Chapter 12
...
The derelict Dreadnought roared.
At first, Hanala was unable to comprehend what was happening. She was far too focused on what this ship spoke about. They wait for a return? Whatever that meant would have to wait, Hanala felt Joachim's hand grab her and turn her around. Hanala's mouth opened as she watched in unfathomable terror as the dead stood from their resting place.
"What are we going to do?" Martus finally found his voice, frightened as the monsters seemed to try to get their senses working once more.
Joachim answered the question by raising his rifle and firing on the closest of the monsters, forcing the husk to stagger back. It simply did not have the stopping power to take it down.
"RUN!" he simply screamed at the two of them.
Hanala and Martus could not have possibly agreed more with Hoch at that moment.
...
...
A week. It had been a week since they accidentally wandered into Hell.
Hanala opened her eyes blearily, her mind drenched in painkillers and sleeping medication to help her banish the thoughts fuelling her nightmares.
The past week was a complete blur to her, featuring the two of them in quarantine, both of them recuperating from their time on Earth, and their brief but violent encounter in the Prothean ship. Countless medical and psychological examinations, and questions from each of the admirals, her father, and her grandmother, each interrogation was worse and more strenuous than the next.
She felt so... wrong, her mind clouded with a thousand voices and fears she never realized she had, the voices of all of her crew were amongst them, accusing her of being directly involved in their deaths, destroying their families because of her inability to keep her damn ship in one piece. How she got Galas' killed for her arrogance.
Keelah, she was losing it...
As she tried to stop the horrible thoughts from flooding anymore of her subconscious, there were two pairs of footsteps moving by her bed, not paying mind to her change in state. They wandered away from her and instead stood over the other occupant of the medical bay.
Joachim Hoch.
He was going to freak once he found out where he was – almost 400 thousand kilometres away from his home world. Hanala barely registered that Joachim was now officially the first human in space. Once the shock wore off, it would undoubtedly swell his ego even higher than it already was. Hanala rolled in her bed and painfully faced Joachim Hoch, mostly covered in blankets and with two suited quarian nurses swooning over him like he was the latest source of fascination to these women.
"You know," The first nurse mused, her voice playful as she held her eyes on her patient. "I think I can sympathize with how the men felt when they were first contacted by the asari."
"That's quite enough."
The two women turned back and bounced slightly at the edged voice calling the two of them out so suddenly.
"Oh Captain... you're awake," the nurse chirped excitedly, still bouncing slightly. "Sorry, ma'am, I did not mean to offend."
Rubbing her eyes, Hanala shook her head. As much as she wanted to hit the two of them, she could not. Any personal feelings or... possessiveness she may have felt was not for the eyes of the fleet. Not until humanity and quarians knew of each other's existence.
"You didn't just... go."
The nurses shared a look that clearly said that her secret wasn't a secret in the slightest. They did however oblige her and start to leave.
As they left the room, one of the nurses paused and turned back to smile kindly at the Captain who was staring at Hoch.
"We administered an end to his induced coma a few hours ago," she informed Hanala. "He should be regaining consciousness soon."
Hanala did not acknowledge the remark and stood there waiting until the nurse left and closed the door behind her. Groaning to herself, she buried her hand in her face as embarrassment overwhelmed her senses.
Quarians were very social people and considering her position in the fleet as a captain, her parents, her grandmother, and her family in general were influential. It would be only a matter of time before the nurses spilled Hanala's reaction to the rest of the ship.
Hanala moved slowly over to where the two nurses stood over Joachim. Her hands latched together, nervously winging as she watched the human start to stir.
Joachim was in a terrible state. Covered in bruises and burns, his flesh was peppered with shrapnel wounds from a grenade that she mishandled. His state was her fault, she was frightened of the monsters and threw a primitive grenade much too late, and now Joachim was paying for it.
Hanala expected that he would not forgive her so quickly. Maybe one day, but certainly not for quite a while.
A cough forced Hanala's focus back to his face. Joachim was indeed awake, his head rolling back and forth as though he was in a state of confusion. Hanala reached down and silently touched him, forcing him to turn and see her. He turned his head, showing his commanding blue eyes to be glossed over by the drugs flowing through him.
"Han-ala?" was his groggily spoken question.
Blinking away the water building her eyes, caused by the relief that Joachim was going to be alright, Hanala nodded, trying to smile brightly just for him.
"Joachim, I'm so sorry. She whispered, her head buried in his neck. She winced as he heard Joachim hiss as the pressure of an upset quarian woman caught him off guard.
"What... for..." he mumbled, the narcotics provided by the humans taking a serious toll on his state of mind. It was clear as day that once relations were established between the two races, quarians would have to teach humans how to produce a non-opiate painkiller.
Pulling her head up, Hanala reached under the cover, her hand instantly finding Joachim's. She squeezed it as she sat down on the edge of the bed next to him. She watched him as he smiled lazily for her, his eyes half open, half wanting to go back to sleep.
