Kellise - Awh fuck's right bro.
lambo105 - Olasie has really grown on me as a character and I really like writing her. More so than even Juel, ironically. Legion is as difficult as ever to write, but I'll persevere! Hoping my take on Arrival makes everyone raise their brows.
ivandundalov7 - Heavens no, I didn't make that joke up. I saw it somewhere on reddit and made a note to include it at some point in the story just for shits and giggles.
Docbonzai - shhhhhh. is ok
Janizary - Ah, the good ol' fashioned ME1 Hackett. The missions honestly never bothered me. If only I could scrub my memory and redo ME1 again.
~Y'all enjoy now.
Shepard, from the engineering deck, stood with his arms crossed and shoulder against the glass. Just below, he watched the Gaia's crew mingle about with the Normandy's as they offloaded supplies. With a flat and mildly aloof look, he stared, but barely paid any attention to the activity below.
To the surprise of many, the Gaia was three days early. Due in no small part to the meeting he'd had with the Illusive man yesterday night to bring him up to speed about Admiral Hackett's report of a person of value gone missing in the reaches of batarian space.
"How was your coffee?" Came Tali's voice from behind him. He put on a smile before turning around to hide away his unease.
"It was great. Thank you. It's been unusually consistent. Writing down a recipe maybe?"
"Ha. No. Just eyeballing it every time." She said happily.
"Ah. Well, it's perfect."
"Good." She smiled and took a spot next to him to see what he watching.
"How's work today?"
"Busy work. Nothing I can't manage. You?"
"Same stuff. Different day." John answered honestly.
Tali could see it in his eyes the attempt he was making to alienate both himself and her from his feelings. It rarely worked. The look on her face, even if he couldn't see it right away, turned soft.
"Something bothering you?"
He scoffed at himself. Try all he wanted, his facades rarely could keep up with her.
"Yeah." He admitted, his smile waning, "Just worried. Don't think we've ever tried pulling someone out of jail before."
"Yeah," She saw Juel walk into a freight container to help offload gear, "This is going to be..." She couldn't find the right words to say, so she picked the next best ones. "—It's definitely going to be different than what we're used to."
"It's out in the boonies, at least." John said in some meager attempt to relieve himself, "Old spy images from the Alliance back some twenty years ago doesn't show much development out there. No reason to think it's changed much since then."
"We'll see, won't we?" She gave him a gentle pat on the arm.
John breathed in and sighed. "Ready to head down and grab our stuff?"
"Yes."
"Probably the best part of being here." Skyler said merrily, holding his box of bountiful goodies. His eyes stayed glued to his stuff until a brunette with curly hair and soft features passed by them.
"You ever notice how many beautiful women the Gaia's got?" Skyler said, his stare lingering on her for only a moment, "Illusive man's got a good eye for 'em."
"I know right? It's always great to see the Gaia dock. All that eye candy, right?"
Beautiful woman already forgotten, Skyler leaned in to see if he could see whatever was inside Foley's box. "What'd you get, Greg?"
Foley peered inside his barely closed box of snacks and gave him a grin. "Erhm. Gummy bears. Only the green ones. Cheetos and chocolate. Other stuff."
"Christ Greg. Just the gree—...Are you pregnant?"
"I don't know. Should probably get an ultrasound."
"Yeah. Could always just piss on a stick too."
Greg gave him a squint. "You're fuckin' retarded."
They passed by Kasumi busily rummaging through the bottom shelf of their freight container. Pausing, she eventually stood up with a little white box in her hands and a warped look on her face.
There, as clear as day, was a human hand floating about inside.
"Yo. This what I think it is?" She said to grab Jacob's attention.
Jacob, with his back facing her, turned around to see what she was talking about. He immediately frowned. "Yes. That's… Zaeed's, Kasumi."
She gave it a gentle shake and watched it bounce around. "Neat."
"What's that?" Grunt asked from the entrance of the container, "Pass it here. I want to see."
Kasumi tossed the box and the krogan caught it.
"Too many fingers." He intoned, the blue glow reflecting off his eyes and face. He tossed it back to her.
