***Author's Note***
To answer some concerns from the last chapter: Yes, I meant for the children
to be absent. I wanted the focus on Garrus rather than them. Perhaps I should
have written a line or two so everyone didn't think I went all Home Alone on them,
but meh, you live and learn.
Also, I do plan to use more than three in a squad, as
you'll see evidenced in this chapter. On Omega, Shepard didn't entirely feel comfortable
with Miranda yet, and so saw no reason to take her with him. Their butting heads is
quickly coming to an end, but like two circling lions, neither wants to show any
sign of weakness, or compromise when they don't have to. As to the fun guessing game
of "Which Quarian Goes Where?" (probably a Whack-A-Mole derivation), the answer, as
my favorite author the late Robert Jordan would say, is RAFO. (Read and find out! XD)
Thanks again for all the reviews, adds, PM's, and general commentary. You all are
simply fantastic!
-The Price of Victory-
"An easy mission! I said I wanted an easy fucking pick-up mission!" Shepard yelled over the gunfire as he unloaded into the next unfortunate bastard to enter the room. Kuril had betrayed them, and now Shepard found himself tearing through the man's personal army to confront him and take Jack. Miranda nodded furiously in agreement, and Zaeed just cackled as he fired into the FENRIS mechs approaching.
"Come on, Shepard, you really expect any mission we get sent on to be a breeze? The Illusive Man's going to make sure you're worth every goddamn penny he put into you!." His laughter continued, and Shepard scowled. They stopped the troops and moved forward, tapping the access panel on the far wall. The door opened to reveal an empty observation room, a single terminal on the far side. Miranda approached it and began to access the prisoner lockdown controls, when a man in a white coat rushed from the corner.
"Stay away from that console, you bitch!" He rushed at her, raising his pistol before she had time to turn to him. Shepard fired off a series of three short bursts from his rifle, all catching the man in the chest and flinging him back into the corner he'd run in from. Miranda turned to him, a look of pure shock on her face slowly dissolving into a cruel smile.
"Finally coming around to like me, Commander?" she grinned as she spoke.
Shepard shrugged as he popped the rifle's thermal clip, jamming a new one in it's place. "Please. I just really hate doing paperwork."
Miranda laughed as she turned back to the console, overriding the security lockdown, and unlocking the door to their left. "There. The security lockdown is lifted. The Normandy is free to leave whenever we like. And..." she paused as she observed the prison complex layout hovering over the terminal, "Warden Kuril should be here, two rooms ahead."
Shepard nodded. "Good, lets go end this. I'll take a rain check on going down aboard another ship in flames."
Garrus continued to fumble with his omni-tool as the doors to the main battery slid open, and he stepped inside. He'd been analyzing the new Normandy's weapons systems, and while they were top-notch for a human para-military organization like Cerberus, they were no Turian Special Forces cannons. Slipping the armband that held the omni-tool's processor off of his wrist, he moved to set it down on the stack of crates in the battery and gave a start. A young girl was sitting cross-legged on top of the crates, looking up at him. Not just any young girl...her face was too familiar...
"You...ah...Serra?" the young girl nodded, and he sighed heavily, sitting down on the crate next to her. "I, ah...I'm sorry about what happened back there. I never meant for you and your sisters to...shit, your sisters! Are they alright?"
"They're fine. Commander Shepard helped me get them out of the hiding place Alex had made for us while they waited for this ship to come pick you up."
"Where are they now?" Garrus looked around as he asked.
"They're back out there," she said, nodding towards the deck outside the battery. "A woman named Kelly said we could use her bed. It's small, but I let Myra and Daeva sleep there. I usually watch the stars from the Observation Room."
Garrus' heart ached to hear the girl speak. Her voice simultaneously carried wonder and fascination, as when she mentioned the Normandy or watching the stars; and at the same time the steeled resolve of someone who had seen far more than they ever should have. She was a slaver victim and a war veteran, stuffed into a thirteen-year-old body.
"How did it happen, Archangel?" Her eyes held his with pain and fury, and though tears welled in them, she didn't sob or shake, and her voice did not waver. "How did they know where we were? How did they kill Alex?"
Garrus' heart wrenched with grief and anger, and he looked into her eyes as he spoke. She deserved that much. "Sidonis betrayed us. He told the gangs where we were, what defenses we had, how many people we had...everything."
Her eyes widened in disbelief. "But...why? He was...he was always so kind to us. Why would he do it?"
Garrus did look away then, across the room to the far wall, as if he could bore a hole in it just by staring at it hard enough. "Money? Safety? Cowardice? I don't know for sure what they offered him, but ten good men died because of him. And if it weren't for Ripper, a few innocent girls would have too. He turned back to her, placing his arm delicately around her shoulders. She leaned into him, but her eyes stayed fixated, boring into the wall as his had. When she spoke, it was in a cold whisper that startled even the turian she leaned on.
"I want him to die. I want him to pay for what he did to Alex...to all of us."
Garrus squeezed her closer. "So do I, kid...So do I." He looked down at her face, and she brought her gaze up to meet his as he continued. "But Alex wanted you to go to Earth. He knew you wouldn't be safe on Omega with or without him, and I'm not about to betray his last wishes by keeping you aboard a warship. As soon as I can, I'll get you three back to Earth and somewhere safe, alright?" She frowned, but nodded, understanding it was the best course of action.
