Chapter 1

New Orders

I don't know what we expected.

Did we really all believe that things would just quiet down after we destroyed the reapers? After everything that happened on the Citadel? With EDI? And now this… could anyone have predicted this? There wasn't a damn thing to warn us about it and now that it's over… where do we go from here?

The voice of The Intelligence echoed in my mind like a scolding mother. This is what it promised would happen; we beat it, we always do. But what could possibly be next? It was hard enough recovering from the reapers but this? We had a nightmare brewing the entire time and NO ONE knew a damn thing about it. Things got close, real close. And now whenever I get the chance, I grip Shepard a whole lot tighter, and keep her a whole lot closer. And when the next firefight happens I'll always be sure to keep her within my visor, and her danger within my scope…

#

#

It had only been a few weeks since we had brought the new Citadel back into the widow system, we stayed on dock for a little over a week while everyone re-acclimatized to having it around again. As the days passed and the crews spirits grew restless we were itching on the rumours and wishing them to be true. Not in the sense that we liked the danger, but when you've accomplished all we've done… theres only so much quiet you can handle —-not that you'd trade it… but you get that itch. The itch for more. And when the rumours proved true, there wasn't a single person on the Normandy who didn't know what it meant.

We were headed for some more action.

You could feel it as you made your way back in through the Normandy airlock, walking by as EDI gave a wave from her cockpit jump seat and Joker called out a snarky comment that in his own language meant 'hello, welcome back'. As I moved though the CIC to the forward battery I could feel it, the crew was moving faster, the ship felt more alive. I strided my way past Traynor ignoring the looks of awe from some of the new crew members manning their stations. I gave Traynor a quick 'where is Shepard' look and she quickly spoke out:

"Welcome back Garrus, Shepard is in the comm room speaking with Hackett. New orders, and from what I gather… it's big. Shall I send her your way next time she passes by?" She asked.

"If she isn't too busy… you know where I'll be" I responded as the elevator arrived and opened up.

Before the door closes I gave Traynor a quick nod, the look of excitement across my face that only Shepard or another turian could decipherer.

"Traynor." I said as the doors closed.

As the doors opened to the crew deck I knew a likely place where I could get some info on what we were headed into before Shepard could brief me…

I made my way towards Liara's room -Liara had only been able to rejoin the crew recently, having important work back on Thessia, along with some in-person shadow broker business elsewhere she only rejoined us when she was informed about the new Citadel. And then soon after that she found out about some important information Hackett was in possession of — wouldn't be surprised if she was involved with him getting it— and that it likely meant us getting involved.

She arrived just a day after we had been able to get the Citadel into the widow system. As I walked into her room she was typing furiously on her terminal with her back turned to me, Glyph popped out of his corner and was the first to greet me.

"Vakarian! A pleasure to see you, as always! Liara is over by the terminal, she should be pleased to see you!" It buzzed over-enthusiastically.

Liara quickly turned around and when we locked eyes she gave me a wide smile and walked over for a hug. "Garrus! Glad to see your alright, I heard about everything that happened with the Citadel and Shepard. How are your injuries, punctured lungs are no laughing matter." She said

I shook my head with a smirk, I knew that nothing happened without her knowing, between her and EDI secrets are hard to keep.

"Not surprised you already know all the details… in which that's what I was wondering, I assume you had to be the only on this ship to have some real information on all this… it's good to have you aboard again." I said, glancing over to all her monitors that tracked your movement like eyes.

"Speaking of some information, your sister has drawn a lot of attention back on Palaven her interview on the Citadel situation is the most watched thing on Palaven right now… as for what Shepard is talking with Hackett about right now, I'm frustrated to say I don't know much" Liara said with a sidewards tilt of her head and a agitated tilt of her eyebrows.

"So the biggest information broker left in the galaxy doesn't even have any information…how sad" I said, teasing her just a little, thinking maybe she is just holding information back… you never know.

"I've sent whats left of my team to find out about these new group, all I got back was they're some kind of terrorist group, and they could be trouble, and that they are very good at remaining hidden." She said, shrugging her shoulders as she tapped away at her terminal, infrequently looking my way as she spoke.

"Any place my teams did discover were not within any charted systems… unfortunately I don't have the resources to have a tap on every corner of the galaxy. I'm still not back up to full strength after the war… Most of my attention has gone towards getting everyone back on their feet and speeding up trade between planets. Spying hasn't been top of my list, and I've hardly had enough time to figure these guys out but I just hope they are not another Cerberus because— Goddess… look at me ramble." She stopped herself, and I walked over and put a hand on her shoulder.

"Come on, we took out an entire galactic invasion force. Terrorist groups are small time right? Nothing we can't handle, I'm not worried and we'll all hear from Shepard soon enough." I said, a little disappointed but not at all stressed about the lack of Intel.

I mean, look at all we've gone through. I always expect the worst but… then again it really seems like we've already passed that. Right?

