Heyo! I got a nice helping of early update for you all. Figured I should post this and give ya'll something to do if your bored. Read, Enjoy, Review. (Quick question, is it wrong to be surprised that I made it this far in the story?)
The human was Blue Suns merc, the equivalent of a Corporal in the corporation, best known for his work in a job where the only option was kill all or die and he delivered. Of course, when looking at this achievement, it paled in comparison of the two Shepard's achievements, even if one was hardly known to the public while the other was galaxy wide. That's why it was no surprise when Johanna easily slipped her arm around his neck and twisted it in the wrong direction, ending the career of the merc with ease. Slowly lowering the man to the ground and stashing him behind the crates he had been loading, she turned her tactical cloak back on and planned her next step. Over eight more Blue Suns were in the area, all different species and of different talents. Two turians sat near an operating crane that loaded the much larger cargo onto the ship of the man she was here to kill, while a Batarian centurion moved the crane. Two more humans sat near the airlock of the frigate in front of them, their attentions forward and alert for anything else that would step into view. The other four people walked around the hangar aimlessly, finding odd things that needed help or providing a general guard. Two were on top of a nearby catwalk above the ship while the other two were ground level, somewhat near Johanna.
The docking yard was large and spacious, though the copious amounts of heavy machinery made the walking space seem less than adequate. The docking bay itself was meant to fit three different frigate class ships the size of the Normandy, though the only one in the bay at the moment was the ship that had her interest. Greer had forced the other two docked ships to leave under the threat of destroying the ship. She looked over at the catwalk, which trailed above the Batarian frigate, looking up just in time to see her brother put one of the Blue Sun guards into a choke hold until he passed out. He hid the body from view behind a mechanical crane, positioning it so even if they did see him, it looked as though the man was sleeping. As he did that, she saw his hand hit his communicator and her radio cackled. "Blue Sun's? Why would a pirate hire Blue Sun's? This is more Aria's specialty." Her brother wondered suspiciously. She bit her lip and felt a twinge of guilt, contemplating whether or not telling the truth of the situation they were in. Her brother of all people deserved the truth. She shook her head, knowing her brother would want to do things differently and she didn't want the plan to change.
"Maybe the Blue Suns are running cheaper. Aria's a bitch when it comes to payments." Johanna mentioned. "Alright get the last guy on the catwalk. I'll get the crane people then we'll jump the last four. Johanna Out."
The man fought beneath his arm for only a minute before he went slack from lack of oxygen, his eyes rolling back in his head and rendering him unconscious. John then slowly lowered the Batarian onto the floor so his body would not make a noise and kicked the gun away from him in case he had woke up before he and Johanna finished their business. He contemplating kicking the man to make sure he was out for a long while but shook that thought from his mind. To say he was upset was an understatement to describe his current mood. His sister was lying to him. After having EDI run the Batarians pirate's name for anything, secretly from Johanna, and the AI found nothing on pirates with that name. There was a chance the AI was mistaken, but given the history of the AI's reliability, he doubted it. So he had EDI run an extensive search for this Greer and told her to contact him if she found anything. That's why when the AI alerted him to his search results, he almost too eagerly clicked his communicator.
"Shepard, I have found the identity of Greer." She greeted. John glanced over at his sister as pulled a combat knife from her boot as she approached the two men guarding the Batarian on the crane. John stepped into the shadows to avoid being seen with a glance.
"What'd you find?" John asked, whispering his answer.
"While I found no pirates with the name Greer, I did find logs of a colony raid with Greer as one of the aggressors. The records show he was apprehended shortly after he left but managed to escape prison after only a week. He retreated to the Terminus system after that and has been smuggling large Hallex shipments since." EDI informed him. John nodded, realizing while this didn't quite match Johanna's lie, it at least described a decent reason this man needed to be dealt with.
"What was the colony?" He wondered, watching as his sister drove the knife into the neck of one of the Blue Suns, then pulled it out and drove it into the eye of the other, in a span of a few seconds. The Batarian tilted his head as if he had heard the fight behind him but went back to working the crane, clearly passing off the skirmish behind him as nothing. Johanna pulled the knife free of the Blue Sun's head and approached the Batarian, twirling her knife with a sadistic look on her face.
"The colony was Mindoir." John froze as EDI gave her answer, a brief flash reminding him about his early childhood. He gritted his teeth focusing on the present as the body of the Batarian was slowly hidden beneath the controls. Was his sister really keeping so much from him? Why wouldn't she trust with this information, above all things? The reasons he could come up with didn't make him feel any better about it. "Thank you EDI." John thanked the AI and tried to focus on the mission before him. It didn't work at first. He found himself losing the trust he had for his sister, this now combined to what she had been hiding earlier. He took a deep breath and calmed himself, the mission was more important right now, his feelings could wait.
