…
"Always on the forefront of technology, the UAC is making safer worlds through superior firepower."
(Doom 3)
…
CASTLE Base, August 12th, 2:29 PM, 2184
…
Walking across the tarmac of CASTLE Base, I could see lots of debris and wreckage strewn about the area. Burned out hulks of crashed shuttles, gunships and fighters were everywhere, either smashed into the ground or the surrounding hangers. I looked over at one of the shuttles we had shot down, seeing the charred bodies of the individuals who had been inside. Smoldering bone and armor was all that was left of most of them.
The sight alone was gruesome enough, but the smell… that coppery, sulfur-ish smell… no one blamed me for emptying my stomach of all its contents on the spot.
We had done incredibly well by all regards, if the initial reports I was able to pick out were any indication. Though, you wouldn't know it just from looking at the condition of the base.
I held a rag to my face as I tried not to gag at the smell, walking back towards the main entrance to CASTLE Base. There was a dozen or so Cerberus commandos who had surrendered being escorted to the edge of the base by marines in Gen IV exos where there were secured cells waiting for them. Luckily for us, there were very few losses.
"God, I can't believe they'd be stupid enough to do something like this." Greg mused, walking alongside me as Dimitri followed behind us. "What made them think this was a good idea?"
"Beats the hell out of me." I dismissed, squinting in minor pain as some smoke blew into my eyes.
"This operation did not appear to have high probability of success." Dimitri mused, who refused to use a rag to cover his nose. Though he was tough, I could see the thinly veiled disgust on his face.
"I'm telling you, if it weren't for those shields, this attack could have turned out a lot differently." I replied, letting out a sigh as I rubbed my sore neck.
"If we hadn't gotten warning from Alliance, shields wouldn't have made that much of a difference." He shot back, looking me directly in the eye.
"True." I admitted, looking at Greg who whipped around to face both of us.
"Oh, don't look at me like that. If I had known, do you really think I would have come all the way over to the base?" Greg deflected, the three of us stopping in our tracks.
"Are you implying you wouldn't have come?" I pried, causing his face to change immediately.
"No, that's not what I meant!" He defended, sounding mildly angry. "As an Ambassador of the Systems Alliance, I'm not supposed to just throw myself into combat situations, especially with my heart condition! Standard operating procedure is to seek shelter!"
He turned away from us, looking at one of the still burning wrecks near us.
"Besides, I wouldn't have kept that information from you guys. Look at all this." He remarked, kicking a piece of metal. "God, this isn't what I wanted to experience here…"
I allowed myself to nod in understanding, looking up at Dimitri.
"Hackett likely informed Admirals through secure data stream established after partnership was formed." Dimitri theorized, coming to what I knew was most likely true.
"But why wouldn't they tell us?" I asked out loud, putting emphasis on "us" as I finished my question. "What kind of bullshit mental gymnastics did they go through to prepare in space but leave the rest of us down on the ground hanging dry?"
Dimitri shook his head in confusion as I saw one of the base marines running towards us.
"Captain Michaels, sir!" The woman greeted with a salute, standing as straight as a plank as she spoke. Her envirosuit appeared to be slightly scorched from the fighting.
"Sergeant." I returned with a nod and salute, folding my hands behind my back.
"Sir, the base has been swept. No more hostiles have been found, and our ground crews are now deploying the fire suppression equipment." She informed, holding a datapad tightly in both hands.
"Good. Tell the marines in the Gen IVs to keep a constant eye on the prisoners until we've got a place to relocate them to." I ordered, alternating my gaze between her and the prisoners being moved farther ahead. "Once the fires are out, get some volunteers out here to find out what the damage is and begin cleanup procedures."
"Yes sir." She finished, running off as she held one of her hands to her helmet to radio in.
I took another look around the base, seeing the rising smoke columns drifting off into the valley. I could only imagine what condition Camp Dolor was in at the moment, seeing they too had fires to put out.
"Hey Dan, where you at?" I asked into my open omni-tool, trying to get status updates.
