Chapter 68
The Geth were slowly and carefully making landfall on the next outpost one at a time. Several infantry units would cling to a prime and it would make planetfall on the dark side of the world, then over time make their way to their destination. This planet's northern continent was the most habitable, and featured a lush boreal forest surrounding an inland sea, and the outpost was on the coast near the south where the weather was less treacherous. Every night three or four squads would land and use the woodland cover to slowly make their way towards the installations, where they found a hiding place and hunkered down carefully making their way into the Batarian systems to sabotage security and sensors, as well as learn about patrol patterns.
Meanwhile the invasion fleet conglomerated around Shepard's outpost to protect and help repatriate the liberated slaves. Ships had been sent to Palaven to transport Turian, Volus and because of their proximity to Salarian space the Salarians, and to Thessia for the Asari and Drell slaves. The Vorcha had requested and received transportation to Omega, mostly because that's where they were used to finding work and Aria would accept them without harassment. The few Asari and Turians that weren't injured or sickened nearly to the point of death had volunteered to stay on and assist the relief efforts. General Korvus reinstated the military status of the Turians as Noruva did with the Asari that had military experience, the remaining Asari assisted in repairs, cooking, medical work and other support roles.
Korvus and Norvua were in a tent waiting for Shepard to arrived to discuss the preparations for their next attack.
"Shepard is by far the most talented natural leader I have ever seen." Korvus admitted. Noruva nodded enthusiastically.
"I don't know what it is exactly, but the Asari soldiers here, all of whom are older than her by at least a hundred years, have fallen in line completely without complaint. I was expecting grumbling especially from the officers." Noruva said.
"I can't blame them, I've known the Commander just for a few weeks and I'd willingly follow her even into hopeless battle." Korvus said.
"It's not just her either. Her second in command, Williams, she lead a squad full of Turians, Quarians and Krogan through that dreadnought looking for any hiding Hegemony loyalists. Five years ago they'd have all been at each other's throats, but under Williams they covered each other and followed orders without issue." Noruva said.
"Spirits, Imagine what the Council would be if we'd started it with the Humans thousands of years ago instead of the Salarians." Korvus said
"If you'd met my ancestors thousands of years ago instead of the Salarians, we'd all either be slaves to a brutal galactic dictator or dead from total civil war. My people have come a long way in a short time, we used to be monsters." Shepard said, entering the tent.
"Commander, please join us." Noruva said, having risen to her feet alongside Korvus, and gesturing at an available seat. She took it, almost not noticing that the two generals had not sat until she had.
"General Noruva, General Korvus, I hope all that can be well is well." Shepard said
"Of course, Commander. The former slaves heading to Palaven now extend their gratitude, we expect most will fully recover from what they've endured." Korvus said.
"Most?" Shepard asked. Korvus nodded sadly.
"Some of them are old, Commander. No amount of medigel, surgery, or physical therapy can erase a lifetime of brutal servitude." Korvus said.
"I hate the Hegemony." Shepard stated. Both generals nodded
"Ok, how are the ones on the way to Thessia doing?" Shepard asked, looking at Noruva.
"As well as can be hoped. Sadly the Drell will need to endure quarantine before returning to Kahje, one of their numbers was diagnosed with Kepral's syndrome, and we don't know if any others are infected. Don't worry, none of the other species can contract that infection, it's drell-specific fungal lung infection." Noruva said.
"I'm not worried about that, Did Karin or Vil get a chance to look at them? The alliance has an aerosolized version of medigel that can be used to treat lung diseases. We used it to help a Batarian boy that we rescued from the dreadnought on Shanxi." Shepard said.
"No, the Drell were immediately sequestered in separate quarters on the ship after they were determined to not have any immediately life-threatning issues." Norvua said.
"Please give me a few minutes." Shepard said and began furiously punching in commands to her omnitool. A few seconds later Admiral Raan's face appeared in a holographic projection emanating from the omnitool.
"Commander Shepard, General Noruva, General Korvus, to what do I owe the pleasure?"
"Admiral Raan, I've just found out we had some Drell, one of whom tested positive for Kepral's syndrome and a few others that may have been exposed. Humanity has not had a lot of exposure to the Drell, but we do have a form of medigel that is adapted to their biology, we need to find out if it can be used in aerosol to treat the disease, and if not see if any of our scientists are devoting resources to it. If not we damn well should be." Shepard said
"Keelah I'm ashamed nobody's mentioned this to us before. I'll see to it immediately, and I can arrange for a science team to meet the refugees on Thessia. I'll also devote a team to looking into other illnesses, worst case we can contribute our minds to it as well." Raan said.
