Chapter 2: Holding The Line


Westminster Borough, London. December 12th, 2186.

"Tali! Marauder near the red car!"

The Quarian ducked behind a piece of rubble as a line of shots passed above her. She responded with a shotgun blast, obliterating the offending Turian husk with a massive steel slug. Kneeling behind a overturned red bus to her right was a Asari, wearing white and blue combat armour, her hands flared with blue energy as she flung a pair of cannibals into the air, sending them slamming into a wall, she could hear the snaps and crackles of bones and broken circuits from here. A shrill scream pierced the air as a Banshee came into view, a group of Asari Huntresses retreated from their position, firing their rifles at the beast, it barely flinched as its barriers came down. It screamed once more, ribbons of energy covered it as it teleported towards the Commandos.

Liara cursed and flung a grenade into the air. It reached the apex of its acceleration and began to fell, only to be covered in a blue field. Liara flung her arm forwards, throwing the grenade at the Banshee's side with a biotic field. It impacted with a crunch, lodging into the husks side. The creature screamed as it caught one of the Asari soldiers in a choke hold, it lifted her up by the neck, and flexed its other arm, about to run her through with three massive claws. The blue skinned alien noticed the grenade lodged in its side, and glowed blue, placing her palms on the banshee she used a biotic field to push herself away from the creature. It loosed a piercing cry as the grenade exploded, turning half of it into nothing but ash, the other half fell to the ground in a heap.

"Good throw, Doc!" James called out; he was hunkered down behind the two of them, a park bench as his cover. He popped his rifle out, sending a few high calibre shots into a group of Marauders. His gun jammed, and James ducked back down.

"Piece of crap Saber! Fucking work for once!" He noticed that a pair of Brutes were headed towards them.

"James! Need some fire put out on those Brutes!" Ash swore and ducked her head behind a wrecked car, flinging a red hot thermal clip out of her phaeston.

"I noticed!" He grabbed a disc from his belt, jamming his thumb down on the trigger on top. He flung it at the two giants using a discus throw. It spun towards them with frightening speed. As it passed in-between the two beasts, Vega detonated the explosive. A massive fireball was released; flash frying the organic parts of the two Brutes, leaving only two metallic frames. A massive bolt whipped past James, slamming into the side of the upturned truck behind him, knocking it over. James swore.

"What the hell is that!"

A massively built creature charged onto the street, bowling over a Brute standing in its way. Its face was the stuff of nightmares, its 'mouth' was a small black maw, surrounded by layers and layers of sharp spikes, above that were its eyes, two glowing discs of fury. At the end of its huge arms, a massive gun barrel whirred and clicked, glowing malevolently with a pale blue light.

Liara spoke up first. "Please tell me that isn't a Yahg husk?"

The Yahg husk roared and its cannons fired, sending a red bolt at the Asari. She yelped and put up a biotic field, the round smacked against the field, almost ripping straight through. The strength drained away from Liara as she let the field disappear, gasping for air she ducked back behind cover. Vega popped up, squeezing off a incendiary round at the beast. It punched through its arms, leaving a massive hole. The husk didn't seem to notice as it continued its charge, flattening a few human husks in its rage.

Ash fired a burst of cryo rounds at its legs, its right leg took the brunt of the assault, icing over and stiffening as the rounds payload did its work. The beast launched another cannon round, sending it towards the spectre. She dove away from her cover as it speared through it, tearing apart the wrecked car. Ash scrambled, running into the store front behind the team. She unhooked a grenade from her belt, priming it, and chucked it at the husk. It barely flinched as the grenade exploded underneath it.

"Kirrahe! Put a round through this things head!"

"On it Lieutenant!"

The massive barrel of a black widow anti material rifle was visible on the second floor of the store. The Salarian operator behind it fired, stepping back a bit as the recoil hit him. The massive slug spun towards the squat head of the creature. With a crunch it hit, tearing off half of its face in the process. For the first time, the Yahg creature roared in pain, it fell back onto a wrecked vehicle, writhing. With a growl it stood back up, intent on turning them into a smear on the ground.

