W.i.t.G
Part 2! Here we go!
If anybody here watches Game of Thrones, leave a review with your favourite line from the last episode (Season Six, Episode Ten)
"House Mormont remembers," she sagely cries out. "The North remembers. We know no king, but the King in the North whose name is Stark. I don't care if he's a bastard. Ned Stark's blood runs through his veins. He's my king, from this day until his last day!" - Lyanna Mormont
"Thanks for all your help Shepard. I owe you one. Next time we see each other, first drink's on me!"
Without so much as a passing glance, Gianna Parasini led her captive, Administrator Anoleis, out of her former boss' office.
To say Shepard was stunned, was an understatement.
"Uhh, Skipper? I know I took a few rounds to the head earlier, but, what the hell just happened?" Ashley asked, her face a mixture of confusion and childlike curiosity.
"Well Ash, I don't really think I understand it myself," Shepard turned about face, looking towards his crew members, "Anybody else have any idea what the fuck just happened?"
All of the ground team members chuckled amongst themselves, before Garrus cleared his throat; a serious expression once more covering his features:
"From what I can tell of that little exchange Boss, I think we just helped Internal Affairs with a massive case they were working on. Looks like it's true what Lorik was telling us; 'Nobody plays the Noverian game and wins'."
Once the ground team had secured the OSD that contained the incriminating data that Lorik Qui'in required, they had made their way back to the Turian in question. Of course, Lorik was indeed grateful, even so far as to offer some credits as an added bonus for its timely delivery. The Turian had been slightly annoyed though when Shepard had told him of the fighting that had occurred, even so far as to grumble about 'staining the carpets'. Once all was said and done, Lorik informed them that Gianna Parasini had requested their presence as soon as was convenient. The ground team said their farewells before meeting up with the human secretary.
From there on, the situation spiraled downwards into chaos. Gianna revealed to the Commander that she was in fact working for Noverian Internal Affairs, and was placed in a position underneath the crooked administrator in hopes of compiling enough evidence to bring him down. Parasini then highlighted that she knew what had happened in the Synthetic Insights office; before long, she was asking what it was specifically they'd fought for. Begrudgingly, the Commander told the agent that they had been asked to retrieve an OSD containing important information. The human spectre however, didn't give away anything he didn't need to.
Parasini had then urged the ground team to find Lorik again, and convince him to hand over his evidence to her as well as testifying against Anoleis.
The ground team then made there way to Lorik, and after some considerable persuasion, the Turian handed over the OSD as well as agreeing to testify.
From there, Parasini had taken immediate action, apprehending Anoleis in front of the Spectre and his team.
"Thanks for clearing that part up Turian. I had no idea..." Wrex grumbled, a wide grin splitting his lips.
"Since when did Krogan become as sarcastic as humans?" Garrus groaned, his sub-harmonics trilling with mirth, "Spirits help me..."
Wrex was about to retort, but Liara quickly interjected, "We have the garage pass, Commander. We must reach Peak 15 as quickly as we can. My mother... We need to get to my mother."
With that final statement, Liara left the Administrator's office.
Everybody's eyes went wide, as they looked to their Commander for guidance on what they should do next.
Chris shrugged his shoulders, before wordlessly following his Asari subordinate. The ground team quickly fell in behind him. Within seconds, they'd caught up to Liara.
The Asari melted into formation as well as she could, silently relieved that her alien teammates had seen her desire for urgency.
As the group moved towards the garage, Wrex muttered in Garrus' direction, "You're spirits can't save you now anyway, Turian. You're stuck with us. Besides, you can blame Shepard for the sarcasm. I find some of his statements... Amusing."
The Commander's face became a picture of shock, as he sarcastically replied, "I'm wounded Wrex! How could you blame me for such things? I'll have you know I'm a perfect role model!"
Tali slapped Shepard on the shoulder, the contact not as unusual as she'd first expected, "That's our captain! The perfect, sarcastic role model that gets us shot at all the time."
Ashley couldn't help but grin, "She's got you there Skipper."
Chris didn't say anything further, his own face having broken out into a grin, "I guess I do have a knack for getting shot at, huh?"
"We've had some good fights Shepard," Wrex barked out a laugh, pounding his fists together in anticipation, "But I sense even better ones on the horizon."
Garrus smirked, "What is it you humans say, 'what doesn't kill you, makes you stronger?"
"What doesn't kill you, should run," Wrex retorted.
Chris grunted in mutual understanding, his mind suddenly bringing forward memories of firefights in which the human commander should have lost, such as the defence of Elysium. Shivers were sent through his body as he took pride in the fact that he was still alive. He had prevailed in each and every one of those conflicts through sheer willpower and determination. Not to mention a fair amount of luck.
The ground team took the Commander's grunt as a sign to stop the conversation there, a comfortable silence settling as they made their way past the hotel lobby towards the garages.
A small sign in multiple languages above a doorway indicated that what lied beyond was what Shepard and his team had fought so hard to attain: access to Peak 15.
"Anybody else find it odd that there's no security here to check for garage passes?" Garrus mused, "I mean, did we really need to go through all of that trouble to get a pass? Looks like we could have walked straight in..."
