Vulnerabilities
The next few chapters will feature liberties taken with UNC: Geth Incursions.
Kaidan honestly thought Williams was only going to hug him. She was ecstatic to be alive and a little breathless about it. A hug he could have dealt with. She'd almost died. And he'd had to pull a stunt that he'd never really mastered to begin with.
The sound of Williams' fearful scream and the image of her limp body slamming into the Normandy's hull still irritated the back of his mind. That her armor had protected her from any major broken bones was a miracle. And if the Normandy hadn't been in just the right place…
But she didn't hug him there in the airlock as D-Con hissed around them, stung the exposed flesh on their faces.
"Please, please, don't write me up." Williams' hands, one of which held her helmet, wound around his neck. She looked up at him, uncertain a moment, her expression bleak. Then she leaned in, up on her toes to reach him, planting her mouth on his, surprising the hell out of him.
Her lips were warm, dry and… inviting. He tensed even as he groaned, his hands going to her waist to push her away as she deepened the kiss. This wasn't right. This was Ash. But he'd be lying to himself if a small part of him didn't love it.
But sanity took hold just before his baser, male instinct to kiss her back kicked in, and Kaidan moved away. This was Ash. Think, damn it.
They were both breathing heavy. Not good.
His body was reacting. Definitely not good.
Her face was flushed, and he was sure his was too. He summoned his best frown as he repeated regs, regs, regs, not interested, Shepard, turnips, regs in his mind over and over again.
"I'm sorry," she whispered, looking away, her lower lip quivering. "I—" She pushed back a wayward strand of dark hair and paced away from him, hugging herself, the helmet in her hand creaking against the pressure of her grip.
Stroking his chin, he regarded her carefully, foregoing all effort to frown at her. Kaidan evaluated her as professionally as he could, forcing his control. Ash was shaking, her breathing shallow. The pupils of her dark brown eyes were dilated and haunted. The flush was subsiding. She would glance away whenever he tried to meet her eyes. They'd almost lost her. He had almost lost her.
It was difficult to concentrate. He'd had to force his nervous system to respond to commands he hadn't done in years. And he knew he would pay for it later. He was mentally and physically exhausted because of it. A dull ache behind his eyes had already begun.
"Adrenaline makes you do strange things, Chief," he told her, well aware of the fact that her first combat experience had been Eden Prime and then there had been those few fights on the Citadel and Feros. God. Feros. "You're going to see Dr. Chakwas. I think you're going into shock."
She gave a laugh that held no mirth. "Because I kissed a superior officer?" she asked. The Chief looked at him worriedly. "Oh, God, you really are going to write me up, aren't you?" She chewed her lip. Despite all pretenses otherwise, his eyes zeroed in on her mouth, to those lips that had just pressed up against his hungrily.
"I should, you know," he asserted after a moment, determined not to get in a twist over a kiss that meant nothing. At least he had a way out. Williams closed her eyes. "Hand over your gear to Intel and report to the infirmary."
Ash paled. "But—Aye, aye, sir."
The silence that followed was more awkward than the kiss.
The door cycled open and as Kaidan and the Chief stepped onto the deck, Joker's voice echoed off the walls. "Sock's in my locker if you need it, Alenko."
Not helping the awkwardness, Moreau.
Kaidan glared at the helmsman. The look Joker threw Kaidan's way confused the biotic. The Chief and… Joker? Nah. He had credits on Joker and Hendricks. They argued too much like an old married couple to not have anything going on. And according to the paperwork, Joker had specifically requested the woman to play his second.
"Just don't stick it in my bed," Williams grumbled walking on shaky legs towards the bowels of the ship. "Sir."
"Hey, it's my bed, too," Joker argued. Though his voice was light, he was watching the Chief worriedly.
Thankfully, thankfully, the Commander's voice broke into the comm. before the conversation got any more surreal. "Shepard to Normandy."
Kaidan didn't pay attention to the conversation that followed, nor did he walk to the same ladderwell with Williams. He regretted it when she all but fell into his arms on the crew deck.
