"How's the new glass feel?"
"Feel's great," Juel turned around to face Olasie with a smile, "Just like new."
"Ready to get on with our day?"
He nodded and they strolled out of the infirmary after saying goodbye to Talukh.
"Nothing you have to pick up right?"
Olasie shook her head and touched his arm, "Nope. Just you."
He pressed the button on the elevator and put his hands into his pockets. "Aw, you're so sweet."
When the elevator doors opened, it revealed Tali tapping on her omni-tool frustratingly.
"Oh no you don't, you stupid bosh'tet."
"What's up, Tali?" Olasie said, tilting her head.
Tali didn't even look up as she put a foot forward to start walking out of the lift, "Just—ugh. Nothing. Damn thing keeps freezing up on me when I launch this app."
"What app?"
"Cerberus' parts database for the Normandy." Tali answered, half paying attention and brushing past them so she could go and complain to Garrus, "The overlay freezes and doesn't let me terminate the damn thing."
"Surprised they didn't just give you a paper catalog." Juel joked.
"You laugh, but the optimization's so shit that it couldn't have been made by anything other than a half-witted intern. Things worse than the Neema's intranet." Tali muttered, shaking her head at how irritating it was that she couldn't look up a part number.
"So, why are you up here then?"
"Garrus seems to be the only one with an app that works more than half the time. I've got to borrow his tool."
"Oh hell no you aren't," Garrus mocked from across the hall, hearing her coming from a mile away, "Not again. I've got calibrations that need doing."
"You say that to everyone who comes within ten feet of your stupid battery room!"
The two began arguing, so Juel and Olasie decided it would be a good time to exit.
"Mm. Time to go." Olasie hummed, stepping inside the lift with Juel following her. The doors closed, muting the two incensed voices. They began ascending.
"Oh, poor Tali. Never a break with her." Olasie said as she mended her hands together.
He crossed his arms and stared at the counter. "She does it to herself."
"She doesn't know that." Olasie added.
He leaned in slightly to her to help punctuate his words. "Mm. I think she does."
The doors opened and they made their way to the Normandy's exit.
"Hey, Shepard? Tali's complaining about the Cerberus parts catalog app thing." Juel said to John as they passed by the CIC, thumbing the elevator behind him, "Might want to tell TIM to fix that, yeah?"
John looked up from the galaxy map and smirked. "Why? She hassling Garrus for his stuff again?"
Juel gave John a not-so-ambiguous shrug and kept walking.
When they strolled leisurely down the Normandy's neck, they noticed Joker out of his seat standing and slowly stretching. It was eye-raising.
"Howdy y'all." The pilot greeted.
"Don't think I've seen you out of that seat more than once." Juel said.
"Doc says I've got to keep the blood pumping every once in a while. A stretch a day keeps the embolism away."
"Probably should be doing that more than once a day." Juel offered.
"Where you guys going?" Joker asked, changing the subject and awkwardly bending down ever so slowly, "Getting stuff or on leave?"
"On leave. Going out for some fun."
He looked up from his stretching position for just a second while grunting. "Don't do anything stupid."
"I promise we won't."
"Good. Waking up in an alley is bad for the back and worse for your pride. Goes double for both of you."
Olasie felt her cheeks redden with embarrassment. How did Joker know about their escapade back on Illium? Who the hell told him?
Juel scoffed and put most of his weight on a foot. "Huh. So you know about Olasie's tattoo then as well."
"Heck yeah I do." Joker grinned as he massaged his lower back, "Everyone does. How'd that happen anyway? Seems that detail got lost in the gossip."
Joker's question fell on Olasie's deaf ears. "Oh you're full of varren shit." she spat, "If it's so true, where's it at?"
"Near where you squeeze kids out. Somewhere there. Am I warm?"
Juel felt compelled to rub the sudden kink out of his neck. Olasie's face felt as if it had gotten sucked into itself.
"Oh my god. Let's go, Juel."
"Silence is an admission of guilt." Joker said, pointing at her back as they walked out. She didn't have the pride in her to reply.
The doors closed and they waited for the room to equalize pressure.
"How does everyone know about that?"
"There's only so many people that knew that coming on." Juel uttered before glancing at her, "I'd start with Talukh and work your way down."
"Maybe I should start with you."
"I'm about to take you out to breakfast," Juel said as he crossed his arms while smiling, "so no."
"Another time then for when you're not."
They exited the hold and started their day.
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'OrlayYaki breakfast bar for any and all!' the sign read. They both stepped inside the place, exchanged pleasantries with the hostess, and went to their reserved booth.
"Hi there, name's Lucy. This your first time at OrlayYaki?"
"It is. Heard about you online. Decided to stop by." Juel answered.
"Well, let me start you off with something to drink. How about some coffee, hun?"
"Please. I would love that."
"Cream and sugars for you?"
"Yes."
"And what aboutchu, darlin'? Anything to drink?"
Olasie skimmed across the menu as she bit her lip. "Some… breakfast tea? Please?"
"Of course! It's a dextro favorite here. Be right back."
The human waitress left and the two settled down to get comfortable.
"What do you think?" Juel began.
"Of this place?" Olasie said, looking around at the cozy atmosphere, "It's nice."
"I meant about the Normandy."
"Oh." Olasie flipped the menu's pages nonchalantly and thought about it. "Well. Don't think it's something I was prepared to join."
Juel expected that answer.
"Don't think anyone is. The Normandy's like… the special forces on steroids."
Olasie snorted. "I guess. Crazy people on that boat."
It was Juel's turn to snort. "Everyone's a little crazy, Olasie. Not like we don't have our share of interesting backgrounds."
She set the menu down with a scrunched brow and a hardly noticeable smile that sat square on her face. "Uhm, compare yourself to Samara or Miranda and tell me that again."
He rose up his arm, his machine one, and made his fingers curl unnaturally. "I got this because I lost my arm to a poopy tank."
