One month later
I'm sitting at my workbench finally finishing up on my new armor, I don't have it painted yet so it's still just a plain grey color. It's a very slim looking armor, the neck ring piece that's common with Turian armor is shrunken and closer to my neck that is much more comfortable, at least for me. I'm quite proud of the armor and its additions that should help my combat ability.
"Hey Vakarian, what are you working on there?" I turn my head and see Polnia drinking another early cup of coffee, we tend to have conversations in the morning like this and it's giving me the chance to understand the type of Turian she is.
"Just my new armor, can't stand the standard crap they gave me, it's incredibly uncomfortable and the protection isn't even that great, those shields pop against higher end weapons and that armor would take two or three shots before getting punched through." I explain as she nods to my small rant on the standard armor the military gives privates.
"Yeah don't I know, I bought new and better armor as soon as possible and that was before I got my current armor and weapons, I will say I respect how much you work on your equipment and tech, if I didn't know better I'd say you'll change the battleground as we know it." She gives a small chuckle after her statement and takes another sip of her coffee as a question comes to mind.
"That reminds me Polnia, what's the story behind that blade you have it's unusual to see a Turian carrying around a short sword in these times." I say as I remember the blade she used back in the ship when we met The White Death that reminds me of swords that many people used back in the medieval ages.
"Oh, my talon? I got that after a very difficult mission, it's an honor weapon that older and higher ranked Turians might have, it's given out less today though." I'm interested to hear about this new piece of lore. We continue to chat for a while about ordinary things mainly about how crap the dextro coffee and food on this ship is.
After my morning conversation with Polnia I decide to check up on Destia who's down working down in the engine room as usual. "Hello my mate working hard as usual I see" She nods as I see a small smile crawl up to her mandibles.
"Yes, as always, but what brings you down here?" She says as she continues to work and listen to me.
"I decided to take a break on my work and came down to see you, I don't that's so wrong, besides I can tell you're almost done on what you're working on as well. I say as I look at her terminal and she her labeled tasks are almost all marked out.
"Yes, yes, I know and I'll come up in just a moment when I'm done and I'll let you know my mate." I lean in and we touch fringes for a moment enjoying the moment before pulling away as I wave goodbye to her and go up to the next floor.
About two hours later we get a report, intel found a hidden base of The White Death and we're being tasked with destroying it. Polnia walks into the room and begins to explain. "Alright, as I've said we're going to be destroying one of the bases this little terrorist organization has set up. You all know them since we dealt with them over a year ago, The White Death." When she mentions the name, I can see Tib tense up which worries me. "This group has become more active over the past year and now the Hierarchy has considered them enough of a problem that they need to be hunted and eliminated."
She pauses and takes a breath as she continues the briefing. "Now then from what I've been told we still don't know the objective of this group aside from causing havoc and murdering innocent people." She sets up her omni-tool and shows us a schematic of the base. "Now then we're expecting a heavy resistance in the base, the enemies are expected to be well trained and with high tech equipment like the cloaks that they used last time." She shuts off her omni-tool and takes a moment to look over everyone.
"Now then we'll be arriving in five hours and I want to bring everyone due to the size of the mission and the threat it poses, therefore I want everyone mission ready in four hours. That's all I have for you, dismissed." Everyone gets up and as I get ready to leave, I'm forced to stop by Polnia as I feel her hand on my shoulder.
"Yes? What do you need from me ma'am?" I say a bit confused on why she stopped me silently instead of simply calling for me to stay.
"I need to speak to you about a few matters here first. First one being Ursiril and his behavior, I noticed he was less upbeat compared to when he first came in but I thought that he was simply maturing, however with the mention of this group once more coming into the spotlight I can see the difference is due to the group." I nod to her words in agreement, his behavior being something that has concerned me as well not just as ally but as a friend.
"I agree, I knew his behavior was bad after that first run in, however I haven't been able to talk to him about it, he's not been cooperative about it, but why bring it up now ma'am" I say as I take a seat while she lets out a heavy breath and sits down as well.
"I'm worried that he'll compromise the mission, he has been a good soldier so far but with the enemy we're facing I worry he might try to take reckless actions that will potentially get us killed." As she says this it raises a question in my head.
"If you're worried that he'll cause problems on this mission then why not keep him off the mission, even without him we'll have four men to infiltrate." I say as I consider the potential results from both choices.
