Chapter 14 – All the King's Horses

January 24th, 2211, 0429 hours – Aboard the SSV Hippocrates, Deck 12, Pedestrian Corridor 30A

11 hours and 29 minutes after Outbreak.

My comm. set pinged green as we made our way down the corridor. "Spectre Operative Cloud, this is Flight Lieutenant Fyordinarova, come in," said Val. The helmsman of the SSV Excalibur sounded a bit nervous, and there weren't many things in this galaxy that could unnerve Valeria Fyordinarova, not while she was in the cockpit of her own ship.

I raised a finger and immediately pressed down on my transmit button.

"This is Spectre Cloud, what's the problem Flight Lieutenant?" I replied. Beside me Cade pressed a finger to his own comm. set and tuned in to our channel to listen in.

"Sensors just picked up something. Ladar painted it as a cruiser-sized vessel coming out of the relay. It's on an approach vector towards the Hippocrates, I think it might be the saboteur's ride off," Val reported.

"Weapons?" I inquired further. It didn't look like the saboteurs intended to go down with the ship after all.

"They're online and charged. We spotted a mass accelerator, got readings on kinetic barriers and GARDIAN defense lasers…plus what looks like two XM28 Thanix Cannons…"

That was overkill. Thanix Cannons were essentially the baby brothers of the devastating magnetohydrodynamic weapons that Reaper Capital ships used to sport. They could tear through even a dreadnought's shields and armor plating with just a few seconds of concentrated fire. The XM28 was the latest in the line of Thanix Cannons, integrated into mainline space combat vessels to complement the weaker but faster-firing mass accelerator cannons that most ships had. It could tear a turian dreadnought to pieces with 2.7 seconds of sustained fire.

And it had two. Its Drive Core must be enormous.

Cade tapped on my shoulder with an armored talon, his blue eyes glinting excitedly. "This might be our last chance to reacquire the Prometheus Data!" he whispered.

I nodded to my friend and held up a hand, signaling for Jaelen and Galen to stop.

I pressed down on my transmit button again. "Flight Lieutenant, how long before their ship is within docking range?" I asked.

"… Navigator Lee thinks maybe twenty-five, thirty minutes tops? One of the Hangar bays just lit up, that might be where they're leaving from." Val replied.

"Where?"I asked tersely. My fingers danced on my omni-tool as I quickly sent her a copy of the ship schematics.

She sent the schematic back with the area in question highlighted. I let slip a wry smile. That was less than a hundred meters from our position and only three decks down. "… Starboard side, Hangar Bay 2-D, there's an entrance on deck 9," Val answered after a few moments of thought.

I shot a glance at Cade and saw that my friend was grinning from mandible to mandible. I gave him a small smile, relishing as much if not more the prospect of getting another chance to kick some sabby ass. In the heat of the moment, I conveniently decided to ignore the fact that the turian – Severus, his name was – had kicked Cade's ass and very nearly kicked mine.

"Spectre… do you want us to engage?" the Flight Lieutenant asked nervously.

That wasn't an option. Ship length and size mattered when it came to both Thanix Cannons and Mass Accelerators Cannons. The increased length and size of the barrel on that ship meant that a larger slug could be propelled at greater velocity than anything the SSV Excalibur could fire. Or handle for that matter. Kinetic barriers were powered by mass effect shield generators, and the bigger the ship the bigger and stronger those tended be.

"Negative, the guns on that thing are too strong, they'll tear you to pieces. Besides, you're our only way off this ship, and I don't fancy having to hijack theirs." I told the helmsman. Or helmswoman.

"Wow. Thank you." Val replied sarcastically.

"No problem, Flight Lieutenant. Keep eyes on that ship, maintain a safe distance and keep us updated. We're going to be initiating evacuation soon and we'll need you in one piece." I said.

"You are such an asshole," Cade scoffed beside me.

"Copy that, Spectre. And Cloud?"

"Yes, Flight Lieutenant?"

"Good luck…"

"I make my own luck, Flight Lieutenant," I finished dramatically.

I clicked off my channel and turned to the rest of my group.

"I make my own luck," mocked Cade.

