Remnants

by General Rage

From Halo's ashes, a mismatched Alliance is born. UNSC soldiers now serve alongside both Batarian deserters and shifty Jackal Space Pirates. Now Shepard and Master Chief have to keep these strange bedfellows from killing one another before they can stop an emergent new threat to the galaxy. The Next Swashbuckling Chapter of the Wormhole Chronicles.

25. Soured Sweetness

Chapter 24: Soured Sweetness

In America, first you get the Sugar,

than you get the Power, than you get the Women.

-Homer Simpson

If anyone was hoping tensions would soften after all parties had time to cool off, those hopes were dashed by the next morning. Things remained in a state of slowly building animosity. The promises and deals made yesterday at the meeting between the Colony and the UNSC leadership were still on the table. However, the conditions of those promises and deals had changed

Maisey had requested that the Marines stationed near the fields relinquish their weapons first if they wished to assist in the fields. Before, the impression was they'd at least be able to keep their sidearms, that was no longer the case. This seemed to be in response to Haverson's own request. They still intended to give Tiegan some medical supplies, but he wanted access to the Colony's security personnel database. He stated his reasons in the communique he relayed to Maisey. He wanted to know about potential witnesses and suspects to question concerning the events on Apekis V. Maisey, of course, refused and said if he wanted to interrogate anyone, he could talk to Brant about who was involved in killing of the freighter's crew. She also repeated that the people who took part in the attack were all dead. Haverson replied in another missive he sent that he didn't trust her word. Maisey then said a number of curse words in Spanish at the messenger and Shepard had to intervene at this point before matters got worse.

"I am still bringing down my own share of medical supplies," Shepard had promised. "Tiegan will get what we promised."

"Not from the UNSC, apparently," Maisey spat. "Save for what we've always gotten, less than nothing while they just keep taking."

"Can you really blame Haverson for having difficulty trusting you?" Shepard asked as diplomatically as he could. "Especially if you just keep communicating changes to what was proposed at the meeting through messengers and transmissions."

Maisey, to her credit, seemed to ease off a little at that.

"Alright, fine, you're right," she confessed. "I won't pretend I don't get it. I lied, I can't be trusted. But I keep telling you all the same thing. There's no one left from my Husband's assault team. They're all dead."

"He needs proof to believe that, Maisey," Shepard reminded her.

"And if he gets it will he stop trying to punish my people for choosing NOT to die?" Maisey asked.

"He might ease off a bit," Shepard told her. "Believe me, he doesn't want to dig up old wounds here. He's not as against you as you think. But he needs a way out of this, and treating him as the enemy won't help."

"The UNSC has treated us like annoyances at best and disposable at worst, how am I supposed to view them?" Maisey asked incredulously. "How am I supposed to view a man who has condemned my husband post-mortem and won't rest until he has his pound of flesh?"

"Talk with him face to face again," Shepard pleaded. "Find a way out of this for both of you. What happened to your people was wrong, no doubt, but even in self-defense there are consequences for every action. You both need to come to terms with everything at some point, or you're just going to destroy each other. And no one wants that, no one wants to see this community you've built be destroyed. You might see it, but that includes Haverson."

"He just wants us to submit to UNSC authority which is as good as destroying us in my mind," Maisey claimed. "If he's not the enemy you claim he is, then he'll back off and let this go."

"Get him something to use in your favor and he will," Shepard informed her earnestly.

Maisey sighed and went into deep thought.

"I'll look into it," she relinquished. "What other choice do I have anyway? I mean, it's only my family at stake here."

That was how the conversation ended, although the problem remained. Shepard wasn't sure if Maisey could find any evidence to clear her people. Although Tali had told him she was working on something with Kasumi on that front, so perhaps there was still a hope they'd find something. For his part, Wade believed that Haverson and Maisey had to meet again. Holland and Whitcomb had given the Lieutenant permission to pursue the matter and forward his findings. He was the key to this and the focus of a lot of Maisey's anger right now. If he could just get them to sit down again and talk like regular people, maybe they could both swallow their pride a little and hash out some kind of compromise.

Easier said than done though, Shepard had run into a lot of complicated political situations, but this was a heated one. He was no diplomat, even if he tried to be one when possible. He could only do so much. It was up to both parties in this dispute to let some of their prejudices go. At the very least, he could keep the peace through his own actions. The medi-gel they were going to give them would at least soften the blow of Haverson withholding the UNSC's end of the bargain, for a while anyway.

There was better news from within the Forerunner facility. They were making steady progress with various doors and secured terminals. Fountains of data on the ancient research that went on inside were at their very fingertips. While it was unclear how useful a lot of it would be, there was a hope there were some things in the databanks that would be useful to the colonists at some point. What remained the focus though was still the relic at the center of the facility. They were still getting frequent reports from the Spartans, they were almost at the offsite backup facility. With any luck, the lockdown would be lifted by tonight. Then, all they needed to do was get through what remained of the top level of security within the ancient lab.

That was precisely the matter Halsey wanted to discuss with Shepard.

"From what we can gather, we'll be dealing with various locks concerning active clearance," she explained. "I believe there is a sort of genetic marker we need to bypass as well as shutting down power to a number of security checkpoints. However, at the last third or so we're going to need to brute force it a little."

"You mean blowtorch the locks and cut through?" Shepard asked.

"Precisely," Halsey confirmed. "However, that is easier said than done. These doors become increasingly thicker, tougher and more complex the further we go in. Whatever the relic does specifically in regards to the mind, the Forerunners working here did not want it leaving. Beyond assuming that makes it dangerous, it also means we need to shift our tactics. Right now, we're playing with glorified puzzles and brain teaser. We'll need to systematically infiltrate the system in general to get the rest of the way."

Shepard considered what that entailed.

"Would the Cyclops Exoskeletons help in breaking down the doors?" Shepard asked.

"Caleb says they tried that with the first door to little success," Halsey stated. "I doubt the inner sanctum will be any easier to crack. However, there are materials that can be potentially more effective. Tali is working with Rowan on a sort of 'upgrade' to their cutting tools. I'm working on the other angle, genetic lockout."

"That sounds a bit difficult," Shepard surmised. "I doubt we have any Forerunner DNA that would match the parameters."

"No, but I'm planning on circumventing it," Halsey said with a rather prideful grin. "Legion has helped identify a number of security stations within the schematics of the base. We are systematically tracing their functions to a primary hub. From there, I plan to rewrite the genetic hardlock and override it. Giving us access by inserting human DNA as a biometric baseline."

"So, basically you'd be adding ourselves to the authorized personnel list," Shepard surmised. "Granting us access despite not being Forerunners ourselves."

"Well, that's a very plain way of saying it, but yes," Halsey confessed.

"Biometric locks aren't exactly easy to break into though," Shepard warned. "Even if you do have access to the security hub."

"Under normal circumstances, yes, but I don't feel the Forerunners are normal circumstances in many respects," Halsey claimed. "Humanity is one of them."

Shepard perched his brow curiously.

"What do you mean?" He asked.

"I've been going over John's reports concerning the events on Halo," Halsey explained. "Specifically the... Monitor as you called it."

Shepard groaned a bit under his breath.

"Yeah, Guilty Spark," he sighed.

"Whatever that machine's faults are, I believe there is something to be said about its methodology," Halsey said, continuing to clarify. "It seemed specifically drawn to humans in its quest, as they were a key component of its programming. And a lot of Halo's systems seemed to respond to humans far easier in some cases than the Covenant. From what Cortana intercepted, and later confirmed by Zek and Varvok, the Covenant had numerous difficulties accessing Halo's systems."

"We noticed that too," Shepard recalled. "What do you think it means?"

"I can't be certain, but perhaps human physiology isn't that dissimilar from the Forerunners," Halsey hypothesized. "Meaning, we can potentially trick the system into thinking we're allowed in the highest security echelons. I admit, it's a supposition on some shaky ground, but it's better than nothing."

"I can hardly argue with any of your theories at this point," Shepard confessed with a sigh. "You've done well so far, why stop trusting you now?"'

"Your faith in our abilities is appreciated, Shepard," Halsey assured. "However, right now, all of this still hinges on John and his Spartans. Our success is primarily in their hands."

"Well theirs and making sure our people and the colonists don't end up killing each other before this mission is over," Shepard claimed.

It was perhaps not the most appropriate of moments to blurt out, but it was hard to hide his anxiety.

"I really need to get Haverson to sit down with Maisey again," he insisted. "They're both being so... stubborn about this crap."

"Haverson is perhaps the least duplicitous member of the organization I've ever met, but he's still ONI," Halsey reminded him. "Some of the more uncompromising aspects are baked in. It's how they've chosen agents for as long as anyone can remember. As for New Teteocan's leader, she's been living with the prospect of someone just like him showing up and destroying what remains of her people. Now that paranoia has been proven true, at least in her mind, meaning resistance is now the default position."

"I'm not saying they're wrong," Shepard clarified. "I get why they're acting like they are, but I need them to move past it. At the very least realize that this antagonism isn't helping."

"Antagonism has been the standard for many outer colonies concerning the UNSC," Halsey said rather plainly. "There is a reason the Insurrection started in the first place and even greater reason why it resorted to outright terrorism so quickly. Distance and isolation always cause some form of a rift between parties, especially when one side takes too much from the other."

"New Teteocan is not an Insurrectionist colony," Shepard reminded her.

"No, but it is one that wishes to be independent of the UNSC," Halsey replied. "Maisey thankfully recognizes that violence will not get what she wants at least, but she does fear it is inevitable. That much is clear. Sadly, she might be right, given Haverson's own fears. Which are not out of the realm of possibility."

Shepard remembered, black bag teams, infiltration, all of it ending in the colony's subjugation.

"How do we avoid that?" Shepard asked Halsey hopefully.

"Unfortunately, I believe the Lieutenant is correct in presuming there is no real way to avoid it," the Doctor replied rather sullenly. "We can lessen the blow if we find evidence to clear Maisey's surviving people of any wrongdoing and perhaps altering the power source on the exosuits. But ONI will do what it feels it must in regards to Forerunner technology. They will lock their sights on this place and keep them there for a long time. Even if Maisey got her appeal for self-governance signed, it might not protect them in the end."

Shepard looked at Halsey rather curiously.

"So you're saying what Haverson fears might happen regardless of what we do?" He asked.

"Is it that shocking to you?" Halsey asked in kind. "You know how ONI is firsthand. I work for them. I've committed terrible things under their watchful eye and I will forever bear the responsibility for them. They will do what they do best, they will protect humanity... at the cost of their own."

Shepard knew that type, all too well. He couldn't say it was a shock, but it just reminded him how hard this was.

"So even if things work out here, it might not be enough to protect them," Shepard reasoned.

"Not if ONI knows they're here and that's a secret that is not so easily kept," Halsey cautioned. "I hate to be the bearer of bad news, Commander, but if you want to save this colony any further grief, you have your work cut out for you. I don't see a way out of this that has them winning. Only a means to mitigate the damage. Haverson believes that and, ironically, so does Maisey."

If only he could get them both to realize that, Shepard thought. However, despite Halsey's dire warnings, he was not going to let that stop him. These people needed help and he was going to find a way out of this for them. He just needed to get an angle, something to lessen the tension and then, maybe, just maybe, both sides would see reason.

He had to hope they would at least.

---

"There are only so many paths forward," Haverson insisted. "If they really want to continue to exist as a colony, they are going to need to accept that very harsh reality."

The Lieutenant had contacted his superiors at the UNSC base camp and was currently going over his plans in detail with Whitcomb and Holland. Varvok and Zek, however, were close by. It wasn't exactly a private matter of course, this was another roundtable discussion that affected the leadership as whole. Haverson wished it wasn't the case, but considering how relations with the Colonists were crucial to their overall objective, Zek had a reason to be here. As did Varvok considering how a number of his men were in close proximity to New Teteocan.

"What they need to do is turn over the weapons they took," Haverson insisted. "If they're really concerned about proper defenses, fine. We'll leave them some rifles, maybe a warthog, but the stolen equipment is right out. We also need them to submit to a formal inquiry before we even get to that point."

"Does it really matter at this point?" Varvok asked sincerely. "Ten years, most of that equipment is obsolete at this point, isn't it? Why bother taking it back?"

"That's not for me to decide," Haverson claimed. "It can be retrofitted or the parts recirculated. Hell, the Grizzly might be useful in the ground war on Earth."

"You really think one tank is going to make much of a difference?" Varvok asked. "Considering what I've seen of the Covenant, a conventional solution to this conflict might be infeasible."

"True, but conventional means are at least a reliable and known quantity," Haverson claimed. "I know what you're suggesting, Varvok, but I'd like to think you have more sense than your pirate compatriot."

Zek grimaced a little.

"Sure, talk about me like I'm not here why don't you," he grumbled.

"I don't believe for a second this Astral Cutlass is even a tenth of what you think it is," Haverson stated directly. "The relics we've gathered at least are powerful enough on their own, maybe they can be utilized as weapons, but I'm not placing the fate of Earth on the off chance some old seafaring shanty is true. Or even as amazing as it claims to be. At least those tanks are real. Besides, we've been over this. Obsolete or not, they stole it. Those tanks and those exosuits are UNSC property and if they want even a chance at being recognized as a legitimate colony, they will return them."

Varvok didn't seem convinced, shrugging lightly at the whole matter.

"I have no... great love lost for humans, but this seems like something that shouldn't concern us," he claimed. "Why can't we just go our separate ways once we have the relic located here? Why does anyone NEED to know this colony is even out here? Chances are they'll be destroyed by the Covenant before anyone can even get out here to follow up on matters."

"All the more reason they should cooperate and just let me resolve the situation," Haverson insisted. "If I can find evidence that proves who exactly is responsible for what happened ten years ago, I can exonerate most of the colonists of responsibility."

"Or find some heads for the chopping block," Zek laughed out of the corner of his beak.

Haverson glared at the bird.

"I know this might be hard for you to understand, Zek, but I actually do care about due process," he claimed. "I'm not going to go into their systems and fudge the truth to make my hypothesis right. I just want to know what really happened so I can figure out how to proceed next."

"We all want that, Lieutenant," Holland spoke up from the comm channel's speaker. "But Maisey is clearly not budging on that issue. How do you propose to convince her to let us conduct any kind of investigation?"

"Your firm hand approach isn't being received well so far," Varvok noted. "Again, perhaps you all need to just let this matter go for the time being. Focus on the relic and getting the defense grid back up. Then they'd be inclined to hear you out."

"The question is will they?" Haverson asked suspiciously. "We know what they did and we know where they are. They know the consequences of what happens when this gets back to ONI."

"Are you suggesting that we might not be allowed to leave?" Whitcomb asked curiously. "Surely, relations are not that bad, Lieutenant."

"I don't know what to think, sirs," Haverson confessed. "At this point I'm not sure. We have a colony that was willing to kill Marines once before to save themselves, so they claim. They've already crossed a line. I know, I sound paranoid right now, but we can't trust them. That's the problem ultimately."

"What's the best-case scenario here?" Holland asked, sounding tired. "What're your means forward?"

