Disclaimer: See Chapter I - Beginnings
The Rift
Chapter IX
A Cold Reception
"So...what you're saying, Commander, is...we're going to land on an ice cube?"
John sighed as the Normandy made it's way through the Pax System towards Noveria. Joker was in rare form, as usual. 'Maybe it's not rare form for him, then...' Anthony was seated in the co-pilot's seat, his fingers on the controls. Since most docking was done by autopilot, he didn't see the harm in letting the time-traveling medic a shot at handling the ship's controls. Drive output was still locked to Joker's station, and his own navigational systems would override the rookie pilot's, but having someone else available to pilot if needed couldn't hurt. "Yes, Joker. We're landing on an ice cube. Snyder, we should be close enough for them to have us. Let's say hi." Anthony nodded and reached over, opening the comms.
"Aye, sir." Once the channel was open, he remembered what he could of Joker's hail to the Citadel. "Noveria control, this is SSV Normandy, requesting vector and berth." The voice that came back, once again, sounded less than thrilled to have to work.
*Normandy, your arrival is not scheduled. Our defense grids are armed and tracking you. State your business immediately.* Anthony blinked and looked over to the other two in the cockpit. Shepard pointed simply to himself. After a moment, Anthony nodded. "Citadel business, Control. We have a Council Spectre on board." The comm was silent for a long handful of seconds, the planet quickly growing closer in the viewports. *Recieved, Normandy. Provisional docking priveladges granted. Stand by for guidance lock. Be advised, we will be confirming your identity on arrival. If confirmation can not be established, your vessel WILL be impounded and crew arrested. Acknowledge, Normandy.*
"Recieved and acknowledged, Control. Normandy out." Anthony reached up and closed the channel, leaning back in the seat as he tapped the controls to accept the port docking information. Shepard's hand on his shoulder caused him to look up. Shepard grinned and nodded, patting his shoulder once again before removing his hand.
"Welcome to the club, Anthony." John started walking back towards the rest of the CIC to get his armor on. "Snyder, suit up. I want you, Liara, and Tali ready to disembark in ten." He didn't even stop as he spoke, and before Anthony could answer, he was already out of earshot. Anthony stood, sighing as he looked back at the comms controls.
"Sounds like a fun group. Joker, what do you say we come back for some snowboarding once this whole Saren thing is done?" Anthony had taken to Joker's unique brand of humor, and had learned to return it in kind. Joker scratched at his light beard, as if in thought.
"You know...I would. Honestly, I really would, but I prefer to hobble off a planet and not have my balls cryogenically preserved. So I'll pull a rain check on that. Let me know when global warming hits this place, though." Anthony laughed and patted the headrest of Joker's chair, walking from the cockpit, making his way down to the medbay. Giving a wave to Dr. Chakwas as he passed her in the mess, he entered the medbay, heading to the door in the back. The door recognized him as he approached, opening in front of him. He didn't expect, however, a completely nude asari standing next to the desk, towel draped over the chair, various light clothing and armor sitting across the desk.
Liara looked up as the door opened, completely surprised at being interrupted. Anthony almost instantly turned, facing out of the store room. "Liara! I...didn't know you weren't...in a position for company..." Liara smiled and started pulling on an undersuit for her armor.
"It's alright, Anthony. It's my fault for forgetting to lock the door. We're close enough to the elevator that I was able to get from the showers to the medbay quickly. I assume we're getting close to Noveria, and Commander Shepard sent you to let me know?" Anthony nodded, hoping to not embarrass himself more, the image of Liara's bare body still taunting him behind his eyelids. "You can turn around, now. I'm covered."
Anthony turned slowly, peeking just a little first, to make sure. When he saw she had her underarmor on, he sighed, turning fully, his cheeks still slightly red. "Well...I suppose something like that was bound to happen eventually...what with us bunking in the same room and all." Liara nodded as she pulled the chair out, sitting and starting to pull on the rest of her armor.
