As they entered the sprawling complex that belonged to Magnus T. Zimboltz, Khan could not help but suppress a shudder. Something about the entire place just seemed to be wrong. She couldn't place where exactly the feeling was coming from, it just seemed to emanate from everywhere: from the stone cherub that spat out acidic ooze instead of water, or the gate that had a sign that read"Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here (except if you're an investor, in which case, profits are way up!)".

Whatever she was feeling, however, was definitely not restricted to her alone, Shepard and Lovel were also feeling whatever it was: their hands kept on drifting towards their SDUs and they were constantly patting their armor and shields to make sure that they weren't in danger of failing.

Apparently, Zimboltz was a scientist that had worked his way up to being the top executive in the entire system, and he had never forgotten where he came from. To that end, he had combined his home with Maliwan's largest R & D complex in Rimbor.

Assaulting a corporate executive in his own home was normally a suicide mission: they were always constantly updating their security measures because there was nothing corporations liked more than killing their rivals' executives. Of course, that was almost nothing compared to what it was like to attack a corporation's research hub, where they kept all of their nasty secrets. If you were lucky, you could get out with files on their secret projects. If you were unlucky, you got to meet those secret projects, or worse, became one of the corporation's dirty secrets yourself.

Khan thought back to what Nihlus had told them about the general layout of the facility and the plan that they would follow to try and locate Kaidan Alenko and his squad:

-The day before-

Nihlus was fuming, bur he had no idea how he was supposed to discipline the three people that were supposed to be under his command. Technically, they had done nothing wrong: they had accomplished their task without revealing themselves, but, they had blown up an entire damn warehouse and been the top story on nightly news! By the spirits, how was he supposed to accept that?! Normally, the possibility of becoming a Spectre was enough to keep a potential candidate on their best behavior, but these humans didn't seem to care that they might be ruining a once in a lifetime opportunity, so he had to settle on glowering at them when they had gathered for debriefing.

Opening up a holomap of the area, Nihlus pointed out the areas of interest for their upcoming mission.

" From what you can see, we will be entering from gate A, which is the most public entrance to the complex." Nihlus pointed at a set of tall buildings that were set far apart from everything else, "However, the last known point of contact with Lt. Alenko and his squad is over here, in the Eta complex, where most of Maliwan's research is actively going on. To reach this spot, we will need to leave this building where Gozongo and his circus will be performing" Nihlus touched out a squat building that was nearly on the opposite side of the map, which then transformed the hologram into a cross section of the selected building.

"The only way to possibly accomplish this without alerting Maliwan to our absence is to use a underground high-speed rail available to their employees that has stops all over the area. To do so, we will need to break into a store room that should hold extra uniforms and passes," as Nihlus talked, he pointed out the various areas that they would need to traverse, " If we're lucky, most of the guards will be attending to the VIPs watching the circus, so it should be relatively unguarded. From there, it should be a relatively quick extraction mission, although we should be prepared for the possibility that we will have to fight our way back before escaping. Are there any questions?"

Shepard was the first to respond, "How are we supposed to find Alenko? I'm pretty sure Maliwan doesn't run a lost and found for wayward Alliance spy teams."

At this question, Nihlus brought out a small device and placed it onto the table, "With this. It's a specialized geo-locator attuned to the frequencies of special sub-dermal chips implanted in Alenko and his squadmates. If we get close to them, it should be able to locate their signal."

Nihlus looked around to see if there were any further questions. Khan, after noticing that her colleagues/rivals were deep in thought about the upcoming mission, decided to speak up, "Alright, so nobody's gonna fucking ask, huh? Alright, I'll do it. If we find this guy's secret harem of sexy ladies and/or dudes, is it against the rules to take one or two of them back with us?"

Nihlus had to stop himself from covering his face with one of his hands, "Khan, no such harem exists."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes"

"Really, really sure? That's not exactly the kind of thing that would go in intelligence reports, and you really shouldn't just decide on whether or not something exists." Khan, apparently, was not satisfied to let the question go.

"Yes Khan, I'm 'really, really sure'. And even if such a harem did exist, which I repeat, is not true, it would be against every rule to ' take one or two of them back with us'."

Khan stuck out her tongue at him, "Fine spoilsport, but when we run into the harem, you're going to have to be the one who explain why they all have to stay in their shithole."

Letting out an exasperated sigh, Nihlus asked once more, "Are there any other questions? Ones that don't involve things that don't exist?"

