Chapter 24 Chapter Twenty-Three

"What's going on?" Carly asked loudly when she heard the sirens in the distance. The captain listened intently to the incoming news, and then passed it on to the others. "The frigate Sinai Ard just landed on our ship. They destroyed our cluster transmitter." "I searched for the crew of the Sinaiad when I found you in the warehouse," Rhyme said anxiously to them. "I think the person who captured you has connections with this frigate." "Cerberus," said Handel, "they're here to catch Gillian." "Where's the security team you sent to meet them?" Callie asked, remembering the captain's earlier order, "Where's Yislie and the others?"

"No answer." Mal's voice was serious.They should all know what kind of possibility that means. "If it's Cerberus, they will come directly to this spaceship." Handel warned them, "They will come to capture Gillian and evacuate quickly, before you have time to organize any resistance." "Have you got any weapons on board?" Rhyme asked. Carly shook her head. "The assault rifles we brought from the warehouse were basically out of bullets. Handel had the biotic, and that was all we had." "Call security," Handel said. "They won't come right away," Mal replied. "The Sinaiad is only two docks away."

We can't even close the hatch and get out of the Edenna, Carly thought.We didn't have enough time to disconnect the calipers on the dock. "Come on," Carly jumped up. "We can't stop them here." Five people—two quarians and three humans—passed through the ship's airlock and onto the Edenna's dock.Handel half-dragged and half-dragged Gillian to follow, distraught by the sound of the siren, but followed slowly and distractedly. "Battery level!" Marl yelled. "We have weapons in the storage room." They ran through the crowded halls and corridors of the cabin, and Kali couldn't help thinking that when the Cerberus forces came and found Grayson's ship empty, something will happen.There is no reason for the quarians to foresee an attack inside a fleet ship, and quick access to weapons in such living conditions is generally a recipe for disaster.As a result, all but a few security personnel were unarmed.It would turn into a massacre if heavily armed Cerberus agents started hunting for Gillian in densely populated residential areas.

Mal barked instructions over the radio to organize reinforcements and drive the enemy back. "We need to organize resistance!" Kali yelled. "Hand them up on the barter level. If we fail, hundreds of people will die." He nodded, passing the order to the bridge. How did they find us here?Carly thought as she ran, and the next thought was, couldn't Gillian find a place in the galaxy to hide from them? The Cerberus team arrived at Grayson's original spaceship and found that there was no one there. "They must have gone into the boat to hide," Glouc guessed.

"How many quarians are on board?" Grayson asked. "Between six hundred and seven hundred," Glo estimated, "but only a handful are armed. You and a few stay here to protect the ship, and the rest come with me. We'll find Gillian, Bring her back here." Grayson shook his head. "She is my daughter, and I will go with you." "Forget about it," Glo replied, "we don't need you in there." "I'm in charge of this mission," Grayson reminded Glo. "And I'm the only one who knows what's going on with the Querry ship," Glo shot back. "You can't do it without me. And I'm not going to take you in there."

"You're bringing too much emotion into it," he continued, almost apologetically, "You can't think right, and you're not prepared for this. Grayson didn't argue with him.He had barely slept since escaping Pell's warehouse.He was sustained only by the adrenaline and the desperate thought of getting his daughter back.Extreme fatigue and withdrawal syndrome can slow his reaction time, impair his judgment, and put the entire team at risk. "If you really want to bring your daughter back," the quarian said sympathetically, "the best thing you can do is wait here and get your ship ready for our evacuation."

Glo was playing him, he hit the emotional button.The quarians don't care what happens to Gillian, he's just a lying, twitching son of a bitch who does everything for his own benefit.But that doesn't mean he's wrong. They are better off without you.For this important task, for Gillian's sake, you must sit here and wait quietly. "You, you: and you," Grayson said, pointing to a pilot and two others. "Stay here with me. The rest of you follow Glo. Remember, we only have thirty minutes before we leave the ship." "If humans hid in the spacecraft, they were probably wearing environmental isolation suits," Glo reminded, seemingly casually.

