"Grunt, we need to talk about your actions on Horizon." The Commander declared as she barged into my nest on the Port Cargo Area of the engineering deck.
Her heated entrance would have helped her cause a lot more if she didn't immediately jerk her head back from the sight of Jack and I going at it again doggy style.
"You're right," I spoke as I dragged Jack's hips back to me again and again, "next time I'll execute any fools who annoy us. Good talk, Shepard."
Normally laughter during sex would bother me, but Jack had a pretty sexy laugh and this was a laughing with me situation. Weird cause life experience had trained me to treat bedroom matters seriously. You can dance around shouting 'I'm a pony! I'm a pony!' for laughs, but you'd better be able to turn into a thoroughbred in heart beat when you see them bedroom eyes.
Of course standard fare would see my partner panicking at the intrusion rather than pushing back. The life and times of a space lizard man continue to surprise and amuse me.
"You threatened to kill a man for annoying you." The Commander stated while averting her gaze, "That's unacceptable behavior from a member of this crew."
"Classic krogan culture would deem me mentally diseased and put me down like a rabid animal." I told the Commander while I continued putting in diligent work, "They would do the same to all living krogan. But the classic krogan all died in the nuclear wastelands of Tuchanka and only the blood rage krogan remain."
"Okeer did not see fit to spare me the psychotic derangement that infects my kind." I continued while keeping my eyes fixed on the Commander, "In fact he distilled in me the most potent cocktail he could mix. I tore the head off the warrior who's armor I now wear and I didn't even realize I was doing it till the results of his decapitation rested between my hands. That guy's voice put me in a similar state of mind. He put our perfect operation in jeopardy. I stopped him."
"If you are such a liability to the team then I need to cut you loose." Shepard spoke, "I can't have a bomb with a faulty fuse waiting to go off on this mission."
"My fight against Kuril proved I have talent in controlling the blood rage." I countered, "I would have attacked him entirely without defending myself otherwise. Delan the mechanic's survival is further proof, but ultimately the reason you aren't going to drop me off at the next station is that you need me."
I grinned that wide terrifying krogan grin at her, "Despite the collectors proving themselves to be pathetic foes, their numbers and mobility put the team through the ringer. You need me leading the charge and pushing them back. None of you are even a quarter as sustainable as me in a fire fight. You can't afford an emotional reaction on this mission when the survival of this crew is all based in cold hard calculus."
I barely managed to hold on as Jack climaxed under me while Shepard shook her head in disapproval at the truth or this situation. It didn't matter much to me either way as I signaled my climax to my partner who quickly took me down her throat as I fired off a pint of krogan baby making material down her gullet.
"It could always be worse." I cheerfully reminded the Commander, "We could be working with Cerberus!"
Jack and I laughed as we sat back together. Shepard did not.
"You've been completely anti-Cerberus since the start, Grunt." Shepard commented, "How did you come by such strong opinions?"
"Cause he isn't fucking stupid!" Jack shouted, "Cerberus is pulling the wool over your eyes with all the friendly people and familiar faces, trying to get you to drop your guard and start thinking they aren't the bad guys so they can start worming their agenda into you a little bit at a time till you bend over backwards for them."
"Cerberus could have just put a control chip in me if they wanted to control me." Shepard countered, "They didn't."
"If they did that they would only have a drone that looks like humanity's greatest warrior." I spoke, "They could have fooled people for a time, but eventually people would figure out that you are just a Shep-bot. At that point they would have completely wasted all the resources needed to bring you back, all the ability you bring to the table, and any good will they generated. The Illusive Man wants you to agree with him. It would bring him a huge ally and validate his views."
"Then it is a good thing I know better than to trust Cerberus." Shepard told us, obviously relieved that our sex was over for now, "No matter your views on the collector's worthiness, they need to be stopped, and Cerberus are the only people trying."
"We get it." I assured her, "A giant robo-squid attacks the Citadel and slays the council with its army of geth, and the rest of the galaxy just wants to bury their heads in the sand and hope it's all over instead of just beginning. Cerberus sees what's going on clearly, but that doesn't mean they aren't completely warped about everything else."
"I know." Shepard admitted, "That's why it is so important for me to be able to trust you. I need to know there are people on this team that I don't need to keep my eyes on all the time."
"Take me to Tuchanka." I growled out, "Maybe if I immerse myself in the violence of the Rights I'll come out the other end more in control of myself."
I nudged Jack.
"Pragia." Jack snarled, "It's where Cerberus made me who I am. I want to go to the center of the place, my cell. I want to deploy a big fucking bomb. And I want to watch from orbit when it goes."
