CHAPTER 14
Liara sat on a couch in the castle lounge, her blue eyes scrutinizing every detail of the recording she had made. The man in the hologram had been well dressed, with a Cerberus logo on his chest. Liara was not positive, but she believed that this was the individual in charge. She did not recognize him, but she hoped that her network on the Normandy would. Standing up, Liara crossed the room to Kaidan, who stood in front of the lounge’s large window. He looked out over the Equestrian landscape, his brow tightened in thought and worry.
“Major,” Liara began, hands behind her back. This broke Kaidan from his train of thought, and the human turned his head to face the asari.
“Yes, Liara?”
“I believe I know a way to help.” Kaidan raised an eyebrow, now turning his full body.
“I’m listening,” he said.
“If I can get back to the Normandy, I should be able to check my database for any information on the man in the recording,” she explained. “I just need your permission to get back there.”
“You’ve got it,” Kaidan nodded. “Take Garrus with you, just in case.” Liara nodded and went to consult the turian, standing nearby. After filling him in, they began crossing to the door, when they were suddenly blocked by the form of Princess Luna. She stepped through the door and approached the pair, an eyebrow raised quizzically.
“Where are you two going?” she asked.
“The Normandy,” Garrus answered. “We’re going to see if we can find anything on Cerberus, and their leader.”
“Good luck, then,” Luna said. “We’ll be here, should you have need of us. Farewell.” Nodding their goodbyes, Liara and Garrus exited the lounge, heading for the loading docks…
David Foster’s dark eyes looked over the screen in front of him. A hand rested on his chin while the other held a datapad, displaying information about their imminent evacuation. The screen before him showed a diagram of Equis, with seven transport ships inbound from the Mass Relay. With the enemy fleet in orbit destroyed, the ships were able to pass safely by, and were now heading to the landing zone in northern Gryphonia. A small grin tugged at his lips as he realized his mission was almost complete.
Turning away from the screen, Foster’s eyes settled on the geth lying before him. It had been almost entirely disassembled, and three technicians stood over the body, working on finding a way to access its memories. The task was proving difficult, but Foster did not mind. If they could not gain any useful intelligence before the evacuation, then he would simply have the geth destroyed. Foster spared a glance at his datapad, which showed the ETA of the ships: forty-two minutes. From there it would take at least two days to load all of the griffons, but the doctor did not anticipate that anything negative would occur in that space of time. The other species would not dare to send reinforcements, not while they were under threat from more missiles. Foster just had to make sure they would not call his bluff…
“Status,” he ordered, directed at the nearest technician.
“It’s as we expected, sir,” the tech said. “We are having difficulty accessing its storage unit. There are several layers of protection, both on the hardware and the software. I’m not sure if we can crack all of it before we leave.”
“Keep trying,” Foster said. “If we can, it could give us vital information on what those ponies are planning. For now, we will simply have to remain cautious…”
“Yes, sir,” the tech replied. “We’ll keep trying. I will keep you updated.”
“See that you do.” His business in the room done, Foster deactivated his datapad and stepped out, prepared to oversee the evacuation…
The shuttle touched down in a clear patch away from the Normandy, and Liara stepped out the moment the door opened. Over the treetops she could see the top of the Normandy, sitting immobile in the dirt a few dozen meters ahead. Garrus stepped out behind Liara, scanning the area. The tree leaves rustled in a gentle wind, and the sun beat down on the two from overhead. Liara squinted, raising a hand to shield her eyes.
“Let’s get moving,” she said, beginning the short walk to the ship. Garrus stayed close behind her, looking out for trouble. Their footsteps echoed loudly in the otherwise quiet forest, and Garrus looked around uneasily.
“I don’t like this…” he whispered. “It’s too quiet. According to the ponies, this forest should be teeming with life…”
“I admit, it is a little unsettling,” Liara agreed. “But we must continue. This is important.”
“Right…” Garrus stepped in front of Liara, leading her the rest of the way through the trees to the Normandy’s crash site. Just before exiting the cover of the trees, he held up his fist, and Liara stopped.
“Cerberus…” he said. Confused, Liara moved up next to the turian and peered through the trees. Her sapphire eyes widened when they caught sight of the Cerberus shuttles landed outside. The airlock door had been blown open, and two Cerberus soldiers stood guard.
