"What did you get up to on leave, boss?"

Ashley was checking Jaz's armour, and she looked up when Draven spoke, suddenly very glad that the other jarheads had kept calling her that. 'LT' was still Kaidan to her. "Visited my family mostly."

After lying around on a beach with their commanding officer. Yeah. Best to keep that part to herself.

"Rosie and I went and visited her family in Australia. To be honest, doesn't feel too much like a holiday sometimes. Everyone wants a bit of you."

Ash laughed. "God do I know how that feels."

Family was like blood and bones, but from the moment she'd stepped out of the shuttle onto Amaterasu, her time had become a precious commodity fought over by all of her siblings, her mother, a few friends from high school, and a conga line of relatives. Sarah had nearly knocked her off her feet with how hard she'd tackle-hugged her. It'd been more like a battle of a different type at times.

And that was before she'd taken five days to see the parents of Sergeant Penny Neal and Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko on Earth. She'd left the homeworld not quite sure if she felt catharsis or just like someone had taken a baseball bat to her insides.

"So, ma'am," said Jaz with a familiar glint in his eyes as she moved around him to check over her rifle, "got your lobotomy done yet?"

She rolled her eyes and bumped him - not gently - with her shoulder. "Those are scheduled for OCS, you know."

"You decided on what degree you're gonna do?"

"Yeah. Had to go to an 'education support centre' while on leave, because I needed to work it out within thirty days. Gonna be doing a BA with a history major through Arcturus Station. Probably going to take me a fuckin' decade since I'm still deployable."

"My mum always said a history degree was useless," mused Fredricks.

"That's 'cause she wanted you to become a lawyer or economist," pointed out Waaberi, "and kick the working class in the face."

"Why," lamented Freddie, "do you always say these things about my family?"

"You're from Bekenstein. Stomping down on the blue collar man is practically written into your colonial constitution."

This - of course - led to a rapid-fire exchange of insults, the thump of armoured shoulders bashing together and finally, to Jaz Teke leaping atop a nearby crate to shout "Vive la révolution!" while Ash, Gung Ho, Chou, and Dubyansky continued to quietly arm up.

Of course, that was when Shepard decided to walk in, an armoured Liara on her heels. She raised an eyebrow, face expressionless - though Ash could see the quirk tucked into the corner of her mouth. "Marines."

"Ma'am."

Jaz sheepishly dropped down from the crate with a thump.

"If you'll refrain from tossing the molotovs for a second, we'll go over the briefing one last time," she said dryly. "Everyone good to go?"

"Yes, ma'am." Ash leant against the counter behind her back.

"Ilos is currently home to several Alliance, salarian, and asari science teams, under the protection of a small flotilla and a force of STG. STG have cleared out where they're currently working - the bunker complex we went through - but they have reports of geth holdouts from Saren's army still planetside. So no one get cocky or treat this like a milk run. You'll take one of the shuttles down to the surface, collect a team of scientists, then push to where we found Vigil, then guard the area while the scientists remove the VI for transport. Williams, you're in charge of security - but please don't punch anyone."

Ashley rocked back on her heel, clutching her heart. "What? Me?"

Shepard didn't dignify that with a response. "Liara will be your biotic back up for this one."

"Thanks," Ash said, giving the asari a friendly tap on the shoulder.

"To be honest, I mostly want to see the ruins again," she admitted.

"Get up top, the salarian shuttle is nearly here," Shepard ordered. The Marines filed towards the elevator, Ashley taking up the rear. As she passed, Shepard's fingers brushed across her shoulder, her dark eyes intent. "I'll see you soon."

There wasn't much they could say to each other with others in earshot.

This is going to be harder than I thought. Their time on Benning was something precious - heat-hazy days she had a feeling she'd be relying on to warm her up in her bunk during this tour - and it'd given them something solid to stand on besides late night talks in the weight room. But after Shepard had let down her walls, it was hard seeing her put them back up, even if it was just for the sake of others. Vulnerability was something they both struggled with. But the Normandy was too small a ship not to be careful.

"Count on it."

Wrestling the pedestal-like device containing the Prothean VI vigil down the Normandy's stairs was no easy feat - particularly when the Marines were excited and jittery from a brief firefight with a handful of geth as they'd punched deep into the facility. Liara had barely had time to bring up her barrier before the fight had been over in a cascade of gunfire.

Now she winced, and almost in unison with Doctor N'Taela, called out, "Careful!"