I ignored my friend and looked towards Jaelen and Galen. "What kind of party hosts would we be if we didn't see our guests to the door?" I asked. God I was funny.

Cade mournfully pressed the back of one hand to his forehead and moaned. "Spirits, you need to stop."

"Not very good ones?" suggested Galen.

"Wouldn't be polite, we can't have that," quipped Jaelen.

Cade grumbled in discontent and kicked at the ground. "Seriously, you treat her like garbage and she treats you like the second coming of Commander Shepard. I use her hairbrush and kill her hamster and hit on her friends one time and she wants my skin for a handbag. Where did I go wrong?" he lamented.

Jaelen clasped a hand against my friends shoulder. "Not an expert on human relationships, but possibly because she knows Spectre Operative Cloud is using the necessity of extraction as a pretense to keep her out of harm's way, and because Spectre Operative Cloud considered an attractive member of his species," he suggested.

Damn, my asshole puckered a bit after hearing that. God damn it, Jaelen.

"Can we focus up?" I asked, "We have maybe twenty-three minutes before that cruiser gets here and that information is lost forever."

I stared at Cade, then Galen, then finally a Jaelen. "Whatever is on that data drive could mean the difference between one outbreak and a thousand. A thousand lives and a million," I sternly reminded them.

That sobered them up. As one, all three of them looked down towards the deck. Without another word I turned down one of the side corridors and began making my way towards Deck 9, Hangar Bay 2-D. I meant every word I said. Sarah died to obtain that information. Millions might die if we didn't reobtain that information. Billions could die if the saboteurs were allowed to keep that information.

Galen was the first to follow, his rifle held resolutely in his grasp and his face a stony mask of determination. Jaelen soon came around and fell in line, leaving Cade to take the rearguard.

I toggled channels to the private one we Spectres shared and hailed Percival next, to keep him abreast of the developments.

"Percival, this is Cloud, do you copy?" I asked.

"Cloud, this is Percival, we copy. What's up?" My fellow Spectre replied. In the background I could hear weapon's fire and garbled Spanish curses. Damn it, I had sent them back because I didn't want the marines to fight.

"Flight Lieutenant Fyordinarova reported that a cruiser-sized ship just dropped out of the relay. She reports that it's heading towards one of the hangar bay and we believe that the saboteurs are there, awaiting evacuation. Are things okay on your end?" I asked with concern. I could hear the gunfire and the howling intensifying over his channel.

"Just peachy, eta to bridge is about fifteen minutes, remind me never to piss off Cade's girlfriend," Percival replied.

"She's not my girlfriend," Cade flatly stated.

"Copy that, we're moving to intercept the saboteurs and we're going to try and reobtain the Prometheus Data," I told Percival.

"I thought you said that their combat capabilities outrivaled ours?" my friend pointed out.

I pinched the bridge of my nose and sighed off-channel before re-opening the link. "It's our last chance. We've come across new information regarding the outbreak and the phenomenon back on Earth, Percival. We need that information, and at the very least, we cannot let them have it," I resolutely stated.

A few moments of silence, then Percival's voice came through once more.

"Understood, we'll continue on back to the bridge and figure out a way to destroy the ship, then we'll begin preparations for evac. You guys stay safe, you hear?"

I smiled. Safe didn't exist on this ship.

"Roger that, Spectre, don't leave without us. Tell Cade's girlfriend that I'll bring her boy home in one piece," I finished.

"She is not my girlfriend," Cade repeated emphatically, pausing after each word like a petulant child as if that would somehow drive his declaration home and spare him from all the jokes that Percival and I were going to make in the coming future.

"Ha, roger that. Percival out."

We halted outside an elevator. I stepped aside and gestured for Cade to press the button, which he did rather despondently.

Galen checked the heatsink and ammunition block on his Avenger, while I did the same with both my N7 Hurricane and my N7 Valkyrie. I helped Jaelen checked his, then made sure that his kinetic barrier was in working order before I did the same to mine as well. I tapped on the activation button for my Tactical Cloak, ensuring that it was at one hundred percent functionality and wouldn't decide to up and flake on me. There was no way we could retrieve the data using a full-on frontal assault.

