Chapter 8, wherein Shepard takes the Chief to meet the Collectors.
~0~
"We have no way of knowing just how many worlds the Covenant Empire spanned at the height of their power. Hundreds probably. We only ever saw small fractions of their full naval power, except for major engagements such as the Battle for Reach, Operation First Strike and the recent battles over Installation 05. However, more intriguingly, there exists a possibility that the many, many worlds out there are not primarily Covenant. Of all the signals, radiation and anomalies we have detected, is it unreasonable to think that at least one of them belongs to a civilization that has not yet encountered our people? And if so, should it not be our duty to warn them about the dogmatic worlds that they might accidentally stumble upon, if the Covenant has not already stumbled upon them?"
- Anonymous Senior scientist, ONI section One.
~0~
Aboard UNSC New Dawn
No matter what most people wanted to say about Parangosky, she got things done. The hag had the personality of a poisonous reptile, but she made things happen. Within a week after the previous meeting -which did not exist and had therefore never taken place- the Office brass spat up a stealth ship, a crew and more equipment than an entire team of senior scientists could ask for.
The Sahara-class heavy prowler, UNSC New Dawn, was currently being outfitted with the latest of communication software. Operating so deep outside of known UNSC space that they might as well go off searching for a third Ark, it was vital that they could keep transmitting and receiving, no matter the cost.
To Doctor David Ortyal, this was less of a new mission and more of an adventure. Scurrying off into deep space with everything necessary to make great science and new discoveries? What else could he ask for?
"Doctor Junior Ortyal, please report for verification code alpha-nine."
A chill ran down the doctor's spine and he instinctively reached for the fringes of his lab coat, stopping just outside of what was supposed to be his own, brand-new laboratory.
When he had asked himself what else he could ask for, he hadn't fully realized the matters that he had not asked for that he could ask for. He had respectfully asked lady ONI if she could, very specifically, not assign him a female AI.
Lady ONI had respectfully told him to go stick his head up his behind and assigned this abomination to him.
"Please tell me I am just hearing voices," he remarked.
One of the junior scientists who walked by glanced up from his paper. "Doctor Ortyal, meet Yin. She's the New Dawn's AI."
"Yes, thank you," Ortyal replied through clenched teeth. "A clarification I desperately needed."
"You're welcome, Doctor."
If the desire to flush your junior staff out the airlock was what had made Parangosky the big girl she was now, it was easy to see why she was the boss.
Doctor Ortyal slowly and deliberately crossed his wrists behind his back and stepped towards the double set of glass doors of what was going to be his new home for the coming months. "So you're the ghostly tin man that lady ONI sent to keep an me?"
The pedestal next to the door flared to life and projected the chosen avatar of this particular AI. It wasn't anything flashy or special, at least not within the sick and delirious creations that these ONI Intelligences sometimes cooked up. A humanoid frame with long hair, all shiny and yellow. Or gold, whichever fitted this thing's hat more.
"Ghostly Artificial Intelligence," said the AI. "And I am not made out of tin, Doctor Ortyal."
"Hah," the Doctor replied, observing the twin doors that prevented him from entering his beloved lab. There had to be a structural weakness in that glass. What was the risk of alienating the other staff by smashing his own windows before the operation could even begin? "I made you admit at being sent to keep an eye on me."
The AI cocked her head sideways. "Never kept that a secret. Someone has to look after all the reports, files and activities, right? Also, could you not try to sabotage your own door? That'd be great."
Ortyal, who had just attempted to simply ignore the double set of high-security locks on the doors, rolled with his eyes. "So why did they install a holographic display right outside my lab?"
"To make our conversations easier for you. Humans generally dislike having to talk to this disembodied voice in the air. It makes them look weird to their junior staff."
"Very funny. I don't think I will be having much conversations with…you…outside of my lab."
The AI smiled. "I predicted that. Which is why I allowed for a complete series of holotanks to be built inside your lab."
If there was a penalty for smashing your own windows, would there also be a penalty for smashing high-grade holo-projector technology? "Oh, good. Am I ever going to see the inside of my lab this year?"
"That is why I asked for the verification code, silly. Please report for verification code alpha-nine."
Ortyal spread his arms and performed a little bow. "Here I am, reporting in. Now what code do you need? The code for cyanide release in my lab? Maybe the automatic code for the airlock?"
The AI crossed her arms over her chest and sighed. Or performed the electronic equivalent of sighing. "I already have those. Just need your personalized password for entering your lab. You do want to enter it, right?"
Since when was a password called verification code alpha-nine? That made no sense. Had anyone else come up with it, he would have liked it. "Fine. My own personalized password, you say? What does that mean?"
"Anything you want," replied the AI.
Oh…so she was challenging him? "Anything?"
She smiled. "Yes. It is your personal verification code. You might want to make it something special. You know, so you can remember it."
Well, that was something he could not let slide, now could he?
Several minutes later, when Doctor Ortyal had finally finished customizing his personal entry code involving several specific bodily-stances and codewords only he knew, each one for every day of the week, he could finally witness what the UNSC's well-spent tax dollars could buy.
And it did not disappoint.
"I don´t think that your concept of special was necessary for security," said Yin.
"Never enough security," Ortyal replied, appraising the various sets of microscopes, surgical equipment and cabinets filled with chemicals. Now this was a lab. "Why don't you make yourself useful and tell me how this entire mess started."
The AI appeared on the holotanks to the left in the lab. "Just guessing here, but I don't think you mean the construction of this ship. What mess?"
"UNSC ships don't just go missing," he replied, poking a glass vial to test its strength and sound-producing qualities. "So what's all this about the Platernus and the Wayfarer?"
