(Source: quarianbrotherhood)
There is a sudden jolt under the squad’s feet, and the rumbling of distant tectonic activity, a side effect of the Reapers stripping the planet down to the mantle in a number of places. However, the miniature quake soon finishes, surrounding the squad in silence.Well, save for the insectile chittering coming from the upper floors of the buildings around them.
When the vibrations stopped, Garrus took a moment to steady himself, standing up tall and checking his surroundings. This planet had seen enough devastation without nature adding itself to the mix, but aside from the rain, the turian was unsure if there had been anything natural about the mini-quake at all. “You guys felt that, right?” He asked.
Before they could answer however there was that noise. A chattering that sent an involuntary chill down his spine as he whipped around, eyes looking up as he searched for the source. “That can’t be good,” he muttered to himself as he tapped a finger to his visor and raised the Mantis, scanning the nearby buildings to try and determine just what was making that sound.
But as the noise petered out his scanner came up empty. No heat signatures, no signs of life… anything that had been living here was now long gone. “I’m not reading anything,” he said finally, lowering his rifle and unsure what else he could report on. He didn’t know what to make of the noise they’d just heard, wanting to believe that it was some of the wildlife here on the batarian world, but the fact that his visor couldn’t pick anything up was a little unsettling.
(Source: cerberuscheerleader)
Shepard nodded curtly, fingers busying themselves with her omni-tool as soon as Miranda was close.“Here’s the plan. We’ll land on the outskirts of Hatre, because it’s more likely that we find survivors there than in Ujon. EDI’s found a large number of heat signatures but we don’t know if those are from people, running equipment or fires. Hammerhead team, you’ll be on the streets inside the city. Take note of the damage, where the Reapers hit hardest, anything that helps us finding out how they operate when attacking a colony. My team will take the shuttle here” - she pointed to a southern suburb, not quite as densely populated as the rest of the city - “and circle around the outskirts, moving to this area while looking for survivors. There’s an old facility there, bombed out, been abandoned for years. It’s one of the last buildings before the desert. People might have moved out there, hoping to avoid the attack. From the Prothean ruins we’ve seen it looks like the Reapers focus on heavily populated areas. Assume hostiles and check your targets. Move out.”
At the sound of Miranda’s voice, Garrus, who had been resting against the Kodiak shuttle, perked up, carefully taking in the details of the plan Shepard laid out before them. The strong leader they had all come to know and respect was suddenly present when just moments before, he thought he noticed something…
There had been a small edge to Shepard’s voice, a harshness that wasn’t normally present when she spoke to Kasumi and wondered at Miranda’s presence (or lack thereof), but having been brought up in a militaristic culture he understood the importance of having everything organised when they had that much time to prepare before any mission. The annoyance Shepard would have had on finding out they weren’t prepared was completely understandable.
But there was also that bleak look on her face, slight as it was, that told him something was… off? Had she not had enough rest since the last mission? Granted it wasn’t enough time for a decent rest anyway, especially for a Biotic. If he knew Shepard, then she definitely would have exhausted an extensive amount of energy in that last fight… But she had always managed to pull through before.
Maybe she wasn’t actually looking forward to the outcome of this mission at all? The Reapers presence didn’t spell good news for the planet, and given all the awful things they had seen the Reapers do… well, no one really looked forward to running into all that over and over, now did they?
As much as Garrus had wanted to get off the ship and get back into action, he really only wanted to cure his boredom. He was already expecting the worst for Camala, if only so that if there was any good news he could genuinely feel excited about it.
Perhaps the burden of the fight against the Reapers was finally getting to her. To all of them. And maybe it was finally starting to show. Spirits knew they’d get tired of this fighting eventually and get sick of the sacrifices that had to be made. And Shepard had been fighting this fight longer than any of them. Even with the two year gap she’d gained, courtesy of the Collectors, she hadn’t really gotten the same ‘break’ as everyone else (not that he considered his tenure on Omega a break by any definition of the word… unless he counted what happened to his face), and she had never actually stopped fighting them.
Or maybe… maybe he’d imagined it. He watched closely as Shepard spoke, listened to the inflections in her voice as she directed them and couldn’t find a trace of what he thought he saw. Maybe he just didn’t see anything. But Shepard was a master at masking her emotions, especially in the face of an upcoming mission.
When Shepard had finished, and they began boarding the shuttle, he stood back, letting Miranda get on first and looked back to his CO, about to ask if everything was okay… then decided against it.
She didn’t need to know that he was worried about her. At least not until after they’d finished on Camala.
(Source: cerberuscheerleader)
As Garrus pulled the last of his armour on, ensuring that it was locked correctly into place, a smirk crossed his features as he started to feel… normal again.
