…
"If you focus on what you left behind, you will never see what lies ahead."
(Auguste Gusteau)
…
Gozu District, January 12th, 12:39 PM, 2185
…
The three of us moved quietly through another small residential block, knowing from a map that Miranda had sent us it was the fastest way to the atmosphere processing station. The area was strangely quiet for vorcha territory, leading me to believe they were still pushing hard on the Blue Suns. It didn't matter either way to me, all of them were bastards and I was content with letting them kill each other.
We turned the corner, spotting the site of a recent battle. It was another one of the Blue Sun checkpoints, but it had been completely overrun. Bodies of vorcha and Blue Suns alike littered the kill zone in front of a destroyed gun, its dead operator still clinging onto it. A fire burned near the back, giving off the same smell I remembered from the burning shuttles on Reach.
I suppressed the feeling in my stomach, forcing myself to think of something different as we quietly walked through the carnage, knowing there could very well be more vorcha around.
"I don't think the Blue Suns will ever recover from their losses in this district." I said, stepping carefully around the bloodied bodies.
"I don't think any of these people will recover, the entire district is a loss." Shepard corrected, picking up a vial of medi-gel from one of the bodies.
I sighed, knowing he was right as we walked out of the checkpoint into a much larger, open area. We were right next to our destination.
As we neared the entrance to the atmosphere processing station, we spotted two isolated vorcha guards lazily keeping watch. They were making no real attempt at maintaining a proper patrol route, moving farther and farther away from one another as we got closer.
"I don't want them knowing we're here just yet." Shepard said as we all hunkered down behind a stack of crates. "Take them out with your knives."
Tali and I nodded to one another, breaking away from our cover as we snuck up on the guards slowly. I waited for her behind another crate, watching the vorcha pick its nose without a care in the world. The moment Tali was close enough to the first guard, I popped out of cover and plunged my knife into its neck, pulling it into the air with my free arm. It struggled for a few moments, trying to get the knife out of my hand before it finally gave up and bled out.
Tali pulled the knife out of her boot, quickly stabbing the vorcha as hard as she could in the head before it noticed what I had done to his buddy. She must have hit a soft spot or their skulls must have been weak, because it slipped right in and ended his life in an instant.
"Gah… damn it." I exclaimed, seeing I had gotten blood on my suit. "Nasty creatures. This stuff stinks to high hell."
"Luckily, I can switch my olfactory filters off." Tali remarked in a lighthearted tone, wiping the blood off her knife as I raised one of my eyebrows with an unamused expression.
"Good for you." I shot back, flicking a few droplets off the tip of my knife before slipping it back into its sheath as Shepard ran over to us with his rifle at the ready.
"Let's get in there." He urged, taking the lead as we all stacked up on the doorway. We opened the door to see the large, open area. The processor was all the way in the back, but unfortunately there were at least two dozen vorcha between our position and the control console.
"Well, that's concerning." I commented in a tired tone, getting back behind cover as I ran possible solutions through my head. "How are we supposed to take them out without damaging the air processor?"
"Let's get a better vantage point first." Shepard quickly answered, pointing at a set of stairs that led to an overhead platform. "At least from up there, the processor won't be in our line of fire."
We slowly and carefully made our way up the stairs, making sure not to alert the small horde of vorcha below. As we moved along the top, we heard two vorcha talking about the plague, causing us to stop midway.
"Is plague still spreading?" One of them, another big one, asked with great difficulty.
"Yes, but doctor has cure." A smaller, slightly better equipped one answered, placing an odd-looking canister into the air processor's filtration system. "We need to destroy fans, spread plague faster!"
"But Collectors want humans!" The big one yelled back, snarling at the smaller one as he raised his hands in anger. "Destroying fans will kill humans, make Collectors angry! Break deal!"
The smaller one snarled back, returning its attention to the canister. It pulled a handle on the side, letting out a noxious-looking cloud of gas that was pulled quickly into the filtration system.
"Collectors?" I questioned, almost raising my voice. "They're the ones behind all of this?"
