Chapter 7

Doves: There Goes the Fear

"Look, Wrex, that's just not going to work, is it?"

"These seats weren't built for krogan, Ian, I'm barely fitting on as it is."

"Yeah, but you've got at least a few inches to move up so I can fit on as well."

"You don't know what you're talking about."

"Do you want me to just sit on you? Save us both a lot of bother."

"I think you'll find it's going to create some, Ian."

I look over at Shepard, throwing my hands up in my air to further emphasise my exasperation. She wasn't lying about the Mako room situation. Not even a little bit. Garrus managed to bag the gunner area, Shepard took the driving seat, and Kaidan is sitting by himself opposite Wrex and I. "Why don't I just share with Kaidan, Shepard? Why the hell am I sitting with Wrex?"

"I second that," the krogan growls. "This is stupid," he points out, bluntly.

"Kaidan needs the room," Shepard says, barely suppressing a giggle. "He's…erm…navigating."

"Oh, is that it? Really, Shepard?" I ask, sarcastically. "You need him to navigate, despite the massive fucking window right in front of you? The skyway's a straight line! What's there to even navigate?"

"A second pair of eyes doesn't hurt, kid," Kaidan grins. Okay, why's he joining in now? "I need room to move around, stretch my line of sight."

"I need room so I don't have a human sitting on me," Wrex mutters. "Why are we even having this conversation?"

"Look, I gave you both a direct order," Shepard says, trying to sound serious despite the small laugh escaping from her mouth. "Make it work, or you can both stay behind. Got it?"

Damn, Shepard's laughing, but I really don't think she's joking about leaving us behind…and I don't want to be here, by myself, when the colonists start going crazy. I really don't want to have to kill any of them…but that's hardly an option unless I get some gas grenades. I mean, I can hardly knock every single colonist unconscious, can I?

"Look, Wrex," I say, resigned to our shared fate but still desperately trying to sound reasonable. "I'm just going to have to sit on your knees for the journey. It's not like I weigh much, especially compared to a krogan…"

"It's a matter of principle," Wrex replies gruffly. "It's an embarrassment, for both of us. I don't have to carry weaklings."

"I'm not weak!"

"Agree to disagree."

I almost get my knife out for the sole purpose of taking Wrex's head off, but Garrus interrupts before I go through with it. "I'd quite like to leave today, if that's alright with everyone," the turian says impatiently. "I mean, I'm having great fun up here, doing nothing, but it's going to get old pretty soon."

"One of you, just sit on the other one for the journey," Shepard grins. She's still finding this funny! "Don't make me decide who's sitting on who." Oh God, I can guess what her decision would be…

"Wrex, if you sit on me, I'll probably die," I say quickly, pre-empting Shepard's order. "Just for the skyway, mate. I swear never to speak a word of it to any of your clan."

"I might," Garrus mutters from the main gun, and I shoot him a furious glare. Not helping!

Wrex frowns, then gives out a deep sigh. "Fine. But let's go now, before I change my damn mind." Hallefuckinglujah! I quickly sit on the edge of Wrex's lap before he can change his mind, still reeling slightly from how weird this situation is getting. Didn't ever think I'd end up sitting on Urdnot Wrex's lap, for whatever reason, in my life…and to be honest, it's not much fun. And really damn strange.

"Everyone ready," Shepard asks, gunning the engine and shooting the Mako forward before anyone has a chance to answer. It rolls forward smoothly, and we head out into the skyway. Well, at least the Mako seems to be handling fine…makes a change from what the game physics were, anyway. Shepard nudges the steering wheel…joypad…whatever, to the left, and remarkably the Mako turns left WITHOUT flipping over. Well, so far, so…

"Geth straight ahead, Commander," Kaidan says. Way to spoil the happy situation, Kaidan.

"Good navigating, Kaidan," I mutter sardonically. "I can see why you needed all that room."

The Lieutenant grins back. "I knew you'd come around to my way of thinking eventually, kid." Bastard…

The enormous boom from Garrus firing the cannon and following it up with a volley of machine gun fire drowns out any hope of me getting a comeback in, though, as the geth in front of us are blown up into a wide variety of tiny pieces, Shepard simply running over the one geth Garrus misses. The Mako is a bit of a beast, isn't it…and so far it's handling brilliantly. Hell, I could get to enjoy this!

Out of nowhere, an enormous geth ship swoops across our field of vision, dropping two pods as it flies over and disappears into the distance. Wait, those pods seem familiar…even more so as they start to unfold. Oh shit, that's a…

"Geth Armature!" Garrus yells, opening fire with the turret.

