The locals on the planet noticed the atypical behavior of the raider immediately. They even cheered the shot at the Covenant base. But the fact that the ship, instead of taking them on board, remained hovering to the side—they did not like that.
What was unpleasant was that the prisoners inside the ship also began to push, demanding the gravity lift be turned on to let them down (and the camp residents up). This included soft threats that there were simply more of them. Ten thousand against a couple of hundred. And the fact that the situation is, frankly, complicated, concerns them little. It hasn't come to a fight yet, but the atmosphere is gradually heating up.
"Our brothers are down there. They may need help. They certainly need help. Position the ship over the lift."
I took the hammer like a staff.
"Excluded. We have tasks, and we are performing them. If you want to start a Resistance here, there's the Turian, the Salarian is running around somewhere," I managed to drive off the overly interested ones somehow.
The Drell tried to look threatening.
"We are grateful to you for the rescue and the destruction of the Covenant, but our brothers are down there. And we insist that they must be helped."
The Spartans stepped back; after all, they are soldiers, not negotiators. Now, if it comes to a shootout, that's a different question. The Avatar frowned.
"And how exactly do you intend to activate the lift? Suppose you defeated us. What then? Do you know how to operate the ship?"
The Drell looked reproachful but eventually sighed and gave in.
"We do not. And yet, do not forget that besides your interests, there are also ours. And the situation may reach a point where we have to take a risk," and the Drell left.
But in the end, the last Spirit had to be used to send a delegation to the surface. Let them talk to the individuals below, find out how they are and what they need there. I simply don't want to let even more people on board, and the humans agree with me.
"Too early," the officer snapped irritably, "played the sudden saviors, damn them."
Noble One nodded, looking at me.
"I assume intelligence has a plan?"
I looked at him like he was an idiot.
"Intelligence will come up with one. For now, our task is to maintain control while they come up with it."
Because what to do with these people, other than throwing them into space, command hasn't decided yet. "Await orders." So we wait.
"Is that an official order?" the Spartan clarified.
The Avatar nodded grimly.
"Yes. On the whole, the Drell and Hanar are not our business. We don't like the Covenant, but it must be understood that they might try to seize us. Or rather, the Drell is almost directly threatening it. So we aren't surrounded by allies. Rather, we are fighting in the same direction. At the moment."
The last part was said over the internal line so that all team members heard it, but no one redundant.
"Understood," the First agreed, "stay in at least pairs, keep weapons ready. Do not disconnect comms."
It turned out there were nearly two hundred thousand sentients down there, according to the scanner data. I don't know where the extras came from; maybe they were gathering survivors across the planet, but there were a bit too many of them gathered there. And then there were the beautiful us. In the number of two hundred and twenty bodies. Obviously, we won't maintain control over the situation at all.
So the Citadel envoys were summoned to the hangar, on the third level of which we were sitting, with the question:
"What do you plan to do? The Hanar and Drell are part of your community, not ours."
The Salarian replied:
"We have reported what happened. Handing the ship over to the Council and assisting in its mastery could seriously help the humans' image in the galactic community. In the end, we are all neighbors and can help each other."
The Turian added.
"The Citadel is ready to cooperate on matters of countering the Covenant. We will have time to fight each other; right now, we have a common enemy. It is not worth complicating the situation with internecine conflict."
All this was said in the hangar, on the third level, looking down at the Drell camp below. The Avatar, moving with the hammer like a staff and her mask on her belt, nodded.
"We are ready for this. Precisely because the Covenant is a force to be reckoned with."
The Salarian in very ordinary worker's clothes clarified:
"What do you intend to do with the ship?"
I allowed myself a smile that made the Salarian recoil. A carnivorous one, as if I were eyeing the Salarian for a Prothean recipe. Judging by how he shuddered, it worked. After all, mimicry is difficult, especially when it has no exact analogs; one has to look to the Krogan for cues.
