A/N - Sorry, this is my first story here, so I'm making mistakes, and going back to correct them takes a bit of time. There are terms and acronyms in here that may be unfamiliar; each chapter has a glossary at the end so you can flip down to the bottom, find out what it is, and then go back. (I tried it with the full name in parentheses, but found it too distracting to the scene and dialogue flow.)
This chapter is rated MA for death by impalement, a firefight, and language.
*** Ashley Williams ***
Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams pulled the door shut behind her, breathing heavily.
Uly Guiterrez was beside himself, "Why did you shoot as we were running away? They might not have seen us if we just ran away quietly!"
"Have you seen the guns they're using? It's like our shields aren't even up!"
"I know, I know! That's why we had to get in here." He was rummaging through the boxes in the little prefab like a madman, "Get out your shield generator."
"What?"
He pointed frantically over his shoulder without looking. "Get your shield generator out of your…backpack thing. SmartPak. Hurry!" From the scattered equipment on the floor, he started grabbing items and slapping them atop the nearest crate.
Ash sat down on the floor and released the backclip section to the floor, where it landed with a metallic klank. Holding her torso plate on with one hand, she flipped the backplate over and clicked the shield module out of it, rolled it across the floor toward him.
Ulysses "Uly" Guiterrez, one of the tech contractors who worked at the Alliance base "Sargon," had been at home when the geth had landed. At first, Ash had thought this was bad, but after the base was hit, and her unit decimated, she realized he was probably safe, and she knew where to find him. She had found him driving his 6-wheeled ground car toward the base, apparently trying to get weapons.
They had been ambushed by geth. Uly's go-buggy had been destroyed, and now they were on the run, trying to find other Alliance soldiers or armed civilians.
He grabbed the shield generator before it rolled to a stop, pulled it open, and used a set of forceps to extract components. "Use your motion sensor thing…if they start heading for us, we need to get out of here."
"Suit's already in Combat Mode," she checked the display on her ARO anyway, "But you need a weapon. Do you know how to use a pistol? Or an assault rifle?"
"Uh...I keep a shotgun under my desk on base." He looked away from his work for a second in thought. "No help there."
"Shotgun's a great idea," Ash said. She pulled her shotgun off its holster and put it on the crate in front of him as he worked. Generator sliprods rolled around the crate as it was jostled; Ash moved the weapon to keep them from rolling off the edge. "What are you doing there?"
Uly asked, "Did you see the cyclic rate on those weapons they were using? Your shields will need a fast recovery rate and lots of up-front power, and I can make the mods with this stuff."
"But they were using specialized ammo," Ash put her back to the door, watching the motion sensor on her ARO. "Whatever they're firing, it was designed to cut right through shields."
"Yeah, I remember," he spoke as though distracted, "I'm going to put everything into this generator, but…I'll be keeping you between me and them."
"You're going to hide behind me?" Ash was furious, "That's my job, you loon! You're a contractor…a civilian! I'll kick your ass if you don't!"
Uly glanced self-consciously over his shoulder, then quickly back to his work. "I know…but it…seems unfair."
Ash's sensor display flashed a highlight, showing motion outside, at about 100 meters to the east. "Speaking of unfair, we got bad guys. Not sure if they're moving this way yet. You about done?"
"Adding an upgrade mod to your suit is easy. Building the mod from spare parts isn't." He worked in silence for a minute, then slid the two halves back together, and turned to the white-armored soldier. "Where's your back…oh." He reached down and picked up the backpanel and SmartPak, fitted the shield generator into place, and held it up. "Turn around, I'll put it on for you."
Ash was still watching the motion sensor; as Uly pressed the back section into place, the interconnects clacked and whirred briefly as they lined up. Her ARO showed a new shield rating of 260.
"Damn, I didn't even know they could go that high." She pointed, "Don't forget the gun."
He reached for it, brought it up close to his face.
"The saftey's on the other side. Quick, let's go!" She peeked the door open, slid it aside. They ran around to the back of the container, hurried up the hill, and scrambled down the other side.
