Chapter 13
Ghosts and Legends
"Heads up!" called out one of the battered turian soldiers guarding the entrance to the bunker. The 'door' was little more than a huge, heavy metal slab that had come off of some other entity and was jury-rigged to a system that allowed them to lift it enough for people to move in and out as necessary. "Friendlies coming through!"
Sphelix Legion rushed inside at once to take advantage of the protective walls of the emergency bunker. Depsite not having a ceiling anywhere, the make of the walls along the top edge resembled crenellations similar to the AHVs when their armor plates were raised and provided lots of cover for those that were watching the perimeter from on high. The octagonal structure wasn't naturally a part of Vallum's center, it seemed. The hardy building, two levels high and sturdy, looked like some kind of prefabricated mini fortress that could be deployed at high value locations and quickly set up. There was a trench that encircled the walls that looked peculiarly like the remnants of a crater as if the bunker had been dropped in before being assembled.
Kevin moved swiftly with Core Squad, acutely aware of Nolus Invidiun's constant suspicious stares as if he were a reaper himself. He did his best to ignore them, however, figuring that his presence in Core Squad is new to Nolus. He didn't get assigned until after he'd left with the AHVs, after all. To Kevin's relief, however, few in the Sphelix Legion shared Nolus's discomfort, and those that had any to speak of all came from the AHV team. There had been no time to explain to the returned why everyone had gotten so used to, and even more unusual, so accepting of the alien attachments to their squads, and the story of the reaper's death hadn't even crossed anyone's lips yet.
As the legion weaved their way through the defense structure, little was said. Besides the fact that conversation before any knowledge of the state of the defenders here was pointless, the sounds of chaos and war were downright deafening here. Unlike the Kaliar apartments where the majority of the battles were some distance away until swaths of enemies came to them, the battle here was ever ongoing and so close in all directions that they were never out of sight from skirmishes. Turians all around them were yelling to one another for a large array of purposes and it almost seemed that there was no moment when there wasn't anyone yelling. Reapers, tall and ominous, loomed in almost every direction and the unique, dreadful sound of their crimson beams splitting the air was much more frequent.
After a short, hurried walk to what had to be the main area of the bunker, the turians that had been directing Senik and the legion pointed towards one particular turian leaning over a table projecting a wireframe holomap of the surrounding area. As they moved in that general direction, Kevin got a look at the hardy turians that had somehow survived this long in a full out warzone against the reapers. He thought everyone looked roughed up after the fight with the reaper; these men and women were positively beaten to hell. Most of them had emergency field bandages wrapped somewhere on their person, indicating just how many close-calls these soldiers have endured.
Before they reached the table, Kevin spotted a sight that was getting all too familiar to him off to his right across an open area—a collection of mats rolled out in a grid for treating the combat ineffective and holding the dead when they didn't have the hands to move them out. Thanks to their own small victories, it was easy to temporarily forget that while they had fared well enough to only lose a few amongst them, the battle everywhere else had gone south long, long ago.
He grimaced and turned to bring as much of his attention to the wireframe holoprojection over the table as he could muster. He was getting increasingly tired of war again, and he knew that this was only the beginning.
The visibly frustrated turian leaning on the table looked up when he noticed all the movement approaching from his left. His eyes widened with welcome surprise when he saw most of a legion stepping in to give them a hand. He and the kebalim saluted each other as the rest of the legion circled around.
"Kebalim Senik Corvallus of the Second Sphelix Cabal Legion!" Senik announced as he broke his crisp salute. He had to yell to be heard even less than a meter away from the other.
"Commander Farus Kenthal of the Vallum's First legion, Taetrus Colonial Forces!" A series of nearby explosions caught everyone's attention and halted the proceedings for a few tense seconds. "Thank the Spirits you're here! We'd all but given up on any other survivors in the area!"
"Commander?" Senik questioned ominously. "Where's—"
Farus lifted a hand to cut off the obvious question. "Commander Aiten Tensus is dead! He and a few select squads were wiped out by reaper strike teams when they made their first pass around the Parliamentary building!"
Senik's browplates furrowed deeply and he seemed to think on that new information for a while. Around Kevin, cabalists were speaking into each other's ears either to pass the word along or to mutter about their reason for being here. Several turians on the wall yelled and ducked behind cover as something just outside exploded and the shockwave was felt even through the hard ground under their feet. Without a second of hesitation, each got right back up on that wall to return to fighting off enemy approach.
"Where are we needed?" Senik asked intensely after some internal deliberation.
"Where aren't you needed, kebalim?" was the commander's rather frustrated reply. "These damn things are unlike anything I've ever seen! They never take a moment to rest, to eat, to gather troops! How can we cut supply lines to something that doesn't need supply lines? And those tall ones are fucking us over worse than I can even put to words!" He pounded the table with a fist. "We can't beat them conventionally! We're losing Vallum faster than we can learn how much of is being lost!"
"Any word from the response fleet?" Senik inquired loudly and neutrally.
"There's not a word from anyone with all this blanket jamming in effect!" The commander growled, then regained himself. "A few of my orbiting patrols were tasked with avoiding fights altogether in hopes of contacting the response fleet when they'd arrived. Word quickly got to them, however, that the reapers were waiting just inside the relay drop zone." He grew quiet for a second and looked Senik right in his hard cyan eyes. "It was a damn slaughter, Corvallus! We'll not be seeing any help from Palaven any time soon!"
That was the first time Kevin had ever seen Senik look troubled.
The commander sighed and finally looked up to the legion around him. "You know your men best! Distribute them as you think most efficient! It's hard enough keeping those monsters at bay right now, so our outer walls need the most reinforcement!"
Senik nodded. "Give me a rundown of what you have established!"
As the kebalim leaned onto the table and conferred with the commander over the immediate needs of their military situation, Kevin weaved back through the cabalists to find his friends. One by one he gathered them up, including Telius, and they circled in for discussion.
"Looks like the legion is committing themselves here," Kevin informed the others.
"Is that what's going on?" Telius questioned. He was too far back to hear the conversation over the deafening sounds of combat. "What happened to finding the commander that greeted us during our flight in?"
"Apparently he's dead, killed on the reaper troops' first sweep at the center of the city where the heaviest fighting started." He paused and everyone seemed to consider that for a moment. "Guys, we can't stay here."
