Mass Effect: "All Along the Watchtower"

Chapter Two - Out Beyond the Edge

"Seems like kind of a dick move," Joker's voice hissed through Kaidan's headset. "We come all the way out here to this place to rescue them, and they don't even let you see the inside of the facility? That's messed up, if I do say so myself."

Kaidan shook his head as he would if he was facing his friend, though in fact he was further from him than he had been since their first meeting. He and his squad had set out almost immediately into the forest to find any trace of their turian killer. They were no detectives though. The best they could do was keep moving and look for anything obviously disturbed in the brush.

"I don't blame them," he replied. "It's not like we're visiting an amusement park out here. And I don't think I'd want the tour if they offered it."

"I know you wouldn't want to, but it's the principle of the thing. If you travel more than a kilometer, let alone a light-year, to solve someone else's problem…then there are some obligations that go with that. Hell, I marched a cup of sugar across Arcturus once, and I got to eat some of the cake it produced." Joker sighed loudly. "I'm gonna bomb 'em."

"Don't bomb them," Kaidan said. "Just keep an eye to the scanners and if you hear me scream bloody murder over the receiver, you take that ship and you come and get me."

"Not gonna risk landing in a hot zone just to save an expendable. But you can still scream if you want. I'll play it over the loudspeaker."

Kaidan almost tripped over a fallen branch. "Thanks…Joker." He mentioned the nickname more to reassure himself than anything.

"Alright, Alenko," said Joker, chuckling. "Watch your back out there and keep us updated. Bring me back a souvenir."

"Yeah, whatever. Over and out." Clicking off the commlink brought the full atmosphere of the forest crashing back to Kaidan's senses. The air was clean, very clean, and was laced with the crisp scent of the leaves that surrounded them. Off in the distance, he could hear all sorts of bird chirps, and the howling of some sort of animal that he wasn't sure he wanted identified.

It had the makings of a pleasant romp through a mostly-untouched scenery, but Kaidan could feel his squadmates' eyes boring into him. Taking a look back, his fears were confirmed. Sang and Brady didn't even try and hide the fact that they were staring.

"Something wrong?" Kaidan asked, making his tone as harsh as he felt was needed.

Sang shook his head. "No, sir. Nothing at all."

The reply annoyed the Lieutenant. He could hear it in the man's voice that there was something to be said, but it was sitting in wait behind rank and bureaucracy. There was only one way to get a straight answer now, but he wasn't sure what else would come pouring out after opening that particular floodgate.

"Speak freely," he said with a concealed wince.

"Are you sure about that, sir?" Sang scoffed "I know I said nothing was wrong, but I don't think it'll be 'nothing' after you hear this."

"I said speak freely," Kaidan snapped. He didn't like being coddled.

Sang cleared his throat, as if he'd been waiting for this moment. "Sir, I guess I just don't like the idea of an L2 being the second-in-command of our unit."

Kaidan stopped walking and turned back to Sang and Brady. "That your opinion?"

"That's the majority opinion, sir. L2s are unstable. You're one of only a handful in the entire Navy, and even as we speak that number is ticking down to nothing. You hear about all kinds of stuff. Demanding reparations, freaking out in the middle of a fight, going rogue. Putting you in charge was irresponsible and foolish."

Brady seemed to be taking pleasure at the tirade his comrade was weaving together. "Not to mention the only good you've done around the ship has been to keep the pilot entertained enough so that he doesn't hobble up to us and chew us out for any little thing."

"Exactly," Sang continued. "Why put you in charge at all if you're just gonna die or fry your brain soon anyway?"

--

"Just face facts, Alenko, with all the stress you'll be putting on your implants while you're in this unit, you'll be dead or insane by the end of the year. Why not just save yourself, and us, the inconvenience and disappear to a nice, quiet corner of the galaxy to wait it all out?"

Sang's voice sounded devilish and raspy filtering through the headset. Joker knew he didn't like the guy, but now he was ready to throw a punch or two. He would have turned off the radio a long while back in the argument; he had heard such hurtful and heartless words before. But what kept his attention was the fact that the words weren't being directed at him.

Joker swiveled around in the pilot's seat and steepled his fingers while he thought. He had always quietly questioned the reasons why he and Alenko had been steadily growing closer. Their friendship seemed to have no greater stay in reality than the Loch Ness monster and the abominable snowman joining forces. Its existence just didn't make sense.

But now, as he listened in on the verbal lashing his associate was receiving from those pathetic excuses for soldiers, he could tell that the bond they shared echoed from more than just forgiveness on his part and sympathy on Alenko's. There was that old adage that came to mind: Misery loves company. Alenko was good company.

He imagined he'd ponder it more later. Picking up his crutches, he made his way through the ship. Now was a good time for a restroom break, which would provide an uninterrupted moment for plotting just how he was going to get revenge on Sang and Brady. He could be pretty imaginative with this kind of stuff.

--

Kaidan waited patiently until his squadmates had drained themselves of all that needed to be said. When they fell silent, he went about trying to make sense of it all. He suddenly felt very alone on this mission.

