Chapter 3 - Aftermath

Garrus
October 22nd, 2186

My awareness returned to me slowly, and the pain came with it, red, hot, and spreading up my left leg through my body and into my head. Wave upon wave arrived, causing me to shout.

"Sir…" A voice called, breaking through the wall of pain. "Sir! Please stop moving. This will ease the pain…." I felt the prick of a needle, and then sweet blessed relief radiated out from my arm. Slowly the sounds faded, and I fell back into unconsciousness.

-0-

When I awoke again, the pain was dulled enough for me to open my eyes. I appraised my surroundings, seeing neat rows of white-sheeted cots spread throughout the room, and almost every one was occupied. Nurses of all species ran to and fro between the beds, addressing the needs of hundreds, if not thousands of wounded soldiers and civilians. I pushed myself up to a sitting position, drawing the attention of a human nurse.

"Sir! Please don't get up. Your leg cannot support your weight." The words brought a flood of memories of what had occurred. An explosion, a crash, an excruciating amount of pain. A Mako. A fucking Mako landed on my leg. I looked at the offending appendage for the first time to inspect the damage. My armor was completely gone, more than likely cut away. The plates on my leg were cracked, and the bone underneath was presumably the same. A lattice sat on top, holding the broken bones in place to heal.

"What happened? Is it over?" I asked.

"Yes, Sir, the Reapers are gone. It's over." She replied.

Relief flooded my system, and then dread quickly replaced it. Where was Amelia? My gut wrenched, and I could feel the dread squeezing my heart. "Do you know if Amelia Shepard is here?" The small shake of the nurse's head made the worry deepen. "What about Primarch Victus? Did he survive?"

"I don't know either of those people, Sir. As for your leg, we had a temporary cast put on, but we don't have an osseous regenerator unit at this hospital; you'll have to use crutches and come back in a few days. If you give me a second, I'll be right back with the crutches and some pain medication for you, and then you can be discharged." She gave me a light smile and then turned to walk away.

As promised, she was back a moment later with a bottle of pills and two long, slender poles. "Here you are, Sir. Once you leave the hospital, there is a turian camp not far from here. Ask one of the guards outside, and they'll show you." She gave me a tender smile.

"Thank you."

Primarch Victus

"Sir," One of my tent guards called through the flap, "General Vakarian is here to see you."

"Send him in, Granis. Thank you." I set the datapad I was working on down.

"Primarch." Garrus greeted, slowly hobbling into the tent. "Good to see you survived."

"You too, Vakarian. I'm glad you made it through. Now, what can I do for you?"

"Just wanted to get filled in on what happened. I've been in the field hospital since the night of the attack. I'm not even sure what day it is."

"We don't even know what happened, to be frank. We watched the entirety of Hammer get destroyed by Harbinger; we thought it was over. Then a wave of orange washed over the whole planet, and as it crossed, Reapers fell, husks disintegrated, but all of our soldiers were completely unharmed. That was two days ago. Now we are combing through the wreckage for survivors. Reports from Palaven are saying the same thing. All the Reapers have fallen."

Garrus sighed in relief. I continued, "The problems begin there, however. The blast seems to have deactivated the mass relays. Our fleets are stranded in Sol for the time being. We have teams of engineers working on restarting the relays, but it will take time, and we only have a limited supply of food and medicine, since we can't eat anything on this planet."

"Do you know what happened to the Normandy?"

I nodded, "Yes, she landed not too far from here. The crew has spread out, seeing what they can do to help."

Garrus swallowed, his subharmonics trilling, "... And Shepard?"

"No word." Garrus clamped on his subharmonics, forcing them to stay quiet. His mandibles were pulled in tight along his jawline. "I'm sorry, Vakarian. She truly was an extraordinary woman."

After a moment, he sighed, willing his body to relax. Only staying busy could keep his mind off of it. "What do you need me to do, sir?"