Deciding against her better judgment, she leaned in, her thin lips grazing against his.
"This... you being here..." she breathed, pulling herself back up. Her eyes avoided his as she ran one hand through her hair, the other squeezing his forearm covered in blankets.
"Where is here? Austria?" he breathed, grinning slightly as though he was happy to finally be out of that desert.
Hanala exhaled slowly before finally working up the courage to shake her head.
"The far side of your moon," she finally admitted.
In a matter of a microsecond, any narcotic haze Joachim allowed to control him instantly vaporized. His silly smirk was gone; replacing it was a multitude of expressions, sceptical, shock, fear and a sudden shake of his head in denial of the truth.
"Bullshit..." he managed to growl as he struggled to pull himself up out of his bed. Though his mind was cleared of the narcotic effects, his body was not. It was much too medicated to force it into responding to his demands.
Hanala sighed, touching his cheek briefly before standing up and stepping into the observation window covered in shutters. She swiped her hand over the interface, opening the metal blinds and revealing the blue and green jewel shimmering against the local star's solar radiation. Visible too was the moon which they were in distant orbit.
Joachim's mouth dropped open as he lost all sense of control. He screamed.
"WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?!"
Hanala flinched at the pure spitting rage flowing from the human, who was baring his teeth menacingly at the quarian.
"You were hurt... you were hurt so bad..." Hanala managed to speak through the guilt pounding through her barriers. "You almost died; I needed to take you to my home. I-I had to save you, Jo... I needed to save you. It was my fault... it was my entire damn fault... I-I shouldn't have thrown that grenade... You saved my life and in turn... I-I..."
The last word forced the drugged Joachim to pry open his eyes wide at the remark, His eyes darted all over her face demanding an answer to her. As much as Hanala wanted to say something, anything for the reason why he now sat on the far side of Earth's moon, how that this was all her fault anything she could say would just fall flat.
She did not have any words to comfort him. Instead, she simply pulled back the blanket covering him. She winced at the fresh scars he had earned because of her.
Those scars however were nothing compared to the real injury he suffered.
His left arm was gone… completely gone.
Well... not quite, replacing the flesh and blood was an arm made of plastics, metal and cybernetics connected to the muscle tissue, lying to the brain that the arm was still attached. It did not help that they had no time to make him a customized human arm and hand... that would come eventually, for now, he would make do with a thin arm with three fingers at his disposal. It would take a few months of physiotherapy to get him used to it.
For now, however, Joachim was not fine with it. He stared at it like it had been out of a horror or a science amok vid. He looked close to having a fit as struggled to breathe, let alone say something, anything about his augmentation.
"I... I know it must be odd, but I swear that it'll be temporary," Hanala quickly assured him, her voice quivering with the reaction building in Hoch as she spoke. "It'll stay on until our augmentation specialists design and create a human replica instead."
Joachim paid no mind to her as he slowly rolled his fingers into a fist. Suddenly, he laughed, he laughed like a man possessed. The reaction was unexpected and somehow it was enough to terrify her even more than rage ever could.
...
...
Raising their rifles and submachine guns blazing at absolutely anything that stood, the three of them bolted away, firing and panicking as the two quarians and the human realized that their weapons just did not hit hard combination of old, somewhat preserved plate armour and cybernetics that were beyond anything Hanala saw before.
The ship roared once again, so hard that the footing beneath them shook as though the planet's tectonic plates were shifting just underneath them. The three of them staggered and continued running down the path they took back out to the temple. This time, however, the ship was awake; its lights were on, revealing just how many of these monsters were still lying dormant, one by one being awakened by the Virtual Intelligence. The monsters screamed, clanging their swords against the ground and their shield as they rushed the three of them.
Some of them fell to their bullets, most of them merely staggered, absorbing the rounds. There wasn't much choice which they had other than to keep running.
One of the monsters jumped out in front of them. Joachim acted first and did not stop running as the stock of his rifle slammed into the creature's face, making out scream and crumble to the floor. Combing her fire with Martus, Hanala flashed her omni-tool to life which had mapped the path they took.
"Straight ahead for another half a kilometre, then we turn left!" She screamed over top the gunfire.
Hurling a grenade to cover their tracks, Joachim nodded and together the three of them continued their sprint, all of them hoping beyond hope that they would make it back to the surface in one piece, all of them hoping that Reister and his Tiger would be there by now.
...
...
Watching Earth like she once did from her ship, Hanala took a drag from one of Joachim's cigarettes, his gold case gripped tightly in one of her hands as she stared blankly at the world with a wonder that she kept hidden. She had never been on a planet before; there seemed so much to see in the short time she stayed as a guest in Joachim's care. She knew it was unlikely she would see most of the planet until the war was over.
Until then she would be content with wherever Joachim could take her... well that was if the Admirals allowed her back to the planet during whatever negotiations.
