This time Garrus was smarter. He insisted until Tali agreed to rescan this section of the station on a frequency slightly lowered for increased penetration; he offered to calibrate her omnitool himself, but she said no, in not so many words. She softened a bit when it turned out his instinct had been right, and allowed him to unjam her shotgun. An old friend, that weapon. Perhaps too old, but now was not the time to debate sentimentalities. The parallel chamber they were to traverse sported a grid of catwalks similar to what they had seen in the waste processing unit and Garrus wasn’t about to waste the opportunity.
Continue reading The Long Walk
Pods. He knew there would be pods, he fucking knew it. Like on the Collector ship, the giant chamber that ran the length of the base was packed with thousands upon thousands of pods and Spirits, oh Spirits, they seemed occupied, they all seemed occupied!
Garrus took a deep breath, pushing down the irrational fear that made his heart tick like a timer on a tactical charge. The chamber was so large and so devoid of anything other than faded fog and huge tubes running in complicated patterns, that they instinctively formed a tight group, walking closer and closer to each other and glancing about like a pack of pyjacks in the middle of klixen hunting grounds.
Continue reading Processing
Garrus led the way into the dark, cavernous tunnel. One last glance at the other team. She was turned towards him and even though she had her helmet on, he was sure she was looking right at him. He lifted an arm in salute and she mirrored the gesture. See you on the other side, Shepard.
Shepard, Jack and Legion were the Alpha team, with Miranda, Thane and Grunt as Beta. Garrus, Samara and Mordin were Gamma, and Zaeed, Jakob and Kasumi, Delta. At first, Garrus resented getting the stronger team, but then he remembered: Shepard’s team had Shepard. He grinned.
Continue reading Infiltration
“Slap him.”
Shepard? The world whirled around him in all the colors of the rainbow, and maybe two or three more.
“Hehe, gladly,” said the last voice Garrus wanted to hear. He wanted to move out of the way, signal them that he was awake, that he was totally ok, he just couldn’t see a damn thing through the lights and colors and couldn’t move a muscle. But other than that…
“A-a-a! Grunt? Don’t overdo it.”
“Hehe.”
Continue reading The Comm Room
Garrus hated to admit it, but he only started feeling the absence of the human crew now that the Normandy finally got a taste of true action. Shepard had assigned the other specialists to various posts best suited to their abilities, and he was to operate the weaponry on his own.
Shepard.
Continue reading Effectual
The sensation of control returned to him in a flash of confusion. He could hear himself breathing with labor. Weakness in his muscles, dizziness in head. Memory of flying, no, of falling, falling through a wormhole, losing sense of weight, losing sense of self, going deeper, ever deeper into her. He could feel his heartbeat, shallow, rapid. How long has he been like this, suspended between worlds? A couple of seconds or a couple of minutes? Her face was flushed and so warm he could feel her heat shining on him. Sweat all over her forehead. Her eyes were wet as well. He struggled to remember the word, it had no equivalent in his tongue. Tears.
Continue reading Vulnerable