[Book Four] Chapter 54: War lasts

[Book Four] Chapter 54: War lastsChapter 54: War lasts



“And another temple dealt with.”



That was whatJane said from the opened rail of the Normandy’s cargo bay, looking down at the Kett’s complex bathed in fire. There was a certain amount of satisfaction in her voice but also a hint of tiredness. It’s been two years now that she had been back into service for good with her brother and while the exploration of Andromeda had greatly advanced they had not found the Ketts’ homeworld to put an end to this war. There have been skirmishes after skirmishes, maybe a battle here and there but nothing of a big scale and certainly not decisive.



“That’s the Seventh, I believe.”



At her side Samara commented in a new red armor, provided by Rick but which still was outrageous. The former Justicar had joined back the Normandy crew when Jane had contacted her to see if she was interested in getting back in the team. While she had been as she missed the action a bit, the asari had declined as spending time with her daughters was more important. Falere and Rila thought otherwise. They love having their mother with them but she wasn’t really living as her whole life revolved around them. Since they became free of their Ardat-Yakshi status they began to do things they always wanted to do and while it took time for them to get their bearing and marks when they settled on Ryder, more often than not, their professional and social life was done without her mother who simply stayed at home waiting for them despite the few hobby she had. So when they heard Jane asking Samara to join her they pushed her to accept for her own good. So far the asari didn’t regret it one bit.



“That’s really weird, it’s like they build it in preparation for when they win the war, not for actually using it. That’s the fourth one that had no prisoners in it.”



From Jane’s other side, Rick voiced his thoughts about the complex and the situation. His tone was a mix of icy cold and disinterest.



“Whatever the reason, it doesn’t really matter, doesn’t it?” asked Jane with a smile.

“No. I supposed it does not.” was the reply she got from her brother who walked back up the rail and went to the lockers to remove and store his gear.

“It doesn’t seem he found anything useful in the data he got.” Samara commented looking at his retreating back.

“No.” Jane replied and sighed. “I really need to do something about his anger. Ever since he put an end to Cerberus he’s been like that.”

“He just needs to learn how to focus on another emotion.”

“It’s so different from when we first met. He was so cold and focused but now... he’s compartmentalizing but there is always his anger underneath ready to explode.”

“It’s an improvement. He’s more in tune with his emotional side, granted anger is not the best but it’s an improvement nonetheless.”

“True. Though I think he’s just fed up with the war. I can’t blame him for that, everyone is, despite us winning. It’s been six years after all. I’m just... worried that this time I won’t be able to bring as much of him as I did last time. He’s so... fed up with life. How can you make someone love life when he did whatever he had set himself to do and has everything he has ever wanted?”

“Find a new hobby or focus on one he had put aside, perhaps?”

“His only hobbies currently are killing Ketts, creating tech to kill Ketts and...” she looked at Samara with a grin and finished her sentence ”Sex. What do you say? Want to take a spin with him?”

“... Why not?”



Samara’s answer accompanied with a teasing smile made Jane’s jaw drop. Not in a million years did she think that her asari friend would give her this kind of answer. Sure, she remembered the hot kiss she had given her brother when she arrived in Andromeda and was reunited with him but it was more teasing than anything. That she would be interested in trying Rick never crossed her mind.



“I... Really?”

“If it’s a true offer, yes. I’d like to see for myself how good he is. He is dealing with five women on a permanent basis and from what I understood, sometimes some flings on the side. I still wonder how that happened.”

“Honestly? I don’t know. I don’t think any of us do, actually. If I had to bet... It’s because of Ashley. She never got rid of her mindset of pimping him out and it kind of rubbed off on us. The fact that we know he’d lever leave us played a big part in that I think.”

“You won’t mind if I go to him right now then?”

“... No. Go ahead, with a bit of luck he’d be in a good mood for a while.” the redhead replied with a smile.

Nodding in acceptance, Samara, followed by Jane went to the lockers to gear down and took the elevator. When EDI told them that Rick was in his old room on the CIC, Samara left Jane going up to her quarters alone to join him.



