Next chapter is up!
Hope you guys are enjoying the story so far, there is a lot more action in this chapter and a little more back story...sort of.
Thanks to RheasHelm for the review and the heads up about the little spelling mistake of Shepard's name, hope you enjoy this chapter as much as you enjoyed the other two. I think you will find a little wink in the story concerning your review. :)
Please read enjoy and review!
Chapter 3 – Old friends
Ashley Williams watched the slave ship from high cover, her body pressed up against the hard cold metal of a large supply crate. She focused her breathing as she spied the slavers through the scope of her sniper, watching as they piled men, women and children into metal cages, their screams for mercy falling on deaf ears.
She could not believe that the Batarian bastards were back to their old ways, she had thought they had all been wiped out by the Reapers when they first attacked, the pitiful chunk of rock they once called a planet reduced to nothing but ash. She shook her head at the injustice of so much evil surviving the harvest. The galaxy would have been a much better place if ugly shit for brains race was wiped from existence.
Her finger twitched on the trigger as she watched a heavily armoured Batarian slam his fist into the back of a young girls head, laughing as she fell to the floor and lay still. Ashley bit her lip, fighting the urge to pull the trigger.
"Williams, we're in position. Have you got eyes on the targets?" Shepard's voice sounded through her radio, Ashley surveyed the area once more through her scope before she spoke.
"I count seven slavers by the cages, heavily armed, two are standing by the hanger doors and one disappeared around the other side of the ship"
"Easy pickings." Shepard's cocky response made the young lieutenant smile. "Attack on my order"
Ashley's finger twitched on the trigger once more.
"GO!"
In an instant, Ashley pulled the trigger three times, her smile widening as she watched three bodies fall to the ground.
She watched as Shepard broke from her own cover, her own shots taking down three more slavers. Liara appeared from the opposite site, her body glowing with a brilliant blue as she threw a singularity, lifting two slavers in the air. Shepard took care of them with her pistol. She then turned her weapon on the last slaver, firing three shots into his chest.
The slavers bodies feel in silent heaps to the floor.
For a moment the commander just stood there, looking up towards the ship, her eyes falling to the insignia painted on the side. Her thoughts went back to Mindior, the smell of smoke and flesh unearthing memories she thought she had long forgotten. Her eyes fell to the dead slaver, the grip on her pistol tightening as she clenched her fist. The armour he wore was exactly the same as all those years ago, bulky yellow and grey with metallic shoulder guards. She swallowed hard and pushed the memories back.
"Shepard behind you!" Liara's voice broke through the haze of her memories, she turned her head towards her lover, feeling something hard hit her and drag her to the floor. Out of the corner of her eye she saw a bright flash of orange, followed by a searing pain in her shoulder. She cried out, blue flame engulfing her fist as she slammed it into her attackers head. Liara finished him off with a shot to the chest. She was at Shepard's side in an instant.
"Shepard, are you OK. Are you hurt?! "
Selena Shepard groaned, holding her shoulder as she attempted to get to her feet.
"Sit still Shepard, I will administer some Medi-gel." Liara's arms glowed orange, the marine could feel the pain in her shoulder subside ever so slightly.
"It will not heal it completely. But it will stop the bleeding…for now.
The Asari stood, extending a hand and helping Shepard to her feet. The solider winced as the action jarred her shoulder. Moving towards the small cages Shepard disengaged the lock, taking a step back as the thick wire grating moved upwards.
"Is everybody OK?" She asked, scanning through the people as they stepped out of their temporary prison. "I am looking for a Doctor Carter, does anybody know where she is?"
The crowd of colonists split, their heads turning backwards towards a young dark haired women that helped an elderly gentlemen to his feet, expert hands moving to tend to a small wound on his head. For a second Shepard just stared at her, mouth hanging open in disbelieve. She blinked twice, not sure if she could believe what her eyes were showing her.
The young doctor finally moved her head to look at her, dark brown eyes meeting green as Shepard removed her helmet. They gazed at each other across the battlefield, a smile parted doctor Carters lips.
