Hi Everyone! First I'd like to start with an apology to all those who have been following my other stories, I'm sorry I havent got back to them, I get a little ambitious with the story arcs then lose momentum. However I promise that this one is complete and will post all chapters as quickly as I can. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have enjoyed writing it!
Heads up to LovgrenO fellow Clan V member - its his artwork posted on DeviantArt that became my inspiration for writing this little story. I dont think I can directly link to it from here but his first little piece is entitled "Garrus - first love" (Although I maintain that Garrus's first love is his sniper rifle!) the second is another that spurred me to continue - "Turian couple". Head on over to DA and give him an encouraging comment or two. Its all clean stuff, if you're worried about the word Deviant in the website title, don't be, all mature content has a warning, and most of the website has some truly amazing artwork and is well worth the visit. Plus he told me he's all to shy for anything naughtier! I'm hoping what I've written will inspire him to do more!
Also to Aricle - also a fellow Clan V member for kindly Beta reading this for me, her valuable editing skills and comments are much appreciated!
I dedicate this to all those who love and adore (both guys and girls) the one and only Garrus Vakarian.
Authors note: Mass Effect, Garrus and the ME Universe in which the story is set all belong to Bioware. What is left belongs to me and my imagination.
I have written this intended for an adult audience, any depiction of sex is done in a Harlequin Blaze style which are freely available in many department stores so in my eyes suitable for an M rating. It is also rated M for language. If either of these offends you please do not read any further.
Garrus stood in the main battery staring into the console in contemplation. The conversation that just transpired between him and Shepard – did that really happen? She had responded to his bawdy story with a come on of her own, and he'd responded, as any male would, with much enthusiasm. He raked his talons down the side of his uninjured mandibles and closed his eyes.
"I haven't thought about that in a long time. A long…long time."
The scout ship came down about a mile and half away from the batarian base. This meant the group would be travelling through the uncomfortably dense jungle that surrounded it. To have come any closer meant alerting the batarians to their presence. The reconnaissance team consisted of three junior officers, all experienced but young, two of them recon scout specialists, Aelia Goran and Pen Saies, both 20, the other, weapons specialist Garrus Vakarian, 22 and two young raw recruits fresh from basic training and barely off their home worlds, Krae Wate, 16 and Corvan Wen, 17.
Garrus wasn't happy about being here but as he was effectively the group's leader, he was very conscious of the job that lay before them. The Captain, Rael Mikras, had been sending him out with the scouts more and more such that during the last nine missions he had been assigned scouting detail.
Altogether there were four recon scouts. Besides Goran and Saies the other two scouts were Caius Flavian, 27, and Sancius Terentius, 22. Flavian was the oldest of the group and the most experienced. Flavian had been the scouts' default leader and was several citizenship tiers above all of them. Garrus had great admiration for him due to his thoroughness and professionalism; he also had a low tolerance for bullshit. Terentius never spoke much but when he did it was usually laced with innuendo; they had an undemanding friendship and had worked well together.
Although Garrus was often sent as a backup, it seemed whenever he went out with the younger scouts they put him in charge. Initially this had not been an issue, he had gotten into a routine of friendly banter with Saies and this had continued throughout their missions together. However, with Goran, it was troubled from the start. She seemed to resent his presence and his authority. She had become more snarky with each successive mission – especially when he made tactical suggestions. She often tried to goad him about being so 'turian'; the term had rolled off her tongue like it was a dirty word, he could ignore her, although he wanted to lash out at times.
On every mission that he had served with her, there had been some sort of issue between them, and he knew this one wouldn't be any different. He was concerned, primarily because he and all the crew knew this was a high risk mission; the fact was, innocent turian colonists were in the mix, and it put him on edge. Captain Mikras made it clear to him that if the recon team alerted the batarians to their presence there would be hell to pay; civilian lives were at stake, so it was even more important that it went smoothly, in and out and back on the Nimines as quickly as possible. Captain Mikras was not pleasant to be around when people fucked up.
They moved out with the two scouts in the lead, followed by the younger recruits and Garrus at the rear.
"What do you reckon, Krae?" Wen nudged Wate with his gun.
"Mmm, maybe, she does keep looking at Tren and Truillo like they're some sort of fresh meat, but I had figured she batted for the other side."
"What does that mean?" Wen asked.
"You have led a sheltered life, Corvan" and he laughed loudly. "It means our XO prefers the company of turians who aren't like you and me."
"What, new recruits?"
"No - young hot blooded turian males."
"You mean she prefers…."
"Yes, dumb ass, that's what she prefers."
Garrus weighed in on the conversation. "If the two of you are going to continue with this discussion about XO Camillius, I'll have you on report, now shut up and walk."
"Spirits, Vakarian." Aelia spoke from the front of the group "Can't you remove that stick from your ass? They're just speculating about what all of us already know."
The two recruits snickered; Garrus bristled, here we go, he thought, but said nothing.
