Thessia
Squeeeeee! Baaaaaaarrrrrrp!
The cacophony of alarms and horns faded quickly as the skycar hurtled through traffic like an arrow. Javik turned his head to look through the back window. A long trail of several private skycars were bobbing askew as shocked drivers tried to fathom what had just happened while automated taxis continued placidly through the lanes. No doubt their passengers were just as stunned. He turned back and barely kept his composure as another skycar loomed dangerously large before the windscreen. Gravity pushed at him this way and that. At one point he was certain his innards were dangling several metres from his body. The other skycar fell swiftly astern. Still, it was as expected when Shepard was behind the wheel.
"Not worried are you?" Shepard asked without taking her eyes off from the lanes in front of her.
"I have faced worst," he said placidly when she almost sideswiped a skycar on the left as she cut across for the exit before they missed it totally. The inevitable wail of alarm rang out behind them.
"Yeah, I can imagine. Come on," she muttered impatiently before twisting deftly on the steering wheel to avoid the "plodding" skycar that was heading in the same direction as them, towards the car park of the medical centre. "I'm surprised that you don't have any lofty slant on my driving technique." She smoothly inserted the skycar into one of the parking slots and powered down the vehicle.
"What?" she said when Javik only looked at her.
"I see no reason to criticise an adequate technique."
She stared at him, taken aback. "Adequate, huh. What's your version of expertise?"
"When the passenger is no longer capable of maintaining sense of self." He hit the door lock and exited from the skycar.
"You've got to be kidding me," she muttered as she alighted.
When she realised he was not waiting for her and was heading for the entrance of the medical centre, she scrambled to catch up and caught up with him at the doors. Sound blasted at them from several screens, almost drowning out the thrum of the crowd moving through the huge lobby. A name caught Shepard's attention. She glanced at the nearest screen as she walked past it. Images of the Citadel and the fleets around the Earth flashed by. It was then she remembered the space station was due to be shifted in a couple of hours. She wondered what Dorrin was doing.
Jamming her hands in the pockets of her jacket, she opted to walk in silence to the lifts. The corridors were packed. She concentrated on not barging into anyone. No point adding more to her day's tally of rubbing people up the wrong way. The last thing she wanted was to draw attention to herself. Especially with Javik attracting second and third glances when several people they passed realised they couldn't place his origin. With that unusual hardsuit of his, it made him even more outstanding. She wished he took to the common fashions. She had broached it once before on the Normandy when he refused changes of clothing offered by the quartermaster. His answer was improbable; he didn't need a change of clothing as his hardsuit was adaptive to his needs.
In terms of protection, it was probably better than any of the hardsuit types in current use. Precisely what that meant in terms of hygiene, she had no idea but since she couldn't very well forced him out of it, she let it dropped. Although she anticipated Chakwas to have an issue with it, the good doctor didn't seem to find anything untoward since she received no memo nor any requests to discuss it.
Till the end of the war and until now, it did not seem he took off the hardsuit at all. Maybe he did take it off, to bathe, but she definitely wasn't going to hang around and confirmed that. She had to admit she never caught so much as a whiff of offensive effluvium from him, just a dry acrid tang she couldn't put a name to. She wondered if perhaps the turians took the idea of living and breathing in their hardsuits from the protheans except that she was certain the protheans did not have any contact with the turians.
It mattered not if people realised who he was but given that she was in his company, her identity would rouse curiosity. Something she wanted to avoid. To her relief, they reached the lifts before someone could decide to query Javik. The babble of conversation among the passengers had never been more welcomed. It washed around her. She struggled to stifle a yawn as sudden lethargy seemed to overtake her. She wished she was back in the bedroom, she'd like nothing more than to burrow under the blankets and sleep. That way, she would never have to bother and deal with her present problems. She was already regretting letting herself be persuaded by Javik. She followed him out when the lift reached the floor to Telienos's office and tried to form a suitable excuse to postpone the discussion.
Perhaps she should plead a headache? No, that would work if she was anywhere but knee deep at the medical centre. Telienos might just decide to put her on a full medical examination or something. An urgent meeting with someone? A sudden emergency back on Earth? Maybe she should just turned around and drove back home.
"Shepard."
The unexpected voice of Telienos cut short her ruminations. Javik stepped aside. She stared silently at the matriarch standing outside her office.
"Why aren't you in the office?" she blurted out inanely.
