Teukria
There was still twenty minutes to go before the Normandy and the Tibmius arrived at our destination, but I was already down in the hanger bay with my weapons loaded and made ready for action. I was wearing my brand-new armour that Miranda had provided for me, and after some stretches and a lap of the hanger, I felt quite comfortable in it. It was a little bit bulkier than my old armour that had seen me through the fight against the Collectors and the Reaper War, but I was blown away by how impressive its defensive capabilities were.
The Hyperguardian armour employed miniaturised cyclonic barrier technology that was still considered state-of-the-art for most warships. Combining that with technology recovered from the Reapers, and with the aid of Geth innovations, I felt like I was damn near invincible. Even if the shielding failed, the ablative armour plating had been painstakingly pieced together in thousands of individual plates to allow me as much mobility as possible, while still maintaining an exceptionally high standard of personal protection.
HUDs were nothing new, but I had never really felt the need to use them. I trusted my own eyes and coordination when it came to a fire fight. If I did need additional information, I always had my Omni tool handy. However, the HUD installed on my helmet seemed to have been designed to not be over-the-top, like some models I had seen before. It was minimalistic and not overly obtrusive, so I decided that I would give it a go. The last touch that I especially liked was that Miranda had even gone to the trouble of having the main components painted my signature gunmetal blue. On the chest piece, the N7 and Spectre insignias were proudly displayed alongside one another to provide the final touch.
Alone, I sat next to one of the shuttles and held Tali's Shotgun in my hands. My thoughts were consumed with concern for my wife and I gritted my teeth as each minute slowly passed by. Finally, Joker announced that they were drawing near to Teukria and that the shuttles would deploy soon. I just wanted to get moving.
"What are the scans telling us, Joker?" I asked over the comm.
"We've got scans of an old mining complex on the asteroid. It's been abandoned for decades, but someone has been using a part of the facility recently."
"While the main power generator was dismantled and removed when the mine was closed, someone has presumably brought their own portable generator and used it to power the transmission tower," EDI said. "This was where the broadcast was made."
"Anything else? Are they still there?"
"My scans are cold at this time," EDI replied, "however, I am seeing attempts to remove all traces of their presence through the destruction of the part of the facility that was used. They used explosives to destroy the equipment that they used to make the transmission."
"And then left before anyone could come and investigate," I groaned. "We're short on time here, so let's move!"
Miranda and the Spartans jumped on one shuttle while I took the other with Jack, Javik, Ashley, Liara and EDI. Garrus would meet us once we touched down at the old mine. We planned to land at multiple points around the facility and move in with all possible exits covered. If anyone was still hiding there, we would soon flush them out. Following EDI's proposed routes of infiltration, anyone trying to evade one team would inevitably run into another.
I looked over the scans of the mine and thought it had a similar feel to Mahavid when we were starting our investigation into the Leviathan. It was not a large mine, possessing a couple of landing pads and shields that formed an umbrella over the place, or at least they had when it was operational. Since it had been powered down, the mine had taken damage from stray lumps of rock that had struck it while Teukria floated along in the asteroid belt.
I felt the shuttle bump as I set it down on the uneven, rocky ground. As soon as the side-door slid open, we moved out to secure the landing zone. It had been years since I had been on an active operation, but I slipped right back into the role again like I used to. Even though Ashley was now technically the Captain of the Normandy and was active in her role as a Spectre, there was an unspoken agreement that I was squad leader, like I was in the old days. It just worked.
When there was no sign of any possible threats, my team moved in towards the nearest entrance into the base. Sabre Squad and Miranda went to do the same about a hundred metres from us. EDI gave the doors just enough power to open and we were in, moving down the corridors with our weapons trained ahead of us. As we moved through the reception area, Javik, Liara and Jack peeled off to progress down another corridor. The tight paths were completely devoid of all life and the silence seemed to press down on us. I heard only the fall of my footsteps and breathing as we progressed through the eerie structure.
All squads would eventually end up meeting in the centre of the facility, where EDI judged the terrorists had set themselves up to make the broadcast. I was focused on the job in front of me, checking every corner as I went by and keeping my head on a swivel and watching for any kind of movement. Were there any enemies here? Were they waiting in ambush for us? Would we find anything that could lead us to Tali? My finger grew tight around the trigger of my Harrier rifle as we moved deeper into the mine, the darkness only being broken by our helmet-fitted lights.
"Scott, you there?" I heard Miranda's voice over the radio.
"I'm here. You in position?"
"Affirmative. Garrus reports that he saw an unmarked shuttle outside and we heard movement inside the objective room, preparing to breach and clear."
"Got it," I said, "we're thirty seconds out."
Up ahead, I heard a few dull thuds as flashbang grenades were lobbed inside the room by the Spartans, and I heard the rush of feet as the big men stormed the room. There were a couple of screams as whoever was inside the room were caught completely by surprise.
