...
Reuploaded due to another site issue, sorry to anyone who already read the chapter. Sorry!
…
"Believe me, every man has his secret sorrows, which the world knows not; and oftentimes we call a man cold, when he is only sad."
(Henry Wadsworth Longfellow)
…
Pragia, January 24th, 7:28 PM, 2185
…
I had no idea how long I had stood there after my breakdown. In my mind, the entire moment had lasted for what felt like years, the image of my blood soaked gloves frozen in my mind like a photograph. I had killed that man without restraint or remorse, and I felt frighteningly… relaxed about it once my breathing had calmed down. While the act I had committed was horrifying, I struggled to feel anything other than relief and satisfaction from it.
I was supposed to be the better man among all of this… but deep down I was capable of committing to the same levels of cruelty as them. Had he deserved it? Yes. Was it the right thing to do? Most certainly not.
"Captain?" Kirva called out in a hushed tone, seemingly as shocked by the deed as I was.
I opened my eyes, letting out a deep sigh before walking over and picking up my knife. I wiped the blood off on the man's pants before slipping it back into its sheath and turning back to the three of them.
"Right… so here's what's going to happen." I started, picking up a clean rag from a nearby table as I spoke, wiping the blood off of my face, then hands. "We're going to clear this facility from head to toe, search to see if there are any more kids here, then we're going to blow it off the face of the god-forsaken planet. I don't want a single one of these bastards to survive, is that understood?"
They all nodded in near-unison, leaving me to simply nod back. I wasn't able to muster the strength to smile anymore, even though I was happy to have a team that I could depend on. I queued up the Quake 2 soundtrack on my earpiece as we went on the move, blocking out my thoughts as I focused fully on the mission at hand.
Leaving the room behind us, we walked back into the hallway just as three Cerberus troopers in full armor arrived from where we had come in. Just as they leveled their weapons at us, Jack blew all three of them back with her biotics as Grunt rushed them, blowing one away with his M-300 Claymore before pinning a second to the wall with his sheer body weight. The third attempted to level his rifle and fire into Grunt's back, but Kirva quickly blew him to bits with her spike thrower.
"Good work, let's keep moving." I urged, nodding my head towards the other end of the hallway.
We breached the door, ending up inside of what looked to be a series of linked medical wards. Both were filled with rows of beds equipped with auto-injectors and restraints, all currently empty. I blocked theories as to what they were doing out of my mind, past the point of caring as we spread out. I spotted two technicians at the back of the room attempting to make a run for the door before I gunned both down with my plasma rifle, landing both shots perfectly. Grunt's shotgun could also be heard going off a few moments later, signalling that the rooms here we're clear.
We quickly regrouped, stacking up on the doors the techs had made a run for. Opening the door, we were immediately met with a hail of gunfire from the other side. They had managed to fortify this area, which appeared to be some kind of living quarters.
"Damn… Jack, put up a barrier!" I barked out, watching her do as I said without question. We all moved behind her as she began walking towards their position, barrier covering our approach. The room looked like it was designed with a rough pentagon shape, with two floors filled mostly with raised bunks. In the center, they had built a makeshift "bunker" out of tables and lockers on both levels, shielding them surprisingly well. I estimated there were at least sixteen people here.
"We've got to get the hell out of here, I can't keep this up for too much longer!" Jack warned, sweating under the force she was exerting to keep the gunfire off of us.
"Can't we go around them?!" Kirva suggested, firing her spike thrower at the barriers to no real effect.
She was right. We'd have to flank them.
"Alright, Grunt, Kirva! Take the left flank! Jack, you're with me on the right! When we reach that wall, we'll split and take them from both sides!" I quickly said over the gunfire, getting nods from each of them as we moved. "Ok...GO!"
We broke off from one another, dashing behind the rows of bunks that filled the sides of the room. Jack drew her shotgun again, catching her breath as I checked the corner for hostiles. I caught one of them out in the open, blowing his head into vapor with a single well-placed headshot.
"Nice kill." Jack complemented, almost looking as if she was enjoying herself. I could still see the cracks that had formed in her demeanor, and it didn't take a Sc.D to tell she was trying hard to maintain her normal image.