He grabbed her shoulders and turned her to face him, holding her gaze intently as he spoke.
"And I promise you, Serra. I will find Sidonis. And he will pay dearly for what he's done."
She nodded, the tears gone, the sadness replaced with cold fury that burned through her tiny irises. And Garrus shuddered.
In the hallway outside the main battery, Kasumi Goto sat slumped against the bulkhead. She'd brought with her a small figurine that Garrus had had on him when they evacuated from Omega. Kasumi had grabbed it as it had threatened to slip out of his pocket, out the door of the shuttle, and was coming to return it, secretly hoping it may give her something to talk to him about, but upon hearing the girl's voice, she'd stopped just shy of the door and pressed against the wall.
As she'd listened to Garrus tell the girl how they had been betrayed, and how much his team had meant to him, she had slowly slumped down the wall until now, where she sat cloaked but seated on the deck outside the door. She had had enough trauma watching him almost die after saving her life, how must he feel having seen ten of his best friends perish?
She looked down at the figurine in her hand. Would he really want another reminder of that? A physical reminder of all he had lost on that hell-hole of a space station? Shaking her head softly, she stood and walked away from his door, back to her quarters. Reaching under her bed, she pulled out an old wooden box, an heirloom of her family's, and the only thing she had left to remind herself of where she had come from. Opening the lid, she placed the figurine gently inside, and closed the box.
He may not want a reminder of what had happened down there, but she did. He had saved her life on Omega, and whatever he wanted to be called now, in that one terrifying moment, he had been an Archangel to her.
"Begin research log. This is Tali'Zorah vas Neema nar Rayya, chief engineer of this strike team, initiating a research log for our mission to the planet Haestrom in the Dholen system." Tali continued to speak into her helmet's recording system as their shuttle touched down on Haestrom's surface. Her vocal emitters were disabled, so she spoke only to herself as she recorded the beginning of their expedition. "Haestrom is deep within geth space, and as such this mission is classified extremely dangerous. Possibility of encountering geth activity is high, and we have a contingent of twelve marines plus Squad Leader Kal'Reegar vas Neema and myself."
Amys stepped out of the shuttle first, onto the hard stone slab of the landing pad. She cautiously reached her hand out into the sunlight and snapped it back as her shield's screamed at her. "Ha!" she cried triumphantly. "Say it, Tarel!"
Tarel'Venn sighed audibly on the wide-link channel. "You were right, Amys'Vael. And I was wrong."
Amys turned back to the group, hands on her hips in proud victory. Kal just laughed, and signaled everyone out of the shuttle as he spoke.
"Alright people, we've spent the last two hours going over this so it should be easy to remember. Tali, Amys, and Tarel are Team One, they'll be doing the research and taking the readings. Kassha, you and the rest of the marines are with me, we'll be providing security in case anything goes wrong out here. And as our genius astronomical advisor here has demonstrated," he gestured to Amys, earning a soft laugh from behind the woman's visor, "stay out of direct sunlight as much as possible, it'll fry your shields." He motioned to Tali as he continued. "Tali'Zorah is audio-documenting this entire mission, so she'll be noticeably soft-spoken while we're planet-side. Amys that means you get to relay to the fire team any needs you all have, and call people out for being idiots."
"Oh, my favorite!" she excalimed, to a round of laughter from the other marines. Tarel let out a soft groan.
Kal nodded at her enthusiasm, then barked to the marines. "Alright, everyone. Look sharp and we'll be in and out of here in no time. Let's move out!"
The team moved forward, and as they followed the path towards the ancient quarian colony, Tali continued to speak. "Entering Haestrom colony, buildings of stone, rooftops indicate astronomical monitoring equipment. Dholen would have been a normal star at the time of this colony's foundation, but perhaps it was displaying behavioral anomalies even then? I'll have to compare their data with ours."
She led the way toward an observational tower as Kal stationed three marines at the gatehouse they'd passed, a rear guard for the ship. Kal nodded to her at the door, and she began to open it as his team fanned out around the outside. Entering, she accessed the old terminal and quickly pulled up a layout of the colony, uploading it to everyone's omni-tools. Tapping her comm link, she spoke to the squad.
"Alright, it looks like the main observatory is in the back of the complex. If the colony has any concentrated data on how the star was acting back then, it will be housed there."
"Copy that, ma'am, looks like we have a minor problem, though. Something's happened to collapse a huge pile of rock in front of this door," as Kal's voice came through on her channel, her omni-tool formed a small blip on the map hovering above it.
"I see. Alright, give me a moment, Kal." She looked around the room, examining all the ancient equipment as she flipped back over to her recording software. "It seems some activity has toppled a stone column, preventing further access to the colony. We need to find some way to clear out a path..." her eyes came to rest on a pair of demolotion charges, ancient but usable, lying on a crate nearby. She smiled in memory behind her visor as she spoke. "It looks like the ancient colonists left behind some demolition charges. Shepard once used a mining laser to clear a path through some similar rubble back on Therum...maybe I can do the same thing with these charges."
Ten minutes later, Kal and Kassha had set the charges to the pile of rubble and made for cover. As the timer counted down, Tali watched excitedly, and when the dust cleared from the blast, a path lay open to them. A small round of cheers went through the soldiers, and Tali nodded approvingly. Thanks, John, she thought with a smile.
