Chapter 3, wherein Shepard and the Chief finally meet.

~0~


"But the III's had one major advantage; they did not exist. Their project was one of the most well-kept secrets in ONI, yet doctor Catherine Halsey managed to find out about it. She's smart like that. Parangosky was livid when she learnt that. I however, think it was a positive development. We know how she found out. With this new batch, we can take preemptive measures, so nobody will find out. Well, nobody we don't want to, that is. Because what's better than a guard dog loyal only to you, than a guard dog only loyal to you that nobody will see coming? Spartan Operators…I don t want to imagine what missions those will be sent to.

- Doctor David "Jr" Ortyal

~0~


The empty corridors and long hallways might have looked welcoming at one point in their time of service. Asari were known to install items for luxury…features for comfort. But now, with blood coating the walls and bodies sprawled everywhere, those same hallways had something haunting.

Commander Shepard swept her Tempest SMG back and forth as she made her way through these hallways, knowing that her foe could lurk at any junction. These walls told a story of death and destruction -a story that she and her team could have stopped, had they just been faster. If she had just been better.

And yet… she wondered if an enemy that could best an Asari Justicar in single combat was an enemy she could face on her own. The vast majority of enemies that she had fought had been brought down by a volatile mixture of teamwork and suicidal bravado, neither of which were really applicable here. No team to back her up except the recon unit on the derelict wreckage.

Hopefully it wasn't anything that a good headshot couldn't solve.

Then again, there was no saying if applying a long burst of fire directly into its face would even hurt it. The general tactic for dealing with unknown hostiles was to go for the head, but for all she knew that would only piss it off.

Other options? Maybe slap it with a Warp field and then apply a good long burst of fire directly into its face.

Shepard rounded the corner and reached another catwalk. Seeing the definite advantage of high ground, she enveloped herself with the blue energy fields of her biotic powers and jumped, propelling herself an additional few feet to get the distance she needed. It was taxing, but nothing she couldn't handle. "EDI, am I ever going to get some support this year?"

There was a significant delay before the AI replied and when she did, it sounded as if they were separated by several Mass Relay jumps. Warped, garbled. Static. "…blocking signal…target? Shep-pard, there is -bridge, to your right -hallway a few meters."

"What the hell," muttered Jane. EDI was one of the most skilled hackers she knew and she had put that to the test. How could anything block her off? What was going on, here on this ship?

Had the Asari been experimenting with things? But that was more like the Salarians…wasn't it?

There was a hallway a few meters ahead, that led to the bridge of this vessel. The docking tube to the derelict had to be close, too. Shepard hadn't heard anything from the other team, but she was confident that Tali would find a way to fix this damn interference. What was causing that, anyway? An EMP of some sorts? An enemy AI?

The idea of having to go up against some other EDI wasn't exactly something that she was looking forward to. The chances were very slim, but…yeah. Chances weren't her sort of thing.

She advanced through another few meters of unknown enemy territory, listening to any sounds of enemy activity. Eerily enough, there was nothing. No gunshots, no explosions, nothing. Just silence. That couldn't be good. Had this thing killed off the entire crew already? Or had the crew managed to take it out before that could happen?

As Shepard moved towards the bridge, a strange thought formed in her head. This strange hostile had the opportunity to kill Samara. Not disable, but kill. Yet it hadn't done that. Why?

A more pressing concern demanded Shepard's attention. She reached the bridge of the vessel, where there was supposed to be an entire crew of Asari in control of the frigate. Half a dozen of the blue-skinned maidens, geared up and armed for incursions in the Terminus Systems. At least, they would have been smart to make a final stand at the bridge.

There was no sign of forced entry though…the door had simply been opened. No explosives, no scorch marks at the console to point at a forced system override...nothing.

Only dead people.

Three dead asari, hanging limp over their shattered consoles in weird contortions. Flung across the room, their weapons all destroyed. Scorch marks across the ceiling…why the ceiling?

