Chapter 44
Snow Patrol: Called Out in the Dark
October 13th, 2185
3:24pm, Omega time
Archangel's hideout
It's been just under nine months since we dealt with Zel, the quarian serial killer, and Evan Carter got himself shot. What felt so vivid back then…I can still remember it, but a lot happens in nine months. Especially when you're on a merc-hunting, shipment-sabotaging, vigilante super squad. That was never gonna lend itself to boredom.
Jaroth's eezo operation didn't take too long to crumble after Butler and I killed Ripard, meaning we've been able to focus elsewhere in the months we've had. We broke up a Blood Pack slave ring, which was satisfying, even if they've got plenty more, and repeatedly fucked up Blue Suns attempts to restart red sand exports via large explosions. We foiled this volus saboteur that Eclipse hired to try and bring the power network under their control, too. Little guy was called Har Urek, really arrogant, thought he'd just be able to stab Eclipse in the back and bring everything under his own control. Then Garrus hacked his suit to make it malfunction and kill him. Irony's a bitch.
So, it's been business as usual, I guess. I mean, the fact that constitutes to 'business as usual' is fucked up, but oh well. It also turned out that a couple of days after Evan died, some news reports filtered in rumours of an asari justicar briefly visiting Omega, most likely Samara, so I'm sure she's going to be very happy to see me when we meet up. Speaking of the Mass Effect 2 cast, Tali and I haven't really talked much since the break-up. The odd courtesy message, and she told me the Flotilla easily managed to repel a Cerberus attempt to board the Idenna, but not more video calls or anything. To be honest, that works fine for me. We've both got our own things to focus on, and awkwardness between us isn't going to help with that. We're moving on, and there's no point interfering.
More importantly, I know it's drawing close to the time of Shepard's return. Garrus knows it too. What he doesn't know is that, ever so soon, we're going to be betrayed. After coming so far with the squad, it's almost impossible to believe, but I know it's true.
Not that I'm going to let it go quite like it's supposed to. No way am I leaving my friends here to die. I can't stop it altogether, the impact would be too great, but…I can at least warn them once the call comes through. In theory. Maybe we won't even get betrayed, so I don't know.
It hurts a bit, thinking it's all drawing to an end. All the friends I've made, with Erash, Laet, Monteague, Butler, the others, even Melanis…though the fate of colonies and stopping the Reapers is more important.
Well, I'm debating whether or not it's more important than Ghost. The previously skinny albino varren has been fed up nicely, and he now has a permanent residence next to my bunk. Oh, and he follows me everywhere around the house, purring for attention, getting me to play with him, everything like that. I've always been a sucker for getting attached to animals, and Ghost's definitely no exception. The cuddly little guy. It makes me smile just thinking about him.
Besides, Omega's not over yet. I've still got some time left with the squad. Whether that's a good or bad thing varies from person to person. Grundan Krul still wants to find something wrong with me, and he's getting dangerously close. I almost had a vision in front of him the other day, barely managed to run to the bathroom before it took hold. But then there's people like Laet and Monteague, who's private joke I still haven't managed to work out, and Vortash and Sensat, who I just want to help. Sensat's actually integrating herself in the squad now, sitting at the table with the rest of us at meal times. She even told a joke the other day. It was shit, but still, massive points for effort. Vortash is never more than a few steps behind her, though, keeping her sheltered. Sensat's managing to accept the squad as her new family, but Vortash…he's still hanging onto being by himself, still sees Sensat as his dead daughter returned to him. It's tragic.
At least the rest of us are good. Even Melanis and I. She's been true to her word about keeping Evan a secret, and the two of us are on good terms. Training sessions even end up with us chatting these days, and the digs we make are light-hearted enough for us both to laugh. Before, we were working with each other because we had to, but now…after the Evan stuff, I think we're genuinely friends. Even if she'll still shout at me when I fuck stuff up, but no-one's perfect.
Everything's going quite well, actually.
That's what worries me.
