She had spent way too much of her life sitting uncomfortably and waiting for news. For a while she felt like the waiting was the worst part; good or bad, she just wanted to know. Now, she could wait for all eternity as long as the news were good. It was too rare an occurrence for the news to be good.
It was a bloody curse. No matter who she wanted to blame for it, it was on her. Her orders, her op.
Her marine in the medbay, fighting for his life with only Chakwas' help.
"Commander," Ashley called.
"Chief," Shepard replied, her hands pressing on her empty cup. She didn't look away from the medbay door, like her eyes wanted to burn a hole through it. "What's our status?"
"Your kit's ready. The VI was just rebooting the kinetic barrier before charging, I replaced the capacitors..." she looked at Shepard, who didn't give any signs of listening, "and fed them to the space dragon. He was hungry, and-"
"I am listening, Chief," Shepard interrupted.
"Yes sir," Ashley said, smiling. She followed Shepard's eyes, and her smile faded. "Any news?"
"Nothing. Not a peep." Ash didn't answer, which prompted Shepard to look at her. It looked like she wanted to say something, but was holding back. "Yes Chief?"
"I didn't say anything." She said that, but thought better of it when Shepard gave her a look. "Commander, shit happens. You couldn't know about the reinforcements. We're fighting geth, remember? We don't exactly have a lot of intel on them."
Which is exactly what I told you after Eden Prime, Shepard thought.
"I know," Shepard said, huffing. Her sudden relaxation was the cue Ash needed to sit down next to her. "That's the problem. We just don't have any intel. We're flying blind, and I don't like it."
Brings back too many bad memories.
"Commander?" When Shepard didn't answer, Ash leaned in closer. "Uh-oh."
"Williams..."
"You look like you've got an idea, and you aren't sharing with the class," Ash replied, making Shepard chuckle.
"Roy," Shepard finally said.
"What about him?"
"As of right now, he's the only clue we've got. And I'm running out of patience with him."
"You think he knew about-"
"I don't know what he knows. That's the problem."
"I see..." Ash leaned back and crossed her arms. "Okay. I'll need a towel, some door knobs, and an empty room."
That did make Shepard laugh. "Don't tempt me," she said, still chuckling. With a deep breath, she continued. "Won't work anyway. Only time I can ever get him to talk is by pissing him off, which pisses me off, and we get nowhere."
"… so?"
"So I'm going to be leaning on him when on mission, until he either breaks, or I shoot him. Whatever comes first. I want him off balance, anger clouding his caution, and running his mouth."
Ash didn't say anything at first, and the two of them sat in silence for a while.
"What if it doesn't work?" Ash said.
"Then it's back to the door knobs for you."
"Hah. Bet you fifty credits I make him snap first," Ash said.
"You're on," Shepard replied.
"Fifty credits on what?" They both turned to the newcomer, whose synthesized voice was easy enough to recognize. "The Mako is ready Shepard."
Ash and Shepard looked at each other.
"Think she can?" Ash said.
"It's fifty credits," Shepard replied.
If you had asked me, back in the 21st century, to look at your car and find out what was wrong with it, I would have been able to help only with really obvious things. Asking me to help fix a freaking Mako in the 22nd century, well... Fortunately, much of it involved muscle. Moving heavy parts and whatnot. At least with that I could help.
The entire freaking crew had come down to help, I hadn't seen the cargo bay this busy in all the time I had been aboard the Normandy. Muscle for the big parts, the engineering crew running the fabricators to get some of the smaller bits, and spare parts for the more complicated electronics that couldn't be fabricated on the fly.
We didn't have time to press the upholstery though.
"All right, good job everyone," Shepard called, her voice parting the mass of people like Moses parting the water in a bathtub. "Back to your stations. Ground team, get ready. We're about to drop on Casbin."
The crew responded like a well oiled machine, everyone rushing in order towards their stations. I managed to press through to the lockers to grab my gear, and haul ass towards the lockers. I was glad I had stowed everything in place, because I could just take it and go to-
"Where the hell are you going?" Shepard said, stopping me dead on my tracks.
"Eh? Getting changed, I-"
"We don't have time for that," she replied, and without any more ado, she started taking off her uniform. Or, more like tossing her uniform aside at a speed that I had only seen on-
No, bad brain! Bad!
I turned around in embarrassment, only to find out the Chief was doing the exact same thing to my other side. I let out a sound between a a howl and a squeal and, very red faced, turned to my own locker to dig my stuff out of its case.
"Jeez, one would think it's your first time seeing a woman in her underwear," Shepard said.
Not answering that.
"At least outside of his omni-tool," Ash added, making Shepard chuckle.
Or that! Wait a minute, why is the Chief changing? She was in full-
"For us quarians it's a little different," I heard Tali say. "Since we rarely leave our suits, we have stimulation programs built in them. I-"
No, no, nonono, I'm not listening, lalalalala...
I made a point to slam the locker loudly and, reminding myself that I had already flashed half the ship anyway, dropped my uniform and got into the armored undermesh as quickly as I could. I heard Ash chuckle, but it wasn't directed at me. Nope. Not me.
"So who's on the ground team?" I said as soon as I was in the undermesh, turning to look at Shepard. She was already doing the final adjustments on her armor. Damn, she's fast.
"Don't look so disappointed, Roy," Shepard said, grinning mischievously.
"What? I'm- Okay, fine," I replied, getting to work again. I had a lot of catching up to do, and while I had gotten better at putting the armor on, I was still slow and way behind.
"Gotta be this tall to get on that ride, Roy," Ash said.
I was starting to wonder if I had fallen asleep and was in one of those dreams. What the hell had gotten into those two? Three, if you count Tali.
"Wrex!" Shepard called.
"Damn, that tall?" Ash said.
"Chieeeef," Shepard said, dragging the word as a gentle warning.
"Sorry, sorry," not sorry.
"What is it Shepard?" Wrex said. I head him stomping through the helmet even before I had turned it on for the VI to filter the sounds in. If Shepard was bringing him along, I had a feeling she wasn't thinking stealth.
"You're up. I need someone big enough for Roy to hide behind," she said. Right, fuck you too Shepard.
"Hmph, the quarian would be enough for that," Wrex replied. "But fine, I'm getting bored in here anyway."
