Propose taking a shuttle and a third member to go investigate 90%
Fluttershy was sitting in one of the shuttle's wall mounted chairs, an assault rifle and pistol clamped to either side of her barrel. Across from her Garrus was inspecting his own sniper rifle and making sure it was clean, the turian not having become increasingly quiet as they got closer the ship that housed the salarian geneticist.
Back on the Normandy Shepard had, surprisingly, agreed to Fluttershy's proposal to send a small investigation team to the ship they were now approaching. Though after Shepard had promised to get them a transport shuttle and Garrus had left, he had pulled Fluttershy aside and asked her to keep a close eye on the turian and prevent him from doing anything stupid.
Which led to the third crew member to be assigned to the mission, Tali. Since neither Garrus nor Fluttershy were able to fly a craft through interplanetary space, the quarian had been assigned as their third party member.
"The ship seems to be drifting," Tali called from out front, "It's also not responding to my hails though there doesn't seem to be any structural damage to the ship itself."
"Strange, maybe the doctor jumped ship again?" Fluttershy theorized, Garrus shivered at the thought that the mad scientist had slipped through the gaps again.
"I hope not, I'm not sure if I could track him down again if he did," Garrus admitted. "But that's not important for the moment, we still have to investigate that ship." Fluttershy grimaced at the hard tone Garrus was using. In the time she had spent on the Normandy she hadn't missed the fact that Garrus had a bit of a temper and if the doctor truly was on the ship he might lose it.
I guess that's why Shepard wanted me to keep an eye on him.
"I'm parking the shuttle outside of the spaceship so prepare for a short eva," Tali announced as she had brought the shuttle close in next to the other spacecraft. Fluttershy swallowed nervously as she opened her omni-tool and activated the mass effect fields that were supposed to keep the air inside. The quarian looked back into the small crew hold and Fluttershy swore that she saw her smirk through the obscured visor before doing what she did next.
"Disengaging artificial gravity."
Fluttershy let out an eep as she suddenly floated up into the air, every bit of her flying instinct telling her that she had to right herself to stop falling. What made it worse was that flapping her wings only made her fly in random directions as there was no up and down without gravity. Just before Fluttershy could completely panic she felt two arms wrap around her and hold her in place.
"Calm down there you're still inside the spacecraft, you won't fly off or suddenly hit the ground," Garrus said, Fluttershy calming down a bit but still had to suppress the urge to try and right herself.
"Thanks," Fluttershy said, her face cheeks burning as she realized how close the turian was to her.
"Don't mention it, though I think it best if you hold onto me during the eva since you have no experience or training in that field," Garrus chuckled. Fluttershy's cheeks only burned more fiercely as she wrapped her legs around the turian, if Tali saw this she didn't comment on it.
"I'll go first to open the airlock," Tali said as she opened the shuttle's external door, the other craft was floating at a couple of meters away from them. Not hesitating a moment Tali pushed herself off and flew over to the other craft where she quickly grabbed onto a handle next to the airlock, opening its outer door with her omni-tool. That was the moment Garrus pushed off from the shuttle as well and flew straight after the quarian into the airlock. Tali closed the outer door and cycled it, the room it opened up to was eerily quiet.
"Fluttershy, stay close to us and be ready," Garrus said as he pulled his assault rifle, Tali doing the same with her shotgun. The group moved through the first door into an intersection, one door leading to the airlock on the other side of the ship, the other to the aft where the engines were located, and the last to the main cargo hold. The proximity scanners in the group's suits showed that there were life signs on the other side of the door while the other rooms seemed abandoned. Tali opened the door with her omni-tool and the three moved into the hold, weapons high and shields fully powered up.
"Everyone freeze," Garrus his words lost their power as his eyes fell upon the things that stood within the hold. They had some resemblance to various species like humans, asari, salarian, turian, but there seemed to be something seriously wrong with the creatures. Their bodies had unhealthy looking growths on them and after they turned to face the newcomers their glazy eyes locking on Garrus as he was the one who had shouted.
