A/N I own nothing
Hello faithful readers. I apologise for the long wait and thank you for your patience. Sadly, the wait for the next one will likely be a little longer. School is not going as well as I would like and I really need to focus for the next month until exams finish. But don't worry, I won't be giving up on the story. It will be moving into the next arc now and that means that there will be some action, some politics and generally more stuff happening. I am looking forward to seeing the ideas come to life and I hope you will too. I'll admit, this isn't my favourite chapter to lead into the new arc but I have been sick and I still wanted to get something out and I have been mostly done with this chapter for a little while. Still, I hope that you enjoy it and stick around for the new chapters that will be posted in the future.
Also, I have had a couple people message me asking if I will write their stories for them. I am flattered but my answer to this is always going to be a big resounding 'no'. Not because I don't like the ideas but because I like to feel a story from its creation onwards. My primary goal is to write a story that I would enjoy reading because if I don't like it how can I expect others to? If I am writing someone else's story then it feels forced, doesn't flow as well and I am not as personally involved and therefore have less interest in its outcome which results in poor quality work and that drives readers away. So thank you if you have messaged me or if you were thinking of asking me but I have decided that no matter how great the idea might be, I will only be writing my own stories. I am still open to ideas for OCs though, as Torrin shows.
Comments:
Addlcove, Xenozip, ArchAngel319, scorpin17, Alrissa, , frankieu, Sornosquinfallen, jdude281 – thank you all. All positive reviews are appreciated and are great for helping to motivate me to write stuff more frequently.
Alrissa – glad you are interested. Welcome along for the ride!
BJHanssen – yeah, Jurt's history is fairly recent and did come about after Garm took over, obviously. Thanks for letting me know I got it right. I actually didn't remember that info before I posted it so it was a little bit of guessing. Good to see it worked!
DahakStaz – I agree, a base that isn't the Citadel is a must, but those things take time.
dekuton – I agree, why just kill stuff when you can bond doing it?
On with the story!
…
CHAPTER 14 - EARTH
I looked out the window and stared at the planet below me, feeling a hint of awe breaking through my usual indifferent demeanour. The blue, green and white globe drifted slowly around the axis it had been travelling on for billions of years.
Earth. Humanity's home world.
Home.
I had only ever seen this image in pictures and they had nothing on being able to see it properly in person. It was, for lack of a better word, beautiful.
My mind wandered as I thought about my home. The white sand beaches, the national parks, the way that the sun felt on a lazy weekend. I hadn't realised before how much I had missed those simple comforts. I had been so focussed on the people I had lost that I had not thought about the place that I had called home.
I felt more than a hint of sad nostalgia as I remembered the walks I used to take with Jason along the beach, hearing his laughter as he splashed in the oncoming waves. I felt my throat tighten on the fond memories, before I squashed them down, turning my mind to the job at hand.
I guess my thoughts hadn't been fully confined to my own mind though.
"Are you alright?" Aleria's voice came from my left, her hand touching my arm in a comforting gesture.
I took a deep breath and turned to her. "Yeah," I replied, patting her hand with my own. "Just memories."
I turned back to the window and she returned to her seat. "Alright, let's find a berth and you can drop me in a rented shuttle somewhere near here." I brought up a map and pointed out a location.
Aleria looked at it as I transferred it to her terminal. "How do you pronounce it? Texas?" she asked, looking over at me.
I looked at her and nodded. "Texas."
…
My time spent travelling to Earth was not as casual as I would have liked it to be. Not that I didn't have something to do at all times normally. With all the plans I was going to be trying to set up and the need to be prepared to fight, I was spending a lot of time normally mostly researching and occasionally sending out requests for more information from anyone that I felt the need to ask a question of. One of the more benign requests was to expand my permits lists to being able to create and sell armour. The weapons permits still had not been processed, so far as I was informed, and the CBD was less than prompt in replying to requests of progress updates. Still, according to their schedule, it was likely that I still had about six weeks before I was able to get my confirmation that I had them processed. That didn't mean that I couldn't plan other things.
In the meantime, I was spending a lot of time really pushing myself in my physical exercises. Torrin had become my running partner, which was both a blessing and a dark lesson in self-hatred. Apparently turians are naturally faster than humans by a significant margin. Coupled with the fact that Torrin had been homeless on the Citadel and running away was something he had a lot of practice with, it meant that if I was an optimist I would be viewing it as the most direct way for my body to improve both my endurance and my speed at running long distance. If I was anything else, I would view it as a way to drive myself into the medbay with stress fractures.
