AUTHOR'S NOTE: A fucking week late but here we go. It's here. Bruh. I changed a few things about the loyalty mission (some clever ideas from Palaven helped well with that.) I hope you appreciate it getting some extra fucked up. And there should be a chapter up for y'all next monday too. Might have a thing or two to say at the end.
Commander John Shepard
The Rosetta Nebula. Alpha Draconis. 2175 Aeia. This cluster alone is already on the edge of the frontier of the Terminus, not to mention along the outer rim of the Galaxy. As for Alpha Draconis, it only has two planets, and none are officially named. Aeia is the planet that Jacob's father was a crewmember of a ship sent to investigate. Hugo Gernsback. Strange name. A cursory search tells me that it's named after a science-fiction based Magazine writer and publisher. The ship's captain is Harris Fairchild and it's privately owned. So, a contract survey. Crew of a few hundred, and a few hundred more security mechs to protect the crew. Those, after all, can be stored much more tightly. Obviously, these wouldn't be LOKI mechs, but their predecessor of ten years ago. Namely, the ATHENA mech. Hm, and they also have an ARES as well. The YMIR predecessor. And the FENRIR didn't have a predecessor ten years ago. And just what kind of planet are we looking at, exactly?
We were close to entering orbit, dropping out of FTL early so that EDI could run scans of the planet and try to find the Gernsback. The planetary evaluation was already completed, and forwarded to me as I prepared for the mission, and prepared to select my team. The planet is well within the Goldilocks zone, and similar in size to Earth. It's three and a half more AU away from its star than Earth, but that's manageable for planets. Oceans of liquid water and a thin nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere. Earth like in that regard too. Gravity is a decimal point higher than on Earth, but the atmo pressure is just over a quarter less. Scans as we get closer show ample signs of flora, meaning this planet will probably be ripe with Colonists not terribly long after we send these scans back to the Alliance. Finally, landmass. There doesn't appear to be any real continents across the entirety of the planet. Large islands that may be clustered similar to, say, Hawaii but just on a much larger scale. There doesn't appear to be a single stand-alone landmass larger than Australia. I'm not sure what percentage of the planet's surface is water, but it's sure as hell more than Earth.
The file updated, EDI had located a distress beacon and pinpointed it along the coast of one of the larger islands in the northern hemisphere. To her evaluation, this planet is otherwise entirely untouched. So, what team am I going for then… Jacob is a given, since we are here to find his father. Jack and Miranda are absolutely staying on the ship, I don't want to deal with either of them right now. I already chewed out Miranda, then went easy on her after her explanation. Still, calling Jack a mistake? What happened to her was, not the woman herself. Speaking of, I chewed her out just as bad. Worse, honestly, as she obviously initiated, trying to get something petty and childish out of it, and it didn't happen that, at least allegedly, Jack was already giving herself shit for anything like Miranda was. It more or less boiled down to Jack still needing to grow up past her playground behavior. I'm hardly a religious man, but I appreciate a specific biblical quote from Jesus. No idea where exactly in it that the quote is, but… let he who is without sin cast the first stone. Or something like that. Sure, maybe I have the sin of… I guess Wrath when it comes to Cerberus. Or Elanos Haliat. Batarian Slavers, but I still feel perfectly justified in "casting the first stone" against Slavers and Cerberus. Or Pedophiles, Rapists, Mass Murderers like Morinth. But the point is that Jack doesn't have a lot of room to talk shit about Miranda for killing Niket. Not after however many unnecessary kills Jack has made in the past. Just because she's now being guided towards the right path doesn't mean she has the right to taunt someone who isn't. It's weird, and a bit contradictory if you look at it hard enough, but that's just life and humanity. Everything is some shade of grey.
