Third week of bootcamp training was still all centered around physical activities and teamwork. Marines were expected to work as a single, cohesive unit, be it as full platoon or the standard six-person units. Or even smaller ones. The menu for the day was to work in duos, rotating the pairings through the day as they completed physical challenges. There was no point in choosing who to work with, since they were going to be working with everyone in their respective teams, but Shepard and Goldie had decided to start with each other, and now they were running down the obstacle course like hares being chased by a fox.
The twins had also chosen to start working with each other, which left their two newest members to be alone by default. Chad and Robbins. If there were two more opposite people in the world, Shepard had never seen them.
Robbins appeared never to have found a dictionary with the word humour in it. He was a freaking Spartan, didn't speak much, was good with one-liner comebacks, and had gotten his gene mods when he was twelve. Just above six feet, head shaved on the regular, a permanent frown that somehow didn't always look angry, and the most rounded and competent recruit in the platoon so far. Knew the regs by heart, too. He was somewhat handsome, but... forgettable, really.
Chad was a short guy, dark brown hair, tanned skin, always with a smile on his face even in the face of horrible pain. Joking all the time, although still taking things seriously when he needed to; he was the exact opposite of Robbins.
And yet the two of them worked with each other like nothing else.
Maybe that was the point of the exercises. Shepard knew they had had plenty of quitters already, and the platoon was getting fragmented. They had taken two people in, other teams too, it was like one big reshuffle.
"Go go go!" Shepard shouted.
Goldie was nipping at her heels, running fast but never quite managing to catch up. Shepard was running hard, not leaving anything in the tank, while the drill sergeant pelted them with live fire as they ran.
It was Mindoir all over again. The first impact had nearly sent her mind into a panic, but she had managed to keep it together and speed up. Last time, she had gotten a bullet through the leg, and Roy had had to carry her.
He wasn't going to be able to carry her this time. Nor did she want him to. Not anymore.
"Sheppy!" Goldie shouted. She was clearly having trouble keeping up.
"Come on!" Shepard spurred her on.
They got to the closest wall, and without missing a step, Shepard threw herself with her back to the obstacle. Interlocking her fingers, she waited for Goldie to get there. She was only a few steps behind. When she saw Shepard preparing, she hunkered down, changed her cadence, and with short but quick steps, ran up to her fellow recruit, and with a final jumping step, put her boot on Shepard's hands and jumped.
Shepard followed it with the strongest pull she could muster, and Goldie went flying all the way to the top of the wall, so much so she didn't even have to reach to grab onto the top of the obstacle, almost coming at shoulder level to it. Without even missing a step, Shepard turned around, and clawed up the wall until she could grab onto Goldie's ankles.
I freaking love genemods.
It was all down to training. Despite all the drilling she had gotten to eat more, and despite the fact that she was, indeed, eating a lot more than she used to, she hadn't bulked up noticeably. She was still wiry, perhaps less so than before, but so much stronger. Her grip strength had gotten to the point where she could hang from just two fingers with barely enough purchase to hold on, and pull herself up too.
She was dying to finish bootcamp and go try a good climbing wall. She could see herself running up a V7 without a problem. In full fucking gear.
"Ach, Sheppy, you're heavy!" Goldie protested.
Without missing a beat, Shepard reached to the wall, and managed to grab onto some of the small cracks with her index fingers, giving Goldie a chance to settle herself better.
"Better?" she said.
"Yeah, just let me..." Goldie pulled herself up again, and this time managed to get a solid hold. "There."
It took less than a second for Shepard to climb over Goldie and jump over the wall, landing with a roll and quickly rushing back to offer her shoulders for Goldie to come down.
"Goodness me, Sheppy," she said, stepping down and taking a moment to get her breath back. "You're on fire today."
They didn't have much time to recover; as soon as they stopped, the drill sergeant considered them valid targets, so a peppering of assault rifle shot spurred them on like it was fire season and they were kangaroos.
"Just... feeling it..." Shepard said, huffing in effort.
"Did you get... laid... or something?" Goldie said.
The question was so unexpected that Shepard tripped on her own feet, and went down hard, crashing face first and tumbling several feet.
"MINDOIR!" the sergeant shouted. "What the hell are you doing, get up!"
She spat out dirt, wiped out blood from a nasty scratch on her forehead, and with Goldie's help she was soon running again. Shepard wasn't happy about it, but Goldie was having trouble running because of how hard she was laughing.
