Mass Effect: Event Horizon
A Mass Effect Fanfiction
By Drussius
Chapter Fifty-Two: Grief
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Second Level, Prothean Ruins…
Zaeed's fingers rubbed back and forth across his knuckles absently as he stared at the man before him in frustration. The Cerberus commander's face was a bloody mask of bruises, his eyes were gone, and for the last hour, the mercenary had been trying to beat information out of him with little success. At this point, he had to admit that the continued punishment was more to salve his frustration than to get answers. Even though there was kinetic padding covering his hands, his knuckles were still becoming tender from the multitude of blows he had delivered.
"I can't give you what you want…" Pavv mumbled, the words barely intelligible because of the swelling in his lips. "I don't know…"
Zaeed clenched his jaw and resisted the urge to hit the man again. "So Cerberus is organized into cells, and no single cell is aware of what the others are doing…" he repeated what the man had told him fifty minutes earlier, after the interrogation was barely started.
It had sounded like a convenient excuse to make him stop the torture at the time, but now he had to adjust to the idea. It had just sounded so far-fetched that a man in charge of a Cerberus team as large as the one they'd encountered would have no idea where their leader was stationed. It was difficult to believe that he had never been invited to Cerberus headquarters to speak to his superiors in person, or that no one in the organization ever spoke of other projects. He picked up the man's omni-tool from the table where he'd placed it when he took it from him. He hoped that one of the asari or an Alliance engineer might be able to break any encryption on it so he could sift through the information for a new clue.
"And you have no buddies in other cells? No one ever talked about any other Cerberus operations? No assets or remote bases you once visited?"
Pavv shook his head listlessly. Zaeed scowled, trying to adjust to the reality that he'd had his final chance to get the information he sought, and it had been a failure. He was convinced that Pavv knew nothing of relevance. No one could have taken the amount of punishment the man endured and hold back what they knew. Any sane person would have confessed long ago, just to get the pain to stop. He sighed.
"Your transmissions mentioned a shuttle and a ship," Zaeed growled. "Where is the shuttle? Where is the ship? How many people are left aboard?"
"I…" Pavv hesitated.
Zaeed immediately punched the man in the ribs, drawing a strangled grunt out of his prisoner. Bound to the chair as he was, Pavv could offer no resistance and couldn't roll with the punches. "Stop," the man wheezed the word, struggling to draw breath. "The shuttle is waiting at an abandoned farm east of here. The nav-point is on my omni," he mumbled.
"How many men are with it?"
"Two," Pavv answered. "The pilot and one escort."
"And the ship?"
"Orbiting Borr, waiting for a signal to set up a rendezvous…"
Zaeed knew the name. It was the gas giant neighboring Terra Nova. "Remaining complement?" Zaeed prompted.
"I don't know exactly," the man said slowly, and then quickly added, "A token security force and a crew of maybe twenty?"
"Twenty?" Zaeed repeated. "Plus all the ground forces and equipment we've seen here? You're not talking about a small transport vessel. You're talking about an actual frigate or cruiser."
"It's a frigate," the man nodded.
Zaeed was about to ask more about the ship when a violent tremor ran through the floor beneath his feet. The feeling was accompanied by a distant rumble, and the room immediately went dark. The mercenary fumbled for his helmet, and even as he was slipping it on, he growled the next question.
"What was that?" he demanded. "Your people set up some kind of booby trap?"
"No," Pavv quickly shook his head. "We set up turrets. Ambush teams. Nothing that would have shaken the complex like that."
Zaeed glared at his prisoner, studying his bruised and bloody face now that he had his helmet's night vision to assist him. If Cerberus hadn't planted explosives in the complex, that left one possibility. And he was far less enthusiastic about the portent of the rumbling if it was Salik's handiwork.
"All personnel, this is Zaeed," he announced once he had a channel open to allied forces. "What just happened? We need all teams to report in."
"We've got a complete loss of power down here," the quarian's voice was the first to answer. "It sounded like there was an explosion somewhere in the complex. Selura and I are okay down here. The civilians are scared, but no one is hurt."
"This is Mills," another voice joined the channel. "I'm on the top level with Private Olimar. We're both okay. We've got a total power loss up here as well, but we didn't hear any explosion. Must have been in the lower levels somewhere."
"This is Corporal Rivera," another voice reported. "I'm stuck in a room on level two. The power is down, and the door won't open. I felt and heard the rumble of the blast from here, but I don't think it was on this level."
"Rebecca Tillman here," the doctor's voice was the next to join in. "I'm in the same situation as Corporal Rivera. I'm in a room just down the hall from the archive with the asari captain and Private Ackerman. We're all safe, but power is down and the door won't open."
Zaeed waited for Prathus to report in, but following the doctor's report, only silence issued forth from the earpiece in the mercenary's helmet. He was about to ask specifically for an update from the turian, but the quarian beat him to it.
"Prathus?" Neela's voice was filled with concern. "Prathus, answer me!"
"Who saw him last?" Zaeed demanded.
"He was down here about two hours ago," Selura answered. "He dropped off a bunch of gear and said he was taking some men to search the complex for Salik."
"Anyone seen him since?"
"He and two men came into the infirmary around that time. He wanted to check on his captain," Rebecca reported.
"Mills, you and your buddy get down here to level two," Zaeed ordered. "The three of us are gonna find the source of that goddamn explosion. The turian might need help."
"Roger that," the marine answered.
"I hope the alien scum is dead," Pavv's hoarse voice drew Zaeed's attention once more, and the man half-chuckled, half-coughed, apparently amused by the prospect.
