"Well hello there." Garrus Vakarian's voice was richly amused as he tapped the crystal screen display at one of the Normandy's CIC stations. Shepard was at his side in an instant, leaning in to peer at the bright holographics against the gloom around them. Everything but essential systems aboard the Normandy was powered down to reduce the load on the heat sink, and the usual environmental standards had been relaxed. Most of the CIC crew was in sweat-stained utilities, drops of perspiration running into their eyes and dripping down onto their workstations as the temperature within the ship's habitable volume soared. Now it was all about to pay off.
"What ya got me for me, Garrus?" The turian flipped over to a narrow-view sensor on the ship's passive array and tapped a faint trace, barely visible against the background.
"This. Thermal signature, faint, but it's there. If I were the suspicious, paranoid sort I'd say it was someone trying to sneak up on the supply convoy to Adelaide."
"So it's-"
"Someone trying to sneak up on the supply convoy to Adelaide. Right MO, anyway." With billions dead and galactic civilization in shambles, the entirety of Council space had to face some very harsh realities. If they buckled down, worked hard, and stayed lucky their grandchildren might someday enjoy the same standard of living they had before the Reapers came. If they didn't, there was a decent chance sheer entropy would finish what the Reapers had started. High-population worlds could start rebuilding with their own resources and a lot of marginal colonies had to be evacuated, but that still left a large middle tier of worlds that needed massive aid to get any kind of reconstruction program underway. Manufacturing equipment, chemical catalysts to restart power plants, teaching VIs to replace experts who'd perished in the war, a few key specialists to get the right areas off the ground.
All of it was necessary…and incredibly vulnerable in a galaxy awash with desperate refugees and criminals willing to prey on the weak. Piracy had returned to known space with a vengeance, and the Council knew they had to stomp on it fast. Any grit in the gears of interstellar transport and commerce could send the whole system teetering over the edge, with incalculable consequences.
Which was why the Normandy had been drifting for days, her reactor powered down to a trickle and her crew slowly roasting as she tracked a cluster of relief ships on their way from the Slepnir system's mass relay to the struggling human colony on Adelaide. Trolling for sharks, Shepard called it, and it looked like they'd just gotten their first bite. He smiled grimly and patted Garrus on the shoulder.
"Good eye. Start a track on them."
"Already did. They're cutting across our path on their way to intercept, and just crossed into our no-escape zone. We can kill them anytime you want." Shepard shook his head slightly.
"We did that in Darrian and Ngola. This time I want prisoners. Can you take out their engines with a low-powered cannon shot?" Garrus scoffed slightly, turning to look at his friend.
"Can I take their engines out with a cannon shot? Shepard, I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that, or else I might have to be insulted. Get me within a light-second or so and I'll carve my name on their main thrust housing."
"Good enough." Shepard slapped his friend on the back and turned back towards his command station at the rear of CIC, raising his voice enough to carry throughout the space. "Look alive, people, we've got some trade. XO, sound battle stations and prepare to engage."
"Aye, Commander." Miranda Lawson's voice was crisp and precise as she answered without taking her eyes off the command station, smoothly flicking her fingers over virtual controls as the main holographic tank switched from its familiar galaxy view to a tactical map of the Slepnir system, showing their target heading for the drifting Normandy. As Shepard reached the station she slid over with smooth grace, unhampered by the bulge that was just starting to show in her abdomen. When Shepard stepped up beside her she reached down and slipped her hand around his for a quick squeeze before triggering a control on her console. A moment later her voice rang out across the ship's public address system:
"Battle stations, battle stations. All hands, man your battle stations and prepare to engage and board enemy spacecraft. Secure all compartments for possible loss of pressure and gravity and report to CIC when ready. Battle stations, battle stations."
The Normandy's interior lights came up to full brightness as her drive core came fully online, seconds before the klaxon sounded and the ship's corridors were filled with crewmembers running to their stations. Shielded for a moment by the chaos, Shepard turned to Miranda and leaned in against her for a moment, smiling down at her.
"Gotta go, honey. I should be back for supper." She smacked him lightly on the chest.
"Ass. You're insufferable, John Shepard."
"You love me."
"You're lucky I do." Shepard grinned and nodded, leaning into her in a gesture that somehow told her more about how he felt than a million words. When it ended Miranda was the one to draw back, her professional mask settling back into place. "Now go play soldier."
"Yes ma'am." And with that he turned, effortlessly the Commander again. "Joker, are they running?"
"Not fast enough, Commander." Joker Moreau's voice was as light as ever, with a hint of smug superiority. "It was kind of awesome watching them go from 'Fearsome pirates of deep space' to 'Oh my God get it away!' in about ten seconds, but they waited too long to make that change." At his station along the left wall of CIC, Garrus touched a control, then turned immediately for the rear of CIC and the elevator. "The only way they're getting away is if Garrus-" Just as the turian walked past Shepard's station, the holographic enemy ship on the tactical plot flashed red, both engine pods vaporizing into molten metal under the touch of the Thanix cannon. "-doesn't do what he just did. Kodiak range, Commander?"
"You know it. Closer the better, as long as it doesn't tempt them into something really dumb. You have the bridge, XO." Shepard turned and fell into step beside Garrus, and as the elevator doors closed behind them Miranda could hear them talking.
"Getting cocky, are we Vakarian?"
"Did I cripple them with one shot or didn't I? Besides, I couldn't take any more questioning of my abilities. You know how fragile my ego is."
