ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ
CHAPTER 4
12-7-2183
[ PYLOS NEBULA | ILLIKAH SYSTEM | ULLIPSES ]
ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ
ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ
"What do you mean the door won't open?"
Wrex turned around to face Shepard and shrugged.
"It must've been from the attack. Anyone inside probably knows and they're trying to fix it."
John pushed the krogan aside (an immense task in and of itself) and pounded on the door. "This is the commander! If you can hear me, this door needs to be opened now. We've got wounded!"
"We're working on it; the power's cut." Came a reply from the other side.
John relented and finally set Tali down next to the Normandy's door.
His lungs burned.
And his nose was still dribbling blood.
Though he supposed it could've been worse.
The part of her suit that had taken the impact looked burnt. Though John was confident that her kinetic barrier had absorbed most of the impact.
Ashley and Stacker caught wind of John kneeling next to the quarian and approached him.
"Commander." Ash said quietly before kneeling next to him to look at Tali, "She okay?"
John shook his head and put a hand on Tali's shoulder to try and shake her out of it. "I think so. I don't know." He sighed and saw several of the crew helping the wounded onto gurneys.
"What's our head count."
"Eight hurt. Two killed. Three missing, Commander." Ash muttered.
"Missing."
"Missing." Ash repeated before nodding, "We'll give you their names when we find out who they are."
John shook his head again and threw his helmet off.
"...Damnit." He stood up and faced her before throwing his hands up in the air, "How did this happen?"
"Did Wrex tell you?" Ash asked.
"Tell me what?"
"We're fighting the collectors."
"Yeah. He did."
"Then that's your answer."
John turned to Stacker.
"Stacker."
"Sir."
"Everyone sticks with a battle buddy. Everyone carries a rifle outside the Normandy, and everyone wears armor with their kinetic barriers on standby. If we don't have enough of that to go around, then a plate carrier will do. Transponders remain on. I want the Mako crews on a strict shift and by the vehicle at all times. One crew sleeps while the other stands ready."
"Yes sir."
"I'll leave it under your discretion to get this place up and running again, Sergeant." John said.
"Right away!" Stacker saluted and stormed off before barking orders to the crew.
"Wrex!"
"Shepard." The krogan answered before holstering his shotgun.
"Help Stacker repair the trenches and foxholes. We're going to need more."
Wrex grumbled and grabbed for a shovel. "Right."
"Ash."
"Commander."
"Where's Liara?"
"On the other side of the Normandy helping the others." Ash pointed with a mud-caked hand to the rising smoke on the other side of the Normandy.
"What's with the smoke?"
"I took the VTOL down with a MANPAD."
John bumped her shoulder with a fist and gave her a nod of approval. "That's exactly what I wanted to hear, Ash. Keep kicking ass. Anywhere you need to be, Chief?"
"I do."
"Then get to it."
"Take care of her, Commander." Ash blew a sincere kiss to the unconscious quarian and jogged off.
John was left with Tali, a number of wounded on gurneys, and the medics who'd busied themselves with keeping their patients alive.
He looked at the rain of rocks in the sky and couldn't help but scoff.
They were fighting collectors.
And he still couldn't shake the feeling that they were behind this whole mess.
It was giving him a headache. Now there were more questions that needed answering.
Why would the collectors attack them?
What did Shepard and his crew do to instigate a preemptive strike on their totaled ship and her crew?
With his crestfallen look, he turned to stare at the Normandy. She was just a ghost of what she used to be now. For one, her giant triangular antenna on the stern was gone. He could only guess where it was now. And one of her port side engines managed to rip off the chassis a couple miles back when they were sliding across the open plains.
And her checkered armor had seen better days. When John was busying himself sulking over his ship and wondering if the collectors were interested with the Normandy's technology, Tali took one giant breath before her eyes opened frantically.
John's attention was caught immediately and he got on his knees to put a hand on her shoulder.
"Tali. God. You okay? How're you feeling?"
"Ugh."
He nodded numbly at her grumble. "Fair enough. Can you feel your toes? Wiggle them for me."
