Chap 2: Cant do anythign right
In this chapter, Miranda and Shepard have a bit of a conflict. Plus getting a Turian off Palaven. I figured I'd pust this chapter out quickly, seeing as its my birthday on the 1st, this is my present to all of you! Leave a review, and suggest some things for upcoming chapters! Thanks!
The next morning Miranda woke up in the top bunk in the crews quarter. She looked around the dark room and could hardly make out the objects surrounding her. After rubbing her eyes and focusing for a few seconds, she could see the faint shaped of what she could only imagine to be the other crew members still sleeping. Looking at the clock, she could see that it was only 4:40 in the morning. After seeing this, she lightly punches her thigh and curses herself for once again waking up hours early. Still, Miranda was wide awake anyway. Tossing aside her blanket, she slowly made her way off the bed and onto the floor trying to be as quiet as humanly possible to not disturb the sleeping crew. She made her way over to her locker wearing only her black bra and panties, both with a floral design on them. When she got there she opened the metal door to her locker very carefully and proceeded to first, take out her all black latex jumpsuit with orange outlining the edges and down her legs and puts it on. She then takes out a matching black collar and fastens it around her neck.
Making her way out of the room, the door closed quietly behind her leaving her in a brightly lit room, though it is dimmer than it would be during the day. The light was too much for her as she squints her eyes and makes her way to the mess hall, walking down the corridor around the elevator. When she got there, she saw EDI sweeping the floor. "Good morning Ms. Lawson. What brings you here so early?" She asks in her usual monotone.
"Hello, EDI." Miranda replies. "I just haven't been getting enough sleep lately, and what I have been getting was terrible. I could go to sleep at 9 at night and stay like that until 2pm the day after. But more frequently I've been falling asleep and waking up an hour to two hours later. I think it's starting to affect my performance." She says and pulls out a chair, sits down in it and rests her head on the palm of her hand.
"That could be a sign of stress. Have you been stressed lately?" EDI asks.
"Lately is an understatement." She snorted. "I've been this way since Cerberus started chasing me. So maybe 6 or 7 months now. On top of that, the Reapers invaded and I haven't been able to do a damn thing about it. Im surprised my hair isn't falling out right now."
"I recommend you see Dr. Chakwas. She can prescribe you something to help you sleep." The AI stated to Miranda, still sweeping the floor.
"You're right. I'll see her tonight. Why are you sweeping the floor?" She asked
"Every Monday and Thursday from the hours between 1 in the morning to 5 in the morning I am required to clean the ship. Every Saturday I preform maintenance aboard the Normandy, fixing whatever minor problems present itself aboard the ship. Every Tuesday I restock the pa-"
"That's okay EDI, you don't have to tell me anymore." Miranda says, interrupting EDI before she could finish her schedule.
"Yes Ms. Lawson." EDI responds and returns to her cleaning. A few minutes go by and Miranda still sits in that chair, waiting for something, anything. Just then, the sound of boots lightly hitting the floor makes its way all the way into the mess hall and stops right behind Miranda. Turning around, she faces the woman, not recognizing her. Light brown skin, chestnut eyes, and black hair brushed behind her ears, and wearing a Yeoman outfit. She's a complete opposite of Miranda, contrasting her pale skin and foggy blue eyes. The only similar feature they shared were their black hair. "You must be Ms. Lawson. I was told you arrived yesterday. Good to meet you!" The woman exclaims with a smile. "It's always nice to meet new people."
Miranda looks at her for a few seconds "Im sorry, who are you?" She asks quizzically.
"Oh! Right! I'm Samantha Traynor." She says, chuckling nervously "I'm the Yeoman aboard this shit. But you can call me Sam! All my friends call me Sam."
"You're the Yeoman? What happened to Kelly Chambers?" Miranda asked
"Ms. Chambers resigned from Cerberus after she was rescued by Shepard and a few others from the Collector base. Now she helps out the refuges somewhere in the Citadel." Sam informs her.
"Huh." She replies. "Makes sense. It would scar anybody to be alive in there one moment and the next to be a pile of paste. I remember Shepard and I getting her out of the pod. She looked terrified.. But she was one of the lucky few we got to in time. We lost too many people that day." Miranda said, seemingly looking through Sam as she recalls the event in her head. "If I were in her position, I would probably do the same thing." The room fell quiet for a short while. The only sound coming from the brushing along the floor from EDI's cleaning.
"At least you weren't one of the lives lost that day." Sam finally said, her voice low with a hint of sadness.
"Yeah. Thank the Seven for that." Miranda says with a smirk.
"Uhm.. Excuse me?" Sam responds, baffled.
