Chapter 8

-Cami-

Cami lay sprawled on her bed, throwing up an old baseball into the air and deftly catching it as it came back down. Her shoulder still felt sore, but according to Dr. Jess, as she liked to call her, it was nothing more than a bruise that would heal in a few days.

She threw the ball a little off to the side as her mind swirled with thoughts about the mission...the failed mission. Cami arched off the bed as she reached for it. She had sent off her mission report to Hackett and was now awaiting new orders. Cami knew the admiral was busy, but the longer she waited for his debriefing, the more anxious she became.

The door swished open and Val walked into the room. "Hey, Cami." She eyed the baseball. "What are you doing?"

"Nothin'," Cami mumbled, catching the ball one last time before turning over in bed to face Val. "What are you up to?"

Val gave her a wry grin, plopping down on the bed and resting her chin on her hands. "Nothing, as well." She tilted her head to the side. "So what's really bothering you?"

"Nothing," Cami said again, and Val arched a tattooed eyebrow, clearly not believing her. Cami let out an exaggerated sigh. "Everything."

"The mission?" Val asked, nodding in understanding.

"Pretty much, yeah," Cami replied as she resumed throwing the ball up in the air again.

Val suddenly got up, snatching the ball out of the air before taking a seat on the bed next to Cami. "Which part? The less-than-awesome amount of intel, the Cerberus ambush, the loss of half the data, or the third player?"

Cami leaned up on an elbow. "All of the above?" She sat up, drawing her knees up to her chest as she leaned her back against the wall. "It was supposed to be an easy mission, and I messed it all up."

"I think we all played a part in that, Cami. Can't hang everything on your shoulders."

"He was right there." Cami jumped off the bed and began to pace in agitation. "I had him, and he got away. It's my fault we only got half the data."

"I'm pretty sure I was doing the hacking, and not you," Val said with a wry smile. "And he was in the system before we were. Half the data is better than none, and hopefully it was the good half. As for catching him, you were the only one able to catch up to him and injured yourself in the process."

Cami rotated her shoulder. "Not much of an injury though I think my ego got it the worst. I'm actually surprised I got out of that ambush unscathed. Got really lucky." She took a deep breath, calming down a little and sitting on the bed opposite Val. "You're right, though. At least we got some information. I'm hoping that Admiral Hackett will see that as a positive thing. I sent off the mission report as soon as we got back, but I still haven't heard anything." She shook her head, her mind still wrapped around one thing. "Still, though...that bastard just slipped through my fingers..."

"You did get lucky during that ambush," Val conceded. "And you and Ghost certainly weren't shooting each other. In fact, way I remember it, you told us not to shoot him."

"He, uh...he saved my life," Cami answered sheepishly, and Val gave her a knowing smirk. "I was pretty much surrounded. One of the Cerberus soldiers had me cornered and before I could do anything, his head suddenly exploded. It was Ghost. He just appeared out of nowhere and took down every last one of them."

"Do you think he was surprised we weren't Cerberus? Since you spent more time with him than the rest of us." The corner of Val's mouth quirked up into a smile

Cami frowned, choosing to ignore Val's insinuation. "I think he'd been spying on us from the moment we stepped onto the station. Probably saw us fighting those Cerberus troops and knew we weren't with them." She let out a frustrated sigh still unsure of what exactly happened back with Ghost. "I just...I don't know what to think of him. He saved my life, yet he was clearly working against us. He had a chance to kill me, yet he didn't. And there was something else." Cami leaned closer to Val and lowered her voice. "Have you ever felt this...attraction to someone you just met?"

Val laughed. "I am 326 years old. But yes, I have." She turned away, a far-off look in her eyes. "When I met Lara about 7 years ago, there was a connection from the moment I set eyes on her."

Cami nodded in understanding. "He had me pinned down, and there was this moment. This one moment where it felt like the world had stopped and it was just me and him." She shook her head, letting out a soft laugh at the absurdity of what she was saying. "That's crazy, right? I mean, for all I know the guy is our enemy. We don't know who he is or who he works for."