"Everyone hold on!" Shepard shouts above the din, hurling the wheel to the right to swerve out of the way of the incoming shots from the colossus. The swerve, however, catches me completely off guard. Wrex's knee jerks as we're thrown around inside the Mako, sending me flying straight off it…and headfirst into a wall.

I slam to the floor as my head explodes with pain…and the vision suddenly flares up. I catch quick glimpses off the Reaper's destruction, the world around me seemingly ablaze, the image of Shepard falling and the merging of her scream and the Reaper's roar…

"Ian! Shit, you alright, kid?" As quickly as it appeared, the vision suddenly vanishes, leaving me staring into Kaidan's face as he crouches above me, applying medi-gel to where I can feel myself bleeding slightly from a head wound. The way the cabin occasionally rocks and the glances I get of Shepard struggling with the steering suggest we're still in combat…I blink and shake my head a few times, clearing my vision and leaving just a dull pain in my head. Okay, maybe I'm not going to enjoy this after all.

"Come on, talk to me!" Kaidan shouts. "How do you feel?"

"Like a million dollars," I groan, climbing unsteadily back to my feet. Jesus, I always seem to get the worst of it, don't I… "I'm not sharing a seat with Wrex again, though, that's for sure."

"Agreed," Kaidan nods, grabbing me by the arm and pushing into his chair, while he sits next to me. I take a quick glance at Wrex…and he seems quite pleased with the new seating situation. That makes two of us, then…Shepard seems to have cleared the attacking armature while I was down, though, taking the simple approach of driving past them as fast as we damn can, while Garrus keeps up a constant stream of turret fire. I hold onto a small handle on the wall as hard as I can, as Shepard takes a small jump over a ramp, landing the Mako straight on top of a small geth trooper. Motion sickness, here we come…

"Another armature!" Garrus shouts from the gun, still blasting away. I can't see him that well…but I bet he's grinning at the sheer amount of destruction he's causing up there.

"Thanks Garrus, I might have missed that!" Shepard growls sarcastically, taking us up the slanted side of the skyway as fast as the Mako can go. Actually, if I didn't know any better, I'd say considering the angle and speed we're approaching at we're probably going to…

Oh God.

Mako physics.

It's a trap.

What comes next?

Shepard hits the curve exactly as I expected, launching the Mako up into the air and starting the rotation. I yell out with euphoria and fear, as Kaidan and Shepard both join in the shout, and time seems to slow down as we roll. I see Wrex, looking a bit surprised, and the way Garrus's arms are thrown out suggest he wasn't expecting it either…

The Mako does the full 360º roll and slams back down on all six wheels, the suspension bouncing us all around as Shepard expertly manoeuvres us through the tiny door that open automatically before us, leading into a long, walled road as the door closes behind us, locking the geth out. That. Was. Insane.

"Do a barrel roll!" I can't help shouting, as Shepard gradually slows the Mako down as we progress. Every single set of eyes in the Mako turn to look at me, even Garrus leaning down from the turret to stare.

"What? No-one's ever heard that before?"

"That knock on the head didn't affect you too bad, did it Ian?" Shepard asks, smiling.

"I've always been a little odd, Shepard, a knock on the head isn't going to change…"

"We've got movement," a female voice suddenly crackles through the radio. Of course, the Mako's equipped to intercept transmissions in the battlefield…and this must be the camp outside of ExoGeni. "Some kind of vehicle, not one of the geth."

"Sounds like they've spotted us," Kaidan observes. "They've got to be close to here, otherwise we wouldn't have picked them up."

"Forget it," Wrex grunts. "The less time we have to spend here, the better. We need to find the geth."

"There's survivors of the attack around here," Shepard says firmly. "And I don't leave people behind." She slams the Mako brakes on, sending us to a halt just next to the ramp leading down to the survivors. "You don't like it Wrex, feel free to wait in the Mako."

"Just a suggestion," he mutters, sounding suitably chastised, as Shepard pops open both the doors on the Mako. They're nice, wide things, and Garrus simply climbs out of the turret by an escape hatch through the roof. Makes sense there'd be one there, mind, in case the Mako sets on fire and we all need to evacuate…shit, don't think of that!

