The Red Moon Collection - 2 - Three Phantoms

Chapter 4

MSV Hyperion, en route to Aralakh System

It had been barely over a day since the Spectres were cautiously welcomed aboard the Hyperion by her crew and, much to Will's chagrin, disputes had already arisen. A few hours after setting course for the relay to the Aralakh System the crew collectively retired to their beds to ensure that they would be rested and ready for a long day once they hit Tuchanka. A few hours later, a personal alarm woke Eleena to remind her about checking the repairs she had made earlier. However, as she was walking to the engine room she caught Corsin poking around by the Kodiak. Will begrudgingly pulled himself from a comfortable slumber to mediate the dispute over whether or not Corsin had any business inspecting the modifications made to the shuttle. Eleena, of course, was suspicious that the turian had been up to no good despite the fact that Corsin had done nothing but make note of the additional hardware and how it might benefit the mission.

"You're not making the best first impression by sneaking around behind our backs," Eleena claimed.

Corsin crossed his arms indignantly. "And you are? I've got the notes on my omnitool right here if you want them, but I doubt it has what you're looking for. You might be disappointed by the lack subterfuge."

"My god," Will muttered with his eyes half shut. "Eleena, just let him gather his data. You think he's gonna sabotage our Kodiak just by knowing that Tul modified the weapons management firmware?"

Eleena narrowed her eyes angrily. "Well excuse me for-"

"I'm not done," Will interrupted. "Agent Rentarius, Corsin, whatever you want to be called, we rarely get guests on board so I understand Eleena's concern. Could you just ask next time? I'd have gladly given you a complete list of the modifications to the Kodiak and anything else relevant." He let out a sigh and looked to each of them. "We're working as a team here, you know."

The asari glanced to Corsin. "Fine, Captain's right. But you'd better know that just because we're working together doesn't mean I can trust you right off the bat."

Corsin remained silent for a moment before nodding in response. "Fair enough. Hopefully we can prove ourselves to one another in the next few days." The turian shook his head regrettably. "Spectres don't usually rely on a team, but we're gonna need tight cohesion if Antarian's as dangerous as the Council thinks he is."

"Here's hoping it works out." Eleena looked to Will. "Sorry... about waking you up, Will."

He shrugged and turned to shuffle back to the bunkroom. "It's fine. Now don't kill each other before I can make up this lost sleep."

Five hours later, Will slid out of his bunk and stumbled to the unoccupied head to take a quick shower before he had to meet with Corsin and Vayren to plan the mission. The shower was a bizarre combination of senses: the water was almost scalding-hot, and the showerhead released a stream so thin it might as well have been a mist. This caused him to wince as the hot water hit his face and chest, but shiver as it cooled by the time each droplet had reached his legs. Nonetheless, he knew well enough to appreciate luxuries whenever he got the chance and did his best to enjoy this. He dried and dressed himself in thin clothes he would wear beneath his armor before returning to the bunkroom and catching sight of Tul'Sorrin as he stretched in front of his bunk.

"Bleh, am I the last one up again?" Tul looked down the line of bunks recessed into the wall.

Will smirked as he raised his finger and worked a drop of water from his ear. "Ready for Tuchanka?"

"Are you kidding? I can't think of another place in the galaxy I'd rather visit," Tul'Sorrin replied with sarcasm so thick it made Will wonder for a moment if he had been sincere.

"I'm actually kind of excited." Will walked to the table at the center of the room and pulled up his notes on the holoscreen. "Best case scenario? We see a new place, get our intel, and get out without a hitch."

"When did you become an optimist?" Tul mused as he crossed the room to the door.

"Woah, woah, let's not throw around any crazy accusations here," Will looked up with a grin. "I never said I was expecting the best case scenario."

Tul looked back and wiped the top of his mask jokingly as though it were his brow. "Oh, good. For a second there I thought you were changing on me."

Will's eyes widened as the quarian stepped through the bulkhead to the hall."Tul-!"

