Chapter 30 - Underdogs

March 14th, 2211, 0624 hours — Aboard the SSV Excalibur — Deck 5, Hangar Bay

Data Corruption… Automatic Reconstruction Failed…Data Corruption….Profile Reconstruction Required…

(Spectre Operative 04272182-Cloud)

"Are you sure about this?"

"Yes,"

"Cade, are you goddamn sure about this?"

"YES!"

"You are out of your goddamn mind…"

My friend triple-checked the straps keeping the booster pack attached to the back of his armor. Technically it was already magnetically attached, but Cade had opted for the straps as well – two-inch thick tungsten nylon straps designed to withstand atmospheric re-entry. Couldn't blame him with what he was intending to do.

Cade pointed an accusatory talon at my face, prompting me to roll my eyes. "No, he is out of his goddamn mind," he snapped at Percival. "Going into a nest full of crazy, murderous zealots with just her watching his back…"

"Hey, it might still just be me watching his back," Elektra laughed. She grabbed Cade's booster pack and wiggled it around violently. Cade whirled and slapped her hand away, mandibles flaring.

I gently steered Elektra away while Percival did the same with Cade.

Percival spun Cade around and double-checked his fuel nozzles, straps, and trigger mechanisms. "When's the last time you even pulled one of these landings off?" Percival asked him.

Cade flipped off a still-smiling Elektra and resumed checking his straps. "Illium, off of the old Dantius towers," the turian replied.

Percival stopped and cocked an eyebrow in disbelief. "That tower was like 1200 meters tall, you're going to be jumping from almost ten times that."

"Spirits, you don't think I know that?"

I sighed, grabbed a spare booster pack and clipped it onto my back. I was almost certain that I could use my biotics to completely slow my impact, same as Elektra, but it wouldn't hurt to have a spare one just in case Cade lost his.

"You know that if you lose your booster pack you're screwed right, the booster jets on your armor alone won't be able to take you out of terminal velocity," I told him.

My friend spun and glared at me, his eyes gleaming maniacally and his pupils dilated. "I am one hundred percent aware," he hissed. The very real chance of his jetpack falling off and of him falling to his death made his reaction and irritation at his predicament rather hilarious. The true nature of an individual tends to showcase itself the closer that individual is to death, and Cade's nature was as comedic as they came.

Cade then made sure that his beloved Black Widow and Vindicator was securely strapped to his chest and that his Carnifex pistols tightly holstered to his thighs. He had enough thermal clips to wipe out the entire generator garrison by himself. My Snakebite and my Predator was ready to go. I wouldn't be taking a medium-ranged weapon with me. Elektra had her N7 Hurricane and her Scimitar and her own Predator for back-up. Both of us had almost identical sets of black Ariake Technologies Armor, except hers was trimmed in dark-purple while mine was in dark-blue.

"Spectres, were almost over the generator facility now, just outside the sensor range of their guns," Val radioed to us.

"Roger that Val, tell the Jaegers and the specialists to get down to the hangar and prep for departure as soon as alpha team leaves," Percival replied. As soon as Val dropped us off, she would drop Percival off with the larger assault team comprised of the Jaegers and assorted specialists we picked up down at the satellite facility. With any luck, we'd soon have control of the generators powering the planetary defense cannons and planet-wide comms. We could begin providing support to the locals and finding out exactly what the hell these defectors were trying to pull on Anhur.

I walked over to the hangar bay doors and pulled the lever. The ramp lowered with a hiss of hydraulics, exposing the hangar to the howling snowstorm outside. The Excalibur's mass effect fields kept the wind out of the hangar but not the cold. I shivered as my armor began adjusting to compensate for the sudden increase in temperature. All I could see outside was darkness and a whirlwind of snowflakes. Fitting, seeing as we were currently in the northern hemisphere of Anhur. Unfortunately, it would also play hell with our landing and our visuals.

Elektra came up beside me and placed one hand on the edge of the ship, gazing out into the ice storm. She already had her helmet on.

"Pretty," she whispered.

"Cold," I replied.

Cade and Percival joined us on the edge. I could hear Cade taking deep breaths from beneath his own helmet. Percival had crossed his arms over his chest and was staring out into the storm.

"Did I ever tell you how much turians hate the cold?" the turian sighed.

"Don't worry, I packed you a spare change of thermal underwear just in case," Elektra chided.

My friend hissed in reply, but otherwise kept his eyes trained on the storm ahead of us. The four of us stood there for a moment on the ramp, staring out into the howling darkness. The dawn had not yet come nor would it for a little while longer. We watched the flurry of hail and snowflakes slash through the air, only to be stopped short by the mass effect fields generated by the Excalibur.

I could hear the sound of fabric tightening beside me. Percival was digging his fingers into his biceps. "Reminds me of Bahak," Percival finally grunted. "Except with sand instead of snow and minus the cold. Should be warmer near the cities though."

"This won't be another Bahak," I assured him. Beside me Elektra and Cade both nodded. Cade was shaking wildly and making no effort to hide it. Whether it was from the cold or the sheer terror of the upcoming dive I could not tell. Elektra seemed more steady, but I could notice an almost imperceptible tremor in the hand she had on the edge of the ship.

Val came up on the radio again. "We're over the facility, good luck!"

