…
"The M16A2 service rifle is a lightweight air-cooled, gas-operated, magazine-fed shoulder weapon. It fires a 5.56mm ball projectile at a muzzle velocity of 2,800 feet per second. This is my rifle. Repeat after me."
(Anthony 'Swoff' Swofford)
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Siġra Poġġi, March 30th, 9:23 AM, 2185
…
Standing still with my arms folded, I watched Mara jump and crawl through the improvised training course I had built for her, doing her best to break my time of forty-two seconds. It was a series of walls, pits, and other obstacles based on basic ones utilized by the U.S. during WWII. She had to navigate it in the time limit, until she either matched or surpassed my time of fifty-two seconds. She was getting better at this, that was for sure.
Dan and I had put ourselves through similar training when getting into our paintball tournaments. The goal was to make ourselves nimble enough to reach cover as quickly as possible, limiting our exposure to gunfire by reducing our time out in the open. Both of us had fallen and stumbled many times until we had perfected it. Mara was no exception. Your weight, equipment set, and even the boots you wore changed the physics of it all in subtle, surprising ways. Knowing what changes could happen and how to account for them was the secondary goal of the exercise.
Running across the finish line for the seventh time this morning, I clicked the stopwatch on my omni-tool, ending out at fifty-eight seconds.
"You're only six seconds off." I announced as she walked up to me, dripping with sweat as her mud-stained combat kit clung to her like a wet rag. "Nice improvement."
"But that's only a... three second difference." She panted as I handed her a water bottle, which she gladly accepted and chugged.
"In combat, those three seconds can be the difference between life or death." I reinforced, happy with her progression. "You're already far more nimble than me, that much I can tell you."
"Doesn't feel like it." She groaned, putting down the bottle as she leaned forward, both hands against her knees. "I feel like I'm on fire."
"You're doing fine." I reassured, patting her on the back. "Give it one more try once you've caught your breath."
"OK...OK." She nodded, arching her back as she stretched from side to side, rolling the sleeves of her uniform as she readied herself for the eighth run. "I'm ready."
"Alright… on your mark… get set… GO!" I yelled, starting the stopwatch again as she shot off again, leaving a small cloud of dust in her wake as she kicked up the dust under her feet.
She cleared the 2 ½ foot hurdle, and moved on to clear the fence vault with very little difficulty. She nearly tripped hopping over the high frames before scaling the 6 foot wall. From there, she crawled under the wires, making sure not to get herself stuck before pulling herself out of the dirt and jumping across the ditch. Finally, it was the balance run, and the last dash to the finish line. As soon as she crossed it, I stopped my timer, my eyes shooting up as I saw what she had gotten this time.
"Forty-nine seconds!" I shouted with a smile, her face lighting up despite the fatigue she was experiencing. "That's fantastic, hon!"
"I guess… you'll have to… beat me, huh?" She gloated, grabbing another water bottle and chugging it like she had previously before wincing. "Damn sweat in my eyes…"
"Hey, you know, despite all the sweat and mud… you still look great." I complemented, getting a sharp chuckle out of her as she sat down on a tree stump.
"Is that some kind of thinly-veiled jab, or are you being sincere, slav man?" She asked in a more sultry voice, taking off her gloves and pulling a few loose strands of hair out of her face.
"That's up to you to decide." I led on, picking up a Mattock and Plasma Gun respectively. "Time to move on to weapons training."
"Sounds interesting." She nodded, standing up and following me to the next small clearing.
Here, I had set up a few basic targets at different ranges. Nothing fancy, but enough to get anyone acquainted with the basics. Seven wooden targets, each painted with red bullseyes. I even had a special pit dug specially for grenades, of which I had brought several. It was pretty nice for a ramshackle, spur of the moment build.
"Alright, so let's start off with the basics. What do you already know?" I asked, putting down both weapons carefully on another stump as I took off my coat and threw it on a tree branch.
"Treat me as if I know nothing." She stated simply, standing as still as she could.
"That's the right answer." I nodded, pulling out my trusty Carnifex. "We'll start off small. This is my customized M-6 Carnifex. It is an armor-piercing handgun capable of putting out one-hundred and forty-five rounds per-minute, though doing so would likely melt the gun to slag, so I wouldn't recommend it. Its balanced with lighter materials, a revamped recoil mechanism, and improved heat sinks, so it's much better suited to most situations."