"And that makes you interesting?" Olasie laughed, "Keelah. You're such a dork."
"Dork? You have shortcuts on your extranet browser to look at cats on Reddit. That's so lame."
"Everyone does it." Olasie defended, flabbergasted at his jab as she looked back down to her menu, "I love cats."
"You're deflecting." He rasped. He pointed at her as he remembered something else, a grin growing almost from ear-to-ear. "Almost forgot. You also read fanfiction. That's pretty damn lame."
"Only the overly sexual ones with bad grammar." She rebutted, all coy-like.
"Oh. No stigma there, huh." He picked up his own menu, eyes rolling before he started browsing, "Is it the translation software you're using or is it really just that bad?"
"Both."
"Both. So that means you've read fanfics made by our fellow man."
"Oh yeah."
Juel chuckled and kept his eyes on the menu. "God. Who would commit themselves to making any of that?"
Olasie couldn't help herself other than to giggle. "Who knows? Losers and weirdos I guess."
The waitress came back with their beverages.
"Coffee for a young man and tea for a sweet girl. You decided on what you want to eat?"
"I think I have," Juel said, pointing at his choice, "Number thirteen. Easy on the hubrey sauce please."
"Gotcha."
"I'll have the dextro version of a human breakfast—…buh ree toe. Did I say that right?"
Lucy smiled at the quarian woman. "Oh you did well, dear. Breakfast burrito comin' right up."
Olasie smiled out of habit and the waitress left to tend to the other patrons.
Juel grasped his sealed mug delicately. "So. You hear about where we're going next after this?"
She stared intently at her drink as she set it up. "Yeah. Something about helping Zaeed."
"What do you think?"
She shrugged, "Teri told me about Zaeed's story after she heard it from Kylie. Don't know how watered down the details are, but it's a grimy and scummy level of betrayal. Don't blame Zaeed for wanting to tag air-sucking scum like that."
"Man. To get a quarter of your head blown in." Juel said disbelievingly as he recalled the story, "His face looks pretty good for having been shot that close. I mean, he said the flash hider kissed his face."
"That's modern medicine for you. Or maybe he's just exaggerating the story to make himself sound more interesting."
"Well." Juel said, moving on with his point, "At any rate, Zaeed's always been straight with us. After everything he's done, I guess it's fair we help him out with his issue."
She looked up at him. "Calling it an issue is kind."
He took a small and testing sip of his coffee and leaned forward a little to show he agreed. "I suppose you're right. The way John had expressed it to me made it sound like it was haunting just about every bit of Zaeed's life."
Olasie folded her arms across the table and sipped her tea with a rather empty look. "...I just hope this mission doesn't go down like it did on Hock's estate."
Juel breathed in with concern written all over his face. "Look. I know what it feels like to be on the receiving end of an 'everything will be alright' talk, but everything's going to pan out. You can't put this mistake—one we made collectively—on yourself the way you are. Had Admiral Gerrel read his priority correspondence in a timely manner, Iwia would still be standing. You had the Migrant Fleet's best interests at heart. You did what you thought was right to protect people."
"I was going to bring this up earlier but was hesitant to," He gently put a hand around hers to strengthen his point. "You going to be alright?"
A timid smile as she scanned the room to look at the other patrons. "Yeah, Juel. I'm okay. I'm hurting. But I'm okay."
"You know you've always got me to talk to. You don't have to put up with your thoughts alone."
The sad smile was still there. "I know. And I'm really glad you took me out to do this. It helps. A lot. Now enough about that."
"Okay."
She sniffed slightly. "So why'd you decide all of a sudden you wanted to take me out on a date, huh?"
"Well. We haven't had a lotta time to hang out." He shrugged nonchalantly, "You act like I do this because I pity you."
"Pity me?" She put on a show and set a hand up against her forehead, "For the longest time, I always thought you started to like hanging out with Tali more. Didn't leave much for the imagination."
He almost had to fan away her sarcasm from it being so thick. "Oh, give me a break."
She shrugged, "It's true though! I'm surprised y'all didn't catch feelings. Well, maybe not her. But you...?"
"Uh, no. No. No no no. I know red flags when I see one." He tapped his chin and gazed up at the high ceilings, "Probably had, I don't know, something to do with always talking about John? And already being married to him in her head? That was probably it, yeah."
She gave him a mirthful face. "Are you sure about that."
"You kidding me right?"
She loved picking on him.
"You hung out with her just as much." He fought.
"Yeah, but I'm not a lesbian."
"Mm." Lips pressed into a dismissive frown. "Fair."
"So what is your type?"
"Definitely not Tali."
"Aw, that's so mean."
He shrugged. "I love her the exact same amount as you do. That's why I get to say it."
Olasie relented. She supposed that was fair. She could see why Tali, at the time, was not exactly the most prospective person to be chasing after. Honestly, Juel never appeared to be interested in chasing anything then. She knew of Serah. Knew of his past. But five years was a long time and her fate had finally been put to rest. He looked like he was finally healing. Changing. So she took the leap and made it obvious she was falling for him and, insofar, looked like he was doing far more than just indulging her.
"Did you... ever get fed up with her, then?" She asked, prodding more, even if she felt a little bad about the question, "The way she was?"
He took a long swig of his creamed brew and thought over his next words carefully.
"Did I ever get fed up with her." He repeated slowly and pensively, looking up at the ceiling, "Yeah. I did. This is actually a good segway because, after I lost my arm, you remember, I turned into a real dick by shutting everyone out. But Tali took it the hardest because I—…well. Because I told her I couldn't help her. That she was there for herself and not me—didn't she tell you any of this?"
She shook her head. "No. I never asked and she never told us anything."
"Well, now you do." He breathed sadly, "And you don't have to spell out how awful that sounds because it is. It is that awful."
She gave him a solemn nod. "Trying to exile Tali from your life is pretty brute-like."