"Doctor, I am not sure we will do much more damage to it by dropping it," pointed out the tall Russian Marine, Dubyansky.

"Just - be careful with it," Liara sighed. There wasn't so much as a flicker of the familiar green light of Prothean holograms, and there was odd scorching to the back of the device, where she believed the power source would be connected.

"Liara, a moment?" Shepard called to her, and when Liara crossed to her, she gestured for her to come into her cabin. When the door closed behind them, Shepard crossed her arms. "What're your thoughts on the damage?"

Liara bit her lip. "It could've been a short circuit or an overload or something when the system finally lost power. This is ancient technology that has gone thousands of years without maintenance. Or..."

"Sabotage," Shepard filled in grimly.

"It is indeed a possibility. But who would...?"

Shepard crossed to the other side of her desk, bracing her hands against the metallic surface. It was usually piled with reports and today was no different - neat stacks of datapads, a closed laptop, a flame flicking between holos. "We have to assume that Saren and - your mother weren't the only sleeper agents in galactic society. There may be other traitors. And beyond just that, there are those who can't see the forest for the trees. Those who think that I'm lying, being manipulated, or just wrong and that an ascendant Alliance is a bigger threat to the galactic order."

"You think someone would destroy a Prothean VI just to stop the Alliance from having it?" Liara asked, horrified. The Reapers were coming - a knife balanced over the galaxy's throat. They had to prepare, learn from the sacrifices of the Protheans before them!

"I don't know," Shepard admitted, "but I don't think we can trust everyone. Not off this ship at least. I need you to help me."

"Of course, Shepard," she said softly, meeting those dark eyes, "whatever you need."

"Thank you, Liara," Shepard said with one of her rare full smiles.

"You look tired," Liara said carefully. There were shadows under her eyes.

Shepard rubbed a hand over her face. "The hunt for Saren took a lot out of me. And when I spend most of my shore leave being divvied up between the media and all my family, it's not particularly restful."

"Hopefully our missions won't be as stressful for some time."

"Here's hoping."

There was a knock on the door, and a flicker of disappointment flared to life in Liara's chest. She didn't get enough time with her friend - Shepard was always pulled in a dozen different directions.

"Come in!"

Ashley entered, now missing her webbing and helmet but still in her hardsuit. "The beacon has been secured, and a guard posted, Skipper."

"What would I do without you, Lieutenant?" Shepard murmured as she leant back in her chair.

"Probably get your ass shot off, ma'am. And that'd be a pity. Ma'am."

Shepard's lips twitched like she was suppressing a smile. "That'll be all."

"Aye, ma'am."

Liara had shared Shepard's thoughts several times. She'd tried not to pry - but for all her strong will and 'compartmentalising,' sometimes thoughts had bled into each other, the human brain a confusing web in comparison to the asari minds she'd touched before. She'd seen the flickers of warmth that surrounded Shepard's thoughts of Ashley Williams - and the way she pushed them away.

She wondered if she'd see that same reluctance now.

"Liara?"

She blinked and looked up. Shepard was frowning slightly in concern.

"I am sorry - just lost in thought."

"That's alright. I'm sure you'd like to get back to your research - I won't keep you any longer."

Liara left Shepard's cabin with the realisation that she didn't really want to know the answer to that question.

The Normandy had barely docked at Arcturus Station with Vigil aboard when a call had come in for Shepard from General Kahoku.

"He said it was urgent, ma'am, but it needed to be discussed in person," said Comms Technician Barret, reading from her console. "He requests that you meet him at his office in 2nd MARDIV headquarters at your earliest convenience."

When a general officer made a 'request,' it wasn't wise to ignore it. "Alright. I'll head there straight away. Pressly, can you oversee the handover?"

"Of course, ma'am."

The trip to 2nd MARDIV HQ was quick over the tram system - though she had to stop a few times to scan her ID at checkpoints.

"Thank you for coming, Commander." Kahoku's easy good cheer from the Prime Minister's party had disappeared, replaced by hard lines framing his mouth and darting eyes. "I know you've been busy."

"Of course, sir. The scientists are doing all the work at this point - I just provided the taxi." It wasn't that Shepard wasn't interested in Protheans per se - the academic stuff sometimes provided some context for all the information the beacons and Cipher had shoved into her skull - but there was no way she could match the knowledge Liara and her fellow archaeologists and historians had. She knew what it felt like to be Prothean, but the debates about stuff like the divide between the Prothean second and third ages just made her head hurt.

"Take a seat, please." Kahoku hunched at his desk as Shepard settled across from him. The General's office was spartan - except for a holo frame.

