Sting Like a Scorpion
Notes and Notices: I'm really unsure about the new characters I'm introducing for the geth incursions. If I've made them too MarySue-ish, please do not hesitate to voice your opinion! MarySues are the devil and must be neutralized.
Ranting aside, thank you, everyone, who has added this thing to their alerts and/or faved. I have no idea what you see in this thing, but it makes my day. :3
Shepard fought hard to keep the shaking from showing in her hands. Swallowing the lump in her throat she pressed both hands over her eyes as if they burned with weariness. Now was not the time to feel empty and drained. Not with a rogue Spectre on the run, the geth in the Skyllian Verge, and an Op with very little Intel to execute.
No pressure.
Gerald Guthmiller was probably dead. The thought did not sit well with her. He was the best damn Infiltrator she had ever met. Long days at the range and discussing the intricacies of hacking a terminal came back to her unbidden. He had once told her she hacked like a girl. She'd kneed him in the crotch for it. Two weeks later they were spending all their free time having sex together. Damn, but the man could curl her toes.
The memories brought a wry, twisted smile to her face. There were missions in between the sex—the Op in the Caleston Rift, the mission on Dobrovolski, the clusterfuck on Yandoa. There were even a few dates in between, too—catching the latest Nathan Gold or Alistair Theirin flick, dinner on a refueling station in the middle of nowhere while they waited for their reassigns.
Things hadn't stayed the same, of course. The Skyllian Blitz happened. Shepard's flight had been delayed and—
No regrets.
If Guthmiller's ticket had been punched in the Armstrong Cluster, Shepard didn't know if she would be able to face Guthmiller's wife. But as Op commander, it would be her responsibility to inform the fallen's family members. She'd done it so many times, it should have seemed like putting on an old hat or a well-worn pair of baggy pants. And it was in a way.
If the hat and pants are filled with stinging scorpions and molten lava.
Shepard knew better than to hold out hope that he was alive. You couldn't plan for the worst if you were hoping for the best. It just didn't work that way.
To her relief, her musings were interrupted by Joker. "Commander, we'll be docking with the Azukizaka in three minutes," he informed her. Conversationally, he added, "Glad you know some of the Ns coming aboard."
Curious, Shepard directed her eyes towards the camera in the corner of her office. "Why's that, Joker?"
"Ns make me nervous. It only takes one move out of a bazillion ways to kill a man. You guys shouldn't know so many."
Shepard chuckled as she stood from her desk and tugged her top to straighten it. "Sometimes it comes in handy."
"I smell a story," he proclaimed.
She snorted and countered, "I smell bullshit."
"Then you should watch where you step, ma'am. Commencing docking procedures. Joker out."
Shepard allowed the smile to stay on her face all the way to CIC.
"Relay on Approach," Joker reported over MC1, his voice echoing weirdly from Kaidan's proximity to the helmsman and his announcement over the ship's main comm. "All vectors are green. We are hitting the relay in three. Two. One."
Kaidan gritted his teeth as the relay's mass effect field ignited his nervous system. For a split second his equilibrium told him he was in freefall and then the world began to spin. He hated to be standing when a ship went through a relay. The sensations were not as dramatic when he was sitting down. He forced himself to ignore it and willed his control back focusing his thoughts elsewhere as Joker hailed the SSV Azukizaka.
The planning session between Kaidan, Shepard and Garrus had gone well, Kaidan thought as he waited at the airlock with Pressly. Both stood At Ease, which somewhat bothered Kaidan. Pressly wasn't as big on formality as some of his previous XOs. Pressly rarely, if ever, took up a military stance unless it was to salute Shepard or Captain Anderson. The biotic chalked it up to the older man's nervousness at having a team of six N-rated commandos plus an extra four marines coming on board.
"Logistics nightmare," Pressly finally grumbled when Kaidan pressed the subject.
