A/N: So, last chapter I had to delete then post again because it hadn't updated correctly. Oops. Eh, whatever. The chapter is posted, that's all that matters. So, I decided to wait a few more days to post this one. It's nothing much, just something needed to push things forward without rushing the story majorly.
Thanks for any reviews, follows, or favorites on last chapter. Those really give me motivation to write more often. I actually never expected this story to do as well as it's doing now. So again, thanks.
Anyway, on to the show!
…
The next two days went by fairly slowly while waiting for the new Mako to arrive. It was just the usual boring side quest stuff that happened. Shepard took me for a few of them. She also went to see Rear Admiral Kahoku to inform him about his marines.. I cautioned him not to go off half-cocked after the fucks who did what they did to his soldiers. Hopefully he takes my advice and at least takes a decent amount of help when looking for those Cerberus bastards.
I would love to help. Give old Timmy a big 'fuck you' even before meeting him.
Other than that, nothing noteworthy happened. No intense firefights, no Rumple popping up out of nowhere. I actually enjoyed the somewhat downtime. I sure needed it. Since getting shot and sent to this universe, my life had been going non-stop.
Now though… now I was standing next to Shepard just outside of the docking cradle as an Alliance engineering team was loading the new Mako into the Normandy. It looked exactly like the old one before it was blown up and turned in to scrap by thresher maw acid. I subconsciously prayed that this one at least handled better. Or maybe Shepard was just a really shit driver.
Maybe the Alliance should try to weaponize that acid stuff though; it eats through anything… Oh God! The Hammerhead would barely last a second against a thresher maw. I pray that we don't have to use that thing beyond Project Overlord.
"Commander Shepard."
I half-turned to the voice that came from behind us, hand reaching for my Phalanx in my pocket on an instinct that I didn't realize I had. I relaxed once I saw it was an Alliance officer. Figuring it would be good to get into the military mindset, I saluted the… Rear Admiral going by what was on his hat.
He nodded to me with barely a glance, allowing me to take up the causal military stance. He walked right up to Shepard. "Commander, Rear Admiral Mikhailovich. I command the Sixty-third Scout Flotilla. This ship and yourself were slated for my unit after the shake down run. Before the Council got their claws, paws, tentacles… whatever, they got them on our ship and you. I'm here to preform a surprise inspection of the SSV Normandy. She is still an Alliance warship. I tend to see that she is still up to snuff."
I knew he was familiar… dick.
Shepard was clearly surprised but didn't really show it beyond raised eyebrows. "Well, Admiral, Captain Anderson made it clear to me that my assignment came from way up in the Brass. They say jump, your suppose to ask 'how high'."
"Remember that when I tell you to jump. I don't begrudge the politicians decision to throw you to the Council. It's an… opportunity. I do begrudge this over-designed piece of tin."
"The Normandy is the best ship in the galaxy, Sir," I said with forced neutrality. He is gonna piss me off, I can already tell.
He narrowed his eyes at me. "That's a matter of opinion, soldier. This ship would be useless in a stand-up fight. All this ship is is an experiment. Billions of credits used that could have went toward a heavy cruiser. But, no. We had to make nice with the turians."
"Sir, let's not waste unnecessary time. Allow me to lead you into the ship," Shepard said, cutting me off from replying to that.
"It would be appreciated, Commander." Mikhailovich glanced over his shoulder at me as I followed behind him. "Commander, he saluted me yet does not wear any Alliance clothing. Why is that?"
My hand subconsciously twitched towards my pistol as Shepard replied. "Oh, that was kinda last minute, Sir. Ironwill asked if I could get in contact with Captain Anderson, get him into the Alliance Marines. He's only been in the Alliance for two or so days, and we have already wasted time waiting for a new Mako; getting him Alliance reg clothes was bottom on our list."
"It is something that should be rectified, Commander. If he wants to play the part of a soldier, he should look the part." He glanced over at me again with a look of indifference as we entered the CIC. "Not some emotionally troubled teenager."
'Emotionally trou-'? Oh, I'm five seconds away from hitting his ass off the Citadel with a Throw orb. Or turning him into a human pretzel.
I wasn't able to respond as the Rear Admiral turned and began his inspection of the ship. Glaring at his back, I leaned against the wall by the airlock and waited for him to return.
Twenty minutes passed when I heard footsteps coming close from the other end of the CIC. Mikhailovich walked into my sight and stopped in front of Shepard, who was talking with Joker.
