A/N
Well it is about damn time that this got done. I have missed being able to post this and want to do better at getting this story done. Thank you all for your patience. Not going to be a long note. You're not here for that. You're here for the story. So here it is!
…
CHAPTER 21 – FIRST OPERATION
Aratoht. A low level batarian garden world, far from the centre of Hegemony space. It had a small population and a token level of military hardware on a base in the outer system, beyond the asteroid belt where in some future location an Alliance base would be set up to monitor hidden reaper tech. Not enough to do much more than show that the batarians were officially claiming the system in their name. the ground presence was negligible due to how far away the system was from non-batarian interests, which meant that it was mainly left to mercs that lived on the planet to respond to threats in the Hegemony's name.
It also kind of made it perfect for the reapers to invade later if Shepherd didn't destroy the relay in time. I was still debating on whether to do it myself earlier or not.
The sparse population and low security also had a few other bonuses. The main one being that there were plenty of slave owners and mercenary bases to raid, should a person desire to do so. And I did desire it.
The remote location also meant that there was considerably more difficulty in getting blueprints of any building that we wanted to raid. Not that blueprints mattered much to batarians. According to Jurt, any batarian worth their salt had at least one secret room in their house somewhere. At least, in upper society. The normal people wouldn't worry about that. Still, the places that we were planning on raiding tonight were definitely higher society, at least as far as a place like Aratoht goes, which meant that I had to worry about the teams security and effectiveness, as well as ensuring that there was proper plans for extraction and back up plans in case things went bad.
A lot of the planning was done in consultation with the more experienced members in my crew; Beau was an experienced and enthusiastic campaigner who apparently had a mind for traps. Jurt was more experienced with the batarians personally and would be able to more accurately guess reaction times and typical responses to certain actions. So while they let me make the overall plans, they were able to jump in and I could rely on their input into planning the operation.
…
Beau felt the familiar tingle of anticipation run through him as he completed his last checks.
He had missed this!
The oil of his gun, the hiss of his armour seals… he hadn't realised how badly he had been wanting this back in his life since he had left the Marines. Life had been a lot simpler then. And he had been allowed to kill the four eyed alien slavers that had made his life hell in the early colonies. If only they had been in time to save his sister…
The shuttle shook slightly as it hit atmosphere, moving into the night side of the planet where the target. Beau took a breath and looked at the ground team he was leading.
If it wasn't for the fact that he knew this was Brock's first mission, he wouldn't be able to tell that he had never done a ground offensive mission. The guy's face was expressionless, almost like a veteran campaigner. It was only the slight tensing in his jaw and the clenched fist that gave away any semblance of nerves.
Torrin was far easier to tell that he was nervous for his first mission. The kid's mandibles were flaring clenching like crazy and he kept taking big breaths, clearly to settle his nerves. Beau was a little uncertain about taking the kid on an infiltration op for his first time but everyone had to have a first time sometime so this might as well be it. Besides, it was supposed to be a pretty easy op and with the training that he had put them through it should be enough to make sure that no one would get hurt today. They had prepared for this. Now they just had to see how prepared they really were, but whatever happened today Beau was going to do his best to make sure that nothing bad happened to the kid.
The last member of their team was Hectar, who was flying the shuttle. The quarian wasn't taking part of any combat in this operation. He was the pilot and security systems specialist. His job was to access the facility's security systems remotely and disable any alarms while also sending false response notifications if anyone managed to get an alert out. If everything went according to plan, it wouldn't be an issue but still, it was better to plan for every eventuality imaginable. The shuttle itself had been modified by Ely and Misol to be as stealthy as possible for this operation. Extra heat sinks had been added to prevent build up and even the outside had been painted a matte black to avoid reflecting any light that may have attracted attention.
It wasn't ideal. He would have preferred to have the other two turians, Bolart and Octavio, and the other human, Ted, on the mission with him. They were all combat trained and had experience in ground operations. The problem was that Ted was older than he was at fifty-five and starting to look worn down, and neither Bolart nor Octavio were cleared by Liserias yet, based on their mental health. Apparently the two ex-slaves were a little too bloodthirsty for an infiltration mission like this. They hadn't gotten over the desire to hurt/maim/kill any batarian they came across yet. Normally that wouldn't be an issue, but when Liserias agreed that the two turians were likely to let revenge interfere with the mission then it was best to leave them be. Still, Beau had had plenty of experience to know that you work with the tools you have and not the tools you want.
