Well, well, you're just on time! We leave tomorrow morning, dock 183, wing C. 0600 sharp, whether you're here or not.
If you aren't bringing your own gear let me know ASAP. I've got a hell of a line of Credit with the Spectres, and I'd like nothing more than an excuse to run it up.
What can I say, a girl likes to go shopping. For big guns.
A.E.S.
I never understood the obsession with early starts, specially in the case of the Normandy. We were off to the middle of... Actually, I had no idea where we were off to, but the point was, we were going to spend a lot of hours traveling. As far as I could remember from the games, we were off to hunt Geth, not a particularly urgent task. So why the heck should we start so early?
Well, that's life I guess. I arrived at the Citadel at around four in the morning, and I hadn't managed to get a wink of sleep on the way there. It's not like there were regular shuttles between the Shadow Broker's Lair and the Citadel. And it wasn't like I could just borrow a shuttle.
We have reviewed security protocols for Broker-Shadow security and evaluated efficiency at over 95%. Security protocols do not allow for unscheduled flights to class A secure locations.
In other words, Gee had given me a rather firm NO on a direct flight. I got a ride to a mining outpost in the butt end of nowhere, from there got a shuttle to an industrial transport hub, and after a second shuttle swap at a civilian transfer station, I arrived at the Citadel.
I hoped it wasn't a sign of things to come. Gee had taken the role of Shadow Broker a little too easily, or at least it seemed like he had. He had grabbed the basic idea of exchanging information, and was running with it big time. Of course, it was only early days, but so far I had had to dissuade him from making an open exchange for the information the Shadow Broker had. He claimed it'd be a more efficient method for information exchange, but it was kind of missing the point of weaponizing it to begin with. I had left after asking him to take it easy for now, and to think ahead when selling information to see what the consequences could be. He appeared to have taken that idea, at least, since I made a point to tell him to consider organics process information differently from synthetics. He really didn't care much for anything that didn't involve the Reapers, but I hoped I could at least push him a bit in a different direction. Do a bit more altruistic good for the Galaxy, maybe.
At least he didn't mind when I suggested things. I wasn't really thinking of being very involved in Shadow Brokerage myself, but I realized it kind of came with the territory after shooting the fucking bastard in the head. The first idea had been to dismantle the whole thing (not that it would be easy by any stretch of imagination) but there were way too many consequences for doing something like that. It seemed like we were going to have to keep the Broker going.
Yeah, maybe with a few changes.
Regardless, the whole thing had cost me a twenty hour trip with very little sleep. I was tired, I was annoyed, I needed a shower, and I was ready to take off all the gear I was carrying and shoot it out of an airlock.
I had taken my time thinking of what to bring. We were going to fight Geth, but we were also going to get pounded by the Collectors. Whatever gear I couldn't carry with me was going to be lost forever once the Normandy crashed.
The whole thing had me feeling sick. The AI was watching, had been ever since I had arrived to the Citadel, and it didn't help matters. I was not going to stop the attack, or warn the crew, or even Shepard. I was supposed to sit in the escape pod and get out like an idiot without doing anything.
That wasn't going to happen.
Because I hadn't just been trading banter with Gee. The Broker had the entire schematics of the Normandy in the database, down to minute details. For a super-fucking-secret project, it sure seemed to be popular. Gee had helped me with it - and only Gee, since the rest of the Geth had buggered back to the collective - and we had put some code together for me to be able to take control of a few of the Normandy's systems. The focus was on the escape pods, and the emergency systems. The Normandy was badly outclassed by the Collectors, there was nothing I could do about that. But there were things I could do. There were some structural vulnerabilities that made the place a freaking nightmare. A well placed shot could blow up several systems inside the ship by overloading them with feedback from the main drive. Fire suppression systems were taken from the standard Alliance frigates, and according to Gee's projections they was not enough redundancy in case of a catastrophic failure on any individual section, simply because so much of the power system was sent to the core for the stealth systems.
The list went on. It was a cutting edge piece of technology. It was also a prototype. No corners had been cut, but they hadn't done enough testing. That was the bottom line. Some of the problems were known and listed as "upgrade-pending", but the Systems Alliance hadn't had a chance to do the fixes just yet. Too little, too late.
My Rapid Transport Shuttle dropped me off at the bottom of Wing C, and this time I didn't even care about the insane ride. Of course, I was in full gear, and having survived the end of the fucking world in that yellow envirosuit, I was no longer scared of a shuttle ride. I had had one land on me for crying out loud.
Given that much of it might not survive, I had been careful with my loadout. I had left the AI's shield harness and the prototype armor back in the Broker's ship, and most of the rest of my gear. I was in the envirosuit - with an extra upgrade of geth shielding - had my custom shotgun, a geth rocket launcher, geth pulse rifle, and Mika's gun.
I didn't want to lose that pistol, but I didn't want to leave it behind either. As long as it was with me, I felt I would never, ever lose it. Or at least that's what I told myself.
The problem was not the gear alone, which was heavy enough as it was, but that the rocket launcher needed heatsinks and materials for the ammo fabricator - explosive gel, plus omni-gel for the shelling parts. So I had a fuckload of each, too. And my spare Predator armor, just in case, since it was easy enough to replace. Once I got some credits, at least. I was technically still flat out broke, but Gee had been happy enough to provide Geth gear as needed.
I was ready to throw the entire fucking lot out the window. I felt like my arms were going to fall off their sockets.