Kaidan nodded. Even the officers who were normally afforded more comforts like their own racks had to hot bunk in order for everyone to be able to get some kind of rest. He and Pressly had spent the better part of the last six hours trying to figure out a new shift schedule for all the crew now currently assigned to the Normandy. Chief Adams had been assigned two of the Ns. The others had been adjusted to CIC and medical rotations. There was no telling how long this Op was going to last. The Normandy was going to feel crowded and fast. And then there were supply issues. He didn't even want to think about it so he changed the subject.
"Think this is a diversionary tactic, sir?" he asked.
Pressly nodded. "Without a doubt. We still don't have a clue as to what Saren really wants. What the hell is the Conduit anyway?" He shook his head. "The geth are probably already to Sol by now."
"I doubt there's anything at Sol that has to do with the Conduit," Kaidan objected. "We would have already found it by now."
"There are always the pyramids," Pressly said. "The Prothean cache on Mars was definitely pyramid-shaped."
Kaidan shook his head. "Nothing technological has ever been discovered in Egypt, Pressly. Or," he added, "in Central America or South America."
"Skipper on the deck," Fredericks reported with a salute as Shepard walked past him from the ladderwell. Kaidan's eyes followed the sound Shepard's quick footsteps on the deck plates, taking in her form. Damn it if his heart didn't skip a beat at seeing her. It had been doing that a lot lately. If he so much was within the same room as his CO, his concentration and control went right out the airlock. He hoped that no one noticed how tongue-tied he got when she was around or when he was forced to speak with her. At least yesterday, he had been able to focus on mission objectives while running probable scenarios based on Guthmiller's limited intelligence and not the warmth of her body as she had leaned over to point out something on the datapad.
Shepard's odd-colored eyes weren't as weary as they had been the last time he'd seen her. She no longer looked like she was carrying the weight of the galaxy on her shoulders. Kaidan felt some of the tension ease out of his shoulders. Maybe she had only been tired after all.
Docking went smoothly as Shepard came to stand beside him acknowledging both his and Pressly's salutes with a nod. The ship only gave a small shutter as it interlocked with the Azukizaka. It was a testament to Joker's piloting ability. The man knew exactly when to engage the thrusters. In space an object literally stayed in motion until something made it stop or slow or the gravity of a planet was being a bitch. Some ships' helmsmen just stopped all thrusters and let the ship collide with the dock and depended on the ships shields to keep from getting too much damage—which was never really a good idea; there was so much that could go wrong. Joker maneuvered the Normandy into place using all available thrusters at his command coordinating airlock control with Hendricks.
Normandy's VI announced the arrival of the new comers when they boarded and went through D-Con. Two Gunnery Chiefs, an Operations Chief, a Lieutenant and the rest were corporals. No one's rating was higher than an N4. The N fire team was the Scorpions. Kaidan swallowed: Shepard's old fire team. These were heroes. This was the team Shepard had led at Terra Nova. He remembered the look of surprise when Admiral Hackett had contacted her yesterday during their planning session.
"You wanted people you could trust, Shepard," Hackett had told her. "There are only four marines. Your aliens should be able to integrate into the team."
"The Chiefs shit themselves?" she had asked.
Hackett's only response had been a smile.
"Thank you, Admiral."
"Don't screw this up, Shepard. We're counting on you and the Normandy."
"I won't let you down, sir."
Kaidan focused on the present as the airlock cycled open, and he got a good look at the new crew.
The Scorpions' team leader had towered over Shepard by a good eight inches, his solid frame encased in heavy Hahne-Kedar armor with peculiar green and black camo markings. Four red lines were painted over one side of his breastplate nearly hiding his N4 rating.
The man's face was pale gold, his features like granite. He had almond-shaped eyes like green ice that took in everything about the escort team. His face softened immediately upon seeing the Commander, his thin lips parting to reveal straight white teeth.
He turned back and looked at his team. "Gents and bitches," he told them, unable to keep the pride out of his voice, "let me introduce you to the meanest motherfucking bitch you will ever be so lucky to meet."
