Chapter LI – The Rising

In Flames – The Hive

xxxx

"We'll be coming out of vector in just a few seconds." Jarka mused, staying remarkably still and leaning on one elbow while he watched all his haptic panels.

"Moment of truth, right?" I half stifled a laugh there as I leaned against the end of the bridge with my full kit ready, helmet under my arm. No telling what we were getting ourselves into. A mess of empty space, most likely.

"Something of those lines." The pilot agreed as he perked up in his seat and his hands found their places on different panels.

Then the FTL corridor ended, and we were spit out into the black of space. I scanned the stars over and over, eyes darting around until finally I saw a glimmer closer – a red indicator light clicks away. I pointed. "There."

"Maya, try and get us enhanced visuals… and while you're at it, run anti-LADAR measures." Jarka muttered.

"Working on bringing up magnified visuals. But I detect no LADAR sweeps. They aren't expecting company."

"Holy shit. Sanya was actually right." I shook my head and kept down a laugh. "We even got the element of surprise."

"They could just look out a window and see our four ships." Jarka grumbled as he slumped further into his seat. "Plan, Commander?"

"Since we can… let's get closer. Maybe get some of us on-deck quiet." The station was still clicks away. Enough that I squinted to try and make the station out. Then Maya pulled up a holo, showing a flat panel of a station. Solar panels all on the wider face, docks on the narrower sides. Looked like a glorified cereal box.

"I can confirm docked vessels as Contractor exclusive, but they're transports. I would estimate a force of no more than a hundred personnel."

"Bingo." I could feel the hairs starting to rise on the back of my neck. Excitement. "Relay to the rest of the ships. Get in close before we launch an attack."

Maya and Jarka were both silent for a split second, as if determining who was supposed to do the talking.

That split second was all it took for a brown frigate to come charging past over our heads, full-engine rushing the Contractor station. And Kate hollering over the radio. "Get it you sons'a'bitches! We're goin' full wreck now!"

I bowed my head into my open hand and cussed under my breath.

"Hey!" Delina barked as she huffed to the top of the bridge. "What the fuck is that idiot doing now?"

"Kate…" I growled, silently signaling Jarka to pick up the pace and trail.

"Woohoo – this right reminds me of demo days – these old stations ain't built with pirates in mind!" And with that, the brown frigate fired a single accelerator shot at the "top" right corner of the station.

A moment and a small explosion later and all the lit windows of the Contractor outpost went dark.

I watched with a raised brow. Didn't even have time to be fully angry. More like adjusting. Realizing we were going to have to deal with whatever lay ahead.

"No grav generators, no life support, no comms. They's like lurric in a pan-fry now, Jackson!"

"So much for stealth." I shook my head again. "All ships, let's get in there and see what they got!"

We were on full blast then, the other three frigates taking after Kate.

The Ortona was second in line, trailing a course towards the "top" middle of the station. That was where the most windows were, so I figured something important there. Good place to strike. At least get a foothold. Plus it was on the edge if we had to fall back hard.

"Jarka, can you get us up close? Like within jumping distance?"

"Since Sanders so tactfully dealt with the gravity generators, I can get within meters." The pilot shrugged as though it was no big deal. I sure wouldn't have flown a frigate that close to anything. Not without a high likelihood of losing paint.

"Alright. Get on it." I pulled up my omni-tool, got on the Ortona intercom. "Ground team, meet at the bridge airlock. Be ready to jump."

"Should I relay similar orders to the other two ships?" Maya asked from a cockpit speaker.

"No." I answered on my gut feeling, then figured out a plan. "Have them offload on the side docks. Keep anyone from bailing."

"Understood, commander. Transmitting orders now."

I slipped on the Reaper helmet, letting everything seal and connect up. A simple bar readout activated under each eye. Shields on the left; oxygen supply on the right. I could feel the brush of air against my neck as the helmet sealed down. And so I looked through the eyeports of armor that was no telling how old, but still could see as clear as before. Maybe even clearer. It was strange that the eyeports didn't seem to obstruct my normal view.