"So it would seem." Shepard replied, raising his rifle with an angry look on his face. "I suppose Mordin was right about the plague being engineered."
"He mentioned the Collectors are after humans. Could they be the ones behind the colonies disappearing?" Tali questioned, sounding just as confused as I was.
"It would explain the plague. Isolate the population you are after by killing the unwanted demographics with a discriminating bioweapon." I agreed, taking in a deep breath. "Even though Cerberus has been trying to make weapons like this, I doubt they would test it in this fashion."
"We'll comb over the details later, we need to worry about spreading the cure." Shepard redirected, poking his head over our cover to get a better look at vorcha below. "Sean, didn't you mention those plasma cells of yours can double as grenades?"
"That's not the most ideal way to use them, but yes, they can be." I nodded, taking one off my belt.
"Good. I want you to use one of my grenades with it and toss it at that group over there." Shepard explained, pointing to a large group of the buggers, about ten or eleven. "Tali and I will close the distance while you provide covering fire from this vantage point."
"Understood." I agreed, taking the grenade from him and attaching the two together. Shepard and Tali moved to the other side of the catwalk, going behind the group as I armed the grenade. "Close your eyes if you value your eyesight. These cells don't react well with explosives."
I tossed the improvised plasma grenade as hard as I could, watching it fly for a few moments before it actually hit one of the vorcha square in the head. They all paused to look at their buddy before the grenade went off, detonating the highly-compressed plasma cell and creating a bright flash of blue plasma.
When I looked back over my cover, all that was left of the group was a smoldering crater that simmered with heat. The sudden release of all the plasma mixed with the cheap metal flooring had created a bluish slag that ran like lava, quickly burning through the ground. The vorcha that hadn't been in the immediate blast radius had either been blinded or flash burned. The unlucky ones had suffered both of these injuries.
Shepard and Tali moved out of cover, firing on the still surprised group as I opened up on the stragglers with my rifle. Some of the uninjured ones tried making a run for the lower levels, but they never got close enough being stuck between me, Shepard and Tali. The entire engagement was over in less than thirty seconds.
"Good work. Let's get that cure into the processor before more of them show up." Shepard urged, waving me down to the main console.
I ran up to the canister I had observed being used by the vorcha, carefully removing it and putting Mordin's in its place. I activated the sequence, immediately misting the cure and blowing it into the Gozu District's primary and secondary ventilation systems.
"There we go, a clean bill of health for the people of the Gozu District." I remarked with a smile, rubbing my hands together. "Should we take this weird thing with us?"
"Probably, Mordin might like to look at it." Shepard nodded as the door on the other side of the processing station opened, revealing several more vorcha.
"What was noise?" One of them asked before spotting us, letting out another spit-filled snarl before Tali blew him to chunks with her shotgun.
"I think now is a good time to leave!" She yelled, getting behind cover as several more swarmed into the room in quick succession. We were being rushed big time.
Shepard and I moved up, trying to push them back through the doorway before gunfire forced us back down. I took a moment to breath and allow my barriers to replenish, checking my rifle to see I was nearly spent, 8 shots.
"You sons of bitches!" I shouted with gritted teeth, cutting down several more with what I had left. The spent plasma cell popped out of the back of the gun with a small hiss as I quickly inserted a new one, slamming the breach closed as it hummed again.
Before I could adjust my aim and fire again, the vorcha were attacked from behind by a very big red and black varren. The vorcha panicked, attempting to run off as they were torn apart by the creature's massive teeth and claws. The three of us could only watch the carnage unfold.
As the vorcha were finished off, a turian wearing a full set of damaged heavy armor strolled in armed with a sniper rifle. He appeared to be injured, having a large bandage wrapped around one side of his arm. He noticed us, yelling at the varren to stay as he walked over and pulled off his breathing mask.
"Shepard?" The turian named out loud, looking very surprised. "It really is you!"
"Garrus?" Shepard replied with a wide smile, holstering his rifle as Tali did the same with her shotgun. "What are you doing here, you crazy bastard?"