They continued walking in silence, pushing on through the dense foliage until they eventually came to a small clearing that appeared to lead into a larger one. Garrus ordered them to stop before moving any further forward. Pen Saies looked down at the ground before them.
"What do you think, Aelia?" He pointed to a set of tracks ahead, "They look turian to me."
"Maybe - looks like a lot of people went through here, I can see a few turian tracks – possibly our kidnapped colonists. But why would they land here? It's still over a mile to the base, isn't it?"
"Just under I think, Aelia." Pen replied.
"Why are we stopping here?" Wate whined loudly from behind.
Garrus ignored him and moved over to look at the tracks they were examining. "A lot of pirates and slavers don't like to have their landing zones too close to their compounds, usually that means that they're not heavily fortified. If you have no landing space then you can't be taken by surprise, that's one bit of news the Captain will like, but it does mean we're going to have to find some way to get troops closer without alerting them, and of course some way for ourselves to get around."
"That doesn't make sense Vakarian, they could be like us and land over a mile away and sneak up on them just like we are or move into the surrounding jungle just outside the clearing, or we could have done this at night." Aelia said.
"Any more than 10 of us 'sneaking' as you say, they'd easily spot, especially heavily armed adolescent turian soldiers who can't seem to keep from jabbering." He looked to Wen and Wate, "Even with 5 of us we have to be careful. They'll have experienced snipers trained on anyone unknown moving into that clearing as well being on the lookout for patterns of movement in the surrounding undergrowth within the next 800 yards. At night they could have night vision equipment; we'd be lit up like a nightclub. If I let you move forward," he pointed to where the tracks went, "There is no doubt our mission will hit critical failure."
Aelia gave a derisive snort, "Have you listened to yourself lately?" her voice deepened to mock him. "Our mission will hit critical failure…." She laughed, Garrus regard her tone with a disdainful look and she continued. "Ok then Vakarian, what are we supposed to do in the next 800 yards?"
"You're the trained scout Goran, perhaps you could make the first move across the clearing, you never know, you might find your temperament will improve with a hole in the middle of your forehead." Garrus retorted his voice dripping with sarcasm and annoyance.
She scowled at him and he gave a satisfied smile before grabbing his sniper rifle and moving to the edge of the bigger clearing. He had a clear view through the scope and could see the edge of a smaller building around 600 yards away, not the edge of the compound itself, most likely a field hut, and possibly with munitions storage. If we get to that, we could do some sabotage in the process, he thought. He moved his scope up and could just see the top of the compound's western wall.
"I can just see the top of the compound – it's likely they have someone there, it's definitely not safe to move across the clearing. I suggest we split up…."
"Hang on a minute," Aelia interrupted "Like you said Vakarian, Pen and I are the scouts. Shouldn't we decide what the best ways forward are? We're the ones that are gathering info here – you're just here to provide some muscle should the need arise, which it hasn't so far."
"You might be the scout Goran, but the Captain put me in charge, I'm happy to listen to suggestions… if you have any that aren't going to get us killed, that is; so far it seems to be Pen who's done most of the scouting." He watched her mandibles flare and eyes narrow at his response; he could see that she was pissed.
"Look Vakarian, the Captain might have put you in charge, but you're not my superior officer or Pen's for that matter; these grunts maybe but not us."
Garrus turned to the other scout "Saies, what do you think we should do?"
Pen took a furtive glance at Aelia before answering. "I think we should split up."
Garrus gave another satisfied smile in Aelia's direction, "Goran –do you agree with your fellow scout?"
She mumbled a quiet yes but the look on her face was one of defiant anger - he could tell she wanted to punch him. Disturbingly, he found his satisfaction at winning the argument mixed with a strange attraction towards her. He shook his head, trying to remove that last idea from his mind.
"All right then – well move out in different directions and circle back round to the hut that's on the other side of the clearing – Saies, you take Wen," he pointed left, "Goran, you're with Wate." He pointed right. "And Goran, as you so wisely suggested, stay to just outside of the clearing, don't move too fast or you could be spotted." Each of the group acknowledged Garrus' plan.
"What are you doing, Garrus?" Pen asked.
"I'll stay here for the time being and watch your back through the scope, we're not using any comm channels so once I've seen you've all reached the hut, I'll follow. Stay put until I get there."
Garrus set himself up to watch the hut intently through the scope, occasionally moving up to the compound wall to see if he could discern any movement. Nothing, He was sure they'd have someone stationed there; he didn't like to second guess himself though, especially not in front of the scouts. After about 10 minutes he could see the group had made it to the hut and were sheltered from the view of the compound. He moved quickly but stealthily, it took less than the 10 minutes it had taken the others.
Aelia gave him a doubtful look, "Now that we're here, what's next? If the sniper is there on the western wall as you say then we can't move further than this building, now can we?"