"I suppose I should have mentioned something earlier, as well. Since we are mono-gendered, asari don't have the same stigma about nudity as other races. The fact that I've been more used to being on my own and not having to worry about modesty as much might also have something to do with it." Anthony sighed and nodded, moving into his own small space and, a little sheepishly, pulling the cloth door closed so he could do the same.
"Since you already have your armor up here, I'm guessing you figured that Shepard would have you coming with us?" Anthony asked as he started to undress as well, laying his uniform on the bed as he pulled a small storage bin out from underneath, which held his own undersuit. The slight sound of metal on metal came through as Liara continued with her armor.
"That's right. Or at the very least, he would want me ready in case investigating either here or on Feros showed that my mother was nearby. Since we're all in a bit of a rush to find the Conduit, I thought I should keep myself ready to go if called, rather than wait for a call that I was needed." Anthony figured that was a good plan, standing to pull his undersuit up. Just then, the fabric door pulled aside, Liara looking in, only her lower half armored. Anthony blinked and quickly covered himself as best he could, to Liara's amusement. "Well, I decided it was only fair."
Anthony nodded dumbly, quickly pulling his undersuit the rest of the way on, quickly fastening it closed. "Y-yeah...fair." Liara simply smiled and pulled her head back, letting the fabric fall closed again. Anthony let out a long sigh, closing his eyes and shaking his head. 'This woman is going to kill me, one day.'
The small team of four exited the Normandy, heading down the walkway toward the port offices. Before they got too far, though, they were met by two women and a turian, all in the light combat armor favored by security forces. The one in the middle kept her weapons holstered, but the other two made no move to put their assault rifles away. The middle one spoke first.
"That's far enough. Captain Matsuo, Port Hanshan Security. Your arrival here is unexpected. I'm going to need to see your credentials." Shepard nodded, raising his arm to show he had nothing in his hand before opening his omni-tool, broadcasting his ID to both the officers and the port offices.
"Commander John Shepard, Special Tactics and Recon. I'm investigating on orders from the Council." The captain looked at her omni-tool and nodded after a moment, sending the file off to the office as well. The blonde woman beside the captain chose this moment so speak up.
"Load of bullshit, Ma'am. There isn't a human Spectre..." The captain held up her hand to silence her companion, turning back to the ground crew.
"Your identity will have to be confirmed, first. Until then, I have to let you know that firearms of any kind are prohibited on Noveria." She then turned back to the blonde. "Sterling, secure their weapons." Sterling nodded, but barely took a step forward before John, and the rest of the team a split second later, pulled pistols, rifles, and, in Tali's case, a shotgun, leveling them at the officers. Matsuo and her people responded, each of them pulling their rifles up into a firing position.
Anthony swallowed hard as he kept his pistol aimed at Sterling's head. 'Fuck...some welcome...'
Shepard narrowed his eyes at the three. "Like hell am I giving up my gun." The officers and ground team stared each other down for a long couple of seconds before a voice came over the PA, sounding a little rushed, and more than a little hurried.
*Captain Matsuo, stand down now! We've confirmed their identity. Spectres and their teams are allowed to keep their weapons here.* The officers hesitated for a moment before relaxing their stance, lowering their weapons. Shepard nodded to the others as he lowered his pistol, the team slowly following suit, putting their weapons back in their respective spots. Matsuo placed her own pistol back in it's holster.
"Then you may proceed, Spectre. I apologize. Parasini-san can help you further, here. You can find her in the administrator's office. I hope your stay here will be less...confrontational." Shepard just nodded, walking through the now opened port doors, the rest of the team falling into step behind him. Sterling's voice carried behind them, albeit quietly.
"You'd better behave yourselves..."
Shepard walked out of Anoleis' office wearing a look of annoyance. The rest of the team stood as he exited, Tali being the first to venture a comment. "You look like that didn't go well, Shepard." John sighed and nodded. If looks could kill, the look he shot back at the administrator's office would have been a small tactical nuclear device.
