Well I already had this one pretty well edited so I thought I would put it up as well.
I was not expecting to post again so soon though.
Please enjoy
Of course I own none of Bioware's works.
A fresh break
Metals had never really meant anything to Jane, she and her brother had gotten their fair share, but this one, this one was different. She turned the new emblem over and over in her right hand searing every bit of it into the recesses of her mind. Specter. The first human to join their ranks and it was her. When they took the information Tali had given them the council could not ignore that Saren was behind the attack on Eden prime any longer so they had revoked his Specter status. To her surprise though a push was made to give her the title to go after him. The argument had been to send a whole fleet, but in the end they had settled for just her. It was unsettling to think that the council thought she could get the job done when a whole fleet of ships couldn't. That she was so above and beyond the call of what it was to be a solider that she deserved the post. It was a great honor they had said, but she was wondering without speaking allowed if it would turn out to be a curse.
Afterwards when she told her brother about the meeting and what had happened he was overjoyed for her, said they should celebrate. Jane wondered if that was how Matt really felt. Her brother had been in the military just as long, had just as many medals, and had seen just as much action. Why not him instead of her? Matt had just as much hand in bringing in the information on Saren that she did, if anything without him they wouldn't have it at all with how he saved the little Quarian. The sister knew the answer though; it had always been like this, her brother looking after the two of them. They might not be blood related, but that had never made a difference to Matt. All through basic when she slipped up or forgot to do something he was there with a wisecrack or a bigger breach of the code of conduct making himself the center of attention. There was a reason he never took promotion ahead of her and that his file was twice her size. It was not because commendations were piling up either.
Not wanting to wear the insignia just yet she stuffed it into one of her pants pockets and leaned in against the side of the makeshift ring.
"When you said celebrate I thought you meant something like drinks, are you sure about this?" she asked raising a sisterly brow up at Matt who was leaned against the ropes.
Down in the Alliance section of the docking area the guy's drug together a makeshift boxing ring with what they could every Thursday night and who ever wanted to go at it had their chance. Technically it was against regs for such a thing to be going on, but the higher ups tended to look the other way because it was an easier for the Marines to work out their issues, tonight though Matt had just drug his sister down here because he wanted to have some fun.
"This is celebrating Red, gotta blow off some steam every once in a while," he said grinning back down to her while he had his gloves helped onto him. "Tomorrow we ship out and who knows when will be the next chance we will be back. Have to enjoy the off time while I can."
His word cut through her like a knife, she had not told him yet, the orders for her to command the Normandy had come through for her, but Matt was going to be reassigned to the cruiser Orion to lead his own squad of Marines. Something anyone in his shoes would have been excited to hear, Matt on the other hand was going to be upset. Jane wanted to tell him she had just not had the chance yet.
"Matt about tomorrow!" she shouted trying to get over the sound of everyone starting to crowd in and cheer right when the bell was rung.
He just pushed off the ropes and waved a hand at her, it could wait a minute more she guessed. The Marine on the other side had about forty on Matt and looked like he knew how to use it. She was never sure why he picked guys that were always bigger than him. Once they met in the middle of the ring they started to circle like wolves sizing up one another. Matt started with a short jab for little effect only to be countered by one of his opponents own. Her brother easily sidestepped that and started a flurry of punches back in the other direction. The two of them danced around the little ring throwing at one another over and over again while the equally small crowd that had gathered cheered them on.
Jane was offered a drink by one of the men there watching and he looked disappointed when she turned him down. This little corner of the docks was out of sight behind some storage boxes so the sound of the bodies striking one another hardly carried, even the voices of the crowd probably didn't even reach the door. She looked back just in time to see her brother take a vicious body shot to the side that had him reeling back towards the ropes.
Quickly she stepped up and gripped the bottom rope so she could speak loud enough to be heard over the crowd, "Come on Matt put him down I am hungry. I thought you were N7" She might not always agree with what her brother did for fun, but she was not about to stand there and not support him.
