Omega-Afterlife
Abigail Shepard stood in the bullet strewn former bar that Aria had turned into her personal command center and headquarters years ago….was now a good place for Shepard to turn into her personal headquarters. After all it was centrally located and with the War Room on the Normandy needing desperate repairs from its torpedo strike, here they were.
Cameron, a Batarian which seemed to be Kurl's self-proclaimed successor, and General Beck, were all standing around the central table which was holographic and showing the station along with several pictures from around the battle.
Meanwhile Abigail was nursing her injuries from the battle, a large bandage was plastered on her head above her eyebrow hiding and healing the gash which was there, her bottom lip was also cut from a piece of shrapnel, but all and all just a normal day in the life.
She eyed Beck curiously, "So General, what are you doing here?"
Beck bit his lip before answering allowing Shepard to study the man. He was an older man probably in his early fifties, white, short gray hair and ears which were larger for his face. Pale blue eyes were narrowed at her.
"I don't know," he finally answered, "I was just thinking, suddenly, that all this was wrong. Against the oath I took as an officer and as a man, against the very precepts of the Alliance Constitution. I watched myself, throughout the past several months doing things that were against my will, as if I were just working on it during on auto pilot, a zombie in my own form."
Beck looked at her uncertainly, but Abby shrugged and nodded, "fair enough and it sounds familiar from what we have learned about the Leviathans and the Reapers. But right now we need to take stock of our situation, determine who is still left, and then we can decide on what our next move should be."
Beck and the company continued to glance at one another uncertainly shifting in their places, Abigail sighed. With the damage Omega has taken I really can't blame them, but, we need answers.
"Well Shepard," A voice spoke as Afterlife's front door open, "I see you haven't lost your goddamn decorating touch."
She spun around and saw the scarred form of Zaeed stalking towards her and their table. "Zaeed." She smiled.
"Zaeed." Cameron said completing his own whirl around and ripping his pistol out of its holster aiming it at the mercenary.
Abigail glanced to the side and her arm shot out instinctually pinning Cameron's gun hand and forcing it up towards the ceiling. "Whoa, what are you doing? He's my friend."
"And he's my enemy, in the other time line he worked for Cerberus, attempted to capture us and bring the Normandy back to TIM."
"Shepard, who is this goddamn fruit loop?" Zaeed hissed.
Long story, "He is, me, from a parallel universe, at least that is what we can figure."
Zaeed frowned, "since when did our quiet lives become a goddamn episode of Doctor Who."
"Doctor What?" Abby turned to him, but feeling Cameron tense up beside him caused her to redouble her efforts. She glared at Cameron.
The male version of her glared back, and sighed, shrugging his shoulders, "alright we're done." He said.
Shepard let him go.
She turned to Zaeed after a second and stared the wizened old merc down, he looks older somehow, she decided with a pause. "Zaeed, what brings you here?"
"Heard you were throwing a party for those bastards on Earth so I wanted to join up. But I couldn't break through the blockade and get here in time with enough forces. But the Blue Suns are yours, for whatever else may come."
Shepard blinked, well despite my affection for Zaeed he certainly has not been the most generous spirit.
"Wow." Cameron concurred with her thoughts.
"We were just discussing Earth," Beck cut in and looked over her shoulder at Zaeed, "you are welcome to join us."
Zaeed did so sliding into a spot on Abigail's right where she was when this started, she rolled her eyes and moved in next to him and looked at Beck.
"What have we got?" Abby sighed coming back to the table with Cameron glancing over at Zaeed every other second.
"Not much, the Fourth Frontier division stayed under my personal command and its Regimental and Company officers all followed my lead. As did the individual soldiers, at least for now. As for the Fifth, well the General in charge there is either a true believer or his indoctrination was deeper than mine. Either way his forces were fully committed to the invasion of Omega and even tried to retake a few of my ships. So the fifth has been virtually wiped out."
"Wonderful." Shepard muttered to herself.
"As for the rest the three thirty second mechanized warfare regiment was also wiped out in the siege of Omega. Not that we could have overridden their programming and used them anyways. They were, very secure. We have around forty ships left that defected with me, that's at least relatively intact, as soon as our forces get out of Omega's salvage yards we can probably provide up to fifty eight ships for any potential space battle."
