Interloper Rewrite: Chapter 32

Splashdown on Virmire


Thirty Alliance marines, accompanied by all their combat gear, stood in a neat triple line behind the Mako the morning of the Virmire drop. I walked past them, nodding to those I knew. The faces behind the dark blue masks were hard, focused. They clasped rifles to their chests or held larger, unfamiliar pieces still locked in their folded position. A quartet of troopers at the back of the pack carried a set of large tubes with collapsible legs swept beneath. I walked past, bouncing my own helmet in my hands nervously. The stark white infantry fighting vehicle lay hunched at the head of the column. Scrubbed clean of the ashy coating it had picked up on Nepmos, the Mako gleamed with deadly intent. I reached out to touch its metal skin as I passed. Though cold and still, I could almost feel the buzzing eagerness of the machine beneath my fingers.

The entry hatch popped open ahead of me. Jenkins was already inside. The corporal smiled at my approach. I tried my best to reflect the expression honestly, though having been demoted to his driver still smarted. I let the helmet drop to my side and took his offered hand up into the belly of the light tank. I crawled past Jenkins' post at the gunner's console and from there forward to the driver's cabin. The lights cameo on one by one as the Mako came alive. Behind me, the engine spun up with a barely constrained growl.

"Mako is online. All lights are green, we are ready to go," I intoned over the radio. The images piped in from the outside popped up on the screens one by one. The forward landing ramp stood grey and solid ahead. The reply from the Normandy's jump coordinator crackled back over the headset perched on one ear with clipped, precise commands.

"Prepped for jump. Prepare to open forward hatch." I took in a deep breath and let it out slowly, closing my eyes. Outside the armored shell of the Mako the cargo bay was filled with the sharp whistle of the wind. My eyes snapped open. A long bright line appeared at the top of the bay as the ramp began its descent. The line widened until it became a yawning portal over gentle waves that whipped by at speed. Ahead of us, the outline of the shoreline hunched on the horizon. It grew steadily in my view as the Normandy screamed inland and dropped low over the cresting waves. "Deputy Liddle, you are clear to begin your drop."

"Deputy Liddle here, beginning my drop." I gripped the controls tightly and eased them forward. The Mako rolled forward ever so slowly, crawling up on the open mouth of the Normandy's cargo bay. I was offered a stomach lurching, top of the rollercoaster view for a second before all hell broke loose.

"Joker to ground team, abort jump! Abort jump and prepare for hard maneuvers!" the pilot's voice rang loud and clear from the bay speakers, audible even other the roar of the open ramp. Outside the bay doors, the world whirled dizzyingly. The waterlogged peninsula that Saren had chosen for his evil lair blurred beneath us as the frigate went into a tight spin.

"Flight Lieutenant, what's going on?" the coordinator asked sharply as I slammed on the brakes. The Mako bucked at the precipice of the bay, it's nose just peeking over the edge. I forced down on the urge to throw up as motion sickness threatened to catch hold.

"Just had something pop up on the scopes, hostile AA installations are active and tracking us." As if to punctuate his words, a glowing projectile tore through the sky just in front of us. Then another one, and another. More streams joined it as larger guns unmasked and began tracking the wildly spinning frigate. "Damn it, another LIDAR tower. We're not going to break tracking without going low and fast."

"This is Commander Shepard," the Commander's voice stamped over the radio chatter with iron-bound weight, "this is now a contested drop. Joker will make one more pass at the beach and fast drop you. Corporal Jenkins, you are to take the Mako and your team up through the canyons and disable the opposition's fire control system. Sending the approximate coordinates now. After the AA net is blind, the Normandy will land the rest of the marines, rendezvous is the STG camp. You got that?"

"Got it, Commander," Jenkins answered behind me. My own stomach flopped. A fast drop meant we were going to get dumped out of the ship at high speed, like a wedge-nosed piece of ordinance from a stooping dive bomber. There would be very little time for the jump jets. "We'll get those skies clear."

"See that you do, Corporal. Shepard out." the connection closed with a snap.

"She doesn't sound happy," I noted. I steeled myself as the whirlwind of color outside snapped into sharp relief. We were now arrowing in on the beach, flying as fast as Joker dared push us. The beach seemed far too small a target below.