It feels like there's a storm brewing. I've noticed Garrus changing over the course of us being on Omega, back to his old ways of looking for revenge rather than keeping focused on justice, but there's not been a major shift. Not the dramatic leap between ME1 and 2. Losing his squad will have contributed to that…but I expect there's more to it. Something that's just waiting to happen. This is combined with the fact Shepard's return is less than a month away.
Yeah. Storm's coming, alright. And I don't think there's a single person here who ain't gonna feel it.
##########
"Fuck, Phantom!" Sidonis shouts, diving into cover as I slide over the nose of a small cruiser and roll in next to him, lifting my scoped pistol and furiously pumping rounds into the operative's biotic power, quickly sending an Incinerate along with my bullets as the turian sprays assault rifle rounds next to me at the bastard. A Phantom. Agile, armed with an HVB, and unlike me they actually know how to use it. Plus they've got a biotic barrier powerful enough to stop a bloody tank.
True enough, our Phantom performs a beautiful side-flip out of the way of our bullets, turning towards the turian and I. "Ah, crap," we both say at once, backpedalling into the open furiously as the sword-wielding enemy turns its attention to the turian. "No, go for him!" Sidonis yells, shooting widely in panic as the Phantom suddenly breaks into a sprint, reaching him before he can dodge…and plunging the blade through his chest before he can stop it. Oh, shit!
"Laet, Monteague, we need help!" I call out, looking around frantically for them. Sidonis is lying still…as the Phantom cleans her blade off with a hand and looks to me. I lift my pistol again, but it just makes a hissing sound from the heat build-up, the weapon rendered useless by my lack of heat sinks.
"Relax, we're coming – oh, fuck, no we're not, they've got a huge mech over here!" I hear Laet say.
"I'm on my way," Monteague announces. "I just need to get past this small turret that's been deployed."
I turn my attention back to the Phantom dashing towards me, raising my fists as my HUD informs me Monteague's been incapacitated..
"Come on, you bitch, let's see -"
The sword's in and out of me before I can even say more, and I fall to the ground helplessly, bleeding out as I hear Laet and Monteague shout in panic…then nothing at all, save for a low droning noise as my vision turns red.
MISSION FAILED. WAVE 10.
"FUCK!" Sidonis screams, hurling his controller down in fury. "Every! Single! Time!"
"That does seem to be how it goes," Monteague sighs, placing his controller down in a significantly more gentle fashion as the game demo we're playing starts counting up our credits and experience points. "Those turrets appear to shoot through cover. Odd."
"That mech always comes out of nowhere!" Laet says, growling at the screen. "This isn't even the hardest difficulty!" He does have a point. The demo has three difficulty levels, Bronze, Silver and Gold. We're playing on Silver, and this is still practically impossible.
"At least we've beaten it once," I shrug, though I'm feeling a bit frustrated too. It was going so well…at least until the game decided to suddenly get incredibly cheap towards the end there. "Shit happens. And no-one glitched through the floor of the map this game."
"Oh, don't even get me started…" Sidonis mutters.
"I know I like to run a relaxed base," Garrus says, sounding amused as the four of us look behind to see him resting with his forearms on the couch, mandibles widened in a smile. "But I'm not keen on people swearing this early in the morning. At least not that loud."
"Garrus, if you played this shit, you'd understand," Sidonis says, standing up and clicking his mandibles in irritation. "I'm going to get some food."
"Are you comfort eating because you got beaten by a game?" I ask.
"Maybe I am," he shoots back, walking off as Garrus shakes his head and chuckles.
"What's gotten into him?" he asks, looking to the screen as it readies for the next match.
Ah, probably best if I explain. "This game company released the demo for this threequel everyone's been waiting for, so we decided to test out the multiplayer. Only issue is that the difficulty curve is through the roof."
"And you can only get the good weapons you need to survive through luck," Laet adds helpfully.
Garrus just gives us all odd looks, twitching his left mandible. "Well, I figured the console would get end up getting at least someone angry. Remember Wrex playing against Shepard?"
Monteague and Laet look confused at that, but I nod, bursting into laughter. Shepard absolutely destroyed Wrex in this turian sports game Garrus bought, Clawball 2183, I think. Long story short, Wrex ended up blaming the turian game for being biased, the salarian console for making the krogan lose, and probably would've hit the person playing if it was anyone but Shepard. We kept him away from games after that. "I'm not gonna forget that for a while," I nod. "So, do we actually have a mission for tonight?"
