A/N: Relationship poll still open and honestly, I'm pretty surprised by some of the results. If you haven't already, please go ahead and vote. Also, Internet cookies for any who spot where the new weapon comes from. Finally: MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT: Coming soon, the story of Tali and Natasha during the hunt for Saren. Further details pending.
CARGO BAY, NORMANDY SR2, SEPTEMBER 6
Natasha, Tali and Kal were on Omega, heading for the plague district to find Mordin Solus. Natasha was immune to the plague and both Tali and Kal were in fully sealed combat exosuits, meaning they couldn't be infected unless they suffered a suit rupture. Tatiana was left at something of a loose end and was passing the time by practising her biotics in the cargo hold. In her never-ceasing quest for knowledge she had come across an online biotic tutorial run by an Asari. Although it was clearly aimed at children in their early teens it was very helpful to her understanding of the basics.
Thus far she had perfected raising and lowering a biotic barrier and was working on a simple throw. She clenched her fist and jerked it forwards in an approximation of what the Asari had told her in her video. To her surprise she suddenly found herself on the other side of the cargo bay.
She blinked a couple of times, then turned back to the crate she was supposed to throw. It had been smashed to splinters by her passage, a couple of fragments smouldering gently as Annabel triggered the ship's fire suppression system, her holographic avatar turning a disapproving glare on Tatiana.
"Sorry."
Her avatar winked out and Tatiana sheepishly swept the remnants of the crate into a sack, slinging it over her shoulder as she made her way to the disposal chute, whistling a catchy tune she had heard somewhere as she went. She entered the starboard cargo area and stuffed the bag into the waste, almost yelping in surprise as she turned around to find herself nose to nose with a grizzled Human mercenary with hideous scarring on his face.
"Never took you for a fan of Drell boy bands, Shepard."
"Huh?"
He frowned at her, taking in her differing appearance.
"You're not Shepard. Who the fuck are you?"
She blinked twice and extracted herself from her position pinned between the merc and the waste disposal system, replying once she was a more acceptable distance from both.
"I'm Tatiana Shepard, the Commander's my twin sister. Who are you?"
"Zaeed Massani. Your sister hired me to help her on some suicide mission."
She glanced around the room, keeping one eye on the merc's position as she did. He had set up a lot of stuff in the room. She said as much.
"There's a story behind every item."
She thought for a second then asked a question with no small amount of nerves.
"Could I hear a few?"
He paused for a moment, seemingly taken aback. Then an easy half-smile stole onto his face.
"Sure."
GOZU DISTRICT LIFE SUPPORT, OMEGA, SEPTEMBER 6
Tali clambered up the wall, leaping from girder to girder as she crossed the battlefield at ceiling height. Natasha and Kal were keeping the Vorcha fire team suppressed with volleys of LMG fire and pinpoint pistol shots, allowing her to come to rest directly above them. She shouldered her shotgun and took aim, switching the dial to fully automatic and hosing down the Vorcha with sprays of aerodynamic flechettes that sliced through their flesh and pulverised their skeletons, their regeneration unable to deal with the onslaught.
The last of the Vorcha taken care of, she dropped down to the floor, panning her shotgun around and sweeping for threats. She froze as she heard the low, gravelly voice of a Krogan less than ten metres away.
"Hah, a Quarian. This should be ..."
His last word was cut off by the roar of Tali's shotgun firing in HOLYSHIT mode, the Quarian letting out a surprised squeak as the twenty foot tongue of flame propelled her backwards at great speed and reduced the top half of the offending Krogan to mince. Natasha rushed over and helped Tali to her feet, brushing dust off her elaborate shawl as she slung her shotgun on her back.
"Remind me to look into reducing the recoil on that."
"Maybe a free-sliding internal telescopic barrel segment?"
"Not a bad idea."
Kal looked between the two women and shook his head, muttering something about females and their prodigious communication skills as they nattered about shotguns all the way back to Dr. Solus's lab.
CAPTAIN'S CABIN, NORMANDY SR2, SEPTEMBER 7
Mordin had been a big hit among the crew. The Salarian's mile a minute speech and abstract thought patterns made for a fascinating dinner companion or conversational partner, as Tatiana had swiftly discovered. The younger Shepard had spent several hours assisting Mordin in setting up his laboratory and grilling him on anything that sprang to mind. About three hours in they had started singing duets, offering up an impressive rendition of the operatic section of Bohemian Rhapsody at the dinner table that had the entire crew cheering, even Zaeed.
