Chapter 4 - Competition Sniper
Romance: Rehna Nahima Shephard - Garrus Vakarian
Vanguard, Colonist, War Hero.
All the characters are owned by bioware and some segments of the conversations. I´m just trying my own version of the events!
Garrus was granted permission to work on the mako, so he decided now would be a good time to start, since it would take a couple of hours to get to Therum. He heard the elevator on it´s way down and looked in that direction. Shepard started walking towards him and stopped to lean on the mako.
"hi Vakarian, what are you doing?"
"Hi Commander, Just upgrading some, thought now would be a good time since i have nothing else to do at the moment"
"I have heard about you, quite famous for being a c-sec offiser"
"you have? hope its nothing bad"
"well, some of both i think, they say you are a hot head, not good at respecting authorities, and that you are a hell of a sniper" when she said the last part she looked at him intrigued
"well, most off it is true i guess, you probably know how we turians work, raised to follow orders, guess that makes me a bad turian"
"So is that good or bad for me?" she chuckled
"Depends, i won´t question your orders, as long as you don´t make me do something really awful... Don´t worry though, i remember your little speech" He said teasingly
"And make sure you don´t forget it, i keep my promises. But is it true then, are you as good of a sniper as they say you are?"
"It has always been my favorit weapon. I have practiced with it for alot of years now, perfecting my skills"
"Then i guess i have a competitor, you see, it´s my favorit weapon as well"
He looked at her, a bit chocked, didn´t expect her to be the sniper kind of girl.
"I see, i wouldn´t have guessed"
"Yeah, Most people don´t. They think i´m an idiot for using such a strange combination, sniping and biotics i mean. But it´s a real thrill, to watch someones head explode through the scope" Her eyes burned through his, that amazing shine in her again.
"you enjoy watching heads explode?"
she chuckled "If im really honest? Yeah, i guess i do. But it´s so much more than that. It´s about the thrill of the combat, to see the enemy fall by your hand. We are out there fighting each day, i just make sure to enjoy it while i´m at it. And don´t tell me you don´t enjoy it to!"
"I haven´t really thought about it before.. I guess it´s fun, in some way... Yeah, i guess i enjoy it to!" He laughed.
"I knew it! "
"I never pictured you as that kind of person.."
"As what kind of person precisely"
"The one... Who enjoy killing.."
"Damn... It´s hard to explain, i shouldn´t have started.. But, it´s not really the joy in killing people. It´s about the fight, the thrill of the battle, the adrenaline that pumps your veins. We are supposed to be out there, killing other people. And i think, that if you don´t start enjoy it at some point, you will break. I love to be out there making a different, killing evil people. And what does it matter really, their out there doing the same as us. It´s either them, or us.."
"I can see it from that point of view, and i guess i agree. It´s not innocent people we are killing, they are often murderers, criminals.."
"Exactly my point! I never, ever, kill civilians. They are innocent, but the ones that fight back, those i don´t hesitate to put and end to. And using a sniper rifle gives that edge, that extra something. It´s so different from every other gun. I knew from the first time i held a sniper rifle in my hand, that it would be my absolut favorit weapon"
"Yeah, it´s really something.. I have tried other weapons myself, but i just got stuck on sniping. And Assault rifle of course, i like those to"
"Naah, i enjoy pistol more in that case! Well, i wanted to see your sniping skills in action. That´s why i decided to bring you on this next mission. Just remember, i won´t hold back, i expect you to do the same" She winked at him.
"it´s on, Commander. You won´t stand a chance"
"With your reputation, maybe you´re right" She glanced at him with a clever smile before she walked over to wrex.
Maybe he shouldn´t take out his victory before hand, but he knew how good he was. He knew that most people didn´t even come near his skills. But she kept surprising him, just when he thought he had her figured out, she did something that made him baffled.
They landed with the Mako on Therum and made their way to the dig site, where they supposed Liara would be. At a point they had to abandon the vehicle and make the rest of the way on foot. Shepard had also brought Tali with them since she was a tech expert and could hack the geth.
"So, game on then Vakarian" Rehna looked at him with that damn smerk of hers
"Game on Commander"
When the first enemies appeared he didn´t even have time to react before Rehna had taken her first geth down. okey, maybe she was better then he had expected. But he wasn´t far behind, he took a shoot at one of the geth and it´s light flickered and died. They kept moving forward, faster then they had expected, geth falling dead to the ground everywhere.
"hey guys, leave some for me!" Tali shouted over the comm
Both of them where to intrigued to listen to her as they keept shoting.
"So Vakarian, how many?"
"9, how about you?"
"12, and i´m not done yet"
Damn he though, he wasn´t gonna loose to this squishy annoying human. He tried to move faster, taking down geth so fast his rifle screamed in protest. The first wave of enemies had been wiped out effectivly and now they just had to walk the rest of the way to the dig site.
"I´m up in 16, how about you Vakarian?"
