Project: Daedalus

3.Beginning of a Partnership

Miranda was conducting an inspection of the Intrepid when she caught a whiff of eggs and the faint sound of music. She had finished putting the final touches to her report on the mission they had conducted on Torfan two days ago and decided she needed to take a break. And ensure that everything was running ship-shape.

Cocking an eyebrow, she made her way to the mess. The door opened with a pneumatic hiss to reveal a good portion of the Marines in the mess, wolfing down on some delicious food, while soft jazz was playing over the intercom. She unconsciously took a strong breath of the food and her mouth began to water as her stomach decided to launch its protest at her mistreatment of it.

"OPERATIVE LAWSON? COME TO JOIN US FOR BREAKFAST?" came the synthesized voice of Agent Fenris as he stood behind the mess's serving counter, dressed in an...apron, with a spatula in one hand and a knife in the other.

Picture this. An eight-foot tall death machine, dressed in a baby blue apron, with a caption of 'KISS THE COOK' in green letters, holding a plastic spatula in one hand and a knife in the other.

Miranda didn't know whether this was amusing or terrifying.

"I heard some music and decided to look into it" she replied. She then noticed that all the Marines were watching her with a touch of fear as she stood there. All of them had stopped eating. A flash of irritation ran through her as she noticed it. She hadn't done anything which would cause them to fear her. If anything she was grateful for them to come down onto Torfan when Fenris and she had established a beachhead. Without them, the mission could well have failed. Especially when Fenris went and modified the parameters of the mission the way he had.

'They're waiting for you to say something Sif' she heard Fenris advise her on their private-comm. She squared her shoulders and nodded to the Marines.

"Carry on then" she said, and made to leave the mess when one of the Marines, a boy of barely eighteen came up to her and coughed to catch her attention.

"Uh...ma'am. I...that is we were wondering if you had breakfast?" he asked me, his voice timid, his eyes fixed on a point above her head. Miranda admitted that this was probably the cutest and nicest way a man had asked her to have a meal with them. Most men checked her figure out first. This young man had summoned up his courage and asked his overall commander if she had had a meal, looking out for her in a way.

"No, not yet..." she replied, to which he cut her off.

"Then ma'am would you like to join us? " he asked as he gestured to the table. Miranda looked beyond him to see the rest of the Marines grimacing at their youngster's behaviour, when Fenris decided to interfere again.

'Say you would be delighted to. And be genuine about it. And for heaven's sake socialise! They're terrified of you because they only know you as a hyper-competent agent who never smiles and doesn't have a word of praise for them' he said, his voice a little harsh. That stung Miranda a bit. Pushing her feelings aside, she focused on the Marine in front of her and gave him a warm smile.

"I would be delighted to" she replied to the Marine, who smiled in reply as he gestured to an open spot at the table he and his friends were seated at. Nodding in thanks as she sat down opposite him, a tall shadow crossed over her before a plate of food was deposited in front of her.

"AN ENGLISH BREAKFAST FOR THE LADY, WITH TEA" said Fenris as he stepped away from her.

A two word message came over her private comm.

'Good job'

-Δ-

I felt a measure of pride in Miranda as she began to join in the conversation around her. Now, if only I could get her to break away from Cerberus.

Probably after I kill her father, kill off TIM, take over Cerberus and purge it of all the unethical, xenophobic elements.

In the meantime, I could keep myself entertained by playing jazz, making breakfast for the crew and studying up Material Engineering. Which is only possible when more portions of your brain are freed from worrying about basic bodily functions.

I was just wiping down the counter when Miranda approached me. She held the tea cup in a lazy grip, her plate being sent for recycling.

'Some more tea?' I asked her, making my way over to the teapot. She nodded and I refilled the cup.

"Thank you for the breakfast. It was delicious" she murmured in her rich voice. It was way more sensual in real life than in the game. But the slight hardness in her eyes gave away...something else.