"Does it matter where I am?" Telienos said softly. Her sharp eyes picked out the signs of stress in the human. "Javik." She nodded to the prothean who returned the greeting with a slight bow. "You have not taken repast," she said. It was more of a statement than a question. "I have not taken mine either, shall we break fast together?"
Refusal hovered on Shepard's lips, why waste time puttering around a meal she was sure she had no appetite for? As if she knew what she was thinking, Telienos said softly, "Emptiness begets silence. Unless you light the trail to fulfillment, that may be all you would see."
"You been keeping tabs on me?" Shepard couldn't keep the sharpness out of her voice.
"Not when you show your mantle so clearly. If you choose to retreat now, you would find nothing."
Maybe she was right. If she went home now, what was waiting for her at that end? An empty bedroom. A reticent absent Liara. A contravening question hiding in the guestroom that she couldn't deal with any time soon. That parting conversation with the only living relative she had would bug her to no end. Home didn't seem like a good place to be right now. She shrugged. A meal might not be what she wanted but it was better than going back to nothing.
"Lead the way to fulfillment."
Local Cluster, Unknown Location
Deeply asleep she might be, Miranda reacted automatically to the alarm. Her body tried to roll upright but the sudden restraint around her middle woke her completely. It took a few seconds for her to realise what was keeping her down was an arm. Attached to a warm sleeping body next to her. She reached over to shake Accosi awake as the alarm continued to wail, amazed that he could sleep through the racket.
"All personnel, report to your designated evac station. Condition two."
"What?" he mumbled, raising his head and looking in confusion around him.
Pulling his arm away, she slide out of bed and rushed to the bathroom. Turning the shower on full, she slapped on soap, rinsed, turn off the shower and toweled herself dry quickly. She returned to the bedroom to see Accosi pulling on his clothes. He gave her a look of amusement; her shower had taken two minutes. The alert continued to wail as she dressed.
As she pulled on her tunic, Accosi planted a quick kiss on her lips, murmuring, "Take care, alright? Catch you on the rebound at green six." before hurrying to the door. Palming it open, he looked out. A few marines and research staff hurried past, sparing him not a glance. His tall thin frame vanished as he joined them. Despite the urgency of the situation, she was certain his point of exit was noted and would be commented on later. It mattered not to her. She was, after all, not an official nor permanent member of the research division on the base.
Grabbing her omni-tool from the desk by the door, she dashed out and nearly crashed into the marine sergeant who was about to hit the door chime.
"Hurry, ma'am," he said and followed her down the corridor.
The light above her door turned red, the last in the dormitory to do so. They turned the corner at the intersection to see two marines waiting for them by the lift. Without a word, they piled in and rode it down several floors below. They hurried through the passages, the sergeant murmuring into his comm, until they came to a monorail.
The car was already filled with research staff, waiting for latecomers. She took one of the two empty seats left. As she strapped herself in, someone came running up the aisle and dumped herself without ceremony beside her. Hands fumbled frantically at the button for the seat buckle. The car began to move, gathering speed with every second.
"Steady," Miranda murmured, reaching to help.
"I'm sorry, I'm just...," the other woman said apologetically.
"It's alright," she said, hearing her companion's sigh of relief when she was finally strapped in.
"It's so unexpected, I was getting ready to go to work. I never thought anything would happen around here," the other babbled. "Oh, oh...," she said faintly when she looked at the windows.
"What?"
"Oh I can't stand speeding things. They make me sick. Oh I never should have taken this assignment. I'm going to be sick...oh.." The woman turned pale.
The last thing she needed was someone throwing up next to her so she touched the other woman on the arm to get her attention. "I'm Lawson. You are...?"
"Llyn...Llyn Chou..." The woman stared at her, wide brown eyes peeping from long bangs, strands of hair flying loose from a braid. "Oh I heard of you. You're that special consultant. Tell me-." Her hands grabbed hold of Miranda's as she leaned in to whisper. "Are we under attack by...um...you know who?"
Much as she would like to snatch her own hand away, Miranda said softly instead, "I'm afraid I know very little. I was in my quarters when the alert was raised and came here directly."
"So you have no idea what's coming?" Chou said anxiously, her hands squeezing down hard several times. "We're going to be safe down here, won't we? I...I mean, they can't reach us down here, right?" she babbled, looking around her and flinching away from the sight of the enclosed walls rushing by the windows.