"Roger that Flight Lieutenant! Spectres are departing now!" Percival hollered. The former N7 grabbed Cade in a headlock, rubbed him vigorously on the top of his helmet, then promptly shoved him right off the edge in a very unsafe fashion. I could hear him cursing as he went over. Without missing a beat, Elektra quickly blew Percival a kiss, took two long strides and dove gracefully off the ramp as if she were diving into a swimming pool.

I sealed my helmet onto my head and turned to Percival. He smiled and held out one hand in front of his chest. I took it and he pulled me into a half-hug.

"Be careful down there, don't let those two get themselves killed," he yelled.

I gave him a thumbs-up in reply. My heart was beating a mile a minute. It suddenly just occurred to me that I'd soon be killing again. Real, sentient beings this time, not just mindless monsters. At least they were sentient beings that wanted to kill a bunch of innocent people, so I guess that was a silver lining.

Unlike Cade who been virtually thrown out and Elektra who had elected for a totally impractical but flashy exit, I merely took a step off the edge and let myself fall.

Gravity immediately took hold. I maneuvered so that I was head first and kept my arms tucked as close as possible to try and minimize the winds effect on my trajectory and to catch up to my fellow Spectres. It was pitch black outside. I could see absolutely nothing except the occasional snowflake or ice chip hitting my visor. An altitude gauge immediately lit up on my heads-up display, alongside a temperature reading. The sudden drop in temperature had my suit's thermos-regulators struggling to keep me warm.

The wind howled outside my helmet, shaking it violently. "Cade, Elektra, status?" I barked.

"Green, lighting up my nav now," my friend replied.

"Ditto and ditto,"

Two green arrows with a small distance reader popped up on my screen. Elektra was somewhere off to my left while Cade was further down to my right. By now we had reached terminal velocity. We had about thirty more seconds in freefall to go.

A schematic of the facility came up next. I highlighted a landing pad commonly used for troops and supplies and sent it to my friends. "RV there, expect a hot landing." Their acknowledgement lights lit up in reply. The two of them maneuvered themselves so that they were only about a dozen or so meters away from me according to my HUD. The lower we descended the more the snow and wind cleared up. After half a minute I could start to see their forms beside me.

The snow and ice began to let up as we continued to descend. The facility and the landing pad came up in sight. The facility itself was situated at the top of an ice shelf. It was about as large as you would expect a school to be, no more than two floors tall. In the center was a huge dome that probably housed the generator itself. Massive AA guns were situated along the perimeter, but thankfully none of them were active right now.

"Two hostiles on the landing pad!" Elektra reported. Two red triangles lit up. I squinted, hard. My HUD eventually managed to outline them in red. Both looked to be human and were clad in what appeared to be Systems Alliance armor that had been painted black.

"I've got them," Cade called.

A bright flash erupted from the corner of my vision. Cade fired both his booster pack and the jets on his armor, trying to stop his free-fall. I refrained from staring at my friend and instead kept my vision trained on the two tangos, just in case they began to notice the booster flare. After a few nail-biting moments he managed to come to an almost-complete halt in mid-air. He unslung Meera and let out a trio of shots. The two red outlines immediately dropped and stopped moving.

"Not bad Kitiarian, not bad at all…" Elektra remarked.

The landing pad was fast approaching. Elektra and I both twisted so that our boots were now facing the ground. As one, we both activated our biotic powers. My amp sizzled and cracked as it fought to generate the mass effect fields required to slow me down. It was a tactic that came naturally to both the biotically-talented asari or to extraordinarily-skilled biotics but for Elektra and I it had been something we had learned the hard way in the course of our profession. We didn't use it often, but it had saved our lives more than once and it basically worked 100% of the time unless we were both overly fatigued.

We finally managed to arrest our momentum. I deactivated my fields about two meters away from the landing pad and dropped down. I buckled at the impact and went down onto one knee.

"Snapped a pic of that for you. Looking dreamy," Elektra quipped. She landed with a good deal more grace than I did, unslung her shotgun and began moving towards the downed hostiles.

I unholstered my Predator and followed close behind her, keeping it trained on the door to the facility. The outside was covered in a thin lair of gleaming ice. It seemed like a pretty standard facility – the cookie-cutter kind you'd find on most core planets or large hubs with their grey metal walls, tinted windows, and complete lack of color. It looked like the old research facility on Mars back in Sol.

She made her way to the downed hostiles and checked the bodies. "They're neutralized. Don't know if they managed to get a message out though."

I looked around. No sirens or warning lights had come on, and a squad of defectors hadn't greeted us in a hail of weaponsfire. "I think we've still got the element of surprise," I told her.

The sound of boosters burning on maximum erupted in the space just above us. I looked up to see Cade trying his best to remove the rest of his momentum, cursing over the radio all the while. Eventually he managed to, but due to how close he was to the landing pad the booster pack began to take him back into the air once more. He shut it off and let himself fall from a height of several meters. At the last second he triggered the booster jets on his armor, propelling him forward and slamming him into the deck of the landing pad with a loud clatter.

He pushed himself up and shook his head. I rushed over and pulled him to his feet. Cade was a crazy bastard for sure, I don't think anyone had ever attempted to use a booster pack to stop a fall from that height before.

"Spirits, did I get them?" he groaned.

"Center-mass hits," I told him. Those were some impressive shots to make while falling ever so slightly a hundred meters up in the air. I couldn't honestly say that I could have made those shots, but Cade had always been better at snap-shooting with a sniper rifle than I was. It was a turian thing.

