Disclaimer: I do not own Mass Effect. This fictional story is not making me any money (unless BioWare takes note and decides to pay me).
Author's Note: Thank you to the couple of you who have left reviews saying you like this; it helps to know it's not way off base. I have to admit that I'm almost out of my depth when it comes to video games like this-but this is why we have wikis, and strategic save points to refer to. And possibly why I'm playing through ME3 again with a different save.
Also, I feel it's fair for you to know that I'm using my first play-through as a reference for this, including my screw-ups. I didn't know to speak to Cortez on the Citadel to prevent his death later on in the game. Other choices may or may not be referenced in and out of the plot.
And, I didn't know that the Extended Cut as well as the Citadel DLC counted as spoilers, so a belated Spoiler Alert! I just assumed that was how the game was run, because my husband had purchased the DLCs and beaten the game long before I played it.
A Hundred Memories for the Journey Home
Day Five
"Lieutenant, we've finally heard back from Meg Holloway," Traynor said to James when she ran into him in the mess hall at breakfast. "When you take Tali over, she says she'll be ready to go."
"Gotcha," James said, tossing back his last gulp of coffee. "Thanks, Radar."
Traynor rolled her eyes at him; she'd never quite taken to the nickname game as gracefully as Tali or Shepard. Even Garrus put up with it; he was really proud of his scars in a way that James didn't quite understand. The turian claimed they got him certain benefits, but hadn't elaborated. Maybe they'd driven Shepard crazy-he could respect that. It would explain why she teased him so much.
Of course it's not that you started teasing her, and now she teases right back, he thought with a fair bit of amusement. He'd had a better night's sleep, probably due to being so exhausted the past couple of days. He was actually glad of the extra work Kaidan had assigned him; and now he'd have a former Alliance chica to boss around, all the way out to Gotha and back.
He washed up his dishes and went to the elevator, where he ran into Copeland.
"Hey Vega, did you hear?" Copeland asked, in a tone of voice implying that he was sharing a secret. "Alenko and Vakarian have a date tonight with the camera drone."
"And?" James asked. "They worked together back on the commander's first tour with the Normandy. They've gotta have some good stories. I mean, it wasn't all roses, based on what happened on the Citadel with the Council, but they're amigos for the most part."
"Yeah, well I've got it on good authority from Daniels, who supposedly got it from Joker, that they're gonna tell about something that happened in a bar on the Citadel."
"Which bar?" James asked before he could stop himself. The elevator arrived and they both got on.
"You hear about the one that made Chora's Den look like a garden party?" Copeland asked. "Unchained?"
"No," Vega said. He hadn't been to the Citadel much before joining the Normandy, to be honest. "What's it like?"
"Let's just say it's the kind of bar you end up at after all the other bars have thrown you out. Anyway, it's closed now. Has been for years. Joker said the owner decided to move to Omega or something after an...incident. Of course, he could be exaggerating; a lot of places closed after Sovereign."
"And he says this 'incident' involved Kaidan and Garrus?" James asked, a hint of suspicion creeping into his voice.
Copeland shrugged as the elevator doors parted. "Show up in the starboard lounge tonight around 1900 and decide for yourself." James hopped off into the shuttle bay and gave Copeland a nod. Well, if today turned out to need a little extra humor, he might just do that. It would be interesting to watch Scars and the major go at it.
Tali was already waiting for him, typing out some kind of message on her omnitool. "Good morning," she greeted. "I know I'm early, but I figured I better make last minute checks before you all leave."
"We're not going far, Tali," James assured her. "And we'll have full communications with the Northern Star, so relax. Besides, if they try anything we'll hold that refugee hostage until we get you back."
"Thanks...I think," Tali said dubiously as he swung himself into the cockpit to start pre-flight checks. "What a trade that would be."
"Well, we might have to sweeten the deal and offer them Daniels, too," James mused, his fingers flicking through the different interface screens. The engines started up with a hum as Tali hopped aboard and secured her bag.
"Donnelly wouldn't allow that," the quarian said.
"Well, until that lolo gets his head screwed on straight and actually asks Daniels out, I don't see a problem," James said.
"You haven't talked to Donnelly much since Earth, have you?" Tali said in a knowing tone. James spun in his seat.
"Don't tell me that girl-chasing bachelor changed his tune?" he asked with surprise.
