Even before humanity's appearance on the galactic stage, the Hegemony was one of the lesser powers, tolerated but never especially liked by the other star nations. For many years the Hegemony used its status as a client state to shield itself from more direct repercussions for its practice of slavery, even while ostensibly offering the possibility of reforms to reduce and eventually abolish the practice to avoid being stripped of Council protection outright. When the galaxy made contact with the Terran Empire, this precarious balance was quickly upset at humanity's vehement disdain and contempt for batarian political and cultural posturing. Indeed the Hegemony's hypocrisy was one of the first thing the Empire pointed out when contesting the Council's claims that it united its various member races under a set of common laws and standards.
-Forward Unto Twilight: The Terran Empire
Chapter 37
Pereat mundus
The far face of the asteroid was a black void, broken only by a few dim lights sprinkled about its surface. Such darkness suited the Normandy just fine as the frigate made her approach, the hull of similar pitch as the smart paint shifted to match the starry backdrop. While few were the instances where one's vision was relied upon to survey the vast expanse of space, it was not unheard of to have windows aboard a ship and it would not do for the first stealth frigate ever built to have its cover broken by a random crewmember stargazing. Less likely things had happened after all.
The absence of sound was another helpful factor in allowing the Normandy to make her stealthy approach and deliver her payload, the Mako armored fighting vehicle now descending. Brief flickers of light could be seen by the very attentive as the Mako performed the minute adjustments to its course and velocity to equalize with X57. When the vehicle finally touched down it was as if the AFV was softly kissing the rock beneath. The sensation was a bit less gentle.
"There, that wasn't that bad," Shepard remarked as the shuddering and bouncing stopped.
"Not bad at all," Garrus remarked from next to her. "I'd say you're getting better at this, Shepard, cept that'd just encourage you to go in even faster."
Chuckles sounded over the radio, the Mako itself already evacuated of atmosphere.
"Alright, enough from the peanut gallery," Shepard said, her tone shifting from jovial to deadpan serious in a word. "Pressly, what've you got for us, over?"
"Sensors have detected a single freighter and what looks to be three assault shuttles landed on the surface," the XO responded. "Minimal comms chatter so far, the slavers might be using the tight-beam transceivers the engineering team installed instead, over."
"That's showing a bit more communications discipline than I'd like," Shepard said with a frown. "What about surface contacts, over?"
"The X57 facilities didn't have any fixed defenses set up, and the slavers don't appear to have added anything," Pressly answered. "We haven't seen any patrols either, not on infrared or visual-wait, we're picking a transmission, standby."
The wait did not take long as another voice filtered over the radio channel.
"Hello? Is anyone out there? This is Kate Bowman of the X57 engineering team. Simon? Mark? Anyone?"
Shepard muttered a silent curse before speaking, but not in response to the woman on the radio.
"Artemis, how likely are the slavers to pick up and listen in on her transmission?"
"Ms. Bowman is transmitting on a standard commercial grade cipher," Artemis said, "adequate for most purposes and difficult to crack without specialized hardware. Localization of her position would be trivial if the slavers detect the emissions however, and with their control of the main engineering systems they likely also have the keys for all the channels the X57 team would use, including the one Ms. Bowman is using now."
Shepard took a mere second to absorb all that and come to a snap decision.
"Pressly, you're in charge of speaking with Ms. Bowman," the major ordered. "Don't let her think there are any boots on the ground, but get her to tell you anything that might be helpful in reaching and disabling the fusion torches, and warn her about the risk of her transmission being detected, over."
"Aye Major, I'll get right on that, Normandy out."
A few moments later the navigator's voice also sounded over the intercepted radio channel.
"Ms. Bowman, this is Lieutenant Charles Pressly of HMS Normandy."
"Oh thank God," Kate said wholeheartedly. "Where are you? How close are you to the asteroid?"
