Chapter Thirteen: Menae
The Ones Before knew
Who would take their legacy
She would light their way
SSV Normandy, Commander's Cabin
En Route to Menae, Trebia System
"Come in!"
The Master Chief palmed the glowing green door symbol in the middle of the door to Shepard's quarters, and the entryway slid open with a beep. The Chief stepped inside, admiring the various facets of the room. Immediately to the right was an L-shaped desk piled with datapads, styluses, what looked to be a computer terminal, and other types of clerical instruments, all bordered on the outside edge by a glass display case. Suspended inside the case was a scale model of the SR-2, as well as a smaller model below it which looked surprisingly similar.
"Ah, Master Chief. Specialist Traynor told me you were coming up. Please, have a seat," Shepard had just finished buttoning up his Alliance BDU's and motioned for Chief to come further into the room.
The Master Chief stepped down a couple of stairs into the recessed, main portion of the room. At the far end of the room was a queen-sized bed crisply made with clean white and blue sheets, and was bordered on either end by a metal side table. On the right side of the room a curved L-shaped couch hugged the wall, a bare solid wood table in front of it as well as another padded chair. To be honest, it was a fair bit more extravagant than the Chief was used too.
Shepard took a seat on the couch and folded his hands as Chief settled himself down in the separate chair. The Spartan reached inside a pocket of his own UNSC BDU's and withdrew a small circular device, setting it on the table between them. From this device the light purple-blue avatar of Cortana sprang forth, and she nodded at the Commander.
"Cortana," Shepard acknowledged. "Now, what can I do for you two?"
"We need to talk Commander," started Cortana, glancing at the Master Chief. "Something happened on the Citadel."
"You didn't get lost did you?" asked Shepard, smirking slightly. When Chief and Cortana's expressions remained serious, his expression hardened. "Someone didn't give you trouble, did they?"
"We were attacked," stated the Chief.
Shepard frowned. "Attacked? By who?"
"By a woman that was in the docking bay when we first arrived. Chief had a bad feeling about her so we followed her into a maintenance hallway where she attacked us," said Cortana.
"Whoa whoa whoa, slow down," said Shepard, holding up a hand in confusion. "You said you saw a woman in the docking bay. What about her gave you a bad feeling? Did she look strange? Was she acting suspicious?"
"She seemed to be appropriately dressed, but the manner with which she was observing the Normandy's shore party was off-putting," said Chief.
"Well, we aren't exactly the kind of people who can easily blend in to the crowd," said Shepard, "Especially you. Maybe she was just curious?"
"It was more than curiosity."
"Instinct?" asked Shepard, to which Chief simply nodded.
"I understand. So you decided to follow this woman based on your instincts alone?" asked Shepard.
"It wasn't just the Chief's instincts, there was something else," revealed Cortana. "I accessed Citadel Security's database of biometric scans and cross-referenced them with the biometric readings that were being taken of all those present in the docking bay."
"Hold on a second," interrupted Shepard, "You accessed C-Sec's biometric database? That's some of the most classified, heavily encrypted data in the galaxy."
"Fine, I hacked into the database," corrected Cortana, to which Shepard just sighed and rubbed his temples. "Anyways, out of the 59 beings that were present in the docking bay, 58 matched their given biometric scans. However, there was one human woman who didn't match any records at all."
"Let me guess," started Shepard, "It was the woman who Chief didn't feel right about?"
"Yes," answered Cortana.
"Well what did she look like?" asked Shepard.
"Here Commander, I've recreated a digital representation of the woman taken from what I was able to see from the Chief's eyes," said Cortana. The AI's purple-blue avatar flashed out of existence to be replaced by a figure of the woman who had attacked Chief earlier.
Shepard's brow furrowed, and he learned forward to examine the representation. "Hmm… she looks familiar…."
"Try and place her?" said Cortana.
Shepard examined the woman more closely, but after about twenty seconds he sighed and shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know."
The image of the woman flashed away to be replaced by another holograph, this one a still of the woman pointing a pistol at Chief right as he confronted her in the small maintenance hallway.
"What's this?" asked Shepard.
"I just finished making it, it's a video recreation of the combat between the woman and the Chief," said Cortana.
"Let it play," said Shepard. The whole video lasted less than fifteen seconds, from Chief's hardlight barrier absorbing the pistol shot to disarming the woman, dodging her biotic projectile, lashing out at her knee, then the woman limping away as fast as she could.
"What happened?" asked Shepard, "At the end of the fight, she just got away."
"I was about to cripple her other hand when I found I couldn't move," said Chief.
"A stasis field," guessed Shepard.
"After later research that's what we figured it was," said Cortana, now back on the small holopedestal.
"This is what I do not understand Commander," started Chief, "The woman had me biotically immobilized, which gave her every advantage. However, she didn't take that chance to eliminate me. Given, her pistol was inaccessible and she was heavily crippled, she still had one hand for biotics. Instead, she ran."
Shepard put a hand to his chin and thought for a moment, both at why the woman would have left Chief alive, and because of the fact that this was the most that he had heard the UNSC soldier ever say at once. He had spoken less to the Councilors back on the Citadel!
"I think I know why she let you live," began Shepard, looking at the Chief. "The biotic technique she used to immobilize you is was called a stasis field, which is quite rare. However, there are two types of stasis field techniques. She must have used the one in which the target is immobilized for up to a minute usually, but is extremely resilient to outside damage."
"How resilient?" asked Chief, curious.
"Well, Alliance testing confirmed that anti-tank level weaponry or higher would be needed to breach the field. Small-arms, technical disruption programs, and other biotic powers however have no effect."
It all made sense to the Chief now, why his attacker had decided to run. There was no way she could have hurt him lest she wanted to wait for the stasis field to have worn out and taken another chance at him with a shattered hand and destroyed knee.
"There is one more thing Commander," said Cortana. "Chief managed to recover the woman's pistol."
"You did? Do you have it with you?" asked Shepard.
Chief nodded, reaching into one of his pockets and pulling out the pistol setting it on the table.
The Commander furrowed his brows, picking up the weapon and turning it over in his hands. At first glance, its design resembled that of the M-6 Carnifex, yet smaller and slimmer. The angles and edges of the Carnifex had been replaced with much sleeker curves and it was very light, obviously meant to be easily concealable. The matte-black coating seemed to absorb the light of the room in such a way that it wouldn't give off a glare.
"We were hoping you might recognize the weapon," said Cortana.
Shepard pressed a switch just above the grip of the pistol, and the weapon silently compacted into an even smaller form. He pressed it again, and the pistol returned to its functional form.
"I'm afraid not. This is a design I've never seen before. I'll get EDI to run some diagnostics on it for sure, but right now this is going in the containment chamber in the armory. We don't know what surprises this gun might have," he said. Maybe Liara might know something about it, with the unique "network" available to her and whatnot.
Shepard set the weapon down on the table gently, then looked towards the Spartan.
"Chief, you shouldn't have gone after that woman. I trusted Major Alenko to keep an eye on all of you while you looked around the Citadel, and now you've come up to me and said that you got yourself into a situation that could have ended very badly. Why didn't you tell anyone what you were thinking?" asked Shepard.
"I didn't wish to cause alarm based on a hunch," was the Spartan's answer.
"A hunch that turned out to be correct," added Shepard. "Chief, we on the Normandy know as well as anyone that a soldier's instinct should rarely been ignored. If you had told the Major, he would have listened to what you had to say."
"I didn't have much time to act. Alerting Major Alenko would have taken too much time," reasoned Chief.
"I understand," said Shepard, nodding, "And I do appreciate you bringing the situation to my attention. But you have to understand, what makes my crew an effective fighting unit is that we operate as a team. There are no lone wolves, everyone looks out for everyone else. Now I understand that you're already part of a team under the UNSC, but now you're a part of our team too. I need to know that from now on you'll try to integrate yourself with the crew, at least for the sake of combat synergy. Same goes for you Cortana, and please no more hacking of sensitive information, at least not without my consent."
"Understood Commander," they both replied.
Shepard nodded, satisfied. "Good."