The elevator opened and we stepped inside. We had no idea how many hostiles would be waiting for us in the hangar bay, but it was safe to assume that every surviving saboteur would be there, plus the salarian, the turian, and Locke himself.

"She's not my girlfriend," Cade said miserably.

January 24th, 2211, 0448 hours – Aboard the SSV Hippocrates, Deck 9, Maintenance Corridor 13D – Outside Hangar bay 2-D

11 hours and 48 minutes after Outbreak.

"I'm moving in now," I radioed.

"Roger, we'll await your signal, good luck," Cade replied.

I gently slid my fingers through the mesh of the air vent and pushed, popping it out of place.

As quietly as I could, I set it slowly aside and slid out of the vent, then gently replaced the grating once I was free.

The hangar bay currently buzzed with minute sounds of life. The indicator lights on the massive hangar bay doors flashed green, indicating that they were primed and ready to open. A couple of conveyer belts used to carry cargo circled continuously around the room, and several saboteurs conversed quietly with each other as they awaited pick-up.

In the middle of the cavernous room, large enough to dock a dozen fighters, was Locke. The older man was currently typing something on an omni-tool, and by the looks of it he wasn't too pleased. He kept sighing and running a hand through his salt-and-pepper hair, his brow furrowed and his mouth set in a tight, thin line.

I was some distance away, having just exited a vent situated in a lonely corner of the Hangar bay. The bay itself was at least three decks tall and filled with numerous crates of various sizes. No fighters were docked, but I could see several mechanical loaders strapped to the side. The main entry to the Hangar bay was barricaded shut and several saboteurs had their weapons trained at it.

All in all, plenty of cover.

I crawled from the vent towards a nearby crate, my Tactical Cloak running hot as it worked to keep me hidden. Cade, Jaelen and Galen were up somewhere above, in one of the secondary control rooms for the hangar bay. There they would provide long-range support for me if I was discovered while I did my best to steal the data drive. As much as I wanted to do this completely stealthed, chances are I'd have to take the data drive by force, preferably from Locke's dead fingers.

I peeked my head over the tip of the crate and turned on my helmet's recording cam, ensuring that I got long, lingering footage of each of the main saboteurs. Standing to either side of the rogue N7 were the turian and the salarian. The salarian saboteur wringed his hands like it was a nervous tic, his eyes darted back and forth around the hanger bay in paranoia. The turian had his arms crossed in front of his chest and looked to be leaning casually on his heel, but the small scanning movements he made with his blood-red eyes betrayed just how deceptive his relaxed stance truly.

Interesting to note, Olivia was nowhere to be seen. This further confirmed my suspicion of where she had gone.

"How much longer?" the salarian snapped impatiently. He pulled a trio of grenades from his armor and began juggling them, deftly catching and throwing each one back into the air just in time to catch another.

I wish I still had a few sticky grenades left, if I did I'd just crawl right up to them and blow the fuckers to kingdom come.

Locke looked up from his omni-tool and gave the salarian a reassuring look. "Peace, Zakiah, the Exeter will be here momentarily," the rogue N7 assured him.

The turian turned towards Locke and nodded his head towards his omni-tool. "Are you sure we have everything that we need?" he asked him.

Locke turned back to his omni-tool and tapped a few more commands.

"Mordred says that it should be enough to proceed with phase two. Besides, the situation has become too dangerous for us to stay any longer," he told the turian.

Who the fuck was Mordred? I slipped out from behind the crate while they were talking, using the volume of their voices to mask any sounds that I might make, and moved to hide behind one of the loaders a few meters closer to their position.

"We can stay," the turian offered.

Locke shook his head. "No point, it's been almost twelve hours. We haven't recorded any further changes for the last six, and I doubt that we're going to see any more if we decide to stay."

"This was a pointless side endeavor from the start!" snarled the salarian, Zakiah. "Without the right core their abilities are incomplete, we should have went straight to phase two instead of wasting our time!"

"We had to make sure," Locke pointed out.

"Mordred had to make sure," Zakiah sneered. He deftly plucked a knife from his belt and began juggling that alongside the grenades. "Mordred may think we have all the time in the world, but some of us aren't so fortunate."

