A/N: Ok I realize I am tweaking things a little in regards to quarian rankings and such. I am also taking some artistic liberties such as introducing Kal Reegar this early into the story. Please don't hate lol.
Chapter 21: Quarian Reborn
Tali looked herself over in the mirror and adjusted her new armor into place. The one nice thing about being back with her people was that everyone had their own space- small as it may be- and every room was equipped with its own sterile environment that allowed her to remove her suit on a more regular basis. She had experienced long periods of being in her environmental suit before, but her time spent with Shepard had been the longest by far. For awhile she'd felt trapped and almost claustrophobic, and there had been more than one occasion where she'd nearly succumbed to the maddening urge to crack the seals on her suit and risk infection for just a few breaths of fresh air. But she'd gotten through the worst of it and had hit that point where the suit had become a part of her.
She hadn't been kidding when she'd told Shepard that she barely came out of her quarters that first week home. After all the fanfare and celebrating, Tali had been shown to her new, and somewhat spacious quarters aboard the Neema. After assuring her father for the hundredth time that she was fine and she would continue to be fine on her own, she'd gently kicked him out, run the sterilization sweep inside the room and had stripped out of her suit the second it had finished. Keelah had that felt amazing! She'd spent a good portion of her time that first week, reveling in the feeling of various sensations against her bare skin. Being able to finally lay in a bed and feel the soft sheets once more….she'd been hard pressed to get out of bed that first day in her new quarters.
But Tali was an adult in her race now, one with status and who had accomplished much during her Pilgrimage. There were threats to her kin out there, some far more menacing than any of them could have ever dreamed of. She had a responsibility to her people, and her sense of duty finally kicked in after a week of resting. The Admiralty had not begrudged her the need to relax and enjoy a few simple pleasures that she had been denied during her extended Pilgrimage. Tali Zorah had brought honor to her people in a manner that no one else had ever been able to accomplish since the they had been driven from their home world. So they waited patiently for her to come to them, knowing she would answer all their questions in due time.
The story she to tell had shocked them however. Like others before them, they questioned the validity of Tali's claims. But Tali had presented the evidence that she had, and not long after that, the Admiralty received a most unusual request from the human Alliance Command. Tali was secretly pleased by that turn of events. It was clear that the Shepard's race was about to gain a strong position in the galaxy now that they were a part of the newly formed Council. If the humans were agreeable to establishing open lines of communications with her people, it could mean that the quarians might finally gain some recognition and status in the future. For now Shepard was their strongest ally, and she would do everything within her power to ensure that she kept the humans on their side.
Tugging one of the decorative sashes into it's proper place, she tried to quell the sudden bout of nervousness she felt. "Keelah," she chuckled to herself. "You'd think this was the first battle I was about to go into. Get a grip Tali," she chastised herself with a rueful shake of her head.
Deep down, she knew it wasn't the upcoming fight, but she tried to ignore the true cause of her sudden case of nerves. Instead she gave herself another firm mental shake, and holstered both her weapons and double checked the functionality of her Omni-tool. Pleased that everything was in order she exited her quarters and headed up to the bridge just as they were beginning docking procedures.
"Just in time Tali Zorah. Commander Shepard informed us that they just arrived about an hour ago. She has several crew who have never been to this facility and has already arranged for a tour. Our people have been invited to join as soon as we have clearance to board the station."
"Excellent. I take we have a little while before we finish docking procedures?"
"At least half an hour."
"Then if you don't mind, I would like to take the time to go over some things with the new recruits as to what they should expect."
"Go ahead and include as much of the team as you can. I have a feeling this is going to be a training exercise that will push everyone's experience levels."
"Aye Commander."
Tali turned and headed down to the main crew deck, as the Commander ordered all combat crew who were not otherwise engaged in their duties to report to the Briefing Room. She stepped into the empty room and realized she was just put in charge of her first solo briefing. She wouldn't be fighting with these men and women, but she would do her best to make sure they were as fully prepared as they could possibly be to go up against their enemy- which ironically would include herself.
The room quickly began to fill up, and once it seemed that everyone who could attend was there, she stepped up to the small podium. "Commander Reegar has asked me to brief all of you on what to expect for the upcoming training exercise. As you have all been told, this will be an exhibition match of sorts. I will be joining Commander Shepard and my old squad of teammates from the Normandy. The six of us will face a combined force of Commander Shepard's new compliment of Marines, all of you, and a small garrison of Geth. The Geth will be programmed not to engage you or the Alliance Marines, however they will not work with you. As the match is not scheduled to occur until tomorrow, you will have time to meet with the Marines and come up with a coordinated plan of attack. I have been informed that after docking, Commander Shepard has arranged for us to be given a tour of the facilities so that everyone may familiarize themselves with the station and more importantly the battlefield that has been selected for us.
"The purpose of this match is to demonstrate several important lessons that those of us on the Normandy learned well this past year. The first is that it doesn't matter how severely outnumbered your team may be, if you work together, strategy will always win over numbers and brute force. The second is that it takes more than weapons to win a battle. Commander Shepard and Chief Williams are incredible soldiers. However they both saw the advantage of utilizing the tech and biotic talents of the rest of our team to help distract, confuse and sabotage the enemy to make their attacks more effective. When you go up against us tomorrow, be prepared to defend yourselves on any front. Don't focus on any single area or we will find your weakness and exploit it quickly."
