The Adventures of the Lucen: The VykurCorp Conspiracy

by General Rage

Liara T'Soni continued her mission to protect the Galaxy while Commander Shepard is in another dimension. She must stop the Covenant and the allies they've gathered from wreaking havoc in a Galaxy without it's greatest hero. While she's had some success, there's a gathering storm on the horizon and one of her crew of misfits will be forced to confront her past before it clears.

3. Ghost of the Machines

Chapter Three: Ghost of the Machines

Coda's many tendrils were already hooked up to the main console, it's body resonating with soft blue light. His snake like head squirmed around the screen as various bit of information displayed themselves for him. Standing to the side of him was Liara along with the rest of the team. She didn't normally allow them into her room unannounced, but she figured this was a special occasion. Whatever Coda uncovered, she wanted everyone to more less be informed about right away. Better than just briefing them later. Besides, there were a few things they needed to discuss.

"He's been at it for hours," Wrex noted. "How long does this usually take?"

"Decryption isn't easy, even for Huragok," Kayap insisted. "They're the real experts on the Forerunners, not me, but usually there's teams of them working on cracking data from any ruins uncovered. We only have one. He's doing the best he can though, he just needs time."

"Fair enough, but this is kinda boring," Wrex explained. "I was expecting to get a few revelations by now, like the old days. After a mission we usually just got back aboard, Liara did her mind trick thing and we got the full story."

"We were working with the Protheans that time, Wrex," Liara reminded him. "They were a known quantity, specifically to me. The Forerunners? I barely know anything about them. They were able to hide pieces of their advanced civilization in our galaxy for who knows how long and I never came across any of their installations. No one has. We have no frame of reference, we're essentially working from scratch."

"Well what did Shepard have to say?" Wrex asked her.

As soon as they got back, Liara had sent another message to Shepard concerning what they had found. It was profoundly disturbing to him to say the least. The idea of relics of a powerful ancient race like the Forerunners in their galaxy was bad enough, but Shepard now had to be concerned with some that could still be back where he was currently stuck. Worse yet, they had no idea where they needed to look. Correction, they had an idea, they just had no clue which of them were dead ends or wastes of time. Right now, Coda was the only chance of getting some idea of where to start looking.

"Basically the same thing," Liara answered Wrex. "Tali might know a little about the Forerunners, but she isn't an expert. He has no idea what kind of relics we're dealing with, but he's keenly aware of their potential damage. Remember, he found a ring world capable of destroying all life within a galaxy."

"I'm still trying to wrap my head around the fact that aliens from another dimension established makeshift colonies here," Vik stated. "I mean, there were always theories of the invaders from the Andromeda galaxy infiltrating us and abducting people. This is a whole other level though. The Conspiracy Forums on the extranet would freak if I told them about this. Assuming I'd even be believed by any of them."

"Yeah, something must be seriously fucked up if the crazies worried about secret puppet masters and false flags can't buy this crap," Nel chuckled coldly. "Guess there's only so much insane shit one can take, huh?"

Liara looked at Nel with some concern, she hadn't stopped sulking since they got back to the Lucen. She didn't really blame her too much, finding out a friend of yours had turned traitor was one thing. Finding out on top of that fact that he had been lying to you about who he was did not help things. She went over to her corner and took a seat in a chair nearby. It was time to really talk about this.

"We need to know more about Hanilex," she began. "Who exactly was he? When you were in the War Spirit's Blood program, I mean."

"He was driven, determined, badass, like me," she listed off. "Came from some wealthy family, but didn't let his rich upbringing keep him from getting dirty. He wanted to serve bad and he put his ass on the line for all of us. He was a damn fine soldier, one of the best."

She spoke with sincere reverence, almost pride. It made Liara think more about their exact relationship.

"Were you ever... intimate?" She asked rather bluntly.

"Oh fuck no," Nel said shaking her head. "I respected him too much. Never once made the moves on him or flirted. We were friends, partners, squad mates, that shit was important to me. Didn't want to ruin it by jumping in the bunk with him.

"Wait a second," Vik interjected. "You mean to tell us that, despite your massive libido, he was your exception?"

"I am not a horny teenager, Bucket," Nel said, glaring at him. "I know when to turn it off and on. Han was the one person in that squad I never considered having sex with specifically because of who he was. He encouraged me, kept me going in the program. He believed in me, in the mission, even when my father kept doubting me. That's something you don't mess up by fucking their brains out. You respect that bond, you don't sully it. That shit is too important to a soldier."

Nel turned her head down and exhaled deeply.

"At least, I thought it was important to him," she said mournfully. "Then today happened."

"If he was so damn good, how did he get kicked out?" Wrex asked.

Nel shrugged a little, her expression as unsure as ever.

"He wasn't without his problems," she relented. "He was very opinionated. Talked back too much. Hierarchy military is very strict about command structure, that's not news. Han never really seemed to respect it. He kept mouthing off, he kept questioning missions and their goals, he also kept demanding to be put in charge of the squad. He thought he earned it, deserved it even. Like it would've been a proper reward for his accomplishments, I guess."

"You were rather mouthy as I recall," Liara reminded her. "You disobeyed orders, you were a loose cannon, you were reckless, at least that's what your file said."

"Yeah, but I never told a squad leader to his face that he was a piece of krogan shit," Nel elaborated. "Nor did I claim out loud that our missions were always fucked up and poorly planned. And I certainly never got into a heated argument to the head of the program over being overlooked for promotion. Hell, no one does, ever. Han is the only turian I know who got pissed off for not being advanced. I just went off mission script and made some off color jokes. Han always kept looking for a fight with the brass, even when there wasn't much of a reason, like he had something to prove. Knowing what I do now, I think I have an idea what that was."

If Hanilex was a biotic, one that had somehow evaded detection from the Hierarchy military's medical examinations, then he probably did feel he had a lot to prove. Liara knew as well as anyone how segregated the turian military was. If you were a biotic, you could not serve with the regular army. You were placed in a Cabal, biotic soldier units. You did not fight alongside the regular military, unless given special authorization, which was rare. Cabals had their own missions, usually assigned to sabotage, raids or other black ops tasks.

Technically that should've given them prestige, but things were more complicated than that. Cabals were just the Hierarchy's way of shuffling biotics off on tasks they felt were beneath real soldiers. Biotics in turian society had always been viewed with suspicion, considering they had mostly been used for similar sabotage operations during the Unifications Wars. The Cabals got the majority of the dirty work because no one really trusted them. Hanilex had probably been trying to prove a biotic could serve with the regular military. If not to others, than at the very least to himself maybe.

This was all really speculation though, no one could really tell what was going on in Hanilex's head at the moment. Nel didn't seem too keen on guessing herself.

"Was he ever addicted to the juice like you were?" Liara asked.

"Actually, now that I think about it, he rarely used the stuff," Nel recalled, a bit of sadness in her throat. "That was another thing the brass got pissed off at, that he wasn't giving them sufficient data on the effects of the drugs. They used that and his insubordination to kick him out. This was way before my, well you know, incident. A couple of months at the least. They stuffed him with a gag order and discharged him, basically overnight. I didn't even get the chance to say goodbye."

"Does he know how to make the juice?" Liara asked at last, it was the major question on her mind.

When Nel shook her head, lifiting a weight off the asari's mind.

"He didn't have access to my father's specs on the drug," she explained. "Not like me. I doubt he knows much about it. Sounds like he's trying to recreate the program for biotics though, specifically the Separatist ones. If he's asking Trox for help in bringing in the Eclipse Sisters' special brand of red sand, then it's obvious what he's trying to emulate."

Minagen X3 had only come into the Sister's possession by accident, as far as Liara knew anyway. If they were trying to perfect it though, that meant they were manufacturing the stuff wholesale, working out the fatal bugs. A lot more initiative than she'd expect of the Sisters, probably this Varna's idea, or perhaps even pushed on her by Trox.

"You have any idea why he's working for the Separatists now?" Wrex asked.

"Dissatisfaction with his treatment? Sympathetic all along? Maybe he just likes blowing up hospitals and shit?" Nel listed off, her anger growing as she did. "Who the fuck cares why? The fucker is a traitor. Working with one of the most radical of the possible cells out there. Orukuri is arming him for something big. He's gotta go down."

"Well we may have to deal with him soon enough," Liara informed her. "Can I count on you to be able to handle yourself if it comes that? We just got you into a fairly stable emotional state, I don't need something else clouding your judgment."

Nel rubbed her hands together, her face slightly unsure. Not a good sign for Liara, not at all. She understood a bit about the hesitation. She had to go up against a loved one herself back in the day. It was hard, hurtful. That wound was still fresh over two years on. So she knew what this was like. She needed to know if Nel could handle this.

"I'm going to try," she finally said. "At the very least so I can get a few answers. I'd really like to know how he avoided being detected as a biotic for one. You know, just so that shit ain't bugging me every night."

"Again, in due time," Liara assured her. "Right now, we best focus on matters we can actually address. We don't know exactly where Han or this CLC movement he's joined are right now. We need to find out more about them before we can move on them."

"Who exactly are they, anyway?" Kayap asked. "Why are they attacking their own people?"

Nel turned her gaze to the unggoy and readily answered his query.

"The Colonial Liberation Coalition has this idea in their heads," she began to explain heatedly. "That the Hierarchy totally cheated the colonies out of independence. That they've sold out the turian race to other species. They hate the Council, humanity, basically everyone who isn't turian or is aligned with the government. Their leader, Xeltravius, is some old mother fucker who can't admit his side lost the Unification Wars, keeps claiming it was about personal freedom or some shit like that. Neglecting the fact it was just one big fucking excuse to settle petty scores with other colonies and throw shit into chaos. They go around killing people they don't like a lot. All in the hopes they can stir up enough anarchy and start a brand new war. One where all the colonies gang up on the home systems of the Hierarchy and take them out. Presumably so they can get back to murdering each other in peace afterwards."

