Ilium
Tasale System
Bridge of the Normandy
"Whoa Commander! Watch where you're pointing that thing!" yelped Joker. I was deciding whether to take the Vindicator or the Revenant Machine Gun, and was checking the weight and target sights of both. I decided on the Revenant and felt it snap onto the automated locks on the back of my armour. Joker was still looking nervous, and I smiled. I wasn't about to pass up a line like that.
"That's what she said last night!"
"Oh, very funny Commander. Comic genius," said Joker sarcastically, rolling his eyes. "Next you'll be telling me it was my mom."
"I did ask her not to tell you until you were ready to hear it," I said, needling Joker further.
"Seriously Commander? You're off to recruit one of the deadliest assassins in the galaxy, and all you can think of are Yo Momma jokes? That's it, I quit. I'll herd cows on some ranch somewhere. Learn to juggle geese. Anything's better than this."
"Commander Shepard isn't being honest with you, Lieutenant Moreau," piped up EDI. The glowing blue ball that represented her 'face' winked and flashed periodically, but I knew her actual consciousness was housed in the AI core past Dr Chakwas's office. "My records indicate he did not leave the ship the previous night, and your mother has not stepped aboard the Normandy at any point during its operational service."
I broke up laughing helplessly as Joker flailed his arms wildly. "I can't take it any more! EDI, that was a joke! Not a very good one as jokes go, considering my own efforts, but it was a joke nonetheless. Shepard was just being an ass."
"I apologise, Flight Lieutenant. So the Commander was in fact, speaking in jest?"
"God, it's like speaking to a child," muttered Joker.
"My intelligence quotient vastly outstrips any known number of human child prodigies - "
"The Commander was speaking in jest," Joker said flatly. "He tends to do that."
"So that was a joke," said EDI doubtfully.
"A bad one, but yes."
"I see. Thank you for the information, Lieutenant." The glowing orb winked and vanished. Joker spun around in his chair to face me.
"Oh, nice job sir. Now the creepy AI will start making horrible puns next."
"Can't be hard to top your jokes," I quipped, leaning against a wall and adjusting my visor. "Where the hell is Zaeed? I asked him to round up Jack and Grunt and report here five minutes ago."
"You're taking Grunt and Jack along with Zaeed? What, you're going to blow up the planet or something?" Joker asked.
I grinned. Even Joker could tell I was bringing the big guns. The contact Liara helped us to find mentioned that Nassana Dantius, the super rich, super shady asari crime lord wasn't sparing any expense on security.
She had entire companies of mercs, heavy mechs and turret emplacements guarding her blue ass. So I would bring out my own heavy weaponry for the scorched earth response. The rest of the team would stay behind as backup, if needed. Someone needed to guard the ship.
"So an entire army of some of the toughest mercs in the galaxy, armed to the teeth with the best weapons money can buy, versus you four...those poor bastards don't stand a chance," Joker went on.
"Zaeed's basically future you but takes cheques, Grunt's the most krogany krogan that ever kroganned, which is way too much krogan, and I'm not saying one word about Jack. I prefer my head to remain on my shoulders. Try to go easy on those mercs, Commander."
"I'll try," I said nonchalantly, and jerked a thumb over my shoulder. "But I can't speak for them."
The elevator at the far end of the bridge had opened, and out stepped Zaeed, Grunt and Jack. They had all armoured up and were packing the heaviest weapons Jacob had collected. Well, except for Jack. She was still half-naked and had all the protection a couple of belts and a leather top could afford. Although the noticeable absence of too many scars on her skin was a proclamation of her survival skills, considering all the fights she must have been in.
"Sorry about the delay, Shepard," growled Zaeed. "Couldn't find this one anywhere. Had to crawl through the entire cargo hold to find her."
"Watch it," shot back Jack, and I was somehow reminded of a viper hissing defiance at some larger predator. "I told you I don't like people coming into my space. The next time you go down there without warning I'll rip your head off."
"Hah! I'd like to see you try," sneered Zaeed. "But your attitude's refreshing. We could have used a crazy bitch like you back when we blew up that asari cruiser."
"You couldn't handle me," said Jack. She was carrying a shotgun loosely in her right hand, as if unfamiliar with using guns. Jack did prefer to use her biotic abilities in battle, but she had adapted rather quickly to heavy arms.
