Training under Gunnery Chief Williams had felt like she wanted to fucking murder me and my incompetent ass. Training under N7 Lieutenant-Commander Shepard was an exercise on finding new and creative ways the VI could have me painfully murdered.
Training under Spectre Nihlus Kryik was like being ground into dust and being moulded into an order-following robot automaton. We had been going at it for an hour, Nihlus, me... and Ashley. Shepard's orders.
I wondered if Shepard and Ash had had the "tell me to kiss a Turian and I'll ask which cheek" conversation yet. And I'm paraphrasing.
"Pull back and cover the chief," Nihlus called over the radio. "Now."
He didn't like waiting at all, orders had to be carried out the instant they were given. It was a turian thing, apparently. It kind of annoyed me, because as far as I knew, he had made his reputation by not following orders and going off the script at appropriate times.
But of course, it wasn't the time for that. I pulled my pistol out, and started shooting. There was never a lack of targets during these training exercises. As soon as I did, Ash shot out of cover and rushed straight towards the small building. More targets appeared, closer and closer to the chief. I tried to give her cover, but the closer they got to her, the worse my aim got.
I just didn't want to hit her.
The high-powered report of Nihlus' sniper rifle broke through the air, taking three targets in three shots, all in the blink of an eye.
"You can do better than that, Roy," he chided me through the radio.
"I don't want to hit the chief," I replied.
"You won't hit her if you hit the targets instead, now will you?"
"You don't know that," Ash replied, not stopping her rampage inside the building for a moment. "I think I prefer it this way."
Thanks for the vote of confidence.
"Chief, if we-" Nihlus' transmission was interrupted by a chime. "One second. Shepard, what's wrong?"
"Captain Anderson just got off the FTL with Admiral Hackett. We've got a lead."
"Right now?"
"We're leaving in thirty minutes," Shepard said. "So hurry up."
As soon as she said that, the scenario powered down, with all holographic targets disappearing and the emergency lighting coming on. Ash walked out of the fake house already clipping her guns into place, her steps sharp and fast. As soon as she was clear, she started running.
"Come on kid, don't make me pull on you!" she shouted as she passed.
Deciding that I didn't want to get shot by Ash again, I took off after them. They were running fast, and to my surprise, they ran right past the rapid transit terminal.
"What the hell?" I shouted, already falling behind. "We're not taking the shuttle?"
"We're not!" Ash replied. "And neither are you!"
"We won't get there on time!" I said, speeding up to try and catch up.
"Then you're staying here! Not that we'll miss you!"
Son of a-
"I'll miss him a little," Nihlus said, followed by a rumbling chuckle. He wasn't even breathing faster, he sounded like he was laying down on the beach with a margarita.
"Will you now?"
"Entertainment value," Nihlus finished.
-bitch.
Thirty minutes from the range to the Normandy was a hell of a time, and I was in full gear too. For now, I had left the shield harness in my locker, at least until I figured out more about it. As far as I knew, the kinetic barrier wasn't completely transparent, and I really didn't have an explanation for suddenly having grown that thing yet. Also, it was bulky, it didn't fit under the armor, and a quick extranet search had confirmed that wearing shields under shields was not a good idea.
If I wanted to have two layers, I had to either integrate it in the armor - as I had with the one Serrus had sold me - or made the two items interface somehow. Both things were way above my knowledge.
So, Serrus' upgraded armor it was for now.
I saw Shepard in front of the Normandy, pacing back and forth as a whole lot of Alliance personnel loaded supplies on the back of the ship. I would have liked to take a look and get to know the new faces, if any. I also wanted to ask Shepard about Tali and Garrus. Still, getting to the Normandy on time was the only thing I could think of.
"Cutting it close!" Shepard shouted when she saw us. Then she laid eyes on me, and her face brightened up. "You didn't," she said, shaking her head.
Yes, yes they fucking did," I said, stumbling as we arrived, "and I was going to... lose my lunch... because of it."