Up in the ring Matt shot a glance over his shoulder in the direction of where the voice came then rolled to the right out of the way of a shot that probably would have caught him blind on his left eye. They traded a few more blows back and forth without one seeming to want to give a big blow.
Frustrated she just shook her head and shouted, "Seriously?!"
Matt gritted his teeth digging them into the rubber of the guard he was wearing waiting for his opening. His opponent went for another left hook and he had what he was waiting for. Lifting his right he blocked the strike while in the same motion stepping in so he could smash the heel of his hand into the side of the man's head causing him to slip into a daze for a fraction of a second. That was when the biotic threw his left across the man's cheek bone with a swiftness that surprised his attacker. He had been standing opposite his normal stance the whole fight. Switching back to southpaw on the fly like that allowed him to draw his opponent into a bad combo so that Matt could counter and leave him passed out flat on his back. Panting for breath he turned and leaned against the top rope while the small crowd shouted in a mix of cheers and boos. Grinning ear to ear almost Matt brushed the back of the glove against his lips and shrugged down to his sister.
"Still want to eat something? I saw a good sushi place before coming down here," Matt said through labored breaths.
Climbing down out of the ring Marines came up to him so that they could pat him on the back and shake his hand, but thankfully after a few minutes he was able to get the gloves off and put something on a cut above his right eye.
"How are you going to explain the cut Matt? And you hate sushi." Jane asked arms crossed over her chest sure that her brother tried to get under her skin like this on purpose on a usual bases.
His hair was a mess, all out of place, but with a run of his fingers the short brown hair was standing up in the usual spiky manor that he kept it. For being in a fight he only looked a little worse for wear sweating and turning red in a few places he had taken some shots. On his left shoulder Matt had his military information. Name, blood type, religion, that type of stuff tattooed right onto the skin. It was something most of the N7 did when they graduated, Jane had passed. Across his left breast the only other ink he had was a single word, a name, Shala. Jane had asked about why he got the name in the past and he had told her that it was a bad girlfriend mistake getting it in the first place. Getting rid of the things these days was not nearly as hard as it was back in the day though; she guessed there was more to it than that so she had never pushed it. Other than his bit of ink he had the normal set of scars you would expect from a seasoned solider here and there most prominently one that cut across the left side of his jaw narrowly. It was the biotic amps being put in that she was always reminded of when she saw the straight line scars on his body, down his arms from the neck and down the backs of his legs for placement. Matt still got the headaches, but of what she had read herself it could be a lot worse for him.
"Yeah, but you love the stuff for some strange reason, its uncooked you know? Not rational and we are celebrating so let's head over." Matt got up and drug back on his shirt while he was talking about hating perfectly reasonable food, but it was a conversation they had many times in the past, he was only joking.
"Matt I need to tal-," she tried to get out about the orders for tomorrow just as he wrapped one of his strong arms around her shoulders to be guided towards the door.
"Yeah yeah we can talk on the way come on," he said grinning holding her close.
She could put it off till he had something to eat.
"I am afraid we need you elsewhere son," Anderson said for the third time trying to get through to the kid just what the situation was, "That's just the way it is, not my call I am afraid. If it was up to me I would put you on her boat."
The two of them were standing on the dock where the Normandy was parked and had been for the better part of twenty minutes. When he had arrived to the ship that evening the orders had been there waiting for him just like Jane had said they would be. He couldn't believe this, his sister becomes a Specter and is about to take a ship out to track down possibly the most dangerous person Matt could imagine off hand and they wanted to stick him on a security cruiser on babysitting runs?!
Gritting his teeth Matt couldn't take any more of this political military doublespeak, "Permission to speak freely Sir?"
Anderson let out a sigh, had he not already been doing that? When he had shown Jane the orders she had informed him that it was going to be hard, but she had not said that he would be this insistent.
"Of course Matt."
Turning away from the Captain Matt looked out towards where the barrier kept the vacuum of space from killing all of them then kicked his duffle that had been left there on the dock by his feet.