"That's four for me. When you gonna start contributing?" I challenged, getting her to smile mischievously.
She ran out into the open, sending out a wave of biotic blasts towards the center of the room that sent tables and chairs flying. She knocked two of them out into the open, blowing part of the barricade apart in the process as she fired her shotgun, killing both with a single shot.
"Try beating that!" She egged on, getting me to finally crack a smile.
I overcharged my kinetic barriers, quickly slipping on my mask and charging towards the fortified center of the room. From this angle, I knew there were only five of them down here, the rest all being upstairs. Two turned and fired at me, pinging my barriers as I got within ten meters and fired.
I missed the first shot, impacting their cover causing a small geyser of molten metal to shoot off the table. My second and third shots hit both men, the first in the chest, and the second in the left shoulder, blowing his arm clean off. I quickly turned the corner as the other three men realized their back was exposed, plugging all three in quick succession with blue bolts of plasma. Their weak, hastily obtained body armor was no match for me.
I quickly had to duck back behind cover as another wave of retaliatory fire erupted from above me, where the rest of them were still behind cover. Luckily, having cleared this floor, Grunt and Kirva were clear to slip up the stairs on the left side of the room. I saw one of the men who had fired at me turn back around, only to be shoved off the side of the balcony back down to the first floor. He landed on his head, breaking his neck instantly and fatally.
Jack and I ran up the right side stairs, finding that Grunt and Kirva had pretty effectively cornered and finished the last seven off with their respective weapons. All that remained was a pile of twisted flesh, broken armor, and a collective pool of blood.
"Good work." I congratulated, giving each a quick nod, especially Grunt who looked beyond thrilled to be doing all of this. "Let's stop here and do a quick search for intel before we move on. We're in the business for coordinates, navigational data, shipping documents, anything that can point us in a specific direction."
As we split up and I paused my music, I started checking the doors on the upper level before Kirva suddenly grabbed me, pushing me against the wall to my immense surprise.
"What the hell are you-" I quickly said before she cut me off, holding up her finger.
"Captain, I need you to listen to me, and listen good." She demanded, pointing at me. "I don't know what exactly is going through your head right now, but you're not acting like yourself. I need to tell me what happened back there."
Her sudden demand left me speechless for a few moments as I thought back to that morgue, the images still very fresh in my mind.
"I'm not sure, to be honest." I admitted, knowing that I hadn't been myself at that moment and time. "Seeing what he had done to that child, having him spit in my face like that… it just triggered my hateful, vengeful side. It was like I was watching myself from behind a window."
She stared at me for several seconds, arm still pushed against my chest plate before she backed off, looking down at the ground.
"I understand." She nodded, taking a deep breath before meeting my eyes again. "I just… I haven't seen something like that in years, let alone from my own captain. I was worried for you, sir."
Her words filled me with more questions of my own, but before I could press them, she quickly mustered herself back up again.
"If you wish to discipline me later captain, I will accept any punishment you deem necessary." She quickly said, standing as stiff as a board as she spoke.
"Heh, that won't be necessary." I relaxed, putting my hand on her shoulder. "I appreciate you taking the moment to speak with me. I needed to talk about what happened."
Just as our conversation ended, we heard a voice frantically speaking on the other side of the nearby door. The door's power had been cut from the other side, so I pulled the release lever hidden on the inside panel of the door, slowly pulling the door open with the enhanced strength afforded by my exo. Inside, we saw a man standing in the center of a featureless room, speaking to thin air from inside a holographic field. Kirva raised her spike thrower at him, but before she could fire, I shot her a "cease fire" gesture.
I recognized what this was. It was some kind of communication device.
"Please, you have to send support!" The man practically begged, sounding beyond desperate. "All our research here is in jeopardy! You can't just leave us here to die!"
"On the contrary, that's exactly what I'm going to do, doctor." I heard a familiar voice reply, sounding annoyed. "I warned you not to cut costs and to find a planet off the Relay network. Instead, your team got lazy and set up shop in a previously-occupied facility. You have no one to blame but yourselves."
