First Lieutenant Tali'Zorah vas Neema, Freedom's Progress, Human Colony

All in all, she rather liked snow. She had never encountered it until Noveria, with Shepard. And, to be fair, that wasn't exactly the best time for a first contact, but even then she kinda liked it.

"Keelah, my toes are going to freeze solid and break apart," the small female marine beside Tali muttered, her teeth chattering loud enough that her external speaker was transmitting it. Or, more likely, Xera'Raan vas Neema, Tali's best friend, was doing it on purpose.

"Xera," Tali admonished, good naturedly. "You are always either too cold, or you're too hot. Are you ever comfortable?"

Xera looked up at Tali, her eyes going to narrow glowing slits behind her smokey visor, before the small quarian shifted to a more amused stance. "Yeah, but only when I'm with males!"

"Ancestor's save this poor girl," Tali sighed, overdramatically.

"Heh, really now." Xera chuckled. "You're just jealous. You know you could be more popular with the males if you...Ah...det kazuat….Sorry…."

Tali just stared down at her feet in the snow. She focused on how they sank into the white, frozen water. She thought about Noveria. How Shepard taught her to make a snowball. Then showed her how to throw it. How it hit Garrus right in the back of his head, under his fringe.

Tali ignored the tears that leaked out of her eyes.

Taking a deep breath, Tali turned to regard Xera with a smile. "No, it's fine Xera. I can't keep dwelling on it. It's been nearly three years, and I'm a big girl now. I can't even imagine what Shepard would say to me if he saw me still pining like a child watching Fleet and Flotilla for the first time."

Concerned, Xera patted Tali's shoulder. "Well, from what I know about him, which is a ridiculous amount, He would probably say that you were a terrible Evil Overlord."

"Heh," Tali laughed quietly. "Okay you have a point. Let's just get this mission done so we can get back to the Fleet and get a hot drink in us."

"Yeah!" Xera exclaimed, throwing a hand up in the air. "Let's do this!"

"Yes, let's have you come over here and help us unload the last of the gear Xera'Raan," the leader of the Migrant Marine squad sent to accompany Tali growled.

His name was Prazza. And he was young and gung ho, as the humans would say. From what Tali had gathered about the male, Prazza returned from his Pilgrimage a few months before Tali did, but his gift was...unimpressive. Rumors abounded that the only reason he was allowed on his name ship was pity.

Tali walked with Xera, back to the shuttle as she watched Prazza order around his people. He was certainly no Shepard. Which, granted, was an unfair comparison, but Prazza was a small minded bosh'tet who seemed to have a fragile ego and a xenophobic mind. And Tali got to be in overall command of the mission. What fun! Her brain mocked her.

Xera'Raan vas Neema, Freedom's Progress, Human Colony, A Short While Later

"Ancestor's damn it!," Tali growled as she tilted her head up enough to peak over the short perma-crete wall she and a pair of marines had taken cover behind.

Xera was in the middle of applying a sealant patch over the wound in the other marine's arm, but it didn't stop her from chuckling.

"Well, I am certainly glad you find my injury to be amusing, Xera," the marine, Icen, sighed with a shake of his head. "I can already feel the infection...I'm am doomed!"

"Oh, cut it Icen," Tali snapped as she dropped back down. "It's not even a flesh wound. At most you'll have a cough for a couple days."

"Uh..yes...Tali'Zorah…" Icen muttered, his eyes widening slightly.

Xera laughed as she glanced at Tali. So serious all of the sudden! Xera thought, but knew better than to say out loud. When Tali got into this state, there was almost no bringing her down.

"Prazza! Prazza! Come in you fucking bosh'tet!" Tali cursed slapping at her omnitool.

"I'm here, Tali'Zorah," Prazza came back over the comm. "There is no need to use those...human curses at me."

"Seriously?" Xera muttered aloud as she finished with Icen's seal before slapping the male on the arm. "Good to go."

"Thanks...I think," Icen muttered as Xera turned away to regard her friend.

"What's the 'fucking bosh'tet' doing and what is fucking?" Xera asked, grinning at Tali.

"Prazza has managed to pull the attention of eight of those stupid LOKI mechs," Tali grumbled as she seemed to be skimming through her omnitool data. "'Fucking' is a human term. Something about a crude way to refer to mating."

"Ha!" Xera laughed slapping herself on the knee. "I like that! Only thing worse that a bosh'tet would be two of them mating!"

