TES FRIGATE PHOENIX
ILMNOS, IALESSA SYSTEM
NOVEMBER 14th, 2188
GRUNT WAS DISAPPOINTED.
When the Fierce Light arrived, the Phoenix was adrift, the ship's automatic disaster beacon sending its distress call in all directions. Gaping and precisely circular holes in the ship's hull shimmered with magnetic shields to keep the vacuum out. The shields flickered as internal power fluctuated. The debris of several small fighters bearing the Broker sigil drifted along with the battered Phoenix.
"Holy shit." Jack exclaimed as they drew alongside. "They've had their asses kicked. Looks like a pirate sortie…"
Hessam scanned the ship and a large holodisplay rotated as he spoke.
"The vessel has been badly damaged, Commander. There is a heavy radiation flux surrounding the ship. It does not seem to emanating from the vessel. I cannot scan inside because of it."
"Looks like we do some EVA." Shepard said as he rose. Grunt rose as well but Shepard stopped him. "Jack and I will go over, Grunt. You stay here and mind the store."
"I'm perfectly capable of…" Vnkar began but Jack cut him off. She rose and thrust a finger at him.
"You don't do shit until we say you can."
Grunt chuckled his signature chuckle and sat back down.
"If he moves, I eat him. Simple."
"Exactly." Jack replied, following Shepard out.
"What," Vnkar wondered aloud, directed to no one in particular, "would buy your trust?"
"More." Grunt told him pointedly.
On the way, Shepard asked Hessam, "Are your docking facilities compatible?"
"My docking tube is a flexiweave tube stored in a compartment surrounding the main hatchway. It has no standard fixed aperture and should conform to any configuration."
"Adaptable, this ship." Jack quipped.
"Such was it meant to be." Hessam added as they proceeded to the armor station, where Jack and Shepard aided each other in suiting up. Fortunately, armor design for humans didn't seem to vary overmuch – even if the cultures were almost totally alien. Body form won out.
"Any ideas in case it isn't pirates?" Jack asked Shepard as he settled her shoulder piece into place. "Supposedly there aren't any Reapers left, right?"
"That's the rumour. There's something a little too deliberate about the damage to the Phoenix, so you might be dead-on about pirates. They'd be damned ballsy pirates, though. We need to get over there."
"I have to admit this thing is actually pretty comfortable." Jack told him, as Shepard directed by Hessam hit the releases on the front of her neckpiece. Arm covering and gloves telescoped out of the deltoid covers. A similar key combination on the crotch piece covered her legs and feet. The helmet in the neck lining snapped up and over her head, locking it into place. A moment later and atmosphere hissed in. "No amp-syncs though – how long would it take to build 'em into this suit?"
"I had taken the liberty of scanning you all for medical reasons shortly after your arrival," Hessam interjected. "Any suit onboard can be configured to accept your bio-inputs. To add such to that one would take approximately thirty-seven minutes. However, I recommend it be done post-EVA.".
Jack shrugged a little to settle herself into it. She pulled her shotgun, checked and stowed it. Shepard pulled a sleek rifle from a weapon locker and looked it over. The thing was black and functional, straightforward and lethal. He set it aside to adjust Jack's suit.
"Standard battle shells are designed to be adaptable per user and situation. Each suit contains a small nano-core for repairs and configuration. Given proper specifications, it can be easily adapted to your unique need, but it does divert from regular suit functions. The servitor nanos must also be pre-programmed with each unique fabrication specification."
"These people sure liked their friggin' nano-bots."
"We use 'em too," Shepard said. "Not as extensively, true…" Jack winced as Shepard adjusted a seal for her. "What?" he asked, seeing her pain.
"Fried an amp in my back on that Citadel. Hurts a bit. It's just the surface relay. I just don't have any spares."
Shepard hit the release on his suit and it likewise enclosed him. The HUD in his helmet flared to life and he linked their suits, retrieved and slung his rifle and led the way to the airlock.
"Where were your spares?"
"On the Emerald Dawn." She shrugged.
"Ah. Right."
The door opened and air hissed out around them. Hessam had maneuvered the Light as close as possible. At the end of the tube they could see the hatchway to Miranda's ship, dark carbon scoring etched across it and deep scars in the hull.
"It's not serious, so don't get all concerned-face on me. As long as I don't have to put out too much power I'll be fine."
"There is a medbay on the Light. You should've said something."
"I did – just now. I just didn't assume an alien ship had the facilities to manufacture 'em, okay? I checked. His people didn't have biotics. I'll fix it later."
"Hessam – let's attempt to transfer some power over there. What have you got?" Shepard asked as they moved to enter the tube.