"Don't throw up on my hangar, Roy!" Ashley shouted, repressing her laughter.
Fuck you very much.
"So, what's happening Shepard?" Nihlus said, ignoring our antics.
"Orders from high up." Shepard pointed up with her index finger. "Long range patrol has detected a large amount of geth signals out of the Skillian Verge."
"Saren," Nihlus replied, his growl dangerously low.
"Maybe. Could be scouts. Could be Saren's fleet."
"Could be a spirits damned invasion," Nihlus finished for her.
"Indeed."
I watched the exchange from the ground, where I had dropped to try and get my breath back without throwing up. So far, despite all the close calls, I had managed to always keep my hard bar rations down, but there was always a first time.
"We're stopping an invasion by ourselves?" Ashley said.
"If it comes down to that," Shepard said. "We do have the fastest, most stealthy ship in the fleet, chief."
"Understood, sir," Ashley replied. She saluted, shot me a glance, and left towards the ship, shaking her head as she did.
"So, how did it go?" Shepard said once Ashley was out of earshot.
"You were right, she's good," Nihlus replied. "Too good to be wasted on Eden Prime as she was."
"And?" Shepard insisted.
"And nothing else. She did well."
The implied conversation wasn't lost on me, so clearly Shepard had already had a word with Ashley about working with aliens. Either because of Nihlus, or hopefully because of Garrus and Tali.
"What about Roy here?" Shepard said, turning to me and offering me a hand.
"He can follow orders," Nihlus said.
…
And that was it. Shepard pulled me up to my feet, and slapped me on the shoulder.
"Come on, get inside and stow your gear. We've got places to be."
"Yes ma'am," I replied. "What happened to Tali and Garrus, by the way? They coming?"
"They're inside already. Is that going to be a problem?"
"Not at all," I said with a shrug. "Tali okay?"
"She's not a hundred percent. Fell free to go ask Chakwas," Shepard said, pointing at the Normandy again.
Subtle, I know. I nodded at her, at Nihlus, and made my way to the Normandy.
Inside there was as much chaos as outside. There was definitely more crew in there than I remembered, and they all had their game faces on. I was in the way as soon as I stepped through the airlock, and tried to make my way through CIC as fast as I could.
It was curious to watch, because every person I kinda bumped into did the same thing. Looked me up and down, then turned to look at Pressly, and when Pressly didn't say anything, they went back to work. By the third time, I think Pressly was as tired of it as I was.
"Mr. Morgan," he said, loud enough to be heard over the hubhub of activity. "We're getting ready to leave, if you wouldn't mind going downstairs..."
"On my way," I replied, raising my arms to squeeze past two crew members. Pressly's words were enough to draw attention to me, and a narrow path opened up. I took advantage of it, and made it to the stairs as quickly as possible.
That was a lot of people they had gotten on short notice. Nothing like that in the games, that's for sure. I made my way down the stairs, and then down the slow lift to the cargo hold. I'd go check with Chakwas after, but first I wanted to get rid of the armor and grab a freaking shower.
The cargo bay, however, wasn't much better than CIC. The back door was open, and Williams was already shouting at the ground personnel to move quickly, telling them where to put all the supplies. Wrex himself was nowhere to be seen, but next to the Mako was a familiar sight.
"Garrus!" I called. "Good to see you up, man."
And it was. The fact that he had ended up in the hospital and almost gotten himself killed, much like Tali, had been nagging at me ever since. Sure, I had seen them at the hospital, but there was a world of different between that and seeing him up and running. Well, up and calibrating the mako.
He turned when he heard my voice, gave me a look, and went back to his datapad. Huh.
"Hey man, you okay?" I insisted coming to stand next to him.
His growl wasn't picked up as anything worth translating by my implants, but what he said next did. His voice came with a low, guttural purr.
"Back off, Morgan."
The hell?
"Hey dude, what the hell is wrong?" I said.