"That's… a long story." He answered in a much more somber tone, taking a seat against one of the crates. "I've been running all over the station trying to avoid the mercenaries for hours. The Gozu District is the only place they didn't want to go, so I figured I'd risk the plague for a breather and have Mordin patch me up in his clinic."
He paused for a few seconds, looking at the various vorcha corpses all over the place before going on.
"He told me that he had sent a team led by a man named Shepard to spread the cure." He added, shaking his head. "I came as quickly as I could, wanting to see if it was really you."
Shepard smirked, allowing the corner of his mouth to curl up before Tali got closer.
"Why are the mercenaries after you?" Tali questioned, crossing her arms across her chest.
"Me and good team of people have spent the last few months making ourselves a nuisance with the station's criminal factions." He said with thin veneer of satisfaction. "That was until a few hours ago when everything went to hell."
"What happened?" I asked, still holding my rifle tightly out of paranoia, adrenaline still flowing through my veins.
"I was lured into an ambush set up by one of my former teammates, but managed to just barely escape." He explained as the varren slowly walked over and sat next to him. "When I got back to our base, everyone was dead. The only survivor was our explosive expert's pet varren, Hobbes."
The varren panted, teeth dripping in vorcha blood as Garrus pet the underside of its chin.
"Wait a minute… you're Archangel?" Shepard deduced as Garrus let out an amused huff.
"I used to be. Now I'm just a lone turian with a lot of enemies." He replied, standing back up.
"You don't have to be. We're on a mission to stop the human colonies in the Terminus Systems from going missing." Shepard explained, walking all the way up to him. "Want to join us? We could use you on the team again."
Garrus paused for a moment, looking at me and Tali before his face shifted.
"How could I say no to that?" He agreed in a coy tone, giving Shepard a big handshake.
"Welcome back, Garrus." Shepard finished as we packed up our gear and began our trip back to Mordin's clinic.
…
Gozu District, January 12th, 1:10 PM, 2185
…
The path back to Mordin's clinic was surprisingly quiet despite all the destruction we had caused at the processing station. It gave us plenty of time to shoot the breeze and gave me valuable time to relax a bit.
"So, what's your story?" Garrus asked as we drifted in the back of the group.
"My story? Huh… I could write a novel." I joked, still able to feel the radiant heat from the rifle on my back. "Me, my wife, and our team have been shacked up in the Migrant Fleet for the last few years building advanced tech for the quarians."
"I remember you from those news reports all the outlets ran." He commented with genuine curiosity, coking his head slightly. "I was still working at C-Sec when you guys came to the Citadel and made that "announcement" of yours."
"Yeah, thinking about the look on Sparatus's face still makes me chuckle." I remarked with a smile, looking down at Hobbes who was following in between us. "I thought for sure they were going to try and have us detained, but luckily we came, saw, and dropped our nukes before anyone could blink."
That got a sharp chuckle out of Tali, who took a moment to recompose herself before going on.
"Where did you guys go, anyways?" He asked in a much more serious tone. "They had SPECTREs looking all over the place for the Migrant Fleet."
"Oh, we've set up shop in a system way off the relay network called The Klenot Nebula." I answered without any hesitation, knowing he would likely be seeing it at some point in the future. "It's located directly between Rosetta Nebula and Phoenix Massing."
"That's really close to Geth space." He deduced, causing me to nod. "Isn't that dangerous?"
"Not at all, it would take months of travel to reach us with precise coordinates without our Reach System, and even then, we have a little surprise waiting for anyone who thinks they can mess with us." I elaborated further, allowing myself a devious grin.
"What kind of surprise?" Garrus inquired further, looking very interested.
"The biggest magnetic accelerator cannons in the galaxy." Tali answered for me, still sounding rather impressed with them after all this time. "He and his team actually managed to convince the Conclave to build gigantic guns that can crack the crust of a planet in one shot."
"A full-power shot, but the potential is still there." I whimsically boasted, allowing myself a "fists-on-hips" moment as Shepard shook his head with a grin.
"Why would you need something so powerful?" Garrus prodded further, obviously still not sure about the validity of such a defense.