"Well, you are now technically qualified to know, so alright then. The UNSC Platernus performed the underpowered Slipspace jump to escape Covenant forces after the fall of Aegis III, as per Cole Protocol. According the last records of the shipboard AI, it managed to limp its way to a planet that had been used as experimental grounds by the Forerunners. The Spartan-Operator-"
"I know that. The Operator…man, that name gives me the creeps. Just going to call them new Spartans."
The AI made a sound. "The new Spartans "
"Actually, that sounds silly too. Why couldn't the Office give them better names than Operators? It is ridiculous. Just call them by their number."
"Are you sure?"
The young senior scientist nodded. "For now."
"Okay. Zero-one-one travelled to the surface, where he presumably spent the months that went by until the UNSC managed to find his location. Then, the Scattering happened."
Ortyal sat down in one of the science chairs and reached for one of the microscopes. "Not hearing any classified information, Yin."
"I am getting there. Most, if not all of the Spartan Operators were onboard that battlegroup to help secure the planet and then partake in another covert operation."
"All thirteen of them?"
"All thirteen that we know of. When the Forerunner defense mechanisms activated, multiple Slipspace portals were activated, sending the ships to randomized locations in space."
Ortyal activated the microscope and suddenly remembered that he didn't have anything to observe. He needed to prepare the slices himself now. "Do you know why I'm so interested in this Scattered event?"
"Because your insatiable quest for knowledge leaves you unable to ignore a contrived event like this?"
"Yes -no! Absolutely not! It's because of the Master Chief. You know what happened to him after the Battle of the Ark, don't you?"
The AI shrugged. "Gee, would I know what happened to humanity's biggest hero in history? If only I had unlimited access to every single scrap of knowledge that the Office of Naval Intelligence possessed. Wait, I do!"
"Good. Then you probably know that the Frigate he was supposed to ride out of the Ark got caught in the collapsing Slipspace portal. It portal-cut the Dawn in half, leaving the other half stranded in space. Random space."
"Uh…doc? I think you better stick to xenobiology. Parangosky has a dozen guys working on figuring out where the Master Chief went and if going to meddle with that too, your odds of survival will probably go down. A lot."
Ortyal waved her concerns away with a flick of his wrist. "My odds of survival are none of your business. You've probably got a false positive in there as well. But if the Wayfarer managed to end up somewhere in the Galaxy right where there might be extraterrestrial life, the Forward Unto Dawn might have too."
"I think the Admiral might have realized that. We never stopped searching for the Chief, doctor. Do you want my advice?"
"No," Ortyal resolutely said.
"Tough. Leave all of the Spartans and missing ships out of your head and focus on your job."
This was precisely why he had said no. "Leave it to the AI to tell man not to think. Are you threatening me, Yin? Already?"
"Hardly. I was told to make sure all of you survived this assignment. And you nosing around where you are not allowed sort of interferes with that assignment. You see, not everybody here likes you. That's thin ice."
Man, those chemicals had not been stored away on alphabetic order. That needed to change. The file cabinets were ordered all unorderly and someone had forgotten to pick up a piece of broken glass on the ground. "Interesting. I thought figuring out clever things was my job?"
"You are the head of xenobiology for this operation. All aliens we encounter belong to you, dead or alive. And then you get to play with their dead bodies until you find out something that can be used to better kill other things."
"Do I sense some hostility there?"
"Nope. That's how you would describe your job, isn't it? By the way, Captain Walker wants to speak to you on the bridge."
The doctor put away the diluted hydrochloric acid and sighed. "Captain Walker…I know that name.."
Yin appeared on the terminal to his right, with her hands on her hips. "He was there when Admiral Parangosky assigned you your job?"
"Hmm…wasn't he the bloke with the moustache?"
"I hope so. The other one was a woman."
"Ah yes. Captain Rook. Lovely woman."
"You insulted her and called her stupid in front of the admiralty board."
"As I said. Lovely woman. So she wants to speak to me?"
"No doc, the other one. Captain Walker."
Ortyal closed the cabinet with the chemicals and vowed to organize them better when he came back. "Well then, I better not keep him waiting right?"
~0~
Aboard Normandy SR-2
She came around the corner without warning, giving him almost no time to react at all. The tattooed woman seemed to be aiming to bump into Spartan one-one-seven, but he easily shifted his hips and twisted aside at the last moment, allowing her to pass him by without even touching her.
His sudden movement appeared to take her by surprise. She stumbled and whirled around with a scowl. "Watch where you're-"she cut herself off when she took another look at him, her face contorting in a look of anger and, more noticeably, surprise. "Shit, you're that new fuck!"
The Master Chief raised his eyebrow at her unprofessional attitude, but did not comment. Her appearance did not fit with a military vessel like the Normandy; she was completely covered in tattoos and did not wear anything but some leather straps that covered her extremities. It did not fit with this ship of war, but then again, neither did the other aliens he had met just far. This human was just another member of this asymmetrical nonsense.
A split-second after the human opened her mouth, the Chief's Heads-Up Display flared with a burst of blue static and several voices broke through his internal audio systems with such force that it nearly deafened him. He gritted his teeth and ignored the sudden assault on his sense, moving onwards without saying a word to the woman.
He walked around the wall of the elevator and entered the Normandy's crew quarters deck, which appeared to be the busiest deck of all. Terrific.
He knew the source of the interference. He had felt it nonstop as he had pushed into the Flood-corrupted High Charity. "Cortana," he asked as he slowly walked towards the middle of the third deck. He made sure to mute his external speakers so nobody could hear him talk. "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine!" She aggressively snapped at him. Her voice had a flanging edge to it, as if there were two voices talking through each other.
She wasn't "fine". There wasn't anything "fine" about this, but he didn't want to push her. He'd let her think, for now.