After a nearly endless elevator ride, the platform dropped me at the right dock. So early in the morning I had expected it to be quiet, but the whole place was bustling with activity. The Normandy was clamped to the side of the dock, with its rear ramp wide open and people coming and going. Drat, that meant a full ship decon after takeoff; what a pain. I took a moment to take the scene in and look at the faces. Most of them I recognized, but a handful were new. Three... No, four Alliance marines. Or at least four people who looked the part, I had been in Alliance armor not that long ago.
Gotta be marines, I doubt Shepard's got some amateur like me again running around in Alliance colours.
I couldn't see Anderson anywhere. I had no idea what he had been up to. According to the games, he wasn't supposed to be in the Normandy at all, but he had led the mission all the way through to the end.
He had even punched Udina in the face, if rumours were to be believed. I bet Shepard was jealous.
And speak of the devil.
I spotted Shepard next to the Mako right by the ramp, speaking with someone. She was easy to identify with her messy short blond hair and the N7 hoodie, but not the others. As I walked closer I finally recognized them. Nihlus. He had changed armor, was wearing a bright white and blue suit of turian armor, so it didn't quite click at first. Great. It was the third person that made me stop on the spot.
Liara.
Come to think of it, I probably should have spent some time deciding what I was going to do about Liara next time I saw her, assuming she didn't recognize me. My next thought was that I was lucky I wasn't wearing my alien shield harness, or she'd have recognized me on the spot. If she was coming with us. Which brought up the next point, and the blinding realization that came with it.
I had just fucked myself over by using the shield harness when I got Liara out of that place. There had to be at least half a dozen different ways to have done that without giving away the most unique and recognizable piece of equipment I had.
My god I'm an idiot.
The good thing is that my mental wandering was probably enough for the others to think I was confused. Nihlus was the one who spotted me, I think. He pointed in my direction, Shepard turned around, and bugger me silly but she actually smiled when she waved at me.
"Roy!" she called. "Get your ass here, we're getting ready to go!"
I shook myself internally and resumed my walk. I was dying to drop the goddamn cases somewhere. I made a point to look at Liara as I arrived, dropped the cases with a thundering slam, and shook my hands to get the blood flowing again. Damn, those things were heavy.
"Liara," I said. "Damn it's good to see you, what happened?"
"Hello Roy," she replied. There was no smile on her face, and she didn't really answer my question.
"I was expecting we'd have to pick you up on the way," Shepard said.
"What? I'm early," I replied, making a point to bring my omni-tool up and look at the time.
"Sure, but last message you sent me you had 'a couple of things to take care of'. Every time you do that we have to pick you up from under a shuttle," Shepard said.
Oh you cheeky-
"Man, you get one shuttle dropped on you around these parts and you never live it down."
Shepard laughed softly, then gestured back with her head towards the armory bench. "Go store your gear, I want to leave early if possible."
"Why the obsession with going so early anyway? All we're doing is flying out."
"Oh, Roy. I'm not that kind of woman. You know I don't do boring dates like that," she said.
I chuckled in response and just picked up my cases to head for the bench. Goddamn things were so heavy. The marines didn't give me much of a glance as I walked though, which led me to believe they had been warned somehow. I wondered idly what Shepard might have told them. Curiously, I had the same locker assigned I had had last time, and as far as I could tell my name was still stenciled on it the same way. Well, it wasn't big enough for all the stuff I had, so I'd have to figure out where to put some of it. I could probably put the thermal clips somewhere else, and also the rocket launcher. First though, put the spare armor back in, and get out of the envirosuit.
It was a strange feeling to be packing back aboard the Normandy. Soon-to-come clusterfuck with the Collectors aside, it was strange. There were some familiar faces from the rest of the crew, and the new ones from the marines.
That was it. That's what was off. Too many missing faces.
"Roy."
I turned around and saw Liara standing behind me.
"What's up girl?" I said, trying to sound cheerful.
"I just wanted to say goodbye before I left."
"Oh, I thought you were coming with us."
"No, I have important matters to attend to. My mother's estate, for one," she said, her expression darkening.
"Right. Well, do take care of yourself, okay? It was great to see you," I said. I offered her a hug, and although she looked surprised, she took it. "I'm glad you're okay."
"Thank you. You should take care of yourself too," she said.
"Eh, I'll manage. Haven't gotten myself trapped in a Prothean prison yet," I said.
It took her a moment to get it, and I finally saw something resembling a smile on her face.
"I did not have a shuttle handy to get trapped under," she replied.
Oh you cheeky little bugger.
"I'm sure we'll manage to top it next time," I said. "I'll see you soon."
"Yes, I would like to talk when you return," she said. Yeah, that was going to be so much fun. Surprise, I'm the asshole who got you out of the Shadow Broker's Lair. "Please take care of Shepard."
Shit.
"I'll try," I replied. "I promise."
And with that, she took off. I saw Nihlus waiting for her, and we only exchanged a glance before he turned to talk with Shepard. She stood on her tiptoes to give him a kiss, and I just went back to my gear. There was no way the rocket launcher was going to fit in that locker. Half of it didn't even fold down. I left it in the case and started pulling the other guns out.
"What in the world is that?" Shepard said, coming up behind me.
"This?" I pulled the rocket launcher up and offered it to her. "Rocket launcher, like it?"
"Yes, but I'm not sure I like it in your hands," she said. "Have you ever shot one of these?"
"I shot Saren out of the sky with one of these babies," I replied.
Shepard stopped and looked at me in surprise. "Oh, this one I have to hear," she said.
"Sure, I'll tell you all about it. Why are you worried though? You'll just stand at the back and shoot from there, or are you just jealous?"