Uly pointed, "What are those?"
A row of gray, meter-high cylinders on tripods irregularly lined the side of the footpath.
Dragon's Teeth! Ash thought, God, I can't tell him! "They're sure as hell not ours. Come on, run!" No matter which way she looked, there seemed to be motion signals on the sensor display. The infrared overlay did not match them, so they had to be more of the attacking robots. She led the way across the path and up another low ridge.
Finally, a motion signal with IFFs…Alliance soldiers! "There's someone," she pointed up the hill, "Over that way. Hurry!"
Ash's sensors showed more robot signals to their left, heading their way, but the short-legged civilian lacked both her fitness and her training. He stumbled on his way down the next rise, crashing through scrub brush and falling. Ash ran back and grabbed one of his arms, "Come on! We can't stay here!" She glanced up, saw the geth approaching. She pushed him to the right, positioning herself between them, raised her rifle and fired, taking down two of the walking robots. "Run!"
They turned right, Ash leading them toward the people signal on the other side of a slight rise. Fast-moving targets appeared on her ARO's sensor overlay. Flyers, she thought, Shit!
As they started downhill, they found themselves running past more Dragon's Teeth. The whine of the flyers was close enough to hear; Ash sprinted past him, then stopped and spun left, firing. "Run, Uly, run! RUN!" Some of mechanized impalers were extended, with rapidly-drying human bodies impaled on them. Uly wheezed his way toward her, gaped in horror, stumbled one last time.
The flyers analyzed the situation quickly; the running human was still a threat; they accelerated and closed on her, targeted and fired.
The impact caused her to lose her footing, but the blue bolts simply rebounded from her enhanced shields. Knowing they were close enough to hit, she pulled her sidearm, threw herself onto her back in a skidding halt. Her suit VI helped her lead them; three shots took down the two targets.
As the shrapnel fell out of the sky, she leaned up off the ground to see Uly lifted by a pair of the robots onto the impaler; there wasn't even time to call his name as the spike exploded through his back and out his chest, lifting him into the air.
She rolled and dove behind a large boulder, pulling the assault rifle off her back. Flattened against the rock, she realized she'd failed to protect the one civvie who'd managed to save her life.
What will I tell Maria? Or Miguel and Sabrina?
She grimaced, but would not cry; that would come later.
Her VI noticed the emotional surge and began releasing adrenaline modifiers to keep her head clear. It displayed on her helmet's HUD: Stabilon (Combat-grade) in effect.
When she heard the sound of a robot weapon firing from where she thought the people were, she was suddenly angry. A line from one of her favourite childhood books came to mind, "If we must die today, let us sell ourselves dearly."
Her back against the rock, she raised her weapon to fire as a man appeared at the top of the ridge; an Alliance soldier! And he didn't look like he was running from something; he fired one of the robots' weapons past her, and another soldier followed, hurling tech grenades ahead of him. The robots exploded in a shower of blue electrical arcs.
Another soldier, with an assault rifle in hand, fired non-stop on more of the mechanical horde. They split up into cover as the dozen enemy converged on Ash's position, methodically selecting the closest robot, coordinating sequential fire on it, and then repeating the procedure on the next.
Ash never heard a word out of them, but her IFF indicated they were definitely Alliance, though not from the 212 or the local militia.
In the silence that followed, the three soldiers ran up to her. One of them - an N7 - opened his visor and asked, "Are you all right?"
Ash's suit systems fought to normalize her biochemistry. But even out of breath, and with her bloodstream flooded with useless and distracting chemicals, she knew enough to identify herself, "Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams of the 212. You the one in charge here, sir?"
The N7 indicated the other two soldiers. "We're from Normandy, here to secure a research find. But it looked like you were getting hammered."
"You saw our message? You saw that…thing?"
"That...black hand-shaped thing? Only a couple of frames of it, and only an hour ago. Where's the rest of your unit?"
