AN: I've had a few comments complaining about not enough action, too much fluff etc. I said it before and I'll say it again, I welcome any and all comments, seriously tear this thing to shreds, but I also want it to be known that I fully intend on this fic being all sappy and bleeding-heart-y. There is a lot of sad and miserable happening in the world right now, and there has been for a while now, and I kinda like to use this project to escape into sappy feel-good nonsense. If this isn't your thing I totally understand, just making sure it's known.
Chapter 63
Shepard took a few minutes to regain her composure before reporting to the Admirals about the status of the mission. While on the surface it was a success, they now had possession of the outpost, the cost had been far too high. Logically Shepard could understand that the fault lay solely with the slaving bastards that slaughtered all of those defenseless innocents but her heart wouldn't let her off so easily. With a shaking hand she punched in the codes to bring up the communications channel to the Admirals. One look at Admiral Raan's ashen, tear-streaked face told Shepard that she was not the only one with bad news.
"Shepard. Please, give me some good news." Raan said, her voice quaking.
"They butchered them. All of them. Christ, Admiral, there were children." Shepard said.
"Oh, keelah, no..." Raan said. Off screen a hand Shepard knew to be Anderson's grasped her shoulder, and brought her into a hug.
"Shepard, we heard the same from the other groups. It looks like the Batarians have decided on a scorched earth policy with their slaves. We don't have any surviving slavers to corroborate it but that's what it looks like." Anderson said.
"Admiral Anderson, we have one. Korvus is questioning him now." Shepard said.
"That's the only thing resembling good news I've heard from this whole ordeal. We never expected war to be fun and games, but nobody can prepare you for this. Jane, are you ok?" Anderson asked.
"Truthfully Admiral, no. I'm a few light years away from ok, but I'll get there. We still have to stop the monsters that sanctioned this madness." Shepard said.
"Glad to hear it. I know it's hard, and I know it hurts Commander, but this pain serves as a reminder that you are a good person with a good heart. Lean on your crew, they're there for you as much as you are for them." Anderson said.
"Yes sir. You too, sir." Shepard said, gesturing towards Raan's image.
"That goes without saying. Anderson out." Anderson said, cutting the communication, seemingly forgetting that Raan was the one that initiated it. Shepard stepped back and out of the comm tent and walked around the encampment. There were soldiers of all races openly weeping, leaning on each other for support, Shepard was glad to see this. With a support structure like this they could survive anything. A painful twinge racked through her stomach reminding her that the little she'd managed to eat before the assault had ended up on the ground outside the town hall an hour ago. She knew she had to eat but the thought of food was wholly unappealing to her. Still years of physical training and fitness regimens had taught her that she'd do nobody any good keeling over from exhaustion, and given the amount of calories she'd spent pushing through the outpost town she had quite a debt to pay.
She was so lost in her internal musing that she wasn't paying attention to where she was walking and she nearly walked headlong into General Noruva.
"Christ, General Noruva ma'am, I'm sorry." Shepard said.
"Commander, you're still in charge of this battle group, can the ma'am shit." Noruva said, grinning and internally cheering at the small victory she'd won by making the commander smile slightly.
"Sorry, Old habits and whatnot. Are your commandos all accounted for?" Shepard asked.
"Yes, all came through relatively unscathed. We had one minor contusion but nothing even worth treating." Noruva said.
"Thank God, I'll take any good news I can get." Shepard said.
"What about the Alliance, were there any losses?" Noruva gently asked.
"There were a few casualties making it into the outpost city but once the outer defenses were down we really didn't take any heat." Shepard said.
"I'm so sorry to hear that. What do your people do for the dead after they're gone?" Noruva asked falling into step beside Shepard as they both headed towards the mess tent.
"The Krogan while they have no Gods or Goddesses, they are still a very spiritual people and they perform death rites and pray for the safe passage of the honored dead. Quarians believe their dead ascend to a higher spiritual plane and they tend to disregard the bodies of the dead as simple biomass. Seems somewhat uncouth at first, but a: they spent 300 years starving to death on barely space worthy junkers, they had nowhere to bury their dead, and b: their philosophy has always stated that once someone is dead the body no longer matters, as the important part of who they were had moved on. Bodies were always simply disposed of after being harvested of any useful organs or tissues. Humans... we're complicated. We have so many subcultures, religions, ethnic traditions and whatnot. Some of us are deeply religious, while others are staunchly atheist, and then again everything in between. As such we bury our dead, cremate them, space them, bury them at sea and most of those come with some accompanying ceremonial rites from thousands fo old traditions." Shepard explained.
"If you don't mind my asking, Commander, what are your thoughts, on life, death, and the hereafter?" Noruva asked.
