A/N: This chapter was a bit delayed since it's been a bit of a challenge to write the next one which has darker content. But here's Chapter 25, and hopefully I can finalize 26 at some point.
CHAPTER 25: COMMANDER SHEPARD'S DRIVING LESSON
"You all set?" Shepard asked after the Mako had slowed after the vehicle drop. She got three affirms from the ground team.
It had been a much slower drop and easier descent here, since the terrain here was quite flat ahead for several kilometers. Alenko noticed that Shepard had preferred to take a much more controlled descent to the surface, using the thrusters to smooth the ride more frequently than either Ashley had or even the computer would. A mountain range lay ahead, and Actus's base was just on the other side amidst mostly flat terrain, but with enough outcroppings to preclude a safe vehicle drop.
"Ready to go," Alenko confirmed, keeping his eyes on the gunner's displays.
"Good. I figure we'll have a couple hours at least before there's a chance of any more geth showing up, but I still don't want to linger too long," Shepard replied.
Garrus was intently watching the two Alliance officers operate the Mako. Wrex was sitting in a new chair that Ashley and Tali had modified to fit the large krogan, if not comfortably, then at least safely. Shepard could see that the old krogan appeared eager, even excited, at the prospect of recovering his family's armor.
The vehicle accelerated forward, and the ride turned out to be surprisingly soft and pleasant despite the speed, the commander gently navigating around elevation changes. Alenko quickly learned that Shepard was a much tamer driver than Williams – from what he had observed on Edolus, he suspected the chief did not know a brake pedal. They reached the mountains in just a few minutes, and the commander began plotting a route over. That saddle between two peaks looked good, though it was a bit steep.
"There's a small autoturret guarding their base. Anti-personnel," Joker said. "Want us to take it out?"
"Sure, give us a minute to start climbing this ridge." She carefully and deftly maneuvered the Mako up the ridge and towards the saddle, and about halfway up she said, "Slag it."
Five seconds later Joker said, quite formally in, what to her, sounded like one of the West London accents, "Turret properly slagged, Commander."
She chuckled and gave her own poor attempt at a similar accent. "Thank you, kind sir."
They reached the top of the ridge, and according to the leveling display the vehicle was tilted twenty four degrees to the right and forty three degrees up. It felt like much more than that to Alenko. The commander slowly moved it forward, but to move at a couple meters per second uphill at that angle required a fair amount of power to the drivetrain. They reached the top of the saddle, and the lieutenant was surprised to see it flatten out nearly immediately, but the rightward tilt increased.
Shepard saw that the saddle did not end with another ridge, but a drop off. Actually, a cliff. One that dropped down. Straight down. And it was a long distance to the bottom. A couple hundred meters…no, several hundred meters she saw...or a kilometer or two. The power from the drivetrain suddenly not having to fight gravity had surged the Mako forward so that the front was hanging over the edge. The commander's eyes went wide as saucers as she slammed on the brakes and she yelled, "Oh shit!"
Garrus saw the void below them beckoning. "Shit!" he shouted as the momentum carried the vehicle forward.
Alenko paled as the commander immediately threw the Mako in reverse, but too much of the front of the vehicle was already over the cliff. While Shepard certainly weighed less than a typical occupant, Wrex more than made up for it with his large bulk. With no weight on the rear tires from the front hanging off the edge, the reverse power resulted in the back wheels as well as the front spinning helplessly in the air. As a result, the vehicle slowly started to tip over the edge due to the number and size of the occupants up front.
"No no no NO NOOO!" Shepard shrieked as the vehicle finally tipped over and fell over the edge of the cliff.
They started plummeting to the valley below, and the fact that the ground was not rushing up to meet them after falling off a cliff told Alenko everything he needed to know about how high up they were.
"Spirits!" Garrus shouted as they plummeted towards the ground in an upside down vehicle.
Shepard began to reorient the Mako, aided by the onboard computers which used the mass effect core to right the vehicle. The vehicle could have easily corrected itself, but struck an outcropping from the side of the cliff. The airborne Mako tumbled end over end towards the ground far below.
