And here we are again! Happy New Year! Fireworks!
I've been trying to upload this chapter for a day, but the site never worked.
"Incoming!" Garrus yelled out as the strangely curved ship flew over them. It wasn't shooting at the Mako but it dropped big packets ahead of them. They were limited in their maneuverability, Therum turned out to be a lava filled hell hole of a planet, as Shepard had called it. The path that the mining company had leveled was flanked by streams of lava most of the time.
"Normandy," Shepard shouted over the noise of shots fired at them, "patch me through to Tali'Zorah." The projectiles glowed of blue plasma and traveled relatively slow at this distance. Shepard easily dodged them by having the Mako jump up with the thrusters when they reached them.
"Yes, Commander?" came Tali's voice over the comm.
"Tali'Zorah, is that insect thing a geth ship?" Shepard asked, the tension in her jaw making her face look hard.
"I'm not sure what an insect looks like but that is a geth ship, yes. The geth used early quarian design for their ships and have not changed it."
By now they could see the dropped 'packets' on the Mako's display. They looked like four-legged geth, powerful guns with artificial intelligence.
Just what this planet of flaming lava needs.
Shepard thanked Tali and called the Normandy again. "Joker, is this the only ship?"
"No other ships on scanner, Commander."
"Drop stealth and shoot that thing out of the sky," she snarled.
"Aye, Commander."
The Normandy swooped over them, lining up behind the geth ship and fired. But only the GARDIAN lasers fired, neither the powerful cannon nor the Javelin torpedoes fired a shot.
"Joker, this isn't a game! Fire the cannon!" Shepard yelled into the comm.
"Sorry, Commander, the cannon doesn't work." Joker sounded embarrassed.
Shepard hissed through her teeth, "Oh, you have got to be kidding me."
"I'm getting a system warning about the cannon not being calibrated right and Adams says he can't fix it quickly." Joker sounded equally angry.
The geth ship turned and was now chasing the Normandy away from their viewport. Shepard looked ready to murder someone and still hissed through her teeth, the muscles on the side of her jaw twitching. "Get the Normandy away from this fucking planet and come back under stealth in an hour."
"Aye, Commander."
Shepard cursed under her breath and accelerated the Mako so fast that it jumped forward. She had to make a hasty turn, narrowly avoiding a river of lava to swerve away from another plasma projectile.
"Fucking untested prototype... they give me a ship to chase geth and the guns don't work. Fucking fuckshit," she grumbled.
Her anger translated right into her driving and she was barreling towards the walking geth cannons at high speed. Garrus fired at them as much as he could with the Mako's machinegun, slowly destroying their shields. When they reached the first armature, both Garrus and Wrex shouted out a warning but she didn't slow down and drove right over it. Garrus swallowed all comments he wanted to make, turned the gun around and shot the thing to pieces while it lay flattened on the ground. The second armature was dealt with in much the same way and he was sure he heard some manic cackling from the front seat when they drove over the machine.
When the last geth cannon was down, she stopped the Mako and Ashley and Shepard slapped their right hands against each other and Shepard yelled, "This is how we do it!"
"Damn right, Skipper!" Ashley called out and turned back to the shield controls. "Shields at 80%, building up."
Kaidan looked rather annoyed but didn't comment. He checked the scanners. "No activity around us but there is interference, we can't see far."
"Alright, I'm starting the repair protocol," Shepard said with a few tabs on the controls and the Mako's engines powered down for 10 seconds while the microbots fixed the shield grid. "Check your guns and armor, helmets on, I have a feeling we got invited to a nice little geth party here," Shepard said with a dangerous glint in her eyes. The three marines, whose names Garrus didn't know, Kaidan Alenko, Ashley Williams and Garrus himself answered with a short "Yes, Commander!" while Wrex just gave a nod and lovingly stroked his shotgun.
The Mako's engine powered up again and Shepard drove forward, quite carefully this time. The road curved around mountains and most of the time they had streams of lava on at least one side of their path.
