Another chapter down. I can't believe I've finished 14 of these, its crazy. Though I will say it's getting a little harder, the more complex it get the more things I have to keep track of in my head. Makes me wonder how the big fantasy writers did it all. (I practically grew up on Robert Jordan.)
Also, I would like to apologise for the inconsistencies that occur throughout the story, I started writing this when I was significantly less good at writing. And in the intervening time I have made decisions about the characters that I did not intend when first started: I have referred to Simon and River as both the Tavelles, (or something like that,) and the Tams, I think I called Shepard Jane when her name should be Sarah, and a few other things like that. So If anyone reads the whole thing through and has any questions I'd be happy to clear them up. Or just, y'know, not care. That works too.
One last thing is that there is going to be a time jump in the near future, both in the context of the story and real life. I've been accepted to the writing for film and television course at Vancouver film school, which will take up a more than significant amount of my time. I will say that I under no circumstance, want to abandon this story, but there is a high probably it will, at least, go on Hiatus. I'll be trying to write a break into the story, but I'll warning everybody now. As of May, it will be highly likely that ain't nobody got time fo' that non-curriculum writing.
So enjoy, and know I'll be trying my best to leave it, (temporarily,) on a nice, tied up ending and not some terrible cliffhanger that doesn't tell you if there will be any more episodes or not. (SGU I'm looking at you.)
Spartan Gabriel Thorne shifted in his new clothes, easily riding the little bumps of turbulence as their asari made shuttle sped towards the citadel. The cloth felt strange, a far cry from the UNSC issued gear he wore while off duty. He was almost glad he was still wearing his undersuit beneath his clothing so he only felt the strange silky texture at his collar and cuffs.
"What's this stuff made from?" He asked Liara, tugging at the dark blue material. The asari smiled beside him, standing with one hand bracing herself on the ceiling, the shuttles weren't exactly made for spartan kind, his head very nearly brushed the ceiling. She had spent over an hour dressing him to look the part of her servant. An Asari Heiress couldn't have anything but the best.
"It's a kind of silk made on Thessia," Liara said, "It is very expensive, that suit cost more than a good rifle."
"It feels weird."
"I'm afraid you'll have to deal with it," Liara said with a smile, "How are the rest of you?" She asked into her radio.
"Cramped," Palmer grunted
"Packed tight'r than I'd like ta be." Grant sounded a little out of breath
"It's not that bad guys," Madsen said easily
"Speak for yourself Madsen, I'm sharing with Hoya," Demarco said sharply.
"That had better be your sword, Demarco," Hoya threatened.
Their shuttle bumped sharply, they were coming into the Citadel's atmosphere.
"Now remember," Liara turned to Thorne, "you are my servant and I am the enigmatic and reclusive Heiress to a successful eezo mining family on Thessia."
"Got it." Thorne nodded, "Best to add I'll be playing your bodyguard as well, just in case I hit someone," He added with a shrug. The shrug said, 'these things just happen sometimes.'
"Oh, and before we land…" Liara quickly dug into her bag, producing a small container which she opened to reveal a bright, sparkling dust. Without a word she walked up to Thorne and smeared her dust coated thumb across the human's cheekbones and around his eye sockets. She did the same for herself. "Nanomachines that will affect how your face is seen through a camera, should fool facial detection and anyone looking back at the tapes," she explained with a comforting smile.
A booming clong echoed in the shuttle and both Liara and Thorne assume their roles. Liara pulled her face into a haughtily arrogant expression and activated a holographic veil that covered her from scalp to neck. Thorne clasped his hands behind his back and stood at ease, back straight, knees shoulder width apart. His face was blank, but it held an undeniable strength to it. The shuttle's door opened with a whoosh and both of its occupants stepped off with a sureness that came from knowing you belonged, or from being a good actor.
They entered a little-used room of the Citadel docks, A tiny spaceport only used for VIP's, The airlock lead out to a spacious room with high, vaulted ceilings. Thorne had to struggle not to look around in awe, it was another far cry from the plainness of UNSC space stations. The architecture reminded him a bit of the Asari ship, lots of curves and soft colours, but there was an undeniable difference, the odd corner here or there. It was a simple room but at the same time lavish, ornate.
