Path book 1 Igor chapter 10-1

Chapter 10. The clouds are gathering.

Igor (Mendoir, June-July 2366)

Holidays, vacations... Just as I was happy about this time in my previous life, now everything has faded away, there is no joy at all. There is a movement at school, there are comrades and mentors, there is new knowledge and friends with common interests. On vacation, there is silence and emptiness, only hunting, fishing, open-air performances with Excitement and an album, and exhausting morning workouts with my grandfather and like-minded people.

Five years have passed since I performed my stupid feat at the ferry. I doubt that this can be attributed to my achievements, but I became the star of the school. A difficult, exhausting role... for six months, for some reason, the whole school considered it normal to come up and ask: "Hey, Shepard, what does it feel like to be a hero?" We calmed down only after I had to loudly promise trouble to my fans, and then deliver a few harmless but painful blows with water spheres to the fastest ones.

That year Denis flew to Earth. To the Zhukovsky cadet school. Then, in the summer, the exam tests came, and my brother, in the presence of the governor of the colony, as a guarantor of the honesty of the exam, solved them all, and perfectly. How Bina roared when we saw him off — that's when it became clear that she wasn't at all indifferent to Denis, and azari, it turns out, are able to hide their emotions from empaths! Although I didn't really read it as empathy. I only use empathy when working when the patient's psyche needs to be restored. But the further you go, the more interesting it gets — blue ladies are not very simple... And they know how to use pheromones, and they treat you so that you get pumped.

And so, for five years now, my brother has been gnawing at the granite of naval science. He's coming back for the holidays soon. Cadet or not— it's already Second Lieutenant Denis Shepard. Alexey followed him the following year, so both of my older brothers are future officers of the Alliance Air Force. Denis has a year of combat training ahead of him, and at the end of it he will receive an appointment. Although he is the second best student in the course, he has every chance of receiving the shoulder straps of the first lieutenant after graduation. There is a good chance that by the time of the invasion, he may well reach the rank of rear admiral. There are many events ahead — one Skillian blitz is worth it. His grandfather told him to apply to join the Fifth Fleet, which is the most belligerent fleet in the Alliance, which means that both experience and ranks are there in the first place. However, you can easily lay down your head...my brother asked if the cadet's opinion was taken into account during the distribution? My grandfather replied that for the top ten in academic performance, they take it into account. Although many blockheads are asking to join the Second Fleet. We had a good conversation last year, and my grandfather told us a lot of interesting things back then....

"Those cretins from the Second Fleet!" He was saying. "Who needs these parquet soldiers? Why, the metropolitan Defense Fleet, the best ships, the best crews... blah blah blah! Yeah, now!"

"What are you doing, Arthur?" Grandma answered. "You were the commander of this fleet yourself...."

"Yes... and I remember that time with a shudder — I killed two years trying to make soldiers out of this meat, and I didn't achieve anything! During the naval exercises, they were unable to withstand even the Fourth Fleet, Liv. Patrol officers on frigates and corvettes smashed the heavy cruisers to smithereens. They took out the decks to the carriers and left without losing a single ship conditionally destroyed. What if the Second Fleet runs into someone stronger than the Batarian pirates? With the same Turians, for example! Yes, the Seventh Fleet of the Hierarchy will pass through our Second Fleet and will not notice!"

Denis sat in silence and, I felt, was very surprised. The beauty and pride of the Terran MSF turned out to be complete bullshit.... Then I remembered the beginning of the third game-how the Reapers went through the metropolitan defense fleet as if it didn't exist. A short contact, and only a pile of burning debris falls to Earth from orbit.

"Grandfather, what about the border guards? The Eighth and Ninth fleets of the Alliance have good performance," Alexey asked.

"The good ones are good! But you won't get used to it, with your attitude towards the xenos, and especially with your friendship with the Turians."

"But why?"

"Border guards are still xenophobes. A forge of personnel for Cerberus. Damn fascists, it's not nighttime to remember them! Don't ask to go there, or you'll get there."

"Well, they're dealing with Batarian pirates and other galactic trash." Denis tried to intercede for the border guards.

