I've written a book about human physiology that is on the curriculum at every medical school on Thessia. So I actually know what's inside a human. I've just never had the pleasure of operating on one before."
"Comforting," Kurt muttered and closed his eyes, trying to relax.
"How come you decided to go to Tiptree?" Jack asked the matriarch, as she worked on Kurt.
"As a Matriarch, I was one of the people who decided to send a platoon there to help. They've been out of contact for a while now, and I feel that I have some responsibility for our commandos. We couldn't come to a consensus about whether to send an investigation team or not. So I decided to go and have a look for myself. I had hoped, that I would be allowed to take a small security detail with me, but all I have is my pilot, an engineer, my bodyguard and my personal assistant. Barely enough to run this ship," Matriarch Lita explained.
"What do you know about Tiptree?" Jack asked. "We only know that we're supposed to help them."
"The salarians have observed a relatively small reaper presence on the planet, and they have begun evacuating the human inhabitants. We sent a platoon there to help, but as I said, we lost contact. If we're lucky, everything is fine and the humans are being evacuated to salarian colonies under the watchful eye of our platoon."
"And if we're unlucky?" Vera asked.
"If we're really unlucky, everyone will be dead, and Tiptree will be overrun with reapers."
"Reality is almost never the worst case scenario," Vera said, trying to remain positive.
"Reality is never the best cast scenario," Jack noted dryly.
-X-X-X-
Matriarch Lita's ship landed at the last known location of the asari platoon. Not a single person, alive or dead, was seen.
"I'll stay in this area with my people," Lita said. "If I don't localize our platoon within the next 10 hours, we're taking off again. You should take your shuttle to the village nearby. See if you can find anyone who needs your help. And if you see any asari, send them my way."
"Will do," Jack said and ordered her team to the shuttle.
"Stay in contact," Lita said, tapping her radio ear piece with her index finger.
"Likewise," Jack said and joined her team in the shuttle.
Jack almost wrecked the matriarch's ship when she nearly crashed the shuttle before even leaving the cargo bay. Eventually, she managed to point the front end towards the exit, and she hit the throttle. The Shit Shuttle made a noise that was any mechanic's worst nightmare and zoomed out into the afternoon sunlight of Tiptree.
As they flew towards the village, they didn't see any signs of life. Whatsoever.
No reapers. No humans. No asari commandos. Tiptree's surface was mostly covered by fields and green forests. When they reached the village it turned out that it was actually more like a cluster of huge farms. After a few flybys, Jack decided that the village was empty and that it was safe to attempt a landing.
"You're coming in a little fast, aren't you?" Charles bravely asked, knowing how dangerous it was to comment on her flying.
"Shut up," she said through clenched teeth, as she jerked the controls backwards.
Charles was right, of course, and Jack only barely avoided crashing into the ground. The bottom of the shuttle scraped against the gravel, and Jack could feel the joystick rattling. She missed the spot she'd been aiming for. Instead, the shuttle continued through the village at high speed, just a few centimeters above the surface. Finally, Jack found the brakes, and the shuttle began to slow down. But it was too late, and they smashed through a barn door and ended up in a huge pile of hay.
"Like a glove," Jack panted and let go of the controls.
"You know I love you," Charles said, completely white in the face. "But I gotta tell you. You can't fly for shit."
Prangley groaned from the back of the shuttle.
"I think I broke a rib," he complained.
"Shut up and open the door," Jack said. "The electronic system is down."
Prangley sighed and pulled the safety handle to manually unlock the door in the back. With a groan he pushed the door open, and an avalanche of hay entered the shuttle.
"Nice soft landing," Vera coughed with a healthy dose of sarcasm. The dust from the hay had filled the shuttle, and it was itching in their throats.
Prangley started digging a way out through the hay with his hands. But Jack had rebooted the shuttle's electrical systems. She ignored the flashing and beeping warning that told her that she was about to take off with the door open.
"Keep your arms inside the ride at all times," Jack said and revved the engines.
Prangley moved away from the open door, and Jack reversed the shuttle back out through the hay and landed on the barn floor.
"Much better," she said, rose from her seat and started kicking hay out through the door.
As soon as the shuttle no longer looked like a zoo enclosure, they exited the vehicle and took a look at the barn they were in. It was old-fashioned and there wasn't much in it except for hay and a few pieces of agricultural machinery. Jack's 'landing' had created a gaping hole in one of the huge barn doors, from which the sunlight was flowing in. The air was relatively warm and filled with bugs that were softly buzzing around.
"This place is…" Vera sighed.
"Boring?" Prangley finished.
"…Cozy," she said. "It's nice."
"Well, let's wait until the husks start crawling out from the hay before we conclude that," Kurt noted.
"I know the reapers don't think like any other species, but I just can't see what they could possibly want with an idyllic place like this. There can't be many humans here to enslave or mutate," Charles said.
"No," Jack agreed. "They're just here to kill everyone. Remember, their warfare is not like ours. Human warfare is usually about military objectives, rights or resources. Extinction is rarely a goal in itself. The reapers want to end us all."
