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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?"
"Yes, ma'am. I don't need an evacuation, I can handle it."
The ancient ruins spread out before me in all their glory... It sounds like it... In fact, all I saw was a shallow excavation with an excavated massive double disc of yellowish stone and a pair of collapsed columns, whose purpose will remain lost in the darkness of history. The lighthouse, tellingly, is missing.
"As I understand it, the lighthouse was here?" I nodded at the playground.
Ashley nodded.
"Apparently it has already been rescheduled."
"Who! Ours or the Geth?"
"It's hard to say." The woman shrugged her shoulders. "Let's check out the research camp and maybe find out more."
"Do you think anyone survived?" I asked, folding the cooled weapons.
As far as I remember the game, there should be huskies and close combat, where the rifle will only interfere.
Ashley shrugged her shoulders.
"Maybe they survived if they hid. The camp is over there. As I said, there was a 2-32 squad with them, the scientists had to take cover in time."
The woman waved her hand, pointing to the hill at the base of which the lighthouse was found.
The connection clicked.
"Plans are changing, Shepard," Nihlus voice sounded strained. "There is a small spaceport here. I'll check it out. I'll be waiting there."
I didn't answer, but searched the neighborhood. It's useless to dissuade him, he'll go there anyway. I climbed through the boxes with interest, examining the armor and weapons, unfortunately, all the standard VKS AS, not even a single viper or mantis. I didn't find anything else interesting.
The tripods I already knew with the bodies of people strung on spikes towered in disarray along the ruins, but the rebuilding process had just begun and was not visible outwardly, although I could see the limbs of the definitely dead people twitching slightly.
"To string on a stake ... Instead of shooting him... Shouldn't that make sense? Ashley whispered, looking away."
"They intimidate me." Kayden muttered.
He kicked over the Geth corpse, and I shook my head.
"These are synthetics, Kayden. They act from the point of view of logic. It makes some kind of sense. Rational. We just don't know him. And in general, I've heard about the crews of ships turned into undead when they return from Geth space behind the Perseus veil."
Geth stared up at the bloody skies with his eyepiece extinguished. A massive humanoid creature with an elongated metal head, light black armor covering the sternum, shoulders, partially legs, and four-fingered hands resembling Turian ones. Geth's flesh was dark, almost black, as if twisted from tourniquets and pseudo-muscles, faintly glowing with bluish lights, which slowly but surely went out. I wonder if they have Reaper nanites in their bodies, just like the Huskies?
"An interesting creature." I stood up abruptly. "Let's check the research camp. And try not to expose yourself."
The fighters nodded.
A well-trodden path led to the camp, winding along the very edge of a steep rocky hill. It's wide enough to walk comfortably, but not wide enough for even a small military vehicle to pass through. And our Makos were hooting towards the city along with my battle group. The path wound between hefty boulders, hiding the town ahead. Unlike the game world, the camp turned out to be quite large: about a dozen modular buildings, a small warehouse and a flyer area, now littered with bodies and bristling with a palisade of dragon teeth.
Some of the train houses were smoking greasy smoke, in some places the flames of a dying fire were still visible, charred bodies of humans and Geth lay on the ground in the craters of the explosions. A small military truck was burning down peacefully at the edge of the road to the spaceport.
A soft rustle sounded in the silence. Kayden flinched and spun around.
"Fuck! What is it?"
I turned around, peeking out from behind the stone. As I watched, the spikes folded, retracting into the support, and the body, which had previously hung limply on the stake, convulsively moved.
"It's a husk!" Ashley whispered, raising the shotgun.
I raised my pistol and fired a burst at one of the Huskies, then raised my hand and blasted with a flash of fire. This creature looked like a dead zombie raised by a half-educated necromancer! The shrunken skin split, exposing bluish muscles intertwined with strange growths, blue lights of implants and metal parts glittered through the altered flesh, glowing eyepieces instead of eyes. It's creepy!
"That's the answer."
"He's still alive!"
"Kayden! Turn on your brain and open your eyes! Where did you see a man there?!" I couldn't resist cursing. "Look at what they look like! SHOOT!"
The short-lived battle with the Huskies has put the last points in the situation on Eden Prime. Now even the stubborn Alenko did not ask stupid questions, looking at the bodies hanging on pins. His attempt to shoot them was stopped by a short phrase:
"They're already dead, Kayden. It's useless to shoot until the transformation is over."
The man lowered his head, nodded briefly, putting the heaped-up pistol into its fastenings. Ashley wasted no time searching the remaining houses.
"Commander! The security system is enabled here!"
The fighter waved her hand, pointing to one of the surviving modular buildings.
"Pick the lock."
