Author's Note: Here we are again fellows, another chapter. My exams are over on monday so hopefully I will be able to write even faster. Some people may be concerned that I am writing an overpowered character into the story but fear not, for I have plans regarding this. Besides, those of you who may be concerned about what Thompson survives should remember what Zaeed and Garrus have both lived through. Anyway I shall shut up now and let you read my most wonderful story.

Edit: Noticed a fairly crucial plot error at the end there, fixed it now.


John began tapping his foot impatiently. How long is Shepard going to be? He thought. She was outside the airlock talking to Councillor Udina and Captain Anderson while the rest of the crew waited anxiously in the CIC. Once again John's thoughts turned to Tali. Is she really ready to join us? Wherever we're going it'll be dangerous and a quarian still on her pilgrimage can't be that good in a fight. He looked over at her and made a decision. If she's coming along anyway I might as well protect her until she gets some decent battlefield experience. I won't let a crew member die on me. Not again.

'You ever been in a battle Tali?' he asked, trying to break the silence. She looked over at him, startled that someone had spoken to her.

'Not really,' she said, 'the only fights I've ever been in were when Saren's men tried to ambush me. I've always preferred running to fighting.'

'I didn't think you would have much combat experience seeing as you're still on your pilgrimage and all, it's normally only the marines that get training. Not many quarians even carry guns while on their pilgrimage.' She tilted her head at him, clearly confused by his knowledge of the quarians.

'How do you know that? Most people don't know anything about us other than the whole geth thing.'

'I read a lot during my childhood. Your people have always fascinated me for some reason.' Tali was about to reply when Commander Shepard walked through the airlock.

'What news Shepard? Are we to go gallivanting around the universe hunting after a rogue spectre, throwing ourselves at every danger that passes our way?' John said with a wide grin on his face. He had already surmised what had transpired outside the airlock. A smile touched the corners of Shepard's lips as she replied.

'Hit the nail on the head Thompson; Captain Anderson is stepping down, leaving me in command of the Normandy. Our first lead is Liara T'Soni, Matriarch Benezia's daughter. Apparently she's on a prothean dig site on a planet called Therum. We have eight days to spare until then. Crew dismissed.' John saluted and walked over to the elevator.

'Commander? Where are our stations?' he heard behind him. He turned around to see Garrus and Tali looking at him expectantly.

'Garrus, you can take over maintenance on the Mako. Tali, we'd better go ask Chief engineer Adams where he wants you.' he then motioned them over to the elevator, 'I'll have to give you a tour sometime, for now though all you need to know is that this level houses the CIC, mess hall, med bay and sleeper pods. Down the elevator is the cargo bay and engineering deck.' John entered the lift and pressed the button to go down a level. Once again he thought about how painfully slow it was. Maybe Tali could do something about that. Eventually the elevator doors opened and they stepped out into the cargo bay.

'That's the Mako over there Garrus; Tali, follow me.' he turned towards engineering. As the door opened he could hear Tali gasp at the sight of the drive core.

'Engineer Adams I would like you to meet the newest member of our crew, Tali'Zorah nar Rayya.' he said as the man turned to greet them.

'Pleasure to meet you Miss Zorah, what kind of experience do you have?'

'I worked as an engineer back on the flotilla, patching fuel lines, repairing engines, that sort of thing.' she said, clearly proud of her engineering status.

'Well then, that panel over to my right should have everything you need on it. You'll be in charge of the propulsion system; I'll send a message to Shepard to give you full access.'

'Full access?' she asked, 'you're actually going to trust me just like that?'

'Of course, quarians have a natural affinity for this sort of thing and we need to make the most of your natural talents. Chances are that you'll be helping out with all sorts of mechanical problems all around the ship so you're going to need full access.' John said, walking over to his station, 'if you need anything, feel free to ask Adams or myself.' he stopped just short of his terminal, suddenly remembering something. He looked down to see his armour covered in the dried blood of the mercenaries.

'Excuse me for a moment Adams, I'm going to need to clean my armour. I may be a while.' the engineer nodded to him and returned to his work. As John left the engineering deck he heard Tali start asking questions about the drive core.


'Why do you suppose Commander Thompson covers himself up like that?' Ashley asked. They were in the mess hall, sitting down to eat. Thompson had arrived late, apparently having spent his time cleaning dried blood off his armour.

