Silont leaned back in the corner of the Normandy's War Room. It had been a dark time. Everybody on the ship felt it. They have been on the hunt after Chimera for too long, desperately scrambling for any clues of Shepard's, Tali's, and Garrus's whereabouts. But he was also concerned for Dasintha, who did not come back after the event that transpired at the gravesite. That could only mean she either let herself get captured, which was highly unlikely, or she was killed. The last thought scared him to no end, as his last conversation with her back on Rannoch wasn't exactly of the most friendly type.
He cared a lot about her. He wanted to keep her safe. But his overprotective attitude towards her was enough to annoy the headstrong woman into an argument. He missed her. He knew that she could take care of herself, he just wished that her luck didn't run out on her this time. The last thing he wanted was to have their final words to each other be the ones of a fight.
Dyad also didn't come back from the gravesite. He heard from Joker about how his ship had attacked the Normandy once all the Chimera ships entered the atmosphere. But Dyad wasn't on it at the time. Whatever Chimera did to seize control must have locked Dyad out. He must've been captured or killed too since there was no trace of anyone back at the gravesite when they returned to look for clues.
After his reflection on his argument with Dasintha, he felt guilty for the way he treated the purple geth. It wasn't that he didn't like Dyad, he just liked to work alone. But still, Dyad only ever wanted to be his partner. He couldn't blame him for that.
He made a plan that if he ever found out if both of them were still alive, then he would fix their relationships. He didn't need the guilt on his conscience, but he could only pray. Ancestors know how it would haunt him for the rest of his days.
He had tuned out the constant bickering that was going on around the center of the war terminal. It was expected from the admirals, but things only began to escalate once they began criticizing Shepard. Reasonably, the Captain's crew, new and old, came to his defense. Silont noticed just how dedicated these people were to a man who wasn't even in their presence, and ashamed as he was to admit, it made him jealous.
The human admiral known as Hackett had given them reinforcements when the Normandy had escaped from the gravesite. A large mix of interesting characters it has been, and every single one of them had shouted down the admirals once they started directing blame. The only admiral that didn't was Raan, and even she joined in defense of Shepard. Gerrel and Koris were the only two who tried to fight back, with Xen sitting off in a strange sort of quiet. The men were shut up pretty fast when two krogans threatened to eat them.
Even without the krogans, the war room was pretty stuffed as it is. Mostly everyone was human, but other species could be seen in the mix. The two krogans were the leader of Clan Urdnot, Wrex, and another named Grunt. There was also another asari alongside Liara, a justicar whose name was Samara. There was the Prothean, Javik, and EDI, of course. And a surprising addition, there was also a salarian who went by the name Kirrahe, he had two others with him to form a small fireteam. Silont figured that would have been all of the nonhumans until he spotted a drell conversing with two turians off to the side away from the shouting.
"And who might you be?" Came a smooth and silky voice. Silont twisted his head to see a very attractive human woman. She had dark hair and wore a black and white catsuit. Despite her perfectly feminine frame, she held herself in a way that said all too much that she could kill a grown man with a flick of a wrist.
"Name's Silont, you?"
"Miranda," she answered. A loud roar from Wrex sounded and both of them glanced to see if there was any imminent danger to come from the krogan. Both turned back to each other once they realized he was just venting some frustration in his usual loud way.
"Getting a little tired of all this arguing and bickering," Miranda stated in irritation.
"Yeah, we should just continue searching already. It's been getting long enough to get worried."
The beautiful woman let out a drawn breath. "As if we hadn't been worried enough to begin with?"
"Yeah...it's just..." He trailed off, thinking about the potential that the galaxy's greatest heroes and the closest people he could consider to be friends might all be dead.
"Just what?"
"Nevermind." His gaze shifted around the war room once again, back to people watching, and he remembered the drell and the turians. "Who're they?" He asked.
"The drell is Kolyat," Miranda answered simply. "His father was a close friend to Shepard, going so far as to risk his life to stop the coup by Cerberus on the Citadel nearly a year ago. He ultimately passed away. His name was Thane." Her eyes glanced downwards, sad. For some reason, Silont vaguely remembered the name.
"I take it that you knew him."
"A little, a long time ago back when we were with Shepard to destroy the Collector base. He was only an assassin then, but I admired him greatly."
