Tali clung tightly to John, trying to hide the trembling of her body as the stress hormones still coursed through her veins.
"K-keelah...when I saw Ashley I thought for a moment that...I thought that - "
"Shhh." He rested his head upon her shoulder. "I'm alright."
They stayed like that for a moment that Tali wished could last longer, but the fear of their situation stayed present in the back of her mind, etching her on to get moving. Just a second before she would have done so herself, John pulled back and looked her in the eyes; he was all Commander Shepard again.
"We cannot think about Ashley now. We need to get out of here."
She nodded and pulled back hastily, then stepped around the chair and knelt down to take a look at John's shackles. It was simple metal; nothing she wouldn't have open in a couple of seconds. Finding calm in the familiar motions, she quickly grabbed her multitool from her belt and started cutting.
"It's damn good to see you. What's the plan?" John asked as she was about to open the first one.
Tali didn't look up when she answered. "I, uh, don't precisely know, actually. I just told Garrus to distract them for me..." She shrugged and bent open the cut shackle with a grunt.
Pulling out his hand, John exhaled sharply. "So you're really down here all alone? I was wondering how you knew about Ash."
Tali nodded, keeping her focus on the second shackle. "I let Garrus take Liara to the shuttle without me. He was pretty angry with me...I think he was wishing he'd get to stay."
"Well, either way one of you would've been disregarding my orders. But I'm glad you did."
Tali cracked a tiny smile of relief inside her helmet; she had been telling herself that he would see it this way, even scolding herself for even being worried, but hearing it from him was much better.
John mumbled to himself. "What on earth is Garrus doing out there? It sounds like there's an entire platoon with him."
The second shackle came off and Tali stood up; John tried the same, but was having visible trouble with it. His movements were stiff, and the first attempt failed. She stepped in to help, but he had already had managed himself – on his right leg, the left one hanging almost limp. She hurried to support him.
"What happened to you!?"
John looked around, then to the ceiling. " Got shot. It's only a flesh wound, but the hamstrings are wasted, and I think the quadrice-" He stopped himself. "Basically, I won't be able to walk very well." His finger pointed to the ceiling, where he had apparently noticed the duct she had come from. "Or jump."
"Frekk. Well, I guess we could..."
He grinned. "Tali, don't overthink it. Just get in there."
Tali looked at him puzzled, then shrugged and took 2 steps of runup before jumping. Swinging as she was, it wasn't entirely easy to pull herself up and into he duct, but she managed. Having done so, she arduously turned around in the tight confines and looked down at John. She groaned and palmed her faceplate when she saw him smirk up at her.
"The chair...good idea. Yes."
If John had any teases on his tongue, he decided to withhold them. He put his good leg on the chair he had placed underneath the hatch and stepped up high enough to comfortably put his elbows inside the duct. A couple moments and some strained grunts later, he was inside and looking at her.
"Alright, lead the way. We should hurry."
Tali nodded and, after another round of awkward contortion, she had turned around and got going. She was crawling on all fours now in order to be quick; with the commotion outside, she wasn't as concerned about noise as she had been earlier. A memory flashed through her mind, she and Han playing on the floor when they had been children. She slapped the absurdly inappropriate thought away. Behind her, John was keeping up well, even though he was dragging his left leg behind him and hopping on his right one.
He is a machine, she thought, not for the first time impressed with Shepard's physical excellence.
With her knowing the way this time and them not trying particularly hard to be quiet, it took a mere seven minutes until they reached the control room. The loosely attached hatch came off with a simple push and Tali turned to reach to the edge a handwidth above the exit. From there, she let herself down gently. John followed not nearly as elegant, losing his balance as he tried to catch himself with merely the right foot and when he instinctively shot out the left one, it collapsed under his weight. Tali quickly stepped in to save him from falling, earning herself a thankful look. Supporting John on her shoulder, she began dragging him towards the sewage hatch.
"Where does that lead?"
The quarian cringed. "You'll see. You might wanna...brace yourself."
