Been a while, last semester of Electrical engineering is a pain. Oh well hopefully the next chapter will be done soon, though I wouldn't expect it until after graduation.
ooooooo
Previous Chapter Summary:
After running into a dead end problem fixing the halcyon class cruiser Dawn Under Heaven, Shepard and his group have been stranded on Reach while trying to rescue a survivor; they meet up with a group of elites and a hunter, forming a truce to fight a group of brutes surviving on the planet's surface. They are picked up when their AI, Artemis, convinces a STG task force to help.
ooooooo
Shepard stepped aboard the alien's ship, followed by the rest of his growing motley crew of aliens. The hunter, whose name he still didn't know brought up the rear. The walking tank looked cramped in the small cargo bay. The elites likewise looked uncomfortable, their hands hanging loosely near their weapons. Joker and Rodriguez were looking around, somewhat discretely, obviously curious. Joker was eyeing what looked to be a shuttle while the army officer was glancing around the bay. Tali and Liara on the other hand appeared... more relaxed if he had to describe it. A familiar species was probably a welcome sight to the two aliens.
Shepard turned his attention back to the captain of this vessel. He couldn't quite decide if the alien was lizard-like or frog-like, but he definitely looked less human than Tali and Liara. Other than the alien's appearance, the crew's behavior was far too similar to a prowler crew for Shepard's liking; checking the newcomers out, either for weapons or simple curiosity, but instead of staring openly with suspicion like a normal human crew would, they were trying to be discreet about it.
Along with the name special tasks group, Shepard knew he had to be careful. If he had been an alien he knew he sure as hell wouldn't want to be 'rescued' by ONI.
"So… Special Tasks Group?" Shepard began as an icebreaker.
"Yes, salarian intelligence agency; employed by the council for some situations, also assigned diplomat, Nassana Dantius, for mission." The alien waved to an asari standing in the bay. Unlike the salarians this alien was wearing relatively simple clothing. Shepard assumed it was civilian styled, but couldn't be sure.
Shepard nodded as the asari walked up and shook her hand when she offered it, "It's a tad late for a diplomat, but it's a pleasure to meet you." Outwardly he kept a smile on his face, but he subscribed to the old adage of never trust a politician. Diplomats were only a step away from politicians.
The asari diplomat smiled a little too sweetly as she replied. "Hopefully it is not too late; a prothean superweapon would be a grave threat. I'm sure the council would act to keep it out of the hands of the covenant."
"Here's hoping," Shepard's immediate thought was that they would also keep it for themselves. He had enough tact not to say so. Besides, at the moment he did not even know what halo was, beyond the generic briefing given by ONI that anything related to it was to be given precedence over everything, even the Cole protocol if the situation warranted. He had enough tact and common sense not to mention those thoughts.
"Your ship has given us clearance to dock; we will be entering the main docking bay shortly." The salarian captain informed them.
Shepard mentally when over the specs for a Halcyon class' docking capability; a ship the size of the one he was standing on would be a tight squeeze, but it would fit, just barely.
"I hope your pilot knows his stuff, that's gonna be a pretty tight fit." Joker said, echoing Shepard's own sentiments.
What looked like an expression of irritation passed across the salarian captain's face, "Our pilot has been flying military vehicles for six years, and he knows what he's…"
A violent shuddering was suddenly felt through the ship, followed by a heavy impact which sent the assembled aliens and humans sprawling. Shepard saw a few salarians try to climb to their feet; only to be knocked down again as a second harder impact shook the ship. He waited for a twenty count before climbing to his feet and taking out and deactivating the safety on his rifle.
The salarian captain climbed to his feet as well and pressed a hand to a comm device, "Report!"
Shepard couldn't hear the reply, but he assumed it wasn't good. He checked his squad for any casualties. They appeared to be fine; the hunter didn't even look phased by the latest turn of events. He turned back around to see the salarian captain sending several of his soldiers out of the bay and into the ship. The asari diplomat was hurriedly following.
