In addition, chapter four, wherein Shepard and the Chief get to know each other through kicking ass.
~0~
"It's an interesting development to note that, of the thirteen new Spartans we created, none of them are exactly the same. Not everybody got through the Augmentation procedure unscathed though. We've had a few…incidents. Nothing too major though. A small mental disorder similar to autism here, an inability to speak there. It doesn't matter to the grand design of having thirteen physically-modified supersoldiers ready to follow ONI's orders, but…well, compared to the II's? I'm a bit disappointed. I'm totally convinced that one of them could tear me into four pieces with a simple glare and I know they're all so much younger, but…disappointed."
Logbook of Dr. D. Ortyal, entry 102
~0~
[LOCATION CLASSIFIED -SECURITY LEVEL 05 REQUESTED]/[TIME-STAMP CLASSIFIED -SECURITY LEVEL 03 REQUESTED]
Admiral Margaret Orlenda Parangosky sat back in her chair, watching the collection of scientists and officers scramble about, trying to make sense out of the most recent events and the reason that they were invited here. Young ones, older ones, weird ones. How far the United Nations Space Command had come with recruiting the best and brightest. How much further she had to go to root out the incompetent ones and allow the sharpest ones to grow.
"Good evening," she spoke, instantly silencing the room with the mere audibility of her voice alone. Everyone looked at her, with a mixture of fear and -in one very specific case- mild amusement. "The purpose of this meeting is to discuss the disappearance of the UNSC battlegroup containing all twelve of the Spartan operators, the events leading up to the disappearance and the consequences."
She looked at one of the present officers -a man with a moustache and dark, grey eyes- and he stepped forward to salute. "Yes ma'am," he spoke. He then turned towards the holographic display and retrieved a small remote from his pocket. When he pressed a button on his device, the holographic globe in the center of the room shifted, taking the form of a Destroyer-class vessel.
"Consequences?" one of the officers asked. A Colonel, not much unlike the late Ackerson in appearance. "Have we found the battlegroup yet?"
"Negative," the officer with the moustache replied. His eyes flashed towards Margaret before quickly settling on the holographic display again. "At least, not the entire battlegroup. As we will discuss later in this meeting, we have made contact with the UNSC Wayfarer."
Parangosky sat up straighter in her seat when she heard that. She wanted to see how the rest of the gathered individuals responded to this news and one of them in particular got her attention. A younger man, looking too confident for her likings.
"Halfway through June, 2552, the UNSC Platernus was forced to make a Slipspace jump after the Battle of Aegis III, when the Covenant fleet broke off to engage it. The shipboard AI reported the Shaw-Fujikawa drives were undercharged when the randomizing process per Cole Protocol was commenced, before all contact was lost."
An underpowered Slipspace jump, then? Interesting. And foolish; the Captain in command of that vessel must have been truly desperate to undertake such an action. "On average…how many times was this particular maneuver executed successfully?" She asked, glancing at the younger scientist to gauge his response.
Said response was to lean back against the back of his chair, smirking and declaring, "Twice, if you don't mind me explaining, ma'am. Of the two documented attempts at under-powered jumps, both of them succeeded in spectacularly blowing themselves into atomized bits."
Young, brazen and smug in the face of a crisis that might well see the end of his career. Either she would have him removed from his position and demoted to lab-assistant in some foreign colony, or she would recruit him for her own team. Which one it was, depended on him. If he could match that arrogance of his.
Margaret did not care much for a lack of self-knowledge.
"Not this time though," the officer in charge of the presentation replied, glancing back at the display. "Four months after all contact was lost, we found the location of the Platernus. It was still intact."
Parangosky had heard about that. Whispers about a derelict UNSC vessel, located on a world where new Forerunner tech caches had been reported. Along with some other, stranger reports.
"Intact?" another officer asked, displaying the lack of knowledge that the Admiral did not like seeing. "It did not crash?"
"No," the officer with the moustache said. Parangosky took a closer look at the man, taking in his traits and characteristics. Captain 'Eric' Walker…a man of steel resolve, it seemed. Good. She would need that in the time to come. "It was recovered near the surface of an unidentified planet, heavily damaged and short one Pelican dropship. Spartan Operator zero-one-one was missing."
"What about the rest of the crew?" the other officer asked.
"Dead," the scientist replied, leaning forwards in his chair and glancing at the holographic display of the UNSC Platernus. No smugness, but just simple resolve. A fact, irrefutable, unable to be changed. "I presume? Cause of death, exposure to lethal radiation?"
"Correct," said one of the other scientists. "The ship did not succeed in blasting itself into 'atomized bits', as you so elegantly put it. Instead, the under-powered Slipspace jump must have created such an intense amount of uncontrolled, lethal radiation, that all personnel exposed must have died. I do hope it was instantaneous."
"All personnel without protective suits," Parangosky said, walking towards the holographic display and tapping at the screen with her cane. "What happened to the Spartan?"
"Once the battlegroup made it to the surface of the planet, they found eleven as well as the missing equipment he had taken from the Platernus. However, an incident took place."
"The Scattering," Parangosky said, frowning. She was here with some of the brightest members of the navy and they couldn't even get to the point without having to delay the subject with all the desperation of denial. "Five words. What exactly happened?"
Captain Walker as well as the other officers glanced at each other before quickly glancing at the safety of the holographic display. One peculiar -and to Margaret, annoying- exception was the young scientist that was getting awfully close to a promotion to junior lab-assistant on a farm, somewhere on one of the remaining outer colonies. "Battlegroup, Forerunner portals, gone, sad."