The four remaining Blue Sun were easy to wipe out past that. Johanna stuck the remaining Turian in the upper chin with the knife while her brother biotically threw the other patrol guard in the wall, breaking his neck with an audible sound. The noise had alerted the two at the airlock but before they could do anything about it, a biotic shockwave sent both flying through the air and slamming into the floor with a sickening crunch. Johanna whistled at this display of biotic power with impressment, almost forgetting that she had her own biotics.
"It's a shame that you didn't want to be a merc John, a biotic of your caliber would have been great for business." Johanna mentioned as she fell to one knee by the air lock controls and began to hack into the simple encryption.
"So, Johanna, this Greer, what else did he do besides pirating?" John asked with an intent in his voice. If Johanna hadn't been sure otherwise, she could have sworn she heard mistrust in his voice.
"Don't know much past that. He either kept his head down or did something not worth noting, like red sand sales or Hallex." Johanna told her brother, the door coming open as soon as she said her last word. As the airlock slowly opened, Johanna pulled her assault rifle from her back and programmed it to use cryo rounds. John pulled his heavy pistol out in silence and aimed it forward as the airlock opened all the way…..Revealing ten LOKI mechs standing guard. John and Johanna acted at the same time, John sending a round into the head of one while Johanna gunned down two others before diving to cover. The amount of bullets that slammed where they had been standing would have shredded through their shields and armor had they not been quick on their feet. "So much for stealth." Johanna laughed, before blindly firing over the crate she hiding.
"Hack one of the ones in the middle. When they turn to fight it, hit them from behind." John ordered, not even smiling at her words. She lost the humor she had and her face grew hard.
"Aim for their heads. It'll cause a power surge that will cause them to explode." Johanna told him. He bit back a response that he had fought these mechs several times before but held it back and let her work. It wasn't long before one of the mechs suddenly began to put bullets into the backs of the its allies, forcing the mechs to all turn and fire on their comrade. This gave Johanna and John enough time to jump from cover, biotics and pistol fire hitting the group of mechs and sending flying to the side. Johanna managed to score two headshots and the resulting explosions ensured that the mechs would not get up again. "Alright, let's hurry before the bastard gets away." Johanna called before sprinting up the airlock ramp. She stopped however, when she realized her brother had not moved. "Come on John, he's just a pirate. I'll even hold your hand."
"I want an honest answer, Johanna." John said, putting his pistol away and folding his hands behind his back. She felt her stomach flip as it was obvious her brother had seen through her deceit.
"What are you talking about John?" She asked, hoping that she could convince him that he was mistaken. Her brother held firm, staring at her with a large amount of distrust. She sighed, stepping away from the airlock. She pieced together what happened rather fast, realizing she hadn't accounted for her brother asking the AI on the ship for more information. "Fine, what do you want to know?"
"Greer. Who is he?" John asked.
"He was one of the Batarian Lieutenants who stormed Mindoir. The bastard personally killed three of our school friends with a knife." She looked at the floor and her fist clenched angrily as she remembered reading the reports. The Batarians had treated the raid like a game after it was over, tallying their confirmed kills for money. When she had found this after hacking their systems, she almost lost it.
"So, what? That justifies this manhunt?" John asked, stepping forward in a standoffish stance.
"What? Of course it does! This monster killed people we knew with a second thought! And you think I'm in the wrong because I want to correct that!?" Johanna shouted at her brother, striding over to where he was standing and getting in his face. In the back of her mind, she was slightly aware that she had just broken a long time oath.
"'An eye for an eye just leaves the world blind." John told her, not backing down. "I let go of what happened at Mindoir. You need to as well."
"Let go!? So I should forget that Batarians killed our mother, our father, our friends, our brother, everything we ever knew!? The whole galaxy doesn't worship me John, this is all I've had to look forward to since we joined the Alliance. This is everything I've worked for!"
"If you do this out of anger and hate then you are no better than them."
"How dare you!" It wasn't shouted but the amount of venom and anger behind the voice made it seem so. Her whispered response told John he had gone too far but her twin couldn't care at the moment. John was clearly done with the lies. "I am nothing like them! I don't kill innocent people!"
"You want me to trust you…. Tell me the truth!" John finally shouted, pushing his sister away. She stumbled for a moment before regaining her composure. Underneath her armor, she was sure that her fist was white by how hard it was clenched. "You're my sister and twin Johanna! If you can't trust me with everything, then I don't know why I'm helping you!" Johanna clenched her jaw and tried to reply but found nothing that justified her actions. She opened her mouth but still found nothing. "When we brought you aboard, Kelly mentioned that you were hiding something. What is it?" So that was what sprung this. She had hoped she had hid it well enough that no one noticed but the Yeoman had seen through her and told her brother. Sometimes, she really hated shrinks.
