No one is going to force you to enjoy this chapter. But it has been proven that those that do live a lot longer than those who don't…. Don't you worry about that bloodstained ax in the corner.
"Sir that knife is not a part of the approved kit for this mission."
Jane Shepard felt her eyes grow to the size of saucers at the sound of the armory officer's voice. Her team, all N3's like herself, locked eyes on the scene unfolding over by the weapons bench.
"That armor isn't regulation either," the braindead kid spoke again, ignoring the increasingly dangerous atmosphere in the armory. The dumbass legacy brat was the grandson of some two star marine general, probably got the posting from family name alone, and definitely came with the sense of entitlement natural to those brats.
Shepard was a legacy herself, her mother was XO on this very ship and her father was an N7 Operative, but an engorged ego and sense of entitlement didn't often survive the early stages of the N program, and they definitely didn't make it to N3.
The spec ops soldiers all held their breath as the Lieutenant, the only N7 on the ship, slowly stood up, sliding that monstrous shotgun onto his back as he did so. The ensign seemed to lose his nerve just a bit as he realized just how big the El Tee was, but didn't back down from his stupid course of action.
"I'm afraid I haven't had a chance to inspect that weapon either, I'm afraid you won't be able to… to…"
From where Jane was sitting she was able to catch the look on the ensign's face from the reflection on the Lieutenant's visor. Poor kid probably wet himself at the sight of the El Tee's 'face', God above knows Jane nearly did.
"You're right, kid," the giant whispered, somehow managing to make the sound louder than an explosive decompression, "I'm breaking all sorts of rules. Y'all better run off and tell on me."
The armory was deathly still, the only noise coming from the quite hum of the SSV Tokyo's reactor and the slight buzz of the ventilation systems. The titan took a small step forward and leaned down into the comparatively tiny armory officer's face. The man had broken from all decorum and was openly trembling as he leaned away from the frightening skull.
"… Go."
That small little breath might as well have been a shout. The sound hurt Jane's ears and Shepard could make out several of her team flinching visibly at the word. With no protest, and absolutely no hesitation, the ensign rushed from the room, leaving the room to the ground team.
The Lieutenant turned back to the bench and started running checks on his other weapons.
The ensign was right, technically, that shotgun definitely wasn't being maintained by the weapon's techs, it was the El Tee's personal weapon, along with the unapproved knife on the man's shoulder pauldron. This was the first actual mission Shepard had actually been on with the guy, but she had seen it fired in combat sims. The damn thing was LOUD, and carried enough power to punch a hole the size of a person's head straight through a heavy mech at close range. The kick on that gun was supposed to be enough to break a krogan's arm, who knows what it would do to a human not wearing the El Tee's armor. The N program initiates who had seen the weapon in action chose to call it The Sledgehammer.
Jane could remember when she had first… well met wouldn't be the appropriate term. She had seen him when she had first made the transition from the Marine Corp to the N program. Shepard and what she was told was the Spartan both entered the N program at the same time, but within six months, Jane was an N2, progressing at what should have been a record pace, if the Spartan hadn't already made N7.
It was frustrating, and the N3 couldn't even blame favoritism. The instructors threw everything they could at him. The standard twenty hour combat drills turned into forty when it became apparent the Spartan could breeze through them. Combat drops against training mechs were supposed to be undergone with a team, he was forced to drop alone. Leadership exercises weren't supposed to be live fire, his first leadership exercise had taken rookies and pitted them against slavers. He came back with no casualties, and a lot of dead slavers.
Jane had accepted it, and certainly didn't hate him for it, but she'd be lying if she said she wasn't jealous of him. Why didn't she get armor like that? Or a gun that cool? Or solo ops behind enemy lines? Was it because she didn't rip through the N program like he did? He only got the armor after he reached N7, but it looked like it was pretty customized, and it probably took a long time to make, so it was probably made for him before he even joined the program.
Her father had told her not to worry about it. He had just told her that the Spartan was a special case, and it wasn't likely that she'd ever encounter a soldier like him again. All of her instructors and commanding officers had sung her praises, saying she was an exceptional leader and very skilled soldier. Her test scores had never been anything but the best in her class, and word around was that she was up for promotion to N4 any day. Still, she couldn't shake the feeling of inadequacy whenever she thought about the armored titan standing over an assembly of assault rifles.
