SSV Normandy, March 15, 2183
Destination: Therum
It had been well over 6 hours since the Normandy had left the Citadel in search of the asari doctor Liara T'Soni. At the moment, the Normandy was traveling through FTL to reach the Knossos System, and subsequently Therum. Of course, the Normandy had left the Citadel at a very late hour, so almost immediately after jumping the relay and entering FTL the crew had all gone to sleep. Everyone except Tali.
She was definitely sleepy, but found it quite difficult to sleep on a ship such as the Normandy, after all, her old habits died hard. Even with humanity's upgrades, Migrant Fleet vessels had kept the sounds the ships originally made. Sure, there was less chance of engine or air filter failure now, but the sound was part of their culture. The engineering deck of the Normandy was the only place where there was even a hint of sound, and the ship was operated with such few workers that it felt so... empty.
Really, the only things that were keeping her distracted from just how hard it was to sleep was her own thoughts of John. Just a few days ago she had left the Migrant Fleet and was nearly killed on the Citadel several times. If it hadn't been for him showing up... she really didn't want to think about it. Now though, she was with him once more, sure it was quite likely a suicide mission, but still. This was a perfect opportunity to show how she felt about him. But her drive to make sure that she at least had a shot at winning over John's heart had also proved to induce some... fantasies.
Fantasies that ranged from her getting to his cabin and being able to take her suit off, being able to kiss him and laying in his bed, skin to skin. The closest she ever got to that was her Nerve-Stim function in her suit. Not skin contact, but it was close enough. But what she wouldn't give to feel his skin on hers. Oh, how it was her favorite fantasy right? Well no. Getting extranet access after turning 18 had been both a gift, and maybe a bit of a mistake too on Raan's part. Humans called the vids: porn? Well, she had seen A LOT of it, seen so many different positions that humans did it in, different styles and whatnot. And it had absolutely plagued her mind. Sure, she was more of a fan of the whole 'Suit off in your cabin' thing, but her experience with those vids had caused her some fantasies that any quarian would likely frown upon.
It had gotten to the point that her once favorite fantasy, had been replaced with another. Originally it always happened in the Rayya. But just a few hours on the Normandy had changed it oh so much.
She was working on her engineering console when John made his way to the engineering deck. Tali heard as John and Adams began talking very faintly. One look over however, and she saw him not looking at Adams, but at her, that same smile she loved ever so present. She felt herself melt at the sight. She relished it, being filled with such want.
She looked back at her console for a moment to try to input a few commands before she could turn around to face him when he inevitably came over to her. But before she could turn around, she felt his arms wrap around her waist and pull her closer to him as she squeaked in surprise. She saw as his hands left her waist and began working on her body, one playing with her left breast and the other caressing her inner thigh. She could hear herself breathing many 'yes's' trying to make him increase the pressure, and speed up.
She could hear her own moans and her gasps of pleasure as he obliged. She turned to see Adams, to apologize for the suddenness of all of this, but no one was there. It was only her and him.
She let herself fully melt at his touch, damning the suit for preventing her from feeling the full sensation. But before she could voice her complaints about it, her eyes went wide as she heard the tear of fabric.
Her suit's fabric.
Immediately, her thoughts rushed to its implications. And just how sick she would get. But any worries of disease she had, were instantly destroyed as she felt his fingers down on her folds. She arched her back as he massaged her clit, increasing his speed with each of her whimpers. Soon, she was leaning on the railing, loving the stimulation she was receiving: One of the hands massaging her clit while a finger entered her sex, the other hand on her now exposed breast, tweaking the sensitive nipple, earning a few gasps of pleasure, and long breathy moans. Eventually it ended though, much to her disappointment...
Disappointment that lasted but a few seconds, before she felt something hard pressing on her sex, she attempted to look back at it, but was stopped by her own wail as it suddenly slammed inside, pushing her forward and sending a shock of absolute pleasure throughout her entire body. She let out a huge gasp as it bottomed out, staying there for a while before it began going backout, causing her to whimper until it suddenly slammed back in, sending her into the biggest pleasure she had ever felt.
She could feel her hips hitting against his with every thrust, gasping and moaning until she was sure his translator would have trouble catching up with her inarticulate mumbles. He continued to pull out and slam back in causing her to grip the railing as hard as possible as she climaxed, only hoping that he would end this by delivering his essence inside of her.
She needn't worry however, as he picked up the speed and caused her to fully lose herself in ecstasy as her mind went blank, and her legs began giving out. After what felt like hours of pure bliss, she felt him pull her closer towards him and hit her bottom, immediately beginning to fill her insides to the brim.
As he pulled out, her legs finally gave in and she fell to the ground. She stayed there, panting, before squeaking at being picked up by him, a hand below her knees and the other below her back as she nuzzled her head against him, her arms wrapping around behind his neck. She didn't even try to suppress her smile - despite the helmet - or stifle her giggles as he carried her out of engineering to go somewhere more... private.
Her moans were the only thing that filled the sleeper pod. During her reliving of her fantasy, she had subconsciously activated her Nerve-Stim and began massaging down in between her thighs. Her breath fogging up her visor, but the fog being immediately removed by her suit's systems. She felt her own hips clamp down on her hand as she reached her real climax and her body jerked.
She thanked the ancestors for the ability to turn off her emulator. After the first time she had done this, she only realized she hadn't turned it off after Raan had accidentally let it slip she had heard Tali moaning. Much to her embarrassment.
As she let out a long shuddering moan, her hips separated, releasing her hand from their own vice grip and her body went limp as she panted.