Tali wiggled her toes and John let out a relieving breath.
"Good. You're not paralyzed."
"My chest feels like it's on fire." She moaned before looking down at her suit.
It looked quite burnt.
"Huh," She mumbled as she palpated the mess with a finger, "That's probably why."
Her head leaned back against the Normandy.
"You have no idea how good it is to hear your voice, Tals."
"Ugh. John. My whole body hurts."
"You threw yourself into a laser. I'd be more worried if you didn't feel anything."
Her eyes softened when she looked at him. She felt her hasty breaths calm down.
"Had I not, you'd have a new hole the size of my head." She replied with a thin smile. It was terrible joke. But a joke nonetheless.
"I was wearing a plate carrier." John argued.
"With no kinetic barrier."
She grabbed for his hand. "Can you help me up, John?"
"You sure?"
"Yes."
As carefully as he could, he helped her up and let her brace most of her weight against him.
"I'm aching all over. And my chest still feels like it's on fire."
"I can imagine, Tali." He couldn't help but smile at her pragmatic satire, "Jumping in front of discharging weapons do that."
"I'd like to see you jump into a laser and not complain about it, John."
"Next time. I promise."
Her effervescent eyes focused on his in the exclusion of all else.
His smile disappeared and his expression got serious.
"Why'd you do it, Tali. Why. You could've died."
She wrapped one arm around his neck and brought him close enough so she could kiss her visor against his forehead.
"Because. I can't lose you."
ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ
ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ
110 kilometers from Normandy crash site.
ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ
Hendricks wouldn't stop crying.
And Bosner was dead on the floor.
Why these low-life insectoid fucks took their dead friend, Jackson could only guess.
"Hendricks. Hendricks." Jackson shook Hendrick's shoulder repeatedly to make her look up from their nasty cell.
She looked up and looked Jackson in the eye.
"Stop crying." He said.
"We're fucking dead, Jacks... We're fucking dead." Hendricks trembled.
"No. No we're not. Not yet. They're going to find us. Okay? You got to keep your head together. We're marines."
"Jacks... I'm tired of the marine bravado." She wiped the tears from her eyes, "We're just people."
"Shhh— you hear that? I think they're stopping."
"Ohmygod. ohmygod, Jacks— we're gonna die."
"If we're going to die, then I'm going to do it on my feet. And you are too. Do you understand me?"
She looked at him, nodded amidst her tears, and stood up in their cell.
"Help me get Bosner."
"Why?"
"We're using him as cover."
"You're kidding me."
"No, I am not kidding you. Turn on his barriers." Jackson ordered.
She knelt down to his body.
"They didn't frisk him. Bosner's got grenades in his pouch still."
"Perfect. As soon as they open the door, throw 'em and we'll make a run for it. Just follow my lead." Jackson carried Bosner's body and put him over his shoulders in a firemen's carry.
"Get ready, Hendricks."
She primed both of the grenades in her hands.
The doors opened and she tossed them right outside.
The three collectors that would have grabbed them disappeared under a cloud of smoke and flying shrapnel.
"GO!"
Jackson charged outside, past the cloud of smoke and raining guts.
Jackson would have looked at his surroundings, but didn't get the time to. But if he had peered right behind him, he would have seen that they were in a collector ship hovering a kilometer off of Ullipses.
Hendricks ran, picked up what looked like to be a gun on the floor, and followed Jackson down a dark hallway and hit a dead end.
"What are we going to do?" Hendricks asked.
"I don't know. Hopefully we can escape." Jackson set down the body he was holding and shoved his hands in every pocket Bosner had.
Some heat sinks and some chocolate.
Both pretty useless.
Jackson unwrapped the bar and scarfed down half.
"Here." He pushed the rest to her, "I hate to say it, but this'll probably be our last chance to eat."
She looked at him with an empty stare and took the chocolate.
"Give me the gun." Jackson said. She handed him the gun.
We're going to turn around, and see if we can't take their gun-ship. maybe fly our way out of this place.
"Neither of us know how to fly."
"We'll figure it out."