The Commander's watch beeped, and he looked down at it quickly. "The mission briefing is in fifteen minutes. You can get geared up now or after, but keep in mind we'll only be thirty minutes out from Menae once we start."
"I'll be ready Commander."
"Thank you. You're dismissed Chief," said Shepard, standing up off the couch.
Chief stood up as well, picking up Cortana's holodisk off of the table and making for the door.
"And one more thing Chief," added Shepard right as he opened the door to the cabin, "Let's keep this whole incident between us okay? At least for now."
"Of course sir," was Chief's reply.
The Spartan exited, and Shepard shook his head once the door closed. He could probably count on one hand the number of people he knew who faced a highly trained biotic unarmed and won, and now Chief was one of them. He was either incredibly skilled or incredibly lucky, or more likely, a combination of both.
The question that remained though, who was this woman who fled from then attacked the Master Chief? If she truly was watching the crew of the Normandy, for what reason? Alas, these were questions that he had no time for. He stepped towards his closet and keyed in the security passcode, causing the compartment to slide open and reveal the pieces of his mounted N7 armor.
With practiced precision and care Shepard quickly fastened his armor, and when he finished he grabbed his enclosed breather helmet and attached it to his belt. On his way out he grabbed a datapad from an endtable and made his way for the elevator, keying in the button for the CIC. Once the lift arrived at its destination Shepard stepped out the door and was greeted by Specialist Traynor, turning away from some work at the Yeoman's console.
"Oh, hello Commander," she said.
"Traynor," acknowledged Shepard, "How are things?"
"Well, aside from the whole Reaper situation, everything is fine," she said with a nervous laugh. "Listen Commander, I know you're probably really busy but I just finished compiling a comprehensive diagnostics and systems report of the Normandy, and I thought you might want to take a look at them and see if they're all right."
"Sure. Could you forward it to my personal data cache?" asked Shepard.
"Right now?" asked Traynor, the surprise showing on her face. "Um, alright."
Traynor pressed a few times on her datapad causing Shepard's own datapad to beep, and the Commander pulled up the diagnostic report.
As Shepard sifted through it he couldn't help but notice through his peripheral vision that Traynor had started to subtly wring her hands together.
"I followed a template that Alliance R&D required, but if you want me to change it in any way then I can definitely do – "
"You managed to increase engine output by seven percent?" asked Shepard, impressed.
"Uh, yes. During retrofits we discovered a problem in the primary ion nacelles in which alternating power from the drive core wasn't reciprocating correctly through – "
"And here, it says that we're now able to operate under stealth for an hour longer?"
"We can, it was just a simple matter of replacing the Cerberus-installed Petrovsky Mark 6 heat sinks with our newly developed Alliance V-54-3's, and rerouting – "
"This," interrupted Shepard again, hoping to spare himself from more technical talk, "This is excellent work Specialist. I'll be sure to go over it more thoroughly later. Thank you."
The praise caused Traynor to hesitate briefly, then swell a bit with pride, but she soon said, "You're welcome Commander."
Shepard smiled warmly at her, then turned towards the door to the War Room.
He passed through the security checkpoint and walked past the glass-encased conference room, turning right at the curve in the hallway to enter into the War Room.
As Shepard crossed into the dark, multilevel War Room he saw a familiar figure hunched over the central holotable.
"Dr. T'soni," he said, smiling.
Liara turned around, putting her hand on her hips. "Commander. So, what do you think?"
Shepard whistled in appreciation. "So this is the DB-9 set you've been telling me about?"
"It sure is. Personally delivered by the Vice President Thessian Arms when we were last on the Citadel."
"Only the vice president?" Shepard joked.
"The President was on vacation, else she would have herself."
"Looks… expensive," observed Shepard.
"Oh it was. Eight hundred thousand credits," Liara cooed nonchalantly.
"Eight hundred thousand?" said Shepard, the figure causing the words to stick in his throat a little. He'd have to spend several lifetimes in the Alliance if he wanted to get close to that number, given his current pay rate.
"Oh Shepard, don't look so alarmed. You of all people should know by now that money is no object to me now."
"Still…"
They were talking about Liara's new armor of course, a set of thin, dark blue plating over a black undersuit that covered her entire body. The plates were graceful and curved, a typical trope of Asari design, and upon closer inspection Shepard could see the same hexagonal pattern that marked Asari skin also covered the outside of the armor.
"For almost a million credits that suit must have some serious bells and whistles," said Shepard.
Liara nodded, saying, "Top-of-the-line biotic enhancers and kinetic barriers, a self-contained environmental system that can recycle oxygen for at least an four hours, built-in medical diagnostic and emergency treatment functions, a state-of-the-art battle management VI," Liara stepped towards Shepard and rapped her knuckled on his thick chestpiece, "And the plating is stronger as yours while only being about a third as thick. Special Asari recipe."
Shepard looked at his own armor, the latest version Alliance Special Forces Command had put out for the N7s. He'd had the set for a little under a year now, and during that time it had seen more than its fair share of battles. Scars, burns and small impact craters adorned its surface, and the red and white paint stripes down the right arm had started to fade. It had certainly saved his life more times that he cared to count.
It wasn't that the armor wasn't in good condition, since it was. Shepard knew his equipment like the back of his hand, and if the armor had shown any sign of degradation to the point where it would compromise protection he would have repaired or replaced it immediately. Yet here it was, ready to face battle once again.
"You probably need the holotable for the mission briefing, don't you?" asked Liara.
"If you wouldn't mind," replied Shepard. "What were you doing here before anyway?"
"I was trying to figure out some things about the Prothean artifact plans we uncovered on Mars."
"Any luck?"
"Sort of. I did manage to decrypt some files on what loo – "
"Commander Shepard, there is a communication on the QEC for you. It's Councilor Sparatus, he says it's urgent," interrupted EDI suddenly.
Shepard and Liara shared a curious look, and the Asari tilted her head in the direction of the QEC room.
The Commander walked briskly into the QEC room and shut the door behind him with a press of a button. He positioned himself in the faintly glowing partner circle on the floor and palmed the pulsating blue 'incoming transmission' button.
The blue holographic image of the Turian Councilor shimmered to life, and even though the artificial medium they were communicating through wasn't exactly the best of qualities, Shepard could immediately tell that the Councilor had a grave look about him.
"Councilor Sparatus," said Shepard.
"Commander, I have some bad news," revealed Sparatus. It looked like the Councilor was leaning on a rail based on the forward lean of his body and the extension of his arms, and he lowered his head with an audible sigh. There was sense of profound distress and weariness that Shepard could almost feel radiating off of him, even though they were thousands of light years apart. The way his talon like fingers gripped the rails resembled how one would hold onto a lifeline, and as his breathing seemed heavy, almost labored. The sight of it almost made Shepard flinch. He had never seen Sparatus, a normally proud, often arrogant Turian, look so…distraught.
Despite the clear distress, Sparatus was the model Turian and did not waste a moment getting to the point. He looked back up to Shepard. "We're retreating from Palaven."
Shepard blinked a couple of times, stunned into silence. "What? Retreating?"
"Yes. The Palaven Defense Fleet has now been completely annihilated, along with the Eight fleet and a half of the First. The number of ground troops and civilians we've lost on Palaven and Menae is too large. I can't bring myself to say it…"
"But Councilor, we're nearly thirty minutes away from the system. If you retreat now then retrieving the Primarch will be impossible."
"I'm well aware of that Shepard. The Reapers are clearly taking no chances, especially after the debacle at Earth. In the absence of any real alternative, I ordered the fleet to withdraw to preserve it as an effective fighting force. I just gave the order minutes ago, you are among the first to know."
Shepard knew the situation was bad perhaps bordering on desperate, but this? He had never considered the possibility the Turians would ever cede the field of battle to any opponent. It hammered home just that much more how important this mission was.
"Do we have any time for the mission at all?" asked Shepard.
"You have two hours."
"From when we arrive at Menae?"
"From now."
Shepard pursed his lips. "That's an extremely limited time window Councilor. Especially if we expect heavy enemy contact on the ground."
