…
"Be happy for this moment. This moment is your life."
(Omar Khayyam)
…
Six Minutes Later
…
I fired the Viper's forward-facing thrusters hard as I soared over Camp Dolor and towards CASTLE Base. I lurched forward as the airframe and the inertial dampeners struggled to handle the sudden g-forces being exerted on it. I could feel the hull shake violently as I went into a near nosedive towards the facility.
Before I could slam into the ground, I fired all of the VTOL thrusters at once, balancing out as I orientated myself right into the hanger. I deployed my landing gear, not even waiting for the spacecraft to come to a complete stop as I popped the canopy and threw myself back to the ground. I broke into a dash, pulling off my helmet as I ran to the main doors of the base.
"Holy shit!" Dan shouted over my omni-tool, soaring overhead as a sharp clap could be heard echoing through the air. "You're going to get yourself killed pulling maneuvers like that!"
"Open the door, now!" I shouted into my omni-tool as I neared the door, ignoring Dan's transmission as the door groaned opened and I slipped inside.
I ran past several more people before hopping into the nearest elevator and punching in Sublevel 3, the medical level. As the doors closed, I undid the top collar of my suit and pulled off my MMU to take some of my weight off.
There were about a million thoughts in my head at the current moment. I couldn't focus on a single thing as I struggled to calm my breathing down and relax.
I was going to be a father. My jaw trembled and my nose tingled as I took a deep breath to keep from tearing up.
Sublevel 3 was host to some of our most advanced medical suites and research wings. The entire section was self-sealing, completely contained from all other levels and equipped with more airlocks than I could care to count. It hosted some of the best medical technology available, much of it recently given to us by the Alliance. There were still several people down here recovering from injuries sustained during the attack on the base, many of whom were previously in critical condition.
As the doors opened up and bathed me in sterile, UV light, I could immediately see Dimitri standing near the reception desk with crossed arms. The moment he saw me coming, he made a beeline towards me.
"My god, you arrived fast!" He remarked with equal amounts of surprise and suspicion clearly evident in his voice.
"Let's just say I pushed the Viper well above its test parameters." I brushed off as we began to walk.
"I hope Viper is still in one piece." He voiced, clearly concerned. "Never mind, I do not want to know at this time."
"What happened?" I redirected, swallowing a lump in my throat as hard as I could as I forced myself to stay calm.
"From what I have been told, her water broke while visiting restroom on Sublevel 12." He answered as we walked into the maternity ward. "Richard is in there right now with two nurses getting her ready. He thinks it could happen any minute now."
"I'm guessing they want privacy?" I remarked, getting a nod in confirmation from Dimitri.
I nodded back to him as we both took seats outside of the room she was in. I let out a deep breath that I had been keeping in, only now realizing what I had done topside.
What I had done was stupid and reckless, and if anything had gone wrong I could have easily been splattered. I slowly wiped away the sweat from my brow as I absorbed all of this, garnering the attention of Dimitri.
"Are you well, my friend?" He asked, putting a hand on my shoulder as I continued to stare forward.
"Yeah… yeah, I've just… lot of things on my mind is all." I deflected, folding my hands in my lap as I looked at the clean, seamless walls.
A few more quiet minutes passed before Dan barged into the ward, looking none too pleased. He was completely pissed off.
"Sean, have you lost your fucking mind?" He asked in a barely hushed tone as I stood up to face him. "You nearly wrecked our working Viper prototype, and could have gotten yourself killed!"
"I'm sorry Dan, I don't know what came over me." I attempted to apologize, knowing full well and good that he was completely correct.
Dan stared at me for a few seconds, breathing heavily before giving me a quick hug.
"You moron." He exclaimed in forgiveness before releasing me, looking between me and Dimitri. "Listen… I-I've still got to sort out everything on the sur…surface. Wanna give m-me a hand, Dimi?"
"Of course." He agreed, standing up and giving me a nod before the two of them walked away.
All I could do now was wait, see what would happen. It was up to Richard to make sure everything was fine.
…
Two Hours Later
…
I sat quietly, imagining a rosary between my fingers as I silently muttered prayers to myself. I was at the point where I was worried sick, and the only way I was able to calm myself was to start praying. It brought back memories of my mother, who would often say prayers to me to calm me and help me fall asleep. I did feel slightly silly about it, but I couldn't deny the catharsis it provided.
My serenity was shattered the moment I heard the airlock cycling behind me, causing me to flip my head around at the source of the noise.
A few seconds later, two quarian nurses in white envirosuits walked out, followed by Richard who was trying to push the creases out of his lab coat. The moment he saw me, he silently beckoned me over with a hand wave. Only once both of us were in the airlock did I break the silence.
