** Several months later. **
"Dammit, how much longer is this going to take?"
"As long as it needs to, that's how long..."
I shot a slightly annoyed look at Liara, who was currently standing beside me. The entire ship's crew had been chewed out more than once, despite the fact that the mission was simple: find out exactly who was responsible for the disappearance of ships in the Terminus Systems... It was all because the crew, after the hunt for Saren ended, decided to relax and stop wearing their armor. I couldn't allow that... no, if I were an ordinary soldier, I might have let the crew's behavior slide, but I was a transmigrator and I knew what was coming for us.
"John?"
"Sorry, my nerves are getting to me."
"It's alright..."
Liara smiled at me affectionately.
"...I understand. I'm anxious myself waiting for the climax, and Jane is too, as is everyone you told about what to expect. The rest of the crew feels it..."
"Nothing to be done about it..."
I shook my head.
"...better to be ready and laugh about it later..."
"Than be unready and die."
Liara finished for me, and at that moment, the battle alarm sounded, and the SSV Normandy lurched to the side.
"All crew, helmets on! This enemy sees through our stealth!"
Joker's voice crackled over the speakers, and I immediately grabbed the helmet lying nearby and snapped it onto my head, with Liara following suit.
"According to the plan?"
"Yes."
I nodded, after which we headed to our stations.
The ship lurched again, then again and again, but ultimately Joker couldn't maneuver the SSV Normandy away from the strike, and the hull took... not an impact, no, though it felt like one. Instead, the hull seemed to begin melting.
"Jolt!"
Two idiots who had frozen in place were swept aside, and a split second later, an explosion tore through where they had been standing. More accurately, the explosion happened on the ceiling, and shrapnel peppered the spot where they had stood.
"Don't just stand there! Get to your stations, now!"
"Yes sir!"
They immediately ran, as another explosion rocked the SSV Normandy, though this time the blast was smaller.
"Damn, they hit the engines, the SSV Normandy is losing speed! Everyone, emergency evacuation!"
As those words were spoken, the siren began to wail. A siren that made it clear this was no joke, though the voice of our pilot had already made that obvious.
"Move! Move!"
I started ushering my subordinates along; however, I understood that there would still be casualties. It was a good thing some had returned to the regular army, so the crew on the SSV Normandy was significantly smaller.
"What are you standing there for?!"
I grabbed Pressly by the shoulder and practically threw him toward the passage leading to the escape pods.
"Captain..."
"You want to die?!"
"No sir!"
Another explosion threw me against the wall; the impact was hard, knocking the wind out of my lungs.
"John?"
Jane was suddenly beside me.
"I'm fine..."
Another explosion ripped away a section of the hull plating and everything else above us, revealing open space. Decompression began immediately, and I barely managed to activate my magnetic boots while grabbing Jane's hand. The jerk was violent, and it felt like... I had dislocated my shoulder...
"Kh!"
Wherever possible, kinetic barriers activated, preventing the entire ship from losing its atmosphere. I pulled the girl toward me, and she engaged her boots.
"Thanks."
"We're even. Let's go get Joker out of his seat, that stubborn idiot..."
Except I didn't have to do that, as I received a notification I had set up specifically to know whether Joker would sit on the ship until the very end or not. It turned out he wouldn't. He had listened to my words after all and abandoned ship.
"...no, he's gone. We need to check which other pod is still there."
"Checking..."
Jane quickly verified the information, after which we headed toward a pod. However, we weren't destined to reach it, as the pod launched before we were halfway there, even though we had definitely signaled that we were coming.
"Fuck..."
She poured all her emotions into that single word.
"Alright, don't panic."
I shot Jane a quick glance.
"I'm not panicking..."
Now she was speaking in a completely calm voice.
"...we're going to die. Despite everything you told me."
"Belay that panic. We're moving to the cargo hold."
"The cargo hold?"
A second of confusion in her voice, followed by her happily punching my shoulder.
"You're a genius!"
The SSV Normandy took several more hits, and the ship snapped into two large halves, the bow and the stern. Fortunately, we were in the latter, so reaching the cargo hold didn't require anything impossible.
"Damn..."
My VI indicator flashed, showing that oxygen had entered the red zone.
"What?"
"Oxygen's in the red... can you check if I have an air leak on my back?"
"Shit!"
Jane took a step back while I froze.
"One second, I see the damage, I'll seal it with gel, it'll hold for a while."
Barely twenty seconds passed after the damage was found, and Jane patted my shoulder.
"Let's go."
As we walked, we saw several bodies; among them was the technician who had argued with me the most about the mandatory wearing of armor. He was actually wearing his armor, he just got unlucky—a piece of the SSV Normandy's shrapnel had pierced him, pinning him to the bulkhead.