He felt more comfortable in his armour than he did in his civvies, though given his injuries it made little sense for him to wear it around the ship while he recovered. Even after the incident on Omega, Garrus had insisted he wear his armour while he worked, even if they were in no danger of a firefight. But with his broken ribs it had been difficult to even pull on a regular shirt, let alone wear the heavy armour and lock it into place. The mere fact that he could put it on now meant that he was definitely ready to return to the battlefield.
Relieved that he was finally getting back into the thick of it, as much as he knew he played an important part ensuring the guns held in the last battle, he grabbed his sniper rifle and headed for the cargo hold.
Shepard folded her arms, shrugging. “As long as everyone knows what to look for. I doubt they’ll be easy to find. These are the people who could build both me and this ship in secret, after all. Tali, put a few teams together for me. I want you in charge of the one that’ll search my quarter. I’m sure Miranda is capable of looking through her own.”She glanced at the dark-haired woman, a ghost of a smile crossing her face again as if they were sharing a private joke. Shepard guessed that her second-in-command had a few secrets regarding both of them in her files, and just in case there was something about how she slept (terribly) or about her stress levels (probably off the charts) or how many hours she spent by her terminal trying to work her thoughts away (too many) she’d rather not let anyone on the crew get as much as a glimpse. Miranda was a different story since she already knew every intimate detail there was to know. That, and the fact that she never brought those things up.
Finally grabbing her own plate of food, Shepard moved back to the table and sat down opposite Garrus again, shaking her head a little. “Probably should’ve thought of checking for bugs as soon as we left Illium, huh?”
“Funny how hindsight works,” Garrus smirked at her as he leaned back in his seat. “Still, if I recall correctly, we were a little distracted after Illium.” He said, a reminder of the pain hitting his chest as he remembered the injuries he and Tali had gained while staying on the hub planet. Then there was that chilling message Harbinger had sent through the ship just as they were getting back on their feet, and this whole business with Cerberus and the Reaper ships… ‘A little’ might have been an understatement. “I think EDI would have alerted us if there was anything, but a quick search of the ship ourselves isn’t going to hurt anyone.”
(Source: kaidanalenko)
(Source: greedcullen)
Kaidan glanced briefly over at the turian as he entered the mess, an eyebrow quirking in return to the comment.
“Yeah I was just thinking that Cerberus orange would match my eyes,” he said dryly, a thin smile forming on his lips. “But seriously most of my stuff got blown out of the cargo hold.” He shrugged his shoulders, slightly defeated, before turning his attention to Shepard as she cut the cake into slices and helping himself to a sliver.
Well he could tell what it was trying to be, but there was something that just wasn’t right with Gardner’s attempt at a cake, and Kaidan had to surreptitiously hide the slightly disgusted look that had crossed his face when he had started chewing.
“Anyone up for a few drinks with this?”
Shepard gave Garrus a friendly slap on the shoulder after he’d wished her a happy birthday, congratulating him on a job well done before sitting down with her piece of cake. It might not be a masterpiece, but after exerting so much of her energy through extensive use of her biotic abilities to save ammo, she really didn’t care. She did care about Kaidan losing his belongings, though, and pondered how to make that up to him. She’d known that he had his things down in the hold, after all, and should have asked Kasumi to secure them.
It was at least possible to get him out of the Cerberus colours. They were headed for Noveria soon, and there had to be an Alliance requisitions office somewhere on that icy rock. Her Spectre status, if nothing else, could surely get a set of civvies to Port Hanshan.
Her thought process was interrupted by the suggestion of drinks. While Shepard did want the simplicity that alcohol in your blood stream provided, there was still work to be done.
“Easy there, Alenko”, she said, moving the plate out of the way and placing her elbows on the table. “We’ve got to do a sweep for survivors on Camala once we’ve checked the space stations for life signs. It’s a large colony down there so I wouldn’t be surprised if its overrun by husks already. If we take two teams we can cover a lot of ground, and the Normandy can stay in orbit with someone manning the scanners to do a general sweep, look for massive movement, that sort of thing. Before anyone grabs a bottle, we should sort out who goes dirtside with me. Garrus has volunteered already” - she nodded to the turian, an of course almost forming on her lips - “but I need at least one more person to go with us on foot and a team in the Hammerhead. You did a fine job steering her before, Kasumi. Up for taking her out for real?”
“Well if you think it’s working for you.” Garrus laughed, the very idea of Kaidan’s gear flying out of the cargo hold was as amusing as it would have been if he were there to witness it. At least he seemed to be taking this rather well, though from their time together on the SR1, Garrus had never known him to get upset over something like this. Still, things hadn’t exactly been easy for Kaidan since arriving here, so it was good to see him in such good spirits. “Lucky you’re on a Spectre’s salary now, right? I’m sure you could replace everything easily enough.”
