Interloper Rewrite: Chapter 30

Debrief


"Could you repeat that?" I asked, my voice robbed of breath. My insides turned cold and writhed uncomfortably. I stared in disbelief at the projected face of Forrest.

"You're going to need to find an alternative route off planet." The voice and face of the veteran sniper was strained. In the background behind him, the ground shook. Scattered marines in slate grey armor splattered in pale green ichor were shooting, running. "The mine is too hot for the Normandy to pull an extraction. You're ground zero for the bombardment. I'm sorry, Deputy." And he looked it. His eyes were fixed in a look of pity, peering out from behind the professional mask.

"I copy that, Chief," I heard myself saying. "Get our people back to safety." I let the channel close with a snap. The world seemed disconnected, unanchored, floaty. I stumbled backwards; my legs fortunately find a chair before my ass found the ground. The mine is too hot for extraction. Seven words, but I didn't need that many to describe the passed down order. Left Behind. The words felt wrong as they rolled around the numb recesses of my brain. There was another jounce as a rod of tungsten slapped down onto the arid surface outside. It set my teeth chattering, nut it was sufficient to kick my brain back into gear. I pushed myself up and out of the chair. "Liara, we need to find a way off this rock."

Liara looked up from the console she'd been sorting through with a startled gaze. Another impact slammed with a degree of dramatic timing that would have been comedic had the impacts not been getting heavier and closer. "We what?" She uttered in a small voice. I repeated myself. The taut look of surprise on Liara's face ran through a series of changes, flickering between shock, fear, finally skittering on the border of determination and resignation. "Well, then we'd better hurry." She yanked the optical disk from the computer bank and stowed it in an armored pouch. Her eyes quickly took in the room again. She was analyzing. Her gaze fell on the Cerberus agent blubbering on the floor. "What do we do with this one?"

"Leave him for the Rachni," I said, savagely, "Or for the Admiral, I don't care. He'll only slow us down." The words tasted bitter in my mouth, but in the moment, I couldn't care less. The quavering observer was the reason we were in this mess in the first place and I hadn't the energy to hold back the chance to make him pay for it.

"No," the man wailed, "nononono. I can help you! I can; we have a shuttle parked nearby. It's how we got here. We're only supposed to us it for emergencies!" The man in the black and yellow uniform looked from Liara to me with eyes bulging in alarm. I felt sick to my stomach as he actually got down on his knees to beg, hands held out in front of him.

"And you'll take us to it?" I asked.

The man's eyes bugged again, but he began bobbing his head rapidly as more explosions rocked the little observation post. There was a shark cracking sound, and a panel fell away from the roughhewn rock surface.

"Yes, please!" the man pleaded. His dark brown hair was plastered to his forehead by sweat.

Was he telling the truth? Did we have the luxury of trying to figure that out.

"Fine," the statement came out like an exasperated sigh, but a sick sense of relief was already making a home in my mind. We weren't going to die down here. "Liara, get him some medigel. He can't get us out of here if he passes out on us. We need to pick up Wrex, then we'll bug out."

Liara nodded and rounded on the man with a stern expression. She knelt by him, pressing the medigel injector none too gently in between the man's ribs. There was the hiss and the man ceased his shaking. I turned away as the Asari helped haul the man to his feet and opened a line to Wrex.

"What?" the alien said in lieu of greeting. The booming shots of his weapon echoed behind his words, met at each blast with the sharp shriek of dead and dying Rachni. "I'm a little busy."

"Wrex, we're pulling out. The surface is under bombardment, but we've secured an escape shuttle..."

The Krogan cut me off. "I wondered what that party upstairs was. Thought you might be setting off the charges early to try and get rid of me. Wouldn't be the first time. I guess you can count yourself lucky that wasn't the case."

I looked around at the crumbling walls rent all around with cracks. Lucky wasn't the word I'd choose.

"I was already moving in your direction anyway. Don't leave without me." Wrex closed the channel as a rise in insectoid wailing filled his side of the circuit.

I shook my head and motioned for Liara to fall in behind me on the way to the exit out onto the surface. There was no point waiting around to be buried. I offered the inscribed hexagon-within-hexagon on the wall a baleful glance and slapped my gauntlet against the door controls. The iris door grated open. It was like opening a window into a volcanic eruption. The hillside sloped away from us, littered with chunks of stone from more distant weapon impacts. The ground shivered again as a bright lance of light plummeted to earth. The wind howled around us, hot, choked with debris. It clawed at us with raking talons of pumice and charred stone. The black, ash covered plain had been split open like an overcooked steak, angry red stone peeking from beneath its scorched crust. There were fresh craters all around us, some big enough to park the Mako in. The Cerberus agent lolled against me as he shuffled out of the flickering light of his bolt hole and I grabbed him by the shoulder.

