Garrus/Nihlus - The mission on Feros doesn't go as planned. But perhaps the consolation price is enough to take Garrus' pain away. Part of the Nihlus-suvive-Eden-Prime-Storyline. I hope to write what happened both before this and later missions as well. But my inspiration started with Feros. So that is what you get first.
As english isn't my native language as I don't have a Beta (if you feel like betaing this, do say hi!) grammar and spelling could be off. I try to go through it the best I can, but I am only human (unfortunately...) This is also the first writing thing I have ever uploaded, so please go easy on me. Hope you'll enjoy anyway!
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Warning:Chapter 4 (The Med Bay) contains Explicit +18 slash (man/man) sexual content. You have been warned.
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Feros... It had started out bad and progressed to worse quicker than a charging Krogan. When we were met with attacking Geth as soon as we set foot on the ground I knew this would end badly. I had taken officer Vakarian and Tali'Zhora nar Rayya with me planet side. It made sense, the mission briefing said the colony had been attacked by Geth. Miss Zhora was as close to an expert on these things as we were ever going to get and Vakarian could handle both the mechs and whatever else Saren decided to throw at us. Shepard was of course with us in her role as my protege. She came along on any mission I was on and whatever else I felt she could learn something from.
Saren... The name still created a bad taste in my mouth. I couldn't believe he would do something like this. Betray the Council and endanger the entire galaxy, allying himself with the Geth. There were few people who could say they knew the infamous Spectre. I was one of them. Deep inside, one of the stones that formed my foundation block shook. 'Was' was apparently correct. Maybe I didn't know him any longer. But how could he have changed so drastically over a few short years? Did I ever truly know him? I had lived with the man during my training to become a Spectre. Traveled in close quarters with him for several years. Trained and fought side by side. He had saved my life more times than I could count. This sudden change didn't make any sense to me. If I only could... talk to him, maybe? He must have a reason to do what he did. Maybe he could explain it to me if we just sat down and talked? And then there were the Reapers...
I shook my head. I couldn't think of this now. Not when all four of us were huddled behind a couple of crates waiting for an opening in the Geth fire.
"Remind me to ask for specifics next time you take me anywhere," Shepard muttered beside me. She was changing the ammo in her shotgun, a Hurricane. Once again I reminded myself to get her something better the next time we had an opportunity.
"And here I thought it would be a nice surprise for you," I quipped back, throwing a quick glance on the side of our cover. A bullet whistled by my ear as I retracted my head again. "Doesn't humans like adventure vacations?"
A chuckle came over the intercom. I threw a glance over to the other side of the corridor where Vakarian and Zhora sat, much like myself and Shepard, behind cover.
"I've even heard that some of them jump off bridges or planes, for fun," the other turian said with a grin that splayed his mandibles slightly. "But perhaps Shepard would prefer a romantic walk on the beach?"
"Ha-ha, very funny, bird boys," she answered with dry humor. "Well this is getting us nowhere..."
I noticed the intent in her eyes a second to late. She punched her shield boost and with a careless assertiveness in her movements she launched herself over the crate. Shotgun first she charged down the old corridor towards our enemies. I could see her shields sparking where the field gave way for a second before the booster made the hole close again.
"Shepard! What the..." was all I had the chance to yell. "Vakarian, Zhora, get their shields down now!" I whipped out my heavily modified assault rifle and its butt recoiled heavily into my shoulder as I opened fire. "Fucking Vanguards!" We hadn't worked together long and yet this was not the first time she had pulled a stunt like this. This girl was going to be the death of me. It was like she went out of her way to put herself in danger just to piss me off.
As her biotics flared around the limited space, throwing synthetics all over the place, I gestured the other two to move up. As Zhora was working on hacking one of the Geth Destroyers deep behind cover, Vakarian had taken up position further back with his sniper rifle. He was really good with that thing. I had taken him on a few small missions previously and he had more than showed me he could hold his own in combat. Not that I expected anything less from a turian. My own military service was perhaps less than pleasant, but you could tell at least one of us would have made it past the rank of lieutenant. Unfortunately he had too much of a hot streak in him. Perhaps that was why he hadn't continued on after his mandatory tour. The Hierarchy wanted obedient soldiers. Mindless drones. I scoffed to myself as I took down a Geth Trooper. The blue tattooed turian's skills were wasted hidden in the lines of the common soldiers. I could almost feel how he sighted his target in the scope, let out a breath, relaxed and then squeezed the trigger tight. The satisfying sound of the rifle went off and a second later another mechanical unit hit the floor. He lived this. The long range weapon was like an extension of his body and it was a real pleasure to behold him as he worked with it.