"Alright," Kal spoke up again. "Looks like you have a straight shot from here to the observatory. Tarel and Amys, go with Tali and get the data you need. Kassha and I will stay here and watch your backs." Tali nodded, and the three of them opened the door behind the rubble, stepping further into the colony. After a few minutes of silent walking, they reached a small building, a sort of second gatehouse, and entered after working the access panel lock.
"Entering a second gatehouse now. Keelah..." The room the door opened into seemed well-preserved. A colorful tapestry hung on the far wall, lockers lined a near wall, and an ancient terminal sat next to the door they'd need to get through. Tali walked over to a small workbench, where a single geth arm lay unmolested for the past three centuries. "To think...our ancestors walked these halls with uncovered heads. So much space...walls of stone...I wish my friends could see this..." her heart clenched in her chest as the next words escaped her without thought, "...I wish Shepard were here..." Closing her eyes, she shook her head softly, she'd have to remember to edit that out before submitting it to the Admiralty Board, but it didn't make it untrue. Accessing the terminal, she opened the door and saw across a large courtyard the observatory.
"There we go," Amys whispered, and Tali nodded, the three of them moving forward. It took them only a minute to cross the quiet, empty courtyard, and when they reached the door, Tali examined the locking scripts.
"Extremely advanced locking scripts, this observatory was likely the reason the colony was founded. Inside should be extremely useful data, but I'll have to hack the lock. Shouldn't be too hard, it will just take a bit of ti-"
"Team One, come in, this is Kal'Reegar! Team One do you read me?" Tali quickly switched to her wide-range comm.
"Copy, Kal'Reegar, this is Team One."
"We've got geth incoming, ma'am! A patrol ship picked up our shuttle's EM bleed and tracked it here. They've destroyed the shuttle from orbit, and I don't know how long until they get troops groundside, but whatever you're looking for in that observatory, you'll need to get it fast."
Tali looked above their heads as a geth dropship flew past, back towards where they'd come in. Swearing, she turned back to the lock and continued to work the code. Amys' voice whispered softly as two more geth dropships followed the first.
"Keelah, this isn't going to end well..."
"Oh this is not going to end well..." John mused aloud as the three of them looked to the enclosed walkway above. Warden Kuril lay dead and bleeding at their feet, but he could have been an empty storage crate for all the attention anyone was paying him. He, Zaeed and Miranda had looked up at the audible scream of rage to see Jack...the woman named Jack...charging toward five Blue Suns troops, guns raised.
They hadn't had time to pull the trigger. She had crashed into them with a biotic force the likes of which John had never seen in his life, flinging them aside like rag dolls. Swearing, he leaped off of Kuril's perch and ran for the stairwell up to the walkway. As the trio rushed back toward the Normandy, they found Jack pacing as she stared at their ship. And was she...growling? A Blue Suns merc raised a rifle behind her, and Shepard held his own aloft, taking the man down with a quick burst. The gunfire snapped her out of her trance, and she looked to the dead merc, then back to him.
"What are you doing?"
He wasn't in any mood for it. "Oh, me? Just can't help it, I love shooting people. What the fuck do you think I'm doing? My name is Shepard, and I'm here to get you out."
Her laugh was acid. "Ha! Get me out? On a Cerberus vessel? You'll have to give me one hell of a good reason."
"This station crashing into a planet isn't a good enough reason?" He turned to Miranda and spoke sarcastically. "I knew we should have brought the engraved invitations, people always want an engraved invitation." To his surprise, the woman smiled...barely...as she kept her weapon trained on the convict.
"Fuck you, I'd rather die on this station than set foot on a Ceberus ship. Thought you'd feel the same way, Shepard," she spat the name at him. "Even in a cell word gets around about heroes. They say you shut down a ton of Cerberus ops, now you're working for them?"
He bristled. "I don't work for Cerberus, Jack. They're funding my mission, and if you think I like it any more than you do, you're delusional. But human colonies are being abducted, and right now Cerberus is the only one doing anything about it."
She crossed her arms, leaning back slightly as she spoke. "Well la-de-fucking-da. Look who's white knighting to the rescue, kidnappers and torturers. Still not convinced to join you. Whoever runs Cerberus, whoever did all this shit to me, isn't going to send you on a fucking charity mission. There's something for them to gain here. There always is."
"I've no doubt there is," he said confidently, and Jack's eyes widened for a moment in surprise for the first time since they'd started speaking. "And when I find out what it is, I'll be sure to do everything I can to deny them it, but in the meantime, I'm saving human lives and fighting the Reapers, and I need your help to do it." A long silence hung between them, and Jack spoke quietly.
"Alright...say I come with you...I want something in return. I bet Cerberus has loads of files, tons of information on all the twisted shit they've done. I want full access to it."
Miranda laughed. "Absolutely not. I wouldn't let you near my own omni-tool much less the entire data archive of Cerberus operations."
"Hey, in case you hadn't noticed, I wasn't dealing with you, cheerleader." She turned back to Shepard, eyebrow cocked in question.
"I'll give you access to the files that specifically mention what was done concerning you, Jack. I'm no fan of Cerberus either, you apparently already know that, but I've got a ship full of Cerberus crew, and two Cerberus agents working with me against the Reapers. I'm not going to throw them all into the fire just to recruit one biotic powerhouse."
