Max, pull yourself together!

She clenched her fist, trying to stop trembling. It would be dumb to claim she wasn't worried, but Marines under her command didn't need to know that. They needed to believe that their lieutenant was confident and fearless, because she would lead them into combat. They knew that her ability to make right decisions would mean difference between life and death. Her entire platoon stood before her, waiting for her to say something.

Max wasn't as famous as Shepard, but her name had been mentioned a few times after Skyllian Blitz, because she was one of the four Marines, who had held back entire army of pirates. The N7 designation on her armor earned her some respect too. Marines knew that she wasn't a freshly commission lieutenant without any combat experience, who had no idea how to lead. It was keeping them calm, but Max was nervous. She was afraid to fail.

She had never been good with words. It was difficult to find words that could inspire them. She had never been a people person or had many friends. There were just a few people she considered family. What could someone like her tell the Marines, who would follow her into combat and possibly die?

Max, say something!

"Marines!" she said. Her loud voice echoed in the shuttle bay. "You should know the plan, but I'll repeat it again, because I'm sure there is at least one dumbass who had slept through the whole briefing."

Some Marines smiled.

"We're here, because it's impossible to assault the base from the air. The assholes had built strongholds deep underground. There are three entrances. One for every platoon. Our command believes that the criminals don't expect an assault, but you will act as if they're waiting for you. Is that clear?"

Max disliked the plan. The 'genius', who had drawn up the plan, obviously, didn't think about Marines who would lose their lives. The Alliance had estimated the death toll at around twenty percent, but she disagreed. She couldn't fathom, who had made the estimations. Her own estimates were much higher.

They would be lucky if a half would survive.

But even if it would be 'just' twenty percent, she still considered it way too much. Twenty-five well-trained Marines! Fokin had proposed to launch an asteroid at the moon. Max wasn't a fan of such radical solutions, but still... What did the Alliance hope to achieve here? They needed to threat the cause, not the symptoms. Would slavers and pirates give up if the Alliance destroyed the bases? Would batarians stop funding criminals to attack the Alliance colonies? Would there be less scum in the galaxy? No. Nothing would change. But, well, who was she to question the orders? She was a soldiers and orders had to be executed.

Her greatest wish was to complete the mission with no casualties, but she knew that it was a pipe dream, because no plan survived contact with the enemy. She wouldn't be able to save everyone. Her superpowers weren't limitless, and she would need to conserve her energy.

"Alpha Squad takes the point and follows the route. Bravo Squad clears everything else and covers our flanks. Charlie Squad's going to watch our back. We'll be clearing every floor down to the bottom. The plan is to catch them with their pants down, but don't count on it. Expect heavy resistance. They will outnumber us, but remember... You are Alliance Marines! They're scum. You're trained to shoot the assholes, while they're used to fight civilians."

She stood silent for a few seconds, taking in the faces of Marines. It was clear that some of them were nervous. Most of them were experienced Marines, no fobbits, but some of them had only few combat operations under their belt.

"No matter what you read on the extranet or saw in ads, I don't need heroes. The Alliance doesn't need heroes. Nobody needs fucking heroes! I need Marines, who'll do their job on this rock and come back alive. And you will do it! Questions?!"

A few years ago, she had allowed her friends to sacrifice herself to save the town. She had allowed her to become a hero. She saved the fucking town nobody cared about. But Max didn't believe in heroes anymore. The Alliance could talk about heroes as much as they wanted, but heroes weren't what the Alliance really needed.

"Marines, to your shuttles!" Max commanded.

Reyes, who was standing next to her, nodded in approval.

As she watched the Marines going to their shuttles, Max couldn't help but think about her future-self. Her friends had been killed here. They wouldn't be killed. She'd make sure of it. She suspected that her future-self hadn't participated in the assault, because the Alliance had wanted to use her in special operations, and she had had to fight for the opportunity to lead one of the platoons.

Things hadn't gone as planned. Max, Taylor and Nikita had wanted to check the Prothean ruins on Mars, but their transfer request had been declined. Max hoped the Alliance would accept their transfer request to Reserve in a few months, because otherwise they would be forced to terminate their contracts, which would sour their relationship with the Systems Alliance.

Still, they hadn't been idle. They had used every available leave day to plot, to gather information and to build up their power base. Max had used access codes left by her future-self to found a company. Stock trading was easy when Max could just send a message to the past, and she didn't even need to leave the ship to do that. Hence, she could afford to invest huge amounts of money into the Arcadia Bay Group. They had used legal means to get control of a dozen small companies that had been deemed useful. In a few cases they had used their weapons to get what they had needed.

