Cursed

by Hookshot25

Clayton Carmine has only known hate and carnage for so many years. But once he survives the war he hoped to die in, things get strange. When people need help he isn’t one to shy away, and while helping Baird he gets sent to a place in dire need of a man like him. A man that can’t be claimed by death as easily as his kin.

11. Heatwave

Sam took a heavy breath as she racked her weights. She'd just finished her workout and felt fired up as she flexed her muscles. She'd already begun to see the changes in her muscle definition with the workouts Cole had her doing. Her personal trainer was running a bit late today so she decided to exercise without him.

A mischievous smile finds her full lips as she thinks about how Carmine will react. She missed him dearly, and besides having countless memories to rely on when her nightly desires kept her awake. Her body and soul craved the real thing, not just her own hands and the memories of the oldest Carmine brother.

The doors to the gym open as Sam checks her watch. She turned to see a young blonde man approaching her. He wore a sleeveless shirt and some shorts, "Hey Sam, haven't seen you much lately. How are you holding up?"

She narrowed her eyes at him as she catches his gaze flick to the beads of sweat that trail down her chest and disappear into her tank top. Nate had been growing increasingly forward with her when it came to his attraction.She grew to hate his presence, feeling his eyes constantly watch her wasn't something she enjoyed. Sam was wary of him, especially after the end of their first interaction.

'He wants to make Carmine pay for killing his brother. Best to not let on that I know, but that raises a good question. Why the fuck is he trying so hard to get into my pants?' Sam thinks.

"Fine." Sam answers plainly, a blank look on her face.

She doesn't bother looking at him as she gathers her things. She tried her best to avoid him when she could, trading cube watching shifts with Anya and Marcus so she wouldn't have to interact with the creep.

Nate mostly worked with Baird when it came to helping with the cube. Sam didn't know how to explain it but every time she was alone with the man she felt some kind of looming anger. Specifically when someone would mention Carmine. She talked with a few of the other members of Delta and each has told her the same thing.

'Everyone told me they think he's hiding something. Only me and him know what that is. I've got to keep him away from Carmine when the time comes to bring him back.' Sam's thoughts run for a moment as she thinks of Henderson's possible plans for making the elder Carmine pay.

She looked at his less than impressive arms and chuckled to herself, 'Well if he ever tries anything I could always beat the shit out of him. Nobody is keeping me from Clayton. Hell I've been saving myself for him since we got to know each other back when we were teenagers.'

Nate caught Sam's glance toward his arms and smiled at her, his eyes raking along her muscular midsection as she stretched. He flexed a bit, trying to show off as her tank top rode up to expose her defined abs, "You've been working out a lot lately. Mind if I ask why?"

Sam tucks her shirt back into her pants and looks at the blonde, "Gotta stay sharp. Who the bloody hell knows what we'll be seeing on the other side once we go to grab Carmine."

Nate nods and takes a seat at the bench press, "Well you're looking great. I'm sure the Grub Killer won't have to worry about anything when we go to rescue him. That is, if he lasts that long."

Nate's condescending tone makes Sam shoot the younger man a look, "Watch your fucking mouth. He's fine, the machine says so. So how about you take that attitude and shove it up your pompous ass."

Nate smiles predatorily toward her and raises his hands in mock surrender, "Woah now, I didn't mean any offense. You've got quite the mouth on you Sam. I wonder what else it can do."

Sam ignores the dirty comment and leans on the wall as she watches someone quietly enter the gym. "Not like you'll ever find out."

Nate laughs at her, "Oh I have something I can show you to change your mind. Why don't you come back to my room and I'll show you?"

Sam wrinkled her nose in disgust, "I'd rather tongue kiss a grub mate. Would you mind dealing with him number eighty three? I just finished a workout and I'm a tick sore."

He raises an eyebrow, "Who are youuuuuu-"

The blonde turns his head to see an angry Cole with his arms folded, "That's no way to talk to a lady, son. You ought to be ashamed of yourself. Didn't your momma ever teach you any manners?"

The large thrashball star grabs a hold of Nate by the back of his neck and drags him to the door. Nate scowls and tries to pry Cole's hand off him. He obviously can't and his eyes land on Sam as she dies of laughter watching her burly friend manhandle him.

'Oh I'll have that sweet piece of ass some day. Once I get rid of Clayton Carmine she'll be all mine.' He thinks with a nasty smile, finally going limp and letting Cole drag him to the door.

The burly black man tosses him out of the doors and scolds him, "What the hell has gotten into you kid? You should know better than to mess with a girl who ain't yours."

Nate stumbles forward and rubs the back of his neck as he scowls at the massive man, "I don't need to explain myself to you. Who says she's taken? As far as I know she's not with anyone."

Cole clicks his tongue and takes a menacing step toward the young man. Nate shrinks as Cole looms over him, having the height advantage by a good head or so, "I'm just going to give you benefit of the doubt, since you don't know Sam that well. If I ever catch you doing something to her, or if she comes to me with troubling information about you. I won't hesitate to whoop your skinny ass. You get me boy?"

Nate's eyes fill with fear as he quickly nods his head, "Y-yes sir."

Cole nods back and heads back into the gym, turning his head and speaking one last time before shutting the door, "If something like this happens again I will be telling Carmine about this, that man ain't so easy to reel in."

Nate hides his angered look and simply replies, "I understand. I'm sorry, I'll stop with my advances."

He hears the doors shut and groans to himself as he stomps away, "Whatever, it won't matter once I put a bullet in that fucking murderer." Nate mutters as he disappears down the hallway.

Sam gives her friend and hug when he comes back in and he happily returns it, "Thanks Cole, that kid has been getting real insistent if you catch my drift. I see you're starting to grow your hair out again." She jokes.

Cole chuckled and waved a dismissing hand as they separated, "Kid just can't control what his balls are telling him baby, don't worry about it. He's lucky Clayton ain't here, he'd have broken his jaw if he heard half of the shit Nate said to you."

Sam chuckles and a warmth flows into her chest, "Eh I wouldn't be too opposed to seeing that honestly..."

A sad look comes to the brunette's tanned face as she clutches the cloth over her heart. Cole takes one look at her and drags her over to sit with him, "I don't wanna hear nothing about, oh I'm fine Cole. The train knows when something is up."

Sam laughs a bit with the thrashball star before she looks down to her boots, "I...what if Clayton doesn't want me? After all, we haven't been that open with one another since his brothers passed."

Cole looks at her with an understanding smile and lays a heavy hand on her shoulder, "Look I know he ain't good at showing his feelings. But you gotta understand that you've been with him the longest out of all of us. We all seen when he slips up and acts different around you, that boy's been smitten since well before we all joined up in Delta. He's one of the good ones, and I'm happy to call him my brother."

Sam looks up with a grateful gleam in her chestnut colored eyes, "I know he wouldn't accept the compliment, but thanks for saying that Cole. I always kind of suspected he had a crush on me when we were younger. But I waited for him to make the first move. Unfortunately, hollow storm happened and well...you know what happened to him. I guess I still expected him to act on his feelings since I knew they were still there."

Sam takes a small break to think before speaking again, a panicked look in her eyes, "What if he doesn't want to come back?"

Cole squeezed her shoulder and shook her a bit, "Look Sam I'll say this and end all this bullshit here. You already know that man doesn't think he deserves love. It's possible he might not want to come back but you have to go get him before you lose him. We all know how much he cares about you, and your little ass has done an awful job keeping your feelings hidden. It'll all work out once you see your man again, you do what you have to do."

Cole laughs a bit before he finishes, "If anyone can bring him back, it's you Sam. You've got that man wrapped around your finger."

Sam looks up with confidence brimming in her eyes and quickly hugs the big man again, "Thanks Cole, I mean it mate. You're a good man."

The pair stand and Cole scoffs before scratching the light black stubble on his head, "I'm just doing what my mama raised me to do. Be here for my family."

Sam smiles and moves to leave. Cole catches her by the strap of her tank top, "Woah where are you going? We still have a workout to do. I don't care if you did yours without me. All this self doubt bullshit has earned you another."

Sam grumbles and slumps, groaning as she runs her hands back through her hair to tie it into a ponytail, "I love ya eighty three, but also fuck you."

Cole glares jokingly at her, "That's another set."

Sam grumbles and quickly shuts up. Cole laughs as they start their workout. The jovial man was certain Carmine would have his hands full once they found him. Cole found his smile persisting at the thought of his friends getting together after all these years. Much like how he felt when Anya and Marcus made their relationship known.

"Hope you're doing alright Clay." The thrashball star mutters as he starts his own workout.

"Another day, another old friend to recruit eh Cherry?" Carmine says with a smirk as he checks over his lancer. Shepard, Garrus, and himself were in a shuttle headed for the surface of Haestrom.

Shepard smirks as she looks up from her omni-tool, "And unfortunately another unavoidable trip to the doctor for you. Especially with that crappy patch job on your armor." She throws a little shade at him.

She snickers as he grumbles and pats the busted front of his armor. A thick slab of metal was welded over the broken section, it didn't look very sturdy but it covered him, "Hey I did what I could. You said my new armor wasn't going to be here until tomorrow."

Garrus chuckles, "He's got you there Jane."

Shepard purses her lips and shoots each of them a glare, "Whatever, are you feeling alright Carmine? Sleep well?"

The gear clips his lancer to his back and takes a seat across from the pair, "I'm good Shepard, don't you worry. As for sleep I uhh, didn't get much."

She caught the red tint on his neck and her curiosity was sufficiently aroused, "Oh, and why was that?"

The gear struggles to answer, unable to lie but also equally unable to give the proper reason, "It was uhh, n-nothing too important. J-just some personal...business, yeah business."

Shepard could tell from his tone that it wasn't related to his nightmares and smiled mischievously, "What kind of business? I heard you and Jack had a bit of a scuffle this morning. Did she finally use her biotic power and kick your ass."

Her attempt to rile the big man works as he huffs like a bull, "Hell no! And she never will beat me, not unless I'm already shot to shit."

Shepard and Garrus laugh at the big man as she was able to properly ruffle his feathers. He groans and facepalms the front of his helmet, "I'll tell you some other time Shepard, alright?"

The commander's laugh dies down and her joyful smile rests on her lips, "Sure thing Carmine."

Garrus calms himself and looks to the flustered Carmine brother, "Speaking of talking later, we never finished our conversation before you set out for Horizon."

The gear nodded thankfully to him as his form relaxed a bit, "Oh yeah, what was it you wanted to talk about Garrus?"

The turian lets a small smile show on his face, "Was your armor as effective in your world as it is in ours?"

The gear takes a moment to slide his hand down the beaten material of his chest armor, letting his fingerless gauntlet rest on his grub killer paint job. He takes a second to think, smirking as Shepard looks toward him eagerly awaiting his answer as she always did. The gleam of curiosity in her icy blue eyes never failed to make his lips twitch upward.

"A little bit. Maybe you got lucky and a bullet ricocheted off you every once and a while. Other than that most of our gear got shredded by the grubs. It's partly why we adopted some of their weapons." Carmine answers with a small pat on his armor before pulling his hand away.

They hear Shepard hum, obviously deep in thought as she rubs her chin. Garrus chuckles, "Heh, what's got your gears turning Shepard?"

She squints a bit as her brain works to make a coherent sentence, "From what you've told me your weapons were already really effective. Why didn't anyone try and focus more on your armor instead?"

Carmine makes a curious noise and scratches one of the claw marks on the front of his faceplate, "Good question. I'm pretty sure I'm one of the only gear's who customized their equipment. I added reinforced plating around the top to avoid getting scalped. A precaution that got pushed onto me the hard way."

He points to the dent, "And surprisingly it worked a few times. I'm sure if someone had put their mind to it we could've had better armor. Hell, that's all in the past now. I doubt anyone back home would be working on new armor after everything that happened. Everyone is probably rebuilding."

Shepard hums again appeased by the answer. She looks to the familiar dent and decides to raise another question, "So how did you get that dent anyhow? We have a bit until we reach the surface of the planet if you don't mind."

Carmine smirks at her, 'Always trying to dig deeper. Fair enough, I guess it couldn't hurt.'

The gear rests his forearms on his thighs, "You two want the short or the long story?"

Garrus speaks first, "Well I'm sure Shepard would enjoy hearing the long version, same as me. But how much time do we really have?"

The pilot answers, having overheard most of the conversation, "Sorry to interrupt but we've got about twenty minutes till the drop. Since the geth are swarming the initial drop zone we've had to make adjustments."

Shepard looks to Carmine, "Will that be enough time?"

The gear smiles wide at the childlike enthusiasm Shepard displayed and shrugs his shoulders, "Probably not."

---

Baird was talking Cole's ear off as their King Raven started its descent toward the ground, "This is my town. Cougars territory. Just trust the train baby!" Cole said in his usual joyful tone.

Baird sighed and continued to argue, "Well as much as I'd like to just blindly trust you here. How do you know that there will actually be supplies around? Not to mention our last interaction with the stranded didn't end so well."

Cole smiled at the blonde, "Come on Damon, you know that was different. Clay rescued our asses didn't he?"

Baird nods and sighs defeatedly, "Yeah, he did, and I guess with all of us together people would think twice before fucking with us. You know what? Fuck it, let's see what this place has to offer I guess."

Sam sat across from the silent Carmine brother as he rested his lancer in his lap, "You've been awfully quiet Carmine."

The big man scoffs and motions toward Baird, "Well someone has to be with Baird yapping all the time." Baird looks back to the elder Carmine with a glare.

"Hey I'm not the one who went all murder crazy back-" Cole smacks the blonde on the back of his head and shoots him a disapproving look. Carmine seemed unfazed by it though.

"Best you don't poke the bear Damon." Cole warms with a playful glare.

Sam and Cole chuckle, "I can gag him if you'd like, be my treat." Sam says as the pair stands with the others.

Carmine shakes his head, Sam catches a snippet of his laughter and smiles. It bothered him how little he cared about killing all those stranded. Of course he rationalized it to being so they couldn't hurt his friends or any more people, but a part of him truly enjoyed it.

The gears touch down on solid ground and Cole waves to the Raven pilot as he flies away. Carmine looks at the damaged city and hums, "Always wanted to see you play when I was a kid Cole. I bet Hanover was nice before the war."

The squad walks across the dying grass and onto the street. Passing the husks of a few destroyed cars, the metal hunks being nothing more than a reminder of what life used to be back before the war.

Cole walks backward as he turns to face Sam and Carmine at the back of formation, "I didn't know the Grub Killer was a fan. You want a picture?"

Sam revels in the laugh that rustles Carmine's chest armor as he waves the thrashball star off, "If you find a working camera then maybe."

Cole claps his hands together and shoots the pair finger guns before slipping his lancer into his hands to mirror the rest of the squad. Baird shakes his head, "Keep your eyes peeled people. We don't know what's skittering around here."

Carmine groans, "What, scared that some polyps are going to show up?"

Baird stops and swiftly turns, jabbing a finger into the big man's chest armor, "You might think you're a walking tank, but you're not. Those little fuckers can easily tear grown men apart! Of course I'm scared they'll show up."

Carmine pushed the blonde's hand off him and snickers, "Well then I'll protect you Goldilocks."

Baird sighs and shakes his head, "Whatever. I'm the only one focused on self preservation here so let's get going. After you, portable cover."