"Uh, I don't want it." She tossed it back.
"Knock that shit off, you cunts." Zaeed growled, yanking the box from Grunt's hands, "Stop fuckin' with my hand."
Grunt shrugged. "Sorry."
"When you getting that put on?" Jacob asked, hoping to grab the man's attention away from the other two.
"Today. In an hour. I'll be right as rain in a week."
"That's good to hear. Pretty hard to hold a rifle with only one hand."
Zaeed leaned up against a shelf and stared Jacob straight in the eye. "So, be straight with me. Gaia's here early. What gives?"
"So you can have your hand back."
"Aw, cut the shit." Zaeed grinned, "Shepard's been high browed all morning. Something's up."
Jacob gave a sideways glance at Kasumi to see if she was listening in.
She was.
"Alliance sent the Commander a message. We're headed to the Bahak system for a mission."
"That's batarian territory." Zaeed mused with a grumble, "Fuck. And another op so soon? Feels like there's one every goddamn week. Why haven't we been briefed? How life altering will the mission be this time?"
"Don't know." Jacob cast his glance back to his box of things, "Miranda knows more. And I think participation is by request only. No volunteers for this one."
The crippled mercenary paused to mull it all over for a second or so before turning back around and hobbling off.
"He's not much for hellos and goodbyes is he?" Kasumi said.
Jacob walked out himself and shook his head. "Nope."
Kasumi scanned the room with her peeping eyes until she found a box with the Commander's name scribbled on it. Judging by the proportions alone, it looked like a rifle case.
"Hey Kasumi." John greeted, entering into the container with Tali just right behind, "How are you? Wrist doing better?"
She gave John a smile. "Much, actually. Feels a little loose sometimes, but it'll probably pass." She gave Tali a smile next. "Hi, Tali. Beautiful as ever, hun."
"Thanks, Kasumi." Tali said. "Good to see you're doing okay."
John reached for his case. "Here, Tals. Could you hold onto this for a second? I'll grab yours too."
Splayed hands, she took the weight of the case and made an audible oof.
"One more hun." He smiled, placing her parcel right on top.
"Got it?"
"Yeah."
"What'd you guys get?" Kasumi tried to read his indifferent face.
"Gear for an upcoming mission." John said, taking everything from her hands at the relief of Tali who'd been arching her back to try and compensate the bulky weight.
"When's the briefing?"
"Won't be one." John continued, "At least for now. It's nothing for anyone to be worrying about. Miranda will update you all when it's time."
"Gotcha." Kasumi said, tone disarming to show she wasn't interested in pushing for a more elaborate answer. It was all a face charade to her, because Kasumi's had a problem with personally eliciting a zeal for what was going on when information was being withheld from people. "Well. Catch you later, Shep. You too, Tali."
"Bye."
The thief walked out and Tali waited until she was out of earshot to say anything. "How long before we're there, again?"
"We'll be there at 1000 hours tomorrow."
"What do you think we'll find?"
He rasped and the look on his face was crestfallen as he gave it a moment's thought. "Whatever stereotype you can bring up when it comes to a batarian prison."
She blinked and began to press her thumb into the palm of her hand. That wasn't boasting a lot about their chances of getting her out alive. "Then how do we know she's even still alive?"
"We don't." He answered plainly, "Means the rescue could just turn into asset retrieval. We need that data she's got, alive or not."
"Have you decided yet who you're going to bring along?"
"Thane, definitely. Talukh and Garrus for overwatch. And you, plus Legion, to bring up my rear and break into whatever we need to get Kenson out."
"Alright." She murmured, agreeing with the picks, "Good selection."
"Come on. Let's see what we've got. Then you and I can get back to work."
"Alright."
They went up to their room, got sprayed down, and went to their nook of an office to set everything down. Discarding the cardboard surrounding the rifle case, John opened the clasps and tossed the lid off to reveal their factory-new firearms.
John took it into his hands to feel the weight, checked the chamber to make sure a heat sink wasn't inside, and took a peek at the optic's sight picture.