"Close, ma'am, but we're still trying to determine the best course of approach," Pressly answered. "We need to retake the fusion torches to divert the asteroid's trajectory, otherwise the fleet will be forced to bombard X57 to break it up."
A deep breath could be heard, hinting at the sheer relief Kate was likely feeling at finally hearing a response.
"I understand. I-I can't get to the torches myself, the slavers have them guarded. But I can walk you through on how to get to them and then change their settings."
"That would be much appreciated, Ms. Bowman," Pressly said. "Be advised however that your transmissions may be detected by the slavers, and with the main control center under their control they may also have access to the key for the cipher you're using right now."
"I understand," Kate repeated without any hesitation. "I'm at an out of the way location, so even if the slavers pick up my signal it should still take them a little bit to reach my position. Until then, I'll do everything I can to help."
Shepard had to give the other woman credit, she possessed at least a modicum of courage. Or perhaps it was just plain stubbornness. In any case the major listened in as Kate began describing the way the fusion torches worked and the emergency overrides physically in place at each one. Most of the information had already been pulled from the mining company responsible for the X57 project, but it was the on the ground details that helped distill all that raw information into the pertinent details.
Back in the passenger compartment, Tali was paying close attention to Kate and even forwarding questions of her own to Pressly to relay. As the most technically proficient of Shepard's squad, the quarian mechanic was the first choice in actually operating the torch controls. Shepard was a close second, if only because Artemis could walk her through the procedures much more efficiently, but that would take the major's attention away from all the other things she might need to do, like actually lead the squad. She was however not so focused that she did not pick up various tidbits about Kate's present situation, like how both she and her brother managed to escape and hide, or of the very special items decorating the perimeter of the Bravo fusion torch.
"They have WHAT surrounding it!?" the major's voice sounded.
The Mako was soon nearing the first of the torches, the burning propellent creating a colorful geyser streaming into the sky above. Scans showed no defensive emplacements and no one actively patrolling, though one would presume any surviving security cameras mounted around it would quickly pick up their approach.
"Artemis, any comms traffic?"
"None, Major."
"Good."
The Mako slid to a halt and the squad piled out.
"Let's make this quick," Shepard said. "I don't want these bastards even knowing what hit them."
"Aye, ma'am," Ashely answered for the others.
Huddling up at the main entrance, Shepard plugged herself into an access port.
"I am in, Major," Artemis reported. "Internal scanners are patchy, but at least ten hostiles are present. Six are humanoid, four quadrupeds, likely attack beasts of some kind."
"Probably varren," Wrex remarked. "Lotsa gangs use them."
"Tali, charges. Wrex, you're on point," Shepard ordered. "Anything charges us, I want its guts splattered."
"You got it," the krogan said with his usual enthusiasm for wanton destruction.
"Ready?"
Tali gave a nod as she hurriedly backed away after setting the explosives.
"Breaching in three, two, one!"
A slight rumble carried the shockwave from the blast, but otherwise it was a very subdued explosion in the vacuum of space. The people inside probably did hear something, but the loud bang was soon the least of their worries what with the cacophony that now unfolded. Wrex was through first as expected, with Shepard a step behind. She took a single moment to sweep her gaze across the large bay before them, all she needed to pick out her targets. Rifle up, the major was actually the first to open fire.
The slavers inside at least had had the sense to keep their helmets on, so the sudden decompression was not nearly as debilitating as it otherwise would have been. The four varren with them were not so lucky and after first charging towards Wrex quickly started backpedaling as they became short of breath. That all of them were taken by surprise was evident in the roughness of their response time. Shepard's target had not even started diving for cover when the major's shots slammed into him. Stumbling back, the slaver got perhaps two steps before his armor was punctured and he went tumbling down.
