Chapter 41. Let Go
16:21 Local Time, 19. June 2414 AD, Bellerophon System, Akuze
Single-mindedness and compartmentalisation.
That was what kept both his and Shepard's head in the game right now.
Every specialist prepared for a mission in their own way, centering themselves to ensure that they would focus only on one thing, getting the job done. Some trained, others planned, a few read. Personally he had never been part of the reading crowd, at least not until recently. Instead of following their usual rituals, Shepard and Morneau had spent every waking minute on their trip to Akuze with trying to make sense of twenty five years worth of intel. Alien artifacts, cybernetically enhanced thralls, manipulated people, a billion year old ship wreckage, the biggest misconception in galactic history, a dead civilization and an enigmatic figure pulling all their strings, all of it had kept them company for the duration of their trip. The more they had read about what the directors of Section 13 and Cerberus had kept secret from the rest of the HSA, the more sense it started to make, the clearer the picture became.
Said picture was without the shadow of a doubt among the most terrifying things Daniel 'Magic' Morneau had ever heard about in the nearly twenty nine years he had spent wandering the earth, or rather the galaxy, and only the fact that it all still seemed somewhat surreal kept it from claiming the well deserved first place on that list.
"One minute, you really sure about this?" one of the Kodiak's pilots asked as the shuttle began to close in on their drop zone, the sea of green below them turning into individual tree canopies as they got closer to the ground. In a way the place reminded him of Terra Nova, both appeared very earth-like when viewed from the right distance but up close they just didn't measure up to the real deal. It was easy for humans who had never actually been on Earth, a group growing in numbers with passing every year and every new colony, to overlook the small differences but for him it had always been obvious. Whether it was the smell of the air, the colour of the sky, the temperature during day or the stars seen only outside of the megacity he had grown up in, every 'new Earth' he had set foot on hadn't managed to live up to the original. He would've pitied those who never experienced it for missing out on things like that if he didn't know about the darker side of his home from first hand experience. Between social issues like overcrowded cities, organized crime, poverty and the bureaucratic empire necessary to effectively govern eleven billion people, the twelve years he had spent on the planet hadn't been the best of his life. By the time he had exchanged foster care for Grissom Academy, he had seen about enough of 'the cradle of human civilization'.
"Yes, put us down as close to their last known location as you can," Alec Shepard, the senior specialist who had requested Morneau as a replacement for his actual partner, Grant Redford, who also happened to be Morneau's former supervisor, nodded while climbing to his feet. It was a bold move but they both had agreed that it was the best course of action, speed could give them an advantage the marines hadn't had. Walking towards the site of the emergency beacon hadn't helped the platoon they were looking for and as far as the Ain Jalut had been able to tell, the area was save to approach.
Which in itself was making him even more weary.
There were no signs of Captain Hackett's platoon or the Cerberus team the marines had been looking for before dropping of the radar. The only things they knew to be down there were abandoned prefabs, unused vehicles and a bigger structure of unknown origin east of the camp which was made of something the stealth frigate's scanners hadn't be able to penetrate. He knew that Cerberus had been looking for prothean ruins but the revelation that there was a large alien construct on Akuze's surface had still been surprising. The director's files had mentioned a lot of things but the complex located in between a square of black obelisks, which unlike the thing they surrounded looked distinctively prothean, hadn't been one of them.
Which again made him even more weary.
There was no reason for Rei to keep that particular detail a secret from them considering everything else he had given to them. If he hadn't mentioned it, he hadn't known about it and if he hadn't known about it, chances were that it was responsible for nearly a hundred and eighty people, marines and Cerberus operatives alike, going dark form one moment to the next without leaving even the smallest hint as to what had happened. There were situations which caused ground commanders to order complete radio silence but they were usually predated by some kind of hostile encounter, for example a small reconnaissance unit running into a much larger combat patrol. But even in these cases, whoever was in charge of the unit would give the chain of command some sort of indication as to what was going on before laying low. Since the platoon had simply stopped responding, the possibility of this blackout being intentional on their part was miniscule but since they were also positive that this wasn't the work of traditional jammers, to which HSA channels had previously been susceptible to, the possibility of anyone actively blocking their signals also seemed unlikely and natural interference had also been ruled out. As far as they could tell, the most logical answer to the situation they were in was that the marines had fallen victim to something that was capable of wiping out a combat-hardened infantry platoon faster than any of its members could explain what was going on.
And as if that alone wasn't bad enough, the same thing that had wiped the platoon out had also used Cerberus' emergency beacon to lure them to Akuze in the first place.
"Coming up on the landing zone," the pilot called as the roof of a white prefab building came into view, causing him to rise to his feet and take his position next to Shepard, who in turn opened the door of the shuttle. "Get ready to drop."
"You think it counts as exceptionally stupid if we know that it's a trap but do it anyway?" the younger specialist chuckled while the shuttle descended towards the prefab, turning to look at the other specialist who much like him was clad in the dark-grey armor HSAIS issued to Section 13.
"Only if it doesn't work," the man shrugged, jumping out of the Kodiak before it had completely centered itself over the building not a moment later. This had to be what working with him was like for Yo-yo, usually he'd be the one who'd do something like that.
"Well, here goes nothing," Morneau said to himself and took a step forward, following the older specialist through the door and landing next to him just as the shuttle took off, rolling to break his fall. "So, what's our play here?" he asked as the two scanned their surroundings, SR-8s at the ready. With little to no intel, they didn't exactly have a detailed plan to work with, so from here on out, they'd have to improvise. The first thing he noticed was the eery silence that had settled now that the Kodiak was gone. No people, no machines, not even local wildlife. Nothing besides Shepard's and his own feet hitting the roof below them with each step made any sort of noise.
"Search the camp and if it doesn't pan out,"the general lack of a reaction to their arrival made that a very likely scenario,"search the ruins," Shepard replied as they made their way towards one of the entry hatches built into the prefab. Normally used to connect several of the living units together to form larger complexes like barracks or administrative centers, they could also serve as a makeshift entrance as long as you knew how to open them manually.
"Ain Jalut, we've reached the target and we'll start searching the premise right now, how copy?" the senior specialist spoke into his radio while Morneau walked over to the edge of the roof, his attention drawn to something else entirely. "Ain Jalut, come in," Shepard repeated before sighing in frustration. Were their comms already down? It certainly seemed like it. If that was the case, they'd have to make sure to be on time, their extraction would arrive in exactly three hours, if they weren't around then, they'd probably be stuck on Akuze until they figured out what was jamming them.
Strangely enough, the prospect of being stranded on a mostly uncharted world that had already claimed a Cerberus field team and a marine platoon wasn't his main concern right about now.
