Shepard, from the engineering deck, stood with his arms crossed and shoulder against the glass. Just below, he watched the Gaia's crew mingle about with the Normandy's as they offloaded supplies. With a flat and mildly aloof look, he stared, but barely paid any attention to the activity below.
To the surprise of many, the Gaia was three days early. Due in no small part to the meeting he'd had with the Illusive man yesterday night to bring him up to speed about Admiral Hackett's report of a person of value gone missing in the reaches of batarian space.
"How was your coffee?" Came Tali's voice from behind him. He put on a smile before turning around to hide away his unease.
"It was great. Thank you. It's been unusually consistent. Writing down a recipe maybe?"
"Ha. No. Just eyeballing it every time." She said happily.
"Ah. Well, it's perfect."
"Good." She smiled and took a spot next to him to see what he watching.
"How's work today?"
"Busy work. Nothing I can't manage. You?"
"Same stuff. Different day." John answered honestly.
Tali could see it in his eyes the attempt he was making to alienate both himself and her from his feelings. It rarely worked. The look on her face, even if he couldn't see it right away, turned soft.
"Something bothering you?"
He scoffed at himself. Try all he wanted, his facades rarely could keep up with her.
"Yeah." He admitted, his smile waning, "Just worried. Don't think we've ever tried pulling someone out of jail before."
"Yeah," She saw Juel walk into a freight container to help offload gear, "This is going to be..." She couldn't find the right words to say, so she picked the next best ones. "—It's definitely going to be different than what we're used to."
"It's out in the boonies, at least." John said in some meager attempt to relieve himself, "Old spy images from the Alliance back some twenty years ago doesn't show much development out there. No reason to think it's changed much since then."
"We'll see, won't we?" She gave him a gentle pat on the arm.
John breathed in and sighed. "Ready to head down and grab our stuff?"
"Yes."
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"Probably the best part of being here." Skyler said merrily, holding his box of bountiful goodies. His eyes stayed glued to his stuff until a brunette with curly hair and soft features passed by them.
"You ever notice how many beautiful women the Gaia's got?" Skyler said, his stare lingering on her for only a moment, "Illusive man's got a good eye for 'em."
"I know right? It's always great to see the Gaia dock. All that eye candy, right?"
Beautiful woman already forgotten, Skyler leaned in to see if he could see whatever was inside Foley's box. "What'd you get, Greg?"
Foley peered inside his barely closed box of snacks and gave him a grin. "Erhm. Gummy bears. Only the green ones. Cheetos and chocolate. Other stuff."
"Christ Greg. Just the gree—...Are you pregnant?"
"I don't know. Should probably get an ultrasound."
"Yeah. Could always just piss on a stick too."
Greg gave him a squint. "You're retarded."
They passed by Kasumi busily rummaging through the bottom shelf of their freight container. Pausing, she eventually stood up with a little white box in her hands and a warped look on her face.
There, as clear as day, was a human hand floating about inside.
"Yo. This what I think it is?" She said to grab Jacob's attention.
Jacob, with his back facing her, turned around to see what she was talking about. He immediately frowned. "Yes. That's… Zaeed's, Kasumi."
She gave it a gentle shake and watched it bounce around. "Neat."
"What's that?" Grunt asked from the entrance of the container, "Pass it here. I want to see."
Kasumi tossed the box and the krogan caught it.
"Too many fingers." He intoned, the blue glow reflecting off his eyes and face. He tossed it back to her.
"Uh, I don't want it." She tossed it back.
"Knock that shit off, you cunts." Zaeed growled, yanking the box from Grunt's hands, "Stop fuckin' with my hand."
Grunt shrugged. "Sorry."
"When you getting that put on?" Jacob asked, hoping to grab the man's attention away from the other two.
"Today. In an hour. I'll be right as rain in a week."
"That's good to hear. Pretty hard to hold a rifle with only one hand."
Zaeed leaned up against a shelf and stared Jacob straight in the eye. "So, be straight with me. Gaia's here early. What gives?"
"So you can have your hand back."
"Aw, cut the shit." Zaeed grinned, "Shepard's been high-browed all morning. Something's up."
Jacob gave a sideways glance at Kasumi to see if she was listening in.
She was.
"Alliance sent the Commander a message. We're headed to the Bahak system for a mission."
"That's batarian territory." Zaeed mused with a grumble, "Shite. Another op so soon? Feels like there's one every goddamn week. Why haven't we been briefed? How life altering will the mission be this time?"
"Don't know." Jacob cast his glance back to his box of things, "Miranda knows more. And I think participation is by request only. No volunteers for this one."
The crippled mercenary paused to mull it all over for a second or so before turning back around and hobbling off.
"He's not much for hellos and goodbyes is he?" Kasumi said.
Jacob walked out himself and shook his head. "Nope."
Kasumi scanned the room with her peeping eyes until she found a box with the Commander's name scribbled on it. Judging by the proportions alone, it looked like a rifle case.
"Hey Kasumi." John greeted, entering into the container with Tali just right behind, "How are you? Wrist doing better?"
She gave John a smile. "Much, actually. Feels a little loose sometimes, but it'll probably pass." She gave Tali a smile next. "Hi, Tali. Beautiful as ever, hun."
"Thanks, Kasumi." Tali said. "Good to see you're doing okay."
John reached for his case. "Here, Tals. Could you hold onto this for a second? I'll grab yours too."
Splayed hands, she took the weight of the case and made an audible oof.
"One more hun." He smiled, placing her parcel right on top.
"Got it?"
"Yeah."
"What'd you guys get?" Kasumi tried to read his indifferent face.
"Gear for an upcoming mission." John said, taking everything from her hands at the relief of Tali who'd been arching her back to try and compensate the bulky weight.
