Chapter 24
"This crash site's a nightmare…EDI, try to raise Lieutenant Victus," jane ordered as she looked out the shuttle window.
Garrus got up from his seat and stepped beside Jane, "For a turian commander, what happened here is…let's just say the turian code is not forgiving. And that it's his son is bad for the Primarch; promoting family without merit can bite you in the ass. What's strange is the Primarch knows that."
"Commander, I have to land way back from the main crash site," said Cortez.
"If that's the best you can do," she replied then turned to face Garrus and Liara. "Let's go save this platoon."
Cortez brought the shuttle down low enough for Shepard and her squad to jump out then safely retreated back.
"EDI, were you able to reach Lieutenant Victus?" asked jane into her comm.
"Yes but the connection is bad."
"Patch me in; this is Commander Shepard, Alliance Navy. Do you read?"
"This is Lieutenant Tarquin Victus of the Ninth Platoon. We're pinned by Reaper harvesters and taking heavy casualties. Also, there are pockets of my men scattered along the crash trajectory."
"Lieutenant, I need you to fire a flare so I can pinpoint your location."
the trio looked up in the sky and saw a red flare set off in the distance.
"I got it."
"Things are getting worse by the minute…my men are dying!"
Shepard turned around to face them, "This sounds bad, we gotta move - fast!"
"A secret turian mission on Tuchanka is especially odd," Garrus said as they moved out.
They moved forward and came upon the first escape pod beside it were dead turians.
"It looks like they survived the crash but then were taken out by Harvesters," Liara stated after examining the bodies briefly
They continued on and heard gunfire up ahead…turians from another escape pod had bunkered down and were pinned by Harvesters.
"Okay, the enemies up ahead don't know we're here - let's use that to our advantage," jane nodded to her men.
"Surprise on our side for once" Garrus agreed
"Exactly, let's go."
They snuck up, quickly and quietly taking out cannibals as they got closer to the group of turians.
They hurried over to take out the Harvester that was attacking the escape pod.
"Thank you," said one of the turians. "Don't wait for us - we'll head on to the main crash site. There's another pod ahead."
"Got it - we'll take care of it,"
They followed the pathway between the debris,
"Being the son of Adrian Victus is a lot to live up to; it's a big military name on Palaven. War is expected to run in the Victus blood."
"Children shouldn't have to live up to the parents' successes any more than their failings," Liara frowned
"Its hard not trying to be on par" she agreed "my parents are both military- me and Aki both inherited their fighting spirit, I think everyone wants to make their family proud"
They made it up to the last escape pod, the turians were holding off husks, cannibals, marauders and a harvester as best they could, "Let's get in there!" Shepard rallied
Once the area was clear, one of the turians nodded at Shepard, "We'll rendezvous at the main crash site!"
Shepard nodded back as she and her squad took off down the pathway again.
"Do you read, Commander? I repeat, do you read?"
"I read you."
"What's your ETA?"
"Hang tight, we're on our way."
They continued on through the ruins of Tuchanka, taking out husks, cannibals and anything else stupid enough to get in their way.
"Okay, let's pick up the pace! It's important that we don't lose this squad!" said Shepard.
"It seems the turians are playing with political dynamite here maybe they should inform the krogan," said Liara.
"Krogan/turian animosity is ancient and intense; it's inborn," replied Garrus.
"And I need them to work together, so let's not complicate things," Shepard added in, this could literally blow up in everyone's faces too much bad blood.
They arrived at the main crash site, which was swarming, jane nodded to the brutes "hate those things"
Shepard and her squad worked quickly to secure the area making sure nothing was left alive before making their way to the Lieutenant and his men.
"Lieutenant Victus?"
"Commander Shepard, my men and I are in your debt. Thank you for saving so many."
Tarquin was a spitting image of his father but young- very young., "What happened here?" she inquired.
The turian closest to Tarquin grabbed hold of him and shook him before shoving him back hard, "He screwed up!"
"Stand down, soldier!" the Lieutenant replied.
"These men are dead because of him!"
"I said stand down!"
"Hey!" Jane yelled as she walked up to them and pushed them apart. "I just saved all your asses so everyone just calm down!"
The angry turian shook his head and took a few steps back, lowering his head in frustration. Shepard turned her full attention to Tarquin.
"Lieutenant, what is going on here?"
"I made a bad call. This is all on me. I chose caution and clever tactics over a head on attack and...my men paid the price."
"You mean the crash?"
"Yes, we could see that Reaper forces were blocking our intended path. Staying on course guaranteed heavy casualties. So I chose a safer route; skirting the enemy. And that took us low and through these ruins, when we encountered resistance there was no room to manoeuvre. Suddenly we were in a fight for our lives, a lot of my men lost that fight."
"Owning your mistake takes guts…but you must get over it and move on." Jane understood why he chose such a route, she would have probably made the same decision, choosing the lives of her men over massive losses.
"Of course…it's just fresh right now. Our mission is still a failure. When we've stabilized the injured, we'll head back to the fleet."
"You're abandoning your mission?"
"We're down over thirty men! It'd be suicide."
"What exactly did you come here to do?"
