Everything was going to shit. Fast.
Jack tried to explain away everything that was happening: Maybe both he and Lu had mistaken the writing on the side of the shuttle, it was far from uncommon for shuttles on colonies to get tagged with graffiti. The explosion was simple enough, even Lu's father's meticulous rules could be circumvented by one person if they really tried. Accident? Intentional payback? Corporate espionage? Anything was possible!
Jack tried to think of a reason for explaining such a massive gathering of shuttles would be happening over one of the smaller cities on Mindoir when the second explosion silenced his friends and stopped his train of thought in its tracks.
There was a rising dark cloud over the refueling station and sporadic flashes across the city. Jack could feel the rumbling in his bones, even at this distance, but for some reason he couldn't hear the explosions. Just a high-pitched shrill. His mind raced as he started to come to grips with the situation. Why attack Mindoir? It wasn't like they were wealthy; they were a farming colony with few resources and weren't even that strategically important. His dad had mentioned rumblings about angry Batarians complaining about "Reckless Human Expansionism", Jack had even overheard talks about what looked like minor raids, but there wasn't anything that hinted at this.
"Enough!" Ji shouted, jostling Jack out of his thoughts. "I need to get to my family."
Art turned to Jack with a pained expression, his voice soft enough that Jack barely heard it while standing right next to him "Eva was supposed to mind the shop today."
"You idiots can charge directly into the swarm of alien bastards, I'm going home. We have weapons and a plan. If you wise up and choose life, meet me there." Jones said coolly as he started to turn around.
Barely recovering form his own denial, Jack was paralyzed for a moment as two of his friends turned to sprint straight into a killing field and another turned to run through miles of open farmland. A part of him wanted to laugh bitterly at the idea of ever joining the Alliance Navy. He was the last one to start to act in this situation.
"Stop." He said, not sure if it was directed at any one friend. But it was enough. All three paused momentarily, looking at him either patiently or hopefully. He had their attention, now he needed to earn it. He violently shook his head for a second, trying to think through the situation and dispel the lingering feelings of self-doubt and terror. There was a cool pit in his stomach, it was uncomfortable and a little frightening, but he felt he could use it. He was far from a tactician, but he could think of some kind of plan.
Glancing up instinctively, he reached out and grabbed both Art and Ji by the wrists, pulling them back under the shade of the tree before stepping out and forcefully shoving Jones under as well. A feat that would have normally been impossible if Jones hadn't willing stepped back.
They all stood motionless, the rest looking at Jack as if he'd completely snapped. But Jack felt the coolness overtaking him. He inhaled slowly, trying to balance himself as they all began to feel the shuddering in their bones. No one dared to breath as the high-pitched whine of a shuttle hurdled by overhead, shaking the ground underneath them.
"Okay, this is bad." Jack finally said as the shuttle began to shrink into the distance.
"Yeah." Art said numbly, nodding in agreement to the understatement.
"If you guys try what you're talking about, you'll… you'll probably die." Jack continued, still working through the beginnings of a plan in his head.
"Great pep talk so far, man. Really appreciated." Jones said hollowly.
"Sorry, I'm working on it. It's just… Jonesy, if you try to go back to your place now, you'll be picked off in no time. You're a big target in open fields and they have air superiority on the lookout for stragglers." Jack continued, feeling as if he was picking up some momentum.
"So, standing under this tree outside the city that's being nuked is safer?" Jones asked angrily. Jack could notice Art and Ji both wincing from the statement, struggling to fight back the bile himself. They all had family in town right now but focusing on that wasn't going to help the situation any.
"No, the city is fucked." Jack said with a nod, hurrying to continue before getting cut off by the others, "Best we can do right now is leverage that destruction for our own protection."
Even as the words left his mouth, he felt like a bastard. Ji and Art were both white knuckling the urge to sock him for his callousness; If Jonesy had any family in town, Jack had no doubt he would already be unconscious against the tree trunk while the others began running off again.
"They'll be expecting the bulk of the population near the city center, with a good proportion of people near the edges of the city. Then, there will be the outliers of farmers in their fields and homesteads. That's the first shuttle we've seen peel-off, it's either checking on the next nearest town or doing a quick outer sweep. Until they… until they finish with the city, that's where they'll consolidate their forces."
Arthur looked like he was holding back the urge to vomit and Ji was leaning back against the tree with his head in his hands.
"Maybe, just maybe, we can make it out of this alive. We can try saving our family's while we're at it." Jack finished, hiding his shaking hands by clasping them behind his back.
Jones cursed as he shook his head, turning away momentarily as he rubbed the back of his neck. But at least he seemed to have the other two's attention, and Jones wasn't rushing out into the open again. yet.
"My family and Arts would both probably be near the city edge… Probably. They would be the last to both get hit and have full sweeps. If our families are smart, they can hide out long enough to buy time. Ji, your family is already well protected, we… we would never be able to reach them." Jack's voice lowered to a hoarse whisper as he saw his friend's face fall.
"I… I thought you said we could save them." Ji stated carefully, the pain in his voice barely contained.
"Not directly." Jack replied quietly, "But with the security forces that your family employs and the defense systems already in place should help them a lot. The only way they would be weakened is if the security forces were divided; like if they were sent off to look for a missing son in the middle of a Batarian raid."