"I knew it!" she said in between pants, laughs, and stumbles.
"I did not!" Shepard protested.
"Don't be... like that..." she said, huffing. "Back in the showers... not a big deal..."
"Dammit no! It's Roy! He-"
Now it was Goldie's time to stumble, laughing even harder than before, and needing Shepard to pull her along.
"I knew it, I knew it!" she replied, her triumphant tone making Shepard twice as annoyed.
"Oh screw you," Shepard said.
"Haha! You tell 'em Sheppy!"
Bleeding fucking dam-
"Really? REALLY?!"
"Lana," I said, trying to wave Shepard down through the FTL.
"Like hell! You were gone for almost three weeks, and now you're not going to tell me what you were doing?!"
"I told you, it's something I had to do myself!"
"You had to go do something that you said might kill you! And those are your own words!"
"...you read the letter?" I said, surprise obvious in my voice.
"What do you think? You were gone for three weeks! I read the first paragraph and... stopped. What the hell?"
"Look, I need you to burn that fucking thing, okay? Burn it."
She raised her hands in frustration, looking like she was going to explode. Well, it was definitely a change from the silent, broody girl that had left for bootcamp the day of her eighteen birthday. I knew why, in part at least. Once the sergeants got the beams on you, it was impossible to slide along and stay quiet. They wanted to hear you, dammit.
But that aside, it was good to hear her like that. Damn, she cared, and call me a selfish bastard for this, but it actually made me feel great that she did.
Despite the near meltdown she was undergoing.
"FINE!" she snapped. She paused to take a deep breath. "Fine. You won't tell me what you were doing, and you won't tell me what was in that fucking letter either."
"Not yet." I mirrored her actions, and took a deep breath. "Look, we'll have this conversation in the future, okay? Just... just not yet. But we will, I promise."
"Roy, you're one frustrating-"
"Shepard!" Kim interrupted, rushing to tackle me from behind to get her face in front of the FTL. "Damn girl, there you are!"
Shepard took a moment to realize what happened, and her face relaxed slightly, although she didn't quite smile. "Hello Kim," she said.
"How ya been? Bootcamp treating you well?" she said, still holding me down despite my protests.
"Eh, getting there. Meatgrinder almost killed me."
"Hah! You should have seen Jinx here," she said, ruffling my hair. "They had to scrape him off the medbay floor with a spatula more than once."
"Hey!" I protested, under Shepard's laughter. The way she tried to suppress it, she didn't want to laugh, but that's Kim for you.
"Okay, okay," Shepard said. "Good to see you Kim, got ten seconds now."
Kim nodded and waved at her. "See ya!"
"Roy, what's next?" she said. She didn't have to specify what she meant.
"No idea, Ali. Just work on the bootcamp, we've got time."
With that, the transmission cut, and I was left alone. Well, with Kim.
"So, what was going to kill you?" Kim said idly, leaning on the wall with her hands on her back.
"Nothing!" I said dismissively. "Lana's a worrier."
"And you're a terrible liar, too," Kim replied.
I sighed. "Look, turns out I was overreacting. Nothing's going to kill me."
Kim raised an eyebrow and said nothing, so I just shrugged and got off the console. It was good to be back in the swing of things. We were docked to Arcturus, and waiting for new orders, so all I had done for the last few days was train at the range, PT, and trade banter with the crew. I had missed a small op on a trading post at the Exodus Cluster that had been a riot. Some pirates had the balls to get that deep into Alliance territory to raid, it seemed, but they found out later that the trading post was actually supplying the pirates. Kim uncovered the whole enchilada. How? She was bored and the security systems of the security office sucked.
As we made for the locker room, the req officer walked down with the mail cart. He started passing packages around, and stopped next to Kim and I.
"Jinx, here you are," he said, all smiled. "I'm dying to see what's in here."
"What?"
He dug in the cart and pulled a big box out of the bottom. Weapon case. It had the Hahne-Kedar logo displayed prominently, and looked new and shiny.
"What the hell?"
"That's what I said!" he said. "What did you order?"
"I... don't remember ordering anything," I replied.
I put the case on the bench and undid the clasps, lifting the lid slowly. The inside had a foam cutout with a gun in it. Three other parts had their own space in there: an ammo block, a power cell, and a scope.
"Oooh, shiny," Kim said.
"Yes, and... what the hell is this thing?"