Shepard couldn't see the entirety of the bridge though. A wall blocked her view, some consoles were too large to look around. Two options then; sneaking around and risk enemy fire, or openly identifying herself and risk enemy fire.

Well, there was no sense in giving away her position.

What she wouldn't have given for a cloak like Kasumi's right now…

The Commander ducked low and carefully advanced deeper into the bridge, making sure to move as quietly as possible. These Asari had not stood a chance. Their armor was still largely intact, except for their chest plates. Those had been crushed and ripped apart, likely shattering their chest cavities.

A bad way to go.

There was a faint sound of clothing scraping over metal and Shepard immediately froze. Her combat instincts took over and she vaulted over the piece of metal she had been using as cover, taking aim with her SMG and charging her biotics-

-an asari noncombatant waited for her on the other side, white clothes and unarmed. Jane quickly switched the safety on and lowered her weapon, looking around to verify that this was truly the only survivor.

"Please!" The asari yelped, covering her head with her hands and falling to the floor. She was too loud; whatever did this could still be around. "Don't-"

Shepard was quick to grab the survivor and pull her down, wrapping a hand around her mouth to silence her. "Quiet!" she then hissed. "I'm Commander Shepard, from the Systems Alliance. I need you to talk as quiet as you can. Can you do that for me? Whisper?"

She looked so young. Younger than Liara. What was she doing here?

The girl nodded, prompting Jane to let her go. "Goddess, they're all dead…Commander, there is a monster onboard the ship, we need to get out of here!"

Shepard flinched at the Asari's loud voice. That wasn't how whispering worked! "Easy, I know. I need you to tell me where it came from."

"I…I…" the girl looked shaken. Shell-shocked. How did pale Asari look again? Because she was quite sure that this one was about as pale as a ghost for her species right now.

"From the derelict? Did it come from the derelict?"

The Asari nodded. "It…it came from a pod. A cold chamber. A c-cryo chamber. Oh Goddess…it killed everyone. Felore…Adene…"

"What happened here? Did you thaw it out?" It had to have come from the derelict, but what was it? "What is this thing? Tell me how I can beat it."

But the Asari was done talking. "Please…please save me. Please…d-don't leave me alone…oh Goddess…don't let it get me."

Well, done talking lucidly at least.

"Where did it go?" Shepard tried again, feeling goosebumps moving down her spine. It was like something was watching her, but there wasn't anything around her. Freaking dark in here, too. Why did this thing have to break all the consoles? What was the point of ruining the bridge? This bridge didn't lead anywhere. "Where did the monster go?"

"I-it came from the sky…out of n-nowhere. Like a spirit…"

The sky…out of nowhere…what was she talking about? What did those things mean? The sky…

Hang on. The ceiling had scorch marks on it. It had come from above.

Commander Shepard could feel her heart pounding faster as she turned around, aiming her SMG at the ceiling. She really hoped that she was wrong.

There, on the upper left, part of the ceiling had been shattered. A hole had been torn through the metal. Through the thick metal.

Shepard was about to signal EDI and call for immediate evac when she spotted something else. Something that, despite the situation, aroused her curiosity. It was a large cylinder, blue-greyish in nature, as wide as a man. Half as high though. Something lay on top of it, attached to one of the shattered consoles by several wired cables. Metal wires, weakly pulsating with latent power. A small metal disk. No, not a disk. A cube. Something was supposed to fit into it, right at the top. Except it was empty now.

Whatever it was, the crew didn't look like they wanted it left unchecked. Some sort of glass dome had been erected over the cylinder, like bullet-proof glass. Sturdy polymers of some sort.

Hadn't done them any good; it had been smashed open like an egg from the upper side

And what was this supposed to be, anyway? Was this part of the frigate?

Jane shook her head and swept her SMG around the interior of the bridge once more, checking to see if there was anything there. Anything at all.

"Damnit," she muttered, keeping a close eye on the hole in the ceiling. The Asari had fallen quiet, which was probably a good thing. "EDI, tell me you've got something for me?"

