The Normandy
Yet again, the Old Girl flew through Slipspace. A much less 'nauseating' affair this time, due to both the ship's cores working in tandem and some of the inertial dampener modifications made by Tali. The ship sped through the strange Dimension that was Slipstream, protected by her kinetic barriers and propelled beyond normal speeds by the Element Zero-induced mass effect field's mass reduction capabilities.
That was to say, Shepard knew they were pretty much just cruising home now. No detection by Confederation ships, no tangling themselves up in solving a War they had no place in(at least until the Collectors were dealt with) and no extra headaches from having to hang on as Joker dodged enemy turbolaser fire.
Thankful with the development, the good Commander simply stared at Rhas and Kyra showing off their bands to their burgeoning little group of future Force Users. Ahsoka, meanwhile, sat beside her with a small smile. She told the Commander, "I wasn't privy to the fact they saw each-other like that, but… I guess?"
"Well, you know what they say about big things and small packages," Shepard joked, a smirk on her face as she put her hands on her hips. Ahsoka audibly snorted, covering her mouth, while Miranda, who was also present at the table, shuddered at the image that must've appeared in her mind. The Commander felt a little pride in getting the Miranda Lawson to shake a bit.
"Ew. Jesus, Shepard…" Miranda whispered before eating a fork-full of omelette made by Rupert.
"Heh. Sorry, sorry," The Commander snorted, then added, "Just figured I should. You don't think Rhas is gonna try and kill me for that joke, right?" before watching the man turn toward her for a second, a chill shooting up her spine. The room cooled, however, when Rupert quietly started humming something. The old man continued cooking in the background, preparing meals for the Dextro-Amino kids of the squad, one of which(Garrus) walked past, giving a quick smile and wave to the Commander. She smiled back, face slightly red, then waved.
"Hopefully not," Miranda chuckled, watching the little exchange with a bright smile.
"I mean, we did help him get what he and Kyra wanted from their home planet and you two met a pair of Mandalorians, so that has to count…" Ahsoka shrugged, grabbing the hilt of one of her lightsabers off her belt and using the Force to lift it an inch above her palm. She started spinning it as she mumbled, "Mando archaeologists, though. Never thought I'd see the day."
"What're Mandalorians anyway?" The Commander inquired, then paused as she saw the General and a couple of the Clones, who'd come by for lunch, visibly wince.
"A warrior people with one hell of a tumultuous history with the Jedi. We've had several wars against each-other going as far back as four thousand years ago," Ahsoka explained, then motioned at Rhasits and said to her, "The Sith will probably be more able to tell ya about it. What I can tell you about is stuff I became aware of when the Jedi Schism happened… We nearly committed a mass genocide against them seven hundred years ago," then she winced.
"Holy shit… What?" Shepard blinked, stunned. The supposed 'keepers of the peace' nearly committing a mass genocide of an entire race. That must've been one hell of a nightmare for the Mandalorians, the two women thought as they stared at the general. Then again, going by the fact neither of the Vurku siblings reacted with immediate hostility(beyond the small shootout caused by their misunderstanding), told them that the people of Mandalore must've returned to normal.
"The Republic called it the 'Mandalorian Excision'..." Ahsoka offered, her facial expression changing from a wince to a somewhat apologetic one.
"Like excising some sort of cancer… Really?" Miranda raised a brow, crossing her arms to her chest.
"It was seven hundred years and change before I was born, Miranda," The General shot back with mild annoyance. She didn't need anyone questioning her about choices made centuries ago, but she pretty much walked into this by mentioning it. And she figured it was best they all knew nobody they ever met was ever clean. Or at least the organizations they worked for weren't.
"Still. What happened?" The ship's XO inquired, tapping her fingers rhythmically onthe table.
The General let out a deep, deep sigh, rubbed her face, then explained in as flat a tone as she could afford, "The Jedi Council, fearing a resurgent Mandalore, quickly mustered an army formed of the Planetary Defense Forces of the Core Worlds and the Jedi, obviously, and with the blessings of a then-reformed Republic, went on to bombard most of Mandalore space from orbit. I'm pretty sure the surfaces of Ordo and Mandalore are still desert."
The Master Chief, who had been listening to this as he approached, replied, "... Yeah, that sounds par for the course," which caused all three women to swivel about and look at him. Shepard forever wondered how Spartans managed to be the stealthiest bunch in a ship so narrow and full of people that it was inches short of bursting.
"Oh, Chief. Hey," Ahsoka paused.
