Halo belongs to 343 Industries and Mass Effect belongs to Bioware.
Nuary had no chance of getting the shower room to herself, too many people and too set a routine to try to squirm in between them coming and going. Honestly, it wasn't the crowd getting to her, it was the bloody way the other asari were going about their bathing.
"And I'd just blown the door off its hinges and was rear cover as our stack rushed the room, and then a singularity pops up right in the middle of us." Nuary listened in on two commandos reviewing their last training run. "And we're wondering why Jay'em would trying something so bloody amateur on us when 'Boom!' the whole damn thing ignites, and now half the team is blown outside the room and then we hear this 'Never saw me coming!'. So the entire team is flat on its ass and now contact mines are being shot all around us; we can't do much more then blink without them blowing... and there's Vakarian walking out the door, smiling at us. Bastard blew the singularity with a concussive round, so we didn't even have half the time we needed to react."
The commando kept talking as she washed the back of her team member, Nuary keeping her eyes glued to the wall as the sponge started working its way off the other commando's back and below her waist.
"Wait... he's using a warp mod for his impact shots? What a masochist. The effect field of those things really messes with the eezo core; he probably spends an hour a day tweaking it just to keep his long range alignment." The second asari spoke. "At least he can capitalize on a biotic team member rather then just shooting up singularity captures. He and Jay'em make a good team." She turned off the faucet and began toweling off her friend's back.
Ugh… damn lesbians. Nuary frantically running a loofah over her scalp crests as she tried to hasten her exit to the door. Crap like this definitely wasn't her father had taught her anything about. Did the word 'awkward' mean anything to these people?
"Oh, Nuary right? Jay'em's aide?" Nuary froze as she felt a hand on her waist. "If you'll pardon my intrusion, is it true that this 'super human' is set to accompany your team ground side?" The two asari turning their attention to Nuary. "And another rumor says you're supposed to be his escort. Easy to understand why, he'd suspect you least of treachery." Nuary feeling the commando's hand slip to her lower back.
"Oh, really, I couldn't tell you why!" Nuary snatched her back scrubber from the shower stand and frantically started brushing. "Just trying to be a help!" Failing miserably at keeping the sound of panic out of her voice.
The commandos just giggled as they watched her wrap up her shower, hastily putting her bathrobe and out the door without drying herself off.
Go ahead, yuck it up at the new girl's expense. Nuary realizing she'd forgotten her shower sandals as she walked down the hallway, feeling the cold floor on her feet as made her way to her quarters.
At least the teasing had gotten her mind off her big meeting this afternoon with her new 'responsibility'. She could agree with the commando's assessment of how intimidating she looked; with her in tow, the Master Chief might look like someone reasonable, not an indiscriminate killer.
Most everyone understood he had defended himself, but with his surreal origins whispered about and the caliber of the operatives he'd killed, Matriarch Lidanya had to do something to make him seem more grounded, as someone you talk to and reasoned with.
And the solution she'd tabled was Nuary being his guide.
Three hours later she was in the starboard armory, watching Tali wrap up the Chief's armor retrofit through a wall monitor as Mordin talked about his latest breakthrough to Lidanya's inner circle, trying to put him in a scientific light and not suspicion. Though Aralakh Company's commander was notably absent, Grunt wasn't one to miss events like this.
"The key was identifying the decay rates within the gamma field itself, and from there I could deduce the actual point of contact where our time-line was pierced. At the center was our present time line where he entered, but as you worked out to the far edge of the event, the time line became older, old enough for the radiation it contained to have aged past its half-life, which made the radiation field grow weaker in strength." Mordin gushed eagerly. "And as for the wildcat detonation of a drive core that actually propelled him into the eezo field, there are only theories, but the amount of wreckage from multiple ships in the adjacent area speaks to something highly experimental being conducted and ending in disaster."
"That's the facts about his arrival, logically deduced, but what about this 'other reality' you're talking about? The whole sticking point of believing this scenario is that." Xeno spoke from the back of the room. "Its just too much to believe, Mordin; his being kept behind closed doors, how little he says and what people are projecting, he's too much for people to accept."
"That's yet to be seen. Moreover, as for his point of origin, it's not an 'other reality', it's the continuum of the multi-verse; quantum physicists concluded that the model of a universe as inaccurate centuries ago. The Master Chief is the first piece of physical proof that our existence is linear to others, which has hitherto been uncontaminated by physical transfers." Mordin countered.
"Isn't contamination kind of a strong word?" Garrus spoke without taking his eyes off the monitor. "Wouldn't 'influence' or 'contribution' make him sound more like a gift from the powers that be?"