"We wouldn't be here if it isn't safe," Miranda said crisply, pulling her abused hand away and squashing the desire to bounce the woman from her chair.
"Oh, I'm sorry." A red flush spread across Chou's face when she looked down at her hands. "I...I didn't mean to.."
"You don't have to look outside," Miranda interrupted. "Perhaps you have messages that require your attention."
"Oh..." Shrinking back against her chair, Chou grasped her trembling hands in her lap and stared down at them.
Stifling an impatient sigh, Miranda glanced around the car. There were a few faces she recognised. The rest were complete strangers to her. Most of them were busy with their omni-tools. Whether they were trying to find out what was happening or attempting to communicate with anyone, it didn't matter. The alert put the entire base on lock down. Nothing was going out or in except through secured channels. With a highly sensitive operation due to commence in less than two hours, it was all too easy to guess at the cause of the alarm. The Citadel operation was no secret, everyone knew about it. Someone was taking the opportunity to make trouble. Unlike everyone however, she didn't think it was the TI.
The TI could run skirmishes, carry out sabotages, kidnap, create chaos and misery among the civilian populations on every world and colony but to attempt a larger stage, facing off against two combined navies? She hardly think that was possible. Every update from TI encounter across the galactic stage pointed to their psychological decay, it was laughable to think they could manage such a feat. No, it was someone else. She had a very good idea who it could be but why did it have to be now? Why not later when the Citadel Fleet was gone with the station? Wouldn't it be easier with just the Alliance Home and First Fleet to deal with? Something was not right.
The car slowed and came to halt at a platform where a squad of marines stood waiting. With a trembling sigh of relief, Chou stabbed at the button to release the seat buckle and leaped for the nearest exit without a backward look. Miranda didn't move as the rest got up and began to leave in an orderly manner. It was only when the crowd thinned that she finally got up. The marines directed the researchers where they had to go, past the security scanners and down a corridor that would bring them to secured quarters. The sergeant looked at each face carefully and put out a hand when she came up to him.
"Miss Lawson?" he said and gestured to her to follow him when she nodded. "There's a priority call for you. This way."
The comm room was in a corner niche off the main passage where the others went through. The sergeant waved to her in and stationed himself outside. The room was small. She tapped on the communications console as the door sealed behind her. A holo image sprang up. The identity of the young woman in uniform didn't register for several seconds.
"EDI?" she said in amazement.
"Hello, Miss Lawson, it is good to see you again."
"They put you in a uniform?" Miranda said nonplussed.
"Necessary. Time is of essence, Miss Lawson, I would like to tap on any insight you might have on any Cerberus projects involving research and deployment of covert materials."
Is that was what was going on? Miranda stifled the swell of questions and pondered over the question instead.
"You know as well as I do every cell is isolated. The main network is an independent fluid circuit that feed and relay general information."
"Which is why I am unable to establish any contact once I went with Shepard. What data I was able to recover from Cronos Station then and up to present is insufficient to form a substantial threat thesis Cerberus are capable of currently," EDI said. "However, you do have other resources."
"Only bits and pieces." Miranda frowned as she thought about it. "Are covert materials deployed on a large scale?"
"Yes. Secreted among other elements."
"How large?"
"Enough to decimate an existing population."
She couldn't be talking about Earth, could she? Miranda had the sinking feeling that she was.
"There were a number of plausible projects. Mostly offshoots of military experiments that were sidelined. I take it you have not been able to establish whether the intended incursion is unconditional or circumscribed."
"No. Every probability algorithms I ran has yielded plausible but no concrete results. Recent incidents that occurred in local vicinity lends a high probability towards a restricted stratagem. Identifying the type of armament will not alleviate the current situation. If the trigger of the delivery system can be captured and analysed, it is possible to shut down the network. However, this is based on the assumption that the entire system is tied into a central control node."
"You think there are autonomous sub-systems for the grids."
"Yes."
Miranda nodded in agreement with that assessment. "It won't be easy." She shook her head. "They have to take the first shot."
"If we work fast, it is possible to prevent subsequence deployment."
"I can give you every form of encryption that have been in circulation right up until I lost whatever contacts I have within Cerberus but the chances of finding the right key is astronomical."
"We have to try, Miss Lawson. I believe our odds are improved with my abilities. We can do this."
Miranda blinked at her, taken aback. The last intonation sounded rather like Shepard's. She smiled, half amused and half impressed. "Let's get started, shall we?"
