Kapitel 9: chapter 9
Two days passed quickly, most of it went into repairing his armor and modifying his own weapons while working on a side project to implement a few things he had learned from "investigating" the Geth parts. Instead of creating a massively overpowered weapon that would beat even a Master X Spectre weapon hands down (he did have the parts and tools to do it) to start kicking the crap out of anything that moved, time was simply a larger issue as he made an ideal ammunition mod that would be very effective against the Geth.
"Experimental grade ammunition?" Jane wheezed after she finished performing an epic spit take that made the one Alenko did a few days earlier justice.
Everyone was present in the mess when Jason decided to inform them of that little tidbit of information, along with enough mods to hand out one to each member of the ground team as he launched in a short and sweet explanation for everyone, aside from Jackson of course.
"That is correct Commander," Jason nodded before he continued, "the primary function of this particular ammo mod is too deliver pinpoint electromagnetic strikes against sensitive transmitters, notably the ones typically found in kinetic shielding systems found on most armor suits and more importantly, the Geth rely heavily on shielding."
"Electromagnetic?" Alenko asked as he held his own mod, "Do you mean EMP?"
Stunned eyes turned towards him as Jason shook his head, at least not yet, "No, in order for that to happen, each round would have to be sufficiently charged with extra dark energy prior to firing and upon impact would have slightly less than desired penetration and accuracy results while providing the equivalent a small grenade explosion that would wipe out all electronic systems."
Jackson cocked his head, "Why haven't you figured out how to fix that yet?"
"Figured that it would be far easier to develop that idea into a grenade design," Jason shook his head while mentally figuring out how long it would take him to finish that project, "anyway this mod will have far greater effect against heavily shielded targets while only negating eleven to seventeen percent of overall efficiency per shot."
"Hold on," John said as everyone turned to face him now that he had the spotlight, "First we find out about you and your brother's little secret, then we learn about your biotics, which in a word scares me, your affinity for making bombs and now you are able to build and duplicate a working ammunition prototype that sounds too good to be true in less than three days?"
Now everyone present was focused on him as Jason let loose with a grin that received worried glances in return, "Heh, you'd be terrified of what I can do with the proper time, equipment and resources Commander."
"Will it work?" Wrex grunted as he finished his meal and held up his mod to securitize closely before sending a glare towards Jason.
"Yes, with far better outcomes than whatever phasic or disruptor mods we have available," Jason shrugged before taking a seat next to his twin, across from Tali as he took a bite, "it'll take me a week to get the grenade mod worked out and functioning at least."
"Back up," Jackson said while making the hand motions of moving backwards, "you'll have a real EMP grenade doohickey thing working soon? That is fucking sweet bro."
"I thought so myself, I call it Shocker for short."
"Word."
A shared bro-fist left several people present wondering what it meant as Jason went back to his meal, forcing it down his throat as he made the mental note to remove his ability to taste as well as his gag reflex if he was ever sent into another reality or dimension again, because if the Reapers didn't kill him, then the food would.
"Well, as much as I love knowing that you've discovered an edge over the Geth problem we'll no doubt be facing," Jane said as she turned to face everyone present, "we have a mission coming up in a few hours."
Ears perked up as everyone paid close attention as John brought up a projection on his omni-tool that made a holographic projection large enough for everyone to see clearly before Jane continued.
"As of oh-three hundred hours (three o'clock in the morning) we received word that the MSV Ontario was high jacked by a group of human biotic terrorists that have taken a single hostage, one Chairman Burns alive," Jane reeled off as both the location of the ship, detailed information on the ship itself and a ID of the hostage in question appeared, "it is our mission to go in and defuse the situation any way we deem necessary."
Jason remembered this mission, the L2 biotics that wanted retribution for the fact their amps had given them serious troubles and they were all suffering because of it, Alenko was tense at the mention of this and Jason figured that the usual route to Feros was going to wait awhile for now.
"Because of the nature of this mission, we've decided that alarming the terrorists prematurely would end badly, so the team for this mission will be Williams, Alenko and Jackson for now," John sent a glance towards Jason, "Chakwas hasn't cleared you for combat operations for at least another twenty-eight hours and you might fly off the handle again this time, no offense."
