The light layer of snow crunched under the boots of the steadily advancing marine squad on Freedom's Progress. All was silent, and dark. It wasn't a calming silence, but an eerie one. And that silence in itself was what confirmed that not all was right. Tali moved swiftly and nimbly at the head of the group taking quick glances back at them as she took in the environment. Typical case. Human colony far out on the edges of Terminus space, Freedom's Progress, home to approximately 1,000,000 human colonists. All gone without a trace leaving no clues behind. Many colonies before had experienced similar silent disaster, and with this pattern moving like a freight train with no resistance, it would continue. Although this was an unsettling fact, it was not why Tali was sent here as temporary commanding officer of the elite marine squad at her disposal. Their objective was closer to home. Simply, find Veetor. Veetor was a quarian on his pilgrimage, who had chosen this human colony as his destination. Most likely because of it's small population, Veetor was very fidgety and nervous in crowds, he came meaning to aid the community in their progression, locking himself in a building at the end of an invaded colony was probably not what he had envisioned when he'd touched down on Freedom's Progress.
They stood at the gates of the colony a tall imperious white wall wrapping around in an oval for a couple of kilometers to either side of the squad. The wall appeared to consist of cement reinforced with steel and mixed plastics. Judging from the exterior, it was 30 feet tall and probably 10 feet thick. It would serve as a fantastic barricade to any trying to siege the colony from the exterior. That was believed to be the only way any foreign group could attack the colony, by landing outside, at least 50 kilometers away from the GARDIAN cannons within and attempting to enter from the outside. This was obviously irrelevant now as the walls of the compound hadn't actually done anything to assist those inside with staying inside and not being abducted. The quarian marines didn't look too thrilled to be on this assignment, Tali didn't much care for it either but she was hoping for a smooth operation without unnecessary hindrances.
Tali approached the maintenance gate to pick the lock and gain access while her ten marines secured the perimeter. You are in charge, she assured herself. She wanted to get through this mission to add one more gold star to her already stellar service record. As a result of her excellent conduct and performance in the field in service to the fleet over the last couple of years, she suspected they would soon promote her, this assignment was, perhaps, a final test of her leadership qualities. Not all in the group were satisfied with this assessment. Prazza, namely, had shown open disdain and resentment without even bothering to try and contain it.
"This is a simple extraction mission. In and out, we don't want to disturb the area before the Alliance arrive to investigate. We're getting Veetor and leaving. Any indiscipline leading to the sabotaging of this task will be reported to the Admiralty board." Tali had explained sternly on the ship. She took that tone to try and intimidate any possible insubordinates. She looked around at mostly young quarians nodding. She had the respect of all but Prazza. He scoffed loudly shaking his head, sitting on the bench of the war room with the rest of the marines. He stood up and walked to the center of the room where a 3D model of the complex they were to enter was on display via hologram with an arrogant strut.
"It's a damned human colony, they're all gone so we're clear. If anything gets in our way, we blast it. How's that sound?" He looked around at the other marines for support. The young marines looked uncomfortable having to take sides. They mostly remained neutral because while Tali was chosen by the Admiralty board and therefore their superior, Prazza was older than them and was notorious for his irascible temper and headstrong defiance.
"Keelah. Sit down Prazza." Tali muttered as she pressed her palm to her mask, looking at the ground, I don't even want to be in charge of this bosh'tet. She was sure the mission report would have to include a section dedicated solely to Prazza's infringement of the chain of command.
It wasn't too difficult to see as Tali began work using her omni-tool thanks to the still operating floodlights. Light snow was still descending and every few seconds, a few snowflakes would stick to her mask and slide down half melting, leaving a trail of water. This damned darkness isn't going to prove much of a help. At least the floodlights are still operational. After a minute or so she put the finishing touches on her work and stood back, some motors began growling as the gate geared to life and opened, sliding itself in. Once inside, Tali began discussing the plan and assignments of the group.
"We'll enter through the courtyard, sticking to the sides where there will likely be cover." Tali pointed out as she displayed a 3D map of the complex with her omni-tool.