"When's the briefing?"
"Won't be one." John continued, "At least for now. It's nothing for anyone to be worrying about. Miranda will update you all when it's time."
"Gotcha." Kasumi said, tone disarming to show she wasn't interested in pushing for a more elaborate answer. It was all a face charade to her, because Kasumi had a problem with personally eliciting a zeal for what was going on when information was being withheld from people. "Well. Catch you later, Shep. You too, Tali."
"Bye."
The thief walked out and Tali waited until she was out of earshot to say anything. "How long before we're there, again?"
"We'll be there at 1000 hours tomorrow."
"What do you think we'll find?"
He rasped and the look on his face was crestfallen as he gave it a moment's thought. "Whatever stereotype you can bring up when it comes to a batarian prison."
She blinked and began to press her thumb into the palm of her hand. That wasn't boasting a lot about their chances of getting their prisoner out alive. "Then how do we know she's even still alive?"
"We don't." He answered plainly, "Means the rescue could just be asset retrieval. We need that data she's got, alive or not."
"Have you decided yet who you're going to bring along?"
"Thane, definitely. Talukh and Garrus for overwatch. And you, plus Legion, to bring up my rear and break into whatever we need to get Kenson out."
"Alright." She murmured, agreeing with the picks, "Good selection."
"Come on. Let's see what we've got. Then you and I can get back to work."
"Alright."
They went up to their room, got sprayed down, and went to their nook of an office to set everything down. Discarding the cardboard surrounding the rifle case, John opened the clasps and tossed the lid off to reveal their factory-new firearms.
John took it into his hands to feel the weight, checked the chamber to make sure a heat sink wasn't inside, and took a peek at the optic's sight picture.
"You know what sucked about being in the Alliance, Tali?"
"What?"
"Being issued a shitty, beat-up, weapon. It's great to buy something new straight from a box."
"Ha. I know what you mean." She said, looking over her own new gun, "Fleet issued arms aren't exactly stellar."
"I bet."
They both quietly look over their equipment and, having been satisfied with what they saw, stowed it away under their desk.
"So, what did you get?" He asked, pointing at her little box.
"Here," She took her knife and cut the tape, "Take a look." Opening the flaps, she grinned and let John peer inside. He took a hand and held out in front of him a dainty fabric.
"Underwear." He said with a smile while setting it down, "Damn. Guess it was wishful thinking you'd just not wear any ever."
"Yeah. Well, sometimes you want to wear some cute underwear and no pants."
"Fair enough, hun." He gave her a peck on her metal plate of a cheek.
She smiled, but she knew she had to keep John on track.
"So, why don't you tell me how you really feel." She said to keep them on track, "About the mission, I mean."
He turned to stare at his growing collection of model ships and sighed.
"I don't know. I have a feeling I can't shake about this mission, Tals. Trying to wrap my head around how we're actually going to do this. Just sick and tired of the unknowns we keep running into and the lack of time to do any real prep."
"Well. In all fairness, I think we could've said that same thing for every mission since day one." Tali said rather softly, seeing his pent up shoulders and thinly pressed lips, "...Whatever it is, it's probably not as hard as actually stopping the collectors."
"Speaking of that." John straightened his posture and inhaled sharply, "EDI and Legion have been splitting apart that IFF and finished this morning. Miranda told me where the Omega relay leads to."
"Where?"
"Right in the center of the galaxy."
"Why—" Tali's tongue went limp. "Why does that not surprise me."
He rubbed his eye and grumbled. "Maybe I'm just feeling off because of that more than what we're about to do?"
"Maybe." She cooed. He sat down in their chair, teeth clenched, lips tightly pressed against each other.
"Sometimes I wonder if we're just running around trying to solve a problem we just can't fix." He looked her in the eye. "You know?"
Tali couldn't help but deflate a little, hearing that from him. He wasn't much of a downer, but his outlook sounded a lot more... realistic.
"Yeah." She murmured. She leaned up against the desk, arms crossed. "But you know that can't stop us from trying."
"Preaching to the choir, hun." He said, only a glint of a smile surfacing past that subtle frown of his.
"I know. But you need reminding every now and again. You are leading us through this mess, you know. Maybe I'm a bit biased, but you've been doing a good job so far." She gave him a rough pat.
"I love you." He said with a grin while looking up at her, "You know that right?"
"Oh yeah. I do."
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"Your turn."
"Okay." Teri tapped her chin, "What do you think the worst part about the Normandy is. Aside from Legion."
"Okay." Darehk yawned while thinking deeply, "...Lack of privacy."
"Really." She said, nonplussed.
"Yes." Darehk said, affirming what he'd said, "The Neema had more privacy. It was stupid thinking about it now, but hearing all the rumors about humans, I worked up this fantasy that maybe it was more like a cruise ship. It's close. Hell, we've got a bar and lounge. But, at least at home, we had our own rooms."
"Military is military, dude. We have a door at least."
"Yeah. I guess so." Darehk conceded as he thought a little bit more of the life he had to put on pause, "I'm a little homesick, honestly." Darehk grumbled, "I miss my wife."
"How is Jaeyah?"
"She's okay. Still pregnant. You hear me talking to her every night, don't you?"
"How involved is she with what's going on here on the Normandy?"
"Making sure I don't leak anything classified?"
"No. But yes."
"She's not really aware of anything, if you're so concerned." He said, indifferently. The thought of him actually dying on this godforsaken suicide mission and leaving his wife behind put a knot in his gut. It did fairly often.
"Oh."
"What about you?" Darehk asked to push the conversation elsewhere and away from him.
"What about me?"
"Aren't you with Darl or what's his name?"
