Thanks for the reviews people, keep them coming! In response to one of the reviews, you should read more then, because certainly Shepard is NOT a Cerberus sympathizer.
Also, in response to Ashley crying, well she just saw half a colony get abducted by the Collectors, along with the man she has a crush on, destroy her in a furious ranting. I think that would be enough to even break her. Sorry, she is a human, not a robot, just saying.
Onward!
"Garrus, you should know that cigarettes help attract girls." Shepard smirked as he sat on his couch, relaxing while his best friend, Garrus Vakarian, grabbed a bottle of dextro booze from the table, serving himself a glass.
"Yeah." The turian replied. "I know of that because I already had my fair share of turians, asari and human women."
John's eyes stared at his friend with both amusement and mischief. "You are a goddamn walking scientific project then."
Both men started laughing really hard. "You should watch out for AIDS."
"Shepard, I am dextro remember? Levo diseases are a walk in the park for me." The turian smirked.
John smiled as he poured more whiskey to his drink while laughing. "Who said AIDS just applied to levo?"
Silence...
"I hate you Shepard." Garrus got up and began to walk towards the elevator, probably to go talk to Mordin, but John stopped him with his hand.
"Relax you idiot." Shepard laughed loudly. "AIDS just applies to levo, now let us go shit faced drunk alright?"
Archangel smiled. "Now that is why I am here."
Shepard needed a drink after Horizon. Ashley was really hit by John's ranting, as evidenced by the hurtful look on her eyes. This is why Garrus suggested an after-drink get together after the mission, which the commander accepted without even putting any resistance.
After the mission, the Illusive Man contacted Shepard about a certain quarian venturing into geth space. John came out with a grim face and just yelled at Joker to go to Haestrom as fast as possible.
Just after that, Shepard entered the comm room once again, and came out with fury in his eyes a couple of hours later.
FIVE HOURS EARLIER
Shepard was excited. He was going to talk to Daro through the comm for the first time. The credits she got from his message were greatly used. 'That's my girl.'
This chat would be great after his ranting on Horizon and Tali's stupidity in going to Haestrom. He was going to have a few words with her once he rescued her, again, from danger.
As soon as he entered, he said, "EDI, if you record this conversation, I will go straight to the AI Core and tore your intestines, cables or whatever and cripple you forever."
"Yes commander." Her voice echoed.
He sighed, but then smiled as the comm activated, unleashing the image of an office and a female quarian sitting, looking at him intently. Her eyes were wide and posture somewhat nervous.
"John, it is a pleasure to finally see you physically after all these years…." She joked.
Shepard laughed. "Oh yes, and it is my utmost pleasure…" he scanned her from head to toe, making the admiral blush slightly. "To see you again."
Clearing her throat, Daro stood up and approached her own comm. "Indeed, it has been chaotic these days here in the Fleet."
"Political bullshit?" He smiled at her, making the admiral laugh. "It is expected, it seems to plague all species."
"Hah! I know, these admirals are too close minded for my taste." She smiled beneath her helmet, scanning him. "You look good for being dead John; Cerberus sure did a great job on you."
The commander laughed. "I did not need their help to make me look good, already did remember?" He then proceeded to wink at her.
Daro just stood there, dumbfounded but clearly thinking too much. After a good five seconds, she cleared her throat, again, and chuckled. "You can say that."
The two talked about the old times and how amusing it was that both chatted in the extranet like teenagers. Shepard then made a few jokes that had Daro laughing heartily. Finally, a topic came out, one that changed their conversation.
"So John, where are you going now?" She asked while sitting on her chair again, tired of laughing and standing up.
Shepard's smile faded and his eyes went to the floor. "Geth space…"
His reply surely had the expected response from Daro. "What? Why?"
"Going to pick up Tali, she seems to be in fucking danger all the time, so damn frustrating."
Silence enveloped both of them. Shepard then, with his military instincts kicking in, saw Daro standing up, her hands getting balled into fists. He gulped.
She slowly approached the comm. "You are going to rescue that girl?"