She shifted her stance before replying, assuming a more defensive posture. "Alright, fine. I can live with that." Miranda fumed beside him, but he would talk to her later. "But you better not be fucking with me, Shepard."
"I'll give you access as soon as we're clear of the station, Jack. But we need to get out of here n-"
"Commander!" Joker's voice broke through his personal intercom, and Jack tilted her head to the side in confusion as he touched the side of his helmet and spoke.
"Joker? What's wrong?"
"I've got an incoming QE relay from the Illusive Man, he says it's an emergency. He...he says it's about Tali."
John's eyes turned stone-cold, and he switched off the comm link, rushing forward past a bewildered Jack, who stuttered, then rushed to catch up to them. Joker had the airlock open and waiting for them, and Shepard rushed past the pilot as he ran full tilt through the CIC, heads turning in shock to watch him fly past. Rushing through the tech lab, he blew past a startled Mordin who barely had time to raise a hand in greeting as he made his way to the Conference Room, slamming the control panel with one hand and tapping his foot impatiently as the room wireframed and projected a holographic version of the Illusive Man.
"Shepard. That was sooner than expected. Miranda must have been right..."
John ignored whatever he was trying to get at as he responded. "What's wrong? Joker said it was something with one of my former team."
The Illusive Man nodded. "Yes, Shepard. Tali'Zorah vas Neema is currently on a high-risk recon operation on the planet Haestrom in the Dholen system...beyond the Perseus Veil."
John's blood ran cold as the man referenced the same words he'd read in Tali's secret message to him. "How do you know that?" he ventured carefully.
The Illusive Main took a drag on his cigarette before replying. "Because, Shepard. I've been keeping tabs on Ms. Zorah for a bit of time now."
Fury welled within him, and he unleashed it on the seated man with his insufferable knowing smile. "Why? To use her as leverage? To take her out if she got in the way of you controlling my every fucking move?"
The man's smile didn't falter, and John was even more enraged. "No, Shepard. I was keeping tabs on Ms. Zorah because Operative Lawson advised me it would be wise to do so. She made it clear to me after your...reunion...on Freedom's Progress, that Ms. Zorah was obviously a person of interest to you, and that if we were able to inform you about what's happened to her, you may begin to trust our intel a bit more."
An icy hand gripped his heart. "What's happened to her?"
"Her team has come under fire from a geth force, one that's about four times larger than her own squad. She's in trouble Shepard, and she doesn't have much time."
John turned away from the man, relaying the coordinates from Tali's message to Joker as he spoke on the ship-wide. "Joker, get us here. Now."
"Aye-aye, Commander. Plotting a course for Haestrom." After closing his eyes for a moment, John turned back to the seated man, looking him square in the face as he spoke.
"I owe you an apology."
For the first time since he'd met the man, John could swear he saw surprise cross his face. When he spoke, it was confirmed.
"Well...I...appreciate it, Shepard." The loss of composure was over in a heartbeat, and he was back to his aloof, calculating self. "I keep trying to tell you we're on the same side. Maybe one of these days you'll start to believe it. Go recruit Ms. Zorah, and when you're done with that I've forwarded a few more dossiers you may be interested in pursuing." He quickly tapped a button on his chair, and the relay cut out, leaving John standing in the empty Conference Room. He closed his eyes, clenching his fists as he hung his head toward the deck below him, praying to nameless gods he hadn't believed in since he was a small boy.
"Please...just...please..."
"Come on, you stupid bosh'tet!" Tali yelled in frustration as she continued to work the observatory door in vain. Amys and Tarel were swinging their weapons, firing in every direction as geth tried to close on their location. A dropship had come across their courtyard and doubled back, to the chagrin of the three quarians working on the door. Kal had tried to warn them, but between the defense his men were holding and the door lock giving her trouble, Tali hadn't had much time to react. She crouched down now, making herself as small a target as she could to any geth that may have a shot at her as she frantically worked the door.
"Tali'Zorah, how's it coming?" Tarel's voice rang inside her helmet, tension evident in his tone, and she called back.
"I've almost got it, just hang on a little longer."
In answer, his sniper rifle rang out three times in succession, three geth behind them falling to its wrath. Amys fired her assault rifle indiscriminately, taking out geth after geth as she deftly slid from cover to cover.
"I've got them held back, Tali, if you can just-ah!" a geth sniper round caught him in the chest, and Tarel flew backwards off of his high perch, landing some twenty feet out from Tali, completely exposed. Scrambling, he rushed back to cover, taking two more hits in the back as he vaulted to safety. The door sprang open at Tali's fingertips, but instead of inwards, she rushed to Tarel. Amys kept the geth at bay while Tali looked at his wounds. He was bleeding from three different gunshots, section seals already clamping down.
"Amys, fall back into the observatory!" Tali yelled, hooking Tarel under the arms as the geth advanced quickly. He swatted her arms away and shoved her back towards the observatory. Their eyes met for a long moment, and he spoke quietly, coughing behind his mask.
"Not...not this time, Tali." He reached at his side and grabbed his sniper rifle, heaving himself back up onto the stone he'd used for cover. Bleeding out onto it, he lifted the rifle and began firing again, taking them down as he yelled to her. "Get in there...get what you need. I'll...I'll keep them off of you as long as I can. Keep them...away from the door."