Right, the ground team. Jacob, Garrus… Tali would be good for the mechs, Mordin, I think. If anyone has survived this long, they're probably more or less fine anyways. But Murphy's law would dictate that if I don't bring him along for medical attention, then some poor sod is going to really need it. And maybe Samara. Murphy's law again, if survivors need protection, she'll be good for it. And that should cover things. The crew was notified of the selection, and instructed to meet me in the shuttle bay once they're ready. I'll brief them on the way down to the surface. Like normal, I was the first to arrive, armed and armored. The others followed as they were ready and we entered the shuttle, myself taking my place in the cockpit. The moment the door to the shuttle closed, just as I was about to take off and begin the briefing, there was a shimmer in the air beside me, catching me by surprise as a small Japanese woman deactivated her cloak.
"Jesus, Kasumi," I exclaimed.
"Ha, got you that time," she winked. "Mind if I tag along?"
"I mean… if you want to," I shrugged, brow raised at her. "You realize you could have just asked me before sneaking onto the shuttle. Like… any relatively sensible person?"
"When did I ever strike you as one of those?" she joked. "Thanks, Shep. I owe you one." Kasumi turned and left the cockpit; I heard the surprise of the others as the door shut behind her. Well then. Let's get the briefing started…
Commander John Shepard
The Gernsback had crash landed more or less directly in the water off a cliffside along the island coast and appears to be split into two, but otherwise intact. Fortunate for the crew. Assuming supplies have held up and they've been able to forage, survival is very likely, the crash should have caused minimal casualties. Strangely, they should have been found by now. Even in space, ten years with a distress beacon active, there's still a relay system, however frontier that it is, nearby. Someone should have found them. We'll get those answers soon enough. There was a small clearing along the coastal cliffs that I was going down to land on. Sunny day, clear skies, and some avian life flying in a flock towards the water. Once we had landed, I opened the shuttle doors and we all disembarked. Despite the hospitable atmosphere, we were still wearing our helmets. Standard procedure, and we started making our way towards the wreckage of the ship.
"Ten years, right?" Garrus asked. "And clearly the beacon is active. So why are we the first to find them?"
"Might not be first," Mordin suggested. "No, pirates, slavers, others would not activate distress beacon of Hugo Gernsback."
"They certainly survived the crash, there's no doubt there," Tali added. We were getting closer to the ship now; damage and wear were becoming apparent. "I see damage in line with atmospheric re-entry and crash, but look, sections of hull are simply missing, leaving behind even, artificial gaps. The ship has been stripped, at least partially. Perhaps the beacon was damaged, and they needed to repair it?"
"But it's a distress beacon. And ten years. Those are built to survive crashes, and it's not like it would need rare components. A transmitter essentially," Kasumi answered. "Sure, maybe it was damaged, it's happened before. But either it would have been repaired before long, or they'd have had so much bad luck that they'd never be able to repair it. Nothing that would take ten years to repair."
"Bottom line, it doesn't add up," Jacob spoke up.
"Commander," EDI began. The VI systems of the Hugo Gernsback are partially intact and still with power. I shall connect you for questioning."
"Good, thanks EDI," I answered. A moment passed before the synthetic, monotone voice of a VI began.
"Repeat: Toxicology alert! Danger of Rapid neural decay. Local flora unfit for human consumption. Override. Beacon resumed. Pause time, eight years, two hundred thirty-seven days, seven hours."
"Beacon paused?" Garrus stressed the word.
"VI, why was the beacon paused?" I questioned.
"Pause in beacon protocol, eight years, two hundred thirty-seven days, seven hours. Pause is recorded as: Record Deleted by Acting Captain Ronald Taylor."
"What the fuck is it about the universe that of course my father is involved with whatever took so long for anyone to find them?" Jacob murmured.
"Fate likes to screw with the Normandy crew," Garrus shrugged.
"And 'Acting Captain.' My father was first officer. What happened to the Captain?" Jacob questioned.
"What happened to Captain Fairchild?" I repeated for the VI.
"Captain Harris Fairchild died from wounds sustained during the crash of the Hugo Gernsback. Ronald Taylor was promoted to Acting Captain under emergency command protocols. Other flagged issues: Unsafe deceleration. Local food and neural decay. Beacon Activation protocols."