The Chief scanned his environment and spotted the medical bay, the kitchen and an office. Behind him lay the sleeping quarters as well as the observation decks, but it appeared that those were not inhabited right now.
The kitchen looked busy. Two people stood behind a counter, working with a mix of ingredients and tools to prepare a meal. Several other crewmembers were sitting at the table, immersed in a conversation about the latest operation. They spoke the same language as the Commander did, though they too spoke with that odd accent.
One additional sight filled him with silent anticipation and he slowed his movements down. One of the aliens stood leaning against the wall, its arms crossed over its chest as it seemed to converse with the human preparing the food.
"It's a Turian thing," the alien nonchalantly said, glancing at the human. "There is always room for a meal, before the fight and after."
"Not just a Turian thing, Vakarian," replied the human. "Every soldier needs to get their proteins!"
The Master Chief analyzed the alien's movements and armour and took notice of the fact that it appeared unarmed. Taking it down would be an easy task. Doing it nonlethally became a viable possibility.
'Vakarian' was the first to spot the Chief approaching them and eagerly stepped away from the wall.
The Spartan froze, unsure of what the alien would do.
"Chief," it said. Its voice was filled with a form of excitement, but the Spartan could not tell what for. "I believe you and I got off on the wrong foot before."
Then, much to the Master Chief's surprise, the Turian raised its hand at him. Again.
"I'm Garrus Vakarian. Shepard and I go way back."
The Spartan stared at its extended hand, unsure of what to do. A part of him did not want to offend what would be his future ally, but he also refused to shake hands with an alien. He only had one alien that he might possibly consider a comrade in arms and he did not need another.
After a few moments of silence, the Turian coughed and lowered his hand again, before bringing it to his neck and taking a step back. "So yeah, that was a gesture meant as an…introduction and show of good fate, as the Commander puts it."
"Some folks don't need all of that, Vakarian," the human at the side replied. He looked like the chef.
The turian grunted, but did not otherwise comment. A smart move.
"So then, Chief it was? I'm Mess Sergeant Gartner. How can I help you?"
The man did not seem to care about the formalities that much. It would do. "I need food rations."
"Sure. Anything special?" the man asked with a chuckle.
"Just provisions," the Chief replied. "MRE packages and supplements."
"Right, right." Gartner placed several small packages on the table and said, "Anything now? This stuff is meant to keep soldiers going, not keep them warm."
It was exactly what the Spartan needed. Easy to take with him, easy to prepare. "Just the rations."
"Alright. No problem."
No questions asked, no odd stares. The Chief could appreciate that. He politely thanked the man and, as soon as he was back on the elevator, said, "Cortana?"
"I'm sorry Chief…I…got distracted."
"It's alright," he replied.
"It's not alright, it's...Chief, I…"
"You're still getting used. There's another AI you need to stay hidden from. So, stay focused."
"…right. Of course. Thank you, John."
"Anytime."
~0~
Commander Jane Shepard had just finished a conversation with Mordin regarding the nature of his work with the Salarian Special Task Group when the next problem arose.
"Commander, The Illusive Man would like to speak to you," Kelly informed Jane when she moved to check if she had new messages.
"Awesome," the Commander replied, not too enthusiastically. Maybe it was something useful. The last time had been Horizon, where they had taken the fight to the Collectors, beaten their ground forces and learned more about the nature of their enemy. Perhaps Tim had a plan.
On the other hand, the last time had been Horizon.
As soon as the Commander made her way to the Briefing/Comm room and enabled the link between her and the head of Cerberus, it became obvious that this wouldn't be another Horizon. It would be something else entirely.
"Shepard, we caught a break. I intercepted a distress call from a turian patrol. They stumbled on a Collector ship beyond the Korlus system. The turians were wiped out, but not before they crippled the Collector vessel. " He sat down on his chair and crossed his legs, as if certain that Jane would embark on this mission right away. "I need you to board that ship and get some data on the Collectors. Find us a way to get to their homeworld."
Shepard crossed her arms. This didn't feel right with her. "Don't you just love it when turian scouts take our Reaper-associated monstrosities?"
As always, Tim had a response. "Reports indicate that the hull's intact, but the core systems appear to be offline. They could be making repairs as we speak. I'm not saying it won't be dangerous, but we can't let an opportunity like this slip by."
This sounded like a massive opportunity alright. Not just for them. "So where is the turian fleet then? Won't they find that ship?"
"They will, eventually. But I intercepted the transmissions." Alright, that was impressive. "In the meantime, we're feeding them false reports. You're close enough that you can be in and out before the turians learn the truth."
Shepard nodded. "You sure this information's good?"
"Information is my weapon, Shepard. It's good."
She'd assemble a team immediately. "Guess it's time to go to work then."
"Coordinates already sent. Once you're aboard the ship, establish an uplink with EDI. She'll mine their data information regarding the Omega-4 Relay. Good luck, Shepard."
"Coordinates punched in," Joker said as the connection between Jane and Illusive Man broke, allowing the chamber to return to its normal state. "Let's go find us a Collector Ship."
The Commander nodded and immediately contacted Jack. Biotics seemed effective against the Collector troops last time and she wanted to make sure that Jack was alright after her little fallout with Miranda. The two of them just couldn't stand each other and it might well have escalated had she not stepped in when she did.
Jack and Miranda were both complicated, but Jack in a different way. Hell, anyone could have turned out like she had if put through the same Cerberus-caused hell. And yes, the facility had gone rogue and Illusive Man had shut it down when he learned of the experiments done there, but still. Jack had no reason to work with that.
Well, it was time for the biotic convict to show what she could do, now that she had finally put her past behind in that big crater on Pragia.
"Yeah?" Replied Jack.