“I’ll radio Kaidan, let him know what’s up,” Garrus said, activating his omni-tool. He opened a comm channel, only to be met with the sound of static.
“What’s wrong?” Liara asked.
“Hmm… some kind of interference…” Garrus replied. “We’re being jammed. I can’t get through. Should we turn back?” Liara paused, considering his question.
“… No,” she finally answered. “Every second we waste is another that Cerberus uses against us. We have to act. How many do you think there are?”
“Hmm… Three shuttles, each can comfortably carry about ten soldiers, so… thirty, give or take a few.”
“We’ve been up against worse.” Liara reached for the Tempest on her hip and brought it to bear, checking its thermal clip capacity. Satisfied, she began sneaking out of the trees, Garrus right behind her. They quickly ran to the nearest piece of cover, which happened to be one of the landed Cerberus shuttles.
“Can you eliminate the guards outside?” Liara whispered.
“I’d be disappointed in myself if I couldn’t,” Garrus answered with a nod. He equipped his Viper and slid along the side of the shuttle until he was at its edge. He peered out, looking through the scope of his rifle to line up the shots. A moment later, two shots rang out, and two bodies fell to the soil of the forest.
“We’re clear.” Nodding, Liara sprinted from cover to the airlock, her SMG ready and scanning for enemies. None were detected in the immediate area, so she stealthily approached the inner airlock door, Garrus at her side.
“We’ll need to get down to deck 3,” she said. “From there, it hopefully won’t take long to find the identity of this person.”
“Got it,” Garrus said, putting away his sniper rifle in favor of a Vindicator assault rifle. “I’ve got your back.” The airlock was bathed in orange light as Liara’s omni-tool came to life, and she quickly gained access to the inner airlock systems. The door slid apart with a hiss, and the two stepped into the ship...
Twilight Sparkle paced back and forth in Celestia’s office, her mind racing with plans. Her linear path was constantly traced by the eyes of the two senior princesses, as well as her friends from Ponyville, who watched her intently. Finally, the lavender alicorn stopped and huffed.
“We can’t just do nothing!” she exclaimed.
“Yeah!” Rainbow Dash agreed. “I say we take the fight right to this Cerberus!”
“Not without a plan, Rainbow Dash,” Celestia said, calming the eager pegasus before returning her purple eyes to Twilight. “Though I do agree. What do you have in mind, Twilight?”
“Hmm… Our new allies have less than a thousand survivors from the attack,” Twilight began. “Not all are soldiers. Even with their advanced technology, the griffons number in the millions. It’d be suicide to go against them alone. No, they need our help.”
“The defense pact we signed does state that we must help each other in the event of a crisis,” Luna added. “Though I’m not entirely sure where this falls… Cerberus is an external threat, but the griffons are native to Equis. Is this our problem, or theirs?”
“There will be time to figure that out later,” Twilight decided. “But right now, I say we rally the troops. Get them ready for combat.”
“Hold on a moment, dear,” Rarity interrupted, holding up a hoof. “We don’t even know where this “Cerberus” is located. If you rally the troops, what will have them do?”
“She brings up a good point…” Applejack said, nodding.
“Indeed,” Celestia agreed. “The first step is to find where they are located. We can plan our attack accordingly. But first, we find them.”
“How’re we gonna do that?” Dash asked.
“Good question…” Twilight said. “Tali said that the shuttle’s navigation data was wiped, so it can’t be traced that way... I wonder if… no.”
“What are you thinking?” Luna asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Well…” Twilight began. “I was going to suggest that we go looking for the base. We know the general region Legion wanted to search, so we know it is somewhere in there.”
“That region was several dozen square kilometers, wasn’t it?” Rarity said. “It would take ages to search! Not to mention the cold!”
“We would split up into teams of two,” the lavender alicorn said, a plan formulating in her ever-active mind. “I can use my heating spell to protect us from the cold. We’ll search for a few hours, and if we don’t find it, we come back. But if we do find it… well, then we have somewhere to start for our plan of attack.”
“Twilight…” Celestia interrupted. “You are a princess, so I cannot stop you from doing this. But… I can advise against it. It is a dangerous plan, and if Legion was captured—“
“We can do this, Celestia,” Twilight assured. “Besides, we’ve faced worse. Right, girls?” Her claim was met with a chorus of affirmations, all of her friends nodding in agreement. The only exception was Fluttershy, who nodded very slowly from the back of the group. Celestia sighed, and looked to Twilight.
