Chapter 8: Ryan

Cassandra looked on towards the alien ships, still in disbelief that they had been captured so easily. The story behind their capture was utterly incredible, and she had little doubt that the people of Earth would celebrate it in grand fashion. Civilians through beginning to hope that victory might be possible, the military by stripping every inch of the things down for technological secrets. Even now, the American mechanics and engineers were crawling over them, inspecting but not dismantling. Some were busy scrubbing the alien script off the side, and daubing on the ships new names.

Enterprise, the larger of the two, and Defiant, the smaller.

The Captain shook her head at the first one. The Americans now lived on worlds other than Earth, yet couldn't drop their love for science fiction. At least the second seemed suitably martial in nature, not being related to Hollywood dreams.

The thoughts distracted her from the conversation she was waiting for. The story of how the ships were captured remained a mystery. None of the US Marines would speak about it, under orders to keep it to themselves. It was frustrating. It wasn't as if Cassandra or her troops would pass the methodology on to the enemy's intelligence services, after all, and they likely knew already. It stirred a bad feeling in her throat, that the Americans didn't trust her.

Her distraction almost made her miss the chomp of boots approaching from behind. Wanting to make the best impression possible on the commander of the last bastion of humanity on Shanxi, she straightened up and fixed her uniform. The heavy footfalls got closer, drawing alongside.

"Ugly lil'things, aren't they?" came a deep drawl, "Reckon they needed painting. Whatever the sonsofbitches called them before doesn't matter now, a couple of the flyboys decided to run wild with it."

Cassandra turned to find a Colonel standing beside her. The Colonel, to be exact. He was fair skinned, not as tall as her but only by a couple of inches, and had the expected buzzcut that obscured the real colour of his hair. Naturally, he was well built, but not to the same extent that Beck was. His age was indeterminate but more than her own.

Most importantly, he was dressed in the same green fatigues and combat armour as the other Americans, but a huge P33 Pereira revolver hung off his hip. The impression was inevitable. He was a bloody cowboy! Yet protocol made obligations on her that she intended to carry out.

"Colonel Ryan, I'm glad to meet you finally, sir," she said, saluting, "Captain Cassandra DeRuyter, South African 3rd Colonial Infantry."

The Colonel saluted back somewhat casually, to her surprise, and with a curled lip. He wasn't pleased.

"Yes, I know who you are Captain," he said, "Colonel Edward Ryan, United States Marine Expeditionary Force, and I'm not glad to meet you."

Cassandra clenched her fists behind her back, keeping her face as passive as possible. The man produced a flask from his combat webbing, and poured himself a cup, the smell of coffee wafting on the air. A casual insult then, and one she would answer.

"Then be glad your artillery made it here in one piece," she replied flatly, "Sir."

Ryan did not respond immediately, preferring to gulp down the entire contents of his cup first.

"You have no business talkin' back to me, honey," he said venomously, "Do you have any notion of how badly y'all have fucked us? Because you couldn't follow a simple order, you may have compromised everything we are doing here."

"In Africa, we do not stand by and watch civilians get slaughtered," Cassandra replied, "We saw that too many times in our past, it is intolerable for us. I was under the impression that the soldiers of the United States shared this value, even if they are not empowered by law as we are to disobey orders to prevent war crimes."

"My own Captain reported that the aliens were rounding'em up, not slaughtering'em wholesale," Ryan replied, "And I'm not a soldier, I'm a Marine."

"'Rounding up' civilians as you put it is against the laws of war," Cassandra retorted, "For reasons that should be obvious to you as a Marine."

"The aliens don't give a damn," Ryan said, screwing his cup back onto the top of his flask, "And you've only delayed the deaths of those civilians, if that is what the aliens were planning to do. Nowhere on this planet is safe. They were dead already."

"It's a big planet," Cassandra said, "We can easily hide this number until relief arrives."

"You're assuming it will arrive anytime soon," said Ryan, stabbing a finger at her, "You runnin' off to do your own mission almost cost me my artillery and AA, and you draggin' half the civvies along with you has completely shot our plan to pieces. I ought to beat you to death with the chain of command right this moment!"

"There aren't any Alliance generals around here," Cassandra retorted, "You haven't the authority."

"Bullshit!" Ryan shouted, "I've got more people here and each one of mine could eat two of yours alive! That's all the authority I need!"

Cassandra eyed the revolver again, briefly, before bringing her hands around from her back. The Colonel's hostility was bubbling over. The man realised the impression he was giving, and let out a long sigh.

"Lucky you that Captain Beck, Bostonian radical that he is, vouches for you," Ryan continued, "Says we can use you. Reckon we shall."

Cassandra relaxed, returning her hands to their place behind her back. "For what?" she asked.

"Gonna have to tell you the whole story, first," Ryan said, pointing at the prizes of war, "As you can see, we captured two ships. That wasn't done in space, they landed here. The lil'one came in first, damaged. Orbital batteries must have gotten in a lucky shot. Unlucky they landed here, because that clearing is a secret landing site for the bunkers here. Makes sense, they didn't want to get captured so they found a cozy place away from prying eyes. They didn't know about the garrison of Euros and us interlopers. The Europeans didn't have the neck to take it of course, only had a platoon. Their lieutenant will no doubt want to meet you. Anyway, big one came in about twenty minutes later to help, just as we were fixin' to take the lil'one."

"So it was luck?" Cassandra asked, scandalised, "I don't believe it."

