"The hell you are!"
Ashley's voice snapped in the com-link, hard and angry, as expected.
"Yeah." Wrex agreed with a nod, the Krogan taking a step closer. "After all this I'm not about to let you go into a nest of Rachni on your own, don't be stupid."
Michael met Wrex's eyes...and saw the respect there, and Krogan respect was that of a warrior's...and they didn't leave one another before a tough fight. Irrelevant. "Urd-" He hesitated, feeling a headache approaching: "...Wrex...the self-destruct is at the bottom with many Rachni in the way, anyone going down there might not be able to return in time, there is no reason to risk any more than one person."
And the com-link nearly shook with Ashley's growl: "And that has to be you! What the hell's wrong with you! At least take some back-up!"
Caring...
Michael's shoulders slumped.
No, irrelevant, casualties among team unacceptable, failure unacceptable, only one acceptable loss.
He kept his voice stern: "No, my command, my call."
Wrex growled, the Krogan's steps heavy as he moved closer, red eyes narrowing: "Warriors do not abandon one another like that, would you dishonour me like that?"
"It's not dishonourable Wrex..." Michael struggled, using anyone's first name on a mission difficult...a break in discipline. Necessary, reaching emotional part of team. "...dying needlessly is. especially when you have a duty full fill, you need to take Liara back to the tram and guide the survivors onto it."
"And what of your duty?" Ashley hissed in his ear, the marine's voice shaking.
"She's right." Wrex nodded, clawed finger reaching out, prodding Michael's chest. "You are the Spectre, you have to hunt down Saren, you are too important to lose." Another prod, making Michael take a step back, mind shying away from the words. "So I should be the one going while you go and prepare the survivors..." The Krogan slowly blinked, head cocked to the side as he watched Michael: "...and you know it."
Correct. Mission too important, without me the pursuit will falter, loss of team-member less of a loss then of commander, tactical and strategical demands means that I should sacrifice-
No!
Michael's hand shot out, grabbing Wrex by the breastplate, an angry growl escaping him, making Wrex's eyes widen in surprise at whatever he saw...
Control!
...and Michael smoothed his face into a reassuring smile, voice soft: "If I fall I'm sure Garrus will more then happily take his shot at leading..."
"I...what?" The Turian's voice came through the com. "Michael I'm honoured but...I have to agree with Ashley and Wrex, this isn't..."
Michael interrupted, speaking faster as he forced the words forth: "Not that it matters, I won't fail." It was easy to feign confidence, it was a key part of being a commander, and Michael wasn't about to worry the others further. "Now Wrex...I need you back at the tram to make the difficult decision as to when to drive away when this place starts to come apart, wait for me as long as you can...but don't take any risks."
"Says the man risking his life so foolishly..." Wrex growled, then smirked as he stepped closer, so close Michael felt the Krogan's breath against him. "...there's no arguing with you is there? I'll see you on the tram...and if not...fight well."
Michael forced a grin, hand coming up to clamp down on Wrex's offered wrist, the Krogan's own on his. "Always do."
A short nod...and Wrex let go of Michael's wrist and turned towards where Kaidan and Liara had gotten to their feet, Liara not looking at him as they turned to walk away...too broken up by her loss to do so...and Kaidan offering him a respectful nod before turning to his duty of aiding the shaking Liara.
Ashley wouldn't however. "I can't believe...you're actually going to let him go! Stop him!"
Michael walked towards the elevator, hand moving back to free his shotgun, ready to finish his secondary objective.
Ashley's voice nagged at his concentration however, caring and want scratching at him...insistent as it pushed against his concentration: "Michael! You can't! Stop being such an asshole and come up with a plan that doesn't involve you marching into bug-central! Michael! Are you-"
A brief press on his omni-tool...and Michael killed the sound, shutting the woman's voice out as the door before him opened.
Primary objective; activation of self-destruct. Secondary objective; survive.
8
8
8
Keelah...
Tali found her hands gripping onto the backrest of the co-pilot seat tightly as she stared at the screen of Michael's camera...mouth open but no words escaping, the pressure on her chest too tight to allow for speech.
"I don't understand..." Garrus muttered nervously, obviously trying to distract himself. "...why did Michael spare the Rachni queen? I was sure he'd kill it." The Turian's voice was tinged with confusion, but his stance showed approval, if tainted by worry. No doubt Garrus had expected Michael to kill the queen even though he himself and his sense of justice had judged it innocent.
