Chapter 10: Spectral
Samantha Shepard could read terrain better than just about anyone, Ash had ever met. She knew Shepard got busted up pretty bad once on an N7 mission that went real sour real fast and she found her way out alone and on foot through enemy territory without getting spotted. To this day no one knew how she did it.
Of course Shepard was always turning impossible situations into the possible. And no one expected her to win as she had time and again. But they should have.
Underestimating the Commander proved to be the downfall of those that did so. Maybe that was part of the magic that was Shepard; constantly being underestimated allowed the Commander to perform the remarkable feats and defy the odds as much as she did.
Corporal Jarvis Tykhaa approached the camp. "The siege goes well, Sergeant. With our barrage the shield should be down in three standard weeks.
Sergeant Drew Gaider sighed at the young turian, "But we're been here a week already!"
"Yes sir." the Corporal grinned. "Right on schedule."
Gaider snorted and pulled back under the eaves of the ruins out of the rain. Three more weeks of this damp, slime infested mud hole wasn't something he was looking forward to. God hadn't only forsaken this place, He had damned it too. Three more weeks! Well that was his duty, wasn't it-go where the mission commends it. Their food was low and their camp was nearly flooded out. Three more weeks…
Just as Gaider was pulling himself into a full brood, Shepard came striding in with a small bag hung over her shoulder. She plunked the sack down upon a slab of stone they had been using as a table.
"What's that?" Gaider looked at the lumpy pack.
Shepard shrugged playfully "Lunch." She opened the sack to reveal a half-a-dozen dead spiders. The size of the spiders was important to note as they were as large as turian's hand. She handed two to Gaider and took two for herself, the remaining two was left for their asari companion Huntress Des'zahn T'Kosh. "Fried them with biotics, so dig in."
Gaider knew far better than to complain about the food. He was a marine and as such he had undergone extreme survival training on Heart-Break Ridge. A part of such training had instilled upon all marines: you eat whatever you can find if necessary. His forebrain said: 'Taste is irrelevant to survival when it comes down to it. When it came down to it, if you had to boil and pour your own urine through the purifying strainers in your canteen because no drinking water is to be had, well that was what you did.' His hindbrain said: 'eww' followed by 'ug!'
Des'zahn, who had been long given up the idea of sleep, woke from her meditations and saw the humans prying open the carapace of massive spiders with their knives and eating the meat within with the expression of one who was hungry but didn't care for what was being served.
As a Huntress Des'zahn had the equivalent survival training and dug into the spiders, ate them without tasting them. "May I ask where did you find our meal?"
"From the enemy camp." Shepard said nonchalantly.
"What!" Gaider choked on his bit of spider. "El-Tee you were there? How did you get in? What were you doing?" Gaider almost shouted before he reminded himself of his rank.
"My job Sergeant," Shepard bit into a bit of spider flesh, then with the tip of her K-Bar tapped the N7 insignia on her hardsuit. "Or did this escape you?"
"How did you penetrate the shield, El-Tee?" Des'zahn was curious. Her blue head cocked to the side. Asari huntresses were trained in infiltration and sabotage and could easily accomplish such a feat but humans were not known for their subtlety. But then Shepard was the first N7 the huntress had ever encountered. And she was beginning to appreciate the distinction. Of course Shepard was the Hero of Elysium. She had stood alone against an entire platoon of raiders while the survivors of the made it to safety in underground bunkers. That had marked the first day of the Skillian Blitz.
The sack which Shepard used to carry the dead spiders was no sack but a map drawn on a scrap of leather. Where she found such a scrap no one asked. "I found this ancient sewer. It goes right under the old city." The N7 pointed at the entrance to the sewers and smirked.
That smirk, Des'zahn had grown to understand meant that the human Lieutenant had an idea that went right outside the box of conventional thought even for an asari commando.
Gaider knew his CO well and knew exactly what that smirk meant too. "So I assume our plan is to crawl through the sewer, work our way through to the shield generator, fight our way through the defenses, blow up the generator, knock out the shield and allow all our troops to overwhelm the enemy."
Finishing her last spider, Shepard cast aside the carcass of the insect and nodded. "Yep. It's simple, easy to remember, I like it. Let's go."
Ash sat nursing her eleventh tumbler of twelve year old scotch. She had been listing to the story being retold by two of the participants for their guests for the past half hour. Half believing it- half believing it was too far fetched even knowing the Commander as she did. But that was an N7 for you; Ash thought - they lived the impossible every day. They trained for it.
Captain Des'zahn T'Kosh asari Huntress, Lieutenants Drew Gaider and Jarvis Tykhaa had been part of a joint task force set upon to seize a stronghold of one of the pirate syndicates aligned with those who orchestrated the attack on Elysium and initiated the Skillian Blitz. Leading the squad back then was the newly minted N7 Lieutenant Samantha Shepard.