I put my hand on his shoulder, and his response was as immediate as impossible for me to follow. He shook his shoulder free, spun around, and clocked me right on the face, dropping me on my ass with a single swing.
The cargo bay filled up with shouts, and several people came to restrain Garrus and I. Not that I needed restraining, what I needed was someone to tell Joker to stop spinning the fucking Normandy.
"Roy, you okay?" was that Ash? Yeah, that was Ash.
"The fuck... Oww..."
"Yeah, it's broken," Ashley said. "What the hell Vakarian?" she shouted, jumping to her feet and coming to face the turian.
"I told him to back off!" Garrus snapped.
"Yeah, why don't you try telling me to back off then!" Ash replied.
More shouts, more people piling in, and someone grabbed me from behind and dragged me away. I was getting my bearings back, and realized I had blood all over my face. And fuck if it didn't hurt like a motherfucker.
Meanwhile, the only thing stopping Ash and Garrus coming to blows was the dozen or so people holding them back.
"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!"
Captain Anderson's voice cut through the chaos like a scythe, leaving behind only silence and stiffly standing personnel, Garrus included. He took a look around, stopped for a second to look at my face, and then gave another general look.
"Take him to the medbay," he said, pointing at me but keeping his eyes on Ash and Garrus.
"Yes sir."
That was one of the new crew, I had no idea who it was. He looked down at me, put his hand on my face, and with a barely muttered "sorry", pulled my borken nose back.
"SONOFA-" I shouted, or grunted. Shrunted. He put my hand on my face, and pulled me up to my feet, holding me upright as we made it towards the lift.
"So, what did you tell the Turian?" he finally said once the lift door closed.
"Not a lot," I replied, my voice muffled and strangely nasal. "Just my natural charm."
He chuckled at that. "I'm Hector Emerson, comms."
"Roy Morgan. Uh... Prothean expert, I guess."
I was really starting to get sick of the Normandy's medbay. Chakwas didn't seem to mind too much, but how many times had she had to fix me so far?
…
No need to count. Too many.
"First time you break it I take it?" Chakwas said.
She was pressing my nose back in place right after injecting some medi-gel, and surprisingly, it wasn't too painful. The local anaesthesia had been worse, it both burned and itched like crazy when she injected it.
"Uh-huh," I replied. "Not your first broken nose?" I added, my voice silly and nasal.
"Marines have been known to get into fist fights before," she replied.
After what seemed like an eternity she let go of my nose and stood back, looking at me.
"Any leaks?" I said, making her chuckle.
"No, but you'll have some bruising." She passed a scanner over my face, and nodded satisfied at the results. "Just be careful for the next hour or so."
"I'll make a note not to piss off any turians for an hour," I replied sardonically. My eyes took in the rest of the medbay, and saw that the last bed was surrounded by both a curtain and an isolation bubble. "How is Tali?"
"She'll be fine, just running a bit of a fever."
"I'm okay," Tali's voice called, and a gloved hand waved over the top of the curtain.
"Glad to hear that Tali," I said out loud.
"Thanks, mr..."
"I'm Roy, we've met before."
"Oh. You sound different."
"Yeah, that'll be the broken nose. Anyway, glad you're doing okay Tali, I'll see you later."
"See ya!" she said, and the hand once again waved over the edge of the curtain.
I thanked Chakwas and made my way to the mess. I was still in armor, and I still wanted a shower, but the idea of getting my ass down to the cargo bay again wasn't too agreeable until I made sure the coast was clear.
The mess was busy, too, and the chatter loud. Obviously all the new people were happy to be aboard the Normandy, that much was easy to gather from the excited voices all around. I made a quick stop to grab a pack of ration bars, and made for an empty spot. The small table had three people at it, two women and one man. I knew one of the women, Talitha. She was an ensign (which I really wasn't too sure what it meant), was usually at the cockpit with Joker; ear-length black hair, pale skin, she was quite a looker. The other woman had a completely shaved head, big eyes, round face, not as pale as Talitha, kinda thinish looking. I hadn't seen her before. The guy had black hair and tanned skin, looked to be of East Asian descent.