Garrus ignored her question; Aelia's constant griping was starting to get to him. He poked his head around the corner pointing his rifle up towards the compound wall. It was another 300 yards away. He had a better view this time but could see there was no sniper; instead two batarians were walking along the top, occasionally stopping and talking to one another before resuming their patrol.
"There's two batarians patrolling up there, but they're pacing themselves so they may not be paying much attention to what's going on down here."
Aelia smirked, "So you were wrong then Vakarian, there's no sniper."
"There's batarians patrolling Goran, are you deaf? It's fairly likely at some point they are going to be looking this way." Garrus gave her a dagger look.
"Fine." She shrugged. "But I suggest Pen and I need to get some layout scans of the base of the compound, we can't do that sitting here, behind this…this…what the hell is this building?"
"I think it's a munitions hut and we might be able to sabotage it." Garrus said this almost absentmindedly; he could see the young recruits' eyes light up at the mention of the words munitions and sabotage and he instantly regretted using the two terms together.
An old wooden door was on the side of the building. Pen quietly opened it and the others followed him inside. The hut was small at only about 12 feet by 9 feet. It was crammed with munitions boxes, mostly small arms fire, a few grenades, along with six larger boxes housing heavy weapon ammo. In the corner was a table with a datapad, which Aelia picked up and started reading.
"It's a manifest." she gave a sudden gasp as her eyes scrolled through the information. "Pen, you're not going to believe this – it's actually got a layout of the facility!" she passed it to him.
"Schematics, patrol times, compound layout – even where they might be holding the colonists as prisoners, some idiot batarian guard must have left this here!" Pen's face lit up as he continued reading, "Strange though, some of it appears scrambled, we should get this back to the Nimines as soon as we can."
Garrus gave a grateful sigh; that meant they could leave and he wouldn't have to worry about having them covertly moving closer to the compound, and no more dealing with Aelia.
Aelia turned to Garrus "Well, Vakarian, we can leave, but perhaps we should blow this little hut up first…."
Both Wen and Wate shouted "Fuck yeah!"
Garrus turned to Aelia "Are you mad? We'd alert the whole compound. The Captain gave express orders we weren't to be seen."
"Spirits, if you were any further up the Captains ass I'd say you were his colon. You just said sabotage a minute ago – how can we sabotage and NOT blow the thing up? We can easily make it look like an accident, munitions stores blow up all the time."
Garrus ignored the insult and was trying to think quickly, "We could take some of the heavy weapons ammo with us, the small arms stuff, well…."
"You really are an idiot Vakarian, how are we going to be 'stealthy' moving across the jungle carrying six large heavy weapon ammo crates? What with a sniper at our back and all…." She turned to the two recruits and laughed; they both started to laugh with her but stopped when they caught the look in Garrus' eye.
"We're not blowing this up, Goran, and that's final."
"Okay, okay, keep your fringe on, old man." She replied. "We'll do it your way, but the quicker the better; I don't want to stay here for any longer than I have to."
Garrus was momentarily perplexed as that seemed way too easy a back down for her. "Nice to see you're so concerned, Goran, these are civilians we're here to help." She gave him a look that made her not appear to be concerned by that fact. Garrus was exasperated, he kept thinking, doesn't she care at all about these people?
Aelia was left behind to look in some of the crevices of the hut to see if she could find anything else of use. Wen and Wate took the first two crates and moved back around towards the smaller clearing, Garrus and Pen took the second two. When they got to the clearing Wen and Wate headed back for the remaining crates.
"We'll keep going and start taking these back to the scout ship," Garrus said.
It didn't take Wen and Wate long to get back to the scout ship, "Where's Goran?" Garrus said nervously.
"Goran is back with the remaining crates." Wate spoke. "Still think it's a bummer we can't blow the hut up." He was smiling and looked at Wen who was also grinning stupidly.
Garrus eyed them suspiciously and as Pen was about to head into the cockpit to prep the ship for flight he turned at Wate's words and gave Garrus a worried frown.
"Shit, shit shit!" Garrus swore loudly, and ran towards the clearing. He arrived to find Aelia sitting quietly on the crates.
Garrus pointed a talon at her accusingly, "You better not have Goran."
She waved her hand dismissively, "Relax, Vakarian." She was smiling at him. Every time she said his name Garrus wanted to strike her. She continued "You really need to relax that little uptight turian ass of yours."
I have a punching bag with your face emblazoned on it waiting for me back on the Nimines Goran. He wanted to say this to her, but instead held his face in a tight grimace.
"Well, let's get moving then." They grabbed the remaining crates and headed back to the scout ship.
After loading the ship, they moved into the scout ship's cabin, large enough to fit around eight people. Garrus sat facing Aelia. She was smiling at him and he watched her with pensive eyes, thinking about the turian colonists.
When they were airborne, Aelia spoke. "Hey, Vakarian, watch this." She pointed out the window of the ship.
Garrus looked in horror as he saw the little munitions hut blown sky high.