"You have to figure something out for me Sir, I need to go with her," he tried with a tired sound to his voice and it was not because of the beating he took the past evening, even if his right eye had blackened up nicely he was just frustrated.
Frowning Anderson shook his head, "She will be fine Matt, she can look out for herself you know."
Snapping his attention back to the experienced Captain Matt curbed the first thing that he wanted to say and responded, "That is not what concerns me Captain," he said shaking his own head and looking troubled.
"So what is it?"
Green eyes took in the whole of the side of the Normandy while Matt thought about how he wanted to respond to that. Throughout his career he had followed his sister around, pulling her ass out of fires, and supporting her when she needed it. When they joined up their Father had been against it, he didn't want them dying out in some deep corner of space he guessed, but mom had just chastised him saying it was an honor to serve. She had served since she was eighteen and now she was a Captain just like Anderson was here. Matt had promised his father when he was taken aside just before shipping out that he would keep an eye on his sister and he had. That time on Akuze had been horrible, but and she might not admit it, he had drug her out of that hell storm kicking and screaming. No this was different, when he looked at those letters that spelled out NORMANDY Matt just got a feeling like he needed to stay aboard.
"I….I can't explain it Sir, but I need to be on that boat," Matt said meeting the eyes of the man that he had come to find to be a mentor while he had been under his command. Anderson had seen the wild screw up that was described in his file and he had trusted him, Matt could never thank him enough for that.
"That's a Specter boat now Shepard only specially assigned Alliance personnel and those few specialists your sister deems needed come along," Anderson said never breaking eye contact to the Marine noticing that the sense of determination had an edge to it that was not total about family.
Without thinking the wild kid within Matt reared his head, "Then I resign."
You probably could have dropped a grenade right there on the walkway and neither one of them would have noticed it. Anderson was trying to process what he had just heard and Matt was struggling with if he wanted to take it back, did he mean that?
"Mat-,"
"You heard me," he quickly followed up with.
Matt Shepard joined the military as soon as possible alongside his sister, went through basic with minor incident and was now an N7 officer. When they wanted to augment his biotic abilities with experimental amps he had signed the in case of death waiver without hesitation, he wanted to be the best. There might be only a handful of biotics in the whole of the Alliance that could do what he could on the field. Twelve years, every four signing the reenlistment papers without question.
"Are you sure about this Matt," Anderson asked worry easily showing behind those eyes. He had known he and his sister for some time, had checked up on them while they were in N7 training so that he could be sure that he was going to have first shot at having them for service. No one took pride in serving more than Matt with the exception of his sister.
Hesitantly those green eyes darted away feeling those large block letters that adorned the side of the ship like a force pulling him. Reaching up he tucked his hand in under the duty shirt he was wearing so that he could lift free the dog tags he had worn since the first day of basic up over his head.
"I am certain Sir," he said taking a step forward so that he could extend his hand holding out the tags for his now former Commander. The look in his eyes showed that he was still torn with the decision, but the way he said it made it known that he was not about to back out now.
Calloused fingers took the metal tags from the young biotic's outstretched hand and looked at them. They were just like any other Marines tags, scraped up a bit here and there with ware, but a perfect copy. Still though when he took them from Matt they felt terribly heavy, "Matt Shepard," he started leaving time for himself to be stopped, but when he was not he respectfully kept his subordinates gaze and finished, "You are hereby formally dishonorably discharged from the Alliance Military."
Without reluctance Anderson stepped into a salute that Matt mirrored on his side then it was over. They were no longer brothers in arms, no longer on the same side, but Anderson was not done with him just yet.
The Captain dropped his salute and stuffed the tags into the front pocket on his shirt so that he could step forward and extend a hand to one of the best young officers he had the chance to command.
Matt smiled slightly, an expression that showed his thanks in the moment just taking the offered gesture, "Thank you Sir."
"Don't you Sir me anymore boy," Anderson grinned giving a firm shake getting serious with him one last time, "You ever want these back, you know right where to come for them son." He offered stepping back patting the front of the pocket that now held his military past.
