Chapter 6: Fish in the Barrel

A sharp kick struck my side and I hit the ground, awake. "What?" I mumbled, dazed.

"Get up," said Emilia. "You can't stay in bed forever."

"Yeah," I said, the dream still fresh in my mind. Some things just can't stay in the past. Now they're in my dreams, too. "Give me about ten minutes."

Ten minutes later, I was ready, putting on my visor as I walked. Personnel bustled around all the time, whether they were delivering weapons or making coffee. Every few feet or so, there would be an Alliance guard at the ready, armed and alert. This is a high-security base. Everyone has a place here, no matter how insignificant. I still haven't found mine yet. I stopped at the armory, where I knew Emilia would be. The guard on duty saluted me. "Captain Clark," he said, snapping to attention.

"You don't have to salute me," I said, waving his hand down.

"Yes, sir." He replied, opening the door for me. The armory was literally lined with guns, with shelves upon shelves of weapons. Every model or type of weapon I could think of and more was in this room. Missile launchers, handheld mortars, laser-sighted pistols, incendiary grenades, etc. Emilia was holding another rifle, examining from all angles. "Find anything you like?"

"They have everything here," she commented. The stock snapped open, adding another foot to the gun. "This is a Harpoon sniper rifle. Only two shots per clip. Luckily, the damage output is high enough so that I'll only need one shot to kill. This is Kassa Fabrications' crown jewel in their line of weapons."

She unclipped a rather large pistol from her belt. "I found this toy too. M-6 Carnifex heavy pistol. Great pistol, with a lot of punch behind every shot. You should think about getting new weapons too. They have enough to spare a few."

I rummaged through the shelves. Vindicator battle rifle. Made by Elanus Risk Control Services. Fires in three-round bursts. High damage output, and pretty accurate for an assault rifle. Good for medium to long ranged combat. A bit less reliable up close, which is what I'll probably need a lot in the future. Thunder assault rifle. Good damage output, but poor accuracy rating. Has an average clip size. Probably only good for close ranged combat. I look through all the shelves, sifting through the chaos of all the weapons and picking up a Predator heavy pistol at the same time. Something hard landed on my head, knocking me to the ground. Spots danced in my vision. "What was that?" I groaned, rubbing my hand. A different gun sat in my lap. I picked it up, checking its features. Crossfire assault rifle. Made by Armax Aresenal. Originally an assault rifle designed for turians, it was contracted by the Alliance for human use. High accuracy rating, large clip, and reasonably high damage output. The recoil was meant to be taken by turians, in exchange for a bigger punch. Not exactly what I was thinking of, but it's a good rifle. I hefted the assault rifle in my hands, testing its weight and balance. It came equipped with upgraded sights and an extended magazine. The stock folded and the barrel shortened, fitting neatly in the weapons belt on my back. I looked at the shotgun on my weapons belt, a modified M-300 Claymore shotgun. I switched it for an Executioner shotgun. "Done shopping?"

"Yeah," I said, sliding the weapon into my holster. "Where's General Morgan?"

"I don't know. He's probably—"

"Stop her!"

I turned to the sound of the voice. Drawing my pistol, I stepped out of the armory. A dark blur passed through my vision and crashed into me, sending me tumbling to the ground. I shook my head; what the hell was that? Then I opened my eyes. Black helmet and a darkened visor, with a shape that no human head should have. I kicked the figure off of me, right into the waiting arms of two Alliance soldiers. "Thanks for the help," grunted one of the soldiers, struggling to cuff the taller alien.

An Alliance officer ran to the scene. "Good, you caught her." He looked to me on the ground. "At least, not without the help of the captain here."

I stood up, running my hand over my armor. "Who's this?"

With one deft movement, the officer ripped off the helmet, exposing the turian head underneath. Wait, that's not right. Turians usually have long fringes. This one has a really short one, and the body shape looks different…oh, she's a female turian. "She just broke into the base through the front door. One of our guards tried to apprehend her, and she knocked him out and ran inside. It's a good thing you were here, Captain."

