A/N
Hi everyone. Currently recovering from surgery. For those of you who haven't had their tonsils out as adults, it sucks. The pain is ridiculous, and the pain meds don't feel like they are enough for the first eight days. For those who had them out as adults or are looking to have them out, I grieve with you.
Thanks to those that sent recommendations for fics to read. Reading helped pass the time this last week where it was hard to focus. Heavy meds do that to you.
Anyway, if anyone wants to read ahead, the next seven chapters are available on my pat-re-on, Bored Peasant's Written Works. It helps me to focus on writing and everyone's support means a lot to me.
Special thanks goes to Arrimar26, Austin, Ben wanless, Brian, BuzzGrave, Eligah Moreno, Ezoz, FallenMetalGod, felipe Saavedra, Freeman, Hyaaa B1tch, Jason Moreno, Jermaine Key, Kushtacah, liquidpotato, MathTheOriginal, My Name is Klondike, Overlord, Paul Fischer, Proxy, r4p16, Robert Tipton, Sith_Paladin, sonic, The Senn Master, Tristan d'conceicao and UtopiaKnight39. Your support means so much to me and I can't describe enough how grateful I am for your belief in me. Thank you all!
On with the story!
…
CHAPTER 44 – ASTEROIDS FLYING OVER HEAD
(Tali POV)
Working on the Normandy was everything she ever dreamed it would be. Killing geth, advanced technology, nice people, killing geth, being accepted as part of Shepard's team, good quality food, killing geth. Everything a quarian pilgrim could want.
Everything Tali had wanted.
And not only all of that, she found herself on a ship with the man who had quite literally saved her people from the threat of extinction. Every quarian in the galaxy had heard about the planet that Brock Nielson had given to his quarian friends for their Pilgrimage. All he had asked is that they would be able to continue working for him in the meantime. It wasn't even a demand or a price for the gift. A simple request to the Admiralty.
A cynical person might say that he took advantage of their need to get what he wanted, but Tali didn't believe that was true. If he had been trying to take advantage of the quarians, he would have asked for far more than just having his friends be able to stay and work for him. But having been able to talk with Hectar for a little while back on the Citadel, Tali was confident that Brock Nielson was genuinely helping the quarian people in his own way.
She didn't see him much, though that was because he chose to stay in the garage area and Tali was always in the engine room. He had never once visited her down here, even when she asked for him to do so when they ran into each other in the mess hall on the next deck.
He had just chuckled and said that she could visit him but that he had no business being in an engine room, let alone one as advanced as the Normandy's. it was understandable, she guessed. As nice as Engineer Adams was to her, she at least was able to do all the jobs that he assigned her. Having extra people that didn't know what they were doing was just a waste of space and made it more annoying than necessary to try and dodge them.
Her own time in the Flotilla had taught her that people who didn't belong in an area was just taking up space and no one appreciated people who took up space. While the Normandy was nowhere near as crowded as a quarian ship, the lesson had been learned.
For now, she was just going to do her best to get through this mission with as much information on engines as she could to help facilitate upgrades in the Fleet's engines. She had no idea if it would work across the whole Fleet but some data was definitely better than none. They may no longer need to rely on ships as they used to, but any species knew that having a fleet to protect their homes was essential, especially a species that had relied on them as desperately as the quarians.
She got a ping of an incoming call on her omnitool, breaking her focus away from the eezo readings she had been studying. Without looking, she tapped to answer it.
"This is Tali," she announced.
"Tali!" the recognisable accent of Brock Nielson came through the speaker, sounding happy. "I was wondering if you had a spare few minutes to come speak with me?"
Tali blinked and looked at her omnitool to confirm that, yes, Brock Nielson was calling her. She looked over at Adams, who had heard the request. At the nod of his head, she looked back at the omnitool.
"Sure," she replied happily. "I'll be there in a few minutes."
She closed down her terminal and made her way out the door towards the garage. Being on the same level, it didn't take long to walk there. And even though she hadn't been to see Brock in his work area personally before, she and everyone else on the ship knew where he had set himself up behind the Mako.
After all, while she was interested in him for the help he had given the quarians, he was still an extraordinarily wealthy and interesting person. Not romantically interested, of course. While he was nice and kind and funny, she was not really attracted to humans. She was way too young to think about romance, especially on her Pilgrimage. Though, in the deepest recesses of her mind, she did have thoughts of a quarian friend of his. No. She shook that thought right out of her head. Nothing like that was happening.
Without hesitation, mostly to ignore those treacherous thoughts, she walked straight over to where he was sitting at his desk, half hidden behind the tank.
"Hello, Brock! I mean, Mr Nielson," she fumbled, thinking maybe she shouldn't be so familiar with him.