After finally relaxing, she sighed as she looked down to between her thighs and at her hand. She definitely felt a bit guilty for this. To please herself to her best friend - and crush -? What kind of quarian would do such a thing? The answer was Tali. Looking back on her fantasy, she still couldn't help but feel a bit weirded out by it. What quarian would dream about becoming intimate with a hole in their suit? To be taken in THAT way, instead of a more intimate and wholesome way? Once again, the answer was apparently her.
Tali tried to once more relax and sleep. To forget about the entire ordeal. Unfortunately, the quiet environment of the Normandy continued to keep her awake. She groaned and decided that if she couldn't sleep, she could at least get something to sate her current hunger. Opening her sleeper pod, she walked over towards the mess hall and sat down on her chair. She took out one of her nutrient-paste tubes from one of her suit's pockets. She slightly giggled as she remembered the time she had told John about the amount of pockets she had. His face that day had been priceless.
She inserted the tube into her helmet and began slurping the 'coconut' flavored paste, her favorite.
Thankfully, unlike several years ago, the food wasn't so mushy or stale. Humanity's standing with the turians, and hundreds of advanced equipment, allowed them get a lot of dextro provisions which they could give to the quarians. And since the quarians were but 17 million compared to, say, one of humanity's countries, or even most colonies, in which humans could feed everyone there, it was easy to give better food to the quarians. If the turians felt cooperative of course. And considering their numbers had only gone up by not even a million in the past 13 years - not enough to keep them from being endangered, but it was improvement - feeding them was simple on normal days. Hell, even bad days were now much better for the quarians as they now had bigger emergency stashes.
If only it hadn't taken the Rayya incident to make the fleet actually accept the damn supplies.
She inhaled deeply as she tried not to squeeze the table too much as she remembering the event. Having to watch her own mother die, and her own father get consumed by work, stopping any kind of talks with her. Those were both equally as traumatizing and infuriating. While grieving, she had gotten dangerously near to snapping at Raan, dangerously close to losing one of two people she could consider her family now. If it hadn't been for John being there she really didn't know just how broken she would have been, or for how long.
Her rage had taken over so much that she failed to hear the door to the captain's cabin open behind her. Only realizing it after she heard his voice, causing her face to feel as if it was on fire as she remembered she had been pleasing herself to him only 5 minutes prior. "Tali? What are you doing up?" He asked as he sat down next to her before his eyes widened in realization "Oh. The silence woke you didn't it?"
Tali slowly looked at him, trying not to run away from the embarrassment she was currently feeling. Knowing her voice would definitely reveal her current situation, she simply resorted to nodding, causing him to sigh in understanding "Sorry. I should have remembered you're not used to the quiet."
She instinctively yanked the nutrient paste out of her helmet's food port "N-no! It wasn't your fault!" Her voice carried the hint of embarrassment she had before. Something he thankfully didn't catch on to.
He shook his head and sighed "Yes it was, after every time you tried sleeping on the Kilimanjaro? It's not like I should have forgotten about it."
Behind her helmet, Tali began frowning "We're hunting a rogue spectre, on a suicide mission. We're about to go fight the geth, the same robots that drove my people from Rannoch, and you're thinking that my condition for sleeping is priority?"
Now it was his turn to frown "Yes it is. You wanted to go to ground missions, and how exactly would you stay focused without having slept?" He had her there. She tried to formulate an excuse but found that she really wasn't in a position to argue right now. Instead resorting to changing the subject.
"W-why are you awake?" She asked.
John's eyes momentarily went wide, something he was able to hide. He thought of his responses, of how he could tell her what had just woken him up. That same damn dream from before. Mindoir.
He sighed as he stood up, looking over at the cabinets of the mess hall, he had found his lie.
As he walked over to them, she hoped she hadn't somehow managed to offend him by asking or saying something wrong, but believed she was clear as he grabbed water and an MRE from one of the cupboards. He opened it and drank it almost in one go as he looked at her, only responding when he stopped drinking "Got thirsty... and hungry." He shook the MRE to try to convey the 'hungry' part and make his lie more plausible.
Thankfully for him, Tali indeed bought the lie "Of course you did..."
"Hey, biotics have a way to make me incredibly hungry most of the time." He responded with a smirk "You wouldn't believe how much I can eat and never get fat."
"You said to me that 'Most would kill to be able to do it' right?"
John nodded as he went to sit down next to her again "Very much so." Silence filled the mess hall after his response, only interrupted by John's munching of his now opened MRE.
"Soooo..." Tali broke the silence "What are we expecting on Therum?"
John gulped down his food and shrugged "Not sure. Description said it's a volcanic world. And we believe we may find geth there if we are unlucky."
"Always taking me to nice places..." Tali joked.
John stopped moving for a bit before closing his eyes and sighing "You sure you want to go down there too?"
"John-"
"I know you can take care of yourself." He interjected "But you still don't have enough training. And if you get hurt..."
"Please... I can do this." She pleaded "And if it'll make you feel any better, I can stay behind Wrex. I'm sure he can take a few hits right?" She added the last part half-jokingly, half-serious.
Definitely doesn't make me feel better putting you in danger... He wanted to continue to object, even thinking about pulling rank on her. But he knew that if he never brought her anywhere, he would never see what he had to train her in. Hand-to-hand could easily be trained by him, aim could be trained by Jane, and if Nihlus was fine with it, he could very well teach battlefield tactics. Though it would be better if it was for everyone at the same time.
"John?" She asked, noting his uncharacteristically long silence.
He let out a deep exhale before looking at her "Fine. But no heroics." He ordered with his Commander voice.
"Deal." She said as she inserted her nutrient-paste into her helmet and ate the last portions.
