Four

Virmire

"Do you ever wonder about the ethics of our research?" the white-coated salarian asked his colleague. His colleague also wore a white coat but was human and female. The salarian had overheard the human males on staff refer to her as hot, damn hot, smoking hot and I'd crawl over broken glass just to watch her have a shower.

Not being human, the salarian was immune to his colleague's supposed charms and thought she lacked a little thing called 'empathy.'

"No, why?" she spoke matter of factly, voice neutral. The only time she showed any emotion was when they reviewed lab results. "Is something troubling you?"

"Well...we're working on creating a weaponised version of an extremely virulent contagion with an exceedingly high mortality rate...for money."

The woman raised a carefully shaped eyebrow. "You object to getting paid?"

The salarian fought to keep his voice level. "I object to the use of my research to kill people!"

"It's a little late to find a conscience, don't you think? Besides, we won't be the ones using this contagion, our clients will."

"Guns don't kill people, people kill people? Is that how you justify it?" the salarian shot back.

The woman shrugged and turned back to her work, ignoring him and ending the discussion.

Sergeant Joe Jackson of the Eclipse led a squad on patrol through Virmire's undergrowth. Joe had served with the Eclipse for almost four years, having joined the mercenary company after a dishonourable discharge from the Alliance Marine Corps.

So what if he was selling military grade weapons and armour to black marketeers? It was a victimless crime. Hell everybody who served in the supply corps was in on it. He'd just been unlucky enough to get caught. Also, being found in bed with his CO's wife hadn't helped matters, either.

As he pushed his way through the leaves of large fern-like plants and waved away insect species the size of pigeons, his helmet pickups transmitted something weird into his earpiece. Joe came to a halt, fist raised. His troops fell in behind him, scoping the area.

Vorcha, vorcha, vor-CHA! Vorcha, vorcha, vor-CHA!

The rhythmic chanting came from a short distance ahead. Cautiously, Joe edged forward in a low crouch, men fanning out behind him. Approximately fifty metres ahead, a conga line of vorcha troops wearing Blood Pack colours danced from the trees to his left, crossed a narrow stream and conga'd into the trees on his right, still chanting. Vorcha, vorcha, vor-Cha!

"What. The. Hell?" Joe breathed.

"It could be a distraction," his second noted.

"I don't think vorcha are that smart," a third noted.

"Sarge," said a fourth, "Shouldn't we be shooting them?"

"Works for me," Joe agreed, bringing his assault rifle to his shoulder and thumbing a round into the under-barrel 40mm grenade launcher. "Light 'em up."

The vorcha conga line was still chanting when the first high explosive round went off. "Vorcha, vorcha, vor-Cha! Vorcha, vorch-Aaaaaaaa!" Some vorcha ran for the trees to either side of the stream and were cut down in seconds, others turned to fight. "Eclipse!" the vorcha in charge screeched. "Kill them!"

Several seconds later, the lead vorcha realised none of the others were following him and he too was shot down.

When silence reigned once more and with the stream ran with vorcha blood, Joe keyed the command frequency. "Echo Squad reporting in, come back."

"Go ahead, Echo. SITREP?"

"We just took out a unit of vorcha, estimate platoon strength. We can confirm Blood Pack presence in the area, over."

"Roger, continue your patrol Echo."

"Echo is returning to patrol, over and out."

Joe turned to his squad. "So, we have some scientists working on some very illegal shit up in the labs and it looks like somebody hired the Blood Pack to put a stop to it. That or take the research for themselves."

"Sarge..." one of his men said, looking down at a dancing red dot on his breastplate.

"Find cover!" Joe shouted as unseen snipers began shooting.

A short distance deeper inside the trees, a four man STG team was also on patrol and by mere happenstance, bore witness to first, a vorcha conga line and second, the arrival of Eclipse mercenaries who dealt with the vorcha in so efficient a manner, it was almost salarian.

Now, the leader of the STG team was determined to find out what events were conspiring to bring two of the most notorious merc groups to the same place at the same time. That meant taking a prisoner. Preferably the senior officer of the Eclipse mercs. "Aim carefully men," the salarian said quietly. "I'd like to avoid accidentally killing the sergeant and capturing the private like last time."

"Don't remind me," the solider to his left groaned.

The Eclipse mercenaries fell back in good order, firing into the trees and forcing the STG team to break off their attack.

Lieutenant Carter led her troops at a leisurely jog toward the main STG staging area while their shuttle departed for the Shanghai. Unlike their last shuttle drop, nobody was shooting at them; Carter considered that much a victory itself.