"Oh, man…" Ash felt suddenly distressed, as if she'd been called to account. "We were on patrol, just walking the perimeter, when these things…they looked like rocks…dropped out of the sky." She was getting more traumatized as she recalled the events, "Then they stood up and started shooting at us. We were surrounded…by mechs…and tried to double back, but they were everywhere. We got split up. I don't think any of the others…" her eyes flowed over HUD information in her helmet, "I think…I'm…the only one left."
"This isn't your fault, Williams," the man said quickly, "There wasn't anything you could have done." Kaidan stepped up to Ashley's suit, took readings and copied files from it as Shepard continued, "So…someone airdropped mechs on you?"
"No, not mechs, they were shaped wrong, almost alien-like. Wrong wrong wrong. And they moved too fast, worked together way too well. If they'd been mechs, we've seen…god…forty million credits' worth of them today."
"I'd like to hit you with a cognitive stabilizer," Kaidan interrupted, "It'll help you feel better."
"Do it," Shepard said.
"Not your call, sir," Kaidan reminded him.
"He's right, I need it. And a shot of ET3. I'm going to have goddamned hysterics about the people I lost today, but this is not the time." She glanced intensely over her shoulder, "Come on, what are you waiting for?"
Kaidan shrugged, thumbed a reader on Williams' suit, worked his omnitool. As he did, Ash's suit completed its electronic handshake with the other soldiers; Shepard, Alenko, and Jenkins; all from SSV Normandy, just as the N7 had said.
Ash took a breath, held it, and then exhaled with her eyes closed. "That's better." She raised her left arm, and lit her own omnitool gauntlet. "Nobody knew the ship design. It was too big and too fast. Might be a new species. But my VI is telling me that the robots we saw are…geth." She looked up at Shepard. "Geth?!"
"Crazy, isn't it?" Kaidan nodded, "No one's seen geth beyond the Veil in over two hundred years."
"So they weren't just hiding out, they were building a fleet of dreadnoughts?" Ash shook her head, "And they've had centuries to do it. They could have hundreds of those things!"
"Could they be here for…that…you know…the thing?" Richard asked.
"What, the beacon?" replied Ash. The Normandy team looked at her expectantly. "That's what the scientists have been calling it. There's a light on it, and it blinks. Can you imagine? A buried old light that still works."
Shepard exchanged a glance with Kaidan, then turned back to Ash.
"Do you know anything else about it?" Shepard asked.
"No, sir. But the scientists are real excited about it. The dig site is close; it's just at the end of this vale. If you're here to pick up the beacon, it might still be there. I'd heard they didn't want to move it until they had a place to move it to."
Shepard held his rifle aloft. "All right. Before we move out, I'm declaring a squad update override; adding Williams to the fireteam in position 4, switch LOSI comms to Main Channel C, scrambler synch on Williams." His suit winked status lights on his ARO as the suit VIs communicated with each other and adjusted.
"Alenko here."
"Jenkins here."
"Williams here, and synch is on me."
"Good," Shepard nodded, satisfied the comm links were updated. He tapped his own faceplate. "Williams, reconfigure your helmet to breather mode for added stealth."
"Sir." She lit her gauntlet, flipped a toggle. With the buzz-clicks of decompaction, her helmet chinguard extended armor to the bottom of the visor, sealed and pressurized the helmet.
"Can you take us to the dig site, Williams?"
She brought up her rifle and clacked the ammo block into place. "Can do, sir. And if we see some more of those geth, it'll be time for payback."
She turned, and hadn't taken two steps before she glanced left and saw the spike with Uly's body on it. She faltered, stopped.
As he approached, Kaidan looked where she was looking. He slowed and stopped by her side. "Was that…did you know him?"
Ash struggled to find words, "He's a friend…he…helped me after my unit had been wiped out. His work…on my shields…is the only reason I'm alive. But I'm…I couldn't…help him." Grimacing, she looked away.
Shepard's ARO popped up a message that Ash's neurotronics were signaling for more ET3. "Alenko, she needs..."
"I got it," the biotic answered, and authorized the release of more of the stabilizer.
Shepard looked grimly at the spike, felt his own face also contort into a grimace. He asked, "Did they just do this? Can we help him?"
