[Book One] Chapter 06: First team mission

Chapter 06: First team mission

They landed in the Mako about 10 km away from the dig site’s entrance. That was the closest they could do so no one complained, especially since they didn’t have to walk.

That lasted five minutes.

Shepard’s driving was atrocious and each reacted their own way. When a small team had to leave the vehicle to open the gates and take out the geths in the way, elbows flew everywhere to get out as fast as they could. Profiting from the absence of his teammates, Rick switched from back to the front seat next to Shepard behind the wheel. The space behind was quite small and he felt quite stuffed and his colleagues’ agitation and whining didn’t help in the least with his claustrophobia, hence the changement in seat. The two were looking ahead in a silence that Shepard didn’t like. Not after everyone insulting her driving.

“Not car sick?” the redhead inquired.

“No.”

“No sass about my driving skills?”

“Why should I joke about them? It’s not like they’re bad.”

She turned her head to look at him in disbelief at his back-handed compliment. No one has ever complimented her driving. She nearly failed N7 because of them despite having the highest scores in all the other categories.

“You really don’t have any problem with the way I drive?” She asked skeptically, pretty sure he was subtly making fun of her.

“None, why the surprise?”

Shepard just waved her hand in front of her, showing the others outside.

“They’re just pansies.” he replied making her snort.

“You know what, Rick? You’re weird. I may not understand you nor how you work up there in that head of yours but I think I’m finally beginning to like you.” she said with a smile.

He averted his gaze from the others, and landed it on her. For a few moments they just looked at each other in silence with Shepard still sporting her happy smile.

 

“God, I think I’m going to be sick.” said Rick, making his companion drop her grin.

“Hey! I was trying to be nice. You know, building the beginning of a healthy working relationship between us.”

“Please stop. I don’t want to vomit in my helmet.”

“Is it that disgusting to you? Getting along, the both of us?” she nearly yelled in frustration.

“I am me and you… you’re you. We couldn’t be more different. We can’t possibly get along.” he vaguely explained condescendingly.

“What’s that supposed to mean?!”

“I’m highly intelligent, a powerful biotic and tech expert and you… you’re you. Just a run out of the mill soldier.”

“I graduated N7, the most prestigious and difficult military program of the alliance, top of my class! Do you know how many people are accepted into that program? Very damn few and less than half graduate. I am not a run out of the mill soldier!”

“I know I’m just messing with you. It’s so fun and easy to rile you up.” he confessed in his neutral robotic voice.

That made Shepard’s jaw fall down in disbelief. It went right up and clenched, when she frowned and delivered a nasty straight right into Rick’s fac… helmet.

“Is punching a new approach to start building the beginning of a healthy working relationship?”

“Not another word or I’m going to punch you again. And I’m going to enjoy it. A lot.”

“...”

“...”

“Does that mean it’s a new approach or n…” he was interrupted by another punch.

“You were warned.”

“You do know I don’t feel a thing right?”

“I. Don’t. Care. Now shut up, it’s an order.”

He did. She didn’t need to see his face to know he felt quite smug and that pissed her off even more. Pissed at him but most importantly at herself. She had lost her temper. That didn’t happen often and was quite a rare occurrence actually. The last time was 6 years ago on Torfan. Again, for the second time today she thought about that place. Quickly she tried to think of something else to distract herself. Thankfully she didn’t have too as the rest of the team got back in the Mako. Acting as if nothing happened she drove through the now open gates.