The grizzled merc had for some reason taken a liking to Tatiana, the younger Shepard being a frequent visitor to his hidey hole in the cargo bay and in turn coaxing the gruff old man into the mess hall and lounge to interact with other members of the crew. Natasha was proud of the girl she was rapidly starting to consider her baby sister. She really was learning, and fast. Everyone she encountered liked her, a mix of her adorable naïveté and her insatiable curiosity.
Banishing thoughts of her sister from her mind, Natasha focused on the task at hand. She placed her hands on Tali's shoulders, slowly kneading and working the knots out of the muscle as her girlfriend lay face down on the bed, happily humming to herself as Natasha's fingers slowly rubbed her favourite orange and vanilla scented oil into her skin. It was a rare opportunity for Tali. For starters, any levo amino oils would bring her out in a rash, making it very difficult and very expensive to source a dextro compatible orange and vanilla scented massage oil. Then there was the issue of her immune system. It was only recently that she had been able to get out of her suit on anything approaching a regular basis and then she had spent the vast majority of that time engaged in amorous activities with Natasha. Nevertheless the feeling of her lover's deft hands working the stress out of her muscles was as welcome as it was alien to her.
Sighing in contentment, she turned her head to one side, using one of her prehensile earlobes to brush an errant lock of hair out of her face as she looked up at Natasha. The Human smiled down at her.
"Feel good?"
She paused for a moment to let out a little 'ah' sound as Natasha ground a knuckle into a particularly tight spot.
"I never knew you were so good at this. Then again I don't really know why I'm surprised. You're good at everything."
For her troubles she received a little kiss on the cheek.
"So where do you think we should head next?"
Tali thought for a few seconds, running through the various options in her head.
"Well, we've done Omega, that's the first of the three big places. I'd say either Illium or the Citadel."
Natasha bobbed her head in acknowledgement.
"I'm leaning towards the Citadel myself. It'll be good to see Anderson again and Garrus wants to meet up with some of his Archangel buddies. Plus, we have that Kasumi girl to recruit."
"About her ... Are you sure about it? I mean seriously, a heist?"
There was a brief lull in the conversation.
"I did some research into Donavan Hock. He's a piece of work. It might be worth it just to take him down a peg or seventeen."
"Citadel it is then."
ZAKERA LV. 27 DOCKS, CITADEL, SEPTEMBER 9
Tatiana leaned over and murmured a question to Tali.
"Why's Nat talking to an advert?"
Tali slowly looked between her partner and the commercial, which featured a peppy Human woman wearing a hood that reminded her of a Quarian shawl. Her query was quickly answered as the advert blanked, only for the woman whose face it had featured to drop down from a maintenance catwalk, startling the team.
Tatiana studied the new arrival with interest. Her eyes glittered from beneath her hood, no doubt as a result of HUD contact lenses, and she had a small purple mark on her lower lip. She was very small, about five foot four compared to the even six foot of her and the Commander or Tali's five foot nine. She had a slim, shapely figure, again not unlike Tali's, her suit tight and form fitting but not slutty like a certain Cerberus operative some of the ex-Cerberus crew liked to joke about from time to time. A cheap pistol was mag-locked to her hip, the sediment visible on the muzzle telling her it was rarely used and poorly maintained. By contrast, as the woman activated her custom Omnitool with a pink display Tatiana could instantly tell it was a high end military model.
"Who are your friends, Shep?"
Natasha gestured to the pair of them.
"My tech expert and significant other, Tali'Zorah vas Normandy nar Rayya, and my twin sister Tatiana."
The Oriental woman dipped one leg in an approximation of a curtsy.
"Charmed. Kasumi Goto, master thief, at your service."
Tali gracefully inclined her head in acknowledgement. Tatiana just stared and grinned stupidly, making Kasumi giggle a little. Natasha stepped in with a slight smile on her face.
"Okay. Tali and I need to go shopping and pick up a few essentials for a little project of ours. Tats, can you show Kasumi around the Normandy?"
Shaking herself mentally, Tatiana nodded and beckoned for Kasumi to follow her. As they walked Kasumi asked her a question.
"What sort of project are those two working on?"
Tatiana shrugged.
"Probably something destructive. They make a whole bunch of really neat weapons, like this one, the Blowback."
She tapped the enormous shotgun slung on her back in the spot usually reserved for heavy weapons.
