"Lieutenant Deacon, Private Lambert, Corporal May," Nikki recited the names of those lost on Akuze as she worked her way through the set of fifty pushups that had become part of her morning routine. She may be forced to work with the devil, but she wouldn't forget what they had done.
Of course technically there had only been forty-nine deaths that day, she herself being the fiftieth marine on Akuze, the sole survivor or so she'd thought. Unfortunately Cerberus's evil knew no bounds and she had no difficulty finding another name to roundoff her set. Her muscles ached, reminding her they'd already done a full set of pull-ups, but she grit her teeth as she forced her way through: "Sergeant Harris... Corporal Toombs... Admiral Kahoku."
She let her arms collapse, rolling onto her back as she gasped for air. A handful of seconds breather only and then she was up, heading for the shower so she could begin her day.
...
Shepard smiled when her eyes landed on Grunt as she entered the mess for breakfast. He was all alone at one table, the ship's crew giving him a wide berth, but he didn't seem to care about the lack of company; his attention focused on the multitude of plates covering the entirety of the surface before him, it looked suspiciously like there was a separate plate for every edible item that was currently being served. The young krogan may have centuries worth of knowledge about krogan history and fighting techniques in his brain, but he had no experience of life or the pleasures it could contain. He seemed eager to learn, particularly about the joys of food.
As she neared him he made a disgruntled sound, removing a plate of mushrooms from his collection and sliding it beneath the table where it joined a growing selection of rejects that filled what Nikki had mistakenly considered to be empty chairs.
"How's it going Grunt?" She asked, picking up the shunned offerings so she could sit down beside him.
"This is my favourite." He declared happily as he munched his way through a plate of boiled eggs. Shepard briefly considered explaining to him that you were supposed to remove the shells before eating but decided against it. Just as she failed to mention how the fried eggs in his reject pile were technically the same food. Instead she scraped the various leftovers onto a single plate, taking care to make sure the croissants didn't land in the chopped tomato and tucked in, ignoring his stare at her decision to eat what he considered to be the disgusting foods.
"Have you tried bacon yet?" Nikki enquired, pointing out the plate in question. His hand reached out, claiming a rasher and returning to his mouth, his eyes broadcasting his awe as the taste hit his tongue.
"This is my favourite!" Nikki laughed brightly at his change of mind, earning a few stares from the Cerberus personnel who had never heard the sound before. She went to pick some of the heavenly food off his plate only to find a heavy grip around her wrist.
"Mine." Grunt growled threateningly but she didn't cower, merely turned her head to look at him, seeming completely nonplussed as she responded in an amused voice:
"Don't make me kill you with a fork Grunt, I just want to show you something." The krogan wondered if she'd show him how to kill someone with a fork, it sounded interesting and hadn't been included in Okeer's imprints. He'd have to ask her later. For now he let go, watching with curiosity as she pulled items off several different plates and piled them together, before pouring a golden coloured liquid over the whole thing and placing the concoction in front of him. "Try this."
The thought of putting different foods in his mouth at the same time hadn't even occurred to Grunt before and his mind was blown as the mix of flavours combined into something even greater than the sum of their parts. He stared out across the table, wondering what else could be created from it. Fortunately the commander seemed just as eager to teach him as he was to learn. It was only his second day out the tank but it was already looking like the best day ever.
...
Grunt charged, his shotgun singing sweetly as he focused on the only worthy opponent on the battlefield. He ignored the petty assaults of the inferior beings all around him, not noticing as the combined effect of their weapons fire took down his shield. A lucky shot brought him to his knees but he stumbled back up with a roar.
"No. Not good enough." Shepard's voice cut clearly through the cacophony of war and a moment later the simulation faded to reveal the Normandy's shuttle bay. "Charging off like that puts both you and the rest of the squad at risk."
"If they can't look after themselves they don't deserve to live." The krogan retorted, annoyed at being held back by such weaklings. "Okeer said-"
"I don't care. Okeer's not here, I am." The commander strode towards him. "You have the strength and ability to be a great warrior Grunt." His chest swelled at her praise. "But you also have the potential to be so much more, if you learn to fight smart and how to be part of a team."
