Buried Beneath

An Eye For An Eye

Normandy, 2185, September 20th 7:58 AM

Entering the armoury, I spot Jacob by one of the tables, examining a pistol. It's been a few days since I was allowed to do anything on the ship. Now that my shoulder is mostly healed, I'm ready to finally have a sense of normality.

"Hey, boss," I greet as I walk up to the table, trying not to sound too eager.

"Shepard told me you were cleared for work." He glances up at me. "Honestly, I didn't think you'd come back so soon."

"You act like I hate it here." I notice all the weapons on the table. "Maintenance?"

He nods. "Yeah."

I pick up Riley's M-8 Avenger, letting out a sigh of relief. "Feels good to move my arm without pain."

"I bet." Jacob chuckles. "And I have good news, your upgrade was approved."

"Fuck yes." I place Riley's weapon down since it doesn't need anything.

He smiles at me. "We'll be picking it up on Illium."

"Illium? It would have to be Nos Astra, right? Why there?" I've been to Nos Astra a few times. Great stores, clubs, uh laws. Seems a bit out of the way just for an upgrade though.

"Yeah, Nos Astra," Jacob confirms. "We'll be there in a week or so. I can't say much about why, but we have to make some stops along the way. Zaeed put in a request."

"Zaeed?" I scrunch my nose up. "What did he want?"

He shrugs. "He wants to go to Zorya, I don't know the specifics. You could go ask him."

Zorya? Why would Zaeed want to go there? "I may go find him. I want in."

"You don't even know what he wants." He raises an eyebrow. "Besides, are you even cleared for missions?"

"Full bill of health." I run a hand over an M-300 Claymore, Grunt's I believe. "Cleared for all active duty as of today. Chakwas seal of approval."

He smiles at that. "All right. Just don't go falling off buildings any time soon."

I wave a hand dismissively. "Yeah, yeah." Everyone was understanding about the incident, even though some of them gave me shit for it, mostly Jack. "Thanks for fixing the thruster."

He picks up another weapon, giving it a closer inspection. "Don't mention it."

The room goes silent for a while, the only sound being our tools as we work on different armaments. There's a lot of them, and most crew mates have more than one. I'm sure Jack keeps her weapon of choice in her room somewhere. Which I'm pretty sure is the M-27 Scimitar that's mysteriously gone missing.

"I can't wait to get that scram pulsar," I mention, filling the silence.

Jacob laughs at that. "At least it'll give me a good look at your mantis."

I look up at him, my eyes narrowing. "Why?"

He shrugs, meeting my gaze. "It's modified, right?"

"Yeah, by me." I don't like where he's going with this. "Like it will continue to be."

He shakes his head. "I won't touch it, I just want a look."

"Sure." Why am I agreeing to this? "Under my supervision."

Jacob smiles. "Of course."

I nod and lower my eyes back onto the weapon in my hand. At least we're on the same page about that.