I pulled the gun out and took a look. It was kind of familiar, Hahne-Kedar had a design philosophy that carried through all their weapons. I put the power cell in place, and unfolded the piece in my hands.
Damn but Kim was right, it was shiny and new. It looked like the bastard child of a sniper and an assault rifle. I put it to my shoulder, and saw it had a perfect set of thin iron sights, even though there was a spot to plug the scope in.
"Oooh, listen to this," Kim said. I glanced at her and saw she had her omni-tool up. There was a datapad in the case, too, and she had scanned it.
...
Mister Morgan,
You may remember me, I'm Patrick Magroyn. Top representative of Hahne-Kedar for as long as I've been in their employ, and looking forward to continue my lucky streak!
I really appreciated the chat we had aboard the Einstein, back when we had that little incident with the Batarians some time ago. It's hard to get some honest feedback from our troops, they tend to like talking up the guns, and specially getting a bigger and better one. They rarely talk about improvements outside just better materials and expensive tweaks.
Thinking, that's what I'm after! And I've got an eye for talent, let me tell you. And now that I finally got the R&D panel to listen to me and get us back onto the Alliance at full load, I have the chance to do a few more side projects.
This is the combat sniper rifle X-23. Or, as I like to call it, the Black Mamba. Prototype names are SO boring. Sighted for twelve hundred yards, double heatsink for assembly and barrel, and a layered ammo block to reduce heat during shaving cycles. Semiautomatic, burst, and full auto modes, it'll do twelve shots at full auto before overheating, and two hundred and thirty percent more penetrating power than the previous version of the Avenger!
Yes, I am very proud of this gun. Too expensive for extensive deployment, but a great proof of concept for later refinement. It's made to the specs you suggested, sighted for no scope one-shot kills when necessary. So, you see, I expect to hear great things from your action reports. I'll have you know I've put quite a bit of my reputation on the line getting R&D to put this thing together, so don't let me down!
Of course, you won't. I wouldn't have had the chaps at the lab design this for you otherwise.
I look forward to your results!
Patrick Magroyn.
...
"Damn," I muttered. "Now I want to test this thing."
"Jinx!" Kim said. "Dammit don't tempt fate, you're going to j-"
A sudden, coordinated ping on everyone's omni-tool interrupted her. New orders. And a moment later, a sudden, coordinated movement had everyone looking at me.
"It's not my fault!" I protested.
Nobody stirred, a dozen flat looks pointed my way.
I don't think they're buying it.
It had only been a few days since her return from the trip with Roy, but Benezia had been busy. Or rather, other people had been busy. T'lena, as expected, had relished the assignment she had been given. She had her entire team rooting through information on corporations linked to Eden Prime, and she had taken the Binary Helix assignment personally. Noveria was practically the Anarchy Age, and Benezia knew T'lena was loving every minute of it.
Then there was the reaper. Trina was going to meet with her in two days, and she knew she was trustworthy enough to confide-
"Matriarch?" Fieney's voice called through the intercom. She sounded a bit frazzled.
Benezia turned her chair around. She had plenty of properties around the galaxy, some of them the very definition of opulent luxury. This wasn't one of them. It was a small apartment at the top of a twenty-story building, sparsely decorated. It was, however, a building with a View, with a capital 'V'. With one of the best views on Thessia, overseeing the Inkar sea. Inkea was a small city, noteworthy only as an isolated vacation spot for the rich or camera shy.
It was the place where Benezia liked to go to think. To plan. Some of her most complicated political manoeuvres had been planned in that very room.
"What is it?" Benezia replied.
"Matriarch Telan is here, mistress. She didn't wait to be announced, I-"
The door to her office opened, revealing a dark blue skinned asari. A narrow face with small, but penetrating eyes, a distinct lack of facial tattoos or markings, and a scowl that could age a maiden to her death.
"It's fine, she's here already," Benezia said, a small smile on her face. "Please give us some privacy."
"O-Of course Matriarch," Fieney replied, cutting the intercom. She'd reroute calls and send visitors away, Benezia knew, no matter who they were. With good reason.
"I'll be damned," the asari said, stepping into the office. "You did call. I wasn't sure whether it was a bad joke or not. You didn't even bother to send the invitation yourself." She sat herself down without even asking for an invitation, the scowl deepening. "And Matriarch Telan? Really? You forgotten my first name already?"
"I was afraid you wouldn't come if I sent the message myself, Aethyta."