"Nothing," I explained to their questioning looks, "there are two hundred of us here, two hundred thousand of them. Not that it's an unsolvable problem, but what's the point? I don't think the ship will just be given to us."
The Salarian looked at me in a strange way.
"Am I correct in understanding that you are discussing the possibilities of destroying two hundred thousand sentients to get the ship for yourselves?"
I snorted.
"No. I said exactly what I said. If necessary, they could be destroyed. Create a plasma torpedo over the camp, depressurize the hangars in space. It's not an unsolvable issue if there were one. But such a question doesn't exist. The question is not that. It is what you will do. Let's be direct—the Drell and Hanar will not manage without outside help."
Or we will have to clear the ship after all, as these are far from the first attempts to threaten us. Polite ones for now.
"We agree, the Citadel agrees," the Turian nodded easily, "but the fact is that leaving them on Rakhana is not the best solution. The Covenant knows about this place. We have contacted command, and it was suggested to use one of the fringe colonies that has a connection to Asari space. If they are transported there, their help can be used as payment for security. And the Covenant hasn't been there. At least for now."
The hiss of a door sounded and a human officer stepped onto the platform.
"There you are hiding."
The Avatar spread her hands.
"It's not as noisy here, officer. We were discussing cooperation with our colleagues from the Citadel side. I was just about to suggest a trap to our colleagues."
"A trap? What kind?" the Salarian immediately perked up, "the Covenant knows about this place. An inspection can be expected. Prepare. Strike. Am I right?"
I looked at the ONI officer (who looks like an ordinary lieutenant); he replied:
"Correct, that's the plan. But we don't have enough powerful charges in the necessary quantity."
Not entirely true. A set of nuclear missiles is available on the stealth frigate. But the ship itself is staying at a distance, at the edge of the system. And we did everything so that those from the Council Races who were on the Covenant ship wouldn't know about the frigate. They saw the Pelicans, but they haven't appeared since the transition.
They don't know about the frigate. Nor about the fact that if you press close enough to a large Covenant ship, you can move through Slipspace along with it.
This ship is our insurance. And a way to leave the system if necessary. The Salarian replied easily:
"We will contact command again. If you are ready to provide assistance on your side, we will provide it on ours. Can you provide security guarantees for our specialists? It would be, shall we say, bad if in the process of joint work it turns out that attempts are being made to seize us, or to detain certain humans. As the Quarians already tried. In that case, accidents, malfunctions might occur due to the absence of valuable specialists in the necessary places. I assume no one needs such a thing."
And that is also an important point. It's one thing to just cooperate. Another is an agreement on a truce, albeit an oral one. Yes, a temporary one. Yes, both sides are actively spying on each other and will pull the situation toward themselves. The agents agreed to this.
But there are two nuances here. First: we ourselves are not against the Citadel doing its job, protecting its junior races and allies. In essence, they have their own Mantle of Responsibility, which works for their space and their allied races. Maintaining order, ensuring security. They don't manage it perfectly, but they do okay. Supporting the Hanar forces is part of that.
The second point: the very existence of such a contract. Certain Citadel structures have a specific reputation. On the whole, the humans' reputation in their part of the galaxy is not the best, but if there is evidence that we cooperated and it was the Citadel specifically that broke the contract, it will make our task easier in case of incidents. Not that it concerned me, but it really is better this way.
The Turian answered honestly:
"We need to contact command, coordinate our official position. We are not authorized to make such decisions."
Well, that's good then.
***
An agreement was reached. Moreover, their command, the Citadel, decided not to move the camp population anywhere for now. They feared that the Covenant, seeing there was neither a ship nor a base, would simply fly away or fire from a long distance rather than investigate.
No, we use the ship as bait. As a target the Covies will definitely fly to, which means a trap can be prepared around it. In their defense, the Citadel forces really did try to help the locals. They sent transports with food and missiles. And not just nuclear ones, but disintegrating ones as well.