The two walked quickly across the room up to the desk clerk, a human that looked like he might be old enough to shave on a regular basis, he looked more surprised than anything else, perhaps he hadn't expected them to actually arrive. "Greetings, Miss A'treya," The young man said, he was half way through a kind of awkward bow before he realized what he was doing and froze, glancing up between Thorne and Liara. He straightened, smoothing his shirt back down and laughing nervously. Liara and Thorne waited wordlessly. Liara somehow managing to look disappointed without a visible face and Thorne assumed the same expression he'd seen on every drill sergeant since basic. "Uh, can I- I mean I need to-" he stammered for nearly a solid minute under their combined gazes before taking a deep breath to calm himself. "May I see your identification?" he asked with a modicum more confidence, which was promptly ruined by adding, "Please?" In uncertain tones.
Liara thrust her omnitool out to Thorne, who smoothly opened his own and waved it to the clerk to display both of their forged Id's on his terminal. The clerk glanced between the two of them and back down to his computer.
"Umm," He hesitated, "I'm going to have to, uh, ask you to remove the- the facial covering, ma'am." His voice became more and more quiet as the sentence went on and Liara seemed to loom over him more and more, to such a degree that Thorne was actually a little unsure that she wasn't going to hurt the little man.
"I'm sorry!" He said, quickly, "But it's protocol." He winced as Liara relaxed, convinced he was putting his very life in peril. Liara affected a shudder of revulsion and her omni tool flashed once and the veil faded, revealing a face that cemented every notion she was trying to portray.
"Miss A'treya does not like her face shown to the public," Thorne added, pitching his voice lower than normal and frowning. "Be quick about this."
"O-of course, sir." The clerk mumbled, jerking his head down and typing furiously. "There," he said, with more than a little relief in his voice, "You're all set." He smiled, a more forced expression could not have been made.
"Good," Thorne waved Liara forward. The veil flashed back into place and the asari stalked forward. "See that our luggage is sent to this address." Thorne said, waving over the information.
"W-will do, sir," the young human stammered.
The two of them carried on to a small platform, directly under a flurry of skycar traffic. The platform gave a sweeping view of the docks below, hundreds of ships came and went, silhouetted by distance against the vivid multicoloured cloud that encompassed the Citadel. As soon as they were out of earshot of the young human Liara giggled. "That was rather fun," she said. " One could almost forget they were on the run from the most dangerous person in the galaxy." They found the end of the platform empty save for a taxi caller. Liara absently keyed the terminal and waited.
"Have you ever considered getting into espionage yourself?" Thorne asked. "You seem to have a talent for it." He tilted his head back towards where the human was no doubt still trying to steady his nerves.
"Oh, I just tried to act like my mother," Liara said with a sad smile. "She was a rather...serious woman."
"Was?"
"She died," Liara said without much emotion, "last year during the Sovereign incident."
"What about your…" He waved his hand in circles, as though trying to waft the correct word into his mouth. "Father?"
"I never knew her," Liara said, "My mother would only say she was another asari."
"I'm sorry," Thorne said, his eyes growing distant, "I know what it's like to lose everyone."
"Then I'm sorry too," Liara said softly, placing a hand on Thorne's back. The pair were interrupted by a descending skycar, they quickly climbed inside and gave the VI driver the correct coordinates. Their journey settling into silence as the skycar sped to their new, temporary home.
The skycar quickly crossed over from the presidium ring to the wards, five great sweeping arms that held the majority of the Citadel's population. "The safe house is in the Bachjret Ward," Liara said, not taking her eyes away from the views sliding past.
"God," Thorne whispered, staring wide-eyed at the view. It was one thing to look down over the thousands of twinkling light of a city, it was quite another to be bathed in the lights of four others from above while you did. It was the most vibrant, amazing sight Thorne had ever seen. A billion lights played across a background of colour, endlessly shifting under the glare of light from beyond the Presidium.
"It is quite the sight isn't it?" Liara mused, "I've been here so often I don't really notice it anymore."
"How can you not notice that?" Thorne said, still slightly awestruck.
"There was an attack here, not too long ago," Liara said, "Sometimes it hard to see anything else but the bad memories." She nodded upwards towards one of the wards where large swaths of the city were dark and some of the buildings were still visibly damaged.
