Face to face, out in the heat

Hanging tough, staying hungry

They stack the odds still we take to the street

For the kill with the skill to survive

Chapter 14

In Matters of Pride

April 22, 2187

The Normandy and the White Raven landed near one of the beaches on Rannoch's southern continent. The place had been selected by Tali and Shepard. Isabella had returned to her ship that Markus had hired to deliver the materials he purchased from several of the shipyard's scrap pile from Earth.

The sun was starting to rise, at least Shepard was thinking it was rising, as the Normandy's cargo bay door descended. He and Tali were eager to pick where specifically start building their house. The place they had selected was about four miles from Rayya City. The larger cities were being built from the liveships in the quarian fleet.

But as he looked out on the grassy plain another thought came over Shepard. And given the hot Tikkun sun, he'd need to implement it quickly. He sent a message to Ashley, James, Cortez and the rest of the non-human crew. It was, simply an order to arrive for non-specific activity.

They all groaned as he got off the excavator. "Shepard, why are we here? It's two-thirty in the morning." Garrus said as he shielded his eyes from the bright sun.

"Not here." Shepard replied as he reached for a small box behind the requisitions terminal. "Here, it's a ten after nine. Still not sure if its morning or evening."

Ashley sleepily added in. "Trust me. It's morning. Very early in the morning. Why are we down here?"

"This!" He said opening the box pulling out a can of temporary spray paint and a football. "We're gonna blow off some steam the old fashioned way!"

The eyes of the humans in the cargo bay lit up while the aliens still looked tired and confused.

"I do not see the point of this... game, Shepard." Javik said.

"The point, is to have some fun! Now everyone grab something to eat, just make it light. You don't wanna throw it up."

While the others were grabbing a quick bite of food Shepard ran a quick set of lines, little more than 50 yards long, ten wide. There was no way he'd make it the actual size of one of the old stadium's size. For one reason, unless they were holding a gun they usually couldn't run that far. And the other, they would only be playing for an hour or so. Maybe more if everyone wanted to keep going.

Everyone came out wearing casual attire: the humans wore raggedy tan vest on top of a dark sandy brown tank top with equally dark brown jeans. Tali had a more armored mask. She had done some research on the game and was worried about a suit leak. Liara had, to what would be her regret, kept the same clothes that she usually wore, same as Javik. Garrus meanwhile had a gunmetal grey loose fitting shirt with a pair of what looked like khaki cargo shorts. His shirt had an extra wide collar to allow his mandibles to fit through.

He tossed the brown leather ball to James who exchanged it back and forth between his hands. "Okay, for those who don't know, I'm gonna lay out the rules."

"Games of this nature are pointless." Javik said.

"Okay party pooper." Shepard continued on as if nothing had happened. "First, no use of biotic or tech powers. Second, the objective is to get the ball to one side or the other side of the field. Humans will aim for this side," He said pointing with a bladed hand to his right. "Everyone else to the other." He said pointing to the left this time.

"Each time a team scores a touchdown we reset to ten yards on the losing team's side and they'll have possession of the ball. Questions?"

Tali raised a hand. "Yes, um, why are we doing humans against non?"

"Because it's the easiest way to divide the teams without going guys against girls. And in that case, I have absolutely no doubt you ladies would kick our asses despite being out-numbered."

Ashley said with her usual gung-ho enthusiasm. "Damn straight we would... sir." To which everyone grinned.

Shepard cupped his hand raising them indicating to Vega to toss the ball back to him. "If the ball touches the ground while you're holding onto it, we stop there, reset from that point and continue on. Beyond that, there's only one rule we're to hold to beyond all others: have fun." He tossed the ball to Garrus. "You can start."

Shepard, Vega, Cortez and Ashley stood a meter off of the halfway mark and huddled as Tali, Garrus, Liara and Javik did the same an equal distance on the other side of the halfway point.

