Tali's eyes snapped open as the silence was shattered by a distant roar, piercing the layer of bird calls and the rustling of leaves. From her fetal position on the ground, she sat up quickly and groaned as her head throbbed from getting up too fast, causing her hands to immediately clasp to her temples, at least as much as her helmet could allow.

As her blurry vision smoothed back to normal, she was dimly aware of the faint streaks of sunlight emitting through the trees to reach the forest floor. It was no longer night, she realized, but morning on Anhur.

Confused and slightly disappointed that Shepard had failed to wake her for the night watch, she looked over as a quiet shuffling sound was heard next to her. From where he was reclining on the tree, Shepard, still in full armor, gradually sat up and yawned, stretching out his back so that it popped loudly. He scratched at his face a little, smacking his lips before looking up at the canopy, slowly realizing that he had fallen asleep during the night before turning to see Tali's somewhat accusatory gaze next to him.

"Shepard," she pouted. "Why didn't you wake me for the watch? You said that you would only take the first five hours!"

Shepard scratched the back of his neck sheepishly. "Yeah…well…" He was really struggling to come up with words to assuage her this time. "I knew that you're a terrible sleeper to begin with, seeing as you can't go a few hours without working back on the Normandy, and I guess I thought you looked so peaceful last night that I didn't want to disturb you."

Tali almost sighed so explosively that she considered muting her vocabulator for how indignant it was going to sound. She bit it back at the last second and chose to shake her head.

"And so you took it upon yourself to claim the whole watch? Did you even get any rest at all?"

He checked his chronometer at her words, arcing an eyebrow at her concern. "I would say about two hours worth. I kind of trusted the planted sensors to take care of most of the work, which was probably a bad idea in hindsight but I felt that I could afford to take the chance. Admittedly, I do feel bad, not for not waking you up, but that I dozed off when I should have been manning the watch, but-"

"Oh, so you don't really care of how you gave up valuable sleep time at your expense just so I could get a few extra hours, is that it?"

"I'm still a little befuddled at why you're choosing to complain about this, actually."

Now Tali did sigh, albeit a little less severely than she had originally envisioned. "You bosh'tet. You need to be a little more selfish, in my opinion."

"Look who's talking, Tali."

That put a fleeting ghost of a smile on her face, but it quickly disappeared into sadness. "Please, Shepard. Don't let your overinflated sense of chivalry impede what is right."

Shepard tapped his fingers on his leg, giving a quiet chuckle. "That's exactly the problem you just described, Tali. I let you sleep because you needed the rest. Chivalry has nothing to do with it as I can function well enough with only a couple hours of sleep on my belt. I let you sleep the whole night because friends look out for each other."

Tali's fists curled into balls at mention of the world "friends." Her breathing increased slightly and she felt her internal temperature rise a tiny bit. Shepard had never indicated, at least not out loud, that they were anything other than soldiers doing a job before. Of course, it was all assumption on her part but it still was unexpected with their rapport being given a definite status. Hearing the fact that Shepard considered her to actually be his friend gave her a startle, but it quickly disappeared when pleasant surprise followed.

Friend. His friend. I like that.

Shepard got to his feet, Tali not far behind, and they simultaneously started to collect up their supplies that they had accumulated and strewn about their makeshift campsite. Tali picked up the survival pack and opened one of the outside pockets. She sifted through a few medicine tubes before coming across a set of caffeine pills. She knew about its properties seeing that she had asked Shepard in the past why he drank a dark brown liquid so much and he had explained that the drink, called coffee, contained a stimulant called caffeine that was quite effective in giving a temporary boost of energy to the user. Apparently caffeine was a highly prized stimulant among humans that allowed better functionality at a higher rate, which would probably be a boon at this point in time.

The pills she tossed to Shepard who caught them with a practiced arm. Looking at the label, he smiled and gave a mock salute to her with his free arm.

"You think of everything, don't you?"

"Well, anything for a friend," she retorted, practicing the feel of the foreign word on her tongue.

If anything, Shepard's smile grew even bigger, and he dropped a few capsules into his palm and downed them dry, no liquid to assist them on the journey to his stomach. The pills had a much higher concentration of caffeine than a simple mug of coffee and they had been supplemented with protein in order to prevent a heavy crash from occurring. They were also designed to work with what little fluids were in the stomach so that it wouldn't dehydrate the user, rendering a safe and complete energy boost.