"Whatever you can manage, with your injuries. Help organize search parties, get supplies where they need to go, whatever you can do. And Vakarian…," I trailed off, looking over at my aide for a moment, motioning for him to leave the tent, "I've gotten word from Palaven. As our laws state, a Primarch promoted during wartime must step down after the war ends, once we make it back to Palaven. They gave me a list of names... Son… you're the next Primarch."

Paul Addison

Silence. The monsters had finally stopped attacking my family's small farmhouse. The assault started hours prior, the deformed creatures shooting weapons grafted into their flesh at us, leaving pockmarks along the side of the aging building. The orange wave seemed to have killed them all. "Mommy! Daddy!"

"Cara!" I called back, "Are you alright, sweetie?" I rounded the corner, finding and surrounding my daughter in a hug. "Everything is fine, dear. The monsters are gone, and they can't hurt you anymore."

Once she stopped sobbing, I picked her up, carrying her out of the house to where her mother was standing, also in her outdated Alliance hardsuit, inspecting the damage. Grace Addison took our daughter in her arms, trying to comfort the upset nine-year-old.

As the sun crested the horizon, we were alerted by the sound of something large scorching through the atmosphere. Fireballs streaking through the sky had been common since the Reapers had landed nearly six months prior, but these were different. They were much larger, pieces at least the size of a Reaper fell. I glanced at my wife, silently agreeing to search the wreckage for survivors.

-0-

October 25th, 2186

Days had passed since we began combing through the debris, and so far, we had only found bodies. They were all across the gamut in terms of species and allegiance and were in various states of decay. Some of the more degraded corpses wore Cerberus armor, but entire pieces of their faces were missing. Also among the bodies were a handful of salarians, asari, and turians, but mostly humans. "Honey," I called, floating another body out of the debris with my biotics, "I think this is the Citadel." Grace nodded numbly.

I knew it was tough for her, seeing all this death. Despite being a former Alliance soldier, she was a medic and never served on the front lines as I had. Every body they found was another she couldn't save. Grace was a kind soul, so she had left the Alliance. She couldn't deal with all the death.

I moved another pile of debris with my biotics, tossing it to the side, and found another body underneath. This body had a medley of injuries, from burns to bruises, on every exposed section of skin. What was left of the body's armor was burned and melted. As with the other bodies, we ran a diagnostic scan with my omnitool to see if they were alive, and to my surprise, this one was. "Grace! This one is alive!"

Amelia
October 26th, 2187

Breathe…

My eyes flew open, and I sucked a deep breath into my dusty lungs, causing me to start coughing uncontrollably. Pain sprouted in my chest as I hacked up a lung. 'What was it Joker said that one time? "I think I broke a rib, or all of them…." Yea… I see what he means now.'

"Mommy! Mommy! The lady is awake!" A young voice shouted.

I tried to control my coughing to no avail. "Here… Here is some water. Drink…" The cool liquid ran down my throat like the nectar of the gods, soothing my damaged esophagus. "Lie down. I can give you some more painkillers; just try to relax." I felt a prick, followed by a cooling sensation, and then the black reclaimed me.

-0-

Awareness returned to me once more, much less eventfully this time. My eyes fluttered open, temporarily shocked by the light of the room. Once they adjusted, I looked around. It looked as if I was lying in a quaint home. An old-fashioned ceiling fan spun above my head, a couch and a few recliners sat next to an extranet screen, and on the couch sat a little girl, no older than ten. "Hey…" I croaked, making me cough. The girl heard me and ran off out of sight.

A moment later, a middle-aged woman returned to the room with the girl in tow. "Here… More water for you." I opened my mouth, but the woman held up her hand. "Don't try to talk. Your throat is damaged from all the debris you inhaled, and twenty-one ribs are broken, along with your legs and left arm. All I could do was splint them."

I raised my head to look towards my feet; true enough, both shins had crude splints tied to them. "I'm Grace, and this is my daughter Cara. We've been taking care of you since we pulled you from the pieces of the Citadel. If you need anything, we'll be here."

