Interloper Rewrite: Chapter 38
Ilos
The sound of a general alarm roused us all from bed. At the door to the barracks, Kaidan was barking orders. I quickly dressed, pulling on first my duty uniform, then the plates of my armor. All around me my fellow marines and crewmen did the same, occasionally someone would meet my eye and give me a terse nod. I flexed and stretched, checking each link in my plates to make sure my repairs were holding. I felt a little stiff and my heart still raced. I took a few steadying breaths and joined the stream of men and women heading out of the door. The majority of them piled into the elevator, but I took the stairs up, hoping to find Commander Shepard. The bridge crew ignored me as I passed, rounding the galaxy map. Shepard stood in her usual spot, hunched over Joker's chair and staring out of the forward viewports.
"Commander," I announced myself. Shepard turned and returned my quick salute.
"Deputy. We're just about to make the final transition."
"Yeah, nothing more fun than making a jump into a total unknown," Joker quipped. Shepard gave him a disapproving look. She said nothing to him though, instead keying the ship wide comm. to address the crew.
"Now hear this," she began in clipped, professional tones. "This is Commander Shepard. We are about to make the final transition through the Mu relay, into an unknown," she paused to give the pilot a significant glance, "I have been informed by my XO that when offered the chance to transfer off at Toshi Station, our guests from the SSV Everest have opted to remain with us for this op, and for that I thank you all. This team, this crew, has been a testament to the honor and strength of the Alliance. I need that strength now, as we ride into battle against those who have taken our friends from us, those who would seek to destroy all that we hold dear. Whatever awaits us on the other side of the Relay can't hope to withstand us. Marines, prepare yourselves. Shepard Out." She switched the intercom off. Even from up on the flight deck I could hear the soldiers in the cargo hold cheer. "Hit it, Joker." The relay ahead of us flared brighter than the sun, there was a feeling of tingling static, and everything seemed to snap away from me, leaving the world black.
Reality snapped back into focus in a chaotic blur of lights.
"What the…" Joker cursed and threw the Normandy into a tight spin. We had jumped headfirst into a warzone. Bright flashes of light lit the space in front of us as the split wedges of Alliance vessels dueled with the insectoid forms of a Geth battle fleet. A nearby Geth cruiser exploded under the raking of a flotilla of fast frigates, revealing the long, blocky form of what could only be a carrier. The Alliance ship was huge, larger even than the Everest and sharing its general form. Except for the ship's prow, which extended down below the wedge-like 'wings,' creating a bulbous 'nose.' The bright firefly twinkle of the capital ship's combat air patrol buzzed around it, warding off attacks from the Geth's combat craft. As we watched, another of the purple-hulled Geth cruisers maneuvered in to attack the wallowing carrier only to be intercepted by two Alliance craft. The trio of ships danced in zero-G, each trying to line up with the other. All of a sudden, all three blazed with light as their spinal guns fired and filled the space between them with long shards of light. Kinetic barrier flared to life as the cruisers hammered away at each other. At Joker's station, the comm. panel chirped.
"Alliance frigate, this is the SSV Valentina Tereshkova. Please identify yourself and state your business in this system." A voice came through, sounding panicky, strained. Likely a junior operator. Shepard was already at the panel.
"This is the SSV Normandy under Commander Shepard. What the hell is going on here?" she asked curtly. Joker pulled another sharp maneuver, this time dropping in behind a small geth fighter group. The GUARDIANs pulsed in the dark and perforated the waspish space platforms, turning them into rapidly expanding clouds of shrapnel.
"This is a classified Alliance military operation. You don't have clearance to be here, please turn around and return through the Mu relay..." the operator stuttered out before Shepard cut him off.
"The hell I don't! Listen, I'm a Council Spectre. Get your CO on the line, right now."
The operator mumbled something before a stronger, gravelly voice cut into the line.
"...off this bridge, before I throw you off. Normandy, this is Admiral Olmos, Eight Fleet. You mind telling me how you found yourself in the middle of my operation, Commander?"
"Admiral. As I was telling your man, I am a Council Spectre tracking a threat to Galactic Security, I need to make it to the second planet of this system." Shepard responded quickly. The Normandy shivered under a glancing blow. Joker sent us diving in response. A frigate-sized vessel rocketed through the space we'd just exited, trailing a handful of the smaller fighters.