"Those are mostly valid points," he said through an exhale. "I don't think it would be appropriate for me to argue all of them in the middle of a mission." He straightened himself up. "So rest assured that I do not agree with you. I believe that what I am will have no bearing on this mission, and like it or not, you are stuck with me as squad leader for the inevitable future, until I die or the captain finds someone better." His eyes passed back and forth between the men to drive his point home.

"Are we understood?" Kaidan asked in a strict tone of voice.

The pair stood at attention, and saluted in a manner that bordered on mocking. "Sir, understood, sir," they chanted in unison.

"Good. Let's move out." The Lieutenant moved on through the trees. Sang and Brady waited a moment before following.

The team continued their mission wordlessly, their cautious, light steps only adding more to the silence. When Brady yelled, 'Mine!' the squad leader was glad they had gotten their argument out of the way and focused.

"Where, Private?"

"Dead ahead," Brady replied, leaving a little pause in his reply where 'sir' should have been. "on the base of that tall tree, behind the plant."

Kaidan followed the marine's eyeline and saw a tiny metallic glint against the tree's bark. "All right," he said quietly. "Don't move. First we look for more right here, then we make a perimeter and find the next one."

When they had walked a very careful circle around the device, studying every leaf on the ground, Kaidan noticed suddenly that the sky had darkened. It wasn't quite nightfall. The planet that their habitable moon orbited was beginning to pass between them and the sun, creating an eclipse on a gargantuan scale and driving the forest into darkness before the squad was even aware it was dusk.

"Shiloh to Alenko," Joker's voice rang out, fading toward the end. "Sounds ridiculous, doesn't it? Shiloh to Alenko. God."

Kaidan clicked on his headset. "What do you hear, Joker?"

"Captain says to haul your sorry asses home. We're gonna pack it in and pick up the search tomorrow at first light."

"Understood," Kaidan replied. "I'm not even sure how we're gonna track our target out here anyway. Wasn't exactly trained as a bounty hunter."

Joker laughed. "Yeah, well, I'm sure the brass knows that too. In my opinion, we're here for presence and posterity more than anything else. The Alliance has to maintain a good image, even to backwater scientists."

"Either way, their new biotic unit coming up empty-handed isn't a good way to kick off this shakedown run."

"I'll wager ten credits the captain didn't even expect you to find anything. I bet that out of the list of prospective missions they could have tossed you magicians at, chasing down another biotic seemed the most appealing."

Kaidan sighed. "Maybe…"

"Just get back to the ship. I'm looking for any fauna record we have for this moon, and I'm coming up empty. I'd hate to even think of the nasty creatures that could come out at night here."

"Alright, I get it."

"Could be poisonous or rabid."

"Okay, Joker."

"Maybe zombies…"

"Ending transmission," Kaidan said and clicked his headset back off. When he turned to give his squad the news, he found that they were already walking away. "Hey!" he called after the two men, who casually stopped and turned back. "Where do you think you're going?"

Brady shrugged. "We heard it through the comm. We're heading back to base, right?"

"Did I give you that order?" Kaidan asked, disbelieving their gall.

"Does it matter?" Sang asked indifferently. "We heard the orders and we're carrying them out. We're not gonna sit around all day and wait for you to tell us when to jump." He continued walking.

"No, I guess you wouldn't wait for me," Kaidan mused. "But you'd sure as hell wait for the captain." This got the pair to stop again. "Wouldn't you?"

Sang hardly needed time to ponder the question. "Yes," he said. "I'd wait for the captain. I'd go through Hell and back for him, even if that was only half of the mission. And you know why, Alenko?" He took a few steps forward. "Because I respect him. I don't respect you, not even enough to care about what kind of report you'll give when we get back to the ship.

"So, just leave us be until we get out of this forest. Because as far as I'm concerned, I'd rather die that to be under your command any longer." Sang turned to walk away.

Just then, a loud, feminine voice cut through the air.

"Stop!"

Sang didn't listen in time and he took another step. They all heard the snap. A second later, a groaning noise grew louder and louder from somewhere in the darkness. Before any of them could draw a weapon, a giant log with a spiked tip roared into view. Sang tried to jump out of the way, but not fast enough, as the spike caught him in the chest. Impaled, his body continued upwards with the tethered log until it slammed him against a nearby tree.

Sang's lifeless corpse tumbled down the tree trunk and flopped onto the ground.

"No!" Brady shouted, and moved to his friend's body with weapon drawn.

Kaidan drew his rifle as well, constantly scanning their surroundings for any sign of movement. "Who's out there?" he bellowed into the dark, his breath hanging in front of him in the cold air.

Static kicked back up in his headset. "What's going on out there, Alenko?" It was Joker again.

"Standby, Joker, we have contact." Kaidan returned his attention to the trees. As he turned one more time, the light at the end of his rifle brought a figure into plain view. And it stood no more than a meter away. "Jesus!" he exclaimed, but his mind quickly fell back into procedure. "Get down on the ground and put your hands behind your head!"