"Yeah," he rasped, eyes on the tabletop, "Yeah. Yeah it was. I've made up for it though. I swear."
"What did she say? How'd she react?"
"Come on. What do you think?" He put both his hands over his face now. "Keelah."
Olasie didn't say anything. But that in and of itself was an answer.
"I know. I messed up. It was messed up."
"So how'd you fix your mess?"
He put his hands and stare back on the table. "Had Zumi text her a month later. She swung by and acted like nothing happened. We made up. Then she said she'd pay for a new arm."
He stared at his machine limb with mindful introspection. "Can't believe it sometimes. She paid for this. In cash. Even after I'd burned a bridge."
"You're lucky."
"I know."
"How much was it again? Your arm? I don't remember."
"A lot. Four hundred thousand? Somewhere around there."
"That's expensive."
"Yeah. Pretty expensive."
Olasie took another careful sip of tea and chewed on her old thoughts. Reflecting over her bank of memories, she pursed her lips and cast her gaze to the table's wood grain. "I still feel bad for her sometimes." Olasie said, being somewhat reticent.
He nodded, eyes thoughtful but flat. "I do too."
"I know it's all better for her with John back and some of her old friends to mingle with. But my heart still goes out thinking about these last two years."
He couldn't help but agree. Tali was a quiet and unstable wreck when she arrived on the Neema.
"Being on the original Normandy must've been one hell of a wild ride." He stared at Olasie's tea before meeting her gaze, "I don't think we'll ever really understand how traumatizing it was for her at the end of it all. Or any of the original crew for that matter."
"Maybe we will." Olasie said as their waitress came with their tray of food, "Because, as it is, we're the furthest thing from retiring off the Normandy."
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Tali was expecting something different than this. Usually when John called to have them meet up at their room, it was for good news or a mid-day kiss. Not for her to get an earful of this.
"Damnit, John."
"I know. Believe me, Tali. I know."
She projected her frustration by throwing her hands up in the air. "We went over this. This vigilante shit has got to end!"
John ran a hand over his face and paced around in an anxiety-laced circle. "What do you want me to do, Tali? This isn't the Alliance anymore. We can say all we want, but Cerberus has a knot around my balls. I don't have a choice. Doing this is the only reason Zaeed is even on the team."
Tali crossed her arms and shook her head before pacing the floor herself. "That doesn't mean we can keep doing this. We did it with Hock and we killed someone we shouldn't have. The Normandy isn't a police force. We're a surgical strike team. We've never been good at these kinds of missions and never will be. John. You know this."
He folded his arms over his chest. "You have a solution? I'm all ears."
"No. I don't. But you and I didn't sign up for this." She said in a frustrated growl, "I didn't sign up with a terroristic human supremacist group just so I could participate in a hateful lust for revenge."
She couldn't bring herself to face John anymore, so she turned around to face the aquarium and crossed her arms. A sigh left her. "And to do it for low-life drunks like Zaeed too. This is pathetic. What's next John?" She looked back at him, "Are we gonna run an errand for Jack too? Maybe nuke a place if someone just asks nicely? What about Grunt? If he's not eating or smashing shit, he's complaining about not being boots on the ground."
John stressfully took in a breath. "Tali. Stop."
She shook her head sharply. "No. I'm not going to stop. We got close to a hundred people on this ship and half them look like they need to re-prioritize their reality here. We're here to stop the collectors and reapers, not fix every little chip someone's got on their fucking shoulder."
John blinked at her anger. To hear her like this felt so unlike her as a person.
"And what happens if something bad happens to you, Tali?" John said, his frown apparent, "What happens if you had to go back home? Had you ever stopped to think we might have to?"
She was taken slightly aback at his accusation.
"I would book passage on another ship and handle my problems like an adult," She said before pointing at their door, "Unlike these pricks who beg for free help."
He didn't say anything. His expression, from what she gathered, was enough to know that he hadn't intentionally tried to rile her anger.
"Tali. Why are we even arguing about this."
"Because I know you're sick of it. And now you know I am too." She murmured, staring at the fish again, "I'm just... venting. I guess."
"Then that just brings us back to where we were at. If I don't give in to these expectations, we don't have a shot of stopping these abductions."
A bitter sigh left her. "I know."
It was quiet for a moment, save for the sound of the scrubber circulating water through the fish tank.
"When we do this mission, don't go. It's not going to be pretty."
"No. I'm going. Someone has to keep these idiots in line. Especially Garrus."
John gave her a smirk. "Well. Not sure if Garrus even knows about it yet. I mean, he might. Garrus helped recruit Zaeed before we even got on. I've only told Juel so far."
"Alright, say Garrus doesn't know yet." Tali supplied, forcing herself to laugh, "The second he finds out, you really think he'll pass on the chance to help kill a blue-suns merc leader? A founder no less?"
"No." He answered.
"There you go then."
John sat down heavily in his chair and put his hands behind his head before staring up at the ceiling. He stayed silent for a long while.
She stood by him and took in a deep breath. "Anything else on your mind?"
"Yeah." He looked up at her for all of a second before waking up his computer.
"What?"
"I got a message from TIM."
She waited as he brought up his list of emails.
When he brought up the message he wanted to show her, he looked her straight in the eye with a glare and didn't blink.
"They never found Ashley."
Tali crossed her arms and put a closed hand over her vocalizer. "When did you get this?"
"About an hour ago."
"Does Garrus know?"
"No. I always tell you stuff like this first."
She put her head into her hands and let out an exhausted sigh. "Keelah."
"Commander," EDI announced over the PA, "Your presence is requested at CIC. Thane has returned and is prepared to provide a debrief."
"On it EDI. Thank you."
John stood up. "Duty calls. We'll talk more later."
"Alright." She whispered.
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John stepped out of the elevator and saw Miranda already standing next to the yeoman's workstation.
"Where is he?"
"Conference room." Miranda answered.
John turned left and Miranda followed.
"When did he arrive?"