"None taken," Jason nodded as Jackson attempted to hide a laugh, "I've been told that I could be more…subtle."
"That leaves Wrex, Liara and Garrus to act as the supporting team in the event things turn south on us and if we need the extra firepower," John said as he received several nodding heads in return before turning to face the last member, "I've been informed by Chakwas that your injuries are healing at a much faster rate than expected and you will be on the next mission with Jason."
"Oh course," Tali chirped as Jane gave the two of them a small smile that had Jason wondering what exactly that woman had planned for them.
XXX
The sound of thudding boots alerted him to the arrival of several people having just returned from a successful mission from the way Jackson was smiling, Jason got back to work on altering a few weapons he had picked up from a spare locker as Jackson sauntered over.
"How'd it go?"
"Good, didn't have to fire a shot, we managed to talk them down and avoid a bloodbath," Jackson sighed as he began unbuckling segments of his armor, "you hold down the fort?"
"Yep."
Jackson finished putting his armor away before he plopped down next to Jason with a weary sigh that spoke volumes before he handed over a large credit chit with a grunt.
"Turns out she isn't interested in me," Jackson sounded majorly bummed out as he cradled his chin in the palm of his hand as Jason pocketed the chit and kept right on working, "finds it difficult to engage with social activities with me, but we worked together pretty well if I do say so myself."
"Let it go Jackson," Jason warned in a low tone, "it has to be this way unless we want to cause major problems with the timeline."
"How are you going to handle it?" Jackson asked after he looked around the cargo bay to make sure no one was paying them any mind, "I mean once we take down that douchebag Saren for good, we have two years to wait before we're back in action."
Jason knew where this was going, "And you're worried that I'll marry Tali and start a life somewhere else instead of letting her go back to the Fleet?"
"Yeah, I mean you two are pretty buddy-buddy with each other already," Jackson nudged him in the ribs a couple times to prove his point, "fact is, that can't happen."
"It won't," Jason hissed as he punched his twin in the kidney for revenge, "I know as well as you do that we can't change the timeline like that."
"Good, then I don't want to hear you all depressed and shit while we wait," Jackson frowned at a thought, "shit, what are we going to do for two years?"
"I've got a couple ideas," Jason's ears picked up the familiar footsteps of Jane heading towards them, "now act natural."
"OH ROMEO! OH ROMEO! WHERE ART THOU ROMEO?" Jason simply let his head slam into the surface of his workbench repeatedly with a resounding thud as Jackson dropped to one knee and began spouting Shakespeare at the top of his lungs, which was exactly how Jane found them, one acting the fool and the other giving himself a migraine.
"Uh is now a bad time?" Jane asked as she watched Jason lift his head from the table and shake it no before dropping his face back with a thud before Jackson began yelling, no opera singing if the ache in her ears was anything to go by, as loudly as possible.
"Does that answer your question?" Jason asked while pinching the bridge of his nose, making a mental note to discuss with Jackson in depth how to explain what 'act natural' meant to normal people as he motioned towards the empty stool, "Have a seat."
She was only too quick to take it and that sent a little red flag up in the back of his head as Jane waited until Jackson danced over to the Mako, performing an epic rendition of the Macarena by himself as everyone else in the cargo bay laughed at his antics before he got back to work on the tank.
"Well I have to admit, he sure is professional when we are in the middle of a mission," Jane scrunched up her nose, "but he can throw a wicked curveball at ya when he isn't holding a weapon."
"It's how he copes," noticing the look she sent his way he decided it was time to reveal a little bit about their past, "back when we were being trained, it was all they decided to teach him, to kill and fight, but then he discovered humor through jokes and old Earth television shows one day."
"I see," Jane said as they watched him tap dance around the side of the Mako while juggling a few tools, "he seems to look on the brighter side of things."
Jason snorted, "More like that he would have lost his mind if he didn't have something else to do with his spare time," he made the twirling motion next to his right ear, "he wasn't really all there to begin with at first, neither of us were."
By now he heard the pitter patter of dainty Quarian feet somewhere behind him that stopped just far enough away to be considered polite, but Jason knew that her suit could easily pick up the sound of his voice from that distance, odds were that Tali was going to ask Jane if she could keep the Geth parts.
