There was one thing the Systems Alliance was definitely good at, and that was squeezing every ounce of performance out of their people. There was always something to improve, and they were always looking for ways to do so. So constant training was a way of life in the SA. But this was different. The training they were undertaking, mixed units with asari commandos, was a very different beast. It had the feeling of something very... specific. Shepard couldn't quite put her finger on it, but there was a discordant melody to some of the asari's songs. The rest seemed as clueless as the marines.
And the exercises themselves were slightly strange, too. Three-man units, with a commando as a fourth. One hundred commandos to the Einstein's three hundred marines. Six-man units were the standard for the marines, so there was some re-training to do for them as well. But more than that, the commandos weren't exactly working as part of the units. They were... defensive, in a way. The gauntlets were set up with environmental hazards, including miniature drones, and the commandos were tasked with keeping them at bay, while fighting with the rest of the units. Large biotic barriers, while the rest of them kept them safe and pushed forward. There were a few biotics with the marines, of course, but those bubbles were really quite taxing. Kaidan had given up after his third migraine. Those with the L3s were doing better. But nonetheless, it was kept only as a backup. The commandos were definitely top shelf biotic powerhouses.
It was all a little weird, but weird was a way of life for her. It did get in the way of exploring the Mu relay though, and that was something she really had been looking forward for a while. She missed her little troop.
"We're moving ahead, cover our six Alenko," she said, coming out of cover.
The buzzing of the drones started immediately, but she ignored it for now. The bubble was solid, and they were more of a distraction than anything else. Probably not what the scenario was supposed to be. She'd discuss it with the Lieutenant afterwards. The mechs were already pressing them, and so were the larger drones. They didn't act as they were supposed to. They would fly in, then just hover a couple of feet above ground and keep attacking.
"Gotta push faster!" Goldie called, speaking as her Mamba barked, taking drones as they flew in. "They're trying to box us in!"
"We're good," Shepard replied. "They're coming. Draw them out."
"How do you know?" the asari, Fulle, called.
"I do," Shepard said, choosing not to have the discussion about the songs. So not the right audience.
Fulle muttered something, unintelligible due to its low volume. She wasn't really working with the group. The sour undersong was there. Muted, she was a professional after all, but she was there. She suspected already why, she didn't like doing a weird job she didn't know the reasons for. She'd have to do something about that.
The bots pressed them, and she kept the front, her shotgun hammering the closest drones as Goldie tried to stem the tide of fliers at the back. Alenko started shooting, too. His assault rifle sprayed as they moved.
"I've got it, watch the back!" Shepard called.
"I'm watching, we're good!" Alenko replied.
"Ladies! I can't move from here, do something!" Fulle yelled.
And a moment later, as she had expected, the second team came shooting through from their three. With the attention divided, the fire coming their way was halved. Kinetic barriers full, good heat, it was the time to press. She threw an EMP grenade and came out of cover again, shooting hard. It took less than twenty seconds before the two squads had merged and were presing at a steady pace.
"That's a wrap," the Lieutenant called through the comms. "Good job everyone."
"What's the tab?" Shepard said.
"About thirty thousand credits in damage," Kim replied. "Nice job."
"New high score," Goldie replied with a giggle.
"Great. Fulle, care to join me?" Shepard said.
"Join you?" the asari replied.
"I was thinking of grilling the eltee a little and see if we can figure out why they're doing this circus," Shepard said, putting her best brat grin on.
"And what makes you think the Lieutenant will disclose any more information than she has so far?"
"I can get away with more than most," Shepard replied. "Let's go."
They skipped the lockers and showers and headed off towards the observation building. The training grounds were located on Intai'sei, a pretty crappy garden world all around. Perfect place to build a playground where you can just wreck whatever you want, and with basically nothing of value so as to be able to invite outsiders. The facility had been planned as a playground for joint exercises with other races, just never saw much use. Luckily, Kim kept a very open door policy, and she hadn't been joking when she said she could get away with more than most. She was about the only one who could lose to Kim in karaoke.
Come to think of it, they hadn't had a karaoke night in a long ass time. She should organize one.
The interior of the building was laid out in a ridiculously complicated way for some reason. They went through two different levels and across the offices, but keeping outside the more restricted areas. Before long they found Kim, sitting at her desk and drinking what probably was the standard freeze-dried abomination the Systems Alliance called coffee.
"Shepard?" Kim greeted her. "Fulle."
"Sir," Shepard replied, saluting.
"Lieutenant," Fulle said, also saluting.