Val frowned and shook her head. "It's not crazy, in fact -"

"Lieutenant Bennett?" Resh's voice came over the intercom. "Transmission for you. Admiral Hackett."

"On my way." Cami stood to leave but stopped at the door. She turned back to look at Val, giving her a smile. "Thanks for the talk. I really wish I'd been blessed with a sister like you."

Val returned her smile. "I have 3 younger sisters. You remind me of the youngest: Lelia."

"I hope I can meet her someday." Cami took a deep breath, bracing herself for the upcoming debriefing. "Well, I shouldn't keep Hackett waiting. I'll see you later."

-Val-

The door swished shut behind Cami as she left, and Val flopped onto the bed. Not that she didn't want to talk to Cami (out of everyone on the squad, Cami was the only person she wanted to talk to) but she'd come to the room looking for some solitude.

Cami was right: the mission hadn't gone according to plan. Hell, there hadn't even really been a plan, thanks to the considerable lack of intel provided by the Alliance. Rae raging after they were aboard did nothing to help her mood, either. He seemed incapable of controlling his anger, prone to emotional outbursts when he needed to be focused. The turian definitely had a chip on his shoulder. A chip the size of a planet.

She wasn't looking forward to working with him.

Pinky, however... she grinned. She didn't like him, but she didn't not like him, either. He was gruff, as most krogan tended to be. She appreciated that. She didn't have to like him for them to work together. Something he undoubtedly understood as well, because out of all the bickering on the last mission, he'd done the least.

She idly tapped her fingers on her chest. Her conversation with Cami about Ghost got her thinking... she hadn't talked to Lara in a while. Not since the last message she'd received on the Citadel, actually. Lara was probably the one freaking out now, wondering why in the hell it was taking her so long to write back.

She reached under her bed and retrieved a blank datapad, then eyed the door. Cami had gone to report to Admiral Hackett, but that could be a brief conversation. As much as she adored the human who so reminded her of Lelia, her little Zahra, she wasn't exactly up for more chatting.

Finding a place to sequester herself would be a bit of challenge. She immediately discounted the mess and medbay. The first because everyone would be there and the second because it smelled too clinical. She hadn't gotten a chance to really talk to the armorer, so the armory was out of the question. Which left the cargo hold, the bathrooms, or engineering. Cargo hold was too open, and she shared a bathroom with Rae.

She didn't want the turian bastard to run into her and make pithy comments in her current mood.

Engineering it was. If she remembered correctly, support beams ran along the ceiling. She could easily climb up there and hang out, and she was sure Ranje wouldn't mind. He was quiet, but friendly.

Her mind made up, she swung her feet off the bed and pushed herself off the soft mattress.

Just as she suspected, the drell was the only one in engineering.

"Hey Ranj," she greeted him and he turned around from his terminal. Drive calculations streamed across the screen. "Do you mind if I hang out here for a bit?"

"Not at all," Ranje replied, "I'm just seeing if I can squeeze a little more efficiency out of the engine."

She eyed the beams up above. A bit of a tight fit, but she'd have plenty of room to lay back and think. "I won't get in your way, just want a quiet place to think." She pointed up at the beams and waved the blank datapad. "Have a letter I need to write. You mind if I go up there?"

"Not at all." Ranje smiled at her, and she felt some of her dark mood melt away. "Just don't hurt yourself getting up or down."

"Thanks," she smiled back and started eyeing the wall, looking for a relatively safe way up. Using biotics to ease her way up didn't seem the smartest thing to do so close to the eezo core.

Once she settled onto the beam, she brought the datapad up... and stared at it.

My dearest Lara,

Ugh, too cliché.

Lara,

I'm glad you made it off Earth. I probably would have flipped into crazy mode if you hadn't so... I'm glad you did.

...

By the Goddess, she'd been with Lara for nearly 7 years. Why was writing a letter so damn hard?