"Right now I'm p-patrolling the outskirts of Dolor to make sure t-there's no stragglers in the forest." He answered in a calm tone, heavy thumps clearly heard in the background. "How about you guys? Still hanging in there?"
"Yeah, I guess you could say that." I replied in a slightly more somber tone as I tried to think of what to say, but got hung up as the words got stuck in my throat.
"Hey, don't worry. We'll fix every… everything up good as new." He reassured, sensing the hesitation in my voice. "We'll make these b-bastards pay, Sean. It's only a matter of time."
"Thanks Dan, I appreciate it." I finished, forcing myself to keep moving forward.
The heavy blast door into CASTLE Base began sliding open as the low-level all clear was called. To my immediate surprise, one of the first people to run out of the underground facility was Mara. The moment she locked eyes with me, her face lit up.
"Sean! She yelled out in joy, fighting back tears as she gave me a tight hug. "I heard the announcement over the base speakers… what happened?"
"It's hard to explain, it happened so fast." I started, trying to recall exactly what had happened. "Once the alert from Gerrel went out, me, Dimitri and Greg hopped into one of the gunships to try and repel the shuttles. We knocked some of them out before getting shot down ourselves. We hid in one of the hangers while Dan and the marines mopped up those who had managed to land."
"It wasn't easiest landing I have performed, but we landed safely and no one got hurt." Dimitri mused with a satisfied expression.
"No one who didn't deserve it." Greg amended, cracking a small smile.
"Want to come to my office for a while? There's some things I want to check down there." I asked, holding both of her hands gingerly.
"Sure." She agreed, giving me a curt nod.
"Alright, we shall look for ways to help up here." Dimitri finished, waving with Greg as we both walked off.
We walked into the interior of CASTLE Base, the door wide open to accommodate all the people making their way back outside. I allowed myself to sigh, wiping a bead of sweat off of my head with the rag I had used to cover my face.
"Are you sure you're alright?" She asked, grasping my hand tighter as we exited the elevator and towards my office.
"Physically, yes, mentally, no." I admitted, pinching the bridge of my nose. "Mara, they attacked us on our front doorstep. How do you think I feel?"
"I know; I'm shaken as well." She said, running a hand through her hair.
Once sat down, I opened up the left side of my desk and pulled out a single whiskey glass and a bottle of Bulleit Bourbon. I had been keeping the liquor here for a while, saving it for the right moment. Whether or not that moment was now, I had no idea, but either way I was having some. I poured two fingers into the glass, immediately downing it without a second thought. Mara watched from across my desk with a confused look on her face.
I shook my head in shock, feeling the burn the moment it touched my throat. This stuff was like sucking pure grain alcohol through a piece of cork, and it tasted about as good. I hated it.
I only ever drank the stuff for two reasons. One, it was the first alcohol I ever had, bought for me for my 21st birthday by a relative of mine. Second, it was one of the few whiskies that gave me that strange, warm feeling in my belly. That feeling was very relaxing.
"I know you're stressed out, but is this really the time to be drinking?" She chastised, crossing her arms.
"Don't worry, this is all I'll need." I reassured, slamming the glass back onto the table bottoms up.
After letting the feeling wash over me for a few moments, I pulled my omni-tool off and placed it directly in the middle of my desk. I knew that soon, I'd get one of those two inevitable calls from the Admirals either asking me for an assessment, or to attend an emergency Conclave. I wasn't looking forward to either of them for obvious reasons.
I put the bottle of Bulleit back into the desk as I entered the Fleet network on my personal computer. I accessed the camera systems of the Cairo, hoping to see what exactly happened up there in orbit. Unfortunately, the servers were too busy at the moment to grant me access to the video records, so I opted instead for a live feed from of the video drones the Cairo had deployed.
"Oh my god…" Mara let out, covering her mouth in shock as I froze in place, forcing myself to keep my eyes on the screen.
For a lack of better ways to describe it, what we saw was pure devastation. The shiny, polish hulks of the Cerberus ships twisted and churned as micro debris littered the space around them, glimmering like little mirrors. Holes the size of buses could be seen on the fresh wrecks, burnt and charred. Among the debris were bodies, and lots of them. Many of these people hadn't gotten the chance to put on any emergency EVA equipment, and died gasping for air as they were thrown out into space.