"What the hell is that thing?" he muttered as he tried to make sense of the partially overgrown, greyish structure located a couple of hundred meters away from their current position. He wasn't an expert but what he was currently looking at through the scope of his rifle didn't exactly match the examples of prothean architecture he had seen up to now. The precursor race had left behind skyscrapers, pyramids and underground archives, all sharing a common design, on various planets throughout the galaxy, giving the current denizens of the Milky Way a solid idea as to what their cities and buildings had looked like. None of them came even close to resembling the mixture of arches, pathways and what appeared to be statues he was currently observing. This had to be the thing their scanners hadn't been able to make sense of and for some reason, it hadn't looked nearly this big from orbit. Located within a small valley, a grey tower covered in vines climbed upwards from the center of the structure, reaching the same height as the prothean obelisks surrounding it and dwarfing the several human vehicles and tents set up next to it. As he shifted his aim and kept an eye out for movement within the smaller encampment, he wondered why Cerberus hadn't told Harper and by extension Rei about the bigger ruin. An unknown alien structure seemed like the kind of thing you should mention to your superiors.
"Whatever it is, it's bad news," Shepard figured before the sound of the hatch coming loose caused Morneau to turn away from the alien ruin and take a peak into the distinctively less impressive human prefab. "After you, Magic," the older specialist offered with a wave of his hand. Slinging his weapon over his shoulder, Morneau lowered himself through the entrance, quickly looking around the empty room he had just entered before giving the all clear.
"Light's on, computer's on, hell I think they even have air conditioning running," he summarized as he started to look around just as Shepard joined him, the low but audible humming of a ventilator cooling the room to make up for the tropical climate outside replacing the previous lack of sound. "I guess conserving power wasn't their main concern."
"Seems like they didn't plan to leave," the other man offered while walking off to the opposite part of the room before trying to access one of the still running computer terminals. "Cerberus follows HSAIS protocols, they shouldn't have left anything behind. Their team might've been mostly scientific but I don't see them leaving any of this here."
"Yeah, Cerberus isn't sloppy," he nodded on his way to the door of the room, a spatter on one of the walls causing him to stop dead in his tracks. "I've got blood," he let Shepard know before taking a closer look at the first signs of what might have happened here. Alongside the dried patch of red he could make out a sizeable, dent in the interior wall of the prefab unit, which much like the rest of the structure was made of an alloy strong enough to survive in some of the harsher parts of human space. Whoever had made this dent had been very angry and whoever that blood belonged to was likely very dead by now.
"Doesn't look like there was much of a fight though," Shepard countered from the other portion of the prefab, "looks like they just up and left, really."
"Maybe an ambush?" he suggested before stepping towards the door, intending to investigate the rest of what looked like it had been the operation's headquarters. "Died before they could put up a fight?"
"Could be that, could also be a whole other load of things," the other specialist nodded to indicate his readiness, causing both of them to sweep into the adjacent hallway, "on second thought, it probably was exactly that though," the man added in a neutral tone, unphased by what the now opened doors had revealed to them.
"Well, that explains," Morneau paused as he looked at the five corpses lying at their feet, bullet wounds riddling their bodies, "something, I guess."
"What happened here?" Shepard wondered as they climbed over the corpses and moved through the blood covered hallway, passing by familiar shell casings that betrayed the fact that it had been human weapons that had killed these people. Between the smaller pistol calibers probably belonging to the strangely absent weapons of the Cerberus scientists, spent rounds of a far bigger and very familiar weapon had also been spread across the hallway. "It looks like infighting but why would they turn on each other?"
Due to the nature of their assignments, a special security clearance had to be awarded to every last operative Cerberus intended to recruit, ensuring that only the most trustworthy candidates were approved to join the black-op. As such the chances of a mole or some sort of IFS double agent sneaking into their ranks to sabotage their operations or learn their secrets was slim to none. It hadn't happened before and unless they relaxed their standards, it wouldn't happen any time soon either. Cerberus was basically impossible to infiltrate. Yet in spite of all these precautions, all the procedures they went through to prevent being betrayed from within, the scene Shepard and Morneau were currently walking through indicated that exactly that had occurred here.
"These guys ran away," Morneau figured while stepping over two of the dead, the fact that their backs were covered in several small entry wounds tipping him off and causing him to stop, "but these guys ran towards whatever the others were running away from?" he asked, inspecting the other three corpses who seemed to have died the exact opposite way than their comrades. Had they tried to fight off the attackers? It certainly was a possible scenario, but it still didn't explain who had killed them. There were a lot of questions he currently had no answers to, so the best thing he and Shepard could do right now was to keep looking. When he was about to keep advancing in pursuit of that goal, he caught something else. "Shepard, is that what I think it is?" he asked, spinning back the way he had come from and planting his feet next to the dried impression of a human foot covered in standard issue HSA armor.
"No real foot prints that way," the other man added, pointing the way they had come from before stepping past Morneau, preparing to open the door towards the other section of the prefab. "So either whoever shot them didn't feel to check if the other room was empty," he began while turning his head towards Morneau.
"Or the other two scientists died earlier than them," he finished the thought while picking up one of the SR-8 bullet casings and glancing back to the two deceased operatives who Shepard had been referring to. Why had they been shot with a different gun? There weren't enough shells here to suggest that the shooter had ran out of ammunition. A lot about this situation didn't make sense. Had the assailant killed the first two, gone out of his way to arm himself with a different gun and come back to finish the job? If the blood had been dry enough for him to walk through without leaving a trail, it had to have taken him at least couple of hours to do all of that. That just didn't seem like a feasible timeline to the specialist. "All set?" he asked before opening the next door, turning to cover the small stairway that led to the level below them the moment the doors opened up.
"All set," Shepard confirmed as he jumped through the door in front of him, lowering his weapon as soon as it became clear that much like the first one, it was empty. "Clear," he called from within the room, causing Morneau to step inside as well, taking care to keep an eye on the stairway. "Might just be our lucky day after all," a quick look behind him let Morneau know what the other specialist was talking about. It seemed that they had walked into some kind of surveillance room, probably used to monitor the camp's perimeter for suspicious activity. "Here's to hoping they didn't actually follow protocol on this one," Shepard added before getting to work on the computer terminal lodged between a dozen or so screens of rapidly changing security footage, some cameras showing empty rooms, others simply static. It wasn't much but it was as close to jackpot as they'd get.
"Anything?" he asked after nearly a minute had passed. At least one of the cameras should've captured something, simple probability dicated that much.
"Well, there's a lot of corrupted data."
"Sabotage or unintended damage?" he inquired, still remaining focused on the stairway.
"Could be either one really," a pause. "Alright, looks like the camp's proximity alert logged thirty five hits two days ago, time and approach matches the arrival of Captain Hackett's platoon. So we know that at least something was still working back then."
"And?" he asked when Shepard didn't go on.
"And that's it," the man sighed.
"What do you mean that's it?"
"Exactly what I said, Magic. That's it," the man turned to look behind himself, seeing Shepard stare at the terminal. "There's nothing else in the system. No alerts, no reports, no indication that anything went wrong," another pause followed before the specialist's tone shifted,"except for the cameras."
"What about them?"
"They've been on a loop for days. The last time they actually recorded something was two weeks ago."
"Someone made sure that their plan wasn't caught on tape," the specialist muttered,"this entire thing is getting better by the minute."
"You can say that again," Shepard replied. "I mean we're talking about messing with the entire CCTV system without anyone noticing. Unless they were sleeping on the clock," the man added as he tapped Morneau on his shoulder, letting him know that he was ready to keep moving,"someone should've noticed that something was off."
