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# System prepended metadata

title: 23 - NPC
tags: [2Book]

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*Thwip,* a slug passes overhead. Shepherd is somewhere, making havoc and hell with blasts of shotguns, pistols heavier than anyone sane'd wield and biotics all the same. She's with Garrus and a krogan that was wholly uninterested in Rebecca named Grunt. They were all punching into a secure Cerberus base.

Behind them, making sure they don't get encircled and *murdered* is Rebecca and *Miranda Lawson*, progeny of Cerberus and it's favoured daughter. On gantry-ways of steel and with heavy blocks of alloy to take cover behind they return fire.

"You know," Rebecca said as she lays down suppresive fire. "You never really think of the *logistics,* of these kinds of things." The large needles from her mass accelerator, an assault rifle with explosive alloys in the metal block, punch small holes in the surrounding cover, taking small parts of metal half-high barricades apart. "You see her on TV, you're like, 'oh wow war hero,' but you don't think about how the fuck no-one shoots her in the back."

"Quite, its a-*Damnit!*" Miranda answers as a *CAIN* slug screams past her and detonates against a building a hundred metres away, sending a mushroom cloud into the air and a shockwave that hits both women, pushing them against their cover. Miranda pops up with a grit to her features and shoots the offending soldier thrice, twice to break the barrier and once more to put a heavy pistol slug through his head. "Rather prettier on screen!" She finishes.

Downrange, Rebecca could see more and more Cerberus troops dropping down. The Normandy crew had the benefit of a tight choke point, the front door of the facility, and long sight-lines with heavy cover. However, Cerberus had more personnel, more gear, and the lack of regard for life. Not for the first time, Rebecca missed having gun ships and artillery on hand.

"Rebecca! Marking a target on your HUD! Use the launcher!" Miranda shouts, directing the far more heavily armed woman to a chunk of support pillar that's holding up the majority of the gantry ways that can fit more than one person at a time.

*How incredibly convenient,* Rebecca thought, *and I thought construction was bad in Bosnia.* She pulled the heavy launcher from her back, past the folded up sniper, assault rifle, two pistols, submachine gun, bandoliers of grenades, heavy armor, and multiple knives. Letting it rest *gently* on her shoulder as she flipped out the scope, took a second to aim, and fired.

The missiles streamed through the air, making a tiny helix as a blazing rocket-bell sent flaming fuel in a conical arc behind it, trailing off into smoke and smog before smashing into the pillar with a thunderclap of detonation and shrapnel, tearing a chunk the size of a refrigerator from the concrete and steel pillar, making it groan while dozens of Cerberus personnel start to shout and scream.

The Hammerhead they brought along is the first to go, sliding off a gantryway and tumbling down to the sea beneath, before infantry follow it, falling in screaming starfishes, the rabid waters of this gas giant moon swallowing them and crushing them never to be seen again. 

"Perfect! Good shot Rebecca!" Miranda compliments with a smirk, glaring at the Cerberus personnel on the side gantry remaining as biotic force starts to gather, "Throw your singularity!" She says, pointing at them with a glare as her own biotic force gathers.

*I really don't like being micro-managed,* Rebecca knew she'd just need to let it go, she pointed her hand and said "Singularity," Swallowing not only the gantry, but mulching the Cerberus forces ontop in a shower of gore that quickly retreated into a dense ball. *Just be calm.*

Another deep breath as she looked at the building on the opposite side again. There had to be *something* she could do about it. "Hey how come the SR-two doesn't light half this shit up from space?" Rebecca asked.

"The Normandy's guns would turn us, the surrounding facility, most of the local geographic area and anything less than a hundred metres underground into mulch." Miranda explains with a *smug* tone, one she can't seem to get rid of outside of combat, walking out of cover with a wide sway of her hips and a smirk at the chaos and violence she directed, "I don't know about you, but I'm *rather* fond of me."

"I'm fond of most people," Rebecca lied, she used omnigel to make another couple of rockets, and winced as the last of it ran dry. She used omnigel for *everything,* probably too many things. It had gotten to a point where she didn't bother looking for things anymore, just hitting the magic printer button, and then dropping it on the floor, or losing it again.