Margaret was about to make a note to remove the young moron from their midst when he did something new. While the rest of the group reacted with the appropriate shock and honest terror at what he had just done, the lad himself merely looked down at the table before looking at Parangosky herself, flashing her a charming smile.
One that did more to unnerve her than it did to inspire confidence. Her suspicions -that of a junior, unexperienced scientist who had no clue what he was doing here- made place for new ones. That of a manipulative and calculating snake whose intentions were not entirely clear. That was…an interesting realization. If he was good, she might have him removed as a threat to her reign. If he was even better…she might recruit him for what came next.
"I would agree with him," Captain Walker added. Excellent.
"An apt explanation," Parangosky said, glaring at the scientist. His name, doctor Ortyal. She knew that name. The head of Xenobiology, the brilliant and utterly mad holder of the placate 'Youngest doctorate xenobiology' and most unpredictable person in this room. "Captain Walker, do continue. We are on a tight schedule."
"Of course ma'am," the man replied. Less sharp, more loyal. More useful? "As soon as the battlegroup descended towards the atmosphere, several unidentified Forerunner crafts appeared and seemed to create new Slipspace portals by as-of-yet unknown means. All but one of the vessels in the battlegroup, including the UNSC Wayfarer, ceased communications afterwards. This happened after the Battle of Earth. The sole remaining vessel reported that the site was inhabited by humans and animals. Humans without knowledge of the UNSC and animals with…distinct and unique abilities, stretching the laws of physics. The Spartan verified that they were, in fact, Forerunner experiments. Some sort of energy conversion project, he called it."
"So," Parangosky said, silencing him. "And thus the battlegroup was split up. Destinations?"
The older scientist spoke up. He was a balding man with spectacles, looking awfully out of place amidst these confident men. Margaret was careful not to underestimate him though; he was the lead scientist in the applied physics department of Section III and not so easily replaced. That placed him in direct contrast to most of the men in the room. "There are large regions of space that are occupied by the Covenant. However, the region they occupy means nothing to the vast size of our galaxy. There are massive portions of space, such as the Perseus and Saggitarius Arm, where we know there are no Covenant settlements. We know this because the ambient radiation and other signals are so significantly different from what we know, that it is exceptionally improbable that those regions are occupied by the Covenant."
"Am I to conclude that the ships ended up in completely unoccupied regions of space?" Parangosky said with a sneer. The man sounded so passionate about his work that it was almost ridiculous.
"I never said that the regions were unoccupied," the scientist replied, pushing his glasses higher up his nose. A habit that was not unlike Halsey's. "I have no reason to believe that the Covenant has occupied these worlds. However, I have every reason to believe that these worlds are occupied by a different empire."
"Which brings us to the next subject," Captain Walker dryly commented. "The UNSC Wayfarer has attached a large amount of information in the catalog attachment files. The shipboard AI has gathered several caches worth of background noise and new radiation that…seems to support the professor's claim about a different empire."
Margaret didn't allow anyone to see it, but that news deeply unsettled her. A new civilization? So soon after the Covenant? There was no reason to believe that they would be willing to broker peace. No, there was every reason to believe that these new aliens were hostile as well.
"- so I am willing to bet that, wherever the Wayfarer ended up, it has to be near these worlds. In fact, they might be the first delegation of mankind to make contact," the older scientist then passionately concluded.
Margaret turned towards the only other female in the room, a young Captain standing near the door opening. An experienced soldier who had been recruited into the Navy after a series of ground engagements in the Marine Corps. "Captain Rook, you attached a proposal in reply to these events. I did not read it. I would like to hear it from you, personally."
The Captain nodded and crossed her arms behind her back. "Yes ma'am. I propose we ready a fleet and rendezvous with the Wayfarer's last known location. If we are to make contact with the hypothetical new alien race, we should do it officially."
"And your proposal?"
The officer straightened her back and replied, "I propose we ready the Infinity and her squads of IV's to reinforce the Wayfarer and establish first contact with these hypothetical aliens. One our own officers can make official contact."
One of their own officers…the implication was clear. Rook wanted the UNSC Infinity on this despite it not being ready for eventual hostile contact. Perhaps…a show of force would go a long way in preserving humanity's interests.
"You could do that," doctor Ortyal said, raising his eyebrows as he glanced at the woman who should, in theory, outrank him so much that he ought to crane his neck up simply glancing at her. "If you're an idiot."
It grew very quiet in the brightly-illuminated room. Everybody currently present turned to look at Parangosky, who in turn raised her head and glared at the scientist who had just sealed his fate.
Perhaps he felt the lingering tingle of a looming death sentence floating above his head, because the young man leant forwards again and placed both elbows on the table. "Imagine that this new alien empire is planning on taking on mankind. They invite us to the peace-treaty, smiling and readying their dinner forks. They see the Infinity, they see our IV's and think 'gosh, all that armour looks intimidating. We'll make sure to take lots of armour-piercing rounds with us', meaning that we effectively spoiled and thus wasted our biggest trump cards. But if we show…say, the Marines onboard some Frigates, they will prepare to catch the small fries. Sometimes, you just need some good-old fashioned element of surprise…don't you, Admiral?"
That last part was aimed at her. God, the man was confident. Not a hint of fear in his eyes. His arguments were…irrefutable. His attitude intolerable. No respect for his elders, no hesitation in pointing out some very obvious mistakes in what could have been a good plan. If his statements had been an inch less logical, she would have had him removed. "It is my opinion that we have reached the purpose of this discussion. The necessary people will be notified of the discovery of a potential new alien empire, as well as the orders that will be given to the Wayfarer. As the leading experts on your respective areas of expertise, you will be expected to board the nearest vessel that will be reinforcing the Wayfarer."