"Wait a minute," he said, the context slowly clearing up the confusion in his mind. "Thane!" He exclaimed. "So you are the Miranda?"
He remembered the stories Tali had told him about the suicide mission. The horrors that went on there, and who was there to experience it alongside her. He remembered how Tali said that she wasn't particularly fond of Miranda, but she talked kindly about Thane. Silont didn't understand what was so bad about the woman thus far, though, she seemed nice enough from this first impression, but looks could be deceiving, he guessed.
"Why, yes. It's only the name I was given as a young child," the woman joked, to which Silont held up his hands in mild embarrassment.
"I know, I know...I just meant that I've heard about you. What you all did to destroy that Collector base. Tali has a gift to bring nightmares to life with just her words."
"Really?" Miranda said in genuine curiosity. "I take it she told you about how she and Shepard took down the human reaper?"
"Oh, Ancestors yes! Sounded like it was horrifying!"
"I never got to see it for myself in person," she explained. "I always thought Tali was exaggerating, and Shepard had always been fond of her then so I didn't know whether to trust his word either. Garrus was also the one to face it down with them, and he supported both of their stories. Back then he was a brooding vigilante, so coming from him at that time...I guess it really was just as horrifying as she said...Maybe I should be happy that I was spared the sight."
Silont noted how it seemed that it was always Shepard, Tali, and Garrus doing everything together. Their bond was nothing like he had ever seen. Thinking about it, the trio of friends who went out and saved the galaxy again and again. Reminding himself of where they were together now made him give a strange, bitter sense of relief.
Miranda must have been thinking about them, too. Her face was unreadable, but her off-glances around the war room said enough. Her eyes, however, tended to linger on the two turians still in the war room. She looked at them closely, then looked down to the floor and and made a despairing stare off into space.
Her voice was slightly strained, interrupting the moment of silence between them. "She invited me to her and Shepard's wedding."
It was just a statement, one that Silont wasn't quite sure to respond to. But in the quiet, he knew he didn't have to. They had the same depressing thought. They needed to get them back. Shepard and Tali deserved to be happy together. They practically owed the rest of their entire existence to them. And Garrus equally so.
Both of them shared a sigh, and Miranda looked back up at the two turians, grabbing her attention once more.
"And...who are they?" Silont asked warily, having some notion of who they could be.
She heaved her breath as if the answer was too difficult to speak aloud.
"Castis and Solana Vakarian...Garrus's father and sister."
"Dear Ancestors," Silont hissed, squinting his eyes. They needed something soon, some kind of hint to where they could be, all for the sake of having good news for the families.
I wish Das was here.
He inspected the two turians closer. They both shared blue facial markings like Garrus, though in different designs, the man named Castis wore armor also in a similar fashion to Garrus, but the color was of a deep blue, reminiscent of old C-Sec uniform colors. Solana looked a little younger than her brother, she wore lighter armor, as well as an eyepiece that spanned the length around her face. They were deactivated at that moment, and the fire and fury over her lost sibling was all too evident in her cerulean eyes.
"They weren't even supposed to be here," Miranda scoffed, talking about the Vakarians. "But somehow they caught wind of this and demanded to join. They should've just stood out and waited for some news."
"I mean, family tenacity is one hell of a thing," Silont countered. He never had much of a family, but he had seen plenty of examples from others of what families were willing to risk to find their own. "If your sibling went missing for a long time, wouldn't you go by any means to find out what happened to them?"
Something in those words caused the woman to stir, biting her tongue.
"I suppose so," she whispered lightly. A thin silence ensued, but the woman was quick to change characters on the subject.
"Kolyat, though," she began, "doesn't really have a reason to be here. He's a good kid, and I'm worried something bad might happen to him. I hope he's not trying to, 'honor his father's memory,' by helping us on this rescue mission. I don't find that a good enough reason."
"I mean, I don't see why not," Silont countered again. "Thane sounds like a good man, I may not have met him, but any good man sure would be proud of any courage displayed by their kid. Good fathers are like that."
Again, Miranda was quieted. She sighed, "I guess I wouldn't know that...Still, there's a line between being courageous and stupid. I just hope he knows the difference and ends up alright."