Just about then, the ground team was hustling up the bridge. Viola and Delina ready in front, helmeted up and all, followed by Riva, and then at the very back, crashing along in Doomsday armor, Sam.

Jarka had changed course, taking an arc around towards the Contractor station rather than a straight line. Made it easier to jump. Then I realized, as the five of us started into the airlock, that we one short.

"Where's Torr?"

"Fuck that Vorcha." Delina laughed behind her helmet. "Started going off about jumping into the void and then ran back into the subdeck."

"Figured he wouldn't like another jump." I snorted, quiet as I realized how much the Berserker armor distorted my voice. Sounded damn near like the Contractor's voice modulator.

The airlock closed behind us. Then depressurized. The door opened, gravity holding us to the deck but nothing to keep from flying out into the void. And all I could see were stars.

"Five seconds from jump position." Jarka announced over radio. "I'm afraid I'm only going to be able to slow down so much."

"Just how much?" I wondered as I peered out from the ship and saw the corner of the station fast approaching.

"Not sure yet. Stand by."

"I can tell already. This is gonna go fucking great."

Viola and I shot the arms specialist a glare to shut up.

There was no time for further bickering as the stars ahead disappeared and the side of the station, solar panels and small windows appeared. Blurry and maybe twenty meters away. All around concerning.

"Jarka…"

"Yes, yes! I don't expect you to jump at this speed!"

I braced myself against the right side of the open airlock and waited. A second later and I could actually make out the station features, even see in a few darkened windows as the Ortona slowed. We also got closer. Close enough that the wing nearly clipped a solar panel.

Then no more solar panels. Just broken windows. We were slower, and I didn't figure we needed to hesitate any longer. I lunged forward and jumped. Figured I'd find a landing when I got there.

Somehow I made it through a shattered window before crashing into a wall, my flailing flight changed as I floated off into a lounge, trying to get my bearings and still search for enemies. There was a lot of arms flailing wildly, and as far as I could tell both of them were mine. No hostiles. No Contractors at all in that room. I could also make out the rest of the jump team entering and crashing about to some extent, but not to mine – said as I stalled out against a desk floating in the middle of the room. I tried to push off. All that did was send the desk away. So I launched into a biotic charge towards the floor. Activated the mag-locks in my boots and stuck. Still a little disoriented.

More disoriented as I realized Delina was on the ceiling, standing there with her rifle drawn and shaking her head at the other four of us. The four of us that were on the proper floor. "Shit, none of you fought in zero-G before?"

"Hey, I'm not the one who's upside-down." I shot right back, starting to tromp towards the nearest door knowing we had an assault underway.

"Hey." Delina stopped me as I tried to pass; stepped out in front then spun around so that her feet were on the same plane. Even right in my face, she was only audible over the radio. "You're gonna get fucked if you keep acting like there's gravity."

"Got a better idea?"

"Yeah. Get off your ass and we'll give these fuckers a spook."

I thought about it for a second as I drew the Force Gun from my back. Then I deactivated the mag locks on my boots. Hell, no sooner than I did that, Delina grabbed me by the shoulders and spun me. Sent me spinning like a fan as I kept my eyes on the door ahead. After a few rotations I started to forget which way was up on the door. Shut down the motion-sickness processes and glanced back. Sam was still glued to the floor. Riva and Viola were both floating. Delina had her feet pointed at the door, Vindicator in right hand and an active grapple in the left. I nodded. "Alright. Let's make a rush!"

So with that I charged. Right into the mass field corridor, blasting out right as I reached the door. Flimsy inside door. It ripped out ahead of me as I came to a near stop catching glimpses of motion on the other side, then I grabbed the side of the frame and lunged through. Spun around in the air and bore down on a Contractor trooper on the right side of the door. I pulled the trigger.

That was the first time I'd really gotten to see what the Force Gun could do, and what looked like a ripple of distortion shot at the trooper…hit with the force of a blast wave. Ignored kinetics, shredded through armor, and smashed the hostile back into the wall. The recoil hadn't changed my course too much, so I cocked the shotgun and swung the barrel onto another Contractor left of the door. Fired from the side so that I spun to face the rest of the room.