"SHIT!" Alenko shouted again from the hard jolt that nearly threw him out of his seat, despite the harness. The vehicle's blaring alarms were entirely unnecessary to describe their situation at this point.
"ShiiiiiiiIIIIIITT!" Wrex bellowed in increasing decibel as the vehicle tumbled rapidly and uncontrollably towards the ground.
The commander worked with the onboard computer to right the out of control vehicle after a couple seconds. The thrusters fired and the Mako slowed rapidly, but another crunching jolt told her that they were now driving at high speed down the side of a cliff.
She slammed on the brakes, and while it helped slow them, the vehicle was going far too fast to be controllable. The cliff began to become slightly less vertical towards the bottom, but this had the effect of a ramp, launching them forward at considerable velocity with a sizable number of positive g's, as the lieutenant grayed out for a split second.
Shepard fired the thrusters even before the computer did to slow the descent and considerable forward velocity they had acquired as a result of the cliff ramp. The vehicle slowed very rapidly, aided by the mass effect core, jolting the occupants into the backs of their seats. But it was not fast enough. The Mako slammed into the ground with a bone-rattling crash, bouncing several meters back up in the air. Fortunately for the vehicle's four occupants, they had landed mostly flat on the ground, but a loud crunch and crack that told Alenko it was an unfortunate landing for the Mako's suspension.
Shepard slammed on the brakes as the wheels touched down again, lurching all four of them forward in their seats as the wheels shredded the dirt as they skidded forward. A large boulder ultimately stopped them as the right wheel slammed into the immovable object, an impact that jolted them all one final time.
Each of them was breathing heavily after the sudden and quite unexpected excitement. None of the occupants moved or spoke for several seconds.
Garrus finally spoke for all of them. "Spirits."
Wrex said, "damn," just a split second after the turian cursed.
Alenko said, "shit," under his breath a moment later.
The lieutenant then turned to look at the commander, who sat motionless except for her heavy breathing, sitting silently in her seat. A few moments later he saw a lump appear in her throat and she immediately reached down for a bag, putting it over her mouth. A moment later her eyes bulged out as she vomited into the plastic container.
She retched several more times, then removed a pouch of water to rinse her mouth out, coughing the water back out into the bag. She sealed the barf bag up tightly and drank the rest of the water in the pouch.
"Well said," Wrex commented dryly. "Though I hasten to point out that it was your driving that got us into that scrap," he growled.
"Well, the Mako can take those kind of falls without harm to its occupants…right? Alenko?" Garrus asked, a bit of skepticism in his voice.
The lieutenant paused for a moment before saying, "Yeah…I think. Maybe some bruises, but it's supposed to keep the occupants - "
"Intact enough that their remains don't have to get hosed out?" Wrex interjected.
This got a laugh out of Garrus and Kaidan. "Alive," the lieutenant finished. "There really wasn't any danger, though the final impact might have hurt us a bit if we hadn't slowed. The built-in mass effect core will always right the vehicle, and the computer will fire the thrusters to slow the rate of descent automatically without user input."
"Why didn't the computer do that this time? Did…" he paused, "Shepard actually confuse the computer?" Garrus asked skeptically.
"It's wasn't my fault," she rasped quietly.
"Guess even the computer can't handle her driving," Alenko said, receiving a sour look from the commander.
She unhooked herself from the seat and turned it partially, then twisted in the seat to face all of them. "I'm sorry about that," she said sincerely, an apologetic look in her eyes.
"Well, we certainly have a few more cases of 'bring me my brown pants' today," Alenko said dryly, receiving a shove to his shoulder.
"In all seriousness, is everyone uninjured?" Layla asked.
She got three nods confirming that everyone was unhurt, so she selected the "NO" option on a prompt on a screen asking if anyone had been injured.
"Well, that could have been worse," Alenko said with a shrug. "The prompt can also ask if immediate medical attention is needed. So the computer didn't think the impact was very bad."