"Hello Selena." She whispered, barely loud enough for Shepard to hear. Her voice was sweet, just as she had remembered it. "Long time no see"
Shepard felt her knees weaken, an all too familiar pain clenching her chest as tightly as she clenched the weapon in her hand.
"Alex…" The name rolled off her tongue in a soft whisper
"Shepard." A soft voice called to her, even softer fingers grabbing her shoulder, shaking her out of her thoughts. She tore her gaze away from the doctor to face Liara. "Do you know this women Shepard?"
Shepard nodded, not trusting herself to speak.
"Is something wrong?" The Asari asked, her hand moving to caress Shepard's cheek, the solider flinched, turning away from the women's touch. She cleared her throat, her hand moving towards her ear.
"Cortez. The colony is safe. I am going to need you to do a sweep of the area nearby. "
"Right away commander." His voice crackled in her ear.
"Williams, secure the perimeter, we don't want to be surprised by any of those slaver bastards hiding in the shadows."
"Sure thing Skipper!" Ashley responded, turning on her heel and starting towards the edge of the small colony.
"Liara, you and I will round up survivors, help the wounded." As the commander turned away she felt Liara grab her arm, tight enough to stop her from moving any further.
"You need to get your shoulder looked at Selena." She said, her voice firm. Liara had never used Shepard's first name when they were in the field.
"I will. But first we need to help the people who need medical attention a lot more than me." Liara opened her mouth to say something, but Shepard interrupted her.
"Round up the wounded, bring them back here. We can make a makeshift clinic until we can get the onsite medical centre up and running again." Liara hesitated for a moment, then turned round and moved towards a couple of wounded colonists. Shepard turned to look at Doctor Carter, who was already helping another elderly gentlemen with a nasty gash on his leg. The doctor moved her gaze to meet the solders, a knowing look in her eye. Shepard sighed, then turned to help Liara.
A few hours had passed, the sun had risen and the fires had died down to nothing but glowing embers. Shepard scanned the colony, it had definitely looked worse under the cover of night. There had not been many casualties, most of the colonists had gotten away with minor injuries. Although, some had perished in the fighting. When the sun had come up, the Spectre had attempted to comfort a grieving husband, the body of his wife had been found under the rubble, a large black hole in her chest. Two young boys no older then sixteen had also died in the attack, their mother mourned them on her knees, holding their limp hands in her own.
Shepard sighed, rubbing her shoulder.
"Commander." She turned to whoever called to her, spying a tall women with think round glasses.
"Yes?"
"The medical clinic is up and running, we were able to salvage most of the supplies that we had, we have taken care of the people that were badly wounded and the colony is mostly back to normal, and we…" The women stopped mid-sentence, her words cut off by trembling lips. Shepard was worried she would start crying. "If you had not come…when you did. Things would have been a lot worse. Thank you commander."
Shepard smiled and nodded. "Just doing my job."
The women smiled back at her, her weathered face wrinkling ever so slightly as she looked down at Shepard's shoulder.
"You should really get that looked at Commander." Selena followed her gaze and cringed, only now noticing the sticky substance that seeped through her armour.
"I will. Thank you."
She had been trying to avoid going to the clinic, trying to avoid seeing the same ghost that she saw the night before. The pain in her shoulder intensified as she made her way towards the small medical centre, her heart ponding in her chest.
When she arrived at the clinic, there was only one other person there. Dark shoulder length hair tied up in a tight bun and lab coat hugging a curvy frame. Shepard stopped short of going in, considering walking back the way she came and forgetting about fixing her shoulder. As she turned to leave, Doctor Alex Carter's voice called to her.
"You are not going anywhere, with you shoulder like that. Get on the bed and take your armour off. I will fix you up."
Shepard sighed, but did as she was told. Struggling to pry her armour from her arm, she was momentarily shocked when two small hands helped her with the clasps just under her armpit, the black armour sliding from her arm and on to the floor.