Tears streamed from her eyes as she nodded and ran for the observatory. Entering, she slammed the door shut and locked it, sinking to her knees after doing so. Amys put a hand on her shoulder, and she looked up to meet the other woman's questioning gaze. Tali shook her head softly, and Amys lowered her eyes in prayer for their lost friend. Standing furiously, Tali crossed to the terminal in back of the observatory and began a full download of all available information. If the Admiralty Board wanted data about this star, they would get their damn data, and she would be done with them.
She tapped her comm link to hail Kal'Reegar, and heard gunfire and explosions on the other end. "Kal? Kal! What's happening out there?"
"We're holding them off, ma'am, but we're taking heavy casualties. Eight marines plus Kassha'Shal so far." Tali squeezed her eyes shut in pain as he continued. "My men and I are falling back to the far side of the courtyard. Are you three inside?"
"Amys and I are in the observatory. We...we lost Tarel."
"Then may the Ancestors bless his return to them. At least Amys is safe with you... We can cover you, keep the geth off the door, but I don't know for how long." The door behind them started to whine as geth platforms began to hack it, and Tali moved next to Amys, training their weapons on the door and waiting. Waiting for the end.
"Just get here fast, Reegar. We don't have long."
Tali turned her head to Amys, both women's weapons trained on the door they knew would open at any moment. "Amys...I'm so sorry..." to Tali's surprise, the woman laughed, though there was a definite sadness in the gesture.
"You're sorry? Tali...I'm sorry. I'm sorry I couldn't get you back to Shepard. That's what I wanted most for you. You're like a sister to me, Tali. I just...wanted to see you happy after all the pain I'd watched you go through."
Tears welled in Tali's eyes, and she readied her pistol on the door again as she spoke, quietly but assuredly. "You are my sister, Amys'Vael. Whatever happens, we fight and die as family." Amys nodded, and they looked back to the door as it burst open, at least five geth platforms visible in the entryway. Their weapons sang a chorus of bullets, and one by one the platforms fell as they were funneled into the enclosed entryway. Seconds seemed like hours, and the tide of platforms seemed endless, but they were prevailing. Hope edged its way into Tali's mind.
The bullets slammed mercilessly into Amys' stomach, throwing her backwards into a pile of rubble in the corner. Eyes wide with shock, she clutched at the wound for only a second before reaching painfully for her rifle and opening fire again as she bled. Tali saw the woman she knew for her sister fall, and rage overtook her. Stepping forward, she fired round after round into the optical units of five different geth. As she reached the door, she ignited her omni-tool, readying a massive electrical discharge, and swung her fist forward, slamming it into the glowing eye of the nearest geth. The shock went off, and turned the geth platform into a small bomb, exploding and flinging back all the other geth at the door. Using all her remaining strength, Tali heaved the door shut again and overloaded the locking mechanism with her omni-tool. They were trapped now. Nothing short of a demolition charge would open that door, and doing that would certainly bring the roof down on them. Tali had created a tomb for them, but it would keep the geth occupied.
Rushing to Amys, she applied medi-gel to her wound as the woman clutched her rifle tightly to focus her mind elsewhere.
"T-Too fast..." she stammered, and Tali wept silently as she did what she could for her sister's pain. "They were...too fast. We didn't...make them that way, did we?"
"No," Tali said softly, cradling Amys' head in her lap. "They've upgraded themselves over the years, finding out better ways to.. wait, you're distracting me, you bosh'tet!" The soldier in her arms laughed, a sharp, broken sound interrupted by fits of coughing.
"Didn't want you...to focus on this." Tali was about to respond when a large boom echoed outside the door. A few seconds later, another one sounded, slightly to the left. "Kal's here..." Amys whispered. "He's holding them off...keeping us safe."
Holding them off so we can die slowly in this tomb I've built us... Tali thought bitterly, and squeezed Amys tighter. "He's a good man," she said softly.
"Yea..." Amys trailed off before laughing slightly as she continued, "that's my nehya."
Tali's eyes shot wide as she remembered everything about Kal and Amys since they'd met. The way Kal had laughed at her, referenced her in his mission briefing, the way he'd joked with her about being his liason to Tali, what he'd said over their comm link...'At least Amys is safe with you...' . The way he always took her with him on his missions, the way he'd come to see her about Freedom's Progress only after seeing Amys first...a thousand little interactions raced through her mind as she recalled the last year of her life...and she'd missed every single one...
"Keelah Amys, I'm so sorry. I didn't know..."
She tilted her head in a smile at Tali, "No one does...we...we kind of like it that way, to be honest...but I'm not about to die without my sister knowing..."
"You're not going to die here, Amys. You're just not." Sobs threatened to overtake her, but she stayed strong. For her sister, she held onto her emotions.
"You're right, Tali..." Amys trailed off as her eyes began to dim. "Kal...Kal will get us out of here...He always comes through..."
"Come on, Garrus!"
"Shepard the dropship's going as fast as it can, I promise you!"
Shepard wrung his hands restlessly as the Kodiak broke Haestrom's atmosphere. Mordin had warned him that the radiation from the sun would fry their shields, and they'd prepared accordingly, but every inch closer they got to the planet's survace, Shepard could just feel something was wrong. As soon as the shuttle touched down, Shepard rushed from the side, the rest of his team running full tilt behind him. Finding quarian bodies at the gatehouse, he turned to his team and spoke.