"I'll take point vas Neema, we need to have a ruthless operative spearheading this offense." Prazza demanded in a manner typical of a mutinous soldier undermining a superior officer's rank.
"You'll obey orders or I'll dismiss you to the ship Prazza." Tali threatened taking a step toward him. He lingered for a moment challenging her, but Tali would not lose her nerve, she instead gained momentum as the other marines were visibly disturbed by Prazza's defiance.
"And who the hell do you think we're attacking? You were obviously raised watching action flicks of the great quarian commandos attempting to retake Rannoch. We are not here to attack anything. Now shutup." Tali spat in one breath, now stopping to inhale, her face was red from the strain.
"Prazza, you should stop, we need to commence with the operation and extract Veetor before our covertness is compromised here." Suggested Velli, the most experienced quarian present after Tali and Prazza. Prazza countered by stalking off ahead of the group. They picked up the pace to join him. This was certainly going to be in Tali's mission report.
They were moving through an empty building overlooking the first courtyard. The second courtyard, which was much larger and open was where Veetor was holed up. Tali held her pistol by her side struggling to satisfy Prazza, who was behind her, with her pace. They exited the building through a passageway in what seemed to be a kitchen. They were back outside moving over crunchy frost once again as snowflakes descended and danced their way to the ground in a creepy manner befitting the surrounding derelict colony. A gust of wind whipped at them and bursted the small pile of snow ahead of them causing it to fly in their faces in a violent flurry, blinding them. When the snow settled and they could see again, a small squadron of LOKI mechs were waiting in front of them seemingly appearing out of thin air. Tali dove behind a crate for cover and shouted.
"Take cover! Velli, move to the left, see if there are any more coming!"
The crate shook violently as it absorbed bullets fired from the hostile mechs.
"Please reconsider your aggressive stance." They said in their female voices as they attacked uncouth, trying to work their way through the empty barrels, crates and other random items scattered on the ground.
"Reconsider this!" Prazza shouted as he annihilated three of the four with a shot from his grenade launcher. His fierce aggression was a point of worry for Tali.
"Velli?" Tali called out as the last mech was shot down and subsequently destroyed as it tried to crawl and self-destruct near the group.
"Velli? Report." Tali commanded. The rest of the marines came out of cover to join Tali in investigating Velli's silence. What they found was what was expected. Blood, quarian blood.
As seven of the marines formed a perimeter to guard the building they'd just entered Tali along with Prazza and Yamat looked out at the second courtyard through the small home's windows. This building was the last safe haven before they dove into the deep, the second courtyard, where Veetor was holed up. It wasn't easy to control an already fidgety team, steering them through a mission with a timebomb like Prazza, let alone after losing a soldier. It was like guiding a train on one set of track. Tali considered this as she kneeled on the couch of the living room looking out. There was a cluster of mechs, about a dozen assuming defensive stances. The courtyard was divided in two because past them was an area blocked off by large crates and buildings that limited vision to the area beyond but was accessible on foot.. There was a deep rumbling of heavy machinery in gear coming from that area. That was what concerned Tali most.
"We don't know what's past those crates. We could try and fight off those mechs but what good would it be if fifty more follow from where we couldn't see." Sighed Tali dropping away from the window slightly exasperated.
"This is ridiculous, we'll deal with that problem when we get to it." Prazza dismissed as Tali got off the couch to conjure her hologram map yet again to plot a route. She was having difficulty formulating a plan to take out the mechs without alerting whatever lay beyond the barrier. Suddenly, the sound of a door the trio hadn't originally seen when they'd scanned the room opening startled them. A mechanical hiss announced the entrance of a foreign being, friend or foe, unknown. Great, thought Tali, always scan the secured area thoroughly, now we're sure to have a fight on our hands. She cursed and took scrambled to take aim but failed to hold her weapon to what came through. What came through that door wasn't a mech. It was a dead man.