To keep up with his casual jog I was running at three quarter pace and doing that for two or three laps of the cargo bay before the damn bird would sprint for a lap. I would try to do it, but my body was not made for such things without massive amount of practice. While I had made great strides in the last six weeks, I was certainly not 'duct-rat turian' fit and the first time I had tried to keep up with my young turian friend I had emptied the contents of my stomach on the floor of the cargo bay. I was determined to succeed though so I forced myself to keep going, spitting out bile as I ran. It had been less than two days since we started but I was already seeing some slight improvement and not feeling as bad. My recovery time was also improving. Small victories.
The physical work was only one aspect. I was also now spending nearly all of my time in the ship wearing armour. Chop had brought with him a set of Colossus VII Light Armour that had been specifically for me. I had also made him bring a second set of medium armour for me to use later on but I wanted to start low and build my way up.
Good thing I did. While Colossus armour is high quality and very expensive, there were definite drawbacks. First off was dexterity in my fingers. Having worn puncture-proof gloves in prison, I was at least prepared with the knowledge that I wasn't going to have the sense of touch that I would have without it. What I wasn't prepared for was the stiffness and thickness of the finger padding. It meant that I felt like my fingers were being pushed further apart by the rigid armour. I didn't want that to affect me too badly so I was doing my best to practice doing little things with my fingers so let used to it. Chop had recommended touch-typing practice on a terminal so I was doing that in my room each night before bed.
Another thing was the weight. A standard set of light armour weighs about twenty five kilograms. Not as bad as I feared really but Kassa Fabrications had apparently made a big deal of using ultra-light materials wherever they could, so long as it didn't sacrifice damage protection. It was part of the reason why their armour was so expensive. Medium armour increased the thickness of the plating and added an extra barrier modulator and a tech/biotic shield generator. It brought the weight up to forty eight kilograms. Despite the fact that the suit was surprisingly comfortable, the extra weight of the armour definitely made me use more effort to get around. I still hadn't returned to my old strength but I was getting much closer. The only problem was that I knew I needed to get much stronger than I had ever been before. The use of gene mods later would help there but I still wanted to build my strength up a little more.
All that meant was that I was restricted to the use of light armour until I was strong enough to go medium. I wasn't sure if I wanted to go to heavy armour. The thickness of the plates gave it a fantastic damage protection rating but the suit weighed nearly sixty kilograms. I wasn't sure that I was really wanting to cart that around with me all the time. It would play hell with my endurance and I would certainly be clumsier with that weight than I would be in a light or ever medium armour hardsuit. Especially not with the upgrades I was hoping to put into the thing.
The main thing that I had been researching on this part of the journey though was Earth. I had no way of knowing if the world and history was the same as my own. Knowing what was the same and what was different was crucial in my opinion. I know that the games had basically just made it the future of the Earth I had grown up on but there was no guarantee that much of the rest was the same. I know that Ashley Williams quoted Tennyson and there were other quotes on Ulysses and so forth but that didn't mean that everything else was the same. It could have been just a few things. Hence, the research of Earth was highly necessary.
The thing that amazed me was that nearly everything about Earth and humanity in the ME universe was the same. And I am talking about a ninety-nine percent match. The main differences that existed was obviously the prothean ruins on Mars. Other than that I could almost have copy and pasted Earth's history and people into this universe and it wouldn't change.
There were a few minor differences though. I couldn't find any reference to Elon Musk in connection with a Mars program or energy company. SpaceX itself existed and had landed people on Mars earlier. A few of the lesser known politicians were different, such as those from Australia, Japan and England. There was no actual law preventing a US president from serving two terms, there just wasn't anyone that was trusted enough to make it that far.
Even the media was the same. The same books and movies that I had read, watched, enjoyed and hated were there. Even the actors were the same for the most part. For example, Tom Hanks existed exactly as he had without the remotest difference form what little in knew about his personal life. On the other hand, Arnold Schwarzenegger existed and looked the exact same but he was known as Arnold Braun here. Still, he was the Terminator. The movies themselves were the same and even though I only saw about three films among all the ones I had searched where the actors were completely different from the ones I had known, the movies themselves were the same and I had even taken a moment to watch them. The acting was the exact same and the plots were unchanged.
When I had gone through that information I felt a small weight lift off my back as a wave of relief washed through me. It allowed me to do a little side project that I had dubbed Operation: Hearts and Minds. That was if I had time and energy to do it. I figured it might be at least a little helpful later.