“… Alright,” she said. “But be careful.”
“We will, Celestia,” Twilight replied. “I promise.” The princess turned to her friends, a determined look on her face. “Come on, everyone. Let’s go!” They ran from the office, the sounds of their hooves echoing down the expansive marble hallways all the way to the loading docks…
David Foster stood in the command center of his base, looking over his personnel as they prepared everything for evacuation. The ships were scheduled to land at any moment, which meant that their job was done. It was time to leave, taking their new army with them. His datapad blinked with a notification, and Foster brought it up to eye-level to read. It was another status update; the more sensitive material had all been packed up and was being transported to the surface.
Satisfied, the doctor turned away from the command center and entered his office, which was now far emptier than it had been the previous day. He sat down at his desk and activated his terminal, typing in several passwords to bring up the self-destruct screen. Protocol dictated that, as soon as they had departed, the base was to be entirely destroyed. No traces could be left, and no data could be left behind. Anything that did not make it onto the ships would be destroyed.
Foster’s task was interrupted as a soldier entered the office, saluting.
“Sir,” the soldier said through the filter of his helmet. “The ships are arriving.” Foster could not help but smile as he stood from his desk.
“Good,” he said. “Begin loading the supplies as soon as they land, and get the first groups of griffons aboard. But… leave Sharptooth for now. I may have one final use for him…”
“Yes, sir.” The soldier saluted once more before he turned and exited the room. Foster remained still for a moment before returning to his desk. Even though their mission was almost over, there was still work to be done…
“… Three on the left,” Garrus reported as he peered around the corner of a doorway on the Normandy. To avoid drawing too much attention, he and Liara had decided to use the maintenance ducts to access her office, rather than the elevator. They were now approaching the first duct entrance, at the end of the meeting room. Holding her SMG at the ready, Liara nodded at Garrus, and began their attack.
She threw a singularity at the three soldiers; all of them were trapped, and were rather easily dispatched by her SMG and Garrus’s assault rifle. They fell to the ground as the singularity dissipated, impacting on the metal floor with loud thumps.
“I find it hard to believe nobody heard that,” Garrus said, jogging to the duct entrance. “We should hurry.”
“Agreed,” Liara nodded, following the turian. He went down the ladder first, climbing down awkwardly with his backwards-bending legs. Liara followed him as soon as he was all the way down, and began crawling through the cramped vents that led to life support. Garrus dropped down first, quickly eliminating a lone guard who had wandered into the room. Liara exited after him and drew her SMG, holding it at the ready.
“Crew deck is pretty big, and the mess is an open area,” Garrus whispered. “Expect resistance.” They crept to the door of the life support room, and they stacked up on the sides before Garrus opened it. Liara poked her head through and looked around, getting a feel for the number of hostiles.
“I see… at least four ahead, by the memorial wall and elevator,” she said. “And I see three more in the mess hall… I can’t see any further than that, but there are probably more.”
“We’ve gone up against more than that,” Garrus said. “Ready?” Liara nodded, and they both leapt from the life support room, immediately opening fire on the hostiles. The first four were taken entirely by surprise, and two of the remaining three were killed before being able to dive behind cover. The remaining one took cover behind the elevator, activating his radio.
“We need reinforcements on the crew deck!” he shouted. “Intruders on the crew deck!” The door behind Liara and Garrus opened, and two Cerberus soldiers entered from the lounge. They were both easily eliminated as the two squadmates pushed into the mess hall, making their way to Liara’s office. As soon as they reached the door, Liara opened it and stormed inside, Garrus right behind her. The turian closed and locked it, replacing the thermal clip of his assault rifle.
“That won’t hold them for long,” he said. “You’d better get to work.” Nodding, Liara approached her large desk and leaned over it, searching through her network.
“Glyph,” she said, hearing the familiar sound of the drone materializing. “Are you there?”
“Yes, Doctor T’Soni,” Glyph responded, floating over to Liara. “The Normandy is under attack. I recommend evacuation.” The sound of muffled gunfire filled the air as the Cerberus soldiers began shooting at the door.
“I’m well aware of that, Glyph,” Liara continued. “But I require your help. Start looking through the network for anybody matching this face.” Activating her omni-tool, Liara showed Glyph the image of the man from the hologram. The drone froze as it searched the databanks, before finally moving again.