"At ease," Kim said, returning the gesture. "What brings you to the monkey house?"
"I was hoping to get some feedback, how did we do? Collateral damage aside."
"You're having fun, aren't you?" Kim said, her smile and her song telling her she knew it and approved.
"We always get yelled when we're rough with the equipment, so yeah."
"Overall, not bad. You kept together well, took care of the surprise by the bridge without losing your heads, and made the primary objective in good time. You slowed down halfway though, but linking up with Wright and his team at that point was a good move."
Positive, but guarded. Shepard knew Kim's style well, she'd chew them up when they screwed up on something they should know better, but didn't dispense harsh criticism for minute infractions. Guarded praise, fair criticism. She expected them to do better, but they were still getting used to each other and the team dynamics. Which made her even more curious about the whole thing. This was clearly off-script, not something the Alliance had come up to be done regularly.
And the song coming from Fulle sounded like she had all that and more to say. Or so she guessed.
"Something to add?" Shepard said, looking at Fulle.
To her surprise, the asari didn't seem surprised by her question. Or confused. Maybe annoyed, but it wasn't directed at her. It wasn't sour, but there was uncertainty. The notes rose and fell. She was thinking hard, but not finding a melody. Then, it all stopped.
"That," Fulle said. "What you've just done. You're very good at reading people, Shepard. But not so much during combat."
"Oh?" Kim said. "How so?"
Her song was subdued, blue, a faint green edge to it. Amused? Yes, but... she agreed.
"You ran cover well, but you were not confident. You have a backup biotic in your team, but ended up using just yourself and blondie most of the time. You wasted time making him cover our backs when there was no need." She looked at Kim. "And I disagree, we barely scrapped by at the bridge. Shepard reacted well, but she reacted. She didn't plan before, she didn't anticipate properly."
"Harsh," Kim said, her lips curling into the start of a smile. "But true."
"So my question is why," Fulle said. "You are perceptive,. You see everyone's movements almost like you can see them in your mind's eye. But you lag behind when dealing with the enemy."
"It's kind of my thing," Shepard said, with a shrug. "That's what I'm good at, I'm good at reading people."
"If that's the case, I'm surprised the Alliance didn't train your weaker points."
"We did," Kim said. "In fact, Shepard wasn't much of a team player at first. But that is a question. I thought you were having trouble adjusting to the parameters of the exercise. Is there something else?"
Shepard looked at both the Lieutenant and the Commando. She had gone to Kim's office to try and tease out what it was they were trying to achieve. Instead, she was in the middle of a two-way prodding fest. And it sounded like the Lieutenant wasn't improvising. She must have been thinking about that, too.
"The bots' movements make no sense. You have drones coming down and hovering instead of using their mobility. The terrain arrangement is just plain weird. And the tiny drones make no sense. Why are we using biotic bubbles like that instead of shooting them out of the sky? There's got to be a way."
Kim merely smiled.
"We're looking into options, yes. But drones like that are the kind that are used in large amounts. You can fry some out of the sky, or use vehicles, but given the terrain and the conditions, it's a good option to keep the biotics."
"That's not the whole story," Fulle said. "I want to know more about what it is we're preparing for. I was shooting my way through the Terminus while-" She paused for a moment. Catching herself before saying something rash, it seemed. "I have seen more than thirty colonies disappear in the time I spent through the Terminus. I have seen everything there is to see in this Galaxy. I've never seen any place, race, merc group, anyone with a setup like that."
Kim let the asari rant, then raised both hands, holding them together by the wrist. "My hands are tied. It is a very unique setup, and we will make sure everyone is as prepared as possible. But the spooks are being rather precious about the details. Truth is, I don't know much more than you all do."
Not a very satisfactory answer, but Fulle seemed to take it in and chew it for a while. Clearly she didn't like going into the unknown. But her song wasn't as chaotic as before. At least she had one more answer now, if not entirely satisfactory. Surely she could understand secrecy. She turned to look at Shepard, and her song became... subdued. Rhythmic. Calculating something.
"So, tell me Shepard, when did you become so good at reading people?"
"Well, that was..." she hesitated. That was always a hard memory to bring up. She remembered it all right. But it was painful. Would likely always be. "Not that long ago."
"That makes sense," Fulle said. "Lieutenant, can I borrow one of the training courses? Just Shepard and I."
"Sure? You're not going to break more equipment, are you?"
"Basic holographic targets will do."
"Then I'm sure we can find something," Kim said.