Locke patted a pouch on the side of his utility belt. "Don't forget, we also came for the Prometheus Data. This research will save us years of waiting."

Bingo.

I crept towards Locke as quietly as I could, one hand on my knife and the other out in-front of me. With a bit of luck, his kinetic barriers wouldn't do a thing to stop my combat Talon and I could grab the data and re-stealth before his companions could even realize what had occurred.

His back was turned and his attention still on his omni-tool. Both Zakiah and Severus were still standing to either side of them, and although they seemed to be scanning the room they both looked to be lost in their own thoughts.

I was about a meter away when things went horribly wrong.

Tactical Cloaks didn't simply give someone the ability to do whatever the hell they wanted, whenever they wanted, completely undetected. They had weaknesses.

First and foremost was the fact that gunfire and rapid movements tended to disrupt or shut down the cloak. The second was the fact that you weren't completely invisible – lower-grade tactical cloaks made you look like a static, translucent ghost while the higher grade ones left you looking like a barely-perceptible mirage.

Finally, they emitted heat, once again with the lower-grade cloaks emitting higher amounts of heat, and the better ones emitting lower amounts. This meant that thermal optics was highly effective against tactical cloaks, and experienced veterans might very well literally feel you coming. My cloak was top-of the-line.

So when Locke suddenly whirled and threw a powerful roundhouse kick right into my armored chest, breaking my Tactical Cloak and sending me flying onto my back, I immediately knew that things weren't going to go as easy I'd hoped. I cursed at my own naivety. The man was an N7 veteran, did I really think I could just creep up to him, stab him, and be on my merry way with the data?

If he broke one of my ribs, I couldn't feel it, not with the drugs I'd taken back in the medical lab still coursing through my system.

I coughed once before flipping back onto my feet and calling upon my biotics. My amp blazed a brilliant, sapphire blue and flames began racing down my hands.

"Now?" Cade asked.

"Wait," I quickly instructed my comrades.

My left hand began to move up in preparation to fire off the biggest Singularity I could muster, but before I could complete the gesture a four-fingered hand grabbed my wrist and twisted it to the side, disrupting the physical mnemonics necessary to use my Singularity.

The red eyes and white scales of the turian saboteur appeared inches from my face. Before he could so much as blink, I threw two vicious elbows right into his left mandible, then an armored knee into his stomach.

Severus grunted in pain but stubbornly refused to let go of my left hand, so I grabbed a Talon with my right and drove it straight at his face.

He was forced to let go in order to duck underneath my blade, to avoid having my combat knife embedded halfway through his skull. This gave me the opportunity to cast a quick Throw field with my left hand — just a slight opening of my fingers — that sent him flying back a dozen meters, crashing bodily into a pile of crates.

"Now?" Cade asked.

"Hold."

I grabbed my N7 Valkyrie from my back and aimed it towards Locke, but a flying blue orb collided with the barrel of my weapon and began sizzling.

I grunted in annoyance and immediately turned and hurled it at the nearest of the lower-ranked saboteurs, only just now reacting to my sudden appearance. My weapon collided with the man's helmet and knocked him cold, Zakiah's grenade detonating a split second later and reducing the man to a pile of bloody armor. His comrades gave him a look and then immediately began firing their weapons at me.

I effortlessly erected a biotic barrier that stopped their bullets in their tracks. The minagen X9 was working wonders.

Galen's youthful, flanged voice came onto my radio and cried out a warning. "Cloud, it looks like you're about to have company!"

In that moment a series of ghastly howls erupted from the front of the hangar bay, near the entrance, causing the hairs on my arms to stand straight up and goosebumps to erupt around my neck.

The saboteur standing at the rear of the group was in the middle of turning towards the newcomers when a massive pair of metal talons went straight into her chest. A human Corpser screamed directly at the faceplate of her helmet, sending goblets of blue oil and blood at its reflective surface. The saboteur weakly grabbed at the rotted synthetic forearm attached to the talons.

It ripped its claws out of her chest, coating her nearest allies in a spray of blood. The saboteur dropped to the ground without a word, dead.