The other slavers were finally responding, taking potshots even as they dove for cover. Shepard's own squad was being a bit more measured in their actions, its members alternating between laying down suppressive fire and advancing from cover to cover. It was the sort of smooth cooperation that only long practice and ingrained trust allowed. The slavers seemed to possess neither, and for all their individual competency they were sorely lacking in cohesion as a team. This weakness was ruthlessly exploited by Shepard and the others, as they maneuvered to flank the slavers. Faced with such a ferocious onslaught, panic further undermined the slavers' defense.
One frantically tried to face both Shepard and Garrus, only to leave himself wide open to a rifle burst from Ashley. Another suddenly jerked upright as Tali's drone slinked up close enough to zap him. The blast from Wrex's shotgun was probably a bit more painful, and certainly a more permanent ending. The major's movements were equally efficient, the grenade she tossed out causing three of the surviving slavers to scramble away right into the open. Shepard herself mowed down one of course, while the other two suddenly found their feet no longer touched the ground. Suspended helplessly in the air, the slavers could only watch in muted futility as half a dozen guns were pointed their way and opened up. A distinct case of overkill, assuming one believed such a thing existed.
The four varren were at this point pretty much asphyxiating, rendered harmless by the simple lack of air for them to breathe. The four shots that sounded were more euthanasia than execution, ending their suffering in at least relatively clean fashion. With all the known hostiles down, Shepard's gaze swept across the bay once more. Short, sharp, and efficient, everything she could ask for in an entry.
"Any transmission leak there, Artemis?" she queried.
"No, Major," the AI responded, "though sensors have picked up one more humanoid inside. Movement suggests he is not a combatant, perhaps one of the engineers that escaped capture."
"Noted," Shepard said before walking over to one of the dead slavers.
With her foot, she nudged off the broken helmet the slaver was wearing to reveal two pairs of beady, empty eyes staring blankly ahead.
"Batarians," Shepard said with more than a touch of exasperation. "Why am I not bloody surprised."
"Seems rather daring of them," Garrus remarked, "at least for a bunch of slavers. You think this is a Hegemony black op?"
"Maybe," Shepard responded. "We'll see what ONI can dig up once they bag and tag the bodies. For now though, we've still got a torch to divert."
With the hostiles neutralized, the squad could actually take the time to more carefully override the lockdown protocols that activated when a breach was detected. Closing the doors behind them wouldn't do anything for the air that did escape while they were open, but at least this way there would be some atmosphere left in the rest of the facility. There was no telling if the civvie Artemis had detected had a sealed suit and Shepard would prefer the guy not suffocate on her account. As a round slammed into her kinetic barriers upon Shepard's entrance into the main control room, the major was given temptation to reconsider that.
"Weapons hold," she shouted, just in time too as guns snapped up in the direction of the shot.
A single round was not going to bring down Shepard's shields, at least not one shot by the mediocre pistol pointed at her. The major was still not going to take it lying down however. Her arm rose and her hand clenched into a fist. At the same time a blue glow suffused her form and a cry of shock sounded. The pistol went clattering to the ground while the shooter in question found himself levitating in the air. Even with his hardsuit, which at least rendered the asphyxiation worry moot, it was easy enough to see the panic on his face.
"Please!" he called out. "Don't shoot!"
Shepard gave a snort, opening her fist and dropping the man unceremoniously. Wisely, he did not try to recover his gun even as Shepard and the others approached.
"I'm Major Evangeline Shepard, Imperial Cadre. And you would be?"
"Cadre!?" The man scrambled to his feet. "Oh thank god! I thought you were more slavers! Name's Simon, Simon Atwell. I'm the chief engineer on the X57 project, and am I glad to see you all!"
"Glad enough to take a potshot?" Shepard said with a wry smirk.
"Oh uh, sorry. I really didn't think rescue'd get here in time and well, sorry."
Deciding she had grilled the man enough, Shepard gave a shrug. "No harm. But what's say you leave the shooting to us."
"Got no problem with that, Major," Simon said, head bobbing up and down.
"Good. My team is here to retake control of the fusion torches and have them divert X57 from its current trajectory. Are you aware of the current situation?"