"Explain the unsafe deceleration." Obviously, it was the crash. But what caused it?
"Following an unspecified impact and sub light drive failure, the Hugo Gernsback made an unscheduled descent at four hundred sixty-five percent of theoretical recommended sub-orbital velocity. The Hugo Gernsback then decelerated at seven hundred eighty-two percent of theoretical recommended approach velocity, sustaining significant damage to investment and crew." Well, that didn't answer anything.
"Explain the relation between the local flora and neural decay."
"Impairment of mental function due to chemical imbalance begins within seven days of ingesting local flora, regardless of decontamination or preparation. Impact on higher cognitive abilities and long-term memory is cumulative, but significant within a standard month. It is unknown if neural decay is permanent. Data collection was incomplete." Troubling, to say the least.
"Why was the beacon only recently activated?"
"Emergency beacon became functional after three hundred fifty-eight days, twelve hours following the unscheduled suborbital descent of the Hugo Gernsback. Activation was triggered remotely after eight years, two hundred thirty-seven days, seven hours on the authority of acting Captain Ronald Taylor."
"So, he survived that long," Jacob began. "Does it mean eight years after the crash or after the beacon repairs?"
"Vi, clarify. Was the beacon activated eight years after the crash, or eight years after the beacon became functional?"
"The beacon was activated nine years, two hundred thirty days, nineteen hours after the unscheduled suborbital descent of the Hugo Gernsback, and eight years, two hundred thirty-seven days, seven hours following beacon functionality."
"Where is the crew?"
"Unknown. This beacon has been unattended for several maintenance cycles."
"Great. How convenient. Mordin, can you take some samples to analyze? At least find out if it's permanent first."
"Will do what I can until back at lab. Send results to Lia to use in simulations and lab equipment," the doctor answered.
"Good. Everyone, I've no clue how exactly the neural decay is affecting these people. If they're hostile, non-lethal takedowns only."
"Ah, civilians gone crazy and trying to kill us while we knock them out all because of a plant. Just like old times," Garrus remarked.
"If only we had those grenades to knock them out like before," Tali added.
"We'll just have to settle for concussive rounds. Mordin, got anything you can use to put them to sleep?"
"Of course. Have used Omni-tool to resuscitate patients. Can easily calibrate to work as taser. Have before."
"Chatika can do the same," Tali began, tossing out her round holographic pet.
"Who knew I'd be so useful on this mission, eh Shep?" Kasumi joked. It's good that it won't be too hard to shift to non-lethal. It'll slow us down a bit, but we can manage. It might be Garrus and I that will be the most ineffective. Our concussion rounds are essentially rubber bullets, but they're inconvenient with the thermal clip system. They're bulkier, and we can only load one at a time, and only so many are ever carried. On my belt, I've got twenty, Garrus I think has twelve.
"Follow the shore. Keep your eyes out for signs of civvies," I ordered, and began leading the squad. Supplies and crates and scrap pulled from the wreckage had been sorted and stacked a short way down. Not sure how long ago, but it probably would have required coherence, so my guess would be earlier on. For now, we kept our weapons stowed. If they have firearms, they will likely be in… horrendous condition. Minimal ammunition, and significantly weaker than our weapons. In addition to being less effective against our barriers. We could take the hits to react accordingly for the benefit of keeping them more at ease. As if on cue, a woman, her face filled with a childlike awe stood. Light skin, but dirty. Her hair messy and long. Topless, and with a grass skirt, no shoes.
"You! Metal men came from the sky! The King said someone would come! He delayed for so long, but he still has power!" she smiled wide. The king? Jesus, what's those marks on her arm? Where her arm meets her shoulder there's a marking, a scar more like, burn scar. A crude circle with… the letter C? But with another scar layered on top of it, an X as if to cross it out, while below it is another crude circle with a crude square within. Has she been branded? "Some are lied to. The hunters. The princes have locked the king away, and told the hunters that the sky would bring the loss of our king. They won't let you take him."