With another swipe it tore her helmet right off and crawled on top of her. Its stomach ripped apart like a garbage bag and suddenly half-a-dozen Crawlers began to scuttle their way up the dead saboteurs torso and force their way into her throat. I shuddered as she began to convulse and her flesh began to twist in and around itself, sprouting metal spines and her very own set of metal talons. With a howl she rose up and joined her fellow Corpsers against her former allies.

Her allies stopped firing at me and began firing at the creatures that now swarmed into the hangar bay. I dropped my barrier and turned my attention back towards the saboteurs.

The turian had recovered and was now standing alongside his fellow saboteurs. He had an M-11 Suppressor pistol in one hand and a combat knife in the other. Locke pulled out a silenced M-5 Phalanx pistol, just like the one Percival had, and had it trained squarely at my chest.

The salarian had a Scorpion heavy pistol, the same one that he had used back at the data archives, also aimed at my chest.

"Your pet Spectre is becoming quite a nuisance, Locke!" Zakiah snarled.

I could see Locke's finger tighten ever so slightly around the trigger. "Son, you don't want to do this."

A human howl of pain momentarily diverted their attention away from me. The rogue N7 then gestured behind me towards his fellow saboteurs currently fighting for their lives against what used to be the ship's crew. "Severus, help them," he ordered.

The turian looked at me, then at Locke, then slowly nodded and ran off to join his comrades.

"Shoot him!" the salarian shrieked, spittle flying from his mouth left eye twitching manically.

Locke didn't move so much as a muscle, didn't so much as say a word. Instead he continued to stare intently at me, pistol raised.

The inaction of his comrade proved too much for the salarian saboteur. Zakiah let out an incoherent scream and fired a volley of shots from his Scorpion. The deceptively-slow moving slugs flew directly towards my face. If they hit me, there'd be nothing left but a charred, sloppy mess.

I dove and rolled beneath them. The volley moved to track me but I was already sprinting away. They landed on the ground and detonated harmlessly, scarring the deck plating but otherwise doing no damage.

A pair of grenades flew at my face but I biotically deflected them aside with a flick of my hand. Locke remained perplexingly motionless as I sprinted towards his fellow saboteur. The salarian snarled in frustration and pulled out a custom M-9 Tempest submachine gun from behind his back.

He fired an extended burst that began to chew through my shields. My kinetic barriers whined piteously and tell-tale blue sparks began to flicker up and down my body as my shields dropped at a precarious rate. The saboteur was using Disruptor ammunition. They would chew through my shields faster than normal rounds.

I wasn't going to give him the opportunity to do so. Before my kinetic barriers could fully deplete I rolled to the side, bringing me out of the way of the bulk of his gunfire.

I threw my left hand forward, throwing a massive, roiling blue ball of biotic power directly at the salarian. With a smirk he mirrored my roll and slipped right under my Warp. It impacted the side of the hangar bay and immediately began eating away at the wall-plating. Within seconds a large portion of the metal wall began to warp and twist. The Minagen X9 didn't just increase the size of my biotic attacks it also increased the damage they were capable of inflicting.

He might have slipped past my first one, but he was unprepared for the second Warp I immediately threw his way. Zakiah sidestepped my next Warp by mere inches, the proximity of the biotic attack causing his kinetic barriers to hiss in protest. The scarred salarian took a brief moment to glance at the impact point of my second Warp, taking a second to note the damage it was currently doing to the massive crate it had hit, before turning back to me and letting out a low growl.

Before he could blink I simultaneously threw two more Warps, one to either side of him. With nowhere to dodge, the salarian was unable to avoid my fifth one. It slammed into his chest and immediately began eating through his kinetic barriers. After a few seconds, his barriers were completely drained and my Warp began eating at his very flesh.

The salarian saboteur fell to the deck with a howl and began writhing in pain and clawing at his face. Before I could finish him off, three gunshots slammed into me from behind. I whirled to see the turian sprinting straight towards me, the barrel of his M-11 Suppressor smoking. He was followed by the last of the surviving saboteurs. Behind them were the bodies of dozens of felled Corpsers. They opened fire at me but I managed to bring up a biotic barrier between me and their gunfire just in time.

