So i am only going to post one chapter of this until a week from now. if i deem this idea popular enough to continue it at that point, i will, but if i dont, then i will pull it down from this sight. so please, whether it is by message or review, TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK OF THIS! also, i can tell you now, this will be a three part series, and although there will be few direct Shepard moments in part one, there will be a lot in parts two and three. he will appear in some memory flashes as well. and i just kinda had to update it, forgot a few things and added a little bit, sorry. some of this i was going to do as chapter two but i decided on bigger chapters.
Staff Sergeant Matthews of the forty-seventh marine Battalion glanced back at the squad of soldiers trailing behind him. All of them, much like himself, were wearing black Onyx armor of various levels befitting their combat rolls. Mid weight for riflemen, light for scouts, and heavy for assault type troops. All except one. Corporal Damion Wolfe, the squad's demolitions expert, wore special Hahne-Kadar he had custom made for him. it had a small angular breast plate with a layer of malleable reactive 'Soft' armor visible under it and across his stomach, which hardened when hit, while still allowing movement. Most of the underlay was coated with this 'soft' armor in plates. Then, more like old fashioned body armor, the heavier plates were part of two sectional rigs, that could be worn with or without the under lay. The main rig contained the chest plate, back plate, shoulder plates, and the bulky upper arm plates. Off this rig, were connecters for the arm plates and elbow pads. His fore arm plates had locking collars just behind his wrists, almost flush with the armor, so that he could pull thicker full fingered gloves over his fingerless gloves and seal the armor. The other rig was a lower rig that was attached to a tactical belt around his waist. This had thigh armor on it, with connectable knee and greaves as well. Off this belt, he also had two drop down rigs, one on each thigh.
One had his old personal pistol that he had upgraded with modern Eezo cores and magnetic rails. It had to be in a holster, unlike modern weapons, because it did not have electro magnets to attach to his armor with, the holster having a spare mag on the front of it. Although, the pistol still fired solid slugs, rather than the shaving blocks modern weapons used. Solid rounds had been deemed to inefficient by the alliance government. The other thigh had a Molle rig with a twelve inch combat knife, a two mag pouch for his pistol, and a small pouch carrying grenades. Along his belt were two more two mag pouches for the pistol, and multiple rifle pouches. This normally just contained small cylindrical thermal clips, but one of his pouches had a special magazine. He had modified his M-96A1 Mattock so that it ejected its thermal clips from right in front of the magazine in the stock. The reason for this, was the magazine, firing assembly, and barrel had all been modified to be able to fire both eight millimeter solid slugs, and block shavings. The thermal clip housing was technically a part of the magazine on his. The barrel had also been removed in favor of a thin metal wall to protect the delicate electronics underneath. This made the bore eight point zero five millimeters in diameter. Thus, allowing an eight millimeter slug to pass through. Now, to allow both ammo types to pass through without the shavings ricocheting along the barrel, he had upgraded the magnetic rail, and twisted it down the barrel, creating the rifling effect with the magnetic fields. Most rifles still used old style rifled barrels, tight on the rounds sent down them. He was still in the process of tweaking the positioning and power levels of the magnets to get the accuracy right, but it actually reduced the heat from firing. Thus, leaving the standard thermal clip to act the same regardless of the rounds fired. The afore mentioned magazine, was the only slug mag he had, loaded with sixteen solid tungsten slugs. The rest of the weapon was virtually the same.
Thermal clips stored the built up heat from the weapon firing, allowing you to eject the clip and rapidly cool the weapon. The reason this was needed, was because of the speeds rounds were fired at. The Eezo core in the weapon put up a field that caused the round to react as if it had less mass than it really did, allowing magnetic rails to sling rounds out at extremely high velocities. As soon as the round leaves the barrel, it leaves the mass effect field, causing it to regain it's full mass, and therefore, impacting with much greater force than older kinetic weapons. They used a metal shaving block as the source of the rounds, allowing a soldier to fire thousands of rounds without needing a new magazine.