"There's a bomb on the planet. We were sent to diffuse it."
"A bomb?! How big?"
"Enormous. Cerberus has it."
"Lieutenant, if Cerberus has that bomb, then you have to finish your mission!"
"Haven't these men sacrificed enough?!"
Shepard sighed, "I understand…I really do. This kind of sacrifice is the hardest to ask for. But your men signed up for it and so did you."
"Me men have lost hope, Commander," Tarquin sighed. "Even if I wanted to finish the mission, they don't."
"It's your job to make them want to."
"How?" he scoffed.
"Their sacrifice means others will never have to face what they did today. Remind them that those sacrifices have no honour if the mission fails."
The Lieutenant took a deep breath and walked over to face his men…
"Men, I own what happened here today…but we have to carry on. We are turian! And we will not let Cerberus succeed. Our sacrifice is the difference between life and death for this entire galaxy! Let the heroes of the Ninth Platoon be remembered for performing their duties with bravery. Alright men, shuttles arriving any minute…we're moving out!"
His men saluted them and shuffled into line and moved out for the shuttle. Tarquin turned to Shepard, "Come with us. We're a shell of what we were - we could use the help."
"Send me the NAV-Point and I'll see what I can do."
"Thank you, that will give us time to do a little recon; see what we're up against."
"Victus, you have a second chance here…make their sacrifice count."
"Understood, Commander. Hope to see you at the rendezvous."
Shepard got on her comm, "Cortez, we're ready for pick up."
"On my way, Commander."
Once they were back on the shuttle, Shepard had EDI pull up a channel with the Primarch.
"Commander, that was impressive work. I'm grateful that…"
"Cut the crap! Why didn't you tell me about the Cerberus bomb?! Why hide that? What else are you keeping from me?!"
"I have nothing for you."
"That's bullshit! For our alliance to work I need to trust you." Jane insisted
"Our friendship is new, Commander. Would you trust me with information that puts your people…puts Earth at risk?"
"Yes, damn it! Why would I jeopardize our alliance by lying to you now?! It doesn't make sense!"
"Decisions like these weigh heavy on me. When I was a general, I could pass them up the chain of command but now…I'm all I've got. Know what I mean?"
"Sure…and?"
"And…and that's all."
She let out a heavy sigh and went to end the call; "Wait Commander, there is one more thing. Thank you for saving my son."
"You're welcome." She stated softly as she clicked the channel off.
"Jane, you saved a lot of my people today, Turians don't forget things like this easily" Garrus nodded to her.
She nodded back, "I'm just doing what is right Garrus and I hate unnecessary casualties, lets just get this done so we can leave"
Shepard walked back over to Cortez to see what their ETA was to the coordinates Tarquin had given them. They were close.
"Normandy shuttle, this is Lieutenant Victus with the Ninth Platoon. Do you copy?"
"We hear you, Ninth Platoon."
" We're approaching the bomb site, Commander. Getting bounced around pretty bad."
"This is as close as we can get, Lieutenant. Look for somewhere to set your platoon down."
"Copy that."
"Talk to me about this Cerberus bomb." Jane pressed
"It's not Cerberus, Commander. It's…turian."
"What do you mean, 'turian'?" she frowned
"It was planted centuries ago, after the krogan rebellions. The bomb was a safeguard against another galactic war."
"Brutal, but it makes a certain kind of sense," said Garrus. "Put the krogan down hard if they tried anything."
Shepard shot him a look and shook her head to the comm, sterilisation and then genocide the turians weren't playing, "You won't earn trust with tactics like that," jane stated coldly, "But right now, we focus on disarming that bomb."
"Yes, but Cerberus found it. Detonation means all-out war between my people and the krogan."
"Right, where is it?"
"Those buildings ahead. Cerberus brought equipment to dig it up. The Ninth Platoon will cover your flank, Commander."
"With all this activity, the krogan have to know something's up." She stated worried now, they needed to keep this as quiet as possible…
"Then we can't fail, Commander."
"Copy that, Lieutenant."
Cortez lowered the shuttle to the site. Jane and her crew stepped out and start firing at the oncoming Cerberus troopers and centurions which suddenly flooded the area.
They made their way to the bomb site, taking out more troopers, centurions, combat engineers, guardians and turrets along the way.
"We defeat the krogan and then plant a bomb on their planet," said Garrus. "Pretty extreme, but those were desperate times."
Jane noticed evac shuttles picking up what Cerberus troops they could get too.
"Cerberus is leaving," Liara frowned.
"Commander, we're entering the bomb site. Moving towards the control station."
"Roger that. We're on our way." Jane and her squad made their way up to Victus and his team.
Victus was at the terminal furiously trying to bypass systems, "Cerberus set up a firewall around the trigger mechanism to slow us down," Victus said. "I need to create a bypass. That'll take time. "
"Are you sure you can disarm the trigger?" jane asked to his back
"Yes. It's old tech; I know what to do. Buy me a few minutes, Commander."