"My grapple system has waveform power transfer conduits built-in, Commander. Compatibilities in power generation may not be entirely nominal, but it should do."
"Do it."
Outside, the Fierce Light fired several grapples to the Phoenix and held it steady. Power flowed and the Phoenix lit back up – not much, but better than before.
"You may proceed." Hessam informed them. "I also have automatic threat response drones on standby to penetrate the radiation field and direct any cannon fire should attackers return."
"Good. Let's go."
Shepard had to force the hatchway and they stepped onto a dark and silent Phoenix, near a gaping and almost-perfectly circular hole, four metres across. The ship was red with emergency lighting. Fire suppression had coated some areas in foam.
"We've got atmosphere." He popped his helmet up, took a breath then nodded to Jack who did likewise. The smell of smoke and ozone permeated the air. She indicated a form before them, a body in white armor covered in black skeletal patterns laying beneath the wound in the Phoenix's side.
"A boarder," Shepard said as he rolled the body over. His suit automatically scanned the intruder. "Still alive, though deeply unconscious. They didn't have an easy time of it."
Jack was examining the hole.
"I take it back. No pirates are this friggin' precise. They tend to cut through outer armor, primary hull an' just shoot through the rest. This cuts through all the way. No pirate band I've ever heard of has those kinds of creds."
"That doesn't make me feel any better." Shepard told her. He crossed to a dim computer station, called up a crew manifest and simultaneously copied it to his omnitool and sent it to Jack.
"Names and faces. Anyone not on that list doesn't belong." He surveyed the silent ship. "You head for'ard and see what you can find. I'll head aft and do the same. The medbay should be roughly in the same area as it was on the Normandy. Keep your comm open."
"Right. I'll meet you there."
Shepard nodded and each went their separate ways.
"Hessam, can you hear me?"
The AI answered, although the connection was shaky, the AI's voice faint.
"Radiation interference problematic, Commander. I am trying to establish a datalink with that ship. I sense an AI but cannot access it as yet."
"Understood. Keep trying."
"Affirmative."
Neither Jack nor Shepard had to go far before they encountered more bodies.
"Got a boarder over here," Jack called to him. "I'm near the forward escape pods. They're trashed. This one's meat though. You think these might be some of those Inquisitoria assholes?"
"Not the same gear," Shepard said, stepping around a twisted bulkhead, "but they look like they have the same origin." His suit scanned around him for several metres. "Power's intermittent."
"Cheerleader's gonna be pissed." Jack almost tripped over her next discovery. "Whoops – found an asari." She paused and ran a quick scan. "One 'Saajila Niran Hijalli'. Alive."
Shepard searched down a corridor for a dozen metres and found another hole. Stars glimmered beyond it. Slumped against the wall was the crumpled form of the Phoenix's Captain.
"Here's Cheerleader, alive," Shepard said before stopping himself. "Dammit, now you've got me saying it." He checked his location. "I'm near a conference room, from the looks of it."
Jack chuckled. Next to Miranda was the rather large form of someone Shepard knew but not someone he'd really expected to ever see again. The man looked as if he'd taken some hits long before this particular fight and new ones just recently. He was currently pinned under the debris of the blown-in bulkhead.
"I'll be double-damned," Shepard muttered, running a scan. "Ryan Flynn."
Miranda had sustained a blow the back of her head but it wasn't serious. Likely taken when she'd fallen. Or been pushed, he surmised checking her fallen posture. His suit sent him an alert. It was scanning odd energy residues on their bodies. At Flynn's right hand was an equally-odd weapon. Shepard picked it up. He wagered it was one of the boarders and stowed it for later study.
"Ryan Flynn?" Jack was moving to the opposite side of the ship. "Not listed. Friend of yours?"
"He was on my team back on Torfan." Shepard began pulling debris off the man.
"He was with you? Now working with Cheerleader? Small goddamn universe."
"It's a bit of a stretch. Gotta wonder what the hell he's doing here." He pulled Flynn clear and gave him another check. Everything bloody was superficial. Further down the hallway lay a woman and he proceeded to her. He identified her as Tsuchi Hoshiko and she had bruises and the flash-cold burns one got after exposure to vacuum and like Flynn and Miranda was deeply unconscious. "Last I heard he'd taken to bounty hunting. Had even partnered with Zaeed on occasion – or so Zaeed told me once." Shepard made them as comfortable as possible and proceeded further aft.
"Sounds like a story. I'm in the access corridor to the cockpit. Looks like it's been completely smashed. Got a couple dead assholes up here. Looks like a biotic got 'em. Funny though – their armor didn't explode."