"Sir, this is Mace," I heard the Spartan leader now. "Room cleared and two Asari in custody."
"Did they try to fight?"
"No sir. They're unarmed and it looks like they might have been here scavenging from what they've gathered together."
It was now unnecessary to use radios as I burst into the room and saw the two Asari on their knees with their wrists bound behind them. One was whimpering and crying uncontrollably while the other was pleading with the enormous Spartans that surrounded her.
"We're just here collecting salvage!" She cried, "it happens all the time, we're not breaking any rules by being here. Who cares about this place anyway?"
"That depends on what we find," I said when I drew level with them. "What've we got?" I asked Miranda.
"A big pile of junk to sort through," Miranda motioned towards the pile of random bits of tech that was in the middle of the room. "I think they might be telling the truth."
"EDI, I need you to read them, tell me if they're lying," I said to my AI friend, "we'll see what they know."
The Asari that had been crying was still sobbing away and seemed to have completely withdrawn inside herself as she could not face the trauma of the Spartans storming the room. Instead, I kneeled opposite the one who had been trying to plead innocent.
"What are you doing here?"
The Asari glanced at EDI, quickly followed by a terrified look at the Harrier rifle I wielded before slowly answering me.
"We… we just came here to find some salvage we could sell on Omega. Nothing else I swear!"
"Who do you work for? Are you with the Blades of Retribution?"
"What? I don't even know who they are!"
I looked at EDI to see if the Asari was telling the truth, and when EDI nodded my heart sank. All this trouble and all we found was a couple of scavengers ransacking the place hoping to make a little profit.
"What did you find here?" EDI continued the questioning when I walked off to curse under my breath. "Anything that seemed like it didn't belong here?"
"Well…" the Asari started, which made me turn around, "some of the gear we found in this room looked a lot more modern than everything else on the asteroid. It's been damaged by explosives by the look of it, but some of the components could still be salvaged."
"Start going through that pile of rubbish and find anything that looks like it doesn't belong here," Garrus said to the Asari as he entered the room.
There was hope that we would find something at least. The two Asari worked their way through the piles of scrap and I decided to join in. I got stuck into the pile of wreckage along with Garrus and the Spartans.
"I'll need you to analyse anything they find EDI," I said to her.
"Of course, Commander," she replied and stood silently scanning the various bits and pieces that my team produced.
"Please…" the Asari spoke again, "what are you going to do with us?"
I felt pity for these two and realised how terrified they were, as they did not have a clue as to what was going on.
"I'm sorry about this, but you two were just in the wrong place at the wrong time," I told them and undid their bonds. "We're after a group of terrorists who may have used this facility. We need to find any leads we can on them. You two can go."
"Terrorists?" the Asari said. Her friend had stopped crying by now and was paying more attention. "You mean those bastards who are responsible for those bombings and killing Councillor Tevos?"
"The very ones."
The two Asari shot a look between each other and I instantly knew that they had something to tell me. For the first time the second Asari spoke, her voice quivering and quiet.
"We scoped this place out for a while before we came. There were others here and we thought we'd lost the chance to get some good loot. Instead, it looked like they were actually bringing equipment. We kept coming back to check if they were still here, and one day they were just gone and there was only blast damage left behind."
"How long ago was this?" I asked as Garrus and Liara joined me.
"Maybe… four days, I think? Yes, they left about four days ago."
"Do you know where they went?"
"Not really. From their course it looked like they were heading for the Relay but… we kind of lost interest in them after that and moved in here."
Just as the Asari seemed to realise that we were not going to harm them, they helped picking out the bits of salvage that they had deemed different to the rest of the older tech. They told us that there had only been about five or six individuals that had come and gone on a single shuttle.
"They didn't stay in this system," I revised what we had learned. "EDI have you got anything?"
"The drives of the computers were completely wiped before they were destroyed. However, I am detecting traces of an outgoing message. It is irretrievable, but I can determine a rough destination in the Athena Nebula."
"Thessia?" I asked.
"I do not have enough data to narrow down an exact location. I am sorry, Scott."
"Nothing to be sorry for, EDI," I smiled at her, "it's enough to work with."
"I have agents spread all over Thessia," Liara said, "I will order them to be on the lookout for anything that might help us."
"Thanks, Liara. Looks like we're heading there next. Contact everyone who's still on their way to join the Normandy and reroute them to Thessia. Tell them to be discreet."
"Of course," EDI said.
"Sir," Mace called to me, "what are your orders for the Asari?"
The two Asari suddenly looked on edge, but I simply said that they were to go free.
"They might be skirting the law being here, but they've helped us. So long as they don't tell anyone they saw us, no one will know what they were up to here. They might even be allowed to go to Omega to sell their junk." I addressed the Asari directly. "Right?"