Since they couldn't manage the Arcadia Bay Group being still in service, after much debate, Max had requested someone from Cerberus. The CEO's fake name was Jane Smith and she answered directly to a Cerberus operative named Jack Deth, who in reality was Fokin. The Arcadia Bay Group was pretty much an independent Cerberus cell. Dangerous, but it would be difficult to obfuscate their activities otherwise. The company showed a good performance under Smith's leadership with a market cap of more than two trillion and projected net income of eighteen billion credits.

Both Nikita and Taylor had vehemently refused her proposal to avoid the operation on Torfan. All her logical arguments had been ignored, which had forced her to push through an appointment for Taylor to fill the platoon sergeant position. It hadn't been easy, because the position required a higher rank, namely Gunnery Chief, while Taylor was still a Service Chief. In the end, Reyes was promoted. Fokin, being a fellow lieutenant, would lead his own platoon. That scared Max a lot, and she could only hope that she wouldn't need to use a selfie to save him.

Shuttles slipped out of the bay and headed for the moon. Four hundred Marines, an entire battalion was participating in the operation, but only single company would storm the underground fortress. The rest would cover their backs and stay put as a reserve. Just in case things would go south.

"Ten seconds," Max said when she received a go-ahead from the major. "Two, one... Begin!"

As the door opened two flash grenades flew inside. As they detonated, her Marines followed. First shots were fired. It was odd to be in command of a platoon. There wasn't much to do besides providing broad guidance to the squad leaders. There wasn't even much opportunity to shoot. Soon Max came to conclusion that she disliked leading large units. Hiding behind her fellow Marines felt like a waste of her abilities. She preferred recon and sabotage missions with a small, but skilled squad.

The ground floor was cleared out quickly and effectively. Not a single casualty in her platoon. It seemed as if the Alliance had really managed to catch the fuckers with their pants down. The enemy was able to hold the elevator for a minute, but then it was over. Max hoped that the rest of the mission would go just as smooth.

"The floor is clear," Reyes reported. "A single wounded in the Bravo-Two team, but he's cleared to continue."

"Check the elevator and begin preparations for descent," Max said, switched the radio channel and continued, "Snakeroot-Two's reporting. Phase one is complete. No casualties."

"Copy," the major answered. "Begin the next phase ASAP."

"Roger."

"Out."

There were three paths to the next floor. The freight elevator, which was used for cargo and shuttle transport. The use of the elevator had been deemed too dangerous. There was a second elevator, but it was way too small for an assault. A stairway next to it wasn't suitable for an attack either, because it didn't provide much cover. The best way to continue was the shaft of the freight elevator.

One of the shittiest parts of the operation. The enemy knew about the assault and they would be waiting at the bottom of the shaft. Max was ready to use her abilities, but she wasn't sure if it would be enough. What was worse, there was a second elevator on the next floor, which meant they would have to breach through two choke points on their way to the bottom.

"Lieutenant," Chief Gim said. "The elevator platform is here, but it's wired to explode."

"How much time to disarm?"

"Depends on, how-"

"Chief, how much?!"

"At least fifteen minutes, Lieutenant!"

"Blow it up," she said.

"Aye, Lieutenant!"

"Reyes, make sure they do it right."

The enemy hoped the Alliance would use the elevator, but it would be a bad idea even if they had managed to disarm the bomb.

"Cover!" Service Chief Gim ordered. "Detonation in five, four, three, two, one..."

An explosion shook the floor.

"The elevator shaft is clear," Gim reported.

"Alpha Squad, prepare for descent," Max said. "Bravo Squad, hold the stairs. Descent on my command. Charlie Squad, mine the second elevator and watch our backs. Descend through the elevator shaft on my command. Alpha Squad, follow me."

Max jumped off the edge into the elevator shaft. The gravity on the moon was less than quarter of Earth's gravity, but it was enough to accelerate to lethal speed over the distance of the descent. Normally the Alliance would use other means, but Max had pushed through jump-jets developed by one of the subsidiaries of the Arcadia Bay Group for this operation. Turians, whose special forced had been the sole users of jump-jets, got quite annoyed by the fact that the Alliance appropriated their technology, but it was rather easy to prove that the tech didn't infringe on any of their patents. It had taken some time to convince the Alliance high command though, but in the end it was worth it.

The squad landed at the bottom of the shaft in front of a closed door. There was little cover and it was expected that the enemy would be waiting for them, which is why they deployed a PCS, Portable Cover System.

"Ready to open the door, Lieutenant," Chief Gim said.

