Chapter 66. The Ruthless Calculus


28. January 2415 AD, Vimire, Fifty Minutes after Planetfall

"Hold on a minute," she said while following the STG officer on his way out of the makeshift hideout. "You just said it might be a bomb."

"Correct," Kirrahe nodded.

"Well? What do we do if it is?"

"Prevent detonation," he replied with a shrug before continuing to quickly march into the jungle, ignoring the radio transmission telling them that the main attack on the command center would start any minute now. It wasn't a good answer to be honest. She had kind of taken it for granted that they'd try doing that.

"You say that like it's to do easy," Emily countered.

"Dangerous explosive, simple concept. Can defuse it. Done it before, will do it again," he offered before waving for a squad of five STG operatives to fall in line with him. "But there's a different problem. Never faced Saren before. Hear that he is," he paused as if to find the right word, "exceptionally capable. If he guards the source of the surge, reaching it will be troublesome."

"Capable sounds like an understatement," she pointed out, thinking back to her earlier worry. "He might be the best in the galaxy."

"Perhaps. But every enemy has a weakness. Will find his. Jenzin."

"Sir?"

"Managed to pinpoint source of surge yet?"

"Negative. Still only managed to narrow it down to cliffside. Base is interfering with signature. Will have to get closer for more precise location."

"Closer it is, then," Kirrahe said before turning to her. "Can't order you to join us, Spectre. Will still ask. Expertise will make finding Saren's weakness easier."

As if there was even a doubt that she'd come along. She nodded once to confirm the obvious, prompting Kirrahe to continue his march. "Good. Suggest we leave now. Defensive measures have been taken down, main assault on command center will start any minute. Should give us opportunity to approach undetected. Imnes, you're in charge while I'm gone."

"Yes, Sir!"


Fifteen Minutes Earlier, 28. January 2415 AD, Virmire

"Alright, that's the last of it," he muttered to himself after planting the small demolition charge on top of the plasma generator in front of him. Although it looked nearly identical to the plasma bombs the geth had left behind for them on Eden Prime, their asari allies had assured him that this was in fact a generator and not an explosive. According to them the similarity in design came from two distinctive reasons, the fact that their plasma bombs were just unstable versions of geth generators and the fact that the geth lacked any drive to change the visual design of something unless they absolutely had to.

After rising from his prone position Haugen took in his surroundings again. The geth sentinels were still standing in the exact same spot it had been in when he had snuck past them and from what he could they didn't seem to have a clue that someone had gotten past their perimeter and was actively working to shut down the exterior defenses of their command center.

Good.

Satisfied with the lack of detection, he looked to where his HUD outlined the rest of Phantom Squad and gestured for them to form a single file and start following him. With the charges set, their next objective was to meet the asari at the entrance that led deeper into the facility. When they had rallied there, they'd fire off the demolition charges, which would cause the power outage that'd allow the main force to launch the attack on the base and enter the base. From there on out they'd move on to their next objective. Find everything that looked like it was helping coordinate resistance across the peninsula, blow it to kingdom come and, if presented with the chance, locate and kill Saren Arterius.

Either way, their mission was simple.

Seek and destroy.

As the squad moved across the security perimeter of the base in silence, Haugen threw a glance at the tree line they had come from. Just out of sight the assault force was lying in wait, among them were N7s, STG operatives, Cabals and two companies of marines. Just like Phantom, they were also here to seek and destroy. Arterius could be the best Spectre who ever lived, it still wouldn't make a difference. With that many trained professionals on his trail, he wouldn't see the next morni-

'Alright Tore. Don't even twitch now,' he told himself.

While he had frozen as soon as the synthetic leg had appeared from behind the end of the wall he had been pressed against, the captain still felt his heart skip a beat at the thought of being compromised now. There, now standing just a meter in front of him, was the strangest looking geth platform he had ever seen. Granted, he hadn't seen many of them in person, but he still knew what they were supposed to look like. Hence, he also knew taht that the way this one looked was just off.

Its armor was smooth and colored in a dark shade of purple that seemed to absorb nearly all of the sunlight shining on it. Additionally its eye socket, which consisted of one large, central and three smaller surrounding 'flashlights', shone in a bright red light, not the usual pale blue. While it seemed to stare straight through him, he knew for sure that his camo was working. Otherwise the damn thing already would've tried to kill him with the equally strange, chaingun-like weapon it was carrying.

Realistically speaking, he knew that he could probably start walking backwards. Unless he was standing right in front of someone, he was basically invisible as long as he moved slowly enough. It was the smart decision as well. Reduce the chance of being spotted, get some distance between him and the enemy.

So why didn't he do it instantly?

Because the uneasy feeling that went up and down his spine as the large eye mustered the wall next to him was demanding that he stay and wait out until the red-eyed behemoth was done with whatever it was doing. After it let out a high-pitched, bone-chilling blare and quickly looked to the tree line, Haugen held his breath. Had their other forces been spotted? Did they have to blow the charges now and risk being caught in the explosion?

Before he could consider his options, the geth marched forward and, just a few seconds later, was followed by five other synthetics that looked exactly as strange as it. However instead of unleashing a bullet storm from their weapons, they simply headed in the center of the perimeter. Once there, they formed a circle around the large spiral antenna that dominated the court of the base. After watching for a few seconds, he decided that it was best to continue to the rally point now and started to move again. He managed to go exactly three steps before he registered that something else was happening. After a low whining echoed through the perimeter, a red burst of energy erupted from the tip of the spiral, shooting across their heads and connecting with the ocean's surface Then, as soon as it had appeared, the beam vanished into thin air, instead being replaced by a deep, impossibly loud blaring that seemed to come from the ocean itself and was somehow capable of circumventing the hearing protection built into his helmet.

Maybe it had been broken?

Not that that was the priority right now.

There was something else, something he was far more worried about.

In the addition of being physically painful, as soon as the fog-horn-like sound reached his senses, it sent a jolt down Haugen's spine. It was a cold, almost arctic sensation. He wasn't a stranger to fear but this? This was different. For a couple of seconds he was frozen, but this time not out of his own free will but out of something primal. For a few moments pure dread seemed to get the better of him. Only when he forced himself to start breathing again and smack the side of his head with the palm of his hand several times did he manage to break the frozen state of the rest of his body. Just in time for the horn to go silent again. Glancing at the vital signs of his squad and himself, he could make out a significant spike in their heartrates but other than that they were fine. A look behind him confirmed that much. They had snapped out of the sensation as well and were still on their feet, waiting for him to start moving again.