He just chuckled as he swivelled to face her. "Hello Tali," he replied. "Brock is fine. Don't worry about calling me Mr Nielson. Unless you want to?"
She shook her head, feeling happy that she hadn't messed up. "No, I can call you Brock. What can I help you with? Did you find more geth to kill?"
His chuckle got deeper and was more like an actual laugh now. "Not today," he denied as his laughter died down. "No, what I was wanting to know was more about your drones that you use in combat. Do you mind if I ask questions?"
She blinked a few times at that. No one ever really asked her about her drones. None of the people on the ship seemed interested and any quarians that wanted one would just make their own.
"What do you want to know?" she asked, tilting her head at him, a sign of quarian curiosity.
"Mainly, I want to know how much you can do with them remotely," Brock explained. "For example, can you use it as a bridge to connect with locked doors or such and hack it from a much greater distance?"
Tali considered for a moment, before shaking her head. "Not as they are," she said. "They are just VI controlled attack drones that have very limited scope of programming and they are designed that I can assign a few targets and they will attack on their own with static pulses and electrical discharges before they need to be recharged, which can be done through contact with my omnitool. I would have to add a relay switch and alter the programming to stay constantly connected to my omnitool so that it could receive continuous instructions from me and let me hack another program or door without risking itself being hacked in return. I could do it, but it would not have room for any combat protocols and I wouldn't be able to use it in combat in any way because it would need a constant feed from me, which I couldn't do in the middle of a fight."
He nodded easily. "That's fine," he replied. "I imagine I could have had Hectar cook something up for me when I hit the Citadel next, but I thought I might as well ask you, seeing as you are already here."
Tali couldn't help fidgeting a little, doing her best to ignore thinking about his quarian friend. The human had done so much for her people. It didn't feel right not helping him now.
"If you are wanting it that badly," she said slowly, "I could make you one. It wouldn't be combat capable, but you could use it in infiltration missions. I imagine that would be useful, somehow."
To her relief, the human's face lit up in a smile. "That would be great!" he exclaimed. "I could think of some great uses for that in our anti-slavery missions." He winked at her. "I can even make sure Hectar knows that it came from you, if you'd like. I'm sure he would be impressed."
Tali was grateful for the mask hiding most of her face, as it hid the massive blush that she got for the praise. And nothing else, of course. Certainly not the quarian tech specialist working for her people's hero. She couldn't help rubbing her left arm with her right hand in a quarian expression of shyness though.
"You don't have to…," she mumbled.
"Nonsense!" he declared. "Hectar will be happy to see your work and it will give you something to talk about with him next time you see him." Brock's grin widened. "Just be patient with him. He's a little shy. And single."
If Tali's blush went any longer she was going to steam up her mask. She shot to her feet.
"I need to go!" she burst out, feeling a dying need to get away from this conversation. "I can hear the engine call for me. I'll get you your drone soon!"
With that she turned and fled, silently cursing the amused laughter following her as she nearly ran back to the engine room, dodging the chuckling Wrex as she did so. Damn krogan!
She didn't stop running until she made it back to her work station in the engineering section. She used her hands to lean heavily on the control panel and silently cursed to herself for being so obvious in front of Nielson. She was so focussed she didn't hear Adams coming up behind her.
"Tali?" he asked.
"Nothing!" she shouted, jerking upright so fast it almost made her head spin. "I, I mean, I'm back, Engineer Adams."
"So I see," he replied with a faint smile. "You alright?"
"Fine!" she said quickly, not wanting to give anything away. "I'm just ready to get back to work."
He looked at her for a long moment, making her afraid that he was going to start joking too. To her relief, he just nodded.
"Well, all right then," he said. "I need to get updated readings from the eezo converters."
"Right away!" she said, happy to get back to work. Anything to ignore those traitorous thoughts she was having.
…
(Brock POV)
The call to Shepard's office was expected.
After the whole deal of Shepard and the Alliance barging into my orphanage, I had thought it likely that she would call me into her rooms to apologise again and make sure that I wasn't going to pull any of my funding or equipment from this venture.
Rumours had already spread on the ship, most likely from Williams, the little gossip, about the blunder that the three humans had made on the Citadel. Joker had already begged me the instant I got back to the ship to not cancel the order for an upgraded pilot's chair.
Making my way through the mess area though, I noticed that Alenko turned away so that he wouldn't face me. The guy had been trying to avoid me since the orphanage, which takes some concerted effort when you are stuck on a frigate-sized spaceship. If I went to the toilet and he was there, he would even choke off his business and leave in a hurry. He hadn't apologised for his actions either. At least Williams and Shepard had done that much. Clearly the guy didn't like me pointing out his boner for Shepard. Or maybe it was his killing his trainer. Who knows?
