Chapter 35: The Hunt

Even though the sun has set, the humidity remained thick in the air, providing no relief from the heat. It was very dark. Vega looked through his binocular that was equipped with night vision. He could see the small single story building in the center of the fenced off compound. He knew his mission was there. He had spent the last three days looking for this compound in the Brazilian jungle. Now that he had found it, he had to retrieve a data disc in the building and then make it out to the extraction point. He knew he cannot be shot by simunition. If he was shot by the simulation ammo, the mission would end and he would be disqualified. He had three days left to finish this mission and he was determined to get it done.

There were four guard towers, one on each corner of the compound. At the moment, they had search lights scanning the ground. Vega slowly crawled close to the fence. He waited for the search light to pass and then he quickly crawled up to the fence. He used a small cutter to cut the fence wiring. He opened a space just large enough for him to crawl through. Once inside, he immediately hid behind a pile of containers. There were two soldiers walking together circling the compound. Vega waited about ten minutes for the soldiers to make a full circle. On the next round, when the soldiers passed him by a safe distance, he quickly ran and made his way into the building. He slowly opened the door and entered the dark room. He immediately sensed he was not alone. As he flipped down his night vision goggles, he saw a masked man in the opposite corner of the room. In the next instant, he felt the full force of this man tackling him by the waist as he began to fall backwards.

Miranda was leaning back on the couch looking at a data pad. To her left was Liara. She was talking to Feron over the vid com. They were both in Liara's office on Ilium.

"Call me again tomorrow morning to go over the new video feeds," requested Liara.

"Yes, Liara. I will call you around Nine o'clock your time," replied Feron.

Liara turned off the video screen and looked over to Miranda, "The new base is nice, but I think we should consider setting up on a new ship." The Shadow Broker Ship that was circling Hagalaz had recently been lost in a Cerberus attack just before the Reaper invasion. Rather than letting the reapers capture the ship, Liara and Feron crashed the ship into the Cerberus cruiser just moments after they escaped in a shuttle.

Miranda looked up, "I agree. I was just thinking the same thing. It's more secure to be mobile. Being in a fixed location is too easy to track."

As Miranda was finishing her sentence, she noticed a feint red dot on the window behind Liara.

"Liara, don't make any sudden movements," said Miranda in a slow calm voice.

"What's wrong?" asked Liara sitting very still.

"Don't look back, but there's a red dot on the window behind you."

"What?" said Liara in a slight panicked tone.

"I am going to use my biotic slam on the desk in front of you to cause a distraction. When I say 'now', you run through the door."

"Okay, I don't see any other way," replied Liara.

Miranda began to power up her biotics. A blue hue started to envelop her right arm.

"Now!" shouted Miranda as she sent the slam energy onto the desk. The desk immediately lifted into the air. At the same time Liara ran towards the door. Just at that moment, three consecutive shots were fired. The first 2 shots were stopped by the kinetic barrier in the glass. But the 3rd shot shattered the glass and hit the desk.

Miranda followed Liara through the door, "Liara, hurry, we need to get to the Nakatomi tower."

Liara looked at the tower right across from her office, "Agreed."

Vega hit the floor hard. The man was now on top of Vega and began to choke him with both hands. Vega can feel the pressure in his head and know he would lose consciousness soon if he did not do something. Vega used his hands and grabbed the man by the neck and began chocking him as well. But the man would not let go. With gasping breaths, Vega said, "Hey take it easy, this is just a training mission." But the man gripped even tighter.

Vega decided if he does not do something now, he will be done. With all his strength, he suddenly raised his head upward, striking the man in the forehead with his own head. The man immediately let go of his grip and fell face forward hitting the floor right next to Vega.

Vega got up and knelt next to the man. He checked the man's neck with two fingers and felt a pulse. Relieved that he did not kill the man, Vega began looking in the room. He saw a desk with several drawers. He opened the bottom drawer and found a disc. He quickly put that in his pack and left the building. Within a few minutes, he made his way back to the fence. But just as he was crawling through the fence, he heard the siren sound. At the same time, multiple spot lights came on and began to search the perimeter of the compound.

