Minutes after Shepard, Dah, and Miranda finished formulating their hastily developed plan to deal with the Systems Alliance warship now known to be the SSV Farragut, the Normandy's shuttle bay was humming with the urgent preparations for close range combat operations. At the forward end of the deck, Kodiak-One's powerful engines were idling noisily, its troop doors opened wide, awaiting the mixed squad of combat and flight personnel tasked with seizing and securing the rogue frigate.
One of only six Intruder-class frigates built by the Systems Alliance, the Farragut was an extremely valuable warship. Developed in parallel with the Normandy SR-1 class, the Intruders were similarly equipped with most of the Navy's most sophisticated technologies, much of it still largely experimental, while borrowing many of the elements found in the frigates co-developed with the Turian Hierarchy. But whereas the original Normandy had been largely built as a symbol of human-turian cooperation and mutual galactic interests, the Intruders very much reflected the more insular aspects of humanity's strategic interests in the galaxy as well as the Alliance's wariness of the other major powers.
With an overall tonnage slightly more than Shepard's original command, The Farragut and her sister ships possessed nearly identical stealth drive technology to the Normandy SR-1s but with a more varied arsenal of close range weapons and defensive systems. Designed for surveillance and hit-and-run missions deep behind enemy lines, the Intruders were also among the most dramatically automated ships of the human military, capable of operating efficiently with a crew of less than twenty, not including any spaceborne Marines who might be embarked. All in all, it was little wonder that they had been the class of vessel the now defunct Systems Alliance Intelligence Service had chosen to adopt as their own private shadow fleet of warships.
Preserving an important piece of military hardware like the Farragut was impulse enough for Shepard and Dah to commit to the risky mission of seizing her. The losses the Fleet had sustained during the opening months of the war with the Reapers had been devastating, exponentially increasing the value of every remaining intact hull. But of more immediate importance, taking the ship, its systems, and crew intact was crucial to understanding exactly what Shepard, Miranda and the rest of Normandy were walking into as they drove deeper into the Widow System and toward the Citadel nestled in the heart of the nebula. The massive space station was still eerily silent, failing to respond to any attempt by the Normandy's communications team to reach them.
From the ship's armory, Miranda cast an occasional critical eye toward the flight deck activity while she focused on helping Oriana suit up for the imminent mission. With her recently developed proficiency with shipboard communication systems, she'd been a natural choice for the small team of flight operations specialists who were tasked with taking control of the Farragut. If the first phase of the plan was successful, Oriana and the others would be quickly ferried over to what they hoped would be a crippled ship, leaving Garrus and the accompanying Marines to secure the vessel's crew before Kahlee Sanders and her team took command of the ship.
Miranda was staying behind. Meticulously inspecting every detail of Oriana's armor, triple-checking every seal and latch of the advanced combat hardsuit, helped distract her from the anxiety she felt about sending her sister off on a mission without her.
With private arms dealers and merchants of every conceivable stripe flocking to Tuchanka on the heels of the widely-publicized victory in the system, Miranda had wasted little time in acquiring a myriad of highly exotic materials and equipment that might prove useful for the fight ahead. In her opinion, it was an excellent use for a good percentage of the funds she'd liberated from various clandestine Cerberus accounts. The sleek, formfitting advanced combat armor Oriana was wearing had been at the top of her shopping list.
The suit was the pinnacle of personal combat protection technology, masterfully tailored to Oriana's measurements and keyed to her unique DNA signature. Crafted to reduce bulk and allow the wearer maximum agility, the suit still managed a level of durability characteristic of some of the heaviest combat armors in existence. The woven nanofiber base layers combined with the ablative armor hard-shell alloys, ballistic plating, and redundant compact kinetic barriers could shrug off a wide range of small arms, both kinetic-kill as well as energy-based weapons. Adaptive environmental camouflaging characteristics added a stealthy element and self-contained life support systems capable of withstanding extreme temperature variations, toxic atmospheres, and hard vacuum would keep Oriana alive and breathing in almost any conceivable situation.
The armor was an enormous extravagance, far and away beyond what any organized state-run military in the galaxy could afford to outfit its soldiers with and more on par with the sort of bleeding edge equipment usually reserved only for elite N7 special operators. Miranda's nearly identical suit hung in the nearby locker.
Miranda reached over and took the modified M-13C1 Raptor carbine from a nearby arms rack and handed it to Oriana who proceeded to calmly check over the weapon, testing the action and inspecting the thermal magazine and ammo loadouts in one smooth, practiced motion before clipping the rifle to the combat sling at the front of her armor. Miranda smiled at this, recognizing her sister had long since mastered the weapon, her early struggles with small arms training a seemingly distant memory.
"Okay, all set then," Oriana said, blowing out a calming breath and returning the smile.
Miranda nodded, her expression turning serious. "Alright, you know the drill. You're role during the initial boarding is simply to remain near the shuttle, keep the bay secured, and provide security for the flight command team. If you're called forward, you stay close behind Garrus and the Marines, do whatever they tell you to do and wait for them to clear compartments. No one splits up or wanders off alone on board that ship until it's fully secured and every hostile is accounted for. Understood?"
"Don't worry, Randa. I memorized the brief. This is going to be a piece of cake. Not to mention some long overdue payback, stealing one of those ships those jerks used when they kidnapped you and Shepard."
"Don't get cocky. And this mission isn't about any personal grudges. We need to recover that ship and seize the intel they have in their computers. Follow orders and stay sharp."
"Aye, aye, Major," Oriana said, snapping a playful salute.
Miranda rolled her eyes and pulled her sister into a brief, fierce hug. "See you soon," she said and watched Oriana jog over to join the other members of the boarding party gathered near the idling Kodiak.
Garrus was there, supervising the rest of his team's preparations, and greeted Oriana with a steadying hand on her shoulder. He caught Miranda's gaze and gave her a curt, reassuring nod. She returned the gesture and forced herself to look away.
Oriana had become exceedingly capable, far beyond what Miranda would have ever dreamed of being the case this time a year ago. But she doubted she'd ever feel anything resembling comfort when her sister was thrust into dangerous situations. But this was their world now. No one was ever truly safe anymore, no matter how hard they tried to hide from the horrors that stalked them.
She exhaled and glanced to her right, noticing Kahlee Sanders cursing under her breath, struggling to fasten a shoulder clasp on her own set of armor.
Miranda strode over and gave Sanders a smile. "May I?" she said.
Kahlee glanced up at her, relieved. "Please."
Like Oriana, Sanders was outfitted in hard-shell armor and geared for close-quarters combat. But whereas Oriana's hardsuit was a piece of elegantly designed, highly customized state-of-the-art equipment, Kahlee was dealing with a standard female set pulled from the racks of Normandy's onboard armory.
Miranda battled the stubborn latch for a few seconds before finally managing to secure it properly. "There," she said. "Tricky little bastard, but I've got it now."
"Thank you, Major. It's been ages since I've had to squeeze into one of these suits."
"Of course," Miranda said and smiled, glancing at the compact SMG Kahlee had holstered on her hip. The M-4 Shuriken was a good choice for the Alliance officer and likely to be far more forgiving than the Raptor carbine Oriana had become an expert marksmen with. Nevertheless, if things went smoothly, neither woman would be called on to fire a shot while on board the Farragut. "Ready, Commander?"
"I think so," Kahlee said. "Hopefully a ten-minute crash course on Intruder-class warship operations will be enough to wrestle that big bitch into shape."
"I don't think you'll have any trouble," she said. "Rhodes is a highly capable flight officer and your engineers, Daniels and Donnelly, are some of the most talented people I've ever recruited, Cerberus or otherwise."
