Mass Effect - A Hero Rises Ch. 53

Book 3, Chapter 4 - Watch the Fires Burn

*****

Palaven was burning, that much was clear. I hadn't seen all of what the Reapers had done to Earth. We'd left barely an hour or two after they'd arrived. I figured what we could see on Palaven was what was happening to Earth. The turian fleets were outmatched, watching their ships absolutely pounded by the Reaper ships.

As soon as we were in shuttle range, Vega, Liara and I boarded, Cortez at the controls, the three of us watching the screens. Vega and I watched stony faced, Liara wearing her heart on her sleeve a little more. She might be the Shadow Broker, but she'd always had that side to her personality. I reached across and gave her hand a gentle squeeze. "This is just the beginning," she muttered.

"We get the Primarch, hold the summit, then we start the fight back."

"Damn fucking right, Commander," Vega added.

Leaning back, I glanced back at the screens. "If Palaven is copping it like this though, how bad is Earth? We know the turians have the biggest navy, more ships than us, yet it doesn't look good already."

"Turians know how to fight, Commander. And they never back down," Vega stated.

"True, but I do wonder what tactics they'll use. The Reapers are like an enemy they've never faced before. I just hope they don't throw everything and the kitchen sink at them immediately, leaving themselves nothing for later. Guess we'll find out once we hit the ground."

We continued to watch the screens until Cortez announced we were approaching the LZ. I'd been on more than one moon. I'd been to Luna more than once. Going to the moon near Earth was no longer a big event. Millions had now visited it. Heading to one of Saturn's moons was always special, as it was the home of N-program training. I didn't know all that much about Menae. I'm sure it probably held a pride of place to the turians, just like our own moon.

"Commander, LZ is hot."

"Set us down, Cortez. We can handle it. Liara, get your biotics firing. I'll run amok as always. Vega, mow the fuckers down."

As soon as the door opened, husks appeared from everywhere. Vega, carrying what was basically an LMG (light machine gun) opened fire, Liara fired a singularity into the middle of a pack of husks and I biotically charged, detonating an enormous explosion that sent husks flying and left me slightly deafened. It helped thin their numbers, Liara and Vega able to step off the shuttle, hearing the engines fire and Cortez take off immediately.

We knew there was a base nearby. I would have preferred landing inside it, but apparently it was taking serious fire and our shuttle would have made an easy target. We wiped out the husks quickly, checked weapons and armour, and moved on. Thankfully, having wiped out all the husks, between us and the nearby fort, there was open ground. It gave us an opportunity to look up and take in what we could see. Palaven was... on fire. The sheer size must have been staggering. Entire cities appeared to be in flames. The size of some Reapers beggared belief. Sovereign had been large, but a few of the Reapers were simply enormous. I wondered how we could possibly take one down. I would never vocalise those sort of fears. If I had an air of negativity, it would only seep into those around me. I knew I would have to remain positive in front of everyone.

Noticing two of were Alliance, the fort was open for us to enter. Asking who was in charge, we were told to speak to General Corinthus. He was in conference with his subordinates, and I knew enough to let him issue his orders before interrupting. The turians were fighting for their lives. A small part of me even thought I was asking a favour too far. The turians were watching their own homeworld burn in front of their eyes. But I knew my idea, that of a grand fleet, was probably the right idea. Better fighting together than trying to do it alone. We didn't stand a chance that way.

"General Corinthus," I said once he was alone.

The turian glanced my way, looked me up and down. Noticed the armour. The N7 insignia on my chest. Probably recognised the face too. "Commander Shepard. I received word you were coming."

"That's good. I assume you know why I'm here."

"I've got news for you already, Commander. Primarch Fedorian is dead."

"What?"

"He was caught in the first wave of Reaper attacks. Man went down bravely with his men, but at the moment, I'm in the dark. No communications with Palaven Command."

"Why not?"

"Communications tower is out, and as you can probably see, I don't have the manpower to re-establish a link."

"Right, we'll sort that out, you get onto Palaven Command, and find out who the next Primarch is. That's what I need going forward."

Corinthus looked at me again. "I understand it's some sort of summit?"

"Correct. I can see you're getting battered. So are we. So it's obvious to my eye that doing this separately won't work. The Reapers will just make us bleed."