Grayson cursed inwardly for the sudden complication. "The Phantom wants Gillian to come back alive and well." He reminded the eight soldiers who followed Glo, reemphasizing the point, making sure they all understood. "Don't shoot anyone shorter than a normal quarian." "Unless you get close enough to count their fingers," Glo laughs. "The bridge is the sealed area of ​​the ship," Mal said to them.He gave them the gun in the storage room.The pantry also houses food, medicine, and other carefully inventoried supplies. "They can't be stopped here, but their attack can be slowed down. The civilians have been evacuated to the upper deck. I have issued an order that all security personnel come down to me."

Carly took the assault rifle Mal had handed her and weighed it.It was a turian design, a cheap Waller copycat, not up to standard standards, but better than nothing. Carly glanced around the room, wondering where the opportunities were.There was only one entrance from the dock to the barter level: the Cerberus had to rush down a long, narrow corridor.But if they go through the first door, they can find enough cover among these large boxes and large jars scattered around the room to store goods.A well-organized commando could have dispersed at once, flanking Mal's men.And if Mal's men were to retreat, there was only one way to go—up to the densely populated habitat level.

Two Qualian security teams were already waiting for them on the barter level.At this time, Mal had already distributed the weapons to Carly, Lem, and Handel, and four security teams came down from above. "Everyone spread out and take cover!" the captain ordered. "Hold the door leading to the dock for as long as possible. If I give the order, retreat to the upper floor." The quarians immediately scattered to find a location, and Kali turned to Gillian.She didn't move or look around, she just looked straight ahead, but didn't see anything, her arms hanging at her sides.