He'd really have to make it up to Tali somehow for bringing this pack along. It was literally saving his life.

Shepard stomped on the smoldering embers of the fire, feeling the logs break into ash at the slightest touch of a foot. Dust flitted into the air and clung to his boots as the last warm glow slowly faded into darkness. Disposing of any remnants of a fire was simply good etiquette, as there was no telling if any lingering ember could cause a nearby branch to catch ablaze, creating a chain reaction that would escalate into a panicked situation. Admittedly, the rainforest is too engrained with water for a fire to properly spread but it was better to be safe than sorry.

Tali, meanwhile, picked up a bottle of water she had left lying near where she had been sleeping. It wasn't the one she had collected and boiled, so she knew this one was relatively safe to drink. Before Shepard could order her to maintain her personal health, she automatically fished for a straw and drained a quarter of the bottle in the span of a minute, to Shepard's silent approval.

She was also feeling slightly hungry so she grabbed another paste tube and took a few hearty swallows of the tasteless sludge to tide her over for the morning. Shepard also had the same idea and grabbed a sealable bag filled with leftovers from the kill he made last night. He produced what looked like a leg and began munching on the meat, his eyes relaying his approval of his makeshift cooking.

When they had finished all of their preparation, Tali threw the survival pack over her shoulder and was just finishing adjusting the straps when another boom echoed through the forest, causing both of them to look up warily.

"There it is again," Tali murmured. "That same noise that woke me up this morning."

Shepard was cautiously withdrawing his sniper rifle, face grim. "That didn't sound like an animal. It actually sounded like the report from a gun."

Tali stepped up next to him, closely leaning in so that their bodies were almost touching, so that she could see the map that he was currently analyzing on his omni-tool.

"What do you think, Shepard? Hunters?"

Shepard shook his head. "This place seems to be a little too remote for a random party of hunters to stumble across. There's still no civilized place for miles so I also don't think that someone has run off the beaten path looking for a ride home."

"Isn't that what we are though?"

"Point taken, Tali. Still…" Shepard pointed in the direction of the blast. "The noise came from that way and the map shows that there's a clearing about two miles in that relative direction which doesn't leave much for interpretation. It's not too out of the way and it doesn't look like a challenging hike."

"What are you thinking, Shepard?" Tali blinked, making sure that he was looking directly at her eyes as she spoke. "You want to take a look?"

He nodded but he still held his rifle as if someone would knock it out of his hands in the next minute. "You never know. It could just be a random hunter, or it could be a group with access to a vehicle. They might be willing to lend us a ride to a place where we can contact the Normandy."

"You really sure about that?"

"No," he admitted. "Since this is all just speculation on my part, I can't be certain what it exactly is. There are a lot of unknown variables that we probably haven't even considered and this will take up a valuable chunk of our travel time. It's a big decision to make, actually. It's one that doesn't really meld well to a commander ordering his troops to do because both plans have potential merit to them. So…" He scratched his chin for a moment. "We're going to do what soldiers do when they find themselves in a conundrum. We're going to let the collective decide."

"The collec-… you mean us? How?"

"It's simple. We vote on what we want to do. We can either decide on going to check out whatever made that noise-"

As he spoke, another boom rocketed around the trees, making Shepard nod in confirmation.

"-Just like that. Or we can choose to keep heading in the direction we were before. If we can't decide on one thing, we just keep walking like we always did seeing as that is our ultimate objective in the first place."

Tali smirked. "I bet I can guess at what your decision would be. But you do realize that in all this time since you've taken me under your wing, I've never disagreed with you. Not once. It's like I said before about trusting you completely. You're my commander and you make the decisions."

"This is different, Tali," Shepard crossed his arms over his chest, one still holding the sniper rifle. "This isn't a snap judgment that has to be made on the fly for an entire squad. This is a choice that has potential advantages and disadvantages but it only affects one other person. You. With you being the only person under my command, the mob mentality of the squad vanishes completely. I have to run every decision by you in order to make sure that we can function well together. We need to have complete trust in the other and I can't do that by making decisions on your behalf. Your opinion matters the most at this very moment, for as long as we remain on this planet."