"Alright. What the hell was that?" Mav muttered over the squad intercom, breaking the silence they had moved in up to now. Out of everyone, his heartrate had shot the highest, hinting at him having suffered the worst effects of whatever had just happened. Maybe it had been because he had been closest to the source? Sure, it was just a few meters, but who knew how that thing worked.

"Just some flashy light show. Don't worry about it," Haugen replied quickly. While he knew Mav wouldn't panic and compromise them under normal circumstances, he wasn't going to take the chance and solely count on his discipline right now. That beam had definitely done something to all of them, who knew what effect it had had on him?

"Hell of a light show," the soldier replied. "Didn't you feel that jolt?"

"I did. But it's gone now. So stay frosty and keep your head in the game. The sooner we get to the rally point, the sooner we can blow the generators and make sure that they won't have any more power to repeat their little trick. Got it?"

"Yes. Got it," Mav replied after some long breaths. A glance at his HUD confirmed that they were all back to normal, at least as far as their vitals were concerned. Good. That meant they could keep moving. After throwing a look at the new geth arrivals to make sure that they weren't up to anything even weirder, Haugen realized that the ones he could still see were now kneeling around the spiral, making it look like they were praying. Why they'd do that despite being synthetics who shouldn't have any sort of religious inclination? He had no idea. As long as they didn't set it off again, he didn't care either. It was the job of other people to figure out that mystery. His job was to link up with the asari and blow the charges. So that's what he'd focus on. When he began walking again the ASOC team followed and soon enough, and thankfully without any more interruptions of the spiral, the reinforced entrance to the base was in sight, taking the shape of a blast door attached to an otherwise unsuspecting bunker. Going just by its size it was hard to believe that an entire underground complex had been built into the cliffs below. Then again, that was kind of the point of a secret layer, wasn't it? While he couldn't see them yet, he knew that the asari were already waiting for them. The map of his HUD told him that much.

"Ready?" a voice suddenly came through his helmet's radio, startling him ever so slightly, a fact he was ready to chalk up to his recent spiral scare. Only when he saw the outline of the asari commando leader, Captain Menoris, that his HUD produced upon linking up with the asari battle-network did he finally get to see his allies.

"Yes," he replied quickly before reaching for the detonator. While it was hard to see the device his hand was gripping, since it was just as invisible as the rest of his gear, he had used it more than enough to be able to do it blind.

"On three," the huntress suggested, presumably holding up a detonator of her own. While they went a long way in avoiding friendly fire, a problem the early ASOC units had avoided by the simple fact that their camouflage tech had been too bad to hide them at close range, the HUD outlines weren't nearly precise enough to depict details as fine as whatever it was the asari was holding in her hand.

"On three," Tore nodded after glancing at the bunker door. If they couldn't overwrite it as planned, they'd have to breach it and prematurely reveal their position to the geth. If that happened, they'd be in a rather tight spot. There was hardly any cover around here.

"One, two," Menoris counted, prompting him to first arm the detonator and then place his finger on the switch. "Three."

As soon as he pressed down against the firm resistance of the device, a series of explosions was set of. They were accompanied by the silence of his hearing protection working exactly as intended, which confirmed his suspicion that a broken helmet wasn't the reason behind the horn's strange effect.

As soon as a blue electric flicker jumped through the sky, signifying the deactivation of the large kinetic barrier generators, the voice of a human officer spoke over his radio.

"All units, this is Baseplate. Commence attack on the base."

Now for that door.


Meanwhile, 2156 CE, Virmire, Landing Site Artymek, Provisional CIC

"What do you mean there's no air support? The skies are clear. We took down their guns an hour ago. Why isn't there a single one of our fighters up there? We need air support, cluster munitions. My targets are marked!" the armigerian officer shouted into his end of the radio. Or at least that's what Nihlus figured he had said. The bark of Phasetons and Revenants and the dying screams of krogan and turians alike made it hard to understand half of what he was saying.

"How long can hold them off?" he muttered before releasing the send-button of the long-range communicator installed in the landed assault craft serving as his current command post. He knew that he was asking the soldier to do the impossible but there was nothing else he could do. Until STG took care of whatever 'situation' had frozen their stream of reinforcements and fire support, he had to make do with what he had. And what he had currently didn't include a single fighter craft.

"Hold them off? Did you listen to a word I just said, Sir?" the other turian screamed while Nihlus waved for a captain who's armor had the bright red markings of an artillery unit on it. "I've got three dozen krogan bearing down on my position. There's geth artillery zeroed in on us from the hill I marked for you five minutes ago, I just lost my last medic and half my platoon is gone! Spirits, we're not holding, we're being overrun. You need to get us ou- Left flank! Left flank! Watch it, they-"

"What's the status on your batteries?" he quickly asked the other turian, prompting his face to turn grim. Alright. That was already half of an answer. "What can you give me right now?" Nihlus clarified.

"My missiles are busy repelling the attack on Landing Site Bellatox and the long guns are supporting the assault on the main facility. All I've got left right now is some small mortars. But without drones to give us an aerial picture, they don't have the necessary accuracy. We'll shell our own people."

"It's better than nothing. Get me a line to your mortar crews," he muttered before holding down the button, sending the officer running to the other side of the command post where he began to frantically type on a holo-console. "Lieutenant, you've got mortar fire inbound on your position in one minute. It'll be danger close, so tell your men to take cover," when he didn't get an answer, he already knew what had happened. "Lieutenant?" he asked again, just to get confirmation. No reply. Just an empty channel.

Another unit gone.

"Sir, they're ready to fire. I just need the coordinates!" the captain called from the other end of the assault craft's CIC, eager to help his comrades. Nihlus cut him off with a sigh.

"Save the rounds. They're gone," he replied before one of the technicians got the clue and another unit with armigerian markings vanished off the large battlefield hologram in the middle of the assault craft. Just like the other squads they had lost up to now, the shock troops had been scattered by the Occumbo's destruction and run into a platoon of krogan hunting for them. Without air support to make up for their numerical disadvantage, the smaller pockets were being overrun one after another. The only drop troops that had managed to hold their ground right now were the ones that had managed to link up at the rally point of Major Janos, one of the few high-ranking turian officers that had gotten to the ground before the stream of shuttles and transports had been cut off.

