This is just an idea I've been playing around while I try to finish my other stories and study for finals. I hope you enjoy, please review and critique!

Bioware owns all.

The turians had invaded Earth... And Staff Lieutenant Vienne Shepard was stuck in the shit, as they said. A small base remained fighting off the turian encampment somewhere near Tacoma, Washington. The turians had been spot on in trying to take the Pacific Northwest in an attempt to cripple the Alliance Navy. They would have succeeded had the early warning system not alerted the top Brass in just enough time to save their own hides, leaving the troops to surrender, fight, or die where they were.

Shepard wasn't surprised in the least. A military that would experiment on their own would certainly abandon their own for the "Greater Good".

She woke, screaming, as the doctors prodded her yet again – Needles, so many needles. They kept saying things like "super-soldier" and "physically superior", but all she wanted was to go home. She didn't need to be superior or super! Another round of shots followed by more intense training... The other kids were starting to look at her funny.

Surgical implants to increase strength and control... Flexibility and assassination techniques trained in daily.

A superior killing squad.

Shepard pulled herself from her thoughts and forced herself to get dressed. It was time to go scouting for supplies. She promised herself that she would risk going to the mall to get more clothes – her gear was starting to get holes and with the winter approaching she would need something better.

The one thing she could thank whatever Gods existed for was that General Brackus had allowed military uniform to go by the wayside, kind of. It was a move born of pure necessity – they were no longer getting assistance from outside the Hot Zone. Their mere existence was due to scouts infiltrating the dilapidated and forgotten stores in the city and taking whatever they could carry. It was the one concession the General had made throughout his rise to control of the small enclave.

On a good day the man was an ass, on a bad... Well, Shepard thought wryly, the man was someone akin to a North Korean Dictator. Humor was the only way Shepard got through each day despite the vast amount of trouble her humor garnered for her on a daily basis. She swore her file was at least five pounds heavy with disciplinary forms... And equally heavy with records of her achievements and awards.

She was the proverbial thorn in the General's side – a title she wore with pride. She got the job done, in her own way and on her own time. It was what she was trained to do and it was just too bad the personality training hadn't taken as well. Shepard clicked her tongue as she pulled herself once again out of her musings and strapped her combat boots on over her jeans.

It was time to put the millions of dollars spent on her to good use.

Garrus sighed as he stood watch over the vast battle-made valley between the encampment and the human base. It was getting cold and it was almost always raining. He hated this planet.

He was looking forward to the scouting mission scheduled later, at least then he could move around and warm up his limbs. It would be a good opportunity to get to know his new squad members that were flown in early that week. The humans had managed to pick off a few of his youngest soldiers and he was anxious to get these new recruits up to speed.

Looking over at Solana, his sister and second in command, he let his sub-harmonics trill with his impatience. Her returning trill was one of agreement and Garrus grunted in response. This planet was a shit-hole... At least this part of it. Garrus couldn't honestly comment on the rest since this was the only part he had been to. The mud was starting to cake onto his armor and he doubted that it would ever fully come off. Something about this planet stuck with you.. and he wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not.

Suddenly Garrus' omni-tool alarm went off signally that it was time to get ready for the mission. Motioning for Solana to follow Garrus made his way back to the barracks, saluting the oncoming guard who was already waiting to replace him.

It was quick enough work getting the new soldiers up to speed with their mission – scout the surrounding city and try to root out any humans and recon the area to make sure reinforcements weren't coming. It was a simple enough task, one that was becoming increasingly less eventful as they had captured a good portion of the city's inhabitants... Or killed those that would not comply.

Garrus had mapped out a nice grid for them to recon that day, it included a large shopping center and market area. There were a lot of closely packed houses in the area and they had some reports of activity in the area. Garrus wasn't expecting a lot of resistance. At this point many of the humans they came upon surrendered fairly easily as they were hungry and supplies were dwindling.

Strapping on his sniper rifle and sidearm Garrus gave his squad a once over before stepping through the perimeter gates and towards his objective.

Shepard adjusted her backpack for what felt like the 100th time as she crouched under a tree at the top of a berm separating her from the mall. The weather was in her favor as far as cover was concerned... But nothing short of a blizzard would help her get across the battered freeway unseen if there were hostiles in the vicinity.

Looking over her surroundings a final time she inhaled deeply before quickly moving to her feet and sprinting across the open space. Effortlessly she hopped over the median and dodged remnants of vehicles to get to the other side and scramble up the steep slope. Once there, she stopped again briefly and listened for any sign that she had been spotted.