She ignored the various looks of surprise and confusement that her statement caused and continued. "After that, you will receive the full report of your new assignments as well. Doctor Ortyal…I want to speak with you. Alone."
The doctor nodded. "Of course, Admiral."
It didn't take the gathered personnel long to take their leave. The twin Captains, the professor, the Colonel, all of them walked right out of the room, leaving Admiral Prangosky alone with the man who so unsettlingly resembled Catherine Halsey. Except that she had never been so vocally arrogant.
"Doctor David Ortyal," she spoke, as if the name itself would be the man's condemnation. "Right now, I feel inclined to dump you in the darkest, most reclusive hole to be found in the outer colonies. You have one chance to make me change my mind."
The looming threat of the end of his career did not faze him either. "Weeeell…you could do that thing you just mentioned, but which head of xenobiology would you use to combat this new potentially and hypothetically-hostile alien empire?"
"I can have a new replacement within the day," she said, leaning back and glaring at the man.
"Yes, but that would be a sad waste of a perfectly good day! The way I see it, with the future of mankind in the spanner, you need the best of the best. You don't send a Marine to do a Spartan's job and you don't send someone else to do my job. The things we reverse-engineered from all those Covenant corpses? The medical advancements we made? I needed all the days I had."
"If you are the best of the best." Margaret spoke, standing up from her seat and advancing towards the most arrogant and perhaps most unique young scientist she would most definitely come to despise since Halsey. "I expect results, not driven by ethics, but driven by our need. I expect efficiency and above all, loyalty. If cannot muster that, doctor Ortyal..." she didn't finish that sentence, expecting the smug young man to figure out it himself.
Said smug young man simply saluted her. "Of course, Admiral. Given that the last scientist who promised you this, sort of washed away, I suppose words won't cut it. If you want to, you can tell Miss Osman to requisition an AI to keep an eye on me."
For a few seconds, Parangosky leered at the young doctor, her mind switching back between his extermination and his promotion like the pin of a firing rifle. In the end however, his usefulness and intelligence won out over his arrogance and hopelessly detestable personality. So she smiled, which he took as a sign to stand up. "Congratulations on your post on the new front lines," Margaret said, extending her hand towards the young man. I do hope you realize that mankind must never go back to running and hiding, doctor."
"Oh, Admiral Parangosky, once I have a team established, running time is over."
"Good. Because if you mess up even one time, I will personally have you removed from your post, my way."
His smile faded away as her words connected within his mind. Revealing his extensive knowledge of ONI's affairs made him even more valuable, but it also made him even more dangerous. "Of course, Admiral."
Ah, so now he watched his words. Excellent. "I will set you up immediately. An AI to monitor you, you said? I think I can take care of that. Is there anything else you need, doctor?"
He blinked, managing to reply within a reasonably-short amount of time. "A lab, perhaps, where we can make science sing a song of new weapons and technology. A holding cell powerful enough to hold a Jiralhanae and…perhaps a portable carrier for that AI. Could you do one thing for me, Admiral? One thing above all things?"
Parangosky wasn't so sure what to think about the man. He was like a mixture between Catherine Halsey, Serin Osman and a child that was too smart for his own good. She hated his guts, but there was something in him that she respected. Something she wanted to preserve. He had better be as good as he said he was. "My time is precious, doctor. What could you need on top of all of your other requests?"
"When you…when you get that AI to monitor me…could you perhaps make it a male model?"
Parangosky blinked. "Excuse me?"
"Well…the last time I had to work with a female model, things didn't go as well."
"Request denied," Parangosky brusquely said, making a mental note to do some digging in regard to this AI incident. "Get moving, doctor. Your time is even more precious."
"Of course, Admiral."
~0~
A sickening image of blood spilling free. Not red, not human. The warm sensations of combat stimulated his senses, cutting through the groggy, drowsy state of his mind and invigorated his limbs.
"Chief?"
More at the end of the hallway. More of them. They would not take her. Within half a second, he had crossed the distance. Metal struck metal and another body cracked and broke. Air and blood spilled into the empty hallway from a shattered helmet.
"Chief!"
They would not take her. He reached out, tore the weapon away and opened fire. No red blood this time. Aliens and humans working together. Memories of his own experiences with such an alliance came flooding back to him and he recalled the one alien he had enjoyed working with. The one non-human individual he had respected.
The Ark. Halo. The memories that seemed to rush to the front of his mind distracted him and he quickly forced them back again. Nothing would distract him from his mission-
"John, listen to me!"
The Chief halted in his tracks, flinching at the loud tone of the female who was so desperately calling his name. Cortana.
"You need to take this one easy -you never properly woke up from Cryo."
Her words did not make much sense to him, but her voice did. He had failed to safe her once, but not again. "I won't let them take you," he said, the strain of talking doing nothing to lessen the burning in his throat.
"Whatever those aliens did once they scavenged the pod, it damaged the systems. Your vital signs- "
His reflexes kicked in faster than was humanly possible and jerked his body aside. A blue sphere tore through the vacuum, barely missing the green metal of his thorax plating. It moved so slow -before it could impact, he took three large strides forwards and lashed out with his leg, crushing the chest plates of the still glowing offender. There were more of them -always more. Bodies that did not belong to the UNSC, not to the Covenant.