"You know what sucked about being in the Alliance, Tali?"
"What?"
"Being issued a shitty, beat up, weapon. It's great to buy something new straight from out a box."
"Ha. I know what you mean." She said, looking over her own new gun, "Migrant Fleet issued arms aren't exactly stellar."
"I bet."
They both quietly look over their equipment and, having been satisfied with what they saw, stowed it away under their desk.
"So, what did you get?" He asked, pointing at her little box.
"Here," She took her knife and cut the tape, "Take a look." Opening the flaps, she grinned and let John peer inside. He took a hand and held out in front of him a dainty fabric.
"Underwear." He said with a smile while setting it down, "Damn. Guess it was wishful thinking you'd just not wear any ever."
"Yeah. Well, sometimes you want to wear some cute underwear and no pants."
"Fair enough, hun." He gave her a peck on her metal plate of a cheek.
She smiled, but she knew she had to keep John on track.
"So, why don't you tell me how you really feel." She said to keep them on track, "About the mission, I mean."
He turned to stare at his growing collection of model ships and sighed.
"I don't know. I have a feeling I can't shake about this mission, Tals. Trying to wrap my head around how we're actually going to do this. Just sick and tired of the unknowns we keep running into and the lack of time to do any real prep."
"Well. In all fairness, I think we could've said that same thing for every mission since day one." Tali said rather softly, seeing his pent up shoulders and thinly pressed lips, "...Whatever it is, it's probably not as hard as actually stopping the collectors."
"Speaking of that." John straightened his posture and inhaled sharply, "EDI and Legion have been splitting apart that IFF and finished this morning. Miranda told me where the Omega relay leads to."
"Where?"
"Right in the center of the galaxy."
"Why—" Tali's tongue went limp. "Why does that not surprise me."
He rubbed his eye and grumbled. "Maybe I'm just feeling off because of that more than what we're about to do?"
"Maybe." She cooed. He sat down in their chair, teeth clenched, lips tightly pressed against each other.
"Sometimes I wonder if we're just running around trying to solve a problem we just can't fix." He looked her in the eye. "You know?"
Tali couldn't help but deflate a little, hearing that from him. He wasn't much of a downer, but his outlook sounded a lot more... realistic.
"Yeah." She murmured. She leaned up against the desk, arms crossed. "But you know that can't stop us from trying."
"Preaching to the choir, hun." He said, only a glint of a smile surfacing past that subtle frown of his.
"I know. But you need reminding every now and again. You are leading us through this mess, you know. Maybe I'm a bit biased, but you've been doing a good job so far." She gave him a rough pat.
"I love you." He said with a grin while looking up at her, "You know that right?"
"Oh yeah. I do."
"Your turn."
"Okay." Teri tapped her chin, "What do you think the worst part about the Normandy is. Aside from Legion."
"Okay." Darehk yawned while thinking deeply, "...Lack of privacy."
"Really." She said, nonplussed.
"Yes." Darehk said, affirming what he'd said, "The Neema had more privacy. It was stupid thinking about it now, but hearing all the rumors about humans, I worked up this fantasy that maybe it was more like a cruise ship. It's close. Hell, we've got a bar and lounge. But, at least at home, we had our own rooms."
"Military is military, dude. We have a door at least."
"Yeah. I guess so." Darehk conceded as he thought a little bit more of the life he had to put on pause, "I'm a little homesick, honestly." Darehk grumbled, "I miss my wife."
"How is Jaeyah?"
"She's okay. Still pregnant. You hear me talking to her every night, don't you?"
"How involved is she with what's going on here on the Normandy?"
"Making sure I don't leak anything classified?"
"No. But yes."
"She's not really aware of anything, if you're so concerned." He said, indifferently. The thought of him actually dying on this godforsaken suicide mission and leaving his wife behind put a knot in his gut. It did fairly often.
"Oh."
"What about you?" Darehk asked to push the conversation elsewhere and away from him.
"What about me?"
"Aren't you with Darl or what's his name?"
"No. He broke up with me before we left." She said, lying down in her bed and crossing her legs.