"This one free?" I said, tapping the back of the seat.
"Sure," the guy said, gesturing at the seat.
I dropped the ration pack and plopped down on the chair, shifting uncomfortably inside the armor. Not the best thing to be sitting around in, let me tell you. I picked the pack, ripped it open, pulled a bar out... and realized three pairs of eyes were fixed on me.
"What?" I said.
"Are you really going to eat that crap?" the shaved head woman said, with the same look of wonder on her face one would find on the witness of a heavenly miracle.
For an answer I just shrugged and took a bite, chomping fiercely to break it. I heard the other woman sniggering, and she just shook her shaved head in disbelief.
"Roy Morgan," I said, speaking though my mouthful.
"Rosamund Draven," the shaved head woman said. "Call me Rosie."
"Pleasure," I replied, then the penny dropped. "Wait, Draven..." I looked at Talitha, "isn't that your surname too?" She nodded. "You related?"
"Nope," Talitha said, smirking. "Just a coincidence."
"Uh.. Okay," I said, taking another bite and making Rosie wince. "Not the most common surname."
"Eh, maybe we're related and our great, great grandfather got around, you know," Rosie replied, smirking at me.
I shook my head and turned to the man.
"Abi Patki," he said, offering my hand. I shook it, he had a firm handshake. "How are you feeling?" he added, pointing at his own nose.
"Chakwas," I replied, tapping my nose guard; which was all the explanation they needed, either they were familiar with her, or they soon would be.
They resumed their meal, still throwing glances at my bars.
"What did you say to the Turian anyway?" Rosie said between forkfuls of her meat pie. "Because that was awesome. And the Chief!"
"Not a lot," I said. "Still no idea why Garrus' so pissed."
"Well, I wouldn't ask him," she replied.
I gulped the last bite off my bar and took the next one out of the pack. "I hear ya."
"So what's a civilian doing aboard the Normandy anyway?" Rosie continued. "Are you some kind of merc or something?"
"Nope, I'm kind of a prothean expert," I said, starting on my third bar.
"Really?" she said, and gave Talitha a look.
"What?" I said.
"No, nothing. Just... heard things about the mission," Rosie said.
"Told ya," the other woman replied.
"What?" I insisted.
"I heard that we're after some sort of prothean super-weapon, and that the turians got to it first, and now they're planning to go to war with us," Rosie said, throwing a glance at Talitha.
I couldn't believe what I was hearing. "Really."
"Yeah," Talitha said, taking the thread of the conversation. "The turians are still sore about humanity. They wanted to get rid of us, so they're looking for an excuse, and now they have it."
"You do realize we have a Turian spectre aboard, right?" I readpanned.
"Yeah, and I don't trust him."
I couldn't fucking believe what I was hearing. I was sitting at a table full of fucking racists? I knew there were people in the Alliance who were still sore about the war, and I couldn't really blame them. But none of these clowns looking old enough to have been part of that crap.
"That's bullshit," the words were out of my mouth even before I thought about it.
I had been thinking of some humorous stories I could feed the lot to quell the rumors – my favourite was to try something about a zombie apocalypse killing the protheans off – but all the humor of the situation was gone.
"Hey, I'm just saying," Talitha said.
"No, you're not fucking just saying," I snapped back. "Saren is one rogue spectre, a brainwashed rogue spectre. Oh, and he's working with an asari matriarch too, are the asari out to get us as well?"
"Well..." she muttered.
"I don't fucking believe this," I said, turning back to my meal.
"You actually trust them?" Talitha insisted. "After Eden Prime, and... Heck, you just got punched by a turian for no reason."
"I'm sure there was a reason," I replied. "Just don't know which yet."
"God you're naïve," she said.