"Officially, it's in case the Geth ever try attacking Reach, but unofficially they're for killing Reapers." I explained, slamming my fist into the palm of my hand. "I don't want those cuttlefish bastards anywhere near my home, and if push comes to shove I want to have the biggest stick."
"I think you and your friends have too much free time." Shepard joked as we neared Mordin's clinic, making sure the coast was clear before moving on. "I'd be worried if you were able to convince Alliance Parliament that was a good investment."
"Well, let's just say our motives go beyond science for science' sake." I reassured as we walked back into Mordin's clinic, checking in with the guards before returning to Mordin's lab.
"Very good. Cure is dispersing, should have district inoculated soon." Mordin greeted with a much lighter, yet still eccentric voice. "Good work."
"You were right about the plague being engineered. From what we heard, the Collectors supplied the vorcha with the plague and had them spread it." I said, pulling the strange canister off my back and handing it to him.
He quickly grabbed it, looking at it closely for a few moments before going "hmm" in a rather negative tone.
"This is troublesome." He began, setting it down on one of his tables as he held his hand to the underside of his chin. "If Collectors engineered plague, could mean more trouble in future. Why would Collectors go such lengths?"
"We already have a good idea." Shepard stopped, walking over to him. "Since this plague targeted everyone except humans, we've come to the conclusion that the Collectors were trying to isolate the human population of the station."
"Human populations… perhaps connected to missing colonies?" Mordin pinned down as Shepard nodded.
"They specifically mentioned that the Collectors wanted the humans alive." Tali added, arms crossed.
"Troubling news." Mordin nodded, putting his arms back down as he picked up the canister and handed it back to me. "If Collectors are abducting colonies, could be using anything to subdue populations… likely biological in nature."
"You interested in helping us, doctor?" Shepard asked again, getting his attention back on him.
Mordin smiled, walking over to his computer.
"Yes. Now that district is cured, I will join you." He agreed with a hastened voice. "Will gather my belongings once I have finished with patients."
"Will everything be alright without you here, doctor?" Garrus asked, pointing at him. "It's still pretty rough out there."
"Clinic will be fine, leaving it to my assistant, Daniel." Mordin reassured, holding up his arm towards him. "LOKI mechs provide more than enough security."
"I only hope I can live up to your example, professor." Daniel said in a slightly insecure tone before going back into the lab's storage room.
"Good kid. Inexperienced, but good heart." Mordin remarked with a smile, turning back to us.
"Our ship is docked near Afterlife, docking bay 84." Shepard finished, walking back over to the three of us. "Sean, you and Garrus can head back to the ship while Tali and I return to Aria for that information."
"Understood, sir." I nodded as Garrus walked back over.
"Shepard, what about Hobbes?" He asked, sounding kind of worried. "I can't just leave him by himself on the station."
Shepard paused for a moment, staring at the varren before looking at me.
"Sean, what do you think?" He asked as Garrus turned to me.
I looked at the varren, seeing it pant as it looked up at me with its big featureless eyes.
"I think as long as you keep him on a tight leash he can stay aboard the ship." I reluctantly agreed, petting the creature behind one of its hackles. "Has he had all of his shots?"
"Funny you should mention that, I just had Mordin check him half an hour ago." He answered quickly as I broke into a smile.
"Alright, lets hit the road." I finished, taking my rifle off my back as we prepared to move out.
This mission was already getting interesting.
…
Omega, January 12th, 2:09 PM, 2185
…
With dulled interest, Garrus and I walked past the two guards outside our cradle arm, seeing that nothing had changed during our time away from the ship. I could see the beauty that was the MFV Normandy clearly through the grimy glass, allowing myself to smile as we went by.
"That's the new Normandy?" Garrus questioned through his helmet, sounding slightly disappointed.
"Yeah… why?" I shot back, curious to know his thoughts on it.
"Nothing, it just looks a lot different." He replied, sounding slightly exasperated. "Kind of expected to see something like the original."
"Don't worry, she's every bit as capable as the original and then some." I reassured as we walked the length of the docking cradle, seeing the pitch-black airlock door on the other end.