"And the big ugly here took too long over choosing which shotgun to take," complained Zaeed, pointing at Grunt. "I told him they're all the same, as long as they can blow an asari commando apart at twenty paces, it's doing its job."
"The mercenary speaks the truth," rumbled Grunt, shaking his head. "Warlord Degall once said the weapon doesn't matter as long as the warrior wielding it is well trained."
The tank-bred krogan had an interesting pattern of coloured scales on his head, different from the solid armoured plate of bone that dominated the skulls of other krogan. It was a tempting target, but I'd seen first hand that Grunt was able to shrug off a direct blast to the forehead and gut the poor sod who shot him.
His regenerative abilities were extremely impressive as well. Any open wounds literally clotted over and began to knit back together within a matter of minutes. It was all this power I was counting on to make it through Dantius Towers in one piece, and reach our target at the other end.
"See you in a bit, Joker," I said, preparing to engage the airlock. "Remember, if you don't hear from me after half an hour, you take this ship and you come rescue me."
"What, and risk my ship?" Joker teased. "Might have to think on that, sir."
"I mean it. It's cold out there. Don't want to get left behind."
We left the ship and walked down the docking bay and into the commercial area of Ilium, attracting more than a couple of stares. The asari trade world drew all manner of galactic lifeforms, but even a blind volus could tell we were serious trouble.
There was more than a little swagger in our step, I had to admit, and I wasn't sure why it mattered. It still felt good, though. We were four of the hardest, toughest sons of bitches the galaxy had the misfortune to endure.
Liara's contact had asked us to wait until the end of the day, so as to allow the shift workers to clear out and give us a cleaner run of the place. Fine by me. I felt like sauntering down to the Eternity bar and grabbing another shot of krogan ryncol from the bartender, Aethyta. With Zaeed, Jack and Grunt by my side, this was going to be a cakewalk.
"Take him down! Goddamnit, someone take that salarian down! He's got us pinned down with that goddamn rocket launcher of his!" I yelled, hoping that we could survive the next five minutes.
"I can't see the bastard!" roared back Zaeed. "And I'm out of inferno grenades! Used up the last cunting one on that group of LOKIs! What are you waiting for bitch, hit him with that juice of yours!"
"I need some cooldown time, alright!" screamed Jack. "I can't just snap my fingers and summon up another shockwave so soon after the last one!"
"Then what bloody use are you?!" shouted Zaeed, spit flying from his mouth. Jack was ready to tear him apart limb from limb, and I quickly moved between her and the old mercenary.
"Cool it, both of you! Focus on the mission!" Another rocket blast exploded mere inches from us and we dived back down under cover as one. "Far as I can tell, he's the last one of his team. Take him out and we get a clear run to the elevator," I said.
"If you got any sodding bright ideas, now's the best sodding time!" said Zaeed, popping an overheated thermal clip from his assault rifle and locking a new one in.
"He's going to run out of ammo sooner or later. Grunt, how are your shields holding up?" I asked.
"Almost a hundred percent," he replied calmly. He hadn't taken part in the shouting match, and was lurking behind a convenient wall.
"Good. By my count, the merc doesn't have enough rockets left to take them down. Charge him."
"Charge him and take a couple of rockets to the face? You'd better be right about this Shepard," growled Grunt menacingly. "Or else you're next."
"You wanted tough fights, you've got them. Charge him! Or I'll shoot you myself!"
"Spoken like a true krogan." said Grunt appreciatively. "RARRRRRGH!"
Grunt emerged from behind cover and picked up speed, his armoured feet pounding the floor and making it vibrate slightly with each step. He continued roaring as he ate up the ground. The overall effect was that of a rampaging dinosaur, the kind that ruled planet Earth millions and millions of years ago.
A rocket zoomed towards Grunt and exploded against his shields. He leapt out of the cloud of smoke and kept going, barely fazed. Another rocket was fired, and slammed right into Grunt's face. He shook his head and continued charging, not losing a step.
To my horror, yet another rocket was fired. By my count the merc had only two shots left, but evidently I was wrong. I had counted on Grunt's shields being able to take two rocket blasts, I don't know if they could withstand three.