In the meantime, it seemed like the newest Admiral of the Board would take her place. Admiral Halid'Zorah was a fair better choice as a keeper of the people than she could. A level-headed Admiral who could answer the human's questions and knows when it was best not to.
They spoke briefly when he came back to the fleet, his arms holding a parcel given to him by Joachim's friend and superior officer, Langer. It was Joachim's dress uniform. Hanala turned from the window and inspected the uniform that she carefully laid out on her bed and smiled slightly... she didn't think he would mind it too much if she tried it out... just this once.
Stripping the medical gown off her body, Hanala quickly pulled on the dress pants, the undershirt, the suspenders, and the tailor-made grey jacket, sporting all of his many medals proudly for conflicts she had no idea happened but wanted to hear them all from his lips. She fought the small buttons, but they attached. She pulled on the gloves, the socks and with a great struggle, the jackboots. She closed her eyes and took a drag of her cigarette as she carefully placed his high-visor officer cap over her head. Finally, she looped the holster belt took a careful step back and looked into her reflection shining in the observation window.
It was all too big for her, but Keelah... she looked so good. She didn't agree with just about anything Hoch stood for, but she could understand the appeal and the power this uniform held.
"Hana?"
Hanala froze at the raspy voice pet name giving to her by her grandmother when she was just a little girl. Suddenly very conscious about wearing Joachim's surprisingly snug uniform, she turned back and found that both Mother and Grandmother Jalina'Calis standing there watching her. One blank in confusion, the other amused.
"Daughter... I trust you're fine?" Mother spoke, her voice hiding the curiosity.
Hanala rolled her eyes at her mother's stiff attitude. She stubbed out her cigarette and turned to find her mother glaring at her with a menace that few people walked away unscathed from. She sighed, Perhaps she shouldn't have screamed at Mother when she was busy cradling a severely wounded Joachim in her arms, right in front of Father, Mother, three admirals and a dozen marines.
By and large, Mother was a tough woman; it was bound to happen when her three brothers died in three failed offensives against the geth. The pain though so great and deeply buried was nothing compared to the older woman sitting quietly by Joachim's side, her hands held tightly together.
Grandmother. Hanala allowed her a smile.
Grandmother Jalina lost everything to the geth exterminations and wars - her husband, her parents, her siblings… an entire extended family. She escaped the extermination with her three sons and Hanala's mother still inside her. How she managed it was beyond Hanala's comprehension. She supposed Grandmother Jalina kept going for the last of their race; her pursuit for a home appeared to be her last great task.
And now she found it. Just below them, Earth.
These were undoubtedly the last days for her Grandmother. Hanala hated the thought, hated the concept of losing a woman who had been there through everything... To have her leave now and join the Ancestors was unthinkable, absolutely unthinkable. Giving Mother a sideways smile, Hanala pushed herself out of bed and joined her Grandmother by Joachim's side, her hand taking the old admirals. Jalina glanced up and smiled slightly.
"Tell me about him," she nearly rasped, glancing at her granddaughter with a pride she rarely witnessed.
Hanala was only too glad to oblige.
"His name is Joachim Hoch," she introduced, gesturing to him. "He's in a special section of the armed forces of Germany. They're a politically motivated fighting force. He's arrogant, He takes survival of fitness to an extremity... But he's... I don't know... complicated. You don't want to get on his bad side…"
Though busy inspecting Joachim's clothing on Hanala's body, Mother looked up alarmed at her admission.
"Did you?" Mother called out, her arms crossed as she listened to her daughter. Hanala smirked lightly and nodded.
"First contact..." she admitted, earning a light smile from Grandmother. "We killed a few of his men after a misunderstanding. He sneaked into our perimeter and beat me up."
Mother gasped, her eyes glaring at the human. Once more, Hanala shook her head to placate her mother's temper.
"I stabbed him, so we're even," she stated with a slight self-satisfaction.
She listened to Mother's slight gasp with mild amusement.
"He has a family... I think," She corrected; she held her eyes over him. "All I know is he hasn't spoken to his parents in nearly a decade."
Hanala suddenly laughed, despite the grimness of Joachim's family life.
"He's funny… once you get used to him," she continued, her voice filled with wonder as she stared down at the human fondly. "He doesn't joke often... he sticks more to sarcasm."
She paused, biting her lip as her hands touched against the edge of the bed, only inches from Joachim's. She paid Mother and Grandmother no mind as they watched her curiously… like she had lost her mind or something of that nature.
"Other than my family... I think he may be the only person who seems to treat me fairly..." Hanala softly spoke, her lips forming a slight smile as her hand touched against his. "He encouraged me, he comforted me when I was homesick, but he isn't afraid to tell me when I'm acting stupid."
The hand on Hanala's shoulder fell off her. Mother took a step back. Slowly she glanced between her daughter and the primitive in a deep sleep. Hanala turned to face her mother, trying her best to keep her temper from exploding, just as her mother was doing the same.