Shepard just shook the feelings away and focused on her own weapons. A definite perk of the N program was access to cutting edge weapons. The Valkyrie assault rifle in her hands was a testament to that. The Avenger series was serviceable, no doubt about that, but the muzzle had a tendency to jump around on longer bursts, it was more prone to jam up, and it didn't have the same heat sink capacity.
Not more than a year ago, thermal clips were unheard of. As it was they were only available through human weapon's manufacturers. From what she had heard, the turians scoffed at the idea of replaceable heat sinks, saying that it made the weapons less effective in long term engagements, then again, she also knew the Hierarchy was looking for a way to incorporate the advanced thermal regulation systems in newer human weapons into their own.
Actually, human technology had been advancing in leaps and bounds lately. There were the new guns, which doubled the firepower of vaunted Hierarchy weapons, body armor that was a definite upgrade from the glorified pajamas Command liked to call hardsuits, and then there was the latest project.
The ship yards in the Oort Cloud surrounding Sol were the best in Human space. The solar system encompassing asteroid field providing nearly unlimited metals and a surprising abundance of eezo and rare minerals. But the Alliance's latest project would push those shipyards to their limit. Jane had seen the recently finished skeleton, and it was massive.
It was over a mile long, and shaped differently from any Alliance vessel she had ever seen before. Most HAS ships were hard angles and sleek, this thing was going to be a tank. The framework was already up for three, three spinal cannons, one of which looked like they planned to shoot asteroids out of it, not the surprisingly small standard ordinance of a typical dreadnought. It was so large they couldn't properly call it a dreadnaught or a carrier. The blueprints she had seen had it as some sort of hybrid, capable of launching hundreds of fighters through small launch tubes and dish out massive firepower while taking a beating that would annihilate an entire flotilla.
This ship shouldn't even be possible, but a lot of the newer ships had been refitted in the past year with new fusion reactors, same size, quadruple the power output. Cruisers like the Tokyo could fire their main gun twice as often, and with the increased power, ships could get more out of every ounce of eezo. That ridiculous dread carrier, or whatever they were going to call it, had a core barely any bigger than a standard dreadnaught.
After Jane was done checking the targeting system on her Valkyrie, she turned to the latest advancements in personal protection. Hardsuits were thin, vacuum rated, pitifully armored pajamas. They offered advanced kinetic barrier systems, but lacked any physical protection, and did little to stop or even slow down small arms fire once the shields were down. Shepard's new armor could take a Viper slug to the chest and keep her alive. Out of breath and hurt like hell, but alive.
Steel plates covered her chest, abdomen, shoulders, arms, and legs while titanium mesh ballistic weave composed the undersuit that covered the rest of her. It was heavier than her old hardsuit, but she didn't mind, Jane couldn't imagine anyone who would, except maybe biotics but they had their own specialty armor.
In fact, Alenko was running a system's check on his own specialist BDU. The plating was gone, instead there was thick ballistic padding. Not nearly the same amount of protection, but it was a hell of a lot lighter and didn't tire the wearer out nearly as much, which was important if your main weapon required actual physical stamina to use, rather than just the pull of a trigger.
"Hey."
Damnit he could whisper loud!
Shepard looked up into her own reflection within the gaping maw of the nightmare, green eyes and red hair distorted in color by the unusual tint. The Spartan regarded her for a second, feeling more like an eternity to Jane. The N3 schooled her features, locking eyes with the soulless patches of bare glass that counted as the El Tee's eyes, and clamping down on her hand so she didn't start to shake underneath his unduly terrifying gaze.
"Y'all's file said you're pretty good with a sniper?"
In through the nose, out through the mouth.
"Yes, Sir," That's it, keep your voice steady. He won't eat you. Or harvest your soul and torment it for all eternity, "I am listed as a scout recon specialist. I'm proficient in assault rifles, sniper rifles, explosives…"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," the man's quiet voice ran over her rambling, "Akuze has some nasty wildlife. Real vicious muthafuckas… take this."
The Spartan set down one of the most beautiful sights Jane had ever seen in her life. She had heard about it, but it was supposed to be in the testing stages still, it wasn't scheduled for deployment for another couple of years…
A long, thick barrel, capped off in a heavy compensator. Stands mounted on the body about halfway from the pistol grip and the end of the barrel. Firing chamber that automatically swapped heat sinks after every shot and a magazine jutting out the bottom that held sixteen of them. A scope capable of automatically adjusting for distance while allowing the user to switch between thermal, ultraviolet, and gravitational sensors, letting the sniper pick out warm bodies in camouflage, night time infiltrators, and biotic commandoes at the press of a button.