"It's ok. We're here to help. What's going on?" I asked gently.
"I…" she closed her eyes, head down as if forcing herself to think. "I don't know how… how to say it. He's our king. And we serve so… so we can go home. Some wanted to fight him. Long ago. They were… cast out. Now we all love him. But the princes… he trusted them, but they are evil. They… don't want to leave, but are afraid of killing the king." Hm, speaking of those hunters she mentioned… There was a man approaching from behind, angry, the hair on his head roughly cut aside from the middle of the head, shirtless, grass skirt, and crude white body paint. The woman continued to talk while I watched the man. "They don't believe rescue will come." His right arm raised as took aim with… is that a slingshot?
"Get down!" I called out, shoving the woman aside as he launched a rock at me. It was small, and moved just barely fast enough to register for the barriers to deflect. Not like it would have mattered, wouldn't even scratch my armor. Others came in behind him, similar in dress and decoration, but armed instead with rudimentary weapons. Axes and spears made using scrap metal from the wreckage. There were… I'd say eight of them, and only one other had a slingshot.
"The King is forever! The sky will not have him! Take their wives so that they may serve," the lead hunter ordered. Take their wives? What the fuck?
"Make some dreams, people," I called out. Kasumi activating her cloak, Mordin already sending out a jolt of electricity to one of the spear hunters, and Tali sending Chatika to zap some herself. I managed to fire one concussive round, putting down the lead slingshot hunter, while Garrus fired two, one to the other slingshot hunter, the other to an axe hunter. While Samara used her biotics to knock the heads of two hunters together. Gentle by her standards. Jacob didn't even get a chance himself as Tali and Kasumi quickly put the remaining three to bed. So, nine hunters total. Where did I miss one?
"Did you kill them?" The woman asked.
"No, but they are knocked out. Asleep," I explained. Trying to keep it simple as the neural decay has clearly taken away a lot of their vocabulary.
"Oh. Good. You must help the King. He will make this right." Yeah. Sure he will.
"Where is the king?" I questioned.
"At the top of the island. Follow the beach. You will come to the camp of the Commune first." I will guide you.
"Yeah. Alright." I turned back to the others. "I'm going to hope that if they see faces and not masks, they might react better. Helmets off, we're not in any real danger anyways. Not if our shields block the slingshots. Jacob, who knows, maybe your face will help."
"I'll be sure to get right on that, John," Tali remarked.
"Alright, maybe with one exception," I smirked, taking my own helmet off and clipping it to my belt while the others, aside from Tali, did the same. As Jacob did so, the woman gasped.
"You… you have the King's face!" Jacob visibly grimaced.
"I really wish I didn't hear that. Just… let's just move on." The woman led us along the shore, a natural stone archway ahead leading to what appeared to be a clearing. As we got closer, moving up the hill, a statue made of scrap metal, displaying an angelic figure, and what seemed to be a crowd of figures at its base, on their knees, perhaps in prayer.
"The commune is in prayer. The hunters were trying to protect them and the children. They-"
"Woah hold on. Did you say children?" Kasumi questioned.
"Yes. Their mothers were with child before we came here. They were born here. But the seeds planted within us after our arrival have only been born dead."
"This is all kinds of wrong," Garrus murmured. Yeah. Yeah it really fucking is. We approached the camp, no one noticing us. But everyone, at least the adults, appeared to be women. No men. There were four smaller figures, children. And if the women were already pregnant before the crash, then the children are only around nine or ten, and this is all they know.
"Sisters! The king has called the sky, and the sky has answered! With a hero blessed with the king's face!" The women in prayer were all dressed almost identically to the woman we found on the beach. And all appeared to be branded in some fashion. As the members of the commune approached in awe, staring at Jacob, I could see that the most common brand among them was the one not crossed out was the square within the circle. Three were taking children by the hand to bring them along, while one child was just still sitting in front of the statue. Their back to us, staring at it. Yet the women lined up, side to side. They bowed their heads down, hands out to their sides. The women who brought their children close, the children were left a short way behind the line to watch. One with short hair, the others with long. It was quiet for a full minute while the women remained almost perfectly still.