"Yeah...that's pretty good," Icen agreed with a mirthful shake of his head.

"Alright…" Tali grunted and peeked over the cover again. "I'm tired of this, let's just find Veetor and get back to the Fleet before Icen here dies of infection."

"I knew it!" Icen groaned as his helmet landed in his hands.

"Okay Tali," Xera chuckled again. "I hope you don't intend to leave Prazza and the rest of the squad pinned there across the way. I mean, he might be a fucking bosh'tet, but I feel like it would be difficult to explain their absence."

When Tali turned to regard her, Xera almost couldn't stop herself from shifting back, away from her. Tali was furious. In all the missions the pair had been on together, the only time she had seen Tali this livid was when a team member mocked Commander Shepard. And that fool barely survived.

"I'll take care of it," Tali rumbled. "You get over to Prazza and the others, make sure the wounded are sealed up and any dead are put aside for retrieval on our exit, got it?"

"But-" Icen began, only to shrink back when Tali's helmet snapped to him. Honestly, Xera couldn't blame him.

"No buts," Tali snarled. "Just do it."

"Got it!" Xera nodded as she slapped a fresh thermal clip into her submachine gun.

With another grunt, Tali lept up, and over the wall.

Tali

Prazza was an idiot, but the marines following him weren't to blame for the squad commanders near constant mistakes. It made Tali long for some of her previous missions. Ones where she had competent help. Like Kal'Reeger, she thought. He was a good marine. Like Xera. Knew when to keep their heads down, when to shoot. Who to shoot. When to follow orders. I may not be a marine, but after working with Shepard….Let's just say the Flotilla doesn't have many N7s.

Now, however, Tali had to rescue the marine squad assigned to guard her. And the Idiot that led them. The irony wasn't lost on her.

Climbing to her feet and jumping over the plasti-crete barricade she and the others had been behind, Taali quickly surveyed the situation.

Prazza and half the squad were pinned down behind a small pile of cargo crates by four LOKI security mechs. Three of the machines had a standard semi automatic assault rifle, but the fourth was slightly larger. This model had heavier armor and a larger fully automatic rifle. Tali wasn't sure how many of her people were wounded there were, but hopefully, Prazza was one of them.

The other half of the squad hid inside what appeared to be one of the pre-fab housing units. Another four LOKI mechs, this time all four were the standard variety. Not that it made their guns any less dangerous.

Honestly, Tali was vaguely irritated that the marines even had problems with this caliber of enemy. These things were nothing compared to geth. Shepard could sleepwalk through this engagement.

Stop it, fool girl! Tali admonished herself. Comparing people to Shepard all the time is why you don't have any friends.

"That, and your habit of talking to yourself!" Xera yelled out from behind her.

With an embarrassed groan, Tali moved quickly forward to the four mechs pinning Prazza and his group.

Reaching out with her left hand, Tali's omnitool flared out with a bright blue spark, ripping into one of the standard mechs and sending it crashing to the ground in a shower of sparks, even as she brought her shotgun up and blew a hole through another of the lower class mechs.

With a small half turn, Tali neatly dodged the last of the minor mechs as it fired at her as she kept the trigger of her gun held tight as it built up energy, resulting in a low whine that was slowly building in volume.

Stepping in, now, Tali brought her omnitool covered hand back, and with a gesture, an omniblade extended from her forearm, even as she drove her fist into the mech's chest, cutting neatly through the main command module.

Leaving only the heavy LOKI. The last one, she didn't even spare a look at. She merely brought her gun up and released the built up energy that had been stored in the weapon. The overcharged blast shredded the mech's armor like it was paper, and throwing the now destroyed mech to the ground.

"Prazza!" Tali called out, as Xera, true to her orders, followed close behind Tali, and leaped over the boxes Prazza's group hid behind. The small quarian's hands already pulling medi-gel and suit seals from her med kit. "Get your wounded up if you can! I'll take care of the other group, so we can take care of the casualties in the pre-fab!"

"What?!" The marine exclaimed. "It's my job to-"

"Oh shut up, you fucking bosh'tet!" Xera yelled as she injected a dose of medigel under one of the wounded marine's suit. "We don't have time for your quad measuring crap! Just help me with our people!"

In the time it took Prazza to look back at Xera, Tali was already moving toward the other group of mechs. This time, however, they knew she was coming.

As the LOKIs turned and fired, Tali tossed a small hockey puck shaped object onto the ground in front of herself, and slammed her foot down hard on it. As she did, an energy screen erupted between Tali and the mechs, easily absorbing their fire. For the moment anyway.