"Would you be? I bet she wishes she was going down with us," Jenkins replied. Before he could continue, the ship dove sharply. "Here we go!"

At the angry buzzer, I gunned the engine. The Mako shot from the stooping gullet of the Alliance scout frigate like a missile. The wind tore at us immediately, threatening to send us spinning as the Normandy pulled away and out of its suicide dive. Red hot fingers of the anti-air network tore up after it, but Joker was already dancing for all he was worth. We, on the other hand, plummeted with all the grace of a brick. I jammed down hard on the jump jets as the surf came up to meet us sickeningly fast. The Mako bucked hard, jolting my spine. Seconds later, we shook again as we belly-flopped into the waves just short of the beach. A spray of superheated steam and upthrown spume burst about us. Before it could fall back to Virmire, the accelerator was flat to the grate under my boot and the Mako roared. Sand and water flew, the tires dug furrows in the wet beach, and we rocketed out of the breakers like an arrow.

"Get us under that overhang!" Jenkins called. He sounded unsure in himself, as if not used to giving orders. "I need to get my bearings."

"Roger," I replied tersely. The Mako wallowed up the beach, uncharacteristically sluggish as it loped through the sand. I flipped the air-breathing engines over to the closed circuit and hit the purge. Indicator lights burned green as saltwater and distressed local sea life were forcibly ejected from the intakes. I flipped back and the engine purred. Hard tires floundered against soft sand until they bit, and we were off again. I idled us up to the overhanging sandstone cliffs as Jenkins filled the cockpit with the orange glow of his Omni-tool. Our small fire team of marines looked about, searching for the same thing I found worryingly absent. Any sign of the enemy.

"We got a partial image of the canyons during our fast approach," Jenkins said, leaning into the cockpit, "I think, yes, looks like a pretty much direct path to our target." He traced a path on the map and looked up as if searching for my ascent. I followed the path. The image was fuzzy, but it did look like a fairly straightforward drive. I nodded, letting Jenkins visible relax a little. "Okay, high ho, silver." He clapped me on the shoulder and clambered back into the crew compartment. The Mako eased out from under its rocky cover and made for the shallow canyon mouth ahead. Nothing rose to meet us as we slunk between the steep sided walls of the inland channels except for the local wildlife.

"Do you think they just took a shot at us and took off?" I asked. I peered around, alert. Sweat prickled at the back of my neck, and not all of it was from the tropical heat and humidity. Behind me, Jenkins scanned the surrounding heights.

"I don't know, Mike, hat doesn't sound like… hang on a minute…" A blip had popped up on the forward scope, distant at first, but rapidly moving towards us. "We've got incoming!" the scope suddenly lit up in a close impersonation of a fireworks display.


"Targets bearing 30, 35, 36, 50, 70, 180…"

"Firing for effect!"

"They're behind us!"

The chaos inside the Mako was matched only by the chaos outside. Geth platforms descended on us from all directions. They sprayed fire as they came, lighting up the kinetic barriers with iridescent sparks. I gunned the engine in a mad dash to move past the ambushing robots. The Mako roared and splashed across a wet bank of sand as I dove past one of the smaller armatures. Jenkins blasted off its head at close range.

"Just like the old days, right Mike!" he called as he swung around to concentrate on a pack of flying drones. "That's two more for me!"

"Are we really competing right now?" I spun about to avoid smashing against a rock face while knocking over another armature. "That's mine by the way!" Sand flew as we were off again. "Which way?"

"Uh… left, we go left!" Jenkins pointed over his shoulder; he was still firing at the enemies behind him. I threw the steering yoke left, only to be presented with a stubbornly solid sandstone wall.

"Umm, Rick, that's a cliff!" I called out.

"Then right, definitely right! And fast, I think these things might be multiplying!" Jenkins shot back. Judging by the swarm of angry red lights that swirled like hornets in the rear scopes, it looked like he wasn't that far off. I jerked us around again, drifting across a shallow stream and leaving wide bands of tire tracks behind us and kicking up a slurry of churned sand. Ahead was the entrance to a narrow-sided gulley that looked almost too tight to fit the Mako. More shots thudded against the half-shell of our barriers, setting warnings screaming and sending jets of scalding mud skyward around us. We rocketed forward, the tank howling under the press of my boot. There was a juddering chatter as Jenkins returned fire. The blips on our rear radar scattered for a second, a handful falling to raise pillars of sand of their own. More blips joined them as Geth drones dropped out of the sky faster to give chase faster than they could be swatted from the air. The mouth of the gulley loomed very close. And very narrow, far too narrow to admit the Mako's wheel base. On its side, though...