"Yeah," Simon said. "The slavers've got the torches pushing X57 towards Terra Nova. That's why I came here, was hoping I could sneak in and override the systems."
"Well we're certainly not going to stop you," Shepard said. "Tali, give Mr. Atwell a hand here."
"Yes ma'am."
Simon's eyes visibly widened beneath his visor. "You've got a quarian on your crew?"
"Yes, I do," Shepard stated. "Is that a problem?"
The man shook his head. "No, no problem here, Major. Fact is, had a couple of quarians working on the project when we were getting bootstrapped. Some of the finest practical engineers I've ever had the pleasure to work with. If your subordinate is anywhere as good as they were, you're lucky to have her."
The response came as a surprise to both Tali and Shepard, seeing as both took a moment to register it.
"Can't say I disagree there," the major eventually mustered a response. "But time's a-wasting, so let's see about saving the colony, and the rest of your team too."
"Roger that, Major," Simon said.
As the engineer started working the controls with Tali, Shepard stepped over to another console for her own needs.
"Artemis, how much of the system have you been able to penetrate?"
"Sufficient access has been achieved that I can confirm the asteroid drop operation is not one orchestrated by mere pirates and slavers, Major," the AI responded.
"Well, yeah, that was kind of a given," Shepard said, cocking her head aside. "So what did you find?"
On the display, the images of two men were shown, one batarian and one turian.
"What I found was the presence of these two leading the operation, Major," Artemis said. "Elanos Haliat and Ka'hairal Balak."
Shepard's eyes narrowed. "Really now."
"Those names mean something, ma'am?" Ashley asked as she joined the major.
"Elanos Haliat is a turian pirate that had something of a leadership position amongst the various Terminus-based groups," Shepard answered, "until about seven years back when his latest brainchild brought the Empire's hammer down on all of them, hard."
"Seven years ago," Ashley murmured, then more loudly. "Are you talking about the Skyllian Blitz, ma'am?"
"Yep," Shepard said. "Haliat was the one that proposed and organized it. He thought Elysium would be easy pickings. Instead his ground raiders ran into my brother and the army divisions transiting through, and his fleet got mauled by Seventh Fleet once they got back in-system. And of course his entire coalition got wrecked when the Empire decided enough was enough and launched punitive strikes into the Terminus Systems."
"I'd never heard of this before," Ashley remarked.
"Probably because the details behind the Blitz are still classified," Shepard said. "But hey, you're going to get a shot at Haliat today, so you might as well know why we want him dead."
"I can see that, ma'am," Ashley said. "And is this Balak also some sort of pirate?"
"Colonel Balak is officially, not a pirate," Shepard responded, surprisingly Ashley. "He is actually an active duty member of the Batarian External Forces, basically the Hegemony's wetworks taskforce. The Empire is pretty certain he was Haliat's liaison with the Hegemony when they bankrolled the Elysium op. We had hoped to get him at Torfan, but the slippery bastard had already bugged out before we hit the moon."
"Well, looks like today's one for second chances, ma'am," Ashley said.
"Haliat," Wrex's voice sounded from behind. "If I remember right, he's got a nice fat bounty on his head."
"Two mil," Shepard recited. "That's the price the Empire put up after we found out he was behind the Blitz." She gave Wrex a smirk. "Nice little bonus there, wouldn't you say?"
The krogan chuckled. "Always nice to get paid for having fun."
"So how's the split work out?" Garrus asked, joining in the conversation as the matter of money arose. "Or is it first come first serve?"
"Yeah, no, I don't want you guys tripping over each other to get the kill," Shepard said with a snort. "Equal split for this one. Still, even six ways, that's a lot of money."
"Yes, yes it is," Liara agreed, apparently also having nothing better, or more pressing, to do than chime in on the topic.
"Still, need to nail the bastard first before we can start counting the credits," Shepard said. "Tali, Simon, how's it looking?"