"Only normal bad," Garrus said deadpan.
"I actually am hurt. My ears hurt after your screaming," Wrex growled at her.
"Sorry," Shepard replied sheepishly.
"You weren't the one sitting right next to her," Alenko said, receiving an embarrassed look from Shepard.
"I'll let Alenko or Williams drive next time," she said.
"Yes, you will," Wrex said immediately with a nod.
"Yes please," Garrus said at the same time. "Actually, Alenko, I wouldn't drive back to the Normandy, though. Chief Williams is going to be damned angry when she sees this vehicle," the turian cautioned.
"You're right. Good point," the lieutenant said.
"Yeah, you're going to have some explaining to do, I think," Garrus said.
"We should film her response to seeing the damage to this vehicle," the commander grinned. "Let's take care of this Actus guy and get back to the Normandy. Then we can all watch her reaction to this damage." While the atmosphere was breathable, it was quite cold – the outside temperature was only 255 Kelvin. "Give me thirty seconds to try to hack the door; if I can't get it done by then – " her face broke into a sudden grin, "Wrex, smash it." She briefly outlined the rest of the plan once they entered. "Everyone ready?" she asked.
She received three affirmative responses, so she gingerly accelerated the Mako towards the base. She drove slowly, not wanting to damage the vehicle further, and fortunately they were on a small plateau now with only a couple small hills. After turning around the second hill, the small base came into view, next to a small turret that had been reduced to a cooling heap of melted metal.
She stopped the vehicle about twenty meters from the entrance. "All set?" she asked, but a series of beeps from the Mako interrupted the responses. She looked to one of the displays and said, "Oh. Hi there."
Alenko acted instinctively and swiveled the vehicle's secondary armament towards the opening garage door at the several mercenaries that were waiting on the other side. The enemies fired in panic and dove for cover, obviously not expecting to see a vehicle just twenty meters from the door. Right, and the turret just blew up on its own, he thought, wondering about the competency of this band of mercenaries. Four of them fell in less than four seconds, and the rest dove for cover.
"So much for me needing to hack the garage door," Shepard muttered. "Alenko, stay on the gun until we're all inside."
Garrus opened the vehicle's hatch and jumped to the ground, sprinting to the wall next to the garage door, assault rifle out. Wrex was a step behind him and took a slightly different tactic: he biotically charged directly into the garage, dropping a nova immediately afterward and sending a pair of mercs into a wall.
Shepard followed Wrex a couple moments later, jumping out of the Mako. The sudden cold was always surprising, but she had gotten used to quick environmental changes. Plus she still had the remnants of the adrenaline from the plunge a couple minutes prior.
She followed Wrex's lead and biotically charged into the room, and saw that between the Mako's secondary armament and the angry krogan battlemaster, only two mercs were left—one left, after a series of shots from Garrus dropped one of the two. The last was seven meters away, and he was leveling his rifle at the petite biotic in front of him, but he didn't get very far. With her left hand Layla used a biotic pull on him, yanking him out of cover towards her right hand, which had readied a biotic punch. A moment later a crack sent the merc crashing into the wall in front of her. The turian corpse impacted so hard that it remained stuck to the wall for several moments, until it collapsed to the floor with a thud, leaving a large bloody stain on the wall.
"Easy enough," Wrex said. Alenko joined them from the Mako, and after all four were in he closed the door behind them. The atmospheric filters got to work immediately, pulling out the cold dry air from the garage and replacing it with warmer, moister air.
Wrex led off, with Shepard behind him, then Garrus, and Alenko bringing up the rear. The krogan turned the corner and heard one of them yell "Open fire!" He ignored it, sprinting five meters to punch a turian in the jaw, finishing him off with a shotgun.
"Won't do you any good, you little shits!" the battlemaster roared as he punched another merc in the face.
Shepard followed him in, biotic barrier glowing bright. She made it two steps before a high power sniper shot impacted her shoulder, or more accurately, impacted her barrier. Her corona flared brightly as the barrier absorbed the impact energy as she jumped behind cover. "Sniper!" she shouted.