"The contamination is by the event, and not by the individual. His influence has yet to be realized." Mordin returned. "But a simple fact of his arrival is that whatever might have occurred in our lives before can no longer be realized; that path is now redacted."
Nuary couldn't hear them, not with what was about to happen. As soon as Tali wrapped up her work on the armor, she'd be hip to hip with this thing from now on.
Why couldn't they see what this was doing to her? Everyone seemed too distracted to see. Tali was eating up all this xeno-technology, Jay'em was star struck, Mordin was drowning himself in the event that brought this whole thing to be... at least Garrus seemed to be mindful of her. Just a reassuring smile and joking with that slick sense of humor, but it was enough.
Everyone watched as Tali wrapped up her final adjustments to the Mjolnir, her height not even level to his chest as she stood before him.
Whatever he was without his armor, at least being able to see those powerful, sad eyes of his gave some sliver of humanity to hold onto, but now it was behind a golden visor now. Add the wires hanging off him for the diagnostic, he looked like mechanization and not a man.
"Arms out to the side." Tali asked as she looked at her readout, seeing the feedback from the Chief's suit. The Mjolnir was spoken of as a creation onto itself since her and her team had begun to repair it; not like anything she'd come across in her life, Collector or Reaper tech included.
She had seen the carnage he had wrought on his would-be executioners barehanded, and the quarian in her was bubbling with anticipation about whether the man truly represented the suit he wore or not.
"Pressure on the fingers tips." The Chief replied, then feeling the tension ease as Tali re-adjusted the hydraulic pressure.
"A-and… we're done, Chief. Matriarch Lidanya is on her way, so I'll give you the full work-down now." Tali kept talking as she began removing the diagnostic cords. "First, your omni-tool will be having a rotating display, it will keep pivoted towards your visor at all times, and also it is set to receive tactical commands from your neural port." Like initiating a hack with your hand on your rifle, Garrus style.
"I need to tell you that to account for your new size we've had to buff out some of your suit's dimensions, but it gave us a chance to put some counter-measures in place with the new space. We'll be putting you through the paces on countering biotic and tech attacks, but suffice to say the threshold and insulation suite we've put in place will keep you save from any biotic or hack attempt thrown at you."
"How am I in danger? My suit systems aren't compatible enough to yours." The Chief responded.
"True, but any weaponry or equipment on your person would be affected if it weren't in proper field envelopment. Which brings me to the second fixture we were able equip; we've equipped each of those layers with higher-power junctions and a direct feed to your neural port, so you can adjust power to each layer as threats materialize. With a power plant like yours, there was too much advantage involved not to redirect some of the energy elsewhere."
"Or ignite it if I'm a threat?"
Tali paused at the blunt suggestion. She ran the possibility through her head, an action that had escaped her while she was caught up in this suit repair.
"Well, that security feature made for quite an introduction when we first started your armor's blueprinting... but not much for someone whose disarmed tactical nukes before. However, no. The Matriarch's not like that, and neither am I. That's why there are no lock-down switches or bugs built in, and I wouldn't have even if I were ordered. I am a Quarian, and none that ever called themselves by that name would ever tamper with the safety of another's suit." Tali rapped her knuckles off his chest plate. "Besides, even I'd agreed, an airlock and two hours of waiting would do the job just as well without wrecking armor of this value, hmm?"
A wave of disbelieving groans washed over the crowd in the observatory, while giving Garrus a chuckle. After this much time working under Jane and a talent like Tali's, at least she came by the attitude honestly.
"And this is the medical department's contribution." Tali held a small box up to the Chief. "This will snap onto your wrist and feed directly into your injection line for when you want to sleep pain free. This read-out starts the timer for when you rise, and the other triggers are voice activation and this red button for when others need to wake you in case of emergency. The timer will cease the anesthetic dispensing over 15 minutes, the voice activation over five minutes, and the button halts it completely and supplements with a dose of adrenaline."
A building tone from the entrance gave the matriarch's aural signature, giving Tali a chance to put her monitor down and stand properly beside the Chief as Lidanya entered, having dispensed with her work suit for formal wear for her first face-to-face with the Master Chief. Tali gave a bow, while the Chief turned a few heads as his heels clicked together and gave her a sharp salute.
"Good day to you, Master Chief." Lidanya returned with a curtsy. "I am Matriarch Lidanya, captain of the Destiny Ascension. I have been notably absent throughout your time aboard, if only that I wasn't the specialist that was required for your needs. I apologize for the attempt on your life; please believe I would never order such an action."
