Waking up to a warm bed and in the arms of a slowly breathing body was something she had dearly missed. Her eyes opened at what would have been the crack of dawn anywhere else but the Citadel, and for a moment, she let herself enjoy the stillness of the morning. She was vaguely aware that Roy had been awake until late, although she couldn't quite put her finger on when he had finally fallen asleep.
Or maybe I dreamed it.
Roy would have been able to tell the difference. What an odd skill to have, being able to fall into lucid dreaming. In a way, she was a little jealous. Because as she felt more awake, the reality of the situation started to fall on her.
She had made a mistake.
It wasn't that she hadn't wanted it. She really had wanted it, and she had wanted it for a long time. There wasn't anything logical or calculated about it. She hadn't been thinking straight, she had simply made her life a lot more difficult. Knowing Roy, there was a good chance he'd think she had done this on purpose as a way to manipulate him. It wasn't the case, but she had to change her approach now. Use a different angle. She still believed deep down that Roy would be perfect for Cerberus, and that Cerberus would be good for him. She only had to make him see that.
He joined the army after the disaster on Mindoir. He dragged her kicking and screaming to rehab – and destroyed her career in the process, something she still resented to the day. He just couldn't help himself. With Cerberus, he could really make a difference for humanity instead of simply trying to save everyone who came across his path without any further thought. Shooting pirates and scumbags wasn't going to help him.
She slid out of his embrace with as much care as she could, but he didn't even notice. Well, good. As quietly as she could, she grabbed some clothes and made for the kitchen.
Empty.
Of course the cryo unit was empty. She lived on coffee and takeaway. She got dressed quickly, hunted through the discarded clothes strewn across the floor for her credit chit, and once she found it, headed for the door.
Half past four. Not a lot of places were open at that time, but there was one coffee shop in particular she knew would be. The corridors of the ward were calm, but not quiet. There were still people milling about. Some were finishing a late night, others were having an early morning. It was a continuum, the way it never quite stopped. She liked that place. There was always something unexpected waiting.
The coffee shop was a rather small affair, with an open counter and stools right there on the street. The smell of their brew was already in the air, and a single deep sniff was enough to feel herself become alive. Sometimes it felt a little too close to comfort compared to the bottle, but it was just coffee. And damn good coffee too.
She stopped dead on her tracks when she spotted one dark-haired woman sitting on a stool at the end of the bar.
Bugger.
"Hi!" the all-to-chirp young man behind the counter called. "What's your brew today? We got a new batch of Eden Roast that's to die for."
"Sounds good, make it two long blacks, and a couple of pastries to go."
"Sure! Which ones?"
"Dunno, whatever's good," Marie replied distractedly. She walked along the bar, and came to sit next to the young brunette.
"Not the best coffee," Miranda said, swirling her own brew in her cup with slow, measured movements. "They overbrew it. It's the smell, they use it to attract people."
"What are you doing here?" Marie said. "How did you even-"
"You're predictable," Miranda interrupted. "Although you're earlier than I expected. Had a good night?"
The disdainful tone in the young woman's voice sounded like nails on a chalkboard in Marie's ears. Cerberus was good, mostly. Working with Miranda, however…
"You didn't answer my question," Marie said.
"I'll take that as a yes," Miranda said. She took a sip of coffee and grimaced. "If that was what you wanted to do, I wonder what took you so long. We could have wasted a lot less time."
"It wasn't part of any plan or anything, it just happened."
"Uh-huh."
Marie felt herself grinding her teeth to stop herself from giving Miranda a piece of her mind. Yes, they had talked about exactly this, and yes, she had advised against using any stupid honeypot idea on Roy. This wasn't the same. And it had been months. It would have never worked with anyone else. Her train of thought came to a screeching halt when she realized what had come up in her head.
Wouldn't have worked... No, that's not what happened.
She couldn't help a measure of satisfaction, though, in having been the one to sleep with him.
"So are you going to tell me what you're doing here or not?" Marie said.
"We have a problem," Miranda replied. "More precisely, you have a problem. An opportunity has appeared to acquire some important assets."
"That's great, could you possibly be more vague?" Marie retorted hotly.
"I could. The important thing is, given his connections, we need to know where Morgan stands before we move."
"What?! I need time! You can't-"
"I can," Miranda interrupted. "You had time, and you have wasted too much of it." She picked up the coffee cup, then appeared to have second thoughts and put it down. "You have until the end of his next assignment."
With that, Miranda stood up and left, not even waiting for an answer. Marie was about to explode with angry questions, but managed to stop herself. She wouldn't get anything, all she'd get was stone cold silence at best. She knew what Miranda wanted to do – she was more interested in whatever it was Roy knew than on Roy himself.
"An enlisted nobody is in no position to be useful to anyone," Marie muttered, biting every word on their way out.
"Excuse me?"
"Huh?" Marie looked up to see the young man behind the counter looking at her. "Oh no, nothing."
"Right! Well, here you are. Two long blacks, and I got you two of our raising cinnamon swirls, they're just amazing."
"Yeah, thanks," Marie said, taking the items and swiping her credit chit on her way out.
She made her way back to the apartment almost on autopilot. Her mind was going through the last… How long had it been? Six months? More? They had spent a lot of time together while working under Drescher, and even then it had taken a lot of sweat and tears to get close enough to Roy. And she had the advantage of their history together. And after all that time, she still wasn't sure whether she'd set him off or not.
It was like trying to handle a porcupine. Without using her hands.
She was so distracted that she nearly dropped her breakfast when she ran into Roy.
"Ah! Roy!" she yelled, pulling the coffee tray close and trying to balance the cups. Her efforts proved pointless when Roy suddenly grabbed the two cups with a single, fluid move.
Those implants of him really creeped her out sometimes.
"Woah!" Roy said, balancing the small tray. "What the hell?"
"I went to get breakfast!" She took a deep breath, feeling her pulse slow down. "Jeez, you're in a hurry, something wrong?"
"Got orders," Roy said, raising his omni-tool. "General recall, and sounds urgent."
"Oh."
There was an awkward pause, while they looked at each other. Marie was going through the conversation she had had with Miranda. She must have known Roy was getting new orders. Marie made a mental note to get some intel and figure out what was going on.
And while she thought, Roy looked at her, and once again, she had no idea what he was thinking. He looked like he had no idea what to do. No, not that. He looked like he was trying to say something he didn't want to say. And just like that, it clicked. He could see the regret in his eyes.
"I have to go," Roy finally said.
He hesitated for a moment, then put the coffees back on the little tray Marie was carrying and turned to leave.
"Roy!" Marie said. He stopped and turned to look at her, and she just offered him the tray and the bag of pastries. "Take some breakfast at least," she added with a smile.
"Oh. Thanks," he said.
"Be careful."
"You know me," Roy said, and forced himself to smile. "I'll probably make a mess, but I'll manage somehow."
With that, he turned around, coffee in hand, and walked off. Marie watched him go, and even after he disappeared in the distance, she stayed there, watching the empty space.
Dammit all, she needed more time.
The trip back to the docks was as crazy as the way out had been, specially as I was trying to eat breakfast.
I still couldn't believe Marie had bought me breakfast. Actually, I was in denial about the whole situation. After months working together, I had grown more… used to Marie than I had been. I don't know, it felt okay. On the one hand, I still felt very uncomfortable about getting to that point. It wasn't the sex itself really, but rather everything that went with it. It wasn't quite like having a quick shag with someone I'd never meet again, after all.
