From Casbin with Love
So much for having a decently written chapter full of adventure and excitement...
and plot...
D: Notes? What is this I don't even…
Shepard revved the Mako's engine, her lips puckered with annoyance. The vehicle didn't so much as move.
Well... a little.
The wheels were spinning. And the vehicle shifted to the right a bit. It was better than... well, no, it wasn't. The Mako seemed content to stay put. Greenish-brown muck sprayed from the aft and center wheels. Both front wheels did nothing and the HUD only flashed at her. Lenny, the VI, spat out some nonsense but she hit the mute before hitting the accelerator once again.
And going nowhere.
Rather quickly, one could add.
Gah!
She shot a frustrated look at Kaidan. He only stared back at her, just as displeased and flummoxed with the situation as she was.
"Well, this was...unexpected," Garrus commented from his seat at the weapons station behind Kaidan. The turian's flanging vocal chords sounded just as confused as Kaidan felt.
Shepard shifted in her seat to get a good look out the port side window. "Are we," she asked, a faint thread of hysteria in her voice, "Are we sinking?"
"Negative, Commander," Kaidan was quick to reassure her. He was just as relieved with that prospect as his commanding officer. It had been the first thing he checked. "Just stuck." On Casbin. In the middle of an Op that, thus far, was nothing but one big clusterfuck.
He gazed out the view port at the planetscape before them. The star Hong was slowly creeping to the horizon, casting Casbin's orange and green sky with reds, pinks and shadows of violet against the wisps of clouds. Without oxygen to refract the star's light, there were no true blues anywhere to be seen.
Shepard gave a sigh that was crossed between sounding indignant and exasperated. "We're stuck." She definitely sounded indignant. "With six-wheel drive."
"Actually, we're down to three," Kaidan told her before he could stop himself. The look the Commander threw him made him want to get out into the muck and run. The biotic was glad she didn't pull her pistol on him. He gave her a sheepish grin.
Frustrated, Shepard smacked her palm on the dash. "This isn't happening," she stated, eerily calm. "We are not in the middle of enemy territory stuck in-" Here she leaned forward to get a good look at what, Kaidan wasn't sure, and her lips pulled into a larger frown- "in primordial soup with only three goddamned functioning wheels."
Kaidan would have laughed at the situation had it been anyone else. He looked at the display in front of him. They had two hundred meters to go to get the geth outpost. It was just over the ridge. And they were stuck at the bottom. Of course, had Shepard not flown over the last ridge—in a vehicle that was not made to fly—they would still have six wheel drive and not have buried the tires trying to get out. But he valued his career and his life enough not to point that out to her.
He and Shepard were the only humans in the Mako. He and Shepard hadn't been told that the marine fire team members weren't artillery trained. All the scenarios that he, Garrus and Shepard had run—and wasted valuable time running—were absolutely useless to them now. Shepard had Joker drop the team of four at the crash site in mountains to the West of their location. The team leader, Operations Chief Naomi Noble, had landed wrong and broken her ankle and was currently out of commission.
The infantry team was greener than... well... Could their luck get any worse?
"Commander," Joker's voice interrupted Kaidan's thoughts, and Kaidan physically cringed. Please let this be good news. "The Scorpions just radioed in. They've found a geth listening post just north of your position. They're taking it out, but they're under heavy fire."
"Any casualties?"
"No, ma'am," he assured her. "Not yet, anyway. Gunnery Chief Carpenter says Precious is holding up against the armatures. They're taking out the transmitters and then heading to the crash site to pick up the other team." He was quiet a moment. "Ah, Marines," he said casually, "Muscles are Required, Intelligence Not Essential. Who the hell names a tank Precious? You'd think-"
"If Carpenter has a big enough gun, she can kill you at one thousand meters," Shepard told him, her fingers flicking over the panel, routing more power to the power train from the reactor.
Joker laughed. "My gun is so much bigger right now. Orbital bombardment, anyone?"
"Radio silence, Moreau," Shepard told him irritably.
He was silent again while she tried firing up the mass effect generator. Casbin's primordial goo had managed to clog all but one of the vehicles thrusters. The Mako nearly tilted on its side.
"SCABA," she told them, almost pouting. "We may have to walk to the outpost." As everyone but Tali pulled on their helmets and pressurized their hardsuits, Shepard tried the thrusters and revving the engine, but only managed to jostle everyone around.
"Well, this is exciting," Wrex commented, his deep voice dripping with heavy sarcasm. "Squishing bacteria for fun and profit..." he trailed off. "Geth gunship in bound, Shepard. We're sitting pyjaks out here."