"Tali Zorah, we have all seen the news vids of your former teammates fighting. But that is what the media has patched together to….sensationalize the fight. What can we truly expect from you and the rest of Shepard's squad?" one of the more seasoned Marines asked.
Tali felt somewhat put out by the question and nearly didn't answer it. If the fool thought that the security feeds played up Shepard's skills, she was almost tempted to let him walk into the fight over-confidant and underestimating their skills. However the Kal had asked that she prepare this team for what they were about to face. She reached down and activated her Omni-tool and quickly interfaced it with the large vid screen in the briefing room. Within seconds, she had various recordings of their many battles running across the screen, and allowed them to play through for several minutes. These were not the usual security feeds that were constantly played on the news. These were the actual live feeds from each of the team's own personal cameras which were standard in most armor nowadays. Tali's selection hadn't been random.
The group fell silent as they watched just a fraction of what Tali and the rest of the Normandy crew had gone through. They watched the first battle Shepard, Ashley and Garrus had fought to free Dr. T'Soni, and saw just how close to death they had come. Shepard had taken the brunt of a full fledged Krogan charge shortly before the cave system had collapsed, and had barely made it out in time. The suit's readouts showed just how erratic her vitals were by the time they escaped.
And Shepard was not the only one they witnessed go down in a fight. Every member of the team had eventually taken a bad hit somewhere along the line, and it was only due to Dr. Chakwas considerable skill, and maybe a little luck, that they had all survived. They witnessed Liara's tragic confrontation with her mother, Wrex's personal struggle when he found out about the cure Saren had supposedly come up with for the genophage, and the sacrifice of Lt. Alenko. The clips were short and she was editing on the fly, but she made sure they saw just how difficult that mission had been on them, physically, mentally and emotionally. When the screen went dark, the room remained deathly quiet.
"It is true the media does tend to sensationalize and glorify battles and victories. But they never show the personal sacrifices and losses that are suffered in order to gain that victory," she told them quietly. "We did not just come by these skills naturally. Yes, there was obviously a talent there, but necessity forced us all to perform above and beyond anything we could have ever expected of ourselves. Tomorrow you will see for yourselves just what a small squad is capable of, but today you got a small taste of just what it cost us to reach the level of performance that you will see demonstrated. All of you volunteered and were carefully selected for this training because the Admiralty felt you had what it takes to persevere through the training necessary to bring you up to a similar level of skill. Take advantage of this training opportunity to push yourselves, because once we are out there fighting for our lives for real, any small mistake can cost you or your teammates their lives."
She let that sink in as she paced back to the podium. "As for what to expect? Expect attacks from every possible front. Long-range, close quarters, tech, biotic…you name it and at least two members on our team are experts. Do not let your guard down for a second or one of us will find the weakness and exploit it. Also expect multiple attacks at the same time. Shepard likes to confuse, divide, and conquer. I suggest that after the tour, you spend the rest of the evening getting to know Shepard's new Marine squad which will be your allies for this exercise, and come up with several strategies. Any other questions?"
"Will we be training with Shepard and her crew after tomorrow's exercise?"
"I am not sure what Commander Shepard had in mind. But my guess would be that it will be a mix. Both her team and ours are heading out onto the front lines and while training together will help provide some excellent opportunities for tactic and culture exchange, both teams do need to focus on learning how to work together a cohesive unit. I believe both Commanders will want to train solely with their own teams to work on building that. These facilities are quite extensive and allow for multiple squads to train in separate environments at the same time. It is a privilege and honor to be allowed use of these facilities. I am sure you have all been warned to be on your best behavior while aboard the station, but I would ask as a personal favor that you take the time to express a word or two of gratitude to Commander Shepard and the Station's CO, for extending such an opportunity to us."
"Don't you worry about us Ma'am," one of the techs spoke up. "I think I speak for all of us new recruits when we say we are ecstatic to be able to train on a station like this instead of being forced to work through the kinks the hard way like you had to. We promise not to take this gift for granted."
"Besides," one of the other soldiers remarked. "The humans are poised to gain control of the Council, or at the very least become a very influential part of it now. If we can strengthen our ties with them now, it can mean having a strong ally in our corner if the Admiralty decides to try and retake the home-world. There is little chance of us doing it alone, but with the humans to back us up, maybe…just maybe we could have a chance."
The rest of the room broke into quiet murmurs and Tali simply nodded. Her father had told her that with the Geth moving beyond the Veil, the quarians could no longer ignore their presence or the threat they posed to the Fleet. There were several who felt that the time to take the war to the Geth was approaching. Not everyone was agreeable of this approach, but all of them had at least seen the need to be more prepared for potential future attacks. She'd also had a discreet and personal request from her father that had raised some questions for her. But he was an Admiral to their people and a brilliant engineer at that. She assumed he wanted to study their enemy more so that they could come up with better defenses in the future. But until the Geth made a move on the Fleet, it would be up to the newly commissioned special forces teams to keep a war with the Geth at bay long enough for her people to prepare themselves one way or the other. And as the veteran soldier had pointed out, it was foolish to even think of going into a war without at least one ally.
The murmurs continued for a couple of minutes and then Tali raised her hand indicating silence. "Whether we go to war or not is not really of concern to us right now. Right now we just need to survive long enough to keep our people safe. But you are right Joret, having the humans on our side can only be beneficial. Now more than ever as the political balance of the galaxy is shifting in their favor. If there are no further questions, I suggest you all go check your gear over and then be ready to meet at the docking ramp in half an hour."