"Do you remember where Hito's room is?" Kali asked, trying not to think that the young quarian and Isri and Uggho might have died in action. At first Gillian didn't answer, just stood there, staring into the distance from behind her mask. "Gillian!" Callie called, "This is important!" Gillian turned slowly to Carly. "Heto showed us his room, do you remember where it is?" Carly repeated.Gillian nodded. "Do you know where it is?" "One floor above us," she said, her tone still cold, showing that she was getting farther and farther away from the world around her. "The first compartment of the group in the fourth row and sixth column." "I need you to go and wait there until I or Handel pick you up!" Callie yelled, "Do you understand? Go hide in Hito's room!" Gillian gave her usual nod, then turned and walked slowly towards the freight elevator. "Take the stairs, Gillian," Callie called after her, knowing that the elevator would automatically lock in case of an emergency. "You have to take the stairs!" Gillian didn't look back, just changed direction and walked towards the stairs. "You just let her go alone?" Handel asked.He was checking the sights and auto-aiming system on his gun. Carly didn't know either.In fact, Carly hated it too.But it seems she has no choice. "She can't stay here," she said, "and we can't send someone to get her. Mal needs everyone who can fight if we want to hold this place." Handel nodded, agreeing with Carly's analysis of the situation, and turned and ran away, taking cover behind a pile of overflowing metal cans, from which he could shoot anyone approaching the dock .Carly did the same, covering herself behind a large iron box full of bottles and cans. Cerberus didn't keep them waiting long. First, a few grenades were thrown from the door and fell onto the deck.The attack begins.Mal's men were far away from the door, and no one was within the range of the grenade explosion.But when the grenade exploded, several boxes and their contents flew into the sky. No one was injured, but two Cerberus soldiers rushed to the door at this time. Carly and the others opened fire, trying to drive them back.The enemy, trusting the kinetic shields on the armor so much, began to fight back, rushing through the entrance and hiding behind a side box, using the box as cover. Without Handel, their plan would have worked.Kali and the other quarians shot out, but the armor of these enemy soldiers blocked the bullets.While Carly and the others were reloading the bullets, Handel began to accumulate biological abilities.These enemy soldiers were still hiding behind the box, thinking it could provide cover for themselves, Handel lifted the box with his ability, and they were exposed to the dense barrage of assault rifle fire. Their kinetic energy shields were still recovering energy from the bullets they charged at the door, and they couldn't resist the enthusiastic greeting of the second wave of bullets.Both were beaten badly, and Carly felt the thrill of victory. Her pleasure was quickly over.Soldiers of the second wave of Cerberus-this time three men followed the first wave, using the same tactics.It took Handel a while to recover before he could unleash the biotic power again, so this time the trio made it safely behind a jar for cover.With the jar blocking the opponent's fire, they can rearrange their formation, wait for the shields to fully recover, and attack again. Simultaneously, they leap out from behind cover and move in three different directions, navigating a maze of boxes and jars.Callie focused her fire on the nearest enemy, leaving the other two alone.She wanted to kill him with a burst of fire while he was weaving between cover points, but he knew the limits of his shield and would always get out of the way of the bullets before the energy of the shield was drained by the bullets. Callie saw him want to move to the far side of the room so he could sneak up behind the guards.Out of the corner of Carly's eye, she saw a quarian come out from behind the box he was hiding in and tried to stop him, but was knocked down by bullets from the third wave of four Cerberus troops who had just rushed in. Carly is only now realizing how hopeless the situation is.Although there is a two-to-one to three-to-one advantage in numbers, the tactical and technical advantages of Cerberus agents are too obvious to overcome the disadvantages in numbers.They have better weapons, better armor, and better training.Half of Mal's team—including Rhyme, the captain, Handel, and Callie herself—didn't even have armor to wear. And Cerberus they have grenades. Just at this moment, she heard a loud noise from a distance on the deck.Carly turned her head and saw smoke rising from the place of the explosion. The two quarians were blown over by the explosion, and the charred corpses lay motionless in front of everyone. At least they have Handel on their side.The big man poked his head out from behind the protective crate and activated the biotic power again, this time kicking the two Cerberus soldiers back from their hiding place, flinging them against the wall behind them.One slammed into the wall hard, and he stood up in a panic and ran back behind the cover, while Carly pulled the trigger to make sure that another Cerberus soldier couldn't run back. After a while, Handel suddenly became the one who flew backwards in the air-there were obviously biological abilities on the Cerberus side.He yelled in surprise, and slammed into the wall, between the outer wall of the storage room where he had taken the gun and the hardwood table.He lay on the ground and couldn't get up. "Handel!" Callie called, trying desperately not to jump up or rush over to see what was going on with Handel, which would be suicide. Instead, she forced her focus back on the enemy, years of Alliance