Chapter 5

Dakka System – Pragia

Lieutenant Commander David Anderson – N7 Soldier

Systems Alliance Navy

28 November 2168 – 0435

As they drew closer to the intensifying sounds of gunfire, Anderson and his team activated their tactical cloaks so as to not alert any potential hostiles to their impending arrival.

They halted in front of a door, the sound of gunfire was thundering behind it and reverberating through its bulk into their bodies.

"Alright, once we're out this door, I want eyes up and heads on a swivel. If there are friendlies we provide supporting fire, bogies, we evade and recon. Clear?" Anderson addressed his squad

"Copy that, heads on a swivel bravo one." His number two answered for the rest of them.

With that, Anderson palmed the haptic interface for the door release and rushed inside as the double doors slide apart. He made a beeline for the nearest shipping container and took cover, his team a half step behind him. He peeked around the shipping container and took a quick glance around. He then signaled, through teamcom, several waypoints for his team to advance to gain intel on the situation ahead.

Receiving their orders, his team advanced stealthily forward, gaining better vantage points of the situation before them. Anderson himself advanced forwards and glanced at the grated walkway above, where he saw four silhouettes firing down onto he alcove several tens of meters in front of his team. He marked them on his HUD, which then translated their positions to the rest of his team over teamcom. As he glanced back down to ground level, he noticed several many times the number of markers arrayed around the waist high containers ahead.

That's a lot of potential hostiles. Anderson mused. "Anyone got eyes on what they're firing at?" Anderson whispered into his helmet's mic.

Two "Negative" answers came over teamcom, from Bravo Three and Bravo Four.

Bravo Two, however, answered differently, "Bravo One, I've got visual. Patching my feed over teamcom."

The lower left corner of his HUD was soon occupied by the streaming video feed from Bravo Two's helmet cam. It was centered on the alcove that was receiving the torrential rifle fire. Anderson peered around his cover to get a view of the area while also having the feed in his peripheral vision. He then enlarged the video feed to cover a larger portion of his HUD. After a few seconds, a black silhouette popped out of cover to return fire, and ten immediately disappeared from view after a short volley. Refocusing on his personal HUD cam, a few of the advancing unknowns that were out in the open went down in a bloody heap from this volley.

"Bravo One, what's the play?" Bravo two asked.

There's been no sign of them for three years, why do they show up here? He shelved his thoughts for later, as the situation demanded him to act quickly. He quickly disseminated his orders.

"We've got potential friendlies pinned down up ahead. I want suppressing fire and grenades up ahead, and Bravo Four to get some rockets on that catwalk. Understood?"

He was answered with several green lights blinking on in his HUD, indicating that his team received their orders.

"On my mark. 3, 2, 1, MARK!"

Three hours later

"Sir, we've rounded up the facility's personnel and are processing them for extraction. We've also started policing the bodies and placing them in the morgue." The marine replied.

"Excellent work Lieutenant, any surprises that your platoon has found?" Anderson questioned.

"No sir." He paused. "Actually, we've encountered a section that's on lockdown. A few of my marines are taking a torch to the opening mechanism to see what's on the other side."

"Any clues as to what's waiting for us beyond that door? They've got a lot of research personnel here. I don't want any surprises." Anderson stated.

"That's the thing sir, we've already scanned the area behind the door with penetrating radar and sonar. It looks like a block of prison cells with live bodies in them. We don't have an air sample, but we're confident that there are no bio or chem agents behind the door."

"Just to be safe, I want you to seal off that section and have your men seal up their suits."

The marine cockily smirked. "Already been done sir. Is there anything else?"

"Dismissed lieutenant, I'll let you get back to your men."

The young officer saluted him, and went off to help his men move the dead bodies in the room to the morgue.

As he watched after the young man, Anderson noticed Bravo Two approaching him out the corner of his eye. He began walking to meet his number two halfway. Upon reaching each other, Bravo Two discretely slid an object into Anderson's hand. Without checking to confirm, he slid it into one of the secured compartments on his armor.

"Was that Shepard's boy?" Bravo Two asked.

"Yeah, that was." Anderson answered.

"Damn, I thought I was back at selection. Kid's almost a mirror image of his old man in his heyday." He gave a contemplative pause. "Hope he's as good a fighter as his old man used to be."

"From what I remember he is, and God help us if he ever goes into the N Program." Anderson agreed.

They chuckled before Bravo Two broke the silence. "Bravo One, are you sure about this? What's with the cloak and dagger?" Bravo Two inquired.

Anderson paused, gathering his thoughts. "You've heard about my op on Camala?"

Momentarily confused, he answered. "Yeah, op was a major fuck up, but the damage was minimal. Not much else in the reports or on the grapevine."

Anderson chuckled, "I'm not surprised, the op was an evaluation into my candidacy into the Spectre program."