He took a last visual inspection on his gun as he felt the shuttle turn in atmosphere, leaning to counter the effects. It wasn't a standard assault rifle. The weapon looked more like a Mattock burst rifle, but with a major difference. It wasn't loaded with a standard ammo block. It was in fact a tranquiliser weapon. It was salarian made and had been bought from a black-market dealer on Omega. It was one of the higher reputed dealers though so they knew the gear should work perfectly. Otherwise the dealer would likely have run afoul of some mercs who bought their weapons from him. They had tested perfectly in their practice runs for this operation. The tranq gun was apparently a favoured tool of slavers and STG operatives and could knock out any turian, batarian, human, quarian or asari for roughly two hours. Salarians and vorcha would be out for an hour, with the drell apparently having a natural resistance that would burn out the tranquiliser in half an hour. Only the krogan and elcor would not be knocked out immediately, due to their sizes, but multiple shots would achieve that if needed.
Beau couldn't help enjoy the irony that the very tool that had been used to capture the poor souls down on the planet would be the means of their deliverance. The tranquilisers were loaded with a fast-acting serum that could take down anything as big as an elcor without killing the target and had the added benefit of not being so fast that a Kinect barrier would stop it. It would go straight through barriers but would bounce off standard armour. Still, they took what they could get.
"Landing at drop point in thirty seconds!" Hectar called out from the pilot seat.
"Helmets on!" Beau ordered, fitting his own helmet into place with a click and a hiss. A quick diagnostic by the suits VI and the suit checked green. Satisfied that he was as ready as he was going to be, he stood and waited at the door, noting with satisfaction that both Brock and Torrin were doing the same behind him.
"Remember, three kilometres to the target, stay in the shadows and only activate stealth when you are behind cover," he growled out over the comms. "We are going to be moving quick for the first klick, then slowing down as we approach. Stay on my tail and follow orders. Keep an eye on your motion trackers and keep your heads on a swivel."
"Roger," Brock replied.
"Affirmative," Torrin said, no doubt copying whatever he learned in the turian bases as a kid.
"Remember, Hectar," Beau continued, "you have eight minutes to get into their systems and override their alarms protocols."
"Yes, sir."
The shuttle touched down with a muffled thump and the door hissed open, letting the three members of the ground team disembark.
There was no talking for the first part of the journey. They simply ran as fast as they could for over a kilometre while maintaining as much stealth as possible. They started to slow down to a slightly crouched jog for the next kilometre. The last five hundred metres was when things started to get interesting.
Beau could see that the trees were beginning to thin out and that didn't bode well for normal stealth. He was also conscious of any possible sensors that may have been set up. There wasn't any wind though it was also unlikely for any motion sensors to be put in a wooded area in case any wildlife got in the way. Still, there were a cast range of other sensors that could be used to detect intruders. If there were then hopefully Hectar would have found them but no messages had come from the quarian overwatch.
The target came into sight when they were about half a kilometre away, the lights visible through trees. He held up a hand to halt the others as he gave a visual inspection of their mission.
It was a large manor house, set in the middle of a large, well-kept garden. The grounds were exceptionally well cared for, in Beau's less than professional opinion. Not that it mattered for the purposes of the mission, but it was still easy to appreciate the effort it takes to make a garden look good.
He took the tranquiliser gun off his back and readied it, taking comfort in seeing Brock and Torrin copying his actions. The next part of this mission is when things are likely to go wrong. After all, the adage of 'no plan survives contact with the enemy' usually true. And going with green troops is almost a guaranteed way to enforce that rule with old Mr Murphy.
He took a long moment to scan the open grounds ahead of him, looking for any guards that might be on patrol. He switched the vision of his helmet to thermal detection. It was one of a few of the visual options that Brock had insisted his little salarian friend add to all infiltration gear. Beau thought it was great; if only the Alliance had coughed up the money to make it standard gear among N school graduates then they could have done some real damage to the batarians after the Skyllian Blitz attack.