Tali nodded, and her voice clearly communicated her smug delight. "I guess seeing the end of the world flash before his eyes made Donnelly realize that some things weren't worth waiting for. And that some of the things already in his life need to be held close."
"Huh. And how's Gabriela taking to all this?" James hadn't had to search very far for a nickname for Gabby; she always giggled when he pronounced the Spanish version of her name with full accent.
"I think her exact words were: 'it's about time'," Tali said, and he could hear the smile in her voice. "I've told Gabby that she and Donnelly need to tell Shepard that their relationship is...growing. Engineer Adams was going to put it in his message to her, but I think I interrupted him."
"Yeah, you've sure got everybody scrambling," James said, motioning for her to close the hatch. "Everything secure?"
"Roger," Tali replied, taking a seat as James maneuvered the shuttle into launch position.
"Joker, we're ready to go," he said over the comm.
"Okay. Take care, Tali," Joker's voice filtered to them.
"You too, Jeff," Tali said sincerely. "And please, think about what I said."
There was a pause, then a sigh. "I will."
The ramp dropped and James piloted the Kodiak out into space, adjusting the controls which were slightly more accustomed to atmosphere than vacuum, in his opinion. He waited for a moment before prompting Tali: "What was that about, Sparks?"
Tali sighed. "I...encouraged him to send Shepard a message. Even just a short one. It was probably too soon, but...quarians tend to want to wrap up loose ends when they leave a ship."
"Give him time," James said. "And Liara's keeping an eye on him."
"I know," Tali replied. "Whatever happened up there, on the Crucible...we don't know what it was. All we see are the after effects, and...I wish I had time to learn more. To have deactivated-killed-an entire species like the geth...what was Shepard doing?"
James hadn't been letting that thought bother him, but on the other hand, the only geth he'd run into had been trying to murder him with no second thoughts. The 'heretics', as Legion had called them. "We can't go judging Lola now," he answered, turning in his seat to look at Tali. The bright crescents of her eyes gazed back at him. "Joker's treating this whole thing like she chose wrong, somehow. We don't even know that's the case; what if there was no choice, only a switch? Hit it, and the Reapers die. Don't, and they wipe out everything: you, me, and the new geth."
"Would their sense of self-preservation eventually have dictated they joined the Reapers anyway?" Tali mused quietly. Then she made a cast-away gesture, as if throwing the problem away from herself. "You're right, it's useless to speculate. What's done is done, and we can't look back."
"Can I get that in writing so I can show it to you the next time we have a conversation like this?" James joked as the shuttle came around and the Norther Star loomed ahead.
"I'll try to remember," Tali promised dryly.
Fifteen minutes later, James hailed the Aysith Enterprises ship. "Northern Star, this is Normandy's shuttle, requesting landing bay vector and clearance."
"Affirmative, Lieutenant Vega. Transmitting."
Shortly after that, the Kodiak settled into the designated cargo bay and James cut power to the engines. "Don't know how long it'll take to collect that refugee," he said to Tali, who hefted her bag and opened the hatch. "For all I know she's got fourteen crates of stuff for me to haul back."
"I haven't forgotten that the allowable amount of 'stuff' is still a footlocker...Lieutenant," said a woman's voice from up above him. James craned his neck until he found the source: a young woman was looking down at him from the second-story catwalk around the circumference of the cargo bay.
"You must be Holloway," he said with a friendly nod. "Lieutenant James Vega, but you can call me James."
The woman bent over and picked something up; a single bag. She descended the catwalk, passing Tali who was on her way up. "Admiral, Overseer Brayden has asked to meet with you as soon as you're settled," Holloway paused to say. "And...thanks, for helping us out." She didn't wait for acknowledgement before moving on down the stairs.
"Just call me Holloway," she said to James when she reached the deck. "And don't pin a rank on it; I'm former Alliance, not current." James looked her up and down; she was an entire head shorter than him, dressed in a greasy jumpsuit, and her black hair was pulled up somewhat messily. Heh, there's no way I could confuse her for current, he thought to himself. Wonder why she left.
Aloud, he said, "Well, Holloway, let's get back to the Normandy. We're pulling out in an hour." She nodded briskly and got into the shuttle without another word. James gave one last look around for Tali, but the quarian had already disappeared into the Northern Star's interior.
"So," he said, settling himself into the pilot's chair. "How much do you know about shuttles?"