She grunted, conceding the point but without relishing the fact. "So, what's the big damn deal? Either you've finally come to your senses about Liara, or the damn galaxy is about to end."
Benezia didn't reply. She only relaxed on her chair, her smile still in place as she narrowed her eyes slightly. Aethyta's scowl only stayed in place for about a second, replaced by a double take, and then her eyes opened wide.
"Goddess' tits, Beni. What the hell have you gotten yourself into?"
Benezia closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She knew exactly where this was going to go. They had done the same dance on and off for nearly fifty years since they separated. She was going explain to Aethyta what had happened with Roy. She wasn't going to believe her. She was going to explain the proof she had seen. Aethyta was going to demand to see it. Then, they would meld. Old feelings would resurface. They'd get into a huge argument about Liara. And then, she knew what they were going to do.
And she wasn't wrong.
Twelve hours. It took twelve hours until both of them had calmed down. Thankfully, biotics hadn't been involved, because last time she had ended up with a bill for nearly a million credits in damage. A Matriarch like her was not supposed to lose her composure, and barely show any emotions during her day to day business. Aethyta was always a catalyst for everything she kept bottled in to come pouring out. Explosively.
Another reason why she was in that apartment. The location was expensive, but the decorations were modest.
Benezia sighed. Her head was resting on Aethyta's chest, their naked bodies still radiating heat from their exertion as they rested. Up, and down, strong heartbeat and regular breathing. Aethyta's body was like few other asari her age. Firm, trim, she kept herself in perfect physical shape, the softness of her curves diminished by the strong muscles underneath. There was raw, incredible biotic power under that skin, but she hadn't let it stop her from keeping her fitness at its peak. Her left hand's index traced the edge of Aethyta's belly button, slowly.
Belly buttons fascinated her. So many different planets, sentient creatures or not. All viviparous animals had developed a feeding organ that went through the abdomen of the developing child. There were so many other parts of the body such an organ could attach to, but it was always the belly button.
"Well?" Aethyta said, her voice purring and low. "What's the conclusion?"
"Hm?" Benezia mumbled.
"You were playing with my belly button, then you stopped, then you started again," Aethyta said. Her fingers traced the back of Benezia's crest, the feeling sending tingles of pleasure down the Matriarch's spine. "So what were you thinking?"
"Belly buttons," Benezia replied, her answer getting a rumbling, low laugh from Aethyta.
"You never cease to amaze, Beni."
"I'm serious," Benezia said. "What if the reason why we all have belly buttons in the same place is the same reason why we all use the same technology?"
She didn't need to explain any longer. They had melded, long and deep. Aethyta now knew everything Benezia knew about the supposed reapers, Roy, and everything else. Neither of them spoke for several seconds. In reality, Benezia wasn't asking about belly buttons. She was asking about everything else. How much influence did the reapers truly have over evolution? If they existed, in the quantities Roy had said, what had been them, and what had been the protheans? What if the latter truly did not matter after all?
"Well, what about it?" Aethyta said calmly.
Benezia chuckled lightly. A lot of people underestimated Aethyta because of her... paternal tendencies. She was the daughter of a krogan, after all. But she did not simply ignore the deeper questions, she considered them, but did not agonize over minute aspects other asari liked to obsess over; sometimes for no other reason than pure vanity. Just empty platitudes they had time to indulge in. Not Aethyta. Given what Benezia knew of her, she could guess the answer. If the reapers had created them, she'd simply consider it the height of irony when they got their asses kicked by the very races they had created.
"You sure you want me to handle the Little Wing?" Aethyta said.
Benezia sighed before nodding. "Don't start again, we had almost reached an agreement."
Aethyta laughed again, a stronger belly laugh this time. There was some damage to the apartment, but nothing too dramatic. So far at least.
"And what about you?"
"I am still gathering information," Benezia said. She turned slightly, laying face up with her head on Aethyta's stomach. "Of all the threads Roy has opened to me, I have to consider carefully which one is the best to follow. I would very much like to investigate the prothean leads, but.."
She left the phrase hanging in the air, the implications obvious. Liara. She wasn't someone she could trust herself to think about rationally, under the circumstances.
"You know what your problem is, Beni? You're too much of a politician."
"So you have repeatedly told me."
"Yah. Me? I wouldn't just follow a lead. I'd follow all of them. Hell, I'd call this kid and ask him for more. Make one big Goddess tangled mess."