"Are the Fifth and Fourth Fleets polishing space? Do you know, my grandchildren, that the pirate clans of Terminus are already almost half human? And how many people among the mercenaries are of the same Eclipse? Almost a third already! And how the loyalty test goes in the Eclipse is generally a byword!"

"Maybe you're praising the Fifth Fleet because you spent most of your service there yourself? Yes, and Uncle Steve is the chief of staff there, and in general, they openly call him Russian, and we are Russians!"

"Maybe that's why... or maybe it's because I've never seen such a mess as on the Second One, not even in the largest free state, the First Fleet. And that, in comparison with the Second One, is an exemplary order. Although the fleet of long-range reconnaissance and covert operations, with a long separation from the bases, there is no way without freedom. You'll go crazy with fatigue if you spend six months in a tin can side by side. You, Leshka, will be quite appropriate there, with your adventurous nature — so you can ask to go there, just not to the border guards!

"But there is no faith in Cerberus and its leader. You know, this asshole doesn't care about humanity — he's only interested in power. Personal unlimited power — and he goes to it, not disdaining any methods. grandma inserted a monologue into the grandfathers. — You're kind of upset, Arthur. Sit down and have a cup of tea, otherwise you're blushing all over.

"Ah, ah!" grandfather waved his hand. "The "Exo-Geni" have moved, this "nursing mother" and "drinking father" for Cerberus." They're having a row with RM and promising problems. Recently, their representatives stated at the Alliance Congress that RM's international programs endanger the interests of humanity. They're probably passing off their own or Cerberus' interests as the interests of humanity.... What do you say, Liv? What does your hacker support service say?"

"In the winter, Mendoir flashed on pirate and mercenary forums, but now it's gone. It's strange... they talk about any colonies, but not about us. It's very similar to a distraction operation."

"I agree, Liv. Something began to smell rotten. Did you warn the governor?"

"Of course, he knocked out another corvette from the corporation, so we have three of them now."

"We could use a couple of Turian corvettes, and then any pirate would wash up. And the guys will have a hard time on our shells, although Vitya is an intelligent group commander and knows his job perfectly well. Eh..." the grandfather sighed. "They know how to build warships with scallops, not like our blue ladies... don't be offended, Azat!"

"Come on, Grandpa! That's what the whole galaxy calls us.... We've already gotten used to it."

"What about us?" Bina squeaked from Denis's armpit.

"And you girls know how to build beautiful, huge, unwieldy flying coffins."

"But what about the cruise ships of the Belaya Zvezda class?"

"Vasenka, honey, don't confuse civilian and military products! These are, without a doubt, completely different things. There are no complaints about your civilian equipment at all, except for the price! And your race can't build warships... and you're not much of a fighter, if you'll excuse my bluntness."

"But, Admiral Arthur, sir! But what about the landing?"

"Bina, my child, you can't win a war by amphibious assault, especially since how many troops do you have? According to the latest data, there are eleven divisions. That's just over 120,000 paratroopers-on 56 worlds and 42 billion people! Yes, we only have about one and a half million troops... and the infantry units of the planetary defense, and the colonial militia, and there are also special police units. To put it all together, there are more than 20 million fighters for a total of 19 billion people in all the worlds. I'm not talking about Turians at all — they have a tenth of the population in the army, and the rest have received good training in it. Even the girls, although they are not accepted into the army units to serve. If there is a big fight in the galaxy, who will fight for your Republic? Cabaret dancers or demimonde ladies? Or maybe T'Loak's Aria with Eclipse? They say she's the former lover of Councilor Tevos, so it's possible."

"But, Admiral..."

"Oh, Binochka, Binochka... People have a good proverb: "A nation that doesn't want to feed its army will either feed someone else's or feed worms!" Your biotics mentor, whatever her name is.... Noirin Haren, it seems, complained that the recruitment was bad — the Azari did not join the army. Those who are poorer prefer to become either a dancer or a gang, and those who are richer prefer to go anywhere but to the army. Just imagine — a mighty enemy will come into our space, whatever that archaeologist of yours called them... Dr. T'Soni, I think... The Reapers. Who will the Republic meet them with? There was a heavy silence. And my grandfather remembers that show, it turns out!