His words made Tali glow at that. It was interesting to note that everything he said to her was always very gentle, very loose like two old acquaintances talking. Perhaps he understood the effect he was having on her, that he was treating her like an equal instead of what the masses on the Citadel had done to her when she had approached them like a beggar. He truly was treating her like a valued friend. It was almost like he couldn't see this damn mask covering her face.

But would that be something he would appreciate? Does he see me as just a mask or a person?

"I…" Tali stammered. "I'm flattered that you feel that way, Shepard. But-"

"I told you, Tali. No buts. I'm abusing my right as your commander to enact a democratic process in the manner. And yes, I intended the contradiction of that sentence."

Tali laughed, waving her hands to signal that she had given up trying to argue. "I was going to say that I would have followed you anywhere, Shepard, but apparently you insist on me having to blurt out any misgivings I have this time. It would have been easier for you to just utter a command because I'm going to say that I want to check out the noise rather than walk aimlessly without a tangible objective in sight. Now that we've established that we can work out issues faster than a Conclave on the flotilla, shall we go before the source of the noise moves on?"

Without waiting for a reply, Tali pushed past Shepard, who had his face frozen in astonishment. She continued to trudge through the plants before playfully turning around and giving him a laugh, seeing his confused expression.

"Women…" Shepard muttered admiringly as he jogged after her into the jungle.


It took less than a half an hour for the two to reach their goal, but by that time the loud gunshots had only increased in frequency. Shepard could see the trees start to clear ahead as loud whoops and shouts of glee were head over the din. He waved at Tali to slow her pace and the two cautiously crept up to the edge of the forest, trying not to step on anything that would give them away, like an errant branch.

There was a tiny hill to their right where the tree line ended so Shepard and Tali crouch-walked over to it before going prone, using the small slope to shield their bodies while they looked past the few bushes that concealed them from view out into the small field beyond.

The sun overhead seemed to light up the field like a lake of fire, the grass blazing a hot yellow. Spread throughout the clearing were roughly a dozen individuals, most of them wearing some kind of red armor. Dispersed were a few sets of unarmored Mako transports, armored personnel carriers instead of the mobile tank that usually loitered around the Normandy's hold, and a Mantis gunship. Among them were a set of temporary cages, the kind usually used to transport medium-sized animals.

The mercenaries seemed to be deeply engrossed in a conversation, and while Shepard and Tali couldn't make out the words, it looked like their attention was relatively relaxed at the moment. Two varren chained to posts growled for food, while a third slept in the dirt and the mud.

As Shepard's eyes wandered, they eventually became fixated on six individuals, all human males, on their knees in the middle of the field. They were garbed differently than the red-suited mercenaries, and clearly in a position of submission which denoted that they were prisoners. Or slaves.

The mercenaries were shooting their guns in the air in a show of victory and Tali gasped out, "Oh no," and nudged Shepard in the arm, causing him to look where she was indicating.

Over near the edge of the forest lay a small pile of what was unmistakably bodies, obviously executed given the general tone of this little gathering. Shepard found the situation oddly familiar from his encounter on the asteroid above Terra Nova and his misgivings were explained when one of the mercenaries took of his helmet, revealing him to be a batarian.

Shepard quietly swore as the rest of the troopers removed their helmets as well, showing that they were all batarians. "We just stumbled onto a favored batarian tradition," he growled.

"Which is?" Tali whispered, horrified, unable to tear her eyes away from the scene.

"Round up hostages and execute them one by one," he replied grimly as he set a hand on Tali's shoulder and pulled gently. "We should go. This isn't something that you should see."

"But-" Tali protested. "Shouldn't we help them? They're going to kill those humans!"

"We can't do anything, Tali. Not without risking getting captured by these guys."

She was about to cry out in objection before the batarians suddenly quieted, as if a blanket of silence had been thrown over the scene. Instantly Shepard and Tali froze, noting that the mood of the mercenary crew had been dampened, as if they dreaded something occurring in the next five seconds.

And in those next five seconds, a figure came striding out from behind one of the modified Makos, their gait long and purposeful. Instantly, Shepard could tell that this person was different. For one, their armor was all black, matte, and expertly sculpted in such a manner that left the specific species ambiguous. The boots could fit a human, a turian, or even a salarian for that manner. This person was certainly tall enough to qualify for all of them, most certainly. Shepard couldn't get a good look at the person's hands, as that would have been a good indicator in narrowing down the possibilities in terms of five digits versus three, but the person's hands were clasped behind their back, obstructing Shepard's vision.