Benezia turned around and sat up, propping herself on one arm and looking at Aethyta. That wasn't just a boisterous, careless way of speaking the way a krogan would. She was on to something.
"Really."
"Yeah. Release the sharks, see what swims away."
With that, Aethyta turned around herself, sitting at the edge of the bed for a few seconds before standing up. Her body cut a striking silhouette against the darkening skyline, cocking her hips to the side.
"And you can stop staring at my ass anytime, Beni."
"Not staring," Benezia replied, her voice playful. "Just admiring."
Aethyta looked over her shoulder, smiled mischievously, and went to put a robe on.
"What are you planning on doing, Aethyta?" Benezia said. "I have seen that look before."
"Just a little vacation," she replied, tying up her robe and turning to look at Benezia. She had a smile on her face, and it wasn't a pleasant one. "Pragia sounds like a lovely spot for trouble."
"I see. You should take Shiala with you, then."
"Nah no need, I'll call Patti. This'll be right up her alley."
"You are going to bring a Justicar with you?" Benezia said, mildly surprised.
"You know me. No kill like overkill," Aethyta said, adjusting the sleeves of her robe. It was a tight enough garment that it left little to the imagination, just the way asari liked them.
"Take her anyway. It will be instructive."
Aethyta gave Benezia a narrow eyed look as the latter stood up from bed to search for her own clothes, which had mysteriously ended up strewn across the entire room.
"Ya thing he's going to like that?" Aethyta finally said.
"Perhaps not," Benezia replied, her tone indicating she didn't much care either way.
"So, what do you think, then. Mess or no mess?"
Benezia looked over her shoulder, and was not disappointed to see Aethyta, too, was staring at her naked form, not even bothering to disguise her enjoyment of the view.
"You might be right. I have to set things in place first, if I want to see everything that swims away. If nothing else, it should prove entertaining. T'lena is walking on water with this whole affair."
"Shit Beni, careful now. You may actually enjoy yourself."
Benezia shook her head, hiding her smile, and went back to getting dressed. There was a lot to do. If she was really going to follow Aethyta's suggestion - and the prospect, she had to admit, was tempting - she had to move a lot of assets and put them in place. First of all, procuring the means to gather all the information she needed. Roy had given her the perfect way to do so. Messy, but the rewards were potentially extraordinary. She needed to speak with Tevos first, it wouldn't do to encroach into the Council's business without proper care. It was going to cost her considerable political capital, but Tevos was an old friend. That didn't count for much in the world of asari politics, but it did carry a little weight.
Roy himself was too much of an unknown as a ground asset. She had read his service record, and while impressive for a recent recruit, it was too short for her to evaluate. She had to know more, and she didn't have much time to waste. She'd have to spend some favours with Systems Alliance military personnel.
She hoped he was worth the investment.
"The biggest obstacle will be the Temple," she said out loud, her voice weary. "It will be difficult to break the news without causing an upheaval." She wasn't confident enough on the security of her apartment to elaborate further, but she didn't need to. She had shared everything with Aethyta during their meld. Melds.
"Why you even care anyway? If they don't like it they can kiss our blue asari asses."
"We cannot simply alienate the rest of the galaxy," Benezia replied.
"And why the hell not? Athame's ass, Beni. We've got shit up to our crests and you're still worrying about swimming over other people's heads? We have to get ready, and if that's done better going on your own, then so be it!"
"You're so short sighted," Benezia retorted, her voice taking a bitter turn.
"Short sighted? You've got all you need to see I was right, and you still call me short sighted! You pompous-"
And so, the argument started again. It wasn't without some remote sense of amusement that Benezia realized not even a threat to the whole galaxy could change a hundred years of love, hate, and feelings between two headstrong matriarchs. The first biotic push between the two of them was thrown three hours into the shouting match.
"All right people, this is it! We're going hot and we're going fast! Get ready to jump!"
At the words of the Gunny we immediately stood up, grabbing onto the overhead bar and doing a final equipment check. I was carrying a full load, including the Black Mamba, which had gotten me a short but very loud earful from the Gunny, but nothing else. Something about dumbasses and their toys, and a promise to drag me out of the afterlife and beat me to death back in if I screwed up his team by wanting to play with it.
I confess that I was actually feeling a bit like a kid with new shoes. More than double damage than the Avenger, although the accurate range was much, much shorter. Standard sniper rifle was rated for 3,000 yards, and I had mods on it with an advanced targeting VI to stretch it to 4,000. It was the captain's idea, I was on sniper duty even when we weren't planning on sniping (just in case), and he had set me a very high bar for my expected field performance.