By the way, Dr. Seleznev flew to our village from the Soviet Union for permanent residence and his daughter's name is Alice. Awesome. But like me, she lathered up not to the medical institute, but to the Zhukovsky cadet school.

It's late morning. I'm sitting with my group with fishing rods on the shore, it's already hot, the fish won't bite. A crowd of elementary school students stomps by, singing our guerrilla song.

They look at us, smile, wave, and we wave back. At the head of the column is their classmate, a cheerful blonde girl, Svetlana Tkachuk, our school entertainer, the head of the amateur theater group and a teacher of rhetoric. Al Hartman walks beside her, full of importance. Joseph sent him to look after the youngsters, he has two younger twin sisters in the column. His face, however, is sour, and his feelings are melancholy. He looked at us, smiled weakly, and we showed him clenched fists — be strong, muchachos! (guys) He just rolled his eyes in response. Two weeks with a little bit, br-r-r!

I remember last year, when we were invited to the same event. Well, the class leader, the best magician of the school, an excellent student and blah blah blah, should show the younger ones by his own example what a real colonist should be. Igor, we hope for you, show class! I was outraged by this assignment to the limit — I thought I would start breathing fire. It's good that Sayomha noticed, came up, hugged, and reassured. As a result, I took Azanti and Nasar, Al Hartman and his girlfriend Aliska, two of our Turians, and Feron, and went on a guerrilla mission. Everything went well, in general. Instead of two ropes, there is now a normal suspension bridge on metal cables at the ferry. So it's difficult to fly away from it.

There were guys in the column a year younger than us, their faces are serious, Ivan leads the column. He struts with such an important air that don't come near — of course, mentors, instructors, don't fuck around! The blue-skinned Noirin closes the column, her protruding tummy is already clearly visible, our magic instructor will become a mom very soon — what a guerrilla she just went! That's responsible, of course, the kids are in the wilderness, without proper supervision, with a very kind Svetlana, there's no order!

Noirin came to replace her former mentor, who had problems in her family and urgently needed to leave for Tassia. The whole clan seemed to be going to bury her sister. Noirin, a blue-skinned former paratrooper who has a bioprosthesis instead of her right leg, with her cheerful and easy character, instantly fit into the school team, becoming a universal favorite. She quickly became friends with the entertainer Sveta and became a real mascot of the school's magic team.

She was an excellent coach, even if she was harsh and demanding, but I really liked her approach and methods — a kind of mother commander: I'd tear anyone's mouth off for my own, but I wouldn't let myself down. It's a pity, but I took everything she could give me from her a year ago. I still remembered a lot from my past lives. With my engineering education, trained spatial thinking, and years of working with drawings of varying degrees of complexity, it turned out to be easier to memorize linear force constructs. Of course, this is true only with my combat mode — other girls puff for a long time and will puff for a long time. As it turned out, all these gestures are absolutely unnecessary... except as an auxiliary tool. What is important is to accurately determine the distance to the target. But visors do a great job with this. And snipers like Garrus like to carry visors on themselves. Look out, determine the distance, form an impact, fill it with power — and now the singularity is hanging over the enemy's head, and he is being dragged there with terrible force. However, as the distance increases, the degree of control of the structures decreases, so far I have a radius of only 300-350 meters, when the Noirin is up to one and a half kilometers.

It is very important in biotics to correctly and quickly solve spatial equations in your mind in order to form and fill with power — that's brain-bending mathematics. This is exactly what most biotics need implants for. Well, an ordinary person doesn't have a computer in their brain to solve double integrals in their mind, and they don't have the time, like azari, to learn! So they put dangerous gadgets in their heads to make life easier for biotics. The same controversial L2 is a great chip ... only it doesn't have a limiter for work, and it's just hard for a child to stop, and instead of winning, it turns out to be a sensitive and mental overload, a terrible migraine, or even a catatonic stupor. Instead of a fighter, the army and the family get a semi-paralyzed disabled person — a tragedy for everyone! It is good that, under public pressure, the implant was modified by installing a limiter and getting a less powerful, but safe L2n carrier. Yes, now I understand why Alenko was such a bore and a pedant. With L2, it's only with this mindset that you can work normally. Oh, it's a good thing I don't need an implant!..