"What… what are you doing?" I asked.
"He wears the king's face, and you are the saviors from the sky! We are owned by none, and the hunters take us as we please before bringing us back to the Commune. We offer ourselves to be chosen as your wives, as the king and the princes do," one of the women explained.
"Keelah!" Tali exclaimed in disgust. I was just… speechless. This is… a thousand times worse than I expected.
"This is not dissimilar to an Ardat-Yakshi turning remote villages into cults worshipping them. Morinth had done so once before as I hunted her," Samara added. Cutting off any expletives that Jacob looked about ready to explode into, a high pitched voice released an ear piercing scream, the source appearing to be the child who had remained staring at the statue. Now, the head was slightly looking to the side, nothing else about the body's posture indicating that they were the one screaming. Along their line of sight, a small fireteam of practically ancient mechanical figures, clearly struggling to move from wear and tear, and their weapons more likely to misfire than anything else, I'd suspect.
"ATHENA mechs, put em down," I ordered. The team raising their weapons, and moving in to take shots at the security mechs. It felt too easy. Only two shots fired at us before the mechs fell. Yet the child still screamed as one of the women wrapped their arms around the child, in a hug at least, until she went silent. Clearly the toxic plants during the child's development put them somewhere on some spectrum. Once the screaming stopped, another woman tapped me on the shoulder to get my attention. She was dark skinned, her hair messy, but short. Same apparel as the other women.
"The… The kingfaced listens to you. You can save him, bring us home. We were made to eat. To… decay. Here," she handed Jacob an old data pad. "I forgot how to… read… this. But it was…" she struggled consistently to find the words. "Was the start. What he promised, and what… what they did to us. We came from the sky. Take us back to the sky." The data pad was dead, but transferring charge from the Omni-tool was simple. Jacob powered it up and began reading. A grimace quickly spreading across his face.
"It's a crew logbook. They thought the repairs were taking too long and would run out of supplies, lose their minds to the neural decay. My father, and the other officers, kept the ship food for themselves, and everyone else had to eat the local food and hope for treatment. The rest is casualties. Mechs turned against mutineers. Then the crew all fell docile. Apparently, two of the officers, females, attempted to mutiny not long after. It lists one as dead, and one was demoted. Considering what's going on here, I really don't like the sound of what that might mean. As for the remaining officers, my father included, there's six. Only one is female. And the general crew, the males are marked either as hunters, or the women are either assigned to officers or 'communal.'"
"Right. Turian's advocate speaking up," Garrus began. "Just that one, singular decision, restricting the safe food for officers, completely void of anything else that has clearly been going on here, isn't all that unreasonable. Unfortunately, it just so happened to turn out that the Officers involved were disgusting monsters who couldn't hold themselves back the moment a woman seemed defenseless. Which they were."
"Ten years of basically being roofied," Kasumi added. "I might kill your dad, Jacob. No offense."
"Get in line," Jacob murmured.
"I'm still debating whether I'm more disgusted by the situation itself, or that they also decided to throw in a twisted Stockholm syndrome to their haze. Probably to fucking tell themselves that 'oh, it's not so bad, she wants it, see?'"
"Settle for equally disgusting?" Kasumi suggested.
"Works for me," I shrugged.
"Revised plan. See a hunter, keep it non-lethal. See an officer? No need to try so hard." Yeah, these motherfuckers are… kinda evil. Rapists. Sex slavers. Egomaniacs. And if anyone even gives me a fucking hint that the officers have spent time with the children, they're all fucking dead on the spot. Now rather pissed off, we got moving, the women of the commune letting us pass along a route in the jungle further up the island. Almost immediately after passing the bounds of the camp, there was a row of about a dozen or so dirt mounds. None of them marked.
