Chapter 14: Asteroid X57
Serpent Nebula, Widow System, Normandy
Shepard
Meeting with the Council had been a waste of her time, they gave her no new information regarding Saren and insisted that she was the closest one to any intel on him. There was something about the councillors that put her off though, be it the way they looked at her or at one another as if deciding what to do or say to her. But at least when she went to see Anderson some things were made clearer.
Having shown him Yang's profile that Chakwas put together along with the blood sample, biotics despite not having an implant, along with her witnessing first hand some of Yang's ability and power. Anderson had told her to keep the strange girl by her side and use her as best she could. If Yang was indeed from somewhere else in the galaxy it could come in handy. Either that or she could be a part of some other human secret ops that was there gathering intel.
Shepard didn't believe that she was working for another organisation though, she was too simple and got caught up in all the "new" things she was experiencing. There were many questions Anderson had about Yang, including this aura that Shepard brought up, but she couldn't explain everything in detail, not like how Yang had done.
In the end Anderson ordered her to keep an eye on Yang, something easily done while they were on the Normandy and on missions. She had already caught on that Yang spent most of her time either alone in her bunk surfing the extranet for information, talking or learning biotics from Liara, or talking with Tali in the engineering bay.
Once everyone was gathered again, Shepard spoke up. "We're taking another detour from our pursuit of Saren." There was a murmur of discontent but nothing more. She knew they needed to continue searching, but they were currently lost on where to head next. "Admiral Hackett has contacted me, there seems to be some sort of terrorists in the Asgard System. We're to head there and deal with anything we find."
"Did the Council have any information on Saren?" Garrus asked.
"No. But it felt like they were hiding something from me." Shepard answered, knowing that would only fuel Ashley's and Maulden's distrust of their alien allies.
"What do you expect from the Turians and Salarian." Wrex commented. "Wouldn't be the first time they've hid things from another species."
To his credit, Garrus didn't respond and Shepard knew why. "Be that as it may, we have a mission to make sure the Asgard System is secure and the colony there is still functioning. You're all dismissed until arrival."
When she was finally alone, she headed back to her quarters and thought about the future mission. Saren and the Geth, they still posed a threat even without the aid of the now freed Rachni. Rachni wars. Don't prove that I made a mistake, Queen bug. Relaxing on her bed and doing some reading, she would drift off to sleep.
Exodus Cluster, Asgard System, Asteroid X57
Shepard
Woken from her slumber by Joker's voice, Shepard sat up. "Mmm? Joker, repeat." She ordered.
"You might want to get suited up, Commander. There's an asteroid headed towards the planet."
"Jesus. I'll be right there Joker, alert the crew and ground teams."
"Already notified, Commander." Shepard just smiled, glad he had already set things in motion.
Reaching the cockpit and getting a visual on the situation, Shepard swore. "Alright then, give it to me." Joker pressed a button and the ship's VI system relayed some information.
"Sensory reveals three fusion torches propelling Asteroid X57. At its current rate of acceleration, the asteroid will collide with Terra Nova in approximately four hours."
Four hours. That doesn't give us much time to act.
"Analysis: Torches must be diabled to cease the acceleration." The VI added.
"Really, who would've figured that." Joker complained.
"Prepared to drop the mako. We're going to see if we can't red-"
"Hello?" Came a feminine greeting. "Hello? I heard your transmission. Can you hear me? They haven't found me yet but I can't talk long. Shut down the fusion torches or we're all going to die. God I hope you're hearing this."
"They? Sounds like whoever that was has company." Joker said as he brought the Normandy in close.
"Guess those reports of terrorists in the system were right. Keep off the comms if you can Joker, we're going to try and surprise them." Patting his shoulder gently, mindful of his medical condition, Shepard headed down to the cargo bay.
Seeing everyone gathered, she looked them over trying to figure out who was best suited for the mission. "Liara, Wrex, Kaidan, Maulden, you're with me. Yang, Tali, Garrus, you're with Ingersoll."
While inside the mako awaiting Joker's signal to disembark, Shepard would give them the rundown while they were crammed inside. Thanks to a scan of the asteroid and previous data on it, they were able to pinpoint the three torches that were directing it towards the planet. Their goal was simple: go in and redirect the torches. That changed once they landed however, finding a corpse who had been beaten and executed at a nearby survey station.
"Well Shepard, looks like we've got some people to kill." Wrex sounded excited at the idea, gripping his shotgun a little tighter.
"We still don't know who's behind this." Garrus commented.
"I don't think it fucking matters. They're killing humans and they're directing this big fucking rock at the planet." Maulden said.