At the shaking of heads, or in Lovel's case, a black stare from beneath a face plate, Nihlus continued, "In that case, I encourage you to make sure all of your gear is in proper condition. The mission begins at 0500 tomorrow."

-back in the present-

Gozongo rapped a large meaty fist on the side of the truck that they were travelling on, "Alright, out you get,. You may not be performing 'cause yer new and all, but I'll be a salarian's uncle before I let you just laze around. Grab some of the containers and start setting up, show time's after these corporate scumbags finish eating their lunch, which is in an hour or two."

Khan alerted the rest of the team and stepped out of the truck; for better or worse, they were in. Looking around, she tried to discern what kind of security measures they might be going up against. On the surface, it was the usual, armed guards and security cameras infested the grounds, but there was something about the area that seemed familiar, something that made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. All of a sudden, it hit her, there were no animals in the area. Normally, you could count on at least birds hanging around, but the place was much too quiet for them to be living here; the last time things had been like this was over in Akuze, right before everything had gone to hell.

"Is everything alright Jane? You're just standing there." Shepard had come over to check on her, calling her by the name she have been given as cover. Saratoga had been lost in reliving the events of that fateful day, and she had not realized that she had been wandering around the area in a dazed state.

"Huh? Yeah, I'm alright, I'm alright. Just thinking about some...stuff."

Shepard gave her a look, but decided to ignore it for the time being, "Well, if you're not too busy thinking about 'stuff', perhaps you might be willing to help us with transporting these crates inside. With your bestial strength, I'm sure things will go much more quickly."

"Hey! Go fuck yourself! I'll have you know I've got the heart of a maiden and all the shit that comes along with something like that."

Shepard chuckled at that and simply handed her a box of equipment to carry inside. He was not sure why he was in a good mood. Normally he would have taken the time to insult her in a way that, admittedly, went over her head and left her feeling the victor in a verbal spar, but today he found some humor in her statement. The anticipation of what might occur this day was probably the cause of it. Nihlus might have some hope that this would be a quiet pick-up, but Shepard knew that there was no chance in space hell of that happening, there was going to be guns blazing, people dying, and he was going to have a good time.

"There's the storeroom." Nihlus stated, as he cautiously looked around a corner. The undercover team had left the circus performance as it began, and had entered the upper levels of the building that they were in. As had been expected, the building was lightly guarded, as most of the security personnel was involved in watching over the numerous VIPs watching Gozongo's circus perform in the main exhibition room. However, there were still a few guards placed haphazardly around the building as a deterrent to any possible intruders, and while most of them had been avoided, there was a man posted outside the storeroom that they needed access to.

Khan spoke up, "I got this one." , but as she rose to deal with the lone guard, Nihlus placed a taloned hand on her shoulder and motioned for her to wait.

"First, we should deal with any possible recording devices," said the turian as he reached into a pouch by his side and withdrew two small metallic spheres which he threw into the air, "Latest design from STG, works to hinder cameras by hacking into the data feeds and giving them a false stream." The two orbs started whizzing in the air, and flew up to the ceiling, emitting a nearly unnoticeable small glowing field around the area, "Now you can go."

By this time, the guard in question had started to sing to himself, "Standing here guarding this door. Guarding this door, Sure hope no-body ambushes me and takes the stuff that's in here. 'Cause if they don't kill me my boss -" he stopped as he saw Khan approaching him.

"Halt! Identify yourself or be shot in cold blood by Maliwan!"

However, rather than directly answer his question, Khan instead struck a pose at him. "Who, lil ol' me? I'm just one of the circus performers looking around this really impressive building, it's not ofen we get to come to places like this."

"I must ask that you return to where you came from, coming this far is forbidden to non-Maliwan personnel." The guard stonewalled her, apparently ignoring the fact that she was pretending to come onto him.

"But that's soooo boring, wouldn't you like to do something fun? You know, I work as a contortionist for Gozongo." Khan had not given up yet, and did what she would normally would have considered abhorrent, she smiled to be nice.

"This post is pretty boring..." The guard began, and Khan began to feel the beginnings of triumph rising within her, "and if you got it, I'd really be up for a game of Cones of Dunshire!", only to have those feelings shot down.

"A different kind of fun." she replied, hoping that he would see what she was trying to imply.

"You got a Gamestation in here! Aw, but I really can't leave my post. Sorry, for me it's board games or nothing."