Haverson brought up a pad he had been writing on.

"I've done some digging, I found some options in colonial law," he explained. "The soil is sufficiently fertile here. We can establish some kind of farming community with equitable trade. New equipment, better housing, everything they'd need to thrive. Provided, there is a UNSC presence here and ONI is allowed access to the Forerunner site. The village council will retain a degree autonomy, but report to UNSC Colonial Officials regularly. Maybe in a few years they can apply for home rule again. But all of that is predicated on an investigation into their affairs concerning their escape from Apekis V."

"And their prosecution I assume," Zek stated.

"If there is evidence to bring some of them to trial, yes," Haverson stated bluntly. "Humans have laws, Zek. I know that's a foreign concept for your species, but it's how we function as a society."

"We have a code, it's like having laws but flexible," Zek claimed adamantly. "Maybe that's what you need to be in this situation, because they are never gonna go for that. Not after what you pulled."

"I didn't do anything to these people," Haverson argued. "Some nameless captain did, allegedly. We still don't really know for sure if that story was entirely true."

"You did nothing to them, but the UNSC did," Varvok reminded him, in a far more understanding manner than was usual for the batarian. "And you're pretty much the first the UNSC presence they've run into in ten years. It might be unfair, but I understand their mentality."

Haverson supposed he would, given the batarian's own history.

"Well what would you suggest?" Haverson asked. "And don't say drop it, we can't."

"Your people burned the bridge, maybe start rebuilding it," Varvok suggested. "You've already agreed to assisting the village in a number of ways. You could just... fulfill those obligations like you originally planned. A show of good faith to at least give them a reason to believe you're not here to punish them."

Haverson sighed, as Whitcomb filled in for him on the comm.

"I'm sure you're aware by now that the Colonists have altered their arrangement to a degree," he explained. "The Marines won't be allowed to carry their sidearms in the fields."

"They don't really need guns to harvest crops," Varvok noted.

"No, but the Covenant or Snarlbeak's pirates could show up at any time," Haverson reminded him. "It's unreasonable for our people to be completely unarmed."

"My men don't have the same restrictions though," Varvok offered. "If you assign a Marine to work beside one of my people, should something go wrong, they can give them their own sidearms or provide them cover so they can run back and retrieve their own weapons."

Haverson began to consider it as Holland spoke up over the comm.

"The gesture is appreciated, Lieutenant Commander, but would your men be okay with that arrangement?" Holland asked him.

"They will if I ask them," Varvok assured.

"Hmm, I don't know," Whitcomb interjected. "We're going to be putting quite a few squads on this detail. And I don't think we should take too many of your people away from watch duty, Varvok. We'll need them in case an attack comes, not busy sowing seeds and tilling soil."

"Well, I might have a solution there," Zek spoke up.

They turned to the kig-yar, who was just getting off his omni-tool. He had a rather wicked smile on his face at the moment.

"I know of a few members of our crew that haven't been doing much of anything for a bit," he claimed. "Quite a substantial number in fact, who could use the fresh air... well for all they'll be breathing it in of course, heh, heh."

Haverson perched his brow. He was always suspicious whenever Zek offered help or assistance, or literally anything. It was too suddenly altruistic, especially for him. Whatever trust issues he had with the New Teteocan colonists, he trusted Zek even less. Given that he already had suspicions about the Jackal's part in how they discovered those weapons, this turn was even stranger.

It also wasn't that hard to figure out who he was suggesting.

"You want to bring the Grunts down planetside to harvest crops," he said bluntly. "Forgive me if I find this a little bit out of left field for you."

"If I want my relic, I need the humans on our side," Zek stated simply. "What better way to do that, than to offer my services in some small fashion to this colony's well-being. This way, you don't need to put as many men in the fields and neither does Varvok. And over time, as the colonists get more comfy with Marines picking carrots and whatever else they got over there, you can increase the Marines working in said fields. Maybe even convince Maisey to let them hold onto their sidearms. Worth a try isn't it?"

Haverson still appeared skeptical.

"How are you going to convince them to come down?" He asked. "As I recall, the deal was they didn't have to go out into the field anymore."

"Retz said they wouldn't be used in combat," Zek clarified. "He said nothing about farming. Besides, they're unggoy, they're pushovers. Retz will make them bend easy enough."

---

"Not Deal! Not Deal!" The unggoy screeched. "You say no fighting!"

"It's not fighting, it's farming," Retz said in a passive-aggressive tone. "Seriously, they're completely opposite activities."

"Covenant bad guys coming," the unggoy reminded him. "They coming soonest! We be in crossfire with humans! They shoot us! Covenant shoot us! Maybe you shoot us too for fun!"

The assembled ranks of unggoy workers all chattered and grumbled to one another, nodding their heads incessantly as they agreed with the one that was speaking. Retz could only sigh, he really hated unggoy. It wasn't that smelled or that they were stupid. Those qualities could be overlooked, mostly. That and they weren't complete dullards, even he accepted that. They picked up information fast, they were good learners, but they were always so difficult. Their cowardice and built-in pathetic nature made them almost impossible to work with. They always hemmed and hawed and made excuses about why they didn't want to do something. The only way you could make them listen was by forcing them to.

That is, unless you gave them a degree of freedom, like not being forced into combat situations. An inch went a mile with an unggoy and soon he was always regretting his lot and wanting something better. He could never just be happy. For the kig-yar, that made them an insufferable species. They had spoiled these methane suckers and now they were throwing a fit over a disruption to their preferred routine.

Altering a contract was difficult enough with a fellow kig-yar, doing it with an unggoy was a lesson in patience. For one, they made a lot of inordinate demands thinking they could best you in negotiation ring. Two, they were very blatantly annoying about it because they never knew when to quit while they were ahead. Three, they never really knew what they actually wanted and you had to guess more often than not what they were trying to convince you to concede to them. Retz knew if he was going to make these unggoy go along with anything, he'd have to be sufficiently forceful at some point. He'd have to time it right though. Nothing was more dangerous than a pack of unggoy who thought they could strongarm you. That was the cause of more than a few of their little rebellions to be honest.

In regards to these unggoy in particular, they had been given a relatively cushier job aboard the Serpent than they had when they were cannon fodder. They weren't treated like equal members of the crew, no. They were paid though, in a sense, so they weren't slaves. They were just lower on the totem pole, which was natural for them because they were still unggoy. They may have to deal with surly kig-yar, but they weren't being sent off to soak up human bullets die for anyone. For any unggoy that was an easy deal to accept, at first. So if he wanted them to now go down to a planet and play around as farmers for a bit, Retz knew he had to sweeten things for them. He had to make some kind of concession and hope they didn't get greedy and start demanding more and more as time went on.

"Do you want more food? A raise in your rations or something?" He began. "Is that it? Because you're not the only people we have to feed on this voyage you know. Take some consideration into the fact that everyone in this fleet is more or less sharing the same food stores. We can't exactly raise your rations without taking them from someone else."

"We want more food, but we live without for now," the lead unggoy claimed, sounding remarkably more practical than Retz would've given him credit for. "We want better place! Own place!"

"What? The cargo hold not doing it for you all of a sudden?" Retz sighed.

"It cramped, dark and full of garbage," the unggoy complained. "We want bigger place! Own place!"

"There's not that much room aboard the ship for that," Retz reminded the gas sucker. "Our living quarters are full and we can't just add a spare room somewhere."

"Plenty room on carrier," the unggoy claimed. "Move quarters to there."

Retz rubbed the bridge of his beak.

"You're service staff, you can't just leave the ship and stay in the carrier," he informed them. "You have obligations, you're required to be on hand at all times."

"Know that," the unggoy assured him. "We also want rotating shift. Better hours, longer break than five minutes!

And here it was, on schedule, asking for more before they even settled on the initial contract conditions. Retz had to think fast, there had to be a resolution to this. He was quick to find one.

"Alright, alright," he said, gesturing with his hands. "We can... negotiate a living space close to the Serpent's docking area. You'll be close by and on call. You can have your, ugh, rotating shifts and breaks, but you remain on call and we can bring more people in if required."

"Also one more thing," the unggoy blurted out. "We get go to the theater on carrier. We watch movies! Free range of seats! Eat puffy corn!"

"Popcorn," Retz corrected before shifting into a more stern, authoritative tone. "But, fine, fine, you can go to the damn vid theater on the carrier. No seat restrictions, I'll even tell them to let you pick what you want to watch. But that's it, okay? And you're only getting any of this to begin with if you pull your damn weight down there. No complaining, no excuses, no constantly demanding bathroom breaks every ten minutes to get out of hauling in more wheat. And, more specifically, when we ask you to do something down there, or any kig-yar gives you orders about what we're harvesting, you listen. You take it where you're told to go and you don't ask questions."

"What you mean? What we harvest for you?" The lead unggoy asked.

"That was a question," Retz snarled back. "What did I just say?"

The unggoy was a bit cowed by the remark. Retz continued as the little gas sucker stepped back an inch from the shouting. He had to keep hitting them while the iron was hot, so to speak.

"You want your living spaces, your rotation shifts, your movie nights?" He asked incredulously. "Then you shut your mouths, do what we tell you and put in an honest day's labor in the fields. The better the human colonists report back on your efforts, the better off you'll be concerning your requests."

"They demands," the unggoy replied.

"They're requests," Retz informed the gas sucker, his voice exasperated and tired. "You don't demand anything. Remember, you're here to begin with because I extended you all an olive branch and offered you a way out of being expendable bullet sponges. I did you a favor, this ship did you a favor, now you're going to pay it back and we'll see if that gets you into a better standard of living than you are currently in now. That is capitalism at its finest and most pure. Is that understood?"

The unggoy all looked to each other. They didn't look entirely pleased, but their expression on their face read as grim acceptance all the same. Yes, for all their cowardly inclinations and whining, once again, Retz reminded himself they weren't that stupid. They knew when to not push their luck, so long as you made it clear they were starting to. They weren't risk takers, they weren't go-getters, they were unggoy. They ultimately did what they were told by those who were everything they weren't. That would always be the case, nothing would change about that. It was one of the few certainties of the universe, that much Retz knew for sure.

"We do it," the lead unggoy conceded. "You best hold bargain."

"I am a bird of my word," Retz said, raising his hand. "Now then, best get prepared. You have a long day ahead of you."

Retz turned away from the assembly of unggoy, complacent in the knowledge he had not been bullied by their little impromptu workers' union. Hopefully he wouldn't have to deal with this too much, but he knew unggoy were rarely complacent in their lot. Still, at least now they were headed down to the planet. Which meant they could go forward with the next phase of the plan later tonight. All he had to do now, was get those Beam Rifles ready and wait for Asha to hold up her end of things.

---

It was only a matter of time before the Spartans sent the codes to switch off the lockdown sequence. When that happened, they would have access to most of the facility, save for the high security levels within the last rung of the ancient lab. That meant they'd be going up against the most air tight portion of the complex's security. While their familiarity with the systems had grown considerably though, they were not about to waste more time trying to crack the top-level protocols for this place. If they could, fine, but they needed to get to the relic yesterday. It was time to start focusing on less subtle means of gaining access.

Compared to the various other projects Tali had taken on recently, this was by far the least complex in a while. They weren't looking to merge two modes of interstellar travel together or fix the equivalent of synthetic life-based cancer. They just needed a better way to cut through a door. And lucky them, they had the means, they just needed to make it more capable. To a quarian, that was basically child's play. With Rowan and Caleb helping, themselves highly capable engineers, it was probably the most fun Tali had had in a good while.

"So we can make this work, right?" Caleb had asked.

"I sent the data to EDI for a more in-depth analysis of the material that makes up these doors," Tali had explained. "They have a very high heat index threshold, that's why a lot of your welding tools didn't work before, even the ones on the Cyclops. Whatever metal these things are made of, they're built to withstand a ton of pressure or various extreme conditions. But everything has a limit and we can surpass that with just a little upgrading of our own."

Said upgrading required he disassembly of one of the Cyclops exosuits' welding torches. Brant authorized it, mostly on Caleb's say so. It was only a small part of a much more complex machine and the suit would work just fine without it. He was confused as to why they needed it though, as they recalled the torches didn't even work on the doors on the outer rung of the facility leading into the structure proper. What good would it be on doors that were likely ten times thicker and more complicated?

That was a problem, but Tali knew the way around it. As she laid out the pieces of the Cyclops' torch for the team, she explained her plan in full.

"The Cyclops' welding torch is your most powerful tool on hand, but it's not made for disassembly," she explained. "It's, well, a welder primarily, it's made for repairs. I looked up different variants of the suit though and found that there are some that they are all about demolition."

She shared her datapad with Rowan and Caleb, showing a different version of the Cyclops, vacuum sealed, bright orange with hazard stripes on the arms, and heavy tanks on its back.

"Yeah, Breakers," Rowan observed. "These bad boys can rip a Marathon Class cruiser's boilerplate into two, reduce the toughest material to sludge with its plasma cutters."

"Unfortunately, all our Cyclops suits are military repair units and lack such tools," Caleb noted. "I'm assuming you have a means to retrofit a plasma cutter of sorts with these parts?"

"I think so," Tali assured him. "Hot enough to maybe to actually cut through the doors at least. I've been working with plasma energy in some of my projects, I have a firm grasp on how to harness it properly. A few adjustments and we can have a super-heated Plasma-Based Cutting Torch that will tear those locks apart in considerably less time than ever before."

"Boss!" Rowan had shouted jubilantly. "Let's do this then!"

They began work as soon as possible. Tali had already requisitioned the necessary parts, they just needed to assemble them and make whatever adjustments were required as they worked. First and foremost was replacing the power source for the torch, from gas to plasma energy. That would require altering the casing around the fuel supply, as well as reinforcing the torch so it could take the added heat. That meant crafting a new ignition system among other things. However, they had the specs for the Breaker Cyclops' own plasma cutter, so they weren't operating in unknown quantities. They just needed to make a super-charged version of something that already existed.

It soon became apparent of course they'd need a rig to properly use the plasma torch on the doors. This thing was going to be pretty big after all. Rowan got to work on that, fashioning an apparatus for which the torch would be set upon so it could be wheeled from door to door. It required cannibalizing some parts from an old tractor that had long past its usefulness, but it was a small sacrifice in the grand scheme of things.

They soon got most of the main components together and had crafted a functional plasma cutter. Well, functional in the sense that it looked like it could work, the question now was how well and if it was enough. They started gearing up for a test, Rowan and Tali began preparations by creating adjustments to the power cell together.

"We need to be sure the containment tank will hold," Tali said holding up her scanner. "Think it can hold together?"

Rowan was busy double sealing the various creases and compartments for said tank, her welding helmet cover her face as sparks flew. Tali assisted where she could with her omni-tool, keeping an eye out for possible stress points in need of extra layering.

"It will so long as we double check the power input," she explained as the sparks flew about. "What does your sim say?"

"Hmm, we're looking at a possible surge at seven hundred Kelvin," Tali said shaking her head as she looked over her omni-tool. "We need way more for this to be effective. If we're going to push this thing, we'll need a secondary cell and a reinforced ignition system. Otherwise-"

"The whole thing blows up in our face," Rowan mused. "Yeah, best avoid that."

