Chapter 6, in which Shepard takes the Master Chief to meet the Eclipse.
~0~
After our moderately-successful operation on Virmire, I have been reassigned to a different unit of the STG. Listening station 083 has reported strange gravitational anomalies beyond the Terminus systems. Stations 043 and 372 have reported similar claims. Additionally, unusual bursts of radiation from beyond the Terminus systems have been claimed, though there is no solid evidence to support this. I am expected to investigate these claims and, if possible, find out what the source is."
Commander Rentola's logbook, entry 1
~0~
Fifteen hours where fifteen minutes would have sufficed. John would have spent it gathering intelligence, practicing with the alien weaponry and discovering more about the weaknesses of the other members of Shepard´s team, had it not been for Cortana.
She suggested that he should use the time he had to get some rest and then get to know the rest of the team. Jacob had outfitted him with something called an 'Omni-tool', which would allow him to remotely hack electronics as well as translate all alien languages for him.
So with that in mind, he had decided to catch some sleep. Cortana promised to wake him up when ten hours had passed, which would allow him to make good use out of the remaining four to five hours to read up on the various combatants he might be facing.
It hadn´t exactly gone like that. With dreams plagued by the Gravemind´s taunting and laughter, the hours of sleep had not exactly brought him the rest that he had hoped they would. On top of that, Cortana woke him up too soon as well.
He opened his eyes and immediately brought his rifle up to scan the room. It took him a few moments to blink away the black tentacles that had occupied his vision. "Is it time?" He asked her.
"Nope. Someone just activated the elevator to the hangar bay. Shipboard camera's verified that the alien called 'Samara' left her quarters thirty-seven seconds ago. I thought you might be interested in that."
He did not recognize that name. "Who-?"
"I would say that she is the Asari you fought aboard the other vessel."
Asari. The monogendered race capable of bending physics with their mind. This was disastrous; he was not willing to test the translation software yet. "What does she want?"
Behind the large, metal box he had been resting against, he heard the doors of the elevator opening. "Perhaps she wants to wish you welcome?"
"Reveal yourself, creature," a harsh, female voice spoke.
"Or perhaps she still holds a grudge. Chief, killing her won't help anyone."
The Spartan checked his motion tracker and glanced around the corner of his cover, spotting the alien woman walking down the hangar bay at a brisk pace. "So what do you suggest?"
"I suggest not killing her. Talk her down, disable her, retreat, whichever suits you best."
Disabling it would be.
The Chief waited until the woman faced the other way and then rolled away from his cover, moving towards another box. His heavy boots made practically no sound as he moved towards the new cover, but still she managed to
Initial hostilities were to be understood. Continuing hostilities were not. What was she doing?
In her hands she carried the same weapon that the Commander had used before. A weapon that this Asari did not seem to need; she reached out with her hand and a massive shockwave of blue light rippled through the floor, wrenching and ripping through the heavy box like it was made out of cardboard.
The Spartan rolled away and, after a brief internal struggle, withheld his fire. The anticipation of another close-quarters fight kicked up his instincts, and his combat senses kicked in almost instantly.
Another projectile was cast his way and hyper-sensitive reflexes threw his shoulder back, just in time for the blue sphere to sail past him.
Time returned to its normal flow and the Chief moved several feet closer when Samara readjusted her aim. Her body was enveloped in that same blue corona as before, but it was different from Shepard's. Wilder, more powerful. Just like before, her presence alone was a physical sensation. It was if her body constantly exuded a wild gale, just noticeable enough for him to spot it.
And she was fast. Faster than the Asari he had fought before; she effortlessly tracked his new location and unleashed another biotic attack, covering at least four meters in width - enough so that he could not dodge it sideways again.
So he didn't. He sank through his knees just a few inches, before pushing off and launching himself over the incoming shockwave of blue energy. The latent force behind him was enough to propel him further into the air, but he used the momentum so sling his legs over his head, even as the alien moved closer.
She had not anticipated that, as she could not react fast enough to prevent the Spartan from snatching the weapon out of her hands and land behind her. He then lashed out with an open-palm strike, not hard enough to kill or maim, but powerful enough to send her stumbling forwards.
"Relax," he called, crushing the firearm in one gauntlet and dropping the remains to the ground. "We're on the same side."
His comment seemed to stop her, if only momentarily. "You…speak?" She asked. Her voice sounded like it didn't belong to her body. It was…older. Too restrained and just off.
"Yeah," the Master Chief replied. And he would rather not have her push him too far; if she wouldn't stand down, he would have to break her limbs to make her. And he was very sure that doing so wouldn't improve his odds of getting back to the UNSC a lot.
"It matters little," she then said, much to the Spartan's frustration. "The Code demands your death for your transgressions. May you find peace, in the embrace of the Goddess."
"Curious. Mentioning deities in battle? And what code?"
Irrelevant. If she was determent to see this fight through, he would end it quickly.
Not even a second passed between the Asari finishing her sentence and her next attack. This time, instead of wasting time and energy with horizontal of diagonal attacks, she straight-up filled the room with a biotic blast large enough to envelop a Scorpion tank. The Spartan had ample time to respond, but he didn't have anywhere to go.
It was time to test the effectiveness of biotics against his MJOLNIR.
The cascades of blue energy washed over and crumpled the metal underneath his feet. It was as if someone had set off a grenade right next to him, as waves of overpressure pounded against him and forced him back. There was a noticeable drain in his energy shielding and the sheer impact rattled his bones.
Enough was enough.
The Chief took two large steps forwards and closed the distance between him and the Asari, who had also been moving towards him. His hand shot out and seized her by her throat. He encountered a thin layer of resistance, but that did nothing to protect her from the unyielding gauntlet, large enough to fit around her entire neck.
As time in his perception was still pushed to a crawl by the chemical response that every fight felicitated from his body, he had ample time to predict and counter her response. She fought him like a trained soldier, without hesitation or restraint. She was just too slow. He took her arm in a wrist-lock with his remaining arm when she attempted to lash out with another biotically-charged punch.
That stopped her assault dead cold. She jerked with her arm, but when the Chief slightly shifted his hips, bringing her joint straight to its breaking point, she ceased that as well.
The Chief wasn't attempting to choke her out, or break her bones, but she didn't seem to realize that. She grabbed his arm with her free hand and attempted to pull it off. To no avail, of course. Underneath her barriers and biotic abilities, she had the physique of an ordinary human.
"Enough," the Chief barked. His transgression…their fight? Was this about payback, or honour? "I'm not your enemy."
The Asari glanced up, looking at his visor. Her face had an odd quality to it. Her eyes were pale and very determined.
Then, the blue Aura around her body increased in force. It washed over his armour like a thick mist, yet it did not drain his shields. A sudden jolt ran down his spine and it felt as if a droplet of water hit the base of his neck, right where his neural implant was. What was she doing?
"You…" she muttered, looking down again. "Who…what are you?"
The biotic field around her body dimmed down somewhat. Her muscles, which had been tensed up and anticipating for a strike, seemed to relax. Only that vague shimmer remained, connecting the two of them via thin rays of biotic energy.
~0~
Normandy bridge
"Commander?"
"Yes Kelly?"
"Samara just took the elevator towards the hangar bay. It's unusual for her to leave her quarters like that."
"Got-" Suspicon flared up in her chest as Jane processed just what the Yeoman was saying. "Wait, Samara?"
