Chapter 37
The Normandy was forced to make an emergency landing, and set down in a clearing a few kilometers from the downed enemy dreadnought. Damage was significant, but the Normandy was still space worthy, however with the shield capacitors down it was a sitting duck just waiting to be shot down, and the order came down from Hackett himself for them to set down and contribute with the effort to repel the Batarian assault. Shepard along with the marine detachment and the Krogan minus Kurg who despite his protests was still sitting in the medbay recovering from his injury were gathered in the Docking bay, preparing to disembark via the cargo bay's gang plank.
"All of you on me, we don't know what we're getting in to, so until we get some intelligence from inside the city itself we're blind. Grak, you're on Reegar, keep him clear when he sets up for a sniper position, got it?" Shepard said.
"Yes battlemaster." Grak said, slamming a heat sink into his shotgun.
"Move out." Shepard ordered and they all fell in line behind her as she marched towards the hulking mass of the dreadnought, easily visible between them and the city. Up in the space around Shanxi, commanding the remaining elements of the fifth fleet, Admiral Hackett stood on the bridge of the MSV Midway, a command ship built to his specifications. It featured the hull of a standard Alliance frigate, but boasted additional shielding and a thicker hull, it also boasted QEC connections to Earth, Rannoch, and the other command flagships. Hackett had chosen the frigate so that he could deploy it as quickly as possible without all of the complications and overhead of preparing and mobilizing a dreadnought or super carrier.
"Admiral Hackett, the Batarians are retreating! Shall I lay in a pursuit course?" his executive officer, Commander Tuuk'Suural vas Midway asked.
"Negative, let's mop up whatever's left behind then we move to support the ground defense." Hackett said, and the ship cut off pursuit, instead assuming a defensive posture in orbit.
"Get me Williams, if you please." He asked, Tuuk nodded and summoned the officer via communications. She reported to the CIC immediately, already armed and armored.
"Lieutenant Williams, get your marines ready, we're going to be landing soon and supporting the ground campaign." He said.
"Yes, Sir. Commander Suural, what do you think we're up against down there?" Williams asked the Quarian, who had more experience with the four-eyed aliens.
"Batarians rely on brute force and shock tactics over subtlety and strategic movement. Their bodies are similar to yours, but without the augmentations, their religion won't allow modification of their bodies in that fashion, so one on one any of us are more than a match for them, but they definitely won't let it stay one on one. They're strong but stupid, and if you take out any one of their eyes it throws their coordination way off." Tuuk explained.
"Right, separate them if I Can, aim for the eyes." Williams confirmed.
"Bring us in, Flight Lieutenant Chang." Hackett said
"Yes sir, preparing for landing now, ETA 2 minutes." Chang responded. Ashley summoned the marines via omnitool and directed them to the docking bay/armory. When she arrived they had assembled and were in full kit. She relayed Tuuk's advice on dealing with Batarians, and right as she finished her spiel, the sound of the gang plank going down and bullet ricochets could be heard.
"MOVE!" Williams shouted, bolting down the plank and firing controlled bursts at the opposition. A group of enraged marines was enough to unsettle the Batarians who immediately abandoned their defensive position and fell back. They signaled back to the ship to take off, and assumed the defensive positions previously controlled by the enemy.
"This is Williams, we've cleared the LZ and we're about to move north into the City. Anything we should be aware of?" She asked the open Alliance channel.
"Shit Ash, is that you?" She heard Shepard say.
"Shepard! Where are you?" She asked.
"Southwest corner of the city, near their Dreadnought, how things looking your way?" She asked.
"Batarians shit their pants and hauled it as soon as we landed, I bet they're leading us into a trap though." Williams said.
"Wish I had some of that here, as soon as we showed up they poured out of their ship like hornets. Running low on thermal clips." Shepard responded, pausing in the middle to fire at Batarians.
"We're on our way, Hang tight." Williams said.
"Appreciated. Shepard out." Shepard said. She looked around and while they were running low on clips things were definitely not dire. As soon as they realized the low-caliber ammunition being fired at them by the Batarians had trouble piercing their armor up close, they gave up their heat sinks to the snipers and switched to hurling giant rocks at them. The chaos they caused pushed more and more of the Batarians into the sniper's line of fire, and a few were too slow to avoid the heavy projectiles, each time one was taken down by a rock the Krogan would all shout in triumph. Another Batarian took a sniper round in the skull, when both sides ceased fire as a loud and ominous whistling noise was heard throughout the battlefield.
"INCOMING!" Baxter yelled as the Alliance and Krogan hit the dirt. Soon after they heard a series of thumps along with an occasional splattering noise, then screams and gun fire. Shepard looked over her cover and saw to her delight that the Geth had come to play.