"I was kidding, and Joker hadn't said anything yet."
"He was thinking pretty loud." Miranda laughed slightly, shaking her head as she began to give the necessary orders to move the Normandy into position for boarding.
This was as close to normal as life got around John Shepard. Fortunately, she liked it.
**SceneBreak**
"Battlemaster." Urdnot Grunt nodded respectfully as Shepard ducked into the Kodiak assault shuttle just behind Garrus, his eyes gleaming behind the helmet of his vacuum armor. "I take it all went well?"
"It did. Listen up, people. This will be a standard boarding op-" The other two Marines in the Kodiak's rear troop bay leaned forward to listen as he spoke. They'd just joined the Normandy, and Shepard was still working on their names. Briefly he wished he could have kept his old crew aboard, but that just wasn't possible. Ashley Williams in particular had left shortly after his second resurrection- there were just too few Spectres and too many crises to justify keeping two on the same ship. Tali was working the same problem he was, in a way, repurposing former Migrant Fleet vessels for humanitarian efforts and interstellar shipping as Quarians moved off them and back onto Rannoch. Jack had returned to Grissom Academy- along with Zaeed Massani, to his surprise. Shepard grinned internally as he remembered that scene.
"I'm surprised you're getting off here." Shepard looked over at the old mercenary, one eyebrow lifting slightly. "I would have thought you'd head to Omega or Ilium, work on getting the Blue Suns back."
"Yeah, well." Zaeed shrugged. "Somehow after all that's happened, getting revenge and being top dog mercenary just don't seem as important. 'Sides, somebody's got to make sure nobody bothers our girl and her kiddies. Or at least make sure anyone what tries lives the rest of their short lives in agonizing pain."
"Wouldn't have figured you for the type, Zaeed." The other man opened his mouth to reply, but at that moment the airlock doors to Grissom station opened and a pair of children, a boy and a girl no more than six, rushed through, voices high and happy.
"Uncle Zaeed! Uncle Zaeed, you're back!" Turning away from Shepard, the mercenary slung his rifle and picked up the boy, slinging him into his arms and wearing a broad smile that looked completely out of place on his scarred face.
"That I am. And look what I brung ya." His hand came up, palm closed, then opened to reveal a dog carefully folded out of brown origami paper. The boy snatched it up, grinning as he made it dance across his fingers.
"Wow, thanks Uncle Zaeed!"
"Learning, I see. Good." He looked down at the girl, who was looking slightly put out as she clung to his hand. "Don't worry, dear, you'll have the next one. Now give us a minute, hm?" She nodded and dropped his hand, and Zaeed turned back to Shepard, who had something suspiciously like a smirk on his face.
"Uncle, huh?"
The mercenary shrugged. "Never said there weren't other compensations to the job. And Shepard? Tell anyone about this and there won't be enough of you left for your girlfriend to zap back to life."
Fortunately, he'd been able to keep a few of the best. His darling Miranda. Garrus. And Urdnot Grunt, at his clan leader's specific request. That had been an interesting conversation.
"Not sure I understand, Wrex. I'd have thought you wanted every krogan home and helping your clan rebuild." Wrex had leaned back on his throne and stared into the entanglement communicator, his amused chuff reaching from Tuchanka into the Normandy's war room.
"Grunt is helping, Shepard. Like it or not, you're a hero here on Tuchanka, and having one of my clan members serve with you gives Clan Urdnot a great deal of prestige. Which means some other clans actually listen to me without having to be headbutted into line. Besides, I'd rather not have him on Tuchanka just now."
Shepard raised his eyebrows at that. "I thought you liked him, Wrex." The krogan tilted his head back and laughed uproariously for a moment, his beady eyes dancing with amusement.
"I do like him, Shepard. He reminds me of me at his age, which is exactly why I don't want him on my planet. Young Krogan males basically live on raw meat and violence, and if there's not enough around for them they'll make some. I'm counting on you to keep Grunt supplied, and make sure he doesn't get his fool head blown off before he develops self-discipline." Shepard thought for a moment, then grinned.
"Well, I guess I can stock up on raw meat."
Shepard shook himself out of his reverie, forcing his mind back to the present as he finished running down the details of the operation. "Now remember, keep your shock rods handy and don't be afraid to use them. If I wanted to waste everybody on that ship we could have done it with the Thanix cannon from halfway across the system, but I'm sick of cutting the arms off this beast. This time I want the head, and that means prisoners. Got it?" Nods all around. "Good. Now let's go do our jobs." Shepard draped the crash webbing around his body armor, checked to make sure everyone was secure, and watched the hangar doors open. The remains of the pirate ship glowed in the vacuum just a few kilometers from the Normandy, and Shepard's eyes focused in on it for an instant before he smoke.
"Cortez? Hit it."
A/N: I know, I know. I said no epilogue…but I lied. What happened is this: I started writing the above as an epilogue to "Square One". Halfway through I realized i had an idea for a sequel, which is still in the works, and decided to yank this as an opening chapter for it. After a bit of work, though, I realized that the fight against the pirates Shep and crew encounter here was basically irrelevant to the sequel's plot- but I still liked the crew interactions enough to want to salvage it. So for lack of anywhere better to put it, here it is, restored to its original place.
And yes, there will still be a sequel. Working title is "Reversing Entropy". Might need someone to beta or just bounce ideas off of, though.