"I think that there's... something, not necessarily a God or Goddess, perhaps just advanced beings, and that we may never know them or understand their reasoning, and that despite that our search for meaning is itself a worthy reason for living." Shepard said.
"Goddess, how old are you, like 60? How is it you humans can gain such wisdom in such a short time?" Noruva asked.
"I'll have you know I'm only twenty-eight years old. Dammit, now you're making me feel old." Shepard said grinning
"Goddess... When I was twenty-eight years old I was a spoiled, entitled and ignorant little brat." Noruva said.
"How old are you now?" Shepard asked
"Three-hundred fifteen." Noruva said.
"Holy shit, I hope I look half as good when I'm that old." Shepard said.
"Are you sexually harassing a superior officer?" Noruva asked. Shepard paled and stood ramrod straight.
"Ma'am, No ma'am. I'm sorry ma'am." Shepard said
"Goddess Shepard, relax I was joking. I'm flattered, really." Noruva said, dissolving into giggles.
"You suck and I hate you." Shepard said, crossing her arms and pouting.
"Come on, Commander. The mess tent has a dextro version of an Earth confection you call 'Ice Cream.' And I'm anxious to try it." Noruva said
"They have ice cream? Sweet!" Shepard said excitedly, grabbing the General's hand and dragging her towards the mess tent.
"Keelah father, did you read Jane's report?" Tali asked her father via omni-tool communication.
"Yes, I couldn't believe it at first. Ancestors, we thought the hegemony was insane before, but this? How could they even do that?" Rael said.
"I'm worried about Jane, she had to witness the aftermath first hand. Whatever Korvus is doing to that bastard isn't nearly enough to make up for that." Tali said.
"The Admirals are meeting this afternoon to discuss our next steps. Clearly our island hopping idea isn't going to work. We have other dire matters that have come up as well..." Rael said.
"Anything you can share?" Tali asked.
"Not a word to anyone below the rank of Lieutenant for now, understood?" Rael said.
"Of Course, Sir." Tali said.
"Rothschild has been incommunicado since the assault. We have been trying every channel, we even tried hard wiring a terminal to his central hardware in on Earth. We can't figure out what's wrong with him but we're worried." Rael said.
"Father, can I offer a bit of advice?" Tali asked.
"Of course, Tali." Rael said.
"Rothschild is an AI, but he's still a living emotional being. He is probably grieving. Give him time to process what has happened, he was there on the front lines disabling the signal he probably feels responsible. Send a broad-spectrum message to him reassuring him and telling him to find you when he's ready. He likely has never experienced this level of despair before." Tali said.
"Of course, you're right. Even after all this time with the Alliance I default to thinking of him as a machine and not a being." Rael said, slightly ashamed.
"You grew up hating Ais father, you've come very far considering that. I need to go check on Shepard now that the repairs are completed." Tali said.
"Of course, and Tali, She is a very good woman, I'm happy that you found each other." Rael said.
"Thank you father, that means so much to me. Tali out." She said, disconnecting from the comm link. She looked over at herself in the mirror, and straightened out her uniform, then made her way outside. Halfway to the center of town Tali ran into Kurg, whom she flagged down.
"Lieutenant Zorah, ma'am. What can I do for you?" Kurg asked, saluting. Tali returned the salute.
"As you were Kurg, no need for formality when it's just us. Have you seen Jane?" Tali asked.
"Yeah, and don't sweat it Tali. Noruva found her some ice cream." Kurg said with a knowing grin.
"Oh thank the ancestors. I didn't think I'd be able to console her on my own." Tali said. She then surprised the Krogan by walking up to him and hugging him.
"Thanks Kurg, and thank you for watching her back." Tali said.
"Not at all, I'm proud to serve with her, and I'm glad to be her friend." Kurg said returning the hug. Tali then made her way over to the mess tent.
Hannah Shepard had just been briefed and was currently destroying her office. Drake Monroe, her assistant stood patiently in the corner occasionally dodging a thrown piece of office equipment. He knew well enough not to interfere, when Hannah was angry enough to act out it was for a damn good reason, he would be there to help her clean up. After a few minutes Hannah crumpled down into her chair and began sobbing, Drake was at her side in an instant holding her.
"Hannah, this is awful, horrible, worse than anything we could have imagined, but there is no way you or anyone else could have known this would happen." Drake said.
"I know Drake, I just can't stand this. First I have to start this godawful war and now there are dead civilians." Shepard said.
"Shh, Hannah it's going to be OK. You are doing everything right." He said.
"Fuck.. Rothschild are you there?" Hannah said. There was no response.
"Dammit he's got to be hurting. He never shuts me out like this." Hannah said. She pressed a button on the desk.
"Geth, could you please come in here?" She asked. The unit that had previously been designated as 'herald' walked quietly into the room shortly after. They'd taken to calling it 'Geth' as they tended to identify as a collective, and instead of expecting it to conform to her individualistic sensibilities she figured it was better to accommodate theirs. This endeared her further to them.