The guy was honestly just annoying me at this point. I would rather he not be on the team but that wasn't really up to me. Plus, as much as the guy was an idiot, he wasn't a bad fighter if he used his biotics properly. The rest of the team didn't mind him, but they could see that he didn't like me.
I passed him without comment and knocked on Shepard's door. It hissed open a few moments later.
Shepard was standing in the middle of her room and looking glum. I guess her confidence took a bigger hit than I thought.
"Someone die that I wasn't aware of?" I asked, sitting down at her desk without waiting for an invitation.
Her lips pursed slightly as she shook her head. "No, this is more personal than that," she replied. She gave a deep sigh. "Mr Nielson, you have been a valuable member of the ground team and a reliable provider of arms and armour. You have provided information and upheld your end of the bargain. In return, I have treated you with mistrust and allowed my opinion of you to be swayed by others. I am truly sorry for my behaviour."
I looked at her blandly. "I know you are," I replied flatly. "I can only trust that you won't do it again and that the punishment I informed Ambassador Udina is sufficient for now." I gave a sigh. "I believe that you can do the job Shepard, but that doesn't mean I am going to sit back as you cause me trouble. If you wish to build a closer relationship with Kaiden Alenko, I don't care. Ride him in ecstasy to the end of time if you want. Find out the reason he killed his trainer if it matters to you. But if you keep causing me problems, I will pull call our agreement off."
She nodded, her poker face in place so I couldn't tell how she took my words. "Understood."
"Good." I looked at her. "Is there something else?"
She nodded. "If you don't mind, I was curious how you know the councillors," she said moving to sit on her bed, resting her elbows on her knees as she leaned forward to me.
If she was wearing a loose top, the pose would have been more appealing.
"As I told you earlier," I replied. "I have done business with the asari for some time. Part of that includes attending meetings and parties of the rich and famous and you tend to meet people like the councillors. Then there is the anti-slavery work my people and I have been doing. We coordinate with their ambassadors to rehabilitate their people and get them ready to go home, though for the quarians, I ask my people to contact their Fleet directly. I am also involved in the selling of resources to different vendors, which was initially organised through asari political offices, which is where I initially met Tevos."
Not exactly the truth, but it sounds better than 'I strong-armed two councillors to doing what I want them to do'.
"Right," Shepard replied, looking down for a moment. "I was just hoping that there would be more information from them about Saren. I am worried that they are holding back information that would let me hunt him down."
I barely managed to hold in the snort of amusement that almost escaped me. It was only a coincidence, but she did happen to be talking to the one person that could give her all the answers that she would need to take Saren down right now. The humour of the situation was not lost on me.
"I doubt they would hide anything from you," I replied. "Not those two at least. Sparatus might but I don't know him outside of the meeting we had at your promotion."
She gave an accepting nod. "That does make me feel better. I just wish that we could have something specific to do. I don't like sitting on my hands. In the meantime, was there anything that we haven't covered about being a Spectre? I want to make sure that I haven't had anything left out."
"Fair enough," I replied. "Are there not any other missions that we could do on the side right now? It would keep your hands busy and be good practice for you. Not only that, but it would get your name out there with people that you are open and willing to do at least some jobs on the side. That will open up the possibilities of you getting more work later to help pay the bills."
She pursed her lips as she leaned back. "There was one job that came up," she said. "I didn't really get a good feeling from the asari that was offering it though. I was going to ask you for your input."
I raised my eyebrows, wondering which mission she was referring to in particular. "Well, I am here now," I said. "Don't keep me in suspense too long."
That drew a lopsided smile from the woman. Not bad. She looked better when she smiled. I decided to tell her that to see if that would throw her off.
She blinked in surprise, before her expression changed to a slightly bemused smile. "I'll bear that in mind."
She shook her head and turned back to her previous topic. "There was an asari in the embassies that asked me to rescue her sister from pirates," Shepard revealed. "At least she wanted me to try. But she was a little heavy handed about it, saying that I needed to show the galaxy that I am not just talk and that I should really learn how this works. It was the kind of like dealing with a sleazy second-hand freighter salesman."
"Interesting." I knew which mission this was, though I still had to play my part. "Did this asari give you a name?"
She opened up her omnitool and tapped a few times to look at her mission list. "Nassana Dantius," she said. She closed down her omnitool. "Does that name ring any bells?"
I tubbed my chin thoughtfully. "As a matter of fact, it does," I replied. "Dantius is a wealthy asari merchant family that primarily work out of Illium. There was something that came across my desk a few months back about them. Give me a sec."
I opened my own omnitool and tapped away at something random for a few seconds, feeling grateful that the way that these devices worked meant you could only read it if you were reading it from the front. Otherwise, it just looked like a fuzzy glow to a curious or intrusive party. Secure device for the win. But what else would you expect from a device initially made by the salarians?