'What do you mean Ash?' Kaidan inquired.

'Alliance military off-duty clothing is always the same; short sleeves as standard, but the Commander wears long sleeves and gloves. Gloves! Nobody wears gloves off duty.'

'Maybe he's just more comfortable like that. Still, they can't have been easy to get a hold of; the Alliance doesn't supply them and they don't approve of changes in the dress code.' Ashley motioned to Kaidan to be quiet as she saw Thompson approaching with his rations.

'Am I interrupting something?' he said with a raised eyebrow.

'Not at all sir, please excuse me.' Ashley said, not used to being so informal with a superior officer.

'At ease Williams, I'm not big on formality.' he set down his tray and began eating, 'so what's your story?'

'Well, I was stationed on Eden prime when the geth hit. Entire squad got wiped out, joined Shepard to get some payback. That's all there is to it.'

'I meant before that Williams. I've seen your profile, you've distinguished yourself repeatedly over your service period and yet you're stuck with ground duty guarding a frontier colony? What's the deal with that?' Ashley paused, shocked that he didn't know.

'I'm the granddaughter of General Williams, the man who commanded the regiment on Shanxi.' Thompson stopped eating for a moment and she could clearly see the conflicting emotions in his eyes. Great. Another bigot. She thought. The Commander was silent for a long time before finally replying in a very quiet voice.

'I'm sorry Williams.' she was taken aback by this statement, not expecting him to be sorry.

'What for Commander? You've done nothing wrong.'

'I'm sorry for everything you have been through because of your grandfather. Every promotion denied, every friend spurned because of something you didn't do. The hate your name receives for the deeds of a man long dead.' Ashley shifted in her seat, uncomfortable with someone showing emotion to her.

'You needn't be sir, not like you're the one who denied me promotion.' Thompson just nodded at her and the table returned to silence. Not long after that she heard the elevator doors open again and the quarian turned the corner into the mess hall. The Commander turned to watch as she got some nutrient paste from the nearby dispenser and sat down with them. She was wringing her hands in nervousness and excitement over something.

'This ship is incredible Thompson! I don't know how you managed to fit such an impressive drive core on a ship this small. It's no wonder the Alliance is so strong if you have technology like this.' she said in a hurried voice. Thompson smiled at her as he responded.

'The Normandy is a special ship; I've never seen anything like her. Can't wait to put her through her paces. Shame about the software though.' she looked at him quizzically.

'What's wrong with the software?'

'It's all in factory settings, designed for a drive core with a fraction of the power output ours has. Currently if we ever need to use our weapons, our shields or our stealth systems in conjunction we run the risk of massive power surges through the T-4 capacitor banks; leaving us helpless in a fight.' Tali gasped as she heard that.

'But that could cause catastrophic damage to the drive core! It could get us all killed!' Thompson nodded, obviously satisfied with her grasp of technology.

'I'm currently working on the problem but it will take at least a month for me to get the problems sorted on my own.'

'I could lend you a hand, with the both of us we should be able to get it done before we reach Therum.' the Commander's smile grew larger.

'I'd like that, I'd like that a lot.' the two engineers then began talking shop and it became harder for Ashley to follow the conversation; so she just finished her meal and walked off, leaving them to it.


'Two hours out from Therum Shepard.' he heard Joker say over the intercom.

'Roger that. Crew, meet me in the briefing room.' John sighed and turned away from his terminal. In the week since they had left the Citadel he had been working almost nonstop to get the Normandy fully functional but even with Tali's help it was taking a long time; they were only half way through the programs. He headed over to the elevator where he saw the rest of the squad waiting for him. After the elevator arrived they made their way over to the briefing room to find Shepard standing in front of a hologram of Therum's surface.

'This is the underground complex where Dr T'Soni is working.' she began, highlighting a region of the map, 'There's something distorting our sensors so the only safe place we can find to drop the Mako is a few clicks down the valley, here.' she highlighted another region of the map. John quickly formed a plan of his own and walked over to the hologram.

'My specialty is infiltration and information gathering; if the Normandy can drop me off about halfway to the dig site, I can explore this area here and see if I can't find out the source of the distortion.'

'But the Normandy can't fly low enough to drop you safely, how are you going to land?' Tali asked.