Mother knew.
Mother knew and she did not like that in the slightest.
Standing in front of Joachim as though protecting him from the rage and potential murder at the hands of her mother, Hanala stared at her defiantly.
"Look at yourself," Mother found her voice. "Beaten up, your crew dead, yet you wear his uniform. Do you realize how silly you look? How stupid you have acted?"
It felt like a slap to the face for her as Hanala absorbed her mother's angry words. She could not find her voice, even if she could, what could she possibly say to defend herself without descending to a lot of profanity and never speaking to her mother again. Shaking and blinking away the mist in her eyes, Hanala bowed her head slightly. With a slight hiss, Mother turned away and headed out the door. She paused however slowly turning back to her daughter.
"Why couldn't you be more like Rael?" Mother asked of her, less fire in her voice but still edged with disappointment as she added. "Rael has his priorities straight, his people's survival comes first, not some stupid hunt for a ship, not for some human that in all likely is using you for his means, just as you did to him..."
Mother paused her rant and shook her head, inhaling and exhaling sharply as she finally turned back to Hanala.
"I do not know where I failed..." she concluded. "But I did. I failed you at some point and I'm sorry about that."
With Hanala's confidence shattered so soundly by less than a hundred words spoken by her mother, she left, leaving Hanala and Grandmother in silence that was nearly unbreakable and very awkward. Breaking her self-contained state, she turned to see Grandmother Jalina try to stand from her seat. Hanala moved back to her, helping her elder out of her seat, only to have Jalina wrap her arms around her and pulled Hanala into a silent hug,
Doing her utmost not to sob like a child, Hanala maintained her control and broke the hug, her gloved hands clutching the Admirals. Her hollow expression formed an equally hollow reassuring smile.
"Hanala, she's wrong to speak to you in that way," her Grandmother tried to begin. Hanala merely shook her head.
"Yes, she had every right to. I'm fine Grandmother; she's just speaking out of anger," Hanala flat-out lied to her as she escorted her to the door. "Just go and see to her, please... Mother needs you."
Reluctantly, Grandmother obliged her child. Without any more words, she simply kissed her cheek and tiptoed out of the hospital room, leaving Hanala with an unconscious Joachim and the desire to cry.
...
...
Unindoctrinated intruders have disturbed the solitude of our wait. Pod hibernation cycle cancelled.
The words spoken by the AI buried in the Prothean ship somehow amplified the fear levels even higher. Why did she do this? Why did she allow her damn foolish pride to drag them here? Joachim and Martus were right to be furious with her. Galas was dead because she wanted to drag everyone off to visit a place not even her greatest nightmares could concoct.
But they were almost out; they would escape and make sure that no quarian or human would follow in their footsteps. This place was evil and should be orbital bombarded for three straight weeks. Until this place was nothing but a large hole leading to the Earth's inner core.
Fuck all the consequences. This place should be eradicated.
"Turn left, one hundred meters to the exit!" She screamed as they reached the four-way corridor.
Before they could, the hallway was suddenly alight with the noise of hissing gunfire in front of them. The three of them ducked to the closest cover they could find -what looked like a fallen support beam. Hanala and Joachim returned fire; Martus did his utmost to keep the screaming husks behind their cover at bay.
Hanala peered over the cover and took a look at one of the monsters shooting at them. It looked like some sort of reptilian creature with many eyes. Twisted beyond what was likely its true species much as the humans had been. Hanala watched as it lowered its rifle suddenly and stood up.
Direct intervention is necessary. Assuming control.
They watched in horror as the lead bug creature screamed and was metamorphosed before their very eyes. It grew twice as big and was coated in a golden light that appeared to be some sort of shield.
They didn't bother to even try to fight it. Joachim simply threw a grenade over their cover, forcing the creatures to duck. They ran, escaping the overwhelming fire directed at them as they dodged between the husks. They were fifty meters from the exit. They needed a plan that involved making sure that none of these monsters escaped from this tomb.
"Shit, I'm out of grenades!" Joachim screamed out to the group.
Hanala didn't think. In a split second, she reached into her bandoleer and pulled out a grenade of her own. She followed the instructions. She unscrewed the bottom and tugged the cord to ignite the fuse. Not bothering to wait for the fuse to burn, she threw it as hard as she could at the monsters.
Unfortunately, one of the husks caught it and charged at them. Hanala widened her eyes,
Oh shit.
Before she could react, before she could comprehend how close death was, Joachim shoved her aside and charged the Husk.
The grenade exploded.
...
...
With two excited words, Hanala blinked her memories of her guilt away.
"Auntie Han!"
Hanala turned back and found that her legs no longer belonged to her. A pair of small arms captured them; an equally small head was pressed into her thigh. It was Saleb, her brother's daughter, her niece. She bristled, ignoring the masculine version of her name, taught to her by her Bosh'tet brother who always found a way to make Hanala as miserable as possible. It was just what brothers did according to grandmother, who had siblings once and three sons of her own.