There was a pregnant pause as everyone watched Ji's reaction. Indignation, rage, fear, and finally pained acceptance crossed his face as he tried to find his voice.
"I can't go to them." Ji stated, though his intonation implying a question to Jack.
"If you went to the city center where the fighting will be the thickest, there's a high probability that you die very quickly. Even if you survive more than a few minutes, you'll draw security forces away. A divided force will be crushed even quicker, and even more people will die."
"What the hell am I supposed to DO then?" Ji shouted, his voice shrill and thin as he took a shaky step away from the tree trunk.
"Work with us." Jack supplied. Ji glanced anxiously back towards the city center, just in time to see another massive fireball erupt into the sky. At the very least, the sound of combat meant that the security forces were fighting back, as one-sided as the fight seemed from the distance.
Ji slumped back against the tree and slid to the ground, hugging his arms tight around his chest as he silently nodded his head.
"Arthur," Jack continued, turning to his other friend who had been staring off to the quickly deteriorating situation in the city.
"Yeah Jack?" Art responded quietly, his voice wavering as the debris from the fireball began to cascade down upon the town.
"Your family's shop is near the edge of town, maybe a half-mile from where my family was going for the party." Jack said quietly, placing a reassuring hand on his friend's arm. "If we can get communication to them, maybe we can have them meet up and be ready."
"Ready for what?" Jones asked hovering next to a shivering Ji, a rare look of concern and sincerity on his face.
"A rescue, kind of." Jack said, his voice sounding surer than he truly was. "We can make it to my house, it's only a couple miles away. The gun case has a few rifles and a pistol or two. Plus, we have my dad's old Nova."
"I've seen the Nova and all the dents you've put on it." Ji said with in a low voice, "I think I'd almost take my chances with the Batarians."
The delivery was more numb than humorous, but it elicited a couple chuckles from the group.
"That's why Jones will be driving it." Jack said, earning a wary glance from the larger man.
"Thanks for sending me straight into the fire, Jack. Beginning to feel like this nightmare is about to start running off horror movie rules." Jones said with a grimace.
"You're the one with most experience driving Shuttles or a Nova." Jack said, he hoped reassuringly. "If anyone can do it, it's you."
"Fair, you bunch of bumpkins wouldn't be able to handle heavy traffic. But what will the rest of you be doing while I'm being a big damn hero?"
"We get ready for part two of the rescue. The Batarian shuttles won't let anyone try to leave without a fight. The Nova is fast enough to race in for a pickup and leave before getting too much fire from ground troops, but it can't outrun a shuttle -"
"So, this is a suicide mission." Jones interrupted, tapping his foot in agitation.
"No. The shuttle can't outrun them forever, but we can program it to follow a predetermined course. If we can get it to fly past my house to the woods in the north, you'll be able to drop out over the creek. If you're flying low enough, the Batarians might not notice. By the time they catch up to it and find a way to bring it down, they'll have been distracted long enough to buy us time. During that time, we would be traveling in the complete opposite direction."
"Which would be?" Ji asked pointedly, rising from his spot at the tree trunk.
"Jones' place." Jack replied simply. "The forest will get us most of the way there without being spotted from the sky. By then, it will be dark, and they'll need to travel slower or rely on ground forces."
"My family's plan wasn't meant to accommodate three families, Jack." Jones said somberly.
"It doesn't have to be for long, just long enough to make it through this –" Jack gestured in the direction of the town as a whole, "until the Alliance gets here."
"There are a lot of flaws in all of this, Jack." Ji began, tapping his knuckle to his lips as he thought. "How are we even going to contact anyone in town? I'd assume there's either some sort of jamming or listening in on civilian level equipment. What if they miss the jump into the creek, or hit a spot too shallow? What if the shuttles just shoot down the Nova immediately?"
"We'll need your help for the first one. I assume with your family's money that your omni-tool is top of the line, right?" Jack asked, receiving a small smug smile and a nod. "Arthur and I can give you the information to contact our families, you'll need to find a way to encrypt it so the Batarians don't hear it."
Before Jack could finish, Ji was already bringing up his omni-tool and running through different screens.
"There's a certain level of risk for the creek, but I'd take a likely sprained or broken ankle or leg over whatever the Batarians have waiting for them. Lastly, those shuttles looked like they're unarmed, and only an idiot is going to try a ramming maneuver while inside one of those things."
The other three were quiet for a moment in thought.
"I'm open to ideas here, guys." Jack said as he worriedly looked over at the city, feeling time already slipping away.
"Better than running in without a weapon." Arthur said as he turned to Ji, lightly jostling his shoulder. "You better be ready to run, Lu. Try not to collapse from the effort."
"This is going to get us killed." Jones said with a shrug. "But I'm behind you, Shepard."
For the first time since the refueling depot blew, it felt like they had a chance.
As the group trudged to the front door of Shepard's house, Jack couldn't help but think about how much more difficult the trip had been than initially anticipated. The short two-mile straight shot lengthened as they zigzagged along using the wet and muddy irrigation ditches and frantically sprinting across open portions of field when they didn't join neatly.