"Enough to know that this isn't the typical Kodiak model," Holloway replied. "This is the UT-47A. The cannons give it away." She stowed her bag and took a seat in the back. "You can test me all you want, Lieutenant. I'll probably fail most of your questions; I specialize in body work and...creative repair. As for Alliance protocols, well. I wasn't much of a soldier."
"Why'd you leave?" James asked, starting up the engines.
"Discharged for certain...reasons," Holloway replied evasively. "Medical, if it matters."
James let the subject drop after that. Whatever scars she carried, physical or otherwise, were her problem. Instead, he went for straight info. "In case our acting CO Major Alenko didn't cover it, your duties will be to maintain and pilot the shuttles on an as-needed basis. Also, the guy who had your job before worked on setting up our requisitions and maintaining the armory."
"You were friends." Holloway didn't make it a question. "Can I ask his name?"
"Cortez. Steve 'Esteban' Cortez. Not another man like him," James said shortly. "He died when we retook Earth."
Holloway was silent after that. James let the quiet hang in the air for several minutes, but when it was apparent that she wasn't going to speak unless spoken to, he gave up. It's going to be a very quiet shuttle bay from here on out, he thought to himself. Esteban, man...I miss you.
. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .
Kaidan was not prepared for the rush of noise that greeted him when the doors to the starboard lounge opened. His eyebrows went up; it was only 1850, and it looked as if a dozen of the crewmen had nothing better to do than lounge around, talking in groups...waiting.
Garrus was already by the camera drone, sticking out like a sore thumb in his armor. If anything, the turian seemed amused and chagrined by all the sideways glances and snickers he was getting.
"Are you deliberately trying to make me look like an idiot?" Kaidan muttered to him once he'd closed the distance enough so that he wouldn't be overheard.
"Relax, Alenko," Garrus advised. "I didn't tell anyone-and did you know that it's Shepard's mom who receives these messages? I have way more to lose here than you do."
"Well, somebody knew what we were up to," Kaidan retorted.
Garrus thought about it. "There's only one other person who knew. The one who picked us up-what do you call it? 'Getaway driver'."
"Joker..." Kaidan growled. "He waits nearly three years and then can't keep quiet?" He groaned under his breath. "I can't believe this."
"Kaidan, look at it this way. If Liara were here, she'd say that this will provide a morale boost to the crew," Garrus said, sounding as if he were trying convince himself just as much as the Normandy's acting CO. "At the very least, remember that we're not doing this for us."
The biotic took a deep breath and had to count to ten. When that wasn't enough, he tried twenty. He glanced around at all the people, just long enough for Vega to give him half a wave from where the brawny marine was sitting across the room next to Traynor.
Well, Kaidan thought to himself, if I'm going to destroy any pride at being the second human Specter, I guess I'll do it for these guys. And that was part of it: he was human, like most of these crewmen. He had had a colorful career, and it made him who he was-it didn't come without rough patches, injuries, and stress. On the other hand, there had been laughs, parties, and good times, too.
He straightened, squared his shoulders, and tapped into the camera drone's controls. It responded obediently, bobbing up to an appropriate height to capture his face. Garrus got to his feet and tailed Kaidan to center stage in front of the large window, where Traynor and Liara had stood just a few days earlier to give them the state of the galaxy news.
Magically, the little conversations around the room abruptly died down. Kaidan exchanged a look with his co-speaker; Garrus just gestured for him to start them off.
"Hey, Commander," Kaidan said as the drone's light hit his face. "Well, I guess you could say we've got a special treat for you...a live audience." And here he chose to let the drone pan around the room. The crewmen caught on after a moment, and whooped and cheered.
"Hi Commander!"
"Yo, Lola!"
"Hey Shepard!"
When the camera got back to Kaidan, he went on, "Garrus and I have decided to break a three-year pact and tell you about something we're not...totally proud of."
"Speak for yourself," Garrus jumped in. "I'm at least proud of remembering all the words to the krogan battle song."
"After the Normandy SR-1 was destroyed, we were redirected through the Citadel on our way to our new assignments," Kaidan explained, ignoring the turian for the moment. "And...well, it was rough, you dying and all. Anyway, there was this bar-"
"And we had not made plans to meet there," Garrus interjected. "Pure coincidence."
"And maybe I'd already had a few before ending up there," Kaidan said, rubbing the back of his neck ruefully. "Maybe more than a few."