"Yeah, she is needed for this mission…" His voice barely a whisper, somehow he knew where this was going. A part was happy; it showed Daro territorial and interested. The other part, however, feared how this could impact their friendship.
She just stood there. "I see…"
"Yeah…"
For the first time in years, there was an awkward silence. The admiral was now narrowing her eyes at him, suspicion and rage in them.
"Why are you going to rescue her? On geth space of all places! Is she that important to you John?" Her last words came out with slight venom. 'Even though she does not deserve death, this is going against my plans… if she needs to die, then she can just do that.' She thought.
Shepard just looked at her. "How can you say that? She is one of your people for God's sake!"
"Don't dodge my question." She answered coldly.
He sighed. "Look Daro, I am intending to recruit her for my mission against the Collectors, and she is a great engineer, I really need her." 'Shit, that came out wrong.' "Wait, I-"
"Fine, do whatever you want." She interrupted him, her voice cold. "But if you end up wounded, I will hunt both you and that igaj down." And with that, she severed the connection, leaving Shepard confused and mad.
"We are ten minutes from Haestrom's surface sir." The Kodiak pilot said.
Haestrom, a magnificent test of quarian architecture, it left Shepard extremely impressed. Even though they had not touched down yet, he still saw the buildings, leaving him fascinated. Such a magnificent sight of what was the quarian civilization before those fucking geth rebelled.
Shepard was, like many people, pro destruction of the geth. To think that billions were killed by those damn machines, it was something that made him remember those old classics he used to watch in his childhood. 'Hmmm Terminator, it sure fits.'
Indeed, it looked like the geth went Skynet on the quarians. He hoped that, when the reapers were defeated once and for all, the geth were destroyed and wiped out completely. If the quarians could not do it, then he would do it himself, those damn robots only caused trouble.
"Operation Damsel in Distress 3.0 starts now." Shepard chuckled at his own comment.
As expected, Garrus laughed. "3.0? Why is that?"
"Rescued her from the Shadow Broker agents, then the YMIR mech back on Freedom's Progress and now will here from geth."
Grunt grinned. "Sounds like your mate eh battle master?"
The commander shook his head. "Nah, just a friend that loves to be rescued all the fucking time."
His team, the storm troopers as he called them, consisted of Garrus, tactical genius and sniper, also best friend, Grunt, his protégé and powerful warrior, Miranda, great team leader and formidable agent, and Jacob, who insisted to be on the mission. Shepard only agreed so that the former Alliance marine could get wounded and stopped meddling in the important stuff.
"Touching down, approaching drop point zero four, hailing quarian party beneath us." The Kodiak pilot's voice chimed in.
Shepard smiled. "Alright, objective is clear, assist quarians in case of geth attack and extract Tali'Zorah vas Neema safely. We will divide into two teams, I will take Garrus and you Miranda will take Grunt and Jacob."
Miranda just looked at him. "Me? Leading?"
"What? You can't?" Shepard smirked.
The Cerberus agent just smiled at his show of trust. "Alright Shepard, you made your point."
"Yeah, so don't disappoint me or else I will leave you here to socialize with geth." 'Cold bitch with cold robots, would make a good socializing party heh.'
John then turned to Jacob. "And you, if you screw up this mission, you will fucking turn white when you see what I will do with you."
Taylor stared at him, nodding slowly. "Y-yes sir."
The Normandy was ordered to stay in orbit just in case geth brought reinforcements. Surely, those Skynet lovers had some platoon strength units in the planet, so it would be a matter of time before they could mount a full scale attack. The quarians consisted of a team of some twenty five people, mostly scientists, according to Cerberus. That was quite problematic.
As soon as the team got out of the Kodiak, they were greeted by two quarians, males. One had a green enviro suit while the other one had a yellow bluish one.
"Cerberus, should have known." One of them said. "What are you doing here? Are you going to kill us?"
They were both armed, but did not show any signs of getting ready for a fight, surely a sign of either extreme trust, which was highly unlikely, or fatigue, the most promising one in John's mind.
"No." Shepard said as he looked at his team, all of them calm and ready. "Would have done that already, I assure you." Both quarian's eyes widened. "We are here to help, so lead the way and fill me in on the details."