The man entered the room from a corridor ten meters away from the main room they occupied. He walked slowly, with measured steps that were taken with confidence as if he were in his own home. The sound of his boots thudding against the floor loudly clanged throughout the air. With every sound and accompanying crack of his boots against the floor, Tali's heart jumped, exhilarated, completely terrified, immobilized and submissive to him, her heart knew him before her eyes did. The lamps from the corridor illuminated all behind him, the specks of light and dust colliding, revealing the particles to be indecisive creatures flying and whirring about as if in buzz at his appearance. The light behind him shone but the darkness in the main room, aside from Tali's omni tool created a ghostly effect on his face that he really didn't need to appear awesome or mysterious since his existence was it's own conundrum. He was followed closely by a woman with pale white skin, a white combat suit hugging her skin and sleek black hair. She and another man, a black man with a scruffy goatee bore Cerberus insignias on their uniforms and had their weapons drawn at Tali, Prazza and Yamat unable to see very far into the main room straining to make out the figures beyond the man in front. He bore no Cerberus insignia, his crest was one that, again, couldn't have been truly there. N7. The ghost man led the way, weapon holstered and a smile seeming to play on his face. It was unclear. Tali's heart beat faster and faster telling her this was someone who all logic refused to accept. It's not him. Yes it is, look at him, there's no other explanation. No other man made your heart skip beats like this you fool. He stepped into the light of the omni-tool and the light of the flood lights outside that casted a very dim pale light into the room. His face was revealed by this miniscule amount of light shining, although Tali didn't need it to recognize him. Just then, she felt it, a dam in her heart breaking as the old hurt and pain flowed through freely, washing away everything the past two years had done to her. It all mixed, swished together and rose up, hot and sticky, the feelings of love lost, up from her gut, to her throat and reaching her lips.
"Shepard."
Prazza and Yamat stood with alarm.
"Drop your weapons Cerberus." Spat Prazza with disgust as he and Yamat took aim. Shepard stepped into the light, unflinching at the weapons pointed at him. He didn't stop walking.
"Shepard, what are you doing?" Cried the Cerberus woman, as she glared and aimed at Prazza, the Cerberus man with her doing likewise to Yamat. Tali was paralyzed in a mix of ecstasy and completely elated shock. There didn't seem to be nearly enough time for her to gather and align her thoughts. Everything within her quarian mind and heart was racing. She began to feel her hands shake as she looked up into his piercing blue eyes. It was him. The man whose empty coffin they buried. The man who spent the last two years dead. He was staring straight into her, ignoring the barking marines. He was solely linked to her. All her maturity and calm nourished by her experience over the past two years vanished at the sight of Commander Shepard's face. He looked different. He no longer wore his hair shaved like a traditional marine, instead his hair was grown out, combed back and he was now sporting rugged stubble instead of his pre-death clean shaven look. Other than that, he was a perfect match for his former self. Except for one other thing, Tali remarked. He was missing a scar, a thin pink line that had run down from his right nostril over his mouth disappearing under his chin. Instead, he had smooth undamaged skin that was divided by glowing orange lines. More like scars, though they seemed to be perfectly proportional to each other. That was impossible, unless he'd been pieced together... She was lost again, sinking in the abyss. It was time for someone to catch her...
"Tali'Zorah..." Shepard whispered as he took her in, draping her waist and back with his arms. He held her up against his body leaving no space between them as if there weren't enough of her for him to hold.
"Shepard? Is that you?" She managed to answer. He nodded as she buried her head into his chest and wrapped her arms around his neck. They ignored the others and embraced.
"I don't understand..." She trailed as she looked up at him searching his eyes for the answer. He smiled and although seeming slightly pained, he laughed a little.
"Do you really think a little death is gonna keep me from you?" He hugged her tighter and she blushed under her visor. She didn't know what to disbelieve more. That Shepard was alive or that he was holding her.
"What the hell is going on?" Prazza demanded, his gun still targeting the intruders.
"Weapons down." Tali ordered as they let go of each other slowly.
