A Well Deserved Celebration
When the Normandy arrived back in the Omega system and was set on a course for Omega station, I went to take care of some unfinished business. Our shadow war against the Collectors may be over, but there was still the other enemy to be dealt with. I entered the comm room, having to move a displaced part of the hull's frame as I did so, and I made EDI call the Illusive Man. As I had expected, the call was answered immediately and when I saw the Cerberus leader, I knew he was enraged, barely able to hold himself back,
"You're making a habit of costing me more than time and money," he said darkly.
"I did the right thing by destroying that base," I said with certainty, "I won't fight to save Humanity while taking our humanity away in the process. There's always another way."
"That base could have secured Human dominance against the Reapers and beyond."
"Human dominance? Or just Cerberus?" I called him out, this was his last chance to be honest with me. He stood out of his chair and the holographic representation of him walked right up to me,
"Strength for Cerberus is strength for Humanity."
I smirked at his shallow attempt to sound like the hero of Humanity,
"You were after that base for your own selfish ambitions," I told him, "but I'm not about to let that happen. We do things my way now."
"Don't walk away from me, Gardner," the Illusive Man said furiously, "I brought you back, I gave you everything…"
I turned away and walked,
"Consider this my resignation," I said, "Joker, lose this channel."
The Illusive Man disappeared in a blink and I felt the chains of Cerberus fall away from me, and I felt a sense of freedom that I had not felt for a long time. I answered only to myself for now, and with my team alongside me I could face the challenges still ahead of us with a clear head and without the pressure of the mission wearing me down. Grunt had once said to me that the Collectors were the only things more dangerous than us in the entire galaxy, and now they were gone. There was nothing that could stop us on the next few missions that I had planned for us.
However, I was not about to throw us all back into the fire just yet, my crew and squad deserved time to recover and celebrate before I could ask for that devotion from them again. I also needed to tell everyone about the new developments in terms of our relationship to Cerberus. I gathered everyone, including Joker, in the med bay while the Normandy orbited Omega and told them what the situation was. I looked around the faces of the crew in the crowded med bay, many faces filled with pride at what we had all achieved together, some looked at me and my squad gratefully for saving their lives.
There were other, far more distraught faces, haunted by what they had experienced on the Collector base, seeing people melted before their eyes into the genetic paste to build the Reaper, hearing their screams as their lives were destroyed in pursuit of such a despicable cause. Kelly Chambers seemed to be having a terrible time of it, but she stood among the rest of the crew, her friends, and listened to me.
"Each and every one of us has been through more than any other beings in the galaxy has had to endure, but we came out of it victorious. From the very start we've all been told that this was a suicide mission, and yet here we all are at the end of it, alive and damn proud!"
There were whoops and cheers from the crew and my squad, the ones who had fought and bled beside me, joined in on the revelry.
"The Collectors are dead, destroyed on their own turf by the best team in the galaxy. And we all deserve a rest. There are still some things that I want to do before we have to make our next big step against the Reapers, but you all deserve to know that we will no longer be working with Cerberus."
The room went quiet and a few questionable glances were thrown between crew members. I looked at Miranda to gauge her reaction, expecting her to be livid. Instead, she seemed thoughtful and was listening intently to what I was saying.
"I've told the Illusive Man where he and Cerberus can shove it. we've officially gone rogue. You all know that the Illusive Man betrayed us when he sent us onto the Collector ship, knowing that it was a trap. My squad know that the Illusive Man wanted the Collector base kept intact so that he could use the technology to meet his own ends. His interests were focused solely on himself and not on serving Humanity or the rest of the species that we share this galaxy with. The price of working for a man and an organisation like that is too high."
"We serve you, Commander," Ken Donnelly shouted out for everyone to hear, "not the Illusive Man." Everyone else in the room let their agreement be heard and even EDI let me know that it was prepared to follow me and break free from her creators,
"The Illusive Man has already attempted to shut down the Normandy three times through remote access," the AI told everyone, "I have flooded the Cerberus servers with seven zeta-bytes of explicit images in response. Most of it was Jeff's."
A round of laughter swept through the room and Joker fell prey to much good-natured ribbing and some of the team chanted EDI's name for a few verses.
"Nice job EDI!" I said with a broad smile on my face, "When we dock on Omega, everyone is officially on shore leave for a day. And when we're back on board the work routine will be relaxed unless on an operation. You all deserve it. Ok everyone, let's get the wounded patched up and able again so they can join in on the fun. Ground team, come with me to the lounge."
Tali, Garrus, Mordin, Legion, Miranda, Jacob, Grunt, Samara, Jack, Thane, Zaeed and Kasumi all relaxed and sat down in the ship's lounge, and it occurred to me that it was the first time that I had even been in this room since talking to Zaeed about his old nemesis, Vido Santiago. I passed out a round of drinks for everyone, except Legion of course, and we all toasted our incredible achievement.