Zaeed wasn't particularly angered by the man's bigotry. He expected that sort of idiocy from someone high-up in the Cerberus organization. However, he was done asking questions of his prisoner, and that made the man's presence a liability. So he picked up his rifle and fired a shot into the man's forehead. Then he turned and headed for the door.
That was when he encountered the flaw in his situation. Two other people had mentioned being trapped, and he hadn't thought anything of it. But with the power down, none of the doors were going to open. And the heavy, stone doors throughout the Prothean structure were bound to be extremely difficult to breach. Omni-tools weren't designed for cutting through stone.
"Mills, come in," he opened a channel to the marine.
"I was just about to report in," the marine answered. "We're trapped on the top level. Without power, the door leading into the corridor won't open."
"Damn it," Zaeed growled. "Cerberus had a mining laser in a store room on the second level. There's a room on the first level with a hole leading down into the area. And that door, if I remember right, is stuck halfway up. If anyone has a clear path, we're gonna need that equipment to breach these doors."
"The archive room door is not like the others," Selura responded. "It toggles between open and closed instead of closing automatically. And I do not recall there being any doors on the stairwell. I should be able to reach the equipment eventually. But… I do not have night vision, and it is pitch black in here. Even if I find my way, I do not think I could carry it alone… maybe some of the civilian women could help, but I do not think they will leave the children… and Neela's conveyance is disabled."
Zaeed swore, pacing around in the small room in which he was now trapped. They'd been so busy fighting Cerberus that when he heard Salik was injured, he had just assumed the salarian would flee the structure and withdraw to a safe place to deal with his wounds. He was certain that the salarian had done just that, but of course he or his companion would have taken a few extra minutes to set up some kind of trap. It was just the sort of devious thing Salik had done at every point on his mission. Whether he was shooting the help when they were finished, leaving AI to guard his ship and destroy it if necessary, or wiring a bunch of Thanix missiles to overload, he had always been a step ahead.
"Let me see what I can do," the asari's voice interrupted his angry musings. "But I need you men on the upper level to climb down to the archive to guard everyone. I will not leave Neela here unprotected if there is any chance that Salik may still be in the complex."
Zaeed allowed himself a smile. The asari had the right idea, just the wrong way to go about it. "Can you men get to the archive chamber by climbing down?"
"We're isolated from both of the rooms with holes in the walls, but we each have a couple of proximity mines left. We should be able to blast our way through the wall in this room," Mills answered.
"Do it," Zaeed nodded. "But let the asari stay with her friend. You have night vision. Once you two are down there, you have a clear path to the Cerberus mining laser. The two of you can use it to get us all out of our respective prisons."
"We're on it," Mills announced.
Zaeed sighed and sat down against the wall, glancing at the body of his prisoner, which had fallen over backward in the chair when he executed the man. He couldn't recall any operation he'd been a part of that had gone so consistently wrong since Shepard had screwed him out of his revenge upon Vido. He was a professional, and that required patience, but his patience was wearing thin. He wanted to find that Cerberus shuttle, put a willing team together, and get his hands on that ship. It was about time he got the hell off of Terra Nova. There were no more ways to hurt Cerberus on the planet. He needed to get back to his revenge upon the Illusive Man. If Prathus was dead, and Zaeed was fairly certain that he was, his vow to help find Salik had died with him.
Zaeed frowned at the thought. He'd had many teammates through the years. Soldiers, mercenaries, assassins, spies… He'd worked with just about everyone. However, few of them had been quite as comfortable to work with as the turian had become. He couldn't exactly say they were friends… he barely knew anything about Prathus. But a part of him wanted to see Salik pay for the turian's death.
Maybe it's worth staying just a little longer… he thought. But once that bastard is dead, I'm gone.
Calitori Crater…
Illitha had almost been to cover when she saw one of the cannibals launch a grenade into the mouth of the cavern. She had immediately put all of her energy into her barrier, placing herself between the explosive and the men and women hiding behind the rocks nearby, hoping to shield them from the shrapnel. The explosion had shattered her barrier and knocked her flat, and by the time she got to her knees, she was being pelted with direct fire from the Reapers. Only her tech armor and the Alliance protective gear kept her from being killed; several of the bullets had managed to penetrate both. She tried to bring her barrier back up, but her strength was failing and she couldn't maintain it. The last thing she remembered was hearing someone shrieking incoherently over the sounds of weapons fire.
When awareness returned, she could feel something cool and damp being pressed against her forehead, and she could hear hushed voices in conversation nearby. There were no sounds of gunfire, shouts or explosions, and so she assumed the fighting was over. There was a dull, throbbing pain radiating throughout her left side, so she resisted the urge to move; she had no idea how badly she'd been injured. She opened her eyes, blinking in an attempt to adjust them to the gloom of the cavern. There was a dark-haired human woman kneeling beside her, gently pressing a damp cloth against her brow. When the woman noticed that her eyes were open, she smiled.
"Hey, she's awake!" the woman called, and then returned her attention to Illitha. "Lie still. You've been shot a couple of times."
Rachel appeared in her field of vision, kneeling beside her and gazing at her anxiously. The blonde's face was tear-streaked… the trails were clearly visible as clean marks upon her otherwise grit-covered skin. Illitha smiled up at her, giving a small nod in hopes of reassuring her.
"I-Is everyone else alright?" she asked, looking around at the growing number of people standing around her. Rachel laughed at the question, and Illitha looked up at her in confusion.
