Chapter 34 – Search and Rescue

March 14th, 2211, 2039 hours —Alexandra Spaceport—Administrative Offices

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

(Spectre Operative 04272182-Cloud)

Eight hours after taking the spaceport

I dropped my helmet onto the floor beside my chair. It clattered and rolled a bit before I swiveled and stopped with my boot. I was thoroughly and utterly exhausted. My fellow Spectres and I had been leading search and rescue teams into Alexandra non-stop for the last eight hours. Outside, the gun-turrets that the Blue Suns had set up were firing non-stop. They and our sharpshooters had been working constantly to keep the fields around the spaceport clear of the creatures so that we could bring in survivors without issue.

A pair of protein bars flew at my face, but I was too tired to stop their trajectory. They smacked into my nose and dropped down onto my lap. I grunted in thanks and immediately tore the wrapper apart, taking a bite and chewing ravenously. Percival sat down on the chair across from me, his N7 armor covered in all sorts of interestingly-colored fluids and smelling like literal shit. My friend had led his last group of survivors through the sewers.

"Long day, huh?" he asked.

I chewed for a few moments before replying. "An understatement."

My friend nodded, then leaned forward and propped his elbows up on his knees. He ran both hands through his shock of blond hair, leaving behind bits of other interestingly-colored pieces that had been stuck to his gloves. I grimaced in disgust, but it didn't stop me from starting on my second protein bar.

"Alexandra has a population of what, two million? Maybe a quarter of the population is either dead or turned. We've got a couple thousand here in the spaceport and more already up in the ships. At this rate, it will take us a month just to get everyone in Alexandra out— and don't even get me started on New Thebes," my friend mused.

New Thebes was the capital of Anhur. It had a population of about ten million and was about an hour's drive from Alexandra. We hadn't heard anything from New Thebes despite the fact that we had re-established global communications earlier today. Thankfully, the other cities on Anhur were much further away, and so far they hadn't reported any infections.

"New Thebes is probably toast," I grunted. "You and I both know we can't get everyone off this planet – let alone this continent," I grunted.

I sighed as I finished my last protein bar, my stomach still rumbling. Biotics required a lot of energy to produce and as a result, we all had incredibly high metabolisms and needed a lot more calories than the standard soldier. I had been using my biotics nearly non-stop for the last eight hours, and it had taken its toll. I was still feeling ravenous despite all the calories I had just consumed.

"Agreed," Percival nodded. "We'll keep at it here, in Alexandra. The other cities are already taking defensive measures, but if we don't get a handle on these things nowhere will be safe."

The door to the administrative offices where Percival and I were resting then opened. In walked Cade, his armor looking like he had recently hosed it down, and Elektra close behind him. My eyes widened at the sight of the two plates of pasta Elektra had.

She took a moment to appraise the two wrappers I had left between my legs and then shoved the plate with the smaller amount of food into my hands. I didn't complain, instead I grunted in thanks once again and tucked in.

Elektra didn't reply, instead she sat down on the floor with her back against the wall and began shoveling pasta into her mouth at an alarming rate, foregoing her usual decorum. Like me, she too had been using her biotics almost non-stop.

Cade quickly snapped a quick video with his omni-tool of her with sauce smeared on her cheeks, eliciting a puffy scowl from the irate Spectre, and then took a seat beside Percival. Our two friends watched us eat with bemused looks on their faces.

"How did you get your hands on cooked pasta? I didn't see it when we did inventory," Percival asked.

Elektra swallowed and wiped her hand with the back of her mouth. "Private fridge, someone packed a lunch," she replied. "Used my wily, feminine charms to convince a few Jaegers to stop it from getting rationed out."

"The fact that you refer to them as "wily, feminine charms" speaks volumes about your self-esteem and your emotional stability," Cade said pointedly.

"My emotional stability is what saved you from getting torn apart by a horde of angry Corpsers back when we were taking the spaceport," she retorted.

"Whatever," Cade shrugged. "Percival, what's the plan? Are we going to be going out on one last sweep before we calling night?"

Percival looked at the time on his omni-tool and pondered for a moment. "Sun's going to set soon. I know we've got fancy night-vision as well as the Jaegers but I'm not sure that the Blue Suns all do. Most of the Anhur military most certainly doesn't."

"I don't exactly enjoy our chances in the dark with those things," Elektra shuddered. "Fighting them in the daylight is bad enough."

"You should have seen them when we were on the Hippocrates. The saboteurs knocked out the power for the first few hours and even when we managed to bring the back-up generators back on-line, we only had emergency lighting. Spirits, the whole ship was a horror cliché," Cade said.

"Are you trying to give me nightmares for the next few weeks."

"I was aiming for the next few months."

I swallowed the last of my pasta and then cleared my throat. "I don't think we have time for another. I'm not going to risk our lives fighting those things in the dark if we don't have to."

My friends nodded in agreement. None of us liked the idea of some poor civilian spending another night out there while those creatures prowled about, hunting, but it was just too risky to go out again. We couldn't help anyone if we were dead.

All of a sudden our comms. crackled to life. "Cloud, its Val. Our comm suite just picked up a signal aimed at all our ships in orbit, you need to hear this."

No rest for the weary. I immediately got up and made for the door. "Roger that, Val. We're headed for the operations room, patch it through to us in five."

Cade, Percival and Elektra followed closely behind. "Percival, radio Murgen and Accer. Raise the Ghar'arans as well and have them meet us there, we may need them," I ordered as an aside. My friend nodded and immediately went to work. A part of me was still hesitant about our uneasy alliance, but we didn't have the luxury of picking our friends right now.

"Routing it down in five." Our pilot acknowledged. "How's it going down there? Are you okay?"