It was too late. Tul, who had been looking back to Will, had walked straight into Shansa as she browsed through her omnitool and nibbled on a seela fruit. Shansa had turned from the hallway to the bunkroom on a dime, giving Will no time to warn them of the impending collision.

"Oof!" Shansa jumped in surprise.

The asari fruit slipped from her grasp and plummeted unceremoniously to the ground, landing with a tiny thump.

"Keelah!" Tul put his hand over his chest as if his heart had skipped a beat. "Shansa, I'm so sorry."

The redhead had stumbled back a step or two but quickly recomposed herself. "No, no! It's my fault. I need to watch where I'm walking... I'm still not used to having anyone other than Will around."

Tul knelt to the ground and retrieved the mushed and dirtied fruit. "A casualty before we've even begun our first mission."

Will looked between his notes and the pair in the doorway with a small smile.

"He served us well," Shansa lamented as she plucked the seela fruit from Tul's fingers and tossed it into the waste receptacle on the wall beside the door.

Tul'Sorrin stepped to the side with a nod. "After you. I insist."

She gave him a warm smile and stepped through the door, nodding her head in thanks. Tul turned and exited to the hall as Shansa looked to Will and approached the opposite side of the table from where he stood.

"I see you're finally awake," she jabbed.

Will smirked to himself but ignored the remark as he powered off the holoscreen and looked up to Shansa. "Need something?"

"Just wanted to let you know that we exited the relay jump about an hour ago." She pulled up her omnitool to check her numbers. "And we're about forty-five minutes from orbit over Tuchanka."

"Forty-five minutes? That's it?" He let out a sigh and pulled up his own omnitool. "Guess we'd better start our prep. Any word from the CDEM?"

Shansa shook her head. "You wouldn't believe it. We'd only been out of FTL for like ten seconds before we got hailed."

"They give you any trouble?"

"They didn't get the chance to," Shansa answered with a small laugh. "Somehow Vayren was already waiting behind me when the message came in. He sent them his Spectre security package and they just let us on our way."

Will chuckled as he finished sending out an omnitool message to the Spectres and Kallux. "Damn. Talk about efficiency."

"I know! And he was so sneaky about it!" Shansa lowered her voice slightly. "I almost jumped out of my seat when he opened the comm channel and replied."

"Well he does specialize in recon and infiltration." Will grinned and nodded to her. "Has the Kodiak been prepped?"

"Got a few nav-charts to update, but other than that she's ready to launch," Shansa replied. "Do we know where we're going?"

Will shook his head. "Not yet. But Vayren said he was in the process of pulling some information that might give us a place to start looking."

"Actually, I'm no longer in the process." Vayren stepped through the door and made his way to the table. "I've been sorting through the intel I received for the past hour or so."

Shansa looked to the salarian and then back to Will. "I... should go finish with the Kodiak."

"Alright. Good work so far, Shan." Will smiled regrettably as she turned to leave.

Corsin and Kallux appeared in the hallway and stood to the side of the door as Shansa darted past them and hurried off toward the cargo bay. The turian and krogan filed into the bunkroom and circled around the table. The Spectres glanced to Kallux at nearly the same moment and then back to one another as Will placed his hands on the table and leaned his weight onto his arms.

"I've asked the only member of our crew who grew up on Tuchanka to join us for this one." Will looked to his left where Corsin and Vayren stood. "I hope that won't be a problem."

"Not at all," Corsin replied casually. "I'm sure Kallux will have some valuable insight on any potential course of action."

"Mm," Vayren responded neutrally. "So this what I have so far." The holoprojector at the center of the table blinked to life as a model of Tuchanka appeared. "I requested the approximate landing zones of Antarian's vessels from the CDEM. They only had about a third of those landing zones on record, but I was able to cross-reference those with known clan presence on Tuchanka." A handful of markers popped up on the surface of the holographic planet. "That gives us a total of six clans that we can assume received shipments from Antarian at some point in the past few years."

"Do we know which ones might be the most cooperative?" Corsin inquired.

"Well, hopefully our krogan... friend, will be able to help us with that," Vayren answered as he looked to Kallux. "I'll run down the list."