"Luck my ass!" Ryan declared, "There was a great deal of work and skill involved."

The man was enjoying telling the story a little too much, Cassandra thought.

"We had to get close enough without getting detected," Ryan continued, "That wasn't too hard, we're kicking around here with thermal screening camo. Getting to both at the same time, so one couldn't fly off or turn their guns on us, that was the real trick. My boys are just that good."

"Did the aliens give much of a fight?" Cassandra asked, "They were very disciplined when we fought them."

"They did what they could," Ryan replied, "Most of them were outside when we attacked, completing the repairs. We waited until they had done so, and caught them completely unaware as they were pattin' themselves on the back for a job well done. Sent a whole company against them, neutralised what I presume were their marines before they could resist. Of course, that's the really important thing."

"Less casualties," Cassandra conceded, "Certainly the best way to do it."

"That's just the icing on the cake," Ryan said, "All their equipment was turned on when we stormed inside. Happened so fast, the crew didn't manage to turn it off in time. They left the keys in the ignition, we can fly these things outta here any time we like."

Cassandra frowned. There was no way there was enough space for everyone on the two vessels.

"Is that why the civilians compromised the operation?" she asked, "Were you planning on using the ships to resist?" Or escape, she added darkly in her head.

"Don't have pilots," Ryan replied, "At least, not pilots that can fly those things. I got gunship pilots, but they lost their birds in the opening minutes. Told me they hadn't the slightest clue."

"So what is the plan?" Cassandra asked.

"Two weeks back, we were just told to keep our heads down," Ryan mused, "Make sure we kept control of the things. Wasn't easy, ET wanted their toys back bigtime. They haven't dropped any nukes on us, but they sent a squadron of fighters and a shuttle. Didn't reckon we had control of the point defences. Didn't need pilots to use those. They're smoking wrecks about six clicks thataway."

The Colonel thumbed over his shoulder with a smirk. Hardly surprising, Cassandra thought as she scanned the terrain once more. The valley seemed to funnel would be aerial attackers into either a long visible approach or a sudden engagement that might not be to their advantage. The aliens clearly chose the location to set down for that reason, and the Europeans to protect their bunkers.

"Couple of days ago, the Alliance came up with a new plan," Ryan continued, "Got the message just before we lost contact. They're sending two of their best frigate jockeys, engineering crew to make sure that the ships are still flyable and to strap our torpedo launchers to them, and a team of combat specialists to keep them alive long enough to get the things out of here."

Cassandra nodded. "That seems like it could work," she said, "Get them back to Earth or Arcturus. Shouldn't be too hard."

"Problem is Williams," Ryan said, "He'll be laying down arms any day now, if he hasn't already. We'll need to defend this place from whatever ground forces are thrown at us until the frigates get away."

Cassandra hummed to herself, spotting a pretty big flaw in the plan.

"Won't that leave us open for them to drop a space station on our heads?" she asked, "Once the frigates are away?"

"That's why you picking up the civilians has fucked us," Ryan said, "We were supposed to use the escape tunnel in the bunker complex to get under the mountains yonder and keep fighting. We can't move fast enough for that to work now. The aliens would get inside before all of us were through, even if I did leave behind the largest rearguard I could."

"We could get the civilians moving now," Cassandra suggested, not willing to admit that her rescuing of Connolly and the others had been a mistake of any kind.

"It'll be a week until the pilots arrive," Ryan said, "I can't spare anyone to look after them until after that. We'll keep them in the tunnel entrance for the moment."

Cassandra was happy to hear that he wasn't planning on abandoning them, at least.

"That's where you come in," Ryan added, "Your soldiers will be on the defence rotation. Having made a mess, you're going to help clean it up, so help me God. Hope you've got some people qualified with walkers."

"A couple," Cassandra replied, "Did the Alliance inform you what you were getting when we were assigned?"

"I haven't talked to anyone from the Alliance since I got my orders," Ryan replied.

"I'll prepare an inventory," Cassandra said, shaking her head, "Bloody Alliance and their oversights. Only ever thinking about the navy. We're going to need a united Army, not this mixed up nonsense."

"Good," Ryan growled, "You're going to earn my forgiveness for your insubordination, Captain, don't have any doubts about that."

"Understood, sir," Cassandra replied.

"And remember one more thing," he said, "We're alone out here."

"No need to remind me, sir," Cassandra said, "I know it."

Victus watched the forest from the top of the cliff, hardly believing his eyes. There were two turian ships in a clearing, their forms just barely visible over the forest around them. One attack frigate and one heavy frigate. Just sitting there, doing nothing. It might not be such an unusual sight in other circumstances, even in this war.

The issue was that in the forest all around them, his scouts had reported a large force, heavily dug in, with armour and drones in abundance.

That meant only one thing. A great national disgrace had occurred. Turian military vessels on active service in a warzone had been captured for the first time since the Krogan Rebellions.

Worse, Victus had little doubt the humans were capable of cracking the computer codes, allowing them access to all sorts of intelligence. Not least the existence of the Citadel Council and the other sentient species of the galaxy, how to contact them included as a given. The private war of the turian generals could come to a crashing halt if any semblance of civilisation was detected by the asari in particular, and given the physiological similarities with humanity, he had no doubt the matriarchs would find some.

But now that he had seen it, his turian honour refused to allow him to let it pass.

"Corinthus," he called, "Get me General Orinia and send her our reports. We need to begin probing attacks immediately."