Holee shiz. Guys. I didn't quite realize how huge I was going to make this story. I did a couple hours of brainstorming and planning this weekend to determine where I want to take this story, and how I want to give it a satisfying end and what plot points I want to take it through to get it there, and dang. Let's just say that I severely underestimated the length this story is gonna be. I have big plans for this ma dudes. Big plans. My planning sesh gave me some awesome ideas that I jotted down that I am super excited about. The problem is that the story is planned to be so big that I won't be able to share those with you for a good amount of time, easily one of the larger stories in the Halo/Mass Effect crossover category. Don't stress tho, I plan on updating frequently, and I promise I won't get halfway into it and then quit. I'm feeling dedicated to this story even more after planning it out, and I hope you'll love the direction I want to take it in. Honestly I even wrote a few portions of chapters that I want to include further into the story - about a couple dozen chapters down the line - I liked it so much. I feel like I have finally nailed down a realistic and plausible way to merge these two universes without any canon breaking things. It will make more sense once I get into it further, I promise. Let's just say that I think it'll be pretty satisfying for all involved.
One more quick thing - don't worry, this is not going to be a triple crossover or anything like that. I needed a new alien species for further plot details, and I chose the xenomorphs from aliens purely for the fact that I felt that it would work better for the upcoming story. I will be explaining their presence as well as a few other things within the upcoming chapters. The story is planned to be a pretty long one, like I said, so don't worry if there are things such as that that might go unaddressed for a little bit - I promise I will get to them eventually. I would be a bad writer, well, worse than I am, if I answered all the questions I brought up immediately.
Also, sorry for the grammatical errors. I do a proofread of each chapter a little too quickly before I submit it, so my apologies. Thanks to all those who have volunteered to do that for me - I will be taking that into consideration, so thanks
HIHIHIH
Miranda was conflicted. Fully aware of how... complicated their current situation was, she picked it up and viewed it from all facets like a diamond cutter examining a new stone. Things weren't exactly shaping up for her. As a member of Cerberus- no, not just any member, but a high-ranking one at that, being surrounded by Alliance Marines was quite frankly one of the last situations she would have wished to fall into. Her only consolation was that for the time being, they were on the same side.
One half of her brain listened in on the orders that the Lieutenant was handing out. Miranda was indifferent towards her. She was shorter, a few inches more so than herself, with short brown hair and fiery green eyes to match her personality- pretty, undoubtedly, but an entirely different beauty from Miranda herself. While she was more regal and refined, curved and elegant, the Lieutenant seemed more tomboyish and casual, with the look of successful athlete turned hardened soldier. She was authoritative, collected, and commanded her team well. Add that to the fact that she seemed to be adequately skilled in terms of combat, and seemed to have no problem meshing the two incredibly diverse teams together, she was a good leader. Her slightly prideful and somewhat arrogant attitude combined with her flippant and sometimes dry sense of humor honestly reminded the Cerberus biotic a little of herself. She instantly hated her.
Especially now so that she had elected the 'Master Chief' to serve as front man. 'How is it that people keep this bastard locked up for a full week guarded 24/7 and questioned by about everyone on the ship, but as soon as you enter a battlefield, he becomes the most trustworthy bloody mate around?'. She almost sneered. She did manage a glare at him that would've burnt a whole straight through the Destiny Ascension, but must've been stopped by those shields of his, as the Master Chief continued forward, heedless. It was slightly infuriating how he managed to insert himself into every situation as the savior, 'as if', she snorted. Of course, the logical part of her brain was concluding with the others, that the man certainly seemed more than capable of taking charge on the battlefield. But yet... his tactical and medical advice, his enhanced physique and expansive knowledge... She was being replaced.
"What were those things?" Tali's question interrupted her thought processes. She knew instantly that the Quarian was referring to the strange and huge aliens found in the plaza, the ones that had killed the two marines. It wasn't the first time someone had posed that question, and it likely wouldn't be the last.
Miranda's first idea was that of a Rachni. Thanks to the Illusive Man's illusive sources, she too had seen Shepard's after action report on the Noveria incident. There were multiple similarities between the Rachni and these new creatures, an affinity for acid was among them. If so, was this a previously unencountered variation of the now extinct species? It would make sense that in their millennia of wandering the stars that the Collectors would come across something that could aid them in their cause.
Her next idea had her thinking they were a Collector variant by nature. Anatomical similarity's immediately helped her see that as a logical option. Elongated heads, sharpened claws on the end of the appendages, and well, they were here - together, weren't they? Right where the Collectors were landing and initiating this invasion of sorts. It wouldn't be abnormal for a subspecies such as this to have evolved in such a way, especially if the Reapers were involved.
As much as it irked her, she just didn't know. Not that she was going to admit it, though. "The Collectors must've run into the Rachni at some point, they do seem like a variation of that species, of course, with various differences."
"The Rachni??" Tali shuddered. She had worked hard to forget the terrible events regarding the rediscovery of that particular species. Miranda could tell she was still slightly shaken by this whole ordeal. Of course, most, if not all of the crew here had engaged in combat situations before, Tali included, but a full-on battlefield was another story altogether. Still, she was impressed by the way everyone was holding up- the firefight where Jacob and Shepard were injured had been the most harrowing of her life, and only thanks to dumb luck did some of the other team members escape serious harm.
Grunt... grunted. "Could be. Those bastards took a hella lotta rounds to put down. Would of loved to go a round or two with it." There was almost a smirk on his face as he could barely contain his eagerness to fight the large beasts.
"It would not be wise to jump into battle with a foe we know so little about." It was Samara's turn to offer words of wisdom. Her words weighed heavily, the centuries of wisdom that the Justicar possessed seemed to wrap so many nuggets of advice in the so few words that she always spoke. The Asari turned to Miranda, looking straight into her eyes. "I believe this mission has... complicated our goal of stopping the Collectors." Somehow the Cerberus Operative knew she meant so much more than temporary setbacks due to injury and other matters. The whole situation, the Collectors slaughtering colonists and then gathering their bodies, the new enemy they had just barely faced, a jammer aboard an atmosphere capable ship, the involvement of the System's Alliance... it was about to get a whole lot more complex. And she wasn't sure it was for the better.
The Marine platoon was down a squad, as Harrison directed one of the supporting squads to secure the plaza and wait for a recovery detail to take the two marines that were killed back to the landing zone, which was probably being set up as a forward operating base if Miranda didn't know any better. Meanwhile, the Master Chief as pointman was successfully drawing zero fire and uncovering zero items or areas of interest. They were still following the destruction of the 1st and 2nd platoons in Wire company, with Harrison relaying instructions to them on where to proceed that were given to her by various crew members. The first step was to secure the area around the destroyed Collector ship, as there would certainly be a large amount of intel and other salvageable data from the wreck. 'Just how did you do it...' she thought, in concerns to the apparent destruction of the vessel. She had long been suspicious of the Master Chief's arsenal, yet it didn't quite seem that anything handheld would warrant such devastation. Of course, that shoulder mounted laser weapon sure ignited her curiosity, she couldn't wait for a closer examination.
Drawn back to the present when the team halted, she watched some of the Marines fan out to secure a slightly larger area. Turning to Garrus, who was peering up ahead trying to get a better visual with both his sniper rifle and eye mounted optics she asked, "you see anything?"