"I read that there was an armed conflict between her and the newest recruit. You might want to check up on-"
The Commander didn't even need to hear the rest of that. As soon as she realized what was happening, she strode towards the elevator and jabbed at the button to recall it.
She should have seen this coming! Samara's Code might force her to condemn the Chief for his actions in defending himself, or it might not. But using violence against a Justicar was a sure-way method of getting yourself killed. Hell, a Justicar would even kill normal, law-abiding officers if they attempted to prevent her from fulfilling her Code.
Shepard gritted her teeth and suppressed the urge to slam her fist against the wall. The elevator was so damn slow! Why hadn't EDI granted her access to the override yet? It was such a simple change to the software!
Below, the sounds of gunfire and explosions rattled the elevator shaft. Those two were ripping the hangar bay apart and they hadn't even been on the ship a week!
Grunt never damaged his living quarters except for that one time he had gotten a bit confused, and even Jack seemed to treat the engineering deck with respect. At what point could a baby Krogan super-soldier and a psychotic convict be less destructive than an Asari Justicar and a professional soldier?
When Shepard reached the lowest level, she immediately enveloped herself in a corona of biotic energy and braced herself. The doors opened and Shepard immediately spotted her two teammembers, intertwined in a lethal embrace. The Chief's massive gauntlet around the Justicar's lithe neck, the Asari's biotic powers surrounding the both of them.
Shepard made a fist and expanded her own biotic energy, throwing up a wall between the Chief and Samara. Her biotics clashed with those of the Asari and cut them apart. The sudden force between them was enough to separate the two, though the Chief was merely forced to take a step back, while Samara was sent stumbling.
"Shepard?"
"Commander."
"Were you two trying to hurt each other?" She asked. Demanded, really. "You were, weren't you."
"My apologies Commander," Samara said without taking her eyes off of the Chief. "But the Code demanded retribution."
Shepard nodded, taking note of the usage of the past tense. Demanded. "Oh. Chief?"
"Yes," The Chief said matter-of-factly. "That."
Jane didn't know whether to laugh or to bash her head against the wall. At least this proved her idea. "Alrightie then. Samara, I'm an understanding woman who understands lots of things. But the last thing I want to try understanding is my teammates trying to hurt each other! Understand?"
The Asari casted her eyes to the ground. "Yes, Commander," she said. "It shall not happen again."
"Good. Chief? Self-defense is acceptable to a limited degree." Samara did not appear wounded, but she was taking no risks here. "That goes for you too. I want zero incidents from now on. Do you understand?"
"Yes, ma'am."
Was that slight amusement she detected? Probably not. "Good. Because I'm trying really hard to teach a few of our people the meaning of friendship and this doesn't make for a healthy learning climate. Do I need to add you two to the list as well?"
"You will not, Commander," said Samara. She looked…off. A bit disturbed, even. "That is a promise."
Well…that was easy. And then people said that Justicars had a hard time adapting to new environments! Samara had come to understand her way of thinking faster than Tali had!. "Good. Return to your quarters, Samara. Chief, ready up. Once we hit Illium, I want you and Miranda at standby.
"Yes ma'am."
Jane hesitated for a brief moment, thinking about what else she could say. The thing was, she had expected this to escalate into the exact same scenario from which she had extracted Samara and, in a way, the Chief too. It felt like this has resolved itself too easy.
The universe didn't generally let her off easy.
As she returned to her private quarters to review her armour components for the coming operation, she just couldn't shake off the feeling that there had been more to the confrontation.
Once again, Shepard found herself wondering if the Chief really was everything that he appeared. She couldn't have defeated Saren without her alien friends, so she knew first-hand how important it was to have a diverse set of allies on the team. Still, there was something about him that unsettled her. Maybe it was his face. Or, a lack of it. Staring into that golden visor, seeing your own features reflected right back at you…it made her wonder how much of him was truly organic, and how much of him wasn't.
Well, she could figure that out later. Miranda was bound to be keeping some sort of list with all kinds of details about him. If not, Mordin could figure out the details about Chief's species.
Until then, Shepard had plenty of other things to take care of. Only the last hour before arriving at Illium did she find herself actually thinking about the mission.
Miranda´s father, making clones to create the perfect legacy. Probably discarding them if they weren't good enough. He saw the girls as his property, not as actual people. Miranda had saved her sister -Oriana- from his grip and Cerberus had assisted her with the relocation.
So did that mean that The Illusive Man had helped her, or some of Miranda's friends?
Didn't matter that much though. Cerberus wasn't going to be of much help here. Illium…a world just like Noveria. Corporate executives and officials, hiding their criminal activities under the guise of business. If things were going to turn violent- and Jane had every reason to believe they would- the most likely candidate for trouble would be Eclipse mercenaries.
…she hated NGO mercenary groups. Always had.
Still, they were nothing she couldn't handle. She had torn through dozens of their soldiers while recruiting Thane and, later, Samara, and she would have no trouble doing so again.
Her newest recruit would make that even easier.
The Commander shook her head when her thoughts traveled back to the strange alien. She had to stop doing that and focus!
When it was time, Shepard returned to the CIC and stepped up towards the galaxy map. "Joker, set a course for Illium's dock. The usual spot."
"Aye-aye Commander. Think the Eclipse will leave you alone this time?"
"Want to bet about it?"
"Nah. I don't like my chances."
Jane chuckled. It was time for Miranda and the Chief to meet face-to-face.
"Ehm, Commander?" Joker then said half a minute later. "We're not getting permission to dock the ship."
Okay, that was new. "Did you paint something indecent on our hull?"
"As if! No, apparently something has happened, and they closed the port. Guess someone robbed the stock or something."
Shepard sighed. She was not going to dock somewhere where she had to travel half a country to get to Miranda's contact. Whatever this was, it could wait. "We'll take the shuttle. Drop us off and find somewhere else to dock the Normandy."
She had no idea what that commotion was supposed to be about, but she wasn't going to take any risk. She quickly donned her N7 armour and ordered her teammates to gear up. Moving back down to the hangar bay was a bit awkward, as Samara and the Chief had torn the place up somewhat.
This awkwardness became especially nagging when Miranda had joined her on the elevator downstairs. When the doors opened, revealing the damage that the two had done in their brief, but intense brawl, Shepard was certain that the Cerberus Officer would make some sort of snarky comment about it.
At least the shuttles were still intact.
Remarkably, Miranda kept her words to herself. She gave Jane a meaningful glance and raised one of her eyebrows in an amused gesture, but she remained silent.
The Commander inwardly sighed and walked over towards the shuttle, which EDI had already aligned with the bay doors using the electronic rail-system. The onboard VI was probably preparing the systems right now. "Chief, I want you to meet Miranda Lawson. She's my second-in-command, and this mission is on her behalf."
"Good to meet you, Chief," Miranda said with that faint, smug smile of hers and extended a hand towards the green giant.
Who then proceeded to promptly ignore the gesture of good faith and turned towards Shepard instead. "What are our objectives?" He asked with that heavy, gravelly voice of his.
Miranda opened her mouth to protest, seemed to think better and closed it again. "I will wait on the shuttle," she declared, before turning around to leave.
"Miranda has a sister on Illium," said Shepard. "Her father is trying to kidnap her, so Cerberus -that's the people we work with- is going to move her. We are going there to make sure she actually makes it to Cerberus' people."
"That is our operation?" The Chief then asked. His utter lack of normal, organic movements and manners were off-putting, to say the least. He showed no signs of apprehension or doubt, or any other emotion-driven stances.
