It was nearing the appointed time for Shepard's combat drill, and Crow tried to swallow his nerves. He was going to have to work with people whom he'd been avoiding, some of whom, like Jack, for good reason. But he genuinely wanted to help fight the Collectors, it was the least he could do to repay the Commander for taking him in, and that meant he would have to suck it up and work alongside his fears. It shouldn't be too hard; he'd worked with Arrha, who was actively encouraged to 'test' him. He was confident, by now, that Commander Shepard wouldn't stand for such behavior from her own subordinates.
He wasn't looking forward to whatever Garrus had to say to him, though. He'd been avoiding the turian since his mouth had acted before his head could stop it, and even though he knew physical retribution was off the table, per Shepard's rule, there was no reason he couldn't do something else to get back at Crow for meddling in his affairs, and who was to say he couldn't have an 'accident' if he joined in the drill?
Dr. Chakwas had told him he could do one or two runs of the scenario if he genuinely felt up to it, but no more, and she had stressed to him the importance of listening to his body. If he felt dizzy or became suddenly fatigued, he was to back out, and she had recruited Glint to act as her enforcer in this matter. Dr. Chakwas took her job very seriously, even if her patient was immortal.
Meanwhile, Thane had returned from his and Shepard's sortie in good spirits. The two of them had also returned with gifts, of sorts, for a few of the crew members, mostly clothes that 'don't have Cerberus stamped all over them', and apparently this was a long time coming. They had actually gotten Crow two whole outfits, and it was a little overwhelming. He'd never had any sort of a choice in clothing, and anything 'new' he got his hands on was usually tattered, and only worn under his armor so the weave didn't chafe as much.
Shepard had taken him aside and told him she'd noticed he was uncomfortable in the Cerberus uniform, pointing out the way he tugged the sleeves constantly. The shirts she'd picked out were long-sleeved and hid his scars well, and she'd gotten him a jacket with a hood so he didn't have to walk around with his armor on if he felt the urge to hide his face.
It was incredibly thoughtful and he was sure if all his stuttered thanks were appropriate gratitude for her consideration.
Either way, he now had unique options for his appearance, something he'd never had before as Spider refused to let him wear other armor(perhaps having him in Uldren's uniform with Uldren's haircut had amused him too much to let him change either). It was delightful, actually, and he can't believe what he's been missing out on.
What's more, theses clothes were his in a way the Cerberus uniform, Uldren's armor, and Spider's cloak weren't. They were the only things truly his aside from Hawkmoon in this reality, and it brought on the usual rush of excitement and rebellion he felt when he did something Spider wouldn't like(that he knew he could get away with).
All in all, though nervous about the drill, Crow was in a relatively good mood. He was particularly fond of the black sweater, given how cold this ship sometimes got. It never seemed to bother the others, though. He did have a fondness for the Cerberus cargo pants though; the Hunter in him liked having pockets to hide things in should the need arise.
The general alarm rang out across the ship, and everyone got to work. For this drill, Crow's only orders were to observe, get a feel for things, and stay out of the way. When the unit's combat scenario started in the hanger, he was to report there, and do the same, unless he was confident enough in his health to do otherwise.
So, Crow watched, Glint took notes, and they both stayed out of the way. Shepard was directing the close-order part of the drill from the helm, her voice ringing sharply from the Normandy's intercom system. There were designated spaces the crew were supposed to preform this part at, though separate orders were occasionally given to different areas of the ship. On occasion, there would be a sharp reprimand, by name, for someone who had put a toe out of line.
It was all deceptively intense, for such a seemingly simple exercise, but he could see how it would help the crew gain a sense of cohesion.
After a while of this, a different alarm went off; the general extended-order drill. Various people rushed to their battle stations, others rushed in and out of the armory in what at first looked like chaos, but Crow soon saw to be orderly somehow. People took up various posts, making choke points and securing areas of import like the CIC and engineering.
It wall all so complicated! It boggled his mind, and he dreaded trying to keep up with everyone in the next drill. Shepard was strict and harsh with her orders, and forgave no mistakes, and he was still having occasional trouble with the elevator.
