Act I : XIII
Asteroid X57
Slade Jordan refused to look up, so he continued to stare down at the Mako's navigation console. He knew if he looked up, he would be tempted to stare over in Wrex's direction and catch his threatening gaze, because he felt the krogan's eyes digging into his back and knew he was being watched intently. The situation was even worse than usual because Garrus and Shepard could feel the tension and kept themselves quiet the entire ride, as nobody wanted to talk and encourage Wrex to say something.
I'd honestly rather take on an army of batarian terrorists singlehandedly, than spend another minute in this piece of shit with Wrex.
A proximity warning flared up on the navigation console: that engineer was right, the next torch was surrounded by a minefield.
"Commander", Slade called. "There's a minefield ahead. The engineer was right, the Mako will set them off. We're gonna have to disembark."
"Alright, people!" Shepard ordered. "We're walking." The party parked the Mako and began marching over to the edge of the minefield, which was dotted with large, anti-vehicle charges. The mines were not exactly invisible, but would have definitely blown the Mako into orbit if they went off.
"Slade?" Shepard asked. "Will only vehicles set them off, or can we set them off too?" Wrex huffed and pushed his way to the front of the group. He aimed his Claymore shotgun at the ground and fired, startling everyone and sending rubble flying in all directions. Wrex bent down to pick up a rock that was loosened from the blast and hurled it into the minefield, causing two or three mines to explode.
"There's your answer, Commander." Wrex rumbled. "Don't hug the fucking things and we'll be fine." The rest of the party seemed content with the conclusion and followed Wrex's lead as he walked slowly through the minefield, one step at a time.
"Wrex, are you sure you want to lead?" Garrus teased. "A bigger target is more likely to set something off!"
"Last time I checked", Wrex retorted. "We don't have a fucking pyjak to send out first. I bet I could take a mine - or two - and keep walking without a scratch, but I can't say the same for the rest of you. So yeah, I'll lead. Just don't fall behind, I'm not coming back for anyone." Wrex had a helmet on, but Slade was certain Wrex looked over at him when he said that. The mines continued to emit an unnerving beeping noise, which became more intense the closer Slade got to one of them. He figured they were about halfway through the minefield when they came under fire by another squad of batarians.
"Fucking batarians", Wrex growled. "What's the plan, Shepard?! We're exposed out here and it's only a matter of time before they land a few shots!"
"Return fire!" Shepard ordered. "But keep moving! You're right, we can't stay here!"
Slade primed his Paladin and followed the party as they upped their pace through the minefield, following their krogan escort. Garrus fired a few shots at the batarians, but even he was not able to hit anything.
"I can't get a shot, Shepard!" Garrus yelled. "Not while moving like this!"
"Come on, Garrus!" Shepard taunted. "Even I'm hitting them!" Slade knew he would not be able to land any shots either, so he focussed on moving out of the minefield instead of wasting his ammo.
"Shit!" Wrex cursed. "Watch out, ladies! We got rocket launchers!" A cascading explosion sounded off somewhere behind Slade as soon as Wrex made his announcement: there were indeed rocket launchers.
"Double time it!" Shepard roared. "We need to get outta this minefield, NOW!" Wrex set off in a full sprint while the party followed suit, hoping the krogan was actually watching for mines and not blindly running forward. They were now close enough to see the rocket wielding batarians reloading their launchers, which meant two things: the team was close enough to shoot them accurately, and also close enough to be hit squarely by rockets.
"Take out the launchers!" Shepard bellowed. "NOW! Before they blow us up!" The party stopped moving and unloaded their weapons into the group of batarians. Most of them went down after the volley of gunfire, but one lone rocket managed to make it out of the skirmish, and headed directly towards Slade and Garrus.
"Ah, crap", Garrus sighed. "MOVE!" Slade and Garrus dived in opposite directions, throwing themselves into the ground and closely evading the rocket. It soared past them and set off a few mines further away. Slade gasped in relief, but was quickly subdued by a very loud, erratic beeping emanating a few feet away from him. He looked up to see an anti-vehicle mine - close enough for him to reach out and grab with his arm - which caused him to freeze in fear.
Oh. Well…fuck.
