Curled up inside in the car, my body turned to mush as Indira drove us through the madness and chaos. The geth attack set the Citadel into a panic and C-Sec struggled to push back the invaders. The jerked movements of the car made me throw up again, although by this point my stomach dry heaved. Indira kept glancing to me as she kept her foot to the floor, no longer smiling or laughing. Time escaped me, unclear as to how much had passed from us getting in the car to where ever we were now. The driving became more erratic the closer to the Presidium we got. My hunch about that monument was right.
My whole body felt like it was on fire, every inch of me burning from just breathing. And even that was difficult. My lungs wheezed for air, desperate for oxygen. Was this the beginnings of shock? My medical knowledge was poor, all I knew was that it was bad. Another wave of pain drove the air from my lungs. Air couldn't get back into my lungs fast enough. My hands gripped the seat, desperate for something to hang onto. What was wrong with me?
The car slammed to a stop, throwing me in the seatbelt and making me cough as if my lungs tried to claw free. Indira threw open the doors, dragging me out with her. My legs stumbled, everything a blur before me. Gunfire rang out from my Carnifex. Some geth clicked but as my hands fumbled for my Locust, Indira yanked me to the left, making a grab for the gun pointless. She all but hauled me into a building, hoisting me over her shoulder to jitter down stairs. All the while, everything before me turned dark, blurry, and very-
"This should have been weeded out," Nyryntha's voice rattled through me. The headache blinded me, but the pain gave me a moment to catch a breath. The pain forced a breath in. What the hell was she on about?
"Saere!" Indira called out, making me blink as my attention snapped back into focus. A moan sounded as Indira removed me from her shoulder, lowering me to the floor. "I don't know what's wrong with her... none of the others did this!"
"Indira, I have many other patients who need help," a female flanged voice answered.
"Yeah but this one is turning blue! And she ain't asari!" Indira said. A soft sigh sounded.
"Very well, let's see," the flanged voice answered. My vision blinked, trying to see through the blur. A turian hovered overhead, dark silvery-brown plates and orange markings but beyond that no other features were visible. Taloned hands ran over my burning body, making sounds escape my lips. The pain blotted my vision. An orange hue blinded me, and from there, everything else was blind.
"Well?" Indira asked.
"She's taking an allergic reaction to something," she answered. "Did she have anything dextro-amino?"
"N-No, I watched the drink being made, nothing dextro as added," Indira said.
"Let me guess, the Swa'hila," the turian sighed. "Might be the hanar venom. Many humans are allergic to that, although it is difficult to be certain. Human, can you hear me?" My tight throat made it difficult to speak.
"Y-Yes," I wheezed. The turian frown. She tilted my head back, keeping a finger under my chin. My lungs tried for another breath, but keeping the airway clear seemed pointless.
"Better?" the turian asked.
"N-No," I gasped.
"She's taking a reaction. Lorrel! Antihistamine, the blue one!" she summoned. An explosion rocked the entire building with a dull thud, the rattling of falling flakes of concrete sending jitters down my spine. Raisha told me to not be afraid, and Mat'al said to run when I couldn't fight. He never gave me a solution for one when I couldn't fight or run. Helpless, terror send tremors running through me. And then Indira stole my Locust. Again!
"I'll try to keep them off us, but you have to get her on her feet. She's good!" Indira bounded away, a wide grin on her face.
"Indira, I can't have her up in the next 10 seconds-" Saere said. Indira laughed as she hopped on the spot.
"15 then!" Indira laughed, bounding to her feet. "If I kill more than 100 geth before you're up and gunning again, you have to take a triple Volus vodka shot!" Indira warned as she spun on her heel. My gaze gawked, helpless, trying to make sounds of annoyance before she disappeared from sight. The turian beside me scowled.
"I would recommend against taking that bet. Humans and Volus vodka have never had a good relationship," Saere sighed. She took something from an assistant, an asari. My arm jerked as needle punched through the haze of pain. "This will take less than 10 minutes to kick in," she muttered, putting an oxygen mask over my face. "Just try to lie still for a while, I'll be back soon," Any complaints or question died as she bolted for her other patients.