Ashley, the woman's lips a thin line, didn't respond, only shook her head, eyes afire with concentration as she to stared at the screen, too worried to even think about it.
I do... Tali swallowed, a great lump in her throat. She had seen Michael's confusion, his struggle with himself...and the way he had looked back at Kaidan, the way he had relaxed when he had found a way out. ...even if Michael himself doesn't.
But it hadn't been Kaidan's influence, not really...it was just an excuse, a way for the man to explain to himself his choice...to...justify it to himself.
In reality the answer to his choice was far simpler...but impossible for Michael to accept.
Keelah...I...understand now...
The sight of the door of the descending elevator only made the truth all the more obvious, so painfully obvious that Tali felt a jab of shame in her heart.
I've been a fool...
The decision about Shiala, the way he had worked to save the colonists on Feros, the way he prepared so thoroughly for every mission and always had to be at the most risky assignment...his story, so full of failure and choices she'd never thought him capable of...and now the queen being spared and him going on alone to spare the others the risk...
It all moved together, like pieces of a puzzle that slid together for a picture that was so clear and simple...and made Tali's heart ache as the simple truth poured through her being like liquid fire, purging the loathing and disgust in purifying...tenderness.
And it was such a simple truth that Michael himself didn't see it.
I should...
Her mouth moved, but no words came...she was just too...overcome.
Besides, Michael had shut off the audio reception for his helmet and couldn't hear...everything she wanted to say.
Then his voice, calm, cold, another mask: "Opening door."
His hand moved forth, pressing the control next to the elevator's door...and it silently slid aside.
The room ahead was empty and rectangular in shape, the long walls on each side were covered with glass, perhaps there was snow behind it normally...but all Tali could see were the insect-like bodies of Rachni.
They were pressed against the windows, the space on each side filled to the brink...their eyes closed and bodies slowly moving as they slept...
Keelah...there's dozens of them.
Michael slowly moved forth, camera and shotgun panning left and right...watching the sleeping creatures as he with measures steps moved into the room and towards the door on the other side. His voice was but a whisper, calm and cold: "Temperature elevated...probably due to many Rachni..."
There was a low hiss...and Michael's camera moved as he looked down.
The floor was a simple grilled one to prevent stepping on all the cables and machinery of the facility...and beneath it there was nothing but a carpet of sleeping Rachni, some moving against one another as their claws clicked together in their sleep.
The camera moved up...and Tali felt her chest tighten even further as the grilled ceiling revealed another mat of sleeping Rachni, the creatures twitching in their sleep...even as one or two hissed, louder this time.
By all the ancestors...so many...
Tali stared in wonder, her hands digging into the backrest of the seat, all that kept her from exploding into a fit of terror for Michael's safety.
"Advancing..." Michael's steps became swifter, the man's head turning left and right as more hisses resounded through the room, angry hisses. "...double time!"
The man was suddenly running...even as a crescendo of shrieks reverberated through the chamber. Crashes of steel slamming against steel, windows shattering...and Michael launched himself forward, the screen spinning as he threw himself forward, rolled through the doorway...and came up to look back at the room he had left.
Tali felt her breath hitch.
The room wasn't there any more. It was nothing but a moving mass of Rachni that climbed over one another as they like a living flood filled the room...pouring through shattered windows and the smashed grills of the ceiling and floor.
Then Michael's hand shot out, hitting the control to the door...and it slammed shut.
He turned...and Tali's heart sank at the sight of the small room, not more then a few square feet in size...half of it held by a computer to the right side of him, a large thing stuck to the floor and without a control board, only a single panel stuck to its front.
Not that it mattered...he was trapped.
Keelah...
Tali's heart...hurt.
Michael didn't stop though, no hesitation in his movement as he straightened, holstered his shotgun and moved towards the computer. His gauntleted hand reached out, finding the latch to the panel before him...and wrenched it open. Beneath there was a thin sheet of glass covering a large red latch in the upright position...and Michael's fist instantly smashed it apart in a crash of shattering glass.
"God..." Ashley muttered, but it was a distant sound as Tali stared.
"Self-destruct..." Michael's voice was calm as ever as his left hand closed around the latch...before his camera moved to look at the other end of the room...where part of the floor came apart as a Rachni with a hiss appeared.
A second later Michael's right hand aimed his pistol at it, three shots...and the creature screeched and collapsed within the hole it had made, its head torn open.