"You hardly gave us any budget to work with in the first place!" He yelled in sudden fury, not seeming at all tactful. "How'd you expect us to work with so little?! You've practically given it all to that snob Gavin and his stupid project!"
"Your little argument with Dr. Archer is of no concern to me. Either way, budgetary arguments are meaningless at this point. You should have thought of this months ago." He replied as I walked forward, stepping into the holographic field as a familiar office took form around me, revealing The Illusive Man who raised an eyebrow at my appearance. He then smirked before focusing back on the doctor. "In any case, it looks like you won't be my problem much longer, doctor. Goodbye."
"W-What?" The man stammered, looking over his shoulder as I fired a single shot into his head, blowing it off without word. I locked eyes with TIM before the body even hit the floor. He nodded at my work in complete silence, taking a drag from his cigarette.
"I must admit, I'm surprised to see you again after all this time, Doctor Michaels." He pointed with his lit cigarette in hand, focused on me with those icy, cybernetic blue eyes of his. "I hadn't expected a man as crafty as you to simply sit around and do nothing with your skills, but seeing you get your hands dirty is a bit of a change..."
"Don't speak of me as if I'm one of your friends." I spat back, rifle still held at the ready as I glared at the well-dressed son of a bitch. "You're little operation on Fehl Prime was an interesting one. Tell me, you always in the business of trying to impede us at every turn?"
"Only when you fail to take humanity's best interests to heart." He deflected, walking over to his chair and grabbing his whiskey glass. "You don't have to like my methods, but don't question my motives. Everything I do is for the betterment of humanity."
"Yeah, your methods sure worked well when the Fleet blasted your little invasion force to dust. Then again, I wouldn't expect anything different from you or your goddamn organization." I sneered, feeling my knuckles tense as I gripped my plasma rifle tighter. "If being human means murdering innocents, sabotaging military operations, and subjecting children to sick experiments, then I'd gladly give up everything to never be called human again."
"If I were you, I wouldn't be so steadfast in my conclusions, doctor." He remarked, taking a seat as glared at me. "When humanity takes the mantle as the galaxy's sole superpower, you, the quarians, and everyone you've ever helped will regret your decisions. Remember that for th-"
I narrowed my eyes on the slimeball, firing a single shot at him in the middle of his speech that went through the hologram and into the emitters on the wall, breaking the communicator and ending the conversation.
"What was that? Who were you talking to?" Kirva asked, walking over as the holographic field failed.
"That was the leader of Cerberus, The Illusive Man." I answered, feeling the frown on my face grow larger. "All of this is happened because of him. All of it."
Grunt and Jack ran into the room, pointing their guns in the room before spotting us and relaxing.
"Did we miss all the action again?" Grunt asked in a disappointed tone, looking none too pleased.
"No… you didn't miss anything too important." I dismissed, looking around the room at the various emitters and panels that lined it. I then focused on the "platform" that the hologram focused on, thinking about the brief conversation we just had.
There had been no delay whatsoever in the conversation we had. It was normal for there to be moderate delays between both sides of a transmission as it went through the buoy network, but here it was instantaneous. I knew The Illusive Man hadn't made that transmission from within the system, that just wouldn't have made sense. Then it dawned on me.
"This must be a quantum entanglement communicator… incredible!" I exclaimed, standing up and looking around the room like a child in a candy shop. "I didn't think we had reached a point where we could transmit messages instantaneously from one part of the galaxy to another. This is an amazing piece of machinery."
"Hey jackass, we've still got a job to do." Jack said, not giving a shit about the technology sitting here.
"You're right… hold on." I replied, pulling the OSD out of my watch and plugging it into the nearby computer console. The automated ICE breaker program quickly broke down the firewalls, collecting any files I had deemed priority before finishing in less than thirty seconds.
Hopefully, it got something Dan and I could use later down the line. Having the ability to instantly communicate over long distances would be invaluable in the future.
"Alright, let's get back to work!" I nodded, bringing my plasma rifle back up as I prepared myself mentally to go on.