"I'm not doing that since we'll need him, like I said we need everyone we have to take this mission on and for the plans that I have in place his addition will make a massive difference in this mission." She pauses as I notice just how tense she is. "All I want you to do is keep an eye on him and try to hold him in line when I'm not with him, understood?" I nod as lets out a sigh of relief.
"Now then for the second reason that I needed to talk to you." She says as she pulls up the base schematics again and transfers it to my omni-tool "I'll need you to take a bigger risk in this mission, we can't afford to be caught off guard by this group again and especially not when they have many more units than they did previously." As she speaks, I take a look at the layout and realize this is a relatively small base nearly small enough to be consider more of a hideout than a base. A two-story building with one large storage/garage type area that also served as the central location in the base. Along with four regular rooms that could serve various of purposes, a much bigger room that seemed to be the command point and one entrance that was also the exit, it's clear they wanted this place prepared in a case of an ambush.
"You have a lot of tools a lot I overlooked considering the quick run in and eliminate missions we usually have, however today I believe those tools will become our biggest strength." I nod as I think about the multiple pieces of tech, I've made for myself. "You'll be the first to infiltrate and you'll be assigned with taking out their preparations so we can follow you in." I understand how she's thinking, out of everyone on the team I have the best chance of getting in and sabotaging the enemy.
"I understand ma'am and I'll be sure to follow the plan you put in place." I sit back as my head starts running wild as I consider what I'll have to do.
"I'm glad you understand Vakarian, but I'm not just throwing you to in blind here, since you'll be the first going in, I want you to help me develop the plan, besides I need a second opinion.
I nod and for the next thirty minutes Polnia and I develop a plan for this risky mission, afterwards I get moving as I get to my armor and check it over making sure it's functional. "Damn it I should have stolen some of their armor a year ago so I could have put it in my armor, I'll have to improvise a bit once I get in."
"Need help with anything Vel?" I turn around and see Destia standing fitted out in her armor and equipment ready to go and I nod to her as I move to her and hold her close for a moment to calm my nerves a bit.
"Just seeing you helps immensely, but there is something else that you would be vital for." I say as I sit down and pull up my omni-tool. "I need to develop a tactical cloak, it might mean the difference between life or death, I know we only have about three and a half hours but I think if we put our heads together, we can put something together." She thinks for a moment before nodding.
"Alright, let's see what we can do." After that we spent three hours working on the cloak and attempting to get it at least functional, we spent the last thirty minutes checking on our weapons and taking a moment to prepare our minds for the mission that filled the whole ship with dread.
With only an hour left before arrival I get into my armor and get my helmet on which looks like a Mandalorian helmet but longer and adjusted to a Turian's head. Polnia gathers us up and explains the plan to everyone. "Alright everyone you better be ready cause we're about to reach our destination." She clears her throat before continuing as she crosses her arms and I can feel the tension filling everyone. "Now then here's the plan, we'll park the ship in an open space outside the predicted range of the base sensors, afterwards we'll make our way to the base where will start our preparation. Vakarian will be the first to infiltrate and we'll be on standby till he signals me, after he signals us, we'll breach from two points, Alpha will take the main entrance that has been weakened and Beta will take the secondary entrance which will be a wall that we'll breach, the two teams will work through the base till they meet in the central room. Once the base is confirmed to be clear, we'll clean it of any information we can find then blow the place to bits. Understood?" Everyone nods but Maxus speaks up for once which is a rarity.
"After the signal and breach what will Vakarian be doing, you never discussed that ma'am." She nods in understanding.
"My mistake, after the breach Vakarian will make his way to the central area and assist in clearing out enemies. He'll be mainly on support duty once we breach." Maxus understands and nods and the room gets silent as all we can do is wait and prepare for this mission.
The time has finally arrived and we touch down and turn off the ship. Polnia gets moving and we follow her as the ship closes behind us. We walk for about ten minutes and we finally spot the base causing me to take a deep breath as I look to Polnia and she nods to me signaling for me to get to work.
I take off getting closer before seeing security cams and using my omni-tool to hack and temporally deactivate them quickly moving to the base as I hack the door and find a decent amount of resistance. I break through before long and the door opens up, I take a breath as I activate my cloak giving me three seconds before it shuts off. I run in as quiet as possible as I spot multiple enemies and just as I get to cover my cloak cuts out before it's even three seconds. Well I suppose it is a prototype, and there's only so much you can do in three hours.
