A batarian walked into a small hovel in Afranil's capital city, the moon shining down on the streets. It was midnight. Not many people were around. Going inside a small hovel, he came to a small table that held a holoprojector. Turning it on, he looked at the cloaked figure that materialized.

"Speak," it whispered.

"We ambushed a reconnaissance group in the forest. They killed the others, but I managed to escape. We killed one and badly wounded another."

"But they know you are aware of their presence."

The batarian took a step forward. "It was your information that told us where they would land! We had to act quickly or they may have moved!"

"And yet," the figure replied, "You failed to kill them all. You have now alerted them to your presence in the forest. And with the other war you're fighting on this world, you will have no more luck here than they will."

The batarian gulped nervously. "Please…help us. You're in a position to aid us! Kill them as they sleep! There's nothing else we can do!"

"You will fight," the figure said coolly. "And you will die, unless I say otherwise. Do you understand? Or shall I contact your government and tell them what you are doing?"

The batarian stopped cold. "No! Please! They'll kill me!"

"Then you will continue to follow my instructions. Or else."

The hologram disappeared. The batarian whimpered. What have I gotten myself into?

Dawn came at the Attican Sun's landing site. Jacob walked through the ship's corridors, passing the odd early-riser to the medical bay.

The place was a morgue and a hospital at once. Teken's body lay on a bed, covered by a bloodstained sheet. Garrus lay unconscious on another bed, being tended to by one of the ship's doctors. Jacob walked up. "How is he?"

"The wound still has a lot of shrapnel in it. I'm working on removing it right now."

"Will he live?"

"The wound is moderate. Second-degree burns, numerous lacerations from the shrapnel. He'll live."

Jacob breathed a sigh of relief. "Good. Tell me if anything changes."

"Will do."

He left the medical bay. Going outside, he walked down a corridor to the ship's gym. Going over to the far wall, he took a pair of bantos rods from the wall. Going over to a wooden practice dummy he began to swing at it, loud cracking filling the room as wood collided against wood. His strikes grew harder and louder until he finally hit the dummy hard enough to knock it over. He tossed the rods after it with a frustrated growl.

The next thing he felt was the touch of a hand on his shoulder. Turning, he straightened as he saw Saren behind him.

"Are you alright, Lieutenant?" he asked.

Jacob shook his head. "That was the first time I've ever led a mission, Saren. And I screwed it up."

"But you were in the security division in the Alliance navy."

"A desk job. The only time I went into the field was in a hostage situation while a group of sailors was on leave. As a negotiator."

"Why was it a hostage situation?"

"They'd been denied their pay for drunk and disorderly conduct and took a bar full of people hostage. After I got them to calm down, they were dishonorably discharged and imprisoned."

Saren nodded. "So, you're more of a logistics person."

"Logistics and forensics. I can still use a gun, though."

Saren shook his head. "What happened yesterday wasn't your fault, Jacob. You didn't know they were there."

"But I should have recognized the danger. I knew that this place would be dangerous and that they couldn't miss a Citadel ship landing, even in the outskirts. And the government may learn of this. Batarians are paranoid. They'll do anything to get any outside presence off of any of their worlds."

Saren put a hand on Jacob's shoulder again. "Then we will simply have to be more careful. Forensics teams reached the ambush site under escort after you returned. They have samples from the explosive that was used in the opening of the attack."

Jacob nodded. "I'll go put on my duty jacket and I'll be in the situation room in a minute. Is Nihlus there?"

"Yes. He's waiting for you."

"Tell him I'll be there shortly."

Saren nodded and they walked out together, going opposite ways. As Jacob walked back to his cabin, a turian sensors officer stopped him. "Lieutenant, I have the results of a scan from our long-range sensors. There's an anomaly I want you to look at."

"I'll deal with it after the meeting, Ensign. Or you could bring it. It might come in handy."

The turian nodded. "Yes, sir."

Jacob disappeared briefly into his room and came out wearing his blue uniform jacket. The turian escorted him to the situation room. The room was darkened and Saren and Nihlus, along with two other turians, stood around a holographic table in the center of the room. Jacob and the ensign came up to the table and Nihlus nodded at him. "Glad you could join us, Lieutenant."

"I had to get my jacket."

Saren snorted. Nihlus looked at him, then turned back to the table. Hitting a few tabs, he activated it. He turned to the two investigators. "Proceed with your explanation."

The senior of the two stepped forward. "The remains of the bomb we found were scattered, but together they provided enough evidence to be conclusive. A scan of the bomb's key components turned up partially corrupted by debris from the forest floor, but we have determined with a ten percent chance of error that the material is titanium alloy."

Jacob blinked. "That's a human metal."

"Why would humans work with batarians?" Saren asked, rubbing his chin with a hand.

"We don't know, sir. But the explosive element of the device is determined to be a geth compound."

"Humans and geth?" Nihlus asked. "That sounds highly unlikely."

"Unless there's another force at work here," Jacob said. "There's only one group of humans I know of that would stoop low enough to work with batarians. Cerberus."

"The mercenary group?" Saren asked in surprise.

"It's possible. They'll work with anyone to take over the Alliance." He looked at the investigators. "Where did the titanium come from?"

The junior of the pair stepped forward. "We looked through Hawking Chi's marketing schedule. For them to have a bomb in place within hours of our arrival, the delivery would have had to be very close, and able to be easily assembled and transported."

"If they wanted easily transported, they should have tried aluminum." Jacob said. "We'll locate the towns closest to the Sun and investigate them."

He looked at the ensign. "Now, what do you have?"

The turian placed a small ship into a slot in the table. A holographic representation of the planet sprung up. "A few hours ago, the long range sensors picked up a trio of ships exiting FTL close to the planet's mass relay. We aren't really sure, but the profiles closely match that of geth ships."

"What could they want here?" Nihlus wondered.

"Who knows?" Saren asked. "They could be scouting. Investigating for an assault on the Terminus Systems and the entirety of Citadel space."

"Let's not jump to conclusions," Jacob said. "We need to be sure of what they're doing here, and why Cerberus would be working with geth and batarians. Two of the three want the Alliance gone, but what part could the geth play in this?"

Nihlus shrugged. "We will have to find that out for ourselves."

"Agreed," Saren said. "The rest of you, to your stations. The Lieutenant, Nihlus, and I must discuss this alone."

As the ensign and investigators left the room, Saren canceled the hologram. The three stood in almost complete darkness, the white light of the table the only illumination. "Now," he said. "We must inform the Council. This goes beyond a simple terrorist plot."

Jacob nodded. "You're right, Saren. Meet me in the ready room in an hour."

He turned and walked out of the room. Nihlus looked after him, then at Saren. "He shows promise, for someone that's been stuck with a desk job for most of his career."

Saren nodded. "Indeed. We may have a use for him."

No, the "use" isn't bad. And the Cerberus plotline is basically a dead end. I had planned to expand the story a little, but I decided not to. R and R! More to come soon!