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CHAPTER 14
0730 HOURS
3-7-2186
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Tali leaned in closer to give him a kiss. At the touch of her soft lips, all John could do was melt. Eyes closed, he set his papers aside and forgot about them.
"Mmm," He hummed when she straddled him, "what're you doing?"
"Loving you," She whispered, voice a tender caress in his ear, "that's all."
"You're doing a good job."
"I know." Smugness.
She glanced at the papers on the side table he'd been absorbing himself with the past ten minutes. "What're you reading?"
"Well," He looked at the stapled report and clumsily reached for his hot mug of coffee, "stuff."
"Oh." She said with a pursed lip, mock seriousness in her tone, "Stuff. That's important."
"Just a receipt of everything that's keeping the boat afloat. The boring minutiae of command."
"Mm." Tali said, fingers tracing idle patterns on his chest, "Did you sleep well?"
"Always sleep well next to you."
A soft smile played her lips. "Flatterer."
"What about you?" He asked.
"Same." She answered, "But sometimes, I skoot in real close so I can steal your warmth."
"Oh?" John said between a steady sip of his light roast, "Is that so?"
"Yup. And then I make our feet touch. They get cold, you know."
His eyes crinkle a bit from his smile. "You get cold at night?"
"Sometimes, yeah."
"68 degrees Fahrenheit is optimal sleeping temperature."
"Yeah. For humans. And Fahrenheit is stupid."
He rolled his eyes and she kissed his cheek all while smiling. "What's on the list today? Any on the schedule that stands out?"
John brought up his tablet and skimmed his list. "Well. Thane's going to be giving Jack a meditation session."
"Keelah. I can't imagine."
"Neither can I. Hopefully Thane can do something about her temper."
"Anything else?"
"Stuff not worth mentioning."
She nodded and finally got off his lap and sat down next to him. "You know, today marks one month since we got on the Normandy?"
Realizing that she was right, he gave her a contemplative look. "Wow. You're right. It's amazing what we've got done these past four weeks."
"And it still feels like we haven't had a lot of time to settle in."
He only nodded and took another steady sip from his mug. "I asked TIM if he had any more people we needed to pick up."
"And?"
He shook his head. "We don't. We've pretty much assembled the team."
Tali stared at the contents inside his cup and the steam steadily rising up into the air. "...Now what?"
"We wait for the collectors to make a move."
Tali, by some admission, had to suspend her little fantasy of pretend. Sometimes she liked to think they were just rich and… sailed the galaxy looking for stuff to do. It was such a silly thing to imagine, she knew. But it kept the mood up, because thinking about the collectors and the reapers were great at killing it.
"I think we're ready for anything they throw." She said with some level of confidence, "What do you think?"
"I'd like to think so."
Before John could reach back for his papers and resume reading, she leaned in and gave him a kiss deeper than usual.
And another.
And one more.
Soon enough she was back on his lap with her hands cradling his head.
"I love you." He said in between their kiss with his fat smile, "You know that right?"
She pulled off her shirt, wrapped her arms around his neck, and studied his face. "I do."
Somehow her pants went missing in the fun. Wrapping her in close with arms around her waist, he left a trail of kisses from chest to neck which finished with her moaning at the touch of hand going steadily between her legs. A wet center met him from the foreplay and she whispered sweet nothings into his ear.
Wordlessly, he carried her over to the edge of the bed and spread her legs before giving her a polite lick from bottom to top.
Stars. That's what she saw with how good that felt.
"Oh," Her voice was a bit breathless, "Oh my god."
"Something new every time." He murmured before burying himself in her special place. Arched back and hands grasping sheets. He didn't have to guess if he was doing a good job. The gasps were enough to go on.
It wasn't even five minutes in and she felt something building.
"Oh, slow down— not yet." She said, both hands holding him back with a grin.
"Aw, really?"
She reached for his hands and drew him in for another kiss. Hands intertwined, something white and hot burned when she could taste herself. She could hardly hold back and not lose herself in him.
She stood now with him and fell to her knees to unbuckle his pants.
"Whatcha doin' there?"
"Getting ready to suck your dick."
"Ah."
She took him in full and went as deep as she could go. Feeling him lose his composure put a smile on her face. A challenge given the obstruction.
Minutes of her tease before she went to the bed, eyes never leaving his. Settling on her hands and knees, charging her invitation with a look John was beginning to know all too well.
"You know what we call this?" She moaned when he slipped in, a mischievous glint in her eye, "Space docking."