"Meet me in the hangar bay in half an hour."
"Right. Got it."
Jane smiled. After her voyage to that testing facility in Pragia, Jack had become much…well, nicer wasn't the right way of putting it. She had become more open. More pleasant to work with.
Shepard's thoughts travelled to Grunt, but then went straight towards the Master Chief. He had never even seen a Collector, dead or alive. Now was the time for him to find out who his true enemies on this operation were. Putting him up against the Collectors would be a test for her too; he had performed beyond all expectations the last time he had been in action and she wanted to find a way to put his abilities to good use. After all, if she allowed Jack and Grunt to cut loose when the situation demanded it, she could also allow him to cut loose.
So she contacted him as well. "Chief? We have another mission."
"Copy that Commander. Standing by."
He was already in the right place. No need to tell him to head down or anything.
With that taken care of, Jane headed straight to her quarters to gear up. Joker said he had already received the coordinates, so they should already be on their way. If everything went well, the Normandy could be on-site in twenty minutes.
Some time later, as she waited for the elevator to arrive at the CIC, she went through the mission details again. The Collector ship had been disabled somewhere beyond the Korlus system…wasn't that where she had tried to recruit the Warlord, only to be given Grunt in his tank? What were the Collectors doing there?
Only one way to find out.
Joker was ready and waiting for her. The second they exited the Mass Relay, EDI detected vague signals in-system.
"We have a visual on the Collector Ship, Commander," Joker said, adjusting several of the screens to get a better view.
"Very low emissions," added EDI. "Passive infrared temperatures suggest most systems are offline. Thrusters are cold."
The vessel looked awfully threatening when put on-screen. It reminded her somewhat of the derelict they had the Chief in, but even larger. It was mostly made out of stone, resembling some sort of massive insect hive. Disconcerting.
"The thing's massive!" said Joker. "How the hell did the turians take it out?"
His thoughts mirrored Shepard's concerns. How could a patrol ship take out something as large as this? That was like the Kodiak shuttle taking out the Normandy.
"Ladar scans do not detect any hull breaches on the side facing us. I detect no mass effect field distortions. It appears the drive core is offline."
"Rendezvous in thirty seconds Commander. Good luck."
That was Jane's cue. She headed straight towards the hangar bay, here both the Chief as Jack were geared up and waiting for her. Jack had her shotgun and her heavy pistol, but the Master Chief had something else with him. Not that anti-material sniper rifle that he had used to punch through shields, armour and skull alike, but something that looked like it was equally capable of doing so.
Jane, knowing from experience that the soldier's species utilized weapons with extreme punch to them, gestured at the unknown weapon. It looked a lot like an assault shotgun, but different. Longer, less bulky. A very dark shade of gray as well. "That a close-quarters weapon?"
The Chief nodded in response.
"Smart man.". That would work well within the confined areas of a ship.
She nodded at them and they followed her straight towards the shuttle. Shepard really hoped that Mordin's countermeasure to the seeker swarms would hold up inside of that ship too, because she had no idea how many of them would be inside. She had told the Master Chief about the Seeker Swarms and their paralytic poison, but he had not been worried. According to him, they would not hurt him.
It made her feel suspicious all over again. After all, kinetic barriers did nothing to prevent those things from nailing you and their poison seemed to work with every organic, human or otherwise, and she was sure that the Chief was not a synthetic.
Well, almost sure. She had yet to see what his head looked like without that bucket of his.
As the shuttle sped towards the disabled Collector vessel, searching for a way in, Shepard took some time to observe the already-surfacing dynamic of her current squad. It took her all of thirty seconds to figure out that Jack did not like the Chief. The woman looked like she was unsure whether the Chief would bite her or spontaneously combust. Every few seconds she would shoot him a menacing glare, before looking away to fiddle with her weapon.
Jack acted just like Miranda had. The two of them really had more in common than they were willing to admit.
Eventually, the shuttle came to a stop. Jane immediately grabbed her SMG, with Jack behind her doing the same with her shotgun. The Chief brandished his rifle and glanced at the Commander, who nodded. "Move out."
The three of them jumped out, weapons raised.
"Never saw a ship like this before," remarked Jack.
Shepard scanned her surroundings, making sure that they would not be ambushed. The place felt wrong. The ceiling was covered with strange, bulb-like lights -at least she hoped those were lights- while the walls and even ceiling had patches or cold rock woven through them. This really was an insect hive.
Alright, she had to admit it. Even she felt disturbed by this place.
EDI said something about scans, but Shepard was too busy checking out the corners. Every turn they made, they could stumble into one of those Scions.
"Stay sharp," she called.
They advanced into the hallway, but didn't get very far before EDI's familiar voice came through the comm unit again. "Shepard, I have compared the ship's EM signature to known Collector profiles. It is the vessel you encountered on horizon."
That comment disturbed the Commander more than it should have. "Guess the saying is true; taking AA to the face really is unhealthy."
"Maybe we'll find the missing people. If they're still alive," said Jack.
Goodie.
The Chief stayed silent, even as they made their way deeper into the hallways and encountered a series of pods lying on the ground.
"The same containers as on Horizon," Jack quietly said. The sight seemed to disturb her. "Only these are empty."
The Master Chief stopped next to one of the pods and knelt down next to it, placing a large, gauntleted hand against its side. He dug his fingers deep into its frame and then, with one violent movement, tore the cover off.
Shepard took a peek at its contents. "Huh…empty too."
"They're planning to take more," he declared.
Jack raised her shotgun again. "Then we better make sure they won't finish the job."
Deeper they pressed into the ship, barely managing to make it ten meters before they stumbled across another sight of horror. A large pile of bodies, shamelessly and unceremoniously dumped in a hallway. Stowed away to be forgotten.
