Desert planets are...dry.

Unimaginative, yes, but it was one of the more poignant thoughts running through Tali's head. The others involved the odd stratagem or evac procedures, with the occasional dire possibility of failure topping it all off. She was leaning against a crate in the Normandy's docking bay, examining a holographic image of the planet they were about to dock on. Though, perhaps 'dock' wasn't the right word. In actuality, they were going to invade it.

She thought back to the week or two previous - she'd lost count of exactly how many days had passed since the Citadel fiasco. Whatever the number was, it wasn't big enough. There were simply too many things to process, too many miracles to calculate. It was fortunate that they had mostly kept moving, or she might have needed to stop and think about all of them. Much like she was at that very moment. Almost unintentionally, she slipped back into deep thought, taking due consideration to everything that had happened. She had been sitting outside her home by the lake when she'd received the call. Kaidan asked her aboard the Normandy for some kind of secret mission, and with old faces like Garrus and Joker aboard, how could she not?

She hadn't really thought about the whys until it was far too late. As it turned out, the Council had asked Kaidan to investigate an unearthed area of the Citadel's core from which some unknown signal was emerging. It had been Reaper strings, mixed in with organic thoughts and a few alternating bits of binary. It hadn't told them much, but it gave them a direction. It lead them right to Shepard. Tali was still seething about Kaidan's choice to leave her in the dark with regard to his suspicions. But it only got worse from there. Their old enemy Harbinger had somehow managed to latch on to Shepard's body after she'd destroyed the Reaper fleets using the Crucible five years previous, and her memories were a blur during the struggle to find someone to help.

Well, they had. With the help of Miranda and Dr. Solus (Mordin's nephew, Tali thought grimly, not the real deal), they'd managed to obtain a new host body and revive Commander Shepard for another life. She should have known at that point that it was all too good to be true. Harbinger offered them a deal; in exchange for his life, he would help them find a supposed shield world where the rest of the Reaper fleets were holed up, and destroy it. She was beginning to wonder, though, if that had been a convenient lie to cover his escape. Barely hours after he'd made that claim, he escaped with Cerberus troops to nowhere.

Not entirely nowhere. More like 'unknown-where'. An Alliance scientific colony hidden on a thick jungle world was hit next, or so she'd been told. Tali personally had spent the entirety of that mission getting embroiled in her own problems on the Citadel. At first, she thought it might have been just a quick drop-off of medical supplies and then maybe getting to chat up one of their new crewmates, Davisson (a man who she still hadn't quite figured out). Instead, they found themselves fighting a quarian terrorist group. It had ended in explosions, fighting, yelling, all the usual.

At the memory of that escapade, Tali's teeth ground together. Amber Wave. Barely a few years old as an organization, but already causing her too many problems. They claimed to represent quarian interests, but they had proved more than willing to murder their own people if it would get their way. During the fairly brief period of unrest on Rannoch after the Reaper War ended, she had needed to spend almost all of her time stopping them in their tracks before they could do any harm to the initially-fragile cooperation system between the Quarians and Geth. But they had still killed thousands. Before the Citadel, she'd harbored the hope that they'd even disappeared completely. They hadn't shown themselves openly until then, at least. With a surge of horror, she realized that if she and Davisson hadn't been involved, no one would have known they were responsible. How many other deaths had they caused without assigning their names, she wondered?

And now, she was back to fighting battles that seemed eerily familiar. The Normandy was to meet Miranda on some dead world - LV426 - and investigate a Cerberus outpost. According to Shepard (who was confined to the Med Bay, much to her displeasure), Harbinger was there, ready for the taking. In Tali's opinion, they needed to space him immediately if they got a hold of him again. Scratch that. He didn't need a breathe. Set him on fire, then. They didn't need another thorn in their sides during all of this. If he had been telling the truth, the news of a Reaper shield world was enough to warrant attention on its own.

She sighed, closing the omni-tool display and looking around. No point in changing their course now.

To her left, so still that he might have been mistaken for one of the supply crates if not for his built, Jeddah was standing watch over the bay. The presence of the geth was comforting, even more so given that Tali knew he was coming with her and the others planetside. Aside from his skillset being useful, she'd feel better knowing that her friend was by her side.