"General, Commander, miss Lawson," Chief snapped a crisp salute. Cortana continued watching the little exchange, chuckling all the while. The moment the Spartan had heard of what happened to the Mandalorians, he understood their dislike for the Republic. Though he was never one to judge their allies, what with everyone having skeletons in their closets, orbital bombardments were still a sore spot.
"At ease," Shepard saluted back, smiling. She then asked, "Are you, the Arbiter and Blue Team doing alright?"
"We're all settled in for the flight back," The Spartan answered calmly, leaning against the wall and looking back at the Sith, Jack and Samara as they started talking about certain somethings or others. Before they'd departed from Korriban and went their separate ways, the Mandalorians had returned several other artifacts to Rhas and Kyra, including books on the use of the Force, some of which had been apparently plundered from the Jedi Temple on Coruscant during one of the first raids.
"Good to know," Shepard shrugged, then added, "But back to our issue?" as she motioned to Ahsoka to keep going with the story.
"Heh… Hoped you'd forget it, but yeah, fine. The Republic has enough skeletons in its closet, Commander. We've existed for millennia at this point. I can respect the Vurku Clan trying to keep all of that alive. Good, bad and ugly," The girl then confessed, having decided to stop the tale herself instead. It was history, anyways. A history she hoped the Mandalorians themselves would forgive.
"Forget history and you're doomed to repeat it," Shepard mumbled, with Ahsoka and Chief giving nods of approval.
"A beautiful saying that transcends galaxies," Miss Lawson added.
"Agreed-" Shepard was cut off the moment the ship felt like it was ripped out of its position in space, a gravity anomaly causing them to tilt forward and nearly fall over. Several members of the crew gasped, with Jack letting out three expletives in a second as she held onto one of the guardrails nearby. Rhasits and Kyra had stabilized themselves with the Force. Chief himself had activated his mag boots and held firm as alarms started blaring.
"What the HELL!?" Miranda yelled out in surprise, grabbing onto the table as the leftovers on her plate spilled onto the ground. Ruper had fallen and was caught by Kelly, who'd been there in order to try and get something to eat herself. As the ship shuddered, some conduits sparked, a power surge flowing through the vessel's internal electronics and giving Shepard one nasty flashback to two years ago.
The woman activated her Omni-Tool and barked aloud, "Joker, Cortana, EDI! Status report!" as she leaned against a table to support herself. The ship's lights flickered, small sparks flying from the consoles. Garrus himself called out over the com that everything on his end was alright, while Tali rapid-fired reports stating that the Slipspace Drive had had a small malfunction.
Having intercepted all this and processed it, Cortana immediately reported, "An interdiction field just pulled us out of Slipspace! We're trying to understand what's going on, but going by the warnings…" before pausing as the ship began to settle, the groaning of the hull fading to make way for a weird, distant vibrato hum. The AI completed, "We're above a Star," with mild surprise to her voice.
"A star?" Shepard asked, surprised.
"Yes. Still in the Sith Worlds sector, but it's uncharted," EDI quickly interjected as the staff gathered. Sharon, who now had a visible baby bump appearing, stumbled out of medical with the help of doctor Chakwas, while Karl rushed inside, visibly concerned. As he sprint-walked to his wife and the doc to help them, Shepard was processing…
… And when she did, she mumbled, "Well, that's concerning," before quickly requesting, "Joker, status report?" as she gathered the others and quickly glanced around, making sure the rest of the crew was alive and well. She sighed, deeply relieved as she saw Garrus walk out of the room with only that same scar on the right side of his face.
"We're flying, Commander, but uh…" Joker replied unsurely, "I think you should probably come see this!"
"Coming over," She answered quickly, showing everyone to stand by. Chief, however, followed her as she climbed into the elevator. It was fully operational, meaning the Interdictor hadn't actually pulsed their tech and fried it, rather disabling just the FTL drive for now. She looked at the Chief, who looked visibly much more tense to her now, and realized she was getting used to the Spartans' mannerisms to the point she could even tell what mildly inconvenienced them. He clenched and unclenched his fists slowly and she could swear she saw his head barely move a quarter of an inch as the elevator climbed to the CIC.
When they reached the top, Shepard walked over to Yeoman Chambers to make sure she was okay and got a confirmation from the redhead, then checked the rest of the crew, saw the Arbiter helping the others and nodded to him, then marched down the corridor to the bridge with Chief. There, Cortana and EDI both appeared and pointed at the white-glowing Neutron Star. A stellar phenomenon akin to the 'corpse' of a solar body that had reached the end of its life, it was a star with a heavy gravitic field and two whips, for lack of a better term, of former stellar matter that flailed and danced and burned in the relative Northern and Southern parts of the star itself.
