Zeta

Based on N7 Slayer (Vanguard)

Post Mission 1

Zeta typed in his pass code and entered his quarters on ASA.
Sat on his bed, as always, was Gamma, waiting for him.
"Hey," she said as she looked up from her screen.
"Hacked my door again? I can't keep you out," Zeta joked, moving to sit next to her.
"Time's like this, when there are no jobs going around, it's nice to have company," she replied quietly, wrapping her arms around him.
He felt tingles from where her fingers traced his armour. Even on ASA he had to wear his light blue and black get up, including his helmet. It didn't bother him much, he had grown so used to having it on he barely took it off anymore.
Gamma looked into his visor, as a Quarian, she had to always wear her suit; he had never yet seen part of her body without it. It was part of the reason he kept his armour on; so she didn't feel so uncomfortable.
"You'll never guess what happened today," he began.
She had known about Project Earth, and had been more than happy to let him go gallivanting off halfway across the galaxy to unknown territory. She was consistently stuck at ASA with no work, so she knew best of all what it was like. She'd encouraged him to go for it, to stop him becoming bored.
Gamma was a hacker, one of the most skilled Zeta had ever known, and her tech finesse was unparalleled in his opinion. It was a shame Quarians were part of the less popular races for ASA work.
He placed his sword carefully on the table and rested on his back, her head on his stomach, "After five years, I've found her," he explained, "Mu has finally resurfaced."
He could feel her tense, "The woman from the cargo ship?" she asked.
"Hmm," he replied, "She's on Project Earth."
He had just returned from his first, unsuccessful mission. After Mu had run off he'd gone to the food court, but hadn't felt like eating, his body sore and tired after the long excursion; he'd quickly decided to return home.
"I suppose she was in the same circumstances as you," Gamma thought aloud, "It would only make sense."
"Yes but after all this time? She barely even acknowledged me!" Zeta complained.
"Would you like her to?" Gamma asked.
He thought about it, "I don't know... Maybe... Instead of pretending like it never happened."
"An experience like that could certainly change people; you changed your views because of it, right?" Gamma asked.
He didn't reply, merely closed his eyes and thought back to those cold, isolated days when Mu and he had been trapped in the snowy desert of Noveria. He could feel the cold still in his bones, still biting at his skin under his suit, another dull ache. He could feel the push of the wind, rocking him as he slept or stood. His ears rang with the sound of the blizzards they'd endured, he swore his skin was permanently a light shade of blue.
"You're thinking about it?" Gamma enquired.
Although she couldn't hack into people's minds, she could easily read Zeta, he found.
"We rolled down that hill for… what felt like days. The mountains on Noveria are huge, you can't even imagine," he said, "And when we stopped, we were still together, trapped in snow. I could see her foot even though she blended in with the snow. We'd been fighting, and I'd saved her from Cerberus. On the railing, I challenged her to a fair fight; no one's ever been able to fight me like she did. And then it just exploded. I thought it was all over, and then I saw her brushing snow off herself and looking round, helplessly. She hadn't been in a situation like that before, I could tell. She couldn't survive, and I doubted I could either. But the way she moved her head, desperately, I decided I had to try and save her again.
On that first night we tried to sleep, we slept without a fire, only our suits to keep us warm. They'd stop us from freezing, but that was it. After about four days in I tried to build a shelter but it collapsed half way through. We'd had no food up to this point; she'd left all hers up on the firebase, whilst I was supposed to be in and out on that day.
I suggested we go looking for shelter, somewhere on that planet, within our proximity; there had to be something. She walked about ten yards behind me, all the way there, following my lead but never trusting me," his voice trailed off as he became lost in thought.
Gamma looked up at him, "You said you were on that place for about a month?"
"I lost track of time to be honest, the first thing I did was find a weapon. I remember finding this iced over cave, like a waterfall had frozen solid just before it. Snow and ice on Noveria are different, I made a few ice picks as weapons, and a couple of swords; ice is a lot sturdier on Noveria, much more reinforced. We were attacked one night by this huge… beast, I've never seen anything like it," Zeta continued, "Anyway, Mu distracts it whilst I kill it. We have some food, now we just have to cook it. After a couple of hours dragging this beast along, we finally catch sight of a building through the snow. For the first time I felt the tiniest flicker of hope and we practically ran to it. Turns out it was an empty, abandoned research facility, however, we found rations of food and we now had somewhere safe-ish to stay, it was an amazing feeling."
"Didn't you activate your distress beacons?" Gamma asked.