"Sorry darling, can't be jealous of you," she replied, putting some velvet in her voice. She reached in a locker and pulled a gun out. "Got this baby now."
It was big. Much bigger than any sniper rifle I had seen so far. When she unfolded it and held it over her hip, it was so high it was well above my head. The receiver was at least twice the size of the sniper rifle she had before, and it looked damn heavy too.
"Damn, that's a big toy. Does it come with batteries?"
"And it's well lubricated too," she added. "Fresh from the HK Shadow Works. Isn't it a beauty?"
"Have you named it yet?"
"They call it the Python," Shepard replied. "I like that name well enough."
"Because it's big and likes to hug you?"
"Something like that," Shepard said after sniggering. "But jokes aside, it's bloody brilliant." She pulled back on a loading lever, and out popped a freaking heatsink. She caught it deftly in the air and showed it to me. "Ejectable heatsinks."
"That's Geth tech!" I said. "Jeez. They sure don't waste time."
"I didn't think it was a good idea until I tried it," Shepard explained, folding the rifle again and placing it into the locker. "But it's totally worth having to carry the heatsinks."
"I wish you had told me earlier," I said, giving my case of heatsinks a lovetap with my boot. "I'd have left this at home."
Shepard shot a questioning look at me, so I just nodded at the case. She reached down, pulled it up to the armory bench, and opened it.
"Holy mother of- What on Earth is all this?" she said.
"Heatsinks of course," I said. "Plus some extra stuff for the launcher's ammo, explosive gel and omni-gel."
I stuck the geth pulse rifle in the locker, grabbed the rocket launcher, and headed for the bench myself. While I did this, Shepard was taking the stacks out and looking at the rest of the stuff. The omni-gel, the extra fuel parts, the explosive gel, all of it.
"Where did you get all this? They're brand new. And they're Geth."
"I've been busy," I replied. I pulled the release of the rocket launcher, took the fabricator out, and put one of the heatsinks in. Always make sure the shit's safe before you start messing with the heatsinks. "The launcher uses it for the initial launch, but the rocket has its own fuel, so you can get a dozen shots out with a single one. You spend more on the gels."
Shepard took one of the heatsinks, put it next to the one she had ejected from the Python, and then looked at both for several seconds.
"Are they the same size?" I said.
"It seems like they are," Shepard said.
She took the Python out of the locker, unfolded it, and after careful checking, she slid the heatsink in. It made a satisfying click, and when she brought the interface up, the diagnostics were all showing green.
"I need to try this," Shepard said, grabbing a handful of heatsinks from my case. "I'll be right back."
"Huh. 'Kay."
I kept packing stuff, until everything was back in place. I even had time to get out of the envirosuit, pack it in the locked with the spare armor, and get changed into proper clothes. Proper space clothes, at least. I wasn't getting into a Normandy uniform this time. I put a shield harness over it, and clipped Mika's pistol on it. I had gotten used to it; the reassuring weight of it, and the tinkle of the glass bauble she had attached to it. It wasn't exactly stealthy but I was never a freaking ninja. And after all that, Shepard was still nowhere to be seen.
It wasn't hard to find her, she was in the back room shooting her gun against the practice kinetic barrier. The Python was loud, much louder than I had heard any of her guns before, and when I went in, I stopped at the threshold in surprise. She had the gun in pieces, or rather, all the outside pieces had been taken off, and the guts were showing as she shot. Small wonder it was so freaking loud.
"You okay Shepard?" I said.
"No," she replied, not looking back. "HK have shortchanged me."
"Shortchanged? How?"
"Their heatsinks are crap," Shepard replied, still absorbed in her rifle. She had her omni-tool up and was going over some menu I couldn't see. "I'm getting twenty-seven percent more power out of yours. Can you get more?"
"Err... Not in a hurry, no."
"We're going to have to test your rocket launcher with the HK heatsinks," she said casually, as she put the rifle to her shoulder and pressed the trigger again. "Twenty-eight," she added, looking at the reading on her omni-tool.
"Are you trying to steal my heatsinks?" I said.
"Trying?" she replied, and gave me the most self-satisfied smile I had ever seen on her. Only lasted for about a second before she laughed. "I have a reason, Roy. If you're firing explosives, they should explode just as well no matter the heatsink. But it's making a heck of a difference with my rifle."
"Huh. I guess so."
"So," she said, and this time she sounded serious. "Would you mind sharing?"
"Sure, why not," I said.
"Good, we can try it after our first stop," Shepard said. She put the rifle down, stood up, and stretched. "So what's going on with you and Nihlus? There was so much tension in the air I was getting the tingles, and not in a good way."
"You're gonna have to ask him," I said.
"Funny, that's what he said," she replied. She had picked the rifle up, and was reassembling it so fast I could hardly follow what she was doing. "Please don't make me drag it out of either of you."
"I have a feeling you can drag anything you want out of Nihlus."
She laughed softly in response. A moment later she put the last piece of the rifle in place, and hit the folding control. The gun squeezed down to size, perfectly silent and smooth. Shepard turned to look at me and gave me a wink. "I bet I could get something out of you too," she said, her voice purring and smooth.
I didn't say anything at first, only gave her my best you have to be fucking kidding me look. She then tried a fake pout as if she was going to cry, which got the exact same result. Which made her laugh again.
"Ah Roy, you heartbreaker you," she said, putting her hand on her heart. "And I was starting to think there was something about you."
"Are you done?" I said.
"Not really, I can keep annoying you until you tell me," she said, and waited for a beat before adding, "but I'll settle for a clue. A small one? Pretty please?"
