Disclaimer: I do not own Mass Effect, Noveria, snow, Makos, the Systems Alliance, ExoGeni Corporation, turians or Elanus Risk Control.

Chapter 02 – Ice and Snow

Dupree leaned back against the side of the transport rover, clutching his jacket closer to his body and teeth chattering. The rover was big – about twenty meters long, but with a powerful enough mass effect field to move smoothly over Noveria's rough snowy terrain. The cold wind whipped at his cheeks, and his breath lingered in puffs of smoke in front of him.

"I hate Noveria," he announced.

"Yeah," Will said, sliding down onto the outer ring beside him, "we can see that."

Dupree stared at Will for the space of about two seconds before realizing the engineer was still wearing his work clothes. "How do you come out here in that?"

Will smiled. "Feels just like home."

"You two done yet?"

The two looked over their shoulders. Captain Dalton was standing in the hatchway in snow gear.

"We almost there, ma'am?" Will asked, grabbing hold of the hatchway and rising slowly to his feet.

Dalton pointed at an arcology just ahead of the rover. "Almost. That's Peak 5 right over there."

"Is… big," Dupree commented, to cold to manage anything more coherent.

And it was big. At first, Dupree could easily have mistaken it for one of the surrounding mountains, but as the rover drew close enough to make it out clearly amongst the swirling snow, it became apparent that it was shaped nothing like a mountain. It looked like an enormous spike, rising out of the ground to a truly absurd height, painted in neutral grays and blues.

"What's that outside?" Will asked.

Dupree squinted. Therewere several shapes just outside the arcology, not as big as the rover, but much bigger than any human. It was difficult to see him then in the snow, as they were painted a pale white, but if he squinted enough…

"Makos…" he muttered.

"Makos?" Will said, surprised, "What's the Alliance doing out here?"

"We don't ask questions, Truman," Dalton chided, "we just deliver the cargo."

Will shrugged and stepped back inside, leaving Dupree shivering on the side of the rover.


Sergeant Markus Garran, Elanus Risk Control Security, was not a happy turian.

It wasn't the cold that bothered him – he'd seen action on half a dozen frozen worlds before his service with ERCS. Nor was it the isolation – he'd once spent over a standard month in a tin can freighter waiting for a pirate attack.

No, what bothered him was that not one of the humans who ran Peak 5 seemed to have a damned clue about basic security protocol.

"Doctor Werner," he shouted, "I demand to know why I was not informed about this delivery."

Peak 5's aging administrator leaned back into his chair and placed his hands together, his fingers forming a peak. Markus tried not to roll his eyes. He'd work with enough human officials to see recognize the meaning behind the gesture, and it wasn't helping his blood pressure.

"Sergeant Garran," Werner began, "are you familiar with the concept of plausible deniability?"

Markus did roll his eyes, this time. He'd heard this one before.

"Perhaps turian corporations are irresponsible enough to advertise to everyone and his brother when they're moving dangerous materials about, but ExoGeni has a duty to its shareholders to see that Peak 5 makes a profit. If anything were to go wrong with the shipment, and the Executive Council knew we were involved, we could very well lose the facility and all the money we've spent on it."

"And what about your duty to Noveria?" Markus asked.

"We don't have a duty to Noveria, sergeant," Werner said, rising to his feet, "the Executive Council does. We'd be quite displeased at their inability to prevent the tragic accident."

Markus tried very hard to control himself. Three months working with these humans and hestill hadn't gotten used to the way some of the slime did business.

"Excuse me?"

Markus turned around. Four humans – two males, two females – were standing in the door.

"Ah," Werner said, "Captain Dalton. So good of you to join us."

"Yes," Markus said, chidingly, to the lead human, "perhaps you could be bothered to tell me just what the hell is going on around here."

The captain stared back at him. "Of course, sergeant," she said calmly and matter-of-factly, "My crew and I were asked to deliver a shipment of several sealed canisters to your facility, no questions asked, for a sum of several million credits. We are here for our money. Where is it?"

"Yes, yes," Werner said, "we'll transfer the funds to your accounts within a few hours. In the meantime, captain, why don't you and your crew stay and enjoy the fine hospitality of Peak 5?"

"You have got to be kidding," one of the male humans said.

"Shut up, Dupree," the captain chided, "It would be our pleasure, Doctor Werner."

"Good. I'll make sure the necessary arrangements are…"

Markus com crackled. "Sergeant?"

Markus waved a hand to the administrator, who silenced himself, then tapped a claw to the com. He recognized the voice on the other end – Sarah Landry, Peak 5's medic, one of the few humans on the base he didn't have a compulsion to murder. "What is it?"

"Down at the Junction Station tram platform, sir. We've got a problem."

"What problem?" Markus asked.

"I… I think you need to come see for yourself, sergeant."

"I'm on my way." He let go of the com. "Something's come up," he said, "I'll leave you to your discussion."

He pushed out past the humans and down the corridor.


Will led the pack as the crew of the Infinite made their way back to the ship, drifting just ahead of the rest.

"Did you see the way that security officer looked at the captain?" Chen asked.

Dalton rolled her eyes. "Turians."

"He stormed off pretty quickly, though," Dupree said, "Wonder where he went."

"Something rotten in the state of Peak 5, I'll bet," Will added.

Dupree shrugged. "Well, that's what you get for trying to uncover secrets man was not meant to know on Planet Blizzard. What was in those canisters, anyway, captain?"

"I honestly have no idea," Dalton admitted, "probably something dangerous, from the way they were sealed, but the seller wanted no questions asked."

Just as they turned the corner to the rover bay, they ran into a pair of ERCS guards coming the other way.

"Ma'am?" one of them said.

"Is there a problem, officers?" Dalton asked.

"No, ma'am… it's just that Sergeant Garran wanted us to warn you…"

"Well?" Dalton asked, "Spit it out!"

"There's been a break-in. We have an intruder on the base."