He glanced back guiltily at the rest, all of them breathing hard and practically dripping mud. But they had made it back. Shepard reached for the knob and turned it easily
By the time they had reached the short road leading up to the doorstep, Shepard was breathing hard and could feel a dull throbbing across his body. The rest of the group wasn't much better. Jonesy was poorly hiding his panting and the other two were doubled over, stumbling behind to reach the potential safety of the home.
Practically dripping in mud, the four quickly strode to the front door. Splattering the new carpet with thick brown splotches that would assuredly stain. If this works, I'm sure mom will forgive me Jack thought as he scanned the entryway, the smallest speck of hope that his family has arrived home early fizzling out quickly. The only thing he found was a small, festive looking bag on the hallway table that wasn't there when he left.
"How's the encryption coming, Ji?" Jack asked as he glanced into the living room and kitchen, hiding his disappointment that they were both empty.
"Just… Just give me… a second." Ji gasped, barely keeping himself upright against the wall.
"What now, Jack?" Jones asked, having recovered quicker than the rest.
"If you can, barricade the door. Last thing we want is to be ambushed before we have a chance to get ready, if they do make it out here." Jack said quietly as he started towards the stairs. "I'll get the weapons."
"How the hell do you barricade a sliding door, Shep?" Jones asked, but Jack was already gone.
To get to the stairs, Jack first passed through the kitchen. The lingering smells of fresh baked bread and cake bringing on a whole new wave of worry for his mom and sisters. Sara was still the baby of the family and spoiled to match. Angelina was about the same age as Eva and helped around the house and farm just as much if not more than Jack, much to their parents' relief. Jack offered up a silent prayer for their safety as he made his way upstairs, bee-lining for his dad's study.
The muffled sounds of furniture shifting downstairs and Ji's cursing as he worked through the encryption could faintly be heard, and another high-pitched whine passed by caused a shiver to go down Jack's spine as he entered the study.
The hardwood floor creaked quietly as he entered the room, the faint smell of past cigar smoke almost reassuring and centering as he glanced around the room.
The scattered datapads on the desk that Jack's father was going through, containing the financial information for running the farm. Educational excerpts and courses used for schooling Jack and his sisters. Recently, he had been gathering Alliance news and reports for specific threats and evaluations; his worry for Jack's future thinly veiled.
In the corner of the room sat some of the more sensitive equipment that couldn't be left outside in the barn and storage buildings. The survey drones used for remotely checking the crops for diseases or destructive wildlife that he and his father had programmed together. The locked cases with the heavy-tractor ignition pillars, the keys for the couple thousand credit worth of machinery necessary for operating a large farm on a fledgling colony planet. Even the almost polished looking case of high-grade explosives that had been freshly purchased for clearing large clusters of rocks for the new field that they had planned. The fight his parents had had just a couple days ago was still fresh in Jack's mind. His mom was adamantly against keeping it in the house, where their family slept. His dad had argued it was safer than leaving them out in the less secure barn or storage units, and their children were smart enough not to play around with equipment strong enough to turn the house into rubble. The atmosphere of the house had been tense for days, and even that morning Jack and Angie had known that it wasn't quite settled – but their parents had agreed to let the issue rest to not spoil the festivities. A part of Jack wished that his parents had made up considering the circumstances. A part of him hoped that they hadn't, just because this couldn't be the end. This couldn't be so dire that everything else was forgotten.
Jack shook himself out of his stupor, turning towards the reason why he was here. The weapon case. Even through the reinforced view screen, Jack could see the half dozen rifles and couple of pistols clearly secured where they had been that morning. With a sigh of relief Jack approached the interface pad on the side, ready to unlock the case and get himself and the rest of the group armed. He felt a pit form in his stomach as he saw the dull flashing red warning on the side that alerted him that the maximum number of unlock attempts had been reached.
His mind raced as to what that meant. His family wasn't back. The family shuttle wasn't anywhere in sight and they would've left a note, if not outright looked for him. Before he could think of any other explanation, he caught movement from the corner of his eye. A figure reflected in the view screen holding some sort of long, thin weapon. Almost instinctively, Jack dove to the side as the weapon came down in a wide arc, making contact with the edge of the case instead of his head.
Jack spun and rose, arm already reeled to strike back as he focused on his assailant. The recognition stopping his fist short and taking the wind from his sails almost immediately.
"Eva?" Jack asked, equal levels of surprise and confusion tingeing his voice as she stared back at him wide eyed.
"Jack?" She asked, the broom handle falling from her grasp and clattering to the floor of the study. Her own surprise quickly faded, as her chin began to quiver and her eyes watered. She lunged forward and Jack was worried for a moment that it was another crazed attack. Before he felt her arms wrap tightly around him as she collapsed against his chest.
"I'm sorry." She sobbed quietly, her whole-body shuddering as Jack supported her weight. "I… I thought you were whatever is attacking town."
Jack was speechless for a moment, still processing the situation. He settled for just holding her for a moment.
"Everything is okay." Jack lied, "It's going to be alright. But what are you doing out here?"
Eva was quiet for a moment, sniffing as she separated from Jack.
"Some urgent business came up and Dad had to go to the center of town." She started shakily, "Arthur was already gone for the day and he didn't want to force me to mind the shop alone, so we closed up early. I didn't have any other plans, so I figured I'd drop off my present. No one was here, so I was dropping it off when… when the town exploded. I tried to get a weapon, but…"
She gestured sheepishly at the locked-out terminal on the gun case, but Jack's mind had already latched on to something else she had said.
