The ship hummed, tense and slow, vibrating with care as shockwaves danced along the skin. Even with the armour on, no one felt safe. We didn't have Dell, a small bump to the confidence levels. People's eyes trained on me, reading my expression as the ship swayed, my hips rocking with the ship. The cameras above told the tale. Nowhere near as bad as Khar'shan, you couldn't move for Reapers there. But worse than the Constellation assault. Reapers were nothing more than faint blue dots with great red beams of death in the distance, fireballs in their wake. Before us, Irune loomed, the surface pocketed red with destruction. Turian ships weaved around us; some fleeing, some marching to battle. Mat'al stood by my shoulder, eyes narrowed as he studied the scene, XO stripes on his shoulders. Beside him, Kala's mech sat. Without Gideon. Her mech was not as manoeuvrable as an organic, so each sudden swing sent her jittering away or crashing into Mat'al's leg. Not that he minded. Mat'al released a slow breath.
"I was expecting more, to be honest. They must be going hard on Palaven and Earth," he said. A grunt escaped, watching a red beam fire across the bow, a cruiser erupting beyond us.
"I was hoping for a little more help from the turians," I said, mandibles pinned to my cheeks.
"Not with Palaven burning," Mat'al said.
"We're not parking the Starquake, she needs to keep moving. The ground team will leave by shuttle, it can hide somewhere," I said. Mat'al nodded.
"Any word from Dell?" Mat'al asked.
"No, XO Delern. I received an update from Admiral Drutus. The fleet crew appear to be behaving, Admiral Shaik has had her first meeting with Yumesa as well. Admiral Drutus said there will be more however, and interviews with new admirals in the coming days," Kala said. Mat'al made a sound in his throat, watching a turian cruiser belt out a heavy round towards a Reaper.
"Has the Council been leaving her alone?" I asked. Kala beeped, the mech swaying.
"...Admiral Drutus said the Council is in near constant contact. He says they look afraid," she said.
"Now are they afraid for her, or of her?" I mumbled. Mat'al made a sound in his throat. "She'll be fine… Is Gid secure back there?" I asked.
"Gideon is well, though he is asking for more anti-roll stabilisers for a couple of experiments," Kala said.
"I'll sort him out with them," Mat'al said. He glanced to me as we inched closer to Irune. "Are you at least taking Indira?"
"And Rosmeni. Zeedra will help out where she can, though she was never the strongest biotic. I am expecting Wraiths to hell and back," I said. Mat'al nodded. "We're taking a handful of FENRIS mechs as well, if Kala wishes to join and keep them in check," Kala beeped, surprised no doubt as she turned to Mat'al.
"If you wish me to, Captain Autillin, I am happy to do so," Kala said. She stood at my nod.
"Are the pistols ready?" I asked. Mat'al nodded.
"The scientists finished them. They're mass producing the Anti-Reaper rounds, and they are trying to stabilise the heatsinks a little more. They only work in Paladin and Carnifex style pistols for the time being," Mat'al said.
"The combat team will adapt. We can always carry an extra pistol," I said. Flames licked up the flanks of the ship as we dived towards the planet, escaping another round aimed towards us. Everything vibrated, my teeth rattling. My hand tapped the console before me. "Ground team to your stations. Prepare for mission start," Mat'al stared at the flames from the cameras, waiting for the surface to break. "Keep things safe on this end,"
"Come back in one piece. I will not lose Dell because you fucked up," Mat'al said. I nodded, already leaving.
"I am not leaving her on her own in this galaxy if I can help it," I muttered, uncaring if the salarian heard it. Kala trotted by my heel, the combat department lighting up as people took their places. We dropped to the Cargo hold, ladder finally in place all the way down. The cargo hold needed a cage on the upper sections due to the additional height, so Kala waited for me to stand clear before jumping down, little jump jets catching her before she hit the ground. She trotted after me into the armoury. Indira was there, double checking the equipment, 3 FENRIS mechs sitting ready nearby. Kala walked up to them, doing whatever AI did with VI. After a few moments, each light turned yellow. Kala's mech was only distinguished by her yellow markings along her body.
"I have uploaded an observer system between myself and the mechs. It is easy enough to remove after the mission. I can seize control if the users desire assistance," Kala said.