"Hey, Wolfe! Get your ass up here!" he looked up before trotting forward, marching beside Matthews. His gauntlets bounced on the back of his hip as he moved, hiding the faceplate beneath. His helmet was also far from standard, designed similarly to old fashioned helmets from almost a century ago, with a chin strap instead of a jaw piece. His ears and head were still covered, but his face was fully exposed to the elements, with the exception of his eyes. The helmet had a set of retractable glasses that covered his eyes, worked by a slider on either side of the helmet. A small mic protruded off of the right ear cover, pointed at his mouth. The helmet was sealable against the vacuum of space, using a faceplate that was a jaw bar with a clear ballistic polymer over the face that easily snapped in place, allowing the ring on the underlay to be latched onto the helmet and seal the armor. The Heads up display was also just a holographic eyepiece over his right eye, unlike the laser made hologram's projected onto the standard helmet's clear visor.
"Yes Staff Sergeant? Need something?" the sergeant rolled his eyes as they walked.
"Yeah, you to work the stick out of yer ass! Come on, is it not alright for an NCO to want to know the guys beneath him?" Wolfe grunted, shifting the assault pack on his shoulders. The pack was a deep grey, like the rest of his armor, holding a large amount of explosives. It also had a special sleeve that he could slip his collapsed Mattock into and still access it. On his belt beneath, was a much smaller pack. This was the HUD system and long range radio for his helmet, the wire that connected them snuggly hidden under his armor.
"Respectfully Staff Sergeant, but this is a patrol. I believe it would be more appropriate to have this conversation another time." Matthews sighed and stared up at the stars above them, a silent curse drifting through his mind.
"Rookie, this is a back water, the Geth aint got no reason to strike here. And I would try and chat with you during down time, but when you're awake, you're at the range tweaking that monstrosity of yours." Wolfe shrugged, his eyes still scanning the wide desert landscape.
"My job is my passion sir." He sighed, trying to think of what to respond to that with. "Um sir, we got movement, three hundred and fifty meters, right flank. Large group." Matthews stopped to look back at Wolfe, seeing him aiming down the built in scope on the Mattock. Matthews followed the line of his rifle, seeing the large group, numbering at least one hundred individuals against their measly twenty-five man squad. Before he could start issuing orders, bullets started raining down on them from the unidentified group.
"Down! Watkins, Romero, get drones up and get us numbers and equipment data, Booth, Hayward, suppressive fire!" Booth and Hayward were squad support troops, carrying powerful M-76 Revenants capable of firing ninety powerful rounds on a single clip. Watkins and Romero were engineers, and carried small recon drones. Most combat forces in the galaxy used satellite surveillance or large, fighter sized recon drones, nothing like the small Frisbees his marines just deployed. He glanced beside him, expecting to see Wolfe plinking rounds away from beside him. Instead, there was no sign of him, anywhere. Suddenly, a pair of explosions rocked the enemy force, followed by a volley of rifle fire, cutting down at least five of the assailants, spat from a rock out cropping off the enemies flank. He recognized the angular armor as Wolfe's, but he had no idea how the man had gotten there.
"Staff, Batarians, lightly armed and mostly unarmored!" the shout came from a short way away, specifically, from Watkins.
"Alright! Hayward, take three men and move to Wolfe's position, and ask how the bloody hell he got there! Everyone else, suppressive fire!" four of the black clad marines sprinted forward, ducked low as bullets pinging off their kinetic barriers. Matthews fired his M-8 Avenger, the sleek weapon rattling off thirty rounds in the space of a couple seconds. He quickly ejected the thermal clip, slapping a fresh one in at the same time. Meanwhile, the four man team made it to Wolfe's position, a few expertly placed smoke grenades having hidden their movements. Weapons fire ripped away from their position, causing the remaining four eyed humanoids to retreat, half their comrades lying dead in the sand.
"Good work men! But they'll be back! They always are! Status?" the group started calling out casualties, with only a few minor grazes. Wolfe's voice was the last to speak.
"Lost a bunch of smokes covering Hayward, and two demo charges, but nothing went through the barriers staff!" he smirked as the group shuffled to the cluster of bodies before them. Most of the dark skinned, hairless aliens were in street clothes, with old, beat up firearms. A few had basic chest plates, but not one seemed to have any kind of decent tech. he sighed as he called up command, getting ready to tell them what had just happened.
Commander John Shepard marched out into a wide concrete canal, his four team mates following behind him. to his right was a large, open feed for the canal, his left had a wider circular area with a massive pillar in the center that the water was flowing into. The water was only knee deep as he slipped into it, his M8 raised and ready. All of his muscles trembled slightly, as they always did just after a firefight, but he knew the second anything happened, they would relax again. He finally lowered the weapon as he called to the others.
