I am finally trying my hand at writing and since I like the Tau and Mass Effect, it has led to this. This will essentially be porting the Tau to the Mass Effect universe and saying "What if the Tau found a ruined Prothean ship on that moon of theirs rather than an Imperial ship?" and assuming that the Tau Ethereals are not some Eldar conspiracy. I am open to constructive criticisms of this, as I personally believe its kinda meh, and do wish to get better at writing but I probably won't listen to complaints of how the Tau should stomp the Mass Effect races (I know they can but I don't want to write that).

Anyhow, enjoy.

The tall and slender Tau sighed as she finished reading the data from her desk terminal a sixth time, each detail, hopefully, memorised. Tired, she spun around in her seat, as she often did and released quiet squeal as she was nearly jolted off when the seat refused to spin with her. A heavy step onto the cabin's ground prevented her fall and balanced her out. Recovering herself, she slowly turned and glanced all around her cabin for any witnesses. Well, logically she knew there was no one there but it certainly did not hurt to look. What a laughing stock she would be if someone were to see her fumbling like so. As it would turn out, there were no witnesses unless her Por'vesa drone counted as one.

Assured there were no witnesses, she let down her guard. Irritation then flaring as she recalled that all the seats in a void vessel were bolted down and unable to spin, 'For safety reasons.' Ah… she truly loved it when her mind decides to remember things after the time when it could have been useful.

Sighing again as she tried to find her comfortable spot on the seat, she glanced at the small Por'vesa drone silently hovering in the corner. "Por'vesa. Time."

"Fifth dec, forty eighth centidec."

Fifth dec, forty eighth centidec… it would just past dawn on her home sept of Dal'yth then. The transit to the relay should have been… only a few minutes ago. She was surprised. She didn't even feel it. Kor'o Alohna must have an extremely skilled crew to have such a calm trip. That meant they should be meeting with the Citadel escort ships right about now and thus their meeting with the Citadel Council should be only… approximately three decs away.

She sighed yet again. The mere reminder of her duties weighing on her mind. So much was resting on this mission, the empire's first official diplomatic meeting with the conglomerate of aliens known as the Citadel after the initial first encounter with the Turians. The outcome of this meeting will be forever remembered in the history of the empire. And she would be the one who decided how it would end.

But what was there to worry about? It was not like a screw up now could potentially forever sour relations between their two civilizations. It was not like how about half the ship was dedicated to all the Por'hui journalists and drone cameras just so that all the empire could watch how she handled the meeting live. There was definitely no pressure at all from her superiors to ensure this meeting goes flawlessly. Nope. Definitely not. Everything was fine!

She chuckled cynically as she fiddled with her terminal, hovering over her list of contacts within the ship. Maybe El'Calna had something new about the alien technology to blabber about to her. Half of what the Earth Caste engineer gushed out to her made no sense to her but she always enjoyed listening to others happily talk and she felt she was a good listener. Except if it was the Fire Caste. Their talks was almost always about shooting something to death or blowing something up which… disturbed her more than she would care to admit. Not the fact the Fire Caste would be expected to kill things but rather their attitude towards it. A bit too eager for her liking.

But ignoring the Fire Caste, chatting with El'Calna had the benefit of learning more the aliens. Or at least insightful speculation about the aliens. It was difficult to gleam hard facts from technology that you did not have. Perhaps she should take El'Calna's calls for technology exchange somewhat more seriously…

Digressing! She was digressing! She had things to prepare for! Tabbing away from the contact list and back to the page on what they knew about the Turians and their Hierarchy. There was… depressingly little on the page. It was also hard to gleam much information from a single meeting which was mostly trying to learn how to communicate outside of grunts and gestures.

"Incoming message. Sender: Kor'o T'au Alohna. Urgent" The mechanical voice of her drone emitted.

"Play message." she stated. Had their flotilla already made contact with the Citadel escort? If that was the case, then the Kor'o likely wanted her to initiate talks and pleasantries with them. This part was easy. The calm before the storm as those on Ke'lshan would say.

"Por'el Lynu'li." she heard the voice of the Kor'o and immediately struck down the oddity in it. Throughout the trip, O'Alohna had maintained a consistently calm and level voice. Now, it was short of breath and had a tint of fear. "The Citadel escorts intended for us appears to have been destroyed. There's another fleet in the system who we presume to be responsible and is currently besieging the Turian planet. We need you on the bridge right away. I'll have a Kor'ui brief you further on the way."