"Ok," I said, shutting down the omnitool. "It turns out that someone wasn't exactly truthful with you. As it so happens, the sister of Nassana Dantius, who goes by the name of Dahlia Dantius, has actually turned away from the family business and is now one of the pirates that you have likely been sent after. Older sister Nassana is a rising star in the asari political scene and it would be quite the stain on her reputation if her sister was found to be indulging in piracy and slavery."
Shepard frowned at that. "So, I am being sent as an assassin to kill the sister before that gets revealed, thinking that I would be trying to the save her in the attempt?"
I nodded. "Sounds like asari politicking to me."
She scowled. "Then I'm not doing it," she growled. "I am not someone's pet assassin to send out for personal gain."
I nodded slowly. "That's fair," I replied. "But I guess you should ask yourself this: would you likely have killed her anyway because she is a pirate and slaver?"
Shepard narrowed her eyes at me but very slowly nodded. "Probably."
"And how many pirates and slavers have you killed on your missions?" I asked.
Her eyes stayed narrowed as she pursed her lips. "I don't know the exact number."
I nodded. "The odds are that you probably killed someone connected to high places just like the Dantius ladies. You killing them was going to happen anyway, but someone still managed to benefit from their death. Would you have not killed them because it would help someone else's career or inheritance or any other such reason?"
Her jaw clenched before she relaxed slightly. "I would have still killed them," she confessed.
I nodded again. "Would you likely kill this, Dahlia Dantius if you hadn't known that it would benefit Nassana's career?"
Shepard let out a long sigh. "I know what you're saying," she said, cutting off my point. "And yes I probably will still kill the pirate Dantius out of sheer principle, but I don't like how Nassana is trying to manipulate me into doing it to benefit her career."
I conceded the point. "I know. I'm not saying you should or shouldn't do it. I am just saying that if you don't want to do it through manipulation, it would be better to be informed. Then you can hash it out with Citadel Dantius if it means that much to you to sort out the manipulation first."
My omnitool beeped, interfering with our conversation. I looked down at it for a second before looking up at Shepard. She nodded and I opened the message.
Reading the urgent message that was sent to me, I blinked. Well, that was extremely convenient timing.
"Well, if you are feeling bored in the meantime," I began, "it looks like batarian terrorists have taken over an asteroid above Terra Nova and are planning to use the fusion torches that are used to direct it away from the planet to ram it straight at the surface."
"What?!" she demanded, leaping to her feet.
I stood too. "I got a message from a contact of mine on the asteroid," I explained. "The told me that they saw a bunch of armed batarians come into one of the research bases on the asteroid and went into hiding. He just sent a message that he overheard them planning to drop the asteroid on the planet. Then someone told the others to make sure that comms were taken down to stop any messages being sent out. I have a feeling he won't be replying back if I send him a message."
She growled. "Joker!" she called, yelling towards the roof. "Set course for Terra Nova and get us there yesterday. We have some terrorists to stop. And send a message to the Alliance and let them know what's happening. Hopefully they can send some ships to blow the asteroid out of the sky if we don't stop them in time."
"Roger that Shepard," Joker's voice came through the speaker.
"Head back to the hold and gear up," Shepard ordered. "I'll call the ground team. We can get in and try and save your contact before the batarians do anything to him."
I nodded and headed out the door, marching to the elevator and ignoring the curious eyes of the crew around me. Even Alenko's. Time to get onto the asteroid mission and save millions of lives.
My mind turned forward to another mission that was going to come up eventually.
Even Alenko's…
…
(Shepard POV)
The pre mission briefing had led to a certain level of conviction among the ground crew that would have been amazing if they were not in such a dire situation.
When they had been told that batarians were trying to drop an asteroid on Terra Nova, every single member of the ground team had instantly jerked upright. The two Alliance soldiers in particular had almost demanded to go and might have even tried taking over the ship if Jane hadn't already ordered Joker to make the trip before they had sat down.
When they heard that the information came from one of Nielson's contacts, Jane couldn't help but notice the sceptical frown that appeared on Alenko's face for a moment. Jane kept her own frown hidden but she if she hadn't already decided that it would be best to keep Alenko and Nielson off the same ground team unless there was an emergency, that expression would have been enough to convince her that it was best.
Not that she had any real issues with Alenko himself. None at all, in fact. She had even been able to resolve her concerns about Alenko killing his turian instructor. That had been a deep conversation, but she had been ablet o resolve a major concern.