"A few minutes ago," Ash replied, and stepped toward the spike. "And I don't know."
Shepard followed, fabbing a tech relay as he approached. "Maybe I can short it out and get him down. If this is just an impaling…" He reached as high as he could, waved his omnitool left and right. Kaidan was just stepping up as Shepard's ARO displayed the readings.
Kaidan looked as if he was simply reading from his gauntlet. "He's…comatose."
Shepard attached the tech relay to the impaler, took a step back, set off a directional EMP. The relay exploded, leaving a hand-sized scorch mark on the impaler, but had no other effect.
Kaidan looked at his own omnitool. "He's in electronic stasis. That spike is keeping him alive, but…no fluids are moving. What the hell…?"
Shepard tapped the spike experimentally, it sounded metallic. He pointed east. "Can you catch him in a lift field? I'm going to push him that way."
Kaidan stepped over to where Shepard had indicated. Shepard leaned against the vertical, then stood again. "That's pretty sturdy." He tried lifting the one leg of the tripod; it wouldn't budge. "How are they doing this?" He knelt at the base of the leg, scratched at the dirt beneath it, dug briefly. "It's extended a stake into the ground." He glanced at Ash, "Do you know what this thing is doing?"
"No," she shook her head.
Shepard moved quickly to another leg, pulled up on it; again, no good.
He was getting frantic. He drew his pistol. "Stand back," he said, aiming at the leg. Five rounds left two tiny scratches. He traded his pistol for his assault rifle, fired repeatedly. Still nothing.
Now he was feeling incompetent, and it made him angry. He stepped back, pointed up at the body. "Alenko, can you just lift him off there?"
"You bet," answered the biotic, flaring with visible energy.
"Whoa," murmured Richard, "Awesome."
Kaidan lifted a hand, and Uly's arms and legs rose in response, but his body didn't move up the spike.
"Wait a minute." Ash walked up to the tripod, pressed experimentally on the pulsating blue ring. "Corporal, can you give me a handstep?"
"You bet, ma'am." Richard stepped forward, but Kaidan put an arm in his way.
"No, let me. You're still healing. At least give yourself a few more minutes." He approached, linked the fingers of both hands, bent slightly.
Ash put a foot into his hands, her other foot on the ring, and lifted herself up to Uly's body. She pressed upward, but couldn't move him. "Why won't you move," she said with rising intensity, "Uly, why won't you move? Wake up! We've got...to get...you off this." She was straining visibly.
Shepard raised his omnitool again, set to Transopter Medical. The system revealed that the spike had horizontal prongs that must have extended after the original impaling. "The thing's got spikes sideways," he said. "And it looks like they're extending from the central…one." He drew back slowly as Ash stepped back down.
They stood silently, each with their own thoughts, but all offended that this – what it was their job to prevent – had happened anyway.
"Sir?" Richard took a step closer, "I think you have to let him go. There's…nothing you can do. Sir."
Kaidan turned. "He's right, we've got to go. We need to secure that beacon."
Reluctantly, Shepard took another step away. "Williams, come on, we're leaving."
Richard looked away and down, not wanting to be looking at Shepard if the Commander looked his way. "Hey look, a shotgun." He looked up again, "At least…he went down fighting."
"It's my shotgun," Ash said. "And he never fired it." She picked it up mechanically, replaced it on her SmartPak.
"Come on, we need to go," Kaidan moved away in the direction Williams had started earlier.
"Right, we've lost some time," Shepard agreed, chiding himself silently, "Thanks for the reminder. Williams, get us to that dig site. Jenkins? How you doing?"
The young Corporal was still looking up at the impaled body. "I'm okay." He patted his own torso quickly, "I'm still okay. I'll be okay," he said, turning.
"Alenko, can Jenkins make double-time?"
Kaidan glanced at the clock on his ARO. "Yeah, he should be fine. I wouldn't jump from two meters, but he should be okay to double-time. You can wiggle your toes, right?"
He stopped, balanced on his right foot, wiggled his left foot. "Yep. Feels like normal. Uh, a little weak, but not hurting."
