He sat, watching the stars float by as the Normandy slowly drifted in orbit. "What do you think of Cerberus?"
"I've heard rumors, but I learned long ago to form my own impressions." Samara sat cross-legged in her usual place. "There is too much room for interpretation in the opinions of others."
"Why were you willing to work for Cerberus when you didn't have first-hand knowledge?" He shifted to face her. All the others, he could see their motives for joining. Mordin wanted to know. Jack and Grunt weren't picky about who they punched. Kasumi and Zaeed were being paid. Thane was suicidal. Samara, however, was still a puzzle.
"I work for you, Shepard." She looked at him, her icy blue eyes meeting his. "Our methods may be different, but our goals are not."
"Saving the universe." Michael shrugged. "One cluster-fuck at a time." He looked back at the stars, then back at her. "How do you keep your legs from going numb, sitting like this?"
She smiled, just a bit on the edges of her mouth. "Biotics."
"That's cheating." He returned to looking at the stars. There were a lot of them. A couple hundred bore life, and a few dozen of those bore human life. Fewer now than there had been just days ago. A boy laying on a rooftop on a ratty blanket, staring up at the stars, counting them. Now he floated among them, above an alien world. He exhaled, and let himself drift.
#
"Tell me something I don't know about you."
Jack rolled her eyes at him, but her expression was slightly less hostile than usual. Annoyed lynx rather than ravenously hungry tiger. "Nothing to tell." Her eyes narrowed. "Why?"
"I want to know more..." Michael shrugged. "And I'm not going away."
"I'm here to fight for you." She stood. "Nothing says we have to be friends. But whatever." She walked a few paces away, putting distance between them before leaning on one of the conduits and folding her arms. "Something you don't know, huh? Obvious stuff, like what's up with my ink, or something just as boring?" She twitched a shoulder. "You're not really interested unless it affects you, I've been through this shit before."
"I could be genuine." He mirrored her stance. "You have no way of knowing."
"I have eyes, and I have history. You'll back off as soon as you realize you're not the first and I'm immune to your 'help.'" She stalked toward him, stopping a couple paces away.
"I'll bite." He waved a hand. "What's with the tattoos?"
"Some are for prisons I've been in. Some are for kills. You know, good ones." She looked down at her hands. "Some are for things I've lost. Those aren't your business. They're nobody's business." She spread her hands. "And some are because, hey, why the fuck not?"
Why'd spray-paint graffiti on the bridge, son? I ain't your son, and why the fuck not? Michaels gave a small shake of his head. "You work pretty hard and not letting people get close."
"I've been with lots of people." Her voice took on a defensive note. "If you're asking about a boyfriend or girlfriend, no. It's a waste of time and it never works. You let someone get that close, it just means they need a shorter knife. Lonely and alive works just fine, thanks."
Kaidan's words still cut, when he let himself think about Horizon. And yet... "Seems like you miss it a little more than you want to admit."
She shook her head. "Pick every little word apart if you want, but it doesn't change the way the galaxy works. Come on, you've been around." She waved a hand.
"You're tough." If he'd met her before he'd met Hackett, they'd have either killed each other or been ruling a system or two by now. He couldn't help but wonder who Jack would be if she'd had a Hackett in her life. "But you can't have survived alone all these years."
For a moment, she stared at him. Then she backed away, sinking in on herself a bit. "When I was starting out, I ran with this girl Manara and her boyfriend. They knew their way around. I thought they'd help me. Right." She resumed her stance by the conduit. "They helped me into their bed. And when we finally did take down something big, they helped themselves to my share of the take." She unfolded her arms and stalked toward him again. "I knew where it was heading, and I got them first. Never bothered with friends after that."
"They sound like selfish pricks." He shrugged. "That doesn't mean they were going to kill you."
"I get feelings." She shook her head, glaring at him. "I don't need proof. I did the smart thing." Her head lifted as she stared at him. "I always do the smart thing if people fuck with me. That's probably something you should remember."
It was always nice being threatened by Jack. "I have to go." He let his arms fall to his sides. "But we should do this again."
Michael started for the stairs. "Wait..." Jack actually caught hold of his arm. "My turn with the questions. People usually walk by now. Why are you really asking all these things?" He turned back toward her, and she shook her head at him. "You eyeing me up? Because if this is just about sex, maybe you should fucking say so."
"I want to know what makes you tick, first." Michael shrugged. Just in case it was live ordinance. That wouldn't really be much of a surprise.