"Confirmed geth activity. Zaeed, you and Jacob stay with the shuttle. We all saw the wreckage of the quarians' ship on the way in, and if more platforms come back I want some defense on our exit strategy." The two men nodded, and Shepard turned to the rest. "Miranda, Garrus, Kasumi, and Mordin, you're with me. Let's move fast, we don't know the situation, but we have to be quick." The team split, following him towards the gate to the colony. He slammed the access panel and roared as he charged into the geth behind it.
Caught completely off-guard, the geth were decimated, and Shepard crossed to a pile of rubble behind them. Behind it, he found a slew of quarian bodies, and his rage intensified. A few hung onto life, and Shepard waved Mordin over.
"Injuries traumatic, suggest multiple-gunshot wounds. Geth moving fast through this area if they let targets live. Can stabilize these quarians, will need assistance though."
Miranda crouched down beside him, rolling up her sleeves as she nodded to Shepard. "I'll help doctor Solus with the quarians, Commander. You three go find Tali."
Shepard nodded, and opened the door behind the rubble to press onward. As soon as the door opened, he shot the rifle out of the hands of the geth platform who turned to greet them, crossing quickly to it and putting a balled fist through its optical sensor. Swinging around behind it, he yelled as he stretched his cybernetics to the limit, pulling backwards and snapping the geth's neck off of its body, letting the pieces fall to the floor in front of him.
"Well..." Garrus began, watching Shepard work, "that's certainly a new entry in the how-to book..." Kasumi nodded, her mouth still slightly open at the display of raw power, and he picked up his rifle, speaking with acid in his voice.
"You heard Mordin, Garrus. They're after something, probably her. If that's the case, then I'm just getting started." Opening the door they stood in front of led to a small path leading to a second gatehouse-like building, and as they plowed through the seven or eight geth patrolling the path, Shepard felt concern joining the rage in his blood. What if he was too late? What if she was already de-NO! his mind demanded. Get it together! Tali wouldn't let herself get taken out that easily, have some faith in her and keep moving! Nodding with determination, he finished of the geth and entered the gatehouse. Moving slowly through it, he looked around at the room's adornments, stopping at a small terminal beside a geth arm on a table. Tapping the interface, the terminal opened its most recent file, an environmental audio capture. Shepard couldn't read the words in the foreign script, but he recognized the voice the terminal had captured.
"To think...our ancestors walked these halls with uncovered heads. So much space...walls of stone...I wish my friends could see this...I wish Shepard were here..." Looking back to Garrus and Kasumi, Shepard saw the turian nod and the thief follow suit, and he rushed to the door, opening it and taking the ramp down to the courtyard below. As Shepard rounded the corner, bullets whizzed by his head, and he dove for cover.
"Keelah, I thought you were geth! Who the hell is that?"
Shepard raised his eyes over cover to see a lone quarian crouched against a low wall, rocket launcher in one hand and smoking submachine gun in the other. Crossing to him, Shepard took cover beside him and spoke as Kasumi and Garrus followed suit.
"I'm Commander Shepard, my team and I are here to get you and yours the hell out of here."
The quarian's eyes went wide behind his visor. "The Shepard? Tali's Shepard?"
Shepard allowed himself a small smile. "I sure as hell hope so or I think I'm on the wrong planet."
The quarian let out a chuckle of disbelief. "Kal'Reegar, Migrant Fleet Marines. I have no idea how you knew where we were, and given the military classification of this mission...I'm not sure I want to know...but I'm not in a position to refuse help right now."
Shepard nodded. "Are you injured, Reegar?"
"Bastards got me in the leg when I was moving to cover. Suit's taking care of it, I just can't move so well. Still, with the four of us taking the courtyard, we should be able to get to Tali. She's locked herself in the observatory, along with my...ah, her teammate Amys'Vael."
Shepard had been looking across the courtyard to the observatory, but now snapped his gaze back to Reegar. "You're sure Amys is with her?"
"Yea, as far as I know, we're the only three left. The sun fried my comm link about half an hour ago, so I haven't been able to contact anyone, but last I heard they were locked down nice and tight. The geth have been trying to hack the door but..." he patted the rocket launcher across his knees, "that hasn't been going so well for them. Still, the colossus they've got is a real det kazuat. It's keeping me pinned down, and I'm running out of ammo."
Shepard nodded, tapping his comm link. "Mordin, Miranda, how are the quarians at the first gatehouse?"
Mordin's voice spoke quickly in response. "Diagnosis optimistic, Shepard. Lost one, three in critical but stable condition."
"Good. Prep them for transport as best you can. Miranda, get on the link to Joker and have him pick them up, let Chakwas know what's coming her way as well."
"On it, Commander."
"Garrus," he said, turning to the turian, "take a sniping perch on the level above. Kasumi and I will head through the center to deal with the colossus. Keep the geth platforms off of us." His teammates nodded and checked their weapons as Shepard turned to Reegar. "I need you to watch our backs, Reegar. Last thing I want is any more dead quarians. Let me take it from here, you've already gone above and beyond."
The quarian seemed to bristle slightly as he replied. "No way, Shepard. I just lost most of my unit, I'm not going to let you run in there without me!" He moved to stand, and Shepard let his rage overtake him, grabbing the quarian by the shoulders and slamming him against the stone wall. Reegar's eyes went wide behind his visor as Shepard spoke in a soft, cold, whisper.