A few more hits struck the SSV Normandy, and then silence fell... well, not total silence, but at least the strikes on the ship stopped coming. We reached the cargo hold and saw that things were far from alright there.
I wanted to swear, but I didn't let myself.
"What's the plan?"
"You take the right Mako, I'll take the left, check the systems. We need the thrusters."
"Got it."
Jane and I split up. Unfortunately, the shuttles were unusable, at least visually, but the Makos were in relatively good shape, as the diagnostics showed.
"I'm green!"
"Me too! Prep yours, I'm coming over to you!"
I quickly broke open all the compartments where the emergency kits were stored—there were supposed to be three per Mako—then I quickly reached the nearest shuttle and used a Singularity to rip off a door that wouldn't open normally. There was an emergency kit there too, only one, but it also had an extra oxygen supply, which would be very useful for me specifically.
As I approached the Mako where Jane was supposed to be, I saw her climbing out of the second shuttle.
"You weren't the only one who thought about the kits."
I handed Jane everything I found and headed to the ramp, though I decided against opening it normally. The Collectors might still be watching us, though I doubted it. So I planted several grenades to break the opening mechanism, allowing the ramp to fly off if given a little help with a push.
Reaching the Mako, I executed the plan, and the ramp flew out into space as if from an explosion.
"We still have enough time..."
Jane said this in a quiet voice, watching the approximate orbit of our fragment of the SSV Normandy, as well as the pods falling toward the planet. Overall, this was good, because I was sure that if the pods had stayed floating in space, the Collectors would have picked them up. But they certainly wouldn't land a ship on the surface for a handful of people.
"Excellent, there's still time..."
I quickly ran to the storage area located right there and grabbed a couple more oxygen tanks, and only after dragging them to the Mako did I close the rear door behind me.
"Sealing up?"
"Yes."
I nodded, starting to secure everything I had brought onto the seats so nothing bad would happen during landing.
"Oh... sweet..."
"What happened?"
"I see the Collector ship, they're clearly preparing to leave."
"That's great news..."
I sat in the gunner's seat with a smirk, after which the agonizing minutes of waiting stretched on.
"Fuck..."
While we were in space, our orientation didn't really matter, even though the Mako we sat in was wheels-down on the floor, but during atmospheric entry, we were jolted. Jolted so hard that the hull of the SSV Normandy tilted sharply, and we ended up on our side!
"Stay put, I'm going out for a few seconds."
"Where are you going?!"
Jane clearly didn't like the idea of me leaving the Mako.
"Where, where... I'm going to create a Singularity to pull us to the edge of the hold, and then we'll use the thrusters to push ourselves out."
"Damn... damn... damn..."
Jane said nothing more, and I carried out the plan. However, I created a Singularity stronger than necessary, and the Mako jerked forward too hard. It was a good thing I was holding on with my good hand, so while we were already in the air, I managed to climb inside and close the hatch.
"I'm in."
"Brilliant, strap in, the landing is going to be very rough!"
"I know..."
I took my seat, and soon Jane activated the thrusters...
** Some time later. **
"Ugh... why didn't I just die when I was little..."
I woke up to an audio signal notifying me that I had three minutes of air left. It was extremely unpleasant. Unpleasant, but not fatal.
The Mako was standing tilted slightly forward, its nose buried in loose snow, but this position didn't stop me from unbuckling and crawling into the troop compartment, where I connected a new air reservoir to my suit.
"Jane..."
My voice was weak for now, but I didn't intend to stop at just calling her name, and reaching the cockpit, I looked inside.
"Shit..."
Jane was slumped over the controls. Motionless.
Activating my Omni-tool—though it was very difficult to do since my arm hurt terribly and barely obeyed me—I connected to Jane's suit and immediately sighed with relief.
"Alive... We're alive, my Vixen..."
Realizing that Jane had nothing worse than a few fractures, I sighed with relief. I suppressed a sudden urge to scream "COMPANY, RISE!" and instead carefully pressed the seatbelt releases, then dragged Jane into the troop compartment.
I had to wait a bit for Jane to regain consciousness, but the suit's automation did everything according to protocol.
"Kh... am I... alive?"
"Alive, alive..."
I said this with a light smirk.
"We landed... and they haven't picked us up yet..."
"Right again, Vixen."
"M-da... the plan went to hell?"
"Why do you say that? Not much time has passed since we landed. I used the secure channel we prepared in advance; luckily the Mako has a booster, even if it's not very powerful. It was enough to reach the nearest pod, and there..."
I waved my good hand dismissively.
"...anyway, Liara is organizing the survivors. The distress signal has been sent, and the evacuation team is expected in thirty to forty hours. They'll come for us a bit later."
"I see, so we just rest and wait?"
"Yes... rest and wait..."
***
Read the story months before public release — early chapters are on my Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Granulan