Kahlee and Miranda glanced over at where the rest of team was gathering near the Kodiak. The pair of quirky engineers were looking a little nervous, but Oriana and Ensign Rhodes seemed to be helping them stay loose. "You don't need to convince me of that," Kahlee said. "I've been on my fair share of starships over the years and I don't think I've ever seen a crew quite like what you and Shepard have here on the Normandy. Besides, we just need to keep the Farragut flying straight and silent, right?"
"Precisely," Miranda said with a nod. "The stealth capabilities of that ship are on par with our own. Once Major Vakarian and the Marines deal with the crew and clear the path to the bridge for your flight team, both Farragut and Normandy will turn into a pair of tiny black holes in space. Evading the other ships coming to intercept us won't be an issue and we can be on our way."
"I'm glad one of us is feeling confident," Kahlee said, nervously checking over her weapon before re-holstering it. "I trust the team to take the ship, but field work isn't exactly my area of expertise."
"You'll be fine. Garrus is an expert at this sort of thing and Vega's Marines are among the very best. Not to mention Oriana is more than capable of handling things if the shuttle or your flight crew becomes threatened."
"Oh I remember," Kahlee said. "That girl's sweet disposition is at extreme odds with the fact that she's hard as nails in a firefight. I'm sure you're right. We'll be just fine."
Farther down the flight deck, Kodiak's crew chief leaned out the open troop door and shouted. "Load up!"
"Right," Kahlee said. "We're off then."
"Good luck, Commander," Miranda said, extending her hand.
"You too, Major," Kahlee said, shaking Miranda's hand before turning and trotting off toward the waiting shuttle.
Miranda remained at the edge of armory for another few moments, arms crossed tightly in front of her, watching as the team boarded the shuttle. Once Sanders, Oriana, and the rest of the flight operations crew members tasked with assuming control of the Farragut had piled in, Garrus, Vega, Westmoreland, and two of the recent Marine transfers squeezed in after them. The shuttle's crew chief made his final checks and retreated back inside the Kodiak, securing the armored doors behind him. At full capacity, quarters would be uncomfortably tight inside. But at least it promised to be a mercifully short journey once they launched.
Warning strobes flashed and alarms began to sound as Normandy's flight deck crew went about the business of securing the compartment for launch operations. Miranda waited another few seconds and then turned on her heel, striding toward the lift and leaving the managed chaos behind her.
Seconds later, Miranda strode into the CIC and immediately took her station, logging into her terminal adjacent the central holo-table and tactical map display. "Incursion team is set, Captain," she said, glancing at Shepard. "Ready to deploy on your order."
"Very well, XO," he said. Shepard was leaning over the map dais railing, scrutinizing the plots of the Farragut, Dunkirk, as well as the heavy cruiser and her frigate escort that were steadily approaching from farther out in the nebula. He exhaled and pushed away from the holographic display. "Alright, people, we've got a tight window here. I want that frigate in our possession long before those other ships try and crash our party. EDI, everything ready?"
"Affirmative, Shepard," EDI responded through the overhead speakers. Her physical form was forward, strapped into the co-pilot's seat alongside Joker at the helm. "Electronic warfare suite fully engaged and quantum infiltration code packet queued for broadcast. I have preselected a set of hostile system firewall targets and have all associated subroutines standing by to execute on your order. However, I feel I should caution you again, Shepard, Farragut will detect the intrusion attempt before their critical systems are fully compromised. I cannot accurately predict the exact duration until we've started the attack."
"Understood. Do it, EDI." He turned to the Comm-Ops station. "Ensign Traynor, signal Dunkirk. It's time for our distraction."
"Aye, sir," Traynor said. "Sending instructions to Dunkirk over tight-beam link. Message acknowledged, Captain. They're increasing reactor output and splitting off from the formation… Farragut is hailing them."
"Let's hear it, Traynor."
"Aye, sir. Transmission on speaker."
A moment later the agitated voice of the Farragut's comm officer echoed in the CIC. "Dunkirk, you are ordered to reduce thrust and resume formation. You must comply immediately or we will be forced to open fire."
"They just lit Dunkirk up with active targeting scanners, sir," Ensign Riley said at his Tactical station. "I'm seeing power spikes in their forward mass accelerator batteries and their Javelin tubes doors just slid open."
"Understood," Shepard said calmly. "EDI, I need that ship disabled yesterday."
"I recognize that, Shepard," EDI said with a hint of annoyance in her voice. "The Farragut is aware of our intrusion and attempting to recalibrate their firewalls. I'm compensating."
Shepard gave a tiny smirk at EDI's flash of subtle emotion. He found it more amusing than concerning. The rapid glance he got from Miranda told him she didn't feel the same. "Let's not be coy then, EDI. Blanket that son of a bitch with every electronic jamming countermeasure we have. I want Farragut blind and deaf."
"Engaging electronic countermeasures," EDI responded. "Active jamming of all local and long-range communications underway."
"Riley, go active on all sensors," Shepard shouted. "Bring CIWS online and set to Condition Red."
"Aye, aye, sir!"
Shepard crossed his arms and glanced over at Miranda, giving her a cue by way of a curt nod.
"Red alert!" she bellowed and keyed the 1MC. "All hands, General Quarters. Secure the ship for ship-to-ship combat and man your battle stations. Shuttle Bay, stand by for imminent launch operations."
The warbling klaxon sounded two bursts throughout the ship and the lighting on the command deck dimmed a few degrees of intensity. Otherwise, the crew in the CIC remained still and focused on their duties. They had known what was coming.
"Helm, CIC," Shepard said. "Joker, give me maximum thrust and spin us around. Let's give Farragut another target."
"Aye, aye, Captain," Joker's giddy voice came back. "Punching it."
Up to that moment, the Normandy had been cruising at a modest speed and holding to the predictable course the Farragut had prescribed. But then Joker goosed the massively powerful main thrusters and sent the ship jumping well ahead of the other frigate, wheeling Normandy around into a blocking position, shielding Captain Dah's considerably less resilient Dunkirk.
"I think you've annoyed them," Miranda said dryly, nodding toward the holographic plot depicting the Farragut. The ship had begun to accelerate and banked rapidly away from the Normandy, looking to get some distance between her and the other two frigates she'd been shepherding.
"Farragut is attempting to raise the Toronto, Captain," Traynor said. "Jammers confirmed operating at full output. They won't get through our static but even at this distance that heavy cruiser will recognize our maneuvering if they're watching closely."
"Farragut's coming back around to line up a shot on Dunkirk, Captain," Riley said. "I don't think they can get a lock with all the interference we're broadcasting, but they might get lucky with optical if their weapons officer is worth a damn."
Shepard stepped quickly over to the Tactical station and leaned in to look at Riley's screen. "Ping Farragut with an active scan and ready a firing solution for the Javelins, tubes, one through four," he said and then turned toward Comm-Ops. "Traynor, open a channel to Farragut. Standard Fleet frequency."
"Aye, sir! Channel open."
"Target painted and tubes one through four primed, sir," Riley whispered.
Shepard nodded and stood up straight. "Farragut, SSV Normandy, Normandy Actual," he said. "We know who you are and are prepared to destroy your ship. Halt pursuit of Dunkirk and stand down all weapons and propulsion systems or I will give the order to fire."
He looked over at Traynor. Her eyes were locked on her screens, chewing her lip. She glanced up a second later and met his gaze, giving a quick shake of her head. "No response, sir."
"EDI."
"Almost there, Shepard."
"Power spike in Farragut's dorsal mass accelerator turret sir," Riley said. "They're bringing guns to bear on us."
