The Normandy fell from FTL and began accelerating to the coordinates provided by TIM. Accounting for the drift that would have occurred over the last few hours, the Normandy would have to start searching for their target anywhere between three to four thousand kilometers away from where the original skirmish had ended.
"All stations. All stations. FTL dropped. Stealth systems engaged. Orientation set. ETA to shuttle deployment is twenty minutes." Joker announced over the PA.
Mordin, having finalized the instruments he provided to EDI's mechs, stepped out of the kodiak's cabin so it could close.
"Everything finished, doctor?" Garrus asked, skimming over some info on his tablet and facing him.
"Yes." Mordin nodded once and followed Garrus to join Tali, Juel, and John at the other end of the cargo hold.
Garrus brought with him an empty bucket to flip over and sit on.
"Want me to grab you something so you can sit?"
"Am fine. Thank you." Mordin replied, electing to stand instead.
"Anyone else coming down here?" Tali asked.
"We invited Olasie and the others." Juel spoke, "What about you Garrus? Gonna invite any of your team to watch?"
"Don't think they'll be interested." Garrus said.
Juel rose a brow. "Not even morbidly curious?"
"Omega desensitizes you to a lot. So, no."
"Alrighty then." Juel muttered, voice barely leaving him.
The elevator near them opened up to Olasie and her squad. Darehk wheeled out Talukh, who still happened to be in his wheelchair, while Teri and Kylie walked beside them both.
"Good. You're here." Tali ushered them over with a hand, "We'll be launching soon."
Olasie pointed at the ceiling. "We heard over the PA."
Darehk parked Talukh next to Juel while the others went for boxes of their own to serve as chairs.
"Pretty ingenious there, guys." Teri said, "Duct-taping cameras to an RC car like that. Where'd you get those anyways?"
Tali glanced at Juel. "He bought them."
"Why?"
"So Lukh could participate in team-building activities again." Darehk joked.
"Oh eat shit, Darehk." Talukh moaned.
"Seriously though," Olasie wondered, "Why'd you buy them?"
"He just told you. He can't walk no more." Juel let out a wry laugh, taking a jab at Talukh himself.
The temporary cripple slouched over and propped his head with an elbow. "You gonna keep reaching for low-hanging fruit like that?"
"Well, you're in a wheelchair. So I'd have to do that for you too." Juel said, still full of mirth. Teri and Kylie laughed at his expense.
Olasie finally decided to shift the conversation to something a bit more productive. "So what're we looking at? That the kodiak's floor?" She pointed at the two vid screens.
"Yup." Juel nodded before driving the car around in a small circle so everyone could get a bearing on the car's surroundings.
"Hey, Garrus." Joker called from Garrus' omni-tool, "A hundred credits says it's the ship from Horizon. What say you?"
The turian rose his arm so he could see Joker's face.
"A hundred it's the one from Ullipses instead." Garrus replied.
"Alright," Joker shrugged, "I'll put money on that."
Tali frowned. "Really taking bets on what's the worst nightmare we've faced?"
"Keeps the mood light." Garrus decided to say with a grim face.
Her stare lingered longer than necessary to put the message across that she didn't necessarily approve of that. She was about to say something too but decided against it. Them potentially revisiting the grave where damn near half the original Normandy died wasn't something that she ever wanted to rehash unless it involved mourning. A lot of good people died on their old home. The galaxy had been an emptier place without them since then.
"So what happens now?" Teri asked. John turned around to face her.
"We send the kodiak and wait. If EDI finds an opening to enter their ship, we'll offload the mechs while the rovers Tali and Juel control act as scouts. Doc, want to finish for me?"
"EDI to search for computer." Mordin continued for Shepard, "Grab any and all data. Collect biological samples if possible. Leave."
"That..." Kylie bit her tongue, "sounds too easy."
"Am hopeful." Mordin offered. "But prepared for failure."
"And the plan if this doesn't fall through?"
Several pairs of eyes fall on John. Seeing as how there wasn't a way for him to dodge the question, he answered it.
"...We go in ourselves and bring with us a quantum transponder in case they do a random jump." John answered, face unreadable, "Hopefully it won't come to that."
John knew that was a lot for them to digest. He could see it on their faces, the quarians included. He hated and dreaded the idea of going there himself. But they needed a plan B if this went south. TIM and Miranda were right; it was the best shot they got in figuring out how to stop the collectors.
But it wasn't him that had come up with that plan. It was Miranda's. He had made it very clear to her after their brief meeting that deploying on that ship was only postponing an imminent suicide. Boarding that meant being at the total mercy of the collectors. Their experience so far made it abundantly clear that they lacked even a modicum of compassion for anything, save for kidnapping people away from their homes.
Kylie found herself rubbing her arm. "Yeah. Here's to hoping."