"Chief, Roy, full weapons load."
I started picking up weapons, which in my case consisted of just the shotgun and pistol. I thought I was going to be travelling light when the Chief put a large package against my chest.
"Demo charges. Keep them safe."
"D- What? You want me to carry these?"
"We don't want them to blow up anything important if they go off," Ash replied, with such a nonchalant shrug in her voice it took me a moment to process what exactly it was she had said. Shepard, meanwhile, was barking orders.
"Backup team, Alenko's in charge. Tali, we may need you after the smoke clears, depending on what we find. Go get some rest."
"I'm fine Shepard, I can-"
"Chakwas' orders," Shepard said, interrupting the quarian.
It was curious to see just how those two words affected everyone. The ground team and some of the engineering crew were all listening, and for a moment I could see a collective wince at that. May as well have said the orders came from the God Emperor, such was the reaction. It was short lived, though, and all eyes turned to Tali.
"Okay. I'll be at my post," Tali replied, gesturing towards the engine room.
Oh yeah, I had forgotten how she didn't like to sleep in a quiet spot or anything. With all the noise going around, she'd feel right at home for a nap.
"Good. All right, everyone into position, we'll be dropping on Casbin as soon as we're in range."
The deck cleared quickly and, scarily enough, silently. As usual, comms open, but nobody was saying a word. Now we were in the op, and air time was reserved for command staff, or anyone else who had something important to say.
Getting in the Mako was, however, something I hadn't been prepared for. Sure, I had helped fix it. From the outside. Inside it was cramped, dimly lit, and uncomfortable. And it was about to be dropped from several thousand feet in the air, into the middle of a soon-to-be warzone.
I sat on the chair by the turret, while Wrex lumbered in and got himself to the lone seat at the back, nearly crushing it under his weight. Ash took the co-pilot seat, and Shepard sat behind the "wheel" of the beast.
"Okay Roy, safety procedures first," Ash said, taking her helmet off and turning to look at me. I did the same. "First thing first, five point harness on, and make sure it's set to mass preservation."
"Uh..." I got to the five point harness easily enough – five straps, just dig behind your ass until you find them all – but the other part eluded me.
"The switch at the front. The only switch at the front."
I pressed the switch, and the harness immediately broke open, releasing all the straps.
"What the-"
"That's the release, Roy," Ash said, her voice weary.
She unstrapped herself, came to the back, and yanked the straps back in place and off my hands. After she did so, she pressed a very cunningly hidden switch just above the release, and a green light came to life at the center of the strap latch.
"Thanks," I said.
"As long as the light's green, you're set. Mass fields will keep you light and anchored. If it goes red, press the switch again, but don't hit the release. Otherwise we'll have to clean you off the walls when we get back."
Har, har... har...
"You're joking, right?"
"Roy, we're about to drop from low orbit," Shepard said, not stopping her pre-drop checks at all. "What do you think?"
I was starting to wish I hadn't eaten anything, or that I had stopped to check if I could have evacuated my bowels before getting in, because it was starting to feel as if something on my inside was about to be on my outside, and my choices as to what it would be were extremely limited.
"Keep your back straight and shoulders squared," Ash said. "If you're lucky you won't break your neck against the top."
She slapped me on the shoulder and went to her own seat, meticulously going over the safety procedures of her own station. As I tried very hard to imagine not getting plastered all over the walls of the Mako, the door opened and a very rushed Nihlus jumped in.
"Glad you could make it big guy!" Shepard said. "I was starting to think you were going to stand me up."
"We turians don't bond in the same way humans do," Nihlus replied, with such seriousness that I didn't realize it was a joke until Shepard started laughing.
"Oh, be still my heart," Shepard said. "He's a bad boy."
Nihlus let a rumbling laugh out, and went for his own seat, strapping himself down. He didn't look particularly bothered by it, either he was used to jumping to his death on a regular basis, or Ash had greatly exaggerated my chances of non-survival.
"By the way, I just got word back from the Bureau," Nihlus said.
"Yeah?" Shepard prompted, looking over her shoulder.
"Casbin has sanctuary status, so we're urged not to make a mess during the mission," he said.
"Aww," Shepard replied, her voice disappointed.
"We're to decon before going out, and that includes the Mako."
"Well damn," Ash said. "That's not good."
"What?" I snapped, almost too quickly. That didn't sound good, and the amount of cold sweat I was producing was probably going to dehydrate me before we even got started.
"Means we have to drop from higher, and let the re-entry heat sterilize the exterior." Shepard explained. "Everyone in class two heat-rated suits?"
"Always," Nihlus said.
"Yup," Ash said.
"I'm a krogan," Wrex rumbled, which was all the explanation he offered.
"…"
"Roy?"
"I don't know!" I snapped. "What's the rating on this suit? I didn't even know I had to check that!"
"It's standard Alliance," Ash said.
"Oh, it should be- Wait, standard ground unit?"
"Yup."
As they discussed this, the cargo bay door of the Normandy opened, and I got a great view of the planet below. Not the surface, or the ground, the planet.
"Oh well," Shepard said. And then, without another word, she revved the Mako and gunned for the ramp.
"SHEPAAAaaaaaa..."
I don't know at which point I stopped screaming. It was probably when I realized I had to keep my mouth closed if I didn't want my liver to make a bid for its freedom through it. We launched out of the Normandy at ridiculous speed, and burned through the low atmosphere at a rate that I was sure would turn us into a puddle of molten omni-gel. All I saw were blue and orange flames all over the windows, and this ungodly roar that drowned every other sound, even that from the comms.
When we finally landed, I felt like I had never felt before. Not even the shootout on Eden prime could compare. My hands were trembling, the suit's thermo was whirring like crazy, and I thought I was going to cook alive. But the sweat covering me felt cold now.
"Systems check?" Shepard said.
"Everything green," Ash replied.
"Including Roy?"
I heard a squeak, which I figured was Ash's seat as she turned to look around, but I didn't look up. I was still trying to get my bearings.
"Kind of, yeah," Ash said, chuckling.
"All right, let's get cracking. Normandy, what do you have for us?"
"Everything is quiet, commander," Joker replied over the comms. Was he laughing? I think he was. "Passive scanner has found a possible site ten clicks north-northeast of your position."