The whole thing would have been useless if not for the overpowered rail and huge element zero core giving this gun the same power as an anti-material rifle, and the sophisticated stock that absorbed enough recoil to save the shoulder of anyone firing it.
"SR-99," El Tee said, "For shootin shit, on the other side of shit. I sent the manual to ya. Read it. Briefing's in two hours."
…
Jane entered at the head of her squad, Alenko, Miagi, Windsor following in short order. The comm room that typically served as a meeting room for most ships, the Tokyo being no exception, was already occupied by the captain, David Anderson, and the XO, Jane's own mother Hannah Shepard, and him.
A small nod and smile to her mother, who was practically just a slightly more aged version of herself, leading to many jokes about how her father could never be sure Jane was actually his, Shepard took her place around the holotable, her team following suit, then saluted Captain Anderson.
"Sir! Reporting as ordered!"
Captain Anderson smiled, a genuine navy man and former marine himself, everything Shepard had ever heard about him was positive. Kind, understanding, firm, and brilliant, the man oozed father figure, even for those who already had one.
"At ease, soldiers," the holotable lit up, showing a planet about ninety percent the size of Earth. Equatorial desert regions dominated the terrestrial body, but there were some green and blue closer to the poles.
"This is Akuze. Tagged for possible colonization in 2165, the effort was delayed in 2170 when an orbital surveillance satellite found evidence of thresher maws… yes, son?"
Logan Windsor lowered his hand, "What are thresher maws, sir?"
The captain nodded, "We'll get to that, son, don't worry. The Alliance established a small scientific outpost in 2172 to study the creatures. Twelve scientists, a small civilian establishment of approximately forty to fifty people. They're supposed make monthly reports, and for the past nine years… they have. Now they've been dark for two months, and the 23rd flotilla has been dispatched to determine their status."
The holo changed to show some sort of colossal worm, "To answer Sergeant Logan's question, this is a thresher maw. An adult is nearly three hundred meters in length, though we can't be sure as they never entirely leave the surface. What intel we could scrounge up on them from other sources tell us that their skin is technically vulnerable to small arms fire, but your best case scenario is to engage with heavy weapons or vehicle mounted cannons."
Jane looked over the situation, "Akuze doesn't have a high enough population for slavers to risk going this deep in Alliance space, the science team is primarily biologists, but far from doctors, so they wouldn't be of any use to pirates…"
"As your squad leader has already alluded to, it is likely thresher maws are responsible for the apparent disappearance of the science team," David said, giving a slight nod at Shepard as he did so.
"You four, plus the Lieutenant, are taking a shuttle to the research outpost. We want you to find out just exactly what happened down there. Any further questions?"
"Sir," Shepard raised her hand, "Will I be ceding command of my team?"
"Negative," the Captain answered easily, "Lieutenant Emile is here to assist your team, not take over. Believe me, he adds significant firepower."
I believe it… also… Emile?
"If that is all, you three are dismissed," the Captain ordered, "Shepard, we'd appreciate a word in private."
Huh?
Alenko, Miagi, and Windsor all gave her funny looks as they filed out of the briefing room, presumably headed towards the shuttle bay. Jane remained at attention, fighting her own face lest it show how nervous she was. What would they want to talk to her about? Why was her mother and the Spartan there?
The door shut, leaving just the four of them. One of the most respected captains in the Alliance, and the matriarch of the Shepard family herself, yet the N3 couldn't help but feel overwhelmed by 'Emile's' gaze. The mask, for all of its unchanging horror, was surprisingly expressive, and Jane was more than a little intimidated by its intense, calculating glare. Like it was judging her.
"Lieutenant Shepard, I'm sure you're wondering exactly why Lieutenant Emile is here."
"I've been informed he is here to supplement my team," she replied professionally, and sort of getting away with throwing a superior officer's words back in his face.
"He will, I'm sure you'll find him a more than capable addition," Anderson smiled, "But he's really here to evaluate you."
"E-" Jane stuttered, "Evaluate me? Sir? For what?"
"For your promotion to N7, Lieutenant."
Oh…
…
"Oh…"
"You know," Sergeant Windsor started as swept his N7 Crusader back and forth, "For a science station that has failed to report in for two months, this place is surprisingly not trashed."