'My suit has built in deceleration thrusters and impact shielding designed to let me hard drop from aircraft. Makes infiltration a damn sight easier.' he said. Tali just shook her head, clearly dubious of his statement.

'The rest of you can come with me in the Mako.' Shepard said, closing down the holographic projector. Everybody headed down to the cargo bay to suit up. While he waited for the ship to reach his drop point he began going over methods in his head, thinking of the different situations he could be facing and how to counter any problems that might arise. After what seemed like only a few minutes he heard Joker's voice through his helmet.

'Ten minutes until your drop point Thompson, hope you're ready.' he took a deep breath and waited for the cargo bay door to open before leaping out into the planet's atmosphere.


This was Garrus's first time being dropped in the Mako and he had to say he rather enjoyed it. The feeling of weightlessness followed by the sudden impact of the Mako hitting the ground was quite thrilling. He could tell that Tali didn't like it though as she was clutching the armrests very tightly indeed.

'If you think this was bad you should see what Thompson went through on his drop. That must've been something else.' she just glared at him. Before long he could feel the Mako begin moving along the rough terrain; the shock absorbers managing to iron out the worst of the bumps.

'Thompson here, I'm in position and can see the source of the disturbance. The geth have set up a base of operations blocking your path. It consists of two gates, one at either end of the compound. The front gate is guarded by two rocket turrets. Inside the compound I count ten geth platforms, four are carrying heavy weaponry. The only way to open the gates is from inside the compound but there is a side entrance big enough for the Mako to fit through guarded by a further two turrets.' Garrus heard over the radio.

'Roger that, where is this side entrance?' Shepard responded.

'To your right as the first gate comes into view, you can't miss it. I'm going to find myself a decent sniping position and offer covering fire. I'll let you know when I've dealt with the heavy weapons. Thompson out.' Shepard turned from her position at the driver's seat.

'Garrus, you're up. Take the gunners seat.' Garrus nodded and settled into the seat next to Shepard. With the flick of a switch he brought up the holographic interface and engaged the camera feed. Almost immediately he heard a roaring sound from above him and a geth drop ship entered his sights.

'Looks like they already know we're here.' he mumbled as he readied his mass accelerator cannon. Almost as soon as the armatures had hit the ground he opened fire with the machine gun, ripping through their shields before tearing them apart with a blast from the cannon. Shepard continued along the path without even slowing down. Before long they arrived at the geth base, Shepard taking them down the side route without a moment's hesitation. As soon as Garrus encountered the turrets he gunned them down. Just before they emerged into the compound he heard four gunshots in quick succession.

'Alright, the heavy weapons are dealt with. I'll leave you to it while I scout on ahead.' They emerged into the compound at full speed, cutting down three geth before they could even respond. The rest fell just as quickly as Garrus drilled them full of holes with the machine gun or turned them into a molten pile of slag with the cannon. The fight was over in seconds and Shepard brought them to the far gate, telling Wrex and Tali to get out and open it. As the gate opened Garrus heard Thompson's voice over the radio again.

'Scattered ahead of you are four geth armatures. They are fairly spread out so you shouldn't have too much trouble dealing with them. After that is a group of four geth platforms and a colossus.' A colossus? Shit, that's going to be tough to take down, 'I'll deal with the smaller geth and leave you to the colossus. From what I can see there's a point later on which is too small for the Mako to fit through, I'm going to wait for you there. Over and out.'


John leaned against the rocks, waiting for Shepard to arrive in the Mako. He looked down at his omni-tool, it's been ten minutes, and by my judgement Shepard should have encountered the colossus by now. If I'm right they'll be another five minutes. He thought. Sure enough five minutes later he heard the far off sounds of gunfire and explosions, marking Shepard's location. Before long he could hear the sounds of the Mako's engine getting steadily louder and the vehicle came roaring round the corner at high speed, stopping just short of the rocks. Not exactly stealthy. The rear hatch opened with a load clink and the squad marched out.

'Let's do this.' he said, leading them through the gap in the rocks. They came to a large open space with little cover; as they reached the middle of the space two geth emerged from farther down the path and opened fire. Almost before they had fired the first shot John had drawn his pistol and shot the first one through the eye-thing. He aimed at the other one just in time to see it gunned down by the rest of his squad. Keeping his pistol aimed down the path he continued towards the dig site. As he saw another open area he held up his hand to tell the others to stop before engaging his stealth generator. He slowly crept forward and examined the area; it looked like a quarry, they were in the lower section with a soil ramp leading to the next level. The floor was scattered with rubble that could be used as cover but there was a problem: two sniper towers were built onto the higher level, giving the geth inside a clear shot. There were four more geth on the higher level and three on the lower level. After relaying this information to his squad he began making his way up to the higher level. He needed to take out those snipers before his teammates could advance.