"Uhm, hello are you all right?" Fluttershy asked hoping that the creatures could at least understand them but was rewarded by an animalistic scream as the creatures started charging. The scream itself had no meaning to Fluttershy, when an animal roared she would be able to understand its intent but this scream just seemed soulless.
They were soulless.
Garrus and Tali didn't waste any time in opening up on the closest of the running creatures, their rounds tearing through its body but even when Tali tore a piece out of it at close range it still went on to tackle the quarian to the ground. Fluttershy's heart skipped a beat as the creature started tearing at the quarian's suit, the pegasus knowing full well what would happen to Tali if that suit would be breached.
"NO!" Fluttershy roared, her wing lighting up with a biotic aura and pointed it forward. The creature was flung off of Tali into one of the other charging creatures, knocking it over, and not getting back onto its feet again as it simply lay on the floor. Before she could contemplate further on what she'd just done, another one of the creatures reached the group. Fluttershy once again flung it back but this one immediately got up and started charging the new group again.
The pegasus continued to fling the creatures back while Tali and Garrus shot round after round through the things until they were but corpses on the floor. Fluttershy felt her legs become wobbly as she looked at the carnage in front of her, a carnage she had actively participated in.
What if we could have saved them? What if they had families before? What if...
"Stop it, Fluttershy. There's nothing you could have done to help them, they were long past the point of saving. The only kindness you could have done was end their suffering so that they could finally have some rest," Garrus said as he crouched down next to the pegasus. Fluttershy nodded and swallowed the lump in her throat but didn't take her gaze off the corpses. "Come on, stay sharp. I'm pretty certain that the doctor wouldn't have been able to leave the ship with those things blocking his way."
With that, the group carefully walked through the hangar just in case one of the creatures jumped them again. At the front of the ship, they found another life sign though this one was locked behind a door. Not that this lock held back the group for long as it only took seconds for Tali to break it. As the door shot open it revealed a startled salarian. "Thank the stars, I was thinking I might never be saved from those... things."
"Those 'things' were your test subjects, doctor Saleon," Garrus snarled as he most definitely recognized the salarian. "It goes no further than here, doctor. Goodbye." Fluttershy saw time slow down for a moment as Garrus applied pressure to the rifle's trigger.
I promised Shepard that I'd watch him if he was going to do something stupid!
The pegasus slammed into the rifle knocking it away from the doctor, the bullet it fires embedding itself into the wall. "NO! Not like this! If we just murder him we're no better than he is," Fluttershy scolded as she put herself between the turian operator and the salarian doctor.
"And what if he gets away again? We have him here, we can end this now!" Garrus argued back.
"The evidence here is overwhelming, he won't get out of this one Garrus," Fluttershy said but before the turian could reply the doctor spoke up.
"I think I'd rather end this now," he said, having a pistol leveled at Fluttershy and Garrus. The turian pushed Fluttershy out of the way and brought up his rifle, bullets from the pistol bouncing off his shield, and killing the salarian with a single shot.
"So he dies anyway, what was the point of that?" Garrus said bitterly, clamping his assault rifle onto his back.
"Because it was his decision to let it end this way," Fluttershy said as she recovered, "When you fight monsters you should see to it that in the process you do not become a monster yourself. You can't control how someone will act but you can control how you respond, and that's what really matters."
"I..." Garrus stammered as he tried finding a rebuke to that, but failed to do so. "...You're right, thanks for that," he admitted and sighed. "Let's get out of this depressing place."
Both Tali and Fluttershy nodded and quickly made their way back to the shuttle, Tali re-engaged the craft's systems and started flying back to the mass relay for a jump. Garrus just strapped into one of the seats while seemingly deep in thought.
Fluttershy wasn't sure what to do next, Shepard deserved to know what had happened in the ship but that wasn't the only thing Fluttershy was concerned about. Tali hadn't said a word since they had come into contact with the altered creatures in the cargo hold, and Garrus looked like he could use some comfort himself. Fluttershy bit her lower lip in deliberation on what to do.
1. [Snuggle up to Garrus]
2. Talk to Tali
3. Call Shepard