He rounded the corner and encountered a trio of new hostiles, on the other side of the dark hallway. Time slowed to a crawl as the trio raised their weapons and started shouting. Slow. So slow. Barely a second passed between the identification of the hostiles and the resulting fire as his own rifle snapped up, magnitudes faster.
The rapid rattle of his stuttering rifle was felt only through the vibrations in his arm, but the rounds tore through the aliens´ suits with only a small burst. The aliens jerked back as the powerful rounds tore through their helmets.
Shields. Invisible. Weak. His enemy would not get the chance to stop him. There was a dull aching in his left foot as he thundered down the hallway, quickly followed by a sharp twinge of pain in his spine. Irrelevant, inconsequential. Only one thing mattered.
A small screen appeared in his already-malfunctioning Heads-Up Display. A blue bar with white lines that seemed to jump up and down erratically, occasionally turning to red.
"Chief, your vital signs are through the roof, you need to slow down and listen to me!"
Her voice cut through the fog in his mind like a knife, forcing him to break his sprint off and come to a standstill. Standing still, not moving…it bothered him more than it should. His muscles were itching, burning. He needed to be moving. Time was wasting. He had abandoned her once. Never again. "They took you away. I have to stop them."
"I'm here, John. You beat them. I'm safe, now look at these vital signs. They're yours and if you don't watch out, they will crash."
The Chief hesitated, before glancing at the little blue bar. It was a fact; they were his. It didn't matter though; he had been pushing himself to his utmost limits for days now. This -this wouldn't stop him. These enemies were nothing. "Cortana-"
"Chief, you're not even fully awake right now. Your nervous system is filled with stimulants and drugs meant to stop you from waking up. Someone pulled the plug before you could wake up properly."
Not awake properly? Nonsense. He was alive and he was fighting. This wasn't a dream, he was lucid.
Stopping near the bodies of the three latest hostiles, the Chief knelt down and checked for anything he could use. They were more of the female hostiles. A thin bodysuit covered their fragile bodies, blue, black…purple. Helmets barely thin enough to sustain an internal air supply…they were different.
"Where are we?" he asked, scanning his environment for additional hostile contacts. "I don't recognize these aliens."
"I suppose you already know we're still on the Dawn? Or back on the Dawn, that is. As for in which system we are, I can't really tell. Maybe we should visit the Commander again."
The Chief stood up from the corpses, making sure to picket their weapons. "Which Commander?"
"The one you talked with just some time ago. Or did you forget that? You forgot that, didn't you? Now do you believe you're basically a sleep-walking child with a gun?"
He didn't quite follow the metaphor, but her intention was clear. And the fact that he had clearly forgotten some very important events didn't inspire much confidence. His mind was preoccupied with too many things at once -as much as he liked to, he could not analyze this situation and figure it all out when the basics were missing. He needed to go back -back to what he did know. "The Ark…the portal. It cut out. I went into Cryosleep. I told you-"
"Wake me when you need me. And I tried to -when they tore your pod from its support…there was a lot of damage to the Dawn. Not much I could do."
The Chief halted, hesitant to keep moving now. Something was wrong. Cortana sounded off. Like she was hiding something from him. "Cortana, I found you at the bridge. They removed you from the console. Are you alright?"
"I am just fine, thank you very much," Cortana snapped at him without even letting him finish his sentence. Then, a moment later, she seemed to regret that. "I'm sorry. It's… I tried something to help pass the time in case people were looking for us. It's nothing. Don't break your helmet about it."
She was definitely hiding something from him. That was a first. He wouldn't press her though; her judgement was better than his. Especially now that he was not even fully aware of his surroundings. It was a dangerous situation and he needed full control over himself if he wanted to survive it. He could recall snippets and pieces of the conversation he had with the woman; he had told her to discard her weapons and she had accepted.
She had also been a senior officer. A Commander...to whom? She hadn't recognized the ship, hadn't recognized him. A rogue faction? A distant colony?
It was no use thinking about this. He needed something distinct -an objective, something to work towards. Escape from the Dawn. Return to UNSC space. A lifepod? Maybe. Not with the hostiles onboard. Clear them, get onboard their vessel, have Cortana plot them a course back to Earth.
But that was all the reprieve he got. He had barely reached the conclusion or another pair of aliens rushes around the corner, carrying heavy weapons and surrounded in a bright corona of purple light.
The Chief ducked low when the hostiles opened fire, returning fire as he did. He felt that his mind still wasn't quite ready yet and when what had to be a Rocket-Propelled Grenade came screaming right for him, it was up to the subconscious mind to get him in the clear. Reflexes forced his muscles back and away, jerking his body sideways. It was a hair's breadth of a gap that allowed the missile to streak past him, close enough that the heat of it caused his shields to flare. Time slowed to a crawl as the aliens' movements grew sluggish and dull. Easily holding the heavy rifle in one hand, the Chief forced his arm still and pulled the trigger. Two rounds splashed harmlessly across that same shielding, but the third drilled through the hardsuit without hinder.
Behind him, the explosive detonated against the far wall, blowing the metal apart in a soundless explosion. The absence of air did little to stop the lethal wave of shrapnel that subsequently followed, and several pieces of white-hot metal had to be stopped by his shields.
The drain was negligible.
The situation was familiar. Alien hostiles, a clear objective. Cortana guiding him through it. He was reminded of his fights at the first Halo Installation, where he had fought his way through the evacuating Pillar of Autumn to get Cortana to a lifeboat safely. Some things didn't change.