Corinthus snorted. "At least someone sees the reality. You get that link back up, I'll get who you need, Commander."

"Where's the tower?"

"Half a click south-west. I had a small team protecting it. No doubt they're dead."

"I'll sort it out." I opened my omni-tool and keyed a few commands. "Keep in contact, let me know if you need or hear anything."

The three of us headed out the other gate. It was definitely no mans land between the gate and the tower. We passed by more than one turian body, and a lot more Reaper monsters. We made it to the tower without facing any opposition, and considering Vega and I had few technical abilities, we sent Liara up to sort it out. Vega and I set ourselves, taking out my assault rifle, waiting for the enemy to appear.

They did, in significant numbers. I stayed in place, firing precisely, each husk taking a shot in the head, while Vega simply unloaded his LMG, smashing the husks to pieces. None of them got close enough to even cause us a moment of concern. Liara had the tower finished quickly, appearing beside us with his SMG, and the three of us moved slowly backwards. Thankfully, a team of turians appeared at our side helping our withdrawal, all of us making it back through the gate into relative safety.

I asked Vega and Liara to wander around, assess the situation, as I headed back to Corinthus. Now that the link was established, he was being inundated with information. I waited as patiently as I could, catching his eye more than once. "These things take time to sort out, Commander," he stated, "There is a plan of succession, but with the number of dead already, they're trying to figure out who's in charge."

"Look, I don't care if he's some ancient fart who spends most of his time dribbling at the conference table. I just need someone at the summit."

I heard the bark of laughter behind me. A familiar sound. "Shit, Shepard, you haven't changed a bit, have you?"

I whirled around to see Garrus leaning against a railing, appearing relaxed. Soon as our eyes met, I stepped forward, hand outstretched, which he accepted immediately. "Should have known you'd be here, Garrus."

"Fighting monsters appears to be a habit."

Then something happened that definitely amused me. Corinthus came to attention and saluted Garrus. "Apologies, sir. I didn't see you there."

I looked between Corinthus and Garrus, no doubt my face a picture. "Don't ask, Shepard. I can tell you all about it later. Let's just say that, after the Collectors, I spoke to my father, and he opened plenty of doors for me."

"Enough to have Corinthus salute you."

"Sort of. It's a long story. Anyway, I received word about your arrival. General, do you have word on who the new Primarch is?"

"Yes, Palaven Command have figured it out. General Victus is the new Primarch."

Garrus definitely nodded approvingly. "Victus? Good man. Definitely someone you'll like, Shepard. Doesn't tolerate bullshit. The men love him. He's unconventional. Therefore, his superiors don't like him. They don't like free thinkers."

"I don't care who it is. But if he has your seal of approval, I'm sold."

"Even better news for you, Shepard, is that he's on Menae."

"I'm trying to raise him now, Vakarian, but communications are still patchy."

"Our best bet is to go grab the man himself," Garrus suggested, "But it's a slog to get there."

"As long as he's alive, Garrus, I don't care what we have to do."

Before we could even agree on tactics to go and find Victus, Garrus pointing out that the General was based in another fort a couple of clicks away, Joker reported in over the radio that something was wrong back on the Normandy. Not sure what it was about, but he mentioned EDI being on the fritz. I didn't really need to deal with that at the moment, and I had no-one who could really deal with it. Liara offered her services, but I wanted her on the ground. "Joker, just deal with it until we're back."

"What if she's finally becoming the overlord we all feared she was?"

"Well, then, fight her off as best you can. Just keep the Normandy in orbit as we'll need a quick departure once we have the Primarch." I heard him groan over the radio but he'd been given his orders. I looked at Liara. "I want you down here. Whatever is going on up there can wait until we get back. I trust EDI enough to know she's not trying to take over the ship."

When it rains, it pours, the only saying goes. Just as I clicked off the link with Joker, there were sirens blaring, noticing turians run towards the walls of the fort. Asking one of the turians that passed by, he yelled a massive Reapers force was approaching. I shared a glance with my three colleagues and we immediately headed to the barricades.