"Just don't zap friendlies," I sighed, grabbing my weapons and slapping my helmet on. Kala wagged her tail. Shual brought over a large case, snapping the clips free and throwing it open. 15 pistols sat inside, all white with the RRPT symbol marked on the barrel. Indira was more careful with the second, revealing bound heat sinks with blacklight purple caps. Shual passed out the pistols. I frowned at the weight. It was easily double the weight of a normal Carnifex. And this was with ultralight materials. it snapped onto my lower back, my normal Carnifex and Tempest on my hips. 5 heat sinks slipped into pouches on my hips as Indira distributed them out.
"Remember; don't throw, shoot, or bash these heat sinks. We need them for the Saboteur," I said. A series of nods bobbed around the room. Indira, Shual, Utren, Savanor, Searte, Zeedra, Iona and Cathleen all looked off, lips too tight, fingers flexing too much. Phentos, Laegan and Fehan remained behind in the CIC and Ground Ops for us. "Everyone to the shuttle, prepare for deployment," I ordered. Salutes flew, feet clanging to the shuttle. Irune's gravity is double Earth's, but the atmosphere was more deadly from both composition and pressure. The Grav-suit, the same from Dekuuna, clicked as it pressurised against the toxic gases waiting for us. I said a silent prayer to whatever god listened to give us anything other than Tech Incap. Dekuuna may have crushed us, but you could breathe. Sort of. The mechs jumped in last, lying down as the shuttle hummed, easing off the ground. A slow breath later, and the Starquake released us into Irune.
You wouldn't think there was anything wrong with Irune, nothing that would make you think 'Hmm, this is a dangerous world'. Fog had rolled in today, masking the clear sights of the towering Reapers and the blasted Reaper forces crawling on the ground. Everything looked normal, and yet if you were not Volus, you'd die. Life flourished here, in the ammonia and high pressure. Maybe not as well as in most oxygen or nitrogen planets, but it thrived. Where once there was twisting tangles of bramble like trees, a maze of flora with a tendency to eat you, there was only fire. My teeth grit, watching faint forms of Reapers in the distance, an orange stain marking every horizon. If that wasn't bad enough, the cities were a smoking orange ball through the fog. Once plentiful sickly coloured grassland now lay scattered with crashed ships, remains and Reaper soldiers. There was no real defence, but Irune took the biggest hit. A dead city glinted below us, not a wall or gun in sight as swarms of blue mist crept around every crevice. A high pitched whistle punched past us, the shuttle rocking as the shields absorbed the hit. We weren't even close to the ground. We approached our drop point, a towering maze of steel and glass ahead. The Reapers left this place alone, content to let the Saboteur and foot soldiers get to work. The team stood up as the shuttle landed a little ways away, near a tangle of twisting trucks 2 shuttles thick. The shield and stealth systems activated, masking the shuttle from view as we crept free and into the murk.
The fog gave us about a kilometre of sight, but anything beyond was just vague shapes in din. And the pressure suits didn't help our confidence. We used these in Dekuuna, but the high atmospheric pressure demanded them. We clunked towards the space port, the fires hugging close to the ground, heating the lowest air just that little more. The spaceport was an architectural dream and an engineering nightmare. All twists and struts, sprawling to contend with the crushing air. And people crushed inside this coffin in the hope for salvation. The worst part? Volus needed pressure suits. Did everyone own one to flee? Movement caught my eye, ducking behind a burning shuttle, the ezzo setting my biotics off in a blue lightshow. A horde of Cannibals rushed towards the building, a cluster of Wraiths close behind. Despite being created from the natural inhabitants here, the Wraiths' blue smog was barely head high. Meaning we could lose it if we got enough altitude. This was our first encounter with Cannibals, but the data from Gunner had been stark. We knew what to expect from vids. The Cannibals heaved themselves uncaring through the dense air, sluggish monsters straight from an old zombie vid. My mandibles clacked as weapons drew. We needed to get inside the spaceport quickly. My head nodded forward, the team ducking through the encroaching blue mist to reach the haphazard barriers thrown up the by aliens on this world. The Volus knew nothing of war. It proved to be their downfall. Guns clicked as we approached one barrier, a tall shadow looming through the haze. We barely ducked from the bullet firing towards us.
