Interloper Rewrite: Chapter 9
Ground Op
"Ready to go?" Commander Shepard asked. "We're going to need a driver down on Sharjila."
I looked up to find the Commander standing above me in full armor. I closed my omni-tool with a shake of the wrist. I hadn't missed our transition to the Macedon system, but I also hadn't expected to be tapped for the mission. Instead, I'd been tearing my hair out trying to figure out how to prevent Shepard becoming an assassin for hire. Something about our conversation on the Citadel made me feel she wouldn't take being conned into being a hitman well at all.
"You're clearing me for duty again?" This was my chance to intervene, if necessary.
"Dr. Chakwas tells me you've made a full recovery, even those headaches you've been trying to hide from the crew." She cocked her head, but under her helmet it was hard to tell whether it was in humor or in exasperation.
"Commander, I…"
"Relax, there's nothing wrong with wanting to get back to the fight. Just next time, don't lie to the lady with the med scanner, okay? We've talked about getting the proper recovery."
"Yes ma'am," I said, eyes cast down. When she put it that way…
"Good, now gear up, and wear your pressure seals, this world's a nasty one." It wasn't long before I sat back in the driver's chair on the Mako. I ran the engine and weapon checks as the rest of the team received a briefing outside. The first to climb in behind me was Liara.
"You're coming on this mission?" I asked, surprised.
"Yes, there are pirates down there enslaving my fellow asari. How could I not come?" her voice seemed stretched, and hard as iron. It wasn't the calm and mellow voice that had talked at length about ruins and caves.
"I just didn't take you for a fighter," I said
"Normally I would agree with you, but I have this pistol, and my biotics, and there are people who need our help." She held the folded weapon between shaking fingers. I placed a steadying hand over hers. She offered me a shy smile in return and slipped the pistol back onto its magnetic anchor.
"Well said." Kaidan slid in, followed by Tali and Shepard. I flipped the engine switches on as the doors opened ahead of us. The murky brown terrain flashed by below us, a flash of grey ahead marked our target. I jammed down on the accelerator and threw the IFV into gear. We lurched out into empty space. I kicked in the jets as we neared the ground. The Mako hit the ground running. Shepard ran through the plan one last time.
"This is a hostage rescue; don't go shooting if you don't have to. The stronghold our target is cooped up in looks pre-fab, unless they've put a lot of effort into it, we can be sure to see this kind of layout." The holographic representation of a squat, two story building splashed over the inside wall. "This segment here should provide us with some cover. Liara, Tali, I want you to stick to this wall like glue. Kaidan and I will push along here and do a sweep to the back wall. Liddle, you'll be covering us."
"Commander, this thing won't fit through those doors."
"On foot, Liddle."
"Yes, of course, on foot." The feeling of nervousness started to leach back into my gut. The Mako filled up with silence as we roared along the muddy landscape. "This is it; the compound should be just over this ridge." The Mako bounded over the rise and into a flurry of small arms fire. Kaidan lit up the defenders first with the machine gun, then with the cannon. I ground to a halt just before the closed doors. Shepard popped the hatch. The thick, ammonia laden air roiled in through the cabin.
"Go, go, go!" one after the other, the team slid out of the troop compartment. After I locked down the controls, I followed them. I withdrew my Lancer, the weight felt comforting. My boots crunched though the thin layer of egg yolk yellow Sulphur to expose silver-white sand that swept around me in the light breeze that curled past the compound. The ground felt slick underfoot as the sand shifted in odd ways under my footsteps. I slipped and scurried over to the solid rectangular hatch set in the abraded metal wall where the rest of the party had gathered.
"Tali, get the door," Shepard barked over the comm. The Quarian ran forward and pressed her omni-tool up against the hatch. It glowed to life and she frantically tapped out a pattern on the keyboard. The bright orange light pulsed as concentric rings of light spun around each other.
The rest of us waited with bated breath. The atmosphere was oppressive, even through the thick plates and heavy rubber seals of my suit. I felt like a tube of toothpaste being squeezed from all sides. Though I knew it was impossible for anything t bypass the seals, I could almost feel the acrid tang of the ammonia and rotten egg smell dancing on my tongue. I quickly checked the seals on my helmet, just to be safe. I quickly got a green light back. All clear.
"Got it," Tali trilled as her omni-tool gave us a triple beep. The doors cracked open to let the light from the interior spill out. Shepard and Kaidan dug their fingers into the crack and hauled back to force the doors open and we were inside. This first chamber was a cramped airlock, which cycled out the toxic atmosphere before spilling us out into an empty hallway. My first impression was of cheap, pressed aluminum. How anyone made their home on a toxic world inside the equivalent of a double thick pie tin eluded me. I resisted the urge to double check my seals.