'You're welcome' I said in reply. I waited for her to drop her bombshell, as she idly sipped her tea.

"Jasmine, right? I prefer chamomile myself. And the Illusive Man wants to have a debrief in the communications room. Ten minutes" she said as she continued sipping her tea.

'Okay' I replied, then decided to continue 'and...?' Call me a masochist, but I decided to poke this sleeping dragon in the eye. Or dragoness in this case. Female of the species and all that.

She shot a smirk at me, which was one-third humour and two-thirds menace "And next time I catch you hacking into my omnitool, or any of my private terminals, I don't care how valuable you are to the Illusive Man, or what you did on Elysium, I will biotically crush you into a tin can. Clear?" her voice exudes enough menace that I ran a quick scan of the bulkheads just to check for structural damage. Then forwarded the results of the scan to her omni, along with a playlist of songs that would be more to her taste.

On seeing her raised eyebrow, I shrugged and responded 'I don't know or trust you. Yet. But I am not going to be a naive, blind fool who you can lead around by his nose. You earn my trust, and I'll be willing to die for you. But screw me over, and none of your perfect genes would be able to save you' on seeing her start at my revelation, I laugh grimly, 'Ah yes, I know enough about you Lawson. Not the full details, but enough to be going on. The fact that you're a bonafide genius in an extremely attractive packaging, with enhanced senses and biotics, with a disproportionate power to weight ratio lends credence to extensive genetic manipulation. And the fact that you look like a nineteen year old when you're definitely older than that, given by the way you carry yourself and how you handled the mission lends further credence to that'

I wasn't going to reveal the entire thing to her. Right now she's TIM's little lapdog. Maybe when she drops the blinkers, then...

"Noted. And it works both ways" she replied, her voice holding a taunt in it.

'Noted' I decided to echo her as I hang up the apron and follow her to the conference room.

-Δ-

"Excellent work on Torfan you two. Were it not for your intervention, the Alliance would have suffered significant casualties both in space and on the ground. Turning their own air defences against them was inspired" came TIM's voice over the comm. speakers as he resolved into a three dimensional holographic image.

"JUST ANOTHER DAY IN THE OFFICE, SIR" I replied to his praise. I wanted him to think that I was just another loyal Cerberus attack dog, while ideas, plans and schemes ran around in my head. He gave a mildly amused look at that and then turned to Miranda.

"Miranda, you are now Agent Fenris's handler for the foreseeable future. The Intrepid is now under your command and will serve as a mobile base of operations for the two of you" he said as he lit up a new cig. Gah...the damn things make me want to hack up my non-existent lungs.

"Yes sir" she said in reply. I had tilted my head in thought as the two began to discuss the SOPs, funding and other measures to ensure OPSEC and PERSEC for all parties involved. I had to admit the idea of making the boat a bonafide merchantman would sell our cover better. Especially as the Intrepid was already listed under a shell corporation managed by Cerberus, which according to TIM was turning them a tidy profit. While this was going on, I was running through the dossiers of all the people onboard the boat.

"Something on your mind Agent Fenris?" TIM asked me, breaking me out of my thoughts.

"Oh sorry, just going through everyone's dossiers here onboard the Intrepid" I say in reply. At an impatient gesture on TIM's part I shrug "Just an idea, I want to discuss with the troops and Miranda here before I present it to you"

"What is your idea?" Miranda asked, her voice a little condescending. I guess she was still a little sore on my hacking.

I look between the two and see they wanted to hear what I had to say. With a sigh, I decide to go ahead.

"Well, everyone on board is atleast a graduate in some form of hard science. I mean, even our newest member, Private Tomlinson is a graduate in structural engineering. I think it's a waste of manpower if we don't utilise that knowledge"

"I'm listening" he said as he took a deep drag of his cigarette, his bland tone masking what his eyes were giving away.

"I would recommend that we operate as a special operations and special projects wing. We can work on researching, developing and field-testing weapons, equipment, tactics and any other projects which would enhance our operatives' survivability and increase their lethality" I said, throwing in a careless shrug.

