Chapter 14
I don't own mass effect
Story start
I read a good story on a human * turian relationship called A Bro in need (not on fanfiction) it comes with a couple of twists but is a bit short, I also wondered why does everyone look like their the same height, so I did some googling and found out why Javik is so pissed all the time...he is absolutely tiny, no wonder why he has such a Vegeta complex, he is by far the shortest of all the Normandy crew...even Tali.
Also sorry this chapter took so long also a bit short but hitting a bit of a dry spell
After getting a confirmation that Ash's sister should be able to send us suitable books over the extra net I continued the lesson.
"Okay two things you need to know are structure and flow. Structure refers to stance and guard, with a good stance you can deal damage or block it. Flow refers to moving from structure to, to structure. You can think of structure as biotic techniques and flow as the movement from one to the other. Good movement is needed to get good structure, good structure is needed for good flow. You panic, you loose both. With poor structure, you can't mount a good attack or defence, with poor flow you are vulnerable between movements. Like switching from one weapon to another is should be smooth, fumble and you've just made yourself extremely vulnerable."
After that I continued to teach Gamora and Liara about swords for the next half-hour, mainly theory for now. I would have moved on to guards but if Ash's sister was able to send us the books. A good base was always good, if waiting a couple of days allowed me to make sure that base was sturdy then it was worth it.
Eventually, I started getting the movie ready, I had a couple of ideas but in the end I decided on Deadpool. It was a good movie and I was willing to bet that most of the ground crew would enjoy it for one reason or another. When everyone was ready started to speak
"Okay before the movie starts I just do a quick intro, the movie we are about to watch is part of the Marvel series which is made up of a ton of individual movies that sort of interlock with each other. It's basically like they made one movie with five characters and then five more movies, one for each character. Each movie usually has a superpowered human say, the strength of a krogan or something that resembles biotics. Some get their power form there mie genetics and are called mutants. It might be hard to understand and certain things will go over your head, Marvel movies are generally good but if you're just getting into them and haven't watched any before, there are alot of things you would have missed. Remind me to put on either Avengers or Captain America later on, it should hopefully fill in some blanks." I said pressing play whilst reminding myself to look up while I took a seat next to Solana. After the first movie someone had seemingly fabricated a number of cheap and foldable seats/couches. They weren't comfortable nor pretty to look at but they worked.
Most of the ground crew as well as some off staff were...confused at the intro, mind you, multiple people suspended in motion while a song played would have confused most people.
That confusion increased dramatically when deadpool started speaking to the camera, however when that scene ended in some guy being decapitated via his own motorbike chain a lot of people regained interest.
"I only have 12 bullets so some of you are going have to share!"
"Wait...aren't there only?" started Tali
"Shhhhh." hissed Ash
Wrex especially seemed to get a kick out of deadpool sticking a finger through his own healing bullet wound.
However halfway through the movie Shepards omni-tool went off
"Pause." said Shepard quickly and as I rushed to do so she answered the call "Joker what's the problem?"
"I got a call from our overlords, patching you through." answered Joker
"Shepard this is Hackett, I've got a situation that could use your help." came Hacketts voice
"What's the problem?" asked Shepard
"A low-level pirate has boarded a class A-luxury frigate and taken her crew captive." answered Hackett
"And you need us to deal with it?" asked Shepard
"Negative Commander, the alliance isn't in charge for this one, the ones that are have decided to pay the ransom. I need you to be on standby should things go sideways or if they decide to keep any of the captives. We are currently talking to an asari diplomat on the Citadel who we believe is her sister."
'I really hope its the bitch of an asari I'm thinking of.' I thought to myself
"I've sent you a copy of everythying we know so far, when we learn anything new I'll make sure your informed. Hacket out." said the Adrmial before hanging up
"There goes my night." groaned Shepard "Joker?"
"Already adjusted heading commander." answered Joker immediately "We should be there in...about 8 hours, 6 to get to the needed relays and 2 hours to get in range of the ship."
"Thanks, alright that's it for me tonight. Ill need to go over whatever Hackett sent me, make sure you all get some rest." said Shepard before moving away
"You want us to pause?" I asked, it would be annoying but we could always resume it later and their were always more movies
"Nah, I know the name so if I want to finish it I can just look it up later." answered Shepard
After a few more moments we resumed watching the movie, the atmosphere slighlty subdued...at least until the bar owner said Wade looked like a pair of testicles with teeth, which got a laugh out of everyone except Liara and Tali who blushed.