Upon making landfall on Virmire a nervous Private Valentine sampled the background radiation with his omni-tool and to his relief found it only slightly above normal levels. He followed the LT as she led the team the salarians' command tent.

"I'm looking for Major Kirrahe," Carter informed the salarians flanking the entrance. One nodded and slipped inside. A minute later he returned, senior officer in tow.

Carter snapped off a parade ground salute and came to attention. "First Lieutenant Carter of the Systems Alliance Marine Corps reporting as ordered!"

Commander Rentola shot Kirrahe a worried glance and asked the human officer, "You're all the Alliance sent?"

"That's right."

Rentola turned to face Kirrahe. "Permission to speak freely, sir?"
"Denied."
Rentola pressed on regardless. "I have a bad feeling about this, sir."
Kirrahe pointed back at the tent behind them. "Return to your duties, Commander. I'll brief our guests."
After a moment Rentola saluted and left.

"Lieutenant Carter, I'm Major Kirrahe, Third Infiltration Regiment, STG." He spread his arms wide, encompassing the area. "Welcome to Virmire."

"Love what you've done with the place," Johnny Bravo deadpanned.

"I'll cut to the chase, as you humans say, Lieutenant," Kirrahe went on, ignoring the private. "We have intel confirming the existence of a biological weapons research facility."

"Do we know what kind of biological weapon?" the lieutenant asked.

"We intercepted some data packets as they were beamed to an in-system comm buoy," Kirrahe replied. "It looks like a mix of what's called the Black Death and Ebola. Also necrotising fascitis."

"Flesh eating bug?"

From behind the lieutenant came a chorus of muttered obscenities.

Kirrahe nodded. "Our thoughts exactly."

"Well that's just great," Carter muttered to herself. To Kirrahe: "I assume you have a plan?"

"Indeed." The salarian turned and led the marines into the command bunker and over to a holographic display table.

The salarian major punched up a rotating 3D display of the target complex. "As you can see, the structure is heavily fortified. However, our scouts and drones have located areas of weakness. Here," he indicated a communications tower enabling both off world transmissions and local comms. "Here," a power substation. "And finally here." An array of sensors.

"Nice," Carter nodded. "Cut off communications, blind them and kill the power."

Kirrahe nodded "I recommend splitting your force into three groups and hitting these targets simultaneously. When their forces are in disarray, my troops will infiltrate the labs, neutralise internal security and use incendiaries to burn out the labs."

One of the STG troops guarding the door stuck his head in. "Major, scouts returning."

A salarian squad leader entered the room, eyed the humans before saluting the major. "Sir, we engaged a unit of Eclipse mercenaries but were forced to break off. We can also confirm the presence of the Blood Pack."

"Blood Pack and Eclipse?" Kirrahe replied. "What could the krogan and vorcha want?"

"Get their hands on the bio-weapon?" the human officer suggested.

Kirrahe shook his head. "Unlikely. Krogan regard such weapons as cowardly. They could be in the employ of another party who desires the weapon however."

From the back of the room, Private Valentine spoke up. "I don't suppose we could just hang back and let them kill each other?"

Carter shook her head. "Tempting but I don't want to sit around and give the lab time to finish work on their weapon." To Kirrahe she asked, "Any intel on just how close to completion they are?"

Kirrahe shook his head. "Unknown at this time. I recommend haste, Lieutenant."

Carter nodded and turned to her squad leaders. "Bravo Squad, you're hitting the comms tower. Charlie, the sensor array. Alpha will cut the power. Questions?" Her squad leaders shook their heads. "Ooh Ra!"

Behind her, Kirrahe was in the midst of a long-winded speech to his men, repeating the phrase 'hold the line' ten times in five minutes.

"So my cousin Bob is totally obsessed with this amateur porn site on the extranet."

"Which one? There's like thousands of them."

"I dunno, Dirty Slutty Girls Next Door or something. Anyway, I said to him, you know all those orgasms are totally faked, right?"

"What'd he say?"

"He flat out denies they're faked. But only because the people running the site say they aren't faked. But they would, wouldn't they? I mean, they're not gonna charge you thirty credits a month and say oh by the way, the girls are faking everything. Who'd pay for that?"

"I dunno. Some people have really weird fetishes and some of those faked orgasms are even more convincing than the real thing. Uhhh not that I know."

"Yeah right."

Lieutenant Carter lowered the binoculars and rolled her eyes. The miniature directional mike integrated into the binocs picked up every word the Eclipse mercs lounging outside the power station were saying. "Men are pigs." she shot a glance at Private Bravo. "Just saying."

