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"Although it is roughly said, but in fact it is true."
"I can believe that transporting a lighthouse is reason enough for one of the Council's most respected and well-known Spectrums to spend so much personal time."
Only a deaf person would not have heard the irony in my voice. Nihlus chuckled, spreading his mandibles in a slight grin.
"You're perceptive, Commander Shepard."
"As I said before, I dare say I'm not stupid." My grin only made the Turian smile wider, revealing a palisade of sharp, wedge-shaped teeth. "So what is the REAL reason for your attention, SPECTER?"
"I want to see you in action, Shepard." the man answered me, slightly tilting his head to the side.
"Is curiosity idle or has a practical interest?" I asked, stopping Anderson from making a pretentious speech about the Alliance.
Nihlus noticed my maneuver and grinned.
"Quite practical."
"Is that so?"
"I have put forward your candidacy for the place of Spectr." the man kindly explained to me, cunningly flashing his predatory green eyes.
I chuckled, casting an ironic glance at the captain.
"I don't even know... should I be pleased with the honor or outraged that I was confronted with the fact?" The Turian understood me quite correctly, his green eyes glittering with hidden amusement. He enjoyed our sparring. "I think I'll choose the third one, and I'll say that I'll be happy to work with you, Nihlus, regardless of the decision you make."
Our sweet conversation, which was giving us both some fanatical pleasure, was interrupted by the excited voice of the pilot announcing the reception of the signal. The story is back on track. I calmly watched a short video that was transmitted to us by fighters from the surface of the planet. Nothing unexpected: a shootout with the Geth, the death of fighters, the Lord in the sky. Expected. Anderson stared intently at the screen. Nihlus, on the other hand, was squinting at me, more interested in my reaction than in the image on the screen. The green eyes only flickered once at the screen when the Reaper appeared on it. And they returned almost instantly. Meeting my gaze, the Turian slightly tilted his head at the screen. I raised an eyebrow. In response, a questioning urk. Like a cat, what a word! My serene smile colored his gaze with concern. And Nihlus knows a lot about human facial expressions.
Anderson sounded the alert, and I left to prepare for the landing. Unfortunately, I won't be able to take my landing force with me, they are landing near a small farming town attacked by unknown assailants. The recipient's memory was fully assimilated, I was more or less familiar with rifles and pistols, and therefore the preparation did not take much time. I strapped a pistol and a combat knife to my belt. She hung her favorite hammer on her back.
Already standing in the airlock, I approached the Turian and said softly:
"Nihlus, may I ask for... something... a promise."
SPEKTR gasped at the question and blinked in surprise. Well, yes, a xenophobic scumbag is asking a Turian for something. He was the only one who heard my words: the Turians' hearing is very sharp, and he easily heard my almost silent whisper. He hesitated for a few moments, but curiosity overcame his doubts, and the man answered just as quietly:
"You can."
"Nihlus. Swear to me that you will NOT turn your back on an armed sentient." The bright green eyes widened in surprise. "Especially if you know this reasonable person perfectly well and trust him infinitely."
My cold voice and gaze made him flinch.
"Do you know something?"
"Intuition." a hard look of green eyes in response. "She is very tender and sensitive to those who live in war. Mine is RARELY wrong. And I smell betrayal and your stupid death. There will be death on this landing."
The Turian blinked. I liked the hard, staring look. The man thought about it. He didn't brush it off, but took it into consideration, glaring at me suspiciously. And finally, a slow response.
He swore it. And not a shadow of irony.
"Nihlus." The man tilted his head questioningly. "If you die, I'll kill you."
A low rumbling laugh, and the SPECTR moved away to the descending ramp. I'm sorry, Jenkins. I'm afraid you won't survive the first Geth drone attack. SPECTR Nihlus's life is more important to me than yours.
Chapter 2: Eden Prime: Losses
The crimson colors of the sunset flooded the silent world with blood. The sun was slowly sinking below the horizon, blinding sensitive eyes. The smell of smoke and burning was pungent. A tall building nearby was smoking heavily from a fire. The trees rustled softly, the dry soil creaked under the soles. A heavy, oppressive picture. Alenko shivered.
