Abigail Shepard
"And in other news the Sarah Adler school for displaced children has reported that six of their kids went missing and they are begging for help, though in the wake of..."
Abigail let the news report she was listening to roll over her as she sat quiet as the dead in the Alliance taxi aircar which had been provided to them by the Terra Nova government upon their arrival.
Wonder if that is a Jewish run orphanage? She thought to herself absentmindedly trying to resist the urge to keep her hands from drumming on her knee, to do anything to keep her mind occupied as the car rolled to their destination.
"Easy," Anderson admonished, "don't let them see you nervous they'll think something up."
"I can't help it," she sighed, "I'm not used to just sitting waiting like this."
He nodded, "I know but we're guests here."
The car landed about a hundred meters from their destination and they popped up, Abigail put on a pair of aviator themed sunglasses to protect her eyes from the mid afternoon Terra Nova sun.
She looked back at the car again. "Is that why you didn't bring the whole team?"
Anderson grunted, "Come on Shepard you read the updated brief, that the Alliance isn't one hundred percent sure this could actually be Batarians. It could be local human terrorists."
"Right and I'm a holovid star."
Anderson chuckled, then turned serious. "But yes until we know, for sure, we are not actually here. To anyone not actually on the mission itself we are FIS agents, am I clear?"
Abigail nodded, "crystal, sir."
At least I look the part. Her current getup was more proper for a Federal Law Enforcement agent and not a soldier or member of the military, nor was it what she was used to wearing in her off hours, it made her itch. I believe this is what they would call 'business casual'.
A dirty blond haired woman woman waited for them up ahead, and behind her forensic and repair teams were going over the wrecked visage of an eezo refinery with a fine tooth and comb.
"You must be our...erm...'special advisors' we were told to expect." She called out when they reached about ten meters.
"We are!" Anderson yelled back.
They came together and the agent offered her hand, "Ronnie Price, Alliance Federal Investigative Service, Terra Nova division."
Anderson took it then gestured at Shepard, "I'm agent Black, and this is my fellow Agent White."
Ronnie looked taken aback for a moment but then she half smirked and chuckled at them, "I really didn't think we did that super secret squirrel shit anymore, though I think your bosses could work on the cover name, a bit on the nose don't you think? Unless you expect me to believe that is your real name?"
"What can you tell us about the attack on the refinery so far?" Abigail asked, for once not in a mood to banter.
"Right to business," she nodded before starting to move deeper into the compound, "I can respect that."
The three of them moved with Agent Price in the lead, "As to your question not much. This investigation is barely six hours old, at least when I got here, and we have little in the way of actual evidence to work with considering how thoroughly the attack torched the place. Fortunately there wasn't a major operation going on, only trace amounts of eezo has been jettisoned into the atmosphere."
"Only six hours? The attack happened eighteen hours ago didn't it?" Abigail pressed.
"Do you always let your people talk to others with such disrespect...Agent Black?" Price stopped to regard the two of them with weary defiance.
"She's my attack dog, her bark may be worse then her bite, but she has a way of getting to things that need to be said."
Price nodded, then sighed, "very well. And with everything going on here, we had to have first responders come in and secure the area, put out the fires, take an accounting of the dead, and make sure the area was still safe. Yes, technically we have been in operation for the entire time but I only got here six hours ago, so yes we haven't had much of a time to gain a complete picture."
Abigail almost felt like blushing, feeling abashed, she almost appologized but that would show weakness, so she settled for a half nod.
"The only observation I can make as of now with any certitude is that I find its timing a bit odd." Then off of their looks. "They did it at night with the plant shut down and only a few workers available. If these people really are terrorists then wouldn't they have struck at a time that ensured the most casualties?"
"Maybe they were afraid of security and being detected?" Abigail wondered.
Price shrugged, "maybe, but these people used sophisticated equipment, explosives, RPGs, mortars, the works."
"Any indication of who did this?" Abigail asked brightening, then glanced at Anderson who was giving her a perturbed look, "I mean, is there any human group that you know who could mount this attack?"
"I have a hard problem believing anyone local could organize this attack or that they would want to," Price looked skyward crinkling her nose, "yes some might have the equipment to pull it off, again this stuff was crude in its design, but the organization? Not being tipped off by authorities? The fact that anyone local would have to risk eezo exposure if things went wrong?" She shook her head. "Its possible, but I doubt it."
"Any foreign interests?" Abigail continued her relentless questioning.
