"Tali! Blue!"
Tali'Zorah vas Normandy couldn't help laughing as Urdnot Wrex swept her and Liara up in his arms. The asari beside her seemed completely caught off-guard, even letting out an unnatural squeak as the krogan lifted their feet from the ground. It felt like ages since they had seen their friend, so she didn't mind his excitement. Garrus and Kaidan shook hands with Grunt, immediately exchanging jokes about the young krogan staying well-fed. It was strange to see a krogan who was genetically designed to hate turians laughing with one, but it made Tali happy to see how much they had all grown in such a short time.
Apparently, war made everyone reminiscent.
It also made several people realize how close they had come to losing everything. The space above Earth's atmosphere was littered with ship and Reaper debris. Joker tried to avoid it, though anyone near a window could see the remains of the Crucible floating in the planet's orbit. The Prothean weapon had drifted from the damaged Citadel. Darkness covered much of the structure, but they could make out wreckage around it and the gaping hole that was ripped from the metal, spherical walls that covered the origin of the beam. Tali was amazed at the complexity of it, even slightly jealous that she never got the chance to study the technology so many races put together to end the war (Of course, she regretted nothing about staying with the Normandy over the years.). Liara mentioned that they would more than likely gather resources to collect the remains to study Prothean technology further … Tali had a feeling that was mostly the Shadow Broker's plan, though.
Joker maneuvered around metal and rock; dust and ash collected in motionless clouds in space. The quarian woman had to stifle a shocked scream when the forked apex of a Reaper came into view. As the ship pulled away from the remains, however, she saw several of its limbs suspended in space away from the main body. What once appeared to be red lights within the metal workings of the Reaper were now dark. Cruel or not, she was relieved to see a Reaper this way.
Landing was not as challenging as their pilot anticipated. Now from the lack of his talent or the ability of his ship, but Joker worried if there would be anywhere for them to land once they came to London. Gray clouds hung low in the sky, forcing them to fly lower than Joker would have liked. The soft sounds of rain against metal resonated through the Normandy, and slow, billowing clouds came around them again. It took a moment for Tali to realize that it wasn't more clouds, but a combination of dense smoke, ash, and fog. For roughly 30 days now, London had been burning.
Joker went through the proper protocols, requesting permission to land the ship. A faint answer through the static told him to land on the northeastern side of the city, where some docking stations had been cleared. The Normandy dropped down to dock without much trouble, though it was crowded. Ships of all types were grouped together in the station. Tali recognized quarian, turian, human, and krogan ships quickly, taking note of some that she hadn't seen before. Cortez, who was standing beside her, assumed they were ships that landed after the Crucible detonated.
The crew straightened up from their positions after Joker announced a successful landing. No one was completely sure on what to do next, Tali among them. It had been a month since any of them had seen Earth, and the idea of the aftermath was frightening. Who had any idea how many people died, how many were now stranded on this planet or anywhere else? Would everything be chaos, or would some kind of order still be intact? Had rebuilding already begun, or was all of the shock of the war still crippling—
A hand gently touched her shoulder, startling the quarian from her thoughts. Kaidan smiled as she whirled around to see him. She didn't realize she was standing in the middle of the walkway beside the galaxy map.
"Sorry," Tali mumbled, stepping to the side.
Kaidan, however, didn't continue on his way. "You doin' okay?"
"Yes, fine. Just … nervous."
"Nervous?"
"How could you not be? We've been wandering space for 30 days. Who knows what's happened? We could be walking out into a city taken over by flames and … pirates for all we know."
Traynor laughed. "Tali, an Alliance command frequency gave us permission to land here."
"Everyone can sound like an Alliance command frequency. I could sound like an Alliance command frequency."
"Where did this worry-wart side of you suddenly come from?"
Tali paused. "Worry … wart?"
"It's someone who is worried or stressed out about something before they really know what's happening," Kaidan explained the human phrase. He smiled and patted her shoulder again. "Try not to get too freaked out yet, okay? The fact that we were able to land is a really good thing."
