AN:- Can anyone remember when I used to write Mass Effect fanfic? I certainly can't.

Chapter One: Incident on Asteroid X57

Three months.

Joker didn't complain. Or at least he liked to think that he didn't complain. Sure he would bellyache about something stupid like the chairs or the bad meals or the way Wrex smelled after a particularly intense workout. But he didn't complain about the real stuff. The important stuff. Ever since he had been in pilot training he had kept his face straight, his nose down and done the best and the hardest that he could.

But three months.

Saren was dead, yes. Sovereign was in bits being examined by the Council and the best scientists in the galaxy. The geth had retreated to the Perseus Veil. And the Normandy had gone back out there.

For three. Whole. Months.

As he brought the nav charts up again and crossed off yet another square on their search grid Joker couldn't help but grimace at how much was still blank. Shepard had been driven on this pursuit. Absolutely determined to find some other sign of Saren or Sovereign or the Reapers. They had spent more time digging through old Prothean ruins than most historians, and while that might have put Liara back in her element at last the rest of the crew were getting antsy. The last real firefight had been a particularly hairy encounter out on Mavigon. Joker still wasn't exactly sure what Shepard had been doing helping out a crime boss, but she had been convinced that Helena Blake wasn't a threat anymore.

He sighed and rested his head in his hands for a moment, rubbing his eyes. He had been staring at the screens too long.

He heard boots behind him and straightened just as Ashley came into the cockpit, holding a cup of something that smelled bitter and strong and wearing her civilian clothes. "Thought you could use this," she said as she handed him the caf.

He accepted it gratefully and managed to avoid wincing too badly as it went down his throat. It was supposed to be coffee, but everyone he knew called it 'caf,' because it was little more than caffeine and water. He actually had a supply of real coffee tucked away in his locker, but not even Ashley knew about that one. She moved to sit on the arm of the chair next to him, setting her own mug on the console. "So what's up?" He asked, swivelling slightly in his chair.

"Just thought you could use a break. Everyone else is taking one. Even our illustrious leader is tucked away in her cabin right now."

"Really?"

"Oh yeah." Ashley grinned. "She's educating Liara on earth customs again."

"Ah." A smile tugged the corners of his mouth. It was impossible for him to be serious around Ashley. They knew each other far too well. Three months together and not a second of it wasted as far as he was concerned. Sure a little shore leave would have been nice but hey.

He didn't complain.

"This is my favourite part," Liara whispered, curling a little closer to Shepard on the bed. They were propped up on every pillow and cushion Shepard had been able to scrounge from the ship, but there still only just enough room for one, which meant Liara had to rest across her chest.

Not that either of them minded.

On the computer screen in front of them Mulan had just been knocked to the ground and the drums were beginning. It was Shepard's favourite part as well, but it was so much better to be watching it with Liara so close she could feel the heat of her body and smell the faintest hint of strawberries in the air. Three months had given them enough time to discover a shared love of Disney films. The night before they had watched Red Riding Hood, and she was planning that tomorrow they could watch Incredibles 4. It had become a bit of a ritual for them. After they had finished their work for the day, before they settled in to sleep, they watched one of the hundreds of films.

Liara had also been introducing Shepard to asari culture, although sometimes she still felt like an ignorant monkey when she was trying to understand some of the more philosophical works. When you had an extra nine hundred years to think about things you tended to get pretty deep into the concepts of life and the meaning of things. Shepard wasn't exactly a slouch in that department, every officer training college included a mandatory course on philosophy after all, but most of that was focused on the philosophy of war. The asari books could get incredibly detailed, although she had been about halfway through Matriach Auteria's 'The Philosophy of Things' before Liara had finally admitted it was a satirical piece and not serious.

It surprised Shepard how alike they were once they got past the surface differences. The same things made them laugh, they enjoyed similar books. The same terrible Justicar action flicks were a great background to spirited kissing for them. And of course there was what came after the kissing…

Shepard had no real frame of reference of course. One or two ill-advised hook ups with the daughter of the school dean back on Mindoir and a few drunken one night stands were hardly the basis for sexual experience. It had always been nice, sure, but with Liara it was something entirely different; when they were done she was usually unable to even move. Her subconscious went chasing that particular set of memories while her conscious mind wrapped an arm tighter around Liara's shoulders. Mulan was one of her favourites, and she needed to unwind. Maybe three moths was a little long to be out on the border. She should put them in for shore leave at some point soon. It wasn't like anything had happened in all that time that had absolutely required them to be there.