The rapid fire from massive turrets reached them before they could see them hidden behind a curve in the road. The turrets protected a walled-off outpost that blocked the path. Garrus turned the cannon but a rise in the path blocked his shot. Shepard stopped behind the rise and turned around to look at him. Her eyebrows were raised in what Garrus had learned was her way of posing a question without saying anything.
Garrus swallowed the hint of nervousness that wanted to come up and went through the options they had in his mind. "A frontal approach would be suicide," he said, "those are military grade turrets, installed to protect the outpost from raiders and pirates. The geth must have hacked them to turn against us. We need to work down their shields before we can hope to shoot them down."
Shepard nodded and turned her raised eyebrow to Kaidan. He checked the scanners once more and then nodded. "There might be another entrance off to the other side of this cliff but I'm still getting too much interference on the scanner to say for sure. The path forks 30 meters ahead."
Shepard nodded. "Let's check that path first, I want to know all options. And I really want to know more about the inside of that compound. Keep scanning, Kaidan, try to filter out the interference, I don't like heading in there blind."
"Aye, Commander."
Shepard crept forward until the turret spotted them and sped forward to the fork when the shots lit up the front of the turret. The Mako was hidden behind the cliff when the projectiles hit the ground. Shepard slowed down again and slowly drove the tank around the cliff.
The inside of the Mako was eerily quiet except for the Commander's voice calling out sharply. "Kaidan?"
"Scanners still distorted," Kaidan answered and it sounded like he was about to apologize. There was nervous grumbling from the other marines in the back of the Mako but they fell silent like someone had turned off the sound by a look from the Commander. She drove forward again, edging around the corner of the rocky rise only to hastily back up again as the first blue glowing projectile rushed past the Mako's viewport.
"I have one turret on the scanner now," said Kaidan.
"Well, by now I can wave at it," Shepard grumbled. "I'm gonna coax one more shot out of it and then I'm gonna drive directly towards it. Garrus - cannon, Oman - machine gun. Everybody else, we disembark as soon as the turret is down, expect more geth resistance. Lock and load!"
To Garrus' surprise, the Alliance marines yelled out "Oohrah!", which seemed to be a kind of battlecry. Even Kaidan Alenko joined in. He didn't get a translation from his tool and looked at Wrex, to see if he knew anything about this. But Wrex just showed his teeth in a big grin and yelled out a battlecry of his own that shook the Mako. Ashley Williams had murder in her eyes as she stared at the krogan but he just dipped his head to her and raised the nozzle of his shotgun to her. He held it there until she awkwardly clinked the nozzle of her assault rifle against his shotgun. Apparently satisfied with the ritual, Wrex leaned back against his seat.
Shepard had already let the Mako peek out from cover and another projectile whizzed past them. As soon as the viewport had cleared, the Mako hurtled out of cover and rushed at top speed toward the turret. The tank was bumping and flying over the uneven path but Shepard had it under control, swerving out of the way of projectiles. It just made it harder for Garrus to aim the cannon. The marine Oman worked down the shields with the machine guns and when Garrus finally fired the main gun, the turret exploded in a fiery rain.
The Mako skidded to a halt next to some rocks that provided cover for them and the marines jumped out, rifles ready. Oman stayed on the machine guns and Garrus unfolded his sniper rifle and set up through an exit on top of the Mako. Not a moment too soon because now the big gate in front of them opened and geth ran towards them, clicking in their characteristic way and firing.
Garrus began shooting. He quickly learned that a headshot was not the preferred kill-shot for geth, after a headless geth kept shooting at Ashley Williams until he shot it into its chest area. He adjusted his aim after that.
The marines made quick work of the geth. As the last one fell with a mechanical screech, a strange quiet fell over them. If the environment had been less harsh, they might have heard birds sing.
The marines went through the buildings of the outpost and returned with a few packs of ammunition and guns.
"Nothing, Commander, not even a dead body," said one of the marines.