"He's got all of us, even if he is being stupid, he's well protected. And you really can't blame him either way, I mean, aren't we stupid for going against a whole fleet of mercs?" He asked, then added slyly. "Sounds like our own kind of Suicide Mission if you ask me."
Miranda chuckled. "I guess you're right. Still, Kolyat has been through a lot and has shown an interest in joining C-Sec. So that's a telling sign of how far he's come...I just hope he gets the chance to go farther and actually get there...Castis seems to have already taken a liking to him, anyway, maybe that might help him get a foot in the door if we all make it out of this mess."
Silont gave an unspoken questioning tilt to his helmeted head.
"Castis used to be in C-Sec," Miranda clarified. "Just like Garrus."
Ah. Silont looked back to the group. They were still deep in conversation. Hm, a drell in C-Sec? Now that'd be a sight to see.
After a small moment, Miranda inhaled deeply and loosened her shoulders. "I better hop back to it then. Thanks for talking with me, Silont. I must say that you surprised me, you are a very smart man."
"Eh, I try," he responded, an unseen smile forming on his face. He and Miranda shook hands and the woman then walked off to join the party around the war terminal, the bickering now calming down to a heated discussion. But with Gerrel and Koris still going at it, that could easily change.
"It's not our fault that you lost our admiral!" Koris nearly shouted, pointing a finger off vaguely, gesturing to everyone. "We have been helping you as much as we can!"
"Not by much!" Both James and Grunt scoffed in unison. The two locked eyes after that.
"So it's our fault then?!" Liara snapped. Her fingers stopped tapping away in a crazed frenzy at the datapad in her hand. "Do you think we knew that we would be attacked so soon?!"
Gerrel pushed Koris's still raised arm down, giving him a quick and intense look. "What Zaal is saying is that we have devoted all the resources we could at the moment. Raan's patrol fleet and our agents should help for now, but we can't do more than that until we have a more substantial lead. We still have other concerns to worry about."
"Isn't the absence of an admiral something to worry about?! Have you forgotten that Shepard and Tali saved your sorry asses?!" Kasumi seethed.
"No, we can't really. Not when every single one of you all have mentioned it about a thousand times since we started this meeting!" Koris spouted back.
Wrex looked to Raan who was cradling her mask in one hand, then gave a loud, annoyed gruff. "Can't I eat this guy, now? The damn idiot has earned himself the honorary rank of being the biggest pyjak of his people."
"I want to throw him out the airlock," Javik added suddenly, mostly to himself. "See how much drifting in space it takes to get him to shut up."
"I agree with the bug alien," Grunt said loosely, to which Javik gave him a sidelong glance. "It'd be fun to watch him squirm. Heh, heh, heh."
"No one is doing anything to each other," Raan butted in with a sigh. "Can we please just get back to focusing on the task at hand? Finding our friends?"
Out of everyone, Raan was the one Silont was happiest to see here. She knew Dasintha well, and she seemed to be the only most sensible one out of all the admirals besides Tali. While he tried to get an overview of the crowd of heads, he found Miranda popping up again next to a dark-skinned human. If he recalled correctly, his name was Jacob.
"Come on, Admiral. Can't you order for more help with this from your combat fleet?"
"Absolutely not!" Came a hot response from Gerrel. "The heavy fleet is under my jurisdiction. And what I say is final. We will not help until we have a bigger lead on where they are. We will not waste our resources chasing after dead ends!" His shoulders loosened as he did his best to let go of his fury. "We will only help when we are needed."
"Same goes for me," Koris added. "My people still need to help with construction efforts for our civilians."
"But we do need your help," Jacob responded, mostly to Gerrel. "They're missing."
"And Raan's patrol fleet is perfectly equipped for the task. Mine and Koris's fleets are for Warships and Liveships. We simply are not specialized in finding things."
"That's a load of bullshit," came a heavily tattooed human wearing light clothing and a high ponytail. "More ships mean more eyes. It doesn't matter if it's their job or not."
"We don't have the resources!" Koris erupted, clearly done with the discussion. "All we have is going straight to Rannoch. We told you, the best we can do is help when we have a clear direction and right now you all are floating blind. This is all we can do, and all that we will do. That is my final answer!"