"We've finished reconfiguring the torch, Major," Tali responded, "and Artemis has fudged the telemetry going to the other sites to make it look like it's still set the way it was before. But that's only going to fool the systems tied into the X57 facilities. If the pirates check the sensors aboard their own ships, they'll notice pretty quickly something is off."
"Then let's deal with the others before anyone thinks to check," Shepard said. "Artemis, do you have a count on how many slavers there are?"
"Forty-six confirmed surviving hostiles based on the internal sensor telemetry I can access, Major," Artemis answered. "The torches themselves are only lightly garrisoned. The majority of the slavers are standing guard over the hostages at the main control complex."
Shepard's lips thinned as she considered the breakdown. That was liable to make rescuing the hostages tricky. For now though she still had two more torches to secure. Perhaps an opportunity might yet arise to thin out the numbers before she needed to hit the complex. That, or she would have to create one herself. After all, initiative and improvision were merely two sides of the same coin. Just so long as you didn't screw up, of course.
"So," Shepard said as the Mako sat parked some distance away from the second fusion torch. "Landmines."
"Technically mining blasting caps," Garrus corrected.
The squad had been forewarned about the caps by Kate, with Simon added a few details of his own before they set out for the second torch. The caps themselves had been installed to help crack open a seam so mining could commence, but unfortunately they just happened to be in between the Mako and their destination.
"Of which if we drive over them, they'll explode and take the Mako with them," Shepard retorted. "So, landmines."
While a pedant might still quibble with that conclusion, the end result was much the same. Before Shepard could continue debating the minutiae of such subtleties, the radio crackled with Pressly's voice.
"Major, this is Normandy, over."
"This is Shepard, what is it XO, over."
"Ma'am, Ms. Bowman just let drop that she's picking up seismic resonances that she says are, and I quote, 'indicative of the fusion torches not entirely firing in sync,'" Pressly reported. "She hasn't come out and said it outright, but it's pretty clear she's guessed that we already have boots on the ground whatever I told her previously. She also pointed out that even if we're somehow able to spoof the telemetry reports going back to the main control center, anyone actually looking at the direct instrumentation readouts at one of the survey posts like she's at would still see the raw readings that'd indicate something was happening, over."
Shepard grimaced, both because she was actually impressed with Kate's acumen and initiative and because of the real concern the other woman had raised. It was unlikely the slavers would be as meticulous when it came to manning the instrumentation as the original engineering team. Then again it would not do to underestimate their opponent and go in thinking they still had the element of surprise when they actually did not.
"Understood, XO, we'll take it under advisement. Shepard clear."
That all said, there was not much she could do in the immediate present beyond pressing forward, with the appropriate degree of caution of course. Popping open the Mako's door, the major hopped out.
"Everybody out," she ordered. "Stay close, my sensor suite only has so much range. Wander too far away and I won't be able to map out a safe path for you."
A notification popped up on the HUD of the other squad members and activating it brought up an augmented reality overlay tied to Shepard's own suit. The sensors built into it combined with Artemis' data crunching capacity allowed Shepard to pick up the blasting caps with relative ease, but only so far out. Fortunately it looked like there was enough space between the caps for them to easily walk through.
"Oh shit."
Unfortunately their little stroll would not entirely be a cakewalk. The squad went prone. Off in the distance, four slavers had emerged from the torch ostensibly on patrol. The shadows that covered the squad's location would hide them from a cursory glance, but they could not rely on remaining hidden for the entirety of their approach.
"Think they suspect something, ma'am?" Ashley asked.
Changing out her sniper rifle, Shepard used the scope to examine the slavers in more detail.
"I don't think so," she said after a few moments. "They don't look especially tense or worried about anything."
Of course with the distances involved and the resolution of the scope Shepard did not exactly have an abundance of evidence to support that assertion. Still, the slavers were moving at an unhurried gaunt, indicating no particular rush or urgency as they went about their business.
