specialdelivery.2

SUCH BELOW IS AN AUTHENTIC SLICE OF FANFICTION.

ANY DUPLICATE DISPLAYED NOT HERE WILL BE FOUND TO BE PIRATED.

specialdelivery.2

"ARASHU'S DEPARTED"

specialdelivery.2

SASV Normandy SR-1, "Not Quite" Eden Prime

Installment 3

The expanse amounted to complete darkness. Appearing in the window above her bunk, it seemed to pass them, distinguished only by the appearance of pin lights sliding passed the sight through the glass.
Braith perched at the edge of her bed, looking up at it. She cupped her chin, lowering her gaze to her immediate surrounds, and picked herself off the bed—to head to the terminal off the interior bulkhead of her cabin.
Taking the keyboard out from the desk, she entered a command for the cockpit.
"Joker," she said after releasing the carriage return for the pilot, "…Where are we?"
"Citadel's behind us, Commander," came the response in a man's friendly voice over the inner cabin's speaker, "…You wake up only now?"
"Yeah," she kneaded her cheek—on which existed an old itch of a scar, "…Is the captain through your area?"
Fatigue was noted in her tone. "Yep," proceeded Joker's curt reply, "…Just left to check in with Adams down in Engineering…You should probably get ready soon, Commander…"
"I'm late, I know…"
"It happens."
She could almost hear the eyes rolling in his head.
"Come down, Commander. You may head him off in the battery if you're quick enough…I'll give him a heads up to meet you there."
"Thank you, Joker."
She was supporting herself on her arms, brow tilted downward as she emitted a long breath of air from her nostrils.
"…I owe you a few beers."
"Is it dreams again?" He wanted to know, his voice a little more with private concern between the two, "…Or is it the collar this time?"
She felt the metal collar on her neck without realizing she had done so.
Braith stood upright, passing fingers through her hair. "Yes and no," she revealed, unhappy to give any culpability to either collar or dreams about Skyllia and what happened there. "I'm not getting enough sleep this week. I think that's all, Joker…After the captain's content with the reorganization and new living arrangements he's requested, I should be better…Hopefully get some more shuteye."
"I have some meds you can take to sleep, Commander. They're standard ration…I know you've gone through yours from the Doc already..."
"I'll be all right," she declined, "…But thanks, Joker."
"Suit yourself, Commander. Over and out."
The comm clicked off.
Advancing with her dressing, Braith hurried to get ready to go meet the captain.
She breathed out as her bra caught on the mechanical brace supporting her spine. Removing the strap from the hook, she arranged herself upright.
She did not bother to check any mirror for how she looked.
She located her boots and put these on...Braith knew where everything went…How to sort it all together…She'd been programmed for years by force of routine and habit…
Shuttling her fingers through jet black tresses, her fingertip nicked softly upon the metallic collar she had allowed her hand, in its drift to rest on her upper trapezius muscles, to alight on.
Maybe one day soon…She thought to herself.
The emptiness she felt in her head was the result of that collar, but she knew her power was there, somewhere…
Muffled, cut off from her by the inhibitor she wore surgically attached to her spine…
Moving to the doors, she stepped through—into the Normandy's Mess, by the unlocking panels' parting for her code.