Probably because the last time they'd seen each other hadn't exactly ended well. Both of them were too stubborn to back down. Between her sharp tongue and Lara's temper... well, it hadn't been pretty. But having her ass on the line and being stranded on a ship with strangers had a way of making her rethink her priorities.

Val vaguely became aware of Ranje speaking below her. She peeked down and saw Rae standing in the entrance, leaning against the wall, still looking as pissed off as ever. Seriously, did he have any other kind of expression? Hopefully he'd leave soon.

She settled back and stared at the datapad, trying to figure out what else to say.

I'm no longer with my Commando Unit. Asari High Command selected me for an experimental special ops squad. That's probably all I'm allowed to say.

It was hard to think with the soft voice of the drell and the flanging voice of the turian murmuring below her. Perhaps she should find another place to go, because it didn't sound like Rae was going to leave any time soon.

"... did her best. My problem is that her best isn't good enough."

Well, she hadn't planned on saying anything, but if he was going to be an ass about the rest of the squad and not own up to his own mistakes (like any real soldier would), then she wasn't about to keep her mouth shut. She'd about had it up to here with his ego.

She dropped down from the beam and met his eyes with steely determination. "None of our bests were good enough."

With that, she left. She was surprised when Rae didn't bite off a retort. Then again, Ranje had a penchant for making him slightly less infuriating. Which was for the best, because she wasn't looking for a fight.

-Rae-

Raethus wasn't exactly feeling happy as he walked into engineering and towards his room. Failed missions tended to have that effect on him. Especially failure because of the incompetence of others.

Lieutnant Bennett had a skillset that included a biotic charge. If she had a clear line of sight on their data thief, and Raethus knew damn well she did, that should have allowed her to incapacitate him with ease. This hadn't proven true in practice. Perhaps the thief had seen the move coming, or was trained to deal with it, but that was an irrelevance. It came down to Bennett to stop him, and she'd messed things up. Badly.

At least the team was on course with his predictions. At this rate, he'd be on the shuttle back to Palaven within days. Every cloud has a silver lining, as the charming human expression went.

"Are you alright, Rae?" Ranje suddenly asked as Raethus brushed past him, causing the turian to turn and look at the smaller drell. "Did something happen during the mission?"

"We messed it up," he growled. "Well, the amateurs upstairs did. I couldn't do much more than just fucking watch."

"Alright, calm down," Ranje said, his voice placating. "What happened that was so bad?"

Raethus sighed, trying to calm himself down. Ranje was the one person on the ship he actually got along with. Getting angry at him, especially when he wasn't on the ground team, was stupid. "We got sent in to recover some data. We didn't recover the data. You work it out."

"You didn't get any of it?" Ranje gave Raethus a surprised look at that news. "Again, what happened? I thought this would be an easy mission."

"It was an easy mission," Rae muttered. "If the Staff Lieutenant hadn't just let the thief who took half the data get away, it would've stayed that way."

"I'm sure Cami did her best to capture the thief," Ranje said diplomatically. "She wouldn't just let him get away."

"I've no doubt she did her best," the turian shrugged. "My problem is that her best isn't good enough."

Much to Raethus' surprise, Val suddenly dropped down from the rafters above them, giving the turian a furious glare.

"None of our bests were good enough," she said, her eyes daring Raethus to make some kind of retaliation as she walked to the door. He fully intended on fulfilling that dare before Ranje quickly placed his hand on the turian's arm to hold him back.

"Rae, don't," he said, as Raethus wriggled his arm against Ranje's hand. "Not everything has to be a fight."

"Tell that to her," Rae muttered darkly. Failure obviously hadn't dulled the asari's knack for infuriating him.

"She walked away, didn't she?"

"This time."

"Just let it go, Rae." Ranje let the turian's arm go. "What's done is done. I'm sure you'll all do better next mission."

Raethus looked at Ranje for a few seconds, the drell's concerned expression making his anger slowly evaporate. "Maybe we will. I just don't do failure. That's why they chose me for this team."

