Survival of the fittest
chapter 16
"GRIM!".
She looked around and frowned, this place… she knew this place… knew that voice- that fucking stupid code name!
"Grim!" she met a set of dark eyes, eyes that were cold and unnerving.
Reina glared at her, "its time"
Aki looked around, she knew this villa, the smell of pollen lingered in the air wafting in from the open windows, incense smoke burned in the kitchen below, sandalwood, it clung to hair and clothes… metal, iron, wet pennies… Reina stepped into her pushing her shoulder once hard forcing the memory to surface further.
NO! she couldn't be back here- in this memory, not back to here, she was reliving it now... unable to change what happened.
This is how it always started...
She heard the sobbing, her eyes turning to the woman kneeling on the floor crying into her daughter's hair.
"Spare my daughter please!" she begged
"Where's your husband!" Aki could hear her own voice devoid of all emotion, "you know how this goes, your husband does this all the time, we'll spare her if you tell us where he is"
"I don't know" she wailed "I didn't know what he-"
Reina looked to Aki, "we need to lure him out somehow" the woman hissed
"Grab the kid" Aki demanded; Reina snatched her from the arms of the mother passing the girl to Aki.
Aki put the sword against the girl's throat, "where is he?!"
"please-"
"you have 5 seconds-"
"please… he left-"
"5"
"no!" she screamed
"4"
"have mercy"
"3"
"he left please…"
"2"
"no!"
"1"
Aki ran the blade faintly across the girls throat not drawing blood but enough to make the mother scream in terror.
She wailed loudly at even the thought of her daughters demise and sobbed after a long moment he mother looked up to see her child unharmed and sobbed a broken heart wrenching cry of happiness, she reached out for her, Aki still held the blade against the girl the mother sighed heavily tears running "Noveria"
Aki nodded passing the girl back to the mother and turning on her heel to radio the remaining crew. She turned back and watched in disbelief as a blade ran across the girl's throat, blood spewing free from the wound. Aki darted forward and threw an elbow into Reina to grab the child from her "what the fuck" she yelled grabbing the wound with her hand to stem the bleeding
Reina in one swift movement skewered the mother-
"Weak"
"not fit to be leader"
"no survivors"
The image changed-
The snow was heavy, it crunched under her booted feet as she struggled to walk.
She was freezing; it numbed the pain that had been throbbing in her thigh, her arm wrapped protectively over her ribs stemming the bleeding from the puncture wound on her right side.
Aki looked behind; every footstep was reddened with blood that seeped into the snow; she grunted as she struggled on, they were dead… she had watched them fall- she was engulfed in darkness… a cold bleak silence
"you'll all die!" a mans voice roared as a gunshot broke through the ebbing darkness "I will never stop hunting you!"
Aki looked up at the feel of wet on her skin, she fell to her knees in the snow, her outstretched hands drenched in blood "DIE!"
She woke with a gasp sweat running down her temples…
how many nightmares had she had now?
She had seen people she killed; she had seen her own friends- her team- drowning in their own blood.
She watched the light fade from their eyes- she hadn't dreamt like this in so long.
Aki threw her legs over the side of the bed, her chest racing the sweat beginning to dry on her skin.
It'd been like this since returning to earth as if her body was rejecting the planet…
I can't wait to leave
The days had turned into weeks and weeks into months.
She had kept a countdown- exactly 23 weeks 4 days and little under 12 hours.
Aki inhaled deeply steadying her breaths and banishing the remaining darkness from the corners of her mind.
Jane inhaled deeply as she stared out the window, down below she could see a little boy running around laughing as he swung a toy ship around.
The door to her quarters opened, Vega walked in, "Commander," he saluted her
"I've told you a million times, James. You're not supposed to call me that anymore" she smiled
"Not supposed to salute you either. But like I told you before, good luck trying to stop me. Anyways, we gotta go – the defence committee wants to see you."
"Really?" Jane rolled her eyes, "Sounds important", She followed Vega out of her room and down the corridor matching pace. Jane looked around, she noticed everyone seemed on edge, working and talking at a much faster pace than usual
"what's going on?" she questioned
"Couldn't say. Just told me they needed you…now."
Jane paused as she saw a familiar face walking towards her, where had he been, "Anderson," she nodded.
"Admiral," James saluted.
Anderson reached out and shook her hand briskly, "You look good, Shepard.". They continued walking, Anderson patted Jane's stomach playfully, "Maybe a little soft around the edges. How you are you holding up since being relieved from duty?"
She rubbed her stomach with a frown, "It's not so bad, once you get used to the hot food and soft beds."
"We'll get it sorted out," Anderson replied determined.
"What's going on? Why's everyone in such a hurry?" she asked
"Admiral Hackett's mobilising the fleets. I'm guessing word has made it to Alliance Command…something big is headed our way." Anderson explained
"The Reapers?" she questioned worried
"We don't know…not for certain."
"What else could it be?"
"If I knew that…"
"There's nothing else it could be…it's the Reapers and we're not ready for them…not by a long shot."
"Tell that to the defence committee."
