Unity: the state of being united or joined as a whole.
Nihlus was slowly losing his mind.
The Council were insane. They were irrevocably and utterly insane. He couldn't envisage where this plan was supposed to lead to except for chaos.
He and Shepard had long ago finished dealing with the dossiers, and it turned out the skeleton crew had required none of their input as the Alliance and Hierarchy had decided that between them.
Potential political manoeuvring. Wonderful.
At least both species already had the schematics of the damn ship, so if any duplicates were designed he couldn't be blamed for lack of security.
Instead, he'd have to watch for saboteurs as well as spies now.
Have you ever tried mixing oil with water? And whenever they formed separate layers, have you ever tried to quickly mix them back together?
That was what trying to achieve synergy between a ground squad that was comprised of turians and humans.
The turians didn't like the humans because of the Relay 314 Incident and their rapid ascension in galactic standing in such a short time. Personally, he thought that that was what galactic civilization was all about. We are all stronger together than apart, and if one species is able to improve themselves, then it should galvanize the others to achieve as well.
Competition leads to innovation.
The humans didn't like the turians because of the way most turians received them in Citadel space and again, the Relay 314 Incident. It didn't help that one of the humans was Ashley Williams, granddaughter of General Williams. His decision to surrender, whilst being tactically sound, was polarizing amongst turians. They'd never surrendered a world before in recent history, so she was looked upon with particular disdain.
Both sides, however, had slowly began to thaw under his and Shepard's influence. Though Williams remained distant, her professionalism was more than acceptable. He couldn't force her to get over her xenophobia, as it wasn't entirely unfounded. No, forcing such a change in temperament would take time that they didn't have and possibly alienate her.
And countless training exercises. Countless.
Then the Council agents had joined them a week ago just as they'd managed to build a fragile rapport between the two ground squads and it had shattered quickly. Thankfully, the skeleton crew had been largely friendly with each other from the onset so they were largely unaffected by their presence. They'd all worked together on a prior Alliance-Hierarchy project and wasn't that a relief?
He'd still be watching for saboteurs though.
Of the Council agents, Aethyta and Mordin were easily the worst when it came to threatening squad stability. Aethyta was more of a political soapbox than ex-commando, if there is such a thing as an ex-commando, from what he'd noticed. She was decent with a gun, but any turian was decent with a gun and her biotics were admittedly good. He couldn't exactly determine what her purpose would be on the ship. Where all the other agents the Council had sent were exceptional in combat, she was merely good.
He'd ask Saren if he knew anything about her.
Her opinions regarding human, turian and asari militarisation generally lead to arguments. Explosive ones. Judging by the slight smirk she had whenever this happened, she found it incredibly entertaining.
It had been funny the first time.
Now though, Nihlus wished he was deep in the Skyllian Verge investigating batarian and human expansion rather than trying to cultivate a healthy crew. Shepard was coping well but the stress was starting to get to him. They only had a month to go before the Normandy's first flight.
Mordin.
Nihlus wanted to pull out his fringe thinking about him. The salarian was a chronic sufferer of what humans called foot in mouth syndrome.
He'd caused a huge argument by insinuating that Vakarian's rather quick acquiescence of humans was due to their fundamental similarity to asari and it was only a matter of time before the rest of the turians realized too. It had ended with racist insults being traded on both sides and Vega and Velocis had almost ended up fighting.
Shepard had been furious. Himself? Exasperated.
They'd both ended up on latrine duty for the foreseeable future.
Sometimes it felt like like he and Shepard were keepers of varren and pyjaks at times.
Even now, Mordin was talking whilst they did formation drills. What gem of wisdom did he have to share this time?
"Humans are pursuit predators. Prehistorically, would run down prey for food," he said, seeming to use the words to steady his aim as he sprayed down holographic targets with a machine pistol.
One smartass turian, it sounded like Caedus, decided to comment. Chaos was likely seconds away now.
"That explains their military tactics rather well. Quite apt," he said, a condescending sneer crossing his mandibles.
"Hey, be quiet and get that rifle out of your ass," Vega said
Oh that was Vega.
The surrounding members of each ground squad had stopped to observe the argument. The simulation was over, but they couldn't go on to the next one if people weren't alert and ready. Almost everyone was watching in impatience. Ashley looked particularly pissed off, and Vakarian had already started opened a module on his omni-tool to test if his rifle's scope was properly calibrated. Aethyta, on the other hand, had a smirk crossing her lips and looked like she was about to join in.
As Nihlus watched Aethyta sidle up to the furiously arguing duo, too drained to honestly care, he noticed Shepard storming into the room. Drills were definitely over. Again.
With the frequency Mordin would make these potentially volatile comments, Nihlus was quickly coming to the conclusion that Mordin was really the one screwing with them all.