Chapter 7: Lunar Landings
After getting a few quick hours of rest, Ben got up and stretched before leaving his room and heading to the elevator. His intention for the moment was to head to the crew deck and do some more reading on this galaxy's history. After reaching the elevator and stepping inside, Ben pushed the button that led to the crew deck, and the elevator started its ascent. A minute later, the elevator came to a stop and the door opened, allowing Ben to step off and reach his intended destination. Once he rounded the corner, he went over to an empty chair, sat down, opened his Omni-tool and started looking up a new piece of information to read. As he scrolled through the extranet, Ben heard a voice.
"Mind if I join you?" the stranger asked. Ben didn't need a bigger indicator than the synthetic-sounding voice that Tali was standing right in front of him. Ben looked up at the young Quarian and smiled.
"By all means," Ben replied as he gestured to the chair next to him. Tali walked over and sat down next to him.
"What were you about to do?" she asked.
"Nothing big, just about to do some more history homework," Ben answered as he shrugged, "I've only been in this universe for only a couple weeks and I still don't know half of its past."
"I can imagine," Tali said, "If I was placed in your universe, I'd be reading as much history as I could, too. Speaking of which…" Ben noticed Tali trailed off a bit in her sentence.
"What is it?" he asked, "If you have a question, then ask away." Tali looked up and pointed at the Omnitrix.
"I'd actually like to know more about that device on your arm," she replied, "I've seen you use it before, but I have no idea how it works." Ben grinned as he deactivated his Omni-tool and held up the Omnitrix.
"I don't really know all the details, but I'll try to explain it the best I can," he said as Tali activated her own Omni-tool.
"You don't know all the details? But didn't you build it?" the Quarian asked.
"Actually, I didn't invent it," Ben answered, "The Omnitrix was invented by a Galvan named Azmuth. He also made two other models, but one he placed in storage and the other one was scrapped." After typing the data into her Omni-tool, Tali looked back at Ben.
"And what is a Galvan?" she asked. Ben activated the Omnitrix and turned the alien dial until he came across the hologram of Grey Matter.
"Galvans look like this," he explained as Tali looked at the hologram.
"Oh, now I remember," she said, "That's the alien you used to get Liara out of that security bubble back on Therum. I can't believe a creature that small was able to make something as incredible as your device." Ben chuckled a bit at her statement.
"Yeah, Galvans might be on the small side, but what they lack in size and strength, they more than make up for with extreme intelligence," Ben explained as he turned off the Omnitrix and watched Tali type more data into her Omni-tool.
"So, aside from being able to transform your body into those creatures, what else can that thing do?" Tali asked.
"Honestly, I'm still figuring out all the kinks on this thing," Ben answered, "But the features I do know about are a communicator, universal translator, digital watch, emergency homing device and a security lock in case anyone else tries to steal and use it."
As he went on explaining what each feature could do, Tali wrote down what Ben told her on her Omni-tool. Despite what he said, Ben knew more about the Omnitrix's functions and features than he gave himself credit for. And it was also clear from the way he spoke that he treasured it greatly and wouldn't trade or surrender it for anything. When she finished typing, the Quarian machinist looked back over at Ben, another question forming in her mind.
"Is there anything else that device can do?" she inquired. Ben looked back down at the Omnitrix.
"There actually is one other ability on this thing," Ben answered, "I can scan any sapient life form in my immediate area. If any person is detected with any kind of ailment, disease or genetic deformity, I can have it activate its restoration protocol and restore their DNA to its prime and cure their conditions. That being said, I can only cure physical and genetic problems. Things like mental disorders are things that I can't fix."
Tali stopped typing when she heard Ben's explanation about the Omnitrix's genetic restoration abilities. Ben could clearly tell from the way the Quarian seemed to freeze on the spot that she was taken by surprise. After taking a moment to regain her composure, Tali looked back at Ben.
"So you can actually cure people with that device?" she asked, definite surprise ringing in her voice.
"Yeah, but it can be pretty taxing depending on the number of people being restored," the teen explained, "If I'm doing it for one person or a few people, then it's usually pretty easy. If I'm doing it for a large group of people, though, then it can get pretty tiring. I once used the restoration to rewrite the DNA of an entire species, but that's a story for another time."
Even though Ben couldn't see Tali's face, the Quarian was in complete awe. The Omnitrix was certainly more than she had first thought. Before Tali could ask another question, however, the two heard Shepard's voice call out. They looked up and saw Shepard and Liara approaching them.