The radiation warnings that blared across the ship were subdued, but audible enough to cause Shepard some mild distress. However, that wasn't what she was worried about. As she spotted a nearby silhouette, hovering in orbit ahead of them. Though it was dark, its silhouette shined against the white of the star itself. An arrowhead-like cruiser with a sharp bow and what looked like a small ribcage below its midsection armor plates. Its six engines, visibly damaged and burning, were fanned out in a half-circle from the sides to the bottom of the ship. It also sported one elongated prong at the rear.
Most of it seemed to have been hammered by energy weapons, with hull ruptures that spewed its burning atmosphere into the decaying orbit. Its weapons systems were, according to sensor readings, inoperable, whatever they might have been, and it was broadcasting not a mayday, but a warning signal, repeating the same three words. 'MAJOR BIOHAZARD THREAT'. It mixed with what Shepard now heard was a warning in an alien language.
"What the…?" The commander murmured, crossing her arms.
"Great. We've got an added warning in the Forerunner language and an alien ship in the middle of nowhere. This little pause's starting to look a little fun," Cortana whispered sarcastically, crossing her arms to her chest as EDI glowed for a moment, processing what little of the ship's datastreams she could.
"They broadcasting?" The Commander inquired.
"Only a warning to stay away in English… Biohazard aboard. I am detecting human lifesigns aboard, however, alongside something else," EDI replied, then paused and flashed one green symbol, a Forerunner one, that caused both the Chief and Cortana to visibly tense. Cortana herself seemed suddenly more spooked than anything, while Chief clenched his fists hard.
"Chief?" Shepard then raised a brow.
"We can try and rescue the people aboard, for what good that's going to do us," Cortana whispered, scratching her chin, "But if it is what EDI just showed, and going by the Forerunner energy signature aboard, it might well be… I think it might be best to just blast it out of orbit or let it fall into the sun's corona."
"I don't think I could live with myself if I left people on a ghost ship, Cortana. Prep the shuttles. We're going in for Search and Rescue," Shepard ordered, lowering her voice.
"Commander-" Chief wanted to intervene,
But Shepard cut him off, "I don't wanna hear it, Spartan. If there's people still alive aboard? We're getting them off that boat," as she stared him down. For a moment, Chief visibly wanted to protest again, with Joker himself feeling a chill as he saw the concern in the man's movements. EDI and Cortana stood, thoughtful, as they stared at the exchange, waiting to see who'd flinch. Shepard gazed at the Chief with commanding authority.
Chief breathed, nodded, then visibly activated seals on his suit and said to her, "Understood, ma'am. Meet us in the Hangar," before turning and leaving. He spoke something to Cortana over the com that caused her to visibly wince. It wasn't an insult at the Commander, though. It felt more or less like a warning of his own.
"You sure this is a good idea, Shepard? The readings we're getting, even as distorted by the Sun as they are…" Joker asked, pulling up the images. Strange noises, hull strain, damaged systems. Hell, life support seemed to be offline for half the ship. And that biohazard warning and strange symbol that flashed moments ago…
"... Biohazard warning. Cortana? Any idea?" Shepard raised a brow as she looked at the AI, who was surrounded by dozens of small holographic screens. Her body flared with binary code writing as she looked over all of the data, then sighed deeply. Her emotional subroutines must've been really amazing, Shepard thought, because she could see every small, simulated twitch, too. Cortana was concerned.
"One. And I wanna be very wrong, Commander…"
"Noted. Be extremely worried," Shepard mumbled as she suddenly felt her heart drop. She turned about to leave, watching Cortana flash off the holographic display. She assumed Chief had pulled her from the consoles to help them on board that ship. Power readings were all over the place, with some parts having power and some not..
"And bring flamethrowers. A boatload of them," Cortana answered through the com.
"Roger. Zaeed, Fred, Garrus. Hump as many flamers and fuel cans as you can with you… Looks like we're in for a bit of pest control," The woman ordered as she marched toward the armory, ready to grab her gear and go down there. As she entered, she added, "And Joker, get the Normandy some distance away from that thing. Let's not give whatever it is aboard a new escape route."
… It wasn't long after that the Commander, Blue Team, Zaeed and the Arbiter were flying over on board the Kodiak to the ship. The Arbiter said, "Stay behind me and the Spartans, Commander. If it is what we think it is…" then he went silent, grip tightening on his Energy Sword. He had a mask covering his face and eyes, meant to seal the ornate armor he wore for void work.