Sighing softly as she marked the lack of voices, gunfire or sound of armored feet hitting the pavement Shepard brought her attention to her next obstacle... The empty parking lot...

It had taken Shepard minutes to traverse the parking lot after she was sure that no eyes were on her and get herself into the relative safety of the mall. Her first stop was the food court to see if there were an non-perishable items that had yet to be looted from the pantries and then she was going to do some wardrobe shopping. Business first, pleasure second afterall!

Garrus thought he had spotted movement near the door of the large building, but he was unsure if it was a human or the rain playing havoc with his instruments. Either way, he was going to explore that building and all the movement did was put him on high alert.

As he and his team systematically made their way across the vast empty, paved area between the street and the building and through a set of side doors Garrus found himself filled with a sense of foreboding. This building had too many small, segmented stores that would be easy cover for an attack.

Breathing through his nose, Garrus set his visor to locate heat signatures... But quickly found it entirely too distracting since a variety of wildlife had apparently taken hold within the building. The wildlife was small, but the constant ticks and movements of small red blurs were keeping him from really paying attention to his surroundings. He was going to have to go the natural route and stick to smells and his eyes. Removing his helmet, he waved his team on and began to search out his prey.

Shepard hardly had any real luck finding any good food stuffs, but she wasn't really surprised. Afterall, who wouldn't make for the mall at the first sign of an invasion, Shepard thought sarcastically. Over-confidently, Shepard made her way to a few of the clothing stores and started to shop for the perfect post-apocalypse garb. Mainly boots, pants, tops, and undergarments. Truthfully, all Shepard really wanted was a good bra. Hers had bit the metaphorical dust ages ago and she was really getting tired of the shapeless military issued poor excuse for a sports bra that she had been reduced to wearing constantly.

With a pleased hum Shepard secured her pack and was preparing to shove off from the mall when she hear the tell-tale noise of armored steps, synchronized and much too heavy for even a heavy human soldier. Holding perfectly still Shepard tried to gauge their distance but the mall's acoustics were throwing her estimations out of whack.

She needed to get the fuck out of dodge and fast. Quickly singling out the door that was the access to the catacombs of the mall – the easiest way for her to move around hopefully unseen... If they didn't follow her, otherwise then it would be a bottleneck of a fight. Shepard just made out the form of a large turian in blue as she darted towards the door at full bore. Whipping the door open, she bolted through the store's storage area and made her way through the door that led to the hallways. She didn't even pause a second to look back to see if she was spotted... Times like this demanded an immediate and hasty retreat.

Garrus probably wouldn't have noticed the human female had she not bolted for a door at the rear of the store. As it was, he immediately took chase and ordered his team to follow his lead and watch his back. He was a good ways behind the seemingly slight dark haired female that had taken off through a series of doors into a long hallway. He wasn't inclined to shoot the human for simply fleeing, and she hadn't opened fire on him yet, so he was simply in retrieval mode.

Garrus really should have shot to incapacitate her and he realized this too late. It wasn't until he had gained a good amount of distance on her that the realization struck him... In fact, even as she turned slightly and tossed something over her back he still hadn't thought of stopping his pursuit. No... It wasn't until he caught a glimpse of what the object was that he realized he should have just shot the human. Garrus ran faster and more desperately, calling for his team to fall back as far as they could since he had separated himself a good distance from them as well.

Garrus barely registered the grenade going off until he was flung forward and his world rushed to black.

Shepard really hadn't thought her plan through very well, as was evident in her current predicament. It's not like Shepard had ever really explored all of these back hallways and as she looked on the dead end she just found herself, she really wished she had. She winced as she flung her torn backpack down onto the ground to get it off of her back. Her shoulder was absolutely killing her and some of the contents of her bag has spilled out and become one with the rubble. A piece of the concrete ceiling tiles had clipped her shoulder as she tried frantically to avoid the fallout from the grenade.

Shepard looked up at the cracks in the ceiling and was instantly grateful that this mall was only one story high – she hated the dark and at least this way there was light coming in... and rain. Taking stock of her surroundings Shepard nearly let out a surprised yelp as she noticed that her pursuer was trapped with her... and apparently still breathing. She should just kill him quickly and get it over with she thought as she went back to her bag to get her pistol out... She certainly couldn't overpower him with a bum shoulder.