They both erupted in laughter and John had to wipe a tear away from his eye.
"That's the best thing I've ever heard."
Hips clutched in hands, they went to town.
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Ashley Williams liked to think of herself as a fairly straightforward person. No salt in her behavior. But no sugar either. Being straight with people and being honest was what Ashley believed people respected her for.
Yeah. Right.
She didn't know what she was thinking. The mere sight of the Alliance logo on her gear was enough to put people off here. Like a bad habit, the colonists avoided her. Given their distance, she was beginning to wonder if it was just the way she smelled. Be as it may, they hated everything about the Alliance. They wanted their own government. Their own rules. Their own customs and culture and lives.
Too bad. Because the collectors and reapers didn't care about what they wanted.
"Just fix it. It isn't hard, Delan."
The mechanic, a man who'd been driving Ashley insane ever since she stepped foot on this planet, scoffed and set down the wrench. "You want to do this yourself? The motor here's fried. Cooked. Now I'm gonna have to back order some more parts for this godawful eyesore of a rocket tower."
Ashley's second in command, Sergeant Lyle Walston, leaned in real close to the man and smirked.
"You're a shit liar, Delan. I've been watching your bitchy arsehole for weeks lazing around because you'd rather have a goddamn flower bed. The motor ain't goddamn fried."
Delan stood up and pointed the long wrench toward the panel. "Yeah? Would you like to tell me what school you graduated in for electrical engineering?"
"Swarthmore College, you piece of work. And I've had it about up to here with your bullshit, yeah? You slinking about, lying your arse away just to save yourself an hours work. I could build a house with the bricks of bullshit you've been handing me and Williams."
"Fuck off, Lyle."
"You tell me to fuck off one more time and you square up, mate." Just to put on an effect, Lyle raised his fists to make it look like he was ready to throw some punches. Delan didn't know it, but Lyle had been in the N7 program. Graduated and finished at N3 because he'd lost a foot to a 20th century landmine during a rotation of jungle training in Vietnam. A piss of luck he often called it. And a piss of luck it was. There wasn't a doubt in Ashley's mind that Lyle could've passed the whole damn thing. To even be inducted into the N-program at all was a feat in and of itself. By the time he got a new foot, it was too late to join back up.
Ashley really wanted to tell Lyle to stop, but it felt really good to see Delan shrink away from the burly English man. It wasn't going to help smooth over their not so budding relationship with the populace, but she didn't much care at this point. As long as they got their job done, there wasn't anything these people could do about it. Other than maybe sabotage the program by their sheer laziness and reluctance alone. And given the nature of everyone here, their apathy wasn't in short supply either.
"Do it yourself Lyle, since you seem so keen on knowing what to do." Delan tossed his wrench down and walked away.
"Ah, figures." Lyle spat as he put his fists down.
"Not that I don't enjoy watching you throttle Delan, but we can't be inciting fights."
"It's why I'm with you, darlin'," Lyle smirked, kneeling down to get a look of the motor Delan was complaining about, "Make sure no one bullies the gal in charge."
Ashley smiled at the remark and knelt down next to him. "Is it really as bad as Delan says it is? Or is he really just lying?"
"Half lying." Lyle said at length between his study of what was going on, "He just doesn't want to do it. Finds shit excuses for what's admittedly shit work."
"Can't put it past him can we?" Ashley wondered lamely.
"S'pose not," Lyle answered, grabbing a power drill and inserting the right bit before flopping down on his belly for a better look, "A simple farmer who just wants to plow his fields and make that garden for his wife. Then you're hit with rocket towers to stare at. Boom. Dream destroyed. Fantasy gone."
"No one should be living in a fantasy in this day and age."
Lyle just laughed and rolled over on his back to give her a disbelieving look. "Funny you should say that; you believing all that magic stuff."
"You talking about the reapers or my Christianity?"
"Reapers I can fall behind. It's your gods."
"What's your problem with my faith? And it's one god."
"'Cuz you tried to sell me that story of yours with the fruit and talking snake. And it's not one god. It's three."
"You actually looked it up." Ashley said, crossing her arms, "I'm surprised you'd even go that far."
"Messed up if you tell me," Lyle said after a brief moment of silence, "Some guy forcing you to own up to sins that ain't yours? This guy invented gravity. He couldn't think of a better way to fix a problem he made other than to drown everyone in a flood higher than Mount Everest? Bonkers."
What seemed so comically absurd was enough to make him laugh at it. All Ashley could do was roll her eyes at the fact that he wouldn't ever really understand.