"That's going to be a problem, Commander. Most of the Geth Resistance is centered on that planet and I've got my task force spread thin as it is." The man sounded very tired, as if woken from bed and stuffed into his command chair against his will.
"If I might ask, what are you doing here, Admiral. This system's a little out of the way for an Alliance fleet."
The Admiral chuckled grimly. "I suppose I can't say no to a Spectre. About six hours ago, Alliance Command received an anonymous tip that the Phantom Fleet had fled to the Terminus Systems and that they had been seen entering a long lost relay. Normally such a claim would be ignored, but the brass is getting mighty twitchy on the whole Kohoku affair. We were in the middle of setting up a search pattern when these Geth came pouring through the Relay in force. They don't have anything to do with your 'threat to Galactic Security', do they?"
"I'm afraid they might, Admiral." Shepard said. "Did any of them make it to the planet?"
"A few dropships made it down after those cruisers took up position in orbit, other than that they've seemed content to play with us in space."
"Okay," Shepard said, lost in thought, "okay, here's the situation, Admiral. We have cause to believe a traitor working with these Geth is on this planet searching for a Prothean device called the Conduit. Him getting his hands on it would be very bad. I'll need some cover on the way in and the door held open on the way out, if it comes to that."
"I can do better than that, Commander. I won't go down as the man who let the first Human Spectre charge off into oblivion. I'll free up some assets, continue towards the planet, we'll keep the Geth off your ass."
"Thank you, Admiral." Shepard closed the loop. She gave Joker a reassuring pat on the back and motioned for me to follow her aftward. "I'm going to need to coordinate with whatever assets we're supposed to be working with. Go start up the Mako, I want as many of the team as you can fit, plus any marines you can squeeze in. I want to be ready to face anything Saren throws against us, got it?"
"I've got it," I said. My nervousness must have shown on my face, because Shepard shot me a final remark before I descended the stairs.
"Relax Liddle, it's time to be heroes."
The cargo bay was awash with the sounds of shouted orders, clomping boots, and the scrape of moving gear. Kaidan and Ashley had the surviving Marines loosely organized into two short squads. The alien party members stood around the perimeter of the room, anxiously talking or seeing to their armour. Liara seemed determined to avoid my eye, so I instead moved beside Tali and Garrus, who were talking quietly.
"Liddle." Garrus greeted me politely. His own suit of dark blue armour still held some of the scars it had earned on Virmire, but his rifle shone like new. He had obviously spent the night carefully calibrating each and every component. In contrast, Tali's suit was untouched, a fact that didn't seem to dispel the jitters she was obviously suffering from. "I was just telling our resident Quarian here how she needn't worry about all these Geth with all these big strong soldiers around."
"And I was just reminding everyone's favorite Turian that all these big strong soldiers couldn't stop Saren from carving a piece out of him." Garrus' right arm went to his side in an unconscious twinge.
"I'll survive," he said, relenting.
"Either way, the Commander wants you both loaded up on the Mako. It sounds like the Geth beat us to the planet."
"Oh sure, the seven of us that will fit in the Mako against an army of Geth. So, Liddle, do you want the two hundred on the left, or the two hundred on the right? I could go either way myself."
"That won't be necessary, Agent Vakarian." Shepard spoke from behind us. "Turns out we're in luck. A couple of old friends want to give us a hand." At that moment the ship-wide crackled. A familiar female voice calmly addressed the cruiser.
"This is Cleaver Flight to the Normandy. I heard you guys needed a lift."
The great grey cargo ramp lowered, leaving little more than a mass effect field between the waiting marines and hard vacuum. Outside, the swirl of the space battle continued unabated. Occasionally there would be an explosion or a crackle of staticky cross-traffic on the comm. channels.
…moving to intercept our fighters, additional support needed….
…got one on my tail, Dax, see if…
…Frigates inbound, SSV Vienna to intercept…
The view became obscured by the shape of the Alliance's boxy assault dropship, Cleaver One. Its own combat ramp was lowered, offering a view to its empty interior.