I lay on the on the hard floor, gasping for air with my body on fire. All the while, Indira abandoned me to fight geth, although to be fair, she did it to keep them off us. My arm twitched, moaning as the muscles pleading for salvation. Was this what Nyryntha meant, that this allergy should never have happened? For once, I agreed with her. There were no other allergies, other than hay fever, so for me to have such a severe reaction to something was... incredible. Did this mean that my hay fever was cured or had that been forgotten too? A robotic sound crackled in my head as the splitting migraine returned. Nyryntha wondered the same thing.
But as the doctor said, after about 13 minutes, my burning bloodstream had settled down, the shivering eased. My vision still refused to clear up but let's just deal with things one at a time. My body rolled onto its side, teeth grit to silent the complaints from pain. From there, my vision recovered. My breathing eased, enjoying the sweet taste of air. I was recovering. Just in time to take my frustration out on some bloody geth. My hand pulled the mask off my face, taking a deep breath to make sure my lungs worked. They still ached but they would survive. A quick glance showed Saere on the other side of the room. The female turian lacked the crest that the males did, and the carapace was smaller. She looked over in surprise.
"Please, don't move. You need an hour to recover at least," She said.
"I will not lie here all day," I said, shoving myself to my swaying feet, breaths staggering in as my balance restarted. "Not when there is people in danger and I could do something. No more of that," I muttered. Pre-Feros memories flashed. Helpless, people begged for help and knowing there was nothing I could do to help. It helped steel my resolve. "Thank you. Not sure who you are, but you did an amazing job,"
"You shouldn't even be able to stand yet..." she murmured. A shiver demanded to run through me, but my body repressed it. Nyryntha did more than I thought. My answering smile faltered.
"I-I'll be ok. But I-I had better get up there and help Indira," I thanked Saere once more before turning and dashing up the stairs.
Or that wasn't such a good idea. Half-way up my lungs begged to stop, asking for time to recover. A hand clung to the railing as I fought for air once more. Ok, fighting geth wasn't such an amazing idea. An idea to collapse down the stairs and roll rolling back into the clinic, or whatever it was, and just lying there until it was all over was tempting. However, the gunfire at the top of the stairs dragged me to the top. My eyes widened at the scene before me.
Indira danced around the geth. Literally. She laughed her ass off while tangoing with a geth and watching it get shot up by its friends. She then decided to salsa with another, shocked when the head vanished a few seconds later. I coughed, loud enough to catch her attention. Her eyes lit up. She spun the headless geth corpse like a ballerina and sent it careening into another two geth. They clicked as they freed themselves.
"Took your sweet time, darling!" she laughed, jogging over to me to help me straighten myself out. My scowl didn't faze the girl. My hands reached out. Indira's eyes lit up and she raised her hands to take them when she saw the severe frown on my face. She blinked for a moment. A flush spread over her cheeks. "Oh, right," The Locust and Carnifex were back in my hands. My fingers flexed with the guns in my hands, unease escaping me. Although, geth oil coated my Carnifex's barrel. That would take time to clean off.
"So, what's the plan?" I asked, sliding the Carnifex home at my hip.
"...I dunno. There are some amazing shoes over in Karla's. I've been eyeing for weeks. 2000 credits my ass!" Indira snorted, folding her arms. A sigh escaped as my arm raised and released an Overload at the two geth stumbling to their feet, only to collapse from the final damage by the blue lightning.
"No stealing," I moaned.
"Aw, but Delly-" she whined.
"And what did I say about 'Delly'?" I snapped as my feet strode over the threshold and back into the Wards. Indira trotted at my heel, looking for more geth to fight. She picked up a rifle from one of the geth, grinning.
"All right, all right, Dellion," Indira answered. "Can we fight geth now? Can we, can we, can we?" she bounced. y grumble rumbled for a moment before sighing.