"Garrus, think you can take the shot?" Shepard queried.
"Just say the word," the turian said, his own sniper rifle also out.
"Marking targets," Shepard said, "two each, take them in the order indicated."
"Got the bastards in my sight," Garrus affirmed.
So did Shepard, but the major waited a few moments longer so that the slavers would be facing just the right direction to not notice their buddies dropping.
"Fire."
The two shots that zipped through the void and slammed into their respective targets did so silently, punching right through the armor with little effort. Like the slavers they engaged at the first torch, these did not have kinetic barriers equipped on their suits either. Shield systems could be finicky and required proper maintenance, something that those engaged in the less ethical and legal endeavors tended not to be the most diligent about. Only the more organized and powerful bands bothered providing them as standard issue, otherwise such shields were restricted to specialists or officers. The four slavers trudging through the rocky vacuum were obviously neither, which meant sniper rifles designed to one-shot targets equipped with both shields and armor had little trouble with just the latter. Of course an easy kill was not quite the same as an instantaneous kill and as the two targets toppled their companions a few steps ahead paused as if noticing something amiss.
Artemis, make damn sure their comms are jammed, Shepard bursted a quick directive to the AI.
Comms are indeed jammed, Major, the AI confirmed.
A beep sounded inside Shepard's helmet, indicating her rifle was finished cycling. She took the shot without hesitating, Garrus pulling his trigger only a moment after. The two remaining slavers were just turning around to check on their fellows when they too mate a similar fate. The head of Shepard's target popped like a smashed watermelon, flicks of red spraying away from the point of impact. Garrus had settled for a less fancy shot, targeting the center of mass instead of the head. His own shot was no less lethal however and two more bodies toppled over. The entire engagement had taken at most five seconds, a testament to the lethal efficiency of the two snipers.
"Nice shots," Ashley said admiringly.
"Let's hope they didn't have any deadman's switches rigged up," Shepard said, switching back to her assault rifle and rising. "C'mon."
The squad hustled, making their way quickly but carefully through the rest of the caps. Fortunately nobody else showed up to investigate the missing patrol so they were able to proceed unmolested. Once they reached the bay doors, Tali quickly set the charges once more.
"What've we got, Artemis?" the major queried.
"Six humanoid contacts detected, ma'am, along with a number of combat drones," the AI answered. "All hostile."
"Okay, those drones could make things a bit tricky," Shepard remarked as she looked at the count. "Tali, you think you'd be able to jam them?"
"Once we're inside, no sweat ma'am," the quarian replied. "Also, charges set."
"Okay, mostly the same drill as before," Shepard ordered. "Wrex, point. You and I'll draw their fire. Tali, get in as quick as you can. Priority is the enemy drones. Clear?"
"Clear ma'am," Tali nodded.
Shepard responded with one of her own, then pressed against the wall.
"Breaching in three, two, one!"
Again the slight reverberation was felt from the wall as a hole was blown, but it was scant warning for what came next. Wrex and Shepard were through in an instant, guns blazing for effect. At least one slaver was not paying enough attention and tumbled back as a few rounds actually hit him. From his jerking motion he was far from dead, for now at least.
During the commotion, Tali dove in and quickly rolled behind cover. The others followed, making sure to not to draw near where the quarian was hiding. As it was, the slavers' attention was fully focused on them. Technically what they wanted, but there were some downsides to this attention as well.
"Incoming!"
A blue wave surged forth from Liara as she erected a barrier, just in time too as a pair of rockets zipped towards the squad. They slammed into the field, the explosions shrinking the bubble rather forcefully, but at least no one was caught in the blast. Popping back up, Shepard unloaded into one of the drones, chewing through its shields and punching sparking holes in its frame. One down, and unfortunately almost a half dozen more to go.
"Tali!"
"Almost there Major!"