"Not anymore," Garrus replied deadpan. He had seen the sniper aimed at the commander, and had leveled his own rifle at the batarian on the ledge. But he was not fast enough to prevent the sniper from getting a shot off at Shepard, even though the batarian's life ended a moment later in a reddish pink mist from a headshot.
Shepard stayed behind cover and recharged her barrier. Alenko unleashed a throw on two mercs, who screamed as they sailed into the back wall with a pair of thuds. A loud shot indicated that their former C-Sec teammate had dropped another merc. A moment later a shockwave from Wrex appeared out of the lieutenant's peripheral vision, blasting its way forward to toss another pair or mercs into the air. He glanced to his side to see the commander slide into cover next to him, and she promptly dropped a singularity in the corner of the room, pulling a third pair of mercs out of cover.
Alenko didn't hesitate to use his own biotics to detonate the singularity in a deafening boom. Another shot rang out, and a merc toppled out of cover minus the top part of his head.
The lieutenant then heard a panicked turian voice from up ahead. "I don't know what you're talking about!"
"Bullshit," Wrex growled. "All the rest of your goons are dead. You have no place to run, and you will unlock that door. Or I will smash your miserable excuse for a face against it until it opens!" he roared.
Alenko and Shepard entered the small room where Wrex was currently confronting a turian, the latter clutching his side from a bloody gunshot wound. The turian looked to the two humans who had entered, then did a double take at Shepard.
The krogan threatened him again, but he was only focused on one person in front of him. Actus was certain he was going to die, judging from the large, enraged krogan in front of him. But the humans had severely crippled his smuggling operations and the Traverse, and here was the human Alliance's postergirl and the first human Spectre standing just five meters in front of him. He figured if he was going to die, he might as well take this bitch with him.
Actus waited until the two humans and krogan seemed at their most relaxed. His right leg was lying on top of a shotgun, and at this close range, even a biotic barrier would have trouble blocking all of the shotgun pellets -
With lightning speed he grabbed the shotgun and leveled it at the woman in front of him -
Shepard's barrier charged instinctively as she jumped back, dark energy swirling around her as she prepared to slam the turian with her biotics. She saw the shotgun come up and level at her thighs -
The shot surprised her and she jumped, but didn't feel any pain or impact as she unleashed her biotics on the turian in front of her…only to realize said turian didn't have a head anymore just as her wave of dark energy ripped into the man. Blood showered the back wall as the headless corpse slammed into the metal with a crunch and splat. Wrex had fired his shotgun at a range of less than a meter into the turian's face, and combined with Shepard's biotics, made for an incredibly messy kill as bits of Actus and his armor painted the whole side of the wall. "Fucker," the krogan muttered, as he wiped a bit of blood and brain matter from his armor.
The lieutenant had also reacted, charging his biotics and drawing his shotgun. A wave of relief passed over him as he realized the shot was from Wrex, that the turian bastard hadn't been able to fire at the commander. At that close range…
Shepard let out a brief sigh. A moment later she said softly, "Thank you, Wrex."
"Don't get all soft and touchy-feely with me," he growled. "It'd be hard explaining to the Alliance why I should still get paid if something happened to you."
"Just admit it, Wrex, you do care," she said with a small smirk. She remained quiet for several moments, then her face broke into a wicked grin. "You're such a softie," she said.
"I am not a softie," he growled back with a glare as he stomped towards her.
"Softie," she prodded him again, trying hard to and barely succeeding not to snicker. "And I would have been fine, anyway," she shrugged. "Last time at that close range a shotgun just knocked me onto my rear."
"You've taken shotgun blasts at that close range before? And survived?" Wrex asked.
She nodded. "A few times. My barrier has saved my rear more times than I can count."