I slowly handed the gun to her, the gun beeping in confirmation as it was grasped and the safety disengaged itself.
"Careful when handling any firearms. Always keep your finger off the trigger until you're ready to fire, and never, NEVER point it towards someone you don't intend to shoot, even casually. Standard rule is to always treat the gun as if its ready to fire at all times. Remember that, and you'll do just fine." I explained, helping her get the right grip on the gun. "Unlike the old gunpowder and paintball guns I learned to shoot with, these mass accelerator weapons are much more sophisticated, having automatic windage, range, and gravity adjustment software. For handguns like this, however, you've still got to learn how to shoot it at proper range if you hope to hit anything."
"So we're technically starting off with the harder weapon to fire?" She observed with a confused expression, getting me to smirk.
"In my experience, considering the size of handguns and their normal lack of stocks or foregrips, they're much harder to shoot accurately with. If you can hit targets consistently with a handgun, moving up to rifles, machine guns, and other various "long guns" will be much easier." I went on, gesturing towards the Mattock and Plasma Gun. "Handguns like the Carnifex are also important when it comes to close quarters combat. A rifle, for instance, is much harder to maneuver in tight spaces, so knowing proper handgun management can save you in those kinds of situations. SMGs, Shotguns, and Carbine-style weapons are also built for those kinds of situations, but for now, all we have are handguns and rifles."
"So, are we ready to shoot?" She asked, holding the gun with proper trigger discipline.
"Alright, take aim at that target." I ordered, lining up alongside her on the firing line in front of the closest target, seven yards away. "Take aim, line up your sights, slow your breathing, and fire."
I stood in baited silence, watching her focus completely on the target ahead of her. A few seconds later, she fired, barely missing the bullseye by an inch.
"Good shot!" I congratulated, patting her on the shoulder as she lowered the Carnifex.
"W-wow." She stammered, blown away by the sensation of firing a gun for the first time before her face turned to confusion. "Wait, but I didn't hit the bullseye. Why are you congratulating me?"
"The fact that you hit the target at all is a great accomplishment. Most people don't hit it on their first try." I explained, pointing at the hole in the log. "Fire a few more shots, but remember what I taught you. Limit yourself to ten, twelve shots so you don't put too much stress on the heat sink."
"OK." She nodded with determination, readjusting her stance and firing several more rounds in quick succession. Her grouping was a little sloppy this time, coming out to a twelve to fourteen-inch spread on the target.
"Another rule to keep in mind. Generally, the more rounds you try to put downrange at once, the less accurate each shot will be." I explained, crossing my arms as she looked at the target with frustration. "Also, adjust your stance so you aren't leaning back when firing. Always lean into the gun, even if it doesn't have a lot of recoil. It'll help stabilize your shots and improve accuracy."
"Right… like this?" She corrected, changing her stance to one better suited for handgun shooting.
"Perfect, just like that." I smiled, nodding towards the target as she took several more shots, taking more time to line up her shots this time as she greatly narrowed her grouping, having it down to six to eight inches. She even managed to nail the bullseye several times, bringing a smile to her face.
"That does feel better than before." She said, handing the gun back to me. "Is that smell normal?"
"That's the smell of ionized air, created by the rails when firing the gun." I explained, taking a big whiff of the air as I put the gun back on my belt. "Let me tell you, this is nothing compared to the smell of good old-fashioned gunpowder lingering in the air after firing off a few .45 ACPs."
"Hm, feeling nostalgic again?" She correctly guessed, sitting down on the log as kept my arms folded.
"I used to go to the range with my father in my teen years… it only happened a few times considering we were usually short on money most of the time, but when it did, it was an experience." I grinned, thinking back to those days fondly. "Part of the reason why I got into paintball with Dan was due to how prohibitively expensive it would have been to go out and shoot regularly, especially in Maryland."
Silence filled the air for several seconds as Mara looked up at me with a sad expression, confusing me slightly.
"What?" I questioned, relaxing my arms as I cocked my head to the side.
"I really wish I could have met your parents." She said in a sad tone, leaning against her legs as I sat down next to her. "From what you've told me over the years, they sound like they were nice people."