"Power's still on," Hiro Miagi noted, clearing the corner offices with his Carnifax out and ready, "No sign of any sort of struggle, or rushed evacuation. It's like they all clocked out and never came back."
"Alenko, how's that terminal coming?"
The biotic shook his head, "Data's scrubbed clean, ma'am. Whoever did this was thorough."
Jane shook her head in frustration, "There was no thresher maw attack… And these people weren't taken by force!"
"We haven't checked the civilian compound yet," Logan suggested, "They could have been taken after hours."
Kaidan didn't agree, "We did a low fly over on the compound and there were no signs of damage. Nothing to suggest forced entry. You don't take fifty some odd people without enough struggle to cause some damage."
"Gas?" Hiro suggested.
Again, Alenko disagreed, "There'd be some trace readings if there were any chemical agents used."
Shepard listened half interested as her team continued to shout out suggestions, only for the teams biotic and tech specialist to refute them. The N3 was busy going through the evidence in her head, trying to make them fit some scenario. Abduction kept coming up as the only thing that fit what they had, but she couldn't shake the feeling that this was something else entirely.
That's when she spotted the Spartan. Casually leaning against a load bearing post, watching her intently, the skull somehow conveying interest and curiosity as it regarded her.
He's already figured out what happened… he's waiting for me to come to the same conclusion…
But what was it? What could have happened to these people? To be gone, just vanish, disappear, without a single trace of where they'd gone, or any sign that they struggled… There was no sign of struggle. That was the key. That's what's been bugging her.
"They weren't abducted," Jane said suddenly. The team stopped and looked at her as Emile tilted his helmet up, "They left. Willingly, and they took all the data they had with them…"
"Why take the data on some overgrown worms?" Windsor asked.
"You were at the briefing," Alenko said, nodding in understanding, "As big as a small warship, and just as tough. If they could find a way to pull one out of the ground… and put it on another planet, one with an enemy base or something like that…"
Miagi grunted, "Then at the very least you've softened your target up, if not outright destroyed it. All without landing a single troop."
"Or the risk of widespread long term damage that can come with orbital bombardment," Jane finished, "We need to find out where they've go-"
The N3 was interrupted by the sound of an electric motor winding up, followed by mechanical sound of a hydraulic piston lifting something heavy up high.
"What's that?"
The Spartan lifted off wall, racking his shotgun, "We're about to get busy…"
THUMP….BAM!
The ground shook beneath her feet at the sound, the building quaked, and window's, designed to be resistant to small arms fire, shattered.
Jane caught herself on a desk, Alenko wasn't as fortunate and hit the ground hard next to her. She wasn't able to get an eye on her other two teammates as she fought to stay upright, but Shepard did notice the ever stalwart Emile stand tall. Did he know what was going to happen?
The shaking stopped, and the N3 pulled Kaidan upright, "Status?!"
"Not dead!"
"Green! In more ways than one."
"What was that?" Alenko asked as Jane started for the door.
"Mating call, a challenge, I don't know," she said shortly before slamming her fist into the controls for the external door, "But I guarantee those thresher things are on their way here, and I guarantee this building is nothing more than a deathtrap."
"Assessment?"
Even when they were rushing out into the dry desert air the man managed to make his low tone sound like a thunderclap. Jane was beginning to suspect he was using some sort of sound amp in his helmet.
"Head for the mountains," she huffed, putting one leg in front of the other as fast as she could, "Hopefully they're solid enough to keep those thresher's away!"
The four N3's were at a dead sprint through the salty flat desert of Akuze's equatorial band, while the N7 looked like he was on a casual afternoon jog. The research station was right at the base of the mountain range, where the civilian compound was located, but any actual progress to be made up the steep slopes was going to be a long process, and part of the reason no one used ground vehicles to get around. That and the fact there were giant killer worms running around underground.
It was hard to tell, what with her feet pounding the ground, but Jane could swear she could feel the ground rumbling beneath her feet.
"Is the ground shaking?" Windsor yelled from her right.
"That's not good," Hiro muttered.
Jane huffed, "Slow down, spread out… I want ten meters between all of us at any given time."
Boom!
All five soldiers turned back to the research station just in time to watch a colossal shape explode out from under it.
