Elioka pushed herself with her legs further deeper in the water, swimming closer to the bottom of the sea. She wasn’t too far from the coast nor the surface: the light beams of Neoilium’s white star reached the weird corals covering the sea floor, reflecting over their translucent surface and creating iridescent cascades of colors. Transparent fishes dwelled amongst their branches, hiding and hunting each other.
This is kind of cool. ...At least we didn’t crash on dump.
Elioka wasn’t usually interested in that sort of things, but Enlikla had insisted that she took some time to relax before departing, and going at the beach gave her at least an excuse to exercise by swimming.
Plus, if a sea monster comes around, things could get pretty interesting...
She let herself float near one of the larger fishes for a while, and then swam towards the surface to take some air.
It’s not fair. I shouldn’t enjoy myself. While I’m having fun here, my sisters are getting slaughtered home. If any are even still alive. I mean, even if Thessia fell, and Illium fell, and all the Council governments have been defeated, it could still take decades, if not centuries, for the Reapers to exterminate us all. Right now, asari might be fighting for their lives in a losing battle, entrenched in a barren wasteland, breathing irradiated air, while we’re here, slouching on a tropical paradise.
It was getting harder for her to think about it: she was powerless to find any solution to that problem and that only ended in meaningless frustration. And there were many other new problems appearing every day that she had to deal with, but that was no excuse to forget her original goal, no matter how further away it was becoming.
Elioka emerged from the water, took a deep breath, and threw herself back in. She had not expected the water to be that cold compared to how hot it always was on dry land, but it had been a pleasant surprise.
Goddess, it has been AGES since I got a proper bath. ...Turns out skinny-dipping in the wild was the right call. There’s something kind of intriguing and primal.. ancestral call, I guess? Should probably write a blog when I have the time...
The moments of escapism passed fast, as she went again through the last reports with her mind. It had been a couple of months since her chat with Faraldae, but she had yet to process every detail and possible hidden message of their conversation together. She had had it all recorded, of course, and had spent several afternoons re-watching it time and again, but she still felt like missing something. She had had the Matriarch re-frozen right after the interrogation, and so Faraldae had remained ever since. Elioka had thought about having another chat right before the mission, but she feared it might just confuse her.
If things go wrong, and if the intel she provided looks good and verified, I guess I could pay another visit. If things go right, then there’s no need, if the intel was incorrect then she cannot be trusted.
It annoyed her how conciliatory the Matriarch had been, she just wanted to find something to prove to herself that Faraldae was trying to deceive her. It had come to the point she had found herself hoping for the intel provided on the leaders of the Unforgotten to be wrong, just so she could spit it on her face.
Even if the Matriarch had collaborated in complete honesty, Elioka did not want to speak with her more than the bare minimum, simply because she didn’t want to start relying on her too much.
It starts just with some kind words, she buys herself some credibility, gets to be seen as a friend, then maybe she gets to not be in the pod while she’s interrogated, then she’s no longer hibernated at all, just confined to her quarters. A few decades in and she rules the entire planet. Tsk tsk. Not gonna happen.
Of course, pretty much nobody except for Peeemsy shared that concern: they told her Faraldae was acting like that only because she was scared and confused, and that Elioka was just being too paranoid as usual. She had sent the footage of her interrogation to Sulysy by proxy of VI, but had received no comment from her, even though Enlikla had told her that Sulysy was starting to work again on the administration of the colony.
F**k, I really need to speak with Lys. It has been too long. Just need to do this one last thing. I’ll make things right, it’ll be a lot easier after. It wouldn’t make any sense to do it now, after waiting so much. And why did it come to BE so much, you s**tless coward? Such a friend, Elioka. Leaving her alone for all of this time, now getting annoyed that she’s not here to help you make decisions...
Elioka swam back to the surface and then towards the beach.
She’s not a vengeful person, she won’t care if I bring her the butcherers who blew up Ptero, but that’s the only thing I can really do at this point. It’ll have to be worth something...
Creating small biotic fields on the palm of her feet to not walk directly on the coast covered in sharp rocks and corals, Elioka emerged from the sea. She let the water drip from her on its own until she reached her pile of clothes, then she briefly enveloped herself into an ephemeral barrier of dark energy, which expelled every drop in one instant, leaving her dry and clean.