They stayed there, eating in silence. Tali's look overs at John definitely didn't help in forgetting that she had, by definition, masturbated to the thought of him taking her from behind not 10 minutes ago. She had to stop herself from running away, or begin babbling over different things that even someone as dense as him would be able to notice as anxiety.
Once they both finished eating, Tali was about to excuse herself, speed walk back to her pod and forget this highly embarrassing moment. But before she could, John asked the question she was half-dreading he'd ask "Would you be fine with sleeping in the captain's bed?"
"W-what?!" If her face was on fire before, this was definitely her drenching it in magma. Out of everything he could have asked, this was definitely not good for her anxiety.
"You need sleep, and I know the beds in the Migrant Fleet are more comfortable than the sleeper pods. Besides I've got some vids that I can put that can play some sounds if it'll help." John stood up and threw away his trash while walking to his cabin he had inherited when he gained control of the Normandy.
Oh how she wanted to run away as fast as possible to avoid this situation "I- I can't! It's your bed, not m-mine. I-I mean, I appreciate the offer but it's not right!" She objected in a frenzied manner causing him to chuckle a bit to her chagrin "Bosh'tet!" She grabbed a tray and threw it at him to stop him from chuckling but failed as he easily caught it with his biotics.
"Tali. I've allowed you to sleep in my bed many times" He said as he put the tray down "It's not something to be embarrassed about."
"But the crew?" She signaled towards the closed sleeper pods "It's not right that I get preferential treatment!"
"You know I'm the captain right? I get to choose who gets the treatment I want to give them."
"But you could give it to Jane instead..."
He shrugged with crossed arms "Already tried. She said no."
"I..."
He sighed as he opened the door and pointed a finger inside "It's your choice, but it's open if you change your mind." He walked inside and the door closed behind him. She thought she could use this as her chance to get to her pod and stay there for the rest of the night. Sure, she wouldn't be able to sleep, but it would relieve her anxiety.
But she found she couldn't move towards them. She tried to will her body to walk to her pod, but with every step she got closer to his cabin instead.
Once she was in front of the door she tried to say no, to just simply go anywhere else, but she also didn't want to. She wanted to be with him, and they were friends right? This was just like a sleepover. Nothing more.
A sleepover, with the man you want. The man you want to fill your insides...
Gathering her wits, she hovered her hand over the holo-pad and pressed it before she could doubt her decision, causing the door to open. She looked around the room, and saw to her left the L-Shaped couch with what she assumed was the bathroom next to it. At the very front of the cabin was the bed, and seated at the edge of it was John, reading something on a pad.
He only noticed she had walked in when he heard her walking closer to him. Looking up he could see she was tense, almost refusing to make eye-contact and wringing her hands at her nervousness. He gave her a warm smile and patted the spot next to his on the bed.
She begrudgingly sat down next to him and lay down. The bed was definitely much more comfortable and spacious than the sleeper pods, and its size meant they weren't squished together which she thanked the ancestors for, fearing she might have give in to her desires if she was practically on top of him.
She heard as John typed in a few commands on his omni-tool and sounds began playing. Not the same as the ones in the fleet, but close enough for her to be comfortable.
She shuffled in the bed a bit, causing John to look at her and begin getting up "If you feel uncomfortable I can go sleep on the cou-" He didn't even finish before Tali grabbed his arm and shook her head.
"No." She pleaded.
Thankfully, he caught the hint and lay down next to her as he turned off the lights in the cabin. Oh this was incredibly anxiety-inducing. But also wonderful. The last time she had a sleepover with him was before he joined the Alliance, so naturally she loved getting to be with him once more. In the same bed. She instinctively nuzzled her head on his shoulder and began singing him her heelrou as his breathing relaxed and both drifted off into the most comfortable sleep they'd had in years.
Garrus had been the first to wake up from the crew. He didn't need as much sleep as the others after all. Or at least he believed he was the first, considering Tali's pod was unoccupied.
He found the ship to be quite boring when no one was around. He opted to go down to engineering to at least not be bored by talking to someone, but found that Tali was not in engineering. Probably in the CIC.
He realized that it was dumb to think she would be there without the Commander when Pressly was likely there. He had barely been on the ship for a few minutes before he saw Pressly giving him, Nihlus, Tali, and Wrex some nasty looks.
Garrus knew that he could opt to still go there anyways. He knew that Nihlus might be awake and he was a fellow turian. But he decided not to considering the spectre was very private and didn't like talking.
As his last resort, Garrus decided to try his luck with the vehicle they called the Mako. Sure enough, the tank was as impressive as it was described. But he also noted that its cannons were misaligned. A mistake that could cost them dearly when the gun potentially overheated much faster than it should. If anything, maybe he could just perform some quick... calibrations.
At least three hours had passed for him while he worked on the cannon. The Normandy had dropped out of FTL 10 minutes ago, and Therum was only 20 minutes away. Much longer than he actually needed to calibrate the gun properly.
During the period of work, Wrex had made his way downwards and refused to even look in the same direction as Garrus. Ashley had followed 10 minutes after Wrex, instead shooting him some disapproving glances, especially when she saw what he was doing.
He ignored them, deciding that what he was currently doing was far more important than bothering with those two. Garrus spent the next few minutes working on top of the Mako when he saw the elevator open. He assumed it was likely the Commander to get ready for the mission, but instead Jane came out of it. Immediately after seeing her, he completely lost track of what he had been doing for the past three hours. Once more, he found himself instead scanning her, or admiring her. Quite honestly he wasn't much interested in humans, but she was definitely a gem. And it didn't help that her eyes almost beamed with the same intensity as one. He watched her walk over to her locker and pull out her pistol, and her Avenger assault rifle and lay them on her table as she put on her armor.