"Bloody maniacs," Miranda said incredulously. "Do they want us to destroy them?"
Maybe, Shepard thought to himself. The odds of this working out perfectly were always low. He grimaced inwardly and made a gesture back toward his Tactical officer when EDI's voice stopped him.
"Hostile vessel's firewalls successfully penetrated. Delivering quantum shell package… Executing."
When Shepard, Miranda, and Captain Dah devised their plan to seize control of the Farragut, they had known that timing would be crucial. The Toronto and her escort were bearing down on them, steadily accelerating on an intercept course, leaving them precious little time before their hand would be forced. But with the true nature of the Farragut's identity revealed, the outright destruction of the advanced frigate was always on the table. It's presence among the Citadel defense fleet, paired with the deafening silence emanating from the station, made clear the urgency of the situation. Something very wrong was happening in the Widow System and neither Shepard nor Jill Dah were in any mood to play along with the charade any longer than necessary. But the Farragut's potential value if captured intact was too significant to ignore, so they deemed the risk in taking her was warranted. Until it wasn't, that is.
It likely wouldn't have ever been a realistic option if not for the incredibly advanced electronic warfare capabilities EDI's systems offered. Normally, penetrating a hostile vessel's internal networks was altogether impossible without a hard line connection of some sort. But Farragut was an Alliance ship and a close cousin to both the Normandy and Dunkirk to boot. The architecture and base sets of codes of the frigate's anti-intrusion systems were a known quantity, something that at least allowed EDI a foothold into the ship's critical systems by way of a highly focused wireless attack sequence.
Circumventing an array of electronic countermeasures and cycling through the tens of millions of possible frequency variations that would allow for the eventual penetration of Farragut's firewall systems was the hard part. Or, at least, the most time consuming element of process. Once she was in, the ultimate result was certain—and somewhat anticlimactic.
The quantum package EDI presented to the now-defenseless computer core of the Farragut was a string of self-replicating code injected directly into the ship's primary VI-equipped supercomputer. Within nanoseconds, the host VI core processor was destroyed, replaced with an intricately designed virtual machine that ran directly atop the vessel's base hardware and spread throughout its neural networks. To the Farragut's front-end users—helmsmen, CIC staff, engineers, command—the reason for the sudden loss of control was unknowable as EDI's malicious virtual child relayed altogether contradictory information to the crew. From their vantage point, everything was as it should be. In reality, EDI now owned every networked aspect of their vessel.
"Core systems accessed," EDI said. "Taking primary reactor offline. Shutting down propulsion, navigation, weapons, and communications."
"Confirmed, sir," Traynor said. "Farragut is adrift. All primary power systems read as offline."
Shepard exhaled and turned to his Comm-Ops officer. "Launch the bird, Traynor," he said.
"Aye, sir," Traynor said. "Kodiak-One, CIC. You are cleared for launch. I say again, execute launch."
The Citadel
More than six kilometers out from Anita Goyle's apartment building and just over thirty minutes since they'd parted ways with the rest of the group, Ashley and Thane weaved their way through the rapidly developing state of chaos gripping Tayseri Ward, moving as quickly as possible toward the Presidium access hubs.
Every step of the way, the sound of warbling sirens carried through the streets, echoing off tall buildings as C-Sec vehicles streaked by overhead. Other emergency response vehicles—fire suppression and ambulances—were also crisscrossing the skies above Tayseri's sprawling cityscape. Several districts they passed through were operating on minimal or unstable power, likely encouraging what was sure to be only the beginning of widespread looting in the area as conditions deteriorated further.
Ashley was focused on the mission at hand, but along the way she'd managed a quick secure link to her family, warning them to stay inside with the doors locked and to not open them for anyone except her. She didn't know for certain if things over in Zakera Ward were as bad as what she was seeing in Tayseri, but she figured it couldn't be much better. Her mom and sisters had been calm during the brief vid call, showing more concern for Ashley than for their own safety. They'd been through a lot over the last few months and weren't easily shaken. Their strength steeled her.
As she and Thane pressed on, Ashley quickly realized the news reports they'd caught before abandoning Anita's apartment had only hinted at a situation on the Citadel that was rapidly spiraling into a major state of chaos.
The combat mechs she and Kasumi had first seen a week earlier were out in force, deployed throughout every neighborhood she and Thane passed through. They moved in pairs, sometimes fours, and were usually accompanied by HASTR operatives who jogged alongside the machines in their Exo suits, wielding assault rifles or combat shotguns. They'd ditched all their non-lethal weapons and totally abandoned the charade of being there for the public's wellbeing.
Initially, from what they could tell, the mechs and HASTR troops seemed focused on methodically raiding specific residences and businesses, pulling people out of their homes and places of work, rounding them up, and marching them off to detention areas scattered around the Ward. Ashley couldn't tell exactly who their targets had been, but based on their attempt to seize Anita and Ambassador Osoba, she didn't need much more intel to recognize a strategy designed to eliminate local leadership, both official government types and informal community people alike. Basically, Udina's army appeared to be intent on removing anyone capable of mounting an organized resistance to the bogus state of martial law they were attempting to impose on the station.
But it hadn't taken long for those surgical raids to spill over into instances of low level rioting, especially among the turian and asari populations that seemed to have been disproportionately targeted by Udina's forces. The farther Ashley and Thane went, the more they witnessed citizens resist the paramilitary clamp down with steadily growing aggression, using whatever weapons they could manage. Usually, that meant throwing heavy projectiles, swinging bats, or tossing the occasional improvised Molotov cocktail at groups of mechs and HASTR troopers.
It didn't go well for them. Faced with heavily modified combat mechs sporting hardened poly-alloy ablative armor and military grade small arms, the odds were stacked heavily against the locals. The occasional C-Sec patrol car or foot patrol would attempt to intervene, but even equipped with their best tactical gear left the Citadel law enforcement officers appallingly outgunned.
Ashley was seething all the way, incensed by the indiscriminate violence being thrown at the civilians but also acutely aware that, to the general public, it very much appeared to be an Alliance-organized action. The carnage wasn't anywhere near the level of the nightmare scenario she'd witnessed during the Saren-led geth invasion, but, in a way, it seemed far worse to her. This was leadership entrusted with the safety and security of millions of people dropping the hammer on the population, human and non-human alike. Regardless if it was Cerberus who was ultimately pulling the strings, the optics made it clear in the minds of the people on the receiving end of the brutality that this was humanity betraying them all.
She felt sick over not being able to stop and help. It's what she was supposed to be doing in the situation. It's what those ten thousand troops Kaneda had loaded up on his cruisers and destroyers were supposed to be doing. Thane kept her in check, reminding her the priority was getting the message out to their allies, not stepping between heavily armed assault forces and civilians with a pair of pistols, a sniper rifle, and his own drastically reduced biotic energy. "We reach the QEC first," he insisted. "Then we can die martyrs to the cause." Thane was nothing if not pragmatic.
But that tactic was put to the test after another block. They had turned a corner just in time to witness a solitary mech gun down a reporter who was using his autonomous camera drone to capture images of a raid on the local corporate offices of the Sirta Foundation. After the mech turned the unprotected man into a pile of shredded meat and bone and the drone into so much scrap metal, it caught sight of Ashley and Thane and trained its assault rifle in their direction.
Ashley wasted about a second and a half being shocked by the brutality she'd just witnessed when the report of Thane's high-powered sidearm snapped her out of the trance. She dodged left, raised her own sidearm and emptied the magazine into the mech only to see the rounds plink off its armor and barriers ineffectually. They were forced to duck around a transit station stop and flee through a sublevel corridor before a pair of HASTR troopers who'd been near the mech could catch up.