The third rocket exploded, and I could see the faint haze of shimmering blue wink and die out as Grunt's shields failed. He roared again, and this time there was a note of pain in his voice. I could see blood and smelled charred flesh. That last rocket had hurt Grunt. But it hadn't stopped him. And the merc was finally out of rockets.
Grunt took a running leap over the row of crates that the Eclipse merc was using for cover and crashed to the floor with such force it toppled over a couple of unfinished pillars. The merc screamed in terror, a cry that was cut short as Grunt got hold of him. I caught myself waiting for a shotgun blast, and when it didn't come I poked my head above my own barrier.
"Grunt! All clear?"
"It's over Shepard," Grunt said shortly. Jack and Zaeed followed me as we walked over to where he was standing, and we were met with a horrific sight.
Grunt hadn't used his gun to kill the merc. He had used his hands. The salarian had been wearing a full set of body armour with a helmet, and even so Grunt had quite literally torn him apart. The visor had fallen off, and even in that alien salarian face there was a clear expression of terror, the one he must have been wearing the moment he died. Salarian blood was everywhere, glistening in the neon lights.
"That's one asshole who won't be bothering us any more," said Jack appreciatively. Zaeed had an almost fatherly smile on his scarred face as he stepped through the mess.
"I'm sorry Grunt. I thought he had only two rockets left. You did a good job," I said at last, not wanting to comment on the butchered merc. Grunt had certain issues with controlling his rage, but it didn't affect his combat competence. Hell, it might have actually helped raise it. I was willing to exploit it for my own purposes. I wasn't sure if I was doing the right thing.
"I'll be fine," said Grunt. He wasn't kidding. The burnt flesh was already sloughing off him like a snake sheds its skin, and if I looked closely I knew I would see new skin and muscle growing before my eyes to replace it. "Let's get to that assassin."
We took the elevator up to the top floor in uncharacteristic silence. Usually I'd have to hear some kind of boast from Grunt about how tough he was, some kind of smart-ass remark from Jack, or a moaning complaint from Zaeed about how the mercs he used to shoot were so much tougher back in his day. Not now however.
I had severely underestimated the amount of security Nassana had hired to protect herself. She was holed up in the penthouse, but there was a damn army on every floor! We had been pushed almost to our limits just making it this far.
There was no more swagger. No more joking around. I wanted to find the assassin and get the heck out, and it suddenly occurred to me Nassana had hired several armies' worth of firepower not to protect herself from us, but from him.
The elevator door opened, and we saw a single Eclipse merc pacing around a small room at the far end of the hall, near a window. He appeared to be speaking on his communicator and hadn't seemed to noticed us. Zaeed aimed his gun, but I signalled to him to back down. I wanted some answers from this guy.
"No, I haven't heard from teams four or five...don't worry, my team is ready to go. I haven't seen him...yes, yes it's under control. Don't worry. I'll go down there myself. No, we won't need reinforcements," said the Eclipse merc, tapping his head set. He was clad head to toe in the by now annoyingly familiar yellow armor with the black 'E' logo on the front, and sported a submachine gun at his hip. I wasn't about to let him reach for it.
"Hands in the air, and turn around very slowly," I ordered. The merc turned around, and was greeted with the sight of four gun barrels all aimed at his face.
"Tell me where the assassin is, and I might let you live," I said.
"If I knew that, I wouldn't be here," the merc said, somehow not sounding terrified. "Who are you? Did Nassana send for you?"
"You've got two ways down from here," I said, taking a step forward so that he had to back up against the window. The fragile, easily broken glass window. "Express or coach. Your choice. Start talking."
"Look pal," he said belligerently. "Even if knew where he was, I wouldn't tell you. I've got a hundred of my boys on this floor. I can have them in here in a second."
"Not the answer I was looking for."
"I've got nothing more to say to you," he said, folding his arms nonchalantly. "If you shoot me my team will come running. So why don't you - argh!"
I grabbed the merc captain by the throat and shoved him backwards, hard. The glass window shattered into pieces on contact and he careened off the tower, screaming into the night on the way down. Seventy stories was a long way to fall. At heights like these, there wouldn't be a body at the bottom. There'd be little more than a smear.
