Eyes part 1. chapter 15

Chapter 15 Ashley

Now the pilgrimages will begin. Yes, now it is necessary to close access to the camp to all outsiders. Kayden, he may have sharply expressed his displeasure about this, but he's right! It's not a camp, it's some kind of passageway! This means that it will be necessary to assemble a platoon and carry out some explanatory work. A lot has changed, too much. It is quite possible that a container for the Lighthouse could have been sent from the frigate directly here to the camp, but... they acted differently — they sent the Lighthouse on a suspension to the frigate. Yes, it's risky, yes, it's unsafe, but...

In all likelihood, the military personnel who arrived on the frigate, even if they are intelligence officers, are specialists who are accustomed to solving such situations correctly, quickly and accurately. The Lighthouse is probably already at the frigate and it is being loaded into a container, which will then end up in the hold of a warship.

No, it's still interesting. Yes, it's an order, yes it's the will of the Citadel Council, the governing body for several races that are quite ancient compared to humanity. Alien races. She, Ashley Williams, cringes every time, albeit imperceptibly, when she thinks that humanity has finally become convinced of its non-exclusivity as a carrier of reason. It was cruel, but it proved to be true. These Turians, Salarians, Asari, and all the others, numbering over a dozen... are difficult subjects to interact with.

It is also good that she is on a planet that has been handed over to humanity. There are relatively few aliens here, and they are not the hosts, but the guests. The other space infantry units of the division were much less fortunate, as Williams knew, they were stationed on planets where humans were no longer the main, key race. Yes, humanity has engaged in active colonization, but so far these have been only the first steps. And now...

Now these steps may not be ahead. Because there are not many years of relative peace ahead, but war. A war, it's scary to think, on a galactic level. Not some completely ordinary situation of military confrontation between two, three, or five races, but a war with an enemy who came to the Galaxy from outside. If this enemy has a lot of such ships... it will be very difficult to stand up and even more difficult to win.

The soldiers of her platoon were almost unharmed. So, several slightly wounded, two or three soldiers received moderate injuries. Doctors— military and civilian, will do everything to bring them back into service as soon as possible. The usual situation.

With archaeologists... it's more difficult. As Williams felt, they were ready to relocate. Let. Her platoon fulfilled its main task — it protected the archaeologists who excavated the Lighthouse. Of course, they tried to study the find as best they could and as well as they could, but... This artifact is too unusual. And impregnable. We couldn't understand or learn much. And the fact that they understood... was alarming.

The lighthouse... still showed the clever archaeologists a very short recording. Video recording — you can define it that way. A terrible record. Which could also be considered a documentary record of the beginning of some kind of conflict between the races — there have been few of them in the last few thousand years. But there was something else in this record presented by Mayak: a conflict... of a galactic, general galactic level. Yes, several races are shown that bear little resemblance to the currently known and actually existing ones. That's why those people who watched this video realized that we are talking about races that are now extinct.

Or rather, those who died in the fire of that very galactic conflict. Confrontation with a strong, extragalactic enemy. Ashley saw this recording. She's seen it several times. Under different circumstances. Yes, the recording is... scary. And now... now, after the archaeologists and the soldiers of her platoon, and she herself, witnessed a battle between an Earth scout frigate and a Reaper that was considered a figment of the sick imagination of a drunken intelligent organic, after an attack on the camp's inhabitants by frenzied, unknowingly reprogrammed drones, after she saw several people — and civilians, and military personnel who have gone mad as a result of an impact unknown to Earth science... She understood that these were all just the first chords of an impending catastrophe in the galaxy.

Remembering the details of what had happened-all sorts of details that had not yet been brought together into a stable unity, she understood that both Lieutenant Alenko, who had arrived at the camp, and his three escorts were policemen.... They experienced a moment that... hardly a large number of Earthlings were ready to survive normally. The recording from the Lighthouse and its contents acquired a special meaning and significance for Williams. There is a war ahead. Real, big, complex. And — long — lasting... Very long-lasting. If you have to fight with such an enemy who has... such ships... it will be difficult. It's very difficult and difficult. To everyone. To all reasonable organics. Not just people.