Only now became Garrus aware of the fact that they had not found anybody, not even corpses. Shepard nodded at the marine and checked the map on her omni-tool. "It looks like they fled from the geth, maybe there is a bunker or something at the end of this path."
They continued on the road, meeting nests of geth along the way but they still did not find any people. It was quite unnerving.
He noticed that Shepard made them leave the Mako and fight the geth on foot but she herself held back. She was watching how everyone performed, how they worked together. In between fights, while she let a young marine drive the Mako, she quietly spoke to people, giving advice, making suggestions. Every fight worked better after that and the team began to really work together.
They developed a routine of Wrex and Ashley taking the frontal approach, with Wrex and his almost impenetrable biotic barrier acting like a walking cover for Ashley's deadly aim. Behind them Kaidan fought with his impressive biotics, protected by Oman and Shepard covering his flanks. Garrus stayed on Shepard's six, watching over the group while the other marine covered their backs and one stayed in the Mako to drive after them. They worked together like a well oiled machine.
Shepard had ordered one of the marines, a rather small, wry kid with light-brown skin named Madhav to drive the Mako. Garrus had the suspicion that she was ordering Madhav to stay in the Mako because she wanted to protect him. He was the youngest of the marines and had a youthful face that looked like he smiled a lot. He wondered if he reminded her of Jenkins, the young soldier that had died on Eden Prime.
It had taken Madhav a while but he managed well with the control sticks now and maneuvered the tank securely around and over geth armatures and boulders. He drove a bit slower than Shepard probably would have but Garrus was kind of glad about that.
Shepard was talking to Ashley when the voice of the pilot came from the Mako's control panel. "Normandy to Commander Shepard."
"Joker, good to hear you," Shepard called out. "What happened to the geth ship?"
"It was quite clingy, really wanted to hurt my baby." The pilot sounded offended. "But we shot it out of the sky per your orders, Commander."
"So the cannon works now?"
"No, it only worked once. The situation got a bit desperate. Adams and Tali jury rigged the system somehow and he practically kicked out the Javelin torpedo with his own foot. Luckily that was enough to blow the ship but the cannon is definitely done for now." Joker paused and they could hear another voice in the background. "Adams apologizes for breaking the cannon."
"Well, it wasn't of much use before," Shepard said, "and if you had lost the Normandy I would have hunted you down!"
"Would have loved to see that." He chuckled a little before his voice turned professional again. "Commander, the area where the miners found the prothean ruins is up on a hill ahead of you. I'm getting some strange readings from there, like off the charts."
"Can you contact the miners or archaeologists? We haven't found anybody down here."
"Sorry, Commander, but whatever is down there, it's jamming our communications and scanners, I can't even get readings in the infrared."
"Fucking fuckshit," Shepard quitely mumbled to herself. "Shepard out."
They all slumped forward as the Mako came to a sudden stop. Madhav turned around and grinned sheepishly. "Sorry about that but the road ends here."
Shepard strained her neck to look outside the front viewport. "Come on, kiddo, I have taken this baby up steeper cliffs before."
"Commander, there is lava on this side and a narrow canyon on the other. We have no room to maneuver."
Shepard sighed and grabbed her helmet. "Fine. Madhav, Carlsson, stay with the Mako, we might need it for a hasty retreat. Everybody else, disembark."
As soon as they had slipped through the narrow opening in the steep wall blocking their path, they got attacked by geth. These geth reacted differently, more vicious and careful than the ones they had met before. They used cover better and specifically targeted the back part of the team, ignoring Wrex in front.
When Oman got hit in the shoulder guard, Shepard ordered them to hunker down behind cover and let Garrus and herself snipe down their numbers before proceeding.
"Is is just me or did they get smarter?" Shepard asked over the comm between breaths and shots.
Garrus let his breath flow out, pulled the trigger and watched the 'chest' of a geth explode. "Agreed, Commander, they seem to have adapted to our fighting style."
