Noveria…
“Captain, some weird shit’s going on…”
Joker’s voice, when he patched through to me, had a hint of worry, and I hurried to the cockpit.
“I repeat, Normandy, you are denied landing clearance on Noveria.
Any attempt to land will be met with hostile fire.”
“This is Council Spectre…”
I immediately signaled Joker to let me speak.
“My mission is Council-approved.
Any attempt to obstruct me will result in the planet Noveria being declared a pirate base.
I’ve already drafted an order to the nearest Citadel fleet for complete planetary annihilation.
If you open fire, I’ll have time to send it, and your days will be numbered.”
“S-Spectre?!”
The voice of the woman who’d told us we couldn’t land — panic was audible now.
“I’m so sorry!
I didn’t know…”
“Bullshit, I said right away there was a Spectre on board.”
Joker wasn’t about to make this woman’s life easier, and I understood why.
“Please wait just ten minutes, I’ll contact my superiors.”
“Joker, bring us in for landing…”
I gave my pilot the order, not bothering to hide it from the woman.
“But be ready to immediately open fire on the nearest administrative buildings if they show aggression.”
“Understood, Captain.”
Joker nodded seriously.
“Wait!
That’s not how this works!”
“Little girl…”
A smug smile was audible in my voice.
“…I’m a Spectre.
I couldn’t give less of a damn how things work on your planet.
No — if I’d flown in here as the owner of a corporation with a branch on this planet, I’d wait, all while considering whether to relocate my branch somewhere else.
But I came as a Spectre, and I don’t give a shit about your procedures.
I have a job to do.”
“Just wait three minutes!
I’ll let my superiors know there’s a Spectre here.”
“Joker, start descent in five minutes.”
I decided to give the girl time to do her job anyway.
Though there wasn’t much time — more like just barely enough.
“Understood.”
The connection with Noveria dropped.
“Joker, I’ve ordered a course of supportive medication for you.
It’ll be loaded on Noveria.
You need to take the full course.”
“Hm?”
He looked at me questioningly.
“Well, it’s about your condition…
I told you before that you’d need a bit of treatment.”
“Oh…”
He nodded in understanding.
“If you say I need it — then I’ll do the course.”
Hmm…
last time we talked, Joker was more excited when he found out he could be patched up.
I wonder what happened in the meantime?
“Joker?”
“Yeah…
I just looked up info on my condition.
No new treatments…”
“Right, I see.
Your ego’s getting the better of you.”
“Huh?”
“B!”
I gave the kid a stern look.
“You seriously think major corporations would release that kind of research to the public?”
“Why not?
It’s…”
“Because no matter how big a corporation is, they’d get drowned out by the cooperative efforts of pharmaceutical companies.
Sure, some stuff leaks, but…”
I shook my head.
“The same biotic implants — anyone can try to produce those.
But medications?
Treatment approaches for diseases?
That’s a different story…”
Joker watched me with an attentive gaze.
“Long story short — my corporation can get you treated.
Yeah, it’ll be tough.
I’d even say very tough for you.
“A year?!”
“Yes, a year without a control yoke in your hands.
And that’s the minimum.
But after that, you’ll be tougher than an average person.
Though, of course, if you manage to break something, the treatment will be much more complicated.
But first — you need to take that course of medication.”
“Maybe I don’t need to?”
“Joker…
we’re not sure about this yet, but you do eavesdrop on conversations…”
He looked away, a smile appearing on his lips that said, “What are you talking about?
Me?
Never!”
“Don’t pull faces at me.”
I gave him a stern look, and he immediately stopped fooling around.
“Have you heard about the Reapers?”
“Yeah, but it’s hard to believe…”
“That’s just it — hard to believe, but we do believe it.
So we’re preparing for war.
And if I can afford to keep one of the best pilots in the Alliance…”
“The best!”
Joker raised his index finger importantly, then noticing the allotted time was up, focused on the descent, expecting a hit at any moment.
“One of the best.
I could name two or three pilots who’d give you a run for your money.
And that’s coming from me — someone who’s pretty far from the piloting arts.”
“They’ve locked weapons on us.”
“Fire a warning shot at one of the anti-orbital defense batteries.”
“On target?”
“Nah, just wing it…”
I waved my hand dismissively.
“…hit it — good.
Miss — no big deal.
Then lock onto the main building where the planet’s administrator is holed up.”
“Understood…”
Ten seconds passed, and Joker opened the comms.
“By order of the Spectre, firing warning shot.”
He fired, then immediately executed an evasive maneuver as return fire came at us.
“By order of the Spectre, commencing fire on…”
“Stand down!”
A panicked female voice came over the general channel — clearly not the same girl who’d spoken to us before.
“Stand down, I said!
Cease fire!”
I gestured to Joker, and he launched a few missiles, but supposedly at the last moment hit the self-destruct button, and they exploded before reaching the building.
“This is the secretary to the administrator of Noveria, Gianna Parasini.
Cease fire.
The Spectre code transmitted to us is valid.
Normandy, all you had to do was wait a bit and everything would have resolved itself.”