"So what happened next?" Wobgnots—a young salarian female asked of her bondmate.
"Oh we got inside alright… It was not pleasant but it was effective. If I didn't know better I'd say Shepard was a huntress in human skin."
"I think you're biased." Gaider chided his asari friend. "She's human."
"Some say she's become more asari because of that soul-bond thing she has with her bondmate." Wobgnots said with a shrug.
"Maybe. But she wasn't back then." Gaider said. "She was all human just like me." He lifted his beer and toasted the others at the table.
"You got all the exciting bits, I was stuck back at camp if you remember, trying to break past the damned shield generators the pirates took off the salarians." the speaker was Jarvis.
Ash wanted to know as well, though she dare not voice her desires Instead she ordered another drink sat back and listened. The narrative was picked up not by Lt. Gaider but by the huntress Des'zahn.
"What a wretched stink." Des'zahn raised her arm to the level of her nose.
"It doesn't get any better." Shepard said. "But lemons will take the stink out of you."
"I beg your pardon?" if she had eyebrows the asari's would have shot up to her crest-line.
Smells of the sewers overlaid one another until it became a mass thickness going back in time.
"Takes out the stench of almost anything from the pores. We used it after being gooped by dead thresher maw guts from that clean up on Akuze." Gaider said. He didn't say they got there too late to be of any help. By the time Shepard's team landed all the Alliance soldiers were dead or MIA. It turned out that the distress call the second team answered was a lure-bait. Unfortunately the team under the command of Corporal Toombs was gone and the maws were mostly dead with only a distress call left in the wake. Until Shepard and her crew found Toombs a couple of years later, the Alliance had believed all hands were lost on Akuze. No survivors.
"I thought I'd never get that stink off of me. We had to trash our uniforms but at least the hardsuits could be sterilized and cleaned. But Good Lord you'd never get that stick out of the nose."
The stink of that worm was a strange, malignant, decayed-rotten meat that had became transmuted in that which was the thresher maw. It was a strange odor that lay across the nose like a saw blade on a harp. It was like its host; strange, ubiquitous and hellishly difficult to forget.
The path the three had taken down the slimy filled foul water or water like liquid became blocked by rubble from who knew how many centuries past. "So what now, El-Tee?" Gaider was afraid of the answer.
Shepard flashed a smirk. "We swim," she said nothing more but activated the helmet of her hardsuit which would have its own environmental rebreather and dove into the water.
"I just knew she was going to say that." Gaider groaned activating his own helmet and dove into the water. He was quickly followed by an asari huntress.
The three of them came up out of the black oily sludge. Further along the main tunnel, there were more passages branching off. On either side, rivers of mud like cool lava were already flowing out of them. The three-person squad splashed past tunnels that were better built here than the sections near the sewers' entrance. And there at the end of it was a pale light.
A manhole cover.
Silently Shepard used her biotics to lift the heavy iron covering. This is where the 'fight our way through the defenses before they blew up the generator,' took place. Under his helmet Gaider sucked in a deep breath, stealing his nerves, readying to attack. Just as he was to move into point position he was halted by Shepard's hand.
"Hold position, Gaider." The Lieutenant ordered. "There are other alternatives to out right battle. I know you're infantry, but this calls for N7 thinking." From inside her utility belt the Spectre collected a handful of little silver spheres that looked very much like ball bearings.
The young Sargent felt as if once more his commanding officer was imparting knowledge of the N7's own experiences onto him. Gaider didn't feel chastised but granted a rare insight. Whenever Shepard began mentoring him, Gaider was keen devour any knowledge he was given. There was no insult comparing the infantry to the N7s. Like the mysterious-shadowy Spectres they were specially trained for tactics and reconnaissance. When you wanted a very difficult job done, done very quietly you sent in the N7s. They thought, acted and carried out their duties on a whole different level than your typical infantry solider.
"Incoming" Shepard hissed from inside her helmet.
At once the three dropped from the ladder back into the sludge that pretended to be water just as the two dozen little spheres exploded.
"And that was that." Des'zahn drained her glass.
"Yep. We brought the whole damned thing down. After the evacuation the Alliance decided to fast-track Shepard to Commander—a couple of years after that she's commanding the Normandy and saving us from some crazy assed turian and his geth minions."
"Don't forget the Reaper ship." Jarvis added.
"Do you think there is any truth to what Commander Shepard said about it being a sentient machine and they're coming back from dark space to wipe us all out or 'harvest us?" Wobgnots asked.
"I do." Des'zahn answered. "But why not ask that human. She's been listening to our conversation all night." The assai smirked and lifted her glass towards the woman. "Williams right? You served with Shepard didn't you?"