They stood there for a time exchanging a knowing smile. In the end Matt had gotten what he wanted, he always did one way or another, but this time it had cost him dearly.
"If you excuse me there is a Turian with an attitude problem that needs a beating."
"Give him one for me."
"Honored to."
Around him the air filtering system rushed across his form in an attempt to decontaminate the airlock of the Normandy. Matt had just picked up his duffle tossed it over his shoulder and stepped inside. This thing always took forever he though, was the Citadel not clean enough? The inner lock finally released the security and slid open hitting him with a rush of air as the inner atmosphere pressurized the lock. Jane was standing right there in her uniform and she didn't look happy.
"How could you do that!" Jane shouted already starting off at a level that Matt was certain the few down in engineering were going to be able to hear.
Suddenly he was not sure he wanted to step out of the airlock after all. His sister was red in the face and her equally red locks were all falling out of the braid she kept them in while on duty. If the anger was not directed at him Matt might have thought that she looked funny, not right this second though.
"They were not going to let me aboard Jane," he said letting out a sigh knowing that it was not going to be enough to get her off of his back. Matt tried to look away from her and adjust the strap on his pack, but he found himself unable to get out from under those furious blue hues.
"Stop following me around Matt this is just like the last time you trashed a promotion. I gave you the commendation and thought that you would be happy and what did you do? Huh? Do you even remember?!"
Together they both spoke, "burned it." Although each had varying tones to how it was said.
The younger brother, if only slightly he always spoke up about that, reached up and rubbed the back of his neck shaking his head, "It's done Jane."
Jane stepped forward and slammed her hand down on the airlock command button and the inner door slid shut behind her. Face to face she fumed inches from him with a glare he had not seen since they were kids.
"I don't care what you promised our Father I want you to stop, just stop Matt."
Green eyes locked with blue and the younger sibling pressed a pointed index finger into the crisp uniform of the military officer speaking in a near growl now, "Jane this isn't about you. It's not always about you!" he shouted joining her now that he airlock was closed, "It's about this ship," he snarled back at her angry voice she had been using and pointed away past her to where she had come. "It's about this mission. I belong here."
Momentarily she seemed to be trying to figure out why he had suddenly done this, a second later she swung, but she missed. "Is this about the Specter thing? Are you jealous Matt?"
Stepping away out of her personal space Matt grimaced shaking his head at least she sounded like she was starting to calm down, "Jealous? Of what? You know I don't give a shit about stuff like that." No that wasn't it he thought, truthfully he didn't know why himself just yet.
Jane stepped in following the step he had taken back trying to understand. She tried to comfort him with a hand placed on his back resting their understandingly, or the best she could in the confusion. Before she could say anything to try and help figure out his problem though Matt spoke up again.
"I need to be here," he said quietly, almost begging, it was not a voice he had ever heard him use growing up together and Matt would not meet her eye.
It wasn't about Jane, it wasn't about their family, and she wondered if it was even about Saren himself. The Specter looked behind her over to the airlock inner door release and pressed the bright red button that would open it up. This was not over, she wanted to know the truth, she wanted to know why he wanted this so badly, but for now she wouldn't be his sister if she denied his request.
"Welcome aboard," she said gently as if she was holding something fragile in her hands.
Matt slowly turned back around to face her and tried his best to set his jaw adjusting that duffle of his again.
"So we got any leads?" he said clearing his throat trying to change the subject.
Jane turned over her left hand and brought up her Omni tool data so that her brother could see for himself, "A few, but we are going to pick up a scientist that might be connected somehow first."
They both read over the data that was scrolling by until finished, there were a few other choices, but Matt was sure she had picked that one for a reason so he didn't ask. Instead he just read the name aloud then shrugged.
"Dr. Liara T'Soni."
"Have I mentioned Jane that Turians don't much like the heat?" Garrus offered while they finished sliding out of the Mako tank, "Or sitting in the back of tanks? We tend to get car sick."
