"Well." I looked up at the sign before entering the shady looking bar in front of me. "This looks like the spot."

Believe it or not, I wasn't actually visiting the place for a drink since I'd finally sworn off the stuff again for good, this was strictly work-related. You see, my name's Nathaniel Wolfert and I'm a bounty hunter which put simply means it's my job to bring the dregs of the Citadel to justice. Of course, the fact that I get paid a nice little sum of credits for doing something I've learned to love is a nice little side-bonus too, I'm not that much of a do-gooder. In fact, if you asked a random person off the street about their opinion of the Butcher of Torfan, they'd probably say just the opposite about me.

You might ask how I got that rather grisly name, so I'll summarize my life for you here real quickly just in case you've never heard of me. Actually, you know what? Fuck that noise, there's enough information about me on the omni-net. You wanna know my backstory then you can read about it yourself because I frankly don't have the time or energy to detail all the messed up stuff I've gone through in my twenty-six years of living. All I'll say here is I grew up on the streets, joined the military to escape that life, killed a shit-ton of bad people along the way and watched way too many of my closest friends and allies die around me.

So thanks to that turn of events I'm now here, chasing down the leader of an asari trio of bank robbers who made the grievous mistake of killing C-Sec personnel. Ordinarily, they'd let the police take care of this but once they crossed the line and became cop killers, that meant they were going to be taken out swiftly by whatever hunters were available for the job. I had my issues with C-Sec thanks to my somewhat abrasive attitude when it comes to cops but to give them credit, they didn't fuck around when it came to letting people know what would happen if you attacked their personnel. The pub I was at now was a rumored hangout for all sorts of criminals and I was hoping to get some kind of clue as to what my next move should be.

Now, there were a lot of ways people went about bounty hunting. Some preferred to track their quarry, wait until they were isolated and then ambush them. Others would simply get the target's location from an information specialist and then storm the place. As you're probably guessing however, I had a slightly different approach, one suited to my particular talents. Namely, making a really big splash and then just sort of seeing how people reacted to it and going from there.

"What can I get for you?" The turian bartender set down a glass and placed both hands on the counter, giving me a not-unfriendly smile.

"How about a Tupari?" I took a seat on one of the stools. "I'm sort of on the job right now so getting drunk is not exactly an option."

His face went stone blank. Poor guy was probably wondering if this was some sort of strange human custom. "Then no offense meant because I'm always looking for new customers but why would you ever come here?"

"That's right, almost forgot." I smacked my head, playing it off as stupid bumbling on my end. My voice rose in volume, making sure that anyone in the establishment who cared about this sort of thing had the opportunity to overhear it. "I'm a bounty hunter and I'm looking for someone in particular who's rumored to hang out here in her spare time." I flashed a picture of the asari woman on my omni-tool while also sporting a wicked grin. "Name's Elesia Veuss."

While he was recoiling from my death wish of a statement, I discreetly scanned the room for a reaction. More than one person was making their way towards the door, trying to look nonchalant at the mention of a bounty hunter but unfortunately none of them were asari which meant that I wasn't here for them right now. Well, looks like they're not completely stupid then. Guess it's time to go to plan B.

The barkeep leaned forward and whispered into my ear. "Look human, I don't know if you came here on a dare from a friend or what but if you value your life, you'd better get out of here now." He did a survey of his own and continued. "That's not me threatening you either," he threw his hands up in an effort to diffuse any possible misunderstanding, "some of my clients are not exactly…peaceful and a bounty hunter sniffing around is a good way to cause a rather violent tide to rise."

Well it sounds like I've hit the jackpot. "I'm counting on it actually so I hope you're right." I gave a little nod before returning with more whispers of my own. "I'd still better take my leave though, you seem like a fairly decent guy and I'd hate for your place to get trashed because of me." My voice returned to normal as I made my exaggeratedly loud escape. "If you do happen to remember anything about the lady's location, just give me a call. I'll have to get that Tupari another time then."