Ash tried to focus enough to wander over to the table where the four were sitting and taking one of the vacant chairs
"Yeah I served with her." Williams said. "I was the 2IC of the flagship ground team."
"Wait I thought you were the XO of the Normandy?" Jarvis said, trying to wrack his brain for the details. The Normandy crew after all were galactically famous for what they did at the Battle of the Citadel.
"I was, but Alliance regs say a ship's Captain and the XO cannot be off the ship during ground missions at the same time. One of us must always be on deck. So I requested to be her ground team's 2IC."
Des'zahn shook her head. "Truly? Then after she went into the Terminus Systems I suppose she decided not follow those regulations because I happened to know Garrus Vakarian fights at her side quite often and he is XO is he not?"
Williams nodded yet again. "Yeah well, she's a Spectre. Regs don't apply to her anymore." She downed her drink in one noisy gulp which was swiftly refilled by the huntress with something which was distinctly not Kentucky bourbon
"Strange she never came across to me as a person who would abandon such things as obeying the rules and regulations of your military."
"Most of the time she doesn't." Williams sniffed the blue alcohol, dubiously quirked a 'what the hell' eyebrow and then sipped it. She immediately went into a coughing fit as the heady liquor hit the back of her throat like a wrecking ball. "What is this?"
"Serrice Iced Brandy." Des'zahn smiled. "A finer alcohol than whatever swill you were downing."
"Be careful." the salarian advised. "It packs quite the punch."
"It wasn't swill, it was twelve year old whisky." Ash argued. Then took another drink. Truth be told the alien blue booze was a damned sight tastier than the stuff she had been downing.
"Twelve years? Is that at all? What you're drinking now is fifty year old brandy." the asari bragged.
Wobgnots shook her head. "Not all races have the luxury of such a long life span dear." she patted her bondmate on the hand.
"I have a question for you, Ell-Tee." This came from Gaider. "Shepard didn't really join up with Cerberus did she?"
"How could she?" Wobgnots shook her head once more answering for Williams. "Most of her command staff are non-humans, her Trusted is a turian, she's married to an asari and the way I hear it they are expecting kids. And...T'Soni's Trusted is a quarian. Who happens to be Shepard's Chief Engineer. And on top of that I saw her with krogan and drell bodyguards when she was on Nos Austra, a few months ago. And she travels with a Justicar. I may not know a lot about the asari Justicars but I know they'd never ally themselves with racist fascist criminals like Cerberus"
"I have to agree with you babe." Des'zahn nodded. "It cannot be true. She's playing some sort of game with them. Using them to get close and then she'll pop that Illusive Man right in the head."
"Maybe. Or maybe she's tired of no one listening to her about this Reaper thing." Jarvis suggested. "So she joins up with a bunch of assholes who will give her all kinds of resources and bodies to throw at her space-machine-bugs. The Council sure as hell didn't pay her warnings any heed, despite they nearly died because of one."
"I don't know about that. I think the Council did take her seriously but they simply cannot publicly do so. Because they already denied her. Why else would they sanction the building of all those underground Vaults on so many different worlds? Not to mention signing off on Gina Garson's pet project. The Andromeda Initiative has already shipped out. They have to be out of the Milky Way by now." Des'zahn offered. "Arks and Vaults...yeah they believed her."
"Yeah well if the Reapers are in dark space just waiting to pounce you'd think that four massive arks and a mobile space station modelled after the Citadel would draw their attention."
"Maybe they did, maybe the Initiative is wiped out or will end up in Andromeda in a hell of a mess. Nothing to do about it now. That is six hundred years not our problem. But dark space is pretty vast maybe the AI slips though and makes it to the other side. And the Nexus and the four arks make a new home in Andromeda and the Reapers will be six hundred years not their problem." Des'Zahn said.
"You're awfully quiet Williams." Gaider commented. "Nothing to add? You have to have an opinion on all of this."
It was something that constantly cropped up in Ashley's mind. After the events of Horizon, the countless meetings with Admiral Mikhailovich and Captain Channing that fracking shrink all up in her face about Shepard being unfit for duty. Mikhailovich attests that Shepard had all but rejected the Alliance and devoted herself to the aliens. To this Williams could not truly deny. The first time she had rejected Alliance command was when she told Mikhailovich that he could not board the Normandy because though it was Alliance, it was not under his command because technically it belonged to the Council. If he wanted to board the ship he had to gain authorization from them first. As for Shepard she too was not part of his command anymore than the Normandy was.
Mikhailovich had called it sophistry, and he doubted her loyalty to the Alliance to Earth. Ash called it outright insubordination yet Shepard had gotten away with it because she was a Spectre. Mikhailovich asserted that that he had no idea what her blood color was any more. He doubted she even knew. And there were days Ash believed it as well. The Gestalt had changed the Commander in so many ways. Was she still truly… human?