/
Commander Zoey Shepard's heart was racing in panic.
Oh no…this is NOT good…
"Slade, don't move!" She barked. "Whatever you do, DON'T MOVE! We'll figure something out!" Slade did not say anything, but did not attempt to move; in fact, he did not seem to be breathing and lay absolutely still.
"Commander!" Garrus called. "The engineer mentioned there would be a console to deactivate the mines somewhere! We need to find it! FAST!" Zoey used her biotics to create a barrier around Slade and poured all her power into sustaining it, no matter what happened.
"Go!" Zoey yelled. "Quick! Find it!" Garrus rushed off towards the fusion torch control centre while Shepard and Wrex stayed near Slade. "I don't suppose you could help me out?" She asked when she caught Wrex's eye.
"Why should I?" Wrex demanded. "I say we leave him behind. He's already dead, so why are we-
"Shut up", Zoey spat. "If you're not going to help, then shut up." She was absolutely furious after what Wrex said, and if she was not pouring all her power into keeping the barrier around Slade, she would have given Wrex a few encouraging words of leadership. "If that was you, would you want us to leave you behind?" Wrex let out a booming laugh.
"If that was me down there", Wrex chuckled. "I'd tell you to put a bullet through my head and carry on. I don't want to live if I'm going to be that useless."
Asshole.
"Nevermind", Zoey hissed. "Forget I asked, I don't actually value your opinions anymore." Wrex was silent for a moment, then disengaged his shotgun and slung it behind his back. He then groaned and began walking over to Slade in a dangerously brisk pace.
Wait. WAIT. What the hell are you doing now?!
"WREX!" She screamed. "What the hell are-
Wrex marched straight through Zoey's barrier and reached down to grab Slade around the waist with one arm. He then flung Slade away from the beeping mine and he landed facedown in front of Zoey's boots. Zoey looked back up at Wrex with a bewildered expression under her helmet and heard him mutter "fucking idiot", before the mine exploded and engulfed Wrex in smoke.
/
Oh, God…
Slade Jordan looked up just in time to catch a brief glimpse of Wrex before he was overtaken by grey smoke and rubble. His towering silhouette was barely visible under all the smoke, and Slade wondered if his eyes were being deceived, or trying too see if Wrex was actually standing there. Suddenly, the giant shadow started to move towards him and Shepard, and Wrex slowly emerged without so much as a scratch.
"Oh, thank God…" Slade exhaled.
"Wait…", Shepard began mischievously. "Were you actually worried about Wrex? Correct me if I'm wrong, but you actually seemed upset for a minute there."
"No!" Slade quickly lied. "I wasn't worried…I just didn't want another death on my conscience."
"Another?" Shepard questioned.
Fuck, I shouldn't have said that.
Before Slade could say something, Wrex had reached him and grappled him by the chestplate.
"Do you remember what I told you, runt?" He growled. "You're laughably useless, and one day, you're going to get someone killed. It was almost me, if I wasn't krogan that damn mine would have probably blown me into the void. That was your one chance. If you manage to do something even stupider before this mission is over, I'll put my boot so far up-
"Wrex, that's enough." Shepard cut in. "Slade didn't ask you to save him and neither did I. You chose to throw him out of the way, so why are you giving him grief now?"
"Because", Wrex pressed on. "If good old Uncle Urdnot wasn't here, this runt would still be raining out of the sky in small, red chunks. I'm not always going to be standing around, waiting to pull his ass out of the fire. He needs to learn to be USEFUL."
"If you don't mind me butting in…" Everybody looked over at Garrus who had materialized without anyone seeing him return. "I deactivated the mines and it's safe to cross back over to the Mako once we deal with this torch. See, Wrex? If you had waited a few minutes, you wouldn't have needed to almost die heroically. ALMOST." Wrex huffed and bumped past Slade.
"Well?" Wrex quipped. "What are we waiting for?" He began walking over to the fusion torch control centre and the rest of the party followed closely.
I hate the giant bastard, but he's right. If he wasn't here, I'd probably be dead. I guess the only way to stop him from constantly bullying me is to prove I'm not entirely useless. At least he's not a complete asshole, at the end of the day, he DID save my life. Now I owe him my life…fucking perfect…