"Not if the right people were watching the feeds," Morneau countered as they began moving down the stairs, the clock until their extraction would check in on them running at the edge of his HUD, just barely inside his line of vision.
"You think the security officer was in on it?"
"No, I'm saying that half the camp was in on it. A small inside job doesn't wipe out a whole marine platoon before they can call for back up, a couple dozen motivated geniuses with the right kind of gear might just do the job."
"If that's true, then where the hell are the traitors? One guy leaving unnoticed is possible but a couple dozen? No way they could've made it off Akuze without the Agincourt and her wolfpack noticing."
"Well, we only searched one prefab, so they could still be hiding in the others," Morneau figured as they began clearing the next room, the body of a man wearing Cerberus fatigues leaned against the wall, a pistol in his hand and a hole in his skull. "But since they didn't blow us out of the sky, I'd guess that they ditched the camp."
"For the ruins?"
"Where else would they go? The jungle's not exactly the most hospitable place."
"Good point."
"I've got my moments," he shrugged upon clearing the last room of this particular prefab.
"That's a weapons rack," Shepard said as he walked over to the cabinet attached to the wall next to the building's exit. "Locked," he figured before throwing Morneau a look who upon realising the man's intention was engulfed by a purple light. Focusing the biotic energy in his hand, a ball of rapidly shifting mass effect fields tore apart the hinges of the small compartment, causing its metal cover to fall to the ground.
"Well we know that our mole didn't get his rifle from here," the younger specialist said as the purple light dispersed itself, his gaze focused on the completely filled weapons rack.
"He had to get it from somewhere," Shepard countered.
"Plenty of prefabs left," he offered in turn as they crossed the piece of open space between the larger, several story tall construct and the closest, much smaller living unit. "Maybe we should just drop an orbital strike on top of the ruin and call it a day," he added as they opened the next door, the superficial damage to its exterior being just another question he had no answers for at the moment.
"Scared of a bunch of Cerberus geeks?" the man chuckled as they walked through yet another hallway, this one mercifully empty of corpses and questions. He knew that Shepard was joking for the sake of easing the tension both of them were feeling but sadly it wasn't working. The prospect of one mole was bad enough, the idea of a majority of the camp's personal going rogue and coming up with a twisted way to make sure their treason remained undiscovered was worse. If it hadn't been for his bedtime literature these last few days, he might even have called it terrifying.
"Worried what they might come up with to keep us off their backs," he corrected. Their orders were to find survivors but if those survivors turned out to be hostile, this would turn into a search and destroy kind of mission sooner than later.
"Looks like a bomb exploded in here," Shepard stated as they entered the first of the two rooms belonging to this prefab, which by the looks of it had served as some sort of lab.
"Shit, guess we know what happened to some of the marines," Morneau added as the full scope of the massacre that had taken place within the room became evident. If his count was accurate at least twelve bodies were scattered over the laboratory, four of which were clad in the distinctive grey and black body armor issued to the HSA's marines, while the remainder of them once more belonged to Cerberus. The corpses alone weren't enough to support the idea that they had fought each other but the standard issue combat knife embedded in the throat of a Cerberus operatives slumped over the body of a marine gave a lot of weight to it. Judging by the state of both the room and the corpses, the fight had been swift but brutal. Every last one of the Cerberus operatives had been gunned down in one way or another but given the fact that the deceased marines, one of whom had taken a blow strong enough to actually dent his helmet, hadn't been recovered by their comrades, something told him that it had been the scientists who had won this fight. Kneeling down next to one of the marines and allowing his omni-tool to interface with the suit's internal computer, Morneau aimed to figure out just when the vitals of the soldiers had ended.
"He's been dead for nearly two days," he told Shepard as the other specialist once more tried his luck on one of the computer terminals, moving the deceased marine, the bullet wound at the back of his suggesting that his death had started this fight, slumped over the desk , both respect for the dead and the fear of booby traps causing him to be careful with the body.
"So what happened here?" Shepard asked as he began typing. "Part of their team goes rogue, murders the ones who don't wanna join them, one of the loyal ones manages to get the distress beacon on and when the marines show up they kill them? Why not just report it as a false alert?"
"Beats me," Morneau shrugged while inspecting one of the Cerberus operatives, trying to make sense of what had actually killed her. On the one hand the SR-8 bullet embedded just below her heart should've done the job but for some reason one of the marines, probably the one resting against the wall closest to the other body, had gone out of his way to break the woman's neck.
Why?
One would've been sufficient.
Before he could take a closer look at the body of the scientist, trying to determine if there was a way she could've survived what should've been a fatal injury, he heard the Section 13 agent who had accompanied him to this increasingly stranger mission call for him.
"I've got something, come take a look at this," the man spoke, taking a step to the side to reveal an audio file on the screen of the terminal. With the press of a button, a frightened voice no louder than a whisper filled the room.
"We were wrong, god we were wrong, so so wrong," the disembodied scientist explained, the sound of someone banging on the door causing Morneau to believe that this particular operative was now among the deceased. "It- it's not the direct physical contact or the implants that make you do it," he explained while the banging grew louder. His choice of words made the specialists mind reach for the compartment he had buried his newly acquired knowledge in. Was he talking about the Object Omnicrons Rei's files had mentioned? If that was the case, they were in for a load of trouble. "It's the artifact itself. It emits some kind of impulse. I don't know wha- what it is exactly but it's somehow related to infr-" a particular loud bang drowned out whatever the scientist was about to say," ltra- sonic noise. We took all the precautions the director suggested but we didn't account for sound," another loud bang, "if we had kno-" the man stuttered before getting a hold of himself. "If anyone finds this, don't make the same mistake we made. There is no save way to study Object Theta and while I can't be certain that the Omnicrons work in a similar fashion, we need to assume that they do. I don't know how many days it takes for them to get into your head but I'm afraid it's too late for me, I've been down there a dozen times and the voices are already calling for me. That's how you know it got you, the voi-" the sound of the door being opened in the background caused his voice to crack. "Destroy it, just des-" A gunshot interrupted the scientist.
"Clean this mess up," a voice instructed as several sets of footsteps became audible through the terminal's speakers.
"What should we do with the body?"
"Take him to the others, he might've died for the wrong cause but that doesn't mean we can't make use of him. He'll make a fine thrall."
Were they not aware that the recording was still running? No, that wasn't it. the scientist had to have done something to hide the recording, otherwise his murderers would've deleted it.
"Sir, he managed to set of the emergency beacon."
"Shit, alright, let me think," the first voice replied. "Keep it on. If we turn it off, they'll show up either way just to make sure. We'll deal with the marines when they land."
"Sir?"
"They've got no idea how many of us should be here, if we're lucky they won't know what's going on and leave without giving us any trouble."
"The rest is just ambient noise," Shepard said as he hit the stop button before slapping a small data-drive into the terminal and downloading its entire content. "The director has to know what happened here. Let's try the Ain Jalut again, if we're lucky we'll get a signal through."
"Wait, you want to make a run for it? What about the marines?" the younger specialist countered as his hand hovered over the radio. "They're still out there."
"The marines just became our secondary objective. We have to get this offworld," the older one argued as he stepped back from the terminal, intending to make his way to the door. "Besides, look around yourself, Magic. They split the platoon up and ambushed it in smaller groups. They're all dead."