As soon as we reached it, I pulled out my omni-tool and contacted Joker.
"Hey Joker, its Sean. I'm here with an old friend. Can you let us in?" I asked, looking at the exterior camera that I knew he was looking through.
"What's the password?" He shot back as I threw my head back and exhaled deeply.
"Open the door, Joker." Garrus quipped up, peeling off his helmet. "For old time's sake."
"Garrus? Holy shit." Joker exclaimed, quite obviously surprised. "I wasn't expecting to see you in this dump of a station!"
"The door, Joker." Garrus redirected, causing a brief pause between our two ends.
"Oh, right. Sorry." He quickly apologized, popping the seal on the airlock door as we walked inside.
As we waited for the long decon cycle to finish, Garrus started another topic of discussion.
"So, the Collectors… I've heard things over the years about them, but they've never abducted entire colonies as far as I know." He began, arms crossed as disinfecting mist washed over us. "I guess the question is why?"
"Don't know, and right now, don't really care." I replied in a slightly disconnected tone as I stared at the inner airlock door. "As far as I'm concerned, all that carnage down in the Gozu District is their fault, and if they're really behind the missing colonies I just want to stop them."
"Agreed." He finished as the normal running lights reactivated and the door opened. We took a few steps into the hallway before I spotted Joker making his way towards us with his crutches.
"I got to ask, where's everyone else?" He inquired, stopping a few feet away from us before spotting Hobbes and nearly falling over. "Jesus! You brought a varren on-board?!"
"Calm down, he's domesticated and well trained." I quickly reassured, immediately turning around to face Garrus. "Right?"
He nodded, petting the creature as it sat down on the deck.
"Shepard, Tali and our new medical officer Mordin Solus will be here soon." I reassured, raising one of my hands. "I think Shepard just wanted us back here to alleviate the risk of an incident."
"Incident?" He repeated in a confused tone, looking between both of us. "What did you two do to piss off the people around here?"
"I've apparently got a ten mil Cerberus bounty on my head, and Garrus… well, half the station wants him dead." I elaborated as Joker gawked at us.
"Geez, and I thought my medical bills were scary." He remarked, shaking his head as the elevator down the hallway opened, revealing Miranda.
"Speaking of scary…" I said, pursing my lips as we walked over to meet her halfway. "Hello Miri. I assume you heard we killed two birds with one stone?"
"That's one way of putting it." She replied in her usual deadpan, offering Garrus a handshake which he slowly accepted. "Welcome to the new Normandy, Garrus. I'm Miranda Lawson."
"What do you do here, Miss Lawson?" He asked, crossing his arms as I took the moment to pet Hobbes.
"I'm in charge of all the recruitment dossiers, and I also review and organize any intelligence we come across." She answered, posture ramrod stiff as usual. "I am also trained in small arms combat, martial arts, and I am a proficient biotic."
"Quite the description." Garrus complemented, nodding before looking back at me. "Systems Alliance?"
She visibly froze up, taking in a deep breath through her nose before responding.
"Former Cerberus operative." She answered, folding her hands together behind her back.
"I didn't know Cerberus let their members leave." Garrus shot back at her, obviously not taking the idea of working with someone who was once affiliated with the organization well.
"They don't." She stated plainly and without any noticeable tone, narrowing her eyes. I knew thoughts of what happened to Nathan Sterling and Luciano Keller were flowing through her mind like a stream by this point.
"She's fine, Garrus. Give it a rest." I budded in, trying to defuse the situation before anything could happen between them. "Cerberus already tried to have her killed, and she helped revive Shepard. She's a clean as a plate-glass window."
He looked between me and her, keeping his eyes squinted before softening his expression slightly.
"Sorry, it's just… we've had a bit of history with Cerberus." He apologized, allowing himself to breath normally again.
"I understand. Take your time." She nodded, holding up one of his hands.
"Man, even went you guys aren't fighting it somehow feels like we're in the middle of a war zone." Joker said after a brief pause, passing by us and back towards the CIC. "I'm going back to the bridge where there's two feet of armor plating to keep me safe."
