Deep breaths, Endellion. Nice, deep breaths. My shoulders shook out, eyes locked to the elevator before me. Gideon blinked, staring at me with furrowed eyes, confused as he shifted his gaze between myself and the elevator. With Saere tidying up the med bay and the rest of the mess hall empty, it left me with plenty of time to think. An infection afflicted the wound on my hip, Saere kept in the med bay for another few days until the military grade medication cleaned house. With great care, my finger called the elevator. Regret smashed me in the face within seconds, but by the time it arrived, Gideon bounded inside, playing chicken with the closing doors. The parent in me reacted, overcoming my hesitation as the thought of him risking his arm with the bloody elevator flashed before my eyes. Why did he do this on my first day of returning to duty? My hand scruffed Gideon to keep him back from the door as my feet crossed the threshold. Gideon grumbled and sulked in my grip until the doors closed. Anxiety bubbled under my skin, ready to tackle me to the ground. My shoulders rolled, my hand releasing Gideon. Gideon muttered under his breath as he hit the button for the CIC. If only my attention wasn't everywhere, he'd get a scolding later. Nerves bounced me on my toes as the elevator arrived on the third floor.
Gideon ricocheted out of the elevator, crashing into poor Cassa'Avers, the quarian hurling curses in her native tongue as the boy tumbled past her. My eyes squeezed shut, shuffling free from the elevator. Few people wandered the floor, but then my brain remembered there was a crew rotation in place. As we approached the CIC, Raisha stood within the Control Ring, speaking to Arthan'Weer. I assumed Shayan had retired for the day if the Lieutenant Commander led the engineers. Val stood near the cockpit, comparing his datapad to the terminal on the wall. Dammit, so many damn terminals on this ship and I didn't know what any of them were, on top of everything else still to learn. Another deep breath and my feet crossed into the CIC, noting no one had noticed my entrance. Just like old times, Dell. Nice, calm breaths.
"I am resuming command," I called, surprised my voice remembered its usual thunder. The air fell still as people saw me. My resolve faltered. My breathing shallowed.
"Good to see you up, Captain," Val called. My skin jerked, muscles tightening as my eyes turned to the grinning turian at the other end of the room. "I wondered why your blond shadow burst onto the scene,"
"Shut up, Cops!" Gideon sulked. A scattered laugh escaped as my hand touched the Captain's chair, tension easing out of my shoulders. Just like old times. When my ass sat on the chair, the familiarity calmed me. It felt the same, as if Raisha had not sat on it herself. My eyes turned to the krogan beside me, ignoring the smile on her face.
"Raisha, bring me up to speed please," I asked, settling myself down. Everyone returned to their duties, although there seemed be a buzz in the air now. The smile faded as she sighed.
"Our situation is not… ideal. We have fled from 15 ships over the past 8 days but we are running short of fuel and food. The crew is on shift work with the rota here," Raisha answered, my datapad filling up with reports and Christ knows what else. "We will need to stop soon though to give the engineers time to examine the rotary and driver core, on top of which we need to test the batteries, shields, shuttles and stealth systems. The situation has unnerved the crew, Endellion, I hope your presence help ease their fears," She added, for my ears only. A moan rumbled in my throat.
"Alright, alright," I said, scanning the datapad as dread filled me. "Where is the ideal place to refuel, restock and examine the rotary and engines?"
"There are several systems we can jump to in a few days' time. Omega may not be a horrible shout either. Many people go to Omega, we won't stand out," Lanster said. A smile flicked up.
"Good to hear your voice after 3 days, Lanster. Where have you been?" I asked, my tone shocked.
"Sleeping and piloting the ship. What have you been doing?" he laughed, My eyes rolled as he attempted to one-up me.
"Sleeping and cursing your name. How many barrel rolls do you need to do in one day?" I asked.
Hey, hey! Don't diss the barrel rolls. They're awesome," he scolded.
"Won't that strain the rotary system though?" I said with an eyebrow raised, relaxing into the chair. Val smirked, smug that he was right about the crew. My tongue stuck out at him. Val laughed. Lanster hummed and hawed over the intercom, further widening my grin.
"Good to see you back in good spirits, Endellion. We feared you would be otherwise preoccupied," Raisha said. A sound escaped my throat as the reports distracted me.
"I can't keep kicking myself, regardless of my feelings and other intentions," I sighed as the datapad returned to my pocket. "I am the captain, I need to be a figure of strength. Don't worry, I'll cope with what happened, but for now, keeping the crew alive is my goal. Now, back to a rundown crew, a ship ready to fall apart, low supplies and fleeing every ship we run into," A dry smile flicked my lips. "The only thing that could make this whole situation better is-"
"Incoming! Hostile ship off the starboard side! Battle stations, all crew to battle stations!" Lanster called over the intercom. My jaw popped as sirens and lights blared around me, my gaze slipping away from Raisha as my shoulders sagged.
