Log 19
Date: 3RD NOV 2186
Location: CONCRETE, WASHINGTON, USA
In the end we reached our destination on the morning of the fifth day of our expedition (I'd like to blame that entirely on Reaper patrols but actually we just got lost for half a day). We had marched through much of the previous night (before finally succumbing to a few hours sleep) so we were surprised to see the mountains rising up ahead of us the following morning.
As we came out of the trees we saw the river (and helpfully an intact bridge) and beyond that the town of Concrete (don't ask me where they get these names from). According to our information Cerberus had taken over the town and set up a headquarters near the airport. We stayed on the south bank for awhile trying to scope out the area but enemy activity in the vicinity was nonexistent.
Either I'd been fed false information or Cerberus was keeping its presence here very low key. Plausible enough I supposed, if they were developing some kind of new weapon (or supersoldier) here they may well be trying to avoid drawing any attention to it. I decided to order the unit to proceed over the bridge and sweep in towards the town. As we approached we fanned out, moving slowly. I was feeling cautious at this stage, the town was empty of civilians as we'd been told to expect but there were no Cerberus defenses in place either.
We scanned the path ahead with every step looking for traps, tripwires, even landmines. With Cerberus any of them could've been a possibility. We'd passed the airport and were getting close to the high school complex when the attack started. Cerberus had placed dozens of turrets in a defensive formation around one of the main buildings. Once we got close enough they all opened fire and left us scrabbling for cover before our shields could be depleted.
Most of us ended up crouched behind a large airbus that had seemingly crashed in the middle of the street. We had been the lucky ones, a few others had panicked and tried to make it back to the buildings behind us. Their shields were shredded and a couple of them were left with gunshot wounds. They didn't look too bad from where I was sitting but it was hard to tell at this distance. At one end of the bus Lara tried to unleash a biotic strike at one of the turrets but it just frazzled away as it hit its shields. At the other end the General wasn't having much more luck. He had a shotgun was taking opportunistic pot shots at the turrets whenever they swung away from his cover. A decent tactic but he wasn't doing much damaged to the heavily armored turrets.
"Take down the shields, then leave them to Lara," I shouted.
Coberg looked at me coolly for a moment but then nodded and begun concentrating his fire on one of the turrets. A short while later he called out a target to the Justicar and I heard a crashing sound as the turret was smashed to bits. A good start but there were still about twenty left so I looked for a way to climb on top of the bus so I could join the fight until Xi Chan pulled me back.
"You brought me here to deal with Cerberus's tricks."
"Any ideas?"
"Take this, press the button and throw," he said handing me a small black device about the size of my fist. "At the enemy," he added in case there was any confusion.
"Grenade!" I yelled, hurling it over our temporary barricade and into the ranks of the turrets. I ducked low behind the barricade and waited for the explosion.
And waited.
After awhile I looked up at Xi Chan who had an odd expression on his face.
"That err, that wasn't a grenade, was it?"
"No Admiral, it was a prototype comms device I created."
Xi Chan explained patiently.
"Then why have me throw it at them?"
"Take a look and see for yourself sir."
When I took a look I saw a scene of chaos, a firefight still but now mostly between the different turrets. Turning against each other they had laid waste to their own side within minutes leaving the surviving few easily picked off. I glanced at the Salarian eyebrows raised.
"It was nothing really Admiral. According to Alliance intelligence the turrets use a simple to signal to identify themselves as non-hostile to other turrets. I simply used the communicator to block that signal."
Simple enough to understand even for a military man like me but the results certainly had us all shocked. Even Lara had a look of surprise on her face as she viewed the carnage. She turned and gave the Salarian a nod of respect before leading us onwards into the building itself.
Surprisingly enough I was starting to relax at this stage .If the base had still been populated a guards force should have been sent to pick us off while we were pinned down by the turrets. Clearly this base had been abandoned by Cerberus, the only question was, would there be anything here left for us to find?
We pushed through the school corridors, each step only serving to confirm my suspicions about the place. We encountered more turrets but each was alone and no match for our firepower. Frustratingly the turrets were the only sign that Cerberus had ever been here at all. Clearly whoever had been here had done a careful job of removing anything of strategic value. Fortunately our informant had let us know of a basement level that had served as a command center of the base.
We made our way there, taking the slow creaking elevator to the bottom floor. As soon as the doors opened the smell hit us. An ungodly reek of death and decay that seemed to assault the senses. With my helmet still on I was spared the worst of it but the others were less fortune. Even the Justicar was almost on her knees. Eventually they all donned helmets or ripped up clothing to hold over their faces. Anything to hold back the stench.