"Bellatox for Artymek," the voice of another turian suddenly called through the radio. Alongside his own landing zone, Bellatox had been the only site where a high concentration of friendly forces had managed to land prior to the full-stop and where their forces had managed to built something resembling a forward operations base. However unlike Artymek, Bellatox had been under sustained enemy fire from the moment the armigerians had dug in around it. Clones were pouring at them from three directions and without the navy's airwings to keep them off their back, they were being strafed by geth gunships at a minute's pace. It was a lethal combination and the shock troops were paying a bloody prize for it.

"Come in, Bellatox," he replied.

"Be advised, I sent some human mechs your way. Your artillery put the pressure of us for now, figured you could use the mechanized support. We certainly can't. Whenever they show themselves, the geth buzz them. Maybe they'll have more luck on your side."

"Understood. How many?" If he was sending the mechs, the missile batteries should be free as well. He could use that. If he threw them together with one or two of the platoons of HSA marines that had landed in Artymek and had the artillery cover their advance, he might be able to relieve the shock troops keeping his southern flank from being overrun.

"Half a squad. The rest didn't survive the last attack."

Half a squad. That were two mechs.

His southern flank was being attacked by a dozen geth armatures and hundreds of drones.

What was he supposed to do with two mechs? Put them in between the trees and have them take shots so the turian soldiers didn't die alone? Or have them wait here at the drop ship so he could watch them get shot before the geth put a missile in his own CIC-

No.

He couldn't think like this.

In the Auxiliary Corps he had won far more with far less. He just had to focus and find their chance to turn the tide. Just about every battle had it. Even if he didn't have half the Oma Ker legionnaires he was supposed to have, this fight wasn't lost just yet. As he leaned against the holo-table and highlighted the red-flashing southern flank, an idea struck him. It had worked against a platoon of Vothams, maybe it'd work against geth armatures as well. Sure, the geth were probably smarter than your average batarian but a try wouldn't hurt.

With a wave of his hand, the region was highlighted and magnified.

If he ordered the shock troops to fake a retreat, pulled them just behind the hill were the armatures couldn't shoot at them, he could lure the geth into an exposed position and disrupt their formation with mortars just long enough for the armigerians to take out some of their walkers at close range with their demolition charges. Yes, it was risky, they'd have to get close to the blast zone. But the beauty of the mortars was that their kill radius wasn't nearly as big as that of missile launchers or long guns. While he was sure that they'd hate him for the order, it wasn't a suicide mission. That was an important distinction. Would he put his units in dangerous situations to achieve victory? Yes.

Would he sent them into certain death? Never.

"Lieutenant," he said while leaning against the chair of one of the several comm-technicians working in the CIC and helping coordinate the half-finished mess that made up their ground forces.

"Yes, Sir?" the soldier asked.

"Tell this platoon to pull back behind the hill and prepare for close quarter anti-armour maneuvers. They'll engage the walkers when the mortars distract the drones."

"Yes, Sir."

Looking at the map, he noticed something else, a small Union Navy emblem resting on an opposite hill.

Salarian naval infantry. Unlike the armigerians, the skirmishers had scattered intentionally and lurked at the edges of the battlefield to wait for targets of opportunity to show up. Now was their time to shine.

"Someone get me a line to that squad," he instructed after highlighting their position on the holo-table. A second later the line was opened.

"What do you need from us, Artymek?"

"Do you have a line of sight on the armigerian position in your north?"

"Yes, we see them. Can see a lot of geth walkers coming down on their position. Suggest they retreat while they still can."

Retreat? He didn't plan on retreating.

"Noted. Does your squad carry anti-material weapons?"

"Sniper rifles. But nothing that'll get through the armature armor."

"I don't need you to get through their armor, I need you to hit their optics. You'll distract them while the armigerians get in close and take them out. Can you do that?"

"Can do," the salarian replied quickly.

"Good," he said before looking over to where the artillery officer was working. It seemed like he was about ready. "Be advised, the artillery coming down on them will be ours," Nihlus said before closing the line and looking at another portion of the holo-map. One problematic fight tackled, ten more to go. His focus shifted to the valley where the few hovertank platoons that had made it to the ground were trying to assault the main cloning facility. This was where most of the Sixth Legion's forces that were planetside were currently fighting, where he should be fighting.

"Captain Anur for Artymek."

"Hearing you, Artymek."

"How's the attack progressing?" maybe there'd at last be some good news.

"The missile barrage softened up their barriers and took out some of the guns," good, "but their gunships are still slowing us down. I lost another Jiris in their last run. We could really do with some air support."

"I know but I can't give you that right now, Captain," Nihlus sighed.

"Understood. Then with your permission we'll do it the old-fashioned way. Brute force, blood and steel. One determined push and it'll be over. They'll never know what hit them."

While he appreciated the captain's eagerness, he had to think about the longevity of their invasion. The Jiris were his only armored assets in the region. With the exception of the few human mechs that were fighting alongside them, they were the only platform he had that could fight the geth walkers on even ground. With reinforcements being an uncertainty, losing even a quarter of the tanks in the kind of attack the Anur suggested would cripple his forces to a point where he couldn't achieve anything else.

Hence the attack on the cloning facility would have to wait until he found a solution.

"Negative, Captain," he said while eyeing the map. Anti-air units were scarce but there was a dedicated surface-to-air platoon nearby. If he could free them up, he could give Anur a hand. "Do your best to fight of the gunships and focus on force retention for now. I'll give you a solution soon."

"Yes, Sir."

"What's keeping that unit busy, Lieutenant?" Nihlus asked while enhancing the symbol of the human platoon and their jungle surroundings.

"Krogan," the soldier replied a few seconds later. It really was a testament to how thrown-together his units were that an anti-air platoon had to take the role of a frontline infantry unit. While it didn't look like they were fighting an engagement that'd play a major role in the rest of the operation, Nihlus knew better than to just go based on his own impression.

"Get me a line."

After a nod of the lieutenant, Nihlus was greeted by the barking of human weaponry.