We ventured into the next area, which instantly appeared much older than the previous areas we had been through. The style, while similar, bore several stylistic differences, and was plastered with far fewer Cerberus logos.
Jack must have recognized it, because she immediately reverted to the nervous stance she had assumed earlier. I hoped she'd be able to keep herself composed.
We entered what looked like a large storage area, completely abandoned by whoever was here before us. Many of the walls were covered in grime, having been abandoned in the middle of being pressure washed from the looks of it. Large metal "shutter" patches covered parts of the overhead skylight, leaving our visibility patchy at best. I switched on my mask's built-in headlamp, illuminating the darker parts of the room as we made our way through.
"Alpha, how's the situation on your end?" I asked into my communicator, still keeping my rifle aimed squarely down range as we moved.
"We've cleared out most of the outlying facility, though we're running into more resistance the farther in we go." He quickly answered as gunfire could be heard in the background, followed quickly by yelling. "How about you, Bravo?"
"We've cleared a few labs and what looked to be their primary barracks. We're moving into the older part of the facility, should run into you soon." I reported, making sure to check every corner before moving out into the open.
"Roger, over and out." Shepard quickly finished, leaving me to fully focus on the world around me once more. I turned around, seeing Jack had simply… disappeared.
"Jack?" I called out, getting Kirva and Grunt to turn around. "Jack? Where'd you go?"
We walked back, investigating the area we had just passed only to find her in the middle of the room, staring at a circle of old riot barriers set up in the center. She was just standing there, staring at it with a blank look on her face.
"They used to stage fights here, pitting me against the other kids while a cocktail of drugs ran through me." She started, breathing deeply as she fought to maintain herself. "I loved it. One of the few times I got to leave my cell."
"Keelah… this goes beyond anything I imagined." Kirva exclaimed, walking around the "ring" with a careful nature to her steps.
Before anyone else could speak, a loud crashing sound rang out from the other side of the room, prompting all of us to seek cover behind the old cargo containers. I switched off my headlamp, peeking around my cover and spotting three more Cerberus technicians running towards our cover. One of them stopped near the center of the room, leaning against his knees as he panted heavily.
"Stop and take a breather." One of them said as I watched them closely, wanting to wait and listen for any potential intel. They had no idea we were here.
One was a tall, African-American man. He was the only one who was armed, a Kessler from the looks of it, and was splattered with human blood. He appeared to be in the best shape of the three. The second was a short, overweight caucasian man with red hair, nursing what appeared to be a hastily patched gunshot wound in his arm. The third was a younger dark-skinned woman who wore a pair of broken glasses. All three wore Cerberus-tagged coveralls, and looked to be in their very early twenties.
"I can't believe this is happening… everything's gone to shit." The woman yelled, sounding more angry than scared. "That bastard Kelborn screwed us good."
"I can't believe someone actually put that monster in charge of something." The African-American man commented, sounding more tired. "I didn't sign up to see kids get shoved in cages. That son of a bitch had this coming."
"Yeah... nice insurance policy these assholes have, too. One thing goes wrong and they go after all the non-essential staff. Real nice." The overweight redhead said, short on breath as he leaned against one of the containers. "I fucking knew it was a mistake to let you talk me into this, Dixon."
"How was I supposed to know this was what we'd end up doing?" The African-American man immediately yelled back, as I looked over at Grunt and Jack who held their weapons in eager anticipation. "I didn't know we were signing up for the fuckin' Waffen SS!"
"We're nothing but glorified janitors… I should have known something was wrong when I saw those dried blood stains on the walls." The woman lamented as I thought about how to handle these unaware people. "We need to find a way out of here that doesn't involve a bodybag."
While I was still fired up over the incident in the morgue, I could tell these people had gotten themselves into a situation they clearly didn't want to be part of and deeply regretted getting involved in. I wasn't going to kill them. I had to at least give them a chance.
I signaled to Grunt and Jack to hold their fire, getting Jack to mouth "What? Why?" back to me with a confused face. Kirva also seemed uncomfortable with the direction I was taking this, but at this point my mind was set.