The freaking bars were horrible, but the taste took a sudden dive south. I had to put a real effort into swallowing, which turned into a double effort when I saw Anderson, Shepard, and Garrus all walk into the captain's office. The entire room went quiet as we saw them move along, then as soon as the door closed, the room exploded in chatter.
"Can't say I'm-"
I didn't let Talitha finish. I just got up and stepped out, making for the lift while chewing the last bite of my bars. I knew Pressly had trouble with the alien crew, but I also knew he was eventually set straight, if not by Shepard, by the rest of the alien crew and how they behaved.
The lift ride was slow enough, which let me cool down a little. It didn't matter. Shepard and Anderson were in charge, and they didn't have a problem with aliens. The rest of the crew would fall in line, one way or another.
Hell, half the crew were going to be killed anyway when-
My train of thought came to a screeching halt there. Yeah, that was coming. The collectors, and everything else. I had to ask the AI about that. Because I was going to stop it, no matter the cost. There was no way in hell I was letting Shepard die.
"Coming out or what?" Ashley's voice called.
Huh, the lift had already arrived.
"Yeah, sorry, this thing's so slow I decided to take a nap," I replied, making the chief chuckle. I stepped out and made for my locker, with the chief behind me.
"Hows the nose?"
"Chakwas," I replied.
"I don't think she's got much of an artist's touch."
"Bah, I was ugly anyway, maybe the scar will help."
"I doubt it, maybe a krogan woman..." Ash said.
"I looked at Ashley, dropped my voice as low as I could, and tried to do my best imitation of Wrex. "He doesn't have the quad for that. Or the hump. Or the bass voice so low it makes your ladybits tingle."
"At least you know."
Wrex was right there, which I hadn't noticed – and if you're thinking I'm not very observant, it was really busy at the cargo bay – and was giving me the stinkeye. Well, nothing I could do, and with Wrex, never back down. Ashley, on the other hand, was laughing her ass off, wasn't sure whether it was my joke or the subsequent fallout.
"Never said I wasn't self-aware," I replied, shrugging. I opened the locker, and grabbed the armor case and my change of clothes.
"Don't forget you can't take a punch from a turian."
"Of course I can," I replied, closing the locker and pointing at my face. "I just did!"
Before the bad puns could get any worse, my omni-tool chimed. I flicked the console on, and opened the comms. Shepard.
"Yeah?"
"Roy, are you decent?" Shepard said.
"Um... for most definitions of decent, I suppose. Why?"
"Make your way to the captain's office, will ya?"
"Sure. It may take me a few days, I have to take the lift."
I heard her chuckle at that. "Just get your ass here," she replied, and closed the call.
Well, it was a pretty good way to make a dignified exit. I grabbed the case by the handle, gave a general "I have important things to attend to" nod, and made my way to the lift.
That fucking lift was the bane of my existence.
Getting into the captain's office was a different matter. Like before, there was a hush when people at the mess realized someone was walking to the captain's office, and I could just feel the rumour mill spinning to life as I closed the door.
"Captain, Shepard." The two them were at the same spot they had been the last time they roasted me, which didn't make me feel any more comfortable. The captain was at his desk, Shepard sitting on the small cot. I shot a glance at the very stiff-looking turian, which was standing next to the door. "Garrus."
He didn't answer.
"All right," Anderson said. "Let's make it quick. I don't really care what differences my crew has with each other, but I expect everyone to behave professionally."
"Yes captain," Garrus replied, the stick up his ass getting stiffer by the second. "It will not happen again."
"Now Roy here," he gestured at me, and now it was my turn to go stiff.
No, not that, dammit. Mind off the gutter.
"He has important intel for our mission," Anderson continued. "Which is seven words of explanation more than I owe you."
"Captain, he is an unqualified civilian," Garrus grunted, "and-"
"And that's for the commander and I to consider, not you. Is that clear?"
"… yes sir."
"Good."
