Deep Space: An Epic Sci-Fi Romance

by Joan Jett

  “What’s the problem?” asked Ashley. “Drop it from orbit and Saren can kiss his turian ass goodbye.”

  Kaidan shook his head. “It’s not that easy, Chief. Twenty kilotons sounds like a lot but it doesn’t have that wide a blast radius. Without a well-designed guidance system, the bomb would never hit its target with enough precision to take out the facility. Anything we could improvise just wouldn’t be good enough.”

  “That’s correct,” said Kirrahe. “We will need to place the bomb at the right location, by hand. This means we will have to infiltrate the facility on foot, pacify its ground forces, and disable its AA guns before we can bring your ship in with the bomb.”

  “Sounds like a suicide mission,” observed Kaidan. “Didn’t you already try that and lose half your company?”

  “Yes, but I think a more successful strategy may be available to our combined force. I will divide my men into three teams and strike the front of the facility. Our objective will be the AA guns. While we have their attention, you and a ‘shadow’ team can infiltrate in the back.”

  Shepard frowned. “That’s not a bad plan, but your men are going to get slaughtered.”

  The salarian smiled grimly. “We’re tougher than we look, Commander. It’s true, though, I don’t expect many of us are going to make it out alive. That makes what I’m going to ask even more difficult. I need one of your men to accompany me, to coordinate my teams with yours.”

  “You would need someone who knows Alliance communications protocols,” observed Shepard.

  “I volunteer,” said Kaidan quietly.

  Ashley shook her head. “Not so fast, Lieutenant. You’re the best combat engineer on the Normandy. The commander will need you to arm and place the nuke. I’ll go with the salarians.”

  “With all due respect, Gunnery Chief, it’s not your place to decide.”

  “Why is it that whenever someone says with all due respect they really mean kiss my ass?”

  “Enough,” ordered Shepard. “This isn’t a walking party. Whoever goes with Captain Kirrahe is putting his life on the line with absolutely no guarantees.”

  Shepard turned to look out to sea, his face so firmly set it might have been carved from stone. I don’t think he deliberated for more than fifteen seconds, but to all of us it felt much longer.

  Finally he turned back to us. “Williams, you’ll accompany the captain. No heroics. Do you understand?”

  “Aye-aye, Skipper,” said Ashley quietly.

  I glanced at her face. It was calm, even serene, but there was a light in her eyes. She was looking forward to the battle, even knowing it might be hopeless.

  Humans!

  “I will have the ordnance loaded onto the Normandy, and brief your crew on its detonation sequencing,” said Kirrahe.

  “Kaidan, you’re in charge of that effort,” Shepard ordered. “Put together a team from the Marine detachment to handle the bomb. Do everything you can to make it easy to place and arm on a moment’s notice. Normandy may not have much time to get in and back out.”

  Kaidan also acknowledged his orders.

  “Excellent,” said Kirrahe. “If you’ll excuse me, I need to prepare my men.”

  “Well, this is it,” said Ashley. “Don’t do anything stupid while I’m gone, Lieutenant. That goes for you too, Commander. Liara, you be sure to take care of him.”

  I made a small smile, all I could manage. “I will. Come back to us safely, Ash.”

  “We’ll be fine,” said Kaidan. “You’ll see.”

  “Yeah. I just . . . good luck.”

  “Something on your mind, Chief?” asked Shepard.

  “I don’t know. It’s just weird, going in under someone else’s command. I’ve got used to working with you.” She glanced at me. “All of you.”

  I reached out and touched her shoulder, feeling a sudden burst of affection for her.

  “Don’t worry,” said Kaidan. “We’ll all see you on the other side.”

  “I know. Commander, if this goes all snafu . . . it’s been an honor serving with you.”

  Shepard shook her hand solemnly. “Likewise, Ash.”

  * * *

  The salarians made their own final preparations, lining up on the strand in neatly ordered rows so Kirrahe could brief them. The captain turned out to be fond of bombastic speeches, but his men seemed to appreciate his effort. We didn’t pay much attention. Only Ashley got to benefit from Kirrahe’s oratory.