Shepard wasn't sure what Fulle had in mind, but it was clear that she knew exactly what she was doing. There was no hesitation. They took one of the smaller training ranges, and she set up the whole thing in less than a minute. What Shepard didn't expect was for her to then ask for her helmet, and for her to start tinkering with it.
"Very well, here you go," Fulle said, flinging it back. "Put it on and keep it on. Follow my lead."
"Sure thing. Loadout?"
"As you humans like to say, dealer's choice," Fulle replied. Her song was muted and pale blue. Calm. Controlled. Very intentionally so.
Shepard decided to take her assault rifle, not being sure what the asari had planned for them. As per her usual, she was going with a heavy pistol and her biotics. They got to one end of the course, and the flooring pillars started to move up and create the landscape. It seemed like a fairly standard scenario, empty area with some cover and a path. She knew it didn't mean much depending on who programmed it, the scenario could literally change as they moved through it.
"Helmet on," Fulle said.
"Right-o," Shepard said, and did as instructed.
As soon as her hardsuit sealed, all sound disappeared. Completely. Noise cancelling and extra dampening? Strange. The VI was typically programmed to mitigate sound of large explosions, flashbangs, and similar attacks, but it was rarely completely effective. It was a strange feeling. Fulle gestured over her shoulder for Shepard to wait. She did a countdown with her fingers, and on zero, the two of them pushed forward. Holographic figures of standard mechs and drones started to appear. Fulle fell into cover, gesturing for Shepard to go wide, and the two of them started shooting. Not a sound. Not even the report of her rifle. It was so strange. She kept looking around, searching for targets. Holographic mechs kept appearing, running in and getting into cover. Drones zipped past, and soon the two of them were in between a crossfire.
Shepard had to kept scanning, desperately looking for targets. Fulle herself wasn't even using the comms, and wasn't responding when Shepard herself used them. Just hand gestures, which she had to start using. As they moved, the landscape kept changing, and soon there were several angles of attack. She had to keep swapping targets. desperately looking around, all while they fought in silence. Complete silence. Only the echo of her breathing inside her hardsuit reached her ears. It was too much. Soon after, she had to pull her helmet free. breathing heavily. She couldn't bear it any longer. It was too much. Too much.
Fulle pulled her omni-tool out and switched the entire scenario off. Shepard sat on the ground, breathing heavily, sweat running down her face. She wasn't tired, but she couldn't go on.
"Shepard?" the asari said, squatting in front of her. "I've switched it off. Take a moment."
"What..."
"You look surprised. Surely you've fought without sound before. No atmosphere, comms down, it's not a strange scenario."
"Yeah, yeah, I have. Just... I don't know. It felt very strange this time. It was just you with me, and you were calm and subdued the whole time, like another day in the office. I couldn't hear anything other than background."
"I see." Fulle gave Shepard a moment to put herself together, while sitting down on the ground in front of her. "You know, we asari can actually feel each other's biotics without having to look. There's a distinct tingle in the air when biotics are used. With enough training, you can learn to recognize it from far away, or even whose biotics they are. You can feel each other without even thinking about it. Sounds familiar, doesn't it?"
"..."
"I'm not going to pry. I'm curious, but it's not important. The difference is, we are born and grow up with it. And have to train to improve it. You came upon something similar in a rather sudden way."
Shepard could hear her melody. Calm, a slow tempo of blues, but the undercurrent, that little cyan and yellow. She was absolutely itching to know what it was Shepard did. She had guessed quite well and, in fact, there were rumors about going through the grapevine that weren't too far off. But she was keeping it controlled.
"I'm not really at liberty to discuss it. But it was a bit... accidental."
"I see. And that's the problem. You've been relaying on it so much that it has dulled your other senses."
"Other senses? I can see and hear just fine," Shepard replied.
"Sen... Wait, senses and senses are the same word in your language?" Fulle said.
"Well, you just said senses and senses?"
The two of them looked at each other and started laughing. Translators. Had to love them.
"What I mean is... Blue ass, I never thought I'd have to explain this. Your actions, how you perceive the world and react. It's because of your senses. As in senses," she added, tapping the side of her eye and her nose, "but also how your mind interprets those signals and reacts to it, which... you could say the conditioning you put into your mind."
"Right, I get it," Shepard said. "So what are you suggesting?"
"I'm suggesting you need to retrain yourself. You can't rely on sensing someone's biotics if they're a non-biotic mundane, you know. Or in your case whatever it is. You're getting surprised by things appearing when you didn't sense them coming. Eyes, ears, anticipation, and battle sense. None of those require biotics. And if you're going to be leading our unit, you're going to need to remember how it all works. Otherwise I'm going to suggest you let Alenko lead this one."
