Chapter 1: Into the Wreckage Part 2
Tali's group reached the pod a few minutes before the so-called distraction blew up a not-insignificant section of the nearby hills. Once they saw the explosion, they converged on the escape pod and worked as quickly as possible to strip it of anything useful. First priority was medicine. The specter of unknown diseases on an alien planet mixed with the injuries suffered during the crash and ensuing battle having been well-addressed during the meeting.
Second priority was food; dextro food in particular. Shepard told them that Earth life was based on levo amino-acids so while the salarian and asari crewmembers could, in a worst case scenario, survive on foraging and hunting, which Shepard offered to help with, before being able to eat all the no-doubt-lovely human cuisine they could find once they hit the City, the dextro crewmembers were much less lucky. On the way to the City, they would have to continue to eat the rations they'd eaten on the way here.
Once in the City, which Shepard had told them had acres upon acres of farmland within its walls, they would use the standard issue seed packets, which every ship had an abundance of in case of a crash scenario, to grow their own food. Thanks to various advances in agriculture discovered by multiple space-faring species, these seeds would have a high enough yield to be able to feed a small town once the rations ran out.
That was the one good point of this for the dextros, Tali thought. Multiple laws passed since quarian first contact and expanded after turian inclusion in the Council demanded that no matter the crew ratio each ship having both dextro and levo crewmates must have equal amount of rations for both in case of emergency. The compact nature of space rations meaning storage space was not a problem. Only a third of the original crew had been dextro, all turian except for Tali, the rest being salarians, asari, and Wrex. With the casualties they'd taken that meant that there were more than enough dextro rations to go around for the foreseeable future.
Tali shook her head as she took a pistol off the corpse of a salarian she recognized as one of the security officers. The third most important things were weapons and the small metal slabs that served as ammunition magazines for their guns. As she put the pistol in a spare holster she'd been given for the op she heard noise from the lookout, a female turian, they'd placed outside.
"Bikes! Looks like Fallen!" the guard said in a loud whisper.
The leader of their party, a maiden asari with dark blue skin and markings dotting her nose, turned from the food stocks she was grabbing, "Dammit! Light's off and no noise." Everyone nodded and with a series of clicks the pod became dark. It was quiet for several minutes before the lookout poked her head into the pod and spoke.
"It's clear."
A series of quiet gasps ran through the pod as crewmembers stopped holding their breaths. Tali was among them. In a few more minutes the pod was picked clean. Tali set the explosives she'd been given inside the pod and on both of its sides. Once done, she turned and ran towards the others in her group. "Timer's set?" the leader asked. Tali nodded, a half-an-hour and the pod would be nothing but scrap and dust. "Alright, then." The group began to slowly file away into the dark of the night. Tali started to follow before stopping for a moment to look in the direction where the Far-Sight crashed. After a moment, she tried to give herself a calming breath before retreating into the night.
-----
The metal floor of the ship clanged as Shepard ran as fast as she could. There were many things that Guardians could be thankful for: Enhanced strength, superhuman senses, an instinctual understanding of war, regeneration of wounds, the ability to go without sleep or food, an immunity to most toxins, the fact that alcohol was not among those toxins, but the one any Hunter was truly thankful for was the ability to run. She slid to a stop as she saw the door that, she was told, led to the bridge. Her ghost appeared and began to scan the small console on the wall beside it.
"Well," he said, "it's a good thing there's still a little power left in the ship's emergency systems." After another moment of scanning, the door opened and Shepard grabbed her ghost and ran inside. As she rushed into the room she scanned it over looking for the place where a captain might sit. The closer the system they hacked was to the center of everything the faster the hack would be and every second counted when trying to out salvage the Fallen. She saw a slightly raised seat with a small metal plate coming out of one of the arms. Seeing this, Shepard smiled. How much would she bet that that plate was part of a holographic interface?
She released her ghost from her hand who upon being released shook himself slightly and glared at her saying, "I'd have thought I taught you to be gentler than that, young lady," before rolling its eye and floating to the chair and interfacing with its computer. As he did this Shepard accessed her comm.
"Shepard. I'm at the bridge and have begun lifting the schematics. Status?"
She heard a small crackle on the comms before she heard Vakarian's voice, "Vakarian here. The armory was still stocked. Me and Wrex are dragging the crates out."
Shepard ran through the calculations in her head, "Are the crates going to be light enough for the bikes?" Fallen bikes tended to run and gum and prayers.