"Holy shit," breathed Jack. "And here I thought you were a pussy."
"He could have contacted his team, alerted them somehow," I said, feeling the need to explain myself.
"The fact he was so confident meant he was hiding something up his sleeve and I don't want to stick around long enough to find out. Plus he was wasting my time. We need to find Krios before he gets to Nassana and leaves the tower."
"Hey, I thought it was awesome. Don't make me regret complimenting you with all your justification bullshit," said Jack offhandedly.
Grunt had been listening closely though, which I suspected was a subset of his training programme. He was constantly learning new and better ways with which to wage war, and in me he'd found the perfect teacher.
Zaeed hadn't been paying attention. He had wandered a little way into the next room, and yelled over his shoulder.
"Oi, Shepard! More mercs over here! A whole arseload!"
"Hello dead people," remarked Jack with some satisfaction, a smile of pure anticipation transforming her face and making it seem even more beautiful than before. I'd only ever seen this smile on her prior to charging headlong into battle against suicidal odds.
The funny thing is...I could have sworn I sometimes had the exact same smile on my face when I gave the order to attack.
We caught a lucky break, further into the towers. A bunch of salarian civilians, not mercs, had holed up in a room and sealed the door. When we breached it, one of them took a wild shot at me before Grunt knocked him out with one punch. He was unconscious before hitting the floor. The other salarians, already terrified, instantly told us what we wanted to hear about Nassana Dantius and our target.
"Here's the thing I don't understand, Shepard," Grunt asked, as we were walking away.
"Lay it on me, Grunt."
"We spared the lives of those pathetic salarians."
"Yeah, cos they gave us some valuable info. Plus they were innocent," I said.
"That's ridiculous. How do you define innocent? Any one of those salarians could have had a thermal detonator and blown us up."
"They weren't shooting at us."
"One of them had a weapon," Grunt pointed out.
"He was insane. And you cracked his skull taking him out. Sweet right cross by the way," I said.
"Thank you."
"The point is Grunt, you can't just slaughter every civilian on the off-chance that they might be dangerous. It seems like a simple, elegant solution..."
"It's the only way to live," proclaimed Zaeed.
"...but it's actually short-term thinking. Any one of those civilians could have powerful friends and family. Somewhere down the road, you're just setting yourself up for more trouble" I finished.
"That happens, I'll kill them too," said Jack.
"Those friends are gonna have their own friends. Can you kill the entire galaxy?"
"Why not?" replied Jack and Grunt at the same time, and then they looked at each other in surprise. Zaeed roared with laughter.
"Would you look at the balls on the pair of 'em. Reminds me of myself when I was a nipper."
I carried on, scouting the doorways for additional threats. We had fought our way past a particularly tough group of mercenaries on a yawning bridge that spanned the towers, and that was a hell of a fight. I nearly slipped and fell to my death a couple of times.
Previously
"Grunt, take down those turrets! Zaeed, lay down some suppressing fire, and watch out for those snipers! Jack, you - argh!"
I had let my guard down for a split second, and it felt like the Hammer of Thor had come crashing down on my head. A sniper shot must have penetrated my shields, and while it didn't pierce my helmet, it was still enough to knock me off my feet. Only problem was, we were on a bridge five feet wide in gale-force winds.
I skidded towards the edge, with the sick realisation in my heart that I couldn't stop myself in time. Dimly, I wondered if it was God's punishment for having shoved that merc out of the window. I was about to share his fate.
"Shepard!"
A slim figure moved at speeds that didn't seem human, and suddenly Jack was there, grabbing my hand. In my armour I weighed more than three hundred pounds, yet this young woman who couldn't have weighed more than ninety pounds soaking wet had stopped me from going over the edge.
"Get the fuck back over here!"
The blue glow had surrounded Jack, she was drawing on her biotic abilities to augment her strength. I pulled on her arm and managed to scramble back up onto the platform.
"Nice save."
"Now you owe me," she said. It wasn't a joke either, it was more like a statement of fact. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw another merc taking aim.
"Get down!" I shoved Jack hard, and she went sprawling backwards. A second later, a burst of rifle fire whizzed through the air where her head had been previously. I took aim and blasted the merc to bits.