Channing had convinced Ash that the Commander's mind was not fully her own either, that it had been contaminated by the Gestalt and by the Prothean Devices. Even the Commander had some doubts that she was alone in her mind. Well because of the Soul Bond she was never alone in her mind. Commander Shepard was not the woman from those stories.
Channing had a fairly valid point. When no one believed in your dire warnings that the creatures from the depths of hell or in this case dark space are utterly ignored who then do you turn to?
That was the question that plagued Ash's mind even now. She knew this alliance Shepard had established with Cerberus was a ruse to root out their Project Bases. And indeed it had given them the Minuteman Base location. A base according to Shepard's Intel was said to be where TIM was located. It was something Councillor Anderson wasn't going to let slip through his fingers.
Indeed, Anderson led a joint team of humans and turians to infiltrate the base and they had in-fact nearly killed the Illusive Man before he and his henchman (some guy with a sword) escaped. Of course there was another factor, something to do with upgrading super soldiers into biotic gods; the first victim from Minuteman had been some guy named Grayson. Grayson was also the father to a biotic-girl from Grissom Academy who fled to the Quarian Migrant Fleet. Apparently Grayson had turned on TIM to save his kid and in retaliation TIM had abducted Grayson and started to experiment with eezo and Reaper Tech stolen from Sovereign's 'corpse'. That was when it all went to hell.
Ash didn't know any more than that but Mikhailovich railed against the attack, he was thoroughly convinced that it was Shepard that set Anderson up. Shepard had to have known about Grayson, the Reaper Tech, the guy with the sword, all of it and Anderson would have died valiantly on the base along with his joint team. Ash couldn't dispute it all looked rather suspicious.
When does the long-con become the truth to the one playing it? With Cerberus, Shepard had the creds, the tech, the warm-bodies to fight alongside her; they had even made the Normandy SR2. More importantly Cerberus believed in Shepard's warnings of the Collectors and the Reapers and was willing to outwardly act. Why wouldn't the Commander join them?
Ash knew what it was not to have people believe in you, being a Williams in the military...by now she should have been a Lieutenant Commander. The only reason was a Lieutenant now was because Shepard had pinned the damned insignia on her chest. It had been one of the proudest days of Ash's life.
"Yeah I have 'em and I don't see that it matters." She tinkled her empty glass back and forth like a bell indicating that she might spill her thoughts if someone would fill it for her.
Des'zahn obliged and waited. They all did. But even with a new drink in hand Williams remained silent or at least on the matter of her opinions concerning Shepard's tie with Cerberus. "You said you served with Shepard during some co-op team during the Blitz?" Williams snorted "Strange you don't hear a lot about things like that."
"No? It was experimental. Proof of Concept. And if it weren't for programs like that the joint effort between our governments to build the Normandy SR1 would never have happened." Jarvis said
Huntress Des'zahn nodded, "That wasn't the only thing to come out of that joint effort. The Alliance created the Valkyrie Program to work alongside asari Huntresses. My aunt Nisira T'Kosh commands a commando unit called Talein's Daughters that took part of the Valkyrie program. Last I heard she had an extremely talented human in her unit. Or she did for the past four years. Don't know if Harper is still with the team or not."
"If I were a biotic I'd want to be on unit like that. Be friggin hot!" Gaider smiled.
Des'zahn all but rolled her eyes.
"There is a reason it's called Valkyries." Jarvis chided. "No males allowed. All female warriors. It's straight out of your mythology. "
"Bit sexist, in'it? No guys allowed." Gaider frowned
"Not at all." Des'zahn answered candidly. "We've found if males well of any species were allowed to join asari commandos they became far too distracted. And they're not a good fit with the concept. And of course the humans who work with the Valkyries must be carefully screened to insure compatibility with not only fighting alongside asari but taking orders from us as well. And of course all humans must be very proficient biotics."
"Oh I don't think we're very compatible, Des,"
"That's because you know she's married." Jarvis teased the human.
Ash looked at the female salarian and back to the huntress. "I didn't think salarians did the whole marriage thing. That you people were all about breeding contracts."
The massive dark almond shaped eyes blinked rapidly. "I'm not like most salarians. And not all of us just accept the status quo because it's the way of tradition. Yes I have a bondmate. And I'm not the only salarian that feels this way. My brother is bond to one as well, and he has a stepdaughter that calls him…Dad. And her father was also a salarian, of course that was a little over a hundred years ago. Still it's a bit raciest to lump all salarians into we-just-want- to-breed category. Many of us want more than just to be progenitors of a clutch. " Her dark eyes went to her bondmate with true affection reflected in them.
Ash couldn't fathom it. Salarians were one of the shortest lived sentient species in the galaxy. How could she be married to one of the longest? It didn't make any sense. They'd what have maybe five—six years together, then what? The asari goes off and finds another mate after the salarian kicks off? Probably it was how their kind worked. Though if Shepard passed on, would Liara do the same or would she die along side the Skipper because of that whole gestalt?