One thing that stood out to me was that Pokemon didn't exist out here. Bingo: cash cow coming up there, if I have the time to hire the people to code it for me. I remember how much people loved that when I was a kid. Surely the whole galaxy would enjoy it too, especially kids. Somehow I had the feeling that humans today would still love the idea of this. Asari too, I imagine.
The main information I needed specifically for this first part of the trip was more on a historical side. Weapons history to be exact. This was to be my first foray into the world of firearms in this universe and even though I had my own firearms licence in my world and I had researched a lot about weapons in my old life, there had been no guarantee that the weapons I was looking for existed here. Thankfully, there were three weapons that I wanted to use that I had been able to find.
One of the guns that I felt that the ME games, and by extension this ME universe, was a little lacking in had actually existed from the end of the 20th century. It could be summed up in a total of three words.
Fully. Automatic. Shotgun.
A shotgun in the games was powerful but there were drawbacks. Range being a big one. Amount of shots that could be fired before overheating. Weight. Rate of fire. Those were the main things. Having to carry both a shotgun and an assault rifle seemed like it would be a little bulky. Combining them… that was much more efficient. I still didn't have an armourer or gunsmith working for me but that was something I was hoping to overcome very soon.
In both my world and this ME universe I had been able to find three different varieties of full auto shotguns, though there may have been more somewhere else that I hadn't found. The first was the American made AA-12, the second was the Russian made Saiga 12 and the third was the Korean USAS 12. An AA-12 was my preferred choice as it had a much better recoil system. The thing was basically a spring that went the entire length of the gun. It also had a much wider variety of ammunition that could be used for it. The Saiga was also a great shotgun and had a higher rate of fire and it weighed less but the shorter recoil system meant that it was harder to aim. It did have the option of manually switching between single shot and automatic. The AA was more a 'hope you don't get lost in the moment and hold the trigger longer than you meant to' sort of weapon. The USAS was the least preferred option as it tended to have a bigger kick than the other two and I remember reading somewhere that it jammed frequently, so I scrapped that from my list.
The next weapon I wanted to take a look at was the M79 Thumper. It was a grenade launcher that was very easy to use, very accurate and by all accounts I had heard a very good weapon. Anyone who saw Terminator 2 would recognise the thing as the launcher that Arnie used. Low recoil, light weight, fast reload time, good range, high explosives… it had all the hallmarks that I was looking at in a heavy weapon. The only thing was the obvious issue with limited ammo and fire rate. Though that would naturally be a problem for any old weapons that I was thinking of using. I could always go for the bandolier look like Chewbacca but I don't pull off the furry look quite like a wookie. Still, it was something to consider.
I had considered going with a six shot launcher like the MDL. It gave me a better firing rate than the single shot, but they were not as portable as the Thumper and would stick out when attached to the back of my armour. Plus, it would be heavier. I wasn't looking at having something bulky like that sticking out from my armour. A Thumper would be able to fit comfortably in the shotgun spot on my lower back while the AA, if I could get it to collapse, would go in the assault rifle spot.
The final infantry weapon was something that I had in mind for my krogan friend. That would come later though, once I considered him trustworthy enough to give it to him. No one else would be able to carry it.
It was one thing looking up these weapon on the extranet, it was quite another finding out where they could be found. The only places that people still were able to get these types of weapons anymore, especially as they were not in large circulation, was from museums and collectors. And not an everyday weapons shop would just have them.
That meant going to Texas. There were a lot of guns in Texas. Some things never change.
After docking the Hidden Enterprise in a public space dock I took a shuttle that I rented, with Aleria as a pilot, down to a place about an hour outside of Houston. Then I told her to go and explore, being her first time on Earth, so long as she got the two shuttles. She gave a squeal then took off with a promise to be back whenever I called for her.
That left me with a young turian who wanted to stay with me and the rest of the crew on two days' shore leave. I had no idea what to expect for them on Earth but I told them to be careful and to stay in pairs, just in case. I hadn't been around the galaxy for very long but I had a feeling that a random turian walking around Earth might lead to problems at the least, considering the First Contact War.
Torrin and I walked down the clean street before we made it to the building that I was aiming for; T'REX'S HISTORICAL MUNITIONS with a small image of a T-Rex holding what looked like two AK-47s. Charming. It was an old redbrick building, maybe three stories high and long enough to be holding enough stock to arm a decent size militia, assuming they actually had it fully stocked.