"Thank you, Admiral. That's all I needed for now." Shepard said
"Of course, Commander. Raan out." She said.
"Sorry about that. So the freed slaves are being seen to. The alliance bore the brunt of the damage, we have a large number of vessels that require significant repairs and resupply. Furthermore, our brothers and sisters are still playing hide and seek. We're on a holding pattern for at least a week. General Korvus, please assign rotating patrols of the space a quarter light year surrounding the outpost, General Noruva please assist the Geth in deploying the forward sensor drones so we can get a high-resolution scan of the path between here and our next stop." Shepard said.
Korvus and Noruva agreed and took their leave to tackle their respective tasks. Shepard slumped into her chair, desperately tempted to succumb to the creeping exhaustion that had been eating at her all day. She smiled as a notification on her omnitool alerted her to the fact that the Asari had acknowledged her information about the Drell and there was a human Medic on Thessia preparing the medigel for when they arrived. She acknowledged that there were many lives she couldn't have saved, but to know that her efforts may have saved these ones did wonders for her emotional wellbeing.
"Commander Shepard, may I come in?" a voice asked.
"Please." Shepard responded, standing again. Vil D'inan walked in smiling brightly, her eyes swollen from crying.
"Vil! Come in, take a seat!" Shepard said, Vil ignored her though and walked up hugging her.
"Thank you ,Shepard. Thank you so much. You've given me everything." Vil said.
"Vil I really do mean it when I say it was my pleasure. How are you and your mom getting along?" Shepard asked, sitting down, after Vil did directly across from her.
"Amazing. I didn't even realize how much I missed her. Goddess I've never felt this light in my life. Um, Shepard?" Vil asked.
"Yes Vil?" Shepard said.
"I mean this with all due respect, but you look awful. When was the last time you slept?" Vil said, holding her face in her hands and tilting it to the side to get a better look at her eyes. Shepard grinned and let her, Vil it seemed had as much trouble turning the doctor off as she did turning the soldier off.
"Yesterday? I think..." Shepard said. Vil rolled her eyes.
"Commander, you're not going to do anyone any good collapsing from exhaustion." Vil said.
"I'm not that tired..." Shepard said lamely.
"You need to sleep." Vil said, not backing down.
"I'll get some sleep later." Shepard said, starting to stand up.
"Jane, please. You do so much to take care of everyone around you, you need to take care of yourself as well. You're going to make yourself sick." Vil said, standing up with her.
"I will Vil, I promise, there's just too much to do right now." Shepard said, trying and failing to stifle a yawn.
"You're going to make me do something I don't want to do..." Vil said menacingly.
"Oh no you don't. I'm a commanding officer, you cannot sedate me without my permission." Shepard said.
"Oh no, it's something much worse than that." Vil said, bringing up the comm on her omnitool.
"Oh hello Vil. What's up?" Tali's voice said coming from the screen's holographic display.
"Hey Tali. I need your help. Jane is running herself ragged, needs sleep and is being stubborn." Vil said. Shepard paled.
"Oh is she? I will be right there." Tali said, her voice dripping with ill intent.
"Oh crap..." Shepard said. The room flooded with a cool breeze as the tent flap burst open with all the force that can be mustered by 54kg of determined Quarian.
"Oh crap indeed. Jane, you will come to bed with me now, or you will go to bed alone for a week!" Tali said.
"I'll be good!" Shepard yelped, and allowed herself to be lead out of the command tent, followed by a grinning Vil. She was so happy to have found her Alliance family.
On Earth, in a clean yet homey feeling hospital room, a blue pair of eyes slowly opened, then squinted nearly closed against the assault of the bright yellow sunlight coming in from the outside. She reflexively turned her head, and was surprised to discover that she had been sleeping on her back. Normally she'd have to sleep on her sides because if the stumps contacted her bedsheets for too long they'd stick and peeling them off when she woke was utter agony. She reluctantly tilted her head and to her immense relief discovered that this hadn't happened.
In fact while groggy, she felt better than she remembered feeling for a long time. It was then that the memory of where she was came rushing back to her and she bolted up into a seated position causing the machinery in the room to wail in protest. She ignored them and reached a hand to the back of her head and felt copious bandaging all over the back of her head. It was then that Dr. Karinsky calmly appeared, knocking at the door.
"May I come in, dear?" Karinsky asked.
"Yes, of course." Narek said.
"How do you feel?" Karinsky asked.
"I feel good, tired, but good." Narek said, a low grumble could be heard from her abdomen.
"Also hungry." Narek said, Karinsky smiled.
"We can get you something to eat in a few minutes. However, if you're up to it I'd like to examine you." Karinsky said.