Braith located Captain Anderson inside the Battery as Joker promised she may, …Good old Joker, she thought.
She abandoned her stride and stood at parade rest just on the grill passed the Battery doors, sliding shut behind her presence.
Captain Anderson was bent above a computer screen discussing in muted tones the readout with a fellow crew member, Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko.
He straightened his back to see her as Kaidan did, acknowledging Braith with a salute to his temple—and a perfunctory blush to his cheeks—while the captain appraised her late appearance. "There you are, Commander," Anderson greeted her jovially, all aside, "…I was wondering when you'd join me on the rounds."
The old man had an easy smile…when met by her.
Braith came together with her stiffened fingers and temple—out of respect as well as protocol—then dropping her arm next to rejoin her hand behind a svelte, uniformed figure.
"We've picked up a passenger today from the Citadel," Anderson carried on, coming out from behind the computer console to join Braith in escorting her out the doors, "…Nothing to worry about," he appended—as Braith caught a look from the Lieutenant Alenko.
She arced a black eyebrow, slit through one tip by a scar of white flesh.
"A turian," heading toward his office instead of Medical—which would be his next stop from the Battery, "…This way…His name is Nihlus Kryik…" As they descended a stair, passing the long-term sleep pods, they turned right at the bottom. "He's decided to join us for a few assessments, regarding our care of the Normandy…Simple procedure per the Hierarchy's conditions, Commander…"
"'Simple procedure'…Captain," Braith intimated, "…there is nothing standard about Turians, Sir." Anderson quit her standing before the entrance—on the inside of the office and cabin space—walking toward his desk, taking a seat into his leather chair.
He produced a motion with his dark-skinned hand for her to sit in the seat on the other side…
Compliantly she occupied the opposing seat…
"Setting the door to 'Private'," he told her aloud so she would be informed, "…I've asked for quiet on the matter I'm about to share with you…Quiet of the crew, Shepard," he relaxed into their informal rapport behind the closed doors now. "No one's to speak of it inside the ship, much less without the Normandy walls…"
She sat stiffly erect in her seat.
"We've been selected," he paced himself—as if to choose his words would take some wile with Braith, "…to acquire something from a place called Eden Prime," his dark eyes among the white sclerae flicked to hers unsettlingly, "…Nihlus is required to be among our crew as a matter of…request," he applied pausingly. "Agent Kryik is representative of not only the Hierarchy, but the Council…"
"A Spectre," Braith hissed, "…He's Special Tactics and Reconnaissance for the councilors…This must be something big."
"It is," Anderson guaranteed as he cleared his desk, setting report dockets aside. Sliding out a keyboard beneath the top, in short order he pulled up a layout topographically of a big colony, which appeared in the space between them: Eden Prime.
There were ranges, lakes, terraformers over long passages of railway connecting cities to one another.
The stereoscopic hologram reflected its green glow off their faces, "…Eden Prime," "Old Man" Anderson resumed, "…A group of miners stumbled on something, something important to the advent of Humanity's climb into the galaxy, Shepard." His voice grated on, "…A beacon…One of the beacons likely belonging to the protheans, or so Nihlus—including the Council—believes…" He spun the map, it centering on a singular location—just beyond the westernmost city on the hologram.
"Is it…Is it operational?" Braith posed with wonder, staring through the visual at him.
Captain Anderson nodded.
"No wonder the Council wants 'in'," she dropped her eyes to the holo. "An intact and functional beacon could mean leaps in science and…"
"Correct," Anderson cut her off. "And will likely be an attraction to pirates, other enemies that have gotten wind of it, Shepard. We need to get it out."
"Of course, Anderson."
He leaned forward—the green on his chin from the holo intensified, and so did his gravity. "Your collar, Shepard…It will be off for this mission…We're not taking any chances."
"It will?"
"There is one other reason Nihlus is with us, Shepard…"
"Me," she voiced—with trepidation.
"You've been selected for Spectre nomination." He presented unhappily, "…I don't know why…Typically it would be considered an honor, but I feel this is tainted somehow…The Council has been notified that Nihlus Kyrik intends to evaluate you to become the first Human Spectre—ever." Braith tipped backward until she came into contact with the rest of her chair…Shocked. "I felt the same way," he pronounced—gauging her reaction. "I don't like it, Shepard…You're not Spectre material. There is nothing about you that would make you the obvious choice—Alenko should have the nomination…He is a far better selection over you, if you don't mind my honesty here."
"I appreciate your honesty, Sir," Braith meaning it.
Anderson growled in his chest. "Shepard, I'm not trying to be a jerk. I know what and who you were before the Skyllian Blitz!"
He slammed the heel of his fist into his mouse pad, then pushed back abruptly.
Standing, he began a pace-around behind his desk chair, "…You—back then, before what happened!…You would have been the right candidate for the Spectres, dammit!"
"That is the past, Sir, " she allayed him. "What's done is done…This is obviously a farce…I won't accept it—"
"Like Hell you won't…"
Anderson trained down his chin.
After a moment, he looked squarely at her face.
"In a way," he confessed gently, "…It worked out for my aim—to make you a part of my crew…But had you not done what you did…"
He held her gaze solemnly.
"…Poul would never have dropped you from his roster for the Little Bastard."
"Things happen for a reason, Anderson," she returned, a tug in the backs of her eyes. "I'm grateful you believed."
"And I have never regretted it," he declared resolutely. "This is your opportunity to prove out a new course…Shepard, don't screw it up."