"We'll make sure you have the time you need, Lieutenant." She promised
"Understood. Starting bypass. And…thank you for making sure I get this chance. "
"Just make it right, soldier."
sniper shots began to whizz, taking down Victus's men, "Look out!" Jane yelled as she slid into cover, "Victus! Focus on the bomb - we'll handle Cerberus."
The trio made sure no one got passed, annihilating everyone who came close, allowing Lieutenant Victus the time he needed to take care of the bomb.
Cerberus dropped another Atlas in hopes of bringing an end to the fight but the group was pissed off now, they took out the atlas in double time.
"Commander! Firewall's down! I'm in! Spirits! Cerberus hacked the trigger mechanism! It's set to detonate!"
"Disarm it!" she yelled
"No time! I have to separate the trigger from the bomb! Now! Cover me!"
Jane looked to him and shook her head, wait was he really going to-
Victus climbed his way to the top of the bomb and tried to disable it but it jammed.
He climbed down to the side wall and pulled out a panel… jane watched dumfounded and shouted out his name
"Victory at any cost," he whispered as he pulled out the wires; causing the bomb tower to collapse and fall to the depths below…exploding on impact, she ran to the edge of the pit and looked down into the burning mass
"FUCK" jane yelled. He was dead, no way in hell coild he have survived that.
She ran her hands through her hair and shook her head in disbelief "what the fuck"
There was a deathly silence in the shuttle as they returned home to the Normandy.
"Commander, I've got radio chatter coming in from krogan forces planet side. Sounds like they started sweeping out the remaining Cerberus troops. Hate to be the guy who told the krogan about that surprise package. You get out alright? Sounds like it got ugly down there."
"The turians took a lot of casualties, Joker. The Primarch's son included." She explained sadly, she felt bad for the kid.
"Understood, Commander. Joker out."
Shepard placed her head in her hands and exhaled heavily, "this war is only going to get worse" she breathed
"He never hesitated," Garrus stated softly, "Whatever he was before, he'll be remembered for this."
"What will the turians think about this, Garrus?" jane asked as she looked up to where he sat.
"Hard to say. Sacrifice in war is expected. He did us proud, but…we're a hard bunch to please. Living your life for the cause, society first, platoon first…it's all just expected." He explained
"He did what he had to do when it counted." She nodded "I get that"
"Yes. Yes, he did."
Once aboard the Normandy, jane headed to vid comm Hackett, she had promised to report in and keep in in the loop.
"Good work on Tuchanka, Commander. Stopping that bomb prevented the war between the turians and the krogan. We can't afford that kind of division right now. "
"Joker said the krogan are recovering the bomb."
"They moved in. Won't allow turians to send in recovery crews to help."
"That's understandable." She agreed
"The situation is fragile at the moment. With Wrex and the Primarch aboard the Normandy, you've got a situation brewing. We don't have a solid alliance between those two yet. Keep the peace, Commander. That's an order."
"Yes, sir." She saluted as the comm clicked off
This could turn into a political shit storm and jane was unsure whether she was mentally prepared for such a thing.
Jane inhaled deeply before entering into the war room and came to view exactly what she knew would happen, Victus and Wrex at each-others throats.
"The decision was made hundreds of years ago. So much has changed," Victus said.
"Not enough to tell us about the bomb, coward," replied Wrex.
"Hey!" Jane yelled as she walked over to them coming to the middle of the two men, "We can't let the past rip us apart. Working together, we have a chance. Primarch, you had a bomb on Tuchanka. And Wrex, in the turian's place, you would've done the same damned thing!"
"Shepard…" wrex began immidatly cut off by jane raising a 'I don't want to hear it' hand
"It's over! His own son died today making this right!"
"Please, Commander, it's alright," victus interjected
"Yes, fine Shepard, you made your point. We have stronger enemies to face," said Wrex with a grunt.
"We do." She nodded in agreement
Wrex grunted and walked away from them.
"I understand your reservations before, Commander," said Victus. "But I hope you now understand the secrecy. "
"I do, Primarch, but…secrets can get people killed…we learned that the hard way today. I'm so sorry for your loss." She placed a hand on his shoulder in comfort
"Yes…the hardest lesson I'm ever to learn, Commander. My son…he died with the respect of his men. I wanted to thank you for that. His sacrifice will be recorded in the histories of the Ninth Platoon…something any father would be proud of."
"He was a good man. I…I'm sorry I couldn't do more." She removed her hand and sighed softly
"You ensured that my son died with honour. It's all a turian father can hope for. But this is war; the time for mourning is later."
she gave him a small smile as she left him to his business and crossed over to Wrex,
"The turians pull another move like that, Shepard, and this alliance is off," wrex snapped at her
"like I said you would have done the same" she frowned "just bear with it Wrex"
"I've got Reapers on my planet, a bomb that almost blew up my planet, and if those two fail, the genophage to make sure we all go extinct anyway. I don't want to hear about who has it hard."
"Wrex- a lot of those problems are hundreds of years old, give me a break please" she rubbed her temples with her fingertips and sighed "this is bigger than you please understand that"
"Jane-i-"
"I will help you Wrex because your my friend, but please the bitching has to stop" she looked at him, heard him huff a little but he didn't protest so she took that as a win in her book.