"Your dad was at the center of town?" Jack asked as the blood froze in his veins. His high hopes for saving everyone quickly crumbling, realizing how indelicate he had phrased the question.
"Arthur is downstairs with everybody else." He followed up quickly to gloss over any thoughts she might have on the fate of her father, stepping around her to get to his father's desk. Opening one of the few drawers, he rifled through assorted datapads until he found the small chip hidden near the back.
He was just about to return to the weapons case when the high-pitched whine of another shuttle deepened to a low whirr seemingly right outside the house.
Jack's breath caught in his throat as he turned to Eva, who was already wide-eyed in terror.
"Eva. Eva, look at me." Jack hissed in hushed tones, managing to drag her attention away from the wall separating them from whatever just landed outside. "I need you to insert this chip on the underside of the terminal. Do you understand?"
Eva shook her head slightly, pressing her lips into a thin line as she focused.
"What? Why?" She asked, her voice tinged with panic that thankfully was being held at bay temporarily.
"It will reset the timeout on the terminal for one more attempt." Jack said, pressing the small chip into Eva's hand that she took reverently.
"It will take about a minute to remove the block." Jack continued, "But you'll need to put in the passcode."
"Why can't you?"
"They need me downstairs."
"How are you going to help?"
Jack paused momentarily, as he faintly heard alien voices making their way up the drive.
"I don't know." He admitted, bringing up his own Omni-tool to type out the passcode. "But I can't just leave them alone down there. Bring down some weapons as quick as you can."
With a flick of the wrist, he turned the passcode so Eva could easily make it out.
JackAttack-Angel-SareBear
Eva stared at the display for a few moments before looking back to Jack, her eyebrows knitting together and her jaw clenching. Giving him a nod along with her look of determination.
With the sound of something banging against metal downstairs, Jack quickly turned and did his best to stealthily leave the room. Leaving the crucial task of securing something to defend themselves with in Eva's capable hands.
As Jack crept down the stairs, careful to avoid the creaky spots on each step, a chorus of pounding metal from the front door caused his heart rate to skyrocket. His whole body felt warm and it was like electricity was rushing through his veins and along his skin. Arthur, Ji, Jones, and he had done plenty of stupid things for adrenaline rushes that weren't a quarter as intense as that moment. It was awful.
The racket only grew worse as Jack finally reached the landing, creeping back towards the hallway. He carefully braced himself against the wall and glanced around the corner. From his position, he saw Jones, Ji, and Arthur all pressing themselves tightly against the walls, as far from the windows and door as they could manage. There was a haphazard pile of furniture up against the smooth metal door panel, the terminal to the side flashing an angry red. Thankfully, one of them had had the foresight to lock the door well in advance of the Batarians approaching. Arthur managed to pry his eyes off the door to glance down the hallway to find Jack, a faint look of hope in his eyes as he mouthed a single word.
- Guns? -
Jack frowned bitterly as he slowly shook his head. The descent of the stairs had felt like minutes with how carefully he had placed his feet and the adrenaline at the time; but in reality, maybe fifteen seconds had passed since he left Eva in the study. Not near long enough to reset the terminal and unlock the case. Arthur's face fell in dismay as he turned back towards the door.
From Jack's position, he was the only one who could clearly see each of his friends. The only thing more worrying than the clearly hostile voices on the other side of the door was Ji's expression as he listened to the muffled conversation. As angry as the voices were, Ji's quickly paling face was much scarier. Because Ji was the only one of them with a translator module sewn into all his clothes.
Arthur, Jones, and Jack could all hear footsteps retreating from the door. The two other boys already began to sigh in relief. But Ji was pulling desperately on Arthur's arm, dragging them both as far away from the door as he could manage without speaking up. Jones, stuck on the other side of the door, could only look on in confusion as Jack pieced together the hints to his own horror.
"Jones!" He hissed as loud as he dared, catching the attention of his large friend. "Move!"
Jack feverishly gestured for Jones to get away from the door. A momentary look of bewilderment quickly replaced with stunned realization as he turned and dove further into the living room. Just as Jones was sliding into cover behind the old couch, the entire entryway exploded.
Eight small charge packs lining the door went off nearly simultaneously, the faintest difference in their timing making the explosions sound like a horrific firecracker. The concussive force managed to stagger Shepard from across the hall, sending him sprawling on to his back as he fought through the afterimages clouding his eyes and the ringing in his ears. He barely managed to roll himself in the direction he hoped the wall was, trying to get out of line of sight from the door. His shoulder slamming harshly against the corner that would've elicited a cry of pain from Shepard if he wasn't actively holding it back, resulting in a strained, high-pitched groan.
Jack pulled himself up to a sitting position, trying to take in slow deep breaths and blink away the effects of the Intense flashes. The whole experience was surreal and unsettling as the usually comforting sight of his family kitchen seemed distorted and alien, unable to hear his own breaths beyond the shrieking whine in his ears.
The effects lessened quicker than he had expected; not nearly back to normal, but enough that Shepard could make out basic shapes in fuzzy detail and vaguely hear individual sounds. He could hear the coughing and gasping of his friends in the next rooms over, their conditions probably far worse than his considering their proximity. Shepard turned to glance down the hallway towards them to see how they fared, only to quickly snap his head back around the corner as he saw the weakened frame of the door being pushed in through the wreckage of the furniture stacked in front of it.