Shepard draws her pistol, and the rest of us do the same. Somehow, I doubt the ExoGeni bloke is going to be too pleased to see us all…and ideally I'd like to shoot him rather than the other way around. Not that it'll come to that, fingers crossed. We all jog down the ramp…and when we reach the bottom we get to see the whole survivor camp. It's a mess…which is something of a recurring theme on Feros, I've noticed. Lights and the odd terminal scattered around, and in the middle of it all a man and a woman talking. Or at least, they were, considering the man is now gawping at us like we're ghosts. Or something else beginning with g.

"That's close enough!" the man shouts at Shepard as we approach. "Don't move!"

"Relax, Jeong," the woman says, sounding tired of Jeong already. Of course, Ethan Jeong, the ExoGeni bastard…my hands tighten into fists, but that's all the anger I outwardly display. He'll get his just desserts in the end, regardless of how Shepard plays the situation… "They're obviously not geth."

"Get back, Juliana!" he snaps. Huh, he's rude. Who'd have guessed. "Who are you? What do you want?"

"The name's Shepard, I'm a Spectre." Shepard says defiantly, taking a step towards Jeong. "I've been sent on a mission to help the people here, but not when they're threatening me." She gesture towards the pistol Ethan's holding tightly in his hand. "So unless you're really going to use that thing, I suggest you drop it. Now."

"Don't even worry about him," Juliana says idly. "He only cares about the company." Ethan turns to glare at her.

"You trust too damn easily," he mutters.

"Just glad to see a friendly face," she replies, smiling a bit. "Thought we were the only humans left on this planet."

"You're not, don't worry," Shepard says, switching her tone to be more friendly as she addresses Juliana. See, if you're polite to Shepard, she's polite back… "Fai Dan and some of the other colonists at Zhu's Hope are still alive."

"Wait, they're alive?" she gasps, turning to face Jeong. "You said they were all dead!"

"I said they were probably all dead!" Ethan protests.

"Well, they're not completely gone, but the geth have been giving them hell down there," I say. "Still, bit of a foregone conclusion saying they're all dead, no?"

Jeong just ignores my comment, and Juliana continues regardless. "I know what you mean," she sighs. "Those damn synthetics are relentless."

"Like I said, my squad and I are here to help you," Shepard reassures her. "But any information you have could be invaluable. Are we getting close to their base?"

"Almost. They're holed up in the ExoGeni headquarters just down the skyway." Juliana explains.

"Hold up, those headquarters are private property, soldier!" Jeong protests.

"We'll tell the geth that when we arrive," I retort, unable to contain myself. "Besides, we're doing you a favour here. It's not like you've got anything to hide, right?" Man, it's fun making this guy squirm.

Shepard gives me a look to tell me to shut up, even if her facial expression suggests she approves of what I'm saying. "We're not interested in your company secrets, just the geth," she tells Jeong.

"Commander, before you go…" Juliana says, stumbling over the words a little bit. "My daughter, Lizbeth…she's missing."

"You shouldn't waste time poking around," Ethan shouts quickly. "We can do a full account of our casualties after the geth are gone." That sets Shepard off. She takes two quick strides forward, and grabs Jeong by the collar.

"You heartless bastard," she growls. "That woman's daughter is missing, and all you can worry about is your company information?" Ethan says nothing, so Shepard gives him a shove backwards and sighs with disgust, looking back at Juliana. "We'll find your daughter, I promise. Any idea where she could be in the building?"

"She was working in ExoGeni at the time of the attack, she's got to be in there somewhere. She's still alive, I know it!" Juliana says, though there's more than a hint of desperation about her words.

"Sure, there's a few places in there she could hide, for a short time." Jeong says snidely. It doesn't wash with Shepard.

"If you haven't got anything useful to say," she furiously turns her attention back to the ExoGeni man, "then I suggest you shut the hell up." Jeong immediately takes a step back at Shepard's words. Slimy bastard…still, good to see Shepard's not standing up for any bullshit from him. "We'll find Lizbeth, Juliana," Shepard reiterates. "Come on, everyone, we need to get back to the Mako. Time to finish this." Nice ideal, Shepard, but the chaos is just beginning… Shepard and the rest of the squad start to head back up the ramp, but before I leave I head over to Juliana and put a hand on her shoulder.

"I know what's it's like for someone close to you to go missing like this," I say, not quite sure whether or not I'm doing the right thing but continuing regardless. "And I'd doing anything to get the person I lost back. So I swear to you, we'll find your daughter."

"Thank you," Juliana says, sounding a little tearful. "You'd best hurry, your Commander looks set on leaving." I nod, giving her a reassuring smile, then jog back over to the Commander, waiting for me with her arms folded.

"What was all that about?" the Spectre asks curiously, but she doesn't sound cross.