"You're not supposed to take it literally, Lyle."
"And why not? Who told you that?"
"Because it's stupid to think it really happened. That's it."
"Not according to that fancy book of yours." He pointed to her chest rig and the bible sitting inside a mag pouch.
Ashley just glowered. And sensing that he might have pushed too far, started to feel bad.
"Sorry darlin'. I'm not making fun of you. You're a great woman; you just need a proper yankin' every once in awhile."
She saddled up next to him to help fix the motor before playfully punching him in the arm. "You're an asshole Lyle."
"One of many, Williams." He nodded before setting himself to work, "One of many."
Just as Ashley was getting comfy, they heard screams and surprised gasps from the people outside.
"You hear that? What the hell's going on?" Lyle said, sitting upright.
Ashley just stood up and shrugged before following her partner outside.
What they saw made Ashley's breath leave her.
"Oh my god."
The SSV Panaca, an alliance cruiser who'd been in geosynchronous orbit high over Horizon, was nothing but a stretch of fiery pillars of smoke and fire exploding outward in all directions. But in the far distance was something Ashley could hardly make out. It may have been nothing but a small blip in the blue sky, no doubt still far up in space, but you could hardly mistake its shape. It was something Ashley hoped she'd never see again.
The collectors were here.
If experience and recent reports told Ashley anything, they were here to take everyone from this place.
"Who the fuck did that." Lyle demanded, angrily grimacing at the spectacle.
Ashley pointed at the small but ever growing collector cruiser before speaking dejectedly. "The collectors."
Lyle didn't say anything and just traced her finger to the spot in the sky.
"You better start praying," Ashley whispered, gaping at the sight of death, "Because we could really use god right now."
Lyle immediately turned back around to start fixing the rocket tower. "Not even on my deathbed, darlin'. Now be a dear and get Delan to come back and help. I'm sure the sap's about to have a good change of heart."
Ashley kept looking at whatever remained of the Panaca and wondered whether anyone here would even get to see a tomorrow.
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Three hours later.
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Shepard stepped out of the conference room with lines of worry stretched across his forehead.
"What's the news? What did TIM say?" Juel asked with Olasie standing next to him.
"Not good. Another colony just went dark." He answered.
"The collectors?" Olasie asked as Miranda stepped into the hallway.
John nodded with a distant and thinking stare. "That's what the evidence is pointing toward. You know I told Tali this morning the only thing we had to do now was wait until they strike? Bad coincidence."
Miranda crossed her arms. "Joker's already plotted a course. We'll be there in seven hours at maximum burn."
John nodded, started walking, and spoke up. "EDI, get the team ready. Cargo bay. Ten minutes."
"Whom shall you take with you?" EDI asked.
John punched the button for the lift.
"Everyone."
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Tali crammed herself into the packed elevator of people. Satisfied that everyone was in, Jacob pressed the button to have the doors close and to start their descent. As they waited, Juel gave Tali a tight lipped nod with Olasie doing the same.
"Hey guys." Tali mumbled.
"Hey Grunt, mind moving over a bit, bud?" Kylie'Pass asked.
"No."
"Oh. Alright." The quarian squeaked defeatedly. All Zaeed did was smirk at the poor woman's expense.
A suffering 20 seconds later, the doors opened and the twenty or so souls piled out of the cramped space and made their way to Shepard who stood at the center of the bay with a large projector screen behind him.
A crowded mass of exactly 49 men and women; An intermingled mix of Olasie's squad, Garrus' team, John's team, and the platoon of cerberus soldiers making up about half of the group, gathered around their leader.
Tali took a spot next to Garrus and her fellow quarian kin and waited for everyone to get settled.
"Alright. We've got news." John said to get everyone's attention. When he saw that all eyes were on him, he looked down momentarily before speaking. "Another colony went dark."
Tali took in a slow breath and clenched her teeth. Ever since the call came for everyone to meet, she had an inkling suspicion that it was probably time to do what they all came here for. And because of that, the anxiety she'd been able to bury so well was beginning to come back. Tali always knew it was only a matter of time until the collectors made their move. Everyone did. But not everyone here had faced what she'd faced.
Inside the span of seconds, Tali remembered their hellish survival against the collectors during their isolation on Ullipses. The purity of the fear she'd felt during their desperate bid to escape the collector's viscous consumption of the planet had no comparison. At no point in Tali's entire life had she been more scared than those fateful days.
And just when you thought you might have had enough, you witness first hand two years later what they could do to an entire population. The distressing eeriness from walking through an empty city devoid of its people was a sight Tali would remember for life.