The stealth frigate stayed out of sight at the edge of the system the whole time.
Naturally, while they didn't try to arrest our team, they did send agitators. A Spectre, Tela Vasir, an Asari. A familiar individual; Blue Team had evacuated her from Oma Ker at the request of the Shadow Broker. A standard Asari shuttle arrived in the hangar, from which our contact from the Citadel side jumped out. When I saw her, I even said on our closed line:
"At first, I thought the Broker was someone's intelligence service. But when I see the Broker's agents as a plug in every hole, it seems like the Citadel really has a bad time with counterintelligence."
Five inquired:
"How pervasive?"
The Avatar giggled.
"Everywhere. We sometimes make deals, and contacts can be found in literally every field. The Asari before us is a Broker agent, and also a tactical intelligence agent reporting personally to the Citadel Council."
"Is she dangerous?" Noble Two, who is also the deputy commander, asked immediately.
"Sufficiently. A sorcerer, like their whole race. And this one is a warrior. Also, chemical treatment that increases, shall we say, loyalty. It doesn't work on humans, but she can gather subordinates of other races for herself."
"Subjugate?" the human officer who heard the dialogue asked.
"Yep," the Avatar smirked, "it somehow turns out that their pheromones act very interestingly on the Council Races. They reduce critical thinking and cause a mild withdrawal in whoever inhales them. Looks like their geneticists did their best."
"Holy shit..." the man exhaled, "need to keep an eye on the Marines. And you be careful too."
"Yes, sir," Noble One replied.
In previous recordings, Tela Vasir used much lighter armor; now it was Silaris armor. Extremely expensive palladium armor shaped using gravitational distortions.
The weapons were also in order. A Covenant Needler hung on her belt; the armor was painted in urban camouflage, and externally, in terms of dimensions relative to an average Asari body, it looked like MJOLNIR Armor, though it obviously wasn't. Her face was serious, though when moving she was still... That's a model walk, right? In heavy armor. The result was a curious combination of a model walk, a pile of both Citadel and Covenant weapons, and heavy armor.
"Tela Vasir, Spectre of the Citadel Council..." the Avatar said, smirking with the full width of her jaw and stepping forward.
If the Asari was embarrassed, she knew how to keep a straight face. She walked calmly toward us, then glowed purple and floated up a bit. It was clear she was a bit unaccustomed to doing so. But she did it to be on the same level as me.
"Human warriors. You know how to make an impression," she extended a hand for a handshake, "with whom do I have the honor?"
"Archon," the Avatar's smile turned into the smirk of a predator claiming territory. I'm not going to tell you
name, — glad to meet you.
It was Tela Vasir, rather than those two agents, who took over the coordination of the Citadel forces and our squads. Their ships arrived in the system with equipment.
The Citadel brought a destroyer and several corvettes armed with missiles into the system. As they explained, no one intended to engage in a full-scale battle with The Covenant. They lacked the strength should The Covenant bring a large formation. The risk was too great and the reward frankly insufficient, as there was no valuable equipment or production on Rakhana. They allocated forces for a sabotage mission, but nothing more.
Simply put, a suicide squad had arrived in the system; if the Covies brought large forces, they would simply be wiped out. If not, and The Covenant flew into a trap, they would be the victors. Those who survived, of course. Those who are about to die salute you, me, and everyone else, yes.
We (Humans) were also preparing. The squad wouldn't just sit on the ship and wait for The Covenant to arrive. No, of course not. We finally let the camp dwellers on board (two-thirds of whom are ordinary civilian specialists. Yes, far from all Drell are professional Assassins), while we ourselves loaded into the Spirit and flew far away into the desert. If the ship survived the attack, we would return. If not — we would fly away on the Frigate.