The blonde steps aside and motions for the muscular gear to walk past him. Carmine complies and takes the front with Cole. The two take a healthy lead and while Clayton skims his eyes across the buildings and wide cracks in the ground for any signs of movement, he talks to Cole, "What's up Baird's ass today?"

Cole nudges the slightly taller man's elbow with the butt of his lancer, "He's just paranoid. You know how he gets when we're back on land."

Carmine nods and tightens his hands on his gun as he catches movement along the top of a large gate. It seemed like this was one of the stranded communities native to the area.

"Movement on the wall." Carmine informs his team and they all ready themselves.

A bright light flashes down at them and blinds all but Carmine. His eyes are able to adjust to the light as he points his lancer toward the sounds of the man's voice as it shouts out to them.

"Put your weapons down and leave!"

Cole motions for Carmine to lower his rifle as he starts speaking, "Hey my man! Safety's on!"

The spotlight shuts off and the gears wander over to the front of the gate, a dirty looking man with a goatee and beanie leans on the rusted balcony overlooking the front.

Cole speaks first, "We're just looking for some folks to trade with around here. Could really use some food."

"Well we don't have any food. And it's not like we would trade it with you COG assholes anyway." The man retorts and Baird sighs.

Carmine hears the man start to sensually groan though, and he catches a whiff of arousal on the air as the man speaks up again, "Her though," he points toward Sam, "I'll give you a side of bacon for her."

Carmine growls low to himself, remembering all too well what happened to the last stranded camp that decided to fuck with his friends, let alone what happened with Sam. Baird comes up and grabs Cole's shoulder, "Make the deal Cole, I haven't had bacon in six months."

Carmine forced his anger away, filling his mind with thoughts of crispy strips of bacon to distract from wanting to put a bullet in the creepy stranded and stop his desire to punch the blonde genius.

"Ohhh bacon." He mutters.

Sam shoots him an incredulous look and he shrugs, "What? Not like I'd let them get their hands on you. I love bacon."

Sam scoffs and hides the small smile on her face. Cole shakes his head at the pair and looks up to the stranded on the gate, "Yeah we'll pass! But if you know of any other communities in the area, could you point us in the right direction?"

The stranded lets out a sinister laugh and pulls a lever, "Sure thing, there's a camp on the other side of the supermarket, and at the old stadium. There's a shit ton of glowies in between us and them, but that shouldn't be a problem for you hairy assed heroes."

A sheet metal door slides open and reveals a path forward, "Thanks my man!" Cole yells up to him, faking a smile as he catches the man staring at Sam.

The squad make their way toward the opening but the stranded makes one last comment, "You sure you wouldn't want to stay here sweet cheeks? I could show you a really nice time."

Carmine stepped protectively in front of her, "Say one more thing to her and I will climb up there to break every bone in your body!"

The stranded sneers at the muscular man and disappears behind the top of the wall. Carmine huffs like an angry bull, not willing to turn his back on the stranded. Sam grabs a hold of the back of his armor, attempting to drag him back to formation with a hefty grunt of effort.

The gear rolls his eyes and moves back with her at the rear, "You say all that to get back in my good graces or something Carm?"

The gear feels a bit of red come to his face and neck, "N-no. I just don't like how that creep was looking at you."

Sam grinned and nudged his side with her elbow, "Well maybe I liked how he was looking at me."

Cole snickered and tapped Baird's arm, who immediately began to watch from his peripheral, both enjoying when Sam would tease the oldest Carmine. As if on cue the burly gear's muscles started to tense and steam up, "Don't say shit like that. I know you're just trying to get under my skin."

Sam waves away some of the vapors and rubs her shoulder against her best friend's bare arm. His warmth soaked through her with their skin to skin contact. She loved how easy it could be to mess with him, "No really. That bloke had a real rugged look to him. Almost as hot as you Clayton."

Carmine groans as the steam quits rising from his skin. He gently shoves her away from him, "Stop."

She steps in front of him, walking backward as they make their way toward the nicer part of the town, "Oh yeah? You gonna make me?"

Sam's playful tone makes the gear smile a bit, "I will if you don't shut the hell up darlin'."

Sam blushes as her eyes narrow and she stops altogether, making the big man halt just before he knocks into her, "You've earned a real Kaskuran ass whooping. Just you wait till we get back to the ship Clay."

Clayton doesn't process her tone as it goes from angry to rather sultry, and steps closer to her to press their chest armor together. Sam smirks as his helmet's lights shine down to her, "You're on."

Cole clears his throat and the pair separate with matching blushes. Cole laughs a bit at the two acting like teenagers caught in the middle of something. Baird rolls his eyes and slaps Cole's massive shoulder, "It was just getting good. She was about to-"

Sam quickly moves and punches the blonde in the sweet spot under the armor on his gut. The veteran gear lets out a pained oof, "If you know what's good for ya, you'll be quiet blondie."

Baird was about to protest but saw the death in her eyes and quickly straightened back out, rubbing the spot she punched. Cole and Carmine share a laugh as the squad continues.

Carmine thinks out loud, "Well those guys were real anti-social."

Baird scoffs, "I think the word you're looking for is assholes."

The elder Carmine grunts in agreement as the squad makes their way further. They come upon a big house and Sam sneaks a look at Carmine, 'Heh, this'll get him riled up for sure.'

Sam lets out a small ooo and smirks, "Look at that Baird. I can see me and you, a couple of kids, maybe a dog."

The blonde's blue goggles shift on his head as he shakes it and scoffs, "Yeah sure, and I'll make sure to bring my big bottle of cyanide pills."

Sam snickers, "Saves me from poisoning your dinner."

She looks to Carmine and he's back to being quiet, not a lick of steam coming from him. She pouts, her attempt to rile the man having almost a completely opposite effect as his ideas of Sam being interested in Baird are reaffirmed.

Delta 2 continues in relative silence as they approach a small playground. The ground starts to rumble and the veteran gears raise their weapons, ready to blast through whatever was about to show up.

In a flash a lambent stalk burst from under one of the playground's merry go rounds. The massive metal debris flies toward them. Clay snags Baird under his arm and tugs him to the left. The large metal thing smashes into the ground where Baird was just standing. Nearly hitting Clayton instead.

"Holy shit, nice save Clay." Baird says with a pat to the big man's arm. The gears get into cover as the stalk begins to form sacks and spit out fresh lambent. A larger sack spews a drudge toward them.

The drudge roars at them, imulsion fumes frothing from its deformed mouth. The team looks on in horror as the beast mutates, it's arms growing to extreme lengths, "Holy shit, that's a whole new world record in ugly!" Cole yells out.

Carmine pops up and easily tears off one of the appendages with a few lancer rounds, "Good thing bullets still kill ugly."

The squad shared a laugh and the gears started tearing through the playground. The battle rages into the street at the other side and a small crowd of lambent wretches rush them.

Sam decides to swap to her longshot in order to deal with the last visible drone who is currently firing a hammerburst at her teammates. She easily clips the drone's head and smiles as it pops all the way at the other end of the street. The headless corpse falls to the ground into a heaping pile of bubbling imulsion.

However as Sam reloads a wretch leaps at her and she braces for an imulsion bath. But it doesn't come as Carmine slipped his arm in front of her. The wretch clamps its molten teeth into his left forearm as imulsion spills out onto his skin.

Sam acts quickly and draws her snub nosed pistol, popping the creature in the head. Carmine grunts as he heaves the wretch into an incoming group of three. They explode into a mess of yellow that starts to decay the concrete as it fizzles out.

Sam is immediately on Carmine, checking his wound. The teeth marks were surprisingly not very deep. And to her shock the imulsion that leaked all over his skin didn't leave any serious burns as it turned into fumes and disappeared.

Carmine roughly tugs his hand back. The burly gear was eager to kill more lambent, "I'm fine, let's get moving."

Sam looks to Cole and Baird as Carmine stalks ahead. They share her look of concern, "What the hell was that? How did he not get burnt?" Baird says with obvious bewilderment in his voice.

Cole shrugs and the trio move to catch up as they hear Carmine yelling in the distance, "Come get me!"

The following gunshots made Sam triple her effort to reach her best friend. As they round the block they're surprised to see the big man surrounded by lambent drone corpses and splattered in yellow.

They look at him with mild shock and he shrugs, "What?"

---

"We're closing in on the drop commander. Sorry to interrupt Carmine." The pilot says with a mild blush as she turns back to focus on the controls.

Shepard's sigh is laced with disappointment, she was very much enjoying Carmine's story. Not that she didn't want to rescue her friend from the Geth but she also was extremely invested in learning about Carmine's past.

"Ah, just when it was getting good. Those lambent you mentioned seem like real pains in the ass. You get too close and they could explode to spew that imulsion stuff on you." Garrus says with a grimace.

Carmine shrugs, "I didn't really care. Imulsion never really bothered me too much. Sure the shit burnt, but it's just pain."

Shepard looks at him with worry. Her conversation with Doctor Chakwas replaying in her head as Carmine and Garrus discuss the lambent. Carmine catches her look of worry and he can't help but ask, "Hey Shepard, everything alright? You look like you just watched me gut a grub."

He snickers as she shakes away the worry from her face, now wasn't the place nor the time to mention his condition.

"Nothing Carmine. Just wondering how the rest of your story is going to go. Seems you got hurt a bunch back in your world too." Shepard says with an upbeat tone as she stands by the shuttle door.

The two men join her. Garrus on her left, and Carmine on her right. The turian chuckles, "Carmine getting injured? Who would have guessed?"

The large man rolls his helmet-covered eyes and reaches over Shepard's head to jab a pointer finger into Garrus's shoulder armor, "I can take more damage than you can ya skinny bastard." The gear's slightly raised voice easily echoed through the small shuttle.

Garrus shot the gear a look, his eyebrow raised slightly, "I don't know if you've seen my handsome face or not. But I can guarantee I know how to take a proper beating."

Shepard looked to both of them sternly, making them quit their back and forth with an authoritative speech, "Hey, knock it off. We're here to save Tali'Zorah. Apparently her and her team have been rather busy since I last saw them, and have drawn the attention of the geth. We have to act fast to try and save as many of the quarians as possible. Saving Tali is priority number one. You know why Garrus, but for you Carmine just know she's a personal friend to both me and Garrus."

The gear nods and grabs a hold of his lancer eagerly, "I kind of assumed as much. You three brought down that Saren grub at the Citadel after all. Let's go get her."

Shepard glances toward Carmine and smirks, 'Never fail to put a pep in my step big man.'

The doors open and the sweltering heat of the planet hits Shepard and Garrus like a hot sauce tsunami. It takes them a moment to adjust to the serious temperature. Carmine however is doing just fine, even reveling in the heat, "Ah, reminds me of home."

Shepard and Garrus look at him with bewildered eyes as they already have beads of sweat forming on their skin, and soaking into their clothes. Carmine lets out a small chuckle as a small bug skitters into the direct sunlight and bursts into flames.

Shepard shakes her head free of her shock and decides to warn her companions, "Direct exposure to the sun will damage your shields and most likely cause some damage if you're exposed to it for long."

Carmine looks at her and nods, choosing to heed her warning without a second thought. She looks at him, almost begging for him to oppose her, she narrows her eyes and starts off into the nearby ruins, 'Something isn't right. He's been following way too many orders as of late. Maybe he's fully recognizing me as a leader.'

Shepard is pulled from her thoughts as the robotic tones of the geth could be heard up ahead. A small platoon of them surrounds a few dead quarians. Shepard cursed under her breath as a thick drop of sweat dripped from her forehead, "Shit. Those must be soldiers from Tali's team. We have to take those geth out."

Garrus lines up his rifle with the glowing bulb of the geth wielding a rocket launcher, "Just say the word Shepard."

Carmine's hands start to shake from the raw excitement of getting to tear the metal beings to shreds. He barely got to kill last mission, and he was just dying to get a taste of these new metal grubs, 'Come on Cherry! Pull the fucking trigger or I'm going out there wether you like it or not!'

Shepard looks to him and realizes just how much he's holding himself back as steam slowly starts to rise from his thick arms. His lancer twitched in his grasp as he hunkered himself down with them. Little did she know that every robotic noise, every metallic creak when they moved, and even the sight of their eye bulbs made the gear feel a burning fire in his chest. The desire to protect his team by any means necessary was that fire. And the heat only furthered that feeling.

The fire burnt in his chest, threatening to spill over in the form of his insubordination. Followed by a torrent of gunfire and violence. No doubt finalized with a ton of dead geth and punch to his face or arm from the commander.

Luckily it didn't come to that, and Shepard smirked as she edged Carmine's rage to the near boiling point, "Garrus you provide sniper cover. Carmine and I will take them head on. That good with you big guy?"

Carmine's glowing eyes snapped over to look at her, the glowing blue of his armor's lights shone down on her as he hastily shook his head yes. Knowing that if he spoke he would no doubt be screaming at the top of his lungs.

Shepard chuckles and reaches up to boop the dent on his helmet, "And I expect to hear the rest of that story at some point. So no dying on me out here. That goes for you too, Garrus."

Garrus grumbles and waves a dismissing hand at her as he dials in on the rocket launcher geth. Carmine nods again and Shepard smiles warmly at him, "Good, now let's get out there."

As Shepard and Carmine quickly vault their cover Garrus lets his round loose, smashing into the rocket geth's eye bulb with a satisfying crack. The white fluid sprays from the wound and the geth falls dead.

Shepard fires at the nearest trooper geth, tearing through its shield with a few well placed shots. The geth almost clips her with a shot from its plasma shotgun but Shepard dodges it effectively, firing a tight burst of rounds into its chest.

Carmine has taken a hefty stride in front of her and is currently sawing one of the larger hunter geth in half. His manic laughter is easily heard over the sounds of gunfire and robotic chirping, "Not as fleshy as I'd like! But killing something is better than killing nothing!"

He finishes sliding the blades through the geth's metal chassis and as it slumps to the ground in two pieces. Next he fires a small torrent of rounds into geth huddled in cover to protect from Shepard and Garrus. His bullets ripped through them easier than they would a normal fleshy human or alien. And the white blood that splashed across the ground certainly left a lot to be desired in Carmine's mind.

His dissatisfaction with the kills took up his line of thinking, and he barely had time to realize how long he was in direct sunlight as the small bar in his view started blinking. A cloaked geth fires its plasma shotgun into his back and shatters his shield, nudging him a bit in the process.

Clayton smiles sadistically as his rage surrounds him and turns to see the faint outline of the geth. He fires into its legs and pained electronic buzzing emits from the now visible metal being. Carmine snatches it by the throat, or at least the bundle of wires that connect to its long head. He raises it up and cocks his head as it doesn't even struggle, "Ugh you're no fun."

Carmine's dejected tone ends with a smash from his helmet into the geth's head. The bulb easily smashed open from the savage headbutt and sprayed the front of the gear in the bright, white liquid, 'I guess white fluid is another thing we can add to the list of things I didn't think I'd ever be covered in. I'm glad I didn't say that out loud, that sounds awful.'

The trio clean up the remaining geth, and Carmine lets one try and crawl away, "Ha now this is more like it. Go on grub, crawl!"

His voice booms throughout the area and Shepard smirks, deciding to make her way over to test out a move she'd been working on. She only practiced this specifically to perform on the geth, she'd never do something like this to an organic being.

As Carmine is about to finish the geth off Shepard slips past him and kicks the metal thing onto its back. She stands over it and does her best to replicate what she's seen Carmine do numerous times. She brings the heel of her boot down hard on the geth's head and crushes it. The white fluid splashes onto her leg and it's ruined head lay in a pool of wiring, crushed glass, and metal scraps.