"So… how did everything go?" I asked in a staggered tone as the airlock began decon procedures.
He hesitated for a few moments, before putting his artificial arm on my shoulder.
"Sean, you are now the father of a beautiful baby girl." He answered with the biggest smile I had ever seen from the man. "The delivery went off without a hitch. Congratulations."
Hearing the news nearly brought me to tears again. I had to work to keep myself calm, otherwise I'd come off as a blubbering buffoon in front of my wife.
With that, the decon cycle ended and the door to the room opened, revealing my wife in bed holding our daughter. The lights in the room had been dimmed for comfort, and my wife had a dreamy, almost spaced-out look on her face. The one constant was her smile. She was grinning from ear to ear.
"Hey honey." She greeted, sounding exhausted as she looked up at me. "You missed all the fun parts. It was intense for a while there."
"I'm glad you're feeling well enough to make jokes about it." I allowed myself to chuckle as I took a seat next to the bed.
I tilted my head as I examined every solitary feature of our daughter's face. I engrained it into my mind, like Leonardo Da Vinci making a sketch of someone who wandered into his workshop. She was beautiful.
"Can I hold her?" I asked, receiving a nod in confirmation as I carefully picked her up, wrapped in a blanket.
She opened her eyes, locking with mine as I felt my jaw tremble.
"What should we name her?" I asked, keeping my eyes focused on her as I spoke.
"I've been thinking about it for a while now… how about Elle?" Mara suggested as I looked between her and our daughter.
"Elle... I like it." I agreed, focusing back on her. "Hi Elle. I'm your daddy. Daddy."
"I think she takes more after you, based on that little nose." Mara joked, touching hers playfully before allowing her hand to go limp again.
"You think so?" I asked, cradling her back and forth as gently as I could.
She let out a small yawn, closing her eyes again as she quietly fell asleep.
"I think she's tired." I remarked, carefully handing her back to Mara. "She's so beautiful… I never could have imagined…"
I failed to finish the statement as tears rolled from my eyes, sucking away my words with it. I was overwhelmed with emotions.
As I pulled myself together and sat down quietly next to two of the most important people in my life, a new feeling suddenly struck me. Fear.
It was the same dull sense of fear I had felt before, but only now could I feel the full brunt of it. I was a full-fledged father. I was responsible for this little life the two of us had created. I had to protect her. Above all else, I had to give her a safe existence. This feeling rolled over me in waves, almost as if I was switching from cold and hot water over and over in the shower. I struggled to interpret these feelings in a logical way.
This was going to be a true learning experience, both for me and Mara. Good thing I was always itching for a challenge.
…
Serenity Valley, October 7th, 5:12 AM, 2184
…
I was awoken by the sound of thunder outside, sending a jolt through me as I rolled over. This was quickly followed by crying from the baby speaker on our mantle.
"Ugh… who's turn is it?" I asked out loud, my head flat on the pillow as I resisted the temptation to open my eyes.
"Yours." Mara replied in a groggy voice, as I let out a sigh of resignation and pulled myself out from under the covers. I quickly slapped the side of my head a few times to get myself awake, walking barefoot into the main living area before going into Elle's bedroom. She was crying softly, having been woken up by the storm.
"There there, it's alright." I reassured, picking her up and cradling her back and forth in my arms. "It's only a storm, hon. Everything's fine."
She cried a little bit longer until she grew tired and fell back asleep again. I gently placed her back in the crib, putting her blanket back on before kneeling down on one knee and silently looking at her. Watching her sleep so peacefully felt good in my heart, and made me instinctively smile before I left the room.
"Man, I've had challenges before, but this takes the cake." I said to myself, looking out the window at the storm raging outside. "Hope those flood generators are working good. Those boys probably have a lot of water down there."
I walked into the kitchen, popping a pod into the coffee machine as I grabbed a cup and placed it underneath. I knew that now that I was up, there was no chance I was going back to sleep. I needed to find something to occupy myself in the meantime. As coffee streamed from the machine into my cup, I grabbed my datapad and opened up my inbox, looking for new messages. There were two.
The first was from Admiral Zadie, informing me that the progress on the Phantom-class was progressing well. This was their first time building a brand new ship in decades, and the experienced engineering teams who had built Cairo Station were split between the new ODP and the Phantom-class. Progress had slowed on both as a result. The engineers were forcing themselves to re-learn the art of shipbuilding. Once operational, the first ship would be named the MSV Ghost and all subsequent ships in the Phantom-class would be named in a similar fashion, after derivatives of the word "ghost" in other human languages. It would make it easier to keep them easily identifiable.