"Oh. Nothing. It's just from this old book I read once." She informed Sam "So, why are you up so early?"
"Everyday I get up an hour before the rest of the crew to prioritize the Commanders messages, and, well, I basically just make sure everything runs smoothly." Sam answered. "Since I get up an hour before the crew, they should be getting up in a few minutes. Whenever there's something important going on, such as finding a Primarch on Palaven everyone has to get up an hour earlier. Meaning I would normally get up at 5 in the morning, but today, seeing it's a special occasion, I have to get up an ho…" Miranda drifts off into her own thoughts, completely losing her focus to Sam describing her daily schedule. It goes on like this for what feels like an eternity, but finally Sam says "…but you gotta do what you gotta do."
Miranda was just conscious enough to process these words, and replies with a simple "Wow." As the clock strikes 5 the ship springs to life. The lights brighten, the Drive Core makes a slight humming noise as the ship draws more power, EDI puts the broom away, and a minute later doors open and the sound of chatter emerges as people start their day. Many come into the Mess Hall such as the chef who immediately gets ready to feed the crew, while others head elsewhere to prepare for the extraction to come in a few hours.
Time passes and those who served with Miranda on the Normandy SR2 stop by and welcome her back. One of these people being Joker, who walked up next to her saying, "Well I'll be damned. I was told you were back, but I didn't believe it. So what have you been doing for the past several months? Trying out the exotic things this galaxy has to offer?" He says with a wink. "I don't suppose you picked me up a copy of 'The Asari Body' on your travels?"
Smiling, Miranda replied "Fuck you, Joker! Seven months and you're still the same arse that was here when I left!"
Laughing, he patted Miranda on the back, "Hah! It's good to have you back with us." He said before walking away to get something to eat. "Hey, Miranda! You want something to eat? We have eggs, pancakes, hashbrowns, pancakes, and eggs." He asked, turning around with a plate full of all three choices.
"No thanks, I'm not hungry."
"Well alright" He said, putting a fork-full of scrambled eggs into his mouth and immediately making a face of pure disgust. "Good choice." He said with his mouth full of food. The chef gave him a dirty look as Joker took his plate with him and headed out of the room, presumably to the cockpit. He always knew how to make her laugh.
"ETA to Palaven: 3 hours" EDIs voice said over the intercom. To this, Miranda decided to head to the CIC and see what plan has been laid out for her to follow. Upon arriving in the circular room, she was mesmerized. 'It's beautiful' She thought to herself. Looking around the circular room at, half the seats filled along the edge of the room with people skipping breakfast to work. But what stood out the most was the gem sitting in the middle. A circular platform with a holographic display of their landing zone on Palaven. The center of the display was focused on a single military base which she could only assume is where the Primarch is held up in. Green lines placed strategically along the interior and exterior of the base showing where Turian soldiers have taken up defensive positions, while the red lines, where are far more numerous, placed all around the outside of the base showing the Reaper forces have effectively surrounded the base. "My god…" Miranda says under her breath. "The Turians don't stand a chance…" With the cluster of all the red and green lines, there is but one solid blue line trailing from the very edge of the display all the way to the center of the base. This, of course being the course taken by Shepard, Miranda, and one other when the time comes.
Miranda spent the next hour and a half examining the map and reading through data pads about the base and the Primarch they are to get. At this time, Shepard enters the room already wearing her carbon fiber padded armor with the N7 insignia on the right side of her chest plate and a red and white stripe traveling down her right arm. Looking up from a datapad, Miranda sees shepard enter the room and tosses the object onto the side of the display table. Before Shepard could say a word, Miranda was already all over her from the beginning. "Shepard! This is insane!" She says walking up to the display of the base. "The base is completely surrounded!" Pointing out 3 small dots, each the same distance away from the base forming a triangle around it. "You see those three dots? Those are Hades Cannons. We won't be able to get anywhere near the base in the Kodiak without being shot down!" She says in an aggressive tone. Now switching to a sarcastic one. "Unless you send out Turian fighters to distract these cannons."
A few seconds go by until Shepard responds "That was the plan, their sacrifice will be noted." To which Miranda just stood there, shocked by what the Commander just said.
"You can't be serious… That's suicide! Shepard, please tell me you're not serious!" She said, concern clearly present in her voice.
"It's the only way, Miranda. If the fighters don't go up, there's no hope in getting the Primarch out of there." Shepard replied.
"And if they do go up, the base will be down thirteen men and their leader!" Miranda said nearly on the verge of yelling. "The Turians follow a strict Hierarchy. We can retrieve the second in line and blame it on communication problems!"