Ashley and Thane picked up the pace even more after that. Jogging astride each other, weapons at the ready, they weaved in and out of the primary concourses and through back alleys, trying to stay out of sight as much as possible. She didn't think the enemy could have complete control over the internal surveillance networks administered by C-Sec this soon, but there was really no way to be sure.
Foot traffic on the primary pedways leading toward the Presidium transit hubs had almost entirely dried up as most residents wisely stayed in their homes and sheltered in place. As best as Ashley could tell, the tram lines had completely shut down as well. The occasional private sky car still zipped by overhead, but air traffic was mostly dominated by C-Sec shuttles and other first responders, their strobes and bleating sirens casting irregular, chaotic shadows over the landscape of rolling blackouts and power fluctuations.
They turned another corner at a cautious pace, clearing the immediate area with weapons drawn, and resumed their measured sprint. Ashley glanced over at the drell man and noted the strain on his face, his chest rising a falling rapidly as his breathing became more labored. She knew he was pushing himself to the limit his disease-riddled body would allow. But what could she do? There was no time to stop and rest. Every minute that went by meant more time for Udina's forces to consolidate total control over the station. They pressed on.
After another forty meters or so, Ashley saw a dead Keeper splayed out on the concourse next to the remnants of a combat mech. The modified LOKI Mech looked like it had been pulled apart, one of its arms and its weapon laying some distance away, the other limb dangling from its torso by a thin bundle of conduit. Its head was nowhere in sight. Two other Keepers were busy collecting the body of their fallen comrade as well as the scattered pieces of the mech, dragging it all toward an access corridor that seemed to have appeared from out of nowhere.
It was the third dead Keeper they'd encountered since leaving Anita's building. Ashley frowned at the sight, idly wondering what role the Citadel's enigmatic caretakers were playing in the struggle. The other dead Keepers she'd seen had both died from apparent gunshot wounds. Maybe they'd merely been caught in the crossfire and were simply among the unlucky victims of the escalating urban fighting. But she was beginning to think that unlikely. Before, when Saren and his geth had laid siege to the station, the Keepers hadn't made any apparent attempt to intervene. Was something different now? She mused. Were the Keepers actually making an effort to target these new synthetic threats to their home? Was someone or something directing them?
She was still glancing over her shoulder at the scene when Thane grabbed a fistful of her jacket's lapel and yanked her down hard, pulling her behind a wide pillar. The sniper's bullet impacted the wall behind her—where her head had been a split second before—with an unimpressive puff of vaporized composite alloy. The rifles report carried to their position a second afterward.
"How in the hell did you…" Ashley's voice trailed off as she turned to look for Thane but he had already vanished. She crouched lower and skirted along a low wall before sheltering behind a kiosk, her weapon held out front and ready as she moved.
She poked her head out from around the corner and spotted Thane's silhouette upon a narrow ledge a short distance above the main concourse. He was leaning ever so slightly out from an outcropping along the wall, his sniper rifle steadied across one arm and trained on some unseen target farther down the street. He exhaled slowly and whispered something she couldn't hear an instant before closing his eyes and squeezing the trigger.
Ashley craned her neck cautiously farther around the bend, her visor providing a helpful graphical plot based on the trajectory of Thane's shot. Way off in the distance, nearly some three hundred meters away, the body of a lightly armored woman wearing an odd-looking helmet was tumbling awkwardly to the ground from where she'd been perched several floors above street level.
"Sweet Jesus, that's a helluva shot," she muttered softly.
Thane maintained his position for another several seconds while he scanned the area ahead, sweeping windows, dark corners, and exposed pathways with his scoped rifle. A few civilians were scrambling away from the sudden, brief firefight but nobody else was shooting at them. Satisfied, he lowered his weapon, jumped down from the ledge and scampered back over to Ashley's position.
"Cerberus assassination unit," he said calmly. "Extremely skilled and highly augmented. The Illusive Man, in his arrogance, calls them, Nemesis. We're clear for the moment, Lieutenant Commander, but we should remain vigilant. The sniper was likely one of multiple such units operating on the station. This one was probable dispatched to intercept us after our engagement with the mech. I recommend we adjust our route to something less predictable."
"Copy that," Ashley said, already reviewing a map on her visor's display. "Thanks, by the way. You alright to keep moving at this pace?"
"I'm fine," he wheezed. "Let's go."
Ten minutes later Ashley and Thane emerged from a service way and dropped down to the platform directly adjacent from Club Purgatory. Ashley shook her head in mild disbelief at the line of people outside the club's entrance, waiting to be accepted in by the club's bouncers. She knew the place almost never closed its doors, no matter the time of day or night, so maybe it shouldn't have been all that surprising that an outbreak of urban unrest and borderline rioting hadn't totally thinned out the crowds. And to be fair, almost all the violence was occurring in the Wards. But still, she thought.
Ashley and Thane glanced around their immediate area, surveying the crowd gathered around the club's entrance, looking for anything unusual. Satisfied, she deactivated her visor, holstered her weapon under her jacket and strode forward. Thane followed a step behind but kept his weapon out, cradling the high-powered sniper rifle as discreetly as one could in a public space. They snaked their way through to the front of the line and paused just long enough for the turian bouncers posted at the doors to recognize Thane. They quickly waved them inside and turned their attention back to the other people in line. Apparently being the galaxy's most infamous assassin had its perks.
Booming, pulsating house music hit Ashley like a slap in the face and rattled her chest as she emerged from the short entrance tunnel and stepped out onto the club's main floor. She was familiar with the scene, having been to the club twice before. Like other Alliance soldiers based on the station or just passing through, she'd been drawn by some primal urge to cut loose, even if just for a few hours, and forget about the realities of the war raging around them. Nevertheless, the hypnotic rhythm of the music felt a little jarring after wading her way through sporadic gunfights, sirens, murder, and explosions.
She moved forward, the floor plates vibrating in rhythm beneath her boots while she scanned faces in the crowd. A few moments later, she spotted Private Campbell perched on a stool at the edge of the promenade level bar, cradling a drink in her hands and looking entirely uncomfortable to be there.
Still, Ashley was impressed to see the young Marine had had the good sense to make an effort to blend in while she waited. Her lightly armored trousers and combat boots made for less than fashionable club wear, but the long, casual jacket she was wearing over her fatigues kept her from sticking out completely. It looked like she'd been nursing the cocktail for a good while too, the ice cubes almost totally melted away. She flinched when Ashley put a hand on her shoulder.
"Relax, Private," Ashley shouted in her ear. "It's just me."
Campbell spun in her seat and gave a relieved smile. "Lieutenant Commander, it's really good to see you, ma'am," she said, her voice just barely audible over the music. Her eyes widened when Thane appeared at Ashley's side.
"It's okay, Campbell. He's with me. Is it just you here?"
"No, ma'am," she said and beamed. "My squad's here too, four others. They're waiting in one of the private rooms at the back."
"Outstanding. Lead the way."
Campbell nodded, left her drink on the bar and slid off the stool. "This way, ma'am," she said, striding purposefully toward the rear of the club with Ashley and Thane following right behind. "I barely had enough available on my cred account to book this room for an hour but it seemed like a good idea for most of us to stay out of sight," she shouted over her shoulder, approaching a doorway bordered with dark red drapery. "I'm glad you got here when you did. No way could I've afforded to extend the reservation much longer."
"Don't worry, Private. I'll make sure you get squared away. You made the right call."
