In Infinitum
Chapter 22
Opening Show
Vasili, Ghost system. Aurora Cluster. 2300 Hours.
Shepard and all ninety-nine other Spartan IVs were restless inside their barracks. He watched as Jonathon-211 played with his thumbs. Twenty others were sparing lightly in the corner of the long dorm room. Most of them just laid in their bunk beds, chatting away the two hours they had waited to be fitted with their armor.
Shepard glanced to his left, Valerie was sitting on the bed next to his, her bunkmate. Connor, was lazily snoring, enjoying the downtime. James? James was seated above Shepard and grumbling for the tenth damn time.
"James, I get it, you're impatient, stow that shit," Shepard growled up to him, He hit the bottom of the bunk hard, enough that he knew James felt it.
"Ow! Hey, I can't help it, we're stuck here while the Reapers are lightly pushing on the Alliance's front! We should be out there fighting!" The man jumped down from his bunk and turned to Shepard. "You can't really expect me to be calm after Halsey just told us Arcturus has fallen! Shepard, the most powerful station the Alliance could make is gone."
Shepard frowned. He knew the feelings James was going through, he had been through them too when he had faced the Collectors and lost most of the colonists at Horizon, when he had arrived too late to save them again when they were melted down at the Collector base and again when he was locked down by the Alliance top brass.
"I know what you're feeling, James," Shepard started, raising a hand to place it on the others shoulder. "But getting riled up for a battle that isn't going to happen soon isn't going to help win this war. We just need to wait for our orders and pray we can save as many as we can."
James growled, but said nothing more and instead mumbled, "I guess…" he took a breathe, cracked his neck and muttered. "You're right, now, where's our sweet ass armor?" he forced a smile. Shepard returned the simple gesture.
The doors to the barracks slid open and revealed four technicians, each held a datapad and glanced over the hundred Spartans before the leader said, "Come with us, Theta Company," he turned and walked. The others followed and so did the Spartans in a neat lines of four.
They were lead to the science division in the western side of the large facility known as HARVEST base. It held roughly one hundred personnel from techs to scientists, including Halsey's handpicked science team that had been responsible for many of the breakthroughs in the past few months since her arrival. Her team had designed the SPI Mark-III armor, The Reach and many other advancements from weapons to propulsion. This place is what Humanity represented, ingenuity.
They passed a large set of double doors and through some biometric scanners before they came to more doors. These ones marked with "Restricted access only" and with a sigh, the leader held up his passcard. It beeped and the doors slid apart to allow them inside. They proceeded inside the large chamber.
The Spartans stopped to gape. There in front of them were rows of armor suits, each held the sleek design that the Alliance favored, but it also had hard ridges of plating in other places as well that just seemed to blend together to make the perfect balance of intimidation and effective. Each suit was a dark blue with a fluorescent sheen to it. The helmets visor was golden, interlaced with micro fibre webbing to increase its durability.
"Sweet," Connor grinned beside Shepard. "Just… sweet."
Valerie and James nodded.
Shepard smirked, "The damage we can do with these," he said simply. But the reply was instantaneous, the Spartans who heard him all clenched their fists slightly, some stiffened and others outright grinned like predators itching for blood.
The technicians turned to them. "Alright, all of you pick a suit and wait by it, there all the same so don't get picky," he waved them off. They turned, left the room out another set of doors.
Shepard and the Spartans moved to the suits. No less then thirty seconds later had all one hundred of the armor suits been claimed by a Spartan. They stood at side of each, looking at it keenly in awe and admiration, excitement. Shepard stared at the gold reflective visor and he saw his face reflected back at him.
The doors the techs left at opened again and dozens of technicians marched inside, easily over forty of them, they split up into teams and moved to the nearest Spartans. Apparently, they were here to help them into their armor. Halsey entered shortly after, saw Shepard and approached him.
"John," Halsey spoke his name with a certain fondness. The older woman smiled at him and continued, "Sorry, Commander. I just… you're so alike," she said and turned to the armor suit. "I suppose you want to know how this armor works, correct?"
"I understand the gist of it," Shepard replied with a nod. "Makes you faster, stronger and harder to kill."