"Rotary barrel auto-shotgun with a thirty six round capacity. Each blast is equivalent to an Eviscerator shotgun, rate of fire six per second. That means in one second you can put out firepower equal to two thermal clips from the standard Eviscerator. In two seconds that's enough fire to fell a YMIR mech, and since the main cannon on those things takes two point four seconds to chew up my KB that means I can win slugfests with heavy mechs. The only disadvantage is that it uses power cells instead of thermal clips, meaning ammo is limited in any engagement. That's why I always carry backups or use my biotics. Or at least, I will."
Kasumi turned to her with a slight frown.
"You've never seen combat?"
A shadow crossed Tatiana's face as she remembered Cronos Station.
"Oh, I've seen combat all right."
Seeming to sense her companion's distress, Kasumi rested a hand on Tatiana's shoulder. It was all the younger Shepard could do not to lay her own hand on top of it.
"Thanks."
ARMOURY, NORMANDY SR2, SEPTEMBER 9
Tali muttered a curse under her breath as she finally realigned the mass effect generator in the latest toy Natasha had dreamed up. She could remember spending a lot of time in the cargo bay of the original Normandy, sitting cross legged on the floor opposite Nat with one of their crazy prototype weapons taking shape. But she had to say this latest one took the cake.
The 'Deathspinner', as it had become known, was based on a revolutionary idea that Nat admitted she had borrowed from an old Human game. Instead of firing pellets of material, the weapon drew it out into a tangled net of monofilament wires then propelled it out of the weapon at great velocity. The monofilament wire would wrap around a victim, the momentum of the wires combined with the shifting caused by the unfortunate individual's movement having the same effect as putting them through a wood chipper.
She took a step back and looked at the completed weapon. The centrepiece was a large tapering hexagonal prism, almost like a hexagonal pyramid with the point sliced off. From the top and bottom of the prism emerged an angled fin, the strangely organic looking body of the weapon having roughly the same proportions as a grenade launcher. Tali picked up the weapon almost reverently, examining the dials on the side. There was a button marked 'Diplomacy Mode' which executed a very intimidating and wholly unnecessary charge-up sequence, complete with spinning things, flashing lights and ominous whirring noises. Since the actual firing of the monofilament net was almost silent there was a dial where the user could select the noise the weapon made when discharging. The options were 'Boom', 'Shoom', 'Shhk', 'Pew' and 'Vwoorp'. Frivolities aside, Tali couldn't wait to test out their latest toy.
CAPTAIN'S CABIN, NORMANDY SR2, SEPTEMBER 9
Tali was definitely getting used to being out of her suit. She had actually gone out and bought some clothes. Clothes shopping for a Quarian was proving increasingly difficult. Although for her top half any Human or Asari item would do, it was her bottom half that presented the problem. The only other species that had digitigrade legs, unfortunately, were the Krogan, and the thought of herself in Krogan clothing was highly amusing if not a tad mortifying. Eventually she settled on buying several sets of exosuit trousers and taking out the inner environmental/medical matrix, just leaving the outer fabric. The material felt slippery to the touch and slightly odd clinging to her skin, but they were easy to take on and off and fairly comfortable.
She hummed to herself as she brushed her hair. Most Quarians buzzed their hair right down to the scalp but after spending time with Natasha she had decided to let it grow out a little. At present her hair reached down to the spot between her shoulder blades, tickling her bare back as she tried to pick one of the many tops she had bought.
"I like the purple one."
She jumped and turned, covering her chest with a squeak.
"Nat! How many times must you sneak up on me like that?"
Natasha had an infectious grin plastered across her face as she patted the shorter Quarian on the head.
"There there, Tali."
Muttering to herself, Tali turned and snagged the purple halter top in question. She had never worn one before, but being an engineer, it didn't take her long to work it out. When she turned around again, Natasha was sprawled on the sofa, idly sifting through the contents of her datapad, effortlessly elegant in her poise and demeanour. Not for the first time Tali wondered exactly how she had been this lucky. Take a random sample of one hundred Asari and ninety nine of them would happily do the dirty with the legendary Commander in the middle of the Presidium, and yet out of all the potential matches Natasha had chosen her, some Quarian, one of seventeen million.
Smiling, she slid onto the sofa beside Natasha, peering over her shoulder at the datapad.
"What are you reading?"
An arm came to rest around her slim shoulders as she snuggled into her girlfriend.
"Just looking through some of the dossiers TIM prepared before we removed him from the equation. Some of them are interesting, to say the least. We've got a mad Krogan scientist, a super biotic, an Asari Justicar and a Drell assassin. Seems like they could all be quite useful. How's progress on what needs to be done here?"
Tali checked her Omnitool briefly.