The person had oddly chosen to don what looked like a black duster on top of the already significant armor that they wore. It flapped about slightly, the smallest breath of wind causing it to flutter at the lightest touch. Either he had an air conditioner installed in that armor somewhere, or he had to be sweltering in his bodysuit.

But the key feature about this person was his helmet. It was unlike anything Shepard had ever seen before. It looked like it was made of two parts; one embodied the "jaw" of the helmet, a piece of brushed steel that was molded in the shape of a mammalian jawbone. The steel continued to rise up the helmet where an ivory white covering, obviously emulating the look of a skull, was placed meticulously on top of it, obscuring the metal mask locked within. Red eyes, blazing with an uncontrollable fury, shot through the openings the mask allowed, scanning this way and that before the figure approached a batarian who seemed to have been marked out by his peers as the spokesperson for the group.

"Is this all of them?" came the reply from the newcomer, almost lazily. The jaw of the mask actually moved when the figure spoke, revealing only a dark expanse beyond the threshold of the faux mouth.

"Yes, Operant Grevel," the batarian said, careful to keep all four eyes on the ground. "The Mantis made a quick pass over the immediate area. Six humans in all."

The piercing red eyes did not blink as Grevel took his time to emit his reply. The batarian began subtly shifting from one foot to the next, obviously uncomfortable. The skull-like helmet slowly turned, clearly seeing the pile of bodies at the edge of the forest, not twenty meters away from where Shepard and Tali were currently hiding.

"There were eleven initially," Grevel growled, his voice a deep grating noise that sounded like he had an electronic scrambler inside that was producing a weird sort of distorted effect which warbled his words. "I do hope you checked the four you have rotting in that pile over there before you killed them?"

"I…I…uh…"

"I'm going to assume that your stammering indicates a clear 'no,' then. But I still lack an answer to the question that has been hanging over your head."

The batarian gulped before calming down a little. "They…um…their blood samples were all negative…sir."

"Fine," Grevel nodded grudgingly. "So…six alive, four dead. What happened to the eleventh?"

If the batarian's heart rate had slowed down at all, it had shot right back up again. "Well…you see…"

"Where is the body?" Grevel's voice had gone dangerously quiet in an exasperated tone but because of the stillness of the area, Shepard and Tali could hear the exchange just fine.

With a shaking finger, the batarian pointed behind him, towards a scattered region of trees. "It…it's back that way…"

Grevel took a step closer but the batarian stood his ground. It wasn't like he had any choice, the four-eyed alien was paralyzed with fear and Grevel had at least half a head on him. "Judging by your intense reaction, I doubt I'll enjoy the news very much but for the sake of a proper accounting, you will tell me the overall result."

"It wasn't my fault! The others…they couldn't control the varren…they just ripped the female human to pieces before we could stop them. It wasn't my-"

"Spare me the sob story and act like a professional, you little shit. The human…did she test positive or negative from the scraps left behind?"

"I…I…"

"Positive or negative?" Grevel repeated again, allowing a large amount of distaste to creep into his tone as the artificial jawbone clacked.

The batarian's own mouth opened and closed several times but no noise escaped it. Finally, he took a breath and closed his eyes for a few seconds before addressing Grevel in an oddly calm tone. "Um…positive?"

Grevel's arm whirled up and across as a silver flash erupted from his wrist, scything through the air in a split second. The batarian made a strangled noise as his slit throat began to dribble blood down his front, staining his body armor. Before he could expel his breath in surprise and spray blood over the area through his cut windpipe, the completely armored figure threw out a fist after sheathing his wrist blade and brutally smashed the batarian in the face.

Because the alien's throat had been so thoroughly slit by the tiny knife, the kinetic force of Grevel's punch completely knocked the head so hard that it did not orient itself like a normal head afterward but hung completely backwards, held on by strands of sinew. Tali gave a little shriek as she saw the sight and Shepard grimaced. He held no love for batarians but this was brutality on another level. This was rage in its purest form.

As the nearly headless body toppled to the ground, Grevel drew his pistol from the depths of his duster in one fluid motion. Immediately, the other batarians took steps backward, not one of their fingers twitching towards their own weapons.