"Why would the Collectors just leave a pile of bodies lying around?" Jack asked.
Jane stared at the pile of bodies, vaguely remembering that the Batarians had done something similar during the assault on Mindoir. "They're free now."
"We should keep moving," said the Chief.
The three of them cleared another hallway, went down a ramp and stumbled across yet another hallway, all without encountering any resistance. Where was everybody? Shouldn't they have been found by now?
The Commander noticed a series of consoles and, after making sure that there was no hostile force anywhere, approached them.
It proved to be an…insightful experience.
"That's a Collector!" Jack exclaimed upon seeing the body of the insect-like alien, contained within the open pod in front of the console. "Are you seeing this? These bastards committed experiments on their own?"
Shepard scowled. "Hey ehm…EDI? I got some data for you. It's a thing. Give it a look, pretty please?"
"Data received, analyzing. The Collectors were running baseline genetic comparisons between their species and humanity."
So they shared their human fetish with the Reapers. "Did they find anything?"
"These are only preliminary reports, but they reveal something remarkable. A quad-strand genetic structure, identical to traces collected from ancient ruins. Only one race is known to have this structure: the Protheans."
Well shit. The Collectors were Protheans. That put a disturbing spin on history. "So this means we'll have to rewrite our history books."
EDI then explained that these things weren't Protheans anymore, but Shepard did not need her to explain that. The Reapers didn't wipe out the Protheans. They turned them into monsters, enslaved even in death.
For one awful moment, Shepard realized that her new enemy was race of mere slaves, doomed to aiding their destroyers in helping other races meet the same fate, and that she had a duty to help them. But that was not possible. She couldn't save everyone. "They're working for the Reapers now…and we have to stop them."
"No shit. I don't want to be turned into some fucking insect monster either! We fight those things!"
Whatever the Protheans had once been, they were gone now. She would put the poor things out of their misery soon. "Let's get moving before the Collectors arrive to salvage this ship."
And with that, the team pushed deeper into the ship. The Commander stopped to scan a piece of technology, before reaching a large, open room, with sight on a large portion of the vessel´s ceiling.
"Commander," said the Master Chief. "Up on the ceiling. More pods."
Hundreds of them.
"Shit. How many have people in them?" Jack loudly said.
"Too many," Shepard grimly replied.
"Commander. I detect no signs of life in these pods. It is probable that the victims inside died when the ship lost primary power."
At this point, Shepard nearly wished that the Collectors would show themselves. They continued their way towards some central form of hub, yet there was absolutely no opposition.
Her feelings of unease grew stronger with each step she took and when Joker contacted her to tell her that EDI had compared the profile of this ship with that of the one that had destroyed the original Normandy, and that the two were an exact match.
"Commander, this feels like a trap." The Master Chief perfectly summed up Jane's suspicions. But what choice did they have?
They finally cleared the cramped hallways and stumbled into what had to be the hollow inside of the ship. It stretched on for hundreds of meters in each direction, spacious enough to contain multiple Normandy´s. And the ceiling was absolutely covered with the pods.
"They couldn't fill those pods even if they took every human in the Terminus System," Jack said with a voice that was nearly trembling with anger.
"Earth is in danger," the Chief replied.
"Not if we stop them."
Eventually they reached what had to be a control panel. Shepard immediately initialized a link between EDI and the Collector ship, allowing the AI to mine the ship for data.
Then the whole ship started shaking and the platform they were standing on pulsated oddly.
"Commander!"
"Still here. Everything okay on your end?"
"Major power surge Commander! EDI managed to divert it to noncritical systems, but-"
EDI cut him off. "There is no doubt about this, Shepard. This was a trap."
As if it had been waiting for her to say that, the platform that they were standing on suddenly shifted and then rose up in the air. "Yeah, I about figured that."
"Hold on Commander, EDI says there´s something in the system!"
"Commander, hostiles approaching our position," declared the Master Chief.
Shepard whipped out her SMG. Another platform approached their position. It was built with the same general shape as the one as they stood on, except it was inhabited by the large, vivacious form of a Scion.
The Commander sighed. She hated those things. "Master Chief, mind the jump."
"Mind the jump?" Said Jack. "What the fuck's that supposed to-? "
The second that the platform came close enough for the Chief, he jumped. With several thundering strides he launched himself across the three meters that separated their platform from the Scions and unslung his other weapon. The Scion opened fire with its siege cannon and a series of blue, exploding pulses sprang across the floor, each one powerful enough to bite through kinetic barriers with no problem at all.
Jack seemed aghast. "Are you shitting me?"
The Chief easily rolled out of the way and then opened fire. The shot echoed through the massive interior of the ship and still Shepard thought it was loud.
Whatever it fired, it tore a massive hole into the Scion's chest. The Chief cocked his weapon and moved closer-
"Chief," Shepard yelled. "Watch out! That thing explodes!"
True enough, the moment the Chief came close enough, the Scion reared back and unleashed a powerful, biotic shockwave. The soldier quickly backpedaled to avoid the worst of the attack, before suddenly jumping right on top of the Scion. Its knees wobbled dangerously and the Chief smashed his fist into the blueish sack on its back, which Shepard knew contained its synthetic organs. She had personally ripped that thing open back on Horizon, when she had taken the fight to a form just like this.
Still on the thing's back, the Chief took aim with his weapon and blasted the Scion's vulnerable insides again and again, sending three blasts of thunder straight into its weak spot.
The husk gave a low, rumbling cry and died.
"Holy shit!" Said Jack. "Where did you find this guy?"
There were more platforms incoming and Shepard quickly moved to intercept them as their platform approached. With her sidearm, she picked off two Collectors with well-placed shots and Jack annihilated the third, along with a part of the platform itself. Her biotics were unstable, but very powerful.