If such a thing is... ahead... she understands very well now why Kayden was so cruel. Ashley remembered his fist wrapped in a biotic glow and now realized that Kayden was surprisingly calm at that moment. There was no anger in him, there was no irritation in him. He was just... just doing everything he could to solve the problem. May be... It can't be, but it sure is... Sure enough, he was tense, agitated. But he didn't want to kill other intelligent organics. I didn't want to kill yet. Biotic. The biotic officer. The lieutenant. One of those who serves on the Normandy, who somehow managed to bring the Reaper, who was known until recently as an obscure legend, to the planet. As the locals who came to the camp told a little later, the Earth warship was helped to lay the Reaper by a strange, unprecedented activity of the local infrastructure — the same, for example, energy storage. Ashley had also heard that climate control also played a role. She hadn't known before that it was possible to use quite ordinary units in such a non-standard way in order to immobilize such a giant. How many meters were there in it "from the top to the heels"? "One kilometer, two kilometers?" Quite possibly two.

Ashley Williams was clearly and fully aware of the fact that this ship, which suddenly appeared over the planet and landed, was simply huge. Few Alliance cruisers would be able to attack the Reaper in space. And here, on the planet, he was confronted by a reconnaissance frigate. A small, nimble ship. It was not intended at all, and it was not adapted to fight "in the line." Especially alone against such monsters.

The archaeologists were getting ready to move to a new location. They packed personal belongings, equipment, instruments, and tools. A column of trucks and passenger wheeled vehicles lined up at the perimeter of the camp. Ashley heard the scientists and technicians relaying Dr. Warren's instructions to each other: get ready to move to a new site. This means that the Alliance Space Marine camp will soon be left without these restless and unruly neighbors. Representatives of the local district administration arrived at the camp again. Dr. Warren is alone with them in her office. Balok's... Some of these quick-assembly houses belonged to the local government, some — a small one — three or five pieces, were under the supervision of archaeologists. Now these houses were being disassembled, parts were being stored, completeness was being checked, packing and loading on transporters were being carried out.

Ashley managed to inspect several empty balok's. Bare walls. Everything is as usual. It was unlikely that she, the commander of a marine platoon, would be allowed to transfer some of her soldiers to these balok's. Unlikely. And there is no need to transfer them here to these houses. Tents... are much more familiar, more common.

*Balok — a trailer house.

And somehow closer to her and her people. Come to think of it... tents won't be enough for survival soon. We'll have to move to dugouts. Dig trenches, communication passages, crevices. If several such "shrimps" hover over the planet... only structures such as dugouts will be able to somehow help reduce personnel losses. Not to exclude, but to reduce. Now the Marines had to fight. With a real opponent. With the troops that will come to Eden Prime — and not only to Eden Prime — from the sides of such giants. And this landing force will be very numerous. Geth... Few people could have argued quite recently, a few days ago, that they would necessarily appear so far from the Perseus Veil.

And now that the Geth were landing from this Reaper... it was clear that there was going to be a war with the machines. With robots armed not with virtual, but with full-fledged artificial intelligence. With robots that shoot without a miss, without fear, uncertainty, hesitation. They act quickly, often with a speed and accuracy that is beyond the reach of any reasonable organic. The war was going to be... terrible.

Ashley thought about it while doing her usual daily commanding routine. She didn't really mention what she was doing or how she was doing it now, and she didn't really think about what she should do in the near future. Somehow all this... became automated or something... Yes, she always wanted to serve in the army, for her the army became a home, became a family. And now, becoming more aware of the fact that a real big war was approaching, Ashley asked herself if she was ready for such a war. It was she, the commander of the Alliance's Space Infantry platoon. The sergeant of the MSF.