"I meant sex. Sex. Sex. Sex. Can't you take a hint?" Khan was fed up now. Where the hell did the corporations hire their guards? Idiots-R-Us?

"Ma'am you are very pretty. I think. However, I have to say that I'm sorry but I'm gay. But there are several guards that would be interested in your offer just down the hall. Hell, I can bring you over to them if you want."

"Alright, fuck this 'trying to be nice' shit. Knee to the dick!" while saying this, Khan brought her leg up and kneed the guard in the crotch, and brought her hands clenched into fists down upon his head, knocking him out instantly. Upon seeing this, both Nihlus and Shepard reflexively covered the groin area of their armor and winced, it was impossible not to; there were some pains that men of all species knew and feared above all else.

Khan looked back towards them. "Told you I had it covered. Now are you gonna come and get your disguises, or are you just going to bask in the majesty of my greatness?"

The Spectre and the remaining two Spectre candidates shared a look between themselves and followed Khan into the storeroom, pausing only momentarily to give a brief sprayer on behalf of the man lying on the floor: he had truly been made to sacrifice much for his company, and they had to respect that even if he was an enemy.

After getting their disguises, the trip down to the rail station was relatively uneventful. Once again, Lovel had refused to remove his armor, and so was dressed in a full body hazard suit, while the rest of them wore the clothes of maintenance workers. While there were a few guards that stopped them to make sure that they were not intruders, a cursory glance at their passes allayed any suspicions and they were waved onward. Occasionally, there was an odd look directed towards Nihlus, but no one said anything aside from an occasional, "Taking our jobs" comment that was muttered under their breath.

The rail station itself reflected the Maliwan aesthetic. Rather than having any sharp or jutting lines, everything looked smooth and futuristic. Glowing lines pulsed through the walls and floors despite apparently serving no real purpose besides being reminiscent of a future that had been promised in movies and tv shows but never had come into existence. A few chrome and steel benches existed and looked extremely uncomfortable, which had resulted in the employees in the station standing up and being engrossed in their omni-tools.

Khan started to sniff the air, "Place doesn't smell right." she muttered after taking a few whiffs of the station

"Smell right?" Lovel, apparently, had been confused by her comment, and asked his companion what she meant. Whether it had been confusion over the what the smell was or what it meant to smell in general was left unclear.

"Yeah. Normally, places like this smell of piss and loneliness. But this place smells like lemon scented soap. The people who designed this place were so concerned over whether or not they could they didn't stop to think if they fucking should."

After a short while, a train pulled into the station; resembling a smooth, featureless snake, and as the doors opened and people entered, the four agents collectively repressed a shudder; one way or another, they were entering the belly of the beast.

The inside of the train matched the outside, with featureless steel and chrome being very prominent, and as the train sped up, the tunnel walls that could be seen from the trains windows became mere blurs.

Looking around, Shepard took note of the other passengers. There were not that many but they all seemed to be rank and file workers rather than guards or higher-ups in Maliwan, so no one who could really cause any trouble. After noting that the other passengers were fairly harmless, Shepard turned his attention to the rest of the train, looking for hidden compartments. In his experience, there was nothing corporations enjoyed doing more than hiding turrets and other defense mechanisms where people would overlook them, however, there truly seemed to be none. Zimboltz must really depend on his guard force to defend his lab from infiltration. Good.It seemed that everything was going according to plan, they would simply separate from the crowd when they reached the main complex and locate Lt. Alenko, wherever the hell he was. They were carrying extra uniforms for him and his men so that they could escape easily. As guards typically worked to keep people out rather than stop them from leaving, there were no expected difficulties. It would be after this mission, in all likelihood, that the real trials of Spectredom would begin.

However, at the very moment that Shepard started to relax, the train started to slow down and eventually ground to a halt. They had not yet arrived at another station, and indeed, there seemed to only be tunnel as far as the eye could see both in front and behind the train, what it meant was obvious: there was going to be trouble.

As if on cue, the train's announcement system, normally reserved for declaring what stops were coming up, crackled to life, and a mechanical voice came on. " Dear passengers, you should be aware that we are not stupid. We are fully aware that by letting in large groups such as circuses, a few undesirables are going to slip in. As such, it is company policy to destroy the company train on these occasions when we detect that there are intelligent lifeforms on it."