"Affrimative," Vakarian responded, "I was able to rig them with mass effect lifts from the boarding equipment. We should be able to strap them to the sides."
Shepard rubbed her temples. Kid was smart but she didn't like trusting technology she wasn't familiar with. Nothing for it, "Okay, rush them out and help Officer Sokir get the food."
"No need, Shepard" she heard Sokir say, "We're already loaded up and ready." Shepard was about to ask how they did so before she remembered that Sokir's partner was an "asari" security officer by the name of Arturos who, alongside others, had the ablilty to use "biotics". Once again, Shepard wondered how the City would react to the crew of the Long-Sight. She shook her head. She could worry about that later.
"Affirmative, Sokir. Dexirius, status report?" Shepard said.
The comm crackled before a metal-tinged voice came through, "We've got half of the medical supplies on the bikes. It'll take us another ten minutes before we've got the rest ready for transport."
"Understood," Shepard said, "Keep me posted." She turned to her ghost, "What've we got?"
"Give me a few more minutes and I'll have everything." Shepard nodded before she took one of the explosives from her transmat storage and began to place them around the room. The ones she gave to her own team were of a significantly higher yield than the ones she gave to the pod teams. It took her only a few minutes with each one. As she did so she kept in contact with the rest of the strike team. Vakarian and Urdnot had just wired the armory and mass effect core to blow before getting the ammunition out and were just beginning to put them on the extra bike. Sokir and his partner took their early finish as an opportunity to wire the engines for detonation. Dexirius was forced to make multiple trips as the crew had prepared a large stockpile of medical supplies for their expedition.
A few minutes later, Shepard was standing on top of one of the consoles wiring an explosive to the ceiling when she heard her ghost say, "Okay, I've got it I-" He stopped before widening his eye, "Oh no."
Shepard rolled her eyes as she prepared another explosive, "Here we go…"
"I just got something from the Fallen battle-net. The communications from their base just sent out an evacuation signal. The captain of the lockdown team just gave an order to come back here so they can strip the place and run."
Shepard cursed before speaking through her comm, "Bad news, the Fallen are coming back."
"Of course they are," She heard Wrex mutter, "We're ready to go."
"As are we." said Sokir.
"I need a few more minutes to get the rest of the medicine out." Dexirius reported.
Shepard shook her head in frustration, "Sokir, send Arturos inside to help Dexirius and get the bikes ready. I'll be out in a moment." She set the last explosive to detonate by trigger. If they got lucky, they'd get out before the Fallen got back and she could bring the whole place crashing down around their heads. She heard the small beep that signaled that the explosive was ready for detonation. She jumped down from the console she was standing on. She saw the small flash of light that signaled her ghost trans-matting himself into her suit's systems as she ran out into the rest of the ship.
A few minutes later, she ran out of the breach she had entered though to see everyone else getting onto their bikes. "Ander-"
"Already on it." Her ghost said through her helmet. In a flash of blue light, her sparrow was trans-matted by her side. As she was climbing onto it she saw the rest of her party staring at her like she'd…summoned a bike from out of nowhere. It occurred to her that she'd better explain trans-matting to them once the Pilgrimage got started. "Okay, stop gawking. Let's get out of here before they show up." At her words, the others began to rev up the stolen pikes. It was a good thing Shepard taught them how the pikes worked as they were securing the outside of the ship. "Okay, on three we go. One…" A few minutes later, all that was left of their presence were dust trails.
-----
Vrothrir, Devil-Captain, felt his hands tighten when he and his crew found the burning remains of the wreck they'd been ordered to guard. Accursed Light-Stealers. Damn them and damn the Thief-City. He felt the pain from both of his lower hands from the sheer tightness of his grip and in his mind he saw the burning orange color of the blade that took his original lower arms.
He'd been a stealth vandal during the attempt to reclaim the Great Machine. In the battle the humans called Twilight Gap. His squad was ordered to sneak across the Wall to discover another place where they could force a breach. But the Light-Stealers spotted them. He alone returned, burnt and broken, to tell the tale. Solkis ordered him docked. To Vrothrir, the humiliation hurt worse than the blade.
But Vrothrir fought hard. Fought hard and survived. Solkis never would forget his failure but soon that didn't matter. A Light-Stealer, the one called Saint-14, found him. Found him and killed him. Vrothrir heard the news. Fought harder. Fought smarter. Soon he regained his title of Vandal and was allowed to grow his arms back. But Vrothrir knew now. Knew he had to keep going so he would never be docked again. Became Captain under new Kell.