"Okay." Shepard nodded, "I'll add Tuchanka and Pragia to our objectives after we finish up on Haestrom."
"You do that." Jack told her, "I'll be here getting stuffed with lizard dick."
Never had I ever heard a more beautiful dismissal.
I kept holding my lover to me after Shepard left.
"You think Tuchanka will help?" She asked me as she rested her head on my neck.
"No." I barked, "But we can have fun destroying shit in a wasteland no one cares about. Kill a bunch of hungry predators. Maybe even take a trip to the Hollows, the only place left on the rock that isn't fuck to hell and back."
"Sounds like a nice date." Jack moaned as I started working her up again.
"Who knows." I whispered in her ear, "We might just end up conquering the place. How's Overlord Grunt and Mistress Jack sound?"
"Sounds like a pain in the ass." Jack denied.
"You'd love krogan leadership." I laughed, "Anyone talks back to you, smack them around. Anyone doesn't listen to you, smack them around. Don't like someone's hustle, smack them around. Do that and all the dumb reptiles will love you. And my baby has some hands made for smacking fools around."
"You really were a businessman in a past life." Jack moaned, "Cause I'm sold."
"Good!" I cheered my success, "And when we are tired of calling the shots it's off to the beaches of Virmire. If we can find any uncontaminated by Shepard's dirty bomb that is."
"I hate the beach." she said as she worked me back up to full mast.
"After Tuchanka, you'll be begging for a tropical vacation." I promised.
Short sexposition chapter. I always try to have Grunt doing something new when Shepard shows up and this time it was sex. I felt like an amatuer GRRM while writing this chapter.
As opposed to the relationship that plays out with the Commander, Grunt and Jack are well within her comfort zone. She is in the arms of a violent and brash partner and everything everyone wants is out on the table with them. They are moving in a more tender direction in a way I see as more healthy than what plays out in the game.
"I have genuine concerns about this mission." I said during the brief.
"You have the floor, Grunt." The Commander graciously ceded the floor to me.
"How the fuck did the quarians land a team on a geth militarized world?" I asked the obvious question.
"While it is unknown how the geth have managed to operate in the system, all long range communications and detection methods are made impossible by the unstable sun's emissions. Even ships with only moderate stealth capabilities can completely avoid standard detection protocols." the Normandy's AI, EDI, answered.
"So all the stations and fortresses the geth built up on Haestrom are worthless?"
"Entirely." Determined EDI.
"So we aren't going to be swarmed by geth like we were the collectors?" I questioned, "Even if we encounter them, they can't call in reinforcements via their hive mind?"
"No. Local forces will be able to communicate with each other over very short ranges, but will essentially be comms down."
"This system seems like a waste for both the geth and the quarians." I mused, "Garrus should feel right at home though."
"The constant radiation bombardment will feel just like Palavin." Garrus agreed.
The briefing ended soon after that and Joker had no problems launching our shuttle on target. Stepping out onto Haestrom felt entirely different from Horizon. One was a low gravity breadbasket paradise, and the other a high gravity completely inhospitable wasteland. Almost as inhospitable as Tuchanka.
"Stick to the shadows, people." The Commander commanded us to avoid the UV light harsh enough to fry our shields and kill the squishier members of the fire teams in only a few hours of exposure. Garrus and I could get some mirrors and set up a nice tanning salon, but everyone else might object to us not helping them on this potentially (guaranteed) dangerous mission.
Fortunately, the quarians had a major stiffy for vertical construction and phallic monoliths, so shadows aplenty for us. Things were going great until we found a dead quarian and a deactivated geth unit in a still operating gate house. A recording left by the quarian let us know that the geth were on to the quarian infiltration team and Shepard dropped the obstructing metal gateway. A geth dropship had seen us coming in and left us a present while alerting the local geth forces to our presence. Combat with the semi sentient machine race ensued immediately.
The geth proved themselves far more worthy foes than the collectors, but lacked the numbers to even slow our advancement to a pace below a steady jog despite their better unit variety, weapons, and tactics. The battle was an entirely mid ranged fire fight in which we annihilated the opposition with a precision firing march. I noticed far less pep in my step running around on a world with twenty percent more gravitational pull than I was used to, but krogan strength mixed with my dedicated training of my core, hips, and knees prevented me from becoming fatigued by my heavy load.
Shepard stopped to talk to the leader of the quarian marines over a dropped radio, but Beta Team kept advancing and provided support to the quarian marines defending an underpass we needed to traverse to find our distressed quarian princess. When the dropship came back around to perform a strafing run, I'd already started pelting it with missiles from my ML-77 missile launcher. I felt intense satisfaction as the ship came down and the quarian marines survived what was otherwise a cutscene in the game. I wasn't being a hero, and I didn't even think I'd like these people, but it was nice to throw my narrative weight around. I wasn't some side character following a protagonist through her story. I was a man of agency.