"Copy that."
"And stay out of the pretty grass," Joker added. "Step on the wrong plant and you may ruin sentient life forever in that heatball!"
"Maybe you should be down here with us then, you wouldn't have that problem!" Shepard replied.
Ouch!
"Harsh, Commander. Harsh," he said, but with clear amusement in his voice. It really shouldn't have surprised me, given Joker's sense of humor, and the way Shepard seemed to conduct herself, that they'd be happy throwing banter like that to each other.
"We're away, let me know as soon as you hear the go signal," Shepard said.
"Will do!"
She revved the engine, and we took off. At a very slow pace.
"Really Shepard?" Wrex rumbled. "You afraid to step on the flowers?"
"Just enjoy the nice stroll," Shepard replied. "Roy, pull yourself together and get to the gun."
"… me?"
"I need the Chief where she is, and Wrex can't fit in," Shepard said. "Move your ass."
I looked at Nihlus, but all he offered was a shrug. It looked like a rather forced gesture, him trying to do something human-like. With a sigh, I stood up, balancing precariously on my very cramped legs, and squeezed myself in place. My suit's VI synced with the terminal as if by magic, and soon I had the gun's targeting information on my OSD.
"And don't miss any shots," Ash said. "We're on a sanctuary planet after all."
"Anything else?" I said.
"Yeah, some coffee would be nice," Wrex said.
"And a steak," Nihlus added. "I could go for a steak right about now."
I just shook my head and said nothing. Last thing I wanted was to get into the pileup and get it even worse. And it's not like I had nothing to look at, really, the planet was like nothing I had ever seen. According to the OSD, the temperature outside was 83C, but there was actual life. Mostly small brown-reddish plants, almost like algae really. And the sky. I was on a freaking alien planet, and I was getting all pissy because they were poking me with a stick.
"I think he's fallen asleep," I heard Ash say.
"A steak and a coffee," I replied. "Simple enough. How'd you like that cooked?"
"Rare of course, you even need to ask?"
"I don't think he's ever cooked for turians, Nihlus," Shepard said. "Would you trust him to cook you anything?"
"I wouldn't," Ash said. "I can't trust someone who eats hard rations like that."
"Could be fun to watch."
I let them ramble on. They were way off, and I didn't see any reason to correct them. The fact that I could eat anything – specially if it was cheap or, even better, free – didn't mean I didn't know how to cook. I wondered whether they had dextro steaks aboard the Normandy, they probably didn't feel much different from normal levo steaks. Brush with oil, salt, spice, two to three minutes per side on a hot pan for a rare, depending on thickness. Rest. Easy enough.
"Ten minutes," Shepard called. "Any-"
"Commander, signal's away," a voice interrupted. I recognized ensign Talitha's voice, with whom I had barely exchanged a word since I blew up on them regarding the turians.
Well, not exactly blew up, I just walked off. Maybe-
"On it! Roy!"
"What?"
"Eyes open, we're going in!" she barked over the roar of the Mako's engine.
We were definitely off, Shepard was in a hurry, and suddenly she didn't give a flying pyjak about the primitive multicellular life on the planet. On the first jump I bounced off the walls twice, fighting hard to stay on my little nook.
"Strap yourself down for crying out loud!" Ash shouted. "Contacts ahead, three clicks. We're- dammit!"
"What?" Shepard said.
"We're jammed!" Ash said.
"Roy! You're up!"
"Where's the fucking zoom?" I said, fumbling with the controls.
"Just freaking-" Shepard said, and just like that, the turret started to move on its own. Or not, it was Shepard. The display zoomed in, and started moving.
And as it did, the whole Mako jolted when we ran into a large rock. My helmet banged hard against the screen, and I heard Wrex rumble something in the back.
"I've got it, I've got it, just freaking drive!" I said, grabbing the controls for balance and getting back on the saddle.
The camera was fully zoomed in, so I could see ahead well enough. The geth base was visible, a kind of circular walled structure with a tall antenna in the middle. Without any further ado, I aimed high and hit the trigger. The entire cabin shook around me, and the mass-accelerated round flew straight onto the tower.
"Roy!"
"We gotta cut the comms!" I said.
"We're too far, don't waste ammo!"
The fuck? I just hit it!
I squinted into the screen. I was pretty sure I had hit it, although it was still standing. Then I noticed something was moving. Slowly. Maybe getting bigger. It reminded me of-
SHIT!
"Rockets!" I said. "Coming straight!"
Shepard swerved hard to the right, and I struggled to keep up. Very quickly the rockets passed us, and I was very grateful that they weren't tracking us. Explosions sounded behind us, but I had my attention somewhere else.
"Two more, coming- Shit, they're leading us Shepard, turn around!"
"I see it!" she replied, but did as I had suggested nonetheless.
The rockets hit hard right where we were about to go to, and so we continued, getting closer and closer. Soon enough I could actually see the geth units, lined up over the edge of the wall shooting at us. We were close enough now that the snipers were, too, taking potshots at us.
"Anytime you bloody want, Roy!" Ash called.
"Fuck's sake! Shoot, don't shoot, shoot, make up your-"
"SHOOT!" both Ash and Shepard yelled.
Fine!
I let a volley out, and opened up with the 50mm too. The accuracy of the machinegun was absolutely atrocious at that distance, so I kept it only to short bursts whenever a few geth clumped together. The cannon, however, was fucking deadly accurate. I blew up several geth on the first volley, but the round didn't get through the outer wall. Judging by the blue flash, there was a kinetic barrier there.
"There's a kinetic-"
"I know!" Shepard yelled.
Another shot, and the geth started to spread out. Yeah, not a great idea to clump together when I've got a fucking beast of a cannon in my hands. I had finally figured out the zoom, which was a good thing since we were definitely close by now.
"Chief, Wrex, get ready!" Shepard called. "Roy, get us a freaking hole in there!"
"Trying!"
"Aim for the-" The report of the cannon drowned out her voice, and three geth went up in pieces, as the shot blew up right between them, under their feet. "Yeah, that."
Wait, she sounded disappointed at that?