"John, I have….." She began but a bullet slammed into the wall near her head. They both spun to face where the bullet had come from to see six Blue Suns exit a nearby escape with a Batarian behind them. The batarian wore the common outfit of a Blue Suns Commander, except with a color scheme of red and white. The six Blue Suns that were with him each sported a mean looking Mantis rifle, far enough away that the sniper was handy. The Batarian himself was wielding a widow rifle, specially designed for non-geth users.
"THERE!" Greer called and let loose a shot that narrowly missed John. The two Shepards dove for cover in the opposite directions. Landing behind a rather large storage crate, Johanna got her sniper and primed it for cyro rounds. John was beside her, behind a few fragile crates, enough that would provide him cover for a few minutes before breaking.
"Can you shoot a sniper?" Johanna asked, tossing him her Mantis rifle. John caught it just in time to prevent it from slamming into the floor. He growled to himself as he realized their talk would have to wait until later.
"I'm a decent shot!" He called back.
"Alright, John, you wanted trust! Don't miss!" Then before, he could figure out what she had meant, she pulled her predator pistol from her waist and sprinted free of cover, drawing the sniper fire away from her brother. She dove behind some sturdy looking cargo as they diverted their full attention to her, allowing her brother to leap up and fire a shot that ripped through the helmet of one of the Turians. As blue blood blossomed behind the turian and the snipers began to turn their attention once more to the Male Shepard, giving Johanna the window to line up a shot and end the life of another Blue Sun merc. And so this continued, both Shepards taking turns being the bait as the other used their weapon to take down another sniper. The Blue Suns liked to pride themselves on having the best trained merc group in the Terminus, but sometimes, they had no more intelligence than the Blood Pack. It worked effortlessly, and before long, the last sniper was the Batarian, Greer.
His Widow was his saving grace, even a single shot threatening to rip through barriers, armors and skin in a fatal blow. John couldn't risk suffering a shot to draw his attention and Johanna had been grazed by one of his bullets, leaving her cheek cut and bloody but otherwise okay, if not too cautious. "We need a plan!" John spoke into the communicator. Johanna clenched her jaw and looked around for any ideas.
"I got one!" She called back. "Give me some covering fire!" She waited until she heard her brother fire off a couple of shots before she jumped to her feet and sprinted back to the crane where she had killed off three of the Blue Suns. A bullet slammed into the ground behind her, and she was vaguely aware of her brother shouting in her ear for an explanation. But the adrenaline pumping through her blood drown these out and she kept running until she was safely behind the control panel of the crane. She opened her omni-tool and quickly hacked into the main frame of the crane. Then using as much accuracy as she could, she swung the crane around and extended the arm, the crate that was already clutched in the grip of the hand of the crane. She just hoped it was heavy enough. Her brother kept Greer distracted enough that he did notice the large crate falling on top of him until the last moment, barely allowing him to jump out of the way. John took the chance and biotically charged the man, slamming into him and throwing into the wall at a bone breaking speed. Greer slid down the wall, but it was clear that the Batarian was still alive as he slid down the wall.
Johanna smiled at the outcome of the battle, jumping down from the crane and sprinting to where John trained his Eviscerator shotgun on the Batarian. Her sniper was on his back, safely beside his heavy weapon. At last, she would finally avenge her family and friends on Mindoir. Alan, Mom, Dad. I'll send him on an express train to hell. Greer was the last lieutenant from the raid on Mindoir and she would make him pay for his crime. She pulled her heavy pistol out as she got in range, training it on the Batarian's head. She would finally feel complete, her family could live in peace in the afterlife. She began to pull the trigger back, anticipating with cruel delight the image of a bright red blossom of blood and grey matter covering the wall behind the batarian. Her only regret would be that she couldn't make Greer suffer for every minute that she had suffered, settling merely for blowing his head off. That was of course before her brother stood in front of her shot, blocking Johanna's line of sight and preventing her from hitting the man he was holding at gun point. "Get out of the way John!"
"No. I won't let you become like them." John told her, kicking the Widow rifle away from the Batarian in the case he would wake up and turning towards his sister. She gripped her weapon tighter and growled to herself as she realized she would have to have this fight again.
"I am nothing like them!" Johanna protested. Her brother didn't budge, still blocking her shot.
"Johanna, they attacked Mindoir and Elysium because they wanted revenge. They attack humans because they are angry we were settling the Traverse system and they attacked out of hate. The very same thing that you are doing right now." John told her. "If you pull that trigger, it should be out of justice, not hatred. The best revenge anyone can have is by becoming the opposite of those who did you wrong." John stepped to the side, allowing her a full view of the Batarian, the man stirring as he began to wake up.
