Tarquin escorted them about the camp, making sure to introduce them to anyone present. Most of the looks she received were guarded, but when their guide explained that the pair of them had taken out the asari camp on the plains, well, then a few smiles came their way.
After leaving the last room, Tarquin turned to a passage that led further down into the ground. The temperature began to drop slowly, which Amala thought was wonderful after the heat of the day.
"Tarquin, or how should I address you?" Amala asked.
"Tarquin is fine," he said with a nod. "You have a question?"
"I was wondering, some of the areas look natural and others look carved. What is this place?"
"Ah, well, this used to be a historic site. Our ancestors made use of caves that had hot springs in them. It was originally expanded for visitors and most of the rooms have the warmth from the springs piped into them to bring up their temperature. And having said that, I apologize for your quarters."
"Why?"
Tarquin gave a soft cough. "The good news is that you don't have to share it. The bad news is this was the last one that was carved and it lacks the piping of the others, so it will be considerably cooler than the rest of the complex. We did find a couple of blankets for you to use."
"I'm sure we will be fine. Thank you for the tour."
Tarquin gave them a nod and left them staring at the storage room. They set about rearranging some of the crates, opening up a space to put their bedrolls. Without another thought, Amala began to strip off her gear and weapons, followed by her outer armor. When she finished, she looked over to find Garrus was already huddled under his blanket on his bedroll, his gear placed carefully off to one side. The end of his fringe was the only thing poking out from the blanket; it was kind of cute in a weird sort of way. She climbed under her own blanket and prepared to fall asleep. The air was a little chilly and dampish from the earth, but she had slept in worse conditions. She had just started to drift asleep when a voice awoke her.
"Amala," Garrus said in a low whisper.
"Hmm?"
"Can you sleep?"
"Not while I have someone asking me stupid questions," she said with a sleepy chuckle.
"Crap, I'm sorry. It's just so cold. It reminds me of that room that they kept me in. They would lower the temperature until I shivered so hard I could barely stand. In case you haven't figured it out yet, we really don't like the cold."
"Aw, shit. Move your bedroll over next to mine. Hopefully our two blankets will be enough to keep you comfortable. Otherwise I'm sending you up to one of the other rooms to sleep."
There was a rustle from behind her and then he was pressed up alongside her back. It was warmer with two blankets and with another body alongside hers. His arm flailed about as he tried to find a safe spot to put it. Taking pity on him, she snagged it on one of its passes and pulled it down so his arm curved around her midsection.
"That's okay? I'm not, you know, touching anything I shouldn't?" His breath was hot against the back of her neck, which was far more unsettling than an arm draped over her, but there was no way in hell she was going to tell him that.
"You're fine. You warm enough now?"
"Mmm hmm," he sleepily replied as he snuggled in tighter to her body.
No wonder this room was empty and Tarquin was apologizing about it; he knew that Garrus would be miserable here. Oh well, it seemed only fair that he get to drape himself all over her, after all she had done it to him when they couldn't even talk to each other yet. Her lips curved into a smile as she drifted off to sleep.
A slight rocking from the hips behind her slowly woke Amala up. Something firm was rubbing insistently against her ass. 'Wait, that felt like...it feels like Garrus's Mister Happy has made an appearance. Oh, well, they must keep them tucked away for safety. And it seemed similar enough to a human...crap, am I really thinking about this? It's really been too long if I'm contemplating the 'assets' of a sleeping turian.'
Apparently, Garrus was having a lovely dream based on the low noises that accompanied everything else he was doing and she found heat building low in her own body to every little thing he was doing. Fuck, she really needed to get laid. Trying to escape, she gently lifted his arm that was still draped over her and scooted out from under the blankets. He burrowed into the warm spot she had just left without a change in his breathing. But the sound of her donning her armor must have penetrated his sleep, because his eyes popped open.
"Sorry, didn't mean to wake you," she told him.
He stretched for a moment and then it dawned on him what was going on down below on his body. "Crap, I'm sorry. I hope I didn't chase you out of bed."
"Uh, no, it's fine. Human males get that same sort of 'weapons check' in the morning as well."
"Huh? Wait, that's what humans call it? I like that much better than our term," Garrus laughed.
"Oh now, do tell. What do turians call it?" She grinned at him.
He yawned and waited for everything to go back to where it belonged before standing up.
"Hmm, well, the most common ones are 'waking up blue' or 'having a blue morning'."
"Why blue?"
"Hmm, errm, well, our blood is blue, so it tends to be bluish. Why? What color do humans have?"
"It varies, depends on the guy's skin tone."
Now Amala was really intrigued. Blue...really? And her mind kept drifting back to that offer of his from the other day.
Garrus gave her a cocky grin as he started to get his armor back on. "So, yeah, how does my 'weapon' rate?"
Amala spluttered as she struggled to form a coherent response. "Uh, seemed uh, normal."
That cocky bastard, now she was going to be thinking about that all day, and shit, that was probably his plan. She was saved from any further embarrassment by the arrival of Tarquin.
"Commander, Vakarian. Good, you both are up already. My father would like to see you. Please follow me," he said with a small bow of his head.
Amala and Garrus quickly finished their preparations and followed the other turian back towards what must have been their war room, complete with QEC now. The Primarch was going over reports with several other turians when they arrived.
He turned towards them upon their arrival. "Commander, Vakarian. It appears the asari have deigned to leave the safety of the shade to discover what happened to their outpost. One of my scouts has informed me that they appear to be following your trail. I need you to lead them away from here."
"Understood," Amala said with a nod. "But we will try and do better than that; we will try and eliminate them."
Victus shook his head. "They have a gunship for air support."
"I can handle it; I know how to deal with them."