Sometime later I was stirred by a flash and a laugh. Opening my eyes I see Ash, grinning from ear to ear with her omni-tool activated and I realised I must have fallen asleep. Looking to the side I could just make out the sides of Solana's mandibles while my head was on her shoulder.
"Hey."
"Hey." replied Solana with a blush, her mandibles twitching
"Really Callum, you've got a lot of nerve. Falling asleep on a woman during a movie you yourself picked out? Is that really the best you can do?" asked Ashley jokingly with a smirk, I'm guessing from her tone she just wanted a laugh at my expense and didn't know about the times I checked her out.
Speaking of checking out, I risked a look behind me and...yeah Garrus did not look happy. In fact he looked like he was between thinking if he could get away with killing me, perhaps due to a battlefield 'accident' and working out where to hide my body.
...yeah I'm going to stay clear from him for a while.
After taking my head of Solana's shoulder and enduring the awkwardness that followed I made the tactical retreat to the sleeper pods. Not only was it obvious that I needed the rest, but I swear Garrus was moments away from walking over to his locker and grabbing his rifle.
An hour before arrival
"Hey Callum you up?" asked a voice stirring me awake
"...Joker?" I asked unsure, I was still in the pod and as far as I knew no one was outside
"That's me, amazing pilot, dashing good looks and now wake up call." said Joker cheerfully "We're getting close to our destination and Shepard wants to make sure everyone on the ground crew is up and ready before we get there. Also considering what I heard happed to you last night I thought sleeping beauty would be a good place to start."
"Does everyone know?" I asked with a groan
"With a ship this small? Oh yes, everyone's already heard the story twice and seen the pictures. Don't know why Garrus is so pissed about it though." said Joker idly
Getting up I made my way to the cargo bay to get, there I saw that almost everyone was already there and was in various states of readiness. Garrus, Solana and Ash were going over their guns. Kaiden was just putting his chest piece on, Tali was fiddling with her omni-tool, Wrex was being...well Wrex. While Liara and Shepard were nowhere in sight.
Putting on my armour I was just finishing up with my boots when the elevator opened with Liara and Shepard, the latter of which was already fully armoured. As Liara rushed to get ready Shepard addressed the group.
"Alright, I've gone over what the alliance has given us. A luxury frigate has been captured by a pirate named Dahlia Dantius. According to intel she runs a small group of around 20 mercenaries, although they could have hired more for this job. A rich family owns the frigate in question..." started Shepard
"Hold on, how does a rich family end up captured by pirates?" interrupted Ash
"Apparently they were on a sightseeing tour of various nebulas and so forth and got blindsided. As most of you heard last night the alliance doesn't exactly have jurisdiction for this one, that said the pirate in question has a bad habit of selling people into slavery. So we're here to make sure that doesn't happen, our priority is the safety of everyone aboard that frigate...that's it. We're not here to take down pirates, if we do then we do but not at the expense or risk of anyone else. If everything goes well we'll do nothing, just sit here. If things go bad than we'll chase after Dahlia and force her to return anyone she wanted to sell...if things go sideways in the worst sort of way then we have to do a full-out assault. But I'm hoping that doesn't happen." said Shepard before a family picture appeared above her omni-tool. There was a greying man of about 60, an asari that looked matron age, another on that looked younger than Liara and a pre adolescent
"Our main targets are this family, Joseph Williams, he's a combination of old money and wise investments. Y'lora Ajok the mother, who is also reasonably rich, her older daughter G'tora and her youngest K'ora."
"Sorry but how old are the daughters?" interrupted Ash "I've always been a bit confused with asari ages."