"You sure?"
"Pretty sure. These guys have been crushed and the armor's still intact."
"Well, that's a plus."
"Gonna work my way around this crap."
"Watch yourself. Most of Miranda's crew were biotics, if I remember correctly." Shepard surveyed more damaged ahead. "Flynn was a good man, if an insubordinate jackass. Not a biotic though. He was not a fan of 'em."
Just up from him a panel sparked and blew, to then immediately foam over.
"Yup, cockpit's fucked. Got another asari. 'Alieesh Himgi'. Alive but hurt bad." A pause. "One that looks like crew. Human. Manifest says 'Ellie Crawford'. She's dead though. Looks like whatever blew this cockpit took her out. Damn. Messy."
"The engine room is likewise wrecked," Shepard informed her. "Another boarder, too. Also alive." He tried the ancillary controls for the backup powerplants but they too were smashed and inoperative. Behind the mangled and crushed core he could see a smattering of stars and the glimmer of a magnetic field surrounding both the core and the hole. He dragged the intruder out and sealed the door.
"You had biotics on your crew on Torfan?" Jack's comm crackled.
Shepard shook his head even though Jack couldn't see him.
"My Commander, Naomi Conner and our HW Specialist Vaughn Grimaldi were the only biotics on my team." Shepard checked the area around the engine room as best he could, then headed back toward Jack, dragging the intruder behind him. He passed a large medbay and diverted to that. Medbays had independent power sources. "The batarians made a point of targeting all the biotics on Torfan." The intruder he deposited in a corner.
"How'd they get biotics specifically?" She paused then said, "Found 'Illemna Rafleen'. I'll be damned. A girl salarian. She's in bad shape though."
"I'm in the medbay. Bring anyone this way if you can. I'll do the same." Shepard returned for Miranda and Hoshiko and deposited them into med-beds. The scanners above their heads confirmed they were in artificially-induced comas.
Interesting stun weapon, he thought as he ordered the medbay VI to attempt to bring them around. Next he dragged the first intruder soldier in and dropped him on a bed, not inclined to be gentle. The scanner showed a human but had trouble differentiating the man inside with the suit. Shepard set the scanner to get as much data as possible and to keep him sedated. "The batarians used high-tuned sonic disruptors. Sent feedback through their amps." Shepard then went back for Flynn.
"Shit." Jack breathed. "I thought you had to know specific amp frequencies to do that."
"You do." Shepard's voice was grim. He didn't elaborate.
"One of yours?"
"Never knew for sure. Had my suspicions." He met Jack carrying Rafleen draped over her shoulder. "When it all came out, I was in no position to affect it much. I was put 'under observation' – a nice term for 'house arrest' and never got the chance to dig any further."
"You did say Torfan was one mighty clusterfuck of a clusterfuck." She thrust a thumb behind her. "The asari's too damn heavy."
"Clusterfuck of a clusterfucked clusterfuck, more like it." He led the way to the medbay. "I'll go get her." He hoisted Flynn onto another bed. Jack did the same with Rafleen. Shepard left to fetch Himgi.
"So, this Flynn guy… he do it?"
"I wouldn't have said so but then there wasn't exactly a lot of opportunities to get to know one another," Shepard told her as he reached the wrecked cockpit and began to attempt to extricate Himgi from her pilot's chair. He slipped on blood and cursed silently. A lot of it was red. He thought briefly of trying to remove Crawford from the destruction of the cockpit and decided against it. The blast had made she and the debris almost one and the same. Himgi was pinned by a support strut but he muscled it and pried it loose. She was unconscious with a deep gash on her head, spattered with blood too red to be hers. Her jaw looked broken as well. Blackening bruises marred any exposed skin he could see. She was in bad shape and Shepard laid on some medigel and decided to leave her where she was, not wanting to aggravate any possible internal injuries.
"Hessam," He called, returning to the medbay.
"Commander?"
"Report."
"The radiation field is dispersing, Commander. I have at last contacted the AI for this vessel. She informs me that due to extensive pathway damage she is currently confined to her primary 'blue box' and cannot interact with her ship beyond extremely basic functions. I can prepare a detailed scan when the radiation has dispersed sufficiently."
"Understood."
"Didn't you say Mr. Big 'n' Meaty here didn't like biotics?" Jack asked him, obviously talking about Flynn. The VI alerted her that Hoshiko was beginning to regain consciousness and Jack went to check on her.
"He had his issues. His dislike of biotics was more due to some woman than actual disdain for biotics themselves."
Jack snickered. "Girl troubles?"