"Alright, the main area should be just through here," Shepard said. She pointed at a door at the other end of the hall. "Stack up, be ready to take fire, remember your positions." My heart pounded in my chest as I rushed to join my crewmates huddled beside the closed door. "Now!" Kaidan was the first through the door. His head was wreathed in purple fire and his arms stretched wide to project a solid sheet of biotic force. A hail of fire richocheted off of the barrier's umbrella. Shepard ducked around the corner with her rifle extended. The weapon thrummed and the incoming fire slackened, if only for a second. The Commander looked over at me. "Liddle, you're up!"
This is it. I grasped my rifle and bolted through the doors. I ducked past Kaidan and quickly scoped out the room. The room seemed lit from all sides by the strobe-flash of weapons fire. It was impossible to make sense of the chaos. Then some of the lights found me. Three impacts rang off my shoulder, triggering the beeping of an alarm and a shield indicator light flashing in my helmet. I sprinted, hunched over, to the nearest cover. I slammed down behind a stack of crates just in time. There was a sound of breaking glass and my shields collapsed. I lay back against the reassuringly solid metal of the crate and drew a deep, shuddering breath. The storm of fire continued unabated as Kaidan dropped his barrier and scooted forward. Past him, I saw Tali and Liara break for their wall. I fired blindly over the top of my cover to try and give them some cover. The slavers returned fire, their rounds clawed at the crate. Two rounds punched through, striking sparks off the ground at my feet. I gave out a yelp and threw myself to the side. I scrabbled to find better cover under the blistering assault. A quick peek around the corner revealed Kaidan locked in a biotic duel with the asari slaver. The air between them rippled as if alive with warped gravity. Wave after wave crashed back and forth between them, each crest crashing a little closer to the marine.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw another of the pirates lining up a shot on Kaidan's flank. I raised my rifle and let loose, scattering shot around the sniper's position. The armored figure ducked back into cover.
Shepard moved into the room, her pistol raised. It barked three times, the precision shots sticking rounds up the chest plate of the asari in the center of the room. The third round lanced through in a shower of bright blue blood. Kaidan was quick to press his advantage. He shoved outwards, sending a focused wedge of purple-blue energy surging towards the staggering slaver. She was lifted from her feet with a sharp grunt and slammed back against the far wall. Her body left a dent in the metal as she slumped and lay still, such was the force. Freed from his duel, Kaidan was unleashed. He threw biotic blasts left and right, striking at the slavers still in cover. I hazarded another peek from cover and let off a short volley of shots. Across the room, Liara pulled a slaver forward, setting him up for Tali's shotgun. Shepard had dropped the handgun and taken up her sniper rifle again. With another deep *thoom* she knocked down a charging attacker. Somewhere in the back of the compound, something was burning. The room filled with a pall of dark and oily smoke as shots continued to ring out, lighting the growing clouds as if they were a growing thunderstorm.
I moved forward, carefully picking my way through the smoke. Gingerly, I stepped over a body, trying very hard not to look it in the eye. The shots were coming fewer and farther between, the battle petering out like the guttering of the flames that backlit the gloom. Through the smoke, I saw the outline of another merc. I froze. Out in the open like this, if the merc saw me, I would die. My rifle rattled as I tried to draw a bead on the slaver. As if they had heard me, their head snapped up. Their weapon followed. A single red hot spark erupted in my direction. It caught me high on the shoulder, throwing my aim. I let lose a startled grunt as the treasonous Lancer slipped from my grasp as my fingers went numb. Panic surged through me as I dove for it. Another shot thrummed overhead as the weapon skittered away from my outstretched fingers. The slaver took another step towards me, giving me a good view of the end of their gun barrel.
With my rifle on the floor in front of me and my handgun trapped beneath me body, I was left with one option. I thrust my other arm forward and activated my omni-tool. The first readied combat program activated. The mini-fabber fired up, drawing from the materials stored in my armor to craft a spherical glob of incendiary gel. With another thrust, the tiny explosive launched. The glob splattered on the merc's shields and ignited. The slaver screamed horribly, flailing against the spreading fire on their chest. I scurried forward and scooped up my rifle. At point blank range, I pulled the trigger. The slaver went down and stayed down.
"Clear!" Shepard yelled. "Split up, look for the captive asari."
I looked around. There was no movement in the compound outside of the slow curling of smoke. I levered myself up off the floor. My knee hit the boot of the fallen slaver. I looked up my eyes capturing the details almost against my will. The unnatural angle, the charred ruin of his chestplate with its neat bullet holes, the helmet, visor open. Too late, I tried to stop myself meeting the eyes of the corpse that I had made. I swallowed bile. The eyes were human.