"You don't need to know someone to sleep with them." She gave a small smile, and her eyes took on a note of challenge. "You just have to know where to put it."
He started walking for the stairs again, then paused after a couple steps. "I used to have a cat."
"I..." Jack blinked. "What?"
"Little mangy gray thing. I saved him from getting hit by a taxi. He repaid me by clawing the shit out of my hand." He pointed at the back of his left hand. "Still have the scars."
Jack snorted. "Got your ass kicked by a kitten." She narrowed her eyes. "Why are you telling me this?"
"Cat's name was Jack." He winked at her before continuing to the stairs.
"Okay." Her voice sounded a little amused. "Maybe we'll talk later." She stalked back to her cot. "Maybe not."
#
"Like this." Michael corrected her grip. "Now tr-" He went through the air and landed on the mat. He coughed, then looked up. "Perfect."
Kasumi grinned down at him. On the other mat, Tali was performing a similar maneuver with Thane. The quarian put her hips into it, and got the drell into a wrist lock. "Well done." Thane nodded up at her.
"Alright." Michael stood, then gestured for Thane to join him. "That block you did in the last fight, where you disarmed the guy." He picked up a tool to use as a mock gun. "Be good for Kasumi to learn, if she's going to run around cloaked."
Thane nodded. His maneuver was a little different than the one Michael had been taught. After two tries, Michael had it, and then moved to partner with Tali while Thane worked with Kasumi. Samara had joined the regular hand-to-hand lesson yesterday, managing to prove that while he and Thane were both good at what they did, a few hundred years of experience counted for a lot even before factoring in biotics. She'd wiped the smug off Miranda's face beautifully, earning herself just a smidgen of respect from Jack.
On the second try, Tali disarmed him. Then she dropped, spun, and kicked his legs out from under him. He landed, then rolled back to his feet before giving her a nod. "Well done."
She bounced a little at the compliment, then withdrew slightly. "Ash taught me that move, just before..."
He put a hand on her shoulder, then pulled her in for a quick hug. "She'd be proud of you. Leading your own missions. Blowing up giant mechs. Dropkicking Garrus." He patted her arm. "Amassing your own personal krogan army."
Tali snickered. "Wrex sent me schematics for a new shotgun mod. Mordin's putting it together for me."
"Wrex never sends me cool new weapons." He shook his head as he moved back into a fighting stance. "See if I ever blow things up for him again."
#
"Tell me you aren't doing what it looks like you are doing." Garrus folded his arms as he looked down at the table.
"Does it look like we are planning a mission to break into the Citadel archives?" Shepard looked up at him.
"Yes." Garrus clicked his mandibles.
"Then we are doing what it looks like we are doing." Kasumi spun a datapad around for Shepard to look at.
Garrus blinked. He started to raise a hand, then lowered it. He folded his arms again, then tilted his head. Then he sighed. "Why are you planning a mission to break into the Citadel archives?"
"It passes the time." Shepard made an adjustment to something on the datapad, then handed it back to Kasumi. Kasumi nodded, and smiled.
"You're..." Garrus stared at them in slowly dawning horror. "You're bored?"
"Well..." Kasumi shrugged. "A little."
"Joker, EDI..." Garrus touched his omnitool. "Please tell me you have a lead. Something. Anything."
#
"Patching the Illusive Man through, Commander."
Michael rubbed his thumb over one of the scars on his face. Dr. Chakwas had just done another scan of the implants. Even though he knew it was psychosomatic, he could feel them itch a little under his skin. "Shepard - we caught a break. I intercepted a distress call from a turian patrol. They stumbled on to a Collector ship beyond the Korlus system." The Insidious Meathead was pacing. "The turians were wiped out, but not before they crippled the Collector vessel. I need you to board that ship and get some hard data on the Collectors. Find us a way to get to their homeworld."
That sounded a little too good to be true. "Hard to imagine how a turian patrol could take out a Collector ship."
"Reports indicate the hull's intact, but all systems seem to be offline." He took a drag on his cigarette. Michael found himself wondering if it was a real cigarette, or just part of The Indulgent Meddler's persona. "They could be making repairs as we speak. I'm not saying it won't be dangerous, but we can't let an opportunity like this slip by."
"Send me the coordinates, and I'll take care of it." Michael nodded. It would be good to make some progress on his actual mission.
#
"We have a visual on the Collector ship, Commander." Joker glanced over his shoulder when Michael entered the cockpit.
"Very low emissions. Passive infrared temperatures suggest most systems are offline." EDI's holographic representation glowed. "Thrusters are cold."