John stood directly behind the sniper, moving extremely slowly to prevent it from detecting the movement in the air. In the blink of an eye he brought his fist upwards, sending his blade though the centre of mass. White conductive fluid flew everywhere as all of the geth turned to him, thinking at the speed of light they opened fire before the body hit the floor but they hit only air as he had already engaged his stealth system and departed. John moved with haste towards the next sniper tower, trying not to give the geth enough time to pinpoint his location. With a great leap he grabbed onto the ledge at the base of the sniper platform and hauled himself up; snapping his arm around with a lightning fast motion, completely severing the geth's neck before diving to the floor to avoid the incoming fire.

'Okay, they're down. Feel free to join the party any time you like Shepard.' he said over the comms; and within seconds he heard them join the fight. John watched the red icons on his HUD blinking out rapidly; within seconds the squad had cut down over half of the hostiles. As soon as the geth stopped shooting at him he jumped from the tower and sprinted over to the nearest geth. Bringing both blades to bear he cut through geth's arms and kicked it over the edge of the quarry. Without a pause he ran to the next geth which was already aiming its rifle at him. Just before John reached the geth it opened fire, his shields buzzing loudly in process. He watched the shields indicator on his HUD draining rapidly. All at once the shields gave out and he felt a shot penetrate the armour of his left shoulder; another shot hit him in the chest but the armour stopped it just short of his flesh. Before the geth could get another shot off he sent his fist straight through its torso. As it fell to the ground he drew his pistol and shot a third geth repeatedly until it fell under the force of his barrage. John glanced at his radar readout and saw that all targets had been eliminated so he decided to wait for the rest of his squad to catch up. When they did Kaidan approached him and withdrew a medi-gel canister from his pack.

'I saw you take a shot to your shoulder.' he explained, 'hold still, this won't take a second.' as soon as he applied the medi-gel John moved on.

'According to Joker's map the dig site should be just around this corner.' he said. They walked towards the entrance, wary of more geth and as soon as they had made it to a stack of boxes their fears were confirmed. A drop ship soared overhead, leaving behind a squad of the machines and an armature. Almost immediately it fired its plasma mortar at Tali.

'NO!' John shouted in horror as he made the decision to honour his promise to her. He would not let her die. John threw her to the ground just in time to save her from the blast as instead it ripped through his shields and sent him flying backwards, throwing him against the rocks. Hard. He felt pain all over as his ribs began throbbing. Fighting through the pain he rose to his feet and drew his sniper rifle. Gritting his teeth he took aim; all he saw was the armature, there was nothing else. Time slowed down for him as he engaged the assassination protocol on his rifle and pulled the trigger. The shot pierced the geth's shields and sent metal flying everywhere, exposing the sensitive wiring around its 'head'. But it wasn't dead yet. He pulled back on the loader and aimed again, watching as the machine readied its plasma mortar for another shot. The geth fired its weapon.

'Die you son of a bitch.' he said under his breath and pulled the trigger. The bullet ignited the plasma ball, causing it to explode in the geth's face; destroying it instantly. He slumped back against the rocks and slid to the floor, grunting in pain. Suddenly, Kaidan was standing over him, medi-gel in hand. He felt it stop his bleeding as he realised that he must have taken quite a few shots from the other geth platforms. Blinking a few times to clear his vision he looked out over the battlefield. The fighting was over and the corpses of lifeless geth littered the courtyard. The rest of the team was staring at him in awe. They had just seen him survive a plasma mortar shot and numerous bullet wounds to single-handedly take down an armature. The only one not staring was Tali; she was looking down at her feet in shame, he had saved her life and she was ashamed that he had risked himself to save her. When Kaidan took a step back Garrus helped him to his feet and Wrex looked him over.

'You've got a quad human, not many could survive that.' he said with begrudging respect.

'Takes a lot more than that to bring me down.' John replied, 'come on, we've still got to find Liara.'