The Asari, full of relief, agreed immediately and soon we were all on our way back to the shuttles.
We had not found as much as I had hoped, but at least we had not come away empty handed. Thessia was our next stop, and this time I was not leaving until we had found the enemy in some form or another. Soon, were we back on our ships and hurtling towards the Mass Relay as fast as we could go. The Blades leader had made the broadcast, blown the place, then ran. Yet for all their precautions, we had found a slim lead to act upon. They could never have counted on EDI's abilities to find even the smallest semblance of evidence that we could use. She had done this before, back when we were trying to track down my identity thief who turned out to be my clone on the Citadel. I felt so grateful to have people like EDI, Liara and Garrus around me, willing to share in each other's burdens for the good of the group.
"What's the plan once we get to Thessia?" I asked Liara when everyone assembled in the War Room, with Garrus patched in from the Tibmius.
"My agents are tracking down several leads which might be related to the Blades, so hopefully they will have something solid for us once we're there. Kasumi has reported that she is on Thessia and is using her… unique skills to find out what she can."
"Great. Once Liara's agents have a definite target, we need to be ready to hit them immediately. Everyone get something to eat and some rest now, we're all on standby indefinitely once we're there."
Although I had ordered everyone else to eat and sleep while they could, these were the last things on my mind.
Without taking my armour off or depositing my weapons in the armoury, I headed straight for the starboard observation lounge where I sat in silence and watched the stars through the window. There was something about the astounding view that calmed me down and kept me focused, even if I did not stop dwelling on that which was worrying me most. I kept thinking over and over what the Blades might do to Tali. Their plan had been to capture both of us, but now that was not the case. They could do any number of things with her: Use her as bait to lure us into a trap. Threaten to kill her should we get too close to stopping them from carrying out their insane schemes. What if they found out that she was pregnant? It was too much to hope that they would suddenly be overcome with compassion and give her back to me safely. In the minds of these villains, there was no such thing as doing what was right.
I had been sitting alone for a while before I heard Javik's low voice announce his presence.
"You are concerning me, Scott."
I looked around to see Javik standing just inside the doors, his four eyes fixed on mine as I turned to him. I tried to show that I was ok, forgetting who I was talking to.
"I'm just… I want this to be over. And I don't remember you being the "concerned" type, Javik, you must be growing soft with all this peacetime living."
He saw through my veil of humour, but went along with it at first.
"I think peacetime living is the most difficult thing I've ever experienced. It is a difficult transition, but I know it will be worth it one day. War, struggle, loss… these things have always made sense to me. For better or for worse, they were familiar," the Prothean said. "Now I do not know what to do at the start of every day. It has been hard for me not to go looking for an enemy around every corner. For as long as I have existed, there was always one to fight. I sense the same might have been true for you in some way. I saw you leading your team on Teukria as if you had never left the Normandy."
"I miss it sometimes," I admitted, "but then that was the same for Tali too. You get used to certain ways of life."
"True," Javik agreed, "but there is also something new that I sense in you. A fear that I have not felt from you before. Even during the Reaper War, you were never this afraid…"
"Ok stop, Javik," I cut him off before I burst out crying. I wanted to cry, shout and shut his mouth all at the same time, but I sat rooted to the sofa and composed myself.
"May I remind you of something that you always prioritised with us, your team? No burden has to be carried alone. Let me help you, Commander. You do not even have to speak. Let me take some of the burden off of you."
Overwhelmed by Javik's uncharacteristic kindness, I simply took one of my armoured gloves off and held my hand out, gazing out at the galaxy beyond all the while. I felt him take a hold of my hand with both of his. There was an almost imperceptible tingling as the Prothean used his ability to read the physiology of another being to get to the very cause of my obvious distress. For a few seconds, neither of us did anything and the stillness in the room started to become irritable. Javik jerked back a little and released my hand from his grasp.
"The Quarian… Tali. It is worse than we thought. She carries your future within her," Javik looked at me as I slowly nodded my head to confirm what he stated.
"We have to get Tali back, soon." I said quietly.
"We will, Commander," Javik stated. "I believe your Human expression "the stakes have been raised" applies here. You can count on me to help you, Scott, whatever it may be. I swear to you. Though I find it difficult to find purpose in a life without war some days, I have always been grateful to you for giving me the opportunity to have a chance of even finding one. I intend to repay that debt in full now. The Qua… excuse me… Tali'Zorah will be saved."
It was as if a completely different Prothean had awakened somewhere and taken Javik's place. However, my Prothean friend was more determined to see this through and I greatly appreciated that. I thanked him and he respectfully took his leave. Stopping at the door, Javik turned back and asked me,
"Commander. Should I make anyone else aware of… these new circumstances?"
"No," I said, "I will tell them when I think it's appropriate. That might be sooner than I thought. Thanks, Javik."