Alenko had taken shotgun blasts at close range before, but never that close, and he had spent some time in the medbay for a few days after both times it happened. But then again, he'd seen things from her biotics that he would have thought impossible a…month ago? It's only been a month? After everything that had happened…
"Hmph," the krogan said. "I would say you've got some krogan blood in you, but you wouldn't be so tiny if you did. And you'd be...less..." he paused and crossed his arms, searching for the right word "…squeaky." He broke into a satisfied chuckle, pleased that he was able to turn the tables on her.
She glared up at him. "I am not squeaky," she replied defensively.
"I heard you yell when we fell of that cliff just a few minutes ago. That was a squeak if I've ever heard one," the krogan chuckled.
"I do not squeak!" she shouted, putting her balled fists at her sides, but the tone of her voice gave the lie to the statement.
"I heard that last squeak up here," Garrus added through the comm. "And there was the time on Therum where she slipped and fell off the elevator. Remember that yelp?"
Shepard's face flushed as she remembered at just why she had slipped and fallen on Therum, and she averted her gaze from Alenko.
"I found the sniper…well, his remnants, and his rifle. The latter is almost as big as Shepard," a turian's voice came over the comm.
"I'm not that small," Shepard protested, exasperated.
"Also, I'm keeping this rifle," the turian continued.
"So why have you all decided to suddenly pick on your commanding officer?" she asked.
"Because you tried to make a tank fly," Wrex immediately growled deadpan.
Garrus snorted. "While we were in it," he added.
The commander remained silent for several moments as she adopted a thoughtful expression. "Okay, I'll give you that," she replied, then paused again. "Actually, no I didn't, since the Mako's technically not a tank."
Alenko began to hack the electronics on the secured room that Actus had seemed to intent on guarding.
Garrus appeared a few moments later, holding the large sniper rifle. The turian hadn't been exaggerating when he said it was almost as big as the petite woman with them. "Oh, that thing is nice," Wrex commented admiringly.
"Isn't it?" Garrus said. "And no, you can't touch it."
Alenko snorted amusement. "Phrasing."
"Ha!" Wrex bellowed. "So can I get a closer look at it? Or just a quick touch?"
Shepard let out an exasperated sigh. "Ugh. Do I seriously have to become the mom here?"
The door to the back room hissed open. The lieutenant looked up to see… "Huh…"
Wrex joined him a moment later. "Well, well, well. I think everyone will be coming away with something special from here."
"Would you look at that…" Garrus began.
The room turned out to be filled with rare weapons, armor, and not a few antiques. Everything from small pistols up to large sniper rifles, and rare armor sets for every species, lined the walls. Antiques from several civilizations were scattered about the room…Alenko had to admire the number of valuable items present, even if they had been pilfered.
The lieutenant looked around for several moments, and saw Shepard quickly move past him, fixated on a small rifle in the corner. She picked it up and inspected it for a few moments. Her face broke into a grin and she said, "Perfect."
The lieutenant didn't recognize the weapon, so she explained it to him. "Basically, it's not much larger and heavier than an SMG when stowed, but has an extended barrel and higher capacity heat sinks. Close to the capabilities of a DMR, but much smaller."
"How much does it cost?" Garrus asked.
"A lot," was her response.
"I'd recommend you pick up a peace offering for Chief Williams while here, Commander," the lieutenant told her.
She grinned. "Good idea. I will probably need a few of them, actually." She shrugged. "We can tag this place for the Alliance to come clean up, but they would probably send some PMC instead, and…"
"It'd be a shame for all this high quality gear to go to waste," Wrex finished. He had already set aside a few weapons that he was planning to keep.
"Exactly," Shepard said with a nod. "Still not sure why he'd bother having all these weapons locked up in here, though, instead of giving them to his guys to use against any potential intruders. But then again, what are the odds of people coming to raid his base," she shrugged. She had already picked up the mini-DMR, and was searching through other weapons, finding a compact shotgun and a pair of pistols for herself, before loading other valuable weapons and armor onto a handcart. "Convenient of them to have this here," she muttered.
Garrus and Alenko rummaged through and each found a set of armor that would fit them, plus several new weapons.