A orange combat drone floated out from behind a piece of rubble, it flung bolts of electricity at the Yahg, at such an intensity that the creatures armour was melted to its skin. Smoking and wounded, the beast continued charging, going for the drone. The drone bobbed out of the way as it ran towards the piece of rubble.

"Sparks!" James called out to Tali.

Tali was silent, she nodded once and quickly dove out of cover, a geth plasma shotgun in her hands. She fired twice, sending two gobs of burning plasma into the beasts chest. It roared as the balls of energy burned through its skin and metal. Dropping the synthetic weapon, Tali dived as the brute swiped at her with one of its cannons. She ducked under the weapon, sliding her knife from its holster as she crouched and ran under its legs. She thumbed a button on the knife, the edge and tip of the blade glowed a bright orange as it was superheated from within. She slashed upwards, carving a massive wound into the creatures crotch. The edges of the wound glowed a molten orange as she rolled to avoid the creatures blows. She flicked her wrist, sending the knife into one of the creature's eyes.

The rest of the husks tried to aim at her, but Liara and Ash distracted them with a grenade round and a singularity. A explosion of heat incinerated two Marauders, leaving them as blackened corpses and dying circuitry. A Ravager squealed as it was lifted into the dust filled air by Liara, she clenched her fist and threw it forwards, propelling the Rachni husk into a brute twenty metres behind it. The creature's sacs ruptured from the impact, releasing a swarm of robotic insects all over the Brute's body. The hybrid roared as the little things bit into it, and burrowed into its internals. It fell over with a sigh, its corpse twitching slightly as the metal bugs moved within.

"All clear Ash?"

"For now!"

The Yahg raged as Tali leapt at it, with enough strength that it knocked the weakened giant over. As the beast bucked and rolled, Tali held onto the knife handle. With a squelch she pulled it out, she stabbed the beast in the side of the head repeatedly, trying to finish it off. Finally, she hit the main processor dead on, killing it instantly. Its body went limp, and Tali rolled off of it, exhausted and tired. She grabbed her shotgun and went to James's position.

"Impressive Sparks, where'd you learn those moves?"

She eyed him wearily through her mask. "You don't live long on pilgrimage if you can't use a knife. A lot of practice and many close calls."

Kirrahe's voice came through on everyone's comms. "We're clear, no reaper signatures showing up on scope. Come back to the store, we need to work out a plan."

She shrugged and got up, walking unsteadily into the dimly lit store. James was by her side as they passed in-between the shelves of ruined boxes and tv sets. Ruined scraps of paper littered the floor, along with ripped pages of old style magazines and broken tablet frames. Behind them Liara and Ash entered, talking quietly. Liara was limping slightly and covered in sweat, while Ash sported a massive bruise on her left cheek. James wasn't doing much better, numerous scrapes and cuts, a bruised trigger finger, and a mild concussion from when a Banshee had thrown him the full length of a Mako garage two blocks back. His head was still spinning from that. They were all being worn down, slowly, but definitely.

Ash rubbed her bruise gingerly. "Damn that hurt like hell."

"Liara glanced at her. "Ash, that was pretty impressive. What you did back there. Thank you."

"I'm not going to let a Brute take you down, makes me look bad."

That got a chuckle out of her. "Well then, maybe I should have left you to deal with those marauders by yourself."

"I could have taken them."

"Uh huh."

"How's your leg?"

"Feels like I stuck it in front of a freight train."

Ash laughed, accidentally rousing a few of the sleeping soldiers in the building. " I know that feeling."

"We haven't done this much have we?"

"What's that?"

"Talking."

That caught her off-guard. "I was stupid back on the SR-1, was still trying to prove myself by being the bigger human, comes from being a military kid."

Liara laughed again. "I wasn't much better; I barely talked to anyone, except the commander. I was afraid I'd say something horrible. Comes from being a...shut-in."

"You did say a few good ones."

"Ha ha."

"Come on, the others have beaten us to Kirrahe."


"We're cut off from the rest of hammer. It looks grim, I'll tell you that much."

"No hope of breaking through their flank Major?"

"None, unless you want to take on a full company of Brutes."

"I like those odds."

"I don't, Lieutenant Vega, we just don't have the firepower to break through that approach."

"Let's recap Major. What are we trying to do?"