Shepard stopped, glanced over a shoulder. "Williams, you're on point. Get us there. Okay, everyone, we're double-timing it. We got time to make up. Let's go!" As Williams jogged past him, he continued, "Alenko, two, Jenkins three. I'll bring up the rear. Remember to check your targets, we got a field full of civvies."
They had just started jogging when Kaidan asked, "That man was still alive when they stuck him on the spike?"
"Yeah," Ash replied, "Impaling victims instead of just shooting them. There must be a reason." She kicked at a rock as she jogged along, "They want us to suffer."
"Classic psychological warfare," Kaidan thought aloud, "They're using terror as a tactic."
"Damn damn dammity damn…" Ash was synchronising the double-time march to her stream of whispered obscenities, and as she went, she got creative (so to speak). Two more spikes on their left had bodies that were much more shriveled, almost dried-out. Ash jogged along, acting like she wasn't looking at them.
Shepard noted the emotional detachment he was feeling, and silently thanked his own neurotronics for keeping his head clear.
Just at the end of this vale turned out to be about half a kilometer. Jenkins had a little trouble keeping up, not because of his injury, but because his brain hadn't stopped pumping out endorphins; he kept falling behind, looking at every vista or plant as if for the first time. Shepard kept him on task.
A window popped open on his ARO: A. Williams: You need a leash for that one?
Shepard's SRS app popped up a window notifying him that Jenkins' Combat VI had nearly finished compensating for his overreaction. He gestured for a text response, and said, "Give him three minutes. He's green, but has great attitude. And he's from here, so he might react differently."
Williams, leading the way, stopped short of the top of a hill. "They're at the dig site, too. Light 'em up!"
Watching Ash pull her Banshee off her SmartClip and check its settings, Shepard pointed a finger at his Corporal, then right and up to the top of the hill. "Jenkins. Sniper rifle. Top of the hill. Watch for incoming."
Combat direction seemed to help the Corporal focus. "Sir. Sniper rifle. Top of the hill. Will advise of any new targets." He turned and jogged to the top of the next rise. As Richard passed Kaidan, Shepard noticed the lieutenant checking his pistol, a Kessler with biotic hardening.
"Alenko, with me." Shepard pointed briefly at Kaidan, then ahead. "Talk to me, Williams. Whaddya see?" He started forward, gestured for cognitive acceleration.
"Bad robots," she answered, "Three of 'em. They moved to cover as we approached. I'm not getting sensor EM, but they're all in cover, and they're between us and the site."
Shepard, now running at a cognitive 2x, switched his ARO to see what Williams' suit was seeing. Nothing was moving or showing on the sensor display.
"Movement, no heat signature?" He pulled his sniper rifle off his back, watched it configure.
"Yes, sir."
"Think they're defending the site?"
"They're positioned behind cover with respect to us, so I'm pretty sure." She gestured to her Combat VI, and the locations of the three geth were added to the display so the team could see it, "I've got a few RPGs left."
"I recommend sniper rifle. Jenkins, you got the twenty on these guys?"
"Yes, sir!" The boyish Corporal sounded eager for combat. That's dangerous.
"Corporal."
"Sir?"
"You fit for duty?"
"Expert, Ready and Able, sir."
That's better, Shepard thought. "Good; stay frosty. I'm not writing any letters today." He studied the display. "Alenko, can you Lift that closest one without leaving cover?"
Kaidan peeked the sensor on his helmet up over the top of the rock. "Not from here. But I could probably jump up and get him."
"Team comes first," Shepard said, "You got enough shielding?"
"120-820. I could maybe do it while behind a barrier, but it'd be more accurate without."
"Okay, when you do that, I'm going to stand and take him out; hopefully the other two will come out of cover to fire on me. When they do, Williams, Jenkins, you take them down. Ready?"
Green lights on Shepard's ARO indicated they were. He gestured to accelerate his neurotronics to 4x, replaced his sniper rifle, pulled the geth weapon off his back and waited for it to configure. "Alenko, you call it."
