…
"Too many people have opinions on things they know nothing about. And the more ignorant they are, the more opinions they have."
(Thomas Hildern)
…
MFV Idenna, November 21st, 11:38 AM, 2183
…
Mara and I both waited for a good moment to introduce ourselves to Kahlee Sanders and her friend. We decided on waiting until they had returned to their shuttle. We stood near the back of the shuttle bay, trying to think of a good reason to engage in dialogue. Failing at that, I simply decided that we would not mention the Reapers, Saren, or the meeting we were just in unless prompted to do so.
"Doctor?" I asked, walking up to them as they neared their shuttle once more.
Both her and the man behind her flipped around to face me. I couldn't see their faces, but I imagined they were likely confused.
We both calmly walked over to them, stopping in front of them before I offered a handshake.
She looked between me, Mara, and my outstretched hand before reluctantly returning the gesture.
"Dr. Sean Michaels." I formally introduced, before sidestepping and allowing Mara through.
"Dr. Mara Ford." She mimicked, offering a handshake as well.
"Um, I'd like to apologize for that little… debacle back there on the Lestiak, I had no idea they were going to be asking questions of that sort." I started, looking between her, the man, and the little girl, who looked very fidgety.
"What I want to know is why there are other humans here in the Fleet." She replied with crossed arms, looking harder at me.
"Yeah, why do you get the royal treatment?" The man asked, his posture expressing suspicion.
I looked back at Mara before turning back to face Kahlee.
"That's… a long story." I answered, folding my hands in front of my chest. "I'd be happy to tell it to you."
This time, Kahlee and the man looked to one another for confirmation.
"Alright, since we have nothing better to do, I suppose we'll listen to your story." She agreed, albeit with a hint of reluctance in her voice.
With that, we followed the three of them into the shuttle, seeing it had been recently decontaminated. It must have been wiped clean while they were at our little conference.
We all took seats inside of the shuttle, waiting until it sealed before taking our helmets off. The man began to have a calm argument with the little girl about taking her helmet off, while I sat forward slightly.
"So, I know your name." I informed Kahlee as she turned to face me. "Who are your other compatriots here?"
"That is Hendel Mitra, Security Chief of the Ascension Project, and the girl is Gillian Grayson, a promising young biotic." She introduced, despite the fact that they didn't notice.
"She has high-functioning autism, doesn't she?" I asked, actually causing her to cock her eyebrow in surprise. Even Mara looked surprised by my initial assessment.
"How did you know?" Kahlee asked, now looking very suspicious.
"I grew up with Asperger's Syndrome, wasn't diagnosed until I was twelve years old." I answered nonchalantly, looking over at her and Hendel. "I've only seen people like me or my friend Dan wriggle their fingers like that."
"Even I didn't know you had Asperger's Syndrome." Mara observed, scrutinizing me.
"Neither one of us really talk about it anymore." I admitted, looking harder at her. "I've always had problems with migraines, loud conversations and bright lights. Dan has his speech impediment, and used to have crippling social anxiety."
I looked back to Kahlee, who now seemed slightly more relaxed, but was keeping tabs on us for now.
"Anyways, we agreed to tell you how we got here, correct?" I asked, getting a nod from her in response.
"Well, the two of us and four others were originally part of an Alliance Task Force known as Cerebellum, working on an old space station that orbited Mercury. We developed groundbreaking technology to give the Alliance an edge over the other militaries, like the batarians and the turians." I started, leaning back in my seat as I thought back to the old days when we had a limitless budget and infinite ideas. "We worked on so much… developed a new type of power plant, and experimental jump drive, and even a new energy weapon that fires streams of condensed plasma."
I could hear Mara let out an amused puff of air, smiling as she thought back to the Plasma Gun developmental cycle.
"One morning, my buddy Dr. Dan Nemo discovers that someone on the station had been leaking station projects to an unknown source." I delved, thinking back to that faithful day. "Shortly after this, the station was brutally and viciously attacked by an unknown enemy force. They completely bypassed our defense grid and boarded the station. They then targeted me and the other project leads for capture, and killed everyone else."
"How did they board the station?" Kahlee asked, looking confused. "You were in the heart of Alliance space."
"I'll get to that, don't worry." I reassured, nodding slightly as I refocused myself. "Everyone had been captured, and I was injured by an explosion."
I lifted up my sweater, revealing the large four-inch long scar on my abdomen.
"It turns out that Cerberus had been the ones who attacked, looking to "procure" us and force us to work on technology for them." Mara continued, having experienced the worst of what Cerberus had to offer. "Over the course of a month, they threatened us, isolated us, and even tortured some of us in an attempt to get us to cooperate. In the end, despite everything, none of us broke."