"Now, Cade!" I screamed.

A volley of gunfire erupted from higher up in the hangar bay, where my team was currently camped. The turian saboteur's shields whined and then depleted with a crack, allowing a burst from either Cade or Galen to sink deep into his right hip. He stumbled with a grunt of pain but otherwise didn't let up from his sprint towards me. I sank my feet into the deck and prepared to meet his charge.

I grunted in surprise as he ran past me and grabbed the screaming salarian by the collar of his armor and hefted him onto his shoulders. With his wounded comrade in tow, he immediately began running towards the hangar bay doors, the six remaining saboteurs following close behind him.

I raised my Predator pistol and let out a volley of rounds. I blinked in surprise as Locke placed himself between his fellow saboteurs and my pistol, my rounds bouncing harmlessly off of an omni-shield that erupted from his omni-tool gauntlet.

"Let them go, son," he ordered.

"Fuck you," I spat.

I was getting real tired of this guy. The rogue N7 hadn't so much as moved a muscle as I kicked his salarian friend's ass. He had even had a gun trained on me the entire time but hadn't taken a single shot. Back in the data archives he'd done much of the same thing. He just stood by and watched as Cade and I carved through his friends.

The omni-shield he had used to deflect my bullets were commonly employed by N7 Paladin Sentinels during the Reaper War. Experienced users could not only use it as an added layer of protection, but also as an impromptu melee weapon, infusing it with either incendiary, cryo or shock upgrades. Masters of the omni-shield could swap between all three during the heat of combat, adapting to changing needs as a fight progressed.

My hands blazed bright blue as I ran towards the rogue N7. I leapt in the air and simultaneously drew my fist back, throwing a biotically-enhanced punch hit him square in the center of his shield as I landed, sending him reeling backwards.

Before I could follow up with another attack, he swung his shield at me in a vicious underhand strike, the surface of it glowing a bright, electric blue as he did so.

I slipped to the left and managed to dodge it, noticing that a wave of static washed over my HUD as I did so. I aimed a kick at the side of his head but he managed to catch it with his fist and pulled me off balance. I used his hold as an anchor to bring my other leg up towards his face in a twisting kick. He caught my kick on the lip of his omni-shield.

He let go, allowing me to fall to the floor in a crouch. I sprang back up and threw another biotic punch. Milliseconds before I connected, the shield blazed bright red. By then it was too late to stop and my fist went crashing full force into the red-hot surface of his omni-shield.

The impact sent Locke staggering a couple steps backwards towards the hangar bay doors. Steam rose from my armored gauntlet in thin ribbons from burn marks atop each of my knuckles. Pushing the pain to the back of my mind, I sprinted at him again to resume my assault.

A volley of gunfire from either Cade or Galen above above forced Locke to raise his shield to cover himself, giving me an opportunity to strike. I threw another Singularity in an attempt to entrap the saboteur, only for him to roll backwards and leap out of the way. Still he refused to fully fight me, instead choosing to give up ground and staying on the defensive.

It wasn't until the hangar bay doors began to open did I realize what he had been trying to do all along. I stifled a curse as the massive doors opened, revealing the inky backdrop of space. Shimmering mass effect fields outside the ship kept the hangar bay pressurized, preventing us from being vented out into the blackness.

I watched as the side of a massive ship pulled up not fifty meters away from the doors. The cruiser was a dull, gunmetal grey, its shape and profile reminiscent of the typical Systems Alliance cruiser. The words "Exeter" was painted in large, blocky white letters across its side. It bristled with GARDIAN defense lasers all charged and ready to fire. The Systems Alliance Navy emblem and its original name were covered by a massive black piece of metal plating that looked like it had been welded on.

The Exeter's own hangar bay doors opened and a black shuttle the make of which I had never seen before came flying out of it. It made a beeline towards the deck of the Hippocrates and opened up its doors to where the surviving saboteurs had taken up defensive positions behind some crates to await extraction.

I used some of the last of the Minagen X9 in my system to toss a powerful Throw field towards the surviving saboteurs. Several of the saboteurs managed to dive away, the turian and his salarian baggage included, but two of the saboteurs who were either wounded or had been too slow were hit by my biotic field and thrown out of the hangar bay doors into space. They screamed as they were thrown out of the mass effect fields that surrounded the Hippocrates at a speed that made rescue almost impossible.