Carmine's eyes widen and he stands there shocked as Shepard steps off the metal corpse and rests the stock of her rifle on her hip. She looks at him and winks, "How'd I do?"

The gear's hands clench on his lancer as he straightens out, "Amazing...I-I mean, y-you uhh. You did good, yeah." She chuckles as the gear stumbles over his words, the rage induced steam that surrounded him fizzling out. An apparent blush rising to his cheeks and neck.

Garrus comes up behind the pair and snickers, "Alright you two, enough flirting." He says jokingly.

Shepard's eyes widen and she shakes her head, "I-I wasn't flirting with him. I just wanted to show him a move I'd been working on!" Shepard desperately tries to defend.

Garrus smirks and goes for the throat, "I bet you had another couple moves in mind Jane." He bounces his eyebrows a few times and Shepard blushes profusely.

Carmine decided to step in, "Well even if she did, if they're as badass as watching you curb stomp one of these tin cans then I wouldn't mind seeing them." Shepard's blush deepened at the oblivious Carmine brother. Garrus broke into laughter and patted the big man on the shoulder.

The gear tilted his head in confusion, he couldn't tell why Shepard was so embarrassed nor why Garrus was laughing, "Don't worry, I'll tell you when you're older."

Carmine rolled his eyes, "Oh please I've seen and heard enough bad shit to last a lifetime. That does make me a little curious though. How old are you two?"

Carmine's question makes the pair look at him with sympathetic smiles as they continue onward. The gear doesn't like the look very much and nervously scratches his helmet. Shepard answers first, "Well I would be around thirty one, but the procedure Cerberus put my body through de-aged me a bit. Physically I'm more around your age now, Carm."

Clayton nods with a small smile as Garrus takes over, "If you didn't already know, a few other species like myself and quarians age similar to humans. I turned twenty nine just before you and I joined up with Shepard."

Carmine rubs the back of his helmet as his lancer still dangles from his right hand, "I did know, but I appreciate you mentioning it Garrus."

"Anytime big guy." The turian nods to the gear as he tweaks his rifle scope.

Shepard's lips can't help themselves as they turn upward. Happy that the gear had felt comfortable to ask these types of questions. More so that he saw them as his friends. She can't help but ask, "I already know how old you are Carm, but when exactly is your birthday? You had said you didn't know exactly how old you were when you got here. So I'm curious."

The gear snickers and shrugs, "I guess I just never bother to look at my tags anymore. The info should be on them. Give me a second." The gear uses his free hand to slip his Cog tags out from where they were tucked in the collar of his armor.

"Uhh, May 15th." Shepard gasps, startling the big man as she turns to him.

"That's only a month away, Carmine!" Shepard exclaims, the excitement of his upcoming birthday making her nearly disregard her surroundings. Garrus shakes his head and chuckles as the big man nervously scratches the back of his helmet.

"Heh, might want to keep your voice down a bit Shepard. We're still in enemy territory. It's just another day, nothing special." She pouts at him before turning. He finds it incredibly adorable as she grumbles to herself in the front. Garrus rolls his eyes and smiles at the pair as they continue on.

They run into another group of geth who have gunned down another set of quarians. They set themselves behind cover overlooking the area.

"Shit, they're all dead down there. This isn't good Shepard." Garrus says as he watches a geth hunter execute the last live quarian in the area.

"Bastards, check if Tali is down there with them. We aren't leaving until we know where Tali is. Are you two ready?" Shepard says as she pulls out her own sniper rifle.

Carmine eagerly nods, "Those metal grubs won't know what hit them. Game plan?"

Shepard nods back to him, "Garrus and I will provide you with sniper support. Go show them what happens when you fuck with our friends."

The gear's signature sadistic smile creeps onto his lips, 'Oh now she's just egging me on.'

Carmine rushes down from the overlook and slaps himself into cover on the ground level, "He'd better watch himself, there are a lot more sunspots around here." Garrus says as he finds a target.

Shepard mirrors him and hums, "I'm sure he'll be fine. The heat doesn't even do anything to him. It will strip his shields though. Be careful big guy."

Carmine shoots them a thumbs up as he eagerly awaits the go ahead. Garrus and Shepard chuckle at his impressive hearing before settling back into their sniper nest.

Garrus smiled at his old friend, "Seems you've got a lot more faith in Carmine now. Letting him go down there and take on the geth face to face."

Shepard shrugged as she sighted in on a rocket launcher wielding geth, "Well he's earned a little faith. He's gone out of his way numerous times to protect us, I think he deserves a little time to do what he likes without much interference from us."

Garrus chuckled, the vibration to his voice making Shepard smile, "Glad to hear you feel that way Shepard. Although I'm sure you've got way more to say about how great he-"

Shepard decides to interrupt the turian and takes the first shot, her round cracking a normal get in the back of the head, dropping it instantly. She looks at Garrus with a cocky smirk, "How about you focus more on killing geth, Archangel." She says smugly, making the turian narrow his eyes playfully.

Carmine stood from cover and immediately started tearing into the group of three in front of him. The powerful blasts of his lancer tore through the geth like they were nothing. He laughed as they crumbled to pieces under the sustained gunfire.

He heard the robotic noises from a hunter geth and quickly reached back, grabbing it by the neck wires. His right hand still shot his lancer, keeping the geth that was in cover suppressed. Carmine tosses the now de-cloaked hunter over his cover into the sunlight. The gear follows and feels the raw heat smash into him. The blue bar lowers and lowers as Carmine reloads, sauntering up to the hunter.

It places weight on its left arm for stability to try and stand but Carmine easily crashes his boot down onto the appendage. He laughs a deep, menacing laugh as the hunter falls weakly onto its other arm for support, "Aww what's the matter little baby? Did I hurt you?"

Shepard growls as she domes another geth, placing a finger to her ear, "Carmine, get out of the sunlight! Your shields are going to get fried."

She doesn't get a response, as the gear drops a boot onto the hunter's back and snags it's other arm. He easily wrenches it from its body, the white fluid spraying from the torn robotic limb. He groans, "Man, you fuckers don't even beg. What's the fun in killing grubs that don't feel fear!"

A drop ship fires missiles that fly over Clayton's head and smash into some stone pillars, blocking one of the paths forward, "God dammit now I want to blow shit up. Note to self Clay, ask for grenades."

The gear realizes he's been thinking out loud and shakes his head, moving to easily curb stomp the geth and wiping a stray bit of sweat from his neck. The sun was starting to heat him up quite a bit. But he felt as fresh and blood hungry as ever. He notices his shield isn't recharging as he takes cover in the shade.

"Oh boy. Shepard is going to kill me." He chuckles, thinking of how she'll react knowing he didn't have his shield for the rest of the mission.

Of course the burly gear wasn't going to tell her until after everything was said and done, but hey, that's not going to backfire on him surely. The trio quickly wipe out the rest of the geth with brutal efficiency. By the time the other two get down to Carmine he's sufficiently soaked with sweat from how often he went back into the sunlight.

He slips his helmet off and shakes his head a bit, long strands of hair were held together by his sweat even as they whip around from the shaking. Shepard and Garrus chuckle at him as they approach, "I didn't know we were bringing a hound with us Shepard."

Carmine narrows his eyes at the turian and bites his inner cheek, "Yeah yeah, laugh it up." The gear says as he slips his helmet back on. Shepard lets a disappointed sigh fall from her lips as he covers his face, wiping a stray bead of sweat from her own head. Garrus notices and nudges her, she looks to him and glares as he bounces his eyebrows.

As they make their way over to the group of fallen quarians Carmine can't help but make a dig at Garrus, "You're lucky you're almost as tall as me or I'd nail you into the ground with a hammer."

The turian chuckles, "Well you're still taller Carm. Turian women tend to be a bit more your size though. Maybe I can hook you up when we go for that drink."

Carmine laughs and playfully slaps his alien friend's shoulder armor. Shepard mildly glares at Garrus, 'Oh you'd better not try and set him up with anyone you scar faced prick.'

A look that was not lost on the turian as he seemed to start sweating a bit more than usual. Carmine hears a radio and quickly moves one of the bodies to expose it. Shepard nods and taps his arm as she bends to snag the quarian tech.

"If any marines are still alive this is Kal'Reegar. We need to secure Tali'Zorah at all costs, and regroup at my coordinates."

Shepard looks to her team and they nod, she speaks to the device, "Kal this is commander Shepard of the Normandy. My team and I are here to assist."

Carmine gives her a thumbs up and she playfully rolls her eyes at him. The radio buzzes a few times before Kal speaks again, "Good to hear from you commander. I'm assuming you understand the situation then. My team's goal was to ensure Tali'Zorah completes her mission. She has unearthed vital information about the planet's sun. Our base camp should be just north of your position."

Shepard looks to the stone pillars that blocked the way. It all looked far too heavy to move, and she didn't want Carmine to get hurt trying to move it so before he could even suggest a thing she decided to respond to Kal'Reegar, "Understood, there's some rubble blocking our way. Any suggestions for clearing it?"

Carmine pipes up immediately, "I could probably move enough of it to get us through. Might take a little bit though." Shepard glares at him and he takes the hint, pulling out his boltok to spin it and whistle.

"There was an excavation team stationed here at one point. I'm sure you could find some mining charges to pave the way." Shepard rubs her chin as she looks to a path that would lead deeper into the site.

"Sounds good to us. What's your current status?" Shepard notices the geth drop ships flying toward the area ahead and grows worried.

"We're alright for now. But the geth are seemingly endless. I'll need your support soon, commander." The radio buzzes as Kal speaks. His situation makes Carmine clench his free hand in anger. So many had already died today, he'd make sure his team wasn't counted among their ranks.

"You stay safe out there Kal." Shepard links the radio channel to her omni-tool before dropping the device.

"Keelah' se'lai commander."

Carmine holsters his revolver and cracks his neck, "Hell yes, I was itching to blow something up today." Shepard shared the enthusiasm and offered him a fist bump, loving a good boom herself every now and again. Carmine eagerly bangs their knuckles, armor on armor.

The trio make their way toward a new section of the dig site and find the camp where the mining charges are supposed to be at. The camp is unfortunately full of geth though. The team makes their way up behind a large truck and Shepard halts them, preferring to scout out the enemy first.

"Shit, there's at least a couple dozen. Mixed units, which means regular troopers, hunters, and those rocket geth too. I don't like this, but we need to get to Tali. Everyone split once the shooting starts and search for those charges, keep your radio tuned to our frequency." Carmine wasn't super comfortable letting them off on their own.

"Uhh, Shepard I don't know if it's such a good idea to split with this many grubs running around." Shepard looked at him with a bit of shock, he usually loved running off to rampage on his own. And it made her heart beat a bit faster knowing he was concerned for his team.

"We don't have much of a choice, Carmine. Every minute that's wasted could be fatal." Clayton hated that she was right. He'd been involved in a rescue mission before. Unfortunately he knew just how precious those extra minutes were.

Garrus and Shepard gave him reassuring looks as they heard him grunt, obviously not in favor of splitting up, "You just focus on you big man. Get out there and lay some hurt on them. You know we'll be alright."

Carmine sighs in defeat and nods, "Fine."

Shepard smiles sweetly at him and he looks away, grumbling to himself, 'Goddammit why does she have to be all cute about it?'

Garrus splits from them almost immediately after, taking a sneaky few steps around the opposite side of the truck. Shepard is preparing to go from the left side but can't as a hunter stares close by.

BANG*

Said hunter gets its metal head torn off by the elder Carmine's boltok which he quickly trades for his gnasher, "Come on grubs! Come To Papa!"

Shepard looks for him, only to catch him leap off the top of the truck and charge head on into the small horde of geth, "Hah, go get em' Clayton." She says under her breath as she takes down the first geth in her path. She had confidence in him, and not just because he was enhanced by some kind of super parasite. Well partly because of that. She was still worried for his mental health, but his physical conditioning and abilities were unmatched during a gunfight.

Carmine fires shell after shell into the metal grubs in front of him. Their shots are directed at his chest, and fortunately for Clay his armor withstands the shots like a champ. Carmine leaps onto a hunter as it tries to cloak near him, the sunlight bears down heavily on the gear as he mounts it and fires into the hunter's head, blasting bits of metal and white all over the rocky ground.

A few precision shots from the geth behind him snake under his armor and the biting pain forces him to get to cover. He reloads his gnasher, noticing another drop ship coming in and presses a finger to his ear, "Fuck, Shepard we got more grubs incoming. Have you two found the charges yet?"

Shots smash off his cover as he trades his gnasher for his lancer and gets to work suppressing and shredding the geth from distance. A small bit of blood leaks from the flesh wound on his side, and Carmine catches sight of it making a small puddle beneath him as he goes to reload. The big man growls as Shepard and Garrus pop into his helmet

"I've managed to find one. I think Shepard is close to another." Garrus says as gunfire echoes during the brief message.

"Yeah I am. Unfortunately I have about three hunters keeping me pinned, and EDI has informed me the geth are sending more reinforcements." Carmine easily forgets the tiny pain in his side and quickly scouts around, finding Shepard behind another vehicle, the hunters slowly advancing on her. She tries to snap out to shoot and immediately gets forced back down.

Carmine growls to himself, 'You're getting complacent, go help her. Now.' Clayton shrugs off his thought and rolls out of cover to dispatch a handful of geth near him with neatly placed shots. He charges toward Shepard's cover.

Shepard hadn't realized there were four hunters, one of which was invisible and snuck up right behind her. It blasted her, nearly knocking her over from the force of the plasma shots. Her shield ate the damage but couldn't take another direct hit like that so soon.

She didn't have to worry about that though as Carmine rolled in front of her to catch the second shot, his lack of shields making it easy for the plasma rounds to slice through him. Shepard quickly lets her avenger loose and lights the hunter up as Carmine raises his lancer to gun down the approaching hunters.

He offers his knuckles as they take cover besides one another, "You know I gotcha Cherry."

She looks at him with grateful eyes before catching the blood leak from his left bicep. He was sweating profusely now, but he seemed to be thriving in the hot environment. It honestly made her feel a bit better knowing she wasn't the only one sweating up a storm. But it would've probably helped to be sleeveless like the big guy.

She bangs knuckles with him, "Appreciated as always. You alright Carm? That shot looked nasty, and you're bleeding a bit. How come your shield didn't block it?"

The gear laughed deep and heartily, a sound that made the commander's legs clench a bit, "I'm doing just fine. Must have been when I ran through the sun just a second ago. Now let's finish off these grubs and grab that last charge."

Shepard nods with a smile and snags one of her custom grenades, a crazy look coming to her eye as she looks at the rippling muscle of the gear who is blind firing his rifle one handed, "Carm do me a favor and toss this reaaally hard."

Carmine cocks his head as he ducks further into cover. He looks to her and notices she's holding a decently sized, orange colored cylinder. The crazed look in her eye makes a shiver run down his spine and he realizes she's holding a grenade, "Inferno grenade, courtesy of a little tinkering I do in my spare time."

Clayton's eyes widened, 'Holy shit, she's a pyromaniac. That makes her even hotter, heh. Fire puns.' He takes the grenade with a bow of his head, "And here I was thinking you couldn't surprise me anymore. You've gotta hook me up with some boom before we go on the next mission."