"You're going to want to hold onto something." A quick burst from the left jump jets was just enough. The Mako popped up on two wheels and sailed through the gap. With a jarring landing, the vehicle settled on all fours again, narrowly avoiding careening into a wall. Enemy fire slackened off almost immediately before dying away completely.

"Why aren't they following us?" Jenkins asked as he swept our rear for hostiles.

Ten minutes later we found out why.

"Corporal, this looks like our landing site. As in, there are the ruts we left while landing right over there." The flat expanse of beach, minus where two now softened furrows marked the travel of a heavily laden troop transport, was in fact the very same one we had just left.

"Sonuva…" Jenkins brought up a map of the area and cursed again. "Right back where we started and now with all those Geth in the way."

"Corporal, we have to take that FC dow…" One of the marines started. Jenkins shushed him.

"Wait, I'm thinking. Yes… Yes… I've got it!" he projected the map up on the main viewer. "So, this is where we are, and this route is pretty much a straight shot, and shallow to boot. Almost a direct route, right?"

"Yeah," I responded, "it's also full of Geth."

"Right, which mean less Geth elsewhere, say, over this way." He traced a line along the coast. I followed it towards the markings that denoted the assumed STG positions.

"Except there's cliffs along the entire way, well until you get here…" My eyes fell on a straight line that lay across the path inland. "There's a wall in the way. Right here."

"Which would be a real problem, if we weren't fighting the Geth. Their logic won't see a viable path through here, so it should be lightly guarded."

"That actually makes sense." I agreed. "We'll have to make it snappy though, or they might come looking for us.

"If there's one person I trust to get us there as fast as possible, it's you, Mike."


Our new approach was blessedly Geth free as the Mako rambled along the thin sandbar that wound its way alongside the flooded channel that led further inland. Deep green tropical plants grew in clustered bunches along the floor of the canyon and leaned out in organic balconies above, lending the place the pleasant feel of a holiday spot that would have been nice if it weren't for the danger of more Geth dropping out of the sky. I craned my neck to look up at the deep, blue, and empty sky above. Nothing.

"Coming up on the next junction," I said, pinging Jenkins. The Geth's wall was approaching fast. Faster than expected given the lack of resistance. I slowed the Mako as we nosed into the open space where canyon met wide, shallow basin. At the head of the basin lay our target, a wall of deep purple metal that gleamed in the tropical sun even from here. The basin itself was a flat expanse of sodden sand, broken only by the occasional tide pool and outcropping of coral-like rock that thrust up out of the ground like jagged crowns from a disjointed and broken jaw. "Looks like a ten-minute sprint up the middle, where the ground is driest. Longer if we keep skirting the rock, but we're less likely to get ourselves bogged down."

Jenkins checked the mission chronometer again and chewed on his lower lip fretfully.

"We go up the middle. The longer we're down here alone, the more time the Geth get to dig in around the tower, and the more likely we are to get trapped down here with no evac. Just keep us out of the mud, yeah?"

"On it," I replied and I put the IFV back in gear. The sand looked dubious, especially around the tide pools that bracketed the most obvious path, but Jenkins was right. Time was not on our side. And besides, the atmospheric plant in the Mako was starting to strain against the combined heat and humidity. And it did nothing for the other, less pleasant effects of pressing six men under combat stress into a metal sardine can. We jetted out from cover, wheels churning in the loose, wet sand. The Mako skidded a little into its turns, the yoke juddering against my grip. "Just keep us going in a straight line," I implored of my loyal steed. My eyes flicked to the traction controls and I reached for the tuner switches, briefly leaving the forward view.

"Mike!" At Jenkins' alarmed cry, my eyes shot back forward. Something was rising from the one of the pools ahead. Something humped and purple. Green sea water sluiced off its back as a second shape began to emerge from a pool on the other side of the path. The deceptively deep water bubbled and splashed as a head emerged to join the humped back above the waves, cyclopean blue eye swiveling to point at us.