Anderson gestured at me with his chin, or perhaps at his door, and Garrus turned towards me. He offered his hand, and after the initial surprise, I gave him a turian wrist-clasp. Far from being a gesture of goodwill, it seemed to irritate him, given how tight he squeezed. Then, without another word, he gave the captain and Shepard a salute, and left the room.
"So, are we going to have problem, Roy?" Shepard said.
"Problem?" I said, pointing at the door. "I don't even know why he's pissed. What did I do this time?"
"Nothing," Shepard replied with a shrug.
"Commander, Garrus wouldn't just punch me on the face for no reason." I sounded way too convinced, which got me the looks. Come to think of it, the match between in-game personalities and real world personalities wasn't that great. Maybe Garrus was a volatile asshole after all. "Huh. Or would he?"
"It's not important," Shepard said.
"Commander..."
She gave me the look again, for calling her commander, but it didn't make any sense. I made a shrug, hands up, come on and tell me already.
"Fine, have a seat," she said, and gestured to the small chair by the captain's desk.
"Great," I muttered.
"Hey, you're the one who-"
"Yeah, yeah," I interrupted, plopping down and dropping the armor case, which I was already starting to get tired of carrying. "So..."
"So," Shepard said, and her face fell for a moment. Whatever it was, she wasn't too happy about it. "You remember the clinic?"
"You mean where I found Garrus? Yeah, what about it?"
It was at that point that Anderson took over the conversation.
"The owner of that clinic was one Dr. Chloe Michel," Anderson said. I nodded in response, missing the keyword there. "Once Vakarian regained consciousness, a missing person report was filed, and C-sec started looking."
"… and?" I said, already feeling ny insides twisting.
"Footage from C-sec cameras found two men carrying her off, the description matched two of the people you took down in Chora's den. Unfortunately, they were too dead for interrogation."
Shit, shit, shit... I could see it coming. I wanted Anderson to get to the point, and not to get to the point, because that was sounding more and more like-
"She's dead, Roy," Shepard finally said. She was as tired of circling the point as I was, it seemed.
So she decided to just come and punch me right in the face with it. Because that's how it felt.
"What?"
"We don't know," Anderson said, giving Shepard a cross look. "They were seen carrying something around the protein vats, lower levels of the citadel. It's... a common way to get rid of bodies, leaving them to the keepers. But- Roy?"
I wasn't even listening. I had killed her. I had fucking killed Dr. Michel.
Well done Shepard.
She looked at Roy take the news, and it was like she had delivered a right hook to his jaw. But she couldn't stand watching Anderson slowly drip-feed him the truth.
"A common way to get rid of bodies, leaving them to the keepers," Anderson said.
Yeah, way to sugarcoat it captain. I left him stunned for you to go for the kill.
"Roy?"
He was leaning forward on the chair, and for a moment she thought he was going to throw up. Instead he put his hands to his head, and started muttering.
"I killed her," she heard him say. "I fucking killed her."
"Roy, you didn't kill her," Shepard said.
"No? I fucking screwed up!" he snapped. "I got there, if I had listened to Garrus..."
Shepard winced internally. That was what she had told him back at the hospital, to try and get a reaction out of him. She had been trying that for a while, trying to make him snap, trying to get a genuine reaction out of him. She didn't expect the one she had just gotten. It was amazing how quickly Roy had jumped into blaming himself.
And how, apparently, he remembered everything that came out of her mouth.
"You couldn't know that," Shepard said.
That got a chuckle out of Roy, but it didn't sound like he was amused at all.
"Couldn't I?"
"No, you couldn't, you can't predict the freaking future. Why did you run instead of staying with Garrus?"
He didn't answer at first. And after a few seconds, he said the only damn thing he always said.
"Sorry."
"Dammit Roy, I don't want an apology! You left for a reason, and you were in a damn hurry to get to Chora's den too. Why?"
"…"
Come on, just answer the damn question!
"Roy!"
"I had to find Tali!" Roy snapped.
"Well there! That wasn't so hard now was it?!"
