forgivetheinsubordination | IC Contact

[Garrus knocks on the door of the rover warily before entering. Jean's cat thing is irritable at best and Garrus really doesn't feel like dying today. Once inside, though, he realizes this probably is not a trap.]

Shit. Is he...

[Why does he need his rifle? What is he there to shoot? It still could be a trap, but it doesn't feel like one. Not with her in tears and Dagger clearly vulnerable. He lowers the gun.]

What do you need me to do?

He's not dead.

[ There are few people on this crew that she would trust with her life. Dagger is likely the one she trusts the most, out of everyone else; a shared history would do that. Sitting on the floor like this reminds her of old times, when things were a little more simple - just two recruits with similar backgrounds, working together to keep their people from dying out.

Extinction has always been a good motivator, Gliese has learned. ]

You are friends, correct?

[That's good. As much as he doesn't trust the CDC as far as he can throw them, he's enjoyed Dagger's company thus far.]

Yeah. I'd say we're getting there. Only been here what, a week? But I like the guy.

[Which still begs the question of why she needs a good shot. There'd been something about Dagger and metal; he'd backed away when Garrus let on that his plating was lined with it. Shooting seems a little extreme of a solution to giving Dagger metal if he needs it, if that's what she needs of him, but he doesn't know their cultures or their species. He'll learn.]

And you guys are close.

[Because nobody puts someone in their bed who they don't care about. That's one of few constants among species.

Garrus comes in a little more to crouch near her. She's not saying what she needs for him to do yet, which might mean she hasn't quite dealt with what's happened to Dagger.]

Must have been a hell of a fight.

He fought a captain. Had I not sent a recruit to check on him when I did, he would have died.

[ She knew. She had run through every possible scenario and she knew, that with the distress signal being sent out, it was a last-ditch effort to salvage some of the crew from a malfunctioning crewship. But protocols required to send the signal from through official channels; there were server towers in every crewship dedicated to emergencies, why wouldn't they be used? Why send a distress call through means that they couldn't hail in response?

Either the ship itself was compromised, or the crewship's systems were being used for something they weren't meant to. And Gliese didn't receive an alert about a system crash in their star quadrant, so that only left one thing.

But she wasn't expecting the ship's captain to be involved. ]

He must have wanted to save his crew. But he knew, he would have known, we do not get to be captains without understanding that we are responsible for everyone—

[ And their actions. And if they themselves are at fault, no reason or excuse will help. ]

Dagger will not be attending to his duties for a few more days at least. His core is cracked, and I cannot get a request for a cryo-chamber through.

You have killed before, correct?

I've killed before. I'm a sniper.

[He's still processing what she's said, but the question is easy to answer.]

Been military for a long time, served in a few positions. What do you need?

[Dagger's core being cracked sounds pretty serious, but if it's just a matter of a few days then Garrus can switch his attention to the more complicated matters. Save the crew from what, who, why are questions he wants to ask sorely, and after a few moments he decides that the worst that could happen from him asking carefully was she'd refuse to answer.]

He thought he could save his crew by coming here. To this world. To the Neheda. Came for backup. Didn't find it. Not gonna be bothered if you tell me it's none of my business, but what I'm left wondering is why you? Gotta be a lot of captains. He sent a message to the Neheda, though, and he had to expect something.

The Almina and the Neheda were deployed to this star system together. After our crew, Bilchis would be the next closest; it also has a much bigger ship than ours, as Bilchis has a crew of two thousand at last check. Between us we could have accommodated maybe half of the Almina's crew, or hosted them on the planet until we could evacuate.

[ But she didn't. ]

They were not transmitting from an official channel. There was no crash report from HQ about their ship, the emergency warning system was not triggered for their ship despite the issues that crews like ours were experiencing — all the signs pointed to the Almina going rogue.

I would have risked this crew if I had helped.

I could never risk that.