"All alliance forces! Check your fire, repeat do not fire on the Geth they are fighting Batarians." Shepard bellowed into her communicator.
"Fuck yeah they are!" a soldier responded, as the Geth systematically began mowing down Batarians. A Batarian lobbed a grenade at Shepard's group only for a Geth to Leap in the air and catch it, right before it detonated, blasting him apart but saving the Humans, Quarians and Krogan.
"COVER ME!" Shepard yelled as she leapt out from cover, and grabbed hold of the downed Geth, dragging it behind as her comrades distracted the enemy.
"Look I'm no engineer but I've got plenty of electronics training, what can I do to help you?" She asked the damaged AI.
"We appreciate the thought, but this is just a platform, we will upload back to the consensus." It responded.
"Oh, uh, ok. Thanks for the assist!" She said.
"You are welcome. Recommend retreating to safe distance, this platform will detonate in 30 seconds." It replied, Shepard and her unit didn't need to be told twice. They left, making sure to allow the Batarians to see them running. A squad of Batarians rushed forward to retake the position Shepard had just "abandoned" only to be entirely obliterated by the detonation of the Geth platform's onboard micro-fusion reactor. Satisfied at that, Shepard ordered her soldiers forward.
Ashley's squad had fared much more poorly, not for lack of skill or discipline, however the terrain between their LZ and Shepard was treacherous and allowed for many Batarian snipers to take positions. They'd killed six Batarians, but at the cost of each of them sustaining some level of injury themselves. When they cleared an inconveniently placed ravine, they caught sight of Shepard's squad but not in time to avoid the Batarians lying in wait for them. It was easy to mow them down, however as the marines were checking the bodies one yelled "BOMB!" and Ashley hit the deck just as it went off, wiping out her whole squad.
"NO Shepard wailed as she sprinted full steam towards Ashley. The squad behind her stopped now and then to pick off stray Batarians that made desperation runs at her, but she didn't even notice them, she was fixated on reaching her fallen friend.
"MEDIC!" she shrieked, moments later Baxter skidded to a halt next to her and carefully flipped Ash over, plugging his omnitool into her armor. The readout appeared in holographic orange in front of his face.
"Vitals are good, I think she's just knocked cold. Look around for a bleed." he said, and Shepard complied, lifting her legs and arms one at a time, noticing no bleeding. He did a preliminary scan.
"No breaks, LC She's just unconscious. Stay here while I check the others. Kowalski come with me and help." Baxter said, running to the next marine to check. By the end, all had been declared dead except Ashley. Shepard didn't look forward to telling her when she awoke, but deep down she felt awful about the immense wave of relief that washed over her knowing her friend was ok.
"Shepard to command, we've got wounded, need extraction." She reported, immediately receiving an acknowledgment from the third fleet that a medivac was inbound. Shepard rose and began collecting tags from the fallen. The evac appeared much faster than Shepard expected, she lifted Ashley with seemingly no effort, and carried her over to the small shuttle, placing her on a bed in the back. A medic came by and did a quick suit check, then nodded and strapped her down.
"Keep her safe, Doc." Shepard said before exiting the vehicle and returning to her squad.
"Gimme an update." She said, completely drained at this point.
"The Batarians are in full retreat, heading back to the dreadnought. There's no way it can take off, so they're probably going to try to hole up in there." Reegar said while reading from his omnitool.
"How far away from the city is the dreadnought?" She asked.
"Four kilometers." Reegar reported.
"Damn, too close to nuke." She said. "Patch me into the fifth, let's see what Hackett has in store for us." Shepard said.
Back aboard the Midway, Hackett was reviewing updates given to him by field commanders. The Batarians not killed or captured had all retreated to the dreadnought for what looked like an attempt at a final stand. Hackett was tempted to evacuate everyone and nuke it from orbit or hit it with a mass accelerator round, but that would damage years of work that had gone into developing the colony.
"Incoming transmission from the Mayhem." One of the officers said.
"Patch it through." Hackett ordered, and was greeted by a split-screen communication, Xen and Chambers on one side, Rothschild appearing as a nondescript person in a business suit with a "Rothschild" name tag.
"Admiral Hackett, order the your ground troops to stand down. We have a plan." Xen said.
"Acknowledged, fifth fleet ground teams hold position." He ordered.
"Thank you." Chambers said.
"Mind letting me in on the secret?" Hackett asked.
"Remember the liberation of the Batarian slave ship? Rothschild devised a method of nullifying their control of the slave chips." Chambers said.
"The Hegemony doesn't institute compulsory conscription, primarily because its military is at any given time comprised 90% of slaves." Xen said.