Silence.
"These guys don't move at all, do they?" Kaidan sounded amazed, "This'll be tough." He shifted slightly. "Okay…ready? Go!"
To his left, Shepard watched the biotic spring up, seem to throw a glowing purple ball overhand. The projectile came down on the far side of a rock and splashed; a single geth ascended, writhing in the energy field. Shepard stood quickly with weapon fitted, planted his feet, and held the trigger.
The geth, floating helplessly, erupted in sparks as the high-cyclic weapon tore it to pieces. Shepard may not have needed the high-stability stance for accurately firing the weapon, but it helped him withstand the fire he took from the two geth that turned their weapons on him.
As he dropped back into cover, he noticed that his shields had been completely shot away, but he also saw Ash and Richard firing on the organic-looking robots just before he was safely in cover again.
Giving his shields time to recharge, he poked the scope of his weapon over the top of the rock before remembering he could not use the geth weapon in periscope mode. He traded it to his other hand and quickly pulled his pistol, flicked the safety off, and was just in time to see the two remaining geth destroyed.
"I think we got 'em, Commander," said Kaidan.
Shepard allowed himself a smile, "Good work, everyone. Well done." Flipping the safety back on, and holstering his pistol, he aimed an index finger back at Richard, "Expert marksmanship, Jenkins; keep it up." As his shields finished recharging, he gestured the acceleration off, and rose from cover to survey the archaeological find; a series of concentric circular platforms, the lowest at center, surrounded by a two-meter wall.
As he approached, his focus on the material prompted the suit VI to analyze it; the spectrometer indicated it was a ceramic polymer composite, and it seemed to have weathered like stone. He lifted his left arm, scanned the post and lintel nearest him. His transopter briefly put callouts on the ARO, showing the interconnecting structure of the joints. This was not the shattered remains of something larger, it had been buried intact. A glance at the reinforcing wall just beyond showed it had been under perhaps 30 meters of dirt.
At the back of the dig were four more of the lethal spikes with bodies on them, another grim reminder.
Shepard frowned as he glanced at the mission clock. This was taking too long for just a pickup, but at least they had arrived at the dig site. "Alenko, I assume you're still down on 'gel. Process these things like we did the others. Jenkins, you help him. Williams, show me this beacon." He looked to his right and saw Ash about five meters away, pistol drawn, slowly aiming at the nearest fallen geth and firing deliberately, repeatedly. He counted her shots: three...four...five...six...seven...
Another shot rang out from high ground to the right. Ash's head looked like it exploded in sparks as she was thrown to the ground. Antimateriel round, indicated the ARO, putting a callout on the origin point of the shot.
"Williams!" Shepard held his thumb to the lowest phalange of his ring finger, which snapped him instantly into Firefight Mode, the callout locking in on the geth sniper at the top of the ridge. He pulled his pistol off its powerclip and fired before acceleration was fully engaged. Only one of the three shots hit near enough, knocking the shooter back from its perch and deeper into cover.
A tech relay hummed its way up to the geth; an electrical arc connected them briefly. The robot's left leg extended fully, as if it were trying to jump away, but putting it into Shepard's reticle. Fully accelerated, he was able to put a round right into its camera-eye.
Its body lurched back, then collapsed forward, tumbling off the ridge. Before it could bounce off the cliff face on its way down, Shepard was looking for the rest of the second party. There should be two more, he thought. The geth hit ground with a metallic fump, and slid to a stop.
Without taking his eyes off the cliff, Shepard pointed toward the fallen Gunnery Chief with his left hand, "Medic!"
Kaidan vaulted over the cover he'd been behind, "Medic on task!"
No other bad guys were visible on Shepard's ARO. Almost unwilling to believe the sensor anymore, he continued to scan for them.
"I'm okay, LT," said Ash. "Just...headache." She steadied herself on the rock nearby.
Kaidan sounded as incredulous as Shepard felt, "That was a half-gram round," he held up a hand, thumb and index finger extended, "You should have a hole in your head this big."
"I'm at 260-480…" she explained.