"Hey now, give EDI some faith." Joker said, still listening in on their conversation from Garrus' omni-tool. "Nothing's gone wrong just yet."
"You're right. EDI's proven herself to be very valuable," John agreed, "No one's writing her out."
"If anyone can get it done, it's her."
"Joker, you were literally complaining about her to me not two days ago." Tali said, crossing her legs and giving him an unimpressed look.
"Yeah, she's definitely a helicopter mom. But you still have to love her."
There was a lilt in her voice. "Mm."
The aimless conversations between them all went on for another fifteen minutes until EDI announced a ship-wide alert.
"Attention. Attention. Cargo bay personnel: please vacate the launch space and stand behind the yellow line."
Anyone standing on the wrong end of the area did as they were instructed. EDI, after seeing as how everyone was now safe behind the line, brought the newly installed atmospheric barriers online before opening up the Normandy to the void of space.
John and the others watch the kodiak slowly glide away and disappear into blackness.
"Shuttle away. ETA, sixteen minutes." EDI informed over the intercom.
The Normandy's cargo bay doors closed and the barriers powered down.
"Alright. Kodiak feeds are now active. You can view them from your OTs." Joker told everyone.
John brought up his omni-tool to log in to the feed. The quarians and Garrus did the same.
Ten or so minutes passed before the lift brought down more people. Some from the Cerberus detachment, others from John's personal ground team. Of them included Kasumi, Zaeed, and Samara.
"Over here if you're looking to see what's going on." John said to them.
"Right-o." Zaeed took a spot behind Garrus. Kasumi and Samara stood next to the quarians.
"Hell, that's smart. Who thought of that?" Zaeed pointed at the screen where one of the radio controlled scouts was facing the other.
"We did." Juel said, pointing at himself and Tali.
"Figures." Zaeed cracked a smile. But the smile waned when they started to see the wrecked remains of the turian task force as the kodiak approached them. If you looked closely, you could see turian bodies suspended in vacuum.
Lifeless.
And unmoving.
The small talk died as they caught on to what they were seeing.
"Joker," Garrus spoke quietly, "Are there any survivors? Anything that looks like an escape pod?"
"Negative. I'm not seeing anything. No pings. Nothing but nominal noise. EDI will start a visual scan, but don't keep your fingers crossed."
Garrus' mandibles closed tightly against his mouth. "Thanks, Joker."
"Didn't even stand a chance." John murmured, studying the ships as they passed by in the feed.
"We didn't either the first time around." Joker reminded.
"We lasted longer than they did." Tali breathed.
The ships disappeared from view, but the ambiance remained quiet. The collector ship, what was once just a blip on the screen, had now crept steadily on the camera until they were in full view of the cruiser.
"EDI's looking for a drop point. Stand-by."
Tali leaned in, closer to John's omni-tool so she could see herself as they waited. John, having been completely transfixed on the screen, hadn't noticed her face hovering right next to his.
"TIM's intel's been pretty accurate so far," Joker said when the damage came into view, "She took a hit, alright."
The collector ship's wound slowly bled dust and debris with fragments tumbling endlessly in place.
The kodiak slowed its speed.
Time ticked by and Tali's little heart started to race at the idea that this might actually be the same ship that nearly killed them all on Ullipses.
Then she saw it. The same docking port they had entered two years ago. She clutched her neck at the dreadful realization and forgot to breathe.
"...Christ." Joker murmured, "This is the same ship, Garrus. It's the same god damn ship."
John put a fist over his mouth and furrowed his brows darkly without saying anything. Dead silence filled the air for a very heavy and long moment.
"You owe me credits." Garrus croaked.
"Approaching entry point. Ms. Zorah and Mr. Kaan, please prepare the scouts for drop-off."
"Got it, EDI." Juel cleared his throat and swallowed his nerves and toyed with the controller in his hands.
The kodiak slowly banked toward the entry-way and approached. Watching this all unfold, even if it was only through a camera, was opening up a whole box of raw emotions Tali had almost forgotten about. The memory of their assault against the collectors enshrined her eyes with visions so exhaustive in detail, it made her want to choke. This nightmare, this black memory, the one she had fought so hard to forget and bury, was once again, right on her heels. Essentially licking her boots.
The tears she had spilled during their desperate rescue two years ago suddenly felt fresh. The depth of hopelessness that had drowned her came back to taunt her little heart. She remembered sitting in the Mako's passenger seat minutes before their strike against the compound on Ullipses. She remembered Garrus, right there next to her, doing his best to help console the fear they had all felt.
She remembered leaving Garrus and almost losing Liara and Wrex. She remembered when they flew up in the collector gunship before crashing inside.
It was one barely maintained success after another. Looking back on it, it made her wonder, even if it was for a fleeting second, that maybe it was, in the truest sense, a miracle.
