A lot of you voiced your opinions regarding the dark matter theory becoming too sciency. Don't worry, I'm not going to sit here and put the story through a lecture. This is afterall, a means of entertainment.
If lack for better word, the past day and half had been a lot of touch and go. Between getting up to speed with everything and everyone on the Normandy, and ignoring TIM's calls for a reunion of things, was Tali telling him right before they both went to bed to really consider tossing EDI's blue box out the airlock.
There were a lot of things John needed to sort out, and Cerberus gunning up next to the quarians right here on Haestrom was definitely one of the ones he needed to worry about most. If the quarians found out they were working alongside a Cerberus detachment and not an Alliance one? Who knew what could happen. All John could see were all the bullets and grenades that would start flying. And then the geth would catch wind of it all and mop up whatever was left.
"Three minutes until final approach. Helmets on, people."
John dawned his helmet after giving Tali a grim smile. After a moment or so, John could start to see Haestrom's sky and the deserted city below. What a mess. No doubt Tali relished it though. Or not, depending on the circumstances.
"Joker. We still clear?" John checked over the radio.
"Wouldn't be quiet if it weren't Commander. Don't worry."
"You're keeping check with the Paltino too, right?"
"Yup. They're doing just fine up here. What about you?"
John glanced out the helm window to the two kodiaks flying ahead of them.
"Checking now." John said as he gave Tali a dip of the head.
She took the hint and radioed Juel in the other shuttle.
"Tali to Juel, how're you doing?"
"Fair." Juel answered, "We're all okay. You?"
"Just fine." Tali nodded before giving John a thumbs up.
"We're all green on our end, Joker." Shepard answered, "We'll be on the ground shortly."
"Sounds good. We'll, uh, be up here in the meantime. You know. Waiting."
John sat down between Garrus and Tali.
Then he looked to the Cerberus unit, glanced at all the unfamiliar faces of Garrus' squad, and spoke.
"Listen up, people." John called out to get everyone's attention, "We hit the ground, we secure the perimeter, and help the quarians in any way we can. Do not give them any trouble, we clear?
"Clear." The entire cabin of people called out.
"And if you do, you will answer to me." John warned with a piercing stare, "Respect the chain of command, and answer to your superiors. The quarian officers included. Clear?"
"Clear." The kodiak's cabin repeated.
"Good."
Tali was happy no one could see her smile.
"Give me the run down, EDI." John asked as they all stepped out of the kodiak, "What're we looking at here?"
"As per the briefing at 0700, multiple geth outposts run in equatorial orbit around Haestrom with several more stations on all gaseous bodies in the system. Armament potential and server numbers unknown. Estimates indicate geth server population to be at least in the tens of thousands. Able bodied platforms for immediate combat readiness are estimated to be at least two thousand based on prior large-scale engagements with the geth."
"Right. Anything on Haestrom's sun yet?"
"Not entirely. Premature eruption of Dohlen is still eluding me."
"Keep working on it then. We'll do what we have to down here."
"Commander." EDI said anyways even though she sensed their conversation was coming to a close, "I have questions about the original Normandy being stranded on Ullipses."
John frowned and tried to think of why this would be a good time to start asking questions about the past now.
"Uh. Does it have to do with our mission?"
"Yes."
He watched a small beetle walk out from the shade and sizzle under the sun and winced slightly. Tali had seen it too and frowned.
"Go ahead EDI, shoot."
"Alliance sources claim Ullipses was eradicated by means of a black hole or other powerful singularity forming in the center of the planet. Is this true?"
John's frown got a little deeper as the others walked by him from out the shuttle. "I'm not sure if I should be the one answering these, but yeah: Ullipses doesn't exist anymore because of some kind of black hole."
"I believe the collectors were responsible for the destruction of Ullipses."
He shook his head as the quarians established a perimeter to get the teams ready to roll out into the city.
"I don't think anyone finds that hard to believe, EDI." John panned with a sigh before guessing what she'd ask next, "I bet you're going to ask me about the meteors falling through the ground on Ullipses now too."
"Yes."
"EDI? My guess is the same as yours. Whatever those meteors were belonged to the collectors. And that they probably destroyed the planet. It's not beyond the scope of imagination."
"Understood, Commander."
"I'm surprised you didn't know more about this." He said with a bit of surprise, "I thought the Illusive Man would've informed you of all these facts by now."
"He did." EDI admitted, "But he wasn't there."
"Covering your bases I see." John said as he stepped in next to Tali before looking out to the old cityscape, "Good. Now tell me why you think all this could be related to Dohlen."