"So you all still serve together?" Ash questioned changing the subject. She looking from one soldier to the other. For they were that, soldiers, there was no mistaking that.
"Yes, but not in the way you think." Des'Zahn said. "We belong to a merc guild called the Razors' Gambit."
"Razor's Gambit. Never heard of it." Ash said.
"Tactful this one." Jarvis jested.
"No we're not big. Not like the Eclipse, Blood Pack or the Blue Suns, or even the Talons but we don't need to be. Sometimes smaller is better—just like a razor's edge." said Gaider.
"We're more like a strike team." Said Des'Zhan. "Like the one that hit the pirate's main fortress back during the Blitz. We've been together since then. It's why we're so effective."
Ash had little respect for hired guns. They were only loyal to their next paycheck and whoever was holding it. And after that whole thing with Liara, mercs were definitely not to be trusted. Almost automatically the Lieutenant's hand went to her hip to the butt of her pistol only to realize she wasn't carrying a side arm
"So here on a job or just on furlough?" Ash questioned. She had to get a feel for the situation. She already knew where the exits where and her odds of reaching them. The issue was she was shit-faced drunk and not so steady on her feet; the odds were not in her favour.
"Little of both. Down time between mission tasks. Why you so interested? Looking to join up?" Wobgnots asked, her massive eyes staring at Williams.
"Why you recruiting?"
"Maybe." Jarvis said. "But sorry just like males don't fit the whole Valkyrie Program, you wouldn't fit the Razors' Gambit."
"Too military?"
"Too much of a stick up your ass." A new voice came from behind Ash.
"Abby?" Ash spun around so fast her head spun making her want to vomit. She stared at her baby sister incredulously. "What the hell are you doing here?"
"As you can see we already have a Williams." Des'zahn smirked.
Ash turned to the asari and then back to her sister. "What the fuck are you doing here?" she asked again. No demanded.
"Sheeesh! I heard you the first time, Sis. Take a chill will'ya?" Abby sat down next to the older Williams.
"I can't believe you're a merc!"
"A merc yeah...that's a stretch ..." A hard stare from Ash had Abby shrugging. "More like a private independent army." the stare grew colder. "We work for one employer. She hired the Razors when she first set up shop and made us all hers. Exclusively."
"Hers?"
"Dr. Liara T'Soni. Prothean Expert cum a very good Information Broker." Abby grinned. "I think you've met."
"Indeed." Des'zahn said.
"Hard to say no to a hero of the Battle of the Citadel." Gaider added. "And she pays us well."
"She has her Shadows that do the lurking and harvesting of Intel—to find things and recover them. She has her Shades that quietly take out problematic personnel, up-front information brokers and...us. The heavy hitters." Jarvis's mandibles flared in a turian smile.
Ash turned back to her sister. Shadows—thieves and spies, Shades—assassins and the heavy hitters... "You're no soldier...you're not even military." the older woman's face twisted into a grimace.
"No, but if it's in your blood Sis, it's in mine. And when I was on the Victory I learned a lot. Mostly from the asari huntresses. And if you remember the science team beat the military team in those little war games you, Wrex and Garrus staged. And I'm learning a lot with my guys."
"Your guys." Ash scoffed.
"Yeah dumb-ass, my guys. And I don't have to be 'military' to fight, or do what I do. We all know what's coming. I am not going to just sit back in some hidey-hole lab in a Vault studying xeno-geology from other planets."
"That's what she does in her down time. For fun." teased Jarvis, he then placed a more than friendly hand on the younger Williams shoulder. The action earned him a glare from Ash.
"Oh...um...yeah and Jarvis...we're...well fuck it; we're together. Turns out kissing turians on the cheek ..." a slight giggle... "Isn't so bad."
"You...you're...with him?!" Ash waved at Jarvis.
Abby knew what burned in her sister's heart. "Shanxi was a long time ago Ash. Time you stop fighting that war. I did. Sara has. Hell she didn't want anything do to with the military after Grandpa and Dad and you, but then she went off and married a leatherneck. And Lynn well hell she likes the asari so much she actually got a job working as a greeter at the Consorts on the Citadel."
Ash paled. She had no idea! "Lynn became a...a...one of those!...Mom would never allow it! I won't! Lynn wouldn't be a..."
"Don't even think of saying the words 'space whore'. The Consorts are nothing like that. Lynn says there are more like old fashioned geisha than prostitutes. And she worked hard to just be a greeter. So don't go messing things up for her. Or for me.
"I'm happy with Jarvis. Really really happy. He makes my heart lighter and I do the same for him. He may be your new brother-in-law. We're still dancing around that. Mom likes him to that's a pulse. His Dad likes me, its Jarvis's Mom I have to worry about."
