A/N Here is the latest update for PFTG. I have had a little burnout this last month. A lot of stuff going on in the background, but I am trying to keep these updates on their regular days. If I am late by a day here or there, please forgive me. I don't mean to.
If you want to read ahead, the next eight chapters are available on pat-re-on. Look for Bored Peasant's Written Works.
Otherwise, we are now at the official chapter 50! It feels like a milestone. If I haven't finished editing out mistakes, I blame the flu that I had. Anyway, enough from me. Enjoy!
…
CHAPTER 50 – RECOVERY TIME SKIP
(Brock POV)
Some people might think that being part of the Normandy's crew as Shepard guides everyone around the galaxy on mission of galactic salvation would be an action-packed adventure. Full of stops preventing the fleet and army of the geth on their rampage across Citadel space, dropping the ground team into the thick of combat and coming back, not even looking at the explosions left behind from the chaos that they unleashed on their enemies, like absolute kings and queens, conquerors of the battlefield.
The reality of it was significantly more boring than that.
As I was stuck in the Med Bay for the last few weeks, I'd had to make things as comfortable as possible to make sure that I didn't go mad, nor that I would drive anyone else to that state. I had my terminal dropped into Liara's room, which was surprisingly roomy for a single person dwelling in a military frigate. More than enough for two work desks on opposite sides of the space. It allowed me to both leave the Med Bay and be somewhere that I can quickly get to Doctor Chakwas if there were any problems, or have her get to me if I couldn't get to her.
I suppose that I should be grateful that it was taking so long to find Saren. After all, I didn't want to be stuck on the ship when Virmire happened. That was a mission that I definitely wanted to be part of, if for no other reason than I wanted to make sure that certain people didn't screw things up (looking at you Alenko), or overlook things that could be critical
It also meant that I was able to talk to Liara a lot. We talked about her work on prothean artifacts and how it applied to modern Citadel society. We talked about how my company had come across different prothean works sites across the galaxy, and even had a small museum at my main base on Eden Prime of different prothean art and items that we had captured from slavers and mercenaries.
One particular conversation though, that stood out quite significantly.
"Oh, please!" Liara begged me when I told her about the sculptures that I had on Eden Prime. "I would absolutely love to see them. You must let me come to your museum!"
"Of course," I smiled back. "Whenever we get done with this mission, you are welcome to come any time you wish. In fact, I have a few teams on the ground at Eden Prime doing some of the excavation in some of the ruins. If you want, I can even put you to work assisting them for a while."
She let out a cute little shriek before clapping her hands over her mouth.
"I'm sorry," she whimpered in embarrassment. "But so many people have tried to get access to those ruins. The Alliance has been very picky about who they will accept to study the ruins there."
I nodded. "That's true. However, since the attack by the geth, the reputation my company gained from that has generated significant levels of goodwill from the local Eden Prime leadership. That has given us plenty of leeway in being able to study the ruins for ourselves under the guise of trying to get inspiration for other things that would help us to defend the planet."
'And give my company new technology' went without saying. Though, going by the knowing glint in Liara's eye, she probably made the connection herself. Still, going by the way that she looked towards the locked door, I have the feeling that she understood the implication.
"Well, that is wonderful news for me," she said. "I must confess, I almost want to run off to Eden Prime now and start looking."
I chuckled at that. "Well, I guess you could, but I think it would be better for you to stick around until the mission is finished for multiple reasons."
"Oh?" she asked, sounding a little coy as she ducked her head slightly. "And… what reasons are those?"
Well now, if that wasn't a blatant flirt, I was a turian. But, I was clued on to enough to play along. Even if I wasn't sure what the future held for me romantically, doesn't mean I can't enjoy the flirt.
"Crew morale, for one thing," I replied with a little smirk. "After all, you do make a person fight harder. As if there was something to come back to."
Her cheeks lit up a little at that. "Is that right?"
"I mean, I can't speak for the rest of the crew," I continued. "However, for myself, I would definitely be fighting harder every mission if I knew that I had someone there to come back to."
"Oh?" she commented, her blush getting more pronounced. "I could see how someone would find that a motivating reason. Is there any other reason I should stay, instead of going to Eden Prime? After all, archaeology on protheans is a passion of mine. I would need something else to be… passionate about if I were to stay."