Matt couldn't help himself and smiled behind his faceplate, he was going to get along with this one. They had only two days transit to get to the volcanic planet and he had spent most of it with a migraine, typical for him from time to time with his amps so he was in the med bay. His sister had passed the time making sure everyone was settling in alright and getting to know the specialist that had come aboard like Garrus. The Turian was a now ex- C-sec officer with a pension of wanting to bend the rules so it was not much of a stretch to see why he and the biotic might get along. From what he said he was a crack shot with the impressive rifle he carried as well, but he had yet to see him use it firsthand.
After the two day stint using FTL travel and the relays they got to Therum. It was a hot planet ongoing major geothermal change with all the volcanic activity about. When their helmsmen Joker had told them that the signal for the expedition site was coming from the base of one of them Matt had thrown up his hands. Seriously? Ashley had wanted to come along with the ground team, but Jane wanted to know a bit of what her specialist could take so Garrus had come with. After dropping in the heavy Mako tank they had endured his sister's terrible driving skills for a good couple miles because the gas made it impossible to land any closer. Matt had not the chance to say it, but he felt a car sick like the Turian.
Jane was leading them up a slope towards the mining facility that was there target, evidently they had come across some ruins, phoned home, and this archeologist had come out. This Dr. T'Soni.
"Next time we have an away mission I will make sure it's on a nicer planet Garrus, just for you," Jane called back the sound of her sarcastic tone clearly heard over their helmet communicators.
A couple minutes later they made it to the mining complex, nothing special, some heavy equipment, pop up shelters and that's about it. There were a few light mechs, currently dormant sitting near the entrance to the mine. Security Matt guessed.
"Shouldn't there be more people around?" Matt asked once they made it over to the large reinforced door that led down into the mines. So far they had not made contact with anything so he left his pistol at his side, Jane and Garrus both had their rifles out at the ready though.
Jane messed with the panel, that controlled the large door, for a couple second before becoming frustrated and smacking it with the palm of her hand. Behind her Garrus and Matt shared a look and tried not to laugh.
Garrus stepped up and gently pushed her aside, "Let me take a look, these things always freeze up when they get a bit of dust in them."
This was funny because there was a perpetual stream of the shit flowing around them it felt like in the wind, lucky they had their sealed suits, Matt hated sand.
"Gah…yeah thanks Garrus see if you can get it," Jane stepped away and brought up the mission information on her Omni while her brother watched the eruptions in the distance, "Says here that it's just the doctor and a handful of mechs, pretty risky if you ask me to come out alone to a planet like this."
"Al…most….," Garrus said to himself while twisting a wire," There we go."
The large door opened at a pace that could only be described as slow and revealed a lengthy dark tunnel down into the planet. Looking down into it they would need their flashlights, you couldn't see passed about ten meters. There were lights up above that the lined the tunnel, but it looked like the exposure of time and the sand on the planet had done most of them in; only one every so often was giving off a faint light.
Matt crouched down and lifted a small stone from the ground and stepped up between the other two that were looking down the steep walkway into the mines. With only a bit of effort he tossed the rock over hand down into the shaft listening to the sound as it bounced over and over until coming to a soft landing somewhere below.
Cringing he turned from this glancing from Jane then Garrus so he could ask, "….So…who wants to be the first to go into the creepy ass mine on the deserted planet…?"
Jane hoisted her rifle up to lean against her shoulder with one hand while she considered her options. If they all went down and something happened she doubted that they were going to get their radios out of the dense rock. Someone would have to stay up top to relay anything that might need to be sent back to the Normandy.
"Garrus stick around the door and make sure nothing comes in after us," she ordered motioning Matt to follow her while starting down the tunnel.