Almost was not quite good enough, but it was not as if their situation was that dire, yet. To her side, Garrus popped a grenade and hurled it across the chamber, causing some of the slavers to dive out of the way. Ashley rose to take potshots at them, when her rifle suddenly clicked. The sergeant spent a single second being surprised before ducking back down.
"Gun's somehow overheated!" she called out.
While Shepard had hardly been counting every shot her squad fired, the major had been following the flow of battle closely enough to know Ashley's rifle should not have suffered thermal lockdown already. Of course, there was a pretty simple explanation for that discrepancy.
"Priority target," Shepard said, tagging one of the slavers wearing somewhat fancier armor and gear. "Take out the engineer."
Of course seeing as the engineer was being covered by the combat drones, that was easier said than done.
"Got it!" Tali's voice sounded.
Or maybe not. Peering out, Shepard saw the five surviving drones all collapse with a thud. It was the enemy engineer's turn to look about bewildered, just long enough a distraction for a hole to be blown in his helmet. Dropping his expended sniper rifle, Garrus switched back to his rifle and joined in hosing down the other enemies. Shepard gave a snort. The range was ridiculously short to resort to the weapon in the first place, but the turian had probably done so to try and bait the engineer. Losing the sniper rifle to thermal overlock would have barely been an inconvenience.
"Liara!" Shepard called out. "Get them out into the open!"
Rearing back, Liara let the biotic energy well up before igniting a small singularity above the slavers' positions. Her targets were soon frantically trying to grab hold of something, anything, to stop from being pulled out from cover. The sound of armored bodies slamming into each other marked the futility of that effort, while the boom that echoed after ended all worries for them. Standing up, residual sparks dying out on her omnitool, Shepard surveyed her handiwork. The detonation of the biotic field had instantly killed all of the slavers caught in the singularity's grip, while the one lucky survivor was desperately trying to crawl away. Walking over, Shepard fired a single round and put an end to the man's struggles.
"Let's go take care of the torch," the major said, not even bothering to spare a further glance at the corpse that lay at her feet.
"So we going with the no prisoners approach, Major?" Garrus queried as he fell in step with Shepard.
"The imperial military code stipulates that only lawful combatants are accorded the privilege of being taken prisoners of war," Shepard responded. "Pirates, slavers, terrorists, and unregistered intelligence operatives do not constitute lawful combatants, and the disposition of incapacitated individuals is at the discretion of the ranking officer on site. Course about all that means is it's within my rights to shoot the guys then and there, as per the penalty proscribed for such criminality. Anything overly creative would probably violate the general provisions against inhumane treatment of sentient life."
"I heard about that," Garrus remarked. "The whole death as a sentence for piracy and slavery, that is. Can't say I disagree with any of it, but the Empire always seemed so, zealous in pursuing those crimes."
Shepard actually tilted her head in thought for a moment there as she contemplated how to answer the turian's unspoken question.
"Part of it," she finally began, "is probably due to how much practice we humans have had visiting such evils upon our own species. If you look back at terran history, the stretches of time when we stole from, enslaved, or otherwise brutalized our fellow humans far outnumber the periods wherein we treated others with dignity and respect. Some might say our current fixation in hunting down slavers and pirates is a sort of atonement for our own past sins. Me? I think it's because we recognize just how easy it is to slip back into old practices out of convenience or laziness, that we have to be vigilant in guarding against such depravity, not just in others but also in ourselves."
"That's, certainly an interesting way to look at it," Garrus said with equal contemplation. "It's even a noble way of thinking, in a fashion."
Shepard chuckled. "Don't know about noble. It's just a way of recognizing the world for what it is, and that it won't get better just because we wish it to be so. We have to roll up our sleeves and dig in ourselves for that to happen."
"Couldn't agree with you more there, Shepard," Garrus said. "You know, it's strange. When I first stepped aboard the Normandy, I was kind of in a funk. I was so exasperated with everything at C-SEC, it felt like everything was just getting in the way of me doing my job. Nearly lost sight of why I wanted to do the job in the first place."