And with all the crazy stuff I was stuck in, I'd rather not let anyone else get closer. At least that was the rational part of my mind speaking. Or rather, the less irrational part of my mind. The other half of my brain was just saying something a lot simpler. Why the hell not?
No, really, why not? Wouldn't that be, well, normal?
It wasn't like I was suddenly going to bring her into the whole reaper craze. Or at least it wasn't my plan. I had a kind of feeling that eventually it'd come up, but right now all she was doing was working with Admiral Drescher, so it wasn't like she was involved.
Come on, all you did was have sex, and it probably wasn't even that great. Stop over-thinking things.
The shuttle hit the ground with a jolt, nearly making me spill the cup. Not that it'd have mattered much, since the shuttle was empty, but I'd rather not. I couldn't imagine what AVINA would do to me if I dirtied her shuttle.
All the peace and quiet of a nearly-suicidal shuttle ride ended with the arrival at the docks. It was, once again, chaos. Organized chaos. Plenty of grumpy marines, too, and several of them still trying to work through their hangovers. The briefing was going to be a riot. I made a mental note to yell a lot when we started calling orders.
The things I could get away with thanks to having Kim as my El Tee.
"Roy!"
I turned to the left and saw Shepard waving at me. I waved back and started pushing through the crowd towards her, and she took a moment to say something to Alenko before pushing ahead. Huh.
"How'd it go?" I said as soon as we were close, giving a discrete gesture towards the marine.
"All right, we had a nice chat and a bottle of-" She stopped and looked at me. "Ice tea! Yeah, totally."
I chuckled and shook my head. "Ali, you're a marine. The day you just drink tea it's the day the galaxy ends."
"You're one to speak," she retorted. "Only time you ever drink anything is some fancy wine with one of your asari friends. What did you do with your shore leave anyway? I heard you walked off with a brunette that was all over you."
News travels fast. Scuttlebutt travels at ten times the speed of light.
"It was Marie, if you want to know," I said.
"Uh-huh. You've been spending a lot of time with her…"
"Yeah?"
She gave me an odd look, lowering her head to look up at me. "Royyy, what have you two been doing?"
"Oh grow up," I replied.
"Don't wanna," Shepard said, making a point to give her voice an overdone bratty tone. "Spill it."
"Are you going to make me pull rank on you?"
"Oooh. Nah, no need," Shepard replied, and slapped me on the chest. "I can figure it out. Good for you."
Ye gods, she could be such a fucking brat when she wanted to. I pushed ahead with the crowd, and Shepard followed close by, whistling happily and not saying a word. But I could feel her eyes following me. And her grin. I bet she was grinning.
The Einstein had docked with the Citadel, something I knew was a pain in the ass and that everyone tried to avoid. But it was a much quicker way to get everyone aboard versus having to use the shuttles and the frigates. We split into several lanes as we walked along, down the extended corridors that linked the ship to the Citadel. Decon cycles were hastened with two dozen of us at a time packed in almost like sardines. Damn they meant business.
It was general quarters as soon as we were on, we headed straight for the lockers to gear up and head for the loading stations. Whether it was a ship-to-ship op or a landing, we had to be prepared to get in the right transports for deployment.
"Chief!"
"Sir! What's going on?"
"We'll know when we're supposed to know," I replied, not stopping to answer the questions. "Until then you know what to do, gear up and get ready!"
"Aye sir!"
Ever since I got to the Einstein with the rank of Service Chief, I worried whenever we went into an op. Not because of anything special. Only because all the damn kids always looked like headless chickens running around, and came to whatever officer was nearest for help. I knew why they did it, it was because of the high expectations we carried with us. They always performed during ops, but damn if they didn't make me nervous before them.
Well, we'd see. For now, I made sure to gear up as fast as possible. Full loadout, including the Black Mamba. As I was gearing, I saw Goldie push through the crowd and come running towards us.
"Sheppy! I'm so sorry I heard about- Chief!" she squeaked. "Hi! I mean, sir!"
"Goldie?" I said, looking at the marine. "Is there a problem?"
"No sir! Not at all!" her eyes wandered up and down, probably because I was just in my underwear. "Sir!"
"Do tell, what are you so sorry about?"
"I…" she hesitated, looking alternatively at me and Shepard.
"Please Goldie," Shepard said, hamming up the dramatic voice. "I can't talk about it right now."
I just shook my head and threw my hands up in despair.
"We're ready to go, sir," the comms officer called.
"Good. Start the undocking, and make it fast," Kishi said.
Her crew was in a bit of a state, having been dragged out of their shore leave rather suddenly, and they were not going to have a lot of time before they had to be ready. But they had come back in a real hurry, and not a single straggler. Every last one of them, as always. Damn good crew.
She reached up to the overhead and flicked the internal comms. The whistle immediately announced her message.
"Attention all crew. This is Admiral Kishi speaking. We are currently en route to the Nimbus Cluster, to rendezvous with the rest of the Ninth Fleet. Our mission is to intercept and rescue a weapons convoy from Armax Arsenal, one that was originally heading for Arcturus Station. I don't need to explain the gravity of the situation, Armax Arsenal has been providing us with what's arguably the most advanced ship weaponry in the galaxy. It is imperative that we recover that convoy. Worst case scenario, we might be forced to destroy it, but I don't like settling for worst case scenarios."
She paused for a moment to let everyone digest the news.
"Early reports indicate the First Colonial Flotilla from the Hierarchy is involved in this incident, but we do not have all the intel. With any luck, it could mean the turians have already gift-wrapped the convoy for us, but we all know better than to thing the best case scenario is ever going to come to pass. I want everyone ready for boarding ops, your orders will be relayed through your chain of command. We will enter Turian space in less than twenty minutes, all relay connections have been cleared for us. If you're still recovering from shore leave, hit the medbay and get some oxycyn, because we don't have time for anyone to nurse a hangover. Godspeed."
She closed the comms and turned to the task at hand. The Einstein was already well on its way towards the relay, and at least half a dozen people were vying for her attention. She half-listened to all of them while heading for the one that really mattered.
"Tell me you have recovered that message," Kishi said, looking over the shoulder of the specialist.
"Sir, it's pretty garbled," the young man said, not looking up from his console. The interface was lousy with data fragment windows, and he looked like he had hit the stims pretty hard.
"You've trained for data recovery, haven't you?"
"That's the thing, sir. I don't think there is data degradation. I think it's been intentionally tampered with."
"Active jamming. What are our options?"
"Once I identify the source, maybe I can do a differential with standard alliance encoding, but until I figure it out… it's going to take time."
"We don't have time, specialist. I don't want to hit the target without any intel."
"Maybe I can use the onboard VI, but that'll-"
"Nelson!" Kishi called, not even waiting for the comms specialist to finish.
"Sir!" a tall man with the markings of a commander answered. Dark skin, black curly hair, broad shoulders, he was the most likely of her whole crew to hit N7 first, though a couple of the younger officers were giving him a run for his money.
"Get everyone who can prep manually to do so, we need to free up resources for the comms team."
"Aye sir," he replied. "Does that include the pilots?"