  Our “shadow” team would be composed of only five: Shepard, Garrus, Wrex, Tali, and me. It seemed strange for Shepard to go in on such a mission with no humans to support him, but the circumstances demanded it. Kaidan and Ashley already had their assignments. Four of the Marines would work with Kaidan on his engineering team. The rest lacked experience in commando warfare, so Shepard ordered them to force-protection duty on board Normandy.

  We checked armor, weapons, and equipment. Shepard laid out tactics. He and Garrus would use sniper rifles from a distance if possible. If we had to charge in, the two of them would switch to assault rifles and Wrex would join the attack. Tali and I would stay to the rear and use our special abilities to soften up the enemy: Tali hacking geth platforms and overloading their shields, me applying biotics to control the flow of battle. Wrex would set up biotic combinations for me whenever possible.

  The salarians departed for the approach to the front of Saren’s facility. Ashley strode confidently forward with Captain Kirrahe. She waved jauntily to us just before she disappeared.

  Grim and silent, we set out for our own objective.

  It took us about an hour of cross-country hiking to reach the back edge of Saren’s facility. This part of the trip seemed relatively safe. We marched along game trails and through deep woodland clearings for the most part, the jungle canopy concealing us from the air. Only during the last few minutes did we move exposed to the sky, and even there we had a high stone cliff between us and the enemy.

  Shepard stopped and sent a burst signal to Ash, telling her we had reached our jumping-off position. He waited for about two minutes, and then gave us all a hand signal. Time to begin our assault.

  We encountered light resistance at first: only a few geth platforms on foot, patrolling the perimeter in ones and twos. At one point three geth drones soared into the air and fired on us from a distance. None of this presented much difficulty.

  About ten minutes in, we reached the first small fortification, a two-story open-frame building with some kind of electronic equipment on the second floor. From a distance, we could see a geth fire-team guarding the place.

  “Tali, what does that look like to you?” asked Shepard.

  The quarian used binoculars to examine the fortification from our place of concealment. “I’d say it’s a triangulation tower. The geth must be using it for radio direction-finding and targeting.”

  “Hmm. Would you say that Kirrahe’s men would have an easier time of it if we took down that outpost?”

  Tali put away the binoculars and gave Shepard a measuring glance. “It couldn’t hurt.”

  “Start taking on side objectives and you’re likely to get bogged down,” said Wrex.

  “Sure, but in this case I think it’s worth it. The better the salarians can do against the front, the more likely the geth are to see that as the main push and get careless back here. Let’s take down that tower.”

  We did. It didn’t even take very long. The objective stood out in the open, with was plenty of open ground between us and the tower. Shepard and Garrus got to work with their sniper rifles while the rest of us watched. Eventually a squad of geth platforms came running into view and we all opened fire. The geth used cover well, but it didn’t do them much good once they came close enough for biotics. Wrex and I pulled struggling geth into the air for a few moments of target practice.

  We didn’t bother using explosives to destroy the tower. Tali designated critical points, and Shepard and Wrex applied their shotguns. The facility went out of commission
and we could move on.

  A few minutes later we found a similar structure, this time a satellite uplink facility. Once again we pulled the enemy out with sniper fire, and then cut them down with a massed attack. This facility had a krogan warrior among its defenders, but he foolishly charged us across open ground. By the time he reached us, he was so battered and torn that Wrex could take him down with a single shotgun blast.

  The salarians reported disrupted, weakened resistance. We were having an effect.

  “Come on,” Shepard ordered, leading us to the right. “Ash is complaining about geth drones, and she thinks they’re touching down in this direction to refuel. This could be a big help for Kirrahe.”

  Sure enough, we found a small landing platform placed by the shore, surrounded by fuel tanks, with four or five geth drones hovering nearby. These proved a more dangerous opponent, since several of them carried rockets and we had very little cover on the approach to their site.