I forced myself to turn off the feed, immediately regretting my decision to view it in the first place. I looked back to Mara, who had the same horrified expression that I did. Neither one of us knew what to say.
I began asking myself deep down why I was feeling so sorry for these people. These were individuals, men and women, who had willfully chosen to become members of this terrorist organization. Yet… I still felt an incredible amount of sympathy for them. The true fact of the matter was that despite their actions, it was still an incredible loss of life. These people's lives all ended here in this alien system where they believed they were doing something that benefitted their ideology. The reality of it all was incredibly sobering, almost tragic.
My thoughts were cut off as my omni-tool began playing the Imperial March theme, something that seemed more ominous than humorous given the current situation. I looked between Mara and the device for a moment, seeing her nod to me before I answered the call.
"Captain? Are you there?" I heard Raan ask out loud due to me not having said anything initially.
"Yeah… I'm here." I answered bluntly, forcing my tone to be as neutral as possible as I began pacing back and forth.
"Listen to me Captain, I know what you're thinking right now, and we'll-" She began, putting on her most sincere voice before I slammed my hands down on the desk in anger.
"What exactly am I thinking right now, Admiral?" I interrupted, looking hard at the omni-tool on my desk. "Am I thinking about how the five of you neglected to warn us of the imminent Cerberus attack on the facility, or an I thinking about all the subsequent losses and damages we incurred as a result of said attack? Please, feel free to tell me which one it is."
"Captain, please listen to me." Raan urged, clearly able to feel the venom in my voice. "We barely had enough time to ready our space forces. By the time we had finished our preparations in space they were already launching their assault."
"That's bullshit and you know it!" I shot back, feeling my head getting warmer as I began to lose focus. "You've been prepping the ships since last night! Now you're either going to tell me the real reason why you neglected us during this process, or I'm formally calling off all our projects down here until further notice."
There was a long pause in the conversation, which confirmed that Lydia was right in her assessment of last night's fleet movements.
"I'm sorry, Captain." Raan finally replied, her voice much lower. "The truth is we suspected Cerberus was running surveillance on CASTLE Base, and we didn't want to interrupt standard operations and risk them learning that we were aware of the incoming attack."
"You still could have warned us, given us a heads up of some kind!" I shouted at her, nearly in a furious rage. "I've got dozens dead and injured down here, Admiral, and I fail to see how any of this couldn't have been avoided!"
"We will make reparations, Michaels." Raan said in the sincerest tone I had ever heard out of the woman. "You have to forgive us. We didn't expect this to happen."
"I don't have to forgive anyone; forgiveness is given to those who deserve it." I threw back at her, resisting the urge to pick something up off of my desk and chuck it across the room. "Don't call me for anything else until the Conclave is organized. I don't want to see you or your cohorts unless absolutely necessary. Michaels out."
With that, I cut off the transmission, throwing myself back into the office chair and letting out a deep breath as I attempted to calm myself.
"Enigma and Ultra." I heard Mara mutter as she stared at the models on my desk.
"Huh?" I questioned, looking directly at her.
"During the Second World War, the Germans made widespread use of a rotor cipher machines known as Enigma machines to transmit classified information." She began to explain, sitting forward in her chair. "The Allies organized and handled decrypted information from the Enigma machines under the name Ultra."
"I already know about the code-breakers and their struggles during World War Two." I mused, leaning against my desk. "What about it?"
"Well, they were able to view the decoded transmissions, but they couldn't act on all of them or else risk revealing to the Germans that they had cracked their machine." She continued, just as I realized where she was going with this.
I took a deep breath as she looked harder at me.
"You know what I'm talking about." She correctly guessed as I propped my head up with my left arm.
"Unfortunately." I answered, pinching the bridge of my nose once more in an attempt to release some pressure from behind my eyeballs.
This day was only just beginning.
…
MSV Explorer, August 12th, 4:14 PM, 2184
…
We connected with Cradle 3 of the Rayya, a gentle thump resonating through the hull as the magnetic seal was made. It felt odd being up here again with the Explorer, though it wasn't unwelcome. I just wish it was for a better reason than this.
