Author's note: my humblest apologies to everyone for the longer than planned hiatus. my laptop's keyboard died just I got started on this chapter and by the time it came back from being repaired, I was into the next lot of assignments.
Tali'Zorah Nar Rayya
"Officer on deck!"
Tali jumped as, in response to Adams' shout, the engineering team turned towards the door, standing at attention. Tali turned to see the Commander standing at the door, looking quite embarrassed. "At ease everyone." He said, "And Adams, please don't do that again. You know I'm not one for formalities."
Tali turned back to her terminal as Adams and the Commander began talking quietly.
"So, Tali, how are you settling in?"
Tali jumped at the sound of the voice behind her. She had been so immersed in the schematics she was looking over that she had completely forgot that the Commander was in engineering.
"This ship is amazing!" she gushed, "If this is what all human ships are like, it's no wonder you're expanding so fast."
The Commander laughed. "The Normandy's a prototype. State of the art. Now, I hear that you've been practically living in engineering since you came aboard."
Oh no! Have I done something wrong? Am I not supposed to be down here?
The Commander seemed to notice the change in Tali's body language. "It's okay. You haven't done anything wrong."
Tali relaxed. "So… I can stay in engineering? In between ground missions I mean."
The kind smile disappeared from the Commander's face. He sighed. "Tali, I wanted to talk to about that. Are you sure that it's what you want?"
"Yes, Commander. My people created the geth. No matter how much we've suffered because of it, they're our responsibility. I owe it to my people to do whatever I can to stop the geth from hurting anyone else." Tali stopped, surprised by her own eloquence.
"I'll make you a deal then, Tali." said the Commander, "I'll train you until I'm satisfied that you're not going to get yourself killed. If you still feel the same way afterwards then you can be part of the ground team."
Tali nodded eagerly "thank you, Commander. I won't let you down"
"Don't thank me yet." said the Commander "Meet me in the cargo bay at the beginning of second shift and we'll put you through your paces."
When the Commander had said he would 'put her through her paces', Tali hadn't realised just how literal he was being. She had shown up at the appointed time to be greeted by an incredibly cheerful Commander Shepard who had immediately told her to start running. It was half an hour before he finally called her over to the armoury and dropped a pistol into her hands. "This is loaded with practice rounds, however, I expect you to treat it as though it wasn't." he gestured towards a target that had been set up at the far end of the cargo bay. "Now, let's see how you go at ten metres." Still trying to catch her breath, Tali squared up on the target, making sure to keep the gun pointed at the ground at all times. She had been taught how to shoot before she went out on her pilgrimage and was relatively good at it. She sighted and fired six shots, leaving six spots of fine blue chalk on the target. None of them had hit the bulls-eye, in fact, only one had hit inside the inner ring. Tali's shoulders sagged. It was a terrible spread and she knew it.
"Okay, that's about what I expected." said the Commander, "your technique isn't bad, but there are a few points where you can improve." The Commander made a few minor corrections to her stance and her next set was better but before he let Tali fire a third set, he sent her on another few laps of the cargo hold.
Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko
As Shepard slowly manoeuvred the mako into position in front of the cargo bay doors Kaidan double checked the straps of his safety harness. Behind him, in the gunner's seat, Garrus looked unconcerned by what was about to happen or at least Kaidan thought he did. The Turian's facial expressions were so alien that he just couldn't tell. Wrex, who was sitting at the back of the mako, looked even less worried although Kaidan did note that he had fitted two of the human sized safety harnesses together so that they reached around him. Kaidan had been on plenty of mako drops with Shepard in the year they'd served together and as such he knew what was coming. The cargo bay door opened and Joker's voice came over the tank's intercom. "Ground team, you are clear for drop in three, two, one", Kaidan clutched the armrest of the seat. "Mark!" Shepard gunned the engine, hurtling them off the ramp towards the surface of Edolus. As always, Shepard waited until the last possible moment to activate the thrusters, making the impact with the ground merely jarring rather than fatal.
"Kaidan, do we still have a lock on that distress signal?" asked the Commander.
"We're still getting it. Its 10 clicks northeast." Shepard grinned and gunned the engine, sending the mako surging forward over the uneven terrain.