"Let's just say Juliana and I have something in common with the missing loved ones," I reply, a little sadly. I catch Garrus's eye when I say that, and the turian shakes his head gently. "We should head back onto the skyway," I say, after a moment's silence. "Those geth probably aren't going to kill themselves."

"Good," Wrex nods, eagerly. "The more, the better."

"We'll see if you're still saying that when we get up there," Garrus mutters, stepping back into the Mako and heading to the gun. "The less enemies there are, the smaller the chance of getting shot, after all."

"Typical turian, always trying to cheat your way out of a fight."

Shepard coughs loudly from the driver's seat as we pull away in the Mako, which is enough to shut up both the bickering krogan and the turian.

"Try and keep the stunts to a minimum please, Shepard," I say as we head back onto the skyway. "My head's barely holding together as it is."

Shepard looks back over her shoulder at me quickly. "Only because you asked so nicely, Ian. Didn't know you were so sensitive."

I laugh a bit, but the situation suddenly turns serious as another load of geth appear in front of us. For God's sake…

"They don't let up, do they?" I mutter.

"Nope," Shepard replies. "Then again, neither do we."

And with that, the carnage continues unabated once again as the Commander guns the engine and we shoot of towards ExoGeni headquarters.

###########

The short ride in the Mako was much less eventful this time around, thank Christ. I made sure I was firmly jammed into my seat, grabbing the handholds available, and Shepard didn't barrel roll the Mako again, which is always nice. Three minutes of loud explosions and lots of synthetic destruction, and we've finally pulled up just outside ExoGeni, where the entrance is too narrow for us to actually drive the Mako through. I honestly can't say I'm complaining. Garrus picks off the geth waiting for us inside the building by shooting through the door with the Mako, before we all finally get out as quiet descends on the area. Relative quiet, anyway.

"Geth really made a mess of here," Garrus says, as we all walk through the doors, weapons readied. "They must really like their explosives."

"Looks like it," Shepard agrees, heading up the ramp into the main building. Shit, I just remembered what's behind the locked door on the right…she'd better not want that decrypted!

"I didn't think the geth were capable of just enjoying destruction for no reason," Kaidan muses. "I'm sure there's a good reason for it."

I shrug. "They were probably just making sure the building was completely clear. Nothing like massive explosions to make sure you got your enemy."

"Maybe the quarian back on the ship might be able to tell us about it," Wrex mutters.

"She's called Tali, Wrex," I say, a little bit too quickly. "And honestly, I really think you're the worst person to talk to her about a topic that sensitive."

"You humans with your feelings," Wrex replies, tone implying he's barely even joking. "Krogan just get to the point in conversation. If you don't like it, you sure as hell don't show it."

"Again, good thing we're not on Tuchanka, then."

"It can be arranged…" Shepard starts to say idly, but gets interrupted by Kaidan as we approach the drop into the main part of the building.

"One way drop, Commander," he announces. "You ready for this?"

Shepard checks her pistol, then nods firmly. "There's nothing here for us to hang around for. Watch yourself on the way down, people, last thing we need is for someone to break their ankle or something."

I'm extremely paranoid about breaking something as soon as Shepard mentions that as I drop, rolling on the landing just to make the impact as soft as possible. Wrex just crashes down on his feet, followed by Garrus, as Shepard and Kaidan take a bit more care. Humans are so fragile in comparison to turians and krogan, aren't we…

We all advance down the corridor as one now, silence hanging in the air. It does seem awfully quiet around here…as we round the corner into a large, open chamber, Shepard holds up a closed fist for us all to wait and inspects the large varren corpse strewn out in front of us.

"Looks like a fresh kill…" she mutters, quietly.

"As far as I'm concerned," Garrus says, "the only good varren is a dead…"

A gunshot cuts him off mid-sentence, barely missing Shepard and passing just by my chest. Jesus fucking Christ! We all whirl around and train our weapons on the woman now approaching us, holding the pistol in an extremely nervous grip.

"I'm so sorry!" she shouts. "I thought you were geth, or one of those varren!"

"What?" Shepard shouts incredulously. "Do any of us even look like a geth? Or varren?" The woman's eyes drift towards Wrex…but she stops herself midway.

"No, but I heard noise, and just reacted," she says nervously. "I didn't mean to try and hurt you, I promise!"

Shepard sighs, lowering her weapons and prompting us all to do the same. "It's alright, we're here to help," she says, sounding more friendly after the woman's explained herself. "But who are you? What are you still doing in the building?"