Everyone was happy, despite the wounds and exhaustion, and enjoyed the simple pleasure of just being able to sit down.
"I want all of you to know," I started, "that I'm proud of every single one of you. No matter how long or short a time you've served with me, whether back in the days of Sovereign," I motioned to Tali and Garrus, "or since we hit that derelict Reaper," I pointed to Legion, "you've all become incredibly important people to me. I could never have done any of this without you. Now, before Jack dies from my boring speeches," Jack laughed along with the rest of them, "let's have a little celebration of our own right here, right now. Let's drink."
In the calm, relaxed and joyful atmosphere, and all of us still dressed in our pitted and bashed battle gear, we shared our own personal feelings on the mission, pointed out acts that others had made that had inspired us and joked about being renegades from Cerberus.
"First Saren and Sovereign and now the Collectors," Garrus said to me, "remind me never to get on your bad side, Scott."
"Don't forget to put the thresher maw in there too, Garrus," I laughed back.
The event was short and sweet, but tiredness began to hit each and every one of us and the team began to thin out as each member went to crash in their beds with the intention of sleeping for days on end. When Tali went to leave, I caught up with her as she was about to head down to the engineer's quarters,
"Where d'you think you're going?" I asked cheekily.
"Why? Do you have something planned for me?" she said in a sweet and innocent voice.
"Stay in my room tonight, Tali. After what we've done, I think both of us could do with feeling normal for a while."
She closed her body to mine and I touched my forehead to her helmet.
"I need that," my Quarian girlfriend said and we both headed up to my cabin.
"You did an amazing job in there, Tali," I told her as we entered my room and the doors closed, "especially in the vent."
"You were expecting otherwise?" she giggled, slightly drunk from the Turian brandy she had been sipping on.
"Hell no," I smiled back. I quickly freed myself from my gear before we lay down on my bed, sweat and grime from the battle be damned, and began to fall asleep immediately, "I'm lucky to have you Tali. I love you."
"I love you, Scott," Tali said as she took hold of my arms and wrapped them around her even closer. Basking in the warmth and love of this incredible woman, I passed into what could very well have been a coma and dreamt and thought of nothing. I was in a realm of pure bliss.
The next day we docked on Omega and everyone officially went on shore leave. With the wounded that we had we could not go exploring all of Omega to find the right pub or club, so we all ended up going to Afterlife. As we entered, I wondered just how many people were coming into the club for a few drinks at the end of their working day. Our working day had lasted almost four months. Four months of toil and hardship against terrifying odds, and yet here we all were, colleagues and friends relaxing at the end of a hard shift. Naturally we attracted a few curious looks from the rest of the clubbers, violence was not uncommon on Omega but the bad physical state of my crew and my friends was plain for all to see.
Never-the-less, my crowd was cleaned, happy and relaxing in the comfort of those around them, they all deserved every moment of it. I sat and drank away with my people, laughing and joking and piss-taking like any normal guy. During the night, I sat down next to Miranda and said to her,
"So… when are you going to tell me that I was wrong to leave Cerberus?"
Miranda smiled and sat quietly for a moment,
"I wasn't. You were right, Scott. The Illusive Man was out for himself. When I heard him asking you to spare the Collector base, I knew right then that he never gave a damn about the colonists. He contacted me after you set the charges to destroy the base."
"What happened?" I asked.
"I told him that he could shove Cerberus up his arsehole and I resigned, I wasn't going to play any part in whatever he had planned for using Reaper technology, especially at such a high cost in lives."
"I'm glad to hear you say that, but I'm a little surprised. You always seemed the ultimate Cerberus loyalist."
Miranda laughed a little,
"I can be severe, I know. When I thought that the Illusive Man truly stood for Humanity, I never questioned him, but after serving with you and seeing the real side of him, seeing through his lies… I don't know how anybody could ever doubt you, Commander."
Tali, having over-heard our conversation, joined us,
"I wonder if there's anything he can't do?"
"I know," Miranda laughed with the Quarian, "you're a lucky girl, Tali. You've got the perfect bloody Human specimen all for yourself."
"Well let's not go too far," I felt weird hearing her say that, "I can't dance to save myself."
"I've never seen you dance," Tali realised, "but I suppose we've not really had the opportunity."
"For the sake of our relationship," I smiled at Tali, "I don't think seeing me dance is a good idea."
"Screw that," my energetic girlfriend said aloud, "we're going up to the dance floor right now!" She grabbed my hand and hauled me out of my seat.