As the door closed behind me, I slowed my pace, making sure anybody that wanted to trail me to see where I'd go was able to do just that. Whistling loudly as I walked, I got out my omni-tool and activated the camera function, discreetly angling it to look behind me so I could see just what I would be dealing with. It only took about ten seconds for a couple of asari to leave the bar I had just vacated, looking both ways before trailing me at a distance of about two hundred feet. There's the ticket. Now I just need to make my way into a position where they can ambush me without fear of C-Sec interference. If they were Veuss' lackeys which was the most likely scenario here, they would take the first chance they could get to eliminate a potential threat.

After a couple minutes of walking, I spotted some lowly-lit alleyways that I recognized would lead into a dead end. That'll do nicely. Checking under my jacket to make sure I had biotic restraints handy and easily accessible, I pulled out my pistol, put my back to the wall and waited.

The first thing that alerted me to their presence was two cautious shadows that loomed across the gap in front of me. Pushing myself off the wall, I took cover behind a large trash can. Now I just have to time this thing out.

"He came in here, I saw him." The voice of a young asari echoed off the walls to my hiding place.

A much more mature sounding one answered back. "If he's familiar with his surroundings at all, he'd know that this would lead him to a dead end."

"Think it's a trap?"

I just grinned as I readied myself for a Charge. "Probably. But we still have to investigate otherwise the boss will be extremely angry. Stay alert and watch for movement."

Now the combatant I was a few years ago in my young twenties, he would have stepped out, made some snarky pre-asskicking one-liner and then attacked. At the ripe old age of twenty-six however, I had become wiser. I coiled myself like a spring, ready to surprise them with a Charge, immobilize one right off the bat and then finish the other with some combination of hand-to-hand plus the specialty immobilization rounds that us bounty hunters used to subdue prey non-lethally.

Just as the blue tunnel started to appear around the edges of my vision, a single shot cracked through the silence and I froze, waiting for the pain to rip through me. I recognized the sound of a sniper rifle instantly and while my jacket had a rudimentary shield system along with some light plating thanks to Daxy working his magic, there was no way in hell that was going to stop anything close to a dead-on round from a sniper.

"Where'd the shot come from?" A panicked asari voice shouted and I peeked back out, seeing that one of the two had dropped to the ground in a bloodless heap. I grimaced involuntarily. That means another bounty hunter trying to move in on my mark which means a possible fight on my hands that I was not expecting. I'd run into members of a couple of the other guilds in my short time as a Contractor and whether they were from The Fets, Eternity, Red Nova or damn Black Box it nearly always ended in blows over who would be getting the credit for the target but I guess that was kind of expected from a group of people who trained specifically in hunting down hardened criminals who almost assuredly were going to put up a fight. Basically what I'm saying is bounty hunters in general are only a couple rungs above the criminals we catch and that's just the honest truth. A push in one way or another and we easily could be on the other end of law.

For once though, I actually got to think a little bit about what was going to happen next because the asari either forgot I existed or just figured the hidden person with the gun pointed at them was the bigger threat which was fine by me. I'm just gonna see how this plays out and go from there.

What must have been agonizing seconds of silence passed by for the asari in front of me as she surrounded herself with an intense-looking purplish-blue aura that could probably do what my jacket could not, especially considering that the weapons that hunters like myself used were modded with ammo blocks that were considerably less powerful which was the trade-off of being able to put a target out of commission without killing them.

It thankfully only took a few seconds for the fight to kick off in full as an asari wearing a light set of armor appeared at the end of the alleyway, looking almost more annoyed that she had to leave her hiding place than anything else. "Now why'd you have to do that?" The woman whose face was shrouded in shadows peered around into the darkness where I was hidden. "After I went to all the trouble of following Wolfy and everything too."

"Hey!" Apparently my senses for being followed weren't quite as good as I thought then. Although the shortening of my last name and the species of the mysterious sharpshooter did basically give away who the newest member of the suddenly crowded alleyway was. "I'm the one who got them to follow me here so why don't you go back to the bar and find a nice turian to flirt with Allyna?"