The second message was from Admiral Hackett, forwarded to me by Zaal'Koris. It involved the current status of the two joint flotillas, and how they had split and began searching elements of the Attican Traverse for possible Cerberus facilities. Lucky for us, they had managed to gather bits and pieces of data from the Barn, which was now nothing more than a massive debris field. All physical wreckage of interest that had been recovered was being transported to the Klenot system for analysis. Hackett was currently batting the idea of sending his own science team over to conduct tests as well, though this idea was being met with… obvious criticism.
I sat down to read the details for a while next to the window so I could watch the storm. It looked like a monsoon it was coming down so hard out there. During the spring season there's a lot of snow melt off, resulting in a lot of low-pressure weather systems getting pushed up from the south between the mountains, getting "funneled in" and concentrated in most cases. It led to some potentially nasty storms, but we predicted this and were reasonably well prepared for heavy rain.
The second message was the one of true interest. I carefully read over the reports regarding both the further action they were taking and what they had recovered from their search of the wreckage, looking for the juicier bits of information.
The first thing that caught my eye were the locations they were investigating first. They had split the two flotillas and sent them to the Hades Nexus and Kepler Verge respectively. What pinged my interest was the Kepler Verge, due to their having been previous Cerberus activity in the region according to previous after-action reports I had received. I could already guess from these location picks was that the two groups had retrieved very little in the remains of the Barn. I was positive that Cerberus, using our jump drive technology, was spreading to uncharted clusters through the Terminus Systems.
Hackett was very reluctant to enter the Terminus Systems due to the infamous reputation the Alliance held there. After the Skyllian Blitz, many uncharitable souls itched for a fight with any and all Alliance ships they spotted, and I knew Hackett didn't want anyone, especially the quarians, getting caught up in another guerrilla war with organized pirate bands. While not a massive threat, it could be a potential drain on valuable resources.
Looking over what they had salvaged from the Barn, it seemed to mostly be bits of tech Cerberus had missed while combing the debris of their station. I'd give the bastards this much, they did a good job covering their tracks. I was confident that even if anything had remained of the SDD, they would have salvaged any substantial pieces and hauled them off to god-knows-where. Initial scans showed a few anomalous materials, some unusual equipment, and a load of high-value scrap from a small abandoned outpost on the nearby planet.
It seems that Cerberus had been in such a hurry to clear remains from the station's debris field that they had left a dozen prototype fighters on the surface, along with some kind of experimental infantry fighting vehicle called the M-44 "Hammerhead". The fighters were mostly standard fair, though with a lot of modifications compared to those used by the Alliance. This Hammerhead IFV was what caught my eye. It looked like it had been partially based on the M-35 Mako in terms of design, but instead of wheels it had some kind of hovercraft setup.
Half of the fighters were being brought to Reach as I read the document, along with the Hammerhead. Admiral Koris informed me in the forward message that we would be testing and reverse-engineering these vehicles within the week. Personally, I looked forward to the opportunity to ride in a hovercraft. I had never been in one before.
I put down my datapad, looking out the window into the storm, mulling over all of this in my head as I took a sip from my coffee mug, taking in its warmth for a moment before allowing myself to sigh.
I could feel it in my bones. The next couple days were going to be interesting.
…
CASTLE Base, October 11th, 11:58 AM, 2184
…
I waited patiently next to one of the heavy transports as they offloaded several of the fighters. Dimitri and Dan would be working on those, while Sira and I went through the Hammerhead. The machine was still covered in its protective tarp, donned in various tacked-on papers and Cerberus symbols. By all regards, all we really needed to do was power it up and take it for a spin, but that would come at a later time. First order of buissness involved going through the whole vehicle, making sure everything was safe. Once we were certain that the IFV was clean, we would run system diagnostics on the onboard computer systems. Only after all of that could we set up a test run.
"So, how are the two of them?" Sira asked, walking up next to me.
"They're doing good." I answered, pausing as another forklift passed by before going on. "The little spud is like a vacuum, eats like a machine. It's incredible. The only thing I miss is the uninterrupted nights of sleep."
"I'm sure Mara feels the same way." She replied, looking at the cargo containers pass by as she opened up her omni-tool. "Planning anything special for tonight?"
"What do you mean?" I inquired, genuinely confused.
"For your birthday, obviously." She shot back, shaking her head with a smile as the thoughts in my skull finished processing.
"Wow… would you believe that with everything going on I actually forgot about it?" I remarked, causing her painted-on eyebrows to shoot up.
"Oh, no one should ever forget their own birthday!" She said with genuine concern and sadness in her voice. "Marking another year in your life is always important."
