Chapter 28: Noveria part 2

They made it to the office, the office was cold, sterile, and bland which matched perfectly with the corporate lifestyle of the planet. "Wow, they must throw some great parties here," Garrus said sarcastically. "Where's Anoleis?" Parsini nodded and opened the intercom.

"Mr. Anoleis. Commander Shepard and his crew is here to speak with you."

"Thank you for bringing this up to my attention," Anoleis said impatiently. "I'll talk to him when I'm ready."

"Sir, the Commander is a Spectre."

"Right, fine, tell them come in."

"Nice guy," John said dryly. Parasini shrugged. He then turned to his team. "Stay here, I'm going to talk with him."

Liara stood at attention. "Um, are you sure you won't need help?"

"Unless he can make a data pad into a gun, I think I'll be fine." Garrus and Wrex looked at them and was about to say something but Ash stopped them by glaring at them. Tali rolled her eyes. John left, leaving his team behind. 'I'm already starting to miss him,' Liara thought.

Liara always felt nervous around Ashly, it was obvious from the first time they met, that Ashley didn't like her. 'Maybee this time will be different.' Tali then spoke up. "Ashley." The Human looked at the Quarian.

"What do you want suit…," Garrus shot her a look before she could finish the sentence.

"I've noticed that things have been strained between you and John," Tali then got some looks from Garrus, Wrex and Liara.

"Yeah because of you dating him," Ash pointed her finger at Tali.

"W-what does that have to do with it?"

"John doesn't trust me enough to tell me about you and him being together," Ashley then saw Garrus grab her shoulder and shook his head. Without thinking Liara spoke.

"Are you more upset about him not telling you or that he didn't pick you?"

"What was that," Ash looked at Liara.

Wrex looked at them and put his two-cent wisdom into it. "Don't hide something like that, it will destroy you like it nearly does with everyone else that is jealous. I can tell you're jealous Ash, I can smell it and it smells like wet Varren shit load." Garrus and Tali laughed at that.

"I've seen how the Commander is when he is around Tali, he's happy," Liara said.

"Happy? But she," Ash pointed at Tali, "is a Quarian. She can't even take her suit off, they can't even eat the same food."

Ragan's voice came over the comm link. "ENOUGH OF THIS SHIT, GUNNERY CHIEF WILLIAMS, YOU ARE BEING TRANSFERRED IF YOU KEEP ON BEING A XENOPHOBIC! ALIENS HAVE FEELINGS AND YOU WANT TO BE LIKE THAT, HOW WOULD YOU LIKE IT IF A QUARIAN MADE FUN OF YOU FOR YOU'RE ACTIONS TOWARDS THEM?!" Ash was silent. Wrex and Garrus looked at them. "Look at them. Wrex and Garrus are working together even when the genophage is there but that doesn't stop them on one thing: Going after Saren. And the Geth forced the Quarians to have those suits on them because the Geth drove them off of Rannoch. And you want to be like that. Look at the race that has done the most damage to Humanity: the fucking blinks. The Batarians. But yet, we worked with them – or at least the System Alliance has – to get some information about a rouge general. Maybe that doesn't matter up the grand scheme of Tali with him. I've seen the pain he carried from the times he was a sixteen years old. A lot of that comes from us, Tali is special, with her life is bearable even precious, it make coming to terms with his past easier. He lost his parents, he lost his entire squad on a Thresher Maw world. And he was forced to care an order on Torfan that made him the Butcher of Torfan. Can you really say you can do the same with John?" Garrus and Wrex stood there in complete awe. It was rare of Ragan to say something like that.

Ashley went silent and had a thoughtful look on her face. "I… guess I can't…," she said.

Liara put her hand on her shoulder. "You truly like him didn't you," Liara asked.

Ashley blushed. "Yeah. He was the first one to truly acknowledge me, not my grandfather's mistake, not my last name but me." Ash then looked at the comm link, "But I guess at the same time, I didn't see him. I was such a bitch to them…"

"Why don't you talk to him after the mission? Despite his rash nature he seems to care for the whole crew," Ragan said.

Ash chuckled, "I will, thank you Ragan and all of you."

They then heard footsteps and Ragan cut the comm link. They could tell John was angry.

"Goddammit," Tali looked at him.

"What's wrong," Ash looked at him and was concerned.

"That prick Anoleis, won't let us see Benezia."

Wrex looked at him. "Let's go talk to him, Garrus. I'm sure he will listen to us," Wrex laughed. Garrus was scared of what Wrex might do. But they left to see Anoleis.

"Why?" Liara shook her head.

John started pacing and explained that Anoleis told him how Saren and Benezia are involved with Noveria affairs, they were both major investors in Binary Helix, and Asari owned gentic engineering and Biotechnology Company. The Company currently had a significant presence on Noveria, and the Salarian had basically threatened John that interference will bring the board on their heads.