The major turned about and faced Garrus directly.
"And why do you want to do your job, Garrus?"
"To help people, to stop criminals from hurting people," the turian declared firmly, "and to make the galaxy a better place than it is."
Shepard favored Garrus with a smile, a gentle one devoid of the usual snark or humor that usually tinged her lips. It was a smile of respect and understanding, even of pride. She reached out, pounding a fist softly over Garrus' heart.
"Don't lose sight of that, Garrus. And don't ever forget, the world can become better. We never have to settle for just keeping things from getting worse."
"Roger that, Shepard."
Exactly how long the two continued looking at one another Shepard would need to review her suit's recorders to check. It was obviously long enough for some of the other squad members to take note.
"Ahem."
Looking over, the two were met by a rather exasperated, and amused, gaze directed by none other than Wrex.
"If you two lovebirds are done yapping, we still got slavers that need capping."
Garrus' jaw actually dropped while Shepard just snorted.
"Get your mind out of the gutter, you dirty old man," Shepard said with all the exasperation she could muster, topping it all off with a roll of her eyes.
The low chuckle that Wrex let out did nothing to counter Shepard's accusation. Arguably it only reinforced it. Then again the krogan's hide was probably thick enough to withstand a little needling. Garrus' slack jaw suggested the turian was not similarly so robust, not that the major seemed to notice as she walked over to the controls where Tali was already working. Having already done it once, the quarian took little time performing the override to start nudging X57 off its collision course with Terra Nova.
"Major, I am picking up significant comms traffic between the surviving slaver units," Artemis suddenly announced. "It appears they have indeed noticed something is awry, even with the spoofed reports I have been feeding them."
"Damn it," Shepard muttered. "I presume they intend to do something about it?"
"Balak has ordered a sweep to be done of the survey outposts," Artemis answered, "including the one Ms. Bowman and her brother are hiding at."
"Location?"
A map of the asteroid appeared on her HUD, with markers indicating the relative positions of the points of interest. Shepard's jaw tightened.
"Tell them to get the hell out of there and to try to lay low," Shepard said. "In fact, tell Simon to do that too. We can't get to them quickly enough to pull them out."
"Acknowledged, Major," Artemis said, then continued. "In addition to the sweeps, Haliat is taking a contingent of forces to manually check on each of the torches. He intends to start with torch Charlie."
"Works for me," Shepard said. "Two birds with one stone I we take him out then and there."
For some reason the major seemed utterly unconcerned with the notion of heavier or more numerous opposition at Charlie once they arrived. Then again if Haliat brought along a large enough entourage, that would make the final effort to free the hostages easier. And the Mako was of course a very effective equalizer, especially if they could catch the slavers outside of the torch control outpost.
End of Chapter 37
Some more arc-welding of things brought up in ME1 but which weren't quite as coherent as they really could have been. Still, I think the current setup makes sense. And is a nice Easter egg for those that delved more deeply into the first game's lore.
This has arguably been one of my shortest chapters, mainly because I really did not feel like padding out the two torches more, but I have enough events left over that I wouldn't have been able to fit everything into just one chapter. I also wanted to show a few more of the tactical approaches Shepard takes when dealing with enemies, so I didn't want to cut one of the torches either.
The other thing of relevance in this chapter is more of that character building thing for Garrus, how Shepard's conduct and mentality has been rubbing off of him. While Garrus was not quite a cynic when he joined the squad, he was still extremely frustrated and whatnot with the way things were going back at C-SEC. Since then, the lessons he's taken from Shepard has tempered some of that frustration and anger and channel it into greater focus. In the long run, that focus will make Garrus even more dangerous in the future, and serve him well as a Council Spectre.
I am not going to try to cover all three games in a single story, I believe I mentioned in one of the earlier chapters that the three will be three separate stories.