The Systems Alliance never, ever, stopped trying to get more out of their personnel.
However, we didn't think it was a big deal, until we got into the system and got intel from the scout frigates. Pirate group, yeah, but a turian outfit we had never heard of, and that had everyone on edge. Turian culture was extremely militaristic, so even if they were at odds with the Hierarchy, any organized group of turians would be dangerous. On top of that, and while it wasn't wildly publicized, the amount of internal conflict through the outer turian colonies was surprisingly high. Turians challenged leadership often when they were out in small groups - not as part of the wider, central military - but fell in quickly with whoever emerged as leader on quick conflicts.
The problem was when protracted conflict ensued. In those cases, the losing side sometimes just took off and tried to strike it on their own. Which meant one could end up with well armed and trained group of turians devolving into crime and piracy.
Hence why everyone was skittish around unknown new turian pirates inside Alliance space.
"Ready!" I shouted, as I was the first one in queue.
"Ready!" Kim called behind me.
More followed. Brod, Elisa, Chyse, Ramsey, my whole unit was there, plus two others, cramped like sardines inside the gunship.
"Twenty seconds!" the pilot shouted, the rear door opening. "Approaching the ridge, we- SHIT!"
We didn't have a chance to ask what was wrong before it became blindingly obvious. Explosions rocked the ship as the pilot manoeuvred out of the way of incoming rockets, tossing everyone left and right while we held for dear life onto the top bar.
"Goddammit, drop us now!" the Gunny shouted.
"Gonna get blown!" the pilot replied, the gunship taking a sharp left turn.
"I'm not gonna have my marines blown up in here! Drop us now!"
"Fucking hell fine!" the pilot shouted back.
The light at the back flashed green, and I didn't waste time pushing myself up and onto the dense but largely inert atmosphere of this stupid fucking planet I didn't even know the name of. Reddish dust and rock at the bottom, and a yellow tint to the sky were all I could see as I sped towards the surface. The sound of the explosions was dampened by the helmet, but the blast in the dense atmosphere was definitely felt as I fell. I tumbled twice in the air, managed to stabilize myself, and then braced for impact, twisting to land feet first and into a roll.
Only for the blue glow of the gunship's mass effect field to disappear.
"FUCK!"
I was lucky the atmosphere was dense enough to allow me some stability even without the dampeners, but I was still approaching the surface too fast. I concentrated on landing on my feet, preparing to kick and roll to redirect some of the momentum. Gravity was less than a whole gee, I could do it, I could-
My whole body jerked to the left as my left foot sank into a soft patch of dust accumulated inside a hole. There was a crack, I didn't quite hear it but I felt it, a split second before I crashed completely on the ground, rolling as best I could in the heat of them moment. When I finally came to a complete stop, the pain arrived. Burning, pulsating, excruciating pain. I looked down as the edge of my vision started to black out to see my lower leg turned at a wrong angle in the middle. Any angle would have been wrong in the middle. The plates of my armor hadn't broken, but the underarmor had given way some and I could see a kink where none should be.
I don't think I was shouting anything coherent. It was just pure burning pain, the world spinning around me while my hardsuit blared all kinds of alarms at me.
"JINX!"
It wasn't until I was injected with a cocktail of painkillers, stims, and medi-gel that I realized that was Kim. She was covered head to toe on reddish-brown soil, but appeared not to be worse for wear.
"Son of a bitch!" I shouted. "Fuck! What the fuck!"
"Sixteen to control, gunship is down!" Kim called over the radio. She yanked my leg straight and got another string of curses from me. "I repeat, gunship is down! We need reinforcements!"
"Negative, we are unable to assist!" the reply came, shouting over a pandemonium of chaotic voices. "Enemy ships dropped out of FTL, we are currently engaging!"
"Control!" another voice called through the comms. The sounds of battle didn't manage to drown his powerful voice. "We are under attack! Thirty and Fifty, gunships down inside the ridge, they're hitting us hard! We-" he paused as a large explosion drowned all sound. "We need bombers, enemies have popper turrets!"
Popper turrets were heavy caliber guns or rocket launching turrets that were otherwise invisible until they engaged the enemy. Usually because they were hidden in the terrain, other times because they literally "popped" from underground, or from the hull of a ship.
"I'll do what I can, thirty," control replied.
