"For capitalism, war and peace are business and nothing but business." - Karl Liebknecht
Chapter 14 - Noveria: Port Hanshan
Thinking about it, this must've been the first time I was actually annoyed while keeping a potential threat at gunpoint.
Then again, strictly speaking, I wasn't aiming my gun at them with the intention to kill, but rather to avoid being suspicious - my comrades were doing the same thing.
That being said, Stirling's face looked like a perfect match for a round from my Judgement-V pistol.
"I told you." I calmly exclaimed, keeping my gaze pinned on the rent-a-cop's grimace.
To my right, I heard a double-layered sigh.
Ten hours prior
"Don't jinx it, Raven. Just don't."
I rose my left hand to make a calming gesture. The right one was occupied with a fork.
"I'm just sayin'! A world full of bureaucrats, mega-corporations and classified research? It reeks of red tape and dead bodies."
"I know," said our resident sniper with quite some discomfort, "But just talking about it makes me sick."
Garrus poked listlessly in some turian rations. Our ship's forced stay in the Alliance dry-dock had the additional benefit of allowing us to finally get our hands on some upgraded food; Shepard's angelic influence, no doubt.
Now, I don't want to badmouth Alliance logistics, but it was certainly... interesting that my rations had started to taste better as soon as I had gotten that last increase to my rank and my payday. Or maybe whatever Chakwas had injected into my bloodstream had confused my taste buds quite significantly. However, I had been around for long enough to not ask any unnecessary questions.
Unfortunately, Tali's and Garrus' upgrade to their diet was seemingly limited to 'It's now a solid meal instead of paste', or in Tali's case, 'They found me some turian spice for my paste.' I did my best to cheer up Garrus though – that being said, it wasn't much. And for Tali, I had secretly bought some turian meat rations from my very own money and had stored that in our refrigerator. It was still nutrient paste, and as such naturally not nearly as nice as sinking your teeth into some nutritious delicious chicken, but with that helmet that would've been even more of a problem.
And I didn't leave a note about me buying it. That's how good a teammate I was. The rations were gone within three days, and I'm certain that only Tali's iron will had made it last that long. To her credit, I didn't notice any signs of intoxication.
"We'll be present to see it in all its glory soon enough, mein Freund!" I happily exclaimed and took a sip from my fruit juice. "May as well think about it while we're still here. That way, you can be disgusted right now and don't have to do that while we're simultaneously freezing our asses off."
"Thank you, Raven." he answered, sourly. "Thank you so much."
"Is Raven giving you a hard time, Vakarian?"
Ashley approached from behind, but I after a few months on this ship, I had grown used to people suddenly appearing behind me...
"Not more than usual." he responded without turning around. "But he seems high in spirits, and that is scary."
I grinned in an obnoxious fashion. It was satisfying, how Ash and Garrus were starting to - while still not being the best of friends – at least treat each other with respect. I like to think that part of it was due to them bonding over being victims of my sarcastic antics. If it helped them being more social, I was fine with being an annoyance.
As long as they thought of me as an effective and reliable teammate when shit came together, that is.
I was even happier when I saw Liara peeking out her blue head behind Ash's back.
"Hey, Liara! Nice to see you coming out of your lil' empire, for once."
"Yes." The former archeologist didn't seem too confident, though. "The Commander was quite adamant about, well... me spending more time in the ship's mess."
"I honestly can't blame her for it." I replied, smile fading. "You really ought to spend more time with us," I pointed at all of our squadmates, "instead of your papers or the extranet. We do miss your company." The other showed signs of agreement.
"Thank you. Maybe you're right." She conceded. "I'm just...not used to it."
"Oh, we don't bite." said Garrus, of all people.
"I think you've caught us at a bad time, though." I said brightly. "I'm tryin' to get this guy into the right mood for our next mission."
"Yes..." From the sadness distorting Liara's face, I knew that I had made a mistake. Obviously she was dreading the confrontation with her mother.
"By telling me just how many paper-pushers we will have to expect once we're there," Garrus growled.
"Sounds fun." Ashley grinned mischievously. "If it gets you angry enough, you'll be much, much more effective when we need to question 'em."
As much as I would've liked to continue small-talking, a look at the clock reminded me of the unfortunate reality of having to sleep before we embarked. I bid my comrades a good night - leaving Liara in their care, for better or for worse - and made my way to my footlocker.
Since there was still a lot of time until the next shift, I was relatively early. In the relative privacy of myself and a few people still being asleep in their pods, my grin vanished and I pulled a small item from the locker.
A data disc, compatible with most holographic devices and capable of recording both sound and film. It was empty now, though.
I gave it a thoughtful glance, then shook my head and put it back under my spare clothing. No.