Koris tapped Gerrel on the shoulder and turned towards the door, urging him to follow. Gerrel gave a deep sigh and looked out upon the group. "As much as I hate to say it, that is my final answer as well. We really would like to help more, and I will once you find this Chimeran fleet. For now, I wish you all luck and good fortune. May your hunt be successful in the darkest depths of the void." With that, he made for the exit.
He stopped when his eyes landed on Xen. "You coming, Daro?"
Xen was abnormally quiet throughout the whole discussion. One hand was tucked underneath the elbow of her arm, while that other hand fiddled with the bottom of her helmet, tapping at the speaker light that flickered. She was silent for a few more moments before she looked up at the crowd.
"You have the support of my Special Projects fleet."
Wait, what? Seriously?
Everyone looked a little surprised, the pleasant kind for anyone nonquarian, the shocking kind for those who were. Silont thought that the admiral scientist would have likely backed out without another word. Anyone who talked with her long enough knew she wasn't of the unselfish sort, she was just that kind of person with a fixed cold shoulder, only doing something if it had some kind of value to her. So whatever this rescue mission had must have caught her interest. The other admirals shared curious glances, but Xen didn't seem to bother as she suddenly became very interested in her fingers, inspecting them much like Silont seen some humans do with their nail paint.
"Well, at least that's something," Liara said.
Koris and Gerrel both shared a glance, shaking their heads. Koris looked to Xen and gave her a farewell wave and dropped his voice. "Good luck then, Xen, make sure you don't start...wasting time, we could really use you back on Rannoch." Xen scoffed in response but said nothing as Koris then turned to Gerrel. "Come on, we've been away long enough. Let's get back before something serious happens."
"Agreed."
Once the two male admirals left, the group collectively gave a bitter sigh, some murmuring their displeasure of them, some sharper than others. The air was hot, both from the tensions as well as the shared body heat, but at least everyone was cooling off from the former. Most went back to discussing search plans, while few greeted others, finally catching up after the defeat of the Reapers.
Raan slinked over to Xen and whispered something, starting a quiet conversation that was out of everyone's attention. Except for Silont, of course, after all, Raan trained him to be aware of every inch of his surroundings. He picked his energy up and carried himself over to them, trying to stealthily grab some context words before he initiated a conversation.
"–always acting surprised. Trust me, I'm happy to help," Xen finished her sentence as he approached.
Not much to get from that.
Her head shifted to him, her body still in that casual arrogant stance that he hated so much, but was soon lifted once she noticed him. "Ah, Agent Mikera? Was it?"
His eyebrow raised curiously to the admiral. He's only talked to her a few times, the last time being before he checked into the medical wing after he escaped his encounter with the Chimeran fleet. She asked for a full and detailed report by word of mouth from him. He hated having to do that from the hospital bed. He would often avoid making conversation with the scientist altogether just because it was all business-oriented and smug enough for him to dislike her. Because of that, he always strived to limit the interactions that they had. It was the reason why he gave most of his reports to her by text files rather than audio logs.
So the fact that she remembered his name well enough made him feel strange. To be a person of interest to Xen was...different. Whether it was for good or for bad, he wasn't quite sure yet.
"Yes," he answered. "I just want to say thanks for being willing to help out."
The similarly dark clothed quarian chuckled. "Someone's got to show the men how to watch out for their own."
His eyes narrowed to a glare and his blood began to boil. He didn't quite know what she meant by that, but he kept himself contained and continued, feigning obliviousness. "Can't really show them if they aren't here to see."
"Irrelevant. I don't plan on losing our admiral again, so the end result matters far more than how it's seen or done."
"Good," Raan piped in, interrupting. "I think we can all agree that the most important thing is that we get Tali, Shepard, and Garrus back in the first place," she finished with a slight edge in her voice, her gaze piercing.
"And Das and Dyad," Silont couldn't help but add, to which Raan immediately softened and nodded sympathetically.
"Of course, of course," Xen brushed off. "We can't forget the friends and our agents that we've lost, now can we?" She said with a snide tone. Silont knew exactly what she meant by, 'we.' And it pissed him off. He still kept his temper easily well checked, however, and only rolled his eyes.
"Now Agent Mikera," she added. "You reported that there were hundreds of ships in the Chimeran fleet in your skirmish with them. Is that true?"
Now she's questioning my word?
