“Pressly, command of the ship is yours.”
I walked past the first mate and, patting him on the shoulder and ignoring the elevator, went down into the cargo hold.
Pressly just saluted me without responding to my words in any other way.
“Jane…”
“Captain!
The platoon is ready for deployment!
We’ve divided into two teams.
I command the first; Revy commands the second.
In my Mako are Alenko, Orimura, Zorah; in the second transport are Wrex, Garrus, and Williams.
You can choose which vehicle you want to ride in.”
“I’ll go in yours.”
I shrugged casually.
“Tali, I see you took a sniper rifle?”
I looked closely at the girl, and she, judging by her gestures, was very embarrassed.
“Well, you said I shouldn’t let enemies get within shotgun range, so I…
Shepard gave me the sniper software…”
Somewhere off to the side, Garrus snorted softly.
“…so I won’t be useless.”
“I never doubted you.”
Giving her an approving nod, I thoughtfully scratched my ear.
“Who’s riding in the number one spot?”
“Me.”
Jane shrugged casually, as if to say it couldn’t have been any other way.
“Great, then I’m riding with you.
The number one spot usually needs more protection than the number two.
Okay, soldiers, listen up.
Our objective is to reach the excavation site and extract Liara T’Soni, an archaeologist who, for some reason, Saren needs badly.
Actually, I understand perfectly well why.
She’s one of the best experts on the Protheans, and she’s currently in an accessible zone; the other specialists of her level are mostly sitting on heavily defended planets where you can’t just smoke them out.”
“Permission to speak?”
Kaidan looked at me carefully.
“Granted.”
“You talk as if you know this T’Soni personally…
Is that so?”
“Yes, it is.
T’Soni is an acquaintance of mine; moreover, her excavations are funded by my corporation, so I can be sure that she really is a good specialist.
Any more questions?”
“Expected enemies?”
Garrus tilted his head questioningly.
“I contacted T’Soni not too long ago, so I can say that the enemies attacking them are geth and krogans.”
“Krogans?”
Wrex frowned slightly.
“Is that a problem?”
“No…”
He shook his head cheerfully from side to side.
“…it’s fun!”
The grin on his face looked pretty unnerving.
“Okay, mount up.
The landing will be rough, so don’t forget to buckle in.”
“Yes, sir!”
A synchronized response from the humans, while the representatives of the other races didn’t respond to my words at all.
Soon we were sitting in the Mako, and I was watching closely as Tali settled into the gunner’s seat.
“Is that…
a problem?”
Noticing my gaze, she gestured somewhat jerkily at the gunner’s position.
“No, I was just thinking about how surreal it looks — a fragile quarian girl behind the Mako’s cannon.
The only thing stranger would be you in an exosuit.
Speaking of which, Jane, why not use them this time?”
“We’re landing from orbit; in the Mako, we’ll barely feel anything.
But for someone sitting outside in an exosuit…
it would be hell.
So we need to work out a deployment system for that kind of equipment.”
“There’s already a system, but…”
I grimaced.
“…no one thought of installing it on the Normandy, and to do it now, we’d have to give up several escape pods.”
“Hm?”
Jane shot me an interested look.
“A drop pod is installed in their place.
It’s released along with the exosuits and opens just before hitting the ground, dropping its passengers to the surface.
Although…”
I scratched the back of my head thoughtfully.
Something you could hang a couple on the side of the Mako and then open up after landing to gear up.
I need to check on that.”
“That would be perfect!”
At the end, Jane was already yelling cheerfully, because the ramp had opened and the Mako surged forward, flying out of the cargo hold and falling toward the planet.
“I’ll never get used to this!”
The delight in her voice was clear, and I shared it, but Tali, sitting in her seat, shrank slightly.
Well, not surprising — even the turians didn’t drop their transports from this height.
“You’re cra-azy!”
Garrus’s voice came over the general channel, and on the same channel, you could hear Wrex’s joyful laughter as he went on about pyjaks finally coming up with something interesting.
The fall wasn’t very long, but it was enough for everyone to calm down a little, and when the engines started firing, everyone took it more than calmly.
Only Tali’s shoulders trembled, clearly showing she was breathing a sigh of relief.
“I’m going outside.”
As soon as the Mako touched the ground, it surged forward, and I opened the rear hatch on the move.
Quickly getting out, I made my way to the nose, where I perched myself, creating a simple flat barrier.
At the same time, judging by the sound, the hatch closed behind me, which was good.
“The road is clear so far, but they could have dropped us closer.”
“They couldn’t.”
Kaidan answered Jane’s grumbling.
“Closer in, there’s already enemy contact, and during a landing, with the right weapons, a single infantryman could take down a frigate.
And you don’t even need to hammer the hull for that; a few good missile hits on the engines are enough.”
“Yeah, I know…
I know, but that doesn’t stop me from griping.”
“Um…
Lieutenant Shepard…”
Tali’s quiet voice came over the comms, so quiet that everyone else immediately shut up so they could hear this shy girl.
“…is Captain Shepard being outside…
normal?”
“It’s normal.
He’s a very powerful biotic and can easily handle anything they throw at him.”
Tali didn’t say anything more, but about thirty seconds later, friendly chatter started up on the general channel again.
I noted to myself that Tali wasn’t ready to join that kind of conversation yet.
But that was fine; it gave me time to work on her properly so she wouldn’t even think about returning to the Fleet.
More importantly, so she wouldn’t think about other men.
An anticipatory grin appeared on my lips.
“Enemy at one o’clock.”