"I expect to hear that everything is in order, Admiral," she said, turning around.
Mikhailovich shook his head. "I'm not happy, Commander."
"What seems to be wrong, Sir?"
"Where to start? Oh, how about the CIC. The design is poor. Putting the commanding officer behind everyone else is not efficient. What if he needs to speak to an operator towards the bow?"
"I believe that's a modified turian design," I said as I pushed off the wall. "Allow the commander to oversee everyone in the CIC has done the turians well so far, and they have been flying through space longer than us. Plus, they are regarded highly for their military."
The Admiral stroked his short, gray beard a moment. "A reasonable goal. But something like that should have been studied in a lab, not on a frontline ship." He looked back to Shepard just after she rolled her eyes. "Now that drive core of yours. A hundred billion credits of Element Zero just so this thing is able to move without giving itself away. We could make drive cores for twelve thousand fighters with that money! What good is it to hide for a few hours anyway?!"
I let out a harsh breath of restraint before I replied to that. "Stealth can end wars quickly. Drop a unit behind enemy lines can lead to offing a general without the risk of hundreds of men and women losing their lives in battle. Or the Normandy could scout out territory, make sure a fleet isn't flying into an ambush. Hell, the STG wish they had a ship like this."
"Maybe, maybe. But that's not the job of a proper warship! We're suppose to find and kill the enemy fleet, not count how many times their garrison goes to the bathroom! And we need to talk about your crew, Commander… Krogan? Asari? Turians?! What are you thinking, Commander?! You can't allow alien nationalists free access to Alliance equipment!"
Oh, I should have just went below deck…
"Listen!" I said angrily, stepping in front of him. "Those 'alien nationalists' are our allies. I consider all of them friends. I'm sure the Commander here does too. That turian? He wants to bring down Saren for disgracing his people. The asari? She's a prothean expert who Saren wanted to capture, using force to do so. The quarian? Saren's men ambushed her because she had evidence that proved him guilty of attacking Eden Prime. The krogan? …Well, can't say much. We're going against a tough enemy, and he wants a tough fight. He has too much honor to betray us. So, if you have anything else you want to complain about because you have barely progress beyond the neanderthal mindset of combat, then I suggest you walk off this ship before I hit your ass with a shockwave out of the cargo bay doors!"
I noticed the red light being cast on the bastard's Alliance uniform and glanced down at myself. My biotics had flared while I went on that little rant, double the intensity they've reached before. The red glow with the black hood over my head must have made me look quite intimidating, but if it did, Mikhailovich didn't seem fazed. Actually, he was scowling at me.
"You do that," he growled, "and your career will be over before it begins."
I let out a chuckle that could have been mistaken for a scoff. "Good thing my military career has barely started then." I pointed to the airlock behind him. "Now get the hell off our ship!"
He glared at me then looked up to Shepard behind me. "I will make sure to let the Joint of Chiefs know that you have allowed… animals on your ship." With that, he walked into the airlock and out the ship.
Knowing he was talking about me, I let out a breath of frustration and slammed my fist into the wall, biotics allowing me to dent the metal slightly.
"Ey!" Joker called from his chair. "Stop denting my baby!"
I blew air out my nose, biotics dimming.
"Ironwill." Shepard said in a concerned yet reprimanding tone.
I began walking away. "Not now, Shepard. I need to go shoot something… forty-seven times perhaps."
…
I forced the omni-blade into the batarians neck, shooting him twice in the head just to get out my anger. His holographic body vanished as I charged another enemy, a salarian, and hit him in the throat with a biotic punch. It was hard enough that the neck bend at an abnormal angle and the hologram disappeared.
I'd been down here a while now. I felt the ship leave the dock and Joker announce it was ten hours to Feros. That was about an hour and a half ago; I've been going non-stop. I didn't bother getting any other weapons than the ones I've had on me—omni-tool and Phalanx—since I came down to the range immediately after Mikhailovich left. The intensity of the simulation had me practically bathing in sweat. I had to take off my hoodie and shirt to not overheat.
I raised my pistol and fired several shots at an orange batarian hologram. Only two shots hit before it disappear and not because the sim registered it as I kill. I dropped my arm to my side and looked over to the divider wall. Shepard was leaning against it with an amused smirk, wearing an Alliance blue tank top and black sweatpants.