Thessia
T'Soni Estate
The glass squeaked before it was held up to the light. An exacting eye examined it. A humph of dissatisfaction. It was brought down for another polishing. There was no other sound except for the glass and the bubbling of the streams winding through the empty hall. Humming softly under her breath, Aethyta scrutinised the glass once more before placing it under the counter and picked up the dark amber filled glass at her elbow. Spice and faint sweetness swept against her tongue. She basked in the pleasant heat the liquid left behind as it slipped down her throat. The hiss of the front doors caught her attention. She watched as Hiaras stepped in. The commando spotted her at once. She watched with appreciation as the commando moved with lithe smoothness towards her.
"What'd it be?" she drawled when Hiaras reached her, noting the faint air of pique about her.
"Miss your old job?"
"You know me." She reached for a bottle behind her without bothering to look, grabbed a glass below the counter and poured out a finger length of s'rflie. "Can't reach a sore? Drink it away."
"I ought to paint myself all over before coming to see you." Hiaras hissed as she swallowed the purple liqueur. "I was a little late." She rolled her neck, breathing evenly.
"And?"
"If you want to get your hands on Jieull, you'll have to trade with Aria."
"The package?"
"Went with her." Hiaras grabbed the bottle and poured herself another shot. "Well she can't stay with the Alliance," she said when Aethyta looked at her. "And she obviously has no reason to believe what I said, so what's left?"
"That bad." Aethyta leaned against the counter, frowning.
"It's that bad. She smeared Jieull's little squad everywhere and you know the kind of people Jieull likes to use. They had no idea what went at them." Hiaras smirked as she imagined how the one sided battle would have gone. "What are you going to do?"
"Was she alone?"
Hiaras shook her head. "The human male went with her." She rolled her empty glass between her hands. The wine pooled in her stomach, spreading warmth throughout her body. She was glad to be back on Thessia and Sanar. "You want to pull something with that one?" She shrugged when Aethyta directed a incredulous stare at her. "Just asking. They aren't exactly Aria's type."
"Aria's a big girl, she knows what she's doing."
"You do remember she lost her turf to Cerberus, don't you?"
"She wouldn't get to where she is if she didn't get her ass kicked sometimes."
Aethyta grinned when Hiaras snorted her scepticism. A flurry of footsteps and arguing voices drew their attention to the front doors which open to spill in two figures. Walking as fast she could in the forefront, Liara ignored Shiala's calls as she chased after. Their headlong rush were arrested when they saw the two at the alcove bar.
"I'll be in my room," Hiaras said quietly, withdrawing quickly as Aethyta beckoned to the two.
For a moment, Liara looked as if she would ignore the summons. At a look from Aethyta, she slowly walked over to the bar. Shiala followed after, face blank, putting herself several paces away from Liara. Aethyta poured a fresh glass of s'rflie for Shiala. From a flask she was keeping warm below the counter, a hot brew for Liara.
"Drink," she said impatiently when neither made a move for the glasses she placed in front of them. "You two realised what you're digging yourselves into if you continue with your bickering," she continued when they each had taken a reluctant sip.
"We are not bickering," Liara said sullenly as Shiala muttered, "I have not intended to make matters worst."
"Hey." Rapping the counter sharply, Aethyta glared at them. "Deception is expected in the political arena, not in the domestic front. Unless you girls want total war and obliteration in your own backyards, I suggest you start wiping your slates. You, especially." She eyed Liara severely. "I kept my peace when you decided to bear a cub because you buckled down to everything that was thrown at you ever since you struck out on your own. You have grown, you have yourself a fine bondmate, put down roots and now you suddenly decided it's time to play the maiden. Oh-," she stopped abruptly as if she struck a revelation, "I forget, you are a maiden."
"I am not...," began Liara defensively.
"I'm not unsympathetic to the foibles of your condition," Aethyta interrupted, "but allowing fear and guilt free rein over your good sense isn't you."
Liara flushed darkly. "I am not being..," she denied as she thought of what she had done and said to Shepard.
"If an act is wrong, there is no place in the universe that can hide it." Unable to meet her eyes, Liara looked away. "Tell me you're not trying to assuage your guilt that you may have subjected her to compulsion," Aethyta continued. "That you aren't trying to test her feelings for you. That you fear..."
"No!" Thumping her fists on the counter angrily, Liara glared at Aethyta before clapping her hands to her face. Shiala made as if to go to her but stayed where she was.