“Enough lazying about, Elioka.” She said to herself, picking up her jacket and starting to dress herself. “Time for some real action, for a change...”
*****************
“Five minutes to jump.” Announced the navigator on the bridge.
“Commander...” called Myrayme, standing next to the holographic table, near Elioka. “...I must ask you one last time if you’re absolutely certain about this.”
Elioka gave her an exasperated look in response. The new Admiral wasn’t as tall as her predecessor; she was fit, but more nimble than Vethy. It wasn’t really surprising, considering Myrayme had more experience as a strategist and a pilot than as a ground soldier.
“And for the last f**king time, Ray...” answered Elioka. “...this is the way we’re doing it. And, trust me, personally, I would
totally love to just do it your way, but, doing it like this, it’ll be better for the long run.”
The Admiral didn’t look too convinced, but Elioka was confident that she would have followed her orders.
“I’m going in the cargo bay with the huntresses, we’ll keep connected for the entirety of the operation.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Elioka reached her troops right before the fleet made its jump through the hyperlane, emerging in the asteroid belt of the Jurnast system. “This is it, people.”
The holographic window on her omni-tool cleared out, showing Myrayme in the command room.
“Commander, we’ve engaged the base’s defenses.” She communicated through the device.
“What about the enemy fleet?”
“That might be a problem...” Myrayme disappeared for a few seconds, giving orders to her officers off-screen.
“Ray? C’mon, don’t leave us hanging here.”
It had taken a year and a half for Peeemsy to rebuild a proper fleet, six corvettes plus assorted transport and minor support vessels, but the lack of any hostility from the Unforgotten during all that time could only mean one of two things: either the battle against Vethy had crippled them permanently and they lacked the resources to rebuild their own forces, or they were preparing something big and therefore were taking their own time.
Elioka knew that, with some more time and resources, Neoilium too could have been able to field a larger fleet, but that would have meant wasting more years quelling their own exploration and scientific efforts for fear of other attacks by the Unforgotten.
“Sorry.” Finally, Myrayme’s face returned on screen. “The enemy fleet is present on the system, but it is not docked on the base.”
“Supposed catching them off guard was too much to ask...”
“Their signal has been caught on the fringes of the star system.”
“How many?”
“Three vessels, presumably the same fleet from the attack on Crimdor.”
“Oh, that’d just be
too good...” Elioka impatiently waited another few seconds while Myrayme went off-screen giving orders.
“They are not moving towards us, though, Commander.” The Admiral finally answered. “Their signal shows they’re about to make a hyperjump.”
Before Elioka could respond, the ship trembled, shaken by the fire of the enemy base’s cannons; the other asari huntresses held onto the safety rail without too much trouble, yet the Commander took longer to find her stability again: she wasn’t used to wear full body armor, but, for that mission, the risk of a breach depressurizing the battlefield was too high for her to go without precautions.
While Elioka tried to keep herself balanced, Myrayme continued to speak from the Commander’s omni-tool: “We might be able to disengage some of our ships and send them in pursuit, Commander. Should I give the order?”
“Just a sec...” Elioka pushed away one of her huntresses and thought about the matter for a few seconds, trying to block out the booming echoes reverberating through the ship. “Nah. F**k them. Keep the pressure on the main target, deploy us as soon as there’s a straight line through their block.”
“But, Commander, if we let the enemy fleet go, they could-”
“Neoilium is well prepared against a pitiful three-ship crummy old fleet; they’ll hold.”
“What if they attack some of our other bases, like in Crimdor? Civilians could get killed!”
“Yeah, that’d suck. But it’ll be the last time it happens if we destroy their base
today. Listen, there’s no way the Justicar is fleeing battle when we’re threatening her friends, which means either their fleet is mutinying, or it’s just Raira escaping. Here they’ve got resources, people and their biggest asset, so, we take this down, they’re history. ...So, continue with the attack.”
“I.. yes, Commander.”
It took several hours of intense fighting and one corvette being severely damaged before a way was finally cleared for the boarding parties. Elioka had already studied holographic maps of the Unforgotten base for days, but seeing it directly, from the window of her transport, left her at least somewhat impressed: the loyalists had managed to cobble several small asteroids together, using them as foundations for their fortified refuges, each interconnected with long and thick beams. The whole construction did not look at all pretty, but it was functional and well defended. The amount of weapons and tech that it showed was a testament to the success of the smuggling ring in Neoilium in the past years, but the lack of new enemy ships could have implied Myrayme’s investigations on the colony to catch Unforgotten supporters had been largely successful.