Thorne didn't say anything for the rest of the trip, he simply watched the wards fly by and tried to take in as much information as he could.
The skycar set down on a small platform sticking off the side of a blocky building sitting squat among its neighbours like a giant concrete toad. Liara exited the skycar first, not waiting for Thorne and heading straight to the building. Thorne jogged a few steps to catch up and the doors hissed as they swept open to admit them into their home. Thorne walked through the door and onto a broad balcony that overlooked the lower floor of the building, mostly a single large room set beneath a wide-paned skylight. To the right the balcony descended into stairs to the first floor, and to the left, it followed the wall around to a large, blocky set of rooms that hung over the kitchen.
It was a simple place, not overly elaborate or fancy, the walls were unadorned concrete, without any kind of art or pictures hanging from them. There were only a few windows to admit light, and the furniture in was simple, sturdy and plastic.
"Not bad," Thorne said appreciatively. "Bigger than Majestic's bunk on the infinity, for sure."
"We do have a little more to work with here," Liara said with a hint of dryness in her voice. She walked down the stairs into the main room, her footsteps becoming muffled by the thick carpet set down on the concrete floor. "It's better than a hole in the wall, that is certain," She spun experimentally, enjoying the open space. Thorne looked down at his omni tool as an alert flashed on the back of his hand. "That would be our 'cargo'," she said, nodding to the door they'ed entered from.
Thorne strode out onto the platform to see a automated forklift kind of device maneuver a cluster of three large cylinders into position. When the device released the cluster a low hum permeated the air and the cluster slowed to a halt floating half a foot off the ground.
"Huh," Thorne grunted, "neat." The lifting machine flew off without stopping and Thorne guided the tubes into the door with one hand, like pushing a ball across the water.
The cylinders only took up a small about of space in the bottom floor. Once they were in place Liara waved her omni tool at them, the front of them swung open to reveal four very cramped Spartans and a smug bastard. Hoya, Demarco, Grant and Palmer all but tumbled from their cylinders, fully armoured, groaning and stretching out cramped muscles, quickly putting distance between themselves and their traveling partners. Madsen was considerably more languid about his own debarkation, shaking his arms and legs free from their inactivity and doing a few experimental squats.
"I don't know about you guys but I'm good to go." He said happily, sounding refreshed. "Had a nice little nap in there." He turned to Thorne, "Your armour is way more fun to be around when you're not in it."
"Shut it, Madsen," Palmer grumbled, looking around their new home, "so this is it?" She asked with a tactical curiosity. "Do we have a floor plan?" She asked Thorne.
"Yes ma'am," Thorne nodded to Liara, who waved over copies of the blueprints to everyone.
Palmer tried to access the image, cursing rather fouly when it wouldn't work the way she wanted it to. "Stupid techno bulls-"
"Commander?" Thorne offered, raising his arm and easily opening his omni tool, displaying the image so that the entire fireteam could see it.
"Thank you Spartan," Palmer said curtly. she looked up at the plans. "Looks like we've got two ground floor exits, she spun on her heels to spot the two doors with her own eyes. "And the upper floor skycar platform," she nodded up to the door on the balcony. "Along with a set of windows, here, here and here." Her fingers pointed out the targets on the blueprints, the most problematic being the corner of the main room, one of them having large paneled windows stretching up floor to ceiling. "First things first I want this building secured." The Spartans nodded, scattering wordlessly to complete their tasks.
Liara stayed in the main room, absently exploring as the Spartans worked. She wanted to help, but she knew she would more likely simply be in the way. Fireteam Majestic functioned as a well-oiled machine, it reminded her a little bit of when she, Shepard and Garrus were deployed together. After a few missions, they knew each other well enough that even in the heat of battle there were few words that needed to be said. They simply knew what the other were doing so they could react without stopping to talk about it. It was a comforting feeling of belonging that she missed and envied in the team of humans.
"Clear!" Hoya said from upstairs, poking his head out of the windows that overlooked the main room opposite the skycar door.
"Clear!" Grant shouted from the kitchen. "We'll need t'go get some food, though." She said, opening the barren fridge.