He turned to the guards. "Take her to one of the empty holding cells in Block B."

The soldiers nodded, hoisting the female turian and dragging her away. The officer tossed the helmet to another soldier. "Take that too. I'll deal with it later." He then turned to us.

"Sorry, Captain. I haven't introduced myself. I'm Chief Richards, the head of security here at Fort Hannover. Besides the one turian, we haven't had any security issues since Earth was attacked."

"Nothing?" Emilia said.

"The occasional husk might wander up the road, but other than that, there hasn't been a lot of action up here. The mountain hides this base from most."

Suddenly, a loud blaring sound rang through the hallway, freezing everyone in their tracks. Then, as if moving from slow motion, the room burst to life, soldiers running to their designated positions. "Chief Richards!" yelled a soldier, grabbing his chest for breath. "We have a situation on the landing pad."

"What happened?"

The soldier held up his hand, and then put it down again. "Alliance squad cars. They arrived on the landing pads, and as soon as the doors open, they start shooting."

"Who started shooting, Private?" Chief Richards demanded.

"I don't know, sir. But there's a lot of them. And they're breaking through."

The head of security nodded, and then opened his omni-tool. "All units in Level 1 move to the landing pad immediately. All units in Level 2 move to Sector A, Sector C, or Sector D; which ever is closer! All other units proceed to their designated positions. This is Chief Richards; Level 4A override!"

He looked to us. "Captain Clark, I need you and her to assist my men. We—"

"Chief Richards!" rang his omni-tool. "The intruders have breached Level 2! They're in Sector A!"

"Copy that. All units in Level 3, Sector A move to Level 2, Sector A. Private, take Captain Clark and Private Emilia to Level 2. I have to help my men."

"Let's go," yelled the soldier, taking off in one direction. We followed; I had no idea where Level 2 was. More sharp turns, and we were sprinting down a hallway when a group of Alliance soldiers backed away from a corner at the end of the hallway. "Hold them off! Hold them off! Hold then—"

The explosion threw the soldiers like ragdolls, dashing them against the walls. A man in black armor appeared in their place. "Boss, we found him," he yelled into his omni-tool. The sound of Emilia's sniper rifle rang in my ear as the bullet cut into the man's head. All in a second. "Good shot," I commented. "But what did he mean by "we found him"?"

"Hell if I know," Emilia replied, switching to her pistol. "Private, where the hell are we?"

"We're in Level 3 Sector A. We need to go up the elevator; the fight's right above us."

He ran into the elevator, motioning for us to come. I took one step towards him and he was gone in a flurry of sparks. His screaming was cut short as the elevator was crushed at the bottom of the shaft. "Elevator's out then," I said, moving to a door on the other side of the room.

"Where are you going?" Emilia yelled after me.

"Taking the stairs," I answered, opening the door and walking straight into one of the mercs. I fell back onto the ground first, whipping out my pistol and hitting him three times in his shoulder. He yelled, flailing his right arm to catch himself as his left arm dangled uselessly. I picked myself up. "Who are you guys?" I demanded, putting my elbow against his chest. "I said, who are you guys?"

"Marco," he coughed, blood leaking from his mouth. "He said take the base, but make sure we find you."

Marco? Shit. I guess he would have never let us betray him and help kill his men. But how did he find us so quickly? "How did you find us?"

"We tracked the skycars after you left that factory. The boss knew that this place was armed, so he took his leftover Alliance shuttles and you guys didn't have a problem with that at all when we landed."

My shields beeped furiously as they quickly depleted from the spread of bullets. I snapped my head to the left and narrowly missed his head as the shot bounced off the space next to the merc. The merc reached for his belt, arched his arm, and…

He exploded. He was literally cooking inside his armor, burning and screaming. I dropped the merc with one shot from my pistol. "We're done here," I said, letting go of the merc in front of me.

I ran up the stairs, taking three steps at a time. There was another merc on the landing; I flipped him over my shoulder by the legs and Emilia put the finishing shot into his head. I looked around: there were two doors. "I say we take the right," I said, opening the right door.