With a heavy clang, the metal sheet that was once the front door of the Shepard household fell to the floor, the heavy clomping of armored boots quickly following.
Shepard closed his eyes and rested his head against the wall, morbidly wondering if the first one through the door had seen him. The sound of a second set of boots joined the first in the hallway and two distinct voices echoed in the decimated remains of the entryway. A part of himself that Jack was immediately sickened by was thankful that they were moving to either of the side rooms, instead of the hallway towards him.
Worry for his friends barely pushing past his fear and desire for self-preservation, Jack snuck another glance down the hallway. Both armored figures were looking away from him, already locked on to their current prey.
The larger one casually strolling towards Ji and Arthur in the dining room, his pristine armor a stark contrast to the wreckage around him. Ji still sprawled on the ground, his hands pressed tightly against his head on either side, covering his ears as he let out another distressed gasp. Arthur had managed to shakily make it up to all fours, his swaying form at risk of collapsing to the ground at any moment. Despite this, one hand stubbornly reached out towards the shattered remains of a chair leg; the attempt quickly squashed as a boot came down firmly on his wrist, pinning it to the ground.
The shorter one's movements were much more agitated and hurried, almost erratic as he approached Jones in his shabby, ill-kept armor. To his merit, Jones was already in a kneeling stance, almost pushing himself to a standing position before the shotgun in the smaller Batarians hands leveled at his head from only a meter away. The shorter Batarian said something to the other in their alien language, his body language and speech communicating twisted excitement, even if Shepard couldn't understand the words. The larger one's response was slower. Calmer. The deep voice resonating in Shepard's bones in the most unsettling of ways that chilled him to his core.
Jones simply stared up at his assailant in unabashed contempt.
"You're not going to get me to beg." He huffed, spitting at the foot of the Batarian. "You four-eyed freak."
The movements of the smaller Batarian quickly changed. The hunched-up shoulders relaxed and the twitchy movements growing still. Jack knew what was about to happen before the Batarian even raised his gun.
For the first time that day, he wasn't sickened with his gut instincts. Instead of freezing up or being thankful that the Batarians were targeting his friends instead of him, Jack was already moving. His legs pumping beneath him, he raced across the room. The shout of defiance a roar as he was already down the hall and entering the living room where Jones knelt before an execution.
A lot of things happened at once that Jack barely registered. The smaller Batarian's head turned first, registering the new threat and swinging his shotgun to face it. The larger Batarian was better. Faster. Already mid turn with the shotgun coming up to his shoulder. If Jack had been alone, he would've been dead in seconds.
Luckily, he wasn't alone.
With his wrist free, Arthur quickly grabbed the leg of the chair and lunged forward and upward. A broken bit of wood wouldn't hurt the armored Batarian, but it was enough to bash the shotgun upwards and ruin the shot. Not that it wasn't terrifying to have the wall only a couple feet above Jack's head explode, but it was a far better alternative to being gutted or have his head replaced with metal shavings fired at supersonic speeds. For Jones, the moment the shotgun was no longer at risk of turning him into a bloody pulp, he reached forward as well. His hands quickly grabbing the Batarian by the wrist, holding the shotgun off to the side. Either in surprise or anger, the Batarian discharged the shotgun almost a foot from Jones' head; The shock no doubt deafening Jones all over again and stunning him, his grasp quickly weakening. The struggle for the shotgun held, with Jones' size and strength advantage the only reason it was not swiftly decided after the shot rang out. But things were quickly turning against Jones, and it looked like the second shot would meet its mark. Before that could happen, Jack's short sprint carried him forward, colliding head long into the struggling Batarian's side.
The two of them went sprawling and the gun clattered to the ground. His arms still wrapped around the Batarian's midsection, Jack quickly heaved himself up and pressed his advantage. One hand gripping the edge of the Batarian's armored collar, his other fist slammed down hard against the visor. Any plan or strategy quickly replaced with crudely channeled rage and fear, the shaky floodgates he had erected since the first explosion giving way.
These monsters had been about to execute his best friends in his home, he feverishly thought as his left hand fell against the hard, ceramic view plate.
Were his parents dead?
Crack.
Were his sisters?
Crack.
Everyone he had ever met?
Crack.
Everything he had ever known?
Crack.
With each strike, Batarian's head bounced against the floor beneath them both and he released a grunt of either discomfort or pain. As Jack's senses returned to him, a sharp pain in his left hand flooded his mind. There were hairline cracks across much of the Batarian's visor with portions peeled outwards. But whatever damage had been done to the helmet and its wearer had come at cost. Even if his hand wasn't fractured from the repeated impacts, the numerous cuts on his hands from the sharp outcroppings had left streaks of blood across the view plate. Despite this, Jack started to reel back again; the attempt abruptly halted as pain rocketed up his arm when he tried to clench his fist.