Wow. The young shy asari nerd girl knew how to play the game. I mean, I knew she got confident later on, but it seems early for this. Though, judging by how pronounced her blush is right now, I could guess that it was taking a lot of courage for her to be talking about this right now.
If she was working up the courage to be so overtly flirtatious, I didn't want to make her feel bad by rejecting her outright. Maybe another path would be better.
I leaned forwards a little, bringing myself closer to the pretty asari. Her blush was almost becoming atomic the closer I got.
I stopped short, just inside her personal space. "I'm sure that if you looked hard enough," I said in a husky whisper, "that you would find something to ignite your sense of passion."
That did it. Liara's face went extremely dark as she licked her lips and her breathing picked up significantly. She started to move closer, to bridge the gap between us, when the outer door of the Med Bay hissed in the background, allowing Doctor Chakwas to return to the Med Bay and snapped Liara out of the moment.
"I-I," she stammered as she bolted to her feet. "I n-need to lips. GO! I need to go!" With that she turned and fled her office as fast as she could, drawing a startled exclamation from Doctor Chakwas as Liara clearly had at least an 'almost ran into' moment.
"Doctor T'soni?" Doctor Chakwas called.
"NOTHING!" she shouted as she left.
I grinned at the reaction. The girl was a pretty one, but so innocent that even when she tried to be sexy it mostly just turned out as cute.
Doctor Chakwas poked her head through the door. "You weren't doing anything obscene in here, were you young man?" she asked sternly.
I gave her an innocent smile, though I wasn't going to reveal what exactly happened. "I would never!" I mocked protested. After a moment of her looking at me deadpanned, I gave it up and grinned. "Nah, nothing like that," I said. "She just got a little excited when I told her that I could get her into the prothean ruins with some of my own crews on Eden Prime. I think she was a little embarrassed." My grin turned mischievous. "She squeaked and got really flushed. It was adorable."
The smallest hint of a smile appeared on Doctor Chakwas' face. "I'm sure it was." The smile vanished like mist in the sun. "Very well, but remember, the walls in here are far too thin for any sort of inappropriate associations. None of us need to hear anything, with anyone."
I raised an eyebrow. "It sounds like you have a story to share about that."
She scoffed. "There are always plenty of foolish young soldiers who think they can get around the no fraternisation rule," she said. "It wouldn't be the first time that someone thought they could get away with it in there. Not even on this mission."
I blinked and looked suspiciously around the room. There were some women on the crew, though not nearly as many as there were men. The ratio of men to women on the ground teams was significantly higher. I had nothing against anyone's personal preferences, but I didn't want to be sitting around in leftovers. "Nothing happened though, right?" I asked, concerned that something wasn't cleaned properly.
Doctor Chakwas smirked at me, then pulled back into the medical centre without replying.
"Right?!" I called after her.
I never did get an answer.
Apart from that, I was allowed to leave the Med Bay to get food, which was the time I spent catching up with the crew. Everyone, other than Kaiden Alenko, came by to see how I was doing at least a few times. Even Ashley Williams made a couple of appearances. That surprised the hell outta me. I would have thought after the mess above Terra Nova, plus with our history, she would have stayed far away.
Surprisingly, she was a good conversationalist when she could pull her head out of her own arse. I learned more about her family, and learned that her youngest sister was about to graduate university in communications, of all things. I must have looked surprised by that because Williams had laughed and said something along the lines of 'everyone has the same look when they hear that'.
There was nothing romantic about our few talks, but it was good to get to know her as something other than a paranoid hardass.
Garrus and Wrex visited me the most out of the rest of the crew. I would say that I could count on them being good friends. Garrus was always good for some shop talk and Wrex was always wanting to know about some of the raids I had been on and laughing heartily at finding out I had punched Aria's bodyguard and got away with it.
"You got one helluva quad, human!" he grinned as he shook his head. "Not many people can do that and live to tell anyone about it."
I nodded. "I know," I said. "But we are on good terms now. I helped her out with a few things and whatever perceived debt has been paid in full. Those were her words."
Wrex nodded. "Then she means it," he said. "She might be a cold bitch, but once she makes an agreement, she'll stick to it."
Then, finally, it happened.
At last, after weeks of waiting for the day, I had finally reached the day that I had been desperate for since that stupid bloody asteroid over Terra Nova.
"Well, Mister Nielson," Doctor Chakwas said, looking at the readings that her omnitool scanning was feeding to her terminal, "it looks like you are finally at the point that I am willing to declare you ready to recommence ground operations."
