…
"Men, we led those dumb bugs out to the middle of nowhere to keep'em from gettin' their filthy claws on Earth. But, we stumbled onto somethin' they're so hot for, that they're scramblin' over each other to get it. Well, I don't care if it's God's own anti-son-of-a-bitch machine, or a giant hula hoop, we're not gonna let'em have it! What we will let'em have is a belly full of lead, and a pool of their own blood to drown in! Am I right, Marines?"
(Sergeant Johnson)
…
MSV Explorer, April 30th, 7:29 AM, 2183
…
I sat in the mess hall, drinking some sugarless, lukewarm "coffee" before redirecting my attention to a datapad. I was going over all the survey reports the other ships had sent me while listening to "Nights In White Satin" by The Moody Blues. My job was to make sure everything was up to snuff, because today was the day we found out if this had all been worth it.
Admirals Raan, Koris and Zadie were all coming here today in one of the Liveships to check out the system. They would decide if we were going to set up shop and begin mining operations. Based on the scans alone, I'd say we were looking at a treasure trove. With all the resources here, we could have every ship in the Fleet equipped with a Reach System and a full complement of exos within a year and a half.
The Admirals would have to be brain-dead to ignore this opportunity. A whole system away from Mass Relays, filled with resources and planets. All theirs.
My thoughts were cut off as Mara walked out of the crew quarters. She was wearing nothing but shorts and a tank top, exposing her stomach and legs. She did have a blanket draped around both shoulders, likely because it was colder near the medical bay.
Even disheveled and half asleep she was still pretty.
"Well, hello there." I greeted with an obvious smile, taking another gulp of my coffee as she stopped on the other side of the table. She let out a loud yawn before focusing on me.
"When did you get up?" She asked, stretching her arms out.
"About… 34 minutes ago." I answered as I gazed at my cracked watch, pulling a chunk off my protein bar and popping it into my mouth. "Sleep well?"
"About as well as I can in a room filled with three snoring men." She remarked, rubbing her forehead before walking over to the coffee machine.
"Sorry about that." I apologized with a sheepish look on my face as looked back to the reports.
"Jeez, what hat old band are you listening to now?" She asked, walking over to the table and sitting down next to me with a cup of terrible coffee clasped in her hands.
"The Moody Blues, why?" I answered, taking another bit out of the protein bar.
"Sounds like something out of one of those ancient gangster movies." She replied, hunching over with her eyes still half shut.
"That would be... Casino, I believe." I said, offering her the rest of my bar. She accepted it, taking a big bite out of it before turning back to her coffee.
"Yeah, It had Rodger DeNiro in it, right?" She asked, as I grimaced,
"Ro-bert DeNero." I corrected, shaking my head as I took yet another swig of my coffee. "Yeah, him, Joe Pesci, and Sharon Stone starred in that one."
"Movie aficionado, huh?" She commented, sipping her hot coffee and letting out a slow sigh. "Tell me, what's your favorite movie?"
That was actually a good question, now that I thought about it. I had considered many movies to be my favorite over the years, though when it came to it I usually tried to narrow down a category. If I had to pick a favorite…
"I'd have to say... Total Recall. The one from 1990." I answered, leaning back in my chair and focusing on her.
"I've never watched it." She replied, turning to face me. "What's it about?"
"There's not much I can tell you without spoiling the story." I explained, looking harder into her eyes. "It's about a construction worker in the... heh, future called Douglas Quaid who goes to this place called "Rekall" to have memories of Mars implanted in his brain."
"Sounds interesting, if kind of clichéd." She remarked with a raised eyebrow, tilting her head. "I'm assuming there's more to it than that."
"You'd be correct." I said, looking up at the holographic model of the Saturn V that was perpetually being broadcast over the table. I had put it there to memorialize the one that had been destroyed on Aldrin, along with all my other worldly possessions.
"I'll tell you what..." Mara began, throwing one of her legs up onto the table. "...if the Admirals start establishing us in this system after today, I'll watch Total Recall with you."
"And if they don't?" I inquired, giving her raised eyebrows.
"Then you have to watch The English Patient with me instead." She answered, giving me a sly smile.
I turned my head slightly, pursing my lips as I shook my head in equal parts disbelief and bewilderment.
"Damn it." I exclaimed softly, smiling at her. "Talk about clichéd… really? The English Patient?"