"I can get the med-bay ready for you if you do," Monteague sighs, giving me a pointed look. Monteague and I are pretty tight from all the time we see each other; it's just a shame most of that time involves me sitting in the med-bay while he stitches my face back on. "If we didn't have those credits from Williams, I would have had to stop treating you months ago."
"I'm keeping you in a job," I reply, grinning.
"And then some," Laet mutters. He always does seem to get annoyed when I take up Monteague's time, especially later on at night. They're always staying up, watching movies and stuff. Two totally hetero guys. Yep. "He barely has any time to treat me."
"But you don't get injured," I say. Garrus, Laet and Monteague all sigh, and I even hear Sidonis doing it from over in the kitchen. "What?"
"Never mind," Garrus says. "And we do have a mission lined up. A bit more than that, actually. I'll explain when Butler gets back from the store." Oh yeah…he went out about forty minutes ago to get the shopping in, so he'll not be back for maybe half an hour or so. Not exactly the most dramatic part of being a vigilante, but we've gotta eat. Someone needs to get the weekly shop in.
"Anyone fancy another game until then?" I ask. Laet and Monteague both shake their head.
"I fear Laet will go into cardiac arrest from stress if we attempt another round," Monteague says.
The turian nods. "Yeah. What, uh…what he said."
Aw, damn. Well, there's barely even any point in trying by myself, so I get up and power the machine down. "I guess I'll find some way to kill half an hour, then," I say, to no-one in particular. "Has anyone seen Ghost's chew toy?"
"I think I saw Grundan Krul with it," Sidonis shouts over.
"That's a piss-take, right?" I ask. Sidonis looks over to Garrus, mouthing something at the other turian. If I had to guess, it's probably along the lines of 'what is he talking about'.
"You're joking, right?" Garrus translates for me. Sidonis chuckles, nodding.
"Yeah, I just thought it'd be funny if you actually went and asked him for a chew toy." I roll my eyes at him. "I think Melanis has it."
That sounds more likely. Despite her initial protests, she's actually warmed to Ghost quite a lot. Little guy's melted pretty much everyone's heart, with his persistent cuteness and cuddly nature. I can barely believe he's a varren. "Guess I'll go and see her, then," I nod. These days, I actually enjoy our verbal spars, so it ought to be a nice way to kill the time. "Hopefully I'll be able to contain my anticipation for this mysterious new mission."
"Good, I wouldn't want you getting too excited for it," Garrus says sarcastically. "I'll page your omni-tool when Butler gets back."
"Cheers," I say, turning on my heel and striding off towards Melanis' room on the bottom floor, over near the garage. I make it within ten metres, ten agonising metres, when I a deep, gravelly voice addresses me from behind.
"Hello, honest liar."
It takes a fairly large effort not to launch a punch as I turn around and see Grundan smiling at me smugly, leaning up against the back of a sofa. How did he even get there? Can he turn invisible? "Hello, stalker."
"So, it turns out I'm not the only one who thinks you're hiding something," Grundan says, getting up off the sofa and walking slowly towards me. "I just had a chat with Sensat."
"And Vortash that let that happen?" I ask, folding my arms.
"He's driving Butler back with supplies," the batarian explains. Son of a bitch…
"Bit underhanded of you."
"I'm not taking a lecture from you about being underhand," he chuckles. Ooh, the punching hand is straining…I think the only thing keeping me back is the knowledge that he's kind of correct. "She told me about her little name for you. Cute."
"That's funny," I say, "because I remember telling Sensat that if she ever saw you, she was supposed to biotically punch you through a wall."
"Obviously she forgot," Grundan shrugs. "You want to try instead?"
It's sorely tempting. To just clock him one between those four eyes glaring at me. But he's just waiting for me to do that, show he's getting to me. "I'd rather not give you the satisfaction," I reply.
"That's too bad," the batarian mutters. "Honest liar. I know you weren't just investigating a serial killer when Butler called you. That whole time, you were up to something."