"Heh… they could be a handful, trust me." I nodded as another thought crossed into my mind. "You know, now that I think of it, I've never really heard you talk about your parents all that much."
"There's not much to really talk about." She shrugged, looking at me with an indifferent expression. "Mom was an insurance agent, Dad was an electrician. Both of them died in a shuttle crash when I was in middle school, leaving me with nearly nothing until the end of high school."
"You don't sound that… shaken up about it." I observed as she let out a long sigh.
"To be honest, I never really knew my parents. They were always away from home, never spending much time around me. Sure, there were a few moments where we bonded, but I ended up spending most of my time studying." She explained, leaning against me as I wrapped my arm around her. "I suppose that's why I was so competitive for as long as I was… I wanted to prove I was something, to anybody."
"No one should ever have to prove their worth… everyone is worth something." I reassured, pulling her tighter. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you feel bad or anything."
"It doesn't make me feel bad to listen to you talk about your parents. It's actually quite heartwarming." She smiled, closing her eyes as she put her hand on my chest.
Before I could say anything else, I heard the sound of a branch snapping behind us, getting both of us to whip our heads around. We couldn't see anything, but I knew there was nothing around here that could have caused that sound naturally.
"Here, take this." I urged, handing my Carnifex to Mara. She hesitated for a second, accepting it without a word as I dashed over and grabbed the Mattock. "Who's out there?! We know you're there!"
All that could be heard was the sound of my gun gently humming as I narrowed my eyes, looking for anything unusual. I knew it had come over from where my coat was hanging, but I couldn't see anything.
"Sean, are you sure-" Mara called out before I held up my hand, stopping her before she could finish what she was saying.
I listened, hearing the sound of rustling leaves despite the lack of obvious wind. I broke from my cover behind the stump toward my coat, hearing the rustling intensify as someone else began running. I fired several shots at the direction the sound was coming from, watching as one of them managed to connect with something, a humanoid figure who suddenly appeared as a cloak they were using failed. They were knocked off their feet by the shot, causing them to stumble and fall. I quickly pursued them before they could get back up as Mara followed behind me, checking for anymore movement.
The figure was wearing a full black suit, covered with tubes and made of an odd material. His helmet was the same, featuring only goggles to see through and little else. My shot hadn't penetrated his kinetic barriers from the looks of it, but I had no idea what I was dealing with here.
"Put your fucking hands in the air! Do it now!" I shouted, aiming directly at his head with my rifle. "You make any sudden moves, and I won't hesitate to put one through your skull!"
"Wait!" The masked man yelled, holding both his hands in the air as Mara finally caught up with me, handgun held at the ready. "Please don't shoot! Let me take off the helmet!"
Mara and I looked at each other for a second, both of us pointing our barrels at the man's head before looking back.
"Fine. Do it slowly." I agreed, not willing to take any chances as he nodded, undoing the latches beneath his helmet, twisting then pulling it off to reveal something that shook me to my core.
It was Dan, but… much older. His face was covered in wrinkles, left side of his face was covered with deep pock marks. His hair was completely gray, and he had deep, sunken eyes with rings around them. He wasn't just older, he looked as if he had gone through hell.
"W-w-what the hell?" I stammered, feeling my hands shake as I reluctantly kept my gun trained on him. "Dan?"
"Heh… after all these years, I'd forgotten how trigger-happy you could be." He smiled, shaking his head.
"Is there anyone else here we should be worried about?" I asked, still not sure exactly what was going on, or if we were under any threat.
"Do I look like a member of some kind of crack commando team to you?" He shot back, palms still held out as to show he wasn't holding anything. "Put the fucking guns down, I'm already gonna have a huge bruise from that shot you put in my shoulder."
Reluctantly, I lowered my rifle as Mara followed suit with the handgun, still cautious as to what the hell was going on.
He got back to his feet, grimacing at his shoulder as he did so. He made full eye contact with me as he finished brushing off some dirt off his suit.
"I guess I have a lot of explaining to do." He shrugged, looking very annoyed. "Apparently, this old mug is still recognizable after all these years."
"That's putting it very lightly." Mara remarked, looking just as confused as I was. "What's going on? What happened to you?"
"That's a story decades long." He shook his head, leaning against a tree as he opened his omni-tool. "Do you want the long or short version?"