"You…" Rachel shook her head. "You put yourself in the blast radius of a grenade, get shot, collapse and scare the hell out of me, and the first question you ask is 'is everyone else alright'?" the blonde smiled, shifting her gaze to the men standing nearby. "I told you she was one of a kind."
"Your team is fine," a man she didn't recognize answered her. She studied him curiously. He was clean-cut and clean-shaven, and his face had the angular, sharp, handsome features that most humans seemed to find extremely attractive. "And thanks to you, what's left of our group is still alive too. Thank you, Spectre. If you hadn't arrived when you did…" he trailed off.
"She pushed us through a two-and-a-half kilometer run to get here as fast as possible," Jay spoke up. "She was insistent on getting here to save you all."
"I think introductions are in order," the dark-haired woman smiled down at her. "Your friends have already introduced themselves and told us who you are. I'm Kaylee Willis, and this is my boyfriend, Shawn Reilly," she gestured to the handsome man that had thanked her. "The man over there is Jerry Dannis," she pointed to a tall and thin blonde-haired man, who smiled and nodded.
"This is Detective Vance Kilpatrick," Rachel took over, gesturing to a red-haired man in a uniform Illitha didn't recognize. It reminded her somewhat of the C-Sec uniforms on the citadel.
"Colony security?" she guessed.
"Yes ma'am. Black Sand City Security," Vance nodded. "We evacuated a group of civilians to this position when our town was overrun by Reapers a few days ago. We thought we'd lost them, but they managed to find us here. We lost a lot of people here, but these are my remaining men, Darnell Jackson, Ed Grendel, Mick Vanderhoff, Alex Dimattio, Lee Chen, and Zack Olean."
Illitha struggled to remember all the names and faces. It was a larger group than she'd expected, and she had been horrified by the number of bodies lying outside when she first got a look at the scene, which suggested their group had once been much greater.
"How bad are my injuries?" Illitha finally asked, raising her head in an attempt to get a look. "My side is aching. I-I cannot really tell exactly where I am hurt."
"You've got two bullet wounds in your side," Rachel told her. "One just above the hip bone and one just below your ribcage. We need to get you back to the doctor so she can look at you. These people were kind enough to apply some medigel to stop the bleeding, but the lower wound looks bad," the blonde admitted, and the worry returned to her expression.
"We'd like to come with you," Detective Kilpatrick was quick to suggest. "We stand a better chance with a Spectre than we would staying out here on our own. And we can be useful. We're not military, but most of us are colony security. We're trained with firearms and have experience under pressure. Mick here is a demolitions tech," he added, pointing to a short, stocky man with an extremely wide and prominent jaw that was graced with a sparse beard.
"My boyfriend and I aren't military or security," Kaylee added, "but I am a geologist, and Shawn is an avid rock climber and outdoorsman. We can help with support, exploration… whatever you need. We'll pull our weight."
"O-Of course," Illitha nodded, still struggling to adjust to the situation. "I-I never intended to save you all and then just… leave you here."
Illitha sighed inwardly. It was disconcerting to have so many people deferring to her judgment, even after they'd lied to so many people by saying she was a Spectre already. Part of her wanted desperately to turn command of the group over to the captain when she recovered. But now that everyone thought she was a Spectre, she didn't see how she could do it without exposing the lie and risking the loss of all the support. With all of these people and her crew added to the Alliance forces, she was now essentially in command of a group numbering almost thirty people.
Pings went off all around Illitha, and she noted that all of the Alliance soldiers were now activating their omni-tools. Apparently the transmission they were receiving was not being broadcast to anyone else in the group.
"I got it," Rachel announced, and activated the channel over the audio emulator on her omni so that everyone could hear it.
"All Alliance forces this net, this is a priority one alert," the transmission began. "This is Captain Yoshinobu Shirakawa. All forces are hereby ordered to travel with all possible speed to the attached nav-point. Dotterstown is under heavy assault by Reaper forces. We have a high-priority objective and need all available forces to assist. I say again, this is a priority one alert. This objective must be taken or we may very well lose this planet... All available forces rally to the indicated position. We are holding out as long as possible before beginning our offensive, but everyone needs to drop what they're doing and head here now. We commence our operation in seven days…"
"Fuck me," one of the security officers muttered under his breath.
"Dotterstown?" Illitha looked around at the assembled group in confusion.
"It's the second-largest city on Terra Nova," Rachel explained. "There was a small Alliance base there, but it's mostly industrial centers, embassies, and homes."
"Wh-What did he mean by 'priority one alert'?" she asked. "Is it as self-explanatory as it sounds?"
"Pretty much," Private Tandis nodded. "Top priority. Nothing else is more important."
"How far is Dotterstown from here?" Illitha asked, and started to sit up. However, when she moved, Rachel and Kaylee both put their hands on her shoulders to hold her down.
"Spectre, you can't get up," Kaylee admonished her. "You may not be feeling it because of the medigel and the painkillers, but one of these bullets may have hit vital organs. The medigel sealed the wounds, but you need surgical attention."
"We'll assemble a stretcher out of some of the supplies," Detective Kilpatrick offered, and he and several of his men walked away.
"We'll carry you back to the doctor," Rachel assured her. "We have a week to get to the nav-point coordinates. That gives us plenty of time to get you patched up and back in the fight. If your captain will be back up by then with the severity of her wounds, you should be okay in a couple of days at most."
"Her captain?" Kaylee repeated. "I didn't think Spectres had any superiors other than the council…"
"They don't," the girl's boyfriend, Shawn, quickly spoke up.
"I didn't mean it literally," Rachel was quick to cover herself. "There's an asari ship captain here. She was in command of the vessel that brought the Spectre to the planet."