"That thing's massive." Joker exhaled. "How the hell did the turians take it out?"
Something about that just had trap written all over it. "Read them poetry?" He sighed, then glanced over his shoulder. "It's no fun to insult turians when Garrus can't hear me."
#
"Ladar scans do not detect any hull breaches on the side facing us. I detect no mass effect field distortions. It appears the drive core is offline." EDI's voice was brisk.
"Rendezvous in 30 seconds, Commander. Good luck." Joker glanced up at him.
Michael nodded, and headed for the shuttle. Garrus, Jack, and Grunt were already waiting. Mordin, Zaeed, Tali, and Samara joined them a moment later. He'd decided to leave Taylor and Lawson on board. It gave him a better shot at controlling what information got back to The Ignorant Milquetoast. "Kasumi?" Garrus clicked his mandibles.
"Two feet to your left." Michael jerked his head toward the location. Kasumi briefly appeared, waved cheerfully, and vanished again.
#
"Shepard?" Tali moved in on his left.
"Yes Tali?" He raised an eyebrow, keeping his rifle up.
"Let's not steal this one."
"Yeah..." Michael nodded. This was definitely the creepiest ship he'd ever been aboard. "Yeah, I think you're right."
#
"The same..." Shepard tilted his head. Garrus felt a slight chill go through him at EDI's words. "The same ship?" Shepard shifted his grip on his rifle, then looked at Garrus. "Maybe the defense towers softened it for the turians?"
"The missing colonists might be aboard." Garrus nodded. "If they're still alive." He altered his position as they kept moving, shifting so he was next to Tali. She was carrying the shotgun Wrex had given her back on Tunchunka. It looked a bit oversized in her hands, but she handled it with practiced ease.
It occurred to him that neither he nor Shepard had checked her loadout before this mission. Or before the last one. Actually, when had they last checked her loadout before a mission? He started to ask about her ammo, then shrugged. Tali knew what she was doing. They kept moving.
The next room contained pods. "Same containers as on Horizon." Jack glared at one of them. "Only these are empty."
"Horrible." His mandibles clicked. "Trapped in these pods. Completely at the mercy of the Collectors."
"I want..." Shepard shook his head. "Something I can shoot."
"Yeah." Garrus nodded. "Know the feeling."
"Alright, let's..." Shepard started walking, only to trail off again as they entered the next area. When he started forward again, his gait changed. Not the casual skulk he'd been doing a few moments ago, but the angry stride of a predator. It took Garrus half a second to see why.
Corpses, the recognizable ones human, littered the area. They were piled up like raked garbage. Garrus started shaking his head. Next to him, Jack of all people made a disgusted sound. "Why would the Collectors just leave a pile of bodies lying around?"
"Must have been used for testing." Garrus glanced at Shepard. Some of these bodies were undoubtedly from Horizon. Where their friend could have easily ended up among them. "I'd say these subjects didn't pass."
"They're dead." Shepard started moving again. "Nothing we can do. Keep moving."
#
He watched Mordin scanning the pods, and gestured for Samara to stay close to the doctor. Jack moved up to his left. "That's a Collector. Are you saying those bastards even experimented on one of their own?"
"EDI, we're uploading the data from this terminal." Michael tapped his omnitool as Mordin finished the scans. "See if you can figure out what they were up to?"
"Data received. Analyzing." EDI's voice continued a few seconds later. "The Collectors were running baseline genetic comparisons between their species and humanity."
Why the hell would they be doing that? "Is there something we can use in the data to give us an edge?" He turned to face Mordin, addressing the salarian as much as EDI.
"These are only preliminary experiments, but they reveal something remarkable." They must have, because Mordin was already eagerly taking more scans, actually gesturing for Grunt to boost him up so he could get a better read on something higher on the wall. EDI continued, "a quad-strand genetic structure, identical to traces collected from ancient ruins. Only one race is known to have this structure: the Protheans."
"Well, shit." Michael sighed. "Guess extinct doesn't mean what it used to."
"These are on longer Protheans, Shepard," EDI responded. "Their genes show distinct signs of extensive genetic rewrite. The Reapers have repurposed them to suit their needs."
That would explain Mordin having his disapproving face set to 'kill'. Michael shook his head. He was not looking forward to breaking this news to Liara. "You'd think somebody would have picked up on this."
"No one has had an opportunity to study a Collector genetic code in this detail." EDI paused briefly. "I have already matched two thousand alleles to recorded fragments. This Collector likely descends from a Prothean colony in the Styx Theta cluster. But there are signs of extreme alteration. Three fewer chromosomes. Redacted heterochromatin structure. Elimination of superfluous 'junk' sequences."