"It smells of smoke and death." the fighter's quiet hoarse voice sounded... organically in the atmosphere of a world drowning in sunset.
I nodded silently, lowering my visor. The sniper rifle clicked softly, coming into firing position. I don't like rushing headlong into the unknown. I may remember the canon, but my knowledge has already been blurred by time, and I cannot guarantee its absolute accuracy. Embodied reality is not a game. Minor changes that do not affect the key chain of events are quite normal and can cost me my life. I'm not Shepard. I am outside the rules of this world. I will die, and another hero will come in my place and lead this universe along the beaten path.
"Let's go."
The fighters followed me, looking warily around, only Alenko muttered softly:
"Damn!", plunging into the murky greenish slush.
We found the first bodies on a rock very close to the landing point: black, burnt to slag, they lay losing their greasy ashes in the gusts of wind. Alenko swallowed.
"What happened here?"
"We'll find out soon enough." catching the fighter's gaze, I dryly retorted: "Stop being hysterical! It's like seeing a corpse for the first time!"
The guy looked down and shut up, and I slowly walked forward. A little further on, there are more bodies scattered along the road. The same burnt ones, scattering pieces of ashes and more smoldering coals.
A barely audible whistling sound made me abruptly raise my clenched fist. The soldiers froze, listening to the whistling of the wind. Was it just my imagination? It shouldn't be... There are three Geth drones out there somewhere. I pointed my fingers at my eyes and waved my hand. Jenkins nodded and cautiously stepped out onto the road, peering intently at the bushes and trees.
The drones appeared unexpectedly, emerging from behind a large rock. A flattened streamlined body and a small automaton under the wings. A short burst of blue pulses, and Jenkins collapsed onto the road with a muffled wheeze, Alenko stood up with a jerk, clinging to the stone. The sniper rifle jerked in his hands, and the drone crashed to the ground, sparking and smoking. The subtle beep of reloading, catching the next one in the sights, firing. Alenko took off the last one. Judging by the recipient's memory, the idiot forgot to switch the armor from training to combat mode. And there are brakes in the joints when hit and the shield is at 10 percent of normal.
Damn it! Three flying things and immediately a corpse on the ground! That's how you could put yourself up like that? Lowering my weapon, I cautiously approached the fighter's body. Is dead. The shots penetrated the flimsy shield instantly, ripping through the light armor.
A confused Alenko stopped nearby.
"Jenkins..."
"is dead. Inattention leads to such results." bending down, she closed the wide-open eyes of the dead man. "Be careful. After completing the mission, his body will be taken to the ship."
Alenko nodded curtly, frowning at me. What did you expect, I'm going to be hysterical and upset? So it would be worth learning the psychological profile of your commander! Rin was anything but a compassionate idiot. Jenkins, somewhere in the depths of my callous soul, was still a pity. A self-confident, enthusiastic young guy. I remember him bragging to Dr. Chakwas. Unfortunately, such people are the first to die. What I wanted, though, was that the guy was just from school, like most of the Normandy crew. Stepping over the body, I moved forward, moving from stone to stone. These drones are not the only ones here.
The connection clicked softly, and Nihlus muffled voice said:
"Shepard, there are several burnt-out buildings and a lot of corpses." A purring voice said "a lot," letting me assess the scale of the disaster. I'll try to scout out the situation and meet you at the excavation site."
"Don't you remember what you said before we landed?" I asked quietly.
A short pause and a muffled reply:
"I remember."
"Don't disappoint me, Nihlus. I don't want to find your body. Jenkins is enough for me."
"Died?"
"yes. Try not to add to our losses."
The connection is gone. Alenko looked at me strangely, but, thank all the gods of this world, he did not comment in any way. Damn, judging by the pain in my throat, I didn't speak English.
"Be careful! These drones are clearly not the only ones here!"
"Commander Shepard, how do you know Turian?"
"I taught after Torfan. Let's go."