"Why not Goldie?"
She delivered the line deadpan, and looked at Fulle straight in the eye. For a few seconds they both kept their stoic expressions, until a smile managed to crack through Fulle's stern pose. And they both started laughing.
"She's actually great you know," Shepard said, chuckling under her breath.
"I don't doubt it," Fulle said. "I'm just going to need a couple of centuries to understand how she thinks."
"Ain't that the truth, sister."
"All right, enough resting," Fulle said, and pushed herself up to her feet, offering Shepard a hand. "We have a couple of hours. Unless you're tired."
"No, I can keep going," Shepard replied. She took the offered hand and pulled herself up to her feet. "It's just going to take a bit longer to get used to the silent training."
"Just wait until we get to the blind training," Fulle replied.
And she sounded like she was serious about it.
It took almost two months before we made our move. During that time, the Collectors had been spotted in two other systems, or so the SAI claimed. There was an attack on the automated defenses around Benning, which had sent alarms all over the place since it was the primary source of food and supplies for Arcturus Station. This time all that was recovered from the destroyed defense satellites was a high-frequency scan. It was distorted, so much that there was no compositional information, but it was big. The second attack was a small industrial colony. The main orbital facility was evacuated as soon as the attack started, and there was nothing left of it other than charred space debris. They retreated as soon as reinforcements arrived, but there was no clue of it having been the Collectors, other than the fact that the weapon damage on the destroyed space station was very similar to what the Thanix seemed to inflict. So either Collectors, or competing technology.
Honestly? It didn't make much sense. I had no idea why the Collectors were suddenly dicking around. Maybe it was because all the changes I had introduced compared to the simulation. And what were they doing? Random attacks like that were a bit weird. And as far as we knew, they had only taken the Chadwik, no other people in the other attacks. Were they testing us? What?
Well, we'd find out. At that point, all I knew about the whole thing was that I had been assigned to go with the N7 team into the base if it came to that.
Truthfully, I was expecting it would come down to that. And I had said as much to the Admiral.
To my surprise, the staging area for the attack was... well, I had no idea where it was. It looked like a rather small and generic-looking space station in the middle of nowhere important. And we got a hell of a view from the shuttle as we approached. One of the new carriers, which I hoped wouldn't be the Einstein. At the front of the ship was a massive circular piece of metallic hull. Looked a lot like a shield, and given the size of the thing, it had to be... Three hundred freaking meters across? It was huge, and it was built so that it attached to the docking clamps at the top and bottom of the carrier. Then I caught a glimpse of the ships attached to the carrier, and they were most definitely not the usual frigates. Well, half of the Thanix-carrying frigates were attached, but the other half were most definitely asari ships. Slightly larger than our frigates. It was a snug fit.
Bet the pilots lover that shit.
Once we landed inside the ship, it became clear that it was indeed the Einstein. Fuck. Shepard was going to be part of the whole thing. Double fuck. Our shuttle landed easily inside the carrier, and we all stood up to stretch after the long fucking trip.
"Morgan," Commander Baker called.
"Sir," I replied.
"Debriefing at nineteen-hundred hours, we have some tourists coming along. Bridge conference room."
"Aye sir," I replied.
I saluted and took off, heading for my locker. I realized I only had a couple of hours before the meeting. Damn, I was tired as hell, I really wanted some sleep. Well, hopefully we'd get some. It was pretty clear the Alliance meant business this time. That front shield was likely to carry us through the debris field on the opposite side of the Omega relay, and it looked like they'd chosen to bring Asari ships for their silaris hull instead of fitting Alliance ships. Or maybe the SA frigates we kept had been fitted with upgraded hull. Who knew. Not my job, though I was curious. I wondered whether Benezia had had a chance to discuss the idea of using the debris on the opposite side of the relay as a source of materials with the brass or not.
Without that much time, I decided to just sow away my gear and head for some grub. The ship was busy as all hell, a very familiar buzz that told me we were about to go into the black. I expected some new faces, but there weren't a lot. A few asari here and there, hanging out with some of the marines in fact. A bit of a surprise, I had kind of expected them to stick together. A very long ride on the elevator later, I got myself to the mess. And it was packed. I noticed straight away the mix, again a few asari, maybe about a quarter of the people inside, all scattered and well mixed together. I had barely taken a step in when a hand shot up from a far table, waving furiously. Shepard, of course. Told me once she could hear my song in the middle of a hurricane.