"Clear back here too," Madsen said as he and Demarco returned from checking the back. "One back room and a back door leading to an alley. Might be a good rabbit hole," Demarco said.
"Noted," Palmer said, "we'll clear it once we get settled."
Thorne came in from the front entrance. "The front is pretty open," He reported, "Good place for enemy surveillance or a sharpshooter."
"We'll need a plan for counter surveillance," Palmer ordered. She gripped her helmet, twisting it sharply and pulling it up. "We need to be under the radar here," she said, "So we'll keep two or three people out of armour to blend in, the rest of us will remain armoured at all times."
"Yes ma'am," Majestic barked sharply.
"Thorne, you're pulling first civ duty." Thorne nodded, shrugging in his colourful suit. "Madsen." Palmer barked. "Strip down and scout the area for counter surveillance." I want a list of places and materials before twenty-one-hundred."
"Yes ma'am," Madsen pulled his own helmet off quickly and the rest of Majestic began to help him take off the many plates and layers of armour.
"We're not out of the woods yet, we're only going in deeper from here," Palmer said, lifting her helmet and sealing it with a sharp hiss and click. "Let's get this base of operations going so we can start looking for our man." She stepped forward and started helping with Madsen's chest plate.
Liara watched the Commander's narrow visor worriedly. She knew that look, she'd seen the exact one on Shepard's face a dozen times. It was the look of a woman who would go to unending lengths to complete her goal. It was the look of a woman who would not fail, no matter the cost.
Far across the Citadel, a Turian sat behind a desk in C-sec headquarters. He was typing up a case report with all the vigor of a hanar on opiates. Detective Decian Chellick blinked as an alert popped up on his terminal. He heaved a breath, the incoming air clearing away the cobwebs in his mind, and opened the files. It was a log of Relay use in the terminus, utterly useless in a real investigation, the terminus didn't fall under any law jurisdiction, but that's not what it was for. One of the log entries was highlighted, it was logged as a freighter named Oswald, but the mass was exactly within a range that a friend had given him to be on watch for. Chellick had talked to a friend in Relay control who set up a quiet little program to let him know of any ships matching that specified mass used that Relay or any near it.
"Hmmm," Chellick hummed aloud thoughtfully. Could be it. He thought to himself. He forwarded the log onward to Garrus without giving it much more thought. It wasn't his case. He had more than enough work to do. He scrubbed his talons over his eye sockets and tried not to fall asleep as he went back to typing up his report.
Mallus stood next to Chief in the bridge, and stared blankly at the myriad of colours that splashed across the front windows from FTL flight, the turian was wearing his dull brown armour, his helmet in one hand, balanced on his sharp hip and his pistol clamped to his thigh. A tension hung in the air, Mallus had heard some humans call it the calm before the storm, he'd always thought of it as that intense moment of strain just before the bone snapped. The colours were dashed away and the dark black of space was broken by the unending stars, and more obviously by the Mass Relay dominating the vista, it's gyroscopic rings spinning in an almost hypnotic fashion. An image flickered into being inside the holotank, an image of a long ship made of more than a dozen thick, bulky compartments strung together behind a single ship.
"There is is," the big human said, his visor glinting in the LIDAR scan. Their jump had been timed perfectly.
"Time to do to work," Mallus said grimly. "Good flying Walesh," he said as he left the bridge, Chief wordlessly followed. The salarian nodded absently, swiping through various piloting screens. He opened his omni tool as he passed through the mess. "Zo, Janeth, you two in place?" he asked through the radio.
"Right and shiny, Sir." Zo's voice was slightly garbled by the transmission sent through the hull of the ship.
Janeth grunted.
"One grunt means yes, right?" Mallus asked.
"That's affirmative, sir," Zo confirmed dryly.
"Delightful," Mallus said, ducking into the cargo hold. In the center Kalia fussed over a large cylindrical contraption that took up a large portion of the floorspace, It was wrapped in a pair of broad loops and attached to hooks that trailed up to a ceiling-mounted crane. "How fares the work?" He asked loudly from the catwalks.
"Well, it ain't boring!" The young asari shouted back, crawling over the top of the device and around under it, heedless of the new and interesting stains being added to her baggy overalls. She sounding only slightly more than flustered. "I'm still trying to make sure the power source what feeds the pulse ain't gonna overload and kill the whole crew." she poked her head out from under the device, looking up at the Captain with tired eyes.