"That's not enough for everyone in the casualty list. Maybe only the compliant got burials," Jacob spoke up. We crested another hill to find a larger fireteam of ATHENA mechs. Yet the only issue they caused for us compared to the last group was using up slightly more time. Otherwise we just kept a move on, turning the next corner along the ridgeline, there were hunters now opposed to guards. Three with slingshots, and a dozen ready for melee. This was potentially the hunter camp, considering the tents and campfires around. And there were two other children with them peeking their heads through tent flaps. Considering the tears in them, they likely were made early after the crash. The Hunters, however, noticed Jacob rather easily. One had some equivalent to palm fronds along the back of his head, more body paint than the others.
"You wear the king's face, imposter! You will not have him!" The slingshots still had no effect while Mordin, Tali, and Kasumi did the most work against the hunters. Garrus and I firing Concussive rounds, Jacob and Samara using biotics for impacts to knock others unconscious. Still, it was Mordin and Tali with the most put down. Not even pausing to investigate anything, we kept moving on. Now there were more constructs, made of metal, a… plaza, with shacks made out of the scrap metal. Five of them, with a wall and gate towards a fifth further back. All between us and what were clearly officer shacks, was an old ARES mech. Shoulder mounted missile pods, a singular glowing eye near the top of the torso, an MG arm, and a grabber arm. Now we had to take cover, as it prepared to fire from the missile pods. Yet, all we heard was a little putting noise, followed by clanging. I peeked up to see that the missile had practically just slid out and fell from the pod. No launch, no detonation. It took aim and tried to fire the MG, yet it just went click. My money is on misfire, else it wouldn't have tried to shoot an empty gun.
"Take it down, but with tech. I'm hoping to catch the bastards in the act rather than with, say, hostages," I ordered. The team obliged, the shields finding themselves overloaded first before the more open network of the ARES mech allowed us to essentially delete its code while it was still online, and it just fell over onto its face. Let's get this over with.
Commander John Shepard
We worked our way through the officer's shacks first. The male officers surrounded all with a harem of five or six women, the women naked while the men wore grass skirts for… ease of access and were being 'pleasured' in at least some capacity by at least one of the women. Maybe I'll regret not keeping them alive to face trial later, maybe I really am a hypocrite. But these fucking animals were put down before they could put their 'wives' in danger. Unfortunately, the women had to be knocked out as they tried to retaliate, wanting to protect their captor and rapists, all of them branded with marks relating to their 'husband.' As for the female officer, she had clearly been imposing herself as a dominatrix upon her own harem of male crewmembers. We gave her the same treatment as the other officers, leaving the men unconscious as well. And now we were through the gates, approaching the… luxurious beach house of 'King' Ronald Taylor. We wouldn't shoot him on sight, however. Jacob wanted answers. Stepping inside revealed it was quite sizeable, several rooms, even a kitchen with a campfire and chimney. There was a woman working the fire, cooking food that clearly came out of a ration packet, naked like the others before, and her brand showed that of a crown. Seeing us all enter, she jumped back, gasping, prepared to scream before locking eyes on Jacob, and starting to ease.
"You are… You are like my King. Did you come from the sky?" she asked quietly.
"Something like that," Jacob answered.
"Go, see him. He is on… on… balcony. With other wives. She pointed at a flap door with sunlight coming through. Jacob led the way out. Sprawled out, his back to us on a kind of lawn chair was a man, his receding hairline clear from even behind. The legs of a woman slightly visible between his own, leading under the skirt he wore. Three others fanned him with large palm fronds, the balcony looking out over an island bay and the setting sun.
"Acting Captain Ronald Taylor," Jacob called out, masking the distaste. Ronald shoved the woman between his legs off away as he stood, hands over his crotch and skirt, looking mildly embarrassed as the women stared at us. The one he shoved off? Well, let's just leave it at that her face was dirtier than the other women we've seen today. Ronald's skin was dark, darker than Jacobs even, likely because of the constant sun. He didn't have any body paint on him. But he had some fat on his bones, despite the condition of everyone else. Old and fat.