"Not until those Cerberus scum drop theirs." Prazza motioned vigorously. Before Tali could retort, Shepard had ordered the woman, Miranda and the man, Jacob to holster their weapons. Prazza and Yamat did likewise, cautiously, searching them for a reason to draw their weapons and fire. As the tensions eased, Shepard explained his resurrection to Tali.
"Cerberus rebuilt me Tali, I've been dead for the last two years now. I'm here to investigate the missing colonists. You don't know how glad I am to see you though. I..." His voice broke as he struggled to continue.
"Are you alright Shepard?" Miranda butted in, rushing to his side grabbing the hand he was holding to his chest.
"Hah, yeah I'm okay. You sure you didn't forget any pieces on the operating table when you put me back together?" Shepard quipped, wiping away blood from the corner of his mouth that had barely seeped out of his lips. He swiped at the blood before anyone could see it and know the full extent of his injuries. Tali saw it.
"You're...uh..with Cerberus now?" Tali asked, taking a step back when all she wanted to do was move forward and hold him, instead of that Cerberus woman adhered to his side.
"I'm not with them, but they're the only ones doing anything about the missing colonies. I'm here for that purpose. That's all." He assured Tali as he gently pushed Miranda away dismissing her from attending to him perhaps hinting at what he'd just said through that subtle action.
"Well...I'm..happy to see you back commander. These last couple years have been hard..." Tali offered. She cleared her throat and looked around, remembering where she was.
"Uhh.. well we have to continue our assignment to get our missing quarian Veetor." She said still trying to believe the situation not knowing why she was trying to flee it.
"Let us help. We'll work together. Just like old times." He smiled. The same Shepard smile that melted her and left her a mess. In old times you weren't working for Cerberus or hemorrhaging Shepard, what have they done to you?
"Of course. Just like old times." She accepted. They discussed how to split up into the next and final courtyard. Tali and her squad would take on the dozen mechs. Shepard would go after whatever was behind the crates.
As the mechs fire rained down on her cover Tali was within site of the room Veetor had locked himself in. Shepard had agreed to advance to the position beyond the large shipping crates and it sounded like he had a great fight on his hands. The sounds of explosions and crashing metal rang through the air as Tali struggled to get a good visual on Shepard or anything beyond the crates for that matter. There were three LOKI mechs currently battling her and no more living quarians. Prazza the fool had rallied the soldiers to rush to Shepard's position to take down whatever he was fighting as to make a point to Cerberus. What ensued was slightly ironic. Prazza and the marines squeezed through the closely placed crates only to have a rocket hit a large crate that toppled many others and crushed them all. She was very disturbed by the chain of events but it would all be explained to the board. Right now she was in a bit of a pickle. She popped out of cover and shot down one particularly feisty mech, it had reached a bench 10 meters away from her. Now the other two would be a problem, they were both crouched behind low walls near the large crates. That problem was quickly solved as Miranda and Jacob appeared to shoot them in their unsuspecting backs.
"Come on, Shepard needs our help." Miranda shouted beckoning to Tali from across the courtyard.
"What? What is he fighting?" Tali enquired.
"Two YMIR mechs, hurry." Miranda said as she and Jacob ran off into the maze of crates. That was all the motivation Tali needed, she sprinted to the crates and inched through the narrow spaces. As she emerged on the other side, Shepard had just destroyed the second mech. He had his back to her, standing on top of the mech, his foot on where it's throat would be, now bereft of a head. The head in question was floating, basked in a blue glow that's trail ended at Shepard's raised hand. He had literally ripped it's head off with biotics. He turned abruptly, dropping the machine's head, it clanked to the ground and made a loud thud. He looked into Tali's eyes, there was something different in them, a hint of savagery. The blood she had noticed earlier only intensified her concern for her freshly resurrected commander. The pulsating blue light radiating from his arms died suddenly as he looked sobered by Tali.
"Guess I don't know my own strength." chuckled Shepard nonchalantly and added before hopping off of the freshly obliterated mech jovially,
"Let's get Veetor."