Not just husks. Reaper monsters that looked like turians approached, Garrus muttering he'd already killed more than he'd care to remember. And then there were the huge brutes. Vega took over one of the machine guns and opened fire. Liara and I focusing on our biotics. I still didn't have the fine control needed for warps, lifts and throws, but I could do enough to send a warp into the singularities she formed, detonating enormous explosions in the middle of a gaggle of Reaper monsters more than once. The brutes were a bitch to take down, Vega seeming to put hundreds of bullets into it before it went down.

Once the firing subsided a good hour later, I headed straight to Corinthus, let him know we would be heading to Victus straight away, and if he could get a message to him, letting him know we were coming, I'd be grateful. "I'll do what I can, Commander, but the comm links are still patchy at best. He probably doesn't even know his own status right now except the fact he's still alive. Hopefully."

"Well, we can arrive with some good news for once."

"Good luck, Commander."

It was a long slog towards the next FOB, more than a couple of clicks, though thankfully we only ran into smaller Reaper patrols. As we walked, we couldn't help look up and watch the destruction of turian ships. The Reapers seemed to barely take a scratch in return, dreadnoughts unloading everything in their arsenal not seeming to even penetrate the shields of the bigger Reaper machines. Smaller Reapers took damage but we didn't hang around long enough to see any of them destroyed.

We did locate a few turian survivors on the way to the next base but we passed by far more dead than alive. Garrus muttered under his breath more than once but we all knew the score. A lot of humans, turians and other races were going to lose a lot of people, hundreds of thousands if not millions, before the war was even close to finished.

The air battle was vicious and we saw more than one fighter go down in flames. One of them flew over our heads, landing ahead of us. By the time we made it to the crash site, most of the flames had extinguished and there was little recognisable in the twisted metal. The pilot wouldn't have lived, and we didn't particularly want to go looking for his or her charred remains.

Reaching the next base, we could hear the battle taking place, see the gunfire and then the explosion that must have knocked plenty of soldiers off their feet. Breaking into a jog, we reached the gates, finding them twisted and broken, heading inside to find the turians on the back foot as Reaper monsters were flooding in from everywhere.

With shotgun immediately in hand, I wasted no time charging at the nearest monster, sending it flying with a blast of my shotgun at the same time. The next few minutes of my life were as hectic as I could remember, Liara and I combining our biotic talents to make mincemeat of the weaker monsters, but the bigger Reaper brutes packed their own punch and required some thought about how to take down.

No idea where Garrus was but even I could hear the crack of his sniper rifle over all the noise. James wasn't a biotic but he had no problem getting up close and personal. I couldn't charge constantly as it was exhausting, eventually switching to my assault rifle, both of us falling back alongside the other turians, and we laid waist. Liara mixed up biotics and gunplay. It seemed to take forever, but the Reaper incursion broke in the face of our firepower.

Then the airstrike came in, a field of flame lighting up ground nearby. It was so close, we felt the heat of the flames even on the other side of the wall. But it was the right move to make. I'd have done the same thing if it protected the base.

What amused me is that Garrus immediately took control the situation, calling in medics to treat the wounded, putting soldiers on walls to report in any enemy movements, even sending soldiers beyond the walls to mop up any resistance missed by the airstrike. But we were all confident that we'd given ourselves breathing space, so now it was a case of finding Victus.

No surprise Garrus and Victus already knew each other, and it was obvious to me that Victus was already highly ranked as even someone like Garrus was deferential and respectful towards him. It was amusing compared to the turian I was used to dealing with, who generally railed against any sort of real authority. But I learned rather quickly that he and Victus were cut from the same cloth.

We let Victus organise his men, sending off a flurry of messages to any units in the vicinity. Wanted to know the casualty and kill lists, and upon hearing the numbers, I'd been around enough turians to know what he was told hurt. I'd been fortunate enough to lose only a few under my command, but I still carried them with me. Victus was already receiving reports where casualties numbered likely higher than any conflict he'd fought in before.

"General," Garrus said.

Only then did Victus seem to notice our presence. "Vakarian," he said with a nod before he glanced at myself and colleagues. "Humans. Alliance. And an asari? To whom do I owe the pleasure?"

I saluted. "Commander Shepard, sir. This is Lieutenant Vega and Doctor T'Soni."