"That sucks."
"Yeah. It does."
There was silence between the two of them for about fifteen long seconds.
"Keelah, I am fucking bored." Teri drawled.
"Don't like staying cooped up in our room for hours at a time?"
"Video games can only take you so far." She groaned.
"Keeps me pretty occupied." Kylie peeped up from her corner, raising her controller in the air, eyes beset upon the colorful explosions on the screen.
"Yeah."
"Read a book. Go do some PT. Help Tali out. She'll probably have something for you to do." Kylie offered.
"Probably not." Darehk disagreed, "That woman has a good reason to hate me."
"You can always man up and apologize."
"It won't be genuine enough." He said in a lackluster way.
"Dude, at least try." Kylie butted in again from her side of the room.
"How should I walk in? Yo, Tali. I fucked up. Sorry bro."
"Yeah. Do that for Olasie too."
Hearing her name made him scoff as he crossed his arms. "Speaking of Olasie, any y'all notice that thing that's been going on between her and Juel?"
"That they're pretty much together?" Teri didn't even look up from her omni-tool, "No way."
"Good. Was making sure I wasn't the only one that was noticing."
"Darhek, they literally scheduled their showers together." Teri said flatly, but grinning, "They were probably banging."
Darehk chortled, "Haha. I know. Gettin' it with squad lead. Top tier stuff."
The door to their room opened to reveal Talukh and his determined bee-lined pace toward the belongings under his bed.
"What's the word?"
"I'm going down with them."
"Who else is going?"
"Tali. Legion. Garrus and the Commander. Overwatch team has been tasked with selecting two observers to assist each station. So that means you, Darehk."
Darehk frowned at the very notion of that geth being a part of anything he was going to be involved in. He knew at some point he'd have to work with it. He also knew that his reservations, if he could even call them that, weren't going to change either.
Since he always traditionally filled that role for Talukh, Darehk didn't have much a choice. "Alright."
"That fills in a slot. It's going to be hot as sticking balls. Pack extra water. Probably a meal or two as well. And get your ghillie ready."
"Roger that."
Talukh pulled out his rifle from underneath his bed to look it over. "Dan's detachment won't be pulling our asses from out the fray should something happen."
"Unlike that all out CIVPOP firefight we had on Illium?" Kylie actually laughed, "Weirdest op we've ever done, hands down."
Talukh gave her a sideways glance, but smirked. "—Only support we get is from anyone who isn't human. Having humans around might stir someone's pot. We're here to rescue someone. Not instigate a war between the humans and batarians."
"We all know who would win that one." Teri said through a scornful laugh.
Darehk snorted. "When do we drop?"
"We're on the kodiak at eleven hundred hours. We're airborne ten after."
"Should I even ask if there's an operation order?"
"Nope. The plan's being made while we're on the ride there. Normandy's going to do some scans of the geography and relay what our overwatch positions should be at."
"Alright. I guess that's been working well for us so far."
"Yeah. Well. Bet on anything happening. Because we're dropping to a godforsaken batarian planet."
"Already ahead of you, Lukh." Darehk mumbled, pulling up a menu on his omni-tool to make sure his salary from Cerberus had been wired to the joint bank account his wife shared with him.
"Good."
"Guess we'll get our things ready just in case then." Teri said.
"Yup. Commander's decided to tell all the non-humans what's happening tonight. After dinner. So be there sharp."
"Will do." Teri said, relaxing on her pillow and bouncing a foot.
-The next day.
The sky's color was a myopic mess of gray. As early dawn began to sweep across the surface of the Aratoht, Tali could hardly tell where the horizon should've ended and where the sky was supposed to begin. However hard she tried to find that line, it remained impossible to discern, much less even see. Whether that be from the mirage that was caste out by the rocks radiating the previous day's heat, she could hardly tell or find the time to actually care.
Fifty five degrees celsius was what the planet sat at. Even at night, the planet sweltered. Despite their best attempts to stay cool, the team sweat and breathed laboriously as they trekked across blistering and rocky earth.
Eventually, they stopped and took refuge in the darker shade of a small cliffside.