Michael glanced at the corpse. "I wouldn't want to live as some kind of mutated slave. Killing a Collector is probably doing it a favor." He saw Jack and Zaeed both nod. "Whatever they used to be, the Collectors work for the Reapers now. And we still have to stop them."
"No shit." Jack checked her sidearm. "I'm not letting the Reapers turn me into some kind of fucked-up bug thing."
"Let's find what we need before the fucked-up bug things come to salvage this vessel." Michael gestured. "Move out."
#
"I compared the EM profile against data recorded by the original Normandy two years ago. They are an exact match."
EDI's words made Michael narrow his eyes. Stealing it wasn't an option, but perhaps they had enough to apply rule seven. "The same ship dogging me for two years?" He shook his head. "Way beyond coincidence."
"Something doesn't add up, Commander. Watch your back." Joker chimed in. Michael exhaled.
"This is why I follow you, Shepard." Grunt adjusted his shotgun. "You know how to make enemies."
"I was under the impression that the N7 program did include training on protocols and etiquette for dealing with alien beings." Samara tilted her head.
"I may have been absent that day." Michael shrugged.
"Perhaps you should teach a refresher course." Zaeed gave Samara a look that just barely managed to avoid being a leer.
"Perhaps." Samara continued moving forward. "I will need to requisition a shock prod."
"This is why we keep you and Thane around." Michael headed up an incline. "For those rare occasions in which politeness solves things."
#
He tried not to think about those swarms loose on Earth. It may have been a few years since he was last there, but it was still home. "EDI? I'm setting up a bridge between you and the Collector ship. See if you can get anything useful from the data banks."
"Data-mine in progress, Shepard." Her voice responded. He gestured for his team to continue scanning. Garrus moved to stand behind him, ensuring their eyes covered all angles. The lack of crew bodies was making him nervous.
A weird buzzing sound came over the comms, then Joker uttered those dulcet words he so hated to hear from his mission control. "Uh... that can't be good."
Around them, the ship began doing things. Consoles flashed. Things in conduits started moving. And systems started to come online. "What the hell just happened?"
"Major power surge," Joker's voice responded. "Everything went dark, but we're back up now."
"I managed to diver the majority of the overload to non-critical systems," EDI said. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw something move, and started to bring up his rifle. "Shepard, it was not a malfunction. This was a trap."
"Of course it was." Michael sighed. The platform they were on started moving, carrying them with it. He saw Grunt catch Mordin by the wrist, preventing the doctor from falling off the side of the platform. Samara did the same with Kasumi. Tali hadn't stumbled, but Garrus caught her wrist and pulled her away from the edge anyway. "We need a little help here, EDI."
"I am having trouble maintaining the connection. There is someone else in the system."
The platform spun to a stop, making several of them fall over. Michael offered Jack a hand back to her feet. "Incoming."
#
Zaeed and Grunt crouched behind one of the outcroppings. Shepard and Garrus stood above, picking off anything that looked particularly dangerous. Jack and Samara got a steady rhythm of biotics going, and Tali and Mordin used incendiaries to take care of anything that got past that. The trouble was... Garrus glanced at his readout. The trouble was that some of them were starting to run low on ammunition.
The platform started to spin again, and then leveled. Garrus started to shake his head, then saw EDI's holographic projection appear above the console. "I have regained control of the platform, Shepard."
"I thought we were going to have to take on every Collector here." Michael shook his head.
"Perhaps you should consider upgrading my hardware." EDI's projection flickered.
"My ship..." Michael sighed. "Is a smart ass. Did you get what we needed?"
"I found data that could help us successfully navigate the Omega 4 relay." The projection flickered again. "I have also found the turian distress call that served as the lure for this trap. The Collectors were the source. It is unusual."
He frowned. "What are you getting at?"
"Turian emergency channels have secondary encryption. It is present, but corrupted in the message. It is not possible that the Illusive Man would believe the distress call genuine."
That news failed to surprise him in any way. "Why are you so sure?"
"I found the anomaly with Cerberus detection protocols. He wrote them."
"He knew it was a trap?" Joker's voice sounded incredulous. "Why would he send us into a trap?"
Because he was a self-serving asshole. "That son of a bitch sent us right into Collector hands."
"I knew Cerberus would screw me again." Jack's biotics flared briefly. "I'm going to crush his head."