The hallway was lined with cells, each shielded with a bright blue kinetic barrier. There was a growl from my right. The turian was sitting on a bench in one of the cells. There's that turian from earlier. This obviously isn't the way out; we should just leave while we can. But at the same time, I can't. I can't just leave her here. Then again, she could turn on us at anytime. But still…

"What do you want?" the turian's voice shook me out of my thinking.

"I'm Captain James Clark," I said before I knew the words were out of my mouth. Emilia looked at me, raising an eyebrow."We're here to get you out."

"I'm not doing anything," she growled, narrowing her eyes. "You're with Alliance."

"In a few minutes, that won't even matter. If Marco's guys break through the Alliance, they'd probably throw away your key. Do you want to get out?"

She stared at me for several infuriating seconds. Then, she slowly nodded. "Good," I said, inwardly relieved. I keyed in a few commands onto the door console, and the barriers faded away. She stood up and brushed right past me, squatting below the door console. "Wait, what are you…" Her talons caught a hidden latch in the wall, and she pulled it, revealing a drawer full of weapons and a helmet. She put it on, the armor hissing as it connected with the helmet. She grabbed three pistols, clipping them onto her person. "Can I at least get a name?"

She glared at me, or at least I thought she did. Her helmet obscured any view of her face. "Charis."

"Okay, Charis. Unless you know the way out, you should probably follow us."

Emilia looked at me skeptically. I ignored her. Charis seemed to think about it, and then nodded. "Then follow me." I opened the door, and immediately noticed the problem.

Outside, the Alliance was quickly falling back, caught off guard by the suddenness of Marco's assault. Chief Richards had taken up arms with the rest of his men, expertly picking mercenaries with a rifle. The compound guards had barricaded the main corridor and the soldiers were bunkered down at the end, cutting down every mercenary in the two hundred feet plus hallway. Along with the mercenaries, hordes of husks were charging down the length of the hallway, firing streams of acid and slowly burning through the barricades. A group of mercs suddenly appeared from the hallway in front of us, heading towards the unsuspecting Alliance line. Shit. Nobody's noticed them! I raised my rifle, only getting off a few shots before a turian blur passed in front of my vision. Charis sprinted forward and vaulted over the closest merc, blasting him with bursts of submachine gun fire as she went. The next merc turned around and her foot jabbed into his unprotected throat, knocking him down. The other mercenaries whirled around, shooting in a wide arc. Charis hit the ground and slid towards them, cutting through their shields and armor. The last merc used his gun like a club, running towards the turian with gun held high above his head. She drew her legs in close and swept his legs out with one foot. She planted the gun square in his visor, shooting straight through the glass. Holstering her guns, she stood up, brushing nonexistent dust from her armor.

"Well…shit," Emilia summed up.

"That was impressive," I commented. Impressive? That's a bit of an understatement. I don't think every turian is like her. She's just one-of-a-kind. I doubt that's taught in the military. Where did she learn to do that? By then, Chief Richards had noticed, along with several other compound guards. "Captain?" he shouted over the firefight. "You let her out?"

"We're in a bit of a situation, sir!" I shouted. "We don't have too many options!"

Chief Richards shook his head and motioned for us to come. "We could use your help, Captain!" said the security chief. "We've set up a pretty strong barricade here, but the mercs are throwing husks at us to keep us busy while they look for other ways into the compound. There's an emergency staircase on the other side of this level, and our troops bunkered in front of the door. We're losing men, and I don't know how many husks they have to spare. They send a wave of them every few minutes. IF you have a plan, Captain, now would be the time to tell me!"

"Got anything heavy in the armory?"

"We've got a couple of missile launchers and machine guns stocked in the armory. They're being bought over right now."

"Suppressive tactics," I suggested. "Send a small team straight down the corridor and give them covering fire. Then the rest of the troops move up."

"That's suicide," concluded the security chief. "Let's try it. I'm sending a squad of three down one end of the hallway. But, Captain, I already have a plan for you.

"Yes, sir?"

Chief Richards pointed towards the elevator. "I'm sending you up the elevator."