"Shepard? Certainly know the name." He offered his hand, accepting it immediately. "Nice to finally see the face. But I know you're not here to swap war stories. You'd only show up on this barren rock for a reason."

"Sir, Primarch Fedorian is dead," Garrus informed him, "According to the line of succession, you are the new Primarch."

"And it is your voice I need at the summit that will provide the leadership required to help organise the fight against the Reapers," I added, "We can't do this separately. Only together can we defeat the Reapers."

"Fedorian is dead?" Victus asked. Garrus just nodded. Victus placed his hands on the table in front of him. "And they want me to... be our voice? Lead billions of turians in the fight against the Reapers?" To my amusement, he started to laugh. "Spirits, they're going to hate that. I'm a soldier. I can't tolerate politicians and their bullshit."

"Then, as far as I'm concerned, sir, you're absolutely perfect for the role," I said, "I've spent six months twiddling my thumbs while bureaucrats talked endlessly and then just about ignored the threat. The Council are taking a 'wait and see' approach. That won't buy time. It will just give the Reapers opportunity to take us out, one by one."

"I need time to organise my men, Shepard. I can't just up and leave."

"Transport can be organised, sir. We're nothing if not prepared for any eventuality," Garrus stated.

Victus checked his omni-tool. "When is this summit convening, Shepard?"

"To be honest, no idea yet, sir. The asari were making noises to suggest they would attend. No idea regarding the salarians. Humanity will be there, and it was figured if anyone would join us, it would be the turians."

He snorted. "Guess we are war-loving bastards. Okay, give me time to sort all this mess out, Shepard. Vakarian, will you be remaining here or... well, I'm aware you've assisted Shepard before?"

Garrus looked at me. I returned a blank face. "What? No sarcastic remark, Shepard?"

"I'm sure the gun batteries need calibrating, Garrus."

He sighed. Victus returned a confused look. Vega called in the shuttle as, after a last few words with Victus, we left him to organise his troops. I'll admit, a little part of me didn't like the idea of taking him away from his men. Garrus told me a little more about him, and the more I learned, the better I felt about the fact that he was now the Primarch. If anyone was going to be capable of butting heads and getting the species of the galaxy to work together, it might just be him.

Back on the Normandy, Kelly was down in the shuttle bay to greet us upon returning. Vega gave me a glance before he wandered over to the bench, where he'd start stripping our weapons down, ready for the next mission. She greeted Garrus with a friendly hello, kissed my cheek, then reported in what happened with the ship while we were gone.

"EDI isn't saying much but something was amiss," she said.

"Joker try anything?"

"Talked to her. EDI said everything was in order, nothing to worry about."

"Traynor? She seems to have a good rapport with her."

"Same thing. Admiral Hackett has already been on the comm, asking for a status report."

"I'll speak to him before anything else. We'll be in orbit around Menae for a few more hours. Fedorian is dead. We have a new Primarch instead."

"I know, Shepard. I was kept in the loop with what was going downstairs."

"Ah..."

She kissed my cheek again. "You should go speak to Hackett. Then head upstairs for a wash. Looking a little dirty." Definitely smirked with a raised eyebrow. "Yes, I will join you. No, not for sex. Not yet."

"Nothing has changed, Shepard!" Garrus exclaimed.

"I didn't see him for at least four months, Garrus. Trust me, he's going to be fucking me a lot to make up for it."

"Was it like this all the time before?" Liara whispered to Garrus.

The question made my turian friend burst into laughter, which answered her question. "Liara, I think it's obvious what relationship we share," Kelly replied, "And I remember a certain asari making certain noises..."

I glanced as Liara cleared her throat, trying to look stern, but the colour in her cheeks hinted at a little embarrassment. When in private, Liara would allow herself off a self-imposed leash. But though Garrus had an idea of what we sometimes got up to, Kelly did like to divulge information which some might have found a little embarrassing.

Heading up to the CIC level, it was heartening to see the place so busy, remembering it was a fully functioning warship once again. I'd already dismissed the soldiers who had been positioned at the biometric scanner leading into war room, while switching off the scanner itself. Before walking into the QEC room, I was handed a pile of datapads by the crew working the war room. I already figured out what most of them would contain, placing them down before moving on.