"That's bullshit!" Ash got up and punched a wall. "Does he even know that Saren is a traitor and will kill him before he thinks about it?"

Wrex came up with Garrus and was smiling. "We got clearance. Told them that Saren was using the Geth to get to the Citadel and destroy it. And Ragan commented via comm link about the Rachni that he saw near the Normandy was closely related to the ones that Cerberus was creating," Garrus then looks at them. "So basically we lied."

"Okay, so let's go find Parasini," Tali said while shaking her head at Garrus. Parasini comes back from the corner and look at them.

"Anoleis is has authorized it. Follow me. We will be heading to Lorik Oui'in of Synthetic Insights. His office had been wrecked by security forces under Anoleis' orders, so he's understandably quite pissed at the Administrator."

"I bet." John said. "Isn't Anoleis your boss?"

"It's complicated, now hurry, Qui'in is in the hotel lounge," Parasini explained.

"Can we trust her, Skipper," Ash was having a bad feeling about this. The team walked away.

"Talking to me are you," John gave a smirk

"Well, the silent treatment was getting kind of boring and Ragan spook to me about xenophobia," Tali nodded her head in agreement.

John grew serious, "Don't know, but I'll be watching my back just in case. They made their way to the hotel. They met with Lorik, who was sitting at one of the tables on the main level, confirms that Anoleis is a corrupt administrator. As the administrator of one of the port's tenants, he did have a garage pass to offer him, but he needed access to evidence in his office in return. John considered his offer and ultimately agreed. They went down to Lorik's office, however it wasn't long before a fire fight started.

"Tell me again, why we are doing this," Garrus asked annoyed. As soon as they enetered the Synthetic Insights office, they had to fight ERCS guards.

"Cause we need that garage pass," John said.

Liara looked at him. "You're a Spectre, couldn't you just force your way through."

John shook his head but Ragan beat him to the punch. "We could, but he rather not have any reason for the board for a manhunt, besides his on thin ice with the council at it is. Hell, I know I am," John looked at the omni-tool and shut if off right before Ragan could finish, "Don't do…"

Ash looks at him. "Since when do you both care what the Council thinks?"

John shrugged. "Since I found out their bitching gives us headaches. Ah Hell, what's one more. Liara light them up."

Liara used her singularity field to lift the guards and Garrus used overload on him. The ones left standing were ripped through Wrex shotgun and Tali's pistol. "More up the stairs, Skipper."

John threw his grenades up the stairs and caused the guards to fly. "Ragan?"

"You're good. Sending rookies against trained soldiers, I think Noveria likes to waste credits. At least Cerberus knows better than this fools," John took his finger off his helmet after Ragan was done talking.

"They don't care, as long as they protect their money, they won't care how guards they have to go through, fucking mega corps," John scoffed.

The team made their way upstairs to Qui'in's office. "Is that the data," Tali asked.

John nodded and whistled. Ash cam to take a look. "Damn that's a lot of money, Anoleis is going to hang for this," she looked at Tali.

"You mess with a nest of vipers, expect to get bitten," John said. Garrus and Wrex nodded in agreement.

"I couldn't said it any better," Wrex then looks at the door to make sure no one was coming in.

"V…ipers?" John turns his head towards Liara. Ash shook her head.

"A venomous snake back on earth, one bit is enough to kill several adult humans. They eat their way out of the mother's womb also," Liara nodded now getting the metaphor.

John downloaded the data and the team walked out before being met with Sterling and more guards. "Shit, here I thought this was going to be easy," John grabs his pistol and aims at Sterling.

"It never is, even with her trying to say that Humanity doesn't have two Spectres," John looked over at Garrus and Wrex who then got their weapons ready.

"I don't think you're supposed to be in here, Shepard," Sterling said with venom.

John crossed his arms. "I could say the same Goddamn thing to you. Funny how you just happen to get here just as I walk out of this office."

"What are you trying to say," Sterling glared at him and then saw the other teammates had their guns ready and Liara was glowing blue.

"You're in on the whole thing, Anoleis bribed you to keep his money laundering a secret. Man, if the board finds out, you and your thugs are going to fry."

Sterling then looked around her. "Since you know already, you think I'm going let you walk…" A barrel was placed on the back of her head. She turns around but was punched in the head.

"Don't move," a familiar voice said, Ragan uncloaked himself. "Another idiot with an ego problem, like that never gets old."

"I know, just bear it and humor her for a moment," John then lifted two fingers at Ragan, he nodded in response. "So, you want to start or should we?"

Sterling gave a cold laugh. "You're an arrogant son of bitch aren't you? Tell me do you know what we do to cop killers on my world?"

Ash rolled her eyes, "Oh my God, let's just kill the dirty bitch and get on with the mission." Ragan pulls the trigger.