Garrus
October 29th, 2186

It had been a week since I'd awoken in the field hospital, and soon I'd only be slightly worse for wear. An osseous regeneration unit was finally brought down from one of the carriers orbiting the planet. As I settled onto the gurney, a female turian nurse came over holding the machine. "Good afternoon, General." She gave me a quick smile, setting up the device.

Fifteen minutes later, she took it off, and I was back on my feet, tenderly putting pressure on the unused limb. "Be careful, Sir; if you break another limb soon, we can't use the regenerator on you. If you regenerate too many bones, you have a high chance of developing bone cancer."

I nodded my thanks to her and carefully returned to the turian command tent. "Primarch, you wanted to see me?" I nodded to Victus.

"Ah, Vakarian. I see you've been all mended now." Victus walked to him and handed him a datapad. "Casualty estimates." Victus explained, "From the fleet orbiting Earth. We lost 15,000 fighters and interceptors, 3,500 cruisers, 1,000 frigates, 150 battleships, 25 carriers, and 15 dreadnaughts." Every word seemed to be another weight added to the older turian's shoulders, crushing his soul to a pulp.

I wasn't prepared for those numbers. Each dreadnought had a crew of 3,000 and an army contingent of 2,500 men. Each battleship had a crew of 1,000, with an additional 750 soldiers on board. Each cruiser had a crew of 300, with another 700 soldiers aboard. Each carrier had a crew of 2,000. "That's… almost four million… Spirits." Ruthless calculus. I knew that four million was almost nothing compared to what they saved, but it didn't make the figures any easier.

I was met with a grim nod from Victus, "May the spirits guide them home." He paused for a moment. "Remember that feeling, Vakarian. It'll make you a good leader. Now, how are the search and rescue efforts going?"

"I've been coordinating the search between Hackett, our fleet, and the other species, and have been using scanners to determine locations of fallen ships and other wrecks. We've cleared a three-hundred-kilometer radius so far. Similar efforts have been started at major city centers across the planet, and they're progressing faster. The quarians also volunteered to repair the comm buoys so that we can start broadcasting messages planetwide."

-0-

Pain… Pain radiated up from my leg, through my spine, and into my head, blinding in its intensity. Awareness returned, and I forced my eyes open. A large body of scorched steel met my gaze. A Spirits forsaken Mako had landed on me, turning my leg into no more than powder, just my undersuit holding it all together. Kneeling next to me was Amelia, squeezing my three-fingered hand with her five-fingered one. She was absolutely radiant, as stunning as she was when I thought she was a spirit dream fuelled by stim overuse, sent to collect me into the afterlife on Omega. Her face was devoid of emotion, but her eyes burned with sorrow.

Suddenly the Mako had vanished, and I was standing, and she was near the beam, standing stock still, slightly bent over like a LOKI mech that had suddenly lost power. I began shambling as fast as I could. As I was about to reach her, a Marauder emerged and began firing its weapon at her. Her body fell limp, blood pouring from multiple entry wounds.

"NO!" I shouted, but no sound came from my throat.

She appeared next to me as if nothing had happened, other than blood dribbling out of her head. "Why did you let me go alone, Garrus…? You were supposed to be watching my six… You promised…" As the blood drained from her head, she turned an even fairer shade, nearly a ghost white. "Why…?" She repeated, her body slowly dissolving into dust and blowing away in the light breeze.

I woke with a start, my breath ragged from the horror of the nightmare, the one I had seen every night since the final push. Every night the dream ripped my heart out again and again. I keened quietly. I knew she wouldn't blame me. She left to do her duty. To save the whole damn galaxy. She was a hero, through and through. Every man, woman, and child owed their existence to her. She gave up everything to save them, but knowing this still didn't heal the pain I felt.

I remembered the old human saying that Amelia had told me once. "Victoria non sine Sacrificium". No victory without sacrifice, and that was her final sacrifice.