"Pyjaks?" Garrus asked as he called up his heads-up display. "Those cute little primates on Tuchanka?"
Wrex guffawed. "Tasty," was all he said. Garrus shut up. Kaidan didn't want to picture Wrex chomping down on a monkey, but- Oh, great. There it was. And the image wasn't going away even as he tracked the geth ship and locked in the sites for Garrus and the others to fire. He resolved to picture something else.
Shepard naked, his brain supplied unhelpfully. He gave a sigh, shifting his seat. Not helping.
"How far to the outpost?" Tali inquired.
Kaidan pointed in the general direction. "Just over that rise." He was glad for the distraction, but Shepard was looking at him peculiarly. Surely, he hadn't been undressing her with his eyes. Not on the battlefield.
"Gunship is in range," Garrus said.
"Take it out," Shepard ordered.
Garrus did as told, the main gun reverberating against their ears and knocking the Mako back a ways. The mass accelerated shell nicked the geth ship's shields. Wrex and Tali alternatively fired the secondary automatics while Garrus reloaded the main gun. Shepard tried to get the Mako unstuck again and failed. She swore colorfully. It had almost been as colorful as Joker's comment earlier that day. Kaidan routed system after system to keep the kinetic shields operating while the geth ship fired their plasma based weapons.
Garrus fired again, the shell hitting its mark. The gunship exploded into a fireball.
Naturally, it was now falling toward them. Not like there was any other direction it could have fallen. Just to give them a break.
"Out!" Shepard ordered, popping the hatches. "Move!"
The crew of five scrambled to get out of the Mako, barely avoiding the blast as the larger geth gunship collided with their tank. Kaidan strengthened his shields with his biotics as debris rained down. Casbin's oxygen-free atmosphere snuffed out most of the flames quickly.
"Commander!" Joker's concerned voice pelted Kaidan's ears.
"Lost the Mako," Shepard reported. "Heading to the outpost on foot. Pick up the fire teams at the crash site once they've secured their location."
"Aye, aye, ma'am."
Lying on his belly in proto-lichen, Kaidan handed the binoculars back to Shepard, who used them to peer down at the strange out post.
"Five sentry stations," he said with a shake of his head. The team was stretched on their bellies beside him.
"What is this?" Shepard wondered aloud. The outpost itself appeared to be nothing more than five sentry stations surrounded by a fence and two flower petal-shaped objects. From this distance, the geth patrolling beneath the sentry spires looked like white lice against the green and brown moss-covered ground. Their darker counterparts were stationed in the spires above them.
"The hubs there," Tali supplied, "are the main nodes. Taking those out should disrupt the 'thoughts' of the geth long enough to destroy them all. There's not much here though. This could be the secondary base."
Shepard nodded. "This means that Snake's team-"
"Got all the damned fun," Wrex grumbled.
The Commander laughed. "All we need is a thresher nest and our day will be complete."
"One can only hope, Shepard," Tali commented drily.
"Huh. Little quarian has a quad after all," Wrex said approvingly.
Tali cocked her head at Wrex. "I don't think I want to know what that means," she said uneasily. "Or if it was a compliment."
"Coming from a krogan it's a compliment," Garrus said. "But, yeah. You don't want to know."
Wrex snorted at them.
Shepard was already crawling away. "Garrus, take out the geth on the towers. Wrex, Tali," she looked at each of them in turn as she unclipped her sniper rifle and handed it off to Kaidan, "you're with me. Alenko and Garrus, keep them off our backs while we set the charges."
Garrus' rifle cracked three times before it overheated. Kaidan managed to get the other two and one white armored geth who was patrolling near the gate. His rifle was smoking when he finished.
"Good shots," Garrus complimented. "Didn't think you could do that."
Kaidan had no idea how to answer the turian. Was that a compliment or an insult?
Shepard palmed an explosive from the case on her leg wishing she had brought one of her marines on this assignment. Williams had a cracked rib, so she was out. Even with the gene-mods, ribs took a few weeks to mend. A hundred years ago it would have taken months. She shuddered at that thought. To be out of action for that long would be a nightmare. They didn't have that much time to waste. Not with the geth and Saren.
Still, she regretted not bringing one of the others. She trusted Kaidan to watch their backs. He was an expert marksman, but preferred pistols to rifles. She didn't like only having two snipers—with both at the same position—while her team pranced around setting explosives.
The Commander mentally shook herself as she moved into position. She'd never pranced anywhere, and she was sure as hell Wrex had never either. Tali? Bounding and excitable, yes, but not a prancer. Shepard didn't keep company with anyone who pranced.