I then looked between Miranda, who had a sceptical frown on her face, and TIM, who hadn't taken a puff of his cigarette since I began.

"Miranda, double-check all the dossiers. If what Fenris is saying is right, we might have not utilised all our resources properly" he ordered, cutting the call on getting an acknowledgement from Miranda.

'Wheels within wheels' I think to myself as Miranda headed off to her cabin to double-check all the dossiers.

-Δ-

It had been nine months since that fateful conversation with the Illusive Man, and Miranda couldn't help feeling a measure of pride in her team and herself.

Their cell, call sign 'Warwolf' on Fenris's insistence, had begun reaping major dividends. They had begun with a simple project, designing a viable replacement for the M-35 Mako, with something a little more reliable than the M-44 Hammerhead.

Enter Project: Tempest. In simple words, they had taken the Mako, stripped it down to its bare essentials, and then on its framework built a heavy gunship. For propulsion, they took the engine specs of the Hammerhead, shook their heads in disgust and went about looking at various commercially available heavy transporter engines and hovercraft system. Miranda hadn't realised how much of R&D was toiling over the design of the system and keeping it within a realistic range.

Finally, they settled on making two versions of the Tempest. A hovercraft variant designated Tempest-G, which could carry a pilot, a gunner and a navigator, propelled by a pair of heavy lift turbines, set on a swivelling mount, allowing it a greater degree of manoeuvrability than the Mako or the Hammerhead. It was armed with a primary armament in the form of a tri-barrelled auto cannon system based off of the original Mako's armament, with the heat generated by one barrel firing being converted into the electric charge required to fire the next round by using the heat sink to charge it up. This allowed the weapon to fire at the rate of 360 rpm. Its secondary weapon systems were in the form of a miniaturised GARDIAN system, installed as an anti-aircraft measure, with two rotary machine guns set up on the bottom bow of the boat-shaped vehicle as an anti-infantry measure, and two Cains set along the sides of the vehicle and behind its primary armament as indirect-firing weapons. It used a miniaturised He-3 fusion reactor to power all its systems, with an improved, cycling shielding which enhanced protection while reducing the strain on the system while recharging. It could carry a dismount squad of 6 infantry in a small, pressurised compartment, separate from the crew.

The second variant, the gunship variant was something else. Basically, the whole thing was a flying tank. The design was a fusion of the airframe of the Mantis, with the armour of a Mako, and the troop carrying capability of the Kodiak. In place of the earlier engines were thrust-vectoring repulsors, which were heavily armoured and due to a reduction in size, were smaller. A tandem seating cockpit was built, with the pilot above the co-pilot. The Tempest-A as it was called had all the armament of the Tempest-G and then all the boys surrounding Miranda agreed that it wasn't lethal enough. Replacing the two Cains, they put in pods of individually targeting, active-LPIR guided micro-missiles, each with a HEAT warhead of a yield of 300 kilograms of TNT. And they set up the Cain and the tri-barrel configured turret in a setup under the nose, miniaturising the primary armament while maintaining lethality by increasing the power capacity of the coils in the gun. It also had a FLIR/TV based nose mounted targeting system for visual guidance.

Both versions weapon systems were collapsible along the lines of modern infantry weapons, making them easy to deploy from orbit.

Both platforms were now being stress tested by the bunch of overgrown children Miranda was babysitting, which was the only way she could describe the 62 grown men, who were prancing around the hold in excitement.

As Fenris put it succinctly "Sometimes, you need to learn to run before you can walk"

"This is the Intrepid, standing by for launch test of Tempests' A and G" came the voice of the captain of the Intrepid, Captain Jason Miles, after we entered orbit of a small desert planet in the Artemis Tau Cluster.

"Aye, aye Captain. All non-essential personnel are exiting the cargo hold. Commence depressurisation of the hold in 2 mikes" replied Senior Operative Arun Sharma as the entire team, barring the crews of the two crafts secured the hold for depressurisation and exited the hold.