"I have given my orders to keep you secure from my crew, but I know it won't keep some at bay, which is why I gave the order for armor to be repaired and returned to you. Your trust is something I hope to gain with your time aboard."
"In the brief given to you, you'll understand that the Reapers are a formidable enemy, and this vessel's express mission is to destroy their agents. Against this enemy, the unique qualities of your armor have raised questions about its vulnerability and your reliability. Our enemy is a synthetic life form beyond our understanding, and the Mjolnir is capable of housing such a formidable entity, if my researchers results are accurate. The simplest mind would grasp the suspicion that brings you."
"As a soldier and as a commander yourself, I want you to understand how dire this situation is on a ship with no ties back to our worlds and a mission that asks so much time and uncertainty of us. I ask you also to consider my position... when I ordered your armor returned, untampered with and upgraded where possible."
"Your story and circumstance must be extraordinary, Master Chief, and I won't have you punished because of our fears."
Master Chief sharply saluted the matriarch; a very solid step in a very new direction.
"I hope to talk again, Master Chief, but for now there always matters to attend to aboard. I'll leave you to the caretakers that offered to be your guide while aboard." Lidanya bowed gracefully and departed with her staff, letting Jay'em walk in from the hallway quietly.
"Master Chief. About time we get out of your quarters and let you have a proper tour." Jay'em smiled up at him.
Murmurs rose from the observatory as the two of them departed the armory, suspicious eyes glaring at Jay'em as she handed over the keys to the castle.
Garrus could the feel the tension from everyone as he walked towards the armory himself, the incessant kind of suspicion that chews away at the faith in those around you. Opinions on the Master Chief were cutting a straight-line people's belief, who to trust, what they believed... Everything.
People's truest measurement seemed to come when they are dealing with what they don't understand.
Moreover, as much as he'd learned from Jane, Garrus was the first to admit that no one was like her enough to do what she does, that absolute faith she put on people.
Besides Jay'em, Mordin seemed the least suspicious of the Chief overall, seeing him as a proper soldier and safe provided the crew didn't make themselves a threat. He only needed to point as far as Grunt's survival to back his claim, a simple killer would have finished him while was still unconscious.
Garrus's own stance would have to be like everyone else's, Jay'em's belief in him or not... wait and see where the Chief took his first steps.
"A bit bold, weren't you? Most would be a bit cautious around someone like him." Garrus spoke glibly as he entered the armory.
"Attack me in front of a camera? Unlikely. Besides, I'm no good at diplomacy; I let others know where I stand and we'll let things go from there. He already knows I'm one of the few who can fix the Mjolnir, nd he seems the practical sort." Tali started cleaning shop.
"He does?" Garrus crossed his arms. "I won't ask how you know that, but if anyone could read body language through a half a ton of armor, it would be you. Now come with me, I have someone that wants to meet you." Garrus showed her the door.
"Oh, fine. Can this be quick? I have work to get back to and the show the Master Chief gave me before the suit adjustment was enough to give me all the 'personal time' I'll need for a month. Keelah, how does someone who says so little have that little inhibition?"
"Maybe he missed his armor. I feel like a piece of me is gone without my armor on."
"Ha! Is it really your reason? I've seen you without a shirt on; you look like a swabbing rod for the thermal pipes without it."
"Oh, now that was below the belt. Now, what work are you talking about? We're not due to arrive at the base of operations for another week." Garrus poked. "Pet project?"
"Yes, if you must know. Lidanya said no exploiting his systems, but you can't repair something that extensively without learning something. You don't even need to grasp the proof of concept to make it work; how do you think we fired up his power systems without knowing how his shielding worked... ugh, not just the shielding, and his power-plant had no liquid coolant system at all, and then there is his energy sword…" Tali stopped and stared at the floor in frustration.
"So much, Garrus. There is so much more we could have learned. In the mean time, what we can work on is our air filtration systems. It wasn't invasive or a weapon system for the matriarch to be worried about. The Mjolnir's air system isn't just an emergency air supply, it also can cleanse toxic air into something breathable, which we quarians also have, but it's another feature that is most valuable to us. These 'air scrubbers' in his air system connect to his suit lining and actually pull build-up away from the skin and expel them with his respiration. Could you imagine a quarian suit with that ability? No weekly epidermal scrubbing, just putting the liner through decontamination every few months. It could save us hundreds of hours a year in suit maintenance; it was so effective that even the dried blood from his injuries was being removed slowly."
"Here we are." Garrus smiled as they arrived at the lecture hall.