Price gazed at her more closely, "you know you look kind of familiar," she mumbled. "Anyways to answer your question, I assume you are talking about the Batarians?"
Abigail nodded, she felt unhappy at almost being recognized again.
Price grinned at her, "and to answer your question, certainly not impossible but there are over three million people on this planet. The vast majority of those are human, any extra terrestrial presence tends to stick out like a sore thumb. Any foreign operation would have to be quick, which would mean they would have to know exactly what they were doing before hand and a bunch of Batarians sneaking about?" She shrugged. "That'd get a few switch boards buzzing...especially after Torfan."
Crap. Abigail tried to keep her expression neutral.
Price sighed and gestured, "anyways if you want to get some work done the crime scene is right there. I have no idea how much training you've had as investigators, but take a look around, another pair of eyes won't hurt."
She went off to consult with a hard hatted agent off in the distance.
Shepard exchanged a look with Anderson and they went off in separate destinations.
After several minutes Abigail sighed and bent down, going to her haunches as she scooped up a small piece of rubble. It was black and deformed, into perhaps a too weak sheet of paper feeling. It was small enough, she knew enough about explosives to know shrapnel when she saw it, but she couldn't tell anything else about it aside from that.
What the hell am I doing here? She sighed getting up and stretching. I'm a soldier not an investigator...I need something to shoot before I die of boredom.
She placed her hands behind her head and blew air out through her mouth. Gazing across the skyline trying to get time to think and to see her immediate vicinity was dominated by a twenty story hotel in the distance, about a hundred and fifty meters, it looked like there wasn't a lot of life.
"Ronnie, what's that?" She asked aloud.
Price got up off her haunches and sauntered over, if she thought there was any impropriety of Abigail using her actual name she didn't show it.
"That," she nodded, "before this place got the eezo and platinum mining operations going was a hotel, real tourist trap given we are on the edge of one of the big equatorial deserts. Then while we were building this place up its served as the temporary quarters for the construction crews. Its been abandoned now and has been declared a historical monument by the locals...why?"
Abigail felt a chill go down her spine, "if its abandoned then why do I see people on the roof?"
"What?" Price grunted and then craned her neck forward, "what would people be doing...there."
Abigail thought she caught a glint of something and her instincts screamed at her "Cover!"
She dove for a concrete wall road block just as a sniper report boomed out, she ripped her head around trying to trace the shot and see if her or Ronnie was hit, no signs of blood which brought her to...one of the agents holding a Lancer Assault Rifle was down and unmoving, the other tried to acquire the targets and he took a hit in his neck.
Dammit.
Abigail's next priority was to check for Anderson, her Commander was busy taking cover over on the next road block, she had to duck though as bullets started landing on their position, they were quite pinned with little real cover. Abby made note of the weapons on Anderson's back.
"Anderson I need a gun!"
The Special Forces Commander hesitated for a second and Abigail felt like rolling her eyes, or perhaps strangling him.
"Come on what am I going to do with a single pistol?" She pointed out.
He nodded at her then deployed his side arm before tossing it over, it exposed his hand for a second and a bullet embedded itself in the dirt just behind it forcing him to wrench his hand away.
OK I'm armed with a pistol...now what? A pistol wouldn't have the range or accuracy to hit their targets, she could make a run for the Lancers, but then she wouldn't need to arm herself if that was the plan.
Inspiration struck.
"Anderson, don't miss."
"Wha-"
Before he could finish she bolted for the corpses, firing one handed just in the general vicinity of the hotel's roof but knowing she wouldn't hit anything, that was not her purpose.
Anderson, to his credit, took his cue and she knew his weapon was modded with explosive rounds.
Bullets followed in her wake as the terrorists, whoever they were, weren't quite as good shots as she expected.
Still no explosion so she had to dive for the corpse pile, reaching for the fallen AR. She screamed as a bullet pierced her side, going through the one end of her hip and out the other, not being overly hindered by her shield harness.
Finally the roof exploded in the distance, direct in the center. There was no return fire.
She sighed grateful and then splayed out on her back, wincing.
Anderson walked over to her and leaned down, "that was risky Shepard but..." then he noticed the blood, "Medic! We need a medic over here!"
She heard a rush of feet above her as Ronnie came into her field of view holding a med kit, "hang in there Shepard." She assured. "Don't move."
"I'm not going anywhere," Abigail replied, feeling a little light headed.