"Don't worry, I'm sure she'll help you practice if you ask." Glint reassured him as they watched Chambers get a harsh dressing-down for for dropping her weapon for a second time. I'm just going to start by learning how not to drop those things. The weapons in this reality were deceptively heavy compared to what he was used to.
By the time the drill was over, Crow felt tired just looking at the rest of the crew, and was starting to doubt, once again, whether the Normandy was the right place for him to be. Sure, he was becoming somewhat fond of Dr. Chakwas, and it was great to be able to eat again, even though Glint was constantly compensating for the negative effects this sudden access had on his body. The doctor had also kept a constant supply of things running that would mitigate these symptoms as well, and to him, it seemed like an awful lot of work to go through for someone whose Light would make sure they were fine in the end. Dr. Chakwas, however, was adamant about continuing the treatments her way.
She really took her job seriously.
In the hangar, Shepard divided the ground unit into three-man squads, and what followed was not something dissimilar to a Control match in the Vanguard's Crucible exercises. Energy barriers had been erected to simulate walls and other forms of cover and terrain, and the strange industrial fans had been given shielding as well, to protect them. Against normal mass accelerator tech, these things would provide little protection, but butterfly rounds? Easy.
Shepard would start everyone at different corners, and the goal was to get to the center, defend someone as they hacked into a designated crate, acquire the item within, and get it back to your squad's designated corner. Simple enough in context, but difficult to do when three other teams were all gunning for the same thing. At first glace, it was all determined by who got to the center crate first, but that quickly proved not to be the case.
In the first run-through of the scenario, Crow watched from the hallway between the auxiliary cargo rooms. If he felt confident enough to join in one of the exercises, Glint could easily inform Shepard. When the alarm went off, the lights went dim, but not dim enough that he couldn't see three of the teams start moving towards the center.
Shepard had taken Jack and Zaeed for her team, and divided everyone else up amongst Garrus, Jacob, and Thane. Garrus had gotten Samara and Kasumi, Jacob had gotten Mordin and Miranda, and Thane had gotten Grunt and Tali. A firefight broke out as everyone got closer to the objective. Thane was trying to lead his team around to flank Jacob's, perhaps to use Shepard's team as a distraction in order to finish the biotic operative off.
Shepard and Jacob were both gunning straight for the objective, using the prolific biotics on their teams-with instructions to pull punches, of course- to try to gain an advantage. Crow couldn't see Kasumi, which wasn't unusual in and of itself, but the fact that Garrus was making his way to Shepard's corner while Samara stalked around to Jacob's was... interesting, to say the least.
At some point, Jacob's team was eliminated, along with Jack, and Tali had used the distraction to hack the crate and grab the package. Thane let off a burst of biotics that knocked Shepard off her feet, and quickly put a 'bullet' in her before dashing off to guide Tali in her flight. Zaeed was still a problem, and Samara was converging on their designated corner.
They nearly made it, too, even Zaeed on their tail, but in the space of a few moments, Tali was on the ground, Garrus shot Thane from the vantage point he'd taken up on Shepard's corner, and Kasumi had materialized, having been the one to trip Tali. She delivered a jab to the quarian's back, which left a neon green smear Crow could see even from his vantage point, and took the bag only to get nailed by Zaeed.
Samara came down hard on the old mercenary, and they exchanged a series of blows that culminated in mutual 'deaths'. He swore he saw Garrus facepalm, but at this distance it was hard to tell. Kasumi sat with her chin in her hands and her legs crossed, Samara and Zaeed seemed to take up conversation about the little melee they'd just engaged in, and Shepard was dramatically playing her role as 'dead' as the last man standing walked over, took the bag, and hustled it back to his corner.
The alarm went off again, the lights, much to Crow's disappointment, turned back to their usual blinding brightness. The various squadmates helped each other up, pointed out weaknesses, exchanged strategies. A few people seemed to congratulate Garrus for his plan. Then Shepard switched things up, put different people in charge of all four squads, reset the task, and gave everyone time to clean the 'butterfly dust' off their armor.