"260?!"
Ash sighed, "Uly…saved my life again."
"What?"
"That guy – on the spike – that we couldn't save? His name is…was Ulysses Guiterrez. He built this shield mod for me…a few minutes before they…killed him. He'd seen they were tearing through our shields, so he traded recharge speed for strength."
"Yeah, but 260?" Kaidan shook his head, "Well, you can't argue with success."
Shepard gave up trying to find more geth for the moment. "All right, well done. Alenko; good, quick thinking with the relay. Williams…mm…good work getting us all worried."
Ash shook her head, "I'm still worried. Seeing stars. Should be okay in a minute, though."
Kaidan walked around behind her, inspected her suit, "Let me have a look, Chief." He put up a hand to provide some shadow, moved his head to see better. "Well, you sure got the shields for it. I suspect we're all going to want them."
Shepard frowned. "No kidding. These...geth...are trouble. They always send more, and they're always getting smarter about us. We really stepped in it this time. But that's why they pay us the big money, right? Williams, where's the beacon?"
Ash looked to the center of the circular array, then left and right. "This is the dig site. The beacon was right here, it must have been moved." She put both hands on the sides of her helmet and adjusted it.
Kaidan stepped up alongside her, facing Shepard. "By who? Our side or theirs?
"Hard to say. Maybe they know more at the research camp." She struggled with her helmet again, then gestured to her suit VI. The helmet opened, and she twisted it, and lifted it off. "Dammit, I think that shot cracked the outer shell." She inspected the helmet, banged a part of it with her left hand, and started to squeeze her head back into it. "Have to have an MFO replace that later."
In the distance, something emitted a hornlike wail, and the lonely sound resonated for a few seconds.
"What was that?" Kaidan looked up and left, then right.
"Gemmadarsis Hupfarii," Richard answered casually. All eyes were instantly on him.
Kaidan recovered first. "What? You just...know that?"
"My dad's a zoologist. I happen to know that one because it's a good one for impressing the FOBs...the noobs. Everyone hears that thing, and everyone thinks it's some enormous monster or something." He held his hands up in front of him, a little less than a meter apart. "They're only about this big, with the legs."
"We just call 'em thrint," Ash added. "They ingest and excrete through the same hole. That sound is a 'thrint fart'."
Shepard chuckled and nodded approvingly.
Richard rounded quickly on her, "It's not a fart, it's a territorial marker—"
Ash gave him an icy look. "Same. Hole."
"Whatever," Shepard glanced at the spikes, "Come on, team; stay on task. Williams, where are the researchers? Think anyone got out of here alive?"
"If they were lucky. Maybe…hiding in the camp? The research camp's just up that rise," she waved her weapon up the incline.
"Okay, let's get going. We're are now officially behind schedule." Shepard jogged past them, and out of the Prothean circle, turning left up the dirt ramp. "Jenkins, get up here, assault rifle. I want you on point." That should put some fear and sobriety in him, Shepard thought.
"Yes, sir!" By the slight waver in his voice, the directive seemed to have had its intended effect.
Shepard continued, "Team, switch to Assault rifles, maximum cyclic rate, minimum round size. Phasic rounds if you have 'em. Or hammerhead, so you at least get some extra stopping power."
As they jogged up the hill, their comms came alive again, "Change of plans, Shepard; there's a small spaceport just ahead. I want to check it out. I'm going to wait for you there."
"Who's that?" Ash asked.
"It's a Spectre!" Richard said, "We're on a mission with a Spectre!"
"Don't be one of the people that ends up dead," Shepard reminded him. "When you're behind schedule, that's the time to work smarter not faster."
Richard stopped jogging as he reached the top of the rise. The first building on their right had fallen off its cantilever, and was billowing smoke. Equipment and debris littered the ground, and as they came further up, more spikes with bodies on them came into view. Everyone avoided looking closely at them, so no one saw the diodes and sensors that covered the emaciated bodies.
"Looks like they hit the camp hard," Ash said.
Kaidan glanced at rocks that might provide cover, "Good place for an ambush. Keep your guard up."