Kirrahe sighed; and flicked the hologram back to the start. It settled on a massive Reaper, nestled in the ruins of Westminster palace. Big ben was still standing however. Swarms of red dots were visible in the ruined buildings around the clock tower. A noticeably smaller scattering of blue dots were visible throughout the projection, most of them surrounded by red dots.

"Our objective is to get to that Reaper, get a team inside and takeover its main gun controls, with that we can secure the airspace over at least half of the city."

"How are we going to do that?"

"I was told that your cyber warfare specialist could assist with that, Admiral 'Zorah."

"She can."

"Judging by enemy composition and force layout, the only area we can approach from is Lexington Boulevard, two blocks from our current location." He dragged his slender finger across the projection, zooming on the cracked ruins of a bridge running across the river Thames.

"From there, we will escape the majority of their ground forces around the tower by going under the Westminster Bridge. Our goal is a service access tunnel that connects to the London metro, and to our entrance into the grounds, Westminster station."

"So that's our way in then." James decided. Kirrahe nodded his assent.

"Way I see it we'll operate as one squad, and fight our way to the Reaper's legs. Then we set the charges, toppling it over. Next we radio the Normandy to swoop in, getting your specialist into range to hack into the Reaper's matrix."

"It's risky, but then again everything we've done is." Liara noted.

"Another thing, a squad of Geth Primes have dropped down in the sector nearby, we should probably link up with them first, and then make our move."

Ash cracked her knuckles. "Let's do it. Clip check?"

"Got enough for around 500 rounds, Ash. My biotics will back me up as well."

"James?"

"40. I'll hang back; plug any son of a bitch with what I can."

"Tali?"

"60. I checked where our route runs through, there's a firearm store along the way, mostly antiques but it'll do."

"Kirrahe?"

"100 rounds and 20 for my sidearm. If need demands it, I have a backup weapon."

"Good. Any forces we can link up with along the way?"

"One of my fire teams is in the area. The Halliburton apartment complex. Headed by Captain Padok Wiks."

Liara recognised that name from somewhere. "I know him; he was the project head at the STG facility where we extracted Eve from."

Kirrahe nodded. "Yes, he's a good leader." He paused. "Bit of a cloaca though."

Ash nodded. "Alright, we have our objective and our route. We'll spend the night here, then at 0500, we head out. Rest up everyone."


With a smooth motion, she popped open a curved panel, reveaking a pulsing blue core surrounded by circuitry. After a few minutes of intense staring, Tali got a faint idea of how to tweak the geth weapon. Her omnitool sparked as she jammed it into the breach, resulting in the core changing from a pale blue to a brilliant yellow.

That was unexpected. She shrugged to herself, and continued tweaking, her goal to get a faster velocity from the plasma gobs.

Outside the sky was completely black, with the smoke and dust clouds being lit up periodically by explosions and carnage, both above and below. The street was silent as the lonely wind howled. Liara was hunched over a precariously intact desk, groaning under the weight of clip boxes and medical kits. Her SMG, shaped like an antique P-90, was perched on the edge of the table, by her right hand. Her head slipped from her hand as she began to nod off again.

Listening to the snoring of a human by the name of Ozlov was making her sleepy.

She focused on the maps and notes in front of her, trying to organize a plan for tommorow.

A pack of rations fell down in front of her, giving her a start.

"Hungry, doc?"

Now that she was facing a pile of barely digestable nutrient blocks, she realized that she was starving.

"Oh. Thank you James."

"Don't worry about it."

"I wasn't going to-" she caught herself. "Right, another human saying."

James grinned. "Bingo." he noticed her work. "How's the planning going?"

She shrugged as she rubbed her eyes. "Well, I've just recieved a report from Kirrahe and the scout squad. We'll have to make a minor detour to avoid a few Elcor and Yahg husks in the area. Oh and we've also spotted another distress beacon nearby, and another concentration camp has been purged. Not only that, but Reaper forces have doubled in size sinc-"

"Doc, you're worryin-"

"I thought the crucible was supposed to end this, why didn't it!"

her eyes were wet as she turned to look at him.

James fell silent, his eyes looking at the floor. "I don't know. You'll have ask the commander when he gets back. Can't blame yourself doc."