"What do you mean?" Maela asked as she wiped her face in an attempt to clean off some of the dust and grime that had collected there. She only succeeded in smearing it all the way across her face.
Telius caught Kevin looking northeast and he picked up on it. "He wants to gun for the quarians."
Targold raised a scaly brow and stared right at Kevin. "Let me get this straight, kid. You want to leave this defensible structure behind, likely without the help of any of the turians, to wade through a portion of reaper-infested city ruins, all of which will be coming at us from every angle with guns blazing as they howl for our blood?"
They all fell silent for a moment and Liam gulped visibly.
Then Targold broke out into a massive and mischievous grin. "Damn I like the way you think, Folner."
"That does not make me feel particularly good about this plan!" Liam said, finally voicing his opinion. "Every time Targold likes something, it generally means it's twice as likely to get us horribly killed!"
"Call me old fashioned," Targold countered with a massive pat on Liam's back. The man coughed loudly. "Anything won without twice the threat of death is no victory at all."
"We should expect that we'll be on our own then, as Targold said," Telius added. "There's no way in hell the kebalim will ask anyone to go on a suicide mission for us when his team is needed here."
"I figured as much," Kevin said with a nod. "We'll just have to move fast so they don't have any opportunity to surround us or box us in."
"I don't like leaving the turians," Maela admitted. "As much as I find their personalities grating, they know how to keep those scientific monstrosities at bay."
Kevin's eyes narrowed, though he didn't think anyone could see as much. "If we don't find anything when we get there then we'll turn back down the path we cleared. Does that satisfy you?" The last few words were spoken with some contempt. If the last eighteen hours have taught him anything, it was that indecision in this constant warfare more than likely led to death. He was not in the mood for more from anyone.
Maela didn't agree, but she did sigh in acquiescence.
"Wait here," Telius said curtly as he turned from the group. "I'll inform the kebalim."
"I'll go with you," Kevin said as he started after Telius who shrugged in indifference.
By the time Telius and Kevin had reached Senik, he'd just finished giving orders to his legion. As the last few from Marksman Squad ran off to take up their new positions, Telius called to the kebalim.
"Why do I get the feeling I'm not going to like what I'm about to hear?" Senik asked arms crossed.
"Probably because bad news is all we've—" Kevin was cut short by a sharp elbow in his ribs.
"I assume you five will want to head for the parliamentary building next." Senik didn't need for them to explain, it seemed.
"That's correct, kebalim," Telius answered.
"I don't have to tell you what's waiting for you out there."
Telius and Kevin nodded.
"You understand that I cannot give you any support whatsoever once you're beyond our sight?"
Again, the pair nodded.
Senik sighed. "Admirable, Mettack. Few turians today have sought to finish their original missions. Even I can't get you there as ordered." The kebalim looked up towards the nearest reaper, it's pointed ends pushing up into the dark, smoke-choked clouds. "Admirable and foolish."
Telius scratched a mandible as he considered the notion. "Foolish… Agreed on that point, kebalim. That said, I feel this mission must at least be attempted in full, else I wouldn't trouble you with letting us walk out there."
Senik's harsh cyan eyes carefully looked between Telius and Kevin. After a moment of consideration he bellowed out to his legion, almost causing Telius and Kevin both to leap out of their skins. "Listen up Sphelix Legion! I want all guns east for some covering fire!" He spun just as he gave the order to look at the commander. "Commander, I'll need your men to open that east door to let a strike team out."
The commander, more nonplussed by the simple fact that at anyone at all would even think to go outside these bunker walls than at the fact that the kebalim was essentially giving him an order, furrowed his browplates. "Who the hell wants to go out there?"
Senik gestured for Telius to introduce himself.
With a well-practiced salute, he did so. "First Lieutenant Telius Mettack of the Four Hundred and Fifty-First Shock Legion, commander." Knowing the next obvious question, Telius efficiently moved right onto the subsequent answer. "Primarch Fedorian has given me a mission involving the quarians that we were to meet at the parliamentary building. It's of critical importance, and doubly so after seeing what's happened this past day."
The commander's features shift from absurdity to understanding. "So you're the liaison that was supposed to hand off a classified package, huh? You might be too late. I'm sure you saw on your way in, that building's already been hit pretty hard. Still a hell of a lot of fighting that way, though, so somebody's trying to give the reapers as much of a fight as we are." Kevin suddenly felt the commander's eyes on him. "Call me biased, but I don't think the quarians are capable of that, as impressive for their kind as they were."
Kevin took an offended step forward. "With all due respect, commander, you don't know the Xelvas'taersh like I do." A number of nearby explosions cut the banter short and rained debris on everyone from above.
Commander Kenthal shook his head, making a critical snap decision. "If you seriously believe your mission worth running out into that without a legion at your side, then go. And quickly. I can't afford to have all of Sphelix Legion's focus on one side for much longer. There's word of a legion of their own—marauders I think—coming at us from the north."
"Marauders?" Senik asked quickly, as unfamiliar with this term as the rest.
"I'm sure you've seen them more than you'd like. Turians turned reaper pets. Modified with absurd amounts of tech and a major pain in the ass. We named them that for their tactics, which remind us of marauders from our middling space exploration years." He paused just a moment before flicking his head in the direction of the east. "Get a move on!"
A round of nods were had and Senik, Telius, and Kevin headed for the east gate without delay. Kevin sighted the rest of their group and he immediately pointed them in the same direction from afar with gestures. Targold nodded and started herding the other two towards the east gate as well.
"You're in good hands, Telius," Senik said with some measure of confidence, eyes ever forward.
Telius glanced at Kevin, then back to Senik. "Understood, kebalim," was all he replied with.
"Kebalim!" shouted Madeen from up high on the catwalks that gave the commanding view of the eastern approach. "What are we covering?"
"Us!" Kevin shouted back as he ran under her and closed in on the large metal slab that blocked all flow in and out of the bunker.
Senik took the grated metal ramp on the far left to join his legion up high. Madeen stared down incredulously at Kevin and his group, but a tap from her superior on the shoulder to keep her eyes in the right place got her setting up almost as fast as his orders. "Eyes east, Sphelix! Once they're out, I want a clear swath! No hostiles move in sight until they're out of view!"