"How did I know that would be your reaction?" She wondered out loud, leaning her arms against the table.
"You know what? I'll accept your bet." I said, giving her a playful handshake before looking off to the side once more in disbelief. "The English Patient, I swear…"
We finished up breakfast, chatting a bit more before splitting up once again. I got fully dressed and walked up to the bridge to check on everything. I wanted to make sure everything was in tip-top condition, the Admirals would be coming aboard my ship this time.
"So… what did you do last night, Lydia?" I asked out loud, her ghostly hologram appearing to my left on the projector.
"Stirred the oxygen tanks, regulated the reactor cooling loop, and ran another blood test on those wildlife samples." She answered, placing one of her hands on her hip as she spoke. "You know, the usual."
"Heh, any changes in the system?" I inquired further, taking a seat at the radar station and looking at the latest radar scan. The scans took the form of a sphere, showing the maximum area of about several hundred thousand miles, our current range.
"Nope. The Flotilla is holding formation behind us in a stable orbit around Reach." She answered as the ships behind us could be seen on both the radar and rear view camera. We were holding in a defensive formation, a standard in the Migrant Fleet I had learned. All the ships were positioned so one could cover the other in case of an attack. Though we certainly didn't expect to encounter anyone out here in the middle of nowhere, it was still considered standard procedure.
I stared out the window at Reach for a moment before looking back to the last report. The largest asteroid in orbit around Mėlynas, the blue gas giant, contained an abundance of iron, along with trace amounts of silicon and osmium. In contrast, the largest one around Geltonas, the yellow gas giant, contained almost nothing but platinum. It looked fairly promising, and considering the Quarians and their proficiency with strip mining, we could easily set up shop on both bodies within a month.
The next thought in my head was cut short as the radar beeped, eight new contacts entering the system.
"They're here already?" I remarked in mild confusion, moving out of my relaxed posture to focus on the signatures. "Wait, that isn't right…"
The first alarm went off when I noticed the new contacts didn't have the same IFFs as us, and looked to be of an entirely different classification. The second went off when I saw they were spread out in what looked to be a standard attack formation. The third and final alarm was when I saw their flying colors and insignia.
It was Cerberus.
"Lydia, tell everyone to get their asses up and into their battle stations, we've got hostile Cerberus ships inbound!" I yelled, the red emergency lights going on as I opened up comms with the other Captains. "All ships, all ships, we have Cerberus ships in-system, standard attack formation!"
"How do we know they have hostile intent?" Captain Teera'Soran asked over the comm unit, sounding confused.
"There's no way they got here without the tech they stole from my ship. They must have discovered we're out here, away from the Fleet." I answered quickly, warming up the 250mm cannons that remained on our ship. "There's no other reason why they'd be all the way out here."
"I'll trust your judgement. Any orders you recommend?" She replied, her ship right on my tail. "
"Line up behind my ship and follow me." I replied, jumping over the console into the pilot's chair. "Armed ships in the front, non-combatants in the back. Whatever happens, we need to defend the civilian ships. I'll send out the emergency broadcast."
"Understood, we'll follow your lead." She finished, cutting the line as the door behind me burst open.
"Cerberus is back?" Dan asked out loud, looking down at me with a grim expression. I nodded as he looked back to Dimitri, already sitting down at his station.
"Two cruisers, six frigates. There are too many of them to fight at once, and if we jump away, they will surely follow us before recharge can be completed." Dimitri assessed with an expression similar to Dan's. "Ideas?"
"I got one." I started, sending out our distress signal as I "revved up" the engines. "The way I see it, we're the only ones that have drift charts to Mėlynas' asteroid belts, right?"
"You can't be serious." Dan remarked with an even more fearful look in his eyes. "You w-want to pull a Han Solo maneuver?"
"Not exactly. We move the Flotilla into the asteroid field, then we break off and evade them around Geltonas until the Admirals and their ships arrive." I explained with a deadpan, accelerating towards the gas giant and away from Reach. "Seeing as they've found us in such a remote location, I'm guessing they must have hidden a tracking device on our ship somewhere."
"How could that be possible?" Dan asked, now looking more confused than scared. "We were there in the Fleet all that time, why cho…choose now to come after us?"
"If they were to attack Fleet to get to us, they would be slaughtered." Dimitri answered, pulling up the radar screen. "While I don't agree with plan, Sean, I see no other option."