Another shot from Shepard's rifle took the head off a geth. "They must be networked," a breath, a shot, and then her voice came back over the comm, "so the ones we fought before basically taught these guys how to fight us." A loud boom made Garrus' head snap around to see Shepard rolling away from a fiery rain. "They also have rockets now. I'm beginning to get annoyed," she grumbled.
Garrus shot another geth that had dared to step out of cover and changed his position. "I advise shots to the chest, Commander, it seems to do more damage than headshots." He looked over his shoulder towards her and even though her helmet shielded her face he could tell from her posture that she gave him her raised eyebrow.
She changed ammunition and adjusted her position. Her shot made the 'chest' of a geth explode in fire, taking it out without any chance to react. "Incendiary ammunition seems to work quite nicely," she said, her smile audible in her voice.
Garrus grinned and switched ammunition but he could not find a target. "They're hiding," he stated.
"Yep." Shepard checked her scanner and readied her pistol. "Kaidan, can you pull them out?"
"On it, Commander."
"Covering fire!" the other marines called out and gave Kaidan the chance to get up and perform the mnemonic that let blue biotic light shoot from his hands. A geth flew up from behind a rock, caught in the stream from Kaidan's hands and helplessly flailing its arms and screeching. A few pistol shots later, the mechanical noise stopped.
An annoyed growl came from Wrex. "Are we done hiding now?"
Shepard laughed out. Kaidan pulled out another geth and it fell in seconds. "I'm impressed, Wrex, I thought you would start complaining earlier," Shepard said.
Ashley chuckled and said, "He was way more patient than I thought him capable."
"I should have bet you on it!"
"Lucky for me that you didn't, Skipper."
Wrex roared out and hit his shotgun impatiently. Shepard laughed and made one of the Alliance hand signals that she had made Wrex and Garrus learn.
As one, the group began to move. Wrex charging out in a blue glow, happily roaring as he disintegrated geth with shotgun blasts, Ashley running behind him, shooting fire with incendiary ammo. Kaidan wrapped in blue glow, pulling out geth from cover for Oman and Shepard to shoot. She was rolling and skidding around the field, almost untraceable, her movement only stopping for quick shots or a brutal close knife kill that took off the whole head of a geth. Garrus stayed in the back, shooting strays that crept towards them from the side and kept his eyes on the entrance of the canyon. So far, no new geth had appeared from there.
With one last roar from Wrex and the mechanical screech of a geth crushed by the weight of a krogan, the fight ended and the only sound left was the rushing of the lava stream in the back.
Shepard raised her hand and made them move up the path. She stepped up to Oman and checked the damage to her shoulder guard. "How are you doing?" she asked.
Oman straightened her back and readied her rifle. "Nothing to worry about, Commander. I've had worse on my last shore leave."
"Sounds like my kind of shore leave," Shepard said, a grin audible in her voice. "We move in three, you watch our backs, I don't want any surprises on our asses."
"Aye aye."
After a steep climb and a few geth in their way, they finally came upon the main mining site, where the prothean ruins had been found. They were greeted by two huge armatures and strange geth that could climb on walls. This fight was the most difficult so far, Shepard almost got taken out by one of the wall crawlers before Garrus could hit it. The armatures made movement impossible, forcing them to hide behind cover without any clear way to shoot. Even Wrex didn't dare to confront the armatures directly.
"We need to take down its shields," Shepard shouted over the comm. "Kaidan, Garrus, I want to combine your overloads. The one on the right, in three, two, one!"
Their omni-tools cracked, Shepard's blast joining the powerful blasts from Garrus and Kaidan. The armature shuddered and reeled backwards. Wrex and Ashley hit it square in the 'chest' and the machine crumbled. They had to hide behind cover again as the other armature targeted them with blasts that made the containers they were hiding behind scrape over the ground.
"Moving!" Shepard yelled as she rolled out of cover and leaped behind a container on the far left, drawing the fire of the armature. Kaidan and Garrus didn't need an order to blast their overloads against the armature and it fell in a heap of molten metal from everybodies shots. The remaining geth now fell quickly, no longer protected by the fire from the armatures.