…

She groaned and hated how her chair wouldn't allow her to lean backwards. Of all the ways she had thought this meeting could have gone wrong, and those ranged from overly aggressive Turians to the Fire Caste pre-emptively opening fire in a misunderstanding, she had not considered a third party wiping out the Citadel escort ships. The meeting's gone completely wrong before it really even began.

She closed her eyes, resting them as the gravity of the situation caught up with her. The Citadel escort has been destroyed. There was a third party with a fleet in the system. She was required on the bridge. They wanted her to talk with the third party. She wasn't on the bridge…

"Por'vesa! We are leaving!" she exclaimed as she snatched her domed pol hat from her desk and affixed it to her head. An audible click echoed across the room as her drone detached itself from her wall. She burst out from her chair only to winch in pain when her hip banged onto the all too hard edge of her desk. Straightening out her ruffled robe and trying her best to pretend her waist did not hurt the least, she dashed out of her cabin.

"Incoming transmission. Sender: Kor'ui T'au Sh-" her drone emitted as she strode along the silver corridors at, what she considered, a very brisk pace.

"Accept transmission." she snapped at the drone. If there was one thing she disliked about her, admittedly very convenient, drone was its programming which dictated that it needed to use full names. There were occasions where it was simply too time consuming to be efficient.

"Por'el. Are you reading me? The unknown fleet is moving into formation in front of us. The Kor'o is trying to communicate with them right now. He wants to know what to do when he establishes communications and if you are not there." A younger voice spurted out from her drone.

"Tell him to identify himself and then get the unknown fleet to identify itself in turn." she hurriedly replied as she arrived at a lift. She paused for just a moment in thought before entering it. "The Kor'o should know this. It's standard procedure for first contact."

This time there was a pause on the Kor'ui's side. There was the faint sound of shouting at his end of the transmission before a flustered voice said. "The Kor'o was indeed aware and had wanted to know what to do after that? He's unsure whether try to be friendly with them or take a more aggressive stance."

"Neither. Try to ascertain their intentions if possible but make it clear we have no hostile intentions towards them. Do nothing else until I get there." A loud bell rang out when she arrived at the correct floor. "Is the Kor'o communicating with the fleet right now?"

"Negative. The unknown fleet has taken formation opposite us and…"

"And?" she asked. Something had clearly happened and she did not like the ominous note he had paused on.

"Oh no, no, no! They're firi-"

That was about all the warning she received when the ship decided it needed to shift about forty five degrees to the right. Naturally, with her restrictive robes and in her rush, she lost her balance. Falling over to the right, she ended up slamming into the right wall. Hard enough that she swore she broke her arm as pain sparked up to her shoulder.

She heard more chatter from her drone but it was blurred and slurry in her ears. Placing a hand on the wall for balance, she leaned on the wall only to spring back when pain laced up her arm. She didn't feel any blood but there was almost certainly a lot of bruising. Catching her breath, she took stock of what of was occurring. And based on what the Kor'ui had last said, it did not take very much work to deduce the situation. They were being attacked by the third party… By the Path, they were being attacked!

There was the brief thought of fleeing back to her cabin but quickly dismissed the thought was foolish. She would not shirk her duties. Even if they were likely past the point of diplomacy with the enemy, she needed to be on hand if needed. A quick glance at her drone saw it still hovering at hand. Good. "Kor'ui! Can you hear me!?"

"…Hearing you Por'el! We're under attack. The Kor'vattra is returning fire. We're…"

Recognising the same break in the conversation as an indicator of what was coming, she hurriedly draped her arms over the drone, flinching as her right arm stung as she gripped it as tight as possible. It was just in the nick of time as the corridor jolted to an angle once again, her legs dragging along the floor as her drone hovered to the right to adjust its position.

"Shields are down but armour is holding! Attack craft are being deployed."

"I don't care about that Kor'ui!" she screamed back at the drone, or at the Kor'ui talking through it really. "Do we know why they are attacking? Did you make any provocative moves?"

"None Por'el. They attacked when we sent our message."

"And what did that message contain?"

"Our identification and the demand that they identify themse…"

She tensed at the break, her fingers gripping the drone as she prepared herself for the ship to get hit once again. How many hits can the ship take? She wasn't sure herself and dearly hoped that it was more than enough to survive this.

The jolt never came.

"Por'el the enemy fleet is withdrawing!"