"Not five minutes ago."
They went through the armory and saw that the door to the conference room was already open. As they reared the corner, they saw Thane standing with both his hands sprawled on the table staring at the floor.
"Thane." Shepard greeted warily, "Good to see you back. How'd it go?"
Thane looked up, but not at him. "Not as well as I'd hoped. My son is safe and disaster was averted."
"Sounds like a mission success to me, Thane. What else could you have wanted from that?"
Thane kept staring at the wall across from him. "The rift I've created from our time apart is... likely irreparable."
John swallowed and glanced at Miranda to see if she had anything worth saying.
She didn't.
The level of silence between the three made John feel like he was being put on the spot. What was he supposed to say? Tell Thane that everything was going to be okay?
"I'm sorry, Thane." John managed to utter.
"I appreciate your brevity, Shepard. But it's not needed. I appreciate you taking the time to help me. Taking the Normandy to help a challenged father with his son is about the most selfless thing you could have done. Thank you."
"I'll give you your space. We make it through all of this and then you see about spending the rest of your days with your kid. Can you try to promise me that?"
Thane finally made eye contact with the commander and, for the briefest of moments, smiled faintly. "I can."
He gave Thane a distinct nod and walked out.
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Two uneventful weeks later.
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"Garrus." Tali called out as she put her gear on the table next to him, "We need to talk."
"I already know what you're here for, Tali." Garrus said, eyes still staring down the bore of his extracted barrel, "You don't need to express any of your concerns with me."
She stopped what she was doing and put both her hands on her hips. "The hell I don't."
He gave the rifling a slight sniff before snapping it back into his upper receiver. "It's not like I've forgotten what you said the last time we talked." He looked at her and scratched his head. "Where are your clothes?"
"Don't take this off topic." She spat before unfolding her new muted gray combat jumpsuit, "I told you last time that we were never doing this again. But here we are. Doing it again."
"It's not a party we're crashing this time. No list of targets like with Hock. Just one guy. Margin of error here is a lot lower and you know it."
"Garrus, look at me."
He looked at her.
"Promise me that we see this through the right way. The old-fashioned way. No matter what."
Garrus paused what he was doing and nodded with a pensive look on his face. "Okay."
"Let's hurry it up people!" John said opening up the hatch to the back of the kodiak, "Five minutes before we launch!"
Garrus put on his chest rig, backpack, and stowed away his rifle. "Need help?"
Tali just about finished slipping into her jumpsuit before wrapping a cloak and hoodie around her neck. "No. I'm good."
"I'm surprised you're coming, to be honest."
"Two reasons I'm coming down." She said as she rose her chest rig over her head to put it on, "One: to try out my new gear outside of the sims, and two: to see this through the right way."
"You really don't trust me that much, do you?"
"It's not so much you as it is with everyone else that's coming with us, Garrus." She offered before frowning, "But, as I say that, I should remind you we didn't simply kill an agent trying to hit Hock with a lawsuit just because he was caught with Migrant Fleet tech. You realize that right? How far-reaching the consequences can be for what we did?"
"I think I do." He argued.
"I think you don't. There's a reason why quarian-designed weapons have such a premium to it. Not just because it's quarian, but because its development doesn't recognize the Citadel's wartime conventions."
"And that's why she was flagged, Tali. Because she was interested in buying it to fulfill some unknown agenda. One we assumed to be of malicious intent. Do you often forget that I used to be a detective?"
"That's not the point."
"Yes, it is. Not even EDI figured out she was an undercover agent. That's how good her cover was. What do you want me to say? I'm sorry? Because I am. If I could go back in time and cross her fake name off the list, I would have. But I can't and now we have to face the consequences. It's how the galaxy works."
"That the kind of galaxy you want to live in? The one where the wrong bullet could spell the deaths of thousands of others all because of a well-made intention?"
"It's the best we can do, Tali. Say Iwia was who she said she was and we let her go. Same consequences. Same regrets."
She looked down and decided to check the chamber on her newly acquired carbine to process their conversation. While what he said definitely rang true to her, it still didn't sit quite right with her. She nodded anyways. "That's fair. Let's just not make this a habit."
Garrus put a hand on her shoulder. "We won't. The Normandy exists to make the galaxy a better place. I've never forgotten that."
Tali just nodded and retrieved a small, purple colored, hook-and-loop patch from her pocket.
"Where do you think I should put this?" She asked.
"I knew there was going to be a little purple somewhere. Otherwise I'd have confused you with Olasie." Garrus said with a small chuckle. "Put it center mass."
"Oh. So I can look like a target."
His grin grew a little wider. "Sure."
She shrugged and put the small 6x6 centimeter patch of her iconic purple swirls right where he said she should.
"Let's get a move on then."
They walked over to the kodiak and clambered inside with the others already waiting.
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If the others hadn't known it already, the one thing Tali didn't agree about this was the amount of similarities she could pull between their mission now and Hock's assassination. Whereas Hock was dressed in a suit sipping champagne and making arms-grade ballistics for a bunch of assholes, Vido was out in the boonies in the dead jungle heat who also happened to be the co-founder of the Blue-Suns. The differences might have been apparent, but it was all the same to her. Vigilante justice at its best. Gang warfare at its worst.
Vido Santiago was a cold and nasty bastard. Judging by the sheer number of crimes the man had committed, it didn't take much to assume he relished in the displeasure of others. Watching people suffer was probably the only thing that got him hard this late in his life.
She didn't take much pleasure in reading his list of wrongdoings. She did it to try and care more. To try and think the way Garrus did. She wanted to go down there and feel like she was doing the right thing by plucking this little shit from their plane of existence.
Tali bit her lip. That didn't come out quite right. She needed to rephrase that.