Garrus once again found out he had been staring for too long when Wrex cleared his throat and shot him the same look he gave him on the Citadel before they left. Trying to get out of the fact he had just been caught staring at the Commander's sister, he went back to finishing his work on the Mako's cannon.
Once done, he dropped from the top of the tank and looked at it, almost admiring and taking pride in his work and scanned it with his omni-tool when he heard someone else clear their throat, but this time it was human, and most definitely female "What were you doing?"
Garrus quickly turned around to look at Jane who was simply looking at the Mako's cannon. Not mad, but confused "Oh, I just wanted to calibrate some things with it's cannon."
"Any luck?" Her question threw him aback. He had technically just tampered with Alliance equipment, yet he didn't even have to try to explain himself to what he had been doing. She actually trusts me that much?
He answered before his silence became too awkward for either of them "Oh, yeah. If my scans are correct, we should be able to fire for..." He checked his omni-tool to check his scans "1.7 more seconds than before."
Jane looked on in thought, trying to find something before speaking "And how does 1.7 seconds help?"
Garrus then went on a tirade trying to explain how it was a huge improvement. It was clear she didn't understand anything about it, but she listened nonetheless. All she got from it was '1.7 seconds equals more bullets' which was good enough for her.
"Ah well, it could have been 2 seconds." She joked as she crossed her arms.
"For that I would have needed another hour."
Jane chuckled as she looked at the Mako's hull "Soooo... you just calibrated the cannons? Not that I'm complaining, but why not something else?" For some unknown reason, that statement had left him incredibly nervous, something no one had ever been able to do.
"Umm. Maybe because we'll likely need the cannons more than anything?"
"Same argument could be made for shields." Just then, her smirk grew a bit more evil. But it was a smirk he found... cute "Now that I think about it, you should have indeed calibrated the shields, or its armor."
"Why?"
"Oh, let's just say me and my brother lost our licenses to drive Mako's for a reason." She said playfully, narrowing her eyes in a smile as playful as her tone.
Yeah, saying she was cute definitely did her no justice. Spirits she was incredible... He didn't even know he could end up getting attracted to humans. Though he also didn't even know if this actually was him being attracted to her. Especially this quickly...
"Well. If you don't have anything else to calibrate. After Therum you will definitely need to fix the Mako... If you want of course."
"So, either you or the Commander will be driving it then?" He asked almost hesitantly.
"Correct. Enjoy trying to not throw up!" She said as she began walking away towards her locker once more.
As Jane walked away, Garrus once again looked her over. Even through her armor, her body was muscular, and her backside as well as front were both quite plump.
Not exactly anything someone would likely say if they wanted to keep their head, but physically she was indeed very attractive.
No, no denying it. She was beautiful.
But when he reached her legs and her surprising curves, his mind filter completely shut off, and it went to one place. Oh, there's only one thing I'd like to calibrate more than the Mako.
Of course, he regretted thinking that almost immediately.
The fact he had barely known her for just ONE day made it worse. One day, and he was practically drooling at seeing her. What made it worse was that Wrex knew. Oh he would never live any of this down...
He was thankfully saved by the elevator coming down, and in it was the Commander alongside Tali. Both looking very well rested and energetic. Both of them headed to their lockers and began getting ready as Jane had.
Final one to come down was Alenko who looked worried as he looked at the Mako. Likely something to do with what Jane had said to him before about throwing up.
Well, Alenko wasn't actually the last to come down. Someone very young named Jenkins tried to go too, but was denied due to his injuries. But not without a lot of arguing.
Once they were only 5 minutes away from getting off the Normandy, the Commander gave everyone a debrief. Pretty simple stuff, get on Mako, drive, find asari, leave. Even an idiot couldn't screw that up.
The Mako's inside wasn't very spacious, especially with Wrex occupying two seats, while the others occupied one. Tali had gotten a front seat due to her technical skills, while Garrus had gotten the gun. Technically he only got the gun due to Jane saying "At least if it blows up, you will be the one to die because of your mistake." Which had been enough to put him in what would be a death trap if he screwed up the gun. Not fun to think about, though it was probably the spirits mocking him for what he had thought previously.
It only took around 3 minutes for the Shepard's to decide who would drive. In the end, Jane got to drive. Apparently the crew thought that flipping a tank that shouldn't even be able to flip was worse than driving it in a lake by slamming into an enemy.
Besides, having both John and Tali, the smartest of the bunch, take care of the shields and power, and this mission would be a breeze.
Finally after so damn long, the Normandy was finally on Therum, and they would finally leave the ship. But what happened next was absolutely worrying.
"Hey commander!" Joker's voice came from the comm in the Mako "Guessing the new guys are in the Mako now. Mind taking a vid so I can see it later?"
"You got it." He gave an evil smirk as he opened his omni-tool. Only Kaidan, Wrex, John, and Jane looked unmoved, but the others were beginning to worry.
"Wait, what's going on?" Ashley asked.
"Don't tell me you don't know how a Mako deploys chief." Kaidan answered in front of her.
"No? I've been boots on the ground. I've never been on a Mako!"
Kaidan laughed as he looked at the front "Well. I hope you've been on a roller-coaster."
Tali looked on in fear before looking at John who was seated beside her "Wh-what is..." She didn't even finish as her voice broke.
Only her voice made John stop smirking and look at her almost worried. "Right... you never even heard of a Mako before have you?"
"No?"
Almost instantly, he pulled her closer as she squeaked in surprise "Hang on tight." He whispered to which she indeed held on tightly to him. Ancestors he was not helping her case in forgetting her case from yesterday, nor her dream.