"With the number of guns they had," Silont started, reliving the nightmare that was facing off against the fleet in an effort to cripple their chain of command. "It felt like thousands. The event happened too quickly to get a proper estimate. But it is a small fleet. Definitely somewhere under a hundred if not over."
"That could be devastating. What about the ships themselves? What kinds were they?"
Now Silont felt like he was just being interrogated. Sweat began to seep through the back of his neck and he glanced back towards Raan, silently asking for help. Instead, Raan seemed to have an interest in a refresher report as well and nodded for him to continue. He sighed.
"If I recall correctly, there were mostly fighters. But I have noticed a number of corvettes, frigates, and a few destroyers."
"And you never noticed anything strange about them?"
"Er...no? Should I have?"
Xen chuckled again. "Of course not. Just trying to see if I can jog your memory for any extra details." The quarian scientist then gave a small flick of a wrist and a deep sigh, almost as if she was relieved of something. "Well, that's all I really wanted to know," she stated suddenly. "The rest of my fleet should be coming in now. I'll head back to my ship and be on standby for the next search orders. Bye-bye!"
Both Silont and Raan shared a swift puzzled look as the woman took a quick turn and left the war room in a calm and thorough speed. Her light footsteps were drowned out by heavy ones that came up from behind them, and the remaining admiral and her agent found themselves in the midst of the leader of Clad Urdnot, Wrex.
Silont felt wary of him, he had plenty of hostile encounters with the krogan species, but Wrex was far more intimidating than any of the ones he met. He was just glad that the big brute was on their side. Raan, however, was very warm to him.
"Why do you quarians pick the wacky ones to be your leaders?" Wrex asked to no one in particular.
Still, Raan folded her arms and tapped her foot. "Ahem?"
Surprisingly, the massive reptile made a noise of surprise and gave a nervous laugh. "Besides you, of course, Shala."
Shala?
"I'm just messing with you Wrex," she laughed. "How's Bakara? Is her pregnancy going well?"
"She's doing great, although she won't stop talking about it. I swear she can talk your ears off about preparations to take care of little creeps. I'm just happy to get this one last mission to bash some heads in before I have to..."
He shuddered.
"...settle down."
Silont felt like he was intruding on the conversation, but he didn't quite know if he should leave at that moment. So he opted to stand there awkwardly, finding interest in the little details of the ship and his hands.
"You should listen to her. I helped raise Tali when she was young. Kids are no easy task, especially when you're about to get a lot more than just one."
"Yeesh, tell me about it."
Raan laughed again. "I'll pray for your good future."
Wrex returned with a hearty laugh of his own, but yet there was still a glimpse of stress in the old man's eyes. "Thanks, we're only getting it because of our lost friends...Now we gotta return the favor and get those three back. They're the galaxy's good luck charms. We'll need'em if we're going to keep going in the right direction."
"Agreed."
Wrex continued the conversation with Raan, both of them seemingly forgetting that Silont was still there. After a few moments, he gathered the courage to finally step out and away, returning to his old corner in back. He was relieved when they didn't notice.
Still, it felt kind of lonely in the crowded room. He didn't know many of these people well enough to consider any of them friends. They were only friends of Tali's. Hell, even if Tali were here, he doubted he would be a priority person to have a simple chat with compared to the rest who've been with her more recently.
It's been too long since those days. Back when they were just kids with Das and the others watching Fleet and Flotilla on their sleepover nights, cramped in their small rooms huddled up in blankets, with their eyes glued to the small vid screen of a terminal that they set on the floor. Nostalgia kicked him in the gut.
He cursed his career choice, wondering if taking the path of an agent was a wise one. He didn't let it get to him, though. He's been through plenty of occasions like this with Das's large group of friends. Why should this be any different?
I wish Das were here. I wish Dyad were here.
He gave a depressed, hopeful sigh. He had nothing to contribute to this group of individuals, so he settled on watching them...inspecting them...reading them.
It was boring.
He wanted someone to really talk to. To share personal jokes about the experiences they had shared together. But he's been mostly on his own long enough that the amount of names on the list that could do that kind of thing was next to nothing, empty. He groaned.