It was the turian. The one they'd been briefed on. She complied with the Lieutenant's orders promptly and dropped to her knees. Looking closely, Kaidan found that she didn't have any sort of weapon on her person. She was just a pale brown turian with a shapely form, wearing nothing more than a tunic of tattered linens.

"Why did you kill him?" Kaidan demanded loudly, though his shouting didn't seem to scare the woman in the least bit.

"I didn't kill him," she corrected. "If you remember correctly, I tried to warn him. Though, given the hate that he was so busy directing towards you, I'm not surprised that he instinctively ignored me."

Hearing this, Brady left Sang's body and jammed the barrel of his rifle into the side of the turian's head. She moved her head sideways to cushion the blow, and gave a look of tired irritation.

"Let's just kill her now. Self-defense. Right, Alenko?"

Kaidan had calmed down enough to find such an idea ludicrous. "No, Brady, stand down. She'll get her Arbitration when we get her back to Arcturus."

Brady's eyes wandered between their prisoner and his squad leader, but he eventually, if very reluctantly, lowered his weapon. The private was plenty stupid, but he didn't have as much guts as his fallen squadmate.

"Alright," Kaidan said and pulled out his handcuffs. "Ma'am, you are under arrest for the murders at Wynn's Cross. Under the Quietus Act, you have the right to remain silent during these proceedings, but anything said can and will be used as evidence against your case while engaged in Arbitration."

"By the book," the turian commended him. "But you didn't sound very confident when you said that. Is this your first mission?"

"No, it isn't," Kaidan replied.

"Oh. Second?"

Kaidan groaned as he latched the handcuffs on the woman's arms. "If you'll follow us out of the forest now, we have a ship waiting."

"I don't suppose it will make a difference if I tell you that what I've done at Wynn's Cross was completely justified, will it?"

"Not likely."

"The needs of the flesh don't often disappear in isolation, no matter how many coats of white paint you cover your facility in," she said. "Did they tell you what those men were doing when they died? Who they were doing?"

Kaidan picked the woman up onto her feet and motioned for Brady to take the lead. "It doesn't make a difference, miss."

"It does to those young women I saved. You know, they actually thanked me when I killed those men. They were lucky that this place was the closest rock with an atmosphere. Didn't hear much about that from dear old Medina, did you? Did he tell you anything about the, uh… victims?"

Before Kaidan could formulate some kind of response, Joker's voice cracked through his headset again.

"Alenko, what the hell's going on out there?"

"Sang's been killed in action, Joker," Kaidan reported. "We have the turian in custody and we're heading back to the ship now."

"Sang's gone. Oh, no." Joker's voice came out in a high-pitched whine that hardly resembled sympathy. "Just get the prisoner back to the ship and we'll get a detail out for the body in the morning. Be careful out there, Alenko. Keep a close eye on the turian."

Kaidan nodded. "Alenko out." He placed pressure on the woman's back and flipped the safety off the pistol in his other hand. "Keep moving," he said.

The turian didn't resist. Though, as they continued on through the forest, her pace slowed. Her attention was taken by the stars and the pitch black void that the nearby planet created in the night sky. As she scanned the scene, the mandibles on the sides of her face fluttered a bit.

"You don't seem to be one for answers," she said, "but do you want to know why I let you catch me?"

Kaidan sighed. "Fine."

"I followed you for some time through this forest. I can honestly say that there's honesty in your voice. Immutable dedication to justice and your concepts of humanity. Do you know why?"

"Why?" Kaidan figured if he humored the prisoner, she'd be easier to deal with.

"Because you're broken, Alenko. And you fight for that which can make you whole."

"Just because you can eavesdrop, doesn't mean you know a thing about me."

The turian giggled slightly. The strange sound made Kaidan squint without realizing; he had never heard a female turian's voice, and certainly never a turian laugh. "There are many wondrous variables in this galaxy" she continued. "Some that will never be contained or understood, but behavior is not one of these. It is simple and it is obvious. Your eyes can reveal more truth about you than even the most detailed of memoirs. And the sooner you realize this, the sooner you'll find the redemption that you endlessly seek."

Kaidan scoffed. "What makes you think I have to be redeemed? I've never committed a crime."

"Is it always an outright unlawful action that causes the break in the chain? That's a little… what's the phrase… black and white, even for you. The most grievous of sins one can commit in this life are not always put to law. In my eyes, you have the look of a man who's looking for forgiveness and can't find it anywhere he looks."

Kaidan didn't answer.

"I only hope you're still able to find it," she continued. "Because things are about to become a lot more complicated for you and yours."

"What do you mean by that?" Kaidan snapped. "Have more traps set up for us somewhere out here?"

The woman shook her hard head and smiled. The perfect circles of her sky blue eyes caught his attention with something resembling mischief, but not quite. She looked unhappy. "My name is Ka'hyra, and I'm not the murderer you believe me to be. In fact, by the end of tomorrow's sun, I will probably be your only hope for surviving the storm that will surely come."