Unfortunately it wasn't enough that they had become intimate in a fantasy, but in a dream as well where she had pounced on him. Skin-to-skin this time, and she wasn't getting taken from behind, but she was instead riding him. This time, she was the one on top.
Keelah I need to stop thinking about those things...
Looking around, she saw Kaidan looking at her smiling, Wrex was somewhat unmoved, but she thought she could see a very small grin on his face.
But Ashley looked jealous. Or envious. Tali narrowed her eyes at her and the look she gave Tali confirmed her fears. Ashley was definitely interested in John. Oh no you don't you bosh'tet. I'm not making it easy on you.
They were broken from their stare-down as they heard the Mako's engines revving and John tighten his grip on her. Looking out the front window they saw that they were nowhere near the ground. Oh Keelah...
She heard as almost everyone began screaming at Jane to stop when they saw what was about to happen. Tali simply held on tightly to John, Wrex began laughing at everyone's dismay, and Garrus looked like he was about to pass out.
"I hope you're ready!" Jane yelled from the front.
"No we'r- AAAHHHH" Ashley began screaming as Jane slammed on the pedal and the Mako went flying out of the Normandy. Kaidan and Jane joined Wrex in laughing while Tali and Garrus began screaming from fear as the Mako continued its drop. John didn't do much except record the reactions and make sure that Tali didn't go flying and that the landing wouldn't be so bad for her.
After around 5 seconds of falling Jane activated the micro-thrusters that slowed down the descent right before the Mako hit the ground in a not-so-graceful manner. Almost everyone began breathing heavily as the Mako came to a complete halt. If it hadn't been for John comforting her, Tali was certain she would have been crying. Ashley had passed out from the experience and Garrus was pissed.
"You couldn't have told me you would do that?!" He yelled at Jane.
"And save you the fun of the 'experience'?" She added the last part while joining her hands on the sides and then separating them in almost a rainbow-like shape gesture.
"A bit of a warning would have been nice." He pouted causing her to laugh.
"Come on Vakarian. Don't tell me you didn't have fun."
...
"Yes..." He said covering his face causing Jane to let out a snicker.
"Hah! You see? Now would it have been as fun if I'd told you what would happen?"
"No?" He almost asked.
"Exactly!" Jane smiled at him "Now get ready because this ride isn't over yet!" She yelled as she pressed on the pedal and the Mako sped up almost instantly.
Once it had stabilized a bit, John had finally let go of Tali who was panting "You okay?" He asked squeezing her shoulder.
"Y-yeah... thanks..." Her throat barely allowed her to respond due to how dry it was from screaming. Thankfully, she gained her composure back after John patted he shoulder and smiled at her. Keelah I want you so deep inside of me so much... Wait... No you bosh'tet!
The ride through Therum was quite boring. Even the volcanic landscape wasn't in the least interesting. The only thing that was slightly interesting was Jane's horrendous driving. Garrus had already thrown up thanks to it while Tali and a now awake Ashley were close to doing the same.
It was so boring that John had almost fallen asleep. Unfortunately the mines where Dr. T'Soni supposedly was were not a good drop spot for the Mako. So they ended up an hour away from them. No one really knew what was more boring: Driving, waiting, being on a gun with nothing to shoot, or check the Mako's systems.
Of course since both John and Tali were on the systems, they split the jobs which were already way too boring and easy for both of them, instead resorting to singing some of their favorite songs from each other's cultures.
Jane drove through the many lava pits on the planet, thanking the Mako for having a climate control or she'd be incredibly hot. And not in a good way.
However, just as they were about to reach one of the planet's outposts she saw something out of the corner of her vision. She decreased the speed to try to find what had just showed up but found nothing, the scanner didn't pick anything up either so she assumed it was her hallucinating. Despite the fact she never did.
Once she increased the speed though, she realized something was wrong when the Mako's systems began creating errors all around. One of them became the driving systems causing the Mako to slow down and come to a halt.
"Uh... John?" She asked looking back and seeing both Tali and John incredibly tense and working on their screens.
"I know! Just give us a sec." He said as he increased his speed on his work.
Suddenly, Jane heard a loud boom sound and looking to the front she saw a ship heading straight for them "Oh shit. Garrus!"
"Give me a sec! The gun's jammed!" He was working on his own console at the gun which refused to fire "And no it isn't because of my calibrations so don't you start!"
The ship suddenly stopped in front of the Mako much to her confusion, but she quickly realized the reason for it when she saw geth dropping from it.
What worried her more was a quadruped tank-like geth. She was about to ask Tali about it when she saw that its eye began glowing brighter in a firing sequence.
Right before it could fire though, the Mako's driving systems came back online and Jane used the opportunity to drive out of the way of an incoming pulse from the tank-geth.
"Normandy to ground team! You've got geth ships converging on your location!" Joker's voice came through the comms.
"Yeah, thanks for the very useful info!" Jane yelled as she tried to avoid the other geth's fire "Garrus!" She yelled trying to hurry him up as the tank-geth prepared to fire at them again.
"Hold on... there!" He said as he quickly grabbed the gun controls and fired at the ground forces, quickly destroying them in a barrage of fire.
The tank-geth responded in kind by hitting the Mako on the side "Shield integrity just dropped to 73%!" Tali yelled from behind.
"Reroute non-critical power." John ordered calmly as he worked on keeping the Mako's driving systems which were trying to continuously shut off.
The geth began preparing for a third pulse, but Jane decided that it wasn't going to fire at them again. She steered in the direction of the geth as she slammed on the pedal to crash into it. Garrus meanwhile, barraged the geth with fire as they got closer to it.