  Luckily the approach curved around a cliff face, a massive pier of rock extending out between us and the refueling platform. We could conceal the size of our party behind that terrain feature. Shepard stepped out to fire at one of the fuel tanks, luring a drone into rising and flying in our direction. As the drone moved to follow him, it came around the cliff face into our massed fire.

  We repeated that stratagem several times, with great success. Only one of the rocket drones managed to fire into our party, forcing Garrus to dive frantically over a railing and into a sand dune. He came up spitting sand and looking furious. The rest of us very carefully refrained from laughing at him.

  We finished destroying the last fuel tanks and moved on. Again Shepard reported that Kirrahe’s men could see the effects of our work.

  Finally we approached the back wall of Saren’s compound. I saw a wide portico, with two obvious doors leading into different sections of the facility. No geth guarded these rear entrances, only krogan. After a few moments with our binoculars, we counted only three.

  “Shepard, I have an idea,” said Wrex as we hunkered down behind cover.

  “What is it?”

  “Think you and Garrus can take down the two guards to either side?”

  “Probably. One sniper rifle shot won’t take out a krogan warrior unless we get a perfect head-shot, but if Liara and Tali help we can probably do it quickly enough. What do you have in mind?”

  “The one in the middle. I know him. Name’s Khel Dachar. I fought with him once or twice over the past couple of centuries. I want to talk with him.”

  Shepard frowned. “Wrex, we don’t have time to negotiate. Kirrahe and his men are getting hammered out there. Ash is with them.”

  “Won’t take but a moment,” said Wrex.

  “All right, but if he isn’t willing to listen, and listen fast, we go straight through him. Understood?”

  “Wouldn’t have it any other way.”

  Shepard and Garrus set themselves up, and then fired simultaneously. The guards on either end of the both recoiled, but neither went down immediately. It took several moments of massed fire, all of us ignoring the krogan in the center, before our targets went down.

  “Check fire,” ordered Shepard. “Wrex, you’re on.”

  The third krogan had taken cover, searching for targets.

  “Dachar!” shouted Wrex. “Khel Dachar! You willing to parley?”

  Dachar’s head peeked out from behind his cover. “Who’s asking?”

  Wrex stood and walked out into the open, his hands empty of weapons. “It’s me, you stupid pyjak. Come out and talk a moment.”

  “Wrex?” The krogan stood up, but seemed unwilling to come out of cover entirely. “Urdnot Wrex? What the hell are you doing here?”

  “Fighting to save your sorry ass from the worst mistake you’ve ever made. What are you thinking, signing yourself over to Saren?”

  “What do you know about what he’s doing here?”

  “I know enough. I bet he’s made lots of promises to cure the genophage.”

  “That’s right. He can do it too. Soon he’s going to have an army, and we’re going to sweep across the galaxy like a storm. We’re going to make all of the other races pay for what they’ve done to us. It’s going to be glorious!”

  “Yeah?” Wrex lowered his head. “Prove it.”

  “What?”

  “Prove it, you useless piece of crap. How many females have littered here? How many healthy hatchlings have you seen?”

  Dachar’s jaws gaped and worked. He obviously wanted to respond, but he had nothing to say.

  “None and none, I’ll bet. Saren is always lots of talk, lots of promises, nothing to show for it. Maybe he’s managed to clone a few krogan to show off to idiots like you. Face it, Dachar, you got taken.”

  “No.” The krogan’s jaws snapped shut. “No. You’re trying to confuse me.”

  “You’re already confused. Come on. Why should you fight for Saren? Isn’t that the same mistake we krogan always make? Fight for the Council, fight for a few greedy warlords, fight for whatever jumped-up mercenary captain offers us a few credits. They always screw us over in the end. Isn’t it time we fought for something of our own for a change?”

  Dachar’s eyes narrowed suspiciously. “Maybe this is all about you, is that it? The great Urdnot Wrex, after all these centuries, still trying to get the krogan to turn their backs on war. Trying to turn us into soft creatures, helpless and weak. Useless!”

  Wrex shook his head. “You’re too far gone, aren’t you? Can’t see it, even when it’s staring you right in the face.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Never mind.” With no warning at all, Wrex drew his shotgun and charged.