"Best get it sorted," Mallus said, stepping down the stairs with Chief right behind. "We just hit the Relay system and It'll be needed in a quick manner."
"Cap, I can't say it'll be ready!" Kalia said hotly, wriggling out from under it and standing to meet Mallus, her forehead level with his flat, angular nose.
"It best be." Mallus calmly looked down at his mechanic, "I've a long list of terrible crimes, but kill'n innocent folk ain't one of them." He rubbed his hand over Kalia's scalp fondly. "Not a soul other I'd trust to do it." his voice glowed gently with warmth.
Kalia sighed, "I want a bonus after this," She grumbled darkly, "sumthin with frills, mind you!" She added with an accusatory finger before quickly returning to work, a vibrant edge to her motions that wasn't there before.
"I'll give her a hand," Cortana said, Chief extended his own and a blue spark flashed to Kalia's omnitool, staining the orange a faint, ruddy purple.
"The delivery boy is getting mighty close," Zo said over the radio. "It'd be nice to have that package soon…" she trailed off worriedly.
"Just wrapping it and putting the stamps on," Mallus told her. "You know our little Kalia, doesn't want to mail anything that might explode and kill everybody."
"A bit fussy, isn't she?" Zo agreed dryly.
"Got it!" Kalia shouted out into the hold. She struggled to work her way out from under the device, gladly accepting the hand Chief offered and squeaking slightly as he easily lifted her wholly up off the ground to put her down gently on her feet. "Thanks, Chiefy." She had to crane her neck up sharply to look him in the visor.
"Yeah," Cortana said wryly, "He's the one that saved the day," She zipped back from Kalia's omni tool back into Chief's helmet.
She clapped her hands together and rubbed them gleefully. "Alright, let's get this thing to the mailbox," she said happily, opening her omni tool and pointing at the floor below the device. Cargo doors set into the floor slid open slowly, revealing a pale blue shield protecting the ship's atmosphere from the cold black of space beyond. When the door opened to their fullest the device dropped down, jerking slightly as it's rigging snapped taut.
From Chief's vantage, he could see Zo peek her head over the edge of the cargo hatch, looking up into the ship. "Everything shiny?" She asked over the radio.
"As Mr Chief's visor." Kalia confirmed happily. She used her omni tool to direct the crane, slowly lowering the device down and out of the ship. "One crazy thieving thingdoodle, come'n up." She tilted her head up and to the side for a moment, "Or is it down?"
"Its relative," Zo said flatly, her hand outstretched to catch the package as it left the Repose's artificial gravity.
"Now once you get it set onto the delivery boy you'll just need to pull the strips on the top-bottom there," Kalia said, sounding more like a teacher than anything else. "Just don't get your fingers in the way and you'll be five kinds of fine."
"Got it," Zo said, "Janeth?"
The krogan grunted, once.
"We're good," Zo said, the shadow of laughter behind her voice.
Mallus opened his radio, "Walesh?" He asked, "what's our ETA?"
"I approximate immediately," the salarian said smugly. Mallus looked down through the hatch to see the cargo ship roll into view below. "Window open," Walesh said sharply. "Advise using time wisely, crew knows we are here, have accelerated their normal Relay procedures to try and escape."
"Good plan," Mallus said firmly. "We've got a small window until our plan is busted." His words were directed at Zo and Janeth, who were already on their way down to the train ship, device in tow, their own tethers looping slowly in microgravity as they spooled out more line. From above, it looked like they were completely stationary. If it weren't for the sound of the ceiling crane letting loose more line as they went Mallus would have begun to worry slightly. A tremor shuddered up the cable as the device struck the train's hull.
"Activating the hotstrips," Zo reported. Far below two spots of bright light flared into being, plainly visible even through the atmo shield across the Repose's hatch.
"Keep it steady until the weld starts cooling." Kalia warned, "It'll stabilize quick, but a jostle now could knock it clear."
"Got it," Janeth said shortly.
"That relay is getting some kind of close," Zo said worriedly. "It might be time for leavetaking."