"Now we're even," I called.
Jack's face had become the same blank mask I'd noticed back on the Normandy. Without saying anything she leapt over her barricade and sent a group of mercs flying off the bridge and spiralling to their deaths.
Now
"That door's locked down tight, Shepard. And I'm out of explosives," reported Zaeed. We had reached the penthouse where Nassana was cowering. So close, yet so far.
I mentally kicked myself for not bringing along a hacker. I'd been so focused on the firepower I'd neglected someone with infiltration skills.
"We could radio the Normandy and get Tali or Kasumi here," mused Zaeed.
"That could take a while," said Grunt.
"Yeah, I'm not waiting that long," I said. "Grunt, open the door."
"With pleasure," he said, loading up his shotgun. He emptied his entire ammo clip blasting away at the lock, while we watched from a safe distance. He then bashed away at the hole he made with the butt of his shotgun. Finally, he slammed into the door over and over with his powerful fists. Under such furious attacks the locking mechanism on the door failed, and it slid open.
Nassana was in a small round room, dominated in the centre by a huge console that projected a variety of holographic readouts. Behind her, a long, wide window revealed the cityscape of Ilium, illuminated by light from neon and sun. She was surrounded by a team of Eclipse vanguards, who trained their weapons on us as we walked in.
"Shepard? But you're dead!"
"I got better," I said simply.
"And now you're here to kill me," she said slowly. She hadn't given the order to fire, and my team took advantage of that to train their own guns on the target of their choice.
"Please, you're not worth my time," I said. "I've got bigger things to worry about."
"Don't patronise me, Shepard," she said. "First you kill my sister, and now you kill me. I'm sure you find this very ironic."
"That's not actually the correct definition of irony, but I'm not here to lecture you on language conventions," I said, unable to resist. Zaeed swore under his breath and Jack rolled her eyes.
Nassana paused for a moment before replying. "Then what are you here for?"
I shrugged, something I'd picked up from Kasumi. "Someone told me a certain drell assassin was coming to kill you. I'd like to have a word with him. Figured I hang around until he blows your head off, then make my offer."
Nassana's eyes narrowed, and I knew she wasn't sure if I was being entirely serious. "You expect me to believe that? You shoot your way through half of Eclipse just to meet the drell?"
A thud above our heads made one of Nassana's guards look up. She noticed.
"What?"
"I thought I heard something."
"Damnit, check the other entrances! And you," she said, pointing a finger at me. "You stay put. When I deal with this annoying drell, you and I are going to have a talk..."
It was at this moment Nassana noticed that I wasn't looking at her, but past her. The reason for this was because a green skinned humanoid in a silvery grey waistcoat had dropped out of a vent in the ceiling and landed neatly on the tips of his toes behind another one of Nassana's guards.
Before Nassana could turn around, the assassin had viciously snapped the neck of one guard, knocked out another one cold and stolen his gun, shot a fourth in the back, shot a fifth in throat, and blew off the head of the merc captain who had heard his movements in the first place. Grabbing her gun, he jammed it against Nassana's belly and fired.
Nassana's eyes bulged, and she let out a gurgle of mingled shock and pain. Gently, almost tenderly, the assassin cradled her body and lay her down on top of the console. With her dying breath, the last thing she saw was of the assassin folding her arms across her chest, then standing over her with his head bowed.
We didn't say anything. We couldn't. Despite everything the four of us had seen over the course of our lives (and that was a hell of a lot), all our mouths were hanging wide open. I'd never seen anyone move that fast and kill so quickly before.
About half a minute passed. The drell was still just standing there with his head bowed, taking no notice of the three humans and one krogan standing feet away from him. I decided to break the silence.
"Thane Krios? I'd like to speak to you."
The drell did not look up as he answered. He was the first drell I had ever seen in person, and I studied him carefully. He had mottled green skin, and head fringes that reminded me of an asari's. His eyes were solid black, and when he blinked it reminded me of a reptile's. His voice was low and raspy, as if he did not use it much, with little emotion or inflection.
"I apologise. Prayers for the wicked must not be interrupted," he said.
I made a dismissive noise. "That's Nassana Dantius. She set me up to murder her own sister. She's had lots of other people killed for the sake of money and power. She's not worth a prayer."