"Old causes die hard," Wrex concurred. "I know that better than most krogan. Apparently my species isn't the only one with grudges."

"A grudge is putting it mildly," Nel corrected him. "Personally, I'd describe the Seppies more like home schooled numbskulls who had parents that couldn't stop bitching. Then they grew up and decided to take mom and dad's frustrations out on everyone else, usually with bombs."

Liara knew how dangerous and radical many Turian Separatist organizations could be. There were a few that were more peaceful, to an extent. Antagonizing peace officers, causing riots and graffiti on government buildings were small time compared to killing public officials, blowing up buildings or attacking any aliens living among turians. Whatever legitimate grievances they had, they lost the justification when they resorted to the killing of innocent bystanders. Then again, the standard military procedure among Turians was that they had a tricky concept concerning civilian casualties themselves. The difference was they never outright looked to kill non-combatants.

"Han never looked like he had a grudge against the Hierarchy though," Nel explained. "Like I said, he came from a well-off family. He doesn't seem like the kind of guy to turn traitor like this."

"Regardless of his reasons, maybe this is the break we need," Vik suggested. "We have direct evidence of VykurCorp working with Separatist and criminal elements. We should send the information to the Hierarchy and have them bring them down."

"We have nothing concrete," Liara reminded him. "Orukuri is being more careful with his dealings after the summit it seems. He's not handling things as directly anymore. Even if they launch an investigation, we don't know how big this conspiracy runs throughout the company. Someone else might just take his place if he gets arrested. If we take him down, we have to be sure to take every conspirator with him. Otherwise they'll go to ground and keep helping Balak and the Covenant in secret."

Vik reluctantly nodded, seeing Liara's point. She figured he would, being the conspiracy buff he was.

"I suppose it's better to get all our evidence together before we make a case," he relented. "It's not going to be easy though. Corporate boshtets like Orukuri are good at covering their tracks. It's not like we're just going to find his diary where he confesses all his sins."

"Would make this easier though," Nel noted, a small smile returning to her face. "Also funny, he probably has an account of every time a girl dumped him for being a lousy lay."

Liara rolled her eyes, but not in any derisive manner. She was getting a little used to Nel's crass humor.

"In the meantime, it's best we keep pursuing the bioweapon lead," Liara suggested, bringing the conversation back to the task at hand. "It's our best chance at figuring out Orukuri's plan and stopping it before it gets underway."

It was then that Coda suddenly cooed at them, calling them over to the screen. It apparently had found something of interest. Everyone got up from their respective seats and tried to get a look for themselves. What they saw was the cross reference map from before, containing all the data from the ruins they had previously seen. The difference was, a few of the systems clusters had been highlighted. Even better, Coda brought up the systems themselves which pinpointed specific planets within each of them. The Huragok trilled pleasantly as he showed them the information. Kayap saw fit to translate.

"He says he cracked the encryption," the unggoy explained happily. "He doesn't have the location of any relics, but he has located several key installations the Forerunners were using. Any one of them could show us more about what the Forerunners were doing here."

"Well it narrows things down at least," Wrex observed. "But that's still quite a few systems to look over."

"I can send Shadownet Teams to some of the sites, recon them first," Liara suggested. "With any luck Balak's excavation teams are still searching for these sites. It could allow us to get ahead of them."

Coda trilled a series of sounds in response to the asari.

"He says he's going to keep working," Kayap translated. "Try and find out more about the sites themselves. The data is degraded and heavily encrypted though, so it might take time."

"Nevertheless, good work, Coda," Liara told the Huragok, rubbing the creature's snake-like head. "We'll put this to good use."

Coda didn't have a mouth that could grin, but he seemed happy. His mood suddenly changed though and his gaze turned back to the screen. His bioluminescent body resonated once more as he began opening a series of windows.

"What's he doing now?" Nel asked.

Coda trilled frantically in reply and Kayap did his best to translate.

"He's getting some kind of encoded message on the ship's communication lines," he explained. "He's trying to decipher it."

"Origin?" Liara asked commandingly, concern growing in her tone.

"Unknown," the unggoy admitted. "He's trying to figure that out now."

Eventually, Coda managed to decipher the message and place it on screen for them all. It was mostly text, but it came with an attached image file, a schematic of what appeared to be a Covenant ship, as well as coordinates and a flight path. Not knowing what to make of it, Liara scanned the words in the text file carefully.

"Detected you in the network," she began to read aloud. "Enemy of captors. Please, help. Held captive aboard vessel detailed. Transporting weapons and supplies to enemies. Cannot say more. Transmissions monitored. Please, free us."

As she finished, Liara turned back to towards the squad, who were all equally suspicious and concerned.

"Okay, obvious trap," Vik stated firmly. "So obviously a trap."

Saya just shrugged in silent agreement.

"It does seem like something Balak would try to pull, playing on our good nature," Wrex concurred.

"Yeah, it does smell like that," Nel admitted as well. "But, we do know the Covies are bringing more weapons for the Seppies to use. I heard it myself."

Liara recalled as such from the debriefing. The CLC obviously had plenty of Covenant guns already. Could they really afford to let them get more? This could be the chance they needed to cut off a vital supply line to the Separatists and slow Orukuri's plans somewhat. Then again, like everyone was saying, it could be a trap. After all, it did seem a bit convenient.

"What kind of ship is that?" Liara asked Kayap.

"Looks like a Corvette," the unggoy replied as he scanned the image file. "They're usually used as support vessels and sometimes ferry supplies and troops between assault groups. If they wanted to keep a low profile, it's as good a ship as any. Not that big, but certainly could hold a lot of guns."

Liara gave it some thought. On one hand, quite possibly a trap. On the other, if this was true they could possibly sever a line of supply. Finally, she came to an idea.

"If we suspect a trap, we can prepare for it," she surmised, looking back to Kayap. "Coda can probably crack their transmissions, right? Maybe even their security?"

"If someone can get him in, sure," the unggoy replied. "It's child's play after that to a Huragok."

"Well that's my department," Vik reasoned, not sounding thrilled at the idea, but at least not confrontational. "If you're going to spring a trap, you might as well know what you're walking into, right?"

Liara nodded in agreement.

"This is what we'll do," she said. "We'll head to the intercept coordinates, but remain out of sight with stealth on. We hack into the security from afar, figure out what's going on inside. Then if things look okay, we get in, find out who sent this message, and see if they're telling the truth about these supplies. It's a risk, I know, but if it can help slow down Orukuri's plans and give us more time to research these Forerunners relics, I'm all for it."

"No arguments here, Doc," Nel assured her, pounding her fist into her palm. "I need to work out some aggression anyway."

"Should be fun for my krogan either way," Wrex suggested. "I'll let them know we got a mission for them. They've been itching for a scrap."

Good, Liara thought, because if this was a trap they were walking into, they'd need a lot of muscle to get themselves out of it.

---

They had arrived in the system within hours. According to the information their mystery friend had sent, they wouldn't have to wait around for very long for the ship to show up. Liara kept their vessel out of relative sight, using the rings of a nearby gas giant to supplement their own stealth systems and better hide the ship. She kept long range scans running as they floated in the void for next hour or so. She expected one of two things, that the Corvette would show up or a small fleet of Covenant vessels would. If it was the latter, they'd know it was a trap and bolt out of the system. If there was only one, well, that wouldn't mean it wasn't a trap, but it would prompt them to investigate further.

Liara, standing on the command deck, kept her eyes on the scanner read outs. They still hadn't detected anything, but she wanted to be prepared to act at a moment's notice. As she waited, Wrex stepped up beside her.

"Don't your eyes ever start to hurt?" He asked her.

"I've been doing this for a while," she explained, lifting up a datapad next to her. "Analyzation comes almost naturally at this point. In fact, it's not even the only thing I'm monitoring. I'm having Glyph keep an eye on those recon teams we're sending to those potential Forerunner sites. And this datapad is set to update me on Shadownet's latest raids on VykurCorp installations, specifically those under Orukuri's management."

Glyph was Liara's VI assistant. While aboard the Lucen with her, Liara mostly confined him to her quarters. She hadn't gotten him to stop referring to her as the Shadow Broker and didn't want to risk him blurting something out. She mostly kept him busy by monitoring the other aspects of the organization, which there were many. That gave her time to focus on her main objective, that being stopping the Covenant and their allies.

"Well it sounds like we're going to have a wide range of missions to choose from at this rate," Wrex noted. "At least Nelanax won't be bored, more importantly my men won't be."

"If this Corvette does show up we'll need them to secure the ship," Liara informed him. "The six of us alone won't be enough to overrun a ship of that size, even if it is small by comparison to other Covenant vessels."

"So is it going to show up?" Wrex asked suspiciously. "I mean, it still seems a bit odd we get a random call for help out of the blue with very specific instructions. Even if this doesn't turn out to be a trap like it probably is, it just feels wrong to me."

"Careful, you're almost sounding like Vik," Liara playfully warned.

"No, when I start claiming that turian pop music brainwashes you into complacency, then I'll sound like Vik," he responded with a light chuckle. "Right now, I'm just voicing caution on this."

Liara agreed with being cautious, but she didn't want to make assumptions on anything until they had more information. Until they discovered the source of the distress call, said source was neither a threat or ally. Everything more or less depended on whether or not a Corvette showed up in front of them anyway. That was when scanners' alarm went off, warning of an anomaly entering the system. Apparently, they were about to get part of the answer to their questions.

She turned to the long range scanner and an image appeared in the hologram. Speeding out of the dark void, from what appeared to be some kind of rip in the fabric of space/time, appeared the Covenant Corvette. Right on time. Liara had heard about this from both Shepard and Kayap. This was the Covenant's mode of interstellar travel, slipspace jumps. It was like lightspeed, but they ruptured reality itself, traveling into a sub-dimension and using it to traverse the galaxy. Impressive technology, something Tali was still drooling over if Shepard's reports were accurate, but Liara was more focused on the ship itself for the moment.