And now it was worthless. All of it. Someone would be blamed for this. It might be him, docked again and not be able to climb back up this time. He felt his grip tighten even further. No. No, he would not let that happen. He saw someone approach him out of the corner of his eye.
Ysatres, Devil-Vandal, best friend. She was cunning she could help.
"The pikes are gone." She said, "We found the others. Their corpses were piled up a small ways from here." Vrothrir felt nothing from this. It was typical when one was dealing with Light-Stealers. They came. Eliksni died.
"The pikes…" Vrothrir thought about that before an idea came to him. The pikes tended to be built from what scrap eliksni could scrounge up. Not safe but danger was constant ever since the elkisni survived the Whirlwind. What was a little more? Pike energy bleed off was high. High enough to track. Vrothrir knew, he had tracked pikes stolen by rivals of Nerlek before and knew how to do it. But however much he hated them, he knew Light-Stealers weren't stupid. They'd abandon the pikes before long. But there would be some sign left of their passing. He looked toward the horizon. He'd need help.
"How long has it been since we heard from Nerlek, Devil-Baron?" he asked Ysatres.
"It's been hours since he led the raiding party out to find survivors." She answered him, "We have not heard from him since."
They looked at each other. "He is dead." They said at the same time.
"Then we are no longer beholden to him." said Vrothrir. He stroked his chin before speaking, "Are our comms still up?" Ysatres nodded and Vrothrir continued, "Send a stealth signal to Novas."
Ysatres looked at him surprise, "Novas, Devil-Baroness. Are you sure?" Novas was the Baroness of a group of raiders called the Baphomet Blades, who'd been assigned to raid and eventually conquer the area the humans knew as the Steppe, a position earned when they helped Riksis, Devil-Archon, take the Baikonur Cosmodrome. Novas had been one of the Devil-Nobility who'd fought Nerlek for status and ether. It was uncertain she would even give them the time of day compared to someone who was allied or even neutral to Nerlek. But the Blades were experts at tracking and fighting enemy forces on the move.
"Yes, we need her help. And we have something she'll want." He motioned towards the ship, "Where to find new tech."
Ysatres looked at the ground in thought "It will be risky." She replied, "She might kill us once we tell her."
Vrothrir shook his head and held his upper right hand out in a pointing gesture, "Not if we don't point her in direction of crew. And once we find them," His hand curled into a fist, "We prove ourselves indispensable. Besides…"
Ysatres looked at him, "What?"
Vrothrir could feel his mouth move into the eliskni version of a smile, "Nerlek is dead. New baron must be appointed." He looked into Ysatres' eyes, "How does Vrothrir, Devil-Baron, sound?"
Vrothrir could see Ysatres' eyes turn from shock to contemplation to glee.
"It sounds good, old friend." She clasped her two hands to his shoulder, "It sounds very good indeed.
-----
The bare beginnings of sunlight was cresting over the mountains when they made it back to the cave. The second they stopped the strike team began to strip the supplies from the pikes. Shepard had remembered to warn them about the pikes high energy signature so they were prepared to abandon them once they got back. The supplies would have to be divided among the crew and Shepard's sparrow. It wouldn't be the first time she'd been forced to use her beautiful bike as a pack mule.
Shepard walked through the mouth of the cave. Despite being so early in the day it was a whir of activity. All though the cave people were arranging supplies, checking with other crewmembers, or otherwise eating in preparation for the day ahead. As she looked over the cave she saw Liara and Tali, whose names she learned from Garrus and Wrex, run towards the opening of the cave. They rushed by her and she turned around to see them hug Garrus and Wrex.
Shepard smiled and shook her head before remembering what she needed to do. In a moment she was standing by T'Bayla's rock. Out of the corner of her eyes she saw the doctors unfolding a stretcher and otherwise preparing for her to travel. "How'd it go?" She heard the Captain ask.
"Got everything that wasn't burnt or destroyed." Shepard answered.
"And the ship?" Shepard could see a glimpse of sadness in her eyes.
"The explosives went off without a hitch. I'm sorry."
T'Bayla took a deep breath and said, "Thank you." She looked at Shepard, "But there's no time to mourn. In an hour we should be ready to go."
Shepard nodded, "Anything I can do?"