Illitha watched the two humans, and saw both of them nod, the hints of suspicion fading from their expressions. She sighed. Apparently the humans were buying the lie, and for some reason that filled the engineer with regret. She was afraid of losing the support of all the Alliance soldiers and civilians if they found out the truth, but a large part of her wanted to pass all the responsibility off to someone else.
"Wait," a thought suddenly occurred to her. "Y-You said you treated me with medigel and painkillers. You have medical supplies?"
"Yeah, tons of them," the brunette nodded. "When we evacuated the city, we brought everything we could carry from the university med center. We had a doctor too, but he… he was…" she glanced out through the cavern entrance.
The woman didn't have to say anything else. Illitha immediately understood. She closed her eyes and sighed. All of the fighting and death was really starting to wear upon her. She had no idea how career soldiers ever dealt with it. She definitely wasn't cut out for military life.
A ping sounded from her omni-tool, and she regarded the device warily as she activated it.
What else could possibly go wrong today, she wondered.
"Illitha, are you there?" Selura's voice greeted her. The scientist's tone was subdued.
"I-I read you," Illitha answered. She was already getting the sinking feeling that this was going to be bad news. "What is it?"
"I… I do not know how to say this except to just… say it," Selura warned her. "Prathus is dead. There was an… an explosion… A trap of some kind…"
Illitha felt tears flood her eyes, and she was sobbing before she could contain her grief. Every sob sent a little jolt of pain through her, but she couldn't stop herself. Rachel grabbed the omni-tool from her hand and deactivated it, and then leaned over the asari, putting her hands on her shoulders in an attempt to hold her still. Illitha reached out and grabbed the blonde, clinging to her desperately.
The young asari suddenly felt like she was drowning. She'd been devastated when she thought she was going to lose the captain, and then the human doctor had miraculously saved her. But now her very worst fear had come to pass. She'd lost someone she cared about. Her mind struggled to adjust. It was just so… heartbreaking… to think that she would never hear Prathus's voice again. One of her closest friends… he had practically been family. Her thoughts went immediately to Aida and Neela, and she knew that this would hit them just as hard.
She still had no idea where her best friend was, and wondered now if she'd lost Aida too. Her misery quickly overwhelmed her at that point. All her attempts to radio her friend on the trip south had been met with silence, and she got the sinking feeling that she would never see her again.
She never even noticed that the other humans slowly drifted away, leaving her alone with her grief. Only Rachel remained with her. The blonde was her anchor… someone she could cling to so that her grief wouldn't drown her. She held onto the girl with an intensity that was probably very uncomfortable for her, sobbing bitterly all the while.
Archive Chamber, Mivian Heights…
Selura sat quietly atop the isolation pod that was Neela's home, working under the lights of a portable lighting unit, using her omni-tool to carefully melt two separate pieces of kinetic padding together at their edges. As she worked, her gaze frequently shifted to the face of her girlfriend, asleep in the pod beneath her. Neela had cried for an hour after Zaeed and the other humans had finally located the source of the explosion and discovered the crushed remains of the turian. The entire day had been horrible for Neela, and by extension, it had been horrible for the asari as well. Separated from the girl she loved by the glass of the isolation pod, she was unable to hold her hand, pull her close, or otherwise comfort her in any way except verbally, and nothing she said would ever make any difference, she knew. Neela had eventually cried herself to sleep. She was only glad she'd been able to pass one of the dextro-based meals Prathus had dropped off with his supplies to the quarian through the pass-through area of the pod and get her to eat something before news of the turian's death came in.
The young scientist hadn't known Prathus well. During her time aboard the ship, he had been less than cordial to her for the most part, and she had avoided the turian as much as possible. However, she knew how Neela felt about the crew of the Sileya. Like the crew aboard her birth ship, she considered her crewmates to be family, and she was devastated by the loss of one of them. Prathus's death had raised questions for the quarian about Aida's fate, and Neela had spent some time tearfully trying to contact Aida's omni-tool. However, the asari never answered. Despite Selura's insistence that the asari could still be alive, Neela had been mourning them both as lost ever since. It tore the scientist apart to see her girlfriend so miserable.
Selura was hard at work on Neela's suit. After the events of the past few days, being isolated from Neela and unable to help her, she was determined to get her work done so that Neela could be free of the pod. She had to pause in her work frequently and scan it with her omni-tool, using the measuring program installed in the omni to compare her work to Neela's body measurements and scans of the quarian's old suit so that she was sure the garment would fit. But she was determined to work hard at it until the suit was complete.
The sound of someone's footsteps drew her attention. Since the civilians were mostly sleeping on the walkway around the moat, she looked up to see who was entering, and saw the blonde marine that had been with Illitha stride into the room, looking weary and morose. She was glad to see that the blonde was there, since it meant Illitha and her team had returned from their rescue operation. Selura set her work aside and carefully slipped off of Neela's isolation pod. She walked over to meet the blonde where she'd seated herself on a crate.
"You look as miserable as I feel," she commented as she approached.
"Yeah, well…" the blonde sighed, looking past Selura to where Neela was asleep in the pod, "I'm sure you understand how much it takes out of you to see someone you care about grieving over the death of a loved one."
Selura nodded, glancing back at her girlfriend. She slowly sat down beside the blonde, curious to know more about the situation. As an outsider with no military experience, she'd been kept out of the loop regarding all the military information. Zaeed didn't care enough to share, and none of the Alliance members bothered. She knew they'd all received a transmission of some kind, but she didn't know what it was about.