Miracles were a suspension of the natural laws that governed the universe. To do what they did, just the four of them, certainly felt like a suspension of those laws. But it all still came crashing down on them. Half the original crew succumbed to the collector onslaught, John included.
He died floating out in the voidness of space. But here he was. Alive and living again.
She blinked away the thoughts that blotted her eyes to regain her composure and focus. Then she found herself staring at him as she chewed on her tongue.
Second chances weren't supposed to exist like this.
But here they were, back and bigger than ever. She survived Ullipses and John had come back from the dead with a new Normandy and friends to boot.
Irony rained on them often.
The kodiak finally entered the hole and landed. Shortly after, the cabin door opened and the mechs stood. Tali and Juel inched their RC cars forward out of the kodiak and began to survey the area.
"Look." Garrus said, pointing at the corner of Tali's screen, "See that? That's where we lost our wings. There's still debris littered around."
"That might mean our crash is still where we left it." Tali uttered.
"We'll see won't we?"
"Can't believe this passes for a ship." Olasie said, casting a long glare at the feed, "And they don't pick up after anything."
"Makes our job easy." Garrus intoned.
The mechs form up into a column and begin moving. Tali and Juel continued on.
John stood up, stretched his legs, and crossed his arms over his chest. "If this all looks familiar, you need to push up, find the crash site, and jog your memory. If EDI can find the same computer you did, then that just might cut this op time in half.
"Right." Tali nodded slowly.
"I'll follow you, Tali," Juel said.
"Let's go then. Full stick."
Their little radio controlled trucks dug for purchase and made their way deeper into the low lit canal.
ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ
ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ
The crowd around Tali and Juel grew two sizes. Anyone not called to quarters was down here watching. Tali was on the edge of her seat now, wondering, just as everyone else was, where the collectors were. Nowhere to be found, their pace deeper into the caves remained steady.
This was how it happened last time, Tali recalled. And that was after them crashing.
"I think we're almost there." Tali said. The little RC car jumped and jostled over the rocks and gravel and finally came to a stand-still when they saw it.
The crashed gunship. The very same one Garrus had used to launch them here.
Aside from the dust that had settled on all the warped metal, the remains looked the same as they had left it years ago.
"Unreal." Garrus stared, eyes transfixed, "Can't believe we're seeing this again."
"Wonder what Wrex or Liara would be thinking if they saw this right now." Tali whispered.
The turian couldn't bring himself to sit any longer, so he stood. "Don't know. But I'll take a screenshot to show them what we've been up to. I think you're almost there to the computer. Just a little further."
"EDI, they've almost reached the objective. Can you double-time it?"
"Yes, Commander. I will begin running."
Tali's nerves began to flare, so she started bouncing her leg. Sweat lined her brow and her fingers twitched. A lot was riding on this. If this didn't work, they risked having to go there in person.
She really didn't want to do that.
"We almost got this." John said, staring at Tali for all of a second, "If we actually pull this off, this might be the easiest op we'll have ever done."
Olasie found herself scratching her head. Given how reserved John, Tali, and the rest of the original Normandy crew were about boarding their ship, she was expecting a bigger fight, especially if their experience on Horizon was anything to go off of. "About the opposite of what we were expecting, right?"
Tali turned around to face her. "We haven't finished yet, Olasie."
"We're pretty close to usurping an enemy with nothing but toys, mechs, and duct tape." Juel almost scoffed. "Really weird."
The mechs had almost caught up.
"We go through here." Tali pointed at the screen, "That leads us to the center of the ship. Then we go down another tunnel and it should be right there to our right."
"Got it."
"Just keep following me."
"Okay."
They exited the tunnel and got a moment to stare out at the hollow vastness that was the collector ship. As far as the camera could see, were pods. Tali and the others had no doubt that many had been filled now.
They were empty the last time. Save for the few that had been used to kidnap the original crew.
"Are those what I think they are?" One of the Cerberus marines in the group asked.
"Yeah. It is." Another answered.
"Keep moving."
"EDI, you keeping up?"
"Yes, Commander."
"Right here. Through there." Tali took a right into the tunnel, breathing deeply, "Just around this corner."
Juel followed without saying anything.
"Stop," Tali put on the brakes and the little car skidded to a halt, "We're here."
"Okay." Juel drove past her, "I'm going to keep going then so we can keep a camera on whatever's further down here."
Tali nodded. "Good idea."
"The mechs will arrive momentarily," EDI informed, "stand-by."
"Okay, but hurry." John expressed, frowning while he did so, "We don't know how long we have."
The mechs arrived and took up positions to protect the one that would be interfacing with the computer. Tali oriented the camera on her little RC car so she could stare at the console she herself had once touched and worked with. It was absolutely surreal seeing it all again, to say the least.