"Ben, Tali, get your gear. We're about to pass through the Relay to the Sol system." Ben raised an eyebrow at Shepard's order.
"Why are we heading to Earth?" the teen asked.
"I received word from Alliance command that a VI system on the moon's training base went rogue," Shepard explained, "They want us to take care of it. I'll catch up with you three down in the shuttle bay." With a nod Ben and Tali stood up and followed Liara to the elevator. A short ride later, the three of them stepped off and walked over to their lockers, Wrex and Garrus already checking their gear. As Ben and Liara put their armor on and Tali prepared her weapons, Wrex looked over at them.
"Any idea what Shepard wanted us to prepare for?" the Krogan bounty hunter asked.
"Something about a VI on Earth's moon base going rogue and the Alliance wanting us to take care of it," Ben answered, "He'll tell us more when he gets here." A minute later, Shepard, who was already wearing his armor, led Ashley and Kaidan over to the lockers, where the latter two started putting on their own armor. After everyone had his or her weapons and armor equipped, Shepard spoke up.
"Alright, everybody, I know everyone knows what our current mission is, but I think we should go over it one more time in case any detail was forgotten," the commander said.
"A training VI on Luna went rogue and took over the base's systems. The Alliance assigned us to go in and stop things from getting worse," Kaidan recited. Shepard nodded in response.
"Thank you, Lieutenant," Shepard replied, "When we get to Luna, I don't want to take any chances. We go in, take out the defenses and shut down the VI as quickly as we can. I need everyone at their best for the mission, and I don't want anyone taken down on these simple errand runs. Understood?" Ben grinned in response as he held up the Omnitrix.
"Got it, boss," the teen said eagerly. Liara looked at him with a ghost of a smile on her face.
There's that determination again, she mused, one more thing that I admire about him. Then she suddenly caught herself and looked away so no one could see her ensuing blush.
No, stop thinking like that, Liara, she mentally berated herself, Ben is only a good friend. Though it was sweet of him to help that poor girl the other day. Another blush started forming on her face, so she quickly grabbed her helmet and put it on before following the others over to the Mako, with Garrus riding shotgun this time. About ten minutes later, Joker's voice rang over the communicator.
"ETA to Luna is 15 minutes, Commander," the pilot reported.
"Excellent, Joker," Shepard replied before facing the rest of the crew, "This is it, people. Get ready to drop." 15 minutes later, the door to the shuttle bay opened, and the crew felt the Mako lurch forward as Shepard drove out of the Normandy. A few seconds later, the vehicle bounced and shuddered as it landed on the surface of the moon. Ben looked over at Liara, who was clutching tightly to her safety harnesses.
"I still hate it when he does that," she said as she let go and took a deep breath. Ben reached over and placed a hand on her shoulder, though it was difficult to do so with the harness in the way.
"I don't think this is the last time we're doing this, but I know that we'll get used to it eventually," he explained.
"True, but that doesn't mean I have to like it," Liara replied as she looked over at Ben.
"You scared of heights or something, doc?" Ashley teased as the two looked over at her.
"No, I just feel more comfortable in a ship during a proper landing," Liara answered, "The sudden jerking movement of these jumps is not…" Then she caught onto Ashley's tone. "Oh, you were joking." Ben smiled underneath his helmet.
"Nice to see you're catching on this time," Ben said as the Mako began driving forward. As they went on, Ben and Tali looked out the holographic windows and saw a small range of hills in front of them. These ones, however, looked much smoother than the ones they drove over on Edolus, much to Tali's relief. After Shepard drove the tank up the hill and came to a stop at the ridge, the team saw the base atop a plateau a short distance away. Shepard stepped on the gas and continued driving forward, but when they were near the base, several rockets flew overhead, narrowly missing them.
"Damn it!" Shepard cried out as he swerved to the left and stopped the Mako behind a large rock for cover.
"This is quite the welcoming party," Wrex sarcastically grumbled. Just then, Shepard got an idea.
"Hey Ben, you want to do the honors?" the commander humorously asked. Ben grinned and unbuckled his harnesses.
"I thought you'd never ask," the teen replied before turning on the Omnitrix, scrolling through the alien dial and pressing it down. One flash of green light later, Chromastone stood in his place.