Jack cautiously looked out of the hole she had created in the barn wall. Their less than stealthy landing had earned them some attention. A dozen or so husks were slowly making their way across the courtyard, following the skid marks she'd created all the way to their hiding place.
"Shh! We've got company," she hissed.
Prangley joined her by the hole.
"Do you think they are the people who used to live here?" he asked quietly, nodding towards the slowly approaching husks.
"You can't think of them like that," Jack said. "Whoever they used to be, they're not themselves any longer."
"I know," he whispered.
"Let's take them out quietly," Jack said. "If there are more of them, we don't need them all to know we are here."
"Understood," Prangley answered with a nod and called up Kolyat and Vera.
Kolyat was already unholstering his pistol, but Prangley put a hand on his scaly arm and a finger to his lips.
The young drell nodded in understanding.
"Vera and I will pull them over here, you just take them out quickly and quietly," Jack whispered.
Kolyat and Prangley nodded.
Jack counted down from three on her fingers, and as she hit zero, the two nearest husks were biotically pulled the rest of the way across the courtyard and through the hole in the barn.
Prangley caught on of them in his arms and headbutted it once, before impaling it on the front of a forklift.
The other one seemed to go right past Kolyat, but once the husk landed in the hay, its throat was somehow cut, and Kolyat was holding one of his small throwing knives.
Jack and Vera kept pulling in the husks in pairs. And Prangley and Kolyat made sure to kill them all as quietly as possible. Not surprisingly, Kolyat was completely silent, while Prangley made a bit more noise.
In the end, all the husks were dead, and no other reapers seemed to have noticed their presence. So Jack led her team out of the barn and into the sunlight.
Apart from the husks they had just killed and the bugs in the air, they still hadn't seen any signs of life.
"Matriarch Lita?" Jack said with a finger to her earpiece, testing out her radio.
"Come in, Jack," Lita answered.
"We're at the village. So far, no sign of your commandos."
"I have found a few dead humans and an assault rifle that definitely belonged to an asari. But no-one alive yet," Lita answered.
"We'll keep an eye out for your commandos," Jack promised. "But I gotta tell you, it's really quiet here!"
"Thank you. Take care out there."
Jack terminated the connection and took a look around. The village consisted of about twenty farms placed closely together. There was a grocery store, a mechanics workshop and a community center as well. Unlike Palaven, it didn't look like Tiptree had been under any sort of bombardment. At least this little village seemed almost untouched.
Even though the buildings were intact, something was obviously wrong. And upon closer inspection, Jack located bullet holes in almost all the buildings.
"Not many of these are from human weapons," Jack noted, inspecting the bullet holes in one of the farm houses. "I don't think the locals were able to fight back all that much."
"They were farmers," Vera said. "And I bet this village didn't have any local security force."
"The asari were here," Jack said.
"How do you know?" Prangley asked.
Jack pointed in front of his feet, where the gravel had been painted purple.
"Blood," she said. "Asari blood."
Suddenly, Jack saw some movement by one of the farms a little further down the road. It didn't look a reaper. It looked like a human, and although it could have been a husk, its movements were a little quicker than what was normal for husks.
"There's someone over there," Jack said, nodding in the direction of the mysterious figure.
"It looks like a woman," Kolyat said.
"One of the farmers maybe?" Vera said hopefully.
"Perhaps," Jack said. "Follow me, but keep quiet and stay alert."
Jack strolled confidently towards the person, who, upon closer inspection, turned out to be a middle-aged woman.
As soon as the woman saw Jack and her team approaching, she started stumbling away from them towards a huge farmhouse further down the street.
"Wait," Jack shouted and picked up her pace to catch the woman, who was obviously scared and confused. "We're here to help."
Before they could catch up with her, the woman disappeared into the farmhouse and shut the door behind her.
"That was weird," Kurt said, as they stood in front of the farmhouse.
"She must be so scared," Vera whispered. "Poor woman."
Suddenly, the doors opened again and the woman came out followed by a group of heavily armed asari and a few more farmers.
"Intruders!" she screamed and pointed at the young biotics.
The asari stepped forward on the porch and raised their weapons.
"No! No!" Prangley shouted, raising his hands in the air. "We're not here to harm you!"
The commandos didn't react to his words. The asari didn't even blink their eyes. In fact, their eyes looked very weird. And so did the human farmers'.
"They're indoctrinated," Jack whispered to herself.
"Why are you still aiming at us?" Vera shouted at the asari commandos. "We're obviously not reapers!"
Just in time to prevent the asari from killing them all, Jack put up a barrier surrounding the entire team. In that same second, the asari opened fire with their assault rifles. The bullets peppered Jack's barrier, which was quickly fading.
There was no cover nearby, so Jack gave the only order she could:
"KILL THEM!" she roared.
The teenagers hesitated for a moment. Jack was asking them to kill other humans and soldiers of an allied species.
But then Jack's barrier flickered and disappeared, and dust was thrown up into the air, as bullets hit the ground in front of them.
"Oh shit!" Jack heard Charles say, as he realized the severity of the situation.
Simultaneously, the Psychotic Biotics unleashed their powers on the porch. The farmers and the asari commandos were thrown about like ragdolls, and all the windows on the front side of the house were shattered.