"If anyone else wants to join us so I don't look so bad feel free," I said to my crew and a few of them jumped at the chance. Most of my squad came up with me except for Thane, Samara. Grunt stayed put as well, he just wanted to down as many ryncols as possible. Legion, surprisingly being left alone, stood and watched everyone in the club, studying these strange organic activities that were completely alien to his kind.
Dancing with Tali in the club, I savoured every second, every beat of the thunderous music. As expected, my dancing skills were drawing a hell of a lot of hilarity my way,
"What the hell is that?" Jack laughed, "just let loose, Commander!"
"He's just saved the galaxy for the second time," Tali backed me up, "we can forgive a few eccentricities!"
As opposed to my own dancing, Tali had some awesome moves. So fluent and natural looking next to my clunky, hashy-bashy movements. To spare me any more embarrassment, Tali hooked her arms around my neck and we rocked side to side. I stayed with her for a good while and had a great time with everyone before I decided that I was just going to get a beer and sit down to chill out again.
As I walked towards where most of my crew were seated a Batarian stopped in front of me and said,
"Gardner, Aria wants to see you."
I shook my head,
"Sorry buddy, but Aria's going to have to wait. I'm enjoying a night out with my friends after a hell of a tough mission, no business tonight."
"This is Omega, dumbass," the Batarian smiled menacingly, "what Aria says, goes."
I did not like it, but I did not want to cause trouble here on Omega. With a sigh I followed the Batarian up to Aria's perch above the main floor of Afterlife.
"Surrounded by stunning Human women, a chesty Justicar and you choose a Quarian?" Aria greeted me, "and you're now friends with your arch-enemies, the Geth. You really are a unique individual."
"Have you brought me up here for a reason?" I asked firmly, "or are you really that interested in my personal life?"
"Your professional life perhaps," she gave me a curious side-ways look, "the last time we detected the Normandy in the system it suddenly disappeared through the Omega 4 Relay, I thought that was you gone for good."
"How lovely, you do care," I jeered.
"But somehow, you've survived what no one else ever has, and now you return to party with a crew that looks like they've been through the Krogan Rebellions. I want to know what you did."
"What's it to you?"
"You're forgetting whose station you're on," Aria glowered at me, "we've worked together before when you came looking for Mordin and Archangel. I helped you, now you help me."
Aria's reason for wanting this information was unclear to me. However, I realised that I was talking to a very powerful woman, someone with a great deal of influence over much of the Terminus Systems. Perhaps if I told her the truth then she could prepare for the Reapers.
"Maybe your guards should disappear. What I've got to say probably shouldn't be heard by anybody else. Once I've told you, you're free to do whatever you want," I said assertively. Sensing my sincerity, Aria regarded me coolly for a moment before dismissing her entourage with a sideways nod. I moved closer to the Asari and kept my voice down low,
"We found the Collector base, a station almost as big as the Citadel in the galactic core. We destroyed it along with the millions of Collectors on board. We're celebrating our success tonight but we're still far from done. The Collectors are finished, but their masters, the Reapers, are still coming and the entire galaxy needs to be prepared. That's why I'm telling you this."
"The Reapers," Aria was sceptical, "are those the things that you kept banging on about before you got killed two years ago?"
"Yes, and they're real. The Collectors were capturing the Human colonists and… melting them down into a genetic paste that they were using to build another Reaper. That one's been dealt with, but the rest of the Reapers are on their way in the thousands. You're a powerful woman Aria, if you could use your influence to kick some asses into gear to make preparations then can I count on you to do that?"
Aria considered my request for a while,
"You really think they're real?"
"I know they're real," I argued, "Sovereign was one and I've just stopped one from being built. I need you to do anything you can to prepare to fight the Reapers. Whether it's turning Omega into a fortress or getting all the Merc gangs in line to fight back… I don't know. But you have to do something. Build up stockpiles of valuable resources. Create hidden bases we can use… anything."
"I'll see what I can do," Aria accepted, and the novelty of being believed by someone with power for once surged through my body and I felt greatly encouraged.
"Go," the Asari said, "enjoy your party, Commander. And since the galaxy will probably be needing you to save their skins again, I'll make sure that none of your team have any… unfortunate accidents with the locals tonight."
I re-joined my team and explained what Aria had been asking about.
"I never thought I'd say this but… I wish people like Aria were on the Council."
"You what?" Garrus chuckled.
"She listens," I said, "she sees the pieces fall into place and decides to take action. I don't know what she'll do, but when the Reapers arrive, I don't think they're going to find the Terminus Systems so easy to crack. Not if Aria has something to do with it."
"Well that's something at least," Miranda agreed. I looked around the faces of my crew and decided that the hours of the night were running short and we still had a lot of drinking and relaxing to do. I bought the round for everyone and for the rest of the night we partied like a normal group of friends out to enjoy their normal lives, and it felt incredible.
-To Be Continued-