After half an hour of driving and fighting, their advance came to a stop. The road became too narrow for the mako, so they continued on foot. They moved forward slowly as the terrain was perfect for being ambushed with very high ground on either of their sides; the path was not devoid of cover though as plenty of big boulders were on the way. They proved quite useful when they did get ambushed by a group of geths who included two rocket launchers. Thankfully the synthetics were not positioned on the top of the cliff but in front of them, that made the fight a bit easier. However, not my much; Wrex and Rick couldn’t charge because of the rockets so they were stuck behind a cover throwing their biotics at them with little effect. They did try to coordinate a biotic explosion or two with Kaidan but the bastards’ shields were too strong. Garrus was having a field day from the back, shot after shot with his sniper rifle though not really effective as the heat dissipation of the weapon was not very good and could only manage at best two shots before needing to wait for it to cool down. The most effective were Shepard, Ashley and Tali, firing with their assault rifle and pistol and doing a pretty good job at it, while Wrex and Rick were taking the heat. Finally Rick had had enough and brought up his omnitool. Selecting a rocket trooper he tried and succeeded in hacking. Just like the fight with Fist, he made the geth under his control attack the other rocket trooper whose shields went down pretty quickly. Garrus didn’t miss his chance and put two shots in its head, destroying the now shieldless geth. Before the hack stopped, Rick broke cover and did a biotic charge right onto his rocket trooper and unleashed shot after shot with his shotgun. When the weapon overheated he covered his fist with biotic and started hitting it. Meanwhile the rest of the team, free of the need to hide because of the rocket, focused on the last two geth troopers who fell in no time, allowing Wrex to charge the rocket trooper Rick was fighting and giving his teammate time to pull back out his now cooldown shotgun and finish the job.

“Any injured?” inquired Shepard who got six no in return.

“Damn, that was close.” Ash said.

“I don’t know what kind of shields those rocket troopers used but they were a nightmare.” commented Garrus.

“Speaking of… Rick, why did you charge the geth you hacked?” asked Shepard.

“Wait, you hacked a geth?” questioned Tali.

“It was not easy, they fought hard to stop me and take back control. I didn’t have access to their self destruction subroutine, the one that fry their memory core, so the only choice I had to stop that fucker going back into shooting rocket at us was to get in close quarters.”

“You hacked a geth.” the quarian repeated in a disbelieving voice.

“What do you mean ‘they fought hard’ ?” the commander asked for clarification.

“Geths are a software intelligence. Their bodies are just vessels that host the geths. It’s like… multiple spirits taking possession and control of a body. You can destroy the body but the spirits can get away unharmed. This one…” he began, kicking the body of the geth at his feet, “ had a lot of geths inside.”

“How do you know that?” inquired Kaidan.

“Because as I was making changes to the code, the code changed back, as if someone else was hacking along against me. I set up multiple baits and they were all resolved at the same time. In the end I sent batch after batch, faster than they could deal with and completed the hack. That’s how I knew there were a lot of them.” he explained as he started to walk to their destination.

Closing the march with Garrus, Tali was still stuck on what Rick did.

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“Has it never been done before?” Garrus asked her.

“Many times by quarians, we created them and have the knowledge to do it but having the knowledge and actually doing it… Very few can, only the best at coding.”

“And he did it during a fight without knowing anything.”

“I’m no slouch when it comes to hacking, Garrus, but I’m not sure I could do it in the same situation. He must be some kind of genius.”

“Maybe you could ask him how he did it. He may have found a way your people never thought of.”

“That’s… a good idea.” acknowledged Tali.

The duo reached the rest of the team who were waiting at the entrance of another narrow path with just enough width for four people to walk side by side. Or two people and a krogan. It was decided that Shepard would take the lead and would be flanked by Rick and Wrex, while the rest would form the second line. They walked for five minutes until the path cut on the left at a sharp 90° angle. As Shepard just walked through the intersection she was tackled violently to the ground by Rick, just as she heard the loud bang of a sniper rifle going off followed quickly by a second.

“All’s good, I took him out.” Garrus said.

Rick got up from the commander’s back and extended one of his hands as she rolled onto her back to look at him. She took it and was pulled on her feet.

“How did you know?”

He raised his left arm and displayed a radar on his omni-tool.

“But you didn’t even have it out.”

“I linked up the display on the hud in my helmet.” he replied simply tapping the side of his head gear.

“Anyway I could get one of those?”

“I custom made it.”

“Awww.” she said in defeat, knowing perfectly well she would never have one now.