Joker was almost distracted by the incredibly sexy marine who was kissing him very passionately against the bulkhead. He was actually more sitting on the arm of a chair and wasn't likely to be moving much, but she was more than making up for his lack of movement with her writhing. She was just guiding his hands up underneath her shirt when the message light started blinking on his console. Out of the corner of his eye he could see that it was flagged as a mauve alert. He pushed Ashley back a little, but she pressed closer, grinding her hips against him, "just leave it."

"I can't," he pushed her away more insistently and she backed off, giving him a pout as she went. "Sorry." He crawled back into his chair, adjusting his trousers. "This is the Normandy responding to the mauve alert in the Asgard system please advise."

He listened in mounting fear as the details came through. Ashley was sobering quickly as well. "I'll get Shepard," she said, and sprinted from the cockpit.

Joker punched the course in anyway. He knew his commander by now. They were going to Asteroid X-57, that much was certain.

A transmission came over the radio as they piled into the Mako, Shepard stepping aside to listen in. The signal was weak and there was static on the line but the fear in the woman's voice was unmistakable. "Hello? I heard your transmission," they had been sending out a general response since they arrived in system. "Can you hear me?" Static again. "Haven't found me yet but I can't talk long. Shut down the fusion torches… going to die… god I hope you're hearing this…"

The transmission faded to nothingness. Shepard switched frequencies. "Joker, what do you have on the fusion torches?"

"We need to turn them off, just like she said. This asteroid is going to plunge into the planet Shepard."

"Possible damage?"

"We're talking extinction level. The computers on the Normandy aren't really set up to crunch these sorts of numbers."

"No pressure then."

A hand on her arm as she began to turn back. She looked into eyes so blue they froze time every time she saw them. She smiled and grabbed Liara's hand in return, squeezing it and bumping their helmets together before the asari climbed into the mako. "Get us as close as you can Joker," she said into her radio before climbing aboard.

The mako responded easily to her touch once they were planet-side. She had improved a lot over the course of their missions, and she had to admit that Garrus' calibrations certainly helped the responsiveness. The terrain was rough though, and more than once they hit a pot-hole that had been concealed until the wheels suddenly leapt up. They were all in their positions, Wrex strapped in by the door as he waited to be unleashed the second they needed to switch to an on-foot assault. Garrus was on the machine gun while Ashley manned the cannon. Tali was at the thrusters and Liara was in the co-pilot's seat next to Shepard. There was one empty seat next to Wrex. In the past it had been Ashley's, and Kaidan Alenko had manned the gun. But Kaidan was dead.

All these thoughts went through Shepard's head before the mako had even made it to full speed. It was a nervous habit, running over everything that was the same or different about her surroundings when the mission began. It helped keep her mind off the fact that there might be killing to do in the next few hours, or that she might, if things went wrong, lose people. Again. Just like Akuze and Mindoir and Virmire.

Those thoughts she shoved from her mind as violently as she could. She didn't need to go traipsing down that memory lane any time soon. Instead she looked over to Liara, a point of calm for her. All she needed was a second, but they were already coming up on the first fusion torch, the orange flare lighting space above them. Shepard egged the thrusters some more and the mako hopped forwards.

"Incoming." Garrus sounded as calm as always, but there was nothing calm about the machine gun whirring to life under his command, spraying bullets towards the missile turret which had opened fire on them. Shepard slung the mako into a hard skid to the right, which had the unfortunate effect of presenting their broadside to three rocket turrets. The shields crackled and sparked and the tank listed onto three wheels. Tali nudged the thrusters on the left side and brought them upright, giving Ashley a perfect shot right down the muzzle of one of the turrets. It exploded into sparks just as Garrus' machine gunning blew the second one. Turret number three stood no chance under their combined fire, and in no time at all they were standing before the first pre-fab shelter.