It didn't look like a worm, at least not in the face. It was pale, with a skull that was clearly reinforced, huge mandibles that it used to rip the science station's broadcasting antennae apart, a long blue tongue that even from this distance, Jane could tell was dripping with something foul. But what made her nervous was the two little fleshy globes attached to the side of its 'face'. Maybe they weren't eyes, and maybe thresher maws had really bad eyesight, but it was just now that Shepard realized just how shiny and reflective her and her team's armor really was.
Another earth splitting crash as yet another thresher maw erupted from the ground, grabbing the Kodiak the team had flown in on with its mandibles before crushing the craft, and swallowing it whole.
Still, the ground was not done erupting and spewing gargantuan death worms as yet a third showered the surrounding area with debris from the research station. Unfortunately, the largest chunk was headed straight for them.
"Move!" Jane ordered as she herself prepared to get out of the way, only to be grabbed by two very powerful hands and blurred to safety just before a chunk of what used to be expensive lab equipment.
Instead of looking at what was almost certainly her doom if not for the Spartan, she looked at the consequences of her delayed demise. The equipment was heavy, and shook the ground when it hit, and the maws were clearly sensitive to them, as all three giant worms immediately ceased their destruction and turned to the soldier's positions.
That's when Hiro decided upon a rather foolish plan of action.
"They can see us!"
"Hiro don't!"
Too late came the order as the Asian man took off towards the mountains again, every step painfully heavy to Jane. She could practically feel his footsteps, and if she could…
With an ear splitting roar, all three thresher maws disappeared beneath the earth and the ground began to quake once more.
"Spread out!" Shepard called as she did her best to keep her cool, "MIAGI, GET YOUR ASS BACK IN LINE!"
The Valkyrie slid over her shoulder and folded up right as her newest toy ejected its stock and pistol grip. Jane swung the SR99 over her shoulder and let the barrel extend fully and the stands drop.
"Heaviest weapons out! Form staggered lines! One three deep, one two deep. Slow march! Do not fire unless you absolutely know they can see you!"
BOOM!
One of the maws burst from the ground between them and the mountains. Pale skin rolled back over the fleshy globes revealing baby blue eyes, that were very clearly focused on them.
"Line split! Aim for the eyes, move together!"
Windsor, Alenko, and Miagi all moved left, Jane and Emile moved right, and the thresher maw… looked confused. Or it did, right up until mass accelerator fire from Windsor's Valkyrie peppered its hide.
It turned, much faster than something that large should be able to, and seemed to zero in on Logan.
"Keep moving, keep firing!" Jane ordered through the comm as she held up her fist to Emile, halting the N7 as she dropped to one knee and lined up her target through the scope. No fancy features viewing modes necessary as the rifle kicked her shoulder, and one icy blue eye exploded in a spurt of orange.
The maw twisted to focus on her this time, letting loose another roar as it did so.
CRACK!
The tungsten round punched right through the soft flesh found inside a thresher maw's throat and exploded out the back, this time actually managing to make the giant death worm very upset.
Its tongue straightened, green fluid built up, and again the Spartan yanked her out of the way of certain death as green acid burned a crater through the dusty ground.
BOOM!
A second maw burst from just behind the pair. Mouth open, razor teeth lined its throat, and green acid dripped from its tongue as it lunged for the two of them.
BOOM!
Oh God, and she thought regular mass accelerators were loud. Even with the noise dampening in her helmet, all Jane could hear was the ringing in her ears. She could still see though, and couldn't argue with the results of that great big bang.
The maw reared back in pain, its tongue hanging by threads, and its throat shredded to confetti. Orange blood spewed from its mouth, but the beast was far from beaten as it let out another roar, and dove back into the ground.
"Hold fire! Only shoot if you've got a clear shot at their mouths! And for the love of God, keep moving!"
The third maw emerged from the ground behind the trio of N3's some distance from Shepard and the Spartan. Hiro and Kaidan went one way, Logan went another.
"No! keep-"
A mandible speared Windsor through his abdomen, spreading red blood and grisly guts across the salty desert. The extremity retracted, tossing the N3's corpse into its mouth
"FUCK!" Jane screamed inside her helmet, "Stay together, don't separate and let them focus on one at a time!"
An armored arm wrapped around her waist and spun her around as another glob of acid landed right where she'd been. Thank God they had brought the Spartan, or she'd be a puddle of nasty green fluid a few times over.
The SR99 kicked her shoulder again as she drilled a tungsten round into the skull of the second thresher. Blood still poured from its mouth, along with a few other pockmarks from the SR99. Jane and Emile seemed to be the only one doing any damage to the giant worms.