"I thought you bought guns on the Citadel before you came out here? Torrin asked, looking up at the business.
I nodded, not looking at him. "I did, but there are a few things here from the old days that there is just no replicating with eezo tech," I replied easily. "Come on, I'll show you."
I lead him inside. The building was actually a lot nicer than I gave it credit for on the outside. It almost looked like a mix between a museum and an art gallery for guns. There were guns from all modern eras that I could see, the oldest one was a musket behind a glass case with a grill to prevent it from being stolen. The store part seemed to only cover about a third of the total ground floor, with doors leading off toward the back section. One of the doors was open and I could see a large howitzer artillery piece standing proudly in the next room. There were maybe eight customers walking casually around the store, mostly older people but there were a couple of guys around my age that were walking around making noises that sounded awestruck. I am pretty sure that I heard one of them say something along the lines of the 'this old tech really stands up!' but I may have been mistaken. I guess there is a retro crowd for every appliance and not just gaming.
I led Torrin up to the front desk to find it empty to staff. I looked around and saw a buzzer with a small sign saying 'press for service', so I pressed it. A chime went off in the back of the store. A moment later a short chubby man walked out of the back room and came over to the desk. I saw his eye twitch a little as he stared at Torrin but he hid it with a big smile.
"Greetings good sirs," the man said loudly in an America southern drawl, the name Trey embroidered on the front of a surprisingly clean shirt. "Welcome to T-Rex's Munitions. How can I help you today?"
"Hello," I said politely, ignoring the momentary twitch he had sent to Torrin. The turian was used to weird looks and the guy hadn't actually said anything wrong to him yet. "My name is Brock Neilson. I sent a message a couple of days ago asking about some of your older weapons."
The man frowned thoughtfully as he tried to remember. "Neilson, Neilson… one second." He opened up a holographic terminal on his desk and started scrolling through some information that I couldn't read from where I was standing. "Ah, here we go." He took a look at my message and gave an appreciative whistle. "Oh yeah, I remember now." He gave a chortle. "You have a good eye for some great old human guns. Follow me."
He led the way out the back into what I assume was the warehouse section. There were massive cannons from all ages precisely lined up on either side of the walkway. I could appreciate some of the hardware, having been to a few military museums. Torrin looked around gaping at the giant guns, his mandible hanging loose.
"You seem surprised, Torrin," I said to him, feeling a little amused at his expression.
"I didn't realise that humans had these kinds of weapons," he exclaimed. "Most turians think that anything human made is second class but I think most of them would be afraid to face this kind of firepower."
That earned a bark of laughter from Trey. "Yeah, we humans have definitely had our fair share of experience when it comes to killing with big guns," he said, not looking around as he continued to lead the way. "That's the only reason some of our weapons manufacturers now can compete with the likes of Elkoss Combine."
Torrin nodded but didn't say anything as we came into a smaller room near the back of the ground floor. Trey hit a bunch of numbers in the keypad and the door clicked and opened. We entered a room smaller than my quarters on the Enterprise but every wall was lined with guns locked behind solid steel grills.
Immediately my eyes locked on to the two weapons that I was interested in. For some reason they had already been pulled out and were sitting on the workbench.
"I pulled them out the moment that you said you were coming," Trey explained as he saw my quizzical expression. "I figured you wanted to be able to hold them up close."
I nodded and moved over to the AA-12. It had a standard clip magazine instead of a drum already loaded. "No drum?" I asked.
Trey grinned while Torrin just looked confused. "I see that you're a man after my own heart," Trey chuckled as he reached under the work bench to pull out three drums. "I have here the twenty-four shot, the thirty-six shot and a forty-four shot drum magazine."
I looked at him and raised an eyebrow in surprise. "I didn't know that they had a forty-four shot drum."
He shrugged. "Most people don't," he explained. "It was done as a mock-up for the military when Atchisson Assault was trying to convince the US Army to switch to the AA as its primary weapon. There were only a few hundred forty-fours created. I found this little piece at an auction for a deceased member of the old NRA."
"I'm sorry," Torrin interrupted as he looked at the gun in my hands. "What's so good about this gun?"