It took him a few seconds to answer, through which Miranda waited patiently. He shook his head softly. "No. It seems like we're clean up detail for the other platoons up there." He growled softly. "I hate that we're just being thrown in like an afterthought. We should be up there with the others, we know the Collectors better than anyone!"
She had to agree. She couldn't help but feel that this Colonel Silvers was wasting the teams talents here in the backwater like this. However, she begrudgingly understood, as it would make zero logical and tactical sense to have an unknown team, from what was in their eyes, a terrorist faction, to have front row tickets to the marines op. Not that that didn't make it any less annoying.
"I say we just leave these softies here. It was perfect until they got here..." Grunt said with his teeth gritted. Hearing their conversation, it did strike a nerve with him why a perfect krogan was demoted to 'support' staff. "Had lotsa things to shoot at, lotsa things to punch, lotsa things to kill. Now we're stuck at the freakin' back."
Vega overheard from where he was working closely with the Alliance Lieutenant. He gave a short laugh, knowing exactly what was going through the krogan head. "Don't worry Grunt, I'm sure the boys ahead will start letting some slip through the cracks." Harrison gave a loud snort at that. 'As if...'
It seemed in that moment, that there was a krogan deity far above the din of the battlefield on Huriko that took pity on the poor tankborn super soldier, because just then, the Colonel's voice was audible through Harrison's omnitool headset. Miranda had heard from a few of the marines that the Colonel was recently promoted, the CO of a battalion of marines in the 3rd regiment - Force Recon. The man was a classic marine. Big, burly, with a loud booming voice and as gung-ho as any drill sergeant - with the scars to back it up. A man named Major Thomas was currently in command of the rest of the battalion in orbit, who were currently moving to drop on the outskirts of the city and mop of resistance as they pressed inward.
"Alright kids, this it. I've got good news and I've got bad news. Bad news is, we've got a defense fleet inbound in a few hours with another battalion of regulars ready for deployment - reinforcements. The good news is, there won't be anything left for them to do at that point. Bad Company's scouts have just found the jackpot, it looks like a small artillery setup farther into the city. I'm pulling Wire company 1st platoon to assist, with 3rd platoon moving up with 2nd to secure the wreckage. Captain Taylor, you're moving with 1st platoon, I'm giving Harrison the stick for this one. How copy?"
She heard the reply, and tuned it out as she heard the chat between Tali, Kasumi and Garrus a little further back about their other comrades.
"I just heard back from Joker, they stabilized Thane, he's gonna be alright. Jacob is still unconscious, it looks like he took a heavy concussion. The Commander's been awake for a little while, but Joker seemed a little worried. I don't know about what, but I think it has to do with the Commander. Just remember that the Alliance isn't the biggest fan of Cerberus right now - we need to be careful."
Tali moved to protest, "we need the Alliance! Think of what we can do with this many marines when we actually have to face the Collectors! I think we should-" Miranda moved to cut her off.
"No - they might believe us about the Collectors now, but you have to remember that all of our intel comes from Cerberus. They won't trust us enough to go on the offensive, we got lucky enough that they came this time. They might still try and detain us after this, for all we know."
Garrus sighed. "Probably, yeah. As much as I hate to admit it, we're an unknown to them right now. They'll definitely keep us for questioning, but we need to convince them somehow of what we're actually trying to do."
They talked as Harrison redirected 3rd platoon to reposition and join up with 2nd platoon, the disciplined marines following her orders without hesitation. If the previous slight engagement with the... monsters, had affected them negatively, they had yet to show it.
Internally, Miranda was relieved when she heard the news. Things could've been much worse. But everyone was alive, and it looked like they would recover. It helped to alieve some of the guilt that she had been feeling ever since Thane had gotten hit. The Cerberus biotic tried not to think about it as much as she could, but it always loomed in her subconscious that if she hadn't of pressed so hard and so fast with her team during the initial push, then none of the crew would be wounded, even now. With a mental shove, she pushed such thoughts to the back of her mind. She had to be flawless from here on out. After all, wasn't that what she was designed to do?
The team shortly made contact with 2nd platoon, who were faring fairly well, having only sustained a couple of injuries during the fighting, none too severe. At that point, Harrison briefed them on their next objective. Because the situation on the ground was still developing and new intel was being discovered constantly, it was only natural that mission parameters and goals were to be changed on the fly in addition.
"Colonel Silvers has decided that we are going to recapture the shipping yards. Lieutenant Vega here tells me that it was heavily defended, with close quarters combat fairly common. Keep an eye out for sharpshooters and heavy weapons, we can't afford to take casualties here. Our primary objective is to secure the downed aircraft that the Normandy crew disabled, after which we'll wait for reinforcements to take the rest of the yard. 2nd platoon, I want you 100 meters 3 o'clock of our position at all times. Lieutenant," she said, gesturing to Vega, "I want you to take your crew and cover 3rd platoons right flank, you'll be in the middle of us, that alright with you?"
He nodded in response. "Good. Who is most familiar with the shipping yards out of your crew?"
Miranda and Kasumi raised their hands, while the green spartan stepped forward, the first two having been apart of the team that initially scouted the area, while the latter actually was the reason they were securing wreckage right now instead of an active ship. Harrison looked at all three of them, as if examining them, slowly blinking. "I'll need you to brief me on the terrain while we get moving. I'll put you with a squad to scout ahead a little and relay enemy positions." Then, speaking to the group at large, "I'll forward instructions to squad leads, let's get a move on."
Miranda didn't miss the slight increase in professionalism from the marine lieutenant as she was obviously focusing on her new responsibility of leading a second platoon. No doubt the woman would be in for a promotion if everything went smoothly, but Miranda had a feeling that she was much less concerned with the rank than she was about the lives of her men.
Once they began moving, and Harrison finished instructing the squad leads on their new roles, she, Kasumi, and the Master Chief were separated from the others and put into a squad of marines from 3rd platoon, with whom they had previously worked with. Their job was to sneak into the shipping yards and radio in any targets of importance or opportunity, at which point they would rejoin the platoon while they assaulted the targeted locations.
Miranda glanced to her right to look at Kasumi, as to determine what state of mind the thief was currently occupying. She watched as the small woman took a deep breath and slowly exhaled, steeling her facial features. They were now part of an official military operation, and there would no doubt be a decent firefight ahead of them. It looked like the team was getting a handle on their nerves, which was a good sign. Although unfamiliar with the finer aspects of warfare, each member of the team had at least been in heavy combat situations before, which undoubtedly helped.
Looking over the other shoulder at the man chosen to join them, Miranda couldn't help but feel a spike of envy at the huge soldiers calm attitude. For some reason, the aura surrounding the Master Chief was even more quiet and collected than aboard the Normandy, which was... odd. Having restocked on thermal clips when the marines initially landed, his matte black rifle still magnetically attached to his back, the other soldiers and their guns almost looked like toys in comparison. She could only guess what he was feeling in regards to the seemingly limitless supply of ammunition that differed from his gas/propellant styled weaponry. Any soldier she knew would be ecstatic about the possibility of unlimited munitions on the battlefield, and she felt as if the significance of that was not lost on this enigmatic... super-soldier.
A long conversation with the man was overdue, and although she suspected that she would end up doing a great deal more talking, she had some questions that severely needed answers. Logging it in her mind for the to-do list as soon as they returned to the Normandy, she moved to join the rest of the squad as they moved into their position while the team approached their objective, the shipping yards.
