"Girls, what are you doing here?"
I looked with slight bewilderment at Lissi and Missi, who, even before the crash of the SSV Normandy, had decided to build their happiness with Wrex. To be honest, no one had actually told him about this, and frankly, I expected that in about six months I'd receive a photo of cute little blue girls. Instead, I saw the twins themselves, who, after my question, cast a slightly sad glance at me.
"Are we in the way?"
"No, not at all..."
I shook my head and tried to show them with my voice and a smile that I was glad to see them. Since I truly was happy to see them, I didn't have to act.
"...I'm very glad to see you. I just thought something had started to... hatch between you."
"Yeah..."
Lissi gave a sad chuckle.
"...hatch. We thought so too and followed that jerk. But as it turned out, he didn't have anything like that in mind. He just thought of us as cute girls to have a pleasant time with, but serious relationships, as it turns out, he can only have with Krogan females."
"The jerk just used us..."
Missi was also very dissatisfied with what had happened.
"Well, we're fools too..."
Lissi glanced at her sister.
"...but Wrex really is a jerk. Anyway, we need a fight, preferably one where we don't have to hold back against the enemy. And you definitely have enemies like that. So we came to Tali, and she brought us here. You won't drive us away, will you?"
"Of course not."
I shook my head.
"And you're just in time, as we have a little business ahead of us where we could use some reliable allies."
"Want to pluck some feathers off the Illusive Man?"
Jane gave a knowing smirk.
"I'd like to, but no."
I shook my head.
"The Illusive Man will certainly be a target eventually, but no. We have finally prepared ourselves to attack the Shadow Broker."
"The Shadow Broker?"
A hint of anticipation appeared in Liara's voice. She loved archaeology, of course—it was her passion—but she also enjoyed working with information. There just hadn't been many opportunities for that, as the Shadow Broker is the largest information dealer and literally crushes any other traders who have a chance of affecting his business.
"Yes, Liara. We are going to secure an information-trading empire for you."
"Well... I don't doubt your words, of course, but what have we been preparing to make such a thing possible?"
Jane looked at me questioningly.
"Mainly equipment for Liara. Even though the Shadow Broker's ship is hidden, it's still possible to find it, and we will use it as a relay. And for Liara herself, we've prepared high-end equipment that will allow her to operate that way while maintaining her anonymity."
"Alright, what's the plan?"
Tali decided to move the conversation into more concrete terms.
"What can we do? We're heading to Hagalaz."
"Um..."
Lissi looked at me with slight doubt.
"Yes?"
"No, it's just that I think I've heard of that planet. It was mentioned in one of our lessons as a planet with a natural anomaly. They said living on Hagalaz is impossible... if my memory isn't failing me."
She gave a somewhat helpless smile.
"You're right. Hagalaz is a planet of storms, and in a normal situation, the Shadow Broker wouldn't be able to conduct his business from there. However, he isn't on the planet's surface; he's inside the storm."
"Wait..."
Jane raised a hand, stopping me.
"I might just be a dumb grunt, but even I understand that staying inside a storm is impossible. Or rather, it's possible, but the ship would fall apart very quickly. Are you sure the Shadow Broker is actually inside the storm?"
"I'm sure. And he can stay there for the simple reason that his ship was built specifically for that planet's conditions. So, the road leads us right there. We leave in three days; during that time, we'll check all our gear and practice working together a bit. We've worked together before, of course, but after a break, it's better to remember what it's like to work as a team."
** A View from the Side. **
"What do you think?"
Lissi flopped onto the bed in the room she shared with her sister. No, they had been offered separate rooms, of course, but they decided to live together. They were already used to it, and to be honest with themselves, it was more than comfortable.
"What can I think? I was right, and interesting times await us once again."
"Hah..."
Lissi chuckled at her sister's words.
"...sis, you know exactly what I'm talking about. We didn't know John was alive, just like we didn't know Jane was alive. They hid that information from us."
"And?"
Missi looked at her sister with slight bewilderment.
"And? Is that all you can say?"
"Sister, let's talk seriously. John is a Spectre. And he already broke orders by trusting anyone at all with the information about his condition. And we had flown off to Tuchanka. What was he supposed to do, call us and say: 'Girls, just so you know, I'm alive, I have to be dead for work for a while, but don't worry...' Like that?"
"I understand, I do..."
Lissi shook her head with slight irritation.
"...it's just... it still stings."
"Stings, she says. The fact that John and the girls trust us is more than obvious, because if they didn't, we wouldn't have been invited to this briefing. So stop thinking about nonsense."
"Well, maybe you're right."
Lissi nodded at her sister's words, after which they simply began chatting about everything in the world, leaving that topic behind.
** The End. **
"So? Everyone checked their gear?"
"Yes."