The aunt knelt, her arms wrapped tightly around the seven-year-old child. She had grown so much since her deployment. She was a full head taller easily by Hanala's observation. Hanala released her grip on the child and carefully examined her from head to toe. She had a darker complexion, she got it from her mother it seemed, her eyes were much brighter than Veyare's however, taking her father's bright tone.
Slowly the aunt smiled to her niece, albeit wearily.
"Hello, my Saleb, I have not seen you in such a long time." She greeted kissing both of her cheeks. "How have you been?"
Saleb shuffled bashfully in her Auntie's arms.
"Good," she admitted as she carefully looked up to her Aunt. "Father says you're in trouble. Why?"
Hanala did not offer the child anything other sign than a smile, despite fuming about how unfairly they were looking at what she did.
"I'm in trouble because I didn't listen to your Grandfather and great-grandmother," Hanala admitted to her niece slyly.
"Isn't that a surprise?"
The voice was deep and sarcastic; Hanala winced and looked up from the girl in her arms. It was Captain Rael'Jarva vas Lienav, his wife, Veyare'Jarva standing several feet behind her husband, almost afraid to approach her battered and potentially ill sister-in-law. Hanala stood up, her hands still holding little Saleb's shoulders as she turned her focus up to her brother,
"I'm not going to get sick, am I Princess of the Fleet?" he pressed, his mouth forming a mild grin for his sister. "You were exposed to an alien environment right?"
Hanala crossed her arms. So it began. The teasing, the rivalry shared unknowingly between a brother whom everyone loved and a sister who wished was born days after the one-child policies were enacted. Her birth alone was fuel for the assumption that she lived a life of privilege. Rael may have had all the same privileges as she did growing up, but apparently, he made it up to the masses by being selflessly devoted to his people, being the people's representative, regardless of whether they were members of his crew or not. He was a man who would give up his rations to others whenever he could.
Hanala on the other hand, was derisively called the Princess of the Fleet. Though her brother was naïve about the connotations, it was a term used to look down on her, because she had two admirals in the family, a community representative mother, a brother who made Captain by twenty-six... and here all she wanted to be was a dancer, someone who kept the traditions of their people alive. Useless, decadence according to most, time wasted and better served in the military, a place she had no desire to be in the first place.
These were young fanciful dreams of someone who didn't grasp the people's situation. Well… eventually she relented; she allowed them to push her into begging her father to allow a captaincy place for her, which as it turned out was her first mistake. It meant that another person would lose their spot. Her second mistake was acquiring the Devoas. The fleet needed scout ships for Project: Uplift and she needed a ship when she graduated. When the people found out she had gotten a ship paid for by her father they nearly mutinied.
Her third mistake was that she signed on to watch the humans. It was and still is a secret mission that not many quarians knew of. She figured it would help provide a permanent home for their people. She still felt that way but it was clear as day that she would be constantly ostracized for her decision by short-term thinkers. They wanted her to be like her brother - volunteering selflessly as usual to defend the civilian fleet.
"Hello... Hanala?" Rael echoed his daughter's greeting. Hanala winced and looked up from
"It's fine from Saleb to call me that, Rael. Not from you, so be nice," Hanala greeted her brother with a slap to his shoulder and a kiss on his cheek. She turned to look over his shoulder and added "Hello, Veyare, I trust you are well?"
Veyare smiled nervously at the very battered-looking sister-in-law and stepped forward taking her place by her Captain, her husband's side. She leaned in and pulled Hanala into a friendly hug for the younger Hanala, who tried to smile as brightly as she did.
"Hanala, I am so happy you're here, back home and safe," Veyare welcomed as she pulled back, still with a warm smile given to her. "Mother has been in a panic since you stopped reporting in."
Glancing at her mother who shared his wife's sentiment, the three of them, with Saleb hanging off her leg, decided they would not discuss what happened on Earth, choosing instead to make up for the year they remained out of contact. They spoke about everything, from the status of the fleet, to how Saleb was nearly fitted with cybernetics to keep her healthy, to how Rael could potentially replace grandmother once she was gone.
Hanala merely smiled and nodded through most of it, choosing instead to drift away as her thoughts hoped that Joachim would be alright once he was awake once again.
...
...
Joachim lay there on the ground, his face pale as he screamed at the top of his lungs, his remaining arm flailing out, trying to find his blasted-apart limb. He paid no attention to anything other than finding the bloody mess that remained of his arm. But the search for an intact limb was fruitless. there was nothing but shattered bone, bits of flesh and shredded muscle spattered across the metal interior of the ship.
Hanala pulled Joachim back as Martus snatched up Joachim's rifle and pulled his combat harness carrying all of the rifle's spare ammunition. He shot down one of the dead humans. Still, Joachim struggled against Hanala's grip.