"He was famously infamous for it."
Shepard stepped back into the medbay.
"That pilot is in too bad shape to be moved. I've stabilized her as best I could."
"Yeah, I didn't want to move her either."
"I just thought of something," He turned pointedly to Jack, "the Phoenix is crewed entirely by biotics."
"Shit!" Jack exclaimed. "They should have a shit-ton of replacements!"
"Is that the technical term for it?" He asked as Jack started hunting through the bay. She ignored him. He went back out for Hijalli. As he was returning, Hessam called.
"Commander, radiation dispersal has now fallen to sufficient levels. Preliminary scans indicate the Phoenix is incapable of flight. I have tied into a local fusion plant and am transferring repair-nanos to reconfigure powerfeeds. I should be able to reinforce all structural abnormalities sufficiently to contain atmosphere until we can reach our destination. The action of repair will take approximately fifteen minutes."
"That's good news. There has to be bad news."
"I scan a small craft adhered to the side of that vessel. Three bioforms inside. It is an intruder vessel, still functional."
"Figures," Jack spat, turning and curling her fists. "Let's go kick their asses."
"No – you're down an amp, remember?"
"It'll hurt, not stop me. I can still fight." She stomped past him. Shepard shrugged minutely and followed her. They found the small craft on the starboard side. They halted at the end of the corridor and Shepard unslung his rifle.
"It's just around the corner." His omnitool flared. "No movement, no energy signatures that would denote active weapons," Shepard informed Jack. She had a thin overlay of blue around her. He activated his rifle and it let out a subsonic hum before fading into silence.
"That doesn't mean shit. Let's waste 'em."
Shepard directed her across the corridor and they edged closer, Jack flaring.
"On three," he directed. He counted down and on three they charged ahead into… more silence.
"Ow. Shit," Jack grumbled, killing her biotic field, pain lancing up her back. At the edge of the hole made by the boarding craft lay three very dead intruders crumpled in a limb-protruding heap. They'd all been flash-cooked by a drone. An Engineer lay a few metres away. Jack moved to check on him.
Shepard climbed up and peered cautiously into the pod. Interfaces seemed to be on standby and he knew better than to touch anything. He fired up his omnitool and took as many scans as he could, just in case.
"Chief Angus Riley, I presume. How is he?" Shepard inquired as he climbed back to the deck.
"Still breathin'." Jack rolled him over. "He took a couple heavy hits though, from the looks of 'im."
Shepard crossed to them and gave the guy a once-over. He had bad burns on his chest and face.
"Looks like his drone exploded in his face."
"I thought they had proximity sensors or some shit to prevent that," she asked as Shepard slung Riley.
"Yeah, they should."
They were almost back to the medbay when Hessam alerted him.
"Commander. I am being challenged by several small craft."
"Let's see 'em," Jack ordered, bringing up her omnitool. Hessam sent a radiation-distorted image of three small fighters approaching the Phoenix. "The fuck - ? They look like Cerberus fighters."
"I'll bet you a backrub they're Liara's." Shepard dropped Riley onto the last med-bed. As he had suspected, the man had severe flashburns consistent with that delivered by a combat drone. "Open a channel."
A moment passed and a woman's voice crackled through their comms.
"Attention unknown spacecraft, you are in privately-owned space. Identify yourself or you will be fired upon!"
"This is Commander Victor Shepard onboard the Phoenix," Shepard informed her. "This ship is in bad shape and I have wounded people here! I'm preparing it to be towed to the Bastion. Tell the Broker to have her medical facilities ready!" Silence greeted him from the other end.
"The Commander Shepard?" came after a long moment.
"No, the fuckin' krogan Commander Shepard," Jack broke in, never one for procedure. "Haven't you heard? He comes in six-packs. Tell Blue to get ready for us!"
"Standby, Phoenix. We will escort you to the Bastion. The Broker is dispatching an emergency medical ship and engineering teams."
"No – just tell the Broker to isolate a landing bay and have crash teams on standby." Shepard told her. "We'll see you there. Shepard out!"
"Power linkages reconfigured, Commander. I am isolating breaches now and sealing all inner areas. All inner areas are now pressure to standard norms."
"Good. Tell Grunt to keep an eye out for any more surprises. As soon as you can, get us to the Bastion."
"Acknowledged. We can be underway in a few minutes. I must reinforce structural integrity before we can proceed."
"Do it."
Jack grumbled and went on the hunt for the amp repair suite she'd had to abandon earlier. After a few moments, she found it.
"Finally! I can fix this, right?"
Shepard nodded and Jack retracted her torso armor and lay belly-down on a special med-bed.