"Reading you loud and clear, Artymek," the soldier spoke. "What can I do for you?"

"I've got Jiris tanks being strafed by geth gunships south of your position. They need air cover right now. How soon can you break contact?"

"As soon as the krogan embrace pacifism and stop trying to kill us. They're throwing themselves at us like there's no tomorrow for them. We're holding them but if I break contact now, we're done for."

That wasn't the answer he had been hoping for.

Glancing at the map again he looked for something that'd free up the anti-air unit. His eyes darted between the markings of a beat-up armigerian unit, a bunch of other human marines locking down a particularly weak segment of their line and another unit of salarian naval infantry that had taken up position on yet another hilltop to provide cover for his comrades. Those were the three options within immediate proximity. They all came with potentially bad consequences for the people that made up those units. If he enlisted the armigerians to free up the anti-air unit, they'd lose even more men than they already had. If he pulled out the humans to help their own comrades, that spot of the line would collapse and cause even more casualties. If he ordered the salarians to stop what they were doing and shift their attention, the squads they were watching over would be pressed even harder than they already were. One way or another, he had to trade lives for results.

That was what he had been trained for.

Solving the ruthless calculus of war in a way that produced a favorable result.


Meanwhile, 28. January 2415 AD, Virmire

As the final pulse rifle fell silent, Haugen risked a peak around his cover and into the command center of the base. The last geth was now lying on the ground, destroyed, and the salarian, who for an unknown reason had decided to fight alongside the geth, was slumped over a console in the corner of the room, his green blood flowing freely over the equipment in front of him.

"Room secured!" an asari called a few moments later. Due to their biotic abilities, they had been the ones taking point while his own team had provided them with cover.

"Decloak and restore your energy," their leader ordered and a moment later the huntresses appeared all over the room. That was one of the few advantages the human camo tech had over the asari one. Optical camo could run a very long time before requiring a new power source. The asari could only stay cloaked for little more than an hour before they needed a break.

"Alright. Move up," Haugen said to his own squad before stepping out of cover, walking into the room and closing in to where the leading huntress, Captain Menoris, was standing right next to the corpse of the salarian. Evidently, she was just as curious about his involvement here as he was. Figuring that it'd probably be weird for her to talk to someone invisible, he decided to also turn off his camo for the time being, thus appearing next to her.

"He's wearing STG armor," the huntress observed.

"Maybe he stole it?" Haugen offered in return before watching as the asari grabbed a hold of the corpse and turned it on its back. It was a simple explanation, no? Next Captain Menoris placed her hands on the sides of the helmet and undid the locks, allowing her to pull it off. If she had known what that would cause, she might've been a bit more cautious about doing it so quickly.

In one moment, Haugen saw a pale-yellow face locked in a calm expression. In the next, the large, strangely blue eyes of the 'corpse' opened and stared straight at him. As soon as the salarian 'awoke' the calm look on his face twisted into a horrifyingly fierce one and his hand shot up to grab the closest weapon he could see, the knife attached to Haugen's hardsuit. Trying to beat him to the punch, Haugen pressed his hand down on the weapon to lock it in place and made a move for his sidearm to try and shoot the still-living salarian in the face point-blank. However before he could do as much as pull out his sidearm, a purple light engulfed the salarian's head, followed by a nasty crushing sound. The alien's head exploded and he fell limp again. This time for good.

"Thanks," he said, only receiving a nod from Menoris.

"What happened? Did that fucker just play dead?" Hofmann asked after he had turned to the source of the noise. Meanwhile Haugen realised that he was now covered in bits and pieces of salarian, which would mess with his optical camouflage when he turned it back on.

Great.

"It would appear that he did," the asari commando replied as she let go of the now mostly headless body. "I apologize for putting you in danger, Captain. My aim is usually true. I don't know why I missed my target this time," she observed while glancing at the set of holes in his chest.

"No need to apologize," he replied before also inspecting the hits and coming to a very different conclusion. It didn't look like she had missed. Quite the opposite in fact. It looked like a perfect shot group in the one spot other than their heads that was known to kill salarians almost instantly. But despite their visible impact, this one had evidently not died instantly.

Weird.

Maybe some armor mod? He wouldn't put it beyon STG to come up with something that gave their operatives just enough juice to come back from the brink of death long enough to take someone with them. These were after all the same guys who implanted small explosives into their ocular nerves to avoid capture.

"Captain Menoris?" another asari commando called from across the room. As Haugen turned his head, he saw her standing over another console and typing on its screen. Judging by the white stains on her armor, she had wiped away the cooling fluid that had splattered on it and going by her expression, she had found something very unsettling in the process.

"What is it T'Val?" the asari officer replied.

"The missing STG operatives," she said before a press of her finger activated the row of purple screens hanging from the wall of the room. They showed a long hallway that consisted of nothing but glass cells.

"Goddess," the lead huntress muttered quietly while Haugen looked at the blend between a prison and a laboratory and scanning each cell individually. With the exception of one, they all held a single salarian. Some dead, some still alive.

"Our priorities just changed," the asari captain added. "Where are those cells, T'Val?"

Wait.

She wasn't actually going to do what he suspected, was she?

"One moment," the other commando spoke before typing again. "Got it. Transmitting their location to your omni-tool, Ma'am."

"Good," she nodded as she brought up her omni-tool and activated her camo again. "Captain Haugen?" the now invisible officer asked while her outline moved towards the door.

"Yes?" he replied.

"Can I count on you to stay here and complete the mission while we liberate the salarians?"

He glanced back at the corpse and then to the one empty cell on the screen. Under other circumstances he would've supported the change of plans. But this just didn't feel right.

"Sir, I don't think freeing them is a good idea," Hofmann whispered to him not a moment later. The soldier clearly had the same suspicion as him. The dead salarian was likely the product of the success of whatever experiment was being done on those salarians and based on their behavior they were well on their way to turn out just like their comrade.

"Neither do I," he replied after looking at the screens. One salarian was clearly dead, having gone out via the explosives he had just thought about. Another was sitting in the corner of his room, clutching his head and rocking back and forth on the ground like a scared kid. Two more were simply staring at the camera, not moving a single muscle. Those two appeared almost catatonic. "Captain Menoris?" he called quickly, right as the asari was about to walk out of the room.

"Yes?"