With a metallic shriek, the spikes suddenly retracted, and the bodies seemed to spring to life.
Kaidan stopped, took a step back. "Oh, god…they're still alive…!
The three humanoid things turned on the team and started running toward them.
Ash was clearly horrified, "What did the geth do to them?"
Richard backpedalled quickly, "What are they gonna do to us?"
Shepard plucked a grenade off his SmartPak at waist level and flung it at the ground between the team and the husks. "Hit the deck!" As the group of zombie-like things crossed over the disk, his suit VI detected this and detonated the grenade; the resulting explosion blew them to bits.
Richard stumbled backwards, collapsing over Shepard's prone body. "Oof! Ow! Sorry, sir."
Shepard rolled away, noticing the converted people had not retained enough soft tissue to splatter anything. He stood, extended a hand to the Corporal. "You have nothing to apologize for. But we still have to find that beacon. And that means finding a science team member who can tell us what happened to it," Shepard clapped him on the shoulder. "Stay sharp. You can do it."
Kaidan was staring at the most intact of the fallen husks, an upper torso twitching one shoulder in a circular motion. It almost looked like it was trying to keep moving toward them. "These…these were people?"
Shepard squinted at the remains as it seemed to wind down. "It must take a few hours for the spikes to turn people into these things."
Richard had turned his mic off, but Shepard could see his helmet moving slightly; clearly he was talking. The focus of his attention directed the suit VI to connect and relay the audio.
"–pointed unto man the days of his probation…that by his natural death he might be raised…in immortality unto...eternal life, even as many would believ–" Shepard toggled the audio back to the team's current settings.
"Now we know what those spikes are for," Kaidan said to no one in particular, "Turning our own dead against us."
Shepard turned to Ash. "Do you…want to go back and cremate that guy? Ulysses?"
She returned his look, seemed to be thinking. "I…no. I don't have any fuel to start it. We'd have to split the team up." She looked suddenly angry. "It used to be beautiful here."
Kaidan seemed equally disturbed, "Eden Prime will never be the same again."
Ash pointed, "Two intact prefab units at the far end of the camp."
"Let's go." Shepard turned and started toward the two units.
*** Glossary ***
EM: Electromagnetic [Signature]
ET3: Technically "TC-5c," a therapeutic post-stroke neurotech developed in the early 2130s by Erizzo, Thompson, Tprrez Terapie, SpA (ETTT), but referred to by its manufacturer's popularized name ("ET3") rather than its product name (in a manner similar to how people will say "I opened Microsoft" rather than "I opened Word.") The name stuck when the profitable but short-lived company was acquired by Amgen, which even went so far as to rename the product to "ExtraTerrestrial Thalmic Tranquility," which more aptly describes its modern application, and aligned with common usage.
FOB: Fresh Off the Boat. New arrivals.
LOSI: Line Of Sight Intersuit. A telecom protocol used by the Alliance to allow fireteams to communicate with each other over short distances without having to worry about interception. Primary mode of data exchange is optical, but the fallback radio component is also scrambled.
RPG: Rocket-Propelled Grenade.
SmartPak: an integrated weapons carrier worn as the back panel for compatible standard armor types. Active hardpoint controllers are linked to standard combat VIs so that a soldier has only to reach for the weapon for it to unlock and begin decompaction. Also automatically connects to weapons and allows them to finish compaction when being secured.
SRS: Squad Realtime Status
thrint: name originally given to an alien race in a series of stories by Larry Niven. Because this story's timeline shares our history, these fictional aliens are also known to the SF fans of this event scheme just as Jules Verne or H.G. Wells are known to us.
ThruView: Sirta Foundation's brand name for their proprietary version of transopter technology. See transopter. Integration of ThruView with standard omnitools allows for Virtual Reality Simulations (VRS).
transopter: Scanning technology for "at arm's length" analysis. Combines infrared, Doppler ultrasound and remote specific gravity arrays to construct a 3D model in virtual space that can be superimposed on a user's omnitool ARO.
