-Jean Moore P.O.V.-

I was no stranger to the shady jobs, nor the risky ones, or the ones that made you regret everything that had brought you to where you were. This was one of those jobs, and not for any of the reasons I expected to hate it. The Brigade ran clean and smooth, I had no complaints about how they ran their ship, or how they put every hand to work that they had available. It was a bad ship that had idle hands loose amidst a disaster.

And most definitely this constituted a disaster.

Thane’s Hand, one of the three fleets that were supposed to have joined Leviathan Brigade on its journey and attempted to subjugate the Red Zone, was effectively dead. All told, I’ll freely admit that I’d chalked up some of the tales of this place to rumors and happenstance. Now, I had to say that those tales were severely lacking in comparison to the true horrors of the area. That was not something sailors regularly did, usually things were blown out of proportion. Had I known what was lurking under the water before, Benjamin couldn’t have paid me enough to get on this ship.

That wasn’t a reason enough to hate the job, though. Unforeseen circumstances came up plenty often, but that wasn’t enough to raise questions about my life choices. Yet, as I stood over another sailor and checked over their bandages, I had to admit that it certainly didn’t do this job any favors. I wasn’t exactly what one could call a loyalist to Basilisk, but I was beginning to come around.

Against any ordinary biotic, the Brigade had done wonders and defeated countless creatures from the depths. But against that hellspawned abomination? No, that wasn’t the domain of ordinary people, or even most trained personnel, truth be told.

Which brought me, again, to the real reason why I hated this job. With a sigh, I moved on, idly considering the unconscious forms around me, checking those conscious with a tired and distracted manner that mirrored the patients quite well at this point. I administered perhaps more sedatives than strictly necessary for minor issues, letting some of these people sleep it off. If it wasn’t permanent, some sleep would help all ails.

Distraction, that was a tool I used when I was avoiding making a big decision. That wouldn’t do, if there was anything that I’d promised myself it was that I’d never let myself stay on the fence. I worked for ten more minutes, finding an ebb in the workflow to slip away and out the door. I walked through the metal hallway and made my way to the bunks. One uneventful trip later, and I found myself sitting on my bed, working through a message in my mind using the Obelisk Shard. The fleets all had the shards tied into the antennae relay, enabling broadcasts to get to the city without being in personal range.

Even so, I sat on the first line for several minutes, my jaw flexing idly as I considered everything. Benjamin wasn’t actually a bad guy, a little presumptuous that everyone was out to get him, maybe, but then again he wasn’t always wrong. I had no doubt that if Sunvilla had never seen any outside influence, he would have eventually assumed full control of the city. He had plans for it, I knew, and a bloodless transition to only one faction had been in the running. Did that excuse what had happened up ‘til then? Probably not, but Sunvilla would have been a different picture, and I would have had a good place in it. Now, we were working from somewhere in the middle amidst the people of Basilisk, though that in itself was impressive all things considered.

He was only human, of course, and I knew - hell, of all people I knew - how fallible people could be, especially when they thought they were right. Benjamin had put a lot of work into getting Sunvilla up and running, and up until a few days ago, I agreed wholeheartedly on the mission he’d sent me on. Gather information on what was happening, transfer it back, and wait for an opportunity to either sabotage or hijack the uplink.

That was another thing that I had to give him credit for. Benjamin had figured out why the Legion was here, and I’d just confirmed it. Granted, it somehow felt underwhelming when that Matthew guy said it, but there it was, truth stranger than fiction right in front of my eyes. Idly, I tapped the drive in my pants pocket, now almost completely sure that I would never get the chance to use it. I wasn’t a secret agent with master kung-fu, for Pete’s sake! I’d keep a hold of it as a backup plan just in case I was wrong about the Legion, but I wouldn’t be fighting my way into any compound for this.

“Crap.” I breathed out a long, drawn out sigh and started typing my report to Benjamin. I included everything objectively and tried to keep everything concise enough. Even so, I found it difficult to remain unbiased, considering I found myself liking the Brigade and even the Legion. I included my observations of their supposed invasive presence, and found that they conformed to the Brigade and supported them at every turn wholly. It wasn’t the unwilling ally that I’d believed I’d see here, and instead what I saw reminded me of the kind of long term allies that often forgot there was any kind of delineation between the two.

I finished my observations with my own personal opinion on the matter, namely that I saw nothing, absolutely nothing, that the Legion made me wary of. Even on a personal level, none of them struck me as the type that thought they might be fighting against Basilisk at any point in the future. No odd questions, no leading conversations that might reveal secrets in the city beyond what I might consider believable day-to-day talking. And most of all, the Reaper himself seemed utterly uninterested in throwing around their authority, and mostly kept up a ‘be seen, not heard,’ method of leadership whenever there wasn’t anything specific to be doing.

With one final burst of resolve, I sent my message and made the executive decision that every agent on the ground of any job had the right to make.

I decided I wouldn’t do a damn thing. For once, just letting things be might be the best option.

A smirk settled on my face as I wondered what kind of face Benjamin would be making when he finished my message…

-Matthew Reaper P.O.V.-

Several hours had passed as the Leviathan Brigade and Sword Fleet - as I’d come to learn, that was their name - had joined together and fallen into formation. Considering everything that had happened, the combined task force, Legion included, left nothing to chance. Drones and Determinators scouted far and wide for any unusual biotics and lit up targets for distant firing from the ships. We weren’t worried about burning ammo, now, considering the goal of the mission was now to get to the island and return to Basilisk Port. A permanent presence would be established by the relief fleets that were currently underway to the Red Zone’s previous territory.