0o0O0o0O0o0
"EDI, I need a report on all activity on the QEC for the past week," Shepard requested from the A.I., intent on discovering the identity of their betrayer.
"Affirmative Commander. It appears that there were approximately 87 calls placed using the shipboard QEC during that time frame. Would you like me to narrow the search parameters?"
"How the hell do we have so many logs? I've used the thing myself like twice! Who had been using it?" He was quite surprised, it seemed like this could've been worse than he thought. That many leads? Something must be done.
"The majority of the crew aboard the Normandy have been logged with the QEC since our last departure, most have done so with an authenticated connection with kin and - or close friends." Oh. That made sense, actually. He knew that Garrus' family on Palaven was relatively tight knit, Miranda had her sister, Samara her daughters, and who knew how many else. Of course, there were a few who had no use for the personal communicator during off hours, namely Jack, Grunt, and... himself. With a start, he realized that he truly had, well, nobody. Of course, he could call Tali and Garrus his friends, but could he really? More like subordinates. As far as he knew, he had no living immediate family. The memories, while still warm and pleasant, stirred up painful thoughts. He quickly pushed all self-pitying feelings and thoughts- he had a job to do.
"Has there been any excessive use over that time period?"
"Excessive by what standard, Commander?"
"Uh... try over 5 calls."
"Yes. There were approximately 14 calls have been placed by Chief Gabriela Daniels over-" he didn't let her finish.
"What?! 14 calls? Any idea who they were to? Is it possible to detain her for questioning?"
"I can instruct the security team to do so, however, 12 of those calls were placed to a civilian on the colony of New Europa by the name of Casey Daniels. Further insight reveals the two to be twin sisters."
Ah... so they were siblings. Well, that's one way to explain the calls. He would have to instruct the crew on the use of the QEC in the future. He wasn't necessarily military anymore, but there had to be some restrictions on contacting loved ones, otherwise the team would become distracted. He had seen it before during his alliance days, how when someone was too focused on life at home that life on the ship became a nuisance. "The other two calls? You said there were 14 in total?"
"Of course. The remaining two calls were placed to an individual named Philip Donohue, who also lives on New Europa. My searches indicate that Chief Daniels and Mr. Donohue have recently begun a romantic interest."
"I see. And what about any other excessive users?"
"There have been 8 calls made from Engineering officer John Taylor to various sources, 7 made from Security Officer Jeanette Butler to contacts mostly on the citadel, and 5 from Garrus Vakarian to presumed family on Palaven."
Shepard stroked his chin absentmindedly. "Hmm... When you say various sources - in the case of Taylor, what do you mean?"
"It appears that there have been multiple calls placed to different Research and Development companies across Alliance space - further research indicates that the listed companies are currently the leading developers for experimental parts essential to our drive core." Of course, that made sense, an engineering officer would need access to a list of supplies, although interestingly enough, it would lie within the responsibilities of the requisitions officer to attain a list of said parts.
"Instruct security to detain him momentarily for some questions. You mentioned another crew member - Jane Buller?"
"Jeanette Butler."
A quick finger snap accompanied "That's the one. What do you have on her?"
"Tracing the calls from Security Chief Butler, they look as if they are directed to multiple different vendors within the first ward of the Citadel, mostly those associated with arms, armor and munition trading. While the content of all of our outgoing QEC calls are unavailable, I assume that these specific calls were placed in regards to Ms. Butler's position as Assistant Chief of Security. It does seem that the specific vendors contacted do have access to certain pieces of equipment not available from the Cerberus standard armories." This one made sense as well... however a similar situation to that of John Taylor's, it should lie in the role of the requisitions officer to attain any necessary equipment that the crew would require. Just in case, she'd need to be detained as well until they could confirm she was clean.
Of course, there was Garrus, but if Garrus was a traitor, then Shepard was a Collector. Maybe the perp didn't use the QEC excessively? That would leave him to filter out way too many Crew members who just made a few calls - EDI did say that most of the crew had already logged at least one call. That would take too long to go through them all.
"Were there any calls made during the past week that had their destination closer than a few thousand light years from Noveria?"
"None."
"Hmm."
Of course, it was possible that the culprit wasn't even using the shipboard QEC, but an alternate one - in which case, it might actually be easier to unravel the mystery, not to mention that this would probably be the most logical option for any infiltrator, as it would be harder to trace a signal from an additional unlogged QEC.
FTL communication - something absolutely vital to a trans galactic society, relied on a principle known as quantum entanglement, where, using element zero, the device in question would manipulate the movement of quantum particles that - in accordance with the quite misunderstood realm of quantum physics, would simultaneously manipulate those particles in an alternate location. Of course, according to the laws of quantum mechanics, it was technically possible that something could be in two places at once. As long as the particle manipulation was done in a way that could be easily interpreted, than messages could be exchanged instantaneously regardless of distance - working in a very similar way that the mass relays themselves operated.
One of the possible issues with this, was that there was a quick burst of electron activity immediately following the transmission, as the atoms in the affected area were jolted slightly. If the eezo had not been properly stabilized, it would quickly ionize, leading to system failure. The issue had long since been resolved by using the eezo itself, generated a tight knit gravity field filled with atoms with incomplete octets that would attract the stray electrons. However, as is always the case with one of the smallest particles known to the universe, electrons have a funny habit of bypassing quite literally everything. As a result, QEC transmissions could theoretically be detectable using certain measuring systems to gauge electron activity from the escaping electrons. It was only possible on a very short range basis, and even then, only in space, as the electrons would otherwise quickly find an uncompleted outer shell to bond to within the atmosphere. Fortunately, as part of its mission to detect and combat both the Collectors and the Reapers, the Cerberus' version of the Normany was outfitted with the most precise sensor equipment known to man - built to detect discharge and/or usage of element zero and atomic activity that might result from Collector/Reaper presence - one of the many interesting and unique facets of the ship.
As a given, Shepard didn't know all of the specifics of how the QEC worked, so he wearily limped his way up to the CIC on a pair of nearby crutches, seeking to avoid the all-seeing gaze of Doctor Chakwas, and the above was excitedly explained to him by Communications Chief Allyson Baird, eager to finally impart her extensive knowledge of the subject upon her commanding officer. However; upon witnessing the fog that appeared over the Commander's eyes that most commonly was associated with the most popular style of donuts, she said - "Basically, if someone is using quantum entanglement on the ship, we can use the ships sensors to detect where and when the transmission originated, even if its not from the official QEC." It began to make more sense...
"What about it's destination? Would it be possible to do that?"
Baird frowned, her pale features scrunched in thought. "No, not without knowing the exact frequency of the message itself. We'll only be able to find out a general area of where it started, and the when." She quickly turned to her communications console on the Command Deck, however, as she did so, Shepard grabbed her arm gently to keep her from turning.
"Wait," he started, aware that multiple eyes were on him, probably curious about the uniquely detailed questions that Shepard had used to quiz the blonde communications officer. He quirked his head in the directions of a nearby room, away from the prying eyes and ears that would most likely accompany them. The fact they had some kind of mole aboard wasn't common knowledge, and Shepard intended to keep it that way. The less the crew knew about it, the less they would worry about possible traitors in their midst, and the more effective they would be. Shepard directed Chief Baird towards the room, at which point he quietly shut the door. He would have to explain some things.