While most people were busy catching up with each other, he grabbed a simple water tube out of one of his pouches and began sipping at it, finding it hard to make it last as time went by. In between his swigs and the chatter of people catching up, there was a select group of people around the war terminal doing the real work by discussing searching plans. The frustration ran high through them as the holographic display between them was constantly shifting. It was a long time before they finally started dismissing the meeting and called for people to return to their ships. The war room then steadily trickled out its occupants.
He grew more unsure of what to do as the room began to empty out, revealing his hiding spot behind all the bodies. Raan was still present, and she was his ride for the time being as the Tonbay engineers finished repairing his fighter.
Soon it was only him, Raan, Wrex, the current main Normandy Crew, Miranda, Kolyat, Garrus's family, the tattooed woman, and an old man with one eye still present in the war room.
He moved over to the exit, waiting patiently for Raan to finish up her conversations with various people of the crew. He looked to the floor and tapped at the panels with his foot.
Suddenly, the intercom crackled to life.
"Uh, guys?! Sorry to break up the after-party but the salarians have notified us that there's a ship nearby, and from the looks of it...it's Dyad's ship heading straight at us! And it's closing fast!" Joker scrambled.
Aw, shit.
"Oh, Goddess!" Liara gasped cleanly. She fumbled with her datapad and rushed out the war room, most of the crew following her, as well as himself, Wrex, and Raan.
"Raise my ship, Pilot Moreau! Give them my order to prepare for an attack! Combat Alert!" Raan yelled back.
"Yes ma'am!"
Wait.
Silont knew it was highly unlikely, but something in him hoped that Dyad managed to escape Chimera's clutches. Perhaps Das had rescued him, fought off Chimera and reclaimed his ship and were coming back home. They could help in rescuing Shepard, Tali, and Garrus. What if they already have them on board? He immediately tried to forget the thought. The last thing they needed was false hope and disappointment.
"Warn everyone else as well!" Liara added.
"Already on it!"
Everyone was already on the bridge before EDI stopped them. "Hold on, I'm receiving an incoming transmission from the ship."
Both Miranda and Liara growled, "Let's hear it, EDI," they both said at the same time.
"Yes, ma'ams."
The mech stared off into space and her body automatically drifted to prop itself in the copilot's chair. The transmission was already audible before she took her seat.
"Attention, Normandy Crew!" Came a crackling, compressed, warped accent of a male quarian, causing everyone to look at each other in confusion. The transmission sounded again, clearer. "This is Rora'Zoraal! I come from Rannoch! I'm sorry to interrupt your current mission but quarian lives are at risk! Especially Miss Admiral Zorah's!"
"Tali's in trouble?!" Raan gasped.
"Please!" The transmission continued. "We are at risk of another war with the geth! I have something that might stop it from happening!"
"I bet it is a trap," Javik said. "The ship attacked us back at the gravesite, we might be being deceived by Chimera."
I sure hope not.
"Fair point," Liara said. "Joker, send an outgoing transmission."
The pilot clicked a button. "Mic's all yours."
"Mr. Zoraal, could you please patch a vid stream through your transmission to confirm?"
"–sure," the responding comm crackled. "Jus...me find it...Damn geth controls!"
A sound of clicking buttons ensued until an orange display lit up, showing a muddy colored old quarian man. "Ah, there we go!" He said, giving a slight wave to the camera. He reached into one of his pockets and pulled out a small cube. To which Raan spoke up.
"That's a geth's memory core."
"Admiral Raan!" The old man flinched, the compression in his voice suddenly gone. For some reason, Silont felt as if he knew this man from somewhere.
Still, how did he manage to retake the vessel? That would be Chimera would have had been to...to Rannoch!
"I, er," he began again, his voice changing back, "I didn't realize you were here!"
"It's good to meet you, Rora," Raan answered. "Please, come aboard and we will discuss what you have found." Silont noticed that Liara's and Miranda's eyes narrowed at that.
The old man seemed uneasy. He glanced at the cube in his hand, visibly thinking, and slowly nodded. "Alright. Tell Captain Shepard that I'm coming aboard."
The air tensed in the cockpit. Silont bit his tongue.
This is going to be quite a nasty shock for him.
"Extend your docking arm, we'll take it from there," Raan notified before asking EDI to cut the transmission. She looked to everyone else, noticing how they didn't seem to like her making the Normandy's orders. To which she sighed and ignored, looking to Joker.