Vega got through the fence and began to run through the dense jungle. Several spot lights began to light in his direction. This was followed by multiple men's voices. Soon after, he heard rifles firing.

"I gotta give it to you Coats, you said you would make this tough," said Vega to himself as he continued to run in the darkness.

Liara and Miranda took a hover car over to the Nakatomi Bank building. The building was currently closed off due to reconstruction.

"Liara, let's head to the roof," requested Miranda. Liara complied and drove the hover car to the roof top. They got out and searched the area. It didn't take long for them to find what they were looking for.

"Look," said Miranda as she pointed to the sniper rifle. They walked over and saw the M-13 Raptor rifle leaning against the western wall.

"Cerberus!" said Miranda as she is very familiar with the rifle. Suddenly she spun around and drew her M-25 Hornet submachine gun. She quietly pointed to a stack of containers about 50 feet away. Liara drew her M-12 Locust submachine gun. With their guns pointed in that direction, they slowly approached the containers.

"Thud!" Miranda heard it coming from the containers. This was followed by another "Thud!"

She turned to Liara, "Get down! Sniper!"

But it was too late. Liara had been struck and had fallen already. As Miranda hit the ground, she landed in a pool of blue blood. Just then, from behind the container stepped out a Nemesis solider. He was pointing a black Widow sniper rifle at Miranda. In her anger, Miranda sent a biotic slam towards the nemesis. The soldier was violently lifted off the ground and then sent slamming back down again. There was no further movement.

Miranda crawled to the Nemesis and picked up the Black Widow. She cursed herself, "I knew I should have taken some lessons from Will."

She did her best and pointed the rifle and scope in the general direction of the previous shots. There were several towers in the distant. She searched the roof tops through the scope but could not see anyone. Miranda then crawled over to Liara.

"Liara!" She checked Liara's neck and felt a feint pulse.

"Liara, I'm going to get you out of here. Don't die on me!"

Vega was exhausted. He had been running in the dark jungle for about an hour and he still had not been able to shake the soldiers following him. He knows that if he was hit by one of those simulation rounds, his mission will be over.

Vega finally had to stop to catch his breath. As he stood there panting, he looked up. All around were trees. He began climbing the closest tree all the while thinking to himself, "I hope they don't have thermal goggles or I'll be lit up like a Christmas tree."

Vega found a branch that was strong enough to support his weight. He crawled onto it and waited. About ten minutes passed when finally he saw a group of four soldiers approaching. They all had rifles with flashlights mounted on front. They were doing a standard search pattern. As they passed under the tree, they stopped.

"Of course," Vega thought to himself, "they just had to stop under this tree."

"What are they doing? They aren't leaving."

Vega was getting impatient. He broke off a small branch and threw it. The soldiers all reflexively fired in the direction of the sound. They then walked over to investigate. After five minutes of searching, they moved on.

After a few more minutes when the soldiers were out of sight, Vega slowly descended the tree. As he began to walk, his foot stepped on something hard. He stopped and picked it up.

"Real thermal clips…" He repeated those words several times in disbelief. These soldiers were supposed to be using simulation ammo. But instead, they're using real thermal clips that can injure or kill him.

"Liara. Liara. Can you hear me?"

Liara was coming in and out of consciousness. She can hear feint echoes of Miranda's voice.

"Liara, if you can hear me, we're onboard a medical frigate. We'll be at the Citadel soon," said Miranda.

"You'll have to move aside now, I have to give her more medicine," said the Asari doctor.

Miranda stepped back to give the doctor some room. She went to the corner of the room and sat down. She hated waiting. She had already contacted Dr. Michel and let her know Liara's situation. Ilium was still rebuilding and did not have all the equipment set up for the type of surgery Liara needed. But more importantly, at this moment, Citadel is the only place she feel they could be safe. She tried contacting Coats and Shepard. But both communicators are offline. So now, she must wait. And she hated waiting.

The light was beginning to creep into the dark night. Vega looked down at his watch. It was around 5:20AM. He made it to the extraction point. The clearing is just up ahead. He got his transmitter out and called for extraction. But after three tries, there was no response.