She knew they were doing the right thing. She didn't doubt that at all. Killing this dick wasn't doing anything but help the galaxy be a slightly better place. But, like she said: It was vigilante justice at its best; Gang warfare at its worst. Sure, they could say them coming here was for a good reason, but they weren't here for that. They were here to help Zaeed tag Vido to help him sleep better at night. Tali cast the man a glance and clenched her teeth. Fantasizing about the things you'd do to a guy who'd wronged you wasn't abnormal at all. But it sure as hell didn't sound all that healthy either. Especially when it infected every facet of your life.
At the end of the day, all this was going to do was create a power vacuum. Zaeed may have gotten what he wanted, but someone would take Vido's place. And it could be someone worse. And then the shit would resume without missing a beat.
And maybe Tali was standing a tad too tall for this one, but due process existed for a reason. Rights were inalienable. Even for people like Vido. The societies of today existed due in no small part to their equitable and long-standing administration of justice. It wasn't perfect. She knew that. And she knew it never would be. But that was beside her point. They weren't a society with checks and balances. The Normandy was out here dispensing justice as they saw fit. That was a lot of power to wield for such a select few. A power she knew could be abused. It didn't matter who they were or what they'd accomplished in the past. At the fringe of good intended will was tyranny. No one would ever be immune to that. Not John. Not her. No one.
She closed the scrolling text of the operation order that sat in the small HUD on her visor and looked down to stare at her folded hands as they jostled around the kodiak's cabin.
She muttered Vido Santiago's name one last time without a voice leaving her lips. If the Normandy had you on their shit list, your days were numbered. And it looked like Vido's day had finally come. The guy was going to be dead by morning. And by the end of the week, there would be someone else.
Six people were in attendance. Shepard, Garrus, Zaeed, Kasumi, Thane, and Tali herself. Everyone packed light. Carbines and light bearing equipment only. Everyone came equipped with long-running cloaks to infiltrate this compound so they could take the guy out in his sleep.
A day or so before, Tali had felt a mix of anxiety, despair, and reluctance in attending the mission. But she persevered because she hated the idea of people like Zaeed or Kasumi running amok doing things the way they did.
The behavior and personal history of these questionable people was not supposed to be a representation of the Normandy she once knew.
She looked out the viewport and watched the canopy of trees with a canvas of twinkling stars above them. The amount of night ops she'd performed in her lifetime was only a handful. This one would count as another and it was likely to be one of the easier ones.
"Give us the forecast EDI."
"Partly cloudy. Low of thirty-one degrees Celsius with a high of thirty eight. Eighty-one percent humidity with two to six kilometer per hour winds traveling from west to east. Sixty percent chance of precipitation. This is based on local data and scans taken from orbit."
"Thane?" John said, grabbing his attention, "You going to be okay? The weather is not going to be kind."
"I will be fine. But I would like for us to limit our time here."
"We're going to take as long as we need to." Zaeed spoke up, straight faced, "No half-assed shit today."
John was going to say something, but didn't. It wouldn't have been productive anyway.
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"We're descending. Get ready to exit the cabin." Brad, their pilot, announced.
Shepard, Zaeed, and Garrus stood, while the rest stayed seated. Thane finished his prayer and meditation while Kasumi dimmed down the display on her omni-tool.
Tali stood herself and waited.
When they touched the ground, the doors opened and they all stepped out, one-by-one, onto the moist dirt of the forest floor. They were greeted by the loud croaks and chirps of the local fauna.
"Stinks like rotting wood." Zaeed murmured as the kodiak took off, back from which it came, "Let's hustle then."
"Optics check." John ordered. The group went through the motions to check their NVGs and gave Shepard a thumbs up.
"Let's move. If the landscape permits, we should be there in two or three hours."
Ten minutes of walking slowly turned to twenty then forty. Tali's ankles and knees began to ache from the mud constantly sucking on her joints.
The last thirty minutes of walking turned to slow and tedious bounding overwatch to make sure they wouldn't cross by a patrol.
When they finally reached the end of the tree line, they had to slowly crawl through the tall and sticky grass to reach a barbed fence. It would have been convenient to use their cloaks right then and there, but their batteries would only last them for three minutes. Any excessive use of the cloak meant less time for them to use it for exfiltrating the area.
The heat was sweltering and humidity was thick enough to cut it with a knife. Even Tali, despite her suit's best efforts, had a crown of sweat beading on her brow.
"Alright. Take a break. Hydrate. Eat something. Salt pills for anyone who needs it."
Tali, relieved to know they could finally stop, rest her head on the ground and closed her eyes. All the walking and crawling was taking more out of her than she thought it would. A light and calming pitter-patter of rain began to fall.
"Hey. You good?" John asked through a private channel, "You look a bit tired."
"Just resting my eyes. I'm fine." Tali answered, looking up slowly to see only a sliver of John between the blades of thick grass, "When are we moving?"
"Five minutes. Make sure you drink water, hun."
She smiled at his thoughtfulness. "I have been. Thanks."
"Alright. I'm ending the call."
"Okay."
"Five minutes everyone. Then we move." John ordered.
Strangely, Tali felt nothing. No fear or nervousness. Not a care for what they were about to do. She closed her eyes again and five minutes pass without her even realizing. John's voice over the radio stirred her from her light slumber.
"Let's go."
She began crawling again behind John. It was another thirty minutes of crawling. At long last, they reached their target: The edge of the tall field to an open but fairly narrow path that lead to the compound. It was worth mentioning that the trail looked as if it had been carved out only by the stomping of feet.
"Look. We're right on time." Zaeed said, pointing slowly to an approaching mass of people.
Tali traced the man's finger and held her breath. Stretched into a line that ran deep from within the tree line were huddled groups of around thirty men and women of all races being loosely escorted by mercs into the fortress.
"They're being shuffled like cattle," Kasumi whispered.
John swallowed the distressing sight and sighed. "Where are they taking them exactly?"
"They're bringin' the poor bastards home to sleep and eat, most likely. Seen it before. Big ol' mining division sources out cheap labor. Which is just some fancy way of saying you've bought out slaves in bulk. Keeps the money nice an' black. Sleep maybe four hours before they're hauled off to work sites and worked damn near to death."