"That's incredibly sexist, Ma'am. Last shore leave, this girl stood me up. Should I then accuse all women of being bitches just because one stood me up?"

"He has a point, LT," Private Cooper nodded. "It's the same thing with male strippers. Women think it's perfectly fine to treat them like slabs of meat but call men sexist pigs for treating women strippers the exact same way."

Mary-Beth rolled her eyes. "As fascinating as this discussion is, I think we should focus on the objective."

The lieutenant nodded. "Right." She keyed her comm, contacting her squads and patching in the salarians. "Alpha squad in position." A second later she received confirmation from Bravo and Charlie squads.

Kirrahe replied. "Excellent. Fire at will."

"So, I gotta ask," one of the Eclipse troopers said. "Real or implants?"

"Huh?"

"Boobs, man. You know, breasts, tits, knockers, jugs, ta-tas, funbags..."

"You have serious issues, dude." the second trooper paused. "Did you see that? Over by those trees?"

"See what-?" A flare of blue-white energy encasing a humanoid form surged from the tree line and blasted into the two troopers on guard duty, knocking them senseless. Johnny Bravo stood over the stunned and hapless mercenaries and levelled his shotgun. "You two are a disgrace to our gender," he said and shot them both through the head.

Elsewhere explosions and distant alarms heralded the assault on the other targets. The doors of the power substation hissed open, revealing a squad of heavily armoured Eclipse mercs. Standing shoulder to shoulder as they were, they offered the perfect target for the lieutenant's singularity.

Limbs flailed as the mass effect field yanked the men off their feet and slammed them together. Johnny Bravo back-pedalled as he unleashed a cascade of biotic shockwaves. The clashing fields of dark energy exploded, painting the walls with blood and tossing body parts dozens of metres.

The rest of Alpha squad dashed from the trees and assembled by the doors. "Nice work. Let's get in there and set the charges."

The squad of Alliance soldiers entered the large pre-fab structure, finding little more than a row of generators and control panels as well as a trestle table and bench seats. Arrayed along one wall were charging stations for Loki security mechs. Responding to the intrusion, the mechs powered up and advanced, raising pistols.

"Please rethink your aggressive actions," one said as it aggressively fired upon the marines. Mary-Beth pulled her sidearm, and figuring now was as good a time as any to hone her marksmanship, sighted on the head of the nearest mech and fired two shots.

The mech's head snapped back before popping apart in a shower of metal and sparks. The crippled machine shook violently as its power source overloaded and detonated. The blast set off a chain reaction and the next closest mech erupted, triggering a core overload in the next one along.

The marines looked on in amazement as each mech set off a secondary explosion in its neighbour until all that remained was smoking debris. Johnny Bravo turned to Mary-Beth. "Damn, girl."

Mary-Beth twirled the sidearm before holstering it. "Gotta love cheap manufacturing."

The lieutenant turned to Private Cooper. "Rig the explosives."

"On it, Ma'am."

As the soldier placed demo charges on each generator, the command frequency buzzed with an incoming transmission. "This is Kirrahe to all squads, reinforcements are en route from the main building, be ready."

The lieutenant nodded. "Acknowledged." She pointed first to Mary-Beth and Johnny Bravo then to the door. They nodded and moved to cover the entrance.

To Cooper she asked, "Status?"

"Almost done...there!" His fingers danced over his omni-tool, transmitting the codes to detonate the charges to the rest of the squad. "In case I die in the next few minutes."

"Yeah, we'll try to avoid that," the lieutenant replied.

By the door, Mary-Beth and Johnny Bravo watched as heavily armed squads of Eclipse mercenaries took up positions in the trees across from the bunker. "We have company," Johnny reported over the comm. "I mark at least five squads."

Mary-Beth nodded. "Confirmed."

The other two marines joined them at the door. "Focus on the guys with heavy weapons."

An Eclipse soldier raised a rocket launcher to his shoulder and squeezed the trigger. Inside the bunker, the marines wordlessly formed overlapping barriers; the explosion sent chunks of the outer wall flying but left them unharmed.
"OK, now it's our turn. Hit 'em with everything you've got!"

For a little of ninety seconds, the jungle was alive with the sound of assault rifle fire, explosions from 40mm grenade launcher fire and several more from clashing fields of dark energy. Then silence broken only by the plink blood dripping from the tree canopy to land on eviscerated corpses.