They would die out there when their oxygen ran out.

Locke cursed and began retreat even faster. With a snarl I sprinted towards the older man with an intent to bring him to the ground.

He swiftly brought his omni-shield across in a powerful, horizontal slash, but I managed to duck underneath it by mere millimeters and at the same time whip out my Predator and unload it into the shield emitter on his omni-tool. The Disruptor ammunition I had loaded into it managed to short-circuit it and fry the device, removing his shield out of the equation.

Locke was fast and retaliated with a vicious right hook right into the side of my helmet. Unfortunately for him, the stimulants running through my veins made his hit feel like nothing more than a cuff behind the ears, despite the fact that I knew that I'd wake up the next morning with a series of wicked bruises along my jaw.

I could hear Cade's voice coming faintly from my helmet radio, "Cloud, you're in our shot," he said.

"I've got this," I replied.

Locke took the opportunity to kick my Predator out of my hand and then close in and launch a series of palm strikes right into my chestplate, sending me stumbling back. Beyond him I could see that the turian saboteur was busy helping the rest of the survivors onto the shuttle. The salarian was now motionless, his body no longer covered in the blue flames left by my Warp attack.

The turian finished and looked at Locke, who waved him away with a brief hand gesture. Locke turned his attention back to me and aimed a series of vicious kicks to the side of my head. The older man was fast, faster than I gave him credit for.

I deflected them with my armored forearm and tried to counterstrike with a jab of my own, only to have him slip under it with surprising dexterity and speed. He quickly sent a fist crashing into the underside of my jaw that snapped my head back, then followed it up with a series of punches and kicks that left me on my back, wheezing for air.

I flipped around and got to my feet and dove at him again, only for his knee to come straight up at my face. I deflected it with my forearms again only to leave my upper body vulnerable to him. He capitalized on my mistake by driving his forehead right into the bridge of my nose, snapping my head back and covering the front of my armor in my own blood.

Either I was too tired or he was too good, I didn't know. The Minagen X9 had long since worn off and I could feel its aftereffects begin to set in. I wasn't sure if I could beat him, not in a straight up fight. Undaunted, I came at him again. There was more than one way to win. This time I didn't move to attack him. Instead I dove at his belt and tried to grab the data drive containing the Prometheus Data.

He realized what I was attempting to do and shoved me bodily away. He pulled a grenade from his webbing and rolled it between us. I dove backwards just as it detonated, leaving me unharmed, but nonetheless it gave him the space he required to disengage.

"Locke! Let's go!" roared the turian saboteur. He pulled his M-97 Viper out from behind his back and sent a few rounds my way. I rolled out of the way of the first two shots and brought up a small biotic shield just in time to catch the last one.

Locke turned on his heel and began sprinting towards his fellow saboteurs on the dropship. I had failed, there was no way I was going to catch up to him now.

"Cade!" I screamed, "Left pouch! Shoot it!"

A streak of fire came from high above. Whether it was luck, skill, the will of some cosmic deity, or all of the above, with unerring accuracy it pierced the utility pouch that I had pointed out just as Locke stepped aboard the dropship. Cade had shot something the size of a large wallet on a moving target from almost one hundred meters away.

I watched as Locke reached in and fished out the ruined remains of the data drive, briefly inspecting it before tossing the shattered remains away with a bitter curse of frustration. The turian beside him closed his eyes in defeat and looked away. Locke looked up and turned his icy blue gaze onto me. I removed my helmet with one hand at let it fall to the ground.

I smiled through my blood-spattered teeth and grinned at him, my eyes returning his gaze with quiet, equal intensity. If we couldn't have the data, then neither could the damn saboteurs and this fucking Mordred, whoever the hell he was. I hoped that it granted some measure of peace to the souls of all who had died aboard this fucking ship.

"Fantastic shot, Cade," I told my friend before spitting out a wad of blood onto the deck.

The frustration in Locke's eyes slowly faded away to be replaced with pity and sorrow. He looked at me as the shuttle doors began to close and waved a hand in silent farewell.