As I was starting to make my way out towards the forward battery, Traynor came on through he comm:

"Garrus, Shepard just passed through the CIC, she's heading down to you now."

"Thanks Traynor" I responded to the walls and made my way to the elevator. I figured I had enough time to go to the kitchen and grab a snack for her so I did and as I arrived at the elevator the doors opened and Shepard walked out, jumping a little in surprise at my being right there, I offered her the small meal in foil wrap — swarma or something like that— She did her usual 'aww you' smile and took it, ripping open the foil and taking a huge bite, she walked with me towards the briefing table and we both sat down.

"So… new orders?" I asked when she was half done her food.

"Mhm mm… EDI.. Mhm" She said between bites, and EDI came on the comm.

"I have sent the message, the crew are on their way." She promptly replied.

Shepard swallowed the last quarter of her meal almost in its whole and then once she could breath again she spoke.

"Hackett doesn't know anything, no one knows. We need to go to some place they found." She said.

Aannnnnd not even Shepard knows. I remember why I like intel.

"You mean the place my team found… well at least the only base that my team found and never reported in again." Liara said, walking over and finding a seat. Not long after most of the rest of the crew began making their way over and within a minute they were all here: Kaidan, Chakwas, James, Cortex, Liara, Tali, Sol, Joker and EDI, along with a number of other crew.

"Ok liara, you were saying?" Shepard said, re-iterating what we were talking about earlier for everyone else to hear.

"Two months ago, some agents came upon some information on a new terrorist group, not much, but enough to believe it's valid data. Last week they happened upon their first base, empty. And no information other than coordinates to another base. Two days ago my team arrived at this base, they never reported back. I still haven't heard anything and all I know is it's linked to the information we discovered a few months ago." With a tap on her datapad, all relevant information lit up on our various datapads and omni-tools.

Some clearly well funded and previously unknown group did something with one of Liaras shadow broker squads, she had been forwarding information to Hackett and he eventually agreed that it was best Shepard and her team go check it out. Thinking himself that it was probably—hopefully— nothing. Liara knowing he would have Shepard investigate once he got the information, cut her previous business short and took a shuttle to the Citadel to meet up with us before we would get our orders.

If anything it really seemed that it was Liara giving Hackett the order to order Shepard to investigate, though I doubt any one else picked up on it.

"So were heading to some creepy base somewhere to find what took out one of the most effective teams left in the galaxy? Kee'lah if it's spiders." Tali said, arms crossed and shuddering, making a disgusted face behind her mask that you could make out from the squint of her eyes.

"Pretty much, though probably less creepy, and more dangerous. Though I'm sure we'll easily handle whatever we find. Most importantly we find out what happened to Liara's team, then we find information on this new group. Then we assist Hackett and the G.D.F in taking it out." Shepard said.

G.D.F is the Galactic Defence Force, kind of like the big brother to the Citadel defence fleet. The council commissioned it after the war, seeing as the galactic fleet Shepard was able to gather was effective enough to survive against the reapers long enough for her to activate the catalyst, they found it necessary to have a combined fleet on hand to call upon out of each races respective fleets at times of need. Whenever needed, the council can order them into place and have a combined force within 24 hours.

The Sunset Defiance Contingency.

"What do we know about the station itself? We know the fastest way to destroy it if need be?" Sol asked, reading through the brief on her omni-tool.

"Just the location." Shepard said.

Final questions from among the crew were asked, and all were given sub-par answers. The truth was we didn't know much, and we were basically going in blind with little help. Still no one seemed to worried, at most only a few people were noticeably apprehensive —and those people were the new crew-. Once the table cleared and the brief was over, I glanced at Shepard and motioned to the forward battery doors, she stood up and we both walked over and waited until we were both behind the doors before any of us said anything.

"You ok?" I asked, always one to worry.

"Just wish I could get more information before being sent somewhere." She replied, moving over to the wall and messing around with some of the tools.

"I know. I guess it was silly to think our vacation from stepping in to messes would never end. I just hope nothing kidnaps you this time." I said, referring back to recent events that lead to the new citadel.

"No promises, but I'll do my best as long as you promise not to almost get yourself killed several times in one day." She said.

"Following you?" I retorted.

"Yea… good point. Promise to stick together until this thing is over?" She asked.

"Promise. I'm with you Shepard, and when we finish these guys I'm taking you to Palaven. There's a really nice vacation spot they've restored, you don't need a radiation suit within it and it has a beautiful view." I said, sub vocals betraying how bad I am at sounding romantic.

"That sounds nice, Liara told me about these mountains one time, maybe we could visit there too, have a picnic." She offered, placing the tool back on the wall and moving over to look at me from the other side of my terminal.

"If your thinking of climbing that in the mako, I'll kindly decline. The best part of that place is the trees right around the base. Similar to those redwoods on earth but…."