"Listen," he begun, curiously watching her face to gauge any reactions. He could tell her the partial truth. "I want to find out if someone is using an alternate form of communication to transmit something from the ship. I need you to bring me the sensor records you told me about for the past week and a half, and I want every anomaly in that time frame logged in there, okay?"
She nodded, now slightly curious herself. "Commander Shepard, sir, is there something I should know?"
He shook his head. "No, everything's going well, I just want to find out who hasn't been sharing a potentially useful piece of tech," he lied. Leaning his crutch against his side, and ignoring the burning pain in his leg, he laid a hand on the crewman's shoulder. "I'd like to keep this quiet, okay? I don't want everyone worked up about someone using comms when they're not supposed to. You keep this a secret?"
She nodded firmly, "Yessir!"
"Good, as you were then. Thank you." They exited the room, and Baird quickly rejoined her small team at the communications consoles while Shepard surveyed the CIC and tried to think of anything they missed. He had earlier instructed security to keep an eye out for any suspicious activity, and had EDI review a lot of the security camera footage. However; interestingly enough, it seems like short spurts of it were corrupted from the cargo bay's feed - that had to have been the Chief, who seemed to be able to penetrate certain ship systems for very small periods. He suspected it was to hide his face as he ate, but the aversion to allow others to see him was slightly... strange. If not suspicious. Over the past day or two, Shepard had grown a lot more comfortable with his decision to incorporate the Master Chief into their crew, if but temporarily, and it had paid off big time - correction, was paying off big time on Huriko. There were still a lot of questions though. Lots.
Finding nothing out of the ordinary on the Normandy's bridge, Shepard decided to take a brief trip to the armory to inspect some of the man's unique weaponry. It would possibly work to help him ease his troubled mind from the subject.
Once he was able to limp his way inside, he made sure to close the door behind him. "EDI, can you notify me the moment that Chief Baird's reports on the communications logs are finished?"
"With pleasure, Commander."
"Thanks, EDI. How're things doing on Huriko?" He walked up to one of the Chief's more unusual objects, what appeared to be two purple cylinders joined at the middle with some form of handle with a slight protrusion at the end. It looked similar to an arc welder that Shepard had seen used by Asari engineers at shipyards during his time as an N7. It was heavy, but not as heavy as he expected. It seemed to be made out of some sort of plastic composite - it was wholly different from the weapons that the Master Chief had carried with him. It actually reminded him of drawings he had seen of an ancient fish that lived prehistorically on earth, the Dunkleosteus.
"Reports indicate the Marine battalion is making large headway into the city. The crew has joined a small group of Alliance Marines in an attempt to retake the shipyard. Communication and updates from the battlefield reveal things to be going well for the present moment."
He let out a soft breath of relief. He would be lying if he said that he hadn't of been just a little worried. It was one of the first times that his team was engaged in heavy fighting, and he wasn't down there fighting with them. He didn't like it.
It had helped that a few times over the past few hours, he had been filled in thoroughly by Miranda - if that woman was good at anything, it was reporting. He continued to inspect some of the Chief's weaponry, and finding that he honestly had no idea what those things even were, he turned to what was much more familiar to him. Leaning heavily on his uninjured leg, he set his crutches down on the table beside him and picked up an Avenger rifle, the mainstay of the alliance forces. He began to disassemble the rifle, whistling softly to himself as he did so. It was more automatic now than it had ever been - it seemed death could still not dissipate muscle memory.
'Hey Jude, don't be afraid - you were made to go out and get her - the minute you -
He smiled as the rifle fully disassembled before him, a much less complex pile of pieces that what he had seen the Chief's big black assault rifle deconstruct to earlier.
'Let her under your skin - then you begin to make it better.'
As quickly as he picked the rifle apart, he proceeded to slide the pieces back together and hummed at the satisfied click that resonated in his hands as it fully pieced itself together.
"Commander-"
'Anytime you feel the pain, Hey Jude, refrain -'
He slid the catch guard forward, and almost immediately, the curved rifle compressed itself into a black block no bigger than his forearm.
'Don't carry the world upon your shoulders-'
"Commander Shepard."
'For well you know it's a fool who plays it cool-'
Lost in his thoughts, he placed the rifle down on the table again and his hand grasped a Mattock, more commonly employed by Cerberus soldiers.
'By making his world a little colder-'
"Commander Shepard, the logs you requested have been completed and are ready for examination," EDI announced. He shook his head to clear his thoughts as the voice finally drew him from his activities. Nodding, he was about to pick his crutch back up when he heard a soft cough from the doorway. He turned quickly to see Chief Baird standing their awkwardly rubbing her arm. He hadn't even heard the door open.
"I uh... I got the reports you wanted Commander. Was there anything else you needed?" She asked.
"No, thank you, that will be all." He moved to turn back, but just caught the barest whiff of a smirk from the woman.
He raised his eyebrow at her, to which she responded, "Didn't take you for an oldies fan, sir."
Oops. Guess that was out loud... In an attempt to play it off, he shrugged and casually responded, "I'm not really, it was my mother's favorite song. Apparently those guys were super big back in the day."
"You mean like two hundred years ago?"
"Yep. Mom was a fan of the old stuff..." he seemed to pause, then thought better of taking again, and just stayed silent, gathering his things. He hadn't meant to accidentally bring those memories back to the surface. It still stung a little too much. Allyson seemed to catch on, as the smirk left her face, and she nodded.
"Thank you Commander, let me know if you need anything else." She spun and left, leaving him to limp back to the medical bay in the awkward silence that replaced her presence, him destined to feel the hot fury and icy wrath of the doctor who had been disobeyed one too many times by various crewman. He sometimes wondered why he didn't include the Doctor on ground missions... it might bring a whole new meaning to the phrase 'shock and awe'.
OOOO
Kasumi was feeling antsy. She would have been the first to admit that she was slightly out of her element at the moment. While she certainly had been involved in her fair share of tricky situations, circumstances like this certainly topped the list. She was much more suited to sticking to the shadows, dodging lookouts and sentries, and when necessary, using her unique skill set to eliminate enemies without being noticed. Being front and center of a major military operation wasn't quite her style.
Fortunately, her newest assignment was something a little more up her alley - recon. She recalled the layout and terrain of the shipping yards from their previous botched visit, grateful that she had been paying attention during their hectic dash through the area. As they rounded the first of the crates, she decided for now she would stick with the duo of marines assigned to watch her back - Jackson and Nunoz. More out of a subconscious habit than actively thinking on it, she clung to the shadows of the crates provided from the floodlights above that served to illuminate large portions of the shipyard. As a result, she very nearly disappeared, her quiet footsteps muffling any audible sign of her, and in addition to her dark cloak, she was rendered almost undetectable. In fact, so much so that the only one of the small squad that rivaled her at that particular moment was the Master Chief himself. She shook her head as she pondered how the big man was able to move so damn quietly in that much armor. What was possibly even scarier was how someone so big could disappear so easily. He almost appeared to vanish each time he stepped into the shadows of the crates. While dark outside now that the sun had set, the shipping yard's massive floodlights made her feel like an athlete in a sports stadium.
"Hey - miss Goto - you got any weapons on ya underneath that cloak of yours?" Jackson asked, eyes following the barrel of his weapon which was relentlessly searching the shadows for any sign of hostility.
"Worry about yourself mister soldier, and call me Kasumi. You didn't hire me."