Khan, Lovel and Nihlus immediately jumped up and snapped to attention, joining Shepard who had yet to sit down. Eyeing the other passengers, they prepared themselves for a fight, only to see the Maliwan employees break out in panic as opposed to readying weaponry.

"The hell do you mean, you're going to destroy the train! I just started work here last week, how was I supposed to know about this policy?! The company handbook mentioned nothing about this!" A main yelled at one of the loudspeakers, which then continued.

" For those of you who are in fact Maliwan personnel unaware of this policy, we thank you for putting the safety of Maliwan trade secrets above your own. But do not worry! Maliwan provides [ recent union negotiation has exchanged company life insurance for a new pool table in the break room] for your next of kin. They will no doubt thank you for ensuring that they get [zero] credits on a monthly basis."

And then the world was explosions.

-A few minutes prior-

A man was lying down on train tracks, surrounded by numerous sheets of paper that were covered in scratched out words. This was strange for several reasons, the first of which was that he apparently carried around paper with him, which made no sense as most information was stored digitally. The second involved the fact that he was on train tracks, apparently by his own will. This would normally mean one of two things, either he was suicidal, or he had decided to challenge the train to a fight, a hobby not unfamiliar to psychos, and one that eventually led to the first possibility. Appearance wise, he was quite lanky, with his clothing having an mismatched air about them: his hat was reminiscent of an old cowboy's, while he was wearing gloves and boots that had metal rivets in them, while the rest of his clothes looked like actual body armor. In addition, rather than showing any concern about the train that would be shortly arriving, his attention was completely absorbed in reading his sheets of paper, all the while talking to himself.

"Alright, so with the experience I got from taking down that Jakobs team, I should be close enough to leveling up that taking down a train should get me to level sixteen. If I take Improved Rage, I can start taking prestige in Berserker, which should give me the health regen I need to balance out my build. But if I take Great Cleave, I can increase my damage output. Dammit! I knew I shouldn't have put that point in lore, but I couldn't afford to keep getting my equipment checked out by merchants."

As he lay there, his radio crackled to life and the person on the other side began to speak, "Hey! You still there? We're shutting down the train in a little bit, and you had better be there to take care of it. Things better not go like last time when you let them escape into the complex because 'your character would definitely suffer uncertainty about what to do'. You are paid to do a job, and you should damn well do it!".

There they went again, bringing up what happened in the past. Didn't they understand that characters now starting out didn't have a set moral alignment yet? You needed to finish a least a third of a campaign before your character had a well-established moral compass, and even then things could change depending on if the GM revealed any secrets about the setting.

"Have I ever let you down?" The mismatched man asked his superior.

"Yes, too many times to count."

"Uh, alright then, lemme ask you that in a slightly different way. In my entire time as head of security, have I ever let an intruder escape?"

"Well, no..."

"So let me do things my way. It's never completely failed before."

" Fine James, but if any one of them survive and cause trouble, it's coming directly out of your paycheck."

James G. G. Manicolo

-He rolls 21s-

"I told you man! The name of this character is Garrok Warscreamer! I had to go through like 200 names before I found one that I liked"

"I don't care"

With that, the radio went silent once more, and James was left to his thoughts once more. Realizing that his boss had brought up at least one valid point, which was that the train was fast approaching, he carefully folded up his character sheets and placed them back into his SDU.

"Alright, let's see here, the fastest way for me to take them out would be by using a spell, but I can't do that with my current class. I would have to go and respec, which would give me a level penalty I can't afford right now. This means I gotta use a magical artifact. I am so happy that the the 3.4 rulebook of Bunkers and Badasses allows that. I mean, yeah, they nerfed great-ax feats, but the buffs make it worth it. Let's see what else I got. Uh, I get the set bonus from having the same gloves and boots, which gives me a plus five when it comes to attacks of initiative. Oh and my far-eye trait gives me another plus three. Anything higher than a six is gonna blow this freaking train to dust and I can level up! I hope there's some good loot that drops from this. Papa needs a new helm, preferably with a strength enchantment!"

Having made up his mind on the course of action that he was going to take, James Manicolo took out a Maliwan high-end rocket launcher from his storage deck. It had the sickening green highlights that marked it as a corrosive weapon, and had the name. 'Rod of Sickness' written on the side in permanent marker. Hoisting it on his shoulder, he waited for the train to approach. He did not have to wait long; as his superior had promised, the train soon came into view and ground to a halt. There were some cries from the inside, but by now the doors and windows would have been remotely locked, forcing them all to stay within the train.