"Chief, be careful."
Another platform with another Scion. Shepard enveloped herself in a biotic field to soak up its fire and then blasted it with a warp field, ripping apart the chitinous plates that protected its front. It was standing dangerously close on the edge, and a fall would send it plunging to its death
"Jack, cover me!" She said, hopping over her cover and making her way towards the Scion. Jack created a cascade of biotic shockwaves and knocked three Collectors on the ground, allowing Shepard to easily pick them off with well-placed shots to their oversized heads.
The Scion raised its cannon and fired off another salvo, but Jane slid out of its ways with a biotic dash and opened fire with her SMG at pointblank range, before jumping backwards to avoid the shockwave that was meant to counter tactics like this.
Predictable.
Harbinger assumed direct control with a Collector drone at her flank, but it could not withstand the firepower that the Chief and Jack poured into its glowing form, which practically begged them to turn it into a shooting gallery.
Shepard blasted the Scion's legs with a heavy warp field and then collided with it, ignoring the squishy contact between her armour and its dead, cybernetic-enhanced body.
The Scion attempted to fight back, but Shepard focused her biotic energy into her right arm and lashed out with an open-palm strike, transferring all of her force directly into its body. The strike was powerful enough to crack the floor underneath her and the Scion got knocked backwards, where its legs had no ground to stand on. It disappeared over the edge and plummeted towards its death.
Another platform was incoming and Shepard nodded at Jack, who smirked.
"I can take you all!" She cried, before using her own biotics to destroy all the cover that the Collectors had on their platform. The Chief then used his powerful rifle to send a massive bullet their each one of their oversized heads, killing them before Harbinger could direct this situation personally.
"I have regained control of the platform, Shepard," EDI said when the Commander finally managed to reach the console again.
"Ah, good."
"I always work at maximum efficiency. Commander, I have managed to gain minimal access in the Collector's data bases. I have also found the turian distress call that served as the lure for this trap. The Collectors were the source. It is unusual."
"That makes sense," replied Jane. "Of course the Collectors would want to lure their victims in."
However, when EDI explained that the used signal was an obviously encrypted and corrupted message and that the Illusive Man would have never fallen for it, that assurance quickly turned into indignity. Especially when she then heard that the Illusive Man had written a part of the code that EDI had used to detect the faulty message.
"I knew Cerberus would screw me over again!" Yelled Jack.
"He knew it was a trap?" Said Joker. "Why would he send us into a trap?"
Shepard shook her head. "We don't have time to point fingers. We'll confront him when we get out of here in one piece."
"Ehm…Commander? We got a second problem. The Collector ship is powering up! You need to get out of there before their weapons get online. I am not losing another Normandy!"
After a brief pause, the Commander promptly broke into a sprint and made her way down a ramp, followed closely by her teammates. She sure as hell was not losing the Normandy either!
"Around the corner, take the door on your left."
"Got it," Shepard called, waving towards the left set of doors as they slid open-
-only to reveal another Scion, standing in the middle of the hallway and raisings its massive arm-mounted cannon.
Shepard was going too fast. Could her shields take the brunt of its hits at such close quarters? Where would she go afterwards, there wasn't any cover-
The Master Chief moved before anyone else. Jane was still processing that she had nearly ran face-first into a Scion when he seemed to launch himself towards it, faster than humanly possible. The sheer speed with which he moved was incredible. Shepard never got the chance to open fire, as he covered the half a dozen meters in a heartbeat and collided with the fused Husk with such immense strength that he nearly sheared its other arm off.
The Chief rammed his armored gauntlet deep into the sack of synthetic organs on the Scions back and swung itself on the monster´s back, carrying himself with enough force to easily spin it around and slam it into the ground.
"Correction. The door to the right. Something is attempting to fend off my control. Commander, hostile forces are en-route to your location."
The doors creaked.
"Chief!" Cried Jane. Two Collectors moved in behind the green-clad soldier and Shepard opened fire on them, puncturing their bodies with high-velocity rounds and putting them down.
The soldier jumped backwards to avoid the immense shockwave that the Scion released, scorching the floor with its biotic pulse. He then immediately closed in on the husk, grabbed it by its 'head' and smashed it violently against the ground.
The doors suddenly shot together, closing again.
Shepard reached out a biotic field, attempting to prevent the doors from closing fully. The power that lay behind the mechanism was immense! She could barely slow it down. "Chief, move!"
The massive soldier brought his own force to bear and smashed the Scion's head in with his boot. It did not kill the living siege weapon however, as it still attempted to smash the Chief with its now barely-functioning arm cannon.
Behind the Master Chief, more Collector forces began gathering.
"Chief, move damnit!" Cried Jane. She couldn't keep the doors open; whatever power source the Collectors used to power their doors, it overwhelmed her biotic prowess and violently smashed the doors together. There was nothing she could do.
It was almost as if something was toying with them.
"EDI, the door!"
"Negative. I am unable-"
"Get to it young lady!"
"-unable to circumvent the door mechanics. I suggest the Master Chief move to alternate rendezvous locations."
Several rounds impacted on the door and Jane immediately whirled around and cast a biotic warp-field at the offending collector, eating through its protective barriers and forcing it back to cover. Jack took a hold of it with her own biotics and pulled it out of cover again, unloading two shots into its oversized head.
Harbinger wouldn't be assuming that one.
"Chief!" Shepard yelled, slamming her fist against the thick, metal door that now separated her from her squad member. "Can you hear me?"
Behind her, Jack uttered a loud cry of anger, soon followed by the distinctive sound of a biotic explosion. A few moments after that, her communications array picked up his signal.
"Commander, the door is sealed. Regrouping is not possible."