Weird thing to focus on, but it was a lot like the exercise Ash had had me doing before we started the mission. The VI was painting targets, we were close enough to pick up energy signatures from non-moving structures, the whole nine yards. Plus, how many hours had I spent dicking around with the Mako back in my time? Sure, in-game wasn't exactly the same thing, and with Shepard driving our movements were a little unpredictable, but it was very familiar.
I shot the cannon again, and with the heat meter teetering dangerously close to overheating, I left it to cool and concentrated on the 50mm. I hit it, and on the splatter I saw the wall flashing hard with every missed shot. That made sense, didn't rapid fire weapons weaken kinetic barriers?
Concentrating on the geth right in front of us, I kept firing until I edged on overheated, and shot the cannon right at the lower edge of the wall. To my infinite relief, and more than a bit of smugness, a good chunk of it went flying.
"Hit it again!" Shepard barked.
That was going to overheat the cannon, but if Shepard yells an order at you, well, you do what she fucking says. I fired again right as we filed straight for the break, and the Mako picked up speed at an alarming pace. More chunks of the outer wall went flying, and right after it the Mako just blew through the opening, leaving a Mako-shaped hole behind.
We were in, and fucking hell but there were a lot of geth. I spun the turret around, and started shooting. Shepard was giving orders to the rest of the team, but I had my hands full. The cannon was cooling down, and the 50mm was about to die on me.
Ash yanked the demo charges off the webbing of my armor without interrupting my work, and the three of them – Wrex, Ash, and Nihlus – got to the door.
"Roy, cover them!" Shepard called.
"But don't hit us!" Ash added, and hit the release lever. The door of the Mako flew open, and both her and Nihlus jumped out at full speed.
Wrex lingered back for an extra moment to give me his parting words. "Remember krogan have redundant organs. If you shoot me, I'll get back and beat you to death with your own spine," he grunted, then jumped out with the rest.
Gee, thanks for the vote of-
"Incoming rockets!" I yelled.
"Take them down! We can't move now, we're covering them!"
I picked a good clump of geth and fired a volley, sending synthetic parts flying left and right with the impact. As I did, Shepard started fussing with the targeting system, and soon I had a multi-colored array of markers on top of the visible units.
"Reds first, go!"
Didn't have to tell me twice, red ones were units with rocket launchers. The Mako was getting pelted with enemy fire, and I could see the shields were taking a beating. At least it was all small units.
Goddammit, bad brain! Don't tempt fate!
"Commander, you have a dropship incoming," Joker called. "North of your position, thirty seconds out."
Told ya.
"Got it," Shepard said, and she sounded surprisingly nonplussed about it. "Secondary base?"
"Seems so, three clicks North. Reads like it's been cleaned, so expect a lot of company."
"Any-" her question was interrupted when a rocket hit the ground not far from the open door of the Mako. "Dammit Roy, stop daydreaming!"
"I'm trying!" I replied. And I sure as hell was. The geth were not being completely stupid, and were trying to stay in cover as they took potshots at us.
"Any transmissions?" Shepard said.
"Negative, not aimed up here," Talitha said over the comms.
"Copy that."
A beeping sound started to rise over the chaos, with something yellow flashing on the dashboard.
"What's that?" I called.
"Shields. Chief! We need to book it!"
"Almost there!" she yelled over the din of battle.
"And I almost got laid last night, but almost is not enough, is it?" Shepard replied. "Hurry it up!"
I had my finger jammed on the 50mm trigger, and even though it was running very hot, it was the only thing keeping us alive. The main cannon was too slow, and the way the geth were in cover, I wasn't doing as much damage as I'd have wanted with it. The Mako rocked again, and as it landed, I noticed it tilting slightly.
"We just lost a tire," Shepard said. "Don't make me walk back, Chief!"
"Done!" Ash replied. "Move, move!"
The turret turned on my command and I kept firing the 50mm to provide some cover for the rest of the team. Geth had been approaching from the opposite side of the large antenna, where the Mako couldn't reach them, but with Wrex on one side, and Nihlus on the other, they had been mostly kept at bay.
Now that they had to leg it to the Mako, the geth had an opportunity to go for it. I covered Nihlus as he hurried back, then he hunkered down by the Mako and pointed me towards Wrex.
Yeah, about that...
Let me tell you, I took Wrex's promise of pain to come should one of my bullets hit him seriously enough. But Nihlus was having none of it.
"You need to cover the krogan, Roy!"
"I don't want to hit him!"
"We've gone over this," he added, between bursts of his assault rifle, "you won't have to worry if you hit the geth instead, now will you?"
Dammit all!
So, no choice but to start shooting dangerously close to Wrex, so as to give him a chance to haul ass back. He did so without any panic, or sense of urgency really. He glared back when one of the bullets hit the ground right by his leg, after I tried to trail an unexpectedly fast geth unit moving across the field, but other than that, he made it back.
Then it was Ashley's turn. She didn't waste time, she sent a full burst with the rifle set to maximum output, and then turned around and ran. And holy hell but she could run. I hadn't noticed at first how far from the antenna Shepard had parked – to give me a better angle for shooting geth all around – but now it made sense, seeing how freaking fast she was. It took Ash less than no time to cross the distance and jump in the Mako.
"Go! Go!" she shouted, closing the door once everyone was in and making for her seat.
The Mako jerked to life, and not a moment too soon as the geth dropship loomed over the outer walls. Heavy automatic fire started trailing us, and geth started pouring out.
"Hang on!"
I wasn't paying much attention to what Shepard was doing, mostly because I was busy trying to take that freaking geth dropship down. There were enough units that, even as I blew dozens of them up on every shot, more kept coming down. It was crazy. At that rate, I was going to have my hands full shooting geth.
All of that went out of the window when we broke through the hole I had shot on the wall. I was shooting at an angle. The cannon was, thus, protruding out of the side of the Mako. The hole was just wide enough for the main body of the vehicle.
As soon as we hit the wall, the turret turned unexpectedly on me as the cannon hit the edge of the hole. I was holding onto the controls for dear life, but the bottom of the gunnery platform didn't spin as fast as the turret. The result was that I was yanked sideways, and an ungodly snap hit me on the shoulder, followed by a wave of white searing pain.
My scream of pain caught everyone by surprise, but not for long.
"Roy!"
"What the hell?!"
"I got him!"