"Shit no," Kim said. "Control! Thirteen here, I'm moving to engage!" she called, already standing up.
"We have no reinforcements, thirteen!" control replied. "You understand? You're on your own until we can deal with-"
"Like I give a shit!" Kim interrupted. "Thirty! I'm coming!"
She was about to walk off when I reached and grabbed her leg. "Hey, where ya think you're going?" I said. "Without me," I added when she looked at me.
"You're not going anywhere with that leg."
"I don't need to," I said, gritting my teeth. The stims were finally kicking in, and the pain in the leg was reduced to a distant throbbing. It was still fucking broken, and I knew it was going to be hell once the drugs wore off, but for now it didn't matter. "Help me get there, I've got my sniper with me."
"Fine," she replied, pulling me up to my good foot and then throwing me over her shoulder in a fireman's carry. "Let's go!"
We hadn't fallen far from the ridge. The enemy base seemed to be an old grounded frigate, and the turians had built fortified positions around it. It was the bottom of a crater of some sort, maybe thirty feet tall at the walls, with the ship parked at the narrow back. It was nested against one of the wall, and there was a defensive turret at the back, kinetic barrier shimmering around the main building and with a multiple launch rocket system poking out at the top. No points for guessing what had taken us down.
Kim dropped me unceremoniously, but careful enough so that I wouldn't land on my broken leg, and we took stock of the situation. Two gunships down inside the crater, a good hundred yards from the enemy base, and they were getting mauled by enemy shots. Even the rocket launcher was hitting the gunships, forcing the marines to scatter to safety. Bodies were down, too many of them.
"FUBAR," Kim said.
"That fucking tower-"
"That's where I'm going. Cover me."
She slapped my shoulder and took off at a run around the edge of the crater, trying to stay out of view. With all the crap she had collected, she was actually doing a good job at melding with the environment. I just hoped she managed to stay out of the radar.
I unfolded my sniper rifle and started scanning the tower.
"Fuck. Kim, there's a lot of turians in that tower."
"They can't shoot me while the barrier's up," she replied.
"I'm going to give some cover to our guys," I said, manoeuvring with difficulty to aim down at the frigate.
"Wait, no!" Kim called.
"Kim, they're getting pummelled!"
The sounds coming from the radio were all the explanation I needed, really, but Kim didn't seem to care. "Not yet."
"Why the hell not!"
"If you shoot now they'll see you, and you're in no position to run! Give me cover when I take the tower!"
Fuck, fuck, FUCK!
I knew she was right. The marines would do okay against regular weapons with some cover, but the fucking tower was the bane of their existence. There was one more gunship on our side, but all it was managing every time it tried to approach was to draw some of the rocket fire. We were going to lose, bad, if we didn't take that fucking thing down.
So all I could do was wait. Fuck, there were a lot of turians out there. There were two levels of walkways around the tower, with about six turians each. Twelve of them, it was going to-
Twelve.
I looked through the scope again. Seven hundred yards. Shit, it was close enough. Maybe. I put the sniper at my side, and unfolded the Black Mamba. Then I realized I had dropped the scope during my crash landing.
Shit!
It was a long distance for accurate shots with just the iron sights, but there was little choice. I would be able to take two or three down with my sniper rifle as it was before it overheated, and that was a lot of firepower for Kim to take alone. I tried to stand up, thinking I had to go there and help her, but my leg quickly reminded me it was fucking broken. Shit. I had to take a shot of stims again, or risk blacking out. The fracture had to be bad, I had felt bone grinding when I moved. It took a bit for me to get my bearings back, at which point Kim had gotten to the turret. I couldn't see her from where I was, which I hoped meant the turians couldn't see her either.
"What's it look like?" I called, trying my best not to get distracted by the losing battle inside the crater.
"I can't hack the fucking thing," Kim replied. "It's not networked, I have to go in and do it on the hardware."
"And how the fuck do you propose we do that?" I said.
"I don't know! We-"
Her reply was interrupted by another barrage from the MLRS, rockets flying and, this time, finding their target on the still mobile gunship. I let a litany of curses out as the Alliance vehicle veered sharply, and dove to crash land at the bottom of the crater. It went up in pieces when two more rockets hit it.
"Fuck it! I'm going in!"
"Kim!" I shouted.
"Get the fuckers when I drop the barrier!" she replied.