"I should hardly need to remind all of you," Grevel began, letting his careful and meticulous tone linger, "that while I hold no standing with your little 'army,' you will treat my orders as if it comes directly from Commander Zherl himself. I have explained to all of you time and again that I have a quota to fill, an assignment that is beyond your capacity to understand, and that if you consistently kill prisoners that happen to check positively for the mutation after the fact, my quota will never get filled."

Grevel was slowly turning in place, making sure to fixate each and every soldier with his glowing red eyes. "Since you are nothing more than a ragtag militia, proper disciplinary action is not as effective on your feeble minds. Therefore, I have to resort to violence in order for you to properly understand my dilemma." He pointed at the body leaking blood from the neck. "It's very simple, if you kill anyone that tests positive, then I kill you. All of you will benefit greatly if you ensure that my objectives are completed. Any further delays could be…costly."

One of the humans kneeling down in the line whimpered and Grevel strode over to him, pistol still in hand. Shepard's breathing was labored as he continued to watch while Tali's was increasing with her anxiety. Grevel stood over the cowed man for a few seconds before raising his head up and speaking out loud in the direction of the trees, "These six humans here, what were their results?"

Nobody spoke, aside from a scattered bunch of meek murmurs and stammered words. Impatient, Grevel whirled and pointed his gun at the nearest batarian, his finger already hovering over the trigger.

"Are you going to speak or do I have to shoot every one of you until I get the answer I need?"

"Neg-negative!" the batarian squeaked rather comically. "They-they were all n-n-negative!"

Grevel quickly drew back his pistol, barrel aiming into the air at the barest hint of an answer. "Wasn't so tough, was it?"

In an instant, the figure turned around again and lowered the pistol downward at the first prisoner. Before Shepard could determine what was going to happen, the gun fired and the human fell to the ground, a smoking hole in his head.

Tali quietly turned away from the grisly sight, her body shaking with fear. The batarians stood silently, still deathly afraid of the being in their midst. Most of the prisoners slumped further to the ground, accepting their fate while one other began to cry hysterically, begging for mercy.

"Son of a bitch," Shepard whispered, fists tearing up the grass on the tiny hill. "You're right, Tali. I changed my mind. We have to do something. These guys aren't even taking prisoners at all."

"Shepard, wait!" Tali said in horror, clutching at his arm. "This Grevel person is too ruthless. He'll tear you apart if he gets the chance!"

"You wanted to save them to begin with," Shepard shot back but he knew that Tali had a point. This was quickly getting out of hand and they were losing more and more time the longer they sat here. A simple group of batarians would have been an easier prospect to tackle but the inclusion of Grevel dramatically raised the stakes completely against their favor. They had to think of a different approach.

"Come on," he said quietly, hauling Tali up by the arm. "Let's circle around and see if we can approach them from behind."

"Okay," she acknowledged, but was still wary and disturbed at the events of the morning as they quietly began to push through the bushes.

Back in the field, Grevel holstered his pistol as the remaining hostages began to shake in the wake of what was most certainly to come. "Them you may kill," he growled, pointing to the freshest corpse cooling on the ground. "Just as long as you check them beforehand. I don't want another valuable hostage to be so carelessly dispatched by your incompetence ever again. If that means finding any more strays in this jungle without varren, then so be it."

"But…" one of the batarians protested, "but we always use varren to locate runaways. They've been used by our people for-"

As he was saying this, Grevel was ignoring his words as he stalked over to where the three varren were chained up next to a Mako. Withdrawing his gun once more, he pulled the trigger thrice and the animals collapsed as the bullet holes to the head spouted fresh blood momentarily, their final yelps of pain already dissipating in their throats.

"Varren are unpredictable," Grevel growled as he stepped away from the brains splattered on the ground. "They are uncontrollable beasts that kill without distinction. And you have not gone to the trouble of providing them the proper training for this environment. They could not comprehend the method of going for a live capture, choosing instead to maul. Here, they are useless."

He now gestured to the five living hostages still kneeling in the grass. "Since my presence here has ultimately been wasted because I now have nothing to show for it, shall I even our predicaments somewhat? Surely these humans would make poor slaves for the purposes you have in mind. Look at them, they are obviously not suited for manual labor."

Another batarian chose this moment to pipe up. "They…they could fetch a price back in the cities regardless. Haven't you heard? Slavery is legal here now and slaves are a valuable commodity."