I looked around the spaceport. Everywhere I turned there were refugees. Some seemed catatonic or in shock – understandable given the situation. Others were doing a better job keeping it together. I spotted a group of four refugees nearby. One of them was a human female in a simple jumpsuit, while the other was a blonde human female in a battered law enforcement uniform marking her as part of the New Thebes Police Force, meaning at least some survivors had managed to find their way out of that silent city. With them were two small children – two girls, one batarian and one human.

"Auntie Emily, when are we going to leave?" the small batarian girl asked the female officer. The other child stood quietly and clung tightly to the leg of the other woman with a white-knuckled grip.

"Soon, sweetheart. The Jaegers are here, and they've been evacuating refugees non-stop. It'll be our turn soon," the New Theban constable promised.

A part of me was relieved that we had managed to save some lives today, but another part of me still couldn't forget that we hadn't been able to save anyone. "It's going good, Val. We've managed to rescue a lot of people. Did the Blue Suns give you a headcount of how many more people they can fit?"

"Yes, I think they've got room for about two thousand more people, and the Ghar'arans have managed to find a temporary place for them on a nearby Terminus world under Blue Suns protection. It'll be a two-hour trip there, about another two to unload and refuel, and two-hours back."

So we could maybe cycle five thousand people out of Alexandra every eight hours counting loading time, at peak capacity. We could do it in cycles. Half the ships would head to the sanctuary planet while the other half would remain here, where we could load survivors. They could then take turns ferrying them. It would put a lot of strain on their crews, but it had to be done.

"That's great, keep me updated and prepare to patch us through. We're almost at the operations room."

"Roger."

Captain Elias Murgen and Second Lieutenant Accerrimus Burton were already in the operations room, as were Revak and Malan Ghar'aran and Lieutenant Bastion Navarrian. A few communications officers who had originally worked at the spaceport and who had survived were seated at the consoles, monitoring communications traffic and some sensors we had rigged up.

The young biotic lieutenant waved his prosthetic hand in greeting. "Good to see you, man."

"Spectres," Captain Murgen nodded.

I nodded in reply to the two Jaeger officers and made my way over to where a communications officer sat at the main terminal, headset on and typing furiously. My friends followed suit, with Elektra shooting subtle, distrusting glances at the two batarian brothers.

"What news? Why are we here?" Malan growled. To both him and his older brothers credit, the two batarians had led non-stop rescue parties into Alexandra for the past eight hours as well.

"We're about to find out," I replied. "My Flight Lieutenant picked up a communication from someone somewhere on this planet. We're about to speak to them now."

Malan merely grunted in response and watched. Revak crossed his massive arms over his chest and remained silent, his two good eyes bearing intensely into one of the communications console.

The room was silent save for the rapid-typing of the comm officers. "Spectre, signal's established. We have communications," one of the officers finally reported. She pointed at a microphone beside her and gave me a thumbs-up.

I nodded and keyed the speaker on. Percival and Cade leaned in to listen while Elektra sat casually on another console, legs crossed and arms folded.

"This is Spectre Operative 04272182-Cloud, who am I talking to?"

There was static at first, and then a high-pitched, somewhat nasally-voice male came onto the PA system. "Cloud? What kind of name is Cloud, let alone 04-what-fucking-ever. Am I even speaking to a real Spectre? Because I asked that lady to speak to someone important, not to some damn robot."

"What a prat…" Elektra quietly muttered. Percival and Murgen as well as the Blue Suns commanders weren't fazed in the slightest, but I could see Accer break out in a tiny grin and Cade's mandibles twitch in amusement.

I bit back a sigh. "Yes, I am a real Spectre, now why don't you tell us what you want and how we can help."

"Finally, now you're speaking my language! First of all, it's not what I want—well, it is what I want—but more importantly, it's what I have that YOU want. Second of all, what I want is a goddamn evacuation, and fast!" the voice replied.

I was quickly beginning to get irritated, the man had very truly annoying voice. "Who am I talking to?" I asked.

"Baird, Dennis Baird, and I've got information for you that you're going to want to hear."

I ground my teeth together and bit back a scathing retort. For a guy who supposedly had little time to spare, he sure had a lot of time for theatrics.

"What information do you have, Dennis?" I replied.

"Ha ha—nice try—and its "Baird", not "Dennis". I know you Spectre types. If I tell you everything you'll just leave me to rot. Rescue me first and then I'll talk."

I cursed softly off-mic.

"Is this guy really doing this right now?" Cade asked incredulously.

"It is really tempting to let him die, information notwithstanding," Elektra added.

Revak Ghar'aran uncrossed his arms and gave my two fellow Spectres a vicious look, shutting them up quickly and effectively. They had both witnessed how he had dispatched that Corpser earlier today, and I guess it had left a lasting impression.

"Work with me here, Dennis. How do I know what you have is worth my while. There's a lot of people out there who need rescuing, what makes you so special?" I replied, elongating the words "a lot".

There was silence over the channel for a few moments, and for a second I was afraid that he had called my bluff and left, but he came back soon after.

"I know where they are," he replied. The chip in his voice had disappeared, and I could almost taste the fear in his voice. He was being straight with us now.

"Where 'who' are?" I asked.

More silence, then "Them, the ones who started this,"

"Who's "them", Dennis."

"Oh for Christ—it's 'them'! N7, red-eyed split-chin turkey, crazy frog…. THEM! Stop fucking with me, man! And for the last time, it's Baird!"

Accer's mechanical arm whirred slightly as he tensed up. "Shit, he knows where the saboteurs are…."

"One of them is an N7?" Lieutenant Navarrian asked.

I ignored them and pressed on. "OkBaird, give us your location. We're leaving immediately."