Now we just need to take down the nest. After today, everything is going to run smoothly.
“Brace for impact!” she shouted, while the transport blasted through one of the docking bays of the eastern section of the base.
“Team one, out! Go, go, go!”
She waited for the first ten huntresses to jump out, then she followed them alongside her commandos. The asari enveloped themselves in a barrier of dark energy as they fell down, to slow their descent and protect themselves from enemy fire.
“Remember, I
want prisoners!” Elioka raised her hand, summoning a biotic push against three enemies hiding behind a few containment crates. “Move it, people!”
The Neoiliac fleet was still firing at that section to weaken its external defenses, and its strikes were making the ground tremble and Elioka’s aim shaky.
Would be easier to shoot straight if it weren’t for this f**king armor anyway.
She fired a few shots with her pistol and crouched behind heavy machinery to charge her amp, and then jumped out again, rushing in a biotic charge to elbow her target to the neck. She turned around just in time to shoot a second asari on the leg and kneel her face in as she fell, then took a moment to rest and look around.
Transport’s still intact. Good. Now, where-?
Elioka interrupted her trail of thought to shoot a loyalist before the enemy could take down one of her own huntresses, then enveloped herself in another barrier to counteract a biotic pull and re-directed the dark energy against the new target, leaving the enemy floating in the air.
“Commander!” shouted one of the commando from the interlink in her helmet. “Area secured, enemy in route. We suffered three casualties and two wounded; eleven enemies captured.”
“Fan-f**king-tastic. Leave someone to keep the transport safe, just in case; the rest of us, we move to the connector beam, and straight for the center. ...Ray! First area secured, stop bombing, focus fire on the other peripheral points, I’m heading for the center.”
“Roger that.”
After a passing glance to check that everyone was behind her, Elioka ran towards the corridor.
“Valves closing!” warned one of the commandos, pointing at the series of metal barriers starting to cut off the sections of the connector beam.
“Double time, people!” shouted Elioka, putting away her gun. “We planned for this: commandos with me, we cut through!”
She kept running, with the commandos at her back, and they all charged their amps, releasing a surge of dark energy to rush forward in a biotic dash, flashing through the conduit and the closing door.
It all happened in an instant: Elioka saw the corridor walls zap by, showing passing images of the star fight happening outside from the windows, then a sudden halt shook her from her very being.
That’s.. not.. right...
She rolled on the ground, moaning, alongside some of the commandos as well.
Something stopped us!
She reached for her gun and tried to clear her sight, crawling away from her current position, just in time to avoid a few shots.
“Ambush!” shouted one of the commandos, already wounded on the chest and her arm.
“Forget about that, run for the center!” answered Elioka, shooting blindly behind herself while turning to the end of the corridor, only to see the last door close, cutting their way out.
“Well, s**t.”
They were bottled in that section, with the rest of the huntresses trapped through the other slices of the corridor.
If we don’t reach the control room, we can’t unlock the other sections!
“I need this door breached,
now!” She dragged away from the fire the wounded commando and struck one of her opponents with a biotic slam, crushing the asari inside her armor and on the floor.
Never a salarian tech when you need one...
“I expected you would come...” the familiar voice made Elioka shudder. The asari speaking was covered in full armor, like her, but, after hearing her, she immediately recognized her as Justicar Welima. “...I will end you today.”
Crap.
“Wanna
bet?” shouted Elioka, shooting a few times in her direction and then charging a powerful biotic push towards her. The Justicar raised her hand and absorbed the attack with a thick shield of dark energy.
“Change of plans, guys!
First kill the Justicar,
then open a breach!” Some of the commandos were already occupied fighting the other ambushers, but a couple of the ones who had reached the locked door managed to hear her call and join her, adding their energies to Elioka’s just in time to resist the Justicar’s counterattack.