Matt hesitated just long enough to hear Garrus wish him luck then he headed in after his sister reaching up to flip on his helmet flashlight to help illuminate the dark walkway. It was a long way down and they were not in any real rush to slip and break their necks so their took it slow. On the way down they passed a few storage boxes that the miners must have been in the process of bringing down into the mine when the discovery. Other than those though their trip down was fairly uneventful, when they started to near the end of the tunnel though they both noticed a faint blue glow coming from around the corner where the shaft turned. Neither one of them said anything about it, weapons were drawn just the same though.
The dig site was large, at least Matt guessed that this would be considered large, with lots of scaffolding they could make their way around on to get places on the upper level and below. All around them there was signs of digging with tools of some kind, be it the miners or this doctor he couldn't be sure. Jane found an elevator that headed down to the ground floor of the dig so they hit the control button and headed down. These lower areas had equipment scattered that looked more like what you might expect a scientist to have. Testing equipment, microscopes, and a large machine that looked like it might be some sort of mining laser. Matt noticed some more dormant security mechs and pointed them out quickly to Jane as they searched the site for signs of life.
They rounded a large outcropping in the mines that revealed some sort of ancient structure built right into the side of the rock. It looked like there were stations that served some sort of function, but it did not look like they were currently powered up. Matt climbed up into the opening first then with a helping hand pulled his sister up behind him. Together they moved into the central chamber that was sort of circular room that rose up many levels above their head. Jane wandered out into the center of the room to check out some computer equipment that had been set up and connected to one of these stations for study, Matt just stowed his pistol and stared up towards the celling that had to be at least several hundred meters up.
"Sure is a lot of equipment left out an unattended, where is this doctor supposed to be?" Matt asked stretching his left arm across his chest idly, "Do we even know what she looks like?"
Down by these running computers his sister looked up from the read out and started, "Yeah about 5'8", blu-" She stopped suddenly and brought her rifle up to point right at him quickly sidestepping out from around the equipment focused intensely, "And in a regulation Asari scientist uniform with a light pistol pointed right at your head Matt."
"Huh?" Matt blinked behind his faceplate and tried to look over his shoulder in the direction that his sister had motioned, but he felt the distinct feel of a metal barrel pressed to the back of his helmet.
"Wh….Who are you?!," this young Asari tried to get out, so nervous that her hand was shaking causing the gun to knock against the helmet of this merc that had just snuck into her dig site, "What are you doing here?"
A second past as Jane made her choice then lowered her gun so it pointed down at her side so she could answer, "My name is Jane Shepard, I am a Specter with the Council. That fellow you have the gun pressed against is Matt."
At the introduction Matt just shrugged his shoulders and gave a small wave with his left hand, but he didn't try and turn, he could feel the clinking of the gun against his helmet. Any quick movements and she was bound to accidently set that thing off.
Gaining some of her nerve now the scientist tried to still the shake in her arm and responded in turn, "I am Dr Liara T'Soni, daughter of Matriarch Benezia and this is my site. What are you doing here?"
"There was an attack on a human colony, Eden Prime, by a council specter, Turian named Saren," Jane said trying to explain why they had just come across the galaxy to find her without startling the girl into venting the back of her brothers helmet. "A recording was found that implicated Saren and another in the attack and an ongoing plot. That other person was Benezia. We got a tip that her daughter was out on some remote planet digging up some Prothean ruins."
Behind him Matt could almost feel the emotions going through the Asari at his sisters words. First they had come down and shocked her, then after explaining why they had come she couldn't believe that her mother was involved in something like that, Liara had not seen her in some time, but she knew enough not to believe that.
"You may have come a long way for nothing Specter Shepard, my mother and I have not been on speaking terms for over a decade," Liara said, "But I won't believe that my mother has the capability to do something like this. She is a pillar of the Asari Matriarchs back on Thessia, I can admit that even if we don't always see eye to eye all the time."
Enough was enough, they were going to get nowhere like this. With his lightning fast reflexes and the years of training he had gone through in the Alliance Matt made his move. Turning quickly he knocked up the wrist that was holding the pistol that was held against him and shoved the elbow of that same arm in the motion into the chest of the scientist. This knocked her off balance and allowed him to step in and throw her to the ground with hands applied in the appropriate places in a classic judo style. The ex-Solider made sure she stayed down by keeling on her chest with one armored knee heavy on her form and his pistol quickly drawn with a free hand to aim down at her.