His doubts and worries put at rest by the well-known sensation of combat, the Chief pushed on.
~0~
Once again, the internal comm unit crackled to life and this time, the odd whining sound at the end of the interference meant that the link was stable again. It was about damn time.
"Commander," Joker's voice came through. He sounded uncannily concerned. "I think we're in trouble."
"I know," Shepard said with a soft growl. The green-armoured soldier had disappeared. Half a minute it had taken her to retrieve her gear and in that half a minute, he had run off again! God knew what sort of trouble he would cause if left unchecked. "Our guest disappeared again."
"Our...oh shit! Shepard, that is not good. Not good at all. You need to find him!"
"I know!" Shepard replied. "You don't need to tell me that."
"Yeah, well, that trouble I talked about? EDI managed to hail that Kowloon-class Freighter. It's not Mercenary at all!"
Jane´s blood ran cold. She had suspected something like this when she had seen the corpses onboard the Frigate, but…this couldn´t be good. "Not mercenaries? Which moron decides that sending a damn freighter towards a distress call is a good idea?!"
"Apparently, Asari morons, Commander. It's a training vessel for Asari maidens training to become Commandos. They're responding to…one moment. Go ahead EDI?"
Asari Commandos? She had to find that green giant, now! If he so much as spotted those troops, they would slaughter each other.
"Alright, Shepard, do we tell the angry Asari Commandos that their research Frigate staffed with hired protection against pirates was violently ravaged? And that we just happened to come across the scene?"
Shepard's mind raced to find an outcome for this complete and utter mess that they had gotten themselves into. A distress call, a perhaps-human perhaps-synthetic contact that had broken free and slaughtered the crew. Not mercenaries, but scientists and soldiers. Officially-hired guns. As the only ones at the site of the murders, she and her crew would be held responsible. At best, it would be a diplomatic incident. At worst, it meant an interspecies incident between the Systems Alliance and the Asari Republics. Knowing her luck, this might well lead to war. That couldn't happen.
The creature. The armoured soldier. If the Asari found out that it was responsible, they would demand its execution. And if that thing made it worse by slaughtering their trainees... "Joker, tell them to immediately pull their troops out. `
"Alright. How should I tell them that?"
"I don't care, just get them out of the derelict! Tell them that it's not safe, that their troops are in immediate danger."
"Copy that. I'll think of something…do you think they'll believe it when I say there's an Asari-specific version of Scale Itch contamination?"
"If you want to, I can have Mordn make that when everybody surives." Shepard terminated the connection and, after a brief moment of hesitation, set her commlink to open frequency. "This is Commander Jane Shepard of the Systems Alliance Navy. To anyone hearing this, this derelict is not safe. Repeat: not safe."
With that taken care off, the Commander hurried after the armoured soldier. The hallways weren't that illogical; there was a certain layout to this place and with a bit of thinking, it could be figured out. Armory, bridge, brig, engineering, all of those were locations on every human military vessel. And while she wasn't that certain that a bisected alien vessel would contain the same locations, there was a certain charm in hoping. Who knew; she might get lucky and find him.
As it turned out though, luck was far away. She hadn't gone more than a few hallways when she found the first corpses. The standard Commando outfit, just less decorative. Two Asari, both of them killed with blunt force trauma. A shattered skull, a crushed chest cavity. So much blood…it always sickened her.
Shepard sighed. Wasn't it her duty to protect the innocent? Protect other soldiers against threats like these? If so, wasn't it also her duty to take away the danger? Kill those who threatened the lives of those she had sworn to protect?
Damnit, just the thought about having to take out a confused and provoked individual like him was enough to make her feel like she was the bad guy. She really liked it better when the enemy was obvious; heartless robots or evil zombies. Taking out fellow soldiers…that didn't fly by her.
As Jane continued through the derelict, following a near-literal trail of bodies, her hopes of recovering this situation grew smaller and smaller yet. More would-be Commando bodies. A trio that had been shot through the head. All of the were Asari alright…but this didn't fit here. Something was wrong…she couldn't quite put her finger on it. How had these Commandos figured out about this derelict? Why the Mercenaries?
She contacted the Normandy and recalled the last time she had faced Asari commandos. During her time chasing down Saren, facing off against Matriarch Benezia. Powerful combatants, the best of the best.
Gunned down without a chance. Either these were really inexperienced trainees, or there was something to her new friend that she couldn't quite see. "Joker, do you have anything for me?"
"No contact Commander. Either they're ignoring us, or they're too busy scurrying around the derelict."
"Copy that," Shepard said, terminating the link. She sighed and hefted her SMG, pushing deeper into the wreckage. Following the bodies was easier than she had thought, however it was still a grim way of reaching her objective. Something kept nagging at her, right at the back of her mind. It felt like a memory trying to resurface, or a dream fading away. She just couldn't grasp what it meant, but her instincts had saved her more often than not. She decided to keep off the comm channel for now, just in case.
She caught movement directly ahead of her and she broke into a flat sprint, chasing after the individual only known as 'Chief'. Vaguely aware that she was heading into a large mess hall, Shepard was thankful to see that there weren't any biotic explosions or other signs of Commando combat.
Hopefully that didn't mean it was over already...
Shepard gritted her teeth, telling herself that such a thing wasn't possible. She'd be in time to fix this -she always was. She just needed the chance to resolve this peacefully, without bloodshed.
Finding the armoured alien on his own wouldn't have been as bad as finding him together with the dead bodies of another two Asari soldiers. Young ones, from the looks of it. He was standing right next to them, dropping the shattered remains of what had once been a Revenant.