"Knows what he's doing? Sounds like the damn frog-man could use a lesson or two in docking practice." Joker coughed out.
"Crew dead, hostile gunship outside, no time for jokes, open hatch and counter attack, controls damaged," came the rapid reply from the alien.
Shepard wasted no time asking questions, "Hunter! Open the hatch," He didn't know the alien's name, but he did know it understood English at least.
The walking tank spun around and delivered a massive blow with its shield. Covenant grade starship plating met a salarian grade cargo hatch. The hunter stumbled back from the force of its own blow, leaving a massive dent in the hatch. It brought the assault cannon mounted on its arm to bear next, blowing a hole big enough for its bulk in the hatch.
A sudden windstorm picked up in the cargo hold. Shepard crouched low and activated his magnetic clamps in his boots at max power, standard procedure for a massive depressurization. Everyone else in the bay did the same, except one unfortunate salarian who was sent tumbling. Fortunately for the alien, an elite stuck out an arm and caught him with a loud smack.
"Odeg! You and the elites, out the hole." Shepard ordered over the radio. The elites would be better suited to any long falls that might wait for them outside, but now he needed information, "Artemis, situation?"
"Cloaked phantom, unknown number of hostiles, there's an engineer trying to access my systems, cut me out of my own damn ship! They already knocked out long range comms." The AI sounded strained.
Shepard decided not to bother her anymore, "Good luck." He turned his attention back to the bay, Tali, Liara, and some of the Salarians looked pretty shaken. He decided to take the initiative and get things moving, "Enemy gunship outside, grab your weapons and let's move!" Not bothering to see if they were moving he rushed to the hole in the hatch and looked out. The deck was sitting at a thirty degree angle from the salarian ship, and at about a fifteen foot drop. The elites and the hunter had established something of a perimeter, using a few crates and a scorpion tank for cover. Plasma and spiker rounds flew back and forth.
A fifteen foot drop wasn't necessarily lethal, but it could leave him stunned long enough for an enterprising jackal to take a nice easy shot at him while he was recovering. He looked around and saw that the cargo hatch left something of a lip that he could use to slide down a good bit further down to the deck and drop right into cover behind an overturned warthog. Shepard clamped the rifle on his back and slid down, rolling into a crouch behind the 'hog.
The army officer and salarian captain were quick behind him, both wearing their helmets in the vacuum environment. "Roll her over sir, the gun'll come in handy even if she won't drive." Rodriguez said over the comm.
Shepard nodded and backed up a little to get a running start. He and the lieutenant colonel flipped the vehicle over on the second try, just as Joker and a pair of salarians joined them on the ground.
One of the salarians caught an unlucky spiker round in his gut and rolled to a stop on the ground, no longer moving.
"Rodriguez, man the gun," As the soldier clambered up to the gun, he looked around to check the battlefield. They were in a relatively small area, but had plenty of cover in the form of several vehicles, crates, and the salarian ship itself. The only problem with their position was that they had the void of space at their backs, and nowhere to pull back to if pressed.
Either the crash had been relatively soft or the salarian ship was tougher than it looked. The nose had become wedged in one corner along the ground. One 'wing' was resting part way up the hangar wall, and the other was dug into the floor.
The phantom hovered gently near the damaged nose of the ship; it appeared damaged and scarred, not from an impact, but from anti-air fire. Possibly damage sustained earlier in the covenant group's mission. Underneath the covenant dropship a small force of jackals and brutes were holding by a doorway. The phantom's weapons didn't seem to be working; otherwise they probably would have been doomed from the start. Perhaps the pilot had flinched when he found a covenant ship waiting for him in the bay, causing the crash. Shepard decided to worry about what caused the crash later and focused on the battlefield instead.
A blast from the hunter's fuel rod cannon sent most of the defending covenant scattering, where they were picked off easily by Rodriguez on the gun, and combined fire from the elites and salarians.