"Is this wise?" she asked.
"You would ask that?" Aethyta looked grimly at her.
Returning her gaze steadily, Shiala said softly, "I shouldn't have come."
"Don't you get tired? I know I would, beating myself up into a purple prune over and over again," Aethyta said dryly. She sighed as a sob escaped Liara and reached over to grasp her hands. "You couldn't have picked a worse time to throw such an imbroglio, cutting off your bondmate when you need each other right now." Using a finger, she wiped away the tears.
"Dad, I...I do not know what came over me, I do not know what to do...I...," Liara choked out. "Goddess, Shepard...I should not have...I..." She started to get up, agitated.
"You are not thinking clearly." Grabbing hold of her hands firmly, Aethyta held her to her seat. "She's having her session with Telienos, you can't go to her."
"But, I..."
"You can talk to her after she comes home. Finish up your drink." She grabbed the glass and shoved it into Liara's hands. "Drink," she commanded when Liara hesitated. "And where do you think you're going?" this to Shiala as she moved away.
"I must leave."
"Hey, last I heard, a stain remains a stain until it's clean up. She-," Aethyta nodded at Liara, "needs to talk to you. Both of you need to talk to Shepard."
"I do not think..," Shiala began.
Bang! The sudden clap of a hard hand on the counter startled her. Liara jumped and almost dropped her glass.
"Neither of you are helping yourselves or Shepard with this egotistic attitude of self-martyrdom. It's demeaning. It's selfish. You walk away right now, you will leave lives in ruin," Aethyta said frostily.
Visibly trying to control herself, Shiala said finally, "I can't."
"You came here when you could choose not to," Aethyta softened her tone when Shiala slumped dejectedly. "What is it you fear?"
For several seconds, Shiala remained silent before she stirred and looked at Liara. "Myself."
Kelice Medical Centre
The air was fresh and crisp with fine sunshine bringing a sparkle to the the surroundings. There was nothing else Shepard could pick a bone with except for the fact that everything was white and cold. Beside her, Telienos didn't seem to feel the chill, walking easily along the path.
"That was a great breakfast." Small white clouds ballooned around Shepard's face.
"I'm glad you enjoyed it."
"You went through some trouble with the menu."
Shepard thought of the wheat bread, cheese, cold cuts, fruits and coffee she just had. A typical human breakfast she hardly tasted when she settled on Thessia. With a pang she remembered the hot honey bread and milk her father used to prepare for her.
"You're not fattening up the calf are you?"
"That is an odd ominous phrase," Telienos laughed. "What does it mean?"
"It's a sort of metaphor. Feed the calf until it's fat, then sacrifice it in a ceremony to celebrate an occasion or perhaps gain a favour or throw it in the path of danger that you might get away."
"None of those choices would benefit me."
"No." Shepard grinned at the matriarch. "But you could just be softening me up for something bad."
"It was merely an introduction."
"And this -," Shepard waved at their surroundings, "is the main course?"
"Would you rather be enclosed in the office?"
Shepard thought about it. "No."
"I do not know what happened since I saw you last but I saw that you're distraught when you came with Javik. The taste of fresh air will do you good."
Telienos came to a halt before a eight feet tall round white pillar encircled by bare shrubs. A small grove of trees stood behind. She bowed her head and remained silent for a moment. From the names etched into the pillar, Shepard realised it was a memorial stele. It looked new. Perhaps it was made in memory of those who died in the TI attempt to retrieve the avatar.
Telienos stirred and turned to face her. "Put aside the troubles. Here, there is only you. Be selfish and focus on yourself for a change."
A deprecating laugh escaped Shepard. "I guess I can do that." She looked at the stele. "Who are they?"
"Colleagues who died when the TI came to look for the avatar." Telienos resumed her stroll along the path. "I have seen many friends come and go. The means of their going was not as wrenching as the recently departed. Such circumstance will not be foreign to you."
"No. I've seen too much." Shepard shoved her hands into the pockets of her jacket and hunched slightly. "Entirely too much," she muttered.
"Yet you've not given thought to leaving the Systems Alliance."
Shepard's plodding steps came to a halt. "Leave?" She blinked at Telienos, feeling that the matriarch had said something she did not fully understand.
Telienos looked searchingly at her. "No, I do not think so. It is too much in your blood. One might say you're born to it."