"See what armor there is for asari, and for quarian and human females. It'd be great to get a set for Tali, Ashley, and Liara."
"Or just take it all," Wrex muttered.
"Everything we can fit into the Mako, goes," Shepard confirmed.
"Are you going to some armor for yourself?" Garrus asked the commander.
"Probably won't be able to find a set that fits me," she shrugged with a slight look of disappointment.
"Don't worry, you'll always have that pink armor," Wrex grinned at her, receiving a glare in response.
Layla, Kaidan, and Garrus each took a full load of weapons and armor crates to the garage, and went back for a second load of gear. They returned to see the krogan looking reverently at something in the corner.
"Here it is," he said quietly. "After all these years…" He slowly stooped to pick up a weathered, ceremonial chest armor plate for krogan. He looked inside of it, searching for the faint marking…yes, this was it, beyond any doubt. "I can't believe my ancestors wore this piece of crap, but here it is."
Shepard slowly approached him on his left, and she looked around his massive frame to see him continuing to stare at the armor, holding it gingerly. "This is it? Beyond any doubt?" she asked him softly.
"Yes," he replied. His tone was the standard deep gravel for a krogan, and while she found non-humans hard to read, she could hear real emotion in it.
She gently reached up to pat him on the shoulder. "I'm glad you were able to find it," she said softly with a smile of satisfaction.
The massive krogan turned to face her. "Most people…well, they wouldn't have bothered to come to one of billions of planets in the Traverse to recover an old set of armor," he told her. "Thank you, Shepard."
"I'm glad it was here." She paused for a couple seconds, then her face broke into a wicked grin. "Softie."
He drew his head to within thirty centimeters of hers, baring his teeth as he growled down at her. Shepard pursed her lips to prevent herself from snickering. "Squeaky," he retorted. The krogan growled at her again with a shake of his head as he turned to exit the room, Shepard following him and trying her hardest not to burst into laughter. The four rummaged through the remainder of the gear, each taking as much as they could carry to the garage.
They had collected a sizable amount of very high-quality gear from the back room. Shepard opened the garage door and was quickly greeted by a wave of cold air. Each of them picked up as much as they could carry from the pile and began storing it in the Mako crew compartment. Garrus and Wrex went back to get the rest while Alenko passed the gear to Shepard, who was kneeling in the Mako and fitting all of the gear into the sides and corners of the vehicle.
Several minutes later they had finished stashing the gear into every nook and cranny of the Mako, and all four climbed inside. Wrex could barely fit in his seat with all the secured gear stashed throughout the vehicle. Shepard closed the door and kicked in the heaters, her breath coming in puffs of vapor from her mouth. She sighed, then muttered, "Now, how to explain this to Chief Williams…" Alenko kept his face impassive, but Wrex had an ear-to-ear grin, likely for two reasons. "Commander Shepard to Ghostrider," she said into the comm.
"I hear you, Commander," Joker replied. "Finished up down there?"
"Yes. I take it no hits on the passive array, or you would have called."
"No contacts. Not a peep."
"We're going to need a pickup. It will have to be a slow drive in up the ramp," Shepard clarified. "Can you find a place nearby? We won't be able to climb back over the mountains. Over," she stated.
"Uhhh…copy that, Commander. Stand by." There was silence on the other end for approximately twenty seconds, then Garrus spoke up.
"You think Joker's telling Williams to prepare the welcoming committee?" the turian asked.
"Hmm…probably," Alenko responded.
Shepard glared at the two of them, and the comm came to life a few seconds later. "Here will work," the pilot said, the location coming up on their map. It was less than a kilometer away, and was just big enough for the Normandy to "land" and the Mako to drive up the ramp. It wouldn't actually fully land, as only one of the landing struts would make contact with the ground, but it would also give them a chance to discharge the drive core. "What happened? You can't drive back over those mountains?"
A long pause lingered over the comm. "Umm…no?" Shepard said with an amused look.