A synchronous response from Tali, Liara, Jane, and the K'Ria twins was my answer.
"Excellent. Then let's go, load up into this little ship and head off on an adventure."
"Um..."
"Lissi, don't doubt it. It only looks like a space pleasure yacht; in reality, it's fitted with equipment that will allow us to close in on the Shadow Broker's ship quite safely."
Liara hurried to reassure her friend, who smirked.
"It's not that I didn't trust you, but thanks for the clarification. It really did help me calm down a bit."
We all boarded the pleasure yacht, which soon lifted into the air and then left Bali's atmosphere, heading for the nearest Mass Relay.
The flight to Hagalaz was quiet and peaceful; each of us knew exactly what to do, and the flight itself wasn't anything complicated. So we reached the target planet quickly, but once we arrived, we had to struggle a bit.
All because even though we knew exactly where the ship was—specifically, in a lightning storm—we still had to find it within that storm. And that was no simple task, as the storm was massive.
"How much longer are we going to be looking for this ship?"
A hint of irritation could be heard in Liara's voice. She, like all of us, was slightly annoyed. We all thought finding the Shadow Broker's ship in a lightning storm wouldn't be hard, but as it turned out, the storm was a much bigger problem.
"Liara..."
Irritation was evident in Tali's voice as she sat at the sensors.
"...we've already combed through half of this storm; there's still as much left. Of course, by the law of Murphy, the Shadow Broker's ship will be in the very last sector. But we will find it... Just don't get on my nerves."
"Sorry, sorry, I'm just really bored."
"..."
"What?"
Tali's look was so expressive that even I was curious about what she was going to say.
"Well... I wanted to give you some advice, but... I realized it would be rude of me."
Tali, who had looked quite determined just a moment ago, looked away, clearly embarrassed by what she had intended to say.
"Now I'm even more curious. What exactly did you want to say that makes you so embarrassed?"
"I won't say."
"Tali..."
Liara stood behind the little Quarian and began massaging her shoulders. Of course, the suit didn't help much with that, but the atmosphere and the intention were what mattered.
"I didn't want to say anything."
Tali's voice sounded somewhat uncertain.
"And yet."
Liara wasn't about to back down and wanted an answer to her question.
"I... wanted to suggest you make a move on John."
"Is that all?"
The Asari's voice was extremely mischievous; she pressed her chest against the back of the chair Tali was sitting in and wrapped her arms around her.
"Y-yes..."
"And why don't I believe you?"
At that moment, the ship shuddered from another lightning strike. Of course, the yacht's systems handled it well, and the excess energy was discharged into the air beneath us. However, before that happened, we all experienced a few seconds of unpleasant sensations. For a moment, the ship seemed extremely vulnerable. Though it only seemed that way, as the yacht was built specifically so we could reach the Shadow Broker's ship safely.
"I've said everything."
Tali's voice wavered.
"Really?"
Liara's lips were somewhere near Tali's ear, and even though she couldn't feel the air leaving her mouth tickling her ear, her imagination was quite good.
"Leave me alone."
A plea could be heard in her voice.
"No-o... I'm very, very curious, and I'm willing to go to great lengths to find out exactly what you wanted to say."
"I wanted to suggest you have sex with John!"
Tali literally shouted it, and I was sure she had turned red to the roots of her hair.
"Hee-hee-hee..."
Joy was audible in Liara's laughter.
"Don't be so shy, we'll all be there eventually."
"Hey, I'm not planning on dying, for the record."
"O-o-oh..."
Liara shook her head.
"...I was actually talking about John's bed, not the afterlife."
"Idiot..."
Resignation was heard in Tali's voice; she no longer knew where to hide.
"We're all idiots... Alright, alright, I'll stop pestering you. Get back to work."
"Thank you."
Relief could be heard in the Quarian's voice. However, everything that had happened didn't stop Tali from watching the radar, and when she spotted the Shadow Broker's ship, she signaled the crew.
"Well, that's it. Soon, heavy clashes with the enemy await us..."
I shook my head and checked my armor and weapons.
"It's fine, we'll deal with this Yahg, and everything will be okay."
Jane had a predatory smirk on her lips. It wasn't that she particularly wanted to risk her life, but she had never fought a Yahg before, and the prospect clearly made her anticipate the new and unknown opponent.
Though perhaps it was because she was more than confident in our team, so she saw no reason to worry.
In any case, everything would be decided soon.
Our yacht smoothly approached the Shadow Broker's ship and landed on its surface, after which it opened, letting us out.
"Look for the nearest way inside."
I gave the order. Of course, we could just punch through the hull to get inside, but I didn't really want to test whether the ship would be destroyed if it lost its integrity. And we still had to transfer the data from it...
***
Read the story months before public release — early chapters are on my Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Granulan