After assessing the damage and recharging their shields, they finally entered the tunnel that would lead them to the underground dig site. The tunnel opened to a large cave with mining equipment scattered around. They had to to take an elevator down to the ground level but it sputtered half-way down and stopped.
Oman scanned the motor. "It looks like it got sabotaged, Commander."
"I would have done that too," Ashley said. "Maybe they managed to fight them off in here."
A strange noise made them raise their rifles. Flying drones rose from the ground and attacked them. They were dangerously exposed up here in the scaffolding with no cover. The first two drones fell in a hail of shots from their guns, one crashing on the bridge that Ashley was standing on. She skidded down the sudden incline until Shepard could grab her armor and pulled her towards herself.
The last drone kept escaping their shots, swerving between the beams of the scaffolding. With their shields already dangerously low, they could not engage in an open fight. Wrex, glowing in a blue barrier, finally got fed up with it all and jumped onto the drone, crashing it to the ground with his weight. The drone died on impact on the ground, parts flying away like shrapnel and Wrex lay motionless in between all of it.
"Wrex?" Shepard called out, hastily climbing down the scaffolding.
The krogan finally moved and groaned. "I'm fine, Shepard, nothing a little krogan healing can't fix." He got up and rolled his shoulders. Shepard arrived at his side, looking him over critically and giving him a punch on his arm. She looked like she could have yelled at him for a long time but didn't.
The rest of the team slowly climbed down. "Commander," Kaidan called out, gesturing towards the ground. "We found the people."
They were all dead. Piled on the floor like discarded fight dummies or laying in their own blood where they dropped from the shots fired at them. Garrus was glad for the filters in his helmet protecting him from the smell of the corpses. He looked over to Shepard, her face hidden under her helmet. Her shoulders were hunched forward and she clenched her fists at her sides. This was not how she had wanted this mission to work out.
"Any asari among the dead?" she asked. Garrus walked further into the cave, checking behind natural stone formations and constructions for activity or corpses. He found two dead asari and many dead humans and three destroyed geth. At least they seemed to have fought back.
He called Shepard over to examine the dead asari and they compared them to a picture of Liara T'Soni.
"It's not her," Shepard said, "they have different markings. They must have been part of her team." She turned around and raised her pistol to continue her search through the cave. The cave had been hollowed out lengthwise. They passed a big mining laser that was quietly humming. He was about to ask if he should turn it off when he heard a female voice from the left side.
"Hello? Is anybody there?"
Shepard stepped forward, her pistol raised. At the end of the cave, a blue forcefield wavered in front of a differently looking cavity. It appeared to be older, the walls of the cavity unnaturally even and dark. In the middle, an asari was floating with her arms spread wide inside of a blue bubble. Garrus had never seen anything like it.
"I'm Commander Shepard of the Alliance Navy. Are you Dr. T'Soni, daughter of Matriarch Benezia?" Shepard asked.
"Yes, I'm Liara T'Soni," the asari said, relief in her voice. "I'm not sure what my mother has to with this but I would be very grateful if you could free me from this force field."
"How did you end up in there?" Shepard had holstered her pistol and climbed up a ladder to get closer to the force field in front of the cavity. She scanned it and frowned at the readout. She looked at Garrus and shook her head, indicating that she could not see a way to get through the force field.
"The geth attacked and the miners and my team took refuge in this cave," Dr. T'Soni said. "Eventually they came in here too and -" she took a shaky breath as she looked around, "- they didn't stand a chance. The geth were too many, too quick, too... ruthless." A tear ran down her face that she couldn't wipe away because she could not move her hands. "I ran into this room that we had just discovered, a prothean room and I must have triggered a security system. It has protected me from the geth but..."
"And how long would the air in this room last?" Shepard asked.
"I'm not sure, I didn't exactly plan this."
"Wow, I don't even know..." Shepard obviously fought to keep from laughing. "You got yourself in quite a situation there but I'm glad we found you. Give me some time to find a way into there."