"Shit!" I steered away from our collision course with the Colossi, but the tight turn only sent us into a flat spin. The first actinic blue siege pulse fell short, turning the sand ahead of us to glass. It crackled like god's own frying pan as we shot across it, but the fragments gave just enough traction to the wheels to send us shooting off the path between the two massive platforms.

"Line them up! Keep them from cutting us off!" Jenkins squeaked. He must have been rattled, because the gun mounted atop our transport was still silent. His order was easier given than executed. The path had been treacherous, but it had nothing on the tidal flat to either side. The Mako wallowed, its front wheels splashing into another deep pool before popping up and out and sending us swerving in a new direction. We slid more than drove over the water cratered surface. Behind us, the Geth were out of their pools and striding toward us, shedding seaweed and algae like nightmarish cyberpunk Nessies. With a jolt, a bolt shot from our cannon to ricochet off the dome of the leading mech's kinetic barriers. I attempted another jink, but the ground gave way beneath us and the Mako stuck fast, tire spinning fruitlessly.

"Mike!"

"I know!" The Mako sluggishly pulled itself from the rut, only to slide back again as we juddered from incoming fire. The pursuing Colossus rounded an upturned pinnacle of rock on slender mechanical legs. It hunched; eye glowing bright. Our return fire flailed at its barriers to no avail. I stomped on the gas again, sending us slithering sideways but no closer to escape. My eyes skittered across the rear scopes. The Geth. Our outbound slugs. The rock. "Rick! The rock!"

The corporal gained my meaning almost immediately and swiveled his aim. The next glowing shot slammed into the base of the coral pillar. Dust and pulverized rock jetted from the impact site and deep cracks ran through the stone. A smattering of machine gun fire sent it falling, tumbling almost in slow motion. It crashed down atop the Colossus and drove it down into the wet sand. I didn't look back to confirm the kill. I slowly brought up the throttle again, this time with a burst from our jump jets. The Mako pulled itself from the sucking sand and we were mobile again. Jenkins sent a few more desultory rounds back towards our pinned pursuit, but no more explosive pulses chased us as we accelerated back up the basin. Ahead, the wall loomed larger and we were free to meet it.


Five forms crept along the sand in the shadow of the cliff. One of them, hefting a sniper rifle, broke off at a shady cluster of rocks. The remaining four continued on. The wall was seemingly devoid of activity. The lead shape stopped and raised a fist. The rest clustered around him at the base of the wall. As I watched from the driver's seat of the Mako, the four shapes started ascending the wall like a pack of armored spiders. They disappeared over the lip in silence. After a long minute of waiting, the gate started to slowly grind open. Somewhere in the complex of rooms above the gate, an explosion went off. I dove for the radio.

"Jenkins, what's going on?"

"Minor inconvenience. Pull the Mako around, would you?" came the reply. In the background, gunfire chattered. The light of the firefight was now visible from the slits atop the wall. A door in the side of the fortifications blew outwards. In silhouette against fire and smoke, two men backed out dragging a third. A fourth man stood firing back into the room they had just left. The Mako eased forward as they fought their way back across the parapet. Then, as they reached the lip, something massive emerged from the open door. A Geth Prime strode out, firing as it came. Its shot knocked one of the marines smoking from the wall. The other two mobile soldiers diving for cover. The sniper on the rocks attempted to cover them, his piteous fire bouncing of the Prime's thick shielding.

The Prime whirled on the sniper, sending him scrabbling for cover with a long-range shot. I sat stunned for a second as the construct turned its attention back to the men on the wall. My brain kicked back into gear hard enough to bounce me out of my seat. I climbed back into the crew compartment and clambered into the gunner's seat cursing my inactivity. Leaning into the gun sight, I was greeted with the sight of the Prime readying to stomp on a helpless marine. I snapped off a shot as soon as soon as I got a lock. The round whizzed out and clipped the Geth platform in the shoulder. The thing reeled backwards under the blow, but remained upright. Its brightly lit eye rounded on me. I quickly unloaded another shot, and then another. The Prime had braced itself though, and its return fire began to splash across my shields. The warning light started flashing "kinetic barriers low" but with me in the gunner's chair, the Mako may as well have been rooted to the ground. I kept firing as fast as the gun could load. The Prime had hunkered down by now, crouched behind the parapet where I couldn't get a clear shot. Just as I was about to leave the gun and try to get the Mako into cover, a flash lit the synthetic. The silhouette seemed ragged in the flickering light. More explosions joined the first and the Prime appeared to wilt slightly. I quickly fired another round from the main gun. The round ploughed deep into the Prime's shoulder. The Prime exploded, leaving only a scattering of debris.

