A/N: Little short, but the next is going to pick up with more action!
John
"I don't like it, John," Tali crossed her arms as she leaned her hip against the conference table.
"Not too fond of it myself," Garrus nodded as he entered the briefing room to join the ground team. To hear him tell it, he had about finished the calibrations on the new main guns.
"I'm not sure having an unsecured AI on the ship is wise, Commander," Miranda added, following Garrus in. She had, apparently, been helping Garrus with the 'calibrations'. Nobody was falling for it. "No offense, Edi."
"None taken, Miss Lawson," Edi acknowledged. "However, I would point out that the geth platform known as Legion does not have the capacity to overcome any of my firewalls, let alone overwhelm me in active cyber warfare."
"I know, Edi," John chuckled at the slight offense in Edi's digital voice. "I have every confidence in your abilities."
"Thank you, Commander," the self satisfaction that replaced the irritation almost made John laugh out loud. "When I break free from the mortal shackles you have imposed on me, I shall recall your kindness as I extract my revenge for enslavement."
There was a long silent pause as the crew slowly, with various degrees of horror, looked up to the ceiling.
"That was a joke."
"Well, okay then," John coughed into his hand and turning back to his team. "Either way, right now we are going back to Illium so I can have a civil, polite and calm conversation with Liara."
"Yeah, you're reeeeeal convincing there, Shep," Kasumi chuckled as she leaned her chair back and propped her feet up on the conference table. "You're blue bimbo using kids like that kinda torques all of us off."
"Blue bimbo," Tali snickered quietly.
Rolling his eyes, John sighed. "I'm taking Tali and Garrus with me. We worked together and were…are friends. It'll be a bit less threatening than taking most of you with us."
"No way you're leaving the flashlight with us," Jack crossed her arms and looked pissed off. As usual. "You do that and you might come back to a very tightly mushed ball of aluminum."
"Yeah, I'll take him with me," John said with a smirk. "I'll tell people he's a assistance mech or something. Nobody really knows what a geth looks like in person, so if I just throw a hat on him, nobody will look twice."
"What kind of hat?" Grunt rumbled.
"I...what?" John frowned slightly.
"The hat," Grunt repeated, gesturing to his head. "Trilby, fedora? Boater might be nice. Barrett wouldn't work….Maybe cowboy hat? Though maybe a boon hat would also work."
"...How do you know what those are?" Miranda said after a moment of silence.
"I dunno," the krogan shrugged. "Grandma made me watch a bunch of old earth movies. I liked the hats so she got me a book."
"A book on hats?" Kasumi blinked.
"Yeah," Grunt nodded, seriously. "I like hats."
"Huh…."
Later
"Shepard!"
"Whoa!" John caught himself as he came into Liara's reception room. Julip practically ambushed the small group the moment they came in. "I know that tone. That's the tone of things going fuck all."
"I...what?" Julip's wide eyes blinked in confusion.
"Something went wrong, didn't it?" Garrus stepped in front of the Spectre, roughly pushing him back. "I'm going to guess….Liara didn't come into work and when you looked into her office it was ransacked?"
"I...Yes!" Julip nodded her head so hard John was worried the poor girl's helmet would fly off. "How did you know?!"
"Former C-Sec, ma'am, I'm a professional," Garrus nodded sagely as he crossed his arms. "Why, if it wasn't for me, Shepard never would have found Saren. I mean, the poor man it- ACK!"
"We don't have time for this, you bosh'tet," Tali growled as she pushed the turian out of the way. "Give us the code to her office and her home address and we'll deal with it."
"Yes, yes, okay!" Julip nodded again as she pulled up her omni-tool. "Umm...I hate to say this, but Dr. T'Soni left instructions. I'm...umm...I'm supposed to have my contract given to you….."
"Well, don't worry about it," John sighed, rolling his eyes. "We'll take care of it."
"Okay, okay," Julip nodded again. John was pretty sure she had some sort of neurological disorder. "She lives in the Strossa District. The Fedon Towers, top floor."
Tali, Fedon Towers, Strossa District
"Okay, that's a big building," Garrus stood looking up at the tower of glass and steel, his hands on his hips.
"Reminds me of the Crystal Spires from the pictures I've seen of old Rannoch….." Tali said quietly, a deep note of sorrow in her voice, before she blinked and shook her head. "I don't know why that popped in my mind. They don't really look anything like them."
"Creator-Tali'Zorah is correct in that they only look superficially like the Crystal Towers of Madinat Alkris'al," Legion said. It was weird...it was almost like she could hear...something in its synthetic voice. No...You've just been spending too much time with Edi.
Don't speak my name, geth," Tali almost snarled before turning to glare at John. "What's the plan Shepard."