Liara tried once again to use her biotic powers on the controls but as every time before it was to no avail. She let out a small sigh and resigned herself to waiting. Either she would starve to death or the geth would find some way to extract her, neither option was very pleasant but it couldn't be helped. Oh goddess, I don't want to die! She thought as she struggled to keep her breathing level. She heard a noise from above her but she couldn't identify what it was. Then it came again, and again. Gunfire! She realised, could this mean that someone is coming to save me? She heard the sounds getting closer before stopping. Then she heard an almighty clanging noise not that far from her location and held her breath in anticipation. She almost exploded when she saw a very strange group indeed clamber down the rubble to her. Four humans, a quarian, a turian and a krogan; very strange indeed. Still, beggars can't be choosers, as the humans say.

'Can you hear me out there? I'm trapped I need help!' She said desperately. One of the female humans walked over to the barrier.

'Are you okay? What happened to you?' she asked.

'This thing I am in is a Prothean security device. I cannot move, so I need your help to get me out of it. All right?' she went on to tell the human about how she had gotten trapped while trying to protect herself from the geth, her voice barely containing her fear at the situation. One of the male humans walked over, his armour bore the signs of a recent battle; several sections of the chest had caved in and the armour was riddled with dozens of holes. His big grey eyes seemed to be looking into her very soul as he began talking.

'Don't worry Miss T'Soni, we will find a way to get you out of there. Just hold tight, we'll have you out in no time.' and with that they moved on, deeper into the cavern. Liara was so excited that somebody had come to rescue her at last that she barely noticed the gunshots from below her. Then she began to doubt herself. Why were they here? How did they know my name? Oh goddess what if they're worse than the geth? Thoughts like those occupied her mind for some time until she was startled out of her reverie by what sounded like reality tearing asunder. Within a few seconds the deafening noise was gone and had been replaced by silence. The only sound Liara could hear was her own ragged breathing and almost jumped out of her skin when she heard someone behind her. She turned her head around to see the group from before standing there. Her heart leaped into her throat as she had to fight hard to stop herself from crying.

'How…how did you get in here? I didn't think there was any way past the barrier!'

'How do we get you down?' asked the male with the battered armour.

'That console over there will do it.' she said in a shaky voice.

'Wait! Commander, can we trust her? Her mother is working with Saren after all.' said the turian in their company. She felt anger and shame at the mention of her mother. She was just about to respond when those hard grey eyes kept her attention and she found her protest dying in her throat. He looked at her for a long time before saying in a very quiet voice,

'We can trust her. The geth wouldn't be after her if she was working with Saren.' she felt a great weight lift from her shoulders as he said those words and deactivated the shield. As they stepped onto the elevator the ground beneath them began to shake.

'Aw crap, I knew using that mining laser was just going to bring us trouble.' she heard the turian say from behind her.

'Well I didn't see you coming up with any ideas Garrus.' the man replied.

'Hey, I'm just here to look good, you're the one who comes up with the plans.' Liara just hurried over to the console as she heard the female say something to a man called Joker. As the elevator reached the top of the shaft there were a krogan and a squad of geth waiting for them. Liara felt her heart sink as they attack; she cowered behind the console, trying not to get shot. Suddenly a pair of feet came into view: it was the krogan. He was pointing his shotgun at her with an evil grin on his face. Liara's heart sank as she realised she was going to die, but before he pulled the trigger the human female tackled him to the ground. She watched on in fear as the two wrestled with each other; the human speared the krogan in its eye with a combat knife.

With an almighty roar the krogan threw her off and grabbed his shotgun. As the woman got to her feet the krogan shot her through her midriff, sending blood everywhere. Liara gasped in revulsion as the woman staggered; clearly hurt by the blast, but before the krogan could finish her she ran forwards, pistol in hand, and pinned the krogan down. The woman put the barrel of her gun right into the yellow hole where the krogan's eye used to be and pulled the trigger over and over again, not stopping until the beast stopped moving. Without a word she hauled herself to her feet before picking Liara up and running for the mouth of the cave. Even as wounded as she was she was still fast on her feet; making it to the exit in mere seconds. Liara heard the cave system collapse behind them as the woman gently set her down. They all stood gasping for breath as a frigate flew overhead. Suddenly, the male with the grey eyes fell to the floor, completely unconscious.