Yet Jane couldn't help but feel like he was skeptical. "Yeah. The father will have mercenaries standing by to make sure he gets his daughter back. If you're expecting a fight, you'll get one."
A brief pause. "And the military advantages of this operation?"
Yup. That was skepticism alright. "Unit integrity. I want everyone to keep their heads during our missions. Any loose ends or distractions will only hold us down. We're a team, Chief. We take care of our own."
There was a brief moment of hesitation between her explanation and the soldier's response. "Copy that."
"Good." With that, Shepard joined Lawson on the shuttle. When all three of them were onboard, EDI opened the hangar bay doors and the Kodiak's VI sent them off on the same pre-set course as the last few times. The program was good enough to navigate when there weren't any other ships trying to blow them out of the air. On hot drops like Horizon, she preferred having an actual pilot dropping them off, but Illium wasn't supposed to give them any hassles. Initially.
Now Illium was a…peculiar planet. It wasn't an official asari colony, but it was mostly governed by them. While Omega was just a wretched hive filled with criminals, gangs and lowlifes, Illium was a wretched hive filled with criminals, gangs and lowlifes disguised as businesspeople and contractors. She still wasn't quite sure how it worked, but it was perfectly possible for some poor soul to make a wrong marketing choice and end up as a slave for an 'unspecified amount of time'.
"Fancy armour," Miranda said, breaking the silence that had been dominating the Kodiak dropship for a while. "Does it come equipped with kinetic barriers?"
The Chief didn't bother facing Miranda, instead keeping his gaze straight on the hatch. "No."
"Oh. Then I hope you know what you're doing. Eclipse mercenaries are well known for their accuracy."
Liar.
The Chief remained silent. A man of little words, it seemed. Jane knew what Miranda was doing; she was trying to read into him and zero in his character. His likes, dislikes, what drove him. She had done the same for everyone else -excluding Jack, of course- and the results were neatly categorized into a profile.
Lawson had claimed to be excellent at guessing what people were like. She needed to be given an actual person to do that, however, and Jane hadn't even figured out what part of the Chief was a real, living person and what part wasn't. He could be half-synthetic for all she knew.
"Trust me," Jane said. "He knows what he's doing."
"Good. Lanteia is waiting for us at the Eternity bar. I suggest we go there straight away."
"Good suggestion," Shepard replied, ignoring that Miranda had just basically given them an order. The woman was on edge.
Good. That meant she cared.
Though the Commander had walked the halls of Illium's docking port at least half a dozen times by now. People didn't really stare at anyone of her crew except for Grunt, and because he was a krogan, they didn't bother with directly staring. Everyone kept their eyes on them, but subtly so.
This time was different. Maybe it was his unusual size, or his otherworldly armour. Most likely she was just being paranoid, but she felt like everyone had a lot more attention for her shore party than normal.
And that feeling turned into outright suspicion when some people started outright staring at them. Some asari, two salarians. One volus glanced at their way, spotted the Chief and nearly lost his balance.
Miranda couldn't have missed the attention that they were receiving. Her contact had better remain professional, because this felt worse than walking through S-sec with Wrex.
The Chief, for his part, remained utterly indifferent to all the attention. His posture was perfect, his gait without hesitation. On occasion, Jane had to look over her shoulder to make sure that he was even there, because he seemed to move without making sound. It reminded her of how he had stalked her through the derelict vessel. He was a soldier, there was no doubt about that, but he was also a hunter.
They managed to get to the eternity bar without too much complications. Nobody actually tried to stop them and nobody even spoke to them, but it was only when they actually entered the smaller area next to the bar and the Chief took his position near the opening that they were hidden from all those prying eyes.
An asari waited for them in the room. She seemed to be able to keep her curiosity to herself, though her eyes did scan the Chief's suit thoroughly before they eventually rested on Miranda. "Miss Lawson, I'm glad you made it. We've had a complication."
"What happened? Is Oriana alright?" The operative replied with barely-restrained concern.
"She's fine, but…you listed Niket as your trusted source? He contacted me, warning that your father has sent Eclipse mercenaries to make a sweep-"
Eclipse. Joker was going to love that.
"-he suggested that the mercenaries might be watching for you personally. He's offered to escort Oriana's family to the terminal instead."
Jane raised her eyebrow and glanced at Miranda. "So uhm…Niket is a new name."
"It is. Niket is my friend. You and him are the only ones I trust with this."
Alright then. "It's your sister, Miranda. Plan's still the same?"
Miranda turned towards the asari. "Lanteia, we'll follow Niket's suggestion. Shepard and I will take the car down and draw their attention. Have Niket escort the family to the shuttle…and give him full access to their itinerary, just to be safe."
"I can't help but think about all those lovely weapons and armor-components on that car…oh wait."
Miranda looked at Shepard, a faint smile on her face. She wondered how sincere it was. "They will be under orders to take my sister alive. They won't risk anything that could hurt us."
"And then people accuse me of taking leaps of logic…fine. I'm ready when you are."
Miranda gave a nod to the asari, who turned away again. "Shepard, I…thank you. I appreciate this. I don't think the Eclipse planned on you being here."
Shepard very much doubted that they did. "You're welcome. Come on; let's go meet the new neighborhood.
~0~
The Master Chief quietly took in every single detail about this operation, and the conclusion he reached did not meet his standards.
"This is a disaster."
"Oh Chief, don't be such a downer. This is a golden opportunity!" Replied Cortana. Unusually cheery as well.
"There are no military goals, no gains. Personal feelings hold no value on the battlefield."
"This is not the UNSC, Chief. Shepard said it herself; Cerberus is an atypical unit. You really should have seen this coming."
The Commander and her second-in-command were too engrossed with steering the small shuttle and keeping an eye on the sky to involve him in their actions, which made it easier for him to concentrate on what Cortana was saying. They couldn't hear him, of course. His helmet allowed for encrypted channels and private conversations. "Shepard thought it necessary to specify Cerberus. Got anything on them?"
"It's not easy. They are working pretty hard to keep people from mentioning them at all. Hmm…reminds me of ONI. They started as an Alliance black-ops operation, but broke off and became a pro-human splinter organization."
"Alliance?"
Cortana sighed. "These people's equivalent of the UNSC. Don't you remember anything I say? Keep up, this is where it becomes interesting. Our Commander died in the line of duty, two years ago."
The Chief raised his eyebrow. "Think anyone told her this yet?"
"Don't worry, this isn't just a case of copious amounts of determination. Shepard literally died and Cerberus spent a fortune bringing her back to life. The people who know Cerberus don't like them, Chief. Interesting…the mythology belongs to our history, yet these people have their own divergent line of history as well. Every passing mention to Earth, proves that it isn't our earth. Anyway, this planet holds a goldmine of information."
"Hold on. Not our Earth? How does that work?"
"That's -don't worry about it. Not important. I've been searching something called the extranet for something else called the 'codex'. It's a catalog of pretty much everything! Technology, species, biology, history, everything! You should give it a read sometimes."
"Cortana, slow down. Stay focused on the mission."
"Look who's grumpy. Don't worry, I'm only dedicating a small percentage of my runtime to decrypting it all. I mentioned your suit has finished calibrating, did I?"
No, she hadn't. She had mentioned a lot of information, each piece more confusing than the last one, but she had never actually told him when she had finished recalibrating the MJOLNIR.