Trey looked at him disdainfully. "This gun here is arguably the best anti-personnel weapon that humans have ever made, both before and after mass effect technology was discovered. This is a fully automatic shotgun capable of using any number of rounds from small high-explosive rounds to standard shotgun rounds and even non-lethal beanbags. The versatility meant that it could be used for any number of scenarios and it could fire in nearly every weather condition perfectly. Only the AK-47 would arguably be better suited for that, and that gun didn't have the different bullet option that this gun has. I once saw a video of a guy cleaning this little beauty with a shoelace in the middle of a sandstorm and having it shoot perfectly after. The anti-recoil system meant you could shoot a shotgun round accurately with one hand at a target three hundred yards away at a rate of three hundred rounds per minute."
Trey hovered his hands near-reverentially over the weapon as I held it. "The only reason this didn't become standard, I believe, was because of politics. This little beauty is a later model of the same weapon but it fires just as good. You can tell the difference because the replica has the manual firing options of auto and semi auto on the switch here while the original didn't." He fixed Torrin with a glare. "I would like to see any of your fancy turian shotguns shoot like this beast. The only thing that modern guns have over this is the lack of need to carry spare ammunition. Only getting on or two shots out of a shotgun before you have to wait for it to cool makes it almost not worth having, especially with the effective range being only the same as a standard heavy pistol."
Torrin stared in open fascination at the gun I was now holding. "It's that good?"
I nodded. "That's one of the only reasons I am coming back to Earth," I said. "That and this little toy right here." I carefully put the AA down and picked up the Thumper.
"Damn you have a good eye for a weapon, son," Trey chuckled. "M79 Thumper. Made for the Vietnam War back in the 1960s. About as good a grenade launcher as any human could hope for. Sure, the M320 was a good little piece but it just didn't have the feel and the shorter barrel meant it was less accurate at any range more than a hundred metres. Anything from hi-ex to non-lethal, this thing was even able to be used as a blunderbuss. Kind of an old-fashioned shotgun," he explained at Torrin's confused expression. "The only downside was the single shot system. Sure, the Milkor MGL and the RG-6 were both good options but they just didn't have the same statement as the M79, not to mention they were both harder to clean and maintain than the single shot launcher. The only thing that really could be unarguably better than this launcher was the belt-fed, fully automatic launchers like the M-75. But that wasn't as transportable as this gun was. The RPG-7 was more common but it was highly inaccurate. All models of the RPG up until the last one, the model 35 back in 2135, had the exact same issue. Basically any grenade launcher after 2043 became a more complicated mess as designers tried to do trickier and trickier things with it. Oh sure, having the grenades be programmable is a great idea but then it just starts to blow the costs out. For simplicity, ease of use and ease of maintenance, this launcher would be hard to beat, even today with the M-100. Hell, that gun is really just a modern attempt of the M79."
Torrin looked suitably impressed at the weapons in front of him. I had to hand it to Trey though, he knew his stuff. Having that kind of off-the-top-of-your-head knowledge was only really found by someone who was passionate about their subject of interest.
"There you go, Torrin," I said, giving the young turian a tight grin. "If you ever want to learn about weapons, go to a collector. They will tell you everything you want to know."
"Ha!" the Texan barked cheerfully. "That's about the best advice you could ever give anyone, son. Ain't that the truth!"
I nodded and looked back at him. "Now, ammo for the AA."
We went through the various options for what he had in stock. There was some variety but not many rounds of each on in store, mainly because there were not many people that made gunpowder based ammo anymore.
"It can be done," Trey assured me. "You just gotta be patient and make sure you find the right person. Don't want no fake imitators now. But the rounds would be even better than those of the early 21st century. Bullets became a lot better around the mid-21st as gun manufacturers tried to fight against them prothean designed guns. Made them bullets and explosives a lot more powerful in a smaller size."
The final gun that I wanted, and if only for modification purposes, was only going to be good for a krogan, assuming Jurt could be trusted. A minigun. A rotating six-barrelled lawnmower. No one else would have the strength to hold it without a full body harness and the ammunition would run out far too quick for it to be practical, so I wanted to hire a gunsmith asap and have them take a look at this little beast. Hopefully I would be able to get it to work the way I envisioned it.
I organised for my purchases to be delivered to the Hidden Enterprise instead of me carrying them myself. Apparently, there were now stricter gun carry laws here and I didn't have a permit for them. I was helpfully told that the Citadel clearances that I had applied for would be considered appropriate approval for carrying weapons anywhere in Alliance space, unless local laws were restrictive. So basically anywhere in the United States were happy to go with the Citadel standards while places like England had tougher stances on open carrying weapons. Some things never change, I guess.
"Y'all come back anytime now, ya hear," Trey called as he waved us out the door. "And tell your friends about us!"