This time, the connection was better. "Shepard. All communication to the frigate have been severed."

The Commander pinched the bridge of her nose, hoping that she had heard that wrong. "Excuse me?"

"All outgoing communication has ceased. All internal communication has ceased as well. I suggest you regroup with the recon team and fall back to the Normandy."

"Yeah, we can't do that. We've got a survivor…there might be more."

"Very well, Commander. I shall attempt to keep this channel open."

She could come back for the asari later. This thing hadn't killed her, so she would probably be safe right where she was. As for the hostile though…if it had access to the ship, it could be anywhere.

Her communication channel registered someone trying to come through, but the connection was even worse than it had been with EDI. What was wrong with this ship? "This is Shepard, what's wrong?"

"-Shepard…- hostiles…- goddamnit! Cover…-"

That had to be Zaeed. Had he encountered something on the derelict? It was one thing for him to be cussing on the job, but it was a whole different thing for him to send such an incoherent message while in the middle of cussing on the job.

The unidentified hostile had relocated.

It didn't have to be true, though. For all she knew, Zaeed had lost his patience with the declining communication system. Or he had stubbed his toe.

Doubt flared through Shepard´s mind as she turned around and ran made a beeline directly towards the docking tube. Zaeed was one tough mother and both Tali as Mordin knew how to handle themselves in a fight. But this thing had managed to break free from a cryo tube, slaughter an entire platoon of well-armed mercenaries and subsequently beat an Asari Justicar, all on its own. Fighting other members of the team would be a cakewalk compared to that.

As much as she wanted to let go of that line of thought, Jane was just unable to. She didn't know Samara that well, but she had grown to appreciate the woman for her wisdom and grace, and admire her for her raw biotic power. Seeing her lying on the ground, battered and unconscious…

The small journey back to the docking tube was short, but goddamn did it last an eternity. Jane moved through the empty hallways on a snail's pace, never turning her back to anything for longer than a second. Every creak she heard, every movement she caught, was a potential hostile.

When Shepard made it to the docking tube however, all hope that this might be able to contain this thing within the Asari-Turian frigate disappeared. There used to be a circular door right in the middle of the white pipe, separating the two metaphorical halves of the connection between the two ships. An emergency bulkhead for…well, emergencies. Thick enough to withstand several explosions and all but the heaviest caliber of gunfire.

Something had ripped it apart. Torn the metal plating asunder, starting from the middle. The thick plating looked crumpled, like sheets of paper.

"You've got to be kidding me…" Shepard muttered, staring at hole that had been ripped through the door. The hostile had seriously crossed over into the wreckage? The unknown, unidentified derelict that could be filled with even more of the damn things? Great. Why the hell not.

So Zaeed hadn't stubbed his toe.

It was a surprisingly small hole for something that had to be the size of a Krogan, though. A few feet wide, at the most. No way that Grunt or Wrex would be fitting themselves through that opening.

As she dived through the hole, Shepard experienced something akin to a flashback. She half-expected the derelict to be covered with pulsating, brown plates of rock, eerily reminiscent of an insect hive that had been stuffed with bones and decomposing bodies. However, the inside of the wreckage was nothing like that claustrophobia-inducing hellhole.

No, the first thing that came to Shepard's mind was that she suddenly found herself on the inside of a gun, or some form of primitive barrack. It might have been the cold touch of space that had plowed through its every room, but the derelict was cold and dead inside.

Dark, black metal plating, heavy and wore-down. Shepard was glad for the large oxygen-supplies of her N7 suit; this place felt wrong. Out of place. It was vaguely primitive, but also very advanced.

And it just looked familiar, oddly enough. She couldn't place her finger on it.

Jane tried contacting her team again, but this time the signal was gone. No static, just…silence.