Lieutenant Carter lowered her arms, willing her barrier to collapse and turned to her squad. No casualties and no injuries. She hit up the command frequency. "Carter to Kirrahe, what's your status, over?"

Sounds of gunfire over the comm, along with garbled shouts and explosions. "We have entered the main complex, facing moderate resistance."

"Do you require back up? I can redeploy my squads."

"Negative, maintain your positions. Do what you can to draw out the guards. We'll handle the rest."

"Roger. Out." To her squad she said, "Let's get to minimum safe distance and blow the charges."

"Not so fast, human!" came a deep rumbling voice. The Alliance marines turned to see a large krogan lead a pack of vorcha from the trees, sloshing through the remains of the mercs.
"Ah crap."

The krogan stood almost three metres tall, hulking over its lackeys, carrying an auto loading shotgun in each massive clawed hand. "I have to admit, you did quite a number on these Eclipse pyjaks. Let's see how you handle a real fight!"

The vorcha charged in, spraying the area with a high volume of poorly aimed full auto gunfire, hitting precisely nothing. As they stopped to reload, the humans opened up on them, gunning them down in seconds.

"I'm sorry, did somebody say something about a real fight?" asked Johnny Bravo.

The krogan roared a battle cry and lumbered forward, raising both weapons. The left shotgun boomed, collapsing Johnny's barrier. The right shotgun followed, and his armour's kinetic barrier likewise collapsed. Left, again. Johnny staggered as the shotgun blast sent fragments of ablative armour flying into the trees.

With every shot, the krogan came nearer, deliberately targeting Johnny, ignoring everything else. A dangerous mistake. Mary-Beth faded back and circled around the alien and came at him from behind.

The krogan fired again and Johnny slumped to the blood stained earth, hardsuit breached in multiple places, blood spilling down his side to mingle with that already spilled. Lieutenant Carter and Private Cooper moved to cover him and the krogan turned briefly upon them, unloading point-blank shotgun blasts that staggered them.

When the humans lay before him, broken and bleeding, the krogan paused to survey his handiwork. Victory was nigh and he stopped to gloat, reloading his weapons. "Any last words?" he rumbled.

"Yeah," Johnny gasped. "Look behind you."

The krogan laughed, sending small animals scampering for cover. "Do you seriously expect me to fall for that?"

The whole time the krogan was advancing on her squadmates, Mary-Beth was coldly assessing the situation. The krogan was too heavily armoured for her to drop him with her rifle and a close quarters encounter was suicide; that left biotics. Mary-Beth raised her right arm, contracting her muscles in a specific sequence, and triggered her bio-amp to generate a warp field. The krogan roared in surprise and pain as the destructive mass effect field tore through his armoured carapace. Even as he turned to face his new attacker, she threw up her other arm, 'throwing' the krogan back. He hit the ground hard but immediately surged to his feet and charged. "I AM KROGAN!" he roared.

Mary-Beth had time to think fuck me before the half-ton alien bore down on her, wrapping massive arms around her and squeezing the life out of her. With her arms pinned against her sides, Mary-Beth was unable to trigger her biotics. In desperation she pulled her head back as far as she was able, tucking it between her shoulders and slammed her helmeted head into the krogan's face.

Even through her helmet, it hurt and made no appreciable difference to her predicament. The alien squeezed harder and she screamed as a rib cracked. Then another. Behind the krogan, her injured squadmates were climbing to their feet and staggering towards her.

"Let. Her. Go." the lieutenant said, each word a pained exhalation. She raised her sidearm and emptied the thermal clip into the back of their assailant.

The krogan jerked as each shot punched through already weakened armour and pulped vital organs. Mary-Beth head butted him again. Trauma icons on her HUD informed her three ribs were fractured and one of them had pierced her left lung. Out-standing she had time to think before blackness consumed her.

Three injured marines stood over the corpse of a krogan, taking turns to unload a shotgun into its head. Only when nothing recognisable as a head remained did they stop firing. "You think he's dead now?" Cooper enquired.

"I've heard stories of these bastards getting up after having buildings fall on them," Johnny Bravo replied with a pained grunt. His hard-suit support systems had dosed him with medi-gel and pain killers and he swayed unsteadily on his feet. A line of pink elephants danced across his field of vision.

Lieutenant Carter stepped to where Mary-Beth lay collapsed a few feet away and used her omni-tool to interface with the other marine's hardsuit computer. "She's hurt bad," she reported. "God damn it!" she added feelingly. She opened a comm line to the Shanghai. "Ground team to Shanghai."