Kevin felt like a bit of an ungrateful prick looking up into those eyes before they turned east. Most of them had saved his life, or worked to, and he'd not even had the chance given them a salute of respect for what they've done. None cut like Madeen's, though. Her very expression labeled him a deserter—part anger and part hurt from betrayal no matter how hard she tried to mask it. That look wasn't for the rest of his friends, either. Only him.
He tried to offer a look of apology in return and for once cursed the visor obscuring his visage. It was only moments ago that she'd forced herself to acknowledge his part in recent events and admit his beneficial presence and now he was leaving them? A hundred accusations flooded forth from there and the best he could do to answer for them was hold his hands out palm-up in front of him while trying not to drop his rifle. Madeen glowered and turned east with the others. Kevin only hoped he wouldn't have to dodge her shots on the flight out.
"Don't pay her any mind," Targold grumbled to Kevin as they stopped just shy of the heavy metal door separating them from the death beyond. "She's a soldier. Even if she doesn't want to admit it to herself, she understands."
The next several seconds that passed by in the shadow of that door seemed to stretch on forever. They all knew they had to go on; none of them argued that. That didn't mean they ignorant of just what they were walking out into. The march to the parliamentary building was probably twenty minutes at most, and a fifth of that they would spend with Sphelix Legion's scopes covering their backs. It was the rest of the march they feared. Reaper forces crawled over this area of the torn city like ants on the march, and it would only take a handful to turn their quick pace to a blood-soaked crawl if they slipped up.
Several of them jerked slightly as the door was raucously hoisted upward and Targold glanced back at them all. "Keep an even pace and watch your footing. You go down and you increase everyone's chances of death, not just your own." Everyone nodded somberly as the height of the door reached its peak. "And whatever you do, don't stop moving!"
The five of them ran out before apprehension could settle in too deeply. The loud cry of "Covering fire!" echoed from the wall above them and the entire sky above them rippled fiercely with the first volley of fire that sought out several meandering clusters of hostile forces somewhere ahead of them. Snarling gurgles followed, immediately drowned out by the subsequent shots that came again. Spehlix Legion was doing as they promised. Now Kevin and his had to get through to their target to make it worth the effort.
They started in a sprint, trying to get as far to the east along a broken street as they could before turning somewhere that left them bereft of covering fire. The mad dash was more difficult than Kevin initially expected. Debris and heaved ground made every step a challenge, and doing it in a full tilt run only made it harder to ensure each footfall was on something sturdy enough to hold.
The deafening sounds of constant gunfire faded behind them and eventually stopped in their concentration altogether to give way to the sporadic burst fire volleys necessary to hold the enemy at bay. They turned a corner around a building that looked sheared off at a sharp angle and they knew that they were truly on their own now.
Kevin suddenly realized just how thorough the devastation was around them. The pale yellow-orange light that saturated the entire city as the thick smoke continued to dim the rising sun, but fires were reduced to smoldering at this point. They came across a swath of emptiness that ran left to right for about three full blocks and was easily two or three houses in width. The ground under their feet had been glassed smooth, but was covered everywhere in rubble. They didn't hesitate to cross it, but it was immediately clear what had laid siege to this spot and it was more than a little unsettling.
Here and there a few disorganized clutters of reaper troops found them. They looked as though they'd just fought in—and retreated—from a battle judging by the seemingly random numbers in their groups and the injuries they were powering through without any sense of care. They seemed surprised by the attacks Kevin and his friends drove on them, if anything those monsters ever showed could be called surprise. This slowed their trek to the parliamentary building down, but they were able to keep moving well enough before attracting too much attention.
As they grew close enough to their destination, they could hear the sounds of sporadic combat coming from the building over the rest of the city for now, and Targold suggested they move up to a higher viewpoint to get a look at what there was left to traverse. On their way up a ramp formed by a collection of fallen pillars from who-knows-what of a monument, the sound of gunfire nearby caused them all to slow. There was only one gunner, and the loud, haphazard crashes and distinct roars in the ruins somewhere ahead of them told them all they needed to know.
"A brute…" Maela commented to the others as she pointed to a line of dust clouds billowing up over the broken buildings.
"But who is it chasing?" Liam wondered aloud.
The answer became clear in a flash as a quarian lunged through a mostly shattered window, rolled, then came up to his feet to turn around and fire off a volley. The brute roared and simply shouldered through the wall that the quarian had leapt through, causing the small suited alien to scramble away frantically. He ran full tilt, entirely unaware of the collection of people almost right over his head. He was panting hard, clearly having been at this chase for a while.
Targold nudged Kevin's arm with his elbow and flicked his head towards the chase with a grin. Kevin nodded, and before Liam or Maela could protest, Targold dropped off the side of their almost three story high ramp. Kevin followed a mere second and a half later, dark energy building.
Targold roared on his way down, landing feet-first right across the massive chest of the hulking hybrid. It roared in reply, but couldn't keep from having its moving balance summarily knocked off. Metallic feet splayed out behind the krogan as momentum carried the lower half of the brute's body where the upper half could no longer. A predatory smirk on his face, Targold took aim at the brute's head with his shotgun. Just as his finger pulled at the trigger, however, a blur of a metal claw smacked the krogan from his perch.
The quarian skidded to a stop to turn and see just what was going on the moment he heard the krogan's roar. His body flinched visibly as Targold was flung from his place and eyes moved to see the next thing to come flying down at the beast. He stiffened when he saw the quarian flying down at the brute and jumped back when he landed. The impact of Kevin's landing was so fierce it was if a small frigate had fallen out of orbit to land on the brute, utterly crushing everything his body touched into a small crater and even causing a small shockwave that kicked up dust and sent weak leftover structures to toppling.
Kevin lifted his fist from the flattened head and practically-obliterated body even as the legs twitched a few times just behind him. He looked down at it, his fists clenching and unclenching. The twitching stopped shortly after and Kevin stood upright as he heard a "Keelah" muttered loud enough to be heard even from where he was. He turned to approach the quarian who stumbled backward a step. After a few seconds, though, he regained his composure.