"True, but you've just disposed of the only valuable commodity in the immediate area to me so why not do the same to you? Everyone here knows that all of these slaves will not survive their incarceration back at camp, and how could they? Between your consistent abuse and the lewd acts you lot call entertainment, you won't see a single credit from any of these paltry humans." Grevel checked to see if his thermal clip had finished cooling before twirling it in his hands. "So why not save you the trouble now?"

"Sir…I-"

The batarian's sentence was cut short as a single shot rang out, piercing the alien's neck. The head exploded, showering the nearby Mako in gore as Grevel stood nearby, oddly unconcerned with his predicament.

Calmly, he pushed off with his legs and dove to the side, the second sniper shot ricocheting off the tank where his head was a split second before. Shepard, positioned by a stack of temporary cages blinked as he looked out from his scope, astonished at Grevel's speed and quick observance of the sitaution.

Withdrawing an assault rifle, Grevel watched the remaining mercenaries scrambling for cover and roared out, "Sniper! Kill him, you cowards!"

Suddenly, the nearest Mako inexplicably exploded, engulfing three red armored batarians in a bluish blaze. Metal rained down on the small field, the red hot pieces starting small fires as the grass brushed against them. Running through the edge of the forest, Tali had little time to admire the effect her tech mines had done, hoping to reach the hostages on the ground before she was spotted. The mines were as good of a distraction as she was ever going to get.

Shepard picked off two more enemies from his chosen cover before his rifle triggered an alert that the thermal clip had overheated and was beginning the process of cooling down. That would mean at least fifteen seconds of him being unable to shoot. The batarians had wised up by now and were already starting to spray his cover with bullets, forcing him to crouch down.

The sniper was useless in these conditions. It was time to change weapons.

Quickly stowing the long weapon, Shepard grabbed his assault rifle and leaned out from the side of the crates, laying down some cover fire. A mercenary screamed as his legs were cut to ribbons, having been caught in the middle of a brazen charge. Shepard fired in short bursts, careful to increase his clip's longevity, not keen on being caught in a sticky situation with his metaphorical pants around his ankles again.

Grevel spotted the source of the incoming fire from fifty meters away, noting the discipline and precision that his new opponent was so aptly demonstrating. It was several leagues ahead of what his allies could muster, to say the least. To prove his point correct, as Grevel was firing fruitlessly at Shepard's cover with the intention of keeping him subdued, a batarian rose up to get into a better position and walked directly into Grevel's line of fire without looking.

Grevel had no desire of stopping his forward assault and could only roll his eyes when a round caught the mercenary in the back of his head as his aimless wandering gave him a pointless death, distributing his frontal lobe all over the ground.

Idiot, Grevel scowled but continued to press forward, trigger firmly clenched down. And this is the best Zherl could muster for me? Pathetic.

Soon, Grevel's own weapon rang shrilly when its own clip overheated but he did not switch. Rather, he groped at a bandolier strung around him and produced a grenade, flicking the switch for a five second detonation and quickly lobbing it in the direction of the crates.

Operating on pure instinct, Shepard had witnessed the throw based on the movement of the silhouette in the distance and quickly took off running towards a lone Mako. Grevel's rifle was still cooling down, preventing him from getting a good shot off at the human that he could finally get a good glimpse of for the first time this morning.

"Commander Shepard?" he muttered to his amusement as the crates exploded safely behind the target, spraying debris everywhere. "Now that is interesting."

Living under a rock for the past year would have to be the only acceptable reason why the face and name of Commander John Shepard didn't immediately register with anyone. From the dramatic nature of his exploits during the events on the Citadel, Shepard's name quickly became known throughout the galaxy, a symbol for humanity and the best their race had to offer. Naturally, Grevel knew who the human was by reputation alone and he quickly assembled a mental dossier on him in the heat of battle, curious as to why the man was here, of all places.

Alliance. Council Spectre. Natural leader. Defeated Saren Arterius, one of the most powerful Spectres the Council used to have under their belt on the Citadel. Known to work well with a team assembled of several races with various skills. Is rarely known to work alone which most likely means that someone else is with him now. But who would it be? And where?

He abruptly turned in the other direction, away from where the firing was occurring, to see the slim form of a quarian break from the tree line on a course for the line of hostages still in their initial positions on the ground. Grevel smiled underneath his mask before he raised his rifle and fired off a series of shots.