"Okay so we'll do this simply: take them one-on-one. I've got Garrus. Williams, you have Liara. She's a hundred years old and an information dealer so she'll know more than she lets on. Vega, Javik. Whatever you do, don't underestimate him. Those abilities make him nearly psychic. And Cortez,"

"I got your new fiancée covered."

"She's jumpy. Try not to let her squirm around you."

"Got it. What's the play?"

"Tell ya what, call it as we see it. Break." The others clapped and said "break" after him and set up on the line in a loose V formation. The others though took a little longer, likely going into more detail on what their play would be.

'Big mistake' Vega thought. The central point was to have a sound but easily adaptable play that could be described quickly. They eventually broke setting themselves up in a diamond formation with Garrus in back, Tali and Liara on the sides with Javik in the center forward. The way Javik stared into Vega's eyes unnerved him. Like a predator stalking his prey, waiting for just the right moment to pounce. Though the fact that he was holding the football may have had something to do with it.

"Set," Garrus called out. Evidently he had at least seen some games during his time in C-Sec. Not surprising as many of those who joined immediately after the Battle of the Citadel were humans, many of whom still watched old games aired from Earth that came in "live" to the Citadel.

'Hike, hike, HIKE!" On the third call Javik's hands shot backwards handing it off to Garrus who immediately began running backwards. A tactic that went against any sane player, but unbeknown to the human team, they knew exactly what they were doing.

Javik rolled right over James causing the tanned muscle-man to plow straight into the ground face-first. The four-eyed Prothean then tore for the far end of the field abandoning his postion. Tali and Liara kept trying to switch between blocking Ashley and Cortez as they slowly pushed them back towards Garrus. Shepard meanwhile, was tearing across the field after his friend. He had a suspicion as to his friend's strategy: use his superior aim and throw the ball. Unfortunately, he tunnel visioned. While he was catching up with Garrus, Javik was gaining leagues of distance from Vega.

Shepard managed to tackle Garrus as the ball left his hand flying through the air. Much like his skill with a sniper rifle, his skill with a football appeared to be equally as elite: a precise shot (though this time it was without his visor) at nearly 40 yards to Javik. The red armored Prothean caught the ball and ran the few remaining steps to the goal line.

The game's tune simply continued on from there with Garrus and Javik making interceptions every time Shepard's team tried to make a throw and Garrus making high-arching precision throws nearly every time. When Shepard's team would make alterations to their defensive strategy Garrus' (whom had practically become the QB and team captain) would instantly change to compensate. If Shepard didn't know better, he'd swear they were reading his team's minds.

After nearly three and a half hours, the score was 70 to 36 and Garrus' team had just scored another touchdown. The problem mostly, was Shepard's team went easy on the first couple of plays to allow the others to get the hang of it and a system set up. After that it pretty much turned into a slaughter.

Tali bumped hips with Garrus and Liara, arms up waving in a victorious gesture.

"What's the matter?" Garrus taunted from the end zone. "Gonna let some aliens beat you at your own silly game?"

"Vysrat se na to..." Shepard grumbled to himself.

He tossed the ball back to Cortez who was already at the twenty. The game had attracted a crowd from both the Raven's small crew and several personnel aboard the Normandy. Both crews were reluctant to cheer for either side though. The former for their lack of personal knowledge about the crew, the latter was simply enjoying the show feeling bad about how they were getting spanked. EDI had stepped in a couple of times to explain the concept of a "foul" to Javik.

"Damn. Didn't think they'd be this good." Ashley said panting as they huddled. The four had been nearly run ragged trying to keep up with or counter the other team. It also didn't help that Tikkun's sun was now high in the sky at over 42 degrees Celsius (or 107 Fahrenheit) causing the already trailing team to be worn even harder from the heat. And with no wind the only comfort they got was when they were running a play.

"I've got one play left they haven't seen let alone torn apart." Shepard whispered. Paranoia was gripping him hard. "Blitz-jump three-hold on one."

"Oi loco! Serious?" Outside of veteran bioti-ball players, most people couldn't perform a blitz-jump. And with fewer players it would be even more difficult.