"Jesus Christ, my ass is in this chair for 10 seconds and we're under attack?!" I groaned. My arms heaved me onto my feet, ignoring the people running rampant around me. "Lanster, report!"
"Salarian frigate, Captain. Running a scan on it now," Lanster said. The Starquake surged beneath my feet, the forward burst rattling my balance as the engines warming up for FTL. My hands flailed for a hold when the whole ship rocked and the Starquake swerved hard to port. My hands failed to grab anything. The force sent me crashing on my side.
"Shields at 60%! Direct hit on starboard side!" someone called from within the CIC.
"Spirits, this guy is quick!" Lanster growled. My eyes turned to the cameras above me, spotting the sleek, silver ship mirroring us as we swerved to avoid the hail of bullets following us. My hands clawed their way up the chair until my feet secured themselves under me. The Starquake rumbled sending us jittering. My jaw clenched. A fan-bloody-tastic first day back on duty! At least this eradicated issues with crew loyalty, if nothing else. "Ship scan complete… Ah, shit,"
"You better have a good reason for swearing with Gideon in the CIC," I said as my balance evened out. My eyes spotted the boy near the starboard stairs as my panic swelled. How could I forget about him?!
"…Does a Spectre count as a good reason?" Lanster asked. Silence held my tongue, tension running riot over my chest and shoulders as his words sank in. A Spectre… we had a Spectre on our ass.
"Fuck," I said. Raisha frowned at my language. "Get us out of here, Lanster!"
"I can't! We can't swerve otherwise the position gyros don't settle. We could jump into the middle of a sun or something! And that ship is helluva lot faster than the Starquake! What happened to replacing the engines anyway?!" Lanster grunted as the Starquake rolled around a rogue asteroid.
"We got side-tracked by merc missions, a derelict Reaper and a Saboteur to kill!" I snapped as the Starquake rumbled again.
"Shields at 20%!" a voice called.
My teeth grit. My fear was that raising our threat level from 'on the run' to 'running and gunning' would only increase the number of ships attacking us. At most, 2 or 3 ships attacked at once. If they knew we fired back, they would bolster their numbers to compensate for combat. On top of which, more and more Spectres may get interested and head our way. If a whole platoon of them attacked us… no, we wouldn't be able to escape that. If we fought back, the Council would see us as just another group of terrorists or something. At least by not fighting, they might not do lethal hits to the ship. Every attack had been towards disabling us by aiming for the engines. If we fought back, they would deem us too dangerous and try to rip the ship apart. But sitting here and letting the ships rain havoc on my crew was out of the question. This assault was beyond what the Starquake could flee from on speed alone. We had to fight back but… the consequences… What to do?! The noise level in the CIC drove sane thought away, the swerving ship throwing my stomach around. That Spectre had a crew, they had families too. After the recent loss of my own, the pain felt too raw.
"Warm up the main gun! Everyone to combat stations! Let's see how this ship fares in a fight!" I ordered over the noise. A new siren bleared out, a flashing red light staining the entire CIC as the ship's VI rang out with 'All crew to combat stations. All crew to combat stations'. My anxiety skyrocketed. "Valérien!" My voice cried in near panic. Through the mass of bodies, the turian battled his way over, giving out orders as he passed someone. My body quivered in earth rattling proportions by the time he reached me.
"Yes, Captain?" he asked. My throat tightened, my nerve fluttering through the light and noise.
"You have more space combat experience than me, make sure we get out of this in one piece," I said, pleading. The plates on his face straightened, every muscle taut, his mandibles snapping to his cheeks.
"Aye, aye, Captain. We'll get out of this," he said with a salute. He turned to face the CIC. "Aroqoul, get the rear artillery lined up! Lanster, first opportunity, whip this bird around and line up the main cannon and disengage the rotary! Shual, Iona, Eriea, arm the secondary guns, we can't let those bastards hit us while the rotary is disengaging! Arthan, divert all non-critical power to the shields!" he thundered.
My relief floored me to have someone with experience show me how space battle worked. Within a few seconds, brilliant streaks of light ripped free from small guns behind the rotary, on the tail. The Spectre ship swerved wide, disengaging from the chase. They hadn't been expecting that. A yelp snapped off my tongue and my hands grappled with my chair as the Starquake spun on a penny, the engines rotating on the rotary to spin and correct us. The Spectre ship, a shuttle-cock shaped ship with a large loop extending from the sides to curl high around the back of the ship, fell into view. The wings blended into the ship, fanned back to match the flared rear end of it.