"I am awesome," he said smugly.

I could sense Elektra rolling her eyes from beneath her helmet. She gestured for the both of us to look at the bodies. We obliged.

"Armor is definitely Systems Alliance, but painted over," she explained. "On the left is Corporal Alan Ward, on the right is Private Teodor Kovartis. Both are former 9th fleet marines. Check out their chestplate."

"Vernon Ward….Bannon Ward… Constantina and Alexander Kovartis…" Cade read aloud. Oddly,both of the defectors had a few names scrawled in white paint right beneath their name and rank. That was curious.

"Family members?" I asked.

"Might be," Elektra shrugged. "Kind of weird for both of them to advertise their family ties like that."

"I thought it was a common practice for humans to inscribe the names of loved ones on themselves," Cade said.

"Civilians maybe, but that's exactly something marines would do on their armor," I replied.

"Not like Cloud and I have a lot of experience in the family department, either," Elektra chuckled. She bent down and booted up her omni-tool, holding it over the omni-tools of the dead marines. After a few seconds the advanced scanning program she had installed had copied every security code stored within. She then made copies and sent them to us.

I sighed and attempted to run a hand through my hair, only to remember that I was still wearing my helmet. It was just one more mystery in a bag of mysteries. Luckily this one didn't seem too likely to get us killed. It was just strange. But then again, everything about this mission was strange. A small cell of religious fanatics, sure, but I wouldn't have pegged a full fleet to buy into this transcendence nonsense. A part of me wondered if these marines knew what those tainted Reaper Cores truly did to people, another part of me wondered if they would still be fighting us if they did know.

I opened a channel back to the other assault team to update them on our progress. "Percival, we've landed. How's it going on your end?"

"Loaded up into the shuttles and passing over the satellite facility now, any snags?" my friend replied.

"No, no snags. Cade's in one piece. Be advised, hostiles are former 9th marines, at least over here."

"… roger that. Good luck, okay? Radio Val when the guns are down and she'll have Lieutenant Chan come pick you up. Patch in to Camilla as well if you need help hacking their software."

It wouldn't be easy for Percival to fight his former fleetmates. He had served with them for three years or so as a Systems Alliance marine, then a further three years as part of their N7 detachment. He'd told me stories of his time in the Ninth Fleet. I wasn't sure if he still kept up with his friends in the Ninth, but I hoped for his sake that any close friends he had made had been part of the ten-percent who hadn't elected to mass defect.

"Roger that Perc, proceeding with the mission. Good luck to you too man," I replied.

"Bye dad," Cade chuckled. He stowed his Black Widow and unslung his Vindicator battle rifle, slipped an armor-piercing block inside, and stacked up beside Elektra. I took up position on the opposite side of the door.

"Stay stealthed until we make contact. Elektra first, then me, and Cade at the back. Schematics show that the control systems and the main reactors should be in the center. Try not to shoot them," I ordered, with special emphasis on the last part.

"Yes dad," Cade replied.

"Stop that,"

"I think it's kinky," Elektra. I bit back the urge to tell them both to shut up. Cade's one-liners during a mission were bad enough.

I instead ignored her and activated my tactical cloak. My two friends did the same an instant later. I activated my omni-tool and waved the doors open.

Elektra slid in first with her Katana raised and ready, followed by me and then Cade. The doors slid shut behind us, sealing us in. The howling of the wind died instantly, and we were suddenly made aware of exactly how quiet it was in here.

The large corridor we were in was brightly lit. There were benches along the sides and a further set of doors at the end that led deeper in. Windows ringed both sides of the walls, allowing one to see outside. The walls were mostly white and well-maintained. The corridor itself must have acted as a sort of security checkpoint.

"This facility was supposed to be staffed by almost a hundred people," Elektra muttered. She took point and began to lead us down the welcome airlock. The barrel of her gun was kept firmly trained on the next set of doors leading deeper into the facility, but her helmet swiveled back and forth as she kept an eye out for any tripwires. I followed behind her and made quick sweeps of a few adjoining

At the end of the airlock were five decomposing bodies. Four of them were dressed in riot armor from some company I didn't recognize – three batarians and a human, wreathed in old, dried blood. The batarians looked like they had all been killed with precise center-mass bursts, but the human's throat had been torn out. The last was an asari receptionist slumped behind a desk. Blue blood and clumps of gray painted the white walls behind her. She had a single entry wound in her forehead.

"I bet it was," Cade replied.

"That throat wound… Could they have enlisted vorcha?" the female Spectre wondered.

"It's not vorcha… not with the way those batarians were shot…" he hissed.

"Then they are—,"

"Turians," Cade finished.

I didn't spare the bodies another glance and instead gestured for my friends to move past the airlock doors. We couldn't help them now. We could, however, deliver a certain form of justice.

The doors slid open and we proceeded further in. More bodies, this time a salarian and a human tech, gunned down from behind while they were working at a maintenance panel. Cade said a silent prayer but otherwise we padded onwards towards a branching intersection.

The slight sound of metal boots on deck plating from further in the facility drew both Cade's attention and mine. He lit up a warning sign on our HUDS before I had a chance to. I quickly moved to take cover behind a row of chairs, trusting Elektra and Cade to take up similar vantage points, and double-checked my Predator. The boot-steps began to get louder and louder. It wasn't the casual cadence of a group on a leisurely patrol, but the cadence of a group of soldiers moving with intent.