"No. He broke up with me before we left." She said, lying down in her bed and crossing her legs.
"That sucks."
"Yeah. It does."
There was silence between the two of them for about fifteen long seconds.
"Keelah, I am fucking bored." Teri drawled.
"Don't like staying cooped up in our room for hours at a time?"
"Video games can only take you so far." She groaned.
"Keeps me pretty occupied." Kylie peeped up from her corner, raising her controller in the air, eyes beset upon the colorful explosions on the screen.
"Yeah."
"Read a book. Go do some PT. Help Tali out. She'll probably have something for you to do." Kylie offered.
"Probably not." Darehk disagreed, "That woman has a good reason to hate me."
"You can always man up and apologize."
"It won't be genuine enough." He said in a lackluster way.
"Dude, at least try." Kylie butted in again from her side of the room.
"How should I walk in? Yo, Tali. Sorry bro."
"Yeah. Do that for Olasie too."
Hearing her name made him scoff as he crossed his arms. "Speaking of Olasie, any y'all notice that thing that's been going on between her and Juel?"
"That they're pretty much together?" Teri didn't even look up from her omni-tool, "No way."
"Good. Was making sure I wasn't the only one that was noticing."
"Darhek, they literally scheduled their showers together." Teri said flatly, but grinning, "They were probably banging."
Darehk chortled, "Haha. I know. Gettin' it with squad lead. Top tier stuff."
The door to their room opened to reveal Talukh and his determined bee-lined pace toward the belongings under his bed.
"What's the word?"
"I'm going down with them."
"Who else is going?"
"Tali. Legion. Garrus and the Commander. Overwatch team has been tasked with selecting two observers to assist each station. So that means you, Darehk."
Darehk frowned at the very notion of that geth being a part of anything he was going to be involved in. He knew at some point he'd have to work with it. He also knew that his reservations, if he could even call them that, weren't going to change either.
Since he always traditionally filled that role for Talukh, Darehk didn't have much a choice. "Alright."
"That fills in a slot. It's going to be hot as sticking balls. Pack extra water. Probably a meal or two as well. And get your ghillie ready."
"Roger that."
Talukh pulled out his rifle from underneath his bed to look it over. "Dan's detachment won't be pulling our asses from out the fray should something happen."
"Unlike that all out CIVPOP firefight we had on Illium?" Kylie actually laughed, "Weirdest op we've ever done, hands down."
Talukh gave her a sideways glance, but smirked. "—Only support we get is from anyone who isn't human. Having humans around might stir someone's pot. We're here to rescue someone. Not instigate a war between the humans and batarians."
"We all know who would win that one." Teri said through a scornful laugh.
Darehk snorted. "When do we drop?"
"We're on the kodiak at eleven hundred hours. We're airborne ten after."
"Should I even ask if there's an operation order?"
"Nope. The plan's being made while we're on the ride there. Normandy's going to do some scans of the geography and relay what our overwatch positions should be at."
"Alright. I guess that's been working well for us so far."
"Yeah. Well. Bet on anything happening. Because we're dropping to a godforsaken batarian planet."
"Already ahead of you, Lukh." Darehk mumbled, pulling up a menu on his omni-tool to make sure his salary from Cerberus had been wired to the joint bank account his wife shared with him.
"Good."
"Guess we'll get our things ready just in case then." Teri said.
"Yup. Commander's decided to tell all the non-humans what's happening tonight. After dinner. So be there sharp."
"Will do." Teri said, relaxing on her pillow and bouncing a foot.
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The next day.
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The sky's color was a myopic mess of gray. As early dawn began to sweep across the surface of the Aratoht, Tali could hardly tell where the horizon should've ended and where the sky was supposed to begin. However hard she tried to find that line, it remained impossible to discern, much less even see. Whether that be from the mirage that was caste out by the rocks radiating the previous day's heat, she could hardly tell or find the time to actually care.
Fifty five degrees celsius was what the planet sat at. Even at night, the planet sweltered. Despite their best attempts to stay cool, the team sweat and breathed laboriously as they trekked across blistering and rocky earth.
Eventually, they stopped and took refuge in the darker shade of a small cliffside.
John sipped through his canteen while Tali did the same through her straw.
"It's hot." She said tersely.
"Not as bad as Haestrom."
"I know. But there almost passes a point where it all just sucks equally."
"Yeah." John said. They stared out, the team largely quiet.
"Drinking enough water?" He asked her.
"Absolutely."
"Good. Last thing we need is someone with heat stroke. No help out here for that."
He stared down the neck of his bottle for a bit to gauge how much water he had left. "Remember when we grabbed your pilgrimage gift on that planet?"
"I do." She said.
"That place was pretty hot too. Don't think we went on too many hot places."
"What about the planet we picked Liara up on."
"Oh. The lava planet. What was its name? Theros? No, I'm mixing up names. That was... uhm—"
"Therum." Came her idled reply.
"Right." He chuckled, though the dead bodies that had littered the inside of that mine from their experience there flashed through his mind, "Completely forgot about that place."
"Heat's messing with your brain." She joked lightly.
"I'd say so." He gave her a bump on the shoulder. "Welp. Enough rest. Time to move."
He stood up.
"Okay," John said to get everyone's attention, "Everyone good?"
"We are." Thane said quietly.
"Good. This is where we part ways."
He brought up his omni-tool to check his map as all the others did. "You know your call signs. Abide by them. Strict radio discipline. Stay out of sight. Keep our ROE clean. Let's move."
Garrus and Sidonis would be Tagger team. They were to take the eastern side of the compound and watch the only road that lead to and from the prison should anything unexpected happen.