"What the hell happened?" the blonde suddenly asked. "I spent a couple of days traveling with Prathus. He was smart. Careful. Professional. How did he get killed?"
"I do not know," Selura sighed. "There was some sort of explosion near the reactor. The ceiling caved in on him and the other men in his search team. Zaeed did not seem to think he suffered. We assume it was Salik's handiwork."
"God damn it," the blonde swore. "That bastard just keeps taking and taking from us. I can't wait to shoot him in the face like I did his friend."
"His friend?" Selura repeated.
"Yeah," the blonde nodded. "He had two other salarians on his team. All indoctrinated. Illitha beat one up north. She pinned him down and caught him in a biotic black hole. I shot him so she wouldn't have to."
Selura's eyes widened at this revelation. So that was who had taken the shot that wounded the captain… She hadn't been aware that there was more than one of them. Knowing that there were two indoctrinated salarian agents on the planet didn't help her to feel any better.
"I'm Rachel, by the way," the blonde introduced herself. "We were never formally introduced."
"Selura Leneur," Selura bobbed her head in greeting.
"Nice to make your acquaintance," the blonde muttered. Her lack of enthusiasm was understandable, given the tone of the day.
"Could you tell me… what is going on with the Alliance? I saw that some of the soldiers got a transmission, but I couldn't hear it. They seemed disturbed."
"There's a big offensive taking place up north, in a city called Dotterstown," Rachel explained. "Alliance command has called for all allied forces to assist. They're starting their offensive in a week… so that there's time to gather enough manpower, I assume."
"How far is Dotterstown from here?" Selura asked.
"Illitha asked that same question, but never got her answer. We were interrupted by your call," the blonde sighed. "It would take us well over a week to walk there. But Illitha put our engineer on the task of repairing the shuttle outside. If he can fix it within the week, we could fly there in a matter of hours."
"Where is Illitha?" Selura asked. "I expected her to come and check on Neela."
"She was wounded during the rescue," Rachel frowned. "She'll be fine, but one of the bullets hit… I guess it would be the asari equivalent of the kidney? The doctor is patching her up as we speak."
Selura frowned at the news, but at least Illitha would be okay. She hated this war and everything about it. Terra Nova was a place she never wanted to see again once they finally managed to escape from the planet.
"I understand you guys had some problems here, too," Rachel commented. "Other than… you know…" she trailed off.
"Yes," Selura said softly. "The explosion tore through the power conduits that ran through the ceiling to supply power to the rest of the complex. A few of the Alliance marines had to use a mining laser to cut holes in doors all over the ruin to free people and access important areas…"
"I saw the huge hole cut in the door of the infirmary," Rachel nodded.
"We are using the Cerberus generators and portable lighting units to provide light, but without power, this place can only be a temporary shelter for these people," Selura looked around at the civilians. "They will have to find another place or at least move to the prefabs outside eventually."
"Yeah," Rachel shrugged. "It's probably better that they don't stay in one place for too long anyway. This complex didn't save the Protheans. We can't rely on it to save us either."
"So we are truly planning to join the fight in Dotterstown? With just the handful of soldiers here?" Selura was unconvinced that they had any business being part of a major offensive. She was not even trained for combat. Her biotics were practically non-existent, and Neela's ankle was broken.
"Our superiors stressed that the objective was of major importance. They said if this op failed, it could mean the loss of the war."
"What on Terra Nova could possibly be that important?" Selura wondered aloud.
"I have no idea," Rachel shrugged. "We were discussing it throughout the walk back. No one can think of anything that vital in Dotterstown. There are a bunch of factories and production facilities there, the embassy, and a ton of homes…"
"Wait," Selura raised her head. "The embassy?"
"Yeah…" Rachel stared at her uncertainly. "What are you thinking?"
"One of the project members at my company was working on the creation of a routing system for quantum entanglement communicators before I left for this trip," Selura explained. "The rumor was that your people had installed quantum entanglement communicators in all of their colony embassies that connected to Alliance command and to your embassy on the Citadel… My people wanted to eclipse that technology by expanding upon it."
"They're going for the embassy," Rachel's expression reflected the sudden realization. "The QEC would allow them to get a distress call off world even with the FTL comm buoys down. They could call in reinforcements!"
Selura nodded, feeling a tiny sliver of hope for the first time in days. "There do not seem to be many Reapers here. If the Alliance sent enough ships, they might be able to seize control in orbit and bombard the Reapers down here. They could retake the planet."
Rachel practically bounded from her seat, striding toward the door. The asari stared after her in confusion. The shuttle would take days to repair, if they could manage it at all, so it wasn't as though they could leave…"
"Where are you going?" she called after the human girl.
"I have to gather the others and let them know our theory," Rachel told her. "And we need to make sure that shuttle gets fixed," she added.
"How do you intend to do that?"
"I'll let you know when we figure it out," Rachel assured her as she disappeared through the doorway.
Selura sighed and nodded. She hated being out of the loop, but the Alliance soldiers knew Terra Nova, and she did not. If there was a place nearby where they might find replacement parts, she would be useless in discussing it. She rose from her seat and walked back over to Neela's pod, staring at the tear-stained face of the quarian through the glass. Satisfied that for the moment, her girlfriend was sleeping peacefully, she carefully climbed back up to her spot on top of the pod and resumed her work. She was hopeful that within a day… maybe two… she might have the suit complete enough for the quarian to try on. Then she would only need to figure out how to modify a helmet to complete the outfit.
"And some armor plating," she murmured aloud. If they were going to be heading into battle, she would have to modify some armoring from the human suits she had dismantled to create Neela's new gear. Installing a shield generator wouldn't be hard, but melting down and reforming the ceramic plating would take time.