"That still probably won't be enough to evict Soren, especially if we have to fight an entire planet of forces indoctrinated." Cameron cut in.
"I wouldn't be so sure," Beck bit his lip, "Soren has wanted the population that wasn't in the military and he could not control docile. While I do not know the entire story that probably means severe Leviathan control and other means. This gives us the advantage of quality of forces. Let alone the fact Soren has been leading a campaign to disarm any private civilian throughout the Alliance and has even concentrated on curtailing local civilian police."
"So instead of having to fight a population of a couple of billion we just have to worry about a couple million?" Abigail gestured with her right hand uncrossing them. "Oh yes, that is much easier."
"Just stating the facts." Beck retorted evenly.
"I can provide about another twenty ships and five thousand assault personell." Zaeed cut in.
"And the geth and…" Cameron's voice trailed off as EDI was standing in the central alcove cutting in on their bull session.
"EDI?" Abby Shepard asked arching an eyebrow.
"Excuse me for interrupting but I believe I have information that requires your immediate attention." EDI explained.
"Yes?" She said crossly.
Ashley came on the screen shooing EDI away, "We've detected a pocket of oxygen near the CIC of the SSV Indomitable"
"What?" Abigail spat recognizing the name as the Dreadnaught that led the Alliance forces to take Omega. "I thought we vented that thing to space."
"We did," EDI came up as a separate hologram, "but it would appear our Torpedo strike was not as effective as we first predicted."
"Well considering the size of that sucker I am surprised we were ultimately able to do any damage to the vessel at all." Ashley pointed out. "It should not have just exploded like that; maybe this will give us a chance to figure out why."
"Exploded?" Abigail asked.
"Well not exactly exploded, just when we hit it vented."
"The Super Structure is mostly intact but the internal systems have been decimated." EDI Supplemented.
"But yet there is an air pocket in the middle of the thing." Cameron finished.
"So it would appear."
"Life signs?" Abby asked.
"None that we can detect, however, our scanning technology is limited in that regard to the interference and armor in the way for the Dreadnaught proper."
"But someone could be there." Cameron offered glancing at Abigail with a slightly worried look in his eyes.
"Even if there aren't this is still a valuable intelligence find, we should go either way. Thank you EDI, Ashley." She nodded.
"I would like to come along." Ashley blurted out.
Abigail smiled wryly, "Fine Commander, if you want to get out of the house that is your prerogative, Cameron, you, and I will split up throughout the ship. It is big after all."
Ashley frowned, "you sure we have the manpower for that? I mean Cynthia has not moved from Paul's beside since we got him back to the Normandy, and I would consider her more of a liability at this point, she's been through hell."
Abigail shrugged, "Zaeed has rejoined us and I am sure he would love the opportunity to connect back with us."
"Zaeed?" Ashley asked.
"Hello," He graveled out.
Ashley shrugged, "fair enough, orders?"
"We'll each take a shuttle, assemble our teams, and be on the Indomitable, in five minutes. Shepard out."
SSV Indomitable, Airlock
On the way to the Indomitable, the teams had changed. With Garrus, Paul, and Cynthia on the disabled list that left a significant hole in their lineup. So as the door closed behind Shepard's squad, Ashley and Miranda had fallen into her wake.
Damn, I wish I had this squad during the war. The two independent and capable women would have made the perfect complement to any squad situation during the war. Sadly Miranda had to go look for her sister, not that I'm complaining, but we did have resources on the Normandy. And sadly they were likely to never serve with each other in combat, unlike James and Garrus, but, they were here now.
Cameron's team was somewhere else on the ship.
"Lights." Abigail finally commented her reverie and nostalgia finishing its course through her veins. We still have a job to do.
The lights on their helmet grid came on shooting beams of light down into the pitch darkness. They didn't have their weapons out, they knew what had killed this dreadnaught and EDI did not detect any signs of mech activity. So they were safe from even that small concern.
"This is Shepard 2 we've boarded." Cameron greeted over the com nets.
"Shepard 2?" Her mirth came out in a trill over her head speaker.