Vega sat there for a moment thinking about his next move. But off in the distant, he could hear men's voices approaching. "They must have tracked my transmission," he thought to himself. Now he knows something was definitely wrong. He needs to get back to base. But as he began to leave, he saw at least thirty men with lights approaching him from all direction. He will have to fight his way through. He did not have a rifle or pistol, so he drew the only weapon he had – his survival knife. He got down low in a semi crouch position and was getting ready for the fight of his life.

The medical frigate docked in the emergency dock. Drs. Michel and Chakwas were standing by with a medical team to meet Miranda and Liara. Liara was on an air gurney attended by an Asari phyisican and two medical staff.

Dr. Michel greeted the Asari physician and requested an update. As the medial team walked into the elevator, the Asari physician began giving a report.

"Dr. T'soni has suffered a single bullet penetration into her upper chest. The location of penetration was near the thoracic spine. The bullet is still lodged between the spine and several large blood vessels. We initially attempted to remove the bullet. It was unsuccessful. It also caused large amount of bleeding around the vessels. We managed to temporarily stop the bleeding and transfused her several units of blood. But the bleeding may resume at any time. We are grateful for your assistance here."

Dr. Michel replied, "Thank you for the report and what you've done. I know you have a lot of work to do back on Ilium and I will not keep you. We will do our very best here for Dr. T'soni."

The elevator door opened and they were in the back entrance of Huerta Memorial Hospital.

"Hurry, get her to the operating room," said Dr. Michel to the medical team.

She then looked at Dr. Chakwas, "Are you okay to assist me on the surgery?"

Chakwas looked at Liara as she is being carried away by the medical team.

"Absolutely."

Vega tensed his muscles. He lowered his stance. He was ready. If this was where he's going to die, he was going to take as many of them with him as possible. He could see the soldiers now. They were about one hundred feet away and approaching from all directions.

Just then, up above him, there was a loud rhythmic, metallic sound. "Clack, clack, clack, clack, clack."

Vega can recognize that sound anywhere. It was an old M60 machine gun. In fact, he saw one mounted on one of the Kodiaks when he arrived at the Villa. He recalled using the term "ancient" to Coats when he saw that. Coats said they were found of tradition at the Villa, and the M60 was one of those traditions

At this moment, the M60's sound was the sound of salvation. Vega looked up. Circling above him was a Kodiak shuttle firing into the approaching soldiers. The tracer fire from the M60 lit up the field below. For now, the soldiers stopped advancing and began firing on the Kodiak. The Kodiak was slowly spinning around covering 360 degrees. When it finally got to the ground, Vega heard a welcoming voice.

"Lieutenant, get in here!" ordered Coats.

Vega quickly jumped into the Kodiak.

"What the hell is going on, sir?" asked Vega as the Kodiak took off.

"Are you hurt?" asked Coats.

"It'll take a lot more than them to hurt me," replied Vega.

"Good. We're going to need that attitude of yours very soon."

"Sir?" asked Vega.

"The Villa is under attack. From the look of things, they aim to wipe us out. The attack started several hours ago. I'm sorry I didn't respond to your call. I did not want them to know we were on our way."

"Who's attacking us?"

"I don't know yet. But I do know they're professionals, and they're well trained and well-armed," replied Coats.

"I've already ordered an evacuation of the base."

"Wait, we're just going to roll over and let them destroy the base? No way. We fight!" said Vega angrily.

Coats pushed the button to open the side door. As the door lifted, Vega could see the entire Villa compound in flames.

"How?..." Vega was stunned.

"They attacked us while we were sleeping. They set off explosions on all six guard towers simultaneously. This was followed by sequential explosives in the sleeping quarters. The Villa was already damaged from the previous attack. So we had a lot of construction personnel here. We did not have our full force here to repel the attack."

"How many people did we have on base, sir?" asked Vega as the Kodiak circled for a place to land.

"In total, about 250. I still don't know how many are KIA," replied Coats.