Garrus was almost envious of the fact that everyone could eat this cake - that is, he would have been, if he knew what a good cake looked like and if he didn’t know what Gardner’s cooking was like. So when Kaidan asked if anyone wanted a few drinks he was quick to agree with him; it would have been much better than standing around awkwardly while everyone else ate.
At least he did, until he caught the stern look on Shepard’s face and was reminded that they were going to Camala soon. “Aw, not even just one?” he asked, “I thought humans drank to everything, birthdays, blowing up Reaper ships… I even knew a guy back in C-Sec who had a drink just before every assignment…” But he shrugged, already knowing what the answer would be.
Pulling up a seat at the table, he began looking through the dextro cookbook Kasumi had given him, though if he was going out soon he wasn’t really sure if he had much of an appetite. He also felt awkward about her cooking for him… they still hadn’t really spoken since Illium, and he still wasn’t sure that now was the best time… He shrugged it off, deciding that a better opportunity would present itself later, and turned his attention back to Shepard.
“So how much longer until we reach Camala anyway?”
(Source: garrus-vakarian)
Garrus left the Battery, almost surprised to find so many people in the mess hall all at once. Walking over to the group that was surrounding Shepard, he noted Kaidan’s uniform and quirked his brow at him.
“…trying out some new colours, Alenko?” he said, folding his arms over his chest, before wishing Shepard a happy birthday again and glanced down at the cake. He wasn’t really sure what to make of it. He was only vaguely familiar with the custom and he couldn’t eat it anyway.
Tali’s eyes narrowed and she shook her head, activating her own comm link and interrupting Ken. “Oh no you don’t, Garrus. You are notgetting energy from the shields. A big gun will not do us much good if the Normandy gets blown up because our shields are down. If the shields go, we’re visible to everything out there. ‘Sitting birds’ as I’ve heard the humans say. We will have to find your power somewhere else.”Tali studied her display for a long silent moment, and then nodded. It could work. “Garrus, I’ll see if I can get you some power from the main core without causing us any extra trouble. Might get a bit warm in here, but We’ll survive as long as this doesn’t last too long. Ken, see what you can do about drawing the bleedoff from the engine into Junction 2. Once the converter’s hooked up we may be able to use that bleedoff to get Garrus the energy he needs for the guns.”
Tali lifted her chin, “Garrus, I’ll see what I can do. If this doesn’t work, we’ll have to pull from life-support.”
Her fingers moved deftly over her own controls and, she glanced at Kelly and the display Kelly was watching. “Kelly, I need you to go down to the lower level and bring up the spare converter. It’s in a blue container just left of the stairs.”
Her stomach churned, but she didn’t feel afraid. Her thoughts were clear, sharp. Focused. This could work. Provided they didn’t blow themselves up or handle things wrong…
She knew it was a risky move…dangerous, and more than likely very much against Alliance regulations. Luckily for her, she wasn’t Alliance.
“I’m on it!” Kelly said to the Quarian, giving her an acknowledging glace and nod.
She quickly sprinted out of Engineering, heading down to the lower level, nearly tripping down the stairs and falling flat on her face.
Locating the container was easy enough, since there was only one blue one to the left of the stairs, as Tali had said. Much to hear relief, it wasn’t a very big container.
‘Wow, she has a really good memory. How she remembers all these things is amazing…’ she thought as she carefully lifted the container, heading back up the stairs, ’…now let’s hope I don’t drop it.’
Just as she had made it through the Engineering room doors, the ship jolted a little, causing her to falter and nearly drop the box. Thankfully, she kept her footing. ’Oh gosh, that was close!’
“Here you go, Miss Zorah!” Kelly said as she placed the blue container next to her.
With everyone back on the ship, Garrus checked all his monitors, and saw that the additional power he’d asked for had loaded. After making a few final adjustments, he opened a comm link to the cockpit and told Joker to open fire on the bastards.
Watching as the Thanix cannons were fired, the blasts hit the Scyllae and tore through it with ease. The ship unfurled as the guns worked their magic, the large explosion sending debris flying through the emptiness of space like fireworks. Even from his tiny monitor in the Battery, it was hauntingly beautiful to watch, as the flak forced the first ship into the second, and the chain of explosions that followed ensured that the Reaper ships were finally destroyed.
Garrus took a step back from his terminal, a small sense of pride and relief filling him as the guns he worked so hard on delivered the killing blow to their enemies. When he was certain everything was destroyed, he reopened the comms down in Engineering.
“Hey Tali, we did it. How are you guys doing down there? If everything’s okay, I think there’s a cake we can go stare at for Shepard’s birthday.”
