[Book Four] Chapter 46: Careful of what you wish for

Chapter 46: Careful of what you wish for

Commander Jane Shepard was absently looking at the fish in her aquarium. That was the one thing she brought back into her cabin in the Normandy from her quarters in the Cassiopeia. Armors, weapons, omni-tool, food… All of it was below her priority list on what to bring for her deployment. Her fish. That’s what was at the top of the list. They calmed her and in a way comforted her. Watching them also allowed a clarity of mind she needed much. A clarity necessary for the war, for once against spearheading the efforts against an enemy bent on destruction or assimilation of sentient life. A clarity to deal with the current date.
Today was the third anniversary of the day when first contact with the Ketts had been made. The day where she lost the one person she had loved and still loved the most. It’s been three years and she still believed that he was still out there, alive, fighting. She wasn’t the only one believing and hoping but with each passing day the hope dimmed bit by bit for most. Most notably the children.

Despite the whole of the Milky Way joining the war effort the Andromeda Galaxy was big, mostly uncharted and most of all difficult to explore. There was no Mass Relay to link clusters and allowed instantaneous travel. That was what made scouting difficult. After three years they had not yet explored a third of the galaxy. So far they hadn’t met any other space faring species than the Jaardan who helped greatly with their own map of Andromeda. It has been pure luck to have met them as soon as they arrived in this new Galaxy. It was a blessing too. Many worlds, thanks to their technology, had been terraformed for colonization, making new bases and outposts for the war. Something crucial without Mass Relay to travel.
They had found a few Ketts outposts, bases and even one temple, during their scouting. Taking over or destroying those places had not been easy but was done with an amazing 100% rate of success. There had been casualties of course but nothing like the Reaper War.

One thing she was glad about for once, everyone was in the war. The new galactic council finally represented all space faring species equally. It was a loss of power for the original species forming the first council but half of them found more strength in it somehow. Humanity as the leader of the ‘putsch’  and under Ines Lindholm was very popular amongst most of the other species (even the Batarians) for extending a hand to the other species and considering them equal.
The asari agreeing without much of a fuss and actually being active in the creation of the new council ( even if it was just for the last minutes)  gained back a bit of their reputation that they had lost during the war decades earlier.
The Salarians having a good flair in politics joined too, seeing they couldn’t not be part of this new council. That was the official version. The truth was that the STG had somehow found themselves in the know of the project and kind of blackmailed the Dalatrass in charge. Either she joined the endeavor or her very soon to be successor would certainly do it.

The Turians were the biggest losers in a sense. They were the last to join because they couldn’t be the one species alone against everyone else. They didn’t want to be the new Battarians of the galaxy. The fact that a quarter of them had ‘rebelled’ and joined the council anyway didn’t paint them in a good light. Especially when Former primarch Victus and former Councilor Quentius were leading the ‘rebel’ forces (two of the biggest figures of the Reaper War). That actually started a small political civil war. On one side the turians admitting defeat and who joined the ‘rebels’ and the new council because it was the best for their people and on the other side the very conservative side that refused to admit it. Thankfully, the conservatives were in low numbers and most of them were old timers at the end of their lives so there wasn't much of a bloodbath like during the last turian rebellion. Still, it painted a bit of a bad reputation for the Turians.

With all species represented (including the Geths and the Jaardan) the council had quickly made a vote about investing themselves into the war in Andromeda against the Ketts. The geths abstained as they believed they needed more data about them and the Asari and Elcor voted against. The elcor because they were busy increasing their numbers and the asari because they clinged on their cooperation ideal and wished for peace with the Ketts. Officially that is. The matriarchs were not stupid and understood the threat this new species represented, especially with the data that Aethyta kept providing them from Liara. But, they had a reputation to maintain and solidify, so voted against. In the end the vote passed and Lindholm, who had been elected by the other council members to be the chairwoman of the council (or rather the spokesperson here to maintain order among the councilors), declared the Milky Way officially at war. As the human councilor, she shared that with this decision the human parliament had decided to forgive the members of the military who deserted to join Andromeda and the fight. Something that the Asari, Salarian and Turian did too, because it made sense and because they needed the good reputation that decision brought.

They felt very sorry however when Sandra presented each species a bill that needed to be paid. The facilities, food, training and salaries of every deserter had been shouldered by her company and there was no way she would let the members of the council go scott free of the cost. It was approved by the council and begrudgingly the Asari, Humans, Turians and Salarians paid. When Sandra told them that they could lower the amount to pay by simply giving her some government company instead (mostly manufacturing company) they didn’t hesitate. It was a better deal for the young ravenette since now she won’t have to rely on the alliance, or create the companies herself. She always wondered why her father never did so and he had simply answered that he had already enough work to deal with and so did her mother. With time however and the company expanding, Sandra was able to delegate that work.