"Then what?" Tali asked, "What happens when they're done with them?"
"Company pockets the profits from your back-breaking labor," Garrus answered for Zaeed, giving Tali a straight stare, "Then they get a return on a deposit and give whatever's left of the live cargo back to their old handlers. Cycle repeats until they're dead."
Zaeed just nodded.
Tali stared on and felt the strings in her heart get plucked. It felt almost unreal to say it, but these souls were beyond saving. The Normandy could do nothing for them and it hurt her deeply seeing firsthand the unforgiving reality of their galaxy.
"Ain't pretty." Zaeed mustered to say, "But it's good news for us. The mercs here are all for show. They're only here for when the poor souls find out that working your way out with a ticket off world and a sum of credits to keep a man's belly full for a month isn't actually going to happen."
"I've heard enough." John muttered. They stayed silent for about a solid minute and just watched.
Eventually, John rose a brow and glanced at Zaeed. "So are you sure this'll work?"
"You're goddamn right I'm sure it's going to work. No one's paying close attention an' I don't blame 'em. Meet you all at the designated rendezvous. Out."
When the next group came down the path, Zaeed just stood up and disappeared into the tightly packed bundle of tired slaves. He even looked the part too. Zaeed's face and clothes were filthy from hours' worth of crawling and hiking through mud.
Zaeed passed the gates effortlessly.
Kasumi scoffed. "Well. That worked pretty well."
"I will find another way in." Thane intoned quietly, "A drell might attract unwanted attention."
"Alright Thane," John agreed, "See you inside."
"Copy."
"I'm going." Garrus spoke as he stood up. He went over and squeezed himself in-between a salarian and human with his head held low.
John looked at Tali and Kasumi and sighed. "That just leaves us three. You're next Kasumi. Go."
"Roger." Kasumi got to her feet and slipped in with the next bunch.
John was next.
"Ready, hun?"
"Yeah. I am."
"See you inside."
John stood up and fell in line with the next group.
Tali was now alone.
"Alright." She murmured under her breath, standing up slowly and walking like she hadn't been trying to sneak in all this time, "Here goes."
She took her space between two humans and kept her stare forward. As with every group ahead of her, the slaves paid her no mind. She didn't have to guess why just by glancing at their complexion. They were starved and exhausted. She kept walking at their frustratingly slow pace.
She couldn't help but study the man to her left. Bushy beard. Covered in black soot from head to toe. Tattered rags for clothes with finger sized holes in his shoes. No socks. There was no soul behind the man's eyes. How long he'd been doing this could have been anyone's guess. She hoped it hadn't been for a lifetime, because he looked old.
The one on her right was another man. Even older. Frail looking. Sallow skin hanging off his bones with almost no muscle to speak of. The features mirrored that of the last man. No soul. No life. He did have better shoes though.
It was suffocating to look at and to be around. To even imagine the life of a slave. It was unthinkable. She looked around and saw other quarians mingled about, which was good, because it didn't make her look out of place.
Soon enough, she passed the gates with her sickly neighbors and clenched her teeth when a merc passed within a meter of her. Had he been any closer, he might have seen her gun.
"How you guys doing?" Shepard asked over the radio.
"Doing fine." Garrus said, "A lot easier than I thought."
"Doing okay." Kasumi said.
"What about you, Thane? Are you in yet?"
"In a moment, Shepard. Stand-by."
"Roger. Tali?"
"Doing great." She said plainly, trying her best to look the part. She even feigned weakness in her gait to keep up the act when another pair of mercs walked past her group.
"Just keep walking," Zaeed ordered, "and don't fuck this up for me. We'll be there in a jiffy."
The radio chatter continued in Tali's helmet, but her attention was ripped away when the man next to her spoke.
"Who are you?"
Tali's heart skipped a beat and turned to see he was staring right at her with his tired and bloodshot eyes.
She was afraid this was going to happen. Zaeed had told them all during the briefing to ignore them if they ever tried to talk to you. To deny their dialogue and to keep your mouth shut. Or, at the very most, give cathartic, vague, short-worded answers.
She was prepared to do that. But when you stared into a man's eyes and see yourself the hell he'd been trapped in? To know that there would be no gift but the arms of death to welcome him? She couldn't help but grow faint.
It hurt her to say it, but she had to follow the rules Zaeed put in place for them. All of their lives were on the line here.
"No one." She murmured to him.
"My name is Jeffery." The man said.
"Jeffery. Please. We cannot speak."
"Are you here to help us?"
Tali's mouth went dry. "No."
"Do you have any food?"
"I'm sorry. Not for humans."
Jeffery put his head down when a merc passed as to not bring about any attention to them.
The man began pleading with her. "You have to help us. Please. Anything."
"I-I can't."
He put a hand on her cloaked sidearm and stared painfully at her with tears coming from his eyes. "Give me your pistol. Please. I beg of you."
She faced him with a long stare as they kept walking.
"Tali? Your turn is coming up." John warned, staring at her worriedly from the shadows, "If you don't take a left now, you're going to miss the exit."
Tali pulled the sidearm from her holster and handed it to the man and pushed herself out of the surrounding body of slaves without saying another word. The timing was impeccable. From one shadow to next, she slipped back into unseen darkness and took a knee next to the others in their small pocket of an unlit alley. She inhaled sharply in an attempt to calm her flared nerves.
"You almost missed the waypoint." John said, leaning in close to her with a concerned look, "Is your radio working?"
"Yeah. A slave just started talking to me." She murmured, eyes fixed on the ground, overwhelmed with emotion, "I—"
Zaeed cut her off with an angry grimace. "—Did you bloody tell him anything?" Zaeed growled, "You tell these starved souls one wrong thing and they'll turn you in just for an extra slice of fuckin' bread. Now what did you tell him?"