Seeing no guards in visual range, they moved forward, using what cover they had available, consisting mainly of a few trees and a low hedge that had been kept as an outer boundary. The manor was only a hundred meters beyond that but there was not much in the way of cover. A few decorative shrubs and a medium sized water feature were the only beaks in the well-maintained grass., leaving the entire area without a viable way to reach the manor house without being seen from the majority of the property.
Thankfully, there were other options.
Behind the manor itself was a separate building that was the slave quarters. The batarian who owned this place, some business partner of a noble that Beau hadn't cared enough to learn the name of, had decided against keeping most of his slaves in the main house. They slept in what looked like stables in the back, about fifty metres from the back door at its closest point, but close to the boundary hedge at the back of the property. It provided the best way to free the main slaves when they were in their beds at night
He led the way in a crouched walk along the boundary, stopping every now and again as he listened for noises that stood out. He wasn't going to lie, his nerves felt amplified as he moved through the property, ducking down to avoid a patrol. He hadn't done infiltration work for years and now here he was in some backwater of batarian space, lightyears away from the front lines, about to attack for the purpose of freeing slaves from the disgusting criminal slavers.
It was like all his Christmas's had come at once!
They finally reached the closest part of the hedge to the slave house and ducked down completely, hiding themselves from view. Then, at Beau's signal, they all activated their camouflage, a muted white flash being their last visual sight of each other before they faded out of the visual spectrum. Luckily, as they all had the same SONAR vision that Brock had come up with, they were still able to see each other, even when invisible.
Torrin had asked why they didn't just use camouflage before they left the shuttle but had been shot down by both Beau and Brock. Using camouflage was a useful tool but one done on a time limit. It wouldn't do for the battery to shut down and need to recharge at a critical moment. They needed to remain invisible for as long as possible in the danger zone. It was bad enough doing this mission with two green fighters. Doing it with equipment that needed to shut down at the worst possible moment was just inviting disaster.
They reached the house and Beau readied his tranq gun, seeing the others doing the same on his SONAR. He took a deep breath in, then reached out and palmed the door open with a soft hiss. They quickly moved inside the building, sweeping their weapons to cover the corners. He gestured with his tranq gun and they moved forward.
The design of the slave quarters was very basic. A single hallway leading from the front door to the back door with rooms that came off it directly in an orderly fashion, about seven on each side. It reminded him like a small hotel. Or a stable.
The doors to all the rooms were closed so Beau took the left side, leaving Brock and Torrin to take the right. He came to the first door, a wooden, non-automatic door. SONAR showed that the room had two people inside. As quietly as he could, he pushed the door open and moved inside. Taking a look at the two beings lying down on basic cots, a batarian man and a human man, he quickly sighted his gun and shot tranqs into both.
They jerked and their heads shot up off their pillows for only a few seconds, before the tranquiliser took hold and they both collapsed back on their beds. It was something that they had planned on. Shoot everyone that wasn't them and sort out the slaves from the non-slaves later. It wouldn't do to have to deal with panicking slaves in the middle of the operation.
The next room had three females, all asari of various ages. The next two rooms were only batarian slaves. All of them received the same treatment. Silence by tranquiliser.
Creak.
Beau froze for a moment and turned his head to look at the other side of the hallway, where Brock's outline had frozen momentarily outside the room with offending door.
"Who's there?" a small voice called from through the now ajar door.
A second voice hissed at the first one to be silent. Then Brock leaned around the door, aimed and with three soft psshhh sounds, rendered the room's occupant's unconscious.
Beau let out a soft sigh and continued down the rest of the room, skipping the empty kitchen that was on his side and tranquilising another human, a woman this time, a salarian female and three more asari. There had been plenty of empty bunks, so it was likely that some of the slaves were still in the house.
Once they all had finished, they moved into the kitchen area together, being mindful of where each of them was through the SONAR. He waited for another thirty seconds before Brock became visible, the signal that the camera in the kitchen area had been disabled and they were free to deactivate their stealth generators, giving them time to cool down for the next part of the operation: the manor itself.
He gave the two rookies a nod, acknowledging that they were performing to expectations so far. That was the highest reward he could afford with them remaining as silent as possible. the next part was the more difficult objective. They had to clear the house and make sure that no alarm was sent to the guards outside. Hectar would stop any electronic distress calls so it was only preventing a firefight that they were concerned with.