They worked for a while longer until they arrived at the digg’s entrance’s location. To no one's surprise the place was full of geths. Good news, the mining infrastructures were numerous and quite dense presenting a lot of good cover. Bad news, an armature was present complicating things a lot. Furthermore there was some interference with the radar making it useless and the team in the dark about their enemies position and numbers. Rick Hacked for a second time a rocket trooper using the same tactics as before, but instead of charging him just before he turned enemy again he just let him be. There was no way he would charge with the armature still standing. Behind his covers he took time to assess the situation. Where were the enemies and the position of the member of the team. As his gaze swept around the area he noticed something a few feet behind Tali, as if the air in that point in space was glitching. With no hesitation, he did a biotic charge on it and hit something hard and a bit heavy that was sent flying backwards. The air glitched furiously again until it revealed a very short and lean geth. The synthetic got up from the ground and jumped towards a nearby wall, clinging to hit like a spider.

“Up left on the wall! A stealth geth!” Rick yelled to everyone.

“A what?!” asked Ashley.

“Tactical Cloak! He turns invisible!”

“Everyone be careful! And watch each other’s backs!” ordered the commander.

Rick avoided getting shot by crouching down and joined Tali behind her cover a few feet away.

“Thanks.” she said to him.

“You’re welcome, centerfold.”

“What?!” she exclaimed but didn’t get an answer as Rick broke his cover and started shooting at the new type of geth who was jumping around. 

The hit the synthetic had taken seemed to have damaged his cloaking abilities. He couldn’t hide anymore but was still very agile and was relentlessly on the move. He observed the geth for a while trying to see a pattern in his movements to determine where he would land next. After half a minute he tried his luck and threw a singularity where he thought the annoying little shit would land. It works. The geth was floating around in mid-air near the rocket trooper he had hit earlier. Taking a deep breath he switched from his pistol to his shotgun and did another biotic charge that detonated the singularity. With no wasted time he began to unload his shotgun on the trooper whose shield had been damaged enough by the biotic explosion that when his weapon overheated, it had no protection anymore and was put down by Garrus with a shot to the head. Not staying in place Rick ducked behind a container avoiding being shot down by the armature.

“How many left?!”

“Two!” someone answered him.

“The armature and a trooper behind a container on its left!” yelled another just before the sound of a burst of fire from an assault rifle was heard.

“Just the armature left!” replied a third voice that Rick recognized belonging to Ashley.

Seven scattered opponents against one lone armature was not good odds for the latter. It proved to be true when the remaining geth got shot from 6 sides as it focused on their team's seventh member. Suffice to say, the synthetic didn’t last long. With the fight over, they did one last check of the area, just in case a stealth one was still lurking around. Finding nothing they gathered at the entrance of the digg.

Shepard was thinking of who to take with her inside. She couldn’t take everyone as a small team would do better than a whole squad and the entrance needed to be guarded in case more geths showed up to block their retreat. The first one she discarded was Wrex. Yes, he was a powerful fighter but he was heavy, big and slower than the rest. Should they have the need to evacuate the digg in a hurry he may be a liability, so he was out. Garrus was the second she passed over because of his sniper rifle. There was no way he would have enough space for his weapon of choice to be useful down there. Quite the contrary, it would be great for defending the entrance since the area was very open and vast, so the turian was out too.

Tha left her with Kaidan, Ashley, Tali and Rick. Ashley was a simple soldier. Competent for sure but she had just firepower going for her at mid and close range, completing the close/long range duo of Wrex and Garrus. Kaidan was a biotic and a bit of a tech wiz; Tali a tech expert with experience in dealing with geth. Rick was a mix of the two and perhaps better than the former were in their field. In fact, she realized he was the best fighter of her team. Only, his personality and attitude was a big flaw. However to be fair when it was required he was really professional. He had saved her and Tali’s life and adapted very quickly to any situation, coming up with on the fly ideas that helped a lot.

She let out a long and tired sigh as she made her decision. Gathering everyone she explained the plan.

“Alright. Kaidan, Ash, Wrex and Garrus; you take position around the entrance. Cover our retreat point and make sure no geths gets too close. Kaidan, you’re in charge.” she announced getting a nod from the four she called out.

“Tali, Rick, with me.”