Kaidan froze, about to open his mouth to protest such disrespect of his commanding officer, but Shepard's neutral face morphed into a grin, and she reached forward and clasped the N in a fierce bear hug, the big man dwarfing the Commander's lithe frame.
"They didn't tell me you'd be on this Op, Snake," she all but crowed, the lines of her face smoothed by the genuine smile on her face. "Thought you'd been reassigned already."
The tall man named Snake grinned back. "When they said the SSV Normandy, I knew we were gonna go kick some ass, boss." He pulled out his rifle, the snap-hiss reverberating against the airlock. "Locked, cocked, loaded and ready to fuck up every geth in sight, ma'am."
Shepard laughed, looked over at Pressly and Kaidan, and then laughed again at the two men's expressions of incredulous disbelief. She indicated them with a quick flick of her wrist. "My XO, Lieutenant Commander Pat Pressly and my ground detail commander, Staff Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko."
Snake saluted. "It's an honor, sirs. Second Lieutenant Andy Ponce Márquez. 'V'rybody calls me 'Snake.'"
"Yeah," another N—a woman—said. "We should'a nicknamed him 'Pussycat.'" She was Shepard's height with spiked platinum blonde hair, tawny brown eyes and dark eyebrows. Her armor was the same make as Snake's and also had four red stripes across her breastplate hiding the N4 rating. She grinned a feral grin, but the smile didn't reach her eyes like a real smile would. There was something… off about her eyes. "You should'a heard him scream when that space snake on Torfan dropped on his shoulders."
"'Torfan?'" Pressly asked, watching the Ns closely, his brown eyes bits of stone.
"Wouldn't know," Shepard said with a shrug, then narrowed her eyes at the woman. "None of us were there. Were we, Carpenter?"
The N named Carpenter shook her head. "Nope," she replied, her features neutral. "Ops all look the same after a while. If you've seen one prefab unit filled with crates in the middle of B-fucking-E, you've seen 'em all." Her generous lips parted into a grin once again. "But he still screamed like a little whiny bitch." She cleared her throat before standing rigidly at attention and snapping off a crisp salute. "Gunnery Chief Lela Carpenter, Infiltrator and Designated Marksman of the Scorpions."
Designated Marksman. Kaidan realized what was wrong with Carpenter's eyes. It took a certain type of individual to be a sniper. The N had probably seen everything there was to see down the barrel of her scope. Her eyes were dead and, by the look of it, had been for quite some time.
"You're his Second?" Shepard asked, an incredulous note in her voice, an eyebrow raised.
Carpenter shrugged. "I'd be his CO if I'd been smart and applied for a commission." She shook her head and shared a look with Snake. "Figured I'd be dead before I got this far up the ranks."
"Internal emission sink engaged. We are running silent," Joker reported as his fingers flicked over the amber control screen in front of him. "ETA to Casbin: twenty-five minutes."
Shepard, looking over the graphic display of the Hong system in front of her, nodded. She and Kaidan were the only ground team crew members in CIC that were fully armored—their Hahne-Kedar hardsuits painted in green camo. Shepard's team would be making the first drop in the Mako in forty minutes. The Scorpions would be dropping at another zone opposite the Mako's location. They would be using the extra Mako—dubbed Precious by Carpenter—that had been loaded in the cargo hold at the Attican Beta refueling depot.
As Kaidan monitored the system for geth comm. frequencies for chatter from his station on the bridge, he could only hope that Guthmiller's team hadn't actually set foot on the planet on purpose. There would be serious political repercussions for humanity if they had. Were Shepard anyone but a Spectre, the whole Op would be illegal. Casbin was a Sanctuary World: the ecosystem of this planet was just beginning to form. The data the Normandy had retrieved from the only functional military surveillance drone in the system indicated that Guthmiller and his team's shuttle had been shot and forced into the upper atmosphere of Casbin. Only a twelve second transmission had been sent, and it was nothing but static. Guthmiller and his team of Ns were more than likely dead. The thought weighed heavily on the entire crew—especially the Ns. No one left behind was the unwritten rule of the Ns.