"O-Oh! You're here! Finally, here! I knew a real squad would blow through just fine once I managed to get the beacon online. Sorry if- if the mechs scuffed your pads! Or if the 'hunters' gave you problems. Jacob just began walking closer. Ronald began to look worried, but also curious at Jacob. "I'll uh… I'll get you all something nice once we get back to the Alliance. I've got to have a helluva lot of backpay."
"Is that a bribe, Acting Captain? What about your crew?" Jacob questioned.
"Total loss. Toxic food made em crazy. Propped me up in some kinda weird ritual. Not letting me leave, the other Officers talked like they liked being here. Waiting for a chance to get the beacon going again has been hell."
"Oh yeah, you've clearly been having such a rough time with your women," Garrus added, nothing but sarcasm. "That clue is written all over her face over there."
"That's really the best you can fucking do?" Jacob murmured, shaking his head.
"Hey, N7, you let all your people talk back like that?" he asked nervously. "Uh… who are you anyway?"
"Who I am? Honestly that doesn't really matter right now. You should really be asking who he is," I pointed a thumb at Jacob, as he glared at his father. "Captain Taylor, this is Operative Taylor. You don't know each other by any chance, do you?" I mocked. His eyes went wide, staring at his son in… I would call it horror.
"J-Jacob? No, anyone but you…"
"Why not?" Jacob began to explode. "Would ten years of your fucking fantasy look better to anyone else in the galaxy?" he stepped closer, jamming a finger at his father.
"You have to understand. This isn't me! The realities of command change you, and I wasn't ready!"
"Bullshit. You'd have stepped down. You're just a pathetic, power hungry and horny piece of shit, you fucking degenerate," I butted in.
"Why the fuck would you do this? To your own people?" Jacob shouted.
"There was resistance! Mutiny! We had to take a hard line to keep order. After things settled, the decay set in, we made the crew comfortable!"
"Comfortable between your legs, you pig," Kasumi added.
"The crew seemed happier. Ignorance is bliss, you know? They were grateful for guidance," Ronald kept digging his own hole.
"So you took advantage of the women. Maybe the officers really did want to keep you from activating the beacon. Maybe that's another lie. I don't fucking know. But you're not exactly worthy of trust right now," I countered.
"Look, after a few months they lost their inhibitions. Rank and protocol meant nothing. We established dominance, made the perks seem normal after a while."
"Yet you would have been ready to signal by then, det'kazaut," Tali took her turn.
"And creating your own fucked up harem to play king in a fucking juvenile fantasy."
"The fantasy of a horny prepubescent who watched too many of my countries… adult shows," Kasumi made her point.
"We'll get the crew help. But you're going to fucking rot. Whether that's behind bars or six feet under is up to Jacob," I ended this. Jacob brought up his pistol and aimed it at his father. He raised his hands in shock, the women of his harem screaming in fear. In the back of my mind, I know would judge him for it less than I judged Miranda. Maybe the conditions would be different enough to make it matter. But probably not, more than likely it's hypocritical.
"He's not worth the fuel to haul him out. Or the air he's breathing." Jacob shook his head. "And damn lucky I don't think he's worth pulling the fucking trigger. I don't know who you are. But you're not the father I remember. Shepard get the Alliance to bring in ships. Get these people safe, helped. Put him behind fucking bars." He paused and took a deep breath. "Please."
"Jacob… I-I did the best I could." Jacob scoffed.
"I'm ten years past believing that."
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Having kids be around and having all they know be the fucked up fantasy of Ronald was Pal's idea. And I went to ask her for advice as to what lengths I should go regarding the general crew. And, well... this freaky ass shit, if you're the kind of degenerate to make a harem, let alone to make a harem of essentially roofied people, if you're dressing them you're doing it minimally.