"Series four through six, yes," Halsey waved a dismissive hand. "But this suit, this single unit can do so much more for you, Shepard," she turned to him and smiled. Her eyes gleamed with pride, "The suit's underlayer is a mixture of micro fibre weaving, Crystalline reactive circuits, ballistic and pressure gels with absorbent properties." She patted its armored gauntlet lightly, "The reactive circuitry increase your reflexes and reaction time by a factor of seven, much higher then any of the previous models."
Shepard whistled lowly and said, "Sounds good, what about the plating?"
"The plating is specially made by Asari Republics, the plating it duel layered, the upper layer is designed using refractive coated armor usually reserved for dreadnoughts, this layer is designed to absorb and dissipate energy weapon impacts. Reducing the heat output," Halsey explained and took a quick breath, "The second layer of the armor is hyper dense titanium alloy that's designed to stop anything that gets through the first layer in its tracks." she smiled.
"Airtight?"
"Three hours worth of EVA time at full capacity," Halsey replied with a nod. "Also, the suit comes equipped with multiple jump thrusters for EVA work in space, two primary ones on the back above the micro fusion plants. More on your calves, knees, shoulders and elbows. Also on your chest for those quick stops or reverses." she listed off the perks of the armor.
Around him, Spartans were getting fitting into their new armor by techs, they were covered in the black under layer of the armor, then sealed. Soon the plates started getting fit onto them as well, there were complaints of the armor being uncomfortable. But Halsey explained that was because the power hadn't been activated yet.
"Also, this armor is capable of un-assisted high altitude-low orbit drops." She said.
"What?" Shepard blinked. Not sure he heard correctly.
Halsey gestured to the small little bulging dome between the fusion plants on the back. "This is an element zero core, Shepard. It allows you to briefly…" she searched for the right word, "Alter, your physical weight. Allowing you to be lighter for short periods of time, meaning you can fall from a very high place at terminal velocity, engage this core and you'll be light as a feather, course, you'll be a feather falling at the same velocity, but a quick application of the jump thrusters will solve that problem quickly enough." she smiled, "In simpler terms, for brief moments you may as well be in zero-gee."
Shepard was utterly stunned by that. He could hardly begin to grasp how she got that sort of technology to work, let alone fit it inside something like this suit of armor he was going to be given. He could fall into the battlefield from low orbit and land without so much as a scratch… the thought was both exciting and terrifying. Would it work? He didn't want to test it.
"How about shielding?" He whispered.
"The shielding using cyclonic barrier technology, miniaturized of course for the armor instead of the larger ship classes," Halsey said and adjusted her glasses higher onto her nose. "Your also able to increase and decrease shield density to other parts of your body, meaning you can divert power to certain areas to increase their protection in the field. A useful feature I think." she added.
"Aside from all that, it comes with thermal and night vision modes, upgraded motion sensor and communication suits, VI and AI ports, both just as compatible as the other." she shrugged and watched as the technicians made their way over to Shepard, she turned to him and smiled again. "Well, I best be off, John…" she turned and marched away.
Shepard watched her go. Then turned to the techs and followed their instructions as they disassembled the suit and got it ready for Shepard. He glanced over to James and saw his teammate being fitted into his own armor.
Turian Hierarchy Military High Command center, Palavan. Apien Crest system. 2450 Hours.
Garrus Vakarian wasn't one for this sort of thing. Sitting around and directing his specially assigned task force, ever since the Reapers had been confirmed to exist by the council the hierarchy had been in military lock down, every soldier in the reserves had been deployed and assigned to key defensible planets and multiple larger versions of the Thanix cannons had been produced and planted onto every capital ship and cruiser they could get back to the shipyards for refitting. He was thankful that the threat of the Reapers were being taken seriously now.
Which was why he was here on Palavan overseeing some very important military like how many fleets would they commit to each relay into Turian Space, possibly tactics against the Reapers and most importantly how to go on the offensive, They couldn't play defense the whole war. No, doing that wouldn't win. At most it would drag it, Garrus knew every army had a base of operations.