"I was in an in-and-out coma during this time, still recovering from getting my abdomen pierced by a shard of metal." I carried on, as Hendel walked over to us with Gillian and sat down to listen. "I discovered during one of my moments of consciousness that our old Task Force leader, Major Lynda Embry, had been the one leaking out information the entire time. She was a Cerberus agent."
All three of them looked attentively at me as I told the story, even Gillian, who kept looking between me and Mara with curious eyes.
"After I had recovered enough, I managed to mount an impromptu escape, breaking my friends out and stealing back most of the technology they had stolen from Aldrin, including the ship equipped with our reactor and jump drive system." I began to teeter off, thinking once more of that fast escape we made. "After cautiously navigating the Terminus Systems, we reached Eden Prime, looking to make contact with the Alliance again."
"But the Alliance apparently had different ideas." Mara took over, letting out a small sigh before going on. "The Seventh Fleet was already waiting for us there, and opened fire on us as soon as we entered the system. We barely escaped."
"With nowhere left to go, we decided to seek out the Quarians, offering the technology onboard our ship in exchange for protection." I finished off, clasping my hands together as I leaned towards the table. "We joined the Fleet, I became a ship captain, and now here we are."
Kahlee looked very confused about something, and so did Hendel.
"Why didn't you go to the Citadel, or another Council race?" He asked, sounding genuinely confused.
"We decided that they were too well connected to the Alliance. They could potentially turn us over to them." I argued, shrugging my shoulders slightly. "Frankly, we were incredibly scared and paranoid by this point. We eventually agreed that the Quarians were our best chance of staying hidden."
"Why would the Alliance outright attack you?" Kahlee inquired, sounding very angry all of the sudden. "That doesn't make any sense."
"We don't know!" I shot back, getting really defensive. "Admiral Parangosky just ordered the Seventh Fleet to launch all fighters and attack us at full force. That's it!"
"Wait, Admiral Parangosky?" Kahlee stopped suddenly, holding up her hand. "Her?"
"Yeah, why?" I asked, knowing it was my turn to be confused.
"She supposedly deserted sixteen months ago, taking several tons of drive core-grade Element Zero with her." She explained, looking harder at the two of us. "No one knows where she went."
My mouth hung open as I put the pieces together.
"She was with Cerberus the entire time!" I said out loud, almost yelling as I stood up and threw my hands behind my head. "God damn it…"
All our reasons for coming here in the first place had been false. Parangosky had used her position as an Admiral to trick good Alliance men and women into trying to kill us. All for Cerberus. I barely held myself back from exploding out into a storm of expletives as I began to pace back and forth inside of the shuttle.
After I had calmed down, I sat back down in my seat, suddenly feeling depleted of energy.
"Thank you for the information." Mara thanked, nodding to them. "We're going to be here on the Idenna until the political crap boils over, so… would you like to talk about other things later?"
Kahlee thought over the offer for a few seconds, before nodding in agreement.
"Sounds interesting." She agreed, shaking our hands as we got up to leave.
I wanted to celebrate our little connection we had made here, but my mind was still too fraught with questions. I needed time to think.
…
MFV Idenna, November 24th, 5:12 PM, 2183
…
Over the last few days, we've had sporadic conversations with Kahlee, Hendel, and even Gillian, who was an incredibly shy girl. We talked about everything, from the quarians, the Geth, our tech, even our past experiences. It was an incredibly enlightening series of talks, and I enjoyed them very much.
She, Gillian and Hendel were part of this civilian biotics initiative known as the Ascension Project, hosted at Grissom Academy, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology of the modern world. There, they taught human kids how to control their biotic powers, gave them help reintegrating into society with their powers, and offered other things, such as family visits every once and a while.
Kahlee ran the program, keeping track of everything going on. She had apparently worked on A.I. research in the past, much like Richard, though it never went anywhere because of something that happened to her team's research facility. She really wasn't comfortable talking about it.
Hendel had been part of the first generation of biotics to come out of the human race. He had been part of a previous program known as Biotic Acclimation and Temperance Training, known as BAaT for short. Later after serving in the Alliance military, he had joined the Ascension program as Security Chief.
Even after three days, I still knew very little about Gillian. She was quiet, introverted, and had occasional bursts of questions and energy. I had watched one of her biotic tutoring lessons with Hendel, realizing very quickly that she possessed far stronger biotics than the man himself. She could kick some ass if she ever wanted to.