We couldn't see into the chamber ahead at first. There were some dim lights in the elevator and beyond that total darkness. Some of us had torches built into our helmets and amour, thin pale beams that barely cut into the black sea before us. We moved slowly now, the confidence of our victories above gone. Logically I knew the the place must be abandoned but entering this dungeon filled me with dread. Still worse we had been left alone here with the dead.
They were piled on top of metal benches around the room. It was hard to see but I caught sight of medical equipment and restraints near by. I heard a gasp of alarm and turned around quickly, raising my rifle to fire. It was Will, his face white as a sheet. He had just accidentally stumbled across more bodies, mostly alien hanging from the ceiling on meat hooks. More evidence of their hatred of non human species and their indifference to most of humanity.
Sometimes I wonder if Cerberus has any real interest in science. Sights like this make you wonder if their goal isn't just to make as many real life nightmares as they can. Clearly there was some kind of medical experimentation going on here. What kind? I honestly didn't care at that stage. Cerberus's work was monstrous, it was always monstrous in the end. And the contempt shown for these people by leaving their bodies dumped like this as they abandoned this base to continue their work elsewhere? It sickened me.
I want Cerberus destroyed. I want everything they've ever done exposed and then to destroy them utterly as a warning to anyone who even contemplates these evil experiments in the future. The Illusive Man has called Shepard the best of humanity, I wonder if he ever realized that he was the worst of it?
So I pushed forward through the room full of corpses determined to find something that would help end Cerberus. We broke through a security door at the far end of the room. No stench or corpses this time, a pristine workplace in front of us, desks replete with state of the art computer systems. A comfortable, civilized place to work away from the butchery next door.
There was more light in this room, it was spilling out across the room from a terminal in the corner that was still switched on. To my surprise I could make out a shadow next to the console that looked suspiciously like a person. Well I wasn't going to take any chances (god knows what sort of human shaped monsters might be lurking in an abandoned Cerberus base) I signaled the others to circle around and we approached the figure from all sides. As we closed in he sensed our approach and turned round so we quickly moved in to surround him. Once he'd turned to face us however I recognized him instantly, it was Dr Serov.
He seemed as shocked to see us as we were to see him but that arrogant smirk never stayed off his face for long.
"Well, well so you managed to break your prisoner even faster than I anticipated Admiral. My congratulations, is he still breathing incidentally?" he remarked.
"He gave you up Serov. Looking at this place I'm surprised they don't all turn on you."
"Hmm you just can't get the staff these days," he tutted. "I should have had him implanted like the others but I still need a few workers with their brains intact."
I wanted to kill him so badly I could feel it like a physical pain in my chest, a burning sensation on my face. But the information he could give the Alliance might help end this nightmare so I leveled my rifle at his chest and managed not to pull the trigger.
"You're being taken into custody. We'll escort you to a resistance base for interrogation."
"Oh really Admiral? I seem to recall I escaped your grip easily enough last time. What makes you think I'll allow you to take me anywhere?"
I nodded in Lara T'Ren's direction.
"That's a Justicar over there and this time she'll be ready for you. Even you're not fast enough to evade her biotics."
"And she's not the only one you need to contend with," muttered Coberg.
The doctor nodded slowly, looking around the rest of the group for the first time.
"Well it's quite a motley crew you've assembled Admiral. But perhaps you do have a point," he said raising his hands in surrender before turning to face Lara.
"You know when I was first informed that the Justicar Order had come to Earth I could scarcely believe it. I think I should look into capturing afew of your sisters soon. With the right enhancements and a control chip implanted in your brain your warriors might make quite a formidable bodyguard for me."
He chuckled at the thought of it.
"You're insane," whispered Jeff.
"Admiral please keep the little people quiet for now, they are an annoying distraction from our conversation."
"You can enjoy the rest of it from inside a resistance cell," said Coberg. "You're coming with us."
"Oh I'm afraid I can't do that General," he replied.
"Yeah? Let's see if I can persuade you." the General raised his own rifle and fired a shot that went straight through the doctor's shoulder and smashed the screen in the terminal behind him.
When I say 'straight through' I'm not trying to suggest the shot went into his shoulder and out the other side. No it went straight through him because there was nothing there to hit. If I'd thought the doctor had been laughing at us before he was falling into hysterics now.
"I told you I 'can't' do that not I 'won't' do it General," he crowed. "I'm afraid I'm not actually here!"
I understood, it had only been a projection similar to our own comm devices albeit far more sophisticated than anything I had ever seen before (that said the darkness undoubtedly helped conceal the deception). Even now with the trick revealed I could almost believe he was standing right in front of us.
"You planned this trap the whole time?"
"Really Admiral you flatter me. No I had no idea my agent would be captured or give me up so easily. But when you triggered the defenses upstairs I became aware of your efforts. I then set up this pleasant little meeting for your benefit. Really I think my improvisation should be commended but that said I had been hoping to buy a little more time."
"We need to move," I said abruptly.