Post team would consist of Talukh and Darehk. They would take the west side as per EDI's recommendation due to the vantage point it provided. It would be far enough to get a good view of the prison, but close enough for them to QRF and help Get'her team if the op were to go awry.
"Post-1: Radio's live. How copy?" John tested as they all stared at each other.
"This is Post-1. Full copy. You getting all this, Tagger-1?"
"That's an affirmative. Let's move out."
The team gathered their gear, nodded off, and split up to go their own ways.
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Four hours later.
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It began to rain. The clouds rolled in so thick, the sky had turned to morbid darkness. The heat no longer squelched the earth. Which was good for them.
Garrus and Lantar set up their kill zone and waited. The rain continuously pelted their now soaked cloaks, but the two turians remained unmoving as they continued their watch.
"How long before they breach the compound?" Sidonis asked.
"Thirty minutes. Maybe less, given the weather."
The road remained barren and empty. There wasn't much to look at.
"Convince me how they're actually going to break Kenson out and not get caught." Sidonis whispered, "Because I'm struggling to connect these dots here."
"Well, if how run down the prison is any indication of their work standards, I'm not too worried. The guns and weather are there only security." Garrus offered. "Plus. They got Thane."
"Sure." Sidonis agreed partly, "...But you know they got four eyes though, right?"
"Get'her actual to all. We're go for mission. We're infil. Report stations, over." Came Shepard's voice over the radio.
"There you go." Garrus said, breathing confidence, "We'll be hiking back to LZ in fifteen. Just you watch."
"Yeah. Right." Sidonis said, unconvinced.
"Solid copy, Get'her-1." Garrus answered Shepard, "Our sight line's clear. No contacts."
"That's a solid affirmative, Tagger-1."
"Get'her-1, this is Post-1. Known contacts are tagged and marked on your map. I'd avoid those blips at all costs, over."
"Copy that. Keep everyone notified of any important developments. Out."
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Tali, just behind Shepard, careened over a boulder and slid down into the grassy mud.
In the refuge of gusting wind, a drizzle of rain, and a dilapidated concrete wall, John took a peek above their cover and scanned the vicinity.
"Not seeing anything on IR. What about you, Legion?"
"Negative. No contacts, Shepard-Commander."
John drummed his fingers against the foregrip on his rifle and nodded. "Good. Let's move up."
Rearing the corner, they took their incremental steps forward to enter the building.
"Thane: How's things on your end?" John asked over the radio.
"I'm in. Two guards down. I have seen what they are armed with. They are well-equipped. Please be cautious."
"Copy that."
Tali frowned. "I don't know how the hell he does that."
"Move." John ordered again. Cover left behind and red rusty door just ahead, they lined up into a stack and finally entered the prison.
The rain echoed into the hallway as they entered, gear still dripping when they closed the door behind them.
It was dark. It was quiet. A single stale yellow light, all the way at the end of the corridor, tried its best to illuminate the space it was in.
"Go left."
Legion and Tali did as they were told and followed Shepard. Carefully, methodically, they pushed deeper into the dark and empty prison.
"How old is this damn building?" John muttered.
"Looks like it's a hundred years old." Tali added, staring up at the mildewed ceiling.
"It does, doesn't it? But it couldn't be. Batarians just settled a couple decades ago. Really starting to think batarian craftsmanship's just shit."
"That too." Tali shrugged.
"Thane. Status?"
"Still moving, Shepard. I will update you when such a time warrants it."
"Copy. Tali and Legion will see about finding us intel."
"Understood, Shepard. Out."
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"Lot of them for a prison out in the middle of nowhere." Darehk said, binoculars plugged through his visor, "I mean, where the hell would any of the escapees even run to? Nothing but tundra and desert for a hundred kilometers in any direction."
"You're asking a lot of questions no one's got an answer to." Talukh murmured, his crosshair laid across the face of a smoking batarian.
"Maybe they're not even guards." Darehk said, pouring context from nothing, "Maybe they just train soldiers here and use prisoners for targets."
"Very imaginative." Talukh said, talking just to humor him.
"Seems pretty likely to me." Darehk mumbled, scanning the perimeter for the umpteenth time to see if anything had changed, "You got any ideas?"
"Political prisoners, is my guess. People in there probably don't even know what planet they're on. Can't give you an answer for why there's so many goddamn guards though."
"Political prisoners, huh?"
"What else? You think there's oversight in the batarian hegemony?" Talukh actually laughed at his wisecrack of a joke.
"Nope." Darehk said, eyes unblinking as he sipped from his canteen. "Not at all."
They quieted and the only sound to permeate the landscape was the soft pelting of rain.
"How you been feeling, Lukh?"
"It's not hard to breathe anymore. Still get random ass chest pain. Doc says it's just my nerves."
"Docs tell you that when they don't know what's going on." He said jokingly.
Talukh's reply was a little late as he watched a pair of guards walking casually across a catwalk. "Yeah. Maybe."
"Probably my turn to be catching a bullet." Darehk said meekly, giving it a little thought, "Nearly everyone else has taken one for the team."
"Just you and Teri left, huh?"
"Yeah."
More silence for a long while. A soft crackle of thunder to keep the monotonous soundscape at bay.
"You used to Legion, yet?"
"Hell no." Darehk answered flatly, "Don't know why the hell you all have gotten so casual with it."
"I haven't."
"Then you agree with me?"
"Of course I do. Mostly." He said without skipping a beat, "But you have to admit, it's pretty damn wild that we haven't tried to kill each other yet. Makes you think."
Darehk tapped his helmet to sever his connection to his binos before turning to stare at him. "Makes you think what?"
"Of how you could scale that up." Talukh said, shrugging as best he could. "This truce we've had: Commander's up to something."
