A/N: This upcoming segment is one my most favorites for this story. I hope you all enjoy it as much as I did writing it all. Just FYI, it's going to last a couple chapters.
Kellise: Sorry. :( It hurts, I know.
LongShotArrow98: I'm glad you like Juel! At one point, he was going to be sidelined, but I decided to keep him on a whim, and look how he turned out? He only gets more important with later chapters. Along with another quarian in the future. Have fun!
1054SS325MP: Hope you still doin' okay, bud. :)
|Date: 5/10/2184|
|Location: Far Rim/Il-Ma System/Approaching Nocturnal-Sentinel/Aboard Corvette Class Ship: Event Horizon/CIC:Pilot Deck|
"This rock is massive." Juel muttered as he watched the port view camera.
"Touch down in three." Kal exclaimed as he motioned to those behind him.
The corvette trembled when its feet made contact with the ground.
Juel and Kal lean their heads back in relief.
Phase one was done and over with.
Kal unbuckled his seatbelt and got out of his chair. "Let's go ahead and get ready."
"For what?"
"We're going topside to see how the other teams are doing."
"Whoa. What? Out there?" Juel pointed to the small window, "Do we even have a rover?"
"Juel. I ain't walking a mile just to meet them. That'd be ridiculous." Kal said as he shook his head, "Who'd wanna waddle out in the vacuum for two hours?"
Juel shook his head and shrugged before waving Tali goodbye. "Take care Tali. I'll be back soon."
She didn't bother replying.
Her mood wouldn't allow it.
And even though Juel knew why, it didn't stop him from feeling terribly shitty for her.
Her mood had been a real drag as of late, (more than usual) and he was starting to worry.
If it were really his guess, she'd been pale under that mask of hers since John's death.
Hearing that message probably made her look like death.
She hardly ate anything lately... and the lack of sleep was chipping away at her already crass and acrid attitude. The woman was slowly killing herself.
With one last reluctant stare, he turned the corner and made his way to the cargo deck with Kal.
Tali stared blankly at them before leveling her gaze back at the empty metal wall before her.
It'd been two days of travel before they finally landed on this rock.
Two days since she heard John's last words in Garrus' email.
She never did reply to the turian... and she wasn't exactly in an eager mood to reply either.
She was sure he expected that. He'd understand.
Ten minutes pass and she still hadn't moved from her chair.
The pilot had left minutes ago with one of his buddies and no one, not a single crew member or marine, had come up to her to ask for her help or bring her attention to an important matter that needed tending to.
So she sat and waited for nothing.
Waited for the mission she didn't want to do anymore.
A mission she wasn't motivated to finish or even work up the courage to worry over.
The mere idea of staying another four days on this shitty asteroid only made her feel worse.
Her two hands grip the arm rests until it hurt.
"Fuck." She said with a long drawn out mutter. She got up and decided it be best to go to bed and hide under her covers until someone would come along and bother her with work.
Before she could take two steps off the bridge, her radio squawked.
"Hey Tali." Juel said over the radio.
"Juel." She greeted, "What do you need?"
"Reeger and I are leaving now in the rover." There was a pause and she could hear Juel shouting at Reeger for running over a giant rock, "Keelah, Kal! Slower! The thing beats walking, but I don't want to spend an hour fixing it!"
She could hear Reeger mumble a half-sincere apology in the background.
"Anyways, Tali, just let us know if anything happens, okay? We're meeting up with the second corvette in about thirty minutes."
"Okay." She mumbled.
"For what it's worth, Tali... know that I'm here. Hope you feel better soon." Juel said before closing the channel.
"Yeah..." She muttered lamely to herself, "Me too."
|Date: 5/10/2184|
A chime is heard from the far end of the room.
…
…
Liara picked up the phone.
"Garrus."
"Liara. I sent the message two days ago. She still hasn't answered." The turian sighed. "She must be taking this pretty hard."
"I guessed that..."
"How bad was John when you found him?"