"Ah, thank you for the help!" he yelled above the surrounding noise. He was definitely a Migrant Fleet Marine with the armor he wore, and he had it half-wrapped in his clan cloths of blue and orange with traces of gold. "I hadn't expected to come across one of those bosh'tets…"
"What the hell are you doing out here, quarian?" Targold asked in a low but neutral grumble. Liam and Maela were scrambling down the ramp to join them.
The quarian hefted his aged M-8 Avenger and looked around. "I… I was scouting with two others. We were supposed to feel around the area for an escape route. The captain doesn't want to stay perched in that old building anymore. The other two were…" He turned his head to glance at the flattened brute.
"So the quarians… Your group is still alive?" Kevin asked perhaps a bit too eagerly.
Something glinted on the quarian's person, a trinket dangling around his neck, and Kevin's back stiffened almost too quickly as he recognized the shape—a T with a flared base and upper left and right ends turned downward until they pointed back at the center. The Xelvas'taersh emblem! There was something different about it, though. An extra symbol accompanied it, something in the quarian written language, and it sat centered in the shiny metal of the flared bottom of the T. Kevin's eyes flicked towards where his own should be, half-expecting it to have been ripped from his body some time ago in the fighting. To his relief, it was still tightly wrapped against his arm. The fabric around it was frayed and scorched in several areas, but it was still there and kept the symbol hidden. He didn't want it revealed until he'd seen the captain in case it caused too much hesitation or suspicion.
"Yes, but not for much longer at this rate, I'm afraid," the quarian replied, bringing Kevin's attention back to the conversation. "We're entrenched pretty well, but that also keeps us from getting out and it's only a matter of time before a reaper passes this way again.
They at least know these things are reapers. Better for everyone. "I need to talk with your captain," Kevin finally said as he took a step closer.
The quarian kept his place, but his head moved warily. "Who did you say you were again? You wear no clan colors…"
"We don't have time for this," Targold grumbled as he turned to head towards the parliamentary building. Liam and Maela finally caught up.
"Who's this?" Maela asked, her tone dripping with irritation.
Kevin shook his head. "I'll tell you—all of you—everything you want or need to know, but we need to get back to your people as soon as possible. It's that or keep turning corners into brutes… or worse."
The quarian looked between the four of them and shrugged. "The captain will have my suit for this, but… alright." He started off back the way he came and set a quick pace. "Scout Leader Jol'Nerahs vas Peravaash of the—"
Kevin bowled right over him. "Of the Xelvas'taersh, I know. We need to move." True to his urgency, he quickly started after Targold.
The quarian's head shot back as if he'd been slapped across the face, then tilted as if in wonder. He looked to Maela and Liam, who both looked back for a brief second before taking after Kevin and Targold with waves for him to get a move on.
When Jol'Nerahs caught up with the others, he called for a stop. "Wait! Wait! We need to approach from this way, to the south, or you'll be shot on sight, quarian or no! We've seen what these bastards do to people and we're not taking chances!" He runs by them and turned sharp to the east, pointing with his gun. "Over here, and keelah, let me go first!"
Targold and Kevin exchanged a glance, but neither could really fault them for their caution. Kevin still remembered the times he'd first seen human husks on his remote support missions with the Systems Alliance and it made him shudder. With a soft gesture, he urged for everyone to follow Jol'Nerahs. They only met with a pair of cannibals trying to find a better way around the veritable no-man's land between here and the broken parliamentary building and they only lasted a few seconds at best. It seemed the reapers' ground forces around here were nearly exhausted.
When they'd made their way to the spot Jol'Nerahs indicated, he gestured for them to wait a moment. "I'll signal for you to follow when they know you're coming." Leaving everyone else behind, the quarian stepped over a pile of rubble and into the open ground, arms up high and waving as if to gain their attention. He looked as though he might have been talking, but it was probably on a secure ad-hoc comms channel similar to the way Sphelix Legion had communicated over short distances.
Kevin saw laser light targeting glimmer off of the quarian's visor and on the ground around him, then dance away when it was apparent he wasn't a reaper hybrid. After a few more seconds, he turned back to wave Kevin and the others forward. When he followed Jol'Nerahs across the painfully open space between the broken city and the remnants of their destination, he saw the full extent of the devastation.
They were at the bottom, the very center of the crater left by the Facinus terrorist attacks, and where there used to be sprawling turian urban city around them, little was left but fires, smoke, rubble, and reapers. The fighting here had let up for the most part, but the war continued in full force everywhere around them as turians young and old picked up arms against the insurmountable invaders. The parliamentary building, as he soon realized, was actually a collection of smaller buildings surrounding a much larger central tower—or what used to be a tower. It had been sheared off at thirty degree angle about three or four stories up, and while several buildings were smoldering or collapsed, most of the structures were otherwise moderately intact. It seemed the reapers' first pass here was a quick one.
When they got into the quarian encampment, Kevin saw a great deal more armed quarians trickle out into the open from whatever building they'd been assigned to hold. There had to be nearly a hundred quarians all popping out to get a look at the oddest sight on Taetrus: A malformed quarian, an asari, a krogan, and a human all travelling together with a turian in the worst possible place they could ever hope to wander. All of these quarian survivors were filthy, most were battered, and several were fighting with injuries and suit punctures. A few even had to take a moment to wipe the grime and ash from their visors to get a better look at those that followed their scout leader into the encampment. Kevin could tell that quarians from all sorts of clans where here, but their colors had all mostly been muted by dirt, dust, and evidence of battle.
With the fighting around them having let up enough to glance away from the no-man's land, a good deal of the quarians moved in close to see just what was going on. Not all of them were happy about this little surprise.
"What the hell is this, Nerahs?" complained a tall quarian with a bit more ornament to his outfit than most. His Xelvas'taersh emblem dangled from his right bicep, the cord wrapped tightly around it. "Are we taking in strays now?"
"Strays?" Targold growled and he cocked his shotgun so that it spewed out a half-used heatsink.
Kevin threw an arm in front of the krogan to settle him before things got worse.
"Keelah, Lan'Karthal, I couldn't just leave them out there to get slaughtered! And besides, this one asked to see the captain." He flicked a long thumb at Kevin and all helmets turned towards him.
The quarian called Lan'Karthal turned to Kevin and stepped in close, looking him over. "Hmph. No clan cloths. What's wrong with your legs, son?"