She climbed back down, a grin dancing on her face that warmed Garrus's gizzard. "We need to get inside that room, there has to be a release mechanism somewhere," she said. Her eyes went straight to the mining laser, a dangerous glint in them. "Let's see what this baby can do."
Dr. T'Soni strained her neck to see what Shepard attempted to do. "Commander Shepard? The head miner was reluctant to use the laser any further because he detected seismographic activity. This volcano might become active if the laser puts more strain on the geological formation of..."
"This is a volcano?" Ashley called out.
"Yes, it appears so," Dr. T'Soni said with a surprised look, apparently noticing for the first time that more people were in the rescue group.
"Nice," Shepard grumbled sarcastically, her hand hovering over the interface of the mining laser.
Wrex laughed out loud. "Never been inside an erupting volcano before. This is going to be interesting, Shepard, angering the fires in the depth. Not many can say that of themselves."
"Well, I'm very sorry to anger the gods of the underground but we don't have many options. Watch your feet, Dr. T'Soni." Shepard squinted along the line of sight of the laser and adjusted the angle. She winked at Garrus. "I'm an engineer, I know what I'm doing," she said and activated the laser with a tab on the interface. A bright beam shot out and evaporated the rock under the prothean cave. She turned the laser off and for a second they couldn't see anything until their eyes had adjusted to the normal level of darkness again.
Shepard climbed up into the prothean cave first and Garrus followed her, while Ashley stayed below the prothean cave. She had her rifle ready and looked at the trapped asari critically. Garrus had his rifle ready too, who knew how much they could trust the daughter of a matriarch who worked with the traitor Saren.
After a few scans, Shepard found the release mechanism and Dr. T'Soni fell to the floor as the bubble around her disappeared. She was thanking them profoundly when suddenly the whole cave seemed to shudder. Dust and small rocks fell from the ceiling and walls and the scaffolding began to shake and creek. With a deafening crack the back part of the cave collapsed, cutting off their escape route.
"It seems the laser has made the whole volcano unstable," Dr. T'Soni shouted.
"Yeah, no kidding," Shepard grumbled. She grabbed the Doctor by her arm and pulled her along the bridge to the main structure leading upwards. "To the elevator!" she yelled and only Garrus heard her quietly mumble, "Let's hope it still works."
They all crammed into the open cage and Garrus sent a prayer of thanks to the Spirits when the motor began pulling them up. His prayer was cut short when they arrived at the top and looked straight into the guns of four geth and a krogan. They stumbled out on the platform as the mountain shook again and steam was rushing out of the elevator shaft.
The tremor pushed Shepard right in front of the krogan and without hesitation she yelled at him, "This whole structure will break down, the volcano is about to erupt. You will die alongside us if you stay here!"
"Exhilarating, isn't it?" the krogan said with smile, leaving Shepard staring at him in disbelief. He drew his head back and Garrus expected him to slam his head against hers, probably breaking her helmet or worse. But Wrex appeared out of nowhere, ramming into the krogan and slamming him to the ground. The krogan began to glow blue like Wrex and the battlemasters fought in a blur of biotics, too close to each other to use their guns.
The rest of them didn't have much time to watch the fight as the geth attacked them and made them scramble into cover. Dr. T'Soni screamed and hid behind the control panel in the middle of the platform. Shepard crawled over to her and shielded her with her body. She was yelling into the comm, "Normandy, requesting pick-up from the top of the mountain, the volcano is about to erupt. Madhav, Carlsson, take the Mako and get as far away as you can, we'll pick you up."
She was momentarily distracted and Garrus noticed the geth that had crept up on them too late. Before he could warn Shepard, Dr. T'Soni rose up, glowing biotic blue and formed a powerful singularity that immobilized the geth and sucked it into a dark vortex. Garrus shot it dead.
Ashley shot the last geth just as Wrex ripped off the headcrest of the krogan and shot him in the head. Garrus and Oman had finished off the others and they finally could run out as the structure around them collapsed. The bridge leading out was shaking and Garrus saw Shepard and Oman fall behind as Oman stumbled and Shepard helped her up. They ran as fast as they could, the bridge crumbling behind them, pieces of it falling down into the lava.