She stood there at one point. Literally right there. On that dirty little patch of dirt and mud, typing away, crying and screaming to herself internally.
It felt so raw, remembering it again. She felt a lump in her throat and her breaths were coming up short. Usually, she could put up with it. But this time it was different. It was reminding her of the very worst parts of her life. If you viewed her burnt collection of memories from her time on Ullipses like an interlinked chain, you'd realize that jingling a link would only have the others respond in kind.
"...I need to take a break." Tali stood up and set the controller down.
Juel looked up at her with concern. "You alright?"
"Just a headache." She lied. She inhaled sharply and walked away from the claustrophobic crowd and into the elevator so she could distance herself from the commotion.
Naturally, John followed. When he entered, he saw her slink into a corner so she could bring her knees up to her head and bury her face with folded arms.
He punched the button to have the doors close.
"You really having a headache?"
"About to." Tali sighed, closing her eyes and massaging her temples as best she could. The helmet made it difficult to do.
"Do you want to go to our room?"
"No..." She shook her head, "It's okay. I just—...I need a moment."
He stared at her sadly. "...Having flashbacks?"
"Like you wouldn't believe." Tali rasped, a tear nearly forming in an eye, "Keelah John. I'm not even there and I'm losing my mind."
He got down to her at eye level by balancing on the balls of his feet. "Hey. You're not losing your mind."
"Yes. Yes, I am. You don't understand," She said, a slight sniffle coming up, "I feel like I'm drowning. I feel like... like I'm there all over again."
He decided to sit down next to her.
"I just—" She stared at the ceiling to keep these damn tears from falling out of her eyes, "Hell, John. I just don't think I'm strong enough for this sometimes."
John studied the wall across from them with a near unreadable expression. Tali didn't notice because her head had still been buried under her arms and knees.
"Don't forget all of the things that you were strong enough for, Tali. After everything we've done, this kind of work should be a walk in the park for you."
"I know. I—" Her shoulders drooped and she couldn't finish what she was about to say anymore. "I guess it's because it reminds me too much of losing you."
Her voice barely came through and it struck John's heart with a crunch of guilt and anguish all balled up into one. He was, again, reminded of how much his life meant to her. The idea of putting her through something like that again made him feel like he was suddenly trying to breathe through mud.
There was a sniffle from Tali before silence accompanied them. Neither of them spoke and they didn't face each other. His expression remained stoic for the seconds that followed.
Then he reached for her hand and brought it into his own.
"You remember Virmire?" He said, eyes still held firmly forward, "Before the assault?"
She looked up and stared at him.
"The water that day was so beautiful." His eyes grew wary and they faltered as he lost himself in his memory, "Just you and I on that peaceful quiet beach. I asked you how you felt and you told me you were scared."
She kept listening.
"I was scared too." He ran a thumb over the top of her hand, mind full of focus, "Still am. Probably more scared now than when we dealt with Saren. But I said we would make it through this together. That hasn't changed much, Tali. I've been making that my mission since day one. Technically, I haven't broken it."
He squeezed her hand tightly. "Just... don't forget you were strong enough for that. Or for everything else we've dealt with. The collectors caught us off guard with more than just our pants down. It happened. But it won't happen again."
"You know you can't promise that." Tali murmured.
"Look at me."
She looked him in the eye.
"It won't happen again."
"And why's that?" Tali pressed him with her frown.
"You leave that to me, Tals." John assured, putting an arm around her, "Just trust me. You trust me?"
"Yes."
"What was that?" He cupped an ear.
"I said yes."
"Ah. Good."
She smiled through the two tears that finally fell down her cheeks.
"You are such a bosh'tet."
"I know." He gave her a grin. "Want me to take my turn now? With the RC car?"
"Yeah." There was a faint nod from her, "Could you?"
"I can do that."
She stood up and helped him up as well.
"You gonna be okay?"
"I'll be fine." She paused to puff up her chest, "I just need to breathe. That's all."
"Good." He gave the top of her hand a long kiss. "Let's get back out there."
"Okay." She whispered.
John stopped at the elevator panel and opened the doors to let them out. As soon as they passed through the threshold, Juel caught them from the corner of his eye and ushered them back over.
"You're going to have to put that headache on hold, Tali. I just spotted a bunch of collectors massing at the end of the tunnel and it looks like they're about ready to push EDI's position."
"Shame," Mordin said sadly, "Was hoping for time to collect samples."
"I'm sorry, Dr. Solus." EDI apologized, "I do not believe that is an option any longer."
"Is fine." Mordin shrugged, "Was fully prepared to not receive anything."
"I'll take it from here." John took the controller and sat down, "What's your status, EDI?"
"I am still interfacing with the console. This should not take long."