I overhear some of the units in this place talking. "Hey rookie, are you just going to sit there with your thumb up your ass or are you going to watch outside like you were ordered to!" The rookie scrambles, seems like he was trying to take a break, lucky for me. I think as the rookie runs outside as I tag him on my Hud which allows the rest of the team to see him as well. "Fucking idiot, we get a report that those plated birds are cracking down on us and going to attack us soon and you're trying to take a break!" He yells out and I tag him and notice his voice and what he said, he's a human. I get moving, going slow and getting into the central area as I speak quietly into my coms.
"Ma'am it seems they were expecting us, and the base seems to be on alert, I can feel the tension of the soldiers in here, I'm in and I'm setting up right now." I find a small hidden spot and set Patriot up getting him moving as I send him out as I tag him as a small blue marker. As I do, I get a response from Polnia.
"Understood be careful and find your targets, the marking is working correctly we can see the two you marked." I get moving and vault over a box as I see my first target, checking my surroundings before getting to base generator as I set up a small bomb behind it. With that done I have two more targets and turn around seeing a big hulking Krogan. They have every species don't they, I thought they hated everyone!
I climb up a few boxes that allows me to get to the second story and avoid the massive Krogan I didn't want to fight as Patriot suddenly returns to me and I notice that he highlighted the insides of two rooms. I see one rooms that has multiple guns, armors and weapons. The other one has a system and multiple computers that clearly is the command room. I decide to target the armory first and quickly rush over to it as I see three enemies inside, deactivating Patriot for a moment as I call Flint out and give him his orders, I look around outside making sure that nobody sees me as Flint sneaks into the armory and lets out an area controlled shock that hits and stuns two enemies as I move in and cut off the last soldier's voice with a blow to the neck before slamming a knife into his head through a weaker point in his helmet ending him swiftly as I do the same to the two stunned units.
I take a breath and set up the second bomb in the armory before leaving, getting rid of Flint and calling Patriot out once more to spot for me as he sees two enemies moving into the control room, the pissed off Human from earlier and the massive Krogan. I send Patriot inside as I wait outside the room trying to wait for the two to leave since now there's four enemies in there and I can't take that without setting off the base, and I listen to what they're talking about as the other two, one looking to be another Krogan and the other a Batarian. The Batarian begins speaking.
"Alright men as you know we're expecting an attack soon so I want you to wake up the men in the barracks and get them ready for a fight understood?" They nod and leave as I activate my cloak and hold my breath hoping my cloak lasts long enough. They get past me and I get out of view for them as my cloak lasts just long enough as I know I have to get moving quickly. I call back Patriot and start moving inside as the Batarian activates his comms and begins talking making me about to move in and attack as he speaks. "Hello sir, preparations are being made, it seems the general's advancements have caught military attention." Annoyingly I can't hear the other person but one thing he says catches my attention.
"The artifact is being put to good use, more and more people are seeing the truth of this filthy galaxy." Artifact? The truth? There's no way he means Reaper leftovers, right? He ends his comms soon after and I take my chance as I rush him and attack attempting to stab and end him immediately but he reacts in a split second and manages to divert my attack to his shoulder. He then attempts to yell out but I slam my head into his stupidly uncovered one cracking his head, but he persists and grabs his knife and attempts to stab me but I back up in time. He reaches for his comms again and I rush in to attack using a new addition to my suit, and with a flick of my wrists activating some thrusters on my boots the one on the back of my boot boosting my leg forward and the one on the bottom increasing the speed of my leg as I slam my knee into his gut, the extra speed increasing the impact.
I take his moment of breathlessness and pain to stab him once more this time in the neck, taking him out as I take a quick second to catch my breath. I then plant the final sabotaging bomb in the command room as I rush out and activate my comms. "Commander the attack is ready! Move now!"
"Understood!" I hear some orders on the other side. "Sulilin with me Ursiril and Quirinus go and breach move!" I hear movement on the other sides as I rush out of the room and activate the bombs destroying the armory, power and command center and effectively their communication. I turn on my night vision and tag all the new enemies as I find and predict at least 15 different enemies, five of which seem to have caught in the explosions mainly the ones that were in barracks.