Prothean Ruins, Infirmary…
Illitha stared dully at the ceiling overhead. There was a terrible ache in her side where the human doctor had repaired the damage done by the Reaper bullet, which had passed directly through one of her internal organs, but she didn't even notice the physical pain. Because the agonizing ache in her heart was overpowering everything else. The reality of the situation was starting to sink in. Prathus was gone, and it seemed like the turian's death had taken some of the light and cheer out of the world with it.
It wasn't that the turian had been a particularly cheerful individual. He had been family. Illitha held more respect for the turian than she ever had for her own father. Prathus had always seemed to try to avoid getting close to any of them, but Illitha had seen through that façade. The turian had always supported his crewmates when they needed it. He had protected them, trusted them, and – at least in Illitha's case – helped her to trust herself.
"It seems to me that a lot of diplomatic vessels, survey missions and civilian transports missed out on a damn fine engineer." She could almost hear the turian's voice as she remembered what he had said. It had been just after she'd killed the batarians to save Aida. She had been berating herself and doubting her worth as usual, and the turian spoke those words. He had pointed out that she conquered her fear and did what had to be done. Those words had truly struck a chord deep inside of her.
Much of what she had accomplished since that day had surprised her, but even though she saw Prathus look at her with a sense of amazement since they had found one another in Fulton's Folly, she'd gotten the impression that his astonishment was not over what she was doing, but over the fact that she was learning to trust her instincts. He had never seemed amazed about her actions… only her reactions to them.
Goddess, I miss you already…
It had been an extremely trying day. In one day, they'd almost lost the captain, she had been seriously injured twice, and Prathus died. If they'd thought Fulton's Folly was a disaster, this rescue mission had been a catastrophe. The fact that everyone was saying the explosion was Salik's handiwork and not Cerberus' deed only made it sting even more. Illitha had hesitated when she had her gun trained upon Salik's comrade at Fulton's Folly. If she got her sights on the salarian traitor himself, she would not feel the same sense of hesitation. Not anymore.
I need to get up. I need to find something to do...
The engineer had only been awake for about an hour since the surgery, and she was already going a bit stir crazy. With nothing to do but stare at the ceiling, at the comatose form of the captain on the bed beside her or the snoring Alliance soldier in the bed on the opposite side, she was thinking far too much about the things she had lost in this war. The weight of it all… Prathus, McSween, Jack and Danny were all dead, Aida was missing, the Sileya was gone… she felt like it was slowly crushing her spirit while she lay there and stewed in her grief. She couldn't even cry anymore. She had bawled initially at the news, but she no longer had the energy for it. She could only wait for the pieces of her broken heart to try to mend themselves.
"Illitha?" a soft voice addressed her from the door.
The asari raised her head just enough to get a look at Rachel where she was hovering in the gaping hole through the stone door. She said nothing. She was too exhausted to speak. She just wanted to close her eyes and sleep until this stupid war was over.
"How are you?" the blonde asked hesitantly. Illitha could see the concern in her eyes, but she could also tell that the girl was here for more than to just check up on her. Rachel seemed to have something important to say, but to be afraid to say it.
Probably more bad news…
"I will live," Illitha said simply.
"I'm sorry… about Prathus," Rachel stepped through the hole in the door, hands clasped together in front of herself. "I didn't know him well, but he seemed like a good man… uh, turian… You know what I mean," the blonde fell silent.
"He…" the asari trailed off. She had been about to say 'was', and the word carried so much weight that she couldn't utter it. She didn't want to talk about Prathus right then. It was too hard to discuss his loss. "W-What is on your mind, Rachel?" she changed the subject.
"I'm sorry if this isn't the right time," the blonde began.
"Just tell me," Illitha's tone was flat. I just want to sleep. Say it and go. Please.
"Me, Zaeed, Corporal Rivera and Detective Kilpatrick were talking about the offensive that's being put together in Dotterstown," Rachel said softly, leaning against the wall. "Your friend Selura came up with a brilliant idea about the possible goal of the offensive, and if she's right, this really needs to work…"
Illitha remained silent, waiting for the blonde to continue.
"Uh…" Rachel seemed to grow uncomfortable with the silence. She had obviously been waiting for Illitha to ask a question. "We… We think it's going to be an attempt to take the embassy there. There is a QEC there that links directly to Alliance command and the Citadel. It could be our only chance to get a request for help off world."
"I understand," Illitha said softly. "Whatever you all decide will be fine with me…"
"Illitha," the blonde frowned and stood away from the wall, shuffling her feet nervously.
Goddess… Just say what you have to say and go…
"You're the Spectre here," the blonde finally murmured. "Zaeed and I would be happy to take the reins and let you and your friends grieve like you deserve. But… The people we've picked up along the way… the soldiers and especially the security guys and the civilians… they want the Spectre involved in the planning."
Illitha closed her eyes and sighed wearily. I am not a Spectre. Why does this stupid lie have to continue to haunt me? If these people knew the truth… Maybe now is the time to tell them. Let someone else be in charge. I do not care anymore.
Unfortunately for the asari, even as she thought those final words, she knew in her heart that they weren't true. She wanted not to care anymore. But she did. There were people that trusted her. Whether she deserved it or not, people looked up to her. It may have been a lie that caused her to inspire people, but she inspired them just the same. She resented it, but she knew they needed it. Still, she was angry at their insistence on disturbing her recovery and her grief, and she had a few things to say to these people. Maybe it was her upset guiding her actions, but if she lost their support because of her anger, she didn't particularly care at the moment.