"She's swooning for you, Kaidan," Joker's voice said in his ear. The Lieutenant only sighed and carried his fellow marine to the infirmary just as he had Shepard when they returned aboard from Eden Prime.
Shepard thought that Alenko had looked like death warmed over. When she'd been briefed on the situation with the asari beacon, she felt damned proud to have him on her crew. She did wonder about Pressly's decision of allowing Williams to accompany the salvage crew on a Walk. The Chief may have been ZeeGee certified, but that didn't mean she was qualified. Shepard didn't blame her though. Intel still had to get back with her on the malfunction-Shepard suspected a faulty clasp on the tether, but Shepard had been with Ashley long enough to know how responsible the younger woman was. And it wasn't like it had been Ashley's fault that she had only been posted groundside.
Or maybe it was. Her scores were too good for only crap postings. Shepard would get it out of the Chief yet.
Shepard had only been back on board the Normandy for thirty minutes. Long enough to fill out a mission report, shower, and get a Sitrep from Alenko with regards to Ashley's current stay in the infirmary. The Chief was suffering from a mild concussion and a broken rib. Shepard's immediate orders hadn't sat well with the Chief, but orders were orders and Ashley had complied.
"Commander, mission reports are away," Joker reported, startling Shepard out of her reverie. She had just settled into her chair at her private terminal with a mug of hot coffee. She blinked and opened her mouth to thank the helmsman.
"Message coming in from the Brass at Arcturus," Joker told her before she had a chance to speak, "coded for your eyes only, Commander. Patching it through."
Brass at Arcturus? FleetCOM? Shepard straightened her shirt and sat at attention. Taking a breath to calm her nerves, she flipped the switch on her personal terminal. The screen shimmered to life, the image of an aging man in admiral's dress appeared. The connection was fuzzy.
"Normandy," he greeted, his tone holding the edge of authority. "Admiral Hackett here."
"Admiral," she responded, her mouth going dry, saluting the image. What was the Commander of Fifth Fleet contacting her for? "Lieutenant Commander Shepard of the Normandy. How can I help you, sir?"
"We were waiting for your latest mission reports in order to pinpoint your location," he explained doing little to actually explain anything. "Good work on Feros, Commander."
The Brass didn't just contact anyone for the hell of it, Spectre or not. She wondered what was going on. She only nodded and waited for an explanation.
"We're getting a marked increase of geth activity in the Skyllian Verge," the Admiral continued. Shepard sucked in a breath. Not another human colony. Hackett's visage looked tense. "Combined with the data you relayed in your mission report from Feros, we sent out surveillance drones."
The Commander leaned forward, her face a tableau of worry. "What did you find out, Admiral?"
He was silent a long moment and Shepard held her breath. "They've set up outposts on four different planets in the Armstrong Cluster," he told her.
Shit. That was well outside the Veil and too damn close to Elysium for her comfort.
"Do we have any idea what they're after?"
"It's hard to say," Hackett said. "They could be just gathering Intel on us. Or maybe they're setting up staging grounds for hit and run attacks on human colonies. A geth hit and run on Elysium would be a devastating blow to colonist morale. Especially in light of the Blitz. Lieutenant Guthmiller's defense of Elysium and the timely arrival of the Agincourt was the only thing that kept the Elysium colonists from panicking.
We sent a team of Ns to the Hong system to investigate the possibilities of invasion and gather more intelligence. We lost contact with the team two days ago. As a result, we're under executive order to initialize Operation: Aggressive Stance."
"Aggressive Stance?" Shepard's posture was rigid.
"We're launching a counter offensive to take out those outposts."
She nodded. "War?"
"Not officially. We're trying to keep this as quiet as possible. Parliament doesn't want this to escalate into something it's not. We have no idea what the enemy is capable of."
"With respect, why have you contacted me, Admiral?"
Hackett was silent a moment, studying her. "We need a ship with stealth capabilities to infiltrate the systems and gather more Intel before we send any more teams in," he said at length. "The Normandy's all we've got."
"You're… taking my ship, sir?"
