A/N:It gets deep everyone. Tell me what you think when you're done reading.
|Date: 5/20/2184|
|Location: Far Rim/Il-Ma System/ASPO-D22
Juel was going to be pissed if he caught her rummaging out alone like this.
But she didn't care.
Out here, alone, in this dark corridor far from the others? It was calming in a way.
She didn't have to talk to anybody... or make appearances. Or act like everything was okay when it wasn't. The only thing to keep her company was her thoughts, her flashlight, and the abandoned antiques she would occasionally come across.
She kept walking slowly and would pause every once in a while to look at the old dusty relics scattered about the floor. Most of the stuff here was well beyond recognizable. 300 years of rotting and aging would do that, Tali supposed.
She took a left down another hallway and walked down its length.
And right when she was about to take another bend down another corridor, she stopped when she'd noticed one of the thick plated doors hadn't been shut all the way like all the others.
Which, obviously, spiked her immediate interest.
"Huh..." She mumbled under her breath before setting a hand against its frame. It certainly wasn't big enough to squeeze through.
But it was opened just enough for her to peek in.
Judging by how thick the door was, it ran off a motor.
Which meant there were gears to operate it. But three hundred years of not being listed on the maintenance roster or getting lubed was bound to have rusted shut by now.
She pushed it anyways to see if would give any under her strength.
Surprisingly enough, she'd seen it shift a couple of centimeters.
With luck, she could pry the door open with a pipe or something...
She clipped her flashlight to her belt and started searching the ground for anything that would look even remotely useful.
And just then, her radio squawked.
"Uh... Tali?" Juel said over the radio, "Where are you?"
Tali sighed, walked over to some old drawer and pilfered through its contents. "Uhm... Looking around."
"Looking around." Juel repeated nonplussed, "You with anyone?"
She was hardly paying attention to what he was saying as she pushed the drawer back in to search for something else. "Uh..."
"You're alone, aren't you."
"Maybe." She answered as she knelt down to pick up what looked to be some old gun next to what looked to be the remains of an old rusting pitchfork.
"Keelah, Tali. You're breaking the rules."
Tali didn't reply.
"Tali?"
She blinked in surprise, the weapon in her hands forgotten. Just at her feet, next to where she'd picked up this ancient rifle, was a dead geth.
Tali would have readily admitted that she felt slightly panicked by the sight, even if it were just for a moment.
"Tali? You okay? ...Answer me."
She knelt down closer to the centuries old geth carcass, with its calcified joints and browning metal, and tried to read the inscribed label that would have been on its left pectoral.
"Yeah, I'm fine Juel." She murmured.
And right where Tali expected it to be, it read:
SM: 9463-35-33
UNIT: 1281A [FACILITY OF SCIENCES: CELL 18]
PROPERTY OF GORMEH PEOPLES DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC
She sighed when she couldn't read anymore of the inscribing.
It was a wonder she was even able to read any of it honestly... past the rust and chipping paint, was a warped hole in its chest.
Whether the gun she was holding in her hands was responsible for that, she could only guess.
"Tali, I understand why you're out there alone. But it isn't safe."
"I've been in worse Juel." She said with a faint smile, "Don't worry about me."
She could hear him muffle his sigh. "Just... call in when you're done or if you need help."
"I will Juel. Don't worry."
Juel cut the channel.
She got up, went over to the door, and jammed the barrel of the gun she was holding into its crevice before using some leverage to pry it open.
She smiled as the door gave in and opened itself wide enough for her to slip through.
And when she did, she stopped herself from lurching back and gasping at what she'd found just ahead of her.
"K... Keelah..."
Bones.
Or whatever was left of them.
Judging just by the number of them alone told her at least three quarians died here. And the bits of tattered cloth that dangled off them was hauntingly disturbing to look at.
She took one small step inside the room, checked every corner twice over with her flashlight, and looked back at the quarian remains.
She hadn't noticed the beat of her heart thrumming in her ears or the shallow breaths she was taking.
She didn't know why... but she was scared.
She set a hand against her radio but immediately thought better of it.
She didn't have the heart to say anything or to call Juel, so she kept silent and searched around the room to see if she could find anything worth taking back to camp.
It didn't take her long to see that, just above the bones, to the wall, was a safe.
She took one small step after another, stepped over the quarian remains, and set a hand against the keypad.
And just for the hell of it, she pressed some keys.
And, just as she expected, nothing happened.
Well.
That was that.
"Hey, Juel?" Tali called over her radio, "I think I found something."
"Damn, Tali." Kal managed to say before putting his hands on his hips, "You've certainly found something."
"We're talking about the bones right?" Juel interrupted, gaping at the quarian remains, "Because I think that's way more interesting than the safe."
"That may be the case, but they aren't particularly useful to us." Kal retorted.
"What makes us think we'll even find something in it?" Juel wondered.
"Well, typically, people use them to put important things in." Tali replied.
"Let's hope so." Juel grumbled, "Guess I'll take it out of the wall then."
"Need any help?"
"I'd imagine the safe's just a door over a concrete hole." Juel observed, "All it might take is hammering out the rods holding it in place."
"Do what you need to." Kal said, turning on his heel, "In the meantime, the others will keep searching for more rooms like these."
"Have fun."
"Keep your new friends company, will you. Looks like it's been ages since they've had guests." Kal said, thumbing the bones before walking out.
"Oh, yeah." Juel scoffed before turning to Tali, "Well. You ready?"
She nodded.