"God help us." Dan finished with a deathly look on his face as he strapped himself into the communications console.
We accelerated as fast as we could, making the quick jump to Mėlynas in an attempt to buy ourselves more time.
"I hope you know what you're doing, Captain!" Teera'Soran said over the comm channel, sounding even more nervous than I did. "If we get into a fight in that field we're not going to last long."
"Don't worry, once everyone is inside the field my ship will split off and draw the enemy ships away." I reassured as we neared the field. "We're the ones they want, we're not going to risk the civilian ships by sticking with the group."
"But that's suicide! You won't be able to hold off against eight ships!" She countered, clearly worried for us.
"I appreciate your concern, but we have no other choice." I refuted as Cerberus could be seen following us, just outside of weapons range. "If we stay with the Flotilla, a lot of people are going to die."
There was a brief pause before she came back on the channel.
"Come back alive, bosh'tet." She finished, sounding somber as her ships began moving into the fields.
The channel closed once again as we began to move away from the Flotilla. We performed a hard burn away from the group, seeing they were now taking the bait. All eight ships turned towards us, ignoring the Flotilla entirely. I let out a small sigh of relief as a different kind of stress could suddenly be felt on my shoulders.
"Hail the Cerberus ships. I have a message for them." I ordered, causing a look of confusion to cross Dan's face before he nodded. Still accelerating, I spoke loudly and clearly. "We know why you people are here, why don't you tell me who's in charge?"
The signal was sent, and several quiet seconds went by before we received a reply ping.
"Dr. Michaels… we meet again." An all-too familiar face greeted me on the main screen.
It was her. Lynda Embry.
"You… no, you should be dead!" I yelled at the screen, suddenly enraged by the sight of her.
"I should be, but I'm not." She replied with a devilish grin, holding her hands behind her back. "I should really thank you, doctor. I've never felt better in my whole life. These new cybernetics are quite... nifty."
It was obviously her, though she didn't look the same she did a year ago. Her veins and blood vessels were much more prominent than they were before, and it looked as if her eyes had received cybernetic enhancements. They had an orange-red color to them, and seemed to dig straight into me.
"If you think you can just waltz in here with technology you stole from us and take us back to that place, you are dead wrong." I threatened as she… laughed.
"Tisk, tisk, tisk… doctor, don't you realize that tech is Cerberus property?" She smiled back, an evil grin sliding onto her face. "Besides, we're not going to take you back to Minuteman, we've got a much… cozier facility itching to get their hands on you, your crew, the A.I.s, and the ship."
"Over my dead body." I replied with finality, as she dipped her head slightly.
"That's the idea." She smiled, narrowing her eyes on me. "Even though The Illusive Man wanted all of you alive, I've convinced him to let me do what I want with you before handing you over. When I'm done with you, you'll beg for mercy. This I promise."
I cut off the transmission without another word as Dan and Dimitri shot me the same worried looks. They weren't just worried for themselves now, they were worried for me. If Lynda got her hands on me... I couldn't even imagine what she'd have done to me after she had all of Aldrin Station murdered.
I didn't plan on allowing myself to be taken by her.
"How do you plan on evading them around Geltonas?" Lydia asked, popping up next to me on the projector. "I didn't see anything about an asteroid belt in the reports."
"The giant has an unstable gravitational field that throws gasses into its orbit, creating that bluish nebula." I explained as we made our jump to the planet in question. "We hide in there where the sensors are useless, and hopefully we can evade them long enough for reinforcements to arrive."
"But that means we won't be able to see them either once we're inside." Lydia countered with another worried glance.
"That's a risk we'll have to take." I replied with a similar expression as she and the other two looked ahead at their stations.
"I'll see what I can scrape together for navigation." Lydia agreed slowly, her expression shifting to a more determined one. "Don't try to be a hero in there, Sean. One wrong move and we're a sitting duck."
I acknowledged her with a single nod before gunning towards the nebula. Though the planet itself was a yellowish color, its gasses turned a thick shade of blue once outside the atmosphere. We had made it to the cloud just as Lynda's flotilla jumped to our location.
"Hiding isn't going to save you, doctor." Lynda mocked over the broadband, which by default couldn't be shut off on Alliance ships. "The longer you keep this little effort of yours going, the longer I'll keep the needles in you."