After informing the two accompanying Cerberus operatives that Tali would be taking Veetor with her back to the migrant fleet instead of them bringing him back for interrogation on what he'd witnessed during the colony's abduction, Miranda started to protest. Shepard cut her off before she could complain.
"Miranda, Jacob search the area for any remaining survivors or hostile forces." Shepard said sternly, running a hand through his longer wavy dark brown hair. They obeyed and sulked off. Now they were alone. Tali's heart returned to it's customary Shepard pace of beating at the speed of light.
"Hey you." Shepard said simply, as they ignored Veetor who was too far away from them in the room to hear them even if he wasn't partially insane.
"I missed you so much Shepard..." Tali admitted as he took a step towards her.
"I don't understand, how can this be you?" She asked as she returned the favor by stepping closer. She reached up and slowly placed her hand on his face. What are you doing? She thought.
"It's me, Tali." Shepard assured her, holding onto that same hand she had put on his face.
"Then..what's with this beard you have eh?" She joked easing the tension as she ran her hands across his cheeks, they were covered in stubble.
"Oh this? They tell me that they were testing the adaptability of my hair follicles to the skin grafts on my head. Very attractive terms I'm using I know, but I'm also a dead man. I'm entitled to some boring explanation." He replied, still holding her hands to his face.
"Testing your facial hair? Okay, you passed. Now can you test a razor?" She jibed patting his cheeks.
"Will do." He returned, tilting his head back as he laughed. His laughter warm and genuine, was something she had missed about him dearly.
"You know...We had a ceremony for you. We buried an empty coffin and everything." Tali informed him retracting her hands from his face.
"Well that sounds like a waste of a coffin." Scoffed Shepard accepting that she was taking her hands from his face but still holding them in his. "Next time they should make sure I'm at least in it before they bury it." He remarked.
"Very funny." She laughed punching his stomach gently with both hands still wrapped in his.
"Do you think that I get a discount now? Or do they just dig that coffin back up? Hmm..." He feigned thoughtfulness.
"You really know how to get a girl, whose just seen a ghost, laughing." She said shaking her head, smiling in her helmet.
"I'd cross the entire galaxy to hear that laugh." Shepard said more seriously looking into her, past the helmet. She blushed incessantly feeling weak and wobbly at the knees. Shepard had never spoken to her like this before. It was as if a dormant part of him had been awakened, hungry. She remembered the mech he'd destroyed with rage, and the blood, and now this.
"Shepard...I saw you bleeding earlier. I'm worried, what have they done to you?" She pressed trying to change the subject not knowing why she wanted to.
"Just some minor kinks I need to work out, still re-adjusting I guess, hope they got all of me down. It's just good to know I'm as good looking as before...If not more so." He said making a show of striking a pose to illicit a reaction from Tali. She couldn't resist laughing again. Damn this man, she remembered how hard she'd fallen for him. And how far he'd caused her to plummet with his death. She didn't want to be vulnerable like that again.
"Come with me Tali." Shepard said suddenly very sincerely no longer smiling, looking deep into her for the answer he wanted.
"What? No I can't" She stuttered. "I have other responsibilities now Shepard. I'm not just some kid you saved in a back alley on the Citadel anymore. I'm important now, to the flotilla..." She said lamely turning away unable to look him in the eyes.
"Hey" He cut her off, guiding her face towards him with a hand on the bottom of her faceplate, where her chin would be. "You've always been important to me."
"Keelah..." Tali whispered. The moment was beyond surreal. She had endured the last two years thinking she would never see his face again, and here he was, saying these things...
"But I understand. You go do what you need to do Tali'Zorah. I'm going to come back for you, and you're going to come away with me again." He said confidently, as he took slow steps away, without looking behind him. Before he was out the door and gone from her life again, Tali called out.
"Shepard...Please be careful." She suddenly felt herself blushing even more, as if that were possible. "I can't lose you twice."
"I plan on sticking around this time. There are some things I need to do. Some opportunities that presented themselves to me before. I'm not going to let them go this time around." He spoke coolly. He winked at her, turned out into the dark night and falling snow and was gone from her life again.