He already knew how to fight. The tank had taught him everything he needed to know about combat and how to beat the other species. Then again the tank said that humans, asari and salarians were all supposed to be soft, easy to kill. Shepard most definitely wasn't, she had even bested him each time they sparred. It made him wonder what else the tank was wrong about.
...
Nikki had lost count of the amount of battlefields she'd been on, the stench of blood and smoke and rotting corpses entwining into a single disgusting bouquet. Then there was the aroma associated with slave pens; the sweat, vomit, faeces and fear of a hundred sentient beings crammed tight into a space barely big enough for forty. And somehow she doubted she'd ever forget the smell of that batarian prison, the nicest part had been when her team had infiltrated in and out via the varren infested sewers.
Despite her vast and varied nasal experiences she couldn't help but wrinkle her nose in disgust as she stepped out the Normandy's airlock, immediately coming under assault from the unique fragrance of Omega. Lawson certainly hadn't been exaggerating in her description of the place.
Grunt alone seemed unaffected by the smell, but then this was his first experience of anywhere other than the Normandy. He was still busy processing the sights and sounds of the place, none of the images and vids from the tank could prepare him for reality and everything seemed so new and fresh. Even a rank, millennia old space station.
He tensed as a salarian approached them, relaxing at a subtle hand signal from Shepard. It wasn't long before a batarian scared the scavenger away, Grunt didn't like his attitude, the way he demanded the commander obey the whims of this 'Aria'. He wanted to teach the batarian some respect but he remembered Shepard's words, both during transit and right before they left the ship: "A lot of people will try and provoke a fight from us, they may even try to insult us, but they are just the meaningless words of cowards. There's no honour in fighting such worthless opponents. Always remember, the greatest insult a krogan can give is to deem someone not worth killing. And trust me, few people are worthy of a death at our hands. We don't start any fights, but if it becomes unavoidable we will finish them. Just follow my lead and you'll be fine."
So he followed her lead all the way into Afterlife, hiding his disappointment when the group of batarians trying to intimidate them just inside the club pissed their pants at his commander's response instead of descending into a brawl like he'd hoped. The pounding music and flashing lights were such a contrast to the quiet and pristine Normandy that he'd spent his entire short life on so far, his head darting around to take it all in while Shepard spoke to the melodramatic asari in charge.
...
"It affects multiple species: turians, salarians, krogan, you name it. Only humans are immune. And vorcha, if you count them." Nothing's ever simple is it. Nikki glanced uncertainly at Grunt standing behind her, she needed to recruit Professor Solus but this plague had already proven its lethality, she didn't want to risk her new friend's life.
"Sorry Grunt, but it's safer to stick with a squad who's immune to the plague."
"You promised me I could fight with you." The giant krogan practically whined.
"And you will, but you can't fight a plague, you can't even see it!"
"I'm not afraid of a disease. I don't get sick."
"Grunt, you're less than a month old! How the hell would you know?"
"Commander, if the slums are as lawless as they say then he might be useful." Miranda interrupted, earning a glare from the younger woman. Trust Cerberus to put the mission before the wellbeing of the people on it. Then again in fairness that wasn't solely a Cerberus mindset, she still remembered Anderson's teachings: 'sometimes the cost of failing a mission is higher than the cost of losing your men'. The difficult part was knowing when those times were.
She could always postpone, wait until Jacob made contact with the mercenary that was supposed to be meeting them this afternoon on the Omega docks. Or even call Jacob or Kasumi in to replace the krogan right now and let one of the ship side crew greet the merc. But there was no way of knowing what the situation was inside the slums. It had already been at least a week, what if something happened to the professor before they got there? Surely there must be other scientists in the field who could help against the collectors? But she had no idea who they were, or if they were competent, or how to convince them to abandon their current projects.
Grunt was still looking at her pleadingly, desperate to be allowed to come and she felt her resolve falter. Besides, what else was she supposed to do with him? Force him to sit on a ship full of xenophobes and hope neither side started a fight in her absence? Allow him to wander the perilous streets of Omega without an escort?
"Fine. But remember what I've been teaching you."
...
They made good time fighting through the streets, even with Shepard stopping to help everyone she could along the way. She couldn't help it, it was just the kind of person she was. Didn't matter if it was a sick batarian claiming 'her kind' were responsible for the plague, or a group of frightened humans hiding in case of retribution from non-humans who thought the same. She did what she could to provide them all with hope or, where possible, something more substantial.