"Well I'm glad they chose someone who doesn't usually fail," Ranje said, smiling. "Just means you'll try harder never to do it again."

Rae gave a small chuckle, flexing his mandibles. "You know me so well."

"Someone on this ship has to."

"Well, I'm glad I chose someone good for it," Rae replied. As much as he hated the SSV Marathon and the vast majority of the crew, Ranje was about the one thing keeping it bearable.

"One does one's best."

"Evidently," Raethus said with a smile, widening his mandibles in a friendly fashion at the drell before pausing. "So...why didn't you tell me Val was up there?"

"I...uh..." Ranje said, obviously uncomfortable. "I didn't think it was that big a deal."

"I just don't like people eavesdropping on me."

"Alright, I'll keep that in mind," the drell nodded, then followed it up with a grin. "And it's not like you started talking about her. I would have said something in that case."

"Yeah," Raethus said, suddenly shifting from foot to foot as he became as uncomfortable as the drell had a few moments ago. "I...uh, sort of open up to you more than I would with her."

Ranje's smile grew a tiny bit wider at that. "Well it's nice to know you trust me."

"Compared to everyone else on this ship, I'd name my firstborn after you," Rae chuckled. "Metaphorically, anyway."

"I don't know..." Ranje said, his tone teasing. "I think 'Ranje' would make a nice turian name."

Raethus let out a genuine laugh at that, the sound rumbling up through his body. It wasn't something he was particularly used to. "It's got a ring to it," he finally replied.

"Not sure if 'Raethus' would work for a drell, though."

"No, probably not. That's a damn shame."

"It is," Ranje said thoughtfully. "Such a nice name...just not for a drell."

"You like it?" Rae asked, feeling and looking surprised.

"It has a ring to it," the drell nodded. " And it sounds quintessentially turian."

Rae wasn't really sure how to react to that. The last time anyone had given him a compliment beyond something related to his military work was...well, longer back than he could remember. "Well...thanks."

"My pleasure," Ranje smiled, looking pleased his compliment had the desired effect. "It sounds like you're not used to compliments."

"Well...beyond "good job shooting those people, Raethus," I'm not," he admitted.

"Really? I'm surprised. But I suppose that's just turian stoicism."

"I think it's more to do with turians and biotics," Rae muttered, thinking back to his younger days in the military on leave. Forming turian friends, some of them becoming more...and the vast, vast majority suddenly treating him with an underlying distrust once they found out about the biotics, however hard some of them tried to hide it. The news always changed things with other turians.

Like with his first partner. Raethus was a lot younger then, more idealistic, more naive. They'd been dating for just over six months, and Rae had taken every precaution he could so his biotics would remain a secret. It had been a nervewracking experience when he realised that he wanted to be able to share his secret, and even more stressful when he invited him over to tell the truth.

Nervousness turned to heartbreak fairly quickly.

"I can't say I've heard of too many turian biotics," Ranje said.

"That's because there aren't many," Rae muttered, trying to block the resurfacing memories out. "And the ones that are around mostly end up in Cabals their whole lives. Away from the normal soldiers."

"Really?" the drell asked in surprise. "They keep you apart from the other soldiers? That...doesn't seem like a smart thing to do."

"It isn't," Raethus growled.

Ranje put his hands up, picking up on the anger of the turian standing in front of him. "Alright, I can see this is a touchy subject. We can talk about something else if you'd like."

"Forget it," Rae muttered, his mood now firmly soured as he turned back towards his room. Looking at Ranje was keeping the memories in his head, and he wanted them gone. "I'm just going to go to the room and get some rest."

"Raethus..." Ranje said, catching his arm and spinning the turian back around as he tried to walk away. "I'm sorry for bringing it up. If it makes you feel any better...I wouldn't have put you through that."

"Well, at least you have some common sense, then," he replied, his tone still sharp, though he could feel his mandibles lift in a half-smile at the fact the drell was apologising.