The human engineer continued her work as Tali kept making adjustments where she could.

"Nice break at least from all the computer splicing," the quarian commented. "Don't get me wrong, hacking systems is fun, but all those Forerunner symbols and numbers were starting to make my eyes glaze over."

"I'm just glad we're finally cracking this place," Rowan claimed. "The fact I get to use all my talents is just a bonus. I mean, seriously, I'm building a plasma cutter with Covenant Plasma Tech! And to think I was worried I'd just be stuck just outside the front door forever only a few days ago. You and your friends have certainly made things way more exciting for us all, that's for sure."

"Hopefully in more positive ways going forward," Tali said thoughtfully.

Rowan nodded in agreement, continuing her work on the containment tank.

"Where'd you get this energy cell again?" She asked.

"It was a spare aboard our stolen Covenant Carrier," Tali explained. "I think it was a replacement for one of their Ghost attack vehicles. The modifications for the increased power output were easy enough to implement, Covenant Plasma Tech is rather redundant when it comes to that department."

"Probably to make it easier to alter what they use any given fuel cell for on the fly," Rowan observed thoughtfully. "Very ingenious, wish our tech was as easy to multipurpose."

"I'm with you there," Tali chuckled warmly. "The real challenge is retrofitting it for the UNSC's tech. I kinda wish Kat still here, she's practically a savant with this sort of thing."

"That's one of the Spartans, right?" Rowan asked. "The blue one with the cool robot arm?"

Tali just nodded.

"Yeah, I thought about having a robot arm once," the human engineer mused dreamily. "Almost forced the issue with a power saw. My dad talked me out of it though. Just as well, I probably would've fainted from the first cut."

"So... I'm guessing you've always been a rather," Tali searched for a word that wasn't insulting in intent. "Venturous personality?"

Rowan just laughed.

"That's one way to describe me," she relented. "I think my whole class had this assumption I was going to grow up to be a mad scientist or something. I don't know where they got the impression, but it was probably because all my shop class projects turned into some kind of robot. Usually with a drill or a saw as a hand."

"Drill hands?" Tali asked.

"For excavation," Rowan explained. "You know, mining, construction. The saw was for logging. There was the one time I may have went a little too far with the flamethrower. Thank god someone had the forethought to suggest a blast shield before I turned it on. In retrospect, probably overkill for a camp out trip. Really good s'mores though."

Tali wasn't too surprised to hear any of this. She had been around Rowan long enough to just expect these sorts of revelations at this point.

"Maybe your classmates weren't too far off after all," she noted.

"Eh, can't really argue with you there," Rowan confessed. "Although I have yet to create a proper killer monster or doomsday weapon, so I'm sorta failing to live up to that aspect of the mad scientist esthetic. Either way, this little plasma cutter project feels a bit nostalgic when I think about all that."

"Strangely enough, I feel the same," Tali said, looking up from her omni-tool. "Back where I'm from, this sort of thing is just standard procedure. Retrofitting new technology into old designs, fixing old junk to work like new, inventing things out of scrap, a lot of that was just standard curriculum back in school."

"Your people sound like my kind of people," Rowan remarked, almost giggling at the idea. "A whole alien race of tinkering engineers. The only downside being... you know, that whole getting sick really easily thing."

Tali just shrugged lightly.

"It's not as bad as you might think," she explained. "Immuno-boosters help a lot."

"Still might be worth it," Rowan considered. "I mean, I'd get to have legs like yours."

Tali looked down at her legs curiously.

"My legs?" She asked.

"Yeah, they got that whole backwards knee thing," Rowan explained. "You kinda look like a dinosaur or something, it's cool."

"That's not usually something that people bring up honestly," Tali said, now eyeing her legs more closely. She rose one up to get a better look at it. "Usually, everyone just thinks about the suits. Or they talk about our species' hips and... other things..."

Rowan suddenly stopped her work for a moment and turned to Tali, lifting her welding mask as she did.

"Oh no, did I just make you self-conscious or something?" She asked nervously. "I-I'm sorry! I didn't think the leg thing was personal or something. I just- I just think they look neat and my knees are all knobby, but you can't see it because of the jumpsuit so... ugh, I'm making it worse. I'm sorry, sometimes these things just come out, I have a crap filter and-"

"Rowan, it's fine," Tali assured her, holding up her hands in a calming gesture to ease her fellow engineer's concerns. "I was just thinking about how not as many people mention our legs, at the very least not in an envious way. And the comparisons from humans are usually all about how they look like chicken's feet. Never dinosaurs."

"Well, dinosaurs are related to birds and chickens are birds," Rowan stated. "But I usually default to dinosaurs first because they're so much cooler and... oh, sorry. I was just really worried I insulted you for a second."

"Not at all, you're fine," Tali assured her. "And frankly, I'm impressed with your human legs. I'm surprised anyone can walk properly with the way they're constructed, but they're fairly... sturdy in my experience."

The Rowan laughed a bit at that, Tali joining in as well. Whatever tension or flustered expression between the two of them soon evaporated and Rowan calmed down.

"Yeah, sorry, over-reacted there," she apologized. "I guess I just get worried sometimes how I come across. I am a bit of the odd one out here, being youngest person on the village council and everything doesn't really help with that stigma."

"You're eccentric, but you're not THAT odd," Tali assured her. "And honestly, in another life, you would've been a wonderful quarian."

Rowan seemed to beam, and returned to her task with vigor. She shut her welder's mask back down across her face and continued.

"Thanks," she said to Tali as got back to work. "It is nice having more people around though. People who... get me, I guess? There are other engineers here and everything, but they aren't as into this sort of work as I am. They're mostly, like, doing repairs and stuff on the infrastructure. I'm all about this crazy awesome Forerunner stuff."

"It is impressive technology," Tali confessed. "I don't blame you for being fascinated with it."

"Yeah, but sometimes it feels like Caleb and I are the only people really dedicated to this part of the colony," Rowan explained. "I guess it's mostly because we've made so little progress on it. I'm hoping once we get things like that security grid operational though, more people will get involved and everything."

"You seemed to be doing well enough on your own," Tali claimed. "I mean, just because you didn't know what to look for doesn't mean you were doing poorly. I mean, you got one of those security towers to work after all. That's pretty impressive, and you had a whole colony to look after as well. I imagine this place wasn't high on the priority list."

"Not really, no," Rowan confirmed, sounding a bit more thoughtful in her response. "Caleb was always pushing, but making sure everyone is fed, warm and properly hydrated took priority. I guess that did slow us down a little. That's probably why Caleb was so big on getting your help with unlocking this facility now that I think about it. I mean, once he heard you were interested primarily in this old place."

"You and Caleb get along pretty well, huh?" Tali asked.

"He's an old geezer, sure, but he's awesome," Rowan said joyfully. "He helped train me with computers and other tech stuff. He's the reason I'm even on the Council, he got everyone to notice my engineering skills and how I was clearly the most qualified to handle that department. He's really the reason anyone here doesn't still think I'm just some silly hyperactive girl. That anyone really listened to me."

Tali could hear the insecurity in her fellow engineer's voice. It reminded her a bit of how she used to be, and in many ways still was. She bent down slightly to get a better look at her teammate.

"Hey, whatever got them to trust you like they did, came from you first and foremost," the quarian insisted. "Caleb never would've gone out of his way for you if he didn't seem something in you to begin with."

Even though she was still wearing the welding mask over her face, Tali could tell she had reached the young woman regardless. A sentiment that was reinforced by another voice.

"Tali is right, Rowan."

It was Caleb, returning with a hover cart.

"Your accomplishments, before and after you got on the Village Council are your own," he insisted. "I might have gotten people to listen to you, but you're the one who convinced them to trust your judgment in the end. You're a valued member of this community, never forget that."

"Thanks guys," Rowan said, pulling up her mask to reveal a warm expression. "Really, all that means a lot. So how'd things work out on your end?"

"Perfectly," Caleb replied. "I think I found what we need for the test."

On the hover cart, there was a slab of metal. It was clearly from the Forerunner facility, as it matched the composition and coloration of the walls. It was a fairly thick piece of sheet metal, for all intents and purposes.

"It took a while to shake this loose, but it should be enough for a field test," he explained. "We ready?"

"Should be," Tali said. "We'll keep it on a low setting, we don't want to stress this before we're prepared for the real thing."

Caleb set up the slab against the wall. Rowan then had the Plasma Cutter rig roll over to it on its tractor treads. Using the same control, she centered the cutter's nozzle into position, using the small camera installed into it to get it lined up. Cutting the locks would require precision after all. Right now though, they just needed to see if they could cut anything Forerunner related. Caleb put a set of goggles over his eyes as Tali adjusted her visor's light filters.

"Okay, lets fire this baby up," Rowan said.

"I'll monitor the temperature," Tali said, bringing up her omni-tool. "Ready when you are."

Rowan started up the torch and a powerful plasma jet shot forth from the nozzle. Sparks went off in various directions as the intense heat melted through the metal. The light from the torch was blinding, even with the eye protection everyone was wearing. They plasma sliced easily enough through the metal, although it took a bit of time to do so. It started to pick up steam though the longer it went on and the hotter the flame became. They had managed to slice through a quarter or so of the sheet before Tali called the experiment.

"Fluctuation in the power cell, best turn it off for now," she requested.

Rowan nodded and shut the cutter down. Caleb waited a moment for the flame to stop and smoking metal to cool a bit before he approached. He took a look at the sheet and nodded approvingly.

"Damn that's a clean cut," he said. "This is gonna work beautifully, girls. Exceptional."

"We still need to be able to maintain the jet for longer," Tali insisted. "That and increase the heat output considerably. The data I recorded should help. But I think this is a good start. With any luck, we'll be ready to use it when Master Chief's team clears the offsite backup station and sends the codes."

"Best get to work on the adjustments then," Rowan declared. "The sooner we're good to go, the faster we'll reach the central chamber and find out what that relic Taq keeps talking about is all about already."

"And the security grid of course, with any luck" Caleb reminded her. "Although I am curious about what this relic does at this point. What with the way Taq goes on about these 'power of the mind' related experiments the Forerunners did."

It did spark Tali's curiosity to be frank. While her experiences with these relics had been far from positive so far, thus making her a bit wary, this facility's logs kept her mind racing. The Forerunners obviously felt it was a big enough deal at least. They centered this whole operation around it after all. However, she was brought out of these thoughts when her omni-tool started to ping. It was Kasumi calling her.

"Kas, what's up?" She asked.

"I think we have something here, Tali," the hooded thief replied. "Best get down to the Village Council bunker when you can."

"Is it good news?" the quarian asked expectantly.

"Might be," Kas replied. "Better than nothing at least. Like I said, come down when you get the chance. Asha is already here, she's getting a bit antsy."

"Copy that," Tali acknowledged. "Thanks for doing this again, by the way."

"No worries," Kas replied, ending communication.

The quarian turned to her team.

"I'll be back," she promised, clicking commands on her omni-tool. "Rowan, I'm sending you the data I collected, see what you can do with it until I get back."

"Roger," Rowan said saluting playfully.

Tali was eager to finish up the Plasma Cutter, but this took a slight bit more priority. She had promised Asha that she and Kasumi would try to find something to help the colony. With any luck, they had just uncovered what they needed.

---

Asha was hunched over Kasumi when Tali arrived at the command bunker. The monitor they were in front of was displaying a list of files. From the looks of it, most of them were video files as well as some audio. Although it was hard to tell how much of it was useful, since even at glance at some of the file names it appeared that some of them might be corrupted or damaged. Still, it was a lot more than she had expected.

"I didn't think we'd find so many files," Tali said, giving the screen a once over.

"A lot of it is reconstructed," Kasumi explained. "I had Legion's help with a lot of it before he got called away by Halsey for some more data cataloging in the Forerunner Facility. I think we can salvage more in time, but what we have is pretty decent for a start. I think it might be what's left of the ship's black-box uploaded to a secure hard-drive."

Kasumi opened one of the files in question.

"We think this is an audio file logged in just as the Colonists arrived," Kasumi explained. "Not the by the Captain, though. Sounds like it's the XO."

The file began to play, although parts of it were badly degraded.

"-too long on the ground. Covenant ships are already glassing the major settle-*KRRR* -can't stay here for much longer. I'm going to make a formal recommendation to Capta-*KRRRR KRREE KRRR* We'll dump whatever we can't take and go. I'll take full responsibility if I have to. This place is gonna be a rock soon any-*KRRRR REEEK KRRR KRRR* -obably dead already. I don't expect anyone to... huh? ... Seriously? ... Survivors? Uh, Pause dict-*KRRR*"

"That one cuts out there, but there are others," Kasumi explained. "From the sound of it someone spotted the colonists approaching and all hands were rushed to their stations."

"It does support the urgency Maisey spoke about if the Marines were considering abandoning their own mission too," Tali observed. "We'll need more than that though. Do any of the files illuminate what happened when the Colonists arrived?"

"We might have footage of the first confrontation," Asha stated. "Go ahead, play it."

Kasumi selected another file and opened it, revealing a hazy and distorted angle of the freighter's cargo ramp. It wasn't perfect, but they could see what looked to be a human female figure speaking with what was likely the ship's Captain given what they could make out of his uniform. It wasn't the best quality, but the woman eventually dropped to her knees and started begging. The Captain tried to shoo her away, instead the woman persisted. She ran out of the camera's sight, but returned holding what was most certainly a child. She continued arguing with the Captain, but he eventually called some of his men over. They grabbed the child and then the woman, trying to force them away from the ship. The woman pulled herself free, only for the Captain to push her to the ground. The footage ended with him reaching for what appeared to be a weapon and pointing it, as static consumed the video file's screen.

"I'm guessing that was you and your mom," Tali observed. "Although it's hard to make out their faces."

"It was us," Asha said, la a pained look on her face as she stared at the monitor. "That was about the point she started asking them to at least take me and they refused. I don't know why. All I remember was something about not being a taxi service and that we weren't the mission. That day is one big blur of emotion, so it's hard to remember everything."

Tali patted her on the shoulder, calming the young woman, before returning her gaze to Kasumi.

"Do any of the video files have audio?" She asked.

"None so far," Kasumi shrugged. "We're lucky we can even make out shapes, that's how badly this data is corrupted. But it does support Maisey's claim, the Captain at least was not sympathetic or willing to let them aboard."

"That still leaves a lot of leeway though," Tali surmised, thinking quickly. "What about the attack itself? Do we have anything related to the moment the Colonists assaulted the ship?"

"I'm not sure," Kasumi confessed. "I checked the video's timestamp and brought up what files I could find centered around it."

She brought up said files in a separate window, motioning her finger over one in particular as she scanned them all.

"This is a records folder, you know, for commands issued to the Marines stationed aboard," Kasumi reasoned. "We haven't gotten a chance to look at them, they might be relevant."

Tali opened it herself and checked the relevant files concerning the timestamp. Opening one, she read it aloud.