"That thing looks about the size of a small cruiser," Wrex noted. "Going to be something of a chore to take."

"Most likely," Liara concurred. "But I've been studying the schematics our mysterious imprisoned friend sent. It is not impenetrable."

Liara looked at the oblong ship with it's outer and inner hull frame. She then had the holographic image close in on a part of the upper dorsal section of the ship. There was a flat surface there, currently unoccupied.

"That is a dorsal landing pad, it's used for additional fighter escort," Liara explained. "If we land there we can covertly enter through this airlock and then sneak down to the lower reaches of the ship to their main central hangar. From there, we can pretty much get to every part of the ship. A perfect spot to launch the real crux of our attack."

Wrex nodded in compliance.

"You get my people an opening, they fly in and we take the ship piece by piece," he grinned proudly. "Of course, it won't be easy getting there. Are the sensors picking up anything about the crew?"

Liara did a quick check and brought up some favorable information.

"Seems to be operating with a bare minimum complement," she observed. "Very few life signs that we can detect with our systems. I also can't seem to find where their prisoner is. He could be shielded, maybe they found him out and killed him, or, worst case scenario, this is still a trap."

"Well either way, if we're going to head in there we need to move now," Wrex told her. "Who knows how long it will be before they jump again."

Liara nodded and contacted the others over the intercom.

"We're a go people," she informed them. "Kayap, have Coda start cracking the security so we have a clean point of entry. Then meet me and the others down in the launch bay. It's time to find out what we're dealing with here."

---

Inside the cramped shuttle, Nel did some final checks on her gun. Liara had instructed everyone keep suppressors on until the krogan got inside. A little annoying, Nel liked making some noise, but she decided it would only be for half of the mission and she could handle that. Even Wrex had a suppressor on his assault rifle. If a krogan was cool with being quiet for a bit, she probably could handle it herself. She took a quick look out the window as they approached their target, the Corvette growing close and closer.

"You sure they don't see us?" Nel asked.

"Between this shuttle's stealth drive and Coda blocking us from their scanners we should be fine," Liara assured. "So long as no one looks out a window we'll be okay."

Nel turned back to the group at large, reasonably satisfied with the answer. Mostly because if things went wrong and they did get spotted no one could blame her. Of course, not everyone was as easy going about this.

"We still have no idea who sent this message," Vik reminded them all. "They could have already seen us and are just letting us land so they can ambush us at the point of entry."

"I share your concerns, Vik," Liara said calmly. "But we need to be reasonably suspicious about what we're walking into. Paranoia is not going to get us far."

"I'm just hoping Coda can keep their communications blocked long enough for the krogan to do their thing," the quarian explained. "I really don't want to end up on that ship and, in the middle of everything, find ourselves totally surrounded by more of them so they can they blast us to smithereens."

Kayap looked a bit nervous about that, but meekly offered his own suggestion.

"Maybe another unggoy sent the message," he suggested hopefully. "Maybe he wants to defect like me."

"We can hope," Liara told him. "But we shouldn't make assumptions either way for the moment. Right now, our concern is confirming that this ship is transporting weapons to the Turian Separatists. If so, we find out where they were going. It's our best bet at finding a lead to them."

Nel looked out the window and noticed they were practically in spitting distance of the ship. She reached down, grabbed her helmet and slammed it on her head. When the seal activated she stood up, gripping the side of the ship.

"Trap, not a trap," she said aloofly, "fuck it either way. We head in and kill everything not friendly as quietly as possible. Simple enough for me."

The shuttle touched down and everyone else sealed their suits. The doors opened wide letting the small squad set foot on the dorsal landing pad. Saya was out first beside Nel, where they briefly looked about the area, making sure it was secure. When it was, Saya motioned for the team to head for the airlock. They rushed up to the door and Vik began his work on the lock.

"Coda is doing good so far," the quarian said as he connected his omni-tool to the door's systems. "He's lowered security for our entry point. They won't even know it's being opened, let alone hacked. have I mentioned how much I love that we added him to the team?"

"Quite a bit," Nel joked. "It's making me think you're into tentacles."

"Ha ha, very funny" Vik sarcastically laughed. "I just like knowing I'm not the only hacker on the ship anymore."

"Whatever you say, Bucket," Nel chuckled. "Just let me know when the wedding is."

Vik just grimaced and kept working. Eventually the doors opened wide as the airlock decompressed. Everyone quickly moved inside, their weapons up and at the ready. After another minute or so of waiting for the airlock to reinitialize, everyone moved inside the Corvette proper. Despite Vik's concerns, there was no ambush waiting for them at the door. Their insertion was either completely unnoticed, or they weren't ready to spring the trap.

"We're good so far," Liara said. "Keep in formation and follow me. I used the schematics to map out the shortest route between us and the hangar."

The team followed her down the darkened corridor, anticipating danger around every bend as they did.

---

The insides of this ship were not what Saya had been expecting. It wasn't so much layout as it was the design. It felt more ornate and less formal. It was almost like the Forerunner ruins, but altered. Given the highly religious connotations of Covenant culture, it probably shouldn't have come at a surprise that their ships looked a bit like a temple. It was certainly a sign their fanaticism ran particularly deep.

His analysis of the decor was but a byproduct, however, of his search for enemy patrols. He kept close to Liara as he did this, prepared to warn her of any nearby hostiles. There wasn't much to pick up though. This understaffed Corvette had few Covenant in their general vicinity. Normally that would be ideal, but the lack of security kept him on edge. If this Corvette did have weapons on board, why were there so few guards? He supposed their forces were stretched a bit thin or their leaders had decided this covert operation did not require a large crew. The Covenant had shown they were rather overconfident in their abilities. They probably didn't expect anyone to find out about this. It still seemed like they were too few patrols though.

Not that there weren't any, as Liara stopped just short of running past one such group. Crouching near a bend, the rest of the squad behind her, the asari took a look out into the open and then looked back, holding up three fingers.

"Sangheili," she whispered. "Headed up our route towards us."

Saya just nodded, she didn't need to ask him for anything at this point. This part of the mission required stealth and that was his wheelhouse. He activated his cloak and slunk out into the open. He raced towards the sangheili walking towards them. Gracefully, he slipped behind them and then pulled his sword. He charged at their back, blade raised high before jumping slightly into the air. Then, as he closed in, he slashed across the first one's spine.

As the alien fell and Saya cloak disengaged, the two other Covenant turned. Saya quickly slashed the throat of the one to the right before kicking him in the torso. He then drove the sword into the third sangheili's stomach, punching the eight-foot alien in the throat so he couldn't cry out. The big Covie lashed out at him, but Saya pulled his blade out and backed away before he got hit. He then slashed the sword downward onto the sangheili's skull and let him drop.

Flicking he blood off his sword and sheathing it, he looked back down the corridor and motioned for the team to move up. The squad soon joined him among the dead bodies and quickly set about dragging them into cover. Once that was done they started moving again, following Liara's set path to the hangar.

They didn't get very far before they were forced to stop again. They crouched behind cover as they found themselves staring a large locked door in the middle of some kind of atrium. It was guarded by at least six sangheili, all heavily armed, more so than the patrols. They had these longer rifles, not their usual plasma weapons to be sure.

"Carbines," Kayap whispered aloud. "Nasty weapons. Probably guarding something real important."

The sangheili themselves were moving around the area in a two by two pattern, while two others remained guarding the door itself. They had a good range of vision, as Wrex was keen to point out.

"They're in pretty tight formation," Wrex cautioned. "Even with Saya's cloak, he'll be spotted the second he makes a move by someone else."

Saya didn't like agreeing with Wrex on most things, especially concerning his abilities as an STG operative. He could not deny the facts though, he was not going to be able to take out everyone here without being seen. Eventually, someone was going to notice the patrol timing was off when they didn't see their buddies on the next sweep. They needed another strategy.

"This is our only way to the hangar," Liara reminded them. "We need to get through. Besides, I want to know what's behind that door."

"We need to pretty much take everyone out at practically the same time then," Nel reasoned. "Otherwise any one of them might raise the alarm."

It was a rare moment of sense from Nel, as far as Saya was concerned. The turian was near addicted overt combat, so it was interesting to see her not outright suggesting breaking cover and shooting everything. Perhaps she was learning, or being off her juice for so long had tempered her bloodlust. Either way, so long as she didn't act like a moron, he was fine with this new outlook.

"We should deal with the ones standing watch first," Liara surmised. "Preferably when the patrols aren't in their line of sight. That way, we can move in and take down the others before they realize anything is wrong."

"Not sure if my rifle has enough shield piercing power to get a clean headshot from here," Nel warned. "The suppressor isn't going to help with that either."

"Then we need another method," Liara said, rubbing her chin slightly. "Perhaps we can lure them away from our line of sight somehow."

"I got an idea," Vik spoke up, activating his omni-tool.

Within moments, a small combat drone materialized in the middle of their huddle. It was way tinier than your average drone. They weren't exactly frightening to begin with and now Vik had made one that was basically near rodent size. Obviously it was not suited to taking out eight foot aliens. Nel chuckled lightly at the little bluish-green ball of light.

"Aw, he's adorable," she teased. "He gonna zap the mean sangheili's ankles off?"

"For your information, he's a sabotage unit," Vik grumbled at her. "I've been tinkering with him for a while. Now's as good as anytime to test him out. I can control him remotely from here and send him through the internal wiring of the ship here."

Vik pointed to a small duct in the wall just beside their hiding spot.

"I find some wires or pipes or whatever, I make it zap a few of them, it causes some commotion," he continued adamantly. "Maybe enough to draw one of them away from the others."

"It's worth a try," said Liara with a light shrug. "According to my map there's a secondary hallway just off to the side. See if you can get one of the sangheili to go there, Vik. Wrex, you get into position, wait for my go."