A couple steps past the entrance revealed Xeno at the podium and her staff in the stands, most of which Tali recognized from the entry medicals she and the others received. They smiled pleasantly enough, but something seemed... off about how they were looking at her.
"Garrus, what's going on?"
"Xeno. Ladies." Garrus put both his hands on Tali's shoulders as he greeted the medical group. "One over-stimmed quarian as promised."
"Garrus?"
"You weren't about to let Mordin elbow in on your work, and there's only one way to outwork a salarian. Even if you don't agree with me, think of the medical benefits the other quarians will get on your account." Garrus smiled and walked to the door. "Besides, we need you. I need you, and now the Chief does too. It's too much to risk you burning out this early on."
The door closing behind him cut off Tali's frustrated expletive mid sentence.
Even Xeno would have her own hands busy with her own discoveries, mostly the "bio-foam" they'd salvage from the Master Chief's utility belt. Damn stuff was an operation in a can from what she'd seen, and he'd seen how many deposits of this stuff there were in him from checking his body scans... medi-gel couldn't have handled that kind of trauma.
Half way down the hallway, his thoughts returned to what she had said as he saw his reflection in a window. Thermal swab, huh? The Hierarchy had been correct in their emphasis on a soldier's leg and back strength, leaving the upper body lithe to keep the limbs quick, and his own regimen had pretty much reflected that ever since.
But after seeing what the Chief had done to Edge's team was giving him second thoughts... mixed with a bit of chagrin.
Garrus pulled up his last picture of the Chief after his retrofit. He had skimmed the dimensions of the Mjolnir quickly, and other then the power plant and armored plating, most of what you saw was the man himself with a few centimeters of outer coverage. For a human's build, his limbs were big when compared to his upper body... what was that animal Jane used to describe it? Gorilla?
However, she had smiled when she said it.
Garrus gave his arms a quick flex in the glass as he mulled it over.
Nuary tried to slow her breathing as the she felt the rumble of footsteps come to the entrance. Heavy footsteps were normal now that the Ascension had so many krogan aboard, but the lack of sound as the Chief's feet fell was a quick reminder of what preceded the silence last time.
She put a plastic grin on as the door unfurled, her eyes re-widening at the green carapace that was protecting him now. Seeing this thing on a monitor was no substitute to seeing it first hand.
"Hey, almost didn't recognize you with clothes on." Nuary cracked as the Chief came to a stop, but just got an amused smile from Jay'em. Then an awkward pause.
"Okay, that sounded better when I thought of it earlier."
"Master Chief, this is Nuary. She'll be your ship guide and administrative support when I'm not around. She'll be treating you to lunch and this afternoon she'll start you on the advanced features of your omni-tool. After that, my newest candidate, Garrus Vakarian, will be giving you your first range practice." Jay'em explained, resting her hand on his arm. "I've some feathers to smooth out with the chain of command until then. Take care."
On Jay'em's advice, Nuary kept to her strong suits as she walked to the mess, filling the Chief in on the additional tech points Tali hadn't covered, trying to keeping talking and not let herself slip into thinking about the situation too hard.
"And adjusting the power levels in your omni and defense layer is coming from the same neural junction, so looking at the relevant icon on your HUD will adjust power output of your choice." Nuary rolled her explanation into her question. "I know you've... experienced some biotic effects yourself, but what were your thoughts about it?"
"Are you asking if you could take me?"
"No. NO! Not at all. No. Just looking for a... I don't know perspective? Everyone's basically been told what it is, what to expect from it, but you got the whole "never seen it or dealt with it" circumstance and still did alright."
"You have to stack biotics with conventional weapons to make it count."
"That's it?"
"That's all I need."
"Geez, you must've driven your girlfriend nuts." Nuary opening up a touch, though the Chief wasn't as fast at a reply as she'd hoped.
In addition, in that moment of silence, her thoughts broke the facade of technical support as she wandered what her words might have touched off.
"Doesn't it... hurt?" Nuary waved her hands around her head. "Just, the doc was saying that static thing you've got going on in your head would be debilitating even for a krogan. Don't you want it to stop?"
The Chief finally turned to her as he walked, maybe doing a summary on where the question was coming from, as best as Nuary could figure. She knew she couldn't play those games of subterfuge and manipulation like a salarian, so she just wouldn't try.
"Being drugged slows you down." Chief's visor turned back to the hallway.
"Oh. I see." Her thoughts went back two weeks. Armor wouldn't be enough would it? Not if they really tried. Not if they had an airlock and two yours... how could he even sleep with that kind of reality? Well, he wasn't right now, was he? For God's sake, what a mess... not as if he'd asked to be here.