In the end she left her lieutenant behind. She had no idea if the others had any leadership skills to coordinate everyone. In fact she wasn’t sure if any one beside Kaidan had any. She turned around and walked up the ramp leading to the entrance of the digg where Rick was already waiting. She must have had a surprised look on her face as he explained himself.

“We were the logical choice.”

Somehow it reassured and comforted her. It felt she had been told she had made the right choice. With a simple nod, she took the lead and descended through a long tunnel. A very long tunnel.

“Red, radars are working again. Whatever interference the geths put in place on the surface is not reaching here.”

“Good. Wait, Red?”

“Shorter than commander, or Shepard.”

“Ash is Pinkie, I’m Red. Are you doing a color theme for everyone? Is Tali’s nickname purple?”

“I have a nickname?” the quarian asked in surprise.

“Yes, centerfold. As for color it’s only you and Ash.”

“That’s what you called me earlier! Why, though?” inquired Tali but was ignored.

“What’s the others’ nicknames?” wondered Shepard

“Garrus is Birdie, Wrex is Tankie and Kaidan is Buzz.”

“Obvious nicknames for them.” the commander nodded in agreement.

“I get Wrex and Garrus’, even though the latter’s seems a bit racist. But I don’t get the lieutenant.” 

“Kaidan’s haircut is the military hairstyle, it’s called ‘buzz cut’.” Shepard clarified.

“I see.”

“Oh, yeah, that works too. I didn’t think of that.” Rick confessed.

“You mean that’s not from that? Where does it come from then?”

“From infinity and beyond.”

“What?” the commander exclaimed, not understanding.

“Search the extranet back on the ship.”

“I want to insist, why is my nickname centerfold?” That made Rick stop and look at her.

“Tali, if you need to ask, you’re not ready to know.” was all he said, that didn’t stop her and turn to the commander.

“Shepard?”

“Huh… Later? Let’s focus on the mission.” the redhead replied not wanting to have this conversation with an apparently too innocent young quarian. Quarian who was about to protest when Rick grabbed Shepard’s shoulder from behind.

“Hostiles ahead.”

“How many?”

“Three.” he replied, moving in front of her, taking the lead, shotgun in hand.

As they arrived at the end of the tunnel a geth popped up and was dealt with before he could do anything by a biotic charge, courtesy of Rick. He was quickly under fire by a second one further on his right and a third, this time a geth shock trooper, on a lower level. He went for the one on his right, his shield stopping the shots, while Tali and Shepard arrived in the room and engaged the other.

Dealing with his opponent in no time as its shields were weak, Rick followed the path leading down and flanked the remaining enemy who was quick to follow its friends in death.

Like always after a gunfight, Shepard asked if everyone was okay.

“My shields took some hits but they’re alright, be back at full strength in a few seconds.” Rick answered.

He was soon joined below by the two women and made their way towards what looked like an elevator and went down. They went deep as they passed several floors.

“I wonder if we can buy from the company that made this elevator. It would be a good replacement for the one on the ship.” Rick thought out loud.

“Keelah yes! It’s so slow, taking the stairs would have been faster, sadly there aren’t any.”

“It’s not that bad.” Shepard said, defending her ship.

Both her teammates looked at her with a face full of disbelief as if she had grown a second head.

“Alright, it’s slow! Even the citadel’s elevators are faster but it’s more of a cargo charge, so it’s normal it’s that slow, it’s made to transport heavy things.”

“Like what?” Tali asked.

“Do you intend to bring the mako on the bridge?”

“The mako doesn’t even fit in it!”

“Wrex is the heaviest thing down below that could fit inside the elevator and he just stays there.” commented further Rick.

“It is what it is.” Shepard replied with finality in her tone.

“Yeah, right. The moment I’m back on the Normandy I’m tweaking it.”

“I’ll help. I’m tired of waiting half an hour to get to the mess.” Tali offered.

“Perfect, I’m not that good with hardware.”

“Nobody does anything to the Normandy’s elevator!”

The conversation ended there as they had reached the bottom. Exiting the open cage, they were about to go to another one a few feets away when Rick spoke up.

“Three more for in the front.” he warned, taking cover behind a steel plaque from the ramp they were walking on.