The helmet clung too firmly to her head. Braith removed it and set it back on testingly.
HUD is good…
She rustled her fingers under the jaw shield. Flicking on the power button to display the visor's readout, she turned it off and on repeatedly to check for glitches.
Setting the headgear on the Armory bench, she turned suddenly—to the presence of a tall, dark stranger with white marks on his face, a terrific amount of armor on his bulk.
"You must be Nihlus…"
She reached out her hand.
"…We haven't met…officially."
He composed a low thrumming—but it wasn't any language she could understand.
"Can't say I didn't try to cross palms first."
She slipped her unshaken hand back inside her helmet. Pulling out some pads for a little more headspace, she separated her hand from the helmet and dropped the pads into a bin. Next, she unclipped the collar about her neck—unclasping the top half of the circumference that concealed the inner technology in the bottom half. Inside this was the programming that inhibited her power from realizing true link up with her mind.
Without it, she would be able to "see" again…
"Trebusa yetash bina (Must feel good)…" Nihlus at long last spoke, although his relay transformer was not engaged.
"Come at me again," she touched her own implanted node on the side of her neck, "…You need to activate yours before speaking."
Nihlus's maxillae twitched irritably.
Two ticks later, he tapped his relay transformer on the inside of his neck's hollow shell. "Thanks," his voice—clear now—translated through their relays' connection. "How's it feel," he restarted, "…Being in control of your power."
She listed her head at him over her shoulder. "You had a say in my collar release?"
He gazed at her with orange eyes in the raptor like skull, but the look was confirmation enough.
She remitted her own gaze to her armor bin. The half of her collar was on the bench top. "Thank you then…Yeah, it feels good…"
She reached around her neck to start separating wires from the spine brace, connected to the remaining collar.
"Need help?"
Braith shook her head.
"I think I got it."
A talon touched the wire she had been seeking with her fingers walking over the spines.
She abruptly lowered both her arms to the sides, spun and glaring at him.
"I said, I think I got it…Thanks."
"Go on—Show me you're not about to damage your nervous system fumbling blindly around back there."
Braith went back to it, annoyed by the turian's "helpfulness".
The spook lived in the space behind her. She could almost feel it when he blinked. What's he waiting for? Why's he watching this, she wondered, keeping her temper in check. She fancied asking him outright: What is he trying to pull? Is he evaluating everything I do out in the open? What's his problem…Is that the truth of it?
"Do you wonder why you were nominated?"
Regarding him over her shoulder, "…The question did cross my mind."
"You're a connate," he remarked with a rasp. "There's evidence Connates might be able to interact with Prothean beacons. Maybe you didn't know that…Now you do."
"I figured it had something to do with…Listen, I appreciate the—"
"Impress me, Commander."
Nihlus deposited his claw upon the bench surface. Leaning around her so his maxillae were close to her face, "…When we hit the ground, tell me if you can feel it, if you can find it with only your power—not your maps, not your…" He glanced at the helmet and knocked it with his other set of long talons, "…tech…telling you where to find it on Eden Prime."
She stared.
"Why would that make me important to Spectres?"
"There are weapons," Nihlus sibilated, straightening away from her and taking long easy strides through the hangar, toward Engineering, "…Hidden weapons…It is important we find them…You have a pass into the Spectres—you're the rarest of your kind…The human ambassador is willing to overlook a few details, as is the rest of the Council, Commander." He drew up and peered round himself at the mystified woman. "Maybe wipe out a record or two..."
"You're in need of biotics…"
"Not just any biotics. Those born to combine with the energy around them, are inseparable from it…Vestiges of that which was destroyed long ago."
"I think you're loose a few marbles—respectfully, Spectre…"
Nihlus chuckled, his presence reverberating in the hold. His oddly backward legs moved him forward again. The armor barely seemed to encumber him. "I like honesty, Commander—that, too, is a rare thing of the past…"