To their credit, none of my friends sighed in disappointment despite the fact that we had been fighting non-stop for the last twelve hours. This was our first major clue on the saboteurs since landing, and if it could give us even the smallest of chances to end this nightmare sooner and save more people, then we'd grab it with both hands.

"Thanks. I'm in New Thebes—in a vault, tallest high and safe," he said cryptically. "Hurry, there's a group of split-chins in fancy armor hunting me. I've managed to avoid them for now, but I don't know for how much longer."

"Sounds like more of those turian commandos," Cade pointed out. "But tallest high and safe? What does that mean?"

"I think he means Anhur's National Bank. Their slogan in all their holo-commercials is "high and safe", their vaults are in skyscrapers rather than underground," one of the communications officers replied.

"That is ridiculous," countered Elektra.

"Either you got the money down a hundred levels past dozens of security check-points, or you got it out by air, and Anhur's defense cannons would keep anything larger than a small shuttle from picking up the loot, it wouldn't be worth it," the officer shrugged.

I didn't debate the finer points of placing vaults. "Where's the highest bank building?" I asked the officer.

She typed a few lines into her console, then pulled up a map and highlighted a building in downtown New Thebes. "There, that's the tallest building that ANB has in New Thebes."

All of us studied it for a moment.

"Haven't we had no contact from anyone in New Thebes?" Murgen asked.

I nodded grimly. Every city had checked in except New Thebes, and we had all assumed the city was lost.

I brought my lips back to the mic. "Baird, you still there? Sit tight, we're coming to get you," I said.

"Hurry, Please…" the informant whispered. His arrogant, angry tone had evaporated and the fear beneath had started to claw its way through. "And be careful… there's things out there… things that come out at night and that weren't there before… I don't know what they look like – but they're fast, they're goddamn fast...I'll be waiting, Baird out."

"Did anyone catch that part about those night-creatures? Are we really going to go now? At night?" Accer said nervously.

"Could they be the Chimeras you were talking about?" Elektra asked.

Percival, Cade and I all exchanged dark glances. None of us had forgotten those dangerous, intelligent monsters. It may very well be that Chimeras were running amok in New Thebes. Just because they weren't here, in Alexandra, didn't mean they hadn't been created by whatever had started this mess.

The big N7 rubbed his neck with a troubled expression on his face. "Maybe, maybe not. We haven't seen any around here yet, so it's possible… It also might also possibly be something new," Percival replied.

"Or maybe Jaelen's right, and these creatures are evolving," I mused. "Either way, we have to go get him. We need that information."

Revak pushed himself off the wall and unfurled himself to his full height. "We will go with you. We do not have any shuttles left, but we do have several Tomkahs," he thundered, referencing the large, rugged, four-wheeled armored vehicles designed by the krogan. It was a staple for dangerous combat zones, capable of surviving assaults that would destroy their lesser-armored cousins—the Mako or the Hammerhead. The Blue Suns had brought several of them to Anhur and we'd been using them to conduct rescue operations. They were capable of straight-up rolling over debris and traversing most terrain.

"Negative, I need you here. If those creatures attack at night or an emergency happens, you're the only one I trust to lead your men. Captain Murgen will stay too and coordinate the surviving Anhur military," I ordered sternly. I tensed up, ready for them to insist on accompanying us, but to my pleasure, Revak and his brother simply nodded in wordless assent.

"Who's going to be extracting Baird?" Cade asked.

"You, Elektra and I, as well as Accer and his squad. We'll be taking two of the Tomkahs."

"I'm going as well," Percival added. "I don't like the sound of those night-creatures, and I'm most definitely not staying behind while you guys risk your necks." The look in my friend's eyes said it was not up for debate.

"Okay," I agreed. "Everyone, grab what you need, meet me out in the tarmac in ten. Let's find Baird before those turians find him."

"Or those creatures," shuddered Elektra.

I nodded and waved a hand, dismissing the group. Cade, Elektra and Accer immediately jogged out to grab whatever they needed and so that Accer could brief his team, with Revak and Malan following soon after, presumably to coordinate the night-shift. Percival, Murgen and I all decided to stay behind.

"Carrying out a rescue op at night in a city full of rabid creatures is not going to be easy – not even for you," Captain Murgen mused. The veteran Jaeger had aged a lot in the last six weeks since the Hippocrates. His hair – once only slightly tinged with gray – had acquired a few more silver streaks, and it was starting to show in his beard, too.

"At least when we're fighting living beings, we can expect them to be fatigued, sluggish, and overall less alert during the night-cycle. These creatures seem to run full-steam twenty-four-seven—at least they did on the Hippocrates," Percival added.

"How experienced is Accer's team at stealth missions, Captain?" I asked.

The marine captain crossed his arms and rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "The Second Lieutenant and Gunnery Chief Teewin are two of my best men. We ran Gunnery Chief Kinzo and his marines through some basic training. They're passable, but they're inexperienced. We simply didn't have enough time to get them up to par with the average Jaeger. First Lieutenant Holt and Second Lieutenant Chang's Jaeger teams are more experienced at stealth rescue ops. You could take a few of their members instead – or even take some men from my squad," the captain offered.

"Except none of your Jaegers have the same tech aptitude as Specialist Croft," Percival pointed out. "Plus, aside from you and your squad this is the first time your other Jaeger teams have encountered these creatures. I think we should stick with Accer's team."

"Agreed. I have Camilla working on some bio-scanning software right now, thought it'd be useful when looking for civvies and avoiding these creatures. Hopefully it's done and we can have it on this mission," I said.

The Jaeger nodded. "Well, in any event, the Second Lieutenant may be a bit young but he scored very well on his stealth simulations, and the Gunnery Chief's one of my best and most experienced Jaegers. They'll do the trick."