"We're not going to have time to make a seal, so everyone check their environmental seals." Shepard barked. "I want two orderly lines, zero-g boarding procedures on my mark. Watch your heads people, Cleaver is gravity negative." She made a windmilling motion with her arm. "Mark." As one, the two columns began to run the length of the deck. Each made a small hop at the end and leapt into open space, gracefully sailing into the back of the dropship. When it was my turn, I nearly stumbled. The feeling of suddenly losing gravity was unpleasant, as was floating the short distance between ships. To make matters worse, the dropship was oriented floor up relative to the Normandy a little surprise that almost carried me straight into the doors to the cockpit. Thankfully a marine caught me by the arm and maneuvered me right way up. I thanked the man, who looked even younger than I did, with a short mop of dark blonde hair framed by his helmet, and strapped myself into one of the couches. Next to me, Steiner took up a seat, while across from me Garrus sat down.
"Hey Liddle, looks like we'll only need to bag thirty apiece now, think you're up to it?"
"Was there ever a doubt?" I said, wishing my stomach was as brave as my mouth. It churned restlessly.
"Alright boys, strap in. This ride may get a little bumpy. You may notice that the emergency exits open into the cold black of space, so please refrain from using them unless absolutely necessary." The voice of the pilot came from atop a short ladder to the flight deck. The troop ramp retracted and folded closed in the back of the ship. "Next stop, Ilos."
The ship jetted off, apparently without inertial compensation. The troops around me were jostled as we began to run some gentle evasive maneuvers. I cradled my rifle to my chest and began running the battle to come through my head. My plan to bring the Alliance running looked like it had worked, although I would have preferred a Dreadnaught or two. Hoping for the capital ships had been an outside chance anyway. Catching Saren as he descended was a stroke of luck. If we could cut him off from the conduit, perhaps Sovereign would be caught knocking on a closed Citadel. The lone Reaper's chances didn't look good against the full force of the Citadel fleet, especially not with his Geth escorts tied up over Ilos. For the first time in what felt like ages, I felt a genuine smile curl my face.
Outside, the battle raged on, spread out across the system. Cruisers blasted at each other from extreme range while smaller ships flitted between conflict zones. Here and there, a ship would flash bright white as its core was breeched, or dull orange as its atmosphere went up. From the sporadic chatter, it sounded like the Alliance had the situation fairly well in hand, even if the attack had been a surprise. I found myself wishing I could have warned them, but I also realized that enough information to bring about an adequate response would sound crazy enough to be dismissed.
"Preparing for descent, secure all drop stations." The pilot called back. Commander Shepard walked the row of troops, yanking on our harnesses.
"Drop stations secured." I could almost hear the snare drums as the shuttle began to shake, buffeted by the leading edge of Ilos' wispy upper atmosphere.
"Navigation system tracking, where do you want us to put down, Commander?"
"Find the biggest concentration of Geth activity, that'll be where Saren is."
"I read you, searching now… Got them, right smack in the middle of that ruin, beginning my approach." The cabin rocked more violently. Somewhere down the line someone murmured a quiet prayer. Shepard continued to stand, swaying slightly with the motion of the ship.
"Rough air ahead, we're in for some chop." The pilot warned as the dropship gave an almighty lurch. Around us the hull crackled with ionization as the small ship surged through the cloud cover alongside its sisters. "Cleaver One to Cleaver Flight, follow me in on bearing 56 mark 18. Nice and fast. We don't want to give the flashies any more time to shoot at us than we have to."
Something rattled on the hull outside. The ship lurched again. Leaning forward I was able to peer out of the front window. Below us the grey-brown surface of Ilos unfolded like a painting splashed across a canvas. Bright lines jumped up to meet us from what had to be the Prothean ruins, a maze of metallic brown pillars that jutted up into the sky.
"These skies are becoming decidedly unfriendly, Commander. I'm going to put you down somewhere on the outskirts." The pilot pulled into a steep dive to avoid the incoming anti-air, spiraling down towards a clearing on the outer edge. The distinctive sizzle of GUARDIANs filled the air around us. Out of the window I saw the Normandy swoop overhead. Joker stood the nimble frigate on its end as he strafed the Geth positions. His antics distracted the synthetics long enough for the dropships to slide in below the line of the ruins.
"Go,go, go!" the order filled the cabin as the ramp dropped heavily. Marines sprang to action, unhitching their restraints and charging out onto the alien world. Before I left, I tossed a quick glance to the pilot.
"It's good to see you again, Chief Ferro."
"It's good to see you too Deputy, now get. I've got other appointments to keep."
I grinned as I left the ship. I felt ready.