"Here goes." He set the drill bit against the first screw and started.
Tali frowned at the squealing sound of metal.
"How you been?" Juel asked to start some small talk.
"I'm okay." She said simply.
"Yeah? I've been doing okay too." He answered.
He cracked his neck and pressed harder into the drill.
"Yeah, you should've been with us, Tali. We were down looking at this underground garage. Full of armored cars and a drop-ship."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah. Eye candy, really. Too bad none of them work. Shame."
"You find any bones there?" Tali asked, glancing at the ones next to them.
"Nope. You'd think we would have." Juel said before shrugging.
He finished the first bolt and started with the next, "So... What do you think happened here?"
"Bad things." Tali answered.
He stopped drilling for a second and shook his head before staring at the remains.
"Yeah..." His stare lingered for a moment, "Tragic."
"I don't think 'tragic' does them justice." Tali whispered.
"Probably not." He nodded before setting himself back to work.
"Need any help?"
"Really a one man job, Tali. No need."
"Think there's any way you can salvage this?" Tali asked before picking up the old rifle she'd used to open the door with earlier.
He glanced at the old pathetic thing for all of a second before shaking his head. "No way. You're talking about hundreds of years of rusting. The threading inside's ruined. The internals are probably the same too.
Tali shrugged and set the gun back down on the old desk. "Oh."
Juel worked silently and she watched.
When he finished stripping out the second bolt, he turned around, nodded to Tali that he was almost done, and started on the third one.
"Really think we'll find something in here?" Juel said.
"I don't know, Juel. That's why you're doing this."
"Hope I'm not wasting my time."
"If the safe's airtight... then whatever's in it will have stayed preserved." Tali thought aloud.
He nodded. "Well. We're gonna find out soon enough."
Juel broke the third screw and started with the last one. "Yeah, it looks like the safe's a solid box and not just a door. Damn."
Tali stepped in next to him and waited for him to strip the last screw.
When he finished, he set the drill down and started pulling the safe out of the wall.
"I need some help." Juel grunted.
They each grabbed a side and pulled the safe out of the wall. When it clunked heavily onto the floor, they heard several things rumble around inside of it.
"Well... that answered that. Something's in it." He breathed.
"Yeah..." She said distantly while nodding, "Definitely."
Juel rubbed the kink out of his shoulder and bent down to pick the fairly large safe up. "Okay. Let's carry it down and we'll open it there."
"Right."
Two hours later...
Areht'Mar vas Paltino tossed over a piece of rusty metal over to an ever growing pile of junk before glancing at Juel and giving him a sorry look.
The guy had been working on that safe for the better part of two hours.
And it didn't look like he was making much progress.
"Juel, you know it's okay to take a break, right?" Areht said concerningly.
A marine overheard Areht and shook his head. "Yeah. Bet your back's killing you."
Juel spared himself a moment to give them both a shrug before returning to work.
His back was killing him.
And the only thing that wasn't stopping him from taking a break or giving up wasn't the idea that there could've been something important in it, but his inflated sense of curiosity.
Seriously. What the hell could be in this thing?
Well, he wasn't going to find out if all he did was wonder about it. He applied more pressure against the drill after setting a boot against the metal box.
Tali, who'd been looking over some of the electronic relics brought back to camp that seemed even remotely interesting, would occasionally look to see if Juel had made any progress.
And so far, she couldn't really tell.
The front of the safe had been marred beyond all recognition from Juel's drilling.
He caught notice of Tali staring and shrugged in slight disappointment before kicking away some of the shavings that'd been collecting near his feet.
"Keep working on it, Juel." Tali offered as she tossed a piece of junk behind her, "You'll get it eventually."
"Actually... I think I'm..." Juel strained to say as he started to feel something crack and give, "almost there..."
He pushed harder.
"Come on... Come. On. you... bosh'tet."
Several quarians gather around him as he worked, sensing that he was finally getting close.
"You think you got it?" Kal asked.
"Yeah... I g—" Juel didn't get to finish. The safe finally busted wide open and made everyone jump in surprise.
"Shit!" Juel yelped as they all stepped back.
"Holy fuck!" Kal screamed, "Keelah... That was loud as hell. Everyone okay?"
"Yeah..." They all mumbled.
Tali stood up and crossed the room to Juel. "Well?"
Juel set the drill down and got on a knee to get a better look.
"See anything?" Tali asked, leaning in next to him to try and get a peek.
"...Yeah..." He said before pulling out a folder chocked full of papers and a little brown satchel, "Wow..."
Anyone within earshot of him turned around and stared at the stuff in his hands.
"Move over." Juel demanded as he made his way to a table.
"What the hell is all that?" Kal asked.
"Juel. Open it up. Let's see."
Juel set the folder aside and slowly unwound the binding of the little parcel before digging a hand inside.
His eyes widened a bit and the room fell silent.
"Guys." He murmured with disbelief, "They're OSDs."
Everyone crowded around to get a better look.
"Do they say anything?" A woman asked.
"No. Nothing." Juel answered quietly, his eyes transfixed on the ancient little devices.
The lead scientist, with the name of Pirahn'Roh vas Noriah, picked up one of the disks, examined the little sub-port, and nodded to himself.
Technology was different back then. And the team anticipated that.
So they brought equipment that would be compatible with anything that would've survived here.
Namely, OSD's fabricated three centuries ago.
"Get our computers up and running now." Pirahn called out, "I want g-cam six cables here, wired up, and ready for info taxing."