Max knew that there was a large hall behind the door. The enemy had a lot time to fortify their positions. The fuckers would immediately shoot them and there was almost nothing conventional she could do to prevent taking a lot of casualties. This place wasn't called a fortress for nothing. They would be extremely lucky if the enemy lacked heavy weapons. The PCS could theoretically take a few hits from a grenade launcher, but the squad would be pinned down. The right decision was to break through to door and to take cover. As a commanding officer Max was supposed to stay behind the squad, but Max wasn't the usual officer. She needed room to use her abilities.

"We're going to break through on my command," she said as she stood in front of the door. "I take point. Chief Reyes, Corporal Wuycik, with me. Reyes, cover the left flank, Wuycik, the right flank. Don't try to be a hero. Go for the first cover you see. Gim, lead the rest of the squad as you see fit. Try to keep up."

She took a deep breath.

"Open the door," she said and radioed on the platoon-wide channel, "Bravo Squad, begin!"

It would be a suicide without her powers. As the door was still opening, Max looked around, found and prioritized enemies and ran forward amid a flurry of bullets. Shooting grenades that were flying towards the Alpha Squad and killing hostiles before they could point their weapons in her direction. Some of the hostiles didn't have armors on much less shields. Either they were overconfident or didn't have enough time to arm themselves properly.

Enemy forces consisted mostly of batarians, but there were turians, asari, salarians and what's worse: humans. It didn't really surprise her as there was enough scum among humans, but she couldn't fathom what could motivate humans to help batarians to kill and enslave other humans. They were working for the Hegemony against the Alliance.

Fucking degenerates.

The team broke into a large hall. The enemy barricades were mostly made of shuttles and containers, but there were a few permanent defensive positions. Max could see that this place could be held against a large attacking force, but the defenders were neither well-trained, nor coordinated. Her team was breaking through like a knife through warm butter. Reyes was easily keeping up with her, but Wuycik wasn't used to such insane charges and she was forced to assist on the right flank.

Suddenly she saw some kind of distortion in the air, and something exploded to her right. She slowed the flow of time down and looked around.

What the fuck happened? Did I miss something? Was it a grenade?

Then she saw Wuycik being torn apart as a huge krogan appeared seemingly out of nowhere.

Biotic, she realized.

Although all asari were biotics, even among asari those who could use the abilities in combat were exceedingly rare. Most of them didn't want to waste their time mastering the ability. And those who wished to be trained, needed amps and someone to teach them. Neither was cheap. Percentage of biotics among other races was almost inconsequential.

She was trained to kill biotics, but she had never fought against them. The corporal was dead and the only way to save him was to rewind time. She was already using her powers and there was little doubt that she would need them in the last phase of the operation. Rewinding now could cost her dearly later. Was his life worth the risk? The solution to dilemma came with a forceful biotic push in her direction.

Fuck!

She rewound time, found the krogan and began shooting at his head. How much time did the krogan have to react? Dozen milliseconds? As it turned out, dozen milliseconds were more than enough for the krogan. He did something and she suddenly felt as if she was frozen. She couldn't move!

What kind of sorcery is this?

Max rewound time and slowed it so much down that it would be impossible for any living being to react. She kept firing at his head until her rifle overheated, and she was forced to normalize the flow of time. The krogan's head exploded in a shower of gore and blood, ash she dived into cover. Reyes leaned on the wall next to her, while Wuycik took cover behind a column.

"Motherfucker!" she shouted and then barked into her radio, "Shield status!"

"Thirty-five," Reyes said.

"Twenty-seven," Wuycik radioed.

The squad was successfully advancing using her suicide charge to their advantage.

"There was a fucking krogan biotic," Max told Reyes.

"Was he good?"

"Fucking sorcerers."

Reyes laughed.

As the Bravo Squad joined the fight the last enemy resistance crumbled.

"The floor is cleared," Reyes reported as the last shot was fired. "We've got five wounded. Two of them can continue. One heavy wounded, but our medic stabilized her. We found fifty-three captives."

Max nodded.

"Snakeroot-Two's reporting. Phase two is complete. Light casualties," she reported to the major. Then she switched the channel and said, "Need evac for wounded and civilians."

"Negative," was the answer from the ground. "HOTGAIS."

"Roger," replied Max.

They were on their own. There were hostiles on the ground and in space. What was worse, Major Kyle didn't answer. More than a little worrying, and she switched to the battalion-wide channel.

"Snakeroot-Two's here. Snakeroot-Zero, do you copy?"

"Snakeroot-One-Alfa-One. I copy. We're FUBAR."