The main cannon fired, a brilliant orange-red beam that soared towards the Spectre ship. They dived to avoid the hit, although we clipped the shields near the wing. My gaze snapped behind me, watching the rotary disengage, the girders teasing and telescoping away. My breath stalled in my throat as the secondary guns on the sides opened fire on the Spectre ship. Until the rotary disengaged and the wings formed, a bullseye sat over the ship. The salarian ship swerved hard to line its main gun at us.
"Divert power to the shields! All power to shields!" Val snapped. My hands clung to the back of chair as terror crept up. My eyes squeezed shut as the Spectre's ship released its shell at us.
The resounding hit sent the entire ship rocking like an earthquake. My knees caved with a scream and the force dumped me on the floor. Warning sirens added to the noise, my scrambled mind now cranked into overdrive as hyperventilation threatened to steal all sense from me. My disorientation only increased with each passing seconds and people ran across the deck. First day back on duty… goddam it!
"Report!" I ordered, panic staining my voice.
"Hull breech on deck 4 and 5. The shields took an absolute hammering, absorbed 79% of the hit though. The Starquake is fine, he didn't hit the engines!" Lanster answered over the intercom. Lanster strained over the intercom, sirens on the brink of deafening his voice as raised voices and clattering feet rattled the air and floor around me. "Rotary disengaged, returning to evasive manoeuvres!"
The Starquake surged forward, tearing through space as it avoided a second round from the Spectre ship. Hope bubbled that without the rotary, the Starquake's manoeuvrability and speed improved. Several seconds after that though, that hope died. The Spectre kept pace without issue, it could have overtaken us if it wanted to. Damn these fucking engines! The Starquake is a large frigate but still! Why did I delay so long to get new engines? Why? Lanster couldn't shake this guy without the proper equipment!
My legs braced as the barrel roll pinned me to the floor. Our rear cannons worked overtime but couldn't land a hit. The Spectre's ship was too fast, too well armoured and well shielded. My eyes flew around the cameras, into the darkness and speckled light, looking for something, anything, to help us. We dived and swerved as we passed what appeared to be the wreckage of an old ship thousands of years old. It took a few hits for us, which released a relieved breath from me. Our shields hadn't recovered yet. Something caught my attention from the corner of my eye, something brilliant in colour and light. A mass relay.
No, that wouldn't help! Mass relays always dumped you in the same place! He would just follow us through and the chase would continue! Besides that, it could land us in even hotter water if other ships waited on the other side or we landed in a populated system. Dammit, we couldn't out-speed these guys, can't out-gun them, can't out-smart them- …or could we? My eyes snapped back to the mass relay, my mind running a thousand miles per second. Mass relays always dumped you by another relay, but would it be possible to… there must be a way to… if they didn't, what would they do in an emergency?
"Lanster! Get towards that relay!" I ordered.
"Captain, that will not help! They'll just follow us through-" Lanster said.
"No, no, no, no! Make it look like we will use the relay but don't! Cancel it at the last minute and stay in this system! Let's see if we can make those guys use it instead! They are so close behind us they might not cancel the jump in time!" I said. That relay could be our saving the grace, the only thing in this system that may save us. My understanding of relays wasn't the best, but there had to be a way to cancel relay jumps in case of emergency! There was a pause.
"Captain, you are a bloody genius! Use the relay but cancel at the last second! They're way too close to cancel the jump themselves and if they do, they're engine will be in the sights of the main gun! C'mon people! Time to do what flight school told us not to! Let's play Sawswa with a relay!" My eyes flicked around the room, brow furrowed.
"That's play chicken to you and me, Captain!" Henry said from a terminal. A sigh rushed free.
"Everyone is taking a course in human phrases and sayings!" I said.
The Starquake swung towards the relay, swerving around the bullets behind it. Avoiding whatever the Spectre fired our way while lining up for the relay felt like threading a needle. The Spectre ship must have realised our 'plan' since someone cried 'Enemy ship preparing to FTL'. Sweat drenched me, panic rising. Nyryntha purred in my head at the spike of fear. The thought turned my blood cold, my throat tightening. The Starquake hummed as if preparing for FTL, the engines roaring in preparation. We reached the relay, the electrical blue arcs reaching for us. The FTL core died in an instant, the engines expelling excess ezzo as the ship dived, freeing ourselves from its influence. The Spectre ship swerved but the relay still launched it forward a good click. They had shut their engine down to cancel the FTL since the engines had lost their glow. The rear end as the ship wobbled, regaining its orientation as the engines restarted. They would not get that chance.