We waved back and I felt satisfied knowing that my purchases would be on the ship by the time I arrived back.
…
The next stop that Torrin and I went to was in Germany. The shuttle took us there in less than an hour, which was amazing. I had flown in airplanes before and it took longer than an hour for me to even leave my home state. This was literally leaving one country and crossing an ocean and I still managed to get there faster. Because it was still technically faster than the sound barrier the shuttle wouldn't do it in atmosphere because the sonic shockwave would be too disruptive for people on the ground. What basically happened was the shuttle went straight up above the atmospheric barrier and accelerated as fast as it wanted before returning just above the destination, where it re-entered with only a slight raise in internal temperature, thanks to the mass effect technology. I have to say, I could handle travelling the world if I could do it that fast.
We landed at in front of a market area that was relatively busy. I could see that it was nearly completely human, though there were a couple of asari and a salarian in a business suit walking around. Hopefully me having Torrin wouldn't be too out of place then.
I walked up to a quiet looking café that I had organised to meet my next prospective crewmember.
I found a table and took a seat, opening a menu to take a look at drink options. A tall, young woman with a pinched face came over and took my order for a carbonated water. I was in the transition stage to taking on sugary drinks. Carbonated water certainly was not a sugary drink but I was taking it as a next step.
Didn't make it any tastier though.
Torrin was drinking some form of drink that smelled like hot chocolate that had been made with sour milk. It was one of the reasons that this café had been selected; it had dextro drinks on offer.
"How is it?" I asked him, curious.
He gave a very human shrug. "Too sweet. Yours?"
I gave him a dry smile. "Not sweet enough. For the better though."
Right on the hour a man approached the table. It was a short man, only about five foot eight or nine. He had dark hair, olive skin and facial features that suggested Asian but not completely. Going by his appearance alone I would have said he was about mid forties but he was in excellent physical shape. Considering why I was meeting him it was a good thing too. He had an air about his that basically screamed 'military'. Most importantly, he was exactly the same person that I had talked to over video call three days ago.
"Brock Neilson?" he asked, coming to a sharp stop right in front of the table.
I nodded. "Mr B. Clarke?"
He gave a respectful nod. "Yes, Beau Clarke. Former N6 Destroyer, retired."
"So, after our earlier conversation, you know what I want?" I asked, gesturing for him to take a seat.
"Yes," he replied easily as he sat in the indicated chair. "You want me to train you, your friend here," he gestured to Torrin, "and anyone else on your crew that needs it to be able to fight at special forces level, so you hired me, a former N6. What I haven't heard from you is 'why?'"
I gave him a tight smile. "First, I want to know a few things. Don't you miss the military? I mean, some small part of you has to miss it for you to even bother replying to the job application, hoping that there might be a sniff of real action if you are training someone for it. Or is the work you are doing running fitness classes the pinnacle of where you want to be right now?"
He gave me a dry look as Torrin shifted slightly in his seat. The young turian was staying quiet for the interview, just as I asked him. He was a good kid, really.
"Of course I miss it," Beau said. "There is a camaraderie, a brotherhood, that I miss every day. My friends who I fought with, are with, bled with. Many of them are gone, doing who knows what. I am teaching gym classes to rich people bored out of their minds and no idea of how to use their money. If I was happy with that life, I would never have applied for this one." He sat back in his chair and fixed a stare at me. "Your turn."
I looked at him steadily. "You told me in our earlier conversation that you fought during the Skyllian Blitz. You encountered many batarians and mercs seeking slaves. You then fought at Torfan, even if you won't say what your role is due to confidentiality. Which is fine, I will let you keep your silence over operational matters. But what was your opinion of the state of the slavers, slaves and the Hegemony situation there?"
He looked at me, his expression in a trained neutral position. "I saw the slavers doing unimaginable things to their slaves," he said after a long pause. "I saw the degradation that those poor souls had suffered as we took them from their hovels and brought them back to any form of civilisation. And seeing that, I knew that what we were doing is right. And there are far more worlds in Hegemony space and the Terminus systems where that is still going on."
"So why didn't you go into the merc life? Or private security to try and go against them?"
He snorted. "Mercs are just money chasers. They don't have a moral compass that isn't directly linked to their bank account. Anyone joins up with them and they better be real happy killing civilians or taking slaves. And I am not. As for private security, I did consider ERCS as an option but there was something about them that just didn't rub right in the interview. None of the others seemed any better. I had almost given up until I saw your ad for a trainer."