____________________________________________________________





To Rick, the mission had been a bust. He found no new information on the Ketts, again and that angered him. He wanted this war over yesterday and that was years ago. Sighing loudly, he let the hot water calm his nerves and relax his body. When the water’s temperature began to cool down, he decided that it was enough and turned it off. Picking up a towel he dried himself and exited his small bathroom to freeze in place at the sight before him.

There, on his bed, was his teenage crush with not a single article of cloth on her. Samara was laying on her side, facing him. Her head held in one of her hands looking at him like he was prey. The lust in her eyes and in her smile couldn’t be mistaken. Slowly, she use her free hand to caress her blue skin down from her neck to her full breasts and their hard as diamond dark blue nipples, to her stomach before going to the side, over her hips, and reached for her ass where it didn’t stop and ended its journey behind her thigh which she grabbed firmly.



“Oh, my.” she said as her eyes lowered from his face to his raging erection, pulsing savagely, that the sight of her had incurred. “I’m definitely going to have fun.” she added, then lifted the leg she had in her hand so high that she put it behind her head, revealing her very wet azure.



His mind going back to him, Rick jumped head first on the bed and dove his head right between her legs.



____________________________________________________________





“What’s up with dad?” Adam asked his aunts as he looked at his father grinning like a loony.



And with that, they returned to a comfortable silence, Jane satisfied with the small conversation they had. They stayed like that for a few hours and simply enjoyed each other's presence and proximity until Hilary warned them that they would take the relay in a quarter of an hour. The point of arrival being the Cassiopeia, the couple only had fifteen minutes and a few seconds to get up and ready themselves. They knew Hackett would not wait for a briefing.



Getting down to the CIC, they waited patiently to disembark on the Normandy’s private dock. Not wasting any time, Jane and Rick went to the command room where Hackett waved at them to hurry up.



“I have good news and bad news. Bad news, the Ketts have developed a new energy weapon for their ships. Alliance ships from the two previous generations are getting destroyed in one hit. The new generation are holding up half a dozen hits before going down.” the Admiral started with.

“How many?” inquired Jane.

“Twelve in total.” answered Hackett before going on. “Good news, one of the conduits may have found the Ketts homeworld?”

“About time.” replied Rick as he pulled up on the holo displaying the aforementioned information. Studying it meticulously, he finally gave his thoughts. “Yeah, it’s probably their homeworld. Density of population in the billions... I doubt it’s a colony world. That or they found another species' homeworld and exalted the entire population through an airborne chemical or virus.”

“God, I hope not.” exclaimed Jane with reason. Something like that would be disastrous.

“The odds are very low. They wouldn’t build temples all across the galaxy if that was the case and it seems against their... beliefs to turn everyone like that when it’s supposed to be a gift to the best only, that is if they can do that in the first place which I doubt. Why weren’t the ships equipped with last generation shields?”

“Cost, mostly. We’ve been at war for six years now and while eezo and energy is now cheap thanks to you, credits had been redirected to food and construction to maintain solid footholds. With the ships in very good condition and holding their own, upgrading them was not a priority. Furthermore there is currently a debate about simply upgrading the ships or dismantling them and buying new ones.” explained Hackett with a contrite and tired face.

“Make sense. What about the other species?” Rick asked.

“Same results, though the asari ships are doing a bit better.”

“Did the Ketts try to attacked the Gaea?”

“I received no report about that.”

“Worried about it?” asked Jane in concealed surprise. After all the Gaea was their trump card as their best ship and undamageable by Kett technology with his monstrous shields.

“No. I’m worried about the significance of it. If they didn’t attack it, then it means they know it’s useless which, in turn, means they know what their new weapon's current power is.”

“It was less a test to see what their weapon could do but more a test to collect precise and detailed data?” asked Hackett.

“I think so. They’re probably already working on a new version to take down the Gaea. That is problematic and would be terrifying if they succeed. The amount of energy, the amount of power needed to take her down is above the amount needed to explode a planet by reaching its core.”

“That’s not good”. Jane commented.

“Definitely not. We need to destroy the Ketts or at the very least that weapon before it’s fully operational.”

“Easy said but not easy done. We don’t know where...” she replied.