Wrex and Ashley went first, rifles out, with Garrus in support. Tali and Liara hung back, while Shepard stayed in the cover of the door until everyone was inside. Once the door was closed they took off their helmets and collapsed them into handy belt-clip ons. Shepard took point again as they went into the main room of the pre-fab shelter. Wrex and Ashley were hidden on either side of the door frame in case she needed quick support.

The door cycled open and she saw two aliens, crouching over a human body in scientist's gear. There were two varren next to them, which set her on edge immediately. Only a handful of species used tamed varren. Her fears were confirmed when the aliens turned and she saw the four eyes and bald heads of Batarians. She started to raise her hands but one of them opened fire immediately while the other shouted something to the varren her translator couldn't pick up. Her shield absorbed the shots easily and she snapped her pistol up, catching the first varren clean in the centre of the forehead. It shrugged off the round but the incendiary charge it carried wasn't so easily dislodged, and within seconds the beast had burned from the inside out.

At the sound of gunfire Wrex and Ashley had stepped from cover and opened up with the rifles, a stream of bullets which ripped the second varren in half. The batarians were both running for cover but they weren't even wearing true combat armour. There were no shields to stop the combined rifle and pistol ammo shredding them into pulp. From the left came more shouts and gunfire, prompting Shepard to run into the room properly and dive for cover behind a stack of crates. There were at least two more she could see, but she didn't have an angle from where she was crouched. She put a few rounds into the floor next to one of the pirates anyway and was rewarded when he ran right out into Garrus' line of fire.

A grenade took care of the last two and the room fell silent. Her team moved without her direction to check for survivors and clear out any nasty traps or hiding mercenaries. They had been working together long enough now to know exactly what she needed from them and where they were supposed to go. Tali and Liara came to her side as they hurried up the stairs to find Wrex standing before a locked door. Tali's name was on her lips but the quarian had already hurried into position and had the door open in seconds. Shepard couldn't help the smile tugging at her lips as she followed her team into the room. The fusion torch's controls were there, clearly labelled for idiot-proofing. It took no effort at all to get them shut off.

Her earpiece sprang to life again with the woman's voice.

"I'm reading that the torch is offline. Was that you? Can you hear me?"

Shepard rested against the table in the room. "Who are you? What's going on?"

She wasn't sure whether the message had got through, but after a few moment's of static the woman was back again. "My name's Kate Bowman, I'm an engineer. I was part of the team they assigned to bring this asteroid to Terra Nova. We were attacked yesterday by batarian extremists. I've been hiding since they arrived." There was another few seconds of silence which gave Shepard more than enough time to consider all the horrible things the batarians could have done in twenty four hours. "I think they know the torch went out."

Perfect. "Why are they doing this?"

"I don't know. But if this asteroid isn't slowed millions of people on Terra Nova are going to die. If I find out anything I'll give you a call. Gotta go. Good luck."

Shepard wanted to saw something about staying safe, or not doing anything stupid, but the line was already dead. And despite her many misgivings about a civilian poking around a hot zone she had to admit that insider knowledge could be helpful. She settled for sending a quick prayer the woman's way and led her team back downstairs.

As they walked out to the atrium there was a human standing there, dressed in basic combat gear and holding a pistol.

Shepard stepped forwards and waved to catch his attention. "Hey."

He whirled around and fired before she could duck. Thankfully the round impacted on her shield and dissipated entirely. She thanked whatever god of armour manufacturers was listening and tried to look like it didn't matter. She didn't need this guy to start panicking on top of everything else.

"Oh God!" He almost dropped the gun. "I didn't mean to…"

"Takes more than one shot bring me down." She said, keeping her tone even. Behind her she heard Wrex and Garrus muttering to each other, but she ignored that.

"Sorry, I didn't even realise you were human until…" he gestured uselessly. "Well, guess I'm not much of a soldier."

"I know you're scared, but I'm here to help." She pasted her best meet-the-locals smile on. "Commander Shepard, with the Alliance."

He seemed to be calming down. "Simon. Simon Atwell. I'm the Chief Engineer on this rock. Listen, we don't have much time. The batarians fired up the fusion torches." Thanks for the news flash. "You've got to shut them down before we hit Terra Nova. There are four million people down there Shepard I…" He paused, just long enough for her to contemplate the situation she was now in. Four million was far too many to evacuate. They didn't have ships or time. "My family, they live in Aronas, my kids and grandkids, nice community, good schools…"

She didn't have time for this. "I don't have time to do the math in my head. What happens if we don't stop this rock?"