"Wouldn't they see us coming?"

The security chief shook his head. "Not in the elevator. You're going up the elevator shaft. You and your squad will climb up the shaft and hit the mercs on the landing pad.

"What squad, sir?"

"The one you have behind you, Captain."

I managed to stop myself from looking at Charis and Emilia. I've never exactly thought of us as a squad, much less count Charis. My last squad was separated and killed by husks. I won't let that happen to this one. I nodded. "Good," said Chief Richards. "Get ready to go."

The security chief moved to a group of soldiers, presumably the one they were sending. Emilia looked at me. "I've been dragged across the countryside, chased by mutant zombies, almost killed by genocidal starships, fallen out of the sky, three times, and now I'm being sent up through an elevator shaft. Can't you ever pick a nicer place to stay?"

Charis shook her head. "At least you won't know when you've died."

"Thanks," said Emilia, rolling her eyes. "I really needed that."

"Captain!" shouted Chief Richards, running over to me. "Take this."

He handed me a small object and I looked closer at it. "An explosive?"

"Unless you want to just open the door?"

"Got it," I muttered, and opened the elevator. The doors slid open. The elevator shaft seemed to stretch endlessly in both directions, farther than I could see. "Use your magnetic boots," I said, and jumped onto the wall. The magnetic boots instantly connected with the wall, grounding me against the elevator shaft. Charis and Emilia were now above me. "Coming?"

Emilia jumped first, landing smoothly next to me. Charis leapt towards the wall, grounding herself around five feet ahead of me. "Let's move then."

#################

The trek to the landing pad was uneventful. So far, we hadn't been shot at. Yet. "We'll be there in a minute or two. Be ready."

Silence. "So, Charis, where are you from?" Emilia said, breaking the silence.

The turian rolled her head. "Palaven."

"Why did you come to Earth?"

"I have family on Earth."

"Where?"

"New York."

They continued the rest of the way in silence. Thankfully, we stopped at the final level. Charis released her magnetic boots, floating silently to the door. A few seconds later, the door controls glowed bright green. "When you open the door, we go in fast and hard," I instructed, drawing my gun. "Emilia, you've got the sniper rifle. Stay at range. We might need some support." She nodded, cradling her rifle.

Charis opened the door, and I leapt…and crashed straight into a merc. He cracked his against the side of an aircar and lay still. I looked up. Five mercs stood around the landing pad in various states of shock. Charis dove in next, spraying bullets all over the landing pad. A sniper round struck one merc in the chest and he back flipped, loosing a stream of blood. My omni-blade unsheathed itself as I closed in on another merc. He fired one shot into my shields and I stabbed through his armor, his body sliding off my omni-blade. "James," Emilia yelled, dropping another mercenary. "Where the hell is Marco?"

The chatter of machine gun fire rang behind me and Emilia dove to the side as the gunfire burst through her shields. Something exploded next to me, throwing me against an aircar. Charis blasted away at something from behind cover on the other side of the aircar. I peered over the aircar.

Marco, in full battle armor, stood atop an aircar, holding a body shield in one hand and machine gun in the other. A long tube stuck out of the window of the aircar.

"Captain," announced Marco, weapon at his side. He was smirking, enjoying the situation. "I'm glad you could make it."

I switched to my sniper rifle. I adjusted the sights on my rifle, but I knew I couldn't take the shot unless I looked around the corner. Which I can't do. If this was a video game, Charis and Emilia would distract him long enough for me to take the shot. I glanced at Emilia, who was holding her injured arm, and Charis, who was hiding in the cover adjacent to me. Something tells me that's not going to work. "What are you doing here, Marco?" I yelled from behind the aircar.

"Vengeance," he uttered, his eyes flashing. "Five of my men died because of you. Because you betrayed them at the factory. I intend to correct that."

"By fighting against the people who are dying to protect this planet?" I shouted.

"The destruction of the Alliance doesn't bother me. Not one bit. The Alliance takes people off the streets, forcing them into their army. My brother died because of the Alliance. And all we got in return was his ashes. No. Justice."