"Where's the shuttle!?" I demanded. I had to yell to make myself heard over the ever-quickening thunder of the bombardment. It must not have been enough, my words snatched away by the gale, because the man only squinted at me, face slack with shock. "Where is it!" I roared again. His response didn't make it back, but he raised an arm weakly. I followed the line of his pointing finger and caught a flicker of motion on the ground some thirty feet away. I pushed him back into Liara's grasp and jogged over. My knees juddered, turning my run into a drunken stagger. The ground felt like a living thing, it writhed in pain under the repeated blows, made to throw me off the whole planet. I gripped my teeth as the stone fell away beneath me and spilled me into a flat skid, outstretched hand barely keeping my helmet from cracking on the rock. Before my slide had come to a stop, I was scrabbling forward. Sweat beaded my forehead, stinging my eyes despite the valiant effort of my helmet pad and I had the horrifying feeling that the spreading dampness elsewhere was not sweat at all. I focused on clawing my way forward as stone raked my back. My kinetic barriers fuzzed, overwhelmed by the flurrying ash and some of the larger chunks started to ping off the armor itself.

My salvation turned out to be a stubby metal post set in the ashen ground. Near invisible from standing, it peeked out from the ground when eye to eye with it. I dug in with shaking fingers and hauled it up. The top made a handle that let me lever out a stainless-steel box from its niche. The box had a single blinking red button illuminated on its surface.

"This better not be a self-destruct," I ground out, and punched the button. The ground before me split open, a square section sliding up and away from me. Dust and debris fell away into the darkness beneath the ground. They bounced of something metallic. Then the light came on in the pit. The bullet-nosed shuttle poked up from below. We were going to get off this planet.

"Liddle, look!" Liara was pointing back towards where we had left the Tenth. It took a second for my eyes to pick out just what she was pointing at. In the sky above the Marine's compound, the needle shape of the Normandy hovered, buffeted by the explosion of nearby impacts. The bright light of the Mako's jump jets ascended into the frigate's belly and was swallowed as the ship darted upwards. The ground began to convulse almost nonstop as the bombardment swept closer. "Are we going to need to go back into that mine and find Wrex?"

"No need." The gruff voice of the massive Krogan croaked behind us. We spun, eyes on the mouth of the mine tunnel. Wrex ascended, pushing his way past piles of dislodged rubble. His armor was cracked and spattered with gore. A few open wounds glistened in the light of the bombardment. "This guy is our ticket off this rock?"

I nodded.

"Well then, let's go."

"Strap him down," I ordered as the shuttle's door shut. The interior of the shuttle was spacious, even comfortable with the addition of leather seats in the cockpit. I belted myself in and kicked off what I hoped was an autostart. The shuttle kindly followed my directions, humming as it brought itself up to power.

"Do you know how to fly this thing?" Liara belted herself in beside me.

"I've driven a Mako in zero-g, does that count?" I replied ruefully. I brought up the flight controls with a touch. The lay out was fairly intuitive. "Here goes nothing." I jammed the throttle forward. The shuttle rocketed forward, scraping across gravel as it did. I gritted my teeth as the scraping drowned out the blasts. I pulled back and into the sky. The shuttle blasted upwards at my touch. Outside the lances of Kohoku's fleet were falling faster and harder. I set us on a weaving pattern to try and avoid being hit.

"They don't seem to be shooting at us." Liara peered out of the forward screen. She was right, will the blows fell thick around us, the pattern seemed more or less random.

"The shuttle has rudimentary stealthing," The operative said, "that and the bombardment will mask us from sensors until we leave the atmosphere."

"Lucky for us, we won't have to leave the atmosphere," I replied. A familiar shape yawned up out of the fiery swirl of ash. The ship lined itself up to us expertly, hooking us with exterior clamps. The shuttle shuddered as we suddenly accelerated backwards and up away from the planet. Even looking backwards, the light show was blinding. The fleet above had apparently moved up to their heavy guns, because each blast lit the entire cabin through the polarized screen and issued forth a rumbling roar that shook the hull.

"Quite beautiful, isn't it?" Liara asked, half mesmerized.

"Yes," I answered, "and terrible."


The debriefing was scheduled the next day. The orders had come in almost immediately after breaking the atmosphere, before we even crossed over the extended boarding tube into the Normandy. The shuttle was left to be towed as we retreated from the system, a prize snatched from under the nose of the frigates and cruisers that still hung over the sulphureous orb of Nepmos. Their bombardment didn't look so bad from space, the occasional pinprick of blue light dropping from one of the larger steel grey wedges to drop to the surface below and create a minute blip of white light. Gone was the fury we had experienced in our escape, leaving only the silence of space. I watched that bombardment for a long time, until it shrank to a mere marble on the edge of vision and we jumped to FTL. After that, there was a rush to come aboard and the rest of the day was swallowed by a rush of chaotic events that may as well have moved around me. Our Cerberus prisoner was whisked away immediately. Then it was shaking hands, patting backs. Marines of the 10th, Chief Forrest, Commander Shepard had friendly words and warm smiles to share, but they passed over my head as my feet sought a sonic shower and a warm bunk of their own accord. I did not dream that night.