"And if this was the Citadel, I'd have you done in for slander," I shoot back. "You're paranoid, Grundan. Maybe you should go and see Monteague, he's a qualified psychiatrist."
Before I can react, the batarian's right up in my face, grabbing my collar with a hand and pressing his face up against mine. I can literally feel his hot breath on me, as my muscles tense up to push him off…then he lets go, laughing quietly. "Not a look of fear in there. If I was doing that unprovoked, you'd be scared. But you know I'm right, that's why you were ready to hit me back."
"Let me reiterate something to you," I say, taking my turn to step closer to him. "You're full of shit. Get help, Grundan. First step's admitting you have a problem."
"Same to you," he says back, grinning as he turns to walk away. "Same to you."
I stand and watch defiantly until he leaves…then sigh, turning back towards Melanis' room. One of these days, it's going to come to blows between us, I'm almost sure of it. He just hasn't let up these past few months, working out where I was when Butler called me after I faced Morinth, trying to find out who I could've been visiting. Fortunately, he's not turned up anything. Yet. Talking to Sensat and hearing the whole 'honest liar' thing isn't exactly going to lower his suspicions.
Shaking my head, I reach Melanis' door and hover my hand over the button to open it. At least talking to Mel might cheer me up, especially since she's the one person who actually knows the truth about what happened during the serial killer investigation. And the one person I've mentioned my problem with Grundan too. Hopefully she'll be happy to see me too.
I walk in, giving Melanis a warm smile as she looks up from the desk on the far right of her fairly spacious room, complete with double bed at the back, nightstand, wardrobe and overhead lighting. "Honey, I'm home!"
Melanis gives me a brief glare, but then suddenly breaks into a smile as well. "And you tracked in mud. How could you? I just cleaned," she says jokingly.
"You weren't supposed to go along with that," I frown.
"Trust me; I've learned by now that the best way to defuse you is to play along."
"Yeah, well...shut up."
The female turian grins even wider. "See? It worked." Well, this is a one-sided argument, so I'm just gonna change the subject. You win this round, Mel.
"So, I heard you have Ghosty's chew toy," I say
"Why do you insist on calling him that?" she asks. "Isn't 'Ghost' just fine?"
"Adding a y onto a name makes everything cute," I explain. Like Droney the Combat Drone, who I had in my Engineer playthrough.
Melanis just shakes her head, smiling. "Well if you start calling me 'Melly' you know I'll have to kill you."
I smile back. "I wouldn't expect anything less." There's a pause, as I weigh up whether or not to call her 'Melly' just to get a reaction. "You don't even know how tempted I am to say it."
"I can make a good guess," she replies, still grinning. "Just remember: I'm the one in charge of your training."
"I didn't realise you could make it worse than it already is."
She just laughs at that. "You have no idea, Ian."
I fold my arms, despite the concept of training somehow getting worse scares the shit out of me. "Then enlighten me."
"Walk through a Blood Pack base with a shirt that says 'Krogan suck' without dying," Melanis deadpans.
"I'm sure they'd see the funny side," I shrug. "Garm's pretty chill."
"Then you have to give him a hug before you leave."
"Krogan love cuddles."
"Well why don't you test that next time you meet him?" she says. Fuck, I really don't fancy meeting Garm, ever…at least not unless I've got Wrex with me.
"Will do," I say, crossing my finger. "I'll take pictures."
"I wouldn't believe it otherwise."
I chuckle at that. "Fair enough. So, the chew toy. Unless you're too embarrassed to admit you've been playing with Ghost."
"And if I have been playing with Ghost?" she asks, almost coyly.
"Then I'm assuming you might have his chew toy." I say. "I know you have been, Sidonis told me. And I thought you were supposed to hate him."
Melanis scratches behind her fringe awkwardly. "Yeah, well...don't make such a big deal about it. The big oaf even makes Grundan smile. Sort of."
"Funny how you started hating him then ended up liking him. It's kinda like a metaphor for me," I chuckle. "Apparently all I had to do was loll my tongue out and run against your shins."
"I don't think it'd be nearly as cute if you did it."