[ She adjusts Dagger's thermal sheet, straightens out the creases. ]

I reported the signal instead.

[That's a way more thorough answer than he'd been expecting, and Garrus doesn't miss what she's doing with Dagger's sheets. This isn't something he expressly has experience with, working for an organization that considered its people expendable, but he knows what it means to lead, and what it means to be protective of your crew. And he's also got a glimpse into her priorities now. That helps. A lot.

He nods before straightening and taking a step back so he can lean against the rover wall.]

So. You need me to shoot something, or someone. This is something I know how to do. What's the mission?

[He has other questions, like how often ships go rogue, what it even really means to go rogue, but they're not crucial. What's crucial is figuring out where she's going from here, and what the first priorities are for her after something this big has happened.]

[ She'd been expecting more questions, truthfully. Perhaps this one would understand better than the others. But she also knows that he's gone to the statue, though she doesn't know what he's found yet.

Should luck decide to bless her with anything, he shouldn't have found much. ]

For now - shoot anyone who comes near this rover, unless they are an officer. Anyone. Give a single warning, and if they proceed, open fire. [ Then she stands up, unlocks the locker under her bunk, and reveals a frozen head inside it. Horns is still glowing. ] Until this has been evacuated, you will guard it.

And be ready for tomorrow.

[Guard a head. And Dagger. He won't shoot a member of his crew for hers. That's one line he's not crossing. But he's also sure that if he tells them now's not the time, they'll listen.

Of course, now could be the time. Dagger's vulnerable, the head's valuable... but that's not his way.]

Orders sound easy enough. And that's an interesting glow there.

[He may have seen a glow just recently.]

What's causing it?

[And then it hits him, and maybe he should have had this guess before when he'd failed to find a power source for the statue. What if the statue... hadn't always been a statue? What if the sentient people of this world didn't make it; it had been one of the sentient inhabitants?

It's a long shot. And he's glad that most of his face doesn't move, because if he'd been human there would have been a whole lot of facial expression going on right there.]

Edited (Stupid html) 2014-05-31 08:05 (UTC)

Almina's race ate stars to live. They cannibalized each other after a while. [ She shuts the locker then. ] He was the last of his people.

[ In time, Garrus might just find out what those pillars were, and what they are for, but now is— complicated.

Gliese stands up and wipes her face clean of tear tracks, smudging the paint under her eyes as she does; she'll paint them again later. For now she has to make a number of calls, has to yell at a few people, get ready for tomorrow.

She whistles, and Hetr, the bigger, scalier cat, comes into the rover; he takes the whistle as permission to sniff at Garrus. ]

He'll keep you company. I have to make some calls.

[Almina. So the head belonged to the captain that Dagger fought, then. That Dagger killed to protect Neheda and his crew. There's a lot of politics here. It's almost human.

He stands up straight as she gets ready to leave, nodding.]

Good, good. Me, a head, a cat, and an unconscious guy. We'll try not to party too hard and mess up the place.

[There's a little humor in his voice. Garrus crosses back to the door and takes a seat next to it. He's got a clear view of anything that approaches, and he figures the cat will give him warning too.]

Enjoy the calls.

[The gun comes off his back, and Garrus takes up position with practiced ease. Dagger will be protected through the night.]

[ She puts one hand on the lip of his suit's collar and puts and another to his mandible. When her hand comes away, there's a smear of faint red. ]

For blessing.

[ She leaves him to his chair and the rover.

She might have lied a little, about making the calls. She will make them - after she breaks a few mountains, and reshapes some of the landscape. Anger is best dealt with alone. ]

[He's not unused to being touched, what with serving with so many humans, but it still surprises him a little. Especially when it's someone he doesn't know all that well. A blessing. Huh. She is... Yeah. Garrus doesn't know. What he does know is that he can definitely respect devotion to one's crew.

And right now, while he sorts out what all is going on, that's enough.]

IC Contact - Consignment

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