His voice was surprisingly-calm for someone who had just been locked away inside of a Collector vessel all on his own.
Shepard slammed her fist against the wall in frustration. Soon, the familiar feeling of helplessness and guilt struck her like a punch to the gut and she closed her eyes for a few seconds.
Not again.
"Chief?"
"Wait one." There was a short burst of fire on his end before he continued. "Go ahead Commander."
"We're unable to get to you. Can you find a way to regroup?"
Another burst of fire. "Copy that. Moving to alternate location."
Such calmness in the face of imminent abandonment. Even Shepard didn't know what she would do if she had been locked away from her team, in the middle of a pissed-off army of Collectors. Would she lose a part of her team again?
On his second mission?
Jack grabbed a hold of her hand and jerked at her arm. "Commander!" She shouted. "Chief can take care of himself. We need to get the hell out of here!"
Shepard pushed her thoughts of doubt and guilt far away and nodded. They hadn't failed yet and the Chief was one tough SOB. They´d make it through.
Jack and her soon came into another encounter, on level terrain with no height advantages. Shepard slammed into cover and shot the Collector Drones that came flying towards her out of the air. Her SMG tore large holes in their insect-like bodies and their corpses plummeted to the ground.
"Commander, I am unable to reroute the Master Chief to your position. He has refused me access to his suit."
What? Why would the Chief refuse EDI access? If it meant saving his life, what did it matter if an AI scurried around his interface or not? "Keep trying. Jack, kill that Harbinger!"
"It is peculiar. He says he does not require my assistance."
Jack popped Harbinger's shields like a bubble and Shepard proceeded to annihilate most of its upper body with a biotic-charged kick to his face. "Just find him a route!"
The next area proved to be a real fight. The first wave of Collectors landed basically in their faces, but Jane noticed a lot of cover to take advantage of. There even was a ramp to her left, which led to an elevated platform.
She quickly pulled Jack behind a wall that looked like it was shaped like a hexagon. "Chief, can you hear me?"
There was a brief pause, during which Jane killed two Collectors and enabled Jack to kill a third. Then, she heard his familiar, gravelly voice. "Go ahead Commander."
"Master Chief, I need you to allow EDI to find you a new route! If she can interface with your suit-"
"Negative, Commander. That will not be possible."
"Don't give me that! Open your bucket and let the AI in!"
"Commander, we are working on the alternate route. Stand by."
Jane, teeming with anger, took her frustration out on a Collector that came too close, smashing its head in with a biotic-laced hook to his face. "Stay safe," she muttered.
Shepard and Jack fought their way to the top of the ramp, leaving behind the hexagon-shaped piece of cover. Harbinger took control of another Collector Drone, but Jack was quickly to catch it in a biotic field and fling it across the room, eliminating that particular threat, if only temporary.
Upon reaching the highest point in the room, Jane immediately dove for cover and raised her SMG. She sighted in on the nearest Collector and pulled the trigger, sending a long steam of bullets downrange. A new group of hostiles approached their position from the left; a group of husks, but red instead of blue.
Shepard didn't trust that one bit and kept them at distance, throwing them off the platform with a flick of her wrist.
They exploded upon death, violently.
Great. Exploding zombies. Who came up with these ideas?
After Shepard had mopped up the rest of the hostiles, she pocketed their thermal clips and made her way to the other side of the room. She nodded at Jack and entered the next room.
"Commander, I have opened the door on the other end of the room. However, I am still unable to direct the Master Chief towards you."
"Keep working EDI," Shepard replied. "Get his green behind to the Normandy ASAP!"
Shepard scanned the next room with her SMG carefully, because there were no immediate hostiles to be seen. It had to be some sort of trap and she did not have the patience to deal with another trap after what the last one had cost her.
Jack took cover behind the narrow wall at the top of an elevation, looking down at the rest of the room.
There was nothing. No Collectors, no Husks, nothing.
Knowing that time was not on her side, Shepard made her way towards the other end of the room, but that door closed right as she attempted to make her way through the passage. She quickly hopped backwards and contacted the Normandy. "EDI?"
"Take the door to your right, Commander."
Great. The longer way around the obstacle.
Jack followed the Commander through another hallway. They stopped at the entrance of the room when she heard the familiar and hated buzzing of Collector wings. "Jack, get ready."
"Got it Commander!"
Immediately taking cover, the Commander watched as the first wave of Collectors arrived. She whipped out her Carnifex and nailed two of the unprotected drones in the head. Jack grazed one with her shotgun, but that one quickly became a Harbinger, forcing Shepard to apply more firepower to its head.
The firefight quickly escalated when a group of the red abominations arrived. The humanoids quickly shambled towards their direction, but Jack caught sight of them and was quick to obliterate them with a biotic shockwave.
Their bodies gorily exploded.
Shepard pushed deeper into the room, blasting every Collector she got in her sights. She started to feel the exhaustion from biotic overuse, but she ignored that. The few monsters that managed to get close enough to attack her from her sides were quickly annihilated with biotic-enhanced martial arts.
"Commander," the Chief suddenly said. "Enemy presence is increasing. I am searching for a way around."
"Chief, can you get to the Normandy? Do you know which way to take?" Jane quickly replied. Jack covered her by biotically tearing a Collector in half as it moved to flank them. She then started gunning down the large group of Husks that started appearing from a long hallway on the other end of the room.
"Negative Commander. I need to engage radio silence.
"Chief, I'm not losing you! Find a route and get to us before this ship blasts the Normandy to pieces!"
"Copy that."
Shepard jumped over a small wall and headed towards the long hallway up ahead. It was crawling with Husks and their red counterparts were climbing up too.
But the Shuttle was right there! If the Chief could hurry it up, they could get clear now!