"Holy shit, sounds high profile." He hesitated, "So why all the black ink?"

"My failure to impress my Spectre adviser would have been a black mark on the N program, so they scrubbed it from the records. They let me back onto the teams when I asked for it though." He replied.

"Explains why a rockstar like you ain't on Black or Red team, then. But what's that got to do with what just went down?"

"There was an ambush and an Alliance scientist got captured. The Spectre said to leave her and demo the facility that the hostiles were holed up in with her in it. Against orders, I went in alone to extract her."

"No shit, how the hell did you get out of there? What little I've read is that the place was manned with a company of mercs at the most conservative estimate."

"I had a little help."

Bravo Two paused before putting it together. "So this isn't the first time you've run into them. But why scrub our helmet recordings and dump them into the data drive?"

"I've run into many highly effective operatives in my career, but those two… Not a single echo, shadow or rumor about them on the spooks' networks. Not even Barla Von has anything on them."

Bravo Two knit his eyebrows. "You sure? You can hide, but… you don't disappear. Not with the Shadow Broker's network." He mused. "But again, why scrub our data but then hold a copy for yourself?"

"For three years, I haven't seen or heard of any sign of those two. I want to know what their endgame is by appearing on Camala and here. And if I go down this rabbit hole, and it goes south, I don't want anything to fall back on you boys or the rest of the N's. This is on me." He replied.

"…Anderson-"

Anderson's comm crackled to life. He held up his hand signaling to Bravo Two to hold that thought. "Commander Anderson, this is Lieutenant Shepard, over."

"What is it lieutenant?"

"Sir, we've found something down here in the morgue."

"What is it?"

"I-I don't know. I think you should come see this for yourself sir." Shepard replied, his voice exhibiting a slight tremor.

"Copy that Lieutenant, I'm on my way." Anderson took a quick glance at Bravo Two and motioned him to follow with a jerk of his head. The pair proceeded down the hallways in a brisk trot with their rifles at the low ready.

"Kid seems shaken up. Wonder what he found."

"I don't know, but he's always had a firm temperament as a kid. If something's made him uneasy, it can't be good." Anderson weighed in. Shortly afterwards the pair spotted a group of marines in front of the morgue's entryway. As they got closer, Anderson noticed that a few of them had knit eyebrows and a grimace clouding their faces while leaning with their backs to the walls of the hallway and one on the floor with his head between his knees. Slightly worried, he turned to the ranking member, taking that that it wasn't the young lieutenant.

"Sergeant, are your men alright?" He asked.

The marine looked over at him and nodded, "Good to go Commander Anderson, we're just collecting ourselves."

"What did you find in the morgue?" Bravo Two probed.

"We- we found kids, sir. They were… I-I think it's better if you saw it for yourselves." The sergeant apprehensively replied, who Anderson noted was visibly shaken.

Kids? He thought as his mind momentarily struggled to grasp the implication of that statement. "Alright sergeant, rally your men keep an eye out for any hostiles. We're still in a combat zone, and I'd like to keep this op to zero casualties." He hesitated before adding, "I don't know what you boys saw in there, but I need you to keep it together. So stay frosty."

"Yes sir." The sergeant gave a barely audible sigh and turned to his marines as he forcibly reestablished his combat mindset. "Alright leathernecks, pack it up. I want chokepoints established at every intersecting hallway that leads to this morgue." The marines, somewhat reluctantly began collecting themselves, and though their morale was low, their intensive training allowed them to efficiently carry out their orders. As the platoon members began securing positions farther away from the morgue, Anderson noted one individual still in place, his position identical to when he first arrived.

He turned to the seasoned NCO, "Sergeant, who's that?" He indicated with a slight motion of his chin to the conspicuously disobedient marine.

The middle aged man grimaced, "That's LCPL Hernandez, sir. My best point man in first squad." He briefly paused, gathering his thoughts. "Don't worry I'll get him moving. You might want to head in and see the lieutenant sir, he'll give you a clearer grasp of the situation than I can."

"Alright, dismissed sergeant."

"Yes sir." The marine NCO then went over and quietly conversed with the junior enlisted man. After a brief exchange, the marine lance corporal then stood up and moved off to join his squad.

Noting the brief exchange, Anderson motioned for Bravo Two to follow him through the door. As the two approached the morgue, a sense of apprehension and foreboding creeped onto the two operators as the dreary atmosphere in the hallway began to creep into their consciousness.

Author's note:

Alright everyone, so here's the current chapter. Do y'all prefer the chapters to be as short as the smaller sections of the previous chapters and be a part of a mini arc, or is the old length of 5-6000 with words you preferrence?

And incidentally, would a discord server for this story interest y'all? The link is below if you're interested. (There are spaces before discord, gg, and YUz

discord. gg/ YUzY9Hg

Have a Merry Christmas everyone!