"One more thing," he said. Murgen twisted around and pulled his M-8 Avenger from the back of his armor and thrust it into my chest. I grabbed it, hefted it, and sighted down the weapon. It was an older model, but was clearly well-maintained. It had a few kill counts on the stock that stopped somewhere around twenty, a modified red-dot sight attached to a rail at the top, and an enhanced barrel mod.

"Can't have you going up against those numerically-superior, fast-moving monstrosities with just two knives, a pistol and a goddamn bolt-action sniper rifle, Spectre," the marine grunted. "It's just too damn embarrassing. I know the bolt-action is cool, but do us all a favor and bring a real weapon with you."

"I've been telling him that for years," chuckled Percival. "He has a Vindicator somewhere, but I think it's still up in the Excalibur."

"Hey, to be fair, the bad guys we're usually up against like to come at us in twos and threes. It's not my fault these things didn't get the memo," I said defensively. A Predator and my Snakebite had suited my needs just fine throughout my Spectre career. Whenever I needed a third, fast-firing weapon, usually one was provided or I just looted it from the dead. "Plus, I can usually find one when I need one."

"Borrowing a weapon or looting one from the dead don't count," Percival said, "It is not the same as maintaining, calibrating, and modding your own weapon. I've seen you bitch dozens of times about shoddy weapons calibrating."

"The El-Cee is right. You'll notice that Jenny over here isn't your ordinary Avenger. She's been calibrated to near-perfection, and I've loaded her up with inferno rounds". Murgen pointed at the weapon and glared sternly at me. "I want her back in one piece after your mission," he warned.

With that, the Jaeger captain turned and left, leaving Percival and I alone with the techs.

My friend held up a hand and gestured towards the door with a flourish. "Shall we?"

I clipped the Avenger to my back, right beside the Snakebite, and gave my friend a false-bow. "Of course, good sir."

Together we made our way out of the operations room and towards the tarmac where our vehicles awaited. A few of the refugees had already begun sleeping despite the constant cacophony of the defensive guns. We stepped past a squad of guards and made our way outside. In the distance, I could see the sun setting, giving the sky a purple-and-orange tinge. The dawn air was crisp and cool, and I couldn't help but think to myself that Anhur must have been a wonderful, stunning planet to live on.

"Beautiful," murmured Percival.

A loud shriek erupted somewhere far off in the distance, tearing the magic of the moment apart and reminding us of the reality of the situation that this planet and its inhabitants faced.

Cade and Elektra were already assembled at the two Tomkahs, as were Accer's Jaeger team. Rake, Soph, Fly and Jay were clad in the signature Jaeger armor – matte-black, angular armor-plates over a black undersuit, black helmets with narrow red visors, and the white knight insignia stamped on the shoulder.

Unlike back on the Hippocrates where each of them only had their standard-issue Avengers and Predator pistols, being a Jaeger came with load-out perks. Rake and Jay had both decided to stick to their old Avengers, but each had added a grenade-launcher mounted underneath. Soph had opted for a modified N7 Hurricane and had a much more powerful omni-tool strapped to her wrist. A combat drone could be seen attached to her upper-back. Fly had his medical rucksack on and was cradling a large N7 Crusader in his arms. Unlike its cousin, the M-27 Scimitar that both Elektra and Percival carried, the Crusader had could fire one less round before overheating but was more accurate. It was a good primary weapon for the corpsman, who typically preferred to pick his shots carefully and had the best aim out of the four marines. Accer had his old N7 Hurricane and his Predator while Teewin had once again opted for his modded Revenant. A Scimitar hung across his lower back similar to how Elektra kept hers and a Carnifex was strapped to the large Jaeger's thigh.

"Good to see you, Spectre!" Rake called out. "And thanks for thinking of us, we were afraid it was going to be another quiet night in."

"I for one would like some clarification on what the target meant about 'night-creatures', I felt like that was left a bit open-ended," Jay quipped.

I noticed Galen and Rayla standing off to the side, also armored and kitted. The asari commando managed to look bored and detached despite the dangerousness of the mission we were about to embark on — a nice little trick she had probably learned from all that time she had spent being a commando. I had been with her on a few rescue sweeps, and she had been admirably unfazed by the horrific nature of the creatures.

"We met up with Cade in the makeshift armory, said he had a mission he could use us on," Rayla explained. Galen nodded in agreement. The young turian looked a lot more relaxed and confident than he had been aboard the Hippocrates, but the way he tapped his foot betrayed just how nervous he actually was.

"I figure we could afford to up the party-size to twelve," Cade said. "The Tomkah's can seat six pretty comfortably anyways, and it'll be easier to split up into even fireteams."

"He actually asked Garm as well, but he said he'd probably have a better time with the batarians," Rayla grinned.

"Sure, sounds good," I agreed. "Cade, you and Percival take Rake, Fly, Rayla and Accer. I'll take Teewin, Soph, Galen, Elektra and Jay. Percival and I will be driving."

Percival gave me a thumbs-up. "Roger that, Spectre-in-command." My friend made his way over to the first Tomkah and pulled himself inside, the team that I had assigned to him following suit.

"We get the two Spectre biotics, sweet," Teewin exclaimed. My fellow Spectre flexed playfully in reply.

"Wait, does this mean I get to be shotgun?" Elektra asked.

I raised a hand and slapped her on the back, hard. "Just like old times," I grinned. My fellow Spectre smiled back and entered into the other Tomkah.

I followed behind her and pulled myself into the driver's seat, my nose wrinkling a bit at the smell. Interspersed with the smell of metal and leather was a layer of what could only be described as bad body odor. Whomever had been the last occupants must not have had particularly good hygiene.