"All Marines are to maintain perimeter around cargo hold doors," she read methodically. "Hold ground until launch procedures are initiated or troop evacuation convoy arrives to provide support. Leaving within the hour or sooner if contact with command can be reestablished. Do not allow non-essentials aboard the ship under any circumstances. We will stay on mission. They are not priority."

It was a pretty damning portrait of the Captain and one that Asha capitalized on.

"See! We told you," she insisted. "They were killing us, plain and simple."

"Seems as much," Tali confessed. "But... Keelah, I can't imagine any officer in the Migrant Fleet doing this. Not without some kind of reason."

"Maybe one of these vids can illuminate that reason," Kasumi offered, typing away at another console. "I think I can pull up some footage from the bridge. It might be the XO and the Captain. If we're lucky there's audio."

Kasumi played the video and they could hear something, but it was very garbled. What they could see was the Captain and his XO debating one another. About what exactly they couldn't be sure.

"Try isolating the audio waves, maybe we can clean it up," Tali suggested.

Kasumi did her best, but it was still hard to hear. Some parts of it were clear though.

"At least the children-"

"We're not dumping a scrap of cargo for a bunch of backwater-"

The garbled voices returned for a few more seconds before something more discernable could be heard again.

"-send Pelicans back down for them when we get off planet."

"There won't be enough for everyone."

"Not my problem."

The footage continued from there for a short while with only static as audio, but soon cut off.

"He cared more about salvaging his failed mission than saving lives," Asha grunted. "Those tanks were more important to him than us."

"But there were people who didn't agree with him," Kasumi observed. "Maybe, the XO wasn't the only voice of dissent. Maybe some other Marines felt the same."

"Does it matter?" Asha asked, a clear lack of sympathy in her voice. "When the chips were down, they backed their Commander. None of them stood up for us. They were complicit in their general inaction."

"I won't say you're wrong, but this does make things a bit more complicated," Tali explained. "We need to find some footage of the Militia's assault. Something that would at least exonerate your mother in any of the killing that took place when things deteriorated."

She looked over at the screen, scanning the various logs. She soon spotted one cataloged entry, with what appeared to be a title of interest. "Possible unregistered individual/s", the log's title read. That certainly seemed to be what they were looking for.

"Try this one," she asked Kasumi.

They opened it up and revealed, so far, the clearest footage they had found. A group of Colonial Militia officers, storming one of the decks. They were firing pistols and single shot rifles. A number of them were shot down, but they kept pressing all the same. One of them, a scraggly dark-haired man, stood out to Asha.

"That's him!" She shouted pointedly, her voice cracking in excitement. "That's-That's my dad! This is the assault! This is when they took the ship!"

"According to the log, this was the first alarm tripped as they entered," Tali stated. "So, it covers some of the people who attacked the ship."

From the looks of it, none of those people included Maisey. So at least there was evidence she didn't take part in the attack, although it was shaky at best. Any lawyer worth their salt could argue she entered later or simply avoided the camera or that she directed the attack even if she didn't take part. Kasumi managed to add a bit more credence to the Colonists claims at least, but it wasn't exactly a gleaming portrayal.

"There's a log of terminated vital signs for key crewmembers," Kasumi stated looking at one file. "They were pretty methodical in taking the ship. However, I guess the Captain or someone activated some defenses to even the odds. Someone managed to fight to the bridge at least and took down what was left of the Marines stationed with the Captain. They already had a skeleton crew, so it didn't take long. And after the Captain dies a few seconds later the computer records that no functioning life-signs can be detected. At least until a minute when another intruder is detected on the cargo deck. I guess that's when the other colonists went inside to see who was left."

"Mom told me later they found dad's body on the bridge surrounded by a lot of dead UNSC Officers and Marines," Asha explained, her voice tinged with sorrowful contemplation. "I... I guess he was the last one left, took them all down himself before dying of his wounds. Mom always said he was a fighter, so I believe it."

"The logs backup the claim that everyone that participated in the attack died," Kasumi noted. "It's not exactly a glowing statement of their actions, but it matches somewhat."

"But it's also possible that a few of the militia stayed outside and killed the Marines guarding the perimeter and were held in reserve," Tali suggested. "That's what I think Haverson might argue as a line of investigation."

"But this is something!" Asha argued insistently. "This is proof that my mom isn't lying! All of it confirms our story!"

"Asha, I believe you, I do," Tali assured her with a sympathetic gaze. "Shepard and I will present this to Haverson directly, but a lot of it is... well, really degraded and doesn't really clear anyone specifically. It justifies your position more, but it still shows your people killing Marines. I was hoping we'd find something that would show who started shooting first or footage that was more damning of the UNSC's conduct, evidence of undeniable self-defense, but this is still... shades of grey."

Asha grimaced broadly.

"What's gonna be enough for Haverson and ONI then?" Asha asked angrily. "Do we need to find images of the Captain eating babies or some shit? His diary where he cackles about how he enjoys watching dumb colonists die? I'm not stupid, Tali! I don't pretend these people were cardboard cutouts with black hats and twirly mustaches, but that doesn't mean they weren't monsters! Just because someone justifies to themselves why they do bad things doesn't mean they aren't bad people! Whatever my father did shouldn't matter! At least he was saving lives! What was that Captain doing but saving his own fucking reputation?!"

Tali said nothing as Asha ranted, letting the girl get it all out. Finally she calmed down, mentally counting to ten in her head. Tali could tell that's what she was doing by the way she mouthed the numbers with her eyes closed. When she was done, she came back.

"I'm sorry," she apologized. "You didn't deserve that, you're trying to help, I get it. I get that this isn't easy and we're not wholly innocent. But all those people did was give their lives to save ours and all my Mom did was try to make all that bloodshed mean something. That we'd... find some place better and start again. That... it would be different the next time and it was. It really was."

Tali tried to comfort the her, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"Listen, there is still a lot of footage here," the quarian told her, doing her best to sound optimistic. "We can still find something here. Something that will convince Haverson that you're not the bad guys. But there's going to be some things you uncover, the side of the story you didn't see and it's not all going to be good. We'll keep digging, but it's going to take time and you have to be open to the fact you might not like everything we find."

Asha nodded, although she still didn't look happy.

"I know, I know," she finally said. "I just wish we had a smoking gun already so my mom would be safe. I wish my word mattered more to people like Haverson, that I didn't need to go digging like this and shit. Just reminds me of all the things I lost, all the people."

"Hey, uh, guys," Kasumi called over. "Don't mean to interrupt, but this is... uh, weird."

Tali and Asha headed over to Kasumi, who was hunched over another screen.

"Okay, so I went deeper into the logs and I think I came across the nav-computer's input records," the hooded thief explained. "And, uh, this is a little interesting. It's the last coordinates entered into the ship."

Kasumi tapped a command and displayed a number of jump coordinates. However, they were unique jump point coordinates because they had been translated into the computer from another source. In fact, they were pre-programmed into said computer during the initial takeoff sequence, after the Colonists seized the ship.

"Someone... set the coordinates to jump here?" Tali asked astonished. "This place specifically?"

"That's not right," Asha insisted. "It was a random jump, we started up the slipspace drive and hoped to get as far away as possible.

"I did some backtracking and I think I can figure out where the coordinates came from before they were translated," Kasumi insisted. "Give me a second."

After a few moments, something did come on screen. The slipspace coordinates pre-programmed into the nav systems, they were awfully familiar. Specifically because Tali had been looking at something very similar to them for a few days now. These coordinates had been translated from Forerunner symbols.

"What the hell?" Asha asked. "What is a freaky ancient alien language doing in our computer?"

The answer was obvious, but as Tali had warned, it was not going to be a welcome one.

"Forerunner coordinates were installed into your nav-systems before you even took off," Tali stated. "You didn't do a random jump, Asha. Someone wanted you to come here."

"How can you be sure?" Asha demanded to know.

Mainly because Cortana had done this herself, that's how they found Halo to begin with. There was no time to really explain all the details involved to Asha though. So Tali opted for the short version.

"We had a similar situation, our escape jump from Reach led us to a Forerunner facility because of some coordinates we stumbled upon," she explained. "Someone must've done that to your people. You mentioned that there were Forerunner ruins ONI was studying on Apekis V, what if... what if someone wanted you to be here so they could locate this facility you're currently camping under?"

Asha looked shocked at the implication, but for whatever reason she didn't argue it. She couldn't seem to come up with a counter to the scenario.

"It always did seem a little weird that you just happened to be in this place," Kasumi noted. "I mean, the chances of us running into you all on our Treasure Hunt were astronomical."

"And yet, here we are," Tali concluded. "We still don't know why. The implication though is... well, bad."

"Yeah, it's bad," Asha agreed. "Because if you're right, then there are only a few people who would've been in a position to do that sort of thing. I don't even want to think about how they even... got the information to begin with."

Tali could though. ONI had been studying those Forerunner Ruins on Apekis V. Either someone had stolen the information from ONI for whatever reason, or someone in this Colony was either a former or current ONI agent. Tali had hoped they would get some answers from this, she had not expected an entirely new series of questions and a whole mystery would arise from it. Where it would all lead now, she didn't know. And something told her there were a lot of people who wouldn't want to know the answer.

---

Given everything going on, Haverson was more than happy to hear from the Master Chief. From his latest report things were going well, they were making good time. Which meant they'd soon be into the central chamber of the facility and almost done here. At least that's what Haverson was hoping for. Any good news at this point was fine by him, even if it didn't really resolve the other various problems cropping up.

"Our latest estimation says we should be at the offsite by sunset, dusk at the latest," Chief explained over the comm-unit. "We haven't encountered any other predators since last night, so we think we're in the clear. Efren is making us take some trick terrain just to be safe, but it's nothing we haven't encountered before so we're still on schedule."

"Great to hear," Haverson sighed in relief. "Nice to know something is still going smoothly."

"Cortana has some concerns, however," Chief cautioned. "She's not ruling out the possibility that the offsite could be a dead zone. A way to prevent hacking attempts to retrieve the override codes from outside the area. So we might be out of contact when we arrive at our destination. If that is the case, we'll try to shutdown whatever is causing the dead zone and contact you once we do."

"I have full confidence in you, Cortana and your team, Chief," Haverson assured him. "As do Holland and Haverson, we know you'll get this done. But thank you for the heads up, just in case. With any luck, you'll be back before any Covenant or otherwise hostile forces show up on our end. Then we'll probably have less to worry about."

"That is the hope, sir," Chief acknowledged. "However, it might be out of our hands. Snarlbeak's people seem to be growing more proficient in locating us, if what happened at Reach is any indication."

"I know, I know," Haverson relented with a groan. "But I'm hoping a little wishful thinking for once works out."

"I'm just suggesting, sir," Chief began carefully. "It might be a good idea to better coordinate with the colonists, in case we can't get back in time to assist. And the sooner that's done, the better for all involved."

Haverson grimaced a little. He knew what Chief was trying to do and it was admirable. However, things just weren't that simple.

"I don't know, Chief," he explained. "They already don't want us here. And Maisey is still rather uncooperative. I'm not sure I can really rely on them in the first place."

"That a dangerous position to be in, sir," Chief warned. "Divisions in a structure of defense will only assist the enemy. Whether you like it or not, they are our best bet at strengthening our position against a prolonged siege."

"I'm aware, I'd like them on my side," Haverson clarified. "It's just... they aren't exactly making it easy. The Village's Council is outright antagonistic at this point and Maisey is directing all of that animosity. She believes I'm out to destroy everything she's built and is completely against any kind of proper dialogue or reason."

"All of which is unwarranted," Chief stated, although it sounded more like a question to Haverson.

The ONI Lieutenant composed himself, giving things a moment to cool. He contemplated Chief's words and, had to admit, they weren't completely wrong.

"I've... probably given them reason to think I'm the enemy," he confessed. "That the UNSC is the enemy. I'm just not sure how I get them to a place where they realize I'm neither. I'm the best hope they have."

"If you may permit me, sir," Chief replied. "I have some advice."

"Go ahead, Chief," Haverson sighed. "You've more than earned the right to speak your mind on these matters."

"When I first got to the Spartan Program, my only thought was about winning," the Spartan explained cautiously. "That was just how I was, I had to win, I had to defeat whatever obstacle was in my way. But I soon realized, I didn't win if my team failed. I neglected my place as their leader in our first exercise together, I saw everything as only my success. As a result, we failed. That only ever happened once though. I decided, in my own way at that age, that winning didn't matter in this place if I did it alone. That was the only time I failed my team in that way. I never forgot what I learned."

Haverson remained respectful as he listened, this was clearly a personal story for the Spartan. Devoid of detail as it was, he could tell the Chief was making a supremely difficult gesture in sharing even this much. There was regret in a lot of his speech, for how he once was, even if only briefly. And Haverson believed he understood the intended message.

"Pride has... no place on the battlefield," he said knowingly.

"Not when it comes to building an effective team, no," Chief confirmed. "I don't agree with what the colonists did in lying to us, but we can't change what they did, only how we respond. It might be hard, sir, but we can't afford the luxury of pride when we have enemies closing in. We need the colonists, they need us. We swore an oath to defend humanity, that includes them."

"And ultimately one of us needs to make the first move," Haverson reluctantly reasoned.

"Nothing will change if someone doesn't," Chief stated firmly. "And if Maisey isn't willing..."

"Then I have to be the bigger man," he relented, before returning to a resolute stance. "Alright, I'll set up a face to face. We'll... try to reach an understanding. Hopefully, we haven't passed a point of no return on that front."

"I don't believe we have yet, sir," Chief assured him. "They might not like the UNSC, but we have common goals. You just need to show them that."

"At least Shepard will be happy to hear this," Haverson mused aloud. His thoughts than lingered on something which he soon spoke aloud. "He didn't... put you up to this, did he?"

"No, sir," Chief stated plainly. "It's a concern the others and Cortana have brought up before. They'd prefer to know we haven't left you out to dry and you can survive without us for a bit."

"Hmm, of course," Haverson replied, accepting the answer. "Well, good luck to you, Chief. And your Spartans. I promise, I'll do what I can to make sure there's still a colony to defend when you get back."

"Copy that, over and out," Chief replied.

The transmission ended, but Haverson was left to deal with almost as hard a mission as the Spartan Leader was currently on. Swallowing his pride wouldn't be the difficult part though, it would be keeping it down in the face of Maisey. For as much as he butted heads with the woman, he recognized why. She was a capable leader, strong-willed, unwilling to compromise. The difficulty with her was that she was near his level in terms of stubborn conviction. He had to make this right though, he had to show her that he wasn't the enemy she had built up in her mind. The first step to that was going back to the table.

However, there were other issues to deal with as one Marine ran up to explain.

"Uh, sir," he began nervously. "I hope I'm not butting in on anything, but... well... the Jackal Transport arrived and they got the, uh... well, their methane sucking friends with them. They're ready to head in and everything so..."

Haverson sighed, this was going to be a long day.

"Alright then," he said, sounding rather tired. "Let's escort them to the colony then."

---

The arrival of the Grunts at the fields was something of a confusing sight at first. The unggoys waddled around a little, lugging equipment and such about that they had been provided. It was mostly methane storage tanks for refills, as well as tents for their own living quarters. No one knew how long they'd be down here assisting in the harvest and they made it a point that they wanted decent living conditions while here. Which meant some extra arrangements were needed.