I sighed loudly at the ceiling in relief. "Finally!" I hopped up off the Med Bay bed. "No offence Doctor Chakwas, but being able to be on ground operations again is a big relief to me. As much as I appreciate having some intelligent conversations with you, my legs are restless and my hands are itching to feel a weapon in them again."
"Such is the fate of all soldiers," Doctor Chakwas remarked flatly. "Particularly those who don't know how to leave the battlefield behind."
I shrugged. "It's also true for anyone who doesn't want to lie in hospital for a month at a time and be unable to leave," I countered. "The battlefield would be more preferable than total lack of ability to leave a sick bed."
Doctor Chakwas pursed her lips and gave me a mock glare. She wasn't really angry though, I could tell. After a month together in such close proximity, you tended to get to know a person. And even though I was allowed to leave the Med Bay to get food or take walks to see other members of the crew, I always returned to the bed right next to Benezia.
At least I didn't have to wear a hospital gown. No need to give everyone a free show.
"Well," I continued when she didn't respond, "regardless, I am happy that you were able to get me back to full health, Doctor. I will get my stuff out of your hair as soon as I can."
"You are welcome, Mister Nielson," Chakwas said with a soft smile and a nod. "But please, don't make it a habit for me to save your life. I am sure we could both do without that excitement."
I grinned and left the Med Bay. As luck would have it, Jane was sitting at the table. I took a look at the time on my omnitool and was surprised to see that it was lunch time. Well, I wasn't going to look a convenient gift horse in the mouth.
"Hi Jane," I called out as I approached the table. "I have been completely clear to return to active duty."
The redhead looked up with a smile. "That's good news," she said. "I need to get you back for some missions. I want to make sure that you haven't lost your edge."
I gave her a lopsided grin. "No need to worry about that," I replied. "A couple weeks bedrest and a couple more of rehab aren't enough to keep me out of the game."
I sat at the table across from her. "Do we have anything?" I asked. "Or do you want to know the location of a couple more slaver bases? I have a few places in Citadel space that would be likely targets for a recovery mission."
She nodded as she took another bite of food. After a few seconds, she swallowed. "That would be good," she said. "It would help keep the skills sharp, make sure you are back in the game and give me more legitimacy in Citadel space."
I raised an eyebrow. "Look at you with the political awareness," I praised. But yes, it would help to increase your profile. If you were from a race with already established lines of Spectres, then it wouldn't matter and you could blend into the background. Unfortunately, as the first Spectre for humanity as a whole and the Alliance in particular, it is expected of you to be more public than everyone else around you."
She gave me a rueful smile. "I know," she said. "You have already told me that before."
I gave my own grin. "So I have," I admitted. I straightened in my chair and affected a 'wise old man' tone. "You have completed my training, young grasshopper. Now it is time for you to go forth, and show the world of your might!"
She stared at me for a long moment before chuckling. "That was absurd," she said. "But I suppose that I can thank you for helping me get to where I am. Thank you."
I grinned and nodded. "Where to next?" I asked, changing the topic.
Jane looked thoughtful. "Unless you have heard anything about Saren's whereabouts…" she started leadingly.
I shook my head. I hadn't heard a thing. Even with my foreknowledge about Virmire, and having sent a few stealth probes into the area, I hadn't heard anything from the salarians that found the place first. If they had gone there, they had managed to avoid the probes in the first place. And seeing as the stealth probes were only checking things from high orbit, and one near the Relay, there was a good chance that someone in a stealth vessel could slip through. I couldn't risk their being discovered though so I couldn't move them closer.
"Well, let's see," Jane said as she started counting off on her fingers. "We have fought the rogue VI on Earth's moon, killed off Dantius' slaver sister, took out Garrus' crazy doctor person, helped Tali out with her Pilgrimage stuff by taking out those geth outposts…"
"Don't forget the Alliance emergency beacons with more of Saren's rogue rachni," I cut in with a grin.
"Uh, don't remind me," Jane grumbled. "I'm just glad that you were able to get replacement armour so quickly. Let's see, we helped Doctor Michel on the Citadel with some terrorists that were trying to blackmail her, dealt with a thresher maw while searching for some of Admiral Kahoku's marine's and took out that Cerberus base on Binhu." She shrugged. "Even if it hasn't been Saren-related, at least we haven't been bored. And we have made plenty of money from it all along the way."