"Don't set them free," he said.

"Why not?" she asked in a surprised tone.

"Take a look at them," Haugen explained while pointing at the screen. "Do they look like your average prisoner of war or do they look like someone tried to brain-wash them?"

"Have you ever been a prisoner of war, Captain?" the already invisible asari retorted.

"No," and he didn't plan on becoming one either. Before that happened, he'd go out like the one salarian in the cell he was now looking it. "But that doesn't change the fact that there's something wrong with them. Just look at them. They're insane."

"They've probably been tortured. That tends to happen to prisoners of war," the asari replied. "Now, before you suggest what I think you want to suggest, ask yourself this. Would you want someone to come and get you if that was you being tortured down there?"

"I'm not saying that we leave them behind. I'm saying that they're not going anywhere right now. We can still set them free when we know they're not a threat. There's no need to-"

"A threat? I don't know what happened to this one. Maybe he sold his loyalty, maybe Saren really did manage to brainwash him," Menoris countered," but those salarians are on our side. While it might not mean something to you, they've been my people's allies for two millennia. I won't turn my back on them now," the asari said as her outline lingered in the doorway. She wasn't listening to him. Whatever code the huntress abided to had already led to her making up her mind "My team will ensure their safety. Meanwhile your team will stay here and ensure that the mission succeeds. You will plant the charges, destroy the enemy's chain of command and join us once that is done. Is that understood?"

He hesitated.

"I was chosen as the leader of this mission so I'll ask you one more time, Captain. Are my orders understood?" the asari asked again.

"Yes," he said, albeit through gritted teeth.

"Good," Menoris answered before her outline and that of the other huntresses vanished through the door and headed for uncertainty.

Damn it.

"Your orders, Sir?" Hofmann asked the moment the doors had closed, already putting down his backpack and opening it to reveal the demolition charges stored inside it. They were here to blow this place sky-high but as he looked at the screens, a different, very insubordinate idea came to mind. They were sitting in the heart of the base. If Arterius was still here, this was how he'd find him and if he wasn't here anymore, this command center was the best way of figuring out where he'd be going. If securing that information meant allowing the enemy to coordinate their defensive effort for a couple more minutes, he was willing to pay that price. Their forces had held their ground this long, they'd manage a few more minutes. They'd take more casualties, yes, but on the grand scale of things, there was only one call he could make here.

"Hold up on the charges. This place is a gold mine. Start collecting intel, our forces will just have to deal with coordinated resistance for a little longer. Start over there and work your way through the room. Get as much as you can."

"Understood," Hofmann replied after a second of consideration.

"Mav?"

"Yes?"

"Think you can hack into geth tech?"

"Well, we won't know until I try, right?"

"That's the spirit. Try to get into their system. Make copies of everything. Maps, command logs, fleet locations. Anything that can help us end this sooner than later."

"On it."

"Miller, get on the terminal the huntress used and take a look around the base. Tell me what you find. Shout if its Arterius."

"Got it."

"And Hofmann?"

"Sir?"

"Before you start digging, give me a hand here," he instructed before grabbing a hold of the salarian's torso armor and getting ready to remove. While the asari had turned his head into mush, the rest of the body was intact. If this guy could survive being shot through the heart thrice, there was bound to be someone in the HSA that'd like to at least have a couple of pictures and scans of him before his corpse got incinerated when they blew up the command center.

"Hold on. You gonna cut him open or what?" Hofmann asked as the ASOC officer pulled out his knife.

"No. I just wanna get a clean scan," Haugen replied after he had jabbed his knife into the release of the chest armor and tossed the surprisingly light alloy cover to the said. Unlike the asari captain, he didn't actually know how to remove it without destroying it. Hence the brute force approach. "Go on, start helping Mav with collecting intel."

It wasn't the worry of adding corpse desecration to the list of violations he had committed against the HSA's uniform code ever since he started working under Hackett that stopped him from doing what Hofmann had figured he was about to do. He had yet to even hear someone mention his mistreatment of a batarian prisoner of war and his participation in the unlawful interrogation of said prisoner back on AN-493X. So consequences wasn't what he was worried about. It was just the reality that he knew he'd do nothing but damage what made the salarian capable of surviving the three perfect hits he had taken to his heart. So instead of practicing his craft as a pathologist, he brought up his omni-tool and started the procedure of taking detailed scans of the injured torso. Temperature, composition, he was using everything his omni-tool had to offer and discovering new applications while he was at it.

"Sir?" Miller called just a few moments before he finished. Immediately his mind went to Arterius.

"What? Did you find him already?" Haugen replied after quickly finishing up the scan.

"No," the soldier replied. "But I found the other Spectre."

"Shepard?"

"Yes. And it looks like she's in trouble."

After briefly looking at the screen and concluding that it was just a minor firefight with some krogan clones, he made up his mind. She didn't need their help.

"They wouldn't have made her a Spectre if she couldn't get herself out of trouble. Keep looking for Arterius."

"Yes, Sir."

"How are things looking on your end, Mav?" he asked next after walking over to where the soldier was leaning over one of the terminals next to Hofmann.

"They aren't."

"What do you mean?"

"Turns out geth encryption is just geth programs asking you if you're a geth program and telling you to fuck off if it turns out that you aren't. They don't actually have any data in here, just more of copies of their consciousness."

"Then how come the asari got in fine?" he asked a few moments later. This whole tech stuff had never been his area of expertise.

"The asari looked at a camera screen. She didn't try to access any data. I mean I could get us in, but a single omni-tool isn't going to be enough to do it. You'd need the navy to send down their nerd squad and I don't think we have the time to do that. Gold mine or not, you said it yourself, this place still has to go."

"Hold on," he replied before tuning on his long-range communicator. This was no longer about a small delay, this was an entire change of their objective. He wasn't making that choice on his own. "Baseplate, this is Phantom-Lead. We've got a situation."

"Go on, Phantom."

"I think we hit an intel jackpot over here. Only problem is, we can't get in with our omni-tools. Requesting to aboard the destruction of the command center and save it for later use."

Baseplate audibly sighed.

"That command center is keeping the enemy's resistance intact, Phantom. You should've blown it up five minutes ago. Request denied. Continue with the mis-"

"Ignore that last order, Phantom-Lead," a familiar voice injected. "Baseplate, this is Admiral Hackett. I'm taking over this matter."