"Because I think I can make some upgrades to it. There is a very small portion of nanomachines stashed away in several compartments. I've been instructing them to repair the damage that Guilty Spark caused-"
Alarmed, the Chief cut her off. "Wait, nanomachines? In the Mark VI?"
"Yes. You didn't know? How couldn't you?"
There had not been enough time during testing to explain him all the details of the Mark VI, but John thought that somebody would have mentioned to him that his suit contained a stash of nanomachines. It seemed like an important detail to him.
Cortana was starting to drop the ball on him. He had to prioritize, and so did she. "Don't mess with those machines yet. Make sure that you can control them and that they are harmless."
"I can-"
"Cortana," John sharply called. "Stop. Focus on the mission."
She waited three full seconds before she gave her reply. And when she did, it sounded almost like she begrudged him for it. "Fine. I'm going too fast for you, aren't I?"
"Just…tell me about this Eclipse. Weapons, abilities, threats."
"On it."
The Spartan caught movement in his peripheral vision and he looked out the window, where several flying objects soared past them and headed towards the cargo area where their own shuttle was headed. "Commander."
"Eclipse mercenary gunships," said Lawson. "They'll be dropping troops in the cargo area."
"We'll get straight on their asses," stated Shepard. "Behind cover as well."
It didn't work like that. The mercenaries that roped down from the dropships spotted their vehicle and promptly opened fire. They were different from the other hostiles that the Chief had fought before. At least, he didn't recognize them. Their armour was beige and covered with yellow lights. Some of them were aliens, too. He spotted two asari and one salarian
One of the troops waved with his arms and the other soldiers stopped shooting, but it was too late by then. The Chief braced for a hard landing and moved to kick open the door when the cab-vehicle crashed a few meters away from the hostiles.
Shepard beat it to him, however. She flung the door out of its frame with her biotic powers and jumped out, displaying an impressive agility in the process. More so than Lawson, who, compared to the gracious Commander, appeared rather clumsy as she crawled out of the broken machine.
Still, she took the lead. Her attitude virtually oozed confidence as she strode towards the hostile group of mercenaries, where the man who appeared to be their leader moved to meet her in the middle. Holographic displays covered his body in different places at his torso, most likely to reduce the impact of projectiles.
"Since you're not firing yet, I trust you know who I am?" said Miranda.
"Yeah, they said you'd be in the car. You're the bitch who kidnapped our boss' little girl."
Little girl?
"Kidnapped her? This doesn't involve you; I suggest you take your men and go."
The Spartan paid close attention to the conversation, but he didn't fail to notice the mercenaries carefully lining up their weapons and taking aim. They were anticipating this to go south then? If so, they possessed at least basic military training. What was the stance of private military corporations in this community? Were they accepted as normal?
And while he didn't really care for Lawson's personal problems, he did not appreciate her dragging the Commander along on a personal mission without telling her the complete truth. It wasn't professional.
"Captain Enyala ordered us to give you one chance to walk away."
They were still talking. The Chief longed to just open fire and cut the mercenaries down where they stood before they had the chance to kick this off, but it wasn't his call. Besides; PMC's had played vital roles in various battles throughout the Human-Covenant war. Perhaps these men could be reasoned with?
"This whole time we've been talking, my men have been lining up shots-"
Shepard and Lawson exchanged a glance.
The Chief readied himself.
"We're ready to unleash hell on your squad, so I suggest-"
Shepard was fast. She kicked the soldier and grabbed his head by his chin and the back of his head, giving a jerk to break his neck.
That was the Chief's cue as well. The soldiers at the back of the range were the first to go, to cut off the enemy's escape and eliminate their sharpshooters. He sighted in with his assault rifle and, upon aligning the integrated scope with the head of the salarian, pulled the trigger. The bullets found their mark and the Chief moved on to the next three soldiers, who had yet to recover from the shock of their leader dying.
With machine-like precision, he put a three-round burst into the heads of all the soldiers standing at the far end of the battlefield. By then, Miranda's own reflexes kicked in and she opened fire too, hosing the remaining combatants with fire. Their bodies seemed to be protected by shimmering shields, or holograms of some sort. It protected them against the incoming fire while they scrambled for cover.
The Commander didn't allow them too, however. She took aim at the crate above their head and fired off several shots with her pistol, hitting the thick cables that suspended the heavy-duty crate and letting it come crashing down on their heads, whereupon it promptly exploded.
"Exploding canisters. I like her style. Eclipse mercenaries have a strict organization, Chief. Troopers, Engineers, Heavies. They also like to deploy fully autonomic security robots. Mechs, they call them."
"Original." The Eclipse soldiers who had survived the initial attack didn't get to show off why they had their obvious rank designations. The powerful rounds of the assault rifle smashed through their shields, ripped through their helmets and splashed the various crates that had been used as cover with a mixture of red and green.
"Chief," Cortana said as the last body crashed to the ground. "I am picking up enemy chatter. They are locking down the elevator to the container transfer area. It will severely increase our odds of success if you prevent them from doing so, but you should hurry."
She placed a waypoint on his HUD, which led straight through the area ahead. There was bound to be more hostiles there. "Commander, enemy forces are shutting down the elevator. Permission to engage and neutralize?"
Shepard hesitated visibly. She lowered her gun and glared at him. "How do you know?"
"My communications system can pick up enemy transmissions." Technically a lie.
"We don't split up mid-combat, Chief. That´s a textbook way to get yourself ambushed and killed."
"Twenty seconds. Either get me within visual range or neutralize the hostiles."
"Affirmative. But within less than twenty seconds, the elevator will be locked down."
The Commander sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose in visible frustration. "Get there and clear out the elevator of enemy hostiles. Break off as soon as they start overwhelming you! We'll cover you."
"Copy that."
The Spartan wasted no time. He assessed the area around him, spotted the quickest path to the elevator and moved towards one of the larger containers that had been prepped up against the wall
He jumped up, touched the top of the four-meter high container with one gauntlet and vaulted over it. From there, he leapt for one of the higher containers.
Shepard and Lawson moved up and took cover at the right turn, where more mercenaries were waiting for them. Cortana had made the right call; they would have been bogged down by the enemy fire if they had taken the direct route.
"Can he handle it?" He heard the second-in-command ask
"Probably," replied Shepard. "Gotta give him that chance."
The Spartan ignored their conversation and, when one of the mercenaries down below shifted his fire towards him, jumped over the clearing and landed on another container. The rest of the group was now behind and below his position. There were two groups of hostiles between him and the elevator, one of which was currently occupying Shepard.
The other one though…
"Five hostiles down below Chief," said Cortana. "Taking them out will secure the elevator and disrupt their override. Highlighting them now. Target the one with the active omnitool first."
The Chief landed on top of the crate hanging directly above them and immediately repositioned, poising himself to strike. Through his HUD, Cortana selected the group of mercenaries below him and highlighted their bodies in a light shade of blue. They were grouped together, but not in such a way that a single grenade could kill them all. About three or four meters between them. And all of them were focusing on the way Shepard and Lawson were about to come from.
They were unaware of his position.
"They are covering each other moderately well. Kinetic barriers will work against you…I recommend using heavy blows and fast movement."
"Copy." The Chief exhaled and dropped off of the crate, aiming at the first hostile. Half a ton of MJOLNIR Powered Armour landed with pinpoint precision on its neck and head, smashing it against the ground and shattering its skull as well as its helmet.
The Chief sank through his legs to absorb the shock and in that instance, the world crawled to a hold. The remaining hostiles started turning to face him when the noise of his first hit found its way to their ears, but they were slow. Movements suspended in the air, rifles that would never meet their mark.