"What do you mean at first?" Jane asked as Jason stopped messing with the rifle in front of him and let out a weary sigh, "Does it have to do with your past?"
"When we finally gained cognitive thought and were able to clearly think for ourselves, it was about a week before we were pulled out of the tubes," Jason let a shudder course through his body mostly for show, but he really had to shudder at the thought of being stuck in a giant tube full of jelly, "of course we had all the information from earlier downloaded into our heads so we knew how to walk, talk, eat, get dressed and such, but we didn't have much in the terms of emotions, thoughts and behavior."
"Wait, downloaded?" Jane asked as Tali could be heard stepping closer in the background, but Jason ignored it.
"The human brain is essentially a computer, once you figure out how to transmit signals to a developing brain as it slowly matures and grows, you can easily transmit raw data that used to detailed instructions on how to open a door or fire a weapon," Jason shrugged at the horrified look on Jane's face, he could only imagine what Tali looked like right now, "except instead of taking years to do it, they managed it in months."
"For the first little bit, we were nothing more than cyborgs, no emotions, no feelings, nothing that we could feel, aside from fatigue, hunger, the call of nature and pain of course," Jason spat out the last three words, "bastards."
"So it was like you were given memories," Jane said as she swallowed at the taste of bile raising in the back of her throat, "that you could use later on."
"Close enough I guess."
They both turned to watch Jackson perform a series of cartwheels around the Mako as Garrus stood by with a dumbfounded look on his face, earning a giggle from Jane as Jason shook his head, showoff.
"We didn't get to test that ammo mod you made earlier," Jane said as he got the idea she was changing the subject on purpose to avoid ruining her mood or digging too deep for information, "but in theory it sounds like to will be a huge boon to our mission later on."
"Commander." Jason said with a slight nod of his head as a dismissal as he turned back to his work, hearing Tali take several fast steps backwards as Jane got up from her seat, no doubt wanting to appear like she hadn't been listening in, which would have made things awkward.
Having just told Jane a little bit more about his 'past' left a bitter taste in his mouth, here he was lying his ass off to someone he would help save the galaxy, but then again he would be in a psych ward faster than he could say 'Assuming direct control' if he even tried to tell them the truth and then it would seriously fuck up the timeline.
Everyone on this ship had to follow through with their lives in the same intended manner as Bioware described it or else everything they knew would change, no doubt for the worst it seemed as Glyph had informed them earlier, but as long each person went through the motions and everything would be alright. No that was a terrible way to explain it, changing major segments of the story, like saving John and Jane from dying or killing the Illusive Man before the final battle would only cause to disrupt the balance of this reality and that would be bad on so many levels. Things like improved weapons, armor and upgrades wouldn't affect the timeline in a negative manner, which was why he was in middle of making better weapons for the primary missions of focus, like Feros and Noveria, Virmire and Ilos, those kind of missions before they kicked Saren's scaly ass and killed Sovereign.
That meant, with a dreading look across the cargo bay, either Ashley or Alenko would have to die once they reached Virmire, but there had been something Glyph had said about how it didn't matter which one died or lived, in fact there was a small hope that both of them could live through Virmire.
Now he just had to figure out how to do that.
XXX
"Has anything turned up in the investigation on Jackson and Jason yet?" John asked the holographic representation of Captain Anderson, who was now the acting go-to boy from Udnia as the older man sighed.
"Nothing positive yet, mostly just rumors flying around and a long list of dead ends that give us nothing," Anderson sounded tired and for good reason too, "the best our boys in the Investigation Services have discovered, is that there used to be a private corporation that used to have some kind of connection to a group called Cerberus at one time, but that corporation went belly-up four years due to bankruptcy, trail is stone cold."
"Cerberus? Like that three headed dog in Hell or something?" John asked.
"Close enough, anyway they were rumored to be some radical group of fundamentalists similar to Terra Firma before all knowledge of that group just upped and vanished," Anderson shrugged, "mostly just water cooler talk nowadays."
"Keep looking, I want to know the moment anything pops up relating to those two or Saren for that matter," John sighed before crossing his arms, "I guess we won't get much help from the Council for tracking Saren down?"