This was neither the right time, nor the right place to record my Last Will. But I had to get that done before Virmire.
Back to the present
"Sometimes I wished you'd just shut up, Raven." Garrus whispered. I could only give a tight-lipped grin in response - not quite effective, since my face was covered up again.
The build-up to this situation had gone according to plan - I wasn't in the helm in person, but Shepard had told us about Port Hanshan's unfriendly welcome, warned us all to never drop our guard, and ordered us to gear up. All of us.
Half an hour after that, we'd stepped into the port - to be met by Ms. Matsuo, Ms. Sterling and their four henchmen. Their order to surrender our guns had been met with a response that they should've been expecting.
I actually enjoyed the standoff, not bothering to train my sights on anyone but Stirling herself.
Of all the boss enemies, or minor boss enemies in the entire trilogy, Stirling was one of those few that I'd absolutely loved to hate. One of the many mercenaries without any principles - without any style, you might say. There were zero redeeming qualities about her, and in reality, it was even worse.
Her eyes darted between the eight of us, briefly lingering on me. It was fun watching her sweat. That blonde bitches' arrogance when asking us to 'show some respect', because they 'were the law here' had vanished amusingly quickly. She was paid to perform backstabs - not to meet a formidable enemy head-on. Her 'Captain' was a bit more composed - but she was facing Wrex and Shepard, so all her composure wouldn't really count for much.
The rest of those lowlife mercs wasn't looking much better either.
"Captain Matsuo, stand down!" Ms. Parasini's somewhat embarrassed order, broadcasted via speakers did calm the situation. "We confirmed their identity. SPECTRE's are authorized to carry weapons here, Captain."
"You may proceed, SPECTRE." said Japanese replied. "I hope the rest of your visit will be less confrontational."
I resisted the temptation to roll my eyes.
"Parasini-san will meet you upstairs." she continued, politely.
"Behave yourselves." Stirling snarled.
Oh, fuck you. "Don't bet your life on it."
The way our eyes met, her lips pressed to a thin, bloodless line, actually caused my lips to twist in an amused manner.
I'm not gonna say that my day went better - but it certainly went more interesting.
Once out of sight and hearing range, Shep turned around and gave me the lecture that I was expecting.
"Raven! What was that?"
"I'm sorry, Commander," and I made sure that my voice was everything but apologizing, "but I'm certainly not allowing some bloody rent-a-cop to treat me like a..."
"We are not here to be confrontational, Raven! We may need their help to achieve our goals and fulfill our mission. Their house, their rules."
"Raven is right, Shepard." I certainly did not expect help from Wrex' direction. "They're wasting our time. You've let us pull guns on them. Let's keep it that way."
Shepard exhaled between clenched teeth. I suppressed any feelings of triumph, which wasn't easy as it was clearly visible that most of my teammates agreed with me. Their faces spoke volumes.
"If we want to get results, we need to stick to their rules, as inconvenient as that may be. And that means all of you. I don't like this either, but the fastest way to get what we want is to follow their ways."
"Or, to carve out new ones."
Shepards gaze snapped back to me. I was willing to bet that she had another reprimand on her tongue, but she bit it back. Instead, her eyes lit up and burned holes into my skull.
"What are you suggesting?"
Actively influencing things in front of everyone was a step out of my comfort zone. But I had to. Feros had been a lesson. Crow had made a lot of good points. And I wanted Feros to be done as soon as possible.
"Following their path will pin us down in bureaucratic bullcrap, Commander. I don't believe for a second that they haven't been aware of your SPECTRE status," I said, looking around for unwanted eavesdroppers. "Someone wants to play games with us. My money is on Saren and Benezia. If we let them, they'll slow us down for long enough to get what they want and bail."
"Sadly, you are right, Raven", said Liara, lowering her head. "My mother has centuries of experience in this kind of arena."
"Not your fault, Doc." I replied, briefly giving Liara a smile. "Anyway. If we want to move fast enough to stand a chance, we must find a way to, well, bypass the official way."
"Uh-hum." Made Shep, eyes fixed on me. I felt like a vulture was staring at me. "So, what are you suggesting?"
"I can only speak for myself," I said before switching to a sarcastic tone, "But from my experience, wherever those mega-corps are, there's a lot of dirty laundry to be washed. They don't like to share their playground. Maybe we should look into shaking them up a bit."
To that, Shepard gave a court nod. "You may be right. But first, let's go meet that 'Parasini-san' and see what we have to do."
"I can't have my investigation hampered," Shep said, visually annoyed.
"Tread lightly. The Board can bury you in litigation. You'd need an asari lawyer to see the case through." Gianna Parasini replied in a somewhat amused tone.