The scenery was a beautiful dusky orange, smeared by the whimsical streaking of purple clouds.
A towering terraformer pointed to the sky in the far distance. From their stance on the edge of the cliffs—just outside Colony-12—they could witness it funneling a faint stream of gray into the sky from its processors.
Braith clamped down from the Normandy's hangar bay, the silhouette of a tank and a rover in the dimmer lighting behind her. She came down along a wide and sturdy ramp that dug into the ground with its weight. Her boots sank in loamy grass and dirt. It was an unsettling feeling as both made travel harder the softer and more yielding such were.
She tested a rifle in thick paneled gauntlets—most of her armor was plated and aglow with lights.
She was dressed lightly, all considered…
Braith sought outwards, feeling the power inside her moving, breathing, one with her again…
Damn, it's fucking good to be connected, she thought. There came the sound of heavier steps treading down the panels of the rampway above her.
Proceeding into place behind her, two more marines came. Lieutenants Jenkins and Alenko. They wore very distinguishable armors, and each had its own purpose.
Kaidan's was slightly similar to Braith's own—with darker hue, special amplifiers that benefited one such biotic Sentinel.
Jenkins's was thicker, bulkier, meant for getting up close and personal…
They weren't expecting to fight, but Anderson did not want them leaving Serendipity to plot out conditions without their being able to meet a possible malicious encounter with coveters of said beacon.
At six o'clock behind them all came down the austere and imposing specter of Nihlus Kryik, armed and dangerous-looking.
He strode up next to her deliberately. "Seems peaceful," Nihlus observed, taking in the vista. Then with a turn of his head, helmet clipped to his waist, "…What have you got, Commander…"
He waited, expecting.
"Nothing so far," she twisted and looked westerly from him, ignoring the expectant stare. He's not in charge of me…"Site's that'away," she pointed, "…Let's move out and find this thing."
But Nihlus strode passed her, his nose in the air, the maxillae tight to his maw and quivering.
He was sniffing the air, relying on Turian instincts.
"…There's smoke," he looked in Braith's desired direction, through a pair of hills, "…There, over those slopes." Kaidan lifted his rifle scope and looked through it, finding an ashen cloud—thick and nearly black, but distant.
"…I agree. There's definitely something burning, but that looks pretty far," he lowered his rifle and looked at Nihlus, "…You can smell that—from here?"
"Double time it then, People."
Braith's suit lit up. Biotic energy enervated with the amps, giving her speed.
"…Guns out—and watch for Friendlies," she added through the mic in her helmet, visor snapped down and hiding her eyes.
"Aye-aye, Commander!"
Jenkins paced along behind her. Kaidan was at her nine.
Nihlus kept abreast of Braith, who felt more like she was keeping up with him…
They covered the distance fast, making for the sight of the smoke.
It continued to clay into the air…
"We're going to make a fly-by," came Joker's voice—cutting in on the jostle of their helmets and gear. "Commander?"
"Sounds good to me, Joker. Get on it," she replied tersely—and as the Normandy screamed to life, lifting off the promontory behind them, it passed the cliff edge and dropped low out of sight to make a clandestine arc to the other side of the hills a few seconds later.