The Spartan settled his gaze on the second hostile and Cortana instantly highlighted it in yellow outlines, sealing its fate.
The mercenaries were still in the process of turning when the Chief struck. Powerful muscles, augmented by the force-enhancers in his suit, propelled him past the four meters that separated him and his target in the time it took his heart to contract. An armored gauntlet ripped the rifle free from its wielder and discarded it. The other one found its mark at the target's throat, crushing the thin plates around it.
The Chief did not waste a single movement, bringing his hand down and slamming the mercenary against the ground with enough force to dent the steel plating that covered it.
Cortana selected his next target and the Chief pushed off, striking before the merc could even bring his weapon up. He tore the rifle out of the hostile's grasp and then lashed out with his elbow, crushing his throat and, most likely, his neck.
Two left.
Another highlight, another target. The Spartan moved with trained precision. The force of his impact sent the mercenary reeling, easily setting him up to be smashed against the ground. The Chief followed up by ramming his knee down against its back and then jerking its arm up, audibly breaking it as well as its back.
One left. Its rifle had been brought up as well, and this one even got as far as to squeeze off a shot before the Chief shoved it aside and wrapped his arm around its neck, pulling it down as his own knee went up.
Crack.
"One point six seconds," Cortana chimed in when he released the body, allowing it to slump to the ground. "Impressive. It appears that speed is the correct counter to these alleged biotic and tech abilities."
"The Commander will soon reach the elevator," replied John. He looked over his shoulder at the silver elevator doors, with the green holographic display that indicated it was still up and running. "Did you figure out the omnitool?"
"I did. Mostly. It allows me to hack objects with a greater range than before, without requiring my physical presence. There are some combat protocols stored there as well, but we don't have the hardware yet."
Shepard and Lawson rounded the corner, weapons raised. Both of them stared at the carnage for a few moments, before Shepard put her gun away and stepped up towards the elevator to activate it. "Still working. Nice job."
Lawson glanced down at the broken bodies of the Eclipse troopers. She didn't say anything, though her gaze did linger on the particularly maimed body of the first one, where the Chief had initiated the fight. She grimaced and joined the Commander in the elevator
John looked down at the kill as well. Red blood poured freely over the ground, together with pieces of skull and gray matter. A sight he had seen many times before. He was used to it.
Yet he still felt a hint of frustration and, if he understood it right, unease. After having spent decades fighting for humanity's survival, going out of his way to save as much of his fellow soldiers, the act of killing another human didn't settle well with him. His instinct had told him to shift his foot towards the mercenary's head and crush it against the floor as he landed, but now that he actually saw the result, the act only filled him with disapproval.
"Chief?" Shepard called from the elevator. "Come on."
The Spartan did as she instructed, banishing the thoughts of blood on his boots and moving to join the Commander.
Lawson had picked up a discarded radio, through which a heated discussion on the side of Eclipse could be heard. She used it to tap into their communications, making it harder for the Chief to use that particular explanation for Cortana's abilities.
Miranda sighed and crossed her arms. She seemed to hesitate for a moment, before explaining the truth behind her sister. That, despite being a genetic twin, she was also much younger. The only created child after Miranda which their father kept. Lawson saved her when she was young, taking her when she was a baby.
She had left everything of her old life behind in that one act, retaining only this 'Niket' as her trusted friend.
"I should have told you, Shepard," she then said.
"It's alright, Miranda. It's just…are you sure you can trust Niket? Really sure?"
Lawson nodded. "I trust him with my life, Commander."
The Chief wasn't so certain. From what he had heard, the mercenaries had somehow gotten to Niket. Either he had been compromised by them, or he was aiding them. The last remaining option was that the mercenaries just knew about Niket and nothing else, but that was a very long shot.
He didn't know what to make of this. He didn't feel anything for the details surrounding this mission, and he just wanted to complete it without further conversations like these, but he also couldn't ignore it.
Thankfully, a distraction offered itself in the form of Cortana. "As much as I like to discuss the ethics of kidnapping genetically-fortunate children from their parents, there is something that you should know. I did some research on this mercenary group and you won't like it."
"Go on."
"The Eclipse were founded by an Asari commando, and are an effective NGO that can be hired for security, assassinations and other pleasant tasks. They're also responsible for about twenty percent of all the smuggling that takes place in this galaxy, though those figures might be exaggerated somewhat. These aren't pleasant people, Chief."
Criminally-employed mercenaries. That was good to hear. While he wasn't particularly keen on taking out soldiers, these Eclipse troopers were pretty much criminals themselves. "Keep searching for weaknesses. Keep me posted."
"Right. You should also know that you might be about so see some pretty heavy mechs up ahead. Their name translates to YMIR, at least in most of our human languages. Be cautious."
The elevator opened again, revealing a large, open area filled with containers, stairs and walkways. This was going to turn into a shooting gallery.
"They're on the far end of the conveyer line, time your shots."
The three of them advanced, leaving the elevator behind them and stepping into the open. Hostiles appeared on the other side of the conveyer line, where every few seconds a large crate was hauled across a rail.
The Chief spotted several good positions of cover which the enemy had to be denied, lest they dig in. He took aim with his rifle, but had to lower it when one of the containers had to be transported across the chasm at that exact moment.
"You're not thinking what I'm thinking, are you?"
He probably was. The Spartan took a few large strides and broke into a sprint, heading straight towards the rapidly-descending container. Shepard yelled at him from behind, but he ignored her. Projectiles sailed through the air and a large ball of fire sped past him as he jumped for the heavy crate, touched it with one foot and kicked off. The barrel of his rifle lined up with one trooper and he pulled the trigger, splattering the ground with purple blood.
He landed, rolled over his shoulders to dissipate the momentum and nearly came to a standstill in front of a soldier with a large rocket launcher in her hands. He lashed out with an open-palm strike and sent her flying, before taking aim and shooting three more Eclipse through the head.
The rocket launcher clattered to the ground.
The last Eclipse left was a Salarian which, meanwhile, gestured with his wrist and launched some manner of large, holographic sphere at him. It moved very slowly, so the Chief didn't pay it any thought.
"Chief, mind the combat drone. It packs a-"
The jolt of electricity that sprang from the small drone to the Spartan was instantaneous, but his armour absorbed the worst of the attack.
"- lot of voltage."
He immediately jumped to the side, rolled over the ground and shot the engineer responsible for controlling the holographic weapon. Two bullets tore through his large head and his body was flung to the ground by the force.
The Spartan lifted his weapon to bash the remaining electronic weapon to pieces, but before he could make contact a flash of blue light and energy washed over it, effectively detonating it with a small blast.
"- lot of voltage. You alright?"
The Chief grunted and ejected his magazine, checking to see how much rounds he had left. Shepard and Lawson had made their way around the battlefield and the Cerberus operative lowered her omni-tool, which was still glowing from the attack she had made.
Shepard stepped up towards the Chief, scowling. "Communication is a two-way street, Chief. Do you always rush off into the battlefield like that?"
Running off into the battlefield was not what he did. "I moved in and eliminated an enemy team before they could reach cover."
"I doubt the Commander realizes the difference when it is you doing the rushing, Chief."
"That´s not my point. We work as a team, Chief. Maneuvers like that could get you killed if you don't call them out first!"
