Road to nowhere, Arc 4 of "Gone with the Sun"
Chapter 49 Winter warmth
The Iceman Cometh
Nairobi was still behaving like a wounded bird. Just in case. But it was in synchronous orbit now, over Firebase White. The frigates – all including Peacemaker no longer stealthed – trailed behind like ducklings, sending their shuttles for pre-mission briefings… excepting Overlord, which docked directly.
The Captain noticed Shepard had brought more people this time. Non-regular personnel; three each from the asari and turian frigates, as well as three from Hackett's go-to mercenaries – Toombs, who he picked as former alliance, Zabaleta who from the uniform apparently still was, and a woman in a black environment suit.
"Okay. We have to look in Firebase White and Port Hanshan. The first is Alliance territory which ideally should be checked out by Alliance troops. The second is Port Hanshan, a very sensitive commercial site and we will similarly use the mercenary. Keep Council troops out if at all possible."
"That may not be possible," observed the Captain.
"Quite right. If there's some emergency we will bring in what's needed. So I propose checking out Firebase White first, with non-Alliance forces in abeyance. That means you will be the commander in the field, Ashley."
"I can call in Garrus or whoever? What am I looking for? "
"We will all be standing by. Call me or the Nairobi, if I'm not available. Until that damned Collector ship showed itself I'd have said you're looking for survivors, but now…"
"We'll be lucky if we even find dogtags."
Liara spoke up. "Ash. Take a medical tech. You never know, you could need first aid or the sweeper swarm antidote."
"Yes, ma'am. But Shepard, Padok is seconded by Council, to the Alliance."
"That's OK, Ash, it's just soldiers which should be Alliance for the initial probe. Tell Wiks to record what he can, video logs say. Some evidence of what happened would be nice. Be quick about this, I want to move on to Port Hanshan as soon as possible afterwards."
"Move with dispatch, aye."
Cold comfort
Garrus was a little concerned for Shepard's safety. Cortez was not piloting his shuttle. He had stayed as pilot and commander pro tem of Normandy, which retreated fifty kilometres, so was in the TBS link with Nairobi and the other frigates.
The mission camera links were good. Per instructions, Ashley had borrowed Overlord's spiffy new M44 Hammerhead which Normandy dropped on to the Firebase's empty fighter pad:
"Touchdown. No reaction from the collapsed destroyer, no hostiles, no friendlies just yet. Waiting thirty seconds." (The destroyer was sprawled a kilometre down the valley.)
With her were Copeland and Wiks. The Firebase seemed deserted, but lights were on.
"Reactor's OK. Let's boogie. Sorry, Wiks, I mean time's up. I mean, let's get out of the tank and check out the base. Shepard, green light for shuttle."
On the rear of the pad settled Normandy's own shuttle with Shepard inside. It had followed the mothership down. ("I need to see what's happening on the ground.")
When Miranda heard the plan, she threw an icy tantrum. The upshot: Miranda piloted, Shepard manned the co-pilot seat and comm board, Hadley lay prone on the floor cradling a Black Widow sniper rifle, and Goldstein – in combat armour – stood by the cyclic auto-cannon while a platoon of Normandy's Marines stormed out the door.
Three marines immediately occupied the empty Hammerhead. It would provide heavy cover in the event of horrible surprises. Miranda looked over at Hadley and Goldstein.
"None of you are to venture out of the shuttle, hear me? Any trouble, we pick up who we can and take off."
Goldstein noted that Shepard apparently could live with that – in fact he'd probably advised it. Padok and Williams were carrying helmet cams. Only Ashley was carrying assault weapons; but Copeland was carrying a turret intended to provide cover in case of a hasty retreat.
"There's power, so we head straight in the door. Corp, take the top level, I'll do the bottom."
She took the first door at a run. "Copeland, grab the logs and scan for clues. No remains yet." The corporal taking the top door likewise reported no traces of life on that level. The familiar security console was not active. "There's only layer-1 alive."
Copeland reported back. "Ma'am, the last entry in non-volatile storage for the perimeter audio logs has the commanding officer talking to his 2IC as the destroyer lands and begins up the valley. Then it just cuts off mid-sentence."
Ashley had made another discovery: "The guns have been manually powered down. I'm guessing they were playing possum. The flash got the destroyer BUT it also did for layer-2 and layer-3 circuits." Then she headed for the elevator up the stairs.