Zaeed, who was wearing an uparmored spacesuit, spoke, "Another goddamn weird place you're taking us to, Shepard," his voice echoing through the suit's speakers as he checked over his equipment. He spoke, "Disregarding the fact we're in an entire new Galaxy, we're also stuck here 'till we disable whatever's aboard this ship."
"And we're gonna need to reach its insides to do so," Cortana answered as they felt a slight shift in the ship's gravity. They were approaching the vessel, with the woman noting, "... Well, that's odd. According to whatever computers aren't corrupted to hell and back aboard, the escape pods haven't launched."
"That's concerning," Shepard whispered, "That ship's five hundred meters from bow to stern. Nobody thought to jump out and pray for rescue?"
"The gravity field of the star is surprisingly harsh," Cortana spoke as slight turbulence started making itself felt. She spoke with a mild joking tone, "Case in point…" before the entire team looked at a screen. They were approaching the ship relatively fast, aiming for one of the few visible hangars. As the ship's thrusters powered, Cortana told them, "Keep your eyes peeled…"
Zaeed grabbed his flamethrower off his back, letting it extend from its compact form, then he flicked a switch. The forward-mounted igniter flared to life, causing the man to grin behind his pressure-sealed helmet. He said, "Burn, baby, burn," as he gently tapped the Flamer's fuel gauge. As the dropship touched down, the squad piled out, the Arbiter drawing his plasma rifle while the others fanned out into the damaged hangar.
A collapsed beam lay in the middle, having crushed what looked to be a highly-advanced space superiority fighter. Congealed, almost frozen blood stained the floor beside the crumpled spacecraft, but no corpses, neither of the pilot, nor of any tenders, could be seen. More craft like those hanged off the ceiling, while what looked to be modified boarding pods stood, attached to the cruiser-sized vessel's sides wings.
"An eerily familiar tone calls," The Arbiter murmured as they advanced toward the crashed craft, noticing that some of the blood was colored a strange, putrid yellow. Distant, metallic groans filled their ears, sound travelling through the ship's remaining inner atmosphere to denote the stress the hull was suffering under gravity.
Shepard walked over to a hole that had been perfectly drilled into the ship's superstructure. It was at an angle and looked like it had been cut out through the use of plasma, but not from a turbolaser. As she knelt and ran her hand over the cooled blots of inner structural steel, she traced the angle up to a hole that had been clean-cut through the armor plates and led outside.
How the atmosphere still existed in this place, god knew, she thought to herself as she stood up, holding close her flamethrower as she asked, "Cortana? Where's the survivors?"
"I'm trying to track them, but the stellar radiation's making it hard to use the Normandy's sensors and remote access to this ship's computers doesn't seem to be working," The AI replied over the com, as if she was right next to Shepard. She added, "It seems as though the internal mainframe and computer have been wiped clean and someone jettisoned the FTL drive of the ship… Bridge is that way, though," and she activated a waypoint.
"Alright…" Shepard sighed, "Stick together. Let's move it out."
The squad proceeded down toward one of the few corridors of the ship, past multiple new incisions from whatever highly-precise energy weapons had drilled holes through the ship's hull. Entering a hallway, they activated helmet lights and soon saw damage to the walls, blood smears staining them and even bullet holes and spent casings that had fallen through the grates.
Silence reigned, only interrupted by distant metal stress as gravity continued to pull the ship toward its inevitable and destructive scuttling site:The core of the neutron star. Cortana estimated, "I think we have about forty minutes before this thing inevitably dips below the safety line and we can't get out…" before pausing as what sounded like a very much biological gargle reverberated down the hall.
Chief saw movement on his motion tracker and tensed, pointing his flamer forward as the team began to move. Zaeed, meanwhile, commented, "Any idea what could make a noise like that on a derelict?" only to pause as he heard Kelly rack the pump of her shotgun. He answered, "Noted," as he watched Chief lead the way forward.
They passed by a wall grate, noticing something pulsating behind it. Each member of the team that passed it kept their weapon trained on it, with the Arbiter himself murmuring, "I believe you humans call this sensation 'Deja Vu'," as he waded past it, his own armor's motion trackers flaring for a moment. More groans filled the stale air of the vessel, almost unidentifiable. A mix of organic and metallic. A screech that sent chills up even the veteran Spartans' spines.
Linda spoke, "I feel like we've waded into the belly of the beast enough times for that not to scare anyone anymore…"
"And yet," Fred added, trying to keep their spirits up.