"Come to chew me a new one?" I asked in a neutral tone. "Or was turning the thing off just a way to fuck with me?"
She hopped over the wall and walked over to me. The hard impact of her hand across the back of my head followed as she reached me.
"Yep," I groaned painfully. Woman has inhuman strength or some shit. "I deserved that."
"Yes, you did," she said, putting a bit of space between us. She got into a causal fighting stance.
"The hell are doing?"
"I want you to spar with me." She made a 'come here' gesture. "Now come on."
"I don't hit women."
She laughed at that. "No, you're just being a pussy. You're in the Alliance now, gender doesn't mean much." She jogged over to me and gave two weak punches to my bare chest before going back to her previous spot, bouncing on the balls of her feet. "Let's go, Private."
Sighing, I got into a basic stance. While I was not ignorant to fighting, my level was more on 'advanced bar fighter' and certainly not 'trained N7 marine'…
I'm fucked.
Shepard came at me with a quick jab that I side-stepped. I threw my own punch toward her left shoulder area. Instead of contact, my arm was grabbed. Next thing I know I'm hitting the mat, staring up at the ceiling in a slight daze.
Shepard tapped my head with the tip of her foot. "Get up, soldier. You're a marine now. Marines get. Back. Up."
I hit her with a weak shockwave that only caused her to take a few steps back, more out of surprise than anything. Getting up, I cracked me neck on each side. "I don't know if you know this, Shepard, but I've had zero," I made a zero with my index finger and thumb, "hand-to-hand combat training."
She smiled a mischievous smile, bouncing on her feet. "Then let's get to training."
…
"No, Ironwill! Wrong! Footwork. Lead with your left! No! Wrong!"
That was pretty much what I had been hearing for over an hour. Shepard was apparently serious when she said to get training. And she had been kicking my ass. A few times literally.
To my great relief, Shepard stopped and put her hands on her knees. "Okay, I think that's good for today." I collapsed on the floor at those words, panting. "You did good, Ironwill. Actually, it seemed like you've had some training before."
"I… can assure you… I have not… had prior training. But thanks… Commander…" Damn, I'm winded.
"Shower up and get some rest. You're gonna be on the ground team when we reach Feros."
"Got… it."
Shepard left at that, heading for the women shower room. After another five minutes of laying on the ground, I finally got up and went to get one myself then something to eat.
Walking out of the elevator, shirt on but hoodie held over my shoulder, I saw Shepard had the same idea as me. She was facing away from me, so I figured I might have to get a reaction out of her.
I opened the cabinets with biotic portion MREs with my biotics slowly. Pulling one out, I closed the cabinet quietly and moved the MRE over toward Shepard. She was indulged with something on her omni-tool, not noticing the purple glowing silver bag floating toward her. I finally got her attention by causing the bag to tap her in the head.
She looked down at the bag with a bob of her head, then moved her eyes toward me. "You know, people usually say 'Hello' or 'Hey' to get someone's attention."
I sat down across from her, using a small Pull to bring my food over to me. "Now where's the fun in that?"
She rolled her eyes, a faint smile coming to her face, and went back to her omni-tool. We ate in quiet for a bit at that. I didn't mind though. I couldn't think of anything to talk about. Well, that was until Shepard spoke up.
"What do you remember before getting shot, Ironwill?" she asked.
Certainly wasn't expecting that question. Must be about my amps or something.
"Well, I remember my childhood," I said with a shrug.
"That's it?"
"Oh, no. There is a lot more than that. I pretty much remember everything from when I could to now. If this is about the two amps, it could have been just a week missing from my memory."
"It wasn't entirely about that, but I guess that helps…"
I raised an eyebrow at that. "Why else would you be asking?"
The Commander rubbed the back of her neck causing her ponytail to wave a little. "Oh… uh, just to get to know the crew. I've talked to everyone fairly well. Expect you."
Leaning back in my chair, I crossed my arms. "How about you ask a question, then I get to. Deal?"
"Sure. Where did you grow up?"
"Earth, little area in Pennsylvania. Parts of Montgomery and Schuylkill Counties. Now, where did you grow up?"
"Earth as well. In Philly, actually." Ah, so her background is earth-born. "My mom, my sister and I lived in a nice place. Dad was gone a lot of the time. You know, us humans pretty recently finishing the First Contact War."
Whoa, wait! She's not an orphan? Well, there is another thing that has changed, but it should be interesting. Now, I barely know anything about Shepard.