Sigh.
"Fine," I replied with a huff. "Ever wondered how Nihlus got the info on Ilos?"
"That was you? How did you know?"
"I didn't," I technically didn't lie, "not at the time. I figured it out as he gave me the seventh degree. Why don't you ask him the details and see if he fucking owns up to it?"
I turned and headed for the locker, putting my hand on my gun to stop the bauble tinkling as I walked. Not really where I wanted my mind to wander while starting to feel pissed off again. I checked the locker a second time, and for the life of me I couldn't find enough room in there for a pistol, never mind the rocket launcher and the case of heatsinks. Before I could figure out where to stick them, Shepard came up behind me. Oh great, here we go again.
"All right Roy," she said. "I'll ask him. Thank you."
"Okay," I replied.
"How are you doing anyway?" she said, and tapped the gun on my side as she spoke. "You want to talk?"
"I'm fine," I said, my voice teetering on flat. "I think I've got some closure."
By turning the fucking Shadow Broker's head inside out.
"That's good. But don't keep it all in," she said. "Don't feel like you can't talk to me. Trust me, that crap will eat you alive."
"Like I can compare," I muttered.
"It's not a competition," Shepard said, catching my mumble.
Before she could say anything else, her omni-tool pinged. She brought it up, hit the controls, and the comms opened on speaker mode.
"Shepard," she said.
"We're ready when you are, Commander," a voice I didn't recognize said.
"We'll be right up," Shepard replied, and closed the comms. "Come on Roy, it's your time to shine."
"Huh?"
She gestured with her head for me to follow, and we headed for the lift. We got in, she hit the button... And we waited. And waited.
"Any chance we can speed up this freaking thing?"
"Request was filed with Arcturus," Shepard said. "They said they'd look into it."
"Seriously, we had faster elevators back in the 21st Century."
"We?"
Shit. Yeah, yeah, you don't have to remind me you stupid AI.
"Figure of speech," I said, while my vision blurred slightly. She was seriously riding my ass, and I was starting to get sick of it. Patience. Paaatience.
"I tried to get Tali to speed it up, but I never got the okay from the higher ups. Structural changes have to be authorized by the engineers."
I decided to bite my tongue there, because now I knew there was a whole list of things they had never gotten around to fixing, even after having the Normandy docked for repairs after that SNAFU with the geth Cruiser. I really didn't need to give away that I knew so much, or how.
"Where are we heading to anyway?"
"Three hour jump to a possible Geth outpost. We're still not sure if it's out there or not, so that's where we're headed."
"How many of these outposts are there?"
"A few. Six on my last count, but the reports are still coming. Most of the fleet was destroyed after they got trapped between the Fifth and the Citadel Fleet, but the remnants scattered all over."
"I still don't understand why they're sending you. First human Spectre doing cleanup?"
The AI warning me again. Fuck her. The question, however, had more of an impact on Shepard than I had expected. She crossed her arms, leaned against the wall, and seemed to get lost in thought for a few seconds. I didn't expect something so simple would get her rattled at all, but the dark expression that flashed over her face told a very different story.
"We're the only ones who've fought the Geth repeatedly on the ground and come out on top," Shepard said.
"Are we?" That surprised me.
"Yes. Despite our losses on Virmire," she said, biting the words as they left her mouth, almost like she hated them, "we have had nothing but victories against the Geth, and Saren."
"What about everyone on the Citadel? They sure as hell fought Geth."
"Have you seen the casualty reports?" Shepard said, looking at me. I shook my head. "Trust me, that was no victory."
"I... see."
The lift had arrived a while ago, so Shepard pushed herself back upright and slapped me on the shoulder. "And that's why I'm so happy you're here. Come on, you've got work to do."
Huh. I had no idea what she had in mind. I followed her up the stairs, and through CIC towards the comms room at the back.
"Where's Anderson?"
"Probably taking command of his Dreadnought," Shepard said.
"Wha- Dreadnought?!" I said.
"Yes, got the promotion right after the battle of the Citadel," Shepard said.
She turned around, and the smile plastered on her face faded away when she looked at me. Probably because I was so fucking surprised I had even stopped walking. Dreadnought? Promotion? He wasn't the Councilor? Shit. In-game he did a shit job at it, but Udina was in Cerberus' pocket, so he was a hell of a lot worse. I couldn't even believe Shepard would choose Udina over Anderson, she fucking hated the guy.
"Oi!" Shepard said, breaking my chain of thought, and sounding a bit salty too. She pointed at my face with her finger as she spoke. "If someone deserves that promotion is Anderson. He's worked his ass off for the Systems Alliance, and-"
"Hey, hey!" I said, rising my hands in mock surrender. "I'm with you Shepard, I'm just surprised. Easy."
She huffed and put her hand down, twisting her mouth in an annoyed grimace.
"Sorry," she said, taking a deep breath. "I'm just pissed off at how they've treated him. I almost think they wanted us to fail and pin it on him or something."
"So who's the Councilor then? Not Udina I hope," I said.
Some day I'll remember to shut my fucking mouth. Shepard looked at me in surprise, got this weirded out look, and after a long(ish) pause, she grabbed me by the collar and dragged me to a corner.
"How the hell do you even know about that?" she said. "How the hell do you always know?"
"I don't, that's why I'm asking," I said. "Know about what?"
"You know what I'm asking, you damn well know it," she grunted. "How do you know who was up for the Councilor spot? And how do you know what went down with Anderson?"
"Shepard..." I said, leaving the end hanging. I wasn't going to say anything else, we had done that dance before. And why was she suddenly so pissed again?