"You heard the man, let's go!" Kal ordered.
The quarians split up into a hurried bustle to fetch Pirahn the things he needed.
While the team scrambled, Juel and Tali stared blankly at the disks in their own hands to see if they could learn anything else.
So far, they'd all been blank and unlabeled.
"Juel. Keep looking to see if you can find anything. I'm going to start searching through the papers."
Juel nodded. "Be careful though, Tali. They're a little brown. Might crumple if you manhandle them."
She flipped open the binder (delicately she might add) and started skimming through its ancient contents.
The first thing she noted was the hand writing.
Obnoxious penmanship, definitely.
Almost illegible.
She sighed and strained to pick out the words in Khellish.
Of the things she could read were words like "constraints" and "time-frames" or terms like "cost-benefit analysis" and "dimension diagrams".
"The safe belonged to an engineer, I think." Tali said. She flipped through several other papers and started to see military documents.
"Anything else?" Juel asked.
"Uhm... Yeah. Looks like whoever this was might've been in the military too."
"You don't say," Juel intoned quietly as he handed her a disk, "because this one's been signed by a Major Dieeal'Larma..."
Tali took the OSD and read over the name before looking through the papers again.
At the top of one of them read:
GORMEH PEOPLES ARMY
MAJOR DIEEAL'LARMA
[FACILITY OF SCIENCES]
RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT (RESEARCH DIVISION)
[CELL 14: Group 1]
When Pirahn's team set up the tables and computers with the right drivers to accept the OSDs, Tali and Juel walked over with them in hand and set them into stacks.
The foyer fell deathly silent.
Pirahn stepped aside to give Juel some room.
"Do it Juel." Tali said stoically.
He gave her a single nod, selected one at random, and looked around at the dozens of faces watching him.
"Here goes." He whispered.
He inserted the drive into the computer and waited.
"Bring it up on the holo screen." Pirahn said.
One of his technicians put a duplicate up to a large blank wall for everyone to see.
Pictures started to line the screen.
Pictures of a quarian family.
And when they did, jaws dropped.
Tali's mouth went dry as she stared blankly at the colorful images of their naked ancestors before setting a hand against her chest.
Juel scrolled down to look at more of the photos.
The next one was of a girl, no older than four, sitting in her mother's lap in the midst of a grassy field on a bright and sunny day.
"It's a video..." Juel whispered, his hand trembling slightly over the play button.
Tali stared deeply into the mother's eyes, crinkled and relaxed from her wide smile.
Her daughter looked much the same.
"...Play it." Tali said.
"Video file selected. Compiling data. Stand-by." The computer said.
The picture of the woman and the girl began to move.
The first thing they hear is laughter.
"Milia, look at the camera, my daughter!" Said someone out of the shot. The father must've been the one filming.
Milia shook her head from left to right with a big beaming smile on her face.
Some of the quarians standing next to Tali take a step back, some purely out of shock or of just how surreal it all looked.
But she stood rigid and watched.
The mother wrapped her arms around Milia and gave her a kiss on the cheek before speaking.
"Come on Milia, smile! We'll look back and laugh at how silly you are now."
The mother's raven black hair fell across her shoulder and diffuses the sun's ambient and bright yellow rays behind her.
The camera zooms in closer to focus on Milia.
"Tell daddy you love him." The mother said to the girl.
"I wrove ue, dadee!" The girl giggled as she looked toward the camera before smiling brightly.
"I love you too, my baby." The father cooed. A bare three fingered hand, no doubt the father's, entered the shot and touched Milia's cheek.
The girl leaned into her father's hand.
Tali felt herself smile.
It was beautiful.
"Say bye-bye to the camera!" The mother guides her daughter's hand to and fro, and the video winked out of existence.
And that's when Tali realized she'd been holding her breath.
"Keelah." Pirahn muttered.
Tali nodded absently and realized every member of the team stared resolutely forward at the blank wall where the video had just been.
No doubt form reflecting or swallowing what they'd just seen.
"...Are there any more, Juel?" Tali asked quietly.
"I—I don't know..." Juel murmured when he finally took a seat. The way he wrung his hands over the keyboard spoke volumes of the anxiety in his gut. He leaned back into the computer and turned to everyone else.
"Anyone want to see more?"
Tali nodded while the others did much the same.
Juel selected another.
One dated much later than the last.
|Approximately 289 Years ago.|
|Date: 8/8/1895 CE||Quarian Calender: YR 2486|
|Location: Far Rim/Il-Ma System/Gormeh Peoples Democratic Republic/City of Basin Si/ASPO-D22|
|Eighth Cycle: Crescent Noble.|
Milia wouldn't stop crying.
So Yima'Larma did her best to try and comfort her daughter.
"Shhh, it's okay, Milia, it's okay," Yima cooed as she wrapped her arms around her, "Everything's fine."
Another explosion rumbled in the far distance and the glassware in the kitchen shook ever so slightly.
"Dieeal...?" Yima muttered, her eyes wet with barely held back tears.
Milia continued to sob into Yima's shoulder.
The vibrations from yet another explosion from somewhere far off disturbed the dinner plates on the table. The loaf of bread from their hardly eaten meal tumbled to the floor.
They found them.
And they were getting closer.
Dieeal stared on, through the window, into the inky darkness of the night and nodded with a thin lipped frown at the immensity of it all.
"We have to move." Dieeal said simply.
He turned away from the window to his wife and daughter, "They're coming."
