chapter 5
Presenting the evidence that Tali had provided to Udnia was something akin to force feeding raw meat to a vegan without the loaded gun before he made the connection that using the evidence proved it wasn't humanity's fault for Eden Prime and he could rub it in someone else's face for a change, so he was off in politician la-la land scheming up his next harebrained idea.
It was getting a lot harder for him to avoid shooting the scumbag with every passing minute, but what really threw him off was that he and Jackson were asked personally to remain behind for a few minutes so he could talk with them.
As everyone else ran off to the present the evidence to the Council where a later Spectre promotion would occur, Jason found himself looking over the desk of one really sleazy political animal that looked out for number one as he felt Jackson next to him tense up.
"As it is, the two of you fall under Alliance jurisdiction for the duration of your contracts, please note that in order to obtain full compensation for the contract, all medical, psychological and aptitude screening in accordance with Alliance regulations must be carried to the letter," Udnia gave Jason a reproachful look like he was expecting him to argue or fail to understand before he added in a skeptical tone, "is that understood?"
Yes Commander, I really had to shoot the human ambassador in the face before throwing him out of the building, Jason schooled his expression to remain the same as he gave Udnia a long scathing glare, after shoving a grenade down his throat.
"Of course ambassador," he knew he was going to need to shoot, strangle or violently dismember something in the next five minutes or there would be a dead guy in this spoofy office in the next few minutes, "is there anything else?"
Granted he ground the question out to let the little known fact that he really didn't want to be here that even the most dimwitted single cell organism could decipher as Udnia shook his head and wandered over to his desk to work on his terminal for a few moments.
"There is still work to be conducted on your apparent," Udnia paused dramatically for effect, the asshole, "histories as well as an investigation to be conducted at a later date, but for now you fall under the authorization of both Commander Shepard's for now, but remember that you also represent Humanity as well in your actions and deeds, that is all."
They left without a word, Jackson feeling the seething killer intent from where he stood and wisely put a few feet between himself and his twin, "So, charming fella isn't he?"
The front desk clerk looked up after she heard a rather loud racket, watching with a confused expression on her face as two human males walked off leaving a rather large dent in a nearby wall, it seemed that they hadn't liked the meeting with the ambassador as she put in a request order to have the wall fixed.
Jackson was now walking alongside him as they headed for C-Sec to take the elevator back to the ship, "Feel better now that you just finished punching a wall little brother?"
"Nope," Jason sighed as they decided on taking the scenic route, they had a lot of time to kill before they got the news that would come as a surprise, well to everyone else, "wished it was his face."
"Eh, killing someone that important would only end up with you in a jail cell," Jackson snorted as they continued on towards C-Sec, "might as well head back to the ship."
"Naw, got a few things I need to do." Jason said as he struck off in a direction that was never advertised in the first game with his twin right on his heels.
First he stopped at another couple vendors (again not ones visited in any game) to pick up more medical supplies for his kit bag, along with some equipment from what amounted to a galactic Hobby Lobby (Jackson opted for downloading six thousand hours of music along with several workout regime manuals) for future projects, because he had a plan. Several things had irked him about the first game and here he was about to rectify those particular issues in a way, mostly he had picked up some tools and raw materials to begin his first of hopefully many projects that he would conduct later. Next he managed to wrangle a deal from a used equipment salesman to deliver a workbench, larger modification tools and such to the Normandy with what was becoming a very small amount of credits left to his name as Jackson went on to get his hands on a copy of what passed as a Mass Effect universe version of Shooter's Bible: Mods, Additions, Customization and Upgrades for cheaper than dirt that was going to be a huge boon.
From there, they killed another hour and half by wandering around some of the livelier areas of the Wards browsing various vendors, stores and whatnot before they got the call to head back to the Normandy double time.
Upon reaching the landing bay where the Normandy was docked, having walked into C-Sec with backgrounds that couldn't hold water and temporary Alliance consultant orders without even being questioned made it realize how easy it was for Cerberus to infiltrate C-Sec in the third installment, too damned easy in fact.
The whole team was there, Udnia and Captain Anderson included as they finished reeling off the only possible leads they had on Saren, which was nil to be honest, to both John and Jane as Jason noticed Tali in the back of the group looking at the Normandy with what could easily be longing as he stepped up next to her and cleared his throat.
"Oh!" The cute jump she did cemented the fact that Jason was going to get a lot of fun out of startling her in the future, "Sorry, did you need something?"
"Checking on your gunshot injury," Jason replied as he pointed at her arm, a new patch standing out in stark comparison to the rest of her suit as he scanned the immediate area with his omni-tool and reached into his bag, "minor swelling and a little infection currently in your system, nothing to worry about for now, here, take one of these now and another in four hours, it'll help with the fever."