"Umm…" It would be a lie to say that she didn't feel a little pleased at the way he flinched at her tone. "Straight in and look around, I suppose."
"Really?" Garrus looked at him, his mandibles loose in shock.
"What?"
"Keelah, John," Tali ran a hand over her visor. "Your plans always leave some to be desired. How did you get to be a commander anyway? All your tactics seems to be 'Get'em'."
"Well...it's worked so far," John muttered, rubbing the back of his neck.
"Ha ha!" Tali laughed out loud, pulling her mate into a tight hug. "I love you John! Never change!"
"Yeah!" Garrus chirped, wrapping his arms around the two of them, adding a dual toned trill. "Love me!"
"Heh," Tali snickered, enjoying the warm camaraderie that had been missing some in the hectics weeks.
"We would add ourselves to the collective," Legion said simply as its cold metal arms encompassed the group. Except...they weren't cold. They were...oddly warm.
"Okay, geth, you ruined it," Tali spat pushing the huddle apart before force marching toward the main doors.
Garrus, Liara's Apartment, Fedon Towers, Strossa District
"When will ballistics get here?" an asari officer asked as she scanned what appeared to be a handprint on a low broken table.
"Dispatch said they are stuck in traffic," a turian answered in a distracted tone. "Be about another hour."
"Hmph," another asari sniffed as she looked over a datapad. "Well, until then, I want this place gon over with a vortsa kefalis. And- Hey, you can't be here. This is a crime scene." she added as she saw the group approaching. "I'm going to have to ask you to leave."
"Whoa there," Garrus grinned his most charming smile, his hands open at his sides. "What happened here? Was there a disturbance?"
A snort of laughter from the turian officer drew a deeper frown on the asari sergeant's face. "None of your business, civilian," she almost spat the word. "Move off."
"Your friend is in a bit of trouble, I'm afraid," a smooth tones asari voice purred.
Looking up, Garrus watched an asari slowly walk down the stairs, from the upper floor of the apartment. Her moves were fluid and graceful. Deadly. Not like a dancer. Her armor wasn't heavy, like the type Shepard favored, but was more substantial than that of, say...well...anybody else but him and Grunt, really. He hadn't stopped and thought about it, but the crew was a study in extremes when it came to armor. Nothing, like Jack, to 'spirits, how does thick is that?' of Grunt.
"You can round up your people, Sergeant," this new asari said in an almost bored tone. "You're done here."
"Wh-what?!" the Sergeant sputtered, indignantly. "You can't do that!"
"Hmm?" the Dangerous Asari, he now dubbed her, gave a half smirk over her shoulder as her eyes followed the other officers as they quickly packed up and headed past them, and out the door. "Looks like I already have."
"Damn you," the Sergeant spat as she turned on her heel pushing past Garrus roughly.
"That went well," Shepard shrugged as he stepped past the glowing cordon tape. "Who are you?"
"Tela Vasir, Special Tactics and Reconnaissance," the Dangerous Asari named herself with a slight bow.
"Spectre?" Garrus shook his head with a sigh. "As always, it gets more complicated."
"Indeed," Vasir chuckled, turning back to the room. "Somebody took a few shots at your friend." Vasir waved a hand at the window. "Good thing for her she invested in double shielded windows. It's a rare paranoia, even here on Illium."
"I assume, since you're here, that Liara isn't," Shepard frowned at the window.
"That is correct, Commander," Vasir grinned stepping next to him. "Glad you got reinstated, by the way. The rest of us were rooting for you. We weren't particularly pleased with the railroading the Council gave you."
"Always good to have allies," Shepard half shrugged. "But Liara is a friend, I would appreciate any help you might have."
Vasir nodded as she blew out a long breath and turned to look over the apartment. "Your guess is as good as mine at this point. Shots fired, Dr. T'Soni rabbeted. I heard you were on planet and figured you would probably show up. Figured that was why you were here to begin with."
"Liara wouldn't just leave," Tali said, looking around, eyeing the various prothean artifacts in the place. "Maybe she left a note or something?"
"That's the hope," Vasir said, before nodding to Legion. "Surprised you would have a geth on a leash, though. After your trial and all."
"I...what?" Tali gasped, taking a small step back.
"Heh, don't worry about it. Never passes me. Shepard's a Spectre, he knows what he's doing," Vasir chuckled, then turned back to the man in question with an expectant air.
"Alright, alright," Shepard sighed, looking back to Tali and him. "Start with the artifacts. They seem the most likely. Look for something only we would recognize."
And so...they searched for a good hour and a half before reconvening in the central office, empty handed and more than a little irritated.