But where was the Reapers base? They could have made it in Darkspace, in which case it was up to luck to eliminate them all. But in this big, whole galaxy a few Reapers could hide anywhere and never be found until they struck again. They didn't need supply lines as far as he could tell too, which complicated things. An army that didn't need supply lines or a main theatre of operation was something he wasn't trained to fight. This war would be fought using new tactics.
His com blinked. He was receiving a message, turning away from the politicians he opened his com and said, "Report."
"Vakarian, sir! Our long range sensors are picking up activity near the relay, can't tell if it's reapers yet, but we're pulling our scout ships back to the main fleet, what are your orders?" his Lieutenant, Vaor Kryllick. Was new to the task force, he was a biotic and former member of CABEL. Turian Black Ops.
"Alert all nearby fleets and tell them to get their Thanix cannons warmed up," Garrus turned to them table where the politicians spoke to the Primarch. "Excuse me, Gentlemen," he said, interrupting their talks. "We've received reports of activity near the relay, we're not sure if its Reapers or now, but I'm not taking any chances with the lives of the entire hierarchy high command, Primarch, if you'll come with me sir?"
He gestured the Primarch, the most powerful Turian position to Garrus' knowledge.
The Primarch looked at Garrus condescendingly. Vakarian knew the Primarch, or any of the higher military didn't like him because of his history, leaving C-sec with Shepard to fight off Saren, then rejoining only to leave again and go rogue out in the Terminus Systems and once he rejoined he kept stirring up troubles about the Reapers. Which forced the Primarch to finally give Garrus some resources.
Now he was one of the most powerfully placed individuals in the chain of Command because the Reaper threat was real and he was the only Turian alive who knew anything about their new enemy.
"Of course, Commander Vakarian," the Primarch's tone was nuetral. "Generals, as protocol dictates, I am on my way for the Citadel, the council will likely want set up talks there concerning our entire galactic situation." he stood and nodded, "Be safe."
He turned in time to see Garrus listening to his com with narrowed eyes, suddenly. All their com channels were flooded with static, then with a hissing screech a synthetic voice bellowed. "I am Monarch! And I am your ascension!"
Garrus frowned. "The hell was that…" he mumbled, then switched channels. "Lieutenant, what's the word on the relay?"
"Sir! We've got massive activity at the Relay! Sensors are reading seventy-six, eighty! By the spirits!" there was a hiss of static over the com line several seconds before the Lieutenant's voice returned. "I estimate two-hundred and thirty-seven Reapers! All headed by a single massive unit sir, I'm guessing a flagship."
Garrus' eyes widened and the Turian felt his throat go dry. Two-Hundred Reapers were now headed straight for Palavan? Spirits there was enough firepower there to wipe out the Turian race's homeworld! He turned the Primarch, who wore the same expression of awe. "You hear it too?"
"Yes, Vakarian," the Primarch hissed and turned to the generals. "Mobilize all fleets! Send a communication to our allies we'll need reinforcements, whatever they can send! Palavan is going to be hit hard…" he growled.
"We have to get to the Phestier and off planet, Primarch, now!" Garrus didn';t have time to waste, at max strength, the Turian fleet was four hundred and thirty plus strong ships, but up against that many Reapers? Garrus wouldn't lie. They would fight bravely, but Garrus knew the odds were slim. If they had faced the numbers that had taken out the Alliance Arcturus station, this would be over quickly, but now? Well. Least they had the Reapers outnumbered.
The Primarch nodded and soon he and Garrus were moving towards the shuttle bays where they would board a shuttle and be taken to the moon where their escort would be waiting to evacuate the Primarch to the Citadel. So far still the safest place in the Galaxy.
Reports from the fleets started streaming into Garrus and the Primarch's communications lines. The Reapers were on a bull charge, the flagship and every other Reaper were charging in a phalanx towards Palavan. They were trying to come to ground, Garrus frowned. "Standard Reaper tactics, take out the head and the body dies," he spat.
"What?"
"They're trying to land on Palavan and begin destroying the Hierarchy high command," Garrus replied as he and the Primarch entered the shuttle bay. "The fleets won't be able to stop all of them from getting by, we should expect Reaper ground troops on Palavan soon."
"What ground troops?"
"Collectors? Husks? Hell if I know, Primarch, I've never seen a Reaper ground invasion," Garrus replied and tapped his com. "Take us out of here, pilot. Best speed to the moon."
The shuttle lifted off the deck and sped out and into the sky. Garrus watched as the massive city they were in grew further and further away, then… the clouds overhead sparked red and his mouth opened in surprise.
In his com, a Turian shouted. "Contacts! Anti-air defense online!"
Soon, the descending Reapers were pelted by tiny AA fire, they didn't slow and soon touched down. Their massive structures towered above most of the large buildings within the city. Only the highest of buildings stood taller than they did, and soon those building started to burn as the Reapers opened fire. Their pulse lasers targeted the anti-air batteries. Their Main guns sheered through rows of buildings.
"Spirits…" Garrus whispered.
The Reapers moved along in their slow, lumbering pace to wherever they saw fit. A few "crouched" down and went belly onto the buildings, Garrus pulled his rifle and used the scope through the viewing window. From these smaller Reapers poured hundreds, soon thousands of Husks who began to swarm the streets, smashing windows and tearing apart any unlucky civilians.
The shuttle broke the atmosphere and Garrus, still in shock from the sight of his home city being invaded by Reapers. Stared blankly at the scene before him now, the Turian fleets were mixed up in multiple, spread out battles with larger Reapers. The wrecked hulls of Turian frigates, cruisers and dreadnoughts floated towards the planet and then started to burn up on re-entry.
He noticed there were a few Reaper wreckages as well, too few, however… much too few for the dozens of Turian ship hulls now nothing more then scrap metal. "Vakarian!"
"Yes, Primarch?" Garrus replied, tearing his gaze away from the sight as more Reapers drifted towards the planet's surface.
"It… will be alright, son," The Primarch said, unsure how to console the other Turian. He too was shocked, but something inside him knew Garrus was in worse shape. How could he not be? They had ignored his urgings of preparation for months since his return now… he was seeing his homeworld burn by the very things he wanted to warn them about.
"Yeah, it will…" Garrus muttered, "We'll win. But it will be a bitter victory."
Motes of fire appeared on the Planet's surface on the dark side.
The Primarch grunted, "Always is…"
Citadel-Security headquarters, Citadel. 0250 Hours.
"I'm getting refugees up the ass and right now its only Batarians!" Executor Watts growled as Bailey, Sparatus and Udina stood before him. "You realise once more colonies and systems get hit by this growing can of worms, more refugees will come, right? Now, you want me to… what again?" the executor used air qoutes. "Give them passage? I already allowed Aria T'loak on the station without so much as a weapons scan thanks to Tevos. Now this? I'm trying to keep the peace. And I can't do that when the docking bays filled with ships and scared wittless idiots!"
"Then use the ships," Sparatus countered when the executor finished talking. "Tell the Refugees that any ships that dock with the citadel that are to be commandeered, then send them to the following coordinates…" he raised his Omni-tool, then the executor's blinked. "where they'll be refitted for combat and put on Citadel defense. If they don't submit their ships, then you make them leave."
The executor blinked, then frowned and said, "On whose orders should I say they're by?"
"The order of the council and every ascenting embassy on the citadel, we need every ship we can get, Executor, how many ships have we docked already? Hundred? Two-hundred?"
"Hundred and fifty-six," Watts replied lowly, thinking it over. It was genius really, anyone who wanted on the Citadel had to make a donation to the defense fleet, helping themselves by helping the citadel. "They help us, they help themselves in their defense…" he murmured.
"Exactly," Udina nodded.
Bailey raised his hand, "I know I'm the lowest ranking guy here, but I have an idea too, if your all interested," he said, cheeky smile on his face.
"Of course, Commander. We wouldn't have brought you along if we didn't value your opinion," Sparatus replied with a nod.
"Why not put up volunteer stations inside the Refugee camp? In times like these, for every three scared person there's always ones who gung-ho to take up a gun and fight for their family, lover or the dead. We could use all the able bodied men and women willing to help us keep this place orderly when things get really bad."
"Really bad?"
"Supplies, our lines are still good, but you've read the reports from Tevos and Valern. Their borders are being pushed at by the Reapers, if our supply lines to Asari space are cut off, our supply of medical equipment is going to start falling faster then we can replenish it. Or our weapons shipments from Palavan, who, by the reports, are getting a new one torn into them." Bailey frowned. "Get it?"
Sparatus nodded grimly, "Yes ,Commander, I see your point."
"Yes, grim indeed…" Udina sighed, then turned to the executor. "Can you make it happen?"
"Give me an hour," Watts said and nodded. "I'll have results, lets see if my Alliance Drill instructor days are really behind me," he grinned.
The three others nodded. Then bid farewell and left the executors office.
"That went well," Bailey commented.
"Yes, well, he knows what's at stake, despite his keep the peace speech, he knows what's going to happen, he just wanted to know our reasoning." Sparatus replied calmly, "I can see why. In times like these, people sometime do stupid things for stupid reasons."
"Yes," Udina said. "But now, we have to contend with matters of strategy, Palavan is being hit the hardest so far, Reaper scouts have been reported in Asari and Salarian space, a skirmish here and there, but nothing too violent."
"Yet, anyways," Sparatus added.
"Yeah, don't expect the Reapers will lay low on those two for too long, what about the Krogan?" Bailey asked.
"Hah! Those brutes haven't even sent in a greeting card, I sent a scout ship, Reapers haven't entered the system, but the Krogan are trying to prepare for ground warfare."
Bailey blinked. "No ships?"
"Their fleet is in orbit around the Relay, its small. But they've welded massive amounts of armor to them…" Udina shook his head. "Ground combat… really."
"Hmm," Sparatus hummed before turning to Udina. "What about Earth?" he asked.
"Earth? Well, last report sent said their relay was clear, sides the surviving fleets from Arcturus returning to Moon base for repair and refuelling," The human councillor replied. "Though, one of our research bases on Mars has failed to send a report in the last seven hours, readings from the probe nearby says there's a storm in the area. So it's probably just interference from the storm that's stopping their interplanetary communications." He shrugged.
Sparatus and Bailey frowned. They both felt something wrong with that, it seemed too convenient to their military trained minds.
"You should send a scout party, just to be safe," Bailey said with nod. "Can't be too careful in these times, y'know?"
Udina paused, appearing thoughtful before nodding. "I'll tell Hackett to send Shepard."
"Why Shepard?"
"Because one of his old crew is there, Liara T'soni," Udina replied simply.
Bailey blinked. Then said, "Why is she there?"
"Because, he ruins are home to the prothean dig site where we first discovered Element Zero technology, she asked to have access to them in the hopes of finding out anything that might be able to defeat the Reapers." Udina explained as they came to the lift, stepping inside and letting the doors closed he continued. "We agreed, she's been there for months now. Said she might have found something useful, she's still trying to decrypt the data."
"Why haven't you mentioned this before, Udina?" Sparatus asked, clearly annoyed.
"There was nothing to mention," Udina replied with a frown. "I'm sorry." he sighed, "her theories, however, say it could be a blueprint to a structure, maybe a weapon."
"When did she report this?" Sparatus asked. Bailey turned to Udina too.
"In her last report before the station went silent," Udina blinked, confused. "Why?"
Sparatus and Bailey stared at the human Councillor like he was the dumbest human in history. "The station goes silent as soon as she mentions a possible super weapon, and this doesn't bother you?"
"The storm-"
"Is the perfect cover for an infiltration operation to secure the date," Bailey interrupted him. The sighed and said, "Damnit, Udina… tell Hackett to double time it!"
Udina blinked, thinking it over. Then his eyes widened and he growled, "Cerberus…" he spat and clenched a fist. "Who else would try to take the plans for a super weapon during a war?"
He stormed out of the elevator and towards his office. He needed to be quick.
End of chapter 22
There's chapter 22! And now we dive into the ME3 storyline a bit more and Cerberus had entered the fray too! Now, to those who ask for the Chief, I'm still debating whether or not to include him. As I have been trying to avoid him for the better part of the time I've written this, he may show up. But I'm also not saying it will be soon. Now, if you would all leave a nice little review, I'd be most pleased!
Now, thanks to all those who reviewed! I'm glad my Space battle wasn't horrible and you like the story! as for our next glimpse of Lucy, hehe.