"Yeah she can be a bit old-fashioned. But she's military. She hates it I went with a merc crew rather than stay in service. And she's not so keen on humans." Jarvis shrugged indifferently.
Ash looked like she wanted to vomit. She did not disguise her disgust. A Williams with a ...skull face? Impossible! Grandfather had to be spinning in his grave, so would Dad. The very idea of it was abhorrent! Aliens could never be trusted even if you called them...friend.
"And I'm happy being with the Razors' Gambit." Abby pressed on, shaking her head. "I've never had issues with non-humans but you still do. Even after serving with Shepard on her flagship ground team, being her Maid-of-Honor at her wedding! I thought Tali, Garrus, Wrex and Liara, were your friends. Or where they just shipmates?
"And we're getting off track and the reason I made sure we took leave in this dive in this backwater colony.." she smirked. "Helps we have a mission here, but that's besides the point. I knew you'd come here. You, Dad, and Gramps all liked this joint. I never liked Benning." Abby looked around at the mostly human clientele. Most of who carried the look of old-world bikers and more than a few of them could stand to use a shower.
"Personally, I can't see the appeal. They might think its old-school and rustic charm to have sawdust and peanut shells on the floor but it's just ...uggh. At least the crappers are clean. You didn't completely toss out Nanna's sage advice about 'never eating anything bigger than your head, never eat at a place called Mom's and never play pool at a place called Pops..."
"And never drink at a place that doesn't keep their crappers clean.'" the two sisters said together.
Ash smiled at that last part. "Nanna was right about a lot of things. But in case you didn't read the sign out front. The joint's called. 'The last-stop watering hole'. And it's a saloon not a bar. And there are no half-dressed alien chicks shaking their blue asses on stage." she looked to Des'zahn. "No offence."
"I'm sure." came a droll response from the huntress.
"Way to make friends and influence people, Sis." Abby rolled her eyes.
Ash let out a sigh, "So why come to this dive as you call it looking for me?"
"Hon, get my rucksack would'ya?" Abby looked to the turian causing Ash to inwardly cringe upon seeing such easy affection between her baby sis and that...skull-face...okay since Garrus she had stopped thinking for the most part of the turians as skull faces but when he's all over her sister—he's a fucking skull face who has his grubby talons all over...uggg... her train of thought slipped when the turian returned carrying a heavy urban-patterned-camo-sack and handed it over.
"Thanks." Abby grinned and took the bag.
"No problem, Babe." he nuzzled her dark hair almost as if to flaunt his relationship with Abby and deliberately rub Ash's nose in it. Hell the last time her sister got face to face with a turian was in the mess hall of the Victory and that whole thing ended up in a brawl that got several more involved.
Shepard would have come down a hell of a lot harder if she hadn't allowed Abby to lie about the whole thing. The argument had everything to do with Shanxi and now...her sister was dating one 'em. It didn't make any sense.
"Give us a bit of privacy would guys?" Abby looked to the rest of her team. In a moment the others picked up their drinks and moved to another table.
"So...you gonna spill?" Ash said when they had gone out of earshot.
Abby reached into the sack and stopped. Sighed. And looked at her sister. "Sis, look, I know you and Shepard had some kind of falling out and that strained the friendship between the two...well three of you. And I know it has a lot to do with that whole trinity thing and the CS." The last word was said in barely more than a whisper. "I'll just say this—Liara and surely by now so does Shepard, they know about that Rear Admiral Michael-bitch or whatever the hell his name is. And that you've been getting real cozy with him. And they know about that so called shrink."
"So called? You mean Captain Channing?"
Abby shook her head. "She is no Captain at least not with the Alliance. She's not even with the Alliance and she is no shrink. Fuck the woman doesn't even exist."
Ash frowned "What are you talking about?"
"That woman-Channing? She was caught by the Spectre, Tala Vasir. Trying to smuggle out information on Shepard. Channing was there on orders of Cerberus, what they want with the info is hard to guess but I doubt it's as simple as blackmail. Or even just leverage. Liara believes it has everything to do with the Lazarus Project. She has every reason to believe that Rear Admiral Mikhailovich is also in league with Cerberus. Your association...Sis it doesn't look good."
Ash frowned. "Of course Liara would say that. Liara doesn't wish to see that her wife has turned her back on everything!"
With that outburst many heads turned and Abby let out a disgusted sound.
"Keep your bloody voice down." the younger Williams cautioned.
"Is that what this show-and-tell is for? Those stories about Shepard taking the fortress by undermining it? Was that some sort of parable? That going under the enemy lines she found way to destroy them? Those friends of yours weren't telling those stories to amuse each other; they were telling me weren't they?"
Abby nodded. "Liara is subtle and she believes you would comprehend the meaning behind the story."