"Coming? We're supposed to be safe!" Yima cried, "The evacuation fleets won't be here until two days' time!"
"I know." Dieeal murmured before grabbing his wife's hand and consoling her, "We have to go. Come on."
The three stepped out of the kitchen and made room for several quarian soldiers running to get outside.
"Where are we going?" Yima wondered as she carried Milia.
"To my office." Dieeal answered as the cross down a hallway and up a flight of stairs.
When they entered his office, Yima set Milia down, hugged her again and went to Dieeal.
Another distant explosion rattled the building.
And it was much closer than the last.
Klaxons started blaring.
Milia's crying turned to sobs.
"Yima, you need to put this on." Dieeal handed her a chest rig with armor plates and a gun before dawning himself in his own gear, "You're going to lock this door after I leave, do you understand?"
Yima holstered the sidearm her husband gave her before shaking her head immediately. "No. You cannot be serious."
Dieeal's radio squakwed. "The geth have breached the outer wall. All units stand by for immediate recourse of orders."
Yima put her head into her palms and shook her head madly from left to right. "Why. Why is this happening...?"
"I don't know. But you need to protect Milia, Yima. I'll be back soon, hun."
"Dieeal," Yima muttered as the tears fell, "Please be safe..."
"I will try." He whispered sadly as his wife handed him a camera.
"Put it on your helmet. And record everything."
Dieeal nodded, pressed the record button, and attached it to his helmet before kneeling down to his daughter.
"Milia. Daddy's gotta go."
"No." She sobbed, wrapping her dainty little arms around him, "please... don't."
"I know, Milia. I know." He said as he bit his trembling lip, "But I have to. I'll be back soon. I love you. Be strong for mommy, Milia. She'll protect you."
Dieeal stood up and ruffled her hair with a smile that looked more forced than anything before turning to Yima.
"I love you." Is all he could muster to say. They kissed each other with as much passion as he could fit inside of a second and went back out into the hall before giving them one last loving glance.
And then he was gone.
He jogged down the hallway and joined several other soldiers running outside.
"What's the situation?" Dieeal asked as he clicked the gun's safety off, "How many are here?"
A lieutenant looked back at Dieeal as they both jogged down the hallway and answered. "Hear there's a thousand units at least, Major. That's what I've been told."
Dieeal nodded.
When they finally reached the exit to get outside, they watched hundreds of their fellow kin running and scrambling in preparation of the coming fight.
Armored vehicles stood around and waited while several VTOLs loomed over head, to drop off more soldiers.
A quarian Major, with the name of Lohnda'Mar, caught notice of Dieeal, his longtime friend, and waved him over to see him.
"Dieeal!" Lohnda shouted, "Over here!"
Dieeal ran to him. "What's going on Lohnda? You have any details?"
"Keelah, Dieeal, it's not good."
"How bad."
"Outer wall's been compromised. The militia is fighting them right now, but they're losing. Fast."
"Casualties?"
"Hundreds by now." Lohnda managed to say while he shook his head, "We've already got civilians coming in waves, running from them."
"Lieutenant Mihles told me the geth are at least a thousand strong. How true is that?"
"Not accurate at all, Dieeal... we're looking at a force of at least eighteen thousand units."
"What?" Dieeal took a step back and his face paled, "There's only six hundred men left in our entire battalian, Lohnda. A hundred of them, noncombatants."
"I'm aware, Dieeal. But I've got good news too. Intelligence suggests they only possess anti-personnel weaponry."
"How sure are we?"
Lohnda brought up a live feed of the city's outer wall and the geth pouring through it with his omni-tool.
"Look," Lohnda pointed, "Third armor stationed three of their tanks near the breach to stop their advance. But it's not working."
Dieeal grit his teeth.
Just as Lohnda showed, Dieeal watched their tanks flinging lead from every gun mounted on their hulls toward the geth horde.
But they didn't stop. And they didn't slow.
It seemed the geth didn't have much to consider when they were eighteen thousand strong.
The payout of decimating an entire quarian party of only six thousand survivors, most of them civilians, would be nothing short of a statistical success.
The geth knew this.
And because of that, the armor was completely ignored.
Completely.
Thousands had passed them straight into the city.
And they would slaughter anything with a beating heart.
Dieeal didn't have stretch his imagination far to think that any soldier stationed nearby was dead by now.
That meant half the militia and at least a company of rifleman.
Gone.
"They'll run out of ammunition long before they do any real damage..." Dieeal murmured in disbelief.
"Then they'll start running them over if they have to then." Lohnda growled before jumping onto the turret of his own tank, "I'll start running them over if I have to, Dieeal."
"What of air support?"
"Three gunships and several drop-ships and enough ammo for two minutes worth of sustained fire. Nothing more. The armory had fourteen ZED missiles for the gunships. Air support's limited, Dieeal. It's falling to us to stop them."
"Keelah."
"The ancestors aren't gonna help us Dieeal. Only bullets will. No point in hiding it anymore."
Dieeal sighed. "Never believed in that stuff anyways, Lohnda."
"Don't think anyone does really." Lohnda said with a frown, "But if they do exist, I'm hoping they do something about it, or we'll all end up being ancestors."
Dieeal didn't get to reply.
"We've got contact!" Someone screamed out frantically, "They're just over the bridge!"
Both Lohnda and Dieeal look to see hundreds of geth running to get into the compound.
"Holy—... they weren't supposed to be that close..." Lohnda whispered disbelievingly, "What the hell is going on?"