I waved back and made for the food. A surprisingly eclectic mix this time around, courtesy of our visitors I presumed. I avoided the more exotic looking items, with an eye towards keeping my sodium intake to less than lethal levels, and just piled up the meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and what appeared to be roasted carrots. Way, way better than the usual fare. Something was fishy here. I pushed through and came to the table where Shepard and company were waiting, as they squeezed in to make room on the bench.
"Roy!" Shepard yelled as I sat, and leaned over to give me a surprise hug. "Welcome back!"
"Hey Lana, everyone," I replied, tapping her on the back. She was sitting with Alenko, Goldie, and... huh. "Shiala," I added, giving her a nod. Unexpected.
"Roy," she replied, returning the nod.
"So, you know everyone except Fulle here," Shepard said. gesturing at the asari sitting next to Shiala. "Fulle, this is Service Chief Roy Morgan. Tall, handsome, and all around tough guy. Roy, this is Fulle T'Lain, Commando extraordinaire and our walking bubble for the upcoming mess we're about to get into."
Well, Shepard sure seemed in a good mood. Always a plus. I should ask her later once we had a chance to talk.
"Hungry?" Shepard said.
"Well, I wasn't so much until I saw this," I replied, pointing at the tray. "To what do we owe the surprisingly good food?"
"I believe the Alliance is trying to cater to the guests," Fulle said, smiling. "A little bland, but I've come to expect that from human food."
"I better go," Shiala said. "There are a few things to take care of before the debriefing." She stood up, gave a nod while casting a glance around, and headed off.
Awkward, but then again, not unexpected. More awkward was the look Shepard gave me, which was a mix of curiosity and concern.
"Dull orange," she said.
Took me a moment, but I caught what she meant. Not that I was fully clued in with the whole color spectrum, but had a good idea what she meant. Honestly, it probably wasn't the best time for any of that shit. We were about to get into a heap of trouble, and we better stick to the task at hand. With a mental shrug, I dug in and started eating.
"So, Chief," Goldie said. "What's the latest?"
"What you mean?" I replied, speaking around a mouthful of meatloaf.
"I mean, with all this? Don't you have some super-secret secret you can tell us? We've been doing all kinds of weird training and we have no idea what we're getting into."
"Just fall in line and follow orders, Goldie," I replied. "Just another day in the office."
"Aww, come on Chief, just a little? Pretty please?"
I just chuckled and went back to my food. A little? Shit, it was going to be a hell of an op. Shepard was going to be in it, too, which was not exactly what I had had in mind, but as much as it worried me, there wasn't much I could do. Except be there and have her back. Well, I had the Mamba and I had the Widow. Short of Harbinger.
I was still worried about that one. I wasn't sure if it was going to be a thing or not. After all, in the simulation he was just obsessed with not-Shepard. Or something. I had sold it as a sort of overdrive, which some collectors could do for short bursts of time. Sort of a stim on steroids.
"We'll know when we know," Shepard said, smiling at Goldie. "With all the help we've got, it will be a walk in the park."
She sounded confident, but the look she gave me, that spoke a lot more. I didn't have to tell her. By now, she probably knew that yes, I was worried. And in a very personal level. Well, this time I'd be there for her.
I got to the debriefing a few minutes before the debriefing started, and was surprised to see quite a few people there already. Commander Baker was there, our XO, a few officers, and who Baker had referred to as the tourists. I saw the Justicar, Pathize, although I didn't see Jack anywhere (probably not a bad thing, given what was ahead of us). I saw a drell I didn't immediately recognize. And a salarian. A smile appeared on my face as recognition struck, the clipped off horn being a dead giveaway. He was the first one to notice me, and as he mirrored my smile, he immediately came to greet me.
"Ah, finally. Chief Morgan I believe?" he said, extending his hand to shake mine as he talked at an insanely fast clip. "Mordin Solus, pleasure."
"Yeah, that's me, how-"
"Simple deduction. Low rank in major briefing, overheard others mention name. Insignia on uniform. Easy deduction. Source of information I presume? Must say, quite a discovery. Wide repercussions. Curious about role in this endeavour."
Bloody hell but he was firing at a fast clip. I kind of followed what he said, mostly because it wasn't much. If I had had to follow a whole speech on anything from him I'd probably get whiplash. In not so many words he had told me he had figured out I was the ostrich in that horse race, that he had figured out I had been the one who found out about the Reapers - since that's what he probably meant with the "repercussions" part - and that he wanted to know why I had gotten him there.