Campbell led them through the doorway, down a very short hallway and through another door and set of curtains to the private room where the four Marines of her temporary auxiliary squad were waiting, huddled around the cocktail table in the center of the room and looking edgy. They glanced up in unison as the trio entered, two of them jumping up immediately and saluting Ashley. The other two looked unsure of how to react, eyeing Thane suspiciously before following the lead of their squadmates, getting to their feet and saluting.
Out of uniform or not, Ashley's face was one of the more recognizable within Alliance military circles. Serving on board the original Normandy and living to tell about it had a way of getting you recognized. Being counted among those who'd run in John Shepard's inner circle made for borderline celebrity status. The notoriety, Ashley had found, had its uses. Certain doors were open to her that certainly never would have been if she'd simply been absorbed into some other colonial unit after being plucked off Eden Prime. She certainly enjoyed a longer leash than most other officers in her class, no doubt about that. And the frequent free drinks she was offered were almost always welcome. But, all in all, the pseudo-celebrity treatment tended to make her feel a little uneasy. It felt unearned.
Ashley surveyed the faces of Campbell's squad, none of whom looked any older than about twenty-two, while Thane secured the door behind them, mercifully cutting the volume level in the room by more than half. "At ease, Marines," she said, grateful she no longer needed to shout her lungs to be heard. "This is Thane Krios." She gestured behind her. "He's with us so you can all just settle down."
Thane gave a brief nod of acknowledgement toward the soldiers and melted into one corner of the room, speaking into his personal comm using a low voice. Ashley side eyed him for a moment. From the first time she'd met the drell man, she'd been struck by the manner in which he carried himself. He had a way about him, something that she couldn't quite explain, something that made even his most mundane gestures and movements appear oddly out of focus, as if your mind was just a little bit clouded when you looked at him. She found the phenomenon highly unsettling.
"Uh, Lieutenant Commander Williams," Campbell said tentatively before pointing to the other Marines gathered in the room, "Privates Hardy, Moskowitz, and Finney and Corporal Allen, our squad leader, ma'am."
"Ma'am," Corporal Allen said, stepping forward. "We're all a little confused about what's going on."
"I'd be surprised if you weren't, Corporal," Ashley said, meeting the young man's gaze. "Situation is this, Marines: The Citadel is under siege by a mixed hostile force of combat-modified LOKI Mechs supported by mercenaries in light Exo. Alliance military and political leadership has been compromised, including the official Diplomatic Security Service forces, and C-Sec most definitely does not have a handle on any of it. I know things look fairly normal in this part of the Presidium, but the Wards are going up in flames as we speak." She looked at each of them in turn. "I have evidence that Councilor Udina is one of the ringleaders in all this and that Cerberus is involved as well, probably bankrolling the whole thing."
The bit about Udina and Cerberus earned Ashley a series of stunned looks from the Marines. She briefly wondered if they'd even be able to process the scope of the crisis, especially after essentially having gone AWOL a few hours earlier. She was confident Private Campbell would keep following her on faith alone, but she didn't know these other four troopers or what their limits were.
Corporal Allen swallowed. "But the Reaper invasion force massing at the edge of nebula?"
Ashley shook her head. "It's a fabricated signal designed to pull the bulk of the fleet away from the Citadel and get all of you grunts out of the way so you can't intervene with what's happening in the Wards. There are no Reapers in the system." She failed to share with them that she didn't actually have any hard evidence to support that claim and that she'd simply concluded it was the most likely scenario. She also made a point to leave Admiral Kaneda's name out of it. Learning the overall military commander in the region was likely a traitor to the Alliance was tough enough for her to absorb so it likely wouldn't have been much of a morale boost. She wasn't about to drop that burden on a group of ground-pounding troopers. Besides, even if there were Reapers inbound, they couldn't do a damn thing about it until they dealt with the situation inside on the station.
"Listen, I know this is a lot to take in. And I appreciate you guys are risking a lot by not mustering with the rest of your battalion. Believe me, I know that took balls. But I need you to fall in line with me now so we can do something about this mess. I nearly had my head taken off by a Cerberus assassin not fifteen minutes ago, so trust me when I tell you that you're all about to walk into a serious shit storm. But I know you can handle it because you're goddamn marines."
That seemed to steel them. Young or not, they were highly trained soldiers who knew their role was to be the pointy end of the stick sent at the bad guys. Some of them might have even had a bit of field experience. She couldn't say but also wasn't about to waste any time reviewing personnel files. At least she knew Campbell could handle herself.
"Understood, Lieutenant Commander," Corporal Allen said. "What are our orders?"
"You're all coming with me to the Human Embassy," Ashley said. "Our primary objective is to seize control of the advanced communications gear there and get a message out to allied forces. Secondary target is Councilor Udina. We've got it on good authority the Councilor is onsite and under guard. We're going to take his ass into custody and find out what he knows."
Allen glanced at the other Marines and then back to Ashley. "That's a big ask, ma'am. We're not Special Forces."
"But your Alliance Marines, so you're going to follow my lead and do just fine."
Corporal Allen's posture straightened a bit and he gave a decisive nod. "Yes, sir!"
"Outstanding," Ashley said and glanced at two oversized deployment bags resting in the corner of the room. "How in the hell did you guys manage to get that stuff in here?"
"One of doormen is sweet on Moskowitz," Private Hardy said, grinning. "All she had to do was unfasten a couple buttons on the way in and bat her eyes at him."
This earned Hardy a sharp slug in the side of the arm from Moskowitz. Ashley appraised the female Marine with a quick glance. She was very pretty, but tiny. She couldn't have been more than five foot even and ninety pounds soaking wet. She wondered how the girl had managed some of the tougher tasks in basic. Her unit emblem and patches said she was a combat medic. That was good. They'd probably need one before this thing was over and done with.
Ashley shrugged. "Whatever works. What do you have?
Campbell rushed over and unzipped one of the bags. "Our original deployment orders called for Level 1-Alpha combat alert gear, so we were able to slip out of the barracks with most of our weapons, armor and comm tech." She reached in the bag and produced an M-8A1 Avenger assault rifle, complete with the modular high-velocity grenade launcher attachment slung under the stubby barrel. Campbell turned and presented the weapon to Ashley. "Brought this one for you, Lieutenant Commander."
Ashley took hold of the rifle and quickly checked over the action and loadouts. "I could kiss you, Private."
Campbell blushed. "Sorry we couldn't retrieve your armor," she said and gave a little shrug. "No access to officer country and it would've looked pretty suspicious carting out an additional hard suit from our berths. Did manage to bring you this, though." She reached back down into the duffle and pulled out a lightly armored tactical vest complete with integrated high-powered comms package woven into the back.
"Nice. I'll take it," Ashley said, putting the Avenger down on the table in front of her, unzipping the front of her jacket and slipping it off her shoulders, revealing the nanofiber armor baselayer she wore beneath her civilian outfit. "As you can see, I'm not totally defenseless. But this will help. Good work." She took the vest from Campbell and pulled it over her head. "I'm packing the kinetic barriers from my old Phoenix armor kit too."
Campbell eyed the bleeding edge material of Ashley's skin-tight armor with reverence and whistled. "I guess this whole thing wasn't much of a surprise for you huh, ma'am?"
Ashley snorted. "I wouldn't go that far, Private," she said, cinching the straps of the armored vest snugly around her torso. "I may have had an idea that something was brewing, but I still feel like I got caught with my pants around my ankles."
"I'd be willing to pay good credits to get those trousers around your ankles, Williams," came the harsh, gravelly voice of Zaeed Massani. The big mercenary was just emerging through the room's curtained doorway, carrying with him a flurry of intensely loud house music and leering at Ashley unabashedly. He closed the door behind him and smiled his hideous grin. "Throw in dinner too. We've got time."