"Does it matter?" Dieeal said in a much more agressive tone, "Get in your tank and go!"
"Right." Lohnda gave his old friend one last look, nodded to him, and closed the hatch to drive off with his crew.
A company's worth of men formed a line on the other side of the bridge and fired into the mass of charging geth.
Most of them were holding improvised pikes and shivs. Some even guns. No doubt from the soldiers they'd killed near the city's gates.
They fell by the dozens, many of them slipping into the rapids below, but the others charged on, closer to their creators.
And just before they could make it to the other side, Lohnda's tank fired a 120 millimeter shell into one of the struts.
Dozens of tension cords snap and give and the giant column fell with a loud crash before crumbling the bridge and sending hundreds of geth into the rushing whitewater underneath them.
The soldiers didn't cease their fire. Any synthetic simpleton who'd survived and worked the courage to try and climb out of the water was quickly cut down.
"No mercy men!" Dieeal screamed as he joined in the charade of gunfire himself, "They shan't have it for you!"
A gun ship roared overhead and finished whoever was left of the charge.
The victory was short lived.
Suddenly, a quarian soldier elicits a short scream before slamming against the ground. "Fuck! I'm hit!"
Several more men follow quickly after and drop to the ground.
"Sniper! Take cov—" one of the sergeants never finished. Lead exits her throat and kills her instantly.
"The walls!" Another shouted, "Look high!"
Dieeal turned and saw dozens of geth jump over the high walls to get inside the compound.
Right where Yima and Milia were at.
"We need to fall back! Fall back to the median! Move!" An officer screamed.
"No!" Dieeal screamed frantically, panic swelling in his heart, "Yima!"
The quarian firing line turned to a mess. Dozens of soldiers lay on the ground bleeding while anyone standing scrambled to find some cover or an escape from the deadly crossfire.
"Fall back! Fucking run! Go!"
"Move!"
"GO!"
"Run!"
Dieeal started running. But not to safety, no. He started running toward the geth, back to his family.
Dieeal trudged passed his fellow kin to the exclusion of all else.
He had to save his family.
Abandoning his wife and little girl was not an option.
It never would be.
Not now.
Not ever.
He started running, fired his rifle calmly at any machine who'd happen to chance upon his iron sights, and forced his way back into the building by crashing his shoulder against the door.
The first thing that met him were the screams and gunfire resonating inside the building.
"Yima!"
The gunfire and screams are the only things that answer him.
Swallowing his worst fears, he raised his gun to eye level and scanned the stairwell before slowly making his way up.
The gunfire and sounds of struggle didn't cease.
His office was just a hallway down now.
"Yima! ...Milia!"
"Dieeal!" Yima screamed, "Here!"
He took the stairs two at a time and when he made it to the top, he stumbled upon a geth armed with nothing but a bloody pitch fork.
Not even a second could pass before three sharp prods pass through the other end of his back, right under the armor plates of his carrier.
The first thing Dieeal felt wasn't pain.
It was shock.
Shocked that he'd even been caught that off guard.
Shocked that he'd come so close to getting both his wife and daughter out of here safely.
So. Goddamned. Close.
But there wasn't a point in giving up now.
The geth forced the fork deeper and Dieeal kissed the barrel of his rifle right under its pectoral before firing a long burst into its chest.
Ambulatory fluid, shell plating, and internals fly from the new cavity and the geth dropped lifelessly onto the concrete floor.
Dieeal fell to his knees and felt tears welling in his eyes as he stared at the farming tool lodged in his abdomen.
If it meant anything to Dieeal, at least the prongs were thin.
"Dieeal!" Yima screamed as she ran to him. She fell into place next to him with her hot tears and sobbed.
"Shhh..." Dieeal murmured quietly, "It's okay..." He dropped his gun next to the dead geth and held the pole resting right under his naval, "We just gotta... pull it out and get out of here. Where's Milia?"
"In the office..." Yima choked as she cradled her husband as carefully as possible, "Keelah, this can't be happening..."
"I know..." He mumbled before setting a packet of clotting agent and medi-gel on the floor next to him, "The fork's thin. I'll be okay if we can get out of here and to the Army's combat hospital."
He stopped and finally looked to her, "You're going to have to help me."
She nodded dutifully and held the end of the pitch fork. "…Ready…"
He gave her a scared look. "...now."
They both pull slowly and Dieeal felt unconditional pain. Pain so unlike anything he'd ever felt in his entire life.
The pitch fork finally left him and Yima tossed it to the side and wasted no time in applying the medi-gel into his wounds with a syringe.
"I'll be okay, Yima, " He said with a heavy breath, "but we have to go, we are out of time."
Suddenly Milia screamed from down the hallway in his office.
Both Dieeal and Yima spring to their feet.