“Information located, Doctor,” it said. “I have sent it to your omni-tool.”
“Well done.” Liara looked to Garrus. “Let’s get out of here!”
“Actually, I’d advise getting into cover…” Liara looked to the door, now noticing the plasma cutter almost halfway through opening it. She retreated to the back of the room, finding the nearest piece of cover to be a chair. She hid behind it, charging up her biotics.
“Get ready…” she said as the plasma cutter neared completion. Finally it reached the bottom of the door, and disappeared. Wasting no time, Liara discharged her biotics at the door. It flew outward, crushing the body of the Cerberus engineer with a sickening crunch. Along with him went two Cerberus soldiers, both of them reduced to bloody pulps by the biotic attack.
Garrus gave an approving nod before poking his head out the door. He waved for Liara to join him, then jogged from the door to the elevator.
“We need to get out of here quick,” he said. “Come on.” The elevator door opened, and Garrus and Liara stepped inside. “So, what data did you recover?”
“Let’s see…” Liara said, bringing up her omni-tool. She looked through the information Glyph had sent her, committing every bit of it to memory. “… His name is David Foster. Born in London, moved to America and lived there for fifteen years before returning to England for university. He received his doctorate in psychology, but also excelled in technology… I can see why Cerberus would recruit him.”
“Anything in there that’s helpful to us?” Garrus asked.
“All of it is helpful to us,” Liara replied. “Know your enemy.”
“Right… let’s get back to Canterlot, and quickly.” The elevator door opened, and Liara and Garrus found themselves to be the target of several Cerberus assault rifles. Garrus sighed, and looked to Liara.
“Looks like we’ll be getting back the hard way…”
The chariot touched down on the thick surface of snow, its wheels sinking a few inches into the fluffy powder. Twilight Sparkle jumped out, sinking a bit as well, and looked around. Her five friends jumped out after her, huddling together for warmth.
“We’ll go on hoof the rest of the way,” Twilight decided after a pause. “Smaller targets.” All she could see before her was kilometers upon kilometers of flat snow. Behind her was a large forest, and the northern border of Gryphonia. This was all unclaimed territory.
“You are certain we will find something?” Rarity asked.
“I am,” Twilight nodded, turning to face her friends. “We’ll split up into groups. Group one will be myself and Rarity, group two will be Rainbow Dash and Applejack, and group three will be Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie. Rarity and I will head north. Group two take the northeast, and group three take the northwest. Search for a few hours, then report back here. Any questions?” Her friends all shook their heads, and Twilight nodded.
“Then let’s go. Move out!” The princess took to the sky and began flying north. Rarity ran below her, trying to keep her flowing mane out of her face. Twilight kept her eyes focused ahead, on the horizon. A few stray flakes of snow blew in her face, and she squinted to keep them out of her purple eyes.
The further she flew, the stronger the winds became. More and more flakes of snow began falling in front of her, to the point that she could hardly see. A blizzard raged around her, though thankfully her warming spell protected her from the cold.
“Twilight!” a voice cried out from somewhere below the princess. Twilight angled down and returned to the ground, landing right next to Rarity.
“What is it?”
“Twilight, we cannot keep searching in these conditions,” Rarity said. “There is too much snow! I can hardly see anything!” Twilight opened her mouth to respond, before closing it and sighing. She knew Rarity was right.
“… Okay,” she said. “You’re right. Let’s—“
Twilight was interrupted as a deep rumbling filled the air. The two ponies looked up at the sky, their eyes trained on a number of glowing lights. The rumbling grew louder and louder, and a moment later a massive ship flew over them, heading further north. Squinting, Twilight could barely make out a red and black symbol on the side of the ship. The same symbol that had been on the jacket of the man in the hologram. Twilight gasped, and flared her wings.
“We have to get back!” she exclaimed. “Now!” Turning around, Twilight began sprinting through the snow, Rarity right behind her. Two more ships followed the first, all of them heading further north. The ponies simply ran, not bothering to see if they had been spotted. Right now, they needed to get back to Canterlot and relay this information.
Finally the chariot came into view, still under the protection of its pegasi pilots. Rainbow Dash and Applejack were already back as well, and Twilight could see Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie returning from the northwest. As soon as they arrived, Twilight jumped into the chariot, followed by her friends.