"What the hell?!" Vera squealed as the dust settled.
"They were indoctrinated," Jack explained, and moved closer to make sure that they were all dead.
"So we can't help anyone here?" Prangley asked.
"Maybe we still can," Jack said. "Perhaps not everyone here has been indoctrinated."
"We have to look in all the buildings," Kurt said. "If there are any survivors, they could have barricaded themselves inside."
"Let's start with this one," Jack said, stepping over one of the dead indoctrinated farmers and onto the porch.
That house and all the other buildings on that particular farm were empty. When they returned to the street, they saw a large group of husks chasing an asari and a human girl through the village. Strangely, the asari seemed to be wearing some sort of tunic. The girl was dressed in simple work clothes, much like the other farmers. The left leg of her pants was painted red with blood and she was limping very badly. When the girl couldn't keep up with the asari, the asari stopped and picked her up.
The tunic-clad asari ran like hell from the husks with the human girl thrown over her shoulder. The two of them disappeared around the corner of a building, followed by the group of husks.
"Come on!" Jack shouted and sprinted after the husks.
She and her team were far behind, and when they finally reached the building that the asari, the girl and the husks had disappeared behind, Jack couldn't see or hear anyone.
Then she heard a scream – probably the girl – and ran in that direction.
They rounded a corner, and Jack almost ran straight into a husk. They had stopped. Apparently they had lost track of the asari and the girl, and they had stopped to pick up their scent again.
"Kill!" Jack simply ordered and tackled the husk to the ground, where she punched it twice before getting back on her feet and helping her team deal with the rest.
Vera pulled her to the side, just as a husk was about to grab her.
"Thanks," she said and watched Charles make minced meat out of the husk that had threatened her safety.
He grabbed both its wrists and pulled it towards him and down, where its head met his raised knee. The husk's head snapped back as its neck broke, and Charles tossed the limp body to the side.
"Watch out," he warned as he ran past her to help out Kurt.
A few moments later, the husks were all dead, and the team looked around for any sign of the asari and the girl.
Suddenly, Jack heard someone sobbing and whimpering. She was just about to turn around and tell Vera to grow a pair.
"It's coming from that barn," Kolyat said, pointing to a building close by.
Obviously, the girl, and maybe also the asari, was hiding in there. Her crying was luring in the husks like bees to an open jar of honey.
The reapers were suddenly coming from every direction.
"Into the barn!" Jack shouted.
They stormed into the building and slammed the door behind them. Jack could no longer hear the girl crying, but strange coughing noises were coming from the back of the barn.
As they approached, Jack could see the asari bent over the girl, with her hands around the young human's neck. She was strangling the young human. The girl's eyes were already clouding over, and she was going limp.
Jack immediately ripped Kolyat's pistol out of his hand and shot the asari in the head. Purple blood splattered all over the wall, and the asari dropped dead on top of the girl, who was completely unconscious or perhaps already dead.
"Prangley, Kolyat, Charles! Guard that door!" Jack shouted and kicked the asari's dead body off of the girl. "Kurt and Vera! I want her ready to move in two minutes."
Prangley, Kolyat and Charles ran back to the front of the barn and started stacking anything heavy in front of the door to buy them some time. The husks were already clawing at the outside of the barn.
The girl, who looked to be around 15, wasn't breathing.
"Do something!" Jack yelled at Kurt and Vera.
Jack had seen plenty of people become severely injured or die. But she had never as much as lifted a finger to save anyone. She had no idea how to help the girl.
Vera and Kurt dropped down to their knees on either side of the girl.
Kurt looked down at the girl in front of him. She wasn't moving at all. His hands hovered just above her chest, but he hesitated.
"Maybe you should…" he said to Vera.
"I… I… I can't," Vera stammered and showed her shaking hands.
Kurt sighed and placed his hands on the girl's chest, and he started pumping in a steady rhythm. Thirty pumps later, he pinched the girl's nose, tilted her head back and opened her mouth. Once again, he hesitated.
"GO!" Jack shouted.
Kurt bent down and put his mouth over the girl's. He blew, and her chest raised. Kurt took another big breath and blew another dose of air into the girl's lungs.
Thirty pumps later and another two blows, the girl was still lifeless.
"Come on, come on, come on," Kurt whispered every time he pumped.
He fit his mouth over the girl's another time and blew. Still no reaction.
He blew once more, and this time the girl started coughing.
"Yes!" Vera shouted, as Kurt fell back in exhaustion.
The girl kept coughing and she rubbed her neck, which had red bruises all over it. Now that the girl's skin was returning to its normal color, it became clear that she had a lot of freckles. Her copper blonde hair was relatively short, ending just above her shoulders, and her eyes were green. She was a pretty enough girl, in a slightly tomboyish kind of way. She definitely looked like the type of kid who'd rather play outside with the boys than sit inside and talk about makeup.
Her green eyes darted from Kurt to Vera, to Jack and finally to the dead asari, who was lying next to her with blood and brain fluid seeping out from the hole in her head.
"Are you okay?" Jack asked.
"She… She tried to strangle me," the girl said hoarsely, as she slowly sat up.