"Milia!?" His wife screamed as they both started running to their daught̷͇̘̗̲͍͖̘̰͚̮͂̈́̆̆̈́͒̉̕͘͝ȩ̷̛͉̦̲̠͍̦͖̝̈̾̓́͋̇̉͒̚͜r̷̨̡̹̺̻̖̝̳̯̻̓̀̍͊̊͆͒͛̽̈́. ̸̧̙̦̺̲̩̝̘̖̣̀͊̎̆͆̎̀̆̈́͑b̴̺̖̩̙̤͚̰͕͖̙͗͗͛̈́͒̎͒̏̌Bũ̶̢̧̢͎̙̗̯̲̖̱̀̀̀͗̈́̋͂̾͝ẗ̸̢͙̪̤̳̼̺͙͚͆̒̆̄̈́̏̎̈̕ͅ ̴̡̨͔̹̼̪̟̪̺͍͂̾̈̈̆̅̉̓̂̚ţ̴̧̧̛͔͎̥̭̣̟͚͒͑̆͐̇̋̋̇̚ĥ̶̠͙͔̮̙̳̦͙͚̲͒̈́́̿̑́̈͒̕e̵̻̻̘̱̤͙̪̰̓́̀̉̄͊͒̚̚͜͠ͅỹ̵̛̹̤͇͔͚̙̮̭̱̆͐̌̏̔̀͘͘͜ ̷̭̪͙̺͙̺̖̹̩̙͛̈́̅̿̍̃̑͌͆͠w̵̡̞̩̠͖̺̺͍̖̫̽̽͊̂̌͆́̏̚̕ě̷̟̩̱͕͈̭̩͖̗͑̂̔̈́̈́̐́̚͜͝ŗ̶͔͍̟͕̮͓̣̼̱͌̋̒́͂͗̍͋̂̐e̶̩͓̠̺͕͍͕͉̰̤̿́̊̂͒̋̿̃̾̚ ̸͕̣̘̥̱̩̰̬̗̠͌̓͆̔̊͗̓͂̾͑t̷̢̺̼̘͖̟̝̣͗͂̔̄̀̿̌̊̉͘ͅͅo̶̢̡̡̩̗͉͖̫̠͐̆̇̈̌̊͌͒̋͗ͅơ̴̺̺̞̬̥̻͎̤̳̑̓̓̋̽̈́͆̈́̊ͅ ̷̛̣̜̲̖͉̭͉͉̀̌̆͑͐͗̓́̂ͅͅl̷̢̛͕̫̳͖̬̩͙͇͐̈́͆̊̂̀͆̒̕͜a̷̧̗͚͇̣̰̟̗̲̻͆͒͑̂̔̎͐͐̃̽ẗ̴̡͈͇̠͈̟̲̮̯̼́͑̈͐̍̑͐̆̿̆e̸̡̛͔͈̩̪̝̗͇̳̝̊́̆̽̈͌̏̌͝.̸̧̗̜͇̻͔̻̱̹̲̒͗̋͆͛̽̋̅́͐ ̷̧̛̛̣̜̬̭̟̩̳̫̮́̔͋͗̅͋͘͝f̷̢̡̛͇͍͖̖͎͈͍͖̎͊̌̎͛͐͘͝͝a̵̛̪̰̺͎̱̱̗̥͖̳̽̑͂͌͌̈́͐͐̕r̸͉͍̞̭̻̣̻̙̥̜̈̒̌̽̿͂̍͌̕͝ ̴̲̼͉̺̖͕͉̭̥̅̒̂̊̉́́́̃͘ͅt̵̨̰̱͇̭̣̲̺̳͙̏̉̎̈̎̌̄̌̄͝ō̶̦͇̱̘̤̝̭̙̺͎̽́̈̉͆̈̈́̚͝o̵̮͉̻̹͇̺̠̘̘̹̽̎̒͗̾́̑͋͠͠ ̶̧͓̭̩̪̫̤͙̟̯́̾̅̊͋͑̂̚͘̕l̵̹̹̘̣̬͎̹̮̜̯̔͐̅̊̔̊́͛̅͝ä̸̻̘͇͖͖͉͙͕̰́̀̽̔̇̄̓͊̀̚͜t̵̛͕͕̱̦͙̹̥͖̳͍͋͌̅͗̈́͒͗̎̕ȩ̷̧̠̘̖̮̣̹̥͔̋̀͆̉̍͆͐̈͋͘ ̴̧̭̠̹̜̘͍̬͔̅̉́̀͗̿͋́͘̚͜t̷̡̡̡̝͓͓̦͈̗͒͆̐̒͌͊͋̒͑͜͝ǫ̶̝̝̦̘͈̖͇̱̀̑̅̉͐̑͂͋͋͜͝ ̸̺͍̞̺̯̮̯̱͔̲͆͋́̑̇̆̇͗͊͝d̷̢̯͎̲̤̜̱̬͈͖̽̍̃͗̍͛͒̋̋̚.̵̨̛̭̤̯͇̮̣̮̙̆̿̑͑̈́̍̈́̂͘͜ ̶̛̪̪̦̫̘͕͇̰̩̖̬̲̺̦̣̦̟̪̣̀̊̈́̍͒͆̃͒̉̀͋̅͛͐̚̚͝ ̷̖͍͎̼͖͉͖̝̻̻̠͎̺͙̲̯̺̓́̒̇̏̋̔̋̎ᗡ̴̧̨̥͖͔̻͕̤͖͔̬̖̹̻̤̣͕̠̼̼͆̾̐̌̉́͛̎͌͊̔͑̀̍̇̀̒̇̽͝Ǝ̸̷̶̷̢̧̧̢̧̢̨̨̛̜̥̼͉̱̣̲̻̩̰̤̖͓̬̬̳͚̩̗̜̹̩̟͔̼̫̩͖̻͉̹͉̜̠̭͉͓̺̺̱͇̳͉̠̜̥̮̠͈͓̝͙̗̥͎͙̪̯̘͈̣̥̰̝̮̺̰͋́̈͆́͌̉͂̔͊̑͗̀̄̉̉̂͆̑̈̈́̾̍̎͊͗̿̿̏̏̏̊̓̀̓̊̒̃̔͊̅̐̆́̽̿͋́͋̋̀̈́̈́̓͐̒̈́͒̾̈̊͒̿̄͊̊́̚̚̚͘͘̕̕͜͜͜͠͝͠͝͝ͅH—-[=⃫=/RECORDING ABR⃥U⃥P⃥TLY-HALTED..]