"EDI?" Shepard tried hailing the Normandy, but even that didn't work. She couldn't help but notice the shiver running down her back. Her nerves didn't lie to her; this place wasn't just dead, it seemed to…extend that deadness to everything around it. The Normandy was relatively colorful compared to this wreck. The lack of lights made it even worse. An eerie, dark hole that could be crawling with hostiles. Like Rachni, or Geth or…

Could this place hold Reaper tech?

Shepard realized something else. It bolstered her resolve and helped banish the unease from her mind. It might just be a powerful jammer aboard that was preventing her from contacting her team. And jammers could be destroyed.

Keeping that thought safely in the back of her mind, the Commander moved onwards. Despite the disturbing non-atmosphere of this derelict, she kept seeing signs that this was a military vessel. The complete lack of luxury and civilian infrastructure was a clear indication, but the entire way the ship had once been built just screamed "war" to Shepard. It was big, clunky and built like a bloating bunker.

The Commander pushed a floating piece of metal aside and looked at what was clearly a sign made for human language. And not just any word, but the only word that could fully catch her attention apart from "answers".

ARMORY

That proved that this ship had to be human; nothing about this derelict was even close to what sari, turians or salarians would build. Did that mean that The Illusive Man had lied to her though?

It didn't take long for Shepard to encounter something that distracted her from those thoughts. The armory in question was still filled with weapons. Keeping up with this derelict's tradition, the weapons were unlike anything she had ever seen. One of the walls was covered with dark-colored rifles that, in spite of the current conditions, didn't even look worse for the wear.

Jane whistled softly, picking up one of the black-grey weapons and observing it. Magazine fed, no thermal clips. A heavy, sturdy design, better than the Avenger class rifles. Better fit for clobbering, too. She didn't have much trust in the ergonomics of her own weapons. Beating a vorcha to death with her Tempest would work the first three or four times, but it would probably fall apart after that. This thing though? She could probably beat a Krogan to death with it and still have it function. Who had designed such a rifle?

The gun looked rather primitive at first hand, but a closer inspection revealed more details about its workings. Details that Shepard just couldn't quite place. It had an electronic display, which didn't seem to work with this specific weapon, but it also had a magazine filled with projectiles much larger than any automatic weapon had the right to carry. After much prying and pulling, she managed to pull one out of the magazine, which seemed to fit an awful lot of them.

The projectile looked like an ancient bullet. Bottlenecked, heavy and easily several inches long. A damn sniper round stuffed away into a fully-automatic rifle? What was this thing designed for, killing Krogans? Tanks? Was this some cut-down version of a heavy machinegun? That would make more sense. But bullets? Likely gas-operated. Gas-operated instead of using mass effect fields though? This had to be some very special black operations program.

Whatever it was, she couldn't waste a lot of time here. She had to rendezvous with the other team and make it fast. This operation was turning weirder with every passing second. Mordin could have all the fun he wanted with this gear as soon as they had made it out in one piece.

Shepard was walking to the other exit of the armory when something came through her communication channel. No static preceding it this time. That was strange enough in itself, but there wasn't even any message that followed through. Just some series of whistles. No, not whistling. Beeping. Short beeps, pauses, long beeps.

She didn't understand. For several minutes, she tried to make sense out of the seemingly-random series of sounds, until they eventually stopped.

"No Morse then? Interesting," a voice suddenly echoed through the interior of Shepard's helmet, prompting the Commander to utter one of Zaeed's favorite curses and whirl around with her SMG at the ready. "So much for my UNSC hypothesis."

"Who's there!" she demanded.

There was no response. Of course not; the voice seemed to have come from inside her own head. How long had she been scouring around in the darkness for a radio-transmitted voice to have sounded like a thought?

Well, whatever it was, it was gone now.

Jane shook her head, slowly lowering her weapon. Whatever the message had been, it proved one thing: her communications channel had not been fried by some alien cause. If she could receive, she could transmit. And if something could force her to receive, it meant that there was no jammer onboard.

Unless someone had turned it off for a short while.

She was overthinking this. That had always been one of her problems.