"Tell them to buck up and make sure they do it by the numbers. Getting the VI to help isn't going to be of any use if we fly into a trap."
"I'll be sure to put my boot up their asses if they complain, sir."
"Good man," Kishi said. She turned to the specialist and gave him a tap on the shoulder. "Get to it. Use as much as you can."
"Aye sir, right away."
She headed back to her seat as she went over the reports. They had stopped for a few minutes in front of the relay to give the frigates a chance to catch up and dock with the Einstein, and she noted with pride that they had gotten it done in less than half regulation time. All marines ready for duty, medbay was clear and no supply issues, they were looking in top shape.
This was it. She could feel it in her bones. This was the big one. No pirate or raider group would have the balls or the resources to take Armax Arsenal's convoy. It was big and organized. She wanted to believe it was the Eclipse, or maybe a special commission from the Hegemony, but she had a nagging feeling some turian had grown tired of the best guns the Hierarchy had to offer were going to the Systems Alliance.
The question was who, exactly, had done it. Independent turian militias were proliferating alarmingly fast. Maybe some of them had decided to gang up together. Regardless, she couldn't imagine the consequences of having those guns out on the loose. They weren't even sure what they were truly capable of. There was only so much test firing in controlled Alliance yards could tell them.
She tried to calm down and not think too far ahead. No point spinning one's wheels in the mud getting nowhere. She'd have the comms when she had the comms. She'd make decisions when she had information. Until then, she had to concentrate on readying her ship.
Still, it would have been nice to have the transmission decoded.
That was she was thinking twenty minutes later when the Einstein approached the final relay.
"Specialist," Kishi called. "You have thirty seconds, tell me you have something!"
"It's not getting through, sir!" the stressed young man replied.
"How long?"
"I can't tell! Either it works or it doesn't, it's not a linear thing."
Damn you fate, damn you to hell.
"Fine, we'll do it by ear," she said. She reached up and hit the internal comms. "Attention crew. We're flying in blind. We will deploy on the standard alpha pattern. Back six frigates will be our escort. Front six will deploy with the cruisers. Brontes will be covering the marine detail. Marines will deploy in shuttles and gunships for boarding, target the convoy once we find it. Everyone else stand ready."
She cut the comms and turned to the pilot.
"Bring us in, Ramirez. And you better make this baby dance."
"Baby elephant dance, aye aye sir!" the pilot replied.
She felt the Einstein shift under her feet, an almost imperceptible feeling thanks to the inertial dampener, but an omnipresent one she had grown too familiar with to miss.
"Sir! I got it! It's the turians!" the specialist suddenly shouted.
"The turians are there?" Kishi replied.
Overhead, the VI was doing the relay transition countdown.
Three… Two… One…
"The turians are attacking the fleet!"
The Einstein hit the relay just as the specialist finished talking, and the Einstein was thrown hundreds of light years across the galaxy. And as soon as they hit the opposite relay, with the tingle of the transit still playin in her stomach, Admiral Aino Kishi found her ship in the middle of a raging space battle.
The Einstein was a very big ship, by pretty much any standard. Even compared to the big dreadnoughts or even the Destiny Ascension. So when the entire thing shook, the movement accompanied by the muffled reports of impacts against the kinetic barriers, it was as if a frozen gush of air rushed through the entire space inside. It only lasted a fraction of a second, and it was followed by a flurry of yells and orders, almost in complete chaos.
"Marine detail to the breaching pods! I repeat, to the breaching pods!"
What?!
I looked at Shepard, she looked at me, and so did every marine within earshot.
"You heard the admiral! To the pods!" I yelled. I raised my omni-tool as we ran along the corridors, just as the new detailed orders came from the bridge. "Echo, Tango, pod one! Bravo, Zulu, pod three! Delta, Foxtrot, pod five! We're going port, move it people!"
The ship was still shaking, even harder than before. As we ran along the corridor, we could see the fighters launching from the hangars below. The living areas ran along the twin spinal structures of the ship, while most of the rest of the ship was big space. Other than that, it was hard to tell what was happening outside.
But breaching pods. That was a last minute change of plans. My omni-tool vibrated to warn me of more incoming orders, and when I took a glance at it, it took me a few seconds to fully process what was being displayed. Schematics, whatever we were going to board was-
Holy shit!
"Sir, the whole damn fleet is there!"
"On the projection!" Kishi ordered, holding onto her chair.
The console in front of her flashed to life, and markers started appearing quicly over the local cluster map. The first ones to appear were the friendlies. The Newton and the Feynman were close to each other about one hundred thousand kilometers to port, with their attached fleet deployed along in a defensive formation. And according to the VI, both had sustained damage, most of it around the hangars.
The third carrier, the Schrödinger, was fifty thousand kilometers to starboard, and it was in very bad shape.
And between the two groups, there was a sea of turian ships. The entire First Colonial Flotilla was there. At least fifty cruisers, frigates, and…
"Mother of- The Victory of Galatana?" Kishi said.
Nobody answered the question. There was no need. A dreadnought. That wasn't a flotilla, that was a fleet, and with a flagship right in the middle of it too. A hundred question were going through her head, but they were all quickly pushed aside. There were more important problems to deal with. A dreadnought and an entire fleet. They had the most advanced ships in the galaxy, but they were only four carriers, and the guns, powerful as they might be, were mounted on frigates.
They had to even the odds.
She realized the entire bridge had gone quiet.
"Ramirez, pinpoint FTL short jumps. Talk."
"I'm… top of my class, sir. Third best score ever in the simulator."
She knew that, of course, but she needed Ramirez to say it out loud, and for the rest of the crew to hear it. She looked behind her, and locked eyes with her XO. She could see he knew what she was going to do, and he didn't look convinced. Doing short FTL jumps like that was a tricky proposition, and were typically done only with smaller ships. To jump a ship the size of the Einstein, and stop it a fraction of a second later was probably going to earn her enough hate from the engineering crew to blot out the Sun.
She made a mental note to set some of her operational budget aside to run a tab on Arcturus.
"Nelson, let the marines to the breaching pods, they're going to take that dreadnought."
"Yes sir!" Nelson replied, not even a hint of surprise in his voice.
"Ramirez, you're going to jump us in, and land us close to that dreadnought."
"How close, sir?"
"Right down their throats. I want the Einstein to wear their damn hull paint for decoration."
"There's… There's ships everywhere, sir."
"Then thread the needle! Can you do it or not?"
"… yes, sir. One paint scratch coming up."
"Luca, Marco, coordinate with Ramirez and get us firing solutions for everything we can hit once we land."
"Aye aye sir!" the two lieutenants replied in unison.
"All escorts," Kishi said, speaking to the comms. "Deploy in standard defensive formation. Ein-Six, take point, and prepare to move out as soon as Ramirez gives you the signal."
The comms beeped repeatedly with acknowledgements from the frigates, and she saw them move along the projection, taking point in front of the Einstein while the cruisers and the rest of the frigates spread out to the flanks. The turians had given them a welcome barrage taking advantage of the FTL comms blackout during the relay transit, and were still firing. Of course, it could be worse. The Victory was giving the Schrödinger a pounding, and none of the carrier's escorts were managing to stop them.
Even so, she saw that the smaller turian vessels were keeping their distance and staying close to the dreadnought. The Alliance frigates were taking on the larger cruisers, and taking them down hard.