Jane shook her head. Such a waste. "Chief, stand down! You're killing innocent soldiers!"
The very instant Shepard entered the mess hall, the armoured giant turned around and aimed his weapon at her. The sheer speed of his movement would have impressed Shepard, had this time not been so urgent.
"They initiated hostilities first," he replied. His voice sounded gravelly and heavy. "They are hostile alien lifeforms, Commander."
Hostile alien lifeforms? As opposed to what?"Chief, listen to me! These people aren't your enemies, just stand down and-"
Unfortunately, the armoured alien would not find out what would happen if he just stood down. The doors on the other side of the mess had exploded outwards, blasting the metal doors off their hinges in a blue flash of light. More Asari soldiers poured inside of the hall, but only some of them were actually Commandos. Others carried heavy weapons and shotguns and some of them even melee weapons. Odd. Asari in close quarters? Without biotics?
The Chief took aim with his rifle and Shepard quickly stepped up to him in an attempt to stop him. But he didn't fire -he waited. He stood at the ready with his rifle raised up to his shoulder, but nobody fired. Had she come through to him?
Somehow she doubted that.
However, now she had the exact same problem with the Asari soldiers. She rapidly hit the global frequency and snapped, "This is Commander Shepard of the System Alliance Navy! Everybody, hold your fire! The situation is under control!"
The first response was only a heartbeat away. "I don't care for your identity, human! The being is coming with us!"
Jane increased her grip on her SMG, staring at one of the Asari who arrogantly strolled down the mess hall, holding a large Revenant LMG in her arms. She took a breath and exhaled, subtly readying her biotics. "Look, this situation is a misunderstanding. I don't want this to become a diplomatic incident!"
The tension between the two groups grew considerably as the what to be the Commanding Officer of the Commando squad gave her reply. "Easy. Give us the creature and we won't blame the Systems Alliance for the lives that were lost today." Then, for some reason, the Asari added, "Yes, as soon as one of them moves, open fire."
Shepard raised an eyebrow, but she did not comment. An Asari Commando forgetting to switch to a private channel? Unlikely. "I can't do that. What's your name?"
"Why is that important?"
The other Asari were taking up good firing positions. This was going to escalate. "I'm curious. Look, your soldiers pulled him out of his cryogenic sleep. He is confused, away from his people. We can work this out."
"Keep her talking. Open fire as soon as I give the order. Prioritize Shepard, take the creature alive."
Did the Asari not realize that she was talking on the open channel? Jane could hear her. The Chief could hear her.
She did not want to resolve this situation with violence; enough soldiers had died today. But if these Asari was not willing to listen to reason…if was going to turn into a firefight, she had to pick a side. And she knew which one that would be. "Do you want the lives of your soldiers to have been in vain? Because that's what's going to happen if you keep fighting! This can end right now, if you just lower your guns!"
"That's a good idea, human. Throw your guns away, then we can talk." To her squad mates -or so the Commander presumed- she said, "Get ready."
Despite the situation, Shepard smirked. Get ready? Well then, if she insisted. "Fine. If I drop my weapons, will you let him go?"
"Just do it!"
For the second time in five minutes, Shepard let go of her SMG and gave it a gentle nudge, watching it float away in the absence of gravity. "There. Now we can talk, right?"
"Do it."
A surge of adrenaline spiked and Shepard lashed out at the exact same time as the lead Asari did. Her biotics flared to life in an explosion of light and clashed with the biotic energy of her enemy with enough force to dent and singe the armour plating around them. Tables were torn free of the floor, loose pieces of shrapnel went everywhere and the other Asari opened fire.
Jane was forced to prematurely cut her biotics down and leap at the side to avoid the gunfire. Her kinetic barriers stopped the few rounds that did hit her and she quickly vaulted over one of the upturned tables. She took a deep breath and engaged her biotics again, jerking het SMG over towards her. She peered over her improvised cover and took a shot at the Asari leader, but she disappeared in a flash of blue light, only to reappear a few feet to the side, hidden safely behind one of the metal pillars that seemed to support the superstructure of the ship.
Damnit.
She glanced over her cover again to identify the enemy leader, but the amount of gunfire that had been pouring into her direction had decreased dramatically in the two seconds that had passed. The reason why was equally obvious as disturbing.
With almost machine-like efficiency, the green-armoured giant picked off the various Asari soldiers one by one. Two of them charged at him, supported by their biotics and their equivalent of knives, or machetes. Thin, oddly blurry and charged with energy. They parted and jumped from left to right with that biotic dashing ability, attempting to surround the hulking titan of a soldier, but he responded with such speed that they might as well have been standing still.
He deflected the first attack with a casual gesture of his hand and stepped closer to the Asari CQC specialist, throwing several punches to her chest and head faster than any human could respond. By the time Shepard realized that he hadn't necessarily deflected the first attack as he had shattered her wrist and avoided the strike altogether. The second Asari didn't even have the time to correct her movements as he simply sidestepped her and lashed out with his leg, his boot impacting on her helmet and sending her crashing into the nearest pillar.
It was as if his body didn´t work the same as the rest. His movements were so alien, for a lack of a better description. Despite the occasional small slip-up that had to be the result of some injury, the armoured behemoth combined lightning reflexes with a prowess exceeding that of even Krogan.
A flicker of movement triggered Shepard´s own reflexes and she threw herself backwards just as one of the Commandos vaulted over her cover, slamming a biotically-charged fist at the spot she had been using as cover.