Silence hung over the comm channel for several moments. "Why can't you do a normal jump into the bay?" the pilot continued.
"We had a …complication. It's better to handle it this way. Over."
"Complication? There was one turret there, and GARDIAN shot the hell out of it!" the pilot replied.
"There were…other issues," Shepard responded.
"Uhh…OK," the pilot finally said in surprise. "Our ETA is, uh, four minutes."
"Copy that. It will probably take us a bit longer. Out," the commander responded.
"Uhhh…what," Joker said to himself, wondering what the hell had happened down there. More than four minutes to go that little distance? There had been no pings of any kind indicating that anything was wrong, but yet…well, he would find out soon enough.
He came up with a possible explanation a few seconds later as the Normandy executed his planned maneuvers. What the hell did they do to the Mako? Better let Williams know, he thought with a grin.
The Normandy gently touched down on the surface of Tuntau, with its left rear landing strut contacting the ground, and extended a ramp for Mako to drive up. The front right wheel gyrated wildly, causing the entire vehicle to constantly shudder as it slowly drove forward, and the suspension and brakes threw sparks as the Mako stopped. The right wheel, however, did not stop with the rest of the vehicle. The last lug nut popped off and the wheel continued rolling towards the elevator.
Ashley stared in mute horror, jaw agape, eyes transfixed on the wheel slowly rolling past her. It came to a stop with a thud against the far wall. She then turned back to vehicle. "What is…what did you do to my Mako!?" she screamed. She stormed to it as the side door opened and Wrex got out, holding his armor, followed a moment later by Garrus. "Just…just look at it! What the hell did you do?"
"We're just the passengers," Garrus replied quickly, as he immediately vacated the scene.
"L-T what did you do to my Mako!?"
"Hey, I was just the gunner," Alenko said, holding his hands up. "The commander drove."
The chief's paused for a moment as she wondered what she could get away with her CO and the first human Spectre.
"Yeah…sorry," Shepard said sheepishly.
"Just what the hell happened down there!? You had this thing for what? Thirty minutes?"
The commander glanced at her omni-tool. "Twenty seven minutes, nineteen seconds by my watch," Shepard clarified.
"That's not helping your case. There was one turret. One measly turret, and the Normandy blew that the hell up."
"It's the computer's fault," the commander replied unconvincingly.
The chief crossed her arms. "With all due respect, ma'am, that's bullshit. You were driving." She looked back to Alenko. "What did she do?"
"Nothing." Layla looked at Kaidan. "I did nothing, Lieutenant Alenko," she reminded him.
He shrugged, looking between the two women. "She drove us off a cliff," he replied nonchalantly, receiving a glare from his CO.
The chief rolled her eyes in complete disbelief. "You had scans of the other side! How the hell did you even manage to do that?" Williams asked incredulously to silence.
She shrugged. "I honestly have no response to that, other than maybe because Joker is onto something with the blonde stereotype."
The chief alternated looks between Shepard and the damaged Mako, with another glance to the wheel that lay in the corner of the loading bay. "Unbelievable. Unfrigginbelievable," Williams said finally. "Alright," she sighed, "let's see what the damage is."
"A little damage to the front and the suspension," Alenko said.
"Yeah, a little damage to the front and suspension. Clearly not enough to cause the entire friggin' wheel to pop off," Ashley said dryly.
"And that too," he added.
The chief walked around the vehicle, frowning. "How bad was the fall?"
"Honestly, it seemed worse at the time. Lower gravity made the fall seem farther than it was," Alenko answered.
The chief finished appraising the damage, finally shrugging as she looked back to the commander. "Well, on the plus side, fixing all the damage you caused gives me something to do during these FTL trips."
"Don't say I never do nice things," the Spectre grinned back.
The chief scowled, crossing her arms. "You sure have a twisted idea of doing nice things, skipper."
"We're set down here. Take us back to the relay," Shepard said into her armor's comm.