They jogged carefully back to where they escaped from.
Jackson had to stop himself from letting his jaw drop.
The thing he was looking at looked like a demon straight from hell.
"DO NOT RESIST."
"Eat me you bastard." He raised the gun and fired at the burning monster that walked toward them both.
Hendricks screamed and backed away slowly before being seized by two collectors that snuck up from behind her.
"JACKS! JACKS!" Her panicked scream went silent when they shoved her into a pod. Her cries turned muffled.
"Hendricks!"
He emptied the weird looking gun he was wielding to the fiery menace with no effect. It wasn't long before the two that had taken Hendricks grabbed a hold of him before throwing him into a pod similar to the one she was in.
Harbinger watched pitilessly through his Collector pawn at the two helpless Humans struggle before succumbing to the gases inside their respective pods.
They would be the vanguard for humanity.
The unsung heroes for the coming harvest.
Their blood would provide to Harbinger the paralytics needed for his spawn of drones.
The coming swarm will blot the sky.
And the Harvest will begin.
ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ
ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ
John had brought Tali and checked her into the infirmary. During the time the quarian waited for her appointment, John went back outside with Garrus, (In their full bearing load of combat gear of course) and conducted a quick damage assessment of their perimeter before joining the crew in repairing the trenches and foxholes.
Though with Wrex on the job, digging away what had to have been three tons of dirt so far, made the job much easier.
After that had been done with, John retired back inside the Normandy.
He stripped down at his locker, took a piss, ate some crackers, cleaned up, and made his way to his quarters. He stopped right before his door and looked toward the infirmary.
He hoped Tali was okay. He'd visit her when he finished up what he had to do here.
Just thinking of her made his heart and stomach flutter.
He opened the door and walked inside before stammering.
Tali was sitting at the end of his bed playing with one of his little knickknacks.
"Hi." She mumbled through a toothy grin after looking at him.
Her mask was off.
Again.
He felt his heart pound in his chest loudly a couple times, while his stomach lurched the same way it did when they did rapid deployments in the Mako.
He couldn't help but glance backward at his closing door before looking back at her.
He took a shallow breath and smiled. "You gonna keep surprising me like that?"
"Maybe." She teased with a small laugh.
His heart did another hard pumping round. "Don't want to be a mood killer. But can I ask you something?" John asked.
"Yeah?" Her smile kept beaming at him.
"Being outside, I could understand. But you're inside. And the air..."
"I know. Probably the last time I get to do this for a while. Don't want to get too sick or anything."
"Okay." He relented quietly.
She nodded.
"How're you feeling?" He brought up a chair and sat right across from her.
"Chest doesn't hurt anymore." She pressed two of her fingers onto her sternum, "Though I am a little sore."
He took one big breath and his smile disappeared, "What you did back there—"
His words left him for a moment and he closed his eyes. "Thank you." He whispered.
Her brows furrowed and her lips frowned.
"But don't you ever do it again, Tali." He said rather sternly.
She put down his little knickknack and stared him straight in the eye.
"John." She said his name and bit her lips to hold back a sudden tear.
"I have to live with the choices I make after this. We all do." She looked at him and wiped a tear with her hand.
"Exactly." John agreed, "And you have an obligation to something way more important than me."
Tali couldn't help but face the other way. She couldn't believe he just said that.
"You know I'm right."
When he grabbed her hand, it felt limp, stare st ill averted.
"Tali. Look at me."
"What do you want me to do, John?" She said dumbfounded before facing him again, "Watch you die and save myself? For what? My stupid pilgrimage?"
John fell silent.
"I cannot."
"That's not—"
She stood up from the bed and leaned toward him with her wet eyes.
"That's exactly what you meant."
"Tali."
"No. Stop." She hugged her shoulders and shook her head, "Don't you ever, ever say that again."
John held his tongue.
"Promise me."
"...I promise."
She yanked out that little disk and held it right up to his face.
"You are more important than this." She smacked it atop the table, "And don't say otherwise."
"...Okay."
She sat down on the end of the bed in a heap back next to him.