Shepard clenched her fists and moved on, constantly swiping her Tempest back and forth in calm, steady movements as she cleared the corners, rooms and corridors. Though the derelict was completely devoid of air and thus lacked any sense of sound and hearing whatsoever, there were moments where she could have sworn that the metal underneath her feet seemed to hum. Vibrations that reverberated through the walls.

Like something was stalking her.

Where was the other team, anyway? They didn't have oxygen for much longer than an hour or two. They would choke to death if they remained here too long.

The same went for her, if she didn't find her team. But seeing as she would rather choke to death in the cold fringes of space than give up on her teammates, that wasn't really a concern yet.

Two times Shepard whirled around, prepare dose a hostile creature with half a clip of SMG, and twice there was nothing. Just emptiness. Every groan and croak under her feet tensed her up and she half-expected the ceiling to come crashing down above her, just like the crew of the Asari Frigate had experienced when the hostile had butchered them.

Room after room that continued. Nerve-wrecking step after nerve-wrecking step, until finally Shepard outright concluded that, yes, she was being watched.

It was in another one of those dark, damaged rooms that Jane stopped and raised her Tempest once more, scanning the room. A chill ran down her spine as the sensation grew. Her heart beat so fast that she feared it would betray her location and she felt this odd, tingling feeling in the base of her neck, like something was about to pounce her.

She turned to the last corner of the room and froze. There, in the shadows, stood her quarry. As Shepard's eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness, she started to make out its features.

The thing was huge. Easily seven feet tall and fully, completely clad in armor. Not armored plating like Krogan, but a set of what looked like powered armor. In the dark interior of the derelict, it's outer plating looked as black as the night. But even with its features shrouded in the darkness, Shepard could make out several details that she doubted she would forget. Olive green and pure black, alternating in smooth yet bulky plating that covered the chest, arms, legs…basically everything. Its helmet was covered with the same, green plating, but its visor was golden. Strikingly so.

What is this thing? Shepard thought. She didn't lower her SMG, but she didn't fire either. She didn't know what to do. In a direct firefight like this, face-to-face with only a few empty meters of vacuum between her and her enemy? One who wielded the exact same rifle as she had found earlier, probably capable of ripping through her suit with two or three shots? She wasn't stupid. There was something about this giant's way of behaving that made her feel like holding her fire was the better of all the ideas in her head. It had done nothing to hurt the unarmed asari and right now, it hadn't attacked her on sight either. So it was capable of mercy, or at least of analyzing a situation. More than an animal.

So that begged the question: why murder the others?

The constant, steady sounds of her breathing sounded oddly warped now that there wasn't any noise or radio chatter around. Everything was just…mute. Completely empty. It made her uncomfortable. Jane wanted to try and talk to the creature, but there was no signal anywhere. All communications inside this vessel were dead. The jammer -if that was even the main problem- hadn't been taken out yet.

The sounds of her breathing inside of her helmet was uncomfortable, but the odd behavior of the new contact was even worse. It just stood there, staring at her. Holding that large rifle in such a way that it appeared relaxed, yet remained fully capable of snapping to action the second it was required. A military tactic, subtle enough to elude quite a few soldiers. And so refined…nearly elegantly so. Why wasn't it moving? There was no sign of it breathing, no sign of it being alive. It was just like a synthetic, unwavering in its actions.

Shepard could almost see her own reflection in its visor. Almost.

Well, now that the tension had grown noticeable enough to be felt in total vacuum, she might as well try something. She transferred her Tempest to her left hand and slowly lifted it into the air, away from her body. Right as she started moving, the heavy rifle snapped up and aligned itself with her head.

She hadn't physically seen him move.

The Commander froze, her mind racing to come up with a new plan of action. A part of her loathed this thing for its casual and brutal murdering of people who had only been trying to study it. Another part of her sympathized with it, understanding the significance of the cryogenic chamber and the return to the derelict. It could be afraid, frightened because it was surrounded by creatures it did not know.