Braith as well as Nihlus bent slightly downward as they came around a bend in the path they followed through the hills.
Looking into the next clearing, Nihlus pulled up short.
"…Bad place," he said after a scan. "No cover but the rocks. Those trees make me nervous on that hilltop the other side..."
"Agreed."
And yet Braith tread ahead of him, calling the danger to her with her power…
"Commander!"
Jenkins erupted. Exposed of his cover—which he had taken with Alenko behind two boulders—Jenkins fired over his squad leader's head…
The first combat drone fell in a fiery explosion. "Shit," Braith stooped behind her own cover as Nihlus—crouching and hanging his rifle in condensed state over his lower back, fluidly switching to a longer-barreled rifle with multiple scopes and gauges whirring into place—jammed the barrel between the cleavage of two boulders, taking aim.
An explosive hiss was heard. As soon as he'd pulled the trigger, the satisfying pop and clatter of a strike some eight hundred yards off replied. "They're in the cover under the trees," Nihlus snapped. "Commander, be more…"
His gun reported again, shaking pebbles atop one of the boulders, its having been worn smooth by erosion.
"…Careful next time!" Braith studied the turian loading a new cartridge into his widower.
"…Probably shouldn't just try and blow my chances with you and the Council now should I…"
He gave her a black look, saying nothing.
Anderson's right, she reasoned, …I'm not cut for what they want…Something else about me is…Is it really all about my being Connate?
Kaidan crushed some grass as he ran to her side, dodging a grazing bullet, "…I can run to the middle, Commander," he puffed into the comms, "…lure the last out of hiding so the rest of you can take them out." His eyes were white behind his visor glass, adrenaline causing the excitement, "…My barrier can deflect any close shots—for a time, that is."
"Don't be a hero, Alenko." Braith gave him the nod, hefting her rifle. "Whenever you're hot."
Nihlus and Jenkins gripped their arms and fired at the moving drones coming down the hillside in pursuit of the suddenly vulnerable target—Kaidan dodging left and right among the outcropping to avoid direct hits, barrier bright and purple.
"Commander," she discerned Joker's voice, "…Passed the settlement ahead of your position. Bad news: battle or an attack recently. Take it slow."
"Whoever's left the bodies is probably still there, Commander," Anderson's voice cut in.
"Got it!" Braith joined the broadcast to the rest of her squad. "More enemy in the settlement!"
Kaidan was standing above the first drone that had been blown down, "…This is interesting." He lifted its pieces toward the others as they moved forward to reunite. "Reminds me of…Quarian tech?"
"No," Nihlus said, observing it in his hands, "…Geth more like."
"Geth wouldn't be here," Braith hurled back, "…No Geth have come through the Perseus Veil since they went there during the Morning War…They wouldn't be doing this…" She felt the silence weighing heavily.
"A profound belief in the synthetics, Commander," Nihlus clipped sarcastically, "…You one of the few thinking they're Pacifists?"
"Geth or not," she grumbled, looking upwards toward the smoke in the sky cover, "…Something's expecting us…Why else leave these nasties to welcome our arrival."
"I think I can salvage some of this," Jenkins drew a breath as Braith passed the banged up parts to his waiting gloves, "…Gimme a sec..."
"We don't have time," Braith eyed the trees up ahead, "…and yet I'd prefer you hurry up so we can send a lure other than Alenko up there into those trees."
Jenkins worked on the drone. In a matter of seconds, he had it flying again. It levitated awkwardly in the air, but was functional.
Without a gun, however.
"Hacked in," Jenkins shared, manipulating an interface over his omni-tool, aglow with the simulation, "…Shall I send it, Commander?" He glanced sideways at her visor.
"Alright with me."
They watched the drone being guided into the air—toward the tree line.
The sound of ratcheting was heard…Next, the drone was hurtling in a fiery doom toward the cliffside on their northern flank.
"Oh shit—"
"Well that hit the nest!"
Braith with Alenko, Jenkins and Nihlus dove out the way of missiles—flaring with bright tails from the tree line…Raging around them, tearing up rock, dirt, as the squad hid from the craziness.
"Everyone stay down!" Braith squeezed her hands together, eyes lighting up with blue fire as the others looked on.