Still, she had selected Nielson and Williams to join her on this one, with Wrex, Garrus and Tali going to be dropped off to the second torch once her group had been dropped. She had considered just taking her ground team and dealing with all three of the torches, but Nielson had suggested taking down multiple torches at once would allow them to stop the batarians faster. Alenko was going to stay on the ship to 'help coordinate with the Alliance ships when they arrived'.
It went against Jane's internal need to control the situation, but she couldn't deny that it would save time and she had plenty of people to form a second ground team to do the job. The biggest concern was that it would split the Normandy's attention between ground teams, making it harder to provide a quick extraction. She couldn't deny though that on a time sensitive mission like this, having a second team take out another torch would be damn helpful. It would mean that things would be much easier to control before the Alliance arrived to take over.
Not that it was going to be soon enough to matter, she couldn't help thinking with a disgruntled feeling in her chest. The batarians had chosen the right time to do something like this. The closest Alliance ships large enough to do anything to an asteroid was going to be several hours late, if Jane and the ground teams failed. By the time reinforcements would get in-system, the asteroid would have already made contact with the surface and millions would be dead.
That was not going to happen.
Thankfully, due to the location that the Normandy had been in, along with Nielson's early warning, they were able to make it with plenty of time to divert the asteroid away from the planet using the fusion torches.
Things had gone according to plan in the first torch. There had been a collection of mooks there, and even without the Mako, there hadn't been any real problems with getting inside, not with the Normandy destroying the rocket turrets before they landed. There were a few guards out the front acting as scouts but they had been dispatched before they knew what was happening.
Once inside, getting rid of the batarians that had overrun the place was pretty simple. They were grunts in the best sense of the word. Jane had no idea who trained them, but it was clear that they were not used to working together, or even had the most basic clue about team tactics. It had been a simple matter of taking them out individually.
Once they had cleared the facility Jane made her way to the control room and deactivated the fusion torch that was being used to push the asteroid towards the planet.
They were about to leave when Williams noticed blood dripping out of a storage cupboard off to the side. Jane walked over and opened the door. Inside was a human male, or at least his body. He had been beaten savagely and then shot a whole bunch, from what Jane could see.
"Ah," Nielson said from over her shoulder. She turned to look at him, though his helmet was focussed solely on the dead body in the cupboard. "It seems that Calvin wasn't able to escape after all." He paused for a long moment. "He was my contact on the asteroid. He didn't deserve this."
Jane shot him a sympathetic look as she put a hand on his shoulder. "All we can do is get justice for him," she said softly.
Nielson gave a long slow sigh and nodded. "When we are done, I would like to come back for his body. I would like my people to return him to his family."
"Sure," Jane agreed. "But for now, we need to move on to the last torch."
Nielson gave a single slow nod before turning away. Jane found herself cursing his full faced helmet, instead of her and Williams' half visors. It didn't let anyone see his expressions and she couldn't help but feel that it lessened her ability to help him without being able to see what he was feeling in his face. Still, there was nothing more to do at this facility and there was still another fusion torch that needed to be deactivated. She called the Normandy for a pick up and led the way back to the airlock.
The trip to the final fusion torch facility was a bit quieter than she was hoping for. It didn't bode well if Nielson was going to be caught up in either grief or anger. She had to make sure that Nielson was still in the game or if she needed to swap him out for Alenko.
"You still with me, Nielson?" she asked as they stood in the airlock in the garage.
Immediately Nielson looked over at her. "Right where I need to be, Shepard," he replied. "Still in the game. Just thinking about the situation."
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"There was no reason to beat Calvin like they had. There were knife marks on him. They slashed his face on top of beating him. And I am not sure if you noticed it but they had gouged out his eyes. To a batarian, that is the biggest insult that you can give someone. They consider eyes sacred. Then they shoved him in a cupboard. They really must have been furious enough or sadistic enough to do that. A normal minion would have just shot him and moved on."
Jane frowned. She hadn't really noticed that much, though now that she thought on it, she could remember seeing the slashes in his face. When she saw them she had just assumed that he had been hit so hard that his skin had split.
"What was the point, then?" Williams demanded. "Why would they do that to someone?"
"I don't think it was the head honcho," Nielson replied, seemingly ignoring Williams as he explained his thoughts. "It was more likely one of the smaller bosses, like a squad leader. The big boss wouldn't waste the time going to the fusion torches himself. He would go to the main research facility a few kilometres away from the torches and wait there while his teams took the torches. So, it would be a team leader or middle level boss that did that to Calvin."
"What's your point?" Williams asked again.
Nielson looked over at her. "My point is, did you seen anyone that would qualify as a team leader among the batarians back there?"
That one made Jane blink. Because honestly, no. None of the batarians they had killed in the first facility had anything about them that would identify them as a team leader.
"Coming up on the third torch, Shepard," Joker's voice cut across the intercom. "Just need a second to take out these rocket turrets."