"Oh god, these Blue Suns are disgusting," grimaced Elektra from the seat beside me. She began to flip on the navigation panel and enter in coordinates as I warmed up the engine.

Teewin poked his head between our two seats and smiled. "You know, I've got a bottle of thessian Irssal cologne in my pack if you want it," the gunnery chief offered, referencing the popular asari cologne with the highly erotic advertisements that touted it as an aphrodisiac.

Elektra smiled coyly and gently caressed the gunnery chief's cheek. "Thanks for the offer love, but it would be wasted on me."

"Suit yourself," the Jaeger said with a light shrug and a grin. He pulled back and took a set in the troop compartment, his massive revenant tucked between his legs.

"Why on earth did you pack that?" Soph exclaimed from beside him.

I ran one last systems check, then revved the engine. The Tomkah came to life with a throaty roar, emitting a plume of black smoke from the exhaust pipe in the rear. Few vehicles used fossil fuels nowadays. The Tomkah was a dinosaur in that regard, but I guess the Krogan couldn't be expected to bring every last bit of tech they had up to standard quite just yet.

I flipped a switch above me, patching into the communication channel set up between our two Tomkahs. "Percival, sound check."

"Read you loud and clear, friend."

"Great, let's move out. I want to get this done as quickly as possible."

"Breakfast is going to be pancakes, plus I'd like to minimize the chances of us running into those things that Baird warned us about."

"Yeah, they sound nasty," I agreed. "Ellie, can you patch the route in to the Tomkah's HUD?"

"You've got it, boss," Elektra replied.

A red line lit up on the screen ahead of me. Tomkah's didn't have transparent glass or synthetic-plastic windows for the drivers. Instead, cameras lined the exterior of the vehicle, projecting images of our surroundings onto a HUD on the domed, reinforced metal bulkhead used in lieu of windows.

I shifted gears and pressed my foot to the pedal. The Tomkah leapt to life and began trundling down the road towards New Thebes. Its brother did the same, following a few meters behind us. On the HUD in front of me I could see the last vestiges of this system's yellow dwarf star begin to dip below the horizon. A few stars had already emerged. Because of how close the Amun System was to several neighboring star systems, the stars in the Anhur sky were particularly bright.

"Beautiful…" whispered Elektra.

"Reminds me of that job we pulled on Sanctum, in Sigurd's Cradle," I reminisced. "That was quite the cluster too. Lots of systems close together."

"Oh yeah. The mark really had good taste in planets. And his house too, absolutely spectacular."

I nodded in agreement. I wonder where I would retire if I'd had as much money as that volus arms dealer had. Probably somewhere not as cold, but maybe somewhere a bit less crowded than the Citadel.

"Uh, excuse me, but where did we land on the night-creatures?" Jay complained.

March 14th, 2211, 2159 hours — New Thebes—Tomkah BSAV-01

(Spectre Operative 04272182-Cloud)

Nighttime on the Outskirts of New Thebes

I throttled down the Tomkah as we passed into the city proper. The sun had completely set now, bathing the city outside in darkness. The Tomkah had external floodlights but both Percival and I had opted to keep them off in case it attracted any unwanted attention or drew the saboteurs to our location. The Tomkah's cameras did have night-vision however, and so our HUD was filled with sickly-green images of the exterior. The city looked largely intact, but I could make out small columns of smoke rising from deeper in the city, and every now and then we passed a few dark, unmoving shapes lying on the road or on the streets.

I patched myself through to Percival's Tomkah and raised my friend. "Hey, Perc, you good?"

"Nice and frosty. This city is surprisingly in one piece though…"

"Yeah, it is… Perc, the city map shows that we can't just pull up in front of the tower. The entrance to its ground-floor is in the center of a large mall complex. We're going to need to make our way through it."

"Yeah, I know. Probably for the best anyways, since we don't want to alert the saboteurs to Baird's exact location."

"I don't exactly fancy taking a night-time stroll, either," Elektra said grimly from beside me. She vigilantly watched the HUD, looking for any signs of trouble.

"What's the status of the bio-scanning software, has Camilla given us an update?"

"Shit, I'll ask her now. Signing off."

I immediately switched to the Excalibur's engineering team channel. "Cam, its Cloud. You done with our little upgrade?"

"Hey Cloud, thought you'd never ask!" came the engineer's reply. "It was a bit tricky since software isn't my forte, but I managed to cobble something together."

Both Elektra and my omni-tool lit up and a bar quickly appeared and filled up on its display. Elektra brought up the software and examined it.

"It's not a real bio-scanner, just a jury-rigged friend-or-foe scanner. The Jaegers and anyone else with a Systems Alliance or Spectre ID should show up in green. Anyone else with a registered ID should show up yellow. Those without it should come up red. Should be good for up to fifteen meters, though I'd have Sophia double-check it just in case. She's probably better with this stuff than I am."

I took my hands off the wheel, opened the program and looked at it. A small circle about eight inches in diameter came up. A green dot was in the center, another one to its immediate right, and four more scattered roughly behind it. A few centimeters back was another cluster of six, which represented Percival and his team. I tensed as I saw a few red dots flit by, just on the edge of the scanner.

"It's perfect, thanks."

"No problem. You can't have it up on your omni-tool while you're stealthed, but you should already know that. You can link it to your HUD but it's going to take up most of it while its up – plus I know you don't like wearing your helmet," the engineer warned.

"Roger that," I replied.

"Okay, Cade told me what your current mission is. Good luck, and watch his scaly ass for me, por favor."

"I will, don't you wo—"

A heavy thud interrupted me mid-sentence. Something had hit the side of the Tomkah. It was quickly followed by another, and then another.

"Cloud, what was that?"