"That's one and seven eighths feet thick." I corrected for the sake of being whimsical, shaking my head as he flipped me the bird.
"Some things never change." Garrus remarked in a coy tone, crossing his arms. "Where should I set up shop?"
"Follow me." Miranda urged, stopping to stare at Hobbes with confusion before shaking her head and moving on.
Seeing as I didn't have anything better to do, I decided to go over to the science lab and make sure I hadn't left any of my project files there. I entered the vacant lab, quickly putting the spent plague canister into the isolation case and checking each of the consoles. As I began switching them off, I was suddenly startled by a clunk sound against one of the tables.
I turned around to see a small OSD on the center table, which had just stopped moving. I looked up at the ceiling, seeing that there was no place it could have fallen from. I picked it up cautiously, looking it over and determining there was nothing unusual about it.
"Strange." I said out loud, putting it into my armor's built-in card reader and opening my omni-tool
To my surprise, there appeared to be nothing at all on the OSD. I scanned it twice and tried plugging it back into the reader a second time, but all I got was a complete blank. Figuring my mind was just playing tricks on me, I pocketed the storage device without a second thought as I turned off the last console.
I left the lab, only making it a few feet before Shepard, Tali and Mordin quickly entered through the airlock. Shepard didn't look happy in the slightest, leaving me to assume something bad had happened.
"What's going on?" I asked, walking alongside him as we entered the CIC.
"Here, take a look at this." He remarked, handing me a datapad as we stopped in the middle of the deck.
I quickly scanned it, seeing it was a list of worlds occupied by humanity. It was ordered by population, and started with fringe colonies, then went on to major ones, then finished with our home planet.
Earth.
"What the hell…" I exclaimed, feeling my brow tighten up as I began putting the pieces together. "All of these colonies… they've been hit in this exact order. Where did you get this?"
"Aria recovered it from a meeting between the Collectors and Blue Suns two years ago." He answered, looking incredibly livid. "I can't believe someone could hold onto data this valuable…"
I stood there with baited breath, unable to imagine how Shepard felt about all of this.
"Never mind. Ferris Fields is their next target." Shepard redirected himself, pointing to it on the datapad. "There are over eighty thousand people there. They'll take every man, woman, and child if we don't get there as soon as possible."
"Contact Hackett first, see if there are any patrols that'll move in to assist." I replied, handing the datapad back to him as I bounced on my feet. "I'll see if the Admirals have any ships they can spare."
"Good luck." He finished in an uncertain tone, nodding to me as we both ran off.
I didn't think we were ready to take on this threat yet, but we had to at least try. We owed it to all the lives lost.
…
MFV Normandy, January 13th, 12:58 AM, 2185
…
I was unable to sleep the entire night as we sped towards Ferris Fields. No matter how much I tried to shut my eyes, they immediately refocused on the picture of me and Mara together, leaving me with a deep, empty feeling in my stomach.
Shepard had gotten in touch with Hackett who hadn't been able to secure any ships that would make it to the colony in time. My brief conversation with the Admirals had been equally fruitless, though it was nice to see Admirals Mal and Koris.
I rubbed my eyes, suddenly realizing that I hadn't blinked for several minutes as they began to sting. I cursed at myself silently before I heard a knock at my bunk's door.
I opened it quickly, fully alert to see Miranda standing there.
"We're on the edge of the system. Shepard wants us all to gear up." She quickly explained, an unsure look clear on her face as I nodded, hopping out of my bunk and locking the door.
It was time to see if we could meet our enemy face-to-face.
...
A/N: So, things are moving even faster. We've got Mordin and Garrus, along with a survivor from the Archangel base to boot in the form of Hobbes, a 180-pound fish dog. We're also on the track to Ferris Fields, and we'll have to see what happens with that later in the next chapter.
College is starting up again soon, and without commenting on the political aspects of the situation, it appears there is a very real possibility of something happening between the U.S.A and North Korea soon. If things do turn hot, I may or may not decide to join the Army, so who knows?
I'd love to read any reviews, I'm always up for suggestions or constructive criticism. Stay tuned!