I nodded. That worked out a little more than two missions a week, on top of the stuff that we did on the Citadel. Jane was certainly getting a workout as a Spectre without me holding her hand and doing well. And the councillors were noticing it too, from what I was hearing.
The only thing was that I could see it was starting to take a physical toll on the crew, doing constant ground missions. Most of the crew were fine, as with enough members, she had the ability to rotate the ground team. Jane though, she was starting to look tired. Worn out. It was subtle, but when I had been running near constant missions with my own crew, I had seen the same signs of physical wear and tear.
"Just make sure that you get a decent break when you need it," I said. "The team doesn't need you making fumbles if you're overtired."
She rolled her eyes and waved me off, going back to her food. The conversation made me think, though. We had quite a few side missions from the game, but I remembered there being more. I had no idea if they were all real or not, but clearly some were. It made me wonder if the length of time it would take for Saren to pop up again would be another month to make sure we got them all.
I really hoped not, but the games didn't really give accurate timelines for this.
…
Luckily, there were a few extra stops at the Citadel during this month. And when that happened, it meant I could get off the ship and catch up with my own people.
Torrin and I walked back to the Balrog, preparing to do something that I had honestly been putting off as long as possible. I spoke to Persei and Beau regularly, or at least sent messages back and forth to them, but hadn't caught up with them face to face for a few weeks. But that wasn't what I had been putting off.
The Balrogwas still playing host to a certain asari that was there more as a guest, possibly prisoner, than crew member. One that had been giving my Chief of Security grief for the last few weeks that was slowly starting to drive him up the wall with paranoia.
Liselle T'loak. Pirate Queen Aria's daughter.
Thankfully, she was happy to stay on the ship as it was still being used as a portable base for all of the anti-mercenary ground teams. That apparently meant that she was volunteering to assist with any children that we managed to rescue from the slave pens in whatever merc base we raided. At least, that's what Beau was putting in his reports.
She was good with the kids, there was no doubt about that. Not only that, she seemed to genuinely want to be there to help them, not as a ruse or to try and trick them. She spent every spare moment that she wasn't bugging him for 'personal time' trying to help the kids. Not in the way that Selaen would, but more like a mother would. He couldn't deny that it was… touching. Admirable, even.
It made me think of the Paul Greyson situation, which was why she on my ship to begin with. The canon was pretty scant on Liselle, but it was known that she had a relationship with the Cerberus defector while he was running away with that biotic child that had high level autism. I guess it was kind of established there, however briefly, that Liselle had a soft spot for kids. It wasn't much but it was something.
Jurt was going to join us about ten minutes later. He had been delayed by something in the Wards and was going to swing past the orphanage before he went to the Balrog. I guess he was probably going to pick up Polisa too. Those two rarely went anywhere without the other these days. I wouldn't be surprised if Polisa started showing a baby-bump soon at this rate.
Finally, we reached the docking bay near the Presidium that our ship was linked to. It was a larger bay, meant for cargo transports, which meant that it was large enough to be able to fit a heavy cruiser, if only just.
"It will be good to get everyone back together again," Torrin said as we entered the airlock. "I haven't seen all of us in the same place for months." Which was true, as he'd had to stay on the Citadel to get the treatments for his brain issues.
"Not since we joined up at theNormandyafter the attack on Eden Prime," I agreed. The airlock hissed shut and decontamination started.
Both of our omnitools beeped, making us look down at the same time. I blinked as I saw that it was a security message, sent from Holly, the ship's VI. It was quite the concerning message.
We were not alone in the airlock. Even though we certainly should be.
It took a great deal of effort to not look around, to see if I could spot an outline in the decontamination mist. Without closing down the omnitool, I switched programs to my SONAR scanner and activated it. There were two people in there with us, one behind each of us.
I carried my pistol on me wherever I went, even not in armour. Torrin had his biotics to rely on. I would call that fair.
"It's taking its time again," I complained to Torrin. "Did Ely mess up the maintenance schedule again?"
"Not sure," Torrin said, sounding as casual as I did. Good kid. He had come a long way over the last two or so years. "I'll check with her and remind her that maintenance like that should only be done in a dock, except debugging the coding."
Without warning, his body let out a biotic pulse, sending a wave of power in an arc behind him. I could hear a pair of startled exclamations.