They all held the wall to stay steady as the ship twisted to take out the ground targets. While artificial gravity and inertia dampening did a great deal to stop people being thrown about, sudden manoeuvres still had the ability to make a person unsteady.
Finally the ship stopped, the airlock door opened and they dropped to the asteroid's surface. Jane blinked as she noticed a number of craters in front of the fusion torch.
"Joker, are these craters from you?" she asked over the comm.
"Affirmative, Shepard," Joker replied. "We were reading land mines all around the facility. Most of them got destroyed when we blew some rocks onto them, but I would avoid going further out than necessary. There are still a few out there. You should be clear around the entrance though."
"Roger," she replied, turning back to the airlock in front of her.
"Heading back to prepare to retrieve the second team, Shepard," Joker said again as the Normandy lifted off. "The are telling me that she should have the second fusion torch deactivated soon."
She gave another acknowledgement, not even looking at the departing frigate. It never went well to look away from a potential hostile zone and she wasn't about to get caught out now.
She led the way, pulling her assault rifle from her back as she did so. No need to get surprised by someone coming out the airlock while she was waiting to go in. thankfully, the door hissed open, showing an empty airlock and they headed inside.
Due to how narrow the airlock was, they were all forced to keep their weapons low, but they sprung up instantly the moment the inner door was open. The entrance room was vacant, leaving Jane to feel suspicious. She quickly marched over to the door leading further into the facility. A quick swipe of the door control and it hissed open.
Immediately there were batarian troopers she could see in the back of the room. She ran to cover behind some large storage boxes arranged near the door.
"Williams! You cover the second floor!" she barked, sending a burst to a batarian firing from behind a pillar. Her burst from her new HMWA Master Line VIII Assault rifle punched through his flimsy shields and armour like it wasn't even there.
Nielson might have his Butcher, but she had a Scalpel. That's what she was calling it anyway.
"Release the varren!" a batarian somewhere in the back shouted.
"Nielson! You have the varren!" Jane shouted as she gunned down another batarian trooper moving behind a large generator of some kind.
The loud boom of his heavy shotgun announced his change of target, sending out powerful bursts that took out the charging batarian war beasts. He switched back to a batarian with decent-looking tech armour. Normally shields on tech armour were far more advanced and capable of taking a beating. Nielson blew through it and the batarian in less than five shots.
Jane couldn't help feeling a little competitive and took aim at another shielded batarian that was hiding on the left side of the room. It took a full two seconds to punch through his shields and take him out. She frowned, irked that he still had the better weapon, even if she now had a major upgrade. It didn't matter, she told herself. She was still better.
"Move up!" she called, leaping over the storage box to move behind the large metalling generator in front of her. She felt, rather than saw that Williams and Nielson both followed, though Nielson moved over to a cement pillar to the right, instead of joining her and Williams at the generator.
A burst of batarian fire hammered into the generator, sending up sparks that made her flinch back. A few shots pinged her shields, but her new Colossus Medium Armour was more than up to the challenge. She punished the trooper that did it, taking him out with almost contemptuous ease with a short burst from her Scalpel.
"Don't let them get closer!" the batarian bellowed. Apparently they had found the missing squad leader. She just couldn't see where he was. "Release the rest of the varren!"
Jane didn't bother to give new instructions, trusting her team to focus on their tasks as she continued to aim at the reinforcements that were coming in from a back room. The comforting sound of Nielson's shotgun let her know that he was focussing on the war dogs.
"Drones!" Williams shouted. "Rocket and gun! I count four."
Jane cursed as she saw the little mechs flying into the room. Those were going to be a far greater problem than the batarians were, with their advanced targeting systems. A batarian trooper tried to take advantage of their arrival and moved toward their position. Three shots from Nielson prevented him from being a problem ever again.
She tapped the side of her Scalpel and activated the Disruptor ammo mod, the little blue light glowing on the side of her weapon. A rocket exploded somewhere to the right as the drone took aim at Nielson. She didn't bother to worry if he was hurt as his returning fire could be heard over the cacophonous noise.
"Grenade out!" Williams called, throwing a disc-shaped explosive up to the balcony above them.
"Another squad of troopers heading our way from your eight o'clock," Nielson shouted from his position.
Jane cursed and looked back. Sure enough, there was another entrance that way, likely leading to the stairs that would take them to the second floor. Five more batarian were coming out, one with tech armour glowing brightly.
"Focus front, you two!" she ordered, turning to face this new threat.
The batarians opened fire, hammering at Jane and scoring a bunch of hits that dropped her shield alarmingly. It was the worst position for her, with enemies at her front and back. Williams seemed to be at least a little covered by a cement pylon, but Jane would have to move to get to cover behind a metal box.