"Oi, oi! Stop shooting, spirits!" I barked. The gun trembled, letting us approach. An asari in a grav-suit shook as she noticed us.
"You're… not enemies?" she asked.
"Do we look like it?" Indira asked, raising a brow. The asari dragged in a slow breath.
"...No. No I… I suppose you don't," she said. "Are you here to evacuate?"
"No, we caught word of a Volus helping the Reapers kill people here," I said. The asari laughed, loud and harsh.
"Which one? I cannot count how many of them have turned on each other," she said.
"We think this one was behind crashing a carrier into the station," I said. The asari blinked.
"...That one?" she asked.
"You know it?" I asked.
"Well… no, I don't think anyone has seen it directly - and those that have are dead - but I know which one you mean," she said. She bit her lip. "...Get in, quickly. And don't step on the little ones,"
"We'll be careful," I said, waving the team past her. A soft sigh escaped. She wasn't going to leave this world alive.
The entrance to the spaceport was dead, a few volus huddling around as they waited for some space to open up in the upper flowers. Without their suits, Dell would've called them cute. Their heads were like a balloon with a short box as a 'muzzle', like a seal. Everything was compacted, the nose no more than thin slits that opened and closed. Decorative frills trailed from the stumpy muzzle. The females had thin, delicate frills like fingers or hair that shimmered like pearls, the males were like paddles that shone with colourful metallic hues. They had large eyes to boot as well. If only most outside Irune weren't such assholes. Eyes shifted to us as we trudged up the stairs, finally free of the consuming blue mist. But the haze of Irune still held.
The crush of people was unbelievable. Despite a carrier taking out a huge swath of the station, people still crammed in, desperate to flee. Some wore pressure suits, most did not. Some looked resigned to their fate, seeking the comforts of clan and community before the end. Others looked desperate enough to sell their own kin to save their lives. It was harder than I thought to avoid the little blobs they called children running around everyone's feet. It was then, hearing the clamour of people around us, reality set in. How the fuck were we meant to find the damn Saboteur in all of this? The place was overpopulated! The vast majority of them were volus to boot, no reason they couldn't hide or wear a new suit every job. A silent prayer flitted on my lips, thankful Dell was safe on the Citadel. Or as safe as one could be with Saboteurs everywhere. Where did we even start?
"We should head over to security or something, maybe someone there can help us," I said.
"This place is going to shit," Rosmeni said. A grunt escaped before I could smother it, coaxing my way towards the stairs to rise higher in this massive building. Everyone followed, frowning as the scale of the mission weighed down.
"Kala, start looking around. We need a starting point," I said. Kala beeped in my ear.
"I will monitor what I can, Captain. There are so many feeds it may take time to assess everything," she said in my ear piece.
The crush never ended. There was never a quiet spot one could catch their breath. Screams rang out as a massive Reaper beam rushed past the building, the ground igniting into streaks of fire. They didn't hit the building though, so maybe the Saboteur was still here. They didn't want a repeat of Kahje after all. My mandibles pinned, every step echoing in the pressurised grav suit. Every movement heavy and delicate. The smell… the filters didn't work too great. Well enough to stop us passing out. We lumbered up 4 stories to head towards security. The crush was worse here, people screaming over the yells for answers. What ships did leave the port had a 25% chance of making it out, depending on if the remaining turian army distracted the Reapers standing sentinel over the area. It was almost as if they were making sport over who could get the most fleeing ships. Maybe that's why they left the grounded ships alone, to use them as collateral for those on the ground. Mothers clung to children, large eyes showing white as they sought refuge. It was probably too late for most of them. A sad sigh escaped as he edged closer, trying to find some official in the building to get information from. But maybe they were dead, or worse.
"Captain, there is something odd in the tower," Kala chimed. My eyes fluttered, almost stepping on the toes of an angry volus. The mechs helped nudge people out of our way.
"Define odd," I asked.
"Gideon is monitoring comms and traffic with me from the Starquake, he's picking up odd instructions from the tower. Gideon is suggesting we check it out,"
"What are these instructions?" Indira asked, the blue, hexagon decorated wall between the crowds and security almost within reach.