She opened her mouth to say something, then seemed to have second thoughts and just closed and let me go.
"Dammit Roy, how do you always manage to piss me off?"
"Bad genes probably," I replied. "So you picked Udina?"
"Are you fucking with me now?"
"I'm... what?"
"Mercedes Goyle," Shepard replied. She looked at me, but I had no idea who that was. Surname rang a bell, but I hadn't heard the name before. And since I didn't react, Shepard just threw her hands in the air and rolled her eyes. "You're going to give me an aneurysm one of these days! She's the niece of the former ambassador to the Citadel."
"Oh. Surname was familiar, yeah."
"I'd hope so, but I never know with you," she said. She took another deep breath and chuckled. "Udina stabbed her aunt in the back the day he took over the office. You should have seen his face when I suggested her niece."
"I bet you enjoyed that," I said, and followed her as she took off towards the comms room.
"I needed a moment alone after that, yes," Shepard said, giving me a wink.
The two marines at the door saluted as we walked past, and as soon as we stepped into the room, six marines shot to their feet. All of them were huge, a good four to six inches taller than me (and at six feet two I'm not exactly a sprout). Cropped haircuts, two blonde and four dark haired, all of them looked like they had jumped straight out of a recruitment vid.
"Sir!" they called at once, saluting.
"At ease," Shepard replied, her tone clipped and professional. She walked to the end of the room and turned around, her presence radiating control even if she was the shortest in the room. "Gentlemen, we have less than five hours before we hit the ground at our first possible target. Our intel is limited, and your only experience fighting geth has been the cleanup during the Battle of the Citadel." She paused for emphasis, looking around the room. "Fortunately for you, of the three people with the most experience fighting geth in the whole galaxy, two of them are in this room with you."
Uh...
I didn't expect that. I was just standing at the back of the room, just letting Shepard do her thing, so when she said that and the marines turned to glance at me, I think I got the deer in the headlights look. But to my surprise, there were no snide remarks, chuckles, or anything like that. If anything, I'd say they were looking at me with respect.
Felt weird, let me tell you.
"While the rest of the crew finishes preparing for takeoff, we'll be going over Geth combat. You need to understand the difference between individual organic units and collective Geth tactics, how they react to changes in the battlefield, and how to disrupt their consensus to take advantage of their weak points. After we take off, we will be running short drills in the cargo bay until we're ready. Understood?"
"Yes sir!" the six of them replied.
"Good. Roy, get your ass up here."
So there I was, helping Shepard drill six marines, to prepare them for a fight against the remnants of the heretics, on what was going to be the last flight of the Normandy. Life really takes weird turns sometimes. And yeah, I had to tell the whole story of how I took Saren out of the sky with a rocket launcher.
"So there I was, two Armatures heading my way, and a single rocket left in the chamber..."
Screw you; after all I had gone through, I had every right to tell the story however the hell I wanted to. And you should have seen the size of the fish that got away, too.
I had been skittish the entire time I had been aboard the Normandy. I had tried to play it off, but I knew some people were starting to get tired of it. And one of them was definitely Pressly, since he was the one that I kept harassing to figure out where we were and what we were doing. But it had finally paid off.
We had arrived to Alchera.
"Shepard?"
"Come in," she called.
I hit the release on the door to her office and walked in. Shepard was sitting at her desk, one big mug of coffee in her hand and reading through a datapad. The place was a mess, but then again, we had been going non-stop since we had left the Citadel, so it's not like we had had time to clean. I had no idea how Shepard kept going the way she did, but I suspected the size of that mug of coffee had something to do with it.
"Busy?"
"Just going through the paperwork I've been avoiding," Shepard said. She put the datapad down and smiled. "So thank you for the opportunity. What do you need?"
"I was wondering if you've given my idea any further thought?"
"About the hardsuits?" she said, and I nodded.
My proposal had been very simple. Since this ship was a Turian-Human project, I had proposed we tried doing the same thing the Hierarchy did: All personnel was to be in hardsuits during ops. I had her half-convinced, mostly on the back of the little encounter the Normandy had had with the Geth cruiser when we were chasing Benezia. She wasn't completely convinced though, because turians actually liked being in armor.
"Is that why you're wearing yours?" Shepard said.
"Leading by example," I replied, tapping the chest plate of my envirosuit and getting a tinkle from Mika's pistol. "We've been stuck here two days and there doesn't seem to be anything, might as well give the crew something to do."
She leaned back and crossed her arms, looking at me with that amused smile still on. That meant there was something else coming. Oh boy, what the hell was she thinking now?
"Would you mind terribly if I told the crew this was your idea?" she said, in an oh-so-sweet voice.
Alarm bells...
"It is my idea I guess..."
"Great!" Shepard said. She reached for her terminal, hit the controls, and the overhead PA filled with the whistle of a command announcement. "Attention everyone. In the interest of improving our Turian-Human relations, and in the spirit of the Normandy's pioneering design..."
Freaking hell but she was laying it thick.
"... I have decided to implement a new directive. For the next twenty-four h-"
"Forty-eight," I whispered.
"Sorry, Forty-eight hours, all personnel are to wear a hardsuit at all times. This is a standard Hierarchy directive, and we are about to test how it operates with a human crew. See the requisitions officer to collect your standard issue set of Light Mantis armor, I want everyone suited-up within the hour. Please direct all feedback and comments through Roy Morgan, as this was his idea to begin with. That is all."
I heard a very hearty 'Fuck you Morgan!' through the closed door, which made Shepard laugh.