Suspecting no Marine would want to bunk with a gas-breathing former Covie fodder soldier, Haverson had set up a designated area next to their camp in which they could stay. It was behind the Marine's living area of course, because these were still Grunts. Being removed from the Covenant didn't mean they had suddenly found their courage. They preferred being closer to the colony with the high walls and behind all the human soldiers with guns.

Shepard and Haverson met with Zara as the Grunts filed, to explain the situation. About how the batarians were going to assist in increasing security around the fields so the Marines would feel a bit safer without their guns. And how the Grunts were there to essentially decrease the workload in general.

"Think of it as a contribution from all sides of the Alliance," Shepard stated. "You're not worried about UNSC soldiers running around your people while armed, you get extra security from Varvok's people and the Grunts under Zek's employ assist in getting the harvest in faster."

"Seems reasonable enough," Zara confessed. "In fact, seems like y'all are going WAY out of your way on this one."

"It's a show of good faith," Haverson tried to intercede. "As much as Maisey and the rest of your Council might believe otherwise, I am willing to compromise. The UNSC is willing to talk to this out, like rational people."

"It's not really me you need to convince," Zara stated rather plainly, and not as chipper as she usually was. "I can see you're trying to put the better foot forward, but... well, you know."

Haverson sighed greatly and swallowed for a moment.

"I am willing to speak to Maisey on behalf of Colonel Holland and Admiral Whitcomb," he declared. "Face to face, so we can try to get back on track. The last thing any of us needs with a potential threat on the way is to be at each other's throats. We need to come together on this."

Zara looked the ONI agent up and down thoughtfully.

"You seem more honest than most people with your, well, job description," she confessed. "Answer me this first, are we still the bad guys to you?"

"I don't think you're that," Haverson stated. "I don't believe what you did merits as easy a description, or black and white statements. I don't agree with it and I stand by what I said before, nothing has changed in that regard. I don't think you're my enemy though. I hope you believe that."

"I'm not sure I do, but I believe you want to talk things out," Zara replied. "I'll speak with Maisey. See what she says. Excuse me for a moment."

Zara left and Haverson finally exhaled. Shepard gave him an acknowledging look.

"That took a lot, I can tell," he said, but making it was clear he was proud of the Lieutenant's efforts.

"You have no idea," Haverson relented. "You know this is gonna get ugly though? I'm making a major effort but..."

"I'll be there to moderate," Shepard insisted. "We'll figure this out together. It won't be easy, but nothing worth doing is."

"Something to worry about later, right now my concern is this little workers' program we've started," Haverson said turning back to the fields.

The Grunts were filing out into their living space. Some were still being directed by the Jackal Pirates, begrudgingly for the most part. You could hear more than a few rude remarks about how the Grunts weren't carrying something right or were moving too slowly. They weren't physical about anything, but it was clear that was mostly a degree of restraint. Probably enforced by Retz or Zek in order to smooth this transition along.

"Hey, watch my foot!" One Jackal screamed when a pair of Grunts dropped a large box of supplies too close to him.

The Grunts were quick to apologize and drag the box a bit a ways.

"Not exactly the nicest taskmasters," Haverson observed. "Have you ever found out why the Jackals seem to dislike the Grunts so much?"

"From what I keep hearing from Zek it has something to do with a low level rivalry within the Covenant Hierarchy," Shepard explained. "Mostly though, I think Zek's people just don't respect them. Which is normal for how most people see the Grunts in general, according to my friend Liara."

"Well they're not my real concern," Haverson claimed. "Grunts are... harmless without the ability to explode or shoot back. Chances are, they'll run screaming once the shooting starts... or before. So, early warning system there."

Shepard gave Haverson a questionable look.

"I'm not proud of saying it, Shepard, but it is the truth," the Lieutenant said in his defense. "ONI and UNSC files explain in-depth, Grunts are cowardly by nature. They are effective in large numbers but fighting is not their strong suit. Even the Jackals apparently don't want to rely on them, which seems to be the only reason they don't force them to fight."

"I just wouldn't sell them so short," Shepard argued. "You'd be surprised what the most unlikeliest of people will do in the face of danger."

"Either way, like I said, they're not my concern," Haverson reiterated. "It's how quickly their boss offered them up to help."

Shepard looked towards one of the Jackals as he directed the Grunts about, waving his arm about to keep the supplies moving as he kept his gun over his shoulder.

"I'll admit, I'm always suspicious of Zek at this point," Shepard confessed. "Especially considering how outwardly helpful he's suddenly being, but I don't think I follow your concern."

"I don't like how we got that information on the Colony's secret hangar so suddenly at the exact worst time," Haverson stated. "I don't like how we keep spotting Zek and Retz hanging out around the fields' outskirts every time they come over here. And yes, I don't like how he offered the Grunts as farmhands out of the blue."

"You're saying he's up to something," Shepard reasoned.

"We both know he is," Haverson glowered. "The question is how much of that something is going to make dealing with the colonists more difficult than it should be."

Shepard wasn't blind to any of this, but his focus had been on the mission at hand. Samara had expressed a similar concern to him the other day. He told her to keep an eye on things best she could, it was all he could do right now. He had enough headaches at this point, worrying about Zek's scheming would not have been conducive to easing them. He trusted Samara enough to know she'd figure out what they were doing in time, if anything.

Zara returned at the point, looking a big more upbeat.

"Alright, she said she's willing to give it another shot," she reported. "She wants it done at her home, and only you and Shepard. That's all she wants."

"Fine," Haverson relented. "What about the Grunts and everything though?"

"She's okay with it," Zara said. "And... actually, because you went out of your way it seems, she told me to allow your men to bring their sidearms into the field. Unloaded, of course. They can bring ammunition, but the weapons must remain unloaded unless an emergency arises."

Haverson raised a brow a bit.

"That's... that's actually a pretty reasonable response," he replied.

"She is a reasonable woman," Zara claimed. "If given the chance. Now, shall we check who's gonna be working my fields and everything? I have some instructions to hand out."

Haverson and Shepard agreed and headed out together to check on the new farmhands.

---

Elsewhere near the fields, the Marines were watching the events unfold, as the Grunts moved in next door. While everyone had known they were aboard, the little gas suckers had never ventured far from the Fallen Serpent. The influx of all the little stubby legged aliens was somewhat jarring in this sense. Kowalski, looking on at everything, suspected the farmhands working the fields felt even more perturbed. It was likely this was the first they had seen of the Grunts since their old colony got glassed. They looked a bit unnerved, especially so with so many Jackals milling about among them.

"Hope they're not having flashbacks or anything," he said somewhat concerned.

"They still seem more concerned about us," Ellingham claimed.

It wasn't something he could reasonably argue with, because there was an aura of truth to it all. The colonists gave them shifty eyes since they landed, now they just outright ignored them. Agley had asked one if they wanted some of his water, cause the guy looked thirsty. The farmhand didn't even bother saying no, in fact he picked up extra sacks of fertilizer onto his back and walked off. The silent treatment turned out to be worse than the cold glares. An insult would've at least given them some acknowledgment of existing.

Worst, they all knew why that was the case. The mere thought of it was disturbing to Kowalski. It was antithetical to everything he believed the Corps stood for.

"You... you don't really think a bunch of Marines willingly tried to leave civies behind, do you?" He asked Ellingham.

"If you had asked me that question not long ago, before the ODSTs mutinied, I'd have said no," Ellingham replied. "But we know better than to think that now. War... war can do some weird things to people, make them prioritize the wrong shit. Silva cared more about getting in the history books and flipping the Spartans the finger than what was best for everyone. Who's to say some dipshit Captain of some little cargo hauler got too big for his britches and figured his mission was more important than lives?"

"It's just... it's hard to believe, even now," Kowalski stated. "Maybe I can buy that there are officers that can pull that crap. History is full of crap commanders. I just... I find it hard to believe the Marines under him would go along with it."

"That's the easy way to think of it," Ellingham sighed. "But let's be honest, they train us to follow orders, to do our jobs and trust the whole chain of command. That kind of mentality gets baked in, makes it hard to remember that not every order is a moral or even right one. Look, I'm not saying I approve of how these colonists responded to that but... well, I can't say it's impossible for some Marines to make them feel they had to either."

"Yeah, yeah, you're right," Kowalski confessed. "It's just... I wonder what I would've done if I were there."

"I feel you already know."

The two looked behind them and saw Samara.

"How does she keep sneaking up on us?" Ellingham asked.

"Forgive me, you were not the target of my surveillance," the asari assured. "However, I did overhear all the same. Private Kowalski, if you were there, I have no doubt you would've done whatever was possible to defend those colonists' lives. You defied the orders of a superior before with Silva when everything was at risk. Ellingham is correct in stating how war tests our resolve. You remained true to your code, that speaks volumes of you."

"Well, uh, maybe," Kowalski said sheepishly. "Still, it sounds a bit... different from what we did when we defied Silva's orders. What would you have done?"

"Were I among the colonists, and if what they claim is true, then there is doubt in my own mind," Samara claimed. "I would've seized the ship myself and slaughtered any Marines who did not willingly surrender. If only so the colonists themselves would not have had to resort to similar means."

Ellingham could only whistle at the remark.

"That's, uh, a bold statement there," he said.

"To do otherwise would've been unjust," Samara claimed. "Had I not acted quickly in such a situation and allowed the Colonists to kill the crew, I'd have been forced to kill them for their own actions. It would've been a choice between preventing innocents from committing murder or ending their lives because they had."

"That's sounds... crazy," Ellingham said.

"I get it though," Kowalski stated. "If she has the blood on her hands, the colonists remain innocent and because of that, her actions remain just. But not acting on her code to protect them beforehand, she is unjust."

"Still sounds nuts," Ellingham said. "You either kill one side or you kill both."

"You are not wrong to feel unsure about my answer, Ellingham," Samara informed him. "I do not pretend my code makes sense to all. We all have our own code, and we must remain true to it. Otherwise, we are untrue to ourselves."

That was something Ellingham understood better from the look of it. However, a new question arose in Kowalski's mind as the subject shifted.

"So, who were you watching if not us?" He asked.

Samara pointed over to the flock of Jackals unloading equipment for the Grunts to carry. Specifically, she was looking at Zek, who was directing traffic and eyeing the fields now and then. Now it made sense why the Justicar was here, at least a little bit. She had made no secret about her disdain for Zek as a person and how the only thing preventing her from killing him right now was her Oath to Shepard to not attack his allies.

"You still think he's up to something?" Kowalski asked.

"Now more than ever," Samara stated. "Recent events have more or less confirmed it. He is after something on this world that is not the relic."

"Well if he is, he's not just gonna reveal it in broad daylight you know," Ellingham claimed.

"No, he is not," Samara concurred. "But his behavior is fairly consistent. Whenever he is here, he is eyeing the fields and I observed him speaking to farmhands now and then. I do not know what his game is, but he is planning one."

Before she could elaborate, another transport Warthog arrived. This one was carrying some more Grunts and one very particular Jackal. He was carrying what looked to be a large portable transmitter on his back and transmitter-receiver microphone in the other.

"Ah, fresh air!" He said taking a deep breath. "Rural simplicity! Alright, let's get this show rockin'!"

Kowalski instantly recognized the Jackal's voice. How couldn't he? He kept hearing over the radio.

"That's Boz," he told Ellingham. "Boz the Buzzard."

"Holy shit, I think you're right," Ellingham noted. "What's he doing out of his little nest? I was starting to think he was a vampire or at least hated sunlight."

Not long after he arrived, Boz was approached by a few ODSTs staying at the camp. One of them was Captain McKay and she looked than a little confused.

"Boz the Buzzard?" She asked.

"In the flesh, ma'am," the Jackal saluted in a friendly manner.

"Okay, Retz said to expect Grunts," she claimed, somewhat confused. "The hell are you doing here?"

"Oh, oh, I can answer that, Captain!" Zek said rushing up. "Special request, Boz wanted to get out and stretch his legs. He was real keen on meeting the locals, spreading the gospel of rock and all that. Figured, what's the harm,? Take the radio show on the road, get his feet dirty for a bit, flap them wings, you know, all that stuff."

"And what about the show?" McKay asked. "He can't exactly play music from down here. Unless that pack is a portable boombox or something."

"No worries," Boz claimed rather confidently. "I got someone to cover for me in the studio."

Boz switched his receiver mike over to another channel and spoke into it.

"Zappy, how's it shaking in the driver seat, bud?"

"It Zapap, Boz, me keep telling you," a high-pitched squeaky voice spoke up through the speakers on Boz's back. It was clearly a Grunt, that much was obvious.

"Yeah, yeah, listen Zappy," Boz said. "Once we get through the next hour, I need you to switch up the track list a little. We need to start slinging some more obscure hits to the local masses. So hold on the Stones, switch their position with the Doors and remember to stay away from the big hits of Foreigner for a bit, alright? We gotta keep this fresh."

"Uh, yeah yeah, I... I think can do but... um, well it just... the playlist you left isn't same as-"

"Beautiful, wonderful," Boz replied. "Couldn't do this without you, Zappy. Keep this up, there's half a sandwich in it for ya!"

"Why not full-?"

Boz switched the receiver's channel and chuckled warmly.

"Ah he's a good kid," he said. "For a gas sucker, you know?"

McKay looked like she was about to groan longer and harder than ever before.

"I really don't need this right now," she told Zek. "I have a lot of security and defensive arrangements to go over as it is. I can't have people playing bodyguard to your Rock DJ."

"OUR Rock DJ," Zek insisted. "And you don't have to. I got a few of my men on guard detail for him. No worries. He's just gonna be walking around, getting to really know the troops first hand and talk with the locals. He's chief morale officer after all, it is his job."

McKay sighed in an exasperated tone.

"If he leaves the fields or the camp, he needs an escort," she insisted. "I can't have you guys just walking around willy-nilly, okay? So, just... try to stay here for the most part."

"If it makes your life easier," Zek shrugged.

"Me and Zap can still blast our tunes right?" Boz asked, completely missing the point of the conversation.

"I don't care, play whatever you want, just don't be a nuisance to my people," McKay groaned aloud.

Boz pumped his fist in triumph as he switched back the receiver to his Grunt at the switchboard.

"Zap! Break out the Extreme Thrash Playlist! We are bringing this whole planet down... with rock!"

"But schedule-"

"Rock, Zappy! ROCK!" Boz declared aloud with joy. "Do not question! Only headbang!"

Kowalski thought he could hear Zapap whimper sadly as Boz ran off into the camp. How anything his size could move with so much radio equipment on his back was a mystery. Then again, it was Boz, anything involving music or his show seemed to empower the guy.

"Well, at least we got tunes, right?" Ellingham asked sheepishly. "That's a good deal."

To be frank, Boz being groundside wasn't too bad. Although the nutty bird getting in their faces with his various antics was somewhat off-putting, the general feeling among the Marines at this point was that he wasn't so bad. He was often fair to anyone who called in and rarely lost his temper, well except with that conspiracy nut the Pirates apparently had aboard who called now and then. So long as you didn't start anything yourself, Boz was happy to have you on the air with him.