"I CAST ACID SPLASH ON THE TRAIN! " With the 'spell' cast from his 'magic rod', he took aim and fired at the front of the train. The train was not designed to protect from assault and corrosive weapons were created specifically to destroy armored targets, in other words, it never stood a chance. However, the destruction was not limited to simply exploding the train: while the rocket had been traveling through the air, it had split into three smaller rockets and while two had struck the train, the third had hit the tunnel wall and caused a collapse, further sealing the fact of the train's passengers.

"Got a critical."

"Is anyone still alive?!" Nihlus called out in the ruins of the train. Luckily, when the train exploded, he had been swept outside almost instantly, sparing him from most of the damage. Things were not looking good. Not only was the mission compromised, he would have to explain how a plan he had helped create killed three of the first Spectre candidates from a new species. The conspiracy theories would be rampant and whatever diplomatic ties that existed between the Council and humanity would probably disappear overnight.

Luckily, Nihlus's thoughts of doom were interrupted by three cries of affirmation around him sa his charges extricated themselves from the rubble.

"Fuck, fuck, fucking shit! Why can't corporate assholes play along with cliches instead of taking advantage of them. It's not goddamn fair!" Khan grumbled. While the other two shared similar views, they refrained from commenting, merely nodding along.

"Well, Nihlus, I believe it is time to modify our strategy. Our plan's been compromised because of Maliwan's, admittedly justified, paranoia." Shepard was dusting himself from the wreckage and wiping off the blood of his fellow passengers, while Lovel had taken to a sitting position on a nearby piece of rubble.

"It is true, their wanton destruction has impeded our goals, but at this point we must press on. Now that they think that we are dead, that gives us an advantage." Nihlus nodded to himself, "I trust that human construction has not forgotten helpful features such as access tunnels?"

The small crew began to spread out and search through the rubble for an opening a set of maintenance tunnels, but everything was covered in pieces of steel and human flesh. Additionally, they had to be careful with what they disturbed, moving the wrong piece of train could cause the entire tunnel to collapse even further, burying them and finishing the work that Maliwan had started.

"Isn't quite what you expected to happen today, is it Khan?" Shepard grunted as he lifted up the torso of a former Maliwan scientist to inspect the ground that it had been covering.

Khan kicked a piece of tunnel to the side before answering,"You'd be surprised. Only difference is that I thought I would be able to shoot back at the bastards when they shot at me. Didn't think they'd fight like such pussies." She sighed at the sight of bare ground and turned to the third member of their team, "What about you Lovel?"

"My revenge: it shall be bloody." It seemed that even the normally emotionless Lovel was fuming over what had occurred. That seemed to be the one positive to Maliwan nearly killing them all; they were able to put aside their hatred for one another and instead pool it all towards Maliwan. Such unity probably wouldn't last long once they killed the asshole with the rocket launcher, but for now it banded them all together.

Throwing another piece of rubble to the side, Khan was close to giving up the search for the maintenance tunnels. Time for some good ol' Torgue engineering, Khan opened her SDU's and started to digistruct some high grade explosives, when she tripped over something on the floor. "God fucking-". She began swearing as she turned to see what she had tripped over, but then stopped as a smile began to spread on her face. "Hey guys?" Khan called over to the rest of the team, "Who's ready to get their vengeance on?" With a groan of exertion, she turned the wheel of the battered hatch on the floor and flipped it open. Looking down into the darkness of the tunnels, the four companions shared the same thought: it was time to start giving Maliwan some much needed payback.

The Maliwan tunnels, unseen as they were, did not seem to match the ascetic of the rest of the facility. Rather than being smooth and unyielding, the maintenance tunnels were blocky and utilitarian. They were free of vermin, but it seemed that they had not been visited for a long period of time, as a thick coating of dust covered the floor. With every step that they took, the Spectre and Spectre candidates made sure to wipe away the entirety of dust in the area by leaving a variety of footprints leading in different directions. If some Maliwan employee got the bright idea of searching the tunnels, they would not want to give away the exact route that they had taken.

"How long do these fucking tunnels go on for?" Khan groaned.

"Indeed, it seems that the rail system was more of a necessity than the luxury I had initially thought it to be." replied Nihlus, from his position of point-man, "This might explain why these tunnels have such an air of abandonment, they probably view upkeep of it as a waste of time, especially if they blow up their train every so often."