I finally saw her, moving out at high speed straight for the tower as she fiddled with her omni-tool. The turians called the target, but somehow she managed to get inside before anyone could shoot her. I grit my teeth and put the Mamba to my shoulder, taking careful aim. No targeting VI, no nothing, just micrometer iron sights and the promise from Hahne-Kedar that the thing was sighted properly. I put my aim a foot above the closest turian to the bottom of the turret, and waited.
Mere seconds later, the shimmer of the kinetic barrier disappeared, and at that very instant I made the first shot. It landed a foot to the left of the Turian, hitting the wall at shoulder level. I corrected, and shot again. And again. And again. Bullets flying and targets changing as soon as I scored a hit.
They didn't panic as their numbers started to drop. The rifle was everything Pat had promised and more, each shot paining the wall in blue whenever it hit the target. The heat gauge climbed steadily, barely recovering in between shots. I could see in my peripheral vision that the top of the tower was moving.
"Kim, rockets!" I called.
The distinct flash of the MLRS didn't deter me from my targets.
"KIM!"
I lost sight of everything as rockets landed on the ridge around me, blindingly sweeping across the top trying to find the sniper. The sniper being me.
Author's Notes: Hows that for a cliffhanger? Well, I guess it's not much of it if you consider it's a Self-Insert. If I had nothing but time (say, if I finally won the lotto, for example), I'd write a "fork" of this story where Benezia did react poorly to Roy's knowledge of the Temple of Athame, he ended up dead, and the asari then went to try and kill Shepard. Letter in hand, she manages to survive thanks only to the intervention of Cerberus, who recruit her into her ranks. Thus, Shepard grows up to be a Cerberus operative under an assumed identity, with a deep hatred of aliens (specially those who killed Roy and tried to kill her), and knowing she's got to prepare the galaxy for the Reapers. Imagine her reactions as later on she finds out TIM was indoctrinated to begin with. Dun dun DUN!
*Cough* Anyway, update to clean base on the aftermath of the crazy trip with the Asari. And setting up the stage for next chapter, when important plot things will happen. Things!
I had quite a bit of fun with Benezia and Aethyta. I know that Benezia may seem a little out of character in her interactions with Aethyta, mostly because she's supposed to be calm and all that, but I figured it could be interesting (and, as I said, fun), to throw her into a rather unhealthy mercurial relationship with one of the fandom's favourite badass asari. Or at least one of my favourite asari. Aethyta's hilarious, and I intend to milk the relationship between these two for all it's worth (unless I get otherwise pelted with rotten vegetables by my readers).
Reviews! A page full of reviews from last chapter! You boys and girls are seriously awesome. I've said it before, and I'll say it again.
Pradian: Liara should show up soon-ish, but rest assured she'll have some good parts to play later on. She is the foremost expert in the prothean extinction, after all. I have... plans, hehe.
GetRekt12: Wow, thanks a lot! That's high praise indeed.
5 Coloured Walker: He's not actually sure what he revealed, since he was slightly tipsy!
Mizuki: Thanks! It's just so easy to go off interesting tangents to see what happens. Gotta keep my eye on the prize :D
bdriverm: The best laid plans of mice and men and all that.
prettytightkid: Thanks a lot! Yeah, Jack's still young, so it may be a while before she really jumps in. But, well, next chapter should help.
Oyshik: Roy seems determined to try and keep Shep out of it, but we know how well it worked for him last time :)
BJ Hanssen: Genius and crazy are sometimes separated by a fine line. And so is stupid but lucky, really, hehe. We'll see how it works for Roy.
Lfan8: Thanks! Getting into the mindset of Benezia and making it believable is hard, so appreciate the positive feedback :)
Tusken1602: Just wait, there's more! :D
Azariah Kyras: Thanks a lot! I hope I can keep it up.
general-joseph-dickson: Maybe, but that doesn't mean she's happy. Roy has that effect on people :D
Toothless: Oh boy that'd be awesome. Imagine them comparing notes! "Your Shepard did what?" "You gave Benezia the keys to the Shadow Broker's Lair?" etc, etc :D
Hiei-Uchiha: Yeah, the Shadow Broker thing may come to bite me in the ass. As the Self-Insert and as the writer :)
Sci-Fifan95: Yup! And he's not happy about himself either, but he's gonna have to roll with it, and hope it works.
So, next time we'll be having a couple of surprises, and not just for you, dear reader! Stay tuned, and thanks so much for reading! Until then, ta-ta!