Shepard laughs as the big guy primes the grenade, "Oh trust me Carm. I'm full of surprises. Now chuck it, I want to see those geth burn. If you kill more than three of them I'll make sure you get some explosives to work with."

Carmine smiles wide and makes a mental note of how much Shepard seemed to dislike the geth. Of course he didn't judge her, his whole life revolves around killing things he hates, and having the best time doing it. Honestly, it made him feel even more attached to her, knowing she had her own rational hatred of something like he did.

He pulls back and launches the grenade like a bullet into a group of four, the fire spews from the impact point and sticks to the metal, melting them down and killing them. Shepard's eyes held a childlike wonder as the fire raged on.

Carmine taps her shoulder to get her out of the stupor, she nods to him and the pair meet up with Garrus before heading toward the last charge. The reoccurring dropships spit a few geth in their path. A new unit catches Carmine's eye.

"Shit they have destroyers, keep your distance unless you want to get burnt!" Shepard yells out as they each take their respective cover.

Carmine chuckles, "Oh I can't wait to get my hands on those new grubs." Shepard shakes her head, knowing her warning didn't even register to the big man. As he goes to charge at them she reaches out and grabs his forearm.

His helmet snaps to her and he cocks his head in confusion, "Oh no you don't mister. You're already bleeding. We can deal with them from back here."

Carmine grunts and raises his lancer, "Whatever you say Shepard."

Shepard raised an eyebrow at the large man as he fired from their cover, popping the fuel tank on one of the destroyers. The geth scrambled to try and close the leak before being engulfed in a small explosion, killing the other two geth beside it.

"Oh I've got plenty of experience with you fuel tank motherfuckers!" The gear yells as he gets back into cover, a round having scraped the upper side of his chest armor. Shepard and Garrus take notes, bringing down the powerful shields of the destroyers before targeting the fuel canisters on their backs.

With that method the small platoon sent to stop them was dealt with in no time, and the three approached a door leading to a storage room. Carmine stays outside to guard against more troops if they show up. He catches sight of yet another geth dropship and smiles, clenching his lancer tighter, "Come on grubs, it's an all you can kill buffet. And I'm real hungry." Shepard walks out and snorts a laugh at him, covering her mouth. His helmet snaps in her direction and a cherry red blush bleeds onto his face.

Garrus is snickering as he enjoys the sight of the commander resting her hand on the gear so she doesn't fall from her laughter, 'Good to see her smile so much. I'm sure I'll have to thank Carmine for that at some point.' Garrus thinks.

"Oh boy, how long did it take for you to cook that one up big guy?" Shepard says as she leans more heavily into the gear, thankfully not the side that had been grazed. He huffs and sharply jabs at her ribs with a strong finger. A squeaky laugh emits from the commander as she covers her mouth and shoots away from him.

She sneers at him and can basically see the smug look on his face through his helmet. She throws a punch into his slightly bloody left arm. She made sure not to hit his flesh wound. The gear simply chuckled and patted the top of her head. The pat didn't last long since Garrus cleared his throat to interrupt, but Shepard still enjoyed it as his calloused digits ruffled her red locks.

She found herself missing it as he pulled his hand back. His hands eagerly gripped his lancer, and Shepard smiled as she caught the red tint on his neck, "Well we've got the charges, let's head back and get to Kal as soon as possible." Shepard's command was met with two nods from her companions as the trio started jogging back toward the pillars.

That dropship Carmine spotted flew overhead as the trio made their way back into the mining camp. A large geth was shot from the ship with a few troopers as reinforcements. The much larger geth stood tall, much taller than Carmine. They grab cover and start taking out the smaller geth as Shepard shouts out, "It's a prime! Everyone stay down and don't get too close. Watch out for its cannon too."

Carmine's eyes widen at the sight of the giant geth. It reminded him of the massive locust from back home, "Holy shit, that thing is as big as a mauler! What is it made out of!?" He yells, his bullets seemingly doing nothing to the geth prime other than denting its metal chassis and pissing it off as it closes in on him.

Shepard and Garrus work quickly to dispatch the other geth in the area. But as they go to focus the prime it turns and blasts its pulse cannon at them, forcing them into cover as it decimates a nearby rocky structure. A small mechanical device shoots from the prime's shoulder and mounts on the ground facing Carmine.

Clay pokes his head out and the little mechanism turns into a turret, firing heavy slugs at his cover, "Oh shit." He mutters as a round smashes off his helmet. The heavy shot made his ears ring, further pissing off the gear. But what really got his blood pumping was when the prime targeted Shepard.

"Stay out of the range of the cannon, and keep away from it! It has thick armor on its chest so aim for the head or the legs!" Shepard barks out as the prime flips the vehicle she was hiding behind. She scrambles away as to not be crushed by the truck.

Carmine growls and pulls out his boltok, the turret stops firing at him and he quickly stands and fires the hand cannon, making the powerful little turret pop like a balloon. The prime's shining eye bulb turns to face Carmine as he vaults his cover and fires a couple accurate shots at the prime, "Come on you big metal prick! Fight someone your own size!"

Shepard uses the distraction to regroup with Garrus, who upon seeing her grabs a hold of her jet black armor and yanks her to cover. They were close to the path that led back to the pillars but the big guy was looking to square off in the open with the prime.

"Carmine, get out of there now! Nobody in recorded history has ever killed a prime one on one. We'll need your help to get to Tali." Shepard orders the gear as he cracks his neck. The prime raises its cannon and the gear quickly grabs his torque bow, priming and firing before the pulse cannon can fully charge. The bolt sticks into the cannon and explodes, knocking the twelve foot tall geth back a ways. The explosion kicked up a ton of dust, but Carmine easily spotted the glowing eye of the prime.

His muscles started to clench and burn as his thoughts filled with a memory of the monstrous locust back in his world. An ambush above ground where he'd seen butchers cleave his fellow gears in two and even eat wounded men, women, and children while they were still alive. The screams echo in his ears and Clay clips his bow on his back as his breathing goes heavy. He clutches his helmeted head in his hands as the pleas for help deafen him.

'No no no, they're dead. They aren't here, not now. You know they aren't here Clayton. We failed them...couldn't save them and now the same thing is going to happen to Shepard and Garrus. The grubs are going to tear them apart limb by limb while you watch. Just like that little girl.'

He knows he's losing himself, so before the darkness fully engulfs his view he makes a desperate attempt to warn his team, "Shep-Shepard. I can hear them, so much screaming, i-it's getting dark out here. That little girl died for nothing, nothing! This goddamn grub isn't walking away from me."

Shepard and Garrus share looks of worry as they hear the shift of Carmine's tormented voice bleed into raw hatred as it spills through the radio, "No Carmine I won't let you throw yourself away like this. I know you're strong, you're the strongest person I've ever met. Let us help, you aren't seeing things as they are and that's ok. Just let us help you."

The gear thrashes his head back and forth as his growling can be heard through the radio, "Private Carmine, answer me." Her plea falls on deaf ears as he stands from cover.

All he could see was the broken streets, and a girl who had been eaten alive by a butcher. She couldn't have been more than twelve. It was when he was still green, well before his brothers passed.

His squad was helping evacuate civilians from one of the neighboring towns. It was an ambush and the gear caught a round. His commanding officer had dragged him back to get it wrapped up. Clayton protested, wanting to save the little girl who had gotten split from the group. Her mother begged for anyone to go out and save her little girl.

He could've saved the girl if his commanding officer hadn't pulled him back. Carmine had thrown a smoke grenade to try and reach the girl in time. But instead she lays in tatters on the ground in front of him. He drops to his knees, tears pricking the corners of his eyes as his hands shake and hover over her mangled, bloody body. It had been the first time in his life that he'd ever seen a child's body torn apart like that. And unfortunately for him, it wouldn't be the last.

"I-I'm so sorry." He says weakly as he holsters his lancer. Heavy footsteps catch his attention and his head snaps up to catch the figure of the butcher starting to clamber through the settling smoke. Carmine's hovering hands clench tight, the shaking increasing tenfold.

He could feel the light breeze blow over the shot on his arm. The nippy air was biting at his wound. It was fall, and just the start of a series of battles that didn't go in the young Clayton Carmine's favor. Warping his view of the world.

"Meeeeeeat." The butcher's deep voice shakes the ground more than its footsteps as the elder Carmine stands and pulls his knife.

"You fucking monsters all deserve to die." He says through teeth clenched so hard he swore they would break. The massive locust revealed itself and swung a meaty hand with surprising speed toward him. He ducks it and jams the blade with as much force as he could muster into the beastly locust's chest.

The butcher grabbed him by the throat and held him up. The young gear struggled as his airway was being squeezed tight, 'Fight back! What are you doing! You're gonna just let this worthless grub take you out?!' You're a goddamn Carmine!'

Clayton growls and throws a punch with his left hand, the butcher snatched his forearm and clenched tight around it. Carmine felt his bones snap easily and he yelled out in pain as the sound of his marrow cracking echoed throughout the surrounding area.

Outside of Carmine's episode Shepard and Garrus watch in horror as the geth prime snaps Carmine's left forearm with little to no effort, "Carmine!" Shepard yells out as she aims her rifle and fires into the prime, trying to get it to drop the big man. The bones in his arm tore through his skin, and his blood sprayed onto the front of his armor.

Its glowing bulb turns to look at them and Carmine throws a surprisingly strong right hook that catches it on the side of the head. It stumbles with him in its grasp before beeping and front kicking the man. Carmine flies backward into a nearby truck and makes a massive dent in the vehicle.

His pained groans could be heard and Shepard couldn't stop herself from yelling out again, "Clayton!"

With his name yelled out with so much visceral emotion, Carmine comes back. He blinks hard and gasps as he falls out of his indent on the truck, "Augh, Jesus...What the hell keeps happening to me?" He goes to put weight on his arms and the fiery pain in his left forearm makes his eyes widen. More blood spurts from the appendage.

"Aghhh Fuck! My arm!" He yells out as his left forearm is slightly disfigured. His bones popping out of his skin wasn't something that shocked him, but it did hurt tremendously. He clutches the wounded appendage and growls with raw hatred as he gets himself back upright. Blood leaks down over his hands, instantly fizzling and drying out on the ground as it drops into the scorching sunlight.

'We've been through worse. You wanted pain from these grubs right? Now use it! I'll fix us, but you have some killing to get to.' Carmine looked around frantically, he didn't know when the voice in his head got so loud, or why he saw what he saw. Nothing made sense. His eyes are full of blistering rage as the sun bears down on him. Sweat rolls off his skin in droves as he spots the large geth moving away from him.

The prime approached Shepard and Garrus slowly, and lucky for them the torque bow shot managed to destroy its pulse cannon. All it had left was to fight with its hands. That's not good news though because the prime easily caught Shepard, and held her up similar to how the prime held Carmine not too long ago. The events of the mission came back to him, and his eyes frantically looked for his friends.

A small part of him is relieved to find them, but an unbearable anger courses through him as he catches sight of the commander, "Get your hands off her!" Carmine yelled out as all the hate boiled over in his chest, steam pouring from his skin.

He didn't even hesitate to charge the prime and leap on its back, finding his knife in its chest with his left hand. The limb was somehow back to working order as the puncture wounds that his bones had previously been poking out of, spit blood onto the geth's armor, "I'm not done yet you cunt!" He yells out, Shepard couldn't believe her eyes. A mix of dried and fresh blood coating the big man's arm as he grabs a hold of his blade.

He wrenched the knife free and dug it deep into the arm that held the commander. The prime was forced to drop her and she landed gracefully on her feet, "Get the fuck out of here Shepard. Gah! I got this big ass grub!"

Shepard was beyond relieved and shocked to see Carmine wrangling the prime. Her eyes widened as the arm that was just snapped like a twig was doing some serious damage as Clay repeatedly stabbed into the prime's middle and back as he hung from the monstrous geth. The gear's skin was covered in steam that created a trailing aura around him as he was thrashed around by the geth prime.

Shepard valiantly held her ground, not willing to leave the burly gear to fight the prime on his own, "No, we fight together. We're a damn team!" She fires a few well placed rounds into the prime's knee to force it to kneel. Carmine immediately capitalizes and swings around to the front of the geth, holstering his knife and returning the favor by front kicking the geth's chest. Shepard and Garrus are shocked to see the massive prime skirt backward and crash into a carved stone wall.

The gear's breath is ragged and heavy, his mental episode seemingly draining him of a lot of his energy. He turns to them and flips his helmet off, "I got this Shepard."

She looks at the state of him. Uneven breath, beyond messy hair, hate in his gray orbs, and sweat drenching him completely from his extended fighting in the sun. Not to mention the multiple wounds still dripping a bit of blood. Shepard is more than hesitant to leave him.

As she's about to fight him on it their radios sound off, "Commander! This is Kal'Reegar, I'm under some serious pressure over here! Requesting support immediately! The geth are closing in on Tali'Zorah and I'm not too sure how much longer my men and I can hold them! I'm going to have to issue a security lockdown if things get worse."

Garrus grabs a hold of Shepard's shoulder, "Jane, Tali and the marines need us. Carmine has this, I have faith in him."

Shepard looks to her old friend with uneasiness in her eyes. She can't afford to stay and fight with Camrine and she knows it. She growls and turns to face the gear, "Fine, but you better catch up to us. Promise me that you will."

The gear chuckles, as he blinks his eyes shift from gray to silver, and Shepard finds herself entranced, "I promise. Now get going, I have a big metal grub to butcher." He flips his helmet back on and before he turns Shepard grabs a hold of his right forearm, sending a spark of lighting through the limb.

"Kick it's ass Carmine." She offers him a fist bump which he takes. As they separate Garrus and Carmine share a nod as he and Shepard take off, leaving the gear to fight.

Clayton hears Shepard start to respond to the quarian marine as they run off toward the pillars, "Kal, this is commander Shepard. We ran into a bit of trouble. We're on our way, hang tight."

The gear growls as he eyes down the geth prime, who has finally recovered and stands to face him. It beeps and boops a few times before it starts approaching him. As the gear blinks the figure of the geth flashes in between its current form and the butcher. Camrine growls and shakes his head a bit, ducking into the shade as he paws the sweat covering his neck. He looks down to his palm and sees the blood and sweat mixed together, he clenches his fist. A twisted smile etching itself on his face at the sight of his own blood and the burning sensation in his left forearm.

"Come on motherfucker. Time to die." The elder Carmine says with a flex of his muscles and a savage growl.

---

Garrus snickers as Shepard plants the mining charges, a wide smile plastered on her face. Her love of explosives really shows as she expertly wires the bombs and waves him over as she retreats a healthy distance. She fiddles with her hair as Garrus vaults over the metal barricade to take cover with her. He raises his rifle to rest on his shoulder, and lays a reassuring hand on her knee.

"You know he'll be fine." The vibration of the turian's voice calms Shepard a bit.

She nods and looks back to the path they'd come from, "I just hope he's alright back there. I've only ever killed a handful of geth primes in my life. Carmine's bullets didn't even seem to hurt it much."

Garrus shakes his head, "That was just his lancer. Who knows what his shotgun or revolver can do to that prime. He seemed to be fine with the physical aspect anyway, we saw him punch and beat that big metal bastard away. Carmine has got it handled. Now shut up and blow those charges, I know you're itching to."

Shepard and Garrus share a chuckle as she nods, "Yeah, you're right. Well Kal, here we come." Shepard pushes a few buttons on her omni-tool and the charges make a few beeping sounds before a deafening explosion rings out through the area. They peak over the cover and share a smirk as the pillars have opened up the path forward.

