Liara
The Mako screeched to a halt at the door that had led us out of the colony and on the road to ExoGeni headquarters. We paused for a moment to breathe. The ramp beyond the ExoGeni bunker had been littered with geth. I could still feel the vibrations in the vehicle when the rockets struck.
But the shields held. I pulled my canteen from my belt and drank the stale water, hoping it would soothe the feel of dry sand in my throat and combat the acid bubbling in my stomach. The shields held, and we are all right.
I looked into the back for confirmation that all was well. Garrus sat, calm in the gunner's chair, unaffected by the hectic race across the ramp. The commander was much the same, although she had said little to nothing after we had departed the bunker with a compliment of modified grenades. They contained a nerve gas; an agent that would hopefully render the colonists unconscious without doing long term damage.
I do not know what I am doing here. I replaced the cap on my canteen. I do not know how to maneuver in a world of warfare. I do not trust my instincts to know who should live and who should die; I am not qualified to make those decisions. Then again, I looked at the commander who idly checked her armor and read the monitor on her shield generator, are there any in the galaxy who are?
What sort of heart does it take to issue the order of death? And how, in the end of things, can they know if they made the right decision? If I have learned anything in my years of study, it is that one must have time in order to know anything. There is so much I have learned…I watched the commander examine the thermal compensator and vent port on her rifle. In the rear view mirror, I could see Garrus doing the same…and there is so much that I still do not know.
Shepard cleared her rifle and reloaded it, a bullet entering the chamber with a snap that made me flinch. She must have sensed the movement and glanced at me.
"Any regrets, Dr. T'Soni?" she asked, her voice calm and seeming almost…regretful? It held none of the teasing, insouciant banter that she joined in with Garrus.
"I feel…" I bit my lip, uncertain of what to say. I did not want to lose status in her eyes, or have her gaze on me with contempt as she had looked at Jeong and Lizbeth. "I feel as though I am learning more of the galaxy than I ever wanted to know." I finished, lame, awaiting her reaction.
"I get that." she nodded her head and tucked her hair behind her ear. "I'm glad you came along though." she refused to look at me as she said the words, instead staring past me, through the window of my door. "You've pulled our asses out of the fire more than once."
"I have not really been of much use, commander." I blushed and lowered my head.
"Don't buy that for a second, Liara." Shepard grinned.
"I agree." Garrus rumbled from the back. "Shepard is so sparse with compliments that I believe her face will crack if she gives you another."
"I offer compliments when they're warranted." she turned to him and her eyes flashed, but with a different light, a shine I was beginning to recognize as her humor, not her temper. "And only then."
Garrus snorted and pulled his rifle from his back. "I will attempt further worthiness in the future." he said.
"I thought turians prided themselves on their lack of sentimentality." I attempted to enter their game. "Is that not at cross purposes with your search for affirmation?"
Shepard's eyebrow quirked upward and Garrus glared at me. Then the commander smiled. "I think she's trying to be funny, Vakarian."
"That's not something you see in every asari." Garrus commented. "Most of them are…"
"Play nice, you two." Shepard ordered before Garrus could finish what I would most certainly take as an insult.
If she knew that…perhaps she knew Jeong's motives? I thought. Is this some sort of precognitive ability…or are all humans so astute?
Shepard exited the vehicle and I followed, stopping short as I saw a figure hunched on the ground before the controls to the door. The commander joined me and, without speech, followed my line of sight.
She removed her pistol and fired a shot into the air as the figure remained unmoving. It jerked and shuddered, getting to its feet with the eerie sound of rubber stretching too far. I stared at it, transfixed with horror. It looked humanoid in appearance, with the same rounded skull and similar frame. But its skin was a sickly grey color, its eyes nothing but black holes; five fingers, much longer than they should be, curved into claws. The teeth though, frightened me the most. They were white and flat and without lips to conceal them, a gaping hungry maw that seemed intent on devouring anything in its path.
At my side, Shepard lowered her weapon and fired into the thing as it approached us with a strange, stilted gait. No blood emerged as the bullets punched through the skin and I ducked as the super-heated bullet-casings flew too near to my face.
Garrus joined the fight, and at last the strange being exploded into shreds and scraps of skin. The stench grew overpowering, a sick smell of mold and rot. I clasped my hand over my nose, wondering how Shepard and Garrus could survive the disgusting odor.
Shepard walked over to the pile of whatever the thing was, her boots squelching as they walked over the mushy pulp. She knelt down and ran a scan with her omni tool.
"Am…am I right in believing that no manner of infection could turn a human into…into that?" I asked, praying that the disgusting thing had not been one of the colonists.
"It's not human." Shepard confirmed. "Scan says it's some sort of organic matter…but it can't place it. Whatever this Thorian thing is, it probably made these for its protection."
"They're very resistant to standard rounds, regardless." Garrus observed. "I hope that we aren't going up against many more of them, or we may exhaust our ammunition."
Shepard lifted shreds of the thing's skin and pulled at it, testing its texture before lifting it to her nose and smelling it. She frowned in disgust and dropped it back to the ground. "Switch to incendiary rounds." she ordered. "We might have better luck burning the holy hell out of these things."
"Aye aye, commander." Garrus said.
He and I both ejected our magazines and reloaded our weapons with the requisite ammunition. Shepard did the same, making sure all was in order before she opened the door. As it rose, we looked into the room beyond…at least twelve of the same monstrous things were huddled on the ground.
"Well…" Shepard muttered, lifting her rifle to her shoulder, "…fuck."