The krogan stood with his arms crossed. "By all means."

The salarian nodded and looked down to the list on his omnitool. "Quash, Khel, Jorgal, Urdnot, Raik and Weyrloc."

Kallux shifted uneasily. "I wouldn't say any of them really jump out."

Will glanced to Kallux and raised a brow. "Kallux... aren't you from clan Raik?"

The krogan grunted and looked to the side. "Unfortunately, yes."

"This is excellent." Corsin looked around the table. "My hypothetical best case scenario wasn't even this good. We already have an in with clan Raik."

"And what makes you assume that this is beneficial?" Kallux's gaze shifted to the turian. "I left Tuchanka with no desire to return and I made sure my clan knew that."

"Any connection is a good one," Vayren argued. "So long as they don't try to kill us on sight."

Will glanced to Kallux. "They won't, right?"

The krogan let out a sigh. "Would they try to kill me? No, probably not. But I don't know how receptive they would be to a salarian and turian." Kallux shook his head. "And Spectres, on top of that."

"We could leave them behind," Will suggested bluntly. "Let them stay in the Kodiak while you and I try to get in touch with Raik leadership."

Vayren crossed his arms defensively. "It's risky. What will you do if things turn hostile?"

Will shrugged. "Get out as fast as we can?"

"A flawless plan," Corsin remarked sarcastically.

"It's a better plan than marching a pair of genophage propagators into center of clan Raik," Kallux rebutted.

Vayren scoffed indignantly. "Agent Rentarius and I are hardly 'propagators of the genophage.'"

"That's not how most krogan think. They don't care who you are, just what you are." Kallux looked to Vayren and Corsin. "A salarian and a turian."

Corsin nodded lightly. "Sadly, you've made your point. But Vayren and I will be ready in case things go sour."

The others nodded in agreement as Kallux leaned forward to examine the image of Tuchanka floating above the holoprojector.

"Is this the location where deliveries were made?" Kallux pointed to the small marker labeled 'Raik.'

Vayren nodded in affirmation. "Yes, in the ruins of the city Rakarn."

"We called it the Bastion," Kallux noted.

"Raik's capital?" Will asked.

Kallux shook his head. "No, but just as important, if not more. It's Raik's staging area when attacking other clans." The krogan reached to the hologram and began indicating areas with his finger. "The Bastion is at the far-most western point of clan Raik's territory. To northeast is clan Jurdon. Due east, clan Urdnot. And southwest, Weyrloc." Kallux leaned back and stared in silence for a moment. "It's where clan Raik sends their whelps to become krogan."

"Oh, so you're saying it's a friendly neighborhood?" Corsin mused facetiously.

"What I'm saying is that I spent a lot of time there," Kallux responded flatly. "And Will and I are gonna have to be very, very careful."

"No objections here," Will added as he looked to the Spectres. "If things go well, we can be in and out before you know it. And if they don't..."

"That's what backup is for," Vayren finished.

Will closed his locker with a satisfying clunk after locking the last piece of his armor into place. He stepped back and looked to his right where Kallux was finishing his preparations before looking to his left to see Eleena, Corsin and Vayren doing the same. He watched Vayren curiously as the salarian looked over his primary weapon: a sniper rifle that Will believed to be an M-97 Viper. Will had been looking into buying a rifle like it for a few months now, but could never convince himself that he would actually use it in place of his M-15. Vayren, however, appeared to be a sniper by nature and adjusted the scope settings with ease before collapsing the rifle and sliding it onto his back. He drew his sidearm and checked its systems quickly before doing the same.

Where Vayren seemed to value precision and subtly, Corsin was geared up to provide the exact opposite. His armor was intensely heavy and thick, making him appear much larger than most turians. On his back was an exotic looking assault rifle that reminded Will of turian ships in terms of its hard edges and angular construction. A shotgun was positioned right beside it as well, reminding Will that he should take his to a shooting range on Omega and get some practice in with it. He was about to turn his attention away when a blue and purple glow emerged from Corsin's hands and caused Will to nearly stumble back in surprise. Eleena also caught the sight out of the corner of her eye and whipped her head to look at the turian in shock.