"We know… We had to kill her," Jack said.
"She was so scared," the girl said after a long pause. "She kept asking me if I had a gun."
"Why did she try to kill you?" Vera asked.
"I couldn't stop crying… I tried… I really tried. But I couldn't stop… She was so scared... But my leg hurts so bad."
"It's not your fault," Vera assured her. "Your leg is broken, I can tell."
She nodded, but turned her eyes away quickly, when she accidentally looked at the dead asari.
"What is your name?" Jack asked.
"Gunny… Uhhm… I mean, my name's Hilary."
"Hilary…" Jack repeated. "I'm Jack. This is Vera and the one who kissed you and touched your boobs is Kurt."
"HEY!" Kurt shouted.
Hilary blushed, but mumbled out a small "thank you."
"Let's have a look at that leg," Vera said, guiding Hilary gently back down, so she was lying flat on her back.
Vera tore off the bottom of Hilary's bloody pant leg, revealing a very nasty open fracture. Hilary's shin bone was sticking out through a wound in her left leg, and blood was seeping out around the bone.
Vera almost puked, but she pulled herself together for Hilary's sake.
"Oh," she simply said and pushed Hilary back down. "Don't look."
Vera smeared some medi-gel around the bone, causing Hilary to wince in pain.
"I'm sorry," Vera said compassionately. "This won't do anything to fix the broken leg, but it will stop the bleeding."
Kurt and Vera helped Hilary on her feet, or rather on her foot. She couldn't put any weight on her left leg at all.
"We got to get her back to Matriarch Lita," Kurt said. "She can fix her leg."
"Right," Jack said. "Hilary, are there any other survivors?"
"I don't know," Hilary said, "We saw some of the farmers earlier. They attacked us, but Aeian killed them."
"Aeian?" Jack asked.
"The asari," Hilary whispered, advertently avoiding looking at Aeian's dead body.
"Right… So you haven't seen any other humans or asari who didn't try to attack you?"
"No," Hilary said. "Aeian and I fled into the hills. We were there for two days. But we didn't have any food or any weapons, so we had to sneak back down here to the village to look for Aeian's radio. We found some of the farmers, who had been locked in a barn. We tried to free them, but they started shouting and attacking us. Then the reapers came, and one of Aeian's friends, Neaira, tried to kill us as well."
"They were all indoctrinated," Jack sighed.
Hilary nodded.
"We barely escaped, but as you can see, my leg was broken. The husks chased us, and you know the rest."
"Jack!?" Charles called from the other end of the barn.
"Yeah?"
"You better get up here," he said.
Kurt gently lifted Hilary up and carried her in his arms.
"What's up?" Jack asked, when they joined Charles, Kolyat and Prangley at the barn doors, which had been blocked with everything that the three of them could find.
"Listen," Charles said.
"Aeian, are you in there?" someone shouted from the courtyard outside in a female voice.
"I think it's another asari," Prangley whispered. "Perhaps we should let her in?"
"No!" Hilary screamed before Vera could put her hand over her mouth.
"It's me, Neaira, your old friend," the asari outside shouted.
"That's her," Hilary whispered fearfully.
"Come out, Aeian!" Neaira shouted. "You can trust me."
"She doesn't know that we're here," Jack whispered.
"Aeian!" Neaira shouted sternly. "Come out here! Now! Bring the human!"
"I'll get this bitch out of our way," Jack said and began removing the stuff that Prangley, Charles and Kolyat had used to barricade the barn.
"You can't trust her!" Hilary hissed. "You can't negotiate with her!"
"Oh, she's not going out there to negotiate," Kurt said with a grin, as Jack opened the barn door and stepped out into the sunlight.
About twenty meters away stood a single asari in an official commando's uniform. Behind her, Jack counted at least twenty reapers, who almost attacked Jack on sight, but were stopped by Neaira.
"Who are you, human?" The asari asked.
"I'm your worst nightmare," Jack growled, lowering herself into a fighting stance.
"Where's Aeian?"
"Aeian's dead," Jack said.
"Did you kill her?" Neaira asked. "Then I should thank you."
"You're welcome," Jack said. "Are you going to leave now then?"
"Bring me the girl!" Neaira shouted.
"I was hoping you would say something like that," Jack laughed and flung a warp field at Neaira.
The blue ball of energy left Jack's fingertips and zoomed through the air until it collided with Neaira's biotic barrier.
The asari roared in anger and attacked Jack, who nimbly dodged Neaira's shockwave.
Jack rushed forward, avoiding another one of Neaira's attacks. She quickly reached the asari, whose eyes widened with surprise, as Jack slapped her hard across the cheek.
The surprised look on Neaira's face almost made Jack think that she had slapped the asari out of her indoctrination. But then Neaira started laughing like a maniac.
"Is that all you got, puny human?"
Jack smiled at her adversary.
"Nah…"
Before Neaira could move as much as a muscle, Jack released a shitload of biotic energy into her chest, sending Neaira flying more than 50 meters up in the air. She flew over the farm next door and landed on the other side with an audible thud.
As soon as Neaira was gone, the twenty cannibals and marauders that had been standing behind her attacked Jack.