"Well, maybe after a while that'll change. When they get to know you a little better?" Nuary smiled up at him.
The pair finally reached the mess, a cul-de-sac of hallways leading into the tables of asari technicians and sailors, beckoning a universal pause to the chatter once the Spartan walked in. Just brief glances before pretending to go back to their meal, conversations continuing quietly.
A quick scan of the room revealed their table inside the VIP section, and surrounded by a stack of reinforced stools usually used by krogan to handle the Mjolnir's weight. A cart loaded with steaming platters was waiting beside it already; it seemed the cooks weren't going to chance an encounter just yet.
Everything encased in a room of glass and as far away as it could be in a busy mess, but it was a start.
"I'm kind of meat and potatoes girl myself, I take after my Dad that way, so I ordered everything earlier. I also asked for a side of some kind of vegetable, 'cause you've gotta have that to." Nuary eyed the food. "Most asari might seem like steamed vegetable and herbal tea sorts, but there's always outliers."
The VIP section was as advertised, lavishly decorated and reminiscent of a garden patio. Nuary knew it was much more then decoration; the splash of the waterfall was a wonderful counter to the acoustics of any sound proofing, and a short thought too how much interference the high moisture content provided against...
Nuary snapped herself out of her curiosity as she sat on her oversized seat and began filling her plate. All of those measures were well out of her hands, she had a guest to entertain, and whatever this meat actually was, and it was certainly making her mouth water. Moreover, it would be nice just to see him eat for once, every body seems a bit more grounded when they sit and eat as everyone else does.
"Oh, let me." Nuary stretched across the table to the Chief's plate and cut a few pieces off what he'd taken. "Figure anything strong enough to drop you should drop me in just a few seconds." Trying to sound jestful.
Well, it was one way to earn some trust. And what had she just done? Poison testing? Rash perhaps, but the guest that had just walked through the door stopped her thought mid-chew.
"Ha-ha. Finally found you!" Grunt sat down on a stool with a clatter. "Got a proposition for you, human."
Oh, Jesus fucking H Christ. Nuary broke into a cold sweat while her stomach turned over. What the hell is he doing in this wing of the ship?
The Chief just sat there, outspoken as always. His head only canted towards the door slightly as asari security looked in to see if a fight had broken out.
"You're a worthy opponent, human, not the scum Edge told us you were. And it seems you like wrestling krogan naked, ha-ha!" Grunt slammed his fists on the table as he laughed. "I command Aralakh Company, the best fighters the krogan have, and I want you to fight with us. My last battlemaster showed me a real warrior needs a purpose, and that choice is yours since you don't have anybody giving you orders anymore."
"You want him to just welcome a horde of krogan after you attacked him?" Nuary squeaked.
"Why? That idea scares you?" Grunt grinned at him.
"If it did, my eyes would be wider." The Master Chief replied.
Grunt's chortling laugh filled the air again. "So, how about it? My krogan know better then to attack you, they have their orders from me. With an asari Spectre and Garrus tagging along, we'll be kicking every kind of ass and everyone on board will see you stand with us. Our enemies won't know what hit 'em."
The Master Chief just sat and thought.
But just him thinking of his own accord now, with no war or people of his own that needed defending. Now on a ship full of aliens, some vying for his trust, others trying to kill him, and most naturally mistrusting of a giant soldier spawned from split space.
It was all his choice now, with no orders, no UNSC, no Spartans... no Cortana to take care of anymore. But he'd never stop being their representative, their soldier, now and always. He'd read everything Jay'em had given him on these "Reapers", of Anvil, of this new humanity and the Systems Alliance, and how far behind they were in their preparations to fight this new threat.
Moreover, right now, who was the only one to show them how to fight a hyper-advanced, genocidal superpower?
The Chief finally offered a handshake across the table, enthusiastically accepted by Grunt as he pounded the table with his other fist in celebration. And just in time for Jay'em to arrive at the doors, panting lightly after her sprint to get here.
"Is everything alright in here?" Jay'em eyeing Grunt at the table.
"Better!" Grunt helping himself to a slab meat on the table. "Welcome to Aralakh... aw hell. What do I call you, human?"
"Master Chief Petty Officer Sierra-117." He spoke as Jay'em sat down beside him with a smile, curious about this new detente taking effect.
"You got a number and not a name? Damn, I know exactly what that's like!" Grunt's eyes seemed to twinkle. "I like you more already!"
And for the first real time, Grunt looked Nuary, and then turned back to Jay'em.
"But couldn't you have gotten him someone hardier for a plaything? She looks kinda scrawny."