"What the hell?" Eleena looked the turian over. "You're a biotic?"

The biotic energy around Corsin's fists quickly subsided as he turned to face Will and Eleena. "Surprised?"

"I didn't even know it was possible," Will admitted.

"Just as possible as a human biotic," Corsin replied. "Just not as probable. And we're usually not as potent as most asari."

Eleena shook her head as she slid her SMG into the holster on her lower back. "I'm glad this came up now and not in the middle of a firefight."

"Same," Will agreed.

He looked back to his right where Kallux had finished his preparations and was sliding his cannon into its secure position on his back. Will could tell that the krogan was not thrilled about the decision to contact his clan, but Kallux understood the improbability of another clan offering to aid them. The ship gave a slight shutter and Shansa's voice echoed over the intercom.

"We're docked! I'm coming back to start up the Kodiak."

Vayren had managed to get in touch with one of the CDEM's orbital platforms and grant the Hyperion access to one of their docking stations for the duration of their mission. Will was more than grateful for the opprotunity as it would let Shansa stay on the surface with the Kodiak without leaving the ship adrift in orbit, unoccupied. Will glanced to the doorway to the forward hall as Shansa came running through and straight toward the Kodiak. Tul'Sorrin was visible through the forward viewport of the shuttle working on setting up their communication arrays. They were hoping to get in touch with clan Raik before they hit the surface. Will turned back around to see Eleena, Kallux, Vayren and Corsin were all stepping up around him.

"Everyone ready?" Will looked around the squad.

With an affirmation from all of them, Will led the group to the Kodiak and climbed in, holding out a helping hand to each of them as they entered. Kallux was the last inside and closed the large hatch behind him as Will leaned into the cockpit and told Shansa to fire up the engines. The others strapped themselves into their seats as the shuttle jumped to life and eased into the airlock gracefully. Will could hear the atmosphere venting around them as the outer airlock door parted, only to have the noise replaced by the roar of the thrusters as Shansa blasted the Kodiak out of the Hyperion and into orbit over Tuchanka. Will held onto the frame of the doorway leading into the cockpit as the Kodiak eased into a stable flightpath and turned toward the planet's surface.

Shansa looked through the forward viewport as they grew closer. "Wow. It's so... brown."

"That's Tuchanka for you," Tul noted from the copilot's seat. "I'm sending broad spectrum hails now, Captain."

"Good," Will replied as he watched Tuchanka through the window. "Let me know if you get anything."

The shuttle leveled off and raced toward the waypoint that indicated the location of Rakarn, the Bastion. Will was taken aback by the utter desolation of the scenery around them. Everyone knew Tuchanka was barren, but he hadn't understood what that really meant until now. Off on the western horizon the desert seemed to rise up hundreds of feet, as if they were traveling through a valley. To the east, however, the dirt and sand simply sank lower as far as the eye could see, leaving no ridge to complete the would-be valley.

"Enjoying the view?"

Will jumped slightly as he was pulled from his trance and looked to where Kallux stood beside him. "Yeah... I can't believe how empty it is."

Kallux smirked slightly as he looked out the viewport. "It's actually not as bad as you might think. Thousands of years ago that ridge to the west was a coastline."

Shansa looked over her shoulder. "Does that mean we're..?"

"In the Jalreek Sea. Once water, now sand." Kallux shook his head. "At least that's what history tells us."

The holoscreen in front of Tul'Sorrin began to blink. "Captain! We've got a transmission."

"Put us through," Will replied.

The quarian made a few quick adjustments so that the transmission would broadcast over the speakers in the cockpit. Static crackled through for a few moments as Tul honed in on the signal.

"-odiak. Identify yourself. You are entering territory of clan Raik." The voice was unmistakably krogan.

Will looked to Kallux who nodded in return and cleared his throat. "This is Raik Kallux, born of Shanarik, requesting permission to enter the Bastion."

A few seconds passed before the voice responded. "Your Kodiak's ID isn't listed here."