"You have to admit, their favorite Spectre ups and commits genocide and now they have to explain how it all happened without appearing as the ones to blame," Anderson looked off to the side for about a minute before turning back to the camera with a scowl on his face, "I have to go Shepard, Udnia is calling, good luck out there."
"Need me to come spring you out?" John asked, "As a Spectre I can allocate the proper manpower and resources for my mission."
"Ha sorry Shepard, someone had to take the fall for this and you need to be focused on your mission of hunting down Saren." Anderson nodded before the connection ended, causing John to sigh and slouch against the railing.
"Any news?" Jane asked as she stepped over from the corner of the room and embraced her husband after he shook his head.
"Nothing yet, Admiral Hackett was nice enough to thank us for resolving the situation with Chairman Burns and sent mission critical funding our way as well as some spare equipment we can use," John sighed before wrapping an arm around her shoulders, "something on your mind honey?"
"Had a chat with Jason, something for later, but I also ran into Tali and she asked about the Geth parts we had laying around," she gave him a stern as he opened his mouth to explain, "she just wanted a few pieces to take back to her people."
"I promised Hackett that he would have some samples dropped off at an Alliance R&D lab for the eggheads to play around with," he cocked his head at the look she was sending his way, "after we finish up at Feros, but anything after that is fair game for her in my book."
Jane smiled before she kissed him, "You are the best honey, I'll tell her the good news at chow later tonight."
"Chakwas send you a message about all the headaches she has been having?" John shook his head, "Apparently she has gotten dozens of messages and more than one general order signed by a couple of high ranking officers to hand over the medical files she has on both Jason and Jackson."
Jane let out a melodramatic groan, "I totally forgot to remind Jason that he needed to go see her for a checkup to get cleared for active duty, oh well, guess he can do it later."
"I'm here for ya babe," John chuckled before giving her a gentle squeeze, "do you really think taking Jason and Tali with you on Feros is a good idea?"
"Also the same reason why you think taking Wrex and Garrus is a good idea as well," Jane countered before she slipped out of his embrace, "we'll leave Kaidan, Ashley, Jackson and Liara to act as backup so they can recover from the last mission they were just on, no sense in back to back missions for everyone."
"Except us of course, but we're trained for this," John sighed as he followed after his wife out of the com room towards the CIC, "though I still think you want those two together for some reason."
"I have no idea what you mean."
XXX
AAACCCHHHOOOO!
"Agh, sonofabitch not again," Jason cursed as he wiped his nose and placed the now finished shotgun off to the side and grabbed the next one, "that really has to freaking stop."
"Bless you," Jackson said as he dropped his elbows onto the table and looked around, "you busy right now? I got a poker game in the mess about to go down and was looking for a couple more players."
Sitting out in front of him were three completed assault rifles, two shotguns and four pistols, but he figured that he had another two assault rifles, at least one shotgun and a sniper rifle before he moved on to the two dozen hand grenades minimum because he had feeling that they were going to need them soon, namely because Feros was coming up.
"Pass, got work to do," Jason waved towards the collection of spare weaponry sitting in front of him before shrugging, "maybe later?"
"Sure thing," Jackson clapped him on the shoulders before turning to leave, "later bro."
Jason grunted as he managed to pry apart the housing around the guts of the shotgun he was working and began striping it down because he had a brainchild that he really wanted to implement into an existing weapon design, that and because it had never come up before.
He was so absorbed in his work that he almost missed the sounds of Tali walking up behind him as he pretended to not notice until she cleared her throat, causing him to jump and turn around, "Oh hey Tali, did you need something?"
He couldn't even feel guilty about taking her line as he motioned towards the spare stool, which she took, "What are you working on?"
"Upgrading," he smiled as she hesitantly picked up a section that belonged to the shotgun he had just taken apart, "figured I had the time to tweak a couple weapons into better shape."
"I see, want any help?" Tali asked as she watched pick up a plasma cutter and apply it to a spare Lancer Mk III frame.
"I'd happily take all the help I can get," Jason chuckled as he continued his work with the torch, "Could you strip the parts off it until you only have the barrel and trigger assembly please?"
Tali simply nodded and began taking each piece apart with surgical precision as Jason kept doing what he needed to until he had the proper cut and began filing the rough edges down as he watched Tali out of the corner of his eye.