"Agreed." Checking the locations that were pinpointed thanks to the data in the survey station, Shepard changed her plan. "Yang, Tali, Garrus, Ingersoll. I want you four to head to the transmission tower and see if you can get that working again. Then continue along the top of the ridge and relay any relevant information to us."
"Any particular destination Commander?" Ingersoll asked.
"There is a facility to the northeast, past the final torch. Scout that out and wait for us to arrive. We'll tackle it together." With their objectives set, Ingersoll led the smaller team on foot while the others piled back into the mako.
Despite Shepard having to drive, they approached the first torch within minutes and quickly came under fire. Missiles from the automated heavy turrets started landing around them and even impacting the mako on a couple of occasions. Wrex couldn't help chuckling while Maulden fired the main canon. In just a few minutes the turrets were destroyed and Shepard parked close to the building.
"Kaidan, stay with the mako and check for any problems. The rest of you with me."
Entering the structure, Shepard was flanked by Maulden with Wrex close behind. Both seemed to be eager for action. With the door sliding open to reveal what was inside, Shepard felt anger, though it was nothing compared to her cousin.
"Fucking Batarians." Maulden swore, raising his rifle as one of the Batarians spoke in another tongue. They all knew what was said, attack, kill the intruders, something along those lines.
Gunfire erupted from both sides, Maulden getting the first few shots off and dropping one of the charging varren while Wrex charged on ahead using his biotics to amplify his defences. Raising her rifle, Shepard would take fire at one of the Batarians and rapidly deplete his overshield before drawing blood. Wrex would slam a varren into some shelves before blasting it with his shotgun. It didn't even make a noise as it died.
"Release the varren!" She heard someone say.
"Wrex!" Shepard called, worried about how many varren they had inside.
"On it Shepard!" Wrex already knew what she was going to order and when the next to varren arrived they too were dealt with.
Liara's biotics pulled a sniper out of cover and Shepard finished that foe while Maulden gave a loud laugh. Then he shot the fuel tank at the far end of the room causing a massive explosion. Shepard saw a couple of Batarians knocked off their feet and another that was closer simply engulfed by the flames. The latter remained on the ground burning while Maulden went up and finished one of the Batarians by putting the barrel of his pistol against its head. Wrex just blasted the other in its chest as he tried to regain his footing.
Once everything had calmed down and there weren't any more signs of Batarians, Maulden snapped. "You fuck stupid assholes!" He started kicking one of the corpses, over and over. "I'll fucking kill you all!"
Wrex and Liara looked to Shepard who hung her head. Maulden had taken what happened to their cousin Emelyne hard. She had been born and raised on Mindoir where she experienced the loss of her entire immediate family and friends, managing to survive only by hiding from the Batarians that had raided, killed, and enslaved the colony.
As maulden continued to kick the corpses, Shepard put a hand on his shoulder. "Kaleb. Save your energy. I bet there are more at the other torches." She said calmly.
"Then what the fuck are we waiting for." He brushed her hand from him and stormed towards the exit.
"Kaidan, make sure Maulden doesn't take off with the mako." Shepard radioed ahead while searching for the terminal to deactivate the torch. Once it was offline, she was about to redirect it when her comms came to life.
"I'm reading that the torch is offline. Was that you? Can you hear me?" It was the same voice from earlier.
"Who are you? What's going on?" Shepard asked with Liara listening in while Wrex watched for any surprises.
"My name's Kate Bowman. I'm an engineer. I was part of the team assigned to bring this asteroid to Terra Nova. We were attacked yesterday by Bataraian extremists. I've been hiding since they arrived. I think they know the torch went out."
"Kate, do you know why they're doing this?" Any information could be helpful.
"I don't know. But if this asteroid isn't slowed, millions of people on Terra Nova are going to die. If I find out anything I'll-... I've got to go. Good luck." Her final words were rather rushed and the comm channel went dead.
"Let's head to the mako and hit-"
"Shepard," Kaidan said over the comms, "we've got someone here… an engineer. Better come speak with him, Commander."
A little annoyed at being interrupted, she led Liara and Wrex out of the building. There she saw Maulden leaning against the mako with his arms crossed while Kaidan was keeping an eye on the engineer. As she approached they looked to her.
"Simon Atwell. Chief engineer on this rock." The man greeted them.
"Commander Shepard, Systems Alliance."
"Listen, we don't have much Batarians fired up the fusion torches. You've got to shut them down before we hit Terra Nova!" Simon said.
Really, I had no idea.
"There are four million people down there, Shepard. I… my family. They live in Aronas. My kids and grandkids. Nice community. Good schools…"
"Quick then, how bad will it be if we don't stop this rock?"