"Enough you two!" Anderson called, not shouting, but loud enough to get command of the room back.
Shepard settled down in frustration, whereas Roy just... shut down. She could almost hear the gears running inside his head. She couldn't figure out why he was so damn guarded about everything all the time. But she was going to find out.
Maybe not immediately.
"Garrus is blaming you, yes," Anderson said. "But he was out of line. You made a mistake not calling for backup, but you did get us the witness, the quarian's alive. It's not your fault the doctor is dead, you're not the one who killed her."
He nodded, but Shepard knew it wasn't taking. And she felt it was her fault, too. She had drilled him when they went to see Garrus, and hadn't followed through to clear things up. She had simply left him to brood.
He was just a civilian. She couldn't treat him like a soldier, he wasn't one. Yet.
Baby steps Shepard, you're going to break him.
"Anything else?" Roy finally said. "I'd like to go get changed."
"Just one question. Are you going to be able to work with Garrus? I'll keep him in line," Anderson said.
"Yes captain, not a problem."
Bullshit, Shepard thought. She gave Roy a nod when he looked at him, and looked at him plod along and out of the room. Yep, he was walking out like he had been beaten up.
"That went well," Shepard said.
"You need to work your tact, Shepard."
"Captain, he already saw it coming. He knew you were about to tell him she was dead."
Anderson furrowed his brow. "He does seem to be quick to jump to the worst case scenario. I'd have assumed he'd think about a kidnapping instead."
Their conversation was interrupted with a chime, and Joker's voice following.
"Captain, we've got the last cargo in place. Ready to go when you want."
"Good, I'm on my way. Start pulling from the dock."
"Yes sir."
Shepard took it as her cue, and with a quick salute, left the room in search of Roy. Then she remembered he went for a shower, so she settled for getting some food instead. The mess hall was emptier, but still too many eyes landed on her.
That crew needed some quick whipping into shape.
Attention crew. This is Captain Anderson speaking.
We are currently leaving the Citadel en route to complete our mission: Find Saren, and stop him before he find the Conduit. You were chosen as one of the finest crew in the alliance, and you are now in one of the hardest missions I have ever been part of. Saren has a Dreadnought, and an entire fleet of geth ships.
None of that matters! We will find him, and we will stop him! This is bigger than us, and bigger than humanity. The entire galaxy is counting on us, we stand together with our allies, and we will not fail them. We will hunt Saren down, we will smoke him out, we will leave no place for him to hide. And when he comes out of his hiding hole, we will be right between him and those we are sworn to protect.
Or we may stab him in the back. We have the finest stealth ship in the galaxy after all.
Anderson out.
Author's Notes: And we are off to the races! Not starting with the three main destinations, which was a bit of a surprise, but then again, the geth buildup in the verge is kind of a big deal. It wasn't much more than a detour you could get around to whenever you wanted in the game, but if you think about it, it should be kind of a big deal. They send the Normandy because it's the best stealth frigate they have, but Shepard being Shepard, she doesn't leave half-finished jobs.
And you didn't really think I was going to get out of the crew-up with Tali and Garrus unscathed, did you? Unintended consequences are a bitch. The goddess Fortuna and I have a very peculiar relationship.
And reviews! Many reviews, thanks a lot!
Toothless: Dear goddess, are you really going to ship them? It sounds painful!
Sellas: I think (as in, in-universe Roy thinks) the point the AI was making was that Shepard would not condone any course of action that involved major sacrifices. She's done that before (not as bad as Torfan, but surviving Akuze was bad enough). She'll try to save everyone. Oh, and the AI was basically being a dick.
Mizuki00: Time travel! Only for Roy, and it's not cheap. Spoiler: No reloads!
Tactus501st: I'm sure the thought that he should have kept the gun will occurr to Roy, too! And yeah, yeah, that famous hug the world owes him :)
Anyway, thanks for reads and reviews and alerts and everything else! Looking forward to Roy being out in the Galaxy at last, should be a blast!