Despite the impossibility of having any enemies there as it led to a wall, the other two team members didn’t hesitate to imitate him. It turned out to be a wise decision as three drones came from a lower floor and started firing. Rick and Tali hack one each, destroying the third first then making them shoot at each other.

Their easy advance, and handling of the battles until now, really drove home that the commander made the right choice in teammate. She would deny it if asked, but she was glad to have Rick with her. Just as she thought, Wrex and Garrus would not have fared well. Ashley would have brought no advantage. Only perhaps Kaidan would have been really useful.

That second elevator went smoothly until the thing broke down. Luckily they were close enough to jump down on a fallen ramp and make their way down to the floor when a voice called out to them.

“Uh. Hello? Can somebody help me? Please?”

Turning around, beyond an energy field was an asari trapped into an energy bubble kind of thing. Getting closer, Shepard did the talking.

“Dr. T’soni, I presume?”

“Thank the goddess. I didn’t think anyone would come looking for me.”

“You’re well sought after doctor, I assure you.” chimed in Rick.

“What?”

“The geths, Saren, us. Lots of people” Tali added, making the asari even more confused.

“What happened?” the commander asked.

“I was studying the protheans ruins when the geths attacked. I went deeper inside and touched the console behind me, it’s a prothean security device so I was hoping to find a way to escape or defend myself  and I did. I activated the tower defenses to keep the geths out, but I must have touched something by accident and I got trapped in this. I can’t move, so I need you to get me out of it, please?”

Shepard was about to question her further to get more information when Rick interrupted her.

“Ginger bread, radar got jammed. Geths are here.”

The team drew their weapons and turned around to face the incoming enemies. They went down to the actual floor level and took position to fight. Three troopers and if the red laser coming from the back of the room was any indication a sniper.

“I’ll take the sniper out, then we’re good for a pincer attack.” the male of the team announced and made a biotic charge that landed him, right in front of the sniper 30 feet away on the other side of the room. Without wasting time he shot the geth in the torso then in its head, making sure it would not be back up again.

He turned around and went to help the others who had taken the fight to the geths. Unfortunately the latter had deployed barriers in front of them preventing any attack to reach them while they could attack with impunity. Charging again he took out one of them from behind and drew the focus of the other two, allowing Shepard and Tali to move from their position to have an obstructed path for their shooting, targeting one each. The geths had absolutely no chance. Regrouping they discuss the situation.

“What do you both think?” asked the commander.

“I don’t think she’s lying, she seemed too honest and desperate for help.” Tali replied.

“I’m with Tali on this. The situation is one that shows she’s not with the geths.”

“Alright, any idea how to get her out of it?”

“Maybe if we could reach the console she talked about we could release her?” the Quarian offered her idea.

“How? There is no path, no entrance to go behind that energy field.”

“If you can go right, left or over, it only leaves below.” Rick said cryptically.

“How?”

The redhead didn’t comment on the feasibility of what he had said; he had proven himself enough to her that his ideas were generally the right ones. Instead she was more interested in the how as she couldn’t see any way they could make what he suggested happen. When he pointed to a very big mechanical unit he explained.

“That’s a mining laser. And it’s pointing down, just below the doctor’s cell.”

“Cell?” inquired Tali.

“Yes, from what we saw of this prothean complex, I believed it was some kind of prison. A nasty one at that if her situation is of any indication. No bed, no restroom or water. It’s like they were just left there to die.”

“That gives credit to your view of the Protheans. Not so benevolent after all. Anyway, can any of you operate the laser?” the redhead aske.

“Yes, it’s quite simple.” the quarian replied looking at the console’s display.

“We better contact the entrance team and Joker to be on the ready. That kind of laser is powerful, the ruins are not very stable and with the volcano in activity and so close…”

He didn’t finish his sentence but they understood what he was implying. Activating the laser could very well lead them to be buried alive or cooked in lava. As they had no other choice, Shepard nodded to Tali to go ahead with the laser and contacted Joker to be on the ready to extract them, and to pick up the other team.