We just need to take that damn dreadnought.
She drummed her fingers, waiting. Damage reports were mounting. Allan, the Chief of Engineering, kept updating her with all the shit he was expecting would break once they jumped. And the turians had started to spread to engage them, keeping a respectable distance from the frigates and their Thanix cannons. They weren't trying to win, they were there just to delay until the dreadnought could turn to them.
Not going to happen.
"Sir, we're ready!" Ramirez called.
"Nelson?"
"Marines are in place, sir," the commander answered.
"Very well, it's show time. Make it happen Ramirez."
"Aye sir!"
It took several seconds as the Einstein took position. Then, the stars outside brightened up for a fraction of a second, and in the blink of an eye, the Einstein had jumped just under thirty thousand kilometers, dropping out of FTL so close to the Victory that the entire hubhub of the bridge was drowned by the blaring noise of the proximity alarm. Everyone was shouting at once, alerts were littering the console in front of her, and the entire ship groaned with the strain put on its superstructure.
But they had managed.
"Launch the pods! Launch all Brontes! All weapons, fire at will!"
"All right, this is it people!" I yelled, holding onto the railing of the pod. "We're going in, we're going hard! Cover each other, keep you heads down, and push! You've trained for this!"
I bit down on my teeth hard as the pod shook, tightening my grip on the railing. I didn't actually need to yell, we were all in full hardsuits and the voice was going through the comms, but it was pretty much expected at this point. The breaching pod was a rather spartan device, a long edged ship with nothing more than an engine, a relatively oversized eezo core, and a long body about a meter and a half thick of reinforced hull plate. It flew at slow enough speeds to get past kinetic barriers, and acted just like a torpedo. Before impact, the core would multiply the mass of the pod, and it'd punch through the hull to give us an improvised entrance.
Of course, it wasn't as simple as that. It couldn't quite break though the thickest plating of something like a freaking Turian dreadnought, so it had to be aimed at weaker sections, junctions and such.
We had had about thirty seconds to study the schematics of the ship. There wasn't a lot, since nobody really shared detailed schematics of their ships with anyone else, no matter how much we might be supposed to be allies. And I was pretty sure there was no way to predict where we were going to land.
The ship shook hard again, and the weak inertial dampaners could only do so much to mitigate the impacts.
Assuming we actually land.
"You okay chief?" one of the marines called.
"Just peachy," I replied. "Make sure you check your targets. It's going to be tight, and it never works like the training simulations."
"Aye sir!"
Before I could say anything, the lights dimmed and turned to a red tint. We were about to go in. The ship picked up speed, and banked sharply again.
"This is it! Let's kick ass!" I yelled.
And right as I said it, the pod hit the hull, and the entire thing rocked like the world had turned upside down. Even with no gravity inside, it could be felt thanks to the magboots holding us in place. I pulled the shotgun as soon as I found my feet, and rushed forward when the pod opened.
There was no way to know what was waiting on the other side. It was, at best, a crapshot, given that we were up against the crew of a freaking Hierarchy dreadnought. But that's how it had to be done. Move out, hit hard, and run fast. It was a matter of luck whether I'd be the first one to shoot down a turian or become yet another statistic.
I rushed out through the thin mist of smoke, and on the first bullet my implants kicked in. As the world slowed to a crawl, I could barely make out anything through the diminished visibility. And just as quick as it had come, the rush ended and I hauled ass, shooting and getting into cover on the nearest barrier I could find, under a hail of fire from the turians. I made three shots as I ran, all three scoring hits but not hurting anyone, just enough to distract and give me a chance to get to cover.
And just enough, too, because my shields were gone by the time I did. Goddamn that hadn't worked at all. I swapped guns quickly, pulling my assault rifle out, and laying down covering fire without really aiming much.
"Go go go!" I yelled, spurring the marines as they came out of the pod.
One, two, the third one didn't make it past the pod's entrance, his head jerking back as half of his brains were pushed through a hole the size of a dime. I cursed loudly and got out of cover, my implants kicking for a second time as I desperately searched for the target. I couldn't hang around, I fired my rifle in full auto, spraying against the most likely turians with the bigger guns and had to pull into cover again.
My fucking shields. Given the shouts I was hearing, I wasn't the only one with that problem.
"Keep shooting! Keep shooting!" I shouted. "Go!"
"Chief! Three o clock!"
I pivoted behind my flimsy cover – a low metallic bench of some sort – and looked. The room appeared to be a large workshop, with pieces of machinery and ship weapon parts all over, and the right side had a door that had just opened, letting more turians rush in.
"Shit! Cover fire!" I called. I peeked over the edge of the bench, firing my assault rifle for suppressing fire.
We needed to get everyone out of the pod. Reinforcements were coming, but we had caught them on the backfoot, and we had a chance to get a strong position. I heard the calls as more came out of the pod, but they were interrupted by an explosion. My shields flared, almost depleted and forcing me down into cover. Cries of pain were coming from the rest of my squad.
Grenade.
"Goddammit. EVERYONE GET ON THE LEFT!" I yelled.
I swapped to the Mamba and jumped up. Shields were still flaky, but I was in full adrenalin rush, and that's when the implants worked best. As everything slowed down, I picked targets and rode the wave. Four turians went down as they tried to get through the door. I dropped immediately, hit the stims on my omni-tool, and went for it again. I hit three more, and the fourth I missed when he reacted fast enough to fall back into cover.
With the high I was in, I couldn't understand a word anyone was saying. I dropped, not so much into cover as just landed on my ass behind the bench as the world spun around me.
"Are you okay?"
"I'm fine!" I lied, my breath rushed with my heart beating hard inside my chest. "Keep shooting! We need to take control of this room!"
I gave myself a few more seconds, letting the stims do their work and balance me out. When I popped out of cover again, several shots were already ready to greet me, and I only got a couple of shots off before I had to go down again.
"Shit!" I yelled.
We were getting nowhere. I pulled a grenade out of my belt, and threw it overhead. As soon as I heard the turians call it, I got out of cover. I had maybe two seconds, which was enough for the implants. As they kicked in, I took stock. Three accessible targets. Two seconds. Full auto on the mamba and I shot a volley on my way to get out of the blast. I couldn't confirm, but the yells from the turians were encouraging. Shots started raining on my position, and as I tried to get myself safe, a response barrage came from the rest of the marines.
"Cover the Chief!"
I shook my head hard, trying to clear it but only making everything spin.
"Where are we at?" I said.
"We've got them all, just holding the door now," he said. Jake? I thought that was him. "Damn you did a number on them sir!"
"Just keep shooting," I said. I raised my omni-tool and hit the comms, while flipping through the blueprints of the dreadnought. "Ops! This is Foxtrot, request status! We're holed in point Ten, Forty-six, we're ready to move!"
"Copy that Foxtrot," the reply came. It sounded like pandemonium on the other side of the comms, too, but despite that, the operator was cool as a cucumber. "Delta and Echo are converging towards Eight Thirty. What's your headcount?"
I did a quick check on my HUD, but kept the curses to myself. "Five casualties, three wounded."
"You're three levels away, can you make it to the secondary target?"
The engineering room. We had three possible targets: bridge, engineering, and engines. We had landed awkwardly far from all three of them, but them's the breaks with breaching pods. Not what you could call an exact science.