"Give it was much time as you can," Mallus ordered. "We've only got one shot at this and if that ship hits the relay before we're ready you can kiss this job goodbye,"
"Sir," Zo said stiffly. The cables trailing down went slack, Kalia keyed her omni tool and the ceiling crane began to whine mechanically, thick cables coiling back up to their usual resting place.
An uncomfortable silence settled over the crew, with little to do except wait for the welds to cool sufficiently.
"Are all your heists this exciting?" Chief asked dryly after several minutes of quiet.
"Sprits will it." Mallus murmured, his eyes locked down at his crew standing next to the device.
"Captain…" Zo said slowly. Even from above the bright glow of the Relay's center could be seen now, flooding up into the hold and casting harsh shadows on the walls.
"Time to go," Mallus ordered sharply. "Reel yourselves in."
The two shapes on the train ship leapt up off the hull, their tethers snapping taut and jolting them even faster back to the ship. Less than a minute after their feet left the train's hull, a pale blue light enveloped the train ship and a spidery tendril of energy shot out to seize the ship to fling it violently into the black. It was gone in an instant.
"Well," Mallus said happily, dropping heavily onto a low crate, "That went well," he glanced between Chief and Kalia, who had hopped up on a large crate.
"I'm glad things went as planned." Chief said in his usual monotone before nodding to Kalia and walking through the back door towards his quarters.
Mallus and Kalia watched the big human leave. "See, it's weird because he says that like it didn't go perfectly," Mallus said, slightly confused. "I swear by the spirits I'm still not convinced he's not just hugely sarcastic all the time." The turian shrugged. The main cargo doors screeched and began to open, admitting both Janeth and Zo. Zo in her dull brown and Janeth in his horrible, horrible eye-jarring monstrosity.
Mallus shook his head to himself as Janeth passed him, wordlessly nodded and heading upstairs to the mess. "Just awful colours," he said in a stage whisper, nodding to Janeth's armour. Kalia snorted quietly into her hand and Janeth growled deep in his throat. He didn't stop, though.
"So what now Cap?" Kalia asked, swinging her legs absently.
"We let the package do its work." Mallus said. He sighed. "And we wait." He swung himself to his feet. "Until then, I believe I shall nap," he declared, suiting his words and heading up to his quarters.
This left Kalia alone in the cargo hold. She swung her legs in the silence and looked around. Her sigh sounded three times louder than it should have. She stayed there and simply basked in having a job finished, a welcome change from her day to day work on the engines. She swore that anything that wasn't broken was halfway-A loud crash echoing up the halls from the engineering section snapped Kalia's head around. She quickly jumped off the crate and dashed down towards the core room, a light smile playing across her lips.
It'd be a very boring ship indeed if nothing needed fixing.
Shepard sat in her room darkened by the Normandy's night cycle and poured over the trail that Liara had left, which wasn't much of one. Her brow furrowed in the pale orange light of her terminal as she tried to think. Liara had certainly gotten better at hiding her tracks in the last year or so. Shepard would've been happy her teaching had worked so well if it wasn't making finding her a giant pain in the ass.
Liara had left the dig site in a hurry. She'd been careful too, dropping a databomb that erased nearly everything. That worried Shepard, who was she running from? Why hadn't she come to the Normandy? The logical part of Shepard's brain knew that there were only two real reasons for that. Either Liara didn't trust some aspect of the Normandy to keep her safe - Shepard managed to keep her natural pessimism from changing, 'the Normandy' to 'Sarah Shepard,' in that thought - Or Liara didn't want to involve her. Perhaps to keep her safe something like that. Shepard couldn't decide which she disliked more. She was more than capable of taking care of herself and her squad, but she hated the idea of Liara not trusting her or her ship.
A soft ding denoted someone requesting access to her quarters. "Enter," Shepard said. The door opened with a soft hiss and Garrus stepped in with a log opened on his omni tool.
"Commander, we got a hit on the Relay network," he said quickly, flipping the image so that she could see it clearly. "A ship matching the Repose's mass was logged using the Relays." He brought up a small map of the galaxy and a broad red line showed the ship's course through the network, passing through nearly a dozen secondary relays instead of a few primaries.
"That looks like someone trying to avoid attention," Shepard noted.