"FIRE!" I roared.
The secondary cannons released a hail of bullets as Lanster yanked the bow up. Our main battery thundered through the whole ship as it released two rounds. The salarian ship's main engine, a large circular thing, exploded with spectacular force. The secondary cannons followed close behind, raining hell that ripped into the ship. Without shields, only the armour plating protected those inside. The remaining engines ruptured from the small shells. The lights died on the ship, the smouldering rear-end superficial, but those inside were alive, helpless… all those people, running rampant on that ship. Terrified, angry, hopeless. Awaiting death… Dammit, Raisha was right. My compassion will kill me!
"Ceasefire!" I called. The hum of confusion in the air pricked the hairs on my arms as the cannons fell silent. My throat worked hard to swallow, reeling in the immediate effect of my words. "Report on the enemy's status," I ordered, trying to catch my breath. People stared at me, frowning and confused.
"Scan complete, Captain. Looks like a complete electrical failure. We must have hit the drive core or the main electrical systems," Lanster said. My teeth nipped my lip.
"Re-engage the rotary, get a little closer," I said. My eyes closed, tension trickling away from my shoulders. The battle was over. A robotic crackle in the back sent rumbles of pain over my temples. Nyryntha was not happy. When my eyes opened, the rotary spun behind us and we cruised closer to the downed ship. No escape pods drifted in space. My hand raised to a terminal in the Control Ring, zooming in on a camera on the bow of the ship.
The faces crew poked in the windows, the salarians gawking at us like we were a great white shark preparing to finish them. Salarians sprinted in the background put out fires or run to terminals, but most just waited. Waited for us to finish them. Dammit, these people had families! My teeth grit as the Starquake swung around to face the bow. The console frustrated me, my muscles taut before my legs ran up the stairs to the cockpit. Lanster and Mari T'Seir glanced at me as my feet skidded to a stop behind Lanster's chair, eyes out the window. My eyes landed on the Spectre. At this distance, there wasn't much to go on. The brown-grey salarian stared us down, jaw set and eyes hard. His gaze locked to the bow of the Starquake. A breath escaped, my emotions torn. He was just doing his job. The Council ordered my arrest, he was a Spectre, of course they would send them.
"Can they release an SOS system?" I asked. Lanster glanced at me, mandibles pinned to his cheeks.
"If they can't release escape pods, no, they can't," he said. My teeth caught my lip. Had I doomed these people? Without power, they would be out of oxygen in a few days, maybe a few hours… My shoulders sagged. Being a merciless murderer wasn't easy, although they tried to kill us.
"We have spare, re-code one of our SOS beacons, drop it out and get us out of here," I said, running a hand down my face.
"B-But Captain, he just tried to-" Lanster stammered.
"Lanster!" I snapped, already wishing my injuries had kept me in the med bay. "I gave you an order," The charcoal turian stared up at me. He nodded.
"Aye, aye, Captain," he said. He typed on his flight computer. "But this will come and bite us in the ass later,"
"I know," I sighed. "Thanks," My feet shuffled out of the cockpit, shoulders failing to shake the guilt, the worry, off my shoulders.
"You're letting then live?" Someone snapped as feet reached the bottom of the stairs. My frowned deepened as Iona stormed over, her plated face furious. "They tried to kill us and you are just going to let them go?" A sigh rushed from my chest, my shoulders sagged. One space battle and my body wanted to collapse.
"Yes, problem?" I asked.
"They wanted to kill us! These guys don't know mercy! He'll turn around and try to kill us later! You would risk all of us because you feel guilty, sorry for them?!" she demanded. My hand rubbed my eyes. Why was Iona of all people on the day shift? Aside from Indira leaving, she hadn't said over 2 words to me since becoming captain. We both preferred it that way.
"The instant I lose my sense of mercy is the instant I lose my humanity," I said, frustration rising. "They are just doing their job-"
"And that involves the risk of being killed! They will kill us in a heartbeat next time!" Iona roared. My frown heated, my anger burning my tiredness away.
"I am not a Reaper!" I snapped. Iona opened her mouth. "And I will not drop to their fucking levels if I can avoid it! If you don't like it, there is an airlock you can shove yourself out of!" My glare pinned her for a second before my head snapped to Control ring, legs marching me forward. "I need full damage and injury reports. I want out of this system ASAP,"
"SOS Beacon is away, Captain. Preparing to FTL," Lanster informed, although his tone seemed off. He wasn't pleased.
"Thanks, Lanster. Much appreciated," I said, a hand rubbing my eyes as I collapsed into the chair. First half hour back and work had already killed me.