"We'll manage. Jinx out." I readied the Mamba again and took a deep breath. The turians were yelling, but the translators weren't picking it up. I had a feeling they were getting no reinforcements. "People! Time to earn our pay, get ready!"
If Shepard had to give the Turians something, it was that they were all as disciplined as marines. Gun in hand they were all equally tough and dangerous. True, if anyone were to board the Einstein the entire crew would respond in a similar fashion, but there was a noticeable difference between the marines and the rest of the navy crew.
She threw a grenade, counted to five, and rushed out of cover right after it went off. Shotgun in hand, she fired shot after shot as she closed the gap, targets falling even as her own shields took a beating. It was enough, however, to make it to the doorway on the side and into cover.
"Mindoir!"
"Go go go!" she yelled back, her shotgun barking at a steady pace.
The corridor had plenty of cover, as long as the numbers were small. That worked in their favour. She took down a turian who got a little too ambitious, and forced two more back into cover while the rest of her unit inched closer. As soon as the numbers were on their side, the turians started to move back, and she took the chance to push forward again.
"Sheppy!" she heard Goldie call. "Wait for us!"
"I'm waiting, so move your ass!" she retorted.
One doorway, two, and when they reached the corner of the corridor, they were greeted by a rain of cross-fire coming from another team of marines.
"Shit!" Shepard shouted, backpedalling at full speed while her shields took bullet after stray bullet. "Goddamn friendly fire!"
"Friendly fire is not very friendly," Goldie said, pulling Shepard back and taking her spot behind the corner. "Allow me."
Shepard watched the blonde woman pull the Mamba out, unfold it in her hands, and stop to take a deep breath. She glanced out the corner for a split second, pulled back, and a moment later she leaned out, rifle up and shooting repeatedly.
It was all done so easily, so smoothly, even in the middle of the firefight Shepard had to watch in awe. There was a lot of training behind that, and she felt suddenly rather clumsy. Kim had put her through the paces with that impromptu training session Roy had put together for her, and she couldn't imagine being so smooth with the Mamba even with a hundred of those sessions under her belt.
On her HUD, the killcount went up every time Goldie got out of cover. Some shouts and bullets were thrown her way, but the turians had more important things to worry about.
"Delta!" she heard the call through the comms.
"Echo!" her squad leader replied.
"Move in now, go!"
Shepard was the first one out, with the rest of the team following close. Bravo team had made a mess, a mess of blue turian blood and dead bodies strewn along the corridor. The corridor itself ended at an open space, where the marines had holed themselves up. Looked like a maintenance room, with their pod nicely embedded on the wall.
Given the state of the place, the fight had been fierce. Turian corpses on one side, a few dead marines on the other, and wounded being treated by the group's medic.
"We don't have much time," the Bravo squad leader said. "We have to move out. Another pod landed three levels above us and drew them out, we have to get to Engineering."
"Got it. Mindoir!"
"Sir!" Shepard replied.
"Take point, let's move!"
"Yes sir!" Shepard called, already heading for the door, shotgun in hand.
Other marines fell in with her, but she only gave them the barest of glances. Her focus was the door, the combat scanner had already picked up turians coming their way, and in good numbers too. Time was against them, they had to cripple the ship to give the fleet a chance. They didn't have much of a way out, they could get back in the pods and bug out but that was always a rather difficult proposition.
They had to take the ship, and they were outnumbered.
Shots started as soon as she showed her nose, forcing her to run for cover. The interior of the ship was built in such a way that there was always abundant cover and narrow choke points. That favoured the turians and their greater numbers.
They had to push.
"Grenade!"
She ducked deep in cover as an explosion rocked the floor under her feet. She was out firing almost blindly as soon as she could, but another explosion forced her down. She looked again, and just caught a glimpse of two turians carrying something large.
Large ordinance.
Shit.
"Watch ou-!"
"Damage report!"
The Einstein was still reeling from the impact, a crippled turian frigate coming in at high speed with no engines or control of their trajectory. Ramirez had managed to avoid a direct hit, but even the bounce had made considerable damage.
"Damage to the hull but no breaches, shields are holding, we've lost three GARDIAN lasers on section eight," Nelson said.
"Bring us about, get the repair crews there, we need at least one gun working there!"
The ship trembled again, the constant barrage from the dreadnought's smaller guns kept constantly falling on them, but it didn't worry Kishi. Her marines would take that damn ship before they could get through.
At least I hope so.
Her confidence shook only slightly when the Einstein was filled with the booming sound of a torpedo hitting the aft section.
"We've lost hangar four!" Nelson said.
"Seal it! We don't have any ships there. Luca, send Wing Three to intercept those cruisers!"
"A-Aye sir!" Luca said, relaying the orders.
Kishi watched as the four markers broke formation and headed for the three cruisers. They had managed to position themselves rather well behind the dreadnought, leaving themselves enough of an angle to fire torpedos at them. The barrage was still ongoing, but the GARDIAN lasers were keeping up.
Barely.
"Sir, it's just four fighters," Luca said.
"Noted," Kishi replied absently.
She watched the markers move, muttering under her breath a mix of prayers and encouragement. The Einstein banked as they laid covering fire on the wake of the fighters, the smaller ordinance enough to discourage any of the frigates from following them. The four Brontes flew in a tight formation towards the three cruisers at top speed. Kishi felt her pulse race even harder as the fighters got closer and closer, weaving to avoid the cruisers' guns but not deviating from their flight plan.
And right as a collision seemed inevitable, the four markers split in two pairs away from the nearest cruiser, and the entire area disappeared from the map. Explosions. For just a moment, it was impossible to tell what had happened.
Then, the VI updated the map. Three of the fighters were still there. And one cruiser.
In other circumstances there would have been more of a reaction to that. Four fighters had just taken on three full-fledged turian cruisers and won. But as it was, it was just another fire that had been put out for now. She didn't watch as the third cruiser came under attack by the Brontes.
"Nelson, what's happening inside the ship?"
"They're having a hard time, but we've got teams closing on two of the objectives."
"And the third?"
"Engineering," Nelson replied.
He didn't bother to elaborate. Engineering was always the hardest nut to crack, so it wasn't unexpected. If the bridge is taken, command can be transferred to another station. Lose the engineering deck, though, and the entire ship is lost. The question was, send reinforcements now, or to wait for a better chance. If they deployed more pods, they'd have to get even closer to the dreadnought to give the marines a chance.
"Come on lads," she muttered. "You can do this."
If this isn't a disaster, I don't know what else it could be!
For all the tight spots they had squeezed past, and all the fights they had been through, Goldie had never seen it this bad. The fight had bogged down to two sides deeply entrenched, and the turians were getting reinforcements faster than they could deal with them. They had been pushed back, and there was so much structural damage that everybody had stopped using explosives.
".. to Bravo… -yone there?"
"Repeat!" Goldie called, her rifle spitting rounds in full auto in as much desperation as she was feeling.
"This is Foxtrot to Bravo!"
That's the Chief!
"Chief! We could really, really use some help!" Goldie said.
"Can you make it to Eight Thirty?" the Chief replied.
"Negative! We have too many casualties, Sheppy's down! She's hurt bad!" she replied.
There was a curse, and she heard a very confused and loud discussion happening just outside the comms, but it finished quickly, with the Chief's voice rising about the chaos.
