Tali was running across a green field. From what she could gather, it was Geth that chased her. She ran, she ran as fast as her legs could carry her. There was no looking back, and it seemed like there was no escape either.
She was correct in her theory, soon she came to a wall, one too high to climb and she didn't have enough time to run past it. She turned around and faced her attackers with her back pressed against the wall. She had but a pistol to defend herself from about a dozen Geth, that had now lined up and was ready to kill her. She held her breath, not really knowing what to do.
When she heard something, a sound she hadn't heard before. She looked past the Geth and saw something remarkable.
There was the Captain, her Captain, riding on something. It must have been... what did he call it? A horse? He mentioned he could ride those things when they had one of their conversation in the engineering department. It was white, as far she she could tell. The captain seemed had a unifrom on.
Romanov pulled out a sabre as he drew ever closer to the Geth threating Tali. When he was in range, he swung the sabre, taking two of the Geths' heads clean off. He circled around to take on the next lucky winners. The Geth had a hard time hitting him or his horse as he rode at an incredible speed.
Soon the Geth were all gone and Romanov pulled up to her. He offered for her to take his hand and ride with him.
"Come on Tali!" He said.
Tali eagerly accepted the invitation and hopped on the horse's back. She held on tight to Mads as they rode off. She rested her head on his back as they rode off into the sunset, she felt safe by his side.
"I will soon be back, Tali." He whispered to her.
22/6 2185
Tali woke up in her bed on the Neema. She had been having these dreams for the past few weeks, they were largely the same. Tali would find herself in some inescapable situation, but the Captain would always come to her rescue her somehow. They would always end with him telling her he would soon be back.
She didn't know why she had a sudden spike in dreams about him. After his death, her dreams had been only about him, but then after a few months it began to fade away. But now she was only dreaming of him once again.
She deeply regretted never expressing her feelings to him. She had grown quite fond of him in their time together, however short it may have been. She held her necklace in her hand, the crucifix it was called. Romanov had explained to her that it was the humans' prophet and the son of God. Tali found it weird why they had killed their own prophet. It was the only reminder she had of him and so she wore it everyday she could. Some of her fellow crewmates and even her own father sent her dirty looks whenever she wore. She didn't care.
Prazza walked into her quarters on the Neema. He told her they had to do a new mission for the admiralty. Tali quickly got ready for what would happen next.
The place called Freedom's progess seemed haunted, it was a surreal experience. It was like everyone had just left. It was snowing, but not as heavily as on Noveria. The wind created haunting nosies against the empty prefabs. The Migrant fleet had intercepted a distress call from trhe colony a few hours before, it had come from a Quarian named Veetor.
They had come to his rescue. He had chosen the human colony of Freedom's progess as his pilgrimage destination.
They didn't know what to expect, but surely not an empty colony with no trace of any of the humans there leaving. Tali was leading the team of Marines to rescue him. They were walking through the thin layer of snow, when one of the team members spotted a shuttle flying over the colony.
Prazza was quick to point out that it was a Cerberus vessel. The Quarians and the Migrant Fleet had already had a few run-ins with the pro human terroist group.
"We need to get Veetor quick!" Prazza proclaimed to the group. Tali was annoyed at his disobedience of orders from her.
"NO! We need to stay focused!" Tali yelled at Prazza.
"You want to be killed by Cerberus? Fine by me! But don't drag us other down!" Prazza fired back.
Tali grew angry, she was about to give a rant when she noticed they had already rushed ahead. Tali tried to follow them through the prefabs. One of the doors they came through lead to a courtyard filled with Mechs.
The Quarians seemed to be winning in the beginning, taking down the weak Mechs with ease. Then the tide changed in just about half a second, when a YMIR Mech came around from behind a prefab. It was slow, but very deadly. Tali took cover behind some barriers and tried to help her squad by hacking into the giant Mech.
It did little to help them however. They fell like flies, some were shot, some were crushed. It was a horrible scene to look at. Tali kept trying her best to weaken it as much as possible.
Prazza was the last to fall, he was crushed beneath the iron boot of the robot. Just before his demise, he cursed Tali for not helping further and called her a traitor.
Tali felt gulit run through her, even though it could be argued that he brought it upon himself. Just as the giant Mech finished off Prazza, it set it's eyes upon Tali and began it's slow death march towards her. Tali began to panic, she typed in several commands on her Omni-tool to give any sort of advantage, even if it was just a means of escaping. She quickly found out that she simply didn't have enough time.