"Oh, ok..." Narek said, suddenly extremely anxious. Karinsky reached up and started undoing the bandages, the process took a while as each individual crest had been lightly wrapped in gauze, and a few times Karinsky had to pause to loosen dried blood with a watered down medigel solution. After a few minutes the bandages lay in a blue-stained heap on the ground and Karinsky was closely examining the back of her head. She cleaned the area meticulously removing dried blood and wayward bits of gauze that had stuck despite her best efforts.
"Ok, dear does this hurt?" Karinsky asked, poking the underside of one of the larger crests towards the top. Narek jerked, and immediately Karinsky was concerned.
"No, sorry, I didn't mean to scare you. It didn't hurt but it's very sensitive." Narek said. Karinsky nodded.
"OK, well, would you like to take a look?" Karinsky said, smiling? Narek nodded enthusiastically, reveling in the sensation of moving her naked head without pain for the first time in years. Karinsky gestured to a mirror atop a sink in the bathroom area of the recovery suite. Narek walked over and let out a choked sob as she saw her head completely unmarred, covered in slightly pink-hued blue crests. Her hands reached up and could barely believe that she was feeling normal, pristine, beautiful Asari crests under her fingers. Karinsky appeared behind her with a smaller mirror so that she could see the back.
"They discoloration should clear over time, make sure to keep them as clean as possible for the next week and if there's any pain I'm sending you home with an ample supply of medigel." Karinsky explained, Narek turned to face her, tears streaming down her eyes and launched herself at the much taller woman hugging her tightly. Karinsky smiled and patted the happy woman on the back. Then her stomach grumbled again and they both laughed.
"Ok, let's go get you something to eat, shall we?" Karinsky asked. Narek followed her down to a large cafeteria, one that reminded her of the mess hall on the Destiny Ascension. There were humans, Quarians, Krogan and a few Turians and Asari milling about either on lunch break or eating during convalescence. It appeared she was not the only one to take up the Alliance's offer on free health care. One thing that truly surprised her was that there were more than one Geth platform sitting amongst their organic counterparts, contributing freely to whatever conversations were going on.
When a few people looked over at her and smiled warmly, she was suddenly self-conscious, the back of her head being bare for the first time in public in a long time. Karinsky seemed to notice her discomfort.
"It'll take some getting used to dear, but the details of your visit are completely confidential, The Geth and I are the only ones that know the extent of your... injuries." Karinsky assured her. Narek nodded, feeling more confident and gathered her selected dishes including a few recommendations from the Doctor.
"I need to get going, I have a few more patients to check on, but after you're finished eating anyone should be able to help you get back to your room. I'd like to keep you overnight just in case there are any issues. Tissue rejection isn't a problem, it's all cloned tissue, but this is the first time we've done this." Karinsky said
"Of course, thank you again, Doctor Karinsky." Narek said earnestly.
"I can say without reservation it was my absolute pleasure, dear. I will check in on you later." Karinsky said, then took her leave. Narek found an empty table and put her tray down. She suspected she wouldn't be able to eat it all, but she was too polite to reject any of the doctor's recommendations. She was halfway through enjoying what was without a doubt the best food she'd ever eaten, when a high-pitched voice behind her got her attention.
"Excuse me, Miss? Can I sit with you?" Duural asked.
"Oh, of course. Duural, right?" Narek said
"You remembered!" Duural said, delighted, sitting down across from the Asari with her tray.
"How could I forget such a beautiful face. Where's Gabby?" Narek asked, Duural's face fell.
"Gabby's in surgery. Her mommy says she has a problem with her heart." Duural said, sullenly.
"Oh dear, I'm sorry to hear that." Narek said, her own heart sinking.
"The adults keep telling me she's going to be ok, but I don't know. They always say that, even when things turn out to be bad." Duural said.
"They only do it because they don't want you to be scared. You know what though? They're scared just like you are, and they need you as much as you need them." Narek said.
"Yeah... You're right. I hadn't thought of that." Duural said, eating what looked like a cold soup with white broth that Duural called "lucky charms." She paused and looked up at Narek again.
"Where's your pretty scarf?" Duural asked. Narek's hand shot to the back of her head, only for her to suddenly remember the damage had been repaired.
"Um, that's why I was hear. A long time ago some bad people hurt me really badly, I came here and they helped me. Now I don't need it any more." Narek said.
"The doctors here are the best! They're going to let me stay here while Gabby gets better." Duural said.
"Yeah, we're pretty awesome. That's a totally unbiased opinion by the way." A male Quarian doctor said, startling Duural. He'd been accompanied by a human male who was smiling but his eyes were red and bloodshot giving away that he had been crying. Duural shot up and approached them.