"Not for her," Thane replied softly. He raised his head and came around the console to face us. "For me."
"I was curious to see how far you'd go to find me," he continued. "All this destruction and chaos...you are an interesting individual, Commander Shepard. You wield force like a sledgehammer, yet Spectres are generally subtle in their machinations. Well, here I am."
"You knew we were looking for you?" asked Zaeed. I think he was tired of keeping quiet.
"Yes," Thane said simply. "Gunfire and explosions. I prefer to work quietly. If I have to fight through guards, then I've made a mistake. I rarely make mistakes."
"You don't know what you're missing out on," remarked Jack. "Half the fun's in killing the losers who get in your way."
Thane took in her odd appearance without apparent surprise or comment. "You disrupted my plan, but your distraction eventually proved valuable."
"Glad we could be of help," I said. "Let's get to the point. I'm recruiting specialists for a crucial mission of galactic importance. To put it simply, Mr Krios, I need your help."
Thane turned his attention back to me. "I'm listening." I got the feeling he was a big fan of understatement.
"Have you heard of the Collectors?"
"Only by reputation."
"They are abducting entire human colonies across the Terminus systems. The Council won't get involved, so it's up to me to stop them. To do that, I need the best operatives in the galaxy, and your name was high on that short list."
"I see," said Thane, as calm as still water. If he recognised the praise, he did not acknowledge it. "Fighting the Collectors involves the Omega 4 relay. Everyone knows no ship has ever returned after using it," he remarked.
"They told me I couldn't get to Ilos either," I said. If he knew my name, he had to know what I've done.
"A fair point. You've built a career out of achieving the impossible, Commander." Thane looked away from me and out of the window, seemingly admiring the rising sun. I was a little surprised to see it. It didn't feel like I'd spent an entire night fighting my way through the Dantius Towers.
"Nassana Dantius was to be my last mission," he said. "I am dying."
Again, he said it with as much ease as one might say 'I'm going to bed.'
"Is it a disease? Are you contagious?" demanded Zaeed, never one to mince words.
"We can discuss it further on board the Commander's ship," said Thane. "The problem is not contagious, nor will it affect my work."
"I didn't know that," I said. "Is there anything we can do to help you?"
"Giving me this opportunity is enough. The universe is a dark place. I'm trying to make it a little brighter before I leave it. Saving human colonies was not what I had in mind for my final mission, but one does not question the will of the gods."
"Oh great, not another religious nut," said Jack in acid tones. Thane ignored her this time.
"Many innocents died today because I was not fast enough. I must atone for my actions here and for other times. I will work for you, Commander Shepard. No charge."
He held out a hand, and I shook it.
Normandy Bridge
"Joker, you're court-martialled. Report to XO Lawson for your trial, sentencing and execution," I said as soon as I stepped on board.
"What the hell? What for?" asked Joker, clearly shocked.
"Disobeying a direct order. I seem to recall ordering you to take my ship and come rescue me if I didn't reappear after half an hour. I took the whole night getting to Krios."
"Wait a minute, you said to rescue you if you didn't make radio contact after half an hour. EDI was talking to you the whole time! I'm innocent!"
"Worth it to see that look on your face," I said. As I headed towards the elevator, I could hear EDI asking Joker if that also counted as a joke.
After the usual mission debrief, Thane was fixed up with suitable quarters in the Life Support section of the ship, and I was looking forward to a few moments of downtime before we moved on to the next mission. I headed down to the Mess, where I bumped into Miranda.
"Another one in the bag," I said to her. "We'll have a full team soon enough."
"Thane does seem like an impressive assassin, given his track record and the reports on his performance during the Nassana hit. But no one told me he was dying," she said.
As in everything Miranda did, her meals had to be prepared to perfection. Rupert was running himself ragged whipping up meals for her that wouldn't look out of place at a formal Presidium dinner for galactic politicians.
"Looks like Cerberus intel dropped the ball on that one. At least he's working for free," I said airily.
"That worries me too," she said, adding a large bowl of bouillabaisse to her already overladen food tray. "Why would he agree to that? Is it really out of some professed desire to 'atone' for his actions?"
"What, you don't think people can feel guilty about their past?"