I didn't know who was yelling what. I nearly fell to the ground, only to be grabbed by Nihlus and let down a little more gently. Only a little, there's only so much you can do when Shepard's at the wheel.
As far as timing went, Roy was definitely on the wrong end of the spectrum more often than not. They had just broken out of the killzone, the demo charges were about to go up, and it was the time for the gunner to hold the geth in for maximum damage when the explosives went off.
Now they had no gunner. And she had no clue what had happened, one minute they were getting out of there, the next Roy was yelling in pain. The VI claimed no damage to the gunner's turret, even though they had taken a beating.
A beating was not enough to take the Mako down.
I love you, little beast.
"What the hell happened?"
"I think he's-" a yell of pain interrupted Nihlus. "Yep, it's dislocated."
"Then pop it back in, we have geth to kill!"
Dammit, not now. Roy had actually been doing pretty good at the turret; he seemed to have picked up on how to maximize damage with the Mako's guns with frightening speed. He was downright abusing splash damage from the main gun, something even freshly minted and trained privates took a while to get.
If she hadn't known any better, she'd have thought he had been trained with the Mako's guns.
Which was perfect for another reason, too. He was good with the gun, so he was bound to eventually bite back as they kept leaning on him about it. She needed him distracted an agitated if she wanted more out of him.
Not that it was fun. Well, maybe a little.
"Shepard," Nihlus said. "Let me-"
"Get Roy back there now!"
She had put some distance between them and the geth, but the dropship was starting to lift up again, which meant either it was going to leave, or going to come after them. Either option was bad, either they may raise an alarm, or come chasing after with reinforcements.
Roy yelled again in pain, as Nihlus pushed the bone back in place, and Shepard winced internally. Never a nice experience to pop one's shoulder out, specially the first time. It could be fixed so that it'd be good as new later on, but it was one of those things not even medi-gel could help with while on the field.
"Son of a..."
"Come on Roy, get up there," Shepard said.
"Stop being a wuss," Ash added.
Not very subtle, Chief.
"Goddammit," she heard Roy mutter, but he seemed to comply.
Without warning, Shepard veered hard, and a ball of plasma passed mere inches away from the Mako. That had come from the freaking dropship.
"Roy! Get that dropship out of my sky, now!"
"I'm-" he replied, but stopped when the cannon shot a slug, and the recoil made him grunt in pain. "I'm on it."
They were far enough now, and the bulk of the geth were still inside the base. It was unlikely they'd be able to get the dropship back into the base, so it really was time to finish the job. Roy was hitting the dropship hard, and according to the onboard VI he was actually winning.
Maybe a bit of cover would help.
"Chief, if you'll do the honours," Shepard said.
"We're going to miss it from here, Commander," Ash replied.
"Such is life," she replied with a shrug.
Another hard veer, another muttered curse from Roy, and another shot that barely missed them. The dropship was now worryingly close, and the last thing she needed was to have to worry about the rest of the geth.
Then, a bright flash of light, and the giant antenna, together with most of the base, went up in a giant cloud of debris. It took a moment for the sound to reach them, and a few seconds until the wall of dust from the blast caught up.
"Holy shit!" Roy yelled, in a mix of pain and surprise as the Mako rocked with the explosion. "You had me carrying that?"
"Yep!" Ash replied. "Pretty, isn't it?"
"Ladies," Nihlus said, stopping the stupid conversation. "We still have a dropship to deal with."
"Not much we can do in this cloud of dust," Shepard replied. To her surprise, Roy let a volley out, and before she could yell at him to stop wasting ammo, the echo of the round hitting something was heard.
"What the hell?" Ash said.
"It's right on top of us!" Roy shouted.
Shepard didn't need telling twice. She geared up the Mako, and veered hard, breaking the vector she had been following. She hoped the geth would have as much trouble following them as she was having following them in the big cloud of dust.
The Mako's cannon barked again, and by the sounds of it, it was a direct hit on the geth ship once more.
Good aim, kid.
A third shot, and this time, the subsequent impact was followed by the clear sound of secondary explosions.
"Shit!" Roy shouted. "Turn around! Turn around! It's falling on us!"
The Mako was not exactly a racing vehicle, but in Shepard's hands, she could make it dance. The naysayers who insisted that she was a lunatic – usually with loud profanity and clawing at the seat restraints – were just haters. She hit the brakes, turned, and hit the engine hard, the tires digging through the thin layer of vegetation and struggling to keep traction. Damn slippery crap, for a moment she wished for all the damn life on the planet to go extinct if it got her killed.
With an extra shower of debris, the tires finally found grip, and the Mako lurched forward. It was all dust and darkness, she was driving completely blind, but it was much better than being crushed under the dropship. The ground shook as the geth ship crashed down, and even worse as all sorts of rocks and debris started rained on them when the vehicle, quite literally, exploded.
"Commander!" Ash shouted.
"Just hang on!"
"Spectres are supposed to be good drivers!" Nihlus added.
"I am a good driver!" Shepard snapped.
*CRUNCH*
The sound of the Mako running into a hard rock was the only thing louder than the shouts and chaos inside, with people falling left and right.
Except Shepard, of course. She had herself strapped down on the seat hard.
"Everyone okay?" she called.
Responses came from Ash and Nihlus. Wrex didn't say anything, he just stood up, walked to the door, and after giving Shepard a look, he hit the release and jumped out.
Was he smiling?
"Roy?"
Her only answer was a zombie-like moan coming from the back. Shepard had already gotten loose, so she made for the back and found him on the ground, curled in the corner, his hand holding his wounded shoulder tightly.
"Does it hurt?" Shepard said, but it came out in an aww-like tone she hadn't intended.
"I'm fine," he grunted.
She offered him a hand, but either he didn't see it, or he ignored her, because he just grabbed onto the nearest seat with his good hand, and pulled himself up, walking past her with an uneasy step.
Getting there.
Wrex was already shooting something, not sure what. She didn't even think he could see anything. Nonetheless she followed him out, pushing past the uneasy Roy and with Ash and Nihlus joining her. The dust was everywhere, but it was settling quickly. Given how humid the extremely hot air seemed to be, the geth must have hit some water reservoir, making a fine drizzle which dragged the dirt down out of the air.
