SHORT CHANGE HEROES
CHAPTER 3:
FUBAR
Vila was better at running than he was at shooting. He had gotten separated from Williams during the whole conflict with the Geth invaders, and had chosen to react to the situation as per his usual idiom: running away.
This wasn't to say that he didn't fight. Whenever a Geth got in the way, he shot it. Whenever he saw someone in trouble, he helped them and told them to hide somewhere safe. But he was no gung-ho marine, and he was certainly not on Blake or Avon's crew anymore. He had retired from a life of being shot at and shooting people.
And yet, here he was, doing that, though whether the Geth counted as people was highly debatable. He remembered the bulky, clumsy but intimidating guard robots of the Federation. Servalan would have drooled at these flashlights on legs who moved and fought more like soldiers.
They were impaling some of the colonists on extendable metal stakes, like some latter-day robotic clones of Vlad the Impaler. Vila didn't know whether the stakes had a purpose beyond psychological warfare, but he was determined not to become a human shish-kebab.
And then, there was that huge bloody THING that had lowered itself out of the sky, like a gigantic squid looking to rape the very ground. It was a spaceship, but like none he had ever seen. The Liberator was, in many regards, like a living being, but this thing was even more so.
He also saw a sleek spaceship scream overhead, stopping only briefly a couple of times, before heading back into space. He scowled. So much for a rescue, he thought sullenly.
He made his way to the spaceport, hoping to find a good hiding spot, and heard a hiss of a very familiar voice. "Vila…Vila!"
Vila turned to find a familiar face squatting behind some crates. "Powell? What're you doing there?"
"Hiding, what the hell does it look like?" Powell hissed. The bearded, scraggy-looking dockworker was the leader of a small-scale smuggling ring Vila occasionally helped out with. "Go and hide somewhere else, there's a really scary Turian wandering around out there. I saw him killing others."
Vila scowled at being told to find somewhere else to hide. His intentions were to find somewhere very secure to hide, but a pile of crates on the other side of the spaceport had to do when he realised someone was coming. He dove behind them, and watched as a Turian strode from the direction of other parts of the spaceport complex. He felt a chill down his spine. There were three reasons for that. The first, and all that Vila really needed, was that his self-preservation instincts were screaming at him to run like hell. The second was that the Turian had no face-markings, none of that face-paint that they liked to adorn their face with, and while he didn't know that much of Turian culture (other than that they were highly militarised), he knew that those who chose to eschew face-markings were distrusted. And finally, there was the ridiculous amount of cybernetics the Turian had.
The Turian was looking around when another Turian, this one with skull-like face-markings approached. Vila's eyes widened. He knew that Turian, if those face-markings were any indication: it was Nihlus! Nihlus, one of the Spectres who had interrogated him and the others when they first arrived in this universe. And it seemed he was surprised to find the other Turian there, whom he called Saren.
Saren was claiming that he had been sent to help Nihlus on his mission (was he a Spectre too?), but as Nihlus turned to take in all the devastation the Geth were causing, Vila watched as Saren levelled a gun at Nihlus' skull.
Now, Vila was no hero. And to tell the truth, he didn't like Nihlus and the way he had interrogated him when they first came to this universe. But Nihlus at least was just doing his job. Whereas this Saren was Bad News with a capital B.
Which is why Vila screamed, "LOOK OUT!"
Nihlus turned to find Saren about to shoot him, and made to dive to the side. He was already moving when Saren fired. But it wasn't fast enough. A spray of blue spat from Nihlus' head, and he toppled to the ground. Saren made to fire again, before Vila shot at him, stupidly and impulsively. The orange flicker of shields showed up (of course), and Vila was forced to dive over a railing and twist his ankle on the ground a few metres below to avoid Saren's return fire. He was getting too old for impulsive acts of heroism.
He waited for Saren to try and finish him off, only to hear a snarl, and retreating footsteps. Not long after that, he heard a strange sound in the distance, and could see, just beyond the railing, that bloody calamari-like ship lift off, red bolts of energy crackling around it. And soon, he saw a squad of three soldiers coming towards him. He recognised Ashley, but not the other two, a man and a woman who had the distinctive uniform of Alliance soldiers. He tried to get to his feet, only to crumple with a cry of pain from his twisted ankle.
The man was on him immediately, administering Medi-Gel. "Who is this civilian, Williams?" the woman asked Williams in a no-nonsense tone.
"Vila Restal," Ashley said. "Former thief, turned security consultant."
The woman frowned. "I know that name. He is also a known former associate of my quartermaster, if the file is to be believed(1)," she muttered.
"Wait, quartermaster?" Vila said, as the man helped him to his feet. "D'you mean Dayna?"
"Yes, but that's not important. What're you doing here?"
"Frankly? Looking for somewhere to lay low." Seeing the looks on their faces, he said, "I'm not a bloody fighter! Not for want of people putting me into dangerous situations anyway. Incidentally, did you come with a Turian?"
"Nihlus?" the woman asked. "Yes. Why?"
"Well, let's just say that he's come a cropper," Vila said.
Soon, they were gathered around the body of Nihlus Kryik, blood oozing from his head. The man, who turned out to be called Kaidan Alenko, had announced to Vila's surprise, that Nihlus was still alive, albeit in a bad way. The bullet had only grazed Nihlus' skull, but he was out cold and in danger of brain damage.
The woman, Commander Jane Shepard, then began to question Vila. Vila gave as much information as he could. The woman was basically like Cally, with just the right mixture of firmness and sympathy. He was, after all, a civilian effectively pressganged into fighting.