"Go ahead, ground team."

"We require a medevac at my co-ordinates."

A pause. Then "Is it Corporal Sinclair again? Cause we've been taking bets up here and if it's her, I win the pot!"

"GET ME AN EVAC SHUTTLE RIGHT THE FUCK NOW!"

Mary-Beth swam upwards out of the black as the medics loaded her into the drop-shuttle. "Is this hell?" she asked with a pained gasp.

"No, just Virmire," the lieutenant answered, gently squeezing her hand. "Welcome back, Corporal."

"Hey, Mary-Beth," Johnny Bravo put in as the medical team tended their wounds. "Thanks for the assist back there."

"Couldn't let some over-sized lizard kill the squad mascot, could I?" she replied, voice trailing off as a medic injected a sedative.

"Thanks. I think." Johnny said as the shuttle lifted off.

As the Kodiak shuttle ascended, an explosion tore apart the power station.

SSV Shanghai, in orbit over Virmire

The cruiser's medbay was a hive of activity. Medical staff moved quickly between the beds upon which lay four injured marines. Of the four, Johnny Bravo and Mary-Beth Sinclair clearly suffered the brunt of the krogan assault.

The former's hardsuit was breached in several places and he required surgery for gunshot wounds. Mary-Beth's fractured ribs and punctured lung presented the medical team with a different set of challenges.

Of the remaining soldiers, Lieutenant Carter and Private Cooper suffered bruising from where their armour had absorbed the shotgun blasts.

The cruiser's doctor stood over Mary-Beth, gloved hands raised. "We meet again, Corporal," he said jovially. The corporal just stared back at him. "Oh do try to see the upside. At least this time you aren't clinically dead!"

"I'm going to kill you," she whispered.

"That's the spirit!"

Some hours later, the medbay was empty but for two marines, Carter and Cooper having been cleared for light duties.
"I'm bored," Johnny Bravo said. He lay in the bed, chest swathed in bandages, sheet pulled up to his waist. "Wanna play I Spy?"
Mary-Beth looked up from a game of Galaxy of Fantasy on her omni-tool. She was logged into the game servers via the cruiser's extranet connection and hunting down some level fifty punk who thought it was hilarious to player-kill level one noobs.

"What are you, five years old?"

She'd shuffled into the women's rest room on the crew deck and got a good look at the damage. Wished she hadn't. Her torso was a horror-show of dark blue-black bruising and her ribs throbbed mercilessly.

"Come on!" Johnny persisted. "It'll be fun!"

Mary-Beth rolled her eyes and shut down her omni-tool. The punk was trolling other players generally and her in particular. Because she was a girl and he felt threatened.
"All right, fine!"

"Great! I'll go first. I spy with my little eye...something beginning with M."

A sigh. "Medbay?"

"No."

She pointed to the wall. "Medi-gel dispenser?"

"Nope."

She was spared the indignity of continuing to play a children's game when the medbay door hissed open, admitting a nurse.

Johnny Bravo looked over as the door opened. The nurse was maybe five-five and on the curvy side. Wavy auburn hair, freckles. Big blue eyes. Hello gorgeous, he thought. Then realised he'd actually spoken aloud.

The nurse smiled. "It's the pain meds, lowers inhibitions, makes people just blurt out whatever they're thinking."

Johnny's gaze followed the nurse as she crossed the deck to his bedside and began checking his vitals. "Does the carpet match the drapes?"

"Jesus, Bravo!" Mary-Beth snapped from her bed. "God! Men are all the same!"

The nurse chuckled. "It's fine, really. I've heard a lot worse."

"You don't think maybe you have a right to work and not be sexually harassed by idiots?" the corporal replied. Before the nurse could respond, Mary-Beth rounded on Johnny. "And she's clearly a real redhead! Just look at that skin! And for future reference and so you don't get slapped with a restraining order, if the hair matches the eyebrows, it's a safe bet everything else does!"

Johnny blinked at the other woman. Then smiled and said, "You're cute when you're angry."

Mary-Beth threw back the sheet, and with a pained grimace, began levering herself from the bed. A little voice inside her head whispered Kill. Before she could swing her feet to the floor, the cruiser's captain voice crackled over the ship-wide comm. "Attention all hands, we have received a communication from the salarians; they have completed their objectives with minimal casualties. Major Kirrahe wanted me to pass on his thanks to our marine detachment and wishes those injured a speedy recovery."

Mary-Beth blinked, the spell broken. "Well, that's nice of him," she said and climbed back into bed.