"I was the one who found those blueprints! I actually thought that the crucible would destroy the Reapers in one fell swoop!" she hung her head. "People are dying all over the galaxy because my weapon didn't work. And now shepard is among the dead."

James couldn't believe his ears. "Doc, what are you saying? You couldn't have possibly known what that thing would do, none of us did. But it was a shot, and we took it. Don't beat yourself up over it. Its not your fault."

Liara didn't answer, merely nodding stiffly. "At least you believe that, James."

She walked off in the direction of the bunks, taking the datapads with her, she stopped, her head still hanging low. She grabbed a few of the nutrient blocks, not even looking at James.

He sighed despondently, completely clueless about how to bring Liara out of her slump, and now she is in a even worse one because of him. Well done Vega. He shook his thoughts away, moving over to his bunk. He fell onto the rough material, staring glumly at the bottom of the top matress as he closed his eyes. He pushed his rebelling thoughts away, focusing on multitudes, weapon counts, ammo lists, debriefings, and the fact that they were commiting to an op that most likely was a one way ticket to infierno. But this was an important one, the only way they could get a flight of wolf packs into the airspace; including the Normandy.

Soon enough he fell into a sleep, giving his body the chance to catch up in its battered state. His fears gave rise to nightmares, his squadmates dying in the ruins of London, the civilians he left behind back on Fehl Prime, his uncle dead as a husk devoured his remains. This went on throughout the stormy night.


"She's taking this hard isn't she?"

Ash leant against Tali's workbench, her arms folded as she stifled a yawn.

Tali didn't even look up as she fiddled with the geth shotgun. "We all are."

"Yeah."

"I'm worried about them, even Javik."

"Tali, they'll kick their asses, take their names, and remind them of what organics can do. Still. I'm worried too."

"But Liara's right, about the crucible. It didn't seem to do anything at all."

Ash was silent.

"I think I need to keep working on this." Tali kept modifying the gun, even though Ash knew that it was as powerful as it was going to get.

"Get some sleep Tali."

"I can't. Nerves I guess."

"Would help if it was a order?"

Tali laughed quietly. "Maybe. I think I will. This gun would probably blow up if I fiddled with it further."

"Make sure to throw it at the enemy first."

"Will do. Good night, Ash."

Tali stretched and left the lieutenant commander, heading around the wall to a small curtained area, containing her cot and a rucksack for her tools. She sighed as she dropped onto the taut canvas, shutting off her suits lights as she almost immediately drifted into a deep sleep. The purple glow of her faceplate dimmed away, leaving a dark grey window, through which the sharp tip of a light purple nose could be seen.


The Millenium Dome, Royal Borough of Greenwich. December 13th, 2186.

A big one. 3'oclock, south of the burning bus. A shot rings out, and the brute falls over, its massive claw crushing a husk next to it as it crashes to the earth. The wind howls as the early morning rises. Reapers dominate the skyline of London, their massive legs moving ponderously as they annihilate entire companys and platoons. In the eastern boroughs, a Reaper falls, its chassis broken and blown open, wrapped in fire, it emits a wailing cry as it falls, and the squadron of Turian flyers begin the search for more prey.

According to the reports from the people inside the dome, they were doing a whole sight better then before.

Garrus shook his thoughts away, replacing them with a efficient calm. He peered through the scope once more sighting yet another damn Banshee, 500 metres south, underneath the shadow of the 12'oclock pylon. He takes the recoil in his shoulder, barely moving with the force of the shot. It hits the Asari husk in the head, right between its optics. It falls, screaming as blue energy roils under its skin, it finds a way out, through the massive hole in its head. The group of cannibals and marauders near its dead form are incinerated by the raw energy, falling dead within seconds.

Garrus smiled to himself at that one. He remembered accomplishing a similar feat on Omega, his team was tracking a Salarian smuggler by the name of Dr. Morl. They found his hideout in the sewer works of the Lyngol district, one of the shittier ones. They completed their mission and were about to head back to base when an eclipse death squad dropped into the area. Two YMIR mechs, five biotic assassins. He told his team to retreat as he dealt with the mercs. When he got back to base, he told the team he only used two bullets.