"Clear!" he clicked his radio on before he continued. "Joker, landing zone clear, bring in the Normandy!" he glanced back at his companions as they waited for the frigate to arrive. All four of them were aliens, in order of the closest to him, Garrus, Wrex, Liara, and Tali.
Garrus was a Turian male from the planet, Palavan. He had a very wide, barrel chest that his armor protruded up from, and his face and neck were covered in natural grey plates. Although these plates looked hard, they were actually fairly soft, only there to protect the Turian from the powerful radiation his native star put off. His mouth was very beak like, with two mandibles running along where his cheeks had been, then sharply thinning and curving down at his mouth. These mandibles could move and shift on their own, giving him a semi creepy bug like movement whenever he talked. His eyes slanted at a downward angle, and unlike human eyes, they were all black, save the aura like iris, which his happened to be a silvery blue. Long, spike like head fringe stuck straight back off the top of his head, arcing down only slightly. There was his ever present marksmen's rig, nothing more than a holographic eyepiece, covered his left eye, leaving his right eye a clear view of his scope. He was an ex-C-sec officer, or the main police force on a massive deep space station known as the Citadel, and also happened to be the seat of the main galactic government. He was also one of the best snipers Shepard had ever known.
Next, was Wrex. Almost two feet taller than Shepard, and generally massive in every meaning of the word, made him big even by Krogan standards. This humpback looking race hailed from a harsh, nuclear waste of a world known as Tuchanka. His head was actually entirely on the front of his body, almost a fourth of what would have been his chest. His arms were just below his head, giving him a slightly more humanoid look. His entire body was covered in thick, hard red plates, forming natural armor from even modern mass accelerator weapons. Not that his heavy weight thick battle armor was bad at that. His neck and lower face was one of the few unarmored spots on his body, being a mild tan color. And the shape of his head honestly reminded Shepard of a fish, with his very wide mouth and small, far apart eyes. Most Krogan were nothing more than mercenaries or criminals, being almost always angry. And that anger, caused their race to be nearly wiped out by a Salarian engineered virus, called the genophage that massively slowed the Krogan's insane birthrate. Krogan could also live for over a millennia, if they managed to survive their violent nature. Although Wrex never said his age, Liara had guessed it was close to two thousand years old.
Liara was the most human like of all of the aliens, being a blue skinned Asari. All Asari were biologically, female. They mated through a form of meta-physical means, instead of physical. Most of her features were very human like, from her sapphire eyes and face, down to the freckles with three major exceptions. First, as afore mentioned, she was blue, second, she had no visible ears, and third, she had head fringe, similar to a Turian's, but only rising an inch off the back of her head, before curling back toward her head a little. Asari could also live for over a thousand years, but Liara was extremely young for an Asari, being just over a century old. Which generally shocked Shepard because she looked like she could be a nineteen year old. She had been a scientist, specializing in the extinction of a fifty thousand year old race, known as the Protheans. Although, it would seem that a career like that would be ill-suited for fighting, she was a powerful biotic, as almost all Asari were. Biotics were individuals that are exposed to an element known as element zero, or Eezo, while in the womb. With some implants, they could control dark energy, or Mass Effect. In short, it was like telekinesis. Most races had biotics to various degrees, but the Asari, due to a very high concentration of Eezo on their home world, were a race entirely made of biotics.
Tali, the last member of their little band, was the youngest of them all. At only nineteen, she was nearly a decade younger than Shepard. No one in the group was quite as mysterious as her, physically, at least. Her race, the Quarians, had been living on starships for the last three hundred years, after accidently making a sentient race of machines, known as the Geth. This, coupled with already weaker than normal immune systems, forced them to wear environmental suits virtually everywhere, except for at home. Although the suits were not bulky, and even Shepard had to admit, very form fitting, only the older Asari and Krogan could remember what the Quarians looked like under the suit. She was much slimmer than a human would be, with wider hips and more distinctly feminine. She also, like Garrus, had only two fingers and a thumb on each hand, as well as only two toes. Her face was not visible under the purple face mask on the suit, only a dark outline and silver eyes being visible. She also had an intricately decorated hood over the mask, adding some color and personality to her suit. Out of all four of the aliens, she was actually Shepard's closest friend, having helped teach her how to really fight over the past month. She was on her pilgrimage, or her rite of passage too adult hood.