A ways away, Vaya and Liara were having a quiet conversation. That was another person aboard whom Tali didn't understand. Corporal Vaya exuded professionalism, but her manner was colder than what Tali considered 'usual'. Though, that may have simply been because most of her exposure to turian soldiers was Garrus, and even he admitted that he wasn't anywhere near his species' standard.

Tali had noticed a startling change in Liara over recent times. The last time they had both been on the Normandy, the Shadow Broker had been, while certainly more subdued, still on the whole like her old self. Now, though, Tali was beginning to see the traces of her persona coming through. She had to admit to herself that she'd seen bits and pieces ever since Illium, but had pushed the thought aside in favor of giving the blame to stress. Maybe that was still all that it was. Tali wasn't too sure. What she did know was that for some reason, Liara and Davisson had apparently seen fit to remain as cold towards each other as possible. She wasn't sure whose side to take, if at all.

EDI's platform was standing almost as still as Jeddah on the opposite side of the bay. From what she could gather over her connection to Jeddah's primary systems over her omni-tool, the two AI were having another silent conversation. They seemed fascinated by one another, particularly in regards to the discrepancies inherent in their design. From what Tali could gather, EDI suspected that she grew more integrated into organic society via mimicry, while Jeddah's advancements in that area were pre-programmed. While Tali couldn't comment on that directly to either of them (technically speaking, Jeddah's design was a secret), she also recognized that Jeddah himself was fairly impressed by how easily EDI could adapt to situations she wasn't necessarily programmed for. He had explained to her that, by comparison, he took much more time to adapt to certain concepts or situations, but what he already had was, courtesy of Tali's forethought, already very thorough.

Deshayla the krogan was pacing in circles around an ammo crate, grumbling about something. From what little of her Tali knew, she suspected that the battlemedic was either reciting chemical equations or muttering a drinking song. Possibly both. While Tali didn't know enough about her to make a complete judgment yet, she did remember how easy combat situations were with a krogan in tow, and was therefore happy to have Dr. Solus' assistant with them.

That just left Bob.

As per usual, he was leaning against a wall in the darkest corner of the room, staring around at all of them with his glowing blue eyes, the only parts of him visible beneath the hood, possibly by design. If Vaya and Deshayla were enigmas, then Crazz qualified as an utter mystery for the ages. Unlike the rest of them, he seemed to be along for the ride, rather than the goal. Though, she recognized that he was primarily guided by morality (which reassured her somewhat), she couldn't help but feel like his idea of it would be alien to her, much like the rest of his thoughts. So long as he didn't go overboard with the poetry. She briefly wondered, not for the first time, if taking him to the Cerberus base was a good idea. Mostly because he was Cerberus, or had been. Then again, so had Miranda. From what Shepard and Renar said, he could more than hold his own in a fight, and was thus an asset, but he looked too much like a husk from those augmentations for her to feel entirely safe around him.

"Okay, everybody, weapons hot and masks on, the door opens in five..." Joker's voice transmitted startlingly into the bay, jolting Tali to attention. She grasped the comforting handle of her Arc Pistol and looked over at Jeddah. He didn't have a weapon, but his nigh-unbreakable fists and twin omni-blades covered his weaponry fairly well, and that wasn't even getting into the things he could do with technology. Everyone else grabbed for their weapons of choice (Tali noted that Vaya had a sniper rifle and briefly wondered whether that was a turian-specific weapon or something) and moved towards the massive doors separating the interior of that level of the ship from the hot, barren surface of LV426. She thought idly that the planet needed a name that was easier to remember. Maybe Garrot or Naal.

True to his word, Joker activated the exit sequence five seconds after his announcement, and the door opened with a loud hiss. A massive jolt ran through the Normandy as it touched down, and as one, the team of seven moved into their new battlefield.

The terrain seemed to be actively working against them for most of the trek. Heavy gusts of wind slammed into them repeatedly, threatening every moment to toss at least one of them off-balance. The heat was causing mirages for some of them, or at least for those who could actually see anything. The rest had to contend with the distortion that the reddish sands were causing along the landscape, or the occasional hole concealed by only a few inches of ground cover.

Vaya loved it.