"Liara?" asked Shepard
"Well the older looks be a young maiden, likely the reason why they were on this trip, she looks to be in her 60's and is likely the child of a previous bond mate. The child looks to be nearing her 20's." answered Liara
"Damn, to me she looks to be 8-12 at most." replied Ash
"From my understanding asari age slower as children then humans do. That increases later in life especially when they reach 40 to 50 years in age." added Liara
"Good, now can we get back to the briefing?" asked Shepard
As Shepard continued to fill us in we got ready...however 10 minutes out
"Commander we have a problem." came Jokers voice over the comms
"What is it?" asked Shepard
Instead of answering a new voice sounded over comms
"Incoming ship, you've got 3 minutes to adjust your heading and dock with us or I start shooting hostages." said a female voice, with that the line went dead
"Shit! How did she know we were here? Did the stealth drive fail or something?" asked Shepard
"I might have the answer, by the looks of it that ship is a Z'ela frigate, asari make, used to look fancy, pretty look at other pretty things and go on spacewalks. Long story short is a flying fishbowl, as that comes with structural weaknesses it comes with some of the best sensors out there to detect things such as meteorites. I'm guessing that's how they picked us up, then it was simply a matter of getting eyes on us. As I just said, it really a just fishbowl and all our 'stealth drives' really do is hide all the heat not make us invisible." answered Joker
"Alright people we can't stay here and I doubt the pirates are going to be willing to talk, whatever we're doing we need to do fast." said Shepard
"I do have an idea...but I doubt anyone's going to like it." I said
"Considering how little time we have I don't think we have much of a choice." responded Shepard
"Okay, you remember how I used my biotics to get off the ship and onto land? Well how about we board the ship from the outside while the Normandy docks?" I suggested "Open the cargo bay or airlock and jump for the other ship when we're close."
"Hmm, airlock would be better, smaller area and less risk of something falling out, however the cargo bay may give us a better angle." said Shepard "It's a good idea. But if they don't know who we then it's only a matter of time until they do, and when they do they'll know who's onboard. Especially me."
"Then two teams, one to infiltrate, and one to distract. If you and Wrex go through the front door that should definitely keep their attention." I said
"But how would you get inside? Tali...Joker?" asked Shepard
"Well, if it made for spacewalks then it could have multiple entry points." said Tali pulling up a schematic "They would basically be modified escape pods, with an entry and an exit. All ships are required to carry multiple pods and they would make excellent airlocks while leaving the main one free. All we need is to get to one and I can hack it open from the outside." said Tali
"Are you sure that you can make that jump? It's going to be dangerous and we have neither the time nor the specialist gear needed to make it safer." asked Shepard "If you're not sure then Kaiden or Ash should be able to it instead."
"I should be able to use my biotics to help me hit the ship." I answered
"What about you Tali?" asked Shepard
"I've done hull repairs in space before. No quarian ship has been ground side for centuries, or even dockside in years for that matter. So it's kind of a necessary skill." answered Tali
"Good but we still need a third person, Solana how good is your zero grav?" asked Shepard
"Good enough." responded Solana
"Alright, Solana's in charge now you three are the best bet for getting onto that ship undetected and taking anyone...fuck!" swore Shepard suddenly
"What?" asked Ash
"I just realised, with this bloody elevator you three would never get in position in time to do anything." answered Shepard "By the time you get to the airlock the hostiles would be expecting us to be ready to dock and we can't risk pissing them off by delaying or altering trigectory. Okay, we're running out of time. Callum, Tali, Solana get ready to vent the bay as soon as we leave. Adam, Pressley make sure no one enters the cargo bay until it's confirmed that's its been repressured. Wrex, Kaiden and Garrus your boarding with me, all of us should be a big enough distraction to keep their eyes off the rest of the ship and to take them out when the hostages are secure. Ash I'm going to need you to work with security as well as Tristan and Alice, be ready to either to reinforce us or fend off a boarding party. I wouldn't put it past them to try taking over our ship if they saw a chance, it's probably why they want us to dock with us."
"Alright commander, also to be safe we should fabricate a cable to keep us together. Should one of us drop off the ship the other two will be able to bring them back." said Solana
"Do it, alright I'll instruct Joker to fly overhead of the frigates in order to give you the best angle." said Shepard before heading to the elevator with everyone else
As Solana made sure my helmet was on right and tight Tali had a cable fabricated before she checked Solana's seal. While both our helmets should have sealed when we set our suits to recycle air, considering we were about to go into space it was best to be safe and not sorry. When the integrity of the seals were confirmed we started venting the cargo bay
"Guys, you nearly ready? Joker's told me we're about to go over the frigates to a secondary airlock." asked Shepard over comms
"Nearly vented now commander." answered Tali while grabbing the cord
"I'll get Joker to drag his feet. Shouldn't tip them off unless we take too long, they don't know how good of a pilot he is and would just assume he's trying to get a better angle." said Shepard
"Okay, I didn't have enough time to get the fabricator to make anything fancy, or anything that uses mass effect fields so what we have is just a rope really." said Tali
"A rope is fine." responded Solana calmly, grapping the rope and tying one end around Tali, the middle around herself and the final end around me.