"Dead serious. Ready, break!" But Shepard was far from most people.

Team Shepard lined up in a U bend on the skirmish line stretching themselves as far apart as they could while still provide close cover for each other (moving left to right it was Ashley, Shepard, Cortez, then James). Garrus' team set themselves up similarly arching back on their line to provide more accurate cover expecting a pass option. It had been Shepard's go-to allowing them to either run or, if someone was open enough, to throw it down range.

"BLUE TWENTY-EIGHT!" Shepard hollered with all the intimidating 'anger' he could muster. "RED SIX... HIKE!" Ashley and James snapped forward all but knocking Tali and Liara aside as they moved on Garrus and Javik while Cortez passed the ball over to Shepard who then joined the line himself. Shepard took a quick two steps backwards when he saw that he had an extra half-second or so before Liara could get back up.

Charging forward Shepard slammed his left leg (which had been replaced several days ago) using the superior strength to leap over the line (with room to spare) though he had a bad spiral as he arched. Landing feet first, right hand instinctively reaching out to steady himself he tore across the field as fast as he could, almost as fast as when he ran to escape the Collector base two years previous.

Garrus though had seen him as the arch had closed and broke running after Shepard, the rest of their teams following with them. As being the fastest on their respective teams, Shepard and Garrus often tried to cover the other on nearly every play. But this time, this time it wasn't quite enough. There was pride on the line. And that meant the humans would play with every ounce of courage and #?# of adrenaline.

He didn't need to look to see Garrus following closely. 'Faster. Faster! Faster would be better!' He thought as he tried to squeeze just a little more speed out.

At the five meter mark Garrus leapt for Shepard's legs. He knew he wouldn't be able to catch him so went for a last ditched attempt to stop him, but to no avail. His talons barely grazed Shepard's heels as he ran right into the endzone. In an instinctive victorious move, he slammed the ball against the ground letting it bounce away one last time.

"Game... point." He huffed, arms held high in triumph. Then he fell back onto the ground. At that the crowd dispersed back to the air conditioned safety of their ships.

"Okay, time for lunch." He kept his eyes closed as he laid on the soil. Despite being half as bright, the much shorter distance from the planet to the sun more than made up for it.

"So this whole lunch thing," Tali said laying down next to him. "It's a way for you to save what little pride you have left right?"

"I still have a house to build you ya know."

"I don't know. After what just happened, I think I'd like Garrus and Javik to build it." She said with a slight giggle in her voice.

"Oh you're just mean." He said fighting through a chuckle.

He rolled back up into a seated position; sitting there for a moment before standing all the way back up. "Come on. It's probably around twelve. By the way, what kind of time system do you use when the days are thirty hours long?"

"Don't you already know?" She was a little surprised at the question. "I mean, you have done missions on planets with slower rotations right?"

"Yeah, but as you said, I was on a mission. We either used Earth-Standard or how many hours from the start of the mission."

"Oh. Well I don't really know either. I just would have though, you know." She didn't need to finish her sentence for anyone to know what she meant.

"Yup. Alliance training will help you learn everything but how to deal with time on other planets."

The couple was the last ones to get back on the Normandy, the ramp closing behind them to keep the cooler air inside.

"Gotta say Shepard," Garrus said. His own face covered in sweat, or at least the turian equivalent. "That was a lot more fun than I thought."

Tali though had started grumbling from behind her suit.

"What's wrong?"

"My suit is all kinds of uncomfortable right now. It's sticking to me because of that game."

"Need some help getting it off?" Shepard offered.

"Please. I also need to take a shower after that."

"Well, we'll see you for dinner." Shepard said with a wide grin across his face as the elevator door closed.

ABLE/NOVEMBER:

So the song lyrics are back! I didn't feel like using them for the last three because I didn't have any in my collection that I felt were even remotely appropriate.

"Vysrat se na to" is Czech for... well, let's just say it's spoken during very frustrating times.