Their attitudes quickly change as they see a bloodbath almost immediately after crossing over into the main camp. The only saving grace being the numerous geth corpses that lay strewn about. Other than that, most of the quarian marines lay dead. Pools of their blood fill the cracks in the stone floor. Shepard closes her eyes for a moment and shakes her head, releasing a slightly relieved sigh, "Kal isn't here, he shouldn't be too far away. We need to hustle."

Garrus nods in agreement and as they go to walk forward a geth with its legs blown off crawls toward them. Shepard mercilessly stomps on its head, not just once but multiple times. She huffs angrily and lets a breath of relief come from her slightly parted lips. Garrus understands all too well the anger she had when it came to losing lives. But it was curious to him that she'd chosen to lash out similar to Carmine than her usual way of dealing with things.

'Hmm, it does look pretty fun to do if I can be honest.' Garrus thinks with a curious hum. He shakes it off as the pair continues onward. They manage to scavenge a few things, including an audio log from Tali herself, and an upgraded version of the geth pulse rifle. Courtesy of the quarian engineer, now an obvious master of her craft.

"Oh Tali, you haven't changed a bit." Shepard says as she caresses the custom built rifle like a loved one. The gun seems to have been a supposed gift for Shepard, but wasn't able to be delivered due to her untimely demise on the original Normandy. It warmed the commander's augmented heart to know one of her closest friends had made something like that for her.

Garrus comes to see what she was whispering about and wasn't disappointed. He whistles, "So that was what Tali was talking about in her log. A gift for an old friend. Seems she had your tastes dead to rights."

The rifle was jet black with a nice red stripe similar to Shepard's armor as its decal. The N7 logo that adorned her armor was engraved into the barrel. Shepard smiled, barely containing her excitement to test out the heavily modified gun. Garrus pats the commander on the shoulder and points to a nearby communications console.

The commander hastily nods and the two walk up to it. Shepard pressed a finger to her ear, "Carmine do you copy?"

Static was all that came back to her. She sighed, hoping her friend was alright, "That handsome bastard better be alright or I'll kick his ass." She huffed, causing Garrus to smile wide. Shepard blushes as she realizes she thought out loud. She glares at the turian and accesses the console. The top half of her quarian friend coming into view.

"Sh-Shepard! Keelah', it's great you're here. I've been trying to establish contact with base camp for over half an hour now." Tali says, the pink lights of her eyes narrowing, easily telling the commander she was smiling.

The pink orbs round back out as she looks to see the commander with the modified rifle in her hands, "I see you found your gift. But what of the rest of my team?"

Shepard solemnly lowers and shakes her head, "O-Oh..." Tali's saddened tone reminds the commander of when she was still on her pilgrimage. The young troublemaker that she was back then was just as caring as she was now.

Shepard looks up and smiles weakly to try and reassure her friend, "They went out fighting, with honor. I'm here to help though, and I'll make sure you get out of here Tali."

Tali fiddles with her three fingered hands a bit, a nervous tick that Shepard always found endearing, "Thank you commander. I understand you're most likely here to recruit me, much like when we first met. But that can't happen until I'm able to send this information to the quarian fleet. Help me out here so I can finish my mission, then I'll be able to join your team."

Shepard smiles at her quarian friend, "I knew the little criminal that got arrested on the citadel wouldn't resist the call for adventure. We'll get you out of there in no time."

Shepard catches the light pink blush that shows from her visor as Tali snickers and gently shakes her head, "I didn't even do anything illegal, they held me up because I'm a quarian and you know that. I'll open up the door to your left from here. You'll have to lift the security lockdown as well, be safe Shepard. Keelah' se'lai."

"You too Tali." The hologram of Tali's upper half fizzles away and Shepard turns to Garrus who has a very bright smile on his face.

"It's great to see her again. She looks and sounds a bit more mature than the last time I saw her. But that's still Tali alright." Shepard nods in agreement with Garrus and the two head through the newly opened door into the next area.

EDI comes over the radio however as they exit the quarian base camp, "Shepard. There is a large geth force headed your way."

Shepard sneers, motioning Garrus to get into cover with her as a geth dropship flies by at the other side. Two geth primes and multiple flying drones blocked the entrance to the quarry, "Thanks EDI, do you have any readings on Carmine? We split from him about forty minutes ago."

EDI answers right away, "I can't seem to pinpoint him due to a spike in the planet's surface heat." This worries the commander more than the idea of taking on two geth primes with only herself and Garrus.

"I've notified the shuttle pilot of the presence of geth primes. She'll be able to provide a bit of support for you in this open area." Shepard thanks the artificial intelligence and peeks up to fire at one of the drones to test her new gun. She shoots it out of the sky and it plummets into another drone on its way down, the pair exploding on impact with the ground.

'God I'm going to squeeze the life out of Tali when I see her. This rifle is so smooth.' Shepard thinks as the shuttle does a small firing run. The surprisingly powerful artillery on the shuttle manages to destroy a prime, and weaken another.

Garrus sees an opening and takes it, blasting the prime's eye bulb with an accurate sniper shot. The blinded geth starts to fire at the drones that surround it. Shepard and Garrus take cover as the random spray of gunfire and pulse cannon shots force them to stay down.

Eventually the only enemy left is the extremely weakened geth prime. Shepard spots a dead quarian with a rocket launcher and goes over to snag it, she aims and fires. The geth prime pops like a metal piñata full of white paint. Shepard fist pumps and tosses the smoking launcher to the ground, "Nice shot Shepard, now let's get going."

Shepard quickly pushes a finger to her ear, "Thanks for the assist shuttle six."

They enter the building housing the security measures and Shepard gets to work on the console as Garrus keeps watch. Shepard taps away at the buttons, hacking the system and deactivating the lockdown, "Ha, done and done. Let's go grab Tali."

The pair make their way into the quarry and run into the quarian marine himself, Kal'Reegar. He looks a bit worse for wear, and Shepard makes her way over to him, kneeling down next to him.

"You must be Kal'Reegar. Pleasure to meet you, I'm commander Shepard." The quarian laughs horsley and coughs.

"The pleasure is all mine, that kindness in your eyes is unmistakable. Tali..." he takes a second to cough, lurching forward, "Tali'Zorah speaks very highly of the woman who aided with her pilgrimage. Her first captain."

"Uhh Shepard! We have a small problem!" Garrus yelled out as he raised his rifle and fired a few rounds. A geth ship flew in, a large metal beast attached to the bottom. It drops it off in front of the door that no doubt leads to Tali.

Kal grabs a hold of the commander and pulls himself up a bit while pulling her closer, "Tali'Zorah is the only life I'm concerned with. I can create a distraction for you with that rocket launcher while you take that thing down." Shepard uses her superior strength to push the marine back to his sitting position in cover.

She scolds him, "No way in hell Kal. You're going to stay right here. Your suit was punctured, and I'm not letting one of the only surviving quarians go out and be bait. This is non-negotiable. Now patch yourself up the best you can while we get to work." Kal's visor covered eyes narrow at her as he lets out a raspy breath.

"Ugh, fine. Tali was right, you humans are so stubborn." Shepard rolls her eyes. She does like the idea of using the launcher and greedily snatches it, feeling around in one of her waist pouches and smiling wide when he hand meets the things she's after.

She turns to garrus who's emptied clip after clip into the beastly geth colossus. He's done so little that the geth has barely registered that they were an immediate threat. Preferring to maneuver closer instead. The stone ground shakes as it slowly stomps its way toward them.

Shepard grabs his shoulder and he turns to see a crazy look in her eyes, "Oh no. I know that look." Garrus says as the color drains from his face.

"Oh yes! I have a plan. Go use that stone ramp to grab some high ground but stay in cover, you'll have to expose yourself to the sun to fire. But when I give the go ahead, aim for its head and make sure to clip it while it's charging its eye beam." Garrus sighs deeply and nods.

"Don't do anything stupid Jane. Carmine isn't here to bail either of us out." He almost immediately regrets his words as the commander flinches.

"I-I didn't mean it like that I'm sure he's-" Shepard quickly jumps over their cover and stays to the shade as she peppers the colossus with shots.

"Just get to the high ground archangel." Shepard's monotone voice replies.

The turian runs a hand over his face, "Smooth Garrus, real smooth."

The colossus fires its beam at Shepard and she runs to dodge it. The heavy launcher on her back makes her huff and puff as she finds cover. The heat of the planet is not doing her any favors, neither is the thought that Garrus unintentionally stuck in her head, 'He's not dead. That prime would've caught up to us by now. There's no way he's gone...is there?'

As she comes out of her deep thought her blue eyes shoot open, and she just barely rolls out of the way of the colossus's eye beam. Shepard shakes her head, 'Get your head in the game Jane. There won't be anyone to kick Carmine's ass if I'm dead.' She smirks and uses a burst of adrenaline to push herself a good distance from the colossus. She forces it to face her, peppering its less defended side with enhanced plasma shots from Tali's upgraded rifle.

The beast charges its eye, giving Garrus the perfect angle to strike. Shepard smiled as she quickly looked back up to see her turian friend was in position. She presses a finger to her ear and gets to work on her end of the plan, "Now Garrus!"

The turian marksman snickers and snaps a slug into the colossus's eye. The beast lets out a loud robotic shriek as its head snaps backward. Sparks fly from its eye and Garrus keeps up the pressure. He can only keep it occupied so long before it recovers and starts charging its flickering eye once more, "Shepard it's got a beat on me. And the sun is ripping my shield to pieces."

Shepard finished up attaching the remainder of her incendiary grenades to a rocket. She loads the launcher and chuckles with a sadistic gleam in her eye. Shepard aims toward the eye as it gets ready to blast her companion. She feels a spike of anger hit her, "Get ready to burn motherfucker."

She fires the rocket which has the exact effect she was looking for. It explodes, coating the colossus in flames that melt through the beast's head. It deafens the commander momentarily as she makes her escape. Darting out of the way of the crumbling giant as it burns and burns.

Shepard smiles a small, sad smile. Knowing just how much Carmine would've loved to see that, "I hope you're alright Clayton." She mutters as she makes her way over to Kal'Reegar and lends him her shoulder. He takes it graciously and they meet with Garrus by the door to Tali's building.

Shepard can't help the almost giddy feeling in her stomach as she watched the hologram spin again and again. She just hoped her old friend was as happy to see her as she was. Kal gently takes his arm back and stands on his own, not wanting to seem weak in front of the leader of his team.

It had been nearly two months since she had seen Tali for the first time and hoped she'd gotten past the whole working for Cerberus thing.

The doors open up and Tali's form immediately launches herself at Shepard. The commander goes wide eyed as the quarian squeezes her. Shepard laughs and squeezes back, sharing the friendly hug.

Talk pulls away and takes a step back, fiddling with her hands, "Sorry if that was a bit much, I just really missed you Shepard, and couldn't afford to do that when I wasn't sure you were actually you. If that makes any sense."

Shepard smiles wide, "Of course it makes sense. It wasn't too much, I promise. I was going to hug the hell out of you for making this awesome rifle for me anyway." The two laugh together and Shepard finds she missed the companionship of the small quarian woman far more than she realized.

Tali looks to Shepard's left and spots Kal and Garrus. Her pink orbs widening at the sight, "Keelah'! Kal are you alright? And Garrus, what happened to your face?"

Shepard and Garrus snicker at the quarian as she quickly works to get Kal'Reegar inside and waves them in. Garrus holsters his weapon and answers her, "Well I got shot in the face, and Kal here got shot in the stomach. Seems that's all the bases covered. Oh except Shepard, she got shot into space."

Tali sets the quarian marine down to sit and turns to face them, "Bosh'tet. I knew about Shepard. But I'm surprised those scars have made you uglier somehow."

Shepard smiles proudly at how bold Tali has gotten, "Ooooh snap." The commander says and lifts a hand for Tali to high five, she does of course. The turian marksman sighs and nods.

"Alright I did have that one coming. You got me. Great to see you've grown up a bit kiddo." Tali works her way over and hugs the tall turian. Shepard smiles as he wraps the small quarian in a hug.

They separate and Shepard smiles as they spend a few minutes catching up. Shepard folds her arms under her armored bust, "Well now that the bases are actually all covered, we need to find our other crew mate that we came down here with before we go."

Tali's head perks up at the mention of another crew member. But as she goes to inquire the door to the main building starts getting slammed on. The banging persists for a few seconds and the four equip themselves as Tali opens her omni-tool and checks the door camera.

The footage is far too blurry, but the large figure banging on the door resembles that of a geth prime. Tali quickly relays the details, "The camera feed is messed up but it looks like a prime is trying to break in. With our combined firepower it won't stand a chance."

Shepard smirked at her and nodded, bracing her custom rifle on a turned over table. The banging starts up again and before they know it, metal starts screeching as whoever is outside tries to cut through the door. Tali sees sparks start to fly and snickers cockily, "It'll take more than a little cutting to get through doors like those."

Tali's eyes spring open as the cutting noise stops and the doors start to slowly creak open. The four of them prepare to fire at the incoming hostile. The doors wrench a couple feet open and Shepard's eyes widen.

Familiar blue lights shine into the dim entryway, and strenuous grunting can be heard. That's until a more than familiar dented helmet pokes into the room. Tali immediately shoots at it. Shepard basically smashes the custom geth shotgun in Tali's hands down to lower it, "Stand Down!"

The shot smashed the gear straight in the face, knocking him back through the doorway and onto his ass. He growls, a new fire lit in him as he gets up and pushes the searing pain in his body down as he digs his massive hands into the door and rips it open.

"Which one of you assholes cracked my lens?" His deep voice rang throughout the room, and Tali along with Kal'Reegar took a healthy step back. Shepard and Garrus basically sprint over to the door as the gear finishes prying open the doors and steps into the room.

Shepard gasped at the state of him. He was covered in his own blood, it was mostly dried, but all over his chest armor and left arm. Most of his wounds seemed to be scabbing but there was a massive dent in his chest armor, no doubt pushing onto him uncomfortably. She could tell where blood had been leaking from under his shitty welding job on his chest. And of course the new addition of a cracked helmet lens courtesy of Tali.

Shepard could resist lunging into him for a hug, not caring about the bloodied armor, "Carmine!"

She pulls away once she hears a gasp of pain, "Sorry. Holy damn you made it. You look about as well as I thought you would've." Shepard jokes as a look of worry bleeds into her pale, sweaty face.

Carmine chuckles and nods, "Yeah I think my whole chest is one big bruise."

Garrus slaps the gear on the back, "Well that doesn't matter. You're here and relatively in one piece. Good to see you big man."

Tali and Kal cautiously approach the trio with curious eyes. Tali's eyes in particular are raking along the extremely massive person in front of her, 'That can't be a human. Not with the amount of wounds on him. Or the size of him either. Keelah', those muscles are big.' Tali internally scolds herself and her train of thought as her eyes can't stop observing the sleeveless gear. She stays wary though, even with Shepard being so comfortable.

Shepard noticed Tali creeping into view and waved her over. Tali took a few hesitant steps up to them and Shepard patted the gear's massive arm, right on the bandolier tattoo that wrapped around the muscle. Shepard noticed Tali was acting strange and decided to push the introduction.

"This is one of the Normandy's newest additions, Tali. I know he's pretty rough at first glance but he's a good person." Clayton scoffs as she uses his hip and an arm rest, leaning her full weight into him. It actually took a bit of effort to keep from toppling over with how exhausted Carmine was.