training keeping her focus.Soldiers will fall in battle, even your friends.Until you take the enemy out, you usually can't help them much. Carly held her position, carefully picking her next target.She saw another Cerberus soldier fall—according to her count, there were still five left, including the psychic.But all around her were the screams of Mal's men.Cerberus's biological powers exerted their strength again, shaking a jar, and the Quarians with sniper rifles behind them had nowhere to hide and were immediately knocked down.Finally, the captain gave the order Carly had expected. "Get back!" shouted the captain, "Get back!" Carrie didn't want to leave Handel behind, but she would be shot if she ran to him.In an instant, tears welled up in her eyes, and she fired a volley of bullets to cover her and began to fall back. Gillian walked up and down the alley of cubicles, counting silently, until she came to the cubicle with the orange curtains. She could hear bullets flying, firing and returning fire in the distance.She couldn't and didn't want to figure out who was who. She knew there was trouble, and she knew it had something to do with her.Although she wanted to piece together the previous events into a complete picture, the truth kept eluding her.The environment put a lot of pressure on her, she was a little dizzy, and the consciousness she could mobilize was still fragmented. For example, she could remember that there should be a lot of people here.She vaguely remembered people coming and going in the middle of the cubicle, shuttling back and forth. Once again she knew she was wrong.She just couldn't figure out why this was happening. She thought, Carly said, hiding in Hito's room.Then she reached out and opened the curtains.The room looked different from the one she remembered. The mattress was half a foot from where it was supposed to be, and someone had moved the cooking stove, which had been rotated ninety degrees since the last time she was here. Gillian knew that sometimes people rearranged things, but she didn't like it.Things should go back to their original positions. I don't like it here, I'm going back to the spaceship. She let go of the curtain, turned and left the cubicle.She hesitated, and walked slowly along the intertwined compartment pathways to the stairs leading to the deck below.The journey was long and winding, which was quite different from the route she used to come here. Carly retreated toward the stairs, knowing the Cerberus was following.It's going to be hell when the battle unfolds in the cubicle.While the civilians are gone, the fight will turn into a brutal hit-and-run street fight where the Cerberus and their advanced weaponry have the greater advantage. Several of Marr's men had already secured their positions in the corner of the compartment near the stairs, aiming their guns at the door that the Cerberus must pass through. Carly ran all the way to Hito's compartment to find Gillian. Before Carly reached Hito's compartment, she heard heavy gunfire behind her.Callie knew she was running out of time: the Cerberus had easily broken through the quarians downstairs, and it was even harder to hold position here.The opponent had too many choices, and the Quarians had no hope of blocking the enemy here. They could simply choose to go around another path and attack from two opposite directions. She opened the orange curtains, only to see that the room was empty and empty. Jillian was still wandering in the corridor, and the sound was ringing in her ears. Although she refused to think about what it was, the sound was getting louder and louder.She saw a quarian running to the other side of the alley, the gun in his hand forcing her to realize that the noises were gunshots. The consciousness in her head screamed, I don't want to go there.Go back to the boat. Gillian was about to do just that.She could now hear the sound of gunfire all around her, sporadic explosions coming from behind and behind her, but her mind was too tense to automatically block out these sounds and just kept walking towards the stairs. She turned to the left and met a man and a woman face to face.Gillian knew they weren't quarians—they weren't wearing environmental suits. They all wore helmets, but the visors only covered three-quarters of their faces.They wear heavy armor that covers their chests, shoulders and arms.Everyone had a gun, and when they saw Gillian they both held it up at her. Gillian just kept walking, as if oblivious to their presence. "Don't shoot!" the woman yelled, the little girl approached, and the woman put down the gun. "That's her! Grayson's daughter!" The man dropped his gun and rushed forward, reaching out to grab her.Without even thinking about it, Jillian followed the movement Handel taught her and threw out a punch.The man flew up sideways, and his back hit the corner of the compartment wall. After a crisp sound, he bent in a funny pose and stopped moving. "Fuck—" the woman gasped, but Gillian cut her off.Purely on instinct, Gillian reached out with a hand, palm up, and flicked the wrist away.The woman flew upwards and hit the ceiling so hard that her helmet shattered.She fell at Jillian's feet, her eyes rolled out, blood streaming from her nose, mouth and ears.Her leg twitched, kicked against the base of the adjacent cubicle wall, and then remained motionless. Gillian just stepped over her and kept walking.I went all the way to the stairs without meeting anyone again, and then went to the lower deck. Gillian could still hear the firefight above, but it was quiet down here.Feeling better, she started humming an out-of-key song and walked to the ship. Carly was going crazy running up and down the alleyway desperately looking for Gillian.Luckily, her training keeps her sane and doesn't do stupid things.Instead