"My own damn fault," the woman says, sounding regretful. "Everyone was running…and I stayed behind like an idiot to back up data." Hold up, I remember who this is…Lizbeth! Yay! That solves the problem of the missing daughter rather quickly. "Next thing I knew, we had a geth ship latched onto the building, then the power went out," Lizbeth continues. "I was trapped. I tried to get out, but the way was blocked!"

"Don't worry about it, we'll take care of the geth and get you out," Shepard reassures her.

Lizbeth smiles nervously. "I appreciate it, but it's not geth that's the problem. The energy field they put up, they don't want anyone else getting access to the…" she suddenly stops, looking incredibly shy. Oh, she almost gave it away, didn't she…

"Look, it's very important I find out what the geth are after," Shepard says, keeping her voice calm and friendly. "If you know something that can help, you need to tell me."

Lizbeth frowns for a few seconds, before she steels her resolve and looks back at Shepard. "I don't know for certain…but they're probably here for the Thorian. That would make a lot of sense."

"Thorian?" Garrus says. "Never heard of that before."

"An indigenous lifeform," Lizbeth says. "Erm…ExoGeni were studying it." Shit girl, that's not the whole story, is it?

"Can you tell me anything else about it?" Shepard asks. "Anything at all could be useful."

"Maybe…but not with those geth crawling around," Lizbeth says firmly. "We need to get out of here first, past that energy field!"

"Any suggestions?" Wrex grunts, sarcastically.

Lizbeth frowns. "I'm not much of a tech expert…but that geth ship is probably powering it. The geth have been laying power cables everywhere, so you could just follow those cables…"

"Alright, I'll look into it," Shepard nods. "Stay here until the field is down." She moves to turn away, then suddenly swivels back around again. "Who are you, exactly? What's your name?"

"Shit, sorry," Lizbeth says quickly. "It's Lizbeth. Lizbeth Baynham. Here, take my ID before you go, it should let you into restricted areas around the place. I'm going to go and hide until that energy field is down."

"Okay," Shepard agrees. "Thanks for the…"

"Varren incoming!" Kaidan yells, opening fire with his pistol as the rest of us turn around to assess the threat. Christ, good thing one of us was standing guard! I count nine charging at us straight away, but Kaidan takes one down with biotics as soon as I'm done counting, and Wrex puts some assault rifle fire into another one. I shoot both my pistols at two targets, scoring two kills, Garrus snipes two varren hanging back, getting them both with one shot, then Shepard uses biotics to shove the remaining three to the floor, where the rest of us tear them up with our preferred weapons. Result: nine varren dead in almost fifteen seconds. It really does pay to bring a larger squad, doesn't it? Well, maybe not in the Mako…

"I'm sick of varren," Garrus complains, as we all head towards the door on the far side of the room. "I'm really starting to lose count of how many I've killed, now."

"Losing count?" That actually makes me think back to seeing the Lord of the Rings films…Legolas and Gimli having their Orc killing competitions… "Maybe I can persuade you to keep count, then."

"Oh?" Garrus asks. "And how are you going to go about doing that?"

"Let's make a game out of it," I grin. "You've got to be able to keep track of kills on that visor of yours, right?"

"Yeah…" Garrus says slowly. "So you want to make it a competition? I'll have to only win by a small amount, then, not to hurt your feelings." Grr…

"Pah." Wrex scoffs. "I'll play this as well. But don't expect me to hold back like the turian."

"I think Garrus was joking, Wrex," I reply. "And besides, I don't expect you to hold back. That kind of defeats the point of making it into a competition."

"Then it's agreed," Garrus nods. "I'll set it up to count our respective kills. It'll only count if we're all on the same mission, though."

"Fair enough," Wrex nods. "This should be interesting. What does the winner get?" Shit, good question. Never though about it like that…

"Honour," I finally decide. Wrex seems happy with that…Garrus less so. "Or a drink."

Still not happy.

"Or seven."

"I'm in," Garrus nods. "Good luck, then, you're both going to need it."

"We'll see who's laughing when…" Wrex gets interrupted by the sound of another krogan, who's sounding pretty annoyed about something as we head up a stairwell further into the ExoGeni building. Hey, I remember this guy! If memory serves, he should be having an argument with a VI or something…

Sure enough, the krogan starts to flip out just as we round the corner and he comes into our line of sight.

"I am unable to comply," the VI tells the krogan standing impatiently in front of it. "Please contact your supervisor."