When the air was finally vented completely the cargo bay opened giving us the first glimpse of what we were up against. It was easy to tell which was the luxury frigate...it really did look like an upside bowl. The top of ship seemed made to be entirely for viewing while the bottom was solid, it was like someone had stuck the presidium in a glass bowl than dropped it in out of space. There was plenty of metal reinforcing the structure but it would not survive any kind of battle once the barriers were dropped. It also had two arms springing from the bottom in a very star trek fashion. It was also significantly bigger than I pictured, more cruiser than frigate size. The diameter of the glass-like surface of the top of the hostage ship looked to be pretty much the entire length of the Normandy if not more and that didn't include the arms coming out of the back. The pirate vessel by comparison was an ugly lime green and looked like multiple thick plates were wielded together to form a long ship with a wide front, it clearly favoured function over form and looked like it could take a hit.
"Alright landing on top is clearly not going to work, aim for the propulsion arms. Tali you go first, then me and will go last Callum, think you can judge the distance right?" asked Solana
"It's longer than I'm used to but I can do it." assured Tali "I'll use a VI to calculate and have it display the results on my visor."
"Okay, Callum if we start to miss it carefully and I mean carefully, nudge us back in the right direction with your biotics." said Solana "Oh and make sure you leave the floor before the rope goes tight or you'll throw everything off."
Carefully eying the jump, Tali pushes off and Solana follows after her. Trying to copy their trajectory as much as possible I push off significantly softer, my hope was if I was off I'd only slow the other two down not throw there aim off. Tali made the jump perfectly, Solana was a bit off centre while I had to use my biotics to soflty 'pull' myself towards the arm and even then I barely grabbed a hand hold. Offering me a hand Solana helps me up, my mag/grave boots activating. It was a weird feeling most of my body feeling weightless and only my boots weighing me down.
"Okay we made it, but if we approach via the topside they'll see us the second someone looks down so lets move to the underside." ordered Solana
As we walked over the edge and onto the underside I was once again reminded how indescribable this was, the absolute weightless where the only thing stopping me from floating off were my boots which either used magnets or mass effect fields to keep me down. I wasn't sure which, we eventually found an airlock used for space walks and Tali hacked it open. Once inside the door was closed and air was pumped back inside, once safet the rop e was discarded.
"By this time Shepard and the other should be boarding or ready to board. So we need to be quiet and fast." said Solana "I'll go first, Callum you're behind me and Tali you stay at the back and try and hack into anything we come across."
It wasn't long until we came across our first contact, he was apparently checking the airlocks for hiding hostages.
"Airlock number 36 is clear." said a male turian, closing an air lock in front of us "Seriously didn't we already do a check?"
While the turian was distracted Solana snuck up behind him. When she was sure he was no longer talking she struck.
Her arm darted around his throat, preventing him from talking before she used her other to shots a red hot omni-blade between his ribs.
"Tali can you hack his omni-tool?" asked Solana
"On it...and done, I'm adding a vi to it to answer calls using his voice, it won't fool them for ever but it will buy us some time." said Tali "30 minutes at most after they first call him."
"Anything in his messages?" asked Solana
"Yeah, while they were originally going to let the main hostages go it looks like they were already planning on at least a few of the crew as slaves. However now that they know we're here that's changed. The boss said either they'll get more money from the new ship, or that they'll scrub everything and kill anyone they can't get on their own ship to sell later."
"There goes any chance of using diplomacy. Send a message to the Normandy they need to know this." said Solana locking the body in the escape pod as Tali forwards the message.
From there we made our way to the cockpit which over looked a large room which, according from the omni-tool was where all the hostages where currently being held as it made it easier to keep an eye one them all at once. On the way there we only encountered the occasional pirate, each one taken out silently. It seemed the bulk of the forces were either guarding the prisoners or assigned to deal with Shepard...or whoever they thought was on our ship.