Tali yelped as the ground exploded in front of her, the bullets cutting her off from the hostages as they spattered between them. She quickly looked to the side to see the tall form of Grevel level a gun at her and seeing it spark with death. Making a miserable moan of defeat, she turned on the ball of her foot and hightailed it back to the jungle, where it would be harder for someone to hit her by remaining in cover rather than risking it out in the open.

"A classic flanking maneuver, Tali'Zorah!" Grevel barked gleefully at the retreating quarian. "Very clever! Almost didn't see it until it was too late!"

But the quarian had so conveniently reminded him of the issue before the entire ruckus started. Carefully making his way to the placed humans, Grevel looked about to see if he was in any danger of getting shot while standing here. He looked behind him to see Shepard putting on an admirable defense from behind a huge tire of a Mako. Grevel was too far away to mount a strategic offense, so he just settled for roaring as loudly as he could.

"SHEPARD! I'm assuming you came for the humans here? Now you see what happens when you interfere in affairs that you have no business with! Learn your lesson well!"

Not checking to see if the words had any effect, Grevel looked down on the humans assembled in front of him. They had stopped shaking, having been in fear too long to let anything else affect them. That was unsatisfying to Grevel, most trembled and pleaded before the violent end came at his hands.

"You'll thank me later," he whispered, knowing that the humans would prefer the bullet over the torture that undeniably would come with their capture. Better to go quickly than slowly. Any soldier knew the distinction.

With a sweep of his rifle on full auto, the bodies of the humans finally lay still on the ground, their worry being put to rest. A few of the batarians were looking at him oddly, as if they were disappointed at the loss of their catch, but it was Shepard's reaction he was really looking forward to.

Turning around at the resulting cry of rage from the soldier, he allowed himself to smile before static electricity sparked erratically around him. It was then that Grevel realized that he was being shot. His shields were being bombarded with a continuous assault. With a snap, the shields dropped and his head snapped back from a sudden burst of force as a bullet made contact with his helmet. There was no pain, as always, but there was an uncomfortable draft and the sensation of his body hitting the ground hard, his limbs shaking out as he struggled to rise.

"Lucky…" he spat between occasional bouts of laughter. "Lucky shot…"

Shepard was trembling so hard that he couldn't believe that he had managed to hit Grevel so many times in quick succession. Watching him carelessly dispatch all those hostages like they meant nothing was enraging to him. The wanton loss of life and the cruelty of all caused his sweat to suddenly feel cold and goosebumps to rise up his arms. It actually felt like he was beginning to go into shock.

Tears stinging his eyes, he gave one final blind burst to the side of the Mako before stumbling back to his feet and charging at the trees dead ahead. There was no point in lingering; he couldn't take them all at once. He needed to regroup with Tali if he was going to figure out how-

A quick snap zoomed by, indicating the presence of a near miss. But Shepard dropped to a knee all the same, despite being several meters away from the trees in the tall grass. His right arm had suddenly gone numb but his still managed to hold on to the rifle. Clutching at the limb, he roared in pain as his left glove came away bloody, caused by a ragged cut to the side of his bicep. It was then that he realized that a high-velocity round had pierced his shield effortlessly, cutting through armor and flesh.

Taking a few precious seconds to see who had just shot him, Shepard locked eyes with Grevel, whose pistol was out and ready as he still continued to lie on the ground. Watching his foe's pistol emit millisecond-long gouts of flame, Shepard willed his feet to move faster as they finally carried him into the jungle. He was running so hard, that he almost collided with Tali as a huge leaf parted to allow him passage.

"Shepard!" Tali exclaimed, voice ragged from tears. She looked at the blood streaming down his arm and finally his pained expression, the implications registering immediately. "You've…you've been shot!"

"N-Never mind that," Shepard winced as his arm throbbed. "We've got to find a place to hide right now!"

"Okay," Tali said as she took Shepard's good arm so that they wouldn't get separated, leading him deeper into the jungle. "Follow me and stay close!"


Watching the disappearing form of Shepard retreat into the jungle, Grevel gave a disappointed sigh as he got to his feet. He gingerly checked himself for wounds before letting his hands trace up his helmet. His gloved fingers felt ragged metal and soon dampness as he prodded the hole the bullet had created as it had ricocheted off the surface.