"Well, probably not," I admit. "It's cool you're admitting Ghost's cute, though. And it's cool that you actually have a concept of cuteness."
Melanis gives me a look of mock-shock, smiling "Ian! That hurts. Why would you say such an awful thing? I don't go around saying you have no concept of subtlety."
"That's a lie, and you know it," I smile back. It's funny…a year ago, this would be genuine insults being traded. Now it's just banter. I much prefer it this way.
"Your point?" she asks.
"Lying's bad?"
"As you know full well already," Melanis says. Oh, damn it, she didn't need to bring that up…
I shake my head at her. "No need to remind me about that. Grundan's already mentioned stuff today."
"Is Grundan still on your case?" she asks, sounding concerned. "Same thing as always?"
"Trying to find out what it is I'm hiding. He's still suspicious about the serial killer investigation," I sigh. "It's fucking annoying, cos he's right."
"And this is what I told you would happen if you kept secrets from us," Melanis gently reminds me. "I understand why you did it, but it was still a stupid move."
God, thanks mum… "Yeah, but Grundan just wants some kind of dirt on me anyway. It's a personal thing, after Mierin."
Melanis sighs. "Is there anything Garrus or I could do to help?"
"No, that'll just make me look worse." I smile at her. "Thanks for offering to help. You always do."
Surprisingly, Melanis smiles back, stretching her mandibles out. Is it surprising, actually? We get along too well now for that to come as a real shock. "And you never take it. I'm starting to wonder if you don't like the idea of me helping you."
"Well, I don't want to concede a weakness to you," I point out. "It's not like you need any more ammunition."
"Good point. I don't need more ammunition." She pauses for a second to think. "So how are you gonna deal with him?"
"Who, Grundan? No idea. I'll think of something."
"I don't know. After that episode with Evan, I'm not so sure," Melanis says, her voice somewhat joking.
"Eight months and you still aren't letting that go, huh?"
"When that alone has enough ammo for me, why would I?"
"God, you're a bitch sometimes," I say, laughing. "Who's still hoarding that chew toy."
Melanis gives an exaggerated sigh, pointing in the vague direction of the bed. "Fine. It's over on the nightstand."
I go to pick up the pyjak toy, feeling a small twinge of jealousy at how ridiculously large her bed is. "Man, that's not even fair how you and Garrus get double beds."
"It's my house, remember?" she grins. "And Garrus is our great leader."
I laugh again. "I suppose so. Well, uh...thanks for the chew toy." I go back and stand by the door awkwardly, not sure whether to leave or try and continue the conversation.
Melanis seems to be having the same dilemma, eyes flicking between the door and me unsurely. "Um, sure...no problem."
"So, uh…it's nice talking to you," I say, smiling. God, that sounded dumb, didn't it?
"Yeah, anytime." The next sentence sounds almost…hesitant. "You know I'm here whenever you want to talk."
"I know," I nod. "It's nice having that, Mel. Seriously."
"And it's...actually nice to talk to you, Ian," she says, mandibles fluttering in a half-smile. "It's always interesting, at least."
"Well, I'd hate to deny you the fun of taking the piss out of me."
"I always aim to please."
"I'm sure you do." I shift from foot to foot, realising this is probably the ideal time for me to leave before things get any more awkward. "Well, the briefing's soon, and I don't want to keep Ghost away from his chew toy, so...I'll see you later."
"Alright," she nods, as I reach over and open the door. "See you around."
"See ya." I walk through and head back towards the stairs leading up to the dorm, where I'm ninety percent certain Ghost's going to be waiting next to my bed. Conversations with Mel always seem to end kind of awkwardly, like neither of us actually let it come to a natural finish by itself. Then again, we've never had much of a conventional relationship, so I shouldn't be overly taken aback by the fact that neither of us knows how to finish a conversation with the other.
The dorm room's lights are off when I walk in, since everyone else is out downstairs, so the room's only lit with a dull red glow from Omega's lights outside as I creep forward softly, holding the chew toy up in one hand. Ghost'll be in here somewhere…either sleeping, or hiding when he heard me come in. Either way, this'll set him off.