Kevin glanced at the parliamentary building behind Lan'Karthal. He could feel the eyes of his friends on his back as if they expected him to solve everything just because he had a quarian suit on. He could feel even more eyes peering out at him from crevices and broken windows of the sheared structure ahead. "That's not important. I need to talk to your captain immediately."
"Who the hell do you think you are that we'd just summon the captain at your beck and call? You're certainly not one of us." His visor glanced downward, fixing on his legs. Kevin could almost feel the scornful grimace.
Jol'Nerahs stepped up next to the taller quarian and spoke low. "Lan, he knows about the Xelvas'taersh."
Lan's head turned toward Kevin so fast that he thought it would have snapped right off of his neck. "How? Certainly no outsider would know about it." His voice was full of disdain and he spat the word outsider like it was a curse.
"I'm going to get captain Tavval," Jol'Nerahs said as he turned to leave.
It was like a punch to his gut. Kevin's breath hitched in his throat and he lunged forward to catch Jol's arm. "What did you say your captain's name was?!" he asked with urgency and almost shouting. He heard Maela gasp behind him.
Jol turned back to look at him, but Lan threw Kevin's hand off angrily as if he should never have dared touch Jol's suit. "You try that again and I'll put you in the ground, bosh'tet. Now tell me who you are!"
Having his answer abruptly stolen from him, Kevin's eyes flashed with fury. In a smooth series of three moves, Kevin used the hand gripping his wrist to pull the angry quarian in, twisted his arm awkwardly to gain control, then swept a leg under him to put Lan'Karthal face-down in the dirt. Quarians all around yelled and weapons came out threateningly.
Kevin stood straight and he looked at all those visors, all those quarians that all had Xelvas'taersh emblems somewhere on them. These were the ones he came to see. He had to make them understand who he was now or they'd be evicted long before he could talk to their captain. Captain Tavval… Maybe her mother or father? A brother or sister? She never mentioned any of them…
"Xelvas'taersh…" Kevin started as he glanced down at the quarian he so quickly bested. "Hopefully you're all better than this." He gestured down towards Lan'Karthal.
Someone in the quarian ranks spoke up. "You speak to the Xelvas'taersh like you have any idea what we are, boy. We're the elite! Who are you to us?"
"Elite. You're all nothing but children! How many of you have killed one of those?!" Kevin asked loudly as he pointed towards one of the walking reapers. "I know Xelvas'taersh that have, and not a single one of them are here!"
Murmurs began to spread throughout the ranks and Lan'Karthal finally stood to his feet, seemingly doing his best not to strike at Kevin. "And just where have you heard these stories, boy?"
"Heard?" Kevin asked, incredulous and almost shouting. "I lived those stories!" It suddenly struck Kevin as odd that they knew about the reaper, the Gatekeeper, that he and the others had killed. It seemed years ago now. Everyone, his friends included, were staring hard at him now. Jol'Nerahs never made his trek off to find the captain, but had frozen in place, eyes fixed on Kevin.
Lan'Karthal took one more step closer to the quarian-clad human, his manner fierce. "I'll ask one more time, boy. Who are you?"
Kevin said nothing, but simply pulled his knife from its sheath on his back. Gazes hardened at the sight of the blade, but Kevin's slow and deliberate motions told them he'd not intended to attack with it. Carefully, Kevin wedged the tip of the monomolecular blade under the fabric wrapped around his own Xelvas'taersh emblem.
With a single jerk of his hand, the frayed material was cut and it fell to the dirt.
Gasps overtook the sounds of battle and mutters intensified. Jol'Nerahs's head flicked back and he nearly stumbled over a pair of marines behind him in his haste, finally remembering that he had to find the captain. He shouted after the captain as he left, people stepping aside to let him pass as he darted madly for the wide steps leading up into the broken parliamentary building.
Kevin sheathed his blade and Lan'Karthal grabbed him by the shoulders. "The mark of Squad Zero?! Where—where did you steal that from?!" he demanded intensely, sounding more confused than angry.
"I didn't steal it. It was given to me by Admiral Han'Gerrel vas Neema."
Lan'Karthal looked down at Kevin's legs again, nearly wordless. "What—"
Lan was cut off by a powerful modulated male's voice that carried over all of them from the top of the parliamentary building's steps. "You are looking at a ghost, Lan'Karthal."
All the mutterings ceased instantly. Lan let go of Kevin and he backed away as he looked back towards the stairs.
"A damn ghost," the voice repeated. A voice so familiar to Kevin that it made his chest tighten. "Tepka keelah… Things just keep getting more and more interesting around here." The source had since stepped into the crowd between Kevin and the stairs, and his approach was evident through the parting of quarians.
Kevin's stomach lurched into his throat when he saw Tyr'Garloh step passed Lan'Karthal. His suit was slightly different and there were new marks on his pauldrons, but there was no mistaking that voice and the way he carried himself. Kevin barely even noticed the filth and evidence of battle that marked him.
"Holy shit…" Maela muttered behind him as Targold gave a satisfied growl likely accompanied with his favorite grin.
"Tyr'Garloh vas Kellius? Is… is that you?" Kevin asked apprehensively. Part of him screamed that this was all a lie. It went against what he knew to be true. A million questions leaped up in an instant, but he forced them back to silence.
"Tyr'Garloh vas Peravaash now, but… yeah, that's me." He paused, looking Kevin up and down. "I can hardly believe what I'm looking at. You look just as you did the day… Well, back then." Tyr sounded as much in dumbstruck amazement as Kevin felt. There was something nagging the back of his mind, something about the captain… but he couldn't focus on it enough to remember.
Both at once, Tyr and Kevin stepped into a strong-armed hug; the hug of closest of friends not seen in ages. The war around them stood forgotten as all the memories he had of the Kellius team were suddenly pulled to the surface. He didn't even notice all those around them staring, friends included. After half a minute or so they broke embrace and both shook their heads at the impossibilities they had just overcome.
"Of all the damn places in the galaxy for you to rise from the grave, boy…" Tyr laughed.
"Me? What about you?" He struggled to find the words to explain his story but they just wouldn't come.