"We don't have any more options Commander. It's either retreat now or be crippled for the rest of the war," said Sparatus. "Shepard, I understand that with the order to retreat, what I've asked of you previously is now likely impossible. If you want to abort, we can just hope that Primarch Fedorian makes it out on one of the transports. Your crew doesn't need to be placed in harm's way for us."
"No," replied Shepard, "Councilor, this is war. We're going to be put in harms' way eventually. Even though two hours isn't much, it's still something. We're going to at least try."
"Are you sure Commander?"
"Yes Councilor."
Sparatus simply nodded. "Well, in that case I suppose I should share some additional information about your mission that's come to light."
"Yes, that would be much appreciated," said Shepard.
"First, and probably the most alarming, as of twenty minutes ago we've lost communications with Menae Command."
"Lost communications? Like an equipment malfunction?" asked Shepard. The only other option for such a circumstance was much worse than simple comms error. Although it did explain to Shepard why Sparatus ordered the withdraw, and not Primarch Fedorian.
"Orbital observations of the base don't show any sign of a compromise of the base integrity, nor does it look like it's been overrun. So yes, an equipment malfunction seems to be the source of the outage. However, after the secondary comms dish was destroyed last night Menae Command had no way to contact Palaven, so in all likelihood they know nothing of our planned retreat," revealed Sparatus.
Shepard pursed his lips. "This could complicate things."
"One final thing. When Palaven Command found out that the next Primarch was on Menae, they sent Garrus Vakarian and a Platoon from the 26th Armiger Legion to secure him."
Shepard was shocked at this piece of news. "Garrus is on Menae?" he asked, eyes wide.
"If he hasn't been shot down or killed by the Reapers, yes," replied Sparatus bluntly. "With the comms out however, we haven't been able to determine if he's secured the Primarch, or if he's even made landfall. If the array isn't fixed by the time you arrive, it'll be your job to find out Shepard. If Vakarian's forces are still alive though, you two will have the same objective. I understand that you both have a history, so I presume that working together shouldn't be a problem?"
"It won't be a problem at all Councilor," replied Shepard quickly.
Reuniting with Garrus, and possibly getting him back on the Normandy like old times, had just become a secondary but no less important objective. Quite simply, this mission had just gotten personal.
Sparatus turned his head to look 'off-screen' at something, then turned back to Shepard. "I'm sorry Commander, but I have another matter to attend to."
"I understand Councilor."
Sparatus started to reach his hand to the end communications button, when he said, "Good luck Shepard. And thank you."
Shepard didn't get a chance to respond, as the communication suddenly fizzed out. Glancing at the tacpad on his armor, he saw that his chat with the Councilor had lasted longer than he thought, and that the briefing should have started two minutes ago. Knowing that he was behind schedule, Shepard hurried to the door.
The sound of quiet small talk stopped as he stepped back into the War Room, and all eyes looked to him.
All that would be participating in the Menae mission were there. The ground element consisting of the Master Chief in his menacingly bulky dark green armor, Kaidan, and James in their standard Alliance sets, Liara in her expensive Asari plate, and of course Shepard himself. The UNSC gunship pilots Dolton and Cehack were dressed in high-tech looking jet black flightsuits, while Cortez was just wearing the simpler Alliance blue version.
"Sorry for the delay, but I just got off the QEC with the Turian Councilor. Our mission parameters have changed. First and most importantly…" Shepard let out a heavy sigh before continuing, "The Turians are falling back from Palaven.
Notable concern flashed across the faces of the non-UNSC members in the room, and Kaidan asked in disbelief, "What? They're retreating?"
Shepard nodded.
"Dios mio, it must be worse there than we thought," sadly remarked Vega.
"Councilor Sparatus told me that the Hierarchy has lost two and a half fleets already. Their casualties are unsustainable, they have no choice but to retreat."
There was a moment of silence amongst the group. For thousands of years, Turian military superiority has been vaunted as the strongest point of their species. Hundreds of conflicts throughout the centuries have been either won or outright prevented by the threat of Turian firepower. But now though… to find out the Turians were completely abandoning their homeworld to the Reapers, it was disconcerting to say the least.
"How does this affect the mission Commander?" Vega continued.
"We'll have under one and a half hours to fight through enemy held territory to find the Primarch and extract him to safety. If we take any longer than that, what's left of the Turian fleet will be gone along with as many troops as they could evacuate, leaving us on our own against an armada of Reapers and legions of their ground troops. So as far as we're concerned, that timeframe is the absolute ceiling. If we don't have the Primarch by that time, I'm calling the mission," said Shepard.
"That isn't really a lot of time Shepard," said Kaidan, the uncertainty evident in his tone.
"I know, but we're still going to try," cemented Shepard. "There's more bad news though. Currently Menae Command's comms array is malfunctioning, meaning no one has been able to determine what exactly is going on at Palaven for some time now. Orbital surveillance has shown that the base appears to be still operational, but that's all we know."
"Does Menae Command know about the Turian retreat?" asked Kaidan.
"That's the other problem. Their comms were offline before the order was given and haven't been restored yet. Also, the Turian Platoon that were sent from Palaven to also try and secure the Primarch departed before then as well. So most likely not."
"So we might have help then?" asked Liara, "Are we going to be working alongside the Platoon that Palaven sent?"
The corners of Shepard's mouth curved upwards into a small smile. "I'd sure hope so, because Garrus Vakarian is leading them."
"Garrus is going to be there?" asked Liara quickly, her face breaking into a short-lived grin as well. "I knew that he would somehow be right in the thick of it."
Dolton decided to ask the obvious question for the rest of his UNSC comrades present. "Who's Garrus?"
"He's a Turian that we've all worked with in the past," answered Shepard. "He's also a good friend and a damned fine soldier. If we can find him and his team, there's no doubt that they'll be able to help us. Now, that's everything that the Councilor told me, time for the rest of the briefing."
Shepard reached for his datapad and tapped a few times, then a blue holographic model sprang to life on the central holo-table.
"This is Menae Command," said Shepard. "It consists of the large central command post five by four kilometers square here, along with eight individual fortified outposts placed two kilometers out from the CP in a defensible perimeter. The outposts are connected to each other and the CP by a series of trenches, as you can see. Now normally we would be landing at the airfield here, but before we lost communications the base commander, General Corinthus, told us that the field is so cluttered with fighter repairs that it would be near impossible to land. So, we'll be landing at the South outpost here, then going on foot to the CP. Once there, we are to notify General Corinthus of the Turian retreat and hopefully determine the whereabouts of Primarch Fedorian, from which we will move to complete our main objective."
"There will be two elements to this mission," continued Shepard, "A ground element and an aerial element. The ground element will consist of myself, Kaidan, James, Liara, and the Master Chief, along with Cortana who will be acting as technical support."
"The aerial element will be made up of Cortez, Dolton, Cehack, and their craft. Dolton, Cechak, your gunship will be our air support for this mission. You are to shadow us as we advance through the mission and provide fire support when needed. Cortez, after dropping us off at the landing zone you are to either provide aerial surveillance or get back to the Normandy depending on the hostility of the skies. If something goes wrong with the gunship, your shuttle is the only one we can all fit in to get back to the Normandy, so it's paramount that you stay safe."
"Yes Commander," said Cortez.
"Kaidan, Master Chief, you'll be going down in the gunship. The rest of us are in the shuttle. Oh, that reminds me, you three need call-signs," said Shepard, pointing towards the pilots.
Cechak put a hand to his chin. "Well, we're both stealth aircraft, so how about something like 'Shadow'? Or 'Ghost'?"
Dolton looked to his gunner, mouth wide open. "Are you serious? 'Shadow'? 'Ghost'? Those are the best you could come up with? Every stealth aircraft in the known universe has its callsign as Ghost, or Shadow, or Phantom. Nope, we're not going with those, too cliché."
"Oh yeah? Well what do you propose then?" retorted Cehack, arms crossed over his chest.
"Easy. Viper."
"Viper? Now that's just as ridiculous. What do our aircraft have in common with a viper?"