Clay extends a hand covered in his own blood and geth lubricant, "Clayton Carmine, but you can just call me Carmine."

He watches curiously as her pink orbs dart down to look at his hand before looking back to him with narrowing eyes. He sighed and lowered his hand, "Alright, guess handshakes are a no go." He mutters as he turns and walks over to a nearby crate, taking a seat with an audible groan.

Shepard looks to her friend in confusion before Tali grabs her arm and drags her out of what she thought was Carmine's earshot, "I do not trust him Shepard. He is unlike anyone or anything I've ever seen. Covered in what seems to be his own blood. Keelah', what have you gotten yourself into Jane?"

Shepard chuckles as the short quarian scolds her, "Tali, Carmine is nothing any of us have ever seen before. He's a good man under all that armor, muscle, and blood. That happens a lot by the way, being covered in his own or other people's blood I mean."

Tali folds her arms and looks to the gear, who is seemingly staring at her. Her eyes widened a bit, 'D-did her hear us. No, that is not possible unless he's some kind of unknown species of alien or cybernetically enhanced.'

Shepard shoots the gear with a look that says, "You can listen but don't stare," and he chuckles, nodding to her. He takes a long last look at Tali, not being able to help himself from observing her rather tight suit. The popping of gold and purple colors made his eyes do a double take on her.

'Those are some pretty colors. Seems to me like quarians each have their own custom suits. She has some great hips too. Her legs are like Garrus' but that doesn't really bother me when you've got thighs like that...God I need to get my head out of the gutter. Kind of hard when all my energy has gone into getting my body to work properly.' The gear's thoughts are cut short with a head shake as he looks back to his lancer, cleaning the bits of geth lubricant off the saw.

"We'll see about getting you a little rundown on him when we get to Normandy, but just trust me on this for now. And play nice will you, he's not that bad to talk to." Tali looks at her old friend and sighs, slumping her shoulders a bit.

"Fiiiine." She drones out through her visor as Shepard catches her pinks orbs roll playfully. The commander smiles wide as Tali takes a walk over to the big man as he's sitting down, hunched over his rifle.

She stares at the fine piece of machinery in his hands, she wants to touch the rifle, to figure out what made it work. She quells those urges and goes to talk to him as her eyes quickly dart to look at his strong arms, catching the thick veins that run along them, 'I don't even know him yet I'm ogling like I'm still on my pilgrimage.' Tali scolds herself.

"Sorry about before I-" she pauses as he straightens out and looks at her, being almost eye to eye with her even as he sits. Tali catches sight of his cracked lens and internally cringes a bit, clearing her throat as she starts fiddling with her hands, "I'm sorry I shot you as well as being rather rude to you. I'm Tali." She reaches a three fingered hand out to him and his helmet tilts down to look at her hand.

Tali starts to get a bit nervous under the gear's gaze and the glaring blue lights of his helmet and armor. Although a small part of her found the lights to be a rather nice shade of blue. He stands, easily towering over her and making Tali feel much smaller than normal. Her eyes skim over the armor and all that was written on it as his lights bear down on her.

He takes her hand much more gently than she would've expected and shakes, "Carmine. I wouldn't trust me if I was in your shoes too, honestly I get it. Oh, and don't feel bad for shooting me, other than cracking my lens I'm perfectly fine."

Tali was entranced by his slightly raspy, yet smooth, deep voice as he spoke. It wasn't what she was expecting at all, and she was pleasantly surprised. She feels his immense heat shoot through her hand and up her arm. Her eyes widened a bit, a pink tint peeking up onto her visor.

They took their hands back and Tali immediately went back to fidgeting, now a dark pink blush on her cheeks, "If you don't mind me asking Carmine. W-what exactly are you?"

Clayton can't help but laugh at the innocent and nervous tone of her. Thankfully he got used to that kind of question real early in his time on the Normandy, "Hah, well I'm just a man. Not so normal but a human man nonetheless."

Tali's curiosity was about to take hold of her, but the sounds of geth hitting the ground outside got everyone's attention. As she was about to speak the gear pulled his gnasher into his hands and held up a hand to stop her, "Sorry to cut you off. But those metal grubs are getting dropped off outside. Yo Shepard! You got eyes on the grubs out there?" Shepard shot him a thumbs up and beckoned for him as she went with Garrus to start fending them off.

"Well that's my cue. You stay here with Kal'Reegar and lock the doors behind us." Tali nods at the big man, not being able to find her voice. She simply fiddles with her hands and smiles at him. As he leaves she lets out a breath she was unaware she'd been holding in.

'H-he's so polite, not to mention how big he is. I wonder if...behave yourself Tali'Zorah. I suppose I shouldn't have judged his character by his appearance alone. Don't humans have a saying for that?' Tali taps the bottom of her visor deep in thought as she takes a seat next Kal. Who had stabilized his condition due to Tali's previous assistance.

"Ah yes, don't judge a book by its cover." Kal looks to her with a tilt to his head and a harsh blush stung Tali's face. She very much didn't mean to say that out loud.

He doesn't question it. Simply changing to subject to the very thing on Tali's brain at the moment, "That big one, Grub Killer I believe is what his armor says. He looks to be a force of nature. I wonder why he had been split from them. They'd gone to get mining charges to clear a path to base camp, but when the commander and the turian found me he was nowhere to be seen."

Tali hummed in agreement, why wasn't he with Shepard and Garrus? She decided to try and check the camera's in the mining camp while her thoughts ran rampant, 'His armor, among many other things, also had Grub Killer painted on it. He also referred to the geth as grubs. I cannot help but want to know more about him. Looking at him would just be a bonus.'

Oh if only the curious little quarian knew what was under the armor.

She finds the camera feed for the mining camp and runs it back for the day, skimming through until she found what she desired. Tali lets the footage play as Shepard and Garrus run off, leaving Carmine to face the prime on his own. She nudges Kal and he leans over to watch with her.

---

Carmine and the prime met head on. Carmine uses the momentum to slip under a straight punch from the prime and rip his knife up through the middle of the geth, exposing bits of wiring that start to fall out like intestines. Carmine reaches in and starts opening up the wound wider until the prime catches him in the chest with a haymaker that pushes him back a few feet.

Carmine's laughter comes out rough as he watches the prime's wires slump out of the gaping wound in it's middle, "You're one tough grub I'll give you that."

The prime rushes him with a burst of unexpected speed and catches Carmine off guard. It tackles him to the ground and starts beating on his chest armor. Carmine's knife clatters to the ground a good few feet away from him. With a few savage punches the gear's chest armor is dented. The pressure cracks a few of Carmine's ribs and blood starts leaking from under his helmet as the crimson liquid is forced out of his mouth. He feels something sharp tear his flesh under his crappy patch job.

He gets his boots up on the prime's hips and kicks the prime off him. Rasping out a rough breath out as he turns over onto his stomach. His shaky arms start to lift him up but the prime isn't done with him. It grabs him by the back of his armor and easily throws the massive man into another nearby truck.

As Carmine falls out of the destroyed truck he lifts his helmet to spit out a mouthful of blood, wiping off the trail that snuck its way down his neck. A crazed smile comes to his face as he lowers his helmet, "Finally some real pain." He says with a dark and gravelly tone. His breath came out faster and more ragged the longer the fight went on.

*BOOM*

A massive explosion catches the attention of the gear, "Oh fuck. Shepard, Garrus." He says with a concerned tone. His fists clenching tight as his anger courses through him, forcing the pain in his body to fuel him. Blood dripped out from under a rip in the welded steel on his armor.

With a new sense of urgency the gear gets up and charges the prime first. A thick trail of steam follows him as he rolls under a wide swung hook and smashes his shoulder into the prime's waist. Carmine takes its legs out from under it as he lifts and smashes it into the ground with a smooth double leg takedown. The gear quickly mounts the geth and throws some serious punches into its head.

The prime's robotic whining made the gear's rage induced aura grow. The cloud surrounding him grew in density, "Suffer Bitch!"

The prime reaches an arm up to try and stop the assault of cinder block fists being thrown into its head. Carmine snags it's arm and lays a boot on the prime's chest, with a loud grunt of effort he tears the metal limb off.

He repeats with the other arm, and the prime lay defenseless on the ground. Its head all misshapen from the repeated blows. And a triumphant Carmine stood above it, breathing extremely hard and shaking even worse. The exposed bits of his fingers were all bloody and torn up from punching the metal being so many times.

Carmine lifts his helmet to spit another bundle of blood into the geth's eye as it flickered and whined, "Don't you worry, death is coming." He reaches into the gaping wound in its chest and grabs a hold of what can only be described as its spine. It was a bundle of wires that connected to its head but ran through the rest of the prime's body.

With a yell of pure hate the gear wrenched the spine up through its chest, tearing its head off as was ripped upward. Carmine takes a few steps back and feels his chest armor with the hand not occupied with a geth's head, "Well old girl..." the gear stops to cough roughly, lifting his helmet again to spit a bit of blood from his mouth and groan, "You took me through a war, and a bit through a new dimension, couldn't have asked for more. Thank you."

As the gear drops the prime's head he reloads his weapons, goes to grab his knife, and heads off after his team, "You two better have not gotten into too much trouble without me." The gear jokes to himself as he trots off, lancer in hand.

---

As the feed stopped the two quarians sat absolutely flabbergasted at what they'd just watched. Carmine had not only taken a beating that would've killed any normal being, alien or human. But he also brutalized the prime with only his fists. He didn't even try using weapons other than his knife in the beginning.

"Tali'Zorah, what is he?" Kal says with a mix of fear and admiration in his voice.

Tali shakes her head, "I do not know. But Shepard has some serious explaining to do."

Tali scrunches her eyebrows in thought, 'How did Shepard come to ally with such a powerful person? Carmine was his name I believe. What a fearsome man, such power yet skill in his movements. There's no possible way he's human. There can't be...'

Tali is brought from her thoughts by Shepard who has opened up the doors and come to collect the quarians. Tali and Kal join them outside and are shocked to see the amount of geth torn to shreds outside.

Tali's pink eyes find Carmine as he stretches, noticing the finer details from her time watching him destroy the prime. His knuckles seemed to be healing well, and his breathing had evened back out. Other than his blood soaked appearance he looked to be fine. Tali couldn't believe her eyes.

"Tali everything seems to be cleared out here. I guess your geth problem is all solved." Shepard says rather nonchalantly.

"As grateful as I am Shepard. That man, he is almost healed from his injuries it seems." Tali says rather quietly as she gets close to the commander.

Shepard sighs a small smile coming to her face as Carmine looks at them and shrugs, "You'll figure out more when we're on the ship. I'm sure that big brain of yours is already working up a million questions, but I only have answers to a few of them."

Tali nods to Shepard and sighs muttering, "Alright, let's get going."

They gather themselves and head to the extraction. Tali keeps a keen eye on the elder Carmine brother as they make their way to the initial drop zone. Shepard presses her finger to her ear, "Shuttle six this is commander Shepard, we're ready for evac."

"Roger commander. E.T.A. four minutes." The shuttle pilot says over the radio. Garrus takes a seat on a nearby rock with Kal while Tali stands closer to the edge of a nearby cliff, gazing at the sun.

Shepard came up to stand by Carmine and nudged him, "Why don't you go get to know her a bit better."

Carmine shakes his head as they stand next to one another, and the gear takes note of her new rifle, "Eh probably not the best time for that. Nice new rifle."

Shepard brushes a stray hair behind her ear and smiles, "Thanks, Tali actually had made it for me, she's a very accomplished mechanic. Garrus and I found it on our way over to her."

Carmine looks at the small quarian woman and smirks, "Hmm, it seems like a nice gun. Maybe if she ever trusts me I can have her check out some of my weapons." Shepard smiled wide and met the eyes of his helmet as he turned to look at her.

"She'd love that. Tali is always pulling things apart and improving them before putting them back together. She'll be a vital part of the crew, just like the old days." Carmine smirked. It seemed Shepard held Tali in extremely high regards. Carmine shook out his left arm, it hadn't stopped hurting since his fight with the prime. It felt like something was wrong, but he'd leave all that to Chakwas.

As he looks back to Tali he catches what appears to be a geth being launched toward them. It crashes into the ground just in front of the quarian and stands to reveal itself as a geth prime. Tali yells out as she's grabbed by the prime, snagging her around the arm before throwing her down onto the ground and into the sun. Her suit wasn't torn by any means but she wouldn't last a second at the mercy of the powerful geth. Especially since the sunlight ravaged her shield already.

Tali looks up at the prime and closes her eyes, "I'm sorry father." She whispers as the prime brings its hand down to finish her off.

Her death doesn't come, however. As Carmine meets the prime's arm with his lancer, not having time to rev it. Tali can't believe it as his pained, exhausted state struggles to battle with the geth. He's forced to a knee and Tali lets out a worried noise. His head snaps back to look at her.

You could never see more than the basics of a quarian's eyes due to their suit, but the view of Tali's widened pink orbs gives Carmine all he needs to see, 'You can't lose. If you lose she dies, and I know you already like her. Now do your job and protect her!' Carmine growls and pushes hard against the weight on his lancer. Steam starts to rise from him as he growls, his lancer starting to whine a bit in his hands as the metal is tested. The pain in his forearm blistered further as the poorly healed bones creaked.

The prime manages to crack the gear in the helmet with a punch, shattering the already cracked lens. The blue bits of glass scatter across the ground. The prime gets another savage punch in and Tali gasps, surprised to see the gear not waver even an inch.

Shepard yells out as they've recovered from the shockwave that the geth gave off when it landed, "Focus fire! Carmine, get out of the sun!"

Her order is immediately nulled as the burly gear yells out to them, "I got it! Don't you dare shoot this fucking grub!" His rage takes a hold of him, adrenaline coursing through his boiling blood stream.

He catches the prime's third punch is his left hand, the bones threatening to snap with any extra pressure. The elder Carmine brother releases a powerful yell as he stands and pushes the geth back a bit, bringing both his hands back to his lancer and revving the saw.

Shepard, Garrus, Tali, and Kal'Reegar watch in awe as the gear battles the geth prime. The second of the day for him to take one on one. The gear's saw whines and grinds against the strong metal on the geth's arms.

Sparks fly as the gear forces the prime back a bit, applying more and more pressure, 'That's it! Come on now, finish it!' Carmine's thoughts scream at him.

As he's about to put more weight onto his saw the grinding blades stall and he's forced to kick the prime back a few feet. Using the last of his energy he drops his lancer and pounces on the prime. He throws punch after ruthless, heavy punch.

Every blink of his eyes filled his vision with images of his friend's butchered bodies. Not just Delta, but his new companions in this world as well. The new quarian being one of them, her visor being cracked open as she suffers and dies because he wasn't strong enough.

"I'll kill every last fucking one of you. Worthless. Fucking. Grubs!" The gear yells out, snapping the prime's arms as it goes to try and fend him off. Instead of beating it any further, Carmine snags it around the neck with his left hand and drags it to the edge. With one last savage move he tears its head off. Wobbling backward as his legs almost give out on him.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhh!" He yells out in pure rage as he boots the slumping robotic body into the void. He turns to face the rest of them, holding up the severed geth head as a trophy. A pretty new memento for his collection. He feels like he's been set on fire.