"It does, doesn't it?" Garrus smiled. He might be ex C-sec, but Shepard didn't think Garrus would ever shake the investigator bug. He seemed to enjoy it too much.
For a moment Shepard was torn, she wanted nothing more than to find Liara, but she knew that this was something that she needed to do.
Shepard activated the ship com. "Joker," she barked.
"Yo,"
"Head to these coordinates." She glanced at the galaxy map and copied the location into her omnitool to send it up to the bridge.
"Aye-aye, Ma'am."
Shepard stood sharply and left her room, heading upstairs trailed closely by Garrus. "All ground team personnel meet in the communication room," She ordered into the com, her voice booming on the ship's internal speakers. She barely managed to return the salutes fired at her when she came into the CIC, marching straight into the com room without saying anything. She entered the room and brought up a series of screens on the main view panel, displaying all of the video evidence they had on the mystery target.
One by one the ground team filtered in. Garrus, obviously, was right on her heels. but Ashley and Wrex walked in soon after. Ashley in her deep navy workdress, and Wrex in full combat gear, as usual.
"Whats up?" Wrex rumbled, plopping onto an empty chair, heedless of the loud sounds of protest it made.
"We got a lead on the mystery man we met on Omega," Garrus explained. "We're en route now."
"So we are going to study every move he's made," Shepard said coldly. "We look at every frame until we know exactly how he thinks and what he's going to do before he does."
Wrex and Ashley shared a look.
"I'll get the popcorn," the krogan said, heaving himself up and quickly exiting. He indeed returned with a large bowl of popcorn.
"What's our ETA?" Shepard asked the bridge.
" 'Bout 2 and a half hour, Ma'am," Joker said distractedly. "On our way to the closest really now." The Normandy hummed through and through and reality flinched as the ship was rocketed into FTL speeds.
"Alright," Shepard said, "We've got 2 and a half hours to try and figure out how to fight that." She jerked her thumb behind her and a video started playing. A video showing the green armoured man deflect a rocket with his fist.
"We always get the fun jobs," Wrex said gleefully, digging his hand into the bowl on his lap. Ashley rolled her eyes.
Ah HA!" Mallus punched the air in exuberance as a small blip popped up on the galaxy man in the bridge.
Behind him Simon looked over at River, she was utterly ignoring her brother, absorbed in the many buttons and switches in the cockpit. Walesh was asleep, and Mallus knew the young woman could handle herself behind the stick. "I assumed it worked?" The doctor ventured.
"It certainly did," Mallus said happily. He recorded the coordinates of the dot and waved it over to the cockpit. "Think you can take us there, little sparrow?" He asked. River didn't say anything, but her hands glowed orange and the Repose hummed as her engines spooled over and the static black through the front windows began to shift into an impossible mosaic.
Simon shifted nervously, he still wasn't wholly comfortable with his younger sister flying the ship, but it was one of the few things that still brought her joy anymore, he couldn't refuse her that. "So what actually just happened?" Simon asked. "And please, dumb it down for the non-criminal mastermind," he added with a smirk.
Mallus raised a brow plate but smiled. "The problem with robbing these trains is their schedule, see if one doesn't make a check in, the company that owns and operated is mighty interested in finding it." He pointed to the galaxy map. "Good thing about these is they're heavy as anything. Using relays they drift something awful. So the package was a complex bit of EMP, drive engine and transmitter. It knocks out the ship, pushes it off course even worse, and emits an encrypted signal that only we can find." He finished his plan with a broad grin. Criminal mastermind indeed.
Simon nodded thoughtfully. "Makes sense I suppose." He shrugged and went back to looking after his sister.
Mallus chuckled and ruffled his talons carefully through River's hair. "See to it she stays not-crazy," He said quietly to Simon before heading out of the bridge and opening his radio. "Zo, Janeth, Chief, rouse yourselves. We've thieving to attend to."
"Got it." Chief's voice responded dully. He sounded out of breath, what did he have to do to sound out of breath? Mallus shuddered to think as he passed through the mess. Janeth was just finishing assembling his favorite shotgun after cleaning it.