Maybe the DJ just thought he was everyone's friend, maybe he actually took his job as morale officer more seriously than he let on. Or it could just be an act to go with his radio persona, but Kowalski didn't think so. Boz was uncharacteristically honest about things, for a Jackal at least. Something you could not say about Zek.

Speaking of, as soon as he got done with McKay he was already heading over to the camp.

"Good day, Dogs of the Devil," he said jovially, before looking to Samara grimly. "Space Cop with a murder fetish."

Samara glared a bit, but said nothing.

"It's Devil Dogs," Ellingham corrected, trying to defuse and tension. "But good day to you too, I guess."

"Don't mind me, just passing through, need to make sure the unggoy aren't getting sloppy with their setup," Zek laughed a bit. "We don't want them misplacing supplies or lazing about when there are crops to harvest."

"It is quite noble of you to offer the services of your crew to assist the colonists, Zek," Samara stated rather plainly. "I dare say it is a most surprising altruistic gesture from you indeed."

"They're technically not my crew, they're employees, there's a difference," Zek corrected her. "I pay them a going salary of food and methane rations, as well house them for the time being. As soon as we find some place to dump them off we'll go our separate ways. Probably your Earth, I'm sure you can stick them all somewhere they'd be relatively useful."

"That kinda sounds a little like slavery honestly," Kowalski told him.

"No, no, no, it's not," Zek insisted. "Slavery would mean they wouldn't be paid at all with anything and I wouldn't be looking to find them somewhere else to stay. This is more like an, uh, internship, where they gain skills and knowledge of which to be of use to someone else later down the line in their careers."

"Still sounds a little unfair to them," Ellingham stated.

"Oh they're fine," Zek said rolling his eyes. "I don't even yell at them anymore. I use positive encouragement now. Mostly by telling them they're very lucky to have me as an employer and to be part of the Fallen Serpent team. That however hard it may seem now, eventually they'll look back on this journey with fond memories of all the things they achieved... for me."

Kowalski and Ellingham looked at each in bewilderment at the passive-aggressive sounding "words of encouragement" that Zek was spouting.

"I think I'd prefer being yelled at by my drill officer again than dealing with that," Ellingham claimed.

"I'm not even on the receiving end of any of that and I feel like a worthless sack of crap," Kowalski claimed.

Zek looked indignant at the suggestions.

"Ugh, I thought humans would better appreciate the inner workings of capitalism," he grumbled. "It seems a lot has changed on your planet in the years since all those vids of yours I watched were made."

"It just seems like you've downgraded from verbal abuse to condescension is all," Kowalski explained.

"Well at least I don't use them as living shields or have them beaten for screwing up orders," Zek grumbled. "I'm... I'm not an asshole. Not entirely anyway."

"No, but you're still a pirate and you haven't changed that much," Samara stated. "I don't believe you have at least and I'm positive no else does."

Zek crossed his arms and looked up at the asari.

"You wanna say something Bluey? Might as well spit it out," he told her with a low growl.

The Justicar moved to get right in his face.

"I know you're up to something and the Grunts being here are a part of it," Samara stated firmly. "I know you're after something concerning the colonists and there is good reason to suspect you had something to do with the discovery of those stolen weapons."

"So what if I did?" Zek chortled. "You gonna reprimand me for doing what Haverson was already planning to do himself? For helping out for once?"

"You never help anyone unless it benefits you some way, Zek," Samara informed him unflinchingly. "That's just fact and Haverson knows too. Rest assured, I will root out what your intentions are. You are hardly the first duplicitous criminal I've dealt with in my very long life."

"And you're not the first law-person I've had to go up against," Zek informed her just as unwavering in his stance. "Just the most bloodthirsty and murder happy."

"Perhaps you should remember that then," Samara informed him, finally pulling away. "Just in case."

The Jackal finally walked off, continuing to stare down the asari as he did. When he finally left, Kowalski turned to the Justicar.

"Was that wise, tipping him off?" He asked.

"He's not an idiot, he likely suspects Haverson is suspicious of him," Samara explained. "He already knows I've been keeping eye on him because I've bene doing so since before we even got here. But now that he's going to be constantly looking over his shoulder more especially while on this planet, he'll be paranoid. Eventually, that will make him slip up. Maybe not today, but he will inevitably. Justice sometimes requires the long game."

"Well who are we to argue," Kowalski shrugged. "You are way older than either of us put together. You've been doing this a long time."

"Over six-hundred, yes," Samara said with a slight smirk. "It won't take nearly as much time to catch up with Zek's latest scheme though."

---

The silver structure poked out of the foliage in front of them, standing out among the green as if it were an elephant in Times Square. However, despite that description, it was a little underwhelming at first glance. It was about the size of an average house, although it didn't look anything like one. More like curved arching angular wave. The aesthetic was similar enough to the giant facility it was connected to though, so it had to be their target.

"Gotta admit, I was expecting more," Anton stated. "I guess that's the point though, make it hard to find."

"Trust me, I've seen Forerunner structures up close," Chief cautioned. "They are not always what they seem."

"He's right, guys," Cortana informed them all. "Preliminary scans suggest this place is similar to the Cartographer we ran across on Halo. Way bigger on the inside than it looks. If I'm reading the telemetry right, this place goes straight down into the planet. How far though, I can't be sure."

"So we got even more walking ahead," Fred observed. "Great."

"If it's like the Cartographer, we'll find what we're looking for at the bottom," Chief stated. "Chances are, it's not deep."

"Knock on wood," Linda quickly added.

Chief looked to the sky, or what little he could see through the canopy. It was getting close to twilight time, as the sun was very low. So little light was left, which basically told him they needed to pick this up. More so now that they were finally here.

"We move in carefully and quietly," he told the team. "We don't know what we're up against in there, but Forerunner security is no joke. And if these ones were as paranoid and secretive as their damn maze lab suggests they were, we can expect anything in there to match that obsession of theirs."

"Probably best I stay out here then," Efren offered. "Doesn't sound like a place for someone without badass armor like yours on."

"It likely isn't," Jun confirmed.

"So where are you gonna be then?" Anton asked.

Efren pointed up to a tree.

"I'll be keeping a look out from there," he said. "Just in case anything unwanted tries to sneak in behind you."

Chief looked to Kelly for her thoughts.

"Seems strategically viable to me," she answered. "Best to have a lookout on our flank anyway."

"Alright, Efren, take your post," Chief ordered the hunter. "If you don't hear from us in a few hours, contact the colony. They'll know what to do."

"Right," Efren agreed. "Good luck down there."

Efren headed up the nearby tree, while the Spartans made their way to the front door. Kat took point on the lock. It took a few seconds but she was able to crack it with her omni-tool's bypass function. The doors opened suddenly with a metallic hiss.

"I doubt they'll all be that easy," she cautioned.

"They never are," Chief confirmed. "Search Pattern Formation, Spartans. Cover all angles, lights on."

They entered together, covering each other's flanks. They head down a circling stairway before they eventually came to another door. Entering through that, they now found themselves in a much larger, more open atrium. There were pulsating lights across the walls, large blocks of machinery taking up the center and various terminals dotting the open space in general. As the Spartans fanned out, they found several doors with ramps leading downward, further into the complex.

"Where are we supposed to go?" Fred asked.

"If the scans are right, all paths lead to the same general area," Cortana explained. "The problem is what we might run into while we're heading down."

"We don't know how far exactly we gotta head down," Chief noted. "Kelly, contact Command and let them know we might be out of contact for a bit."

Kelly tried, but soon shook her head.

"That's odd, I'm getting no signal," she reported. "There was no dead zone outside. I reported in when we arrived directly back to the Colony just a few minutes ago. It worked just fine then."

"Just as we feared, a dead zone," Cortana surmised. "More localized to the offsite itself than the area, but still functional. We're already far enough in now that its capable of blocking our transmissions. I think it's safe to say things won't improve the further we go in."

"If we can find the central security station where the codes are located, then the dead zone transmission won't be far," Kat hypothesized. "That's likely why it's here to begin with, to prevent anyone from the outside hacking in or locating this place without proper clearance. We only found it after all because of what the team in the Lab Maze uncovered."

"We're not far," Anton said. "We could go back, let Efren know and continue."

"We're faced with the same problem either way," Chief stated. "We're on our own until the mission is done. We already let Haverson know this was a possibility, so he's not in the dark. We keep moving, find the source of the dead zone, kill it and get those codes for Halsey and the others. Then we book it back to the Colony however fast our feet can carry us."

"We're with you, boss," Fred assured him. "But how do you wanna go about this? A lot of ramps, but I'm not sure about splitting up, even if we end up in the same spot."

Chief gave it some thought and looked to his AI companion for some suggestions.

"How likely is it the Dead Zone could affect our personal communications?" He asked.

"The further down, the stronger it gets I imagine," Cortana cautioned. "So the further apart you are..."

"Okay then, we stick together and close to one another," Chief said. "Until we know more about what we're dealing with here, we play this safe. I fully expect problems to make themselves known before long though."

"We've got your back, John," Linda said. "Lead on."

Chief just nodded, picked a door and lead his Spartans through it. They couldn't afford to waste more time. They had a backup server to crack.

---

While Haverson had decided to speak with Maisey again, it was more than a little clear he was uncomfortable with it all. Shepard considered asking him why, to try and alleviate concerns, but the Lieutenant had already swallowed a lot of is pride just coming here. Perhaps once they sat down with Maisey, they could work through whatever was bothering him about all this alongside her own issues. At least, that was Shepard's plan. At the moment, he was mostly just hoping that there would be no surprise revelations in store for either side.

They arrived at Maisey's home as night fell. That way they could avoid any prying looks from the other Colonists, along with crowded streets. Maisey, for her part, welcomed them both in, having already set the dining table for their meeting. Just some water really, nothing fancy. This wasn't a social call after all. Shepard, of course, noticed something peculiar.

"Where's your daughter?" He asked. "Asleep?"

"Out on watch," Maisey explained, already taking her own seat. "Can we get this started? I'm sure we're all eager to at least try to reach solution to all this."

"Indeed we are," Haverson agreed, taking his own seat across from Maisey.

Shepard sat in the space between them. Things were amicable to begin with, despite some of the animosity that hung in the air. Maisey even relaxed herself for a moment, taking a moment to breathe, releasing whatever tension was in her chest.

"Okay, you put your foot in the door," she relented. "Go ahead, Lieutenant, you might as well start."

"Appreciated," Haverson replied. "To be clear, I don't expect you to ever like me. I'm not here to make you forgive the UNSC. I'm here to get us to a position where you can reach that state on your own in due time. Or even just tolerate us, if that's preferable."

"I'm tolerating right now," Maisey reminded him. "But I'm guessing that's not what you mean."

Haverson kept his cool as he continued.

"Listen, we've all done things in this war we regret and I'm not going to pretend that your feelings towards us aren't a little justified," he tried to explain. "At the same time, you must understand. What happened carries consequences and I can't just ignore them."

"I don't expect you to ignore them," Maisey corrected him. "I expect you to not treat my people like criminals because their loved ones died killing their executioners. Have you seen the files recovered from our computers? They speak volumes."

Shepard took the moment to intervene, he needed to keep both sides calm.

"Tali sent the evidence recovered so far to us and we looked it over," he explained. "And we both admit, it is pretty suspect on that lone Captain's part."

Haverson brought out a datapad with some notes he had taken earlier.

"We bothered to check into some of our own records," he began dutifully. "Took a while without Cortana on hand, but we've cross-referenced it all with what was found on your computers. Captain Wendell, UNSC Merchant Marine Fleet, Commanding Officer of the Heavy Cargo Freighter CF-3632. He took part in a number of supply runs for various Outer Colonies over a long career. Frequently encountered Insurrectionist attack squadrons in the territory, both before and after first contact with the Covenant. From what we found, it's not unbelievable he could've acted callous in his judgment towards your people. His less than favorable encounters within the Outer Colonies would have colored his perception."

"And that means?" Maisey asked.

"That we can see why he would act like it seems he would," Shepard promptly clarified. "It is not us giving an excuse for his actions, only a motive."

Haverson nodded in agreement.

"Rest assured, I'm positive there are many UNSC Captains who wouldn't have done what it appears he did," the Lieutenant continued. "You... simply got the short straw it seems."

"That's hardly a comfort," Maisey replied. "But I see the point you're trying to make. This is your way of condemning the actions without actually admitting to anything."

Haverson looked a bit uneasy at that response.

"I have no formal ability to condemn anything at this time, ma'am," Haverson tried to explain. "All I can do is try to find the truth of the matter. Right now, the good news is, you might have a case to actually argue some form of self-defense. And, maybe, a reduced sentence for anyone who was involved."

"Everyone who was involved is dead," Maisey stated plainly. "I keep telling you this. They all died aboard that ship. The computer proves it."

"It proves every attacker who entered the ship never left as they died of their wounds," Haverson corrected her. "What of any attackers who stayed outside the ship but were still a part of the massacre? The people who killed the Marines on the perimeter."

"No one stayed outside," Maisey claimed. "They wanted blood, your Captain Wendell's blood to be precise."

"Until I have concrete evidence, I can't rule that out," Haverson told her.

"Until you can point at someone specific to charge with a crime, I don't think you can do anything," Maisey shot back.

"I can still technically charge you with the theft of UNSC property," Haverson reminded her. "Which I can probably find a way to reduce to the minimal sentence if people here start cooperating."

Maisey just huffed at the idea. Shepard stepped in again.

"I think we all have to accept that neither side here is completely wrong," he said with a firm tone of voice. "The Colonists were acting under the fear they were about to all die because they were being refused permission to board a viable escape craft. And for whatever reason you may have had, Maisey, you did still steal UNSC tech after the previous owners were killed."

"I don't deny that," Maisey confessed readily. "And deep down, I think even Haverson knows I'm telling the truth. He just doesn't like the implications of it."

"I don't need an education in the morally grey area I operate in, ma'am," Haverson responded rather verbosely. "The Office of Naval Intelligence attracts shady characters with more than a few questionable talents. I'm not an idiot, Maisey, I know the people I work with aren't always nice. Nor do I believe every soldier in the whole of UNSC itself is a good person. We all have skeletons in the closet, but sometimes you can't avoid putting a few there."

"If that's the case, why persecute my people for doing something to save their own lives?" Maisey asked incredulously. "Why insist on dragging us off to face a kangaroo court so they hang us up for treason or whatever charge they make stick?"

"You probably won't get treason," Haverson sighed. "If you cooperate, I can maybe convince them to pursue a lighter sentence. I'm trying to help you."

Maisey glared at him in disbelief. Once more, Shepard stepped in to try and smooth things over.

"Alright, just take a minute here," he asked of them both. "Haverson, perhaps answer her actual question so we can get to the heart of the matter?"

Haverson took said minute and finally replied.