In a stern voice, Shepard replied "I'm sorry, Miranda. But this is the way it's going to be. We are going to go in and extract the Primarch. Even if that means sending a dozen men to their death."
"You're not just sending a dozen men to their death, Shepard. You are killing everyone in that base by making this decision." She said, using this as her last plea. "Taking their leader will leave them disorganized and they will all surely die."
"They will all die anyway! They are facing an overwhelming force, at least we could save one!" Shepard snapped back at Miranda.
Never having been yelled at by the commander before, Miranda froze where she stood for a short while before regaining her composure. "Isn't that what we're doing commander? Facing an overwhelming force?" Miranda responds in a calm tone. "So why don't we just call it quits and give up? Were all probably going to be killed soon anyway.. We have hope, Commander. We have hope that it's possible to win this war. That's what keeps us going. It's the reason were even alive right now. As long as we have hope, we have a chance." She paused for a few seconds, taking a deep breath. "Those Turians down there have a chance to survive. As small as it may be, they still have a chance. But by making this call they will surely die. Their blood will be on your hands, Shepard." She concluded and made her way to the door but was stopped mere feet from the exit.
"I'm still your Commander, Miranda! My word is Law!" Shepard said in a cold voice.
Miranda turned around to face Shepard. "You used to be a Commander, Shepard. I don't know what you are anymore." She said, turning back around and walking out the door and into the elevator, taking it down to the engineering deck. When she got out of the elevator, she made her way down the stars to where Jack used to stay during her time on the SR2, now it was just a place to store items in boxes. Sitting on one of the boxes Miranda let herself go as tears started to roll down her cheek. 'What happened to her? She used to listen to what I had to say and fight for what was right! She never let her temper flare up, and she never yelled at me before.' She thought to herself, wiping a tear away from her cheek with the back of her hand, sniffling. 'At one point I even… Liked her.. Maybe it was more than just that.. But that was the old her, She's different now. I can't believe how foolish I was to think by coming back here that everything would go back to the way it was…' Leaning back until she was touching the wall,
'Damnit, Miranda! How could you let something like this get to you? Sure, maybe you had a thing for her once, but that was seven months ago! Surely you can't have feelings for her now?'
Arguing both sides, 'Yeah.. But… I just don't know! When I called her the other day, she sounded really happy. I was even happy to hear her voice. For a second It reminded of the way things were, and I really wanted to return to simpler times. But then she goes and does this without even asking for my input. She knows it's wrong, but she doesn't care! '
'You've got to move on! You can't let anybody see you like this. You're supposed to be the tough, cold Miranda Lawson. You can't be this vulnerable!" She sat down there thinking about this until the intercom rings, breaking her from her trance.
"Ms. Lawson, please report to the Shuttle Bay" Edi says.
'How long have I been here? No way it's been an hour yet.' Getting up off the box, she rubs her eyes with the palms of her hands, puts on a strong face, and makes her way to where she was called.
Approaching the Kodiak, Shepard exits out the side seemingly still frustrated with Miranda about the conversation they had not too long ago. "What the hell have you been doing? We were supposed to leave 15 minutes ago." Shepard says with a bit of heat in her voice. "You used to be so punctual."
While looking in front of her and not at Shepard, Miranda says "I guess we've both changed." Other than saying that, Miranda paid no attention to her Commander and got on the Kodiac. Looking to the right towards the back of the ship, she saw strapped into the seat "Liara." She says and nods her head to greet her, to which Liara responds with a simple "Hello." Miranda made her way to the back to sit opposite to her when suddenly her left forearm, which was completely exposed, was grabbed by Shepards armored hand. Wincing from the pain, she had forgotten just how strong the Commander was and was surprised that her bone didn't shatter that second. The least painful option would be to go with it, and she was pulled to the other side of the shuttle and forced into a seat next to the cockpit across from Shepard. When her arm was released, the part that had been in a death grip quickly turned a dark red, while her face turned a faint pink. "Ahhh shit.." She said, rubbing the mark
Shepard banged on the closed door to the cockpit, signifying for Cortez to take off. She then sat in the seat across from Miranda and leaned forward towards her. "What the hell is your problem?!" She yelled as loud as a whisper would allow so to keep the conversation between only her and Miranda.
"You're my problem!" She answered back in the same tone "It's my second day back on the Normandy and you already ruined my clothes and, against my better judgment, made an immoral decision that will kill over a hundred men!"
Lowering her tone a bit, and putting her elbows on her knees to support herself, Shepard says "Granted, maybe the clothes thing was a bit out of my jurisdiction, but I was still within my power to make the call to get the Primarch."