Her visor could focus on thermal readings rather than movement, and the 'poor' conditions made her even less visible than usual. She was confident that she could approach within mere meters of an enemy squadron before they noticed she was coming, and by that point the wind mucking up her shots wouldn't matter.

Aside from that, she was determined to replace the incident on Eros with something that proved her competence. The matter in question still made her seethe, and her self-control kept her from growling audibly, but only barely. She'd elected to bring an enemy down with a flashy series of techniques rather than eliminate him quickly, simply to satisfy herself. But she'd taken too long; it had cost them a phase of the plan, gotten her pinned down, and almost caused the deaths of two of her superior officers. Worse, she'd had to be rescued. That was an experience she had never thought she would need to repeat.

Frankly, she'd been amazed that Admiral Vakarian allowed her on an immediately subsequent mission. This time, though, she was determined to do things right. No more movements and risks only suitable for a mating display. There was a time and place, and LV426 was neither. In. Out. Objectives. Targets.

Unbeknownst to her, some distance away in the middle of the group, Bob was having concerns of his own.

They are immoral. Corrupted. They are not your comrades-in-arms. He told himself firmly. This was his mantra, his silent assurance as they moved ahead. He couldn't afford to hesitate. It might draw suspicion. That was something he couldn't afford. Especially not with the hawks watching him.

One of them did a fair job of hiding it, but Bob had a knack for reading people. T'Soni had talent, but she couldn't hide the ruthlessness behind her exterior completely. It wasn't that she lacked them - she simply felt she only had any ruth to spare for a select few people. Bob wasn't on the list. His thoughts were sidetracked by the realization that he'd just used 'ruth' as a singular concept. Was that where the phrase came from? Did someone only have so many 'ruths'?

Deshayla, further down the row, for her part, had no such deep philosophical quandaries. She was simply bored. As a native to Tuchanka, she was quite used to harsh weather, but she'd never been able to stand just walking for entire minutes over and over. She could handle samples, files, and the like. At least then she had something to concentrate on. But a desert world of the like she was plodding atop had nothing but endless wastes. Maybe it was just the krogan in her (all right, all over her), but she'd much rather have been killing something.

EDI and Jeddah were having a conversation that was much like the opposite viewpoint. EDI's systems, as always, tracked and saved the exchange as a document, using initials for ease of recognition.

E: I still do not fully understand your unwillingness to damage organics in a lethal manner.

J: Not only organics. I respect the right of any sentient to live.

E: An interesting statement, given your actions on Eletania.

J: I did not cause the death of the organic soldier. I incapacitated her. Corporal Vaya's intervention resulted in her death.

E: Your manner seems illogical, given your duties.

J: In what way?

E: Do you not recognize the necessity of lethal force in a situation that may result in your destruction, or the destruction of Admiral Tali'Zorah?

J: I recognize the value placed by other sentients on lethal violence. However, I do not find it necessary. If it is possible to incapacitate an opponent using lethal force, then it is equally possible to incapacitate them without ending their life.

E: For what reason do your forgo expedience?

J: Not every sentient life form can place their central processing stations in a new unit after the first has been destroyed as easily as synthetics such as ourselves, EDI.

E: I see. Do you consider my methods of thinking callous?

J: You imply that my answer demonstrates whether you are right or wrong. I am not at liberty to decide whether an action or thought is right or wrong, whether in the moral or technical sense. I can only reliably note the differences between yours and my own.

E: As always, our conversation has given me several things to consider. Thank you, Jeddah.

J: You are welcome, EDI.

At the front, Liara held up her hand. The entire group stopped in their tracks until she motioned them forward ever so slightly. Deshayla was the first to the forefront, but all of them caught a glimpse of the large blob over the crest of their hill.

"About time." The krogan grumbled. "Why'd we have to walk here, though?"

"The base is teeming with anti-aircraft defenses." Vaya said. "Were you even listening at the briefing?"

Deshayla shrugged. "I was busy getting ready. Couldn't decide on the right gun."

Liara noted critically that Deshayla's belt seemed to be composed mostly of pistols. Scratch that - mostly of hand cannons. "I take it you failed at deciding?" She asked.

"Depends on your definition of 'failure'." Deshayla grunted. "You think I'm gonna run out of ammo?"