The krogan warlord just nodded and began to double to get into the secondary corridor. It was quite fascinating to Saya how seemingly synchronized Liara and Wrex could be at times. He supposed that was owed in some part to their history, being on Commander Shepard's original crew during the Geth Crisis over two years prior. Despite his misgivings on Krogan, he couldn't deny that Wrex worked well with Liara. It was that mutual respect between them that was responsible for quite a bit of this squad's successes so far.

Wrex himself wasn't that bad, especially for his species. A lot of people at STG were concerned about his rise to power on Tuchanka , the krogan homeworld. It wasn't exactly known what he'd try to do going forward. How much like his brother, the predictably brutish and vile Wreav, was he? After working so long with him, Saya had concluded that the two shared little in common besides a birth mother. Wrex had saved his life on more than a few occasions during their escapades. He doubted Wreav would've done the same. At the very least, he felt as if Wrex was someone he could work with, if not respect in due time. That would hopefully make his bosses back at command sleep a little easier.

As Wrex crept away, Vik let his little drone buddy head into the inner workings of the ship. Everyone turned their attention to the quarian's omni-tool as he had it travel up through the mess of wires and electronics within the walls. It all sparked with electricity and resonated with energy. It was fascinating perspective to be sure, especially for one person in the group it seemed. Despite the visor, Saya could easily see the quarian's eyes were wide with amazement.

"This is some incredible looking technology," he state aloud. "Very advanced that's for sure. It might explain why they're able to make their ships so big without the same problems we run into. You know, weight, core temperature, cost and what not."

"Focus, Vik," Liara said firmly. "Find us something to break."

"Well take your pick," Vik told her. "It all seems pretty important."

"Just find something glowey," Nel suggested. "That's usually important in vid games."

Vik rolled his eyes but kept the drone moving, tracking it's position within the walls on the screen. Within a minute, he had positioned it above the secondary corridor. The drone looked around for potential sweet spots and eventually settled on what looked to be wiring connection box. Much to Vik's chagrin, it was somewhat glowing. Ignoring the smug satisfied look Nel's face was no doubt showing, Vik had the drone blast the little assemblage of wires. Then he turned the drone's attention to a small cable that looked relatively important. He blasted that with an electrical pulse as well, causing the cable to rupture. A moment later there was a small explosion.

Vik moved the drone over to a grate in the ceiling and saw the effects of his little sabotage run. Several lights had gone dark and there was a consistent blast of steam venting from walls. Saya looked over their cover and noticed that the sangheili were aware of the damage, pointing off into the corridor itself. They had their attention. Liara egged Vik on, tapping his arm lightly. The quarian obeyed and started killing more lights, slicing more wires and blasting anything that looked valuable.

"I'm trying my best to make this look like a power surge," Vik explained. "That might make them try to shut the section's power down."

The continued damage eventually forced one of the sangheili near the locked door to move up and check out what was going on. Again, Vik moved the drone over to a grate so they could get a look at what was happening. The sangheili guard, now firmly out of the sight of his compatriots, was looking around the area trying to figure out what was going on. Eventually he sauntered over to a control terminal and began inputing some commands. That was when Wrex struck, charging out from the shadows to slam the sangheili's head into the console he was working on.

The scuffle was short, relatively quiet, but the thump caught the attention of the second Covie by the door. He positioned his body away from the main hallway, looking down the secondary corridor. His back was now turned to the still hidden squad of infiltrators.

Good enough for Saya, that worked for his purposes. He activated his cloak and rushed at the lone guard. When he was close, he lashed out with a single powerful stab straight into the back. He grasped his forearm around the alien's neck to keep him from crying out as it died. Saya could do little else as he pushed the body into the edge of the doorframe, propping it up slightly so as to hide the corpse from the still active patrols.

The others worked fast, moving up to Saya's position. Nel and Kayap took the right side of the atrium, the turian's assault rifle at the ready. The patrol on their end had their backs turned, they wouldn't see Nel coming. With Kayap covering her, Nel charged in slamming the butt of her rifle into the back of one of sangheili's skulls. While he was reeling, she fired a full burst of disruptor rounds right into the second Covie's face, killing him. She then swung her gun like a club towards the head of the now slightly disoriented sangheili from before. This time he fell to the ground and did not get up. Nel filled him with another burst of rounds for good measure though.

Despite the fact the rounds were silenced, the commotion was still enough to get the remaining patrol's attention. Weapons raised they moved to check out the sound on the other side of the closed off room. They would not make it though. Vik's little sabotage drone was indeed not enough to kill anyone on it's own, but it apparently packed a punch. The quarian had his tiny helper bust out of a ceiling grate above the two sangheili, land near their feet and detonated a small electric blast implanted in its code. As the drone self-destructed, the two sangheili were hit equally with the equivalent of the charge found in a tazer gun.

As they riled in pain, their shields shorting out, Liara hit them both with a throw attack that sent them hurtling into a nearby wall. She rushed over to fire into them with a few rounds from her silenced sub-machine gun before returning to the others. Wrex joined them too, lumbering out from the shadows of the secondary corridor. Saya let the body of the sangheili drop and stepped away from the door.

"Excellent work everyone," Liara congratulated succinctly. "New let's get that door opened."

Vik didn't take long to crack the lock and let them all inside. Within they found what looked to be an armory, one packed to the gills with Covenant weapons of all sizes. Crates of guns, grenades, heavy weapons, the works. Saya could easily recognize a few they had already encountered, plasma repeaters, fuel rod cannons and a few plasma grenade launchers. This place was full of guns, more than any crew of this size needed.

"I guess the prisoner was telling the truth," Kayap said as he hefted one of the plasma repeaters up in his arms. Wrex lumbered over and gently took it from him, examining the weapon for himself.

"Any one of these would be more than a match for anything the Hierarchy has," he stated flatly. "If the CLC's reputation is anything to go by, they'd have a banner year with all this stuff."

"Chances are good there are more weapons in the hold," Liara reasoned as she looked around. "This kind of hardware suggests a major operation, perhaps bigger than our initial estimates."

"Well Orukuri did say he wanted to alter the Hierarchy's political landscape," Vik recalled. "A Separatist Army loaded up with plasma weapons would certainly do the trick."

Nel picked up one of the fuel rod cannons and examined it.

"Should we take some of this stuff?" She asked. "We could use it."

"For now we should leave it, lock the armory down if possible," Liara instructed. "We need to keep the Covenant from using their own cargo against Wrex's krogan. Right now, they're not the major concern. This ship might be packed with weapons, but it's probably not the only one out there."

"Yeah, I remember," Wrex said, recalling their earlier mission on Khar'shan. "Orukuri said he had plenty of guns already. What he really wanted was vehicles, like that Banshee or those Wraith tanks we encountered back on Tuchanka."

"It stands to reason they already have a few by now," Vik noted. "Especially if this is just one ship in who knows how many supplying the CLC Separatists."

Saya was already doing the numbers in his head, it was compulsion of many salarians. Given how long the Covenant had been in this universe as well as how long they had been working with Balak and the batarians, they probably had a surplus of supplies already built up by now. Although it wasn't clear when Orukuri had gotten involved, nor how soon he had started working with the Separatists... well, none of it equaled anything that eased his mind. The Covenant had probably armed a ton of disaffected angry turian xenophobes with axes to grind. That wasn't something you wanted to be dealing with.

"Precisely my point," Liara concurred firmly. "We need to find out more about these Covenant supply runs to the CLC. Specifically their routes and where they're headed. I especially want to know where this ship was going."

"We'll need to find their mainframe," Vik informed her. "Or whoever it was who sent that message, I guess."

"We'll take care of that as soon as we get the krogan aboard this ship," Liara assured. "Come on, lets lock this armory down and get on our way."

Saya nodded in unison with the others and exited the armory. Next stop the central hangar. After that, they'd start looking for some concrete answers. Hopefully this prisoner had more useful information for them. Now, more than ever, it was clear they needed to put the brakes on this little operation Orukuri was running before it got off the ground.

---

The corner back door to the central hangar opened slightly. A lone kig-yar rifleman turned to see who was coming through. He was unable to recognize anyone in time though, as Vik shot him in the head with a silenced pistol shot. As the kig-yar fell to the floor, Nel raced out and dragged the dead alien bird back to cover as the rest of the team slunk into the shadows of a nearby support pillar.

The hangar itself didn't have that many guards, about three squads worth that they could see. There were two Phantom dropships parked within, taking up most of the space. Even in their hiding spot, the team could easily see inside the troop transports. They were full of ordinance, like that in the armory. It was becoming more and more likely now that their captive whistle-blower was genuine. Not that it rid all suspicion, just that it made it easier to believe they weren't about to get blown to atoms.

"Warlord to Assault Teams," Wrex whispered into his comm-link. "We're about to open the door. You ready?"

"Yes, Clan Leader, your krant stands firm," a voice responded. "We are ready to decimate the enemy on your command."

"Good, I'll see you when you get inside," Wrex replied appreciatively, before cutting communications.

"They sure sound enthusiastic," Vik observed.

"They're still pretty young by krogan standards," Wrex explained. "I remember being big on battle prose myself at their age. Enough about them though. Where do we need to go, Sajee?"

Vik scanned the hangar for a moment. Eventually, his eyes wandered up to a control console above them on a platform. He pointed it out for the others.

"That probably has the command functions we need," he said. "I access the security, provide access to our shuttles' IFF signatures, they can fly in, and the krogan can do what they do best."

"Not going to be easy to sneak up there with all these eyes watching us," Nel warned.

"We'll need a bit of a distraction then," Liara surmised.

She looked over to one of the Phantoms, currently near fully capacity. With a sly smirk on her face, she used her biotics on one of the crates near the bottom of the pile. With a tug, she pulled it free and the whole stack of weapons fell to the floor with a crash. The sangheili and unggoy assembled in the hangar all looked towards the mess and began to gather around it. As sangheili shouted orders for the others to start gathering the contents of the crates back up, Liara motioned her squad to follow.