"Fucking bureaucrats...he'd fit in perfectly on the Citadel. Be great friends with Udina." A small laugh brought the team's attention to the desk in the room, and the woman, Giana Parasini, sitting behind it.
"I'm sorry for laughing, Commander. I've seen that look directed at Mr. Anoleis many times before. I only ask that you please don't follow through on it. The paperwork would bury me for a year." Shepard scoffed quietly. Parasini brought up her own omni-tool, pushing a file to Shepard. "Here. A map to Port Hanshan to help you out. Please, if you need anything, I'll do what I can to help. In the meantime, I'd suggest looking into the hotel bar. It might help take the edge off." The slight extra stress made things obvious to Shepard, who nodded slightly.
"Thank you, Miss Parasini. I'm sure I'll see you again before I leave." Giana nodded and turned back to her terminal as the team walked out into the main area. As Shepard pulled up his omni-tool, Anthony walked over to the large windows at the side of the building, looking out at the blizzard raging outside. Tali walked up beside him.
"The snow out there is so beautiful. Pity going out there would freeze you solid before long." Anthony nodded, staring out the window, still. "I mean, my environment suit is fully thermo-regulated, even more than your armor, and I'm STILL cold. Anthony, how are you not shivering?" Anthony just smiled.
"I'm originally from a part of Earth called Maine. It's one of the furthest north areas in the country I lived. It's usually much colder there throughout the year than the rest of the country, and the winters last longer. Looking out there right now actually reminds me of home, a bit." Tali just shook her head, under her breath saying something about 'crazy humans'. Anthony just grinned even more as Shepard came over to the two.
"Alright, you, two, quit playing kissy-face. Parasini sent a map with a message." Shepard held up his omni-tool, showing the map, a marker on the hotel bar pulsing slightly, marked with a note. 'Meet me here.' Anthony and Tali nodded, although the quarian did have a bit of a confused tilt to her head.
The four walked through the port, avoiding the security personnel as they walked, most of them looking as if they were just waiting for one of them to make a wrong move. Shortly afterwards, they found the hotel, entering and moving into the bar. It took a few minutes after they arrived for Giana to join them, and when she entered and spotted them, she motioned the team over to a quieter corner.
As everyone moved away from the dancing and the rest of the bar, Parasini turned to face the team. "Sorry about before. I couldn't say much that close to the administrator. Allow me to introduce myself again. Giana Parasini, Noveria Internal Affairs. Commander, I might be able to help you with your garage problem." If Shepard was surprised, he hid it well, simply crossing his arms and looking at Giana.
"Sure, but what does IA need me for?" Giana smiled as she waved off one of the servers.
"Simple. You're a Spectre. As Anoleis' aide, I'm a lot more visible and noticeable, here. But you, people want to forget." Shepard rolled his eyes, but Parasini continued before he could say anything. "Well, it's true. Noveria only cares about one thing: the bottom line. Spectres make the Executive Board nervous. Now, as I said, I might be able to help you, if you can help me. I've been assigned to take down Anoleis. Everyone knows he's dirty, but he hides it well enough that nobody can get solid dirt on him. I've gotten as enough circumstantial evidence to nail his ass to the wall for years, but I need something solid to make it all stick."
"Which is where me and my team come in?"
Giana grinned. "Exactly. Over on the other side of the bar is a turian named Lorik Qui'in. He got on Anoleis' bad side and got burned, but I can't get him to testify. If you can convince him to finger the administrator, I'll get you that garage pass."
John considered her proposal for a moment before nodding. "Sounds fair, Miss Parasini. I'll see what I can do." Giana smiled.
"Good. You know where you can find me." With that, she walked off, making her way back to the entrance to the hotel bar, disappearing down the short hallway.