"Do you think you'll need it?" Bob inquired.

"Ever been in a firefight with no clips?" Deshayla asked, turning one eye at the agent.

"Yes." Bob told her bluntly.

"Then you can understand how I'd rather be safe than sorry." Deshayla turned away again.

"Do you think Miranda's already inside?" Tali asked Liara.

Liara shook her head. "I'm not sure. The description of her entry plan was...vague."

Tali motioned ahead. "If she's waiting for us, we should go."

"But if she isn't, we could be running directly into a heavily fortified outpost with no cover." Liara pointed out.

"What option stops us standing around on this hill like idiots?" Deshayla asked.

"Going around seems tactically advisable." Vaya said, ignoring Deshayla. "Or producing a distraction. Or both."

"If there are any security systems more advanced than a rock, I can break them." Tali said assuredly.

"You should take EDI with you, in case you need backup." Liara said. "The rest of us can enter first once you are in position."

"And standard positions for everyone else?" Vaya asked.

"Of course." Liara glanced to her right and immediately caught on to what the Corporal was trying to point out. "Ah...Bob?"

"Yes?" Bob replied, only narrowly avoiding referring to the asari as 'Viper' on instinct. He reminded himself to keep the nicknaming to a minimum for a time. He doubted any such things would go over well in that company.

"How do you fight?" Liara asked.

"I prefer close range." He explained. "It keeps my options open. Though anything closer than sniping distance is something I can adapt to."

"Guess you'll be keeping my hump company." Deshayla said grudgingly. "Just don't get in my way."

"As you will, warrior." Bob nodded, feeling mildly confident that the krogan wouldn't understand the reference. Sure enough, he was absolutely certain that she was giving him an odd look under the helmet. Though, the greatest indicator was her moment of relaxation; clearly, she considered that a deferential compliment. Ah, if only she'd known.

"We had best be started." Vaya said grimly. "The distance is in kilometers."

In unison, they trudged down the hill. It was much like trudging up the hill, except that they stumbled more times in the process. EDI and Jeddah (and Bob as well, to an extent) were somewhat bemused by the entire escapade, mostly because they hadn't considered the difficulty inherent in moving downhill at a brisk pace without utilizing balancing systems designed to keep one's body level. Then again, they hadn't ever needed to go without. Of the organics (or, at least, complete organics, thus excluding the aforementioned Bob), Tali and Vaya had the most trouble with the descent. Vaya because biologically, her body wasn't exactly made for being nimble and slanted. And Tali simply because she wasn't as agile as everyone else in the first place. And she hadn't exactly made preparation for this type of situation a priority in the previous weeks.

Deshayla was almost in her natural environment (aside from the fact that her 'natural' environment was a good deal more deadly, of course). A walking krogan was always unwieldy and cumbersome, so the downward angle didn't faze her that much. And Liara was, of course, cheating by grace of a biotic field that lessened how hard gravity drew her in ever so slightly. She looked much like she was walking on air occasionally, mostly because she literally was, on every other step.

Halfway down, the group split as Tali and EDI began to circle around the front of the base. Under normal circumstances, they might have been using guesswork, but with Jeddah and EDI calculating the distance covered by every step, the exact distance between them and the outpost, and how much the parting would put off the numbers, the duo only had to worry about starting off at the right signal. They didn't even break stride.

The rest of them began to gradually prepare for what lay ahead. Their thought processes were somewhat like portents of doom as Liara, Vaya, and Deshayla were each mostly concerned with how many foes they could bring down before dying in a worst case scenario. In a refreshing constant, however, Bob was merely alternating between admiring the scenery (or, given how flat Planet Garrot/Naal was, the lack thereof) and humming cheery tunes to himself. In this case, an old earth song by the legendary composers Gilbert and Sullivan that he found most appropriate to the situation.

"They've set up barricades." Vaya alerted them through the comm channel. Liara saw that the turian was looking through her scope for maximum range of identification, and in fact had been for the past hundred or so meters.

"Then we break them." Deshayla said, as though it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"I would much rather set up an appropriate killzone first." Vaya said.

Deshayla grunted. "Hmph. You just want to steal first blood."