Ashley looked up at his heavily scarred face and glared. "Not if you were the last man in this entire fucking galaxy, Massani," she said. She reached into one of the cargo pockets at the front of the vest and found a pair of technical gloves. "Relax, people," she said nonchalantly, noticing the Marines had tensed up again upon Zaeed's arrival. "He may not be housebroken, but he's on our side."
Zaeed grunted a laugh, exchanging a nod with Thane. "No hope for domestication at this point," he said and surveyed the assembled Marines. "Goddamn kindergarten class you got here, Williams. What'd you hope to accomplish with this lot?"
Ashley sensed Campbell beginning to fume next to her. "Easy, Private," she said softly, pulling the gloves on to her hands one by one. "Ignore him." She followed her own advice and glanced in Thane's direction. "Kasumi still on scene?"
"Yes," Thane said. "She's maintaining her distance but has a good vantage point of the councilor's office. Udina hasn't left."
"Going straight for the man himself eh, Williams?" Zaeed said.
She shrugged. "He's in the neighborhood and I want to know how far this thing goes between him and Cerberus. If we can grab him, maybe we can keep things from spinning anymore out of control." She grabbed the Avenger off the table. "Three minutes, Marines. Gear up and pay attention. I don't have a lot of time to plan this op and I hate repeating myself."
Ashley and her motley group of Marines and mercs left Purgatory a short while later, out a back way that led to an adjacent alleyway. It took a sizable bribe paid out to the club's volus manager to gain access to the route, but she figured it was worth the expense in order to keep as low a profile as possible while they made their way across the Presidium. With the Marines outfitted in their heavy hard-shell armor and wielding assault rifles it was going to be difficult enough to avoid drawing the attention of C-Sec patrols or, more hazardously, the Cerberus spotters she now knew were operating throughout the station.
Fortunately, Massani was no stranger to working in these sorts of conditions. Before meeting Ashley and the others at Purgatory, he'd staged a nondescript delivery sky van a quarter klick from the club. The personal revulsion Ashley felt toward the man was about as intense as it could get, but she had to admit he was certainly resourceful—for a merc. Hoofing it half way across the Presidium to the embassies would have been a chore in the best of times. Getting there during a quasi-armed insurrection without being held up by one hostile group or another would have been nearly impossible.
Instead, they piled into the vehicle with Massani taking the wheel and sped off toward the Presidium's Diplomatic District, skirting treetops and weaving around suspended foot bridges, avoiding the C-Sec shuttles that were streaking back and forth through the upper airspace. Ashley hadn't heard anything from Commander Bailey since they'd parted ways back in Tayseri Ward which meant she was still working with the assumption that any of the Citadel's local security forces were potentially hostile. She didn't want to harm the officers if she could avoid it, but she had a squad of Marines to look after now. If she was pressed, she wouldn't hesitate to take out a C-Sec patrol. If it came to that, she'd have to square her conscience later.
A short while later, Zaeed set the van down on a small vehicle platform in an office park adjacent to the Diplomatic District, a place they'd picked out on the map ahead of leaving Purgatory. Ashley and most of the others immediately jumped out, trotted over to the primary concourse and sheltered under an overhang. Zaeed and Thane remained in the van along with Private Hardy, who shifted farther toward the back, propping the muzzle of his M-76 light machine gun halfway out one of the open windows.
Ashley watched while their improvised gunship dusted off a moment later, dipping below the plane of the raised platform before zipping farther away and toward the opposite side of the Presidium, across the greenbelts and water features that cut a wide swath down the center of the massive ring. In less than a minute, they'd arrive at where Thane could quickly make his way up to the spot he'd picked out for his perch, inside a high-rise building directly across from the Human Embassy and where he'd enjoy the best vantage point to cover the rest of the team during their approach.
She knelt and set a small case she'd carried with her on the ground, quickly prepping and releasing a trio of mini reconnaissance drones—more gifts that Zaeed had brought along with him. Each of the drones was the size of a small insect, encased in adaptive camouflaging shells, and propelled by a miniscule power plant and translucent wings. With sufficient altitude and while moving at speed, the drones were nearly invisible to the naked eye and hard to catch sight of even with enhanced optics. A dedicated and organized array of military-grade anti-surveillance measures could locate and neutralize the drones within a matter of minutes, but Ashley figured Cerberus and the other forces in play on the station weren't quite so well-equipped as to have the resources to spare proactively scanning the entire station's airspace for such things. She watched through her visor's enhanced reality display as the drones fanned out, following their autonomous flight paths, immediately beginning to feed data into the team's shared TacLink network.
"Let's go," she said in her quiet, assertive voice and began following after the drones.
Taking point, Ashley felt considerably more effective with the Avenger assault rifle cradled in her grip. The light tactical vest she wore over her nanofiber ballistic mesh armor layer didn't offer much additional in the way of personal protection, but she was grateful for the high-powered commas array it packed. Getting to the QEC and contacting the Normandy was crucial, but she knew she'd likely need some way of contacting other nearby friendly ships if they had any hope of getting some immediate relief.
Ashley led the four Marines along a route that traversed a series of wide concourses and across several open-air breezeways. It was familiar territory for her, having traveled the same general path a number of times over the last month or so, usually while on official ANCOC business but also once more recently with Anita Goyle, before Udina stripped the former ambassador of her access to the Embassy Plaza's secure zones. Nevertheless, Ashley kept one eye on the tiny tactical map projected on one corner of her visor's display, the path she was tracking clearly outlined ahead of her, constantly updated with real-time data fed from the drones scouting ahead.
They were moving in disciplined order, jogging with a controlled urgency through parts of the Presidium that were usually clogged with foot traffic. But this day the concourses were just shy of deserted. With nearly the entire district dedicated to government offices, the vast majority of people with business in the area were holed up inside their buildings. As the situation in the Wards steadily worsened, a widespread lockdown order for the most sensitive zones on the Citadel was in effect. The few civilians they did encounter along the route jumped out of their way, startled by the sight of five heavily armed Alliance Marines thundering toward them. Merchants gawked at Ashley and the others from behind their counters, some taking the hint and hastily pulling the front covers down over their stall facades, wisely closing shop for the day.
The empty corridors made for easy going but also made Ashley feel even more exposed than they already were. Every heavy footfall from five sets of combat boots seemed to boom and echo all the more loudly and she knew any number of the people they passed could be speed dialing an array of interested parties, sending out an alert. She quickened her pace, pushing her body and cursing the fact that, unlike the four Marines trailing her, she didn't have the luxury of power-assisted battle armor joints.
A dozen meters along their path, the drone dedicated to charting the team's route tagged a pair of human C-Sec officers turning a corner up ahead. Ashley threw up a hand signal to halt her little column and slipped behind a pillar. The Marines wordlessly complied with the cue and took whatever cover they could, crouching low with weapons trained to cover every angle.
"Campbell, Allen," Ashley ordered, "slip around behind and take 'em out. Non-lethal force only."
"On it," Allen said, motioning Campbell to follow him.
Among the weapons and armor Campbell and the others had managed to haul over to Purgatory had been a pair of stubby electroshock-pulse rifles. The Alliance typically issued the stun rifles to garrison troopers tasked with putting down rebellious colonial elements but also were occasionally used by the Marines during urban pacification assignments closer to home, usually on Mars or Titan. But with a vast, multi-species population on the Citadel paired with the growing Alliance military presence, Command felt that having a healthy supply of the non-deadly weapons on hand couldn't hurt.