Withdrawing? Already? A flood of relief filled her as she let go of her drone and staggered back onto her feet. That meant they had won no? The Kor'vattra had successfully forced them to flee? Why was she asking these questions to herself? "Why are they withdrawing?"

"Likely too many losses and not enough damage to our Kor'vattra to justify further engagement. O'Alohna has ordered us to not pursue."

She frowned at that. Would it not be better to destroy an enemy rather than let them flee? But then she knew very little on military stratagems and the like. She was sure that O'Alohna had sound reasoning for this. "How much damage to the Kor'vattra?"

"Standby."

She took that moment to start her walk towards the bridge. She was certainly not returning to her cabin after all that effort just to get there.

"The Dal'yth Gal'leath Shi'va was crippled in combat and is being evacuated now. Remaining Gal'leath class vessels, including our own, came out with damage but is still operational." The Kor'ui suddenly spoke up.

A single ship lost and it wasn't even destroyed and they managed to force the other fleet to withdraw. That was a positive outcome no? She shook her the thoughts of her head. That was not her problem to deal with right now.

A few minutes of walking and she finally arrived at the bridge. A Shas'ui guard was helping another stay on his two feet, the second looking like he had fallen and landed on his leg in a painful fashion. She paid the two of them a nod before entering the bridge itself.

Atypical of a ship's bridge, it was filled with Air Caste Tau. Dozens of them manning various terminals across the semi-circular command deck. Situated on an elevated stand behind the rows was Kor'o Alohna, his expression steely neutral in spite of the danger faced.

"El'Lynu'li." A serene voice stopped her dead in her tracks when she started to move towards the Kor'o. Seeking the source of the voice, she repressed the glee rising in her when she saw Aun'el T'au Shi'eoro gracefully walking towards her, leaning on his honour blade for support. "It is good that you are here."

For a second, she found herself unable to speak. Her mouth could not even open as she basked in the glamourous appearance of the ethereal. Here was a being that embodied the tau'va, the greater good with his every action.

Reluctantly pushing her almost childlike glee away, she bowed deeply before the Ethereal. "It is good to see you as well El'Shi'eoro."

The ethereal nodded and smiled almost cynically. He turned to face the forefront of the bridge and she followed his gaze onto the large screen that dominated the space in front of Alohna. She saw a planet with several red squares, which she assumed denoted an enemy, rapidly leaving its vicinity. "Our journey has come to a rather unexpected end."

"Indeed it has El'Shi'eoro." And it was not even her fault. "Why do you suppose they attacked us?"

"We may know soon." Alohna replied from his position. The Kor'o walked down from his elevated and patted the shoulder of a Kor'el. The two of them exchanged brief words before the Kor'el stepped up and took the place that Alohna had vacated. Looking back at her and El'Shi'eoro, he said. "There were some escape pods ejected from some of the enemy ships. I gave orders to retrieve them."

"Very good O'Alohna." The ethereal praised and the Air Caste admiral bowed his head in gratitude. "Is there anything else to report?"

"Only some complaints to the Earth Caste about our ship's shields." the Kor'o said with distaste. Seeing the lack of comprehension on their faces, he explained further. "As you know, most of our Kor'vattra's technology was derived from the alien ship discovered from one of T'au's moons. This includes our current shields but not our weaponry which is of Tau design and had a far greater damage output that the weaponry on the alien ship."

Lynu'li did not miss the way Alohna's tone of pride at the power of Tau weaponry quickly turned to sour as he continued. "Thus far the Earth Caste has not been able to manufacture ship shields capable of withstanding our ship railguns. I believe they assumed that our current shields would be sufficient and that had been correct so far."

"Until today." Shi'eoro muttered.

Alohna grimly nodded. "Our shields fell quickly under sustained fire from the enemy vessels forcing us to rely on the ship's armour. It was good fortune that our weapons cut through the enemy's shields just as fast. But there were just so many of them. That many of the smaller ones acted as screens for the more potent ones did not help."

"Is that so… I believe a reminder to speed up production of the Il'fannor class ships would be necessary. Gal'leath ships are simply too expensive to lose so-" Shi'eoro said before he was cut off by a loud voice from the front.

"Kor'o! Transmission from the Turian colony on the planet!" some Kor'ui shouted out from the front, his turning face quickly switching to one of fear and embarrassment as he realized who he had cut off.

Lynu'li almost balked at the rudeness of interrupting an ethereal. And by Alohna's shocked face, so was he. Shi'eoro, however, paid it no heed and replied on his own. "Play the message Kor'ui."