As the Kodiak descended, Vega could see several large gaps in the ten feet tall wall that surrounded the compound. He could also see there were men with rifles and light approaching from the southern entrance. They were firing indiscriminately into the compound.

Coats commanded the pilot to land the Kodiak on the northern end of the compound.

"It looks like all the other shuttles are gone. I hope they all got out," said Coats as he grabbed his rifle and stepped off the shuttle.

"Then what are we doing back here? Shouldn't we be leaving?" asked Vega.

"Yes, you should go," replied Coats. He turned to the pilot, "Go. Take him back to the Citadel."

"Yes sir," replied the pilot and the Kodiak began to take off.

Vega can see Coats running toward the command bunker located in the center of the compound.

"Take me back down!" said Vega.

"Sir. I have my orders," the pilot yelled back.

"I'm giving you a new order. Now take us down!" demanded Vega.

"I am not going back down. We're all going to be killed!" replied the pilot.

Vega grabbed the N7 Valkerie rifle from the back of the shuttle and pointed it at the pilot.

"We are not leaving anyone behind, now put us down."

The pilot finally complied and landed the shuttle.

Vega stepped off the shuttle and turned to the pilot, "Look Loco, give me ten minutes. If we're not back in ten minutes, you take off."

The pilot yelled back, "I will give you five minutes. If you're not back, I'm gone."

Vega did not want to waste any more time. He turned and ran toward the bunker. As he ran, he could feel the heat from the blazing flames coming from the different structures. As he ran up to the bunker, he can hear approaching gun fire. He opened the door. It was barely lit by the red emergency lights. He knew this was the only hardened structure on the base. If anyone is still alive, they'd be in here.

"Now where did Coats go?" Vega decided to try the briefing room. As he was running, he heard Coats yelling, "We have to go! Now!"

Vega ran towards the voice. It was coming from Riley's office. He entered the room and saw Riley frantically pulling out files from the file cabinets and dumping them into a back pack.

"Ma'am. Sir. We have to go!" yelled Vega. "The shuttle is going to leave!"

"And what are you doing here? You're supposed to be back on the shuttle!" Coats yelled back.

"I got them. Let's go!" said Riley interrupting Coats and Vega.

Both men looked at her and followed her out. As they ran down a dark corridor, they heard rifle fire.

"They're in the building," said Vega.

"Yes, but who are they shooting at?" asked Coats rhetorically.

"Sir. Please go with the captain. The shuttle is on the north end. The pilot is not going to stay long. I will check out the gun fire down there then follow right behind you!"

"No we all go together!" insisted Coats.

"Sir, I know you're my superior officer. But there's obviously something very important that Captain Riley is carrying. I don't want that to fall into enemy hands" replied Vega.

"He's right, Will," said Riley.

"Besides, sir. I run faster than you. No offense," added Vega as he began running toward the gun fire.

"Arrh! Okay let's go!" said Coats reluctantly to Riley as he began following her in the opposite direction.

MEMEMEMEMEME

There was a rapid beeping sound coming from the monitor above the operating table.

"Her pressure is dropping," reported Chakwas who was in blue surgical gowns standing across from Michel.

"Please increase her pressors," said Dr. Michel to the nurse at the head of the operating table.

The nurse complied and turned pushed a few buttons on the machine next to her.

"Doctor, we've reached the maximum amount of infusion," reported the nurse.

"She is not human, she can tolerate it," said Dr. Michel. "Increase it one more time."

The nurse pressed a few more buttons and the rapid beeping sound from the monitor stopped.

"Her vitals are stabilizing," said Dr. Chakwas. She then asked, "Are you able to see the bullet?"

"No. Not yet."

As Vega approached the gunfire, he can see two soldiers dressed in camouflage uniforms standing outside of the doorway firing into the room. Since these are not Alliance uniforms, they must be the enemy. Vega raised his rifle and fired several rounds killing both soldiers.

He walked up and knelt next to one of the dead soldiers. He saw the shoulder patch and ripped it off putting it inside his pants pocket.

Vega then inched next to the door being careful not to expose himself in the doorway for fear of being shot.

"This is Lieutenant Vega. Whoever is in there, stop shooting."