"I need it... I need it... I need... I need...it... I need it..." he cried as his still good arm grabbed handfuls of what remained of his arm.
Giving one good jerk, Hanala pulled Joachim away, dragging him as he screamed and fought to get what he left behind.
Metal walkways turned into dirt, rock and sand. They made it; they were outside at the human-made Prothean worship site. Before Hanala had a chance to thank the Ancestors, she was shoved out of the way by Martus, whose belt was in his hand. Without so much as a warning to Joachim, Martus knelled onto his stump, emitting a scream from the near incoherent human.
"I'll relish in your agony once we're safe," he muttered as he wrapped the belt around his wound as an improvised tourniquet. The ship roared again, dirt and dust collapsing from the room around them. The monsters stepped out of the ship and screamed, forcing the two of them to turn from the human and fire on the creature until it slumped in the doorway.
"Captain, get over here!"
Hanala looked from the monster and found that Martus was gesturing to the probe. She nodded and wrapped her free hand around Joachim's massive frame, dragging the moaning, incoherent human to where Martus was holding back the bugs with guns.
Shooting down one of the creatures he turned to his captain.
"I'm charging the laser," Martus roared over the gunfire. "When I say so, you stick his stump in the barrel!"
Hanala's eyes widened at the desperate measure presented by Martus. Had he lost his mind?! She was about to protest him when Martus grabbed the front of her uniform and pulled the woman right into his face.
"Do you want him to bleed out?! Do you want him to die?!" He screamed at her, making her flinch at his unbridled rage. He gestured to Joachim's bleeding stump and added "The tunnel is over five hundred meters long and we have no idea when we'll get him to a medical center!"
Martus pushed her back to face the monsters and together the two of them pushed the rear barrel of the mining laser to aim at the ship and the monsters pouring out. The two of them fired, forcing the monsters backwards into the ship.
"Now!"
Hanala dropped her rifle and lifted Joachim. Ignoring his screams, she grabbed what remained of his bicep and shoved Joachim's stump into the superheated mining laser barrel.
The effect was instantaneous. Joachim screamed even higher as his wound closed and was burned a sickening black. Hanala pulled him back, batting the flames engulfing his clothing and burning his flesh. The screams subsided and Joachim went limp. Hanala allowed a sob to escape as she shakily opened her omni-tool, not paying attention to Martus'Xen as he fired the mining drill, melting dozens of the human monsters.
Scanning his body, it was clear that Joachim was slowly going into shock. She did not have time to confirm it as Martus grabbed Joachim's jacket.
"Come on, Captain! Focus!"
Hanala nodded. Together they dragged Joachim up to the tunnel and back to the surface.
...
...
Father and Grandmother stood there at the entrance to the admiralty quarters, their face both solemn as they stared at their daughter and granddaughter respectively. Hanala closed her eyes and opened them just as quickly, her face forming a mask that Joachim had worn for so long in public. She would admit to no one just how right they were to have this trial.
"Father, Grandmother. I trust you are well." She spoke to the two of them surprising just how she sounded like Hoch as well.
Her reaction startled the two of them, but she did not react, she followed Joachim's posture, she held her head up high at them, her eyes narrowed and looking down at them, her stance nearly as rigid as the human who inspired her sudden and utter boost in both arrogance a self-confidence that felt completely natural.
"I have managed to convince them that exile was off the table," Father broke the silence at long last. "It would raise too many questions as to the nature of your violations. Your Grandmother and I do not have a say on your punishment, but it will not be light."
Hanala exhaled but did not celebrate it.
"I see, thank you for speaking on my behalf," Hanala continued, sounding unfazed by her father's kindness. "I suppose I represent myself?"
Father, somewhat disgruntled by his child's lack of emotion other than arrogance sighed, slowly he nodded.
"Captain Daer'Haleos vas Kareon has volunteered to be your representative should you choose it. She is quite adamant with seeing to your defence..."
Grateful for the defence, she watched Father trail off as footsteps approached. Familiar boots marched towards them, clanging against the metal floor with a surprising snap. Grandmother and Hanala both followed his lead.
It was Joachim, walking at a steady pace to them.
Hanala's heart skipped three beats.
He was dressed in his uniform; his neck and battered face were the only signs that he had been wounded by her and the monsters inside the ship. Behind him were his nurses, their eyes suspiciously low as they watched how he walked. Joachim seemed anxious. He had been in a quarian vessel before, but certainly not one that was in space.
He stopped in front of them, snapping his boots together and respectfully nodded the two admirals before he turned to Hanala, those blue eyes staring at her hard. She did not notice the way Grandmother and Father were watching the wordless interaction between man and woman.
"Admiral's Jalina'Calis and Alaan'Jarva, this is Obersturmbannführer Joachim Hoch… a lieutenant colonel, I suppose…" Hanala finally found her voice, managing not to stutter out his name to her Father.