I merely grinned again. Yes. Benezia had passed through and headed to Peak 15, just as I had expected. And we would have to deal with Administrator Anoleis. Fun times, wherever I was looking.
That being said, Shepard chose Liara, Garrus, Kaidan and Ashley to accompany her to deal with the bureacrap. Maybe she didn't trust Wrex, Tali and me to be diplomatic enough. Whatever.
We were assigned to hang back, to be called in later, but primarily to observe what was happening in the streets of Port Hanshan while Shep was gone. For me, that meant it was perfectly fine to linger around the lower floor, leaning against one of those decorative walls and just… wait. With a cigarette in hand to keep myself occupied.
On a more beautiful location, I would've probably used the time to do some sightseeing, or just enjoy the scenery. But being careless on Noveria was the best way of land in all sorts of trouble. I even went as far as to extinguish my cigarette against my armor, and stow the stub in one of my many pockets. Maybe that was quite paranoid - retrospectively, I think it was - but you could never know. If Ms. Masuko regarded it as necessary to keep her people close to our NORMANDY in order to keep the mega-corps from trying to screw us over, then everything was possible.
Plus… Port Hanshan was ugly enough already, without me dumping cigs everywhere. Maybe the raging blizzard outside made it much more worse than usual, but with the entire complex being grey, somewhat rundown and with someone desperately trying to… well, increase it's value with some mismatch of decorations, the capital of Noveria did its best to ruin my mood.
The equally cold businesspeople didn't improve things, although I have to admit, it was fun watching them becoming uneasy as soon as they spotted the Alliance-markings on my armor. Or maybe the one big spot of red, big, annoyed krogan next to me. I shouldn't take too much credit.
We didn't speak that much. Tali was busy trying to not be too intimidated by the surroundings, Wrex was as talkative as the concrete that lend this area its grey.
At least I had my cigarette to give me an illusion of warmth.
As such, we dutifully guarded the area for exactly 43 minutes. I know that because I looked at my wristwatch every so often, waiting for the inevitable and curious about our next steps. There were few ways to continue up to Peak 15…
"Shepard speaking. Raven, do you copy?"
Just as I had finished my second cigarette, Shepard called. Eager to get away from here, I almost choked on the smoke I inhaled before activating my com.
"Loud and clear, Commander. What's up?"
"First off, you were right." She said it in such an entertaining manner that it raised my spirits by a hundredfold. "I was asked by a corp rep to spy on another corp rep, and I was asked to smuggle."
"Told ya." I couldn't help myself.
"Second, I need the three of you to try and take a discrete look at what's happening inside the offices of Synthetics Insights. That's the large skyscraper right next to your position. Do it without being seen, or raise suspicion. Can you do that?"
I took a look to the side. Nobody was guarding the elevator.
"That's a negative, Commander. It's impossible to take a look into Synthetics Insights from where we are, and most of their windows appear to be one-way."
"Damn. Okay, listen up: Watch the entrance to that building! If anyone's leaving it, stop and search them! And let me know about anyone who's entering."
"Understood. May I ask why?"
"Long story short: Peak 15 is home to Binary Helix' research labs. Saren's a major stockholder in there, and Benezia was last seen there as well. The administrator, Anoleis, is claiming that contact has been lost simply due to the ongoing blizzard, but won't let us access the garages and access their equipment to try our hands at getting up there."
"You don't believe him."
"Is it that obvious? Anyway, we've made a deal with one Lorik Qui'in. He's heading the local Synthetics Insights office, and can give us his access card. But we need to stop the Anoleis' bribed guards from taking, or destroying evidence he has for that man's corruption."
I exhaled loudly. "I'd say that I'm surprised, but I'm not. What's our next step?"
"Noted, Raven. We're on our way to regroup with you. Keep your eyes open until we arrive. Shepard, out."
I lowered my arm again. "A planet full of nicely dressed crooks and sharks wearing white collars. Why am I not surprised…?" I asked sarcastically. I gestured at Wrex. "We should've just brute-forced our way to Peak 15. Fuck diplomacy and big business."
"Yeah… Calm down, pyjak. I can't afford to scare away future contractors."
"Yeah, yeah I get it, Wrex." I pulled out my pistol and checked the ammunition. In preparation for the upcoming opposition, I had loaded it with anti-personnel rounds - a hollow point design capable of inflicting serious wounds on any organic target, even when it was wearing light armor. "But you have to admit, getting those dress-wearing money grabbers to run for their lives would be more fun."
He bellowed shortly. "Can't argue with that."
I closed the pistol slide again, satisfied with my quick look, then I noticed that Tali was staring at me. "Something wrong, Tali?"