"Right. Erm, well, we'll go over it during the briefing I assume, but we've got a problem if we end up having to fight these guys." I pointed vaguely at the central console with my thumb. "They have a way to paralyze people using some sort of biomechanical flying bug. A countermeasure can be applied as an armor upgrade so that they won't attack us, if you can figure out how."
"Countermeasure. Vague term. Miniature drone delivery, yes? Upgrade to environmentally seal user, hardening plates and joints, or apply camouflage. Mechanism for drone control? Camouflage with environment, confuse detection parameters. Visual, olfative, could be pheromone-based. Complex problem. Lab facilities aboard Einsten superb, hope will be enough. Sample available, yes?"
"I'm... Okay, one thing at a time. As far as the countermeasure, I'm not sure. For what I remember, it's supposed to render us invisible to the swarms, but only if there aren't large numbers of them. Not sure if that means they don't see us as a threat, or just see us as Collectors, or what. Samples, I don't believe we have one. First order of business will be to get you some. You're going to be under the clock on this one, sorry about that."
"Ah. Challenge, then. Acquiring sample could be difficult, unless- No, of course. Asari presence suggest enemy susceptible to biotics."
I just laughed at that, which prompted Mordin to smile back. He probably figured out why I was laughing, I bet it was a common reaction towards him. With how fast he talked and how quickly he seemed to reach conclusions, it was a sight to behold.
"Must ask, why me?" he continued. "Information suggest previous knowledge, but STG very good at hiding information. No known leaks. Source of information? Linked to revelations? Cannot find connection. Quite puzzling." He delivered that last line with his trademark wide smile.
"Yeah, actually, that's quite the puzzle. Maybe we can discuss it later."
"Sensitive information, of course. Too many ears."
Admiral Kishi entered the room soon afterwards, and the chatter quickly died down. With her came the rest of the command staff of the Einstein, and two other asari. One of them was Shiala. The admiral came to a stop in front of the terminal, and soon had everyone's attention.
"Everyone, thank you for coming. As many of you already know, the Einstein has been chosen to carry out a special operation in the traverse, the details of which have been, until now, classified above almost everyone's level of clearance. Operation Call and Collect is now in effect. Our objective is simple: we are to find and retaliate against the enemy force that was responsible for the disappearance of the Chadwik three months ago, and responsible for three other attacks against different Alliance targets in our own territory, including the defensive grid around Benning."
The hum of murmurs quickly followed the declaration. Attacks out in the Traverse were one thing, but Benning was deep in Alliance territory. Judging by the reactions, most people didn't even know. I was a bit relieved that this was all going to be put out in the open. No more pretending I didn't know anything, heh.
"The ones responsible for the attacks have been identified as the Collectors. For those who recognize the name, yes, they are real. Their base of operations is located on the opposite end of the Omega-4 relay, from which no ship has ever returned. They have advanced technology, including weapons similar to our own Thanix cannons. And quite a few other nasty surprises we will go over during the briefing. All of you have been undergoing specialized training for the last two months. It's time to put it all together and for everyone to know what it is we're up against."
With that, the Admiral turned on the terminal, and the now familiar three dimensional projection of the debris field on the other side of the Omega-4 relay came to life. She started then to explain the entire plan of attack. We would jump across the Omega-4 relay, and make it to the other side safely, something no ship had ever done. She didn't go into the details of how that was done, only vaguely talked a technology upgrade that would allow the relay to recognize the Einstein as authorized and allow a safe jump. She then went into detail about the next objective, the space battle and the enemy forces. The Einstein would be breaking through the debris and onto clean space using the front shield, and would engage the enemy forces there. There was all we had gathered about the Oculi and the Collector cruisers - one, or possibly two, would be there - and the key to this whole thing, which was to get a sample of their seeker swarms after destroying or disabling the enemy ships. And after that, the real fun began.
The Einstein was going to make the jump across with only its small craft and attached flotilla. It wasn't the best choice to destroy the enemy base. It could be done, and if the need arose, it would be done, but the objective was to board that base and take it by force. While the marines would board in force through the front, so to speak, an N7 team would be sneaking in and planting a neutron pulse bomb. should the Collectors not surrender, the bomb would wipe out the base. She gave as many details as she had on what to expect inside, down to the rough plans we had of the interior, and the capabilities of the enemy units. The swarms would be dealt depending on whether Mordin would be capable of developing the countermeasure fast enough. He had an excellent lab, and as good a staff as the Systems Alliance could offer.