The phantom started moving towards the last remaining pair of brutes, activating its grav lift as it did so. "Shift fire, the phantom!" Knowing an assault rifle wasn't much use against a phantom he ignored his own orders and fired short careful bursts into the brutes trying to flee. He didn't do much damage, but he slowed down their retreat, which in turn kept the phantom hovering in one place. Just long enough for the hunter to connect a shot with its assault cannon. Armor buckled around one of the phantom's engines, the remaining engine was stressed to keep the damaged vehicle aloft. The dropship's pilot brought the craft lower in an attempt to reduce the strain on its engines. Unfortunately for the covenant pilot the phantom had taken too much damage. The covenant had a distinct lack of safety systems in much of their technology and the pilot either couldn't or wouldn't cut the engine manually, after a few more moments the remaining engine overloaded, blowing the phantom apart and scattering wreckage across the bay.
Shepard kept his rifle trained on the spot where the retreating brutes had been. Knowing how tough the aliens were he wasn't taking any chances. After waiting a couple minutes with no movement from the wreckage he contacted the ship AI again, "Artemis, where's that engineer?" Shepard frowned when he didn't get a response over the comms, "Artemis? Can you hear me?" When he still didn't get a response he turned back to the small group of aliens and humans. "I've lost contact with Artemis, last she reported a covie engineer was hacking into systems on the ship. Hopefully she's still safe, we need to find that engineer and kill it."
"Ship structurally damaged; no chance to leave under own power; will follow your lead," Shepard noticed that the salarian captain seemed to speak faster the more stressed he became.
Shepard brought a hand to his chin to think, "We'll want to split up. Each group will have to have enough firepower to deal with the brutes, and each group will need someone who knows a halcyon class cruiser well enough to navigate." He gestured to the army officer, "Rodriguez! You know your way around a halcyon?"
"No sir, spent most of my time on the big transports not on navy cruisers," the lieutenant colonel answered with a shrug.
"Damn, oh well, two groups. I'll lead one, and…" Shepard looked at his options, An elite he shouldn't trust, and an army officer he had just met. The choice seemed easy; it should have been easy, but something in his gut told him that Rodriguez wasn't the best choice as a leader. Maybe it was the fact that he seemed to be special forces, not standard army, maybe it was the fact that he acted more like an enlisted man than an officer. Whatever the reason Shepard acted on what his gut told him instead of his brain. "Odeg, take your elites, Joker, and Rodriguez with you. You're team bravo. I'll lead alpha, the rest of us." Shepard turned to the salarian commander, "Kirrahe, split your forces, Leave one group to defend your ship, another will travel with me."
Shepard turned to the last member of the group, "Hunter, I don't know your name, and hopefully that's not a problem, but you're with me."
Knowing it wouldn't be understood the massive alien nodded it's 'head' and walked over towards Shepard.
"Alright, let's kick some ass!" Shepard yelled as he racked the bolt back on a fresh magazine.
"Do what with our feet?" Asked a confused Liara.
"Nevermind…"
ooooooo
Lieutenant Hall, so far the only human captured by the turian invaders stood in an officer's private cabin. His temporary holding cell on the turian troopship. They hadn't trusted him enough to let him keep his weapons, and a pair of burly looking turian troopers stood outside at all times, keeping him under guard. The room might as well have been a cell in the brig. No windows, no personal effects, the computer had been shut down. The only thing interesting in the room was Nihlus. The turian specter made for interesting conversation; Hall knew it was probably some variant of good cop/bad cop, but this particular alien was the only one aboard who seemed to actually care about the war and not just getting away from this hellhole. They had already gone over some basic history of the war and the turian race and the citadel alliance.
Nihlus was the first to open the conversation this time, "We both know what's going to happen when we reach your base don't we?"
Hall pulled an oddly shaped chair from behind the small desk and sat down heavily, "Yeah, I suppose we do. Flying through atmosphere with Longsword escort will take a couple hours, but when we get there the general won't just say his farewells and throw confetti as you leave back into space."