"Y… yes Aun'el!" the Kor'ui shouted back.

"This is Major Horana of the Turian forty third marine division to Tau ships in orbit. We're requesting immediate assistance against Krogan forces on the colony. They're overwhelming our positions… please, they're taking no prisoners and we have thousands of non-combatants who have yet to evacuate. We need all the aid we can get… Horana out."

There was an audible silence on the deck as even Kor'la, who were meant to be busy with their own work, had listened in. A loud, gruff cough from their Kor'o followed by his stern glare quickly sent them scrambling back to work.

"Well, what do you think of that El'Lynu'li." Shi'eoro quietly asked her. Having expected that he would ask for her opinion, she was not caught off guard.

"We… are not obligated to actually assist them." Lynu'li cautiously started off. They had only just recently encountered each other after all. There were no treaties between them and just because they had a common enemy did not make their allies. "However I do believe it is our best interest to lend our assistance."

The ethereal gently nodded and she took that as a gesture to continue. "The directive of our mission was to secure a friendly diplomatic relation with the Citadel that was open to further ties. I may be incorrect but I do not believe we will be doing the same with these… Krogans after their brazenly unprovoked attack upon us."

Lynu'li spied subtle nods all around the deck. Though, critically, Shi'eoro remained steely neutral. Did that mean he disagreed with her? Did it mean she was meant to stop talking now? Well, he would gesture if he wanted her to stop… wouldn't he? Somewhat daunted, she continued nonetheless. "In furthering our directive, saving the colony below and its inhabitants from the invaders will undoubtedly make a positive note for the Citadel, hopefully making their Council and populace's disposition of the empire a positive one."

She spread out her hands and let out an exaggerated sigh. Continuing on in a sombre fashion. "Of course, intervening in a planetary invasion will likely not be an easy affair. I am no military expert but I suspect that the casualties among the Fire Caste could be into the thousands."

"That is of no concern." A new, deep voice joined in from the back of the bridge. The tall figure of Shas'o T'au Shausen limbered towards them in full fire warrior armour. A pair of Shas'vre, equipped in similar fashion, followed behind him. "If that is what is necessary, then the Fire Caste is prepared to do its duty towards the tau'va."

"O'Shausen. Good of you to join us."

"Thank you your eminence." Shausen slapped a smart salute for the ethereal. "But I still must apologize for my lateness. I was in a battlesuit when the summons arrived and had to dismount it first."

"It is of no concern." Shi'eoro reassured him. Looking back to her, he said. "If you would continue El'Lynu'li."

"Of course El'Shi'eoro." she nodded, glancing at the Fire Caste commander standing beside the ethereal with annoyance. Say what you want of the Water Caste and our love of theatrics but the Fire Caste was just as bad with its love of dramatic entrances. Dismissing those petty thoughts from her mind, she spoke up again. "Furthering the earlier point, as the Krogans have essentially declared war against us, aiding the Turians could perhaps aid in securing a possible alliance or coalition with them against the Krogan. That is assuming they are a credible threat to the empire as a whole."

"And…" she purposely hesitated for dramatic effect. Taking her time to look into the eyes of all those listening, she spoke. "…Perhaps this is idealistic of me but if what this Major Horana implies is true; then there will likely be a massacre of non-combatants at the hand of these Krogans. Can we truly say we work towards the tau'va if we abandon them to their fate?"

"Thank you El'Lynu'li. I shall take your opinion into account." Shi'eoro sagely nodded. As he looked over to Shausen and Alohna, Lynu'li inwardly sighed in relief as the spotlight was taken off of her.

"Do either of you have anything to add? Any disagreements?" Shi'eoro asked the commanding officers of the Air and Fire Castes.

"I have something to add your eminence." Shausen stated, stepping closer towards the ethereal who gestured for him to speak. "I believe this would serve as a good opportunity to test the Fire Caste in true battle."

"Do not misunderstand me. I do not desire conflict." Shausen quickly added just as Lynu'li frowned at how… angry? No. Aggressive. How aggressive that had sounded. And did not desire conflict? She doubted that but politely kept quiet.

"The majority of the Fire Caste has never participated in a battle. Many of our tactics and weaponry have only been tested against ourselves in simulations and training. Whether these will hold in the face of a completely foreign opponent remains to be seen." Shausen said as Lynu'li began to understand what he was leading onto. "A small scale conflict such as this can serve as a testing ground from which the Shas'ar'tol, the Fire Caste high command, can analyse and learn from."