"Notify our allies to keep a careful watch."
"Uh, ma'am, we have an incoming call coming from Xen."
"Ignore it. Silont, ready your weapon, we need to make sure this isn't a trap. If Rora does come through that airlock, I want you to secure the ship behind him to make sure we don't have any nasty surprises."
"Yes, admiral," Silont answered, relieved that he finally had something to do. He grabbed the pistol on his side and activated it, its components extending outwards within his grip.
The crew watched as Dyad's vessel came closer by the bridge, its arm extended and ready to dock. Joker, with the help of EDI, shifted closer, slowly receiving the arm. Everyone felt a little tense as they kept their eyes attached to the door, those with weapons had them raised, while the biotics made themselves known by extending their glowing hands.
Soon enough, the door opened, and the old quarian man indeed came through. Per Raan's orders, he swept around the man swiftly and went into the ship, leaving the crew to secure their visitor. He could hear Rora gasp at the sight of the weapons pointed at him, and a relieved sigh when most of them clicked into deactivation. Silont kept his eyes peering into the darkness, reconcentrating on his task at hand. At the same time, he couldn't help but look around and feel the pang of guilt in his gut, confirming that the vessel was indeed Dyad's.
He remembered helping the purple geth find one that suited him most for the mission. Raan had made a selection and allowed them to pick one from what they had available while he was still stuck in the hospital bed. He remembered Dyad was fairly keen on this particular one.
He swept the empty ship thoroughly, it was only dust. No trace of trouble could be found. Nothing was in the lower deck, nothing was in the cockpit. The center terminal behind it wasn't broadcasting anything or receiving any messages. Everything was clean, and he was giving up hope on finding any clues about Dyad. He gave another depressive sigh and turned back around to the exit. He was about to leave when he heard some kind of electrical buzz.
He turned around and looked up. There was a hole in the roof, sparks shorting out and dropping a few at a time, with large intervals in between. He cringed as it gave him a flashback of his fight with Chimera. He focused again at the hole, realizing that it was in some kind of module. He holstered his pistol and climbed on top of the circular terminal, obstructing its holograms. When he got closer, he noticed the wires that led away into some unknown region of the ship. He followed them to a panel. Under closer investigation, Silont found that the module connected to a control console for the ship. The module was a connection node, a hub for where geth could connect.
So why is there a bullet hole in there? That could only mean that someone didn't want the geth to connect.
His eyes narrowed. Just who exactly just came aboard the Normandy? Why did they have Dyad's ship? How did they have Dyad's ship? Where is Dyad?
He wanted answers.
He left the sparks behind and went back through the airlock to the cockpit, everybody suddenly missing. He looked to Joker to catch him tapping on the control panel with his first fingers and making low, bass noises with his mouth as if he was playing the drums.
"Where'd everyone go?"
Joker jumped slightly, raising his hand to his neck to cover his embarrassment. "Ah! They're in the, ah...the war room."
"Thanks," was all he said before he bolted back down the bridge at an eager walking pace. Something was really suspicious about the man they brought on board, and he had a few choice questions for him. He passed by the scanning room and the board room and nearly barged straight into the meeting.
"-who are you?"
"Unit Dyad. I've tracked your signal and came to...spread the word."
"Me? Word? What word, Unit–?"
Silont stopped dead in his tracks at the name. Everyone was standing there, listening to an audio recording that played from Rora's omni-tool.
"Yes, Unit Dyad," a voice now growled. "I appreciate you sharing this, I will be sure to rendezvous with you later."
The audio cut, everyone glanced at each other. Raan stood close by the old man, deep in thought. "And you say he attacked you right afterward?"
"Yes, I have his entire memory log in here. You can check everything for yourself."
EDI's robotic voice sounded, to which Rora nearly jumped out of his suit. "I can read it and give a detailed report in less than a few seconds. Please, insert it into the War Terminal."
"Uh, sure," replied the old man. He produced the memory core in his hand and connected it to the center display. Everyone's eyes looked to the holograms, except for Silont, who kept his eyes on their guest. Even if he wasn't shady at the moment, he couldn't help but try to put a finger on where this man could have come from. Engrossed, he opened up his omni-tool, looking for one of the many applications that helped him on his missions. He found what he was looking for, a record of all the quarian lives that have been recorded in the Migrant Fleet as well as on Rannoch. He input the name of the man and sent it through a searching process.