The turian remained standing, his face nearly unreadable, "Any troopship leaving will be shot down by your oversized fighters, any troopship setting down will be swarmed with your troops and taken by force. The only problem is that I doubt General Septimus will just let you take his ships and men. You won't be able to take the ship's. They'll scuttle the ships before you can."
Hall leaned back in his chair and propped his feet up on the desk. He rubbed his unshaven face thoughtfully, "And General Williams won't back down in the face of that threat. Any chance to get evacuees out will be taken. There are millions of people here, we have a duty to get as many out as possible. Reinforcements won't come, hell Shanxi might hold the last survivors of the human race. They already pulled most of the fleet back to Earth, which means they're expecting an attack. Earth might stand for a while, but the covenant are just too powerful. Hell, the survival of our species might depend on us getting people off world."
"An impasse, your people need our ships, and we will not give them up." The turian specter shook his head and sighed in frustration.
"Selfish bastards…" Hall mimicked Nihlus' motion, when suddenly an idea hit him, "So, Nihlus? What about a compromise?"
"Compromise?" As far as hall could read turian expressions the specter looked skeptical.
"Yeah, like it or not, you have to have plenty of spare bunks and space in these ships. I don't suppose a refugee mission is in your general's orders?" Hall took his feet off the desk and leaned forward again. "Depending on how long your FTL would take to get back to this citadel of yours… you could take a couple thousand civilians if you packed them in here good enough."
"And you would trust your civilians with an unknown alien race?" Nihlus gestured with one talon, "For all you know, I've been lying this whole time and the original goal of this expedition was a massive slave grab."
Hall chuckled, "First of all, you don't have the equipment for that, secondly from what I've seen of your soldiers here, you don't strike me as the type." Hall leaned back again, making himself comfortable, "You know, if you managed to convince this council of yours to come back here with a fleet you might actually save the planet."
"That would be difficult to do, seeing as how a single pair of ships managed to cripple a turian fleet. The majority of the council peacekeeping force is made from turian vessels." Nihlus shook his head, "No, I doubt they would try anything where they didn't have a reasonable chance of succeeding."
"Hmm…" Hall started thinking about how a council fleet would fight the covenant. He knew standard UNSC tactics. They generally involved a nuclear minefield and a few ships worth of sacrificial armor between the warships and covenant plasma. "I don't suppose you or anyone you know knows anything about how much damage your slugs did to the Lady Luck? That was the name of the vessel in orbit here."
"Cruiser guns managed to penetrate your vessel's armor, barely. The Void Hunter managed to tear a few holes in your ship's hull." Nihlus said with some caution. Hall figured telling a possible enemy weapon strengths wasn't the most natural thing in the world for the specter.
"Fire rate?" Hall questioned. The Lady Luck had been an older model corvette, designed with the speed and weaponry of a frigate, but the heavy armor of a destroyer. They were of course expensive, and somewhat worthless against the covenant without twin MAC guns. They did have relatively heavy armor though. A few holes in its armor was nothing much compared to the raw power of a MAC gun, but if the turian guns had fire rate there might be a chance of them actually damaging a covenant vessel, provided there were enough of them.
"A typical dreadnaught can send a shell down range once every other second. Cruisers fire at a somewhat faster rate, but their shells are less powerful."
Hall's eyebrows shot up at Nihlus' words, a typical UNSC ship mounted MAC gun could have cleaved through the Lady Luck and kept going, but each MAC gun on a UNSC vessel could only fire once every minute and a half. Some ships like destroyers and cruisers were equipped with two, but the fire rate on a turian gun was still damned impressive. "That might work, though I'd have to give you a crash course in UNSC tactics. Not that they are all that effective, but we've gotten quite a few kills in the past."
Nihlus nodded, "The biggest problem is the fact that our kinetic barriers are almost useless against covenant plasma weapons."