"What can I do for you, sir?" she asked cautiously. She had her intel guys on working out the Normandy's next destination. 'Stop the Reapers' was a vague mission set.

"I have twelve recon Marines missing on the edge of our border with the Hegemony, Commander," he said abruptly. "Good, competent Marines who've saved lives. And the corvette crew that was transporting them. My people. And no one seems to give a damn."

Shepard frowned slightly. "What do you mean?"

"We need a cruiser or a frigate to sweep the area for the corvette's signal, but the Eighth Fleet is categorically refusing to do so. General Carson and Admiral Hollowar are both concerned about provoking the Hegemony while we're still redeploying from the war with the geth. Carson has specifically ordered me not to send any more of my people to look for them," Kahoku said bitterly.

Shepard leant back slightly, cautious. She wanted to help - but she and her crew both needed the time for training and something like rest aboard Arcturus or the Citadel, and one small Recon team would be like the proverbial needle. "With all respect, sir, Ns and recon - we know what we're getting into."

"I know that," he snapped before he rocked back, running a hand through his hair. His voice softened. "I know that. But I can't just leave them out there without at least trying. You helped 10th Recon during the war."

She had. That'd been rachni - ad very loosely related to Saren. It was reaching to do it thinking she might get a lead when it was just as possible the recon Marines had broken their ship or crashed or ran into pirates, but.

"What were your Marines doing, General?"

He rubbed his face, exhaustion like a wave across his close-shaven face. "We had intelligence that a former Alliance intelligence operative named Armistan Banes was involved in smuggling debris from the Battle of the Citadel."

Shepard blinked. "Bits of Sovereign?"

"Yes."

"Bloody hell."

"My Marines were told to keep an eye out for him - and they found him. Dead on a derelict freighter, with not a mark on him. The debris, if he'd taken it on his ship, was gone. We found a few bits of intel on his omnitool referring to 'Ophion' and 'Erebos,' and that was it."

"Code names - or Banes really liked Greek mythology. Ophion was the ancient Greek primordial deity representing life, and Erebos was the personification of darkness."

"We've had little luck following that thread," Kahoku admitted. "I passed it onto the AIA and thought little more of it. Then my Marines missed their check-ins."

Shepard rubbed her face. "I'm headed into the Traverse regardless. Send me their last logged orders and patrol routes, and I'll see what I can do, sir."

"Thank you, Commander." That much gratitude in the voice of a general officer was disturbing, but it said a great deal about the kind of man Kahoku was - to care so deeply about his men. They both rose to their feet, and Kahoku shook her hand firmly. "I appreciate it."

"I can't promise anything, General," she warned.

"I know. But at least we will have tried."

You've done this before, Ashley reminded herself as she entered the bar. Shepard had rushed off almost as soon as the Normandy had touched the dock, saying something about a general over her shoulder as she rushed off, so Ashley had decided to get this all over with. It was time to collect the Normandy's new Marines.

Lance Corporal Fukui and Corporals Molina and Mun would be arriving at the ship in the evening, but she'd organised to meet her new team sergeant beforehand. Neutral territory. Have a chat over a couple of drinks on her. It was never easy being the new guys in a unit that had bonded like the Normandy's MARDET had. Lost like the Normandy's MARDET had.

She'd met the other half of a command relationship a couple of times - though meeting Kaidan hadn't been quite so relaxed as drinks - but always from the other side, as the new platoon or team sergeant. She'd clicked with Kaidan quickly, instinctually - she still sometimes looked over her shoulder expecting him to be there, watching her six. And every time she felt that deep stab of grief she knew she had to be worthy of what he'd sacrificed. Be half the officer he'd been.

Her first meeting with Second Lieutenant Matthews had gone to shit almost immediately... She hoped this would go more smoothly.

You're a mustang. You just helped take down a Spectre. You can do this.

"Lieutenant Williams?"

She glanced up, getting to her feet. The man who approached her was around her height, with greying hair and a face that looked like it'd been hacked out of rock. Did they roll this guy right off the 'Senior NCO' production line?

"That's me."

"Gunnery Sergeant Berhard, ma'am," he said crisply as they shook hands. His eyes flicked her up and down, and she wasn't entirely sure what he thought.

"Take a seat, Gunny. Would you like a drink?"

He sat, swinging his leg around and holding his knee straight and rigid. "They got Hackett Hellstorms?"