The Admiral plowed ahead without stopping to answer her question. "The data gathered suggests four outposts. Our infiltration team, lead by Lieutenant Commander Guthmiller, hasn't reported back in. We have no way of knowing how big this incursion is. Or if there are more than four outposts. The drones stopped transmitting data right around the time the team dropped off the ladar."
Guthmiller. The motherfucking Hero of the Blitz. Shepard closed her eyes. God.
"The geth wouldn't hesitate to wipe out the team if the team was spotted," she said quietly.
The Admiral nodded. "We need someone to investigate this, Shepard. Stopping Saren is still your top priority, but you've got experience fighting the geth. You're the logical choice to take these outposts out."
"Sir?"
"We need the best for this operation, Shepard. I need you. I need the Normandy. You're it."
"I'm—" Shepard was momentarily taken aback. "Yes, sir."
"Rendezvous with the SSV Azukizaka in the Attican Beta Cluster. We're transmitting the rendezvous coordinates and all the locations of known geth outposts in the Armstrong Cluster to the Normandy now."
"Who am I reporting to, sir?"
"They're reporting to you, Commander."
"Sir?"
"You're a Spectre, Shepard, but you're still human. We need you. This Op is yours. You'll have two teams at your disposal."
Shepard nodded. Felt a little queasy. The same feeling she had gotten when Nihlus had told her that he had put her name forward as a candidate.
"If push comes to shove, I want my people heading fire teams regardless of rank," she said, "or species."
"That's pushing it, Commander."
"I need people I can depend on, Admiral," Shepard argued, her mind already running tactics and strategy based on Garrus and Alenko's leadership skills. "They wouldn't be on my crew roster if I couldn't depend on them."
"I'll have to clear it with the Chiefs," Hackett told her, "but I should have an answer by the time you get to the rendezvous point. I may have to push your Spectre status up their collective noses."
"Thank you, sir."
"Don't screw this up, Shepard. Hackett out."
The terminal screen went blank and Shepard sat back. The Sole Survivor strikes once again, she thought grimly. She was the only one they could lay blame on, after all.
"Commander," Joker's voice broke into her thoughts, "we've just received an encrypted data packet from FleetCOM."
"Decrypt and have Pressly lay in a course for the coordinates in the Attican Beta Cluster."
"Aw, weren't we just there?" he complained. Shepard huffed at him. "Course set. Vectors are green, Commander. Fuel reserves at thirty percent; heat load at sixty-seven percent. We'll have to stop to refuel and discharge before we can leave the system."
"Noted. Coordinate refuel and discharge with Pressly and Adams," Shepard told him. "Route the rest of the data to my terminal and tell Pressly to gather the Senior Officers and Tali for a mission brief in two hours. Find Lieutenant Alenko and send him to my office to go over scenarios. And let me know when we get to Attican Beta."
"Aye, aye, ma'am."
"Is Ashley feeling better?"
"You'll have to ask Dr. Chakwas, ma'am. I haven't seen her since she got back on board."
"How're you holding up?"
"I—" he hesitated. "I'm good, Commander. Thanks… for asking." He was quiet a moment more before saying, "Alenko's on his way, ma'am."
"Asari poetry?" Ash demanded from her position on the bed in the infirmary. Joker only shrugged, wincing as Dr. Chakwas attached another electrode patch to his leg. "I nearly got killed over asari poetry?"
She was already pissed that she had been reduced to temporary administrative work. That she had been through nearly dying to examine a beacon that had alien poetry was… was…
"There were some paintings too," Gun Dog added, oh so unhelpfully. He shrugged, helping himself to the medi-gel dispenser. Ash wanted to hurt something. The dispenser made a beeping sound. "Hey, Dr. Chakwas, it won't let me have anymore candy."
Chakwas chuckled. "You've been cut off, Charles. No more candy for you."
"Huh? Why?"
The doctor sighed and leveled him with a look.
"I didn't think Hardy would do it, honest!"
She rolled her eyes and asked incredulously, "You didn't think that Corporal Hardy would toss you into the air when you said, 'Hey, Corporal, how far can you throw me?'"
Ash shared a look with Joker, her mood improving somewhat. They would both have fun with this one.