Finally, the Normandy arrived, the air from her rapid movement blasting water at the small group. The ship was comprised of a long main fuselage, almost like an old fashioned jet, with a flat sleek bottom and rounded upper hull. The bottom sharply angled downward just before the engine booms, roughly two thirds of the way from the bow, allowing for the cargo bay and engineering to have the space they needed. The main engines were a part of two long flat structures, connected to the hull just behind the fuselage and extending forward and back a fair distance, reaching most of the way to the front of the ship and just beyond the back. The other two engines were on long, bent shafts connected to the hull just under the where the other two did. They were able to swing and move, adjusting the thrust direction. The cargo door opened as the ship lowered to the ground, allowing Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams to march down the ramp with three other marines and a Salarian drive core, modified into a nuclear bomb. She was a dark haired and dark eyed woman, with a no frills, no bullshit attitude. Which caused Shepard to laugh a little at her white armor, with pink highlights. He had gotten to know the tough woman very well in the month since she had joined the crew, quickly finding that he deeply cared for her, whether it was against Alliance military regulations or not.
"How's the bomb doing Ash?" she smirked at him as they set it down right where the Salarians had said too.
"Almost ready. Just need a few minutes to arm it sir." He nodded and patted her shoulder as his radio buzzed to life.
"This is Alenko! We're pinned down by Geth up on the Gun tower, we will not be able to make the rendezvous!" Staff Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko was one of the other Marines serving on the SSV Normandy, under Shepard's command. He was a human biotic, and a powerful one too. He had joined the Salarian Special Task Group's forces in a main assault on Saren's base. The assault team was more of a distraction, so that Shepard's 'shadow team' could slip in and secure the bomb sight. Saren had been a Turian Spectre, like Shepard now was, until Shepard had shown to the Council that he had gone rouge. Afterwards, the Council had made Shepard the first human Spectre. Spectres were a special branch of the Council's forces, able to break laws and regulations as needed to complete their mission. They were selected from the best, most loyal troops in Citadel space.
"I need a few minutes to arm the bomb anyway, go get him!" Shepard nodded to Ashley as she spoke, almost instantly turning to the others.
"Tali, Liara, back on the ship, Wrex, Garrus, with me!" Tali and Liara nodded as he flicked his radio on. "Kaidan, we are on are way, hold on!"
"Good, I could use more things to shoot!" Wrex's voice was filled with anger. Krogan were usual easy to anger, but Wrex was angry about destroying this base, given Saren had developed a cure for the Genophage. But, after a tense conversation, Shepard had gotten the Krogan to stand down and help fight, making him realize that the Krogan were just a tool to Saren. They moved through a large cargo door and found themselves face to face with a group of Geth. Geth were built similarly to Quarians, except with barrel chests, and a thin neck leading to a single glowing eye, two flaps drooped on either side of this eye, making the look rather depressed. Shepard fired his M8 the second he saw them, the shear rate of fire on the weapon ripping through the kinetic barriers and killing two Geth before they could respond. Another Geth was cut down by a blast from Wrex's massive shotgun, literally blasted apart. Two more were cut down by a pair of sniper rounds from Garrus's M-97 Viper sniper rifle. The last Geth in the area was a Juggernaut. Juggernauts were larger, tougher Geth, originally built for mining purposes. Shepard emptied the last few rounds in his thermal clip into it, already grabbing another clip and slapping it in place, just as the weapon stopped firing. The red hot spent clip shot away from the weapon and the weapon kept firing. The combined fire of the three of them dropped the juggernaut before it could even fire a single shot. They ran across the open roofed room and slipped into an elevator, Shepard impatiently flexing his fingers as he waited for the elevator to finish grinding its way up. They rushed out onto the roof, just as a Geth Dropship whipped by overhead.
"Ash, you got a drop ship on its way to you!" Ash's voice spilled over the radio shortly after Shepard's shout.
"It's already here! And it's bleeding Geth all over the place!" Shepard cursed before he responded.
"Can you hold them Ash?" silence stretched on for seconds as fear crept its way into Shepard's heart.
"Negative commander! I'm arming the nuke!" Shepard's heart felt like it had skipped a beat.
"Ash, what the hell are you doing!" he felt the blood rush away from his cheeks, his heart feeling like someone was ripping it out.
"I'm making sure this bomb goes off! Just go get the Lieutenant and get the hell out of here, sir!" he closed his eyes, not wanting to say what he was about to.