Chief spoke, "Cut the chatter. Eyes open," already well aware of what was very likely crawling aboard this vessel. The good Commander and mister Massani were very likely the only people not bothered with the conscious thought of how literal Linda's statement was in this case. If this ship had been touched by what they thought of…
More growths lay just out of sight, pulsating. They almost looked like purulent flesh, but they were hidden in the dark, wet recesses of the vessel, behind maintenance corridors and doors inaccessible to them. More bullet holes, blood smears and pus-like yellowish goop appeared as they crossed an intersection in the halls.
More and more damage showed the closer they got to the ship's bridge, ascending up a flight of stairs and taking a left. Claw marks. Genuine, visible claw marks with bone shards stuck in the walls, all mixed with bullet holes and more and more spent casings that rattled and rang against the floor as Shepard's squad moved through. With Cortana's guidance, they soon entered the bridge…
And found it a mess. A few weapons lay scattered on the floor, bullpup rifles with strange carry handles and holographic sights. They looked industrial and functional, but their magazines, helical, transparent drums of some kind, felt oddly out of place for what looked to be the basic assault rifle of the local force. Yet again, however, no corpses were present. Just blood smears staining command chairs and flickering, heavily damaged consoles.
"Yank me, Chief," Cortana spoke. Chief did as asked, pulling the chip from his helmet and sliding it into one of the computers. Several small warnings blared while the team formed a circular perimeter, making sure to cover each-other and Cortana. The AI's glowing chip slid into one of the ports, molding to it as she began accessing the ship's systems. She hummed and said, "Yeah, this entire mainframe was wiped clean of everything except the most basic programs…"
"Any command you can find in there that can help us?" Shepard inquired with half a mouth as another distant growl, this one more guttural and human, reached her ears and, by extension, the ears of the team.
"Nope. I can reconstruct some data here and there, but all I'm seeing is mentions of a jump drive failure after picking up an artifact of some kind," Cortana spoke, then sighed and added, "And this…" before activating the screen. Shepard turned back to see a strange symbol. A red, black and white triad. The AI added, "I'm guessing it's their flag, but… No references, no nothing."
The Commander requested, "Cortana. The survivors?"
"Already on it…" The AI spoke, then hummed and said, "Alright, I found them. Cargo bay two, I think. I'm also detecting an energy signature there. I think it's the device that pulled us out of Slipspace," as she activated another waypoint. She said, "Be advised, I still have access to some of the internal sensors… Something knows we're here."
Chief pulled the chip out of the socket as another reverberating roar, this one a mix of a thousand voices crying out in unison, not steel creaking against the eternal pull of constant force. The entire team tensed, Zaeed adding, "God damn! We oughta move!" as he aimed his flamer. No disagreement was found with the Mercenary's assessment. Shepard gave a single hand signal.
They moved again, right back down the way they came and through the dark, destroyed corridors of the alien ship, moving past red stains and broken walls again and descending several more flights of stairs. The cargo bay was somewhere at the bottom of the ship's bow section. Distant thumps started, rhythmic, with a pattern. Like footsteps.
Shepard brought up the rear, keeping her flamethrower pointed back and up as they descended. A couple of levels down, the squad passed by another darkened hallway. Emergency power caused the place to be lit a dark, flickering red. Shepard blinked, pausing there as she could swear she saw a figure in the darkness.
Chief, who was in the lead, turned back and climbed up to the Commander…
… A scream filled the air. Distorted, angry, violent. Shepard felt the air get knocked out of her lungs and damn near heard her armor crack as she got slammed against the wall. When she opened her eyes, a distorted human face with two eyes that glowed a baleful red stared her down, trying to rip her armor apart.
It roared in anger, spittle and pus flying onto the woman's visor as she finally managed to see what the fuck she was looking at.
She screamed back, powering her biotics and kicking it back before scrambling to grab her flamethrower. Chief barked loudly, however, with a sobering amount of fear in his otherwise stoic tone, "KEEP YOUR HEADS DOWN! BLUE TEAM! EMERGENCY CONTACT PROTOCOL UPSILON! BURN THEM OUT!" as tongues of flame reached out like long, burning hands. Four blasts of fire struck the beast that had attacked Shepard, a malformed humanoid with a much larger left arm and a twisted, heavily modified body.