Before he could begin a different tactic, the sound of the scuffle nearby drew his attention. Arthur and Ji were working together to keep the other Batarian occupied, but even two against one they were clearly outclassed. Arthur had managed to pull a blade from among the equipment strapped to the larger Batarian, and he was currently trying to lodge it in the alien's neck. Ji, on the other hand, dangled from the Batarian's arm, desperately keeping the shotgun restrained. The Batarian gave no ground to either man, one hand refusing to relinquish his gun while the other held the serrated blade at bay. Nearby, Jones began to rise stumbling forward for the other Batarian's discarded shotgun.
Jack's own heavy breathing echoed in his ears and were accompanied by the sounds of an angry hissing noise beneath him. The splintered mask of the Batarian clattered to the ground beside the pair with a dull thud. Jack was paralyzed for a moment. He knew about Batarian physiology enough to know that they had four eyes, but that was completely different from having the four inky-black orbs staring up at him in utter contempt. An armored fist struck his jaw in that split second of hesitation, the force and weight enough to throw him to the side and off the prone Batarian beneath him.
Things quickly swiftly changed in the Batarian's favor as the positions reversed. The strikes from armored fists falling on Jack's arms and face making sickening sounds against the unprotected bone and soft flesh. Defending with a possibly broken hand was more painful than Jack had thought possible, as a particularly bad strike hit an already stressed point that made him cry out involuntarily. In desperation, Jack threw a desperate hook with his good hand, the Batarian's now unprotected head a much softer target than before. It was enough to stop the onslaught of punches, but it was far from over.
One gauntleted hand grasped at Jack's throat, clenching down hard and blocking off his airway as the other went somewhere else on his armor. Jack used both hands to barely pry away the hand, shakily sucking in a breath as he heard a knife coming free from its sheath.
"No!" Jack shouted as he let go of the gauntlet grasping at his throat with his good hand, his shattered hand putting up a pathetic resistance before the Batarian quickly had his hand on Jack's throat again. Jack's breaths became little more than hopeless wheezing as his good hand caught the Batarian's wrist, halting a knife barely a foot away from his neck.
The two grunted and groaned as the knife faltered slowly downward, the tip drawing ever closer to Jack's neck. All the while, the edge of Jack's vision grew darker and his breathing became less frequent and shallow.
Somewhere in the background he heard a series of shotgun blasts and the sound of his friends crying out. He felt it at that point that he was going to die. His friends were going to die. The worst part was that it was all his fault. He brought them there like lambs to the slaughter, because they trusted him; and he had rewarded their faith by getting them killed.
Jack let out one last pitiful choke of resistance, his eyes watering as he pushed back on the knife as it drew within only an inch or two of his neck. If he could speak, he would've cursed the Batarian that was now smirking down at him in sadistic glee; but the most he could manage was a twitching glare.
There was the blast of another gun nearby, but not a shotgun. The Batarian on top of Jack swiveled in surprise as another pistol report pinged off his shields. The pressure behind both of his hands lessened slightly. Seizing the opportunity and using what adrenaline remained, Jack pushed forward. With the Batarian distracted, Jack turned his body and used his shattered hand to redirect the hand at his throat – causing it to lose its grip and slap against the ground next to Jack's head. The Batarian quickly turned back to Jack, but as their eyes locked Jack swung the elbow of his now unoccupied arm against the Batarian's temple. It didn't completely knock the Batarian off him, but it was enough to loosen the Batarian's grip on the knife.
Jack's good hand twisted the Batarian's wrist, eliciting a grunt from the Batarian as the knife clattered to the ground beside Jack's head. After that, it was a tense race as the Batarian and Jack both went for the now independent knife.
Jack won.
The Batarian's hand grasped at empty air just a moment too late, but in that moment, Jack was already screaming in rage as he drove the knife upwards and inwards, digging into the soft Batarian flesh exposed just on the rim of the alien's armor. The tip cut savagely into the Batarian's neck as Jack forced himself upwards, driving his whole body weight into his arm and into the knife itself. A pulsing spray of red blood began to spurt out around the knife as Jack forced the Batarian off him.
The Batarian coughing and gurgling, drowning in his own blood.
But it wasn't enough.
For Jack, the anger, the fear, and the desperation all boiled over at once as he began to tear into the Batarian. The knife ripped out of the Batarian's throat, bringing on a new onslaught of blood and morbid choking before the knife drove in once more. Jack screamed the whole time, his voice hoarse and cracking and shuddering as he stabbed the Batarian again and again.
Jack wasn't sure how long he lost control; but by the time he regained control of himself, the knife was sticking out of what was more akin to butchered meat than a neck.
His breathing was hard and ragged, and from the puddle of blood pooling outward from the Batarian Jack could almost taste the blood. Except there was no almost about it. Throughout his entire rampage Jack vaguely remembered screaming, his mouth wide opened and splattered with the spurts of alien blood with each stab. He began to spit, trying to get rid of the taste of warm blood, dry heaving momentarily before he looked back down at the Batarian. His eyes traveled just north of the mess of a neck to the Batarian's face. The eyes that had been so full of contempt and emotional less than a minute ago were now empty. Jack had dully registered the Batarian's pure black eyes as empty before, but the now gaping dead eyes were completely different. And Jack could feel them judging him.
Jack had helped with the slaughter of livestock when he was asked too before. It was all a part of living and working on a farm. But this was a… maybe not a person, but something more.
And Jack had killed him.