"You're nuts, Lukh."
To Lukh, Darehk's remark, however valid it might have been, wasn't doing anything but treading water after the experiences they've had these past few months. Saying that and being a part of the stuff they did didn't have that visceral edge to it anymore. Break it down and look it all over and you'd realize that the Normandy was nothing but a party platter of aliens with different backgrounds working together with the help of an AI, the geth, Cerberus, and their zombie leader back from the dead who'd been openly dating a quarian gal. And it was all working.
"Whole ship's nuts, Darehk," He said after a moment's thought, "I think it's been good to us. Widen your eyes a bit."
"Been doing that plenty with what I've seen these days, bro." Darehk said at length, "Just not in the direction you think."
Talukh sighed, though it wasn't one that Darehk would hear. "Mm. We'll see."
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They stopped at the breadth of the next door, their silhouettes still as they prepared to clear the next room.
With Tali's hand on his shoulder and gun raised, the three of them gracefully entered what looked to be a break room (a poorly furnished one at that) to clear it.
"Clear." John murmured, dropping his gun and relaxing.
"Clear." Tali said after sweeping her vectors.
"Legion," John breathed quietly, "Keep security."
"Understood."
He turned to face Tali. "Start looking."
Giving him a nod, they split up.
John let his weapon dangle on his sling as he scattered the papers sitting atop a table next to a soiled ceramic plate littered with stale crumbs.
His eyes strained to make out what little he could under the dim light and grimaced when he realized he could search and stare at these papers for hours and not draw himself any closer to what it even said.
"Anything?" She asked, only glancing at him.
"Can't understand any of it." He said with a quick shrug, "And it doesn't look important anyways."
She grumbled. "Then how are we supposed to find our way around if they don't even have internet to break into?"
"Pretty smart of them—" He mumbled, scanning the ceiling for cameras, no matter how unlikely, "—not having WiFi."
"Sure, John. We'll call it being smart."
He shrugged.
With only one place to look, Tali opened the company fridge and skimmed over what was inside. It made him raise a brow.
"...Looking for something to eat?"
"No." She said, only glancing at him with a smirk, "You ever accidentally leave your tablet in a fridge? I've seen someone do it before."
"Yeah. Maybe you."
There was a small laugh there. "If I ever had anything to put in it."
To no surprise, a tablet in the fridge was nowhere to be found.
"No tablet." He said before standing next to her, eyes wary, "It was a good try."
She closed the door.
Just as he was about to call it to head off further into this hell of a batarian prison, John caught, from the corner of his eye, a bulletin board with a map tacked onto it.
"Hmph. Well. This'll do it."
He brushed aside the old ads and torn announcements so they could get a better look of the whole thing.
She came up from behind him. "Keelah. How did we miss that." She lamented, surprised it hadn't been the first thing they'd noticed. It made her sigh at how this place managed to even operate.
"Just be glad we didn't."
She studied it with him.
"Hopefully it's accurate." He said, snapping a picture. "EDI?"
"Standing-by, Shepard."
"Can you cross reference this thing to see if it resembles that MGRS you scrambled together for us?"
"It does." She answered, "Though the other floor plans appear to be underground. I cannot verify what lays under the surface without penetrating scans."
"Copy all, over."
"We have something to go on at least." Tali sighed, "But this still isn't going to tell us where Kenson is."
"No. It won't." He intoned, eyes still locked on the map.
She looked harder and began to try and trace a route to where their prisoner could probably be with a finger.
"Uhm...Well— judging by the way these rooms are oriented, I'm guessing this down here is cells and interrogation. I mean, I think...—the translation's a little scribbled." She said, noncommittal. God, this just did not feel right. She was just throwing out a guess. A hunch. A shit one at that.
"What do you think, EDI?"
"The lettering is illegible." EDI agreed, "This map appears to be several numbers down from a copy of a copy. Though I do concur with Ms. Zorah."
"Jesus Christ." John actually managed to grin, "Security's so shit it's actually working."
"Alright," Tali said with another indecisive grumble, "That means we have to take two flights of stairs down with a long hallway to cross. And then we enter the west wing to get there. Via a..." She squinted, "uhm— a security gate?" She shook her head as she tried to piece together how they were even going to go about doing this without getting into a losing firefight. "John, that's... We don't even know where she is and going through that looks like the point of no return. How are we going to do that?"
He clenched his teeth and the gears in his head cranked. She was right. This wasn't looking promising. "Don't know yet. We'll figure it out." He stared down at his gear to check over his things and think for another moment. "We're just gonna have to trust our cloaks to keep us concealed long enough. You get that all, Legion?"
"Yes."
"Alright. Let's go." He gave the safety on his rifle a once over. "Cloaks on. Move."
Their silhouettes broke like glass and they disappeared. Legion took the lead with Shepard just behind and Tali following their rear.
As per the map's instructions, they took the stairs down, crossed the hallway, and made it to the security gate.
What they saw shouldn't have been surprising. But once again, they were amazed at how piss-poor the security was.
"Well. That was easier than I expected." John murmured, seeing as how the gate was devoid of anyone save for a batarian sitting idly in a chair smoking something that didn't at all look like a cigarette.
"Keep going, Legion."
"Acknowledged."
Without incident, they crossed the gate and went deeper into what John could only describe as a dilapidated catacomb of crumbling rocks and walls. They passed by a carcass. Whether it was animal or not, none of them could tell.
"Christ." John uttered.
"Prisoner?" She decided to ask as they kept walking.
He shrugged even though she couldn't see it. "Maybe."
They continued, rotting corpse left behind.
A minute passed.
"How you feelin', Tals?" He said. He looked behind himself to try and get a glance of that face of hers behind the visor, but remembered they were both invisible.
