Chapter 10
I don't own any of the Mass Effect games
Sorry short chapter, took me bit to write this, longer than it normally would.
Next chapter will be Feros
Story start
The next day I woke up early to write some emails, I say day but that's relative. I forwarded what I had written in my Star Wars story as well as some drawings of some of the species, my intent was to not only have real alien species in the movie but a number of the fake ones in the original Star Wars. I mean Chewbacca just had to be in it.
After that I went to the cafeteria where Tali, Solana and a couple other crew members were already eating and when I grabbed my own tray I joined them.
"Did everyone one sleep well last night?" I asked, yet again ignoring the fact in space there really isn't any day or night
"Unfortunately no." answered Tali sounding a bit moody
"Was it because of the movie?" I asked concerned, though I had an idea what the problem was
"Well no, well not really. How are you able sleep at night?" asked Tali
'Thought so.'
"What to you mean?" I ask outloud
"Everything is just so quiet, how do you know everything is working?" asked Tali
"It's a new ship, it's supposed to be quiet." said Solana confused
"A lot of the ships in the Flotilla are quite old as are the parts. I'm guessing that no sound usually means something went wrong?" I ask
"Yes that's exactly right." answered Tali in surprise "Silence means gears have stop spinning, the propulsion or artificial gravity has stopped or even worse, that the air is no longer being cycled. The last one doesn't happen often but everyone remembers the first time they realise they could die from lack of air."
"That's awful." said Solana horrified
"I'm making it sound worse that it really is, if we can't get the air working in time there are always other ships in the Flotilla that are close enough to provide support and room until the air is fixed. No one's about to die from suffocation but it is still a real fear." explained Tali
"Have you tried a white noise machine?" I asked
"A what?" asked Tali confused
"A white noise machine, I think there were made to help people to sleep. They release static noise and cover up some of the background noise, there are also one that use rain, ocean, forrest etc sounds instead to sleep or just relax. Why don't you ask someone from your ship to record some sounds, write some sort of program and use a small speakers to play it on repeat?" I suggested "Just make sure it isn't loud enough to stop other people from sleeping."
"That's, that's a great idea. I'll get started on it right away." said Tali
"No problem, it shouldn't take you long, quarians are basically a race of McGyvers." I said
"Who?" asked Tali
"McGyver, its a tv show about a guy who could out of any problem with junk that people carried around in their pockets. It's like saying with a little wire and eezo a person can make a paper shuttle fly like a real one, here's a montage of him building an aircraft out of bamboo, garbage bags and a cement mixer. Also, a link to an episode of Mythbusters where they actually tested some of feats which I think you'd also like." I said sending it over omni-tool
"Huh, this actually looks interesting." said Tali after watching the vid "I'll look both them up later, I know a number of quarians that would also be interested in watching them."
"By the way, what did Shepard want you for?" asked Solana
"Oh that, she wants me to look at any geth tech starting with that arm you brought in and find out ways they can be used to advance the alliance. In return, the flotilla gets a copy of my research and materials for our ships. Not a lot but enough to make a big difference in our lives." said Tali
"That sounds great." I said sincerely "Wait is this your pilgrimage gift?"
"No, I want to bring something truly technique back to the flotilla, something that will change the lives of quarians for generations. I guess it's just part of being the admiral's daughter." said Tali, saying the last part quietly
"You're the admirals daughter? Damn, if this was Fleet and Flotilla and Shepard was a guy you and him would totally be doing it." said Solana making Tali blush
"Can we stop?" begged Tali "It's not like that, anyway with the mission delayed I have a lot more time on my hands."
"Wait, what?" I asked surprised
"Oh yeah, we were talking about it before you got here. Apparently, someone picked up an alliance distress beacon so we're making a deture to see what's happening, Shepard and a couple others of the ground crew are checking it out." said Solana
"Distress beacon?" I ask 'oh fuck'
"Yeah, they should be getting near to the site in the mako sometime soon. That and stopping for fuel on the way back will mean that there will be a number of days before we get to Feros." said Solana
"Ahh I see, you know what I think I'll head up and see what they're doing. It'll be interesting to see how command and support works from the other side." I said as I finished off my meal as quickly
"Oh okay." said Solana
As I got up to put my tray away and walked as quickly as I could to the upper decks. There I found multiple people typing away, some of them providing support for the ground while the others monitor incoming and outgoing communications as well as numerous other duties. Seeing on one of the screens a vid feed from the the mako's roof, on what must have been the current I walk towards it.
"How's the ground crew going?" I ask
"Good, there getting close to the distress beacon." answered the man at the console
"So do we know what's happening?" I ask
"An alliance distress beacon registered on our sensors so we took a detour." answered the man "It should coming into view right about...now."
Sure enough on the vid I could see what looked like a ground vehicle torn to shreds, a beacon and multiple bodies on the ground. I also recognized the area it was in, a completly flat area surrounded by hills unusually meant one thing. However as I looking at the surroundings I noticed something, the flat area was a lot bigger than I expected/remembered and...they were already in it.
"Stopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstop!" I machined gunned
"Commander please hold your position." advised command
"What's the problem?" asked Shepard, her voice coming over the console's comms
"Shepard, I-I think you might be in a thresser maw nest." I said worriedly
"What?!" exclaimed Shepard, probably looking around "Shit, I think you're right. Control, you detecting any seismic activity from the mako's sensors?"
"None so far Commander, but if it's not moving or deep enough the mako might not be able to pick it up." cautioned the man
"Okay, we're going to back out of here really slowly." said Shepard before the mako started to reverse slowly
Before the mako could get very far however the readings on the console started to go haywire.
"Commander I'm detecting movement!"
"I know, I feel it too! Shit going slow didn't work." exclaimed Shepard as she activated the boosters and tore away. Behind them the ground tore open revealing the thresher maw before giving an angry raw as the cannon unleashed a round into it's head.
From there a dangerous battle took place, the thresher maw continued to attack using either acid or digging under ground and attempting to attack from there, or at least get into lunging range. Eventually though the thresher maw was defeated with only moderate damage done to the mako.
"Thank fuck that's over. Callum I don't know what brought you into the command deck but good work. If that maw took us by surprise than that battle could have gone quite different." thanked Shepard
"I wanted to see how the support works when someone's one the ground." I answered
"Seriously Callum." came Ash's voice "What is with you always showing up at the right time?"
"Guess I'm just lucky." I answered "By the way Commander you might want to speak to Wrex when you get back, I swear I remember something about thresher maws being a krogan delicacy."
"I'll do that thanks." said Shepard "Joker, prepare to land. We're not going to leave these marines behind."
"Roger that Commander, coming in now." replied Joker
"Good see you soon." replied the commander
With the thresher maw dealt with I decided to go down to the cargo bay to see if I could get some practice with my pistol and to see if Shepard needed any help. Reaching the bay via the elevator I retrieved my pistol from my locker I started to fiddle around with the settings. Before I could make many changes Wrex came walking over, his heavy footsteps giving him away.
"Can I help you Wrex?" I asked
"Yeah, I heard your little pistol took out a krogan with one shot so I got curious, not many weapons can do that. Healing factor and redundant organs and all." said Wrex
"Sure help yourself." I said as I hand it over
"Hmm, seems solid enough. None of that flimsiness that most guns have, where'd you get it from?"
"Custom gun and armour shop on the Citadel, it uses the removable heat sinks and just so you know the second barrel was is a hyper rail, it's what I used to take out the krogan." I answered
"Hmmm, send me their info. I'll see if they can make a good enough shotgun to replace my current one." said Wrex
"It will be expensive." I answered, making a mental note to tell them Wrex was with me and a friend.
"Don't worry kid, I've been a mercenary for centuries and have the credits to spare, you don't make it my age by not knowing how to save. Though this will probably put a dent in them." said Wrex before the sound of the ship landing was heard and the cargo bay opened.
30 minutes later the mako drove onboard and numerous body bags were unloaded. I used that time to write a couple of emails, one about the terrorist attack on the mining asteroid, I decided not to wait or to take any chances. Another one would go to Alec Ryder and have everything I could remember about Andromeda and asking him not to have SAM trace me back, that if SAM was made by then. I included his death, the condition the Iniative was in, the scourge and how it killed the higher ups, how Garson was killed by an unknown individual, the angara and kett, their backgrounds and anything and everything I could think of. I knew though that there was a ton of stuff I'd forgotten as I only did one playthrough and it was some time ago. My plan was to find a random internet caffee or it's equivalent the next time I was on the Citadel to send them off so they couldn't be traced back to me.
After the bodies were taken to storage I set up the limited onboard gun range, it wasn't much but was good enough for a couple of people to practice. In the background I had some music playing, at the moment it was Lee Kernaghan.
"This music sounds horrible." said a voice behind me
Turning around I saw Solana walking towards me
"Thank you." I said
"I insult your music and you thank me?" asked Solana confused
"It's country music, it's not supposed to sound good. It's about love, loss, living and learning, the good times and the bad, sounding good is just the cherry one the cake." I answered
"Hmmm, do you have any other music?" asked Solana
"Some, now lets see what you like."
"Oh by the way thanks for the move I really enjoyed it." said Solana
"Thanks, I've got a lot more where that came from. Remind me to show you Crocidile Dundee and Red Dog sometime, if you only watch two Australian moves those are the ones."
"And Australia is?" asked Solana
"The continent on Earth where I was born. Here I'll show you some pictures."
From there I showed her some of my other favourite artists, she seemed to enjoy Sabaton and Evan Platschinda. Said that there was something very 'turian' about making songs of past warriors and Evan had nice 'subharmonics' or something. Either way we spent some time chilling and she gave me some shooting tips.
A couple of days later we arrived at Feros, having stopped at a refueling station and left the bodies there to be picked up by the nearest alliance ship. Shepard said normally we would have dropped them off ourselves, either on the Citadel or Earth but there wasn't time for that, at least this way they get back to their families quicker than if we just left them where we found them.