Once their generators had completely cooled, they all activated them again with a muted white flash before disappearing. They made their way back into the hallway and exited the house at the door closest to the manor house. They made their way towards the manor, crouching as they went to reduce their profile. Regardless of their stealth fields, it was still possible to notice the slight displacement that went along with the distorted light waves.
Once at the back door of the manor, Beau paused and let the others, particularly Torrin, recentre themselves as they prepared for the next insertion. After making sure that he gained a nod from both Brock and Torrin, visible only through the SONAR, he pushed the back door open with elbow, leading with his tranq gun.
The immediately came face to face a batarian male, without a slave collar, walking towards the back door. The alien froze for a moment, its forehead furrowed in obvious confusion, before a tranq dart hissed out of Beau's gun and ended the confusion in unconsciousness. The body dropped to the ground louder than Beau was hoping and he froze to make sure that no one had heard it.
After a few moments, when no alarm had been sounded, the split, each taking a certain direction. Beau was headed for the stairs where he would move up to the second level where the bedrooms were. As it was night it was expected that there were likely to be plenty of targets up there, either sleeping or getting that way. Torrin would be looking for any doors or stairs leading to a basement and Brock would be taking the ground floor, room by room, as he was the only one of the two that Beau trusted enough to get the job done. The guy had come a long way in his training.
It wasn't idea, sending two green troops off on their own during a mission, but they would be close enough to each other that they would be able to back each other up if something went wrong.
Beau made his way up the stairs, making sure that he stayed close to the centre. There didn't appear to be any dust that would be disturbed by going too close to either the wall or the railing, but he wasn't about to take chances.
He hit the second level and took a left, scanning rooms with his SONAR. He could clearly hear a batarian taking advantage of a slave, if the muted grunts and whimpering were any indication. Beau had to fight down his first instinct of going and rescuing the slave immediately. If there were other people awake who could hear the rutting going on, then having it stop so suddenly would probably draw more attention than he was wanting to do in hostile territory.
He made his way down the hallway, much like he had in the slave house. Only there were a lot more people sleeping in the opulent rooms than had been in the slave house. Many of them were clearly slaves, going by the collars that they wore, but just as many were not. Each of them received a tranq dart to keep them out for a while.
Finally, he reached the room where he could hear the grunting coming from. SONAR showed that there was a batarian, clearly a male, on top of what looked to be an asari and thrusting into her. He also saw what looked to be a lock on the door on the inside of the room. The asari wasn't moving but her whimpers were still coming through the door.
Given that everyone else on his floor has been dealt with, Beau decided to finally use some of his pent-up tension. He took a step back, then push-kicked the door open, smashing the lock to pieces with a loud crash.
The asari screamed and the batarian scrambled off her as he reacted, but it was too slow. Two quick hissing sounds and they both dropped unconscious to the bed, the batarian's head hanging over the side.
He looked around and started to inspect the room. His floor was clear so he had a few brief seconds to inspect the surprisingly lavish room. The bedding looked like it belonged to a high-end hotel and there were a few actually rather nice paintings on the walls. Maybe he would take it after they were done.
A crash downstair of smashing glass brought him out of his inspection. He made his way quickly to the stairs. The sound of assault weapons firing reached his ears and he quickly placed the tranquiliser gun on his back and pulled his heavy pistol. He rounded a corner heading into the front entry room where there were two batarians in armour, clearly the guards from outside, had taken positions behind some crevices in the walls and were exchanging fire with Brock and Torrin who were taking cover behind walls and leaning out giving off targeted return fire with their own heavy pistols, blasting out chunks of wall.
From where he was standing, Beau had a better line of sight with less cover. So he held the trigger of his Foehammer and charged his shot to the max, took careful aim and fired at the batarian furthest from him.
The charged shot dropped the four-eyed alien's shields with a flash of static. A follow-up shot pierced his brain and dropped him to the floor.
His comrade turned and snarled at Beau, leaning out and taking aim straight at Beau before a shot from Brock broke through the batarian's shield and he fell, his brain spattered across the wall behind him.
The stillness after the firefight was almost as shocking as the beginning if it as Brock and Torrin made their way out of the hallway and Beau moved to join them in the entryway.
"What happened?" Beau demanded. He thought he could tell by the wince that the turian gave who might be to blame but he wanted to be sure.