"Alright." She said, looking up at the holes in the ceiling and the light percolating through, "Place is a bit creepy."
He couldn't deny the atmosphere definitely had a dark aura to it. But it wasn't all that bad when you drew to memory their recent visit to the Haratar, or even worse, the derelict reaper. He was actually just shy of mentioning how boarding the reaper was worse, but he realized that they both didn't need to be dwelling on stuff like that. Tali's upbraiding of Shepard's demands to have her leave him for dead on that falling reaper had been the forefront of his mind since it happened. It had definitely been a brief hiccup in their relationship. And mentioning anything that could even relate to that right now wasn't a good idea. Especially since they were in the prime of probably making another bad memory here.
"Shepard, this is Thane. What's your status?"
John got a look at what was behind him before answering. "We just pushed past security to enter what we think is the west wing. And... we think we're on our way to cells and interrogation."
"I believe you're heading in the right direction." Thane said.
"Why's that?"
"I've had time to interrogate a guard." Thane said, "Kenson is alive, is injured, and is located there. I'm going to need help. Designating new nav points. EDI's been updated with a better map."
"Excellent work." Shepard answered, relieved Thane had managed to pull up better intel, "We'll meet you at your rendezvous. Keep us posted of any more developments."
"Understood."
Legion stopped the three of them and let a pair of guards pass.
Tali's eyes, thankfully hidden away by their cloaks, darted between the two dark and tall men. Staring just past them was a number of guards scattered about the area casually smoking or standing watch.
Her unease began to grow.
"We good?" Shepard asked the geth, "Can we move?"
It observed the area for a moment. "Negative. Guard presence is higher than what was anticipated. We do not believe we have enough power remaining in our cloaks for us to reach the designated rendezvous with Krios. Not without activating our reserves."
"Thane's not going to be able to get her out alone, Legion."
"Understood. Awaiting orders, Shepard-Commander."
"Use reserve power. We need to get there."
"Acknowledged."
Tali harbored herself a moment to breathe deeply before activating reserve power and pushing forward.
Crossing the entire courtyard, the three of them entered into the gate of some large garage or holding area. Passing through the doors, they made it about a dozen paces before a shot rang out through the hallway. Tali and John, after having jumped in surprise, turned to face the gunshot and saw, from the other end of the room they were in, an execution of what appeared to be two kneeling prisoners in fouled white and orange garb. One cried and screamed until they ended her life as well.
Tali exhaled and tried to turn herself away from the senseless murder.
"What's happening? I heard gunfire." Thane asked over the radio.
"They're executing prisoners here." Shepard reported flatly.
A long pause. "Understood."
"Alright, bring the next ones in." A guard said plainly, the same way one would say as if he were shuffling paperwork to stamp.
Two more bound in ropes were shuffled out and forced to kneel.
The batarian aimed idly at the head of their first prisoner. "Don't move and we'll make sure it's clean, alright?"
Legion stopped them again and took shelter in the safety of a dark shadow. Their cloaks were shut down to conserve power.
"They keep going in and out of the door we need to get through." Shepard said. He winced when another shot rang out.
"Keelah," She couldn't help but feel her chest tighten. "John. They're slaughtering them."
Another split head and body fell to the floor.
"I know." There was a palpable pause, "But we're not here for them."
She knew that was the only answer he could give. But it didn't make her feel any better.
"Come on. Hurry up," The batarian who'd just finished killing three men and a woman waved casually to the two other guards hauling off bodies, "Lunch was an hour ago. I'm hungry."
"Marpo, don't know why you're so excited to eat all the time. Only thing here worth stomaching is the liquor."
"Maybe if you took the time to diet, you'd feel hungry more often too."
Two other prisoners were pulled from the hallway and forced to kneel in the spreading red pool.
A choice had befallen the commander. He could sit and watch them continue to murder prisoners in cold blood or seize his chance to stop this without seriously risking their operation.
"Legion. Tali. Stay here. Both of you. Until I say so."
She gave him an answer only her eyes could give and he left, disappearing from existence. As he approached the men, he recalled briefly that moment on Zorya when Tali had confessed to giving up her handgun to a starving slave. The lines were hardly there to draw any similarities with, but the premise was largely the same. Sitting idly by and witnessing the trespasses of evil was a hard, near impossible, thing for Shepard and Tali to do.
John slowed his pace, his steps stilled with silence. He closed the distance between him and the executioner until he was standing only a breath on the neck away. Unsheathing his kabar, John waited for his moment.
"These the last ones for the day, right?" The batarian asked, raising his handgun.
"Nope. A lot more." A guard answered, turning his back to help his partner drag the dead.
John took the man's hand and gun into his own before thrusting the knife deeply into his neck. With backs still facing John and his kill, he fired the gun twice and killed the two guards hauling the dead.
The last guard just realizing what had transpired didn't get much to think about after. Scrambled gray matter was sucked through the back of his head and he dropped like crumpled paper.
"Tali. Legion. On me." Shepard muttered, dropping the handgun and the man in his clutch. The batarian whose throat had been sliced open gasped emptily for air. For a few short seconds after, he finally stopped.
John reappeared as a pair of footsteps came up from behind him. The prisoners, knees soaked in blood, quietly whimpered, their blindfolds doing them no favors.
"Shepard Commander," Legion stared at the dead, "Leaving bodies will compromise our objective. What do you propose?"
He pointed at the man and his slit throat. "Stuff 'em all in a box." He searched for a pouch on his chest rig and fished out a padlock. "Use this too. Maybe it'll buy us enough time to get to Kenson and Thane."
Legion wasted no time doing exactly as instructed.
"And the prisoners?" Tali asked, thankful she could even ask that question.