The gear's left leg buckles and he's forced to take a knee. The heat finally takes its toll on the last Carmine brother as he succumbs to its effects. His vision is filled with tiny white stars. He looks at Tali, her eyes widening further as his visible silver eye meets her pink ones.

Tali scrambles up to try and help him as he starts to topple over, "Don't worry. You're safe..." he mutters as the blue lights on his armor flicker off. The gear goes unconscious, falling face first into the dusty ground. His steel grip still wrapped around the head of the geth prime.

---

Carmine's eyes flickered open, his gray orbs taking a moment to adjust to the light. He tilts his head down and sees Shepard and Doctor Chakwas. Shepard was holding his left arm, and Chakwas had stabbed a rather large needle into him.

"Steady commander, I need his bones to be in the correct positioning." The doctor says while pushing the plunger down. A searing pain burns through Carmine's arm and he can't help but groan.

"Jeez Louise just kill me or something." He grumbles, making Shepard and the doctor's eyes shoot up to look at him.

They finish administering the second injection and Shepard immediately hugs his bare upper half, digging her rosy red head into his lower chest. She feels his laughter and pulls back, "Never do that again. If you're going to pass out, do it after we're back on the ship." She says with a glare.

The gear holds up his right hand in surrender, "Alright alright...is that girl ok? That metal grub had grabbed her, and I read that their suits aren't that good for protecting them from physical shit."

Shepard smiles wide. Even as he lays in the med bay, he still worries more for other people. Even for a quarian woman he barely knows. Not that he'd understand why Tali or her people are so hated in the galaxy.

The commander nods and realizes she's still touching his chiseled midsection. She pulls her hands away and blushes, a nervous smile on her face, "Y-yeah Tali is alright. A little shaken up but you saved her Carm. Great work. I gotta get going but feel free to drop by for a shower or whatever you need. You wont be coming with me on the next mission, so get comfy big guy."

Carmine rockets into a sitting position but before he can argue Chakwas holds up a chart and starts to read from it, "Extreme dehydration, fractured left forearm, multiple internal lacerations from cracked or broken ribs, gunshot wounds, torn apart hands, and a severe exposure to the most powerful type of sunlight means you're not fit to go out for now Carmine."

Carm raises a finger but stops himself and plops back down onto the bed, "This is what you get for not telling me your goddamn shield was busted." Carmine throws his right arm over his face and sighs.

"I know. But I thought you'd just punch me really hard instead of benching me." Shepard glared at him and pulled his arm off his face, making him look at her.

"You've done more than I could've ever asked of you. You deserve a break whether you believe so or not. So please Carm. Just do me a favor and chill out for a bit." Shepard talks calmly and smiles sweetly as his eyes shift from gray to silver with a slow blink of his eyes.

He grumbles and leans up a bit to brush her hair out of her face. She leans into his touch as he glides a calloused digit along the back of her jaw. He narrows his newly colored eyes at her and grumbles, "You'd better be safe then, all of you that go out."

Shepard chuckles and pats his head, ruffling the lengthy black locks, "I promise we will be." She feels proud as his eyes go half lidded from her petting.

Carmine lays back down and relaxes a bit, appeased by her response. Shepard's smile is stuck to her as she turns and waves her goodbyes to them. Carmine reached up and touched his face, running a hand over his weary eyes. Their gray coloration returns as the commander exits the med bay.

As he brings his hand down he looks over and catches sight of his ruined gear. The busted lens of his helmet, dented in chest armor, even his lancer seemed to be worn down a bit with a few of the saw's teeth visibly missing. He sighed, not enjoying the sight of his gear out of tip top shape. Although the saving grace was his newest memento, the severed geth prime head.

Chakwas comes over with another syringe, "Just to stave off infection." She says to him as he nods to her. Barely feeling as the needle pierces his flesh.

Carmine smiled weakly as a sudden wave of exhaustion hit him and he yawned. Chakwas smiles as the big man closes his eyes and drifts back to sleep. She hated having to drug him, but Shepard and her knew he wouldn't sleep willingly.

To say Chakwas was horrified to hear that he'd been casually using a broken arm out in the field was an understatement. The scans showed the bones were roughly fused back together, allowing Carmine to use the busted limb at the cost of massive amounts of pain for the gear.

Unfortunately the bones weren't fused correctly, just thrown together so Carmine could use his arm. They were forced to re-break his forearm and administer the proper treatment, thankfully while he was still unconscious. Karen couldn't believe that he didn't suffer any permanent damage.

Although he did wake up while the injection was taking place, he didn't seem to mind all that much in usual Carmine fashion. Even with his complaining, he stayed as still as he always did while getting patched up.

The gear looked peaceful as he slept, the pain and anger not weighing down his features. Sure he smiled and laughed while he was awake, but when you looked in his eyes you could see what the war did to him. It made Chakwas smile seeing the gear finally at peace while he slept. She returns to typing up some personal notes, adding more to his already extensive medical file.

---

Shepard snipped the last lock of her wet hair with a pair of scissors, preferring to keep her hair on the shorter side. Although she made sure to leave it long enough to be brushed back. The commander was always on top of keeping her hair a certain length, preferring the easy care routine of a shorter haircut. Specifically showering, as she hated the feeling of her wet hair being all knotted up.

Hell if she didn't enjoy having Carmine run his hands along her short, messy red locks she'd probably cut it even shorter. But then Carmine wouldn't have any loose hairs to tuck behind her ear, and Shepard wouldn't settle for that.

As she sweeps up her snipped off hair and dumps it into her bathroom's trash can she decides it's probably best to be more dressed than she was. Waltzing around her cabin topless, with only a pair of loose shorts on. Shepard shrugs, simply throwing on an oversized t-shirt. As a matter of fact it was one of Carmine's oversized t-shirts that she snagged from him while in his room one day.

She sat back in her chair by her desk and inhaled deeply, finding his scent ever present on it. A sad look comes to her eyes as the recent mission flows through her mind, "He'd rather sacrifice himself for us than allow us to help." She mutters low to herself.

She was right, he demanded they not help him during both encounters, and for some profound reason she complied. Allowing Carmine to push himself way past his limits. In a strange way she thanked the imulsion in his body for making sure he stayed alive. After this recent outing she grew even more confident in Carmine's combat abilities. Possibly being one of the only people in recorded history to take out a geth prime by himself.

To do it in the manner he did brought a blush to Shepard's cheeks, the raw power and fearlessness the gear displayed making her inner workings catch lustful fire. As far as she knew he was still laid out in the med bay, and a stabbing feeling screamed at her, telling her to go check on him. She craved his company.

Shepard decides to listen to her craving, fitting herself into her normal clothes and slipping on her shoes. She opens her door and gets into the elevator. Heading down to the med bay.

She taps her foot impatiently. It had been a while since she'd left him to settle Tali in. Which in itself was an ordeal that lasted roughly three hours alone. As if sending Kal'Reegar on his way wasn't enough of a haste. Quarian's required specialized accommodations and she wouldn't leave her friend without knowing she was alright. Which left her in her armor, feeling sticky and gross for the entirety of the conundrum.

Thankfully once Tali was properly housed Shepard was able to shoot up to her room and clean herself up. She opens her omni-tool to check her now fully dried hair. Smiling as it looked exactly as she wanted.

The elevator bings and Shepard makes her way out. As she passes the mess hall she overhears a commotion. More specifically she overhears Jack.

"Come on Tali, just show us the footage. Nobody I know has ever taken a prime one on one. Not even the strongest biotics can make a dent in their armor on their own." Jack pleads with the small quarian who is currently eating her food paste. Eyes closed as she slurps up the nutrient rich food through a straw. She finishes and shakes her head no to them.

Grunt smashes a fist into the table and growls, "Come on. I haven't even gotten to see him fight yet. Just show us already. I hear he fights like a caged beast, and I wish to learn more than what he shows me in training."

Tali's eyes widened, seeing nearly all of Shepard's recruited companions gathered around her. She eyes up Garrus who shrugs and she rolls her eyes before removing the straw from her mouth slot. She sighs, "It would be disrespectful to Carmine if I show you all without his permission."

Zaeed scoffs, "Well it's a good thing that big bastard is passed out in the med bay then. Come on little girl, pull up the tape. There's a severed geth prime head in with his gear and I'd like to see how he ripped it off."

Miranda rubs her chin, crossing her legs as she decides to throw in her two cents, "It would be rather valuable to know exactly how he took it down for future encounters."

Jacob nods along with her, "Yeah, I mean it would be good to know if he exploited some kind of weakness in its defenses. Shepard, Garrus, that other quarian, and yourself are the only ones who know what happened."

Tali desperately looks to Garrus for help and he coughs, scratching the back of his head, "Well I'd seen him take out the second one, but I would be interested in seeing the footage of him taking out the first one."

Jack and Grunt smack their hands into the table, "HE KILLED TWO!" They yell in unison.

Even Zaeed seemed a bit shocked at the reveal. Jacob and Miranda shared a knowing glance, having all too much experience with how dangerous the big man could be, but still being in awe of the elder Carmine's ability

Tali glared at Garrus who winced, realizing now that everyone was going to jump on her. Before they could, Kasumi revealed herself. She de-cloaked next to Tali, scaring the small quarian in the process, "Why don't you all leave her be. She's been through enough as is. Just let her relax, she's only been here a couple hours. Wait a couple more hours until the big guy's up and about and I'm sure he'll give Tali permission to show us."

'Only a couple more hours? He was severely injured yet Kasumi said he would be alright in merely a few hours!' Tali is about to inquire as to what Kasumi meant by that. Patrick brought the table over some food to tide the rest of the crew over. Throwing his piece in with them.

"I'm with the little ninja there. Don't be worrying about nuttin' concerning that boyo until he's got his legs back under him." Tali looked at both of them gratefully. Kasumi smiled slyly, as if she was hiding something. And Patrick merely nodded, his usual wide smile plastered on his face.

Jack huffs before a thought smashes into her brain, "Oh I get it, you're keeping those videos all to yourself. Eh I can't blame you, that big fucker has had my engine revving since I got here." The men in the room roll their eyes at Jack. Grunt huffs and keeps his attention on Tali, not really grasping what they were talking about.

Tali stutters as deep pink blush burns on her visor, "I-I do not even know him. W-why would I keep the footage for such a reason?"

Kasumi wraps an arm around Tali's shoulders and leans in a bit, "Good question, so I'll answer with another question. What do you think of the big guy?"

Tali takes a moment to think, "I didn't trust him at first, he was injured, covered in his blood, and might have been the most frightening person I've ever seen. But when Shepard had me go talk to him I didn't know how to react. He was surprisingly nice to me. And he risked his life to save me. To be truthful I don't entirely know how I feel about him yet."

Kasumi squeezes her closer, "Don't worry, when you end up talking with him again everything will fall into place. Just keep in mind he's more than a wall of extremely attractive muscle."

The image of Carmine's flexing arms pop into Tali's head and she blushes again, "N-noted."

Miranda pipes up, "Just be wary of him, he's a rather violent man."

Jack groans and leans back in her chair, nibbling on a fry, "The Cerberus cheerleader's just pissy because Carmine nearly broke her windpipe. He almost did the same to Kasumi and you don't see her complaining."

Miranda glared at Jack, "Almost sounds like you've taken a liking to him subject zero."

Jack springs up from her seat, teeth bared, "Want to say that again bitch!"

Miranda stands, not a trace of fear in her eyes. Everyone holds their breath as the tension rises. Minus Grunt of course, who is waiting for the blood to start flying with a goofy smile on his face.

Shepard decides it's probably best to make her appearance and burst into the mess hall, "Each of you stand down! The enemy is out there, not in here for Christ sake."

They all look to the commander, Grunt sighs and sits down, "Dammit Shepard, I was looking forward to seeing who was the stronger biotic."

She rolls her eyes and smiles at the blood hungry krogan. Shepard strolls up and takes her usual seat, which is across from Tali. She smirks at Tali, "I appreciate you for thinking of Carmine's privacy, but to be honest he wouldn't give half a damn about something like this. We all know roughly what's happened to him, where he's from, and what he can do. I can't speak for everyone else, but he's a good friend to me and has proved to be reliable on many occasions."

Grunt surprises everyone by throwing his opinion out first, "Carmine is a warrior. Earning his moniker through battle and blood. He wears his scars with pride. Although we haven't fought together, he has earned my respect through his show of skill during sparring."

Jack spoke next, "Since the armored frog said his piece I guess I should too. Carm ain't such a bad guy, sure he's annoyingly confident, strong, sexy...b-but that doesn't really matter. He's all fucked in the head, and that's coming from me. This hurts to say but, I enjoy his company."

Zaeed sighs, "I hate to say it but he's not half bad. Both with a gun, and in conversation. He's got a mean right hook too, the boy is ready to fight anyone, anytime. He's got balls of steel."

Jacob decides to speak up, "I like the guy. Sure he's threatened to kill me since I work for Cerberus. But I'm pretty sure he's threatened everyone here at least once early on. And despite how much he hates Cerberus, he still treats me well."

Garrus chimes in, "He's a big, brutal bastard but he'll dive in front of you to catch a bullet in your stead. I trust him with my life and he trusts us with his. Although it seems he doesn't value his life nearly as much as we do. Aside from that I enjoy talking and working with him on some of the maintenance around the ship, Carm is surprisingly good with his hands."

Kasumi is the next one to speak, "He's special, I've never met someone as selfless as he is. But Jack is right. He's got some issues, but so do the rest of us. He's a good friend, even though he did try to crush my throat when we first met."

Patrick says his piece last, seeing as the rest seemed to say their piece about the last Carmine brother, "Me and that boy have talked about shit I've never said to another living soul in all my days. He's one of a kind he is. A proper lad."

Miranda scoffs and stands again, throwing her arms up in exasperation, "Are you all serious? The way he butcher's his enemies is despicable. He's a monster that doesn't deserve to-"

Shepard cuts her off, "That's enough. It's obvious you're the only one who feels that way Miranda. You can return to your station." The two women share fierce glares before Miranda shakes her head and walks away in a rage. Fed up with how accepting everyone is of the gear.

Garrus's bit caught Tali's attention, she herself being one to work with her hands quite often. Her new and old friends spoke so highly of Carmine, yet for some reason she was still on the fence about speaking with him alone.

Was it because she still feared him? Or perhaps it was the strange attraction for him that burned in her belly. Either way Tali was sure he was a good person, so many different personalities wouldn't all be lying to save face for the veteran gear.

Shepard can't believe how much the rest of the team seemed to care about the gear, minus Miranda obviously. But it was apparent she still had some rather raw feelings towards the gear. Besides Miranda's outburst she was truly touched to see how well Carmine is perceived by the others, 'Even Jack and Zaeed had good things to say about him. Carmine truly has surprised me once again.'

She smiles and reaches across to boop the front of Tali's visor, noticing the increased speed of her fidgeting hands. It was a clear sign she was stuck in a deep thought. She blinks a few times as Shepard's finger makes contact with her visor, "My apologies, I was just thinking."

Shepard taps her wrist, indicating for Tali to open her omni-tool. Tali nods and obliges, increases the viewing window for everyone to get a good look at the footage.

As they all watch the footage, Tali can't help but space back out. Her thoughts got all wrapped up once she got eyes on Carmine. In the hours she'd been getting to know the crew, nobody would tell her where he was from, 'I haven't asked Shepard. Perhaps once these videos are done I can ask her about him in private.'

Her thoughts are interrupted by Shepard, "Alright, you all saw how he fared against the primes. Now either get to eating or get back to your stations."