All those trees had burned to ash, the entire mountain was on fire for months. It was nearby Cipritine and when the reapers found out about all the Turians hiding out in the mountains… they torched the whole thing. I remember watching them light it up, you could watch it from Menae.

"Yea.. I know, It'll be nice to see how those new trees are doing, but lets just make sure this new intel is nothing first." She said, shifting our attention to the current task at hand.

She called to EDI and had her set a course for our destination, a asteroid system a few light years away from Omega. Nothing there except thousands of space rocks orbiting a dwarf sun. Well… at least theres supposed to be nothing there. The inertia dampeners kicked in as the Normandy began to move again, and Shepard and I nodded to each other and headed to our respective areas to prepare.

#

The Normandy came out of FTL and jolted you like someone giving you a slight push. We all waited as Joker and EDI flew the Normandy through the dense asteroid field. The techs were listening on the comms, and checking all the systems. Everything seemed clear… abandoned… there was nothing here at first glance, but intel said the base was here… somewhere.

There was a subtle, barely perceptible feeling of the mass effect fields keeping us upright compensating for the twisting and turning the Normandy was doing through the asteroids. I'm sure Joker was enjoying it, he hadn't had to fly in crowded space since we took out the collector base, and I'm sure it must of been there somewhere at the back of his mind as he seamlessly tapped away at his controls.

"This route will close before we can pass it; indicating alternate route" EDI said, and joker turned the Normandy again into the other route, just as two massive asteroids collided making an audible boom through the emulated-audio radar system (E.A.R.S). Through the front windows you could get a glimpses of the small but bright white dwarf sun shining light between the gaps, there were no planets here, just rocks. So the base had to be on an asteroid, but which one? There were thousands of them, and it would be pretty simple to hide on one… or in one. We were flying around for about an hour until we found something.

A massive three kilometre long beast of a space rock was forcing its way through the field, easily knocking other rocks out if its way, and obliterating the smaller ones. EDI picked up a faint biotic barrier in one of the many tunnels that made up the shell of it. Upon a closer fly by, we confirmed that this is what we were looking for.

"Got anything?" Shepard asked from behind Joker's seat.

"Scans have nothing, we cant get any idea of whats in the centre of this thing. All we can get is a layout of the place with the deep scanners, I'll put it up in the war room." He said, keeping his eyes on his control panel the whole time.

Shepard called James and I to the war room, when we got there Sol was already looking through the layout of the building, searching for weak points.

"I've shown EDI several key tunnels the Normandy can shoot at in case we need to kill this place in a hurry. Now I assume this big place here-" She pointed to and zoomed in to one of the 5 square rooms that were tunnelled into deep within the rock. The base itself took up a small portion of the asteroid itself. "—is some kind of living quarters, but this place here—" she gestured to another spot and the hologram brought it up "—This is where we want to go. See this dark zone? It's shielded, thats why these two corridors here look like their just dead ends. Whatever is in here, whoever owns it didn't want anyone knowing about it. As for if anyone is still around. We wont be able to find out until were inside."

"Scans of our surroundings are quiet. There are no heat signatures anywhere within this belt, no ships have passed through in at least a few days." EDI announced through the comms.

"I'm ready to get this started commander, I'll head down and prep my gear, I'll meet you by the kodiak." Vega said after getting a good look at the place.

"I think it would be best if the Kodiak drops me off here, that way we can make our way to the dark zone from both sides." Sol said, looking to Shepard for the green-light to go alone. I wanted to suggest against it, but a quick look from Sol that said 'don't even object, you know I can take care of myself' kept my voice silent.

"I've seen what you can do back on the Citadel, I know you can handle yourself. But if you see anyone, don't engage until you've cleared it with me ground side. If you can, get past them and meet us in the dark zone." Shepard said.

"Not a problem Commander." Sol replied.

"I'm ready when you are Shepard" I said, and after a few more words, we all headed down to the cargo bay to prep our gear.

Joker brought us in closer to the asteroid and the Kodiak left the Normandy. It flew into the first tunnel and dropped off Sol, as soon as she stepped off the Kodiak and onto the platform she disappeared in a shimmer of light. (If you haven't read The Citadel— she is an infiltrator. In fact, you should read that story before this one. Up to you.)

"Right, see you on the inside" she said through the radio.

A minute later we were at our drop point. The three of us stepped out and the Kodiak hummed away. I pulled out my assault rifle and the three of us moved in standard formation. My breath steadied and my senses heightened, I kept an eye out for anything out of the ordinary and made sure Shepard was close by.

Just like old times.

As the airlock into the base closed behind us, and as soon as it was determined that the air was safe to breath I snapped off my helmet and clipped it to my side with the pistol mag-lock. It was quiet, and our steps echoed down the hall a little more loudly than I'd of liked. A few minutes in and there was still no one. On our end the place was empty.

"Sol, what do you see?" Shepard called in through the radio.

"Too many empty bunks. This place is a ghost town, whoever was here before… their gone." She replied.

The place was empty.

There wasn't a single living soul here.