Jack raised a barrier just in time to absorb their fire, before she was backed up by Prangley, Charles and Vera who stormed out of the barn to aid their leader.
Vera immediately added her own barrier to Jack's, while Prangley and Charles ripped into the reapers.
Meanwhile, Kurt and Kolyat stayed behind to cover Hilary.
Before Jack, Charles, Prangley and Vera could take out the reapers, even more cannibals, marauders and husks turned up. They were accompanied by a dozen of obviously indoctrinated farmers.
The indoctrinated humans were unarmed, but ran straight at the young biotics with their arms outstretched, not unlike the husks that ran beside them. Charles hesitated for a moment, and one of the farmers, a middle-aged man, wrapped his fingers around his neck.
"Watch out!" Jack shouted and ripped the man's arms off with her biotics before he could squeeze the life out of Charles.
"Mr. Rushman!" Hilary shrieked at the sight of the armless man collapsing on the ground.
"Cover her eyes, Nielsen!" Prangley shouted to Kurt over his shoulder.
"He is my neighbor!" Hilary shouted, smacking Kurt's hand away.
"Not anymore he isn't," Jack said, as she killed another indoctrinated farmer.
The farmers and husks who just ran mindlessly towards Jack and her team were completely taken apart by the biotics with relative ease. And a few minutes later, the cannibals and marauders were dead as well.
"Let's go while we can!" Jack said to her squad. "I don't want to be caught out in the open if any more reapers show up."
"Wait!" Vera said. "Hilary, where are your parents?"
"Rodriguez," Jack sighed, knowing there was a good chance that Hilary's parents were either dead or indoctrinated. She had hoped that they could get away without this subject coming up, but as usual Vera wanted to save everyone and their mother.
"They're gone," Hilary said in a sad tone. "Mom died when I was born… And dad… Dad was killed by that other asari, Neaira, two days ago."
"I'm so sorry," Vera said, sounding even more affected by the situation than Hilary.
Empathy had never been Jack's strong side, but she did feel bad for Hilary although she didn't really know her that well. But on the other hand, she was also relieved that they didn't have to waste time looking for Hilary's parents just to find their bodies or a couple of indoctrinated zombies.
"I was born here on Tiptree, and I've never left this planet. But now, every second I stay here is making me feel sick. Can you please take me with you? You can drop me off at the first port," Hilary pleaded.
"We have a deal with an asari matriarch. She's a doctor. She can fix your leg," Kurt said.
"Another asari?" Hilary said with understandable skepticism.
"She's cool," Prangley assured her.
"Okay," Hilary said with a small nod. "So she can take us away from here?"
"Yes. And after that, you can come with us to the Citadel if you want?"
"That's perfect!" Hilary said. "I have a brother who sometimes travels there with his ship. I can wait for him at the Citadel."
"That's a good idea," Jack said. "So let's go find our shuttle so we can get out of here!"
About halfway back to the barn where Jack had crashed the Shit Shuttle, they were ambushed by a full platoon of marauders, who quickly received air support from a harvester.
"Oh shit," Kurt, who was still carrying Hilary in his arms, panted.
"Run!" Jack shouted, realizing that their barriers wouldn't hold for long against the cannons of a harvester combined with the firepower of at least thirty assault rifles.
As they sprinted for their lives, husks started coming at them from the front. Kurt ran straight at them with Hilary in his arms, and in front of him were Prangley and Kolyat, who bulldozed a path through the horde for him.
They could handle the husks, and they could outrun the marauders, but the harvester that was soaring above them they couldn't escape. Its shadow was a constant reminder of the fiery death that its cannons could bring upon them at any moment.
They finally reached the barn with the shuttle shaped hole in the door.
"Hold them back, while I start the shuttle!" Jack shouted, as they jumped through the gaping hole.
Charles, Prangley, Vera and Kolyat stopped just inside the hole and turned around to defend the barn, while Jack and Kurt, carrying Hilary, continued to the shuttle.
Hilary screamed when Kurt dropped her a little roughly in the front passenger seat.
"My leg!"
"Sorry," Kurt groaned and sprinted back to his friends who were having trouble with keeping both husks and marauders outside while keeping a close eye on the harvester in the sky.
Hilary adjusted her position in the seat next to the pilot's seat, where Jack was trying to kick some life into the old shuttle.
"Screw you, you motherfucking piece of shit machine!" she shouted, punching the controls as the engine huffed and died again. "I'LL KILL YOU!"
"Move over!" someone said.
"What?!" Jack shouted, slamming her hand down on the controls once more.
"MOVE OVER!" Hilary repeated. "You gotta trust me, or your people will die!"
Jack looked over at Hilary, and she saw a spark of confidence in this young girl's eyes. She meant it.
Jack quickly switched place with Hilary, and five seconds later the Shit Shuttle came to life.
"GET IN!" Jack called Charles, Kurt, Prangley, Vera and Kolyat, who immediately sprinted away from the barn door, which exploded.
"Go! Go! GO! GO!" Hilary said, as they threw themselves into the back of the shuttle and shut the door behind them.