"Well, the crew have almost finished repainting the outside of the Normandy to your specification. I really like this beige and dark red scheme, by the way. Other than that, nothing to report really. The supplies are all loaded, we're just waiting on your meeting with the Council."
HUMAN EMBASSY, PRESIDIUM, SEPTEMBER 10
The instant Natasha walked into the room all attention was on her. She had brought along Tatiana and Tali, and they were all carrying very heavy weapons. Both she and her sister were carrying Cain nuke launchers, with Tali carrying a sling of spare power cells for the enormous weapons. The message was obvious. Fuck with me at your peril.
"Glad to see you, Captain."
She smiled as Anderson turned round and pulled her into a gruff bear hug.
"Glad to see you too, kid. Though it's Councillor now, you made sure of that."
Natasha smiled.
"You'll always be Captain Anderson to me, sir."
Anderson turned to focus his attention on the holograms of Natasha's second, third and fourth least favourite people.
"Councillors."
The three of them narrowed their eyes almost in unison as she stepped within range of the hologram.
"Commander Shepard." Whenever Councillor Sparatus spoke her name it was with the tone she had only heard Garrus use once, when a pyjak took a shit on his favourite rifle. "You've been called here to explain yourself. Some of the rumours reaching our ears have been disturbing."
With her hands clasped behind her back, only Tali and Tatiana could see the way in which they assumed a circle with the approximate diameter of a Turian's neck.
"By all means, Councillor. Here's what happened to me over the last two years. In short, when the Normandy got hit my pod made it to the surface of Alchera. I got out to take my bearings and was almost immediately taken by a Cerberus snatch team. I managed to kill eleven of them before they overpowered me. They took me back to a secret facility and spent the next two years attempting to brainwash me into being their puppet. It didn't work. A rogue in their organisation contacted my old crewmember Tali'Zorah vas Neema who hit the facility with a group of Migrant Fleet Marines after hacking their security mechs to be hostile to the Cerberus personnel. On the way out we managed to snatch a high ranking Cerberus operative who was kind enough to divulge the location of Cerberus HQ, something the Migrant Fleet was all too happy to assault. As of September 3, Cerberus no longer exists."
Sparatus scoffed.
"A likely story."
Natasha lost it.
"You're fucking lucky you're a hologram right now because the urge to kick your pills out of the top of your head is very, very strong right now. I suppose there's 'no evidence' hmm? I suppose you would dismiss two years worth of footage, the torture, the experimentation, the ... violation ... as a mere fabrication?" Tali shuddered. Natasha and Annabel had made up an awful lot of evidence to support their cover story. She was very, very glad she hadn't seen any. "I have been through two years of a living hell. They did things to me I can't even describe. And you dare suggest I'm FUCKING. MAKING. IT. UP? You better get used to holograms, boy, because if we ever meet face to face again I'll kill you where you stand."
Tevos held up a hand.
"Commander, please! Be reasonable!"
Taking a deep breath, Natasha visibly calmed herself down.
"My apologies. It's ... somewhat raw, at the moment."
"Of course. Needless to say, we're glad one of our Spectres has returned to the fold."
Natasha smiled and inclined her head respectfully.
"Thank you. I'm currently engaged in finishing off various Cerberus cells. Once that's complete I'll report to the Citadel for my next assignment."
Sparatus opened his mouth to speak.
"No, Sparatus. This is personal."
SIX LANDINGS, REM'SELAI, SEPTEMBER 16
Rael'Zorah looked around the swiftly growing town. Six vessels had made controlled crash landings on the surface of the new Quarian planet, Rem'Selai, or Second Homeworld, hence the name of the planetary capital, Six Landings. The ships had been broken up and the material used to construct a single kilometre-high spire, its knife thin form slicing up into the sky as a proud statement of the Quarian people's rebirth. At the moment, the tower was merely a couple of sticks in the ground but once it was complete it would be magnificent. Neat rows of smaller buildings were starting to spring up around the base of the tower as more raw material was brought in, the design aesthetic based on the ancient roundhouses of lost Rannoch. There were a handful of power plants scattered around, providing electricity to the buildings, and three enormous surface to orbit railgun stations were planned, weapons to point skywards, vigilant. It had hardly been six days since they had made planetfall and already the Quarians had accepted it as their new homeworld.
Looking up, Rael imagined he could see the first two Cerberus stations in the sky, awaiting the operation to join them together. The engineers were still arguing over the best way to conjoin all twelve stations to produce a single enormous complex, but that was ultimately the plan. The Quarians were the vagrants of the galaxy no more.