I whirled around, my pistol already in my hand, throwing my arm around some blank space and wrapping it around something I couldn't see, but recognisably felt like a head hidden under material. The figure started to fight against me, but stopped very quickly when I put my gun against their invisible head.
I looked over and saw that Torrin and captured the other in a Stasis hold, though the other person was also cloaked but the blue outline gave them away. Good to see that his new biotic amp was working properly.
"Alright," I said to the one in my arms. "You are, very calmly, going to deactivate your cloaking device. It wouldn't be the time to be smart and activate a weapon or self-defence program. After all, we wouldn't want my body to clench and accidentally squeeze the trigger, would we? After all, that might make things a little… messy."
The person in my arms tensed, before I felt their arms move slightly. With a white flash, a person appeared to our view.
It was a female, with olive skin, tattooed lips and dark hair peeking out from the hood hiding most of her face. It was also a recognisable person, at least to me.
"Kasumi Goto," I said, feeling her tense up again in my arms. I looked over at the one still in cloak in Torrin's Stasis. "Which would make you Kenji." I looked back at the woman in my arms for a moment, before I let her go. She stumbled forward out of my grip and turned around to face me. I gestured to Torrin and he released Kenji out of his biotic hold. A few seconds and a white flash later and Kasumi's partner came into view.
I raised my eyebrow at them. "You know," I drawled out, "when I took to hiring you, I didn't expect you to have to try sneaking onto my ship to do it."
"Well, what better way to show that we could do what you were asking?" Kenji said rhetorically.
I looked over at the man. He was of average height and slender, with strong Japanese features. He also had a computer box hanging around his ears. That would be the grey box that comes up in Kasumi's loyalty mission in ME2, I assume. I didn't know what information he found on it, but I had enough information to send the Citadel races to war with each other anyway.
"That would be more convincing if we hadn't caught you," I said dryly.
He didn't reply, just scratched the back of his head sheepishly.
"Hey," Kasumi spoke up cheerfully. "Don't worry about this. Whatever security you have is so unique, I didn't even know that you had it. I doubt that anyone that you would hire us to steal from would have anything near as good as this."
I titled my head as I looked at her. "But no guarantees," I said.
She gave a little sheepish grin of her own. "Well, nothing is ever guaranteed," she accepted. Her smile firmed up. "But we are the best at what we do. Nothing we cannot steal and nowhere we can't break into."
I blinked and looked around the airlock, being rather obvious about it.
"I'm serious!" she exclaimed. "Just as serious as your grip, big guy. We might not work on a schedule the same way others do, but we can get in anywhere undetected, if we have the time to check it out properly."
"And the reason you didn't this time?" I asked.
"Because we didn't really need to be undetected," Kenji spoke up. "We weren't trying all that hard to get in, just sneaking around near you. Though, I will admit, your security is better than most we have come across, and it is harder to steal from a ship than it is from a building, I can promise that what Kasumi tells you is true."
I considered that for a moment. "Fair enough," I conceded. "Anyway, you still interested in the job?"
"Oooh, yes!" Kasumi said, giggling gleefully as she rubbed her hands together. "Stealing from collectors is so much fun. In fact, when you managed to contact us, we decided that we would just do it first."
I blinked at that. "You mean, you already have the armour?"
"That's correct," Kenji said. "We have it in a storage crate ready for delivery as we speak. All that is required is payment."
"Huh." I can't say I was expecting that. Something else came to mind. "Should I ask what other goodies you managed to swipe from our turian friend on the way out?"
Kasumi cackled at that, while Kenji gave a smile. "We got enough to make it worth the trip," he said. "Now, if you will open the outer airlock door, I can have the crate here in thirty seconds."
I nodded and tapped open the outer door. Kenji fiddled with his omnitool and sure enough, less than thirty seconds later, a hover sled floated in, carrying a large storage crate. Kenji took a moment opening the box, then stepped back.
I looked in and, sure enough, there was an ancient set of krogan armour lying there. It looked exactly like the picture that Wrex had sent me of it. Which was impressive, because I hadn't shared that photo with them when I told them I wanted some armour stolen from a turian collector in my message.
"Splendid," I said. I tapped at my omnitool, with Kasumi's lighting up a moment later.
She opened her own omnitool and looked at it for a second before her head jerked up. "That's a lot more than you were offering," she said, sounding shocked.