"Yes, Indira, we can fight geth no-" I said, blinking when Indira tore off down the street, cheering in the mass of fire and chaos. My arms threw themselves in the air. There was no point in trying to understand that girl.
I followed her general direction, but my approach was careful. A bullet without armour and shields would suck ass. The drell vanished, although it wasn't hard to follow her. Just had to follow the singularity trail that was 2 kilometres long. Geth and wreckage floated in the air before they crashed to the ground as the biotic effect wore off. The noise sent my skin skittering, the metallic crunch an ache in my ears. As the Presidium approached, the damage got worse. The structural integrity shattered for one too many skyscrapers, the towering walls of the wards collapsed in on themselves and bullets decorated the walls. A barrier had been constructed near the entrance to the Presidium, a wall of C-Sec officers rose before me. Old buildings and burned out cars transformed into makeshift cover to act as a wall against the geth incursion. Officers pressed deep then retreated to get civilians on the Wards side of the wall. I strode up to a turian who was taking a breather, his armour battered and smoking.
"Where is your CO?" I asked. The turian blinked, gawking up at me. He looked me up and down, raising a brow at the dress. It wasn't an ideal outfit to be wearing to a gunfight. The Locust was in my hand and the Carnifex at my hip, revealed by a lovely rip up the side Indira left. The turian frowned, but nodded his head to a building about 10m away. I thanked him, striding past men in better protection than me to see about helping out. It would be an understatement to say jealousy was a problem.
The man in charge turned out to be another turian. C-Sec had turians in abundance, it seemed. The turian was obvious to spot, the yelling of orders that permeated the air were obvious enough to follow. This wasn't an ideal situation to start with. My nerves spiked, forcing me to catch a breath. So, after suffocating from an allergic reaction, I was about the throw myself back into a battlefield. With luck, they could give me some lighter work, clean up of stray geth or something. After another breath, my legs filtered me through the crowd to reach the angry looking charcoal coloured turian.
"And get those barriers back up! We need to contain the geth in the Presidium, the Council are already on the Ascension," he snapped as I replaced a scampering officer. The tall turian glanced down, noticing my bright red hair. He scowled at me. "Human, the civilians are moving deeper into the wards, I suggest-"
"I'm no civilian," I said. "Alliance," Well, not technically. Couldn't tell him I was STG now could I? The turian straightened, staring at my attire. A flush burned under his scrutiny. "Left my armour at home, I wasn't expecting a geth attack," the turian snorted.
"I suppose not... just glad to have someone who knows how to shoot a bloody gun," he rubbed the plate under his nose for a moment. "All right, we need people to go into the Presidium, scout out the situation. I think by this point most of the geth have spilled into the Wards, these barriers keep getting shunted back all the time,"
"Mmm, yeah. I saw quite a few geth several kilometres down the road. My first encounter was outside Embrace," I said.
"Shit," the turian cursed. "Delerios, get a team down the Neverno Ward! Geth spotted!" a quietened 'Yes sir' rang out. "That geth still walking?"
"No," I said with a smile. No thanks to me.
"Good, one less to worry about," he glanced over to the rough wall between the Presidium and the Wards, drumming his taloned fingers against the table in thought. "I hate to throw you into unknown territory without armour but I've got men in there and they are asking for some extra guns. We can't spare much here..." he said. It took my taxed will to hold the sigh, keep it inwards. So much for light work.
"I'll see what I can do. No spare shields you could borrow? Oh, and if you see a biotic drell on a sugar rush with a bad case of kleptomania, tell her Endellion Shaik would appreciate the back-up," the turian stared at me. "Just... don't even ask. I met her about six hours ago," My head shook. The turian was silent before groaning.
"Fine. I'll pass the word along to the teams," he grumbled, snapping something off his gauntlet and passing a small oblong bar into my hand. "In the meantime, I need guns in the Presidium," The sound of the Locust reloaded eased my fear, locking the bar onto my omni-tool. The bring sound of the shields activating released my bunched shoulders.