"Major, Major Coats of the British Alliance is requesting to come on board," Joker's voice came over the comms. "He says he's met you before."
"Coats was with Anderson our first drop here," Garrus said behind the two of them.
"Oh, I remember," Kaidan nodded. "I'll meet him at the airlock. Thanks, Joker."
Tali and Garrus followed the man without much thought. Of course, they would play the "Alliance business" card at some point, but for now, they would catch as much information as they could. After a few moments, the airlock opened to reveal a man in full armor standing with an impatient expression. He was the same height as Kaidan with slicked back dark hair and almost-gray eyes. Though he looked exhausted, he stood with authority, so Tali had to assume this man was in charge of the area.
"Spectre Alenko, yeah?" he said with a slightly unusual accent, reaching his hand out to greet Kaidan.
"That's correct," Kaidan answered as he shook his hand. "Major Coats?"
"Right. Saw you with Shepard before the last blow-out, I'm glad you all made it."
"You, too. How did your squad end up?"
Coats sighed. "We lost most of our men on the push to the conduit. Calling a retreat got some of them away, but not near enough. That's the risk you take when enlisting, I suppose. Still … damn hard."
"Always is. London isn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be …"
"True, we got lucky. But I think the luckiest one is the one you're here to see."
Kaidan looked slightly surprised. "You know about—?"
"'Bout a month ago, a group of krogan 'commandeered' a human civilian shuttle from this station. The pilot eventually radioed explaining they were headed to the Citadel. Came back safely and without any fight, but they had an extra passenger."
"So Shepard really is here?"
Nodding, Major Coats smiled weakly. "The Commander is here and apparently still kicking. Over on the West End district, at the make-shift hospitals. I'd be happy to escort a group if you like. We'll have to go on foot for most of it, though. West End has majority of our emergency residence, so we don't want to disturb the place with a bunch of sky cars."
After some discussion, Joker, Traynor, and the ship operating crew decided to stay with the Normandy for the time being. They would use the time to double check their systems, and meet with the docking station's supervisor to see if they could be of any use. Kaidan seemed reluctant to leave the ship (Tali had to figure it was because he was the commanding officer), but Traynor assured him that everything would be taken care of.
By the end of it, a group consisting of Kaidan, Liara, Garrus, Tali, James, and Javik followed Major Coats out into the streets of London. Liara had to convince the Prothean to come with them, though Tali could agree with the idea. Each of the group had been out with Shepard on the field at one time or another, fighting beside her. It seemed appropriate that they would go to see her together.
Steady rainfall collected in puddles and streams down the sides of the streets. Tali held an arm out in front of her for a moment, watching the drops travel down her enviro-suit. Fleetingly, she wondered how it felt. She had to guess it was chilly because of the puffs of air coming from her friends' mouths as they traveled. Liara wrapped her arms around herself, looking down at her feet as they walked. Javik looked at the damaged architecture around them with a steely expression. Garrus was in front of her, walking beside Kaidan and Major Coats, with rainwater dripping from the back of his horns. James was beside her, strangely quiet as they went on.
"So how exactly is West End an emergency residence?" Kaidan asked.
"A good majority of the city lost its power, with the Reapers tearing everything apart," Coats explained. "The engineers we have on hand have been working on rebuilding a circuit; West End was the first area they got operational. Most of the hospitals were wrecked or complete rubble, so we cleared out some warehouses and industrial buildings to use as impromptu medical buildings. Thank God for generators."
"There's probably a lot of homeless now," Tali said quietly, looking around at the buildings.
"It could have been a lot worse if the fires kept going. The rain has been a big help, but sometimes we have flare-ups. Only soldiers and able-bodied volunteers have been part of the clean-up. Everyone else has been put into West End to work on organizing supplies and just stay safe. We've had recovery teams go out every day to look for survivors or anyone who needs help."