[F̶̷̸̲̲ᴏ̶̷̸̲̲ʀ̶̷̸̲̲ᴍ̶̷̸̲̲ᴍᴛ Cᴏʀʀᴜᴘ̶̷̸̿ᴛ̶̷̸̿ɪ̶̷̸̿ᴏ̶̷̸̿ɴ̶̷̸̿ Iᴅᴇɴᴛɪғɪᴇᴅ.]
ADOC:/E%%RECO^RDING[ABRUPTLY[HA8LTED.87(87&T⃫E⃫S⃫T⃫I⃫N⃫G⃫^65Error^**[STAN7D-BY]RESEQUENCING/:
A new recording appeared.
One of a blood soaked floor and deathly silence.
Just ever so faintly, you could hear Dieeal's sobs before picking the camera up with two red stained hands, limping over to a safe on the wall, and turning off the camera for good.
|Present Time|
|Date: 5/20/2184||Quarian Calender: YR 2775|
|Location: Far Rim/Il-Ma System/City Ruins of Basin Si/ASPO-D22|
|DESIGNATION: PRIMERAH|
"Oh my god..." Came Tali hoarse whisper, "The bones. It was them..."
Juel, as silently as he could, removed the disc from the computer, set it quietly on the table, and stared distantly off into nothingness.
No one had a thing to say. Most stared distantly at the dark screen with their empty eyes before wandering their cold gaze to the floor.
Tali took a breath and took into careful consideration everything she'd seen and questions she wanted to ask.
First and foremost...? What were they going to do with this stuff?
Pirahn stepped up next to Juel, took the disc out of his hand, and stuck it back into the computer.
"What the hell are you doing?" Juel asked shockingly.
"Copying everything over and making sure the Admiralty board sees this. All of it." Pirahn said flatly as he continued typing.
Some nodded at the prospect of showing this to the Admiralty board.
With something like this, the push for an immediate preparation for war would seem all but unstoppable.
Others immediately disagreed. The ramifications of using this to emotionally distress the quarian government on such sensitive matters involving the geth was not a good idea.
One of Pirahn's cohorts, with the name of Rieyel'Tea, was one of the people who disagreed. "What? That is not our mission parameter, Pirahn."
"Excuse me?" Pirahn rasped, turning around to face the woman. Judging by his raised voice, it seemed Pirahn was used to Rieyel's open mouthed pandering and constant objection.
"And why is that, Rieyel? Tell me!" Pirahn shouted as he took a step toward her, "I'm all fucking ears!"
"You're copying this monstrous shit for the Admiralty board and asking for an emotional fuckfest, Pirahn. You're just giving the war-mongering idiots like you another reason to go to war with the geth!"
He punctuated his words by taking several steps closer to her.
"You. Fucking. Geth sympathizing bitch!"
Pirahn tackled Rieyel and they both fell to the floor.
Several of the other scientists and marines started to shout out at Pirahn before leaping in and prying him off the poor woman.
As Rieyel crawled away from the screaming man, she started to cry at the trauma he'd just caused her.
"You just saw what they did to us you fucking bitch!" Pirahn screamed as he struggled against the arms holding him back, "How can we let them get away with this!"
Kal pointed out to a hallway. "There's a room we cleaned up down the hallway. Get Pirahn out of here." Kal ordered, "Now. He can come back when he's calmed down."
"Get your hands off me!" Pirahn screamed as he and the three marines restraining him took him out, "Let me go!"
Everyone waited until the three marines and Pirahn left.
"...I'll tell you what we need to do." Someone else said, continuing from where they left off, "Take it back out of the computer and break the disc."
"Pirahn's wasn't wrong." Another argued, "It would be wrong to not let the Admiralty see this."
"No one is going to do anything until we think this through!" Kal yelled sternly before giving everyone a look, "Got it?"
Everyone stopped talking and held their heads low.
"Good." Kal breathed before taking a moment to think, "Who in favor of keeping it? Raise your hands."
Slowly, thirteen hands go up.
"Who in favor of getting rid of it?"
Twelve different hands go up. Tali and Juel included.
"Still too close to decide." Kal intoned quietly before sitting down and sighing.
Tali's downcast eyes stared absently at the ground for a long while, thought long and hard about what she saw, the political implications it could bring, and the people around her.
Surely some would understand the danger the choice of showing this to the admiralty board would bring.
Hugely disproportionate factions between peace or war.
Martial law. More so than what it already was.
A disband of the Conclave.
All out war.
Mass Destruction.
Extinction, even.
And either the quarians would win, or they wouldn't.
This was a simple dichotomy.
But what was more important than this?
The Reapers.
The quarians had the biggest fleet in all the galaxy.
Surely that would help logistically when the Reapers would come.
That was more important than this pathetic squabble now.
Tali took the stage and stepped in front of everyone so they could see her.
Kal looked up from his hands to her. "...What's up, Tali?" He asked quietly, "Have something to say?"
"Yes." She answered with a slight nod before turning to everyone.
"I don't know if you all know me," Tali began rather somberly, "But I'm Tali. And you all know my father."