"I'm sorry." He said quietly.
"I know." She murmured. She hugged him from the side.
"But what do you want me to say? Jump into every bullet that comes my way?"
"Don't do this."
"I'm going to."
"Stop."
"No. Listen to me." John said, tone unyielding, "You have millions of lives that could be riding on that tiny little thing."
"You don't think I know that?" She leaned away from his embrace and stared at him tiredly, "You'd think having this would've been a weight off my shoulders. But all it's done is add to it."
"Don't let it get to you. It's too important. You have to keep thinking forward. Your cause is bigger than any of us."
She gave him another distant and tired look before taking a breath and sighing.
"Is that all this is to you? Another mission?" Tali pulled her lip into a frown and closed her eyes, "After all we've been through, you still give me advice like you would another soldier. Am I not more than that to you?"
John lips tightened.
"We've been through so. much." She cracked through a whisper, "Where do I stand with you?"
"Right beside me." He replied.
"That's right. Right beside you. Where I want to be."
"...I love you." John said before he realized it. His expression became featureless.
Oops.
He just admitted to loving her. And he couldn't help but realize how natural it felt to say it. He watched Tali's mouth open slightly to say something but closed it. Tali's heart had to have stopped. She didn't hear him just say that. Her hands felt weak and she was glad she hadn't been standing.
She looked at him while her eyes threatened her with tears. "I—"
"You don't have to say it back, Tali." John said as he faced the wall right in front of them both with a long stare.
"No. it's not that." Tali couldn't believe how fast her breaths were coming. She wanted to tell him that she'd been waiting. Dreaming of admitting her love to him. She just wasn't expecting it so abruptly. Much less like this. And for him to be doing it before she did.
"John. I love you too."
Chakwas pounded on Shepard's door.
"Commander! Is Tali in there?!"
"Uh." John kept staring at Tali, "Yeah?"
"SHE BETTER HAVE HER MASK ON."
"Tali, you told me you were allowed to have it off." John said in a low quick voice.
"Yeah—uhm, about that."
"COMMANDER."
"She does!" John lied, "I swear!" He turned to Tali, "Put it on, put it on!"
Tali slapped her mask back on and grumbled.
After this, she was going to take John on the longest vacation in the galaxy to get away from all of these interruptions.
The amount of times this happened was UNREAL.
And when she did? Oh, the things she was going to do to him.
"Open the door, John Shepard. Now."
John did as he was instructed and opened the door to his quarters.
Chakwas walked past him and straight to Tali.
"Don't you have other patients to deal with, Doctor?" She growled. Tali didn't bother hiding the disappointment in her voice. The doctor ignored the tone while she looked over Tali's medical correspondence on her omni-tool.
"My nurses and PA's are handling them right now. Now hold still."
All Tali could do is shrug and watch Chakwas tower over her with a bag of things she brought from the infirmary.
ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ
ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ
John had been staring for the past ten minutes at the ceiling while Tali, who was still asleep, clung onto his side with an arm draped over his chest. He lay like that for a long while and thought of what would become of his crew, the Normandy, and more importantly, them.
Who knew. As much as he hated saying it, time would be the only one to tell them.
"Hey." Tali mumbled with a slur. Her hand traced a line against his right pectoral and smiled. "Hope my suit isn't too uncomfortable to sleep with." She added.
"Nope." He shook his head and motioned with his chin at Tali's realk and clip-on pockets resting on his nightstand; while her boots stood at the foot of his bed. "Taking off your realk thing and pockets help."
"Good. Spoon me." She demanded with a cute beaming smile.
With a witless grin, John lay on his side, and draped an arm over her while she snuggled in closer.
It may have been the first time she'd ever cuddled with someone, but this was quickly becoming a favorite way to do it.
"I love you." She whispered.
"I love you too."
"Now go back to sleep, Tali."
"John?" She cracked with a low and tired whisper, "Promise me. That whatever happens... we'll stand by each other until the end."
His hand squeezed her shoulder affectionately as he kissed the back of her head.
"I promise."