She put the launcher back into the portable mode and swung it on her back. There was starting to get a lull in the combat, as the last of the choke points had been cut off. Now it was just maintenance, firing occasional shots to get Cerberus operatives to retreat when they consider approaching again. Rebecca pinched her eyes, she was *frustrated* that Shepherd seemed to think she needed to be on missions with *primarily* humans. She wasn't *fond* of humans. Humans weren't fond of her.

"Breathe ladies, breathe." Shepherd comes out chuckling, a shell-shocked duo following behind her as she's *covered* in sticky red blood, actually coated in it from head to toe, sticking her hair to her face and staining her eyes from where it splattered against the sclera. "We're done here, get ready for evac, you don't need to breathe down eachothers necks anymore."

"What? I didn't even say anything this time." Rebecca snapped before turning around and looking at Shepherd. "Jesus *christ,* lady. Did you try to *eat* your way through the enemy?"

"He tried to fist fight me!" Shepherd defends her appearance, "And after the *first* guy exploded over me, well, you know you can't just stop at *one.*" She laughs wildly, angling her head back as a shuttle nears, blue fusion thrusters screaming down with a ripple of superheated air.

Rebecca yawned and stretched, firing an out stretched middle finger to the building as she moves towards the shuttle. "God. This shit's so boring." She admitted.

"Yeah?" Shepherd says, prompting Garrus to stare with a glare at her. 

"No one's calling you God, Shepherd." The turian states flatly as he collapses his rifle, making Shepherd grin. 

Rebecca laughs, "Not yet anyways." She took out a handful of combat stims and tosses them into her mouth, the little blue scored pills tasted disgusting, but that didn't stop her from chewing on them.

Shepherd's eyes glint at the words, "I can make you scream it if you *waaaaaaant!~*" She giggles, laying down on her side of the shuttle, avoided by everyone who doesn't want to be coated in freshly spilled blood. Miranda, Garrus and Grunt seem to be of that group.

Rebecca looked to her left, the only one sitting next to the blood splattered woman. "Did you know if turians turn purple around the fringe their all horned up?" Then she pointed at Garrus.

"I *didn't*, I just assumed that was a fear reaction." Shepherd giggles, suddenly moving and planting her head firmly on Rebecca's lap.

Rebecca shook her head, "Fuck or fight, apparently. The blood and gun smoke gets some of them all *foamy*. Or I only dated psychopaths." She didn't realise it but she absent mindedly started stroking the woman's hair.

"Turian foamy's pretty hot to be honest, like someone set a waterhose to *high power*." Shepherd makes a gesture to her face with a chuckle, "Humans dissapointing after that, but, uh, I'll still take any comers I like."

"I haven't been with a human since I got to this like... Time zone and a couple of years before that even." She wasn't even really looking at Shepherd, mostly waiting for the stims to kick in and stave off some of the *absolute* boredom that was this mission. 

"Jeez woman, you hit me with *that* after I invite you on the crew? Do you have *any idea* how hot I am?" Shepherd groans.

Rebecca smirked, "Oh, yes I'm *quite* aware of how badly this must suck for you." She couldn't help but laugh.

"The moment you're off, I'm gonna suck the pride out of you." Shepherd threatens, elbowing Rebecca in the side, not having much energy or force through a hard-suit.

"I *might* even let you try," Then she stopped talking for a second, "No. No I won't. The only one here whose seen me naked is Garrus."

Garrus *groans*, looking down at the floor as Shepherd giggles, "Don't worry, falling for me's normal." As she closes her eyes when Rebecca's fingers find a particularly *good* spot, a soft sigh escaping the Commander. "*That's it, right there, oh my god the headaches going away.*"

"What?" Rebecca says suddenly looking at the commander, "Oh, wow. I guess I just like, pet anyone in my lap. I can't believe I'm picking up strays now."

"Oh, you want me to be your kitty now?" Shepherds eyes open with mischief flaring in them, "Gonna make me *purr*?"

"Depends, how do you feel about a collar with a little bell on it?" Rebecca can't help but flirt back. She was *lonely as **fuck.*** None of these stupid fucking assholes talked to her, besides Joker who at least managed to hide being terrified of her most of the time. Which is really what made him sweet, and brave.

"Might solve the authority problem to be honest." Shepherd muses, putting a bloody finger to her lip, "Hey, Garrus! Would me being collared, leashed and naked make it seem fine?" She asks, making Garrus *groan again.* Not answering.