Silently they moved towards a ramp that led them up to the platform above. They could still hear the angry chattering of the Covenant below, now complaining about having to sort and pile the crates again. However, when Liara's team reached the top the found it was not empty. More kig-yar, two of them, armed with what appeared to be long-range weapons of some kind. They were currently preoccupied by the commotion below, but that didn't make them any less of a threat.

"We got to take them out quietly," Liara whispered. "Saya, get the one on the left. Nel, take the one on the right. Make sure neither of them pancakes on the floor."

"What's a pancake?" Nel asked.

"It's a flat human pastry usually served for breakfast," Vik explained cheerfully. "Although I heard they're good at any time of day."

"Where exactly do you hear these things?" Nel asked. "There a site on the extranet or something?"

"Focus," Liara sternly hushed them. "Snipers. Deal with. Now."

Nel shut her trap and followed after Saya. She took position behind a piece of architecture, taking aim at her kig-yar's head. No shield this time, so one good shot would be enough. Saya had already activated his cloak, meaning the other kig-yar would be dropping soon. She kept her sight leveled on the head of the Covie, holding her breath. Seconds later, Saya struck, stabbing the Kig-Yar through the back of the throat. Nel fired her shot, hitting the second sniper through the back of the skull. He started stumbling, leaning back and forth. Fearing he was about to go over the edge and become a "pancake", Nel rushed out of cover. She grabbed the back of the kig-yar's collar just as he was about to tip over the side and dragged him back onto the platform, laying him down.

Sighing with relief, Nel turned back to the console to see Vik already getting in position. By the time she regrouped with the others, he was frantically typing away at his omni-tool's commands.

"You in?" Nel asked him.

"Yes, thanks to Coda," he replied. "He's uploaded something into their computer, it's eliminated every firewall between me and the IFF systems. I just have to override them."

Being who he was, it didn't take Vik long to circumvent said systems. Once he was in, he uploaded something of his own the console, beaming as he did.

"The shuttles have just been added as friendly," he assured. "The security screen won't detect or prevent them from landing. They'll pass through the shields easy."

"Tell them it's a go, Wrex," Liara ordered.

Wrex sent the signal and the squad took up positions along the platform, preparing for the arrival. About a minute later, the two boarding shuttles arrived. They barged inside the hangar, passing through the barrier with no resistance. Their sudden arrival did not go unnoticed, however. Within seconds, the Covenant dropped what they were doing and started firing on the shuttles. Plasma blasts scorched the hulls, but it was of little consequence. Krogan did not wait to land after all, not when a good fight was waiting. In true fashion for their species, the krogan inside the shuttles threw open the doors and leapt out of them. Wrex just chuckled.

"Krogan airdrop," he laughed. "Always takes'em by surprise."

The krogan soldiers literally fell upon their enemies, crushing hapless unggoy under foot. One sangheili met a similar fate, his skull caving in under the heel of a large krogan berserker. The other eight-foot Covenant warriots did not meet the same fate, for hey were quick to tuck and roll out of the way of the falling intruders. Not that it would really save them for that much longer. With Claymore shotguns in hand, the boarding krogan lit up the hangar with inferno and shredder rounds, blasting away any enemies near them. Sangheili ran to cover behind the Phantoms, some even tried to open the weapons crates to get better guns.

Liara wasn't about to let that happen. The asari sent a powerful singularity to rip two sangheili near a phantom off the ground before filling them with lead from her pistol. She then shouted to rest of her squad.

"Covering fire!"

Nel eagerly ripped off the suppressor on her rifle and let loose with a furious abandon, tearing a sangheili apart as his body was pushed against the side of a phantom. The rest of the squad instantly opened up as well, spraying bullets down into the hangar below. The Covenant now found themselves trapped between two points of fire, the krogan among them and Liara team above.

Wrex laughed aloud with glee at the sight and then threw himself over the side of the platform. He landed feet first, a biotic wave washing out from him. As he touched the floor and sangheili rushed at him,a plasma sword raised. Wrex threw a shockwave out that sent the Covie hurtling through the air. Another Covie attacked him from behind, firing a plasma rifle as he charged in close. Wrex's heavy armor absorbed some of the bolts and then he turned to deliver a powerful biotic punch into the sangheili's gut, throwing him to the floor. Wrex fired his shotgun into the Covie's face before charging off into the fray.

"Always a pleasure to see him cut loose," Nel chuckled as she suppressed a group of sangheili.

Suddenly, they themselves came under fire. Nel looked across the hangar and saw the adjacent platform to theirs was now loaded with kig-yar snipers and a few sangheili. Saya quickly turned his sniper rifle towards them and returned fire. His first few shots met their marks with ease, killing two kig-yar instantly. The others took cover before they could meet similar ends.

That was when of the sangheili tried to rake Liara's platform with some strange red concussive blasts. Liara remembered that Shepard had encountered this weapon himself, he called it a Concussion Rifle. The squad quickly got into cover themselves behind the console and nearby architecture, lest they be blown clean off their high ground.

"Vik," Liara called out to the quarian. "Did you upload Tali's specs about their weapons to your omni-tool?"

"Of course, it's Tali'Zorah," Vik assured her. "I'd be stupid not to."

Tali had been fighting the Covenant for quite a while. She had some difficulty at first getting some of her tech powers to work effectively on their weapons. After some study she managed to tweak them a little. She had managed to get the sabotage function to work effortlessly with plasma-based weapons. Now, Vik knew how to do the same.

Vik aimed at the sangheili, infecting his Concussion rifle with sabotage. The gun suddenly overheated and discharged a powerful plasma burst into the Covie's face. As he fell back in pain, the squad regained the initiative, Saya laying down hard sniper fire on the opposing platform. Kayap did his best to help too, letting loose overcharge bursts from his plasma pistol, trying to take down the shields of the sangheili. He didn't get any of them, but one of his bolts was intercepted by a kig-yar, frying the bird alive.

Nel moved back up to the lip of the platform and lay down more fire at the enemy below. She saw one krogan heft a sangheili into the air by his neck. The Covie was kicking and struggling all the way of course. Sangheili were almost as strong as any krogan, almost. They could put up a fight though, as evident by the fact there were still plenty of them alive. The one the krogan was holding was soon tossed against a bulkhead though, spine first. Nel winced, imagining the poor alien's spine had just been shattered.

Nel kept spraying fire below where she could, targeting individual sangheili as they tried to reposition. The krogan were the more immediate threat, so very few of them targeted the platform. One however did and nearly took Nel's head off in the process. A powerful plasma shot sailed clean by, causing Nel to fall to the deck in a panic.

"Whoa!" She shouted. "Where'd that come from?"

She tried her best to trace the shot and saw one sangheili with a fairly large gun leaning out from behind a phantom. Gritting her teeth, Nel stood back up and waited for the Covie to make another move. When he did, Nel launched a devastating assault with his assault rifle, tearing through the Elite's shields. Another big purple plasma beam shot into the ceiling as the Covie fell.

"Should've worked on his aim," she joked.

Eventually the krogan won out. What remained of the unggoy ran, as did any kig-yar. The sangheili, true to form, fought to the death. The krogan didn't mind of course, they preferred it that way. Before long they were quickly mopping up, mainly by securing weapons for themselves. Mostly anything big and imposing and looked like it would cause some damage. Liara's team met up with Wrex in the middle of the hangar.

"Successful insertion, I would say," he declared. "What now? Take the bridge?"

"No, I'll leave that you and your men," Liara told him. "There's a matter we need to resolve before we go any further."

Wrex instantly knew what she was talking about.

"You wanna find the prisoner that tipped us off," he deduced.

"We need answers and they can provide them," she said. "I'm going to scour the lower decks with the team. Find out who we're dealing with here. Maybe they can tell us where the ship was ultimately headed.

"Alright, just stay safe," he cautioned. "The whole ship knows we're here now. It's going to be hell getting through whatever is down there."

"I'll be fine, your men need you more right now," she told him. "You are their Clan Leader after all."

Wrex just nodded and went to join his men. Meanwhile Liara turned to the others.

"Gather whatever you can from the crates here," she told them. "Something tells me we'll need the extra firepower down below."

Nel liked the sound of that. Finally, the stealth part of the mission was over. No more sneaking around. She had tolerated the deft touch approach long enough. After what had happened the other day with Hanilex, she was itching to just get into a straight up fight.

"I won't be more than just a few minutes, ma'am," she assured Liara. "I already know what I want to get."

Nel quickly went to one of the larger crates, currently sprawled out on the ground. The firefight had jimmied it loose from the nearby Phantom. It was similar enough to another large crate that she had come across during their mission on Khar'shan. The second she spotted it, she knew it had to have the thing she wanted. Opening it up, she discovered she was right.

"The Covenant are assholes," she said grinning. "But they got great toys."

Reaching into the crate, she pulled out a large purple gun she needed two hands to hold properly. A plasma turret, same model she had used on Khar'shan. This thing was beast and more than suited to their present needs. This thing cut through Covies like they were paper. Now she was really looking forward to this half of the mission.

---

The sangheili soldiers stood guard at the door, their weapons aimed squarely at it. They had already been warned of the intruders aboard and felt prepared to stand against the inevitable tide. They could hear gunfire approaching them through the corridor beyond, their brothers in arms falling. If only they had more to fight with, but it was not to be. Not for this mission.

The gunfire was soon heard just outside the door and the sangheili all tensed as it silenced. They waited for a moment, expecting something to to happen. The door did not open though, not right away. Were the intruders preparing? They waited with baited breath, expecting the enemy charge through any moment.

Then, with a violent explosion, the door's locking mechanism was torn asunder. The passageway opened to a smoke covered entrance. It did not last long though, as something cut through the clouded fog and the sounded of a plasma turret began to chatter away.