What bits of black webbing and its trenchcoat still remained burned beneath the torrent of flames, with Cortana radioing, "EDI, KEEP THE NORMANDY AS FAR AWAY FROM THIS SHIP AS POSSIBLE AND HAVE GARRUS CHARGE WEAPONS TO MAXIMUM! PROTOCOL UPSILON IS IN EFFECT!" and hearing the AI immediately gasp, while Joker's voice, though muffled, echoed with confusion.
Shepard, face as pale as bone behind her helmet, scrambled to grab her own flamethrower as more roars filled the air. The roar of fire followed as Shepard joined in on burning down the monster. Yet more scrambled over their cover, however, streaming down the stairwell toward them. She swiveled about and opened fire, with Zaeed joining with her and yelling, "WHAT THE FUCK ARE THESE THINGS?!"
"A Parasite! But what is it doing here!?" The Arbiter spat, lifting his plasma rifle and opening fire. The weapon hissed as it spat globes of superheated blue plasma toward the enemy, staggering several as he drew his Energy Sword with his second hand and ignited it in a flash. He looked at the Chief and said, "Spartan! We can descend! The lower sections seem to be free of them!"
"Lead the way! Blue Team, covering fire! Commander, Zaeed, MOVE!" The Chief bellowed. He and Linda took Shepard and Zaeed's positions and fired up at the creatures descending down the stairwell, burning them out. Shepard, whose heart still raced, simply followed the Arbiter's lead, watching the alien cut one of the monsters in half just as it tried to jump them.
Both the hallway and the upper stairs were burning, a green smog slowly forming around the group as they descended and fired their flamethrowers at the enemy. One burning monstrosity pounced at Shepard, causing her biotic barriers to flare, but the Commander, terrified as she was, managed to draw her Carnifex pistol and dump the entire magazine into it.
She watched it collapse as the clothes it wore fused to its body, burning underneath layer upon layer of napalm fired by Zaeed. Taking a deep breath and running further down with the Arbiter, she demanded, "What the Hell are these things?!" before gasping and ducking as a burst of automatic fire, wildly inaccurate as it was, struck the walls above her. While Cortana processed why the Cargo Bay seemed untouched by their common enemy's malfeasance, Shepard ran still.
She turned back and saw that the enemy had the fine motor control to use firearms, even if they were using them one-handed. All of the infected, these alien parasite Zombie mutants, had glowing scarlet eyes, with some still having functional-looking gas masks and helmets attached to their faces, vocalization software glitching out various words Shepard barely understood in slurred groans.
Her heart raced as she turned and watched Blue Team jump down and join them. All members of the team fired their respective primaries, namely six flamethrowers and a plasma rifle, up at the enemy as they reached the Cargo Bay. Meanwhile, Cortana had finally gained some form of remote access, opening the door and gasping as a swarm of small, alien-looking silver craft exited and started firing their beam weapons at the swarm of infected creatures. Beams pierced and melted steel, drilling neat holes very similar to the ones they'd seen by heating the metal to a burning orange.
Sentinels. She was right, then. The reason the Cargo Bay was safe was because of the Forerunner artifact. She ordered, "Get inside the Bay. I'll seal the door shut and we can let the Sentinels deal with the Flood…" just as the team streamed inside. The hiss of energy beams cutting through flesh and the gargled mash of screams from the various beasts filled their ears… Then went quiet as the massive bulkhead sealed itself shut.
"Too close…" The Arbiter mumbled, then turned about. His eyes widened as he added, "... I believe the human saying is, 'out of the frying pan and into the fire'," before readying his energy weapons. The Spartans, Zaeed and Shepard all turned, too, seeing a surprising sight:Three armed men carrying the same kind of rifles they'd seen laying about the bridge.
The Spartans all drew their sidearms, stowing the flamethrowers on their backs, while Zaeed drew his own rifle and said, "Alright, you bastards, hands up! The Hell have you been doing on board this ship!?" all while he noticed them. Clad in what looked like a mix of modernized equipment and World War 1 gear, with long black trenchcoats, chest armor and metal gas masks, glowing red eyes and heavy duty combat helmets, these soldiers were… Odd.
Their leader, a man with some sort of modified gas mask, noticed they were pretty much outnumbered, then raised a balled fist and said, "Lower'em… We're outnumbered two-to-one right now," only to look at Shepard. He tilted his head and said, "You. Woman. You in command of this ragtag group?"
"I am," Shepard replied, "Commander Shepard, of the SSV Normandy. We're here to get you and your crew off this ship and then blow it to kingdom come."