"Alright, fine," he confessed. "I'm pursuing this line because I don't have a choice. The darker shades of the things ONI has done are... well, not good is putting it mildly. I like to think I stay out of the worst of it, but it's still there and I'm a part of it. I fully expect at some point I'm going to have to answer for a good deal of my decisions and actions. What helps me sleep at night is knowing that even I can't possibly be above the law. That has to apply to everyone, regardless of circumstance."

Maisey laughed under her breath.

"Oh, I see, you're a true believer," she surmised. "You honestly think any of the bad things ONI or the UNSC has done are going to be answered for? That when the war is over, everyone gets due justice for their actions? You really buy that?"

"I can't pretend everyone will have to answer to a court of law," Haverson shrugged. "But they'll have to answer to someone. I believe in accountability, Maisey. Actions have consequences. I think we both know that."

"And I know if my husband had done nothing, we'd all be dead, your Captain Wendell would have a commendation on his arm and no one would question the fact Apekis V was left to die," Maisey accused, daggers in her eyes. "But please, tell me I'm wrong, Lieutenant. Tell me the system works if only I be a good little cog. Tell me if I had just waited patiently or tried to talk with the Captain again, it all would've been okay."

Haverson didn't answer and that was probably what Maisey had expected. Eventually he did speak though.

"It doesn't really matter what I think, it matters what everyone else does," Haverson insisted. "A bunch of colonists killing Marines to steal their ship and the equipment aboard sounds bad regardless of context. Even with a world being glassed by the Covenant, that is not going to go over well while humanity faces extinction."

"I think this is something you need to understand, Maisey," Shepard added soon after. "Despite everything else, you got real lucky here. Not everyone has a colony that is protected by an ancient Forerunner laser gun. Others haven't had it so good and a lot more people have died since you left Apekis V behind."

"I imagine so," Maisey said, her defiant tone from before drifting into a more humbled one. "I don't want to act like I'm taking any of this for granted. I know this is luck. All of it. We were given a chance like no other. To start again for ourselves. I just don't think you, all of you, appreciate what that means for us."

Both Shepard and Haverson quieted as the village elder straightened herself. She spoke commandingly with an intense and passionate glare.

"Before any of this, we were less than nothing in the eyes of the UNSC, barely tolerated and never respected," she stated. "The Insurrectionist groups weren't just a problem for the Inner Colonies, they frequently made things harder for us. We were closer to them after all. Whenever they bombed infrastructure, they killed civilians. Whenever they started firefights, colonists got caught in the crossfire. Whenever they held hostages, it was always those who were too weak to really fight back. Whenever they couldn't get to a really juicy UNSC target or Earth Loyalist VIP, they went after the next best thing: us."

"We're more than aware of that," Haverson assured her.

"Then you're probably aware of how any Insurrectionist activity only led to increased crackdowns on our worlds," Maisey insisted. "I grew up with it, everyone here did. Curfew, raids, more than a few Draconian policies instituted for the greater good. We hated the Insurrectionists for all the lives they destroyed, but the UNSC only made things harder. They made us pay for the actions of terrorists who were killing more of us daily than any of you. But we were told to tolerate it, because none of us would even be here to begin with if it weren't for the UNSC. You made our new lives possible, so we should grateful to you. That was always the line and it worked for a while. Then the Covenant showed up, and it all changed."

Shepard could sense where this was going and it was nowhere good.

"Outer colony after outer colony, they all got glassed," Maisey recalled distantly. "We heard about it on the news all the time. But I kept telling Asha, if it ever comes to that, despite everything else, we could count on the UNSC to protect us. Humanity was in the same boat now, after all. They wouldn't abandon us."

Maisey paused for a second, thinking her next words carefully.

"I lied to my daughter," she confessed at last. "The fact I did that to make her feel safer for a fleeting few extra weeks sickens me still. Because I knew how little chance we had. No one cares about the Outer Colonies, we were... a shield. Something to be pecked away at while the UNSC tried to save the rich folks behind the frontier. We were expendable and it makes sense. We go away, they don't have to worry about us anymore. Apekis V was abandoned so the UNSC had one less place it had to be burdened with and the Covenant provided that excuse. You might not believe that, but there are plenty of people here who do feel that way."

Haverson dropped his datapad to the side and interlocked his fingers, his head low, before bringing his eyes up to meet Maisey's. He didn't say anything at first and if he was angry he didn't show it, but he was anxious all the same.

"If I could've stopped that somehow, trust me, I would have," Haverson insisted, his tone slowly becoming frantic. "Holland would have, Whitcomb would have, but you don't see what we see, ma'am. What you saw on Apekis V was a fraction of the whole horror. The war is far worse than that. I can't say anything that can disprove that little conspiracy theory of yours, hell it might even be true to an extent given what people like Captain Wendell did. But I know for certain this fact... humanity is losing. We're dying, Maisey. All of us. And you've gotten to escape that for a while with this nice little paradise you got running and I'm happy for you there. This is fleeting though, you don't know what we've seen, you don't know what I know. And I don't want you to because you'd have to lie to your daughter all over again just be able to let her sleep at night even if you can't. We make decisions, they're not all good and they don't always lead to a perfect result, but when you are looking at the end of everything... it is near impossible to think of a good call in the middle of a shitload of bad ones. Sometimes, you take the best of the worst. And right now, that's what we gotta do here."

"So the best of the worst decisions, in your mind then," Maisey started coyly. "That's... returning us to the fold of the very people who hung us out to dry? We become a UNSC colony? Forced to host one of your little Navy Intelligence labs? Let them study this place? Steal anything not nailed down? Maybe force us to live somewhere else while you take over? That's the ideal plan?"

Haverson suddenly looked dumbstruck. That had not been on the table, he hadn't even gotten to his offer yet. Somehow she had guessed at it. If it was meant to unnerve him, it achieved that for a bit. However, anger seeped back in.

"How exactly would you be so sure of any of that?" He asked.

"All I know is I'm not going to be bullied into accepting that deal," Maisey insisted once more. "I want my people's autonomy. I want them secure. I want assurances we are not going to just get taken over again by the very people who screwed us over!"

"You are taking this the wrong way," Haverson declared. "I am trying to help you! If you make some concessions, the UNSC will not be that intrusive and you can apply for home rule later on."

"Is that what you call help?" Maisey asked. "Or are you just trying to placate us because you're afraid we'll do something drastic to protect our independence?"

"What?" Haverson asked in befuddlement.

"Tell me, Lieutenant, is your opinion of me that low?" She asked again. "So poor that you're going to insinuate that my people would try to kill you to your own superiors?"

"I... what?" Haverson said, unable to compose himself.

Shepard quickly stood up.

"Okay, we cannot start throwing around accusations here!" He told them both. "We're on the same side, you both need to see that."

"He's the one who thinks I'm some bloodthirsty terrorist intent on murdering more Marines!" Maisey shouted aloud. "He thinks I'm the enemy!"

"I'm trying to find you a way out," Haverson snarled back. "You're just being stubborn because you're projecting all the bad stuff that's happened to you onto me! I'm sorry if I can't just ignore the fact your husband killed a bunch of Marines because he couldn't figure out a peaceful resolution-"

"How many times do I have to say this over and over again, we had no other options!" Maisey screamed. "My husband and his men saved our lives that day! All you want to do is trample on their memory, call them terrorists and punish us for it all! How is that fair?!"

"It's not about what's fair, damn it!" Haverson replied furiously. "It's about what's right! It's about consequences! It's about owning up to what we've done! It's about the simple fact that if the human race fragments like this, we are going to fucking die! My hands are tied on this! Why can't you see the bigger picture here? Why can't you understand what the threat is?!"

"Why can't you understand, that with all your talk about decisions and consequences, that we never get a choice in any of those matters?!" Maisey asked, her face red with anger. "We have to live with what you decide to do with our lives, with what you decide is best for us! And usually that actually means what's best for you? But apparently you have this with you or against you mentality! If we aren't helping you win this war, we are helping the Covenant somehow! We're not soldiers! We're the humanity you're supposed to protect and you keep leaving us to die or get squashed beneath you!"

"Without the UNSC things would be a hell of a lot worse, Maisey!" Haverson declared. "You'd have all been dead! We are the only hope of any of us getting out of this war alive!"

"Without people like us, there's no reason for the UNSC to even exist!" Maisey retorted. "We're not pieces for you to throw away! You might win the war, but what do you have left?!"

Shepard tried to calm them down, tried to stop the fighting, but his voice was lost among the anger. To say this was going poorly was a grave understatement. He needed to do something fast or the pact between them and the colonists would go down in flames.

---

Asha hadn't liked the idea of leaving her mother alone with an ONI Officer, especially given what Tali and Kasumi had uncovered. If someone from Naval Intelligence had programmed the ship to come here, then they had a deep cover agent among them. Worse still, for all she knew, they were working for Haverson and they were planning something sinister together. Then again, every time she thought about that it sounded really damn paranoid. The facts were there though and it disturbed her. And while his team had been helpful, she didn't know enough about Commander Shepard to trust him either.

Yet here she was, fretting over who they could consider trustworthy while heading out in the middle of the night to finalize some crazy arms deal with a Jackal. Was this a good idea? Who could say really. But the birds were offering guns while their fellow humans were threatening to take the ones they had away. What other options did they honestly have? Maybe they couldn't trust this Jackal, but if things went south all they'd really lose is some sugar. Hardly something they'd die without.

The meeting was to take place where the corn and sugar fields intersected. It was deep enough in to stay out of sight from any of the Marines wandering about currently assisting in late night harvesting operations. Close enough to the main camp that the Grunts could transport everything in a relatively short amount of time. Apparently, they were crucial to Zek's plan. No one would suspect the Grunts of smuggling sugar for the Jackals, that's at least how the pirate explained it. She didn't know about that, but all she cared about right now was if she got her people those beam rifles. Whether or not the Jackals got away with hiding their sugar shipment didn't concern her. It's not like they could be in any more trouble with Haverson than they already were.

In any case, Asha had shown up to the meeting place with some trusted fellow security officers. Brant had recommended them himself. Zek arrived soon after she did, a gaggle of his fellow pirates behind him and a few of the Grunts lugging boxes over their shoulders. The plopped the crates down in between the two groups and scurried behind their Jackal masters.

"So, things secure?" Zek asked.

"If you want deniability why come yourself?" Asha asked in return.

"Because anything my men do is likely going to come back to me if they're caught at this point," Zek sighed. "Besides, I prefer to do this transaction directly. I'm a hands-on Captain."

"Fine, whatever," Asha grumbled. "Can we see the guns first?"

Zek looked over to his companion.

"Retz, show'em," he ordered.

Retz scurried over to the nearest crate and opened it up. He then had two grunts remove the false compartment holding all the equipment to reveal the miniature weapon stockpile beneath. There were several beam rifles within, all stacked neatly amongst each other.

"The recharging stations are in some of the smaller boxes," Retz explained. "You'll have to assemble them, but they should be fine."

Asha picked up one of the rifles herself and gave it a once over.

"Wish I could fire it to make sure it works," she said. "But then we'd be drawing attention."

"Given that you'll probably be watching my back with it, I think it stands to reason they'll work," Zek informed her. "What purpose would I have in giving you a gun that doesn't shoot when my enemies are probably on the way? I'd be screwing myself."

"A fair argument," Asha confessed. "Although that only holds if these bad guys of yours show up before you all leave."

"If they do, they won't stick around to bother you," Retz informed her. "Trust us, the guys after these relics have no time to play with colonists."

"For all our sakes I hope you're right," Asha responded. "Now, I assume you want to see our merchandise now?"

Zek nodded appreciatively.

"I do love how perceptive humans are," Zek told his men jovially. "They already know how this works, they're so much easier to work with."

The other pirates all mumbled in agreement, but Asha ignored them. She waved to her guards to bring up the agreed shipment. Freshly cut sugar stalks, ready for re-planting, processing or whatever else these birds wanted. Zek eyed the stocks greedily as they were brought out.

"The agreed upon amount, about an acre's worth of sugar," Asha said. "Enough to plant a sustainable little garden of your own. Now if you want more..."

"Yes, yes, more weapons," Zek said, never taking his eyes of his prize. "They're coming, but it's more difficult to smuggle down the bigger stuff. That's easier to manage when the bad guys show up. No one will question me bringing down a Wraith Tank or a few Ghosts then."

Zek looked up only now on Retz's prompting, forced to note Asha's perturbed expression.

"Uh, not that I'm hoping for the bad guys to show up all of a sudden," he said nervously. "Just explaining how it is."

"All I care about is making sure this colony survives right now," Asha explained. "That and keeping my mom safe, my family safe. Provide us the means to do that, you'll get your sugar. If these Beam Rifles work like you say, we might throw a sack of the freshly made stuff in it for you. Just refrain from reminding me that you're an opportunistic little crook and I'll be more than amicable."

"Alright, alright, let's not sour negotiations over some poorly chosen words," Zek said anxiously. "I have my sugar, you have your guns. Just take the things out of their boxes and replace them with the stalks, we'll be on our way."

While her men started doing just that though, the thought of being cheated still nagged at Asha's mind. She knew she'd be a fool to simply trust the Jackal at his word. She needed a means to make sure they were being square with her.

"Listen, I still want to test the guns," she explained. "There's a more secure spot we can go to. My people can escort your little gas suckers back to their camp. Everything works out, they'll be free to take the crates with our sugarcane back to your ship. Good?"

"If it eases your mind, fine," Zek relented. "But I really think it should be obvious enough that the guns are legit. I mean, you can power them on and everything."

The Grunts were already putting the sugarcane into the crates, while the guards rounded up the beam rifles for their own use. Everyone seemed busy, save for one person, Retz. He was gazing out into the fields, his eyes scanning the terrain.

"Look, forgive me if I don't just trust the word of a pirate, but I still want to make sure this isn't going to blow up in my face," Asha insisted, before looking over at Retz. "I think that's more reasonable to us all, right?"

Retz must've felt the eyes on him, but he was only momentarily distracted. Zek saw Retz looking at the fields now and scampered over to him.

"What's up?" He asked. "Calculating yields again?"

"No," Retz explained, his voice more serious and contemplative. "I... I thought I saw the stalks sway a little."

Zek and Asha looked at the fields, but Zek only shrugged.

"Meh, probably wind," he said.

It didn't feel windy to Asha. It was more likely a trick of the moonlight or something. She found herself looking at the field with her own eyes though, just to be sure. Soon enough, she started seeing stalks move about erratically. Gently at first, more erratic over time, random. It wasn't the wind and it wasn't a light trick.

"No, no something is up," she said, getting on her walkie talky. "Water Tower Three, Sector SG, I need a visual on the fields. Might be an animal got past the perimeter."

She got a garbled "copy" in response. A light flickered across the field, gazing up and down the stalks. At first, nothing. Something still didn't sit right though and Asha aimed down the scope of the Beam Rifle. She tracked the light and what she thought were suspicious movements in the fields. She thought she was gonna spot a wild animal sneaking through the vegetation. Instead, she spotted a weird looking face. One that looked similar to Zek's... but far meaner. It snarled at her, almost as if it spotted the glint of the Beam Rifle's scope. In a second it raised its own weapon.