"Well, that was quick," I said.
"Don't forget to write down all the feedback and write a report for me," Shepard said. "And go downstairs to help them, some of them haven't been in a hardsuit since basic."
"Err... shouldn't the Chief be doing that?"
"He's busy with the Mako."
"... you're not blaming me for that one, are you?" I said.
"Who dropped the armature on it?"
"Who tried to drive under the armature with the Mako like a goddamn maniac?"
"There was plenty of room until you blew its leg off!" she protested.
"You were driving straight for that leg!"
"I was going to swerve!"
I opened my mouth to protest again, but just closed it and shook my head. Damn but she liked to yank my chain. She must have realized I had caught on, because she started laughing.
"Fuck's sake," I muttered, but this time I was chuckling too.
"Off you go Roy, don't forget you have to stay in your suit too."
"That's easy," I replied, tapping the chest plates of my suit again. "The envirosuit is comfy as hell. What about you?"
As soon as I said that, my vision went wavy and I was yanked out by the AI. It had been so surprising it actually took me a moment to figure out what had happened. She was floating as usual in front of my eyes, and for once her expression didn't look as robotic as usual. I could almost say she looked worried.
"Roy," the AI said.
"What now?"
"I told you, you can't-"
"I was just making conversation!" I snapped. "You know damn well she's going to be in her hardsuit when the Collectors attack."
"Just don't interfere. Without her... It has to happen. I'm sorry."
"No you fucking aren't." Goddamn the AI pissed me off. "It needs to happen, whatever. But don't say you're sorry."
"As you wish," the AI replied.
And with that, I was out. This time she didn't throw me out, I felt myself slide back into my body and I was back in the office with Shepard. I blinked to get my bearings, while Shepard was still talking.
"Off you go Roy, don't forget you have to stay in your suit too," Shepard said.
Freaking hell, she actually bothered to rewind me two seconds back so I wouldn't say anything? Bloody hell.
"Roy? You all right?" Shepard called.
"Yeah, yeah, just remembered something," I said. "Anyway, the envirosuit is a lot more comfy than normal hardsuits, I'll be fine."
"I'll be sure to remind the crew of that," Shepard said. "Off you go."
Needless to say, the crew weren't happy about this. I left the office to find a dozen people waiting for the lift and staring daggers at me, and it wasn't like I could disappear or go somewhere else. The Normandy isn't exactly big. So, all I could do was bear with it and get in the lift with the rest. They didn't actually say anything, and I sure as hell wasn't going to ask.
All in good time, was all I could think. All in good time.
That was all I had to do. Wait. With any luck, it might actually save some of the crew. Kinetic barriers, hard protection, and capable of space walking by default. All for the price of a very cheap hardsuit. They could hate me all they wanted, but I was saving their asses. That was my story, and I was sticking to it.
But the whole point was Shepard. I had all the diagnostics of the Normandy mirrored to my omni-tool, and had a backdoor access to emergency shutdowns all over. The plan was very, very simple. I had to get Shepard out. And it had to be done in an instant. I wasn't sure how the AI was going to react, but I was hoping that a very sudden way of getting Shepard to safety would throw her off a loop. Of course, there was the chance that she'd boot me backwards in time again to stop me, but other than the one time she had sent me back to Akuze, she had never done a rewind longer than a second or two. I was planning on "trapping" her in a loop, where jumping backwards a second or two wouldn't change the outcome.
We would have to see. But in the meantime, I had to stay in place, and try not to jump out of my skin every time the ship made a noise or shook a bit.
It was another day until the Collectors attacked. When the first shot hit us, I was cleaning the kitchenette after having cooked lunch for the ground team, and the ship shook so brutally that the artificial gravity wavered and shit went flying everywhere. A few people, too, flew with the shake, and hit the walls far too hard for my liking. My magboots had kicked in instantly, so I was rooted in place, holding on for dear life. Muscle memory is a wonderful thing.
And the second hit made my heart jump like no stim had ever done. Pandemonium exploded around us, and my omni-tool lit up with alerts from all over the ship. Everyone was still in their hardsuits, luckily, but we were going down fast. Joker was shouting through the comms, to try and get his voice above the entire rest of the disaster, until Shepard's voice rose above anything else.
"We're evacuating! Everyone get to the pods!"
Remember how I said I had a plan? I had it all figured out. I had all the systems in the omni-tool. I had spent a week writing code with the help of my favourite Geth buddy. All of that was pointless because I was standing there immobile like a fucking oyster while my brain was trying to process everything that was fucking happening around me.
Luckily, Shepard has that effect. She kicks everyone into action. I went into gear and rushed out with the rest of the crew, heading for the pods. I started killing systems as I went, starting with life support. Everyone was in hardsuits, and the gases from the atmo recycling were one of the things that could make the ship turn into a deathtrap when systems started overloading. The second thing was the pods. I made sure I uploaded some of my code that kicked the automatic launch when structural integrity failed. The system was in place, it had just never been tuned. Run, run, run. I came to a stop at the pod atop the CIC stairs, and uploaded the next load of code.
And got an error.
"Shit!" I yelled.
At that instant a blast hit the top of the Normandy, and the ablative armor finally failed. The explosion nailed me to the wall for a moment, while alarms blared in my suit for the heat hazard, and I pulled myself away from the flames to get to the pod's door. It was open, and displaying a red error. Shit. This wasn't supposed to happen. Shit!
Then I got a glimpse of N7 armor. Just in time.
"Shepard!" I called, needlessly screaming through the comms. "Help!"