"So we shut down the slave chips, announce that, and we might have open revolt on our hands." Hackett said.
"Precisely. Worst case it causes chaos inside the dreadnought so we can rush in with ground troops and take the ship. Having access to their technology and computer records would be beneficial, at least something good could come out of this nightmare." Xen said.
"Understood, we'll wait on your command." Hackett said.
"Rothschild, would you please initiate the signal and confirm its success?" Xen asked.
"Roger dodger sexy purple lady." Rothschild said bringing a blush to Xen's face.
"Boom, you're good." He reported a minute later.
Back on the ground, after receiving orders from the Admirals, Shepard as the ranking ground officer spoke into her omnitool which amplified her voice and broadcast it simultaneously on Batarian frequencies for those too deep in the ship to hear.
"Occupants of the Batarian Dreadnought. Right now, Rothschild is broadcasting a jamming signal that is interfering with the function of all of your slave chips. Anybody who throws down their weapons and exits the dreadnought peacefully will be treated as a refugee and will be given access to shelter, food, water and medical attention." She recited.
At first nothing happened, until one of the docking hatches opened and an unarmed Batarian stepped out, waving his hands in the air to show they were empty. He took a few experimental steps forward then turned around and started shouting back into the ship. At that people started streaming out of the dreadnought, all unarmed, some injured and many of them not Batarian. Mixed in with them were Salarians, Asari, Turians, Drell, a few Volus and a single Krogan. The first Batarian that came out slowly walked towards Shepard and introduced himself.
"I am Parg. Is what you said true? About shelter, food, water and medical help?" He asked?
"Of course." She said, "Go tell your people to gather the most grievously injured and head over to that medical tent. He nodded and went to go organize the refugees. An authoritative Turian approached, holding his hands up.
"I'm Canis Dinniculi, former Council Spectre. I have... information you might find interesting." he told Shepard.
"Are you injured?" She asked, he shook his head.
"Come with me, I'm sure my superiors will want to hear this as well." She said.
"Agreed. Thank you." Canis said. She led him over to a command transport shuttle, then politely ordered all crew to stand outside. She transmitted a request to speak with Admiral Hackett who was still in communication with the other admirals and Rothschild. They patched her in.
"Admirals, Rothschild, it's good to have all of you on board for this. Refugees are streaming out of the dreadnought and we're getting them fed, patched up and sorted, however one of them introduced himself as a former Council spectre, and said he had information for us." She said.
"Excellent work down there Shepard, by the way. I understand casualties on our side were minimal?" Chambers asked.
"We lost too many, but yes comparatively speaking our losses could have been far worse." Shepard said, her expression dimming.
"Nothing we can say can ease the pain of losing your men and women, Shepard. Believe me, I know, but your leadership saved a lot of lives, try to take solace in that." Xen said. Shepard nodded, then prompted Canis to explain himself.
"As stated, I am a former Council spectre. I was sent to infiltrate a smuggling ring on a Batarian border colony that was abducting slaves from unapproved areas." Canis said.
"Unapproved areas?" Shepard asked.
"Yes. The Council has agreements in place with the Hegemony, certain areas are declared off limits to the slave trade, while others are... overlooked." Canis said, the disgust visible on his face.
"Go on." chambers prompted.
"My cover was blown and I was captured and implanted with a slave chip, and forced to crew on that... ship. Batarians are very good at some things but keeping secrets seems to elude them. While I was working on the bridge, I overheard the ship's commander, Brun, communicating with a Turian. One with whom I am uniquely familiar. His name is Saren Arterius, and he's an active council spectre. I don't know whether Saren was acting on his own or on the behest of the Council, but one of many things they discussed was an upcoming invasion... of Earth." He said. This got their attention.
"They're planning on invading Earth? What was this attack then?" Xen asked.
"They're probing your defenses. This battle group comprised of older, obsolete ships, we were basically cannon fodder to gauge your readiness." Canis said.
"Well shit." Shepard said.
"I have to ask, why are you being so forthcoming with us? You yourself are a spectre." Chambers asked.
"Former spectre." he corrected. "I left the service of the Council because I found it... distasteful. I'm a Turian, Admiral, we pride ourselves in service and loyalty above all else, the council only cares about power and money. I will not continue to be a part of that." He said.
"Forgive me, Canis, I needed to know." Chambers said.
"You're forgiven of course, I'd be asking the same in your stead. One last thing, this is the speculation of an old soldier, so take it as such. I don't think Saren is acting independently, he has always been a tool of the Council. Be careful, he is an exceptional, ruthless and resourceful warrior." He said.