"Vega, is that really you?" said a familiar voice from inside.

"Yes, it's me. Now don't shoot. I am coming in."

Vega walked into the room and smiled, "Ladies!"

"Karin, I can't remove it without damaging the blood vessels next to it," said Dr. Michel. "If that happened, she could bleed out right here on the operating table."

"Chloe, may I try something?" asked Chakwas.

Michel nodded, and stepped back to allow Chakwas to stand in her place. She then moved across to the other side where Chakwas was standing so she could assist her.

Chakwas asked for a new pair of forceps. She then paused and looked up at Michel, "Here we go."

In the center of the room a desk was turned on its side. Behind the desk knelt Whitaker and Barnes, each holding a rifle. Behind them, sat West on the ground with a pistol in his hand.

Whitaker got to his feet and walked up to Vega and shook his hand, "I am glad to see you!"

"Me too," replied Vega, "but we're going to have to save the reunion for later. We have a whole company of bad guys about to fall on us. We need to move!"

He then looked down on West, "We're going to have to go. You're going to have to do your best to help us." West nodded.

Vega then barked, "Whitaker and Barnes, you help West. I will run point for you ladies."

Vega shouldered the Valkyrie rifle and walked out of the door. They walked down a long narrow corridor. Suddenly, a door on the left burst open and three enemy soldiers came in. While continuing to walk, Vega squeezed off several rounds killing all three soldiers. He walked up to where the bodies lay, and slowly looked through the door.

"Well I got good news and bad news," said Vega.

His three friends looked up at him.

Vega continued, "The good news is that we've made it to the exit. The bad news is that there are bad guys all around us. So we can either try to make a run for it, or we can stay here and fight it out."

West looked up at Vega, "You guys go, leave me."

Whitaker and Barnes looked at each other, and then back at Vega.

Whitaker finally said, "You make the call."

Vega looked at his friends, "I don't know about you, but I'm tired of running. I think this is as good of a place as any to stand our ground."

Barnes looked at Vega, "We're with you!"

They slowly sat West down on the floor. Then Barnes and Whitaker took up positions next to Vega. They looked at West. West drew his pistol and nodded.

Vega broke the glass on the door with the butt of his rifle, "Here they come! Make every shot count!"

One by one, they began firing on the approaching troops.

"There's too many of them!" yelled Whitaker.

"I'm out of ammo," yelled Barnes. He dropped his rifle and switched to his pistol.

Soon after, Whitaker and Vega both ran out of ammo. They both drew their knives.

At that moment, as if on cue, the "Clack, clack, clack, clack, clack" sound of the M60 cut through the air. The tracer fire showed the shots hitting the advancing troops. The enemy troops halted their advance and began firing on the Kodiak. The Kodiak descended in front of the bunker.

"What are you waiting for? A written invitation?" yelled Coats. "Let's go. Move your asses!"

Vega grabbed Barnes' pistol, "Go, help West and get on that shuttle. I will be right behind you."

Barnes ran to West. He stood on West's left while Whitaker was on the right. They each had one of West's arms draped over their neck to support him.

"Come on, get going!" yelled Vega as he kicked open the door and began firing at the enemy troops. There were several enemy soldiers closer to them on the right side. Vega knelt down and began to shoot at them. Barnes, West and Whitaker hobbled onto the shuttle. Then all of them began to yell at Vega to get onto the shuttle.

Vega began to run for the shuttle. He was just about thirty feet away when…

Thud!

A bullet hit him in the left thigh. He collapsed instantly to the ground. He looked up and saw the Kodiak shuttle. Time appeared to slow down. Standing at the door was Coats, Riley, Barnes and Whitaker. All of them yelling for him to get up. All around them, there were bullets firing with tracer rounds. Some of them ricocheting off the Kodiak. For a brief moment, Vega thought this all reminded him of some twisted fireworks display.

Vega mustered his strength and began to crawl on his knees.

Thud! this time a bullet struck him in the right ankle shattering his bones.

The searing pain was unbearable.

He looked up one more time towards the Kodiak. He yelled out, "Go!"

Thud! Then everything turned black.