The very moment that door closed, Hilary hit the throttle and accelerated so quickly that Jack felt like her eyeballs were sucked to the back of her skull. From behind her, she could hear Kolyat, Vera, Kurt, Charles and Prangley being tossed to the back of the shuttle.
Husks and marauders were mowed down, as the Shit Shuttle exited the barn like a bullet out of a gun barrel.
"Hold on!" Hilary shouted and forced the shuttle into a steep climb to prevent a collision with the farm on the other side of the street.
As they blasted almost straight up into the air, Jack felt a huge amount of pressure on her chest, making her feel like she weighed a ton. When Hilary finally leveled out, Jack quickly strapped herself in, and she could tell from the groaning coming from behind her that the others were doing the same thing.
Hilary could obviously fly. Damn it, could she fly.
"You're right," Hilary said. "This shuttle IS a piece of shit."
Jack wanted to say that Hilary had just pulled some moves in the Shit Shuttle that Jack wouldn't even a attempt in a brand new state of the art shuttle. But before she could say anything, the harvester appeared from the clouds and fires its cannons wildly at them.
Hilary did a barrel roll, which almost made Jack vomit, but they, very narrowly, avoided being hit by the harvester's attack.
"Oh, so you want to play," Hilary mumbled to herself and flew straight towards the harvester.
"Don't get cocky!" Jack warned.
The harvester fired its mouth-cannon once more, but Hilary dove and they avoided the projectile by the skin of their teeth.
Hilary zoomed just underneath the belly of the harvester and looped back over it and dove straight towards the ground right in front of the monster's face.
She's madder than me, Jack thought as Tiptrees surface came closer and closer, while she was being pushed back up against her seat by the acceleration. Behind them, the harvester was flying even faster still and catching up to the shuttle. It's neck was stretched as far as possible and its wings were wrapped tight against its body, as it too plummeted towards the ground.
"He REALLY wants to play," Hilary noted.
Jack absolutely thought they were going to crash into the ground and die, but somehow Hilary managed to pull up much later than she should have been able to. A shuttle like the Shit Shuttle simply wasn't supposed to do the kind of things that Hilary could make it do.
Much later than what should have been possible, Hilary pulled back on the controls and the Shit Shuttle went from a seemingly uncontrolled dive to travelling horizontally with less than half a meter between the ground and the bottom of the shuttle.
Behind them a massive thud was heard as the harvester slammed into the ground at full speed and was crushed completely.
"Are we dead?" Kurt asked, slowly opening his eyes, which had been closed almost since he strapped himself in.
"I don't think so," Vera panted.
"That was some crazy shit!" Prangley said. Even he had to admit that he was shaken up.
Kolyat had gone into his weird drell-memory mode and was just spouting random bits of memories from a happy time in his life.
Vera lightly shook his shoulder.
"It's over," she said.
Kolyat shook his head to get back to the present.
"I got a little too much back there," he admitted. "She flies much better than you, ma'am, but it's equally terrifying."
"Watch it, drell!" Jack warned, but there was no denying that Hilary was an outstanding pilot.
"Oh, so that's what he is," Hilary said. "I'm sorry, Kolyat. But I've never seen a drell before. I've heard about the memory thing though, it's really cool."
"It's quite alright," Kolyat said calmly. "I've never flown with a talented human pilot before. I'll treasure this particular memory."
"Kolyat has obviously spent time with our class clown: Mr. Nielsen," Jack told Hilary. "Too bad his jokes suck balls!"
"Hey!" Kurt shouted from the back. "I'm not the one taking the piss here. Blame the lizard!"
"Who are you people?!" Hilary asked, adjusting her controls.
"I'll explain later," Jack said and put in the coordinates for Matriarch Lita's ship. "Oh, and by the way… Nice flying."
"Thank you," Hilary said proudly. "My brother is a pilot. The best in the Alliance."
"I know an Alliance pilot who would disagree," Jack chuckled.
"He or she would be wrong. My brother is the best."
"Well…" Jack said, getting ready to deliver the nail in the coffin for this discussion. "Let's just say that the guy I know is flying for Commander Shepard."
Hilary gaped at her.
"That shut you up, didn't it?" Jack said with great satisfaction. "Your brother may be good, but he's hardly as good as the one who flies the Normandy."
"Actually, ma'am," Hilary said, almost whispered. "I think we may be talking about the same person. My name is Hilary Moreau. My brother is Jeff Moreau , the helmsman of the SSV Normandy."
"You're shitting me!" Jack said. Now it was her turn to sit with her mouth wide open in surprise. "You're Joker's sister? No wonder you can fly!"
"Holy fuck! What are the odds?!" Kurt exclaimed from the back. "We go to a shitty little colony in the bloody arsehole of the galaxy, no offence, and the one person we rescue is Joker's little sister."
"And the first thing you do is kiss her?!" Jack joked. "Joker will kick your ass, or maybe get Shepard to do it."
"I WAS GIVING HER CPR!" Kurt insisted. "I saved her life."
"I'd rather be dead if I was her," Prangley snickered.
"I'll remember that when you drop!" Kurt shot back.