"We don't know that," Morneau protested, grabbing a hold of Shepard's arm in the process.
For a moment the two grey-armored figures simply stared at each other through their darkened visors, their conversation inaudible to the outside. Before he had taken Redford's offer, he had been told that he'd have to cross lines for the sake of the greater good, do things no sane person would be proud off and sure enough, ever since he had entered field work, he had done a lot of questionable things. Assassinations, espionage and undercover work were all part of their job. Daniel Morneau had killed, manipulated and betrayed a number of people over the course of his intelligence service career for the sake of the greater good, only the advise that had been given to him back on Terra Nova, to make sure that he was on the right side of things when the chips were down, allowing him to still consider himself a good man. Potentially leaving behind thirty one marines didn't seem like the kind of thing a good man would do.
"We don't know that they're dead," he repeated.
"But we have to work under the assumption that they are," his companion insisted before freeing himself from the hold. "I like the idea of leaving them behind just as much as you do but this," he held up two identical data-drives, stuffing one of them into a pouch attached to Morneau's chest rig and grabbing a tight hold of him in the process,"is more important than any of us," Shepard added before letting go of Morneau and stepping out of the prefab. "Ain Jalut, please come in," he spoke after they began heading for the next prefab, creeping along the edge of the prefab base in the process. When his request remained unanswered, Shepard sighed. "Alright, guess we'll have to wai-"
"You really think they're gonna let your shuttle land?" a third voice caused both the specialists to freeze, turning their rifles towards the jungle it had come from. "Easy now," a man clad in marine corps armor spoke, most likely addressing the several soldiers hidden behind him and not the two specialists. However in spite of his calming words, the marines' weapons remained centered on him and Shepard. Considering the rank insignia attached to the collar of his armor, the figure in charge was most likely the missing Captain Francis Hackett, "What the hell is Section 13 doing here?" the marine officer added before finally placing his hands on the barrel of one of the guns, causing its owner to lower it.
"Looking for you, Captain Hackett," Shepard explained as they too lowered their guns. So much for secondary objective. No, that wasn't a fair line of thought, the man didn't deserve that. Just because Shepard had realised that the intel was more important than looking for potentially dead people, didn't mean that he was a hypocrite.
"Didn't think I was this important," Hackett spoke dryly, the slight limp and dried blood on his leg betraying that he had recently been injured. "Now that we realised we're on the same side," the man added, somewhat annoyed by the fact that one of his soldiers still aimed their weapon at them, "would you mind telling me why Cerberus tried to kill my unit?"
"I'm afraid that's classified," Morneau could already tell that the captain wouldn't like that particular answer.
"Of course it is," the man chuckled while a squad of marines, some of them injured, emerged from the jungle behind him. "Well, classified or not, you're just as stranded as we are. Unless you take down their jammer, they'll just blow your shuttle from the sky and hunt you down."
"Jammer?" he asked. "We didn't pick up any jamming signals."
"Because it's not one we're familiar with," Hackett explained while pointing towards the grey alien facility that had already caught Morneau's attention before. "It's something they dug up, causes a complete blackout. Nothing goes in, nothing comes out. No idea how it works but it definitely works," the officer said while tapping his radio. "Thing's been dead ever since they turned it on."
"What's jamming us might be the same thing responsible for compromising Cerberus," the younger specialist realised as he once more looked at the structure.
"Probably," Shepard nodded. "What happened here, Captain Hackett?"
"To be honest, I was hoping you'd fill in the blanks. Walk with me," the marine countered before once more heading into the jungle. After a moment of consideration, the specialists followed. "We were searching the camp when a bunch of scientists show up from the dig site, smile and tell me everything's fine,Then I turn my back on them for one moment and next thing I know one of them wants to kill me with a blow torch," he explained with an uneasy tone on their way through the thick vegetation surrounding the prefab base, a series of tents coming into view a few moments later. "and when I finally put him down, his robo-buddy jumps out of the ceiling and jams a steel bar in my leg. Then, while I'm trying not to bleed out, I start getting casualty reports from all my squad leaders."
"Robo-buddy?" Shepard inquired as they entered the camp under the suspicious glare of a sniper who only eased up when his superior waved his hand at him.
"See for yourself," Hackett shrugged, guiding them into one of the tents and taking off his helmet once they were inside. Kneeling down on the thin floor mat placed over the dirty soil below, the captain threw another look at the specialists, this one filled with a mixture of confusion and genuine fear. "I'm warning you though, I've seen a lot of shit in my time but," the man paused as he grabbed a hold of the black tarp lying on the ground in front of him, his steel blue eyes emptily gazing into the distance, "nothing like this."
"Show us," Shepard reassured him and after a brief pause, Hackett pulled the tarp away.
There, lying on another piece of tarp soaked in some kind of blue fluid, was a figure that only resembled a human in the most basic of features. If he hadn't already seen pictures of IFS personal, Terminus pirates or misguided turian military officers that had undergone the same kind of transformation, Daniel Morneau would've been at a loss to describe what he was looking at. It was a grotesque fusion of metal and flesh, a human full of cybernetics that should've killed him a long time ago. Between the artificial eyes, the few spots of missing hair, the fine blue lines running below the surface of his greyish-blue skin, the circular implant in his abdomen and the tubes connecting various parts of his body, which had been reduced to a muscled skeleton, the Cerberus scientist was quite literally the stuff nightmares were made off. Whatever this man had been in life was long gone, he had been turned into a husk of his former self, an empty shell molded into something that defied nature itself. Everything about him was wrong and he'd be lying if he said that it didn't terrify him.
'Put it in a box and don't let it rule you,' the disembodied voice of Specialist Grant Redford echoed in the back of his mind.
He inhaled exactly once and did just that.
"You know what this is, don't you?" Hackett muttered after their reaction, or rather lack thereof tipped him off. "Jesus Christ, of course you know what it is, you're Section 13."
"Yes, we do," Shepard finally spoke, turning to Hackett in the process. "How many of them are left?"
"Marines or enemies?"
"Both."
"I've got sixteen guys but not even half of them are in any shape to fight. They got us good," the man sighed. "As for hostiles, damned if I know. We killed a lot of these bastards but at least a dozen or so are still stalking the dig site. I don't know what they're doing but they've been hauling bodies inside ever since we escaped them."
"Understood. We'll need your platoon, Captain."
"What for?" Morneau had a suspicion for what they'd need the marines.
"You said it yourself, they probably won't let our shuttle land and unless we destroy their jamming tech, we'll be stuck," there it was. "I need you to assist us in assaulting the ruins, take out what's causing this blackout and kill every last one of these traitors in the process."
"You did catch the part where I said that not even half of them are good to fight, right?"
"Do you want to end up like this, Captain?" Shepard countered as he pointed at the corpse. "Because the way I see it, we probably will unless we get the hell of this rock."