John sipped through his canteen while Tali did the same through her straw.
"It's hot." She said tersely.
"Not as bad as Haestrom."
"I know. But there almost passes a point where it all just sucks equally."
"Yeah." John said. They stared out, the team largely quiet.
"Drinking enough water?" He asked her.
"Absolutely."
"Good. Last thing we need is someone with heat stroke. No help out here for that."
He stared down the neck of his bottle for a bit to gauge how much water he had left. "Remember when we grabbed your pilgrimage gift on that planet?"
"I do." She said.
"That place was pretty hot too. Don't think we went on too many hot places."
"What about the planet we picked Liara up on."
"Oh. The lava planet. What was its name? Theros? No, I'm mixing up names. That was... uhm—"
"Therum." Came her idled reply.
"Right." He chuckled, though the dead bodies that had littered the inside of that mine from their experience there flashed through his mind, "Completely forgot about that place."
"Heat's messing with your brain." She joked lightly.
"I'd say so." He gave her a bump on the shoulder. "Welp. Enough rest. Time to move."
He stood up.
"Okay," John said to get everyone's attention, "Everyone good?"
"We are." Thane said quietly.
"Good. This is where we part ways."
He brought up his omni-tool to check his map as all the others did. "You know your call signs. Abide by them. Strict radio discipline. Stay out of sight. Keep our ROE clean. Let's move."
Garrus and Sidonis would be Tagger team. They were to take the eastern side of the compound and watch the only road that lead to and from the prison should anything unexpected happen.
Post team would consist of Talukh and Darehk. They would take the west side as per EDI's recommendation due to the vantage point it provided. It would be far enough to get a good view of the prison, but close enough for them to QRF and help Get'her team if the op were to go awry.
"Post-1: Radio's live. How copy?" John tested as they all stared at each other.
"This is Post-1. Full copy. You getting all this, Tagger-1?"
"That's an affirmative. Let's move out."
The team gathered their gear, nodded off, and split up to go their own ways.
-Four hours later.
It began to rain. The clouds rolled in so thick, the sky had turned to morbid darkness. The heat no longer squelched the earth. Which was good for them.
Garrus and Lantar set up their kill zone and waited. The rain continuously pelted their now soaked cloaks, but the two turians remained unmoving as they continued their watch.
"How long before they breach the compound?" Sidonis asked.
"Thirty minutes. Maybe less, given the weather."
The road remained barren and empty. There wasn't much to look at.
"Convince me how they're actually going to break Kenson out and not get caught." Sidonis whispered, "Because I'm struggling to connect these dots here."
"Well, if how run down the prison is any indication of their work standards, I'm not too worried. The guns and weather are there only security." Garrus offered. "Plus. They got Thane."
"Sure." Sidonis agreed partly, "...But you know they got four eyes though, right?"
"Get'her actual to all. We're go for mission. We're infil. Report stations, over." Came Shepard's voice over the radio.
"There you go." Garrus said, breathing confidence, "We'll be hiking back to LZ in fifteen. Just you watch."
"Yeah. Right." Sidonis said, unconvinced.
"Solid copy, Get'her-1." Garrus answered Shepard, "Our sight line's clear. No contacts."
"That's a solid affirmative, Tagger-1."
"Get'her-1, this is Post-1. Known contacts are tagged and marked on your map. I'd avoid those blips at all costs, over."
"Copy that. Keep everyone notified of any important developments. Out."
Tali, just behind Shepard, careened over a boulder and slid down into the grassy mud.
In the refuge of gusting wind, a drizzle of rain, and a dilapidated concrete wall, John took a peek above their cover and scanned the vicinity.
"Not seeing anything on IR. What about you, Legion?"
"Negative. No contacts, Shepard-Commander."
John drummed his fingers against the foregrip on his rifle and nodded. "Good. Let's move up."
Rearing the corner, they took their incremental steps forward to enter the building.
"Thane: How's things on your end?" John asked over the radio.
"I'm in. Two guards down. I have seen what they are armed with. They are well-equipped. Please be cautious."