The whole affair left me with very little time to prepare for my first official debrief with the Commander. I barely had enough time to fall out of bed, clean and shave, and shove myself into a pressed dress uniform that mostly fit. It was a loaner piece, unadorned but for the crest of the Citadel Council that was pinned to the lapel. It was the closest thing I could find to match my ad hoc title. I straightened it for the third time as I stood outside the Commander's office, running through my report in my head once again. The tight collar pressed on my throat, making it hard to swallow.

"Come in."

I sprang to attention at the command and stepped towards the door. It swished open to reveal the interior of Shepard's cabin. I stepped into the sparsely decorated room and saluted the woman sitting behind the white metal desk. She returned it affably and motioned for the single chair sitting on the other side of the desk. I took it quickly, clutching the thin datapad that contained my notes to my chest like a shield.

"Ease up a little, Deputy," Shepard offered with a tired smile, "this is a debriefing, not a court martial." She leaned forward in her chair and sipped from her water glass. Over her shoulder I could see the only other furniture in the room, the single bed with its covers tightly turned down. Tacked to the wall beside it was a small medal in a case and a photograph of a small group of people standing and waving in a field of blue-green grass. Shepard cleared her throat and I dragged my attention back to the meeting. "I read your report," she said. She lifted a datapad of her own from the stack of loose folders on her desk. "It reads more like prose fiction than a people of technical writing but this isn't a review of your writing. Overall, I think you did well, given the circumstances. Mission objectives achieved, no casualties, quite impressive. There was however, one thing…" Something hard and metal clinked on the desktop. It was the Cerberus emblem, still partially attached to a scrap of uniform. "Have you ever seen this before?"

My throat tightened, and not because of the suddenly noose-like collar. Nepmos had been the first run in that this Normandy crew had had with Cerberus. And so, realistically, it should also be mine. But something about the way Shepard was waiting intently for my answer triggered alarm bells all up and down my spine.

"It was all over the walls down on the planet. At the observation post we found," I said carefully, trying to buy myself some time.

"That all you know?" Shepard's tone was definitely more pointed. I felt sweat bead on the back of my neck and run down to wet the collar of my uniform.

"No," I answered, my words guarded. "I know it belongs to whoever unleashed the Rachni all over everything. That's in my report, though." I studied the Commander's face. The impenetrable mask of her "business face" was in full effect. That was very bad news. I swallowed, waiting for the trap to spring. I didn't have to wait long.

"So. What's Cerberus?" the woman asked, rapidly shifting gears. The question tripped me up. It must have shown, because the Commander leaned forward, features drawn. "Your helmet mic picked up the word, I just thought it was interesting that the friend you brought back with you admitted to being part of an organization of the very same name." She leaned back. "What's the matter, not feeling very talkative today?" The last line was less business like.

"Commander, I..."

"You know, Captain Anderson told me he couldn't find you in the Eden Prime records, even after a 98% restoration was run. I convinced him not to arrest you on the spot because I thought you'd be an asset and because I thought you could be trusted. But you're not some simple farmer, are you?" Shepard said. The disappointment evident in her voice was a knife aimed at my chest.

"No Commander." The admission did little to alleviate the feeling of guilt that was filling my belly with a cold, hollow feeling. The terrible, slow-moving terror of being found out. What was I going to do. Tell the truth? I'd be committed.

"Now the question is, what are you? You're not a militiaman, you're not a farmer, nor are you a scientist, and I find it hard to believe you're an Alliance black ops operative. From your team's reports, this post was as much surprise to you as it was to them, and I doubt this Cerberus would be willing to take potshots at one of their own. So, what's your story? And I want the truth this time."

"They picked me up out of school," my mouth began moving of its own accord before I could stop it. Shepard looked at me expectantly. As much as it twisted that dagger of guilt, I had to commit. When forced between blurting out the unbelievable truth and throwing out another, more palatable lie, there was only one real choice. "They called it an internship in science. But once I saw what they were doing, and what they were all about, I stowed away on a ship and escaped to Eden Prime. That's why I'm not in the records there."

"That's more or less what I thought," Shepard said after a long silence, "The boy in the brig said much the same thing, although he seems never to have suffered from the same attack of conscience. Sounds like you got out just in time, this Cerberus is bad news."

As the Commander kept talking, I felt my body loosen from the paralysis that had gripped it from the moment Shepard had mentioned Cerberus. Every word seemed to bring me further from being thrown in the brig alongside the other guy. I found myself telling lies more easily once the first had apparently been swallowed, although the whole affair kept me on edge. I tried to reveal as much about the organization as I could without letting slip some future knowledge, or something impossible for a new recruit to know. I mentioned being trained on a moving space station. Shepard listened intently. The debriefing was draining, and at the end, I left shaken. Kaidan stood silently at the door as I passed, his face stony. The rest of the crew seemed none the wiser, clapping me on the back for a successful mission. I wandered dazedly past them.