Hackett?

What was he doing here?

Had the HSA put him in charge of their naval contribution on short notice or something like that?

That had to be the explanation for his sudden appearance, right?

"Understood, Admiral. Baseplate over and out."

"Alright, Phantom-Lead. Change of plans. Until Arterius is dead, you'll keep the command center safe and spimd. It might be the only way to find him if this thing goes south."

"Understood, Sir."

"Good. Stay frosty, Captain. Hackett out."

"You heard the man. Let's lock this place down," the ASOC officer instructed as he looked around the room. Two doors. Easy to defend. They could easily hold this place for as long as it took the rest of their forces to secure the base-

"Oh shit," he heard Miller curse. "Sir?"

"What is it this time-"

"I think it's Arterius," the soldier said quickly.

"You think?"

"Well I can't actually see his face since he's wearing armor, but it's definitely a turian. And I don't think there are many turians working with the geth right now."

"Point taken. Where is he?"

"Looks like he's heading straight for the asari commandos."

Shit indeed.

His brain sprang into action.

"Mav, warn them and start planting charges I want this place to go sky high as soon as Arterius is dead. Miller, keep an eye on him, try reaching Shepard's team and keep me posted. Hofmann, you're with me. We're taking this bastard down."

"Yes, Sir."

If he got this right, he might not have to live with dozens of additional friendly casualties on his conscious after all.


Meanwhile, 2156 CE, Virmire, Two Levels below the Command Center

On their vain quest to save the already enlightened STG operatives, the asari were getting close to the one portion of this base that wasn't completely replacable, the beacon Sovereign had had the geth built to contact the Harbinger and inform him that their long sleep was finally coming to an end.

His instructions were clear.

He couldn't let them find it and he couldn't let them interfere with it.

Due to the protheans' posthumous meddling, Sovereign couldn't use the Citadel to send a warning before he opened the relay. Hence the beacon had to send its message and vanish after it had served its purpose. If someone who didn't share the secretive nature of his main foes were to find out what it was and figured out where it led and what message it contained, they wouldn't just discover the trap hidden inside the heart of their government and have time to counteract the devastating opening attack, they'd also mobilize the entire galaxy against him.

"Seal the doors. Defend the beacon at any cost," he ordered the krogan clone from earlier before instructing the ascended geth to follow him.

This wasn't the battle he had stayed to fight or the trap he had set. The human was somewhere else entirely right now.

But he was left with no choice.

It was time for him to enter the fight.


Ten Minutes Earlier, 2156 CE, Virmire, Landing Site Artymek, Provisional CIC

"Captain Anur for Artymek," Nihlus muttered into the comms as he watched the human anti-air team move, ignoring the blood price the armigerians had paid to make it possible for the time being.

"Hearing you loud and clear, Major," the leader of the Jiris tanks replied.

"You've got anti-air teams moving in. Continue with the assault once they make contact with you."

"Understood, Sir. Much appreciated."

After he watched the markers of the sixth legion's armored company move up on the facility for a few seconds, Nihlus shifted his attention to the next troubling spot. The main command center. For some reason, it hadn't been blown up yet and any attempt to reach the commandos tasked with doing so had simply been answered with static. While he wasn't surprised that the geth were jamming the human comms, the fact that neither the turian, nor the salarian or asari units tasked with the same mission or as a matter of fact any of the units in the proximity of the base were answering him was troubling. If it wasn't for the forward observers reporting fighting within the base and pointing out the strange radio interference coming from somewhere off the coast, he already would've considered all the units that had taken part in the attack dead and ordered an artillery strike to do their job. But as long as there were signs of friendlies fighting in the region, he couldn't consider them dead so there wouldn't be any artillery strike for the time being.

Now. Onto the next problem.

"Major!" he heard someone shout from the door of the CIC, prompting him to turn his head.

"What is it?" Nihlus replied before making his way to the panting soldier. Judging by his stance and his very rapid breathing, it looked like he had run a long way just to talk to him. Why he hadn't used his radio to reach him instead? Well, he was about to find that out.

Or so he thought.

"Artymek!" an unknown voice from an unknown unit suddenly roared over the comms, echoing through the CIC of the assault ship and prompting him to stop just shy of the door. "Get down! You've got incoming!"

Incoming?

Incoming what?

Before Nihlus could think about going back to his post and asking that question, an explosion rocked the assault ship and sent him flying towards the doorframe. When he his head hit the edge of the steel table, everything went black in an instant. But just as sudden as he had been torn from reality, he was back. While he wasn't sure what had happened or how much time had passed, the next thing he noticed, after realizing that he wasn't dead, was the warm feeling of blue blood dripping down his brow. Probably a concussion. Alright.

That was a big problem.

Or at least it was for as long as it took him to start smelling the smoke and realise the much bigger problem.

After coughing uncontrollably until he could grab his helmet and seal himself away from the smoke that was rapidly filling the CIC, Nihlus rose from the ground and looked to behind him. There he saw the remains of a badly damaged geth gunship that had drilled itself into the hull of turian ship.

So that was what had hit them.

Just how?

He shook his head. The how didn't matter right now.

As he looked around for wounded, the thick smoke made it difficult but not impossible to see much further than a few paces, he realized that all the soldiers that had stood just behind him and in the path of the gunship had to have been crushed, incinerated or both. In fact the gunship had stopped just shy of the spot where he had been standing. Everything in its path had been devastated.

Lucky.

"Sound off! Give me a casualty report!" he roared, his voice amplified by the speakers of his helmet. While he waited for an answer, he walked to the unconscious messenger lying in the doorway.

"Where are you hurt, soldier?" he asked before turning the turian on his back and staring at the piece of shrapnel that had obliterated most of his skull. Another realization struck him He had stood almost in front of him.

One step to the left and that would've been his head.

Lucky indeed.

"I said casualty report!" Nihlus repeated when no answer had come after nearly a minute. Again, not a single soldier responded. Two possibilities jumped into his mind. Everyone was dead or everyone that had survived had already left. However he wasn't content with leaving his post and possibly abandoning an injured comrade based solely on an excuse his rattled brain was coming up with to get him out of the increasingly hotter CIC. So instead of doing the sensible thing and getting as far away as possible, the officer started to make a round through the CIC to check for survivors, climbing through the wrecked interior with as much grace as his looming concussion allowed him to have.