"The Cain?" Garrus asked hopefully.
"No, sniper rifles will get the job done."
"Do whatever you can," Victus said. One talon gestured to a turian in combat gear. "Sidonis, take them to where you spotted the patrol. Tarquin, go as their runner in case the situation changes."
The two turians saluted the Primarch and turned towards Amala and Garrus. The one called Sidonis was a similar color to Garrus and he motioned for them to follow them.
"How many besides the gunship?" Amala asked.
"Six, they were still on the plains when I spotted them and I got back here as fast as I could."
"Any good spots to set up near them?"
Sidonis stopped for a moment. "Only one, really. Can you really take out a gunship with a rifle?"
"It's more of can you hit it where the ship is vulnerable," Amala answered. "The stabilizer fins are its weak spot. Aiming for that joint is a bitch of a shot, but if you hit it, then the ship will careen out of control."
"You've done this before?" Garrus asked.
"Yes."
"Right then. I'll take you to where you can set up," Sidonis said.
Amala placed her helmet on before leaving the safety of the camp. The sun was just beginning its climb into the sky. They jogged along as fast as they dared, speed warring with the need for stealth. The hillock that Sidonis led them to wasn't ideal, but it was better than nothing. She could see the gunship, darting around as it covered the ground squad as they moved towards the forest. The angle of their approach, however, made a joint shot impossible.
"Garrus, Sidonis, can you two distract them? I need the ship to change its angle by about twenty-five degrees away from me. Be careful though, this isn't a suicide mission. Once it's down, then we work on taking out the squad. If we are lucky, the ship will crash into a few of them at least."
"Luck hasn't exactly been with us," Sidonis remarked dryly.
"Well then, consider me your good luck charm. With a fucking big gun," Amala said with a grin.
"We'll get you the shot," Garrus said.
"Like I said, no heroics. Just get them to shift towards you. Start shooting after I down the ship. If things go sideways, warn the Primarch, Tarquin. I'd like us all to walk away from this."
Sidonis and Garrus crept away to set up in a new spot. Amala turned on her translation program on her omni-tool.
"Why didn't you have it running before?" Tarquin asked.
"I figured you guys would accept it better coming from one of your own."
"Yes, you are probably correct."
They didn't have long to wait before the patrol must have spotted Garrus and Sidonis. The gunship shifted direction as it tracked the two turians. Amala quickly found the weak spot in her scope, tracked it for a breath then two, and finally pulled the trigger. The rapport of the rifle cracked across the area. The airship began to spin wildly as the pilot tried to compensate for the loss of one of the fins. The ship plowed into the ground, turning into a crumpled pile of metal.
Amala now turned her scope towards the ground squad and began firing at them. The barriers the asari had erected around them deflected the first few shots harmlessly, but eventually the heavy hitting gun stripped it away. Now when she targeted one in her scopes, they dropped. Garrus and Sidonis, on the other side of the squad, opened fire on them as well. Not seeing any more movement, Amala and Tarquin left the hill to join the other two.
Garrus and Sidonis were already checking the bodies by the time Amala and Tarquin got there. Tarquin and Sidonis picked through the area, looking for any useable weapons they could find. Garrus toed a body and a sound of distress came from it.
"Got a live one here, Amala. What do you want to do with it?" Garrus called out.
Amala walked over to where Garrus was and rolled the body over. She pulled the helmet off to find an asari staring up at her. The asari's brow crinkled as she took in that it wasn't a turian that had moved her. Amala took her helmet off for a moment, allowing the asari to see her fully.
A gasp escaped her. "You're Shepard. I surrender-"
Amala gave a hard and brittle laugh before she put her helmet back on. "Good, you know who I am. Then you also know my reputation."
"By Council treaty-"
"Like I give a damn! Council law dictated that you not do what you did here. You've waged an illegal war, selling these people into slavery and killing them without thought. You are no better than the scum I regularly execute. Don't worry, I'll show you the same mercy I do all slavers," Amala growled out.
"Hold her down."
Garrus and Sidonis quickly pinned each of her arms. Amala drew her combat knife and sliced through the asari's suit on her arms, looking for the telltale bump of an omni-tool implant. Finding it, she drew her knife alongside it. The asari gave a guttural scream at this new pain. Amala pulled the implant out, wiping the blood off on the asari before pocketing the device. She drew her pistol and shot her cleanly between the eyes.
"Why didn't you kill her first?" Tarquin asked.
"Military and mercenary groups typically use a protocol on them so that if they die their tools reset back to factory settings and any data on them is lost. She had to be alive in order to extract the tool without losing its data."
Sidonis straightened up and he gave Amala a smile. "Well, it was a pleasure working with you, Commander. By the way, I'm Sergeant Lantar Sidonis. Feel free to request me if you need another man for a mission."
"Thank you. You can call me Shepard. Let's hope there is something good on this thing. Now shall we head back and tell the Primarch the good news?"
Lantar and Tarquin took the lead, Garrus and Amala following behind them.
"Okay, next gunship I want a crack at it," Garrus said.
"The Viper doesn't have the strength or the range for it."
"That just means I get a shot at using your rifle." Garrus's mandibles flared wide in a grin.
"Ha! I let you use my Widow and I'll have a bitch of a time prying it back out of your hands."
"I'll let you use my gun," he purred at her, still grinning.
Amala's mouth gaped and then she grinned back at him. "How do I know it has the range I'm used to?"
"Guess you have to test it out."
Tarquin glanced over at Lantar. "Spirits save us, is that how they flirt?"
Lantar chuckled. "Soldiers usually have the worst pick up lines, but I think these two take it to an art form."
~And I'm back! A great big thanks to Mordinette, you're an awesome beta! And a big thank you to the readers for all your support!~