"By all means, we've got plenty of time on our hands." I urged as he made eye contact with both of us, taking in a deep breath.
"So… where to begin. Uh… I've been spending the last three years following all of you around, trying to help you where I can in preparation for what's to come. As unbelievable as it sounds, I'm from the "future", or the potential future to be more specific." He stated, utterly bewildering Mara and I. "God, this even sounds crazy to me."
"At least you know how we feel." I shrugged, wanting to hear the whole story. "Start from the beginning."
"When the Reapers came, we did our best to stop them, we did our damnedest, that's for sure. But, in the end, they overwhelmed us, killing billions and forcing the survivors into hiding." He explained, going slowly as he recalled what must have been painful thoughts. "We managed to survive on our own for many years, scavenging the remains of ruined worlds as we attempted to live out in the Terminus, but we made too many mistakes, lost people… I really shouldn't tell you this."
"What?" Mara insisted, as Dan looked up at her with moist eyes.
"Our stealth systems failed during an emergency supply run to the Omega System, while we were trying to rescue survivors from an old cargo freighter. This was in exchange for the refined Element Zero still stored on their ship." He reluctantly went on, barely able to hold himself together as he looked directly at Mara. "Our ship was attacked by a Reaper Destroyer, killing you, Sira, Richard, and the three members of the freighter crew. We barely managed to escape."
Mara dropped her gun, putting her hand over her mouth in shock as I moved to comfort her with my free hand.
"After that, we decided to do what we previously thought to be unthinkable. We rebuilt the Spatial Distortion Device." He went on, getting me to flip around to face him with barely contained anger. "It took seven years, but we managed to get it to an operable state, capable of transmitting matter safely and without the need for a traditional centrifuge."
"I never would have agreed to that… we made an oath to never delve into that research again, knowing the damage it could cause." I denied as Mara stayed quiet, still shaken by what this, Old Dan had told her. "The real Dan wouldn't have done that."
"Get off your high horse." He shot down, immediately triggering the anger center of my brain. "Dimitri and I worked for years trying to find a way to reverse the damage that had been done, and you, being so self-righteous and shortsighted, would sooner see it destroyed than used to fix everything that had been done to our friends, family, and home!"
"You have some fucking nerve, you know that?" I said under my breath, seething with anger as I walked over and put my finger in his face. "You think you know best, huh? Just go out and save the world, who cares about breaking promises and the laws of physics."
"I'm trying to help you, asshole!" He shouted with a surprising amount of force, as I prepared myself for a possible fist fight. "I watched for DECADES as the Reapers took away everything we had, EVERYTHING! I watched friends die, worlds burn, and in the end, I decided that I'd try to stop it. Yes, I broke the promise we made, yes I did the unthinkable. You don't think it haunts me every day, knowing what would happen if it were to fall into the wrong hands?"
I locked eyes with him, fists held at the ready as I debated whether or not to slug him. In the end though, my better side won out, as I took a deep sigh and forced myself to relax.
"Why are you here?" I asked, trying to change the subject as to not get myself too worked up again. "Getting me to shoot you isn't the best way to introduce yourself."
"Truth be told, I was trying to get my OSD back from you." He admitted, clenching his teeth as he rubbed the back of his shoulder again. "I...um, dropped it when I was in the Normandy's lab a few months ago, and I've been trying to get it back since."
"Wait, you mean this?" I questioned, pulling out the seemingly blank OSD for him to look at. "There's nothing on it except a blank folder labeled JANUS.''
"That's where you're wrong." He shook his head, plugging it into his suit and opening his omni-tool. "Dimitri and I encrypted it so no one but he and I could view its contents. It's a complete record of all our experiments, files, and other miscellaneous data collected over the decades. I intended to show it to you earlier, but like I said before, I lost it like the clumsy idiot I am. JANUS is the codename Dimitri settled on for the new SDD."
"I guess disappearing for weeks and months at a time really put a hamper on your recovery efforts." I joked, as Mara finally collected herself and walked back over. "So, where is Dimitri? Is he using one of those suits too?"
Dan's face immediately went blank as soon as I finished speaking, immediately bringing down the conversation.
"He's... gone." He shook his head, as I silently nodded in acknowledgement.