"Heh… I guess I've simply reached that point in my life where I no longer enjoy the prospect of getting older." I mused, leaning against the crate next to me. "That makes me… 32 years old now. Wow."
"I understand if you don't wish to talk about it. I know there are reservations regarding lifespan difference between our races." She apologized, before I turned around to face her completely.
"Bah, that has nothing to do with it." I scoffed, dismissing her assumption. "No, the simple fact is that I'm not young anymore. It's the simple truth."
"Even still, you should celebrate all the wisdom an experience you've accumulated during the past year." She replied, nodding to me.
"Perhaps." I agreed, shrugging as the Hammerhead began its move to Hanger 7. "Come on, we have work to do."
We both hopped on the back of the transport as it began rolling. Once at Hanger 7, we hopped off and walked in as they offloaded the vehicle. Once they had finished, we began talking the papers off of the tarp before I took out my knife and cut said tarp off. It flopped to the ground, revealing the shiny, pristine craft in all its glory.
"I have to hand it to them, they make interesting tech." I said out loud, putting my fists on my hips and nodding.
I walked over, opening the side hatch before slowly poking my head inside with a flashlight. It was a standard setup, two main seats and four more in the crew compartment. Even inside, most of the surfaces appeared to be pearly white, tacked with even more papers that Cerberus engineers had left inside. It was actually quite messy, much like Richard's lab.
"Anything of interest?" Sira asked as we picked out each individual note and looked over them before putting them into a protective bag.
"Nothing immediately noticeable, no." I responded, scrutinizing a red sheet that had several safety warnings printed on it. They mostly referred to the apparent lack of kinetic barriers the craft had, something that confused me before I put the paper down and continued to the next one.
After forty or so minutes we finished looking over all the notes, sealing the bag for analysis later. I then brought the toolbox in and the two of us began to strip the inside access panels out one by one, checking every nook and cranny for malicious devices. Things like explosives, bugs, and other possible unwanted additions. We didn't want to take any chances after what happened last time.
"Hey, how are t-things going on your end, guys?" Dan asked through my omni-tool, its orange glow lighting up the dark spaces not yet illuminated by our flashlights.
"Things are slow, but steady." I replied, using an electric screwdriver to removed one of the panels next to the fire suppression system. "How 'bout you two?"
"Nothing at all, r-really." He answered, sounding disappointed. "These fighters may be smaller and more compact than our designs, but the sur…survivability looks laughable."
"Looks can always be deceiving." I reassured with a groan as I leaned forward to get a better look inside the guts of the vehicle.
"Yeah, yeah." Dan finished, cutting off the connection as I determined everything was fine before carefully putting the panel back on.
"Well, I cannot fine anything wrong with the internals." Sira reported, hopping out of the IFV and smoothing out the wrinkles in her skirt.
"I concur." I agreed, cracking my neck and letting out a sigh. "Alright, let's hook up some external power and get Powell up here to run some tests on the computer systems."
"Sounds good." She agreed, opening up her omni-tool as I walked over to the other end of the hanger and began dragging a heavy duty power line over.
Several minutes later, Powell walked into the hanger shrouded in a large, long-sleeved hooded robe. He wore it outside of the base as to not scare the volunteer personnel who weren't accustomed to him like those inside of the facility were. Seeing him in it reminded me a lot of Goris from Fallout 2, who wore a similar robe for many of the same reasons.
"I heard you two needed diagnostics performed?" He questioned, robe dripping from the rain as we nodded in confirmation.
"Yeah, we're just covering all the bases before we begin testing." I said, opening the access panel on the outside of the Hammerhead where the auxiliary power port was. It was a heavy jack about the size of my fist. "I'm going to plug it in and give it the minimum amount of running power."
"Affirmative. I'll physically hook into the computer system and access it the moment power is available." He agreed, pulling a long cord out of his arm and running it to the onboard computer. "Ready."
"Alright, here we go." I announced, taking the heavy plug and inserting it into the port with a clockwise twist, locking it in place. I could hear the hum of the craft as it slowly came to life.
"I've accessed the computer, analyzing system…" He announced as Sira and I stood next to each other and watched him as his head twitched slightly as he sifted through everything. "Hm… that's odd."
"What is it?" Sira asked, taking a few steps forward with crossed arms.
"While the system itself appears to be clean, there's a large amount of data stored here as well." He explained, looking at us as the rest of his platform remained immobile.
"Well, wouldn't that be data left on there by the engineers?" I hypothesized, scratching the underside of my chin as he looked back for a moment.