Even though he knew for a fact that Dr. Chakwas would be taking care of the entire ground team in her own way as the medical officer onboard the Normandy, he still felt better knowing that he got to help, without acting like some crazy stalker dude to boot.
(In another dimension, Orlando Bloom sneezed on camera, making it the most hilarious celebrity photo of the year according to People magazine.)
"Thank you," Tali chirped as she took the vial and looked back at the Normandy, "Keelah, this ship looks amazing."
"Wait until you see the drive core," Jason smirked as he stowed the rest of his equipment and watched John argue with Anderson while Jane appeared to be talking with Udnia, "the thing is massive."
A shadow fell over the pair as Jason looked up to see Wrex towering over them as he let out a deep rumble, "Human, I hear tales of you fighting a Thresher Maw, I say you didn't and you lie instead."
Damn cover story, Jason chuckled as he looked the older battlemaster over critically, "Never did kill the damn thing, just scared it off after hurting it, though if you heard about it from Jackson, he makes it sound like I collect trophies off the damn things, all I really did was hit the damn thing until it went away."
The look he received in return was enough to make Tali let out yet another squeak as she retreated to a much safer distance, hiding behind Jackson as everyone else turned to watch a massive Krogan in red attempt to stare down a much smaller human in black armor.
John pinched the bridge of his nose as he let out a sigh, "I knew this was going to happen, it'll be a miracle if they manage to avoid killing each other."
Garrus was looking slightly nervous as he glanced back and forth between the two, watching as they leaned in closer to one another until they were nearly touching, "Should we intervene before they resort to blows?"
Jackson laughed as he patted the top of Tali's helmet in a comforting manner as she continued to peer around him to watch what was going on, "Naw, he'll be fine, this is just his way of making friends that's all."
Ashley did something of a double take, "Are you sure? Looks like they are getting ready to throw down or something."
"This can only end badly," Alenko sighed as he keyed up his omni-tool to send a message, "I'll inform Dr. Chakwas she'll be having a patient shortly."
Jane Shepard let out a sigh as she stalked forward until she was between the human and Krogan, breaking their staring contest as she said a few words and walked back with a knowing smile on her face.
"What did you say to them?" John asked as he pecked his wife on the cheek, a feat not normally done in full combat armor.
"Told them to either whip it out and measure it or shake hands," Jane smiled at the looks she received in turn from each person, "they were starting to look like a married couple arguing over interior colors."
Soon enough, both the human and Krogan reached up and shook hands, though to a trained eye it appeared that they were trying to crush each other's hand without much success before they released each other's hand, glared at each other once more and walked away as Anderson shook his head and glanced over at John.
"This is your crew Commander and the Normandy is yours, take care of her and good hunting." With that the older man walked towards the elevator after salutes were administered.
Line Break
"Ouch." Jason sighed as he flexed the fingers in his left hand, granted he knew getting into a macho hand squeezing match with a Krogan was always a bad idea, but he figured that he had earned a few points from the battlemaster as he met his grip pound for pound.
He had just shown Tali where the engine room, wisely taking a step back as he watched her all but pounce the nearest console and began running all kinds of diagnostics and such on the drive core, much to Adams delight as he found himself in the company of a savant. Rather than show off his extensive memory of downloaded information, he had agreed with Jackson to leave everyone and their respective job alone for now as he set up shop in the cargo bay as well with all of his new tools and equipment.
Directly across from the Requisition's Officer was located, that niche next to Wrex and where the Salarian STG team would hang out normally was where Jason decided to set up his own workbench, similar to the one Ashley was currently working at, but he had an inkling he would be working on more pet projects than servicing all of the weapons and armor used by the ground team. Once he had everything set up, a new set of storage lockers placed right next to it for convenience, he stowed his armor and weapons inside and began fiddling with his older assault rifle and sniper rifle, mostly so he could get some serious hands on with Mass Effect weapons.
"Now here this," the distinct voice of John Shepard came over the intercom as Jason stopped what he was doing and looked up, "this is acting Captain Shepard along with XO Shepard with a message for the entire crew."
From there it was an interesting speech, part Renegade and part Paragon as both John and Jane went on about how humanity and its allies were given the important mission of hunting Saren down, so on and so forth. (Play the first game over again if you want to hear it, I'm lazy, sue me)
"Not bad for a squishy," Jason smirked as he listened to the heavy footfalls of Wrex as he walked right up and leaned against the bulkhead in his usual spot, "didn't know that they made humans that tough."
"They don't," Jason shot back as he finished striping the weapons in front of him, going mostly off his memory on how to upgrade ME1 weapons, not a lot he could do, but it would be enough for now with what he had on hand, "me and my brother are what you call special."
Wrex grunted as he did his thing of staring off into space, "You talk much pyjack?"
"No."
"Good, I like the quiet."
