Mass Effect - Heat Wave

A.N. This doesn't take place during any specific game so companions are completely flexible to any you want, including non-canon sets like Liara and Miranda if that's your thing.

Commander Shepard had a serious problem.

The M35 Mako was a military scout utility vehicle, capable of excursions into nearly any terrain within reason. Its cramped interior was workable under short-term excursions but could grow claustrophobic upon staying inside of it too long. The primitive environmental control was enough to keep the occupants alive but cared little for comfort. It had enough rations and a strong enough element zero core to sustain four people inside in even the harshest climates for a week, though any longer would require outside resupply. It wasn't designed to house its occupants for more than a few hours in ideal circumstances.

Shepard had been stranded inside of it for five days now.

FOUR DAYS EARLIER

Metgos was a planet with an atmosphere like the inside of a furnace. It was a godforsaken clump of dense mineral in one of the most godforsaken corners of the galaxy. Whatever planet it had once been, an expanding sun had reduced the surface to a scorching ball of nickel with air made foul by sodium and calcium. Advanced suit air filtration could wheeze and whine to provide an hour's worth of surface time but would need to be scrubbed afterward, any longer and you'd be lucky to suffocate but more likely to drown in your own blood. The Mako would fare better, with localized air recycling, but even it had limits. The excursion would need to be surgical, anything else risked lives.

"We'll set the probe up when we're twenty kilometers south of the distress beacon after we check the source, that's thirty kilometers north of the drop zone. Liara, that probe needs to be ready to go when we arrive, every second outside the Mako could be life or ."

"Understood Commander." Liara nodded, her exosuit had been locked into place and she was fiddling nervously with the joints to ensure that they were airtight.

"Commander, any reason we can't drop closer? Seems like a bad place to get a flat tire." Ashley asked, her exosuit was still casually half-off.

"Atmospheric reports make it seem unlikely any distress signal is legitimate, too dangerous to drop in close on a potential trap. Fifty gives us distance and keeps us from dropping into any mountains."

"So why answer it if we're sure it's a trap?" Ash asked with her arms crossed.

"To assume otherwise would be to leave those poor people on the planet's surface, we cannot afford even that small risk." Liara interjected with a look of shock.

"Better them than us."

Shepard sensed a fight brewing and cut in. "At ease, we have our plan and our job is to execute it. Dismissed, we drop in five."

Ashley shot Liara a quick scowl, Liara seemed more confused by the gesture than anything else.

Breaking up fights like these was an all too common occurrence, even with galaxy-class credentials you couldn't make this many different species get along indefinitely. If Shepard could, they would be part of the council by now probably.

Shepard wasn't exactly some nobody, they were...