One thing was for sure, the people in the Milky Way that celebrated Rick’s death suddenly wished him back as Sandra was even more ruthless and uncompromising than him. Where Rick simply went his own way and dealt promptly with everyone obstructing it, he wasn’t greedy. Sandra on the other hand was very much. Rick created things making the others obsolete and bow of their own accord  and was something of a collateral while his daughter did it but went for them directly.

All in all, the company was stronger than ever and many feared Sandra Andersson. Jane even heard her cackled evilly from time to time and wondered if that’s how her brother would have turned out if he had had the proper motivation. A thought that scared her more than a bit. There were already talks on the extranet of Sandra being the actual ruler of both the Milky Way and Andromeda and simply indulging the council.

With the whole Milky Way involved in the War, the company didn’t have to shoulder everything alone anymore. Already plans for creating Mass Relay were about to begin. It was the second step of their plan of action.

First step was sending scouts to survey the other clusters. Their mission was to detect Kett’s presence, find, if possible, habitable worlds for creating outposts and determine if the Cassiopeia could come here and serve as a Mass Relay to send material to create an actual Mass Relay. The council had argued that since the company already had the technology to create ships with Mass Relay abilities to share it but Sandra had been quite firm in her refusal. One, it was private property and she didn’t have to share it, second beside her company, no one had the necessary components to make it work ( RED, DRED, GREEN and VERDUN being still hidden knowledge and necessary for the ordeal). Many tech companies or governments had tried since the technology was not difficult to reproduce but they couldn’t make it work and if they did it wouldn’t have been practical (Thousands of blues, thousands of Yellow, working at the same time… Not possible). Third, and that was the point that sold it, the Mass Relays were like checkpoints at a border, with them the council could regulate the travel paths and maintain the law and order in the galaxy. She also argued that her company had always used that technology responsibly for the past thirty years, always for the betterment of everyone and would continue to do so. With the reputation of her father being a philanthropist (despite being a crazy, mad, or insane man) among the masses and Sandra proving she was following the same path ever since she succeeded him, the council relented and put this topic on hold.

That’s how Jane found herself on the Normandy, traveling to an unexplored cluster. Unexplored but not unknown of its activity. For the data they got from the Kett’s temple they had destroyed, this cluster was supposed to have another one. Her mission was to locate it and pave the way for a military force to come in and destroy it.

“Jane?”
“Yes? What is it?” the redhead replied to EDI.
“You’re needed in the com room. Liara is on the line.”
“She found something more from the data we recovered from the temple?”
“It seems like it, she didn’t say what, though.”

“I’m on my way.”

She raised herself from the couch she was seating on and exited her quarters. At the sight of the elevator going up from the engineering Deck she simply took the firefighter pole on the side and let herself fall to the CIC Deck. She was glad that  those were installed. The time lost in going from an upper deck to a lower one was cut drastically short. As she made her way to the com room, she was joined by Arianna, Tali and Leeha who exited the elevator. Dorothea and Traynor were already in the room and with a nod of the head the latter put up a holo of Liara.

“Jane! I have news!” the asari said excitedly.
“With how excited you are I presume it’s good.”
“It is! Rick is alive!”
“““WHAT?!”””
“Auntie, are you sure?” asked Arianna quickly.
“Well, no… but almost.”
“Enough to share her findings at the very least.” said Sandra appearing on the holo next to Liara.
“We’re listening.” Jane replied.
“Among the data, I found a religious reference that had come up multiple times on the data we recovered from every Kett’s base. But this time it wasn’t just mentioned, it was fully documented.”
“You’re talking about the Calamity? The Immortal Demon?”
“Yes, Arianna. Spot on.”

Many times those appelations were used on reports Ketts made or messages they exchanged. That Something or rather someone killed their people and destroyed their bases and to be careful but not much more.

“It says here that they are one and the same. That it’s riding a small ship of blue and white, who can change its appearance and destroy their ships as if they control the very space around them, moving in ways that ships cannot. And when it lands on the ground, the one controlling it charges through them in a blue blur, killing them all, not caring for its wounds and rising from the dead.”