"I… okay. I'm sorry Ash." Four lives, versus seventeen. The choice should have been simple. But it wasn't.
"Hey, it should be me sayin that Commander. Sorry I never got to show you those dance moves John." He took a deep breath before he opened his eyes and rushed to the elevator that lead up to the gun tower. At the top, there was a whole platoon of Geth troops. Caught off guard by the sudden flanking attack (not to mention the very angry Krogan), the Geth were quickly cut to pieces, Shepard only dropping two of his thermal clips. He rushed over to Kaidan and the others as he spoke into the radio. "Joker, Bring the Normandy in to the gun tower. Landing zone is cl…" before he could finish speaking, a pair of biotic blasts ripped into the ground, forcing Sheppard into cover. The cybernetic Turian, Saren, was floating up to their position on a floating hover board. He leapt off to the ground and Shepard popped out of cover, firing a burst of rounds at him. They bounced harmlessly of his barriers.
"This has been an impressive diversion Shepard. My Geth were utterly convinced that the Salarians were the real threat. Of course, it was all for nothing, I can't let you disrupt what I've accomplished here. You can't possibly understand what's really at stake!" Shepard grunted as he slapped in a fresh thermal clip, trying to keep Sarens attention on him so his team could move into flanking positions.
"I know what the Reapers are, and what they've done. So yeah, I know what's at stake here." Saren shook his head.
"Shepard, you of all people should understand what the Reapers are capable of! We should not Mire ourselves in pointless revolt against them when we could never win! Not for petty freedoms when we have a chance at survival! The Protheans tried to fight, but they were utterly destroyed! But what if they had bowed before the invaders? Would they still be around today? Is submission not preferable to extinction?" Shepard chuckled as his team got into position.
"Your cowardly ass talks too much." Shepard fired, his rounds slamming into Sarens barrier, along with almost two dozen other weapons. He jumped back on his hover board and fired a few more shots at Shepard before blasting him and all of his team onto their asses.
"What a pity. The lives we could have saved together Shepard!" He picked Shepard up by the throat as he spoke.
"Slavery is not a life, Saren!" as he said that, he pulled his M6 Carnifax hand cannon off his side and fired. It was intercepted by the Kinetic Barrier, but it caused Saren to stumble back, letting go of Shepard as he tried to stay on the hover board. Shepard barely caught the edge of the tower as the sound of the Normandy's engines filled the air. Saren's red tick mark on his HUD disappeared as Kaidan and Garrus hauled him onto the platform. The Normandy lowered to the tower, barely managing to get close enough for the bay door to rest on the edge of the tower. He rushed up as Tali and Liara fired onto the fresh Geth reinforcements. As soon as the remaining survivors were on board, the door closed and the ship lifted away. Shepard rushed up to the Combat Information Center. Where the galaxy map usually was, there were currently two holographic screens. One, showed Ashley's helmet camera, the other, the receding base. "Joker! Turn this bucket around and get her out of there!"
"There's no time Shepard! I'm sorry." his heart was ripped out as the vitals on Ashley's screen showed a soon to be lethal hit on her abdomen. A single tear slipped out of his eye as he watched her sidearm bounce between Geth targets. Suddenly, the image turned to static, and the one of the planet below showed a massive nuclear mushroom cloud.
I trotted along with the rest of the unit, until a familiar voice called out to me.
"Hey! Damion!" I couldn't help but smirk as the small farm girl rushed across the field to the fence we were marching past. A few of the others raised an eyebrow at me as I stopped, including the Staff Sergeant.
"Hey Natalie. Whacha up to?" she was smiling as she leaned up against the fence, brushing some of her deep red hair out of her eyes.
"Oh, just pulling weeds. Damn things are being stubborn this year." Her bare arms were covered in dirt, as well as her knees, and she had clearly rubbed her face at some point, leaving a brown smudge. Surprisingly enough, I thought the seventeen year old looked much prettier covered in dirt and grease, not that she wasn't pretty in the first place. She had a fairly round, soft face and deep emerald green eyes that someone, namely myself, could easily get lost in. even though she was two years younger than me, we had become friends in the three months I had been on Ariel with my unit.
"Sounds fun." She chuckled and smiled, it instantly fading away when she saw the deep scratch in my chest plate.
"Wait, what the hell is that!?" she was pointing at it and I shrugged, trying to seem calm.