By the way, the Covenant raider itself was moved so it wouldn't fall on the camp in case of trouble. And stray plasma hits wouldn't blanket the camp. The Covies wouldn't have cared, but for us, it was undesirable. Only local volunteers remained on board in case the Covies sent a boarding party; the holds and hangars were cleared. In space, the Citadel ships left mines and launch blocks for disintegration torpedoes in an inactive state. We are ready.
The Covenant appeared two days later. The Frigate reported:
"Three targets have entered the system. A Cruiser and two escorts. Moving... along the expected route."
Yes, the Covies had their own dispatch center with ship flight paths. If a ship had arrived from the wrong direction, an alarm would have been raised. That's why they let us get close so easily; even though the ship behaved a bit strangely, it arrived on time and via the correct route. I don't know what the Covies decided, but they seemingly didn't expect us to intercept control of the torpedo synthesizer. Interesting.
"Target is moving with a deviation. But within the expected range."
"Excellent, we wait."
The Covenant ships headed not directly toward the planet, but along a shallower trajectory, keeping both the ship and the camp in their sights. The expected result. They clearly intended to hover at a safe distance and study the situation. Standard formation: a Cruiser with escorts. We assumed it would be this way.
The hardest part was hiding the nuclear charges. The Covies detect them by radiation and try to shoot them down whenever possible. But here, Mass Effect came to the rescue—or rather, their FTL. Even if implementing a true FTL-torpedo is nearly impossible without specialized equipment, simply delivering the device itself to the required point is doable. With proper precision, Humans could do this through Slipspace. In the future, they will be able to. But for now, we have to do it like this.
One can place charges in the orbit of a neighboring world on board a Fire ship, which will arrive at the target in a matter of seconds. In an atmosphere, this would be a problem, but we are not in an atmosphere. And since the charges aren't nearby, they won't be so easily detected.
This means that for now, from the perspective of The Covenant forces, nothing is happening. They aren't being attacked; the ship is calmly approaching. True, no one on our side is answering hails, but that should have been expected by them.
Having set up a small camp in a canyon, we observe the events through the ship's instruments. Yes, there are no Human soldiers or Geth left on board at all, so as not to provoke a bombardment. Let's be frank, we won't win a space battle against a Covenant Cruiser. We simply lack the training, which is why we're acting differently.
"Phantoms have detached from the Cruiser. Descending," the operator reported.
The officer nodded and asked the Geth:
"Inform the counter-boarding group, let them prepare to meet them."
While it transmits the message, we watch as the three targets take their positions.
"Exactly for a bombardment. But they aren't attacking yet."
Noble One, also known as Carter-A259, remarked:
"We expected it would be this way. Everything is according to plan."
Correct. My Avatar pointed to the map.
"Thirty seconds to start, girls and boys. Now we're going to take a bite out of their side."
Tela Vasir, who had been standing to the side all this time (and filming), inquired:
"Could you explain that last phrase?"
The Avatar bared its teeth, once again showing the full width of its smirk, causing Tela to flinch slightly.
"Like the smile? I'm a predator, and I prefer fresh meat. Still living and running, if possible," and after a dramatic pause, added, "let's begin. Missiles away."
First stage: disintegration torpedoes. Missile blocks were hidden among the wreckage of the destroyed patrol ships. The Covenant is used to Human missiles being of little use against them. They let the torpedoes pass and began firing at the debris.
"They are shooting at the launchers. Expected."
Tela Vasir peeled herself away from the wall and stepped closer to watch the proceedings.
"Why aren't they destroying the missiles?"
The Asari recoiled when one of the Geth turned toward her. She's wary.
"Inefficient," the Geth replied, "energy must be applied to a specific point for serious damage to Shields. Launchers are higher priority targets."
Aha. Except there are no ships among the wreckage, only missile blocks and launchers, essentially disposable. And the missiles are not ordinary at all. Disintegrating. An unstable Mass Effect Core attacking targets with multi-directional gravitational fields. Something similar to what we did with Charon, only more localized and more dense. Though the fields themselves are weaker, of course; we shouldn't expect asteroids to turn into bullets.