"Let em' free." Shepard uttered, glancing down at them, "Be quick."
She went to them and frowned. They were in much worse shape than she had realized. In the state they were in, it didn't look like they could get very far by themselves, let alone even escape. But their chances were a lot better now than it was just a few moments ago.
Tali got on her knees to meet them at eye level.
"Hey. Listen," She cooed carefully, making sure her next words were as reassuring as possible, "You're safe."
She nearly winced when she said that. That was stretching the truth. Realizing it only now; saving them from their immediate execution felt more like they'd only delayed an inevitability. In it's own twisted way, she thought that maybe part of the reason for saving these two poor souls was more of saving themselves of their own sanity as opposed to just saving their lives for the sake of it.
A cynical take, Tali supposed. A thought she'd prefer not to ponder right now.
She removed the head-sized tarp from her head as delicately as possible and tossed it aside.
The four-eyed woman gazed up at the quarian since she had nothing else to stare at. "...Where do we go?" She said, desperation so evident and deep, it made Tali take a second to blink away a coming tear, "...W—what do we do?"
She removed the second covering from the other prisoner and stared at the blood she'd been kneeling in. She didn't have an answer.
"I... I don't know."
"You have to help us," The woman pleaded, staring between Shepard and Tali and outright ignoring Legion's existence, "Please."
She stood from her place and began to undo the bindings that held their wrists together.
"John. What do you want me to tell them?" She asked over the radio, "I can't just tell them they're on their own."
When he didn't reply, she frowned and turned to face him, only to see that posture she'd seen many times before. He did it a lot when he'd made it to a crossroad.
He pulled away from his sight-line and took a knee next to two they'd just saved.
"Stay here. We'll come back. Hide. Your lives are depending on it."
"Promise me you'll come back." She murmured weakly.
He stared at them both, his visor gleaming in the glow of the harsh lamp above them. "I promise."
Having no choice but to accept John's stalwart answer, the woman helped guide her fellow inmate and limped into darkness to stay out of sight.
"Come on," John ordered, "We're falling behind."
Stacking back up into their three man line, they entered the hallway and continued to the next nav marker Thane had placed for them.
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"You know how the game works, Dr. Kenson." The interrogator said before explaining what was to soon occur, "We will ask you six times. When you fail to provide us with the truth, you will be encouraged to tell the truth. When that does not work, we will move on to the next instrument. We will repeat this process as many times as we require."
Kenson stared warily at the cart adorned with it's clean white sheet and its six common household tools sitting atop it. She snuffed what was about to be a long sigh. This was going to be their third session together like this.
They cleaned everything just to show her how much of a mess they could make out of her. Everything looked like a goddamn tie-dye shirt made by a color-blind kid when they rolled it away for the day.
As another testament to their interrogative paradigm, they made you pick what they'd get to use on you that day. And you couldn't ever repeat a choice. Which meant, at some point if you didn't pop, they'd have their opportunity to use them all anyway.
But say you refused because you were trying to be a hard ass. Say you refused to pick because you thought for some weird reason it might buy you some time. Well, their solution to any delay would be to torture an inmate of their choosing with you as a witness before killing them.
It really wasn't much of a win for anyone. Save for maybe a psychopath who wanted someone to go down with them.
Somewhat regrettably, she, through her vanity or some such, had picked some of the more sinister looking stuff to make a point of how futile it was going to be to get information from her.
The interrogator picked up the staple gun. "Who are you working for?"
"Big man in the sky."
"You joke, but it isn't far from what a lot of insane people do." He placed the gun over her eye. "Who do you work for?"
Her lip began to tremble. She stared brazenly at the metal prods inside the gun.
The camera mounted on the ceiling behind him shut off and it made her eyes flutter.
"Doctor. One more time. Who are you working for?"
Green hands enthralled the man's head and a knife split through the front of his neck.
Flecks of blood hit her face and she flinched.
With grace, Thane lay the man down in the chair beside him before working quickly to remove the restraints that bound Kenson to the elevated table she'd been strapped to.
"How badly are you injured?" Thane asked her simply.
She was going to flood him with thankfulness, but the drell's rushed tone told her the thanks could wait just a few moments more.
"I don't think I can walk. I'm confident they've broken my foot."
"Which one?"
She glanced downward at her feet for the first time in days since she finally had the chance to do so. "The left."
He released the last of the bindings before handing her his medical kit.
"I must hold watch. Please bandage yourself as best you can. Help is on the way."
"God bless you." Kenson murmured, sniffling and wiping away a budding tear as she dug into his kit, "You saved me."
"We are not out yet, Doctor. Please hurry. We are incredibly short on time and our discovery is imminent."
"Thane? Status? Chatter from prison guards is picking up and they sound spooked."
"Shepard. This is Thane." He stole himself a moment to get a quick look of her, "They were about to remove her eyes. I had to act. Cameras were disabled momentarily. It shouldn't have alerted anyone yet."
"Understood. Then it might be from our end, over. We had to kill some guards to reach your next Nav marker. We're almost there."
"Acknowledged. Do you have an ETA?"
There was a distant rumble of automatic gunfire and Thane inhaled sharply.
"Negative on that! Negative on that! We're engaged!" There was more fumbling and John's voice grew distant, "Tali—! Move! Right side!—!"
"Shepard?"
"Thane," John's voice pierced the radio, "Exfil with asset at your soonest availability. Do not wait for us. Go now."
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"And... fifteen minutes." Sidonis passed a bag of dehydrated fruit mix to Garrus and tapped his watch, "Think this is going to take a little longer than you anticipated."
"Guess so." Garrus replied, accepting whatever was left over in the pouch. He chewed, but kept his eyes glued to the reticle on his scope.