"That's a corporation for you. They have the money to throw around, but it's too much for any one person to really understand, so a lot gets wasted. I mean, do you understand the difference between 2.6 and 2.7 gazillion? Here's a hint, it's enough to get add on a death ray made of diamonds." Shepard had been checking to see if there were any systems that might be of use, but so far, had been having no luck.

The last member of their group, Lovel, had been hanging back from the rest of the group. He had been agreed upon to be the best person at range, so if they ran into any tunnel-dwellers, he would be able to strike while they were distracted with the other three. Out of everyone, he had taken to the cramped tunnels the best: hiding in the shadows, and taking position behind what sparse pieces of cover existed as he cautiously moved forward. However, he suddenly signaled to the rest of the group and spoke up, "A noise."

This instantly set everyone else on alert, they had no desire to be taken by surprise again, they had gotten lucky and all survived the first time, but they would likely not be so lucky again. Straining their ears to hear it, they all heard the same thing, a soft beeping. "It's coming from Nihlus." announced Shepard who was closest to the Turian.

"The hell- of course the tracker! It seems that we have finally had a stroke of luck. Lt Alenko and his squad must be close by. This might explain why the signal shut off, having to hide in such tunnels would have interfered with any transmittance" Nihlus exclaimed, but continued to advance at the same pace. It would not do to become overly excited and blunder into an enemy trap.

Following the sound of ever increasingly loud beeps, the four-person team walked down the tunnels. The path that they followed seemed to have been unused even among the dilapidated tunnels, many lights were not working, and there was the occasional piece of exposed wiring. Eventually, in a small room, likely once used for employee breaks, the tracker reached a fever pitch: Alenko, or at least his body was around somewhere.

"Lt. Alenko, if you around here somewhere, please respond. We are your extraction team." Nihlus spoke into the room, he was careful not to raise his voice to loudly to prevent an echo from resounding throughout the tunnels. At first it seemed that there was no response, and they readied themselves for a trap to be sprung, only to hear banging noises from the ceiling.

" The Alliance sent someone for the magnificent moi? I knew they would! Take that Reynolds, you naysayer! Or Reynolds's ghost, seeing that you're, you know, dead." A muffled voice began to sound through the ventilation system, "You all hold on, I'll be out in a second!". Shortly after saying this, the voice went silent, although the sound of banging increased, and after a muffled curse, a panel on the ceiling fell down, and a pair of legs fit through. "Uh, I'm not stuck. I just gotta-" With a loud bang, the owner of the legs fell through and landed on the floor,. He was covered in dust, and was of a medium build with cropped black hair. Looking up, he appraised his rescue team.

Kaidan Alenko

-Name's not Buck, but still available to, you know-

"Ugh, I really gotta lay off on those donuts. Hey, this doesn't really look like the typical retrieval cell, although to be honest, I didn't even know retrieval cells were a thing. Thought I was gonna die here!" The last line was delivered with a sense of humor generally not known to exist in people who had been forced to hide in ceiling gaps, which momentarily stunned the people that he was addressing.

Nihlus was the first to break the silence, "The Alliance has called in the help of a Spectre to rescue you and your squad. Speaking of which, where are they? Are they also hiding in these tunnels? If so, it would be helpful if you could gather them."

"Nope! They're all dead, every single one of them. Turns out Zimboltz gets really, really pissed about spies. He had them melted to their bones."

"You don't seem that depressed about that turn of events." Khan pointed out.

" My motto's to look on the bright side of things. I mean I'm still alive! There will be time to grieve later and while I'm grateful that you rescued me and all, I'm sure you're still on your way to complete your primary objective. You did get our message right?"

"Primary Objective? You were the primary objective. The message we received said to blow this place to pieces" realizing that there was a gap in information, Nihlus volunteered what they knew.

"No! You musn't do that ! We sent that message when all we knew was that they were developing new weaponry here." Alenko had a look of pure panic written on his face, " I mean, look, you had to have known the message. Otherwise why do you have that guy from Roland here?"

At the name of one of the most secretive mega-corporations, Nihlus was momentarily taken back, "What do you mean? Apart from myself, these people are all members of the Alliance."

However, he was greeted with looks of confusion from the three people that he was technically in charge of. Khan looked towards him and spoke, "Wait, wait, wait, are you saying no one told you? Yeah, me and Lovel are Alliance, but Shepard isn't. He's one of Roland's most successful field commanders."