"The vacuum of space did a good job of preserving his remains." Liara managed to say before placing a sweaty palm on her forehead.
Garrus' reply was hoarse enough to hear the prominent plucking of his vocal chords. "Seeing that there wasn't a planet to fall into anymore… I'm making the assumption that his remains floated in vacuity. How'd you find him?"
"It was almost impossible. Radiation from Ullipses' star made it nearly unfeasible to find an eezo bleed anywhere." Liara shook her head, "So we started searching for debris. And we found him inside a VTOL. The same one that got us off Ullipses."
"Should we say more? Is the line secure?"
"The line's fine. We may not like them Garrus... but what choice do I have?"
There was a slight pause before Garrus replied hesitantly.
"Not much."
"You listened to John's message. How well do you think she took it?"
"She's... going to need time to digest that." Garrus murmured.
"How long did you know?" Liara asked.
"Elaborate."
"How long did you know they were together?"
"I don't know. They loved each other. That's all that counts."
The turian's voice suddenly lowered into a low growl. "Tali needs to know."
"She can't."
Garrus curbed the urge to slam his fist on the table next to him.
"You're making a mistake."
"Then I'll pay for it."
He shook his head disappointingly.
"I don't know what else to say, Liara."
"You don't need to say anything."
"You're giving John a second chance. And one for Tali too."
"I know."
"I only hope the amount of effort you brought bringing Shepard back will recompense the mistake you're making."
"If those words could have any more meaning… I might not worry."
"We'll see about that." He remarked, "Liara. I'm going to have to call this short. I've got to get back to work."
"Work?" Liara frowned, "Garrus… what are you doing?"
"The dirtiest house-cleaning a turian could ever muster to do, Liara."
And with that, Garrus hung up the phone.
|Date: 5/12/2184|
|Location: Far Rim/Il-Ma System/Departing Nocturnal-Sentinel/Aboard Corvette Class Ship: Event Horizon/CIC|
"That's our window." Kal pointed to the monitor overhead, "Okay, bring the landing gear up. Let the rheostats do their thing."
Kal grabbed the radio's receiver. "Maintain disciplined radio silence, everyone. This'll be the last transmission we do before we hit the planet's atmosphere. Communicate with low-level light flares if it becomes necessary."
The other two ships acknowledge his command before terminating their channel.
Kal's hands met his lap before leaning back in his chair to get a better look out of all the screens around him.
"It'll be another day or two before we hit the planet's surface." He said as he faced both Tali and Juel, "You're free to do whatever. l'll call if I need you."
Juel waved good-bye before turning the corner with Tali down to the bunks.
"You feeling any better?" Juel stooped under a panel to the roof of a service duct somebody had opened to repair.
"Better than yesterday." Her voice flattened when she dipped under the grating herself.
"Good." Juel said, "Have you replied to your friend?" He sat down at his bed and started going through some of his things.
"No… I haven't." She sat down on her own bed and crossed her arms to hide the slight trembling from sobbing the past hour.
"You should. I remember you telling me that you haven't spoken to him since leaving them."
"Later." She muttered.
"Tali. I'm being serious." He murmured, "You hold out on it, and you'll lose them someday." Juel gave the wall next to him a long sideways glance while frowning sadly at some of his memories, "I've... done it one too many times."
"I won't." She spat rudely before throwing the blanket over herself, "I just need some god damned time."
"...More than your soul could ever afford, Tali." Juel said before patting the end of her cot.
"Keelah Se'lai." Her eyes squeeze shut and remembered how Raan had said the same thing to her all those months ago.
|Date: 5/16/2184|
|Location: Far Rim/Il-Ma System/ASPO-D22/Departing Corvette Class Ship: Event Horizon/
"I want weapons in everyone's hands people!" Kal said as he motioned for the rest of the team to deploy onto the ground.
"You will eat, sleep, and cherish the rifle in your hands. You will have an affair with your rifle, and hope that your living other-half never finds out!" Kal joked.
Several of his marines chuckle.
Kal's attention turned to Tali and gave her a nod.