"Matt stand down!" Jane shouted grabbing at his shoulder after he executed the disarming maneuver, "She isn't a threat."
"You didn't have the handgun pressed to your head Jane, she was shaking like a leaf," the younger sibling said looking back over his shoulder.
Glancing back down Matt assessed the threat. White and tan typical scientist uniform with the emblem show she was a part of one of them major universities on Thessia. Like many Asari her skin had a blue azure tint to it, but with bits of freckles dotting the tops of her cheekbones and across the bridge of her nose. Liara also had markings that looked remarkably like thin human eyebrows framing her cerulean eyes. Her lips were parted trying to catch her breath from the sudden rush of Matt taking her down and her wide eyes showed the clean and present fear that he had thrust upon her.
Those eyes.
Matt was going to say something, but he hesitated lingering on her widened gaze that was darting fearfully between the gun he had pointed at her and the front of his helmet.
"Matt?" Jane asked not sure what her brother was thinking.
Without a word Matt returned the pistol to the holster at his hip and got up from his kneeling position so that he could turn away from the sight of the scientist. She was familiar, like he had seen her somewhere before, but he couldn't place it right now. It just made him uncomfortable like when you had a word stuck on the tip of your tongue.
"Sorry about that T'soni, but you did have a gun pointed at him," Jane tried while reaching down to help the woman up.
Having calmed down from the wind being knocked out of her Liara took the offered hand and got back to her feet then started to dust herself off. Those eyes watched Matt while he walked down over to the computers she had set up to try and break the encryption on the ancient programs the stations ran on.
"I am afraid I am going to have to ask you to come back to my ship Doctor. You may have not spoken to your mother in many years, but there was a Prothean beacon on Eden Prime that seemed to be the objective of his rogue specter. We think that it might be important to what they are planning, but we cannot make out what the beacon meant." Jane said hopeful that they had not come across the galaxy for nothing. "From what we were told you are the Asari to talk to on the subject. It put some sort of vision in my brother's head."
Jane motioned down to the other squad mate that was lingering by the computers as if to help explain her point.
The Asari furrowed her brows together and looked as well. Was it even possible for a human to access Prothean tech like that? She couldn't be sure.
"You found a working beacon? That is very rare, I would like very much to see it if I could," Liara said now switching over to her intellectual mode forgetting the past few minutes.
"No luck on that I am afrai-" his sister tried to explain as the radio com in their helmets kicked up.
"Shepard can you hear me?" It was Garrus up by the entrance.
Jane turned away from the both of them raising her left hand to the side of her helmet so that she might hear more clearly. Matt dropped a bit of wiring that he had been looking at inside of one of the exposed panels of the structure and came over. Beside him he tossed a look towards the scientist, but he didn't say anything to her.
"Go ahead Garrus."
"Joker just called down; there is a Geth ship incoming, a transport class by the looks of it."
Jane swore under her breath and looked over at Matt in silent command to get ready, "Garrus get back to the Mako and see if you can discourage them from putting down. Get joker on his way to pick us up plus one."
Without pause the Turians voice came back over the com, broken up by labored breaths, he had already been on his way back to the tank expecting the order, "They won't put down Shepard, I got your back. Just get out of there."
Cutting of the radio com Jane turned back to the two of them and motioned towards the elevator, "Let's get the hell out of here before the Geth get in here."
"No arguments there," Matt said rushing past the both of the women heading out to get the elevator going.
Gah the thing was tediously slow, or maybe it just felt like that because they were in a hurry. When the door opened though the whole cavern shook like someone had just taken a hammer to the top of it a few times and all hell broke loose. All around them rocks started to shift and fall from the ceiling of the cave. The three of them still had to traverse the scaffolding walkways and make it up the main mineshaft to the surface.