One of them nodded. "Yes and be careful with your shields, sun will fry them really fast."
"YEAH! NO SHIT DOCTOR!" Garrus complained as he ran for the shade the gate close by provided.
Their krogan friend grumbled. "So what? We will fight in the shade but no hiding!"
Shepard laughed. "Reading ancient human warfare?"
"Yes." Grunt grinned. "Extremely interesting your civilizations, particularly those Spartans, still have to get to those fromans."
"Trust me; you won't be disappointed with those guys, and they are called Romans." The commander just chuckled, but found himself proud of how the krogan took time in reading about ancient human warfare. After all, humans always fought each other, how come a warring culture like the krogan did not find it interesting?
As soon as they made it to the entrance, one of the quarian men nodded at a small room in the side. "We will be there, try to buy you and the other people some time before the expected geth attack, they must have seen us already."
John smirked. "Look up guys." He proceeded to point with his right hand towards the sky. "There is a surprise, courtesy of good ol' Commander Shepard."
The quarians looked up, confused, until one of them gasped, the other then did the same after a few seconds. "Keelah, a frigate…"
"Very well calibrated might I add." Garrus commented, a turian smile on his face.
John nodded. "Yup, those new thanix cannons will surely destroy any of the geth ships stupid enough to attack."
The krogan smirked while Miranda frowned. "Battle master, maybe if you could teach us one of your tactics from human warfare."
"This is no playground!" Miranda intervened. "We need to retrieve Tali'Zorah and leave as fast as we can."
The commander sighed. "Be quiet! Grunt, sure, I will teach one, pincer envelopment attack, small scale, and you Miranda." He turned towards the femme fatale. "Shut up or I will send the boss your head in a silver plate, got it?"
A scowl formed on her mouth, but nodded nonetheless.
He then turned towards the quarians. "As you can see, with that beauty in the air, we should just worry about patrols here on the planet, so stop screwing around and point us in the right direction." Both just stared at him. "I SAID MOVE!"
'Idiots…' Garrus thought, shaking his head in amusement.
Seeing Haestrom was… sad, creepy and sad to be exact. Quarian culture lost for centuries thanks to those damn, fucking machines. John was mad at that, but shrugged, his problem now was to rescue the sorry ass princess of the Migrant Fleet. Miranda and her group had moved through the east, reporting every few minutes or so with updates and sights of movement that was nothing more than the local fauna of the planet. Some weird insects that fried after getting into touch with the star's powerful rays. Garrus and John had laughed at their expense.
Shepard and his turian companion had talked to several quarians, all of them shocked at their sudden appearance in their so called "super secret" mission. Not so secret, as he got it from the boss. John dodged questions about how he heard of their mission, only saying he was "in the neighborhood" and wanted to "kick some AI ass."
Most of the marines were very eager to shake hands with the "Geth Slayer" or the "God of War" as a turian fan club from Pallaven had dubbed him. Garrus said he knew them as some hardcore fans that saw Shepard as the ultimate warrior... and most were female. They both laughed at that.
After reaching a hangar, Shepard heard the quarians call him "Elka'Deli," which his translator refused to put it in English. Maybe it was some curse, or a funny nickname. He would have to check that up with Tali once he reached her destination, less than forty yards away. Shepard had told the quarians to not tell her about his presence, that it was a surprise. They nodded, tilting their head in confusion but agreeing nonetheless.
"The sun is killing me." Garrus complained. "Why can't she be in some beautiful beach or something? Or at least in a forest? Nah, has to be some spooky, good for nothing planet full of shit."
John nodded. "Yeah, and we will probably fight some geth, the marines and Miranda were reporting movement up north, a few clicks away." He pointed his right hand forward. "Supposedly, the scientists have to go all the way over there to get the data."
"Sucks for all of us." The turian smirked.
The human nodded with a smile. "Big time man, big time."
A few quarians standing at the door, with reddish uniforms saw them approaching and just stared, not even attempting to stall them, as they recognized the most powerful soldier walking. Shepard grinned, this respect was good, especially with such an enigmatic species like the quarians.