An old familiar feeling began to wash over her, the same one she had two years ago on the Citadel when she tried to exchange information for protection. She knew that this was the end for her, that she would die on this God forsaken colony.
She closed her eyes and awaited what would come next. She accepted her fate, that she would die. She prepared herself for the shot that would end her otherwise short life. She grabbed her necklace tight in her hand, her sole comfort. Instead of a gunshot, she heard something else.
"Hey Tin can!" The voice sounded awfully familiar, she could have sworn she had heard it before. That slight russian accent, that firmness commanding voice.
The robot began to slowly move around to target the new threat. She could only see the outline of the man that went up against the mech, but she could see that he pointed a pistol at it. He fired a shot, it's loudness matched only one weapon she had ever heard before.
The shot hit the mech right in a weak spot on the left arm, disabling it. The mech prepared it's only good arm to shoot at the man.
The man began running towards the Mech. The move could only be described as stupid by any onlookers, but he seemed to know what he was doing. The man slided right between the legs of the Mech. The mech was too slow to react in time, and before it knew it, the man had climbed on its back.
He climbed up the back of the mech. Tali now knew that it wasn't a stupid move, but rather a brillant idea. The Mech simply couldn't get to man, but it wasn't for a lack of trying though. The man slowly climbed up the back of the mech while it tried to wiggle him off. He finally made it to the hatch on the mech's back. He shot the lock off and pulled out a grenade. He took out the pin with his teeth as his other hand was busy holding on to the Mech.
"idi k chertu!" He cursed as he threw the grenade into the mainframe of the mech. He jumped off the mech and did a roll to minimize the fall damage. He took cover behind a box as the Mech tried fruitlessly to remove the grenade from it's core.
The Mech blew up into a thousand pieces, the scrap that was once attached to the mech now laid scattered on the snow covered ground. Tali didn't know what to think of what just happened. She went out of cover, she wasn't really sure why she did it. But she had a feeling, a small feeling that this man was the one she loved.
The man wore a helmet, so she couldn't make out any facial features on him. The man noticed her and began walking towards her. His boots made a very familiar ring as he walked over to her. She was almost completely sure it was him.
When he was about 5 to 6 feet from her, he pulled the gun on her. Held it right up to her visor, she could see the darkness of the barrel. The gun pressed against her visor, but she looked past it. Through the helmet, she could make out his eyes. It was the same blue eyes that her heart had melted for 2 years ago, but now they were staring her down.
Tali felt the word she had prepared die down in her throat. He was the one to speak up.
"Where did you get the crucifix?"
Tali remained silent for a moment or two. The question sealed the deal, it was him. No one else would have taken notice of such a small item only slighty visable on her neck. Tali spoke with soft words.
"You gave it to me."
Now it was Mads' turn to be silent, it was like he was incapable of formulating a basic sentence. He hadn't expected to run into a crew member on his first mission, much less Tali. Mads let the hammer go back, disarming the gun for now. He put on the safety on the 44. Magnum and put it back into the holster. He took of the helmet and looked into Tali's eyes. Tali took note of the big beard he had grown, the biggest she had ever seen on a human. Not that she had seen many humans. She did find it kind of sexy.
"Tali?" He asked.
"Yes." She simply replied.
None of them knew how to react in the situation. They were both baffled to see eachother, but perhaps Tali was the most surpised. She realized all her dreams had been telling her the truth, he would soon return.
"I'm, eeerrhh... Sorry for pointing a gun at your head. That was uncalled for." Mads said to break the silence.
"It's okay." Tali replied with a warm voice.
"No, it's not. I should have realized it was you. I just figured that someone might have looted your corpse or stolen it from you. You look different, more mature... if you will." Mads said.
"I accept your apology. It has been 2 years already and a lot has happened." Tali answered.
"You look good." Mads commented. For some reason or another, he felt an old familiar feeling creep up in him, one he had tried to suppress for so long. It's was the old feeling called love, or maybe affection? Only he had never felt it burn this much before.
Tali blushed at his comment, she was glad he couldn't see her face at that moment. "Thank you" She replied. Then she grew a bit angry, she remember that he had been gone for 2 years and hadn't once tried to contact her. She voiced her anger. "Why didn't you try to contact me? What have you been doing for 2 years?"
"I have been busy being dead! Cerberus has just finished putting me back together!" Mads replied, his tone was more angry that he wished for.
Tali was taken back by his response. But it did make sense in a rather weird way. The alliance never recovered his body, because Cerberus already had. Then she realized the other part of his sentence, was he with Cerberus now?