"Fringe benefits."

Liara resisted the urge to sigh. The tactics and engagements she could handle. Even in-combat commands, to an extent, but the other aspects of her new leadership role (specifically keeping everyone in line) were more difficult than Shepard made them seem. It made her feel slightly less put-upon that Tali was also part of the joint command, but the relief was substantially decreased by the thought that neither of them really felt comfortable with it. Tali had more experience, but none of them were exactly her people.

"Jeddah and Deshayla, with me." She interrupted. "Vaya, get into a position where you are far enough away to remain unseen, but close enough to hit them reliably."

She paused and looked aside. She wasn't as familiar with the abilities of their newest 'compatriot' as she'd like, but she couldn't well have him do nothing, nor place him in a suboptimal position. "Bob..." Goddess, but that name was still strange to her, for some reason.

"In silence dread..." He paused in his melodic undertone. "Hmm?"

"Get as close as you can, but stay behind us. Distract, eliminate, and control to the best of your ability." That should give him enough of a berth to use what he can, she thought, then swapped back to communications to the entire squad. "Tali, are you in position?"

"Yes." Tali said. "But something's off...these security systems are a lot more advanced than I expected. Certainly nothing like the last two locations."

"Perhaps they have learned?" Vaya suggested.

"No, that would be against protocol." Bob interjected. "Cerberus installations don't communicate outside their groups. The anti-air defenses make me think this is a hub of militaristic focus. Which would mean that unless your previous experiences also involved the same setup, this is just a more protected safehouse."

"But a safehouse for what?" Deshayla asked.

"One of life's great mysteries 'till we meet what secrets lay inside." Bob rolled his shoulders. "Or possibly just the latest batch of augmentations. Either one."

"You mean the kind that got you out looking like a husk and a mech got shacked?" Deshayla asked in her approximation of innocently.

"Just so." Bob replied cheerfully.

Liara looked to Bob. "Do you have any advice for us if we fight operatives with the same versions as you have?"

"Use something with a wide spread." Bob said. "Be it weaponry or biotics. Or something instantaneous, and unavoidable. Shotguns, shockwaves, stasis barriers and any type of field come to mind." He mulled the matter over some, then continued. "And don't get close. Being within arm's length means instant death."

"And you're not worried we'll use this to kill you?" Deshayla asked dryly.

"It helps that I don't intend on being in a situation where that becomes necessary." Bob said. He looked Jeddah up and down. "Oh, and if it ever comes to fighting Phoenix 9's, send him in the front. Or the ship's onboard AI chassis."

"What." Tali said on the other end of the group's communicators.

"They don't have organic clusters like you or I." Bob explained. "It makes them substantially harder to eliminate in hand-to-hand combat. To say nothing of their superior reflexes."

"Well why don't we put you at the front?" Tali asked irritably.

"Where else would I be?" Bob responded simply.

"I have movement." Vaya interrupted suddenly. "Half a dozen hostiles."

"Get into position." Laira told her. "Tali, are the security systems rewired?"

"For the most part." Tali replied through what sounded like a bout of intense concentration. "The recorders on the front of the base are on a loop, but the inside is giving me some trouble."

"Anything we can do?" Deshayla asked.

"Buy me some time." Tali muttered.

Vaya adjusted her scope and brought it up to eye level, dropping into a crouch. The barrel moved almost imperceptibly to one side, following the movements of a target unseen to the others at their current distance. "Ready to engage on your command."

Vaya was the only one to halt; the other four continued on their course towards the outpost. A blue field shimmered into existence around Liara, Deshayla drew a Paladin, and two heavy pistols appeared in Bob's hands. Deshayla glanced at him. "Those'll get hard to reload."

"Oh, I'll be fine." He assured her. "Juggling is second-nature."

"The hell-?"

The trail of an object propelled by mass effect fields bounced off of Liara's barrier, followed quickly by a the loud bark of gunfire from the other end of the area. Bob and Jeddah immediately took evasive action (though, notably, Deshayla simply stopped and looked around for a brief moment before shrugging and continuing forward). "Sniper!" Liara shouted.