"Indeed." Lovel chimed in.

"It was no secret on the Normandy and I assumed that you had received such information about all of us before we met." even Shepard was confused over his lack of knowledge.

While he showed the humans a calm face, internally, Nihlus was reeling. He had expected that the candidates to all be drawn from the Systems Alliance and out of corporation control. But one of the selections was not only affiliated with a corporation, but he held a position of power among them? Something was definitely suspicious about the whole thing, but no one seemed to think it would be benefiting the Roland corporation, so there was definitely more to the story. He would have to get to the bottom of this, but now was not the time to be distracted. He was a Spectre, and would not lose his head over the reveal of such information like some green soldier on his first deployment. But there was something else, apparently, Alenko had discovered something of importance on his reconnaissance, and it was important to discover what that was.

"We can discuss this later. But first to the situation at hand. The second transmission must not have gone through," he explained to the dusty lieutenant, "What does this facility hold that is so important?"

"A Siren. Maliwan's got a Siren imprisoned here."

CODEX ENTRIES

Human Mega-Corporations

The existence of human mega-corporations are an oddity to the races of the Citadel. As opposed to the corporations that exist under Citadel protection, the corporations that exist in human space function as quasi-nations, with the ability to claim planets and settlements, draft local laws and declare war on each other. Of course, these corporations are not as uncontrolled as they first appear. System Alliance law takes precedence over local corporation law, and the Systems Alliance controls final judicial say in rulings between corporations. Of course, when deep in corporation space, these laws and rulings are often ignored. This precarious balance between compliance and open rebellion is maintained due to several factors. First and foremost, no corporation has the military might to oppose the Systems Alliance by itself, and alliances between corporations are fraught with enough expectation of treachery, that no inter-corporation alliance (when they exist) has chosen to rebel ever since the re-establishment of a central government. Secondly, the Systems Alliance retains the right to requisition planets that have been discovered but not yet properly colonized by a corporation, a power that they use to great effect to curb the power of rising corporations. The existence of a shared governing power is also useful to corporations when brokering deals with one another as well as other species. In essence, the mega-corporations choose to obey the Systems Alliance as a universe where they exist (and thus are able to prevent any one corporation from growing too powerful) is preferable to one where they do not. The following contains brief descriptions of the most powerful of these corporations.

Anshin- "Health: More of it". Founded by Wei Anshin, the Anshin corporation seeks to provide medical services as opposed to weaponry like many other corporations. The Anshin corporation not only operates its own successful line of hospitals and sells highly-valued emergency medical kits, but is known to have been heavily involved with the creation of the product known as "insta-health". Insta-health is extremely useful in the treatment of battlefield wounds, enabling soldiers to "fight another day" but it should be noted that they are not a replacement for actual medical care. Despite the name, "insta-health"s do not actually provide much long term healing, but rather allows the body to ignore the damage that has been done to it.

Baha - "Your relaxation is our fixation". Founded by Una Baha, the Baha corporation (commonly called Baha Bros.) arose from the ruin of another corporation, Hyperion, which had previously been the largest and most powerful corporation. Following the death of Handsome Jack, the company's one-time CEO and sole stockholder, the company descended into chaos, which other corporations were quick to take advantage of. Possessing documents that proved that the Hyperion internal-stabilizer technology was created by stealing that of her uncle's, Una Baha was able to win in court and eventually gained ownership of a multitude of Hyperion's assets, including the stabilization technology that is now the trademark of Baha weapons. Baha corporation sells to the "happening crowd", mainly people in their twenties and thirties who want to appear up-to-date with the modern scene.

Dahl - "Because 68 billion enemy corpses don't lie". Founded by Stanton Dahl, Dahl is a corporation that claims to sell for soldiers by soldiers,. They hold interests in communication systems, energy and weaponry among other fields. Meant to service the soldier in the field, they provide little recoil between shots, but do not offer the same accuracy as other manufacturers, holding to the idea that rank-and-file soldiers require more of a balanced weapon above anything else. It is estimated that at this point, Dahl guns have killed more than the 68 billion that one of their most popular advertising jingles claims.