She opened it and while Tali, having preemptively disabled her olfactory filters again, was spared the stench, John was not so lucky. For a moment it looked like he was actually going to retch; but he caught himself as quickly as he always did.
"Jesus Christ...I guess now I know why you didn't bring your realk."
She nodded empathetically and put a hand on the ladder. "Can you...-"
"I'll manage." He interrupted. "Let's go!"
She obliged and began climbing down the ladder, looking up to see how John would fare. He did pretty well all things considered, lowering himself down with his arms before taking a hold with his right foot and then sliding his hands down the rails to do it again. They arrived at the bottom in seconds.
So far, so good.
Tali turned her head around to John, her body already halfway in the sewage pipe.
"Okay...you won't be able to see in there, but there aren't any paths branching off. It's just straight ahead. And, uhm...try not to touch the bottom of the pipe, it's full of shit."
She said that last part with a pitying look at John's naked hands. He grimaced and got down on his right knee to follow her inside. "Thanks for the tip."
Tali turned and got going; a moment later, a splashing sound and a grumbled curse indicated that Shepard had not,in fact, managed to stay clear of the bottom.
"One thing," , he grunted, the effort clear to hear in his voice. "You got any idea if it's night or day out there?"
She checked her display. "It, uh...it should be dawning right about now."
Miranda crouched behind Vakarian as they slowly made their way through the undergrowth. The Turian had assumed the leadership position as if it was self explanatory, and she hadn't seen a point in making a fuss about it. If he ended up doing something stupid, she could still start and argue with him.
They were about two hundred meters from the target building; in this environment, that might as well have been two miles, even if it hadn't been almost completely dark – only the uppermost edge of the sun had crept above the horizon so far, and down here below the trees and all the other thick vegetation, very little of it's light reached yet.
This meant that their chances of finding Shepard and Zorah by simply keeping their eyes open were essentially zero, and with the noise of the firefight close by they probably wouldn't hear them either. So they sat and waited for the Quarian to contact Vakarian. Their position was looking, or would have been if the view hadn't been obstructed, at the back of the hall; it was the only reasonable direction Zorah and Shepard could be taking. A fact their enemies would definitely understand as well as soon as they found out that their prize had escaped. If he had escaped, that was. The Quarian hadn't made a sound so far, and the engagement had already lasted the better part of half an hour. Miranda hadn't said anything yet, but if she didn't contact Vakarian soon, she saw little alternative but to try and infiltrate themselves. She could that see the Turian had to be thinking along similar lines, his mandibles twitching with visible nervousness.
She listened in to the comm chatter of Jacob's corsairs, as she had done a number of times by now.
"Left side, left side! Four, no, five! They've got an Asa-"
"Cover fire on three!"
"Enemy sniper in the second window from the le-"
"..two, three!"
A machine gun started firing off a furious barrage of long bursts. Miranda furrowed her brow; what she was hearing sounded increasingly frantic. She used her special code to speak to Jacob directly.
"Jacob, report!"
"- to the back! Lee, cover him!I- Dammit! Get to it, now!" A crack in her earpiece, then his voice came through a little clearer, the sounds of battle and the shouts of the men somewhat muffled now.
"The enemy has reformed and is starting to bring their numbers to bear! Only one KIA so far, but casualties are mounting! We'll give you as long as we can, but if we have to hold this position, that'll only be a couple more minutes before we start dying!Over!"
Miranda cursed. They were running out of time. She put a hand on Vakarians shoulder.
"Taylor's men can't hold out much longer. We need to-"
The Turian motioned her to stop, and she cut herself off.
"Yes, I'm here!" He flicked a finger, and what he'd been listening to was put on speaker.
"...got Shepard. We're south of the -"
The slightly synthesized voice that had to be Zorah's was cut off by gunfire erupting both from the connection and somewhere up ahead between them and the warehouse. Vakarian cursed and lunged forward; Miranda brought up her SMG and followed after him, preparing to unleash her biotics. She did her best to continue to follow Vakarian's comms as she ran.
" - are you!?"
"Running...outh! From...sewage!"
The Turian growled as he hurried forward, barely audible over the gunfire.