The blood was dark on his fingertips and Grevel stared at his hand numbly for half a minute. It had been a long time before someone had come that close to killing him and this was all the proof he needed. He'd become sloppy on this planet, delegated to hunting meek prey for months on end. Shepard's arrival heralded a change, though. He felt…happy. Happy that at last a capable opponent had appeared out of the dismal jungles of Anhur to give him some sport at last. Him and the quarian, this would only add more excitement to his assignment.

Grevel heard pants erupt from behind him and he turned angrily to see a batarian adjust his helmet as he doubled over for breath. He pointed at the fatigued man. "Report. Now."

"One Mako's completely trashed. We've lost seven men in total." The alien eyed the row of bodies behind Grevel. "All hostages dead."

"The hostages were not valuable, you fool," Grevel snarled. "And this encounter was only an ill-timed wake-up call to demonstrate how inept of a fighting force you lot really are." If the batarian's helmet had been removed, Grevel would have seen (and promptly ignored) the man's miffed expression. "Pursuit at this moment is a futile effort. Have everyone load up in what vehicles we have and make for Camp One."

"You're just going to ignore the two that mounted an assault on us? What if they come back?"

"Incompetent as you are," Grevel muttered through gnashing teeth, "You successfully managed to repel the attackers when they had the element of surprise. Their presence is now known and we will be able to mount a proper counterattack if they so choose to strike again."

And Shepard will come back, Grevel thought. He does not seem like one to give up so easily.

Meanwhile the batarian was still coughing up excuses, to Grevel's annoyance. "But we have a Mantis! We can pursue from the air and-"

"Have the past few sorties with the gunships not imparted anything useful on you at all? Think, you fucking idiot! The canopy is too dense for thermals to penetrate and even if they could, the trees and uneven terrain offer too much cover for our enemies to utilize. No, the Mantis will remain with the convoy flying support where it can be of more use to us."

The menacing, scratched mask leaned in close enough that Grevel could even spot the helmet twitching uncomfortably. "Unless you want to be another example of what happens to people who disappoint me, I'd suggest that you quit stalling and take me back to Commander Zherl so I can give him a report of the morning's events. Now would be preferable."

If the imbecilic moron can listen to logic just once, that is. When the hell has Zherl ever listened to me before?

As the batarian began shouting for his comrades to load up, Grevel marched to the Mako taking the lead in the convoy. He clambered aboard the personnel carrier, making sure to close the door behind him so that he was in complete privacy. Before he shut out the world, he could get a glimpse of the mercenaries setting the field ablaze to discourage further pursuit and to burn the remains of the bodies lying in the field as a fallback for any contingencies set up against them.

A minute later, Grevel felt the Mako rumble and begin to move, the other transports following dutifully with the Mantis flying overhead. Satisfied that he was in relative solitude, he raised his hands up to his neck and simultaneously depressed two catches just above his jawbone. With a series of clicks, the lower metal half of his mask fell away, revealing an electronic voice box that covered his mouth, sealing him away in his own private atmosphere.

Turning the half of the mask over in his hands, he spotted the damaged area easily from where the bullet had hit. Shepard was just as good of a shot as the newsreels made him out to be, he conceded begrudgingly and admiringly.

The scratch from the gunshot was simply bandaged over, the entire process a smooth endeavor. There was no pain to accompany the blood that stained the rags as he cleaned himself off. There had been no pain for years.

There was no way that he would be able to repair the lower half of the mask, though, but he always had a backup for such a possibility. Kicking open a box underneath his seat, he quickly found a spare of the same part, brand new, that he always kept handy for emergencies. In minutes the part was swapped and Grevel opened and closed his mouth to test out the responsiveness of the artificial jaw. It responded well to his real jaw's movements and moved effortlessly as if the joints had been well oiled.

"So, Commander Shepard," he announced to himself, hearing his demonic voice echo around the cramped area. "What makes you so special? What makes you unique?"

Grevel leaned forward, eyes aimlessly sweeping across the cabin. "Shepard, why are you really here and what is it that you want?"


A/N: Christmas may be over but there's still the New Year that's coming up. Hope you all had a good holiday so far.

As for the chapter, I hope you find it enjoyable. I'm feeling confident that Grevel is going to be one fun character to write about.

(Well...I say that as I'm glancing at my outline for all the chapters.)

Heh...heh...