Author Notes: Hello everyone, this is the first chapter of my first upload. enjoy! :)
Edit: 4/5 A big thank you to fallenangel8794 for beta reading this and fixing most of the tense issues!
Introduction:
Some say that if one stared at the sterile, white, interior walls of a Quarian ship long enough, you'd eventually go blind. 'That's precisely what some random alien would believe.' Kal'Reegar reflected to himself. Here he was, yet again, in the same situation he had always hated since he became a Marine, patiently waiting for his mission briefing while simultaneously being anxious about it. Kal sensed the apprehension in the other five Quarian squad members as well.
The Quarian who had previously been loitering off to Kal's right was Venn'Ryaan. Venn was quite a slippery fellow with a knack for sarcasm. He lost his ship name after he was exiled for 'accidentally' destroying a new stealth shuttle of Daro'Xen's design while it was still in testing. He was exiled for his mistake in judgment. In the end, the Admiralty Board pardoned him to return to the fleet; probably for his legendary skills with a shuttle or any other small aerospace vehicle. But, none of the Admirals assigned him to a new ship, so he got stuck in Kal's squad, shuttling Marines back and forth on missions. As a side note, it appeared that during the time of his brief exile, he met Captain Kirrahe. Surprisingly the two became great friends, even with their drastic contrast in personalities. Venn was tapping his foot impatiently at the prospect of waiting another second for this damn mission, which the Admirals still had not briefed them on.
"Don't you love it, how The Admirals make themselves seem important by wasting our time?" Venn intoned sarcastically, as his purple visor produced a sparkling effect whenit caught the light.
"Better than having to listen to your lousy whining," said the female Quarian who had been previously staring out of one of the few windows aboard the ship. Her name is Daala'Rozu. She was a soldier by heart and trade. Clan Rozu was a family of Soldiers and Peacekeepers, and it had been that way for generations, thousands of years before the Morning War. She had quite an interesting story. She lost her father to the Geth while he was on a survey mission that got a little too close to the border of Geth space. Logically, she had a personal vendetta against the Geth. She had alleged that she would kill ten Geth for every crew member that was killed on the Fyvar, her father's ship.
'I wonder how she keeps track, I never saw her write down anything, or record numbers on her Omni-tool.' Kal briefly contemplated. But even so, Daala had informed Kal that the number of kills was approaching 100. After their last assignment on a scouting mission in the Perseus Veil, which went to shit, she reported that it was exactly 113 to go.
"Too bad I can't use my biotics to shut him up." Said another female Quarian, the squad's newest addition, Ralin'Shanar. She eagerly shifted in her seat. Her fiery orange Realk and black as night enviro-suit produced an interesting contrast with her bluish visor. She had been sitting quietly to the left of Kal, andfrom what Kal had observed Ralin kept to herself, but her dossier informed that she was one of the rare Quarian Adepts. Quarian Adepts are few and far between due to living on ships with little exposure to Element Zero. Although it's still unclear how a Quarian gets trained to be a Biotic, or at least a mystery to Kal, he can tell she'll be a welcome addition to the team. She was trying to fit in by following Venn's example of releasing steam against the inept politicians, who apparently found some sadistic pleasure in making everything that much more difficult for everyone else.
"But Venn's right on one thing, I swear that if we don't hear news in the next 5 minutes..." Ralin said critically, although her voice lacked the strength to express it in such a way that the squad would take it seriously.
"Did I hear correctly? Someone agreed with Venn?" Kal'Reegar cocked his head to the procurer of this new voice, a Quarian Engineer, Quinn'Zeeda, who was tapping furiously on his Omni-tool, completely absorbed by it. In actuality, he had been silently listening to the squad's bickering the whole time. 'A good step for him given that he is unstable; from Quinn's dossier it is reported that he has the same type, or a similar type, of slight neurological defect that Veetor'Nara vas Moreh developed.' A very rare defect, but even with this disadvantage Quinn was a brilliant engineer and was renowned for the fact that he could repair nearly anything with just a few pieces of scrap.