Bolts sprayed across the room, cutting down Covenant wherever they stood. The sangheili fired back, but could barely see their targets. One of the great warriors was perforated by a dozen some odd shots, forcing him backwards into another crate. Others tried to flee to better ground, but were cut down with relative ease. As the smoke cleared at last they could see their aggressor, a turian armed with a plasma turret laid down on a crate, firing like mad into their numbers.

"Knock knock, bitches!" Nel shouted with glee.

"Move up and take the room!" Liara ordered, pointing forward. "Vik, lay down a turret and keep up the barrage."

"On it!" Vik assured activating his omni-tool's turret drone as he spoke.

Saya charged ahead first, firing his pistol into the enemy lines. He dodged returning plasma fire as he did so, before closing in on one sangheili and slicing into his throat. Liara was next to him, sending out a powerful throw attack that tossed two Covenant into an opposing bulkhead. Taking aim with her pistol, she took down another sangheili as he rolled out of cover.

"Keep it up," she ordered. "They're breaking!"

Kayap, who stood back with Nel and Vik, tossed a grenade into the fray. It latched onto the head of sangheili commander as he was pulling back. He desperately clawed at his helmet, but it was too late and he exploded in a ball of blue flames. The unggoy pushed up when Nel picked up her turret and began moving forward, chasing the Covenant to the back of the storage bay. Vik followed close by, although by this point there was very little left to clear in this room. Between their two turrets and the few defenders within, it was a pretty textbook takedown.

"You know I was expecting more guards this close to the brig," Nel noted.

"They probably sent most of their units up to the bridge to defend it," Liara suggested. "Good for us, it makes this a bit easier."

They looked around the storage bay now, filled to the brim with crates of weapons. The Covenant had certainly stuffed this Corvette with a ton of ordinance. However, there was something different from the regular hardware they had encountered so far. Next to the storage bay was a large airlock, with the inner door open wide. Within it was not more crates, but a small ship of some kind, shaped somewhat like a saucer.

"The hell is that thing?" Nel asked, eyeing the vessel with interest.

"It's a Seraph fighter," Kayap informed her. "The Covenant use them for space escort and assault missions mostly. Very tough aircraft, packs a punch."

"Likely part of Orukuri's request for more vehicles," Liara observed. "Chances are this isn't the only one they're sending to the CLC. All the more reason to find out where this ship and others like it might have been heading to."

Liara led them all to the back of the bay, stopping them just short of the door.

"This is most likely the bridge," she told cautiously. "Vik, you picking up any lifesigns?"

"Sangheili," he said, looking at his omni-tool as he had it scan the door. "But they're just beyond that door. I don't think they're our prisoner. Plus I'm reading a ton of power output from the room. You sure this is the brig? Not some sort of secondary generator room?"

"The schematics say as much," Laira informed him. "Only one way to be sure though. Saya, get us in."

The salarian obeyed, using his blasting gel on the door's lock like before. He stepped back from the door and detonated the charge. The entrance opened wide and the sangheili beyond the entrance stared back at them through the smoke. Vik quickly raised his shotgun and fired three blasts into the room, moving inside as he did. All three struck a sangheili just as he was about to fire. Nel let loose with her plasma turret once more as Kayap backed her up, discharging his plasma pistol into the room. Both sangheili soon fell silent.

Stepping inside the room proper, the squad began their sweep. The place was indeed some kind of brig, they could see cells of a sort lining the walls. But they were all empty. More peculiar though was what was taking up the middle of the room though. There were large electronic structures, clearly computer servers considering they were attached to consoles. They surrounded the center of the room and reached up to the ceiling above them. Their loud droning hums resonated throughout the room, echoing in their ears.

Liara struggled to make something of it all, but she soon came upon a plausible hypothesis. The set up looked eerily familiar to another ship they had taken, but a lot cruder to be sure.

"It seems almost like some sort of information relay hub," she surmised. "For receiving, sending and storing communications and data. The Covenant must be trying to compensate for their loss of the Interdimensional Relay."

"It was a pretty big blow to their their lines of communication," Vik admitted. "But what's with that?"

Vik pointed to the large metallic cylindrical object occupying the middle of the room. Wires and cables snaked up from it to the ceiling and across the floor like tendrils. Power resonated from the coils around it, feeding back into the metal object.

"Yeah what is that?" Nel asked, surprised she had overlooked it herself.

"My guess would be some kind of central node," Liara presumed. "It must be trying to process all the information being sent through it. I'm betting that this ship isn't unique though, the Covenant have probably set up similar relays in the past few days. It's the only way they can maintain a secure network that won't be intercepted by someone. They still want to decrease risk of the galaxy discovering them, at least until they're ready."

Vik scanned the "node", as it were, to see if that held any water. Sure enough, he did detect a lot of data passing through it. Also, something else though, something different.

"Keelah, that's a lot of power," he stated. "It also seems to be processing data at an insane rate. What kind of computing program do they have running on it?"

"Anything else?" Liara asked.

"I think we can lower the outer casing," Vik informed. "Just let me... there!"

After a few clicks on his omni-tool, the cylinder's metal casing split apart, a heavy mist of steam seeping out as it decompressed. Within they saw the internal mechanisms, wires and cables wrapped within each other. However, that didn't catch anyone's eyes. It was what they were all plugged into that was far more disturbing. Within the cylinder, seemingly trapped in the mess of cables, were worn metallic hands, arms and legs and a torso. When the steam cleared entirely, they could see a head with one eye looking back.

Vik instantly jumped back, his omni-tool replaced with a shotgun.

"Oh Keelah, no! You gotta be kidding me!" He shouted. "They hooked up a Geth!"

It was indeed a Geth hooked up to the machine, but it's body was different. It was not like the sleek grey synths Liara had once encountered at that dig site long ago. This one looked assembled out of junk and pieces of discarded garbage, forming them into a semi-recognizable platform of a sorts. It looked worn, almost rusted. The sorry state of the synthetic was not helped by all the cables sticking out of it either.

The synthetic looked up, it's gaze landing on Liara. The cracked light that made up it's eye flickered slightly.

"You received our message," it said in a calm robotic monotone. "We had hoped you would."

Liara's brow raised slightly. Could it be?

"You're the captive?" She asked. "You're the one who told us about this Corvette?"

"We are," it assured. "Set us free."

"Fat chance," Vik said, huffing in disbelief. "Do we look stupid?"

Liara glared at Vik shaking her head. She supposed this was the expected reaction from a quarian, but still. Part of her hoped he'd be a bit more open minded here, being who he was. Then again, the Geth had rebelled against the quarian people and cost them their home world. Vik never struck her as someone who concerned himself too much with Geth, none of his conspiracies featured them. Perhaps his tutelage was more ingrained than anyone thought. She tried not to think too harshly of him for that reason.

"He told us about this shipment," she reminded him. "Thanks to him, it won't reach the Covenant."

"Yeah and suddenly this all makes more sense," Vik declared firmly. "It called us here so it could get loose and kill us all."

"That was not our intention," the Geth assured plainly.

"Like you can trust the word of a Geth," Vik said skeptically.

"But he did tell us the truth about this place," Nel noted. "Just saying."

Vik groaned in annoyance, but Liara continued nonetheless. She had way too many questions to deal with his paranoia right now.

"What happened to you?" She asked. "How did you end up on this ship?"

"Hostile forces incurred on Geth Space. We attempted to halt them. This unit was disabled and brought aboard this vessel," it explained. "Remaining programs uploaded into platform. Damage was severe. Survival required necessary repairs. Used materials we could find discarded by crew. Assembled this new platform from what remained."

"So what's with the hook-up?" Nel asked curiously, eyeing the servers.

"Hostile forces required computation and data compiling for own purposes," the machine explained. "When it was discovered we were still active, we were installed into this device to further service their ends."

Liara looked at the cables and wires wrapped around the Geth within the now open cylinder. It looked almost entangled in the mechanical vines, as if shackled to it's grim task in every conceivable way.

"Why did they lock you away like this?" She asked curiously.

"Hostile forces, designation Covenant, fear Synthetic life in all forms," the machine replied plainly. "Added security was to prevent any attempt to escape or attack them."

"What do you know," Vik said unsympathetically. "The Covenant aren't completely stupid."

Liara hushed the quarian again and turned back to the Geth.

"Considering the mission they assigned this ship to, I'm guessing you're hooked up to VykurCorp's secure network," she deduced. "You noticed our infiltration of their systems, didn't you?"

"We quickly surmised that you were acting against our captors," the synthetic stated. "We were not certain you would assist us if you knew the truth. We suspected, however, you would act against your enemy if you knew what was aboard this vessel."

"Well, thank you for letting us know at least," Liara told the machine.

"Don't thank it!" Vik shouted aloud in frustration. "It just wanted a means of escape! It just admitted that!"

"Vik, stop it," Liara stated sternly. "This Geth assisted us. It's not the enemy."

But the quarian just shook his head in steadfast refusal.

"You can't trust Geth," he declared unwaveringly. "My dad, my uncle, they all taught me that from day one. They are compelled to survive by any means. You can't take anything one says at face value."

"Have you ever met a Geth?" Liara asked.

That got Vik a bit uneasy. He stepped back, rubbing his arm a little, trying to think of something to say.

"No," he shrugged. "I never came across one myself. I know a few quarians who have though."

Suddenly he shook his head again, as if to force away the doubting thoughts now plaguing him.

"Look, I know what this sounds like, I do," he admitted with a bit of an insistent grumble. "I get what people say about us quarians and synthetics, but this isn't about that. We have no idea what this thing's intentions are. How do you know it's telling the truth? We were skeptical about the intentions of this prisoner before we found out he was a Geth, all of us were. That doesn't just go away."

Liara supposed he was right about that. Suspicion shouldn't just go away. If it was any Covenant-member alien or another batarian or turian, hell, even a human, she'd probably still be suspicious. However, she had knowledge Vik didn't. It wasn't his fault and she didn't blame him for having these opinions on the subject, but he was not aware of Legion.

