Chapter 5 - Obey

"Shepard? Is that…. you're alive?"

Her voice was as close to a hopeful warble as it could get, she deserved a non sarcastic answer; Shepard thought. He'd always thought of her as a shy little sister with a heart of gold. One with a crazy shotgun toting krogan who considered himself her favorite uncle. Ah good old Wrex, wonder how he's doing?

Shepard's voice mellowed, he was genuinely happy to see Tali.

"Remember when I gave you that Geth data, Tali? Did it help you complete your pilgrimage?"

Tali visibly relaxed.

"Yes, it did. Prazza, weapons down. This is definitely Commander Shepard."

Prazza lowered and put away his rifle, but asked,

"Why is your old commander working for Cerberus?"

Shepard's eyebrow went up by a fraction.

'They know I'm standing right here, right?'

"I don't know. Maybe we should ask."

If he hadn't known Tali before, Shepard would definitely have missed the sarcastic inflection in her answer. Attagirl Tali.

Tali turned to him, knowing full well he'd heard Prazza, not bothering to repeat the question.

"I nearly died Tali. Cerberus spent two years and a lot of resources to bring me back. They want me to investigate attacks on human colonies."

Left unsaid was the fact that Shepard would have done that anyway, Cerberus happened to be doing it too. Tali knew that. She was there when he talked down Corporal Toombs, and found out that Cerberus was behind it.

"Likely story. No organisation would commit so many resources to bring back one soldier."

Just how would he know the amount of resources required to bring back a soldier? And wait, did Prazza just indirectly diss his skills?

Before Shepard could demonstrate to Prazza exactly whom the fuck he was dealing with, Tali cut in,

"You haven't seen Shepard in action, Prazza. Trust me. It was money well spent."

Outwardly, Shepard remained calm. Inside, he was moved at how matter-of-factly she said that, like there was simply no other way it could have gone.

Tali turned to Shepard, a note of hope in her voice again,

"Perhaps we can work together. We're here looking for a young Quarian named Veetor. He was here on Pilgrimage."

'Of course I'd help out Tali, you needn't ask.'

But still, a Quarian on a predominantly human colony?

"Isn't that a little strange? A Quarian visiting a remote human colony?"

"Quarians can choose where they go on Pilgrimage. Veetor liked the idea of helping a small settlement. He was always…... nervous in crowds."

Prazza chose this moment to intercede,

"She means that he was unstable. Combine that with damage to his suit's CO2 scrubbers and an infection from an open-air exposure, and he's likely delirious."

Shepard couldn't see Tali's faceplate as she turned to Prazza, but he was pretty sure she wasn't amused by Prazza's boorishness.

Looking back at Shepard, Tali continued,

"When he saw us landing, he hid in a warehouse on the far side of town. We suspect he's also programmed the mechs to attack anything that moved."

Hm. Veetor was possibly the only survivor here, and the only one who could shed light on this incident. He was probably also terrified out of his mind, and going in guns blazing would probably achieve nothing. The fact that Miranda and Jacob were walking Cerberus logos would not be in their favour either.

'Man, I really gotta make sure my squad doesn't look like strippers that got lost and came across some guns. Or get a better squad.'

Well, Tali's presence would be a good thing in calming Veetor down, and getting some information from him without going on never ending side quests like on Noveria. Ugh, Noveria.

Mentally shooing away memories of that frozen administrative hell, Shepard began,

"Veetor's the only one who can tell us what happened here. We should work together to find him."

"Good idea. You'll need two teams to get past the drones, anyway."

Tali seemed to be on board with the idea.

"Now we're working with Cerberus?"

Prazza. Shepard was seeing a recurring theme here.

"No, Prazza, you're working for me. If you can't follow orders, go wait on the ship."

Ahahahaha, Tali was an absolute badass now. That response was instant and brutally delivered. Shepard was so proud of her, Wrex would love to hear about this clapback. There would be much rejoicing, and much drinking of Ryncol.

Not giving Prazza a chance to respond – Shepard smirked at that – Tali continued as though she had never been interrupted,

"Head for the warehouse through the center of the colony. We'll circle around the far side and draw off some of the drones to clear you a path."

That worked for Shepard. But first, he wanted to know about the obvious incident that must have happened with Cerberus and pissed off the Quarians.

Not that he had a problem with the Quarians disliking Cerberus. Au contraire.

"Your people really don't like Cerberus. What did I miss?"

In hindsight, he really could have worded that better, Shepard mused. Ah well.