"Any trouble there?" Kaidan asked. "People tend to get a little crazy when things like this happen …"
Coats laughed. "Well, try going crazy when there's a krogan with a shotgun in front of you. All of the aliens here have been working with the Alliance to keep running as smooth as we can. Far from perfect, but again, it could have been a lot worse."
"Have there been any other shuttles out to search for more survivors in surrounding areas? Or even the Citadel?"
"Three Citadel trips brought back about 250 rescued … Not nearly the number we hoped, but at least it's something. From what they've found, the Citadel's life systems are still intact, so if someone's still up there, there's still a chance they can make it. No crew has been up for a more permanent search, though. The higher-ups still deem it too risky, but I'm hoping we can get some to stay up there for a while, find who they can."
"So all of the people from the Citadel are in West End as well?" Garrus wondered.
"Majority, yeah. Some people have decided to go off on their own, look for family or friends. We can't stop them from walking away. The biggest thing here is to provide what we can while we sort everything out. Once clean-up has made more progress, we plan on getting more of them taken care of: finding their families, trips back to their home worlds, maybe even building homes here. For now, we start small, then work up to the big picture."
The group continued walking through the rain, passing handfuls of people as they went on. Some shoveled in the streets and sidewalks; others helped each other carry large pieces of concrete or metal. Tali noticed a group of teenage humans and younger turians walking from an area, possibly what used to be a shopping complex, with at least three duffel bags each. Though the walls of the area had come down in a twisted gray mess, the kids walked out casually, covered in ash and dirt. A few were even scraped up with trickles of blood going down their cheeks or arms, but most of them smiled. She wondered for a moment if they were going to run off, stealing valuables from the damage, but they trotted over to a woman in Alliance issued armor. Proudly, the teenagers showed her the bags and began talking excitedly.
"What are those kids doing?" she asked curiously.
"They're part of our scavenging team," Coats said with a short laugh. "A lot of the older kids have been getting stir-crazy at the residences, so we offered to let them help find usable supplies: food, parts, clothing … anything that can help us out. They do a damn good job, too. They've been able to reach parts of the city we haven't had access to yet. Even found some more survivors in their outings."
"I am surprised their parents allow them to go out and search," Liara commented. "I would worry they could get hurt."
"Well, unfortunately, a lot of them haven't found their parents … or they know that their parents won't be coming back. The ones with parents got proper permission from them. Rest of them hounded the soldiers for the chance to do something. They've done a lot—"
"Lieutenant!" a voice called to the left of them, where the kids had come out of the shopping complex. "We found two of them!"
Without a word, the female soldier went toward the complex with some of the teenagers following. They dropped behind a collection of rubble and out of their line of sight. Coats watched the group of kids gathering the bags the others dropped, walking them over to a pile that had already started near a beat-up Mako. He nodded approvingly as the group passed them.
"The rescue team goes in if the kids find anything," he explained. "One soldier to every group of kids, or at least two adults that know how to handle a gun. Always in contact, always prepared. It's about an average of five survivors we find a day, but there's still a lot of ground to cover."
"Casualties, too?" Kaidan asked.
"Casualties are a lot more common. If they're still recognizable, we bring them to identifying tents. Once it's announced what race it is, anyone that wants to try to identify the body can come look at them. Sometimes, we can give someone the peace of mind, other times, the body goes unclaimed. A lot of groups went through the effort of creating religious areas in West End. We haven't stopped them, if it gives them some kind of comfort. Every once in a while, there's a shouter who goes after alien races, or claims we 'brought the end upon ourselves,' but their bullshit gets quieted pretty quickly. The people have been learning to police themselves, within reason, anyway. It's been a big help."
"Seems like everyone is actually working together," Garrus said.
"That'd be thanks to your Commander. I'm almost sure of it. We all know how close we came to losing everything. Now it's our turn to make sure we get it all back. It's going to take a lot of work, but those that are willing to have done more than we thought possible."