Rebecca choked on her own saliva, the sudden intake of air shooting spit into her own lungs, causing her to cough. "Mother *fucker.*" She muttered angrily. "Hey, I stole some shit from the Cerberus base, like *designs* and junk. Can I send that to my partner for her pilgrimmage?"

"No-" Miranda starts to say before Shepherd interrupts amusedly, "Sure, is it a collar and leash? That's on your mind so I assumed."

Rebecca shook her head, pulling up her omnitool, "No, it's these prototype mass-effect cores that Cerberus is working on. Kind of like the first normandy's where they pull twice their weight? The Flotilla would *kill* for something like that."

"Luckily for them, they just have a *smoking hot* chick fuck another one and get it instead." Shepherd chuckles, "I'm authorizing it, just use a secure line." She waves off any complaints and instead angles and shifts her body to be on her side, facing towards Rebecca.

Rebecca can't help but smile, though it falls for just a second. "Oh, right she'll uh. Go home after that I guess." It was true, but it was also fine. She loved her, and if she wanted to come back to Omega she would.

She continued to massage Shepherd's scalp as a second set of fingers stretched out of her arm. Fingers, was maybe understating what the manipulators looked like. They had four joints each with close to a full three hundred and sixty degrees of movement at each joint, and were extremely thin, long. They moved on rotors that made almost no noise as she pulled up her comm-link.

> Direct Message With: Fresh Air
>> Rebecca
>>> Hey! I got you something :3

There wasn't an answer, there wasn't an answer throughout the entire flight, and then onto the normandy. A full three hours.

> Direct Message With: Doctor Girlfriend
>> Rebecca
>>> Is Ras okay? She didn't answer for like ever, but she might just be sleeping or whatever.
>>Doctor Girlfriend
>>>I think she's busy? I've been seeing her talk on her omnitool with someone fairly often, perhaps dating? 
>>>I can check if you want.
>> Rebecca
>>> If she's safe, then that's fine. I'd like to know if she was dating just for like passive interest reasons
>>> I'm not going to pry though, she may feel weird telling me.
>>> Can you tell her I found something *really great* for her pilgrimmage?
>>Doctor Girlfriend
>>>I will lover, don't worry. How long until you're back, you think?
>>>My beds been rather cold :).
>> Rebecca
>>> Same. People have *not* warmed up to me. At all.
>>> Fucking *despise* me.
>>> Which is fine. lol. I'm here to save the world not make friends.
>>> Besides half the crew are human and kind of shitty anyways.
>>Doctor Girlfriend
>>>You were talking about someone called Jack? 
>>>And this Commander Shepherd looks amazing in the propaganda shots, I'll admit.
>> Rebecca
>>> Yes, but there's like... Commander Leadership things I don't understand.
>>> Jack hasn't tried to be *violent* with me which is the closest to friendly I've seen her get so far.
>>> They're making me talk to the apes because they think that my problem with humanity is prejudice
>>> And not that the human government locked me in a fucking room from 13 → 26 before trying to give me the *fucking chair.*
>>Doctor Girlfriend
>>>Lover, don't call humans apes. I know you've had bad experiences, but its not kind.
>>>I'm sorry its so hard for you.
>> Rebecca
>>> You should hear the shit they call me.
>>> well no. It's mostly that I'm a rotten cunt
>>> which is not exactly untrue. I'm also a violent psychopath as they say.
>>> whatever. I'll just. Fucking kill some shit I guess. Later. Probbably varren on the ship.

"Whaaaaatcha typin'?" Shepherd asks, looking up into the omni-tool and staring at Rebecca's chats, reading it from beneath through the hard-light.

Rebecca groaned, "My... Partner is dating again, so she didn't answer."

Shepherd's brow furrows, "Hmmmmmmm."

"Polycule, it's fine, if she cares about me she'll come back." Rebecca says with a quick shrug.

"I don't think the not answering *calls* and *texts* is fine, Becky." Shepherd says firmly, interlocking an arm with Rebecca, "Lets go get a drink."

Again, Rebecca shrugs, "Look, Lisa says she's seen her, and she's not replied in like... three weeks. Really. Only on group calls, otherwise she's just... Busy with life. I'm not goi—"

"Lets *get* a drink, Becky. I'll pay for the good stuff." Shepherd says again, giving a tiny tug to direct Rebecca.

It was an order, even if she didn't *say* it was an order, Rebecca would just be miserable if she said no. "—\*sigh\*— Yeah. Sure."