"Oh, I am going to enjoy killing you, you fucking bitch." I said under my breath as the blue gasses of the nebula consumed our ship.
"The gasses are creating electrical disturbances with kinetic barriers." Dimitri said, shooting us a deathly look. "We must shut them off or else we will fry hull."
I nodded as the minor alert siren shut off. The radar went dead too as everything grew quiet. We were now both silent running and blind.
Using only our RCS thrusters to move as to not give off an engine signature, we crept our way through the all-consuming cloud. Only now, under the threat of quick and almost certain death, did I finally understand what U-boat crews had to go through all those years ago. It was terrifying. I began to imagine a sonar ping in my head to mentally break up the dead silence, which was only broken by the muffled sounds of the thrusters.
While in reality about six minutes had passed, to me it felt more like hours. Only after those painful six minutes did anyone make a peep.
"I'm picking up something off our port side." Lydia reported, snapping us all to her attention. "Wait… the starboard side too?"
"They're flanking us, go down!" I silently ordered as the thrusters went off, a faint falling sensation being felt in my stomach.
I was right, and not a moment too soon. Just as the radar picked them up, they both fired at where we just were. Ironically, instead of hitting us in the engines like they clearly intended to, they instead blasted each other in the faces with their main cannons. We could all see the explosions above us as both ships went up in fireballs.
"Stupid bastards…" Dan commented with a slight grin, looking over at me and Dimitri.
We fired off the RCS a few more times, drifting back towards the edge of the field to see if there were any camping outside. Of course, Lynda's ship was the one holding guard duty while the others searched for us in the nebula.
"I got an idea." Dimitri suggested, pointing at the ship's signature. "Launch a few escape pods, maybe they will think that one of dead ships are ours."
"Good plan, do it." I agreed as three thumps could be heard from our port side. The pods were away and drifting out of the field, they would hopefully be enough to distract her ship.
We waited just a few more minutes deeper in the nebula, moving back to the edge to see if she had taken the bait. When we had arrived back, we saw that she was gone.
"Where did she go?" Dan asked out loud, frantically looking around to try and spot the ship.
"Signal off our stern! She's behind us!" Lydia yelled through the bridge speakers as several heavy thumps resonated through the ship.
"Blast her with our cannons, her barriers are still down!" I ordered, slamming my fist down on the console as I gunned the engines as hard as I could away from the nebula.
I watched through the rear-view monitor as our cannon rounds ripped into her cruiser. Though her ship didn't have nearly as much armor as ours did, hers was almost twice the size. It ate up the rounds, still moving towards us out of the nebula.
Our ship was peppered with mass accelerator rounds, barely repelling them with our half-power kinetic barriers. I knew we needed to do something now or risk serious damage.
"Target those turrets, we need to-" I began to order before suddenly, without warning, Lynda's ship exploded into three different pieces as its reactor took a single round and violently exploded.
"Yeah, we did it!" Dan yelled triumphantly, jumping out of his seat and giving me a high-five. "That's what happens when you mess with the best!"
"Wait a second, that was not us…" Dimitri corrected, causing Dan and I to turn back to face the monitor.
What we witnessed was truly awe-inspiring. Through the cloud, the massive, spherical front end of a Quarian Liveship pushed the clouds of the nebula out of its way, emerging along with over a dozen of their own frigates and cruisers.
"Captain Michaels, It appears we have arrived ahead of schedule." I heard Raan's always-familiar voice announce over the broadband, sending waves of relief washing over me.
It was over, and we had survived.
…
MSV Explorer, April 30th, 10:41 AM, 2183
…
I silently waited in the conference room while the rest of my friends carefully checked over the ship for any tracking devices. While they did that, I was waiting for the Admirals to arrive.
The incursion into the system by Cerberus had thrown a wrench into our gears, to say the least. We had all been rather lucky, managing to avoid suffering any serious damage unlike last time, and none of the ships Exploration Flotilla had been damaged while hiding in the asteroid field. All things considered, we did well.
Everyone below deck had been scared out of their minds during the attack, though no one suffered any injuries aside from a few bruises on Biss, who had apparently failed to secure his chair's harness correctly. They were all understandably timid, mostly due to our lack of communication with them during the attack. I understood why, being down there is like being on a jet liner. You have no control.
The doors slid open to the room, revealing Raan, Zadie, and Koris. They moved with a purpose, meaning they wanted to discuss more than mining opportunities.