"Based on studies conducted since entering the system, I have found fair sized concentrations of element zero and dark energy, which indicates Dohlen's core is under enormous signs of corruption. If there is a connection between the reapers and collectors, then I believe they are researching a means of eradicating entire systems by weaponizing element zero on a cosmic scale."
John blew some air through his nose and closed his eyes.
Jesus. The scale of the problem went from a 0-100 real quick.
"How did you get to that?" John asked as calmly as possible.
"It is still just a guess." EDI admitted before explaining her hypothesis, "Element Zero, when subjected to powerful electric currents, manipulates and releases dark energy to create mass effect fields; which, in turn, raises or lowers the relative mass of objects within its influence."
"Whoah. Hold on. You're telling me Sovereign stuck a shit ton of eezo in the sun and turned on the power?"
"Correct." EDI answered, "That is my guess."
"You think that's what made it erupt into a red giant then."
"I believe so. It is unknown how a celestial body of this size and magnitude reacts to the concentrations I am detecting inside Dohlen."
"How sure are you of this?"
"As you said it: 'It isn't out of the ball park.'"
John gave the sky a confused look. "I… I never said that."
"I'm sorry. My memory banks must be corrupted."
"EDI?"
"That is a joke."
"Uh…? right. …Keep me updated if you see anything else then."
"Yes Commander, logging you out."
John ended the call and caught up with the large group of others trotting toward the city's wall.
When he caught up with Tali and Garrus, he gave them both looks and said nothing.
"What was that about?" Tali asked as a squad of quarian marines took the lead in a column to continue their walk, "What did you talk to EDI about? Anything particularly useful?"
Garrus just nodded his head to show John he was thinking the same thing.
"Yes, actually." John said to both of them, "She thinks the collectors, Ullipses, and Sovereign are all connected to this."
"As if we hadn't thought of that already." Tali remarked timidly, "Anything else?"
He nodded. "Yeah. There is. But I wish there wasn't."
Garrus took his chances and decided to ask. "How bad?"
John gave him a leveled stare. "Real bad."
The three of them stopped with everyone else when they reached a high gate that would lead into the city. Several quarians get working on how to open it.
"Tell us." Tali said.
"EDI thinks the reapers are testing element zero as a weapon to blow up stars."
Tali's mouth went dry.
So did Garrus'.
"What?" Garrus guffawed and actually forced a choked laugh, "Run that by me again."
"You heard me right. Blowing up stars."
"This is just a guess though, right?" Tali wondered rather frantically, "There's a chance she could be wrong. Right?"
"Yeah." John nodded to try and stave off some of the worry they both had, "She said she could be wrong."
"Keelah, I hope she's wrong."
"Me too." John rasped.
Garrus stared at the gun in his hands and sighed. "So that means the thing on Ullipses was connected— how it got sucked into a black hole the way it did… right?"
"It very well could." Is all John mustered to say.
The three stood silent and stared blankly at the ground to chew it all over.
As Tali crossed her arms, she started thinking over every question that'd been hounding for years about those dreadful days they'd all spent on Ullipses.
She brought up the mental list, but knew many of them had been left completely unanswered.
And for all she knew, they'd probably stay that way.
"This is a nightmare." Tali murmured out loud. She turned to see Prazza and Kal discussing something outside out of ear-shot while Juel and Olasie stood together at the door, waiting for it to open.
"What should we do if that's true?" Garrus asked.
"I don't know." John said with a shrug, "I have no clue."
Tali couldn't help but shrug with him. "Let's hope it doesn't have to come to that."
"Yeah." Garrus agreed, "Let's hope."
"And guys?" John added, "Let's keep this between us. At least for now."
"Right."
Night came for the group on Haestrom.
The group was largely relieved by the lack of the stricken heat and shining sun, but was disappointed to realize the concrete walls and buildings around them would start radiating out whatever rays they'd collected for the day well into the night.
Which meant the city would stay blistering at a solid 102 degrees.
It was hot.
John was hot.
Bone dry heat or not, being this hot in full gear was bound to give you a great case of swamp ass.
John had taken off his chest plate a while ago and stripped down to just boots, pants, and t-shirt. His face was slick with sweat, as was his arms.
As uncomfortable as it looked, Tali couldn't help but think how ridiculously attractive it made him.
"You look good like that." Tali said as she walked up to him with a canteen to hand him, "Here."
"Ha." He scoffed as he accepted the canteen, "Thanks."