She swallowed. The mere thought of chancing another confrontation with the collectors was going to make her scream on the inside.
"The colony's name is Horizon," John continued, "An eight year old backwater town with a booming population of 650,000 people."
When John started pacing, Tali didn't doubt that he was sharing some of the same concerns she did.
"Some of you haven't faced the collectors." John said evenly, staring at the faces of his team, "Insofar, Tali, Garrus, and I are the only ones here who have. Some of you, however, have seen what the collectors are capable of. Miranda, Jacob, and the quarians here do."
John crossed his arms and kept staring at the floor as he paced.
"Everyone on this ship is the best the galaxy has to offer. But I will not lie to you ladies and gentlemen. The collectors are not an enemy we take lightly. Of everything I have ever endured through, I have never faced an enemy as relentless and as committed as they are."
The room was silent.
He stared at the 49 faces he'd grown to know. It may have only been a month, but John would consider these people all family. They were in this together.
"Here's the plan." John started as a map materialized behind him, "A scouting team will be dropped to survey the disposition and armament potential of the collectors. Above all else is to determine at what stage Horizon's defense systems are at and if there is a chance in bringing them back online."
A cerberus soldier spoke up from the group. "Were they not used during the attack?"
"It doesn't look like it. The Alliance backed the project. And reports are suggesting they were still under some level of construction. Everything hangs on these guns working. If we don't get them to work, there will be no rapid force deployment to the ground."
"How many defense guns are there?"
"Thirty six of them." John answered, "Most of them railguns shooting payloads that could tear frigates and cruisers in two. The rest were guided munitions."
Garrus spoke up. "Who's going to be part of the scouting party?"
John couldn't meet anyone's gaze again and bit his lip. "It has to be strictly volunteers. I was going to mention this last, but Mordin's countermeasure has to be tested. We can't risk putting everyone in jeopardy on a guess, no matter how educated."
Now that everyone was properly informed on the gravity of what the scouting team's responsibility was, John continued. "You'll be dropped in LEO and HALO jump the rest of your way down to avoid detection."
Garrus looked around the room. "Only a handful of us ever went to jump school. I don't think any of us have ever done HALO though. Except for you, Thane, and Lukh."
EDI, who'd been listening in the entire time, answered Garrus' concern. "I will integrate into your gear in whatever capacity needed to aid the scouting party's efforts in the drop. Shepard will also provide basic lessons on falling techniques."
Garrus simply nodded and crossed his arms. "Well then. I volunteer."
Tali just looked at him like he was insane.
"Same here." Talukh'Daer said, "This is my run of the mill. I'll do it."
"I'll volunteer." Grunt said, raising his hand.
"No Grunt." John said, hiding his grin with a furrowed brow, "The point of reconnaissance isn't to shoot anything."
Grunt just lowered his hand.
"I volunteer." Juel called out.
Tali gave him a harsh stare. "Juel? Are you sure?"
"Without a doubt." Juel answered, "It's time I learn more about the things you've been shouldering all these years, Tali."
"Then maybe I should go too." Olasie said as well, "I've known Tali just as long and I agree with Juel."
Tali couldn't help but wonder if she wanted the hug them both, or slap them in the face just to knock some sense into them.
"Are you guys sure?" John said with his omni-tool ready to put in their names. They all gave their consent to have their names displayed as the scouting team. When John was finished typing, he continued.
"When we collect enough intel, the rest of us will be deploying down to the ground and regroup." John turned around to view the map. "But until we have a better picture of what's going on, we're holding off on where we'll designate the LZs. If I were to guess by the city's population density alone, the collectors will have their ship stationed here. That's where we're hoping it'll be. Because that gives every gun on Horizon something to aim at. That's why it's vital those guns are up and running. I want this ship gone and I wanted it gone nine hours ago. Can we do that?"
"We're the best like you said, boss." Kasumi said with her arms crossed, "I think we can do it. You know, as long as the bug spray Mordin made works."
Several heads nod, including Mordin most of all.
John gave everyone a hard stare. "Get your gear ready people."
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8 hours later.
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"Thirty seconds." Joker murmured over the radio.
Juel knelt down to check his boots before standing back up and giving his friends a stiff look. "Never done this before."
"Me either." Olasie replied with a nervous smile. The cargo bay had been vacated of any crewmembers, leaving only Garrus, Olasie, Juel, and Talukh alone. Several members of the crew, including Shepard and Tali, were staring through the windows on the engineering deck, watching them for when they were going to jump off.