"Let's do this!" the Crystalsapien said as he opened the back hatch and walked out. Once outside, Chromastone flew up over the rock and toward Luna Base. The automated defenses opened fire at him, but the crystalline alien easily avoided the shots. Chromastone retaliated by rushing straight toward one of the turrets and using his immense strength to rip it off its base. Once the turret was free, the Crystalsapien used it as a hammer and effortlessly smashed the adjacent turret. After landing, Chromastone looked over and saw two more defense towers. Towers that seemed to be aiming right in his general direction.
"Oh, crap," he said before taking cover behind the tower. As the missiles flew overhead, Chromastone knew that he needed to finish this quickly. He thought about taking them out with energy blasts, but with no physical energy for him to absorb, he knew that using them would be a risk. However, he also knew that if he didn't do this quickly, then he and the crew wouldn't be able to complete their mission. Throwing caution to the wind, Chromastone flew up and charged an iridescent energy in his hands. Pointing his left hand at the tower, the Crystalsapien released the energy in a concentrated beam and destroyed the entire tower in a single blow. Just as he was about to turn around and fly back to the tank, however, a rocket suddenly hit him hard in the back and sent him crashing into the ground. After getting up and dusting himself off, Chromastone looked behind him and saw a third tower standing behind him.
"How the heck did I miss that?" he grumbled before taking off and destroying the final tower before it could take another shot at him. After landing on the remains of the turret, Chromastone looked around to see if there was anything else that he might have missed before nodding in satisfaction and flying back to the Mako. After landing, Chromastone changed back into Ben and entered the vehicle.
"The automated defenses are taken care of," Ben informed, "Now the only real dangers lie directly inside the base." Shepard nodded.
"Good work, Ben," he said before driving the tank forward and pulling up to the training base. Once the Mako stopped, Shepard opened the door and let everyone out. Beneath her helmet, Ashley grinned and let out a whistle as she surveyed the battlefield.
"Damn, looks like that Chromastone guy was more than just a big showboat," the gunnery chief said.
"Yeah, and I still haven't even figured out all of his other abilities yet," Ben replied. This caught Ashley and Liara by surprise. Ben was still working out the kinks of one of his aliens? He had just laid waste to a mounted heavy defense system like it was nothing, and that wasn't even close to what he was capable of?
How powerful is this kid? Ashley thought as the group met up in the center. Once they were gathered round, Shepard began explaining his plan.
"Okay, there's three facilities in this base, which means that if we tried shutting them down one by one, it would take too long," Shepard explained, "So the plan is the following: we split up into three teams and take one facility each. Each team will also have at least one tech expert. While the tech expert shuts down the VI core, the rest of the team will provide cover against any defenses the VI has set up. Now that that's taken care of, let's get started. Ashley, Wrex, you'll come with me. Garrus, you'll be working with Kaidan. Ben, you'll take Tali and Liara. If we're quick, quiet and efficient, we shouldn't have any trouble." With that, everyone split off into their respective teams and walked toward a separate facility.
"You set up Ben with Liara on purpose, didn't you, Skipper?" Ashley playfully asked, a small grin forming underneath her helmet. Shepard picked up on Ashley's teasing, as a grin formed on his own face.
"Not at all, chief," Shepard replied, "I simply thought it best that Ben should have both a tech specialist and a biotic watching his back." Wrex snorted loudly as the three approached the facility on the far left.
"Sure you did, Shepard," the Krogan said in his usual sarcastic tone. With that, Shepard pushed a button next to the door and all three walked inside.
…
Ben led Liara and Tali to the facility facing the front of the Mako and opened the door, allowing all three to enter the facility. Once inside, Ben noticed a door next to the reception desk.
"Alright girls, we don't know what kind of defenses the VI has set up in here, so keep your guard up and be extremely careful," the teen instructed as the approached the door.
Liara drew her pistol while Tali brought out her shotgun as Ben pushed the button to open it. The trio walked into the room, but found that it was completely devoid of life. Sighing with relief, but still maintaining vigilance, Ben led his team to the door on the opposite side of the room and opened it. This time, however, they were in for a nasty surprise. When Tali first stepped into the room, she was greeted by the sight of a drone flying up above her and unleashing a hail of bullets at her. Liara quickly opened fire on the drone as Tali ducked for cover, but then more drones flew into view as she and Ben joined the Quarian. While Tali took out a drone by overloading its systems with her Omni-tool and Liara caught two more in a singularity field, Ben turned on the Omnitrix and activated the alien dial. After scrolling through it, Ben found one that made him grin.