I shrugged. "You took the initiative to do the job before I gave you all the details and still came away with exactly what I was looking for," I explained. "I reward hard work, talent and initiative. Plus, consider it a bonus for a job done quickly."
Kenji had strolled over to look at the number on Kasumi's omnitool and stiffened. "That's five million above your initial offer," he said cautiously.
"I know," I said. "Keep it and if I have any other jobs, I will let you know."
"Yes!" Kasumi almost physically leapt at the chance. "Here is my direct contact information, and here is Kenji's. just let us know when you want something and we will be right on it!"
I chuckled at her sudden enthusiasm. "I appreciate it," I said. "Now, I must get back to my work and you have money to spend. See you later."
They both bowed slightly and departed, their bodies flashing slightly before disappearing as their cloaks activated again. I watched on my SONAR but they had truly left.
"That was a lot of money," Torrin commented as decontamination started again.
I shrugged. "Having professional thieves like that on your call list can come in handy," I said. "While I am confident that Ely and Hectar could whip up something that would get us past every locked door, they also wouldn't like to do it if it was stealing. I am not going to ask them to abandon their morals like that so I went with this option."
"Right," Torrin said. "Well, at least that's done with. Now we can finally see the others."
"You go in first," Brock said. "I just need to check something out here really quick. I will probably also speak to the pirate princess before I get to the conference room."
Torrin nodded and headed into the ship.
"Holly," I called out. "Good job."
"Acknowledged, Mister Nielson," the feminine robotic voice of the ship's VI replied.
"Oh, and one more thing," I said as an afterthought. "If you do every gain full sentience, please talk to me first."
"Acknowledged."
I sighed. I don't think I was ever going to get my own EDI, but if I did, I wanted to be ready.
…
(Beau POV)
Brock was coming to visit.
It had been a few weeks since Beau had seen his friend/boss face to face. They hadn't managed to catch up the last time that they had been on the Citadel together. Brock was still healing after his little papercut and Beau had needed to stay on the Balrogbecause the kids were too scared to leave and he and Liselle had to stay aboard to comfort them.
Thankfully, the boss was on the mend and was now about to make an appearance. It wasn't just big news for him though. The core group were all there together. Persei was sitting at the chair right next to the vacant spot at the head of the table, across from Beau, reading some reports that had been sent to her.
Aleria was sitting in her chair, flicking through her omnitool, Hectar and Chop were both fiddling with things, Liserias and Horaxes were sitting down, hands clasped and waiting patiently, though Liserias also had a medical scanner next to her. Nelathie was looking like she hadn't slept for a while and was drinking a coffee substitute. Ely was talking quietly with Torrin who…
Beau blinked. Torrin and Ely were quite a bit closer to each other than usual. Unnecessarily so, in fact. And it looked like Torrin was trying his best not to smile.
Beau kept his features blank but he mentally congratulated them. They were both young, though legally adults in their respective cultures. If they were heading together, then he would only congratulate them.
And hope it didn't crash and burn.
Jurt and Polisa would be coming with Brock. That meant it was the first time since Brock had moved the facility to Eden Prime that they had all been together at the same time. If Liselle wasn't there, it would be a cause of celebration.
The door hissed open finally and four people came in. The first was Polisa, who was leading Jurt in. Then the last two made their appearance. The first was another asari, though a temporary guest. Liselle stepped into the room, but heavily in conversation with Brock.
"… just needs to know if there are any planned actions against the big mercenary groups on Omega," she was saying.
Brock came up behind her, looking a little thinner than Beau was happy with, but overall he looked healthy and ready to go.
"I think we both know that only really matters if we are going after the big three," Brock replied. "Especially Blue Suns, after the mess with them being informed by one of our own. And that has been dealt with." He looked over at Beau to get confirmation. Beau nodded in reply.
"For now," Brock continued, "we are scaling back a lot of our operations and focussing on other operations, which Aria doesn't need to worry about. I am aware that there are some raids that are still being conducted just to give us a continued presence in the Terminus, but those have nothing to do with me. You would need to check with Beau."
Oh, how Beau wished Brock didn't say that. Liselle was already using every opportunity to speak to him, which was confusing him as there was no clear pattern or motive. Well, unless you considered genuine romantic interest an option, and Beau still had his doubts, even a month later, that it wasn't some type of play.
Sure enough, Liselle's face lit up at Brock words. "Oh, I most certainly will," she purred, looking over at Beau with a hungry stare. "Any more reason to come see you, Beau."