"Unless we're planning to talk the Reapers to death, the committee is a waste of time." She scoffed
"They're just scared. None of them have seen what you've seen. We've all reviewed your reports, seen the data you collected, but it's all just theory to us. You've been there…in the trenches; fighting them. You know what they're capable of."
"That why they grounded me? Took away my ship?"
Anderson paused and pointed his finger at Jane, scolding her, "You know that's not true. The shit you've done, any other soldier would've been tried, court-marshalled and discharged. It's your knowledge of the Reapers that kept that from happening."
"That, and your good word?" she smirked
"Yeah. I trust you, Shepard. And so does the committee."
"I'm just a soldier, Anderson. I'm no politician."
Anderson started walking again, "I don't need you to be either. I just need you to do whatever the hell it takes to help us stop the Reapers."
They entered the reception area, a female officer approached them. "They're expecting you two, Admiral," she said as she led them down the hallway.
"Good luck in there, Shepard," Vega said he as he came to a stop when they reached the entrance to the court room.
She turned around and shook his hand, "Thank you, James. And thanks for watching out for me these last few months."
"Don't mention it." He smiled
Jane flashed him a smile, she turned slightly as she heard a familiar voice behind her greeting Anderson. A voice that quickly made her insides knot. She wished he would leave… that it would be that easy, she gulped heavily as she jogged forward to catch up to Anderson and Kaidan.
"Shepard," Kaidan gasped, his eyes intent on her- it had been there first meeting since horizon and that email.
"Kaidan" she frowned sadly voice low.
Anderson spoke up over the intense silence, "Major, how'd it go in there?"
"Okay, I think; hard to know. I'm just waiting for orders now." That voice… it hurt her, made her chest tight.
Anderson looked at Jane, "C'mon, let's head in."
Jane followed him, giving Kaidan a quick glance as she walked by, he'd changed, he was bigger built, ripped with muscle that protruded even through his clothes. He gave her a small smile and nodded at her as she passed by him. Jane wanted to reach out to him, but she was still hurt, all those things he had said she squashed everything down inside and walked on expressionless.
Vega walked up to Kaidan who stared at Jane's back regret washing through him.
"You know the Commander?" Vega asked.
"I used to," Kaidan replied, that cut deep… Jane wanted to turn to shoot him a dirty look to tell him to shut up, that she was still her… what good would it do though?
Anderson and Jane approached the committee board together.
"What's the situation?" she asked the Alliance council
"We were hoping you would tell us" Replied a council member.
"The reports coming in are unlike anything we've seen," said another. "Whole colonies have gone dark. We've lost contact with everything beyond the Sol Relay."
"Whatever this is, it's incomprehensibly powerful," said the first council member.
She scoffed clearly irritated, "You brought me here to confirm what you already know…the Reapers are here."
The room fell silent as the council members all looked at each other like she was mad, years of warning led to this and they had the audacity to look at her like she was crazy.
"Then- how do we stop them?" one asked Jane
"Stop them? This isn't about strategy or tactics. This is about survival" she snapped "The Reapers are more advanced than we are; more powerful, more intelligent. They don't fear us and they'll never take pity on us." Jane couldn't stress this enough, her teeth ground together
"But…there must be some way."
"If we're going to have any chance at surviving this, we have to stand together."
"That's it? That's our plan?"
An officer stood up from the corner, "Admiral, we've lost contact with Luna Base."
"The moon?" Anderson gasped in disbelief, "They couldn't be that close already…"
"How'd they get past our defences?" asked a council member.
The officer spoke up, "Sir, UK headquarters has a visual."
Everyone watched intently as the video feed was displayed on screen. Reapers…everywhere… annihilation, fire, smoke, dust… screams… blood curdling screams!
"Why haven't we heard from Admiral Hackett?" Anderson pressed
"What do we do?" asked a council member.
Jane was mad, the anger washing through her, how long had she warned of this! She walked closer to the committee board "The only thing we can…we fight, or we die," she snapped
The council members shook their heads in disbelief.
"We should get to the Normandy," Anderson said to Shepard who nodded in agreement, it wasn't safe here now… hell where would it be safe now!
A strange humming could be heard in the distance-followed by the sound of thunder rumbling.
Everyone ran to look out the window to see a huge form descending on the city scape in the near distance…they were here, the fucking reapers were here!
"Oh my God…" gasped a council member.
There was a deafening roar and the Reaper's beam extended out cutting a line of destruction that was heading straight for them.
"Move!" Jane shouted. "Go! Go! Go!"
The explosion was huge, knocking her down to the ground knocking the wind from her lungs, her ears were ringing painfully everything muffled.
She could barely hear Anderson yelling at her, slowly she managed to get up and dusted the debris off herself.
Anderson was on his comm instantly, "Major Alenko, is that you? What's your status? I can't raise the Normandy; you'll have to contact them. We'll meet you at the landing zone. Anderson out."
Jane followed Anderson out the window, they began to walk along the ledge she looked down and immediately regretted it.
"They're massive," Anderson said as he looked out at the invading Reapers, "C'mon Shepard, Kaidan's headed to the Normandy. They'll pick us up if we can get to the spaceport. Let's move!"