"Hell yeah they do." She grabbed the holo bar menu and ordered two from the hovering waitress. Ash liked her whiskey. "Thanks for meeting me. I know this is all a bit backward."

Instead of showing a LT the ropes or taking over from another NCO, she was handing over NCO responsibilities while still in the unit. While she was still working out what it meant to be an officer.

"It's always good to get acquainted when forming a new command team, ma'am," he said calmly. Berhard's eyes were about as cold as icebergs.

"Yeah. Service records only tell you so much."

Berhard's was certainly impressive. He'd enlisted the year before the First Contact War, and one of her grandfather's divisions had been his first posting. Wounded in one of the first clashes with the turians, he'd been half-dead by the time the garrison had surrendered. After recovering, he'd eventually gone on to a long MARSOC career. This was a man who'd lived most of his life by the knife and who, a month ago, would've outranked her. He was still a N6 - she technically wasn't even a qualified infantry officer yet.

He just nodded. Clearly, he wasn't going to make this too easy on her.

Ash forged ahead. "I might have been a NCO, but I'm still new to being an officer. If I step on your toes, I'd like you to let me know behind closed doors."

Something released ever so slightly in Berhard's wound-tight posture. "Of course, ma'am."

"We've got a pretty weird mission set, even for a MSOT. Backing up a Spectre on the battlefield has gotten us into some very odd scrapes. Since coming aboard the Normandy I've fought geth, batarians, krogan, Saren, and rachni."

He blinked. Apparently, even men carved of actual stone could be surprised. "Rachni?"

"Yeah. I'll send you the reports. The bottom line is that this team took four KIAs and lost another Marine to a long-term injury. Element Bravo has one Marine in it at the moment. Integrating new guys and leadership can always cause some friction - but I'd like to avoid it where possible. I'm thinking that we should distribute the new Marines between the elements and rearrange the current guys."

It wouldn't be popular with some of the Marines, though Waaberi and Jaz might be pleased to be put in the same element. That was either going to end in a lot of dead enemies of the Alliance - or a lot of chaos and possibly some explosions.

"That sounds good to me," he agreed, "stop them from getting too isolated if they're all in one element. If we're following a Spectre into battle, we'll need to be the best."

"Damn straight."

"Losing a commander can really fuck with a unit. Are there any specific Marines I should keep an eye on, ma'am?"

At least Berhard seemed to give a damn about the enlisted. "Lance Corporal Jason Teke and Corporal Amina Waaberi were both very close to Lance Corporal Nick Ki-tae, who we lost on Virmire. Fredricks showed some signs of combat stress over the last part of our tour."

The waitress set the drinks down in front of them, and Ash took a long sip of hers. She didn't know why she could just remember one thing so clearly from Nick's dying. The sun on his pallid chest, the bright red of blood against his pale skin. How limp his hand had felt when she'd squeezed it, like all his strength had drained out of his wounds.

"I'll keep that in mind." He paused, taking a long drink from his own glass. "Ma'am, am I correct in that you have yet to complete OCS or IOC?"

"Yes," she said, keeping her voice smooth. "I have a slot in two months time."

He took another drink, something self-satisfied in the curl of his mouth. She felt a flare of irritation and opened her mouth - then stopped. She was an officer now. Closing it and just sipping was almost physically painful. But going off wasn't going to change his mind on anything, and she had to do what was best for her Marines. Strife between their team leader and team sergeant was the opposite of that.

"The new Marines will be arriving at 19:00," Ash said, a bit stiffly. "I can show you around the Normandy and introduce you to the rest before they arrive."

"Sounds good to me, ma'am."

Just when she'd started feeling secure on the Normandy.

Lieutenant Commander Nilsson ate the same thing for breakfast every morning - and had for as long as he remembered. Toast cut precisely into halves and topped with butter or cheese, black coffee without sugar. He ate methodically in the Normandy's mess while looking over one of his datapads. He didn't like to leave the CIC for long - especially when he was still learning a ship and bridge crew, but Lieutenant Rodriguez was competent enough, and he did need to go over his numbers.

He hadn't lied when he'd told Lieutenant Williams that the crew all seemed more than capable. But there were a few things that concerned him somewhat - the first being how personally loyal the crew seemed to their commander. He'd seen it before - the rare few officers and NCOs who were good enough leaders that their subordinates would follow them into hell - but he didn't want to be on a ship full of people ready to be mavericks as standard operating procedure. The second was the chief helmsman - Moreau had a streak of rebelliousness as large as Arcturus Station, and Pressly seemed disinclined to reining him in as Nilsson would have.