"A bit late," The leading man sighed, his voice noticeably gruff, "We're all infected, I think. Inhaled some of the damn particles these things are made of. We'll probably change in an hour. You ISA?" only to pause as he saw them shake their heads. He looked over the Chief, his Spartans and Zaeed. He scoffed, then mumbled, "Alright, then… We're all already dead. Leave this ship and let it slide into the star, or bomb it before those things can get control. Which asks the question:Why didn't you heed our warnings?"
"Because I'm not one to leave people behind when I think I can save them," Shepard replied, though with half-a-mouth and a slight hint of guilt.
"Noble, but futile," The soldier, whatever he was, responded grimly. A faint glow appeared behind him, causing him to turn on his heels and let the group see what they were looking for. The Forerunner item was right there, an alien device that glowed, multiple exit points visible on it. The Sentinels' housing, or perhaps the Flood containment. The Soldier then explained, "This damn thing's the start of it all. We picked it up in the middle of what its records call a 'Burn'. The moment we picked it up, something latched onto us… And turned half the crew into those vile monsters you see out there."
"Oh, that's not good," Cortana whispered. Noticing confusion, she explained, "... A Burn is an area in space that was considered fully lost to the Flood… Wait. How would a Burn even be in their Galaxy?" only to hum. She said, "Chief, get me closer to that device. It looks similar enough to the one that was on the Galactica to be deactivated."
Zaeed hummed, tapping his flamethrower, then asked, "Why did you dump your FTL Drive?"
"Quarantine procedures," A second soldier, this one a female, answered as she stared at the alien device. She coughed, then said, "Stahl's a psychopath, but not crazy. He had them set up… And we figured out pretty quickly these things can learn how to use our technology when two of our comrades sprang back from the dead and grabbed rifles."
As the Spartan approached the device, he saw the soldiers tense. Raising his hand, he told them, "Relax. We're gonna shut this thing off," before turning it around and showing them Cortana. The female avatar looked at the soldiers, whoever they were, with mild sympathy. The leader balled his fist and showed the trio to take a step back.
"I'm guessing you guys wiped every ounce of your computers save for the automated warning systems specifically," Linda asked as she approached.
The leader nodded, "Part of the safety protocols."
"What's the ISA?" Shepard raised a brow, "And why'd you think we were it."
"We thought you were them because of one cursory glance we took at your gear," The man replied, looking at her dead-on, glowing eyes still flashing. He coughed, then said, "As for what the ISA is-" only to pause as he heard the machine behind them whirr, then die as all light faded from it. Cortana gave a thumbs up, disappeared back into Chief's gauntlet and the Spartan turned to face the officer. He asked, "Then who or… What are you?"
"Really long story," Chief answered blankly. He paused as his motion tracker pinged, then said, "Commander, we've got movement. More incoming," before activating his radio and stating, "Normandy, this is away team. The interdiction field should be down…" as the rest of the team prepared their flamers.
The officer of the squad sighed and said to them, "If you want to get out of here and have a ship docked, provided these rat bastards haven't stolen it already, you can make it through a side corridor to the hangars," before racking the bolt of his rifle, "Get moving. And when you're clear, blast this ship to hell."
"You would sacrifice yourself for people you know nothing about," The Arbiter observed, "Honorable."
The soldier answered, "It's not for you. For the rest of this bloody Galaxy, if it even is ours anymore," before turning to face the alien. He mumbled, "Wish I could at least tell my kids I met a bloody alien," then slamming a hand into Shepard's chest. He told her, "Go. Get your crew off this ship safely. We'll hold'em off." as the roar of the beasts filled the air.
"You got a name?" Shepard asked.
The man nodded, "Kolt. Lieutenant. 5th Infantry…"
"I'm Shepard… Good to meet you, Kolt," She offered a hand. He gripped and shook it firmly, then showed her to move as the sounds drew closer, alongside the screams and death knells of damaged sentinels. She snapped a salute, before leading her squad toward their escape path. The three soldiers turned then, weapons loaded.
The woman soldier coughed hoarsely, then said, "Hell of a day we picked to be the heroes."
"They'll remember us for this back at home, Klara," Kolt offered reassuringly. Their silent third comrade let out an amused huff. No, no they wouldn't. It was the standard spiel of their officers. Nobody would know they died a worthless death while trying to gain themselves an edge over their enemies.