"Nope, sorry." At being recognized, I could practically feel the smile radiating from the sometimes overly friendly asari. The fellow Wyrwulf was one of the nicest people I knew, much too nice to be in the line of work we were, but she was just as insistent on hunting as she was on settling down much earlier than was usual for an asari as young as her. "Since Akihiro disappeared again as soon as I started talking to him I figured that tailing you would be much more fun. You never even noticed though." Well I guess having a drell hitman for a father and an asari commando for a mother did pay off in teaching you certain things from a very young age which made me feel slightly better about not realizing she was there.

"Not gonna lie Ally, I wish I had noticed you now that I know you were tailing me this whole time." I threw a friendly wink her way. "Although I will say I'm very glad it was you and not somebody from another guild."

"Awww, you say the nicest things Wolfy, I knew you had a heart of gold despite all those nasty reports about you on the net." Well. I guess I'll take the good from that and not the bad. "You still sure you don't want to go out sometime? My offer's still on the table."

I just laughed as the conversation circled around to where it always did eventually. "Still good, thanks though. Next time my buddy Mitch comes to stay though, I promise I'll hook you two up."

As she practically yipped in joy, our forgotten target had retreated to somewhere in between us, becoming more and more frustrated at being completely ignored until she had finally reached the breaking point. "By the Goddess, what is wrong with you two?"

"Please." I put her into stasis before she could react or even say another word. "We're trying to have a civil chat here and you are interrupting very rudely. Now how about we get the info out of this lady, find the big bitch herself and split the profits?"

She pondered it for a moment before nodding. "That's fine with me." The maiden walked over to our captive with a terrifyingly gleeful expression on her face, hand alight with warpfire. "Mom taught me a few tricks that can make a person talk pretty quick."

The immobilized asari's eyes went wide in horror as I interjected before she could go too far with it. "Christ Ally! We're not gonna fucking torture her!"

"We're not?"

I walked up, broke the Stasis and slapped anti-biotic cuffs on the woman before she could even give a sigh of relief at my proclamation. "That's not how I operate." Well, not anymore at least. It took a lot to push me to that drastic of a step. "We can get all the information we need from her without resorting to something that drastic."

Leaning in close to my guildmate's…ear, since I guess the little protrusions on the side of her head qualified as that, I quickly whispered an abbreviated version of my plan at which she brightened up once again. "Oh, I like it. Except for the one part at the end, you're gonna have to do that."

"What?" I scoffed. There was no way in hell that I was going to put my whole plan in the hands of the guild's second newest member, the only one fresher than her being me of course. "Why do I have to play the damsel?"

"Because how else am I going to rescue you and finally get you out of that boring old guildhall?" She grabbed my arm and practically nuzzled my shoulder which made me chuckle loudly, all of my arguments melting away with the laughter.

"Fine then, you get to play hero this time." I held up a fake finger of warning as I stepped toward our captive. "But don't think this is going to be a common thing!"

She just winked playfully before walking over to our captive asari who had sort of just flopped into a resigned pile of a person once the cuffs had been slapped on. You see, that's the problem with training too much with one specific thing. Take biotics for example, snatch them away from a person who relies on them too much and it's basically the equivalent of kneecapping someone.

As Ally stood over her, I began the time-old process of extracting information with a tired sigh. "Look, just tell me where Veuss is and this will go so much better for you."

Before I even knew what was happening, Ally had slammed her hand against the other asari and the two struggled for a few seconds before the cuffed one fell to the ground in a dazed heap. Right, almost forgot for a second there the asari have that whole, "mind meld," thing going on. Kinda makes interrogation a little bit unnecessary although that didn't look exactly comfortable for the other one. I shrugged off the moral dilemma mentally, she is a criminal after all so I guess it wasn't as bad as what we could have done. Mostly. "I guess that was quicker but uh, it didn't seem entirely necessary."

Adding to my discomfort, the fact that sweet, seemingly innocent Ally was capable of shit like this was a little jarring for me. From anybody else, I admittedly would have accepted it much quicker and easier. "Sorry." Just like that, she was turned to me with her typical flirty grin. "My mom taught me that when the subject is thinking of the info you want that it's much easier to meld and find it, since the information is stored shallower in the brain or something like that." She gave a sort of shrug as if to apologize again for her act. "Hey you said you didn't want to torture her right?"

