"We are on final approach to Mindoir, Commander."
Ceramic plates clicked together. The red streak of her proficiency ran down her arm, like blood against the Alliance blue and white of her armour. Those colours felt like home.
"Thank you, EDI." She stretched, testing that every joint worked as it was supposed to. The thick armour tugged down on her shoulders. There were hands on her buckles; Liara's voice was soft in her ears.
"That's what you were hiding from me."
Shepard put on her helmet. Around them: noise. Cortez was doing his pre-flight checks, calling to one of the flight deck Chiefs. Vega was getting the Marine detachment ready for battle, the swell of their voices, and the clink of their armour in her ears. The various shades of blue gleamed under the light.
"You don't want to go in there," She mumbled, turned to check over the asari's armour.
"I do," The asari retorted as Shepard's hands ran over the smooth, cool plates. "I want to know all of you."
"We should have this conversation later," Shepard said flatly, "In private." She turned to scoop up her Claymore and SMG. The asari huffed something like, 'stubborn, stubborn human' and stalked off to help Garrus with something. Across the weapons bench, Ashley was fiddling with her LMG, her eyes sliding to Shepard every so often.
"What?" Shepard demanded harshly, almost shoving her shotgun into place.
"Nothing, ma'am," Ash said, raising an eyebrow before folding up the Revenant and slinging it across her back, beside her sniper rifle.
Shepard's lips tightened into a thin line and she spun on her heel.
"Ready to go, Lieutenant?" She asked Cortez, folding her arms. The pilot ducked up from where he'd been examining the shuttle, a black smear across his cheek.
"She's good to go, ma'am." And then they were piling in, voices loud with the bravado she'd come to expect in her years in the military. Sometimes you just had to laugh, just to remind yourself that you were still alive and maybe that would change today or it wouldn't, but you were still breathing.
The shuttle, the blue of the Alliance in its every movement, brightened with the heat of re-entry. Below the ungainly craft, spread the green that was so very typical of an agricultural colony. Everything about it said 'this is a pleasant place'. It had been. A lot of places used to be pleasant.
Shepard breathed. Cortez gave her sitreps. Liara stood close, her hand close to her elbow but not touching her. Ash almost lounged against the side of the shuttle, and if she was praying, her lips didn't move.
Above them, the Normandy lurked. All ships had their personalities, their quirks. The Normandy was fierce, sly, a bird of prey waiting for just the right moment. She'd told Joker to keep out of sight. The ship was her trick, her card up her sleeve.
There was, after all, nothing more beautiful that orbitally bombing Reaper forces with a Thanix cannon.
"We've got an incoming signal from the colony, ma'am," Cortez told her. She nodded.
"Mindoir Colonial Militia to Alliance forces. Do you copy?"
"Confirmed, Militia. What's the situation, over?"
"We're using Taspan," Taspan. Home. Just a little town of a few thousand back then, living off Mindoir's static weather and the crops that flourished year round. It had grown a bit since then, "As a base to move people off-planet. We're dug in but they've got us surrounded and they're shooting down any ships that take off, over."
She glanced at Cortez, "Take us in low."
"Roger, ma'am."
"MCM, we're coming in from the west. A distraction would be appreciated, over."
"We'll see what we can do. MCM out."
"So we've got a lot of civvies in one spot. Perfect," Ash muttered.
Shepard glanced at her, bracing herself as the shuttle shuddered as it slid over turbulence, "The galaxy likes to make things challenging for us, remember?"
"You know," Ash said confidingly, "For once I'd like a nice straightforward mission. Where everything goes to plan, where our intel is correct. Just go in, shoot things, get out."
Shepard smirked, "But that would be boring, Commander."
Ash shrugged. She still wore her new rank awkwardly, like she didn't quite know what to do with it. She was an NCO at heart.
She wouldn't go far if there wasn't a war. To rise as an officer you had to play politics, had to be good with people, had to know which buttons to press, which toes to tread on, who to smile at. Shepard had risen far because people liked her or pitied her or were afraid of her. Ashley was honest.
But she was a good soldier, an excellent one. One that would come out of this war as famous as her grandfather but for different reasons and her uniform heavy with medals.
"You ready?" She asked.
"Always am," Ash replied and there was the weary survivor of Eden Prime and Virmire in her eyes.
"Hang on," Cortez suddenly interrupted, "This might be a bit of a rough ride."
Shepard braced, staring at the feeds. Below, the fields of crops, black now and flat. The town, square little buildings that distinguished it from a newborn, prefab colony, barricaded all around. And the horde, pressing forward.