"Get dressed," Mallus ordered, "Time to dance." He only stayed in the mess long enough for Janeth to grunt and stand. Mallus' armoured footsteps clattered noisily on the metal grate that made the hallway floor, and when he entered the hold he knew why Chief sounded breathless. Mallus looked down from the catwalks to see Chief standing in the center of the hold though 'standing' wasn't the right word. He was doing a handstand, with one arm, and slowly lowering himself down to nearly touch his elbow to the deck before smoothly raising himself back up straight armed.
"Doesn't that armour make you weigh a tonne?" Mallus asked.
"Half a metric tonne," Cortana said, oddly her voice wasn't coming from Chief's helmet, but a little off to the side. Mallus leaned over the railing and craned his neck to see Kalia and Cortana, the A.I riding on the Asari's shoulder, watching the human exercise. Kalia's cheeks were heated to a deep purple colour that was almost the same colour as her omni tool, it's colour shifted by the A.I.'s presence.
"Little Blue," Mallus nodded to Cortana. "Slightly less little blue." Kalia. "What are you two doing?"
"Hmm?" Kalia asked, coming out of a deep well of thoughts. "What'ya say, Cap?" She asked, a little breathless herself.
"What are you doing?" Mallus repeated himself.
"Nothin' Cap." Kalia said quickly. "Just stretching my legs after fix'in the portside alternator valve what broke a few back," She said without looking up at Mallus. "Being on my knees for the last hours didn't do a lick of good for them.
"I was just watching Chief exercise because it's a pleasant view." Cortana said bluntly from the asari's shoulder. "I was made from a human brain, after all." Her voice was characteristically dry.
"Delightful," Mallus said acidly, "Well show's cancelled, the package did it's work, looking like the delivery boy got a little lost."
Chief smoothly curled his arm under him and rolled back onto his feet, keeping his arm extended for Cortana to jump back to him. "Good thing we brought a map," he said.
Mallus grinned, "just so."
"Commander Shepard." Engineer Adam's voice was barely audible over the sound of the video playing loudly in the com room. "I think I have something you should see down here."
Shepard scowled, "Is it important to the mission?" She asked sharply.
"I believe so, yes ma'am." Adams sounded sincere.
Shepard sighed and stood. "Keep watching," she told the team, "I want an idea from everybody when I get back," she strode to the door quickly.
"I still think we should offer him a job," Wrex chuckled, eating popcorn hand over fist.
In the engineering department the entire team was circled around the Crybaby, or rather they were encircling the containment unit they'd built for the crybaby. "Commander!" Adams said happily, pulling his hands from the glove stations built into the containment.
"What is it, Adams?" Shepard asked, taking efforts to speak professionally. She would not take her personal frustrations out on her crew members.
"The crybaby is picking up a signal," he said excitedly. "Something out there is sending out a signal it's picking up."
"What's the signal telling it to do?" Shepard asked warily, taking a step back from the device just for safety.
"That's just it, nothing!" Adams grinned widely. "We think that it isn't a signal for the crybaby to use, but it's for a device that uses a similar communication's setup," he opened his omni tool and brought up a series of images displaying complex electronics. "As you know from my report, a huge stumbling block for my team was to find a way to talk to the crybaby's systems, it doesn't use the standard communication wavelengths and in fact some of the waves are actually disguised as other types!" He exclaimed, obviously astounded.
Shepard nodded, trying to look thoughtful. She was pretty sure that report was on her desk, somewhere.
"So once we isolated the frequencies and patterns the crybaby uses to talk, we could really get into it."
"Is there a point to this, Chief?"
"We have a location!" He nearly shouted. "Once the signal activated and since we can listen to it, it was easy to find an exact location." Adams brought up a galaxy map which showed a small red dot, it was off in deep space, well outside any known system or space station.
Shepard's eyes widened, that cluster was at the end of the relay trail Garrus had given her. If they weren't there already they were going to be soon.
"Joker! New destination!" She immediately uploaded the coordinates and smiled. "Thank you, Adams," She said with complete honesty. "I'll be putting your name in for a personal commendation after this." she looked around at the surrounding engineering team, "All of you." She said warmly. She nodded and returned the salute that the team snapped up for her before turning on her heels and heading back up to the comm room, a smile on her face.
She walked up to the vid screens playing the footage of the target and turned to face her team. "Alright," She started. "How do we beat this guy?"