As EDI spoke, the five mechs spread out and prepared their positions. Watching the mechs move simultaneously and in tandem with one another was bizarre, to say the least. Maybe it was a given that they were being controlled by the most advanced AI in the galaxy, aside from the geth, but it still didn't shake that weirdness factor. LOKIs were known to be stupid. Lacking basic autonomy and intelligence was intended in their design. Seeing them work so skillfully was off-putting, even if it meant saving them from having to step foot on that ship.
"I will prepare to engage." EDI told John, "This won't take much longer."
Knowing that they couldn't do anything else to really help EDI at this point, they sat and waited.
"Hey," Came Joker's voice over Garrus' omni-tool, "You guys want live feeds of EDI's mechs?"
"Patch it through to us." John ordered.
"Roger that. Check your OTs. New channels are up. One through six. Take your pick."
Several in the group bring up their omni-tools to watch.
"Engage at your discretion, EDI." John intoned.
"Acknowledged, Commander."
Three mechs take a knee and retrieve fragmentation grenades from their bandoliers. The last two remain standing to maintain overwatch.
Shadows crawled along the walls at the end of the tunnel. Shortly thereafter, the collectors came in a loose formation with their rifles raised and trained on EDI's position.
Juel frowned and shoved his car somewhere under an alcove. He wanted to keep his RC car as a souvenir. Not watch it get fragged by EDI's grenades.
Like a line of catapults, EDI cooked her frags and tossed them in steady succession. The AI's timing was so perfect, the grenades didn't even hit the ground before they flung out their explosive ordnance, smearing the advancing bugs with a ground pounding shockwave and hot shrapnel.
John rose a brow and watched EDI's mechs mop up whatever had survived the explosions with a carefully orchestrated game of what John could only call whack-a-mole. In a relentless cyclic volley, EDI's mechs would take turns peeking from cover and firing only one round, concentrating only upon one target. It took EDI about eight seconds to utterly decimate the opposition.
"Holy Christ, EDI's a goddamn menace." Zaeed grumbled.
"EDI," Juel exclaimed, "There's more. You've got thirty plus converging on your position. Get ready. They're massing at the entrance now."
"Acknowledged. Please egress your scouts to the designated checkpoint and maintain a watch on the rear. We will be leaving in a moment."
Juel didn't have to be told twice. His little electric truck ran away as fast as it could. John followed when Juel's truck passed by his own.
The collectors weren't going to fall for EDI's trick again. In a much more calculated fashion, they pushed forward in a much looser formation and charged. The resulting exchange of fire proved to be a lot more difficult for EDI to handle, given their overwhelming numbers. It was clear to EDI at this point that she was only prolonging the firefight. She needed to get out now if she wanted the mechs, scouts, and kodiak to survive.
Luckily, she just about finished scouring everything she could from the computer. Most of the data she managed to procure was undecipherable right now. But the data she did understand told her enough to know that the collectors had essentially baited them in the hopes that they'd finally end the thorn that'd been molesting their activities.
There were other things here that had EDI raising a lot of questions. Namely information regarding who and what the collectors were. She also learned the distress signal that led them here had been faked. Every military in the galaxy had their own mixed excitations and algorithms for encrypting data over CL. This signal did not, in any way whatsoever, match with any protocol the turian hierarchy used. It was an obvious fake. TIM could spot fakes and he forwarded this to them himself.
That meant TIM knew that the signal had been fabricated. It also meant The Illusive Man purposefully misled the Normandy's leadership into coming here to try and infiltrate their ship.
Interesting.
"Commander, I am done. Data mining is complete. I will disengage and exfiltrate. Stand-by."
EDI threw whatever remained of her grenades, planted her claymores toward the growing mass of bugs, and initiated the most textbook-like fashion of bounding overwatch all the way out of the tunnel.
There were thirty giving chase and the number was growing.
"Please proceed to the kodiak and board." EDI requested.
The claymores detonated, cloaking the advancing collectors in a super-sonic field of flying metal. Many of them lost limbs. Those that didn't lose legs ambled forward.
"Got it." Juel almost mumbled, eyes entrenched with focus on the ground ahead of his truck, "Driving to safety."
Collector soldiers fly in from above and two channels immediately went black.
"Mechs four and six, lost. Mech five has received chest cavity damage. Maintaining withdrawal."
The mechs, despite how desperate the situation was becoming for them, showed no signs breaking their formation. EDI had them committed now, robot or not.
"Mech two, lost." EDI informed as the LOKIs passed by the crashed aircraft, "I am almost there."
Juel and John, by now, had the RC cars climb into the kodiak's cabin.
"EDI, we're in. It's all you now."
"Understood."
EDI's remaining three mechs stretch out into a line, walk backward, and begin dumping rounds down range in succession for a sustained base of fire at the tunnel's bend. Tali noticed six collectors enter her Killzone and disappear under the flecks of rock and puffs of dust that rose from her suppressive fire.