“... Maybe not. Based on what we know of their technology, they are forty, maybe fifty years behind us. Unless they suddenly had a jump in tech they probably have heavy restrictions on how to power up that weapon so it can be effective against the Gaea.” Rick ventured.

“What are you thinking about?”

“The technological jump they would need would be considerable with knowledge they don’t have. If they did, the war would be in a stalemate yet we’re winning.

“I don't get it.” his sister insisted.

“Jane, our power source comes from the study of subspace and Mass Relay. They don’t have that, they can’t travel cluster to cluster at fast speed like we do. As a result without that knowledge of space travel they can’t create a new power source like the RED or worse. Which means, if they want to take down the Gaea they would need to borrow the energy from something else. On top of my head and with their current tech I can only see two ways for that to happen. One stealing the energy from a star or stealing it from their own planet’s core.”

“So what you meant by restrictions is that the weapon would be either on a planet or near a star. The risk is suddenly much less.” the redhead realized.

“If they could harness the energy of a star, they could destroy a thousand planets in one shot from their position as long as they have the coordinates.”

“Oh.” Jane inadvertently let escape her lips.

“Yes, oh. Still harnessing the power of a star is not impossible for them but would be difficult, so they are probably using a planet’s core. Much less powerful but it would do the job. That makes me think that they would put such a weapon on their homeworld.”

“Why?” she asked and this time it was hackett that answered her question.

“Because that’s their most protected planet. Putting their weapon on another less well defended world presents a risk of it being turned against them.”

“Exactly.”

“What do we do then? What’s the course of action?”

“That, Jane, is the question. Obviously attacking their homeworld but how? Do we leave all our territories unprotected to launch a massive offensive against this planet or do we send a small team?”

“What would you do?” inquired Hackett.

“... I would let slip that we found their homeworld and are preparing for a massive invasion which would justify pulling out of most of our territories. The more sensible choice for them would be to recall all their ships to defend their world. That would make the fight harder but most of the Ketts would be in one place. That way, they wouldn’t be any straggler.”

“A risky move if I ever heard one.”

“More than that. The troops on the ground are going to go through hell to reach the weapon. We need to prepare a pincer attack from all sides but diversions everywhere so they don’t focus all their defenses at the weapon’s location. First though, we need to find it.”



Thinking about it for a moment, Hackett nodded and dismissed them. He had calls to make with the leaders of the different fleets to plan for the attack.





It took six months of preparation for the Milky Way’s forces to be ready. Securing the diverse territories, making sure that there was more than enough supplies, coordinating everyone and most of all making sure that the planet they have found was truly the Ketts’ homeworld; that took a lot of time. The battle would last days if not weeks, especially the one on ground. Where the councilian species had a clear advantage in space with advanced ships and weaponry (the Gaea notwithstanding), the ground troops were in unfamiliar territory and did not have the advantage. Of course, with Rick’s company providing all new kinds of technology the fight was a bit more balanced but the opponent numbered in the billions so it didn’t help that much.



Thankfully the plan of attack wasn’t about killing the Ketts one by one. No, the plan was to find the ruling people of the species, to eliminate them all to create chaos among the kett’s ranks, while stealing as much knowledge as possible. The final part was to retreat and let the Gaea destroy the planet with a shot to its core.

There had been some people questioning the need or rather the atrocity of the genocide but they were either ignorant or badly informed of what the Ketts were. Perhaps it was because of the fact the war had been going for six years already and in another galaxy. A simple reminder that Ketts had no children and simply mutated you into one of them if you were lucky (or unlucky) to be chosen had quieted most but the completely stupid and the most pacifist people. Though Rick bundled the two types into a single category.



During the time taken to bring everything together, Rick had followed Jane’s advice and made a band. The siblings were joined by Samara, who was eager to find something to do and played the bass, and to everyone’s surprise, James who played the guitar. Other, temporary members among the crew joined from time to time to just have some fun and to secretly support Rick in this endeavor.

James’ joining was a result of Kaidan and his crew answering Jane’s call to reform the Normandy team. As the second human spectre had his own duties, it wasn’t until four months ago that they were finally free to get back into the fold.