Then she heard the cough.
"You ok Grunt?"
"I don't get sick!" He declared resolutely. The proclamation ruined slightly by the racking cough that tore through his lungs. Shepard gripped her rifle a little tighter, upping the pace slightly as she pushed her squad a little harder to get to the salarian's med clinic in time.
...
Fortunately by the time they reached Solus the professor had already developed a cure for the plague, and Shepard was able to breathe a little easier once he'd administered the lifesaving treatment to Grunt.
Well... briefly that is.
At least until the vorcha switched off the life support systems meaning everybody in the entire district's breathing was about to become a hell of a lot harder if she didn't hurry up and do something about it.
"Alright Lawson, breather helmet on." Shepard instructed, following her own advice. It blocked peripheral vision slightly but was better than suffocating. Admittedly they had some time before the air became stale and the current oxygen levels dropped below safety percentages, but she wasn't willing to risk not noticing the danger later. In fact if human's hadn't been immune to the plague she would have ordered them on earlier. "Grunt?"
"Yeah, yeah I know: stick to incendiary rounds against vorcha, don't charge the pyros, don't waste concussive rounds on krogan and don't forget about the flank." Actually she'd been about to tell him to stay at the clinic, he had been coughing up blood a mere five minutes ago after all. However Mordin's chemical cocktail seemed to have done the trick and without working environmental systems he had just as much chance of dying here as he did out there. At least if he was fighting by her side they had more chance of reaching the controls in time. Plus she was pleased he was listening to her advice.
"Good. And the varren?"
"If they're attacking you or Lawson I have to kill it, not try to adopt it." He muttered a little less enthusiastically and Nikki fervently hoped he'd remember that one. She was fairly sure she'd find it hilarious to watch back the helmet cam footage later, but it certainly hadn't been funny at the time.
...
"Shepard, I've scanned the room. The central control system is in an alcove in the centre of the back wall. You can inject the cure and reinitialise systems there." Nikki was pretty sure she could have figured that out herself, but the Normandy's AI was only trying to help and it did save them maybe twenty seconds in the long run so she thanked it and followed its instructions. Only to immediately come under fire from more vorcha reinforcements.
"I have located the fan controls. There are two, one on either side of the room you are in now." Yeah, never would have figured that out by myself. How did I ever manage to complete missions without you? the commander thought sarcastically as she scrambled into cover to avoid a rocket that nearly hit her despite being very poorly aimed. A second explosion had her ears ringing.
"God damn it! Where the hell did they get so many rocket launchers from?"
"Unknown. However they are using the ZS9 Mk84 from Elkoss Combine, so the most logical explanation would be-" And the award for most useless information from an AI goes to...
"It was a rhetorical question EDI!"
...
"District saved, diabolical plan thwarted, professor recruited... All in all I'd say that's a job well done. I vote for a shower and ice cream. Not at the same time." Nikki opined as they made their way back through the streets of Omega.
"Aren't you forgetting something Commander?" Of course Miranda just had to open her mouth and ruin Shepard's good mood. To think they'd been doing so well, nearly an entire mission together without a declaration of war and only two and a half fairly minor instances of snark, Doctor Chakwas would be so proud.
"Uh... Chocolate sprinkles?" The spectre wasn't willing to let go of the dream just yet.
"No, Archangel. Aria didn't seem to think he could hold out much longer."
"Think of it like an audition, if he can't hold off a couple hundred mercs until I've had a shower then he's got no hope on our little suicide mission." Shepard's faux cheer evaporated in the face of the Cerberus operative's patented 'look' and she gave a groan. "Fine, fine, no rest for the wicked. I'll go save his useless hide. But if the plan's still to infiltrate in as freelance mercs then you're not coming. I'll take Jacob or the actual merc if he's arrived yet. Grunt you still up for some more fighting?"
The tank bred krogan literally bounced with excitement as he pounded his fists together in response. Nikki couldn't help a smile at his enthusiasm. "Well that makes one of us at least. Lawson, I expect ice cream when I get back, or failing that tiramisu." With those parting words she headed off towards Afterlife. This bloody vigilante better be worth it.