Johanna tried to pull the trigger, she really did. She wanted to make the man pay for all the deaths on his head, the deaths of those closest to her. It was one of the things she wanted most, wanting to punish the reason all her emails went unanswered. The reason she had no friends from her old life left. The reason her entire family was in the hangar with her. But her brother was right. She was no better than this man if she did this, no better than those slavers who hit their homeworld. She screamed in frustration and threw her gun across the room before turning around and walking away. Her brother followed shortly after, after sending a message to the nearest Alliance ship they had found and incapacitated a war criminal and to grab the Batarian's modified Widow rifle.
"Do you want to talk about it?" John asked as they waited for the shuttle to return to the Normandy. Johanna had been sitting across from him for the past three minutes in complete silence, staring at the wall behind her brother as if it held some secret to the universe. She sighed and rubbed her nose, turning her gaze to her brother.
"Not in particular." She told him, "But I know you'll make me eventually. Rather do it now than later." She was silent for a moment until she realized that John expected her to speak first. "You should have let me do it. It would have been easier."
"No it wouldn't. You would have to live with the fact that you stooped to the level of those you hated most to get what you wanted. You may not have regretted it right away, but you would have later." John told his sister with a shrug. Johanna sighed and sat up, rested her head on the cold metal behind her. She knew she would have. Somehow she felt better knowing she hadn't killed Greer, but she immediately felt an immense measure of guilt.
"John, if you could have Mindoir back, Mom, Dad, Alan, would you take it?" She asked.
"As much as it hurts me to say it, no. If Mindoir would have never been attacked, we never would have joined the Alliance, I never would have become a spectre, Saren would be running loose in the galaxy with an army of geth. I never would have met Tali…Or Garrus either for that matter. I won't let a bad past distract me from the good that has happened." Johanna nodded, realizing her brother had a much better life than her, he had more to live for. She smiled as she thought about Garrus, the ugly Turian had been nothing but a friend to her despite their first meeting. Kasumi offered her a friendship that involved tech and one that challenged her no matter the occasion. And Jack, even in her volatile and anti-social way, was someone that Johanna could consider a friend. Maybe, she wasn't as alone as she thought.
"John, I have Chronic Obstructive Pulminary Disease. My lungs are slowly deteriorating." Her brother's face immediately lit up with worry. "It's nothing serious yet. I have enough implants and treatments to extend my lifespan by over twenty years and to keep me from feeling any of the severe effects, I'm not gonna break down in a coughing fit in the middle of battle." Johanna sighed and looked down at her feet as she continued. "It just…..makes me feel weak you know?"
"So you hid it from everyone because you felt weak?"
"I don't want anyone looking at me like that poor sick girl. I'm a badass and I'll be damned if some lung damage will ruin that image. But…..I just don't want to….feel weak." Johanna stopped and rubbed her eyes to prevent the tears from her eyes. She didn't want to cry. Only drama queens cried. She felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up to see her brother staring at her.
"That's the thing about having family and friends. You're never need to feel weak as long as we're there." He told her, looking into her eyes.
"Alright John, I'll try to not keep as many secrets." She nodded in agreement, much to her brother's happiness. "I'll even tell you about all the lovers I take." He rolled his eyes and shook his head to show he wasn't taking her seriously.
"So, twenty years?" John asked, folding his hands and looking at her. She smiled and shrugged.
"Twenty-five if I stop smoking. You'd think after all the scientific advancements made we could cure this right?" Johanna told him. He looked at her in worry. "Don't worry about me John, I'll be fine. It's not the quantity that matters, but the way I spend it." Her brother didn't seem too reassured by the fact, his covered in worry and doubt. "Let's not get all touchy and feely until I'm about to die if that's okay. Then you can get as soppy as you want." John laughed, though it was somewhat forced. The rest of the shuttle ride was in silence, both thinking about the day's events.
So, Johanna has a disease. I noticed that whenever someone is recruited into a team and they have a fatal disease, its always a few months before they die or a year. You never catch them at the beginning of their disease. Thus the introduction of Johanna's fatal disease. And with the Greer. I happened to notice that with the early life side missions rarely bring closure to much. You help a soldier with PTSD, you talk with an old gang member, and you help a fellow survivor. Not like the other side missions. Not to mention, you are never really brought closure with this particular backstory. Sure Tabitha says some of the Slavers were killed but we all know slavers can operate in more than one group at a time, but we are never told if the Batarians are brought to justice or not. So this is my answer. Also, it functions as a Johanna's loyalty mission.