"You'll understand one day, son," he promised.

With a hiss the shuttle doors sealed shut and its engines flared as it propelled the craft away from the Hippocrates. I watched as it flew into the Exeter's hangar bay and its hangar bay's doors began to close. After they finished, the Exeter's engines began to spin up, tiny blue licks of flame spitting from the massive cylindrical engines attached to the back of the vessel. I watched silently as the cruiser flew off into the murky black distance, out of my reach.

I sighed and pressed a finger down on my comms. set. "Jaelen, can you close the doors?"

"Need a moment… saboteurs left program running in ship systems, need to reset system."

I waited in silence for a few minutes. With a loud clang the massive hangar bay doors of the SSV Hippocrates began to seal themselves. I walked over to where my Pistol lay on the ground and picked it up, checking the heatsink and the barrel for damage before sliding it into my holster with another sigh. I wiped away some of the residual blood on my face with the back of my hand and keyed down on my transmitter again.

"Percival, this is Cloud, come in," I began.

"Cloud, it's Percival, were you successful?"

I closed my eyes. In that final moment I had been so exuberant, so happy that I'd managed to rob the saboteurs of their prize, my heart alight with joy as I watched Locke toss away the shattered remnants of his data drive in frustration. It had been the sweetest catharsis to all the shit I'd gone through the last twelve hours. Now it was starting to hit me that we had lost the data.

Sure, I had said that if we couldn't retrieve it, then we had to ensure that it was destroyed. But it had been my fault that we couldn't retrieve it. My fault that I hadn't been strong enough or fast enough, even with all those drugs, even with the element of surprise, even with all my experience and skill and whatever talents I possessed. It was my fault.

It was my fault that Sarah died for absolutely fucking nothing.

I frowned and responded to Percival's inquiry. "We were unable to retrieve the data drives. Asset denial was successful, however," I told him.

"Roger that, casualties?"

I quickly pulled up my team's bio-scans on my omni-tool. Jaelen, Cade and Galen were all green.

"Negative."

"Good work, come on back to the bridge. I think we've got a solution."

"Roger that, Cloud out."

The rest of my team ran up to me. Jaelen's eyes grew wide at the sight of my face and chestplate covered in blood while Galen and Cade moved to cover the rest of the room.

"Spectre, are you wounded? Gunshot? Stab wound?" Jaelen inquired.

I shook my head and waved the salarian away. "Just a few bruises, maybe some whiplash, I'll live."

"What happened?" Cade asked.

"The N7 head-butted me in the fucking face," I replied.

"Ha, I know, I watched it. I just wanted to hear you say it."

"Cade, I will fucking end you."

The turian Spectre spread his arms wide and smirked at me. "You're going to end me after that sweet shot I made?" he asked.

I ignored my friend and placed one hand against one a large crate to steady myself. My head swam with pain as the after-effects of the combat stimulants and the Minagen X9 hit me in full force. When my adrenaline had been pumping, all those hits I took had felt like light taps. Now that I was out of danger, I was starting to ache in every square inch of my body.

Galen nudged the body of one of the nearby fallen saboteurs with his boot. "Sir, what happens now?"

I sighed. "We head back to the bridge and make preparations for its destruction and our evacuation. Nothing more we can do now"

The young turian nodded, although his mandibles twitched slightly in apprehension. He shot me a quizzical look. "Did we win?" Galen asked.

I looked back at him and shrugged.

Did we win? The salarian saboteur was most likely dead, the turian wounded. Less than half a dozen saboteurs had made it off the ship, and the data they had worked so hard for, had killed so many for, was now shattered and useless. I couldn't answer the young turian's question, not truthfully at least.

I couldn't answer him truthfully because I didn't know, I couldn't know. Without knowing what was on that drive, without knowing how it could have affected the plans of this "Mordred" character or the phenomenon on Earth, I couldn't tell him whether or not if we actually won. I just couldn't, I could only answer how I felt, give him my opinion, and that was not something I was too keen on doing right about now.

The scar on my face that Olivia had given me back in the engine room itched and burned.

For absolutely fucking nothing.