"I was surprised you could still talk," Garrus said with a sideways look. "Humans don't hold their drinks like other species."
"Hey, I seem to remember a previous conversation where you said that there are two kinds of drunk turians: the kind who want to go prove their military prowess by shooting rocks, and the kind that think it's okay to go try and reach anywhere they can climb to and make a scene. I know which one you are," Kaidan shot back.
Garrus snorted and shook his head. "Needless to say, I was in Unchained first. Had been for a couple of hours; things were just starting to get fuzzy..."
. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .
"Y'know, I never thought about it much...but why only siz-six fingers?" Garrus asked the bartender, studying his own left hand. "Makes it hard to count."
The human bartender, for his part, had given up talking to the inebriated plainclothes turian who had been making meaningless small talk for the last three drinks. It didn't bother Garrus much; sometimes he was the only intelligent person around to talk to.
"An'-and it's not because people are stupid," he said out loud. "I just think better'n-better than most of 'em. Y'know?" He set his glass down on the bar and studied it for a moment, riveted by how the thudding beat of the music made the liquid inside dance. He might have stayed that way for awhile, giving the bartender a needed break, but then a disturbance at the door caught his ear.
"Hey, there...this the place where you come when Chora's Den closes? That's what Shepard uzzed-used ta tell me..." Garrus turned and saw a familiar shock of unruly black hair on some human who was talking to a bouncer. A few of the other patrons in the sparsely-populated bar were also looking around.
"Alenko?"
Kaidan's semi-glazed expression brightened when he saw Garrus. "Heyyy strangerrr. Ya look smaller with no armor. Whachoo-what're you doing heeerrre?"
"Y'sound like a bad space pirate, Alenko. C'mon, let's get a table." Garrus managed to stand up; his knees weren't totally wobbly yet, which meant he had at least five more drinks to go before he'd definitely have to take a skycab to his rental apartment.
Kaidan managed to stagger about fifty feet to a table in the corner, near an asari dancer who was doing some...stretches in between routines. Both of them watched for a minute, before Kaidan snagged a passing server and ordered another drink. The server took his cred chit and vanished.
"Ssso, you din't-didn't answer. What're you doing?" Kaidan said as steadily as he could manage.
"What else? I'm gonna fill that black hole Shepard's left me with using turian brandy," Garrus replied. He waited for the mention of her name to sting, but the brandy was doing it's job. He just felt...floaty.
"Helluva thing...can't believe she's really...gone." Even though humans didn't have the same subvocal warnings as turians, Garrus could tell that Kaidan had probably already done the human version of mourning and cried it out, probably at the first bar he'd visited.
"Yeah, you liked her," Garrus said without thinking about how it sounded. "You guys've been together for a long time." He tossed back the rest of his current glass of brandy and signaled for another.
"Welllll, not like that," Kaidan said with a dismissive wave of his hand. "I's-it's just professionalll. Was. Was professional." He sipped his newly-arrived beer and sighed.
"Yeah. Everybody knew you...what do humans say? 'Digged her'? Something about digging soup..."
"Think you mean chili," Kaidan corrected with another swig of beer. "Never liked chili, though. Not sure what the commander was made of but it wasn't chili. Fun word, though: chili."
"Hm. Commander Shepard's not made of chili. I think I knew that," Garrus replied solemnly. "If she'd been a turian, the saying would be 'you wanted to peel her kassava'.
Kaidan stared at Garrus for a long minute. "Wow. Turians are dirty. Did the commander know about you and your kass-whatever?"
The turian looked at him, as thoroughly startled as he could be considering how drunk he was. "It's a saying, Kaidan. Never said I wanted to peel anything."
"Uh huh. You got to go act all knight-in-turian-armor on Amaterasu, saving her and Liara from a fate worse than death. Tell me you don't have feelin's for her, Vakarian." Kaidan pinned him with an accusing glare. His eyes were bloodshot and red-rimmed, even in the dim, strobing lights of the bar.
Garrus laughed. "When was the last time you saw a human-turian couple, Alenko? It just doesn't happen."
"Ya don't seem like the type to let it hold you back," Kaidan retorted.
"I'm not, but...I don't. Even you couldn't be that blind. I liked Shepard as the good commander she was: kicking butt, shutting down geth, and mercs...pirates...yeah." Garrus shrugged. "Don't blame me for you messing up your chances."