Shepard exited the stairs flanked on either side by the asari scientist and the quarian engineer, the former waving her hands as she spoke.

That was the third thing.

"They're still analysing the stuff we brought back from Ilos," Shepard replied as she took a seat opposite Nilsson. "I know you want to be out there looking for answers but to be honest, we're fumbling in the dark right now. If someone turns up the 'kill Reapers' button, I'll turn the ship around."

"That would be nice," said Tali'Zorah with a sigh. "One big 'boom' and then we go home."

Nilsson wasn't an idiot. Aliens could be, and often were, brilliant, and there was a lot humanity could learn from the galaxy around them. But they couldn't be trusted. The Council had made that very clear with their actions during the Eden Prime War, as they were now calling it.

"In the meantime, those Marines need help," Shepard continued as Williams split off in the direction of the coffee machine.

"I'm sorry, Commander," said T'Soni, her voice a gentle hum. It surprised him a little that she was so softly spoken. There was vid footage of her throwing around a geth Colossus on the extranet. "I'm just surprised the Alliance didn't send a different ship to help those poor Marines."

"Regardless, we're the ones on it," Shepard said briskly. She was clearly reluctant to lie to them, but also to tell the truth that Nilsson had heard whispered along the grapevine - that General Kahoku had asked a favour of humanity's only Spectre and not everyone on Arcturus Station was happy with him about it.

"Of course. I hope we can find them quickly."

Shepard looked up. "Good to see you, Nav. How're you settling in?"

"Normandy's a bit…cosier…than the cruiser I was on during the war, ma'am, but she's a good ship," he said easily.

"Cozy is one word for it." Williams leant over Shepard's shoulder to put a steaming mug in front of her before settling beside T'Soni with her own drink.

"I'm sure I'll get used to it." He tapped a finger against his datapad. "I've been working out my suggestions for our course once we reach the Sparta system. Kokinos has been narrowing down high probability locations for me. We'll probably have to take some time to reacquire the targets once we're out of FTL - distortion in our passive sensors is inevitable."

"Of course," Shepard sipped from her coffee, closing her eyes for a moment in enjoyment. "I'll keep the weapons manned when we're in system, and I want to know of any ship contacts once we start searching. If we're using our active sensors, anyone in the vicinity will know we're there."

"Aye aye. If anyone's lurking about, I'll let you know straight away ma'am."

In the vids, all a ship had to do was pulse the ladar a few times and find what they were looking for. But unfortunately, it wasn't that easy for the Normandy's Operations Department. Space was big and for the most part empty - which worked well if you were looking for an active ship, which would paint itself on your sensors clear as day with the heat of its thrusters and onboard systems. But a ship that might be derelict or crashed somewhere, particularly one as small as a corvette? It was looking for a needle in a haystack blindfolded.

The Normandy's new Nav spent most of his time over the following four days in the CIC, running courses or listening in as the comms and sensor techs ran their scans and Kokinos tried to tie it all together.

"We'll give it another twenty hours," Shepard told him quietly on the morning of the fourth day. "Then I'm calling it."

The sensor and intel crewmen were hard at work, but the rest of the ship felt more restive than Nilsson would've liked. They'd gone from the high octane chase after Saren to a tour where they scanned asteroids and transported things. He'd heard Senior Gunner's Mate Crosby, whose arms still showed the signs of the burns he'd suffered manning his post during the Battle of the Citadel, complaining that they weren't hunting down geth or batarian pirates.

As it happened though, he was calling the captain back to the CIC at 13:00.

"What is it?" she asked, hair still damp from a shower. She'd been running the Marine Detachment ragged despite their complaints - sparring in the hold, weights, running as big a circuit around the ship as they could. Tired Marines got into less trouble.

Nilsson nodded for Kokinos to tell her. The other man had been the one to clear up the distortion and confirm that the transmission fit Alliance commercial shipping.

"We're receiving an automated distress signal from the planet Edolus, ma'am," Kokinos reported. "It's not an open comms channel, unfortunately, but it looks like one an Alliance civilian freighter would carry."

"It's not the Marines, but we are still obligated to respond," Nilsson added.

A flash of frustration crossed Shepard's face before it was gone. "Of course. Take the deck and get us into a geostationary orbit over the beacon. I want scans and eyes on."

"Roger that, ma'am."

"I'm going below. Once we have an idea of what's going on, I'll take the Marines down to render aid and stretch their legs. They're going a bit stir crazy as it is."