"I need a hand with this," she told him, settling down and grimacing. Shepard stepped over and aligned the automated equipment over her and locked it into place. It looked like a large clamp filled with minute needles. The Medbay VI scanned Jack's fried amp and began the process of repairing it. She winced and hissed as it worked.
"We couldn't have found everyone," he told Jack as she winced on the bed. "We're missing a Gunnery Chief and a quarian. Manifest said eight crew, not counting Miranda."
"Eight? How the fuck does she run a ship this size with eight crew?"
"I'm assuming she has her AI automate the rest." Shepard shrugged and turned as he heard Hoshiko groan then crossed to her. "Keeps her costs down and her secrecy intact."
"Damn hypocrite," Jack snarled without real heat. "'Don't even mention unshackled AI!'" She mock-quoted with a passable – if exaggerated - Australian accent. "'Oh, I have an AI do most of the work!'"
"You sure it's not love?" He glanced back at her. Another wince. She felt the machine cut and then excise the defective parts of her amp. Jack's main spinal amp was a permanently bonded affair with modular components. The VI informed her that several minute linkages had been severed. She directed it to replace everything necessary. Jack then flipped Shepard off.
Hoshiko groggily tried to sit up and Shepard helped her into a sitting position.
"W-who …are you people?" She inquired, speech slurred and her head lolling. "What h-happened?"
"I'm Shepard. That's Jack." Jack waved. "You were attacked. Don't you remember?"
"I… no… there was an alert? …and we were all running to battle stations…" She tried to fix her eyes on him but they wobbled. He held on to her as she did likewise. "There was a very loud crash and a lot of yelling…" She focused. "You're really Commander Shepard?"
"Oh, for shit's sake," Jack grumbled. Shepard just smiled.
"Yes, although I'm starting to wonder myself."
Behind them the clamp over Jack hissed open and retracted and she gingerly pushed herself to her feet. The flesh on Jack's back was red and raw, glistening with a fresh coating of medigel. She extended her torso armor to cover herself again, expression anticipating more pain and then relaxing when none occurred.
"Better?"
Blue energy crackled around her. She held the field for a few seconds and then nodded and began walking toward him.
"Better. I'd prefer my own, but it'll do." The biotic field died. Jack took a position on the opposite side of the bed. "This ship is trashed but you guys managed to frag an' bag a few of your attackers. You're also down some crew."
Hoshiko looked concerned then.
"Who - ?"
"A gunnery chief and your quarian." Jack informed her. "We couldn't find them." Hoshiko was struggling to rise and Shepard pushed her back.
"I'm the ship's medic!" Hoshiko cried out but fell back. She'd never felt so weak and weary before.
"Just stay put," Jack ordered. "We're on top of this."
Hoshiko glared and then her eyes rolled to the back of her skull and she promptly passed out. Shepard shook his head and stepped away as the floor shifted subtly under his feet.
"We're going, but not fast." Jack had felt it too.
"We'll get there." Shepard turned to cross back to one of the unconscious boarders. "Whoever set this up miscalculated badly. It feels… rushed."
"How do you figure? They got crew and wrecked the ship!" Jack protested. Shepard just crossed his arms and shook his head.
"You saw the entry bores. Anyone with competent scanners would have gotten at least a rudimentary layout of the interior of this ship. Yet there was an entry cut just behind the ME core. It's a damn miracle they didn't detonate it!" He snorted. "Stupid and shoddy."
"So they make mistakes. Means they're fallible and killable." Jack was studying the readout over the intruder. "Human, too." Jack noted. "He looks grafted into that armor."
"That's what the scanner says." Shepard shook his head. "Sacrificial shock troops?"
"If they're like those Inquisitoria, sacrificial sounds about right." Jack looked down at the stylized skull etched on the trooper's visor. "Fanatics?" She shrugged. "They'd have to be to let 'em selves get grafted in like that. That's just messed."
"Shouldn't be surprised," Shepard told her, going to check on the others. "We meet gods-not-gods, duplicates of ourselves and everyone we know, then encounter fanatics powered by an apocalyptic religion fueled by this Pathosis agent created by those selfsame gods-not-gods as a tool of evolution in a Galaxy they created as an experiment." He sighed and crossed to Miranda, who was beginning to stir. "Makes perfect damn sense. Just another goddamn day at the office."
Jack crossed her arms and sighed a consternated sigh followed by an ironic chuckle. "To think… I actually toyed with the idea of bein' normal."
"This is normal," He replied, checking Miranda's vital signs, the whole series of events kicking in old instincts. "And the next time we stay the hell home for vacation."