With that, Shausen was done and retreated back to his bodyguards. As with her before, Shi'eoro gave Shausen a nod and thanks before falling silent. Leaning onto his honour blade for support, the ethereal fell into deep thought. Minutes passed without any of them saying a word, all of them awaiting the wisdom and guidance of the ethereal.

And suddenly, Shi'eoro opened his eyes, filling them all with purpose and confidence. "Kor'o. I want you to signal for reinforcements from the nearest Tau station. Inform them of what have occurred."

"Your will Aun'el." Alohna stoutly said.

Turning to O'Shausen, the ethereal continued giving out his commands. "Shas'o. Get into communications with the Turian Major. Coordinate the deployment of your cadres and repel the Krogans from the colony."

"As you will Aun'el." Shausen snapped back. And with a salute, the Fire Caste command was already rushing off to fulfil his command.

Finally, Shi'eoro turned to her and she saw into the bottomless wisdom and acceptance in his eyes and felt herself unconsciously dipping her head down in respect, humbled before the ethereal before her. "Por'el. Your role is not here on this battlefield but in the aftermath. I want you to prepare for our meeting with the Citadel after we win this battle. An alliance would be most favourable to the empire."

She bowed deeply before the ethereal. As the Water Caste diplomat, it was only natural she had no part in the soon to come battle. That was left to the Fire Caste. Instead, she should prepare for the aftermath as she had been ordered.

There was much to be done. Completely new provisions would have to be made. She would have to think of a way to propose an alliance without appearing overly weak while remaining humble about their coming victory. There was much work to be done for the tau'va.

"Villa six! This is Chariot three-two! The Krogan are overwhelming us. There's bloody too many of them!" Lieutenant Decimus all but shouted into his comms as he poked his head out of the window to get a view of the street. The road was a mess of craters, corpses and the Krogan IFV pointing its gun straight at him. He regretted it in an instant as his shields flared up and the entire window frame was riddled with holes.

Snapping his head back into cover, he threw himself away from the window just as a heavy weapon tore straight through the wall and into the room behind it. Small explosions tearing apart the bookcase that had unfortunate enough to have been behind the window.

"Fucking IFV…" he swore under his breath as debris and wooden shards rained over him. Those were probably ancient books or something, pretty much the only valuable thing this library had. Well, that and the fact it was looking over the two of the highways the Krogan had wanted to drive over.

"They're making another charge through the gate!" he heard… Autis call out from the left. And not a second after that, the first of the grenades came spinning through the gaps in the wall. And after all the pounding the Krogan have been giving this building, there was a lot of fucking gaps.

"Grenades!" he managed to shout out just as he heard the dreaded sound of something metallic landing on the floor beside him. He scrambled backwards, tripping over some knocked over piece of junk and falling onto his back just as it exploded. All he heard was a loud bang before his ears were ringing from the explosion.

Warm hands gripped onto his arm, snapping his face upwards, he saw the grim face of Tivus as the private pulled him back onto his feet. Patting the younger Turian on the shoulder as thanks, he spotted the first wave of the Krogans through the long broken windows. A group of young Krogans charging as their support constantly supressed them with their fire. Their barbaric war cry echoing even with the ringing in his ear.

Looking around, he hurriedly positioned himself behind a desk. Hefting his rifle up and resting his arm on the surface of the desk, he fired through the windows at the incoming wave of flesh and metal.

If he wasn't about half deaf right now, he might have smiled at the squishy sound when his rifle fire tore through the unarmoured heads of the Krogan warrior. He definitely would not be smiling when the second rank of the Krogan wave, second because the first was mostly dead, breached their way into the building.

"Villa six! Chariot three-two! The Krogan are in the building! They're in the fucki-" his words were cut off as a Krogan warrior leaped over his desk to tackle him down. Staggering to the left, the Krogan smashed into his right arm and sent him staggering backwards. His rifle slipping out of his right hand as his arm recoiled back with the weight of a Krogan on it.

Lifting his head up, it was slammed back down as an armoured fist made contact with his face. Staggering back onto a wall, he let himself fall to the side as the second punch smashed into the wall behind him. He felt a little sick inside when he heard the sound of stone being crushed behind him. By the spirits, how had he survived the first punch?

The Krogan Warrior then roared and raised his other arm back for another punch. Gritting his teeth, Decimus fell forward, the air rushing past his head as the Krogan's second punch went sailing past his head.