"Uh..." Joker's voice interrupted the ensuing plans of violence. "Commander. We've got another problem. The Collector ship is powering up." Sounds from around them supported his claim. "You need to get out before their weapons come online. I'm not losing another Normandy."
"I do not have full control of their systems." EDI's projection vanished. "I will do what I can. Sending coordinates for shuttle extraction."
"Come on." He gestured at his teammates. "Let's move."
#
Garrus fired off another shot at the giant bug thing. It seemed focused on Shepard, and Shepard was doing all he could to keep it that way. Tali flung another grenade at it, then Grunt yanked her back into cover. He noted that Grunt actually pushed her down to add himself to the cover as well.
Several collectors moved toward him, only to get swept out of the way by Samara's biotics. Below, Jack swept in to use her biotics to shield Shepard, as Shepard rolled forward to place another mine on the bug thing. Then he grabbed Jack by the waist and hauled her back with him as he dove for cover, letting her biotics shield them on the way.
"How many..." The bug thing was still coming. Limping, but coming. And it was activating some kind of self-repair protocol. "Shepard, you need to hit it again."
"As hard as this is to believe, Vakarian..." Shepard's voice sounded annoyed. "I am actually out of explosives."
"Draw it toward you." Tali started doing something with her omnitool.
"Yeah, that's going to happen whether I want it to or not." Shepard started moving, keeping some distance between himself and the bug thing. "My shots are hurting it, just not fast enough."
"Alright, I need to get this on that..." Tali held up the explosive she was working on, and hesitated. It vanished out of her hand. "Hey -"
"On it." Kasumi's voice came over the comm. "Done."
"Get in cover, Kasumi." Shepard ordered.
The thing started moving, and then bits of it were flying in all directions. "Kasumi?" Garrus tilted his head, looking for signs of her.
"Tali." Kasumi's voice came over the comm. "It is a pleasure working with you."
"Thank you." Tali bounced up out of cover. "I think that's all of them."
"Let's move."
#
He hefted his rifle, then went dark, moving in and dropping a grenade into the oncoming husks before shifting to the side. "There's the shuttle. Let's go."
Joker was getting anxious on the communicator as they got to the shuttle. Michael did a quick head count, then reached out to his left to make sure Kasumi was actually aboard before hitting the button to close the hatch. "Get to the Normandy."
"Strap in, people," Joker ordered. "Gonna make them work for it this time."
#
"Everyone in one piece?" Michael looked around the shuttle. It was intact, as was the Normandy, which means they might temporarily be out of trouble.
"There is a bone in my arm that I am reasonably certain is not mine." Thane looked up at him, his voice calm.
"If it belongs to anybody on the shuttle, take them and head to sick bay." He frowned. "Zaeed, sick bay, medigel isn't enough for that leg wound." He scanned the rest of them. Some bruises and surface wounds, but nothing else bad. "Alright..." He exhaled. "Time to go mutiny." He headed out of the shuttle. "Again."
"Call coming in from the Illusive Man, Commander." Joker's voice came over the comm. "Figure you've got a few words for him, too."
#
"Shepard. Looks like EDI extracted some interesting data before the Collector ship came back online."
"Cut the act." Michael glared. "You set us up. What the fucking fuck were you fucking thinking the fuck about?"
"We needed information on the Omega 4 relay. That required direct access to Collector data. It was too good an opportunity to pass up."
The worst part was he was right. That didn't change that Michael was pissed. "I don't like surprises. Especially when my ass was on the line."
"I put you at risk, yes. But without that information, we don't reach the Collector homeworld. And you and every other human may as well be dead. It was a trap..." TIM sat up. "But I was confident in your abilities. And don't forget EDI. The Collectors couldn't have anticipated her."
"You could have told me the plan." Hackett always had. "You say I'm important, but you sure try hard to get me killed."
"I needed the Collectors to believe they had the upper hand. Telling you could've tipped them off in any number of ways." TIM stood. "Besides, I wouldn't have sent you in if I didn't think you could succeed."
"You have one job." Michael glared. "Information. If I can't trust your intel, you're useless to me."
"It's never that simple." TIM shook his head. "You of all people should know that."
"I know that I'll be a lot more careful. With the Collectors, and with you." This was the part where, if they'd been face to face, he'd have punched TIM in the mouth. From the slight tightening of TIM's eyes, he knew it.
"This is no time for petty grudges. Things are about to get a lot tougher." TIM sat back down. "EDI confirmed our suspicions. The Reapers and Collector ships use an advanced Identify Friend/Foe system that the relays recognize. All we need to do is get our hands on one of those IFFs."