"Dr. Kerru! How did it go? Is Gabby ok?" Duural asked.
"She's going to be fine. The surgery was a complete success, and the defect has been corrected. We're awesome, remember?" The doctor said grinning. The human walked over and picked up Duural, hugging her tightly.
"Mr. Willis, I'm so happy! Is she awake? Can I see her?" Duural asked.
"She's still sleeping but she'll be up soon. Come on let's go so we're there when she wakes up!" The man said.
"Of course. Um... Ms. Narek? Are you going to be ok?" Duural asked.
"Yes, go ahead and tell Gabby I said hi!" Narek said. Duural ran over and hugged her, Narek returned it gratefully. With that the little girl was running off, followed by the doctor and Gabby's father.
On Earth, Prime Minister Shepard was meeting with the Quarian Admiralty, the Krogan Battlemasters, the Human Admirals and the Geth Consensus as well as Rothschild who had mostly recovered from his existential crisis by now. All except Rael Zorah, Steven Hackett and the Geth platform representing the Consensus were attending via QEC .
"What's the status on the bunkers?" Hannah asked.
"We currently have space and infrastructure to accommodate a hundred million, things are moving on schedule, however I'd feel better if we were a little further along. We should be able to safely house two billion on Earth alone in two years. Our colonies are doing much better, Earth's geology is trickier to work with and they have significantly smaller populations." Rael reported.
"And the Orbital defenses?" Shepard asked.
"The 'Devastator Project' is performing above expectations, which is alarming given the nature of the weapons. More testing will be required to make sure we're not opening Pandora's box on that one." Chambers reported. The Devastator project involved parking asteroids roughly the size of mountains in geosynchronous orbit and mounting dozens of unbelievably high-powered plasma cannons, particle beams and tungsten-flinging kinetic weapons in tandem. The idea of combining the three weapons into what was called a devastator cannon was to counter diverse threats. The slow-moving plasma cannon could annihilate larger, less maneuverable ships like dreadnoughts that got too close to the planet. The particle beams were useful against fighters and drones, and the kinetic weapon could fill in the gap between. Each asteroid was manned by a crew including organic and Geth gunners, as well as an infantry squad to protect them, and could support that crew virtually indefinitely.
"I desperately wish you'd have come up with a better name, however 'Project Shitstorm' is also performing beyond expectations, however no further adjustment is required given that there are consequences to it performing above expectations." Admiral Xen reported. 'Project Shitstorm' was a modified version of their nanoswarm that served two major roles, one was to interfere with incoming enemies by engaging in cyberwarfare, infiltrating the ships by using their small size to get in via heat exchangers or poorly secured airlocks, and clearing debris to avoid Kessler syndrome if the enemy destroyed any of the thousands of satellites an installations in orbit.
"Project Silkscreen is delayed, while the Geth Primes deployed in Batarian space are able to maintain their cloaks successfully, the infantry platforms we've been experimenting on here are having trouble with power distribution. They were not designed to route that much current from the power source to the cloak module, so we're redesigning the Geth platform's power distribution system from the ground up." Admiral Korris stated. 'Silk Screen' is an expansion of the Geth's cloak idea to regular Geth infantry units.
"Tuchanka's old cities are being cleared and reinforced, since they're buried under heaps of radioactive rubble already they're quite useful as emergency shelter. We've manufactured enough equipment to create enough supplies to keep most of our people safe. We've got a ways to go, but none of the Krogan seem to doubt that the reapers are coming. They're looking forward to it!" Wrex reported.
"I'm glad to hear it. We truly have no idea what we have to look forward to with the Reapers, but if half of we've discovered from the Protheans is true, we've already got a better start than they did. What about our allies?" Shepard asked.
"Ambassador Castis reports that Palaven is already equipped with hundreds of subterranean shelters as a result of their history of warfare amongst themselves, but they are outdated. They've requested assistance with power, protien sequencers and water filtration." Raan reported.
"Give it to them if need be we can easily smuggle it in under the council's noses. What about the Asari?" Shepard asked.
"The Matriarch conclave are having trouble convincing the assembly of the threat. Sinc each of the Matriarchs are heads fo very wealthy families they're already self-funding construction projects across their properties to prepare but without the government on board there is no concievable way they'll be ready in time. I wanted to request additional funding to help the Matriarchs and perhaps one of your 'spirited talks' regarding the severity of the issue." Raan said.
"Spirited talks?" Shepard asked.
"I want you to scare the shit out of them until they see reason." Raan said.
"That I can do. Yes to both, please see when the Assembly is willing to see me." Shepard said.
"I'll talk to my Kenna pad guy." Rothschild said. Shepard rolled her eyes.