I saw them round the corner at the intersection further ahead. All six were dressed in blackened Systems Alliance marine armor, four of them were males and two appeared to be females. Four of them had standard-issue Avengers while the two in front had Katana shotguns. They were headed down the corridor towards us in rows of three, weapons up.

"T and Ward are still not responding," one of the female marines hissed.

"Damn," the one in the lead cursed. "Raise the ala-,"

That was our cue. Biotic energy flared up in my left hand and I knew from more than a hundred ambushes with the turian that Cade was about to strike.

But before either of us could react the sound of a striking thunderbolt suddenly erupted in the room with a loud boom, followed by the pungent stench of ozone and cries of pain. I cursed inwardly as Elektra suddenly reappeared in the middle of all six marines. She hadn't even given me time to prime them yet.

The enemy marines were either hunched over or on the ground and doubled-over. Elektra slammed her palm into the helmet of the closest marine, snapping his head up and laying him flat out onto his back. She lashed out with one foot to slap away the barrel of an Avenger that one of the recovering marines had started to point at her and whipped her other foot into the side of his head with a spinning kick, sending him back down onto the deck. She quickly pulled out her Predator and put four quick bullets into the helmets of both the downed, shield-less defectors.

Meanwhile the two shotgun-wielding marines had recovered and were starting to spin around. Three bursts came from my left, the first two draining the shielding of one of the marines and the third snapping his head forward in a spray of blood. Elektra moved in towards the second marine, grabbed the barrel of the shotgun in a risky maneuver and swept it aside. It discharged with a roar, completely shattering the shields of one of the marines who had been standing behind her. She blindly whipped her pistol over her shoulder, blind-aiming behind her where the marine was stumbling from the shotgun blast and letting loose a flurry of shots. Small squirts of blood spurted out of the marine's chestplate where her bullets had penetrated. Before he had even fallen she had emptied the rest of her clip into the helmet of the marine holding the shotgun.

That left one more enemy marine. He had his back turned towards Cade and I and was trying to get a bead on Elektra through his friend and failing.

A red marker suddenly appeared over the marine and Cade's acknowledgement light blinked yellow on my HUD, signaling for an assist. I rolled my eyes and stood up, blue lights still wrapped around my left hand.

I took a moment to concentrate my focus on the marine, then I thrust my left hand out with my fingers in a half-curled position. The enemy marine was suddenly outlined in blue and lifted into the air. His Avenger dropped onto the deck with a clatter as his fingers curled around his throat. I could hear him begin to choke.

I squeezed my left hand into a fist. There was a slight snap and the choking stopped.

Cade clapped mockingly beside me. "I was hoping you'd do that."

I uncloaked and shook my head. "You are one sick bastard," I sighed. I hadn't killed someone like that since the Hippocrates, back in the generator room. It took a lot of concentration and precision that you generally wouldn't be afforded in a firefight, but it was handy in a pinch or when you wanted a clean, silent kill from long-distance.

"You could have shot him."

"Would have taken too long, plus Elektra was in the way," I said crossly. Unless you went for headshots or were using heavy-calibre weapons, it could take anywhere between half a dozen shots to a full clip from my predator to actually kill an armored enemy if you tried solely for body-shots. Plus, while I was great at shooting, it is actually a lot harder to shoot precisely with a pistol at ranges greater than 10 yards than you'd think.

Elektra stepped daintily over the bodies of the marines she had killed and removed her helmet. Her face was flushed and a bit sweaty. I moved up with my Predator aimed at the intersection to check the bodies.

"You should have waited for me to prime them with a singularity," I told her.

"I didn't need your singularity," she replied. "Didn't need it before, don't need it now." She brushed past me and knelt down beside the bodies of the marines she had just killed. She grabbed their tags and then pointed at a few more names inscribed on their armor. "Look, more names," she said. She pulled out the dog tags, looked at them, then looked down at the names. "Some have similar surnames, others don't. I'm not sure I see a pattern here."

Cade came up and snapped a few pictures of the names with his omni-tool. "I'll get one of the techs to pull up a search later, maybe it'll tell us something," he shrugged.

"Do it once we're clear, don't want anyone triangulating. Also, swap positions with me." The turian operative nodded, then took up position between Elektra and I.

We re-cloaked and began to move out. Elektra still took point with her shotgun out but I had switched to my Snakebite sniper rifle, setting the zoom to the lowest possible setting. It wasn't the best weapon for indoors fighting, but it would give me more precision than my Predator and would allow Elektra to utilize her close-range capabilities for maximum effect. My area-of-effect biotics would be frustratingly useless as long as we were working with Elektra and her own preferred style of fighting. Cade in the meantime could provide mid-range fire support with his Vindicator.

We passed by a lot of rooms with no living persons inside. One room was filled with sleeping cots, half of them filled with victims. Whoever had led the assault on this facility must have attacked in the middle of the night. The wounds on the guards early suggested turians – that made sense, given their enhanced night-vision, discipline, and training. What didn't make sense was the fact that this generator was currently guarded by defectors from the Ninth. As far as I knew, there were no turian spec-ops units embedded in the Ninth.

A thought occurred to me. I pulled up the base schematics, highlighted a location and sent it to my squad. "Electra, divert here. The SOS was sent from this location, maybe someone's still hiding there, or left more intel."