He didn't have to do any of this. As Section 13 specialists, both he and Shepard could draft HSA military assets to assist them in completing their missions without any questions asked. The authority to do so, which had been granted to them during the Fringe Wars, still existed. Noé, who had given it to them, had no reason to revoke it and Goyle, in spite of disagreeing with some of her predecessors actions, had never even considered doing it either because no matter how much power it gave to Section 13, it got results. Chancellors of the HSA liked things that produced results, that was their one common denominator. But even though he didn't have to do it, Morneau knew why he was doing it. It was one thing to order someone to fight for you, it was a whole other thing to make them want to fight for you. The difference between why they'd accompany him and Shepard could mean the difference between success and defeat.
"You're right, we know what happened here," Shepard admitted, continuing his speech and breaking all kinds of protocols in the process. "And unless you we get the hell of this rock," he went on, making his way towards the exit of the tent, "it's gonna happen to the rest of the galaxy. So, can we count on you?"
A moment passed as the marine captain looked at his own reflection on Shepard's visor.
"Is that a serious question?" Captain Hackett finally said, folding his arms. "You bet your fancy classification that you can count on the corps."
"That's what I wanted to hear," Shepard nodded. "Get your men ready, we have to move quickly. The more time we give them to prepare, the harder this will get."
"Alright marines, time for some payback," Hackett called through the camp.
This was definitely better than simply telling them to go and shoot things. He had to give it to Shepard, the man could motivate people. After the marines had rallied to their commander, even those whom Hackett had described as 'in no shape to fight' joining their mission, the group of soldiers and spies quickly left the smaller jungle camp behind them, beginning their journey down the valley and towards the alien ruin. All things considered, they made good time, taking only twenty minutes to get close to the alien structure and arriving just as the sun began to set behind them, slowly vanishing with every step they took closer to the grey tower now resting in the shadow of one of the prothean obelisks. From up close the mazes and arches began to make more sense to Morneau, they weren't as random as they had appeared to be, instead of pointless obstructions they were balconies and walkways acting as pathways around the central tower, connecting various rooms and chambers surrounding it. But even though their purpose was now evident, one question about the ruin still remained unanswered.
What was it with these statues?
Without exceptions every last one of the visible figures displayed a slender humanoid being, its face covered by tentacles and its elongated hands tied to the armrests of the chair it was sitting on. Was it the image of the race that had built the tower or was it something else entirely? He couldn't shake the thought that they somewhat resembled the compromised Cebrerus operatives, although that notion was probably caused by the tentacles looking not all that different from the tubes he had seen on the corpse.
"Magic, you ready to live up to your name?" Shepard asked as the group slowed down at the edge of the piece of jungle they had used as cover while approaching the camp.
"You want me on point?"
"Depends, how good are your barriers?"
"Not good as my offense," he admitted, "but they'll hold long enough for you to make a break for cover."
"I once worked with turian cabals who could project their barriers on my squad, think you can do the same thing?" Hackett injected. "Would keep you from getting shot right away."
"Maybe for one of you," Morneau considered the thought before deciding that it wasn't the best course of action. Shielding one of them would do no good, making sure that they couldn't be shot at in the first place was a far better course of action. "but me stopping the initial salvo with a barrier is gonna be a lot more efficient. Don't worry about me, Captain."
"Just trying to keep you from getting shot, Specialist," the man shrugged. "I'm not seeing any guards. Either they think we're still in the camp or they want us to walk right in," the officer finally spoke as Morneau himself observed the camp through the scope of his rifle. Built just in front of the entry to the alien structure, it looked just as deserted as the prefab base but if what Hackett had told them, that meant just about nothing.
"Because doing what our enemy wants is such a splendid idea," another one of the marines offered. "Just great."
"Now's not the time for second thoughts, Gerrad," Captain Hackett offered. "We'll go in fast and hard, check the tents on your way to the entrance and stay close to this guy," he nodded towards Morneau himself. "Once we make it past the killzone, it's search and destroy. Find what's jamming us, take it out, shoot everyone that gets in your way and go home. Sounds good?" he turned to Shepard.
"Best plan we'll be able to come up with," the man shrugged before readying his rifle and placing a hand on Morneau's shoulder. "Ready?"
"Let's do this," a familiar feeling rushed through his body as biotic energy began to manifest itself around him, extending and fortifying the protective barrier already engulfing him.
"Go," Shepard nodded before the mixed force sprang into action.
Leaving the concealment of the jungle and swiftly advancing towards the camp across the open field, the marines and Shepard close on his trail, his eyes darted between the tents and the higher levels of tower. Why weren't they being shot at? Even from down here he could see several ideal positions from which they could be pinned down. The majority of their opponents might have been scientists but they had to have some basic understanding of taking advantage of their position. The only reason for them to put up no resistance was that the marines and the specialists were playing right into their hand.
It said a lot of things about this day that not getting shot at was the thing putting him off.
They kept pushing towards the entrance to clear the open space currently putting all of them in danger and when they reached the camp several of the captain's comrades broke formation and swept through the improvised shelters placed in front of the ruin while the rest of them followed Morneau's lead, his reinforced barrier still untouched. Currently no one was shooting at them but he still knew better than to drop it now within the completely exposed entry path.
"Maybe they ran?" a marine wondered as they left the narrow tunnel behind them and stepped into a much more open courtyard, last rays of sunlight shining through the gaps in the ceiling above them, giving the entire setting a dark-orange tint. Walking towards a thin, damaged bridge that seemed to connect the entrance to the rest of the ruin, Morneau couldn't help but stare at the deep drop below them. The maze of walkways and arches continued deep below the ground, far deeper than the size of the structure indicated. How big was this thing? Or more accurately, how deep?
"Can't blame them, this place gives me the creeps," another said as they passed over the bridge and saw another one of the statues which looked even stranger from up close.
"Watch your step, thing looks like it's about to fall apart," a third marine added after the sound of a piece of the bridge breaking off and hitting one of the walkways below them echoed through the ruin.
"I swear to god, Gerrad, if I die because you broke the damn bridg-"
"Zip it and listen for activity," Hackett's voice silenced both of them as Morneau finally decided to once more reduce his barriers. They were too spread out now, it didn't make sense for him to exhaust himself by maintaining it. He might have been human, which gave him a certain edge over turians and batarians in regards to how long it took for biotic activity to take its toll on him, but just like every non-asari, he too felt the effects of prolonged action. Their bodies simply weren't adapted to the powers they had and while human endurance went a long way to make up for that lack of adaptation, he too would drop once he reached a certain point. That was the downside of his abilities, if he overused them, his body would suffer the consequences. As the purple glow disappeared, the group began making its way to the center of the structure, figuring that the tower was the most likely source of the signal that kept them from reaching their ships in orbit.
"Hold up, do you hear that?" one finally spoke up after they had moved deeper into the structure, passing even more of the statues in the process. It seemed that the builders of this facility had taken a particular liking to whoever it was that they displayed over and over again. Morneau focused, trying to pick up what the marine was referring to. At first it was faint, a metallic echo coming from somewhere in the distance but once he got a hold of the sound it grew clearer.
"Sounds like it's coming from below us," he said after finally managing to locate the sound.
"There it is again," Hackett added when the noise repeated itself. "Think it's the jammer?"