Once the Mako hit it, the geth went flying which Garrus used as his opportunity to fire at it as it was staggered on the ground. After some firing, the geth finally fell and its optics went out as it died.
The gun became dangerously close to overheating and Garrus, being so cocky, checked how long until it would have overheated "Ha! Just 1.67 seconds more and this baby would have overheated!" He said at Jane as he patted the gun controls.
"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up..." She rolled her eyes as every system in the Mako came back online.
The drive towards the mines were filled with geth every step of the way. The gun always got close to overheating, but apparently the turian's calibrations were much more beneficial than Jane though they would have been. Of course, he made it a habit to say how many seconds until it would have overheated, continuously making sure she was aware of how good his work was. Cocky bastard...
Just before they actually got to the mines the Mako came upon a wall too narrow for it to pass through. Jane tried to drive up the mountain, but she left everyone close to throwing up by her attempts and stalled, causing the Mako's back to crash onto some rocks forcing them to continue on foot.
They got pinned down several times by geth snipers, bit they were no match against Garrus's and Jane's great aim.
As they rounded one of the corners and came upon the entrance to the mining facility John began walking up the ramp first with Tali following right behind him, both reaching the main door to the facility first.
Jane was following right behind them when she suddenly saw something coming at her from the side at high speeds. She ducked as it suddenly tried pouncing on her and heard the loud boom of another dropship.
Both John and Tali looked behind them as they saw another geth platoon alongside another geth-tank drop and aim at them. John grabbed Tali and dragged her towards the facility's door as the tank fired a pulse at them, narrowly missing and hitting the rocks on top of them causing them to fall and lock them inside without the others.
"John! You okay?" Jane's voice came through the comms through hails of gunfire.
"We're okay. What is going on over there?"
"We're pinned down by a crap-ton of geth! Find that asari and get out of there!" She yelled as she closed the comms.
John beckoned Tali to follow him through the dark mines, both turning on their flashlights as the lights dimmed.
...
"Shit! What do we do?!" Ashley yelled leaning over her rock-cover trying to fire at the fast moving geth, now somehow getting on the walls while trying to not get hit by the tank-geth.
Jane looked around her and came up with a plan "Alenko! Can you use your biotics to slow them down?" She asked as she pointed at the geth on the walls still jumping around. Kaidan nodded at her as she looked at Garrus "You're with me, aim at those jumper geth things!" Garrus gave her a nod and she finally looked at Ashley and Wrex "Can the two of you take that tank thing?" Wrex's grin was enough to tell her they were in. Counting to three she gave the signal to enact the plan.
Kaidan used his biotics to slow down the jumpers, giving both Jane and Garrus the chance to shoot them as they were rendered near-immobile. Once they got done with them, they began focusing on the ground forces to give Ash and Wrex a chance at the tank.
Ash acted as the distraction against the tank, firing at it but barely getting through its shields. Wrex meanwhile went around and charged it from the side causing it to collapse as it lost its footing. Wrex laughed at it as it began getting back up, he had been longing for a good fight.
He quickly charged it again as it tried to get up, slamming into it while shooting it with his shotgun. A few geth attempted to come at its aid but were quickly destroyed as the krogan hit them against walls and with his biotics. However, the backup geth ended up distracting Wrex long enough for the tank to fire at him, the pulse exploding behind him.
The explosion left Wrex staggered as the tank charged another pulse but stopped as it came under the combined fire from both Garrus and Jane. Looking at them, it fired but missed Garrus as Jane pushed him out of the way at the cost of getting hit herself.
Her shields took the brunt of the attack but she still received some burns on her chest and side causing her to begin blacking out as a result. Her condition made her unaware that she started being dragged out of the geth's view by Garrus, only realizing it when her body ached in pain from being dragged. Once safely behind cover, he began applying medi-gel on her wound causing her to hiss from the cold gel.
"Spirits..." Garrus's eyes went wide at her wound "You okay?"
She hissed back the pain to look him in the eyes "Never bett-" She trailed off as her wound felt like it was on fire causing her to yell in pain.
"Damn. Just breathe." Garrus tried calming her down the best way he knew how. He was C-Sec not a damn doctor. This was not good.
Jane was hyperventilating due to the sensation. It also didn't help that she was flinching from the geth still trying to hit them with more pulses. But even if she couldn't move, she could still analyze things.
Looking around, she noticed that there were some dangling structures on a crane like structure. If they cut the wire correctly, it could fall and slam into the geth.
Opening her comms, she did her best to give out orders "Everyone... I need y-you to move that thing a bit towards me and Garrus..."
"Move it towards us?!" Garrus looked frantic but Jane nodded towards the crane causing him to look at where she was looking, realizing her plan almost instantly and nodding towards her.
Pulling out his own sniper, he aimed at the cable that Jane had marked him while she gazed to see when the geth was in the correct position. The geth wasn't doing so well against the now enraged krogan coming at it and pushing it closer to where Jane needed. The gunfire from Ashley and biotics from Kaidan also didn't leave it much room to focus on who to target.
Once they successfully pushed it back to where Jane needed, she nodded towards Garrus who shot a few of the wires. Immediately, the structure came falling down like a pendulum and slammed into the geth, sending it flying towards the lava pit close to them. They could hear its shrieks as it was slowly consumed by the scorching heat before it finally died as indicated by its lights going out.
Everyone let out a sigh of relief while Wrex just laughed at the geth's demise.
Garrus continued to look over Jane's wound and applied medi-gel in spots he missed.
"This mission has gone well so far. Don't you think?" Jane asked trying not to chuckle or move as her body yelled at her for the smallest actions.