Something inside Kaidan snapped-he could almost hear the sound and he lunged for the turian across the table. Garrus, like any good former C-Sec officer, reacted by leaning to the left just enough that Kaidan's wild energy took him across the table-right into the asari dancer who was thoroughly wrapped around her pole.
"Oof-hey!" she yelped as Kaidan used her as a brace to get back on his feet. She ducked away from him and ran for it. The other customers in the bar suddenly decided to make themselves scarce.
"What, did you think she was Liara or something?" Garrus teased, leaning back in his chair and talking over his shoulder. "I mean, you might be blind, but at least Liara wears more."
With a wordless roar, Kaidan thrust out his hand and a dangerous indigo energy field built up around him. Garrus barely had time for a muttered curse before he flipped the table and ducked behind it. Kaidan's throw instead caught the first batarian security officer who came through the door from a back room.
"Apparently your new asari called her friends," Garrus called to Kaidan. He shook his head in an attempt to keep the world in focus. He counted six-no, eight batarians who were fanning out to contain the situation. Shoulda worn the armor, he thought with a twinge of humor.
"No friends of mine," Kaidan spat back. "Maybe old C-Sec buddies of yours!" He tried to hit them with a barrier, but his aim was terrible. Mostly due to his lack of balance, Garrus thought as the human wove unsteadily for a moment.
"Nope. But they do look kinda like Charn and his guys," Garrus said thoughtfully. "And I don't like them."
"Charn? You mean that dirty sonofa-aaargh!" Kaidan didn't need any more convincing as he caught two of them in stasis.
"Nope, don't like them at all," Garrus repeated, standing from cover and hefting his chair.
"You want to leave, now," the lead batarian said as he gestured some of his men forward.
"No, I don't." Garrus threw his chair at the batarian on his left and then charged. The hard plated spikes on top of his head struck the batarian squarely in the midsection, and he went down with a wheezy moan. "That's for Shepard!"
Two batarians grabbed him, one on each arm, and Garrus used his weight to his advantage, going momentarily limp so that the batarians had to struggle to keep hold of him. Also, it gave him a chance to duck Kaidan's next biotic throw. Then he twisted, swept the batarian on his left's feet out from under him, and then threw the one on his right over his shoulder on top of the first.
Garrus left them in a groaning pile and charged the next batarian. "And this one's in honor of Wrex, who taught me all I know!" he shouted just before impact. The bar hazed out of focus for a minute, but before the turian could collect himself three more of them attempted to tackle him to the ground.
"This one's for Tali!" Kaidan shouted, putting one of batarian in stasis. "And for those civilians back on Amaterasu!" He closed the distance and grabbed another one of the batarians on top of Garrus, dealing him a hefty blow to the side of the head, where the batarians sensitive auditory organs were located.
"Wish you could have been there when Wrex and I took all those batarians down," Garrus panted, giving the last batarian a couple of punches to the face. When his opponent went down, he added a few kicks to the midriff for good measure. A nostalgic grin spread his mandibles. "And Wrex wouldn't shut up about it, either. He was singing krogan battle songs all the way back to the Citadel."
"No way," Kaidan said, stomping on another batarian to make sure he stayed down. "What do krogan even sing about?"
"That's the kinda thing you can't explain, so I'll show you!" Garrus looked around for inspiration, and his eyes lit on the neon sign for the bar, featuring blue chain links and some lurid pink strobe lighting. He hopped up onto the bar, then jumped to the shelving behind it, where he found the maintenance ladder. He'd been a sniper too long to not know the highest point in nearly every location on the Citadel.
Feet planted in a wide stance atop the sign, Garrus cleared his throat, threw his arms apart, and began to bellow:
Forth to the battle, on to the fight,
Crafty as the pyjak in his flight!
Let not the dust our pathway close,
Till we overthrow our many foes.
Strong as the bloody tide,
Rushing down the mountainside;
Ready your weapons, dagger and spear,
Kalros take us if we fail here.
Winds that float over us,
Make our enemies quail,
Never shall their coward bands prevail!
Morning shall see us well and free,
Never beaten shall true krogan be.
Now our arms with conquest bless,
All our bitter wrongs redress;
Strike the hammer! Awake the cry!
Tuchanka's sons fear not to die.