Elioka held on for what looked like an eternity, but, even with the help from the commandos, the junction point between the two opposing swirling forces was slowly getting closer to them and away from the lone Justicar. Sustaining the wave with one hand, she reached for her shotgun with the other, trying to aim at Welima’s legs, the only target visible beyond the blinding beacon of dark energy pulsating in the middle of the corridor.
Yet, before she could fire a single shot, the Justicar released another wave of energy to reinforce the first one, turning the two clashing forces into a huge singularity.
“Crafty b***h...”
Elioka held on the arm of one of her commandos, who was herself holding on the door’s safety handle, to avoid getting dragged away from the ground and into the sphere of dark energy.
“Mag boots, everyone! I’m ending this!” she shouted, fiddling with her belt to pull a biotic grenade and toss it at the singularity. “Choke on it, b***h! ...Barrier!” She raised both hands, alongside the two commandos, creating a dome of dark energy right before the explosive released its gravitational shockwave.
The singularity collapsed, but their barrier also shattered as soon as it was created, while Elioka and her commandos were slammed against the locked door. The pressure caused by the explosion was too much for the conduit to sustain, and the top junction of a wall cracked, depressurizing the section of the corridor they were in.
One of the last enemy soldiers was sucked out into space, leaving only the Justicar, who, although pulled away after the explosion, was still holding on the edge of the breach, slowly crawling back in.
With the mag boots holding her on the ground, Elioka walked towards her, charging her shotgun.
“Why.. won’t.. you.. just.. DIE already!?!” she shouted, punctuating every word firing a shot; the Justicar was able to deflect the first shots with a biotic barrier, but doing so made her lose hold on the edge of the breach. The fifth shot finally hit her, pushing her towards the emptiness of space, but Welima was still able to charge a biotic pull against Elioka, tearing her from the floor and towards herself. Three of the commandos who had already recovered from the blast, seeing their Commander flying away towards the breach, focused their energies to grab her from afar and pull her down. At the same time, Elioka, who had been grappled by the Justicar, desperately wrestled with her opponent, trying to get free from her hold.
“Just..! Just f**king SHOOT HER!” she shouted from the interlink, ignoring all the messages coming in from the fleet.
“You’re too close to her, Commander!”
The Justicar tightened the grip of her legs around Elioka’s waist, charged her fist with biotic energy and punched her straight in the face.
Elioka heard a deafening crack and blacked out for a moment; when her vision returned, the Justicar was already charging another punch. This time the Commander managed to free one of her hands and create a mild barrier to intercept it, but Welima’s power was still strong enough to crack the defense and strike her anyway, although not as violently.
They were finally close enough to the floor again for one of the commandos to walk to them and point the gun directly at the Justicar’s temple to avoid accidentally hitting her Commander, but, before she could pull the trigger, Welima released a biotic shockwave around herself, throwing all three commandos on the walls.
Elioka, instead, was pushed on the floor, and used that opportunity to lock herself down once more with the mag boots, but was unable to stand up: her vision was blurry, and her sense of balance had been completely shattered after all of that floating and gravitational bending. The Justicar was enveloping herself in a bubble of energy, floating in the middle on the room, while recharging for her next attack.
The ringing in Elioka’s ears had subdued enough to make her catch the worrying creaking coming from her helmet: although the Justicar’s blows had not cracked it open immediately, they had been enough to critically damage it. If she didn’t manage to unlock the door soon and get in a pressurized environment, she might not survive regardless of the Justicar.
I hate that c**t.. SO MUCH. She’s still f**king BLASTING!!
Giving up on standing on her feet, Elioka grasped for her gun, firing an overcharged shot at the Justicar floating right above her. It was enough to let her barrier wane for a bit, but not to do any lasting damage.
“Even if you had managed to prevail today...” spoke the Justicar. “...it would have been but a fleeting victory. The righteous always triumphs over the wicked in the end.” Taking advantage of the fact that they were still floating after the blast, Welima pulled the three commandos around, turning in her protective sphere as she violently scraped them on the walls of the corridor.
“That...” Elioka coughed. “That supposed to be you? Righteous, Miss-I-kill-civilians-in-the-lab?” She managed to shoot a second time, forcing the Justicar to break her hold on the commandos, but Welima just enveloped Elioka’s gun in a bluish light and tore it away from her hold and into her own.
“This is a Disciple model. You use our own weapons, but know nothing of the Code, child. Transgression results only in one kind of punishment. At the very least, embrace your end with dignity.”