"If by 'well' you mean we've gotten shot at, don't know where Tali and the Commander are, and I got to flex my work on the cannon? Then yes, I'd say it's gone well." Garrus smirked as he gave a nod of satisfaction at having patched up all her wounds.
She shook her head slightly and closed her eyes "You are the worst..."
"Well, you did ask." He said as he sat down next to her "Speaking of the Mako. You almost totaled it."
"I did warn you..." She responded, finally smirking as the pain began subsiding.
"I will have to fix and calibrate so many things..." He responded with an indignant tone.
Jane chuckled at his dismay and looked at the entrance to the mines. It was blocked by rubble, leaving both John and Tali inside, and wherever they were, they would have to find another way out.
The mines were filled with darkness. Despite having already been explored and being from prothean origin, the geth had made sure the lights wouldn't work.
Considering John and Tali got ambushed several times, they had already figured out what they were trying.
But their goal was finding Liara T'Soni, not fight geth. If only they could even find her within this place.
"Can't believe I'm saying this, but I preferred the surface." Tali said beside him, her luminous eyes being the main way of knowing where she was.
John smirked "Well, at least we didn't have to fight that tank geth... thing..."
"I think it's better if we just called it an armature." Tali said trying not to laugh at his attempt at naming the armature.
The elevators on the Citadel were already slow on their own. But this was ridiculous, the damn things moved at a snail's pace and broke down more than anything John tried to make.
"It is HOT in here..." Tali groaned, her suit didn't exactly handle very low or high temperatures well, and without an air conditioning system, it meant she was sweating below her suit.
"Yeah being under who knows how much lava will do that to you."
Tali sighed "Snarky bosh'tet..."
"Heh, you love it."
Oh... yes I do...
"Hello?!" A voice suddenly echoed through the mines, they looked at each other and ran towards the source. Once they were closer, they finally found some light, and they found their asari "Oh thank the goddess!" She smiled when she saw the human and quarian "Can you hear me out there? I'm trapped I need help!" She yelled, she was stuck inside what looked like a floating blue energy bubble.
John immediately tried shushing her as she was yelling very loudly "Do us a favor and keep it down. There are definitely still geth here."
"I apologize... I've just had a very rough day." John suppressed a laugh, after all it was obvious given her situation.
"Are you Dr. T'Soni?"
"Yes... how do you know my name?"
John sighed "We're hunting down a rogue spectre named Saren... your mother allied herself with him."
"What?! Goddess..." Liara looked at the ground saddened.
"How'd you end up like this?" Tali asked, trying to speed things up before they got ambushed by geth again.
"I pressed something I wasn't supposed to. It's a prothean security device. Please just get me out of here." She begged them to which John nodded "You'll have to find a way past this barrier to get to me. Please hurry." They had to find a way past the barrier that kept then from getting to Liara.
"Alright, just stay still, we'll be there soon." Liara narrowed her eyes at him and Tali giggled before John realized what he said "Uhhh. Just you know sit tight... ah fuck it." He grabbed Tali's arm causing her to squeak in surprise and quickly moved away to not further the embarrassment.
"What a way with words you have." Tali giggled.
"I don't want to talk about it..."
Finding a way to reach Liara was difficult. Not only did they end up getting shot at by geth once again, but they had no way of getting through a security device designed by protheans.
Both of them looked around for a way to get to Liara when Tali saw something to help them. She found a mining laser, a big one at that. Of course the thing was inactive though, and it was also behind several security measures.
"John! I have an idea!" Tali yelled as he looked at her and walked towards the laser.
"Think you can get it working?" John asked before sighing knowing she was crossing her arms at him without looking at her "Nevermind, do what you do best..."
Tali went to work on the laser. It was quite simple for her to bypass the security measures. They did come under a small bit of fire by geth, but John easily dispatched them with the program Tali had given him to overload the geth's shields.
After only half a minute, Tali got through the laser's security and fired it. It let out a huge boom as it tore through the ground before stopping a few seconds after it started.
"Nice job Tali." John said patting her shoulder as he went towards the newly created hole. As they walked through it, the ground began suddenly shaking though "What in the?"
"Oh Keelah. The laser must have destabilized the mine. It's going to collapse!" Tali yelled.
"Shit. Let's go!" John ordered as he and Tali ran towards the elevator at the center of the prothean cells. After a few seconds of rising, they reach Liara and Tali went to work on releasing her from the bubble.
"How did you get here?" Liara asked, trying to look back at the two.
"We used the mining laser to get through." John answered.
"I see..." The ground shook again "Goddess. You must have-"
"Destabilized the mine? Yeah we know." John interrupted her.
Tali soon found the button to release the security device, allowing Liara to be released.
There was no time to talk for any of them as the mines continued to tremble. They stepped onto the elevator and went up once again.
"How many exits are there?" John asked.
"Two. But the closest one-"
"Is blocked off." Tali interrupted her this time.
"The other one will likely be overflowing with lava by the time we get there..."
Shit... "Right now it's our only option..." John responded as the elevator came to a stop at the top.
However, before they could step out, they were stopped by the sounds of footsteps. Looking in front of them, they saw as a krogan came along with geth. A krogan with geth? What the hell...
"Surrender. Or don't. That would be more fun." The krogan said while taking out his weapon.
"In case you haven't noticed, this place is falling apart!" John yelled irritated at this krogan's stubbornness.
"I know. Exhilarating isn't it?" The krogan looked over at Liara "I'd recommend you give us the asari, Saren wants her."
"What?" Liara asked.