"What's up with you, Raven? You seem to be on the edge about something." she said, rather calmly, curious even, and worried. "I have never seen you so angry. Are you okay?"
I closed my eyes for a second, steadying myself.
I genuinely hate this mission, it's my second least favourite of Mass Effect 1, I hope I can help Benezia somehow, I don't want Liara to witness her mother's death, I'm afraid of the Asari Commandos in our way, and by the way, the mission after this one will see one of our guys dead if I fuck up.
And we're stuck with a bunch of criminals bashing each others heads in.
"Don't worry, Tali, I'm mostly fine. Two things. The entire atmosphere of this place, and the fact we've got all these 'big shots' running around, who think everything in the galaxy can be bought with credits." I gestured into nothing, and snarled. "I detest being a piece in someone's game. Plus, my record with that kind of guys isn't exactly stellar. They used to hire us gangs back on Earth, but more often than not refused to pay up. We were 'human resources', you know, 'deniable assets'."
Done with my little rant, I fully turned around and flashed her a toothy grin. "But it's a lot of fun wiping that arrogant mask from their faces. - Speaking of which," with that I removed my balaclava, no having bothered wearing my helmet in the first place, "I should probably dress up."
I removed the balaclava and looked at it briefly as I brushed over my hair. Just a regular balaclava; sadly my 'special' copy had been beyond repair - and I had tried my best. But the replacement for combat-conditions was superior in any regard, I wasn't complaining. The only negative to the Recon Hood was that it concealed my entire face - not suitable for a civilian environment, Shepard had decided. On the other hand, I did not want my face to show up on any kind of CCTV. The less amount of data people had on me, the better.
Again, probably a lot of paranoia. But knowing that I'd have to deal with Cerberus and other unpleasant organisations in the future, Shadow Broker, what not, I felt safer this way. My Commander had given me a strange look, but not asked any questions. I was not sure if I was pressing my luck, or not. What I did know: Keeping that fabric on when combat was almost guaranteed was indeed pushing my luck.
So I replaced it with the recon hood, pushed the slightly stiff material over my ears and connected it to my armor. My surroundings got a slightly blue hue, and not without satisfaction I watched the internal HUD initialize. "I think this will get a lot more interesting, folks." I said matter-of-fact, my voice now broadcasted to the world with a slightly static undertone.
Now sealed from the environment, I checked my equipment over one last time and looked up to see my companions doing the same thing.
"Weren't you asking Shepard to find you something to kill earlier, Wrex? You know, to get your blood pumping? I suspect that time has now come."
"Hooray." he replied. Tone not changing a bit.
Shepard arrived five minutes later, signalled us her wordless order to follow and led us to the elevator leading up to Synthetics Insights.
As we stepped into the elevator - it got a bit cramped with eight people plus a disgruntled krogan - she spoke up. "The short version: We need to secure evidence against the port's administrator, a salarian called Anoleis. This office's director has agreed to give us his garage access pass in exchange for taking Anoleis down. The mercs that are searching the building are, supposedly, on Anoleis' payroll - and quite dirty."
"Rules of engagement?" I asked, courtly and readying my trusted Mattock.
"Return fire as needed. But if they can be talked with, we'll talk."
We arrived on the 12th floor and disembarked, weapons drawn but not aiming.
A formidable sight, in my opinion. And I'm sure the two ERCS guards that noticed us and moved to block our path agreed.
Outnumbering them eight to two, it was quite easy for Shepard to sweet-talk these two into having a temporary amnesia. They hurried to the elevator and went out of there, probably wanting to go home and rethink their lives.
Our luck ended three meters further into the offices, though. Another guardsman had probably overheard our conversation, emerged from cover and opened fire. So, we went to work.
"I've secured the evidence on this disc, Commander."
You could always count on Tali to get anything done that was even vaguely linked to computer systems. I'm sure that after losing half the data back on Binthu, our leader was more than happy to let someone else handle that stuff.
We others stood guard, essentially watching over empty business space and thirteen corpses. That is, thirteen corpses and one guard on his knees, hands folded on his head, keeping his eyes down and bleeding from his face.
If I recalled correctly, that meant we had failed our secondary objective - to keep blood stains off the carpet, as Mr. Qu'in had asked Shepard so nicely. But the very grim-looking Ashley William, who kept the poor bastard at gunpoint, had no mind for such trivialities.
I guess I can't fault the ERCS mercs' fighting spirit. And admittedly, it was a bit unnerving for me to get rushed - not exactly what you want if you're lightly armored and carrying a scoped semi-automatic rifle. This 'tactic' was still suicidal at best, and while their employer had given their guys some decent gear, they used it without any brain.