"Commander," EDI then said, "The Collector vessel is powering up its weapons. There will not be enough time to clear it unless we embark soon."
"Stow that EDI! I am not leaving the Chief behind!"
"Affirmative, Commander. However, I must advise you that our mission is more important than the life of one soldier."
"Thank you, EDI!" Shepard didn't need an AI to tell her that it was necessary to sacrifice lives for the mission. She had learned that lesson the hard way and she wasn't about to take a reminder. "Jack, get to the shuttle! Kill those Husks!"
Jack laughed. "Gladly."
Shepard contacted the Chief again. Radio silence be damned; he was going to get them killed if he couldn't get a move on. "Master Chief, where are you? We need to go!"
There was a frustratingly-long delay before the soldier replied. "The Collector ship is powering up its systems."
How did he even know that? "Which is why you need to hurry the flying fuck up!"
Another pause, during which she could hear a sustained burst of gunfire, followed by an explosion. "Commander Shepard, you should depart now."
What? "Don't be stupid. Find your way to us and-"
There was another explosion, followed by an ear-splitting screech. Shepard's blood ran cold; that sounded like the same creature she had encountered on Horizon! The one that Garrus had dubbed the Praetorian!
"There is no time, Shepard. The Master Chief understands this. We must leave now."
"No!" Shepard sharply told EDI. "We're not leaving! I'm not losing another one!"
"Shepard," yelled Jack. "It's gonna get real busy here real soon! I'm not staying in this shithole and neither are you!"
Jane gritted her teeth. Deep inside, she already knew what the right thing to do was. Of course she could never risk the Normandy and the mission for the life of one teammate. She couldn't lie to herself and she wasn't going to deny that, either. "Master Chief…I am sorry. We need to evac out of here, or the entire operation dies with us."
His voice was so calm. Even now, facing immediate abandonment and probable death, his voice was without emotions and completely to-the-point. "Of course Commander. Good luck."
Feeling somewhat reassured by his graceful attitude, Jane boarded the shuttle. "It was an honor serving with you. Chief."
"I will see you again, Commander."
With that last, puzzling remark left ambiguously in the air, the shuttle doors closed and the Kodiak took off.
"You did the right thing, Commander," Joker softly told her as the shuttle sped towards the Normandy. "You heard the big guy; he understood."
Jane didn't say anything. She took her helmet off and set it down beside her. She didn't want to hear justifications or arguments. As the Commanding officer, it was up to her to complete the mission, whatever the cost. Even if it meant sacrificing the lives of her own people.
The chains of command.
Feeling that someone was staring at her. Jane looked up and glared at Jack for a second, after which Jack quickly looked away.
The Illusive Man had better have a good reason for knowingly sending them into this trap. Maybe then, he would escape unharmed. The Collectors had better hope that she would direct her attention to Cerberus. Because, if the Illusive Man had valid reasons, the Collectors would be facing the full brunt of her wrath.
And there would be nowhere for them to hide.
~0~
Installation 00
Moments after premature activation of Installation 04B
Don´t…ever let her go…
As the world around him fell apart, metal shearing like it was out of damn rice paper due to explosions so powerful that they looked blue, Avery felt strangely content. He was done, in all ways a man could be done. He had seen the beginning of the Human-Covenant war and now he was pretty sure he had witnessed the end of it.
Truth had died, together with Miranda. There was nothing left for him to live for now.
The Chief would do it. He would escape this wretched hellhole and win. And it would be worth it.
The Master Chief always won.
Avery took a deep breath, but was unable to due to his burned lungs and ruined chest cavity. Spark…damn lightbulb had finally gone nuts. Strangely fitting…
With the ground underneath him breaking lose and falling away, it would probably be over soon anyway.
Gravity took a hold of his broken body, and Johnson fell. Fell for what felt like ages, never feeling the respite of the impact. The embrace of death. It went on and on, far too long to be considered real.
Annoyed, he opened his eyes. The sensation of weightlessness was far from comforting, and he would like to spent his last aware moments in peace, and not with those alien zombie freaks crawling over his body.
Another reason. To finally be rid of all the memories.
So what was taking him so long?
"Once more, I contort myself in all manners to find a manner of redemption. One Reclaimer leaves, so that the other might be saved."
Avery felt the soft touch of something solid underneath him and quietly groaned. Was he hearing voices now? Already?
There was a flash if the brightest and warmest light that he had ever felt in his life. And in that moment, all ceased to be. And it was finally silent, except for one final comment, that felt like it echoed through his head rather than through the exploding interior of the firing Halo.
"I wonder."
~0~
[SECURITY ACCESS GRANTED. UNSC TECHNOLOGICAL INFORMATION CODEX UNLOCKED]
SUBJECT: M45 SHOTGUN SERIES
The M90's immense power, ease of use, and reduced capacity for puncturing the hulls of spacecraft over many other UNSC weapon systems with standard ammunition are greatly appreciated. The M90 is often employed in urban conditions where the tight spaces are conducive to the shotgun's wide spray for defensive purposes and CQC.
However, after various theses reported the increasing ineffectiveness against Covenant armour systems, it was decided that an upgrade was needed. Thus the M45 Tactical Shotgun Series was reintroduced. An upgrade from the previous M45 and M90 models, the M45D fires M296 SC 8-gauge magnum shells with a magnetorheological dampening system to reduce recoil, making it more comfortable to use in the battlefield. Further versions of the M45 include a semi-automatic and a fully-automatic versions.
The Soellkraft 8-Gauge Shell is most commonly utilized with this weapon system, however, the 45Dt can hold incendiary rounds, rifle slugs, flechettes, and a variety of other forms of ammunition that have proven to be most effective against Covenant ground forces.
~0~