Sure enough she had the weapon in pieces before he was even finished building the framework, but he noticed that she seemed hesitant about something, her body language could fill a book as she sat there fidgeting. He wondered if she was going to ask about earlier, maybe confess to eavesdropping or something along those lines, so he quickly finished what he was working on and gave her a look, "Not a fan of poker either?"
"What?" That cute way she perked up made a small smile slide across his face as her fingers wrung with each other for dominance, "Oh you mean earlier? No I came to see if you needed help because you hadn't gone up to the mess hall yet."
"Eh, only really go up there when I am hungry or for a mission brief," Jason shrugged as he kept applying the final touches to the mount, "don't sleep up there anyway."
"I've been meaning to ask you," Tali squirmed in her seat as she tried to avoid looking at him, but Jason held her gaze as she blurted out, "how did I end up in a sleeper pod a few days ago?"
That had been bothering her? Jason smiled, "You had overworked yourself and fallen asleep so I carried you up there rather than leave you down here."
"Oh…" was that a blush he could barely see through her visor as she bowed her head, fingers tapping on the edge of her mouthpiece, "I didn't mean to cause you any trouble."
"Tali," she looked up at that, "it wasn't any trouble at all, just the right thing to do and I owe you for all the great help you've been."
"Thanks," yep there was definitely a blush in there somewhere as he felt a smug feeling coming on before Tali tilted her head, "what are you working on anyway?"
Ladies and gentlemen please hold your applause until the end, "I thought about putting two weapons together in one platform to allow more fluidity to the shooter," Jason explained while holding up the assault rifle frame he had just finished welding a mount on and the disassembled shotgun in the other hand before placing them together, "that way you could switch between a close range weapon and a medium range weapon without having to swap weapons."
Tali's head was bobbing up and down as she followed along, "Why a shotgun and an assault rifle though?"
Jason had to remind himself that she had never heard of the concept of a grenade launcher underneath an assault rifle before, "The shotgun will have a Carnage feature that can deliver a powerful hit against a target, either disabling the shielding or armor, but it would take too long for the weapon to cool down to fire again, with me so far?"
Tali nodded before Jason pulled them apart again and wiggled the assault rifle frame to emphasize his point, "This will have a lot farther range and accuracy compared to a shotgun, but it lacks the brutal punch of a shotgun at point blank range."
Something clicked inside her helmet, "If the weapons are attached together, than all you would have to do is simply pull a different trigger," Tali bobbed her head up and down, "I like it."
Somewhere angels wept tears of joy as Jason smiled and set the pieces down in front of him, "I thought so, most of our fights so far have been either too far away for a shotgun or too close for an effective assault rifle burst to take down the target, this way someone could have the ability to do both in the same weapon."
A moment of silence as Tali opted to start working on the shotgun that would be placed underneath the assault rifle Jason was putting back together now that he had the mount in place, he kept quiet and watched what she was doing to it. First she removed the housing around the shotgun itself, striping it down to the bare bones and wires before removing a couple heat sinks that were built around the barrel to help keep the weapon cool whilst firing, then she pulled the installation mod slots off and then completely took it apart.
Once Jason figured out what she doing, he smiled and began doing the same to the guts of the assault rifle itself proper, mentally kicking himself for not thinking of what she had been thinking of, which was downright brilliant.
Simply welding two weapons together was a crude method, but linking the heat exchangers together would allow both weapons faster cooldown times as well as increasing the number of shots fired from either weapon, which in itself could be dangerous if the operator didn't pay attention to the heat gauge and suddenly needed to either shoot farther away or at something three feet away. Connecting the heat exchangers could allow either the shotgun or assault rifle to fire more rounds before it would need to vent, while still allowing the operator to switch between either weapon, Jason thought how he was going to make it up to her before he an idea.
But first they worked together to connect the two different heat exchangers, the shotgun was made for a few powerful shots while the assault rifle had limited power, but increased number shots, but they managed it after several attempts in silence, neither one of them having to say a word when they need to share tools or need something out of reach.
Right up until Jason was reaching for the last section of housing that would hide the sensitive internals on the side of the rifle before he found his own hand entangled with Tali's.