Everyone trained their eyes on her and she took a shaky breath. "My experiences travelling across the galaxy. The people I was with. The people I met. They taught me a lot."
She looked down momentarily to gather her thoughts.
"One of the things I've come to learn, especially when it comes to the geth, is that war is last resort." She turned around, picked up the disc sitting on the table, and stared at it as if it could give her more to say. "This is a horror best kept buried. Galvanizing the admiralty and conclave could mobilize us for a war we would never win. It's not worth it."
"...You make it out to be like we wouldn't have a chance." One of them said.
"You think we would?" Tali asked rhetorically, "Do you honestly think we could?"
The person said nothing.
"Tali's right." Juel added to her defense before taking a spot next to her, "This stuff right here? It needs to stay here."
"If you do that, this guy and his family died for nothing." Another pointed out.
"And if you do show it, we'll all die for nothing." Juel countered quickly, "...There's no way we're ready for this."
"He's right." Someone else agreed, "As much as I want the geth gone, you're talking about working up against the impossible."
"If we decide to destroy this, there's no telling how Pirahn's going to react to this, though."
Rieyel finally had the courage to speak again. "Who cares what he thinks?" She sighed, "His opinion doesn't matter."
"But it does if he says something about it when we get back home." Tali supplied before stepping next to the woman and putting a gentle hand on her shoulder, "He needs to see reason. Especially since he's leadership."
"I don't want that bosh'tet anywhere near me." Rieyel whimpered slightly before wrapping her arms around her chest, "But do what you have to."
"We will." Tali nodded before looking back to Kal. "Kal? We need to see Pirahn and speak to him."
"I'll take you to him." Kal said as he stood up, "Let's go."
Tali gave one last fleeting look to everyone crowded together before following both Juel and Kal out to meet Pirahn.
And the first thing she did when they entered the hallway was sigh.
How was she going to convince someone like him a decision that meant stalling a war he felt necessary to bring back their homeworld was wrong?
Appeal to his same desires by saying she wants the geth gone too but that they can't?
Maybe.
It was about the only card she wanted to play or could even think of at the moment.
It wasn't long before they arrived with Pirahn grumbling to himself and the marines guarding the entrance.
Kal waved to his marines to step aside and the three walked in before sitting down in front of Pirahn.
"Hey." Kal greeted, "Have you calmed down yet?"
"Calmed down." Pirahn scoffed before looking to both Juel and Tali and huffing, "Hardly."
"We came to you because we made a decision." Tali expressed as calmly as possible, "And I'm sure you know what it is."
Pirahn's hands turned to fists in his lap. "You're. Making. A. Mistake."
Tali sat right across from the man and leaned in close to try and punctuate her point. "I want you to know that everyone here with you wants the geth gone just as much as you do. But jump starting something we're not ready for is not going to help us."
"The more we wait... the more we won't be ready." Pirahn strained to say before turning back to face Kal, "Tell Rieyel I'm sorry. For everything."
"We will. You'll get to apologize in person. But we're talking to you now because we still value your opinion." Kal answered.
Juel took the mantle. "Everyone wants our planet back, Pirahn. But this isn't the way of doing it. We have to do it with facts. Not by twisting an emotional hand behind every back we can."
Pirahn sighed and held his head low. "Fine. Do what you want with it. I'm done arguing. Just remember that I think you're doing everyone we know a disservice. Everyone."
"We know Pirahn." Tali murmured sadly, "If I knew we could win the war, I'd be right beside you. But not now. Not in this case."
"Take some time to think, Pirahn." Kal said as they all stood up, "Join us when you think you're fit for duty again. We've got a dozen more discs to look through which means we need you back at the helm for this."
"Okay." Pirahn breathed before slumping in his old rusting chair.
And with that, Tali sighed her relief, stood up with the others, and returned to work.
|Four Days Later|
|DATE: 5/24/2184|
|Location: Far Rim/Il-Ma System/Nocturnal-Sentinel/Aboard Corvette Class Ship: Event Horizon/CIC: Observation Room|
Tali watched through her small little window, the planet they'd been on for the better part of almost two weeks.
As they drifted seamlessly through space on their asteroid, away from Primerah, Tali thought of her time spent alone and the discoveries she made.
And, of course, Dieeal and his long dead family.
Tali finally turned away from the little window before unshouldering her bag and taking a seat and smoothing out the wrinkles in her realk.
They'd found outdated things mostly on the other OSDs. Some of it an exchange of research between nations involving the geth. Samples of unchecked geth evolution. Development of possible geth culture in the event of AI transfer. Others about simulating armament potential had the geth been equipped for an all out war.
The numbers didn't look good if Tali had any real say in the matter.
Which made her think of why the geth tied this all up with the information she'd procured on that terminal when she was with John all that time ago.
She shrugged to herself mentally. Was it really worth thinking over? It's not like she'd come to a conclusion that easily just by thinking about it hard enough.
The only suspicion she could gather really was the geth knew of the research conducted and marked it as a point of interest.
What else could be said of it?
She looked back out and the window from her seat and frowned.
Not much, she supposed.
Fortunately, the stuff they'd found would be good enough for her dad and the other admirals.
Just another baby step forward to getting their old home back to what seemed to be an infinitely bigger line ahead of them.
She couldn't help but feel hopeless about that.
All this for some unremarkable baby step.
Pirahn's words echoed in her thoughts.
'The more we wait... The more we won't be ready.'