A more open, conference room type place. Twenty meters to the back, but thanks to Delina… I was floating towards the ceiling. Right over the Contractors, right past their cover. They were still on the floor, some not even realizing I was there as they opened fire on Sam crashing through the doorway.

In a matter of seconds, it was chaos. Accelerated shavings were going every which way, Sam's 20mm fire was exploding cover and sending Contractors and debris flying. Viola was laying in with biotic artillery, and in zero-G, even a throw was enough to send a hostile tumbling out of the fight at least disoriented. Riva was already on their back flank, sticking on the ground but darting between enemies and then phasing away as soon as she took too much fire.

I paused for a moment, looked for the densest group of Contractors, then charged again. Slammed into the deck and tried to keep the blast minimal. Keep hostiles close. I crouched and held the Force Gun pointed up as I fired, so I stayed in place. One Contractor blasted back. Ran the lever action. Fired again. Four were blasted away in a very short period of time. A fifth grabbed me in a chokehold as I blasted back a sixth. A combination of Reaper armor and no gravity lead me to misjudge as I threw the trooper from my back. Instead of just slamming him into the floor, I caved the floor in and sent myself flying. Flailing away towards the ceiling. From that perspective, I realized that even fewer hostiles could target just my feet. The few rounds that did hit my plating hardly dented kinetic levels.

As I came to a rest with my back flat again the roof, enemies were out of shotgun range. At least temporarily. At least until I launched a pull down, started dragging them towards me. Five in one catch. Finished them off one at a time, each time wishing I could hear the muzzle bark of the Force Gun.

Then it was not only silent, but still. I rested against the ceiling and the rest of the strike team was around the room. What few Contractors that had been there didn't last. No organization, basic weapons. A few had even gone down from bad-set armor seals. A lousy response team that probably was never expected to be called on.

"Clear!" Sam yelled, voice without modulation over the radio.

I nodded, already pushing myself towards the hallway out – or deeper into the station. Oxygen levels were barely dented, even with the jumping around. I floated into the hallway wrong-side up and backwards, making sure nobody on our team had air leaks. Then I twisted myself around, grabbed the corner of an inactive door frame and tugged myself forward, feet-first. Attack.

With the rest of the squad hot on my tail, I flew into an extra tall room – perhaps a gathering area at the middle of the station, where there was the bottom of the walkway below, cubicles above my head, and inactive holoprojectors at the bottom of the room. Spacious. Maybe fifty meters square, and thirty tall.

There was also a mess of Contractors. Troopers, all of them in basic armor and fighting with the zero G. Some were trying to hold on with one hand, fire with the other. Others tried to hold steady and aim, and a single shot sent them spinning. A few backed into corners or walls and opened fire – the most accurate as they sent shavings right by my head, even a few off my plating – but they were sitting ducks. Pretty quick they figured that out. Bursts of Vindicator fire from the cover of the hallway behind me took the few problem troopers out in a hurry, leaving the rest of us to move up. All took different paths down, Viola sticking closest to the wall and sliding down as she kept up biotic artillery. Sam jumped for the walkway, mini-jets keeping her armor level and on course while a Contractor scrambled to get out of the landing zone. Riva had phased out. I tucked my knees under me as I launched towards the thickest bunch of hostiles. Let them try and fire at me until I got within shotgun range.

Well, the force gun was still pretty potent ten meters back, smashing more than one Contractor into the wall holo-projectors before my course was reversed. An extra shot for good measure, but it grazed a hostile and sent the Turian's armor to leaking. I looked back up, over my head where I was headed – just as Delina was flying down. It wasn't exactly a slam since she hooked her arm over my shoulder and tucked in on my back. Sent us both propelled back down before she shoved off. Sent herself back towards the wall, and me right out in the middle of the room as I could have expected. On the bright side, I was headed for the bridge in the middle.

Twenty yards away, a Contractor went spinning off the bridge violently, air and blood leaking everywhere. I was ready as I could be, shotgun in my right hand, left ready to catch the bottom of the bridge and spin myself around.