The Normandy's ramp lowered and revealed the expanse of space and the planet below them.
"Scary. But it ain't as hard as it looks." Talukh said, stowing his rifle away onto his back, "And, I may not particularly like the AI controlling our hard suits during freefall, but I can't really complain either. Makes my job easier."
Juel checked the straps on his rucksack and just shrugged.
"How many jumps have you been on?" Garrus decided to ask.
"Eight."
"Run of the mill then for you." Garrus said as he took several steps closer to the ramp, "We'll take your lead."
"Ten seconds." Joker announced. Juel took a look behind him to the windows from engineering and gave everyone a thumbs up.
"Wish us luck." He called over the radio. Tali returned the favor and rose her hand to the glass.
"Jump. Jump. Jump."
Talukh was the first to go. He lept off the edge and was swallowed whole by darkness. Shortly after was Garrus, Juel, and Olasie.
As they fell, Olasie took a fleeting look to the Normandy, but couldn't seem to get a glimpse of it anywhere.
"This is Spearhead-2 to all, radio check, over." Talukh called.
"This is Spearhead-1 to 2, reading you 5 by 5, over." Garrus answered.
"This is Speardhead-3 to 2, I'm good, over."
"Spearhead-4," Olasie said, "Good copy, over."
"This is Spearhead-3, HUDs are updating... now, over."
Just as Juel promised, three dots winked into existence on Olasie's HUD, outlining her friends.
"Spearhead-2, this is Spearhead-4," Olasie said between a shaky breath, "Stomach's churning, but you were right; not as bad as I thought."
Talukh smiled. "Told you boss. No biggie."
"Probably because EDI's helping." Olasie added.
"That too." Talukh replied.
They carried on for eight minutes of radio silence with only their thoughts and the view to entertain them.
Soon enough, the distant details of the city were getting bigger and closer. Olasie, considering how vain the attempt might be, looked around for any visual clues to what might have caused the city-wide blackout. She frowned at the sight. Just like Freedom's Progress, everything was dark and empty.
"Spearhead-2 to all, get ready for chute deployment, how copy?"
"Copy all, 2."
"Acknowledged, 2"
"I copy, 2."
Fifteen long seconds pass before EDI pulled their chutes open. Jerked upward, Olasie grit her teeth from the sudden increase of g-forces.
"How's everyone holding up?" Garrus asked, his breath clearly a bit strained.
"Good."
"Doing fine."
"I'm alright."
Olasie looked back up, out to the distant horizon, and peered closer at the city. A shiver ran across her spine when she started to notice a tall silhouette hovering high enough above the colony to block out a long column of stars in the sky. Just when she thought she was the only one looking, Juel murmured through the radio.
"Is that...?"
"—Yes, it is." Garrus answered, remembering the last time he'd seen the collector cruiser, "That's their ship. Spirits."
Putting a face to the name, no matter how far away or vague the spectacle was, put an ice of fear in Olasie's chest. Holy hell. They were really doing this.
"Watch your feet. We're about to land."
Olasie looked down and put her legs together. Tucking in her chin, just like she was taught during their two hour session with Shepard beforehand, she landed on the balls of her feet and rolled to her calf, thigh, and lastly, her ass. Olasie messed up a little bit though on the backward roll. It was a little more clumsy than she would've liked, but pretty good, given that his was the first time she'd ever jumped, much less a HALO one (AI controlled or not).
"This is Spearhead-4. I'm on the ground."
"Spearhead-3. I touched down."
"Spearhead-1, same here."
"Good, we all made it." Garrus said with relief, "We're about 400 meters from each other. Let's regroup."
Getting back to her feet, she stuffed the chute back into its pack before discarding the thing entirely. Hooking her one point sling up to her DMR, she adjusted her scarf and realk and made headway to the nav point Garrus listed.
When they grouped back up together, they made some adjustments to navigation and began their trek toward the colony.
They hiked slowly down the sloped hill and found their road to cross.
Olasie gulped as they passed through a recently irrigated farm of apple trees. The similarities between Freedom's Progress and Horizon were eerily alike, and it put off Olasie so much that the hairs on her neck stood.
"Anyone else getting Freedom's Progress vibes?" She mumbled, staring at the combines parked by a barn to their left.
"I sure as hell am." Juel mentioned.
"Yeah. Same." Talukh said, leading the group.
"Don't dwell on it too much," Garrus intoned as he attached a small camera to his helmet, "Let's get done what needs doing."