After fifteen minutes on the ground, I was neither smiling, nor feeling particularly well prepared. Geth drones whirred overhead as Armatures stomped towards our line. Besides me the blonde marine was leaning far from cover, targeting a cluster of Geth troopers with a miniature grenade launcher. The Geth scattered as the grenades started to land among them, leaving two platforms broken on the ground. I snapped off a quick shot to keep them in cover and surveyed the battlefield. The Geth had met us just inside the ruins, in a field pockmarked with small, chest high stubs of the Prothean metal. I would have laughed at the 'convenience' of it if I wasn't busy trying very hard to avoid sharp bits of metal. More rounds drummed into my cover, scattering chips of the stuff into the air. It came down in a cloud. I used the temporary concealment to sneak up another few feet. To my left the Commander was making a fairly orderly advance, leading from the front in her slate-grey infiltrator armor. To my right the unit under the 109th's Lt. Gorman was stuck in with one of the tall Armatures. The ponderous thing marched straight at them, not even bothering with cover. Geth Swarmed about its feet. I picked one out from among the crowd and let loose a pair of shots. One flew wildly over its head while the next was shrugged aside by kinetic barriers. I dropped back down in the dirt to avoid another flurry.
"Right Flank, you are falling behind." Shepard said calmly. The Lieutenant's reply was curt.
"This isn't exactly a picnic you've dragged us out to, Commander." The officer of the 109th shot back. While I couldn't argue with his assessment of the situation, his tone set my teeth on edge. "This armor's got us stuck hard."
"Let me get that for you, Lieutenant," A voice chirped on the comm. With a screech and a wave of buffeting wind, a pair of Trident strike fighters flew low over the field. Behind them trailed a series of detonations that threw stone and earth into the air as they delivered their payloads. The twin trails walked across the line of Geth, summiting the armature and bringing down its barriers.
"Blast that thing, give it all you've got!" came the order. Almost immediately a sheet of small arms fire rose up against the lumbering beast, intermixed with the occasional flash of a grenade. I readied my own Omni-tool, fabricating a magnetically suspended glob of thermite. I hazarded leaving cover to lob the sticky projectile at the Armature's armored shell. The mass effect assisted throw launched the bomb through the air. I watched it follow a flat arc in Ilos' slightly heavy gravity until it splashed against the junction between the distant monster's neck and its shoulders. The thermite flared brightly as it melted its way into the superstructure. The rest of the battle caught up with me as a stray round caught me in the midsection. I hit the dirt and rolled, trying to avoid further hits. When none more came, I focused on trying to breathe again. I was getting close when someone dragged me up by the armpit and I found myself dashing forward. All across the field, the grey-blue clad marines were charging forward, filling the hole left by the rapidly wilting Armature. I allowed myself to be carried along as I took deep gulps of air. I set my suit to deliver a light painkiller and dropped into a new piece of cover. The guy that had me by the arm turned out to be Garrus.
"Come on Liddle, how are you going to make it to thirty if you keep getting distracted." The Turian sounded a little out of breath, but his tone was friendly.
"You've got to admit though," I wheezed, "That tank was a pretty impressive kill."
"It still only counts as one," Garrus said. He bobbed his head other the fallen pillar we crouched behind and got a flurry of shots in return. "You got another one of those flashbangs?"
I readied the program and made to throw. I started the motion even as the bomb gained solidity in my hand. The disk shape tumbled up and over our cover and burst in a bright flash of light. We both hopped up and stripped a Geth of its shields. Garrus dropped it with a well-aimed shot to the flashlight like head. The downed Geth's fellows fired straight ahead, their optics temporarily frozen. I took the chance to drop another one with a lucky shot to the leg.
"Commander, sensors show an energy spike in the ruins, five klicks west of your position." Joker was talking. From the sound of his voice and the background chatter, he had found himself back in the heart of the battle.
"Can you clarify that?" Shepard asked, though she had already updated our HUD nav-pointer with the position of the energy spike. It was nestled in a much more intact portion of the maze. Garrus signaled, and we move rose into firing opposition. Finding nothing, we joined another fire team picking its way forward. Further off to the North, the sound of a heavy machine gun droned in short bursts. Explosions rang from ahead of us.
"Looks like some kind of beacon. Something big's going on down there."
"Could it be the Conduit?"
"You know as much as I do, Commander." Joker's words almost sounded like the shrug he was sure to be giving.
"Alright, people," Shepard called, her voice going out over the network, "we go west!"