Shepard and crew walked back out of the administrator's offices, following a cursing salarian and a smug human, the former in handcuffs, the latter being less than gentle about it. As she marched Anoleis off toward the Executive Board offices, Parasini paused, half-turning toward the group. She pulled a passkey out of her dress, throwing it through the air to Shepard, who caught it over his head. "As promised, Shepard. See you around the galaxy. I owe you a beer."
Shepard just shook his head and smiled, looking down at the garage pass. "Well, that's the good deed for the day, I suppose. Time to go and find out just what's going on at Peak 15." The group marched through the port to the garage. Upon reaching the door, one of Matsuo's officers stopped them.
"I'm sorry, but access to the garage is restricted." Shepard handed over the pass that Parasini had tossed to him. The guard scanned it with her omni-tool and nodded at the results. "Alright, that's genuine. Take care driving. The storm is supposed to be pretty bad out there in the Aleutsk Valley." The door to the garage slid open as the guard granted them access.
Shepard led the group into the garage, spotting the Mako at the far end, ready to go. "Looks like Parasini even arranged transportation for us. At least we have one per-"
"Shepard, I think we have a problem."
John looked over to Anthony, who had stopped in his tracks, pulled out his pistol, and was scanning the garage. "What's up, Snyder?" Anthony reached up with a hand and tapped his helmet, still turning and looking around the large room.
"Remember Therum? My motion tracker is being jammed..." Shepard nodded, pulling out his assault rifle, starting to scan the room, as well. A moment later, his shields flared as they took a heavy hit.
"COVER!"
The squad broke, each making for their closest piece of cover. Luckily, there were cargo containers still scattered around. Anthony pressed his back against the container, peering around it for a moment. "Commander, there's two geth heavies advancing from the far end, and I think I saw one of those hoppers bouncing around." Shepard looked over from his cover, checking the garage for a moment, ducking down behind the container as another sniper round pinged off the metal in front of him.
"Snyder, you're closer. That other Mako on the maintenance lift, see if you can get it's cannon online. Even if it's not armed, we can tie into it's targeting sensors, they should be able to cut through this garbage." Anthony nodded.
"Sounds good. Plow the road for me, then." Shepard nodded and raised his assault rifle, Tali and Liara doing the same.
"Alright. Covering fire. Now!" The three pulled themselves just far enough out of cover to get a line on the geth, opening up on the two geth destroyers. Anthony took that as his cue and took off at a sprint for the Mako. Luckily, it's hatch was still open from the last mechanic to come around.
Climbing in, he pulled up his omni-tool. Connecting with the vehicle, the display requested a passcode. "Fucking hell..." Loading some of the military hack programs he had downloaded from the Normandy, he set them to work as he checked a bit more of the APC. The turbines were mostly in pieces, as well as the eezo core, but luckily the cannon still had some rounds left in it, as well as just enough power to fire. His omni-tool beeped and the inside came to life. Anthony grinned and radioed the team. "Mako's online. Going loud." Shepard answered.
*Light them up!* Not bothering to answer, Anthony climbed into the gunner's seat. The controls activated as he sat, the cannon coming to life. Spinning the barrel to face the two larger geth, he sighted the first one and fired. A roar echoed through the garage as the cannon fired, sending a high explosive shell straight into the geth destroyer's torso. Mechanical pieces exploded outwards, knocking the other one over.
Suddenly, a hole appeared in the hull near him, his own shields flaring a little as the round barely skipped over them. "Shit...someone find that hopper, Mako's targeting sensors are on!" A moment later, he leveled the cannon at the other geth, squeezing off another round. It, like the other, painted the garage in small fragments of metal. Scanning the room for the last one, the garage now appeared empty. "Anyone see it? I don't have-" A mechanical chirping from behind him interrupted his report. Turning, he saw the hopper had pulled itself half into the Mako and was staring at him. "Oh, shit..."
The hopper narrowed it's gaze at him, a red targeting beam coming from it's flashlight head, straight to his chest. At this close range, his shields and armor wouldn't stand a chance at holding back the round, and with no room to move, there was no way to dodge it. The beam faded out, and as he heard the geth's weapon charging, he only had one thought. 'At least I go down fighting.'