At EDI's third mag dump, the mechs, one by one, break into a full retreat and beeline it to the kodiak.
The collectors were quick to follow and even quicker to return fire.
Tracers zipped by them as they ran. Suddenly, the first mech, the one who'd interfaced with the computer earlier, had its knee blown out. It fell face first onto the ground before immediately uprighting itself and returning fire in a long sweeping motion. Mech three reached for the trauma handle at the base of mech one's neck and dragged it the last eight meters to the safety of the kodiak's cabin.
"We are clear," EDI spoke with a level of guarded urgency, "The kodiak is leaving."
Small arms fire continued to pepper the kodiak's hull as they left. Soon, the pings stopped entirely and they were left with a low hum of cabin silence.
Zaeed crossed his arms and nodded. "That was one hell of a fight. Very entertaining."
Several nodded their heads in agreement.
Juel set his controller down and blinked. "Did we really just win?"
"We'll call it a win when the kodiak and Normandy have jumped the system." John cautioned.
"Mm. That's fair."
Shepard cleared his throat. "Good job, EDI. Hope you found something worthwhile for all this trouble."
"I believe I have. I will continue to extrapolate and study the captured data." EDI answered, "The kodiak is initiating FTL jump. We have done it, Commander."
"That's a wrap, people." John ran a hand through his short hair and stood up, "We just ousted the collectors with a bunch of LOKIs and toy trucks. Christ in Hell."
He put a hand on Tali's shoulder and gave it a rough pat. "We did it, Tals."
She smiled at him. "I know."
"Alright, Commander." Joker said, nodding with a fat grin, "Waypoint set. Kodiak is away. We'll jump to regroup with the cargo in a moment."
Jeff's voice echoed through the PA shortly after. "Attention. Attention. Declaration to FTL in five minutes."
The crowd started to disperse as they headed to the elevator. In a few short minutes, only John, Garrus, and the quarians were left.
"If only every op could go as smoothly as that." Garrus started, coiling up cables as they all helped each other put away all of the equipment, "Give EDI enough RAM, and she could control an army."
Olasie smacked her lips and shook her head as she hoisted the screen up back into its case with Juel. "Say that any louder and EDI might do just that. Do the geth not remind you of anything? Just look where that got us."
"Yeah, Garrus." Juel added, "Learn from our mistakes, will you?"
He rose his hands in mock surrender. "Alright. Sorry."
Kylie shrugged. "Well. She pretty much controlled an army on Horizon. So, she could probably do it now if she really wanted to."
"She couldn't make it very far until we'd unplug her." John assured, "Too many fail-safes and shackles for that to happen."
"Sure. But we said the same thing about the geth too, didn't we?"
John knew she made a good point. And to a larger extent, he agreed with her.
"I share your reservations, Kylie. But right now, she's too valuable an asset."
"Oh, we agree." Olasie mollified for Kylie, "We just want to make sure no one gets too complacent with her."
"Honestly, I'm a lot more liberal with it, Shepard. I think EDI was and is a great idea."
"She was literally made by terrorists." Tali spat.
"Terrorist or not, she saved lives on Horizon and saved us from having to deploy on that forsaken ship. I'm trying to count my blessings here."
"Keep counting them, Juel," Tali pointed at him, "She could turn into a burden before you can finish counting the number of times she helped on your fingers."
"It'd be a good time to have ten of them then, wouldn't it?" Juel said sarcastically, swaying a hand toward John and his hands.
John stared at his hands while Tali dismissed his jab and helped Garrus straighten out the last of the longer cords.
"Commander," EDI called over the PA, "I am requesting that we conduct an immediate debriefing in the conference room."
"I'll be right there, EDI. Have Miranda meet me there."
"Yes, commander."
John took his mug into his hands with its luke-warm coffee. "Gotta go. See you guys around. Don't fret too much about the AI, okay?"
"We won't." Olasie drawled, readjusting Talukh elsewhere so they could make room to stow away the gear, "We promise."
"Keep us in the loop, will you?"
"Can do, Garrus."
Tali gave John a little wave. "See you later."
He waved to them all, gave Tali a small nod, and entered the lift.
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Miranda was already there, arms crossed and waiting for John.
"You ready?"
"I am." Miranda said plainly.
"Alright, EDI. What do you have for us?"
"The collector ship initiated FTL and has left. I believe their intention upon deployment was to lure and trap the Normandy's boarding element. Readouts confirm they were reinitiating drive systems and preparing their core for an FTL jump only minutes after landing."
"How much time elapsed between you boarding the kodiak to leave and them jumping?"
"Forty-two seconds."
He put his hands on his hips and didn't hide the surprise on his face. "I don't think I can put into words how thankful I am from what you saved us from, EDI. We would have lost a lot of people today. Maybe even all of them."