"LC, I think you're right, the last thing I hear is something about going to the flight deck."
That meant likely starvation or hypothermia deaths. "I'm on my way. Corp, with me." It took some minutes even with the corporal engineer to reset the slow-blows, re-enable layer-2 and bring up the admin and security consoles' attomechanical interfaces. Layer-3 remained u/s.
Ash asked, "Did Hackett send only grunts here?" TBS cracked with Shepard's voice:
"I think so. After he took the place when we disabled the main guns, he just left task force troops, regularly supplied, but few specialists."
"Starvation and cold. That's a terrible way to go for a soldier. For anyone."
Copeland came back on line. "Captain, I've fast-reversed five entries now. The destroyer appeared overhead, and the flight commander ordered eight troops in a shuttle off to Port Hanshan."
Shepard interrupted: "Was that to help the civilians there or to avoid the destroyer coming down?"
"It's not clear, sir, but the rearguard's two at most, in the advanced fighter bay."
Ash's helmet cam showed the elevator doors open to a dark space, a series of clicks and a view of her assault rifle at flashlight readiness. "Nothing on motion sensors, no heat traces." Cortez, sitting some distance off in the Normandy, came online:
"LC, that place must be shielded, I can see the layer-3 telltales are green in the fighter cockpits."
The little squad began moving around the inside of the fighter bay, which had six of the cute and deadly machines, still in Cerberus colors, looking a little like souped-up Tridents.
"Copeland, find the M-44 and get them to power up. Cortez, I want the Normandy to fly by, pick up the Hammerhead. We'll open the fighter bay doors and ferry these machines out to Nairobi. She's got extra space in the hold now she's run through a year's supplies."
"Aye, aye, ma'am."Ashley's camera picked out two little clumps in the far corner by the ops console, surrounded by trash. "Blast. Here they are." She approached closer.
"God in heaven, they're in Cerberus uniform."
Frost kingdom
Shepard's first thought was for Hackett's troops. "Where's the Alliance garrison gone?" Ashley's answer wasn't comforting. "Could have been obliterated by Cerberus."
Miranda was less sure: "I don't see any hint of combat. Maybe the garrison cleared off to Port Hanshan the instant Reaper signatures appeared in orbit."
"Miranda, I know what you're thinking. But they'd be reduced to layer-1, like here."
"Synthetic Insights were there, John, they might have been able to patch an environment control system together. At least layer-2."
"But probably not in time to save anyone in the deep labs."
"Ori was in the hotel." Oho.
Copeland supported the escape theory: "I haven't had time to pick out the events completely, ma'am, but I've found a log from six hours before which has Cerberus troops arriving and the base is already deserted."
"Good. What do we do with these bodies, Shepard?"
"Get them to Overlord's cold storage. Give them to Jana for autopsy. Cerberus or not, we should give them burial on Earth."
Home Fires
Pegasus and Peacemaker had closed to scan Port Hanshan from low altitude, then orbit above. Overlord and Normandy's flight crews were busy helping Nairobi get the Cerberus fighters into its hold, which meant re-packing a lot of Nairobi's supplies. Other crew were frantically re-stowing the Hammerhead, shuttle, and small arms.
Back on Overlord, Shepard felt surplus to requirements. At that point the shivering began. Even Shepard's teeth chattered, as though his body felt it could afford to collapse. Now Garrus and Liara were reporting heat blooms from the ventilation shafts. Something was generating heat down there. I could use some of that, he said, retreating to the loft and his bed, curling up in the dark, thinking cold thoughts till sleep prevailed.
After 2300, he woke as Miranda softly padded into the loft, unpeeled her skinsuit, and took to bed. He was dozing off again when a new soft keening appeared.
Oh no. Miranda crying.
After a minute, quietly he swung his legs off the medical bed. He might regret this, but he couldn't bear it any more. She turned as he got into her bed: "Shepard?"
"Shhh. Come here." He kissed her, and they twined together.
"Shep, I'm sorry, I just couldn't hold it in."
"I know. Hold me instead."
It had been a little cold. Now it wasn't.
- End (of Road to Nowhere) -
This world begins again at Arc 5: "Somewhere over the Rainbow" - by the same author (under s/11410426/1/)
Tuesday, July 28, 2015