"Eew!" Prangley said, shivering with disgust and making gag noises. "Kissed by Kurt Nielsen…"
"Imagine having him as your first kiss then," Hilary said from the pilot's seat, making everyone, including Kurt, laugh.
"Lucky girl," Prangley said with extreme sarcasm.
"How old are you, Hilary?" Jack asked.
"15," Hilary answered, which was also what Jack had already guessed.
"Quite the age gap between you and Joker," Jack noted. "How old is he? Like 30?"
"31, actually," Hilary corrected. "I was an accident."
"Any other siblings?" Vera asked.
"No. Jeff's… uhm… condition meant that my parents didn't want to risk another child. So I wasn't exactly planned."
"So… Do you also have some degree of Vrolik Syndrome?" Jack asked with one eye down at Hilary's broken leg.
"No," she answered and moved a lock of copper blonde hair behind her ear. "I've had a million tests done, but my bones appear to be normal."
"If you grew up all the way out here, how did you and Joker get so good at flying?" Kurt asked.
"Everyone here flies," Hilary said. "The distances between villages are huge, and everyone has to fly the farming vessels."
"You don't learn to fly like that by flying a harvester vessel," Jack said.
"No," Hilary admitted. "I've also been the Tiptree shuttle race champion for the last seven years."
"You've been the best shuttle racer on Tiptree since you were eight?" Prangley asked and gave an impressed whistle.
"Yes," Hilary said. "Tiptree is small and poor, so it's not a professional competition. The pilots fly their own shuttles and we have to do our own repairs between races. But don't let that fool you. The pilots may be amateurs, but they are extremely competitive."
"I can't believe you've won every year, since you were eight," Vera sighed.
"Jeff reminds me all the time, when he calls," Hilary said with a sad smile. "He won his first championship when he was seven."
"Do you two tease each other a lot?" Charles asked.
"Constantly," Hilary chuckled. "It can get brutal some times."
"I've got some stuff on Joker that you may want to know about for when you see him next time," Jack said with a smirk.
"What you got?" Hilary grinned with expectation. "Did he crash the Normandy?"
"Better," Jack snickered. "He's got a girlfriend."
"Nooo?" Hilary said, gaping.
"And that's not the best part," Jack added, barely able to hold back her laughter. "She's not human. And not even asari or anything like that. Joker's dating EDI, which stands for Enhanced Defense Intelligence. Joker's fucking an AI!"
"See… Now I know you're lying! Jeff doesn't really like robots and all that stuff," Hilary said. "He likes ships because he can control them."
"Well, EDI is not exactly your average synthetic lifeform. She's much smarter and, even I have to admit this, much hotter as well. I think you'll find that Jeff might be more into robots and all that stuff than you think," Jack said.
"How exactly is it that you know my brother?" Hilary asked, raising her eyebrows at Jack.
"I used to work with him on the Normandy"
"I'm sorry, but Jeff doesn't tell me much about his work. Well, not the parts that aren't directly linked to flying," Hilary said.
"It's fine," Jack said. "If I had a little sister, I wouldn't necessarily tell her about everything that happened on the Normandy."
"That's what he always said when I asked," Hilary said and imitated Joker's voice: "Those kinds of things are not for your ears, Gunny."
"Gunny?"
"He always calls me Gunny."
"Why?" Kurt asked.
"Dunno. But I can't remember a time where he called me anything other than Gunny."
They sat in silence for a while, and Kurt closed his eyes and leaned his head back.
"It's nice… Flying with a pilot who doesn't make your arsehole tighten up in fear every time she moves a muscle," he mumbled.
"I heard that!" Jack warned.
"Oh did you?" Kurt said. "Who said I was talking about you?"
"Weren't you?"
"Oh, I was!" he laughed. "Hilary, as you may have noticed back at the barn, Jack doesn't really land a shuttle, as much as he crashes it into something with just enough speed to make you hurt like hell but not kill you."
"I saw the hole in the barn door," Hilary snickered, but stopped immediately when she noticed Jack's glare.
"It wasn't THAT bad," Vera tried to smooth things over. "But I have to admit that I don't fear for my life as much with Hilary at the helm. Charles?"
"Oh, I'm staying out of this!" Charles said.
"Gee, thanks!" Jack said sarcastically.
"So, would you like to be an alliance pilot like Joker one day?" Vera asked.
"I could only dream of ever reaching Jeff's level," Hilary sighed. "I know it doesn't always sound like it, but my brother is incredibly smart. His problem solving skills are amazing, and his spatial awareness is just not natural. I fly more on my instincts, reflexes and my gut feeling. Which is why Jeff is better suited for ships the size of the Normandy and up, and I should probably stick to shuttles and fighters. Though I think the Normandy would be small and agile enough for me. But I guess we'll never know."
"Don't say that! Who knows? Maybe someday, you WILL get to fly the Normandy."
"Hah, let's not get carried away!" Hilary said modestly. "I'm not THAT good. But I would like to be a pilot. Not necessarily in the Alliance, but it's a good place to start. I've had some offers from a few pro racing teams on Earth, Terra Nova and even one on Illium, but I don't really want to race sport shuttles. Then the Alliance offered me a full scholarship to the Jon Grissom Academy's flight department. And if the reapers hadn't invaded, I would have been there by now."