"I don't know but I've got to go!" I whispered urgently. I immediately cut the channel and looked around the Tomkah's HUD furiously, keeping my eyes peeled for any sign of movement. Nothing seemed out of place in the sickly-green picture

"I didn't see anything on the cameras!" hissed Elektra.

"What was that?" Jay called out nervously from behind us.

"Everybody stay quiet!" I ordered. I opened up another channel to Percival's Tomkah. "Percival, something hit us, did you see anything?"

"What? We didn't notice anything," came the reply.

"Keep your eyes peeled," I warned.

I slowed down my Tomkah until we were barely moving at a walking pace, Percival doing the same behind me. At this speed, the Tomkah barely made a sound as it rolled long despite its size and heavy plating. The entrance to the mall was just a few dozen meters ahead now. The night-vision on the Tomkah's cameras painted the towering bank above it in an ugly lime-green. We would have to exit soon.

"What the fuck was that," Elektra said fearfully.

"I have no idea, maybe a Corpser or even a Chimera. Either way, it must be gone now," I said, choosing not to bring up the fact that had it been either of those two things, we should have seen them.

We slowly rolled up a ramp into a skycar lot. It was about six floors tall and situated across a large street from the mall entrance. I didn't want to leave our Tomkah's out in the middle of the road and risk them being jacked or sabotaged.

Hundreds of skycars of every make and model were parked in neat little rows. Some had shattered windows or large dents. Many had mangled corpses nearby – bodies of those who must have been trying to take to the skies to escape the infection.

Percival and I parked our Tomkah's side-by-side in a couple of free spots. Elektra and I made our way to the exit. I pulled Murgen's Avenger from my back and slid my helmet over my head while Elektra did the same with her Scimitar. Teewin and Galen flanked the exit hatch, weapons at the ready, with Soph and Jay behind. All of them had their helmets on, allowing us to use our night-vision settings and to communicate silently. They all nodded at me.

I nodded in reply, then opened the hatch. I jumped out and landed onto the asphalt. My right boot came down on a patch of broken glass, causing a loud crunch that echoed in the cavernous skycar lot.

A skycar some distance away suddenly rocked as if something had hit it. I immediately pivoted and trained my Avenger in its direction, focusing intensely at that spot and trying to catch the slightest hint of movement. My heart echoed in my chest, loud against the deathly silence that draped over the skycar lot. Nothing.

After a few moments of waiting around, nothing else happened, and I waved the rest of my team down.

"Mind the glass," I warned.

Percival's Tomkah opened up and out came my fellow Spectres and the rest of their team.

"Spirits, it's so quiet," Cade whispered. The turian had his Vindicator out and was scanning the skycar lot.

"Let's hope it stays that way," Percival said grimly.

The Jaegers split up in pairs of two and took up positions on our flanks. Galen paired up with Rayla and stuck to the rear while Cade, Percival, Elektra and I all took point. We began to move towards the exit. We scanned between the parked skycars, eyes open for any sign of danger. I almost cried out a warning when a few small, fuzzy black spots popped up on my HUD, but I bit it back. It was likely just a small glitch in the night-vision tech, nothing to alarm everyone over.

Accer tensely twisted left and right as he kept watch for any sign of movement. "None of the creatures have showed up, where could they all be?"

"What, are you feeling lonely or something?" Teewin chuckled.

"Can the chatter, keep your ears peeled," I ordered.

Soph and Jay both swallowed nervously. Fly and Rake seemed to take the whole situation in better than the two younger members. Rayla seemed solid and as did Galen. Percival was a rock as usual and I knew that as long as both him and I kept calm, Cade would as well. Elektra shivered as her eyes swept over several bodies. Cruel rends in their flesh the only evidence of what had killed them. Worse, some just had terrible bite-marks.

"Strange that these bodies weren't changed," Cade mused.

"Yeah, I thought they only passed up turians and those too damaged to be converted," I agreed.

"Wait, what do you mean passing up turians?" Elektra asked.

Cade glanced down at the body of an asari female still in her first century. The night-vision gave the halo of blood around her a sickly look, making the dark-blue liquid appear as a menacing, shadowy pool. Aside from three massive lacerations in the chest, the rest of her body was intact.

"Back on the Hippocrates, Changers and Crawlers would convert all of their victims into Corpsers, with two exceptions. One of them being bodies who had sustained too much structural damage – likely because they could no longer sustain the conversion process – and the other were turians. No matter what state we found turian bodies in, the creatures generally left them alone," explained Fly. The corpsman quickly knelt down and examined the lacerations on the asari corpse. "These were definitely caused by Corpsers, the width matches what I saw on the Hippocrates."

He then turned to another corpse, this one a turian with half its neck torn apart. "Tissue damage suggests Corpsers caused these wounds as well, but these look as if they've been caused by their teeth, not claws."

"Thanks, Corpsman," shuddered Elektra.

We were on the third level approaching the second when suddenly we heard the sound of rapid footsteps and heavy breathing. It was coming from down the large street that separated the mall and the skycar lot.

I immediately moved to the edge of the skycar lot where I would have a visual of the street below, my friends following closely behind. I craned my head over the edge, Avenger at the ready, and looked down, sweeping the street below us. Everyone else followed suit, eyes peeled and breathing heavily.

"There!" exclaimed Rayla. The asari commando raised a slim hand and pointed down the street.

About seventy-five meters away, a figure ran in a flat-footed sprint across the large, empty street. It was hard to tell with the night-vision, but it appeared to be a human male in civilian clothing.

We watched as a shadowy figure came out of nowhere some distance behind him, keeping low to the ground and moving fast on what looked like four limbs. I couldn't make its features out. It caught up to him just moments before the civilian could reach the other side of the street and pounced on him.