Prazza answered,

"They killed out people, infiltrated our flotilla, and tried to blow up one of our ships."

Yeah. That would do it.

Miranda chose this moment to support her catsuit sponsor,

"That's not how I'd have explained it, exactly. It was nothing personal."

.

'It was nothing personal...'

.

Shepard's cybernetics overheated; he saw red.

"I DID NOT ASK YOU. SILENCE, FLESHBAG."

This was, of course accompanied with red cybernetics glowing, and a flare of his Aura of Doom™.

Just a flare, though. Couldn't have her catatonic while on a mission, of course.

In any case, they had a job to do. Mission mode.

"We can sort this out later. Right now, we have a job to do."

"Agreed. We work together to get to Veetor." Tali confirmed with a nod.

"Make sure to keep in radio contact."

"Will do. Good luck, Shepard. Whatever happens… it's good to have you back."

As Tali turned around, Shepard noticed something magnificent on her. It was a shotgun. An older shotgun. Ergo, a shotgun with the older cooling system.

"Wait!"

The amount of raw need Shepard packed into that one word would have made Aria blush.

Tali turned around, understandably concerned and slightly worried.

"Does that shotgun of yours have the older cooling system from two years ago? And not these new thermal clips?"

Tali relaxed, apparently rolling her eyes behind her faceplate,

"Yes Shepard, we're Quarians. We couldn't possibly have replaced all our weapons with the newer thermal clip variants. And there really was no reason to do so, in spite of the free replacements offered by the council to all species. That offer really threw us for a loop."

Shepard's joy was put on hold from that last bit.

"An offer from the Council? To all species? What the fuck? Am I in some twisted lucid dream?"

There was some more eye rolling, not contained to just Tali this time.

"Apparently it was a 'We are in this together' gesture after Sovereign. Good PR for them, I assumed."

Good PR? Hell no. This stank of corruption and stupidity. Maybe a late stage indoctrination. Damn Council. He should have let them die on that oversized joke of a warship.

Ah well, it could be worse. Udina could have been the human councilor instead of Anderson. Speaking of, why the hell did a military man like Anderson let this dumbass move go ahead? More questions, so many more questions with every moment that passed.

'I need answers, and I need them fast. Looks like I need to shake some answers out of Anderson.'

.

A few systems away, Councilor Anderson's hand shook violently as he lifted his teacup, culminating in a shattered teacup on the ground, and hot tea over his dress shirt.

"Shite."

.

"Right… Never mind, we can discuss this in more detail after Veetor is safe. Stay safe "

.

- - - - - - - - - - - - Some exploding drones & a totally predictable Prazza later - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"Hurry Shepard, We're inside the loading docks. Veetor reprogrammed a heavy mech and now it's tearing Prazza's squad apart!"

Shepard didn't hesitate.

"Double time, cover those doors, we're walking into a firefight!"

.

–- - - - - - - - - - A lot of shooting, and a temperamental big boi mech later - - - - - - - - - - - - -

.

Shepard shook his head disparagingly as he looked upon the groggily revived forms of his squad. They really needed armour, why oh why was he saddled with these suicidal nutjobs?

Ah, well. Time to see what Veetor had to say. Shepard headed into the unit where Veetor had holed up.

There was a Quarian seated at a bunch of screens operating the console frantically.

"Monsters coming back. Mechs will protect. Safe from swarms. Have to hide. No monsters. No swarms. No-no-no-no-no."

"Veetor?"

"No Veetor. Not here. Swarms can't find. Monsters coming. Have to hide."

Oh dear. This was looking more and more like a repeat of Eden Prime, minus the geth. Poor Veetor was traumatized.

"Nobody's going to hurt you anymore."

Veetor did not respond.

"I don't think he can hear you Commander."

Shepard turned around. Ah, the strippers had awoken.

"I don't think I asked you. Secure the perimeter. Take Miranda with you."

Jacob and Miranda seemed about to protest, so- "OBEY". This sent them scuttling like good little meatbags.

Once gone, Shepard fiddled with his omni tool to interrupt the transmissions on the screens Veetor was at.

This caused Veetor to quiet down and seemingly relax; he turned around got up from his seat, facing Shepard.

"You're human. Where did you hide? How come they didn't find you?"

"Who didn't find us?", prompted Shepard gently.

"The ….. the monsters. The swarms. They took everyone."

"Didn't the colonists fight back, Veetor? What happened?"

"You don't know. You didn't see. But I see everything."

