Thursday, July 12, 2012

Memories

She found him in the starboard observation lounge. He was half seated-half sprawled on the couch staring out the window. In one hand he held a half full glass, resting it on the back of the couch. The other rested across the small table that held a half-full bottle, a small but noticeable puddle, and a worn sealed photoframe. A quick look to either side confirmed he was the only one in the room.

She paused, not wanting to intrude, but he waved her with the hand on the table without as much as a glance in her direction. She took a step in and the door closed behind her, cutting her and the ball of blue swirling energy beside her off from the corridor.

She gazed out the window to see what he was staring at but only saw the expected blue-grey glow of the Citadel’s massive arms rotating in the background and the usual traffic of ships, shuttles, and tugs racing every which way like worker bees inside a hive. Glancing to his reflection, she realized that he wasn’t really looking out the window so much as staring off into nothingness.

The expression in that reflection—of a man haunted by Goddess only knows what demons—caused her normally chipper mood to fall into one of worry as she nervously brushed her hand over her crest. She bit her lip and just stood there for a moment, the deep silence of the room interrupted only by the soft hiss of the ventilation system, the buzz of lights and the singularity floating beside her, and the sound of her own breathing.

At last his eyes seemed to focus as the eyes in his reflection flickered to her.

“Is there something you needed, lieutenant?”

She blinked, confused. “I’m an ensign, Sir.”

“Not anymore, you’re not,” he said gruffly. “After your performance on the last couple of missions and the work you’ve done with the recruits, I’m bumping you to Lieutenant. I already put the orders through.”

She straightened to attention and despite herself a smile broke through. “Thank you, Sir!”

“You’re welcome. Now was there something you needed?”

“Just letting you know that Ritta and Nomi are settling into their quarters, Sir.”

“And the Drell?”

She shrugged. “I believe she has already left the ship for Omega, Sir, but I don’t know for sure.”

“Very well, lieutenant. Dismissed.”

She turned around and reached for the door controls when he spoke up again. “Lieutenant, did I ever tell you I was married once?”

Curiosity and surprise made the wide-eyed officer turn around. She had never pictured the cigar-smoking, whisky-drinking, womanizing man to have ever been married. A thousand questions came to mind but she only replied with “No, sir.”

He finally turned to face her, picking up the framed photo and tossing it to her. “It’s true. Even had a couple of kids. Imagine that.”

She caught the frame upside down with one blue-lavender hand. She turned it over and studied it. A photo of a young human woman with fiery red hair and freckles hugging two boys--one with red hair, the other with brown—all smiling for the camera rested within the well-worn frame.

“You said had? The reapers?” She ventured.

“No. Sanctuary,” came the sad, bitter response.

She gasped despite herself, her free hand going to her mouth in shock. Her mind raced with a million questions but none would come out.

He gave her a long sad look and then the words came tumbling out.

***

He had been with Cerberus for about five years, joining up after his tour as an alliance marine. During his time as a marine, he saw how little regard for humans the rest of the galaxy had for humanity and he saw Cerberus as a way to ensure a better galaxy for his sons. His experience as a marine, and his quick grasp of most things mechanical made him an obvious candidate for an atlas pilot and the role fit him like a glove.

He rose quickly in the enlisted ranks very quickly, and while some of the jobs he did left him with a slightly sour aftertaste, the pay and benefits were excellent.

Over the last few weeks though, a feeling of unease was starting to consume him. The missions were becoming more extreme and more troubling to his conscience; attacking civilians, sending out maydays and ambushing medical supply ships, raiding labs and stealing reaper tech. In addition, most of the non-mechanized troops had been getting new implants and that left them acting very different. Even people that had been close friends of his before the new implants seemed very different and something about them that he couldn’t quite put his finger on was giving him a case of the creeps.

His unit had so far managed to avoid the new implants but the commander of the squadron that included the ship he served on had made it clear their time was running out.

“You need to get these upgrades soon, or I’m going to have to ground you and take you before The Illusive Man, son. The order that all troops receive these upgrades came down directly from him,” the squadron commander had made a point to tell him face to face. “You know he doesn’t tolerate disloyalty.”

He had still been trying to figure out what to do when the Reapers invaded a few days later. Everything was thrown into chaos, and he thought he had slipped out of the Squadron commander’s radar.