I came around feet-first, kicking blind into a Contractor who was mag-docked on the proper side of the walkway – upside-down for me. The trooper went flailing back, Avenger rounds going willy-nilly as he held the trigger while he flew. Didn't leave to worry about, so I flicked the Force gun around onto another trooper standing there in shock. Blasted him back, and that spun me to the right as I lay above the walkway.

Face to face with Kate Sanders.

The merc was mag-locked to the walkway, well removed from any cover with a trail of Contractors behind him, hoisting his shotgun overhead in his right hand as he keyed his radio with the left. "Hells yeah Trees! Told ya we'd get 'em good! These sons'a'bitches ain't got no chance!"

I nodded, not sure what to say to all of that. Got my feet under me, crouched on the bridge, then pushed off. Kate rushed ahead to take on more Contractors on the bridge just as soon as I was clear, ducking under me and ramming into another hostile. I caught a hold of a bridge support cable and stopped myself. Hung there ten meters off the bridge and watched.

Three Contractors were scrambling for cover in the cubicles on the "floor", a punchy biotic throw taking one out and sending him careening through a few desks. The other two almost made to cover before a spray of 20mm flak fire sprayed down, essentially tearing through hostiles and their thin-walled cover in four or five rounds. A pause. There was the holdout, one Defender hunkered down. Trying to hold off Sam. Didn't work out very well as a rail shot shattered his shield and blew through his armor.

Another trooper was setting up with a sniper rifle, out of sight of most the rest of my squad, peeping around a statue of the Contractor and bearing down on Viola. The Human didn't even get a chance to look through the scope before there was a flash of blue behind him. Riva. A moment later, she had a biotic blade through his chest.

By then I had switched to my revolver, holding to the cable with left hand and the crooks of my knees and aiming hard down the sights. Bore down on one trooper and pulled the trigger. Shields shattered and there was a tap to his shoulder. Then a jet of air and panic as his armor depressurized. Then he was in the line of fire and a sniper round promptly put him down.

Again the chaos subsided. Kate was shooting at one airborne enemy, hitting it twice with the Claymore for good measure.

Silence. All except for the hum of the twin power cores close to my chest and the click that came with each breath as my rebreather cycled. I could see about everyone in our strike team, but I called out over the radio anyway. "Status check."

Viola. "Unharmed."

Riva. "Fine."

Sam. "Ready, boss!"

Delina. "Come on – how the fuck would we get hurt fighting this idiots?"

Kate. "Wooo-hoo! I say we see what goods they got!"

About then Tierna also reported. "Commander - dock is secure. Zero losses, and we've got about fifty captive. Scientists and the like."

I nodded slowly. If they were hostile troops, it would have been easy. Take them out before they could reciprocate. But civs… I wasn't sure how much damage the Contractor would have done. "Hold them for now. Get any information you can."

"Copy that."

I switched channels. "Maya, do you have any schematics on this place? Anything worth checking out?"

"It appears that this station was retrofitted to be a weapons prototype facility. Most of the resources are digital and I am currently scrubbing and transferring them to our databanks. However, there is a small manufacturing operation near your location. You may be able to acquire prototypes there."

"Thanks." Then signaling to the strike team to regroup and move, I pulled up my omni-tool and loaded a map. The area in question wasn't far away from the bridge end where Kate stood, and along the way to the station docks. "Team, let's move out."

xxxx

It seemed like there should have been more resistance. But from the large room on there had been nothing. A few Contractor scientists that hadn't gotten breather kits on in time, but they weren't any more than tripping hazards.

"Left." I noted as I looked up from my omni-tool to the unpowered door to our side. It might have been to the right, since I was drifting down the hallway upside-down. The six of us paused. My team plus Kate. Stared at the unmoving chunk of metal for several seconds, then all eyes silently drifted over to Samantha.

The Doomsday armor stood there as if she didn't figure why there was a fuss. I pointed to the door. Then the mechanized armor stomped forward. "Totes got it."