The accusation was clear in the woman’s voice.
“All you had to do was not obstruct a Spectre’s actions.
My credentials could’ve been verified while the Normandy was coming in to land, instead of putting on this circus.
All data will be forwarded to the Council, and I’m sure they’ll reconsider their position on what’s happening on this planet.”
“They’ve cleared a corridor for us.”
“You’re joking?
After they fired at us?”
“Captain, the approach to the port still goes through a bottleneck.
If they want to open fire, they will.”
“Fine, your call.
And getting back to our conversation…
Having one of the best pilots with a minor health defect during peacetime is one thing.
But having that same pilot during active combat…”
“Sir, with all due respect, the Normandy’s compensators…”
“Joker, don’t talk nonsense.
Even I — a ground-pounder far from piloting — understand that flying in a quasi-combat or combat situation with few enemies is one thing.
But when you’re surrounded by dozens, if not hundreds of enemies — that’s another.
In that situation, the compensators won’t handle the strain anymore, and you’ll start feeling it yourself.
Am I wrong?”
“You’re right.”
He shot me a sullen look.
“See?
I’m not saying you’ll be put ashore…”
I shook my head.
“…I’m saying that my ship needs a pilot who’s stronger physically.
But you still have time to decide.
Whether you want to walk this road with me, or you just want to be able to pilot a military vessel.
If it’s the latter, trust me — I can arrange a transfer to a very good ship.”
“Do I have time to think about it?”
“Of course you do.”
“Alright, then I’ll give you my answer tonight…”
“No need.” This chapter was taken from novelping.com without permission.
I waved my hand.
“If you agree, just get the medication from Chakwas tonight and start the course tomorrow.”
“Understood, sir.”
He nodded, and I activated my omni-tool.
“Jane, as you’ve probably felt, the situation has changed.
Everyone put on exoskeletons.
I’m not going to play democracy with these people.”
“Understood, sir.”
Anticipation was clear in Jane’s voice.
“It’s just that we don’t have exoskeletons for the commandos.”
“They’re not designed for biotics anyway.
And also…
don’t forget the shields.”
“Don’t teach your grandmother to suck eggs.”
I just chuckled at that response, and patting Joker on the shoulder in farewell, went to prepare for landing.
After I became the ship’s commander, wearing suits during transits became mandatory, so I didn’t need to put one on.
But grabbing extra ammo for the weapons I carried and planned to take to Noveria — that would be a good idea.
“Hello everyone…”
I entered the cargo hold, where the entire landing party had gathered, including the asari commandos led by Liara.
And as soon as I greeted everyone, a ragged chorus answered me.
“…so — objective number one: we meet up with our allied forces — Matriarchs Benezia and Aria.
Liara will pass the information she got from Jane’s head to her mother, who’ll then pass it to Aria.
After that, most of the commandos will go with the Matriarchs on other business.”
“Who exactly will go with them?”
One of the asari asked this, and I immediately caught her gaze, making her flinch and try to hide behind her friends — but they didn’t let her hide.
I guess my look was pretty intimidating.
“That’s for the Matriarchs themselves to decide.
Objective number two: get to the Peak 15 facility.
According to our data, part of this facility belongs to Saren through shell companies.
And he’s running some kind of experiments there.
We need to find out exactly what he’s doing there.”
I stopped pressuring the asari with my gaze and looked over everyone carefully.
“And remember — on Noveria, we have no friends.
So if you see someone with a weapon, your first thought is that they need that weapon to shoot at us.
Your second thought is that it’s a guard or a Noveria Security rep.
Clear?”
“Yes!”
The voices of everyone present echoed through the hold.
“Liara.”
The asari immediately stepped forward.
“You’ve trained, of course, and you’re a strong biotic, but you haven’t participated in direct combat operations before, so I’m giving you a separate task.
You’ll protect the most valuable specialist in our squad.
Namely, Tali’Zorah.”
“Me?!”
Tali’Zorah squeaked quietly — she clearly hadn’t expected me to name her the most valuable specialist.
“Yes, you, Tali’Zorah.
You’re the best technician in the squad.
In a combat situation, you’ll be the one to fix a broken exoskeleton, pick a lock on a door, hack a terminal — basically, all of that falls on you.”
“But…
terminals — that’s…
espionage…”
She said this in a very quiet voice.
“It would be espionage if you did it on your own initiative.
But you’ll be doing it on a Spectre’s orders.”
“Mm-hmm.”
She nodded.
“Don’t pout.
Just do the work, and you’ll be amazed at the result.”
“Understood.”
“Liara?”
“I could argue, of course, but I won’t.
You’re the commander, you set the tasks for subordinates.”
“Good girl.”
I smirked with satisfaction.
“Jane, I take it everyone’s ready to disembark?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Excellent.
Then we wait for Joker to park the Normandy…”
“Don’t you mean ‘dock’?”
Tali’Zorah timidly corrected me.
“You’re right, of course — ‘dock’ is the proper word.
But right now, I wanted to say ‘park.’ So I made a deliberate mistake.
Anyway — we wait for Joker to park the Normandy, and then everyone out.”
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