"Well we strike quickly and you could say our bite has a lot of… venom?" reasoned Dolton to an unconvinced Cehack. "Come on, Cortez, back me up on this."
"I actually like Viper," said Cortez, "Better than my old squadron name, the Wasps."
"Ha. We have the majority," gloated Dolton.
"Alright, Viper it is," confirmed Shepard. "Cortez, you'll simply be known as Viper. Dolton and Cehack, you two will be Viper-Heavy."
Dolton and Cortez nodded, as did Cehack, albeit a bit begrudgingly.
"Alright, that should be it then. Any questions?" asked Shepard, but he was met only with silence and shaking heads. "Good. Now, I'm not going to say that this is going to be an easy mission. In fact, it might be one of the more difficult ones we've ever done. We're operating on a very limited time window against a vastly larger opponent, but we wouldn't be here right now if I didn't think that it could be done. Get to the shuttle bay and get your weapons, we arrive in twelve minutes. Dismissed."
Menae, Trebia System
"We're coming up on the LZ, ten seconds!" shouted Cortez back into the troop bay. "Looks like there's a large concentration of Husks assaulting the outpost, I'm opening the bay doors for you to have a clear shot!"
Shepard shouldered his Avenger and steadied himself facing the door of the shuttle, Liara and Vega doing the same.
With a rush of air, the Kodiak's troop door slid open revealing for the first time the landscape of Menae. Shepard thought the moon could be described rather simply based on a first glance; barren, rocky, grey, and Reaper infested. This particular outpost was located about thirty meters back from a sheer cliff face, and hundreds of human-turned Reapers known as 'Husks' were either scampering up the cliff-face or running towards the outpost.
Shepard saw tracers from what could only be the Turian defense force as they tried their best to stem the tide of the Husk advance, further back he saw the flash or mortar tubes discharging their indirect munitions in well placed patterns of fire. But as a combined effort they weren't succeeding stopping the tide of Reaper forces, only slowing them down.
"Liara, crowd control!" Shepard ordered and the two hurled two biotic balls towards the front of the Reaper formation. The two spheres blossomed into whirling singularities and several Husks were catapulted out of the air and into the gravity of the artificial masses.
"Viper-Heavy you are weapons free, clear the landing zone! Focus on the heavy clusters!" shouted Shepard into the mic over the rushing wind.
"Roger, engaging."
While they began to fire upon the target-rich environment out of the open side door with small arms and deadly biotic throws or warps, a patch of airspace about forty meters away started to shimmer.
With the photo-reactive paneling disabled, the sharply angled and menacingly jet-black Pelican materialized into the air, strongly resembling the coiled ready-to-strike manner of the deadly snake its callsign was named after.
The gunship opened up with its two M247T machine guns, sending torrents of hot 7.62mm lead slicing into the Husks below. The two guns concentrated on the large, vulnerable, clusters of Reapers caught in Shepard's and T'Soni's singularities, shredding them to viscous blue-black pieces. The two weapons worked independently of each other meaning that one could chase down a lone Husk on the right while the other turned a cluster of newly lifted Husks to mincemeat on the left.
After about ten seconds of continuous fire, the herd of Husks had been significantly thinned out.
"Bring us in Cortez!" ordered Shepard, and the Kodiak Shuttle began to drop.
Cortez quickly complied and within seconds the bottom of the shuttle was just feet off of the ground, the mass effect fields keeping it in the air causing a fine screen of dust to shoot out every which way.
They hastily onto the ground and while Liara and James took care of the remaining Husk stragglers, Shepard radioed, "Viper-Heavy you're clear to land. Cortez, how were the skies on the way down?"
"Not as bad as I expected them to be Commander, I can circle overhead and provide high-altitude aerial recon like you suggested," replied the Kodiak pilot.
The sharply-angled UNSC Pelican flared itself into a hover and out of its small troop bay Kaidan and the Master Chief dropped down and ran over to Shepard's position.
"Good, do it," said Shepard. Seeing that his squad was assembled, he motioned for them to move towards the angles metal walls and study looking defensive structures of the outpost.
As they neared, a beleaguered looking Turian popped out from underneath the lip of the wall. "Commander Shepard! General Corinthus told us you were coming. Tarquin, open the gate!"
It seemed that 'Tarquin' did as he was told, as a section of the slanted metal wall slid downwards revealing a small clearing that lead into a trench. Shepard's squad quickly made their way past the wall and the Commander glanced around the small outpost. Aside from the twelve tired bloodied Turians, the only other noticeable features were the various crates and supplies strewn about, and the five dark, occupied body-bags laid out in a corner.
"Thank's for the help Commander," said the Turian who had greeted them, "That was the largest assault by those things we've had all day.
"Of course," Shepard replied. "Which way to the Command Post?"
"CP's a straight shot down this trench, don't take any of the branches, those will just lead you to the other outposts," replied the Turian. "I would radio ahead to let the General know you're here but our comms are still out."
"Thanks," said Shepard. Suddenly, the Commander's tacpad beeped. He didn't need to look at it to know what it meant; the mission timer had just started. They had managed to save a few precious minutes by diverting all available power to the Normandy's drive core and by attempting to achieve a larger drift distance as they exited the relay. Such a maneuver was higher-risk of course, but Joker being the ace pilot that he was naturally pulled it off.
If they had the choice they would have simply flown there in their transports, but in initial landing observations the next-to-no landing space combined with the fierce fighting going on meant that an aerial insertion would be extremely risky. They would have to run.
"To the CP, double time," ordered Shepard.
As the team of extremely fit yet fully armed and armored soldiers and biotics set out at a powerful run, Cortez' voice came over the radio.
"Commander, I'm tracking eight unknown aerial craft on a straight trajectory for the Command Post."
"Are you sure they're not Turian?" asked Shepard in between breaths.
"Yes Commander, I would have picked up on their IFF tags. They're too slow to be those eyeball Reaper fighters though."
"Viper-Heavy, go and intercept. Make sure that the Reapers aren't sending us any surprises," ordered Shepard.
"Roger that Commander."
"They just showed up on the scanner Sam."
"Yeah I see 'em, 25 K's out and closing fast. Turning us about."
"Painting with LADAR… jeez, take a look at these things. Looks like some kind of dragon-worm. Ugly for sure."
"See those two cannon protrusions though? Look high-caliber."
"Gunships? Heavy fire-support?"
"Possibly. Either way, bad news," said Sam. The pilot opened a channel to Shepard and said, "Commander, Viper-Heavy. Initial scans of the eight readings show that they're possibly some type of Reaper Gunship-analogue. Definitely not man-made."
"Roger. Engage at your discretion," replied Shepard quickly.
"You heard him Roran. How do you want to handle this?"
Roran thought quickly. ANVIL missiles would be the best engagement option from this distance, but the gunship only carried eight and he didn't want to expend them all at one time. "Four AVNILS, then close distance and engage with the turret."
"I like the way you think," said Sam, smiling under his helmet at the chance to test the stealth gunship to the fullest with a close-range dogfight.
"Arming…I've got tone! Fox Three, Fox Three," said Roran calmly. Since the small electrical signals that were needed to fire the missiles required negligible power from the Pelican's onboard reactor, the photoreactive stealth field around the entire aircraft didn't need to be completely broken. However, the ANVILs did cause a momentary disruption in the field right in front of the missile pods as they shot out of their berths and towards their targets.
Not a second after the missiles were fired the Pelican lurched upwards and began climbing. Based on the LADAR picture that he had seen of the creatures, the two large cannons they sported seemed to be forward mounted meaning that approaching from an angle away from their direct fronts should keep them out of their lines of fire. He was going to climb a couple of thousand feet, then dive along a vector that would give Roran clear shots at the creature's top sides.
His mental clock, honed through years of piloting and fighting against the Covenant, stated that the ANVIL missiles should be hitting right about…
"Impact, missiles one through four," said Roran right on time. "Good effect, new scans show only four contacts left, they're taking evasive action."