"Guilt is a powerful motivation Shepard, but it's not the only one. I'm just wary if we've seen all there is to Thane Krios," Miranda said.
"I'm sure we'll find out in time," I said.
"I certainly hope so," said Miranda. She then hesitated, as if working up the courage to ask me something, which I knew was patently ridiculous because Miranda had never before hesitated about asking me anything.
"Would you like to have dinner with me? I mean, there's a lot to discuss. About Thane and the mission and everything."
Was she sounding flustered? Clearly, my ears were deceiving me.
"Thanks Miranda, but I'm afraid I'll have to decline. I'm bringing Jack her own dinner, probably eat down there as well. I'll talk to you later once we're done," I said, accepting a large sack of burritos and tacos and a jar of homemade salsa from Rupert.
A slight expression of annoyance crossed Miranda's face, so fast I almost thought I was mistaken for noticing it in the first place. "Fine. We'll talk later." She then left quickly for her office. I took the elevator down to the cargo hold.
Jack was lying on her bunk, idly tossing a knife up into the air and catching it on the way down before it could stab her in the stomach. She did it over and over, catching the knife at the exact same spot each time. Evidently she'd had a lot of practice with knife play. I decided to wait until she was holding the knife before speaking.
"Got your food right here Jack," I said, by way of greeting. She sat up and eyed my sack suspiciously.
"What have you got there?"
"Thought you might like spicy food, so I asked Rupert to make some Mexican for us. It's amazing what you can buy on an asari trade world."
Jack wrinkled her nose as I passed her a burrito. "What the hell is this? I'm not eating it."
"Come on, take a bite," I said. I took the burrito from her and chewed it, savoring the taste of the ground meat, beans and chilli. "There, that proves I'm not trying to poison you. Pick any burrito you want."
"That has got to be the stupidest name for any kind of food ever," said Jack, fishing around in the bag and selecting one at random. I could tell her heart wasn't in the insult though, and this was one of her rude comments she made on automatic pilot.
I'd read somewhere biotics used up a tremendous amount of energy to fuel their powers, and Jack had been running non-stop during our fight in Dantius Towers. She had to be starving.
Jack took a tentative bite, and her eyes widened in surprise. She then swallowed the whole thing in another two bites and reached for another.
"Try it with some of this," I said, offering her the jar of salsa. "Goes really well with it."
We ate in silence for a while, Jack devouring most of the food I brought down. She licked her fingers in satisfaction after finishing the last burrito.
"I can get some more food if you like," I said, leaning against a wall.
"No need," said Jack shortly, sitting back on her bunk. She clearly expected me to disappear now, and was visibly frustrated when I didn't.
"Why do you keep coming down here?" she asked suddenly.
"I told you. I need to know every member of my team. Our only hope of survival lies in me knowing how each one of you will react in any situation."
"Yeah, right," she said immediately. "All you need to know is how many people we can kill before we die. That's all a soldier needs to know."
"Might be true for the soldier, because that's all he supposed to know. But I'm not a soldier. I'm a marine and an officer, and I'm responsible for all of your lives."
"Don't give me that shit," she said. "All you care about is blowing up the Collectors. You couldn't care less if the rest of us live or die."
"That's a Cerberus line of thinking," I said calmly. "I'm not Cerberus."
Jack didn't know what to say to that, so she played around with her knife some more. I was happy to let the silence continue, and looked around the hold for a while. Although it was dark, cramped, noisy and cold, the kid in me thought it was an awesome place to hide out. No wonder Jack liked it. For such a hardened killer woman she could be so childish at times.
"If you're here to ask questions, spit them out," she said suddenly. "Obvious stuff like what's up with my ink, or what I've done in the past?"
"I'll bite," I said easily. "What's the story behind the tattoos?"
"There's a story behind each one," she said, looking down at herself and her marked body. "Some are for kills. You know, good ones. Some are for the places I've been, the things I've seen. Some are for the people I've known, and that doesn't concern you or anyone else. And I got some because hey, why the fuck not?"
I studied her tattoos, and my attention must have made her feel uncomfortable. "What about you? Got any ink?"
"I used to," I said, taking off my shirt and rubbing my collarbone. Dimly, I wondered why I was doing this. Did I really think my body was going to impress Jack? I pushed the thought away.