Icicles dripped off the last two words. Marco faced me now, staring straight at my position. "I despise injustice. I truly hate it with all my being. The fact that you could walk away after leaving five of my men dead behind you is incomprehensible to me. An eye for an eye, Captain. A life for a life. Five of my men died because of you, and you will pay each of them back."

A gunshot crackled across the clearing and Marco staggered back as his shields absorbed the sniper round. I rose up and took another shot, dropping his shields. His machine gun spat heavy rounds at me, forcing me behind the aircar again. The merc in the aircar fired another missile at Emilia. She leapt backwards, sliding behind an aircar as molten metal rained down on her. I inserted a new clip, but Charis was already in motion.

The turian sprinted towards Marco, both hands wielding submachine weapons and both spraying him with fire. The heavy merc fired another missile, this time at Charis. She slid underneath the explosive and rolled to the side as Marco blasted at her position. Charis unloaded everything in her clips, depleting Marco's barriers. He raised his shield just as the turian leapt towards him, knife in one hand and pistol in the other. She landed on top of the shield, pushing him back as she struggled to aim her pistol. Another missile shot towards me and I jumped forward, rolling behind an aircar. The tube retreated inside the window. Emilia's rifle cracked again and smashed the window to pieces. I switched to my assault rifle and aimed it at Marco.

Charis pushed back against the shield, firing wild shots over her head. I ran towards Marco and was almost immediately thrown back as he flung Charis off, crashing into me. Then my omni-shield was on, barely blocking Marco's fire as his gun was up and blazing. Another sniper round bounced off his shield, and I dashed forward with my own shield, slamming against Marco's shield. Marco grunted and pushed back, slowly overpowering me. "You're going to die here, Captain," growled Marco, and shoved even harder, almost knocking me off my feet. "Justice will be served."

I felt a pressure on my back and managed to look up in time as Charis jumped high over my head, blasting Marco with bullets. He raised his shield to deflect her shots and I drew my pistol, raising it to his head. Marco glanced towards the pistol between his head, and his eyes flickered. The anger and frustration slowly slid from his eyes, leaving nothing.

I fired, the bullet drilling straight through his skull. Marco fell back, as if in slow motion. His shield dropped from his hands and his body thudded against the ground. I looked at the body before me. You want justice, but the galaxy doesn't work that way. You take what you can, and leave it at that. Your brother may have died, but that doesn't justify killing hundreds. All that's left is to keep moving forward, and leave behind what you can't change. I learned that with Leo, but Marco didn't learn a thing. I turned around, and Emilia was limping towards me. "Bastard got me in the leg," she grimaced, holding her left arm. Charis was leaning against an aircar, surveying the wreckage. "I don't think medi-gel will hold it for long. Where the hell is Chief Richards?"

"While we were having fun up here," I said dryly. "Chief Richards and everyone else were fighting a war down there."

"Shit. Think they'll need us?"

"That won't be necessary."

I looked behind Emilia. Chief Richards was holding his hand with his other. "I was shot in the hand," explained the chief. "So he's dead, Captain?"

I nodded. "How many did we lose?"

Chief Richards shook his head grimly. "We lost too many in that fight, Captain. We don't have enough to sustain this base anymore. After this, we're on the move."

"On the move? To where?"

"There's another Alliance military base one hundred klicks north of Fort Hannover. We're taking a military convoy up there to sustain the war effort. Not that it'll do much."

"Sir?" I questioned.

Chief Richards chuckled, closing his eyes as he laughs. His expression became serious. "We don't have the manpower, or the firepower, to take on the Reapers. What we need is Commander Shepard. As far as I can tell, she's the only hope we have left of saving Earth."

"You really think so, Chief?"

Chief Richards gestured to the ruined base. "One small invasion force did this. If the Reapers came, we wouldn't stand a chance. If we don't all united and work together to fight the Reapers, we're going to lose."

I stood for a moment, processing his words. Well, I guess I have a new objective. Protect Earth until Shepard arrives.

No matter the cost.