Shepard sidestepped a spiky mandible and leveled the rifle at the offending appendage.
CRACK!
Hardened flesh split under the force of the armor piercing round accelerated to several times the speed of sound and the limb hit the ground. Jane ducked under the second mandible and brought the heavy rifle around in line with the thresher maw's fleshy temple.
CRACK!
The maw's final roar was cut short as the sand grain sized round penetrated its skull and ricocheted from the other side around its brain, turning grey matter to grey mush. It had taken a shotgun with the same firepower as an artillery cannon, one missing mandible, and a bullet in the brain, but one of the worms finally fell.
"Keep-"
The third thresher erupted from the ground right next to her, long blue tongue grabbing her ankle with its disturbingly articulate tendrils that, as it turned out, was covered in small, curved teeth. Jane swung the SR99 around, but the worm was faster.
Shepard barely had time to register the rows of razor sharp teeth as she flew past them into the maw's… maw. The rifle was gone, dropped when the tongue had lifted her off her feet, but she still had her omni blade. She couldn't see, or at least, she couldn't see anything beyond the digestive juices of the giant death worm.
The first slash caused Jane's world to shake as the maw definitely felt whatever it was the N3 had cut, the second, caused Jane's world to go red as the tongue holding her armored leg tightened up and the plates cracked open and green acid leaked in underneath.
Shepard was sure the others could hear her scream over the comms, but the only thing she could hear was the sound of her armor crunching under the powerful grip of the blue tongue, her bones cracking, and her blood boiling.
She was going to die here, in the stomach of some stupid worm, on some worthless planet, all because some fucking eggheads decided to leave without letting the Alliance know about it.
Green eyes screwed shut in acceptance and a grimace dominated her face when something wrapped around her right forearm and pulled.
Flesh tore from her calf as the thresher maw's mouth passed by her again and daylight pierced her visor just before her vision started to fade.
...
Jane jerked awake, her hands going for a sidearm that wasn't there, desperate to get away from giant thresher maws. The desert was significantly cooler than she recalled, and her armor was much more comfortable than she recalled.
And the thresher maw looked an awful lot like her mother.
"Jane, Jane are you okay?"
She was in medical, her mother was here, not killer worms, not giant scary super soldiers, and definitely not the majority of her right lower leg.
"What… what happened?"
Hannah grimaced as she looked down at Jane, her eyes were a little wet, "Jane, you were swallowed by one of those thresher maws."
Shepard shook her head, "I remember that, I don't remember what happened next."
The Shepard matriarch frowned as she took one of her daughter's hands, "That Lieutenant, Emile was his name, dove in after you. Pulled you out, but it ruined your leg in the process."
Jane went cold, "What do you mean, 'ruined'?"
Her mother was visibly holding back tears now, "You've lost sixty eight percent of your muscle tissue in your right calf and your tibia was completely crushed while your fibula was broken in three places."
"But they can replace that, right?" They had the technology after all.
Hannah licked her lips, "Those thresher maws have some pretty nasty acid."
"So?!" That was a little harsh, but Jane was afraid, more so than she had been when she was actually inside a thresher maw.
"Acid got in your blood, and damaged the nerves all along your right leg and torso. Any prosthetic they give you wouldn't be able to sync properly with your body. They would have to amputate your leg and a significant portion of your hips and build you a new leg."
Now it was Jane's turn to tear up, "So I'm a cripple now? I'm useless?"
"Well that's not the soldier I've just been reading about," a calm voice said from the door.
Captain Anderson stepped through the threshold and stepped up to the medical bed datapad in hand, "Lieutenant Emile had you pegged as a soldier who didn't give in after a little adversity. In fact his report on you is about as glowing as it gets."
"What does his report matter?" Jane asked angrily, her voice cracking up, "I can't be a soldier anymore!"
"The Lieutenant understands that, so will Command. You're still up for a promotion though, and I think, you owe Emile for your new rank, Commander."
Shepard blinked, "Sir?"
"Your mother has been promoted to XO of the Kilimanjaro, and I'm in need of a new one," David answered her smoothly, "I just got off the horn with Command and they've agreed to the move. All that's left is paperwork. Congratulations, Commander Shepard."
Her eyes still puffed, but the tears stopped, and her heart no longer felt like it was two decks down.
