CE 2183…1925 hours…July 31…Comm Room, the Normandy SR-1
"Why won't you go to the med bay damn it?! You were already hurt enough when you fought Benezia, then you went and got mauled by a…" Samantha growls at an exhausted looking and injured Jason angrily as Garrus and the others walk in.
"Jason!" Tali yelps, interrupting Samantha as she passes and kneels next to Jason as the stubborn human slouches in his seat while she looks him over. He has plenty of dents and a few slivers missing in his armor, and there also appears to be some distortion from mass effect fields on him, though nothing that could damage his suit irreparably that Garrus can see.
"Maybe you can talk some sense into him; he refuses to go to the med bay until after debriefing. And he only has like thirty minutes before his eezo runs out, not to mention his injuries." Samantha suggest irritably, her face turned away from the pair with an angry look on it.
"Jason, please…" Tali says as she pulls at Jason's arm, causing the human to wince. She stops once she sees she is causing him pain and she looks at him. Garrus can't see her face but whatever look she is giving him from behind her visor causes Jason to sigh.
"I'm sorry…I've…kinda sat to long…can't move…really." he laughs through shallow breaths quickly before saying "Ow." to himself before he continues, "But…see, everyone's here now so let's just get the debr…Owww!"
Everyone is surprised as Wrex scoops up the half-ton human with ease, throwing Jason over his shoulder and moving towards the door, "Stop acting tough, boy."
"Come on Wrex!" Jason groans through obvious pain as he begins to pass out of earshot, Tali trailing behind the two "I thought we were tight…after we got you that family armor…"
The comm room is silent as Garrus turns to find Samantha gripping the bridge of her nose in frustration at Jason's stubbornness. He smiles to himself as he heads to his seat, finding her frustration a little funny since she can be just as bad sometimes. He worries a little for Jason but shrugs it off, knowing that if his perseverance is anything like Samantha's he will be fine. Samantha motions for everyone else to take their seats as she stands at her place in the center.
"Let's finally get this debriefing started. Joker, record this debriefing for Jason, Wrex, and Tali and hold it for them."
"Got it Commander." He answers, "Not normally what I keep vids of but okay." Joker mumbles over the intercom, Garrus getting the impression he didn't realize he still had the intercom on, or more to Joker's personality he knew he had it on but didn't realize he said his last sentence out loud.
"What was that Joker?"
"N…nothing, Commander."
"What's our next move, Commander?" Ashley interrupts, sounding irritable as she turns the conversation back to the debriefing, "Head for the Mu Relay?"
"No, the Mu Relay could link to dozens of systems. Unless we know exactly where Saren's going, we'd just be wasting time."
"The Commander is right. We cannot rush off blind. We still need to learn more about Saren." Liara adds.
"Who put you in charge? Did the Commander resign when I wasn't looking?" Ashley says bitterly, her eyes showing signs of both exhaustion and hunger. She had been sparring with Kaidan and a few others most of the day and now she was tired and hungry, which he knew by now made her irritable when the two were combined. Jason's stubborn holding of the debriefing most likely had her in fumes, and now that he has examined her Garrus is surprised the spirited woman didn't pick the man up and drag him to the med bay herself just to get some food and head to sleep.
"We're all on the same team Ash." Samantha says, he detects exhaustion in her as well but she was still able to maintain control of herself through it. He can't help but wonder where that control and poise goes when she gets angry, "She's just trying to help."
"Sorry, Commander." Ashley says as leans into her palms and rubs her eyes.
"This is a tough mission. We're all on edge. The only thing I can think to say is we're heading to Virmire next to see what the STG found. Everyone go get some rest. Crew…dismissed."
"Noveria report is away Commander. You want me to patch you through to the Council?" Joker says as the four exit the room and the door closes behind him.
He sees Ashley quickly make her way to the stairwell, practically running over Kaidan as she goes.
"Wonder where she is going?" Garrus asks rhetorically as he and Kaidan move around to the opposite stairwell.
"To check on Jason probably, I haven't been keeping up with scuttlebutt lately, but last I checked she was interested in him." He answers seriously.
"What? She was interested in Jason?" He turns to get Liara's input but finds her gone as well.