"We appreciate this. Do you know if there are any loyalists holed up on the Dreadnought?" Rothschild asked.
"Yes, there are more than a hundred, and unfortunately they are all elite Batarian soldiers protecting Commander Brun." He said.
"I figured. Better tell the governors to keep everyone in the bunkers until we secure the dreadnought." Xen said.
"Shepard, you're officially in charge of the ground forces. Ask the refugees if any have detailed knowledge about the layout of the ship, and assemble some teams to go in and eliminate the holdouts." Hackett said.
"Yes Sir. Canis, go to the medical tent and get that chip removed, Rothschild is dampening the signal, for now." Shepard said. He nodded and thanked them. Shepard walked him over to the medical tent, then went to talk to her squad. Kurg was now amongst them, glowering as he'd missed all the fun up until now.
"Alright, Hackett put me in charge of the ground forces here, for now I want you guys to keep an eye on the refugees, get ready for a general briefing in 30 minutes. Shepard walked around checking in with all of the squad leaders, who had been alerted via comms of the change in the command structure. She was on her way to the town hall where she was going to brief the ground troops when she was interrupted by a Batarian woman with her children.
"Excuse me, Um, Lieutenant Commander?" The woman asked.
"Yes, I'm Lieutenant Commander Jane Shepard. Call me Shepard, what can I do for you?" She asked.
"My son, he's sick and we weren't able to collect his medicine from the ship before we evacuated. I know we are the enemy, and that you must hate me but please! Help me save him!" She begged. Shepard held up a hand to stop her.
"I want you to listen to me very carefully. You are not my enemy. I do not hate you. I don't hate anyone. You are victims of my enemy, and of course I will do anything I can to help. Have you spoken to one of our medics yet?" She asked.
"We don't have anything to trade.." She said, worrying, as her son coughed up red flecks of blood. Shepard groaned, exasperated by the situation.
"Ma'am, let's go get him checked out, you don't have to trade anything for medical attention here, we want to save as many people as we can. What's his name?"
"Laaksh" She said.
"Hey Laaksh, I'm going to carry you over to a doctor, ok? Let me know if anything hurts." She said. He reluctantly nodded and Shepard picked him up, surprised at how heavy he was compared to a human child of the same size. She carried him to a tent and put him down on a bed, and a medic bustled over, checking his vitals.
"Heya Mike." Shepard said.
"Howdy LC, what do we have here?" he asked in a friendly tone.
"Juvenile Batarian, respiratory disease, coughing up small amounts of blood." She said.
"Yikes, that's no fun. OK, did you have him on any medicine?" He asked the mother.
"I do, but we left it in the ship and I don't know what it is, I can't read." She said.
"No worries we have a lot of information in our database about Batarian physiology, we figured after our last 'meetings' we'd better read up on you guys. Let me run a couple of quick scans." He said, waving his omnitool over the boy's chest as he started coughing again. The medic grimaced at what he'd found.
"Where did you get the medicine for him?" He asked.
"From another slave." She said, her eyes averting from him.
"Is this other slave a doctor or medic?" He asked.
"No, but he had a boy who had died of fever, and he was willing to trade for the leftover medicine he was given." She said. The doctor knew better than to ask what she had traded for it.
"I wouldn't be surprised if that medicine was some sort of pest poison. I'm showing alarmingly high levels of arsenic in his bloodstream, and serious damage to his lungs." He said. The Batarian woman began weeping.
"That's the bad news. The good news is I can purge the arsenic in five minutes and we have an aerosolized version of medigel that works for different types of lung damage. I can get the little fella back on his feet in a couple days." He said, reaching into his cabinet and withdrawing the required chemicals.
"Gonna be a small pinch here, kiddo." He said, as he administered an injection. The boy's color improved dramatically within seconds and he clearly felt a lot better.
"Ok, now this next part is going to hurt and it might be scary but I think you're brave enough to handle it. I'm going to put this mask over your mouth and nose and all you have to do is breathe. I'm not going to lie, it's going to hurt quite a bit but only for a couple of seconds, and you're probably going to need to cough, that's ok, don't fight it." He said. The boy reluctantly nodded and he affixed the mask, within seconds he was coughing violently, small amounts of blood collecting on the mask, but in an instant it was over and he was breathing easy.
"We're going to keep him breathing this for a few more minutes then I'd like for him to stay at least overnight for observation, if that's ok Ma'am." he said to the mother.
"I don't know what I can do to repay you." She said. The medic smiled
"We don't do debts around here. Have a nice day." he said and went to handle one of his other patients.
"Thank you so much Lieut... Shepard." She said
"Happy to help! Aww crap I'm late for my own briefing!" she said, waving and then running off