With a flick of her wrist, Tali created her spherical attack drone from her omnitool, sending the beach ball sized orb around to flank the mechs.

Both the shield and the drone were based on projects that Tali and Shepard had worked on before he...well before he was lost.

Shaking her head, Tali pushed the memories that sprang up to the back of her mind. This was certainly not the time to be thinking about what was and might have beens.

"Go for the optics, Chatika!" Tali ordered her drone, as she brought up another program, sending an arc of energy into one one the mechs, overloading it's systems. The overload caused the mech's core to overheat, resulting in a small explosion, staggering the mechs to either side of it.

Chatika bobbed around the mechs, it's shields shifting and deflecting the few rounds it was unable to avoid. Closing quickly, Chatika blasted an energy arc from it's power core, burning a line across the optical unit atop the heads of two of the remaining mechs.

Then with purpose, Tali kicked her shield generator forward. It's charge was nearly spent, but it held out long enough to spin across the ground, impacting into the three mechs, tumbling them to the ground.

Once down, Tali walked casually up and shoved her omniblade into the chest units of the three LOKIs, shutting them down for good.

Xera

"Well, that went well," Xera said casually as she wrapped a marine's arm with a sealant tape. "Looks like we will live, the mechs are down, and you get a fancy scar, Tomala."

The marine, Tomala, turned his gaze back to Xera, his eyes wide. "I… I've never seen anybody move like that!"

"Yeah," Icen sighed as he helped another marine back to her feet, his arm going under hers to assist her. "I'm still not convinced she is Engineer caste."

With a grin, Xera stood up and dusted her knees off. "I know what you mean," the diminutive marine laughed. "But I was there when she chose to be an engineer, like her mother. And from what she has said, most of what she knows she picked up from Commander Shepard and his team."

Tomala shook his head as he helped gather the equipment for their move into the human pre-fab unit. "She doesn't seem to tell many stories about the time she was out on her Pilgimage, I understand," he said quietly. "Rumors are that she..well...you know...with a turian…"

"No," Xera growled, turning slowly to regard the marine. "Why don't you tell me about this rumor?"

"I...um...I don't think I remember…" Tomala stuttered as Xera drew closer to him.

"How about I jog your memory you fucking det kazuat…." Xera began before being interrupted by the sound of a drop shuttle roaring in through the atmosphere.

"Incoming shuttle!" One of the marines shouted. "Military. Markings sign it as...Cerberus!"

"Prazza!" Tali yelled as she stomped over to the male. "I don't have time to deal with your crap right now! Get the squad into the pre-fab. If the Cerberus operatives make us, you let me do the talking, do you understand me?"

Instead of answering, Prazza's eyes narrowed, his hands tightened on his assault rifle. Xera's hand drifted near her submachine gun as she prepared to defend her friend.

"I asked you a question, marine," Tali demanded, stepping so close to the male, her helmet's indicator light almost touched his. He was a couple inches taller than Tali was, Xera noted. Noticeably wider chest and shoulders as well. But Xera was sure he was no real threat to Tali. He didn't have the skill. Or the quad.

"Fine," Prazza finally ground out through his clenched teeth. "Get the wounded up, people!" he ordered as he turned his back on Tali. A clear insult.

Bosh'tet is trying to salvage what pride he has left, Xera thought, shaking her head. Let him fuck a varren.

Xera smiled widely to herself. 'Fuck', she thought gleefully. I really like that word…..

"Fuck," Xera said quietly to herself.

Quarian Lexicon

Det kazuat: Term of curse, considered especially crude. Literal Translation: Living sack of excrement. The Otquer, a large predatory lizard, will pass its meal neatly wrapped in a membranous tissue. Inside the sack, the enzymes used to break down the meat of the prey while still in the lizard continue to act as a stimulant keeping the indigestible brain synapses of its last meal still working until the sun dries the sack out.

Bosh'tet: Animal, native to Rannoch. With no insect life, other species of life had to fill the niche's that on earth fell to the insect. One such niche was the dung beetle. A bosh'tet falls into the category of roller on earth as it moves the dung found to a central location. Though differing in colors, from the green/yellow of the cooler climates to the blue/white in the more tropical areas, they are the same species. Known for apparent inability to distinguish between dung and small rocks, it is considered extremely stupid. Many have been found dead, surrounded by small rocks, as it tried to feed on them.