Soon she could see what Wrex was shooting. Some geth had survived the crash, and were coming out of the wreckage guns blazing.
She took a spot in front of her own wreckage, and started scanning with her sniper rifle. The smaller units didn't worry her, as Wrex was absolutely shredding them when they came anywhere near him. As she scanned, she took a couple of potshots at any flashlight head that popped out, but she just wanted to see. There were three of those extra large walkers, and they weren't moving. Either they hadn't survived, or they were waiting.
She didn't like the idea. It was three of them, and they looked exceedingly large.
"That's just not fair," she heard Nihlus say, as the Turian landed himself right next to her, sniper rifle in his hands. "At this distance you don't need the sniper rifle."
"What about you?"
"I don't need to impress anyone," he replied, already taking aim and downing the first unit that came into view. "I'm already a Spectre."
"I'm sure I can find something to impress you," she replied.
"Not your driving skills I hope."
"You leave my Mako out of this."
Banter or not, there were a lot more geth coming out, and now they were firing at them. Worse still, one of the large units was starting to move. It was quite stuck under the wreckage, but they couldn't risk it breaking free.
"Chief!" Shepard called over the radio.
"Right here commander," the response came, together with a burst of automatic assault rifle fire. "It's like a shooting gallery here."
"I know. Do you have any of those demo charges left?"
"I do, why?"
Shepard didn't answer. Ash was a smart woman, she was sure she'd figure out what she had in mind. And it'd save her a lengthy explanation, she preferred when her crew showed a bit of initiative.
A deep sigh told her that the Chief had, indeed, figured it out.
"Commander, you're not going to make me run all the way there, are you?"
"Just think of how good it will look on your action report!" Shepard replied.
"Can I take Wrex with me?"
Shepard laughed. "He's not a puppy, chief."
"I am very cuddly, though," Wrex's answer came through the comms. It was said in such a deadpan, serious tone, that Shepard missed her shot due to laughter.
And she wasn't the only one, judging for the rumble of suppressed laughter coming from Nihlus.
"Roy," she called, her voice still airy. "After the Chief, and give her some cover."
"But... Didn't she just-"
"That was an order, not a suggestion. Get moving!"
"… yes ma'am."
She caught Nihlus giving her a look, so she just shrugged to take the sting out of her orders. Nihlus took a hand to his throat, and his voice came through in a private channel.
"What are you doing Shepard?"
"Whipping the kid into shape," she replied, going back to the firefight.
It was still very much a one-sided affair, with Wrex taking most of the attention and geth units still not seriously outnumbering them. She thought about how little "intelligence" the geth were showing, by coming at them as they freed themselves from the dropship, instead of bolstering their numbers under cover before making a single, unified attack.
If what she remembered Tali telling them was correct, it probably meant there weren't many units left. There had been some serious damage to the "collective" and they were dealing with the rather stupid leftovers from the attack force.
A flash of her shields reminded her that, no matter how stupid the units were, they were still armed with some seriously dangerous weaponry.
"You sure that's what you're doing?" Nihlus said, and he, too, went back to shooting.
"Of course I am. Don't you do the same thing in the Hierarchy with new recruits?"
"We do," he replied. "But he didn't sign up to be a soldier."
"Well aware," Shepard said, in a tone that said the conversation was over.
Williams was legging it pretty hard down the battlefield, and she seemed to have left Roy behind in cover. He shot a couple of times with his shotgun, but after that, he hunkered down and switched to the pistol, taking it with his left hand.
"Roy," Shepard called. "Unless you're ambidextrous, don't even think about using your left hand."
"I'll manage," he replied.
"To shoot the chief in the back, yes," she said. "Right hand, and if your shoulder hurts, just shoot less often."
It wasn't as if the Chief needed the help. With Wrex being the big noisy krogan he was, and Nihlus helping cover Williams, she was in and out in the blink of an eye. She put demo charges on the middle of the ship, then right on the twitching, large geth armature.
Nice touch, Chief. Nice touch.
She had to wonder about the way things had gone, which had ended up with her getting someone like Williams in her crew. Way overskilled for the job she was doing, perfect fit for the hastily put together crew of the Normandy, and nobody cared that Shepard had pretty much forced her transfer to the ship. All because armchair quarterbacks disagreed with what a Williams she had never even met in the first place did during the first contact war.
A particularly noisy scuffle from Wrex's end of the fight brought her attention to him. He was nothing like any other krogan she had ever met. Few words, not boastful but definitely self assured. Loved a fight – he couldn't help it, being a krogan and all – but he didn't seem to be stupid about it. And he was good, far too good to just join in for the hell of a massive fight. There was more behind his decision to join. But for now, all she could think was that he was another marlin she had hauled.
Or rather, Roy had hauled.
It brought her full circle, he was the biggest mystery of them all. It had been a mistake to simply let him be and give him space until he talked. He was never going to talk unless she forced the issue.
For now, all he was doing was firing his pistol and, as far as she could tell, hitting absolutely nobody.
"Chief?"
"I'm clear, hit them!" she called.
Yeah, that was going to look good on the action report. Shepard made sure she had a good shot from the helmet cam.
The Mako was an absolute mess when we got back to the ship. Not as damaged as it had been – though Shepard had not been gentle with the poor thing – but it was covered in crap from top to bottom. We got to the cargo bay of the Normandy with a single, sudden, stomach-churning shot of the Mako's jets in a way that, I thought, nobody other than a suicidal moron would ever consider doing, and I was the first one to stumble out of the thing.
"Don't stop," Alenko called, gesturing to the wash rooms. "Get to decon first."
I gave him a nod, because I just couldn't muster the energy to speak. My shoulder felt like absolute hell, and I was starting to be dizzy. I wanted to take the helmet off and breathe some open air, so I just made my way to the chemical showers and let the VI do its work. Jets of chemical steam filled the room as the grime was peeled off the armor, then a few more seconds to clean the air and I was in the clear.
Taking the helmet off, I dropped on the bench and stifled a shout when a jolt of pain shot through my shoulder.
"Is there ever going to be a mission where I don't hurt myself?" I said, to no one in particular.
"That is a good question." I opened my eyes and saw that Alenko had just walked into the room. "You okay?"