She dove forward, trusting her squad to keep the drones busy while she sent a burst of gunfire at the batarians. She managed a lucky hit on one of the troopers, dropping him and sending the others diving for cover. She briefly saw one of them stick his head out stupidly from cover and punished him for it, dropping him with an accurate burst from her Scalpel.
Her shields recharged, she stood up and leapt over the metal box she had been hiding behind, bringing her weapon to bare on the two remaining mook troopers that she could now see hiding behind their cover. She sent a long burst at them and managed to hit both.
The final batarian with the tech armour leaned out and threw a suspicious disc in her direction.
"Grenade!" She roared as she threw herself back over her box, ducking behind the cover. The disc hit the front of the box and exploded, rattling Jane and forcing her helmet to dampen the noise around her to save her hearing.
She waited only a few seconds, before she jumped up and fired at the tech batarian, who had stupidly stayed out of cover to watch. She caught him flat-footed and took him down with a strong spray from her Scalpel.
"SHEPARD!" Nielson roared at her.
Jane turned around to see two things in shock. The first was that Nielson was leaping towards her to tackle her bodily, as if he was attacking her. Behind him, she saw the red glow of a rocket drone firing.
The rocket soared rapidly across the distance, aimed straight at Jane. It would have hit her too, if Nielson hadn't got in the way, catching it full on his torso and throwing him away.
The explosion blinded Jane briefly and the explosion blew her backwards off her feet and dropped her shields immediately.
Jane threw herself behind the generator for cover, blinking the spots out of her eyes and firing blindly at the rocket droid, while her shields beeped a warning that they were drained. The little piece of crap was moving too fast for her to get a lock on it, ducking back behind a pillar to recharge. Her vision returning, she looked around wildly for Nielson. She found him, lying face down and completely still several metres behind her.
Her heart froze at the sight, before rage flashed through her. She bit off the impulse to run at the rocket drone or to leap over to Nielson. She was far too experienced for that. It didn't matter if Nielson was the most important person on the ship, other than her, or if he had provided all arms and armour. If they all died out of reckless behaviour on her part, then it was all for nothing.
A gun drone buzzed past, firing off rounds at her cover, hammering into the metal frame of the generator. She heard Williams firing at it in a long burst, before the drone ducked back behind a pillar for cover to let its shield recharge. Jane took that moment to let her own weapon cool down and aimed at the pillar where the rocket drone was hiding, ready for it to come back out, her shields finally recharging.
It didn't take long, only a few seconds later the drone appeared, already glowing with a rocket ready to fire. Jane hit the trigger but she wasn't the only one.
A familiar heavy sound of an automatic shotgun fired, hammering through the shields instantly and the drone exploded in a fireball before the rocket could be released. A second explosion told her that the gun drone was also destroyed.
Jane blinked at the sudden ending, mindful that the area had become silent, now that the last of the defences was gone. Then she remembered Nielson being thrown by the rocket explosion he took and looked over to her shoulder to the last member of her team.
Nielson was sitting against a wall, his auto shotgun still aimed at where the rocket drone had just exploded. An eerie silence before he dropped his gun with a loud clatter.
"Medic," he grunted.
Jane ran over to him, seeing the damage in his armour, the right side of his torso was punctured with a fist sized hole and dark blood was leaking out, staining his armour and dripping to the ground.
"Normandy, this is Shepard!" Jane barked down her comm. "I need immediate extraction and medic at my location. Nielson is down."
"Roger that, Shepard!" Joker's voice, was mostly calm, but she had no trouble picking up the tension in his voice. "Coming your way now, just picked up the second team. "I'll have Chakwas on standby."
"Blood's nearly black," Nielson said, remarkably calm, cutting through her call to the Normandy. "That means it's coming from my liver. That gives me maybe five minutes from initial puncture if we can't stop it. Maybe ten if we just slow it down. I'm already out of medigel, trying to patch it up."
Jane dropped to her knees and immediately brought out a medigel pack, applying it to the wound. Nothing seemed to happen, the blood not coagulating like it should. She immediately applied another one. She couldn't help feeling frustrated. Medigel wasn't really meant to be used for deep punctures like this. It was a blood replacement and skin-knitting gel. It was meant for quick, easily fixed wounds, not for major organ damage. She didn't care though; right now, she needed it to work how she wanted it to work
"You'll be fine," she growled back. "All we need to do is get you back to the Normandy and… and…" She stopped talking as she realised a major problem.
Nielson gave her a sardonic look, before his head dropped, staring down at the large hole in his armour. "Yeah, to survive out in space, I need to have full armour integrity," he said back, his voice beginning to sound strained. "Considering the damage here is likely more than all of our combined omnigel's worth of repairs, I don't think that leaving here is an option for me." He leaned back against the wall with a tired sigh. "At least I went out doing something good. It would have sucked to die like a punk."