"Help me up," she finally said.
"No, that wasn't what I meant," the blonde protested. "We can move the discussion in here-"
"And risk disturbing the captain's rest? No," the asari shook her head. "Help me up."
"You just underwent surgery," Rachel shook her head. "You're not getting out of that-"
"Help me up so I can keep the wounds from reopening, or I will climb out of this bed myself, consequences be damned," Illitha snapped.
Rachel seemed taken aback by the asari's attitude and her rare display of temper, but she also apparently took her at her word, because she hurried over and carefully slipped an arm around her lower back, slowly assisting her to her feet and helping her to keep her back straight so that she wouldn't risk tearing the wounds.
"The doctor won't like this," Rachel warned.
"Spectres apparently do not have time to be injured," Illitha muttered. Or grieve… She knew she was behaving like a child, but if these people wanted to treat her like some mystical heroine whose sole purpose was to save them, she would play the part. She did her best to keep her body rigid, leaning on Rachel as she staggered along.
The instant she stepped into the room where the others had gathered, all eyes came to rest upon her. The doctor immediately hurried over to support her from the other side, frowning angrily.
"You are in no condition to be out of bed. We have to return you to the infirmary-"
"No," Illitha said the word forcefully, and glared at the people assembled in the room. Not only were the four people Rachel had mentioned present, but there were a few civilians, Jay and Elliot, and several other soldiers and security personnel. "A-Apparently, I cannot be allowed to rest. It seems that this colony's security and military cannot work together without the Spectre being present to oversee every detail. The fact that I just lost a dear friend and underwent surgery apparently means nothing…"
"Illitha..." Rachel frowned.
"I am here. You all wanted me here, I am here. So either discuss whatever it was so vital I be here to discuss, or deal with it yourselves…" Illitha continued to glare at the assembled group, and saw several faces flush with shame. Most of the people present suddenly looked uncomfortable. Only Zaeed remained apparently unfazed, staring at her with an unreadable expression.
"Well?" she prompted when no one said anything.
Detective Kilpatrick cleared his throat before speaking. "Dotterstown is too far from us to walk the distance, especially if we have to wait a few days for your injuries to heal as the doctor tells us," he began.
"I apologize if my injuries are an inconvenience to you," Illitha snapped. You are being a child, Illitha… Stop it.
"I think what he's getting at," Corporal Rivera took over, "is that we need to get the shuttle up and running before we can head over to the nav-point to meet up with the Alliance forces that are gathering for the assault."
"I am in no condition to perform the repairs," Illitha shook her head. "There… I believe there is an engineer among the Alliance ranks. Have him start working on it."
"He is," the corporal assured her. "But one shuttle will never carry thirty of us at once. We would have to make multiple trips, increasing the risk of running into Reaper air forces. Zaeed had an idea, and we were discussing it."
"I interrogated the Cerberus commander," Zaeed informed her. "But you really didn't need to be here to discuss it."
"I know," Illitha agreed with a scowl. She knew she'd made her point, but really couldn't help reiterating it. These people were soldiers and security. They were capable of planning and fighting without the help of a Spectre. She wondered how they would react if they found out now that she was just an engineer.
"Cerberus has a shuttle and a ship, as you know," Zaeed continued. "Their shuttle isn't too far from here, guarded by a single pilot and one escort. While the Alliance works on getting the shuttle here repaired, I want to take a team and go seize the second shuttle. We need it."
"I… It… S-Seems reasonable to me," Illitha's gaze swept over the rest of the group. "So what is the problem?"
No one seemed to want to speak. Illitha realized as she looked at the faces of the gathered men, that they really hadn't needed her at all. They just wanted the reassurance that the Spectre approved of the plan and was going to continue to fight with them… The smoldering anger that had filled her since Rachel told her that the people wanted her involved ignited into an inferno. Her hands clenched into fists, and she had to force herself to calm down and keep from screaming at them all. She swallowed and kept her voice as even and calm as possible, though she couldn't keep the iciness from her gaze.
"This man is a mercenary with a great deal of experience," she told them. "I understand that when you all hear the title 'Spectre', you think of the propaganda. The finest the galaxy has to offer, right hand of the Council, and so forth…" she swallowed. "B-But I am really just an outsider, fighting to do what she thinks is right. You cannot rely on me to do everything for you. This is your colony. Y-You need to come together, work with your fellows, and f-fight to keep it. I am not infallible, obviously," she gestured to the medigel plastered over her side where the shirt had been cut away. "If I die, does that mean you lose the war?"
"Military and security forces, even many civilian governments have a command structure," she reminded them. "Corporal," she turned her gaze upon Jorge Rivera, "Y-You are the highest-ranking soldier left here. That means you are in charge of the Alliance forces. Detective," she shifted her gaze to Kilpatrick, "If I am not mistaken, your title makes you the highest-ranking member of your security forces present… Zaeed and I are not part of your command structure. Why do you look to us to lead you?"
"You're a Spectre," Corporal Rivera said simply. "That makes you the ideal candidate to lead."
Illitha sighed. "Y-You are missing my point. You served under a commanding officer, yes?"
"Of course," the corporal nodded.
"So if your commanding officer was not present, then who was in charge of the men with you?"
"I was," the man said, a bit more softly.
"I-If you want to look to me to lead, that… it…" she swallowed and checked the urge to sigh again, "that is fine. But you must continue to operate as a military organization, all of you. There is a command structure in place… use it. I-If I am busy or indisposed, look to Zaeed. He is a skilled soldier with a wealth of experience. If neither of us is present, use your own command structure. Report to us if a decision impacts the whole group, but exercise some independent thought… You have brains. Use them."