I managed to get a cubical on the crew deck for me and Mara for the duration of our stay. It was small, cramped, and hard to move around in, but cozy and warm. The quarian that had brought Kahlee, Hendel and Gillian here, Lemm'Shal nar Tesleya, or Lemm'Shal vas Idenna now that his Pilgrimage was over, had been very friendly and accommodating towards us.
I got bored the second day since there was no repair issues to worry about, so I modified one of the ship speakers in our area to play music from the Skyrim soundtrack, specifically music that played in the Inns, such as "The Bannered Mare", "Around the Fire", and "A Winter's Tale". The atmosphere became surprisingly calm and quiet, causing several other people from rest of the ship to actually come to our specific section of the crew deck to listen.
Now it was our third day here. Captain Mal had returned the Idenna a few minutes ago, likely looking to speak with all of us again. Mara and I waited outside of the shuttle, wanting to be in a more open space as opposed to the cramped shuttle.
"They really liked that music you played yesterday." Mara said with an invisible smile and crossed arms.
"You think they did?" I replied in an amused tone, looking back over to her. "Maybe I should give them all a few copies to play for themselves. What do you-"
I immediately cut myself off as I saw Captain Mal and Lemm turn the corner, walking directly towards us.
"Hello again, Captain Michaels." Mal greeted as we each gave each other a vigorous handshake. "I'm sorry the Admirals confined you to my ship."
"Its fine, I needed to spend more time with other people anyways." I nodded back, letting myself relax slightly more. "The hospitality of your ship's crew has been splendid."
"That's good to hear." He nodded, looking off to the side for a second before looking back at me. "So, I'm guessing the Admirals haven't informed you as to what's been happening, have they?"
"No, they always seem to forget about us when factoring in their equations." I replied in my usual, annoyed tone.
"The Conclave has been in talks regarding the sustainability of our species." Mal explained, lowering his voice slightly as he moved in closer. "Despite all the advances your team has introduced, we're nearing the point where we can no longer sustain our ships. Several other captains and I are trying to make a push for the entire Fleet to move to the Klenot system, but others are afraid that a massive change on that level could destabilize the Fleet."
"How would that destabilize the Fleet?" I asked, honestly becoming confused. "Reach is a perfectly habitable world, even if it isn't dextro amino. Where does the issue lie?"
"The issue is that our ships are breaking down faster than we can equip them with your Reach System." He delved further, speaking slightly faster. "If we were to make the move to the Klenot system, we would either have to abandon two fifths of the Fleet's ships, or force them to make the journey in conventional FTL."
It was actually an extremely large conundrum to ponder the more it raced through my head. The entirety of quarian culture has revolved around ships for over two-hundred years. The loss of a ship was like the loss of a village, a whole community, here in the Fleet. Asking several hundred thousand people just to pack up their things and leave their ships was akin to heresy.
But, on the other hand, in the Klenot system, they would have a whole system to themselves, safe from anyone who didn't have a Reach System and filled to the brim with untapped resources. If they were to all make the move there, we could easily create shipyards, mining facilities, even cities. The quarians would have a hard time adjusting, but they would go on to prosper years down the line.
"I see." I replied with a single nod, now that I understood fully what the problem was.
"If we're ever going to survive, we need more support. Would you be interested in casting your vote in favor of the move?" Mal asked, standing very straight as I thought about it again for a few seconds.
"I will." I agreed, shaking his hand once again, this time with renewed enthusiasm.
"Thank you, Captain." He said, likely smiling under his mask.
He then went into the shuttle to tell Kahlee and the others something along the same line. I knew Kahlee was pissed about the way she was being used here, and I really couldn't blame her. Apparently, her word would have a large effect on the upcoming decision, and if Mal didn't have her support, then there was a very real chance that the idea could be rejected.
Before I could throw my support behind what Mal was talking about, the emergency sirens on the whole ship began to blare.
"Oh no." I said to myself, feeling myself shrink slightly as Mara stood up and moved closer to me. "That's not good."
"What's happening?" Kahlee shouted over the alarms, looking very angry.
Mal leaned his head to the side, listening to something before looking back to us.
"The Cyniad, one of our scout ships, just docked with us." He explained, speaking very fast. "They knocked out our tight-beam transmitter."
"Cerberus." Hendel said with a frown, looking harder at Captain Mal. "They're coming for Gillian."
"What about Isil's security team?" I asked, as Mal tilted his head again. He then shook his head.
"No response." He answered, giving us all the answer we dreaded.
We all decided to make a beeline to the trading deck, where there were weapons we could use against Cerberus. It was a defensible position too, where we could hopefully drive them back and keep them from getting to any other parts of the ship. Mara followed closely behind me, a fearful look readily apparent on her face.