It was hard to gauge the reactions to that. The orders were clear cut, and the Admiral had done an excellent job pointing out how dangerous they were. When going over what the collectors were, she left out the part where they were actually protheans, but included that they used advanced prothean technology beyond what we ourselves had developed, based on our beacons. That's when I found out who the drell was. His name was Sokel, and had been sent from the exploration team on Ilos. Prothean tech expert, apparently. He was going to join the N7 team, and so was the Justicar, Pathize.
And, to my surprise, so was I.
Son of a bitch. Guess I did pass the grade during training after all.
The news filtered down to the crew through the chain of command, with a lot more details about what it was that we were supposed to do. The crew took it with their usual mix of seriousness and that air of nervousness that seemed to always permeate every operation the Einstein took part in. We were always the ones to break barriers and cross lines, after all. Everyone else followed behind us. With sixteen hours to go before we reached the Omega-4 relay, there was plenty of time for people to get too far inside their heads, so we ran almost non-stop drills on our way out.
In between them, I managed to find Shepard, while she was having some downtime in one of the recreation rooms. Most people took the downtime to play videogames, read, or just chat. Shepard had found a quiet corner in that room, sitting on the floor (like about a dozen other people, actually) and was slowly nodding her head with eyes closed and with a set of headphones over her ears. That was a new one. I wondered what kind of music she was listening to.
Before I could even say hi, she opened her eyes and looked straight at me.
"Hey you," she said, and took her headphones off. "You wanted to talk?"
"Yeah." I sat on the ground in front of her, close enough so we could talk without being overheard. "How are you holding up?"
"I'm all right. A little nervous, the whole crew is." She paused for a moment, closing her eyes and... listening. "We're out of our comfort zone, most of us haven't done anything like this before." She opened her eyes again. "And you sound just as worried. You know what's on the other side, right?"
"Kind of," I said. "And yeah, it is worrying. It's going to be a hard one."
"That's reassuring. People are nervous because we don't know what's coming. But you do and you're still nervous, Chief."
"Don't be cheeky," I said, and Shepard grinned back. "You seem to be in a good mood."
"I am. The training has actually been pretty good. I'm not going to let this little suicide mission of yours ruin my mood."
This.. what?!
"I'm joking!" Shepard quickly said. "Just joking. It's what some people have been calling it since we're going across the Omega-4 relay, I don't think it's a suicide mission. Seriously!"
"Right," I said, shaking myself mentally. "Sure as hell hope not. Anyway. Ali. Keep your head down and stick together. I want you back, okay?"
"Aye sir," she replied, her smile faltering. "And you do the same. We're going all together, you're the one who's going to be left out hanging. But hey," she added, and her smile appeared once again. "At least you're finally hanging out with the N7 lot. Make sure to impress them!"
"I'll try my best. And you make sure you lead your team well. It's going to be a shit plus fan situation, and I know you can pull them through. As a team. I'm not going to be there this time to keep your ass out of trouble with the sniper rifle if you go off on your own."
She thought about that for a moment, but I could see she remembered exactly what it was I was talking about. "Give me some credit, Roy. I've gotten better, haven't I?"
I chuckled. "Yes, yes you have. Princess."
"Warrior-Princess, if you don't mind, Chief."
This was it. The relay was rapidly approaching. The crew was in position, everything was in place. There were a lot of unknowns. She had a nasty feeling that it was going to turn ugly, and was giving herself about a fifty-fifty chance they'd have to turn tail and run. She only hoped it would be without leaving ships or crew behind. The fact that the Chadwik had disappeared without a trace worried her. They didn't have enough information to be sure whether they had the right countermeasures for this unknown enemy. The Einstein had seen several upgrades, including a new GARDIAN defense grid with three times more lasers, a flexible docking system to carry a more diverse attached flotilla, at least two experimental proximity scan systems to make sure nothing unexpected jumped on them, and they had literally cut away some of the internal structure to accommodate an extra twenty percent more fighters. It was fast becoming one of a kind, and the unofficial flagship of the new generation of ships.
But first things first, they had to survive going through the Omega-4 relay. Of all people, Chief Morgan had appeared completely nonplussed when she announced they were going to cross that relay. Not even a hint of doubt or fear. Drescher had told her to watch him. As long as he wasn't worried, everything was going according to plan.
She really wanted to have a sit down with Drescher and hash things over. Clearance her ass. Morgan was part of her crew.
"Approaching relay," Ramirez announced. "IFF signal broadcast... and accepted."
The relief she felt was immeasurable. Now to see if that was all it took.