"Stop talking like that!" Jane barked, trying to give another application of medigel, only for her omnitool to beep empty. "We'll get you out of here. I'll get you out of here." She activated her comm again. "Joker, we can't get out to the Normandy. Have a medic team meet us inside the facility."
His head slowly moved back to look at her, his face disturbingly placid. "How?" he asked. "The Normandy is several minutes away, I have less than five minutes before I bleed out and I can't get outside to meet Chakwas any faster. It will take a minute for her to clear the Normandy's airlock before she takes another minute to get through the airlock into this base. Sorry to say Jane-o but I think my card is up."
"I don't care what your numbers say!" she bit back. "The only way you'll die is if you've given up and I am not letting you give up today, soldier."
He gave out a pained chuckle, a little blood leaking out of his mouth. "I'm no soldier Shepard," he replied. "Besides. Numbers can be important too." He coughed and another trickle of blood dribbled out of his mouth. "Twenty-one thousand. Five hundred. And six." His voice was starting to sound even more strained towards the end, like the pain was getting to him.
Jane exchanged a look with Williams. "What's that?" Williams asked. "What does that number mean?"
"That's the number of slaves that my people… and I freed… over the last two years," he ground out.
"Then don't give up so you can see those people again," Jane argued, grabbing another medigel from Williams. The blood just wouldn't stop! But it did look like it was coming out slower, so maybe it was working? Or was he running out?
Nielson's face returned to that weird placid expression as he looked at Jane, ignoring how she was trying to empty more medigel into the wound.
"It's ok, Jane," he said softly.
Jane blinked and looked up. That was the first time that Nielson had called her by her first name. Somehow, it made the moment more personal, more intimate but not in a romantic way.
"I've done a lot of good," he continued, looking her in the eye. "If it's my time, then I don't mind. I can be reunited with my family. I can be happy with that."
"And what about the other people that need you now?" she demanded, unconsciously stopping her work on his wound. "There are people that need you here. Hell, I still need you to teach me about being a Spectre!"
"Yeah, you should probably get a real Spectre to do it," he mumbled, closing his eyes and not answering the rest of her question.
It was quiet as Jane went back to trying to stop the bleeding, but it was hard trying to do it without removing his armour. Normally she would but she needed it to stay on to prevent further injuries or to help him get outside.
"Is it just me or is it getting a little sleepy in here?" Nielson slurred. That wasn't a good sign.
"Don't you dare go to sleep Nielson!" Jane ordered. "Don't you dare."
"Iz alright Jhane," Nielson slurred thickly. "'M jus' gon' cloze m' eyes."
"Hey!" Williams shouted and slapped his cheeks a little roughly, jerking him to open his eyes again. "No falling asleep here. Don't waste Shepard's efforts in keeping you alive."
"Not a soldja, Ashhh," Nielson said, his eyes already starting to droop again. Jane hurriedly applied Williams' last medigel to the still bleeding wound, distractedly noticing that Williams blinked in surprise at his use of her first name. "I don' take orderz. I give 'em."
"Not today Brock!" Jane growled, watching as the blood trail slowed more but still didn't stop. Whatever was going on inside him was stopping the miracle gel from working fully. She wasn't fool enough to think that the slower blood flow was necessarily a good thing, not with how he was getting worse. Blood loss was likely at a critical stage right now. "Today you follow orders like a good soldier. That's what you promised, right? To follow my orders?"
"Hn," he grunted in what sounded like an affirmative noise. Suddenly, his eyes cleared up slightly and he looked at Jane blearily. Then he raised his arm and activate his omnitool and tapped at it slowly for a few seconds. A moment later, Jane's omnitool pinged with a received message.
"Read that alone," he said, already drooping down again. "Iz only for you, Jane. Oh 'nd the evil leader iz Balak. Kill 'im or let 'im go but he would kill civies if you fight 'im."
He seemed to collapse more deeply against the wall, eyes closed again. "'m gonna sleep 'ere. Thanks 'fo' the trip Jane."
With that he fully dropped, unconscious, as his wounds took him down. Jane desperately reached for him, subconsciously hearing a hissing of an airlock in the background.
"Nielson!"
"NIELSON!"
…
A/N Please Review and Follow/Favourite as you please.
Well, that was an ending. I don't often do real cliffhangers. What do you think? If you can't wait to see what else is happening, pat-re-on has the next seven chapters ready to go and a new chapter will hopefully be loaded in a week, though that date is a little flexible. I am hoping to pick up the pace slightly in the short term but we will see if that plan works out.
Anyway, until next time!