"…That's what I've been waiting for," she whispered as she stepped out of cover, mind melding with the force inside her body.
In the middle of a display of biotic power—wreathed with fresh take from her mind—Braith threw up a wall of air that stopped the incoming missiles flat…These ruptured and spread across the surface of the wave of air, curling backwards in violent, startling red and black plumes. She advanced rapidly uphill toward the silhouettes emerging from the tree trunks still, dashing from boulder to boulder like a blur of lightning—more missiles following shortly after the first rebuff in seeking her cold heat source. Drawing forth from her power, violence from her rushed the closest drawing silhouette, knocking it into the one behind with a clamor of metal on metal. The sound of plastics and heavy alloys crumpled together, small pops and shrieks of gurgling noise—such as with a LAN-line connecting over the network.
It can't be…She forged her way now slower toward the forms in the pile, caution more out of disbelief than risk for her wellbeing mitigating her formerly surefooted and fast attack-approach.
The bodies amounted to nothing she had encountered yet in her career…These twitched, sparked and passed fumes of melting through openings in their mangled tops—presumably "heads" with dimming lights, a heavy duty lens each, and very similar to what Braith knew of digital cameras though far more alien, hardcore in design…The limbs and torsos had thick cabling, swathes of synthetic rubbery materials resembling some form of organic…
Skin?…
A keen knife of horror stabbed her insides as her power warned her—these weren't alive…In fact, might have been trying to replicate something living…Braith drew to a stop, staring at the grotesquely fascinating shapes, a witness to some virulent roadkill that had adapted the vehicle having hit it—for parts.
"We've got something up here," she commed via her helmet to the others…The others reached her at the rim of the hill, under the tree shade, and bore the sight in their own quiet reflection.
Nihlus nudged one of the "heads" with his rifle's nozzle, "…These look a bit…developed," he growled thoughtfully, "…Geth most certain in origin…Quarian, technically, but…Seems like they've been busy behind the Perseus Veil all these years…Why are they here…at a human colony," he asked himself rather than those about him, raising his head to face the forest inner.
"They're bigger than the ones we've studied within the Alliance labs," Braith received nods of agreement from the two marines with her—Kaidan's nod accompanied by a gauntlet clasping to the top of his helmet, "…Guns and drones are impressive," she indicated the nearby weapons dropped from their owners' clutches after Braith's power had handled them…She picked up one of the missile launchers and looked it over, "…Maybe we can use this…if there's more of them."
"I might be able to get some data out of them," Jenkins endeavored to lift what looked like a shoulder of one of the geth, "…if I can find an intact processor in this heap," he then dropped the heavy torso with a clack of metal and plastic, moving directly toward a head that had not been crushed by Braith's power, "…Not looking good," he mumbled with a long steady stare at the part he was hoping to open with his gauntlets…He removed one off his hand and tried with fingernails.
Braith passed him to cover them in case any more surprises should come from the woods, "…Do what you can, Jenkins," she added, "…Sure would be useful whatever you find in that pile there."
"You were a little slow with your power," Nihlus nibbled at her with his commentary as he, too, stepped beside her to scan the woods, "…Not very impressed so far."
"Oh, I'm sorry," she stated softly between them, not looking at his helmet—which had tipped its front toward her direction, a long stare over the crown of her headgear by Turian eyes, "…I had a collar between me and my power a few years," she had taken them off squad comm, "…We're getting into the groove again."
"You'd better 'groove' it out quicker with your power, Commander," Nihlus nosed, his sub vocals humming with an irritation—or an apprehension, "…I can't be watching your backside this entire mission."
"No," she spoke under her breath in the privacy of her muted headgear, "…just til you get what you need from me, that's all," she turned her visor to see him move off into the trees.

specialdelivery.2