"Romanov, please don't tell me you joined Cerberus." Tali pleaded. She was nervous for the answer.
"Cerberus and me have a common goal, to stop these attacks on humans. But I have not forgotten the horrors that we saw 2 years ago, Tali. I will never submit to their ideology, no matter the stakes." Mads explained.
Tali calmed down. "That's good to hear." She replied.
Mads pulled out his pack of cigarettes and put one inbetween his lips. He took out his zippo lighter and lighten the cigarette up. "Mind telling me what a squad of Quarian marines were doing on a recently abandoned human colony?" Mads asked as he exhaled some smoke.
"Fuck that's good." Mads muttered to himself as the nicotine hit him.
"We were looking for a Quarian named Veetor. He is here on his pilgrimage." Tali replied.
"On a remote human colony?" Mads asked confused.
"Quarian can chose where to spend their pilgrimage. Veetor liked the idea of helping a small colony. He is well... Nervous around crowds." Tali answered.
"Is he still here? Is so, he can help us find out what happened here." Mads suggested.
"We believe so." Tali replied.
Mads' earpiece came to life. It was Jacob reporting that they had found some signs of life inside the control room.
"We'll be right there, Jacob." Mads answered.
Mads and Tali walked to the control room, where Miranda and Jacob waited for them. They were ready to breach the room, when Tali hacked the door open for them. Mads quickly scanned the room, looking for any potential enemies. He only found a lone Quarian setting by a large number of monitors.
"Veetor?" Mads asked, remembering what Tali said.
"No, there is no Veetor here." The Quarian named Veetor replied.
Mads looked over at Tali, not really sure how to proceed. Veetor was most likely traumatized by whatever had happened on the colony.
"It's okay, Veetor. We're here to help." Mads said as he slowly walked towards Veetor.
Veetor didn't turn to face him, but kept his eyes glued to the monitors. He didn't even bother to respond, instead he ignored them and kept typing away at his terminal.
Mads fired up his omni-tool and typed in a few commands. The screens shut down. Veetor was confused, and most likely scared at first. He finally turned around to face them.
"You... you are humans? How come they didn't find you?" Veetor asked, still completely out of it.
They looked at each other, not really sure what the Quarian meant.
"Who didn't find us?" Mads asked.
"The monsters!" Veetor replied as he turned on the monitors again and showed some videos of a species abducting humans. Mads was taken back by the videos.
"Okhuyet" Mads muttered to himself as he watched the loop of the events.
"It that who I think it is?" Mads asked.
"It's the collectors." Miranda replied.
"I thought they were but a myth." Mads commented as he kept his eyes on the video.
"So did I. Nasty bunch, living on the other side of the Omega 4 relay. Only coming to trade with other species when they something interesting to offer." Jacob remarked.
"What the fuck do they want with the humans?" Mads asked.
"No idea, it's our job to find out." Jacob replied.
"I have data, I recorded them." Veetor broke in.
"We need to bring him back, he might be holding out on information." Miranda said.
"NO! Veetor is injured and needs medical care. I can't let you drag him with you." Tali almost yelled. She looked onto Mads for support.
Mads felt the same feeling run through him again. He tried once again to put it down. In the end, he gave Tali the support she wanted.
"Veetor needs medical care. He'll go back with Tali." Mads ordered.
Miranda looked very offended at Mads. "Understood." She replied coldly.
"Thank you. You can take his data with you." Tali said. Mentally thanking Mads for his support.
"Miranda, Jacob. Wait for me at the shuttle." Mads ordered. They nodded and went on their way.
Tali began treating Veetor for any injures he had.
"You know, you could come with me. It would be like the old times." Mads suggested.
"I would love to, but I have a mission, one that's too important. If I survive, we'll see..." Tali replied.
"Survive? What kind of mission is this?" Mads asked.
"It's classified, but it's in Geth space, so that should say everything." Tali answered.
"That sound awfully dangerous, Tali. If you need any help, you just let me know." Mads said.
Tali remembered how kind he always was. How he always helped her when she asked.
"Thank you, but I think I have this covered." Tali said.
Mads pulled her up into a hug. Tali gladly accepted. They hugged each other for a little while before departing.
"Be safe, Tali." Mads ordered.
"I will." She replied.
They parted ways. Tali remained to treat Veetor and Mads went back to the shuttle. They had the evidence they needed and now it was time for war.
Quick translation of some of the Russian words used in the story.
"idi k chertu!": "Go to Hell!"
"okhuyet": "Holy Shit!/Wow!/What the fuck?