"I'll see what I can do, sir...?" I asked.
"Commander Satrino Wilcerous," he said.
"I'll see you when this is over, Commander," I saluted. Was this was the correct thing to do? My breath released when he saluted back. My heels clicked as I returned to the barrier, sheathing the Locust for the more powerful Carnifex. A hole peeked through the barrier, granting me a peek through it. What greeted me was a wall of geth. Great. I had signed onto a suicide mission! At least I had shields…
"Delly!" someone cried. My shoulders tensed. Well, there was my little pickpocket. My well prepared glower smothered my face as the drell sprinted over to me, a large beam on her face. "I got the most amazing dress! You won't believe what you find lying around!" My eyes narrowed. Of course she had been looting while shooting up geth. My gaze glanced back in time to watch the officers drag back a few people from a side entrance to the Presidium, a stream of geth behind them. I turned to Indira as she stopped in front of me, bouncing on her feet.
"Hey, drell," I sighed. Indira pouted. "I don't suppose you could clear those geth?" Indira crossed her arms, spinning on her heel to give me her back.
"After not using my name? Nope!" she answered in a huff. A moan sounded as my hands rubbed my eyes. The geth made a push for the barrier. Indira was a powerful biotic, she could clear them all in one fell swoop if I could convince her to... but how? She was stubborn and seemed to have a problem turning a challenge down but... hang on a minute. My eyes fixed onto the drell's back for a long time before smiling. My legs strode to the barrier, making Indira look around.
"Oh, I'm sorry, I thought you were a strong biotic. Well, if you can't do it, then I guess we need to find someone who can," I said, watching Indira's hackles rattle. "We will need someone smart, strong, powerful, brav-"
"Stand back, Dell," she growled in a quiet tone, storming towards the geth. "I'll show you how it's done!" she would have rolled up her sleeves if she had any. Indira stormed to the barrier, biotic power flowing around her, then hopped right over it. Panic swelled in my chest. Maybe antagonising her was a terrible ide-
My words died as geth soared through the air, the entire ground shook as a blue quake shattered a path straight through to the Presidium. The turian guards and I gawked for the longest time. Deciding it safe, my legs freed themselves to hop over the barrier, joining a blue irradiated Indira. A cough found my voice.
"Nicely done, Diri," I managed. Indira stared at me for a moment. She shuddered.
"Ok, no more Delly for no more Diri. Nan used to call me that all the time!" she stuck her tongue out. A short laugh surfaced.
"Done. Now let's go kick some geth ass!" I smirked. Indira beamed, chirpy once more.
"Let's do it!" she whooped.
"Without the looting," I added, striding past her. She whined behind me.
"But Dellion! It's just lying there, not doing anything-" she wailed.
"No buts," I laughed. "You're such a whinger!" Indira seemed confused.
"What does that mean?" she asked.
"Scottish slang for someone who doesn't stop complaining!" I said as my legs burst into a run towards the Presidium. Indira squeaked before chasing me down, trying to defend her complaining. Her words died under my laughter. The medi-gel made me giddier. Having Indira out of my hair for a while for good for one's healthy. She was bearable in small doses. Or maybe it was only when I had the upper hand in a conversation.
Hmm, the Presidium was in quite the mess. Dellion crept onwards, trying to gauge the geth resistance while keeping herself hidden. She stalked these geth infested halls with no fear, jaw set tight, her eyes scanned and her gun primed. Despite this, she didn't seem to know her own limits though. She seemed too new at this, too hot off the press. She would rush forward too much and then have to retreat when she saw geth nearby. Dellion needed tempering. A frown grew as we progressed deeper into the Presidium, making idle banter about the shops and things we could stea- oooh, that necklace was adorable! No, wait! Indira, head in the game! Ah but it's so shiny...
"Indira," Dellion's voice sigh. A flush burned my cheeks before sulking. Busted.
"But Dellion-" I tried.
