"What do we have?"
"The Collectors were indeed here."
Liara frowned thoughtfully.
"Civilians testify that initially, even before the ship landed, a large number of strange swarming insects appeared in the colony. When one landed on a person, they froze in whatever pose they were in at that moment."
Those words made me frown.
"Sounds like stasis."
"You're right."
Liara smiled at Samara, who had spoken.
"It is stasis, at least by the description and even some preserved recordings. However, we already knew that. They never completely scrubbed the information space; it's simply impossible to do in our era of technological development. But there is something new."
"And what's that?"
I looked at Liara with great interest.
"These are samples. The Collectors didn't just drop off the Batarians with the task of destroying you. They also left them the hostages, and the Batarians themselves removed the insects that had put the hostages into stasis."
"That's great!"
In an overflow of emotion, I hugged Tali and even lifted her off the ground, spinning around a couple of times.
Solus would be extremely pleased to have samples delivered to him. And with them, he could certainly manufacture very good protection.
"Um… Captain…"
Joker came over the comms, and his voice sounded very uncertain.
"I'm listening."
"A small Batarian fleet is approaching us."
"Alert! All civilians to the shelter! Take up defensive positions!"
"John, they'll just gun us down from orbit…"
Jane looked at me with a sad gaze.
"…so there's no point…"
"Jane, don't forget that we have the best pilot in the entire galaxy in orbit, someone capable of impossible things. EDI, switch the ship's systems to red mode if necessary."
"Understood."
The AI nodded.
"So he won't let them attack us with orbital weapons, but we'll have to do something about the landing force. So please, take your place in the defense. Let's hope we have enough ammunition to destroy them all."
"Yes…"
Jane nodded resolutely, after which she and I took our places in the defense, and now all we could do was wait.
"Joker has engaged. Please excuse me, but I will be fighting mostly there, as a very professional cyberattack is being launched against the SSV Normandy."
"It's fine."
With a nod, I let EDI know I understood and didn't object to her fighting there.
"Act according to the situation."
Agonizing minutes of waiting dragged on. EDI reported on the events—how Joker was spinning in orbit and how the enemy ships were practically spitting out shuttles, now flying toward the planet.
"John, I can set the Sniper Rifle to maximum mode and…"
"Garrus, act at your discretion, but remember that while Batarians are morons, they aren't complete idiots, so the shuttles should be armored."
"Oh, even if they're armored, there's always something that can be broken, believe me, my friend."
Anticipation could be heard in Garrus's voice.
"Well, if you're so sure…"
My exoskeleton also had a Sniper Rifle, just like everyone else's, so taking it off, I turned on the overload mode and placed it next to the Turian.
"Don't push your weapon to the point of failure. You know yourself that after five shots in this mode, it'll be completely useless. So take three shots and switch weapons."
A pile of Sniper Rifles immediately formed next to the Turian, and Jay, Chifu, Rebecca Lee, and several Asari joined him, also preparing to fire at the shuttles with Sniper Rifles.
"Okay, on my command, everyone fire at the bottom right corner of the cockpit of the shuttle I've marked. Got it?"
"Yes!"
As soon as the first shuttle appeared as nothing more than a dot, a nearly synchronized shot rang out, followed by another from Garrus. If not for the powerful optics of the exoskeleton, I wouldn't have noticed everything that happened in those brief moments.
The first shot from the Sniper Rifles nudged the shuttle sideways, and immediately, Garrus's shot hit the small exposed angle of the engines. And that hit—no, it didn't make the shuttle explode; it slightly altered the shape of the nozzle, causing the shuttle to veer the other way and clip another shuttle. Losing control, they began to fall, maneuvering as they tried to level out their descent.
"Aim for the engines! Fire!"
One of the shuttles managed to level out, but the second, taking several hits, plummeted down like a stone.
"That turned out surprisingly easy…"
"It wasn't easy, Tali. To slightly throw off the aim of all the shooters so they hit the exact right spots, I had to utilize all available processing power I could find on this colony."
"Oh…"
Tali looked at EDI with a different gaze.
"…and I thought."
"In reality, even the best shooters couldn't act with such precision and simultaneity."
Garrus cut into the conversation while the others aimed again and fired. Another shuttle veered slightly, and after Garrus's shot, it jerked the other way. This time, however, no collision occurred, and another synchronized shot was required to turn the shuttle further so they could fire at the engines.
"So EDI's help in this matter is invaluable."
"Get ready."
I decided to interrupt the polite conversation.
"There are too many shuttles, and our snipers will only be able to down maybe two more. So we're going to have a lot of work soon."
"A lot of work? How about greeting the shuttles with a Singularity?"
"That would make sense if the shuttles were landing in one spot, but if you look, they're gradually spreading out. Catching even two or three would be a big problem. Wasting energy on that… is inefficient."
Glancing at Jack, I wondered what else we could do before the Batarians charged us. Obviously, in a minute, we'd start firing heavy weapons, down another one or two shuttles, maybe five. But after that…
Nothing came to mind. Absolutely nothing.