The answer "yes" looked... pale. Maybe if we were talking about an ordinary racial conflict, at least with the same Turians, Williams, the granddaughter of a military general, would be more confident and unequivocal in her answer. Having witnessed the confrontation between the frigate and the Reaper, having survived the drone attack on the camp's inhabitants, having seen indoctrinated, or perhaps drugged people who resembled patients of earthly psychiatric clinics, she realized more fully, more deeply and more acutely that she had not been prepared for such a war that was coming. They didn't cook at all, or maybe, at best, they didn't cook enough.

The Normandy shuttle, which was carrying the Lighthouse to the frigate, returned. The driver put the car in, got out of the cab, sat on the grass, turned on the omny-tool.

Kayden did not appear, the spacer on duty at the camp recently reported that the lieutenant was still working with documents. And if these representatives of the local administration visit him... Alenko will stay here for a long time.

The shuttle driver is calm, he's not in a hurry. He's sitting there, reading something on an omny-tool.

"Sergeant, the local police have arrived. The people detained by Lieutenant Alenko were handed over to them," A day marine who came up to Williams with quick steps reported. "With the knowledge of the lieutenant, Sergeant," the soldier clarified. Ashley nodded and saluted, allowing the soldier to be free.

This means that this problem has been solved. The gun and the contents of that "cache" were probably handed over to the police along with the detainees. It is quite possible that the Marine soldier did not see everything and was not told everything, but what he understood was enough to realize that a lot would change very soon.

Sitting down on a boulder, Williams took a pike briquette out of her duffel bag, opened the shell, put the briquette on the stone, waiting for the "stove" to finish its work. I didn't want to eat cold rations — there was time to warm up the food.

Williams' thoughts kept returning to Kayden. She was very interested in him for some reason. And, as Ashley realized when she started eating, she was interested for a long time.

"Do you mind if I invite you to the shuttle, Sergeant?" Alenko's voice rang out. Ashley almost jumped in surprise: the lieutenant had approached so quietly and unnoticeably. "There we can have a snack in more comfortable conditions."

"I don't mind." Ashley stood up, shouldering her duffel bag. As she sat down at a table in the shuttle's cabin, she glanced at the lieutenant. "It looks like my platoon will be left alone soon."

"The archaeologists are being transferred to another site," Kayden confirmed, unpacking his ration briquette and waiting for the stove to finish its work. "I'm sure there are plenty of Prothean artifacts in the area", He paused, picked up a spoon, and began to eat.

There was silence in the cabin for several minutes, but Ashley noted that this silence was not forced, but natural. Yes, Kayden... can be different. He can be very laconic and... surprisingly unobtrusive. Yes, he had invited her, the commander of the Marine platoon, aboard the frigate shuttle, although he might not have done so. Maybe it really looks... standard.

Maybe, but it's important to her: it wasn't her, he showed her attention, which, of course, he might not have shown. He's a lieutenant, an officer, and she's a sergeant. Distance, difference, subordination, and everything else gave him huge advantages that... quite possibly were neither essential nor necessary for him right now.

Nothing much was going on: she, a sergeant in the Space Infantry of the Alliance of Systems Air Force, and he, a lieutenant in the Alliance of Systems Air Force-Ashley wasn't interested or interested in his specialty right now-were just having lunch, or maybe even dinner, on board the shuttle.

Still, Ashley was pleased to feel that this was not just a joint "meal" between two commanders, even if they were of different levels, even if they were of different ranks. And when, in fact, do they, the commanders, even communicate, if not during these very meals? There is practically no free time, and there are a lot of responsibilities. Besides, it's clear that Kayden won't be here for long... He will definitely return to the frigate.

If representatives of the local authorities visited the archeologists' camp and, as they managed, dealt with the local "troublemakers", handing these "outsiders" over to local law enforcement officers, then Kayden has very little reason to linger here, among the spacemen who are temporarily out of work. If...

Unless she, Sergeant Ashley Williams, is one of those reasons for Kayden. And since there will be no work for the Marines of her platoon in the very near future, at this very place, she may well take a little break from the daily army cocktail and remember that she is not only a sergeant of the Marines, a platoon commander, but also a girl. And Kayden is not only a lieutenant, but also a young man. Interesting, attractive, pleasant... not just a conversationalist...