There it was again, the scent he had unconsciously started to look for whenever he was in a battle against humans. It was spicy and stood out from the smoke, sweat and blood from the battleground.

The first time he had smelled it was when his team had been pushed back from their outpost. After that it had always reappeared together with failed missions or hasty retreats.
His fellow comrades had mocked him when he mentioned it. Said it was just his nerves or superstitions.
Some had stated that he probably were unaccustomed to the smell of humans, but if so then it should had changed after the third encounter in battle.
Garrus shook his head in an attempt to clear it as he put in a new thermal clip.

He had been forced to switch from sniper rifle to assault rifle, rapid fire over power. The humans were pushing them back. He had to admit they were persistent, even if their weapons were not on the same level did most of the groups he had encountered packed a mean punch.
But this one seemed extra eager to push them back. They had not been given any breathing room; night and day was filled with sound of guns. Less than half of the squad was left with only one high-ranking commander left.

" HEADS UP SOLDIERS!"

Just as the words left his commander's lips a grenade exploded just a few steps away from Garrus, more exploded soon after the first one. Dust clouds made it hard to see and the sound of the air filter in his helmet drummed in his ears together with a ringing sound. His head was spinning and his vision blurred. Soldiers were helping each other up or screaming for help, the ground had changed from brown to black and in the middle of everything the humans rushed in.

They swept down as a hoard of rachni gunning at everyone that tried to fight back: brutal, but efficient.
Garrus was forced down on the ground with his face against the wet dirt together with the other few that did not fight back.
His weapon discarded on the ground and broken. A human was standing above Garrus with a gun aimed at his head. He noticed a pair of black boots coming closer and wrinkled his nose: it was that scent and it was getting stronger. He felt how his mandibles tightened around his mouth.

A slender ungloved hand picked up his weapon. Garrus tried to raise his head to face the human in front of him but was pushed down again by the one behind him.
He did not know what annoyed him the most, the fact that someone else were carelessly handling his gun or that he was kept from uncovering the source of the scent.
Him and the rest of the surviving turians were blindfolded and roughly herded somewhere. His omni-tool picked up words and sentences but not enough to fully understand the situation.
The war had erupted so fast that a translator from human to turian had yet been fully developed. When the blindfold came of he realised that they were in an old camp of theirs. The humans had moved in after driving them away. Garrus prepared himself for the worst, rumours had it that humans lacked honour and were overly cruel.
But instead of a torture chamber were they placed in a separate part of the camp, stripped of weapon and surrounded by guards. He tried to figure out what all the different facial expressions the humans made meant but gave up, as they seemed to change faster than a hired-arm's loyalty.
Some days went without anyone interacting with them in any special way.

The humans close to them never spoke out loud, neither to them or themselves. They were given food, probably what the other turian squad had left when they had retreated from this camp. Garrus was not sure if this was the calm before the storm or the middle of it. The scent left the camp from time to time but he had pushed any speculation about it back for now. He tried to keep his companions on edge and expecting anything and everything while observing and taking notes.
With him they were four, Sidonis was the only one he really knew, the other two were like strangers to him. He recognised one of them as a member of the Victus family. The other one was a strange to him and had black plates, piercing cold grey eyes. He thought that the other turian was bare faced for a moment, but then he noticed two darker lines on each mandible.

One day was the daily routine of being watched and fed interrupted. He noticed how every guard saluted a approaching human, it pinged his interest and even more when he realised that the scent was moving closer too. The human was clad in black armour with red stripes on the right arm together with a helmet covering everything but the eyes. Green eyes observe them and to his surprise they halted on him.

The human walked up to him and stopped only one step away facing him. His eyes widened, this human was the sole source of the scent that had hunted him on the battlegrounds. But nothing surprised him more as when the human took of its helmet and void dark fringe fell down over the shoulder framing a face with red lips and pale skin; it was a female. He noticed the small differences between the human female in front of him and the guards. Shorter and slender but still powerful, a scar on her face ran over the nose almost reaching from side to side of her head. She opened her mouth and spoke to him; the translator struggled to keep up and seemed to be a bit delayed.

" I'm commander Shepard and I'm in charge of this squad. Do you understand me?"

He blinked, the words had been translated well enough but he had no idea of knowing if she meant 'Do you understand that I'm in charge here' or 'do you understand what I say'.

Her voice had carried no subvocal to help him so he simply opted for nodding his head in reply.