Was that what this was about? He had agreed to follow her orders, but she had to understand that this was how Spartans won. Not by staying on the defensive and potentially catching a lethal bolt of fire, but by staying on the offensive and pushing the enemy back before they could get a chance to do any harm.
He was about to tell her to stick to her own fighting style when Cortana chimed in, "No, we can't have our new commanding officer question the way of the Spartan, can we? Tell her this…"
John did not question Cortana's words and immediately relayed them. She was bound to have a better grasp on how to keep Shepard as an ally than he did. "Commander, this is how we were trained to fight. I can assure you that the benefits outweigh the risks."
She quickly glanced over her shoulder to confirm that they were still in the clear and said, "You were taught those fighting moves? Fine, you know what, I won't argue. You know your limits better than I do. But I want you to notify me before you pull these stunts again. Am I understood?"
That worked out in his favour. "Yes ma'am."
Shepard nodded and quickly ran up towards Lawson to take point again. Oddly enough, the Chief could hear her whisper, "Grunt can charge, you can jump…"
The Master Chief wordlessly followed the Commander through several open conveyers and watched her stop to hack a terminal with her omnitool, before continuing around the corner.
As soon as she did, three white robots rose up from their hunching positions and took aim. They were roughly humanoid in that they were slim, built with a rough human physiology in mind. Their heads were roughly cubic, outfitted with two, small red circles were their eyes were supposed to be. On top of each other, at least.
The Chief didn't think them very sturdy and was about to put that thought to the test when Shepard sighed and lashed out with her right arm, enveloped in a biotic field. All three of them were swept off their feet and thrown into the cavernous depth below.
Three tiny explosions soon followed.
"Nice," Lawson commented.
Nice was one way to describe that. With abilities like these, the Human-Covenant war could have played out completely differently. What were the limits of these biotics? What were the Commander's limits?
The Spartan made a mental note to observe the biotic abilities of those around him more keenly and proceeded down the hallway, soon coming into another large area with another conveyer belt.
Meanwhile, the Eclipse leader kept shouting orders through the comms, completely unaware that she was being eavesdropped upon. "I don´t care how many mechs you lose! Just stall them damnit!"
"Alright Chief," Shepard then said. "More enemies on the far end of the conveyer belt. Flush them out."
"Copy."
~0~
No sooner had the green-clad soldier acknowledged her orders or he had disappeared from their flank. He was unusually fast; she caught a flicker of movement on top of the conveyer belt, and she heard a roar of gunfire from that location, but by the time she had finished off her own target with a shot to the head and turned to look at his direction, he was already gone.
His speed did not go unnoticed by the mercenaries either, if their frenzied shooting at random directions of previous sightings was anything to go by.
"To the left! The left!"
"Shit, behind us!"
Shepard took cover on the vehicle that had been parked near the railing and caught one of the exploding canisters behind an Eclipse Engineer's cover with a biotic strike, detonating it with increased force and incinerating the unfortunate mercenary.
Jane loved the sounds of exploding barrels in the morning.
Then she spotted the Chief, landing on top of a large crate behind an Eclipse Heavy that was about to take aim with his launcher. He dropped down, grabbed the soldier's head with both hands and jerked it aside, breaking his neck. He then took aim with his large rifle and opened fire on a Salarian that he had just outflanked.
It took several gunshots and one more kill in close quarters for the Eclipse to realize that they had just been caught in a pincer maneuver and by then, it was already too late. Shepard dashed across the conveyer belt and caught the retreating mercenaries head-on.
She lashed out with her leg and connected with the head of another Engineer. He staggered backwards and she followed up with a roundhouse kick, slamming her biotically-empowered boot straight against his neck. Not wasting any time, she engaged the next trooper and threw a punch that shattered his helmet. He tried to whack her with his rifle, but she dove underneath the improvised bludgeoning equipment and unleashed a biotic open-palm strike that sent him flying over the edge of the conveyer.
The last mercenary left tried to open fire with his SMG, but Shepard was much faster on the draw. She unloaded seven rounds into his unprotected helmet and watched as he fell to the ground, his finger jerking at the trigger as he did, unloading half a clip into the wall of a container.
Shepard glanced at the trail that marked the last burst of fire that this man would ever fire. She hated seeing that happen, because it always unnerved her. With time, she had come to associate these dead-man shots with the Skyllian Blitz, where she had seen too many of her comrades in arms fall at the Batarian hordes.
"Hostiles neutralized, Commander."
Jane shook off the memories of blood and fire when she heard that rough voice and lifted her own SMG. The weight of the Tempest felt good. Reassuring.
"Good work. We're moving on. Take point with Miranda at the next area."
"Copy that."
His work had been more than good. It was good like Jack's biotic prowess was good, or like Tali's hacking abilities were good. Impressive was the right word which, to her, not many people could pull off with combat skills alone. Krogan were liable to charge straight into enemy fire and get themselves prioritized by every able shooter on the field, while most Turians were too rigid in their style and not mobile enough. He certainly possessed the discipline of the latter, and he struck with all the force of the former.
They crossed through a small office room and emerged on the other side, where two more mercenaries attempted to ambush them.
A faster-than-possible headshot courtesy of the Chief and a biotic shove powerful enough to send fully-armoured soldiers flying from Shepard were enough to make short work of that ambush, and they were clear to proceed down the hallway into the next area.
This Captain Enyala wouldn't shut up, and Jane was grateful for that. It provided them with a keen insight in Eclipse's current movements and this latest update was particularly gratifying. She had just ordered all of her forces to send everything to stop her squad except for her personal guard. That meant this was about to get harder -and much easier in the long run.
There was more resistance around the corner. Shepard ran face-first into an asari with her barriers up and instinctively brought her leg up, kicking the warrior backwards to create more room.
Miranda quickly joined her and obliterated the Asari's barrier with her own biotics, allowing Shepard to hose her with SMG fire. The rounds punched through her light body armour and purple blood splattered to the ground.
As the mercenary fell to the ground, clutching her wounds and crying out with pain, Shepard took two large steps towards her and placed her boot on her chest, unloading two more rounds into her head to finish her off.
"Move up," she then ordered.
One last conveyer belt before the elevator to Dock 94. This one was bound to contain more mercenaries than the ones before, in Eclipse's last efforts to stop them.
Not that it would do them much good.
"Chief, take point," Shepard called, gesturing at the elevated cover in the middle of the battlefield. His armor possessed shields, she was certain of it. She had seen it glimmer with an almost-golden hint when that Combat Drone had gotten a good jolt in, dissipating the high-voltage strike without any problem, as he had not even flinched.
Heavies popped out from cover and fired off a salvo of rockets, forcing Shepard to dive for cover. The explosive detonated behind her and pelted her barriers with hot metal and pieces of shrapnel, forcing her to relocate or risk catching more fire.
"Chief, take out those rocketeers!"
"Copy that."
Shepard took aim with her weapon and caught an Engineer out in the open. Miranda overloaded his shields and the subsequent SMG fire took care of him.
The Eclipse were attacking from the left, aggressively pushing forwards. Shepard rushed towards a large crate and took her position there, slapping one of the troopers with a biotic field that flung him several meters backwards.
The Heavies took aim with their rockets again, both of them at the same time with mere feet separating them. They never got to fire off their weapons though. Twin claps of thunder echoed through the cargo terminal, one half a second later than the other, and their heads came apart in an explosion of blood, pieces of bone and helmet fragments.
Shepard grunted with disgust the overly collateral headshots, but she wouldn't look a given sniper down the barrel. That had to be the Chief, covering her back.