Excellent, thought Sam. ANVILs are some of the deadliest ordinance in the UNSC Air Corps' arsenal, able to pop open a Wraith tank like a can opener. To know that they seemed to be equally effective against Reaper targets was comforting.
After some quick calcultions, Sam determined that they were at their target height to start their dive. "Target one?" he asked Roran so he knew which Reaper creature to center on.
"Marked," replied the gunner, and the onboard computer highlighted the target on Sam's console.
"Roger, initiating attack run."
Though the Pelican's emissions were masked, the noise certainly wasn't. As Sam opened up with the throttle and sent the gunship into a dive he could hear the powerful roar of the engines as they shot the craft rushing towards its target.
"We're in range, firing!" said Roran, the adrenaline from engaging at close distances showing in the increased volume of his voice.
The gunship shook as the 30mm minigun buzzed, sending fifty rounds knifing towards the flying Reaper with a controlled tap of the trigger. A millisecond before the minigun rounds impacted the M68 Gauss Cannon fired its 25x130 mm projectile at speeds just under Mach 40, timed perfectly by onboard targeting computers so that both impacted simultaneously and to devastating effect.
The armor piercing rounds did their job, blowing right through the hard outer shell of the creature and either embedding inside or passing completely through the flying creature. In that same instant, the blue-white streak of superheated air that represented the round from the Gauss Cannon hit right in the center of the creature's top side, in between the wings. The immense amount of kinetic energy possessed by a projectile traveling at Mach 40 - 30,448 miles per hour - simply vaporized a hole half a meter in diameter all the way through the creature. This devastating combination of fire proved lethal, and the Reaper plummeted towards the ground. It never got there however, as it exploded into a massive red-tinted burst of light soon after it started to fall.
"Kill confirmed!" shouted Roran, now fully ensnared into and intensity of the aerial battle.
The shockwave from the Reaper flyer's death-throes threatened to throw the Pelican off course, but instead of fighting it Sam used the momentum to pivot the gunship around to face in the direction of another bogie. He flared his thrusters to abruptly stop their downward dive then opened them up again to pursue the new target. His eyes flicked to his radar for a brief second, and he saw that the other two Reaper flyers were still moving evasively, not coming about or homing in on their position.
He nodded, that meant that the gunship's stealth was working perfectly. Their next target was in the process of making a wide right turn to face the other way and Sam angled their approach to cut the inside of the turn and give Roran an easy shot.
Roran didn't even bother with the 30mm gun this time, firing only the Gauss cannon. The hypersonic projectile impacted at the base of the creature's long neck, blowing such a large hole that the monster was effectively decapitated.
"Hell yeah!" shouted Sam as he pulled up to avoid another potential explosion. His maneuver was unneeded though, as the two pieces of the Reaper fell quickly towards the ground.
One thing that was very evident though was that the remaining two Reapers sharply turned and zoned in on the gunship's position when it had fired for the second time. By the time they were able to bring their cannons to bear though, the stealth Pelican was already hundreds of meters away.
"Viper-Heavy, this is Viper. Your engagement hasn't gone unnoticed, I'm reading four more contacts approaching from the Northwest."
"Roger that Viper, thanks for the heads-up," Sam radioed back. "Hear that Roran? More of the bastards."
"Bring 'em on," was the reply of his gunner.
Sam smirked as in his head he ran through the different maneuvers that would get the gunship in firing position of their next target. Now it was getting fun.
The sight of Palaven burning caused Shepard's heart to sink. He felt the raw sadness, anger, and empathy that only one who has been through the same situation could feel. He had looked at the pictures of Earth the Normandy had taken while they were retreating for a long time. The unnatural darkness, the distant orbital explosions, the fire that seemed to cover entire landmasses. The beauty of a garden world, utterly destroyed by the Reapers.
Palaven was the same image, simply a different world.
The team of extremely fit soldiers and biotics covered the kilometer distance in just under three minutes, and once again they reached an outer wall manned by a couple of Turians. Upon seeing that they weren't Reapers, the guards quickly let the squad through and one even accompanied them to show them directly to General Corinthus.
The Command Post looked like a properly battered warzone. Smoking debris, jagged impact craters, strewn supplies and crates - body bags. The place was littered, and the Turian guide led them through what looked like a makeshift pathway. The sounds of heavy gunfire, Reapers scrscreeching, and Turians shouting permeated the air.
As they approached one of the center open-metal defensive structures, Shepard could see a dark-skinned Turian with red-lined armor giving orders to three other Turians grouped around him. Two were dressed in the traditional Turian sets of armor, while one was sporting a higher-tech black version, sealed helmet and all.
"I don't care if they'll break down again in an hour, I need those fighters up in the air right now! They're the only things that are keeping those Reaper Harvesters from pounding our positions to dust, now get on it Viktor!"
"Yes sir!" replied 'Viktor', and he ran off quickly in a direction that probably led to the airfield.
"Now you two," continued the red-lined Turian, "Julius take one of your squads and go reinforce the Northwest outpost, they're runner is five minutes late as of right now. Thaddeus, your squad is to take over defense of the CP wall section that his squad will be leaving behind. Go, quickly."
The two Turian gave brief salutes, then rushed off to complete their assigned tasks.
The red-lined Turian then looked past his immediate area and saw Shepard and his group stop in front of his command structure. "Commander Shepard! They told me you would be coming before comms went out."
Shepard stepped up the stairs of the structure and the Turian held out his forearm, which Shepard grasped in the traditional Turian greeting. "General Corinthus?"
"Yes. Commander, I'm afraid I've got some bad news about your objective," said Corinthus.
"About Primarch Fedorian? Do you know where he is?"
"Unfortunately, yes," said Corinthus, his head bowing down towards the ground. "He's dead. Tried to escape to orbit in a shuttle, but he was shot down by Reaper Harvesters. I told him that we didn't have the fighter presence to clear him a corridor, but he wouldn't listen. Arrogant bastard."
Underneath his closed helmet, Shepard frowned. "Dammit. So what does this mean? Do we know who the next Primarch is?"
"Short answer, no. Long answer, maybe. The situation on Palaven is so bad that the succession line of Primarchs has fallen to the Generals here on Menae. General Fedorian was in command of the whole planet, so he was the first. Now that he's dead it could be any one of the five or so Generals that are still scattered around the planet," said Corinthus. In a more quiet tone, he added, "Spirits, it could be me."
"Well how do we find out?" asked Shepard, eager to see if the mission was still viable or not.
"Normally we'd radio Palaven Command and get the name from them, but that's not a possibility with our comms out. I sent Vakarian and half of the platoon he brought to try and take it back from the Reapers, but I haven't had a runner from him in… three and a half minutes now," said Corinthus. "Commander I now that you two have worked together, can you take your squad and see what's going on?" his eyes looked over Shepard's squad, pausing at the Master Chief's unfamiliar armored bulk.
"We'll get right on it General, but there's something you need to know. The Turian fleet is retreating from the system. Councilor Sparatus let me know a short time before we arrived," said Shepard gravely.
Corinthus' eyes widened. "What? We're retreating? When was the order given?"
"Nearly an hour an a half ago, when your comms were still out."
Corinthus put his head in his hands, then ran them down his face slowly. "It must be worse than I thought. We've been able to hold our own more or less here…"
"I'm sorry General," said Shepard, not needing to feign genuine sorrow.
"How long until the retreat?"
"More than an hour an half."
"I see. Well, his certainly changes the situation. I need to let the men I have at the outposts know they have to regroup at the Command Post and get ready for evacuation. But to do that, I need that comms tower back," said Corinthus.
"We're on it General," said Shepard, stepping off of the platform.
"The tower is two kilometers north east, Commander," called Corinthus, pointing in the direction, "You can see the top of the tower above the ridge!"
"To the comms tower, move," ordered Shepard, and the squad set out at a run.
"Viper-Heavy, what's your status?" asked the Commander into the team's comms.
"Currently moving to intercept another flight of bogeys inbound to the Turian base. Do you need us?"
"We're moving to make an assault on the comms relay because getting it working is our number one priority right now. From what I know enemy concentration is likely very heavy, so we could use your air support. Take care of those inbounds then get over to our position as fast as you can.