At that precise moment, four of 'Tuchanka's sons' came out from some other back room and witnessed the very drunk turian butchering one of their native songs. At first, they were frozen in confusion or possibly chagrin at the display, and that was all that saved Garrus, who respected the krogan enough to know that he had little to no chance against a squad of them in hand-to-hand combat. They started to advance on the two men who had just mown through their batarian coworkers.
"Garrus-!" Kaidan yelled, apparently noticing the same thing. He brought up his omnitool and tried patching through a message while throwing up a barrier around himself.
"What in the-Kaidan, do you know what time it is?" Joker's tinny voice spoke up.
"We need an extraction, Joker. Now!" Kaidan said, sounding commanding despite the fact that he was using a dance pole to hold himself up.
"An extraction...are you crazy? You're just drunk-calling me, aren't you?"
"He's not kidding!" Garrus shouted, leaping from the shelves behind the bar to the bar itself. "We've been compromised!"
"Garrus? What are you-ow! I think I broke my femur...forget the pants. This had better be important," Joker grumbled. "Where are you?"
"We're at-" Garrus' answer was interrupted by the unholy sound of his left calf spur catching on the edge of the bar when he jumped to the floor. He bit down on a keening cry of pain as he collapsed in an ungainly pile, his entire left leg a mass of tingling nerves and no productive movement.
Kaidan muttered an oath and stretched out his hand.
Garrus' eyes widened. "Alenko, don't you dare!" he warned but the biotic ignored him and lifted anyway.
"Unchained, we're at the bar called Unchained!" Kaidan shouted. "Garrus you're gonna want to tuck your head down."
"What, why would-" The question was cut off when Kaidan threw him towards the door. Thankfully, Garrus' hard exoskeletal back plating protected him from the impact against the doorframe, for the most part. He managed to get his right leg under himself and started the process of shaking feeling back into his left.
Kaidan was now attempting to run after him, but the human was still far too unbalanced to make it more than a hundred feet before falling over. The krogan had slowed their advance when Kaidan put two of them in a stasis field, and as it was clear the enemy was retreating, didn't appear to want to cause more property damage by inciting the crazy, drunk biotic into hurling more stuff around the room.
"Y'know, I saw this evening ending differently," Garrus said as Kaidan finally reached him. They tried to support each other as they beat as hasty a retreat as they could manage under the circumstances.
"Really? I didn't," Kaidan confessed. "The landing pad's left. To the left." By the time they managed to hobble their way there, a black skycar was already waiting.
Joker popped the hatch and the two of them tumbled inside, a hopeless mess of arms and legs. The pilot didn't even wait for the doors to close before shouting at them. "You'd better have a good explanation as to why I'm down here at two fourteen in the freaking morning!"
Garrus managed to drag himself into a seat, rubbing his throbbing leg while trying to catch his breath. "I, um..."
"It's sorta, well..." Kaidan seemed to lack the strength to move himself off of the floor. With the biotic display he'd just pulled, he was probably going to pass out when the adrenaline wore off.
"Bar fight," Garrus simply settled on. "Got in a fight. Over Amaterasu."
"There were batarians," Kaidan added, as if it explained everything.
Joker didn't take his eyes off the horizon as he flew through the darkness before dawn. "Are you gonna pay me to keep this quiet for you?"
"With what? Asari lap dances?" Garrus retorted.
"Joker, what if we just owe you one?" Kaidan said a little plaintively.
The pilot sighed, but then he appeared to think it over. "You know...someday I might need help moving dead bodies or something. If that day comes, you're going to be the ones I call. You got it?"
Kaidan looked at Garrus; they nodded. "Got it."
"Now swear you won't ever tell anyone this ever happened," Garrus added.
"What, like a pact? As long as it includes you two never being allowed to drink together ever again, then fine. I'll swear a blood oath or whatever you want," Joker replied.
"Done."
"Agreed."
. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .
"So there you go. Now you know the whole story," Kaidan said, with a sideways look at Garrus, who nodded in confirmation.
"Apparently, friends don't let friends drink and discuss Commander Shepard's love life. Unless you've got Joker as your getaway driver."
Their audience burst into clapping and cheering as the camera drone panned around one last time before Kaidan shut it off. He could feel his face was red with embarrassment, and Garrus looked equally humiliated.
But, there was only one thing to do after that kind of applause: they took a bow.
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Post Script: The credit for inspiration for the krogan battle song goes to Lesley Nelson-Burns and the original Welsh song titled 'Rhyvelgyrch Cadpen Morgan' or 'Forth to Battle'.