The human male went down with a scream. I winced as the civilian grabbed desperately at a nearby lamp-post as whatever had caught him began to drag him behind a nearby building. I could feel my whole team tense up in horror as several more shadowy figures silently raced towards the hapless victim.

Eventually the screams stopped just as the poor civvy was dragged behind a large building. Whatever had taken him had been too fast it had been too dark for me to see clearly what it had been. I grasped my Avenger in a white-knuckled grip and pressed the stock firmly into my shoulder, in shock at what I had just seen. Was it a Chimera?

"Spirits," whispered Cade.

"What the actual fuck was that," Jay breathed. The small marine trembled and pressed an armored fist against the lip of his helmet, unable to comprehend what he had just seen.

"Did anyone get a good look at what those were?"

"No, they were so fucking fast—"

"Fuck! Fucking hell we should leave and come back in the morning!"

"Everyone, just stay calm!"

"Shut up!" I hissed furiously. "Whatever those things are, they're long gone. We need to find Baird and get the hell out of here before the turians find him or before those things find us, got it?"

Everyone quieted down and slowly we got back into formation, but whereas the air around us had been heavy with only silence and anxiety earlier, now it was electrically-charged as tensions ran high and the fear became so dense you could almost taste it. And it wasn't the marines too. Elektra had already been afraid, butnow she was walking so close to me she was quite nearly pressed against me. Both Cade and Percival were swiveling and checking between the skycars more frequently than before, and even Rayla had begun moving with more purpose and caution.

Jay suddenly tripped on a body, having been too preoccupied with watching his surroundings. He went down with a muffled grunt and his Avenger dropped to the ground in front of him with a loud clatter.

I watched in horror as a shadowy figure materialized on top a skycar right beside him and pounced onto the Jaeger, bringing him down face-first onto the asphalt. Soph beside him gave a frightened shout and fired a panicked burst into the air above it that missed. Another creature slammed into her from the side and she went down with another shout.

I reacted first among my friends, pointing my Avenger at the creature currently on top of Jay. The creature was slightly ephemeral, almost as if it was flickering in and out of existence. It made it hard for me to make out its features clearly, especially with the night-vision active. From what little I could make out, it was mostly black and I could see metal spikes coming out of its back like a row of fins. It was similar in size to the smaller Chimeras we had fought in the biology lab aboard the Hippocrates – roughly that of Earth's cheetahs or leopards, but whereas the Chimeras were sinuous and had long tails that made up more than half of their length, these creatures however were more squat and had short, stubby black tails.

I fired a burst into its flank, the inferno rounds slamming into its side and knocking it off the struggling marine. It quickly scrabbled to its feet and dove out of sight between a row of skycars before I could finish it off.

Percival had lifted a heavy boot and launched a heavy kick at the creature currently astride Soph and grabbing at the specialist. It connected with it and knocked it off the small Jaeger, where Percival fired a burst at it with his own Avenger. The creature let loose a ghastly howl that sounded more animal-like than that of a Corpser and pulled itself away, blood flying everywhere.

We all blinked in surprise when it suddenly disappeared right before our very eyes.

Cade immediately pulled both Soph and Jay to their feet, his Vindicator rifle poised and scanning the lot furiously. Both the Jaegers didn't seem to be hurt, merely stunned.

"There!" Galen called out. He pointed at an empty spot in front of us.

I was the first to notice what had drawn the young turians attention. A few drops of blood seemingly materialized out of thin air to fall onto the asphalt, forming a trail that lead to where Percival had first shot at the creature. The space slightly above the ground was slightly distorted, not unlike that of a tactical cloak.

I fired a long burst at where he had pointed. A black shape shimmered into existence and howled once again. I fired half the clip into the thing before it finally keeled over and died.

"They're somehow stealthed!" I roared.

Elektra gave a warning shout and I felt something slam into me from behind, knocking me to the ground. In the corner of my eye I saw Percival struggling with his own attacker.

I quickly rolled onto my back just in time to bring my arm up between me and a pair of slavering, teeth-filled jaws. I starred up into the face of something that had once been clearly human. I could see the long, tangled black hair of the original victim. Unlike Corpsers or Changers, the eyes were very human and slightly deformed, emitting a weak blue light that looked pitch-black under my night-vision. Like their Corpser cousins, they had that characteristic, gaping maw filled with metal and organic teeth which it was currently trying to use to take off a part of my helmet.

I grabbed one of my knives from the small of my back with my free hand. Adrenaline flooded my system and I quickly drove my Talon knife into a gap of exposed, sickly-blue flesh, right beneath its neck, jabbing once, then twice, and then a third time. The creature had what looked suspiciously like the black armor that the saboteurs had been wearing aboard the Hippocrates melded into its flesh, but patches of exposed skin could be seen here and there, revealing swathes of formerly-human skin, synthetic cabling and odd, bone-like plating around its head.

The creature howled in pain and to my surprise and horror it grabbed my wrist with a very-human hand and tried to pry it away. A loud gunshot barked nearby and its head flew apart in a gory mess, utterly showering my helmet in blue blood and cutting my kinetic barriers in half due to how close the shot had been.

I pushed the twitching corpse aside and pushed myself to my feet, blindly groping around since my visor was covered in the creatures fluids. I felt my Avenger getting shoved into my hands.

"Get up! They're everywhere!" Elektra shouted. My friend fired two more rounds into the twitching creature.

My heart was pounding, beating at a mile a minute. I brought a hand up to wipe the blood off but was unsuccessful in clearing my sight. I snarled in frustration and unclasped my helmet, dropping it to the ground. I was rigid with fear as I waited for my eyes tried to adjust to the darkness, terrified that at any moment I would be attacked again.