The crew dissipates, everyone but Shepard, Tali, and Kasumi having left the mess hall. Kasumi gives Tali one more reassuring squeeze, "Don't worry, he'll like you. He's got a thing for women with nice hips." She whispers to Tali, bringing back the harsh blush that burned her cheeks once before.

"W-What?" Tali exclaims as her hands go into overdrive in front of her.

Kasumi giggles and vanishes. Shepard raises an eyebrow at the small interaction as Tali calms down. The two sit in comfortable silence as Tali ponders, and Shepard picks at what was left from the bits Patrick brought over.

"I would like to ask you something, Shepard. About Carmine." Tali's pink orbs narrow a bit as Shepard sighs.

"I'd like to be able to answer, but I bet it's something only he can explain to you. I've told enough people things to make them think I'm absolutely nuts. So I'll pass that off to him instead. I was actually going to see him in the med bay if you'd like to join me. You can ask him whatever you want if he's awake." Shepard says as she leans back in her chair a bit.

Tali thinks for a moment, then nods. The pair get up and make their way to the med bay where to their surprise, there was no trace of Carmine besides the rather weak scent of gunpowder, pine, and sweat.

Doctor Chakwas makes her way over to the pair and smiles, "Very good to see you again Tali."

Tali smiles warmly at the older woman as she gets eveloped by a hug from the good doctor, "It's great to see you too Karen. I missed you, but unfortunately we aren't here for a visit. We're looking for Carmine." The pair pull away and Tali stands back by Shepard again.

"That stubborn man's body nullified the sleeping medication. He looked much weaker than I've ever seen him though, his body must have had an adverse reaction to the meds. I said he didn't need to leave but he said he'd feel better if he was out of my way." She sighs and pinches the bridge of her nose.

Shepard shrugs, a flabbergasted Tali stares at the doctor, "How is that even possible with the condition he was in, and while under the influence of medication?"

Chakwas smiles warmly at the quarian, "Well as I'm sure you're trying to figure out, Carmine is rather unique. But you'll find out in time. Best for you to go find him. I think he mentioned wanting to grab a shower and fix up his helmet before he went to sleep again."

Shepard smiled and nodded to Chakwas. She grabbed the utterly confused Tali and led her out of the med bay, saying her goodbye to the doctor. Shepard got in the elevator with Tali and headed down to the bottom floor where ironically enough Tali was residing.

As the doors opened she walked down into the shuttle bay with Tali in tow, "Where are we going Shepard? I thought Karen said Carmine was in the shower?"

Shepard smiled and peaked back to look at her friend, "He's very fast in the shower, even as wounded as he was. I'm bringing you to his room so you can pop in whenever you feel the need to chat with him."

Tali's cheeks burned, 'I would hate to ask him to go out of his way for me…wait. We're staying on the same floor!?'

As Shepard had thought, the big man's door was unlocked, the blue hologram was just waiting to be pressed and opened. Shepard motioned for Tali to open it, and she hesitated.

"W-why is it blue? Aren't unlocked doors green?" Shepard chuckles and smiles at the quarian.

"It's got something to do with Carmine's armor. His lights are a blue color like that." Tali finds herself enamored with the coloration. She reaches a hand out and opens the door. Catching sight of the gear's backside, his relatively long hair still wet from his shower. He's hunched over his workbench and she can hearing him grunting. Tali can't stop staring at the dry bits of hair she could see, the jet black locks looking rather fluffy, his ears slightly poking out from the sides. Her hands twitched, wanting to test her theory of his hair's fluff.

"Come on you piece of shit...aghhh it's jammed!" He mutters, his voice raising into an aggravated yell. Tali flinches from the volume but is pushed in further by Shepard. The comfortable scent of the gear washes over Tali and she finds herself enamored with the smell of gunpowder and pine.

Shepard frowns, it seems his senses are a bit dulled from the combination of the drugs Chakwas used and all the healing his body is doing. She shakes away the look as the gear bangs at whatever he's working on.

"Ha, gotcha!" He yells out again in triumph as he slips on his helmet. As Shepard takes a rather loud step, the gear's head snaps over to them, a knife in his hand.

Tali tenses and gulps loudly, but calms as the gear chuckles and slips the blade into its sheath, "Oh hey, it's just you two. Sorry if I didn't notice you sooner, the meds Chakwas had given me made my head all cloudy."

Shepard smiled warmly as his freshly repaired helmet, the blue lights shining in classic Carmine fashion. The tight black shirt he wore left little to Tali's imagination as he made his way up to them. She wasn't much shorter than Shepard, but short enough that her eyes were level with the gear's toned abs as they practically popped through his shirt.

"Hey Cherry, you wouldn't happen to know where that shirt with the cog on it went would ya? I've searched all over my room for it and can't find it."

Shepard blushed and rubbed the back of her neck, "Nope, haven't seen it." She answers quickly, feeling his eyes narrow at her.

"Eh, it's probably somewhere. Nice haircut, going a little shorter I see." Shepard smiles as he notices the shorter red mess of hair.

"Thank you Carm." Shepard says as she looks to Tali, who seems to be frozen in thought.

'Keelah' he's...certainly something.' She thinks as her pink eyes rake up along the man's body, hugged tight by his clothes. She finds the shining blue lights of his eyes looking down on her and nervously chuckles.

"How are you doing? Is everything alright with you? That geth grub didn't hurt ya too bad did he?" Carmine asks rather attentively, completely throwing the quarian off. Shepard smiled as her friend was practically starstruck.

"She just came to ask you about some things, Carmine. The usual kind of stuff seeing as she's going to be a part of our crew. Didn't really feel like going through the whole song and dance. Don't need one of my closest friends thinking I'm a nut job." Shepard jumps in to save the quarian.

Tali nods and Carmine hums, "Alright, fair enough. You'd rather me feel like a nut job eh?" Carmine says with a small pat to Shepard's head. Tali watches in mild envy.

She begrudgingly swats his hand away and smirks, "Exactly, it's what you deserve you giant crazy bastard." She retorts with a poke to his rock hard middle.

He copies her and swats away her poke with a small laugh, "Ha, I guess you're right."

Shepard smiles proudly and looks to Tali who is still frozen in place, "Hey, you'll be fine. I promise he doesn't bite."

Carmine chuckles huskily, "As far as you know."

The pair of women feel the heat come to their cheeks and look away from the gear. He looks to them confused, not realizing how suggestive he sounded, "Well I'll c-catch you two later, bed is calling my name. Play nice Carmine."

Clayton nods, "Hope you sleep good Shepard." The commander nods back, humming contently. No doubt her dreams would be invaded by the big man yet again.

As his door closes Clayton stands awkwardly with the quarian, his eyes gazing down to look at her. Their eyes meet and her pink orbs open wide before she looks away shyly. He snickers a bit, 'Don't just stand here dipshit, offer her a seat!'

"Oh uhh, sorry miss. Here, we should probably sit down for this." Carmine moves to sit on his couch and motions to the spot next to him. Tali nods and walks over, sitting a good distance from the gear. Humming as she wiggled a bit in her spot, the couch was rather comfortable.

He leans his forearms on his knees as he hunches forward to be more on her level, his helmet looking toward her to meet her curious pink orbs. He scratches his helmet nervously, an action that Tali finds surprisingly cute as he lets a small awkward laugh slip from his lips.

She takes a brave, deep breath and speaks to him, "We should probably start over with introductions. I'm Tali'Zorah. Well Tali'Zorah Vas'Normandy."

He tilts his head like a confused pup, "Is Vas Normandy just a coincidence thing or?"

She smiles at the innocent question, "You haven't encountered many quarians have you?"

He shakes his head no and an excited smile comes to Tali's face, she always loves talking about her culture since people never really asked due to quarian's having a rather poor reputation, "Well whenever a quarian serves on a ship, they'll take on the ship's name as their own. It's simply a part of our culture."

She feels she's spoken too much as she can't read the big man's facial expression with his helmet on. She doesn't expect his enthusiastic reaction, "Oh that's really cool. So as long as you serve on the Normandy you'll use it as a part of your name?"

Tali's smile finds its place on her face and she nods, "Exactly."

The gear smiles and extends a slightly oiled hand to her, "Well it's pleasure to officially meet you Tali'Zorah Vas'Normandy. I'm Clayton Carmine, but you can just call me Carmine."

Tali's pink blush is visible on her visor, surprised and flattered that he was able to properly pronounce her full name, "Y-you can just call me Tali if you want."

Carmine hums and rubs the front of his throat, "Hmm, I guess it's a bit faster, but I do like your name. It's pretty."

Carmine and Tali freeze as what he says sinks in, 'Oh Jesus Clayton. Good one now you've creeped the girl out.' His thoughts berate him.

'D-does he not mind that I'm a quarian? Did he really mean that?' Tali mulls over as they sit in silence. She slightly shakes her head to get herself back on track.

"T-thank you Carmine. I like your name as well. B-but that's not why I'm here. I'd like to know more about where you're from, nobody has been able to answer me. The most I've gotten out of them is they say you are "unique.""

The elder Carmine brother sighs and nods, "Well, I suppose since you're going to be on the team you deserve to know."

Carmine spends the next thirty minutes running Tali through how he came to be in this world, giving her as much information as he did for Shepard, leaving out some of the finer details. In conclusion he told her about the war, the fact he was the last of his immediate family, and the relic that brought him here. Even going as far to show her the tag that hung around his neck.

As she stood in front of him, running a finger over the warm, metal cog tag. Her pink eyes meet his shining blue eyes and she takes a small step back, "Y-you're not lying are you?"

Carmine's hands gently slap onto his legs as he leans back a bit, "Wish I was, this all feels like a dream sometimes." He says solemnly as he readies himself for her reaction.

"THAT IS SO COOL!" Tali yells out, startling the big man as he stares at her wide eyed. She starts to pace back and forth, rocketing out questions.

"How tall are you, and what do you weigh? You're obviously much larger than any human or alien I've seen."

He smiles, sighing in relief as Tali unleashed her curiosity, "Apparently I'm close to eight feet tall and I'm probably around 375 pounds now that I have a source of good food and a solid weight room."

Tali makes a curious noise and Carmine can't help but smile at the cute quarian as she goes on, "What was your world like? No no, what is that little cog around your neck for? No wait, may I help you clean your weapons sometime? And what does that term grub mean?" She pauses in front of him and fidgets her hands nervously. A shy smile comes to her face as she watches him yawn.

"I'm sorry I realize I might be asking a lot here I-"

He cuts her off, "Nah it's alright. Sera was a beautiful place before the war, it's probably gorgeous without all those damn grubs and lambent fucking up the place too. Think of it like this dimension's earth. My cog tag is like Shepard's tag, it helps identify me as a gear. You can help sometime if you like. You just have to be careful, when I wake up I'll send you a message and we can get to work. The term grub is what we called the locus since they came up from the ground, like a grub."

Tali feels gratitude nearly bursting in her as Carmine gave her all the answers to her questions without questioning it himself. He yawns again, and Tali snickers at the sleepy gear, "You can go to bed if you'd like Carmine, n-not that you need my permission. We can talk more when we work on your weapons."

Tali pauses, 'Why am I getting so excited for that.' She feels the pink hit her cheeks before she can stop it.

Carmine nods, and groans as he stands, clambering his way over to his large bed. He plops himself down with a pained groan, placing a hand on his chest. His chest was one large bruise since the geth had broken so many of his ribs. They ached terribly but the gear was used to this kind of pain.

He slipped himself onto his bed after sliding his shoes off, and Tali took note of his bedside things, finding the cube he'd described earlier and the head of the geth prime that almost took her life amongst the random assorted items. She moved to touch it and looked to the gear whose arms were curled up behind his helmeted head. He nodded and Tali curiously picked up the cube.

"It's broken, normally it would be pulsing a blue color. I don't know how to fix it, so I'm pretty much stuck here. Not that I mind, I don't really have a purpose in a world without a fight to win." He speaks his mind and Tali sadly places the cube down.

"I'm sorry to hear that you think that way Carmine. From what I know of you, you're more than just a killing machine, although you are incredibly good at that." Tali tries to console him. She smiles as he chuckles heartily.

"Thanks Tali, I appreciate it." Her heart rate skyrocketed as her name graced his lips.

She nervously fidgeted her hands as she stood next to his laying form, "Is there anything you need before I leave Carmine?"

He nodded, "Could you just place my helmet next to all my gear over by my workbench?"

Tali nodded, "Of course I can. It's the least I can do for the man who saved my life."

Carmine rolled his eyes as he went to grab under his face plate, "Shepard, Garrus, or that Kal'Reegar would've done the same."

Tali scoffs and turns her head to look at his gear as he slides his helmet off, "Perhaps, but you acted...and you know very little of my people, but not many would risk their well being for a quarian." She ends with a somber tone as she looks to her feet.

"Well I'm not one of those people. I don't care if you're a quarian. You're one of Shepard's closest friends, and a hero yourself from back in the day if I remember right. That warrants a save now and again if you ask me." Tali smiles as she taps one of her feet.

"I really appreciate that Carm-" she pauses as she looks up and sees Carmine's bare face, his helmet extended to her.

Her eyes widen and a blush stains through her visor, "Keelah!" She exclaims as she stares at his handsome features. Running her eyes over every scar and of course his messy black hair, which dips a bit over his forehead.

"What?" Carmine asks with a quirk of his eyebrow. His steel eyes are full of worry for her. Fearing something may have been wrong. She locked eyes with him, Tali loved the metallic coloring.

"N-nothing! I'm sorry." She clumsily grabs at his helmet and quickly moves to place his helmet down where he asked. She hustles to the door and stands, head down, hands fidgeting at record speeds.

"I-is there anything else Carmine?"

"No, that's it. I enjoyed our talk Tali. Thank you for coming by, I'm looking forward to cleaning my gear with you. I hear you're quite the mechanic. Maybe I can learn a thing or two from you." His sweet words resonate from his deep voice, and make Tali's situation even worse as her voice shakes in response.

"N-nothing to thank me for Carmine. I-I'm looking forward t-to it as well. Sleep well." She quickly takes one more look at his face and exits. Carmine tilts his head like a confused pup and hums. Watching her hips sway as she leaves, her suit clings rather well to her posterior.

"You too..." He says slowly as his door shuts.

'Huh, did I do something? Is there blood on my face?' He pats his face and his hands come away clean.

"Hmm, guess she just really needed to get going. She was nice." He smiles as the image of the rather pretty clothing she wore over her suit popped into his head. That thought was of course followed by images of her rather impressive lower half. He groans and throws an arm over his face.

"Oh fuck off. Not this shit again." He says to his brain as he grabs his knife and slides his shirt off.

"Love you all. Goodnight." He mutters as sleep takes over his brain, his hand wrapped tight with his brother's tags.

---

Author's Note:

Eesh well I never expected this chapter to take so long but here we all are. I hope you've all been enjoying and what not (the usual babble I go on about in these).

It's the 1st year anniversary of when I started this story and I gotta just say I never thought this would catch any traction. From the bottom of this grub killin' cowboy's heart, Thank you.

With that said, feel free to leave criticism as it helps me improve my work. If you don't feel like doing that then leave a comment, let me know what you ladies and germs are excited about or want to see and I'll probably incorporate it into the story somehow. Like, follow, or don't it's up to you.

As always, I hope you've enjoyed my silly little story. Be seeing you all later. Love ya

Adios