Just as he had warned, the laser was powerful and created a big hole in the ground, creating a path to an unactivated cell just under the asari’s.  Making their way through they got on a platform on the other side. And got up to the doctor’s level. Tali immediately went to the console to release the captive with Shepard. It was quite easy as there was only a big flashing button displayed. Meanwhile Rick was fumbling the one on the platform.

“Thank you! I’ve been trapped for hours, I really thought I was going to die here.”

“Just to be sure, you’re not working with your mother or Saren?”

“I don’t know who Saren is and I haven’t seen or spoken to my mother in years.”

“Do you know what the conduit is?”

“What conduit?”

“The conduit is a prothean… thingy, that Saren is looking for.” Tali tentatively explained.

“He’s the one controlling the geths, we thought he went after you because you are a prothean expert.”

“I’m sorry, I don’t know anything about a conduit.”

“That’s alright. Do you know of a way out? The elevator that brought us here broke.” asked the commander.

“Yes, there is another one at the center of the tower, it would bring us to …”

She was interrupted by a loud rumble and the ground shaking violently. Rick had been right, the laser had provoked a delayed seismic event and it was quite obvious they needed to get out of here fast. Reaching the platform they had taken to reach the doctor, it turned out to be the elevator in question.

“Rick, bring us up!” the redhead ordered with urgency.

“On it.” he replied. Two seconds later they began to move up.

“What were you looking at?”

“The console files. I wanted to know what this place was all about. Turns out I was right on the money, it is a prison.”

“Wait, you can read that?! It’s in prothean! Even I can’t read it properly and I’ve studied the protheans my whole life!”

“Hmm, yes? Are you sure it’s written in prothean?”

“I am!” the asari replied in an offended tone.

“Gingey, would you mind telling what you’re reading?”

Shepard raised a brow at this new nickname he called her but nodded and got closer to the console after a few moments she spoke.

“It’s a list of names of inmates on the death row.”

“What?!” exclaimed the asari.

“So the beacon transferred more than we thought. Interested in changing careers, red? You could make a fortune with that knowledge.”

“No thanks.”

“Wait! How come you can read prothean? What beacon are you talking about? Where is…”

Her stream of questions was interrupted by another quake as the elevator came to its final stop. Making their way towards the exit they were blocked by a Krogan with three geths at his side. Apparently he has been hired by Saren to bring him the Doctor T’soni. That didn’t go well with Shepard and a difficult fight ensued. Tali and Shepard took on the geths while Rick who has been the closest to the asari was guarding her and supported the others with his pistol. With the team focused on the geths, the krogan , despite his size, sneaked around and flanked Rick who was sent to the ground on his back painfully losing his gun in the process. He side-rolled just in time to barely avoid his opponent's shotgun blast and quickly got up, seriously pissed. With no weapon in hand and with no time to draw his shotgun from his back, he biotically charged the Krogan who on impact staggered a bit for a fraction of a second. Not letting this opportunity slip Rick headbutted him so violently that the top of his visor cracked. The krogan ended up on his back a bit disoriented, his shotgun was ripped from his hand with a powerful kick to it and he could do nothing but take another one in the face, not letting him time to recover. His feet busy, Rick took his shotgun and put the barrel into his opponent’s mouth before pulling the trigger, creating a goring mess of blood, bones and brain matter on the floor. Looking up from what was left of the krogan he appraised the situation. Only one geth was still standing and both Shepard and Tali seemed to have everything under control. Turning around he walked toward Doctor T’soni.

“Are you alright?”

“Am I alright? I should be the one asking you that! You’re the one who took a krogan charge!”

“Meh, a few ribs are tickling a bit. Nothing some medi-gel can’t fix.”

“Are you insane?! Did headbutting him give you brain damage?”

“I don’t know about brain damage, but a concussion probably; my head keeps ringing.”

The asari stared at him in disbelief at his nonchalance. She didn’t have the time to say anything else because Shepard, who was done with the last geth, told them to hurry up and get out of here. In no time they were out of the digg with the Normandy ready for them which was a good thing because the ruins had begun to cave in and the volcano to erupt. Boarding in, Shepard did a last check to see if everyone was present before yelling at Joker to bail them all out.