"Yeah, we don't have shields, and just about the only ships that can take a direct plasma hit and keep going are the big cruisers and carriers. Our most effective tactic has always been sacrificial hulls." Hall took a moment to gather his thoughts before continuing, "Covenant plasma torpedoes generally disperse after hitting a target of sufficient mass. So we get as many freighters and stations and other detritus as possible, rig 'em up with either remote control or volunteer crews and use them as ablative armor."
"That would be expensive, it would be hard to convince the council to stick their heads out when they have the taxpayers to worry about."
At hearing that Hall nearly screamed in frustration. He kept it in check, just barely, "Damn it man, there are millions of people still on this world, and they'd be worried about money?"
"That's the way politics work. One more reason I'm glad to be a specter, but then I'm only one man. I don't have a fleet at my beck and call." Nihlus uncrossed his arms and straightened his posture, "I'll give it my best shot at convincing General Septimus and then the Council, but I can't make any promises."
At that the turian specter left the room, leaving Richard Hall alone with his thoughts.
ooooooo
Tali held her shotgun up to her shoulder as she walked down the corridors of the Dawn Under Heaven. The ship had been empty compared to a migrant fleet vessel, but there were people that were actually interested in talking to her, a far cry from what usually happened so far during her pilgrimage. Best of all though, knowledge of how a slip space drive worked, courtesy of the information she had dug up would make a wonderful pilgrimage gift. It could severely lessen the fleet's dependence on eezo. They wouldn't have to aim for eezo rich systems every time they went somewhere.
Tali shook herself from her daydream and returned her attention to the corridors of the human ship. At a hand motion from Shepard, Liara, a salarian and her moved into an adjoining room. It was some sort of generator room. Banks of what appeared to be batteries lined the room, probably some form of backup power in case reactor power went down. There didn't appear to be anyone in there. She walked up and down the rows of batteries to be sure. Finding no targets she walked back to the entrance.
Tali nodded at the salarian guarding the door. Before he could nod back though, he was lifted from his feet by an invisible force. There was no biotic glow, which left one option, a cloaked enemy. She couldn't fire with the salarian in the way, so she yelled to Shepard over the comm. She got a blast from the brute's gun in return. With her shields dangerously low Tali ducked behind the battery bank for cover.
She heard the brute fire several rounds out the door, likely using the salarian as a shield against return fire. Thinking quickly Tali ran around the other side of the battery bank, and ran up behind where the brute was holding back Shepard and the rest of the salarians. Tali got as close as she dared, crouched and aimed up towards the brute's head, making sure that any over penetration wouldn't kill the salarian. She pulled the trigger and blew the brute's head off.
The salarian collapsed to the ground, holding his throat as Shepard and the rest of the squad entered the room, their guns trained on the dead brute. "Great job Tali," Shepard congratulated her before pulling the salarian to his feet. The human motioned for the group to head back out of the room, "We're close, one of the main computer systems, I'd bet the engineer is there." He put a hand to his helmet, "Odeg, get your group to my position, I think we've found them."
A few minutes later, they were ready to assault the computer room. The massive hunter stood ready at an oversized freight doorway, ready to smash its way in. Odeg's team of elites stood at the other. When they made their move it was more anti-climatic than expected.
The hunter broke down the hatch, the flying metal hit a brute at random, stunning the beast long enough for the hunter to bring its shield around and smash it into pulp. Odeg's sangheili entered the other side. Odeg and the white armored soldier advanced with swords drawn. The two remaining brutes barely got a shot off before they were impaled.
Tali followed Kirrahe and Shepard into the room, shotgun raised and ready for any more cloaked brutes.
The salarian was looking closely at the two sangheili, curiosity evident, "Energy blades?"
Shepard interrupted before the salarian could question further, "No time for questions, the engineer is still around here somewhere."
"Couldn't one of the brutes have been the engineer?" Tali asked, confused as to why they were still looking around in an empty room.
"No, it'll be another covenant species, called Huragok, we call 'em engineers. They look like floating bags of gas. Nasty looking, but non-hostile. All they do is float around and fix things. ONI has standing orders for capture, or deserter retrieval. They still aren't sure if the things are even sentient." Shepard responded a bit tersely, distracted by his search.