He was a slaver. Scumbag would have shot me dead.
I tore my eyes away and rubbed my sore shoulder. I was here for a reason. Couldn't let a little thing like getting shot distract me from my goals. My eyes fixed on the door to what should be the back office. I headed directly to it as my companions spread out to search the place. The door opened smoothly despite the stippling of bullet holes. I slipped inside to find a neatly appointed office decorated with all kinds of alien artifacts. But what drew my attention was the desk. It was empty besides the empty frame of a holoterminal. I rushed to the terminal and powered it on. The screen was locked. I searched the desk for a password, anything that might give a hint at how to get in. No such luck.
How would Shepard get in? I wondered aloud. Probably by slapping omnigel into something. I had full reserves of the silvery nanites, but I was no hacker. My furtive inquiries onto the extranet hadn't brought up any programs, either. Apparently the Alliance frowned on teaching civilians how to break into computer systems. I'd have to get in another way. I ducked under the table to find a silvery box held in thin metal brackets. Jackpot. I levered the box out of its mounting and locked it to my armor. I hopped back up and tried the terminal again. It displayed a blank screen. Good.
"Anything in here?" Kaidan asked from the door. I was able to catch myself before I jumped out of my skin.
"No, looks like they wiped anything when we attacked," I lied.
"Damn. The rest of the compound's empty too. I don't think they even kept captives here." There was a sudden burst of gunfire. Kaidan and I rushed up the ramp to the source. In one of the side rooms, a massive Krogan had Shepard up against the wall by the neck.
"You have the gall to attack us, in our base!?" The Krogan shook Sheppard like a doll. Inside the room, Liara had her gun trained on the Krogan.
"He came at us from behind a crate. Grabbed Shepard by the neck before we could get a clean shot. He's been ranting ever since," She said quickly, obviously panicking.
"And I'll snap her neck if you so much as twitch," The Krogan barked back. Behind him, Shepard uttered a strained gurgle. "What!?" The Krogan loosened his grip.
"I said, you talk too much." She drew her pistol and shoved it beneath the Krogan's head plate. She fired until the merc crumpled in a heap. Shepard dropped to the floor and gasped for air. She straightened after a wave of coughs and wiped gore from her face.
"Let's wrap this up then," she said.
Once back on the Normandy, the team split up. Shepard left to contact Nassana Dantius, her neck already showing signs of bruising. She brushed aside any attempt to help aside from a light medigel application. Kaidan had overheated his amp, so he headed to the medbay. Joker had picked something up he thought would interest Liara, while Tali had to run a diagnostic on her suit, which left me alone. I found a secluded start work on my liberated data drive. The Normandy likely had a full suite of powerful decryption tools, but they were likely to be recorded. As I connected the drive to my omni-tool, I silently cursed myself for not listening to my roommate as he had bragged about how well encrypted his external hard drive had been. What had he said, something about memory? I booted the drive and was greeted by a directory. Endless files, each with a time stamp. My heart raced as I selected the first one. A box popped up, asking for a password. Damn. Time for another plan of attack. I scrolled through the directory, searching through the dates until my eyes alighted on one that stood out. The last saved folder had been titled simply 'Nassana.' Curious, I selected the file. To my surprise, it opened, displaying a file of plain text. Dearest Sister… My heart caught in my throat. Dahlia's last message to her sister, the letter that had gotten her killed. I scanned it quickly.
Dearest Sister,
I saw you on the extranet the other day. Going on about how your handlers will put an end to the rampant piracy of the Artemis Tau cluster. Pretty words. Do they know about what your dearest sister does for a living, I wonder. Do your coworker's know what lies hide behind your righteousness? I was thinking the other day that maybe they might have to find out. Times are tough all around, as they say. Your times could get a lot tougher. But they don't have to. I'm sure as a political lapdog you've made some key donations to further your career. Think of this as one of those. You know where to send it. And don't think about raising a fuss. Besides, what's a few million between sisters. I trust you to follow through on this with all speed. Trust, that's a pretty word too. Something we've never shared. But I can trust you to look out for your own skins.