He rolled his neck, stretching the muscles so as to keep them from stiffening. He cradled the massive black rifle in his lap as he sat at the top of the yellow pylon. His radio hissed and sparked as it recieved a audio message.

"Sir, coast is clear, nice job, once again."

He rolled his eyes. "Any of them get inside, corporal?"

"No, civvies are safe and no casaulties. Scans aren't picking up any more signatures in area, come on down."

He slung the black widow on his back holster as he climbed down the yellow latticework. "Have Torch take a unit into those apartment buildings I talked about earlier, we need to get a comms post set up, find a way out of this mess and to Aralakh company."

"Gotcha' Sir." Garrus chuckled as he heard the human soldier mutter to himself. "Talking to a Geth...didn't sign up for that."

"Heard that, Lions."

"Not really caring Sir. Out."

Garrus would have shrugged, but doing that while climbing down a 50 metre tall pylong was never a good idea, he knew, he saw it happen to a recruit on Palaven one time. Despite telling himself he wouldn't, he couldn't help but look out at the surrounding devastation. Mechanical noises, and sentient cries and screams filled the air alongside the melodic sounds of gunfire and explosions. Punctuating the chaotic symphony of war was a terrible synthetic growl that sounded every five seconds. Like clockwork practically. The Reapers still had the edge in this fight, and they were barely holding against them.

Garrus sighed as his mind immediately swung back to Palaven. The ruined spires of Cipritine. The once awe-inspiring docks and berths of the Tullius Arsenal, which once gently orbited Delphae, the homeworld's largest moon after Menae. The family apartment at...damn it.

His thoughts turned to his family, how his sister thought of him...wrongly- as a damn hero. He had certainly never felt that way. That was Shepard's business, not his.

He growled as his thoughts threatened to take hold of him. He dispelled them, focusing on that slippery yellow part that got him on the way up instead.

With a grunt he landed on the walkway with a clang, walking the 20 metre distance to the hatch set in the dome's roof. Not bothering with a slow climb down, he gripped the rails of the ladder with his talons, and slid down its whole length.

The concrete gave him good purchase as he hit the bottom. He opened the door to the refugee camp and headed inside.

Crying children, wheezing patients, and fearful whispers pervaded the air of the smoky and dimly lit room. A maze of bunks choked the majority of the floor of the massive space, with the area's closest to the walls of the building curtained off from the rest of the open space. Soldiers and machines were scattered all over the place; setting up ammo dumps, delivering rations and supplies, tending to the wounded- non military as well as military-, and generally helping out wherever they can. Whatever someone elses rationalization would be for it; either doing it naturally or having nothing else to do- Garrus liked his personal theory the best.

They were keeping busy to stop from breaking down. He felt as if he was past that now, after all of the horrors the galaxy had thrown at him and everyone he knew during the last three years he should have been...hardened, against that sort of thing.

Heh, guess not.

A woman, unadultarated fear in her almond eyes came up to him, the flood light at the end of the narrow path put her red hair on fire. He glanced down, noticing a small freckle faced boy clasping tightly onto her leg, looking up at him with sunken, ill eyes.

"Excuse me sir, but do you know when the rations will come again?"

Garrus held up his hands. Making a open expression. "Uh- just Garrus will do."

"Alright...Garrus. Do you know when the medical rations will come around again? There are a lot of sick people where we're sleeping, I think they're getting the nan-pox." She rubbed the head of the little boy. "I think my son may have it too.

"I'm sorry ma'am- Nanpox?" He was genuinely confused by the strange word, his translator microbes barely managing to put it into a word he understood.

"Oh- well ever since those monsters have landed, a strange virus has been going around. With anyone infected ending up as-" she held back a choked sob. "-some kind of black...paste."

Garrus resisted the urge to blanch. Had to look proffessional. "I'm heading to the command room now, but the clinic's on my way through. I'll check it out and send the news to you."

She nodded. "I-if you cou-"

He smiled, his cheek plates widening. "I'll try to make them come by quicker."

She walked off, with her son in tow as she talked silently to him, stroking his hair every so often.

Garrus sighed as he recalled how he got into this situation.

