Kal'Reegar – Present.

I've never been to a war council like this before, so I'm not entirely sure how to approach it. It's not my planet that we're fighting for, but it's my people that are risking their lives for it. So I don't know where exactly that puts me in authority with the General. He's not my commanding officer, but we volunteered to be here to help. I've stayed quiet for most of the meeting, arms crossed over my chest and only rarely mentioning tactical advise that I thought the turians hadn't considered themselves.

Their tactics mostly revolve around overpowering the enemy until they're destroyed. When you're a quarian, that isn't an option, and your tactics become much more strategy and survival based. But in a war like this, any familiar strategies were blown out the window long ago. The only thing we can do now is take each situation as it comes.

General Kineka turns to the engineer Squishy mentioned, Vale, who's been silent the entire time. He doesn't know anything about how we might approach taking back the radio tower, so there's been nothing for him to add, yet. "How long will our communications hold for?"

Vale gives what passes for a turian frown and it takes him several seconds to reply. "I don't know, General. They could fail any minute, they could last for days. But once they stop working, I doubt there's anything we can do to bring them back."

Kineka seems to consider this for a few seconds, and then sighs. "Don't push for the radio tower yet, see how long we can hold out for now."

"General, if I might," I start and he looks at me with a mild annoyance, but lets me continue. "Let my men and I take it."

He shakes his head. "I won't send you all to your deaths-"

"With all due respect, none of us should be alive anyway." Not after Rannoch.

"And that doesn't mean you can throw your lives away now," Kineka replies, and this time he's angrier, more direct. "Until I have a guarantee you're actually going to stand a chance at succeeding or we have no other option, nobody leaves for the tower."

I realise then that he's not disagreeing with my suggestion because he thinks we're not capable enough to fix it, he's doing it because he knows I can't promise we would be able to. Even if we could, we might not be able to hold the reapers off long enough to do it, or we might never make it there in the first place. Or we might fix it, only to be overwhelmed by the reapers and have it ruined again.

He's not disagreeing because he's short sighted, he's disagreeing because it would be a waste of our lives. I knew when I signed up for this I was willing, and probably would, sacrifice my life the moment it was required. But I can't make that decision for my men.

The time will come soon when there's no other option, and when it does, I pray my squad truly understands what they're being asked to do.

Squishy/Beir – Tali'Zorah's trial.

When I heard what they were accusing Tali of, words could not begin to describe how angry I was. I couldn't even unleash it on my father, either, because he strongly opposed it, too. But when I started hearing the whispers going on between the admiral's, and when I realised there was more going on here than Tali's poorly accused treason, it made me sick. Even more so that my father would play along with these politics. He maintains the position that he doesn't agree with exiling the daughter of his closest friend, but he has no issues using this trial to push forward his stance on the possibility of taking back Rannoch.

I wish I never saw those emails years ago. Sometimes, ignorance can be bliss.

There's a few other people waiting around the trial room when the Normandy docks. They're mostly people who've worked with Tali and support her, a few people who are nosey, some that want to see her exiled, and the admiral's. I can practically feel my father's eyes boring into the back of my head as I stand on the other side of the room, speaking with Reegar, but I don't care enough at the moment. Shepard hasn't come up to us, but he seems to be talking to everyone he knows to assess the situation, so I figure he'll come over here eventually.

"It's all bullshit," Reegar murmurs. He knows as much as I do this is just a facade for the arguing between the admiral's about taking back Rannoch, and Tali's stuck in the middle of it.

"I know." Reegar's staring hard at Admiral Koris and I wonder if he's considering how much he'd be punished for giving him a well deserved punch. "What do you think we should do?"

Reegar turns to me and his posture softens. "About the homeworld?" I nod, he sighs. "I'll do whatever they tell me to." He sounds unsure, as if he's not entirely pleased with what that might entail.

"I didn't ask what your military side thinks," I reply. "I asked what you think."

Reegar gives a small chuckle then shrugs. "I don't know, I'd want more than anything to have the homeworld back, but... I don't think we could ever do it without sacrificing a lot, probably too much."

"What point is there taking back Rannoch if we kill half our people trying to do it," I murmur. Reegar nods and I know he's of the same opinion.

There's a moment of understanding and silence between us, before someone approaches. I smile faintly as I realise it's Veetor and Reegar greets him, before politely excusing himself. "Veetor," I start gently. "How are you?"

He's as nervous as ever, but he's doing much better than he was. I'm glad for him.

Kal'Reegar – Tali'Zorah's trial.

There comes a time every now and then when you give up on being polite to your superiors and throw all subordination out the window. Today is one of those times. I wasn't really intending on taking part in the trial, but Shepard can be pretty inspirational sometimes, and I've put up with enough of the admiral's political crap for one day.

I've yelled at them and accused them of not doing anywhere near as much for the fleet, combined, as Tali has by herself. They look surprised. They probably didn't expect this from a Reegar, we have a reputation for not getting involved in politics, but sometimes you have to take a stand I guess.

Admiral Gerrel is the one that replies first, and when he speaks I know his voice is tinged with distaste for other reasons than my outburst. "Kal'Reegar, stand down."

"No, he's right." Words cannot describe the noise that leaves Gerrel's mouth when Squishy stands with me. "You sit around, so focused on arguing and being stubborn that you never come to a solution, then bring someone else into your disagreements as a surrogate for your dysfunctional excuse for politics. This is as much about Tali as it is about me."

I imagine Gerrel's face has never seen as much anger is it might be today. "Beir," he starts, but he doesn't get a chance to continue.

"I will not stand down," Squishy's voice is closer to a growl now. "You try to control everyone else's lives and get so caught up in your own opinions that you all forget the reason any of you became Admiral's in the first place." The rest of them glance at each other, but his father's gaze is unwavering. "And your people suffer as a result of it."

"Korin," Gerrel starts and a marine standing nearby snaps to attention. "Would you escort my son out and to the private quarters of my ship." The marine hesitates for a moment, but then complies. "I think he forgets sometimes there is only one failure to their people in this room."

Squishy scoffs and seems to dare the marine to try, but he does and he's stronger than Squishy. I move to help him as another marine joins Korin, but someone's arm grabs my shoulder and I turn to stare at Shepard.

"Kal, please," Tali whispers so softly I'm not sure if I'm hearing things. "Don't exile yourself because of this." Because of me, she might as well have added.

I relax but if they think I'll drop this today, then they're wrong. When I turn around, Squishy's already gone.