"Roger that Commander, we'll be there shortly. Viper-Heavy out."
Following the increasing volume of battle, the Normandy squad ran through a broken portion of a CP wall outer gate into another trench. They rounded a bend, and were thrust headfirst into battle.
It started off slowly at first, a Husk straggler here, a Cannibal there, but over time they started running into pairs, then groups, then small hordes. Coordinated fire and Biotic support proved more than a match for the enemy's raw numbers, but each battle slowed them down, delayed them that much more. In the end what should have taken them ten minutes at a fast clip on foot was doubled to twenty. As Shepard dispatched one of the final Cannibals in the latest group with a burst from his Avenger, he grimly realized that the Reapers could afford to lose as many troops as they wanted, even if it did nothing but delay them.
Thirty meters to their front a dozen Turians in that same advanced and enclosed black armor Shepard had seen earlier were taking cover behind some rock outcroppings, engaged in a fierce firefight with Reaper forces another fifty meters downrange surrounding the comms tower. Two Turians lay still near the back of the group, along with one rolling around in obvious pain while another soldier was trying to administer first aid.
"Fill in the line and engage, go!" ordered Shepard, running towards the Turian's position. To avoid any confusion he yelled through his helmet's external speakers, "Friendlies at six o' clock!"
A couple of Turians glanced back at them then continued to fire, but one without a helmet ducked behind cover after firing a short bust and subsequently dropped his jaw upon seeing his former Commander.
Shepard slid into cover next to his closest friend as the rest of the Normandy's squad opened fire, the chattering and whines of their weapons adding to those of the Turians already there.
"Shepard?! What the hell are you doing here?" shouted Garrus over the roar of gunfire. It wasn't the first time they had reconnected under hails of incoming rounds, and he was certain it wouldn't be the last.
"It's good to see you alive Garrus!" said Shepard, genuinely glad to see his friend. He popped up from the rock they were taking cover behind, saw two of the large Cannibals caught in the the pulsing energy sphere of what had to be either Liara's or Kaidan's singularity. He sent a quick biotic throw in its direction, but before he ducked back down behind his cover he noticed a Reaper soldier that looked different from the others.
Unlike the hunched, bulbous bodies of the Batarians-turned-Reapers known as Cannibals or the lithe formerly-Human Husks, the figure he saw was of 'normal' proportions and covered in jagged black armor. As a flurry of rounds sent him back down, and he heard the tell-tale bwoom-thump of a biotic explosion he said, "One of those things looked like a Turian!"
"Yeah, this is the first we've seen them too. The other Reapers seem much more organized and dangerous with them around. We're calling them Mauraders."
"Sound like priority targets. Garrus, we need to get to this tower! Corinthus needs those comms up!" said Shepard.
"I know that Shepard!" replied Garrus as he ducked out to fire another burst, "But dammit, we've gotten pinned down here! The Reapers have numerical superiority and there's almost no cover between us and them. Two of my men died during our last attempt to advance, and one is badly wounded."
"Well I've got something coming that could give us the edge we need," said Shepard. Switching to the team's radio frequency, he said "Viper-Heavy, where are you?"
"We're here Commander, and we have visuals on a large number of enemy foot-mobiles around the tower."
"Light them up, but mind the tower! We need it intact!" ordered Shepard.
"Roger, squawk your transponder and mark all friendly positions."
Shepard brought his Omni-tool to life and did just that.
"Roger, friendly positions marked. Engaging!"
For a brief second, the ear-shaking buzz of the gunships 30mm minigun drowned out the other sounds of the battle as Viper-Heavy fired a long burst at the Reapers entrenched around the comms tower. The high explosive rounds blanketed the outer perimeter of enemy troops, tearing through flesh and shields and rending divots in the ground. Though the impacts threw up large clouds of dust, the amount of incoming enemy tracers immediately decreased. After the initial barrage of cannonfire, the gunship's two 7.62mm machine guns covered the area with suppressive fire.
"Armigers, we've got air support! Advance to the tower and engage at close quarters!" shouted Garrus, eager to capitalize on their new advantage.
Then, the Turians did something that Shepard wasn't expecting. Once breaking from cover they jetted about a dozen meters forwards in one coordinated leap, small bouts of flame being expelled from areas near their legs and arms.
Shepard, his pride not wanting him to be left in the dust by the Turians, prepared to initiate a biotic sprint. The technique, which used oscillating fields of negative and positive mass effect fields to slingshot the user's mass forwards was notoriously hard to master and extremely draining on the body when used for a prolonged period of time.
Summoning the biotic field around himself Shepard exited cover and launched himself forwards, his legs running in a full sprint, yet the biotic power doing most of the work. He quickly caught up with the Turians, and the fire from Viper-Heavy halted as they closed the distance to the tower. The dust had cleared just enough so that Shepard could see a Cannibal right in his path of advance, and consequently, right in the path of his biotically-laced gauntlet. As Shepard 's punch turned the Cannibal's monstrous head in to pulp, he saw the rest of the force crash against the Reapers with the force of a tidal wave.
All of the Turians had summoned single, or in a couple of cases double, omni-blades or like Garrus had done, withdrew a shotgun for the close-range fight. With their numbers now roughly equal thanks to the stealth-gunship's barrage, the superior training, equipment, and fierceness of the Turians started to show. Omni-blades slashes and stabs sliced deep into flesh, shotgun shells tore gaping holes in viscous flesh, and one Turian even used his jump-jets to propel himself into the air and slam back down to the ground in the midst of a group of Cannibals, a ring of orange fire expanding from the point of impact and engulfing the targets.
The new, Turian-like Reapers were harder to take down, but were still outclassed. A few meters ahead of him Shepard saw Garrus put a round from his shotgun right in the chest of the creature, only for a bright translucent barrier to pop up and deflect the shots.
So these ones have barriers, thought Shepard. It didn't matter however, as Shepard but the Marauder into a stasis field, immobilizing it for Garrus to run up and blow its head clean off with a near point-blank shot from his shotgun.
Shepard started a roll into cover as he saw a Cannibal fire a slew of rounds at him, and with his eyes pointed in a new direction he was able to see the Master Chief as he engaged his own Marauder. Shepard did a minature double take seeing the Spartan, realizing just how quickly he had crossed the distance, without the advantage of biotics or jet-booster packs.
The Chief smoothly ducked under a hostile burst of gunfire as if he was anticipating it the whole time, then delivered a massive shoulder-to-chest blow that produced enough kinetic energy to short the Marauder's barriers and send it sprawling like a ragdoll. The Spartan raised his rifle and before the Reaper had even hit the ground he put two shots into its head and one into its chest. Without missing a beat he wiveled, sank to one knee, and stiched a new row of holes into a group of four Cannibals with sparkling-blue automatic hardlight fire from his ACS
As Shepard completed his roll out of the other side of the cover, he thought of the precise, calculated, nearly mechanical way in which the Master Chief not only fought, but conducted himself on a standard basis. He had noticed it at during the retreat from Earth and the fight at the Mars Prothean Research base, and he had even noticed it during his talk with him and Cortana earlier. The way that he sat rigidly straight with nearly no unneeded movements or gestures, except of course the dark blue eyes that seemed to take in even the most miniscule detail.
As he came back to a stand he saw a Turian-Reaper dive behind a nearby rock to escape the barrage of rounds that had just depleted its barriers. Not so fast, thought Shepard as he sent a biotic pull that arched over the rock and caught the Reaper in its grasp. As the former Turian was launched upwards into the air the Commander readied a throw to detonate the Turian, but he was beat to the punch as a biotic cannonball slammed into the suspended Reaper, detonating the field and sending the pieces that weren't vaporized flying.
Shepard whipped his head around and saw Liara, Kaidan, and James about a dozen meters away, having just made it to the fight. The gunfire and shouting died down quickly as Garrus' Turians and Shepard's squad cleared out the last of the Reaper defenders.
"Spread out and check for stragglers!" Garrus ordered.