"They are asking ships to take wide sweeping patterns. Straight over areas with known Reaver locations," Kala said. My mandibles pinned.
"Then we either have a Saboteur or an indoctrinated servant in the control tower. Rosmeni, get us through," I ordered. The asari grinned, but there wasn't any warmth to it.
"As you command, Captain," she said, thumping past me towards the security barking at people before us. A volus looked up, metallic blue fringe wobbling.
"Thessia-Clan, there is nothing we can do. Go back and wait for any further announcements," the volus barked. Rosmeni smiled.
"I want through to the tower. Spectre's orders," she said, drawling her voice. The volus blinked, frowning. He glanced to her shoulders, the Spectre markings on her shoulder pads. His frown deepened, reaching for his omni-tool. Without a word, Rosmeni offered hers. A scan later, the frown evolved into a scowl.
"I see… I… oh… fine," he grumbled. Rosmeni smiled, taking a step to the side and ushering us through, mechs and all. The volus opened his mouth to bark, but Rosmeni raised a brow. She followed in last, the barrier blockading the sudden crush of people seeing an exit. Everyone winced at their mourning cries behind us.
"Reason 2 I'm glad Dell isn't here," I mumbled. Indira sighed beside me.
"I wish I wasn't here... Let's just get this over with," she said. A sound rumbled in my chest, agreeing as we finally found some quieter halls. Staff ran rampant, a few casting looks towards us as we stomped onwards to the control tower.
We took the stairs up the tower, not trusting the elevators to die on us. The nearly empty stairwell was filled with clanging feet, the dark ascend lit only by scant lights, those that remained to be functional. Indira fiddled with her omni-tool as we climbed. The tower trembled as explosions rocked outside, but there were no windows to see what had happened. We reached the top, the door before us already open from the constant running to and fro. Inside, a round room filled with volus and the occasional alien, control panels and computers on every surface. It stank of sweat and fear. Volus spoke with trained, fast tongues as they tried to direct air and ground crew in and around the spaceport. One volus, a male volus with dark red metallic plates wobbling beside us, brows already drawn down… we barely all got in the room before he started pointing.
"Who are you, why are you in my control tower?" he barked. Rosmeni raised a brow.
"That is no way to speak to a Spectre here to save your asses," Rosmeni said. The volus frowned, plate whiskers rippling with surprising flexibility.
"...What do you want, Spectre?" he grumbled.
"I'm here to have a nose around, I've heard some… curious rumours," she said. His eyes narrowed.
"Oh I'm sure you have, there have been plenty of them as is," he grumbled. It was odd hearing a volus speak without the raspy inhales. Indira glanced at me, catching my sight in the corner of my eye. My mandibles swayed. Soon, a faint ringing emanated from her omni-tool. My mandibles pinned, frowning. But we knew what she was testing. The volus frowned at the ringing, a faint sound just annoying enough if you were listening for it.
"We're just going to have a nose around, make sure there's no nasty in here," Rosmeni said, smiling as she brushed past the volus to move deeper into the tower. The volus glared after her, the rest of the team huddling together as we meandered around the large, circular room.
Indira paced slow and close to the traffic controllers, eyes watching everyone. It didn't take long to hear someone moan, rubbing their head. This was the tricky bit. My mandibles swayed, keeping close to Indira. This was an experiment the Council ran on the Citadel. In the C-Sec Academy to be more precise. The guy with the RIT beacon on his omni-tool didn't make it out alive. No doubt the remaining Saboteur saw to that. They did clear out a fair few servants, but the servants tended to aim for the source of the RIT signal in a frantic attempt to silence it. We tended to avoid using this ourselves for two reasons. First, Dell - and of recently Mat'al and Gideon - were already at the limits for RIT exposure. Sure, missions weren't as common and the signals were weaker than an actual RIT machine, but we dare not risk anyone's sanity or safety. Second, the Citadel experiment proved the issue. We lost any semblance on control on the mission. The servants went wild and the Saboteur hit harder to prevent any further loss of its assets. We didn't like the risk. Here, however, our high dose RIT crew were absent and the situation was desperate enough we felt we had no choice. That and there was at least a little control here. We could funnel everything through the door unless the Reapers started aiming for the tower itself.