He drank the cold water deeply and nodded satisfyingly. "Jesus. Thanks for refilling that. Gotta keep the fluids running. Pissed around eight times already the past two hours."
She laughed a little before sitting down next to him. "That's a lot."
John capped the bottle and set it down before picking up his food pouch to eat his chicken dumplings. "You eat dinner already?"
"Mhmm." She nodded, "You know. The usual. Modeling clay."
He smiled at her joke before stuffing another dumpling in his mouth. "You still remember that? I said that years ago."
She nodded again. "Yeah. I do."
He ate a little more and gave her a loving look.
"How's everyone doing?" John decided to ask, "They all okay?"
"Doing fine." Tali answered, "What about you? How's your uh, 'marines', doing?"
"Sweatin' up a storm. Just like me. They're behaving, if that's what you wanted to know."
"Good."
They both continued to sit and enjoy their company in silence.
Occasionally, John would stare out between his spoonfuls of chicken to the quarian camp, the stars, Garrus' camp, and then the camp for Cerberus.
They'd been faring well, honestly.
No complaints from Cerberus standing shoulder to shoulder with the quarians. Maybe TIM had enlisted a detachment of more open minded individuals just for the Normandy. Or maybe they knew enough to keep their mouths shut and to just deal with it. Regardless of the fact, everyone he'd met on his ship hadn't made an issue of working with nonhumans so far.
Which was odd, considering the stigma and number of complaints he'd received back on the old Normandy.
Odd indeed.
John suddenly laughed as he remembered something.
"Speaking of sweating, did you see Miranda earlier? She looked like a goddamn tomato."
Tali chuckled. "I did."
"Good to see her like that." John breathed as he finished whatever was left in his pouch of food, "Just a reminder that she's every bit as human as the rest of us."
"Minus me." Tali added with a laugh.
"Yes, Tali." He said as he rolled his eyes, "Minus you."
Tali sighed and dipped her head down. "So... we've been taking careful measurements of the sun."
"And?"
She shook her head and the joy in her eyes was gone. "Dark matter. Lots of it. EDI was right about that."
"Shit."
She put a hand on his arm to get his attention. "But that doesn't mean she's completely right. We don't know for sure if Sovereign was trying to blow up stars. It's still just a guess."
"Let's hope the guess is wrong, Tali. Because we've got enough on our plate as it is, dealing with the collectors."
"I know, John." She nodded before squeezing, "It's a lot to deal with."
He set the food pouch down next to his gear and sighed. "I'm just... completely clueless of what to do."
He stared off into nothingness, his smile gone.
Her grip on his arm got stronger.
She smirked slightly. "Hey. It's amazing what you can still solve with a gun, John."
"Ah." He smiled lightly at the joke,"A quarian with the right gun and attitude. She sounds dangerous."
"She is."
He nodded at the light-hearted sentiment. "I believe it. Wouldn't want to mess with her."
She laughed before dipping her head down to look at her hands.
"I, uh— There's something else I want to tell you." Tali said in a whisper.
"What?"
"The Paltino received a transmission from my dad..." She said rather worriedly, "It's probably nothing, but the captain said it sounded urgent... so..."
John gave her a serious look. "What did he say?"
She shrugged. "Not sure. The message was scrambled and unintelligible."
"...Maybe EDI can take a look?"
Tali took a breath and nodded. "I, uh... I guess so."
"Good. Cause if your dad broke protocol trying to get in touch with us... then I don't think the news he's trying to bring is good."
"I know," Tali nodded, sullen, "You're right."
"When did he contact the Paltino?"
"Almost ten minutes ago."
He nodded mostly to himself. "Okay." He said before reaching for his omni-tool, "Let me get in contact with Joker then."
Just before John could actually call Joker, Joker called him.
Puzzling, John thought before accepting the call.
"Joker?"
"Commander," Joker said in haste, "You need to hear this. Now."
"What? What is it?"
"It's from Tali's dad. EDI deciphered the transmission since the Paltino couldn't make out what it was. You really need to listen to it."
The message played.
"THIS IS A PRIORITY MESSAGE: EMERGENCY RECALL OF HAESTROM OPERATION IS EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY. AUTHORIZATION FOR TERMINATION GRIEGO LINX FOUR SIX THETA ALPHA ONE. SOVEREIGN'S MOTIVE OF HAESTROM HAS BEEN DISCOVERED. YOU MUST ESCAPE. THEY'RE COMING."
John felt his face drain of blood and Tali was much the same.