"I'm arriving from off-world. I seek an audience with the Bastion's kral," Kallux replied as he tapped a few buttons on his omnitool. "I've transmitted my identification data."

The pause before the next response was much longer."Alright. We're transmitting the coordinates to your landing zone. Welcome back to the Bastion, brother."

Tul'Sorrin cut the comms and plugging the coordinates into their nav console. The waypoint on the horizon adjusted slightly and Shansa ascended to bring the Kodiak up from the rolling dunes of sand.

Will looked to Kallux curiously. "What's a kral?"

The krogan closed his omnitool. "He oversees the Bastion and acts with the authority of the clan leader in his stead."

"Do you know him?" Shansa inquired as they leveled off a few hundred feet from the ground.

"I wasn't far enough up the ranks to know him personally," Kallux answered. "But it's been over five centuries. I wouldn't be surprised if someone new is in charge."

"Hey, look," Tul muttered.

They four of them stared through the viewport to see a skyline had appeared on the horizon along with buildings on the ridge to the west. As the Kodiak rapidly approached what could only be the ruined city of Rakarn, the shapes of fallen and destroyed superstructures became more and more apparent. Shansa pulled the Kodiak up higher to give them a better view of the city that had appeared out of nowhere. Rakarn was positioned on what must have been a peninsula before the sea was evaporated during the fallout of the krogan's ancient nuclear war. The Kodiak soared over the coastline and into the city where dirt, dust and sand flowed into the streets of the Bastion. Will could make out dozens of outposts and roadblocks accompanied by Raik soldiers and their massive transport vehicles known as Tomkahs.

"I'm bringing us down," Shansa informed them.

The Kodiak banked as Shansa lined the nose up with a collection of landing zones by what had once been docks stretching out into the bay of sand. She lined the shuttle up with one of the marked 'landing pads' and began the descent toward the ground. A group of krogan standing by a Tomkah started off toward them as the Kodiak set down and sent dust billowing into the air around them.

"Let's go, before they can see who else is on board," Kallux suggested.

Will nodded. "Shansa, Tul. Just wait here. Hopefully we won't take too long."

Tul'Sorrin continued to work at his console. "Understood, Captain."

"Be careful," Shansa looked over he shoulder as she killed the thrusters. "Both of you."

"Don't worry, we'll be fine," Will assured her as he turned and stepped into the main body of the shuttle.

Kallux stepped up to the rear bench where the Spectres sat and quickly began running over their contingency plan for what seemed like the tenth time.

Eleena had already unstrapped herself from the bench. "Think I should bring my helmet?"

"You're staying here," Will answered regrettably.

"What?" Eleena stood and placed her hands on her hips. "Why the hell would I do that?"

"The fewer non-krogan we have on this outing, the better." Will quickly glanced to the others as they talked and stepped up a little closer to her. "I'm counting on you to get us out if things go bad, okay?"

Eleena bit her lip slightly and looked to the side. "Alright. But don't hesitate to make the call."

"Hey." Will smiled as she glanced back to him. "I've got this."

"Hume, you ready?" Kallux called as he stepped up to the door.

Will gave Eleena one last nod of reassurance before turning to face the krogan. "Yeah, let's go."

Kallux opened the hatch and jumped to the dirt below them with Will right at his side. He quickly closed the door of the Kodiak behind them as his eyes involuntarily squinted in the blistering Tuchankan sun. He felt beads of sweat forming on his forehead after just a few seconds in the intense heat. Will stepped up to Kallux's side as a pack of four krogan approached them.

"Should we have left our guns in the shuttle?" Will asked nervously.

"They'd have assumed we were cowards," Kallux replied.

The krogan at the front of the group approaching them eyed Will. "You brought a human here."

Kallux nodded. "He fights with me. And he's worthy of Raik's respect."

The four krogan stopped a few feet away. The leader looked Will up and down slowly.

"I'll allow him for now." The krogan shifted his attention to Kallux. "You want to speak to the kral, yes?"

Kallux grunted with a decisive nod.

"Good," the krogan replied with a grin. "Because he would like to speak to you as well, Kallux."