Her pistol was missing. Shepard started flinging the remaining contents of her pack around as she dug to the bottom, only to discover that her pistol must have been underneath the food and clothes and therefore one of the first things to be lost in the explosion. Sighing, she looked back to her new cellmate only to note that he was in a completely different position... The attack right behind her back position.

Instinctively Shepard threw her backpack at the turian to attempt to distract him before dropping down and narrowly missing a claw to the head. As she did so, she brought her leg up and landed a kick in the turian's midsection causing him to stumble back a few paces. Shepard barely had enough time to pull herself back up for another attack when the turian was pulling out his pistol. Without thinking, Shepard spun on heal and brought her foot up to attempt to kick the pistol out of her assailant's hand.

He managed to grab her foot with his free hand and with a guttural growl he tossed her to the side and into the wall. She swore she could hear the concrete crack behind her shoulders as she connected with the building. Barely allowing herself to refill her lungs with air, she threw herself at the turian and managed to get a luck hit with her hand on his wrist causing him to release his hold on the gun enough to allow her to take it from him. Before she could train the gun on him he was back on her, however. Grappling, punching and kicking each other over the firearm the two struggling a long while over possession of the gun.

Shepard narrowly dodged a few swipes of his claws, only getting caught once on her side, her wound seeping blood. The turian dodged most of her punches and kicks and Shepard only made contact a few times. One was enough to cause his mouth to bleed and she took solace that she wasn't the only one bleeding.

Sometime during their struggle, the gun has slipped from both of their hands and had crashed down to the ground. Neither went for the gun as they were distracted with trying to beat the tar out of one another. No, it wasn't until they both heard the sickening crunch of armor on metal that they paused a moment to look down at the turian's foot on the gun... Crushing a part of the firing mechanism and rendering it useless.

The turian brought his gaze back up to Shepard and his mandibles fluttered as he reaching on to his back... Pulling out his sniper's rifle. Shepard gulped then, she really couldn't keep fighting him like this. She was twice injured and her stamina was dying quickly, probably from the blood loss. She took a step back from him as he trained his weapon on her and Shepard closed her eyes waiting for him to fire on her.

When nothing happened, Shepard dared to open one eye and noticed the turian looking furiously over his weapon... And then she noticed it – it was damaged. Probably from the explosion and subsequent hallway demolition that she had caused. She barked out a laugh and fell onto her ass in exhaustion. If he made another move towards her she would defend herself, but for now she just wanted to rest.

The turian let out a string of hard words and gestured to her wildly as he began to pace. It was really quite comical to her even though she had no clue what he was saying and she couldn't help but chuckle at the rather intimidating alien before her apparently having a temper-tantrum.

Garrus was beyond furious. First, he doesn't fire at the female and then she lodges a grenade at him. He doesn't know if any of his team was injured because his coms were completely shot due to the explosion and he could swear he had some metal cylindrical piece of metal jutting out of his thigh. Then he notices the female frantically digging through her pack and he tried to get the drop on her... But oh no, she just had to be a damned good fighter who was apparently only armed with a single grenade. Probably something she had found while looting other buildings because she certainly didn't look like any of the Human soldiers he had seen in the past. No uniform, no weapons... But damn could she kick.

He had decided enough was enough and it was time to wound the female enough to get her to calm down and submit, but once again nooo, she wasn't about to let that happen. Hit after hit and his head was starting to swim. He had gotten her good with one swipe but she immediately landed a punch on the side of his face and it had caused his mandible to stab into the side of his face plating and cause a small crack. And then he stepped on his own damn gun! Spirits damn this little Human female!

Enough was enough, Garrus went for his sniper rifle and before he could even take a shot he realized it had been smashed beyond use by the explosion. In what was probably his least turian and least professional move of his career, Garrus began to vent and curse at his enemy.

"You useless little pyjack piece of shit look what you've caused!"

He watched her fall onto her backside on the ground and simply stare at him as he ranted and gestured to the irritating creature threatening to strangle her and place her on a spike for the rest of her kind to see. Then... She started to laugh at him. He stopped immediately and just stared at the woman as she slumped her shoulders and laughed at him.

His adrenalin fell as well as his immediate desire to send her to meet her ancestors and he followed her lead and ungracefully fell onto his ass. He couldn't help but laugh with her... This was the most ridiculous moment of Garrus' life, he'd wager.

"Truce, for now, human."

Even knowing that the human wouldn't understand him, he hoped the meaning of his statement would still bridge the language barrier between the two. To his great surprise and consternation she replied back in weak turian.

"Deal."