"X57 is twice the size of the asteroid that wiped out Earth's dinosaurs. The heat of the blast, wildfires, clothing igniting, air shock that will flatten everything for hundreds of kilometres, not to mention the tsunamis. The colony will be gone, but more than that the entire ecosystem will die. Shepard, Terra Nova will die if this asteroid hits it."
"Then putting it in the water won't help."
"That would make it many times worse, Commander." Simon said.
"It doesn't make sense. Batarians run criminal gangs. Unethical but profitable. They don't destroy worlds." Pausing a moment to think she wondered if Simon would know. "What does this gain them?"
"I've heard all the stories. Slave rings ranching people like animals. Pirate bands burning down colonies. But this is… The Citadel Conventions forbid asteroid drops." Simon answered.
"Batarians left the Citadel after Torfan. I don't think they give a shit about what the Citadel laws are. They're just interested in trying to show us humans where they think we belong." Mauldren growled.
"We've beaten them back before, you and I both, cousin." Shepard dropped her formal title for her family. Walking to face him and seeing the hateful look through his visor, Shepard nodded. "We'll take these ones down. Raiders, slavers and terrorists don't deserve mercy. I won't stop you from doing what you need to."
Maulden gave a satisfied huff. "As if I was going to be restrained."
I wonder if he's going to be okay? She recalled the reports of Torfan and the reputation her cousin got from ordering his troops to chase down and kill Batarians, even those that surrendered. "Mount up, we're moving onto the next torch. Simon, fill us in on their numbers and if you can, their leader."
Shepard was glad to have Simon along, he provided them with more information and a few tips. The Batarian leader being Balak and that some of his team were scared of him. Then there was the minefield surrounding the torch they were headed to next. Having to go in on foot was annoying and risky given the open field Simon described. Then there was his request to search for his team, something Shepard decided could wait until after they'd dealt with the terrorist problem. She did give him one piece of good news, that being that one of his engineers, Kate, was still alive and had been in contact just minutes ago.
"Commander, the transmission tower is up and running. We got a few locations pop up on our maps." Ingersoll informed her.
"Ignore them, focus on getting to the main building. And be careful these are Batarian terrorists, they aren't going to show us humans any mercy." Each of the three relatives had a bad history with Batarians, not that their stereotype gave other species much reason to trust them. Common belief was that most Batarians preferred profitable pursuits such as drug running and slave grabs.
Navigating their way through the minefield and coming under fire was frustrating. The pressure to perform was higher than ever as they proceeded. Kaidan laid down some cover fire from the mako which gave them enough support to get in close. Maulden went off, getting close and personal, even going hand to hand with the final Batarian before knocking it down and shooting it.
The inside of the second torch control building was fairly similar, though the Batarians had traded out their varren for rocket drones. The fight was hard, with Shepard and Liara focusing on taking down the drones while ducking behind cover as the drones fired rockets at them. Wrex and Maulden were ruthless. They advanced seemingly without fear, the latter fuelled by his hatred while Wrex was just enjoying a good fight.
Medi-gel was needed after eliminating all the threats this time, Maulden having been wounded by being overly aggressive. A good leader leads by example, I suppose that's why so many of his troops followed him on Torfan, and why so many died. Shepard wondered what was going through her cousin's mind and hoped he would be a bit more methodical and careful at the next torch.
Once she deactivated the torch, Kate's voice crackled to life once more. "Are you there? You've got to hurry. You've really pissed them off. Their leader is setting charges everywhere. I think he's going to blow the whole facility."
"Get away from there!" A male voice yelled.
"Don't shoot, please!" Kate begged.
"Whose shutting down the torches?... I won't ask again." A deep voice asked. There was a long pause and Shepard was tense the entire time, jumping when she heard the gunshot. "Find this problem and deal with it! Get her out of here!"
"Fuck! Get to the mako now! Team two, what's your position?" Shepard needed to know.
"Nearing the main facility now, Commander." Ingersoll answered.
"Good, get your sights on the outside. When I give the signal I want you all to start lighting up any Batarian bastard that's outside."
"Confirmed. We'll hold tight once we get there."
Shepard floored it once she was back in the driver's seat. Great driver or not, she knew how to make the mako work. Arriving at the third and final torch building, they made quick work of a rather lacking number of defence turrets before storming inside. Maulden pushed into the front with Shepard telling Wrex to back him up.
"Idiot has a death wish." The Krogan commented, but he did help out Maulden, covering his flank while Shepard and Liara provided cover.
With both of them using various biotic attacks they were able to force the terrorists off their feet or up into the air, making them easy targets. As they shut down the third torch and waited for some kind of update from Katie, Shepard swore when it never came.