"Corporal Miagi and Sergeant Alenko are fine, by the way, both managed to follow the Lieutenant's lead to kill the last thresher maw. They're hitting the rack right now, but they'll want to see you when they're up and about."
"Thank you, sir."
Captain Anderson smiled down at the young woman before setting the datapad down, "I'll leave this here."
…
Lieutenant, Senior Grade, Emile A239, N7 Operative.
Assessment of Lieutenant, Junior Grade, Jane Shepard, N3 Squad leader.
It is the opinion of this soldier, that Lieutenant Shepard is a cut above her peers, and any further time spent outside of an actual command is a waste of talent by Alliance Command.
This is an assessment made over the course of three months and four field missions.
Four field missions? Wait, had this guy been tailing her team for three months just to watch her?
Lieutenant Shepard has repeatedly shown excellence in the field of combat. Her skill with small arms is unmatched and she has an uncanny sense of battlefield awareness. But that is not the reason this report suggests an immediate promotion.
Her ability to command the loyalty and respect in the most stressful of situations is truly unique. Lieutenant Shepard routinely gets the most out of her soldiers, and has in fact carried several of her class through the N program. Soldiers like Miagi are not N7 material, but have been getting through the class mostly thanks to the excellent leadership displayed by the Lieutenant.
Shepard felt a spike of anger. That asshole thinks Hiro wasn't a good soldier? That man was as calm as anyone under fire, and one hell of a shot with that Carnifax. Add on top of that a level of tech wizardry more at home in a quarrian environment suit than a human being. Who the hell was this jackass to say he wasn't good enough?
If the Lieutenant does have a weakness, it is her profound compassion for her subordinates. This soldier does have some concerns for her ability to order someone to their death, particularly a subordinate that she has attained a certain level of comradery with.
Her injury is unfortunate, and in the opinion of this report, the Alliance has lost its best field asset.
Best field asset? Jane was good, but it was no competition, even in the eyes of her very biased father, that the Spartan was the best soldier the Alliance had. There was no comparison, he had slaughtered an entire Eclipse Company out in the traverse in a day!
But… he wasn't the kind of man to lie. Or at least Jane didn't think he was.
Her injury need not be a total loss. Her ability to command can still be exploited on the bridge of a ship. This soldier recommends a transfer to full naval service, and an immediate posting as an executive officer on a military vessel.
The door opened, revealing the darkened halls of the Tokyo, and a massive man in the doorway.
"How you doin kid?"
There was no mistaking that whisper. Emile stepped forward, the dimmed lights of the medbay giving him an eerie look.
"I was… reading your report…"
"Captain gave you that, huh?" the unarmored Spartan shook his head, "S'all right, I suppose. Even if you was never s'posed to see it. Whad'ya think?"
"You said Corporal Miagi wasn't a good soldier…"
"He's a fine soldier," Emile denied, "He's just not spec ops material. Doesn't have the resolve, the ability to make the hard choices. He's a follower, always looking to the chain of command for answers, but out there, you won't always get that luxury. He'll make a fine marine, probably even make officer someday. Like Alenko."
"Alenko?" she asked tiredly.
"With Windsor gone, he's up next for a commission."
Logan's death hit Jane all over again as her head flopped down on the pillow. Tears were ready to prick her eyes again, "There's that weakness you referred to."
"It ain't a weakness. Just another reason you were gonna be the best out there. Now Command has to look somewhere else."
Jane's eyes were bleary, but she did manage to finally get a good look at his face. He was kind of cute, but even his face exuded cold professionalism.
"What about you?"
Emile looked down at her, "I don't do teams. G'night kid."
Eh… eh.
There's Akuze, and there's Shepard.
50 internet points if you can figure out my plan for FemShep.
I'm pretty tired, don't got a lot to say. My hours jumped up at work as we're getting closer to the end date on our current project. Plus the Masters kind of took up some of my time this weekend. Speith choked and choked hard on his final eighteen, and Sergio really tried to choke bad, but Justin Rose had already expired trying to swallow the moment whole, so the Spaniard got himself a nice green jacket.
I don't know if you guys had noticed from my other author's notes, but sports are kind of my thing. Expect lots of those references in the story.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and remember, reviews are for, well, you know, reviews. Not your opinions on politics, or current events, or anything other than the story I'm writing. I haven't noticed a problem in any of my stories' comment sections, but I have on other peoples, and it's super annoying.
Review, don't want to write, what you don't want to read.