Udina? Probably.
Figures.
Peering over a boulder, she signaled Tali and Wrex to take up positions. Wrex would provide covering fire to make up for the lack of an extra sniper.
Time to blow shit up.
She'd never admit it, but explosions gave her a thrill. Who needed to hack anything when it was easier to blow it to Kingdom Come? Gerry always—she quickly cut her line of thought. Thinking about Guthmiller wasn't productive. She hadn't thought about the man in years and she wasn't about to start now that-
She focused on Alenko. A subordinate. One she had gotten to know and trust.
And had handed her rifle to as though it were second nature...
Shepard attached the charge to the nearest geth structure, careful to avoid line of site with any of the meandering patrols shaking her head to clear it of thoughts of Kaidan. Now was not the time. Guthmiller had been the only other man she had ever trusted enough to hand off her weapon to. She knew that she would get it back in the same working order as she kept it.
Kaidan took care of his equipment. That was why. That was the only reason. Liking him had nothing to do with it. Hormones didn't have anything to do with either.
No.
She shook her head again and primed the charge before moving slowly to the next location and placing another charge in an inconspicuous area that she thought might do the most damage.
"I've been spotted!" Wrex's gruff voice hollered in her ear just before the sound of his shot gun echoed off the ravine walls.
"Tali, how many have you placed?"
"Only two!"
"That'll have to work. Move out. Garrus, Kaidan, open fire!" She pulled out her shotgun, charging her biotic shield as she did so.
Joker was biting his nails.
Ash found it amusing—disturbing, but amusing. Not that she paid attention to the helmsman's idiosyncrasies. No. Because she didn't. Except when she got stuck on his team when they played Rook and she had to force herself to pay attention to his little tells. She hated being his partner. He was so hard to read. Probably why they lost so much. Not like when he played on Hendricks' team and the two helmsmen beat the shit out her team because the two of them knew each other so well.
"Stop staring at me, Williams," Joker said startling her.
She turned back to the weapons station. "Who says I was?"
"You just did, Doll."
"Stop biting your nails."
He twisted around in his seat, gave her an indecipherable look and then his expression morphed into... relief? Damn he was so hard to read.
"Okay, what was that look for?" she asked.
He shrugged, turning back around in his seat, calling up a screen. "Making sure my mom hadn't suddenly appeared on the bridge." He gestured with his hands. "Poof!" Joker's voice raised an octave, mockingly, "'Hi, Jeff, sweetie! Stop biting your nails, dear. They might get caught in your esophagus. We don't need another trip to the doctor this week.'" He shuddered.
Oh, no, he didn't. Did he-? Ash's nostrils flared. The sudden anger that was there was muted when Ash gazed down at her badly bitten fingernails. She frowned, holding her hand up, looking at her nails. "Great, so not only am I my mother," she commented dryly, "I'm yours too."
"That's a form of inbreeding that I really don't want to hear about, Ashley," he told her.
She laughed and grinned cheekily, realizing how it had sounded. "You and me both."
He cleared his throat, looking around the bare bridge. It was just he two of them, he at the helm and Ashley at the weapons station behind him. The new schedule was totally screwed.
"'Two children in two neighbor villages,'" he began, sounding a bit unsure, "'Playing mad pranks along the healthy leas.'"
Ash blinked in disbelief. Did Joker just quote Tennyson? Circumstance. Really? Could the day get any weirder?
An alarm blared at Joker's station. "Oh, shit!" he cried, his fingers calling up monitors and screens of different sizes. "Commander?"
"Lost the Mako," Shepard's voice came over the comm. She sounded as though she were just giving information about the weather albeit a little pissed that she were standing in the rain. "Heading to the outpost on foot."
"What the shit?" Joker blurted.
"Pick up the fire teams at the crash site once they've secured their location."
"Aye, aye, ma'am," he confirmed as his fingers danced over the controls before him. "Lieutenant Marquez, what's your twenty?"
"Joker, either call me Snake or pronounce my name right," the N bit back.
Joker groaned at the comm. "Oh, I'm sorry." He clearly was not. "I mistook you for a subordinate, Marquez." He made no effort to change the pronunciation. "Commander Shepard ordered me to pick you and the other team up at the crash site once you secured it. Repeat: What's your twenty?"
The comm was silent.
"Snake says we'll radio you once we've secured the site," Carpenter's voice came over the comm. "Sir."
Joker cackled and Ash looked at him as if he'd grown a new head. "I've just signed my death certificate," he complained. "Think the Commander will notice if we bomb them from orbit?"