Making their way downstairs again, Shepard raised her rifle as a Batarian called out to her. "Hold it right there! This doesn't have to end in bloodshed."
"Like fuck it doesn't! You Batarian shit!" Maulden yelled, raising his rifle and even getting a shot off, but not before Wrex grabbed the barrel and directed it away. "Fuck you Wrex!" He yelled, struggling and failing to free his weapon from the Krogan's grasp.
Fuck sake. "Speak, before I let my subordinate loose." Shepard threatened.
"We can do this the hard way… or we can end this peacefully. Name's Charn."
"Didn't know you Batarians knew the meaning of the word." She was still cautious of them given they were planning to launch the asteroid into a planet.
"Look, I'm just doing my job here. Hijacking this rock wasn't my idea. I signed on to make a little profit. A quick slave grab. Nothing more." Charn said.
"This isn't a slave grab. Millions of people are going to die. Millions." Shepard pointed out.
"I'm just following orders. If it were up to me, we'd have already left." Charn didn't even have his hand on a weapon, unlike Shepard and Liara.
"Then go, we won't stop you." And it'll make getting to the leader easier with less support.
"I don't think so. Balak would skin me alive and sell my hide out of spite. Crazy bastard. This whole mission's gone to hell and I'm going to pay for it."
Simon was right, Balak must be some kind of guy to have his own people this scared. "So why listen to him?"
"Good question, I had a bad feeling about this from the moment we landed. Now Balak wants you dead. And what Balak wants, Balak gets. I can't change that." Charn shrugged while Shepard readied for a fight.
"Do you always want to be second in command? Get me out of here and I'll take care of Balak. Then you can start giving the orders." Wanting an easier route and not wanting to start a firefight at this range, Shepard hoped Charn would take the offer.
"The fuck Shepard?! This asshole is just going to hit another human colony or cruiser." Maulden yelled, trying to convince Shepard that it would be better off killing the Batarians rather than trusting them.
"Alright, shut it down. This is Balak's problem. Let him deal with it." Charn stepped towards Shepard and handed her a datapad. "You'll need this to get in. I hope you're quick on the draw, Balak is a mean bastard."
"Relax, I've got him. But if I ever hear or see you in Alliance space, I'll kill you." Shepard answered with a manic smile.
"Shepard! Are you crazy?!" Maulden continued to yell.
Shepard just looked down at the datapad and made to transfer the code to her omni-tool when she heard something hit the ground.
"Shepard!" Wrex yelled before she found herself being pulled back.
The Batarians turned to look at the yelling, and that's when she saw it. A small disc at their feet and another one spinning in their direction. "Ff-" The explosion went off and was followed quickly by a second. The gunfire was extremely brief and resulted in the Batarians lying dead on the metal floor.
Shepard watched as their blood pooled around their corpses and filled the grooves in the floor. She had given them a second chance yet her cousin's hatred of their kind betrayed her word. She rounded on him once she regained her senses.
"Maulden! If-" A pain spread through her face as her balance shifted.
There was more movement and the sound of a scuffle as Wrex restrained Maulden again while Liara helped steady and check over Shepard. She was shocked, not having expected Maulden to strike her, not his superior officer. She looked at him currently being held down by the massive and hulking Wrex.
"Let him up." She said calmly, being ready in case he tried that shit again. She could taste a little blood in her mouth and licked her lips. Relax, he's only this way because of our current enemy. The two relatives looked at one another with Wrex ready to pounce on Maulden if he so much as moved wrong.
"Kaleb." Shepard spoke slowly. "If you ever do that again during a mission or on duty. I'll have you put before the AMDC (Alliance Military Disciplinary Committee). Understood."
Without blinking or looking anywhere but into her eyes, Maulden would answer. "Fine. But if you even talk about letting raiders or slavers go free again, I'll kill them the same as now, Cecile."
There was an awkward tension between them after that, but the mission came first and Shepard brushed it off. Getting back to the mako, she checked that team two was in position before setting off. She wondered if he really would disobey her again in such a situation, then started second guessing her own decision to allow those Batarians to leave. Sure they needed the datapad and killing wasn't always the answer, but she recalled the images and stories of how they treated those they sold into slavery.
Scans, autopsies, and personal accounts of the horrors done to human slaves can attest to their barbaric ways. Victims were usually implanted with control devices in their skulls or given shock collars, the prior being done without the use of any anaesthetic. Gripping the controls tighter, Shepard made a promise to apologise to Kaleb later. She had been in the wrong and only focused on the mission at hand and less about the consequences of giving a Batarian who admitted to agreeing to the mission thinking it was a simple slave grab. You fucking idiot. She thought about herself. With her blood boiling, she pushed the mako to its limits. No more humans would have to die that day.