“Go!” she ordered the pegasi, who began attaching themselves to the reins.
“Twilight!” Rainbow Dash yelled. “We saw—“
“Ships, I know,” Twilight interrupted. “We saw them too. Three of them, though there may be more coming…”
“What’re we going to do?” Applejack asked, wiping some snow off of her hat.
“We’ll get back to Canterlot…” the princess answered. “And then, we fight.”
Tali sat in a chair of the castle lounge, rhythmically tapping her foot on the marble floor. Here bright eyes flicked between the clock and the door, while her mind raced with possibilities. The ponies had left almost six hours ago, and Liara and Garrus had left an hour before them. So far they had heard nothing from either group, and Tali was beginning to worry. Her gaze was finally redirected from the door as Kaidan approached, his expression unreadable.
“Hey…” he said, sitting in a chair across from Tali. “What’s up?”
“Oh… just thinking,” Tali responded. “Cerberus, the ponies… Shepard…” Kaidan frowned, nodding.
“Have you heard anything else?
“… No…”
Kaidan sighed, running a hand through his dark, cropped hair. He stood up, and crossed to Tali.
“He’ll be fine, Tali,” he said. “Even death can’t keep Shepard down, you know that. Besides, he loves you. He’ll hang on for you.” Tali nodded as tears threatened to surface. She looked down at the floor, trying to follow Princess Luna’s advice, and maintain hope. But she had not heard anything in days…
Tali was brought out of her thoughts by the sound of the door opening. Looking up, she found Garrus and Liara entering the room, both sporting a fair number of scars. Kaidan raised an eyebrow and crossed to the two.
“What happened to you?” he asked.
“We arrived at the Normandy,” Garrus replied. “Cerberus got there first. We got all of them, I think, and we recovered the data we were looking for.”
“It seems that our enemy is named David Foster,” Liara said, activating her omni-tool. A picture of the man from the hologram appeared, along with an extensive file. “Doctorate in psychology, technological savant, and, obviously, a supporter of Cerberus. He has worked with them for nearly twenty years, using his degree for interrogation purposes, and breaking the minds of Cerberus’s enemies. That is likely why he was brought on for this job; full subjugation of the griffon people.”
“Well done, you two,” Kaidan said. “Anything in there that can give us some tactical advantages over this guy?”
“Not much,” Liara answered. “He is known to execute innocents, sometimes personally. If we get close… he may turn to killing some of the indoctrinated griffons. We’ll need to keep that in mind.” Kaidan nodded, moving toward the door.
“Very good. I’ll tell—“
The door burst open, and Twilight and her friends sprinted inside, nearly trampling over Kaidan. The human dove out of the way just in time and the ponies came to a halt, all of them breathing heavily. Princesses Celestia and Luna followed the ponies in, confused expressions on their faces.
“We… we found them!” Twilight panted, falling onto a couch.
“You did!?” Kaidan exclaimed, his eyes widening. “Where are they?”
“In the north…” Rainbow Dash answered. “We saw… ships.”
“Cerberus must be evacuating,” Tali said, standing from her chair. “They’ve got what they came for, and they’re getting out.”
“That explains their attack on your fleet…” Luna muttered. “What do we do?”
“We need to act fast,” Garrus said. “We can’t call in for reinforcements, not with those missiles they have. Which means that we need to use what we have to take them out as soon as possible. Otherwise… who knows what will happen.”
“We will mobilize our military,” Celestia said. “But against all of the griffons, and if they are equipped with your own weapons… I do not know if it will be enough. I will speak with the zebra and see if they can spare anyone, and I will also talk to Erebus…”
“I’ll have a word with Admiral Hackett, princess,” Kaidan said. “We don’t have many, but everybody here is willing to fight Cerberus. After all they’ve done…” Celestia nodded, making for the door.
“Very good,” she began. “We will meet back here tomorrow morning. Then, no matter what, we begin our attack. The future of this planet – and perhaps the galaxy – depends on us.” The princess of the sun exited the room, followed closely by her sister. Twilight and her friends filed out a moment later, and Kaidan exited last, going to find Hackett. Tali stood among the rest of the squad, her glowing eyes narrowed in determination.
“We need to get ready,” she said. She opened the lounge door and stepped out, walking down the marble hallway to her bedroom. It was time to take the fight to Cerberus…