"When we were inside, we did. Mu found something amazing. Below the building, a stairway carved through a tunnel of snow, led down into a cave, with pure, fresh, unfrozen water! I checked the temperature and it somehow was warmer at the bottom than at the top of the cave. The water was still cold but it was drinkable. I went up to the top of the facility on the roof, to see if we could send out a larger distress signal, but most of the equipment was frozen over or broken. Anyway, we stayed there for a few weeks, and I decided to practise sword fighting with Mu, after I made her a sword too. I guess it was after this we really started talking more. She barely spoke to me, barely gave me anything more than… five words a day?"
"Wow," Gamma laughed.
"So yeah, after we started training, she opened up more. I guess it was because she felt a little safer and started to realise I wasn't going to kill her," Zeta admitted.
Gamma laughed quietly, "You really give away that impression."
"I can be frightening," Zeta argued.
"I would like to see that," Gamma teased.
He suddenly teleported away and reappeared on the ceiling, falling down and on top of her, pinning her arms to the bed.
"I was so comfy!" she complained, but she had to admit, the faint blue reflections of light on his visor did give him an edge.
He picked himself up off of her and took his sword from the table. Biotics flowed into existence along it as he wiped his hand down the blade. He held it before him, feeling its balance, the weight of it in his hands, how easily it sliced through the air.
"You learned to do that down there?" Gamma asked, indicating the biotics.
"Yes, I realised we couldn't rely on strength alone, we weren't strong enough to face off larger foes. And if Cerberus found us again, we'd be doomed for sure. I could teleport, she had a tactical cloak, and a couple of tech powers, but she was a very heavy weapon user before that. I could charge but I didn't fancy doing that all the time, it gets pretty disorientating after a while. So I decided to work on fusing biotics and my ice sword. It's actually easier than getting it to fuse with metal."
"I looked into that," Gamma interjected, "You're the only person who's ever managed to do it. That's pretty impressive."
"You think so? I wouldn't say I was particularly skilled with biotics at the time, only enough to teleport myself. But it was fun to work on," he admitted, "Turns out it did save my life, more than once. I first used it in battle when we were attacked by a larger creature. We'd decided to leave the facility, taking as much with us as possible and try to find some help. Mu said she'd never seen anything like it in her life. I suggested she try it with tech powers. We'd work on it all night long, trying to fuse tech and ice. It seemed so much more temperamental than biotics, maybe because tech powers aren't natural. Plus her sword kept melting."
"Did she ever do it?" Gamma asked.
"I don't know. Not when I was with her," Zeta replied. He looked into the blue wreath of biotic flame that engulfed the shiny silver blade, "We must have walked hundreds of miles and found no one. Not even another facility. After weeks of walking, she finally opened up to me. It was on a night where the sky suddenly opened up. The valley we were in had been buffeted by another blizzard that day, but all of a sudden, the clouds just rolled back, and all went quiet. It was the strangest thing that has ever happened to me. The stars came out in their thousands, illuminating the area as clear as day. We looked up and could see the horse head nebula glittering, and beyond that, the milky way splashed out across the sky, it was… majestic, you can't even imagine a sight like it."
"Sounds amazing," Gamma exclaimed.
"It's a shame Noveria isn't a touristy place," he joked, "but on that night, I think she just gave up and told me everything. Her life had been work, no friends, and no enemies. She was alone in a galaxy as full as ours. But for the first time in her life, she actually felt like she wasn't alone. I'd never realised before. We spoke all night long, about where she was trained, what she did before ASA, what she intended to do after we got off Noveria. I had to keep her hopes up, I felt like it was my responsibility. And then the sun, Pax, appeared, the clouds returned, the storm begun again, and we were back to normal. We didn't speak of that night again, but she finally walked with me, not behind me. That was the day your cargo ship came and saved us."
"She disappeared when you returned here, and now she's back," Gamma finished.
"Exactly."
"How did it go today?" Gamma asked.
He chuckled, "We were terrible. I was terrible. There are six specialists, or so we're called. Our Adept is this… psychotic woman who has biotics like I've never seen them before; the Soldier doesn't speak, at all, no form of communication, only between himself and the Sentinel, who's a clumsy fool, how he ended up on the team I can't understand. The Engineer is this old guy who's as big headed as they come, and then there's Mu, who's as cold as ice and just wants to get it over with as quickly as possible," Zeta explained.
"They can't be that bad," Gamma laughed.
Zeta shook his head, "Wait till next time, we'll see what happens."