Then, they were back in their corners, no-one from the previous teams having been put in the same group, and made to do it again. This process repeated twice more, all with interesting combinations and even more interesting outcomes; there was one run where Jack, Samara, and Miranda all wound up together, but rather than mowing everyone down as he'd expected such a biotic powerhouse to do, their team had disintegrated early on. Apparently Jack and Miranda didn't get along, and this resulted in Jack running off by herself, Miranda trying to keep up with her, and both of them getting nailed by Thane and Garrus.
In that particular run, all three of the unit's snipers had also wound up together, and they had done a variation on Garrus' strategy from the first round, by spreading themselves at certain vantage points and picking people off, before Zaeed sent Thane in close to steal the package from an irate Shepard just as she finished hacking the crate, 'assassinating' her in the process.
Unfortunately, in the round after that Jack put a little too much 'oomf' into her biotics, and Zaeed wound up concussed. He had Glint inform Dr. Chakwas of what had happened, before telling Shepard he would be fine filling the place the mercenary left open for the last round. He tried to quash his nerves as he did this; he actually did want to do this, and he was feeling fine.
How many time had he peaked at Crucible matches from afar, wondering what it was like to train alongside other Lightbearers, wondering what it was like to fight in a fireteam and exercise tactics? He'd enjoyed watching Shepard's exercise nearly as much, and he knew more now about biotics than the extranet had been able to convey. Joining in would only help with that understanding.
Unfortunately, he couldn't 'pull punches' with Light, so his abilities were off the table. Maybe we could find and abandoned asteroid or something to practice on? Spider hadn't let him practice with his Light much, and even though Glint had plenty of material for him to learn from, actually studying that material had been too risky lest someone was watching him. The Shore had eyes.
Practicing in space sounded like a bad idea, but he had been studying in the med bay, when he couldn't sleep. He'd mastered turning invisible at will, but the void still refused to yield in any other way than granting him safety, and arc Light...
Lightning and birds never got along anyway, so who needed that nonsense?
He would love to experiment more with how Light and biotics reacted, if Shepard ever agreed to it. Thane's trick with the incendiary on Eden Prime had been interesting, and it seemed like a good thing to look in to.
For now, though, he made his way into the hangar and hoped he didn't mess things up.
Not a lot of dialogue in this one, but it felt necessary. I wanted to delve a bit into how the crew learned to actually work together instead of tearing each other's throats out, without going into a giant chapter filled with filler and quips. In the military, drills are done specifically to make it so that everyone is capable of working together cohesively, and having the combat scenario was kind of just me indulging in my Crucible weakness. Needless to say, I find it hard to believe that the suicide squad would be able to work together at the Collector base to smoothly without having had exercises together as a unit, especially with people like Jack and Miranda butting heads.
edboy4926: As always, thank you.
Ebuc: People seem to construe that when someone is melted into genetic paste, their consciousness goes with them into the Reaper. I have dismissed this claim, as it makes no sense and I have no idea where the idea came from, as it certainly would have been touched on by the Leviathans, at least, if it were true, as it would mean that by killing the Reapers, we would be killing trillions of individuals trapped within them as well. If I were to mix in Ahamkara juju with the story to make this so, such as, say, the Reapers being a consequence of the 'Anthem Anatheme' of the Leviathan's 'wish' for an intelligence that would preserve life, it would be so, but I don't think I'll be doing that. The way I see it, a 'server' is a space were a program can exist. Programs are individuals, like geth, Vex, or Reapers. So, you have the geth network, which is maintained by the geth but is not a geth itself. You have the Vex network, which is maintained by the vex, but not a vex itself. It's never clear whether the Reapers have a network like this, it's entirely possible that the intelligence, an individual, just relay's orders between them using the Citadel. Either way, entering the 'Reaper network' would be a huge nope.
Guest(1): Glade for the good wow!
Guest(2): I've never really heard of space battles, and I already have to wrestle with putting this on Ao3. If I like the format, I might, but I don't want to attract too much attention, if you get what I mean. If I lose steam for this series, I'll get all kinds of sourness from three different websites, lol.
So my gecko likes giving me heart attacks. He's now big enough to rear up on a certain branch in his enclosure and grab the grate that serves a a roof. This noise is loud. Pretty sure his end goal is to become Spider-Man. None-arboreal species, my a$$.
Fare Thee Well!