As soon as I said that, the Mako’s cannon came to life and, turning in the right direction, fired several shots.
It was clear Tali was shooting using the Mako’s targeting software, because it was programmed to fire several shots at a target with a slight correction so the enemy couldn’t dodge.
“Good job, quick work.”
“It’s…
just…
I just point at the targets, and the automation does the rest…”
“Jane…”
“Got it.
I’ll give our shy girl a crash course, including Mako gunnery.
I think in a month, she’ll be shooting better on her own than with the computer.”
“Sorry!”
A quiet, frightened squeak made me open my eyes in slight surprise.
“Tali, cut that out.
We weren’t scolding you; we were praising you.
If you couldn’t handle the onboard computer — and believe me, the army has those kinds of people — then there’d be no point in running a crash course for you in that area.
But as it is, you have potential, and we’re going to develop it.
Do you understand me, Tali’Zorah vas Normandy?”
“Yes, Captain!”
She answered extremely quickly, clearly faster than she’d processed what I’d said.
“Thank you.”
She said that more quietly, once it dawned on her that we’d been praising her.
“Ten o’clock.
Just don’t get distracted…”
A few shots hit my biotic barrier, but the cannon successfully fired again.
True, I had to change position quickly so the turret’s rotation wouldn’t sweep me off the hull.
“Multiple enemies ahead!”
Tali immediately started marking them on the computer, and the Mako’s targeting system opened fire on them.
Meanwhile, the second Mako pulled up slightly from behind and also opened fire on the enemy.
Literally thirty seconds, and the enemy was completely suppressed.
The geth platforms that were still functional were knocked out of our path by me, because I didn’t want them exploding under our hull.
“Captain, I’d like to poke around in the geth…”
Tali’s voice sounded embarrassed and somewhat unsure.
“…no, I understand we have a mission right now, but when it’s done…”
“If there’s a chance, we’ll get you a couple of geth chassis.”
“Thank you!”
“What a beauty…”
Williams couldn’t help commenting on the lava lake we were moving past.
I wasn’t going to scold her for it, though.
I was generally planning to ignore her presence, since she was Jane’s subordinate; let Jane deal with her.
A geth ship flew overhead and, without slowing down, dropped something large onto the road.
“Colossus!”
Tali shouted that with a hint of panic; I, watching the large geth’s structure slowly unfold, knew that this, so-called, enemy wouldn’t stop us.
Next to it, smaller platforms deployed much faster and immediately opened fire, but…
A smirk appeared on my lips.
“Too slow.”
Slightly altering the “Lift” technique, I literally dragged the colossus — which hadn’t yet activated its shields or fully deployed — along the road, and just as its shields were about to activate, its right legs ended up over the lava, into which they fell a couple of seconds later.
Then a few shots from the Mako at the smaller targets, and the road was clear.
By that point, only the colossus’s head was slightly protruding from the lava lake, but the light on that head was no longer lit, indicating the lava’s complete victory over the colossus’s materials.
“Outpost ahead.
Chifuyu, full speed!”
“Got it!”
The girl didn’t argue and pressed the gas pedal, making the Mako’s engine snarl, and we literally smashed through the gates with our biotic barrier, crashing into them.
Then Tali, without missing a beat, immediately started marking targets.
The second Mako wasn’t idle either, flying into the outpost’s territory and beginning to bring death to the geth.
“Okay, the second gate…”
Chifuyu looked at them somewhat at a loss.
“…we don’t have the speed to ram them.”
“Tali, be a dear and put a few shots on both sides of the gate — enough that when I push, they’ll blast to hell.”
She didn’t ask any questions, just carried out my order while the second Mako kept the situation around us under control.
Then I generated a powerful push that sent the gates crashing to the ground.
“Khm…
and here I thought we’d have to get out and do some shooting…”
There was a hint of confusion in Garrus’s voice.
“Ha, you’re still young…
green…
The Commander’s doing it right.
While we can, we solve everything with big guns so that when we actually have to work, we won’t be tired.”
Wrex said this with obvious mockery.
“Um…
is he definitely a krogan?”
Jane’s voice carried disbelief and a slight jab.
“It’s just that usually they’re all screaming, ‘I am Krogan!’ and charging into the fray with that battle cry, but here he is, happy he doesn’t have to run anywhere…”
“Hey, woman, I’m not young by the way, so I’ve already gotten my hotheadedness under control.
No, I won’t argue — there are those among my people who act like a vorcha given a blaster even at a thousand years old, but I am a war master!”
The last words, about being a war master, were said with undisguised pride.
“Let me translate…”
From her tone, Rebecca had decided to tease Wrex.
“…I’m an old man and I’ve done enough running around with that yell.
Now I just want a quiet, peaceful life.
All this shooting?
I couldn’t care less.”
“Hey, hey!
Little one!
Don’t overdo it!
I’m still in my prime!
And I do love a good firefight!”
There was a hint of slight hurt in the big lizard’s voice.
“You’ll see, when the time comes for personal combat, I’ll wipe the floor with all of you!”
“Alright, alright, Grandpa Wrex, don’t hold a grudge against us youngsters…”
Jane was clearly enjoying everything that was happening.
“…we say it with love.
Besides, you’ve been acting way too quiet…
it’s unusual…”
“Yeah, yeah…”
“I see an obstruction ahead.”
“So what do we do?
The Mako can’t jump over that.”
Jane’s voice carried a hint of displeasure.
“Then we’ll drive over it — you just floor it.”
“Got it.”
Rebecca and Chifuyu answered in unison, and then the engines of our Makos snarled as we began to pick up speed.
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