Under the Commander's skilled but terrifying guidance, the mako soon reached the source of the signal to find the area littered with dead Alliance marines. They climbed out of the mako to investigate. Kaidan checked the dog tags of the nearest few corpses. "Commander, it looks like they were from recon division. I'm not sure what killed them though. The wounds don't look like they were…" Kaidan stopped as the ground started to rumble. Wrex's head jerked up from the marine he was inspecting. "Everyone back in the tank!" he roared, "Now!" Spurred on by the urgency in Wrex's voice, Kaidan sprinted at Wrex's heels towards the mako's access hatch, closely followed by Garrus and Shepard. "Drive!" shouted Wrex as Shepard settled himself in the driver's seat, "or we'll end up like that other lot." The reason for Wrex's urgency became clear as an enormous worm like creature erupted out of the ground in the spot that the mako had occupied only seconds ago. It was a thresher maw. "Open fire Garrus, give it everything you've got." ordered Shepard. Immediately, the mako shook as Garrus fired the main cannon. "Kaidan, keep an eye on the rear cameras. Tell me if that thing moves."
Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams
Ashley wasn't happy. Not only had she been left behind while the others investigated a distress beacon planet side, but she'd been left to oversee the quarian's training session while the Commander was gone. She noticed that said quarian was beginning to lag behind the brutal pace that Ashley had set. "Pick up the pace, bucket-head!" She shouted. Intellectually, she knew that it was wrong to take out her frustration on Tali, but the Commander had said to push her to her limits. To her surprise, the quarian did manage to speed up again, despite the fact that she was obviously near exhaustion. The suit rat has grit at least.
After five more minutes, Ashley called the quarian over. "Okay, bucket-head." she said, handing Tali a practice pistol, "go stand at the thirty metre mark and show me what you've got." Ashley had seen the quarian's first attempt from ten metres several days prior and so was surprised when she put three of six shots into the bullseye. Of the other three, two had hit inside the inner ring. Ashley had known alliance marines who would be hard pressed to match a spread like that with a pistol at thirty metres. Clearly Tali was a fast learner and the Commander a good teacher.
"Not bad bucket head." Said Ashley somewhat grudgingly.
"I could have done better if you'd let me catch my breath first!" snapped Tali.
"Do you think the geth will wait for you to catch your breath?" Ashley shouted back, "You don't go into combat completely calm and rested. You have to learn to compensate for that."
"W-wait, what?" stammered Tali, "That's what all the running is about?"
"That and to make sure you're fit enough to keep up." said Ashley, "Now, the Commander said that he wanted you to begin training with a shotgun today…"
Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko
Kaidan breathed a sigh of relief as the thresher maw finally fell to the ground. Behind him, Wrex let out an ear shattering roar of triumph.
"That beacon was a standard ship board distress beacon." Stated Shepard, "Those marines were traveling in a grizzly. There's no way they brought it with them."
"You think it was a trap?" asked Garrus, "someone planted it on that maw feeding ground as bait?"
"Exactly." said Shepard grimly, once again parking the mako next to the distress signal. "Alenko, see what you can find out about the distress beacon." ordered Shepard. "Make sure that it's disabled before we leave. Garrus, Wrex, help me collect dog tags and omni tools from the marines.
After a couple of hours the mako was back in its spot in the Normandy's cargo hold. Kaidan had collected serial numbers for most of the beacon's components, but hadn't found anything suspicious. The mission debrief was short. Kaidan could tell that Shepard was troubled by signs that someone had gone to so much trouble to set a trap for alliance marines.
Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams
Ashley had caught Kaiden on his way to the Normandy's showers and got a quick rundown of what happened on Edolus. She was seething by the time he finished.
Whoever set that trap is going to pay. Even if I have to hunt them down myself.
Ashley headed to the armoury to work on the special forces rifle the Commander had given her. It was something she found herself doing often since they had left the Citadel.
After a few minutes she heard footsteps behind her. It was the Commander.
"How'd the training session go today, Williams?" he asked.
"Better than I expected, skipper," she replied, "She's a fast learner. I'll give her that." Ashley stopped, appalled by how informally she had just addressed a man who was not only her commanding officer but a war hero to boot.
"What's your assessment of her combat readiness?" asked the Commander, seemingly unconcerned by Ashley's breach of protocol. Ashley thought about it for a moment before replying. "Her marksmanship is at a respectable level. She picked up using a shotgun pretty quickly, but then again, once you learn how to hold one properly there's not all that much to it. But I definitely wouldn't put her in the field yet. I don't think she'll respond to orders quickly enough and I think some hand to hand training wouldn't go amiss. "
Shepard smiled. "I agree totally, Chief, and I was hoping that you could give me a hand with the next part of her training."
Ashley got the impression that this was a request and not an order but agreed anyway. She still wasn't convinced that the quarian was worth the time. But the Commander was and she would follow his lead.