She smiled and whirled around the edge of the container, casting a warp field at the closest trooper. She then allowed her biotics to carry her sideways, dodging another salvo of fire and ducking behind a white crate.
More sniper fire, more casualties. Whatever the Chief was using was enough to punch through shields, helmet, skull and then impact another soldier. With two other shots that came, he killed three Eclipse mercenaries, forging a path for Shepard to cut through.
She effortlessly charged forwards, dodged a combat drone and brained the responsible Engineer with a biotically-charged elbow, which sent his body through the metal frame of a black container.
Miranda followed close, destroying the hovering Combat Drone with an overload-burst from her omnitool.
Soon, the last Eclipse Vanguard desperately attempted to block Shepard's approach by filling the hallway with fire with her Revenant LMG, but she hadn't accounted for the Chief outranging and outgunning her in that aspect. Before Shepard could even jerk the mercenary off-balance, the asari's barriers fluttered and faded, before several rounds stained the ground with purple.
Jane looked over her shoulder and saw that the Chief had joined them in the firefights through the narrow halls. How had he moved from his sniping position that fast?
"The elevator is up ahead," Miranda called out, seemingly unbothered by his sudden appearance.
The approach to the elevator signaled the last firefight. Two mercenaries cut through the path to their left and attempted to catch them in their flanks, but the green-clad soldier intercepted them before they could do much harm. He struck the Asari in her stomach with his elbow and, when she doubled over, slammed the back of his fist in her face with enough force to snap her head back and break her neck. The second soldier fell less than a second later, when the Chief kicked the rifle out of his hands and reached out with his left hand, easily lifting the soldier in full combat gear in the air, whereupon he squeezed and audibly crushed the bones in the mercenary's neck.
Shepard winced. It took a badass Krogan to lift a fully-geared soldier like that. The Chief's movements were…inhuman. Not synthetic, either. He moved like he was something more than organic. A mixture of both? Only specific Geth could move like that, and she doubted that they possessed the same strength.
Again, she found herself wondering just what the Chief was. What did he look like underneath that helmet?
"All clear," Miranda later called, when the last mercenary lay dead at her feet. "We should head for the elevator, Commander."
Unfortunately, Captain Enyala chose that specific moment to relay more orders. Orders to transfer the family to an Eclipse transport.
Fuming, Miranda entered the elevator. "Maybe the Captain knows we're listening in and she's feeding misinformation about Niket making a switch," she said.
Jane activated the elevator and sighed. She had to be thoughtful about this. If Miranda's only childhood friend had betrayed her…that had to suck.
"Or maybe it means something else. Niket wouldn't do that." The Cerberus operative struck the elevator controls with her omnitool, hacking it to speed up. "Damnit, why won't this thing go any faster?"
"Why ehm…why do you think Niket won't be pressured or swayed to turn on you?" Shepard asked before her teammate could wreck the controls.
"He could've turned on me when I ran away. I'm sure my father tried to buy him off."
The contempt in her voice was clear. However, even though everything pointed to the contrary, Shepard didn't want Miranda to give up hope. "Alright. You know him best…you should trust your instincts."
"I don't know damnit! But I'm sure we'll find out soon enough. And then I'll have a chat with this Captain Enyala."
It didn't take much longer for the elevator to get there. And when the doors opened up, Jane felt her suspicions basically confirming herself. A young man standing next to two asari. One an Eclipse and the other a normal employee of the cargo terminal.
Captain Enyala and Niket, she presumed. At times like these, she hated being right.
The man turned towards the elevator an expression of mild shock and surprise on his face. "Miri."
"This should be fun," the Captain said, hopping off of the box she had been sitting on and whipping out the biggest shotgun Shepard had seen in weeks.
She immediately took aim with her weapon, as did Miranda and the Chief.
The other asari tried to run away, but Enyala shot her in her back. The heavy shotgun basically hurled her dead body across the room.
Shepard glared at the woman. She would die first.
"Niket. You sold me out," Miranda said with tranquil fury.
"Don't you think it's odd for your childhood friend to just turn on you?" Asked Shepard.
"Why Niket? You were my friend. You helped me get away from my father."
"Yes, because you wanted to leave!" The young man shot back. "That was your choice. But if I'd known that you had stolen a baby-"
"I didn't steal her. I rescued her!" yelled Miranda.
Niket snorted. "From a life of wealth and happiness? You weren't saving her! You were just getting back at your father!"
Shepard asked him how Miranda´s father had turned him, and Niket delivered. His explanation made perfect sense. Why help someone who would kidnap someone´s daughter for no reason than to spite her father? Niket had been lied to. More questions served to verify that.
He was just trying to be a good person.
Miranda didn't know that. And she looked like she was growing tired of the conversation.
"If your father knows about Oriana, we might need to take her aboard the Normandy," Shepard then told Miranda. "Or we need a new solution."
At that, Niket cast his eyes to the ground. "Miranda's father has no information about Oriana. I knew you had spy programs in your father's system, Miri, so I kept it private. I'm the only one who knows."
"Which means you're the only loose end," Miranda then said. A sad smile played over her lips. "This isn't how I wanted it to end, Niket -"
Yup, not on her watch. Jane immediately reached out and took Miranda's arm, preventing her from gunning down her friend. "Whoa, Miranda! it's not his fault. Your father used him, it's what he does, remember?"
"My father will not stop trying to find Oriana, Shepard. This has to end!"
Jane shook her head. "Not like this. Niket can help; we can keep Oriana hidden from your father. He won't get to use her."
"Use her? W-what do you…? I'm sorry, Miri. I-"
Captain Enyala's finger twitched. This was the moment Jane had been waiting for. She lunged forwards, coating herself in a biotic field to boost her speed. She slammed the palm of her hand against the large shotgun, slamming it upwards. A blast of searing metal narrowly missed Niket, who threw himself to the ground.
The next second, Miranda lashed out with her biotics too, flinging the Eclipse Captain through the room. "Not this time, bitch!"
Shepard counted at least a dozen Eclipse soldiers. Troopers, Engineers, Vanguards and even an armed-to-the-teeth Operative.
Great. "Chief, clear out these mercenaries. Enyala's ours!"
"Copy."
Jane and Miranda took cover at the front of the dock, glancing at each other. The Commander then nodded, after which Miranda leaned out to overload Enyala's shields. Shepard immediately followed and fired off a burst of SMG fire, but the Asari was wearing some form of advanced body armour. It soaked up the SMG rounds with impunity and allowed her to return fire with that devastating weapon of hers, blasting away a large portion of their cover.
Cursing under her breath, Shepard put away her Tempest and grabbed her Carnifex.
She could hear a thunderous volley of gunfire at her left flank, soon followed by several explosions. Shouts, screaming, plenty of echoing footsteps of running mercenaries.
The mercenary Captain shrugged off Miranda´s biotics and gunfire as she ruthlessly advanced on their position, systematically blowing away cover with her massive shotgun.
Shepard gestured for Miranda to take the right flank and then edged around the left one, placing more distance between herself and the Eclipse leader. She spotted the Chief close in on the asari Operative, roll aside to dodge a warp field and then lash out at the asari with a spinning kick, impacting on her lithe frame with a sickening crunch.
Her body was all but flung at the nearby wall.
When a duo of troopers, led by an Engineer, dialed in on his position and opened fire, he leapt out of the way and disappeared from Shepard´s viewpoint.
Enyala created a barrier around her body, preventing her armour from taking more hits.