"Listen to me, Mara." I focused, stopping and grabbing her arms as I looked into her eyes. "I want you to go up there with the rest of the civilians and hide. Keep an eye on Gillian if you can, but don't come out until it's safe."
"But what about you?" She asked, still looking scared.
"I'm going to join the defense." I answered as calmly as I could, throwing my lab coat to the ground as I pulled out my 1911. "I'll be alright, don't worry about me."
"Please, just come with me, Sean." She begged, grabbing my hand. "I'm scared something will happen to you."
"I'll come and find you." I reassured with a heightened tone, bumping her mask with mine as I let go of her hand. "GO!"
With that, she ran up the stairs with the rest of the civilians. Leaving me with Mal, Handel, Kahlee, and the rest of the security personnel. None of them were equipped with exos, or Plasma Guns, much to my confusion.
"Where are the Exos and Plasma Guns?" I questioned, looking harder at Mal.
"The exos are stored in the same bay that the Cyniad arrived in." He answered through what sounded like gritted teeth, as we all took defensive positions. "Our Plasma Guns were sent to the wrong ship."
"Oh, for fuck sake!" I grunted out, clenching my fist tightly.
I checked my 1911, seeing it had seven rounds and the extra I pre-loaded into the chamber. Under my left arm, I had two more seven round clips stored in pouches. I disengaged the safety, taking cover behind a crate filled with various fabrics and sewing materials.
Not a whole thirty seconds passed before several grenades came flying through the doorway, exploding harmlessly in the open space, but throwing various goods into the air. Two armored Cerberus troops rushed into the room, taking cover behind a crate before Hendel moved it with biotics. Under our combined fire, they stood no chance. I fired two rounds, hitting the nearest one squarely in the helmet.
The next wave didn't go nearly as well, however. Three rushed in this time, and managed to find cover since Hendel had been drained. They bobbed and weaved through the maze of crates and lockers as they slowly gained ground over us. This wasn't good. These guys were heavily armed, better trained, and seemed particularly determined.
As I ducked back down behind my crate, I saw a small, cylindrical object fly though the air and land right at my feet.
"Grenade!" I shouted, quickly rolling myself over the top of the crate and onto the deck. I barely missed the brunt of the explosion, only getting a few splinters and some painful ringing in my ears. The same couldn't be said for one of Mal's men, though, who hadn't gotten out of the way fast enough. As the grenade exploded and flung shreds of fabric through the air, a chunk of the quarian's leg landed right next to my head, splattering blood onto my faceplate.
Banishing the horrific sight from my mind, I quickly shook my head and got back to my feet, charging to the side in an attempt to flank them. I realized Kahlee had the same idea, as we stacked on each other behind a row of lockers.
Two of the commandos were launched back by one of Hendel's biotic blasts, but then he himself was blown back in a similar manner. They had a biotic on their team. He hit the back wall, knocked out cold by the impact.
I quickly refocused myself, taking aim with my 1911 at one of the troops who hadn't noticed me yet. His barriers had just gone down, leaving him vulnerable to my primitive little gunpowder firearm. I fired four shots as fast as I could, trying to get a hit in before he could recharge.
I was lucky. Out of the four shots I fired, the fourth hit him square in the visor, shattering it and sending him to the floor, dead.
The other two troopers noticed this, and immediately began unloading on my position.
I ran like a bat out of hell trying to get away, only to fall and trip on debris. I landed behind another crate, looking over to see Mal calling for everyone to fall back to the deck above. Cerberus had broken through up there.
I filled my lungs and ran into the other stairway, knowing there was still at least one hostile behind me somewhere. I crept up the stairs, able to clearly hear the sounds of gunfire and screaming echoing down the hallways. Separated from the security team, I quickly popped out my magazine, knowing I only had two rounds left. I slid a full one into the weapon, hitting the slide release with a satisfying *clack*.
I turned the next corner to see several dead quarians, along with two dead commandos. They didn't look like they had been shot, based on the lack of bullet holes. They were more mangled, like a car crash victim. They had been killed with biotics.
I moved up closer to where the gunfire was coming from, seeing something that didn't initially register to me. I saw a quarian with two other commandos, firing on people who were hiding inside their cubicles. The screams vibrated through the hull, making me sick to the stomach. I had to do something.
I fired three shots at the quarian, hoping to get their attention towards me and away from the civilians. The first two hit the quarian, staggering him partially before the third shattered his kinetic barriers and ripped a small gouge into the very edge of his right arm. He flinched hard as the two commandos turned around and unloaded on my position. Luckily, I was far enough away that I could easily relocate.