"You've got it," She replied. Cade sent a green acknowledgement light and together we set out down an alternative route. We passed more bodies, all of them bloated and decomposing. I was glad we had our helmets on, since it meant we couldn't smell them. A part of me chaffed at how disrespectful these defectors had been. It had been one week since the distress signal had gone out and they hadn't made a single effort to pay any respect to the dead.

"Cafeteria up ahead, we're going to need to pass it to get to the operations room, wide open space, perfect place for a good crossfire," Elektra radioed.

Years of working with Cade had given me a sixth sense for things he was likely to say in any given situation. "Oh boy, I've always wanted to be in a human—,"

"Foodfight," I finished.

"—foodfight. I hate you, you know that?"

"Let me die in the next firefight then," I scoffed. He wouldn't. No one else was going to heal his scaly ass in Galaxy of Fantasy.

"Don't tempt me. Next time some defector lines up a shot on you I might just let them take it."

"I remember why I hate working with you guys," Elektra sighed. "We're just outside the cafeteria."

We stacked up a few meters away from the doors. They weren't sliding ones, but the rather old-fashioned swing doors with the funny round windows you could see through.

"Check it out," I told Cade.

"You check it out…"

"Can you stop being a child? We are on a goddamn mission."

"I'm not being a child, I just don't enjoy getting my face blown off from a lucky shot."

Before I could say anything else, Elektra's ghostly figure was already at the doors. It was hard to tell with her cloak on, but she probably stopped and twisted to shoot Cade and I what I presumed to be a dirty look from beneath her polarized visor. I shrugged sheepishly even though she couldn't see it. She peered through and checked around for a moment, then gave us the green light.

"Seems all clear, scanned it with enhanced thermal too, so they're likely not cloaked."

"Roger," I replied. "Take point."

"Sure, and for the record I think you are a terrible agent-in-command."

"Noted, feel free to file a report with the oversight committee."

The cafeteria was empty, big enough to fit the maybe a hundred or so people that used to staff this place all at once. None of the long benches had been moved to form barricades, nor were there any bodies. I kept my Snakebite trained on a pair of doors that led to the kitchen. It was eerily quiet except for the slightest of sounds that our boots made against the gunmetal floor. We passed through the cafeteria without problems, which was a welcome change of pace from our usual mission. Of course, that just meant that the defectors had probably consolidated all their remaining troops in the generator room. A missing squad is something that tends to get noticed really, really quickly, contrary to what the directors of Blasto would have you believe.

"Schematics show that the operations room is just ahead," Elektra reported.

Cold molten slag on the edges of the doors was evidence of a failed attempt by some of the facility staff to barricade themselves in. Elektra went first while Cade and I covered the hall. After a moment her green light lit up and we moved on in. The ops room was small, maybe the size of a bedroom, just a couple of consoles meant to be staffed by maybe half-a-dozen people tops.

Cade and I deactivated our cloaks. "Elektra, guard the door. Stay stealthed," I ordered.

We made our way to the console in the front of the room. Slumped in a chair directly in-front of it was a decomposing human corpse. I could see the remnants of a single bullet-wound in his forehead.

Cade pressed a button on his helmet, causing it to bloom front and allowing him to remove it. He gave the corpse a long, lingering look and then let out a small, sad sigh. "These were all just civilians, they weren't affiliated with any military, not like the scientists on the Hippocrates."

I gently removed the nametag off of the body. "Operations chief Simon Merryweather," I read, "his friends were dying around him and he still had the presence of mind and the courage to go and get a distress signal out. Without him we wouldn't have known about Anhur."

"Without him everyone on this planet might have been dead and no one would have known. Thanks to him we can still save some people, and get some goddamn revenge," Elektra pointed out.

"Justice is not optional," Cade agreed in a rare moment of solidarity with the female Spectre. "I'll try to access the security cameras, see what we're dealing with in the generator room."

I nodded and looked around, looking for anything that might give us an edge. As good as we were, the three of us would still be up against an entrenched, platoon-sized force. I booted up the panel and used my Spectre override to gain access to the administrative system. I flipped through life support, generator schematics, multiple base schematics, fire suppression systems…. anything that would give us an advantage.

Cade came up beside me and sighed. "They wiped the footage and nuked the camera system. I can't tell what's waiting for us in the room."

"So we do it the old-fashioned way, bullets and biotics," Elektra shrugged.

"Yeah," scoffed the turian Spectre, "maybe if you want to die. We can handle five or six hostiles per person at once in a firefight but these are former alliance marines, not gang thugs or some inexperienced PMC—Plus they will be waiting for and expecting us, and they've had the past week to set up defenses."

"So we improvise."

I ignored them and continued checking the systems, though I agreed with Cade. It wouldn't just be former Alliance, there was a good chance there was a troop of turian special commandos stationed here too—commandos who had wiped out an entire base of almost one hundred people who managed to get off nothing more than a four second distress signal. That meant highly-trained troops with tactical cloak at least. Spectres were honestly more spies than soldiers. No, we likely wouldn't be able to take them in a straight up firefight.

Something was nagging at me. I flipped back to review a few more systems, pausing on one system in particular.

Cade noticed my piqued interest and glanced over. "Spirits, they still use waterfor their fire suppression systems, what year is it?"

"It's probably easier to resupply given all the ice and how far north they are, and its technically safer than other gaseous agents," Elektra pointed out.