"We're coming Goldie, hang on!"
"Aye sir!" Goldie replied.
She ducked back to do a quick weapon swap, and spared a glance towards the rear line. It wasn't just the people who were wounded, but also the ones trying to keep them alive. Three marines. They could come and make a difference, at the cost of abandoning the wounded. Perhaps to die.
And Shepard was one of them.
With a deep breath, she unfolded the Mamba and rolled out and into position. One. Two. Three. She ducked into cover, pivoted to the side, and got out again. Four. Five. Six. Direct hits, the turians were diving deep into cover, reacting to the sudden unknown threat. With all the damage done to the structure, there were holes and angles to shoot each other far beyond the narrow corridors connecting the two entrenched fronts.
She couldn't just be doing spray and pray when the Chief came. He'd be so disappointed.
"Keep shooting!"
"Behind us! Watch out!"
Goldie turned to the call, saw turians had come in force behind their position.
Crap on toast! Where did they come from?!
She raised the Mamba and started shooting. One. Two. They were still coming. She flicked to auto and shot to overheat, with each of the powerful shots finding a target. It wasn't quite the one shot, one kill the Chief preferred, but it had to be enough. There was no time to be precious with her bullets. No time.
Another explosion. This time, she hadn't been expecting it. It happened somewhere to her right, and it was followed by an ugly groan of metal. Goldie was thrown to the ground, her shields flaring and nearly depleted.
Crap, crap!
She couldn't tell up from down, her head was spinning. Or was it the ship? There were yells all around. She tried to get up, managed to get halfway there, but then something hit her hard and threw her on the ground again. Her reaction was more instinct than anything else, she snatched at the barrel pointing at her face, and pulled hard. The gun discharged next to her face, but managed to miss, and the kick she threw hit the turian on the back of his head.
It wasn't like she was thinking ahead, but she never got a chance to do anything else. Something hit her helmet, she saw another gun, then everything went blue.
…
I'm not dead, am I? It hurts more than I expected it would.
"Keep shooting!"
Wait, that voice.
She sat up on the ground and wiped the visor of her helmet. Huh, blue and sticky. Had to be blood, turian blood. She tried wiping again, but she wasn't getting anywhere, so she instead pulled her helmet free. The sudden rush of outside air made her cough, an assault of smells she couldn't even process.
"Goldie!"
"Sir!" she replied instantly, although she didn't know where the yell had come from.
"Where's Shepard?"
The Chief pulled her up by her collar and dragged her to cover as he spoke, never slowing down. He had turian blood all over his arm too, she could smell it.
He carries an omni-blade, doesn't he? Drat, I missed it!
"She's…"
She took a moment to look around and take stock. The turians had broken through to her position, but it looked like the Chief had arrived just in time. Six other marines were there as well, shooting everything in sight. Damn it but it felt good when the cavalry arrived.
"Back there," she added, and pointed at the back. The marines there were getting pummeled by the turian reinforcements, and all the wounded were there too. "Drat, they need help!"
"Cover me," the Chief said. And as he spoke, he pushed a gun into her arms.
The Black Mamba.
She was almost too stunned to react, but when the Chief pushed her to the side and rushed ahead, shotgun in hand, she immediately brought the gun to bear and started shooting targets, her bullets passing close to the Chief as she picked any turian that tried to turn his way.
And inside, she was as giddy as a kid with new shoes.
He's given me Excalibur! I'm never giving it back!
There was nobody else. It had to be them.
Boarding a ship was so much not an exact science that it could never be called a science, even with all the training they did. Most of the pods had hit the dreadnought, Admiral Kishi had made sure of that. It had been a different matter once inside the ship. The surprise hadn't lasted long, and the turians had mounted their defenses quickly.
She hadn't really kept track of time, only of objectives. And right now, theirs was the only team that could make it. The bridge was heavily defended, but she was confident they could make it. Or perhaps it was her way to deal with the fact that if they didn't make it they'd have nowhere to run. The turians had managed to cut them off from the rest of the marines, so it was all up to them. Eighteen people all said.
Luckily, they were all unharmed. Less lucky was the fact that most of what they were carrying was heavy ordinance and explosives. They were supposed to head for the engine room, not the bridge.
Plans, contact with the enemy, story of my life.
"Push, push!" Kim shouted.
She vaulted over the bench, rolled her landing, and put her back against the wall. Like before, her move was covered with a lot of firepower, and more than a few explosions. They were making an absolute mess of the interior of the ship, but they had to work with what they had.
"Eltee! We're being flanked!"
"Hold on!"
Another marine came the same way, and took her spot while she dove deeper down and brought her omni-tool up. The turian cyber-defenses were damn good, but she had an ace up her sleeve. The first thing she had done when they boarded was upload a virus to the systems. A little something she probably wasn't supposed to have just yet.
The Vila was such a wonderful place.
The interface came to life and she started working the code. There were a lot less backdoors than after the first upload, but the onboard VI hadn't quite managed to plug them all just yet. She had expected the turian crew would have been able to do something about it, but they hadn't managed to do much.
Maybe she had the rest of the marines to thank.
With a few more lines of code, she accessed the environmental controls of the room and slammed the bulkeads on the rear section shut.
Suckers.
"We don't have much time till they get through, keep going!" Kim called.
The marine next to her called for cover fire, and stood to rush out. As soon as he did, his head jerked back as a shower of gore shot from the back of his helmet.
"Shit!" Kim shouted.
She pulled a grenade off her belt and threw it over the edge of the cover. And just as it exploded, she got out of cover, sniper rifle in hand. She found the target through the mess before he could fin her, and a quick one-two later with the rifle took care of him.
Goddammit, we can't lose people like this!
The rest of her squad moved in, and they pushed forward as the turians retreated once more. She couldn't quite get everything, but it sounded like the turians were quite unhappy about not getting reinforcements they had been expecting. They managed to break through, and the fight ended up in a rather short-lived scuffle, with the last three turians being subdued by her marines. They were at a dead end right next to the lifts.
A quick injection of anesthetic, and they were out.
"We should just shoot them."
"Can it, Sevens," Kim replied. "We're not barbarians."
"Aye sir."
She brought up her omni-tool and brought up the schematics. They had been flying almost blind for a while, working on updating the schematics as they went.
"Holy shit, at last," Kim said.
"Eltee?"
"Get ready people, the bridge is right over our heads," Kim replied. She opened the comms to the Ops, and the reply came with some distortion. "Ops, this is Gamma. We have reached two ten. What's the status?"
"Gamma!" It took Kim a moment to realize that was actually Admiral Kishi. And she sounded stressed. "About damn time! What are your assets?"
"Just us, sir. One casualty. What about the other targets?"
"Eight thirty and six twelve are already under attack we-" the comms dissolved into a garbled mess, and when it came back it didn't sound like Kishi was talking to her. "Evacuate that section! Send Wing Eight to intercept! Gamma, you need to take that objective, and take it fast!"
"Aye sir!" Kim replied.
She cut the comms and turned to the squad. It sounded like the Einstein wasn't going to be able to hold on much longer. It was going to be tight. If teams were already in engineering and the reactor, there was a chance Kishi would have to order the other crews to destroy the ship from inside.
Maybe she'll settle for crippling it.