"The others have landed one click to the east, and two clicks to the southwest ma'am."
"Thanks, Kal." She murmured.
Juel, behind both Tali and Kal, swore loudly while he replaced the rover's wheel Kal had managed to break on the asteroid.
Kal thumbed behind him to Juel.
"Juel's, uh, pissed, ma'am." Kal managed to say before massaging the back of his neck embarrassingly.
"Kal. He's got a good reason."
"Not that we need it anyways. We have the transport in the back." And on que, the corvette's undercarriage started lowering an M-29 Grizzly with a crane.
"Uhm... Where's the gun?" Tali asked.
"Yeah, that's what I said." Kal motioned for her to follow when he approached the APC.
"They had to make room. We improvised and ended up installing a thirty caliber coaxial anti-tank weapon system on the side. Turian made. About as hardcore as it gets. For the size at least."
"Impressive." She said, "I hope we'll never have to use it."
"Couldn't agree more." He climbed to the top and opened the driver door.
"After you, ma'am."
The M-29 Grizzly was an icon for colonizing space.
And while the name resonated with many, it never made up for how shitty the suspension system was.
Juel groaned, as did several others, when they went over another steep rock and jostled around like a gaggle of idiots.
Five point seat belts didn't do much, other than keep you from slamming into anyone else. And while they shouldn't have taken it for granted, Juel couldn't help but feel about how much a far cry it was from say, some of the old hoverdynes they used back when he was in the marines.
Conversation was mostly absent also. If anyone wanted to talk, they had to do it through the suit radios because the cabin was so goddamned loud.
A miserable experience, put simply.
"Ayguhr-one to Ielsima-one, radio check, over."
"Ayguhr-one this is Ielsima-two, reading you five by five. Go for Ieslima-one actual."
"Copy two, some windstorms are picking up five clicks east of here, break..." Another vicious tremor rumbled across the car, "... and the forecast looks bad."
Kal looked over the data scrolling across the truck's windshield. "So it looks like a storm is gonna stick with us for the rest of the week, over."
Great. More reason to leave this rock.
"Copy, one. The outlook doesn't speak highly for our stay." She replied slowly while her voice went deeper into static.
"Agreed. What's your estimate on signal strength then?" He leaned back as he maneuvered around some of the random rocks and dead trees that would cross their path.
"A hundred meters, one. Nothing more. From our readout, high concentrations of iron definitely litter this continent. Intelligence was on the money. COM units can't push through those deposits."
"And neither will the Geth." Kal asserted as his hands tighten on the steering wheel.
"I'd like to entertain that idea, Ayguhr-one. Let's not get our preconceptions hopeful now... over."
"Noted, two. Let's maintain radio discipline until that storm hits. I don't want a surprise waiting for us in the storm."
"Copy last, one. Anything else?"
"That'll be all. Stand-by for future updates. We'll keep you posted. Out."
Kal hung the receiver, sighed, and kept driving before glancing at Tali.
"You alright?"
"Yes." Tali lied, "I'm just thinking."
Kal's brow furrowed darkly at her slouched posture. "...Right."
"Seriously... You don't have to worry about me. I'm fine."
Kal saw Juel, who'd been sitting next to her, shake his head before crossing his arms and mouthing: 'Leave it be, Kal.'
Leave it be.
Codex Entry: Low-Level Light Flares
Though they have been proved time and time again to be obsolete by their predecessors, the outdated low-level light flares, Nicknamed the fifty-fireflies or Lx-3F, continues to see service in many naval forces including: batarian, hanar, volus, human, and quarian warships. The Lx-3F is designed to emit low pulsing lights to signal friendly ships in its local vicinity to report their status without the use of electrical communication. This allows for discreet communication without ships giving away their immediate position.
The quarian fleet have adapted the Lx-3F solely for communicating amongst friendlies in geth space for tactical maneuverability during space travel, with ships usually drifting for days at a time in order to remain hidden. The Lx-3F doesn't emit heat and is provided in a vast array of colors and timed flashes.