Elioka raised her hands to shield her face, seeing the Justicar pointing the gun down towards her, but she had barely any energy left to create another barrier. “You dumb, psycho-b***h!”
The Justicar flinched and started to charge up the weapon. “So be it.”
Elioka clenched her teeth, closed her eyes and waited for the shot, which came in the form of a rattling series of blasts.
...Hey!.. That’s not how mine sounds...
She didn’t feel any more pain than she already did, and her barrier was surprisingly still holding. She opened her eyes only to find out that the gunshot was directed against the Justicar and was coming from outside the breach, where some of the huntresses had flown in with the transport to board the junction, sealing the hole.
The barrage of fire coming from the mounted gun on the side of the transport had forced Welima to focus entirely on her protection sphere, but Elioka knew that might have been not enough.
Not wanting to lose that opportunity, she forced herself to ignore the pain, demagnetized her soles, let her own momentum float her back up, re-magnetized the boots and called the other commandos through the interlink.
“Come on, it’s now or never, b***hes! Get off your lazy a**es and help me!”
Only two of the commandos answered, and even then, one of them was too hurt to stand.
The Justicar was already charging a new shockwave to get rid of the huntresses on the transport, but the focus needed to deflect the barrage of fire was disrupting her focus, already eroded by the intense and prolonged fight.
Elioka directed the united efforts of the commandos, pushing against the barrier from every angle.
“Keep the pressure, you on the transport! We’re making her sweat now, I can feel it!”
The bubble of energy protecting the Justicar waned, but it was still too strong to be crushed. Welima managed to lash out another time, directing a biotic push against the huntresses on the transport, succeeding in destroying the turret and severely damaging the ship.
Some of the huntresses were able to jump in the conduit in time, but the rest was dragged away when the transport detached from the breach and moved out of sight.
Burning with rage, Elioka poured every last shred of energy she had to fight against the barrier.
F**k no! She’s not getting away again!
“Down!” she shouted, leading the efforts of the two commandos to use their partial hold on the bubble in order to slam the Justicar on the ground. Welima struggled to keep her focus, stretching both arms and concentrating to keep the barrier from shattering.
“Up!” The three asari reversed the polarization of their biotics, throwing the Justicar onto the ceiling. Elioka’s vision was blurry and she could only hear a ringing noise, but she could feel that, at every strike, the resistance against their hold from the Justicar was lessening.
“F**king down! Again!” When Welima was pushed on the floor for the second time, Elioka knew they had finally done some damage: she couldn’t exactly feel the crack in the Justicar, but she felt it.
Unfortunately, she could not sustain the attack any longer; her hold waned and her body floated in the depressurized room, locked down on the ground but completely unresponsive to her commands.
No! Not now! Not now! We’re so f**king close!
She wanted to shout at the others to continue, but the two commandos were down as well, drained entirely. Only the three huntresses who had managed to jump off the transport were still active, but they were barely capable of shooting at the Justicar while floating aimlessly in the room, unable to pull themselves on the ground.
Elioka kept her eyes on the enemy laying near the ground and tried to focus, blacking out and back in at almost every breath she took.
C’mon, c’mon!
Welima winced, and clumsily pushed the ground with her hands to float back in a straight position; there was no glow enveloping her, her shoulders were crooked and her head hung on the side, but she was still moving. She stepped on the floor, thrusting herself in a gentle glide towards the Commander, stretching her arms as much as she could to reach for her. Some of the huntresses managed to shoot at her, worsening the damage on her armor, but it was still not enough to stop her.
Elioka desperately tried to move, then cursed her own useless limbs, and went back to focus exclusively on recharging her amp.
Welima grabbed her from an arm, dragging herself closer and moving her other hand towards Elioka’s damaged helmet. “May...” the Justicar’s voice came out distorted by the broken interlink. “May you find peace.. in the...”
“F**king embrace her for me!” Elioka let out one last biotic push before the Justicar could pick her helmet off. Welima lost her hold on the Commander’s arm and floated up in the corridor. She waved frantically her arms, trying to grasp at something, but finally flew out of the breach and in the emptiness of space.
As she looked gleefully at that wonderful sight, Elioka’s only regret was that she had no strength to flip her off.