Private Campbell and Corporal Allen were each packing one of the stun rifles, slung into brackets on the backs of their battle armor. They crept hastily along a parallel corridor to the one the approaching C-Sec officers were tracking before doubling back behind them. A few seconds later, the officers were stunned unconscious, disarmed, shackled, and shoved into a utility closet.
"Kasumi, we're ninety seconds out," Ashley said. "What's your status?"
"In position and waiting on your signal," Kasumi whispered over the comm. "I've hacked building surveillance cameras on the floor. Forwarding the feeds to the TacLink now."
"Got it," Ashley said, blinking out a command in her visor and accepting the new data link. There were four human Diplomatic Security Service agents loitering in the embassy's 31st floor lobby, all of them wearing light poly-ceramic tactical armor and armed with compact submachine guns. Other than the agents and a thoroughly cloaked Kasumi Goto, the area appeared empty. "Where's the rest of the staff?"
"These guys herded them into one of big conference rooms in the back ten minutes ago and locked them inside," Kasumi said. "Udina's still in his office, along with at least three other guards. I can't get access to see in there but I know he hasn't left. Only one way in and out."
"Understood," Ashley said. She and the Marines were just coming onto the outskirts of the big plaza bordering the embassy building. The area was practically abandoned save for three HASTR troopers and four combat-modified LOKI Mechs guarding the area around the building entrance, blocking off the bank of elevators. "Charges set?"
"That's an affirmative. Just say the word and I'll air condition the lobby."
"Copy," Ashley said. "Stand by on that. Thane, Massani, status?"
"I'm in position," Thane confirmed.
"Fucking ready, Williams," Zaeed growled. "Hurry it up, will you. We're drawing some attention up here."
Ashley sneered. "Stand by," she hissed, ducking behind a low wall along the plaza's perimeter, careful to remain beneath the overhang of the level above her, roughly fifty meters out from the embassy building entrance. She was busy processing the information flowing in from the drones orbiting the area, the camera feeds Kasumi had linked in to the TacNet, and what she was seeing with her own eyes. She scrutinized the tactical map projected in her visor for another moment and blinked out a series of waypoints. "Allen, take Finney and Moskowitz to the right and setup to flank the guards at the door. Campbell, you're with me."
"Copy that, LC," Corporal Allen said and began cautiously moving along the path Ashley had designated on their shared tactical map, Privates Finney and Moskowitz following in carefully organized intervals.
Ashley gestured Campbell forward, waiting for the private to join her before leading her farther along the wall to a position that offered better cover, tucked behind one of the massive flower planters that were so prominent across the Presidium. Waiting another twenty seconds for Allen's group to settle in, she keyed her comm. "Alright, Massani. You're on."
"'Bout goddamn time," Zaeed said. "Ten seconds and I'm there."
"I bet you say that to all the girls," Campbell muttered over the open comm.
Ashley slowly turned her head and stared at the young private whose expression was mostly hidden behind her helmet's opaque face shield.
Campbell gave a little shrug. "Sorry, ma'am," she said, sheepishly. "Just came out."
Zaeed was bellowing a raspy laugh in the background. Ashley cracked a tiny, incredulous smile, allowing the tension of the imminent firefight to abate just a fraction before turning her attention back toward where the HASTR troopers and mechs were clustered around the building entrance. "Everybody get ready and mark your targets," she said, designating her own priority targets through her visor's tactical display.
The high-pitched whine of the rapidly accelerating sky van was nowhere near as dramatic as the thunderous roar of a Kodiak's engines opened to full throttle, but their makeshift gunship still managed the desired effect, drawing the attention of the group of hostile forces blocking Ashley's path to the embassy, the QEC, and Udina. She watched carefully as the exoskeleton-clad HASTR troopers turned as one and looked up toward the sky, clearly recognizing that Massani's vehicle was moving at a speed and altitude entirely abnormal for that part of the Presidium. The modified LOKI Mechs reacted in a more urgent manner, their enhanced threat detection protocols triggering and sending the four bipedal machines scattering, moving to cover a second before the first rounds from Private Hardy's light machine gun began to impact the area.
Hardy emptied the entire magazine of his light machine gun into the crowd assembled near the elevators, managing to hit absolutely nothing except for the building's walls and the ground around it, shocking the HASTR troopers into action and sending them scrambling for cover. But Ashley never expected any of the private's shots to hit home, not with that kind of weapon and certainly not while firing out the window of a delivery van moving at over a hundred and fifty KPH. It didn't matter. The whole point of the show was to briefly distract the crew blocking their path into the building and draw out the snipers that were almost certainly hidden somewhere among the windows and balconies overlooking the plaza below.
Exposing the hidden sniper threats worked, the drone's orbiting the scene automatically tagging and tracking the trajectories of multiple shots fired at Zaeed's van from two different positions above street level. The tactical VI in Ashley's visor instantly processed the data and traced a helpful series of lines to the sources of the gunfire—a rooftop across the plaza and a fourteenth floor window in an adjacent building. She ignored the information, other than making sure not to expose herself to their sights, and left them to Thane.
"Clear to engage," Ashley said coolly over the squad's comm link and squeezed the trigger of her Avenger, firing a rapid burst into the closest of the LOKI Mechs. Next to her, Private Campbell was concentrating her fire on the same target, hammering the machine with a steady stream of armor-piercing slugs.
After Ashley and Thane had skirmished with one of the combat-modified mechs back in the Wards, she warned the Marines that this new class of LOKI was the priority target in any engagement and would likely be much tougher to bring down than the human opposition. The mech she and Campbell were busy tackling was no exception, its heavy ablative armor plating and kinetic barriers shrugging off most of the hyper velocity rounds they were throwing at it. It raised its integrated assault rifle and moved toward them, making minimal use of cover as it came.
"Grenade out!" Ashley shouted, thumbing the selector of her rifle to trigger the under-barrel launcher. The grenade fired with a pop-whoosh, sending the incendiary explosive streaking forward, impacting the mech center mass and engulfing it in a brilliant flash of white-hot light and energy.
"Target destroyed," Campbell confirmed, quite unnecessarily, a few seconds later.
Some distance to the right of Ashley and Campbell's position, Corporal Allen and the other Marines were engaged with another pair of mechs, cutting them down with a systematic barrage of fully automatic fire and fragmentation grenades. The explosions boomed and echoed across the Presidium, rattling the floor beneath the team's feet and shattering a few dozen window panes in close proximity to the action.
It was a brief, but furious firefight. The mechs offered up the most resistance, with their tough defensive capabilities and emotionless efficiency. But Ashley had positioned her troopers well and they'd managed to deal with the synthetics in reasonably short order, albeit having to expend most of the heavy explosive ordnance they'd carried with them. The HASTR troopers were more straightforward. Unlike their robotic partners, the Exo-clad men weren't immune to the shock of the sudden violence Ashley and the others had unleashed upon them. They might have been trained soldiers in another life, but their undisciplined reaction in the face of a well-organized assault revealed them as the simple mercs that they were. Once the mechs had been put down, the Marines and Thane eliminated HASTR operatives quickly and efficiently.
One final report from Thane's high-powered rifle rolled through the plaza, followed by a confirmation in Ashley's HUD that the last of the snipers hiding in the buildings above her team had been neutralized.
"Clear to advance," Thane said. "Kasumi, execute."
"Copy that," Kasumi said. "Fire in the hole."
Ashley jumped up from her position and strode rapidly toward the bank of elevators, swapping a nearly depleted thermal magazine for a fresh one as she went and accessing the security vid feed from the embassy lobby. Some thirty stories above, a series of sonic resonance charges Kasumi had planted along the embassy's outer windows detonated, blowing the six-inch-thick armored glass outward and raining shards of the anti-ballistic material into the garden plaza at the foot of the building. Ashley watched with morbid curiosity as the shockwave and sudden drop in pressure sucked one of the Diplomatic Security agents out through the ruined window. The hapless woman plunged through the air uncontrollably, wailing a terrified scream all the way, landing in an atrium with a wet, muffled thump.