Yeah, I guess I did. "Still. I didn't mean for you to go full-frontal mind assault on the woman. Even if she's going to prison for murder along with the rest of her group…speaking of group." It only took a moment to realize that the asari who took the initial shot to kick off the fight had slinked away unnoticed. Well, it's a good thing our hastily constructed plan still works alright even with the fact that Veuss is probably gonna hear about the fact that we know her location thanks to Ally's…probings.

Turning to the asari who was now stirring, I nudged my fellow Contractor. "Is she gonna be okay after that?"

"She'll be fine Wolfy." Indicating I should follow her, she dialed C-Sec's direct line for hunters. "It was only an extremely shallow meld so she should be-"

"You pureblooded bitch!"

"Just fine." She finished the thought, winking at the woman as she gave the police our current coordinates. Well, that's one out of the way. Not the big fish we were going for originally but still, that'll be a nice little bit of money for the both of us to split which I am not going to complain about whatsoever.

LINE BREAK

I change my mind, no reward is worth this. Looking around the Stasis Field I was currently trapped in, I thought about how exactly I was going to pay Ally back for this. Basically the Veuss chick who we were after because of the big reward was tipped off by that asari who escaped and now I was the one standing in a bubble as the woman stalked her way over, still crackling with the biotic energy that she used to originally trap me.

"It is always you humans who have to insert yourselves into situations where you don't belong, isn't it?"

She shook her head impatiently, stating the simple question more as if it was a fact straight out of a textbook. Since I couldn't really respond in any way thanks to my current status, the only thing I currently had in my arsenal to show my disdain with was a roll of the eyes directed towards her dramatics. Seriously? She's the one who killed a cop and now I'm getting lectured for my entire species wrongs? Not that we don't have more than our fair share of those, but still, it's the principle of the whole thing. I'm sure the asari have got their fair share of dirty secrets too when it comes down to it.

"This was just going to be a simple job." Great. She's gonna start monologuing now. "Use our contacts to break in, steal a fortune in credits and then hideout on Omega until the ripples stilled." Ah yes, good old Omega. The glorious shithole of the universe where all the scum of the universe went to lay low for a while, it's been a long time since our little excursion to that paradise. Come to think of it, I wonder what that drell that worked as Aria's muscle is up to these days? Last time I saw Ty was when I helped to shuttle him to the hanar homeworld, Kahje. Turns out the pirate queen doesn't like her own people going behind her back and helping people. Even if it wasn't exactly a direct betrayal, the Blue Suns were pissed as hell when they heard that we made it off planet mostly in one piece and that meant more work for her to keep the masses in check which meant in turn that heads would roll.

"…but he just wouldn't get out of the way." Oh right, she's still talking. Kind of got lost on a couple tangents in my own mind there. Speaking of getting lost, where the hell is Ally? It's not that I can't take this lady if I don't have to but shockingly, I'd rather not risk my own hide unnecessarily and fighting with superior odds would be a nice change from the normal situations I somehow find myself in. As soon as I see her I'll just Warp my way out and have a nice easy target to attack from behind while she's preoccupied. It'll be the easiest takedown I've had in my time as a Contractor.

Well, that was my line of thinking at least. The only thing that announced her presence was the clatter of a circular device that I quickly recognized, cursing loudly as I did so. Once again, I mused on how having a drell, "hired gun," for a dad who's able to teach you a few tricks of the trade must be nice because I didn't even notice her. Not that I was actively scanning but still, it was fairly impressive.

I slammed my eyes shut a split-second before the explosion of light and sound happened but unfortunately, the noise was one thing that just couldn't be helped as there was no way in hell I'd be able to break free in time. With ears still loudly ringing, I summoned a Warp and finally broke out of the field, opening my eyes to see Ally had already cuffed the target.

"You could have at least warned me!" Not being able to hear yourself does wonders for managing the volume of your voice. I saw her lips move and she tilted her head in the coy way she usually did when she was either flirting or trying to use her natural asari charms to get out of something but all I could hear at that point was bells. Lots and lots of fucking bells. "I can't hear shit!"