It was simple really. Shepard was gone, and he was pissed off. He knew it was his fault, he let Shepard get too far ahead, and when Harbinger fired...he was thrown back at least twenty metres, slamming straight into a petrified stump of a tree. Blacked out for about 12 hours, by the spirits, nothing had found him. He set about looking for his friends body among the dead, already deadened to the world, when after combing the entire area, realized that his corpse wasn't there. He took whatever hope he could get, and clinged onto it for all of hells worth. He left the area, heading towards the nearest Reaper he could see. A plan in mind about how he was going to tear them a new one.

His rifle let him snipe at a distance, and he found enough clips to wage a month long war against the Reaper forces. He gunned down patrol after patrol, cut the throats of Marauder captains, impaled Banshee's on the exposed rebar of dead buildings; collapsed entire buildings on Brutes. Those twenty four hours were the longest he had ever experienced.

But-eventually- he got sloppy, found himself backed into a corner by a full platoon of Reapers, backed up by a destroyer. Took out as many as he could with the rifle, eventually having to use his knife as they got closer and closer. Running out of options he was about to spring a final trap, a belt full of Elcor incendiary tank rounds he found while on his crusade. Then he heard the death screams of machine hybrids, and the wails of the destroyer. Intermixed with those, were the sound of a once chilling but now welcome mechanical clicking.

The squad of Geth Primes had smashed through the platoon's rear line, and had taken down the Destroyer using explosives and the hacking capabilities of a fully sentient synthetic consensus.

Wasn't the first or last time a Geth platform would save Garrus.

He walked on. Gently nudging a few despondent Asari and Salarians aside as a thick metal door came into view, flanked by heavily armoured Alliance soldiers.

He saluted them as he entered, them returning the favor. He took the grated staircase two steps at a time, all the way to the top. The doors at the top slid open for him.

The ceiling was packed with screens, displaying readouts and camera feeds from the outside, the unfinished concrete floor was weighed down by a maze of tables and consoles, surrounding the focal point of the room.

A large rectangular space in middle held a massive square table, adorned with wires snaking over it, connecting into a holomonitor that displayed a revolving view of the surrounding district. The see through blocks of light were broken, emulating the situation of the city outside. Scattered throughout the display were clusters of blue dots, most of them surrounded by either the massive insectoid shape of a Reaper destroyer or dreadnought, or the infinitely greater masses of their foot soldiers.

A barrel chested human, with cold grey eyes and even colder black hair with streaks of silvery grey, glanced at Garrus as he examined the hologram.

"Vakarian."

Garrus straightened on instinct, snapping off a quick salute. "Sir."

"What's the count this time?"

"Five cannibal squads,four Banshees, three brutes, and a dozen human husks. And a unfortunate red bus."

The stout man barely raised a eyebrow. "Hated those anyway. Any more incoming?"

"We shouldn't have anything large scale hitting us tonight, some of the Primes are heading out past the perimeter tonight, they'll report in hourly."

"I never expected to have a Geth by my side, rather then staring down my rifle."

"Me neither sir."

"Vakarian-Specialist. Kolfson-General."

Both of them turned around, craning their necks to look at the massive platform. It looked down at them, three orange points of light registering them. The cold fluro lights gleamed off of its jet black armor. A single orange stripe ran down its right arm, parting the black in two as it ended before a black hand, with three digits to it.

"Status report Torch."

"Old-Machine forces have dispersed from our immediate area. Geth platforms are taking up positions of strategic superiority in the main approach to this building. They will be setting up quantum entanglement recievers to better facilitate communications with allied forces across London."

"Nothing will get through?"

"Unlikely. Any forces that breach will be halted by the efforts of Vakarian-Specialist and his teams."

"Good job. Anything to add Vakarian?"

The general and the Geth prime looked at him.

Garrus cleared his throat as quietly as he could. "Not much sir. Enemy forces have seemed to have stopped their actions completely. Don't know what they have planned."

"Take a team out there tonight, link up with one of the Geth squads, and scout out the Aphrodite Hotel, we need to set up a observation post, get a jump on the enemy before they regroup. Take your best for this one."

"Yes sir." Garrus turned to leave.

"Vakarian?"

"Sir?"