Shepard and Williams got to work repairing the Mako, the former not bothering to change out of her armor. The commander slid her small frame underneath the Mako without any issues, the chief removed the front armor panels, and the two got to work repairing the vehicle.
"I presume the entire crew now knows of what happened the first time I drove the Mako."
"And probably the last. At least, the last with other people as occupants."
"Definitely as willing occupants," Shepard agreed. She removed a damaged component, tossing it to the side from under the vehicle. "Where did you become the resident vehicle master?"
"My second garrison duty. There wasn't anyone who had a specialization in vehicle repairs, and given I was a Williams with the cursed family name, I took it upon myself to learn. Kept with it ever since."
"Not a bad skillset to have at all, especially with my driving."
"Shit, you had this thing for what, not even a half hour."
"Just imagine the damage I could do if I had it for a day!" the commander responded. The chief couldn't see her face at the moment, but from the tone, Shepard probably had an evil grin on her face.
"Please don't ever do that," Ashley responded, imagining a twisted, unrecognizable heap of metal and ceramic only fit for scrap being towed into the Normandy's cargo bay.
"It was actually pretty funny on Noveria when we were getting the Mako past inspection. You were like an angry lioness protecting her cub from the hyenas." Again, the chief could almost hear the grin on her face.
"I'm not going to have some asshole who doesn't even know what a clutch is touch my Mako."
The two women kept chatting while repairing the vehicle, replacing the damaged wheel, with Williams now occasionally requesting Shepard to perform various tasks as well. The fixes now needed went beyond the commander's knowledge.
As they had nearly finished up, the chief saw Lieutenant Alenko approach. He had changed out of his armor and into a jumpsuit, and approached the Mako slowly. The chief spoke up before he could.
"Hey L-T," she said with a look of amusement that he couldn't quite decipher. The chief heard a soft clank as it sounded that Shepard had dropped a tool in surprise from somewhere underneath the vehicle.
"Where's the commander?" He frowned. "You didn't…"
An armored arm shot out from underneath the Mako, waving. "I'm here."
He snorted. "How're the repairs going?" he asked.
"Almost done," the chief responded.
"Anything I can help with?"
The chief told him, and said, "Unfortunately, I can't reach it. And if I can't, you definitely can't L-T."
"Fortunately, I'm tiny," the commander responded from underneath the Mako.
The chief handed the part under the vehicle, and a small armored hand appeared and grabbed the replacement. "Will you be able to reach it?"
A quick laugh came from underneath the vehicle. "You mean you never made pillow forts as a child?"
Both subordinates got on their knees to look, and the commander had pulled herself into a tight spot in the vehicle, far enough that Alenko could only see her legs. About twenty seconds later she started sliding out of the spot, and crawled out from under the Mako.
"Got it. That's everything, right?" the Spectre asked.
"Should be. Let me fire it up and see." The three of them reattached one of the front armor panels. It had suffered minor damage from the impacts, but they didn't have a replacement for it.
Williams got in the vehicle, powered it up, and checked out the systems diagnostics for a couple minutes.
"Nice of you to help fix the damage that you caused," Alenko said dryly.
Shepard grinned back at him. Her hair in its loose bun had become a bit messy, a few strands falling in front of her face and around her ears. The first thought that came to his mind was he should reach out and stroke the slightly unruly strands of hair back behind her ears. She had a small smudge of something on her right cheek, but somehow she still looked ridiculously cute. He had to stop thinking such thoughts about his CO. He really needed to take leave, he knew, or at least get some time and space to himself. The odds of either were unlikely on such a small ship.
"Everything checks out," the chief said as she exited the vehicle. "The only thing we can't do is replace the armor panel with a new one, but this one is only scratched and it won't affect its protection at all."
"Great," Shepard responded. She slid underneath the vehicle, and a pair of minutes later the lifts had been removed from the fully repaired vehicle. "Need me to do anything else?"
"Yes. NEVER drive the Mako again."
"Don't worry, I will," the Spectre replied with a conspiratorial look.
The chief shook her head. "Please don't, skipper."