The minutes crept on, members of the crew listening to the radio calls, waiting for any confirmation from the Starquake about any changes. Someone pressed their head into the control panel before them, groaning as they rubbed their temple. This was the other issue with this technology. You had to wait. Servants and those close but not yet turned had similar reactions until the 10-15 minute mark. Then the ones who could be saved tended to seizure and the servants attacked. We didn't know what a Saboteur would do. Shual huddled close, his mighty frame towering over me. He had a look in his eye, a hand drifting to his back. We didn't need words. We'd worked together often enough to recognise what each expression meant. Trouble. Big trouble. Kala chimed in my ear.
"I detect a crowd of people approaching the tower with haste, Captain," she said. "They aren't running yet, but are very close to it," My mandibles pinned.
"Shual, get to the stairs of the tower. If they keep coming, wreck the stairs. Take Searte," I mumbled.
"Aye, aye," he rumbled, making a lazy swing around a group of controllers to tap Searte on the shoulder. She frowned after him, casting a look to me. Understanding dawned, taking an extra moment or two before following.
"Ok, that's enough! You've annoyed my staff long enough! Out!" the volus barked. He quivered with boiling fury at my raised brow plate.
"We aren't finished, sir," I said. "And you can wait until then,"
"This is outrageous! The Council will hear about this! Sending their dogs when we're trying to save peop-l" he balked. Indira let loose a surprised scream, a gunshot booming seconds later. My hand already had her shoulder, dragging her away from her position with a pistol primed in the other. A volus lay dead on the floor, foam around the mouth. Everything stood silent, Indira recomposing herself as she examined her suit. Nothing cut through suit, the pressure stable, but a plate leading to pressure hoses inside the knee had been ripped off. Her lips pressed into a fine line, biotics flaring.
It came as a wave after that. About 5 controllers collapsed, eyes rolling back into their heads while another 17 leapt towards us, aimless screams ripped from their throats. All rushing for Indira. Indira threw out a massive quake, shaking the entire structure. 6 went flying, giving the rest of the crew time to line up shots with the remainder. Phentos rallied the team, the tower shaking again as metal screeched from the stairway. Well, the easy way was gone then. Two volus flew out the windows to the tower as mechs charged them, Kala's staying with me and Indira. The volus had no armour and no hope against an experienced ground crew. It took just minutes, but it was over. My eyes trailed over the metallic red volus crawling out from under a radar table. He looked up, eyes narrowed and mighty breaths heaving.
"What… what was that for?!" he demanded. Shual and Searte returned to the room, Indira standing by my hip.
"...So how long are you going to play this game then?" I asked. The volus paused.
"What are you talking about?! You just shot 85% of my staff!" he barked.
"I don't think the former Advocacy would appreciate me slipping information to our enemy. That tends to throw me on the couch," I said. The volus blinked, those angry eyes emptying for a heartbeat. The crew tensed, everyone grabbing their new pistols and loading up with black-light capped ammo. The volus frowned, eyes spinning as guns raised, eyes down the sights. He turned back to me. "You can turn it off, Indira. We found our Saboteur," Indira nodded, the ringing dying moments later. My Carnifex straightened in my grip, black-light purple racing down the sides of the barrel. My spine rattled.
A lightning pain flashed through my body, only vaguely aware of pistols firing. The white soaking my vision eased back, every muscle tingling. A numbing pain held me in place, eyes finally noticing I was on the floor. Then my ears picked the sounds of fighting, of angry robots and krogan battle roars. My head raised just enough to see. A black-blue haze covered part of the air, the volus screeching as Utren and Savanor smashed the volus around like a ping pong, the mechs aiding people to their feet as best as they could. Shual lined up his pistol, firing again as cables ripped out from the volus, blue lights popping over his skin. The pistol hit true, sending him crashing into the ground. My knees felt like jelly, but we had to stand. The suit whined as it pushed against the air pressure, the krogan in their element as they left the Reaper rounds to do their thing. If nothing else, the Saboteurs didn't know we could use the bullets in other guns. They did now, but it spared us here.
"Incoming!" a voice screamed. My eyes lifted, seeing a red haze growing brighter and brighter by the moment. My body found the strength, heaving myself up to slam into the wall.