The doctor wasted no time getting to work, smooth fingers pulling down the thin strap of Shepard's top to get a better look at the angry wound on her shoulder. She was silent as she expertly washed the dirt and grime from the inflamed red injury that punctured the commander's skin, her brow furrowed in concentration as she worked. Shepard watched her intensely, her body rigid and hot from the young doctors touch.
"Stop that." The doctor suddenly said. The Commander narrowed her eyes.
"Stop what?"
"That. That thing you do!"
"What thing?"
"That thing with your eyes. You stare at someone with those piercing green eyes of yours, making everything seem like it's going to be OK" Alex answered, her hands pressing down harder on Shepard's wounded shoulder. The Commander winced as the doctor continued her rant. "You run in to trouble without a second thought, without a thought of who you are leaving behind to worry about you!" The doctor stopped working, turning her back on Shepard and sighing loudly. For a moment, the medical clinic was silent, nothing but the hum of machines interrupting an otherwise quiet atmosphere. Shepard felt a pang of guilt in her chest.
"I'm sorry." Shepard broke the silence. The doctor turned, her tear stained face suddenly turning angry.
"You're sorry… I don't see you in 15 years, and all you can say, is your sorry!"
Shepard looked down to the floor, tears threatening to fall from her own eyes. She looked up at the doctor, a million feelings swimming around in her chest all at once. A hundred memories good and bad rising to the surface.
"I thought you were dead Alex."
It was then the floodgates broke, tears streamed down the doctor's face as she embraced Shepard as tightly as she could, relaxing into the marine's chest as strong arms wrapped around her, pulling her closer.
"I missed you so much!" She cried, pulling away and looking up at the women that still sat on the bed, their lips centimetres apart. Alex slowly inched forward, her eyes closing as she inched closer to the commander. She closed her eyes her lips brushing Selena gently. Sheppard turned her head away.
"Alex...I" Someone clearing their throat by the doorway made them jump, Alex turned sharply towards it.
The tall women that she had spoken to earlier stood by the door, a data pad held in her hands as she stood awkwardly by the open door.
"Am I interrupting something?" She asked, her eyes darting between the two women in front of her. Shepard cleared her throat answering quickly.
"No. You're not. " She did not miss the look that Alex threw behind her shoulder, her eyes moving down to the floor to avoid the young doctors gaze. Alex cleared her throat.
"What is it?" Alex asked, moving towards the older women near the door.
"We have a problem…the samples are missing." She whispered, making sure Shepard, did not overhear.
"What are you talking about…which samples?"
"The Medi-gel enhancements. They have been taken, along with all the research."
"How is that possible? The labs were locked down."
"They used an access code. It must have been an inside job. I told you we could not trust those people!"
"What people?" Shepard's voice startled the two doctors and they jumped and turned towards her, the marine had wrapped her shoulder in crisp white bandages and had somehow appeared behind the two doctors, her brow furrowed in suspicion. The young women exchanged looks.
"We have been working on special enhancements for medi-gel. We had a breakthrough when we managed to enhance the effectiveness of medi-gel on the human body by 90%. Essentially, making it possible to tailor the gel to human physiology to aid in self-healing and… " Alex stopped short of finished her sentence, her gaze moving to the floor
"And what?" Shepard asked, her eyes narrowing. Her suspicion growing.
"There were complications. The test subjects become stronger, smarter they could self-heal within seconds, better than a any Vorcha could…but they lost their minds, they become violent, insane even. We wanted to pull the plug…but they would not let us."
Shepard could feel her patience dwindling quickly, she clenched her jaw before she spoke again."
"Who would not let you? Who were you working with Alex?"
Alex bit her lip, her eyes trying to find anything to focus on other than the Commander that now stood much too close to her, her emerald green eyes hard and accusing. She took a deep breath before answering.
"Cerberus."
Admit it. You all saw that coming. Hope you enjoyed the chapter, in case you have not noticed, Doctor Carter and Shep have a history. Hehehe. More will become clear in the next chapters, things will be getting a lot more violent and adult.
Hope you enjoyed this chapter, the next one will be up lunchtime tomorrow.
Leave a review and you all get virtual cookies. :)