Being back up here with my all friends reminded me of when we had first docked with this ship, desperately flaunting out technology to convince the quarians to take us in. It was almost surreal. Even Greg was accompanying us, and looked none too happy in regards to expectations.
"Alright Lenlo, keep her safe until we get back." I ordered, waving at him as the airlock doors closed and sealed behind me.
We all slipped on our masks, making sure the seals were tight as the decon sequence began. It sprayed us down as it always did, leaving a quickly settling cloud of vaporized hydrogen peroxide and nitrogen dioxide in the chamber. This wasn't the standard decon cocktail, it was specially made for transitioning between Reach's atmosphere and the sterilized environments of the Fleet.
Everyone was dead quiet, though I suspected our minds were anything but. I was still fuming at how the Admirals had treated us down on the ground. They absolutely devastated the opposition in space, but we suffered many losses down on the ground both at Camp Dolor and CASTLE Base. I could feel my knuckles go white I was squeezing my fists together so hard.
Richard was the one to break the relative silence, though I wish he hadn't.
"We're going to war." He said without any provocation, causing both me and Dimitri to look back at him.
"What makes you say that?" Dimitri inquired, hands still folded behind his back.
"There's no way the Captains are just going to let this go." He went on, doom and gloom readily apparent in his voice. "An attack like this will come with a cost."
"It already has come with a cost." Sira shot back in an annoyed tone, looking none too pleased with his comments based on her crossed arms. "What's the point in telling us this? They attempted to invade the planet, of course this means war."
"What he means is that the Alliance is going to get involved." Greg answered for him, looking down at the woman. "What that also means is that the Alliance will have to formally announce their partnership with the Migrant Fleet."
He was right, and I hated him for it. In order to help the Quarians better attack Cerberus, they would have to begin corroborating intel on a much bigger level. That meant involving even more people, getting military allies into the mix, and so on. This attack meant the end of the partnership on a discreet level.
This fact actually terrified me. Open conflict with Cerberus meant the other races would take notice of us. They'd eventually find out where we live.
I barely managed to keep myself from speaking out as the cycle ended, opening the outer door and revealing the cradle. From that point on, we stayed completely quiet as we walked to the atrium. Even the mood in the Rayya was quiet a subdued, as much as it could be after what had happened.
The rest of my group stood near the back as I walked up towards the front. All the Captains involved in the attack were here, front line and center. All of us would be giving in-person reports to the Admirals in front of the Conclave before actual discussion occurred. It was standard operating procedure for events such as this.
"This Conclave is brought to order." Raan began, looking down at us from the top of the podium like she always did. "Blessed are the ancestors who kept us alive, sustained us, and enabled us to reach this season. Keelah se'lai."
"Keelah se'lai." We all replied, bowing out heads for a few moments before looking back up.
"As you already know, Cerberus attempted several hours ago to invade our system." Gerrel spoke, attracting all of our eyes. "We've convened to discuss this unprovoked attack and debate what actions we should take in the future."
For about twenty minutes, the Admirals went Captain-to-Captain getting a report on each one's vessel. They all spoke for several minutes, going over damages, losses, and other statistics as the rest of the Conclave watched and listened. My initial assessment held up.
Cerberus had launched a multi-pronged attack on the system with several objectives. Their first goal was to allow their frigates and cruisers to clear a path by knocking out ODP Cairo and the surrounding Defense Flotilla to clear the way for their carriers. Once they were clear, they would launch a swarm of aircraft that would descend on the planet with the goals of attacking our mining and military facilities. This was all being led by an old associate of ours, former Alliance Admiral Catherine Parangosky.
The first part of their plan failed outright. They weren't prepared for the MES system and how well it deflected damage, thus they were unable to cause any harm to the station. Before Parangosky could call off the second wave of the attack and retreat, her two carriers jumped into the system and unleashed their spacecraft prematurely.