Two people had dragged themselves out of the mayhem and gotten to the pod. I gestured for them to run in, and they did while Shepard rushed to join us.
"Roy! Get the hell in, what are you doing?!" Shepard shouted.
"It's stuck!" I replied, pointing at the door. "It's not closing!"
"Get in there!" she said, and got to the interface, omni-tool up and cursing as she tried to break in.
She wasn't going to break the code in a hurry. My geth code. I counted. One. Two. Three. Four. Five.
Should be enough.
I pushed myself behind Shepard, put my foot against a beam, and, with every single fiber of my being, charged right at her, hitting her hard enough with my shoulder to push her off her magboots and throw her inside the pod. That was the biggest worry I had. I was supposed to take an N7 by surprise and throw her inside the pod.
But it worked. The instant she went through the threshold, yelling and cursing, I hit the omni-tool to upload the last piece of code. In the blink of an eye the door unlocked, the door slammed shut, and the pod ejected at full speed.
I had about a tenth of an eyeblink to be surprised before the AI yanked me out of there. And not much more time to get my thoughts in order.
"ROY! What have yo- d-"
I caught a glimpse of the AI for a moment, the voice crackled and distorted. The image of the AI herself was distorted, and disappeared in what appeared to be a shower of distorted pixels before I was once again thrown back into my body, so hard that I felt like I had slammed down. I grabbed the nearest thing I could get a hold of and tried to steady myself. I was still in the Normandy. I was leaning against the closed door where the life pod had been. And it was still gone.
I've done it.
Maybe I should have been worried that the AI seemed to have had a major malfunction. Maybe I was just too fucking stoked that such a simple plan had worked. I had spent a week coding just to make sure I had the trap ready and without making the AI suspect a damn thing, making the shittiest, most convoluted, completely lacking in comments code, even making a point to write down things without even looking at the terminal screen at times, because I had no idea how the AI was tracking what I did. But it had worked. I had gotten Shepard in a life pod, and she was out safe.
I had fucking done it.
I wanted to scream. I wanted to do a dance. I wanted to run away and get the hell out of that place. I wanted to do a thousand things, but there was one more I needed to do. I pulled myself up to my feet and held on as the ship shook again. I had to get to Joker and get him out. I was not going to simply sacrifice him for the sake of saving Shepard. I had to get him out. I rushed out through the fire raging at the back of the CIC, hoping that my suit was going to hold off what appeared to be a level 3 heat hazard, and came out the other end like the fastest roasted pig you've ever seen, running as fast as I dared while trying not to lose my footing and go out flying into space. The front of the CIC was gone, debris floating eerily inside the mass effect bubble like a snow globe that had been shaken to death. There were a couple of bodies in the debris, and I had to fight hard to push through without feeling sick. Those were people I knew, and knew well. Those were people who were supposed to survive. Dammit all.
A flash of light ran through as another shot hit the Normandy, a column of light that took a bite out of the hull and sent us tumbling. I gritted my teeth, feeling as if my legs were going to snap as the magboots held against the intertia of my body going a different way, and managed to get to the cockpit.
Joker was shouting all kinds of instructions as his hands flew over the controls, and there was an echo from a second person. There was someone sitting on the co-pilot seat. I had no idea who it could be under the hardsuit, but half of it was covered in scorch marks.
"Joker! We're leaving!"
"No! I won't abandon the Normandy, I can still save her!"
"Goddamit Joker! There's no time for this shit, we're going down! Both of you, right now! Shepard's orders!"
I didn't wait for an answer. I pulled the omni-blade out, and sliced right through the seat's restraints, freeing Joker. He was the only one who wasn't in a hardsuit, so I had to put my arm around him and pull him with me with a lot of care, trying not to squash him. He cursed and protested the whole time, but he knew better than to try and fight me. I slapped the shoulder of the other person, and got a response from a voice I knew.
"I'm coming, I"m coming!" Talitha said. "I've set the distress beacon!"
"Come on! Help me with Joker, we need to hurry!"
I was shitting my pants, almost literally. I had to get to the pod and fast, the instant the Normandy lost the helm was the moment it became a sitting duck for the collectors, and I knew exactly how that ended. Cutscene incoming, with someone plummeting towards Alchera. I ran ahead as fast as I could, with Talitha bringing up the rear, and as soon as I was in front of the pod, I reached back, grabbed her with my free arm, and damn near hurled the three of us forward in the zero gee with all the strength I could muster.
We went through the door right as a beam from the Collectors cut through the cockpit, and the door to the pod slammed shut not a second after that. The ejection threw the three of us hard against the sealed hatch, and I heard Joker yell in pain and curse like a sailor almost all at once.
"Joker!"
"I think... I broke a rib..." he muttered. "Maybe ten..."
There was no gravity in the pod. I managed to secure myself to a wall with my magboots, and slowly managed to coach both Joker and Talitha towards the seats. All I could do for Joker was give him a shot of medi-gel, so I did that and finally secured him with the safety bars of his seat.
"I can't believe it..." Talitha was saying. "The Normandy. It's gone..."
"It's gone," I said, trying to peer through the small window at the top. I couldn't see a thing, only stars. "It's bloody gone. But we made it."
It took me a long time to calm down and come down from the rush. I knew it was coming, I thought I would be ready after everything I had gone through in the last few months in the Mass Effect universe. I had a fucking plan and everything. And it had been a touch and go clusterfuck that I barely managed to pull off by the skin of my teeth. Shepard was safe, and the AI appeared to be gone. Whatever came next, I had no idea. But I had the chance to clear up more than a few things with Shepard, as soon as we got rescued by the Systems Alliance.