This caused a chuckle from the large marine next to her, momentarily drawn from his focus in checking his surroundings. "I'll keep that in mind. And by the way, its mister marine to you." She scowled back his way. So that was how it was going to be, was it? Well, she could joke around as well. After all, she was the queen of mischief.
The Sergeant in charge of their small squad held up a hand, and then as the team came to a halt, relatively spaced out from one another, he turned to the trio of Normandy crew members that accompanied them. "Alright, I need you to lead us to the crash site." The man seemed to look straight at her as he spoke his next words, "Lieutenant Vega tells me you're pretty good at staying unseen - is that correct?"
"Are sharks fish?"
"Uh... I'll take that as a yes. Alright, here's what's gonna happen. I need you to sneak forward another 50 meters ahead, and take a look for anything that might seem suspicious, taking special note of any enemy positions, is that clear?"
"You betcha." Her nonchalant attitude didn't seem to phase the sergeant as he nodded slowly.
"Whatever you do, do not engage. Stick to the shadows and just-"
She 'ahemed' almost unnecessarily loudly given the circumstances. The gazes of almost all those in the squad were drawn to her. "Are you really going to tell me how to do my thing?"
The gritting of teeth on the part of the Sergeant was almost audible. "No. Just get back here as soon as you have any information. Now go."
With a quick bow, and an 'as you wish', she quickly activated her cloak, and with the combination of the darkness and the abundance of cover, she quickly disappeared from all but the most wary of gazes. The metal containers on either side of her were almost a meter taller than her, and so she would have no issue hiding from multiple angles of sight.
Kasumi focused intently on muffling the sound of her footsteps and listening. The effect was twofold. She didn't want the Collectors to hear her coming, and if she was hearing her own footsteps, it was possible she wouldn't be hearing someone else's. As she advanced through the small maze, she heard and saw nothing worth nothing besides a few empty crates that seemed to contain nothing of value, and the occasional body of an unfortunate dock worker. Fortunately for her, however, none of the bodies seemed to have any signs of the burns that the Master Chief had attributed to the acidic internal fluids of the strange new aliens from the plaza. That was good. The thief was most certainly confident in her abilities, but she didn't like her odds if she came into contact with the huge monsters. So she would settle for being even stealthier than they were. She paused near a small clearing devoid of the containers, with a tall nearby crane tower in the center of said clearing. From her vantage point, she could see no activity on either side of the space, as well as on top of the crane.
She picked up a nearby rock, and threw it as hard as she could off to the right, into another maze of the containers, and as it sailed through the air, she sunk deeper into the cover provided from the nearby metal crate. The stone landed with a loud 'clang' as it impacted probably the side or top of another hollow metal box. The noise was easily the loudest sound in the vicinity, and she stopped and listened intently for any signs of activity that would have reacted to the landing of the stone. Nothing so far. That was honestly not super unexpected. They were still a few hundred meters from what was designated the crash site (they had all insisted the ship had not crashed, it had been 'sunk' by their huge green partner in crime), and so there would probably be minimal activity, the aliens would have set up an initial defensive perimeter, or perhaps they were just too wiped out from 1st and 2nd platoons aggressive pushing. Either way, she wouldn't complain.
With the utmost of precision, she inched her way along the corners and side of the small area of space, eyes darting to notice any sudden movements in the dark. Nothing so far. As she reached the far end of the area, she felt an icy feeling in her gut. One that told her to hurry; a voice, yet somehow not a voice. She turned the next corner, and almost walked right into the back of a sneaking Collector, who was slowly inching its way forward in the direction the rock had impacted. Good - it hadn't noticed her. She quickly glanced around, making sure there were no other buddies of his slinking about somewhere close. Satisfied, she slowly triggered her omniblade, specifically modified as to not emit light when activated, and thrust it into the Collectors back, right below the neck line. As the creature went limp, she grabbed it below the shoulder and let it down to the ground slowly and softly, rather than letting it fall. Again looking around to confirm she still had not been spotted, she inched slowly forward, parallel to the direction in which she had thrown the rock.
She filed away what she had just learned from the recent action. The Collectors could be tricky themselves. There were not many instances where she had bumbled into a foe, yet this particular one had shown an aptitude for remaining hidden. Maybe they were adapting? She mentally shrugged, deciding she would leave that for the Commander to figure out.
Nearby another container, there was a small wooden box of sorts that reached about halfway up the side of its neighbor. She paused, listening for a good 30 seconds as intently as she could, and quietly climbed onto the box, using it to leapfrog onto the shipping container. Of course, she landed without a sound. She was after all, the best in the business. Kasumi remained stone still for several heartbeats as she observed the surrounding area. At first, it was a whole lot of nothing. And then, on the edge of her peripherals, a small dance of motion that drew her attention. She couldn't quite make it out from here, but it seemed at the lip of the 'crash site', there was some sort of guard position. Or something. She couldn't be quite sure. So she decided to do what she did best. Get closer, and find out. It was pretty simple actually. There were few sentries to avoid, at least on the outer perimeter, and whatever Collectors she did come across were incredibly easy to evade. Normally, such an endeavor would take a skilled operative about 5 minutes to successfully infiltrate the position. Kasumi, with a lifetime of practice, natural talent, and her tactical cloak, was able to do it in 2. It was almost too easy.
As she approached the position, more details became noticeable. It looked like a heavy weapons position, with some sort of mass accelerator heavy weapon atop of small collection of Collector metal, but she couldn't discern its purpose. For all she knew, the thing could fly. The weapon looked like a larger version of the rifles that the standard Collector soldiers carried. Much larger. Instead of a handle for the trigger, there were two protruding ends which she supposed would hold the firing mechanism. She also spotted similar weapons platforms skirting the outside of the crash site. The weapons were all turned outward, and from what she could see, they were appropriately positioned in order to see right down a line of crates. The thief was able to spot around 10 of the 'turrets' in total. That could be a potential problem, for sure.
Her attention moved to the center of the position, where a group of collectors were scouring the ruins for something. A small, hastily erected structure was off to the side, something that immediately drew her eyes. That was certainly interesting, as she didn't take the Collectors for those who would take the trouble to actually build something, no matter how simple, in the middle of a combat zone. As far as she knew, they were a raid and get the heck outta dodge kinda group. Then again, there were many things that were different about this whole situation. A Collector invasion, high explosive weaponry, the recruitment or usage of a second alien species, gathering dead bodies of the Huriko colonists just to name a few. More than their fair share of unusual circumstances. Fortunately, she couldn't see any sign of the strange four legged monsters they had encountered in the plaza. She would've thought that such predators would have made excellent guard dogs to roam the around guard posts and sniff out intruders, but it didn't seem like aliens thought how humans did.
Inching her way up to the small structure, which appeared to be out of the same type of material of which the ship itself was constructed, she looked for an entryway or some sort of window. She was rewarded, as it appeared that two of the five sides of the small structure, the ones facing the ship's wreckage, actually had no... sides, but were open to view the ship. Within the room, she saw a small gathering of the insectoid alien race that had laid waste to the colony. They were chattering away in that strange language of theirs, and paid no attention to the outside world, as they were undoubtedly unconcerned with infiltration of this magnitude. Further into the room, she spied a console of some sort, at least she supposed it was a console, that was scrolling through some meaningless list of glyphs she couldn't recognize. Some of them looked similar to the ones she had seen engraved on different Prothean relics she had stolen from museums across the galaxy, yet different at the same time.