It was a slaughter. The Cairo knocked out both carriers before they could react, using low-power shots to disable them instead of outright destroying them under orders from Han'Gerrel. The rest of the Cerberus fleet suffered heavy losses as the brunt of the Orbital Defense Flotilla unleashed a wave of retaliatory fire they weren't prepared for. Out of the forty or so vessels that Parangosky jumped into the system with, only a dozen managed to escape from the system. It was still undetermined if the Admiral had escaped, died, or was out there floating in one of the dozens of escape pods that had yet to be retrieved.
As for the smaller crafts released by the carriers, over two-thirds of the vessels were destroyed by the Fleet's GUARDAN arrays and point-defense guns before even entering the atmosphere. What we saw down here on the surface was only a fraction of what was originally intended by those Cerberus bastards.
Those that did make it through were ordered by Parangosky to focus on Camp Dolor and CASTLE Base with the aim of getting something out of this failed operation, but between us thinning out the shuttles in the air with the Cobra and Dan knocking out anything that survived with the Dragoon, the entire attack had ended in less than an hour.
After going through all of the Orbital Defense Flotilla, they came to me.
"Captain Michaels, what is the status of CASTLE Base?" Gerrel asked, looking me right in the eyes through my opaque faceplate.
I held my tongue for a few moments before speaking up, using every ounce of self-control I had to keep from lashing out at him in front of everyone.
"Sir, CASTLE Base sustained significant levels of damage during the attack." I began, clasping my hands behind my back. "Their initial wave took out our ground-based air defenses and cleared the way for troop transports. We managed to get one of our experimental Cobra gunships into the air after the first wave, taking down several of the shuttles before they could land. Our forces on the ground suffered many casualties before my colleague Dr. Nemo commandeered the Dragoon prototype, turning the tide of the battle in our favor. All in all, sir, we suffered over two dozen casualties and over fifty wounded in both CASTLE and Dolor. No estimate on the cost of damages yet, though it's projected to be in the millions in terms of Citadel Standard."
"Were you able to discern what exactly they were looking for, Captain?" Koris asked, putting both hands against the railing.
"Right now, our best guess is that they wanted to do a sweep-and-retrieve, steal any of our research data that wasn't locked down and get out before the Fleet could bring in reinforcements." I answered, taking a deep breath between statements. "After their carriers were taken out in space and their gunships were knocked out of the sky, they scattered and attempted to flee into the woods surrounding the two installations. We've caught all the stragglers as far as we can tell, though we still have teams moving through the forests to make sure."
"Very good. Thank you Captain." Gerrel thanked as they all looked to one another.
Before they could say anything else, something happened that I didn't expect. Gregory walked up to the Admirals with meaning to his stride, standing next to me as everyone turned to look at him. He then projected a live hologram of Admiral Hackett in the center of the room, the scan lines clearly seen from noise in the connection.
"Admiral Hackett, welcome." Raan greeted with zero surprise in her voice as she stood up straighter.
"I just received the news through the data stream. I wanted to express my utmost sympathy for those who didn't survive the attack." He said, bowing his head just slightly before going on.
"It would have been far worse if you hadn't warned us." Zadie replied, waving her hand.
"I still believed we could have handled it ourselves." Rael muttered under his breath, barely audible if it weren't for the enhanced hearing my mask offered.
"I realized this attack would have repercussions on both of our sides no matter what action we took." Hackett mused, giving a snide glare to Rael before turning around to look at the Conclave. "Regardless, we must come to an understanding regarding our common enemy. Going into open conflict with Cerberus will not go unnoticed by the rest of the galactic community, and threatens to weaken our forces on both sides if fought alone."
"You're proposing we join forces." Zadie guessed as Hackett nodded to her and smiled.
"Hm… if we combine our fighting forces together, we can better focus our resources and protect our supply lines." Koris commented, putting his fingers together. "I'm open to this idea."
"Don't be preposterous!" Rael objected, slamming his fist against the railing. "We've managed to maintain ourselves for decades, and now we're just going to give it up?!"
"We're not asking you to give anything up, Admiral Zorah." Hackett reassured, now focusing exclusively on him. "We're not asking the quarian people to lay down their lives and ships in service to the Alliance. Both of our sides would be taking an equal measure of action here."