"Besides keep an eye out to make sure those bastards didn't find us?" T'Bayla shrugged, "My crew's got everything in hand." She smiled and winked, "Might want some rest yourself. I don't think you've slept for a while."
"Oh, well…" Shepard trailed off and made a grin that she knew showed a little too much teeth, "I'm conditioned to not need a lot of sleep. Won't need some for a while."
"Oh," T'Bayla said, "well just make sure not to tire yourself out." Shepard thanked her for her concern before telling her she was going outside to keep an eye out. She hadn't told the crew much about what being a Guardian entailed. The crew was obviously nervous about the more…out there things they'd seen since they'd entered Sol and she didn't want to spook them about…well there was a reason the Guardians were known as an "Army of the Chosen Dead". She'd tell them more about the Guardians and the City eventually but she wanted to earn more of their trust before spilling things that would make them suspicious and fearful of her. Especially the A.I. thing, if what her ghost found in their Codex was true.
As she entered sunlight the strike team members passed by her with the supplies slung over their shoulder or carried between two of them. Good, in an hour they could recede into the forest and get far away from here. Once they camped out for the night they could start planning their path to the City. A small sound brought her out of her thoughts. At least, it started small. But then it got louder and Shepard began to feel her heart quicken before she recognized the noise. She felt herself relax.
That was when she remembered what she was doing and her heart quickened to an even faster beat. She saw Garrus come out of the cave his assault rifle in hand.
"What's going on? Is it the Fallen?" he said looking at the sky.
"No, it's," she looked back at the sky then back to him, "go back inside. I can handle it."
"Shepard-" and that was when she gave him the look. He was back in the cave before he knew what happened. Shepard tried to quiet her heartbeat as she saw jumpships fly over. Before her eyes she saw two blue flashes of light. When the light faded, before her stood two Guardians. One was a Titan, covered in heavy armor that was, to Shepard's eternal amusement, white and pink. Not even the camouflage pattern on it could make it look good no matter how long it's wearer thought she could convince her otherwise. The mark worn on her right hip was a mix of orange, blue, and yellow with the symbol that looked like a circle above smooth pointless triangle with a line cutting through it. The other was a warlock with dark blue robes and black helmet with a bond in the orange, black, and white pattern of the Praxic School.
They both took off their helmets. The Titan spoke first.
"Traveler's light, Shepard. Where were you?" Ashley Williams, a human with light brown skin and dark brown hair in a bun, said in a tone that suggested anger and worry.
"Yeah, Shepard." Kaidan Alenko, an Awoken with light blue skin, glowing yellow eyes, and black hair combed in a hairstyle Shepard never quite understood, said, backing their friend up, "You call us to pull the Raid early then we don't hear from you for hours. We thought we might've been avenging you once or twice in there." Kaidan's tone wasn't as angry as Ashley's but it didn't need to be. Kaidan could wield guilt like a knife.
"Look, guys-"
"Shepard," Ashley interrupted, "none of that Hunter talk around crap. What's going on?"
Shepard swallowed before saying, "I found pilgrims being attacked by Fallen out here." All at once the anger faded from their faces.
"Are they okay?" Kaidan asked.
"Yeah," Shepard said, "I showed up before they took heavy casualties."
"Praise the Traveler," Ash muttered, "So the raid…"
"I needed cover for a supply run. We'll leave in an hour. I'll see you guys back in the City." Shepard said. If she got lucky then…
"Shepard." she heard Wrex's voice behind her and she winced. Cayde'd taught her that luck always ran out when you relied on it too long. Kaidan looked past her slack-jawed while Ashley's face distorted in a grim rictus.
"Shepard," she said in a voice full of fury, "Why the hell are you guiding xenos to the City?"
*****
Okay, this is finally done. Interesting note, I didn't think of creating Vrothrir until late into writing this chapter when I was forced to cut out the Mad Max style jetbike chase (the characters just weren't cooperating). But I figured I could at least get an Arc Villain out of this.
Also, I'm sad to say I'm going to stop doing those "EACH STAR IS A POINT OF LIGHT PREVIEWS". Railroading myself like that is starting to be a pain in the ass to write around. If I had a chapter buffer it would work but I'm writing by the seat of my pants here and its getting harder to match the inevitable changes in the chapter with the preview. So RIP pointless thread gimmick. (I might bring it back when the time comes to start putting this up on AO3 and fanfiction.net.) That's it for this week.