"So y-you're saying you have something that might be able to help us fight the Reapers?" Mara asked, her voice still a little shaky as she did her best to reintegrate herself into the conversation.
"Hopefully, if it isn't too late." He remarked, leaning closer so we could see his omni-tool. "We discovered that the Reapers utilize a quantum network for communication, networking, and other utilities. Though we never figured out exactly how it worked, they also use electromagnetic fields to indoctrinate individuals, turning them into thralls."
"We figured out they're using a quantum network, we deduced that Cerberus likely reverse-engineered what was left of Sovereign to create a Quantum Entanglement Communicator." I rebuffed, getting a surprised look from him.
"So, you've been busier than I originally thought." He remarked with some minor amusement in his voice, flipping to the next file on the OSD. "What you probably don't know is that there exist a way to detect these magnetic fields through the use of a high-powered EMF detector, tuned to the frequencies the Reapers utilize. We called it the "Snooper", or, at least Richard did."
He blew up a schematic on the screen, showing a bulky, handheld device strangely reminiscent of the motion detector used in the first Alien movie. It looked like a big lunch box with an oversized sensor sticking off the front, held together by bolts. It certainly wasn't the quality I expected from Dan, especially compared to his Terahertz Locator project.
"Even though we didn't have many opportunities to test it in the field, we did confirm that it'll detect when someone has been exposed to a Reaper signal." He reassured, flipping the schematic around for me to get a better look at. "It may not look like much, but it works."
"I'll believe it when I see it." I grimaced, knowing I'd need more convincing than this. "Anything else?"
"Well, there is the suit I'm wearing, that's also something we developed." He went on, holding out his arms and doing a full 360° turn so we could see it in full. "It's a suit designed to fully mask the user from most forms of detection. We called it the Zero Emissions Stealth Suit, or ZESS for short."
"Not made for combat, I presume?" I correctly guessed as he nodded, rolling his shoulder in pain.
"Reaper sensors are incredibly precise, so we needed something we could wear to safely salvage materials in occupied systems." He explained further, piquing my interest. "It's admittedly more of a stop-gap solution, we were in desperate need of supplies at the time."
"You have anything that was developed before the war?" Mara asked, as he shot her a look of confusion.
"Before the war? You've already developed more than we ever did before the Reapers invaded." He shook his head, giving Mar and I pause. "At this point before, the Migrant Fleet was already at war with the Geth, wasting their valuable resources and forcing us to leave in order to have any chance of survival."
"What changed, then?" I asked, wanting to know how he had "interfered" with our "timeline".
"For starters, Admiral Rael'Zorah died leading the Heavy Fleet against the Geth above Rannoch, leaving the rest of his ships open to retaliation in the process." He shrugged, taking a tube out of his collar and sucking out some water. "While I don't think I had anything directly to do with it, his death in CASTLE Base has done a lot to slow the road to war."
"That's really damn cold, even for you. He had a daughter, you know." I put down as he rolled his eyes.
"Those people in the Civilian Fleet had daughters too, I'm sure." He blew off as I did my best to hold back further anger. "He was a reckless idiot, and got many of his people killed. I'll never forgive that man for wasting lives so needlessly."
"Back up, what "direct" actions have you taken?" Mara redirected as she crossed her arms, just as dissatisfied as I was with the conversation.
"Well, for starters, I planted a plasma bomb in The Barn's reactor cooling systems, destroying the station instead of leaving it intact for further use." He answered, managing to further surprise me. "I also leaked the Cerberus plan to attack Reach, using one of my sources within the organization… among other things."
Thinking back to the events on The Barn, it did make sense that the SDD exploding alone wouldn't have been enough to destroy the station, let alone damage their reactor. It did feel too convenient at the time, but we had been in such a hurry to escape the station at the time that none of us gave it a second thought. The level of preparedness for the Cerberus attack on Reach also made sense, seeing as there was no real reason for Hackett's people to know about something as sensitive as an attack without some insider knowledge. He must have known Hackett would pass the info along. That also brought another odd occurence into question.
"Did you have anything to do with the destruction of the Collector ship on Fehl Prime?" I asked, getting a sly smile from the old man.