Over them, the Normandy sweeped around, covering them in shadow. Up front he saw Wrex unceremoniously grabbing Ashley and Dr. T'Soni and throwing them on his back. He took two long strides and jumped up to grab one of the cables that usually pulled in the Mako. Garrus followed his example, grabbing Oman and sat her on his hip. Shepard ran along on his side. The Mako hovered in front of them, the second cable extended and glowing blue with a mass effect field.
He grabbed the cable, feeling the strange sensation of the mass effect field pulling like magnetism on his hand. As the cable pulled him up, he felt Shepard holding on to his armored spur. The cable pulled them into the open port of the Normandy as the fire of the volcano licked at Shepard's feet. Wrex grabbed them and threw them up in the cargo hold. Shepard was the last, bringing the heat of fire with her into the hold before the mass effect field could shield them. She sank down and sat on the ground, throwing her helmet away to heave in air.
The Normandy sped away from the fiery rain. Garrus sat down on the ground to catch his breath. Shepard pulled off her smoking boots, laughing while she sang, "Boots on fire!" Ashley joined in, "Boots on fire, ohoho!" and they both sang, more loud than pretty, until they laid on the floor next to each other, laughing uncontrollably. Liara T'Soni looked at them as if she wondered if they had gone insane.
Joker's voice came over the comm. "Nice to know you are well Commander and you should clear the cargo area now so that I can pull in the Mako. And just for future reference: That was too close Commander, 10 more seconds and we would have been swimming in molten sulfur. The Normandy isn't equipped to land in exploding volcanoes. They tend to fry our sensors and melt our hull."
Dr. T'Soni looked at Shepard in disbelief. "We almost died and your pilot is making jokes?"
Shepard stood up, still giggling, and cleared the parking space for the Mako. "As long as he pulls us out of exploding volcanoes, he can make as many jokes as he likes."
Dr. T'Soni made a breathless "oh!" and looked helplessly around. Ashley came up to her and gently maneuvered her out of the Mako area. The asari shook her head. "Must be a human thing."
"You don't go out much, Doc, do you?" Ashley asked her.
Liara smiled weakly. "No, I'm afraid not, I'm usually not the centre of the conversations at parties. Most people find archeology not very interesting."
"I know how you feel," Ashley said as she led the asari to the elevator. "Whenever I start to talk about poetry, I see people's eyes glaze over." She threw a meaningful look to Shepard who turned slightly pink.
"Sorry, Ashley, but poetry... I just can't," Shepard said with a shrug.
Liara T'Soni turned her bright eyes towards Ashley again. "I would love to hear about human poetry." She smiled shyly and Garrus wondered how young she really was. She had a child-like naivety about her.
Ashley stared at the asari, expressions of curiosity and suspicion flashing over her face. But as the doors of the elevator closed, she showed a genuine smile and they could hear her breathe out, "Ok..."
Shepard grinned widely. "Bet you your favourite drink that these two will be best friends in three days."
"Bet you that it will be only two days."
"You're on, Vakarian!" Shepard called out before she raised herself on her tiptoes and placed a kiss on his mandible.
And mission done. I'm trying to keep the mission chapters tight and short but there is so much to do and I love the dynamic between the characters and I could introduce so many OC's, I actually have to stop myself. So much fun.
I'd like to apologize for probably getting marine language and fighting wrong, I research that as best as I can but it's truly not my area of expertise. I'm an engineer, not a marine.
Did you catch the calibration joke? Snicker...
The broken gun of the Normandy is my way of solving that problem I have with many of the missions. Why didn't the Normandy shot things from orbit? I know it is done that way, so that you as the player have stuff to do but it doesn't really make sense on a story mechanics level.
Joker's lines about the volcano are taken from the game, Kudos to that writer.
Credete had to stay up way too late for editing this once again, so give him a hand!