6. Route One
Tali checked in to see Shepard a couple of hours into the transit to Vana. They had hardly talked since their return to the Jeeya and when Shepard, in thought over a monitor she wasn't reading, felt a tentative hand on her shoulder, she spun around violently.
"Shit, Tali, don't... don't do that." Irritation immediately dissipated into an awkward silence.
"Shepard, you don't need to worry."
"Huh? About what?" She feigned ignorance.
Tali let go of her shoulder and looked directly at her. "You know what I mean. R'kel. You think you got him killed for no reason?"
"You don't?"
Tali put her hand on her hips and sighed. "I did, a little, but then I realised no one here is to blame. Only damned Arturus." She shook her head. "It seems cold of me when I say it, but when it is our time, as you humans say, it is our time. R'kel will not be forgotten, Commander. Nor will he go unavenged. Am I right?"
Shepard listened to her friend's voice. It was even, untainted by any kind of deceit. Shepard shook her head.
Tali cocked her head. "I'm not right?" Her voice sharpened, rose, surprised.
Emily held up a hand. "No. Of course we'll avenge him. No, I was just thinking; all this crap I get into, it's mad. Mad that I still have friends. Like you, Tali. Even after all I've done, you stick by me."
"All you've done? All you've done is a hell of a lot of good, Commander." Tali sounded surprised again, but more softly so. The expression on her friend's face told her what she was thinking about: Mordin, Kaidan, Legion. The ones she hadn't been able to save.
Unfortunately this was no time for introspection or self pity, only for action.
Just as Tali had remade her own resolve in the minutes prior to this meeting, so Shepard had to have hers fortified now. "Commander, you need to step up again and do what you do: win. You would agree with me on that, yes?"
Shepard hesitated before nodding again. "Sure."
"We can't save everyone every time, even if we think we should be able to. So get up and let's get to Mata and find whatever it is is down there. Right?"
Shepard considered and gradually the haze of self-doubt that had been lingering at the back of her mind cleared. Her eyes lit. "Hell, I must have talked to that lame-ass Cornwell too long," she muttered, then stood and straightened. "Yeah, you got it, Tali. I'll save this for a bar sometime."
Tali laughed a little. "Well count me out. You and emotions clearly don't mix well."
"Please don't tell Joker that." Though Shepard figured he already knew it.
"I won't tell anyone, Emily." They began to walk in the direction of the control hub and as they did she added, curious: "You know he was getting along pretty well with that EDI VI we had?"
"Uh, yeah. That was a bit weird, huh?"
"Even if I liked AI's, which I don't, I wouldn't go there."
Shepard frowned. "Amen to that."
Joker dropped them out of FTL into the shadow of Vana and held a fixed position above Mata's location. Zeyah and Tali had managed to craft a rudimentary cloaking field around the ship, but it would only last for twelve hours, maybe less, and had drained the power to the ship's weapons systems. They were fairly sure of its strength, though the younger Quarian had appeared a little troubled. She eventually followed Tali's more assertive line, however, and was keeping an eye on it at a monitoring station in the rear of the ship. Meanwhile, Shepard had called a meeting in the Control hub.
Emily found herself looking to Joker, Tali, and Cornwell. Joker leaned on a bulkhead, looking slightly awkward thanks to the constant fragility of his legs, but cool and easy of mind, his cap tipped up a notch.
Cornwell looked a little more apprehensive. He had perhaps been expecting to help from on high rather than in the field. He fidgeted, scratching his hands together constantly.
Tali, alongside him, noticed and shook her head. "He's coming with us?"
"Yeah. Everyone get over it. We're going to need him."
Joker coughed. "I never said anything."
"Joker, you need to keep Jeeya here for a maximum 12 hours. Once we get planet-side, coms will be going dark, so make sure you set a clock. If we're not back by the time it runs down, assume the mission is a fail and get yourself out of here. And if the cloak fails, the same applies. Rendezvous is back on Omega."
"Assuming you're alive," Joker checked. He spoke lightly, but they all knew there was a good chance that particular assumption could turn out to be wrong.
Shepard looked at him and returned a similar smile. "Yes, assuming that, Jeff." She tapped a red pad on the central control desk. The image of Vana they had seen on the dreadnaught reappeared. "Mr Cornwell's program highlights in detail the Faculty's exterior, and more specifically, our way in. Here." She tapped the hologram and the image of the planet became the image of Meta's domed exterior. Then yellow grid squares criss-crossed it, with various armed defence units highlighted here and there in orange as the image began to spin slowly on an unseen axis. The most obvious, most interesting thing, however, was not the dome itself, but rather the subterranean tunnel that was also shown, issuing from beneath the central structure and out into the ashen wasteland for a good mile before coming up for air in the middle of a landing pad.
"That star-ship access is the only way in or out." The others looked at the graphic pensively.
Tali asked what they were each thinking. "We go straight in through the front door, Commander? I mean no disrespect, but, shouldn't we try and be a little more subtle with this?"
Shepard agreed. "I spent a lot of time coming up with a real elaborate way of getting in, which was more stealthy."
Cornwell was enthused. "Well, good, let's do that."
Shepard looked at the access point. "It doesn't work. Too much time, too many variables. No, eventually I realised I was kidding myself. This is the only way. Direct ticket."
Joker stepped forward. "How you getting down there?"