"It's nothing, just landed on a rock, that's all." I silently hoped she wouldn't pry further, knowing it was probably in vain. I would rather not cause a panic by saying we had been attacked by a group of Batarian Slavers.
"So why the hell were you falling!?" I shied away slightly at the sheer force of her shout.
"I just tripped, shesh, happens to everyone." She eyed me suspiciously, clearly not fully believing me, but content to just let it go.
"Alright. Well how's the modding of that Mattock going?" she may not always look like it, but she was a bit of a gun nut, and was planning on joining the marines herself when she finished school in a few months.
"Fine. Still fine tuning the Magnetic barrel. Don't think it will ever be able to make as precise of shots as it could before. But, aside from that, the high mass slugs do penetrate armor a hell of a lot better." She smirked and swung her legs over the fence to sit on it.
"Well, that's great! Just wish you'd let me shoot the damn thing." I rolled my eyes at her and took my helmet off, letting the cool breeze cool my exhausted body. I ran a hand through my short hair, feeling it barely reach beyond my fingers. "Tired?" I nodded and she continued. "Well, if Matthew's doesn't mind, Mom's making some of her famous stew. Heck, she's making enough that you could ask a few of your team mates to come to!" I sighed as I dropped the helmet back onto my head and secured the strap.
"I'd love to, but cant. We got another night patrol in a couple hours. Sorry." She nodded and I waved to her as I started to jog after my squad.
"Alright, see ya around, soldier boy!" I smirked as I slowly caught back up with the rest of the unit. I caught up with my squad mates and slowed back down.
"Hey Wolfe, get your ass up here!?" I sighed and began jogging again until I reached the front of the group. "Who was that sweet looking thing?" I rolled my eyes at the Staff Sergeant before responding.
"Just a local farm gal I met on patrol once. Reminds me of my sister." He smirked as he responded.
"You had a sister? Huh, me and the boys were fairly certain you just sprang out of a hole in the ground with a gun in your hands!" I couldn't help but roll my eyes again as he spoke.
"Ha Ha, very funny sir. And not physically, just called her my sister. She died of cancer about four years ago." His face darkened slightly as he patted my shoulder.
"Well, for whatever it's worth, I'm sorry. Glad there is at least some semblance of a human in there" I nodded and kept walking, suddenly feeling extremely bad for lying about my 'sister's death.
Tali bit her lip, hesitating outside Shepard's door. It had only been a few hours since they had gotten off Virmire, and they had gone through a shouting match between Kaidan and Shepard about Ashley's death. She had also over heard Shepard yelling at the council, presumable about the fact that he detonated a nuclear device. She took a deep breath before she knocked on the door. there was no sign of movement on the other side, so she gently knocked on the door again, pressing her faceplate to the metal as she spoke.
"Shepard, are you in there?" she jumped as the door slid open. Shepard looked exhausted, his blue eyes had dark bags under them, and she could swear he had fresh tears on his cheeks.
"Hey Tali. Did you need something?" she fought the temptation to wrap her arms around him and settled on gesturing inside the small cabin.
"May I come in?" he nodded and let her by. She sat down in his desk chair as he flopped onto the bed. "How are you holding up Shepard?" he shrugged, just staring up at the metal bulkhead above his bunk.
"I've lost soldiers before Tali. It's part of combat." She fought back sighing as she responded.
"Williams wasn't just a soldier to you. Don't try to fool us Shepard." He groaned as he rolled over to face her. She could see a fresh tear slide out of his eye.
"Ash was… special. I… I wish I could have saved her." it scared her to see the amount of pain he was in. someone whom she had come to know as being incredibly tough, almost unshaken by anything, brought to tears.
"We all do." Shepard remained silent, returning to his staring at the ceiling. "Well, Shepard, I'm always here for you. No matter what happens."
"Tali, call me john. I think you've earned that much. No one else is left that has seen who I really am but you. Ash… Ash was the other… I… thank you Tali, you are a great friend." She felt blood rush to her cheeks and found herself very thankful for the mask.
"Okay, john. And you did save my life. You don't have to thank me." Shepard nodded as she slipped out of the seat and gently squeezed his shoulder.
"Let's just make sure we nail this bastard!" She nodded as she stood up, offering a hand up.
"We will. You haven't failed yet, you are not going to start now." He wiped away his tears as he stood. They were both silent for a few minutes, until he gently hugged her and walked out, leaving her alone in his room.