She tore her sidearm from her holster and opened fire, but the Asari closed the distance before she could pop her shields and clashed with the Asari Commando, intent on hitting her with another charged strike.
Jane reached out and slammed her fist against her assailant's head, charged with biotic energy. She sent the Commando staggering and quickly followed up with a snap-kick to the warrior's chest, before she dove underneath her outstretched arm and slammed her knee against her chest.
The Asari flinched and attempted to jerk back, but Jane did not let her. She wedged her elbow around her neck and jerked it back, feeling a vibrating crack run through her arm. The body went limp.
"Shepard, friendlies at your six!"
Garrus, Jane thought with a hint of relief. He was alright!
She didn't get any time to feel glad for the arrival of her old friend. The leader of this fireteam seemed to have singled her out as the biggest threat and was now steadily advancing on her, firing her Revenant rifle as she did.
The hyper-velocity rounds tore through the space around her and her kinetic barriers quickly dropped under that hail of fire. She quickly erected a biotic barrier around her body and dove to the side, rolling over her shoulders as soon as she made contact with the floor. An idea popped into her head with all the suddenness of a bullet and she disengaged the various magnetic strip on her body, completely detaching herself from the floor. She braced her legs and jumped at one of the pillars, grabbing it with both hands and pulling herself around it for cover.
Jane caught the side of more dead bodies, courtesy of the green alien. A team of trained elite Asari wasn't even slowing him down; as he shot two of the aliens through their heads, he ducked low to dodge an attack that he could not possibly have seen coming and a rocket flashed through the space he had just occupied. He then whirled around and kicked off against the floor, crossing the several meters between himself and his assailant in the blink of an eye.
Shepard didn't need to see what happened next. No, her own fight was with the crazy leading a team of nutcases. The Asari Commando, who seemed to have made this situation into her own personal grudge.
Jane pushed off from the pillar and ejected the heatsink from her Carnifex, taking a few moments to spot her quarry.
Said quarry seemed to have lost track of her, instead deciding to sneak around the Chief's flanks and prep two grenades. Shepard's temper flared when she saw that and her barrier rippled in response. She would use her own team as a distraction simply to give herself an advantage? Using explosives on a foe her own allies were fighting in close quarters? Disgusting. Asari Republics or not, she wouldn't be leaving this derelict alive.
Reaching with her hand, Shepard pulled the twin grenades out of the air before they could even get halfway towards the alien soldier. She then threw them right back at the Asari, who had mere seconds to dive for cover before they detonated.
Taking half her barriers with them. Good enough.
Jane pushed herself away from her pillar and leapt for the Asari, not about to let her escape. She vaulted over one of the tables and reactivated her armour's magnetic strips, allowing her boot to come down with much more force.
The second she made contact with the floor, she sent a biotic blast through her leg and through the floor. Metal ruptured, tables were blown away and the Asari staggered backwards under the force. It didn't take her long to recover though and she quickly took aim with her Revenant-
Only Jane was faster. She closed the distance with a cry that went unheard and lashed out with her other leg, sending another wave of destructive biotic energy washing over the Asari, who quickly and narrowly managed to dash aside to dodge it.
Something exploded behind the Commander, sending waves of shrapnel through the mess hall. Her barrier flared in protest, but it remained active. The same couldn't be said for the Asari commandeer though; her barrier dissipated with such force that Shepard could feel the latent biotic waves washing over her through her armour. Whoever this Asari was, she was strong. Not as powerful as Benezia had been, but strong.
So strong in fact that Jane could not allow her to recover from the initial assault. She knew how gifted the Asari were in fighting with biotics; humans generally couldn't compare to them. With raw power alone, she wouldn't win this.
But she did not fight with raw partner alone. Jane had always been creative in combat and when she had first manifested biotic potential, she had only taken that creativity further. Her young age at the start of the training had certainly helped with that.
She placed her boot on the floor and dashed forwards in a burst of biotics, thrusting the palm of her hand at the stomach of her foe. The Asari twirled, narrowly dodging the strike and countering with one of her own. Jane easily dodged that strike, as well as the second, but then the Asari moved through the air in a flash of blue light and for a split-second, Jane lost track of her foe.
Something impacted at her side, stronger than a Krogan charge. Jane felt her lungs painfully contract and she tumbled over her side, quickly slamming the palm of her hand against the floor to steady herself. Instead of retreating and catching her breath, Jane made the split-second decision of going on the offensive. She pushed herself up from her half-prone position on the floor, kicking at the Asari to drive her back. Jane had to ignore the burning pain in her side, but it wasn't the first time. Wouldn't be the last either.
The commander threw a biotically-charged fist at Shepard's face, but she ducked low and grabbed the arm, before kicking at the Asari's midsection with her leg engulfed in a corona of blue light. Something gave away underneath her leg when she connected and the Asari jerked back, reaching for her abdomen.
Still holding the Asari by her arm, Jane heaved and jerked her off her feet. She followed up with a point-blank biotic blast, annihilating the last of her enemy's protective layers and throwing her in the air. With one smooth gesture, Shepard grabbed her Carnifex, took aim and pulled the trigger twice. The two rounds punched clean through the Asari´s helmet, ending the fight at last.
Shepard immediately spun around to support the Chief, adrenaline snuffing out the pain and sharpening her senses. The grim feeling that the death of the Commando left her with stood in sharp contrast with Garrus loudly proclaiming that they could 'scratch' another one.