A distant door thumped, began to crack, then shattered open. Swarms of beasts began to pour through. Bullets rang and zipped all around them, striking containers and the Alien device that had transported them here. Kolt bellowed loudly, "FOR HELGHAN! FIRE AT WILL!" as he hefted his assault rifle…
In the distance, Shepard heard gunfire and the screams of the various monsters made by the Flood. She hated having to leave yet more people behind. They'd reached the hangar, finding it slowly filling with monsters, all of whom aimed for their shuttle. They fired their flamethrowers, running and running for the ship as Cortana remotely powered it on. Jumping aboard and taking the controls, the Commander flew them out of the bay, then barked over the com, "Normandy, PROTOCOL CORRUPTER! FIRE AT WILL!"
As they flew toward the Frigate, her gun mounts swiveled out of their concealed covers. Turbolaser batteries and the Thanix cannon charged. The ship moved into position, opening the Hangar Bay, before achieving lock. A volley of azure bolts of energy rang out from the hull of the ship, followed by the magnetohydrodynamic beam of the Thanix.
They drilled into the hull of the ship, shearing through it, cratering it and drilling massive holes into its frame. The already crippled cruiser began to drift from the impacts, its orbit rapidly decaying under the bombardment. It began descending past the point of no return, whatever remained of its stabilizers turning off, then fell into the depths of the stellar body.
… No signature remained. Moments later, the Normandy jumped away.
The Waystation
Halsey's Office.
Doctor Halsey looked over the details of the Normandy's mission as reported by the Commander. She hummed, tapping her tablet, then mumbled, "They should have been back some hours ago," before pausing as she heard her com system ping. The Quantum entanglement communication systems copied off the Normandy flashed with a data packet.
She walked over to her computer, sitting down at the desk and activating the haptic interface of the locally-made laptop she'd specifically linked to the station's secure communication systems. Humming, she saw an unidentified transmission. One that had codes very similar to those of the Cerberus identifications on the modified Stealth Frigate.
Sighing, she spoke, "Kalmiya, ensure we've got Anti-Virus systems online," before hearing an affirmative ping from her current assistant AI. She had managed to do for Kalmiya what she did for Cortana, as well… No, more accurately, she managed to save a copy of the AI's central core somewhere and rebuild her Matrices off of it, essentially 'reviving' Kalmiya, Ship of Theseus Paradox aside.
When the connection came back green and the scan of the folder's contents was complete, Halsey, ever the cautious woman, opened it while running it through a series of extra antivirus and updated ONI Counter-Intrusion protocols. It flashed on-screen moments later, clear of suspicion and unsurprisingly clean. It was a message
JH TO CH:FOR YOUR EYES ONLY
THE GATEWAY IS OPEN
The message was followed by a string of binary code that Kalmiya soon translated into coordinates. Coordinates for the possible acquisition of a Reaper IFF System. One they could use to traverse the Omega-4 Relay and take the fight to the Collectors and their Reaperified Cylon comrades. She scratched the back of her head, then hummed.
The Illusive Man had sent this message personally. He probably knew Halsey would have direct contact with Shepard within the next few hours, meaning she could more easily deliver the data to the girl without any extra precautions or ONI background checks. Sighing deeply, the woman nodded to herself and said, "Repackage this for the SSV Normandy's computer systems. I want it to be transmitted the moment they're in-system."
"Yes, doctor," Kalmiya finally spoke, "Should I triple-encrypt it?"
"No. Our Allies will be briefed shortly about its contents anyways," The Doctor replied, then stood up and donned her labcoat. She gazed around the office, noting it was dark as night in there. Mostly due to the self-tinting windows and the lamps and lights she hadn't turned on. The office was much less of a mess than the one at home, too.
"Understood," The AI replied.
Halsey stood from her desk, taking her tablet with her and walking out into the main office area. Large windows of reinforced transparisteel once again showed the wide range of ships outside, including the Quarians' own slowly refurbishing fleet and the Galactica. Though it was far from the civilian areas where Halsey currently found herself, the station's centerpiece still stood as the monument to their arrival here. The cooperation.
It flashed for a moment as a warning blared over the com. "WARNING:COLONIAL VESSEL ON APPROACH. ALL SHIPS, STAND BY FOR CONTACT," the dull voice spoke just as the Galactica's engines came to life. Staff from the Colonial Navy stood up, surprised. All turned their attention to the Waystation's Star Road Terminus, watching it flare to life. First to come out was a UNSC Prowler, the lead ship.
Then… The large, crocodile-like head of a familiar class of Starship appeared. A Battlestar zoomed out of the place, bearing one name written in bold on her side. PEGASUS. The cheers that followed from the Colonial crews reverberated across the hull of the Waystation. Though Halsey somewhat shared in their enthusiasm, a part of her felt off about this. A bad feeling, if one was to use that old cliche saying.