Suddenly, the head of the geth froze as a blade broke through the light on the geth's face. Anthony jumped a little, not expecting that at all. The blade withdrew and the geth body slumped forward, laying limp across the rear seats. Anthony looked up past the geth to see Tali, knife in hand, staring at the body. She wiped the blade off on the seat before sliding it back into her boot. Anthony sighed as he slumped back into the seat. A moment later, he turned again, climbing over the geth and pulling himself through the hatch. "Thanks, Tali...I thought I was toast." Tali simply shook her head.
"Don't mention it. You would have done the same." Anthony smiled and nodded.
"True, but not with the same style. Knife through the back of the head is just too good." Tali looked away a little, and with her visor, it wasn't easy to see, but Anthony could have sworn she was blushing. Anthony sighed and walked with her back to the rest of the team. Shepard looked up.
"Snyder, you alright?" At Anthony's nod, he stood, tossing aside a piece of geth scrap. "Alright, then, everyone. Let's head to the Mako that isn't in a dozen pieces and try to make it through this storm. Snyder, good shooting. Two more for you."
"Hold it right there!"
The team turned to the doors, finding Captain Matsuo and two more of her officers coming in from the hallway. Shepard sighed as the officers leveled their weapons at them. Matsuo sent Shepard a hard glare. "What the hell do you think you're doing, Spectre? You don't have your total immunity like the rest of Council Space." John shot back an equally hard glare.
"What I was doing is defending myself and my team against a geth ambush! If you idiots stepped up security a little more and cut back on your damn 'privacy guarantees', then maybe you'd know what is going through your precious port!" Matsuo looked at Shepard with disbelief.
"Geth? You want me to believe geth were he-" She silenced her protest as she saw Anthony and Tali pulling the remains of the geth hopper from the other side of the maintenance bay.
"Proof enough for you? We're here investigating Matriarch Benezia. She's working with the geth." Matsuo shook her head.
"No...we would have caught that, there was no way to get them in, other than her shipping containers. And we scanned those! No element zero readings, no power sources..." Tali and Anthony stepped back with the rest of the crew, and Tali spoke up.
"They jammed our readings. It's possible they did the same to your scanners." Matsuo lowered her gaze.
"If that's true...and Benezia-sama brought them...there are many more, perhaps hundreds. I...I need to go and inform the Executive Board about this. I might be able to convince them to assist you."
Shepard nodded and turned towards the other Mako, calling over his shoulder. "You do that. We're going to Peak 15. Relay through my ship if you have news." Matsuo nodded and hurried out of the garage, leaving the team alone again as they walked. Climbing into the Mako, Liara sealed the hatch behind her. Shepard started up the APC, hitting a button to signal to the port VI that they were ready to depart. The doors in front of them slowly withdrew into the walls, revealing a long passageway.
The Mako started moving into the passage, they heard the door close behind them. Anthony looked over to Shepard. "Out of the frying pan, sir?" Shepard nodded as he gunned the throttle, the door at the far end of the passage opening, revealing the blizzard outside.
"And straight into hell..."
A/N: Ah, the first chapter to come out of the author/muse alliance. Some good action, a little naughtyness, and all around awesome. I know Liara is slightly OOC here, but I like to think I justified it well. As for the showers and all, thinking back to the first Normandy, there were no crew quarters or bathrooms on the ship at all, so I'm retconning them into a new deck below engineering. Just about everywhere else on the ship that I could think either wouldn't work for that scene, or was already taken up by something else. Also, an update on the vote. There is currently a tie for the lead between CLASSIFIED and TOP SECRET. What, you didn't think I'd tell you, did you? :) Anyway, if a tie does turn up coming around when the team hits Vermire, I'll use my mighty author powers to cast the tiebreaker vote. Again, I would like to thank everyone for reading. See you next time!