Guthmiller was the sole reason Elysium was even still standing today. The young N4 had been on shore leave when pirates had attacked the colony. He held them off until reinforcements had arrived several hours later and was awarded the Star of Terra for single-handedly defending the colony. Even Shepard hadn't received that most prestigious award for her defense of Terra Nova. Kaidan suddenly wondered why. She should have. Hell, her whole team should have.
Even with the casualties.
Shepard looked down at Pressly where he stood at the Nav station. "Adjust heading, decimal oh oh six," she ordered.
"Adjusting heading, decimal oh oh six," Pressly repeated with a nod before complying.
"Heading adjusted, decimal oh oh six," Joker confirmed. Shepard called up another display, pushing the previous one out of the way and tapped her finger on a trajectory.
"Comm., patch into the Theshaca network," she said. "Route all entrance and exit vectors to my data pad."
Kaidan repeated her order and complied, calling up the screen to do so and transmitting the codes for download. "All entrance and exit vectors incoming," he told her as his screen filled with data.
"Deploy drone on my mark," Shepard told them and waited several beats as her order was repeated.
"Mark."
"Surveillance drone is aweigh," Joker reported. "Heading oh decimal two five niner."
Shepard shook her head with a frown. "Adjust drone's heading, two decimal five niner."
Joker confirmed the drone's heading change.
An alarm went off on the bridge. "Commander, we've lost two drones at two different locations," Pressly reported. Nervous sweat glistened on his forehead.
Shepard could only nod from her position overlooking CIC. "We're running silent. The drones aren't."
"At least geth ships don't appear to have windows," Kaidan remarked quietly from his station beside Joker.
"Amen to small favors," Hendricks replied. Even she seemed unusually quiet.
The system was crawling with geth. They had already identified three drop ships, four squadrons of fighters and the exit vectors of at least two mother ships. The Normandy was only one frigate. There was only so much they could handle. The ship was quick and silent and could pack quite a punch, but Shepard didn't want to take any unnecessary risks. If things got too hot, she'd pull the plug on the Op and back off for reinforcements. They would have to fall into FTL in order to escape to the nearest relay. Luckily the exit relay was located in the same system as the entrance relay. Going to the next system to get Intel was going to be trickier. Hong was the only system with an exit relay though the cluster itself had two other deactivated relays. No one knew what lay beyond them.
And anyway it wasn't like they would have months of time and hundreds of technicians to turn on the ancient constructs.
As they continued to evade the geth and get a better idea of what they were going to be up against, Kaidan allowed himself to think back to the day before when the Normandy had docked with the SSV Azukizaka and met the two fire teams that would be joining them. One team was a team of Ns, three of whom had previously served with Shepard on various missions. Out of all of them, Shepard was the only one who rated an N7. Kaidan found himself wondering just how many Sevens there were out there.
Kaidan snapped back to the present when another alarm blared.
"We've lost another drone," he reported to Joker who swore colorfully causing Hendricks to chuckle.
"Drone down," Joker relayed to Pressly.
"Was that even anatomically possible?" Kaidan wondered out loud.
"Nope," Williams confirmed as she stepped onto the bridge and leaned over the ensign at the weapons station. She frowned down at her data pad.
Joker looked over at her. "You've… tried it?"
Her lips quirked, casting a sidelong glance at the chief helmsman. "Wouldn't you like to know?"
Joker exchanged a smile with her, then shook his head. "Sounds painful. Gotta be careful. I'm fragile."
Hendricks harrumphed at him. "Fragile, my ass," she said under her breath. Kaidan laughed. Ash arched a brow. Joker looked...sheepish?
Might just win that pool.