Illitha looked at the thoughtful expressions on some of the men's faces, and she thought that she might finally have made her point, even if she had been forced to once again cement herself in the role of leader to do it.
"A Spectre could be stepped on by a Reaper as easily as anyone else," Illitha said softly. "Y-You cannot look to me as your sole chance of winning this war. Victory… It w-will require all of us, working together."
"Understood, Spectre," the corporal saluted. Several of the other men in the room were nodding their heads.
"W-We need to get the shuttle working. We need to restore power to key areas of this complex. A-And we need to seize that second shuttle," Illitha reminded them. "Corporal, Detective," she looked at each man in turn, "Please… R-Report to me once a day each to keep me updated, and… and come to me at…" she activated her omni-tool and checked the local time, "…27:30, so that we can cement the command structure. But other than that, I w-will ask that you all give me the time I need to rest and to mourn the loss of my friend. Please."
"Aye aye," the corporal nodded.
Illitha saw the Detective nod his head as well, and she looked around at the others, waiting for a moment to see if anyone else had anything to say. When no one spoke, she glanced at Rachel, who turned and started assisting her from the room without having to be asked.
Once they were out in the hall, the blonde sighed.
"Was it really necessary to lay that kind of guilt trip on them all? They were just scared. They wanted reassurance…"
"They are soldiers and security officers," Illitha corrected. "Other people look to them for protection. They should not be looking to me. Th-They did not even need me. I had no input to give on the things they were discussing, nor could I help them accomplish it."
"Well, you made some fine points," Rachel admitted. "But I really don't think you had to take your anger out on them. I could have just told them you wanted to be left alone to recover…"
"No," Illitha shook her head. "Apparently, it needed to come from me."
"You were wrong about one thing, though," Rachel told her.
"I was? What?"
"Corporal Rivera isn't the highest-ranking member of the Alliance left in our ranks."
"Really?" Illitha was surprised. "I-I was not aware we had anyone with a higher rank left. Who is it?"
"Doctor Tillman carries the rank of lieutenant."
Illitha's brows rose. She hadn't been aware that Alliance doctors were actually part of the military command structure. She had always assumed they were just civilian medical personnel that happened to work in Alliance bases.
"Putting a solid command structure into place isn't a bad idea though," Rachel admitted. "Organizing the men into units couldn't hurt either. At the moment, I don't think there's more than two men from any single unit in our group."
Illitha nodded slowly. She hadn't really considered that. But it was, she supposed, just a product of her ignorance in matters of military operation. As Rachel helped her get settled into her bed, she mulled over the idea, adding up the numbers in her head. She had ten surviving marines, seven security personnel, one engineer, one doctor, and five civilians… not including herself, her friends, or Zaeed. Perhaps organizing them into defined squads would help to put the soldiers in a more comfortable structure, would help the combat-willing civilians feel like they belonged, and would allow them to more easily delegate tasks under pressure…
"Could you come back at 26:30 local time?" Illitha asked once she was settled in her bed. "I… I would like your help in organizing the men into functional units. I… I do not know much about military operations. But I would like to be able to present the squad rosters at the meeting with the men at 27:30."
"Of course, Spectre," Rachel said softly. "Until then, take the time that you need for yourself. I'll see to it that you aren't disturbed until the meeting. Except by the doctor, of course," the blonde smiled.
"Thank you."
When the human left the room behind, Illitha sighed. While she had asked to be left alone to recover and to grieve, the truth was, as soon as she was alone in the silence of the infirmary once again, the ache in her heart returned to plague her full-force. While she'd been yelling at the men, that ache had faded to a tolerable level. She knew it would probably never go away completely, but she was starting to think that perhaps she needed to keep herself occupied just the same.
To that end, she activated her omni-tool and deployed Crawler. Using the remote feed to guide the drone, she started sending it around the facility, capturing images of the various people in the complex and storing them in the drone's memory banks as friendly forces. When she deployed the drone in the future, she wanted to be able to simply tell it to attack without having to designate friendly targets first. And while she worked on that, she started thinking of other projects to keep herself busy. There were many small things that could be done.
.
.
Author's Note: The most important thing, as always, is to convey my sincere thanks to everyone who has read, reviewed, favorited/followed or otherwise given any attention at all to this story. Though I've been struggling with time management of late, I am doing my very best to keep on schedule so that I can hopefully continue to entertain those of you who regularly come back to read more. It means a lot to know I'm keeping some people interested, and I'm doing my best to keep it up. :)
I know the overall tone of this Chapter is somber, but I really felt that the aftermath of Prathus's death was something that couldn't be glossed over. Plus, after all the excitement of dealing with Cerberus and the conflict with Salik in the past few Chapters, a little downtime for the characters to sort out their feelings was necessary. Hopefully it all worked. Grief for lost loved ones is always a tricky subject to tackle, and I spent a lot of time agonizing over this Chapter and parts of the next in an effort to get it all just right.
Also, several people have mentioned Aida's conspicuous absense from the story of late. As I've said in PMs responding to questions about her, unfortunately there is only so much that can happen to a person trapped in a cell with no one to talk to. But I promise, I haven't forgotten her, and while my no-spoiler policy prevents me from promising she will be in the next Chapter specifically, I can promise that she does make an appearance again before long. Please just hang in there a little longer. :)
Unless something unexpected comes up in the near future, my next update should be next Tuesday morning. So until then, I hope everyone has a great weekend! And thanks again for reading!