"Hands up!" I shouted, turning the corner with the other three as they all looked at us in shock. Dixon, the African-American man quickly raised the handgun at us with shaky hands, aiming it between us as we all moved in closer. "Drop the weapon. I'm only going to warn you once."
"Y-yeah? You're just going to shoot us if I do." He said in a shaky voice, aiming the handgun directly at me.
"If he intended to shoot you, you'd already be dead." Kirva quickly replied, backing up my original demand.
Dixon reluctantly dropped the handgun, putting both hands in the air as I walked over and kicked the handgun farther away.
"So… I hear the grand life in Cerberus isn't all it's choked up to be." I said, lowering my gun as I walked up to him in particular. "Tell me… what the hell is going on in this place?"
"Um… all we really know is that they've been experimenting with biotics, using kids." He answered, hands still held in the air as he spoke. "We didn't speak up about it, though."
"Why?" I asked with mild anger, wanting more details from him.
"These guys don't like hearing the phrase "I quit" around here." The other man said, redirecting my attention. "If we said anything they'd have us killed most likely… hell, look what happened to me."
He held up his arm for me to get a better look, seeing he was still bleeding.
"The moment the call went out to purge the facility, they opened fire on anyone who wasn't directly involved in the project. Including us." The woman spoke up, walking over and standing next to Dixon. "We… well, Dixon managed to bludgeon the nearby guard with a wrench and steal his handgun."
I looked at the three of them, gauging their faces for any trace of lying. After taking a few seconds to carefully consider each of them, I determined that they were all being truthful.
Now, I was faced with a new prospect. What to do with them.
"Alright, tell you what… you guys help us, show us where these kids are being kept, and we'll get you all off this rock. Deal?" I offered, getting another furious look from Jack.
"Deal." Dixon quickly agreed as the other two nodded, a look of determination slipping onto their faces.
"Good." I nodded, walking over any applying a layer of medi-gel on the other man's injured arm. "I know what his name is, what's yours?"
"I-I'm Tony. She's Morgan." He shakily answered, still likely very scared of me and my compatriots as he looked over at her. "I um… thank you."
"Don't mention it." I quickly nodded, turning back to Dixon. "Alright, you're in the front with me. Lead us to where we need to go. You two will follow up behind us. If you see anyone who's armed, Cerberus or not, we'll take the lead. Am I understood?"
"Yes'sir." Dixon agreed, pursing his lips for a moment. "What's your name if you don't mind me asking?"
"I'm Sean. I'll tell you the rest once we're out of here." I answered, nodding towards the other side of the warehouse. "Lead the way."
"Right." He finished, walking ahead of me as we all filed in and moved on with our mission.
"I must admit, I'm a little… perplexed by what just happened." Kirva commented over the radio into my earpiece where only I could hear her. "What exactly are you doing? I thought you were the one who didn't want there to be any survivors."
"I'm not in the business of outright murder. You heard what happened to them." I answered, making sure to shut off the speaker for my mask.
"They still chose to willingly join a pro-human terrorist organization." She understandably argued, sounding mildly annoyed. "They knew what was happening here and chose to do nothing."
"Given their situation, I can't really blame them. I think they deserve a chance at redemption. We all do." I replied in a somber tone, cutting the transmission as we reached the doors.
"All right, through here is the hot lab and water purifier. The holding facility for the kids should be on the other side." Dixon quickly laid out, drawing a rough map on the wall's layer of dirt. "Security was really tight through here, but they might be gone by now."
"Alright, let's go." I nodded, popping the older door's lock and following him inside.
This was definitely one of the older spaces, though it had recently been cleaned up to Cerberus' seemingly perfectionist standards. The hallway was a blaring white, and cleaning supplies still littered the area.
"Here's the hot lab." He announced as we stacked up on the door, watching him pry the panel off the wall and yank out a wire much like I had back at the morgue.
"Where'd you learn to do that?" I asked, curious as to how he knew that trick.