"Get something to eat first. Victus warned me about you."

He shook his head. "Will do sir."

He had to admit, food sounded pretty good right now. Even if all he had the delight to look forward to was nutrient blocks and paste being brought in from the Quarian support teams. Delicious.

He left the constantly working occupants of the command center, being followed by Torch as he made his way down the stairs.

The sound of ceramic plated feet on the metal steps behind him punctuated his thoughts. Every time there was only walking to be done, he kept rewinding back to that moment. That horrible moment where he lost the commander in Harbinger's beam of energy. The smell of burnt flesh and bone smashed into him head on, as the pressure wave from the strike threw him back into a wall.

Hell. He knew Shepard had been through worse then that, but...

No. He was alive, and he would storm the halls of the spirits themselves to get him out of there.

He was worried about the others as well. Wondering how they were taking this hit as well. A brief moment of uncertainty reared its ugly head as he dwelt upon the fact that he may have to step up as squad leader. Not again. Not after Omega.

Shepard was their leader. End of it.

The anxious sounds of the refugee camp roused him out of those thoughts, as he walked back down the narrow pathway. He stopped suddenly, remembering his promise to the woman and her child.

The clinic smelt of minty medigel and dried blood. He spotted a Asari dressed in a simple white coat over a grey sweater, and headed over to her.

"Doctor Farei?"

The alien woman turned around to face him, looking at him with unusually green eyes, and pale violet hued skin. "Gar - uh, yes specialist?"

She seemed to squeak whenever he was around.

He inclined his head towards a row of covered beds. "How many have we lost?"

Her shoulders seemed to slump as she rubbed her neck. "Too many. I try to help out as best I can - patching up gunshot wounds- stitching deep slashes and gouges - most of the time its the medi gel that saved them, not me." her voice sunk lower as she grew more miserable. "We're running out of that too. We just don't have enough to sustain us any longer."

"What about the nan-pox?"

"I can't do a damn thing about it! It's completely new to me, it's too different to other diseases. Is a member of your squad infected?"

"I - no...its a child."

"Shit..."

She looked away. Deep in thought as he hung his head.

She turned around, bending to slide a cabinet door open. The space within was over flowing with packs of glowing orange gel. She grabbed a few, handing them to Garrus.

"I-" She paused, depositing the packets into Garrus's arms. "Here. The best thing I can recommend is that medi-gel should be rubbed into the infected areas. Make sure to use gloves, or wrap your hands in clothing or towels. Physical contact is how it spreads. Ask the child's carer to bring him to me."

"Thank you Doctor."

"Can you call me Kayra?"

He paused. A moment's hesitation.

"Sure. Thank you Kayra."

He headed over to the mess area, making his way to the counter by threading through sitting and talking soldiers, engineers, and medics of all races. He snagged a few ration packs from the Dextro pile, making sure to leave some of the good ones behind. His arms ladened with food he left the mess area through an elevator set beside the counter. The doors opened onto a enclosed walkway that ran all the way to the command center he was just in. Turning down the opposite direction he found his bunk room, a small utility office that was currently serving as his home away from...the Normandy, which he just realised.

Closing the dark coloured curtains he settled in on the hard matress, trying not to stretch as he went for a rest. Last time he kicked a hole through the wall.

The next two hours were fairly quiet as he brought himself up to date with the rest of the world with his omnitool. Flicking through all news sites and military channels. Fairly morose from all of the depressing reports he decided that it was time to watch at least one episode of his favourite show. Twenty minutes later he closed down the omnitool, throwing the empty food packets into a bin. He always wondered why humans had such a disproportionately high amount of superhero shows than everyone else.

He made his way back to the elevator, passing a arguing human and turian along the way.

He checked his kit as he descended, even knowing that everything would be accounted for.

The doors opened, and he made a beeline for the massive double doors at the far side of the crowded area.

Emerging through the crowd, he walked over to a squad of human soldiers, and another turian. They all turned to him.

"You've all been briefed?"

Everyone nodded.

"Let's go."

The double doors squealed on their rails as they slid apart, giving them a view of the dark shapes of ruined buildings, and the ever present monolithic Reapers looming overhead. They ran out into the night, ready for the hunt.