She stepped in close and put her lips up to my ear, probably having to yell at this point to make herself heard. "If I would have known you were a strong enough biotic to break yourself out of a field Wolfy, I wouldn't have had to do that. We could have just double-teamed her and got it done it that way."

"Please rephrase that." I thought it was loud enough to be heard but apparently it wasn't because she cocked her head in confusion, at which I just waved her off. "Just forget I said anything!"

She looked down at her omni-tool for a brief moment before moving in close again. "I've gotta go. Sasvin and Akihiro are going out to get drinks tonight and they invited me to tag along so I'm sure you can handle things from here right?" Holy shit, those two just need to be locked in a room together and get it over with already. The entire guild was aware of their little thing and I'm not sure what kept them apart, because clearly the Asian man didn't care at all that she was a batarian. Despite the dirty looks he'd receive from other humans when they were seen together out in public, he never cared one bit or treated her any differently despite the strained relations between our two species in general.

"Yeah sure, go have fun." I waved her off, still annoyed at my impaired hearing.

The next thing I knew, painted lips were being pressed against my cheek and Ally was retreating. But not before pointing to our prisoner and typing out, "You sure?" on her omni-tool. I just nodded and sighed, I'm such a pushover when it comes to the women in my life. Whether it was Emma, Lia now, or even going way back to Talia and Chelsea, I just never could say no to a pretty lady. That's probably going to come back and bite me in the ass someday but whatever, it's easier this way I think.

"Well, looks like it's just me and you now." I threw the woman over my shoulder and brought her to the skycar I had parked just a short ways away. It was only a short way from there to the security force's headquarters which was thankfully silent of any complaining or screaming because of the flashbang that Selaptos had set off. I'll take the loud static of being too close to a grenade over a screaming bounty any day. In a rather bittersweet fashion though, the noise had worn off by the time we got close and although that meant a crying asari was now pounding my eardrums, being able to communicate with C-Sec personnel without screaming would actually be rather helpful.

As I touched down and began my walk in, I stumbled into a…not exactly friend, maybe acquaintance is a better word. "Vakarian!" The partner of the friendly turian I had gotten to know over the last few months walked determinedly by as I brought in my quarry. "You got a sec?"

"Oh, Wolfert. It's you." Well don't sound so enthusiastic about it.

"Hey what's going on lately with Medana? Haven't seen him or Finn in a long while, usually they stop by the store every now and then just to say hey."

His mandibles fluttered and his brow plates drooped in an expression of…sadness? "He quit." What? He seemed like he absolutely loved his job, I can't believe he would just resign seemingly out of the blue like that. There's gotta be something else going on. "Our last case went wrong in just about the worst way imaginable and…Finnelix was kidnapped."

I just made a noise of consternation and bewilderment as I stared at the turian officer. "Whu- what?"

"Yeah." He glanced away from me and his flanging voice was going absolutely crazy with subharmonics. I could read into turian body language by now, but their dual-tone voice was still fairly unreadable to me unfortunately, even though Daxy had helped me out a little bit. "When the two of us got pulled off the case, he refused to give up the hunt. Our superiors told him to either stop pursuing it or face termination and he chose the latter. I haven't seen him since then but if I had to guess, he's hunting down that bastard Saleon."

"Holy shit Vakarian. That's fucking awful." I just stared at him, completely floored by the tragic turn of events. "Is his bondmate…" I cut myself off, realizing that just about any species would react the same way. "Sorry, stupid question."

He glanced down at his omni-tool. "I have a case I'm working on."

His head tilted slightly in the politest goodbye I was going to get from the cop. "Good luck with that. I know you're not a big fan of me but if there's anything I can do to help out Medana…just let me know and I'll be happy to help. He's a good man and if there's a way to rescue Finn, count me in."