Could I somehow give myself manual remote access to the fire suppression systems? Yes, yes I could. I quickly flipped to the base schematic too and looked at it in more detail. I quickly found what I was looking for. I began to trace a path with my finger and as luck would have it, I could get where I needed to go.

"Well great. Maybe we can drown them or freeze them to death. Cloud, do you have a plan? Cause the only plan I'm seeing right now is to maybe make some makeshift explosives to even the odds."

One last ingredient. I turned to look at my friend's utility belt. Sure enough, half a dozen of the tiny little innocuous objects were clipped to it as always, having survived the vicious freefall down to the base.

"Cloud, do you have a plan?" Elektra echoed.

I pulled off my helmet, ran a hand through my hair and gave a rare, small smile. "You might call it that."

March 14th, 2211, 0714 hours —Anhur— Planetary Defense Cannon Main Generator, Generator Room

Data Corruption… Automatic Reconstruction Failed…Data Corruption….Profile Reconstruction Required…

(Team Commander Brutus Mara'kin – Project Transcendence)

"Teo and Ward still haven't responded, and we've also now lost contact with Peters' squad. We're down to three-quarters strength," reported Lieutenant Hershal. The former Systems Alliance soldier was nearly two feet shorter than the turian commando and several dozen pounds lighter, but he stood tall and unafraid as he gave his de facto superior the bad news.

The hulking Turian commando snarled and slammed a heavy fist into a nearby panel, denting it. No alarms had been raised, meaning whoever had silenced his men were talented, efficient and well-trained—either Spectres or Systems Alliance Special Forces. He wasn't angry, no. On the contrary, Brutus was elated. It most likely the cold one and his turian friend, just like Severus anticipated. Brutus would get the chance to kill not just one, but two talented members of the legendary Spectres.

Brutus pulled out his Claymore and checked the heatsink. It had only been a week of waiting – of guarding this tomb-like facility – but to a fighter like Brutus it had felt like several months. He relished the impending violence and looked forward to the opportunity to stretch his limbs and spill some blood.

"Do you want us to send out another patrol?" The former Systems Alliance Lieutenant asked.

Brutus shook his head. "No, keep the rest of your men here. We will let them come to us. Have the salarians prepare their little drones and remind the asari commandos to focus their attention on the human Spectre. Remember, he's a biotic. Set motion sensors by the door, they will likely have tactical cloaks."

"Yes sir," Hershal acknowledged. He had three squads left alongside the alien specialists that Locke had given him. Brutus wasn't sure it would be enough, but at the very least they would slow and pre-occupy them and buy Brutus and his turians time to get in position to either flank or finish them off. Of all the soldiers here, only Brutus and his three fellow turian commandos had any hope of winning a fight against the Spectres. The salarians were weaklings and though the asari had talent, they were also likely to underestimate their opponents. The human soldiers he could count on, but not enough to count on them beating the Spectres.

The generator room was the largest room in the facility, nearly forty meters in diameter. The generators themselves were the size of small houses and stacked in the center. The ceiling was domed and there was nowhere to place sharpshooters. The room itself consisted of three tiers. The highest tier was a large walkway that ringed the perimeter of the room. Doors from other parts of the facility fed into this walkway, but Brutus had had them welded shut early on to prevent them from being flanked. The outer walkway had numerous consoles from which the enemy Spectres could take cover. Brutus had positioned half of the remaining human soldiers and the asari up on this walkway.

The second level was about six feet lower than the highest level. It was a broader ringed platform that housed numerous holo-tables, crates and consoles from where the former staff of the facility had worked. Brutus had directed the technicians and the other half of the human soldiers to take defensive positions here. Hopefully the Spectres would have their attention drawn by these targets, opening themselves up to a flanking attack either from his soldiers on the upper walkway or Brutus and his Commandos themselves.

Brutus was about to snarl at a pair of salarian techs to get into cover when suddenly alarms began to ring. Seconds later, the sprinklers activated and began showering the defectors in cascades of water. Soldiers began to look around in confusion. Gun barrels flitted back and forth, ignoring pre-established firing lanes.

"Get in position! They're coming!" Brutus barked.

"Team one, eyes on the door!" Hershal shouted. "Team two, keep an eye out on the other ones, they might try to blow their way in!"

Brutus and his turians activated their tactical cloaks, but he snarled as he realized that they wouldn't be of much use. The water from the extinguishers bounced off and cascaded down their armor, outlining them and greatly increasing their visibility.

He turned off his cloak and his fellow turians followed suit. The water would give the same disadvantages to the Spectres anyways, and at least they wouldn't be at risk of friendly fire from their own troops if they decided to keep them on.

The only door to the generator room suddenly opened. Brutus' eyes widened in alarm and he pointed a gloved talon at the entryway. "Suppressing fire!" he roared.

"Fire in volleys!" added Hershal.

A wave of gunfire went straight at the doorway. Instead of joining him, Brutus gestured for his turians to split up. He signaled for two of them to take cover behind one generator while him and another one of his comrades took cover behind another. They held their fire and waited as the former marines continued firing. The room was filled with noise from the gunfire and the water.