Once her thoughts traveled to that specific road, things started to make sense. Coupled with the thing's intelligent behavior and humanoid physiology, the idea of an invisible predator with an uncanny savagery changed.

Shepard forced herself to push the images of the mutilated corpses and the unconscious Samara out of her mind and pointed at her SMG with her free hand, before gesturing at the ground. She repeated that gesture two times, but the alien didn't seem to get it. It didn't budge an inch and it didn't move its rifle down again. If she placed the gun on the ground now, it might open fire immediately.

Her radio crackled and popped and for the second time during this operation, a voice that she didn't know, spoke to her. In direct contrast to the nearly pleasant voice of the female from earlier, this voice was male. Very obviously. It was heavy and gravelly and completely devoid of emotion.

"Discard your weapon."

So much for her 'scared and alone' theory. Shepard scowled at the way the creature simply ordered her to unarm herself, but she still had her biotics if she needed to defend herself.

For a lack of a better alternative, she let go of her weapon and stepped away, annoyed by the way the SMG just kept floating. The alien was forcing her away from her weapon, instead of forcing her weapon away from her. It didn't feel very good.

"Who are you," she replied. How was it possible that her translator picked up on its language? Was it human? "Why did you kill those people?"

It didn't respond to her. Instead, it took a few steps towards the floating Tempest and snatched it out of the vacuum.

"I'm here to help," continued the Commander. "Are you hurt?" It had come from a cryogenic chamber…was it ill? Had this ship been attacked by something? There were no bodies at all…except for the chamber that had been taken away.

Taken.

Oh.

That explained it. The Collectors had attacked and crippled this vessel, stolen its crew and left the cryogenic chambers alone. Then, the asari Frigate had approached the ship, now a derelict. How along ago had this happened?

In all scenarios, this thing was alone. A ship couldn't be commanded by one person. Its crew was dead or gone. Friends? Family?

"Look, I think we started off on the wrong foot," Shepard said. She took a step towards the being and remembered the many times she had had to talk someone down like this. She hoped her silver tongue wouldn't fail her now. "I am Commander Shepard and I'm with the System's Alliance. Are you a soldier?"

"Where are we?" The creature asked, ignoring her attempts at diplomacy.

Biting back a sharp retort, Shepard decided that she would humor the alien. For a while. "Right now, you're in the Terminus Systems. Is this where your ship was attacked?"

For several nerve-wrecking seconds, the creature kept its weapon trained on Jane's head. But then he lowered it, seemingly convinced that his side of the situation was under control. "What year is it?"

Shepard frowned under her helmet. What year? This thing must have been out cold for a long time. "Twenty-one eighty-five. You need to listen to me; you just attacked and killed the crew of an official Asari Republic vessel. That's a bad thing. What did they do that you had to attack them?"

The creature didn't even bother to look at her as it replied with its uncanny human voice. "They were a threat. They initiated hostilities first."

A threat? What did it mean, a threat? "They attacked you first? You acted in self-defense?" That would explain the bodies of the mercenaries she had found…the Blue Suns. And it explained the fact that it hadn't gone after the unarmed Asari either.

There was just one problem though. His claim for self-defense wasn't an unfair one, but it wouldn't hold up in court. Mercenaries were one thing, but there had been some very obvious official soldiers involved in that battle. Asari Commandos as well as turian soldiers.

She could inform the Alliance or the Asari Republics about this, but the Turian Hierarchy wouldn't take kindly to this. When push came to shove, the Council would call for blood. And this thing would be the one to bleed.

"What's your name?" Jane then asked. "What do people call you?"

There was so much she needed to know and this alien could answer all her questions. And if it was capable enough to take on Samara and beat her without resorting to lethal actions, it had to be incredibly skilled as well. It couldn't be a synthetic, because it wouldn't have need for a cryo tube if that were the case.

She went with the thought of a new species until proven otherwise. What would she do with him? She couldn't just leave him here, drifting…

Well, an unpleasant voice in the back of her head told her, you already have a krogan. And a convict.