"You are welcome, Commander. Anything to ensure the safety of the crew."
He acknowledged her with a gracious nod. "So what did you find in the data?"
"Several things. Among them including information that will help us navigate through the Omega Four Relay."
"That's fantastic news."
"However, I have learned that the distress signal was fabricated by the collectors. The cryptography and spread-spectrum frequency match with their turian counterparts. But the encryption is corrupted. This indicates that it could not have been possible for the Illusive Man to believe this signal to be genuine."
John scratched his face thoughtfully as he tried to keep up. "How so?"
"I found the anomaly with Cerberus' analytical propriety. Propriety The Illusive Man himself had written."
John's brow furrowed and he set his mug down carefully on the table. He was quiet for a sum of seconds as the gears turned in his head.
"Are you telling me he tried leading us into a trap?"
"I cannot provide you with a definitive answer."
"There must've been a reason for why he did this." Miranda offered, "He knows how much is riding on the Normandy."
"How hard could it be to tell us what's going on?" John scoffed angrily, "'Shepard: This might be a trap.'"
"He must have had his reasons. He always does."
"I somehow doubt that."
"You shouldn't."
He pointed at her fiercely. "Miranda, you don't even know the guy's real name. There's not a person in this galaxy, including you, that understands what his motivations are."
Miranda gave him a cold stare. "To further humanity."
"Oh, Jesus Christ. That's just masquerading intent." John rose his hands up as if he were holding TIM's grand scheme in his hands, "Don't give me that crap about his guise of 'furthering humanity'. I see through it. Garrus sees through it. Tali sees through it. Samara sees through it. Zaeed. Zaeed sees through it. He wants more power. But the reapers and collectors are getting in the way of that."
"Even if that were true, what he is and what he says he wants aren't mutually exclusive from each other. It's possible to be both. Ultimately, that shouldn't matter."
"Then you admit that he acts like that then. Yes or no."
"Shepard, I can't answer that."
"It's a yes, Miranda. The answer is yes."
"He's done a lot of good for the galaxy." Miranda gave him a serious, but sincere, look. "For every bad turn Cerberus has made, they've righted a dozen wrongs. You must recognize that.
"Participating in humanitarian efforts doesn't earn you a pass. No one's going to care about you volunteering at the soup kitchen today if you kill people tomorrow."
Miranda took a step back and stared at her feet for a second. "I fully admit that Cerberus has made bad mistakes."
"More than just bad mistakes. Like killing quarians on their flotilla. Or killing Admiral Kahoku. Experimenting on Rachni. Dicking around with the Thorian's spawn."
"Shepard—"
He cut her off with a sneer. "—What about everything Jack has become? Since we're here, might as well bring up Akuze then too."
And right here, he had just reminded himself again of why he hated Cerberus. After all of the shit they pulled, it was a surprise he'd trust them as much as he did, goodwill or not. Now he was questioning if this campaign they were running against the collectors really was a well-intended effort. Sure, it might've been about stopping the freakish bugs, but what was the end goal here? What did TIM really want? Because, from where John was standing, it was starting to look like saving people was only on the periphery of a larger, more fucked up, picture.
He just listed six of Cerberus' atrocious activities right off the top of his head. One of them was an experiment he himself had been in. Watching your pals melt in maw acid wasn't something you just forgot about. It enraged him.
John brought down his fist and a resounding crack fragmented the conference table's glass accent. "Cerberus' sick addiction to subverting science is disgusting. One day you're going to look back and realize that for all the good you might've done, you were still on the wrong side of history."
She was quiet, but her stare didn't falter.
"Those were all atrocities, John. I recognize that." Miranda's voice was soft for once, "I can't speak for whatever happened on the quarian flotilla. But—"
He cut her off again by raising his hand and turning his head away. "Spare me the damn wordplay. You're just going to piss me off more. We almost put real lives on the line today, Miranda. And if we had, we would have lost most of them. Probably all of them; if not from a firefight, a random system jump. If I'm going to risk your life, my life, and the life of this crew, Illusive Man damn well better give me everything he's got to make sure we all make it out. We are very fortunate things went the way they did."
Miranda closed her mouth and didn't speak.
John breathed. "Sorry, EDI." He kept his stare leveled at the brunette across from him, "Please. Continue the debriefing."
"The collectors were also running baseline genetic comparisons between their species and humanity."
"Why would they do that?"
"I cannot determine what their motivations were. All I have are the preliminary results and they reveal something remarkable. A quad strand genetic structure identical to traces collected from ancient ruins. Only one race is known to have this structure: The protheans."
His mouth went slightly agape, his anger against Cerberus completely forgotten.
"...You're kidding me." He put a hand up to his forehead as he digested the information, "So the protheans never went extinct. And this is what happens if the reapers win."