"Rushing off already Admiral? You should really stay and take your time more. Quite apart from anything else you're all going to die when you get back up there so I can't really see why you're in such a hurry to face the end."
"Why would you attack us? We're not Reapers we're human beings. It's insane!" shouted Jeff.
"Oh I've upset the little people again. Come to think of it you're from that little town called..." the doctor frowned for a moment and peered at something outside the projection field.
"Welcome? Huh I like that sound of that. Almost a shame I sent a aha 'Welcoming committee' over there."
"All this tragedy and you still attack your own kind," said Lara her disgust clearly evident on her face.
"Oh I needed more subjects for my experiments and the so called resistance helpfully gathered them in one place for me."
"You bastard!" screamed Jeff while Will made a lunge towards the projection. I grabbed him and tried to hold him still so that he could calm down.
"We have to move!" I roared again determined to get them moving out of there before Serov could spring whatever he had planned for us.
"Oops, too late," sneered Serov before pointing to something behind us. We all turned in the direction he was pointing and that's when I saw it for the first time: An adjutant.
I recognized it from the Alliance intel we'd been sent but I'd never imagined ending up face to face with one. The first thing that draws the eye is the strange bulbous growth on its head like a massive blue balloon. Then you see the face below, the tendrils dripping from where its mouth should be, the blue flashlight eyes. With no features that are even remotely human it should be able to look angry but you see a face filled with hate. Its body is encased in black metal armor with wires and tubes sticking out in odd places like a Reaper soldier. In places of its right arm, a cannon surgically attached and fused with the flesh. All these observations I remember recalling afterwards, at the time my mind was consumed with just one thought.
"Kill it!"
We poured everything we had against the monster, shots rained down on it like hail. As it charged at us biotic explosion impacted its chest and knocked it back. But still it moved forward, absorbing the punishment, driven by a mindless obsession to destroy.
We were shouting now, swearing at it in fear and anger. It stood only a few steps from me. At that moment all I was, was my gun. I couldn't plan or strategise or dream up any clever way of beating this thing. All I could do was keep firing until this abomination went away.
Fortunately our assault ultimately proved too much for it and it collapsed under the weight of its wounds before it could strike. I almost collapsed in exhaustion from the relief of that moment but instead I steeled myself and told myself to start acting like a soldier again.
"Hmm a useful if somewhat disappointing demonstration. Thank you in any case,+ it should prove invaluable in designing upgrades. Now then I have work to do and watching you die would only be a distraction." With that the projection switched off leaving us in near total darkness.
"We have to get out of here and warn the village about the attack," said Jeff.
"We don't know how many more monsters Cerberus has waiting for us up top," warned Coberg.
"Nor can we say with certainty how many more might still be down here with us," stated Lara calmly.
"Lara's right, we can't stay here. We'd be fools if we thought we could shelter in a Cerberus base from this attack."
"So what's the plan then?" Asked Coberg.
"We hit them with everything we've got just like we did with the last one," I replied indicating the Adjutant corpse behind us.
"Don't focus on fighting the enemy, when we see an exit we just go hell for leather."
Coberg looked blank.
"It means run as fast as possible. If we hit them hard enough we may be able to catch them off guard and escape."
"A slim chance," noted the General. "But probably the best chance we've got."
"We're with you," said Jeff indicating the rest of the group.
"Come on then, let's do this."
We hurried back through this dungeon and piled into the elevator (which was just as slow moving as ever and slightly ruined the momentum of our charge. The cheery music didn't help either). Once we got to the top we broke out of the school and charged.
Absolute pandemonium, that's the only way I can describe our escape. As soon as we left the school more Adjutants began emerging from the buildings, the abandoned vehicles, anywhere they could hide. We'd switched to shotguns for maximum stopping power which was just as well because within seconds an Adjutant jumped down from the roof in front of us. A couple of shots him it square in the chest and it went down, we ran past before it could stand again.
We sprinted onwards but as fast as we were the creatures were so much faster. They bounded after us, closing on us easily, only falling behind when they pounced on one of us and dragged him down. Our squad were being picked off one at a time but all we could do was keep moving. One of the abominations jumped right into our midst and Lara stabbed an omniblade deep into its bulbous head. It fell back and we didn't wait to see if it would get back up again. Ahead of us lay a line of houses, now bristling with Adjutants. We waded through, hurling grenades and powerful biotic attacks ahead of us to cause maximum damage. As the enemy closed with us we switched to guns, omniblades, knives anything to hold them back as we pushed through.
Eventually we broke through into the trees where the Adjutants size gave us the advantage in speed as they struggled to maneuver through the thick undergrowth. We stayed in the safety of the woods as long as we could but eventually we ran out of forest and burst out into the sunlight. Thankfully the bridge was now in sight, if we could reach it we might have more options. We could use it to funnel the Adjutants into scope or try to bring it down to block them from following us.