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Contrary to everyone’s fears, though, nothing dramatically dangerous emerged from the murk. Pods of biotics were taken apart at range, Determinators and Drone sensors giving a complete net that only expanded with the addition of immobile buoy’s and sensors that the fleet dropped behind it. A quarter of these waters were now known, and more would follow, but that wouldn’t be our task.

Instead, I stared at the console in the briefing room, Daniel, Fran, Domino, and Jessica sitting closer to the console than the others. Richard and Alice were still in medbay, though Alice had regained consciousness she was hardly in any condition to be undertaking a mission. Most people here wouldn’t be, but the four that seated themselves closest to me were adamant about not allowing me to do this alone.

Terry, Rachel, Emma, and most others weren’t in any real condition to continue the mission. Terry was the most stable of them, and he’d said as much. However, I could communicate with his A.I. personally, and knew that he most definitely wasn’t as solid as he let on. The man was stubborn, but Dexter was doing a lot in keeping his mind in balance. It wasn’t perfect immunity, and he’d likely be high strung for the next few days, more tired than usual, but he’d be functional for day to day stuff.

But I certainly didn’t want my tesla expert in a facility with potentially sensitive equipment if he were to have a break.

And so, Terry sat sulkily, making small talk and gripes with the others. Adira and her crew sat in with us, handing out mugs of hot cocoa and watching the display as we studied the island in operative range.

“It looks like a deserted island.” Adira commented, the whites of her eyes a slight shade of red with popped blood vessels.

I nodded, “At first glance, but from here our sensors are detecting some cleverly hidden objects deeper into the shrublands.” Idly I tapped at the image, the colors fading to infrared and displaying the blots of metal that rested under the ground in several locations. The island hosted several patches of rough, rocky terrain, ridges dominating the ground that would encourage travel down through valleys. That, of course, was something I wasn’t interested in in the slightest. Odds were that any given valley would be riddled with traps, which seemed likely given the blots of color we picked up now.

“My money’s on turrets,” Terry commented, “Seems like a pretty standard evil-lab-on-secret-island setup, you sure this is an uplink?”

“Most likely.” I nodded, “I’m planning on coming up this first ridge and taking stock of the terrain from there. If The Wendigo could provide us some ranged fire support, I’d appreciate it.”

Adira waved a hand nonchalantly, “Just tag it, we’ll burn it out. Don’t worry about wasting shots, either, we’ve got plenty of gas in the tank.”

“Good. Then for the most part we’re finished. The Determinators are willing to scout and be our shock troops, but we’re aiming to keep casualties to a minimum.” I tapped the screen, showing fifty-two of the steel soldiers ready to deploy. They’d managed to piece together some more parts from disparate pieces. The rest of them were uploaded on a mainframe, helping with offloaded data that the Determinators with bodies didn’t need to work with immediately.

“We’re looking at old-earth tech here, right?” Domino asked, looking intently at the island.

I nodded, “Yep, has to be.”

“So, we shouldn’t be hit by anything freaky, right?” Jessica finished the thought doubtfully.

I thought for a moment, one that lingered uncomfortably longer than they’d wanted. I shook my head, “I have no idea. I wouldn’t underestimate it, but I don’t think we’ll have any problem with it.”

“I’d assume there’s some heavy automated firepower on the island.” Daniel piped it, nodding to himself as he dragged our view of the island left and right, looking closely at everything.

“Any particular reason?” I turned to look at what he was seeing.

“No biotics of any kind. Little odd, considering this is smack dab in the middle of the Red Zone.” He tapped the screen and brought up several areas, “If there were people, I’d think they’d have been more worried about the biotics at this point than being detected. No bunkers, no armored emplacement positions, nothing like a dugout. Granted, they could be relying on anonymity and not drawing attention to themselves.”

“Fair points,” I nodded, “We expected at least traps, but it would make sense that there were some automated defenses. I wonder what’s powering it all?” I questioned, before shaking my head, “Regardless, our approach won’t change off of that. We’ll bring some shielding with us, just in case there’s some heavy ordnance. Any questions?”

No one spoke, so I nodded, “Alright, then we’ll get ready for deployment.”

At that I watched the others filter out, moving into the docking bay. Surprisingly, I didn’t feel anxious about this part of the mission. Unlike biotics, this was something that we could quantify, something that existed before creatures could overwrite your sanity.

“Almost there.” Adira surprised me, standing next to me while nursing a mug of cocoa.

I nodded, “Almost. You sure you don’t wanna go with?”

She snorted, but wore a smile on her face, “Nah, I’m good. I have to be on standby just in case something comes at the fleet. Though, I’ll probably just flash fry anything that comes near us.”

“Probably for the best,” I nodded before we started forward towards the bay.

Companionable silence followed us for a while, only perturbed by the sounds of various mechs being refitted or repaired, though only a few at once. Most of the crew that worked on the mechs were currently resting.

“Good luck, Matthew,” Adira said, as she turned to me. I noticed her hand held out, and smiled.

We shook hands, “I’ll avoid raising any flags here, and just say thanks,” I joked, “But, sincerely, thanks.”

She shook her head, “Pretty sure that’s not how that works, but yeah. We’ll keep an eye out here, at least.”

At that, she left, waving over her shoulder as I shook my head. Quickly, I moved to my dock and allowed the station to put together the armor around me. It was still somewhat damaged, but nothing to the extent that I was worried, given that I wouldn’t be deep underwater this time.

“Alright if you’re going, let’s get deployed.” I called out, striding out of the Ogre in my power armor just as Daniel’s mech rumbled forward to the drop-bay. If nothing else, I would be glad not to have another water operation after this.

And with that, I dropped into the water with a thud, several splashes following after as we moved to our final objective here.