Vakarian jogged over to Shepard, dark splotches of Reaper blood spotting his armor. "We've got the comms tower, that's great. But our tech guy died in the fighting right after our initial landing."
"I could give it a shot," said Kaidan, overhearing their problem. As an Alliance Sentinel, he was just as familiar with technology as he was with biotics.
Garrus nodded, and Shepard said, "Do it."
As Kaidan quickly made his way over to the interface and started tapping away, Garrus shouted, "Dig in around the tower, get ready for a Reaper counterattack."
"Yes sir," replied some of the Armigers.
"Oh, so you're a 'sir' now," said Liara as she walked up to Garrus and Shepard.
"It's good to see you Liara," said Garrus in response to the light-hearted jib. "All of you actually. But Shepard, you never answered my question, what exactly are you doing here?"
"We're here for the same reason you are, to get the Turian Primarch to safety. Councilor Sparatus sent us," said Shepard.
"Well then, you must have heard the news already about Fedorian," said Garrus, shaking his head.
"Yeah, General Corinthus filled us in before he directed us to help your team." Shepard paused, pursing his lips. "Garrus, there's something else I need to tell you."
"What is it Shepard?"
"The Turians are retreating from Palaven."
Garrus blinked, and his mandibles twitched. "Retreating? As in retreating here? To Menae? Or the Mass Relay to regroup for another counterattack?"
"No Garrus, retreating from the system," clarified Shepard.
"Spirits…" muttered Garrus, taking a three-fingered hand and running it along his fringes. "I knew it was bad, but…"
By this point, a couple of the Armigers had turned their helmeted heads in their directions, obviously having overheard the news.
"This comes directly from Sparatus. He said that your fleets can't keep sustaining the losses they've been taking," said Shepard.
"Well I guess the reason we didn't hear about it was because the comms were out," reasoned Garrus, "How long do we have until the retreat?"
Shepard checked his tacpad, "38 minutes."
"So that's thirty eight minutes until the fleet stops intercepting the Reaper warships that would have turned Menae Command to dust by now," said Garrus.
Just then, Kaidan gave a short shout of joy and said, "Got it Commander. The tower's systems took a lot of damage, but I've got basic systems running again."
Immediately, Garrus triggered his omnitool and keyed in a frequency. "General Corinthus, this is Vakarian, do you read?"
There was a short burst of static, then a gravelly version of the Genera's voice came through the comm. "I read you Vakarian, excellent work! Get back here ASAP but leave a squad to defend the tower. I'm recalling all of our forces stationed at the outposts back to the CP."
"Right away sir," said Garrus, closing the channel. "First squad, stay here and guard the tower. Let me know as soon as you encounter any kind of Reaper attack." Looking to Shepard, he said, "Let's get back to the CP."
The squad from the Normandy and Garrus' Armigers quickly made their way back to the CP, which was now a much busier scene. Shepard estimated that there were anywhere from seventy to eighty Turians working to shore up the outer defensive positions of the CP and clearing the various kinds of debris that littered the ground.
Garrus went off in one direction with his squad, and Shepard was going to make his way back to General Corinthus when another Turian with red-lined armor intercepted him. Unlike Corinthus' yellow lined face, this Turian had black segments covering most of his face below the eyes.
"Commander Shepard, General Victus. Corinthus told me you had arrived when he ordered us back to the CP. It's good to have you and your crew here. Walk with me to Corinthus?" he said.
"Of course General," said Shepard. As he started walking away he said to his squad, "Find a way to help out."
"The Reapers have been here for less than a day and we're already turning tail and running," muttered Victus as they passed by a makeshift medical area occupied by about a dozen wounded Turians and one very busy medic. "I understand the decision, but it doesn't mean that I like it."
"I know exactly what you're feeling General," said Shepard, unintentionally thinking back to Earth. He tried to push those memories and emotions down - there was a job to do. "We'll be back."
"There's no question about that Commander," said Victus, the steely resolve evident in his voice, "I just wish we weren't so goddamn outclassed in space. We were getting our asses handed to us by orbital strikes during the initial waves of the attack, but as soon as the fleet launched a counterattack to get the Reaper warships off of Menae's surface it settled more or less into a stalemate. And that's damn impressive, given that we were outnumbered nearly four to one."
Shepard just nodded, not wanting to reveal to just anyone that they had assets that could definitely change the Reaper's orbital supremacy.
The two made it to Corinthus' structure and the General waved them to join him near the central table. "Victus, Shepard. I have news from Palaven. First of all, the TSF Mobius is inbound to extract us, their ETA is ten minutes."
"Ten minutes?" asked Shepard checking his tacpad, "That only leaves less than a twenty minute window for extraction before the fleet pulls out."
"I know that Commander, so it's a good thing that the Mobius has enough shuttles to get us all out in one trip," said Corinthus. He paused, taking a slightly longer-than-average look at his fellow General. "Second. Palaven Command has identified the new Primarch."
"Well then, who is it?" asked Victus.
"It's you, Victus."
The General was stunned into silence, though he knew that Corinthus was telling the truth. Their current situation didn't allow for anything else. As Victus turned around and leant heavily on a rail, Corinthus let out a heavy sigh borne from the fatigue of fighting such a harsh battle, but also the relief of not being the next Primarch.
"I'm the new Primarch?" said Victus quietly, "Negotiating on the behalf of the entire Turian Hierarchy?"
Shepard and Corinthus stayed silent, wanting to give Victus time to process the news. The new Primarch's contemplation was abruptly cut short as a large number of flaming meteors appeared in the sky above them.
"Drop pods," said Victus vehemently, drawing the rifle from his back.
"Victus, wait!" said Corinthus as he put a hand on his fellow Turian's shoulder to stop him from bounding out of the structure. "Stay here. The Hierarchy needs you alive, I can handle this."
Victus knew better than to argue. Corinthus was right, and they both knew what happened to the last Primarch that exposed himself unnecessarily to the Reapers. So instead, he hunkered down behind the central table, deciding to monitor the status of the Turian's retreat instead.
Shepard and Corinthus quickly exited the structure, looking at the drop pods that were just seconds away from impacting what looked to be the ground outside of the CP.
"Defensive positions!" bellowed Corinthus, and the Turians that weren't already there scrambled for their places. "Shepard, what's your squad's composition?"
"Three biotics, two soldiers, and a stealth gunship."
Corinthus shot Shepard a surprised glance at the last thing. "A stealth gunship? Never mind, more firepower is always welcome. Shepard, I'd like you and your biotics roaming around the perimeter offering any kind of support you can, while your soldiers and gunship serve as a quick reaction force that I can call on to bolster a position if they are under heavy pressure."
The General's plan was sound, so even though he technically didn't have any authority over Shepard and his crew he decided to follow his suggestion. "Can do General, I'll let my team know and key you into our frequency."
A series of impacts shook the ground under their feet, and the sound of a heavy turret opening up along the defensive perimeter breaking the tenuous silence that had fallen over the CP.
"Good, thank you Shepard," said Corinthus before he ran off towards the sound of the heavy gun. Shepard relayed the General's command to his squad, then steeled himself for the fight to come.
The Reapers came hard, and in large numbers. With the Turians having lost their outer line of defensive outposts, the Reapers could advance on the CP in dozens of different directions, whether it was across the open ground or through the trenches. More men were required to cover the larger fields of fire across the open ground than in the trenches however, where the Reapers were boxed in and vulnerable to concentrated fire from just a few Turians.
Shepard, Liara, and Kaidan had split the circular perimeter into three sections, and each were dashing back and forth inside of them throwing a singularity here, a stasis bubble there, a biotic barrier to cover a Turian who was reloading or whose shields were drained, the like. Meanwhile, Vega and the Master Chief were being shuttled around by Corinthus to different points of distress, and every so often Viper-Heavy would let loose a barrage of high explosive 30mm shells or 7.62mm machine gun rounds to cut down large groupings of Reapers or perform a precision strike Gauss strike on a priority target.
The minutes counted down towards extraction and the Reaper assault only became more intense. As strong as a biotic that he was, Shepard was really feeling the signs of biotic fatigue. Every throw or singularity or barrier was a little bit harder to summon than the last.