"What is even real?"
"You have to ask?" Abby looked at her sister. "You know Shepard; you know what she is capable of. Des'Zahn and her team were telling the truth about what happened back then."
Ash found herself nodding in agreement. She knew Shepard was capable of almost anything. She was like Alice in Wonderland, conceiving and carrying out of six impossible things before breakfast.
"And Shepard hasn't turned her back on anything Sis. She is as loyal to the Alliance as you or I. And she is our best hope in defeating the Reapers."
"That's just it, isn't it? All hopes on one woman. Don't you see that's what the Reapers want? What Cerberus wants? All that power in one place? The CS was a warning sign and we are all fools if we don't heed it. Yes she is a keen strategist, able to survive where others would fall, but Abby she has been turned into a weapon against us. And the fact you ...now serve her wife...damn it...why did you do it?"
"You know why. Weren't you listening? After hearing all of this, knowing that Channing and Mikhailovich are with Cerberus you still accuse Shepard of being with them?"
"You said it yourself, Abby. Shepard took the enemies by undermining their base of operations; passing through the enemy lines. Just like she did when was trapped behind enemy lines during an N7 mission that went sour. No one knows how she found her way out alone and on foot especially how busted up she was. She will always find her way out alone from behind enemy lines."
"I don't get you. Before you were singing hymns to Shepard, one of her most ardent supporters. Why are you so angry with her and so swift to brand her traitor when the traitors were named? Are you angry because she left you behind or that she consciously defies conventionality?" Abby looked at her older sister hard and then it dawned on her. "I know you Ash. It's because she fell from that pedestal you constantly put her on and you haven't forgiven her for it have you? For being a mere mortal human. That's what it isn't it?"
Ash looked at her sister scathingly. She did not wish Abby's words were true, but in her heart of hearts they were true. All of it. And even if Channing was some Cerberus spy her words were no less true. Shepard was not as she was when she fought Saren or the woman that lead the siege and against the pirate horde or stood alone against an entire platoon on Elysium. She was marked by the Prothean Beacons; her mind...was not hers anymore. And those who did not see it were as blind as those who refused to listen to the Spectre's warning about the Reapers.
"Look my crew and I are going to have to call it a night. We have something we have to do tomorrow morning, so good night Sis. And…just watch yourself okay?" Abby rose and leaned in giving her sister a peck on the cheek before hoisting her rucksack onto her shoulders and wandering off to where her team were waiting for her.
Ash stared into the half drained tumbler of blue booze and threw it across the room, where it shattered into a dozen sparkling shards of glass silvers.
"HEY! The barman snapped. "You'll have to pay for that. You've had enough, get out."
"Yeah yeah." Ash rose wobbled over to the bar tossed the portly balding man behind the counter a credit chit and headed for the door. And paused, turned back and tossed the man another chit, "Call me a taxi will yah?"
He pocketed the second chit and gestured with his three chins towards a rectangular box near the door. "There's an automated phone on the wall. Use it yourself." He was still glowering.
Ash contemplated flipping the bird at the old man but couldn't be bothered. Besides he was right, she had had enough. And it wasn't just the booze that she had her fill of. Shepard, Miceal-bitch, Channing, Shepard, Liara her sister, oh yes and Shepard. Ash had had her damned fill of all of it. Fuck 'em all. In her blurry state Williams only half noticed that the bar's clientele had gone down significantly since the Razors left.
The five old-world bikers that still needed a shower had followed the Razors. Panic seized Williams thinking those rednecks would cause trouble for her sister and her alien buddies. Damn it and Ash was in no fit state to fight. Stumbling out into the parking lot, Ash was aghast to see the In-need-of –a-shower-bikers were…were…clasping hands with Skull-faced-would-brother-in-law-over-my-dead-body and her sister and all the other Razors like they were long time buddies. Squinting her eyes, Williams only now notices that In-need-of –a-shower-bikers were in fact wearing the colours not of a biker gang but of the Razor's Gambit.
"Well frack me, they're Razors." Ash murmured to no one in particular. "Well screw it then, screw Abby and her Skull-faced boy-toy and all that shit. I want to go to bed." Ash continued to mumble to herself. Stumbling back into the bar she raised her hand to stall any protests from Fats the barman and went to call her taxi.
ME~ME~ME~ME~ME~ME~ME
Abby had noticed her sister rushing from the bar as if to fly into a fight. The younger Williams smiled for the show bravado. Of course Ash would assume the worst in people and there was going to be trouble from what Abby had dubbed the 'hairy bikers'. But then of course Ash had no way of knowing the five burly guys were part of the Razors. She waved to Ash with the smile showing that she was okay and in no real danger.
"Your sister looks bad, she gonna be okay?" Gorden asked. He had freed his hand from Jarvis's talons as he looked to where Ash had been.