"You have got to be kidding me!" came another familiar voice from the stairs. There was no need for the quarians to part this time. Tyr had created a veritable hallway. The quick snap of an irritated salarian's voice preceded the figure walking down that corridor of bodies. "Just when I finally thought I'd gotten rid of you…"
Kevin's soul could barely contain his mirth. He thought he would explode from the sudden rising of it all. "Ralik Dolannus…" Again the words he sought fled him.
The armored salarian pulled his helmet off, revealing the same wily face and back-turned horns that Kevin could only remember in his dreams. His smile looked like it threatened to stretch all the way around his thin head. They stood at arm's length for but a moment, then rapidly closed to a hug even more heartfelt than the previous. Two best of friends brought back together from the clutches of the grave.
When they parted, Kevin gave Ralik's armor a brief look. The Eclipse symbol had been painted over and now sported the Xelvas'taersh emblem in precise detail in its place on his torso. Kevin grinned under his mask and he laughed. "Finally gave up that ugly suit, huh? It doesn't match. You need to do something about that face of yours."
There were some slight gasps from around them as if they expected Ralik to pounce on Kevin in rage. They were relieved when he laughed heartily and punched Kevin in the arm. "I don't know how… The possibilities overwhelm me. However you managed it, though… Damnit, Kevin, it's good to see you again."
Kevin took in a deep breath and let it go, giving his mind a moment to find the words before they took off from his tongue again. He'd noticed that Lan'Karthal had vanished, but that was so unimportant right now that he couldn't push the thoughts away fast enough. "You have no idea how good it is…" He looked back and forth between the two, wanting so bad to ask a hundred questions in the span of five seconds. One, however, stood out above the rest. "Are you two the only ones who…" He couldn't finish, but the implication was enough.
Tyr understood perfectly and he shook his head. "Not the only ones, no. There's one more, but she's making a firm effort not to come out to see the claims for herself. Disbelief has struck her thirty times harder than either of us, I'm afraid."
Kevin heard 'herself' and his mouth went dry as a bone to the point where he couldn't even bring himself to swallow.
Tyr went on. "I'm sure I could drag her out if—"
"What the hell is all this?" asked a woman from the stairs rather sharply. The voice rang in Kevin's ears as though a grenade had just burst near his head. "Do you all think we're done here? I'll be damned if I find—" The woman standing at the stop of the stairs looking down on them froze, her voice halting so suddenly that someone would think her modulator suddenly shut off.
Ralik and Tyr turned to look at the quarian addressing them all, and so did Kevin. He felt his limbs go numb and his chest got so warm he thought flames would burst out of his suit soon.
The woman at the top of the stairs suddenly stood up so rigidly straight Kevin half-expected to hear her back snapping. The breath she drew in was audible even over the surrounding chaos and hushed murmurs floating about the ranks. Only the noise of her heavily modified M-97 Viper sniper rifle clacking its way chaotically down the stairs, suddenly bereft of hands holding it tight, broke the metaphorical silence.
The quarians watched the rifle topple end over end until it hit the ground at the base, awed that she'd have ever let it get more than five inches away from her, or even worse, touch the dirt. Lan'Karthal stepped into sight next to her trying to say something quietly, but he was utterly ignored as she cautiously started making her way down the steps. She hardly even noticed the rifle she almost stepped on and made her way down the corridor of Xelvas'taersh towards Kevin. She approached even more cautiously now than previously as if he might vanish with the next breeze of wind.
Kevin's throat was more than dry as a bone now. My God… Arla'Tavval is… alive? She's still alive?! Everything about her he remembered, even if some small changes, similar to the ones Tyr had, were present. Her colors were still the same—a plush royal purple and deep ocean blue offset by accents of lively forest green—and she still wore a bandolier for thermal clips across her torso over her armor and cloths, though it was nearly empty now. Her Xelvas'taersh emblem still hung at her left hip, the dirtied band wrapped tightly around her waist. Her pauldrons were the only thing that had a significant change to them. They now bore the same etchings that Siri'Kortel's once had. She was the captain of the Xelvas'taersh now.
Kevin wanted nothing more than to run to her, to hold her, to pick her up and spin her around… To feel her hair through his fingers and taste the lust on her tongue. It suddenly occurred to him that she might not even want any of that anymore. Such a thought cut him deeper and seemed worse than the idea of getting caught between two reapers with nothing but a pistol. He forced himself to swallow dryly and once more found that his words would not come.
As she came within two arm's lengths, she stopped. She stared at him, and Kevin once more cursed the obscuring nature of quarian visors—he couldn't read her face. He imagined he wouldn't be able to even if he could see, however. He noticed Ralik and Tyr each taking a few steps back, both nodding to their captain as if to confirm to her that he was, in fact, standing there.
"Kevin?" she asked, her voice a delicate fraction of what she'd used to address her team with just moments earlier.
Suddenly the world around them vanished. There could have been five reapers ready to step on his head and he'd not have known it. He swallowed again and made his throat conjure his voice despite its resistance. "Yeah, that's me."
"You're… alive? But… I saw…" She shook her head. "Keelah, I saw you… The Kellius…" She spoke with her tone raised in utter disbelief. "How…?"
"It's… a long story." He forced a chuckle and looked into those luminescent eyes. He'd drowned in those glittering pools before and he was about to drown again. He stepped closer to her, seeing her hesitation to believe that he was real and took one of her hands in his. She looked down at it as if to watch and be sure that it was actually happening. Kevin placed a quarian-fingered glove under the chin of her helmet and lifted her eyes back to his. "Arla, I…"
Her breath trembled at hearing her own name by his voice.
A hand on Arla's shoulder snapped her out of the trance she had put herself in. It was Lan'Karthal. "Yes yes, nice reunion and everything. May I remind you both that we're in the middle of a war here? Are we proceeding with the plan or not?"
Arla gave a start and she looked between Lan and Kevin, taking a step away from the human. "Y-yes. Yes, let's get everyone packed up, we're moving out!" She looked back to Kevin only once. Once Lan handed her the dropped M-97 Viper, the quarian captain made some gestures above her head and the ranks around them all sprang into urgent action. "Kevin! Bring your friends to the top of the stairs. I'll discuss things further with you when we're out of everyone's way."
Kevin watched Arla walk away, a familiar swagger in her hips. He felt like he'd just taken a shot to the heart. He glanced at Lan, so close to Arla's side that they might as well be holding hands. Lan looked back, chin high and victorious. Kevin's fists clenched and the air around him began to shimmer violently.