A crash occurred from somewhere behind Kal and the entirety of the squad snapped their heads towards the crash instinctively. The crash was followed by a curse, "Bosh'tet!" In the unmistakable voice of Gerren'Lakko, a soldier like Kal and Daala. He's a little clumsy, but otherwise he was one helluva' trooper. They had found him on their last mission to the Perseus Veil; it had turned from a scouting mission to a rescue operation when they located the Hxzaa drifting in space, broadcasting a distress signal. There were multiple hull breaches, but they checked the source of the signal anyway to check for survivors. They found only one, Gerren, the last of his squad. 'Poor bosh'tet.' Gerren requested to be moved to Kal'Reegar's squad after the debriefing, which was readily accepted.
'Well, maybe more than a little clumsy...' Kal thought inwardly as he too looked casually over his shoulder to see what all the commotion was about. Apparently, Gerren had dropped 3 assault rifles, which had caused the noise, and was on his knees, fuming at his mistake. He efficiently picked them up and restocked them; his pure white armor glinted and his blood red Realk clung loosely to his body. Gerren spared a glance upwards, noted that all five Quarians were staring at him, and he waved his hand in their general direction. Kal nodded back in acknowledgement, Daala instead replied with an 'Of-course' sigh.
After that incident, Kal'Reegar noticed a male Quarian with a red enviro-suit approaching with a certain purpose in his stride as he headed towards the cluster of Quarians. He carried only one thing, a datalog, which, by Kal's guess, probably contained the information on the squad's new mission.
"Finally!" Venn exclaimed, annoyed that they had waited five extra minutes than the time allotted. The Quarian ignored Venn's remark and handed the data log to Kal, which he promptly took and read the mission's title, Priority: Haestrom.
"Good luck on your assignment. Keelah se'lai." The Quarian performed an about face turn in the direction he had come from and swiftly left without another word. The squad began to shift closer to Kal. Kal sensed the tension in the squad's movements and their unrest. While he glanced over the briefing he found himself drawn to the words, Admiral Rael'Zorah's daughter, for quite a while, 'The head of the Admiralty Board's daughter?'
That was until Venn interrupted his train of thought, "Looks like a protection mission, boys and girls." Venn exaggerated a yawn.
'That bosh'tet was reading over my shoulders.' Kal thought crankily.
"We're protecting Rael'Zorah's daughter, Tali'Zorah." Kal'Reegar countered coldly. "You don't think that this is important?"
"No, what other possible use could a Marine squadron have?" Venn asked rhetorically, "Just because she's the daughter of an Admiral doesn't mean that she is all that important." Venn responded with a roll of his eyes.
"Are you deaf, Venn? Have you never heard of Tali'Zorah? She's a bloody war hero, and you'd best give her the damn respect she deserves." All Venn did was snort at the prospect that he would give respect to one of the Admirals, let alone the Admiral's daughter.
Daala overheard Venn's exclamation and crossed her arms, "I agree with Venn on the point that we could be doing something more important. We should be fighting the Geth! A whole Marine squadron seems like overkill to me, sir."
Kal continued to study the message. What he read suggested that the mission could turn out poorly if the Geth found them, but it would make it so that they wouldn't think that this mission was going to be babysitting Admiral Zorah's daughter. "It looks as if this mission might be a little more exciting than what you assumed, Venn. How much do you know about Haestrom?" Kal folded his hands in his lap and looked up expectantly at Venn. Kal may have accidentally let loose some aggression into his tone as well as he had not completely forgiven Venn's comment on Tali.
Ralin came to Venn's aid. "It's in the middle of Geth Space, sir." Ralin said barely over an audible whisper. Kal felt tension fill the air in response to the action that may be forthcoming.
Kal stood up and with a clear, precise voice he said something everyone wanted to hear, "Everyone should get some rest, we're starting the mission tomorrow at the shuttle bays, Tali'Zorah will be waiting for us there." Kal turned his head slowly from left to right, gauging his squad, "Dismissed!"
Daala, while she may not agree, nodded and saluted, "Sir." She then withdrew in the direction of her quarters.
Venn performed the same gesture, but with a hint of veiled cynicism. "Sir," Venn said with heavy emphasis.
'Sometimes he really can be an unbearable bosh'tet,' Kal knew that most of what Venn said was pure banter, with the occasional personal view on politicians and the Admiralty Board. 'He does have a reason to hate the admirals after all.' Kal mused, he allowed Venn to carry on with his frivolous nature due to the fact that it was one of the few things that kept Venn sane. Venn began to wander off in the direction of his quarters.
The rest of the squad sauntered away; each one carried a sense of renewed purpose, as did Kal'Reegar.