A blinding hot beam rushed past, my suit cooking in seconds and very nearly me as well. When the after images faded, the tower lay cut in half, the middle section vaporised. Only two narrow strips on either side remained. The volus was on the other side, cables snapped around Indira's neck. Even from here, I could hear her suit creak. Despite the numbness, my hand found the strength to raise the heavy pistol, firing a round. It snagged the Saboteur in the head, a glancing blow but enough to make the Saboteur release the drell. A loud popping echoed around me, the ground below me shuddering. The tower began caving backwards. The Saboteur dropped into the abyss, husks of various kinds already moving to retrieve them. My teeth grit, hoisting an Anti-Reaper heatsink in hand. others copied as the other group vanished from sight, the sharpest of the shooters firing their normal pistols once they heatsinks were close to the ground. My balance caved, staggering as the remains of the tower fell faster. Yellow flashed across the interface in the mask, my heart stopping as the jump jets heaved the massive suit off the ground, sight vanishing in the answering dust cloud and thundering crunch of metal and concrete falling to earth.
I lay there for a moment, listening to my hearing ring from the crash, letting aches of the suit banging on the floor wash over me. We were on top of the rubble pile, the heavy atmospheric density crushing the dust to the ground in less than a minute. The sound of wailing husks restarted my heart. Even then, my legs only partially worked, scrambling beneath me. My hand grabbed Savanor, the krogan heaving himself up from a hole in the debris to reach the top, the combat crew on both sides rallying. Iona grabbed my hand, heaving her back onto her feet with her suit's help. We stared down into the still partially molten ravine from the Reaper laser. The Saboteur was staggering, electric blue sparks radiating around it, an angry robotic shrill gifting me with a new headache. The husks were not much better, twitching on the ground and making gurgling noises as they flailed. Cannibals, Wraiths and Husks. A slow breath escaped, bending to ease my way down to the Saboteur. A high pitched whistle flew overhead.
"Reavers inbound!" Iona cried.
"Reaper inbound!" Utren added. My eyes caught sight of the smaller Reapers, the 150m kind, crashing its way towards us.
"Shit, get that Saboteur before it gets here! Move it!" I barked. The biotics lifted themselves off the rubble and onto the ground, Searte and the krogan moving towards the Saboteur while Indira and Zeedra helped the rest of us down. Faster than climbing down anyway. We staggered over the warm gorge in the ground, shooting any staggered husks we passed. The krogan were already at the Saboteur. The Reaper wasn't far behind.
"We could have the Starquake destroy the Saboteur," Iona said. A grunt escaped, looking back to the looming shadow fast approaching our precarious position. We'd be in range soon.
"Not for the Saboteur, I mean to make sure it's dead. That thing on the other hand…" I said.
"I have relayed to the flight crew, they are inbound," Kala chimed in my ear.
"Good, watch the six and get that thing cut up!" I ordered.
Indira took the rear with me and Iona, the others watching the other sides as echoes of angry husks rang everywhere, we moved constantly, ducking and weaving as Reaver bullets punched past us, leaving frightening holes in the ground. They could take down shuttles with ease. I dread to think what happened to a person. A furious robotic cry cut short, my head spinning around as the krogan all but tore the spine away with their hands, the pair already moving to the sides to escape the ravine. But time was up. A red flash was the warning. Kala once more took command, the jump jets flinging us away, crashing on the tar-like ground. My head swam, struggling to get back up as the suit creaked and whined. The massive machine turned its gaze to us, the doors parting near the upright tail as a deadly beam powered up. It screeched, wincing as a massive explosion smashed against it. My eyes tore up, finding a limping frigate, an old volus one, staggering by. The crew may have seen us, maybe they just wanted to take something out before the drive core died, but either way we were not wasting the opportunity. Shual grabbed the small Saboteur body and took point, Utren with the spine behind as we staggered out of the hole and into the chaos. More Reapers turned their attention to us, sensing a Saboteur had fallen. And it wasn't just the little ones either. The ground thundered in a way that could only be the Capital ships. The only way out, however, was back through the space port. It would take too long to go around.
