Chapter Text
Lieutenant-Commander Anna Smith couldn’t remember the last time that she had run so quickly, but this was going to go down in history as the fastest a human had ever run… probably. She’d just watched the rest of her squad get killed, and she wasn’t about to let one of the birds put a bullet in her head.
Then again, she knew exactly what she was getting into when she’d volunteered to be part of the mission to Menae; she knew that she likely wouldn’t survive. It was so highly classified that only her squad and a few high-ranking officials actually knew about it. Actually finding out about the turian's operations base on Menae had been a huge step forward for the Alliance Navy, but getting there and infiltrating it was a whole other issue. The chance of failure was very high, but if the turians knew that the Alliance was aware of Menae, then it might give them pause… maybe.
The mission had been derailed when one of the junior officers had stepped outside for a piss and had immediately been spotted. Anna had barely enough time to grab her gun as she'd fled from their base, and she’d turned around to see the turian soldiers lining up her squad for execution. They’d fired a few shots in her direction, but none had pursued her. She didn’t blame them; she’d been on Menae only a few days and she already knew that there was a slim chance she’d survive on her own on the ragged moon.
She tripped on a stone and fell face-first into the dusty soil of Menae, sputtering.
“Fuck,” Anna spat, wiping the dirt from her mouth. She propped herself up on her elbows and sighed, turning her head to the left. There was a small opening carved into the rock; a perfect hiding spot for now. She crawled over to the opening and stuffed herself into it, checking over her gun and stuffing her face with one of her last remaining energy bars, sighing to herself as her hunger abated slightly.
“There’s one missing!”
Anna froze as she heard the turian voice. It was close. She held her breath and closed her eyes, praying that they wouldn’t find her.
Another turian swore under his breath, and her translator glitched, missing the word.
“Don’t just stand there! Find the bitch!”
That one caught in her translator, and she grit her teeth, swearing inwardly at the turians. She’d enlisted to see the galaxy, and help to keep the peace with whatever they encountered, but this? This war wasn’t what she wanted. She hated killing. She hated all of it.
“Footprints taper off here,” the first turian soldier was saying. It sounded like he was right outside of her cave.
“Shit. Maybe she found an entrance to the underground tunnels.”
“Hah! If she did, then she’ll soon be wishing that she was up here. She won’t last a day in the tunnels.”
“We should probably comm Arterius and tell him to get a patrol going.”
“He’ll be pissed that we lost her.”
“Not when he hears how we took out her squad. Besides, she’s not going anywhere. Might as well let the elements kill her off for us.”
“Arterius still isn’t going to be happy.”
“Hah! Trust me, it could be worse.”
Anna’s muscles were starting to cramp up from staying frozen for so long, but she stayed where she was, even as the footsteps retreated. The fear was all-engulfing now; the turians had been right… she’d more than likely die on Menae. The Alliance wouldn’t risk it to send a human ship to save just one soldier, especially since the mission that they had been on was basically a black op. She felt tears prick in her eyes, and she wiped them away hastily, finally relaxing her body. She was, literally, in between a rock and a hard place: either she surrendered and subjected herself to whatever the turians did to their POWs, let the elements take her out here, or end it now with her pistol. Either way, the outcome was likely death. Unless… she shook her head. There was no way that she could surrender and turn it into a survival situation – though her transponder may still be working. If there was a way that she could somehow get data back to the Alliance, then maybe she could help end this war… and maybe she’d survive.
Her heart hammered inside of her chest at the thought, but her brain was picking her idea apart: the birds would likely just shoot her on site. But… what if they didn’t? What if they took her prisoner? What if her transponder was still working? What if she could help the Alliance?
“Shut up!” she screamed at herself. She meant it to be an inward scream, but it was aloud. She slapped a hand over her mouth, cursing at herself in her head for being so terribly foolish.
“Wait. Did you hear that?”
Shit. Shit. Shit. Anna’s heart was pounding now. They’d heard her… they were going to find her. If they did, she’d shoot herself. That was it: her fate was decided.
“What? That shout?”
Their voices got louder and louder, and Anna willed herself to absorb into the wall of the cave.
“Yeah. Sounded like it came from over here.”
She closed her eyes and grasped for her weapon, but it wasn’t there. In her panic, her leg shot out of the opening and the turians spotted it immediately. As they dragged her, kicking and screaming, out of the cave, one delivered a blow to her head that knocked her out. The last thought that she had before she blacked out was something that she'd prayed would never cross her mind:
This is where I’m going to die.