"I, uh, knocked over a vase after the two guards entered the house," Torrin admitted sheepishly. "It's what got their attention and they opened fire the moment they saw me. We found the secret room though, but it was empty."
Beau was saved from responding by Brock disappearing from view in a flash of static as he activated his camo.
"Uh, what are you doing?" Torrin asked, his voice broadcasting his confusion.
The SONAR allowed Beau to see Brock's head turned toward them as he walked to the edge of the room. "The other two guards we saw outside are approaching the door."
Beau nodded, pleased that Brock had the sense to keep an eye out for such things, then moved swiftly out of the centre of the hallway, taking a position just in front of the door. He activated his SONAR again and spotted the two batarians. They were approaching the front door with their weapons raised, clearly expecting trouble.
He charged a shot with his pistol again, letting build to its maximum charge. A brief glance across the entry hall let him know that Brock and Torrin looked to be doing the same. He turned back to the door, knowing that any moment now, those two batarians were about to walk through it, with only the slightest hesitation and without looking for another entrance.
They were fairly predictable that way.
Sure enough, only a few seconds later, the two batarians carefully pushed open the door, which swung inwards without a sound. Assault rifles raised, they moved into the entryway. They had only taken a few steps when Brock and Beau had hit the further batarian with charged heavy pistol shots and the lead batarian was hit by Torrin's. Beau followed that with a shot of his own and finally, the last batarian hit the floor.
Beau gave a sigh. That was the last of the guards and there was only the slight mishap of Torrin knocking over a lamp at a bad moment. All in all, a successful operation.
"We're done here," he declared. "Hectar, send in the evac shuttle and crew and we can begin loading all of the freed slaves out of here."
"Affirmative," Hectar's voice responded instantly. "ETA four minutes. Jurt wanted me to remind you that he is bringing the explosives. He seems really excited about that."
"Roger that. Waiting your arrival. Ground party, out." He turned back to Beau and Torrin who had holstered their weapons. "Well lads, time to start rounding up the slaves. Let's get to work."
"Don't forget," Brock cut in, "we need both the owner and at least one other living batarian too. Preferably the worst one you saw."
Beau's mind flashed to the scene he had interrupted upstairs. "I think I have just the person for you."
…
I tightened the restraints of the struggling batarian, holding him in an upright position in the cargo hold. The semi-conscious alien was staring unfocussed as he struggled to pull his arms from the bindings that were keeping him from running around the cargo bay.
The elevator door opened and Jurt and Torrin led in the recently liberated slaves, most of them looking lost as they tried to comprehend their new status of freed people. I couldn't blame them. Their lives had turned completely upside down. Some of these slaves had likely been born as slaves. They wouldn't have known anything else. Now, they were free people and would need to learn how to live that way. It could take years before they were comfortable with the idea.
I could see Jurt still had a look of satisfaction from being able to blow up the manor, slave house and all the remaining batarians that had been left behind. The big guy really liked blowing things up. I could respect that.
"Alright everyone," I greeted them as they paused in front of me. Most of the newly freed slaves stared in shock and no small amount of fear at the two batarians that were secured in the cargo hold. "Thank you all for coming down here. I realise that many of you are still requiring rest and need to recover from your ordeal. If it wasn't for the fact that this was permitted by Doctor Selaen then I would be waiting until they were happy that you were all completely healed as recommended by Doctor Liserias." Indeed, I could see that several of the slaves, particularly the females, still had significant bruises on their arms, necks and legs. I didn't have to imagine how they had gained those marks.
"I know that what you went through was more horrible and painful than nearly anybody who wasn't in your position could imagine," I continued, trying my best to keep my voice soothing and compassionate. "Most of it was organised, carried out or at least permitted by these two men here." I gestured to the two captives. "These men hurt you, they did unspeakable things to you. They denied you being who your really are and treated you as property. They took away your power to live and govern your lives as free and independent beings."
I looked around at the crowd and noticed that they were all watching me with laser-like intensity. I don't know if what I was saying was striking a chord with them at all. Their faces were pretty hard to read, except the asari who were still looking scared that I was about to attack them.