Brock blinked, his eyes flicking back and forth between them. "Right," he said uncertainly. "Anyway, we need to have a meeting and you have children awaiting you at the orphanage."
The hunger left her face but she was lit up with a glowing smile. "Of course," she said. "I will speak to you later. Bye Beau." She left with a wink, the door hissing shut behind her.
Brock sighed, then turned to look at the table. "Hi everyone," he said with a smile. "Good to see you all again."
"Brock!" Aleria threw herself into his arms and gave him a strong hug. Persei stood and gave him a hug of her own when the pilot let go. The rest gave their own greetings and waves.
Finally, Brock sat at his spot at the head of the table. "Alright everyone," he said, his tone firming up. "We have a lot to talk about and not much time to do it. First item, how long ago did the last of our people get off Ilos? And did we make sure that absolutely nothing was left behind?"
Persei nodded. "Everything and everyone was cleared from the planet two weeks ago," she confirmed. "Inventory check has shown everything was removed."
The boss nodded. "Good," he said. "Have some archaeological teams on standby though. Saren will be going there very soon, which means the good Spectre will be chasing him. That gives us all the excuse in the galaxy to go there again. Also…" he frowned thoughtfully. "I would like to have Rana questioned on how viable it would be to clone some of the protheans."
Everyone blinked at that. "You want to bring back the protheans?" Chop asked.
Brock just shrugged. "I don't know," he said. "Everything we know about them says that they were arrogant blowhards. But I would like to see if there is even a possibility from any of the stasis pods left on Ilos before we decide one way or another."
A hesitant nod went around the group. Beau could sympathise. Bring an entire civilisation back from the dead was… big. No idea whether or not it was the right call had yet to be decided. Something for another, when they had more information.
"Staying on protheans, how are we going in regards to any tech our friendly VI is sharing with us?"
Chop, Nelathie, Horaxes and Hectar shared looks. "I have managed to get a crude version of the indoctrination scanner up and running," Hectar began. "I have two working systems right now. I can start on mass production once I iron out a couple of bugs."
Brock nodded. "Do that," he said. "In fact, we are going to Saren's base soon. I have confirmed that there is an active Beacon there, and that he is studying indoctrination. If you give me one of them, I can probably get some stuff from there."
Hectar nodded.
Horaxes cleared his throat. "I have managed to get some of the small arms that the VI gave us into a dummy version, but I am having a few issues with some of the emitter arrays. I should be able to get some working models soon though."
Brock nodded. "Sounds good," he accepted. "Nelathie?"
"Most of the prothean capital weapons are just like ours," she replied. "Which does make sense, as our technology is based on theirs. But there are a few things that I am incorporating to the point defences and a few extra calibrations. But as far as power goes, our special MAC cannons have far more power than anything the VI gave us."
"Good to know," Brock replied. "If the protheans had main ship guns the same size as ours, and still got wiped out, I would worry that we are going about this the wrong way."
Beau nodded in agreement. It felt good to know that they were going to outgun the protheans. Now they just had to hope they outgunned the reapers.
A beep from an incoming message brought Beau out of my thoughts. Brock blinked down at his omnitool before opening it. He read it for a moment before closing it down.
"Right," he said. "Sorry to cut you off first, Chop, but that was Shepard. It looks like the Council just received a message that they found Saren's base on Virmire and Torrin and I are needed back on theNormandyin the next two hours."
That had us all sitting up. Despite the longer game that we were all playing, the Saren mission had been something that we had all been keeping an eye on. Beau also knew that it meant that a few extra things were going to be put into play.
"So, before we go," Brock continued, "I need to know how our forces on the Citadel are stationed, what extra heavy weapons we can get our hands on and where we can get some fire support from. If we can, I want to have a bunch of Grims dropped off. I also want the orphanage evacuated off the Citadel. Tell the kids we are taking them on a road trip somewhere.
"As for Virmire itself, there are a few things I need."
Oh yeah, Beau thought to himself as he started bringing up the ground team information. Brock was back.
…
A/N
So a few things here, even if it was a little bit of a filler. Met up with Kasumi (and Kenji), Liara practicing her game and Virmire is about to kick off. No vid review this time, but there will be in the coming updates.
Still, hope you all enjoyed it anyway and will be looking forward to the next update. Thank you all again so much for your support.