What was most curious to her was what appeared to be a small box lying atop of the collector console. The box was in the recognizable System's Alliance blue, and she spotted the human governmental seal, with earth surrounded by two pillars that leaned inward. 'The hell was that? And what were the Collectors doing with it?' She briefly thought about returning to the small squad of marines, then thought better of it. As soon as things started to kick off, her unique skill set would become considerably less valuable. She was no soldier, she was a thief. The best. That meant it was time to steal something.
Inching her way closer and closer, careful to avoid the most watchful gazes of the aliens, she kept her shimmer in the shadows away from the floodlights that would possibly reveal her position. As she reached the beginning of the structure, the chatter of the aliens was much more audible. Kasumi had heard somewhere that the aliens were a hive mind of sorts, a collective of intelligences, similar to the Geth, yet with much more individualism. Large scale thoughts and ideals could be shared 'telepathically', while more small scale stuff that pertained to personal duties and thought processes were much more individual. It seemed even enigmatic aliens weren't micro managers. What that meant, was that each collector had to communicate with the other vocally. They weren't always aware of each other perfectly, and she was counting on the group to remain unaware of the other 'friend' of theirs death that she administered to it not too long ago. It also meant that they had body language which she could read. The movements of those in the structure were sharp, darting, heads swiveling quickly and limps twitching ever so often. They were on alert, which was to be expected, as they surely had to be aware of the encroaching alliance forces. But it was more panicky than alert - it looked like they were in a hurry, as one of the figures seemed to glance over at the console every few seconds, as if to check something.
The small building, no more than a covered room, was obviously built with this console in mind. If it was a priority to them, than it was a priority to her. She had to get that box to Commander Shepard - he would know what to do with it. And if it was nothing, and the Collectors were just downloading human cooking recipes for use later on, she would take pleasure in denying them anything that was deemed important to them. If she waited for the Alliance Marines to show up with their assault then they would take the box, and she trusted Shepard a lot more to actually put the thing to good use in stopping the genocidal alien race. No, action was required now.
The collection of Collectors were unaware as the professional thief silently slipped into the room, and slowly inched her way over to the console. Now it was time for the most delicate part. The grab, and the getaway. She would have to time it to a T. What looked like the lead alien was glancing her way every few seconds, which meant right after he did, she would need to take the box. So she watched, slowly, patiently. There, a quick look, then a look away. She reached up, quickly, snagged the box, and just as quickly stuffed it within her cloak. Faster than she entered, she skirted the sides of the structure and slid around the corner. As soon as she did so, a quick cry of alarm within the room behind her signaled that the aliens had been alerted to her thievery. She could hear them scrambling around even as she herself continued her pace back the way she had come. Within 30 seconds she had reached the outer edge of the secured perimeter around the crash site, and within 45 she heard the sounds of the Collectors on all the guard posts mobilizing - having been notified of current happenings. She froze as one of the strange turrets swiveled into position - aiming in her general vicinity. Her heartbeat became very loud - at least to her.
Kasumi heard the aliens squabble to each other, and the turret drifted slowly closer to her. She couldn't move. Her current position was shaded just enough to allow her to remain invisible, but a few steps further would require a mad dash in order to escape the line of sight of any watching sentry. If she did move, the slight shimmer in the air would no doubt alert the collectors to her position, and she would be swarmed. She could probably still get away clean, but that would mean some tricky tactical maneuvering. Her whole goal was to remain undetected so that the marines would have an easier time assaulting the small camp. So she waited. Fortunately, after a good five seconds ago, the barrels direction changed vectors, obviously detecting nothing of interest in her general vicinity. She let out a small breath she didn't realize she'd been holding.
Returning to the marines position was fairly easy. It seemed the Collectors had turned their focus inwards to such a degree that anything on the outside was of much lesser importance. 'Just what was in that box...?' She thought. As she approached the area where she had left the marines, she noticed the slight shifts of gun barrels and weary eyes as they surveyed the area for possible threats. They didn't see her, though, not until she clapped Miranda on the shoulder with a quick 'hiya!' As she decloaked, making almost everyone in the group jump with surprise. She saw several weapons swivel in her direction before they realized that it was her. Miranda just scowled. 'Such a shame, she was much too pretty to have those nasty expressions so often.'
"What did you find." The Cerberus biotic gritted out. No love lost, it would seem.
"Oh not much, just a group of creepy aliens with a bunch of guns ready to kill us all. Oh, and this." She waved the box she had retrieved from under her cloak in an almost seductive fashion in front of Miranda's face, who let out a low growl at the tease and attempted to swipe the box away. Kasumi tsked softly. "Uh unh, you have to ask nicely."
The narrowing of her beloved XO's eyes would've drive anyone to the brink of desperation. But not her. Not once in a blue moon would Miranda ever have 'asked nicely', but it was worth a shot. If looks could kill, well, we certainly know why the cat was dead - and it certainly wasn't from curiosity. "Give. Me. The. Bloody. Box." Kasumi took pleasure in whatever annoyance she could cause the other crew members, and this was priceless. However; she suddenly felt that it was no longer productive for her prolonged physical and mental well-being to hang onto her premise any longer.
"Eh, good enough. Here ya go," the thief responded as she lightheartedly tossed the box in the biotics direction, who caught it with a slightly shallowed scowl, and began to turn the box over in her hands.
"What is it?" The biotic asked her.
She just shrugged in response. "Dunno. Took it from a group of Collectors who seemed to be uploading something from the box into a console of some sort. They didn't seem too happy that I took it."
The marine sergeant next to her took a sharp breath in. "They didn't see you coming this way did they?"
Kasumi scoffed lightly. "Excuse me? Do you even have to ask? 'Did they see me,'" She mocked, then, taking a page out of Tali's playbook, "of course not you silly bosh'tet. Nobody ever sees Ms. Goto unless she wants them too." She giggled. She had always wanted to use that word.
The marine swallowed his correction of her activities as he saw that it probably would have null effect on the eccentric thief. Instead, he asked a different, more relevant question. "What kind of defenses did you spot?"
She shrugged again as she moved to answer his question. "Oh, you know, just a couple of turrets and scout patrols, nothing major. I counted, hmm maybe 40 or so ugly aliens. No match for you marines right?" The Sergeant grunted, obviously somewhat agreeing with her, or just acknowledging her statement. She didn't know. She swiped the box back from Miranda's prying eyes, much to her obvious annoyance - and a clear comment was forthcoming if the marine sergeant hadn't chose that moment to continue.
"Alright, good work. I'll report that in to Lieutenant Harrison, after which we'll move up and prepare to take out the first weapons emplacement. Can you guide us there?"
"Sure thing, mister."
The sergeant ignored her nonchalant attitude and addressed his team. "Alright boys, fan out. You know the drill, I need a final weapons check, and combat check in's every five minutes, every 2 within your fireteam, am I clear?" He waited for a response, which he received in the form of a series of 'yessirs' or 'affirmatives'. The marine continued, "we're hitting them first, after we've waited for the other platoons to take position outside of the crash site. You heard the lady, the first targets are those weapon's emplacements. Any of you got AT, now is the time to use it, I don't want those up for more than 15 seconds after we kick things off. We're Oscar Mike."