"As someone who knows how that feels, who has been in a similar situation as you have been in," I continued, "I offer you the chance to take some of your power back. To show those who did those despicable things to you that they can no longer hurt. That they cannot hurt you without fear of reprisals and repercussions. I offer you the chance to show these two how much they hurt you, by letting you hurt them back."
I gestured to the side and Torrin came over holding a crate of wooden poles. He put them down on the metallic floor and stepped back, his mandible flexing into what I had learned was the equivalent of a smirk.
I picked up a pole from the crate and held it in front of me. "What I think would be the best thing for you, the first step for you, to take your power back, is to take one of these poles here and use it to beat these two disgusting creatures until your fear of them has vanished. Like so." I turned around to the closest one, the former slave owner, and gave him a vicious whack on the leg. The accompanying crack and muffled scream from the batarian in question told me I had likely broken something.
For some reason, that gave me a sense of malicious satisfaction and a flush of adrenaline. It made me want to do it again, really badly. I buried that feeling immediately.
I turned back to the fearful expressions on the former slaves and gave them a smile. "Who wants to be first?"
A long silence followed my statement as the former slaves alternated between staring at me in shock and at their former tormentors in fear.
After nearly two minutes of nobody coming forward, I took a step closer to them. "Look," I said softly, trying to be as gentle as I could to these clearly still freaking out victims, "I realise that this is something big. That I am trying to get you to do something that if you hadn't been freed, would have likely led to your deaths. I realise that just the idea of being in that position can be terrifying. But I also know that if you do this, if you rise above that fear, then you will be able to put this all behind you and recover from the nightmares so much faster than if you didn't. I promise you, if you can show these two people that you are no longer afraid of them by beating them until you feel that anger and fear drain, you will be far more likely and being able to return to normal and this can all be a bad dream you can do your best to forget."
There was another long silence, before a tiny voice spoke up from the back. "How do you know?"
I looked at the speaker and saw a young asari with lilac skin, clearly a maiden by her appearance, who had a large number of bruises on her exposed skin. The clearly bruised eye was a giveaway that she hadn't been treated well. It was the asari that Beau had rescued in the act.
I dropped the pole I was holding and rolled up my sleeves to above my elbow. The large scars around both my wrists and the slash and burn marks along my arms was clearly visible to see for the whole gathering of crew and former slaves.
"Because I have been through it myself," I replied to her softly. "I know it can help you, because it helped me."
The maiden stared at the scars on my arms for a long moment in silence. Then, taking a deep, shuddering breath to steel herself, she walked forward slowly. With a trembling hand, she took the pole I offered to her and stepped up to former security boss who was eyeing the asari with contempt.
For a long moment she stared at the captive, visibly shaking. Then, with a sudden scream, she started to beat the absolute crap out of the batarian. Again, and again she hit the four-eyed alien with the wooden pole, focusing mostly on his ribs and hips, though she did whack him in the face once, leading to a streak of blood falling from his cheek.
Finally, about nearly fifty blows, she finally burnt herself out, dropping to her knees and crying from the release of pent up stress, the batarian groaning pitifully. I walked over and put a comforting hand on her shoulder. To my surprise, she quickly stood up and threw her arms around my neck, sobbing into my shirt. I put my arms around her, trying to be as comforting as possible as I rubbed her back soothingly. After nearly five minutes of balling her eyes out, the exhaustion and stress of it all caught up to her and she ended up falling asleep right in my arms. I carefully eased her down onto the floor, taking the proffered sheet that Liserias handed me and put it under the asari's head like a pillow.
Only once that was done did I look back at the rest of the freed slaves. "So, who is next?"
An hour later, once it was done, Jurt dragged the two unconscious and irreparably damaged batarians up to the airlock on the crew deck and shoved them inside, before I overrode the safety control and vented the two batarians into space. I watched them floating away slowly through viewport. Somehow, getting rid of these two fine examples of garbage felt… right. And that, if nothing else, put a smile on my face.
…
A/N Please Review and Follow/Favourite as you like. Trolls are ignored.
Not going to lie, I have been struggling with this for months. I just couldn't get it written in a way that I was completely happy with. I usually do a pretty good at writing fight scenes, but this was harder for some reason. Even now I am not completely happy with this chapter, but I have sat on it for waaaayyy too long and you deserved to have this story progress. Next chapter will have a little time skip. See you next time!