"Engineer, remember?"

"How could I forget?"

"You can't," Ranje chuckled. "Just making sure, though."

Raethus chuckled dryly, but his foul mood was buoyed slightly by the drell's words. "I'll see you in the room."

-Wrev-

Urdnot Wrev sat in the room he shared with the human female. Luckily, she wasn't around, giving Wrev the peace and quiet he desired. Personally, he didn't understand what the big deal about that mission was. They went in, killed some Cerberus, and got out. That sounded pretty successful to him.

But for some reason, the others were acting like they let the klixen escape during the hunt. The only thing Wrev was angry about was letting that one human get away. He may not have been Cerberus, but he sure as hell wasn't working on their side.

Wrev grunted and let thoughts of the human go away. If he were lucky, he'd run into the whelp again and give him a thorough beating.

After a while, Wrev finally managed to reach his post-mission calm. Other species might think it absurd for a krogan to actually calm down after a mission, but for Wrev, it was a necessity. His biotics made sure of that.

With his calm finally found, the old krogan decided to go up to the armory and care for his equipment. He'd much prefer to do that kind of thing here in his room, but apparently there were "regulations." Foolishness. And to make matters worse, the so-called armorer was a turian. It seemed like everything about this ship was designed to get on his nerves, but like a true krogan, he got over it.

Exiting his room, Wrev saw the turian heading towards him. The two glared at each other as they passed, but Wrev decided that the turian wasn't worth his time. He simply continued to walk until he was in the elevator. Once on the first deck, he went straight for the armory.

Upon hearing the sound of the door opening, the turian armorer turned around to find Wrev standing there, glaring at him. At least this turian had the good graces to recoil slightly from Wrev's perpetually menacing look.

"Ah, Wrev, I'm...glad you're here," the turian said. "You're the last one to check your weapons in. Just leave them on the table, and I'll get to work on them."

"No," Wrev said. If that damn turian thought he was gonna touch Wrev's weapons, the whelp had another thing coming.

"Look, Wrev, regulation states that only the designated armorer can-"

"Listen, turian. I'm the only one who can touch my guns. You're lucky I'm letting you keep them up here at all. I've had these weapons longer than you've been alive, so I'm damn sure I know how to take care of them better than you do."

To Wrev's slight disappointment, the turian backed off. "Fine," he said, walking towards the door. "They don't pay me enough to deal with a damn krogan." When the door closed behind him, Wrev went to work on his weapons.

Some time later, Wrev was almost done buffing out a dent in the stock of his Revenant that was the result of an impact with a Cerberus trooper's head. Bastards had tougher helmets than Wrev had anticipated.

Suddenly, the whiny salarian pilot's voice comes over ship's comms. "Lieutenant Raethus, Major Valeria, Urdnot Wrev: please report to mess hall," he said. "New mission. Coordinates already locked in."

With a final growl, Wrev finished cleaning his weapon before heading into the mess hall.

-Cami-

Cami waited for Hackett's image to disappear before slumping against the wall. She almost let out a dramatic sigh of relief. So the mission hadn't been a total failure after all. Somehow the Alliance had received the other half of the intel through an anonymous source. Cami frowned. Then just who exactly was Ghost working for?

She shook her head. It wasn't any of her concern now. She highly doubted they would run into him again. The Alliance had the data, and the situation with Ghost was now in the past. It was time to focus on the new mission. She gripped the datapad with the new mission details and headed around the corner to the cockpit where Resh sat punching buttons and flicking through various screens.

"Hey, Resh. Can you please call the squad to the mess hall? Got the new mission report," Cami said, waving the datapad. "Admiral Hackett just forwarded the coordinates."

"Absolutely." He punched some more buttons on the console in front of him. "Lieutenant Raethus, Major Valeria, Urdnot Wrev: please report to mess hall. New mission. Coordinates already locked in."

"Thanks," she said, patting the back of his chair before making her way into the mess hall.