Liam ran forward and pulled Kevin back by the shoulder. "No, Kevin! No, this is not the time, not the place!"
Kevin glared at Liam, but he knew he was right. With a long aggravated sigh, he let the dark energy go and forced himself to follow the two quarians. "Fine. Let's get up there and see what they want to talk about. Telius, up front with me—they'll want to know that you have what they came for."
Ralik and Tyr stepped up next to Kevin, Ralik's face cautious. "Lan'Karthal. Second Lieutenant. Troublesome one, that. An ego far too big for his helmet and he fawns over the captain like he has a right to."
Kevin grit his teeth. "I don't give a damn about Lan'Karthal." He spat the name as if it were venom sucked from a wound.
Ralik and Tyr exchanged a glance but remained quiet on the matter after that. Targold didn't seem to get the hint, though, and he grumbled his disdain. "Asshole. I'd have put a crater in him on the spot if he'd done that to me."
Liam jabbed Targold in the ribs with the elbow of his armor, though it might as well have been a feather against a brick wall. The krogan seemed to catch the hint this time, though, despite giving Liam a questioning shrug as if to ask what he did wrong.
At the top of the stairs, Arla waved them all over to a holoprojector set atop a metal crate that had recently been emptied of supplies. She turned it on and everyone moved around it. Lan and Tyr took Arla's sides while Ralik, Maela, Targold, and Liam took Kevin's. Arla looked to the aliens surrounding Kevin and she cocked her head, but shook it quickly afterwards.
"As much as I want to know who your companions are, Kevin, introductions will have to wait. Lan tells me our eyes east have spotted a reaper on its way directly here so we're making ready to evacuate."
"Evacuate to where?!" Maela asked abruptly.
The quarians looked at the asari for a brief moment over the interruption and Lan whispered something to Arla before she continued. She waved her omni-tool hand over the limited map of Vallum and a spot highlighted. It was due northeast of their current marked location, outside of the reaper's influence and slightly behind its current pace. "This is the landing pad that the Peravaash used to get us into the city. As far as we know it's not yet been swept by the reapers."
A line slowly crept its way southeast, then cut north just behind the predicted reaper's placement. "We're going to head southeast, then cut north just behind the reaper as it passes by. We'll head straight for the spaceport then pray to the ancestors that there's at least something left for us to lift off in. If not… Well, we may end up spending more time waiting for our ambassador to arrive than we thought."
"There's no need to wait," Telius said as he took a small step closer to the table. "I'm First Lieutenant Telius Mettack of the Four Hundred and Fifty-First Shock Legion. I was sent by Primarch Fedorian to be the one to make contact with your team regarding the exchange."
Arla looked up to Telius expectantly. "Do you have it with you then, Lieutenant?" she asked briskly.
"I do," he replied with a satisfied nod.
Arla breathed a long sigh, exhaling one trouble she did not want to bear on her shoulders. "That's the best news we've had in six days and a double sun next to the amount of light shone on our fortunes in the last. Maybe now the Migrant Fleet stand a chance, assuming we get out of this damn hell we've fallen into. Telius, I advise you come with us. There's no way we're going back through the center of Vallum."
"As was my intent, captain," Telius acknowledged with a nod.
Arla looked around at all the foreigners as she leaned onto the crate with her hands, though she stopped to look long at Kevin. "You should all come. It's the only chance we have to get out of here and I could not—I would not leave you all to the utter lack of mercy of these blasted machines."
Everyone nodded. Lan, however placed a hand on one of Arla's forearms to protest. "Captain, we can't—"
Arla cut him off sharply, her tone just shy of chastising. "Don't question my judgment, Lan'Karthal, especially not in front of outsiders. I think you'd better go help Jiah'Merni with distributing the remaining thermal clips and get those provisions packed away before someone stomps on them."
Lan looked taken aback as if she'd never done that to him before. "I—Y-yes, captain." He gave Kevin a long glance and hurried off.
Kevin was impressed. Arla had really grown into the position of captain and she didn't seem to look to Tyr for decision making even a quarter as much as she used to. Nothing like the meekness she showed him for a short time at the base of the stairs. He wondered if he'd ever see that Arla again.
The captain waited for Lan to be gone before continuing. "I apologize for that. Lan'Karthal can be…"
"Overzealous," Tyr'Garloh finished for her. "Much the same way a certain second lieutenant was back in the day if I remember."
Kevin would have been glad to hear her chuckle, but she merely nodded in grim realization. After that she continued. "Levo provisions are almost gone here so we unfortunately cannot feed you. We have a good store on the Peravaash, however, if she's not in flames on the landing pad. We'll be off within the next few minutes."
"We'll be alright," Liam offered with a smile.
"Arla, do you have a minute?" Kevin asked with a flick of the head off to the side.
She looked at him and sternly said, "No, I don't."
The flat coldness in her voice caused a disheartening chill up his spine. It was all he could do not to straighten up rigidly.
As if to drive the point home, two quarians ran up the stairs and saluted. The first up, a male, quickly started with his nervous announcement. "Captain! We're prepped to move, but I have dire news! The reaper is almost upon us already! We estimate three minutes until we're within range of its attacks!"
"Damnit!" Arla cursed and she shut off the holoprojector to fold it up. She tossed it to the female quarian that ran up with the male and started towards the stairs. "Pick it up, Xelvas'taersh! We're about to get trampled!"
"How did it get here so quickly?" Maela wondered aloud as she went with everyone else to follow Arla down the stairs.
"Well that explains the sudden lull in fighting," Tyr mentioned off-hand and he turned to face Kevin and his friends. "Folner, I know you can hold your own, but I can't expect anything of these others. I see they're wearing armor, but that usually says little of skill. Can they handle themselves in a fight?"
Maela huffed, offended as usual, and Targold cleared his throat as if to remind the quarian of the miniscule detail that he was a krogan.
"Given the hell we all walked through to get here, I'd say yes. Especially that one." He flicked a thumb towards Targold. "Watch out for him, he might clear the way for you." He glanced over at his big friend and the krogan grinned maliciously.