As the young turian sighted a new target he didn't see the Distortion Rocket that came flying in his direction. My body reacted before my brain even had the time to register the threat to my teammate. My assault rifle clattered on the stone floor as I sprinted over and tackled him to the ground. The butt of his rifle scraped with a metallic whine over the crate he had used as support. My shields protesting as they tried to absorb the extreme energy of the blast. I could feel the heat through the back of my armor and knew I had been close to get a bad burn. Thank the Spirits for good shields and armor.
Colorful spots still danced in front of my eyes as my ears registered the lack of combat sounds around us. I blinked several times to clear them from the bright light that had obscured my vision for a moment and looked down on Vakarian. He lay beneath me, our armors clinking against each other.
"Hi," he said with a sheepish grin a few inches from my face.
I had to grin back.
"Hi," I said.
"Guys! Really?" Shepard walked up behind us and peeked over the edge of the crate, her shotgun resting over her shoulder. "I'm all for hot turian love between two bros, but maybe now is not the time?" She had a teasing grin on her lips and one eyebrow was perched suggestively.
I could feel Vakarian shuffle awkwardly beneath me, but I just laughed and met the human's gaze.
"Admit it, Shepard," I said. "You're just jealous I didn't choose you." I heaved myself up onto my feet and offered a hand to help the flat man rise. He gripped my elbow and I pulled. I found I liked the strength in his fingers, they were just as steady as his aim with his chosen weapon suggested. "You okay?" I asked searching his face for discomfort. I was satisfied when I didn't find any.
"Yeah, I'm fine, thanks for the save," his mandibles fluttered slightly in embarrassment "Should have seen that coming."
"Then I wouldn't have had the pleasure of knocking you on your ass." I gave him one of my notoriously charming smiles.
He huffed a short laugh.
"In that case you can knock me on my ass whenever you feel like it, Kryik," he returned with a grin.
Just to really tease him I let my eyes sweep up and down his body before lingering in the ice blue eyes. I saw him shuffle slightly and reach to pick up his rifle, his gaze averted from mine.
"Maybe I will," I said while lowering my voice an octave.
Without looking for his response I turned to go grab my own rifle that I had dropped when I rushed up to him.
.-oOo-.
"What the hell is that thing?" I heard Shepard's agitated voice come in over the com channel.
I agreed with her with a passion. The new Geth unit gave us no end of grief. It flew by me and I saw my shields waver. I spun around, my rifle at the ready to finally get rid of this pest, when I heard my weapon protest and the smell of hot metal wafted up to me as it overheated.
The small, quick mechanical unit didn't really cause any damage our shields or armor couldn't withstand. But it more than made up for it with being almost impossible to hit. Together with the normal Geth units barraging down on us, it was jamming our radar and overheating our weapons placing us in a really tight spot.
"Fucking frog!" Shepard cursed and I suspected she had just suffered the same fate as me. I couldn't confirm my suspicions however as I could only glimpse her read hair a few meters in the half demolished room behind a pile of rubble.
"We need to take that thing out!" I yelled. I knew they could probably hear me perfectly well over the com, but the sound of gunfire and screeching machines were so loud I almost couldn't hear myself think. "Does anyone have any Dampening to spare?"
That's when I saw Vakarian in the corner of my eye. He sat perched to my left a few meters away, his rifle steady, his eyes intent on the jumping Geth. It was like time slowed down around him. The mouth of his weapon evenly followed the unit, the movement firm and without a single shake. I saw when he decided to take the shoot, his fingers tightening slightly on the handle. His entire posture relaxed and then his trigger finger slowly squeezed without a single moment of hesitation.
I had to remind myself to breathe. A warmth started to flare in the pit of my stomach. It was the strong, graceful posture of his body. The intensity in his steel blue eyes as he tracked his mark. My heart fluttered in my chest and it wasn't because of the combat adrenalin flowing freely in my veins.
A loud crack from the rifle and a metallic crash as the Geth Sapper hit the ground. A victorious grin spread over Vakarian's face, his mandibles widening slightly. The smug glint in his eyes made his entire being light up. Damn he was sexy.
He threw me a glance and on reflex I averted my eyes as if he could read what was going on in my mind simply by looking at me.
"Nice work, Vakarian," I said and tried to keep my voice even. But my deeper harmonics gave me away. Maybe the human and the quarian couldn't read them, but I knew he could.
An awkward cough came over the com channel.
"Pleasure," he said short and concise. Yes, it truly was...
The bullet that bounced off my shields woke me up from my lingering thoughts of a certain sniper and what his skin would feel like under my fingertips. Right, back to the battle.