"Haven't used this one in a while," he muttered before pressing the dial down. A flash of green light passed, and where Ben once stood, a new alien took his place. This one looked like a large black-and-yellow ape with a grey face, hands and feet, a pair of bolts on the sides of his wrists and his temples, and a crest shaped like a triad of lightning bolts on his forehead. He also wore a green belt with the Omnitrix symbol as the buckle.
"SHOCKSQUATCH!" the alien shouted in a gruff-sounding Canadian accent, "Alright, let's do this, eh?" With that, the Gimlinopithecus put his left hand forward and fired a bolt of electricity from it, destroying three drones at the same time. As Shocksquatch began taking out the drones, Liara put up her pistol and destroyed another drone with a warp field before she took out her Omni-tool. Tali took notice of this.
"What are you doing?" she asked as she shot a drone out of the air.
"Just doing a quick scan," Liara replied as she held up her Omni-tool and began scanning Shocksquatch, who didn't know what was going on, instead grabbing a drone and throwing it into another one, destroying them both. The yellow alien looked around the room and saw that the drones had all been defeated.
"Alright, let's get moving," Shocksquatch said as he turned around… and saw Liara pointing her Omni-tool at him. "Uh, Liara… what are you doing?" Liara looked up from her Omni-tool and saw that Shocksquatch was looking right at her. Her cheeks blushed a deep shade of purple as she deactivated her Omni-tool.
"N-Nothing," the Asari stammered as she stood up, "Which way do we head next?" Shocksquatch pressed the Omnitrix symbol and turned back into Ben.
"During the fight, I saw a door on the far side of the room," the teen answered, "If I were a betting boy, I'd say the VI core would on the other side."
As the three moved on, Ben thought back to when he saw Liara scanning Shocksquatch with her Omni-tool. At first he thought it was weird that she was just sitting there with her Omni-tool facing right at him, and then it suddenly dawned on him. Liara had probably been doing the same thing Tali had done during their conversation on the ship: collecting data. Whereas Tali was more interested in the Omnitrix and its technical functions, however, Liara seemed to be more interested in the aliens themselves. Before he could go further into his thoughts, he heard Shepard's voice on his communicator.
"Ben, come in," Shepard said, "What's your team's status?" Ben activated his helmet's communicator and spoke.
"So far so good, boss," the teen replied, "Ran into a wave of drones, but we just took care of them. We were just about to proceed into the next area when you called."
"Affirmative, just be careful," Shepard said, "Kaidan informed us that he and Garrus ran into some extra defenses along the way. Shepard out." With that, Ben turned to Tali and Liara.
"Alright, change of plans," Ben instructed, "Things won't be as cut-and-dry as we thought. Keep your guard up and watch out for any hidden surprises." With that, the trio made their way to the door, which Ben opened… only to reveal a blue energy field blocking the path. Tali held up her shotgun and pointed it at the field.
"This energy shield looks similar to the ones that the Geth use," Tali said, "If that's the case, one shot should be enough to disable it." With that, the Quarian pulled the trigger. True to her word, the energy flickered and dissipated, allowing them to proceed. However, when they opened the door on the other side of the hallway, another energy shield was blocking their path. Ben groaned in annoyance as he held up the Omnitrix.
"This is going to get old really fast," he grumbled as he pressed down the dial and turned back into Shocksquatch. Putting his hand forward, the apelike alien released a jolt of electricity and disabled the field. Once it was gone, Shocksquatch looked into the walkway and saw two doors on opposite ends.
"Where should we go first?" Liara asked as she lowered her pistol. Shocksquatch shrugged his large shoulders in response.
"I think we should head left first, eh," he replied, "But at the end of the day, I guess it doesn't matter since the VI took over the whole place." With that, the group went to the door on the west end of the hall. After opening it and disposing of yet another energy field, they saw four large power conduits connected to what looked like individual mainframes. The biggest hint that they reached the target came from the existence of smaller energy fields placed in front of each conduit.
"Let's shut these things down," Shocksquatch said as he fired a shot of electricity at two of the energy fields and disabled them before doing the same to the conduits. Tali followed suit, destroying another energy field and the conduit with one shot each. Liara, however, had a bit of difficulty doing the same, what with her carrying a lighter firearm than Tali's, but she still managed to take the field down and destroy the conduit. After Tali and Liara out up their weapons, Shocksquatch pressed the Omnitrix symbol and turned back into Ben. Holding his hand against the earpiece in his helmet, Ben activated his communicator.
