The Commanders Shepard
Chapter 6
The Disasters squad marched on toward the beacon, cutting a swath through many more of the hostile robots. Making it past a ridge, the group came to a small warehouse and loading area for the dig site.
John halted in his tracks. In the distance, the massive warship they saw in the distress call took to the sky. As they all stood in awe of that absolute unit of a ship, they were set upon by more Geth troops and the techno-zombified remains of more colonists. After taking out the trash, John caught sight of someone. "Nihlus..." escaped his lips. John observed the corpse of their Turian counterpart, face down on the loading platform. He took note of the hole in in the back of the Spectre's head.
James got in close to have a look. "Clean shot. Very close range. High caliber pistol. How could someone have snuck up that close to a Spectre to be able to get that kind of shot off?"
Just then, they all heard movement behind a mountain of shipping crates. All five members of the squad drew their weapons. John and Ashley approached the area the sound came from while Kaiden, James, and Jane faced away, eyes on the surrounding area.
"Hold up! Don't shoot!" The voice was clearly very scared. A warehouse worker appeared from behind the crates with his hands up. "My name's Powell. Are you here to help?"
John lowered his weapon and approached closer. "Can you tell us what happened here?"
"It was the damnedest thing. The other Turian took that beacon our guys dug up and killed everyone here. I hid behind these crates so those robot things didn't off me too. When your friend showed up, he seemed like he knew the other Turian. Called him 'Saren'".
"Saren?", Jane interjected. "He's another Spectre. I didn't know the Council sent more reinforcements."
"Saren was definitely no reinforcement", Powell added. "As soon as this guy turned his back, Saren put a hot one right through him."
"The plot thickens..." John quipped with his brow furrowed. "Did you see where Saren got off to?"
"When they were done loading up the beacon and some supplies, he ordered his robots to make for the spaceport."
John turned toward his squad. "You heard the man. To the port!"
Ashley added, "We need to take the cargo tram. Its just down these stairs at that landing over there."
"Disasters squad, move out!"
En route to the port, the Disasters encountered multiple different types of Geth along the way. And though they were fighting for their lives, the pure soldier in John couldn't help but be impressed with the combat diversity among the hostile synthetics. John had to push those thoughts aside and focused his attention (and firepower) on a hulking mass of a Geth that charged at them, full bore. They went on to class these beasts as Geth Destroyers. Past the Destroyer and its crew, the squad came upon the launch control for the cargo tram.
When the tram halted at its destination, the squad came across a bomb. A big bomb. Like a really, REALLY big one. James instantly got to work trying to defuse it. As he opened his omni-tool, he said with an exasperated huff, "Good grief! If they planted more of these, they could wipe out the entire colony!" The rest of the squad watched his back while James went about defanging that monster of a bomb. After an incredibly tense moment, his omni-tool beeped. "Got it!"
"Don't celebrate yet," Jane said. "I just picked up the same signature that beast was putting off in multiple locations. Given the centrally located position of this place, Saren really is trying trying to turn this colony into a smoking crater."
James brought up a scanning program on his omni-tool to start looking. "I'm picking up four more in the immediate vicinity."
John piped up, "Calamity, Alenko, Williams. Fan out on the south side of the dock and find those charges! Catastrophe on me. We'll search the north end." As soldiers do, the squad all followed their orders moved out.
Saren had sent a considerable force of Geth to watch over the area where the demolition charges were set. The squad had to manage picking their way through the opposition on two fronts, while also dealing with the bombs.
"Alenko, over here!" Jane called out. Kaiden fell back from his position toward Jane in a little alcove. "Take care of this one." She pointed to a charge she found in the alcove. "My omni-tool sniffed out another one. I'm going to cloak and get that one." Right before Kaiden's eyes, Jane switched on her visual/thermal cloaking device, disappearing from his sight with a few crackles of plasma.
With Williams providing overwatch, Alenko proceeded to work on the bomb. As he got to it, Jane headed off in the direction of the other bomb she found. She thanked her lucky star for her cloak, as there was Destroyer and a crew of rocket troops within spitting distance of the charge. Quickly but quietly, she got in behind them and set to work. When it was done, she whipped out a couple of her magnetic discus grenades. With all the grace of a stealthy ninja, she stuck one on each of the three rocket troopers without calling attention to herself. Then, she got in close to the Destroyer and decloaked.
"Hey! Tin Woodsmen! Awfully far away from Oz, no?" All 3 rocket troops turned toward her and the Geth Destroyer. Calamity popped off a single pistol shot in their direction to present a threat. They took the bait and all fired their launchers in her direction. Jane instantly put up a biotic barrier around herself and used her powers to hurl herself away from the Destroyer. As the volley of rockets brought the hulking machine down, Jane triggered the remote detonators on the discus grenades. The ensuing explosion was made more spectacular by the payload of additional rockets the troopers were each packing.