"Listen, Kal. Tali's trapped in that building and I'm going in after her. I assume someone has told you who I am and what I'm capable of?" The quarian nodded, and Shepard continued. "Good, then I won't have to re-hash. I'm not losing another quarian today. Is that clear? Not. one. more. What I need you to do is watch my back with that cannon of yours. Can you do that for me, Reegar? Can you work with me to save Tali and Amys." The women's names seemed to drain the resistance out of him, and he slumped his shoulders in defeat.
"Alright, Shepard. I don't like it, but I'll let you call the shots."
Thirty seconds later, John Shepard dashed out into a synthetic nightmare. Geth were on all sides, and with his assault rifle blazing, Garrus' sniper shots striking target after target, and Kasumi's submachine gun tearing into the geth, it wasn't long before they reached a cover spot just in front of the colossus. Looking around, Shepard noted with sadness a quarian body lying next to a discarded sniper rifle, his suit torn to pieces by the geth's weapons. Upon closer examination, Shepard found the man had carried four tech mines with him that he'd been about to activate as he died. Silently thanking the nameless quarian, he took the mines and tapped his comm link.
"I've got a plan. Kasumi, draw its fire away from my position. Garrus, I need you to hit it it the...neck? Make it look away from us. Kal, you there?"
"Copy, Shepard, I'm still here."
"Great, when you see the hole in its base, send a rocket into the circuitry."
"When...when I see the what?"
Shepard grinned. "The hole in its base, come on, keep up, Reegar."
Garrus' voice came through their radio. "Easy now; not everyone is completely used to your crazy ideas, Shepard. Someday you'll have to understand that."
"Right, first time for everyone. Welcome to the club, Kal'Reegar. Alright, here goes!"
Kasumi swung out of cover to their left, firing her submachine gun into the colossus and drawing its head away from Shepard's cover spot. As the plasma ball coalesced beneath its optical sensor, Garrus' shot rang out, striking the side of its head and throwing off the colossus' shot by a fair margin. The plasma ball missed Kasumi entirely and careened into the stone walls of the courtyard. She activated her tactical cloak before it could line up another shot, throwing the colossus' sensors off dramatically.
Seeing his opportunity, Shepard vaulted over his cover and rushed head-on toward the colossus. As he reached its front legs, he leaned back, sliding underneath the giant construct on the back plate of his armor. As he slid, he dropped the four tech mines directly beneath the colossus, rolling forward and back to his feet as he came out the other side. Turning, he fired his rifle at the mines he'd laid, igniting them and sending a huge explosion into the base of the colossus. Metal plating warped and groaned, and in a split second the blast had exposed the colossus' inner wirings.
Its head turned around and focussed on Shepard, another ball of plasma forming in its head. Shepard simply stood and smiled at it, holding its attention as Kal's expected rocket slammed into the opening he'd made. The colossus exploded, and Shepard dove behind cover to escape the flying metal pieces. Standing, he observed the smoldering heap of metal with satisfaction as Kal's voice rang into his comm link.
"Shepard...I can't believe that worked, and I was here for it! Keelah, you're insane..."
Rushing to the observatory door, Shepard tapped his comm link. "I sure try, but it's hard, having to one-up yourself all the time. Now how do we get the door open?"
Kasumi was at his side in an instant, scanning the door with her omni-tool. "It's jammed, Shep. Nothing short of a explosive blast will break through now."
"Hey didn't we just have one of those?" Garrus' voice came through the comm link as he made his way across the courtyard.
Shepard closed his eyes, trying to contain the irritation welling inside him. He'd come all this way to be defeated by a damn door? He had to know Tali was safe, and they only way to know that, was to get through this door. "Hold this," he said, handing Kasumi his assault rifle. She took it with a quizzical look, and he walked up to the door. With a heave, he brought his booted foot up and slammed it against the metal surface. The door gave the slightest bit, and he kicked it again, and again, pushing his cybernetics, each time kicking harder and harder. He felt sweat pour down his face, his muscles tense with pain, felt the metal tubes in his leg vibrating with the force of his kicks, and after what seemed like an eternity he slammed his foot into the door again, causing it to break off its hinges and fall unceremoniously into the room behind it.
Stepping forward into the darkened room, Shepard looked around for any sign of life. He opened his mouth to speak, and his shields rippled with incoming fire. Ducking, he looked in the direction it had come from to see a haggard quarian laying on her back. She was bleeding slowly from a stomach wound, but still clung to her rifle. Amys. Shepard rushed to her, and her eyes widened behind her visor as she recognized him.
"H-Hey..." she stammered, "it's...it's you. What are you doing here?"
"Getting you out of here," he spoke softly back as he smiled down at her, tapping his comm link. "Kal! I need some help here, Amys has been injured."
"John?"
Her unmistakable voice pulled him away from Amys, his eyes reaching into the back of the room and seeing her approach. Kasumi and Kal were with Amys then, and were slowly but deliberately nudging him away so they could stabilize her. He stood, crossing quickly to Tali and wrapping her in his arms. He could feel her squeeze him tightly against her, and he returned the favor, resting his head on top of her helmet as she shook with rage and pain.
"Keelah, John I thought I was going to die in here. I...I can't believe you came."
"Of course I came, Tali. I wasn't about to lose you again."