Not likely. Even without the main reactor or engineering, a dreadnought was still a formidable weapon. And the Einstein didn't have any large spinal mounted guns, they could fire with the side guns all day and get nowhere important.
Her omni-tool lit up once again, and she started hastily typing code in. With a few keystrokes the doors of the lifts opened, and the team started to file in without a word. She was the last one to board.
"Eltee, what-"
She interrupted with a gesture, and gave a few hand signals. The team nodded in acknowledgement. They had to go in silent. She re-routed the controls of the lifts to her omni-tool, and disabled all lights and warnings. They would be able to get to the bridge without anyone realizing until the door of the lifts opened.
Lockdown my ass.
The doors closed, and the lift started to move. Slowly. Just like every single lift in the galaxy. She wondered who had decided that lifts had to be slow inside ships and space stations. It was at the very top of all the safety guidelines for lifts, and she just didn't get it. Nobody moved a muscle the whole ride. She could see most of the marines were tense. A lull in the fighting was not doing them any favours. With a very obvious gesture, she hit the stims on her suit, and several of the marines followed her lead. She didn't really needed them, but the others could do with a bit of manly juice.
When the lift arrived and the door opened, for a split second, the entire galaxy seemed to come to a standstill. Dozens of eyes turned in their direction from frozen turians. Obody said a word.
"Take them!" Kim shouted.
All hell broke loose. Her team rushed forward while the turians finally kicked into gear. The bridge was arranged in a weird fashion, with a large holographic platform in the middle and consoles arranged around. Kim spotted the captain right away standing at the top of the platform, and credit where credit was due, he didn't even flinch when he reached for his side gun and started shooting.
Not that it'd do him much good.
He's mine!
She bolted out of the lift like a hare in a greyhound race, knife in one hand and her own side gun in the other. Her sudden burst caught the turians by surprise, and she managed to take the two who crossed in front of her without even slowing down. If she had more practice reading turian faces, she'd have been able to guess whether the captain was surprised or not. She dove under the turian's gun, and threw an uppercut aimed at the turian's left outer jaw. He managed to dodge, and the two of them got entangled into a hand to hand fight right on top of the holographic console in the center of the room.
It was enough to bring the attention of the entire room to them. The turian was big, and he was fast, too. Kim was forced to fight defensively, and to keep as close as possible. Turians were the most dangerous at medium range, when they could throw their punches at full speed.
The biggest disadvantage was that she wasn't trying to kill him.
They traded blows twice, with Kim coming the worst on both trades, but it was on the third that she put her food down. Literally. On the turian's knee. The snap that followed her kick didn't distract her, and she hit the turian on the face with her elbow with a classic Wing Chun move. Jut, Bong, and the elbow found the target right under the mandible.
She had to move fast. She wrapped her arm from behind his back around his neck, and put her gun against his temple.
"Enough!" she shouted. "Stop right now or I blow his brains out!"
"Don't!" the turian yelled. "Shoot her!"
Nobody stirred. The fighting had come to a standstill, and she made sure she had her back towards her marines, and the turian captain between her and the rest of the crew.
"This isn't up for discussion, stand down!"
The turians all seemed to look at each other, unsure of what to do. But none of them lowered their guns.
"You'll never-"
"Shut up," Kim retorted. She stopped pointing the gun at the captain just long enough to open her visor. "This is what's going to happen, captain. You're going to stand down right now. Either that, or we'll blow up this ship to kingdom come."
"You don't stand a chance," the turian sneered.
"That so?" Kim said.
She glanced at one of her marines, and without another word, he quickly came behind her, gun in hand, and pointed it at the back of the captain's head.
"Please don't move, I'd hate to get brains all over my suit," Kim said.
After clipping her gun to her thigh, she opened her omni-tool and went for the comms. It was a little awkward to do with her arm wrapped around the turian's neck, but she managed.
"What are you-"
"Hush," Kim said, pushing the mandible of the turian shut. "Ops. Give me whoever's in engineering."
"Gamma! You're breaking-"
"Now!" she insisted.
There was a moment delay, then a familiar voice came through.
"This is Foxtrot."
"Of course it's you, Jinx," Kim said. "What's the status in Engineering?"
"We've got this under control," Jinx replied. She could hear the sound of gunfire in the background, but there wasn't a lot of urgency in the Chief's voice.
"Can you blow it up?"
"If… you want me to?" he replied.
"Good. Hold that thought."
She closed the comms and leaned closer to the turian's head.
"I can give the order, and the Chief will blow the inside of your ship. After that, without a dreadnought, our fleet will destroy every single ship in your fleet without taking a single prisoner."
"You are outnumbered and outgunned," the turian replied. "Go ahead."
"Outgunned? Hardly. We might lose some ships, sure, but your fleet will be decimated. You've seen what our guns can do. Just imagine what a slap on the face of the Hierarchy that'll be."
She felt the turian stiffen at her words, and smiled internally. She got him there.
"I did not come here under the Hierarchy's orders. I-"
"Whatever you say," Kim interrupted. "Alternatively, you can give the order to stand down. It'll go in the history books as a very bold maneouver from a crazy human admiral, and nobody will really know what the outcome of this particular engagement could have been otherwise. Your choice."
She stopped talking and waited, looking around. The turians had never stopped aiming their guns at them, or left their position, but they hadn't done any aggressive moves either.
I was dead on my feet. This hadn't been the longest engagement I had been part of, but it sure had been the most intense one. And the implants. Good grief, I had been abusing them far too much, and it was starting to feel weird. But we had freaking managed. The engineering section was now under our control. Six marines had entrenched themselves at the door, and I was at the rear helping with the wounded.
"Foxtrot, this is Ops. Prepare for incoming transmission."
Huh.
"This is Foxtrot," I said as soon as the comms blinked green.
"Of course it's you, Jinx." Wait, was that Kim? "What's the status in Engineering?"
I looked around and did a mental shrug. I probably should have been a little less calm, but turian ship designs had their advantages. Now that we were in, the turians were not about to take it back in a hurry. We had about a dozen prisoners all told.
"We've got this under control," I said.
"Can you blow it up?"
Wait, what?!
"If… you want me to?" Please say no, please say no, please say no…
"Good, hold that thought."
With that, she closed the comms, and left me frozen in place like an idiot. The two marines working the consoles hadn't heard a word, which was just as well.
"Chief!"
Everything slowed to a standstill as my implants kicked in, but it lasted just a blink. Enough to make me nearly fall on my feet. I tried to get my breathing under control and calm down, I had my implants on hair trigger, and I wasn't even fully in control anymore.
This can't be good.
All this happened in just a split second, so I doubted that anyone noticed. I got my shotgun out and headed for the door, where the fighting had intensified even more. I fell into cover as an injured marine was pulled aside, and started shooting. After the first shot the implants kicked in again, and gave me enough time to pick one target before they cut out again.
I missed the shot. A second kick and I had to stop and fall back in cover to get my bearings. Shit. This was not going well.
"Keep firing! We're almost there!" I yelled.
I hit the stims again, knowing I was way over the day's limit but having no other real option. The kick wasn't even noticeable this time, but I felt my head clearing up. I got out again, and kept firing, until a burst thrown my way hit me square on the face. I fell back on my ass with a cracked helmet and no shields.
"Chief!"
"I'm fine! A fucking time for the implants to stop-"
As I spoke the implants finally kicked in, just in time for me to throw the helmet away. When they cut, the room started spinning.