Meanwhile, EDI had just finished her report and directed everyone to look towards the holograms. Within it, a visual feed had made its way into the floating pixels of light. Silont stopped dead when he noticed the frame of Dyad sporting a red eye. He was in a doorway of someplace, looking straight into the camera.
"Me? Word? What word, Unit-?"
Dyad's arm lifted up to the side of the screen, which shuddered to black. Text had appeared.
1933 - Creators return to Rannoch. Unit Drove nonfunctional. Mentor. Drove back threat before receiving shot in the photoreceptor.
1971 - Skirmish on Haestrom. Unit Gilia nonfunctional. Unit Eight-Four nonfunctional. Unit Collect nonfunctional. High social values. Incinerated by a creator bomb.
2017 - Perseus Veil dogfight. Unit Begin nonfunctional. Shared social values with Unit Eight-Four. Crushed by an asteroid, creator influence.
2020 - Unknown location. Unit Micro nonfunctional. Highest social value in the given time. Executed by the creators on a live stream.
Many more similar reports were given. All except for the last two.
2186 - Memory purge. Creator obstruction.
2187 - Memory restoration. Unit Dyad. Retake Rannoch. Return to-
Numbers followed...coordinates.
"That doesn't make sense!" Raan cried. "We haven't had contact at all with the geth in those years!"
EDI spoke again. "There is no record of these events ever happening. It appears that Dyad had injected false memory logs into Randy's memory core."
Silont sputtered. "We don't know that! Why would Dyad want to ever do that?!"
"Unknown. Chimera may have found a way to use false memories to predict behavior and used them for their own nefarious purposes. Then instructed Dyad to, 'spread the word,' to other geth. In this case, it is to retake Rannoch and go to wherever these coordinates lead."
"So this Dyad is on Rannoch right now to turn the geth against us?!" Rora confirmed. "By the Ancestors, Dammit! I knew this! Why did I leave? Where the hell is Shepard?!"
"I'll have you know that we would like to know the very same thing!" Liara spouted, unleashing her bottled frustration to which Rora looked to her in a confused glare. "He's been captured! Along with Miss Admiral Zorah and our friend Garrus! We've been searching for them this whole time!"
"Tali?! And you didn't bother to tell me this before now?!" He fumed, strolling straight up to her, his anger was quiet and hot. "Tali is captured by terrorists? Do you have any leads? Anything to help us so we can go back and stop this bosh'tet?!"
Silont's own anger flared. "We've been trying! And what are you going to do? Kill my partner?!"
The old man zipped around and met him face to face. "Partner? I'm sorry, Silont, but that partner turned my friend against me! I'm willing to put a bullet in his damned eyeball!"
Silont was about to retaliate but was caught off guard by his name being dropped. He was about to ask, but not before an internal rumbling echo of a voice boomed behind them, immediately shutting them up. "Will you dumbasses stop arguing and focus on the important thing?" A turian shouted. Silont looked and realized it was Solana, Garrus's sister. Her father looked worried of her as she pointed back at the screen, where the numbers were. "We have coordinates! That's a lead! That's where we'll find out where my brother is! Now let's stop chatting and start going!"
"Hell yeah!" Came Grunt and Wrex.
"But what about Rannoch? Our world is under threat! Again!" Rora bit.
Raan sighed, drawing the attention to her. She turned and spoke to EDI. "Send a message out to Gerrel and Koris. Tell them to not trust the geth. Give them the evidence."
"Yes, ma'am."
Raan slinked to her elbows on top of the War Terminal, her mask glowing from the reflections of the holograms, her eyes dim. With another sigh, she tapped a button and the numbers fed through the ship to the cockpit, notifying Joker and the rest of their allies of their next destination.
"Let's go find our friends and take down some terrorists."
Silont bit his cheek in anticipation and headed towards the exit of the war room again. "I'll go fly Dyad's ship."
He had enough of their visitor. Something about him was familiarly annoying. He thought more about it as he passed by the airlock and slipped into the cockpit. As he disconnected the ship and began to move away, Silont's omni-tool pinged and he looked at the application on his arm. The search was complete. There was no record of the man that they had on the Normandy.
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