While it did succeed in rapidly filling his helmet filters with smoke, he didn't have much success in terms of finding survivors.

"Co- in Artym-," a chopped- up voice spoke from a badly damaged communication terminal just as he confirmed the death of the artillery officer. At least it had been over quickly for him.

"This is Artymek," he answered. From what little he could make out from the distorted hologram, someone from Bellatox was hailing them.

"Wha- happene- seeing smok-"

"Our CIC just got hit," he repeated before realizing that nothing was getting through.

"Sp-its Art-, please respo-"

This was pointless. He didn't even understand half of what the other turian was saying. Letting go of the communicator, Nihlus decided to finish his round and get out of the assault ship while he still could. Just like he had feared, he hadn't found a single survivor by the time he was back at the door. As he climbed over the body of the dead messenger, he noticed something clutched in his hand. A black alloy orb roughly as big as a small ball. While they weren't commonplace anymore, the Hierarchy still used these things sometimes. Although its appearance didn't suggest it, the small device was actually a part of a guided transport drone launched by turian vessels from low orbit and used to transmit encrypted information that couldn't be passed along regular channels. They were almost impossible to break and only opened when they registered the bio-signature of its intended recipient. If anyone who wasn't among said recipients tried to open one of these, their hands tended to explode alongside the orb and its message. As a quick look at the display installed in it confirmed, Nihlus himself was the recipient in this case.

So that was why he had run all the way here instead of radioing him. He didn't have another option.

After grabbing the device, Nihlus stumbled out of the CIC and climbed down into the cargo-bay of the assault craft, almost running into the arms of an infantry soldier that had been about to climb up. Judging by the coat of ash that covered his otherwise green and brown armor and the several injured turians lying in the cargo bay, this soldier was likely the reason that Nihlus hadn't found any survivors. He had hauled all of the to safety.

If they survived the battle, he'd make sure to honor him accordingly.

"I checked. No one else survived, Corporal. You did good, take a break," he ordered after placing a hand on the shoulder of the soldier and gently pushing him away from the ladder he had been about to climb up again, likely to come back for Nihlus himslef. After receiving an understanding nod from the soldier, Nihlus walked to the cargo-ramp, grabbed a Phaeston from one of the casualties and opened the message, finally getting an answer as to why not even half of the invasion force had ever made it planet-side. It was signed by General Quanos.

'Possible Code Tyras. Reinforcements halted until confirmation. Emergency containment teams deployed. Continue assault as planned.'

After reading the message again to convince himself that he hadn't just misunderstood it, a grim expression settled on his face.

Tyras.

In addition to Tyras being the name of one of the unfortunate colonies that had been targeted by an asteroid strike during the Krogan Rebellions, it was also one of Hierarchy's secret codesign. In this case 'Tyras' stood for a hostile WMD. While there was a bold 'possible' written before it, it didn't exactly help to stop his mind from jumping to a conclusion. They were sitting on a timebomb and could be blown up at any given moment. He felt his breath quicken as that realization set in.

He had been in some tight spots in the past, but this wasn't the average level of danger that came with going into combat.

This was a suicide mission.

Anger built up inside of him.

No.

Focus.

It was a possibility, not a certainty.

With that Nihlus deactivated the orb and stuffed it into one of his armor's compartments. He was the highest ranking officer on the ground. If he lost it, their entire operation would break down. His men were looking at him to be an example, a leader. He wasn't going to disappoint them. As he stepped from the cargo-ramp and was immediately signaled to get down by several of the soldiers in his proximity, he realized why exactly a geth gunship had crashed into his CIC moments before a pulse-rifle beam hit wall of the assault craft right where his head had been.

Landing Site Artymek was under attack.


Meanwhile, 28. January 2415 AD, Virmire, Two Levels below the Command Center

"You'd think," Garrus grunted as more rounds bounced off one of the armored blast doors of the corridor they were stuck in right now, "it'd get easier, the closer we get to this damn bomb, that the geth wouldn't want to be near it when it exploded."

"Two faulty assumptions," Kirrahe replied while doing some field-modifications on his weapon and turning his pistol into something that resembled a grenade launcher with a few well-practiced motions. "First. Don't know if it's a bomb yet. Second, geth lack self-preservation instinct. Wouldn't care about being caught in any potential bl-"

"I was being," the turian began while pulling a grenade from one of the compartments of his armor and throwing it down the corridor, "sarcastic." He finished just before hugging the wall even more tightly and waiting out the explosion. When it came, the rotatory gun and the geth drone that had fired it fell silent. "See," he said after risking a peak. "Much quicker than building a grenade launcher from scratch."

"Everyone okay?" Emily asked as she looked back at her squad.

"I'll live," Wrex muttered, ignoring the orange drips of blood that ran down his left arm. That was the disadvantage of being so large. Cover that was completely safe for all of them didn't do much good for the bounty hunter.

"I don't doubt it. Still, put some medigel on it, alright?"

"Hm. Fine."

She didn't need to take a long guess what it was that had Wrex all riled up right now. It was the same thing nagging on her own mind.

Saren Arterius.

She couldn't say why but ever since they had infiltrated the base, she had a feeling that they were getting close, that he was just out of reach.

"How much further, Jenzin?" Kirrahe asked as he stepped out of the corridor and walked down the stairs, past the large, purple geth platform that had kept them pinned down for the past minute.

"Not much. Signature getting stronger, time between spikes decreasing."

"Is that good or bad?" Emily asked as Kirrahe, the two remaining members of the STG team, she and the other crew members of the Normandy entered the next room. Since it didn't look like served much of a purpose, she decided not to pay too much attention to its details.

"As long as it doesn't disappear, any weapon it could fuel can't be fully charged," Kirrahe explained. "Disappearance of signal would be problematic. Jenzin. Scan for a build-up in-"

"Uhm. Is this Commander Shepard's frequency?" a voice suddenly came through all of their radios.

What the hell?

"Yes?" the N7 replied after a few moments. "Who is this?" she added.

"Sergeant Miller, Ma'am. Third ASOC Battalion. Phantom Squad," he introduced himself with a bit of uncertainty. "I'm sitting in the command center two floors above you right no-"

"Christ, Miller, get to the point already!" a voice in the background demanded.