"That might have been useful to know before hand." Tali crossed her arms and leaned back on her heels. Quickly she switched her radio to a second comm channel, "And I'm wondering when you are going to tell the salarians that you are working to save an AI not a ship."
She saw the human glance back in her direction quickly. "I think you know how they might react," He said aloud. Tali realized he might not have had the most advanced communications suite in his armor. Luckily the salarians with the group were also searching for the elusive Huragok, both inside the computer room and outside in the surrounding hallways
"Don't you think it would be better to tell them than surprise them?" Tali kept her external speakers off to keep the conversation.
"No, not really, if it…" Shepard's voice trailed off as he looked over Tali's shoulder.
Alarmed Tali spun around quickly. Finding herself face to face with what looked like a floating sack of flesh. Surprised she jumped backwards and brought out her shotgun. What had to be the Huragok let out a squeal of alarm and floated over behind a flickering holo-pedestal.
Hearing the commotion the rest of the group quickly rushed into the room, weapons out and pointed. The sangheili, seeing what had caused the trouble quickly holstered their weapons, while the salarians had their weapons out and pointed towards the holographic projector and the engineer cowering behind it.
"The Huragok is harmless, lower your weapons." Odeg's voice had the desired effect. The salarians dropped their weapons to a more relaxed pose.
"Harmless? Damn thing nearly killed me before I convinced it I was in the system." The holographic projector flickered to life, revealing the human AI's avatar. It was dressed in what appeared to be robes and sandals, and carried an ancient bow. The avatar had been programmed with very life like expressions, and was now showing anger. Tali noted the salarians had their weapons up again, this time pointed at Shepard, Liara, herself and the elites. She found herself worried about the humans, unlike the rest of the people in the room, they had no shields. The AI spoke again after the salarians readied their weapons, "First of all, Bob? Would you go ahead and put up that fancy overshield?"
Tali nearly dropped her shotgun in surprise as an odd sensation covered her body. A glowing shield now covered everyone in the room but the salarians. Oddly enough the shield stopped at her hands and the soles of her feet. Possibly limitations on what the engineer could do. She found herself wondering why the AI had told the engineer to give her a shield.
The AI's expression changed from anger to a smirk, "Now, captain Kirrahe, I suggest you put away your weapons so we can have a nice reasonable discussion."
Kirrahe was the first to drop his aim, the other salarians followed suit shortly after. The salarian looked towards Shepard, "AI technology is incredibly dangerous."
Shepard let out a short laugh, "Please captain, I trust Artemis here a hell of a lot more than I trust even Rodriguez here." Shepard gestured to the human they had picked up on the planet, "No offense, but I haven't known you very long colonel."
"None taken," The human soldier replied with a chuckle. "Besides I understand completely I've had my ass saved by an AI on more than one occasion."
Tali suddenly realized that Artemis had said the Huragok had stopped as soon as it realized she was in the system. "Wait a minute! You lied! You knew the engineer was here the whole time!" She jabbed an accusatory finger at Shepard, "You and your damn AI had this all planned out!"
Shepard put his hands up in mock surrender, "Whoa there, I only found out just as we found that brute stalker. This wasn't a conspiracy or anything, I'm sorry I lied to you, but it was necessary." The human lowered his hands and turned back to Kirrahe, "Captain I can understand you are upset, but I have to worry about the safety of my crew, and right now that includes Artemis in the mix. We need to contact your council, and see if we can get any sort of aid."
Tali shook her head, "As if they would actually help you."
Kirrahe glanced at her before speaking, "The fate of a species is in the balance here, a few breaches of citadel law without knowledge of said laws is hardly reason for the council to refuse help."
"Like they helped us against the Geth?" Tali practically shouted back. She turned towards Shepard, "I never did finish my story about what happened to my people, after we were forced from our homeworld by the Geth, the council refused to help us. They closed our embassy on the citadel and actively prevented us from attempting to settle on several worlds that would have met our needs." Tali realized she had just lost control of her temper and blushed behind her visor. "Sorry commander, I just got a little angry."