"Shepard Prime Minister. Do you need assistance cleaning this room?" Geth asked.
"What? Oh no, I made the mess I'll clean it up. I just wanted to ask you to pass a message along to Rothschild for me. He may feel more comfortable reaching out to you than I at the moment. Can you please let him know that we are here for him, and that when he's ready to talk we'll get each other through this?" Shepard asked.
"Of course, Shepard Prime Minister. May we ask a question?" Geth asked.
"Of course, always." Shepard said
"We have noticed that despite the victory in Batarian space, the organic beings and Rothschild are acting as though they've suffered a great defeat. Why is this?" Geth asked.
"Because we have Geth. We're not doing this for territory, riches, or even revenge. We're doing it to free slaves, and to protect our own safety and freedom. Our attack caused hundreds of slaves all over the border to die." Shepard explained.
"That does not make sense to us. We were there, the Alliance, Asari and Turians all acted to the best of their ability to save the Civilians, they were murdered before you ever had a chance to save them. Why is it that you assume responsibility?" Geth asked.
"We don't, not really, but one thing about emotions is that they do not obey logic, that and we mourn the loss of so many innocents." Shepard said.
"Would it not be better to ignore emotion and follow logic exclusively?" Geth asked.
"In some situations perhaps, but not all. For example, my sister Amelia was born with severe developmental delays. When she was twelve years old, she had the mind of a five year old, logically she was not thriving and could not at that stage contribute to the collective. Despite that we love her, and we put a great deal of time, effort and money into keeping her safe and happy. Logically she consumes a lot of resources and contributes little to society as a whole, but I'd happily starve if there was only enough food for one of us. If we ignored emotion we would be missing out on things like love, mercy, and forgiveness. Those are the cornerstones of our civilization, our prime directives if you will." Shepard explained.
"Thank you for explaining. This gives us much to ponder." the Geth said.
"Happy to help. Remember, if Rothschild reaches out let him know there's a whole bunch of meat bags that love him and want to make sure he's ok." Shepard said.
"Acknowledged." The Geth said as they took their leave.
Miranda, Oriana and Kookaburra sat in front of the vid screen, the two humans watching in horror at the newscast.
"Our valiant Alliance soldiers and our Asari and Turian allies made quick work of the Batarian resistance, however the same grizzly discovery was made on all of the outposts. For obvious reasons we won't be showing it here, but suffice to say, if the Hegemony's actions thus far hadn't signed their death warrant before, they most certainly have now. " The correspondent reported, then it cut to footage of Krogan soldiers performing death rites over shrouded corpses, some of which were disturbingly small.
"Here the Krogan perform their death rites, praying for the souls of the honored dead to make a safe journey to whatever awaits them. No records of the religious backgrounds of the human slaves was available at the time of filming, so an Alliance Chaplain provided a non-denominational military memorial service as well. It's important to recognize in times of such barbarous bloodshed that the Alliance and our Turian and Asari allies fight with ferocity, but also compassion." The correspondent added.
"The Alliance isn't making their next move known for obvious reasons, but you can all rest assured that the Batarian Hegemony has much to answer for, and while this reporter does not know to which god or gods those of the Hegemony pray, I am of the opinion that we should make haste in introducing these murderous bastards to them." The reported said, then signed off. There would probably be a fine to pay for that slip of journalistic decorum but it was doubtful there'd be a shortage of viewers willing to contribute to paying it for him.
"God, I just... There aren't words." Oriana said.
"Ori, I'm taking the job... I can't just sit here and do nothing while our enemy murders slaves. Murders their own people." Miranda said.
"I'm glad. This is just heinous. Were... were we like that a hundred years ago?" Oriana asked.
"Yes, and worse. Remember the stories of child soldiers?" Miranda said.
"How do we deserve the life we have now?" Oriana asked.
"We made a lot of really hard changes, Ori. We're still making them. We remember the past, we give when we want to take. We work when we want to rest, we love when we want to hate. We learn from our failures and we forgive each other for them." Miranda said.
"I never want us to be like that again." Oriana said, wiping the tears form her eyes.
"I know, Ori, me too. Why don't you go over to the Bailey's? Jack should be out of school soon and I have some paperwork to file." Miranda said.
"Yeah, that sounds good. Make sure to be ready to come over for dinner, you know Mrs. Bailey is going to want to fatten us up some more, especially after she sees the news." Oriana said.
"Ugh, don't remind me. At this rate I might have to rent a room at the gym." Miranda said, gesturing at her belly.
"Oh shut it Miri, you could eat a horse and not gain a pound." Oriana said grinning. Both of them were thankful for their artificially increased metabolism now that they were part of the Bailey-Lawson family.