"14 ma´am" he said a bit irritated
"oh, you catched up, but i´m still two ahead" She said smiling at him teasingly
"Don´t worry about me commander, there are still enemies ahead... and i don´t like loosing"
"Then there are two uf us"
"Hey guys... are you really competing in the middle of an important battle?..." Tali asked chocked
"Why yes, Tali, we are. I have always thought that a bit of competing spices things up, and we are moving alot faster then we would have if we didn´t"
They reached the the dig site where they where forced to take down a geth armature together, The three of them took it down pretty fast, Tali was a big help with her surprisingly good tech skills, the last shoot was fired by Shepard and the armature fell to the ground dead silent. Rehna threw her hand in the air and laughed!
"That doesn´t count commander! we all helped with that one!"
"aaw, i guess you are right Vakarian, damn it, still alot of fun though!"
They made their way into the prothean dig site where they searched for the doctor. They found her trapped in some sort of biotic field, where she accidently had gotten stuck.
"please help me out of here" The asari pleaded
"You are Matriarch Benezias daughter, she works for Saren now, how do i know if i can trust you?"
"What? I Haven´t spoken with my mother in years, who is Saren, what have he done? please just let me out of here, i wont give you any trouble!"
Shepard explained about saren to the doctor and gave her some brief details about the mission. Rehna seemed to have decided she could trust the Asari as she started to look for ways to get her out of the biotic field. Another wave of geth attacked them but they easily killed them off.
On their way up and out of the dig site rubble starting to fall around them, the dig site was about to fall apart. but before they could reach the surface they where stopped by a krogan and his geth followers.
"Saren needs that Doctor, hand her over, or don´t, that would be more fun"
Shepard took up her rifle and sent a bullet at the krogans head, he stumbled back but wasn´t killed, Garrus shoot another bullet and this time the krogan fell over.
"That doesn´t count! we helped with that one" Shepard said over the comm, he chuckled
They killed the last of the geth and started running towards the exit, rubble was pouring down at the side as they ran, they barely made it out before the cave collapsed.
"Joker, we need a pick up now! this Volcano is collapsing"
"aye aye Ma´am, i´m on my way"
"Everyone alright?" Rehna asked
They had some cuts and bruises but nothing serious.
"So Vakarian, i ended up at 19, not counting the armature"
"19 commander, not counting the krogan"
"Then i guess we are even, we will have to settle this another time"
Both of them laughed, he was pretty impressed, no one had even been near beating him before. He had underestimated her, now he knew better.
Back on the Normandy the team gathered in the debriefing room to go over the last mission.
"To close commander, ten more seconds and we would have been swimming in molten sulphur, the Normandy isn´t equipped to land in exploding volcanoes, they tend to fry our sensors and melt our hull, just for future reference" They heard joker say over the speakers
"we almost died out there today and your pilot is making jokes?"
"He is an amazing pilot, the best in allians space, and he just saved our lives. we will just have to live with his bad sence of humor"
Liara told them alot about her research, she was a prothean expert and had figured out that the protheans had been wiped out 50 000 years ago. And there where other civilisations before them aswell, also wiped out, but she didn´t know how it had happened.
"They where wiped out by sentiend machines, the reapers"
when she heard that shepard had been connected to the beacon she almost fell off the chair in her excitement.
"Maybe i can help you with that vision, if we connect our minds i can try to reconstruct it!"
"you wanna meld our minds?..."
"well, i wouldn´t use that word for it, but as an easy explanation, yeah"
"I´m not sure i want my mind... meld..."
"I promise you commander, its completley safe!"
"argh... what the hell, go on with it"
Afterwards Liara was totally exhausted and dizzy, she needed to take a break, after all, she had been stuck in that biotik field for some time. The commander however looked completley untouched. She couldn´t help much with the vision though, said it was broken, there where missing pieces.
"You are remarkable strong willed commander. what you have been through, what you have seen, would have destroyed a lesser mind.
"you look dizzy Liara, when was the last time you ate or slept?"
"its probably nothing, just mental exhaustion and realising the protheans true fate, i just need some rest."
"okey everyone, we will continue this later, dismissed"
The crew headed to the crew deck to get some to eat and chat with eachother. The commander stayed behind to update the council.
"Was it really necessary to destroy the prothean dig site?" the turian councilor argued.
"yes, yes it was really necessary, no other way, i really enjoyed blowing it up, best thing i have eeeeeever done, i hate protheans" she sank in to a hip looking at the councilors with a provocativ look.
"this is no time for joking commander! you just destroyed years of valuable research"
"oh, but i´m not joking...or am i?"
"we will talk again later commander, i hope you will be more respectful that time"
She stormed out of the debriefing room bumping right in to Garrus.
"oh, i´m sorry, i should have watched my steps" She looked embarresed
"No worries commander... is something wrong?"
"no it´s nothing, i´ll see you later"
She keept walking, heading to her quarters. FUCK, DAMN, SHIT! she hated the council, she wanted to strangle them "did you really have to destroy that base" "important research gone" DAMN. She hated them, hated how they looked down on her for being a human, hated how garrus underestimated her because she was human. Tired with people always asking for her help but giving nothing in return, a little bit of faith was all she asked.
Rehna felt a bit bad for not speaking with garrus, after all he was just trying to be nice. if she had spoken to him now, he would have noticed her being angry. She tried to avoid speaking with people when upset and unable to control her emotions. They could speak later, when she had calmed down. Right now there was only one thing she wanted, hot shower.