"Only one way to find out," Shepard reasoned before making his way to the stairway the sound was coming from, carefully beginning his descend one foot at a time and causing the rest of the human force to follow him, their night vision gear kicking in once the light became too sparse. While it could've been a dozen other things, the sound was the only sign of activity within the entire ruin. Even if it could be a trap, heading towards it was the best chance they had at finding the jammer and getting off the world in one piece. Unless the magically stumbled upon the solution for all their problems, they'd have to take the risk.
"Jesus, what the hell is that?" another soldier whispered behind Morneau as the metallic sound once more reached them on the stairway itself. He couldn't blame the marine for being unnerved, considering what the unit had gone through in the last days, it was a surprise that they were holding things together as well as they did. Some of them where shaking and others only moved because the rest of their unit was doing the same thing, but they did their job nonetheless. He respected that. Professional soldiers or not, overcoming the kind of terror at least half of the marines were feeling right now was admirable in itself.
"Keep it together, Pelagia," Captain Hackett replied mere moments before an unearthly scream rang through the stairway. "We'll get through this," he ensured his men.
"I've got activity," his fellow specialist suddenly injected before stopping the marine officer." Stay low and stay ten seconds behind us."
"Copy that."
"Magic, on me."
That was his cue.
Leaving the last step of the surprisingly long stairway behind him, he silently followed Shepard's every step right until the specialist pressed himself against a wall beyond which a bluish light shone, its glow reaching far into the tall ceiling of the ruin's subterran level. Unable to risk a peak himself, he had to rely on the few shadows he could make out. Between human silhouettes, some carrying guns and others unarmed, he could see long, sharp spikes with what appeared to be human figures impaled on them. Tracking a pair of two shades carrying a third, limp shadow, he watched them drop the presumably lifeless body onto a small bump in the floor. A moment passed and he began to connect the pieces is his head. Then, just as he figured it out, his eyes widened underneath his helmet. Shooting from the small bump, another long spike went straight through the corpse, carrying it high into the air and producing the same metallic sound that had led them here in the first place.
Put it in a box and don't let it rule you.
"They did not see the truth," a voice spoke as footsteps echoed through the chamber. "But there is still hope for all of you. Embrace the gifts the artifact bestowed on us, be part of its purpose, be part of something bigger than all of us."
"Listen to yourself, Doctor, this isn't you," another pleaded fearfully.
"Why can't you see it? It's been right in front of us this entire time. For your own sake, open your eyes," the first responded while two shades made a move for one of the four kneeling figures," and see!" it called right before whoever they were trying to grab decided to fight back
"Get your hands of me you god damn traitors son of a-," the figure began, connecting exactly one punch before a gunshot caused Morneau to tense up ever so slightly, only his training keeping him from jumping around the corner and putting an end to this horror show.
"You will all serve his plan, dead or alive. It matters not to the Harbinger," the voice instructed before Shepard took a peak around the corner and made a move for the next piece of cover.
"Hackett, move up, get your men in position," the specialist whispered before Morneau repeated his move, catching a glimpse of the blue light's source, a spiral artifact placed in the center of the chamber, a dozen or so black cords which radiated the same kind of light running towards it from various parts of the room. Standing around the spiral, which seemed to be made of the same purple alloy he had seen in the reports Director Rei had sent them, he could see humans in various states reaching from completely normal to fully 'transformed', their attention completely focused on the artifact. Reaching the next piece of cover just as the three remaining survivors started to convulse upon being forced to touch the artifact, Morneau again forced himself not to act. As far as he could tell, they were beyond saving now anyway.
"I guess that's Object Theta," he figured upon coming to a stop next to the other specialist
"Most likely." Shepard muttered. "You got any heavy ordnance, Hackett?"
"A couple of grenades and two missiles," the marine replied.
"I want that place covered with frags," the other specialist said before handing him a grenade. "Follow my lead and fire the missiles on my mark."
"Copy that," a few moments passed during which Morneau could've sworn he heard an unnatural growl somewhere close to them. But before he could give the sound any more attention, he saw Shepard rise from his cover. He mirrored the movement and let go of the disk-shaped grenade just a second after him. Alerted by the sound of something landing next to their feet, the rogue operatives didn't even get the chance to go for cover before the grenades of the specialists and the marines, who with some delay had followed Shepard's lead, tore them to pieces.
"Mark!" a shout came mere seconds after the first assault. Before the dust had even settled, two streaks shot through the smoke and hit the center of the spiral. The first didn't do much of anything but the second seemed to hit just the right spot, breaking the artifact apart and causing its blue glow to vanish for a moment before exploding in a bright, surprisingly powerful blast.
"Holy shit," one of the marines whistled as pieces of debris began raining on them.
"Try the Ain Jalut right now," Shepard ordered.
"Ain Jalut, this is ground team. We found the marines and need immediate evac at the alien ruin east of the camp, how copy?"
"Good copy, ground team. Birds are on their way," it came back to him.
Daniel Morneau was relieved. In spite of everything, all the pieces had fallen into their favour. Their enemy had been so obsessed with the artifact that they hadn't even seen their defeat coming. The mission had turned from incredibly risky to textbook within a single moment. They had recovered critical intel, found the marines and stopped the rogue operatives from doing whatever it was that they had been doing with the spiral.
It was too good to be true.
He should've seen it coming.
There it was again, the growling he had heard before. Where was it coming from?
"Alright," one of the marines, Pelagia if he wasn't mistaken, exclaimed. "Can we please get out of this fucking baseme-"
Daniel Morneau had always had quick reflexes, a trait only honed by the training required to become a Section 13 specialist. As such he was the first to comprehend what was happening and the first to react to it. Centering his sights on the creature that had just dropped from the ceiling and was now quite literally tearing the marine to pieces with its sharpened talons, he squeezed his trigger moments before Shepard did the same thing. Rounds smashed into the back of this husk of a human right until it stopped slashing. But even though they had reacted quickly, the damage had been done.
The marine was dead.
"Corpsman!" Hackett roared before trying to reach his comrade only to be pulled back by Shepard mere moments before more of the creatures dropped from the ceiling, a quick glance upwards combined with the night vision filter of his HUD allowing Morneau to see them pour from what appeared to be air ducts. How could they forget to account for the rest of the missing staff? They had killed maybe fifteen rogue operatives, according to Rei there had been nearly a hundred and fifty of them on site.
"We have to get out of here!" Shepard roared all the while pressing a button on the watch integrated into his left armguard, it's bluish glow turning red almost instantly, indicating that he had just activated the watch's most important function, sending a prepared distress message to the closest non-local Section 13 asset. When the captain realised what the specialist meant, he looked up.
"Contact right above us! Back to the stairs, get back to the stairs god dammit!" the captain ordered before bursts of rifle fire drowned out every other word that left his mouth. At first the SR-8s did their job, taking down the husks closest to them and managing to keep them at a distance but once the first guns ran dry, things went down hill quickly. One marine was jumped by an entire pack of the monsters and a muffled detonation of a grenade followed after one of the creatures had managed to shove his sharp claw through the softer parts of the soldiers armor. As a result of the marine choosing the way he wanted to go, taking as many of his killers with him as possible, blood spurted everywhere. Nearly simultaneously with him taking down his third target, two more of Hackett's men died, one having his throat cut open by the dying swing of a particular fast opponent and the other being mutilated by two husks that had gotten a hold of him. Despite the captain's best efforts and steady aim, they simply tore the screaming soldier apart, pieces of the hands he used to shield his face from their blows flying towards him.