"Well, he said he wanted you. Didn't specify how." The krogan chuckled, but stopped as he got hit in the head by a boulder flung at him with biotics.
"We don't have time for these idiots. Tali take care of the geth! Liara take cover!" John ordered as he ran towards the staggered krogan.
Tali's knowledge of the geth systems was very useful in dealing with two of them quickly, getting rid of their shields and then shooting them at point blank range.
John however, was having problems against the krogan. No matter how many times he punched or shot him, the krogan refused to back down. He tried to punch the krogan with biotics, but failed as the krogan managed to sidestep him and grab him by the arm. John got flung across the room and hit the wall at an extreme speed.
Before he could get up he got grabbed by the krogan from his back and lifted up against the wall. Immediately after, he felt as the krogan began choking him. He tried to punch the krogan, but between the difficulty breathing and pain on his back he couldn't focus his biotics as he began blacking out.
Tali was trying to deal with the third geth. A rocket trooper. It was bad enough that the machine's shields were incredibly strong, but also that it was firing rockets at her.
However, she suddenly heard a slam against a hard surface and John yell out in pain. Looking through her cover, she saw as the krogan lifted him off the ground and as he struggled to get it off him. Tali wanted to cry at the sight. She was pinned down by the geth, and she was powerless to help John.
She willed herself to focus. She only had a few moments before the krogan actually killed John, so what to do?
Suddenly, she remembered that she had made a hack against the geth that could tamper with their Friend/Foe Identification, but she needed it to be distracted so it would stop shooting rockets at her.
Looking around her, she spotted the asari, hiding behind cover. Tali yelled out for her and nodded towards the geth. It took a few moments for Liara to process what Tali was asking for, but when she saw the quarian pull out her omni-tool, she only had one thing in mind.
Using her own biotics, Liara grabbed a rock and flung it at the geth. Immediately, it turned to look at her and began shooting at her instead. However, after the 3rd rocket, the machine suddenly stopped as Tali pressed a few buttons on her omni-tool.
The geth turned to look at the krogan and a barely conscious John and raised its weapon. It fired off a single shot, hitting the krogan directly causing it to release the Commander. He gasped for air as the krogan attempted to focus but was distracted by the geth firing another rocket at it.
Using the sudden betrayal to his advantage, John pulled out his pistol and focused his biotics as he rushed at the krogan. He fired off three shots at its head and jumped to hit its head plate with biotics. The hit caused the head plate to slightly separate from it which John saw he could use to his advantage.
He could see it was furious. The geth had stopped firing rockets as Tali's hack ran out and it turned to look at her again. John decided that enough was enough and ran towards the krogan. It tried to grab him again, but he sidestepped it to be behind it. He jumped up on top of it and pushed his gun at the top of its head plate firing off five shots.
The krogan finally dropped dead to the ground as John turned to look at the geth rocket trooper and fired at it, destroying its shields and diverting its attention towards him. Tali used the diversion to run towards the geth with her boot knife and drove it into its neck. She twisted it a bit until the geth's optics went out and it fell dead.
"Goddess..." Liara said from beside them, now being out of cover "You did it..."
"Nothing us two can't handle." John said panting as he looked at Tali and smiled at her.
The celebration was short lived however as the mine began its final stages of collapse. Lava began pouring out from on top of them, just narrowly missing John and hitting the spot next to him.
"Damn! Liara, where is that second exit?" John pressured her.
She nodded for both of them to follow her. Rocks were dropping from on top of them and lava seeped through cracks.
John opened up his comms as they ran "This is Shepard. Get to the Mako and pick us up at the coordinates I'm transmitting!" He opened his omni-tool and closed it after transmitting the location.
They ran for what felt like hours before coming to the secondary exit to the mines which was just about to collapse. Tali quickly went to work on the energy field blocking them from freedom when the ceiling finally gave way to lava. John quickly reacted and created a biotic field, using it to keep Tali safe as it poured on it.
"Hurry..." He spoke out of breath as his head began pounding.
Tali was rushing to deal with the field. Unfortunately prothean technology wasn't exactly her strong suit, but after several seconds, she finally got the field open allowing them to exit.
Once outside, John nearly collapsed from the pain in his head. They looked for the Mako but couldn't see it. Since John looked like he was close to passing out, Tali decided to open her comms herself "This is Tali. We need the Mako! Jo- Shepard is injured!" She corrected her use of his name, knowing he didn't like it being used in public too much.
Suddenly, they heard two sounds. One good, and one not so good. The Mako came from the top of the hill and dropped in front of them. But the mines destabilization meant that the volcano close to them began erupting. This is straight out of a damn movie...
The Mako came to a halt and the door opened with Garrus hurrying them inside. Once in, John noticed that Jane wasn't driving, but Kaidan. Instead, Jane was badly burned on her chest and having trouble breathing.
Before he made his way towards her, John opened the comms again "Joker! This is the ground team, lock on to our location and get us out of here, on the double mister!"
"You got it Commander. ETA is 8 minutes." Joker responded which Wrex groaned at.
"We better not die here or I'm gonna kill him..."
"Get us out of here Kaidan!" John ordered as Kaidan stepped on the pedal. The eruption was not exactly as you saw in movies, but it didn't mean it was good. Lava flowed everywhere and the ash was making it hard to see.
John was comforting Jane who looked close to crying from the pain while Tali focused on the shields.
It took some time, but eventually the Normandy finally arrived at their location and opened its cargo door, allowing the Mako inside as it lifted off as fast as it had landed.
Almost everyone exhaled in relief as the Normandy flew away from the planet. And it was definitely a great feeling. One thing was for certain as the Normandy left the planet, they were definitely not going to miss Therum.