"Not really, freaking shoulder hurts."
"Yeah, Shepard mentioned it. Dislocated?"
"Uh-huh."
He gestured for me to stand up, and got behind me. "Let's get rid of this and take you to the medbay."
"Can't- Wait. Is Fredricks..."
"Chakwas is done with him," Alenko replied. "He'll recover."
Thank fucking hell for that.
"I can do this," I said, starting to unlatch the armor on my right side.
"Not with one arm you can't," Alenko said. "I can't do it with one arm."
"You can't? Can't you just use your fancy biotics or something?"
"Doesn't work like that," he said.
Once I got rid of the armor, he pulled at the neck of the undermesh to take a look at my shoulder. From my angle all I could see was one big purple bruise.
"That doesn't look good," Alenko said. "Did you put medi-gel on?"
"Not much point, it was dislocated not broken."
"A bruise that big? I doubt it's just popped out. Come on."
We walked off the room and towards the lift, and I got to take a second look at the Mako. Yeah, it was in better shape. It was downright filthy, though, and the banter from the crew was more along the lines of complaints about having to clean such a gigantic mess. It was definitely more animated and light than during the previous round of repairs.
Upstairs, the mess was empty. Unsurprising, given how everyone was busy during the op. After making sure I got to the medbay in one piece, Alenko left me in the hands of Chakwas.
Again.
She looked tired. And there was a walled-off section at the back of the medbay too, which didn't take many guesses to figure out what it was. Nonetheless, she still greeted me with a smile.
"Well, my best customer is back," she said, in such a kind voice it almost took the sting out of the barb. "What seems to be the problem?"
"..."
As it turns out, it wasn't just a dislocation. On its way out, my shoulder had popped pretty hard, and I had hairline fractures on both bones of the joint. And apparently, hairline fractures are more of a pain to fix than straight fractures with modern tech.
So I was going to be out for a couple of days, instead of a few hours.
While Chakwas was tying me up again (something she seemed to be worryingly good at), to make sure I didn't move my arm and mess the repairs up, I took a chance to look around. Fredricks was on the sealed up bed at the back, and for what the doc had told me, he wasn't out of the woods yet. Still, he was stable.
And thank modern medicine for that. The way she had had to stitch him back together, she must be freaking good with jigsaw puzzles.
"Doc, is it me or you're really good at this?" I said absent-mindedly.
"Well I have to be," she replied, not missing a step. "That with all the people who keep hurting themselves in missions."
I opened my mouth to protest, but closed it again, because I just realized I had, indeed, not managed to go through one mission without getting hurt.
"I think I'm jinxed."
"Ah, nonsense. This happens all the time."
"Haven't seen you fixing up Shepard," I replied.
"But I have. After Eden Prime, nasty bump on the back of her head."
I looked at her, and wondered. She didn't sound like she was joking, but with Chakwas you never knew. While I was distracted, she took the chance to tighten up the brace on my arm.
Yowza!
"There. We'll take it off tomorrow morning."
"Tomorrow..." I looked at my omni-tool. Seven pm. "Right. It's hard to keep track of the time in here."
"You'll get used to it."
The door to the medbay opened, and in came Shepard. Unlike her usual self, she didn't bust in, loud and... well, amusing or annoying, depending on one's point of view. Or how much one's shoulder hurt, for the matter. But no, she peeked in, her eyes lingered noticeably on Fredricks' bed, and only took a single step in.
"Doctor," she said.
"Oh Commander, do step in please."
"How is..." She was going to say Fredricks, but she changed her mind. "How are they?"
"Fredricks is still out," Chakwas said, stepping away to meet Shepard by the door. "He has a ways to go, but he's a marine."
Shepard took a moment to digest the news, but the relief in her face, that was clear as day. She took one very deep breath, and as her expression cleared, she turned to me.
"What about Roy here?"
"Hairline fractures on the shoulder joint. I'm afraid he'll have to sit operations out for the next two days."
"Two days?" she turned to Chakwas in surprise. "Why?"
"Small fractures like those need a little time to heal. It's not like gluing broken bones with boneweave."
"Why didn't you say so? All you have to do is finish the fracture then!"
She turned to me, a big smile on her face, and eyes bordering to "Crazy Shepard". So much so that, even though I was sitting on the positively tiny medbay bed, I still found room to recoil in place, banging my head against the headboard.
"Commander," Chakwas chided gently. "Roy, you can go if you want, we're done."
Oh boy, she didn't have to do much to convince me. I grabbed the jacket of my uniform, and filed out double-time before Shepard decided to do good on her implied time-saving threat. Dammit, that woman was going to be the death of me.
Last I heard before the door closed behind me was Shepard insisting on asking how Fredricks was doing, and Chakwas reassuring her she hadn't lied before; he was really pulling together.
So, two days without ops. Two days was a long ass time aboard the Normandy, specially when Shepard and Anderson were in charge. If Shepard played fast and loose with the ground team, Anderson was just as bad when it came to the ship. We were driven hard during the whole op, with every shift having a list of jobs that was – possibly by design – too fucking long to be completed.
It wasn't just the engineering crew, which on top of the ship, was in charge of keeping the Mako going. It was everyone. The comms team was hit hard, having to figure out how to decipher the Geth transmissions. Tali had to split her time between helping them, helping her own engineering team, and the ground team. We were in enemy territory, running silent, so the cabin crew, too, was at full alert at all times.
I got to see all this close-by, thanks to the fact that I spent much more time in the ship itself instead of the ground team. Needless to say, having a broken arm didn't mean I had time to sti back and relax. Shepard had me sitting with the comms team, the cabin crew, and of course, the backup ground team during ops.
And I got a whole lot of manuals to read through on my "free time", including the Mako operational manual, and field stripping and cleaning of standard alliance weapons.
No idea what Shepard meant with "free time", to be honest. I did have some time during my cabin rotation, in between Joker's cracks and very awkward conversations with Talitha. We hadn't talked much after my, in retrospective, overly dramatic conversation exit last time we talked, and I wasn't particularly good at making conversation to begin with.
So, yeah.