I get to work on distracting them as I call out Flint and have him activate his shield covering me as I move and attack, starting out by pulling out my Avenger and opening fire on the group of units forcing them into cover, a few start to return fire beating down on Flint's shield as I simply try to wear their shields down, finally as I can see Flint's shield almost gone, my omni-tool is ready to activate another ability and I quickly do so, sending out a flash bang as I get into an actual cover and manage to break the shields and take down two enemies, while three others are blinded and deaf from the blast and barely a second afterwards I see Alpha enter and shoot down two flanked units and I see five more enemies pop up on my Hud near the other barrack area by Beta's breach point.
I notice this and also notice a blind and pissed off Krogan that's currently charging towards my cover, I roll out of the path but the boxes that Krogan just slammed away slams into me and knocks me to the ground forcing me to take a moment to recover as the Krogan recovers from the flashbang and sees me, still pissed off as I start to stand he charges at me as I hear over the comms from Destia.
"What the hell is Beta doing! They still haven't breached, there's too many enemies!" Just after hearing this and unable to dodge as a Krogan slams right into me and pins me against a wall and causes me to gasp out as I can no longer breath. I slam my arms into his head but he doesn't budge, I struggle and try to reach back attempting to grab my shotgun but unable to as I grab his head with both hands and use the last thing I can think of. I start to send shocks straight into his body using omni-tasers but ramped up to full force, he continues to try and break me before finally forced to let go and falling back looking like a weird cooked Krogan. I feel my ribs and can tell something is likely broken.
I move a bit slower back into cover as I send an overload into an enemy that's shooting at Alpha allowing them to easily take him down as I hear another explosion as I see the second breach point finally being taken down as I see a blue marker move in.
We start to better, with another surprise to the enemies they have a hard time reacting, soon being only five left as I move in and help attack throwing out overloads and sabotaging a sneaky Batarian like the one we saw in the first mission, I soon see Tib rushing over to me as I notice his hand movement telling me to move, I do so with a roll that pains me due to my ribs as I turn around and see Tib blast a cooked looking Krogan. "Shit forgot to finish him off."
"Don't worry about it Vel, no matter what I got your back!" I hear him yell to me as Tib turns around as we both get into cover making me smile as I see an image of the friend I made in boot camp.
Not long after we finish off the last enemy, the other big Krogan with two close shotgun blasts from me and Tib. After that we finally take a moment to catch our breaths as Destia is able to make it over to us, nobody lets go of their weapons as Maxus sprints towards us.
"Quirinus! Hurry follow me! The commander was injured!" Time slows down as we rush over to Polnia and see her down on the ground unmoving and as Destia moves to inspect her we trail back giving her space to treat the respected commander with Maxus further behind.
"Sulilin! Where was she hit!" She says in clear distress and panic.
"I don't know! She got hit and went down! I didn't have the chance to see where she was shot!" Me and Tib get closer to help see where she was shot when I get a sinking filling in my gut as Flint gives me a false alarm about a moving enemy making me turn around to see the enemy and seeing no body on the ground moving, I do however notice Maxus holding a Carnifex pistol pointed to Destia's head. Time might as well have been frozen for me as my body moves faster than I thought was possible as grab my shotgun and fire. Unfortunately, I heard two shots in that moment, one from me and one from Maxus. I see him sent to the ground from the blast as I hear a yell from Destia as she falls to the ground.
"What in the-" I turn around quickly and see where the shot hit, not in the head but in the back as I quickly move.
"Tib grab Destia and get moving towards the ship" I say as I turn Polnia over and see a clear bullet hole in the back of her head, the place we didn't check yet. I then grab the prepared bomb on her hip and set it up in the central room, taking one more look at Maxus's corpse before grabbing Polnia's body and running to the ship. I place her in medical as I get to the cockpit starting up the ship before looking down at the damned base and activating the bomb and seeing it blow sky high. Taking off and getting moving as I set the ship up and take a deep breath as I set up the directions for the Citadel as I grind my mandibles and fly us through a mass relay and sending us on course for the Citadel, autopilot taking the lead.
I could even process time once I saw Maxus's betrayal and what felt like hours was only ten minutes as I make my way to medical, seeing Tib inside with Destia.
"Hey Vel... I did all I could, thank spirits for that first aid training in boot camp right? I nod as I clasp my hands together as I see her taking deep breaths and shuddering clearly struggling to breath as I move and hold her hand as it feels like my heart is being sent through a slaughterhouse. "Vel, I'm sorry, I know it's been complicated for the past year, but I'm here for you, no matter what happens in the coming hours." I feel tense as he says that, a mixture of happiness and fear filling me as we spend the next hour and a half in silence before we get a notification from the ship saying we have arrived. "I'll bring us in Vel."