For a moment they simply sat there in shock, well to be fair Jason was in awe at how soft her suit was around her fingers as they looked up at each other, he knew that her blush had reached epic proportions if he could see the flushed skin through her visor as their fingers tangled together, the panel section forgotten.
"I'm sorry."
"I didn't see that you had it."
They managed to disengage their fingers and sheepishly looked at that panel sitting on the bench in front of them before Jason chuckled, "Sorry about that Tali."
"What is so funny?" Tali asked.
"I just remembered an old vid I had watched one night, can't remember the name of it, but there was a scene where a male and a female human had accidently done something like that," Jason laughed before he continued, "and well the rest of the vid was about how they tried to explain what they felt, just an old human vid."
A cute giggle broke free as Tali laughed, "That is pretty funny."
Jason used her momentary distraction to snatch the panel and put in place before he performed a function test of each weapon, the shotgun underslung like a grenade launcher that cycled perfectly and short of firing a couple rounds off inside the cargo bay to make sure it worked, Jason figured that he would test it once they arrived.
"Well it seems to work just fine," Tali said after Jason handed it to her to inspect, which she did after she ran a current detector through the primary heat exchanger connection on the assault rifle before setting it down on the table, "guess we'll have to test it later."
"Yup," Jason grinned as he wandered over towards the locker containing spare weapons and found what he was looking for and wandered back over to the workbench, "now we have another project."
"Really?" Tali did the cute bouncing on her toes again as she watched him place the shotguns down, "I'll grab another rifle."
"No need," Jason said, swatting her hands away from the assault rifles he had finished modifying earlier and handed her one of the shotguns, a Storm Mk II model, twin to the one he was holding, "we're going to put these two together?"
Tali was silent for about a minute before she finally understood what he was getting at, "Putting two shotguns…together?"
"Of course, side by side operating off the same trigger will have twice the firepower compared to just a single shotgun on its own," Jason grinned as another idea hit him, "and once we synch up the Carnage feature…"
Her head snapped to the left so fast he could clearly hear the soft cracking of her neck as her tone became sultry, "Now you have my attention."
XXX
Jackson froze for a second instead of scooping the pile of chips, credit chits and assorted mods that acted as the pot towards him as everyone sitting around the table noticed him not moving.
"Juggernaut?" Jackson snapped out of it as he found Jane waving a hand in front of his face, with John, Alenko, Garrus, Ashley, Wrex and Joker all watching intently, "You alright big guy, you just kind of spaced off on us."
"Didn't you feel it?" Jackson could feel beads of sweat running down the back of his neck, "That sense of forbidding just now?"
Joker sighed, "You don't have to be so dramatic about winning the last six hands in a row, so stop rubbing it in already."
Jackson ignored the pile of winnings in front of him as he latched onto Joker's shoulders gently and shook him slightly, much to the collective horror of everyone present as Jackson went off on a rant.
"Petty gambling aside, there was just a sense of forbidding that heralds a new doom," everyone sweat dropped as Jackson ran his fingers through his hair as Joker checked himself for any new injury, "I could feel it closing in around us like a shroud of death of destruction."
"Seems like the big guy is spooked," Jane said as she glanced in the direction of the medical bay wondering if she would be able to reach a syringe of something that would knock the big guy out for a couple hours until she heard something that drew her attention back to Jackson.
A laughing cackle that made several people present uncomfortable was coming from the normally jolly giant as Jackson rasped, "I wasn't afraid of it at all."
Wrex perked up as Jackson slammed his hands down on the table with another cackle as the wild eyed look made several people cringe, it just made him excited that something was about to happen.
Jackson smothered his cackle with a leering grin, one that made even John smile softly, "I welcome this sense of anarchy and chaos, because it will bring much bloodshed and death when it arrives."
A look around the room revealed everyone hanging onto his every word, "I will wait for it."
Jackson suddenly shook his head before looking around quizzically, "Sorry about that, I blacked out for a second, did I miss anything?"
Everyone sweat dropped again and blinked, well Wrex was feeling excited by the upcoming mission, John had a feeling that he was going to get along just fine with the big guy and Ashley looked like she in desperate need of cigarette.
Or a little privacy.
"Anyone up for another hand?"
Wöchentlicher Energiestatus
-- Power-
Rangliste 
-- Power-
Stein