I even had to cook Nihlus that famous steak, and Wrex his coffee. The former was rather pleasantly surprised by the results – a nice rare finish on a blue coloured steak – although he had to correct the seasoning given that I couldn't freaking taste it in the first place. The latter just looked at the cup I offered, then stood up and grabbed the whole jug. Apparently, krogan had to take a lot of caffeine in before it had an effect. Go figure.
In those two days we cleared the entire cluster (and by we, I mean the rest of the team). Maji had been a very small op, the geth were building what looked like a landing platform, which Anderson believed was a staging outpost. The system was an ideal place to harvest raw materials of some sort, but the explanation went over my head. Tereshkova had been quite different, a geth cruiser had been downed and the geth were busy morphing it into a permanent base, in what was quite possibly the worst planet I had seen (through the screens) so far. Why they'd make a base in a system with crazy winds and crap visibility, I didn't know. Maybe it was the point though.
There was something else there. A Thresher Maw. The tension during the fight with it was the highest I had felt in that room. Shepard hadn't said a word during the entire fight until the beast was down. Felawa had been at the gun shouting all the instructions, with a surprisingly compliant Shepard following his lead to keep them in one piece. She didn't even speak after they killed it and went down on foot to check the area. Damn, I wished I could figure out what was going through her head.
Nonetheless, that left only the last system to clear, which the comms team had to work pretty hard to find, based on the Geth transmissions. Solcrum, in the Grissom system. Shepard didn't take any chances with that one, she deployed the entire ground team (minus Fredricks, Grieco, and I, all due to injuries). Then they took the small outpost so fast, and so brutally, that I was just shocked at it. Less than three minutes since the word go, and Shepard & co. had blown over thirty geth platforms to bits.
With only Alenko and Felawa needing the ministrations of doctor Chakwas. Maybe she was right, after all, there was always someone who needs medical attention after an op. Just wished it wasn't me so often.
"So, hows the arm?"
Ash's call broke me out of my mental recap. I put the pieces of the shotgun down on the weapons table, and looked at her.
"Seems all right," I replied, making a short circular motion with my arm.
"Uh-huh," she stopped next to me, and looked at the gun on the table. "You know you're not supposed to have parts left over after putting it back together, right?"
"Funny," I said.
"Specially this." She picked one of the pieces and raised it to my face. "Don't leave the heat safety out of the gun."
"Yeah, yeah," I replied, grabbing the piece and taking my shotgun. Huh, where did that part go again?
Ash took the gun and the parts off my hands, and proceeded to put it in the right place. "There, right on top of the heatsink."
"I still don't get what that's for."
"Who cares? Magic, for all you know, just make sure it's in the right place. Without it, the gun won't stop shooting even if the freaking heatsink were to melt off the chamber."
"Useful," I deadpanned. "Why is it not part of the heatsink in the first place?"
"Two reasons," she said, raising her hand. "One," she lifted one finger, "because heat wears out parts quickly, and you don't want to replace everything when one of the components fails. Two," she raised another finger, "because sometimes you just want to keep shooting even if the safety fails on you."
"Even if the weapon melts?"
"Even if the weapon melts. Standard parts are cheaper than the average marine. In your case, try not to melt your gun, Roy."
"Hey, it's my personal gun, you know."
"Yeah, but the replacement parts aren't."
I shook my head and went back to finish putting my gun together. As I did, I spied Tali coming out of engineering out of the corner of my eye. It was the third time since I got to the desk to clean my gun, and it was more than a bit suspicious. She'd come out, pace in front of the lift a few times, then leave.
"Hey Tali," I called, making her jump in place.
"Yes! That's me!" she replied.
"You okay?"
"I'm…" she trailed off, shook her head, then walked right towards us. Judging by her quick steps, she was nervous about something. "Chief Williams, could I ask you something?"
"Sure kid, what's on your mind?" she replied.
"It's about the last mission. The commander had me retrieve some data off the geth terminals and… Well, I really didn't think about it at the time, but it should have been obvious. I mean, geth transmissions! What else-" She stopped her nervous spiel, looked at both of us, and sighed. "Sorry. Do you think I could ask the commander for a copy? It's not for me! It is for me, I mean, I would like to bring it back to the flotilla."
"Pilgrimage gift?" I offered.
"Yes! That's it, it's for my pilgrimage."
"I'm pretty sure the commander won't mind," I said.
"Thanks," Tali said. As soon as she did, she stopped, for a split second, and turned to Ash. "Do you think you could ask her, chief? It's just that… If Roy asks her, she may say no just because he did."
"Wha…"
"Sure, why not," Ash said, and smiled. Before she could say anything else all our omni-tools pinged at the same time. Shepard wanted us upstairs.
Or, up the lift.
"Speak of the devil," Ash said. "Come on."
We filed for the lift, and calmly waited for it to make its way up. Sloooowly.
"Tali, any chance you could look into speeding this thing up?" I said.
"The idea has crossed my mind," she replied. "But so far my requests for permission to modify this platform have been denied."
"Huh? Why?"
"I don't know," she said, shrugging.
"You get a firm no from the higher ups, you don't ask why, Roy," Ash said.
"Guess so…"
"Any idea why Shepard called us all?"
"To collect our medals after preventing a geth invasion?" Ash said. When both Tali and I looked at her like she had lost her mind, she just shrugged. "Just an idea."
For once we were not the last ones in. Shepard was at the centre of the room, with Anderson and Nihlus, as usual, standing at the back. The holographic projection at the back was showing, once again, what appeared to be a random slice of space. A kind of a red cloud split in the middle.
The legend at the top read Artemis Tau.
Well, that's better. Liara.
I caught Shepard looking at me, and I did my best to look as nonchalant as possible. Of course I noticed, so she might have noticed that I noticed, and… Yeah, that.
Here we go again, the crazy train never stops. All aboard!
Author's Notes: And now, back to our regularly scheduled main mission! Next stop, Liara. Wait, that didn't sound right. Next stop, Artemis Tau! With even more geth, and a planet full of lava for Shepard to drive the Mako into.
Wait, did I say that out loud? Crap.
Thanks a lot for all the nice reviews, follows, alerts, and all the jazz! And the patience, thanks for the patience too :)
Next chapter, we will hopefully get the full compliment of companions for the Normandy! That is, unless I manage to screw that one up. That, and a very good chance you'll want to stab me in the face. Find out next time!