I nod and take a deep breath as I look at Destia "Just hang in there my mate."
Once the ship docks we rush Destia to the hospital and explain to the doctors her condition before they rush her into the operating room and a human nurse comes out. "Excuse me sir."
I notice her and turn to her. "Yes ma'am? How is she?"
She looks at her omni-tool and report before explaining "We don't know yet, all we know is that the shot is deep and is close to multiple vital parts we aren't sure exactly what it hit or damaged yet, but the doctors are saying not to expect and concreate answers or results for at least four hours, we will call for you when the time comes." She then leaves as I sit down with Tib next to me.
"I'll go ahead and take Polnia's body to the place where her family can retrieve and bury her, you just stay here ok Vel?" I nod not having the energy or mindset to want to speak as I'm stuck in thoughts as I'm forced to wait and see what happens. Our talks, time together and precious moments all flow into my mind as I can't even know if she'll make it out of this but I also decide to get treated for my broken ribs, if nothing but to pass the time.
Five painful hours later we finally get a report from the same nurse. "Hello sir, good news! She survived the wound and surgery but apparently it was close." I let out a sigh of relief as Tib gives me a pat on the shoulder reassuring me as he gives me a smile. "However, the bad news is... she was hit in the spine, and now she is currently paralyzed, the good news is that she still has some albeit very limited feeling in her legs and she will be able to eventually fully recover." I can't help but smile at that news, it was honestly the best news I could have had in this situation.
"When will she be let out? Also, when can I visit" I say curious about how long it will take.
"About 14 days, to recover and do some rehabilitation, though it might take about a month for full recovery of her body and you can likely visit tomorrow." I nod in response to her answer and shake her hand.
"Thank you, you have been incredibly helpful" I say as I pull away my gloved hand and walk out of the place with Tib.
Tib brings up something I completely forgot about. "We need to report to the General on what happened, you want to do it or me?" I point to myself getting a nervous chuckle from him. "Good luck Vel."
I return to the ship and get into the comms room patching it into a line to the General that Polnia reported to. "Ah, Corporal Vakarian why are you currently reporting? Has Commander Polnia died?" I nod to him before speaking and explaining what happened in the mission. "So Sulilin became a traitor? I'm guessing you don't know why otherwise you would have told me."
"Well, we will send Commander Polnia's body to her family. Now as for your team, you're currently without a leader and your highest ranked member is out of commission, that puts you in the light to take over the team, so will you take the position?" I look at him and let out a sigh before responding.
"No sir, I do not wish to take the position on the account that I seek to resign from the military" I can see a bit of a surprised look on his face. "I believe the position is better suited for Corporal Ursiril sir, he assisted in the mission and was a vital part of it and will continue to be a great soldier that will only improve from here.
I can see him thinking as his mandibles click and move a bit. "I understand, I recognize your resignation and after a horrible mission I am understanding but disappointed in your choices. Notify Ursiril that I will require him in two hours." He says before shutting off the comms as I finally feel a bit free now that I'm not bound or talking to that man anymore.
I find Tib soon after this. "Hey Tib, I reported to the General and explained what happened. I also resigned from the military which he allowed due to my performance." He nods already knowing that I wanted to leave the military, this experience only enabling me to easier. "Also, he wants to talk to you in two hours, likely to talk about the team and who is going to lead it, whether it's you or another soldier they can spare."
"I see, hope you recommended me" He says and I nod giving him a smile as he chuckles in response, his earlier self truly shining now. "You know, when we were fighting on that mission, I felt incredibly angry, but I also knew my duty and once I saw you get slammed against the wall and everyone struggling to succeed in the mission, I realized something. I've wasted so much time on my anger that I haven't consider so much more, and when I found out Polnia had been shot and once everything went down and I saw you in distress I realized that there are more important things than my anger."
His small speech gets a large reaction from me as I give him a quick hug and pull away. "I'm just glad that the three of us are alive and that I have my friend back, today I'm going to take the small victories." He nods and lets out a smile of his own as he runs off ready to talk to the general as I decide I need to make a visit.
I drag my body to a house I haven't visited in a while, and after all the stress finally noticing the pain in my chest from my broken ribs that need to heal, knocking on the door and waiting for a response before finally seeing my father at the door. "Hey dad, good to see you!" I say chuckling as he lets me inside knowing now more than ever that what I need is my family.