"Stuff's pretty high in calories." Sidonis mumbled.
Garrus fumbled with the wrapper and read whatever he could of the nutritional facts.
"Lantar, if I hear you mumble on about the calories in trail mix again—"
"Everyone thinks it's healthy until they read the label."
"Break, break, break, Shepard's team has been compromised and are engaged." EDI announced, "Immediate recourse of orders to follow."
The two turians gave each other looks. A distant, deep, and far-off sounding alarm; no doubt tripped by Shepard's discovery, began to echo across the landscape.
"Post-actual," Came Talukh's voice over the radio, "Acknowledge last. Standing-by for tasking, over."
Garrus felt his heart begin to skip and pace. A distinct lack of an immediate response from EDI wasn't helping.
"Post-1. Engage at discretion and survey additional opportunities. Execute with full response," EDI ordered, "Link up with Get'her team and provide immediate support if and when possible."
"Copy all. Engaging at discretion and providing ancillary support when feasible. Code four-zero-mike. Out."
"Acknowledged." EDI responded before giving Garrus his set of orders. "Tagger-1: maintain overwatch of current position. Cleared to prosecute. Delay and deny any and all approaching force multiplier at road. Ground team is to be reinforced. Lima Zulu. Sights six and two. ETA: Eleven minutes."
"Understood. Holding position and denying any reinforcements from reaching Shepard. Over."
"Acknowledged. Out."
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Talukh watched perimeter security scramble about running and shouting. He steadied his breath.
Trigger pull. Vapor trail. Target impact. Reassess. Reengage.
"You almost there, Darehk?" Talukh asked.
"Almost." Came a labored reply, "You actually hitting anything?"
"Two. Missed one. They're moving too fast."
Talukh watched a guard take cover behind some kind of box. Under the anticipation his rounds could penetrate what appeared to be soft cover, he fired. He was rewarded with a corona of blood. Good hit.
"Darehk, they're going to find out where I'm at soon. Hurry up."
"Almost to the wall." In a mad sprint, the quarian carried himself to the wall and slammed up against it. His cloak made him vanish and he vaulted. "Wish me luck."
"Get in. Then we get Tali out, Darehk. I'll be right behind you."
"Yeah."
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Grunt gripped the ceiling restraints and holstered his gun to his thigh. "They should have went in loud from the start. Would have saved everyone the trouble."
Jacob overheard just as he gave the pilot a pat on the shoulder. "Wow Grunt. Pretty surprised you aren't more excited."
"Was reading the war wiki. Witnessing the re-imagined battles of Juralthur." His eyes stared up, his imagination still awestruck, "One battle alone harbored over two million warriors. It was glorious." What was already always a frown on that face of his only grew two sizes. "And here we are. Off to battle batarians that don't even know how to fight." It was almost like watching a kid having to be pulled along by his mom to go clothes shopping. "This is boring."
"Comparison is the thief of joy, mate." Zaeed said from just outside the kodiak, "You're time will come. Will for all of us."
"Get settled," A crew member said as he passed by while performing his final checks, "You're off in 15."
Whoever remained outside that was a part of the ground team boarded the kodiaks.
Jacob stepped out, took to the safety of the yellow line, and sighed. When the kodiak doors closed, he did his best to try and make out what he could of the non-human ground team. He didn't know if they saw it, but he gave them a thumbs-up just as the barriers that would protect them from vacuum appeared.
For no other reason than being a human, he was barred from going. All of it because of geo-political sensitivity. Personally? To him? The commander dying and leaving them to handle this reaper shit was going to be way worse than whatever the Alliance was going to have to deal with just because a couple humans happened to cross upon one of their death-labor camps.
Miranda took a spot next to him.
"How's it looking down there, Miranda?"
"Not good." She said evenly, arms crossed and stare long, "They're alive. That's all I've got."
Another sigh.
"Both of you worry too much." Zaeed said, crutching his way past the two toward the elevator, "We all escaped a falling reaper. Blew up a goddamn geth's version of the Death Star. God forbid they actually lose to a fuckin' batarian cesspit. They'll manage."
Juel watched them all recede from view as they slipped out into the blackness of space.
When the darkness encased them all, his foot began to bounce while his hands flexed around the barrel shroud of his rifle. It was a great way to help cope with the welt of anxiety that'd grow in his chest on their way to an op.
Calling this an operation was a stretch. They didn't really know much about what was going on. All they knew was that Get'her team needed QRF to pull them out and that their situation was deteriorating.
Some minutes pass by with the usual off-putting silence to keep everyone company.
Looking up to see Olasie, Juel wondered how she was faring insofar with the new and very immediate burden of having to lead everyone given her qualifications.
He decided to just ask her through private chat.
"You good?"
"Hm—?" She turned around. "Oh. Yeah." There was a hefty breath from her. "I'm good. Don't suppose you wanna trade spaces with me?"
"Leading all these guys? No thanks. You got this squad lead."
She scoffed. "Gee. Thanks."
"Hey. You're going to do just fine, O."
Her brow rose and there was a small grin. "New nickname? Never heard that one."
"Three syllable names are too long." Juel offered his explanation. "It's pretty. But it's long."
"Don't think I've had anyone complain about my name. Ever."
"Guess I'm your first." He said with a small grin and patting both his knees.
He could see her eyes squint at him. But it looked like a smile.
"Breaching atmo. Stand-by." The pilot announced.
Suddenly remembering the gravity of the situation, Juel's lighthearted smile vanished.
"God. I hope Tali's okay."
"She's okay," Olasie said, voice quiet and somber, "We'll get her out."
"Yeah." He cast his gaze back out into the void the window protected them from. "I know."