I nodded slowly. "Well," I said, keeping my voice casual. "As it just so happens I have made a few promises to my crew members. Like Torrin here, who has lost friends to slavers. And my krogan, who lost someone important to slavers. I promised them I would help them get even. I can get the weapons and even get information, but I need actual training. I am running on a clock here though, so I need the training to be damn effective and able to push me for all I am worth. Because we are going to be taking a few slaves back, when all is said and done. And after that, there is more work to do, if you choose to stick around that long."
A glint came into Beau's eye as a spoke. "You're saying that you are going to give me the chance to do a little bit more of what I did on Torfan?" he asked bluntly. "Kill slavers and free slaves from the hell they are trapped in? Because you made promises to your crew?"
I looked to the side in a mock thoughtful pose. "Yep," I confirmed. "Well, technically I am just hiring you to train me, Torrin and whoever else is going to be doing it. I guess you can join the fun if you want. Why? You got something better to do?"
He gave me a sly and admittedly somewhat creepy smile. "Not anymore. Be ready, because I am going to show you how to train like a marine."
I shook my head. "No. Better."
…
I felt a little conflicted as I looked at the time on my omni-tool. I had one more thing that I felt I needed to do but I didn't want any witnesses for this one. I called Aleria to come pick up Torrin so that they could head off together and I would be able to make my next trip alone.
"I don't like it," Torrin objected immediately once I told him. "I don't know anything to do here. What am I supposed to do with Aleria for the next however many hours?"
I gave him a small smile. "Have you ever heard of Disneyland?"
…
The shuttle touched down and I climbed out, immediately feeling the strong sea breeze blowing into me. The smell of the salt water was as refreshing as it was intoxicating. I couldn't remember exactly how long it had been since I had been able to smell the beach from home. Damn I had missed it.
I had taken the shuttle to Western Australia for two purposes. The first was more benign; I was there to see the beaches from home, to try and see how different things there were and to enjoy it before I threw myself into the work of trying to stop the reapers. Maybe it was a small pointless self-indulgence but it was something that I wanted to do. One of the things I had loved to do with Jason the most was walk along the beach and play in the waves but even before then I had loved the ocean.
The other reason was for my morbid sense of curiosity. I just wanted to know what had become of my old home. As in, the house I had lived in, where my son and I had tried to be happy with a woman who, for whatever reason, couldn't love us.
I walked for a good few minutes away from the coast. I was surprised to find that there were more krogan here than any other race. Though it may have been a sign nearby that read 'Crocodile Wrestling: see how you match up to one of Earth's most patient killers!' that was on display outside of a building close to the beach.
I finally arrived at my destination, only to feel nonplussed. I looked at the area again and frowned.
It turns out my home was an Indian restaurant here. I am not sure what I expected really. I mean, this is an entirely different universe, no matter how similar it seemed. Not only that but it had also gone through an extra one hundred and seventy years' worth of history that I had never seen or known about. Even in my own universe anything could have happened to my house during that time.
Still I couldn't help feeling just a tiny amount of displacement, knowing that this place, while so similar to my home, wasn't actually my home. I shook the feeling off and headed back to the beach. I wasn't here to have a chicken tikka masala.
After thirty five minutes of walking I finally crested a hill, feeling happy that this universe's Australia had also kept the sand dunes close to the beach intact. I was never really a fan of the skyrise apartments right on the beach. I know some people like it but I just liked the natural look a little better.
The beach itself was only lightly populated. Seeing as it was late winter in the southern hemisphere I was actually surprised to see the few dozen people and aliens that were walking along the sand. There were no turians or salarians in sight, only a few asari and krogan scattered among the locals, some of whom were walking dogs. Aside from the aliens, it was a scene that I had seen frequently back in my universe. It was yet another reminder that although this looked so much like my home, it really wasn't.
I moved along until I found a spot far away from any of the other beach goers and sat down, looking out at the ways crashing onto the sand. The wind was starting to come in now and it was bringing a cold sea breeze in the mild winter air. The sky was cloudy but not raining. Standard winter for Australia.
I just sat there, thinking about what I was doing, letting it all just run through my mind. The future was going to come, whether people believed it or not; whether I did anything or not. My crew were likely to end up dying if I did nothing. They could go hide on a hidden world somewhere but that was no guarantees. Considering the reapers had been doing this for about a billion years I doubted that there were many planets they didn't know about. It struck me as to why I was even doing this. Why was I putting my life on the line for a place that wasn't my home; that wasn't even my universe. I was about as alien to this planet as any creature was ever likely to get. This world, which I only knew from a video game.