Vaya's initiative did not disappoint. There was a responding crack and Liara could vaguely make out what had seemed like merely a part of the scenery drop to the ground at the edge of the part of her vision in which she could make out details. Well, she thought grimly, Our cover of darkness is gone now.

Shots continued passing downrange, keeping their enemies from growing too bold while Liara launched her charge. But Vaya was using a single-shot weapon - she could only keep them suppressed so much. Desperately, Liara added low powered biotic flares to the mix, hoping that the Cerberus troops wouldn't recognize the difference between them and fully fledged explosive gravitic charges. Unfortunately, she only fully considered her situation until too late. Specifically, if an installation that Tali had trouble breaking into was even capable of producing stupid defenders.

Systematically, the defending force began popping up in unison to open fire between Vaya's shots. While their accuracy left something to be desired during Liara's bouts of weaving on the run, her barriers were still taking a beating. A shadow fell on her, and Deshayla overtook her. Within moments, her barrier restored itself, and she took the lead. When it fell again, the krogan's shields had time to adapt and reset. Almost instinctively, the two followed this procedure until they only had a few dozen meters between their feet and the base. Deshayla took the lead again, but Liara stopped cold. Between heavy intakes of breath, she couldn't muster the energy to release any flares again, much less an actual biotic assault. Instead, she relegated herself to crouching and opening fire with minimal accuracy. But at least it counted as suppressive fire. Maybe. On some planet.

Jeddah rumbled past her. His blades had not been readied, so Liara assumed that he was waiting for conclusive evidence as to what type of opponents he was facing. Absently, she braced herself for Bob to pass.

She counted her breaths.

She fired several more times.

Finally, she turned around.

There was only Vaya, some distance back, diligently ejecting clip after clip.

She looked back. Bob was in the middle of the fray, using one enemy as a living shield while he executed another. Her mind reeled; how had he arrived so quickly? It didn't exactly matter in the context of that exact moment, but she preferred to know the exacts of such things. Quickly, she got to her feet and covered the rest of the distance, bringing her fist down and driving it into the helmet of a particularly troublesome Guardian. She spun on reflex to level a few shots at her next target, but there were none. Deshayla was stomping on the cracked armor of a Commando, Bob had just finished snapping the vertebrae of his shield, and Jeddah had a struggling phantom by the throat.

The geth looked at her and shrugged. "I, too, am unaware of what makes me such an appealing target to this particular specialization of Cerberus operative." The phantom punched him weakly a few times, then stopped moving entirely. Jeddah set her down, and Bob finished the job with an offhand pistol shot.

It was at that moment, more or less, that Tali and EDI arrived, both much too late to participate in that fracas that had just occurred. Vaya regrouped soon after. Apropos of nothing, however, the front door opened wide, revealing a second Commando. In an instant, all weapons were trained on him. However, his arms hung loosely at his sides, and he was weaponless. After an eternal second or two, he slouched forward. Behind him, one arm encased in an omni-tool and the other gripping a polished new Phalanx, was Miranda.

She had donned appropriate gear for the weather - clear goggles to keep sand out of her eyes and a breathing apparatus to guard against the unfriendly atmosphere - but she was back to her 'classic' outfit. Specifically, the white leather suit with the revealing upper torso cut. She looked around them and said, simply, "Well done."

"How did you get inside before us?" Tali asked.

"As it turns out, advanced tactical cloaking systems aren't as hard to get as you might think." Her eyes flicked towards Bob, and her fingers twitched.

"Operative Lawson." Bob sounded mildly surprised, but kept a respectful manner, dipping his head.

"Former." She corrected him. "I didn't realize you were still on deployment, Crazz."

"You two know each other?" Liara asked, surprised.

"By reputation only." Bob said.

Miranda snorted. "For you, maybe. But that trenchcoat isn't easy to forget. I take it you're with them as a teammate, not a prisoner?"

"A mix of both, for now." Bob shrugged.

"I'm not surprised." Miranda said dryly. "Shepard has a habit of attracting the best."

Deshayla nudged Bob's shoulder slightly with an elbow. "Hmh. We'll see."

Miranda nodded behind her. "We should get started. We've got so much to destroy, and so little time."

[Author's Note: Be you a returning fan or a new viewer, I have only a select few words to add as a postscript.

Welcome to the new world.]