"This is Ben Tennyson speaking," he said, "We just took out a set of mainframes, but I don't think we're done here. My team and I are going to keep looking for more." Just then, someone replied to his call, but it wasn't Shepard.
"Nice work, kid," Kaidan replied, "From where you are, there should be another room on the other end of the hall with more of those power nodes. Just be careful, though. The VI might have a last line of defense in store."
"Yeah, Shepard mentioned you and Garrus ran into a few already," Ben said.
"Carbon monoxide on our first go," Kaidan explained, "I don't know how bad that stuff is for Turians, but it was a good thing we weren't close enough for it to do any serious harm."
"Thanks for the heads-up," Ben said, "Ben Tennyson out." With that, Ben deactivated his communicator and turned to his team. "Okay, looks like I was right. The room on the other side of the hall has more terminals that we need to shut down." Tali drew out her shotgun in response.
"Then what are we waiting for?" she quipped. With that, the team left the room and made their way to the adjacent door, only to find another energy field behind it, which Tali quickly disposed of. Before they could enter the room, however, they were greeted to a nasty surprise. When Liara tried to move forward, a squad of drones sprung to life and opened fire upon them. Ben took cover behind the door's entrance and brought out the Omnitrix. After quickly turning through the dial, Ben pushed it down and turned back into Shocksquatch for a third time.
"Back for Round 2, eh?" the Gimlinopithecus said as he moved into the room and fired a powerful blast of electricity from his hands, easily dispatching of the drones and taking out one of the VI mainframes in the process. Tali and Liara watched the spectacle before them in slack-jawed awe.
"Why didn't he just do that from the beginning?" Tali joked as she saw Ben fry the circuits of the other three mainframes. Not bothering to change back this time, Shocksquatch turned to his teammates and pointed to the door leading to the main room and the exit.
"Let's get out of here before any other last-minute surprises show up, eh," Shocksquatch said as he pointed to the door.
"I agree," Liara said as she put up her pistol, "I don't think it's likely, but one can never be certain." With that, Shocksquatch turned back into Ben and led his teammates through the room to the exit. As they walked, Tali brought up her own Omni-tool and began typing on it. Ben and Liara took notice and stopped.
"Tali, what is it?" Ben asked.
"This whole thing just doesn't make any sense," the Quarian answered, "A VI is nothing more than a computer program. It shouldn't be able to go rogue, at least not on its own. Someone has to hack into it first in order to make it change its protocols."
"We should tell Shepard about this," Liara suggested, "This might be crucial information." Ben nodded in agreement, and the three made their way out of the facility. After making sure their helmets were secure, Ben and his team made their way back to the Mako, where they saw Kaidan and Garrus waiting for them. After approaching them, Ben noticed that Shepard's group hadn't shown up.
"Where's Shepard?" Ben asked.
"I just got off com with him," Garrus replied, "He and his team ran into a last second wave of drones before getting to the last mainframes. They should be getting back any minute." Ben nodded and looked over at his teammates, who had activated their Omni-tools. Tali was no doubt looking over the VI readings she had collected, while Liara was probably looking over the data she had collected from scanning Shocksquatch. Ben was about to ask Liara why she scanned one of his aliens when Kaidan spoke up.
"Here they come," he said, and Ben and his teammates looked over to see Shepard and his squad exit the facility facing the rear of the Mako and walk toward them. Once they got back, Shepard opened the hatch on the back of the tank, allowing everyone else to climb inside. After everyone got seated and Shepard radioed Joker for pickup, Ben resumed his thoughts about seeing Liara scanning one of his alien forms, and then it suddenly dawned on him. She was probably scanning him because she wanted to learn more about him personally.
A few minutes later, the Normandy flew overhead and lowered itself a short distance away, allowing Shepard to drive the Mako onto the ramp and into the cargo bay. Once the vehicle was parked, Shepard opened the door on the back, allowing everyone inside to climb out. After everyone got out and changed out of their gear, Tali walked over to Shepard and showed him the readings and data that she had collected during the mission. While they talked, Ben went over to Kaidan before he and Ashley stepped onto the elevator.
"Hey Kaidan, do we have any blank data pads?" Ben asked as Kaidan turned to face him.
"I think we might have some, but I'm not sure," he replied, "I think the requisitions officer might know. Try asking him." Ben nodded and turned to see a man standing next to a stack of crates in front of the Mako's parking spot. The man looked up and saw Ben approaching him.
"Ah, Mr. Tennyson, is there anything I can help you with?" the officer asked.
