New nightmares. Guess I won't be taking any naps any time soon. At least, not without Garrus on the Normandy to talk to after.
So, I was in that park outside my cell, though it looked like the aftermath of a fire; burned trees, no grass, soot all over the place, and charred benches. In the dream, I saw the boy again; the one that refused my help and crawled into the vents, only to die at the hands of a Reaper destroyer's main cannon. I chased him through the park, but no matter how fast I ran, he was faster. Eventually, he stopped, but I was forced to watch him being engulfed in flames; his hair burned off, his eyes were destroyed, his skin started to char and his clothes burn off until there was nothing left but a charred skeleton.
At that point, I woke up, and I think I know why it bothered me so much. I mean, I've seen death. I've seen it in combat, I've seen the results of experiments, and I've seen the aftermath of a slave raid. But not once have I been forced to watch a child die. He had his whole life ahead of him, to grow and become someone great that could change the galaxy for the better. But now, he's a statistic. I don't even know his name to honor him properly.
Thankfully, I got a notification that someone was at my door, which helped shake the dream off, and it was Liara at the door. She came up for another reason, but since she knows me almost as well as Garrus and Tali do, she could tell that something was bothering me. I quickly told her about the nightmare when she asked what was wrong, and that boy's connection to it, and she hugged me. And while it's not Garrus doing it, I'm glad that someone is here that sees me as me, and not just as Commander Shepard.
When Liara let go, I saw someone new come out of the elevator; Specialist Samantha Traynor. Liara left, knowing that I had to put on "the Commander Hat" with Traynor, who introduced herself as having been from R&D. She'd been on the Normandy due to the retrofits when Joker and Kaidan boarded, and I could tell that she was nervous about meeting me. Which I do expect; not a whole lot of people have done what I've done. I calmed her fears, and said she was doing fine, and she told me about what she had been doing on the Normandy prior to the invasion. She was a lab geek, specializing in communications; she was actually in charge of upgrading the comm systems, installing new QEC particles to both Admiral Hackett's ship and Alliance Command on Earth. EDI mentioned Traynor's expertise during the retrofits, and asked that she stay. I granted the request, and Traynor professed confusion over why a VI would make requests, and I chuckled a bit when I said that EDI was a fully self-aware, unshackled AI. Traynor flipped her shit, saying that she knew Joker was lying, because apparently, EDI and Joker told the Alliance that EDI was a VI, and that she'd only respond to his commands. A couple of people figured EDI out, but neither said anything; Traynor and Adams, in fact. Though, Traynor was too distracted by EDI's voice, finding it sexy, to put two and two together like Adams did.
Anyway, Traynor gave me an overview of the most important upgrades; the War Room and communicator on Deck 2, and which we got to via Mordin's old lab, which was now a conference room. The other important upgrade was moving the Armory from Deck 2 down to Deck 5 where it belongs. Still baffles me that Cerberus though it belonged on Deck 2. What was the Armory was now empty, though I assume something was supposed to go there, but they didn't have time to construct it. Once she was finished explaining the changes, she told me that Hackett wanted to talk to me on the vid comm.
Hackett asked for updates, and I told him that the Council was useless, and that I was going to appeal directly to their peoples' leaders. Hackett agreed, which makes me think he hates politics as much as I do, and said to do what I have to in order get the help we need.
Now, before I get into me speaking with the crew, I want to mention the War Room. There's a galaxy map in there, with data from the Alliance, and Council, since I'm authorized to see it as a Spectre, and I can see how the war is going real time. Troop movements, Reaper invasion patterns, estimated Reaper capabilities, Cerberus patterns, all of it. This will help me play MY routes around the galaxy as I tackle missions to gather intel, resources or allies against the Reapers.
From there, I came out to the CIC, where I talked to Traynor a bit, and got to know her. She was a colonist, like me, but went to Earth to get her degree from Oxford. The Alliance paid for her education, as they did for a LOT of poor kids (they even did that for me, though I was getting my degree while I was active duty), and in return, she entered the military as a lab geek. She served her required years, but re-upped since she enjoyed the life, and here she was. She also said that she was enjoying serving on a warship better than the lab, since we get access to the best tech and equipment that is being offered, while the labs had to hoard tech since they were testing new stuff.
Anyway, I checked my messages, and got a LOT of email, mostly from people who tried to get ahold of me while in lock up. Apparently, a LOT of messages were filtered out that I hadn't known about. But a couple of messages were interesting; Hackett sent me a formal letter of reinstatement after talking to Anderson, and a flash message to all Alliance personnel about the danger of trying to get through the Sol Relay; try to escape and rejoin Hackett, and if you couldn't, join Anderson's resistance. If you couldn't do that, try to resist the Reapers the best you could and continue to try to join Anderson.
From there, I went up and talked to Joker, who made jokes about how the Council finally said "we can't help you", and I cracked jokes right back. It's good to have him around, even though I know he's as scared as I am about all this.
From there, I went down to Deck 3, and met with Doctor Chakwas, who wanted to do as scan of me, to see if there was any sign of implant rejection. Thankfully, she billed me as healthy, and that I just need to keep a positive attitude about things. We caught up for a bit, and then I headed down to the main gun battery for some reason. I was almost expecting that Garrus would be right there as before, but the room was empty. God, I miss him.