"I know the Commander and you have final say on what gets done," Miranda says and pauses for a few seconds. "But as the Executive Officer aboard this ship, I feel as if it's my duty to inform you when I believe you are making a stupid decision! You used to listen to my advice before, why not now?"
"Miranda, look. I used to value your advice. But that was when we had something special." Sounding a lot calmer now, she tilted her head down to look at the ground for a short while before looking back up at Miranda. "Then you left. And you were gone for a really long time, without so much as a call or a message. You could have been dead for all I knew.. I had to move on… So from now on just know that I'm the Commander and you're the XO. Though you can still give me your opinion, don't feel I'm inclined to listen to it."
After hearing this, Mirandas heart sank. 'If she got over me, why can't I get over her?' she thought to herself, trying her hardest to keep a straight face and keep her eyes from welling up. The rest of the trip was traveled mostly in silence had it not been for Cortez speaking over the Intercom "Commander, were three minutes out. If we are to follow through with this plan you have to send the Turian fighters in the air now." As he connected a direct line from Shepards omni-tool to the bases headquarters.
Miranda looked at Shepard with pleading eyes as she established a link with the base. The sound of gunfire and explosions rand throughout the cabin of the shuttle and a voice could be heard addressing others around him "Commander Shepards on the line!" Now turning his attention to the commander herself, "Commander?"
Looking up, Shepard saw Miranda and she knew she was begging without her having to say it. Turning her head back down to address the Turians on the other lines, "This is Commander Shepard, I am two minutes away from your base. Scramble your fighters to draw the fire of the Hades Cannons so we are clear to land." As soon as the word 'Scramble' left Shepards mouth, a feeling of discontent spread throughout her body and her face showed it before she dropped her vision to the ground below her. "Im sorry, Miranda…" Shepard said sincerely before turning to a very solemn tone and addressing both Miranda and Liara, "Okay, we have very little time to do this. So I want the Primarch located and in this ship in under 3 minutes! Got it?" to which Liara responded in the affirmative, but Miranda just sat there quiet. "Miranda, do you understand?"
"Yes, I bloody understand!" She said, laced with bitterness just as the shuttle touched down and the door swung open to show dozens of Turian soldiers running about the camp while several times more lined the walls around the base doing everything they can to keep from being overrun. The sky was ablaze, powerful explosions causing tremors, Reapers standing tall in the distance, and Turian fighters buzzing around the Cannons. Immediately after setting foot on the planet, Miranda turned her attention to an empty machine gun post on the wall where the gunman had just been shot off. Abruptly disobeying her orders she made her way up the ladder, got on the turret, and unloaded round after round into the charging husks and advancing cannibals.
Losing track of time, she just continued to fire with adrenaline pumping through her veins and her heart beating a mile a minute. Watching one after the other, after the other fall until from the back of the pack emerged a Brute that was charging the wall. Before she actually had a chance to fire upon the brute, she was grabbed by the shoulders and violently pulled backwards off the turret with enough force to send her flying off the interior edge of the wall into a ten foot drop. Using her biotics to catch herself from hitting the ground she managed to stop herself two feet short. As she was getting to her feet a hand grabbed around the back of her collar and pulled her along, causing her feet to slide out from underneath her. Now being dragged along the floor from her neck, she reaches up to her collar with her right hand and pulls it the opposite direction hoping to free up some space for her to breath, while her other starts scratching at the hand dragging her only to find out its protected by Shepards carbon fiber armor. Her face turns red and tears running down her cheeks as she lets out choked exhales. To her this seems to go on forever, but soon enough it was over and she was tossed into the Kodiak. On her hands and knees in the middle of the shuttle choking and gasping for breath. Her ears were ringing and she could not hear a thing, but she could be sure Shepard was screaming at her right now.
A short while goes by and Miranda re gains her breath and her hearing to confirm the she was being yelled at by the commander. "I SAID THREE MINUTES TO FIND THE PRIMARCH! WHAT DO YOU DO?! SPEND SEVEN MINUTES SHOOTING AT REAPERS!" Leaning back until she was sitting on her knees, she continued to take deep breaths and wipe the drying tears off her face, doing her best to drown out Shepards words.
Getting to her feet, a jolt of pain rips through her head like the worst headache in the Milky Way. Gritting her teeth and squeezing her eyes shut as to not let out a scream of pain, she brought her hand up to the spot on her head where the pain seared. When she got to her feet she extended her free hand out onto a wall to prop herself up. Noticing two Turians sitting down, her vision then starts to spin. Interrupting whatever the Commander was saying "Shepard… I-I don't…" her sight fading to black and her legs giving out beneath her, causing her to fall to her knees before collapsing to her side on the floor, unconscious.