Unfortunately Cerberus had the same idea and as soon as we got anywhere near the bridge they detonated charges that ripped it apart. I sometimes ask myself why Cerberus didn't wait until we were on the bridge before blowing it up. Maybe it was a malfunction or they were worried that some of us might make it to the other side but I think it was the human factor. The good doctor didn't want to give us such a quick, merciful death. Like a bad sci-fi villain he wanted to prolong our pain and suffering, to make us feel helpless before the end. I have to admit he was succeeding on the helpless front. Without wanting to sound melodramatic I really did think we were all going to die that day.
The bridge was gone, we were being backed into a corner by the river and Adjutants were flooding in from all directions. If we tried to wade across the river we'd be picked off before we made it half way, if we tried to fight we'd be torn apart. The Adjutants were acting like a pack now, herding us into this trap, surrounding us and holding back until they were ready to strike. Their mistake was waiting just a bit too long.
Suddenly from above came a hailstorm of incoming fire pouring down on the adjutants. I looked up to see a military shuttle overhead its weapons more than a match for ground forces. Some of the Adjutants tried fighting back but they simply didn't have the firepower to breach the ship's kinetic barriers. The rest tried to charge at us, throwing themselves across the field trying to get past the bombardment and do some last damage before the battle was over. Some of them made it but most didn't and the few that survived faced an angry and heavily armed squad waiting for them. It was a short, brutal fight but in the end the tide had been turned.
When he ran out of targets he could hit from the air the pilot landed the shuttle and joined us on foot. That's when I got the biggest shock of the day (so far), it was Daniels.
Private Daniels who had been with me since the beginning until he gave his life to draw the Reapers away from us or so I had thought. Now he was closing on our position with a sniper rifle, using the powerful gun to pick off the remaining Adjutants (he couldn't have hit them from the shuttle for fear of blowing us up too). I was astonished, I finished off the two nearest Adjutants and raced towards him.
"How?"
Daniels shrugged in a noncommittal way.
"Wasn't too difficult, I managed to stay ahead of them for awhile in the Hammerhead then found somewhere quiet to hop out and set the autopilot to make it fly straight into the Reaper's fire first chance it got. They saw me die so there wasn't much point wasting time searching."
I just stared in disbelief.
"Okay there was more to it than that but that's the gist of it. I spent a few days hiding and joined up with a civilian. Said he was a former Alliance officer called Alenko I think. He helped me evade the Reaper patrols but uh- he, he died saving me."
"How did you find us?" I asked glancing behind me. The battle was still going on but it seemed Coberg and Lara had the situation under control at this stage and were just mopping up the last few.
"I never managed to get near the base in Seattle in the end. You were the only one that knew the exact location and there were too many Reaper troops in that direction anyway so I headed back to Welcome and eventually they got word that you were headed here and might need backup."
"We're going to need to get back there as soon as possible, is that shuttle still good for a return trip?"
Daniels nodded. "Should be, those things didn't do much damage when they-"
At that moment he was cut of by a bellowing shout. It was coming from Will, his father was on his back grappling with the last of the Adjutants. I started racing towards them cursing myself for getting distracted even for a moment. Lara got there first and drove her omniblade into the side of its head. I relaxed and slowed down as the Justicar began to drag the creature off of Jeff but its weapon still fired. Twice.
When I heard those shots, I felt them like they had passed through my own body. Time slowed to a crawl as I raced towards the man, lying there in a pool of his own blood. I was heading towards him but all my mind wanted to do was get the hell away from there. To be anywhere but near Jeff Stevenson as he died next to his son.
I went to kneel beside him but Lara held me back. I turned to her in anger.
"Where's the hell's the damn Medi gel? We have to-"
"We don't have any left Admiral," she replied.
"And it wouldn't do him any good even if we did," grunted the General.
For a moment I felt absolute rage towards him, I wanted to smash his face in, to hit him over and over and over. Then Jeff looked at me and washed all of that away.
I'll remember that look for the rest of my life. He tried to speak but the blast impact had crushed his chest, he couldn't manage it. I'm still not sure what I saw in his eyes that day, hatred? Blame? Or just a reminder of the promise I'd made to him. He soon turned to look at Will who wasn't saying anything, just sobbing over his father's body. Jeff never stopped looking at him until he died. He struggled at the end, like he was fighting with death for even one more second to see his son's face before he went.
That's how I'll remember the man if anyone ever asks me. He was never made to be a soldier, never meant for this life. He fought for his son, he killed for his son and when the end came he even held off death to stay with his son a little longer. Jeff Stevenson was a good man, he has become my role model and he is everything that I want to be for my own son.
Sorry this was slightly late. This death scene was a hard bit to write so please review!