Could she…take this thing with her? Without the entire crew jumping at its throat? It was a dangerous thought…but if its vessel had been attacked by the Collectors, this soldier would have one hell of a motivation.

The Illusive Man wouldn't like it if she did. That was another argument for this new addition.

"That's classified on a need-to-know basis," the creature replied. It lowered its weapon completely and glanced at the side of the room, before turning away and walking off.

"Hey, wait up!" Shepard called, cursing herself for her indecision. "Did you happen to see my team? A three-man cell, two males and one female?"

"Yes."

Alright, stiff and way too military, but at least it was talking to her. "Where are they?"

"They're alive," he said. "Searching the hallways."

Zaeed, Mordin and Tali? He had evaded all three of them aboard a dead, broken ship?

Thane would be impressed.

"Can you tell me what you are? What do I call you?" Jane asked, following the creature as it wandered out of the room. Her curiosity was fighting a fierce battle with her pride and her worry for her team, but it was still winning out.

Again, no response. Its frustrating lack of manners could be forgiven though, seeing as merely watching it move was so fascinating. On one side, it carried itself with an amazing degree of fluidity and grace, but on the other hand it had to brace itself on at least two occasions. Even though he tried to mask it, Shepard didn't miss it.

Something was wrong. The creature came to a sudden stop, glancing aside as he did.

"What are you-?"

"There are hostiles inbound," it then said, turning around to face her. It towered above her by a good thirty centimeters and she wasn't the shortest soldier that the Alliance had to offer. "Enemy vessels, approaching the Dawn."

The Dawn?

"You should retrieve your allies and fall back to your ship," he then told her.

His sudden nobility took her by surprise, but the way he seemingly knew that there were hostiles inbound on his position was even weirder. "Yeah…how do you know that? There's a jammer onboard this wreckage, I couldn't contact my ship."

"A jammer?" He looked away again, as if he needed time to think about her comments. What was up with that? "Copy. You should be able to contact your ship. Get your people out."

Shepard toyed with the idea of leaving this wreck and forgetting this ever happened, before completely discarding that idea and turning to face the armored alien. "What sort of hostiles you got? I thought this ship was empty."

"It is," the alien commented. "Enemy vessel is flagged as Kowloon."

"Kowloon?" Jane repeated, recognizing the name as a basic freighter classification. She would be wondering what a freighter would be doing in this system, but she had had enough bad experiences with the people inside such ships to understand what this meant. The questions of how and why had to come later. "More details would be lovely."

"It's on an intercept course. Commander-"

So he did catch her name.

"-you can call for evac now. I'll deal with the hostiles."

"Yeah, nope," Shepard said as she turned to retrieve her discarded weapons. "The Council likes to think they don't have any influence in the Terminus, but nobody is going to ignore an alien boarding and clearing their ships. Besides; you might need help."

It -he- turned to glare at her from behind his visor. Everything about him screamed 'military', including the blunt and no-nonsense manner in which he spoke. She kind of expected him to simply withhold his response to her remark and lo and behold, he didn't respond. Not verbally at least. His nonverbal signals were nearly impossible to catch, but the mere fact that he turned around to look at her meant that something in her attitude got his attention.

"We can call an evac after we've dealt with these hostiles of yours," she said. "And then you and I are going to have to talk. Now, do you have a name, a call-sign?"

After a long pause, the creature said, "Chief will do."

~0~


"Check voice-frequencies one…two…three…this is Mental Health Specialist Jennifer Sunfield, lead psychologist working with the Section Seven of the Office of Naval Intelligence. I have finally received a full report concerning the Augmentations. There is the Carbide Ceramic Ossification for near-unbreakable bones, superconducting fibrification of dendrites…and several other enhancements that turn children into killing-machines. What the higher-ups did not want me to find out however, was the presence of at least three different kinds of drugs in this series. This…worries me. But I cannot linger on these uncertainties, as I have other work to do."

- Logbook entry (2), MHS Jennifer Sunfield, 30th of May, 2547