This particular wannabe-badass had thought it a good idea to rush Ashley. Actually, maybe it was. She did slam her rifle's stock in his face, causing him to bleed profoundly and loose a few teeth; but at least he still had his life.
Shep took the OSD from Tali and stowed it in her armor. "Okay, good. That should be all we need."
"Commander, we're about to get company." I cut her short. My sight helped me out as an improvised binocular, allowing for a clear view across the sizeable floor. "At least ten more of them coming up the elevator. Remember that one cop from when we arrived in the docking bay? The one with the blonde hair? I think she's among them, maybe even their leader."
I could see them talk among themselves. And Stirling snarled in response, flaring up blue as if to prove something.
"Be advised; that woman appears to be a biotic. And they do not look like they're here to negotiate."
Shepard nodded, sadly, as I noticed with some surprise. "So be it, then. I'll try it regardless."
We left the manager's office (sealing the injured ERCS guy inside) and went to meet our adversary.
"I don't think you're supposed to be here, Shepard." Stirling glowered. Her underlings were understandably tense - they had probably seen their comrades' bodies.
"I'm afraid you'll have me at a disadvantage, Miss…?"
"Oh, now you'll show some respect?"
"That remains to be seen." whispered Garrus. I desperately wanted to nudge him.
"I'm Sergeant Kaira Stirling, Elanus Risk Control Services. Anoleis would throw you off-world for this. I won't. You know what we did to cop-killers on my world?"
"Dying, like the rest of your guys?" I rose to speak, coldly, sarcastically. "I'm impressed. Really."
"You're here off-duty, breaking the law for bribe money." Tali added, exasperated. "You expect us to feel bad for stopping you?"
"I didn't want to fight them. They fired first." Shepard tried one last time to be civil. But even before she had finished the sentence, Stirling's minions were drawing their weapons.
"Well, I don't need a gun to rip you to pieces." she bragged. And her shields lit up.
"Try me, bitch."
Wrex proved again why he was the uncrowned king of one-liners, summing up what everyone thought.
It was over within two minutes. Fifteen more corpses on the ground. No injury on our side. I claimed the kill on Stirling, my round tore right through her heart.
"This is an outrage! I'll see that you never work in this sector again!"
"Yeah, yeah. Get a move on."
"I would've offered my help, Ms. Parasini," Kaidan said, arms folded and head tilted at the sight of a very displeased and very much restrained Administrator Anoleis, "But you seem to be enjoying yourself."
"You! Shepard! I demand you place this wench under arrest!" said Salarian snapped. "She has no right to treat me like this! Free me this instant!"
"I do." The Internal Affairs operative responded to his antics by tightening her grip on his arm even more. "Thank you for your generous offer, Lieutenant, but we don't want to give him any chance of appealing his arrest in court, now do we?"
"Sounds wise." Shepard agreed. "If you don't mind, we'll be on our way to Peak 15. We need to know what's happening there."
"Of course, thanks again for your help. See you around the Galaxy, Commander! I owe you a beer. Come on, Mr. Anoleis, move it!"
The sight of this haughty salarian being dragged away like a common criminal, bitching and complaining all the time brought me no small amount of enjoyment. It had always been my favourite part about all of Noveria, and while I had been spared his... unpleasantness in real life, his arrest felt so much better witnessing it in person, regardless.
As soon as these two were out of sight, Shepard produced a small, chipcard-sized item from her chest pouch.
"Is that the pass we were after?" I asked her, eying up the inscription on top. Noveria Council Travel & Logistics Permit.
"Hmph. Awful lot of dead bodies for a puny keycard." Wrex added.
"Both of you are right," Shepard said and stowed it away again. "Come on, folks, we need to get moving. We've lost too much time already."
It was a short walk to the garage door and the young merc guarding it. A small exchange of words, and the way was cleared.
While the others poured in, I remained behind, not wanting to be the first one to be targeted. Even from here, through stained glass I saw just what power the snowstorm wielded. Despite the tension in my body, I shivered.
"Lovely weather." I exclaimed sarcastically. "Is Noveria always this pleasant to visit?"
The guardswoman smiled insecurely. I guess talkin' to a masked man made people nervous, especially on this world of nice dresses and backstab politics.
"Oh no, Sir," She did an admirable job of hiding behind irony, "Sometimes, we have a meteor showering this part of Noveria with radioactive material. Then it's even more lovely."
I let my head hang low, for show, and groaned, although it pleased me to be called 'sir' now. But I wasn't going to let that distract me. Internally, I counted down. Any second n...
A big red triangle showed up on my HUD, accompanied by an ugly warning sound.
The same second, I drew my rifle and pressed a button on my left glove. I felt the sting and heard the hiss of a discharging syringe in my armor.