As always, you remain in my thoughts,
Dahlia
Those words echoed as I closed the file. Trust, that's a pretty word too. I scrolled back up to the top and selected a folder. At the password prompt I tapped in 'pretty words.' Access denied. My prow furrowed. I reread the passage. 'trust.' Access denied. I rubbed at my eyes and read the message again. As always, you remain in my thoughts. An idea percolated up in my brain. These two sisters, paranoid, obsessed. I typed in a new password. 'Nassana.' The file opened. It was time to get to work. I flipped through the folders on the data drive one by one. A lot of it was just chatter, call logs and invoices from within the slaver ring, but a few files clearly implicated Nassana's involvement. I package those and encrypted the rest. That left the decision of what to do with them. There was always blackmail, but then again Nassana had sent a Spectre after the last attempted blackmailer and that was her own sister. After some thought, I decided to turn it over to the authorities. If her business practices on Illium were any indication, the galaxy was better off with her rotting in jail.
I sent a copy of the files to Captain Bailey of C-Sec and the reporter, Emily Wong. That would ensure that something would be done. I closed down the messenger program and broke down my rifle and armor for cleaning. After it shined like new, I left the barracks in search of food.
The mess hall was quieter than usual when I arrived. The crew was huddled around the extranet terminal in the back of the room. I wandered over, but was quickly hushed when I tried to ask what was going on. The terminal was playing a live newscast from the Citadel.
"…lliance reps have not yet made a comment. If you're just joining us, this is Khalisah Bint Sinan al-Jilani, reporting on the sudden disappearance of Alliance Admiral Kahoku. The admiral was last seen this morning on Zakera Ward before departing by unregistered shuttle."
"Wait, the admiral just disappeared?" I asked.
"Just took up and left," Corporal Steiner commented. A cold feeling began to grip at my chest. Had I been too late? "Took his entire flotilla with him."
"Wait, he what?" I asked.
"He took his flotilla with him when he left the Citadel. Something about 'not taking these terrorist threats lightly.' He switched off his IFFs past the relay and vanished."
So he's still alive. But what was going on? He should have gone into hiding.
"Oh."
"Yeah, the Turians are furious. They say the Alliance needs to keep a tighter leash on its admirals. The Batarians are pretty upset too, since Kahoku's never been there biggest fan. They're worried this is going to end up being retaliation to that attempted takeover of an asteroid over Terra Nova."
"The Batarians didn't actually get the asteroid did they?" I asked.
"No," Steiner smiled jaggedly, "someone tipped off the garrison, those terrorists didn't even touch ground."
The terminal was switched over to a sports broadcast and a stack of MRE's were prepared for lunch.
"What do you think set him off?" Jenkins said as he took a seat across from me. "Do you really think he's going after the Batarians?"
"I honestly have no clue. Guy was a war hero, right, I don't think he'd have gone rogue without a good reason."
"Maybe, I know I'd be mad after what those Batarians pulled though. You know they're saying they wanted to fly that rock into Terra Nova's capital city. It would have killed millions if the garrison wasn't ready for them. If I had a fleet I'd be ready for some payback."
"Well Rick, I guess it's lucky you don't have a fleet." Steiner joked. "We'd be in a different war every other week."
We munched on our meals as more marines filtered into the mess hall. The conversation eventually turned to the action down on Sharjila. Most of the marines weren't really impressed, they were doubtless veterans of far more intense skirmishes, but Jenkins hung on my every word.
"And then what?" he asked as I mentioned the gunshots coming from upstairs.
"Well, then the Lieutenant and I rushed up, guns drawn, ready to face a new enemy. When we got there, this massive Krogan had the Commander pinned up against a wall. It's like he had gone mad with rage, he was ranting about how we were the villains. And then, do you know what the Commander did? She says, 'You talk too much,' puts a gun right in his face and pow, drops him."
"Wow." Jenkins, "Have you ever considered writing all this down? You could make a killing with the vids."
"Of course he isn't writing it down. This stuff'll be classified until that asari dies of old age, or the Alliance wants to do a spin job on the First Human Spectre." Steiner interjected.
"You're a real cynic Steiner, you know that." Jenkins replied.
"I fought on Torfan, Jenkins, that'd make a cynic out of even you." The corporal took a bite of a close approximation of mashed potatoes.
"Oh jeez, I didn't know, I'm sorry." Jenkins stumbled about, looking to me for guidance. I had nothing.
"Don't worry, kid, I don't exactly go spreading it around. Look, I don't fault you two your enthusiasm, but you've got to realize war isn't a game you can win or lose; good people are going to die out there." Steiner's normally laid back demeanor was gone. A cold fury echoed from behind her eyes. She finished eating quickly and left for her duty station.
The image of the dead slaver danced in the back of my mind, conjured up by Steiner's anger. Suddenly, my rations became even more unpalatable.
"That was pretty extreme. Don't you think?" Jenkins asked in hushed tones.