He proceeded to give her an entirely unnecessary science lesson. She supposed it was his way of keeping calm, but really 'things will suck pretty hard' would have been enough for her.

"Is there any chance it'll land in the ocean?" She asked when he was finally done.

"That would be even worse!" She sensed another lecture coming on. "Tsunamis would sweep inland at hundreds of kilometres per hour, millions of tons of water would be vaporised at the point of impact, global cloud coverage, the plants could all die and if they go the whole ecosystem rolls over. I'd have to run the numbers but take my word for it, it'd be bad."

So the short answer is, we stop this thing in atmosphere or else. "This doesn't make any sense," Garrus said behind her. "Bataraians run criminal gangs, unethical but profitable. They don't destroy worlds, what does this gain them?"

"I've heard all the stories, slaver-rings ranching people like animals," Shepard hoped her flinch was unnoticeable, but she swore Liara moved a half step close rot her. "Pirate bands burning colonies to the ground, but this is… The citadel conventions forbid asteroid drops, I never thought the batarians would go this far."

She needed to get him back on track. "How many are there?"

He shook his head. "I don't know. I saw them going into the main building, but they sent out teams to all the fusion torches. There could be dozens, hundreds…"

"Do you know who's leading them? That might give me a clue." A clue about what sort of madman he is.

"They were all saying something about 'Balak.'"

"Thanks for your help. You'd better find someplace to hide."

"No fear." She almost smiled, but the guy was spooked enough already. They watched as he disappeared into the pre-fab shelter they had cleaned out. Wrex grunted a little, and she knew exactly what he was thinking.

"Helmets on people," she said instead of voicing any of her thoughts. "Get ready to shift."

AN:- So quite a few Author's Notes on this historic return to Mass Effect novelisations.

I haven't had my XBox in Belfast for nearly two years now, and subsequently have not played Mass Effect in nearly two years. But now I have my XBox and am playing Mass Effect again and will be starting this novelisation up once more. I'm currently finishing up a playthrough of ME1, which prompted this little indulgence, and will be moving on to ME2, hopefully by tomorrow. So expect Out of the Dark to start updating again sometime in the next couple of weeks (depending on how long it takes me to get back to the bit I was at before.)

About the chapter:

In Out of the Dark I establish that the border patrols have been going on for six months when the Collectors attack. I decided that during this time some of the side quests I did not mention in my Into Greatness novelisation happen in this intervening time rather than during the main quest. Things like Helena Blake's little side mission. This doesn't honestly have much of an effect, it's just to explain how I consider the canon within my stories to work.

I still like Ashley and Joker as a couple. Obviously they won't be lasting past ME2 but for now it was nice for me to look back and remember that time like five years ago when I shipped them. I also have a thing for them doing the naughty in inappropriate places. Liara continues her education of Earth culture and I speculate on some movies Pixar/Disney might potentially release in the next hundred years. I also suspect they may own a whole planet. How cool would that be?

I really want my Shepard and Liara to share actual interests instead of just being together because they're together. I also love the idea that they tease each other about trying to understand each other's culture. Like Shepard once convinced Liara that what the 23rd Century equivalent of 'Friday' is is actually considered to be high art by the humans, so Liara spent a month trying to listen to it every day and understand humans better until Adams or someone explained that she'd been had. Then in retaliation she gave Shepard the asari equivalent of a text on 'resistentialism' or something. Obviously they are just about to watch 'I'll Make a Man out of You' from the Disney movie 'Mulan.'

Where do they put the helmets when they go inside the pre-fab shelters? (more importantly why take them off at all, surely more armour can't be a bad thing?)

Yeah, someone clearly did a lot of research about asteroid impacts and wanted to put it into this game whether it was appropriate or not. I decided to cut most of his explanation because it feels horribly out of place and really exposition heavy info-dumpy. The only justification I have is that he's a scientist who's way out of his depth and he's taking comfort in textbook knowledge.

Next chapter out tomorrow hopefully. For now I need sleep.