Trying to destroy her home again. Anger tasted metallic on her tongue.
The shuttle rolled to the side, and if she hadn't been braced she would have fallen. On the screens a bright flash of a kinetic round tore through the sky on their left.
"We've got a Harvester, ma'am." He said it very calmly.
"Permission to pop the door, Commander?" Williams said, a light in her eyes.
Shepard shook her head. There was a time for that, but that wasn't now. She didn't like to think about what would happen if the Harvester got a shot into such an enclosed space. "Can you handle it, Lieutenant?"
"The MCM have HMGs set up in a perimeter," The pilot replied, even as he jerked the shuttle hard to the right, and behind them came the shadow of their pursuer, "I can get us there."
Shepard nodded. The ground under her feet seemed to shift, spin out as the shuttle curved through the air. And the Harvester kept coming, its wings cutting at the air, howling with the fury of its masters. The shuttle shuddered as one of the shots clipped its kinetic barrier field, sparking the air blue.
A crease formed itself in between Steve Cortez's eyes.
"Barriers at ninety-one percent, ma'am." He said, voice clipped.
The Kodiak skimmed across the tangled, burnt crops, stirring the plants fitfully, its thrusters burning holes into the green fields. The harvester dove at them, lining up its next shot. Cortez looked like he was enjoying himself. The shot crashed through the air towards them and then the Kodiak swerved, toppling a few Marines into their comrades, and the harvester's cannon fire burst into the ground, tossing soil high into the air.
The pilot pulled the shuttle up and smiled as the feeds showed them soaring over the barricades the colonists had thrown together against the horde of husks. Showed that horde clawing at the defenders, packed together. The exchange of fire ripped the air to shreds.
"Harvester has broken off, ma'am," He said, even as she watched the HMG turrets-where the hell had the militia gotten those?-send a withering hail of accelerated slugs at the twisted creature. It turned tail and fled.
But there was still the husks, at least company strength, and the MCM appeared to buckle under their weight, the gun turrets in danger of being cut off from friendly positions.
"Bring us around," She ordered, "Vega! Get that door open and someone on the cannons!"
"I'll do it!" Ash said, with a little too much joy in her voice. Cortez curled the shuttle around into a shallow curve, as the Marines 'popped' the doors and Ashley got into one of the cannons and one of the Marine gunners on the other. Wind burst into the interior, crawling under Shepard's visor, numbing her lips. Made you wish for a sealed helmet.
Down below, as the shuttle turned, she could see the barricade, the MCM, the howl of the husks. Then the thud-thud-thud of the cannons drove everything else from her ears. Clumps of husks danced and fell as Ash and the gunner stitched holes in them with the guns. It was about then that the Reaper forces began responding and the Cannibals made that horrible sound. A round impacted above Garrus's head, burning into the metal.
She almost yelled out to make sure everyone had their shield generators going, but Vega, despite his issues with command, was competent and the others were veterans by now. She'd just be insulting them.
She flinched instinctively as a shot pinged off her shields, her VI humming that her shields were at 98 percent. But the MCM were pushing forward, re-establishing their perimeter.
"MCM to Alliance shuttle. Thank you for the assist," Came a voice over the radio. Shepard leant forward to press the comm button, raising her voice over the howl of the wind.
"Alliance to MCM. We're going to pull out and head in, over."
"Understood. MCM out."
"Bring us in to land, Cortez."
Taspan had seen better times. The small but permanent buildings had cracked from the explosives detonated around them, and the debris, along with farming equipment, had been dragged to block of the streets in a haphazard barricade, manned by men and women with guns and armour that looked well-cared for but old. Probably equipment phased out by the Alliance and sold on to the colonials.
The colonial town had a small spaceport for small ships and shuttles, and that was where Cortez headed. On the tarmac rested a handful of shuttles, a few small freighters and a crowd.
Shepard took a deep breath as the shuttle settled down and the Marines burst out automatically to form a perimeter so Williams could oversee what they'd brought from the Normandy.
"A single shuttle?" Came a voice. A young voice, bitter like chocolate. Shepard used to sound like that, when she was eighteen and the Alliance was still re-shaping her.
"We're from a frigate," She heard Ash say very dryly, "We can't fit a battalion on board, sorry."
"A frigate. The Alliance sends a frigate-"
Shepard stepped out, into the glaring sunlight that glazed spots over her eyes, pulling her helmet from her head. And there was silence.