The rest of us moved away and Sam moved onto the wall opposite the door. Used it as a launch point. Then she charged, still mag-docked to the floor as the Doomsday armor stomped forward in a full run, her left cannon tucked and shoulder forward.

The door wasn't much of a match.

Looked like it tore some of the wall loose on the other side as Sam kept going for five or so meters with full momentum and the rest of us were in right behind with guns raised. Sam came to a stop and the broken door hit a wall ten meters ahead and stopped. I hung there wrong-ways down on the top of the door frame, shotgun pointed in.

The room was empty.

Well, except for the weapon benches lining the walls. I swung down to get a closer look at the nearest – seemed like they had just been fucking with MR13 pistols. Like the one I carried. The rest of the team was starting to mill around, so I glanced back to one of the revolvers. Took a closer look. It might have been an MR13 before, but I realized there had been some serious changes. The grip had been hollowed out, reinforced, then extra capacitors had been added. The firing cylinder was longer… and it swung out to the left of the pistol. I couldn't quite figure it out until I spotted a handful of needles. Like from the needle driver sniper, a millimeter diameter and five centimeters long.

Needle revolver, NR02. Said it right there on the blueprints under the one I'd picked up. Same concept as the HF2 driver, but in sidearm form. Hard to read the rest when it was oriented the wrong way.

Needless to say I took one. Kate was standing on the floor below me and also snagged one.

Sam was encumbered with the two cannon arms of her armor and didn't have the ability to grab any new weapons. Then again, she didn't need them. The rest of the crew was fiddling with a rifle of some sort – looked like a blacked out Vindicator. They were taking as many as could be carried, and Kate picked up the last two.

That about cleared up the room and we were back out. Floating down the hallway towards the docks.

"Hey Jacko." Delina began over a private radio channel. "What we gonna do with these prisoners?"

"Sounds like they're civs." I noted without looking back. "Got half a mind to just leave em. If they can get the station fired back up they can live."

"That's fucking great if they don't get it going. But if they do, we're gonna have a galaxy of trouble."

"So what would you do?"

"Load 'em on one of their dead ships, tow them out then blast them to shit. They got themselves into this mess."

I was silent. Delina was right – we were dealing with a lying threat. That and I could feel Mk.25 runtimes active in the back of my thinking. Mk.25s didn't care about collateral.

"Commander." Maya spoke, interrupted my thoughts with strange haste. "I detected trace FTL disturbances at a distance. I do not have a confirmation, but it appears to be excess flux."

"Does that mean we have a ship incoming?" I accidently bit my tongue. Cursed as I pushed to float faster down the hallway.

"There is normally a pattern. This appears to be background noise."

"Then keep an eye on it." I shook my head, silent for a moment. Realized something had bothered the AI. "Why the alarm?"

"I do not know what is causing it. Eezo cores are always shielded as to reduce noise."

"Always?"

"Yes. Always. The radiation levels of an unshielded core are damaging to all organics, and even synthetic hardware." Maya paused. "This bleed is not from a shielded system."

"Trust your gut. All systems online in case we need to go."

"Understood."

"Forrest -" Riva tapped my shoulder, holding on for a second to get my attention. "What are we going to do? With the prisoners, I mean – we can't just -"

Right then we floated into the hanger. Upside-down. Ten meters over the heads of a group of corralled Contractor scientists and even a few unarmed troopers. All with rebreathers or similar while Sanya, Tierna and Kyvin's squads circled around with ready weapons. Rana's ship was docked with her small team ready, but they kept their distance.

I spun around and dropped to the deck. Sanya shrugged and nodded to me as we both stood away from the main corral. "Commander."

"What d'we know?"

By then the rest of my strike team, along with Kate Sanders, had made their way down onto the dock, mag-locked down in "proper" orientation.

"These ones sure didn't put up much of a fight." Sanya snorted. "They might have thrown all their security at you, but they were ready before we hit."

I raised my brow. "Someone tipped them off?"

"I wouldn't guess so, since we timed it just so. Their main water filters were offline and they had sent out a broadcast a few hours ago."