No one said anything they just ran, it was a life and death situation if there ever was one. Either the Asari scientist was in better shape than Matt had guessed or the adrenaline was helping her keep up with the two soldiers. They dodged falling rubble, leapt over openings in the scaffolding, and rounded that last corner that opened up to the mineshaft. Only one problem.
At point Matt made a snap decision and dove digging deep within his reserves to pull the full brunt of his biotics to life. The whole of his form flared a bright almost white color instead of blue with the strength he was bringing to bare, but he would need every ounce of it. He had been out front; he had seen the large chunk of rock start to fall above the opening that was their only freedom so he recklessly moved to stop it. From on his back in the doorway he pushed up with his biotics and caught the incredible weight instantly feeling like he was going to drop it.
"GO!" he shouted over the sound of the place coming down around them, he couldn't hold it long.
On either side two shadows passed through his tunneled vision locked only on the rock above him. Not able to hold it a second later his arms dropped and because of the effort exerted he blacked out.
About an hour later in the quiet of the med bay the specialist jolted awoke. Matt sat up quickly gasping for breath like he had been having a nightmare. Beside him Chakwas set a hand on his shoulder trying to get him to calm down.
"Easy their Matt," she said softly.
Quickly he realized the worst had not happened and relented to lying back onto one of the soft beds there in the med bay.
"No offense Doc, but I thought this place was supposed to be sunny," Matt said sarcastically looking up at her with a slight grin, "All I see are metal bulkheads."
Jane stepped into view, already changed back into her shipboard regs and leaned against the bed looking down at him.
"You are a crazy son of a bitch you know what?"
She was smiling though; they were both glad he had made it.
"Watch your language young lady," Matt teased her trying to lift his right arm to smack her In the shoulder quickly realizing the intense sore feeling coming from not just the muscles in his arm, but in pinpoint places all over him where his amps were located. Wincing he dropped his arm back down to the bed and sighed shifting his eyes over to the Doctor expectantly, "So…that hurts."
Their shipboard doctor had a data pad with what looked like the readouts of some scans she had done on him, but she didn't seem to look that grim so it couldn't be terrible news Matt guessed.
"You overstressed the amps, not a horrible thing, but the muscle around them will need time to recover and it will quite a bit painful while their do," She said turning the pad around so that he could see the picture of one of the amps, one in his arm, and the darkened spots around it in the muscle where the pain was coming from.
Nodding Matt looked back to his sister and asked, "So what happened down there?"
She crossed her arms over her chest and answered, "Garrus said he got back to the tank and started firing on the drop ship, true to his word they didn't get the chance to land any units. Maybe we should let him drive from now on." Jane was aggravated with how much her brothers expression showed he agreed with that sentiment. "Since they couldn't land they took a couple pot shots at the mining facility, Liara says that the area was already very unstable and that something like that easily could have caused the site to come crumbling down around us like it did."
Matt winced when he tried to shift a bit on the bed; it was going to be a long couple of days, "So the doctor made it out then? Get any information out of her yet?"
Jane nodded reaching up to push a rebel strand of red hair that had come loose like they always did behind her left ear, "yeah, we were talking just a minute ago. She had some general information on the Protheans that she shared with me, but like she said I don't think she can really help us much when it comes to her mother. The doctor really does not seem to know anything about what she has been up to in the past ten years. Terrible family life from the sound of it." That was when his sister stopped and considered what she was going to say next. It must have been something hard to get out because of the way her expression had turned to from that of warmth pleased to see that he was going to be alright, to that of a mixed unease. "Now don't just turn this down Matt," oh this was going to be good, "But because of how the beacon showed only you those visions back on Eden Prime we can't exactly go over them with a fine tooth comb."
Cautiously Matt answered, "And…"
"Liara suggested that we try a meld," Jane said evenly then quickly finished, "A shallow one of course, so that she might be able to get a handle on what it was you saw from the beacon."
Matt grit his teeth together and shook his head, "Absolutely not."