Post Mission 2

Zeta opened his eyes to some very blurry lights and two figures next to where he lay.
He suddenly realised he was in a medical bay.
"Zeta? Can you hear me?" came a voice, not a nice voice, it was very muted.
He groaned, his throat as dry as sand, trying to make a noise was painful.
Then it all came back to him in a flash, the running, the barrage of troopers, the rockets, and then all he could remember was fire. He tried to focus his eyes, tried to move his head but that proved too difficult as searing hot stabs of pain shot down his neck and back.
"Try not to move too much, you've taken a beating," said the voice again.
"Will he recover?" asked the second. Gamma, he realised.
"Oh yes, he'll be fine. He'll have a lot of pain over the next few days however as we try to re grow some of that tissue on him, but I expect him to make a full recovery," the first person replied, Zeta guessed she was a doctor.
His eyes were focussing better now, he could make out the orange tint of Gamma's suit, he looked into her visor and thanked the stars he was alive.
"You damn fool!" Gamma shouted, slapping his arm as he smiled up at her, "I told you to be careful! I was worried sick!"
He cried out in pain, and the doctor frowned at her, but chuckled, "Your friend hasn't left your side since you got here," she explained.
"No jobs?" Zeta croaked.
"Still nothing," Gamma informed him, placing herself back on the seat next to the bed.
"You must have been bored," Zeta asked, "I told you to wait and see what happens. I guess that proves me right."
He realised she was about to hit him again, so he quietened down.
"Who saved me?" he asked.
Gamma looked at him carefully, "Mu. According to the report, she jumped from the escape vehicle and dragged you back to it. The person who was with you helped."
"Mu? Blimey," Zeta replied.
"She came in prior to your friend arriving, and handed me this for safe keeping," the doctor reappeared, handing him his sword.
Zeta finally didn't know what to think. His head slumped back on the pillow and he fell back to sleep quickly.
Within a week, he was walking home again.
Supported by Gamma, the two made their way up the elevator and slowly arrived back to his quarters.
Though mobile, moving still hurt. He'd been given medication that should heal him fully within two more weeks, but that meant no work until then, the last mission of Project Earth had been put on hold.
The commander had been round once to check he was alright, and to make sure he didn't need to start searching for another vanguard to replace him in the team. Other than him, Zeta had had no other visitors besides Gamma, who was really a permanent resident. He had inquired about Delta, to hear the Sentinel had healed faster and had been discharged a day early, and according to the commander, Eta was also receiving treatment.
The thought of another mission made him groan.
"What's wrong?" Gamma asked.
"Don't make me do it, not again," he laughed, "I can't take it any more with those people."
"I was thinking about terminating your contract with them, but I thought I'd better consult you first," she admitted.
"Terminating?"
"I don't want you killed, at least, not by anyone else but me," she joked.
"Very… nice," he grunted.
"What happened?" she asked.
He thought back, "We just fell apart again. Delta ran off, I went to save him. Mu tried to complete the hack on her own apparently, I don't know what happened to the others, but I know they failed, and had to come pick us up at the entrance. I've never seen so many Cerberus troopers in one place before. They had everything there, Phantoms, Dragoons, ATLAS mechs… it was carnage."
"You really don't get along with these people?" she asked quietly.
He shook his head, "I hate it. We're all too stubborn to give in. Including me. Once one starts, the others start, and I can't help myself."
"Even Mu?"
"Mu doesn't stay around long enough. Actually, it's generally me, Delta and Kappa who fight most. Delta's desperately trying to be a hero; and Kappa… I don't even know."
"Now that I think of it, back on the cargo ship, Mu didn't actually seem so talkative then, not even to you," she observed.
"I noticed that. As soon as we stepped up on that ship, and met all of you, she quietened down again," Zeta remembered.
"You were both pretty beat up when we found you, I think you slept for most of the journey," Gamma said.
He laughed, "You're probably right."
"But there was one thing I did notice, and I haven't told you so far," Gamma paused, he nodded for her to carry on, "Whenever you and I were talking, she would watch you. From the shadows, in her corner, as we called it, she practically watched your every move."
Zeta didn't know what to say, he hadn't noticed it at all. When they'd been put in with the other passengers, he'd first met Gamma, and they more or less became friends overnight. He'd also gotten himself acquainted with a few Drell who were on board.
"Do you think she felt betrayed?" Gamma asked quietly.
Zeta looked at her, and considered it, "She never once called me her 'friend', but I was the only person she spoke to. I guess it's possible. We got off on the next port, with a few others, and I remember her then looking at me, as if waiting to say something. I was too distracted, trying to get things sorted out."
"You made me make you swear to buy yourself a proper sword when you got back here," Gamma laughed, "Which, I still can't believe you actually did. But Mu just sort of… disappeared, didn't she? And then when we got home, I hardly saw you because you ran off to try and find her."
"At least you knew I'd come back," Zeta replied, "I thought she'd gotten lost or something. She can take care of herself but… we were friends in my opinion."
"I don't blame you," Gamma said, "If you disappeared, I wouldn't stop searching."
He smiled at her, then realised she couldn't see it because he was in his armour again. So he stumbled over to her and pulled her into his arms.
"Those scars on your back, where did they come from?" she suddenly asked.
He hesitated, feeling the scars pulling at his skin, "When we were on Noveria, we needed something to cook. We needed fire; the trouble was we had nothing to start one. We had all the equipment to keep one going, but we couldn't get a spark. Shields, when broken, make for great fire starters, it turns out. We took it in turns stabbing each other to get a fire going. It requires a little force to break a shield with a sharp sword, so sometimes, we slipped and ended up slicing through the suit itself. It wasn't a nice process, but it kept us warm. She's probably got a few too."
"I see, they were all in the same area, so I just wondered," she replied.
"How did you know about them?"
"When you were in the medical wards, I watched them tend to your wounds. They had to get your armour off," she explained, "You have very white skin."
"That's what living in a suit does to you. It's supposed to be climate controlled, but no tech can compare to actually being on Earth," he replied.
He let her go and sat back down as his legs quickly began aching again.
"I wonder how long they'll let me have till the next assignment," he pondered.
"Enough time for you to train again I guess," She said, "Are you still going to go back?"
"I have to. Delta is trying, I can tell it, I'm the only one who realises it, I think. If we can just make it work, we have the skills and ability," he said.
"It's a whole battle in itself," she suggested, "When they told me what had happened, I was in shock. I thought you were dead, seeing you like that. Your suit was scorched black, your body was limp… I don't want to go through that again."
"You won't," he promised, "I'll make it work. We can do this. We just have one more mission to go."