The woman nodded, bent over the lock plate, and I noticed the golden sheen of the instrument. The lock gave up quickly, with a slightly muffled squeak. The doors opened.
"Commander Shepard, there are survivors!"
"What?" I blinked in surprise. I'd happily forgotten about that.
Oh, yes, I was rushing through this place like crazy to the spaceport.
Judging by the uniforms of the scientists, two men and a woman huddled fearfully in a dark room. People sincerely thanked us, glancing fearfully at the street, which was slowly being flooded by the coming darkness. It will be dark soon. And in the dark, huskies will become even more dangerous, it's good that they don't know how to open locked doors.
"I know you! You're Dr. Warren!" Ashley roused herself. "You led the research!"
The woman nodded. Tall, thin, with short dark red hair, she was perfectly in control of herself, unlike the hysterically terrified man huddled against the wall.
"What happened to the lighthouse?" I asked.
"He was transferred to the spaceport yesterday. We stayed behind to help break up the camp."
The woman sobbed, but quickly pulled herself together.
"Excuse me."
"What can you tell us?"
The scientists could tell us a little. A strange ship in the sky, an unexpected attack, the death of the soldiers protecting them, huskies. A small End of the World in a separate world.
Dr. Manuel was whimpering softly, huddled against the wall, staring at me with a half-crazed look. The poor guy's world cracked and couldn't come together. Although, I looked closely at a couple of injections with antipsychotics on the table. Rin and they were stabbed while she was recovering from the death of her landing group on Torfan, in hospitals. She was almost written off altogether. Ashley looked at the man sympathetically, Alenko — disgustedly. But in vain. Yeah, the guy's crazy, so what? It all depends on when he had his last attack and whether he managed to recover or not.
"Tell me, have you seen a Turian here?" I asked cautiously.
"I saw him!" The man suddenly said with fanaticism in his voice. "He's a Prophet! Leading our enemies into battle! He was here before they attacked!"
Kayden and I exchanged glances. Either I don't understand something, or this psycho saw Saren. How interesting!
"It's impossible! Nihlus was with us aboard the Normandy!" Kayden was quite reasonably indignant. "He couldn't have attacked!"
Dr. Warren looked confused.
"Oh, I'm sorry! Manuel is a little bit... I'm not myself. He had another attack because of these creatures." The woman said guiltily. "We haven't seen the Turian."
"Perhaps YOU haven't seen it." I caught Manuel's eye. "Doctor, tell me, did you really see a Turian?"
I wonder if he really saw Saren, or if he was already imagining things.
"Yes! A prophet in white armor! I saw him! Before the Geth attack, he was walking around the camp."
"But..." Kayden blinked in surprise. "Nihlus has black armor."
"Apparently, he's not the only Turian on this planet." I said grimly, turning on the comm. "Nihlus?"
"Shepard?" the answer came immediately.
"We found the survivors in the research camp. Dr. Manuel says he saw a Turian in white armor. BEFORE the Geth attack."
The short pause dragged on. I didn't say anything. Nihlus is a smart guy. He'll understand.
"I understood."
The connection is gone.
"Doctor, you'd better stay here. The area is cleared and practically safe. Close it again just in case."
The Doctor nodded.
"Ashley, take us to the spaceport."
After saying goodbye to the scientists, we left the cabin. The lock turned purple, switching back to the "locked" position.
"Shepard, do you really believe this madman?" Kayden asked quietly.
I slowed down a bit.
"I believe that Manuel really saw the Turian, it was before his attack. Ashley, where should I go?"
"Here. It's very close here!"
We passed only a couple of Geth and Hask along the way, and through the trees we saw the buildings of a small spaceport and the huge Reaper looming over a tiny shuttle. Alenko swore under his breath, staring at the huge ship. It was bigger than the dreadnought of the Alliance.
"What the hell is this?"
"The ship, vestimo." I said ironically, looking at the Reaper wrapped in scarlet lightning.
An assault rifle burst rumbled in the distance. Did Naylus expose himself after all? Damn it! The launching Overlord hummed and howled, blotting out the sky with its massive bulk.
"Faster!"
The lord folded his paws and disappeared into the bloody sky, and we ran down to the spaceport.
"Kayden, look around the houses. Ashley, cover him."
"Commander!"
"NOW!"
"Yes, ma'am."
Throwing a grenade at the rising husk, I shot the geth who emerged from behind the box, flying out onto the spaceport platform. Quick inspection. The pistol in his hands fired a short burst, cutting off two synthetics. A grenade exploded somewhere to the side. I turned around the massive container and gasped for air.
On the light gray slab of the runway, Naylus lay in a pool of blue blood.
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