"That's a given when it's a family tradition. There's always a Shepard serving somewhere in our history."
"Was it tradition that led you to enlist?"
"I guess..." Shepard shrugged. When Telienos only continued to look at her, she tried to explain. "My father was an officer, so is my mother. I thought why not. I also wanted to see what's out there."
"So the Alliance is your vehicle to explore the galaxy."
When Telienos put it like that, Shepard felt like a callow youth of sixteen. She shrugged helplessly. "I.."
"It's all right." Telienos touched her gently on the arm. "Do not be troubled. Shall we continue?" She waved at the path.
They walked silently for several minutes. Shepard turned the question over and over in her mind. What she told Telienos was true. After her father died, she was moved and dumped in bases and small colonies year after year that she hankered to see something different than the grey hulks of prefabs and living through the drab routine of home and school. She wanted something more. Somehow it all seemed rather far away. That desire. The reasons.
"You've been put through great trials that most wouldn't have survived." Telienos said softly.
"I didn't. Once."
"Yet you returned nevertheless."
"Yeah, I guess so," Shepard snorted in derision. "Was it a miracle? Maybe. To the Illusive Man, I was an investment. He needed something done, I just happened to fit the bill."
"He took a risk with you." Telienos saw her questioning look. "You were revived before schedule because the research facility you were in was attacked."
"A Shadow Broker agent was trying to retrieve me for his boss but yes, I was woken early. I made it out of the facility with two Cerberus agents."
"Then what happened?"
"They took me to another facility. I had a talk with the Illusive Man who gave me my marching orders, threw me some of my old crew and a brand new ship. I couldn't say no," Shepard said drolly.
"Really?"
"In truth, I tried to tell him to go to hell. Didn't believe him when he told me humans were vanishing without a trace. I could walk away, he offered that choice but he knew how to play his cards."
"You didn't try to contact the Alliance?"
Hysterical laughter bubbled up and threatened to spill. Rubbing her hand over her cold face in an effort to control it, Shepard shook her head.
"That thought did cross my mind but what was I going to tell them? Never mind that they didn't actually try that hard to find me was going to bother them all that much. It's unlikely they were going to welcome me back with open arms after having been missing for two years. Neither was it going to go down well that it was Cerberus that picked me up. It's not hard to figure out what they were going to think, what they would do. I would be padlocked for months, jumping through the mind hoops. If what the Illusive Man revealed was true, I couldn't afford to be hobbled so I chose not to return to the Alliance."
"Were you scheduled for medical evaluation while you were on this mission for Cerberus?"
"Got a physical from one of the old crew."
"What about psychological assessment?" Telienos's gaze sharpened when Shepard looked away. "You didn't get one," she said when the human remained silent. "You never tried to get a psych evaluation on Thessia?"
"Hell, Telienos," Shepard spluttered, lifting her arms helplessly. "Talking to a shrink wasn't on the cards. Why would I?"
"You didn't think it was necessary? When you kept having nightmares? Shepard," Telienos prodded when the human stirred restlessly.
"I was distracted."
Telienos blinked when something white feathered her face. Looking about them, she saw snow falling thickly. "Let's move this indoors, shall we?" She touched Shepard lightly on her arm.
"Yeah, I've enough of this cold."
Local Cluster
Earth, SSV Glasgow
Stifling an urge to pace. Dorrin kept one eye on the gaggle of green icons moving slowly through the commercial vessel transit corridor, the other on the defensive spread of green icons against the mass of red icons on the second screen over the holo tank. It had been an hour and still there was no word on what had come through the Charon Relay. The lack of data from the system reconnaissance probes and the forward scouts was unnerving. Coupled with the advisory from command that there were enemy elements in the debris field and could attack at any time, tension was thick on the command deck.
"Two minutes to perimeter," Canning said softly.
Dorrin nodded, trying to breathe evenly. With more room to maneuver once they cleared the debris field, they might be able to get the merchant freighters to safety if a firefight broke out.
"Sir, we're getting something," one of the scan techs said. "Whatever that's jamming us is clearing."
"Let's see -," Dorrin's eyes widened in shock when the red icons doubled, "...it."
There had to be at least two hundred ships or more in that wave. They were all truly screwed if more come in.
"No, wait...," the tech said tensely. "Receiving ID transponders!"
Before Dorrin's disbelieving eyes, the red icons turned green.
"What the hell? Who're they?" he barked.
"It's Ardones, sir."