"My father was an engineer, taught me a few tricks while I was in high school." He answered, a small smile crossing his face as the hologram went dead. "Here's hoping there's no one on the other side…"
He pulled on one side of the door, forcing it to slide open to reveal the lab. Rows of containment units lined the walls, holding various radioactive materials likely used for testing on the kids. I heard a groan in the back of the room, seeing another, older man in a pair of coveralls laying against the wall. One of the heavily-armored Cerberus commandos laid dead at his feet, though it was clear from a single glance that he had been mortally wounded by four gunshot wounds, two to the chest, one to the right arm and upper right leg.
No amount of medical attention was going to save this man.
"Percy!" Dixon yelled in surprise, running over to the man and crouching down next to him.
"I sure… got that… asshole… didn't I?" He smiled, weakness evident in his voice as his labored breathing worsened.
He let out two quick chuckles before all remaining color drained from his face, and he slumped over to his side, dead. He was gone.
"…fuck!" Dixon yelled in anger, grabbing a row of empty glass beakers off the table and throwing them at the commando's corpse, clearly infuriated by the death of his friend.
"Come on, we have to keep moving." I urged, getting him to nod back silently. There was still a job to do here.
We opened the door on the opposite side of the lab, immediately running into four commandos in full gear that had been trying to get into the room. Surprised, I shoved Dixon out of the way just in time for Jack to throw out a biotic blast, sending them all flying into the wall. The four of us quickly finished them off, checking the length of the hallway to make sure no more were around the corner.
"Aha! Another kill to my name!" Grunt shouted in triumph, leaving me to pick Dixon off the floor.
"Thanks, that was a close one." He said as I pulled him up, giving him a nod as we continued forward.
We seemed to be lucky, moving into the water purification room to find no activity at all. The Cerberus troops must have been horribly spread out trying to deal with all of us at the same time, and I couldn't be more pleased.
At least, that was until we entered the next room through a panel in the wall.
It was, by all definitions, a prison. The area was large, containing sixteen cells on an upper level and eight on the bottom. I could hear a child crying in one of them, and as I walked forward I saw dozens of small faces looking back at me, some of them bloodied and bruised. It was heartbreaking.
I suddenly heard Jack breathe in sharply, as I looked back to see her trembling. She attempted to bite at the inside of her own lips in order to maintain her composure, but it was too much for her. A single tear rolled out of her eye, staining her mascara and leaving a dark streak on her cheek.
"This is wrong." Grunt commented, sounding conflicted on what he was witnessing. "These little welts can't even defend themselves. What's the point of keeping kids here like this?"
"This is the work of monsters." Kirva shook her head, looking back at Dixon. "You knew this was happening?"
"This is much worse than what… Percy, how could you downplay something like this?" Dixon spoke partially to Kirva and himself, his own breathing becoming much quicker. "My God, it's much worse than I thought."
"Hey!" One of the kids called out to me, as I quickly recomposed myself and walked over. "Mister, please get us out of here. I want to go back home."
I stared into his little face for what felt like an eternity, seeing the incision and needle vectors that had been tattooed into his shaved head. It was enough to bring any man to tears, though for his sake and the sake of the others, I had to keep it together.
"Don't worry, we're getting all of you out of here." I nodded, grabbing his hand through the cell bars.
We were going to get all of them out of here. Every single one.
…
A/N: I managed to get this one done right before I went all-in on my college courses! Hopefully, things will go smoothly the next few months! I can only hope for the best, and keep doing what I do best in the meantime!
Another hard chapter to write, but in my personal opinion, another interesting one. I wanted to expand on the Telten Facility here, making it feel more like a place that things happen in instead of a series of disconnected rooms that lead to one place. I also wanted to expand on the people involved, especially those not considered "full" members of Cerberus. Tell me what you think with a friendly review!
Also, you might have noticed that the story now has a new cover image! Sean, wearing his personalized combat gear, Plasma Gun included! As usual, it was drawn by the lovely nikadonna on Tumblr, and I can't thank her enough! Send me a PM and I'll give you a high-quality link so you can see the image in its full detail!
As always, I'd love to read any reviews, and I'm always up for suggestions and constructive criticism! Stay tuned!