"No buts, young lady," she scolded. My arms crossed as we took cover behind the collapsed wall
"Yes mum," I answered. "Gosh, you need to get laid," A smirk burst out when Dellion flushed brilliant red.
Dellion coughed before turning her gaze to the geth shooting up the Presidium, checking the clip of her pistol. My tongue clucked as we moved forward, ducking behind the remains of a café. Looking at Dellion's eyes, they twitched, trying to find something to fixate to but couldn't and moved to something else. She was trying to avoid staring at the corpses of civilians around us, the blood pooling around them. Yeah, she was still fresh. If this disturbed her, she hadn't seen real action at all yet. She winced as she shuffled around an outstretched hand, scurrying onwards with her eyes glued forward. She needed something to take her mind off of everything.
"How about a song, Dellion?" I grinned. Dellion turned me, eyes wide and jaw dropped. She struggled to speak as she found her voice
"Um... no?" she said.
"What's that catchy human song you people sing…? Oh yeah!" I said, bounding out of cover, attracting the immediate attention of about 25 geth, they surrounding me. These things were so bloody stupid, it was child's play to destroy them in small groups. "25 stupid geth on the wall, 25 stupid geth!" I sang. Dellion's jaw slacken from the corner of my eye. A geth hovered off the ground as my biotics entrapped the area, dancing around the bullets. My biotics slammed the geth into a Prime. "You pick one up, you smash a Prime, 23 stupid geth on the wall!" The remaining geth clicked, annoyed. Didn't they like my singing?!
"Indira-" Dellion said.
"You've got others, right? Give 'em to me!" I cheered as a danced between a geth and a missile. The geth exploded. Dellion fell silent, gawking at me as a geth swung around me.
"Y-Yankee doodle?" she offered, still confused.
"Ooo! Good call!" I laughed. "Stupid gethy went to town, just to find a battle. Stuck a rifle up its ass and told it goodbye gethy!" Another half a dozen geth were down, and Dellion still hadn't released a single bullet. What was this girl doing?! "C'mon Dellion! Join in! It's great fun!"
That spurred her. She jolted as if zapped and raised the gun to shoot. Geez, this girl made no sense at all! First she was all up for fighting, then she stands there gaping at me... it was me that caused all that, wasn't it? My attempts to get Dellion to sing failed. She flushed and shook her head as she tried to take down a Prime. A squeak erupted from me, my body hurled to the ground to avoid her incinerate. My glare pout combo made her flush. She had to work on her bloody aim with that thing!
Then a sniper bullet rook out a rocket trooper. Well, Dellion perked, scanning the area for the source. She craned her ears, trying to listen for the gun. The second shot came soon after. Dellion's smile dropped. My eyes tried to follow gaze, spotting an asari commando giving us cover from the upper levels. Between the three of us, the remaining geth cleared with little fight. Dellion joined me.
"Expecting someone?" I asked with a suave voice. Dellion flushed, gagged at the thought. She shook her head.
"No, no. Mat'al is a damn slow shot. Blood salarian and his 'taking his sweet time'," she grumbled. Dellion strode forward, deeper into the Presidium. We pressed on with me further ahead, trying to find one geth before Dellion got all the fun. There were just a few stragglers arou- "Ah, fuuuuuuuuck," Dellion said. My body spun on a penny, facing her.
"What?" I asked, studying her as her gaze fixed through a hole in the roof, a mass effect shield preventing the air from escaping. My gaze drifted upwards, blinking through the gap. There was a massive black... squid thing… attached to the tower. My jaw dropped as ships from the Alliance zipped past the gap, shells slamming into the squid thing to destroy it. "Um... what is that?" Dellion's expression twisted, eyebrows dropping and teeth baring as she clenched them.
"It's a fucking Reaper! Goddam it, Sovereign! I'm gonna kick your sorry ass you-" she thundered, tearing off down the Presidium. My laugh erupted as I followed her. She headed towards the Citadel tower. Boy, just the sight of that thing set her into overdrive. This was an interesting side of her to see!