"Copy that."
Tali frowned. "I don't know how the hell he does that."
"Move." John ordered again. Cover left behind and red rusty door just ahead, they lined up into a stack and finally entered the prison.
The rain echoed into the hallway as they entered, gear still dripping when they closed the door behind them.
It was dark. It was quiet. A single stale yellow light, all the way at the end of the corridor, tried its best to illuminate the space it was in.
"Go left."
Legion and Tali did as they were told and followed Shepard. Carefully, methodically, they pushed deeper into the dark and empty prison.
"How old is this damn building?" John muttered.
"Looks like it's a hundred years old." Tali added, staring up at the mildewed ceiling.
"It does, doesn't it? But it couldn't be. Batarians just settled a couple decades ago. Really starting to think batarian craftsmanship's just shit."
"That too." Tali shrugged.
"Thane. Status?"
"Still moving, Shepard. I will update you when such a time warrants it."
"Copy. Tali and Legion will see about finding us intel."
"Understood, Shepard. Out."
"Lot of them for a prison out in the middle of nowhere." Darehk said, binoculars plugged through his visor, "I mean, where the hell would any of the escapees even run to? Nothing but tundra and desert for a hundred kilometers in any direction."
"You're asking a lot of questions no one's got an answer to." Talukh murmured, his crosshair laid across the face of a smoking batarian.
"Maybe they're not even guards." Darehk said, pouring context from nothing, "Maybe they just train soldiers here and use prisoners for targets."
"Very imaginative." Talukh said, talking just to humor him.
"Seems pretty likely to me." Darehk mumbled, scanning the perimeter for the umpteenth time to see if anything had changed, "You got any ideas?"
"Political prisoners, is my guess. People in there probably don't even know what planet they're on. Can't give you an answer for why there's so many goddamn guards though."
"Political prisoners, huh?"
"What else? You think there's oversight in the batarian hegemony?" Talukh actually laughed at his wisecrack of a joke.
"Nope." Darehk said, eyes unblinking as he sipped from his canteen. "Not at all."
They quieted and the only sound to permeate the landscape was the soft pelting of rain.
"How you been feeling, Lukh?"
"It's not hard to breathe anymore. Still get random ass chest pain. Doc says it's just my nerves."
"Docs tell you that when they don't know what's going on." He said jokingly.
Talukh's reply was a little late as he watched a pair of guards walking casually across a catwalk. "Yeah. Maybe."
"Probably my turn to be catching a bullet." Darehk said meekly, giving it a little thought, "Nearly everyone else has taken one for the team."
"Just you and Teri left, huh?"
"Yeah."
More silence for a long while. A soft crackle of thunder to keep the monotonous soundscape at bay.
"You used to Legion, yet?"
"Hell the fuck no." Darehk answered flatly, "Don't know why the hell you all have gotten so casual with it."
"I haven't."
"Then you agree with me?"
"Of course I do. Mostly." He said without skipping a beat, "But you have to admit, it's pretty damn wild that we haven't tried to kill each other yet. Makes you think."
Darehk tapped his helmet to sever his connection to his binos before turning to stare at him. "Makes you think what?"
"Of how you could scale that up." Talukh said, shrugging as best he could. "This truce we've had: Commander's up to something."
"You're fucking nuts, Lukh."
To Lukh, Darehk's remark, however valid it might have been, wasn't doing anything but treading water after the experiences they've had these past few months. Saying that and being a part of the stuff they did didn't have that visceral edge to it anymore. Break it down and look it all over and you'd realize that the Normandy was nothing but a party platter of aliens with different backgrounds working together with the help of an AI, the geth, Cerberus, and their zombie leader back from the dead who'd been openly dating a quarian gal. And it was all working.
"Whole ship's fucking nuts, Darhek," He said after a moment's thought, "I think it's been good to us. Widen your eyes a bit."
"Been doing that plenty with what I've seen these days, bro." Darehk said at length, "Just not in the direction you think."
Talukh sighed, though it wasn't one that Darehk would hear. "Mm. We'll see."