Behind the Krogan now, he hurriedly grasped at his side for his pistol and drew his sidearm. As the Krogan turned around, he fired two solid shots into the Krogan, centre of mass. All it did was piss him off.

In a blood frenzy, the Krogan roared again and pounced on him as well as a Krogan in full armour could. Which is to say, he body flopped on top of him. Decimus fired off another shot, another one to the chest, before the Krogan landed on top of him.

He gasped for air as the heavy weight crushed him underneath. And what air he had left quickly left him as a strong grip tightened around his head and lifted it up. He felt a falling rush of air around his head and then his head exploded in pain as the Krogan slammed it into the floor.

As his head was lifted into the air again, he gritted his teeth and rammed the muzzle of his pistol onto the side of the Krogan. He fired off several more shots into the side of the Krogan, the beast atop him grunting in pain with each pull of the trigger.

His head slammed into the ground again and he could taste blood in the mouth. His vision getting blurrier as he choked. Pulling the trigger once more, the Krogan finally slackened his grip he finally lost his strength.

Slapping his free hand to the dying Krogan, he heaved and shoved the heavy load off of him. Breathing in the spirits be praised air, he marvelled at all the Krogan blood on him and would have chuckled if his chest didn't hurt so much. Damn, it was going to take a long time to get his armour clean.

Struggling back onto wobbly feet, he reached for the desk for support. He felt a weak grip on his leg. Looking down, he saw the same bloody Krogan holding on his leg. Hate filled eyes glaring at him as he tried to push himself back up to fight. Decimus levelled his pistol down to the Krogan's head and fired off two more shots. One to kill him and one to make he stayed dead.

He turned his head away as the bastard finally died. Slumping up against the desk, his tired eyes gazed out around the interior of the library. Krogan corpses littered the floor, a whole pile of them stacked at the front entrance. Turian bodies sprinkled around the mess. The remaining Turians of his company slumped over or sitting just like him, taking in the momentary chance of rest.

A quick glance outside the windows showed no more Krogans, no live ones at least. There were plenty of dead ones all over the place.

"Villa six… Chariot three-two. There were a… fucking tons of Krogans in the library… Where's the reinforcements you promised? …Over!" he gasped the last part. They was no way they were going to survive another attack and no way he was going to get into a brawl with a Krogan again. He rubbed his cheek and flinched. No fucking way.

"Chariot three-two. This is Mobula zero. We are dropping onto your position now. Over." A hazy voice replied into his comms. Mobula zero? He didn't know that call sign. Was that their alien reinforcements that Horana had been told them about?

"Mobula zero. Are you the Tau reinforcements? Over."

"Affirmative. Over."

So they were finally coming. About damn time. Switching over Chariots frequency, he said. "This is Chariot three-two to all stations. Be advised. Reinforcements should be landing abou-"

"FOR TUCHANKA!"

With dread, he slowly turned to see more Krogan leaping over their cover from down the street to charge. Dozens upon dozens charging down the streets brandishing their weapons. Their vehicles also starting to move up to cover their infantry.

"All stations! Another wave incoming!" He shouted into his comms as he rushed over to the nearest rifle he could find. It didn't follow radio procedure but he was sure his superiors wouldn't mind. And if they did, well he was probably going to die within the next few minutes making the whole point null.

"Chariot. This is Mobula zero Battlesuits landing in…" the alien voice rang out again in the comms. What was a battlesuit?"…Three… two… one!"

He saw something slam into the ground before the library. An explosion of dust and debris accompanying whatever landed. All he saw of it was a flicker of golden yellow. And as the dust began to clear, he saw the silhouette of a large machine. He saw the cautious and surprised looks on the Krogans who had been forced to stop their charge.

He heard the whirr of a machine gun charging up and the Krogan screams and shouts of pain that soon followed. He could see all of it now. Nearly twice as tall as the normal Turian, it was a goddamn walking tank with machine guns on its arms and… were those rocket pods on its back?

And for the first time in the last few days, Decimus laughed. He really shouldn't be laughing as he watched the Krogans scramble for cover as their comrades were ripped to pieces of bloody gore but he couldn't help it. After fighting the Krogans non-stop, from dawn to dusk, after retreating from one position to the next, after watching the Krogans execute any Turian too wounded or infirm to get away; it was good to see them finally get what was coming. "Mobule zero, you a bloody beautiful sight. The prettiest thing I've seen in ages!"

"Uh… acknowledged Chariot two-three."

End.