It was only a few days after that when his unit was assigned to attack a Solarian base. He was just beginning to climb into his cockpit when his OT chimed with back-to-back urgent messages. The first one was from Cerberus intelligence telling him that intelligence had good reason to believe that the colony his wife and sons were on was a high risk target and that they were going to attempt to relocate them to somewhere called Sanctuary. The second message was from his wife, telling him she had a visit from some men from Cerberus warning her of an impending attack and that she and the boys were now on a ship to Sanctuary and that she would give him a message when she arrived. Each of his boys briefly wished him love and told him they missed him, and she gave him her love and then disconnected.

That was the last he ever heard from them.

The mission was a disaster. Though they eventually took the base, their casualty count was unreal and their targets managed to escape. It was a week before he made it back to the ship and over half his men were dead. Even then, the squadron had to land at a nearby Cerberus base for repairs. Worse he had not managed to reach his wife.

It was by chance he caught an episode of Battlespace detailing what was found on Horizon during a period of downtime during the repairs.

He went to confront the squadron commander. “You knew about this, didn’t you?”

The squadron commander smirked. “Of course I knew. You didn’t think that The Illusive man was going to let your treason go unchecked forever did you? Be grateful I don’t just shoot your fucking ass. Now get out of my office.”

He walked back to his ship in a cloud of pain and rage. Once inside he headed straight for the holding bay for his unit. On the way he met up with some of his men and a couple of other friends. He told them what happened and continued on his way. All of them followed him, some activating their omni-tools to send frantic messages. When he reached the hanger, he drew his sidearm and shot both door guards in the head before walking in. Within five minutes the Atlas bay was secured and he and the handful of men with him strolled out of the bay onto the planet in their mechs while inside the ship a fierce battle broke out as others of his unit and various friends, acquaintances, and, in some cases, enemies who had family likewise transferred to Sanctuary staged a coup on their unsuspecting shipmates.

None of the landed ships had their shields up, and none of the Cerberus personnel ever dreamed that they would be attacked by their own. That laxness allowed the pilot and his followers to march right up inside the open hanger bay of the squadron’s flagship before anyone realized anything was wrong. By then it was too late.

The pilot flipped his mech’s arm up. Behind him five more mechs did the same. Alarms rang throughout the ship as targeting systems painted the ship from the inside. One after the next, six missiles plowed into the ship carving deeper and deeper, until the entire ship was burning stern to bow. The pilot guided his mech through the hole shooting at anything that moved, using the claw to pull his Atlas up deck by broken deck until he reached the command center.

The squadron commander hid behind the wreckage of the central map with a pair of troopers and fired off rounds at the atlas. The pilot gunned them down with the cannon and then picked the commander up with the claw bringing him close to the canopy so he and the commander could see eye to eye as the claw slowly crushed him to death.

The crews of other ships and the base itself figured out what was going on by that point. Some of the ships surrendered immediately when they realized how vulnerable they were but two more were destroyed and most were damaged before the fighting stopped. The base held out longer, but fell within a day when the pilot ordered sent the combined forces of the surviving ships troopers, centurions, and Atlas mechs at their defenses.

What he found when his men poured through the datafiles of the ruined flagship and the captured base confirmed his worst fears about not only about the danger presented by anyone with the new implants (or anyone indoctrinated by any means for that matter) but also about the fate of his family.

***

“Now you know why I do what I do,” the man said.

The young Asari listened quietly as he finished his tale. She tried to keep composure but the raw emotion that poured forth from her commanding officer was hard to ignore and tears threatened at the corners of her eyes.

Part of her wanted to hug him. Another part of her wanted to tell him it would all be alright someday. Another part of her wanted to cry. Instead she settled for softly saying, “I wish there was something I could do to ease your pain.”

The man gave a grim smile. “There is. Help me find and kill the bastard.”

The lieutenant smiled. It was a savage predatory smile, totally unlike her normal self. “Absolutely.”

“One more thing, before you go. Please keep this conversation between us.”

“Of course, Sir.”

The pilot nodded to her. “Thank you, lieutenant that is all.”

The young Asari turned and left the lounge hurrying toward her quarters. She had a lot to think about.