"I figure it's a good way to distinguish the two teams." Abigail could positively here the shrug radiating out from the com signal.
"Very good," Abby chuckled, then frowned, "Alright, look for any active communications panel and have EDI network to gain any information about this ship or anything else the Alliance is going into. Liara is on the other end waiting."
"Yes ma'am." Cameron replied by way of signing off.
Abigail set her jaw and shoulders and began moving on.
The ship was dark, their light being the only light source as power was drained from the entire area of the ship. The going was tough as they tripped over a vacuum exposed corpse every now and then, picking their way over the debris, with mag boots.
Abigail looked around her light craning around every minute, "Well, see anything we can use?"
"No," Ashley grumbled, "this place is colder than a tomb."
"Keep your eye out," Abigail emphasized.
Even with their crawl of a walk from the mag boots Abigail could tell this ship was huge, larger than your standard Dreadnaught with corridors resembling main boulevards stretching out into the infinite, running along the length of the ship. Only rooms running off to the side as they moved through the ships guts.
They passed a breach in the hull, just a small crack, as they walked past; Shepard winced as she had an intense feeling of vertigo. Stars are nice, she decided, but they are nice only from a distance.
Climbing up a service path they entered the next deck until they were on the command center slowly picking their way across the decking towards the Indomitable CIC. Abigail checked her Omni-tool's oxygen levels, fine, and the time they had been in here, over an hour.
A little further down the corridor, they went around a slight bend, and saw a blinking strobe light. Abigail blinked at it wondering if it was a mirage or a trick.
Miranda came up behind her, "Well, that's different."
"Must have an emergency power source." Ashley wondered.
"You an engineer now?" Abigail teased the definitely 'jar head' Marine.
"I am a woman of many talents skipper," Ashley replied slightly abashed.
"Oh well," Abigail shrugged, "nothing for it."
They approached the green light and then saw the console, it was active, Abby started to draw up its inventory. "Auxiliary engineering console, just what we need." She activated her Omni-tool and opened a channel to the other squad "EDI, I'm linking you into the Indomitable's engineering department, start scanning and compiling the files." She entered those commands into the tool and waited.
"Huh," EDI said after a second.
"Huh?" Shepard smirked.
"Yes, I am learning human mannerisms." EDI replied to the unstated question.
"And what else are you learning?" Abby pressed.
"The Indomitable was incomplete, and lacking dry-dock testing or shake down, they didn't build in supports across most of the lower decks. It would explain why the torpedoes were so effective."
"Good work, certainly explains a lot." Shepard mused cocking her head to the side.
"Alright," Ashley cut in, "interesting, but the CIC is still one hundred fifty meters away, and we are running out of time."
"Ashley is right, let's move people." Abigail ordered.
It took them ten minutes to reach the CIC and push the doors open, the squad looked around the room scanning it with their eyes and their helmet flash lights.
"Clear." Miranda commented.
"Agreed," Abby droned out.
She was moving to the center of the command console where the Admiral, what she assumed was the Admiral, who threatened them over the com link. She leaned down to peer at him getting another flash light out of her equipment harness. The man had dried blood all over his forehead and dribbled down his cheek.
"He's dead." She commented checking his vitals, and turning around to face the crew. "Not a good way to go."
"I would think he deserved it," Miranda muttered, but the audio picked up loud and clear.
"He could've been indoctrinated, besides few people truly deserve death," Abigail said, "we fight long enough to stop them, not kill them."
Miranda nodded solemnly.
Abby frowned and turned around to face the corpse, "unless we have no other choice," She whispered.
"Shepard!" Ashley's cry caused her head to snap around, "over here!"
Abigail rushed over to the Commander and looked down, at the figure sprawled along the deck, her arms pinned to the sides of the bulkheads, with a breath mask on. But the cut of the hair made her unmistakable.
"Admiral Jameson?" Ashley asked.
Abby nodded while activating her Omni-tool, scanning her, "she's alive," she activated a com channel "Shepard to Normandy we need a medical team to meet us here stat, and another suit, we have casualties, also we might need another set of oxygen canisters."
"We're on our way Shepard," Joker commented in her ear.
"So now we wait?" Ashley asked.
"Now we wait." Abigail agreed.