"Good point Garrus. I don't like it. Somebody should be here. This... This just doesn't feel right. I want weapons out, and eyes scanning. We'll move in nice and slow, in an echelon formation. I'll take point." Shepard punctuated his orders by taking his rifle off of his back, and equipping 'Lucy' with an armour-piercing mod.
Although everybody, apart from Wrex, had their doubts about putting their commander as the vanguard of their formation, they all complied willingly. Shepard was prone to taking risks, as well as being as stubborn as a mule, but everybody on the ground team had seen first hand how lethal the large human was. If he wanted to charge the enemy head on, nobody could stop him.
Wrex, Ashley, Garrus and Liara fell into the human formation on the Commander's right side, where as on his left, Tali stood by herself, her shotgun and omni-tool ready for combat. The other members of the ground team had found a suitable distance from each other relatively quickly, allowing a freedom of movement if anything out of the ordinary was to happen.
Tali however, stood relatively close to her human. Shepard didn't mind in the slightest however. The knowing thought of having Tali close to his side gave him a small sense of comfort. If anything was going to happen, he would be right there to get her out of harm's way.
Tali however, saw it the other way around. If the team came into any form of combat, she would put herself in front of her human, like a protective juggernaut.
As the team moved slowly into the garages, a deathly silence met their ears.
Their respective weapons were braced a little tighter, as they continued to move forwards.
It was the smell of death however, that caused everybody to stop in their tracks.
No words were passed, as Shepard motioned with his hands to spread out in pairs.
After a few minutes, the Commander quietly spoke on the ground team's comm channel, "Anybody got any eyes on what the hell that smell is?"
"Negative Boss. Whatever it is, it smells like it's been here a while," Garrus grunted, before comically retorting, "I suggest we find it quickly though. Wrex looks like he's starting to salivate. If, you know, Krogan's salivate..."
"Shut it Turian," Wrex growled, "Before I come over there and show you a couple of things about Krogans and their food. Turians were somewhat of a delicacy that I've missed for the past couple of hundred years..."
"You're not serious." Garrus deadpanned.
"Try me."
Shepard shook his head in annoyance, "Alright, cut the crap. I want comm silence from here on out unless you've got something interesting to say. Save the bickering till we get back on the Normandy."
Silence met his ears, and with a satisfied grunt, the Commander moved in further into the garages.
"Uhh... Commander? You might wanna take a look at this..." Ashley's voice was nervous, as Shepard turned in her general direction.
With a quick hand signal, the ground team began to move towards the Gunny's position.
Once everybody had made their way over, the sight that lay before them caused Shepard's stomach to turn.
"Jesus Christ... What the hell happened here?"
Although the team had noticed the large amount of crates within the garage, they hadn't decided to investigate them thoroughly. On the floor in front of the Commander, lay an opened crate, with a mangle body lying inside, its decapitated head laying in the deceased body's lap, with blood staining the floor around it. A mixture of sapphire and crimson blood lay around the crates, and with some trepidation, the ground team began to inspect the rest of the crates.
It appeared that the remains of the workers of the garage, such as the mechanics and technicians, had been crudely compacted into the crates, with what could only be described as machine like efficiency.
On closer inspection, an oily black mixture as well as white viscous fluid could be found coating the undersides of the crates. Although the mixtures of colours was artistic to some degree, the stench of death nullified the beauty somewhat.
"This looks like synthetic fluid Captain," Tali chirped, at Chris' side, "You don't think..."
Raising his rifle's scope to his visor, Shepard could only grunt, "Yeah. I think these crates were carrying something far worse than spare parts."
A strange metallic sound began to emanate all around the garage, with what could only be described as metallic whirring interjecting every so often.
"Look lively people! I think we're about to find out what the hell's just caused all of this mess!"
A rocket came screaming past all of a sudden, and a sound of rending metal gave forewarning to the impending assault.
Within moments, Geth began to pop up on everybody's radars.
They were surrounded.
"Well... Looks like you were right about that big fight after all Wrex."
Ashley had a vicious grin on her lips as she engaged a combat skill that allowed her weapon to keep firing without overheating, "Well! Looks like I'm gonna get some payback for the boys back on Eden Prime!"
Liara's biotics began to glow brightly, as she raised her hand cannon, "I won't allow them to stop our progress. I'm ready to fight."
Garrus could only chuckle as he prepped an overload program on his omni-tool, "Geth... Of course it had to be Geth..."
Prepping his own shields, as well as an adrenaline boost, Chris shouted with unbridled passion, "Let's show 'em what we're made of!"
"For the Migrant Fleet! Keelah Se'lai!"
"For Tuchanka!"
"For Eden Prime! Remember the fallen!"
A Geth Prime began to stomp its way towards the ground team, its cannon focused on Shepard. The rest of the troopers began to focus on the human commander as well.
"First one in, last one out!" Chris roared.
This, would be a fight to tell the kids about.
A bit of a short chapter, but I kinda felt like I needed to break Noveria up even more. I didn't really want to make a chapter that was like 10,000 words long just to cram everything in.
Hope you enjoy!