"Calamity! Are you alright? That big explosion sounded like it came from your direction." Jane could hear the concern in Kaiden's voice over the comm.
"No worries, Kaiden," she responded nonchalantly. "Just doing what I do best. You know. Sneaking around. Breaking stuff."
With relief in his voice, John came in over the comm. "Never change, Calamity. Never change." For his part, he was dealing with yet another of the bombs, while being mindful of a small swarm of attack drones he had been dealing with. When it was done, he poked his head around a corner to catch a glimpse of his brother. "Four down, Catastrophe. You how's that last one coming?"
James had his back to a wall. He was pinned down by a pretty big squad of Geth foot soldiers backed up by a Destroyer. "Taking some heat over here. A little help?" Just then, a barrage of weapons fire riddled the Destroyer from the south side. When its shielding collapsed, James noticed the hulking beast glowed blue and began to raise up off the ground. At the same, John threw a whole host of grenades right at the feet of the troopers. Right after they went up in a blaze of glory, a swift blur almost instantly rammed into the floating Destroyer, throwing it violently into a nearby wall. When the blur came to a halt, Jane's tiny form could be seen dropping back to her feet. James realized that all four of the other members of his fireteam had chipped in to get his back.
Surveying the carnage, Kaiden quipped a line that managed to sound both soldier business like and lighthearted at the time. "That's it folks. Bag 'em and tag 'em."
James, grateful for the assist got work. "Thanks for the save, people. Now I can get that last bomb."
Once the last demolition charge was dealt with, the squad converged on the rear platform. John, proud of his team, said, "Team work. It makes the dream work. Kills bad guys dead. Drink it in, guys. That's how a big ol' 'W' tastes." Everyone enjoyed a quick moment of pride as they soaked in their small victory. As he caught sight of their objective, John said, "Now let's go get us a beacon."
As the squad moved out as a whole, Jane quipped, "Mmmm... Sweet, crispy, smoky, bacon..."
With a hint of a grin, John fired back with, "Down girl. I said 'beacon'. Mission first, your massive appetite later. You've been a good girl though, so I'll get you some bacon when we get back to the ship." They all had an internal chuckle from this silly little moment of levity amidst the chaos.
All five members of the team now saw their target; A Prothean info storage beacon. "Secure the area," John ordered. "I'll get the old man on the horn." James and Jane fanned out in opposite directions making sure there were no more surprises waiting for them.
As they commenced their sweep and John made contact with the Normandy, Kaiden and Ashley both approached the beacon. "Never seen anything like it," Kaiden said. "This is amazing! Actual working Prothean technology. Unbelievable."
Ashley took note of pale green and white light energy that was pulsing from the beacon. Her brow furrowed. With concern in her voice, she said, "It wasn't doing anything like that when they dug it up. Something must have activated it."
No sooner had the words escaped her lips did Kaiden realize his was still moving toward it, even though he had stopped walking. "What the hell? Williams!" he called out. Ashley was also being dragged toward the beacon.
James and Jane reacted to Kaiden's cry. They each grabbed one of them and pushed them away from the beacon, only to then both because caught in its pull. John caught sight of this out of the corner of his eye as he finished his call to Anderson and sprung into action. As he was wont to do since his mission on Torfan, John attempted to put himself between his siblings and whatever was pulling at them. As soon as he made contact with his brother and sister, the beacon lit up even brighter. The Shepard triplets were then raised from their feet, several feet off the ground. They were then each flooded with all kinds of mental imagery and information.
Ashley got back up and tried to go help them, but Kaiden held her back. "Don't touch them! It's too dangerous. We have no idea what's happening." Much to her chagrin, Ashley knew he was right and held fast.
After a moment, the Prothean beacon exploded, crackling for a short time with that green energy before completely fizzling out. The Shepards all slumped to ground, groaning.
Not knowing what had just happened to his squadmates, Kaiden got on the comm. "Alenko to Normandy! Lock on my position, NOW! We need med dust off!"
Author's Note: Oh wow, has it been a looooong time. Almost a year since my last update on this (or any) story. Life has been so hectic over the past year or so that I had all but forgotten about these stories. Well, the coronavirus lockdown has us all looking for ways to pass the time. I found myself doing a full run through of ME 1-3, and that got me to find my way back to FF. I think I might have to revisit my other stories as well. No promises, but I want to try to have a decent cadence with story uploads for a good while during this pandemic.