"I was wondering if we had any extra data pads," Ben explained, "Lieutenant Alenko said you might know if there were any spare ones."
"Actually, we do," the officer replied, "Let me just get one out for you." The officer turned to his stocks and pulled out what looked like a clipboard made of metal. "Here you go. That'll be 20 credits." Ben activated his Omni-tool and passed the credits to the officer before taking the data pad and heading to the elevator. After a short ride up, Ben stepped off the elevator and walked down to his room, where he took off his jacket and sat down at his desk. Turning on the data pad, Ben opened up the keyboard and began to type.
…
Liara sat at her desk and scrolled through her Omni-tool, using her knowledge in Prothean archaeology to try and find anything useful that could help Shepard and the team for the mission. However, she had been searching for two hours and hadn't found anything remotely close to helpful. Finally sighing in defeat, Liara deactivated her Omni-tool before hearing a sudden knock at her door. Quickly scooting her chair back and standing up, Liara opened her door and saw Ben Tennyson standing outside her room, a data pad in his left hand.
"Am I interrupting anything?" the teen asked. Liara noticed that Ben wasn't wearing his trademark jacket, allowing her to see his body, which she noted was surprisingly well toned for someone his age. Realizing where her train of thought was taking her, Liara blushed and shook her head.
"Um… no, uh… please come in," the Asari stammered as Ben entered her room, "What is it?" Ben held up the data pad she saw him holding.
"I remembered back at Luna Base that you were scanning my Shocksquatch form, and I concluded that you wanted to know more about my aliens," he replied as he handed Liara the data pad, "Tali was mainly curious about the Omnitrix's technical functions, but that was about it." Liara turned on the data pad and saw that Ben had installed not only pictures of his alien forms, but also a list of their species, attributes and abilities. She scrolled down to a random alien and read its profile aloud.
"Ripjaws, a member of the Piscciss Volann species," the Asari read, "Notable features include gills along the neck; webbed hands and feet; sharp protruding teeth; fins along the back and limbs; and a bioluminescent lure on the head. Abilities include immense strength, speed and agility; aquatic respiration; expandable jaws that can crunch through metal and hold large objects; sharp claws and teeth, which can cut through almost anything; and the ability to fuse its legs together to form a tail for greater swimming ability." She then looked back up to Ben.
"Grey Matter was a big help in putting those profiles together," Ben sheepishly said as he put a hand behind his head.
"Why are you giving me this?" she asked. Ben smiled and shrugged his shoulders.
"Like I said, I noticed you wanted to learn about my alien forms, so I thought I could help with that," he replied, "That said, I do have a few aliens I keep in reserve and would like to remain a secret, so I didn't include them. If the situation calls for it, then I'll bring one of them out." Liara could barely contain her surprise. Ben had done it again, helping someone without any thought of receiving anything in turn. Yes, he was keeping information about some of his aliens private but she felt that was reasonable, all things considered. Liara looked back down at the data pad and scrolled to another alien when she saw Ben turn to leave. Deciding to put the new information on hold, Liara placed the data pad on her desk and grabbed hold of Ben's arm. Ben felt a blush forming on his face as he looked back at Liara.
"Ben, I want to know something," the Asari stated as Ben turned to face her, "Why are you so helpful and generous with others, even if there's nothing for you to gain from it?"
"I guess it's probably because I first started using the Omnitrix when I was a kid," Ben explained, "I always believed that it was a chance to be a real hero and do all sorts of cool things like the ones in comic books. After that, I sort of developed a mindset that I should always try to do the right thing, regardless of reward." This explanation struck a chord in Liara. Ben Tennyson really was the most selfless person she had ever met, though the time he helped that slave girl on the Citadel had already cemented that. No other thoughts on the subject at hand formed in Liara's mind, though she did maintain a smile as she looked at him.
"Do you have any new stories about your past adventures?" she asked. Ben smiled back as he and Liara sat down on the bed on the other side of the room.
"I actually do have one in mind," he said before proceeding to tell about the time he saved his old bully Cash from being taken over by a Techadon robot power gauntlet.
…
And Chapter 7 is done!
(dodges incoming gunfire)
I know, I know. I'm sorry for not updating in a while, but things got a little complicated, mostly struggling with a lack of inspiration to write. Now that that's out of the way, let's move on with the story, shall we? Next chapter begins the first part of the Hostile Takeover side mission, where Ben's qualms against taking a life will be put to the test. And I hope you're as excited as I am!
As always, read, enjoy, and review!