Chapter 10: Recruiting Pt 1
Date: December 1, 2183
Location: Omega
Ian yawned as he walked into the War Room. Inside, both Ann Shepard and Garrus were waiting for him, along with the newly awakened tank-bred krogan, Grunt, who looked slightly miffed about something. Garrus looked up from his data pads and smirked. "About time Shaw, thought I'd have to send a search party for you."
Ian chuckled. Over the last few months he'd become friends with this Garrus. He was a bit wiser than his old partner, whom he still missed. "Nope, just thought I'd be a paining yer arse today and be slow."
Garrus laughed. "Guess I'll have to kick your ass later." Both chuckled at that. Ann shook her head at her husband and his new friend. "Enough of that; we have work to get done." He turned on the holo projector in the center of the table. "This is Omega," he said as the image came up of the station. "I'm sure you're curious as to why we're here. I'll tell you. In my reality I came here after an incident that occurred in my time. While here I created a team of vigilantes. These people are here right now and I want to pick 'em up."
"Are they worthy for me to fight by?" Grunt asked gruffly while leaning against the metal wall opposite of Ann.
"Yes," was Garrus' only response. "Their names are Erash, Grundan, Melanis, Monteague, Laet, Mierin, Vortash, Butler, Sidonis, and Weaver." Everybody had noticed his slight growl at the mention of Sidonis.
"What are their specialties?" Ian asked. "Just want to know if we actually need them on our team is all."
Chuckling, Garrus continued. "Erash is a turian male. A biotic, which is rare for turians. Also is a sniper and enjoys human literature." That got a chuckle from Ian. "Monteague is a drell male and was the squad medic. Mierin is a slightly nervous salarian. Was part of the infiltration squad." He paused and looked at Ann. "Grundan is a batarian." That made Ann look nervous. "He was our tech expert. Doesn't really talk much, but always acts seriously." He rolled down to the next one on his list. "Laet is always cheery and a borderline cocky turian and was in charge of the squad's equipment, armour and weapons. Also, he produces his own gadgets for the squad to use." He tapped the image and smirked as a memory popped up because if the image of his old squadmate. "Melanis..." He paused and looked up. "She's a turian female who specialized in stealth and infiltration but she's also an extremely competent fighter in a full on battle. Doesn't trust very easily, but wants to do good." He thought for a moment. "If you wanna know about the others I have their profiles right here on this pad." He sat the data pad down on the table, only for Grunt to snag it. "I trusted them before, I'm sure I can trust them again."
"So who's going down to get 'em?" Ian asked, knowing already that he was going down. "Ann is taking a team down to get the two salarians. They're the easiest ones. Ian you're coming with me to get everybody else."
There was a snort from Grunt. "And what about me!" he cried out indignantly. "I wanna kill something!"
Ann smirked. "Grunt, you and Grim are coming with me."
Both Ian and Garrus looked at her with wide eyes. "You're going to give both Mierin and Weaver heart attacks," Ian accused her.
"No, she'll startle 'em, but they may refuse to help us," Garrus replied but shrugged and looked at his wife. "I trust you though."
She smirked. "You better." she then walked out with Grunt following her.
Ian watched the Commander leave and then turned back to Garrus. "So who do we go after first?"
"Monteague," he quickly replied as they both headed down to the elevator. "He's friends with Melanis. You convince him in joining. I'll convice Melanis."
Ian turned to look at Garrus. "Will he listen?" The elevator door opened to the cargo bay where the shuttle was waiting for them. The shuttle pilot already had the shuttle engines warming up.
"Yeah, but Mel will be harder to convince." The two vanished into the shuttle.
Location: Purgatory
John looked out the shuttle window as Cortez settles the shuttle at the Purgatory airlock. Ann had told him not to trust the warden and that he was as crooked as they came. He put on his helmet and looked over at both Aberdeen and Ashley, both of which had their weapons ready. "Ready when you are Skipper," came Ashley's voice over the comm.
"Right. Remember, no giving up your weapons and no talking." He paused as he opened the shuttle door and entered Purgatory through the airlocks. The two guards standing there were humans. "Commander John Shepard, I'm here for Jack."
Both men looked at him as if he was crazy. "You sure you want her sir?" one asked.
"She's crazier than an L2 gone nuts," the other responded.
"Hackett wants her," was his only response.
The two men looked down their terminals. "If you say so," the first said. "We'll need your weapons."
"It's policy," said the other.
"Yeah, and as Spectre I have a policy of never handing them over."
Both men went to pull theirs out when they heard the clicking of metal shoes on the metal flooring. Turning they saw their boss come out of the elevator. John raised an eyebrow at the female turian standing before him. "I'm Warden Olg'nar," she said. "You must be Shepard. Follow me."
"Thought this place was run by the Blue Suns," he said as they began walking down the halls to Jack's cell, hopefully.
The turian smirked. "They do. I'm being replaced by some damn male. They say I'm not harsh enough on these prisoners. In truth, they want me to use brutality and torture to these people."
"Do you know why we're here?" he asked.
"Yes, Admiral Hackett told me that you and your cousin are assembling together teams and going to train them in order to take back the Citadel from these Reapers." She paused and looked at him. "I've been asked by him to help you. I have a cousin living on Phros Niam, it's a turian controlled blackwater planet. He's a general with over a hundred ships under his command. His name is General Zuris Olg'nar. He was apart of the First Contact War, tell him his little cousin Sarrana sent you to him." They continued on their way to the cryogenic cells. "This is where we keep her." She looked at him. "Stay here." She then walked up to a cryogenic tube which was thawing. It opened up to reveal a still, sleeping Jack.
Aberdeen smirked and said quietly."Looks like sleeping beauty isn't waking up." Just then, the very tattooed woman opened her eyes. Her body flared with her biotics and she began struggling against the chains that held her arms down, when suddenly a gun went off and a dart implanted itself into her neck followed by two more gun shots and two more darts. Jack stopped struggling and passed out.
Shepard walked over to the warden on the floor, who was cleaning her tranquilizer gun. "She's all yours Shepard." The turian female then sauntered away from him. "When my replacement comes I'll come looking for you and see if I can help you out!" she yelled back at him and vanished beyond the elevator doors to her office.
John looked at the now passed out Jack and sighed. "Pick her up Aberdeen and let's get out of here."
Once they were back aboard the SSV Normandy 2, Jack was taken to the new medbay. Chakwas scanned her and smiled. "Her body is already processing the traquilizer and pushing it out of her system. She'll be up and about in five to six hours."
John nodded. "Thanks Doc." He smiled as he went to leave but paused when he saw Aberdeen staring at the girl. "What is it man?"
"I know her," he stated.
"From where?"
John watched his friends features scrunch up into confusion. "I don't know, but I wanna find out."
John nodded. "Stay here and watch her." He then headed off towards the comm room to call Ann.
M-Angel: Yay, another chapter for this month! I wanna say Congrats to xoxoangii for her wedding on Thursday.
xoxoangii: Thank you! The wedding was beautiful, and it feels amazing being married. :D
M-Angel: Also I wanna promote a story called And The Meek Shall Inherit the Galaxy...It is an awesome story that reimagines the First Contact War and it is a WOW kind of story. I really like it and hope ya'll do too. It's in my favorites in my profile. Enjoy!
xoxoangii: I'll have to check out that story... see you guys at the next chapter!