"Welcome Admirals." I greeted, giving each one of them a firm handshake. "I wish we could have met under more… ideal circumstances."
"As do we, Captain." Raan nodded, folding her hands behind her back and nodding slightly.
"We know you pushed hard for this exploration project, Captain, and we want you to know up front that we will be setting up mining operations in this system." Koris said, making my heart shoot up into my chest in sudden but controlled glee. "We know how much you wanted this, and we're not going to deny you or the other captains of this after what you all went through."
"That brings us to what we really want to talk about, Captain." Raan redirected, looking harder at me.
"Cerberus." I replied out loud, straightening my posture.
"Yes." Zadie confirmed, taking a step forward with crossed arms. "While we were combing the wreckage of their ships in the nebula, we found several escape pods. One of them had an interesting person inside of it."
"Are you kidding me? She's still alive after all of that?" I grimaced, knowing exactly who she was referring to.
"You are referring to the woman with the cybernetic enhancements, correct?" Raan inquired, as I shook my head in confirmation. "We want to know who she is. She killed one of our Marines before three others in exos managed to subdue her."
"She and I have… a bit of history." I started, taking a seat as the Admirals did the same. "Back when my colleagues and I still worked for the Alliance, she was the commanding officer at our research station. A year later when we discovered small packets of our research being sent off to an unknown location, the station was suddenly and viciously attacked by Cerberus commandos."
"Your administrator, she was the one exposing your research?" Koris questioned, motioning slightly with his hands as he rested them on the table.
"Yeah, it turned out she was with Cerberus the whole time, using her position to leak top-secret Alliance information to the bastards." I answered, continuing with my explanation. "About two months later when I fully regained consciousness, she tried to trick me into thinking she was still Alliance. I performed a quick interrogation, forcing the location of my colleagues out of her before injecting her with blood thinner and leaving her for dead. She should have died from the injection I gave her."
"You tried to kill her?" Zadie asked, tilting her head slightly as she spoke.
"Hell yes I tried to kill her, she betrayed the Alliance and killed everyone else on that station. She deserved it and more." I justified, getting slightly heated before forcing myself to calm down. "That was the last time I saw her until today. It would appear this "Illusive Man" character gave her a few upgrades or something, based on what I saw of her during the attack."
The Admirals sat there in silence for a few seconds before turning back to me.
"This woman… we're debating what to do with her." Raan admitted, looking between me and the other two Admirals. "She's obviously dangerous, but we don't want to kill her unless we have to."
"Why not? She already killed one of the Marines, dump her out the nearest airlock!" I said, standing up and slamming my fist onto the table in anger. They just stared at me before I slowly sat down in shame. "I'm sorry for that outburst, it's just… damn it."
"We understand your concern, Captain. While we understand how dangerous she is, she may also have valuable information we can use against Cerberus in the future. Information we can use against them if we ever come to blows again." Raan tried to explain, dropping my feelings into my stomach.
"If that's the way you want to do it, I won't stop you." I gave in, waving my hand dismissively as I shook my head. "I'm telling you now, the longer that woman breaths, the more of a danger she becomes to all of us."
"Then maybe you can help us." Koris suggested, regaining my attention. "You appear to know her well, perhaps you can assist in our interrogations, maybe advise our men on her history or mannerisms?"
I thought about it for ten second before deciding on an answer to his proposal.
"No, if I'm going to be involved with the interrogation, I want to be one hundred percent involved." I agreed, looking down slightly at them.
It didn't matter, nothing I did would make her feel all the pain those poor souls on Aldrin felt that day.
…
A/N: Our friends and their flotilla survived unscathed, and the old administrator has returned with a few Cerberus upgrades. Let's hope she's in the mood for a conversation.
This chapter was a real challenge for me, because I haven't tried doing long, drawn out sequences like this before. It was honestly a lot of fun when I got my writing groove on, and I can honestly say I loved writing this chapter. I obviously took a lot of inspiration from Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back and Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan when writing this sequence, and I think I did very well.
If anyone knows any good artists that'll do concepts out of the goodness of their own hearts, I'd love to hear about them. I've been itching to try and get a group photo of the whole Explorer crew, and I really don't have the money to spend on commissions.
I'd love to read any reviews, I'm always up for suggestions or constructive criticism. Stay tuned!