“A ship of blue and white changing shape makes me think of Adam’s EVA, and the blue blur…” began Sandra.
“A biotic charge.” finished Jane with a hopeful smile.
“He really must have done a number of them if he’s talked about in a bad religious way.” Tali commented, amused.
“Not really surprising.” replied Dorothea.
“We need to find dad!” Leeha declared.
“No need, we already might know where he is.”
“Sandra?” Jane asked.
“As you know, the data contained a list of other Kett outposts and so did the other bases we destroyed. I cross referenced all of them and found a pattern to make a new one. The odds are high that Dad will be or already is in the very cluster you’re traveling to to destroy the temple.”
“That’s the best news we got in years concerning him.”

“And perhaps the only one we’ll get.”
“What do you mean?” Jane asked her niece with a frown.
“Auntie, Dad is called by the Ketts, the Immortal Demon for a reason.”
“You think… You think he dies and just comes back? Through the nanobots?” Arianna answered with her own question, getting an idea at what her baby sister was getting to.
“Yes.”
“What about it? That wouldn’t be the first time.” asked Leeha in confusion.
“We don’t know how bringing people back to life affects them, Leeha. So far only mom and daddy have ever been recorded to do so.”
“And it took months or years for my mom to succeed in it. From what Auntie and I read on the data, Dad raised from the dead in less than a minute. That can’t be good. He may not be the person we remember.”

That piece of information brought the morale of the group very low. To have Rick back but him not being himself anymore was worse than him just being dead.

“It doesn’t matter. Our priority is to destroy that temple. Regarding Rick, it’s to bring him back. After that we… will adapt and deal with things.”

With those words, Jane ordered everyone to prepare for their arrival in the cluster.

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When they arrived at the planet where the temple was supposed to be they noticed a small armada of ships completely destroyed in orbit. Immediately hope transformed into eagerness as no one but Rick could have been able to do that.  They were the first ship in this cluster from their side of the war after all. The possibility of an unknown species was there but very unlikely. The odds turned to almost zero when EDI scanned the destroyed ship and reported that it fit damages done by an EVA in EVA mode. Without wasting any time, Jane, Dorothea, Arianna and Tali took a shuttle to get to the temple on the planet. On the way, EDI warned the team that explosions were happening at the temple and that the Ketts activity was very high.

Landing in the landing pad on top of the temple, they surprisingly found very little resistance on their way down as if all the Ketts were gathered somewhere else. Knowing her brother and with the reputation he had among the aliens, Jane was almost certain that the Ketts were trying their very best to put him down. Hurrying up the team followed EDI’s direction only to arrive in some kind of open hall. There they saw Rick slaughtering away Ketts as if he was an angel of death. The team immediately sprung into action to alleviate Rick’s burden as he was facing a couple dozens of enemies alone. Their intervention surprised the Ketts they were attacking but also Rick. That proved to be a mistake as an enemy from the size used the opportunity to shoot at a stationary Rick and didn’t miss his mark. A screaming Arianna charged towards her father, while Jane killed the shooter. Tali and Dorothea opened a path to join their fourth member and protect their niece who was kneeling above her father’s body.

“Ari!” shouted her mother as she used her biotics to create a barrier surrounding the Shepard family members.

Arianna stayed silent as she read what her helmet displayed in front of her eyes. She couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Her father was dead, that she could tell yet his wounds were healing at a very fast pace. This wasn’t something that was possible and she knew that was happening because of the nanobots in her father’s body. She saw with her own eyes the bullet hole in his head subside until it only left raw skin that was a bit redder than the normal tone of his skin. Suddenly Rick’s heart started beating again and he drew a very long breath to fill his lungs with oxygen, his back arching as if he was in pain. His eyes were open and had an alertness in them as if he didn’t know where he was. Out of the blue Jane and Arianna were pushed away by a Nova coming from him. The two redheads were violently pushed away and Jane’s barrier fell. Rick charged away before their minds could even register what had just happened. As if he had never died he hacked away at the Ketts with cold and precise savagery that left both Tali and Dorothea speechless and motionless. Simple spectators of a carnage happening right before their eyes. The remnants of the Ketts forces were dispatched quickly and once the last one expired by being bisected, Rick turned around and charged the team. Arianna was the first to react and created a barrier protecting everyone from his attack, stopping  the pellets of her father’s shotgun and the slice of his lightsaber. Her mother followed suit and threw a Throw towards her brother, sending him away.

“Wha… Why is he…” exclaimed a dumbfounded Tali that had nearly lost her head if not for the intervention of her niece.
“Not now! Prepare to subdue him!” Jane ordered.

Something was wrong with Rick and she wasn’t about to try to talk him down to see what it was, not when  he could kill them easily if they were distracted. Jane knew that they were in for the fight of and for their lives when Rick charged again and hope that everyone would get out of it alive if not unharmed.