####

It took a few minutes before the squad piled in from the elevator. Val smiled at her as she took a seat, but Wrev and Raethus looked less than amused. She couldn't blame them. Raethus, especially, hadn't been too pleased with the results of their mission. Cami remained standing, one hand on the back of a chair to keep herself from pacing, and the other tapping the datapad against her thigh.

"And here's our illustrious leader. Ready to inform us how we can fuck up another mission?" Raethus said, leaning back in his chair lazily.

Quite frankly, Cami had had enough of the turian. From the start, all he'd done was complain about everything. She'd tried to be the bigger person and not get pulled into his stupid game, but enough was enough.

"Maybe if you pull that stick out of your ass, you'll realize that what we're doing is saving lives," she finally snapped, rounding on the turian.

"Maybe if you pull your head out your ass, you'll realize this team is a failure, Staff Lieutenant," he countered.

"We can't fail. I won't let it. So you can whine and bitch all you want, but I'll be damned before seeing us go down again. A lot of things are at stake here."

Raethus folded his arms across his chest. "You want to get angry at me for whining and bitching? Remind me again, what exactly have you been doing ever since we got extracted?"

"I've been working my ass off trying to prove we're worth another chance," she answered. It was a half truth, but he didn't need to know that. "Which is more than I can say about you. I know you don't want to be here, any of you. I know you'd rather be out there fighting for your homeworlds. But you're not. You're here. So we might as well make the best of it and at least pretend we like each so that our next mission won't end in disaster."

"I want to be here," Val said quietly, and Cami gave her a smile. She knew she could rely on Val to stick up for her.

"You think the mission failed because I don't like you?" Raethus barked out a laugh. "It failed because of the reasons I don't like you, Staff Lieutenant. You're headstrong, inexperienced, and apparently the representative of the Alliance, who're running this whole operation." He leaned forward in his seat. "The mission won't end in disaster if we have a competent team. Forcing four people together does not make a competent team."

"I'm not giving up on us, Cerenti. We can trade insults all the damn day if you want, but it's not going to change how strongly I want us to succeed. And we will succeed."

The turian glared at her. "Fine. Believe what you want. Spirits knows why the Hierarchy hasn't pulled turian support yet." He sighed dramatically. "I can't leave until I get my orders. So I'll stay until then, do your missions." He let out a sarcastic laugh. "Maybe we'll save some of those lives you keep talking about, because I'm thinking about the people on Palaven who're losing theirs. On Earth, too. And Ilium."

Cami forced herself not to glare at him, taking his agreement as a truce of sorts. "Good. Wrev? Val?" She turned to look at them.

Val frowned at the mention of Illium, and Cami could only guess she was thinking about her family. Cami could certainly relate. Her own family was out there putting up a good fight against the Reapers. After a few seconds, Val looked up at her probably noting her expectant gaze.

"Better than letting the Reapers win, which, I assume, is the reason we were thrown together in the first place," Val said with a slight shrug. "Anyway, Alliance seems to be leading this war, so I'll stay even if this squad fails."

"I couldn't care less about saving lives, but if the fighting is good, I can't complain," Wrev spoke up.

Cami couldn't help but feel thankful towards them. She needed this. Needed to play her part in the fight against the Reapers.

"Thank you. All of you," she said, her eyes relaying the importance of the unspoken pact they had all just made. "We were all chosen for a reason. Let's make that reason stand for something." She finally took a seat, allowing herself to finally relax. "Anyway, I had Resh call you all down here because we just received our next mission from Admiral Hackett."

"What is it?" Val asked, throwing a skeptical glance at the datapad.

Cami waited a few seconds before throwing the pad on the table. "Eden Prime."

A/N: Yes, this isn't dead! Just updating really slowly because of schedule conflicts with four people combined with colleges, jobs, and suchlike. Though this was mostly TheRev's fault. So blame him. The good news is we're back to working on this, so expect more at some point. Hope you enjoyed the chapter!