"No, I think I'm starting to get it," I responded. My unsettled stomach churned and my shoulder started to ache.
"Do you think I should apologize?" Jenkins asked.
"I think this is something you've just got to let go, man. It's a pretty big sore spot by the looks of things."
"You're probably right."
I pushed away my own tray. "I think I need to go to the medbay, my shoulder is killing me."
The medlab was almost empty. Kaidan sat on one of the beds with a book in his hands. He nodded in my direction as I walked in. Doctor Chakwas was talking into the intercom.
"No Commander you will not 'just be fine' a Krogan had you suspended by your neck and Lieutenant Alenko tells me you were already showing signs of severe bruising. Now either you come down here or I come upstairs with a heavy tranquilizer and a shortage of patience." There was a muffled sound from the other end before Shepard spoke.
"Fine, I'll be down once I place a few more calls."
"Good, now you'll have to excuse me, I have someone here." She turned to look at me. "Ah, Deputy Liddle, how can I help you?"
"It's my shoulder, it's been hurting since the mission down on the planet. I, uh, took a hit."
"Take a seat, Deputy." Chakwas pulled a handheld scanner from a draw. The thing prickled as she ran it over my shoulder.
"Hmm, you have some minor bruising, looks like you avoided the worst of it. You'll be fine, though I have some light painkillers if it's bothering you."
"Thanks Doctor, I'll take the pills."
"It's a shot, actually, a subdermal infusion of dilute medigel which will dull the pain for up to a day. You should be well on the way to healing by then." She pressed her omni-tool into my shoulder and sent a jet of the medicine through my skin. The effect was instantaneous, a spreading patch of coolness that wiped out the ache of the bruises.
"Thanks, Doc." I stretched out the wounded muscles. "Feels good as new."
"Oh, Michael, I did not know you were here. Were you hurt on the mission?" I looked up to see Liara standing in the bay with a thick sheath of papers in her arms.
"Nothing serious, just some bruises. What's that you've got there?"
"Joker found these while we were dealing with those slavers." She said. "If I'm right, these are some of the last writings of the asari matriarch, Dilinaga. The Matriarch and twenty seven of her peers left Thessia at the dawn of our interstellar age, dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge among the stars. To find some of their surviving records is what every asari archaeologist dreams of."
"So how will you be sure? That these are her writings, I mean."
"Well, they will have to be sent back to Thessia for verification, but I want to at least read them first. The secrets they could hold. I don't think I've been this excited since I was a child."
"So these writings, they're pretty important to your people?" Kaidan asked from his bed.
"Yes, I do not know much of Earth history, but imagine a group of your greatest thinkers banded together in the pursuit of knowledge. Over time, many of them left the group, or went missing, but the foremost of them continued writing well into her twilight years. Then imagine centuries later, these writings are found, perfectly preserved. That is what these mean to my people."
"That's… pretty important then." Kaidan agreed. "We'll have to be on the lookout in the future."
"You needn't," Liara said quickly, "My first priority is stopping Saren and Benezia. I couldn't ask for time to be taken from such an important mission, to have found one is reward enough."
"Nevertheless, there's nothing stopping us from keeping an eye out. At this rate we'll have crossed the galaxy twice before this mission's over." I said.
"Only twice? It feels like we've already done that much." A third voice said from the doorway.
"Commander." Kaidan saluted.
"At ease Lieutenant." She gave the biotic a piercing stare. "Sounds like someone's been telling tales."
"I, ma'am…" Kaidan spluttered, "I was just worried and, um, that Krogan had you by the neck." His voice faded off.
"I suppose I'll have to let you off this time Alenko." Shepard said in a tone of mock severity. "but thanks for looking out for me."
"Ah, Commander, you actually came down this time. Take a seat." Chakwas had returned from the back office. I shuffled out of the way to let the Commander get settled. "Hmm, yes, textbook constriction. Don't worry Commander; I'll have you good as new in no time."
"Michael, I was wondering if you wanted to talk again, about the Protheans." Liara was speaking to me again.
"Yeah, I'd like that. There are ruins on Feros, right? Anything you know could be helpful on the mission."
"Exactly what I was thinking. Come by later, I have a lot of reading to do."
Author's Note:
This chapter ended up getting a pretty major facelift. It started as pretty combat heavy chapter, and that hasn't changed, but the supporting structure definitely needed some beefing up. I debated taking out some of Liddle's fooling around with intel brokership, but in the end I felt it important to the butterflying I'm trying to explore in the fic. That being said, those sections haven't been left alone. A major focus of this rewrite is making Liddle's progression to competence a little more realistic.
-Liddle Out