"I appreciate that." He looked like he was thinking about something he wanted to say before shaking his head and walking off. Since I didn't know Vakarian that well it would only be a guess, but if I had to put one out there I'd say he was plenty busy hunting up leads of his own, just in a more discreet fashion and unfortunately he didn't trust me well enough to clue me in. Frankly, that was understandable though, we weren't exactly on the greatest of terms like I said. "If I find out anything relating to a location and we need extra manpower, I'll make sure to clue you in. Frankly, I don't like you all that much but if it means saving Finn I can put that aside for a short while."

That was definitely the best possible way to put things so I just nodded and made my exit, nodding as I did so. "Roger that." I hauled off the asari and turned her into Citadel Security. "Contractor BK two-oh-one, bringing in my mark with credit for the assist going to fellow Contractor UB oh-oh-one."

LINE BREAK

It was about three uneventful weeks later that I got a call from the guildmaster, Lismeni Selori. "Wolf."

"Liz, what's up?" Getting a call from the head honcho was like getting a call from your boss, as soon as you saw the name pop up you started to sweat a little bit no matter the situation.

"Sorry to interrupt whatever it is that you're doing but I need you back at the guildhall." Ah shit. Even if she's usually a pretty easygoing lady, you never want to get called into the principal's office.

"Like, now?" I winced. As far as I know, I hadn't committed any major sins as of late. That however didn't stop my mind from racing, just trying to think of something that I was going to be punished for.

"Yes Nate, 'like, now.'"

"Can you uh, tell me what it's about?" Hell yeah I was going to fish for information, anything at all was better than going in completely blind.

"I'd rather talk to you in person, it's a pretty sensitive matter."

"Am I in trouble?"

She gave a quick chuckle. "Depends on how you feel regarding what we have to talk about. Look, just get back here and come up to my office as soon as you can, there's somebody important waiting on you."

"Who is-" The call went dead. "Well fine, just leave that hanging above my head then. Won't be bugging me the whole time or anything." I quickly sent a message to Daxy saying I might be late getting home tonight and called for a lift.

It only took a few minutes to make it to the home of the Wyrwulves and walk in, taking a deep breath as I did so. The first thing I heard was the huskily feminine voice of the batarian Hunter-rank member of our guild, Sasvin Ben'Kopos. "Wolf's in trouble Ally, look at how nervous he is."

Her ever present companion who I hadn't seen much of since the job we'd pulled together, Allyna Selaptos chimed in next from the balcony overhead. "You're right Sass, his face is all red and flustered looking. I haven't seen him this embarrassed since I kissed him on the cheek after capturing Elesia."

"I'm sorry ladies, as much as I would love to stay here and chat," giving a little bow, I made my way into Selori's office, "some of us here can't get by on our looks and actually have to hustle for a living."

Ever the tease, Ally fired right back. "So you're saying you think we're pretty then?"

"What was that? Couldn't hear you guys." Opting to completely eject from that conversation before I could dig myself deeper, I biotically charged through the doors of our leader's office, ending up just inside the entrance. "Sorry about the strange entry boss. Had to escape the girls before things got too out of hand."

"No problem Wolf, I understand completely." She gave a light laugh. "Please," the bosslady indicated to the empty seat, "sit down."

For the first time, I noticed that it wasn't just the two of us in the room. I started to sit down next to the other occupant before realizing exactly who it was that occupied the other seat. "Commander Anderson!" Standing straight upright in a position that would have made my old drill instructor proud, my old Alliance habits kicked in as I saluted the man. "Apologies, sir! I didn't realize it was you otherwise I would have had a more professional entrance."

"At east Mr. Wolfert, you're not Alliance anymore." With an easy expression, he pointed towards the chair again. "And it's actually captain now."

"Well congratulations on the promotion then sir." Although I was smiling in a friendly manner, my mind was closing in on itself. This is it. I'm going to spend the rest of my life in an Alliance prison. Speirs finally decided to tell the authorities about my little incident with Cerberus and if the world has a sense of irony, I'll probably end up in the same jail I broke that murderer Kai fucking Leng out of. Still wish I would have caved that bastard's skull in on the spot, screw the consequences.