Shepard immediately spotted the opening. "Now!" she called, leaping forwards and throwing a devastating biotic sphere at the Captain, which she wasn't able to dodge in time.
As the warp field tore through her biotics, Miranda jumped away from her cover as well, blasting the now-revealed body armour with a biotic field of her own. She and Shepard immediately switched positions after that, taking cover before Enyala could nail either of them with her shotgun.
The Captain shouted an insult at them, but Shepard cared little for her taunts. In response, she peered from over the edge of the crate she was using as concealment and fired off three shots with her Carnifex, further breaking down that annoying body armour.
Miranda closed in and hosed the mercenary with SMG fire, quickly darting behind a container before she could catch the shotgun blast that inevitably came her way.
The Captain reloaded and Shepard jumped over her cover, intercepting her before she could lift her weapon again. She half expected to catch fire from the other mercenaries, but it seemed that the Chief was keeping them busy enough that they couldn't even target a running combatant in the open.
The asari Captain whirled around just in time to catch a chest full of Shepard, and the two of them tumbled to the ground.
Enyala screamed with frustration and a biotic field exploded outwards from her body, knocking Shepard off and sending her rolling over the ground.
But the Commander didn't allow that to keep her down. She rolled with the blow and instantly sprang back to her feet, even as Miranda engaged the still-recovering Eclipse Captain in close combat.
Miranda was by no means as skilled in close combat as Shepard was, but she didn't need to be. She just needed to be good enough for Shepard to get back in the fight at the exact right moment, which was precisely what she did.
Miranda caught a boot to the face and fell backwards, but by then Shepard was back on the track. She enveloped herself in corona of biotic energy and, discarding her pistol for the moment, got in several punches at the Asari's exposed side.
The Captain grunted and attempted to bash her in her head with her shotgun, but Shepard sprang backwards to dodge it. She was on her foe again in an instant, getting in several blows at her midsection, where the armour started to crack.
Another field was starting to build up inside of the Captain, which was one thing that Shepard could not allow. She spun around the back of her foe, who was too encumbered by the burden of her rifle to keep up with the faster and nimbler human.
Shepard unleashed a powerful, biotically-charged punch straight against the back of Enyala's armour, which finally broke down underneath her assault.
The Asari grunted and, utilizing her own biotics to enhance her strength, attempted to smash her shotgun against Shepard's chest once more.
Jane caught the shotgun midstrike and promptly hopped over it, striking the Captain in her face with the back of her hand. Her boot came down on her chest and slammed the woman down against the ground.
Shepard then grabbed Enyala's head and slammed it down against the metal floor, hard, cracking it open against the ground.
That took forever.
Miranda walked over towards the prone Captain, taking out her own pistol. "I told you so," she said, before calmly shooting the fallen Asari in the head.
Shepard smiled, immediately pulled her pistol towards her with a biotic pull and whirled around, scanning the area for more hostiles.
There were none. The Chief stood near the elevator on the far end of the room, his rifle in his hands. His armour was covered with a mixture of purple, green and red. He looked like a demon from the Turian folklore, eternally covered with the blood of his foes.
It was a lovely sight.
"Niket,` said Jane, "Be a good boy and wait for the other good guys to show up, would you?"
The young man only nodded, shaken by the violence that had been rampaging around him
"Good. Come on Miranda. Oriana's waiting."
Miranda stayed silent until they had entered the elevator that exited the docks, whereupon she sighed and shook her head. "I can't believe Niket sold me out. I didn't even see it coming."
She sounded like she was close to breaking down. Jane reached out and placed her hand on her shoulder, saying, "I doubt anyone could have seen that coming. We're all just human."
"Shepard, please…I read your files, you would have seen it coming."
Jane shrugged. "We're all human. And so is Niket. Your father manipulated him, lied to him. It wasn't personal."
"But I let it get personal! It's always been like this, Shepard. My father gave me everything I wanted, but there was always some catch. A hook, an angle for his long-term plan. Niket was the only thing that was truly mine…and he screwed even that up."
"He won't get to screw Oriana up," Jane then said. "And now he will never get that chance again. Who knows? Perhaps you'll even get Niket back."
"You're right. I still have Oriana." Miranda smirked again, letting that smug smile of hers signal that she was going to be alright.
When the elevator reached the designated floor, Miranda immediately stepped out to check her surroundings for any other tricks or ambushes. When she didn't find any, she said, "No sign of Eclipse. Looks like we're clear."
A girl stood in the open area ahead, flanked by an older man and an older woman. Oriana, with her parents.
Jane felt warm relief upon spotting the happy family. This was why she fought. To make sure others could hold on to the things that she had been denied.
Miranda spotted her as well. "There she is…safe with her family." She seemed thoughtful for a few moments, gazing longingly at her sister. "Come on…we should go."
"Come on," Jane said. "You know you want to visit her."
"It's not about what I want. It's about what's best for her."
"What can be bad about knowing you have a sister who loves and cares about you? You don't need to tell her anything about yourself. Just…go to her."
"I guess you're right," Miranda said, the longing in her eyes slowly turning to happiness. It was subtle, but there.
"Go on. We'll wait here."
Miranda hesitated for a few seconds, before a real smile broke through. As she walked up towards her sister to greet her, Jane turned to face her other teammate, who stayed behind in the shadows near the elevator.
"Family, Chief," she said. "Family, family…complicated things. Are you close with yours?"
The Chief seemed to hesitate for a moment before replying, and Jane knew that he was alone. "No."
It was a shame. "When we found your ship, your cryogenic chamber had been taken. Do you remember why you entered it?"
"Yes."
Jane waited a few moments to see if he would continue. He didn't. "Because your ship was completely devoid of life. You were the only one inside. I thought that the Collectors had attacked you too."
"The ship was empty when it left. It is…complicated too."
"Family complicated?"
"More."
Something about the way he spoke suggested that he didn't want to talk about that, so Shepard decided to drop that particular subject for now. She had something else she would like to know, anyway. "Say, about your name…in human language, the word 'Chief' is often used as a rank. Is it really your name, or…?"
"It is."
"Your name?"
"The rank. Master Chief Petty Officer."
So she had been referring to his rank this entire time? "So what do I call you then?"
"Whichever holds your preference, ma'am."
"Right. You don't need to call me 'ma'am'. I'm not technically your commanding officer."
"You are my acting commanding officer."
Man, it was easier to strike up a conversation with EDI about classified subjects than it was with the Chief. And she wasn't even touching those subjects with him! "I guess. So do you have a name?"
"That's classified, ma'am."
~0~
[ SECURITY ACCESS GRANTED. UNSC HISTORICAL INFORMATION CODEX UNLOCKED]
SUBJECT: SS-II UNIT FIELD OPERATIONS
Being a highly-classified program, it comes as no surprise that the SS-II unit reports to Section Zero only. They have been used on hundreds of operations during the past ten years, providing additional efforts during the war, rooting out Insurrectionist activities and assassinating threats to the UNSC cohesion. However, while the II's were utilized mainly in high-profile operations to keep up public morale and the III's were used to complete high-risk high-reward operations, the SS-II's serve to fulfill some of the morally questionable missions. Additionally, while they are ultimately loyal to the head of ONI, their presence has been known to stir up disputes about who commands their loyalty within Section Zero.
Unfortunately, while their effectivity cannot be denied, there are several controversies surrounding their creation and existence. Active personnel within Section Zero are often discouraged from attempting to discover more about these controversies.