"So, what was your family like?" she asked. I hoped I didn't miss anything she was saying.
I shrugged. "Eh, pretty average, but it was a big family. My grandparents on my mom's side had eight grandkids. My sister and I had six cousins, two aunts, and one uncle. We really didn't interact with my father's side of the family, maybe once. Anyway, my uncle was in the military. He was the one who taught me basic firearm skills." I leaned forward, resting my elbows on the table and putting my chin on my folded hands. "What made you want to join the Alliance?"
For the next hour and a half, we talked about ourselves. She told me about the time her sister dropped a pure thing a sodium into a toilet. Thing reacted so violently that the thing exploded. I retold my account of when my sister came up to the high school when I reached my senior year and she was a freshman, and I put a shit ton of tennis balls in her locker. They were still finding those things three days later. We discuss our favorite music; I like good rap, rock, and hip-hop; she liked rock and hip-hop herself, the 'older' kind. It was fun. Hearing her go on about odd things that happened in her life was… calming, I guess. I particularly enjoyed her story about this guy at N-School. Some muck was hitting on her for days, even during training. What she did was place male homosexual magazines under his cot with a bag of dick-shaped candies.
After, we both went to get some rest before arriving at Feros. She went back to her cabin, I jumped into a sleeper pod. I rather enjoyed our talk. It was nice. The first real bit of normalcy I had had since arriving in this universe.
…
I opened my eyes but wasn't greeted to the inside of a pod. Instead, I was surround by a light blue while standing on a glass floor. My hands balled up into fists as I narrowed my eyes.
"Rumple," I growled under my breath.
"Yes, dearie?"
The half-wit was behind me, sitting at a bar. Literally. He had set up a counter, stools, shelves filled with several alcoholic beverages, even a holographic bar tender. This guy had way too much time on his hands.
"What do you want, you pathetic imp?" I asked, crossing my arms while lowering my head into a glare.
He just patted the stool next to his with that smile that made me want to punch everything in site. "Come! Sit, dearie. Have a drink."
"I don't drink."
"I do believe they have some liquid for light-weights. Pretty sure it's called 'waaaatttteeer'. Do you want that?"
Giving him a flat look, "Was there a point in bringing me here? Or did you just want to annoy the fuck outta me?"
Rumple tapped his chin then wiggled his fingers. "Most from column A. A little from column B. And this is just a regularly scheduled check-in to make sure the universe is still holding together with idiots like you running throughout the Multi-Verse."
I scoffed at him. I wasn't going to cause the universe to explode or some shit. And I sure as hell didn't need this fuck popping up whenever the hell he wants. Rumple was insane. I would not trust anything he said or did. He had to have some other motive. He seemed powerful-hungry to not have one.
"So, Rumple, I'm here; the universe is fine right now. Can I go back to sleep?" I said, annoyed.
"So you can dream about a certain brown-haired marine?"
"The fuck are you going on about?"
He swirled his drink in his hand before answering. "You know that little feeling inside your chest while you were talking to her? I think more sentimental beings call that 'love'?"
I stared at him before bursting out in laughter. It was a solid thirty second before I regained my composure. "You're saying I have, what, developed feelings for my commander? That's a good one, Rumple. Fuckin' golden!"
"Say what you will, dearie. Doesn't change what you feel inside."
"And you suddenly care?"
Rumple let out his typical insane giggle. "Hardly. I simply mentioned it because I knew it would bother you." He pulling out a pocket watch with a golden chain and checked the time. "Well, it looks to be go time, dearie. Bye!"
…
My eyes opened up to the glass door of my sleeper pod. Several crew members were getting out of theirs to start their shifts…
That fuck kept me in the Dream State all night?! I'm gonna fuckin' castrate that bastard with a hot, rusty butter knife. You don't fuck with a man's sleep!
Figuring I wasn't going to get any more sleep, not with Feros coming up within a few hours, I got out of my pod and stretched. Oddly, I felt completely rest despite being in the Dream State for… ten minutes? Interesting.
Well, time to get ready to kill the ugliest fucking plant. Ever. Period.
…
A/N: Well, Mikhailovich is a dick, Rumple is still a dick, and Feros will be up next. What fun!
I hoped you enjoyed. Leave a review if you did. Maybe even follow and/or favorite. It would be much appreciated.
lPriime, signing off.