Put it in a box and don't let it rule you.
Morneau glanced behind them between the mechanical process of reloading his rifle. They were almost by the stairway. Not that it meant anything, there were too many of them. More marines died with every second and the husks got closer.
At this rate they wouldn't make it.
But he wasn't gonna go out without a good fight.
Letting go of his rifle as the first of the creatures managed to reach him, he pushed his forearm between the husk's mouth and his own face, pressing his elbow into the creature's neck and pulling his SIS-8 from its holster, firing two shots into the circular implant located in the abdomen of the husk. Unsatisfied with the result, mostly because the thing was still trying to kill him, he pushed the creature back and delivered a biotically fueled punch to its chin, snapping its head back and causing it to drop dead.
Apparently he had hit something important.
"This isn't working, Specialist," Hackett grunted as his gun clicked empty just as his first foot touched the lowest step of the stairway. Devoid of any more ammunition, the marine officer reached for his Phalanx, the mass-accelerator pistol that had replaced the weapon Morneau himself was currently using to put down more of the mindless beasts rushing towards them without any regard for their own safety. "That intel, is it really as important as he says it is?" he asked Morneau as Shepard himself slapped a new magazine into his weapon and kept firing.
They had taken everything, recordings, reports, scientific findings. They didn't know what Rei would be able to do with it but given everything he had seen today, it might've been the most important knowledge in the galaxy.
"Yes."
"Then get the hell out of here," the marine instructed while helping one of his few remaining soldiers up the stairs, only the narrower space they were now in allowing them to keep the husks at bay for now.
"We're not leaving y-," Morneau was about to protest when Shepard pulled him backwards.
"Yes we are," the specialist insisted in a dark tone before nodding towards Hackett, still holding onto Morneau. "Give them hell, Captain."
"What the fuck are you doing? Let go of me," Morneau argued.
"We can't save everyone," the man explained before shoving him up the stairs. "We have to leave right now!"
"What are you waiting for, go!" Hackett shouted from below moments before his gun overheated and he had to resort to his knife for the time being. "Go, goddamnit, go!"
First he looked at the remaining marines, they were the reason they were here in the first place. Then he looked at the gun in his hand. It was about to be empty, he only had one more magazine left. Finally his gaze wandered to the husks. Hackett and his men were good, they'd buy them a minute or so but they couldn't stop that, none of them could stop that. But some of them could buy enough time for the rest of them to prevent it from happening somewhere else.
This was the part of his job that made him wonder just when he'd no longer be able to be on the right side of things when it came down. Every time he thought he found the line he wouldn't cross, something happened to make him do it. After a moment of hesitation that he realised could've potentially cost him his life, he followed Shepard up the stairs. Somewhere along the way to the top the gunfire below them stopped, another explosion predating the sound of the horde coming after them.
"Ain Jalut," Shepard spoke between sharp breaths as they cleared the final level of stairs in record time. "Hostiles are right behind us, we need an armed extraction. Where the hell are you?"
"Three minutes out, over," came the reply as they rushed through the corridors of the alien ruin.
"We don't have three minutes!" Shepard replied and a quick look behind them confirmed that. The first of many husks had just reached the end of the stairs. These things were fast, faster than either him or Shepard. Sure, they had a head start but that would only serve them so long. By the time the Kodiaks reached them, they'd be dead. As they approached the bridge ahead of the entrance, time slowed down for Morneau even though his mind began racing.
Could they take the rest of the husks? He was almost out of ammunition but he still had his biotics to fall back on. He might still stand a chance.
Had Hackett and his men taken out enough of them? The explosion had been small but the stairway was narrow. No way to know for sure how many had been caught in the blast.
There couldn't be that many left of them, could there? A hundred and fifty of Cerberus science division had been deployed here. He had taken out what? Ten husks? There might only be a few more of them. Another look behind him revealed 'a few' to be at least another two dozen.
Without numbers or ammunition, they wouldn't stand a chance.
If only he had picked up the damn mass accelerator, then he wouldn't be having this problem right about now.
A final question rang through Morneau's mind as his first foot touched the bridge.
Should he let Shepard pass him and try to buy him more time to escape? Between the two, he had far less to live for then the older specialist. Daniel Morneau had no real attachments outside of Section 13. The Grissom Academy cadets he had befriended? They had no idea where he was or what he was doing. The girl from his last shore leave? He'd never call her, he never called, it was better that way. He hadn't had parents for as long as he could remember, he had no family, well at least none that had given enough of a shit about him to have him removed from foster care and he no kids to look after.
Shepard had all of that.
The man needed to come back home.
The choice was obvious.
This was it.
Seconds before he was about to stop and make his stand on the bridge, he felt a sudden weightlessness, only countless of hours of training and sheer luck allowing him to simultaneously leap forward, grab a hold of the portion of the bridge that hadn't fallen into the abyss below him and manage to lock hands with Shepard who was now dangling one wrong twitch away from certain death. Contrary to the impression that action movies and similar works of fiction gave, it was incredibly difficult to even hold your own bodyweight, further increased by the armor supposed to protect your life, with one hand while holding onto your friend with the other. In fact it wasn't just incredibly difficult, it was downright impossible and they both would've already fallen to their death if not for Morneau's 'natural' ability to reduce the mass of objects. Gripping Shepard's wrist as tight as humanly possible and extending a purple bubble around him, he looked up at the lone piece of rock on which both their lives depended on.
It didn't exactly look like it would last much longer.
"Can you reach for anything?" he grunted while trying his best not to move. One wrong twist and they were goners. "Because this thing isn't gonna hold much longer," he added before the sound of a body impacting with the ground below them caused him to assure himself that he was in fact still holding onto Shepard. The blue smear of what used to be one of these husks splattered against a walkway below them answered the question for him. As did the next one trying to leap over the gap, hitting the wall below them instead and as did the one after that which only barely missed his mark, almost embedding his claws in Shepard's legs.
"I got nothing."
"Try climbing me, I can hold it," he suggested as anther husk fell to its death next to him.
"Won't work," Shepard replied as Morneau felt his grip on the stone loosen. They had to come up with something right now, otherwise they'd fall to their death, either because he lost his hold or because one of the suicidal cybernetics actually hit them.
"Maybe you ca-"
"Morneau," the man's voice was remarkably calm.
"What?"
"You have to let go of me," no way he was doing that.
"The hell I will."
"The mission comes first. You need to let go, you need to get the intel to the director."
"Save the preaching for later, Shepard."
"You can't save everyone, Morneau. Finally get that into your head," he had already used that excuse for leaving behind the marines. He wasn't going to use it now.
"Not everyone, just you, you stubborn bastard," he groaned before focusing on the rock above him. "I gotta try."
'Just pull yourself up,' he told himself. 'It's not that hard. You can do this.'
"Sorry, not this time," Shepard practically whispered just before Morneau felt the weight that was pulling him down vanish, looking down just in time to see the man who's armguard he was still holding onto fall into the darkness below.