And the spaceport was in turmoil, people screamed and flew in all directions. The crush grew, some deciding to flee, others pressing closer to the ships wounded on the ground. My teeth grit, barking whatever I could to get people out of our way and rally the team around us. We didn't know where the Starquake was, but we had a shuttle. We could outrun most things with that, even flee the system if the pilot was good. The stairs leading to the ground floor, now all covered in creeping blue mist, were blocked, terrified people trying to resist going into the blue fog. We had no such qualms. Cathleen shot the glass separating us from a one floor drop to the ground. We leapt, jump jets struggling against the weight and pressure. We landed hard, staggering. And the husks roared louder. We pushed on, blind, following Kala's hails in our ears to find out shuttle, now all smothered in fog. Cannibal bullets pierced the blue, returning fire only possible when the biotics threw quakes out to reveal the foes. At least no Hunters, maybe the air pressure was too much. A Wraith fled when a quake revealed it, spared from a death by a Cannibal rushing out to take the hit instead. I heard something pop, spinning around to see the vague outline of the shuttle behind me. We wasted no time. Too many husks, too many Reapers, not enough hands. I barely got my foot in before the shuttle left the ground, hands grabbing me to pull me inside.
Once clear of the fog, the shuttle applied full power and wheeled around, fleeing. The Saboteur and the spine lay abandoned in the back, everyone belting in the seats and clinging on for dear life. We swerved and swung, taking a hard bank as the air temperature shot up for a moment. The shuttle spun up on its side, a 2 second warning to brace screaming from the cockpit. My heart stuttered in my chest. And then there was a crash, a hard thump that nearly knocked me out. But it originated from the bottom of the shuttle. It took a moment to breathe, another to look to the exterior camera feeds. We were inside the Starquake's shuttle desk. Currently upside down near the door. We really needed to put something on that back wall to handle landings like this. It was the second time that wall had to be reconstructed. We lay there, groaning as we recovered, the krogan already out and dragging people from their harnesses. Kala's mech wobbled, a leg missing and the white armour dented. She'd been flung in the landing. We caught our breath, evacuating the shuttle deck. The Starquake rolled hard, sending us wobbling into walls as we sought a hold. A stomach lurching jerk told us we were in FTL. The grav-suits tumbled where they fell, everyone eager to be free. Rosmeni and Searte had to help crack open Indira's, her suit crushed around the neck. Everyone tumbled into the elevator, reaching Deck 4. My head shook as the rumble of the bridge surrounded me, a quiet clamour of post mission activity. My arms folded over the back of the captain's chair, releasing a heavy breath. Every muscle still felt like jelly. Mat'al folded his arms, waiting as he leaned against a nearby console.
"Status?" he asked, when he received silence.
"Saboteur's fucked, we're fucked, shuttle deck wall is fucked, Irune is fucked," I sighed. Mat'al hmmed, eyes to the screens above our heads.
"On a scale of 1 to 10, how glad you are Dell isn't here?" he asked.
"11," I said. Mat'al chuckled. "Delern, Irune doesn't stand a chance. I saw those people there… They're being rounded up and used for sport,"
"I doubt the Saboteurs sport with their prey. They are more of a kill and convert kind of enemy," he said. "We'll make tracks back to the Citadel. I think Dell will need to hear everything in person," he said. I nodded, straightening.
"Pretty sure some people need a bath. A loose volus corpse in a hard landing makes for a messy experience," Mat'al scrunched his face up.
"Could you really not throw it in a box before then? Who gets the lovely job of cleaning that?" he asked.
"...Gideon for being a cheeky brat to his mum?" i offered. Mat'al blinked.
"You are such a cruel parent… I'll set him to work," he said, a rising grin on his face. A relieved laugh slipped free, watching the salarian stalk towards the labs. Parent… Oh Spirits, if Dell says yes then Gid could call me dad… It was time to read that book on dad jokes Indira got as a joke oh so many years ago after Dell and I got together.
The Tiimeline, Saboteur Sheet and Galaxy Map have been updated for this chapter. Please see profile for link to archive.
A/N: Sorry for the massive delay! Life has been crazy and I've had a ton of things to do. I'm going to be focusing as much as I can on this to get this book done since this is basically the end of the saga. Hoping to update a bit more often now!