Another DSS agent who'd been lucky enough to avoid being yanked out the window with his partner was still unfortunate to be standing out in the open. Thane dropped him with a single headshot before firing in quick succession at the remaining two agents, both of whom were scrambling for cover. He hit one of them in the back, sending the man tumbling forward and against a pillar. Another rapid fire round penetrated the back of his neck, nearly decapitating him. The last of the group managed to evade the drell assassin's fire only to run directly into Kasumi's waiting, virtually invisible arms. In one blindingly fast, graceful motion, she slashed him through the throat with her Omni-blade and spun away to another corner of the room. The man dropped to the floor and twitched, bleeding out.
Ashley picked her way through the carnage of broken mechs, shattered exoskeletons, and human body parts scattered around the bank of elevators and threw her body against the wall. Campbell and the other Marines joined her a heartbeat later. "Finney, hack the elevator control box," she said. "I don't want any stops until we hit the thirty-first floor."
"Copy that, ma'am," Private Finney said, firing up his Omni-tool and accessing the panel next to the elevator.
"Kasumi, status?" Ashley said.
"I'm good. Lobby's clear and whoever's holed up in Udina's office seems to have sense enough not to stick their heads out."
"Copy that," Ashley said. "Advise you remain cloaked until we arrive. We're heading up now." Off in the distance, rapidly drawing nearer, she could hear the whine of the sky van returning as well as the sound of a louder, more powerful engine a little farther off.
"We've picked up some company," Zaeed's voice crackled back over the comm. "C-Sec heavy Kodiak with some shiny new autocannons hanging out the side doors. They're right behind me."
"I can engage once you draw them in closer, Zaeed," Thane said.
"Negative," Ashley said. "You won't do anything to that Kodiak other than scratch the paint and expose your position, Thane. I need you to maintain overwatch and stay focused on the lobby until we secure the floor. Massani, try and lead that fucking shuttle away from here and ditch the van. Make your way back to us on foot if you can."
"Yeah, I've got it handled."
The elevator door swooshed open and Ashley swung her body in. The other Marines piled in after her and she slapped the button to shut the doors and send the car rocketing up toward the embassy. Five seconds later, they arrived on the thirty-first floor of the Citadel V'Sprehe-Xen Joint Diplomatic Building. Ashley allowed the far more heavily armored Marines in her company to exit first. They filed out in well-drilled order, quickly spreading out and assuming a tight defensive posture.
Ashley emerged a moment later and surveyed the area. The entire level was dedicated to the Human Embassy and all its associated offices, including Councilor Udina's primary office. She knew both Ambassador Osoba and Commander Bailey both had spots on the floor too, along with cubicles and desks for a couple dozen administrative support staff who were usually on duty at any given time. But now, the place appeared devoid of life and looking like a tornado had just swept through.
Artificial Citadel atmosphere or not, with every exterior window in the lobby blown out, a sharp wind was howling through the level, tossing up loose papers and debris. The three DSS agents Thane and Kasumi had taken out were strewn across the floor, pools of blood beneath their slowly cooling bodies.
The light in front of Ashley danced erratically for a moment before Kasumi materialized from her cloak and came striding toward her, a submachine gun cradled in her hands.
"Nice work," Ashley said. "Udina?"
"Not a peep," Kasumi said.
"No luck with camera access?"
Kasumi shook her head, turning and walking toward the other end of the embassy floor where Udina's office was located, careful to step over the body of a dead DSS agent. Ashley motioned for Moskowitz and Finney to hold position in the outer lobby and followed Kasumi down the hall, Campbell and Allen forming up beside her.
"Vid access to the councilors office is on a separate, dedicated neural network circuit," Kasumi said. "Whoever's in there with him yanked out all the local hardware so I'm afraid we'll be going in blind. I did manage to set up localized comm jammers and cut the hard lines. They won't be able to call their friends for help."
"Nice. Admin staff still okay?"
Kasumi nodded. "Yep, they're fine. I just checked the vid feed in there and nobody looks hurt."
"Alright, we'll take care of them after we deal with Udina. QEC still operational?"
"Yeah, the equipment all looks intact but most of the access has been totally wiped and the few accounts that are left are all encrypted. We'll need Udina's codes."
"Well, let's get to it then," Ashley said, jogging up the short flight of stairs and down the hallway to where Udina's office was located, motioning the Marines forward. "Campbell, you're first in. I'm right behind you. Allen, you're after me. Nobody shoot Udina. We need him alive. Everybody else in there with a gun is fair game."
"Copy that, ma'am," Campbell and Allen replied together, double checking their weapons and readying flashbang grenades, forming up as ordered, red targeting lasers active on their rifles.
Kasumi knelt down near one side of the door and activated her Omni-tool, running a rapid breaching protocol on the access terminal. A second later she glanced up at Ashley and gave a curt nod.
Ashley toggled her visor's visual filter settings and quickly slipped a pair of sonic protection buds she'd pulled from her tactical vest into her ears. She then placed one hand on Private Campbell's armored shoulder, brought her Avenger up with the other, and slowly exhaled. "Ready."
Kasumi hit a key and opened the door just wide enough for Campbell and Allen to toss in their flashbangs. Ashley counted off the second and a half in her head before the grenades detonated in a blinding flash of light, chemicals, and sonic energy. The doors swung all the way open a moment later and the three Marines swept into the room in rapid succession.
Campbell was firing as soon as she was past the door's threshold, a rapid salvo of armor-piercing rounds that tore through the light-Exo and body armor of a HASTR trooper doubled over near the center of the room. He was thrown backward, landing in an ungraceful heap, the assault rifle he'd tried to raise toward them flying from his grip. The squad's linked tactical computers immediately selected two additional threats—a pair of DSS agents struggling to regain their senses, both raising compact SMGs in the Marines' direction. Ashley and Corporal Allen hammered out bursts from their M-8 rifles, cutting the men down with expert efficiency. A final HASTR operative was at the back of the room, half leaning against the wall. Unlike his friends, he managed to get several shots off with his combat shotgun, firing wildly toward the door, the big caliber weapon thundering in the smaller space of the office. Ashley, still sheltering behind the armored form of Private Campbell, swung the muzzle of her weapon in the man's direction and plugged him with another precise burst of fire. His head snapped back violently as the miniature mass accelerated slugs cut through the his absurdly inadequate light helmet, pulverizing skull and brain matter. His arms went limp and he slumped back against the wall in an unnatural pose, his exoskeleton keeping his lifeless body mostly upright.
Ashley and the others took several more cautious steps into the room, sweeping the area with the muzzles of their weapons, scanning for threats. Satisfied, Ashley hollered, "Clear!"
Kasumi stepped in behind them, whistling at the carnage. Ashley glanced at her new friend and gave an appreciative nod. The whole thing would have been a lot uglier without her help, not to mention Thane's and Zaeed's.
They found Councilor Donnel Udina huddled on the floor behind his huge, polished desk. Humanity's supreme political figure on the station bleeding from the ears and coughing up phlegm, the extreme sonic energy and harsh chemicals from the flashbang grenades having done a number on the middle-aged man. Groggily, he slowly looked up and met Ashley's pitiless gaze.
"Good morning, Councilor," Ashley said. "I'm glad to see you're still alive. I have a few questions for you. Oh, and by the way, you're under arrest."