I squeeze the toy, making the pyjak give out a pathetic little squeak. With a sudden growl, Ghost bursts out from behind my bunk with his tongue out, and charges towards me, bowling me over as he snatches the chew toy out of my hand and starts happily gnawing on it, giving a happy purring noise as he looks up at me. "You win this round, then," I chuckle, stroking the top of his head as Ghost lies down, and the pyjak gives a series of short, sharp squeaks as he chews on it. "How're you doing?"
The varren nuzzles against my hand, loving the attention from his favourite person. I mean, he likes everyone, but he seems to prefer me for saving him from that base. It's cute. "You're getting big, aren't you?" I ask rhetorically, using both hands to tickle behind his ears. It's true. The previously skinny little varren's been all fed up, mainly from the leftovers when Butler cooks, so he rivals the size of any attack varren I've seen, minus the vicious disposition of one. Ghost wriggles his head, trying to get rid of the unseen force tickling him before he growls and rolls onto his back, batting my arms with his paws.
I laugh, letting him knock me off as he rolls back and butts his head into my chest, chew toy forgotten. I reach over and pick it up, getting to my feet and squeezing it. The sound drives him crazy, and he jumps up on both legs to try and snatch it out my hand as I turn around to the window overlooking the floor below…and catch sight of Grundan walking towards the kitchen.
I look back at the chew toy.
He deserves it.
"Grundan!" I shout, launching the toy out of the window and laughing like an idiot as Ghost hurtles out after it, leaping up and slamming his front paws into the batarian's chest. Grundan quickly throws the toy away towards Erash, who's more than happy to play with Ghost as he shoots me a vicious glare, stalking off towards the sofas. Just as my omni-tool buzzes. Ah, that'll be Garrus paging everyone to come to the meeting…which explains why the entire squad is congregating on the sofas.
I quickly jog out the dorm, sliding down the banister of the stairs and vaulting over the back of a sofa to sit next to Erash and join in with petting Ghost, as Vortash and Sensat take their seats and Garrus clears his throats, the typical sign for 'give me all your attention, now'. Everyone dutifully does. Except Ghost, who's trying to gum on my hand.
"So, I'm sure you're all curious to why I called you here," Garrus says, standing up and going over to the holographic display we have installed on the table that sits in the middle of the circle of sofas. Ooh, he's using the display? That means he's actually put some effort into this one…
"Aye," Butler says sarcastically. "Loads."
"So there's been a few more weapon shipments than usual recently," the turian starts to explain, turning on the display and ignoring the Scot. "That made me suspicious." He's got a point there. We usually carry out regular raids, intercepting a few targets, but the choices we've had have gone up a noticeable amount recently. "Then I saw that the Jakarta district, which used to be controlled by those Guns 4 Less idiots?" We all nod our head at that, chuckling. Guns 4 Less was a bunch of idiots who came to Omega to live the merc dream, and probably win my personal award for the worst criminal group ever made. Even if they were pretty funny. "They were all gone. Taken over by people in white armour suits with a shield logo on the arm. And then I saw this a few days ago."
He points us all towards the display, where an advertisement seems to be displayed. Whiteguard Mercenary Group. If you've got a job that needs doing, get the people who'll get it done. Cheap rates, professional contractors, no bullshit. Satisfaction guaranteed. The ad then proceeds to list contact details, while the somewhat imposing white shield stays superimposed into the background. "They're not very talkative adverts, are they?" Laet comments. "I didn't realise the word cost was so expensive these days…"
"Here's how I see it," Garrus says, drawing attention back to the matter at hand. "There's this human idiom about what kind of enemy is worst...something about devils?"
"The devil you know is better than the one you don't," I say. Garrus nods his head as I look around to the confused alien faces. "Basically, we know what to expect with Eclipse, the Blood Pack, the Blue Suns. These Whiteguard guys, we don't know what they're capable of. They're wildcards. And having three merc groups running around is bad enough without a fourth one joining in the fun."
"Considering the increase in shipments, they're buying enough for a small army," Garrus explains. "If they have a small army, then it's only going to get bigger. If they're just starting out, that means they're vulnerable. We need to stop this before it gets any bigger."