Suddenly, three tiny metal cylinders flew through the doorway. Mere seconds later they immediately exploded. Electricity arced everywhere around the upper and middle walkways, hitting nearly every single defector in the room, its effects amplified by the water. The gunfire stopped as everyone began to seize violently, the drones the salarians had put up fell to the ground and there were dozens of loud pops as shields shorted out. Brutus' gritted his teeth in pain as he began to seize up, hoping that the Spectres wouldn't take the opportunity to cut him down while he was incapacitated.

Two ghostly figures immediately appeared in the doorway, outlined in the water. The Spectres had opted to keep their tactical cloaks on apparently. Three more spherical objects went out. Four human soldiers and an asari commando from the upper tier were suddenly lifted up in the air, as well as the pair of salarian techs and a few of the soldiers around them in the middle tier. An overload hit the squad on the upper tier and caused a massive combo explosion while gunfire shredded the shield-less tech squad.

Two figures materialized in front of the door. One of them had the characteristic silhouette of a turian and was clad in the armor of a Ghost Infiltrator – he had to be Kitiarian. The other Spectre was much shorter and slimmer than the turian Spectre. That one had to be the cold one. Kitiarian immediately took cover behind a console and began taking shots at and picking off those who hadn't been affected by the lift grenades with quick, precise bursts to the head. Both asari commandos went down in a matter of seconds as powerful armor-piercing ammunition tore through their relatively weak armor plates.

A sonic boom erupted and the other Spectre materialized among Hershal and his men, knocking them down. The Spectre was smaller than Brutus had pictured, but immediately began dispatching Hershal's men with a mixture of quick and precise hand-to-hand techniques, biotic punches, and a Predator pistol. Before the others could even recover from the biotic charge, three former marines were already dead and a fourth was bleeding from a number of gunshots.

Brutus let out a roar and charged. He discharged his Claymore, cursing as it just barely missed the agile Spectre and clipped a nearby soldier instead, blowing off his arm. His fellow turian let out a more precise burst from his Phaeston. They began to chew threw the Spectre's shields but he spun away at the last moment, disappearing behind a console.

Brutus signaled Hershal to flush him out. The former marine nodded and directed what was left of his men not currently engaged with Kitiarian towards the console the Spectre was hiding behind. At the same time, the big turian and his comrade went another way to try and flank the human Spectre.

A loud shot brought Brutus' fellow Turian Commando down onto his knees a second one penetrated the back of his helmet and blew out his brains in a gory blue spray. Brutus spun around in surprise just in time to see the grate of one of the air vents pop out and another armor-clad human emerged, bigger than the other one. Brutus fired a shot but the human managed to roll out of the way. The large turian ducked behind a console to wait for his weapon to disperse its heat and signaled for his two surviving commandos to hunt him down.

Brutus watched as the other human Spectre took the opportunity to roll out of cover and unleashed a barrage of fire from an N7 Hurricane. The warp ammunition burned and ate through the still-weakened shields of Hershal and his men. With a scream they went down as well. He could see the human lieutenant mouth a few final words before the Spectre coldly finished him off.

Brutus snarled and decided to ignore the smaller Spectre and instead charged at the bigger human Spectre, who had unleashed a massive, well-aimed singularity that engulfed his two fellow commandos and lifted them off the ground. One of the commandos managed to let out a volley of shots while suspended in mid-air that cut through the Spectre's shields, but before he could finish him off three rounds from a Katana shotgun tore through his chest. The other commando managed to grab onto his friend's body and use it as a platform to push himself off and out of the singularity field. He lifted his rifle and took aim at the shieldless Spectre only for an armored boot to knock his barrel away, followed by a palm that crashed into the mandible-guard of his helmet, disorienting him. Another hand deftly pressed the deactivation button on his Phaeston, collapsing it. The commando dropped the weapon, pulled out a Talon combat knife and began to slice viciously at the smaller human Spectre.

The larger human Spectre saw Brutus and immediately swung his weapon at the charging turian. Brutus took aim, only to be hit by an overload from behind. It shorted out his weapon and shields, opening Brutus up to fire from the human Spectre.

Brutus hurled his now-useless weapon at the Spectre, causing the Spectre to miss his shot from his sniper rifle. The large turian grabbed in a bear hug and slammed him against a nearby console.

The Spectre immediately reached for a Predator pistol holstered at his waist, but Brutus grabbed his wrist and used his superior strength to wrench it away and pin it against the console as well. Brutus jammed his armored forearm across the Spectre's neck and began to apply pressure. The Spectre's free hand grabbed desperately at the forearm but was unable to find any purchase. The water was still pouring down from the sprinklers, leaving the armor-plates on Brutus' forearms slick.

A series of shots impacted on Brutus' back but the turian was so enraptured with bloodlust that he barely felt them. The turian commando knew that he would die this day, but if the Spirits willed it he would take this human with him.

The human Spectre kneed him in the gut – hard – but to no effect. Brutus head-butted him violently, slamming the Spectre's head against the bulkhead.

But the human Spectre wasn't giving up. Despite the massive turian's arm against his throat, he managed to deftly unsheathe his own Talon combat knife and bring it down repeatedly into Brutus' neck.

Blue-ish blood spurted out in great gushes down the front Brutus' armor. Every time his heart took a beat, another stream of blood came jetting out. The human Spectre was covered in the turian's blood. It ran down his black armor in tiny rivulets to pool at both of their feet, the water making it seem like there was much more blood than there actually was.

Eventually Brutus could not hold on any longer. His vision began to darken and he was starting to lose control over his arm. The massive turian let go and dropped to his knees with a groan.