"Nothing." Tali said, looking at the man and stuttering under his gaze, "I didn't tell him anything."
"If you're lying, it might very well compromise this op. Let's move." Zaeed got to his feet and started moving again. After sharing some stares amongst each other for Zaeed's over-the-edge tone, they, one by one, fall in line about two meters apart from each other to make their way to the next waypoint.
Did she just make a rash mistake giving that frail man her hand-gun? A huge cloud of regret started to hover over her. She had to tell John what she did. She opened a private channel to him.
"John."
"Yes?"
"I gave them my handgun."
John glanced at her for all of a second, but didn't stop moving. "You gave them a gun? Are you serious?"
"Yeah."
"Tali. That was a mistake."
She wilted when she heard him say that.
"We'll see." Is all she could muster to say. What she did might very well have been a mistake. She just hoped that whatever Jeffery was going to do with that gun, he would do it long after they were done doing what needed to be done.
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"Right there." Zaeed pointed up to the eight-story high tower, "He's at the top. I can just tell."
"How?"
"Vido likes to overlook everything from all angles at all times because he's a pretentious fuck."
"Alright Zaeed." John relented, "Let's focus on the next step. Are you sure you can handle the rest on your own?"
"Yeah. Meet you in half a—" A gunshot rang out, cutting Zaeed off mid-sentence.
Just by the sound alone, Tali knew it was her gun. Her face turned ghostly white. What did this imply for them? What would transpire these next few important minutes?
"Christ. What was that?" Zaeed hissed, scanning the area. Blue-Sun mercenaries all looked just as confused. Soon enough, more gunfire erupted from the other side of the complex. Alarms started to blare following a message over the site-wide PA.
"Our workforce is revolting. Take care of it. All of you. Don't kill too many, got it?"
Zaeed's frown turned into a cruel smile. "That's Vido's voice. This might well pull into our favor." He faced the team. "Change of plans. We stick together. Mount a big ole' offensive and go loud. Bust through the tower doors once a few more leave."
They didn't have many other options to weigh in. Waiting could only make things worse at that point. So, John agreed no matter how much it pained him to trash their existing operation order. Throwing away the OPORD meant scraping a well thought out strategy for a quick and brash one. As unfortunate as it was, thinking on the fly had its place. Hell, half the training for N-school was in a classroom.
Now, whether or not Tali had any part in the events that had unfolded the past fifteen minutes was something he could reflect over later. Lucky for them, it looked like it was going to help more than anything else.
"Stack up." John ordered, "If we're changing the plan, our cloaks go hot until we're inside. Garrus. Find a vantage point. Keep us posted on the courtyard."
"Copy." Garrus nodded before vanishing.
"Thane. Kasumi. Take the point and engage hostiles at your discretion upon entry. Watch for noncombatants."
"Got it."
"Right away."
Kasumi and Thane both stood up and disappeared.
"The rest of us will bring up your rear." John finished before getting to his feet.
The punishing sound of gunfire in the distance was beginning to grow louder. John couldn't tell if the slaves were actually putting up a meaningful fight or if they were just getting mowed down.
It took about thirty seconds for Garrus to call in.
"Got a good view of the place. Looks like some mercs are still scrambling gear and heading out. Get ready to move in."
John gave Garrus a thumbs up. "Copy."
About fifteen seconds pass before they got an update from Thane. "Lobby is clear. Ready for your entry."
"Copy. We're moving."
Zaeed, Tali, and John break into a brisk run toward the large door and enter with Kasumi and Thane already inside, guns raised and aiming down a hallway that lead deeper into the tower.
They lined up behind Thane. "Stack up. Breach and clear."
Kasumi withdrew her gun and fell in line behind all the others.
"Go."
Like they've done thousands of times before, they rear the corner in a single file line and begin clearing the first floor, room by room.
It struck Tali odd seeing only concrete press in on them from all sides. No cameras mounted on walls. No guards. Not even your basic deadbolt on doors for rooms that looked kind of important.
"Barely any security to speak of." She murmured.
"Good." Zaeed huffed.
They stopped moving to have Thane and Zaeed clear out the next cluster of rooms while the rest of them kept a lookout.
It was enough time for John to breathe for a moment and figure that Tali's decision to do the most good by giving a slave a gun might have turned out better than John had hoped.
Telling her it was a mistake wasn't necessarily wrong, however. He couldn't call it endangerment of the mission. That was too extreme. And honestly, if he was put in the position of having a man beg at his feet for a chance to fight back against his oppressors, would he have decided any different?
Probably not.
"Tali," John intoned over a private channel between them, "About earlier. You made a good call. I was wrong."
"A good call for us, maybe." Tali glowered, carbine still raised, "I just instigated a massacre."
"You don't know that for sure."
"We'll find out soon enough, won't we?" She whispered.
"Clear." Thane called out.
They kept moving and made it to a staircase. Without a word, they begin the trek to reach the top floor where Vido presumably lay.
"What are you expecting, Zaeed? You really think he's up here?"
"Oh he's up here. And if I'm real lucky, he's alone because the snot thinks he can handle himself."
John didn't reply.
Twelve flights of stairs later, they reached the top and push on, closer to their supposed target.
Lo and behold, when they reached and busted through what appeared to be Vido's quarters, Vido was there in nothing but plain clothes overlooking the compound through a big window that spanned the entire wall.
"Why are you still here." Vido growled before turning around to face the six of them, "I tol—" A face drained of blood and now ghostly white. "...holy shit."
"Vido." Zaeed relaxed and put his gun down before giving the man a big smile, "Long time, friend. How you been?"
Vido didn't answer. He looked into the contents of his mug and took a breath. "Zaeed."
"In the bloody flesh."
"Here to kill me?"
"Worse."
"Who're your friends?"
"Posy of mine." Zaeed murmured, putting his gun down by his side and walking up next to the man to look out the window in a non-threatening way, "Bloody good team too."