Shepard watched as one of the Asari feebly attempted to crawl back on her feet, holding her hands in the air in the universal 'surrender' sign. Had she been the one to encounter the maiden during the fight, she would have shown mercy. It appeared that the concept was still somewhat strange to the chief; he shot the Asari through her head with a rather oversized pistol without even glancing her way, before turning towards Garrus.
The Turian extended his hand and stepped towards the Chief, who replied by raising his pistol again-
Garrus.
Jane reacted before she could feel any of the concern and horror she felt a second later. She swung her arm through the air, grabbing a hold of her Turian friend and sweeping him right off his feet, throwing him behind one of the pillars. "Chief, no! Garrus is with us!"
The armoured behemoth did not lower his gun as he gave his reply, the golden visor that was his face never leaving the metal frame where Garrus had smartly taken cover.
Silently praising her companion for his level-headedness to refrain from shooting back, Shepard strode towards the Chief. He was so large; easily seven to eight feet tall. That golden visor of his oddly reflected the ravaged interior of the mess hall, including the craters that had been left in the wake of her own fight.
"I'll let your execution of surrendering enemy combatants slide this time," Shepard angrily told him, trying to keep her voice level. "But you do not threaten my team again!"
When the massive soldier glanced down at her, the distorted image of the mess hall shifted, now reflecting the Commander's own face back at her. It was an unnerving sensation that was made even worse when he didn't reply. He just…stared at her.
At that point, Jane hesitated. How much of this 'man' was human, if even organic? Was he a synthetic? An AI wielding a highly-specialized combat platform, like the Geth?
She didn't back down though. Not until the Chief gave his reply. Which, after thirty seconds of enduring silence, he did. "Your team?"
"Yes," she replied. "A team I'm putting together to fight the Collectors. Do you know them?" Was her idea of a confused and lonely soldier wrong? What was this 'Chief'?
"No," the green warrior replied. "Commander, do you know the UNSC?"
Jane blinked a few times. UNSC…what was that? "No, I can't say I do. Is that the community of your species? The UNSC?"
He didn't answer her question. At least he didn't shoot it down either. "Collectors?"
"A race working for the Reapers. They're targeting our colonies, kidnapping thousands. I'm fighting to stop them." As much as she wanted to stay and talk, this place wasn't exactly the safest. "Listen, you don't have anywhere to go right now. If you want, I can drop you off where your people can find you."
His answer came less than a heartbeat later. "Why?"
Not taken aback by the rather blunt question, Shepard simply shrugged. "Some bad things happened today and they happened because of you. Whoever you are, you have the right to make your own decisions."
After that, the Chief went silent again. Contemplating her offer or thinking about his own involvement? Jane had to be honest with herself; she couldn't just ignore this creature and leave him behind. Not just because he was a soldier beyond anything she had expected, but also because he had to have a home to return to. And who knew how long he had been in cryo? The Asari had known about him for some reason. Known enough to send a team of Commandos after him. Their deaths were wrong, but this wasn't his fault. At least, not completely.
"Yeah," Garrus tentatively said, stepping away from the pillar. "I think I'm going to scout our six. Check if any of those Asari got behind our flank."
"You do that, Garrus," Shepard replied through a private channel. "And thank you."
"Any day. Just warn me next time a Turian face will offense someone, alright?"
Shepard smiled. "Sure."
As Garrus hurried to move away -followed by the Chief's gaze all the way to the exit- Shepard said, "You know, I could use a soldier like you. If you feel like you owe me…or need to repay me for giving you a ride...I could use your help."
"To fight the Collectors."
"And the Reapers too. It's not going to stop with mankind; the Reapers threaten the entire galaxy."
"You fight for humanity?"
An odd question. Why wouldn't someone fight for their own race? Were his own morals so different? "Of course. And I'm recruiting everyone who will fight with me. I know it doesn't concern you, but- "
"After we defeat the Collectors, can you bring me to UNSC-controlled space?"
This time, the sudden response was very much welcome. Jane hadn't expected the behemoth to actually want to join her. At least, not just like that. Hmm…relieving. "If you tell us where that is, I'll get you there. If I have to take you there myself. That's a promise."
"Commander Shepard," the soldier repeated, like he was contemplating her name. "There are survivors onboard the alien vessel. Noncombatants."
"I know," she replied. "Thanks. Are you coming?"
"There are weapons and munition onboard this vessel. It would advise taking them with us."
Shepard sighed. In a way, it was like she was talking to Grunt. "Are you coming?" She asked, offering her hand to the armoured giant.
There was a brief moment of hesitation, before he took it. "Affirmative."
~0~
[SECURITY ACCESS GRANTED. UNSC TECHNOLOGICAL INFORMATION CODEX UNLOCKED]
SUBJECT: MARINE BODY ARMOUR
Twenty-eight years of total warfare supplied the United Nations Space Command with many thousands of bodies and enemy vehicles. The protection that the Covenant armour systems offered was beyond anything the UNSC had ever seen at that point; even the most basic infantry armour offered significant protection against ballistic weaponry. The protection against modern weapons was one of several reasons why the economical costs of the Human-Covenant war were so astronomical.
Attempts to reverse-engineer the advanced materials that were used for these protective properties were unsuccessful at first. And as the war raged on and Marine casualties rose into the millions, most of these prototype defense systems were lost. By 2550, soldiers were fighting with taped-together pieces of obsolete body armour instead of new and advanced models, contrary to what the Office of Naval Intelligence had planned.
This changed when the war ended. Unggoy carapaces, Sangheili suits and Mgalekgolo plating became available to scientists without the looming threat of extinction, offering new paths for Marine body armour systems.