This isn't good.
A loud, piercing sound suddenly broke through the battle, filling every single space and drowning every voice. My omni-tool lit up with an incoming transmission on a wide band frequency, and so was everyone else's.
"What the hell?" I muttered.
"Chief?"
"Don't let your guard down," I yelled over the piercing sound. I did notice, however, that the turians had stopped shooting.
"Attention all personnel. This is Vice-Admiral Tabar. All forces are to cease fire immediately and stand down. I repeat, you will cease fire and stand down. The battle has been lost.
"As of right now, I am taking full responsibility of my actions. All turians under my command are not to be held responsible for following my orders. I acted on my own, and with no knowledge or aid from the Hierarchy.
"All personnel and assets will place themselves under the authority of the Systems Alliance fleet until they are returned to the Hierarchy.
"Glory to Palaven."
Another high-pitched whistle sounded, and the transmission ended. We could hear howls of disappointment coming from the turians, both the ones that had just a minute ago been shooting at us, and the ones we had taken prisoners inside of engineering.
I was just too stunned.
Did… did we win?
"Chief man!" Goldie shouted, rushing to my side and pulling me up to my feet. A little too fast, given how unsteady I was. "We did it! We actually did it!"
"Goldie, stop. Don't-"
My protest stopped when I caught sudden movement at the back. The turians. Two, no, three of them had managed to break free. The implants kicked in, this time riding hard on the high I watched the entire chain of events. I pulled my pistol out and let the action happen. Two shots at the first, one each at the other two. The first turian went down hard, the other two were only injured. I fired a fifth shot blindly, too high to hit anyone but enough to make a point.
That was all I could do before falling flat on my back. Or I would have if an inch down I hadn't hit someone's back.
"Anyone else?" Goldie said, her usual all-too-happy voice on. She had gotten herself right behind me to hold me up with her back. "Because watching the Chief never gets old."
"Goldie…" I muttered.
"It's okay," she whispered. "I got you Chief."
"We have to get out of here," I said in a low voice. Bloody hell, everything was spinning. "I can't-"
My voice kind of died, and my ears started ringing as all sound around me was stretched into low, mourning notes. Goldie was saying something, but it all sounded dull, and slow. I tried to take a step towards the door, while the marines moved towards the turian prisoners. Slowly, so slowly. One step later they seemed to move at superhuman speed, until they stopped in mid-step again.
This is all… wroooooonnnn-
"Chief!"
It might have been a minute or a year, the world had become a big, jumbled, and confused mess.
Author's Notes: Well, that was painful. Writing this chapter, that is. I know what you're thinking, what the hell's happening for a turian fleet to try and destroy the Ninth Fleet? Maybe not everything's well in the Hierarchy. Or maybe it is, they're very dutiful people after all.
Anyway! Regardless, it's a bit of a step back from the personal issues between characters, and more about the galaxy going on. Oh, and have you guessed what Miranda's talking about? Should be obvious enough, but we'll know soon.
So, lots of reviews! Let's go over things shall we?
First off: One thing many of you mentioned is Roy/Marie. Yeah, it probably didn't show well (tried to amend it a bit with this chapter), but the idea is that they've been spending lots of time together for months, and that Marie, unlike Shiala, did know how to handle him. And more importantly, you didn't think the path to love would be straightforward, did you? Of all the choices Roy could have made, you and I know it's going to be rocky. And this isn't even my final form!
I can tell you right now, I have scenes planned all the way to the end of the fic for Roy and suitors. There's one in particular that's been in my head since day one. Now you know :D
Once thing I'm wondering about is Kishi. I wonder if I'm overdoing her character, of if she's a bit too carboard-cutout-y with not enough depth. I like the idea of the character (who doesn't like a team full of badasses, right?).
D72: Thanks for all the reviews! It always brings a smile to my face when someone posts several in a row which shows they're writing as they read for the first time. Makes me think the reader's engaged with the story so thanks a lot! One thing is that according to the Wiki, the marines are embedded in the Systems Alliance Navy, so that's why I kinda treated them a little interchangeably. Of course, it's all out of my butt and my military experience is rather limited :) And dear god, Legion going through N-school. I might actually make that happen, that's such a crazy idea it might just work.
Guest: When I mentioned the angel thing, it all kinda clicked together in my head, hehe. Thanks for the support!
FluxBlade: Poor Roy rarely gets a break! That's a good point about Cerberus' PR, which will be relevant very soon. I mean, we all know what kind of organization Cerberus really is (from political assassinations to human experimentation, they tick every villain box), but it's not necessarily common knowledge. The point about them is that they've been getting away with everything since forever. That said, I have... plans for Cerberus. As for the Reapers... I have a dramatic entrance planned that'll tie up a couple of pieces of canon that just bug me a LOT. And it's not that far.
Uemei: How do you know she's not shacking up with a Cerberus operative? (I keed I keed!).
Toothless: I've been trying to prioritize My Effects due to lack of time, soz :(
sniperdude79: Ironically, Marie's wormed herself deeper into the story than I had originally planned. I hope it'll work!
Sheity Williams: Thanks! Roy's misadventures with special training haven't come to an end, trust me :)
Oh boy, if you have realized that Ro doesn't realize he's in the big leagues now, wait till the next chapters, hehehe. Gonna take his nonchalance to a whole new level.
Almost a Shadow: I'll probably have to bring it up in-universe at some point, but the reason Kaidan's pissed is that Shepard made him use his biotics to hold her in the air and try to stop her from getting herself killed. If you remember what Kaidan did in his biotic training (crushed an instructor to death with his biotics, as in crunching him into a ball, not throwing him), it set him off. Of course, Roy already knows Kaidan's story (hence why he asked Shepard to try and help him get on with the rest), but Shepard doesn't know he knows. Oh, and you'll see a lot more of Nihlus later on :D
trollblut: The blitz still a couple of years away (in-universe, not real time... I hope!). Might not happen in the same way, given the changes to the galaxy tho :)
griezz: Oh boy, Roy still hasn't learned about the Rachni and Shep (and that he might become a dad), but he might... Just wait for it :D
V-rcingetorix: Thanks for the endorsement! I guess with the Marie thing I just didn't want to spend too much time with buildup that was essentially "not much happening but Marie's not getting kicked to the curb as hard as the others". A bit more build up would have helped tho :D And yeah, feel free to borrow if you think it works for you, the extended universe can be such fun when we trade notes :) Regarding the asari breaking up their empires, I can probably delve on it a bit more. It's not necessarily complicated (or even logical, I just made it up), rather it's guided by their long lifespans. Look at what's been historically done for family fortunes and position here on Earth, then imagine what it'd be like if people lived 10x longer. The amount of backstabbing, assassination, and all the rest could be staggering. That's really the jist of it.
TheScooterOfDeath: A playful nod, yeah (and a small poke at how much that kind of thing happens in SIs ;) ).
Serenarey Chiba, Zeru'Xil, 5 Coloured Walker, DrStache, Guest (x3 :D), helenGet, maesde, Zenog, thanks for taking the time to review!
Next time, the aftermath. A couple of shouting matches, a meeting long overdue, and what could possibly be a hilarious exposition if I pull it off right. Stay tuned, and as always, thanks for reading and reviewing!