"Thank you Nathan. And I heard from Lieutenant Commander Speirs about your father and fiance's passing." He shook his head mournfully. "I didn't ever have the pleasure of meeting Emma but I knew your father and he was a good and honest man. Without a doubt, he deserved better and should have been honored for the hero he was."

"I appreciate that sir, it was definitely heartbreaking to lose both of them like that. They uh, they were great people." While the years passing by had cooled the violent fire that their murders brought, that didn't mean I still could easily just talk about them casually. The only one who could really draw anything out of me without completely making me clam up was Dax and he was sensitive enough to just let it be for the most part.

Back to Anderson though. Surprisingly, when he brought up Speirs, who also got a promotion I guess, I didn't read anything from the man. Anderson was a soldier through and through, not an actor or some fatass armchair general and if he would have known anything from Speirs about me there would have been something he would have revealed in his body language. Plus there would have been a dozen high N-ranking badasses next to him waiting to jump my ass, considering my past. Alright, that last bit might have been a bit of overestimating my own skills on my end but still, the captain would have at least had some sort of backup or much more likely, they would have just busted into our little home and taken me sometime in the night, peacefully and without much of a fight on my part.

"Well if there's anything I can do, I'd be happy to help." The husky voice man brought me back down to earth.

"The Alliance has always been like a second home to me sir, if anything I owe you guys." I tried to gently steer the conversation away from such turbulent waters. "I'm actually doing pretty well now, even though it was touch and go for a long while there. Lizzie's helped me out immensely with making me feel welcomed by the whole guild here."

"Well, speaking of that." He chuckled slightly to himself. "I've been talking to Guildmaster Selori over here-"

"Just call me Liz captain, I'm not in the military anymore thank the Goddess." She smirked. "I did away with ranks when they stuck me with this gig." For a couple people who had most likely just met, they seemed to be pretty familiar. I guess military ties can even carry across species and unite people you'd never really expect.

"Well like I was saying, I was talking to Liz and we might have reached an agreement on you doing a sort of favor for us."

I kicked back and looked curiously at the two. "I'm not opposed to doing some work with the Alliance again, might actually enjoy it. We talking teams work here as a private contractor, some kind of task force or what?"

"Something along those lines, yes."

The leader of the Wyrwulves interjected before Anderson took back over the conversation. "Have you ever heard of Eden Prime?"

"Of course." Pretty much every human alive had heard of Eden Prime. It was a colony hailed as a peaceful, farming paradise. A beautiful planet that spoke to humanity's ability to successfully spread across the galaxy. Basically it was a very important colony to us humans, especially politically. "Not sure what that has to do with doing a favor for you but I'm guessing you'll explain that to me right now."

"That's correct." He opened his omni-tool and sent me a file attachment that I'm guessing had all the information on it. "I know you probably won't read that though so I'll give you a short explanation of what happened."

"You know me so well captain."

"You do have a certain widespread reputation among the brass to this day." I couldn't help but smile, it'd been two whole years since my service time was up but I'm glad to know that I'd left a lasting impression on the head honchos. "Thankfully, it hasn't been leaked to the media yet but it's just a matter of time before this becomes widespread public knowledge which is why I don't mind telling Lismeni. Besides," he turned to the woman and gave a pearly-white smile which shocked me with its warmness, usually the man was as gruff as they come but I guess sometimes you've just got to play the hand you're dealt and he was doing that to the fullest right now which I could see Liz definitely appreciated, "I'm sure a former special forces woman like your guildmaster can keep a few secrets."

She grinned right back. "Of course David." Wow, first name basis huh? "Consider my lips sealed."

"Well then, to sum up the situation, Eden Prime was attacked a few days ago by a certain turian Spectre named Saren Arterius and with him was a practical army of geth. We're not sure exactly why, but we know he succeeded in interfacing on some level with a prothean beacon that was discovered there."

I opened my mouth to interrupt but he cut me off. "There's a lot to get through so let me finish the story first, I imagine you'll have a lot of questions and I'd rather get them all out of the way at once."

"Sorry sir, fire away."