"You have a bad date with him or something?" I chortled.
"Something like that, yeah!" Dellion answered, her voice hot with anger. My feet stumbled. Did she... yeah, she joked back... maybe I was closer to breaking her than I thought! She had always been so uptight but... huh. We ran beside each other, anticipation building about what would happen next.
We reached the Citadel Tower entrance in all its burning glory. Dellion skidded to a stop when her gaze landed on a 6-wheeled tank, lying on its side near the elevator. Geth scattered on the ground around it. There were none walking around here, that was for sure. She muttered 'the Mako' under her breath before she tore off towards the elevator. From a distance, it was clear the elevator was dark, the call button was dead. Was the power out? Dellion kicked the glass door, staring up the tube.
"Dammit, Shepard's up there! He will get everyone killed!" she snapped. My head tilted to the side. She paced, tears threatening to spill out from her eyes, but her expression contorted into one of anger. She kicked the door again, trying to find way to power it back on. But there was nothing she could do from here. She stepped away from the tower, running a hand down her face as she re-joined me. Her breath stuttered through her teeth. My hand patted her shoulder to calm her emotional roller-coaster.
"Let's clear out the rest of these geth while we wait, huh?" I offered. Dellion glanced up between her fingers. "They'll come down later," I said. Dellion glanced back towards the elevator, chewing her lip. She sighed as she checked her SMG.
"I suppose. C'mon, those C-Sec guys have to be around here somewhere," she said.
That was how we spent the following 3 hours. We never met up with her friend, although the giant squid thing exploded after an hour. And then destroyed half the area we were trying to clear. A giant squid leg crushed like 100 geth so it wasn't all bad. We joined a team of about 21 C-Sec officers, driving out the rest of the geth now that the numbers shrank. We turned the tide on the machines, helped that their intelligence shrank every time one of them died. Due to Dellion's lack of armour and only a shield, and my biotic barrier, they shunted me to the front, just where I liked it. Dellion stayed on the flanks. This one human, some blond guy trying to chat up Dellion, proclaimed he would keep such a fair maiden safe... until he got shot through the head. Dellion suppressed the smile that her source of annoyance had vanished, but still turned green by the brain matter now coating some of the squad. After 3 hours of non-stop combat, we completed a circuit around the Presidium, or what we could access before the damage pushed us back. Our services were no longer needed. The group split up to clear up any stragglers. Just before leaving, a corporal of the Alliance that had dragged our team through the geth gave Dellion his thanks. The black haired human left with just a few glances over his shoulder as Dellion smiled, sliding her Locust away. I bounced to her side.
"So what now?" I asked. Dellion gave me a tired smile.
"What time is it?" she asked, rubbing her eyes.
"Hmm? Oh it's," I checked my omni-tool. "4am," the flame-haired human fell silent for a time, blinking.
"Ah, fuck it," she waved her hands. "Let's go drinking. After dealing this and you, I need something to knock me out," My eyes light up. My hands flew into the air.
"I did it!" I cheered. She glowered at me. "I've broken her!" My arms threw themselves around her neck, dragging her into a hug. "Listen, I know a fantastic place to go! I saw this bar just outside the Presidium, looks like an old human tavern-"
"Western Earth Bar?" Dellion asked. My grin spread.
"Bingo!" I said, releasing her, smirking wide. "And it's shot up, so we can get free drinks!" Dellion frowned for a moment before smiling.
"We'll forward credits," she enforced. My mouth opened to whine, but Dellion had already spun around and sprinted away from me. "Last one there has to drink the Swa'hila!" she called. Every nerve froze for a moment before they restarted.
"W-Wait! That's not fair! Heeeeey!" I wailed, chasing after her. "This is so cheating!"
"Payback's a bitch!" Dellion answered with a laugh. My wails of despair filled the air as I tried to catch up to the goddam human.
The Galaxy Map has been updated for this chapter. Please see profile for link to Archive.