Not just killed him. Butchered him. Savagely, and without remorse or restraint. The fight was over the moment the knife had pulled free of the Batarian's neck. But Jack couldn't let it end like that. He hadn't known much about Batarians before that, but from what he could guess the Batarian probably wasn't much older than him.
And now he was dead on Jack's living room floor.
The momentary pause from spitting and dry heaving was interrupted as Jack violently vomited onto the floor next to the Batarian, his whole body shuddering as he slowly tried to rise. He was able to make it to his feet before doubling over again and letting forth another stream of half-digested food and bile. The knife he was still absent mindedly grasping in his good hand clattered to the floor as he turned towards his friends, registering that he was now splattered from head to waist in alien blood.
"Oh my God." Eva breathed.
He thought his friends were looking at him like he was a monster now. He felt exposed and guilty, before he noticed Eva wasn't even looking at him. Jack turned to follow her gaze to where the other four figures were arrayed. The Batarian was mostly intact, aside from its head which was little more than ground and shredded meat – no doubt courtesy of a point-blank discharge of one of the Batarian shotguns. Ji and Arthur were kneeling next to the Batarian, battered and bruised but mostly alright. The remaining figure –
"Fuck. Jones!" Jack breathed, his voice raspy and weak as he stumbled the short couple steps over to his friends.
The Batarian wasn't the only one who suffered from a shotgun blast, as Jones groaned on the ground. He was sweating and pale, his hand gripping at his leg as Ji seemed to numbly secure his belt just above Jones' knee in a makeshift tourniquet.
It looked like it was a grazing shot. But a grazing shot of a shotgun against an unshielded, unarmored leg might as well have been a building falling on it. Parts of the leg were spotted with holes and cuts that dripped blood. Parts of it were just… gone. Tatters of meat and sinew hanging limply off the bone.
"Dammit" Arthur wheezed, a hand gripping Jones firmly by the shoulder. Jones groaned and cursed as Ji hurriedly applied what little medi-gel his omni-tool had available to the remains of Jones' leg. "Is he… is he going to make it Ji?"
Ji looked up to Arthur with a pained expression on his face, "He… He lost a lot of blood. I'm not sure how well the medi-gel will hold up for travelling; I had to spread it out because… because there was so much to cover."
Jones panted beneath the two of them, his eyes closed tight.
"Give it to me straight. How bad is it?" Jones muttered through grit teeth. Jack glanced down at Ji who could only clench his jaw and shrug in response.
"You're going to be fine, Jonesy." Jack said, forcing a smile. "Just rub some dirt on it and you'll be good as new."
Jones groaned in response as he shook his head, "Your jokes always sucked, Shep."
Jack chuckled bitterly as he patted Jones shoulder, "Luckily, you don't need your leg to ride in a Nova."
"Jack." Arthur whispered, his voice low and strained. "There's more."
Jack looked up, worried about more critical injuries before he saw Arthur's gaze was directed outside. Jack was briefly concerned Arthur meant more Batarians were flying in, but what he saw was almost worse. A small blast around the already blown-out door frame telling where one of the other shotgun blasts went. What made his blood run cold was that the path of the shotgun blast was directly into the Nova's element zero core housing.
"No." Jack hissed as he rushed outside, quickly looking over the damage. "No. no. no. no. no"
He shakily leaned against the side of the Nova, hitting the door release and looking longingly at the ignition button.
"Jack, don't." Arthur pleaded, halfway between the house and the Nova. He glanced anxiously to the skies, twitchy at the mere thought of another patrol coming by. "Best case scenario, it doesn't start. Worst case scenario you and half the house, the part the rest of us are in, becomes a crater."
It was all for nothing. Worse, he got Jones killed for his stupid plan. His family was stranded in the middle of a city swarming with Batarians and had no plan to get them out. He turned and trudged towards the house numbly, looking down at Jones.
"So… So the Nova is a no go." He said quietly, the words acid on his tongue. "Maybe we can try the Batarian shuttle? The control scheme may be similar enough to-"
"Stop it, Jack." Jones said, his breathing even if labored. "The Batarian ship is probably tracked or has some sort of remote override on it. Even if it doesn't, you can't program it to remotely fly after we fall out. You don't speak the language."
"We can use Ji's translator." Jack offered, his mind racing for options. "It will take a little time programming through a middleman, but it's doable. Even… even if we can't work the programmed flight idea, we can at least fly you out to the farm. We need you to get in anyways. You're too important, Jonesy."
Jones laughed ruefully, "You don't need me, Jack. You need my passcode to get in. I already put it into Ji's omni-tool while you and Arthur were dicking around outside. I can't walk, the shuttle is too risky, and we don't have time to argue. Ji, tell him what you told me."
Ji looked to Jack, his face slack and his eyes watery.
"They… They were talking about tracking the message they received back to this house before they attacked." Ji said quietly, "They broke through my encryption. They know where we are and they… and they know where Arthur's dad and your family are."
The news hit harder than the Batarian's fist. His family wasn't just stranded, he had sentenced them to death – or worse – with his half-baked plan.
"I'm so sorry, Jack. If I had just been a little –" Ji started.
"No. No, this is my fault." Jack said, his voice empty and weak. "I asked too much of you. I pressured you into it. I pressured all of you into this."
The house was quiet aside from the sound of the house creaking and Jones' labored breathing.