And thus the relationship with Urdnot Wrex was born, not really, but it was a start as Jackson showed up a few minutes later, stowing his gear in his own locker before saddling up to the new workbench and looking at what he was doing.
"Sup little brother?" Jason rolled his eyes as he continued on the delicate work of examining the Geth software parts he had collected back on Eden Prime.
"The ceiling, you settled in?" The question was rhetorical, Jackson was always a motorhead at heart and lasted all of ten seconds before he went over to ogle the brand new M35 Mako that Garrus was currently pampering, granted Jackson was more engine and performance focused while Garrus had to extensively 'calibrate' the weapons.
"Yup, got some serious tune ups on that Mako in the near future, I can easily tweak another hundred horsepower out of that thing while improving the shielding interface network grid as well." Jackson was too busy rambling on about improving the Mako that he didn't notice the elevator behind him open up to reveal none other than Ashley and Jane talking as they exited the elevator.
Ashley cut her salute and walked over to her work station as Jane went on a clockwise circuit of the cargo bay, starting with Garrus, then on to the engine room where she would no doubt be talking to Tali and Adams before she would be reaching him.
XXX (This will signify POV change)
Jane was excited, this ship was top of the line and filled with a senior crew who knew what they were doing, granted the ground team was unique to say in the least as she went on a tour, leaving her husband with Navigator Pressley to plot out the fastest route to Therum.
Joker, Alenko and Chakwas were located on Deck Two, the first was in the cockpit piloting the Normandy while bitching in a good natured manner on how he had yet to put the ship through its paces, the second was tapping away at a flickering console doing something important while the last was hard at work creating medical profiles for each new addition to the crew. She talked with each of them for a few minutes, asking how they were doing, learning about what they did on the Normandy and getting to know them better as individuals instead of referring to them as mindless drones.
It wasn't until she took the elevator down to the cargo bay did she realize what kind of zoo the Normandy appeared to be, there was an C-Sec detective with an affinity for sniper rifles tinkering on the Mako, a soft spoken Quarian (she mentally vowed to break her out of her shell) running laps around her engineering crew that were absolutely ecstatic to have her, a Krogan battlemaster that wanted nothing more than a fight, another female soldier she could respect working away on keeping the weapons and gear serviced and then these two characters.
She was standing next to the elevator after she completed her rounds watching them work at a bench she swore hadn't been there earlier, granted the taller one was mostly pestering the shorter one, who had her interest because she liked to consider herself not too shabby with biotics and tech in her line of work, but he was something else.
Alenko she could relate too, went to brain camp, got the training, killed an instructor and kept the shirt, but this kid on the other hand was something else.
Never had she heard of human being able to perform half the biotic stuff he managed to pull off in a single firefight without collapsing from exhaustion, but he managed it somehow as she decided to talk to the bigger one, Jackson, first.
"Juggernaut," she smiled at the nickname he seemed to answer to as he turned around and smiled, the guy was cheerful and enthusiastic, she give him that much credit, not to mention he was a hell of a shot with an assault rifle as she had found out in Chora's Den, "got a minute?"
"Oh course Boss Lady," he laughed as he picked up a small toolbox and headed towards the Mako, "just getting ready to start the engine overhaul on that pretty thing over yonder."
From there she learned that her nemesis, the monstrosity of a tank she was somewhat qualified to operate, was getting a serious tune up in the name of simply making it go faster, not that she could complain about that as she chatted with him. Granted it was mostly small talk that got more and more detached while he got to work, nothing more than she already knew for now, but she learned where to find a couple decent snack joints and weapon vendors on the Citadel next time they were docked as she turned back to find the other brother, Jason.
He was doing something to a spare Lancer that he found from somewhere as she stepped up and broke the ice, "Got a minute?"
Without even looking up from what he was doing, looked like he was adjusting the power output transceiver on the rifle now that she watched closely he answered with a short, "Uh huh."
Oh, he sounded like a real talkative one for sure, then again she was Commander Jane Shepard and could get any information out of anyone as she launched into an introduction, thinking that he never stood a chance.
Line Break
"You know Jason it wouldn't kill you to talk more," Jackson commented from across the cargo bay after Jane left, "I think you broke her to be honest."
Jason chuckled as he remembered the short conversation with Jane Shepard, though he hadn't actually said a word, mostly just single syllables and body language as she was going off at the mouth about biotics, tech and personal information. Granted she had been mostly fishing for information, but knowing that she was incredibly persistent and would be back later for yet another conversation, Jason had taken it upon himself to gradually reveal bits about his "past" over time.
"I did no such thing," Jason laughed as he thought back to the look of utter defeat plastered across her face as she had walked away towards the elevator, "I'll make it up to her later."
Setting the assorted weapons he had been honestly fiddling around with, he pulled out the extensive pile of Geth parts again and had a major brainstorm of an idea that made him smile.