"Damn it!" the krogan growls. "Tell me what I want or I'll blow your virtual ass into actual dust!" I almost laugh out loud when he says that, but hold it in so we don't give away the element of surprise.

"Please contact a supervisor," the VI repeats, oblivious to the krogan's annoyance. "Or a Level 4 security exception. Alternatively, make an appointment with…"

"Stupid machine!" the krogan yells, taking a few menacing steps towards the VI.

"If there's nothing else, please step aside, there's a queue forming behind you for the use of this console," the VI happily informs the krogan, who quickly swivels around to look at us. Ah, fuck, it had to give us away…there goes the element of surprise. The krogan simply gawps at us for a second or two, until I finally break the silence.

"You heard the VI, mate, step aside."

The krogan simply yells in reply, which is pretty damn rude…then charges towards me at full pelt. Oh shit! I dive to the side, as he hurtles through the point I was standing less than a second ago…straight into a wall. Shit, that's got to hurt! The dazed krogan stumbles backwards…straight into Wrex's shotgun.

"End of the line, brother." There's a loud bang, followed by a dull thunk as part of the krogan's head hits the wall opposite where he was standing, as it sinks to its knees and keels over. The amount of gore covering the area now makes me feel a bit sick, actually…but I hold it in. Last thing I need is Wrex having another excuse to call me weak.

"That's one to me," Wrex says happily, holstering his shotgun and continuing up the corridor. I glance over at Garrus, who just shrugs and follows suit, as we all approach the VI. This should be an informative conversation…

"ExoGeni corporation reminds all staff that discharging weapons while on company property is strictly forbidden," the VI informs Shepard, who just shrugs. "Welcome back, research assistant Elizabeth Baynham!"

"That ID she gave you must mean the machine thinks you're her," Garrus points out. "We should be able to use this." Got that one right, bro…

"Alright," Shepard nods, then addresses the VI. "What was the last user trying to access?"

"Fetching data…the previous user was attempting to access data on the subject Species 37, the Thorian." Well, that pretty much proves the krogan's involved with the geth…this is going to lead to some confusion after this conversation is done within the squad, I know it.

"And what did you tell him?" Shepard asks.

"I was unable to provide the previous user with any relevant data," the VI responds, calmly. "Aside from lacking proper access, there has been no new data on Species 37. All sensors monitoring the observation post at Zhu's Hope have been inactive for several cycles." And just like that, we also prove that ExoGeni is watching the colony. Much confusion after this conversation, indeed…I can already hear Kaidan murmur something to Garrus as Shepard continues to question the VI.

"So, what does Zhu's Hope have to do with the Thorian?" the Commander asks, sounding pretty shocked at this new revelation. Which is fair enough, to be honest.

"Species 37 is located within the substructure of the Zhu's Hope outpost," the VI explains, oblivious to how much trouble this information is going to cause extremely soon.

"Tell me everything you know about the Thorian!" Shepard demands, patience finally snapping as she realises how big this situation is getting. Here we go, moment of truth…

"The Thorian is a simple plant life form that exhibits eccentric behaviour uncommon to other flora. Through dispersion and eventual inhalation of spores, it can affect and control other organisms, including humans. The Zhu's Hope control group has yielded interesting results. Before the sensors went offline, almost 85% of test subjects were infected."

"Holy shit…" Shepard gasps. "Those bastards were experimenting on the colonists! Jeong must have known about this! Lizbeth as well! ExoGeni knew what would happen all along!"

"It was deemed necessary to assess the true potential of Species 37," the VI says, almost merrily.

"Guess that explains why the colonists were acting so weird," Garrus says, sounding a bit shocked at the news. "I think a warning to Joker might be in order."

"Agreed," Shepard says, raising a hand up to her ear. "Joker. Come in, Joker." Still nothing. "Damn it!" she snaps. "That field's blocking us!"

"We've got to drop that shield and get back to the outpost, Commander," Kaidan says. "And we need to do it right now."

"Alright," Shepard says. "We need to find that ship and bring it down. Let's get moving!" And with that, she rushes off down the corridor without warning, and we all scramble behind her.

Something tells me this shit is about to get real.

A/N: Yeah, I'm back from holiday. Woo! Updated quicker than I was expecting as well, so it's all good.

Ian, Garrus and Wrex will be continuing the kill competition throughout, which should be fun, plus we've got a lot happening next chapter. Geth ship to destroy, 'chatting' with Ethan Jeong, return journey on the Mako…you know how it is.

Coming back to see those reviews when I got back from holiday was awesome, by the way. