"There is no dishonor in suffering a defeat at the hands of the Arbiter," a sangheili Councilor said to the de facto rebel leader Rylit Ikaporamee.
Ikaporamee issued something akin to a bestial roar and threw his new terminal off his desk, nearly hitting the huragok engrossed in the repair of the old terminal. "There is no dishonor, to be sure, but there is the fact we are on the very cusp of defeat!"
"Word has reached my ears that the so-called 'loyalists' and their alien allies have just struck at Final Respite, but our forces have stood resolute," the Councilor said, hoping for a more positive reaction. "That surely is good news."
"Final Respite is a refitting station. The dry docks are useful, but not essential. We have dozens like them scattered about the outer colonies. Our best defense is that they do not know where we are based. They have to go from colony to colony, which will give us all the time we need," Ikaporamee said. He got up from behind his desk and walked over to a window. Before him the sandy planet stretched far into the distance, blown by the constant pleasant hot breezes that drifted lazily across the surface.
"What do we do about the human world?" the Councilor asked before turning around. "We have three good ships with most of their garrisons intact withdrawn into orbit. Our original plan may have failed, but there is another."
"Another?" Ikaporamee asked, momentarily confused. Ah, you mean that plan. "Do it."
"I will transmit the order presently," the Councilor said, bowing and stepping from the room. Ikaporamee looked out the window again and laughed to himself.
"Take a picture, Chief, I want to send this one back to Eden," one of the Dog Company Marines said, from a perch atop the ruined Heretic vehicle that had been destroyed in the late stages of assembly.
Grinning, Ashley took a picture with her omni-tool and sent it to the Marine before deleting it. Bright daylight burned behind the thin cloud cover and the light smoke rising from the wreckage. The ground here was trodden flat, the grass smashed into the earth and then burnt. It was a bleak area for such a celebration.
The Marine hopped down, and when he straightened up he was looking directly into the platinum breastplate of the Arbiter's armor. The Arbiter looked at him first with one eye then the other and turned his attention to Ashley, giving her the same treatment.
"I cannot tell from your armor what your position is within your military," he said, his English exceptional and with no discernible accent. That surprised both the Marine and Ashley, though the Arbiter could hardly tell from their alien body language. "Tell me, who is in charge?"
"Our commander is back in the city… sir," Ashley said, uneasy addressing an alien as such. "Colonel Veers is his name."
"How does one lead from so long a distance?" one of the Elites, as the Marines had taken to calling them after their performance last night, uttered.
Good question, Ashley thought, thinking again of Shepard's unique leadership style. Instead, she answered, "We've got top notch communications; it's almost as if he is standing beside all of us."
"I must see him. The danger is not yet passed," the Arbiter said, advancing on Ashley's position.
"What?" the Marine asked, but he was totally ignored by the Arbiter and his Elites.
"They're coming back?" Ashley asked, alarmed. She looked up but only saw the clouds blowing through the blue sky.
"In a manner of speaking," the Arbiter said. "Take me to him."
"Alright, let me get a shuttle," Ashley said. She activated her omni-tool but saw the Arbiter motioning to one of those bizarre Covenant drop ships landed about thirty meters away. "We'll take your car then…."
The Elites and the human walked over to the drop ship at a quick pace. The Elites jumped in as though it was nothing at all, assuming a position before one of the several "seats" lined up within the wing. Ashley climbed in next to the Arbiter, searching for a belt or something but realizing she was being held in place by some kind of mass effect field behind her.
The now-lonely Marine watched them go and turned to rejoin his unit, and that was the last Ashley saw of him before the doors swung closed from above and below. She pointed Veers' headquarters out to the Arbiter on the map and instructions were relayed to the pilot in a foreign language before the ship lurched upward and spun around before speeding toward the specified location.
It was a matter of ten or so minutes before they got there, and the doors opened on a familiar sight—the destroyed bunker complex. Some militiamen were moving the dead somewhere else and policing the fallen weapons. Those would inevitably be transported to SANI, Systems Alliance Naval Intelligence, probably before the day was out.
Without exception the militiamen went for their weapons before they saw Ashley leading the aliens out. The Elites didn't bat an eye and just walked past them, confident in their ability to end every human life in the area if they decided to do something unwise.
They climbed up the short staircase to the intact bunker, whose door now stood open so that men could come and go unhindered. A Marine stood guard, but that was more or less a formality now that the enemy had pulled back into orbit.
"Chief," Veers said, spotting Ashley coming through the doors. "What are you doing here?"
Ashley saluted and said, "The Arbiter here had something important to report."
"Yes… Arbiter?" Veers asked, curious.
"You must withdraw from the planet, now," the Arbiter said, stepping forward. His announcement drew confused looks from everyone in the room.
"What? We just drove them from the planet," Veers said, countering the Arbiter. He crossed his arms in a defensive stance, assuming a skeptical look.
"You know nothing of our tactics," the Arbiter explained, not trying to be offensive but succeeding. "If the ground campaign is lost, retreat to orbit and cleanse the world, so long as no relics are upon its surface."
"What do you mean… 'cleanse'?" Ashley asked.
The Arbiter looked over his shoulder at her with one amber catlike eye. "The cruisers will fly to low orbit and begin to bombard the surface with plasma. Terra Nova's ecosphere will be destroyed, the planet rendered uninhabitable. The surface will burn until naught but glass remains."
"What?!" Veers shouted. "That's impossible!"
"I assure you it can be done, I have myself borne witness to several cleanses," the Arbiter said. "It is well that the troops on Noveria were destroyed so easily, or very probably that world, too, would have been cleansed."
"This is unbelievable," Veers said, paling. He turned to his communications console and opened channels to the two frigates still around the planet. "SSV Gettysburg, SSV El Alamein, this is Colonel Veers, we've got a priority mission: evacuation."
The tinny voices on the other end expressed similar shock as he had minutes prior. "Are you sure, Colonel? They're racing into orbit right now," Gettysburg responded.
"I've got solid intel that says we've got to evacuate now. I want you two to land in Scott or as close as you can and take on as many passengers as possible. I'm tasking any kodiaks not already carrying Marines to the same thing," Veers said, relaying his orders to the kodiak pilots picking up the 212 as he spoke.
"Yes, sir," El Alamein acknowledged. "We have an ETA of ten minutes."
"That will be too long," the Arbiter warned.
"You need to be faster," Veers relayed. "I'll buy you both a bottle of Serrice ice brandy if you make it here in five."
"Roger that, Colonel, we'll kick it into high gear. We'll land near your position," Gettysburg said, cutting the connection.
Five minutes later the roar of the frigates' thrusters signaled their landing, and everyone walked over to the window and looked out onto the sight. The two frigates set down in the field beyond the blackened hulks of the wraiths, waiting with their cargo bays open.
"Williams, go out and get the militia going door-to-door," Veers ordered. Without waiting, Ashley bolted out into the relatively small city, banging on doors and telling people to get out of the city.
Some people peeked out, and soon the street had a trickle of citizens heading toward the outskirts. Ashley reached the militia compound and found the surviving militiamen lounging about the yard, cleaning their weapons or relaxing.
"Hey! Captain," she shouted, coming to a stop in front of him. "I've got bad news. We've got to evacuate right now."
"What do you mean?" the militia captain asked. She saw on his breastplate his name was Marquez.
"No time to explain. Get your men up and get these people out of the city. We've got two frigates parked right near the bunkers you were holding out in, send the civvies there," Ashley ordered, breathing heavily. "I'm going to go back up the main road on the other side. You guys fan out to either side."
Overhead, the kodiak shuttles carrying the rest of the 212 could be seen streaking by into space, where they would await pickup by Gettysburg and El Alamein.
Ashley worked her way back to the bunkers going from door-to-door, joining a growing flow of foot traffic leading toward the evacuation point. There was no way two frigates could get this many people out, not by any stretch. She wasn't sure what Veers' plan would be, but it had better involve divine intervention, otherwise the several thousand citizens of Scott already making way for the outside of the city would be standing in line when the planet was 'cleansed'.
As she arrived at the bunkers, one of the frigates lifted off and darted into the sky, and the crowd erupted into exasperated groans as their best chance at escape departed.
She left the lines of refugees and went up to the command post, now devoid of most of its equipment. The brigade staff had been evacuated with all confidential information and the equipment that contained it on the first frigate, leaving behind the Colonel and some staff to help coordinate the evacuation.
"Colonel, we've got most of the town coming out but I don't think they're all going to fit on the Gettysburg," Ashley said as she entered the bunker, finding the Colonel but not the Arbiter or his Elites.
"That's El Alamein," Veers deadpanned. "The frigates are going up to orbit and transporting the refugees to the SSV Moscow. She just arrived in-system a few minutes ago. They're keeping well clear of the Covenant vessels."
"We've got a cruiser up there? That's good news," Ashley said. Maybe there's hope after all. "Where'd the aliens go?"
"They got out in their shuttle and are observing preparations for the 'cleansing' op the Heretics are planning. The last update we got was that one of the cruisers is moving into position above Scott, and the other two are moving into position above the larger outlying settlements. We're talking about easily two million people sitting directly in the line of fire," Veers explained.
"We can't hope to evacuate them," Ashley whispered. "Not all of them."
"I know," Veers said, sighing. "We're going to get as many as we can."
"How many were aboard Gettysburg?" she asked.
"About two hundred," Veers said after thinking for a moment.
"My God," Ashley gasped. "We won't get one thousand out in time."
The communicator sparked to life on the table between them. "This is El Alamein, we are fully loaded. We're taking off."
"Go ahead, El Alamein, Gettysburg will be down here in a minute to take on more passengers. Shuttles are waiting at the designated rendezvous point to offload your precious cargo," Veers replied, his voice resigned.
"Roger that, good luck down there," El Alamein's captain acknowledged. Outside, the frigate's cargo bay door slowly closed, leading to an angrier roar from the crowd as their escape was denied. El Alamein's nose pointed up into the air and the thrusters fired, launching the frigate above the tall arcologies of Scott.
Once again, the communicator spoke. "Colonel Veers, the Heretics are powering up their ventral energy projectors. You have precious little time, I suggest you evacuate yourself and any remaining staff."
"Damn it," Veers whispered, the words disguised within a sharp exhale.
The Arbiter was cut off by a priority signal from Gettysburg. "We're taking on one more load of passengers, we can see the alien ship powering up. Get them ready!"
Overhead, Gettysburg maneuvered around the roiling crowd and took up its position in the field, where a few hundred people charged it and began cramming into the cargo bay. A few shuttles followed it down and landed near the bunker, their intention being to pick up the remainders of the 212 on the ground.
"Chief, go," Veers said, looking over her shoulder and out the door. A panicked-looking Marine had appeared in the doorway.
"Colonel, Chief, we have to go. Now," he announced when he saw the Colonel's attention.
"Colonel, I'm not leaving you behind," Ashley said.
"Find Captain Arnold, from Dog Company. He's got the Brigade now," Veers said, walking around the table and guiding Ashley to the door.
Outside, Ashley looked up and could see the Heretic cruiser partially wreathed in clouds. Only the very front of the ship with the four bizarre spines and part of the starboard 'wing' could be seen, but inward from the visible section of wing a light could be seen building. Small tendrils of lightning arced outward from the light and lit up the clouds, looking like some kind of terrible thunderstorm.
"Chief, go now. That's an order," Veers said, pushing her into the arms of the Marine and adding, "Remember: Arnold has the 212, Chief."
"Yes, sir," she said, her voice taking its turn to be resigned. She let herself get taken to the shuttle and loaded in along with eight refugees and three Marines. The one who had guided her there jumped in behind and yelled at the pilot to get them moving.
She felt the shuttle lift off and looked out at Colonel Veers beckoning toward the refugees. He was inviting them into the bunker, and she silently prayed that the bunker would save them. As she watched, Veers closed the door after looking up at her one final time. The shuttle turned and the door closed, and Ashley turned her attention to the view screen on the wall behind the pilot's seat.
They left the bunker complex, flying over the Gettysburg as she also took off and headed away from Scott and the mass of refugees. Suddenly a massive silver beam shot down into Scott, exploding outward as soon as it hit the ground. It obliterated the city, toppling the arcologies and destroying everything around it. Slowly it began to track toward the refugees, who began scattering as the searing wind blew into the city and fed the massive fires. She saw people get sucked into the inferno and saw that they were vaporized as they fell into the wall of flame and she turned away, unwilling to watch. Still, the rumble of the beam destroying the city and the rapidly silenced screams of terror seemed to permeate the ship.
Shocked cries filled the cabin and the pilot mercifully killed the feeds as they retreated into orbit.
Gettysburg, El Alamein, and Moscow all retreated as well, avoiding the three cruisers now burning glyphs into the surface of Terra Nova, burning the world and killing the more than four million humans living there.
Light-years away through the relay network and on the Citadel the feeds were being taken up live from external cameras mounted on the Moscow. ANN, HCC, and every other major news outlet broke whatever program they were playing and showed the destruction of Terra Nova.
One of those watching that was Councilor Donnel Udina, the human representative to the Citadel Council.
His fists clenched and unclenched slowly as he saw the ticker listing what they knew: Terra Nova destroyed, limited evacuations were performed, millions feared dead. He felt his breaths get shallower as he watched the planet burn, knowing that the Navy was already too late. They'd arrive to save a graveyard for four million humans.
Hissing, Udina got up and slammed the terminal's holographic "off" button. He opened up his omni-tool and got the other Councilors on the line, telling them he'd be in the private Council chambers in five minutes.
Exactly five minutes later that was where they found the fuming Councilor Udina.
"Councilor, we all saw what happened to Terra Nova," Tevos said. "We offer our peoples' condolences on the loss of that colony. It is a tragedy beyond measure."
"Your 'condolences'?" Udina asked, his voice full of rage. "You speak like my uncle just died. We just watched four million people get burned to ash on a live feed!"
"Listen, we know the Covenant has fractured. The separatists must have somehow gotten past the salarian blockade on the Pax system and struck at Terra Nova," Sparatus said, no one noticing that for a moment . "They couldn't have stopped them anyway—the salarian force is too light to stop four dreadnought-sized targets."
"What does that have to do with anything?" Udina roared. "My people are dying. I demand action!"
"What action do you demand?" Sparatus growled, angry now. "Send the Citadel Fleet on an FTL jump into Covenant territory that would take weeks if not months to complete? They could burn the entirety of Citadel space in as much time. I advise you to stop what you're doing and think about this. Examine the facts: the Covenant has far faster FTL capabilities that the salarians can't even wrap their minds around. They've got hyper-advanced weapons and the capabilities to burn planets and you want to send our ships after them? We may as well send pleasure yachts after them, it will accomplish just as much."
Udina stopped and turned to face the turian, indignant fury in his eyes. "Are you suggesting that we take this one on the nose? Just pretend that Terra Nova and four million humans are still alive, going about their lives?"
"You know about the task force we sent into their space. They reported in yesterday that all goes well in the Covenant's fight to suppress the rebels," Tevos said. "That is all we can do. Even so, we've lost nearly half of that task force in two fights. I fear sending in any more ships would lead to even more losses."
"You didn't answer my question," Udina said, persisting.
"Yes," Valern replied, stepping forward. "We are suggesting we take this one 'on the nose'." The salarian put the final words in air quotes, an affectation that only served to further infuriate the human. "Nothing can be done about it other than destroying the ships in orbit above Terra Nova now, and even that would not be a simple task."
"Regrettably, there is no other option but to trust the Covenant can handle their own internal problems," Tevos said.
"This is not an internal problem!" Udina yelled. "A human colony has been utterly destroyed!"
"We still haven't heard a plan from you, Councilor," Sparatus spat. "I grow tired of your blustering. Make a proposal or stop your crying."
Udina looked up at the turian, shocked. "How dare you!"
"Just what I thought," Sparatus said, grimacing. "You have no plan. You want us to throw resources into the void and hope that will avenge your lost colonists. Don't waste our time."
Valern nodded agreement, but Tevos remained expressionless. "We're sorry. There's nothing we can do except help you rebuild. Your fleets are handling the Heretic ships, correct?"
"Fifth Fleet was tasked with it, they're estimating that they'll engage within the hour," Udina said, sighing. He acknowledged that he didn't really have a plan, and that nothing would bring Terra Nova back.
"That's all we can do," Tevos said, putting a hand on the human's shoulder. With the other she motioned for Sparatus and Valern to leave the room. When they did she added, "I'm honestly very sorry. This is reprehensible. I can't imagine what you and your species are going through right now, but I can assure you that the asari will be by your side through it all."
"Thank you," Udina said, sitting down. "I… fear this will have repercussions. Humans are going to be out in the streets demanding the Prophets' heads, or ours. Something has to be done to soothe those mobs… perhaps send some more ships with the CEF. Anything will do, just so that it appears we're doing something."
"I will talk with the others about reinforcing the CEF," Tevos said, patting Udina's shoulder and leaving the room herself. Udina was left with his increasingly disjointed and angry thoughts, and he was slowly becoming convinced that the Council was not going to be swayed to help humanity. They were writing four million deaths off as acceptable losses, something Udina saw as unforgivable. How many worlds would burn before they acted? He resolved that it wouldn't be a human world destroyed next, and if it was that the Citadel wouldn't write that one off, as well as Terra Nova.
With those thoughts, Udina returned to his office and got to work eulogizing the casualties on Terra Nova as best as he could. It wasn't an easy task, and he was prepared to spend several hours working on it.
Across space, at the newly-finished Cronos Station, the attitude was quite similar to that of Councilor Udina, but the atmosphere of anger went unchecked by the presence of a mediating factor.
"Damn it!" he grunted, chucking his cigarette butt across the room. He turned to the other figure in the room, a lithe woman dressed in a skin-tight white jumpsuit. "Ms. Lawson, something must be done. What's the status on the Lazarus Project?"
"We can have Commander Shepard on his feet later this year. Probably May or June," she replied, recalling the figures as soon as she could.
"Is that as fast as you can push it?" the Illusive Man asked. "We have to destroy every one of these aliens. This is a travesty. The Council will do nothing, and because of that the Alliance will do nothing. I'm pulling from your surplus to fund a new cell, codenamed Erasmus. They're going to start working on the Covenant's propulsion systems. They travel so much faster at FTL speeds, it's unbelievable. I want to find a way to… believe it."
"I've watched the vids of their ships leaving Noveria. It's like they open a worm hole… something centuries beyond our technology. It will be massively expensive, are you sure we can afford it after everything we've put into Lazarus?" Miranda asked.
"I'll handle the money, Ms. Lawson, you handle the science," the Illusive Man said, brushing her concerns aside as soon as they were raised, as if he had predicted them.
Miranda nodded. "Yes, of course. Sorry."
"You're dismissed," the Illusive Man added, offering a conciliatory smile.
She left the room and walked down the long ramp from the Cerberus leader's office. She opened up her data pad and messaged her chief medical officer, Dr. Wilson.
-Wilson
We need to move faster. Shepard needs to be on his feet by April.
-M. Lawson
The message was sent as soon as she finished typing it, and she passed through a lab where two disassembled Covenant weapons were being worked on. She'd found out they'd been stolen from an SANI shipment from Noveria, and that they had dozens like them on Arcturus now, likely in similar states of disassembly.
She leaned over the nearest, drawing the eyes of the two technicians picking it apart and mapping out the components in painstaking detail.
"May I?" Miranda asked, not waiting for a response before taking a piece of smooth purple metal off the table. She ran her fingers across the cold surface, noting a honeycomb pattern etched into its surface. It was about as long as her arm, but lightweight—she could hardly feel it in her hands despite the size. "Incredible."
"It's lightweight but incredibly strong," the one technician said. "There's no alloy like it in Citadel space."
Miranda nodded agreement and set the piece of metal down on the table next to some sort of power cell. It was marked with a semicircle across the top, half of it red and half of it green. That piqued Miranda's interest.
Her inspection of the alien weapon's pieces was cut short by a reply from Wilson.
-Dr. Lawson
We need you back in the lab. He woke up.
-Wilson
Miranda's eyes opened wide and she put the power cell down, running from the lab. In record time she arrived in the main launch bay and boarded a shuttle to the Lazarus project's base. The kodiak she boarded was modified with an FTL drive and would be able to carry her back to the station without needing a time-consuming transfer to another, bigger, ship. It took off into space and she picked up her data pad.
The implications of Shepard waking up so early were grave, and she reread Wilson's message. Damn it Wilson, why is your message so vague?