"So much space, walls of stone…" They heard a feminine voice deep in the hangar. "I wish my friends could see it…"
Shepard smiled as he continued to approach, Garrus right behind him. "Think that is Tali." John said.
"I wish Shepard were here…."
Silence…
Garrus laughed silently. "Yep, definitely eh Shepard?" He then nudged his friend, gaining a growl from the commander in the process.
Finally, they saw her recording something, holding an omni-tool.
"SO? WHAT IS GOING ON TALI?" Shepard screamed, gaining the attention of the whole quarian group of scientists inside the hangar and the soldiers guarding it outside.
The young quarian engineer gasped and turned her head sharply, seeing Commander John Arthur Shepard, grinning like an idiot, with Garrus laughing out loud.
She glared at the scientists, and most took the message, leaving her to greet the guests.
As soon as they left, she ran and hugged Shepard with all of her might. "What are you doing here Shepard?" She asked. 'I.. kind of don't want… to let go.'
'Shit, this looks…. so fucking awkward.' "In… the neighborhood, now… I am suffocating…"
Blushing beneath her helmet, she let go and nodded at Garrus. "Glad to see you Garrus."
"Same here." He laughed, making the quarian blush even more.
The three began talking as soon as the awkwardness faded. Shepard and Garrus bragged about the eradication of several mercenary bases, and also about kicking the Collector's asses on Horizon.
Tali told them of her mission and how it was deemed "very important" by the Admiralty Board, which was why she was sent as the leader. The star on Haestrom was slowly dying, which was incredibly… bizarre, rare. Shepard was very interested in that. He kept asking about theories and how she knew, but she said that more data would be needed to confirm it, but she was betting on the star dying due to dark energy.
An hour passed by, and the talk finally ended with a few goodbyes as Tali had to get her team ready in case of a geth attack. Of course, this was all a genius behind the scenes. Shepard had cautioned Tali about possible resistance and that she should prepare defensive positions along the most important centers.
Shepard said he would provide support with his two teams. He also warned her of the low number of soldiers in her group.
"These guys are a joke." Shepard sighed. "Remind me to call the Admiralty Board and tell them to send more soldiers next time… fucking idiots."
John and his turian friend had been outside that same hangar for the past few hours smoking and trading stories. It was already getting dark, and Tali had left to prepare her team for the next morning. Both men were relaxing against the wall while several quarians were bartering around. A few wanted to approach them, but they were too shy to even stay a couple of minutes before leaving in a weird fashion.
Garrus smirked. "Ah, calling Daro an idiot I see?" He was trying to cheer his friend up, as he looked tired.
The commander laughed and tried to punch the turian playfully, but it was blocked. "Nah, she is no fool, but still, this decision of sending these quarians would have required her vote too… and she did."
Garrus thought about it. 'Strange…' He looked at his best friend. 'It is obvious that Tali wants him bad… but the other quarian…' The turian looked at the sky, thinking. 'Maybe she wants to get rid of Tali… like one of those weird schemes…'
He shook his head, chuckling at himself. 'Damn, I should stop calibrating too much, it's getting me crazy.'
"Where's Grunt? Jacob?" Garrus asked, trying to get those thoughts away from his head.
Shepard just smiled. "Grunt is sleeping inside the hangar, Miranda is inside talking to some Kal Regur and Jacob was sent back to the ship in exchange for Zaeed."
The turian nodded. "Nice exchange."
John nodded. "Tomorrow we will prepare for the escort. I will tell Miranda to sleep in the Kodiak, that fucking Barbie will probably complain about sleeping in a barren and good for nothing rock."
After a few seconds of silence, both laughed really hard, startling the quarians around them.
Sorry for the delay, but school has kept me busy, need these good grades to go study abroad. People that guess what does that khelish word, which Shepard can't figure out, will get… a character, quarian or otherwise, based on them in this fic. Quarians will be BIG in this story. Up to you.
Hope you guys enjoyed this short chapter, had it planned to be kind of slow but equally fast.
As always, a pleasure. Now, R&R!