"Do we actually have a plan to do that?" Weaver asks, looking around. "Because an advert isn't good enough intel."
"And that's where you come in," Garrus says, looking at me. "I'd be really surprised if Aria hadn't heard anything about this Whiteguard group."
"So would I, but that doesn't mean she'll help us," I say. "Do we actually have anything to negotiate with?"
"You'll think of something," Garrus shrugs.
"So that's a no, then."
"Everyone stand by your stations until Ian turns up some intel on a shipment," Garrus says, and everyone stands up to get ready.
"Whoa, whoa," I say, holding up my hands. "What if I can't?"
"Then we hit one of the spaceports they frequent and hope we can get lucky, pull in one of their people, and get information from them instead," Sidonis says, before Garrus can reply. "Going to see Aria at least gives us a chance of having a target here. Didn't you say she liked you, anyway?"
"Yeah, but that doesn't give me a free pass to get information. She usually wants something in return."
"Can you no' turn on that roughish charm of yours?" Butler asks, making Melanis laugh.
"That's sarcasm, right?" I ask.
"Aye."
Annoyingly, they are right. I may as well just check with Aria to make this easier on all of us, and…hello, my omni-tool just went off. I left the display up…and it's from Grizz.
Aria wants to see you. Now.
"Guys, I think Aria's either bugged the place, or she's inside my head," I say, turning around. "She just got Grizz to ask me to meet her."
"Maybe we can exchange what she wants with information on Whiteguard," Garrus suggests.
"Maybe we should wait to see what she wants in the first place," I mutter, looking to Vortash. "You alright to give me a lift?"
"I want to go too," Sensat suddenly says, looking up at Vortash, who returns her stare with one of protective alarm. "I want to see outside the house."
The turian seems unsure…but to be honest, it'll be good for Sensat to get out, so I'm all for it. Plus I can actually tell her to punch Grundan through a wall next time she sees him. "I'm just popping in to talk to her, then leaving. No guns, no fighting. We're just gonna be in and out."
Vortash looks between her and me for a few seconds, then sighs. "Fine." Sensat beams happily at him, and he can't help his mandibles stretching out in a tired smile too. Aww…
"Radio ahead if you get any information," Garrus says. "Oh, and just for reference, you're not going to find any info between an asari dancer's breasts. Right, Butler?"
"Fuck you," Butler shouts over from the fridge. I laugh, but the joke appears to be lost on Vortash and Sensat. Oh well.
"I'll get my inconspicuous armour set, and we can get going," I say, turning back around to walk to my locker. "I'll meet you two by the shuttle." Vortash gives me a serious nods, while Sensat walks after him, practically jumping up and down at the chance to be able to go outside. Grinning to myself, I grab the gear, then head to the showers and changing room to get prepped.
Not just an individual target this time. We're gonna take down a whole merc group.
Guess that storm's coming sooner than I thought.
READ THIS A/N: Sorry this chapter took so long to get out, and I need to explain why.
Basically, I was hoping the two day update rate would mean I could get everything done before I need to start studying hard for my exams, but I've ran the numbers and there's absolutely no way that's going to happen. Now, as much as I love this story and you guys, these exams decide which universities I'll be able to go to. This is a big deal. So, unfortunately, they need to take priority from now until they're over. Combine that on top of the fact that keeping up the two day update rate was stressing me out to the point of near depression, and…yeah, I had to draw the line somewhere.
The story isn't dead, let me make that very clear. But from now until about July, I won't have a fixed update schedule. I'll write when I get free time and stuff, but it may be a while between updates. Again, I'm sorry about this, but I need to focus on things other than the story right now. If anything, more time'll help me generate ideas and keep the story good, so that's an upside to it.
Anyway, I hope you understand, and thanks in advance if you do. I just figured it would be best to tell you all, rather than disappearing off the face of the earth for a bit, haha.
Thanks for your continued reading and support. It genuinely does mean the world to me.
Next chapter, whenever that may be, visiting Aria! With Vortash and Sensat! See you next time!
P.S: At least be grateful I didn't leave it on a cliffhanger.