The smoking pistol disappeared as Michael turned back to the latch, his hand still holding it...and now slamming it downwards. "...initiated."
Instantly a synthetic voice called out, as calm and mechanical as Michael's: "Emergency self-destruction protocols enacted. All personal must leave the station, immediately. Two minutes to station destruction, evacuate."
"Run..." Garrus muttered the word, but as with Ashley's prayer it was nothing but a distant mutter as Tali watched Michael's hands move up to his shoulder as he advanced upon the door before him.
An elbow against the controls and the door opened...and the mass of Rachni screeched as they saw him, dozens of tentacles aiming forth, spitting acid...
Michael's camera spun...and Tali gasped even as she saw that he had simply moved behind the wall next to the doorway. Pressing his back against it his hands moved before the camera, showing the bandoleer he had unclasped...and the grenades hanging in it as he with quick flicks of his fingers primed them.
More shrieks...and Michael spun as he threw the bandoleer into the room before thumping the controls to the door to seal it.
The door slid shut...and then the camera shook as the ground underneath heaved with a muted blast.
Keelah...
A moment later the door opened as Michael slammed the control and leapt into the room, shotgun whipped forth.
Before him the room was a scene of carnage. The floor, ceiling, walls...all covered in the green slime of smashed Rachni, pieces of scorched exoskeleton sizzling as they were glued to the filth...the mass of creatures turned to nothing but gore.
Gore that moved.
More Rachni were surging forth, creatures coming from the ceiling, the floor, the walls...pushing through the filth of their fallen kin, as if rising out of their remains, monsters seeking vengeance, looking as they were being birthed out of their fallen allies...
Michael's foot came down on one, smashing its face into the floor as he jumped, shotgun blasting another from the ceiling and sending it hurtling across the room. A crash of his feet hitting the floor...and his shotgun swung widely to bash aside the lunging claws of a third before he bowled it over with the force of his charge.
A hiss...and Michael was jerked sideways as a tentacle wrapped around his right arm, the creature pulling him closer as its maw opened...only for him to slam the barrel of his shotgun into it.
A boom...and its body exploded with Michael's shot, the quivering body dropping down with the weapon firmly stuck between its large teeth.
Keelah!
Michael was apparently inured to the panic racking Tali however. The marine's fist flew out, catching another Rachni in the face and sending it to the floor, another instantly climbing over it...only to collapse as Michael's pistol raked its torso with shots.
A shriek...and a Rachni fell from the ceiling, drawing a grunt from Michael as it dropped onto a raised arm while slamming its claws into his shoulders.
He didn't stop moving though, the man running, pistol firing into the gut of the screeching creature...and then his arm tossed it sideways and into two others, sending them to the floor in a storm of flailing limbs...along with two blood-flecked shoulder-pads.
Keelah...
Another Rachni leapt at him from the right...and Michael ducked under it even as his pistol was sent flying by a swinging claw, his foot breaking the spine of the creature responsible.
A leap off the creature he'd broken underfoot...the world spinning...and Michael came up on one knee, assault rifle suddenly in his hands, gutting two Rachni before him, their insides pouring over the floor as he rushed forth between them...and then stumbled as a claw of a leaping Rachni smashed into his gut.
NO!
Tali swayed, staring in horror. It all felt so...unreal...
Then Michael coughed...and fired a volley into the claw stuck in his gut, tearing the limb off at the joint from the screeching creature as he rushed forth...into the elevator.
A grunt and the man spun...and slammed the controls to the elevator even as he fired a volley through the closing door... A door whose edges were sprayed with acid even as the majority of the enemy volley struck the man...who stumbled back with a pain gasp.
A thud of Michael's back hitting the wall of the elevator as it began to move upwards...and he slid downwards.
The screen listed to one side as Tali saw his legs come to lie on the floor...the beat of his heart slowing as the screen moved down, showing the seared mess that was his breast-plate. Black plates seared apart and melted into pale flesh...and a Rachni claw still embedded in his gut, the severed limb stained with dark blood.
No...
Silence.
No...please...don't...
Then a sudden jolt in his heart-rate, his right hand coming up, gripping the claw tightly...and wrenching it out, spraying Michael's legs with his blood even as he with a grunt moved to rise.
And then he was on his feet, the camera swaying to side to side, yet not falling as he growled: "Primary objective complete, moving to secondary..."
And Tali practically collapsed against the backrest.
Keelah...he's just...too much...
The thought made her smile.