[For a second Wash startles, glances down at the tigerlily who seems to realize that something's going wrong but can't quite parse what, fully. She knows enough to want to help.]

[It's just not something she can really help with.]

I had one last shot to get out of the whole mess. The UNSC would give me an out if I could retrieve Epsilon. So they paired me with the Meta, and we...well, we didn't get Epsilon.

[He braces himself.]

We got Tex.