"She'll have one hell of a headache tomorrow, but she'll be fine. She gets like that sometimes. She blows off steam by finding it at the bottom of a bottle. And a place like that…" Abby pointed over her shoulder with her thumb, "she finds it fast."
"I can see the appeal." Gorden rosy cheeks bloomed with a smile.
Gorden always seemed to be the picture of Father Christmas after too many brandies. He even had the gut to match and his thick white beard which had yelled at the ends completed the picture. His husband didn't seem to mind the beard or the girth. Then again Mark thick black beard which he had woven into intricate plates was the poster boy of a Tolkien or Pratchett dwarf. He was even on the short side barely reaching four foot seven. Anyone stupid enough to call him Gorden's little elf got a broken nose for the bother.
"Yeah you would, Gorddy." Mark tugged his husband's beard. "Be better if they little more open to non-humans. Getting into a drinking contest with krogan is a good time."
"Only you…" Gorden scoffed. "And Shepard, I've seen her do it, drink a krogan under the table once when we were all still serving together."
"We biotics burn off the alcohol quickly, what can I say?" Mark prideful showed a flaw of dark energy.
"You can still kill your liver, a krogan well he has a few extra he can run through before he's in danger."
"Nag nag nag." The shorter man elbowed his lover in the gut before kissing him on the cheek, "One would think you took lessons from my mother."
"Which one?"
Mark chuckled. "My krogan one of course."
This earned the burly man a round of laughter from all the others.
"How did you get a krogan mother anyway?" This came from Abby. She still didn't know a lot about the individual members of the Razers. She only knew each of them had ties to each other either though battle, familiar relations or by some strange coincidence because their lives had been touched by Shepard.
"Pretty long story. The jest of it is my mother Zalena was running her crew on Omega, the Talons and ran into a busted up member of the Blood Pack. At first Mom's squad was going to finish the job but she put an end to that and took Gothal home with her. Patched her up and well things went from there. Mom was already pregers with me, don't know who my dad, is. Don't think my mom knows either. Just some guy she had a fling with. Don't care.
"Gothal was all the 'dad' I needed. She raised me pretty much the krogan way. Taught me how to fight, to carry myself, to survive. Being a short human well there are sorts of bullies out there, kids are the worst. But when your other mom is a krogan you stop being bullied very quickly." He laughed. "I got real good at head-butting. Even took my 'rites of passage' on Omega. Because of the genophage I'm the only kid Gothal will ever have. They may not be officially married, but my Moms pretty much are.
"And I wouldn't have'em today if it weren't for Doc Mordin and Shepard. They live in the Gazou district on Omega."
"I hear the Collector's plague hit that area hard." Jarvis said.
Mark nodded. "Yeah, luckily it didn't take Gothal. But then they locked themselves their apartment, Mom wanted to go wipe out a few of the vorcha but she wasn't about to leave Gothal by herself. It's part of why I am here, whatever T'Soni wants, I'll make sure she gets."
Gaider rested his hand on the shorter man's shoulder. "Glad to have you along, but still surprised T'Soni signed you on."
"Because my Moms are Talons?" Mark questioned back
The other nodded.
"Yeah that whole thing was a fuck up for sure. That contract brought a schism to the Talons to be sure. My Moms sided with their top Lieutenant. When she took over the group the Moms joined her, so did several others. The Talons have a new direction. Pretty sure T'Soni knows about that. But she's also the sort of woman that doesn't hold the crimes or the legacies of one's parents over them."
"Or their sisters." Abby added in a much softer voice. Her lover placed a three taloned hand upon her shoulder. She placed her own upon it and squeezed
"She'll come around." Jarvis said.
"Clearly you haven't been paying attention to the stories I've been telling you about her. Ash is one stubborn bitch. It's what makes her a fantastic solider, but it also makes her nearly impossible to get along with at times. It's gonna take something big for her to see the light. I just hope it doesn't take the Reapers to do it."
Des'Zahn shook her head. "We delivered the message to as per T'Soni's orders, what comes of it is not our problem, not even for you Abby. I'm sorry. But we have a more important task at hand people. Our primary objective is still on the board. We need to move out before the Shadow Broker's team moves in and neutralizes our target. Naga'sadow is counting on us to be in position at 0600. She acquires the asset for extraction and we neutralize any threat that follows. And believe me there will be plenty.
"The Shadow Brokers people saw us 'tying one on' and will no doubt underestimate us believing we are too drunk or hung over to be any threat to them." The Huntress looked to Abby. "In fact your sister's performance might well have sold it to Fats. That's a plus on our side. Now I suggest we all get out of here to keep up the façade. "
The huntress gained a chorus of aye-ayes from her teammates. By the time Ash's taxi arrived the parking lot was vacant of the Razors Gambit