They were not the only people that Jane had lured back. Garrus had taken a sabbatical from his job at Celeste Academy, pretending that the war was taking too long and that he needed to show a thing or two to his son about it. The truth was that he missed the action and had to sweet talk Chloe into being allowed to join. He was joined by Jennifer and Javik who both used a similar excuse, wanting to see what their students got up to after leaving the academy. The last to join the Normandy was actually a newcomer.

Hannah Shepard had clearly told Hackett that she would be on the crew and she was not getting no for an answer. After much arguing, because Hannah was the Fleet Admiral of the Alliance, she pointed out that Ashley was more than qualified for the job and had more than enough reputation to replace her. Since the oldest Shepard wasn’t budging, wouldn’t and was kind of right, Hackett agreed. Though, despite ouranking Jane severely she would still be under her command. Something she was fine with. The woman just wanted to be with her children and fight with them as if the worst came to be, they would be together at the very least though she also did it because she refused to be stuck far away from the battlefield like she had been for the Reaper War.



It was a dazed Jane and a grinning Hannah that came into the family quarters on the Cassiopeia and met a very attentive, quiet and pensive Rick, rocking gently Erica while pacing around.

“Is she alright?” Hannah inquired as her namesake was sleeping in her crib on the side of the room. When her son didn’t answer her as she got closer, Jane spoke.

“Rick...”



She put a hand on the small of his back to make him notice their presence and succeeded.



“Yes?” he asked, raising his head from his daughter to look at his sister and mother.

“Everything’s okay?”

“Yes. Erica was just fussy, too much energy to go to sleep I think.”

“You were spacing out.” his mother pointed out. “What about, though, is the question.”

“It’s just... memories flooding my mind.”

“Of the children?” asked Jane, knowing him so well that she was almost certain that his head had been swimming in moments where he had done what he was doing with all his children.

“Yeah...They’re all grown up now... And I... I miss and don’t miss those times. How Arianna always giggled and smiled, lifting up my mood, how Adam was always babbling and making me wish I could put duct tape on his mouth for some peace. How...”



He stopped there, not wanting to continue the subject.



“That’s getting old. I’m surprised it took you so long to reach that stage.” teased Hannah.

“That sucks. I really should have...”

“No and you know it.” Jane cut him off, understanding what he was talking about. “Besides, it’s not like you’re actually old. Didn’t you trip and fight Matthew for the last pizza slice yesterday? You can’t be more childish.”

“True.” their mother confirmed.



As Erica finally fell asleep, Rick put her in the crib near her little sister, who promptly rolled her small body her way and somehow succeeded in hugging her from the side. Smiling at the sight, Rick walked away to sit on the couch and was joined by the two redheads.



“What’s up?”

“I’m in the crew!” Hannah exclaimed with a joviality that her children were now accustomed to.

“Oh boy... I don’t even want to know about how that happened so I’d just ask... Are you sure? Won’t you break a hip or something?”

“Ha ha.” replied his mother in a half fake unamused tone.

“See the bright side of it, she’s my subordinate now and yours.” joked Jane making her brother smile and her mother gasped, scandalized.

“Yes!”

“Hell no!”

“Quiet proby, that’s an order.”

“Why! You! You may be seventy but you’ll never be too old for a spanking!”

“So are you if I remember three months ago correctly.” chidded Jane, making allusion to Rick’s seventieth birthday.



That has been a difficult week for her brother. While all the children, as a big group or smaller ones, spent some time with Rick, his ladies were the ones who completely exhausted him.

The first night was Ashley who wanted to do something special for him. Special as in finally giving him the Williams fivesome that he had joked about many years ago. The brunette had gathered all her sisters who were either single, a widow, had a hail pass and had her way with him. Lyn, the only one he had never been with and who had a pass from her husband after catching him being indiscreet with someone else, had been completely unhinged. To finally have sex with the one she had admired the most and years of pent up jealousy towards her sisters, had created a very lusty and energetic monster. She loved the nightly activity so much that the morning after she swore she would leave her husband for Rick. Thankfully the rest of the Williams put their foot down and pulled her out of any delusion she had.