Joachim, not bothered by the Admirals, merely tilted his head to one side in another slight bow for them.
"Admirals, Captain. I'd like to help with... whatever this is..." he spoke slowly. He was emotionally drained. "It is the least I could do to pay you back for saving me."
Joachim trailed off as he inspected his new arm, his face blank as it hid what he thought about what was now attached to what was left of his arm. Hanala stepped past her family her hand pressing against his human arm. Still silent, he stared off until Father cleared his throat abruptly, forcing both of them to turn back to him
Father was just as blank-looking as Joachim but for clearly different reasons.
"Thank you. You will just have to present your story," her Father spoke. He paused and gestured, adding. "Come, I'll explain it while the Admirals prepare... Hanala, good luck."
She nodded, gratefully, but before Joachim could be dragged off by Father, she reached out, grabbing his arm and holding him in place. Joachim turned back and stared curiously at the suddenly very guilty woman.
"Forgive me, but... I thought you were scared of where you are... and that arm," she pointed out, trying not to quiver as he stared at her.
Joachim's eyebrow arched.
"I am afraid that you must be mistaken, Captain Jarva," Joachim simply stated.
Foregoing the kiss Hanala privately wanted to give him, Hanala merely nodded and watched as two men who probably had no business speaking privately, Father and Joachim left both her and her grandmother. Slowly Hanala sighed hoping that Father did not pick up on anything and decided to toss Joachim out of the airlock for even thinking of defiling her. She smiled slightly to herself and turned back, finding her grandmother standing there, a knowing smile for her grandchild.
Hanala looked away from the old woman. She didn't dare to look her in the eye and now she knew something was happening.
...
...
They were close to the exit. The monsters were too close to them.
They were almost to the surface now. Less than one hundred meters left until they reached the open Libyan Desert. Perhaps Reister was there. They would need him to stop all of those bastards chasing them, the bugs, the undead, whatever horrors that waited down there.
She looked at Joachim. He wasn't in shock like she assumed, if he was then it was mild. He was however knocked out, a state that Martus would have reviled in had it not been for the precarious situation they were trapped in.
"It's Captain Jarva, covering fire!"
The crackle of fire that easily cut down the monsters chasing them, the familiar environmental suits... it was the Migrant Fleet Marines! Keelah, things were getting better and worse with each meter they moved up the tunnel.
Better because they were near the surface, better because a platoon of Marines was covering their retreat, better because the roar of Reister's Tiger approached them, positioning itself aiming down the tunnel. They got out of its way and the tank opened fire, adding to the volley.
Though things looked up, there was one thing that made it worse. The Marines' presence meant one thing: The Admirals were here.
Father was here.
The Marines allowed the three of them to pause, filling the gap they made with more rifle fire down on the monsters making a now suicidal charge against them. Hanala imagined that the monsters were quite fine with dying. Their service beyond death to a virtual intelligence would at long last be over.
"Daughter, get in!"
Hanala turned her head from Joachim and to the source of the voice shouting through the gunfire of both the quarian marines and Reister's Tiger tank. It was Father standing in the doorway, directing what looked like the leader of the marine unit. She turned her head away and glanced back down at the shaking body in her arms. Hanala wiped her eyes and took another deep breath.
"We're almost there, Joachim. We're almost safe."
Dragging his body along until she hit the transport, she felt hands grab her, pulling her up into the ship. She turned back, it was Father and Mother. Hanala pulled away from them and stood on her own accord, pulling Joachim up with her and resting him on the floor of the ship, her lap used as a pillow for the extremely wounded man. Her hand grazed against his pale, bruised skin. She paid no mind to her parent's careful stares at their only child, or to the watching eyes of her grandmother. She did however look up when she saw Martus'Xen enter the ship.
"Xen, take the second ship to where we were being held. Hoch's superiors need to know about the Admiralty's arrival."
Father nodded, agreeing wholeheartedly before turning back to one of the admirals in the transport.
"Admiral Zorah and a team of Marines will be joining him. It's time we make official contact with them."
Zorah nodded and stepped out of the transports, following the suddenly nervous-looking Xen, who would be shepherding an Admiral. Hanala however called out to Xen and Zorah as they headed towards the second transport.
"Do not leave yet! There are more humans to evacuate. Take them with you!"
Martus glanced at the Tiger, which fired another shot down the tunnel and nodded.
Leaving Joachim with her confused father and her mother, who stared at the human with a curiosity shielded by her mask, Hanala grabbed the marine officer's rifle and leapt back out of the transport, Combining her fire on the undead along with Reister and the marines taking cover behind the heavy tank.
Killing a Roman corpse charging at her with its short sword she jumped onto the back of the Tiger and slowly climbed over it until she reached the hatch, pulling it off its hinge. Reister looked up, his pistol raised at her briefly before relenting, his face contorted into surprise.