Shepard held up a hand, "Understandable, just try and save it for when we aren't in a tense negotiation," He gestured for Kirrahe to be quiet before he could retort, "Artemis, you got that codex from Dr. T'soni's omnitool, what does it say about this?"
"It is unsurprisingly vague on the point commander, but considering other histories that are in the codex, I would say that it is probably true… You want me to go ahead and take control of their ship and overload the core?" The AI replied with a smile.
Shepard turned his head to regard the AI, "Don't joke about that Artemis."
"Who's joking? That story made me angry." Artemis had the same smile plastered on her face as she stared at the salarian captain.
"Commander, I would appreciate it if threats to my life and those of my crew were not commonplace." Kirrahe sounded irate, of course Tali would probably be too if someone threatened her and her crew with death.
"I'm sorry for that captain," Shepard apologized while gesturing for Artemis to keep quiet. "Will you be able to contact the council? Death threats levied against your crew or not, there is still the matter of the superweapon to deal with."
"Yes, but I will feel better if we could continue this aboard what remains of my ship. After we make sure your AI can't get into our systems." The salarian responded with a bit of venom in his voice.
"Yes, please go ahead, Artemis direct them there, peacefully." Shepard put an emphasis on the word peacefully, obviously trying to get Artemis to comply.
Tali watched the salarians leave before re-holstering her shotgun, and sat down. Her earlier happiness at finding the salarians and therefore a way home had long since disappeared. She sighed and leaned her head back. As if they sensed that she needed a moment alone, the humans, elites, and Liara left the room.
"Keelah, what have I gotten myself into?" She asked herself out loud.
"A shit storm would be the term most humans would use." The damn AI was back to bother her again.
Tali didn't bother with a reply and tried to ignore the annoying computer program.
Artemis didn't take the hint and continued on, "I don't get it. Why are you so hostile? I've probably saved your life on more than one occasion. Crushing a brute in a door, guiding you to friendlies, directing the salarians to pick you up from Reach. Why do you still hate me?"
The computer's words caused her to whip around in her chair, "Do you really think that makes up for the billions your kind slaughtered, for the children of my species forced to grow up without a homeworld in environmental suits, sealed away from physical contact of any kind?"
The AI yelled back with an equal anger in her voice, catching Tali off guard, "I didn't do that! Your Geth did that! You can't blame the whole species for the actions of a group. Are all batarians slavers? Are all asari sex crazed strippers? Are all quarians thieves? Are they?"
Tali got up angrily and stormed off to her temporary quarters, not even bothering to respond to the damned AI.
ooooooo
General Septimus looked at the council specter incredulously, "Safe passage for refugee transportation? Who is to say that my opposite number here won't sneak in heavily armed commandos in place of civilians?"
Nihlus had obviously expected the question, and was quick to answer, "I had our resident prisoner contact his general. They agreed to letting us handle security completely, we would have complete discretion in who is allowed aboard and who isn't"
Septimus stared at the specter for a moment before replying, "What do you think the council would say if we show up with a few thousand refugees from an alien race who is in the middle of a war with a race that could probably kill the entire citadel defense fleet with a dozen ships?"
"I don't know general, but it is the only way you will get your troops off planet, and you know it." Nihlus shrugged, "Besides it was under direct orders from a council specter, that should be good enough to keep you out of the worst of the politics."
"I always thought you specters were a bad idea, I guess you do come in handy here and there, even if this isn't a citadel sponsored mission" Septimus sighed, "fine I'll agree. You can go tell your human friend."
After the specter had left the bridge he turned to the helmsman, "ETA?"
"Half an hour sir," The crewman replied without looking away from his controls.
Septimus sat down in his chair, it was going to be a long fifty minutes.
ooooooo
Well, there it is, the next stage of the story is just around the corner.