  “Damn,” said Shepard, and leaped out of our cover to follow.

  We could do nothing. By the time we reached a position to act, Wrex leaped over the other krogan’s cover and the two of them were hotly engaged: shotgun, knife, tooth and claw. They tore at each other, Dachar roaring in rage, Wrex strangely silent. None of us could fire, for fear of hitting Wrex.

  Finally Wrex buried his combat knife in the other krogan’s throat and ripped it free in a spray of blood. Even that didn’t kill Dachar, but it caused him to fall back long enough for Wrex to bring his shotgun to bear at point-blank range. A single blast ended the fight. Wrex stood over the other krogan, breathing hard, and wiped his combat knife clean before returning it to the sheath.

  “What was that all about?” asked Shepard.

  “I had to see for myself. Dachar was always stupid, but at least he could think for himself once. Not anymore. He was indoctrinated. You were right, Shepard. Saren isn’t interested in helping the krogan. He’s just out to use us, like he uses everyone.”

  “What makes you think Saren doesn’t have a genophage cure after all?” I asked.

  Wrex snorted. “Liara, if Saren really had a cure for the genophage, you would know it. The whole galaxy would know it. The only thing I could think of is that maybe he has a cure, but hasn’t had enough time to raise an army to adulthood. Problem is, that wouldn’t take very long, and this place would be overrun with breeding females and hatchlings in the meantime.”

  “But Dachar hadn’t seen any,” said Garrus.

  “Right. Maybe Saren is working on a cure, but he doesn’t have it yet.”

  “He doesn’t really need it,” said Shepard. “All he has to do is promise a cure and get krogan warriors to come fight for him . . .”

  “And in a few days they’re indoctrinated, and it doesn’t matter to them anymore. They’ll believe in the promises forever.” Wrex gave Shepard a hot stare. “I’ve changed my mind. This place needs to be blown off the map.”

  “Roger that,” said Shepard quietly.

  * * *

  We hacked our way through a door into the facility. Inside we immediately found ourselves fighting more geth . . . and salarians.

  The geth presented no more challenge than usual. The salarians hurled themselves at our li
ne, unarmored and poorly armed, but terribly fierce. Even Shepard was shaken by the time the last of them went down.

  “Didn’t Captain Kirrahe say he had lost some men?” asked Tali.

  Soon we could solve the puzzle. We found a laboratory located right next to a detention area, where over a dozen salarian soldiers languished in bare cells. Most of the salarians failed to respond, but at the end of the row of cells we did find one who seemed to be in his right mind.

  “Well, you’re not geth and you’re not in a lab coat, so I guess I’m happy to see you,” said the salarian. “Lieutenant Gamto Imness, Third Infiltration Regiment STG. Captured when we tried to attack this place three days ago. Are you an infiltration team?”

  “That’s right,” said Shepard. “We’re working with Captain Kirrahe to deal with this facility.”

  “Good to hear. This is a terrible place. The experiments with krogan are bad enough, but the indoctrination is the real threat.”

  “You seem sane enough.”

  “Only in comparison,” said Imness. “I’m the experimental control. The boys in the other cells weren’t so lucky. They were exposed to the effect at short range and high intensity. It turned them into slaves for Saren. Mindless slaves at that.”

  “What are they doing in these labs?”

  “I don’t know. Studying the effects of the indoctrination, maybe?”

  “Why would Saren need to study the indoctrination if he already controls it?” asked Tali.

  “I don’t have enough data to guess,” said Imness. “Look, can you get me out of here? I really don’t want to end up like the rest of my team. I don’t know how much use I’d be in a fight . . .”

  Shepard stared at him for a moment, and then nodded and opened the cell door. “I think I trust you. We can’t take you along, but there’s a clear path back out of here.”

  “Run like lightning and hope to outrun the blast, eh? It’s a better chance than I had before. Thank you.”

  He fled, never looking back.

  Before we left, we opened all of the cell doors. The other salarians simply sat or stood in their cages, taking no notice of anything we did.