Anyway, I went to see Liara, who had set up in Miranda's old office, and was met by her drone, now named Glyph. Glyph gave me a quick tour of the room and the equipment there. From there, I talked to Liara, first about the Crucible, and then, about anything that came to mind. Apparently, Cerberus tried to take over her ship, but she refused to let them have it, so she and Feron loaded everything important into a shuttle, and sent the ship at ramming speed at Cerberus, and had the drive core set to detonate upon impact. I asked how she got set up here so quickly, and she said that she and Anderson were going to use this as their mobile command center from now on. But I can tell that she's happier that I'm the CO of the Normandy than she would have been with Anderson.
I headed down to Deck 4, and I was met by Staff Lieutenant Greg Adams, the Chief Engineer of the original Normandy. And I'm glad that he's here to be honest; he knows Normandy's drive core better than even Tali, and Tali served on both the SR1 and SR2!
Did some small talk with Adams, and he mentioned that his family was safely under Hackett's command, and he mentioned the upgrades that I got to the Normandy last tour. He also mentioned one more thing to cap off the upgrade list that we should get later, but he doesn't have the manpower to install at this point. I said I'd look into getting him some more people in the near future; maybe I can find where Ken and Gabby are in the Spectre office and get them here too.
I headed over to the Port cargo hold, which was empty except for a couple of tables full of water for some reason, then over to the Starboard one, where I was met by Allers. She mentioned a couple of classified things she knew she couldn't report on, and even said so, but she was most interested in were the unclassified war room reports she was allowed access to. She said that, if she could upload some of that data, she'd be able to do some real good for the war effort. I agreed, and asked her to focus on getting us sympathy; I told her I want long lines at every recruiting facility in the galaxy for this war. She agreed, and she began looking over the data she was allowed to access.
I went down to Deck 5, where I found Staff Lieutenant Steve Cortez and Lt. Vega working down here. Vega maintains the armory, and Cortez handled the shuttle and requisitions. Cortez was actually on the retrofit crew, and was involved in redesigning the flight deck. He thanked me for the better weapons I got at the Spectre office, at which point I told him which ones were mine. I mean, I DID get the Black Widow, Paladin and Wraith for myself, and the Harriers, Eviscerators, Tempests, and Carnifexs for the rest of the team. Though, I do plan on using a Harrier for myself; those guns have some stopping power, in addition to a good firing rate.
Anyway, I talked to Cortez, and apparently, he had been on Ferris Fields when the Collectors attacked; he was out doing some repairs on some communication lines when he got a call from his husband. His husband was taken by the Collectors, and likely died, either by being liquefied and pumped into that Reaper I killed, when the Collector ship was shut down, or when I destroyed the Collector base. Either way, he doesn't feel much reason to go on, but he is. I've got a lot in common with Cortez, and I think helping him get over his grief might help me with some of mine.
Anyway, from there, I talked to Vega, who was showing off as he worked out. He remarked on where we were going, and he tried to brush me off when I tried to get to know him, saying that "I already know his service record." I told him that no, I didn't, because I was incarcerated when we first met. He was like "oh, right" and said that he'd tell me, if I sparred with him. And let me tell you, I mopped the floor with him; my cybernetic upgrades made me faster and stronger than him, and I was a damn good fist fighter before that.
While were sparring, Vega talked about the mission he was on when he was last in command; apparently, he had to sacrifice a colony that the Collectors were attacking, along with almost his entire unit, for data about the Collectors that the Alliance could use. Data which became officially useless thanks to me destroying their base in the galactic core.
I called him out on his feelings of uselessness, how he appeared to have something to prove, and how he seemed to have a death wish. He said that maybe, it wasn't a death wish, that he was willing to do whatever it took to end this fucking war. I took that opportunity to flip him ass over teakettle, and said that "Maybe you are. But if you're half as good as I think you are, we need you alive."
At that point, he gave me a nickname; Lola. I found it cute, to be honest, and I said that he could call me that, but not off the ship. After that, I talked to him for a bit; he's Earthborn, got a family on Earth, and would love to find out how his uncle was doing. He's estranged from his father, though.
I tried to press on the story he told me, but he refused, and I get why; I've got stories I don't like talking about either. Instead, he explained the nickname; he had a friend with a sister named Lola, and the traits he associates with her he also associates with me; strong, and kind of hot. And his flirting is kind of amusing, to be honest.
Anyway, I'm heading back up to the CIC now, and I'll set the course for Menae. We should be there soon, which is why I told Vega and Liara to gear up and head down to the shuttle as soon as we're moving.
Author's Note: Traynor's rank is actually interesting to me; in the US Army, a Specialist is a soldier that has the paygrade of an E4 (or fourth enlisted paygrade), but does not have the responsibilities of a Corporal, who is an NCO. This means, to me, that Traynor is the same pay grade as Corporal Jenkins from ME1, but lacks the responsibility that Jenkins would have. However, in the Alliance military, a Corporal is an E3, not an E4, so that could mean that Specialist Traynor may in fact outrank him, if she is indeed an E4, meaning she'd be a Service Chief, which is one rank below Ashley when she is introduced in ME1, but she would lack the responsibilities of an NCO. Either way, she's the only named enlisted person that we interact with in the game; the only other enlisted people in ME3 that are named are Privates Westmoreland and Campbell, the war room guards that chat as the game flushes the War Room cache and loads the rest of the ship. And we don't talk to them.