Tyr did at least glance at the eight hundred pound mercenary before nodding to Kevin. "Alright, I trust your word. Everyone stick close to Ralik, the captain, and me. The rest of the Xelvas'taersh have their orders, so don't worry about them."
"Understood," Kevin replied for the group.
Tyr'Garloh rushed ahead to help the captain organize the ranks for immediate evacuation but Kevin didn't move with as much urgency. His eyes were locked on the captain and the stern words 'No, I don't' echoed endlessly in his head. He knew that she should rightly be focused on getting everyone out alive, but the stark rejection of it made his stomach wither. There was no warmth in those words. No 'I want to, but…' It was distance and ice. The more Kevin heard those words replay in his head, the more it sounded like she regretted him showing up and would rather that he weren't here.
Kevin failed to realize that his pace had slowed to crawl and caused Targold to give him a shove. "We're not here to watch the flowers grow, Folner. Get those feet out of the rocks."
It snapped Kevin out of it and he nodded. "Uh, right. Moving."
The krogan glanced sidelong at his small friend. "Now's not the time to be dissecting her words like a science project, kid! Deal with her later!"
Targold was right and Kevin knew it. He did his best to shake off the chill that had fallen over him and he focused on getting out. Ahead of them, the entire Xelvas'taersh was in motion, all running for the southeastern side of their would-be stronghold. Quarians with Sniper rifles, Arla included, lined up just inside the edges of the ring of destruction before the somewhat smoky no-man's land and took aim across to the far side. Several shots rang out as a hostile here and there were eliminated to minimize trouble as they crossed the swath of emptiness that served to protect them as well as hold them in. Only the snipers and those meant to stay with Arla held back and rest ran headlong into the open ground.
Shots from various areas careened at the line of people hastily crossing the death zone, but they were distant and inaccurate. Most were quickly silenced by snipers before they too had to pick up and make the run across. To the northeast, the massive dark cuttlefish-shaped machine relentlessly tore its path the way it had been for the last day, heading straight for what remained of the parliamentary building. It roared and the sound ran through them all as if to rupture their very organs with the vibrations. Kevin fully expected to have to dodge crimson beams on the way across the no-man's land, but thankfully none ever came.
Once all the way across to the ruined buildings to the southeast, the Xelvas'taersh continued its pace as best as it could. Footing was treacherous at best, but at least no one tumbled and cracked his or her visor on the harsh angles of debris underfoot. With more haste than they'd managed in a day, they moved between half-fallen buildings and numerous counts of evidence of reaper assault while the ground shook under them from the reaper nearby.
It seemed to Kevin that the thunderous stomps were getting closer, not further away. They should have passed by it at this rate if it kept on its course. When he and his group turned into a building to pass through it and bounded around a corner to find the rest of the column of quarians stopped and staring skyward, he knew this was not the case. The air boomed with the mixed sounds of another reaper footfall and the half-standing buildings folding like paper as it easily crushed them.
"Why are we stopping?!" Arla yelled to her team.
The bright red light and distinctive sound of a reaper laser filled the air and casted dark shadows along the rubble-strewn ground behind the group huddled at the front, answering for their captain before they could. Something behind them exploded with such ferocity that it shook the structure they had stopped in, causing dust to fall around them even more than the stomps. Whirring mechanical joints buzzed their ears as the sounds of fire and destruction retreated, and everyone braced for the shake of another of the reaper's steps. The building across the street ahead of them crumpled under that deadly black metal digit, all its architecture and engineering unable to put up the slightest bit of fight.
All sorts of startled cries filled the room and Arla pushed her way through, followed by Tyr'Garloh, Ralik, Lan'Karthal, and Kevin with his friends.
Arla growled with fury. "Don't stop, you tepka bosh'tets! Move! Now! Go!"
Kevin followed Arla and the others out that door and into the street. No matter how much he told himself not to, he looked up and his breath would have caught in his throat were he not breathing hard from the running. He was looking straight up the front-most segmented metal leg as it remained down after crushing the building just ahead of them. Other legs were in motion, moving it forward and continuing its death march. Spheres like the one that had attacked him and Core Squad when climbing the smaller reaper flew around its pointed peaks like an angry swarm of bees, ensuring no aerial threat could even get near it. Kevin swallowed hard.
Suddenly the massive black leg was lifting from the ground in front of them and pulling into the air. It curled inward like a finger as it whirred overhead, dropping bits of debris all the while, to come crashing down behind them right in the middle of the street they had just used. For the first time he was seeing the outside of one of these reapers up close. The last one of this size he'd gotten this close to he couldn't see very well due to being so focused on getting his team into the narrow space that would give them entry to the inside. It astounded him. It was so big… Not even the mighty dreadnoughts of the Systems Alliance or the Turian Hierarchy could boast anything that big. The joints connecting the legs to the body were seamless, as if they were designed from the start to seem organic in nature. Little lights shone from all over as if the reaper itself had a huge crew on board and light from the windows could be seen.
His gawking was cut short when Targold gave him a shove. "Eyes forward, Folner! Now's not the time to be sneaking a peek up a reaper's dress!"
Kevin didn't reply but simply brought his focus under control and continued his forward dash with the others. Another of the legs picked up and curled over their heads, crashing down too close for comfort off to their right. The shockwave itself made several people stumble mid-stride. He noticed at that point that Arla had angled the direction of the column to head straight for the spaceport. The threat was behind them now since the reapers could only shoot those beams ahead of them, and unless this one turned around uncharacteristically, they wouldn't have to face it again.
Several times they had to stop to fight off a substantial group of attackers along the way. This far into the heart of Vallum was purely reaper territory, and it was obvious. All the turians here were either dead or routed, easily spotted along the roadside or draped haphazardly over rubble. The blue of their spilled blood was everywhere. It was disheartening to see how devastating the attack was, having claimed almost an entire defensible turian city in little under a single day.
Only a little further to go, then we can see what we'll be dealing with at the spaceport, Kevin thought with just the faintest glimmer of hope. Only a little further and we can get the hell out of this mess.
They were booking it fast up an obliterated road they had just cleared of hostiles, intent on getting to the end before navigating around several buildings to get their first glimpse of the spaceport. Two-thirds of the sprint there, however, a loud yell amongst the quarians alerted everyone to a new problem.
"Reeeeaaaapeeeeerrrrrrrrrr!"