"There's more stored here than simple technical data." He refuted, shaking his head. "While there is information pertaining to the Hammerhead, there also appear to be shipping manifests, project goals, and other things outlined as… oh, now that is indeed interesting."
"What's interesting?" I asked in a completely deadpan tone, walking all the way up to him.
"It appeared that with these files, I may have been able to decipher the location of one of their space stations." He announced in the slyest tone I had ever heard from him. "It appears to be anchored in an uncharted system located in the Horse Head Nebula."
"The Horse Head Nebula? How could that be?" Sira questioned, looking wholly unconvinced. "If that were true, then that would mean they have a base of operations right under the noses of both the Alliance and the Turians."
"It's not that simple, Dr. Winters." He corrected, disconnecting himself from the Hammerhead and standing at full height. "The Horse Head Nebula is a legal grey area for both the Alliance and Citadel Council. It's filled with numerous unexplored worlds, frequent pirate activity, and most of the worlds that are colonized are run by mega corporations that engage in… questionable research endeavors."
"It's the smartest place to hide." I supported, tugging gently at my beard as the pieces fell into place. "Situated right in the middle of a giant sphere of bureaucracy, with clear access to all the major trade routes. It's perfect."
I then flipped around to face Sira, a stern look forming on my face.
"We'll need to finish this project another time." I said, putting one of my hands on her shoulder. "We need to report this as soon as possible, nip these bastards in the bud before they decide to pull anything else on us."
She nodded back to me with a more determined expression as we all pulled on our hoods and began running.
Everyone needed to know about this. We had a target.
…
MFV Rayya, October 11th, 2:29 PM, 2184
…
Powell, Sira, Dan, and Dimitri were all onboard the Rayya alongside Greg and all the Admirals as we presented the information Powell had pieced together. He had spent an hour explaining all the details while Hackett listened in over vidcom. By the time he was finished, I could feel the anticipation in the air as Hackett, Rael, and Gerrel all knew they finally had a target after waiting for the last month and a half for something to finally reveal itself.
"This is great news. With this intel, we can finally begin causing damage to Cerberus and their operations on a large scale." Hackett said, lightly pounding his fist into his other hand before looking at us. "Thank you, Powell. This is an immense benefit to our coalition."
"Your welcome, sir." He saluted with his three-fingered hand, standing completely at attention.
"We'll begin merging the flotillas back together immediately." Gerrel announced from his spot on the podium. "We'll gather in the Argos Ryo cluster before making our move on the facility."
"I'll send in one of our scout frigates to make a full sweep of the sector before we head in." Hackett supported, hands folded behind his back.
"Captain, seeing as how you and your team helped to bring us this data, would you like to participate in this operation?" Rael asked in a strangely satisfied tone of voice.
I mulled over the offer for a few minutes, weighing the pros and cons in my head before making me decision.
"Sorry Admiral, but I must decline your offer." I denied, holding up one of my hands. "My wife and I just had our first child, and I don't want her to worry about my well-being."
"That's perfectly understandable, Captain." Raan accepted with a curt nod, looking down at all of us. "This meeting is adjourned."
With that, Hackett's ghostly form dissipated as Greg's omni-tool shut down and we all dispersed. Greg walked up to me quickly with a sense of urgency on his face.
"Are you sure you want to turn down a chance to get your shot at these bastards?" He questioned in a conflicted tone, almost sad in a way.
"Greg, my wife and child are more important to me than my primal urge for revenge." I replied, stopping to focus on him. "Trust me, in any other circumstance I would hop on my ship and jump to that system myself, but times have changed, and so have my priorities."
He pursed his lips for a moment, looking down at the ground before looking me in the eyes and nodding. I knew exactly what he was thinking, but I wasn't willing to indulge those thoughts. I was going to let the trained men and women of our coalition do their jobs without having to look after us the whole time.
I needed to learn to take the backseat for a while, focus on my family. It was more important than any personal grudges I still held.
"Come on, guys. Let's go home." I finished, walking back to the shuttle with everyone on tow.
I could rest easy knowing we had at least made things easier for the flotillas in the long run.
…
A/N: Sorry for making you guys wait a whole month for this chapter, my family and I are still dealing with the aftermath of my grandfather's passing. Compound that with a writer's block and an intense lack of energy and anyone will struggle to get any substantial writing finished.
So Sean and Mara finally had their kid with a little bit of drama on the side. Nothing too intense, but enough to hopefully make it interesting. It was one of the more challenging things I've written, and admittedly I had to scrap it and re-write it a few times until I got it completely right. It was a pure learning experience, and I hope you enjoyed it.
I'd love to read any reviews, I'm always up for suggestions or constructive criticism. Stay tuned!