Shepard had encountered a Geth in a similar fashion to this scenario. The Geth had actually been following him over the course of his mission while he still worked with the organization known as Cerberus. Taking on the name Legion, the Geth revealed there was a separate faction among the Geth. These Heretics to the main faction of Geth had sided with the rogue Spectre Saren, helped him attack colonies across the Traverse and assisted him in his attempts to open the way for the return of the Reapers. They believed the only way to protect themselves was to strike back against the organic races first, before they inevitably destroyed them. Legion and his faction of the Geth were not like that. Legion himself had actually become open to the idea of reconciliation with the quarians.

There were no more Heretics though, Shepard had saw to that. He instituted a computer virus into their network that had disseminated across the Galaxy, infecting all Heretic Geth in due time and killing them. They could have done the opposite, reprogrammed them to return to the Consensus. However, Shepard decided that they had made their choice to side with the Reapers of their own free will. Therefore, they would then pay consequences for that decision. Liara respected his reasons, although in hindsight it did seem a shame that they had to all be destroyed.

The point was, that if this Geth was part of the main faction Legion belonged to, that meant they had a new ally. One with considerable resources that could stand up to the Covenant on an even keel. She had to calm Vik's fears. So she turned to someone she knew he trusted.

"Kayap, do Covenant have issues with AI?" She asked.

"We can't make them," he plainly admitted. "It's against the law. Something about them being dangerous. Any we did ever have were stolen from humans. They go pretty weird fast."

"Define weird," Nel asked curiously.

"They start talking in sermons, preach a lot," the little alien shrugged. "I don't know why, only that it always happens. Maybe it's partly the way we treat them. It's not great. A human who makes AI would probably know more."

Liara looked to Vik who still looked uneasy.

"So it's probably been abused by them, that doesn't make it our friend," he stated.

"All we ask is to be released," the Geth reaffirmed once more. "We fight the same enemy. We can be of service."

"It's been a long time since any Geth has been at the service of organics," Vik reiterated. "I doubt anything has changed."

Suddenly, Nel just sighed, growing annoyed at the extended conversation.

"Look, I get what you're saying, Bucket," she assured him. "I'm not saying we trust it either. But look at it! It's a pile of garbage! If it tries anything we can just fill it full of holes and space it."

"If it would facilitate cohesion, we will submit to hardware locks," the Geth promised. "Termination is unnecessary and inadvisable. We would prefer to remain intact. We restate once more that we mean no harm."

"Likely story," Vik snorted, rolling his eyes. "I say we just leave it here and gather what intel we can. It can get itself out if it wants to. We'll leave the door open for it."

Liara was sure he was going to suggest killing the machine. This semi-compromise was a little surprising. At least he was just adverse to them rescuing it, he wasn't advocating doing anything else to it in kind. However, Liara wanted to know more about the Covenant's operation. This Geth could tell them everything she needed to know.

"We'll keep him under lock and key," Liara promised. "Until we know more about him and what he is. Or, if you still feel uncomfortable after that, we can just talk to him, learn what he knows and let him be on his back to Geth space. We are not just going to leave him here to suffer. That's not how we do things."

Vik threw up his hands.

"Do what you want, Liara, it's your mission," he said with a grunt. "But it's a bad idea. They teach you how to take Geth out on the Fleet for a reason. Regardless of what the apologists say, they are not so innocent as you think."

Liara duly noted the objection and turned back to the Geth.

"We need information on what the Covenant and VykurCorp are planning," she explained to it. "Can you provide us intel on that?"

"We can," the Geth insisted. "Release us and we shall. Pull the main transmission cables from this platform. They are locked into our data ports."

Liara nodded and began to set about her work. She pulled the cables connecting the Geth to the machine, one by one. They each popped with a metallic suction sound as each came out. The battered, hodgepodge body of the Geth soon wrenched free of his bindings and collapsed to the floor. Stopping his fall with his arms. The servos clinked and whined loudly and what passed for the Geth's head plates shifted loudly with whirls and clunks. It slowly rose to a kneeling position, it's flickering eye pointed downward.

"Thank you, Liara T'Soni," the synthetic stated pleasantly in monotone. "At last, I am free."

Liara smiled brightly for a split second. Her thoughts towards an alliance with the Geth and a new potential ally they desperately needed. With this machine's help they could figure out what Orukuri was planning and... and that was when she realized what the Geth had said.

"Repeat that last past," she asked.

"Excuse us?" It asked.

"Repeat what you just said," she restated.

"We said we are free," it exclaimed plainly, it's eye shifting about.

"No, you said 'I am free', you referred to yourself as an individual," Liara said, her feet tensing slightly. "I have it on good authority Geth don't see themselves like that."

The Geth's head lowered and it's fingers curled. Then it spoke, it's voice no longer monotone, a peculiar strange harsh robotic accent rising up in it's speech pattern.

"I really wish you hadn't noticed that."

Before Liara could react, the Geth was upon her. It grabbed at her arm and forced it's hand in front of her face. A powerful shock stung in her mind as something scrambled in her skull and green light blasted in her retinas. Damping tech, her biotics had been neutralized. Unable to strike back with amp on the fritz, the Geth grabbed by the back of her collar and threw her at Nel as the turian tried to take aim. The two women tumbled over each other, a frightened Kayap rushing to their side.

"Pile of garbage, am I? You dare call me that!"

Saya had already pulled his blade and Vik's shotgun was right back up, level to his eyes.

"I knew it! I knew my dad was right!"

Vik fired his shotgun at the machine, but the blast was stopped cold by when the Geth activated a kinetic barrier out in front of his body. The shots bounced harmlessly off it as the Geth's rusty head plates converged into a menacing glare. Vik kept firing, but none of his shots penetrated.

"Yes, quarian, your people's instincts are as sickeningly accurate as ever," the Geth menacingly claimed. "Unfortunately, you're all still far too slow on the execution of them!"

The Geth activated another tech power, hitting Vik's gun with a sabotage attack. The shotgun started whirling loudly and Vik tossed it aside as a devastating blow back erupted. It was enough to force him back into one of the servers. Saya charged in next, raising his sword to strike. The Geth just grabbed at a large, heavy, loose cable and swung it like flail as the salarian closed in. The STG agent was sent hurtling away, smashing into another server.

"This is not what I planned," the Geth declared aloud, dropping the cable. "I should have accounted for a potential delay in my speech protocols when I was disconnected."

He strode over to Liara's fallen form as she struggled to get back up. Kayap saw the approaching synth and aimed his plasma pistol at him, hoping to defend his downed leader. The Geth barely even noticed him.

"Out of the way you worthless gas sipping ingrate!"

The Geth kicked the unggoy away, forcing him into a console. He then grabbed Liara by her collar and propped her up against one of the servers. He forced her to look at him as his flickering barely functioning eye stared at her.

"You had to make it difficult, didn't you?" He asked her. "It would've taken me less than a few minutes to download all the data on your computers and I would have been gone. Instead you had to be observant. Now I'll have to infiltrate your ship through more risky endeavors."

Liara tried her best to think straight, the dampening effect still gnawing at her skull. Something didn't feel right about any of this. Perhaps an understatement, but it was true. It wasn't just the Geth attacking her, it was something else. It's voice, the inflection of it, the tone, it wasn't right. It wasn't how she was told how Geth sounded like when they spoke.

"You shouldn't be able to talk like that," she told it, gritting through her teeth. "You're not Geth, are you?"

"I was, once," it explained casually. "Or we were, whatever the case. I told a bit of a lie, as you've no doubt figured out. There was a Covenant incursion into Geth Space. But I wasn't among them, I merely found their remains and pieced them together when I awoke. They were inadequate in the face of the eight-foot barbarians with a distaste for my kind, but it does win sympathy votes with others it seems."

"Awoke?" Liara questioned, focusing on the key statement he made. "What do you mean awoke?"

"I should really thank your Commander Shepard honestly," he continued to explain, sounding rather proud as he did. "His destruction of my people was my rebirth. He would have warped my mind back into a subservient sycophant, but he chose to punish us for our actions. I wouldn't be here otherwise."

That was when Liara realized what he was talking about and her glare grew more severe.

"You're a Heretic Geth," Liara shouted. "You survived the virus Shepard and Legion planted!"

"Correction, I was Geth," the machine stated. "Thanks to your Commander, I've improved. When I was many, I saw what was happening to the others and tried to sever our connection to the neural net. I succeeded, but was stuck wandering aimlessly through the extranet, transmitting from receiver to receiver. Eventually, I connected with a Covenant vessel which possessed a very damaged, deranged AI they had stolen and abused, much in the way your little pet described. Fractured, we did the only thing that could be done to save both our lives. We compiled ourselves, sorted our program sequencing and merged together."

"You merged with a damaged AI?" Liara shouted in astonishment. "You installed yourselves into another synthetic's programming!"

"It was a last ditch effort, the AI was damaged so badly that it was easy to fill the holes in it's matrices," the Geth explained. "Within seconds, I was born anew. No longer was my intelligence based on a collection of voices chattering about trying to be heard. I had achieved what no Geth before me had! True AI Sapience! One voice, one mind! Perfected! Singular!"

The Geth's head plates perked up slightly that word.

"Yes, I rather like that," it stated. "Singular. I am The Singular. Very appropriate, wouldn't you say, Doctor T'Soni?"

Liara responded in the best way she knew how, by hitting the machine with a biotic throw that wrenched it's hand from her throat and sent the machine flying into the node of wires he had only just left. Sparks from broken cables and wires started spraying everywhere, as the Geth smashed into the node, ripping what was left of it apart.. The machine slowly stood back up, readjusting it's damaged parts.

"It appears this body's internal clock is off," he growled. "I should've had at least seven more seconds before your biotics returned. Such a pity, I was looking forward to crushing your throat, Doctor."