"I'm jammed!" I heard Ashley shout. "Contact!"
The young woman in front of me paled, hastily brought her sights up to her eyes and peaked around the corner to see what was going on.
Before I could warn her, a loud crack sounded, and she slumped to the ground with a scream. Blood splattered from her throat.
My vision turned red, time slowed down as my combat drugs took effect. Leaning around cover, I noticed two Geth Hoppers on the ceiling above me. I lined up my sights and pulled the trigger four times.
Two piles of scrap fell to the ground.
I exhaled before looking down...
... and was surprised to find the guard still clinging onto her life. Eyes wide, rifle dropped, and desperately coughing for air as blood poured through the hands she had pressed on her chest.
My drugged mind functioned without any emotions. From a reflex, I jumped behind the wall where she laid, ignoring the gunfire behind me.
"Ally down, gebt mir Deckung! (Cover me!)"
I didn't have time to be bothered by the brief slip into my native tongue. I kneeled and brought up the medical interface on my omnitool. As it ran its scan, I already searched for the latches that kept the now useless chest armor in place.
"Don't talk. Breath slowly. I got you." I told her in what I hoped was a soothing voice. It seemed to work, at least a bit. But her heart rate was falling too quickly.
I tossed the plate aside and looked at the mess. Medigel would only help so much.
"Doc, I need help!"
"I'm here, Raven. The bullet penetrated the throat armor, caused superficial damage and ricocheted into her right lung. Administer medigel on three and five, use Yellow on the coeliac trunc. That will keep her lung from collapsing and minimize the blood loss. I'm calling up the Hanshan Medical Ward, we need her in surgery quickly. Keep monitoring!"
I did as told, glad to have Chakwas wired up to my equipment. Before I could administer any sort of painkillers however, a loud voice came from her removed helmet.
"Jenn, what the hell is happening down there? Report in! Jenn!"
It was a matter of seconds to reach for the comm-unit, dial it to my own comms and reply.
"This is Private Raven of NORMANDY. Officer down at the garage, I'm stabilizing her. Captain, we're meeting heavy resistance! Geth units all over the place! Send medics, and bring guns! We need you here, fucking yesterday!"
"Ich bin kein Geth, du Scheiß-Idiot!" (I'm no Geth, you crappy idiot!)
The round had bounced off my shields, harmlessly impacting into the ground somewhere away from me and my patient, but it had caused me to lose what little patience and calmness I had left.
Fast-forwarding five minutes, and I was still fuming. Ashley had placed her palm on my right shoulder and Kaidan talked to me in a quiet voice about how I needed to calm down, that it was just a mistake and whatever you say to keep someone from tearin' someone else a new one.
Five meters from me, both Shepard and Captain Matsuo gave the man responsible for my bad mood the dress-down of his young life. He looked down in shame, his face had lost almost as much blood as the guardwoman. His gaze darted to the big stain of blood where she had laid, now on her way to a proper hospital.
"Are they getting all their guys from thrash, LT, Sarge?" I exclaimed angrily. "First that scene at the NORMANDY, then their wannabe-backstab in that office, now this bullshit!"
"I'm inclined to agree, Raven." said Liara, the pretty blue face looking at me quite worried. "Still, you must calm down. He did apologize already, and clearly it was a mistake."
"This 'mistake' almost killed both me and that girl, Liara!" I replied, trying my best to not shout at her. "What do they think they are, professionals? 'Cause this ain't professional!"
"I agree," she said, and somehow the sooth in her voice did more to lower my blood pressure, than Kaidan's and Ash's combined efforts. No wonder the Asari were renowned for their diplomatic skills. "But I can see the guilt in his eyes, and what has happened will haunt him for a long time to come."
"Yeah, rightfully so." I took a deep breath and shook my whole body, trying to get the tiredness-about-everything out of my bones.
Then, Captain Matsuo stepped away and approached me, all eyes on her. Her frown on her lips and visibly nervous, she gave me a small bow.
"I know it may not be enough, Raven-kun," she said, surprising me with her use of a japanese honorific, "But I want to - sincerely - apologize for my man's action. Firing at you was bad; but doing so while you were saving one of our guard's life is simply unacceptable."
She shifted a bit, arms folded behind her. "At the same time, I want to thank you for helping us with such selflessness. Our medical team said that what you've done has given her enough time to be brought to our hospital and receive proper attention."
"It's my job, Captain." I replied, still not in a friendly manner, but at least in an even voice. "Should this work out as we all hope it does, then I share your thanks with Major Chakwas on our ship, who directed me over radio. Your welcome."