"Second team, Shepard has made contact with the pirates. She and the others are being lead under heavy guard to the pirate leader, if your not in a position to help then you should hurry. As soon as they get there they'd be in a good position to the overwhelmed and they can't act now without the pirates killing of hostages." came the voice of one of the Normandy's support staff over our comms.
"Understood." answered Solana
After that we picked up the pace and were soon outside the cockpit
"Tali override the door. Normandy we're in place, can you tell us the situation?" asked Solana
"The pirates took their comms, and a turian stole Garrus's eye piece and put it on. What he doesn't know is it's connected our systems so whatever they see we do. At the moment it looks like Shepard is currently trying to talk them down, doesn't look like it's working though. You've got the majority of the hostile on the ground floor and only about five in the cockpit, as for the hostages they've been clumped into the corner which will thankfully keep them out of the way...can't see the main people we were sent here for though." said the support staff
"Alright, everyone ready?" asked Solana
After getting a nod from me and Tali we all readied our weapons. Assault rifle for Solana, shotgun for Tali and pistol for me.
"Okay tell us when." said Solana to the support officer
"On my mark...mark!" exclaimed the support officer
As soon as the door was open we flooded in. As the support staff said there were only 5 people including the boss who seemed to be in the middle of a speech, off in the corner was the family that the pirates were mainly after, they looked mostly unharmed except for the older asari daughter who had a light bruise on her cheek, the father who had placed himself in front of the others and taken quite a beating. Two of the pirates carried sniper rifles, everyone else had standard looking assault rifles except for the boss which had a shiny red one that looked high tier. It only a few seconds for the first one to notice us, however by time he brought his rifle to bear Tali had already destroyed his shields with an overload and a short burst from Solana took him down giving everyone else time to duck into cover
"SHIT! How did they get in here?! Fuck it kill them all!" shouted the boss angrily "We'll take the ship and sell it for scrap as well as anyone who survives!"
The next ones taken out were the snipers who had switched to pistols, but their pistols were no match for mine and I took one down with 4 shots before he even got halfway through my shields. The other was far too close to the hostages, a lash solved that and sent her flying into her boss aka Dahlia which broke her concentration enough to lose the barrier she had formed around herself. When that happened a few well placed pistol shots was all that was needed
With Shepard earlier
'Things had really gone sideways.' thought Shepard to herself as 'We were sent here to babysit while others negotiated for the release of the hostages and that's it. Instead, they had completely bungled it. Instead of remaining unseen and unheard unless needed, they were somehow detected as soon as they got close. The Normandy, state-of-the-art, top level, top shelf stealth drive...unless the salarians or asari had something hidden up their sleeves, which wouldn't surprise her. Still though to be detected by what was basically a glorified tourist bus was...well embarrassing didn't even cover it.'
After they spit up with Callum, Solana and Tali, she ordered Joker to take and make every reasonable delay he good get away with. Anything and everything was okay as long as it wasn't obvious or pushed the pirates too far. Joker was...suspiciously okay with doing it and suspiciously good at doing it.
Eventually, though they could delay no further unless they did something crazy like accidentally destroying their airlock tube to prevent docking but there was no way the pirates would believe that wasn't done on purpose (which it would have been) and they would have started shooting hostages. So in the end they had to board the frigate while Ash started to ready the backup while they entered the belly of the beast.
"Hand over your comms." demanded the first pirate they came across
"Or?" asked Shepard
"Or we start shooting hostages." threatened the pirate "What else did you think I would say?"
I re-watched Deadpool in order to decide what parts to have the team react to but I fell asleep quite early through, so I thought why not add that. Also the pirate ship looked like Death to Kells from destiny.
Also, I'm a bit confused with asari ages, apparently, maidenhood usually starts around 50-60 which matches up with liara saying she studied protheans for 50 years. However what about before that? The long life of the asari would suggest that they have a longer childhood then most races but being totally dependant on family for an extended period of time doesn't make sense. There is a fic called Asari Effect where the main character is 20 and graduates from what is basically high school in her 20's and from what it sounded like she beat the previous record for graduating by something like 8 years or more.
So doing some thing an asari child (assuming they age slower than a child and not the same speed) that looks to be 8-12 human years should be something like 15-20ish in asari. To much more and it doesn't make sense for them to be going adventuring in there 50-60. Too much less and it means they are 30 years old human living in their parents basement for their last few years of adolescence. Well, it's that or absolutely massive growth spurt.