The mug in Vido's hand started to shake. "Look. Zaeed. It was business."
"You shot me in my goddamn face. Laughing." Zaeed said quietly, still looking out the window. He looked down and saw several mercs running away from what looked like a coming storm of recently freed and very pissed off slaves.
"You boys might want to leave now." Zaeed finally graced Vido with a long stare, "Vido and I need to have quick chat. Cheers."
"Don't take too long." Shepard ordered, opening the door to have everyone file out with him exiting last. When he closed the door behind him, he met each of their stares and ran a hand through his face.
"Can't believe I'm letting this happen."
"Can't belie—do you not remember what we saw coming in?" Kasumi gasped with a glare, "Did you not notice the strung up chains on the wall next to his bed?"
Tali breathed in and stared at the floor. "Can't imagine what he was using those for."
"Vido has caught up with his crimes." Thane rasped to John, "Don't feel shame for doing what's right."
John ignored them all and pushed his way toward the end of the hallway. Tali followed.
"John."
He expected her to follow him. She always did. "What, Tali?"
She put a careful hand on his shoulder. "It's okay."
He kept his head low. John knew from the get go that this was how it was going to go down. That this is what they set out to do; to help Zaeed's personal vexation decades in the making. It just took until now to realize that the feelings and reservations he'd buried for weeks were only now surfacing. This was not something John had ever really agreed with. And it was because John strived to uphold a personal creed he'd created himself years ago after Akuze. Strived to uphold it within the circumstances he found himself in. He knew Vido earned this. A small part of John felt retribution for those he had wronged. He was reaping what he had so long sowed. Regardless, it didn't matter how he felt about the matter. Participating in heinous and hateful activity was the quickest way to making sure that you weren't all that dissimilar from the enemy. They were the Normandy. They were better than this.
But here he was. Just outside a room in a hallway, abetting Zaeed's efforts to torture an evil man. Zaeed told him about how the Blue-Suns needed to be committed to an honorable warrior's ethos. To say that and do this was not representative of that.
It seemed Zaeed's life was nothing more than irony and contradiction.
"Nothing's okay." John said at last.
They heard a pained heave escape Vido's room.
"God. God damnit, Tali. I'm helping a man torture someone. This is not where I imagined myself, doing shit like this."
She looked at him sadly. "I know."
He closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Can't keep doing this. I can't."
Three or so minutes pass and Zaeed stepped out. When John looked up, he was absolutely shocked to see Vido still alive and in handcuffs wrenched behind his back. His face was bloody and beaten and wrapped in duct tape from neck to chin. First degree burns covered the better half of his face; likely from the scalding coffee Vido had made not too long before.
"Let's go." Zaeed said before kicking Vido hard enough to send him tumbling to the floor and hitting his head against the wall, "Before I change my mind and just kill the piece of shit."
"Don't remember that being part of the plan." Kasumi said as she crossed her arms and giving Vido a pathetic look, "How do you expect us to get out of here with him?"
"We'll use our spare cloak." Zaeed said before giving John a stare, "Now are you going to help or not?"
Kasumi just shrugged and bent down to pull Vido back to his feet.
John was floored. He had not, even for a second, anticipated this kind of outcome. Zaeed didn't give you the impression that he was the merciful type. Zaeed had killed people for doing less. So why was Vido, of all people, getting a pass here?
Something was out of place and John couldn't put his finger to it. Maybe it didn't necessarily rub John the wrong way, it just felt like there might have been an ulterior motive for it. Regardless of his suspicion, he would cross the road of that issue when he needed to. He was just glad he didn't have to try and wipe from his conscience Zaeed's hateful, but warranted, vendetta.
John nodded and turned on his heel. "Let's move."
As they started moving, he radioed Garrus. "Garrus?"
"I'm here. Go for message."
"We're coming out. We have a live package. How copy?"
"Full copy. You better hurry it up. Slaves are about to overrun the compound. Last of the Blue-Suns are ditching their posts and running."
"Roger. Prep for exfil. Watch for us. ETA one minute. Out." John started jogging back to the stairs.
"Double time people. Cloaks on. It's time to go."
They started running and vanished into thin air.
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When they stepped outside, they were greeted with slaves already running around the bottom floor ravaging through things.
"Holy Christ. Garrus wasn't kidding. They've overwhelmed the place."
They rushed passed a multitude of newly freed people and ran outside without anyone noticing.
"We're out Garrus. We're coming to you."
"Copy. Exfil is a go. ETA fifteen minutes until the shuttle arrives."
"Roger."
They slowly made their way through the dotted mass of slaves running around and scavenging with their target in close tow. Without anyone noticing, Zaeed purposefully slowed his pace and tightened his grip on Vido's cuffed hands. Seeing as the distance between them and the others had grown sufficiently, Zaeed's smile turned delightfully cruel. He stopped running entirely and pulled Vido in close enough so he could speak into his ear. "See you in hell you fuckin' snake."
He yanked the cloaking utility from the cuffed man's belt, pushed him to the ground with a harsh kick, and waited with a crazed look in his eye.
Vido didn't even have time to hit the ground before the slaves recognized him.
"That's him!" A slave called out pointing and yelling, "That's the guy!"
Tali and the others whirled around to see Vido in the mud struggling to get back up. He dissolved from view as the men and women who'd suffered his torturous reign encircled him.
Zaeed had, for years, wondered how this day was going to go down. Of all the things he'd conjured up in his fantasies, he hadn't ever thought to bind Vido up and hand him to the wolves. Sure, he might not get to participate in the final blows to end the little shit's life, but the people here had been beaten, starved, raped, and killed for years. Not just by Vido, of course, but by people like him as well. Which meant the people here would be far more creative in their lynching than anything Zaeed could have conjured up.
There was no scream from Vido as the real torture started. The tape around his throat and mouth made sure of it as they began ripping him apart.
Zaeed caught up with the others and that was that.