"How long until more come?" Jack asked, looking up to Ji expectantly.
"Uh, they didn't say any more were on the way. But based off of the messages they were receiving that I could overhear we may have ten, maybe fifteen, minutes before more come by to check on them."
"At least leave me a gun." Jones cut in, "I can't walk, but that doesn't mean I can't slow them down. Plus… plus I don't want them to take me alive."
Jack felt his throat tighten, knowing what he was about to do and what it meant.
"We wouldn't leave you without something, Jones. But I think I can do you one better." He said, trying to keep the quiver out of his voice.
They were about a mile away, half submerged in yet another irrigation ditch and struggling to keep the retrieved guns out of the sludge, when they heard the shuttles scream by overhead. There were at least three of them, which meant Jones was about to be face to face with at least six more Batarians.
The more, the merrier Jack bitterly thought as he continued his trudge forward. He shifted the bag on his back to keep it from dipping into the ditch, it had what little supplies they had managed to scrounge for the short journey. Those supplies and their weapons.
He had taken the pistol Eva had used to save a life and the Batarian's knife he had used to end one. It wasn't like he could use the Rifles or Shotguns with his hand the way that it was, so one handed weapons were his only option at that point. Ji and Eva were given the shotguns they had taken off the Batarians, the kickback would be harsh given their smaller frames, but they didn't have much experience shooting so they had decided the spread was worth the pain of firing it. Arthur was given a rifle from the weapon case as well as another pistol. He was the second best shot in their group, close behind Jack; so, it made sense he would have the precision weapons.
Jones had been left a weapon of sorts, but not any of the guns out of the weapons case. He had even smiled when Shepard had told him his plan.
"You're a nasty son-of-a-bitch, you know that Shep?" Jones had said.
It took them all of 5 minutes to get it setup before Jack had put the trigger in Jones hand and they had had a moment to say their goodbyes. Jones had gripped him by the collar of his shirt tightly. Tighter than he had expected Jones to be capable of, given the state he was in.
"You promise me that you get those three into the shelter." Jones had said, his voice ice cold and serious.
"Of course, Jonesy." Jack promised quietly.
"You swear on your family's lives, Jack." Jones had hissed, and Jack had had to swallow hard knowing that swearing on their lives might have been moot at this point.
"I swear. On the lives of my parents, and my sisters, that I will get them to the shelter, safe and sound." Jack has forced out. He had failed Jones. He wouldn't fail again. He couldn't.
"Good." Jones had said, his grip on Jack's collar loosening and falling slack. "Tell… Tell my dad I went down fighting."
"The second we're out of this mess, I'll send him a message." Jack had promised.
"That's not good enough." Jones spat, "I want you to get him in front of you, in person, and tell him his son went down fighting like the meanest mother fucker on the planet. You tell him… You tell him I wasn't scared one-fucking-bit."
"I'm already going to tell him that you went down fighting. Everything else would just be redundant." Jack retorted, not mentioning the tears that were dripping down Jones' face.
"You better get going, you don't want to be around when I go down fighting." Jones had said, a hint of acceptance and finality in his voice.
Jack didn't know what else to say, so he had just nodded and stood up, starting to head towards the backdoor where the others were waiting; They had already said their goodbyes while he was finishing up Jones' weapon.
"Hey Jack." Jones had called when Jack had reached what remained of the kitchen, causing Jack to stop mid-stride.
"Yeah, Jonesy?"
"It was a good plan. Better than what I could've come up with."
"That's just because you had more to drink than I did."
It was enough to elicit a chuckle from Jones, if just a weak one.
"Maybe, Shepard. Maybe."
There was a pregnant pause where Jack wasn't sure whether he should start walking again, before Jones had started again.
"We were almost some big damn heroes, weren't we?" Jones had asked. Jack had felt the tears rolling down his own face at this point, taking a second to collect himself so Jones wouldn't hear the shaking of his voice.
"You're goddamn right, Jones." Jack had lied.
Now, Jack was hiding in a ditch with the others while Jones faced half a dozen Batarians alone. Abandoned by his friends.
Some hero Jack was.
Some friend Jack was.
The shuttles had quieted less than a minute ago, but that would be enough time for the Batarians to exit and start to sweep the house. Which meant that any second-
The four in the irrigation trench buckled as the ear-splitting roar of an explosion rocked the ground beneath them and the air around them. Jones may not have had the strength or composure to aim and fire a gun, but it didn't take much to hit the trigger on a detonator for a case worth of high-grade explosives.
And if those explosives had been wired and set around the element zero cores of two shuttles, all the better for blasting potential.
He heard the soft sob of Eva behind him and the hushed cursing of Arthur as they came to terms with Jones' death. But Jack didn't have time to mourn, he had a promise to keep.
"Come on." He said coldly, "we need to get to the tree line before more shuttles come by to inspect. We can't let Jones' sacrifice be for nothing."
The four shuffled and crawled to the end of the irrigation ditch before making the necessary dash to the edge of the forest. They had made it a couple dozen feet in before they heard the first whine of a shuttle flying by overhead. Despite the need to start making their way towards Jones' farm, they paused for a moment to watch the shuttles start hovering over the smoldering remains of Jack's family home; like vultures picking at a freshly deceased corpse.
Without a word, the four turned and started jogging further into the woods.