Post Mission 3

Zeta sat alone in his room contemplating the events of the day.
More things had conspired than simply the mission. More worrying things too.
He had never heard of Geth utilizing biotic powers before, and the thought was frightening.
They weren't normal Geth, they were too tough for Geth, and the Sigma symbol had something to do with it.
His trail of thought was broken by a quiet knock at the door.
He jumped up, feeling the lightness in his step now he had healed, and he strolled over to the door, checking to find it was Gamma who waited beyond.
"You never knock," he observed as the door opened.
"I didn't know whether you'd just fallen asleep or not," she explained.
"Never stopped you before," he joked.
"Well… last mission and all, I didn't know how it had turned out," she said, "So?"
"Project Earth's been called off," he said, "We're over before we even began."
She looked at him questioningly, "But you hated it?"
"I did," he sighed, "the first couple of missions were the worst I've ever done. As a team, we were a mess. Today though, we managed it and succeeded. We actually worked together somewhat, and although we were unpractised, I think we could do it again, but even better."
"Did that Kappa finally give in?" Gamma asked.
"I was waiting for the right moment, but yeah, I managed to convince him to try and work with us," Zeta said, "there's something else though."
He handed her a lump of metal, one of the armoured plating the S-Geth had, it contained the Sigma symbol inscribed into it.
Gamma quickly analysed it, "Platinum, 99% pure, old Greek letter Sigma. What is it?"
"I took that from a Geth unit," he explained.
"Geth?" she sounded alarmed.
"There's more still, smell it."
"Biotics," she said, "I'm not sure I follow."
"Those aren't any of our biotics. The Geth were using it."
"Impossible, Geth can't just develop biotic powers," she said, "You think it has something to do with the Sigma letter?"
"From what I saw, they weren't natural biotics like my own, or Eta's, they were more… programmed biotics. But you know what it means?" Zeta asked.
"Someone's trying to fuse metal and biotics, and give them to the Geth?" Gamma suggested.
"I think so. Have a look at my sword," he handed her the sharp, still-shiny silver blade. She examined it and handed it back.
"Platinum, 99% pure," she shook her head, "It took you a year to get that perfected."
"They probably have tenfold the amount of people working on it, whoever it is. We have to assume they've already got the metal sorted, now they just need to fuse it," Zeta explained.
"How do you do it?" Gamma asked.
But he shook his head, "The less people who know that, the better. I'm the only person in this galaxy, I think, who knows. I intend to keep it that way."
"You did it whilst you were with the Drell, right?"
"Yes, during my training. I went primarily because I wanted to master melee combat after getting off of Noveria, but this was something I worked on during that time, adapting biotics to my fighting style. The Drell are masters of hand to hand combat," he explained, "Fusion doesn't just offer more ways to battle… it enhances biotic powers."
"Your little trick could be the start of a whole new weapons system," she finished.
"Biotic attacks usually just add on to other effects, like warp rounds, but to actually enhance and use biotics with attacks, to achieve unity, isn't something that should be freely known about," he explained.
"What have you gotten yourself into?" Gamma asked.
"These S-Geth, as we call them, have to be stopped. I'm the only one who knows how close they are," he said.
"Project Earth has been terminated though, are you suggesting you're going to go alone?" she asked.
"The commander said he'd look into it. It wasn't perfect, now ASA know about the technology, but it's the only start we'll get. I may have to go fight them again," he replied.
"What are you going to do?" she asked quietly.
He could see she was worried. He was worried too, but he felt this was his responsibility.
"Right now," he said, taking her hands, "I'm going to celebrate the fact that I'm not dead, I'm very much alive, and I'm not incapacitated, I'm going to wash off and then I'm going to sleep until morning with you in my arms."