At two minutes until the Mobius and her shuttles were supposed to extract them all, Corinthus opened a channel to their Captain. "TSF Mobius, this is Menae Command, we're under heavy pressure from Reaper forces on all sides. What's your ETA, over?"
"Menae Command, this is Mobius. We're about to enter the atmosphere and will be deploying shuttles as soon as we can. Hold tight General!"
"Acknowledged Mobius!" said Corinthus, closing the link. His eyes shot skyward as he saw another grouping of Reaper drop pods come hurtling towards the ground, and from what it looked like… "They're going to land inside the base!"
Having heard the General's callout over the common channel they were all dialed into, the Master Chief halted his run towards the Western line and turned around back towards the inside of the base. He and Vega would have to deal with the new intruders.
Chief got into an optimal firing position thirty meters away leaning out from a stack of supply crates, and as the dust from the impact cleared just he saw what they were up against. Being able to process raw information faster than he ever could, Cortana instantly outlined twenty-three hostiles, six Husks, twelve Cannibals, four of those 'Marauders', and one new Reaper that he hadn't seen before.
This new Reaper was massive, about as large as a UNSC Warthog, and covered in what looked like thick layered plates of jet-black armor. The creature's upper body was significantly larger than its lower half and it seemed to support itself on all four of its limbs, one of which looked like a very heavy, very powerful armored claw.
As he prepared to engage, both artificially enhanced and completely artificial chemical banks place throughout the Chief's body released a rush of chemicals into his bloodstream at the beckoning of his nervous system. Time seemed to slow down in front of him, yet the speed at which the Master Chief thought and acted stayed the same. It was a sensation that he had felt many times before, one where a Spartan was propelled into their highest level of capability.
Spartan time.
The Chief snapped up two fragmentation grenades from his belt and hurled them at the group, and as he watched the grenades lazily float through the air towards the Reapers, he solidified his plan of attack.
He would focus on the Cannibals first in order to try and thin out the number of hostile guns present in the enemy formation. Then would come the Marauders, who had proven to be more dangerous foes and would need more attention to take down. The Husks had third priority, being that they were relatively weak and only posed a threat at melee range. Then of course, there was that armored brute of a Reaper. He would deal with that last.
With a quick finger movement Chief switched his ACS to fire fully automatic at its highest RPM. A torrent of rounds would be needed to deal with as many targets as he had.
The grenades impacted the ground in front of the Reapers, bouncing into the middle of the group before their half a second timer went off. Thousands of pieces of deadly shrapnel went flying out in every direction. Three Cannibals in the inner ring of the detonations were shredded to fleshy pieces, as were two of the Husks just beyond them. With the immediate casualties absorbing most of the shrapnel, the rest of the Reapers stumbled or recoiled from the shockwave and took the leftover shrapnel without going down. However, two Marauders suddenly found their barriers depleted.
The Chief started firing, his decades of weapons training combined with the recoil management systems in both his Mjolnir and the ACS keeping the weapon laser-accurate. The first trio of rounds impacted their target, tearing sizeable holes in the Cannibal's head, killing it without a doubt. The Chief traversed his rifle to the left, sending another flurry of rounds stitching into the heads of another pair of Cannibals. His next target Cannibal would require a brief pause to sight in as it was a few meters away, but before he could fire again its head was turned into another viscous mess. Vega, with shots from his own rifle.
He switched to the closest Marauder, who barriers managed to absorb four shots before collapsing. Four of the Reaper's own blue-tinted rounds impacted Chief's cover, but he didn't flinch as he put a neat grouping in the center of the Marauder's chest. Another Marauder a couple of meters away fell at the same time kudos to a burst from Vega's Avenger, whose rounds just managed to find a weak spot in the former-Turians new armor – the eye socket.
The Spartan would have continued his methodical engagement but suddenly the Reaper grouping was engulfed by cloud of dust and fire. Viper-Heavy had saturated the area with 30mm, obliterating the remaining enemies. Or so it was thought.
Out of the smoke emerged the black-armored Reaper behemoth, glowing red eyes looking angry as opposed to anything else. The creature stood up on its hind legs and let out a deafening roar, and the Master Chief had a suspicion that it would take more than his ACS to take this beast out.
Lowering itself and bracing its large claw-arm in front of it, the creature began to rush at the Chief's position with alarming speed. The Spartan immediately dove away from the cover, at the same time attaching his rifle to the magnetic weapons holder on his lower back. The Reaper Brute slammed into the stack of previously sturdy supply crates, pulverizing them, then whipped its small head around to locate its escaped prey.
Transitioning his dive into a combat roll, Chief smoothly drew the Spartan Laser on his back with the care and precision that was required when handling all heavy weapons, and came to a kneeling position.
He started charging the Laser as soon as he had a finger on the trigger, but as the creature found him again and roared to signify the start of another charge, he wondered if he would have enough time to fire before the creature's next charge reached the point where he couldn't dodge out of the way.
A blue-white hypersonic round from Viper-Heavy's Gauss cannon lanced deep into the Brute, and the monstrosity tumbled and roared in rage. This gave the Master Chief just the time he needed, and the Spartan Laser's whine reached a fever pitch before the ruby-red beam of destruction was released. The beam impacted the Brute's face dead center, and Chief flicked the weapon ever so slightly downward so that the laser traversed down the front of the beast. The devastating energy, strong enough to pierce though several Warthogs laid end to end, turned the creature's heavy armor into molten slag and hot vapor. Its inner 'components' simply gone, the Brute collapsed to the ground with a loud clanking thud.
The Chief kept his rifle raised as everything settled, keen eyes looking for any survivors. He found one sure enough in the form of a Cannibal missing its lower half, crawling along the ground with its sole upper arm. Chief sent a burst of rounds at the creature to finish it off, but with one last heave of exertion the Cannibal launched a red colored cylindrical object that landed…
… not four meters away from Primarch Victus, who had just descended the stairs of his defensive structure onto the open ground to dispatched a Husk rushing towards him.
Chief made the connection instantly. "GRENADE!" he bellowed through his helmet speakers, and Victus looked right at the cylinder, wide-eyed.
The Spartan launched himself towards Victus, but he knew he wouldn't be fast enough to reach him in time. What he was able to do was extend a portion of his energy shield in between the grenade and the Primarch on the ground.
The grenade detonated and the Chief's energy shield absorbed some of the shrapnel, but not all. Victus' own kinetic barriers flared and broke under the sudden kinetic strain, and shrapnel pieces embedded themselves deep into the Primarch's chestplate. The force of the explosion slid the Primarch a short distance along the ground, and for a very long second the Turian remained motionless. Then his head shot up, and he scrambled to his feet.
"I'm alright!" Victus yelled, for himself as much as anyone else. The shrapnel from the grenade had peirced his armor, but not all the way through. Were it not for Chief's sudden intervention, the grenade likely would have killed him. "I'm alright."
Shepard, Liara, and Kaidan ran breathlessly onto the scene. The Commander had given the order to regroup at the CP for extraction.
"Cortez, now's the time," Shepard radioed to the Kodiak pilot.
"We're here Commander!" replied the pilot quickly. "One of the shuttles is diverting to pick up the Turian squad near the Comms tower."
'We' ended up being Cortez's Kodiak, as well as seven other shuttles from the TSF Mobius.
"All forces, the shuttles are here! Regroup to the center, move!" ordered Corinthus through the comms. It was scramble getting on the shuttles, organized scramble as befitting Turians, but a scramble nonetheless. Despite their fighting spirits, the soldiers were eager to leave this moon that would soon become a deathtrap.
Above them, Viper-Heavy fired off their remaining four missiles at some distant targets, followed by two quick Gauss cannon shots in between the buzz of the minigun before coming in to a hover just above the ground, both craft waiting for the Normandy's crew to embark.
"Get to the aircraft," Shepard ordered his squad. He watched as Primarch Victus was escorted onto a waiting shuttle by a pair of Armiger soldiers. "We're done here."
Special thanks to my beta JonHarper