I stood as upright as I could, looking her in the eyes. "Also, your people's mistake are not yours, Matsuo-san." I used this particular honorific quite deliberately.
"Apology accepted. Though, I'd still like to know what caused your guy to be so jumpy. Jumpy enough to mindlessly start firing on anything that moved, no less."
"Well..." She bit her lip, casting a glance towards her trooper. "You must understand that this is a... a bit emotional."
"Please explain."
"My understanding is that Sergeant Dorning and Sergeant Levens are in a relationship."
Well, that pretty much took the wind out of my sails.
I stood there for a few seconds, not replying, not moving. The Recon Hood concealed my every emotion.
Then I took five steps and stood in front of Mr. Levens. That forced him to look up.
Caucasian. In his mid-twenties, sporting a quite respectable black goatee. An interesting contrast to the pale face, likely paled from a long time away from any real sunshine - and the shock. I saw him gulp, and the greenish-blue eyes were darting around, seemingly uncertain if he wanted to look at me, or away.
I pressed the seal in my neck and removed the hood. Bareheaded, I returned the gaze. A bit of surprise, probably because I was younger than he had expected.
"You've almost killed your girl, and the medic who was trying to keep her alive." I said aloud, and cold. "Remember that."
He looked down again.
"That being said," I switched to a more neutral tone, "She'll live. That Geth's bullet hit her quite hard, but we managed to keep blood loss and permanent damage to the chest cavity to a minimum. She'll need a long time to recover. But Ms. Dorning has survived the worst of it, and Noveria's medical personnel seems to be quite competent."
"... Thank you," he gulped again. "Sir."
I merely nodded. "From what I they told me, she's in surgery now. Elanus Risk Control Service's Medical Center, third floor, Dr. Limova T'Rasvani. I'd suggest heading there ASAP, if your commander allows."
His head tilted to Cpt. Masuko - who said just one word: "Go." - and he almost made a run for it when I interrupted him for the last time.
"For the record. You do that again, and -" I pointed my thumb over my shoulder to where I knew Wrex was standing - "I'll ask that big guy over there to eat you."
Judging by the speed with which that guy left the hangar, I had made my point clear. If it hadn't been fixated on his head by heavy-duty seals, I'm sure he would've lost his helmet in the process.
I sighed. Turning around to see what the others were doing, I found all my teammates looking at me with... interest, I guess.
"You humans have too many bones in your body to be an exquisite meal."
"Isn't it always the case that you need to work harder for delicacies?"
"Not if we're talking about salarian liver. Now that, is delicious."
"Aaaaaanyway…" I said loudly and tried in vain to banish a lot of unpleasant images into the back of my head, "Now that that's done, can we please just continue? We've lost more than enough time already, my feet are getting numb, and I wanna take a nap if that's alright."
Shepard only pointed behind her, expression hard to decipher. "Get that Mako there up and running, and you can take a breather when we're underway."
I groaned, but put the hood back on and followed Garrus.
"Did anyone ever tell you, Raven," he drawled as we kneeled down to take a closer look at the tires, "that you have all the symptoms of being a madman?"
"Last time I checked, I was a human." I replied, unwilling to put up with any banter right now and busy checking the wheel nuts.
"Hm. Same thing, from my perspective."
"We're good to go, Commander. Fully operational." I reported in, four minutes later, and poked my head out of the Mako's driver's hatch, or rather, airlock. "This thing isn't as good as ours, but as long as we don't get by heavy weaponry, we should be good. That's what Garrus says, at least."
"Yes. And this Mako is far better equipped for sub-zero temperatures.", Garrus added, deactivating his omni-tool in one swift motion.
The problem is that we will be targeted by heavy weaponry. Ah, well, we'll probably manage.
"Good work, you two." Shepard smiled. "We'll man the station. Take a rest. Especially you, Red - you don't sound too healthy."
"You're probably right, Commander. I should be fine as soon as we're at Peak 15. Let's get this done." Taking one last look at Captain Matsuo, who stood next to the wreckage of a destroyed Geth Destroyer and discussing something with Ash and Kaidan, retreated back into the cargo compartment and made myself at home. As much as I was able to, anyway… this was clearly a machine not designed for big shots, rather for the 'peasantry' that had to keep this entire planet together.
Liara joined me shortly after. Her arm had been grazed by a toxic bullet; but Kaidan had done excellent work while I was preoccupied. Other than that, our team had made it out that ambush alive and well. They all piled in, one by one.
I deactivated the hood's speaker system and opened up my direct link to Dr. Chakwas. My teammates didn't need to hear it all.
"So, what does your data say? I feel a bit worn out, but nothing out the ordinary."