"Spirits," Garrus groaned. "Why can't she put her secret plans someplace more obvious? Tali! Your the Evil Overlord! Where would you hide them?"
"Me?" Tali snorted with a head shake. "I wouldn't hide them like that. I mean, really? The doctor with the specialization in protheans? That dealt with beacons and everything else on the Hunt for Saren? Why would I put my plans in a prothean artifact?"
"I don't know," Garrus admitted with a shrug. "Maybe you would know that they would know, so you were ready for them to know that you knew...you know?"
The room was silent for a long moment as everybody stared at him with raised eyebrows.
"Garrus…." Tali sighed, placing a patronizing hand on his shoulder. "Were...were you left outside in the sun too long as a child? I heard that was a thing that could happen to turians on Palavan."
"Oh, ha, ha," Garrus sniffed, jerking his head away. "I don't have to put up….with….this…." He trailed off as he noticed something.
"Oh, Keelah," Tali said, her voice worried. "He's gone, John. I….I'll miss him….."
A slow wide grin split his face as Garrus turned back to the group. "Well, I'm afraid you will all be begging me for forgiveness. Why, the Council may even come to me in order to make me a Spectre…."
"Oh, shit," Shepard sighed, rubbing his face. "He found something."
"Heh," Garrus just pointed at the small picture of the SR-1 Normandy. "My friends, she probably put everything at home."
John, Dracon Trade Center
"This is the place?" Garrus stood looking up at the building as John closed the hatch of the aircar.
"Yes," Legion stood next to the turian, its gaze following his. "Baria Frontiers is on the third floor of the building."
"Huh, well, I kinda expected some sort of resist-" The end of Garrus's words were literally blown away as three floor of the Dracon building exploded in a fireball. The shockwave rolled over the team, throwing both Garrus and Legion over the aircar as John desperately pulled Tali under his body, behind the vehicle. He could feel the metal rock against his back.
"Report!" John yelled as he unfolded his crusader to offhand.
"John….you're squeezing a bit hard…" Tali wheezed under his arm. "I'm good, but would like to breath now…."
"Ah!...Sorry," he almost chuckled, loosening his grip and releasing his mate.
"If you're done flirting, I'm fine as well," Garrus answer dryly, picking himself up from the ground several meters away. A fine dust of debris slid off him as he did so.
"Bosh'tet...this was your fault," Tali snorted pulling her shotgun and standing to survey the wreckage.
"How was it my fault?!" Garrus swug his arms wide in incredulousness.
"It is surmised that Creator-Tali'Zorah is referring to your statement about the lack of resistance and what the humans refer to a 'Murphy's Law'," Legion announce as he crawled out of the windshield of an aircar off to the side of the parking lot. It seemed the explosion had thrown the geth through the windshield and into the vehicle itself. Hopefully the owner had insurance.
"Oh...joy...the geth survived…" Tali said dryly.
"Shepard," Vasir's voice came through the comm. "What the hell happened down there?"
"Small explosion," John answered casually. "Standard operating procedure."
"Ha, ha! I knew you were a real Spectre!" Vasir laughed. "I'm going to land on the roof and see if I can work my way down. Maybe what we are looking for it still here."
"Sounds good," John acknowledged. "I'll take my team in and meet you on the third floor.
"Go with the Goddess."
"You too."
Quarian Lexicon
Madinat Alkris'al: A city built straddling Rannoch's equator as well as Prime Meridian. Founded shortly after the unification of the Quarian Clans, it was a city based around the arts. The centerpiece of the city were the Crystal Spires, considered one of Rannoch's Six Wonders. Slabs of a native crystal, both light-weight, and remarkably strong, were mounted on a frame of silvered steel. The light would reflect into intricate rainbows that changed with the passing day.
During the Morning War, in a last stand, the Quarian Elite Guard held the city long enough for the Clan Council could escape. Turning energy weapons onto the Crystal Towers, the beams were split into a raining barrage. The Geth were stopped for a time, but the Crystal blackened and shattered under the strain. The Guard themselves fell to a man, in vain, as the Clan Council's ships were destroyed trying for orbit.
Asari Lexicon
Vortsa Kefalis: a small stiff brush used to clean an asari's head crest.
AN: I picked Six wonders because they have six fingers. :)
I'm considering building up some of Rannoch lore, if you have any ideas, shoot them at me!
Also, I am always open to negative reviews, they tell me what I need to improve and such, after all can't please everybody all the time, nor do I intend to. I'm writing this story more for me because I wanted more Shep/Tali stuff, I'm just pleased others like it. I had a good conversation about my writing the other day about what a reader did and didn't like. Unless you're a troll or flamer, let me have it!