I could see blurry shapes streak back and forth among my friends, interspersed with some muzzle flash that was not helping my eyes acclimate to the darkness.

I thumbed on the flashlight attachment on my Avenger, illuminating Percival struggling with one of the creatures that had wrapped its hind-legs around his waist and was grabbing him tightly around his shoulders, trying to take a chunk out of the N7's neck.

The beam of light hit the creature, causing it to snarl and recoil in pain. It let go of Percival's shoulders and brought its hands up to block the light, allowing my friend to rip it off and throw it some distance away. It collided against a skycar with a loud bang, and a few of its friends immediately charged at it, snarling and snapping.

The creatures' reaction to the light had not gone unnoticed. Elektra and Cade immediately turned on their flashlights as well and began blinding the creatures. Accer and Teewin followed suit. The creatures hissed and withdrew from the light, backing away and allowing the rest of the Jaeger team to draw a bead on them.

The light painted them in all their hideousness, though for some reason they still seemed to flicker in and out of existence. Like the one I had gotten a close look of, all of them seemed to be former humans and all seemed to have black combat armor embedded into their flesh. I could see the residual facial and physical features of the original hosts, warped as they were by the transformations. The creatures walked on all fours like giant dogs, with their forelimbs retaining very-human hands. Their legs were warped and twisted, becoming digitigrade. They had odd, bone-like growths atop their heads like plating, and what flesh was visible between the armor was sickly-blue and rife with small cables. They all had small, stubby tails and of course, that horrendous mouth.

Our weapons were relatively ineffective and the creatures were fast. They didn't stick around, but instead quickly ran away. Two of them stopped to help the creature that Percival threw rise to its feet and together the entire pack ran off, leaving my team alone and in the dark.

I held up a finger to my mouth, indicating for my team to keep quiet. Percival caught on quickly, as did Cade and Elektra, and soon the message was passed on to everyone else. We all pulled up in a rough circle with our weapons out and our backs towards each other, eyes warily watching for any sign that the creatures had returned.

I padded quietly over to where I dropped my helmet and silently picked it up, wiping it clean and slipping it back on over my head and sealing it with a hiss.

"What the fuck WERE those things?!" Teewin whispered mutedly over the big marine anxiously panned his Revenant left and right, open and alert for even the slightest hint of movement.

"Those were probably the fucking night creatures! I fucking told you they'd be out here!" Jay exclaimed. "None of you gave a shit what they were then, I bet you give a shit now!"

"I've never seen anything like them before. Did anyone else notice that they were all former humans?" Rayla added.

"Everyone stay quiet," I ordered. I pulled up the bio-scanners that Camilla had created and breathed a sigh of relief. We were alone.

"Those things, I think they're attracted to sound," I continued. "They didn't attack until Jay accidentally dropped his rifle, and several of them peeled off when Percival hurled one into a car, so stay quiet. Is anyone hurt?"

"No, we're all good," Accer replied.

"Seems like they're not too fond of bright lights, too," Percival pointed out. "That'll be useful."

"Did anyone kill one other than Elektra and I?" I asked.

Cade shook his head and glanced at the creature Elektra had killed. It was missing half its head, and blue-ish blood was slowly congealing around the terrible wound. "No, those things are well-armored and fast – could barely land half my shots."

"They were all wearing the same armor the saboteurs were wearing on the Hippocrates," Galen quipped. The young turian silently padded over to the body and began fumbling around the armored portions of the creature. After a few moments he grunted in satisfaction. We watched as the body suddenly disappeared with the tell-tale crackle that tactical cloaks made.

"That explains why we could barely see them," muttered Elektra. "They're practically invisible if they're standing still, and half-visible when they're on the move. We can't see them until they're practically on top of us."

I cast back into my mind, recalling the skycar I had seen rocking when I had first exited the Tomkah, then back to when I had seen those fuzzy distortions. "That seems to fit. Whatever these creatures are, they can stealth, probably because of the armor," I mused.

"How are we supposed to fight these things?" shuddered Soph. The young specialist had very nearly been killed by one of the creatures while trying to help Jay, only the timely intervention of Percival had prevented her from having her head bitten off.

"We don't," I announced. "We stay quiet and we don't attract their attention and if we have to, we use our flashlights. We grab Baird and then we get the hell out of here."

Without further ado Ichecked the charge on my Avenger and then quietly made for skycar lot's exit, doing my best to project an air of confidence and assurance. We were lucky that we hadn't attracted the attention of a horde of Corpsers or Changers during our firefight. For all we knew we might have, and the creatures were just regrouping. That was why we had to get to the tower asap and complete our mission, before things got too crowded.

My team followed suit. We eventually made it out of the skycar lot and into the street below without any more trouble.

I was the first one across the street, the rest of my team covering my advance. The city was still deathly quiet, like a fresh corpse.

I took up position behind a bench just outside the mall entrance and covered the rest of my team as they made their way across. Elektra crouched down beside me while the Jaegers split up to cover both sides of the street. Cade knelt down in front of the door and began to unlock it, with Percival, Rayla and Galen all covering him.

"It's open." My friend reported. He gently slid open the doors, revealing the darkness within the mall that the starlight from the night sky above was unable to penetrate. The turian Spectre brought his rifle up and with a small breath, stepped inside. Percival and the two specialists silently followed.

I waved for the Jaegers to follow them. They nodded and filed in one-by-one into the darkness of the mall, Accer in the lead. This left just Elektra and I outside.

Somewhere in the distance a creature snarled. I set a hand reassuringly on Elektra's shoulder and gestured for her to go inside.

She did, and after giving the street one last sweep I did so as well, sealing the doors behind me with a simple lock and immersing us in darkness.