As if a magical line was drawn between the areas, the group stepped from the damaged streets into the West End district. Of course, the rain had yet to stop, but here, it felt like there was life. The streets were cleaned up, the sounds of tools rang out around them as groups repaired walls of various buildings. Tarps and awnings were propped up around them with groups of people gathered. Surprisingly, there was a lot of laughing and shouting. Kids trotted by, salarians and humans in shiny slickers, turians and krogans in their casual clothing, playing different games and splashing in the puddles. A few adults greeted Major Coats with a wave or a call, which he returned.
"They seem … happy," Javik said hesitantly.
"The conditions could be better," Coats sighed. "Everything could be better, but just being here … means a lot to them. Most of the buildings have been turned into temporary apartments, so it's a lot of close quarter living. Between volunteering time and supplies, we have cots for each person staying here, food for everyone to eat at least twice a day, and medical help for anyone that needs it. We worried we would have to be a lot more controlling, but we've been lucky. Aside from a few altercations, everyone has been cooperative."
"It looks like they created their own town," Tali commented. "It's amazing."
"And every kind of race is around here. Even before the war, Earth had a lot of visitors, so it's been well to have everyone band together to help each other out. We aren't perfect, but we're a lot better off than we were. There's a group of quarians and salarians that actually rewired a few of the buildings to support all of the medical equipment we salvaged, so we have two fully functioning hospitals in West End."
"Wow, that's impressive," Kaidan replied. "And there's nurses and doctors to tend to everyone?"
"The two head doctors are salarian and human, but yeah, there's all kinds helping out. Linds building is where they took Shepard, though not many people know it's her yet. We were a little worried people would get too excited, try to see her before she was ready. Maybe even try to reach her for other reasons."
"Has someone said they wanted to hurt her?" Garrus asked, his voice becoming deadly serious.
"No, not that we've heard. Just taking all the precautions we can; we're not taking any risks, for Shepard's sake. Besides, there's two that come over to the building every day to see her. If anyone tried something, they'd have to deal with them."
As they rounded a corner to walk up to the Linds building, Tali and Liara were swept up in a hug from Urdnot Wrex. Once the group went through their greetings and exchanges, Wrex explained that their asari friend had sent him a message on his omni-tool, informing him that they had landed on Earth. Instead of going over to the docking stations, Wrex thought it would be easier to wait for them near Shepard.
"Well, I think this is where I leave you," Major Coats said, holding his hand out to Kaidan once more. "The doctors know who all of you are, so they should be able to tell you what they know. Once you're done here, feel free to get a hold of me through any of the Alliance soldiers. We could use any help you guys might be able to bring to the table."
"Definitely," Kaidan answered, shaking the major's hand. "Thank you for everything, Major Coats."
The soldier walked away after a brief wave to the rest of the group. All of them then looked to each other, suddenly worried. It had taken them a month to reach Earth, and now, they stood outside of the building that housed their commander. What worried all of them the most was the fact that they had no idea just what had happened to Shepard, how badly she was hurt, or even if she was hurt at all. Each one of them had come to various conclusions at all points in time. Tali went everywhere from a few scratches and bruises, to waiting to hear she had died while being treated. Now, they had no choice but to step forward to see the answer to their questions.
"Be honest," Garrus muttered after a long pause, "is she in bad shape?"
"Her boyfriend's a turian," Grunt answered. "That's about as bad as you can get."
Everyone laughed, temporarily relieved of their tension.
"She's not in fighting shape, I can tell you that," Wrex said with a shrug. "But she could've been a lot worse."
"We've been hearing that phrase a lot today," Tali sighed.
"Besides, Grunt came up with an idea a while back that helped."
"Grunt? What did you do?"
"I think the better question is, 'Who did you find?'" a voice said from the entrance to the building.
The group turned to look at Miranda Lawson as she stood on the steps, her arms crossed over her chest.
A/N: Apologies for the wait on this chapter. I was having trouble with deciding where the best cut-off should be. There's a lot of information coming up soon, so I'm trying to keep it flowing as smoothly as possible. All the same, I hope you enjoyed it!