She pulled away, looking behind him to where Kal knelt beside Amys. "She's hurt badly, John. I've done what I can, but she needs medical attention."
"Well I've got Chakwas and Solus on the Normandy. We've already evacuated three quarian soldiers we found alive at the entry point, and they should already be in the med bay. Let's get her there and then you can tell me what the hell was worth all this death." She shook her head softly before burying it against his chest again and whispering.
"Nothing is worth all this, John. Especially not what they sent us in for..."
Miranda hailed Joker on their radio, telling him to bring the Normandy in and have the med bay prepped for three quarians. Two minutes later, they were putting the soldiers into the airlock and moving them to the med bay. As the doors closed and his doctors got to work, Shepard's voice came over her comm link.
"Miranda, have them prep one more table in the med bay. We've got another injury, and this one needs precedence."
"Of course, Shepard." Tapping her ship-wide, she spoke with authority. "This is XO Lawson. Mr. Moreau, please send the Kodiak back planet-side, to the Commander's location. Doctors Chakwas and Solus, please prepare another bed for a fourth quarian. I'm told this one takes precedence. All hands to stations, but be prepared to be pulled for emergency medical assistance if necessary. While some of you may not enjoy the thought of quarians aboard the Normandy, I trust I do not need to remind anyone of the cost of failure on this mission. Lawson out."
The Kodiak arrived back on the Normandy twenty minutes later. Miranda watched as Garrus, Kasumi, and an uninjured quarian exited the shuttle, carrying the wounded one as delicately as possible. Shepard and the quarian she would assume was Tali'Zorah exited last, and Miranda noted silently that despite all the chaos of the moment, Shepard found a moment to reach over and squeeze the girl's hand. She had looked at him then and tilted her head ever so slightly. Miranda turned then, her cheeks coloring, and directed the uninjured quarian towards the med bay.
A small part of her wanted to gag furiously at Shepard's choice. The rest of her was curious as to why she hadn't been able to keep a small smile from splitting her lips when she'd seen them together.
Tali stood outside the med bay on Deck Three, and as Shepard crossed the room, he grabbed a chair from one of the mess tables, bringing it with him and placing it next to her. She looked down at it for a long while, then up to him. "It's for sitting," he teased, and she sighed softly as she sat, her eyes returning to the closed door in front of her. "She's in good hands, Tali. Chakwas herself told me that Solus is a genius, and you know she's not one to give credit undeserved."
Tali nodded solemnly at his words. "I know you're probably right...and I trust you, I'm just...exhausted. And worried for Amys. I've already transmitted the data to the Admiralty Board, and initiated my absence request for time aboard the Normandy. I'm officially part of your crew for the time being, if you'll have me." She looked up to him, a bit of mirth in her eyes, and he nodded as he smiled back down at her. In a moment, though, the mirth was gone, and her eyes wandered back to the door as she continued meekly. "We lost too many people down there...Kassha, Tarel, marines whose names I can't even remember right now...Thank you for getting Kal out alive, John. He's...very important to someone."
He nodded to her as he spoke. "Well it wasn't for his lack of trying. For a second I thought he was ready to put my lights out and go fight the geth by himself before listening to me when I told him he should stay down and watch my back."
She laughed softly. "That sounds like Kal." Unconsciously, she stretched, and John found himself admiring her curves as she did so. He turned his face away quickly at the realization of what he was doing. She'd lost friends today, now was no time to...do whatever it was he was doing...He reached down, taking her hand and leading her to the elevator. Guiding her inside, he pressed the button for Deck One and stepped back out. "You head up and get some sleep, I'll stay with Kal and Amys, and let you know as soon as anything happens."
She started to move towards the doors. "No, John, I should stay, it's my fau-"
"Tali," he interrupted her, "You said you were done with the mission, correct?"
"Well yes, but-"
"And you said that after your mission was complete your request to transfer here was approved to begin immediately, right?"
"Yes, John, but-"
"Then I'm your captain now. And in my first blatant abuse of power I'm ordering you to Deck One to get some sleep. Understood?"
She clearly worked to find something to say, but could find nothing. Settling back against the elevator, she replied. "Alright...Keelah I've been on the ship for five minutes and you're already bossing me around."
He smiled at her and spread his arms open wide. "Welcome back!" Her small, tired laugh made his heart soar even given what had happened today, and as the elevator doors closed, he walked back over to the med bay doors. Kal had occupied the chair in Tali's absence, and John grabbed another one from the mess and joined him, heaving a sigh as he did so.
"Yea," Kal said, his eyes not moving from the door, "It's been that kind of day, hasn't it?"
Shepard nodded. "Sure has. You did well out there, Reegar. Not many commanding officers I know of could take on a geth force four times bigger than their own and come out as well as you did."
Reegar shook his head as he replied softly. "Maybe not, maybe today was some kind of success, but I haven't really found out yet what the price was. It could still prove to be too much." He looked at John as he continued. "I'm a soldier, Shepard. I can send men to their deaths for a piece of data if the Admiralty Board needs it. But some things...some things are too...important to just throw away like that." He fidgeted a bit in his chair as he stared back at the med bay doors. "Some things are worth more than any mission..." he trailed off, and as John sat in silence next to this quarian he'd never met before, he somehow felt they were two men who at that exact moment were thinking the exact same thing.