of rushing blindly to every corner, she poked her head out to see if there was anyone in every direction, and quickly searched for traces of enemy fighters. She could hear the sound of firefights coming from all around, but she didn't encounter any Cerberus soldiers, but found the bodies of two Cerberus soldiers in the middle of a trail.At this moment, she found evidence that Handel was still alive after falling from a height of four or five meters: obviously the two soldiers were killed by biological abilities.Then another thought came to her mind. Jillian. Since coming to the Edenna, Handel has been closely by Gillian's side, teaching her to develop and control her biological abilities.But despite the astounding progress Gillian had made in the previous few weeks, she was still that emotionally fragile, easily frightened little girl. Something in the college cafeteria inspired her to unleash biological powers like a storm.Now Carly has proof that the storm has been stirred up again. Carly thought, Gillian was terrified.She was puzzled.She goes where she feels safe.At this moment, she knew the answer. Gillian turned back to the spaceship. Carly walked cautiously down the pathway back to the stairs. Glo fully enjoys fighting his fellow man.Although he had never been a member of the Edenna, he had no trouble imagining the man he shot down as the crew of the Ucela who had expelled him. Glo, tough as hell, had already killed six quarians in battle—two on the barter level and four in the aisles of the cubicles above.It wasn't a fair fight at all, considering the well-crafted weapons Cerberus had provided him...but Glo liked the injustice. In fact, he enjoys it so much that he almost loses track of time. A countdown beep beep beep came from the helmet headset, and he suddenly remembered that it was only ten minutes.They didn't find the little girl, but that didn't matter to him.Now it's time to go back to Grayson's spaceship and leave the Aidena. He knew the rest of the team would have to keep fighting and searching for five minutes before falling back, but he didn't like the time being so tight. Sighing regretfully, he gave up searching the maze of compartments and sprinted cautiously to the stairs, preparing to return to the deck below. Grayson paced nervously in his stolen ship from Omega Station.He kept looking at his watch, realizing that there were less than ten minutes left. "You and you," he said, pointing to two of the three soldiers who stayed to help him guard the spaceship, "go out and find the control panel, let go of the landing caliper." He wanted to wait until the last second before leaving, but that didn't mean he couldn't get the job done beforehand. Two soldiers burst through the airlock, and Grayson and one other person—the pilot of the quarry ship—continued to wait without saying a word. He heard a loud bang outside the spaceship, and something slammed heavily to the ground.Curious, he walked carefully to the airlock, and saw a small female figure standing in the middle of the dock covered in an environmental isolation suit from head to toe. "Dad?" said the figure.Although the sound was obscured by the mask and respirator, he recognized it immediately. "Gigi," he said, getting down on one knee and holding out a hand to her. Gillian walked toward him with the familiar straight-legged stride until she was in front of him and Grayson could reach her.Knowing that Gillian was doing well, Grayson put his hands down, avoiding physical contact.To his surprise, however, she staggered an extra step and hugged him. It wasn't until he was holding his daughter in his arms that he noticed that the two Cerberus soldiers he had sent out just now were crushed under a forklift that the quarians used to load and unload freight ships, and the forklift was on its all fours. .It appears the six-ton ​​forklift was lifted and dropped, crushing them like ants. Their embrace broke away after a while, and Grayson heard the co-pilot talking behind him. "Sir—sir," the pilot stammered and trembled as he saw the twisted bodies of the two dead soldiers under the forklift. "What happened to them?" "It's okay," Grayson said sharply.He let go of Gillian and stood up. "Get on board and start the engines. We're leaving." "We can't go yet," said Gillian.Grayson was not a little surprised to hear that there was real emotion in her words instead of the previous cold tone. "We're going to wait for our friends to come up." "Your friend?" he asked, joking with her. "Handel, Carly, and Rhyme," Gillian replied, "Rym's a quarian." "We can't wait for them, honey," he told her softly. Gillian crossed her arms and took a step to the side—a position he had never seen Gillian do before. "I won't go without them," she said defiantly. Grayson blinked in surprise, then nodded. "Okay sweetheart, we'll find them." She turned and walked inside the Aidena, Grayson following behind her, drawing a small shocker from his belt.He fired between Gillian's shoulder blades, and the little girl fell into the arms of her father, who had been waiting beneath her. Grayson used the weapon on Gillian, filled with guilt, but knowing he was running out of time, he picked up Gillian and carried her back to the spaceship.Once inside, he took Gillian to the sleeping pod, where she was gently placed on the bed.Grayson took off the helmet of his environmental isolation suit. For a long time, he just looked at her face, and he didn't look up until he heard the pilot call him again. "Sir?" he said standing in the doorway, "the caliper of the dock has not been released." "Then you go and relax." Grayson ordered, "I will not leave my daughter." He nodded, turned and left, leaving only the father and daughter behind. "Don't worry, Gigi," he said softly, "I promise they'll treat you well from now on."