Rael then looked over at Raan and Gerrel, vying for support.
"You two can't possibly be considering this!" He said, sounding as if he had been shoved into a corner as the two of them stood there in silence for a few more moments.
"I apologize, Rael, but I don't see any significant flaws with this proposal." Gerrel replied, genuinely surprising me.
"The logistics alone will be a complete nightmare, but other than that I see no reason why this can't work." Zadie chimed in, rubbing the underside of her helmet.
"I can't believe this." Rael remarked, sounding defeated.
"We will need more time to discuss this, Admiral." Raan said, looking harder at Rael for a second before looking back to Hackett. "We will invite you back once we have come to a full decision."
"Very well. Goodbye, Admirals." He agreed, turning to face me and Greg before cutting the transmission.
This was going to be a long Conclave.
…
I sat quietly on the edge of my bed, staring at the empty picture frame on top of my dresser. The glass containing it was cracked, barely holding together. The window to the outside was black with soot and ash, barely suitable for use.
I walked over to it, pressing my hands and the tip of my nose against it. Outside was a wasteland, a veritable hellscape of fire and death. Corpses of various races littered the ground, slowly buried in ash that fell from the sky like snow.
I slowly made my way to the door, seeing a lone crib in the middle of the room. The walls were red, running with blood. The window across from me shined a solid beam of light into the crib, from where I heard a baby crying. I ran over to check on the baby, only to find nothing was there.
I looked up as a loud klaxon-like blare deafened me, seeing a Reaper falling towards me. I threw up my arms in a futile attempt to shield myself, only for everything to go black.
The last thing I heard was a woman's voice, whispering The Lord's Prayer to me as I lost all feeling in my body.
"Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy Name,
thy kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those
who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil."
"Amen."
…
MSV Explorer, August 13th, 8:17 AM, 2184
…
I opened my eyes slowly, feeling my chest beating faster than normal. I saw Mara sitting across from me, reading something on a datapad as she sipped from a bag of water.
Before I said anything, I tried as hard as possible to retain as much of my dream as possible. Most of it was already gone, but there was one thing I could remember.
My mother's voice.
I let out a sigh, leaning up in my bunkbed as I rubbed my forehead.
"Oh, you're finally up." Mara said, putting the datapad down. "I was just about to wake you myself. The Conclave is resuming at nine 'o'clock sharp."
"Ugh... thanks hon." I replied, making sure to rub the rheum out of my eyes. "Anything happen overnight?"
"Yes, actually." She answered, looking at the camera mounted on the ceiling. "Lydia, would you like to tell him the good news?"
"Sure." She agreed, her image appearing on the nearby console. "Last night, the salvage teams recovered over fifty lifepods. Most had either failed or were empty, but twenty-one of them contained survivors."
"Guess who one of the survivors is?" Mara inquired, immediately jogging my memory.
"Parangosky." I guessed, getting a nod from the two women.
"Greg is already talking with the Admirals about the development." Lydia added, folding her arms. "He is attempting to persuade them to allow her to be transported to the Alliance so she can answer for her crimes, but they also want her for interrogation. It's a mess."
"When isn't it a mess?" I mused, shaking my head as I stood up and threw my light coat on. "Let Greg know I'm coming over early. I have as much of a stake in this as he does."
As I walked out of the barracks and into the crew deck, there was only one thing I could consistently remember.
"Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." I repeated to myself over and over again as I grabbed my mask and prepared to go back into the Rayya.
I felt like a sheep, surrounded by wolves.
…
A/N: I once again apologize to everyone for the length of time it's been taking for these chapters to come out. This semester has been incredibly punishing, and I've had very little time to focus on my writing. I wish I had more time, but life just keeps on disagreeing with me.
I tried to keep things simple in this chapter with the aim of leaving the reader guessing as to what's going to happen in the future. Things seem to be ramping up, and our friends still don't see who they'll be fitting into it. It's a tough position to be in, and it'll never get easier.
As always, I'd love to read any reviews, I'm always up for suggestions or constructive criticism! Stay tuned!