The team headed to the operations centre where they all took position behind the various workstations, giving read outs on both the crafts. Miranda and Fenris both stood behind and to a side of the team as they began observing the data filtering in from both the crafts and their crew.

"Tempest-1, engines engaged" came the voice of the pilot of the Tempest-A.

"Tempest-2, engines engaged" said the voice of the pilot of the Tempest-G

"Tempests, standby for depressurisation. Depressurisation in 3, 2, 1...now. Hold depressurised. Aft doors are open. Commence test" came the voice of Captain Miles. Miranda watched from the cameras as both the crafts taxied towards the doors and one by one, launched themselves out of the Intrepid.

"This is Tempest-1-1. I am entering Edolus's atmosphere. All systems operating under nominal parameters" came Tempest-1's pilot's voice.

"Tempest-2-1, here. All systems within operational parameters" came the voice of Tempest-2's navigator.

"Copy that Tempests. Make your way to the surface and begin tests as per plan" Miranda ordered them.

"Tempest-1-1 copies"

"Tempest-2-1, acknowledged"

Now began the tiresome part of the whole exercise, the wait. Miranda didn't handle waiting well, especially if she were not in control of the project.

And in all honesty, she wasn't. It was Fenris who had looked at the idea of the Hammerhead and immediately got the entire crew onboard the idea of building the Tempest.

All Miranda did was double-check all the calculations and made sure they didn't accidently 'hole' the hold.

If this is what motherhood would be like, I think I might just give it a miss in the baulk, thought Miranda as she kept an eye on the data compiling before her.

"Warwolf Lead, Tempest-1-1. Am in Edolus atmosphere and currently approaching waypoint 1. All systems are green" came the report of Tempest-1 as it entered its operational altitude of 120000 meters.

"Acknowledged Tempest-1. Tempest-2, status?" Miranda ordered as she switched her attention onto the data streaming in from Tempest-2. Only a faint crackle was coming in from the speakers.

"Tempest-2, status?" still only a faint crackle was coming. Miranda was now getting worried about them.

"TEMPEST-1, DO YOU HAVE A VISUAL ON TEMPEST-2?" came Fenris's voice over the comms.

"Hold on. I have a lock on their signal. ETA 30 sierras" came the reply. They watched the live feed of the gun camera as it locked onto the erratic signal of Tempest-2. It soon resolved into an image of a giant, grey-brown worm chasing after Tempest-2, who's pilot was driving in a random pattern to avoid the worm's lunges and what looked like spit? Miranda had just begun to compute the threat when Fenris began rapping out orders.

"TEMPEST-1, PERFORM CAS ON THAT THRESHER MAW. GET TEMPEST-2 OUT OF THERE ASAP! UNDERSTOOD?!"

"Copy Warwolf. Engaging with Cain" came the reply as the gun mounted camera showed a positive lock on the Maw. A quarter-second later, the creature vanished in a cloud of fire and smoke. It cleared to show that the Maw, though wounded, had survived.

"Missiles away" a veritable storm of missiles impacted the prehistoric creature, effectively diverting its attention away from Tempest-2, who immediately seized the opportunity to hightail it out of the combat zone.

"TEMPEST-1, DO NOT LET UP. THE MAW WILL ATTACK TEMPEST-2. HIT IT WITH EVERYTHING YOU GOT!" Fenris ordered, to which Tempest-1 replied by opening fire with its rotary auto-cannon, scoring direct hits on the monster. As it screamed in defiance and tried to escape, Tempest-1 hit it in the head with a blast from the GARDIAN array on board it for anti-fighter purpose, killing it instantly.

"Well...that went well" came the comical understatement from someone in the room. Miranda rubbed the bridge of her nose as she contemplated that statement.

-Δ-

NEXT UP - STRENGTHENING OF A PARTNERSHIP