"I had an ankh tattooed right here, in black ink."
"What's an ankh?"
"It's like a cross with the top arm replaced by an oval. It's an ancient Egyptian symbol of life and death," I explained.
"Egyptian, huh? Weren't they some old pricks back on Earth?"
"Yeah."
"Why do you like it so much?" Jack asked. "It's just a planet."
"Maybe because I never really had a home," I said. "I was born on ships, lived my whole life more or less on them. It'd be nice to stay on one spot that's yours alone in the galaxy."
"Don't talk to me about homes," said Jack derisively. "Never had one, never wanted one. But if you had a tat, where is it now?"
"I guess replicating my tattoo wasn't on the agenda of the Illusive Man when he pieced me back together."
"You should get it done again," said Jack. "It's like...they're sort of important, you know? They're like a message telling the rest of the verse to fuck off. So you don't have to do it yourself."
I put my shirt back on. "I guess. For me, my tattoo was about what I felt was important. As a soldier you see a lot of death. But you see life as well. Every time you manage to get your buddies through a tough spot still alive, every time you kill some bastard who's trying to kill you...that's life. In its purest form."
Jack was giving me a strange look. "Damn, that's like exactly what I think."
We sat in silence for a while more, before I decided to break it. "What about your past?"
"I've done a lot of bad shit. I know it's all in those files you've got on me, and I know you've read them, so don't try to deny it. Ran with gangs, joined a cult. Kept the haircut," she said, with a hint of levity.
"Name the crime, I've done it," Jack continued. "Murder, theft, arson, piracy. Theft of military property, destruction of a space station, vandalism. Yeah, I've done it all."
"You were in a cult? What happened?" I asked.
"What always happens in cults? They screw me over and try to use me for their own purposes. Same thing happened with the pirate gangs."
"What did you do to them?"
"What do you think, genius?" Jack retorted.
I nodded, accepting the rebuke. "You've hit a military target before?"
"Hah! They're not as hard as you'd think," said Jack. "Turians die just like everyone else. Their ships are sweet though. Packed to the brim with firepower."
"I'm surprised you'd mention vandalism," I said. "Considering the fact you blew up a space station."
"The two are kind of related," said Jack, her eyes taking on a far-off look, as if recalling distant memories. "Turns out the hanar really don't like it if you fling one of their space stations out of orbit and send it crashing into one of their moons."
I couldn't help myself, and cracked a smile. Jack laughed when she saw it. It sounded a little less harsh this time around.
"I knew it! You're a violent junkie too. Don't deny it."
I wasn't, although the idea of a million pink jellyfish wringing their tentacles and soiling themselves as Jack sent a space station hurtling into a moon made me crack up. I stood up and made ready to leave.
"Hey Shepard," she said, her voice suddenly hard.
"Yeah?"
"Are you eyeing me up? Because if this is about sex, then maybe you should fucking say so," she said, a challenge in her tone.
I looked at her for a long moment, not sure how best to respond. Something Kelly said came back to me, and I marvelled at how the Yeoman had got it right on the money.
"No rush Jack," I said. "Like I said, I'm down here to learn more about you."
Jack looked at me suspiciously, as if unsure whether or not to believe me.
"You know, no one's ever bothered about asking me about this shit before. Except for those bullshit prison shrinks, who try to 'help' you and crawl into your head. You're not doing this to me Shepard," Jack said. "I'm not some broken little girl you can pick up and miraculously fix and have eating out of your hand. I kill for fun and I like it. Once you find out this is all there is to me, you won't bother trying to make nice."
"That's not going to happen," I said.
"What the fuck are you talking about?" demanded Jack, suddenly angry.
"I don't believe this is all there is to you. And I'm not trying to get close to you because it would make an interesting case to publish for my journal. You're part of my crew for the duration of this mission, Jack. This is what I do for all my crew," I said.
Jack fell into silence again, and when she did not reply for a long while, I climbed the stairs once more, ready to leave. Only when I reached the top did she speak again.
"No one's ever asked before. So fuck you, and thanks for asking."
I turned to her, but she had curled up on her bunk, facing away from me. I left her alone and went back up above deck.