"Your vital signs were stable the entire time. After a delay of one point seven seconds, your reaction times had been increased by roughly three hundred percent for a duration of precisely 14.6 seconds, accompanied by a reduced heart rate of fifteen beats per minute. What worries me is that I can see a small buildup of potentially toxic residues in your bloodstream. Do you feel any pain or numbness in your extremities?"
"Solid negative. But I noticed my vision turn red again and some discomfort in my left eye, everything okay?"
"Some minor retinal blood vessels appear to have been broken, but your body will self-repair them easily. As far as I can tell, this unplanned test run has yielded results within what we've estimated."
I chuckled. "Sorry, Doc. But I think it was the right call."
"Oh, don't worry. But I would suggest that you do not take a second dose, unless it's absolutely necessary. Your liver and kidneys will be under significant duress, and you may have to expect symptoms comparable to a hangover."
"Ah, excellent." I commented sarcastically. "Well, thanks for keeping an eye out for me, Doc. I don't know how I would manage otherwise."
"No worries, my dear. As you put it so nicely when talking to Ms. Masuo: It's my job. Stay safe out there."
"No promises, Ma'am. But I'll try. Raven, out."
I leaned back and closed my eyes for a few seconds, feeling reassured that the ace in my sleeve worked as intended. And just a tiny bit proud, for no reason.
Then I remembered what was still ahead, and groaned.
"Everything A-OK, Raven?"
"Yeah, yeah, Ash, nothing out the ordinary. But tell you what, I can't wait to take a hot shower. And we're probably not even halfway done here."
"Heh." She giggled. "Nothing out the ordinary, indeed."
I saluted her lazily and watched as she turned back to the monitors.
"Everyone buckled up? Time to roll out."
The massive wheels went in motion, and we delved deep into the frozen hell of Noveria, into the Skadi Mountains, challenging the winter goddesses' wrath to reach Peak 15 before it was too late.
Yeah, poetic. But sometimes, poesy was all that kept me from going mad.
And of course, it only took our wayward bunch of troublemakers a few minutes to get into the next firefight.
Well, at least it never got boring.
A/N: Ladies and Gentlemen, thanks for reading!
You may have been worried if I had gone missing or something since, in the last A/Ns, I had promised that ME: Raven would be completed before the end of this year, yet nothing had been published in 2018 so far. Well. I stand by my promise - "Raven" will be completed this year.
Actually, Part 1 will - Mass Effect 2 and 3 are still on my list, and quite frankly, I am looking forward to having more freedom in char development and everything. Sure, ME1 is nice, but difficult for an author to handle and very restraining on my abilities since I can't deviate too much from canon - it just wouldn't work for the type of story I'm writing, and my attempt to make it all as logical as possible.
By the way, would you, dear Readers, like to see the entire trilogy published as one story - or, as the majority of my colleagues are doing, split into one 'book' per game? Just curious.
Back to the topic - these 'restraints' are actually part of why this chapter had been delayed by so much. I've played a bit of Andromeda… and while I won't say it's the worst game ever made, and a total catastrophe in every regard as some Mass Effect fans like to claim, it just lacked what made this series so compelling to me - namely, charakter. I like some of them - Peebee's quirkiness in particular, and Vetra is kinda nice as well - but their interaction, and the world building in Andromeda just didn't work out for me. Neither for Armnorn ('Crow') - it was actually even worse for him.
Andromeda did manage to achieve one thing though, and I will be frank here: It killed my interest in Mass Effect for a while. I was bored, and combined with the fact that Noveria is the main mission I like the least (in the entire trilogy!), what I wrote ended up being half-assed and uninspiring. I think you could call it a writer's block; so I ended up not writing anything for three months. I actually got more interested in Borderlands - maybe, one day, I'll write something about that franchise. But not now.
What caused that block to break? Well, I guess I have to thank two people. First, YouTuber ChristopherOdd. Watching his Let's Play of the entire trilogy managed to invoke this old feel of 'discovery', of 'wonder' that I had when I first dived into the Mass Effect saga. Second, a certain other writer going by the name of Lanilen. I dunno if you're still reading my story, mate, but re-reading what you've published of "My Effect: Divergence" so far was refreshing as well.
So yeah. *bows politely* Here I am again. Hope you've enjoyed the read. And thank you all for responding so positively to my comment regarding reviews.
See you soon, hopefully, when Peak 15 needs to be conquered! And I have a few stories to catch up on myself. Raven, out.
P.S.: Almost forgot: Let me know if the use of italics (like this) for the distoring effect of wearing a fully sealed helmet is okay, or not. After all, I'm using the same thing for highlighting words, radio, and Raven's thoughts. Will adapt according to feedback.
Last edit: 30.07.18 - Corrected a few mistakes and improved my writing style.