"What are you people doing here?" A female marine demanded while pointing her rifle at me.
I pointed my missile launcher at her.
"Just shut the fuck up and radio your leader for the okay to let us through before I stop asking for permission and start asking Space Momma for forgiveness."
"Let them through." Kal'Reegar smartly commanded his dipshit marines.
"Good work, Grunt." Spoke a decloaking Shepard, "That was almost diplomatic."
"That was the krogan soft sell." I chuckled.
"Beta Team is going to hold this position while the quarian marines lead us to Tali." Shepard ordered and Kal'Reegar seconded.
Remember all that talk about being a man of agency? Right out the window.
Beta Team hunkered down and fought off the remaining units in the geth assault forces with ease. We were the heavy hitters of the Normandy's ground forces vs Alpha Team's spec ops leanings. Eventually we just ended up shooting the shit in the shade.
"I am curious about how your relationship with each other works" Garrus asked as we leaned against the massive concrete structures left behind by the quarians when they fled from the geth during the Morning War.
"Hoping to pick up tips for wooing Space Momma?" I countered with a chuckle.
"Didn't think I was that transparent about it." Garrus grunted.
"She got anyone from before the Lazarus project?" I asked him after taking my helmet off.
"No." Garrus denied, "I think Alenko and T'Soni both wanted something with her, but Alenko died on Virmire and she didn't reciprocate T'Soni's interest."
"Grunt mentioned wanting to go to Virmire." Jack interrupted, "What's it like?"
"Gorgeous." Garrus spoke with a hint of fondness in his double toned voice, "A virgin tropical paradise few worlds can match. We should spend a week or two vacationing there once we've smacked down the collectors."
"So you and the Commander." Jack brought us back to the thread.
"I've had it bad for her since she first recruited me to fight Saren." Garrus admitted, "At the time she was so firmly in the mentor position for me that I didn't feel comfortable pursuing anything with her. I'd hoped that there would be time for us after Saren was defeated, but we all know how that turned out." Garrus took a deep breath, "I feel like I've got this second chance, and I don't want to mess it up."
"Well, beyond letting her know you are interested, I don't think there is much you can do." I told the lovesick turian bluntly, "Space Momma seems like the type of woman who pursues, not the pursued. As long as she knows you're interested, she'll come to you if she feels the same."
"Don't be a pussy." Jack agreed.
"So I should just drop a classic, 'I like you. I want you.' and hope for the best." Garrus mused.
"Worked for me." I shrugged.
"Watching that work for you was like witnessing something from the mind of a mad man." Garrus jabbed verbally at me.
"Shepard and Jack are similar in a lot of ways." I said.
"The fuck you just say?" she said.
"You got a problem with being a badass space trekking superwoman? Cause Space Momma don't." I replied.
"I find it weird that you call her your Space Momma." Garrus commented, "But that can't be enough to say they are alike."
"They're both under a lot of pressure." I continued, "Shepard has the fate of the Galaxy, and Jack has the anchor of her past. Life hasn't let up on either of them, and you are going to be taking those blows too for as long as you stay with her."
"I already am." Garrus grunted.
"I know." I agreed.
"Damn Grunt. You sound like a pussy right now." Jack mocked me.
"Real talk usually sounds like some pussy shit." I laughed, "I'm not afraid of anything. So I don't care if I sound like a pussy."
"You saying I'm scared." Jack menaced.
"Wouldn't dream of it, babe." I folded.
"That's right." Jack just crossed her arms and looked away.
"Wtch!" Garrus mimed a whip with his hands.
"Only one of us is getting laid today, turian. You won the war, but I'm winning the peace." I pitied the fool.
Late on this chapter's release. My brother and I ended up with food poisoning after a family dinner Friday, and I was completely exhausted by the time it passed. So I ended up having to write this chapter after the primed disappointemt of UFC 264. Wonder Boy paced himself like he was fighting a five round fight and lost a boring three round fight to Burns, then Connor snapped his ankle in what was looking like the fight of the year with Dustin. Hopefully this chapter soothes everyones souls.
Komentar Paragraf
Fitur komentar paragraf sekarang ada di Web! Arahkan kursor ke atas paragraf apa pun dan klik ikon untuk menambahkan komentar Anda.
Selain itu, Anda selalu dapat menonaktifkannya atau mengaktifkannya di Pengaturan.
MENGERTI