John stared at the web of cracks in the table's glass and exhaled. "Is there anything else, EDI?"
"Insofar, no. We will be entering FTL shortly to rendezvous with the kodiak. I will advise you of more data as it becomes available."
"Forward your findings to Mordin. Prepare a file for the crew to read. You've been instrumental in helping us. Thank you."
"Logging you out, Shepard."
He gently took his cup and rubbed the stubble that'd been growing on his cheeks and chin.
"Miranda," John spoke softly, "Walk with me."
She did as she was ordered as they exited the conference room.
"I lost my patience, but I'm not going to apologize for that. Maybe TIM really is who he says he is. I don't know. Our exchanges have been pleasant so far. Which means I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt and let him explain himself. And whatever his answer might be, I'll remain cordial."
They went to the lift and wait for it to admit them both.
"But, in saying that, I want you to recognize something: me working with Cerberus is not me accepting, rationalizing, or forgiving them of their crimes against humanity and beyond."
The elevator opened and they entered.
He pressed the button to have it bring them down to the crew deck so she could go back to her office.
"I respect you, Miranda. But do not look me in the eye, tell me the ends justify the means, and in the same breath, defend Cerberus of their wrongdoing. It will not work."
The lift descended and there was stillness between them.
"Have I made myself well understood?"
Miranda placed her hands behind her back. "Yes, Commander."
They arrived.
"You're dismissed, Lawson."
"Aye, sir."
She exited and he was left alone. The lift then began its ascent back to CIC.
He closed his eyes, crossed an arm over his chest, and rubbed his eyes with a pointer and thumb. "What a day."
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Later that night.
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John rinsed his toothbrush and dropped it into its holder. Staring at himself in the mirror, he tried to search for the faint glow from the surgical scars that sat under his skin.
He couldn't find any. At least, not anymore. Dr. Wilson told him that would be the case eventually. He was glad about that. Made him feel more like himself. More like a plain old human. Not being reminded that he shared the same qualities as a night-light helped to hide what he really was underneath. Though, doing a simple palpation would net you the unmistakable texture of metal and screws under skin and muscle. Metal plates and... maybe even a few wires.
He'd been thinking a lot about the events that had transpired today. The one that plagued him the most would have to be The Illusive Man purposefully withholding information about the collectors attempting to lure the Normandy into a trap. One thing led to another, and eventually, he found himself questioning his own existence over whether or not he was even really the original John Shepard.
He still hadn't brought it up with TIM. Hell, he hadn't even brought it up with Tali yet. Maybe it was a good time to now.
"Tali?" He grimaced.
"Yes?" She set her tablet down on the sheets since she was relaxing on their bed.
"Could you come here for a second?"
"You okay?"
"Yeah. Just want your opinion on something."
She came walking in wearing her pjs and slippers.
"What's up?"
He turned to face her, his eyes contemplative and... kind of sad. He was about to open his mouth and tell her about his debriefing with EDI and Miranda, but he found himself holding his tongue. He realized that the last thing she needed was to be worried about something like that right before they went to sleep. He'd tell her tomorrow. So he thought of the second best thing to tell her instead without missing a beat.
"...You still think I'm me, right?"
She gave him a worried face. "Of course."
He looked in the mirror, even closer than before, and searched his skin for something he couldn't even put a name or detail to. "Sometimes I just... wonder. What if I'm a robot that thinks I'm the real Commander Shepard and just... pretend to be him."
"I'd say introspecting about it says enough."
"You think?"
"Yes."
She wrapped her arms around him from behind and it made him sigh.
He carefully brought her hand into his.
"Here. Feel this." He pushed her pointer into his shoulder until he knew she felt metal underneath. "Tali. It's like that everywhere. Half of me is a machine."
"We're all machines, John. What does it matter, so long as you're still you?"
He looked unconvinced.
She kept her grasp on him. "What made you think about this all of a sudden?"
"I think about it all the time." He admitted, "I just don't bring it up."
"Well, you should."
"I'd talk your ear off." John gave her a tired smile.
"That's okay." She whispered quietly into his ear.
He yawned and kissed the top of her hand where it still sat, on his bare shoulder. Doing something so natural only reinforced what she already knew. This was John, just as she remembered it. He acted the same. Talked the same. Breathed the same. And asked questions she had expected him to.
"Come to bed."
She kissed his cheek, caressed his arm lovingly, and left the bathroom with him following closely.
She set her tablet on her nightstand, tossed the blanket aside, kicked off her slippers, and snuggled herself under the comforter.
As he turned off his light, he nestled himself in the bed and listened to the Normandy's quiet hum.
"I love you."
"Love you too." She murmured, smiling at him.
Soon enough, they were lost in their snores and sleep.