Veetor tapped a couple of things on the console, and the screens came alive with a video feed. It looked like security footage, he must have pieced it together manually.

Shepard vaguely registered the door behind him opening once more, letting in Tali and his squad.

"My god. I think it's a Collector."

.

Shepard closed his eyes tiredly. Couldn't these Collectors collect something normal, like stamps? Or even butterflies?

.

"It's a species from somewhere beyond the Omega 4 Relay. Only a few people have seen one in person." Jacob piped in.

That sounded awfully suspicious to Shepard. Would those 'few people' happen to be from Cerberus?

Miranda continued, "They usually work through intermediaries, like slavers or hired mercenaries. If they're involved with the Reapers somehow, it could explain what happened to the colonies."

"The Collectors have advanced technology. They could have a weapon that disables an entire settlement at once."

Why the heck were they alternating these statements? It's almost like they were reading from a script….

.

Unknown to Shepard and everyone else, the Fourth Wall trembled and strained, but held.

.

Veetor helpfully decided to add, "The seeker swarms. No one can hide. The seekers find you. Freeze you. Then the monsters take you away."

Hm. That was actually quite informative. "Tell me more about these swarms."

"It's how they find you. Seeker clouds. Machines like tiny insects. They go everywhere. They find you. Then they sting you. Freeze you."

"What happened after that?"

"The monsters took the people onto the ship, and then they left. The ship flew away. But they'll be back for me. No one escapes!"

"Thank you for telling us this Veetor. You were very helpful."

Somewhat bolstered by this, Veetor continued, "I studied them. The monsters. The swarms. I recorded them with my omni-tool. Lots of readings. Electro-magnetic. Dark energy."

Of course, Miranda had to cut in, "We need to get this data to the Illusive Man. Grab the Quarian and call the shuttle to pick us up."

Oh that's it. She tried to give out orders. Shepard calmly motioned to Tali to hold her tirade, smoothly drew his pistol, and fired three shots into Miranda's midsection at point blank range. The first two shots broke her barriers, and the last went straight through her.

As she collapsed to the ground, shivering, Shepard slowly moved to her, completely disregarding Jacob's drawn gun and panicked shout.

Shepard looked at both Miranda and Jacob, and in an all-too-calm voice said,

"Presume to order your commanding officer about again, and you will be executed immediately."

"Am I clear, terrorist scum?"

The potent venom in his voice could be considered a chemical weapon.

Four terrified nods answered him, instead of the expected two.

'I may have gone a bit overboard here...'

"Drag her out and fix her up with medi-gel. Report to the shuttle when done."

Waiting until Jacob had done exactly that and the doors had closed behind him, Shepard sagged and let out a drawn-out sigh as he faced Tali and Veetor.

"I'm sorry you had to see that, the last 12-odd hours have been… tiring."

"It's… it's alright Shepard, you just caught me by surprise. I can't say I'm surprised to see you do that, given your history with Cerberus. You're welcome to take the omni-tool, but please, just let me take Veetor."

"Of course Tali, Veetor should be headed towards a medic. But I really could use you with me on this…. whatever this is. It's definitely not an adventure though."

"I want to Shepard, but I can't. I've got a mission of my own. It's too important for me to abandon, even for you. When it's over, and I'm still alive, we'll see what happens."

"Alright Tali, that's quite all right. Good luck with your mission."

"Thanks Shepard. If I find anything out there that can help, I'll let you know."

.

"Mmh. Say, Tali, how open would the Quarians be to selling me some weapons with the older cooling systems? At say, ten times the original selling price? On Cerberus credits, of course."

Shepard couldn't quite see Tali's face, but he'd bet she was wearing an identical, evil grin.

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Writing is easy for some, I am not one of them. This is easily my longest chapter, at over 2k words, a milestone; to me, anyway.

Thank you for all the reviews and ideas; I now have one-shot ideas floating about in my head. I shall attempt to actually put them on paper, figuratively speaking; maybe something equally insane as this story will spout from it?

So yeah, you may have noticed that Shepard has a bone to pick with Cerberus, and has no problems with putting down their operatives when they fuck up. This is basically a paragade Shepard, a mix of ruthless and compassionate.

I do have something I'm wrestling with though – Do I make Shepard a biotic? I have played as an adept, but will it even matter, since I tend to skip out on the fights anyway? At most I feel I can use biotics for dramatic effect while Sheppy does his commander thing. Any thoughts/suggestions on this are more than welcome.