"What do we do then?"
"What can we do, Jack? We'll wait and we'll kill Batarians. And pray the ammo holds out and Joker raises enough hell in space."
"Oh, Jeff is doing more than well. You know, I'm even ready to forgive him for always rounding up test results to make them look prettier. Because those aerobatic maneuvers in a combat situation… They're hitting each other more often than they're touching the SSV Normandy's shields."
EDI was exhilarated by what was happening.
"I hope you're recording everything, because we'll definitely be interested in seeing all of this."
"Of course I'm recording!"
EDI was clearly not very pleased with Jane.
"Oh… sorry, you were being a bit sarcastic just now, not doubting my capabilities. It's just… too much power is going into everything I'm doing. And processing the emotions you put into words is somewhat difficult."
"Want some advice?"
"Advice?"
EDI's surprise was quite strong, and everyone not currently busy shooting also looked at Jack with bewilderment. No one expected advice for an AI from her.
"Yeah, advice. So, do you want it?"
"Well… yes?"
"Don't analyze emotions—just live them. It might sound strange to you, but sapient beings never stop to think about what emotions their conversation partner is feeling at that moment. They just live. So you live too. Made a mistake? You can apologize later… but in the moment of conversation, if you don't want to seem like a soulless robot, just live."
"I will try to use that advice."
The advice was actually good, and I had a sense of déjà vu, as if EDI had been given this advice before. Either I had done it, or someone had right in front of me. Regardless, it didn't matter now. What mattered was that heavy weapons had already opened fire on the shuttles… and then the shuttles touched down on the planet's surface, and we prepared to repel the attack…
** Third-person perspective. **
"How are they?"
"Shuttles have landed; several were downed, but many reached the planet's surface."
"Fuck…"
Joker cursed quietly, but quickly regained his composure and threw the SSV Normandy to the right, then to the left. The SSV Normandy's gun spat out several rounds, the GARDIAN systems were working like crazy, and so far, it was enough. However, he could clearly see the situation was gradually worsening.
"Prepare the nuclear bomb."
"Joker…"
"EDI, don't argue. Better check with John, but I'm sure he'll trust me on this. And I don't see any other way to win. We need a miracle, and a nuclear charge will be—if not the deciding factor—a pretty important piece of that miracle."
"He gave the go-ahead."
"See? So prepare the nuclear bomb. Let's organize a little miracle."
"As you wish."
EDI was in two places at once at that moment, and both required her direct involvement. However, that didn't mean she agreed with the decision… but she wasn't going to interfere either.
"Drop the bomb on my command."
"What's the timer?"
"No timer, just drop in ten, nine…"
Joker gave the countdown, and EDI tried to calculate exactly what this crazy pilot was planning. However, there wasn't enough processing power for that, so she faced a choice: pull a few percent from other areas or wait for the result. And though she was very curious, she decided to rely on Joker and just observe.
"Drop!"
The bomb was dropped, and the SSV Normandy continued to spin in space. Nothing happened, except that enemy shots were hitting the shields more and more frequently. It was clear that sooner or later they would start shooting accurately enough, and the SSV Normandy would be in a very bad way.
"Fire straight ahead on my command."
A new command from Joker, and EDI finally realized exactly what was happening. A nuclear bomb launched at one of the ships wouldn't have caused much trouble for the enemy on its own, but Joker had made it so that some of the Batarian ships gathered near the bomb, which they simply couldn't detect because it was in sleep mode. But a shot hitting it would definitely cause a very powerful explosion, and it would catch the enemy ships.
"Jeff, you're a genius."
"Thanks, of course, but… fire!"
EDI, of course, wanted to take the shot herself, but she held back; in fact, she didn't even understand exactly what stopped her. Only after she calculated the shot's trajectory and compared it to what it would have been if she had fired when she wanted to did it become clear that Joker's command was given precisely with the expectation that a living being would take the shot, with their own flaws and firing delay.
And Joker hadn't even had to perform complex calculations for that!
EDI watched as if in slow motion as the shot hit the nuclear bomb, which turned into a miniature sun, swallowing five enemy ships and partially damaging two more.
"Don't relax! Keep working!"
Joker took full advantage of the Batarians' confusion and downed two more ships, after which they began to retreat, causing jubilation among the entire crew.
"EDI, I need stealth… we mustn't be detected."
"Coming up, but can I have a few more details?"
"They'll be back… and it'll be better if we strike first and unexpectedly. So I need stealth that will let us sneak up on them."
"Jeff, if we fly away from the planet, I won't be able to help the group on the surface."
"Fuck…"
Joker was very unhappy with what he heard, but after stealth was activated, he didn't pursue the enemy. Instead, he hunkered down in the debris, letting it create additional noise that would help hide their ship.
"…keep working… and yeah, have the engineers quickly check all ship systems. We have about half an hour before the enemy's next assault begins."
"Understood."
***
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