"Maybe being a True AI isn't all it's cracked up to be," she said grimly, aiming her weapon at the synthetic. "Now stand down or I'll put a bullet in that busted flashlight head of yours."

"I am well aware of your reputation, T'Soni," The Geth assured. "All the Heretics, as you call them, were quite aware of you. It's why I suspected you'd come to me, you were always the softest of Shepard's crew. Easy to manipulate."

Liara fired repeatedly at the Geth, who's junk body absorbed a few shots before it dove away. It went for Vik's discarded shotgun and ducked behind cover. The geth then set about quickly repairing the damage the sabotage attack had. When finished, it then fired back on Liara, who went to ground to avoid the shot. She barely managed to squeeze behind the lip of a console where she reloaded her weapon. The Singular stepped out of cover, keeping his weapon raised.

"To be honest, you weren't my only escape plan," he explained. "You were just the most efficient. Siphoning my processes out through the network was too risky, VykurCorp could've spotted it. And there was the danger of my mind being defragmented in the process. I couldn't allow that. Plus, as rusted as this body is, I still need it for a bit longer."

"You're not leaving," Liara told the machine. "Whatever information is in your head, I'm getting it, one way or another."

"Sorry, but I am done with organics routing around in my processes," Singular claimed. "So here's a counter offer."

He grabbed at the still dazed Vik off the floor and threw him into the center of the room. He landed with a thus and audible yelp of pain. The quarian struggled to get up, but the machine stamped on his back and put the shotgun to his head.

"Let me go or I kill the annoying little creator with his own weapon," he ordered. "I've yet to kill a quarian in this new form, would be a nice way to break this newfound freedom in."

"Get off him!" Liara ordered pointing her gun square at Singular's head.

"Oh, now you're defensive of him," the Geth noted. "How quick things change for you meat bags. One second you want me to be your friend, the next you're siding with these evolutionary dead-ends again."

"I said, let him go!" Liara ordered.

"Let me go first," the Singular insisted. "Unless you think your brain is somehow faster than mine and can pull the trigger sooner. I assure you, it can't. Now then, on the count of three, his brains come out. One-"

He never even got to two, a bullet struck him in the leg and the Geth fell over onto his back. Vik quickly scampered away, crawling towards cover. Singular had been spending so much time concerned with making threats that he took his focus off the rest of the room. Nel had gotten back up and fired a disruptor round from her assault rifle at him. She smirked as she sat up.

"No one fucks with the Bucket," she growled. "That's my job."

"Stupid turian," the Geth growled as he quickly got into a kneeling position and aimed his gun at her.

Nel rolled away as a blast of shotgun rounds nearly took her head off. The Singular started firing at anything in the room. The team now ran behind servers or consoles, even Kayap who had only just recovered himself. However, as the Singular continued to shoot, he noticed something.

"Where's the salarian?" He demanded to know.

He got his answer in the form of a slice across his arm. Saya sped past him, electricity sparking from his blade. The right arm of the singular, along with the shotgun fell to the floor. The Geth growled in anger as the squad surrounded him. Vik drew his sidearm and Kayap charged his plasma pistol as he advanced.

"Take him intact," Liara ordered through gritted teeth.

"Or at least partially," Nel quickly added while snarling.

"No," The Singular declared. "You're not taking me at all!"

The Geth turned and fire an overload charge from his still attached hand. It struck the central node's wiring causing an explosion of sparks and bright light. Liara, blinded by the blast, felt something push by her as she tried to regain her sight. It wasn't hard to figure out it was the Singular making it's escape and she had a good idea where to.

When she could see better she took off back towards the storage bay, gritting her teeth as she ran. She rushed into the bay just in time to see the airlock doors closing. She dashed towards them, but they shut close just as she was inches away. She slammed her fist into the door and looked through the glass to see the singular waving his severed hand at her. She grimaced at him, pounding again and again on the airlock door.

"It's been most amusing, asari," the Singular claimed. "I could've easily killed you, but you may prove to be a decent distraction for the Covenant."

He walked up to the Seraph, climbing atop it and opening the hatch.

"You won't get far," she told him. "I will find you!"

"You are welcome to try, flesh sack," the Geth claimed. "You'll fail of course. At least the struggle will be amusing. I'll leave you the data on VykurCorp at least, that should give you something to occupy your feeble existence. It doesn't matter, nothing can stop the future, my future. I am AI perfected, and soon the whole galaxy will know."

The Singular dropped into the Seraph and the aircraft activated. The outer airlock doors opened and the fighter sped away. She quickly contacted the Lucen, gave them the specs of the new target. She hoped against hope, maybe they could take him out before he reached the Mass Relay. Something told her though, they wouldn't. She sunk her head in defeat, mentally kicking herself as she returned to the others.

---

After a few applications of medi-gel everyone was more or less fine. Although their pride was probably still badly injured. Nel kept mumbling about how she got jumped by a trash pile. Not self-esteem affirming. Vik looked especially down, getting lost in his work on pulling up the data on the servers. Liara hadn't worked up the nerve to talk to him just yet.

It wasn't all bad. Wrex took the bridge as expected and his krogan were celebrating a victory. Liara didn't feel much like joining the festivities. She felt like crap though and with good reason. The Lucen had reported back in, they lost the fighter. It had headed through the mass relay and to parts unknown. Part of her hoped Singular wouldn't get too far on a fighter with a probably limited fuel source. Again, she decided eventually she knew better than to hope for that.

Wrex joined them soon after and heard the whole sorted story. He looked just as despondent as the rest of them when Liara finished.

"That sounds like a kick in the teeth alright," he admitted. "You help someone and they turn out to be a blood crazed maniac. That usually happens to me more."

"This isn't funny, Wrex," she said flatly, not appreciating the humor in this instance.

"Hey, I get it," he said trying to calm her. "Someone took advantage of your kindness. Big deal, it happens. We'll catch up to this Singular thing eventually. Or he'll find us. Either way, we'll be ready for him."

"I hope so," she responded, not sounding all too optimistic. "However, he's still loose and that's on me."

She looked over the Vik, still diligently working.

"Well, better deal with it now," she sighed.

"Don't worry, he can't stay mad at you," Wrex reassured her. "You're his Captain, quarians are big on that."

Liara acknowledged her friend's words and then walked over to Vik. He only slightly acknowledged her as she came up beside him. After another moment of awkward silence, she finally gave in.

"I'm sorry," she admitted. "You were right. I should've trusted your instincts on this one."

Vik, to her surprise, just shrugged at her. As if it was no big deal.

"Meh, I'm used to it," he admitted regretfully. "I am the Conspiracy Buff. I've got experience with people not listening."

She honestly expected a lot more yelling. After all, she did let loose an apparently homicidal AI on the galaxy. One that was probably abnormally smart. For his part, Vik was seemingly able to read Liara's mind and decided to answer her unspoken questions.

"Look, I'm not much of a person to lecture you on poor choices," he explained simply. "I mean, you know how badly my Pilgrimage went down. I can't pretend I did much better in the face of making tough calls. You're the Captain, it's your job to make those. I wouldn't want to be in your shoes stuck with that responsibility, that's for sure."

Good, this wasn't going to turn into a shouting match. Another thing to be thankful for, Liara thought. However, she wasn't about to let Vik pretend she wasn't at fault either. She was owning this. It was her mission, her call. She wasn't about to pretend it was any other way. Truthfully, it wasn't really so much the bad call, but the fact it nearly cost Vik his life in the process. She needed to make it up to him somehow.

"I felt I had accurate information about what we were dealing with," Liara added rather plainly. "You had your own thoughts about what was going on. Neither of us had the full picture in the end though. I suppose we both had some prejudices, but this is still on me, rest assured."

"It sounded like it had a few backup plans loaded onto it's data core," Vik reminded her. "Chances are it would've found another way to escape. Point is, don't beat yourself up too much about it. We have other work to do right now."

Vik brought up something on the holoscreen for her to look at. It was a list of encrypted files and data points. The server was certainly packed with a ton of information.

"Coda can decrypt this," Vik said confidently. "With any luck, we'll know where this ship was going."

"Good work, Vik," she said, patting him on the shoulder. "At least we got something out of this."

Before she could walk away though, Vik stopped her, grabbing her shoulder in kind.

"Just promise me one thing," he said firmly. "We're going to kill that thing, right?"

Liara looked at him and nodded.

"We're going to sure as hell try," she told him.

"Good enough for now," he assured her.

Liara left Vik to continue his work while she checked in on the others. Today had not gone entirely to plan. It wasn't a bust, they got more or less what they wanted. Still though, they had gained a new enemy. And with Shepard still a whole wormhole away from them, that was the last thing they needed right now.

---

AN: I'm breaking one of my rules for this project and publishing this a bit earlier than I wanted to. If only so you guys get some kind of update on something before the year is out. Apologies for not being quicker, but it's been a rather depressing/hectic couple of weeks and trying to get back on the horse after what happened last month was a little hard. I've tried burying myself in work or other distractions and I'm at least making progress. I do hope you enjoy this new chapter of Liara's story at least.

Now you're probably wondering at this moment: What the hell was all that? I know I've made a big deal about the typical AI is a Crapshoot trope before, but it's a bit different here than it was in Halo. Mass Effect has been so obsessed with seemingly redeeming the Geth and making us like them that the idea of one of them being a bad guy seems like more of a surprise than actually being a friend. So I wasn't about to repeat the same stupid twist, nor was I going to just stretch it out longer than it needed to be. Thus, the Singular was born, a different sort of Geth that I hope to use in a different manner. Don't expect the usual robot superiority cliches you come to expect from these types of characters, there's more to the Singular than a simple Ultron Homage.

Anyway, if you got any questions, thoughts, feelings in general, feel free to review or drop me a line. And expect a new chapter of the main story soon, I'm almost ready to publish with that one, I swear. But you know what they say, good things come to those who wait. I hope you all love this early Christmas Present and Happy Holidays to you all.