"Any sign of reinforcements?"

"No. We've gotten the same answer from every prisoner: they're not getting any help. This was a weapons processing dock when it was isolated in the Terminus, but now it's in the Contractor's territory. No need for these people anymore."

"Alright. How much R&D did they have here?"

Sanya glanced around at my team. "Seeing as you have the rifle and the revolver, there's the extent of it."

I was only half listening then; my attention was on the fifty or so prisoners. We'd taken on armed platoons the same size. Execution would have been an easy option, especially like how Delina suggested. I thought for a second more, looking over the downtrodden group of Contractors. My team, as well as Sanya and Tierna, were watching me. "If we got everything we can, then…"

"FTL disturbance increasing. Estimate four corridors forming." Maya warned in my ear.

There was something about the AI being bothered that put a knot in my gut. Turned attention to the squad present. "Ain't my place to decide what happens to these people. We leave 'em."

Sanya shrugged then signaled her Lancers to move out. Riva covered the breather on her helmet and looked at the ground. We all started back towards our ships. The Contractors followed only with their eyes.

"Really?" Delina hissed from my right. "That's how you're going to be?"

I nodded. Kept walking. Our ships weren't far off, and the Contractors weren't making me regret the decision to let them go. I paused at the Ortona airlock, looked back at the huddle of hostiles in scientist robes. They wouldn't have very long before their oxygen ran out – it remained debatable if I was actually being merciful.

So the Lancer strike team stepped through the airlock, back into the Ortona. Nobody said a word and I headed up to the cockpit. Just me and Viola went to the bridge while the rest of the crew went back towards the belly of the ship. Only a few paces as I was in the cockpit. Kate's ship was already backing out of dock, the Retryna was closed up and powering up and Tierna was the last one onto her ship. Torr sat in the co-pilots chair with his knees tucked into his chest as he stared at the dashboard with wide eyes. Jarka looked over his shoulder and nodded.

The Contractors were still there on the dock, standing and staring at us.

The Ortona pulled out of dock, the last friendly ship. Contractors began scrambling about. Realizing they needed to get one of their own ships back online if they wanted to get out alive.

I shook my head and dropped my gaze as I stood behind the pilot's chair. Leaned forward on my forearms.

"Relaying rendezvous coordinates to the rest of our fleet." Jarka took a deep breath and a pause from running the controls. Let the Ortona coast around to face the black of space. The other three ships were ahead of us. Sanya and Tierna made the jump first, vanishing into an FTL corridor. Kate followed, and so did Rana.

I watched the three blooms on our LADAR as the friendly ships made the jump. Blips, then silence. Behind us Maya had marked the four FTL disturbances that seemed to be intensifying.

"Ready to transition to FTL in five." Jarka announced.

"What are -" Viola began, looking from the LADAR to me and back as her finger hung pointed at the four noise signals.

"Four."

"Unshielded eezo cores can potentially leave noise along their entire trail." Maya explained. "I believe they are soon to be hostile ships coming out of FTL."

"Two." Jarka muttered in the following silence.

There was a flash on the LADAR, aft half of the screen overloading for a split moment before four distinct ship signatures registered. All of them with IMF failure codes. All of them with unshielded cores.

Torr made a single mad twitch, dug his claws into the sides of his chair and made his damnedest effort to pull himself down into the seat.

"Ravers." I murmured.

Two of the ships were redirecting after us.

Well, I didn't hear Jarka complete the countdown, but we went through one of the roughest FTL transitions he had pulled to date. When we were stable in the corridor, the pilot wiped down his brow. "Oh dear. At least they're not following us."

"We're a long ways from the Core." Viola mused as she stared at the LADAR. "The Ravers are getting further out."

"Getting hungry, more like." I shook my head then patted Jarka on the shoulder. "Thanks for getting us out of there."

Torr rolled out of his seat, landed on all fours, then rose to a hunched position and skulked off down the bridge.

"That was the sloppiest transition I've made since flight school." The Salarian scoffed.

"Still beats being lunch." I joked.

xxxx