I just couldn't get the image of the two floating bodies in CIC, and wondered how many others had had to die because I couldn't warn Shepard ahead of time. The entire hoopla with the hardsuits had been a complete misdirection for the benefit of the AI. I had hoped it'd be useful, but it was just the excuse I was using to get into the Normandy - to try and save as many of the crew as I could. But Talitha was right there, and I remembered from the cutscene of Mass Effect 2 that she was supposed to be dead. So it had worked. For some people, at least. I reached up and ran my hand over Mika's pistol.
For some people.
I had a long time to think about of this, sitting in a pod with no other sound than the occasional moan of pain from Joker, or crying sob from Talitha. None of us seemed to have any words left.
Author's Notes: Welcome to Mass Effect 2. Population: The Galaxy, plus Shepard. The AI wanted me to change things? Well, guess fucking what!
Now, before you say anything, yes, that is a bit stupid. But hey, it worked! I've been getting away with stupid plans all fic, so just roll with it. Now we have two and a half years of Shepard, and no AI to get in the way. Shepard can't handle the truth? Pah! It's Shepard! Imagine the possibilities!
*Cough*
This is probably the most revealing thing about the AI I've done, but it might be a while before it comes together what just happened. In the meantime, there's all that plotting to get to. And a long ass wait in a life pod to do it.
Confession time: I fucking hate the start of Mass Effect 2. Killing off Shepard only to immediately resurrect you, give you the same ship, and off to do missions? It's utterly pointless. And even better, with the people that fucking organized Akuze. Seriously? And that's just the beginning! The entire main plot is just so meh, tiny in scope compared to ME1, littered with idiotic moments and ideas that shouldn't have made it past the editors, just... just no.
On the other hand, the character development, side quests, it's full of brilliant and iconic characters. The mechanics of combat vastly improve ME1. Skills were a bit too streamlined for my taste, but I can see that it worked very well. Everything except the main fucking plot is brilliant. The lack of hoopla that Shepard's come back to life. Cerberus logo on the ship and nobody stops you and thinks "hm, wait a goddamn minute!". I just didn't get it at all.
The epitome of everything that's wrong with Mass Effect 2 (in my opinion, of course), it's the final fight with the human reaper... thing. It's utterly idiotic as a concept (and all the implications), but mechanically it's a brilliant final fight: A giant robot with waves of enemies on a rapidly disappearing platform; it felt like an epic, fun, and in higher difficulties challenging fight. But conceptually? Blargh.
So yeah, that's my three paragraphs of bitching. Sorry!
Anyway, it's been a while, but I haven't forgotten! Thanks everyone for the reviews. Let's get to them!
BJ Hanssen: I thought about the whole Geth collective, but decided that having Gee do his own thing (with a small minority from the consensus) was the way to go. This is a very long term chain reaction :D
Tahkaullus01: Surprise! Shepard didn't fall to Alchera :D
Uemei: I like that scene! I'm still shopping for ideas on Gee and the Broker, so keep 'em coming, hehe.
Rainsfere: It's hard to be mad at Shepard, since what happened was that the Broker tried to trade in the information he was just supposed to give. Had he given it and Shepard ignored it, however, it'd have been a different story. And besides, the bargain was to give the information and that included more than just to Shepard. Yeah, didn't have much faith in the Broker's excuses.
V-rcingetorix: I think Liara and Roy will end up having a chat at some point, it won't be awkward at all no sir :D
general-joseph-dickson: I plan on having some fun with Gee-Broker!
Endrius: Shepard told him SHTF on Virmire when she went to see him at the hospital ship.
fan-rei: Without Gee? Yeah, that's going to be fun for Roy. Definitely will have to step it up. The deal with Feron was just someone to "casually" help her without giving away he worked for the Broker.
Toothless is best: I was tempted to have Roy bite it during Alchera, but I have other plans. Muahahaha!
cuisinart8: Thanks! Yeah, it's almost like an accidental setup Roy's gotten there but quite good. Of course, it's not like the Iaera is an important ship (well, it might grow in importance with the new equipment!), but the quarians are a close-knit bunch and they don't forget this kind of thing :)
02: There's the real question, whether non-enhanced surviving Shepard would be capable of pulling off all the stuff she needs to. Thing is, the enhancements come at the expense of being in with Cerberus. With more support from the Systems Alliance she might pull things off better.
The Invisible Pretender: Sowwy :3 Thanks for the kudos tho!
Raikaguken: I'll see if I can get something!
Terminal343: Yeah, pretty average is where I was aiming for, that's good for Roy! (He's getting better tho).
FluxBlade: Thanks! Clarified some of your questions with this chapter :) I have something planned for Nihlus, hopefully it'll work. Gonna suck for someone down the line tho.
Shadowolf: Thank you! It was tempting to wipe the Shadow Broker, believe me it was. While I wouldn't call it evil, the SB's organization always struck me as completely amoral. But the implications, can you imagine what Tela Vasir would do to me if I broke up the Broker's organization? Yikes! (Shit, did I give away a spoiler? I might have!).
SpecterXCove: Let the games begin!
AraelStannis, Zeru'Xil, XRaiderV1, mk0008, bluemarlin, GrimmPandaMan, Rektang, Leante, shadow, thank you so much for the support and taking time to review! I really appreciate it.
Okay, so, next? Next... I really can't give anything away except for one thing: I'm an asshole, and you'll agree with me. Can't wait, and until then, thank you so much for reviewing, following, and of course, reading!