That was when Zek, who must've noticed something himself, jumped in front of Asha and activated his shield gauntlet. A needler round bounced off a screen of yellow. It was followed shortly after by a freakish screech and more random shots of sporadic fire.

"Fuck! Everyone! Shields up!" He ordered his fellow Pirates. "Protect the clients!"

"Uh, you mean the humans, boss?" Asked one of the Jackals.

"The fuck did you think I meant!? Yes, the fucking humans!" Zek screamed. "Do I have to spell it out to you?"

The Jackals' shields went up and they soon returned fire on the sporadic bursts of plasma and needles coming from the sugar stalks. All at once they heard cracking and rustling as something began running at their position. Bursting from the sugarcane, their own shields in hand, were other Jackals, but with different colored armor and more reptilian visages than their avian counterparts.

"Ibie'shan!" Retz cried out, firing his double plasma pistols at one and taking him down. "Pull back! Grab the crates and pull back!"

The Grunts were already way ahead of him. Many began grabbing the crates and dragging them out of there, some used them as shields as they did, just as many ran for it like panicking children. The colony's guards stood their ground, however, taking position behind the Jackal's shields and firing back.

Asha kept her focus as well. With Zek protecting her with his own shield, she used her Beam Rifle to take aim through the sugarcane. She found one of the ugly looking Jackals and fired. She watched through the scope as the alien's head was lanced apart by the plasma beam.

"Well, consider the test complete," she declared.

"Keep testing," Zek screeched. "We gotta get back to the Marine's camp! Rally a defense! Fast!"

Asha followed the Jackal's advice and kept firing at the Jackals in the sugarcane while Zek's people covered them. All her doubts about the veracity of the possible threat Haverson and Shepard kept yapping about were now tossed aside. The enemy was here and while Asha didn't know exactly who they were, Covenant or otherwise, she had a feeling she and her people were now going to get a lot more use out of these Beam Rifles than they had expected before this night was over.

---

Shepard's best efforts to calm things down in the slightest were barely making progress. At the very least though, even if they were both still shouting, they were at least shouting solutions. That wasn't a great improvement, but it was something.

"You want the damn tanks? Take'em! Take the fucking exosuits if you have to!" Maisey declared. "All I want is assurances we get autonomy!"

"It doesn't work like that!" Haverson responded in kind. "You don't get a pardon just because you return half of what you stole! Are we supposed to ignore people died in the process?"

"You saw the evidence! It was us or them! My husband chose us!" Maisey declared. "Should we have just accepted our fate? Would you have been happy then?"

"I never said that," Haverson insisted angrily. "If you make your case to the Colonial Board, we can garner sympathy for your people on those exact lines! But you need to make concessions!"

"I will not sacrifice the freedom we have and go back to what we were!" Maisey said defiantly. "We don't need you to protect us from the Covenant, which you didn't do anyway! When we get that defense grid working, we won't need the UNSC, period!"

"That assumes we even get it working!" Haverson argued.

"You mean if YOU let us fix it," Maisey said accusingly. "What are you thinking, Lieutenant? That we'll be a threat if we get it working? That you'll be giving us more power than we deserve? Just spit it out, you're afraid of what happens when the grid gets back online!"

"I am not afraid of anything," Haverson said in a disgruntled glare. "Save for your people getting yourselves killed because you're all too stubborn to accept that the UNSC isn't the damn boogeyman you've made it out to be! One asshole Captain does not make all of us the enemy!"

"One asshole Captain was enough to sign our death warrant before!" Maisey replied in anguish. "You want us to turn over our lives back to the same people he worked with? He wasn't the only one who fucked us over, Lieutenant! He was just the last straw!"

Shepard slammed his fist on the table. This had been going on long enough and he was tired of being passive about it.

"Can you both stop?!" He demanded. "Seriously, just stop and breathe! No one is going to get what they want if we keep going on like this! We need to think up a solution, not keep debating over who is right or wrong."

"What I need is for Lieutenant Haverson to stop thinking my people are murderers," Maisey claimed angrily.

"And I need you to stop insisting the UNSC are this looming dark cloud over you all," Haverson stated. "It's not perfect but it's better than-"

The Lieutenant had stopped in mid-sentence, as he realized there was something else screaming in the distance. The shouting had calmed down enough now that he could hear it clearly. Given that Maisey seemed to pick up on it, as well as Shepard, it was obvious that he wasn't the only one. Echoes of gun shots, plasma bolts, it was far off but not so far they couldn't distinguish the sounds. The shooting could mean a number of things, but no one dared voice them.

All three rushed out of the house as Maisey looked towards the commotion. Already people were rushing out into the streets, grabbing their weapons and heading towards the noise. Maisey pinpointed it as soon as she saw the flashes of gunfire and smoke.

"The fields! It's in the fields!" She shouted.

"Both of you, grab a weapon," Shepard ordered. "We need to get over there, now!"

For once, Maisey and Haverson agreed. Maisey rushed back in the house to grab a pistol and handed one to Haverson. Shepard was already armed with his Shotgun. All three ran towards the fields, saying nothing along the way as they followed the various security officers rushing to the defense of the colony.

---

They arrived to an ongoing firefight. Farmhands working late ran for cover as security officers moved to protect them. Plasma bolts flew at them in response, as did needle rounds. Marines soon moved in to assist the security officers, along McKay and her ODSTs that were on site. Shepard tried to make sense of the chaos, searching for his own team amid the shooting. It didn't take him too long thankfully.

The familiar screaming battlecry of Jack revealed her position as she sent a rippling shockwave at something within the fields. Out from cover popped a pair of Jackals, but it was clear they weren't Zek's people. These ones look different, from their armor to their actual physical appearances. Jack probably didn't notice that though, as she seemed more busy firing at the floating alien attackers. Samara was close by herself and used her own biotics to send one of the floating Jackals flying across the field, an additional biotic detonation erupting as he did.

"Cover your flanks!" McKay ordered over the gunfire. "We need to stabilize this situation! Aim for the flashes in the stalks!"

She let loose a burst of gunfire, as Shepard and Haverson moved to her position. Maisey was close behind, keeping her head low and pistol out. McKay noticed them and directed her people to lay down suppressive fire as they approached.

"What's happening, Captain?" Shepard asked.

"They came out of nowhere, sir," McKay replied. "Only showed up like a minute or two ago. Just Jackals from every angle. No idea how they got so damn close! I'm guessing either they're good at sneaking or have stealth cloaks."

"Covenant?" Maisey asked.

"I don't think so," McKay shook her head. "I haven't seen a single Elite among them. Not Grunts either, save for the ones on our side, just scores of psycho turkeys."

Shepard tried to contact his team, see if they had better eyes on the situation.

"Shepard to Normandy ground team, can you see anything out there?" He asked to anyone who was listening. "Any idea who these guys are?"

"Shepard, it's Garrus," Came a reply. "I'm up in a water tower to your left. I moved up here with some sharpshooters. I'm seeing a few of them breach the security catwalks around the fields, they're running around them trying to take the high ground. These guys are all Jackals, mostly big beefy lizard types. I can't say for certain but I think they might be Snarlbeak's people. Their armor kinda matches the kind his men back on the Hollow were wearing when they attacked us at the docks."

Shepard had guessed as much. Which meant both good and bad things. They didn't have to worry about Elites for one, but engaging pirates was a whole other ball game.

"Keep them off the catwalks, buddy," Shepard requested. "I'll rally who I can down here and see if we can coordinate a defense!"

"Already on it," Garrus said, a gunshot heard clearly over the radio. "I'm in contact with Varvok, he's trying to take a forward position with his men. And I think I see Zek in the fields too, he's moving back to your position."

"Do what you can to cover him," Shepard ordered. "I'll see about making sure Zek doesn't get his head shot off by anyone who mistakes him for one of the bad guys."

"By the way, saw a few of Grunts running to their camp carrying big boxes with them when all hell broke loose," Garrus cautioned. "Not to mention some security officers aren't packing the traditional hardware."

Shepard would've asked what he meant, when he saw Asha pulling back through the fields. She was firing a large beam rifle, as Jackals, clearly Zek's given the way they were dressed, kept their shields raised, blocking shots from the opposing pirate raiders. Zek himself was close to Asha, as the two made a break for cover. Maisey soon spotted her daughter, and ran towards her as she and the pirate leader took refugee behind a tractor.

Shepard and Haverson provided covering fire as they too moved towards the tractor. Asha remained focused on the enemy even as they arrived.

"They came out of nowhere," she told Maisey as she arrived. "Just started shooting at anything that moved! Only reason we're not covered in plasma burns is because of Zek's people and their shields!"

"And the new guns it seems," Haverson noted rather incredulously, although it seemed his ire was directed more at Zek than Asha. "Funny how they just happen to have them all of a sudden."

Zek looked at him incensed.

"You fucking wanna do this now when the shit has hit the fan?" He asked with a glare. "Those are Snarlbeak's people out there, all Ibie'Shans! That means that Zhoc's number two is running around out there with them! I think having some extra firepower is serendipitous right now!"

Shepard heard Grunt bellow a krogan war scream as he blasted his Claymore shotgun into the fields. The burly alien then unleashed a concussive shot that smashed into a Raider Jackal that was breaking from cover to charge at the Colony lines. His shield didn't protect them from the shot that struck his side. The implication was clear though, they were already on the defensive and the enemy was only getting bolder.

"They're pressing on us hard," Shepard stated. "We can sort out whatever Zek has done later! We need to stop them from taking the fields!"

"Agreed," Maisey concurred.

"Same," Haverson confessed. "I'll call for more Marine reinforcements!"

"I'll tell Brant to arm the citizens and get them on the wall," Maisey added. "We have to push these bastards out! If they take the farmland we're fucked!"

Zek fired his plasma pistol at the fields, scanning the area curiously. Shepard caught his attention.

"Zek, focus," he said insistently. "I need your people to provide roaming cover for our guys! Snipers up top, shields below, whatever you have!"

"Yeah, yeah, okay," Zek nodded frantically. "We're on it! I'll... I'll call down for some extra hands! But... but we need to move up into those fields hard and fast, okay? The longer those Ibies are there, the trickier it's going to be to root them out. Especially if that fucking freak of nature is here, and I know he is."

"Who are you talking about?" Asha asked.

Zek suddenly pulled his head back as a focused beam blast nearly took it off. Shepard traced the shot to one of the catwalks in the field. Looking through the dark, he spotted a large Jackal, bigger than any he recalled seeing before. He glowered in anger, before vaulting over a railing and into the fields below.

"I take it that's him?" Shepard asked Zek. "The one that chased you and Taq all over the Hollow if I recall."

"Yeah, knew it," Zek said nervously. "And it seems like he's here to correct his little mistake of letting me get away last time."

"If he's leading this then if we take him down, we cripple the raiders," Haverson suggested.

"Good luck finding him in the corn and wheat right now," Asha cautioned. "Place is going to be a killzone."

"Doesn't matter," Shepard said. "We need to push up into it regardless if we're going to stop this attack."

Shepard took aim with his shotgun and fired into the black. His shot caught one of the raiders in the shield, but was strong enough to stagger him. The Commander then used pull to force the alien to smash into lone wheelbarrow close by.

"Time to do a little pest control on the fields, guys," he said.

Zek groaned a little.

"Can we hold off on farm puns if we can help it, please?" He asked.

---

The Spartans moved deep into the offsite structure, discovering a large chamber coated in a blue light resonance. There were a number of shafts in the corners of the room, leading further down into the complex no doubt. As well as a few more doors leading out of the area.

"I'm starting to realize how big this place is exactly," Fred said. "Not like in width or anything, just depth in general."

"So long as it's not to the center of the planet we should be good," Linda said.

Chief stepped but stopped moments in. He could hear a sound, a whirring sound. He heard it before Cortana even said anything actually.

"Movement, shafts," she warned.

Chief pivoted his team's attention to said shafts along the edges. Sure enough, speeding out of, them as well as a few vents above them, were a number of sentinels. They had finally made their move. Whatever reason for how long it took to do so, that was over now. Here they were in force.

"Careful," Chief warned. "They're armed with shields and sustained laser beams. Watch your corners and keep your shields up. Do not get caught in the open or they will cut through us."

The sentinels began slashing at them with orange beams in that moment. The Spartans took whatever cover they could and returned fire. Kat activated an overload to damage their shields, as well as the machines themselves. Kelly opened up with her assault rifle in kind, destroying one as the others dispersed. Linda and Jun chased after them with sniper fire, while Anton, Fred and Chief attempted to take out others. A number of the machines went down, but more still came to replace them.

"Speedy bastards, but they go down easy once you're through the shields," Fred said. "Let's make for one of the doors. We can decrease their number advantage in tight spaces."

It was a good idea, but they didn't have time to utilize it. Suddenly, a large center panel in the middle of the room opened wide. Smoky mist billowed up from it as a huge machine floated up from below. It was a gigantic robot, of similar make to the sentinels, but better armored from the looks of it and powerful shields covering its front. It was stockier in build perhaps, but far more intimidating in nature than its smaller siblings. Before anyone could ask what it was, the machine opened up with twin rapid firing energy cannons of some sort. The Spartans quickly ducked into cover as the shots raked across the area.

"Well he's been eating his vegetables it seems," Cortana snarked.

"Not the time," Chief said, reloading his rifle's magazine.

"I make it the time," Cortana informed him. "Don't bother shooting the shield, it will take forever to get through. It's putting out a massive amount of energy there. Very strong, comparable to a small starfighter."

"Then we go for the back where the shield isn't protected," Chief said. "Spartans, move in unison to one of the doors! We've worn out our welcome here!"

Chief opened fire first, going for the machine's unprotected side. The Spartans ran for the for the door, shooting at the Sentinels trying to close off their escape as they did. As they got close to the exit, the larger Sentinel fired off a different weapon, missiles. They tracked Chief's team, streaming towards them in a swarming pattern.

"Move!" Chief shouted.

The Spartans ran through the doorway barely escaping the incoming projectiles as they compounded with the closing steel. The blast buckled the superstructure and sent a few falling onto the backside as the shockwave hit hard. At least they had avoided the initial blast.

"Well, this just got a whole lot harder," Anton sighed.

"It caught us off guard," Linda said. "We can take it if we plan accordingly for next time."

"We'll deal with it when it comes," Chief assured them all. "Right now, stay on mission. We expected this sort of deterrent, we can handle it."

The other Spartans nodded in agreement, but Chief knew Anton was right. Things had just got a whole lot more difficult. They needed to get to the security terminal and those codes fast. The Sentinels knew they were here and they would not rest until the intruders were exterminated. Their only hope was shutting them down at the source of all this, that meant their objective was now doubly important. For that reason alone, he wasn't going to let an overgrown tin can get in their way.

This was going to be a harder fight, yes, but he'd make sure they would come out the victors all the same.

---

AN: This took long, but I hope you're all happy to see our first update for the New Year all the same! 2020 will hopefully be the year we put this baby to rest! But regardless of what happens, I'm grateful for all of you who have stuck with me!

Please leave a review and I hope you're ready for the battle to come, because things are about to get nuts in here! For further authors notes, check out my blog. Links on the main account page. Happy New Year everyone!