"Jarva? What the hell is happening down there? I thought you idiots were mining!" he hissed as he dropped the pistol back down into his holster.
"I'll explain later," she dismissed, gesturing to the tunnel and added, "You need to collapse the tunnel! You're sitting on half a tonne of explosives. You need to do something!"
It took Johann Reister less than five seconds to come up with a plan.
"Everyone, get out of my fucking tank," Reister ordered his crew... "I'm wedging Sigrid."
The sudden waves of protests were silenced as the screams of one of the undead pulled itself up the side of the Tank. Hanala swung around and shot it until it slumped onto the tank.
Hanala turned back and found that one by one, the human crew climbed out of the tank. The final one was the scar-faced radio operator, who turned back and pulled Paul Fuhrmann from out of the hatch. He groaned, his hand clutching his side. Hanala allowed the young giant a slight reassuring smile. He turned his head and looked on the quarian dead in the eyes.
"Where's Herr Hoch?"
Her smile faltered.
"He's coming with me..." she finally admitted as she helped the young man off the tank. "He's been hurt bad... We'll be taking care of him."
Fuhrmann didn't reply, he simply bowed his head as the radio operator and Tiger driver dragged Fuhrmann towards Zorah and Xen, who were ushering the humans into their craft. She turned back and felt the tank suddenly moving. Reister was driving it deeper into the wide tunnel.
The Tiger swerved, its frontal armor banging into the glass wall forcing Hanala to sway, Hanala gripped onto the turret MG-34 for support and swiveled it to face down the tunnel. Pulling back the machine gun operating handle, she fired on everything that approached. Reister backed the heavy tank up, like before, he banged it into the tunnel, and a hundred tonnes of pressure was just enough to crack grass.
Suddenly the turn moved, raising high and aiming for the roof of the tunnel. Hanala flinched as the heavy cannon exploded, hitting the roof of the tunnel with enough force that it cracked hard, splintering the glass.
"Jarva, give me a grenade!" he screamed up through the roaring of the tank and the cries of the undead approaching them. Hanala obliged, her shaking hands threw a stick grenade down the hatch for Reister.
Reister fired another round, this time the explosion broke through, the explosion forcing the glass to slowly give way to the pressure of tens of thousands of tonnes of sand and rock weighed on it. Reister scrambled out of the Tiger, the grenade in his hand. He armed the explosive and threw it into the tank ammunition cache was held.
The two of them scrambled off the tank and out of the tunnel. The Tank ignited as the ammunition cache blew up, speeding the shattering of the glass mineshaft.
Hanala watched as the tunnel collapsed, burying the horrors back under the sand.
But for how long would it remain buried exactly? The admirals would undoubtedly want to open this site up again. Well, she would not allow them to. Not until they were certain it was safe.
She turned and saw that Reister was standing still, his cap over his chest as he stood watching the tunnel finish collapsing. His eyes were glazed in mist.
"Sigrid... I'm so sorry... I should have treated you better..." he moaned, drying his eyes as though he lost a relative or a wife.
As Martus wandered over to collect a grieving Reister, Hanala shook her head and climbed back into the transport, batting her father's hand away from her shoulder as she sat back down on the deck of the ship, cradling Joachim, unable to turn away from the lost arm that still smoked from the quick cauterization.
"Little spark, come here... tell me what happened?" Mother nearly cried. "Why did you do something as foolish as come here?"
Hanala glanced over and found her mother now over Joachim, her hands extended, trying to pull her daughter from the faintly breathing human lying in her lap. Inwardly she scowled at her mother's near childish treatment of her considering not half an hour ago they were fighting creatures buried in the sands of Earth that had no business being there.
"I came here because I tricked the rest into following me." She muttered mutinously. "Please mother, I'm not in the mood for a childish nickname. I'm a captain-"
Admiral Vaerhit, who was sitting quietly with Admiral Utala'Falan suddenly laughed.
"After this gross violation of our orders, you will not be a Captain for long. Jarva," Vaerhit sneered at the younger woman. "You will be lucky to make it out of this safe from exile."
Hanala glared and did her utmost not to do what Joachim would have done. Punch his face in.
"Shut your mouth, Bosh'tet," the captain growled to the Admiral, unfeeling to the gasps of her mother as she added. "Just get us back to the fleet."
Father narrowed his eyes.
"We'll be discussing your liberal interpretation of our orders in the near future-."
"I don't care, Father," Hanala interrupted as she used her sleeve to keep more blood from flowing from Joachim's neck "Take us home, back to the fleet. He needs our help."
For the first time, Father acknowledged the human's presence as he was being cradled by his daughter.
"He saved my life, Father," she pressed on before he could make a protest. "I'm not about to hand him over to their butchers; I'm taking him with me."
Wiping Joachim's blood pooling from his nose, she shook her head. She turned up to Vaerhit and glared at him.
"Captaincy be damned..."