"Was? What could have changed, he certainly doesn't look any worse." Kaidan says with a smirk, "I'm guessing he's with someone else, who is it? Whitaker, she is the best looking girl on the ship he isn't related too." They approach the right side of the table in the mess as Kaidan continues to guess, "Or maybe Carlson, he is…passable."
"Has he stated an interest in men before?" Garrus asks curiously.
"Not really, just being optimistic." Kaidan says with a laugh. "Maybe he's into aliens more than humans, like Liara or…"
"Just look for yourself." Garrus motions toward the med bay door from where they now sat in the mess hall. There heading over to them was Jason, looking much better than he did a moment ago. His armor was whole and repaired, even if some of it retained the scars of mass effect distortion and some irreparable dents, with his arm around Tali's waist. He was surprised at how fast Dr. Chakwas worked, considering that her patient was more machine than man for the most part, though now that he thought on it Tali likely helped along with the fact that the doctor seemed more skilled than most ship doctors he's ever met.
"That was my next guess…that explains why the Chief didn't blow up at the news, Tali's practically another one of her sisters."
"What did you say, LT?" Ashley mumbles through a mouthful of food at the other end of the table.
"What are yall talkin about?" Jason asks.
"Nothing important…How did you end up in that sorry state anyway, the Commander didn't mention it in the debriefing." Kaidan asks changing the subject.
"Well that's kind of a long story, let's go grab some food first then I'll explain." Jason suggests
They nod as he and Kaidan stand and they head to grab their food.
CE 2183…0700 hours…August 8...Mako, the Normandy SR-1
"Jason, wake up!" Samantha yells at the man angrily. His body is motionless from its position on the large comforter sheet on the floor of the Mako. Garrus is surprised at how comfortable he looks, and even if he can no longer see Jason's face as he lies sprawled out on his stomach. Jason has taken to always wearing his helmet since he and Tali linked suit environments. Tali was sick for a while after the process, but has since been fine, and now the two were closer than ever.
Samantha yells again but the human is obviously out cold since this makes the third yell she has made to attempt to wake him from outside the Mako and it elicits no response.
He turns back to the lockers to see Tali is finally prepared to land on Virmire. She was likely performing a quick check on her shotgun since Jason had modified it. It was new since Samantha had provided the entire landing crew with one Spectre weapon of their choice. Jason and he chose sniper rifles, Wrex and Tali shotguns, Ashley an assault rifle, and Liara, Kaidan and Samantha all grabbed pistols. At least most of which Jason had personally modified, the only one he left alone was Ashley's rifle, which she stubbornly insisted she modified herself.
As he looked down at his own rifle Garrus was extremely impressed with Jason's work. The weapon was even more efficient now than it originally was, and had an inferno mod within it as well to his liking. The only problem he had found was that the targeting needed recalibrating, as he could get better output.
Tali makes her way past him and Samantha and into the Mako, gently kneeling down next to him on the makeshift bed. She shakes him for a moment eliciting a low, irritated grumble from the human as he pushes up, then he activates his Omni-tool, fiddling with it a moment before standing and after the pair moved off of it scooping up the blanket.
"Why do you have to do this mission so early?" He complains as he gets out of the rover.
"You know as well as I do they've already been waiting down there for at least a month." Samantha says. "We need to get down there as soon as possible."
Jason growls as Garrus and Samantha climb into the Mako, and he catches Jason giving Tali an embrace out of his peripheral vision as he heads into the copilots seat.
They strap in and prepare to land.
"Commander, I'm reading a signal, must be our salarian infiltration team." Joker says over the comm.
"Check out those defense towers." Kaidan says over the comm just before an image appears on a screen in front of them, showing massive anti-air cannons dotted around the landscape surrounding a fortress of some kind.
"Drop the Mako," Samantha responds, "We'll go in hot and take them out."
"I'll get you in underneath their radar, Commander." Joker states, and with that the bay opens and they are dropped into the shallow beach water on the planet below. The landing is clean, even less movement than normal for their landing, "We've got a clean drop, Commander."
"Great job, Joker. Stay out of range and continue evasive maneuvers until we bring those AA towers down." Samantha says with a small smile.
"I know the drill. Meet you at the camp once those towers are off line, Joker out." Joker responds.
And with that the Mako begins to roll forward.