"If you got accepted into the flight program at Grissom Academy, you must be pretty damn good," Prangley said.
"Do you know the school? Supposedly, it's only for the very, very best. I was quite nervous to go there actually," Hilary said.
"It's not so bad once you get there," Charles told her.
"What? You went to Grissom?"
"We all did?" Kurt said, pointing out their uniforms. "Well, except for the drell obviously."
"You're all biotics?"
They all nodded, and she looked at the golden logos on their red and black uniforms.
"So you're from the Ascension Project, right?"
"That's right," Prangley said. "Jack was our instructor there."
"So what are you doing on Tiptree?"
"Saving you, of course," Prangley said with pride. "Ever heard of the Psychotic Biotics?"
"No?" Hilary laughed.
"Well, since we left the academy, we have been helping the Alliance wherever we can," Prangley explained. "And some people started calling us the Psychotic Biotics, because that's what they called Jack, back when she was a criminal."
"You were a criminal?" Hilary asked Jack.
"And not a small-timer either," Prangley added.
"Enough!" Jack said sternly. "Hilary, this is why Joker didn't tell you anything about me. It's complicated and hard to understand."
"Oh, don't misunderstand me!" Prangley said. "Jack is the best! She is the most amazing instructor I've ever had."
"Kiss-ass," Kurt coughed.
"Relax with the sweet-talking, Prangley. I've already made you my XO," Jack said.
"You guys are weird," Hilary said, shaking her head. "But thanks for saving me. Hey, is that the matriarch's ship down there?"
"Yup," Jack said. "And she's waiting for us. You can just land in the cargo bay."
"Got it," Hilary said.
She calmly approached and allowed the shuttle to glide into Matriarch Lita's ship's cargo bay, where she softly landed it.
"That was nice," Kurt said and unbuckled himself. "No screaming or anything."
"Okay!" Jack said, getting out of her seat. "The next one to joke about my flying gets a knee to the balls!"
Jack gave them a few seconds to try their luck, but they could hear that she actually meant it, so everyone kept their mouth shut.
"I thought so," Jack whispered dangerously and pointed out Kurt. "Nielsen, you can carry Hillary up to the crew deck, so the doc can have a look at her leg."
"Just don't kiss me again," Hilary said, as he gently lifted her.
"Hah hah," he fake laughed. "You ungrateful little…"
"Relax," she said. "I'm really happy that you saved my life."
"You're welcome," he replied.
"In fact, I think I owe you this," she said and kissed him on the cheek, as he carried her into the elevator that would take them up to the crew deck.
Jack went back outside the ship, where Matriarch Lita was talking to her bodyguard and her personal assistant, who had just come back from a recon mission.
"We found a human male in the woods. We tried to communicate with him, but he just screamed and tried to hit us with a stick. So we had to knock him out," the bodyguard explained.
"Most of the humans have been indoctrinated," Jack said, joining the conversation. "We also found your commandos, Matriarch. But they had been indoctrinated as well."
"By the goddess," Lita said in shock. "What did you do to them?"
"We killed them all."
"That was probably the best you could do for them," the matriarch said. "It's not worthy for an asari to live as a slave of another's mind."
"We also found a human girl, who isn't indoctrinated. One of your commandos, I'm not sure if she was actually indoctrinated or not, tried to strangle her. The girl is up on the crew deck now. Her leg is broken. I would like you to take a look at it."
"I will," Lita agreed. "There's nothing more for us here. We should find somewhere else in the galaxy where we can help. I hear Omega has begun taking in refugees from the nearby colonies."
"Refugees allowed on Omega?" Jack said in disbelief. "That's a new kind of behavior from Aria."
"According to the rumors I've heard, Aria T'Loak needed help reining in the Blue Suns, the Blood Pack and the Eclipse. Commander Shepard supposedly helped her, and apparently some of his positive attitude rubbed off on her," Lita explained.
"I should have guessed Shepard had something to do with it," Jack sighed. "But Omega sounds good to me as well, I've missed that place. I just hope Aria and Shepard haven't taken away all of its charms."
"What charms?" Lita asked dryly. "Murder, extortion, fraud and violence?"
"Exactly," Jack said with a wide grin.
A/N:
Hope you're still with me.
This chapter is a little short than some of the really long ones I've made. Some of you may have been thinking that the chapters were too long, so I hope this suits you.
I really look forward to writing more about Hilary Moreau. Having her survive is obviously not canon, but I'm allowing myself to make small adjustments while still remaining relatively close to canon. Also, I was afraid that if I didn't let Hilary survive, the team wouldn't survive Jack trying to out-fly that harvester :)
I may have mentioned this before, but I'm not very familiar with the DLCs. Therefore, most of my story will be based on the events in Mass Effect 3 (minus the DLC). I realize that some of you have played Mass Effect 3: Omega, but I haven't. I just wanted you to be aware of that, since the next chapter is going to take place (at least in part) on Omega.
Rest assured that I appreciate your support, and I will happily receive your critique or questions via review or PMs.