He thought for a moment before picking up where he left off. "The situation was interrupted by a fireteam led by Lieutenant Commander Caleb Shepard." A massive grin spread across my face before I could stop it, please let this mean that I'm going to work with the fucking legend himself. "He was in the middle of being evaluated for Spectrehood and went down there to eradicate the geth and just find out what the situation was in general since we were almost entirely in the dark. The commander led his squad through the geth forces, fighting their way to the prothean beacon where in an effort to save one of his teammates, he got drawn into the device's range and a…vision I guess you could call it, was burned into his mind." The darker-skinned man shook his head at the recollection. "The images were a jumbled mess he said, but the one thing that was clear was giant squid-like ships destroying some sort of race of people."

I gasped internally at the man's description. If I had to guess, it sounds like the Lion of Elysium himself saw the same things I did or at least something eerily similar. Although all that really did was raise a shit-ton of questions about my own biotically infused hallucination back in Detroit.

"After that, we made our way back to the Citadel and are now currently investigating several leads here on station." The sound of Anderson talking snapped me back to attention. "I know it's a lot to take in but trust me, it's all true."

"No no, I've had some experiences in my past that line up with that, plus I know you're not the type to bullshit around. I'm just surprised that she's," I pointed to the guildmaster, "taking it all in stride."

"Well, when you think about it from my side it doesn't matter whether it's true or not." A sharklike grin spread across her face. "You taking this job is the best thing for the guild. I let you take a break from bounty hunting to do this gig with the Alliance, in return the Wyrwulves get weapons, credits and most importantly, a lot of great publicity for having one of their own working right alongside the Alliance's figurehead."

"So it really is quite the win-win then. The guild gets some great bonuses and you get me out of your hair for a while."

"Precisely." The asari winked saucily at me to show that she was only joking, at least somewhat. "So like it or not, you're going with the nice captain here at the end of the day."

"Wow. A choice in the matter would have been nice but okay." I leant back and turned to the N7. "Still don't quite get why you need me though captain."

"It's quite simple really. This mission is of the utmost importance and we're recruiting the best personnel we can to support the commander in his mission. A couple of the ground team members recommended we recruit you and I agreed with their choice." He got up, indicating that we were just about done here which annoyed me. Now I'll be stuck not knowing who it was that put me out there as a potential hire. "Saren might be violently anti-human but he's one of the best soldiers in the galaxy and now he's got an entire geth force supporting him. To put it bluntly, we need all the help we can get."

"Well at first I felt flattered but after that last statement, not so much." I got up to shake the captain's hand. "How soon do I need to be ready sir?"

"Tomorrow evening." He looked down at his omni-tool and his face grew almost weary-looking. "I'm sorry, I need to answer this. We'll go over all the specifics of your contract tomorrow when you meet the rest of the team at C-Sec headquarters."

My face felt like it would split with how wide I was grinning right now. "I can't wait to work with the Alliance's best again Captain Anderson, sir. You and the commander have nothing to worry about, I won't let you guys down."

"I've got faith in you son." He clapped me on the shoulder before walking out. "Despite your eccentricities," Lizzie choked out a knowing laugh, "you're an extremely capable fighter and that's what we need right now."

"I'll be ready. Tomorrow night at C-Sec HQ?" I questioned, just to make sure that I had the details correctly.

"That's correct." He fastened the military cap on his shaved head as he left the office. "Get everything you'll need and meet us there. Be ready to fight."

I flashed a more than eager grin at the man. "C'mon captain, when has that last bit ever been a problem for me?"

A/N: Welp, life has been officially crazy (which I get into more in the preview chapter last book) but I am now back in the saddle after getting organized to the point where I can write again. For the time being I won't be able to post every week but I'm pretty sure I can stick to a bi-weekly schedule finally which means the story is back up and running since I didn't want to do it if I had to post randomly. I'd like to apologize to all you guys for taking so long in between stories but thanks for sticking with me, sending me super encouraging messages and just taking the time to read this, hopefully you'll enjoy the next one!

As always, my beta is the illustrious Ranger Station Charlie who has still stuck with me despite the longggggg break. He's even got a one-shot story of his own posted now so go to his profile and check that out if you'd like!