Put it in a box and don't let it rule you.
Letting go of the modular piece of armor and pulling himself up, Daniel Morneau made sure that none of the husks had made the jump after him and ran out of the alien ruins, practically falling into a Kodiak.
"Where are the survivors? You said you had the marines. You're it?" a crew member asked while trying to help him to his feet.
"Yeah," he muttered, waving away the offered hand. "I'm it."
Five Hours Later, 19. June 2414 AD, HSASV Ain Jalut
"You plan on getting out of your armor anytime soon? The way I see it, you could probably use a check up."
"I'm fine, Sir," he replied dismissive.
"I told you not to call me that," the familiar voice reminded him.
"I'm said I'm fine, Redford."
"Yeah and the medics might even buy it," the blonde man said before sitting down onto the crate opposite to him, leaning his back against the wall. "But I know you better than that, Morneau. I read the report, I saw the helmet footage. I know what happened and there's no way you're fine right now," a moment passed. "Listen, this isn't on you, don't-."
"-let it rule me?" he knew that he had no right to sound this hostile towards Redford, Morneau might've lost a colleague in Shepard but Redford, Redford had just lost his closest friend.
"Exactly," there was sympathy in his tone.
"They're all dead. Shepard, Hackett, the marines, even Cerberus," he muttered,looking away from the spot of ship deck he had been staring holes into for the past three hours and focusing on the man opposite to him instead. "Everyone else died and I walked away. Why?"
"Sometimes that's how it goes in our line of work."
"That simple, huh?"
"Nothing's simple about our line of work," Redford offered a small smile. "I know this won't mean anything to you right now," he went on,"but you're about the last person who's to blame for all of this."
"Then who is?"
"How about Cerberus who didn't think twice about tinkering with something they don't fully understand? How about this Harbinger twat these lunatics keep going on about? How about the directors who didn't bother to tell any of us about this shit until yesterday?" the man counted before lowering his head. There it was, the first sign of actual sadness. "Or how about me, the guy who wasn't around when my partner needed me most?"
"This isn't on y-"
"No, no, no, that's not how this works, Morneau," Redford interrupted him with a dark chuckle. "If you get to blame yourself, so do I. Last time I checked you didn't patent bloody self-pity," and there was the hurt he had been expecting, the reason why he had somewhat hoped to avoid this conversation. Taking an audible breath and visibly calming down, Redford rose from his improvised seat and walked over to him. "Alright. There are two ways you can deal with this. Interested?"
"All ears."
"Either you let this destroy you," he offered him a hand,"or you make sure that their deaths meant something and keep fighting who's responsible for this. If it's the former, fine,"the man shrugged. "In that case Shepard died for nothing and I choose the wrong guy after all," he looked at the hand.
He would fight for the things Shepard died for.
He would earn this.
"But if it's the later, if you still got that fire in you," he said just before Morneau grabbed a hold of the hand,"then you and I are gonna see this through."
"To the end?" he asked.
"To the end," Redford pulled him up.
Codex: Earth
'The Blue Marble', 'The cradle of mankind's civilization', 'that dump humans call home'. All these phrases used to describe Earth, the third planet of the Sol System and home to humanity, are accurate in one way or another. On the one hand Earth is a world with an incredibly diverse eco system, the biggest human population in the galaxy and the economic center of the HSA and on the other hand it is a world impacted by the stages all societies experience at one point or another. Even though advanced technology managed to heal the wounds industrial pollution and exploitation inflicted on the planet before mankind discovered mass effect technology, the scars of history are as visible on Earth as they are on the home worlds of the other species which reached a population of over ten billion individuals before achieving space flight, Palaven and Sur'Kesh.
Home to some of the most densely populated cities in the galaxy, overpopulation and poverty still remain an issue in spite of the swift technological progress that occurred once the United Nations, the predecessor government of the Human Systems Alliance, settled worlds outside of the solar system and enabled mass emigration from their home to quickly grow the colonies Terra Nova, Arcadia and Horizon. While public services have been created to ensure that starvation and crime don't ravage the poorest individuals of its society, social problems unheard of in other human colonies still remain relevant on Earth, its massive population presenting a unique challenge to the HSA.
Given the size and importance of Earth, it should be noted that unlike most other planets within human space, the home of humanity is not defended by a Colonial Watch (See Entry: Human System Alliance Army Colonial Watches) but instead has its own defense force made up of millions of HSA army and marine regulars trained to hold Earth at any cost. The only other planets which share this exception are the three first extra-solar colonies of mankind, Terra Nova, Arcadia and Horizon. Furthermore the HSA Navy's Home Fleet stands guard to ensure that Earth, Mars, Luna and the Charon Relay remain protected.
A/N:
Well... this happened. Paragade... I knew it was gonna be tough for me to write but I did it. (also I told one dude I'd get it out on sunday and by the point I write this A/N: it's still sunday...)
I'm not gonna lie to you, killing of one of the first characters I created for this story wasn't easy (which you might have noticed because instead of gibbing him to pieces, I gave him the good old disney death) but since I had it written in my mind that Akuze needed to be different from the other two backgrounds in the fact that it's a complete and utter failure for its character instead of being their most defining victory, so it just had to happen like this. Besides my strange desire to give Morneau a victory by compeletly crushing him (idk why, I actually really like him as a character.. it just fits well with where his arc is going to go eventually that it all starts with what he's gonna consider his biggest failure), I also wanted Akuze to be meaningful because as you'll soon see.
Now, I know some of you already saw this coming, but nonetheless I hope that Alec Shepard's death and the scene that followed afterwards were as impactful as I wanted to be. This is what will drive the lone survivor. Instead of turning into the utter edgelord "hurp durp everyone I know is dead so I get to be a dick and you all have to accept it", the fact that people died for him (and that he had the right person say the right thing to him immediatly afterwards) is going to be his biggest chip but also his biggest motivator. Sure, he is a lone survivor and as such I will touch on the mental impact this kind of event has on a human but before you get any ideas, this doesn't break him.
This makes him, what defines him.
I feel like growing through your pain is a much better message and topic than letting emotional trauma get the better of you (there are so many characters out there who turn into total dicks because people close to them died and I'm sick of hearing about them. That's a shitty motivation.) Now of course this chatper still means a lot of things, it changed Morneau and the most important character tropes that will accompany him over the course of Semper Vigilo are now on the table for you the readers to see.
I think this is the first time a charcter has an entire chapter soley dedicated to his POV.
That's a first.
I think...
Also rip to Francis Hackett, the guy that only exists because I screwed my timeline early on and didn't realise that Steven Hackett would already have to be way older by that point... For someone who wasn't planned on existing, you were a good supporting character that went out like a champ. (he deserved that much after positivly influencing Saren)
Also also... for those that didn't catch the statue link or didn't catch the one liner in ME 3 that explains it, yeah... they just walked around an Inusannon ruin (yet another thing I will pick up alongside the League of One!) I actually have teased their existance in Semper Vigilo since a long time, I just never outright said they'd show up.
Anyway, review and let me know what you think.
For the Record we're at 330 reviews, 562 favorites and 661 follows.
Also for the record, local time is 23:56, so nailed the sunday)
See you around next time.