"You little bosh'tet!" I heard the quarian shout as I moved in behind a crate. "You two, keep looking. I'm going to find this little jo'der."
I could hear his footsteps as he moved in closer, carefully checking the nearby cubicles for any signs of movement.
"Where are you?" He asked in a mocking, singsong tone as I rose up from behind my crate and fired off five shots. Two hit him in his barriers before he managed to fire a few rounds at me. He then dove out of the way behind another row of lockers.
I could feel two of the rounds had hit, the one dropping my barriers and the second hitting me square in the left shoulder. I gritted my teeth, trying as hard as I could to ignore the pain and not yell out in pain.
"You fucking traitor!" I shouted out loud, quickly ejecting my empty mag and loading my last one.
All I could hear was laughing from the other side of the row as I hugged the corner, anticipating his retaliation the moment his barriers had come back.
"Heh, you have some spirit, unlike all those little cowards I killed back there!" He mocked, sounding as if he was enjoying himself through all of this.
"Takes one to know one." I said under my breath, as I pushed against the row of lockers with all my might. They fell over surprisingly easy, revealing the quarian who had barely gotten out of the way in time.
I emptied my entire magazine on him, blowing through his shields as I landed every shot center mass. His envirosuit wasn't equipped with any ballistic mesh, meaning all my rounds tore into him like a hot knife through butter. He hit the deck with a loud clank, dropping his rifle as his hands started shaking uncontrollably.
"You… how…" He sputtered out as I walked over to him.
As he began gurgling on his own blood, I holstered my 1911 and picked up the rifle he had been using. I then put a single round directly though his head, permanently ending him.
I didn't have time to ponder why one of the quarians would turn traitor like this, though. I rushed forward to where the commandos had gone, only to find Captain Mal, Lemm, and the rest of the security team. Kahlee was nowhere to be seen.
"What happened?" I asked out loud, running back up to him as I gripped my bloody shoulder as tightly as I could.
"They're retreating!" He answered, picking up a different rifle off of the ground to replace his old one as he looked harder at me. "Are you OK?"
"I'll be fine, don't worry about me." I reassured, lying slightly as anger and adrenaline kept me going.
He nodded in agreement, as I then followed behind him and Lemm as we all ran down the stairs as fast as we could. From there, we saw gunfire fly across the trading deck, taking down one of the commandos as they fled from the uppermost deck. The second was completely exposed between us and whoever was down here.
He didn't last long. His barriers offered no protection as a hail of gunfire cut him down.
"It's me, Hendel!" I heard being shouted from the storeroom across the hallway.
"Hendel! You're alive!" Lemm shouted in jubilation as Hendel ran back over to us.
"Is that the last of them?" He asked, looking back at the two commandos we had killed.
"If there are, then they're probably trying to get back to the docking bay." I theorized, pointing in its direction as I felt my shoulder scream at me to stop. "It's the only reason why they would be retreating so suddenly."
"That must mean they have Gillian!" Hendel yelled, his posture becoming immediately tense. "We need to stop them!"
With that, we all began running down the deck to try and stop any shuttle takeoffs. About halfway to the shuttle bay however, I began feeling very dizzy as blood loss from my shoulder wound began to take effect. I went down on one knee as I started feeling weak.
"Lemm, help him seal that wound!" Mal ordered, looking at me before looking back to his men. "Everyone else, with me!"
With that, Lemm took some medi-gel and injected it into my shoulder, just as I began losing consciousness.
"This… can't… not like…this…" I slowly said, weakness taking over as Lemm kneeled down next to me.
"Captain! Stay with me!" I barely heard him shout before I passed out.
…
A/N: Cerberus strikes once again, hitting the Idenna in their search of the young biotic, Gillian Grayson. Sean is in bad shape after his fight, but hopefully he'll be able to recover from his wounds. What will become of the Idenna? What will happen to Kahlee and Gillian? Next chapter, my friends.
The decision to change from "finding a new world" to "moving to a new system" was something I've been wanting to propose ever since starting my story. It really is quite the decision to make when you think about it. The idea of liquidating a large portion of the Migrant Fleet in order to move everyone to a new world is something I've never seen any other writers propose… but then again, none of them have the Gravity Drive.
The chapter was a little shorter than I'm normally comfortable releasing, but a lot did happen in it. Oh, and if any of you know who Sean blasted away with his 1911, you get an internet cookie. Congrats.
I'd love to read any reviews, I'm always up for suggestions or constructive criticism! Stay tuned!