On and on, every night he was ‘used’ by a different group. Liara, Dorothea and EDI, Tali and Leeha, Sandra and her mothers (with the former getting pregnant a second time) and finally Jane, Hannah, Arianna and Sara. The last two had been quite a surprise but Hannah had roped in her granddaughter and her wife in having a ‘Shepard celebration’. Sara had confessed that she had butterflies in her stomach being considered a Shepard and Jane and Rick assured her again that she was their daughter. Arianna didn’t do anything but watch as she only was there because she knew Sara wanted a go at her father again after twenty years but also her mother and grandmother. The night ended with Hannah’s ass almost purple, gaping and leaking a gallon of cum. The next day she had to call in sick as she couldn’t sit or even wear clothes as their sensation on their skin burned her.



“That’s utterly different!” Hannah protested.

“Suuuure.”

“Speaking of joining. I got an answer from Wrex, he’s in.” said Rick changing topic.

“Really! That’s great! I thought he wouldn’t though.” Jane replied

“He was bored and Mordin’s constant bragging finally got to him. Eve was both amused and not.”

“So that makes the three of us, Wrex, EDI and Dorothea, Samara, James, Kaidan, Garrus, Jennifer, Jaavik and Tali.”

“Plus the children.” added Hannah.

“Plus the children. That's a lot.”

“Yes, Jane but not that much since we will separate into four teams.”

“Four? Why four?”

“Didn’t Hackett brief you on the plan for the Normandy crew?”

“No, not yet.”

“Well, since we’re kind of the ‘elite’ out there, hyper qualified in destruction and infiltration, we thought that having multiple teams dedicated to a very specific job would be better. The first team would be Kaidan, Garrus, Jennifer, Tali and Me and I guess Wrex. Our purpose is to roam the battlefield and create as much chaos as possible, distracting the Ketts. Hence the heavy hitters and the most reasonable of the crew together.”

“Most reasonable? Without Samara and Adam?” asked Jane with a brow raised.

“They have a more important job.” he answered and went on with the teams. “Team two includes Dorothea, James, Javik, Adam, the twins, Aezzia and now you mom. Your purpose is to go from hotspot to hotspot helping the fortification of key positions.”

“I understand why, more muscle than techies.” noted Hannah.

“Yes, your team is to bulldoze everything on your way after all. The biotics in the team are there to defend with barriers the key spots while the muscle shoots down any opposition. Adam is the team leader.”

“Won’t that pose a problem with Javik?” inquired Jane, knowing that the prothean would not be easily commanded

“No, he wants to see how far Adam has come as a warrior. The problem is you mom, you’d be okay being led by your grandson?”

“Had it been the twins, no but Adam is very capable so I don’t mind.”

“Alright though if you’re stuck at a hotspot for too long for whatever reason It would be better for you to take the lead as you’re more well known. Anyway, team three, led by Matthew, has him, Arianna, Sara, Leeha and EDI. They’re the infiltration team, they are the ones that will infiltrate the base containing the Ketts’ new weapon or every base that we think has it or knowledge of its location.”

“That... leaves Samara and I in a single team? What are we supposed to do with only the two of us?”

“Everything. Helping troops on the ground, defeating enemies, stopping their advance or opening a path, evacuating wounded.”

“How?” inquired Hannah.

“We’ll get a Ragnarok armor?” Jane asked with excitement.

“Yes. There are currently five available, I reserved two for myself or rather us and sold three to the council species.”

“You only made five in three years?”

“Mom, those armor... they should not be mass produced. That’s why there are no schematics of it except inside my head. They are dangerous, game changing dangerous. The Alliance got one, the Asari got two.”

“The asari? Is it because their bodies are comparable to ours?” Jane asked.

“Yes. I’m not familiar enough with the other species' anatomy to make one and I don’t see it being very useful for krogans.”

“Hmm... Tali would say otherwise regarding your knowledge about the quarian body.”

“Ha ha. Regardless, Jane, your and Samara’s job will be more difficult, EDI will give you information to go through the tasks but you’re going to be all over the place so be careful.”



Jane nodded and leaned against his shoulder as she put her feet on the coffee table. Hannah did the same and the family simply enjoyed each other’s presence in silence.