The marines silently picked put their things and followed the trio of Normandy crew as they led them further along the route of shipping containers. They soon stumbled across the body of the dead collector. Huh. That was funny. Kasumi coulda sworn that killing the aliens triggered some sort of 'hivemind' thingy that alerted the others of the death of one of their insect friends. Guess not. Telepathy could only go so far, it seemed.
"Your work?" the Sergeant asked, gesturing with his rifle to the body of the fallen alien. Kasumi nodded proudly.
"He told you not to engage," Miranda growled. She was promptly ignored, much to her ire.
The group continued onward, more silent than before, especially once they heard the obvious signs of the Collectors scrambling within the confines of the perimeter.
"What exactly did you do in there to get them all worked up?" Miranda asked, if still a tad angrily.
"Promise I only stole the box." It didn't seem to ease the biotic's tension.
She watched as some of the marines equipped with the more heavy weaponry slowly scooted around the corners of the containers, looking for a line of sight onto the gun emplacements, their primary targets. She watched as the Master Chief reached up and grabbed the big boxy weapon that had been attached to his back next to the large black rifle that was more deafening than any krogan battlecry.
"Target acquired," three marines announced over the comms, their speech spaced out by a few seconds.
"Target acquired," came the low rumble of the Chief's voice. She inched closer to the Spartan, eager to see the destruction his weapons was about to cause on one of the gun turrets that lined the far wall. She heard a faint scuffle next to her, and her head turned to see Miranda doing the same. She suppressed a giggle at the sight, but couldn't quite do the same to her smile as the Cerberus biotic looked back at her, and scrunched her face in annoyance. Kasumi shrugged once more, and turned her attention to the big green soldier crouched directly in front of her.
"So, how-"
She was immediately cut off by a familiar voice in her earpeice, that of Lieutenant Harrison, a woman she was starting to like more and more. She was like a nice Miranda. "All teams in position - you are green to engage. Jackson, on your shot."
The squads Sergeant turned to direct the marines with the heavy weaponry. "You heard the lady, call your shots, the rest of us will open up on the fuckers when you pull the trigger. You're green to go, boys."
"Clear backblast," one of the marines announced, in tandem with some of the others.
"Clear."
"Rockets away." A loud whiff of a missile exiting a tube accompanied a small trail of smoke as the primitive yet very effective propellant-based weaponry left the loading tube and travelled at hundreds of meters per second to the closest turret. It impacted right at the base of said turret, and quickly bloomed into a fiery explosion with a loud boom of the combustion. Seconds later, she watched as the Master Chief's strange rifle began to glow a bright red, and there was a bright flash, one that almost blinded her, and a spear of red light shot forward and tore through another turret, the Collector behind it, and a few containers behind the alien as they were unfortunate to be caught downrange from the laser. All that was left was a smoking pile of warped metal, and the sad remains of an alien, its upper torso turned into so much ash.
Carefully concealing her giggle at the look on Miranda's face when she saw the thing fire, she remembered she had seen this happen once before, earlier on in the initial firefight. It had easily cored right through 'Harbinger', a possessed Collector drone of some sort, with little difficulty. Now she was able to put a name to the phenomena. Laser-gun... thing. Or something like that. Anyways, the Chief turned to another turret, depressed the trigger mechanism, and charged up the weapon again, where they were once more greeted with a satisfying zing and a burst of light as an identical mishap affected the second turret on the right hand side of the first. It was simply turned into scrap metal. She could almost picture Miranda with a greedy look on her face as she caressed the foreign weapon, an orgasmic sensation overcoming her as she couldn't wait to write up her latest report at the development of such a fascinating tool. Again, well, something like that.
She watched as the rest of 'Wire' company opened up as well, cutting the aliens to shreds in a matter of seconds. It was almost pitiful. Almost. She remembered that these cruel creatures were responsible for the senseless deaths of thousands. They didn't cry out, didn't try to surrender. They just... died. The wounded were carefully executed with gun barrels to the head, in some cases vicious stomps that split open their exoskeletal heads. It was brutal. But then again, these monsters deserved nothing less. Fortunately, there was no sign of the new aliens still, which she was silently grateful for. They were... creepy. But it was slightly confusing why they still weren't being used in some capacity here.
It took the company of marines no less than 5 minutes from start to finish to completely eradicate the aliens from the crash site. Easy enough. It took them twice as long to set up a satisfiable perimeter of their own around the site and begin to pick through the wreckage. The Normandy crew once again reunited, but curiously, it seemed as if the Chief was sticking closer to the marines than he was to the crew of the ship. Kasumi huffed at that thought. 'It wasn't Iike they were any better than us, were they'. Garrus seemed to notice as well, looking as if he was about to ask the Chief a question directly, and then thought better of it. They had promised to deliver him into Alliance space, hadn't they? Well, here they were.
"What now?" Jack asked. She had probably been disappointed in the lack of action she had seen during the operation, playing mostly clean up crew behind the other platoons, and finally having the opportunity to unleash her biotics on the aliens at the end. Kasumi could tell that the biotics in the team were tired. It had been a long day, and they had had very little time to sit and relax.
Unconsciously, Kasumi drifted closer to Tali, who was asking Vega about how they were about to get back to the Normandy, to which the 'Lieutenant' responded with something about calling back a shuttle. She just hoped that their job here was done. The team had a lot to go over, and Huriko was meant as a break and resupply point, not the home of one of their most difficult challenges yet. Of course, the presence of the Alliance Marines made the rest of the day easy enough. A little too easy, if you ask her.
Miranda also approached the duo, and jumped into their conversation. She had obviously noticed the same thing, and seemed eager to capitalize on their opportunity. "Vega, we need you to tell us how we can get the Alliance on our side on this. We need them with us."
He sighed loudly. "I know, I know. The problem is, no one in the Alliance is the biggest fan of Cerberus. Even despite today, they'll have a hard time following us when we decide to go on the offensive. I have a feeling they only came because they had suspicions of some sort of attack on the colony themselves, what with lack of communication and whatnot." Kasumi watched as he clenched his fists around his Avenger rifle, and then declenched them. "I've overheard some of the marines calling me a traitor... for working with Cerberus. As far as they're concerned, we're terrorists. Garrus told me that the Commander said we should expect to be detained soon."
"That is correct, marine." They all turned quickly to see a familiar face approaching them. That of Colonel Silvers, who apparently had recently arrived with a group of marines sent as reinforcements. Kasumi didn't miss how he still addressed Vega as 'marine'. That was a good sign, she supposed. "You kids did nice work here, you should be proud of yourselves. However; facts don't lie. Cerberus is still on the Alliance's blacklist. I've already chatted with Shepard, and he has agreed to answer all our questions. In the meantime, I will have to detain you. We can't risk you getting out now that the colony has been... liberated." All those gathered winced along with the colonel as he said that word. It was hard to liberate a colony world that had been close to exterminated. "The rest of the battalion is still coming across survivors, not nearly enough as we'd like, but the body count doesn't quite match. You said that these... Collector sonsabitches were taking the dead colonists?"
Miranda quickly answered, eager to prove their trustworthiness to the marine colonel. "Yes Colonel, they seem to have a pension for harvesting organic matter. That's what we suspect this invasion was, an attempt to salvage whatever carbon-based organic life forms were available."