I pulled under the wall just as the last marine carefully descended the wall. There was a knock at the hatch, which I quickly opened. The oily smell of smoke and continuous weapon fire rolled into the compartment.

"Get him in!" Jenkins was talking to someone else in a voice hoarse from yelling. The broken body of one of the Everest marines followed his words through the hatch. The man was still breathing, if only barely. Following him was a wounded Jenkins, somehow still looking mildly optimistic. "We'll need to punch through to the Salarians quickly. He's hurt bad."

"Well get that hatch closed then." I said quickly. I eyed the Normandy's aerial map. Several open areas and another gate stood between us and the Salarians. And if I remembered right, a whole army of Geth infested every corner. The hatch clicked closed behind me.

The opening in the gate was just wide enough to allow Geth Colossi through, which left more than enough space for the Mako. The tires whirred as they clawed through the loose packed sand. In the back, the wounded marine groaned at every turn and jounce, even through the heavy sedative Jenkins had pumped into him.

"You're going to want to secure for some heavy fighting, we're coming onto another opening." I warned the marines.

"You got a bad feeling about this one?" Jenkins asked.

"It's more than a feeling at this point. Drones at 2 o'clock, high." A small squadron of the flying Geth crested the opposing cliff. They flew in tight formation, firing as they came. The Mako's machine gun slashed out at them in an attempt to disperse them. I threw the troop carrier into a tight loop that avoided the small pond in the middle of the clearing. More drones were now approaching from behind, another ambush. I began a weaving motion to avoid the worst of the fire.

"You're going to kill Truefitt if you keep this up!" One of the marines yelled from the back. The wounded man's groans had gotten worse.

"I'll kill us all if I don't!" I shot back, even though the man's cries turned my stomach.

"I'm setting kinetic barriers full aft! Just keep us straight and try to keep ahead of the drones!" Jenkins called. Easy enough for him to say. I dropped gears to the roar of the engine, which drowned out all sounds of battle save the steady thudding of the cannon's fire. The Mako shot forward, passing an emerging armature. We drove into the mouth of a new canyon, this one thin and ropy. I did my best to keep the Mako on track, a task that was becoming increasingly difficult in the tight space. Ahead, another opening widened the path considerably. The Mako was rocked by an explosion of to the left. Snapping my head to the side, I could make out the form of more Geth walkers. I drove away from them, trying to present my still shielded rear quarter. More explosions kicked up geysers of sand around me, but none hit the Mako. On the far side of the clearing, another Geth had risen.

"We don't have time for this, everyone hold on!" I jammed down on the jump jets, pushing the heavy transport up off the ground. The wheels spun fruitlessly in the air as we lifted up and away. I continued to hold down the jets as we sailed into the air, up and over the side of the canyon. Below, the armatures fired up at us, beating away at of underside barriers. The safety cutoff killed the jets a second later, rendering the cockpit eerily quiet. We continued our trajectory over the wall of the cliff and began to plummet. As the nose tipped down the next hollow over came into view. I silently cursed as another Colossus lifted its head towards us. The Mako continued its arc, closing with the four-legged construct. Without thrusters, there was nothing I could do but watch it loom closer.

"Liddle! The barriers!" Someone yelled too late. I scrabbled for the switch that would even out our invisible shroud of protection, but we had already flown too far. The sharp-edged nose tore through the thin neck of the Geth with a mind-bending screech. The Mako glanced to the side as it hit the heavily armored back of the beast, scoring that as well. The Colossus' legs crumpled as the Mako's weight landed fully on top of it. Chancing a blast from the jets, I blew a short blast, just enough to stop us from toppling over. Instead, we landed none too gracefully in a spinning skid beside the quickly dying Colossus. After checking to make sure everyone was okay, Jenkins was the first to speak.

'Well, that brings you back doesn't it."