She'd also appreciate that.

"We just spotted Saren Arterius. He's heading for a team of asari huntresses right now," as soon as she heard that her head turned to Kirrahe. "My boss figured you'd want to know. I'm sending you their location now."

"Understood," she replied.

"What do we do now, Commander?" Alenko asked, not a moment after the line closed itself. "That's nowhere near the source of the anti-matter surges."

"He's right. Location of surges and location of rogue Spectre don't match. My hypothesis was wrong," Kirrahe nodded. "Suggest we split. You go after Saren, we handle the source."

She looked at the salarian for a moment. Sure, they were STG, but they were also in a bad shape after their earlier fight with the krogan. Two had been injured and stayed behind, one was dead. That just left Kirrahe, 'Jenzin' and one other operative.

If this was a bomb, she wasn't sure the three of them could handle it.

On the other hand, if she went after Arterius, she'd still have a whole squad of asari commandos to back her up. She wasn't going to commit her whole team to Kirrahe but she could spare one of them.

"Williams," she said, making a quick decision based solely on the fact that the gunnery sergeant, while an exceptional marine, was still just that, an ordinary marine. Not a biotic, not special forces. In short, the one of them who'd be the 'least' useful in a fight against the Spectre. Damn that sounded harsh. "You stay with Kirrahe. Help them figure out what's responsible for the surges."

"Aye, Ma'am," the marine NCO nodded without as much of a complaint. "Good luck," she added before following the STG agents down the corridor.

"Alenko, Wrex, Garrus," she said while tracking where they had to go through her HUD. Just up the stairs, down a long hallway, through a series of room and down another long hallway. Then they'd be with the commandos. If they double-timed it, it wouldn't take more than two minutes. "Get ready to take down Saren."

"Hehe," Wrex smirked.

"What?"

"Been waiting a long time to hear you say that."

"Then let's not keep you waiting any longer."


Codex: The First Battle of the Citadel (700CE) (Part of Entry Series 'The Krogan Rebellions')

Following his demise at the hands of the then asari councilor Matriarch Alaria V'Lora and two anonymous C-SEC officers, news of the death of Overlord Kredak rocked both the Citadel and Council Space. Within hours parts of the Krogan Peacekeeping Corps, ground and space forces alike, rebelled. In space, boarding actions and chaotic ramming attacks dealt a devastating defeat to the C-SEC patrol fleet, an action that would later lead to the founding of the Citadel Defense Fleet (See Entry 'Citadel Defense Fleet')

In the station itself, parts of the KPC fell back on uprising protocols to try and wrestle control of the Citadel into their hands. After blocking off a majority of the docking bays and establishing martial law in the parts of the station they controlled, they turned their eyes outward and lashed out against both C-SEC and the small parts of the KPC that had decided to uphold their oaths of loyalty towards the Council. It didn't take long for the inhabitants of the wards and the Presidium to be caught in the crossfire of the first of up to date two military conflict aboard the Citadel itself. (See Entry 'Second Battle of the Citadel (2156 CE)

Fierce and well equipped, the krogan rebels tore through the station in a way the survivors of the battle described similar to that of a 'starved varren'. Within days, the death toll had climbed to ten thousand and by the end of the fighting ten days later, nearly sixty thousand inhabitants of the back then only one million strong population of the Citadel and its wards had been killed. Many more had been displaced in what amounted to the biggest humanitarian crisis and resource shortage in the station's history up to the attack of the rogue Spectre Saren Arterius and the destruction of his geth flagship-

[Warning. Invasive program detected. Attempting shutdown. Attempting shutdown.]

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[Error. Citadel Codex Application failed to respond.]

[Incoming message detected.]

Hey there. You've been doing a lot of reading lately, haven't you? Find anything interesting? Something you can use in that papers of yours?

You don't have to answer that. I know you haven't.

There's a reason for that. There's something they don't want you to know. The biggest cover up in history. And its not just the other guys who are doing it either. The HSA is just as deep in it as the rest of the Council.

I'll assume that you remember the big ship that crashed into Tayseri a couple of years ago. You know, the one that literally flattened five thousand people in a second.

It wasn't geth tech and it wasn't just a ship either.

It was something else entirely. Something a lot more ancient.

Before I tell you how I know this, what it means for you or why I even chose you to begin with, I'll have to do some additional vetting first. I'll get back to you through the Codex again when I'm done.

Stay curious. Stay cautious. See you around.

~ a bird of your feather

[Restarting.]

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[Citadel Codex application has encountered a harmful VI client. To protect your omni-tool and data from possible malware, Citadel Codex hast shut itself down for the time being. To reactivate your Citadel Codex, please contact customer supp-]

[Are you sure you want to terminate Citadel Codex Application? This may lead to a loss of personalized data.]

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[Thank you for using the Citadel Codex.]


A/N:

... hi.

I'm back. My theoretical exams are done for now. No more studying till september!

So, I don't have much to say for this chapter. It's the usual build-up/middle part of a mission-type of chapter. We jump around a lot (I also used a distorted timeline for this chapter for the first time in forever. I forgot how much work that is to make sure continuity is on point but whatever, it served its purpose). So what actually happened? Not much, really. We saw fighting, we got a bit of Haugen's first contact with the reapers... and well, we hit the obligatory "either ash or kaidan go with STG" Virmire spot.

What that means? Up to you to decide.

Other than that, there is one more thing. But it'll only pay off for the people who've been reading the Codex every chapter up to now, no expection. While I never originally planned to turn the Codex reading into a story of itself, I have to say that once I started with the whole "data corrupted" way back during "Season 1", I've been wanting to make it more than just a lore dump. Those are so important. So yeah. Welcome to a new subplot!

Other than that. well. I can just apologize for how long it took me. Had to do a lot of studying, lot of training etc. but that's life. Truth be told, this chapter could've been out weeks ago but I took it to heart what you guys told me and took my time instead of stressing out over it being more than a month since the last update and you guys forgetting story details because of it. The result, I hope, is just as good as usual.

Other than that(yes, I know I said that twice,) just the usual stuff. Up next, "YOU ARE NOT SAREN!"

For the record, we're at 569 reviews, 893 favorites and 983 followers.

See you around next time.