Silvers nodded. "That means that the bastards already got away with a couple hundred to maybe a few thousand bodies, if our counts are correct. We're lucky they didn't get more. We won't be able to identify the dead from the missing for a long while." His shoulders drooped, as if the responsibility of the fall of the colony had rested purely on his shoulders. "In the meantime, I will have Lieutenant Harrison and 3rd platoon escort you to a landing zone we were able to secure a little bit ago. You're not under arrest, but we still need to hold you for further questioning."
Those in attendance nodded. "As for your big, green friend over there, the Commander said he was to be delivered to Alliance high command, is that correct?"
Kasumi watched as Miranda, Garrus, and Vega all shot each other glances, not eager to part with the Spartan, but each for different reasons. In the end, though, they seemed to come to a silent agreement. Garrus was the spokesman this time. "That's correct Colonel. He's a... unique situation, but I'm sure he'll be able to explain himself just fine."
The Colonel nodded, satisfied. "I'm sure he can. Seems like a military man to me, so I'm sure we'll get along just dandy." The man smiled, white teeth showing, but it didn't reach his eyes. Too many dead colonists for a real smile.
"Thanks for your work today. I'll see you around. Lieutenant." He nodded at Vega, who gave a brief salute, and then turned and walked away.
Garrus blinked. "That was... different. Are Alliance officers usually like that?"
Vega just shrugged. "Nah. Just Colonel Silvers. He's special like that."
Kasumi agreed. He was a nice man, with hard eyes that had seen much, and a weight upon his shoulders that seemed to deny his gung-ho attitude. Kasumi hoped it wasn't just a facade. She didn't have much time to think about it, as they were soon greeted by Lieutenant Harrison, who had a new cut on her cheek that had a medigel application. "Colonel says you're coming with me. Best follow close." She turned and left, obviously expecting the entire group to follow. They did, gaining the attention of the few who were otherwise distracted, Jack and Grunt to name a few. The Chief walked parallel to them about twenty yards away, two marines on either side of him, an obvious escort duty. Why was he getting special treatment?
The others seemed to notice as well, as she saw more than a few glances in the large soldier's direction.
The Lieutenant led them through a maze of containers, a lot more calm and subdued than the same shipyard had been hours before. There was now a large empty space towards the northern end, and shuttles were moving back and forth. It was impressive how the Force Recon battalion had scrambled together a makeshift airfield so quickly. Of course, that's probably why they were force recon, wasn't it?
The thief nervously looked to each of the crew members. They seemed to share in her trepidation. They were being treated above average so far, but that could change in an instant, especially if someone was quickly reminded of the fact that they were still classified as 'terrorists'. Groups with such labels didn't tend to find much mercy at the hands of human military forces.
Harrison turned around and addressed them. "We're sending you up to an Alliance Cruiser, SSV Morning After. Your escort will be provided by a group of Marine MP's, who've received special orders from Alliance Command. They're currently on their way, they'll be here in a transport shuttle in about 2 minutes. Until then, sit tight."
If anything, the Lieutenant seemed somewhat reluctant to hand the team over to the Alliance military police. Military tribunals were notoriously ruthless and unforgiving. Combat seemed to quickly forge strong companionships, and Kasumi felt that they had built one relatively quickly with the young marine officer. Somehow, she felt as if this wouldn't be the last time they saw her.
It wasn't long before the marine MP's landed. Big, burly men with the letters, MP scrawled across their helmets and chest armor. Similar to that of an N7, but slightly less armored. The lead MP marched right up to the Lieutenant. "Are all accounted for?"
"Yessir, I ma-"
"Dismissed!"
She seemed slightly taken aback at the quick dismissal. "Sir, I would like to req-"
The large marine cut her off. "Was my order unclear Lieutenant?"
"... No sir." She looked hesitantly at the squad, and then turned and left. The MP straightened and then approached the group. They were quickly surrounded by the team of military police officials.
The lead MP spoke with just a loud of voice as earlier. "Crew of the SR-2 Normandy, you are under arrest for collusion with a known terrorist organization as well as dangerous conduct within an active war zone that violates Section 7 Subsection 4 Article 13A of the Systems Alliance colonial agreement, in addition to possession of contraband weaponry and equipment up to and including an active artificial intelligence and the use of lethal force against various citizens of both the Systems Alliance and the Citadel Council." The murmurs and mumbles of the crew seemed to threaten to cut him off. This wasn't quite what they pictured, or what the Colonel had promised. "You will be detained until further questioning, at which point you will appear before a proper court of law." He paused, then turned to James, the only Alliance soldier in the group. "Lieutenant James Vega, service number JVE0971-A, you are accused of treason against the Systems Alliance Colonial Government by colluding with a known terrorist organization while on active duty. You will also be detained until proper ruling can be confirmed. Follow me."
Kasumi looked over at Vega, whose jaw had dropped. The man was speechless. Treason?? The last Kasumi had heard, he was on official assignment from the Alliance himself! How could they accuse him with treason?? And didn't the Colonel just barely say that they weren't under arrest?! Grunt and Jack mumbled loudly, looking as if they were about to blast away at anything that moved the wrong way. How in the hell did the Alliance find out about EDI anyways?
Tali was the first to speak up, quick to defend her newfound friend as well as the rest of the crew in face of the quick turn of events. This wasn't quite what they pictured when they had been ordered to 'report for questioning'. She was sure it wasn't what Shepard had in mind, either. "Hey, wait a second! You can't just do this! We're not terrorists, and James here is not a traitor!! He was ordered to work with us!" She protested loudly.
The MP didn't seem to care. In fact, the protests seemed to solidify his firm attitude even further. "The accusations still stand. Unless proven otherwise in an official military court of justice, he will be considered guilty, until proven innocent, as will the rest of you." Kasumi scowled. So that's how military courts worked nowadays.
Vega looked to the others, eyes wide. This was bad. Pretty, very bad. They all knew the punishment for treason. And it probably wasn't much better for those accused of terrorism. They looked around, as if they wanted to fight their way out. Vega seemed to sense this. He sighed, deeply. "Don't. It'll only make things worse." Worse? How could they fight the collectors locked in a prison? What was going to happen to Commander Shepard? To the rest of the Normandy crew? Why were they being accused of such things? Weren't they only going to asked a few questions? What the hell was going on?
Jack moved to possibly state her defiance with action, but in unison, each of the MP's raised their rifles, surrounding them. Kasumi noticed this wasn't the standard issue Avenger issued to the marine regulars. This version, slightly bulkier and more elongated, left her with no doubt they could tear through their kinetic barriers with ease. As she looked around, there were dozens of other marines lining the landing zone, going to and fro between designated points or ships, with a guard detail surrounding the entire perimeter. They were surrounded.
"Jack," she hissed. "Don't, we can't do this."
"What? The hell do you mean 'Cuntsumi'??" The biotic was furious. "These bastards betrayed us - I believe its our civic duty to resist arrest."
"No..." Garrus mumbled. "It wasn't the alliance who betrayed us." His slumped shoulders gave the others hints of his slightly defeated attitude. With effort, he picked them back up, and stepped forwards into the awaiting prison transport. "But I think I know who did."
One by one, the others slowly followed Garrus' example, prodded along by the weaponry at their backs, while curiously, the Master Chief was imply escorted seemingly peacefully to a different shuttle that had an alternate destination.
Finally, Jack took one look around, and joined the grumbling Grunt who was struggling to keep himself in check.
"Fuck," She said.