"Well, why didn't you say so? Garrus has one in his back pocket." Michael waved a hand. "I was just on the Collector ship. Why didn't you say anything about finding their IFF?"
"As I said, EDI just confirmed it. Besides, you wouldn't have had time to find and extract it. But we have options." He tapped his cigarette into some kind of disposal on the side of his chair. "An Alliance science team recently determined that the 'Great Rift' on the planet Klendagon is actually an impact crater from a mass accelerator weapon." TIM drained a cup. "A very old mass accelerator. I sent a team to find either the weapon or its target. They found both." He set the cup down. "The weapons was defunct, but it helped us plot the flight path of the intended target -a 37 million year old derelict Reaper. We found it damaged and trapped in the gravity of a brown dwarf."
Another derelict ship. "I only believe you because I doubt you'd repeat yourself so soon."
"It's no less a risk, Shepard. We lost contact with Dr. Chandana's team shortly after they boarded. Initial reconnaissance revealed no clues, and it was too risky to commit more resources - but now we need that IFF. I'll forward the coordinates to Joker." He crushed out his cigarette. "In the meantime..." He gestured. "I suggest you tell your crew I didn't risk their lives unnecessarily. It will make things easier going forward."
"EDI - tell the crew to assemble. We've got a lot to talk about."
#
"So the Illusive Man didn't sell us out." Jacob looked genuinely pissed off. Michael chose to take that as a good sign. "Could've fooled me." Miranda gave Jacob an irritated look.
"Lied to us. Used us." Mordin shrugged. "Needed access to Collector data banks. Necessary risk."
"He tries something like that again and the Collectors will be the least of his problems." Michael leaned on the conference table. "EDI, are you sure this IFF is going to work?"
"My analysis is accurate, Shepard." Her projection popped up over the table. "I have also determined the approximate location of the Collector homeworld based on navigational data from their vessel." The map floated up above the table, and her indicator light put the marker almost dead center.
"That can't be right." Miranda shook her head and frowned at the map.
"EDI doesn't make mistakes." Michael folded his arms. "The Collector homeworld is located somewhere in the galactic core." That was going to suck.
"Can't be." Jacob leaned on the table. "The core is just black holes and exploding suns. There are no habitable planets there."
"Could be an artificial construction." Mordin stroked his chin. "Space station protected by powerful mass effect fields and radiation shields."
"Even the Collectors don't have that kind of technology." Miranda actually rolled her eyes as she walked around the table, looking at the map. It was very tempting to trip her as she went by.
"Artificial homeworld for an artificial race..." Michael nodded. "The Collectors are just servants of our real enemy. And we've all seen what their masters are capable of." He shook his head. "They built the mass relays and the Citadel. Who's to say they can't build a space station surrounded by black holes?" He exhaled. "No wonder nobody's ever returned from a trip through the Omega 4 mass relay."
"The logical conclusion is that a small safe zone exists on the far side of the relay." EDI's projection flickered. "A region where ships can survive. Standard relay transit protocols would not allow safe transport. Drift of several thousand kilometers is common, and would be fatal in the galactic core. The Reaper IFF must trigger the relay to use more advanced, encrypted protocols."
"Just because we can follow the Collectors through the relay doesn't mean we can take them out. I don't want to go after them until I know we're ready." The ship might need a few more upgrades.
"Sooner or later we need that IFF." Jacob squared his shoulders. "I say, why wait?"
"It's a derelict Reaper. What if the Collectors are waiting for us? We may want to build up our team before we take that kind of risk." It was physically painful to have her agreeing with him.
"It's your call, Commander. Whatever you decide, we're with you." Jacob saluted before leaving.
Mordin gave him a sort of casual nod before following Jacob out. Miranda gave a few final looks at the map before swaying toward the exit. "Lawson."
She blinked, and turned back toward him. "Commander?"
"Armor." He walked past her on the way to the door. "Get some."
#
"Got a minute?" He tapped on the inside of the door.
"Certainly." Thane turned around, and nodded to him.
"Just want to say I appreciate you teaching the hand to hand lessons." Michael inclined his hand. "Tali just put Taylor on the deck."
A brief smile crossed Thane's face. "She is a fast learner."
"We need to have the best equipment possible to take on the Collectors. You have any leads I could chase down?" He raised an eyebrow.
"My old contact network often located rare equipment for me. Would you like me to get in touch with them?"
"Let's see what they've got." He nodded before heading down the hall to start asking others the same question.