"You dive in, drop us on that landing pad, then get the hell back up to this position. The cloak should keep us from scanners. Anyone gets an eyeball on us, we take them out before they say a fucking word. Right?"
Joker rubbed his jaw. "I can do that."
Tali nodded. "Crazy."
Shepard fixed her with a querying eye. "Huh?"
"This is the Shepard I remember. Crazy's good by me, I think."
"Cool, Tali. Dare I ask, Cornwell, what you think?"
Cornwell looked as grey as the rock of the planet's surface. He shrugged. "It's a good plan, I guess," he replied. Then a little colour returned to him. "I can give you some pretty smart jamming codes."
"Cool, that'll save us some time cooking some up ourselves."
"Commander," Joker started, thinking it through, then concluding he had to ask. "How are you guys getting back aboard?"
Shepard smiled. "I'll find a way. Now, let's get EVAC suits on—not much atmosphere available, I'm afraid."
Cornwell went over to Joker's piloting unit and examined the various symbols and electronics briefly. Then tapped a few of them causing a burst of static to crackle for a second. Then a single blip. He turned around as Joker approached, sensing his suspicion. "Nobody on the ground will be able to transmit anything as long as you're with altitude of half a mile."
Joker looked at him. "You know Quarian that well?"
Cornwell looked askance. "Fluently. It was required."
Joker thought about that. "Yeah. Guess that makes sense." An awkward silence fell in between them. Joker started down into his chair. "You should get going."
Cornwell was glad to leave.
Jeeya was dropping headfirst through the thin grey cloud of Vana's sky. Inside, its crew, though seated, could feel their stomachs falling with it. They were, with the exception of Zeyah, used to emergency landing drills, which resembled this, but the emphasis was most definitely on resembled, and their bodies were telling them that,
Joker's hands were danced around the controls around and above his command fox-hole, his eyes hard on every dial and flashing light popping and pinging up around him. He found himself gritting his teeth despite himself. He could fly most ways. But straight down, fast, to a stopping point so close to the ground, it was pretty queasy stuff. That pinging was getting noticeably quicker now, too. Time to test Shep's calculations.
"Okay, I'm hitting the retro's, guys. Another forty seconds, we'll be hovering over the pad. You'll have a thirty second window to rappel down, so get set to bail, okay?"
He spoke in rhetoric. Everyone knew what to do.
The tall, ungainly pillar of a Quarian transport plunged out of the sky and descended on a large concrete square a short distance from a huge, dark green metal dome. It was the only colour save the grey across the featureless wasteland surrounding it. A set of caterpillar tracks could be made out, leaving the pad and running away to the east.
In the centre of the square was a large slot, the entrance to the Faculty nearby. It was wide enough to take a medium size cruiser, if piloted slowly and carefully. And whilst the approaching vessel may have had an expert at the helm, it was coming in hot as hell.
Which was why the group of men in EVAC suits, working on a half-assembled gunship in the north-western quadrant of the square, looked up with so much surprise. One waved his hand for everyone to down tools. Another began to speak into the com patch on his glove.
Joker jammed the mechanics' frequency. "Okay, you got some company down there! Go, go go!" Even as they scrambled, the retro-rockets burned out and the ship ground to a holding position a hundred meters short of destruction. When they were gone Joker adjusted his cap. "Man. I am so good. It scares me sometimes." Then he watched on the monitor as Shepard, Tali and Cornwell rappelled out of the ship. He held his breath, the mechanics hands were going to their hips. Two ran to the rear of the gunship, heads down. Joker wished Jeeya had weapons.
Shepard was halfway to the ground when she opened fire. Hostiles on site hadn't been expected. But they had been prepared for. So each of them had a weapon in their free hand as they rappelled down. Firing a Vindicator single-handed wasn't a cake-walk, but she'd done it before and hadn't forgotten. She and Tali picked off two targets before they even touched down. Tali's pair got a sticky mine to the head, inspiring two flurries of blue-red mist and even Cornwell took one out. But there were still a couple somewhere at the back of the ship, maybe another inside.
Then they were on the concrete. The rappel cords snapped free of their bodies on impact and were severed at source by the ship. Engines roared overhead and Jeeya started to regain altitude.
As Jeeya left, Shepard realised how utterly exposed they were. The only cover on the square was the gunship itself. The only other feature was the pit of the access-port between them.
They scuttled towards the edge of the port, guns blazing. Tali's pistol flashed a bright sapphire blue once more. Shepard knew what came next, even as a stream of laser fire sped their way. Cornwell did well to roll, as half of it seemed addressed to him. He came up just in time to see the fireworks.
The gunship had its core and belly missing, and there was no outer casing around the cockpit. But a second later it didn't even have that, being ripped apart in a ball of blue energy and whirlwind flame. When the blast dissipated into a mere glow, it was over a few pieces of melted wreckage. Of the mechanics there was no sign.
Shepard stood and looked at the sticky gun Tali was twirling in her violet palm. "Tali, that is one sweet gun. Got to get me one of those soon. And Cornwell, you're still alive. Nice work."
Cornwell looked at the rifle in his hands. "Yeah, this is a pretty good weapon as well."
Shepard walked to the edge of the access and peered down inside. "No, it's not, it's single-shot only and slow to reload. But that doesn't matter. We got ourselves a nice ladder here." She nodded, pleased. "We're in, folks."