"As a matter of fact, I did. It wasn't easy, but I managed to overload the core of their ship using an old backdoor developed by Dimitri using parts of an old Collector computer core." He gloated, seeming very happy with himself. "I was hoping the ship exploding would have wrecked its core too, but evidently the core was better shielded than I thought, leaving it salvageable."
I sighed, running my hands through my hair as I mulled over this giant information dump. There was no denying the facts, this was all real, and the fact that we were even having this conversation just went to show how bad the future could potentially be. I shuddered at the thought of any of this "coming true", though part of me still resented the lengths he had gone to.
Still, there was something else I wanted to talk to him about.
"Hey Mara, you mind if I talk to him in private for a bit?" I asked, using as normal of a tone as I could considering the situation.
"Sure, I'll… just head back over to the range for a bit." She nodded, giving me a side glance for a moment before walking off, leaving me and Old Dan alone.
"You could have lied to her, for christ sake. You have any idea how that kind of information can affect someone?" I immediately chastised as he furrowed his brow.
"I warned her… both of you, as a matter of fact." He stated, obviously not happy with my response. "You know as well as I do that sometimes, telling lies wears you down after too long, makes you bitter and insular."
I continued to stare daggers at the old man, still feeling the anger, but noticing remorse and regret were slowly starting to supplant it.
"You were right though, about never agreeing to rebuild the SDD." He choked up, losing control of his voice again as he spoke.
"I did notice you didn't include me when talking about the device." I prodded further, fully aware of the possible ramifications of doing so. "What happened?"
"You… you killed yourself after hearing the news about Mara." He answered as my soul sank, immediately regretting my decision to push him this far. "Locked yourself in your quarters, and shot yourself in the head."
I could feel my jaw tremble as Dan looked at me with very obvious and sudden regret. I attempted to stop the shaking by rubbing my hand on the lower half of my face, but it did little to help. Dan tried to put his hand on my shoulder, but I immediately pulled away from him.
"Don't touch me." I shut down, pulling my arms closer as I fought to control myself. "W-what happened to Dimitri? Just tell me."
"He was caught stealing information from a Cerberus facility on Noveria two years ago. Instead of letting himself and his tech be captured, he detonated his remaining plasma cells and vaporized himself." He answered, sounding more exhausted than anything else. "I'm the only one left now. Just me, my ship, and a lot of painful memories."
I nodded, figuring it was something along those lines as I stared at the ground, doing my best to stay calm.
"Listen, we'll meet again later, but for now take these files and give them to Richard. He'll likely know the best way to use them. I'll contact you when I have more information." He went on, handing me the OSD which I quickly took without looking at him. "There's something else I need to check before I come back, but in the meantime just keep your head low."
"Already on it." I agreed, taking in a sharp breath as I held out my hand for him to shake. He accepted it despite the way I had treated him, bringing me an odd sense of warmth.
"I know you're still mad at me, and will be for awhile, but trust me when I say we'll make this right." He reassured, pressing a button on the side of his suit as everything faded away. "Bye."
"See you later." I nodded, hearing the sound of him running off as I stood there in silent reflection.
As badly as I wanted to tell myself that this wasn't real, some kind of messed up figment of my imagination, I knew reality disagreed with me. I hated the fact that not one that conversation just happened, but that I was now burdened with both the knowledge that my best friend had done the unthinkable, but also what our potential future could be if we failed. If I were a lesser man, I'd crawl in bed and stay there forever, but I knew despite my reservations, we had a shot at getting through this, no matter how slim.
I was going to lose a lot of sleep over the next few days, I knew that much.
…
A/N: Well, I'm certain there'll be a lot of mixed feelings over this, but I want everyone to keep an open mind and stick with me on this. I've been planning this for years now, and I'm sure as things progress. Things'll be moving very quickly from this point on, and I promise to each and every one of you, you'll come away with something good to say.
I'd like to ask any of you who are so inclined to pray for my dog, Darcy, who is no longer with me. After a long battle with hip dysplasia, near blindness, and an extreme loss of hearing, was put to sleep today, July 24th at 14 years old. She was my first dog, and will always remain my first. She's in a better place now, alongside my big pupper Patrick. Hopefully I'll get to see them again one day, who knows.
As always, I'd love to read any reviews, and I'm always up for suggestions or constructive criticism. Stay tuned!