The Citadel's idea, by the way. We suggested just pelting the ship with nuclear charges, but these people decided to conduct weapons testing. Their right; it should work. From our position, these are just dots on a screen, but in space, the red-violet flashes on the Covenant ship shields are making them feel unwell.
"Charges away," a Turian's voice crackled over the comms, "modules have launched."
Now we see a marker approaching very rapidly at FTL. The Covies reacted, it seems, firing toward the target. But there are more than one, and they are quite fast. Out of six shuttles loaded with bombs, four made it. And then the scanners were whited out.
"Boom-boom-boom," Tela Vasir said thoughtfully, "did it work?"
I ignored the look. Until the flare fades, we won't know anything. I turned at the crackle of the Geth's vocoder. The machine, seeing it had been acknowledged, reported:
"Report from the surface. We are recording the Cruiser's departure from orbit, likely uncontrolled. A battle with Covenant assault squads is underway on the surface. Targets likely hit."
"Woooooonderful," the Avatar sang, "and now we need to change position and take the locals to your colony, Asari. I suspect the next wave of The Covenant will be much more serious."
Tela Vasir looked at me with clear suspicion.
"What about helping those in the camp? You know, with the landing party."
Catherine, also known as Noble Two, countered:
"There are dozens of Covies there at worst. Against thousands of resistors. They'll manage. No one expects us to solve your problems, right?"
The Asari held the stare, then nodded.
"True," she agreed, "but we must ensure the ship isn't damaged. Otherwise, there will be problems with the evacuation. And then they'll all just be burned from orbit. We don't want that, right? Killing is much more interesting in person, mmm, huntress? How about an invitation to a hunt?"
I nodded.
"I'll think about it, Tela. But for now, we really need to fly over and make sure. Covenant ships are an extremely rare trophy."
"Correct," the officer agreed, "Noble Team, you're up."
And over the internal comms, he added:
"Priority is protecting the ship and your lives; don't expose yourselves more than necessary. These xenos aren't worth it. Not counting you, Six."
The Avatar put on its mask and replied:
"Thanks. We'll bury them."
This was a truly important moment in the relationship. Perhaps some didn't notice, but only the Geth were indifferent about who they walked with and how. Humans separately, Drell separately, the Council Races separately. Yes, they followed each other and eavesdropped; it was only safe to communicate over internal channels. Someone's ears were always nearby.
And in this moment, being recognized as "one of their own" is worth a lot. Especially from a Human who thought they were talking to a xeno.
The Drell dealt with the scouts more or less on their own, albeit with rather high losses. These were Covenant black squads, their special forces. Cloaking, heavy weapons, swords, and grenades. They mowed down about three hundred Drell with a force of twenty soldiers.
After that, the rapid transport of the camp inhabitants to a new location began. What matters is that the Citadel—as they admitted—gained agents who could walk among The Covenant on Omega or in the Drell worlds. Spies, killers.
As soldiers, they are mediocre; they suffered very high losses. But that is not their role. Their role is to help those of their kind who find themselves under Covenant occupation. The fact that Humans were tied into a joint operation is also secondary. In essence, all three sides, in my opinion, quite rightly distrust each other.
For the Council Races, the Drell are outsiders, loyal only to the Hanar, and thanks to their religion, an instrument of their will. Yes, the Drell religion separates the soul and the body, and the body can be used by someone else. And when a Drell kills on orders, he does not act himself; he is the executor of another's will, the will of the killer. A living weapon. It is hard to trust such a weapon.
And our relationship with the Citadel is not friendly in the slightest. I suspect the very fact of cooperation will be strictly classified. But The Covenant is an enemy that cannot be dealt with otherwise. One cannot stand against them alone. That is why we are here now. We'll deal with the Covies — then we'll go back to shooting each other's skulls. But for now, here and now, we are temporary allies.
***
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