Powell also came out, and Shepard had them wait with Nihlus for medevac, as they had cleared out the Geth who were nearby. She and her team had to go and secure the Prothean beacon. Seemed like the rumours were true after all. No wonder a Spectre was here, not to mention soldiers from the Alliance. Seemed like a pretty small strike team, though. There were only two, not counting Ashley.
Time passed. And then, Alenko and Williams came back, dragging the comatose body of Shepard between them. "What happened?" Vila asked.
"The Beacon happened," Kaidan spat. "We destroyed the Geth, and disarmed some bombs they had left behind, but the Beacon somehow began drawing me in when I got too close. Shepard pushed me out of the way, and got hit with…something. Then, it blew up."
Vila watched as they laid Shepard out and removed her helmet. Quite pretty, and that red hair was something. "Meddling with ancient alien artifacts is never a good thing," Vila muttered. "I speak from experience. Is she all right?"
"Out cold, but as far as I can tell, she's in nowhere near as bad a way as Nihlus," Kaidan said. "Christ, what a balls-up!"
"I believe the technical term is FUBAR, Lieutenant," Ashley said, with an air that was meant to be wry, but came out as bitter.
Alenko scowled, though not at her. Just at the whole mission. He then looked up. "We'll need the three of you on the Normandy for debriefing. By the way, what did Shepard mean by you knowing our quartermaster?"
Vila decided to plump for part of the truth. "We knew each other for quite a while. Not like that, obviously. But we were…acquaintances." He wasn't sure whether he should use the word 'comrade', as that may lead to all sorts of awkward questions. "Is Dayna still a gun nut?"
Alenko chuckled a bit at that. "Sounds like you know her. Show her a weapon, and within a minute, she knows it inside and out."
"Same for me, except for locks," Vila said. "Don't even need omnigel. I've since retired from the thieving business, though. Better for one's reputation to work on preventing thefts than working on them."
"You used to be a thief?" Alenko asked.
"Of a sort. Pickpocketing, safecracking…" Vila shrugged. "But I had to get out of that business. I nearly got murdered."
"Stole from the wrong people?" Alenko asked.
"Well, the right people, but the wrong people to annoy," Vila said amiably. "Cerberus, for example."
It was a lie, but one they would buy. The pro-human special ops group and virtually a terrorist organisation was infamous.
Once on board the Normandy, Vila was grilled for a couple of hours by Captain Anderson. He related what he knew to the captain, who he had met before when he first arrived on the Citadel, and who knew something about his past.
Anderson told Vila that he would probably have to testify to the Citadel Council in person. Saren Arterius was a Spectre working for the Council. Powell's testimony wasn't as detailed.
"If he's a Spectre, he might know about me," Vila protested. "You know, where I come from, what I did…"
"That's true," Anderson conceded, "but Powell's testimony was more conflicted and fragmentary. In addition, I've been checking the damage reports from Eden Prime. It's still early days yet, but the residential block where you resided was badly damaged. Once you're done with the testimony, we'll bring you back. And besides, I thought you might want to catch up with Dayna."
"True," Vila said with a smile. "But, well, I just wanted a quiet life. No more Blake, or Avon, or Federation. Seems like the universe seems set on taking the quiet life away from me, huh?"
Vila acceded to Anderson's request to go to the Citadel. He dropped by the medical bay to check on Shepard and Nihlus. Nihlus was still in a fairly precarious condition, while Shepard appeared to be in a deep sleep.
He was then escorted to the cargo bay (the bloody elevator taking ages to do so, and he had no idea why), and soon found himself in the company of an old friend. "Vila, how are you?" Dayna asked. She looked happier to see him than she ever had been before. At least in her case, absence made the heart grow fonder.
"Fine enough, considering Eden Prime got shot up by a bunch of walking flashlights led by a rogue Turian, and the planet got molested by a giant squid-monster spaceship," Vila said deadpan.
"Just like old times?" Dayna asked facetiously.
"No. Back home, we would have had the Federation shooting at us," Vila remarked. He then closed his eyes and shuddered, the good feelings in the air dissipating quite swiftly. "God, Dayna, it was Hell down there. The Geth were impaling colonists, and Williams told me later that it turned them into sort of cybernetic zombies…and I don't know how many of my friends made it out alive. And now, I'm going to have to testify to the bloody Citadel Council that one of their Spectres got shot by another one." Vila sighed heavily. "Ashley had it right: she called this situation FUBAR."
"Ashley?" Dayna asked. "Is she a girlfriend?"
Vila's eyes widened. "What? No! She's a friend, well, an acquaintance of sorts. She worked for the local troops on Eden Prime. If I tried anything, she'd probably have a dozen ways to kill me."
Dayna laughed. "Calm down, Vila. It's okay. But it's good to see you after so long. Really, it is. And I'm glad that you're safe."
"Safe being a relative term if a Spectre decides to come gunning for me," Vila moaned. "Still, it could be worse. I could have Avon gunning for me."
Dayna chuckled. "True. I wonder what he's doing now?"
"Probably being very isolated, and very rich," Vila said. He was hoping that he at least had seen the last of Kerr Avon.
Even so, he did wonder, for the briefest of moments, what Avon was doing now. Hopefully, it was something very painful and/or annoying.
CHAPTER 3 ANNOTATIONS:
Yes, this fic isn't dead! I just needed to get other stuff out of the way. Then again, this is probably the least-read of my fanfics. Go figure.
So, the first deviation from the Mass Effect storyline: Nihlus is alive, and Vila will be giving testimony to the Citadel Council. Next chapter: Avon rescues Tali!
1. I presume Shepard read a file on some of her crewmembers. Or maybe Anderson directed her to the file on Dayna. Hence why she knows about Vila's connection to Dayna.