Just because it isn't really your home, doesn't mean that it can't be, a familiar voice broke into my thoughts.
I ignored it and just stared out at the blue/grey water pulsing with the tide. The things I saw changed drastically. I saw reapers flying over the water, heading north towards the cities. I looked in that direction and saw smoke, fire and destruction that marked the fighting. Screams sounded in my ears as children tried to outrun the terrors that eventually silenced them. I could almost smell the death on the air. It was a shadow of the terrors that this world would be facing.
I shook the visions out of my head and sent a glare towards the clouds above me. Cut it out, Manuel.
The images and sounds fully faded and the world returned to normal. It's not just about you, the voice returned. The life these people live, it could be yours. You could find peace and happiness here. But you need to save them first. This could be your home and it could be far happier than the one you left behind. All you need to do, is let it. Get over the fact that this is from a game. It is no game to these people on the beach, on the planet or in the galaxy. This is as real to them as playing on the beach with Jason was for you. You have been doing well. Keep going.
I thought about it for a long moment. Then I heard heavy footsteps crunching through the sand and I turned to see Jurt making his way towards me, still wearing his armour. No one said anything, but I did see a few people giving him weird looks.
"Neilson," he grunted in greeting.
"Jurt," I replied, looking up at him. "What you doing here?"
"Admiring the scenery," he said, looking out at a krogan child standing at the water's edge a hundred meters further down the beach.
I stared at him for a long moment. "Aleria asked you to follow me, didn't she?"
He grunted again. "It wasn't so much as asking as it was telling but yeah." He sat down heavily next to me, sinking a little further into the sand. He stared out at the water longingly.
I looked at him thoughtfully, wondering why he would have obeyed Aleria. "So why'd you listen to her?" I asked eventually, unable to figure it out.
He shrugged. "I heard you were coming down here to Australia. I heard things from people about your animals being deadly here. To a krogan that is more of a challenge than anything."
I couldn't help chuckling. "Well, there are bigger predators elsewhere on the planet. Maybe you should have gone to America to wrestle a grizzly bear. Down here in Australia, we go for poisons more than anything else. Except for crocodiles and sharks of course."
He looked at me, his brow furrowed in confusion. "I know what crocodiles are but what are sharks?"
I gestured out to the water where we could see a few dedicated surfers paddling, waiting for the next set to come in. "Sharks live in the water. That's their domain. Fast enough to catch any human swimmer, large enough jaws to bite people in half in one go. They can come right into the shore if they want to. The smell of blood attracts them from miles away. People get attacked all the time from them here. Up north there is even a place called Shark Bay. People don't even bother to swim there. Just not safe enough. Some of the Great Whites are up to six meters or so long and can knock over small boats without trying. Bull sharks are even larger but a little less aggressive. They have rows of teeth that make your smile look like a grin from an asari dancer." I stretched out my legs a little as I leaned back in the sand. "Other places have them too, obviously, but for some reason they seem to like attacking the people that swim the beaches here."
Jurt stared back at the water, his expression now hungry. "Sounds like they would be a decent challenge," he growled softly, almost to himself.
I laughed louder now. "Maybe, but I reckon you should stick to croc wrestling," I grinned. "At least until you find a better way to make krogan swim."
He gave a deep chuckle of his own. "True," he admitted. "I would rather face a thresher maw on land on Tuchanka than I would face something that could bite through my armour in the water."
I gave a small smile as I turned back to look at the waves. "Ain't that the truth. Still, regardless of the dangers, most people here live closer to the oceans. There are that many spiders, snakes, jellyfish, octopi and other bugs that can kill a human here that the remote chances of being killed by a shark are practically a luxury. That being said, I think you are still more likely to die from an air conditioning unit falling on your head in New York than being killed by an animal here. Or a gang member in California. Ain't no antivenoms for bullets."
He gave a grunt of amusement. "At least you humans don't try pretend the dangers aren't there. Of all the squishies, I think humans are better suited at facing off against their natural predators. Damn pyjacks." He said the last part with a wide krogan grin.
"Watch it, krogan," I warned him good naturedly. "We pyjacks have some pride." I stood up and brushed the sand off me. "Come on, let's go head off and get some lunch. See if we can find you some pyjack to eat. I think I would love to see you choke on it."
"Ha!"
…
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