"Begin relay transit." She hit the PA. "Attention all hands. We are about to cross the Omega-4 relay. You have your orders. God willing, we will see them through. Good luck, and good hunting."
"Relay transit in five, four, three, two, one..."
The vague feeling of vertigo that accompanied relay transit seemed a hundred times stronger this time. Either the nerves, or this particular relay. It took a moment too long before they emerged on the other side of the relay, and as they did, the proximity alert started blaring overhead as the entire ship shook with the impacts of the debris field they had entered. The console projection in front of her updated as they plunged through, their front shield forging a path for the carrier to glide through. Even so, some of the debris collided, bounced, and split, sending some of the ship remains around them crashing on the Einstein's hull. She watched the reports as the kinetic barriers took hit after hit. Then finally, and with a final rattle, the Einstein emerged above the accretion disk, and into open space.
While the crew didn't quite break into cheers, she felt they had come quite close. In front of her, the map kept updating. The debris field was immense, and some of the fragments that had broken off were now tracing a path that betrayed an actual intelligence with a flight path behind them.
"Luca, open a channel, wide frequency broadcast," Kishi said.
"Aye sir," the Lieutenant replied. It took but a moment. "Ready."
Kishi took a deep breath and hit the comms. "This is Rear Admiral Aino Kishi of the Systems Alliance. To the Collectors. Your actions against the safety and security of the Systems Alliance has forced us to respond in kind. We are here to demand your unconditional surrender, as well as an explanation for the actions taken against hte Systems Alliance and humanity. We are willing and able to use deadly force to force you to comply. Kishi out."
She flipped the comms off, but didn't have to wait for an answer.
"Sir," Lieutenant Turner called. "There's movement coming from the base. It looks like a large piece has dislodged- Wait, no, that's a ship. It's breaking off, direct vector."
"This is it, people. Launch the flotilla, delta defensive formation. Deploy fighter wings A through G, and Brontes, A through D. All hands, prepare for combat."
That was it. For better or worse, their assault on the Collector base had begun.
Author's Notes: Well, hi everyone! Welcome back. And to me too! I've spent the last week and a half sick as a freaking dog after some ridiculously bad food poisoning that had knocked me on my ass like you wouldn't believe, including a visit to the ER because why the fuck not start 2021 with style. Good times! Regardless! We're back to the swing of things, and the Systems Alliance is about to go balls to the wall against our friends the Collectors. Perfect timing! Would have been more perfect if Convergence was doing the same, but no need to delay things.
Or, actually, a need to delay things! I had the attack on the base halfway written, and instead decided I needed to backtrack because the jump straight into the action felt a little rushed. So put that to the side, and wrote this chapter instead. Ended up being a lot about Shepard, and I glossed a bit over the briefing because there'll be time later on to have some banter and chat between Roy, the tourists, and everyone else. After all, the first part of the attack is pure ship combat, so the N7s and Roy will be sitting there in their shuttle with their thumbs up their arses. But some dialog between the Justicar, the Drell, and Roy seems in order, don't you think?
Anyway! Let's hope the action carries well forward. And the post-action. Because this is where everything changes (which you should have suspected given how everything has been set up so far).
In the meantime! If you want to support me, I'd truly appreciate it! Right at this link, which looks like crap thanks to FFnet being a dick about links:
tinyurl (period) com (slash) y2q9cop6
Reviews! A bit more time to accumulate reviews this time, let's hear 'em!
Finshadow212th: You can look forward to your comment about Roy's apparent inability with tech and everything else to be addressed soon. If things go well that is (muahahaha!).
Jasticus: Ah man, shipping is always a fun topic. Yeah, Roy x Ali dynamic is a lil' weird, there'll be more on that later. Wahea, well, that too, but much later. All in good time my friend! As far as Andromeda goes, Roy left shortly after the ME3 release, so nope! Haven't really thought much about the characters since the fic is very ME3-centric, and Roy wouldn't really think of those characters at all. Doesn't mean they might not show up, you're right that they'd fit and an N7 is an N7, they do carry weight. I'll have to think about it, thanks!
Uemei: Well, I haven't shipped Shep and Alenko yet haha! Shepard is going to be complicated to ship to be honest, we'll see how she handles it. And thanks on the feedback on Wahea. I do enjoy overexplaining sometimes in the Author's Notes :D
maesde, RIOSHO, SpecterXCove, BJ Hanssen, Tom712, thanks for the support!
Next time, on Mass Effect: Divergence: If it isn't obvious, I don't know what to tell you! :D