Jakobs - "If it took more than one shot, you weren't using a Jacobs." . Founded by Montgomery Jakobs, the Jakobs corporation began as an expansion of a family owned business. Unlike other corporations, Jakobs favors quality over quantity, and this is apparent in their hand crafted weaponry, which still incorporate wood, an increasingly rare trait in items. This manufacturer has had the greatest success in selling weapons to the Turian race, as Jakobs weapons only contain elemental traits when modified after market, and deliver high-grade performance.

Maliwan- "Where form meets function". Founded by Jeanette Maliwan. The Maliwan corporation is one that claims to serve the higher caliber of life. Besides weaponry, they are noted for selling high grade luxury items, such as wine and jewelry, as well as maintaining a high-tech gadget line. Maliwan weapons are always paired with an elemental type, which tends to make this distrusted by races such as the Turians, who regard such things as flashy additions. Maliwan is also responsible for creating many popular television shows, which they hide behind shell companies.

Pangolin- " A dead soldier can't fire a gun". Founded by Ernst Pangolin, the Pangolin corporation emphasizes personal protection above all else. Although they do possess a line of weaponry, it is the shields that they produce which are so heavily valued. In addition, Pangolin is also the leading manufacturer when it comes to body armor and clothing in general, with Pangolin designers being highly sought after by the rich and powerful.

Roland - "Ain't no rest" - The corporation without a founder, although Lilith Cashlin is often credited as fulfilling this role. The Roland corporation is known for being one of the most secretive corporations in existence. Of the larger mega-corporations, it is the youngest, and has an incredibly diverse list of holdings, from robotics to medicine to melee weaponry. Roland's guns are fitted with inverse magazine force accelerators, which allow them to provide more force to bullets the less filled the magazine is, making Roland guns more deadly as battle continues. It is known that Roland possesses an interesting relation to sirens in that their founding board held at least two sirens, and has never been without at least one siren in their employ. Although they claim to be among the more moral of mega-corporations, common opinion is that they are no better than the rest. One of the biggest questions about the Roland corporation involves their early survival which involved the suspicious fortune of stumbling upon many vaults containing Eridian knowledge. To this day, it is suspected that Roland knows more about the Eridians than any other organisation

Tediore - "Because breaking your enemies shouldn't break the bank." Founded by Laura Tediore, commonly referred to as Mrs. Tediore by the company, Tediore is a company that sells to the less prosperous type of consumer. As such, Tediore ventures include basic electronics and furniture. Tediore guns are commonly thought of as "pieces of crap", but due to their cheap cost, as well as their unique digi-splode method of reloading, they are widely bought by militias and other forces that wish to arm themselves but lack a reliable source of capital.

Torgue - "EXPLOOOOOOOOSIONS?" Founded by Mister Torgue High Five Flexington, the Torgue corporations invests heavily in explosion related areas, such as mining, vehicles, and of course, guns. Torgue guns can be counted on to deliver explosions no matter what type of gun they may be, and are favored weapons of Krogans. The Torgue company has one of the most interesting corporate histories, which includes their founder being fired from his his own company after trading it away for $12 and a high five, and his subsequent rehiring when they realized that he had not sold the patents for his exploding gyrojets, which he had filed under his name before starting his company.

Vladof - "You must drown your oppressors in a sea of bullets!". Founded by Sergei Vladof, also known as Comrade Vladof, the Vladof corporation claims to support the masses in revolution, and owns several companies involved in the production of cheap edibles. Interestingly enough, their plan to remove capitalism, involves the heavy use of capitalism, but this fact is dismissed as a "temprorary measure". Vladof guns are well known for having very high rates of fire, although having no accuracy and recoil reduction, as the Vladof belief is that soldiers are best used by creating a "bullet hell", and may be related to the fact that a revolting worker is unlikely to have weapons training.

Another Chapter down, this marks the beginning of the end of the beginning. Wow, that's a mouthful. To be fair, I did say Shepard wasn't military before he was introduced. BET THAT DOESN'T CAUSE ANY PROBLEMS FOR HIM IN THE STORY. Also, I may have picked Maliwan as the enemy corporation and added to this first mission just so I could have someone say that they cast acid bolt on a train. So yeah, the vault hunters started a corporation, and it did involve people such as Dr. Ned and Marcus. Don't bother trying to reason out the pseudo-science in their technology, I just wanted something that would mimic "leveling-up " so they get stronger the more you fight. Next chapter is going to finally introduce the siren of the story. Just putting it out there, but every time you review, a Torgue gun explodes something.