The human Spectre went down onto his knees as well. He unlatched his helmet, tossed it aside and began drawing in great gulps of air. Through his dimming vision Brutus could see that he wasn't some grizzled veteran. It was a human – just a young human male with pale skin and blue eyes. A scar covered one cheek and a large red splotch ringed his right eye, courtesy of Brutus' headbutt. His short, black hair lay plastered against face, wet from the water.

The Spectre coughed and looked straight into Brutus' eyes.

Brutus tried to grab the Carnifex holstered at his belt, but his talons felt thick and unresponsive. The Spectre's eyes widened and his hand immediately lashed out with his knife. A new wave of blue ran down Brutus' chest. The turian's last thought before everything went black was how familiar the Spectre looked to the turian commando – how he looked like the ghost of someone he knew.

March 14th, 2211, 0719 hours —Anhur— Planetary Defense Cannon Main Generator, Generator Room

Data Corruption… Automatic Reconstruction Failed…Data Corruption….Profile Reconstruction Required…

(Spectre Operative 04272182-Cloud)

The big turian hit the ground with a loud thud and a splash. I gave a sigh of relief and sheathed my talon. He had been freakishly large and strong – a challenging opponent that I probably wouldn't have been able to beat had we fought in a fair fight. Lucky for me the fight had been anything but fair. The archaic fire suppression system had been a stroke of luck, allowing us to amplify the effects of Cade's arc grenades. Plus I had the support of not one but two talented Spectre operatives during that fight.

I rubbed my throat with a groan and picked up my helmet. The other defectors were dead, courtesy of either Elektra or Cade. I would likely have a wicked bruise on my throat, eye and wrist over the next few days but I was otherwise I would suffer no lasting harm.

Elektra ran over to me while Cade checked the bodies. "You hurt?" she asked. She grabbed my face and peered at the damage with concern.

I shook my head. "No real harm done. He was tough though, I'll give him that," I said, nudging the turian with my boot.

"He's a big bastard. His buddies were a shade more talented than your average commando too. I've never seen anyone break out of a singularity before."

"Me neither, most bad guys don't have the greatest understanding of mass or gravity."

I wiped water out of my eyes and booted up my comm-link, searching for a connection to the Excalibur. After a few seconds it patched me through to Excalibur engineering. I then ran to a panel, turned on my omni-tool and began to bypass the defense systems.

"Camilla, it's Cloud. We've secured the facility and we're at the generator, starting the up-link now, you should have control of the generator in about two minutes.

"Cloud! Is Cade okay?!"

"He's fine," I replied. "Didn't get a scratch on him."

"Thank god! Okay… I have control."

I let out a huge sigh of relief. Elektra whooped and Cade's mandibles splayed out in a grin. "Good, have them punch a hole through the blockade and get the Blue Suns fleet through to the planet!"

"Relaying your orders! Camilla out!"

I smiled and finally turned off fire suppression system with my omni-tool. The water stopped flowing then, but the effects were nonetheless visible around the room. My smile disappeared as I saw the results of the carnage we had wrought. There were massive pools of red, blue and green water scattered everywhere on the metal floor, with the colors being the deepest and most vibrant closer to the bodies and less so further away. Most of the bodies had ruptured visors or holes in their helmets. Those would have been Cade's targets. Those who had gone up against Elektra sported tell-tale biotic burns and reeked of ozone. Between the two of them they had ended almost twenty-five lives in this room. I had killed two people that entire fight. It was an unsettling sight that left a bundle of knots in my lower stomach.

"Not a sight I'm likely to forget for some time," Cade said in a low voice. Sometimes it was like he could read my mind. He disliked killing as much as any other sane, emotionally healthy individual, seeing it as nothing more than a necessary part of the job. "A part of me almost prefers we'd fought those infected creatures instead. At least I know they're bad to the core."

"Speak for yourself, I'd like to cherish the number of chances I have to fight real people before going toe-to-toe with those creatures," Elektra shuddered.

"You're probably going to die in your first fight with those things. Charging headfirst into those creatures is a sure-fire way of committing suicide, and everyone knows you can't hit anything farther than twenty yards."

I didn't say anything. Instead I gave one last tired sigh and hailed the SSV Excalibur once more. "Val, it's Cloud. We've secured the facility and are ready for evac. What's the status of Percival and his team?"

"Finishing up the last of the resistance at the satellite facility. It was lightly manned, so not a single friendly casualty. He's already diverted a team and a shuttle your way and we should have planet-wide comms up soon. It's good to hear your voice."

"It's good to hear your voice too," I agreed. "We'll meet them out on the landing pad in ten."

"Copy. Stay safe, Spectre."

I closed the link and headed brusquely for the exit, refusing to give the room and the broken bodies one last glance and risk letting the full weight of what we had done in this room sink in. I had fought and killed people before – even rogue Systems Alliance soldiers, but I had not done so ever since the Hippocrates. Killing felt different now. I had never had a problem before – never hesitated when it came to taking the life of some enemy mercenary or pirate. I tried to remember that these soldiers had killed everyone in this base. I tried to remember that they were trying to kill everyone on this planet – but it wasn't the same. It was a justification that had worked before but it wasn't working now, and I didn't know why. Was something wrong with me?

Whatever my problem was, now was not the time for doubts. I had to be at the top of my game, especially if I was going to save this planet and as many people on it as I could.