The man shuddered, tightened his grip on the rifle and slowly walked forward. I stood a little to the side, peering into the rustling foliage, at the massive tree trunks, at the boulders. The drones attacked twice more, but now, knowing what to expect, they were easily killed. Only Kayden had taken a couple of shots in the shoulder, and now, hissing obscenities, he was treating his wounds with panacelin, trying not to meet my eyes. Shame on the parasite! In general, panacelin is the name of a group of drugs that, in combination with a bioblock, make sentients almost immune to damage. My group of friends from the former Red gang were just developing a bioblock for the Asari Turians, and clinical trials have recently been completed. We chose this name as a joke because of the bright scarlet hair color of the whole gang. We were all from St. Patrick's Shelter on 10th Avenue, and after escaping to the streets of Vancouver, we stayed close. Tetsuo turned out to be not quite an orphan, he had a grandfather on Shanxi, well, like a grandfather who also participated in the first contact war. In the end, he took us all to himself, but the documents of all the children still listed St. Patrick's orphanage on Earth. How much swearing I had because of this when I joined the airborne Forces of the AS.
Shots rang out ahead. Kayden jumped up and grabbed his weapon.
"Take your time. Finish the dressing. I'll check it out." Kayden was just removing the shoulder pad from his armor and applying a military first aid kit. The fighter nodded and went back to work, and I climbed up a small hill and peered through the scope, peering into a rather vast valley stretching along steep hills to the excavation site, whose lamps dispersed the sunset twilight with bright arrows of white light. Gunshots and the already familiar drone whistle sounded closer, a woman in gray-steel armor jumped out from behind the rocks, slipped, caught a shot in the back, absorbed by the bluish film of the shield. Ashley Williams. Well, at least not in the bright pink misunderstanding of the Sirte foundation. Although they do make armor for medics. A short thrust of the butt into the shoulder, the drone somersaulted in the air and crashed to the ground. Ashley rolled head over heels behind a rock, removing the last one and catching another shot. There were no storyline getaways, but there was a body on the spike, and more than one, fortunately, it was still fresh, and you didn't have to wait for huskies from here for another couple of hours.
While I was chatting with Ashley, Kayden stamped with a guilty face, and I confronted the fighter with the fact that this lady was coming with us. The guy didn't mind.
A little further behind the piles of boulders and rock fragments, the excavation site and the Geth scurrying through it were beautifully illuminated by numerous searchlights. At this distance, even the powerful optics of the rifle made it impossible to see the synthetics in more detail, but, reasonably thinking that I could quite see their corpses in all the details, I squeezed the trigger. The Geth, hiding behind a rock, tumbled from the impact of a heavy bullet and sank to the ground. The creatures got nervous, scattering into hiding, and I shot them steadily and methodically, preventing them from leaning out and approaching the range of fire, fortunately, the Geth did not carry sniper weapons. The Geth, hiding behind a rock, tumbled from the impact of a heavy bullet and sank to the ground. The creatures got nervous, scattering into hiding, and I shot them steadily and methodically, preventing them from leaning out and approaching the range of fire, fortunately, the Geth did not carry sniper weapons.
It's funny, they really have a backlight on their head in the optical system! And it's so convenient to aim at it in the dark! I wonder if the colossus is really a former construction crane? Kayden's attempts to rush into close combat were cut short by a short mat and Ashley's hand, which pulled him behind cover. Shots slammed into the stone, where his evil head had been a moment ago, knocking out fountains of stone chips.
"Alenko, hit me with an overload if my head hurts!" I looked up from the optics and shook my head reproachfully.
The man cringed guiltily.
"I'm sorry, Commander, I was thinking of putting up a shield."
"Did you imagine yourself to be a stormtrooper or something? You're a guardian! Check it out. They could have hidden. I'll cover anything."
Ashley and Alenko turned to the right, skirting a wide stone disk in an arc, hiding behind huge boulders. Ashley is the first with a shotgun, followed by Alenko with a pistol and an activated instrumentron. It looks like he decided to use a fireball. Shots rang out, and the geth screamed thinly. I must have really missed someone.
"Clear." Ashley's back. The lieutenant was curiously examining the bodies of the Geth platforms. Then he grimaced and reached into the flat backpack on his back for a bottle of water and pills.
I put the rifle away and came out of hiding.
"Lieutenant, are you having a migraine again?"
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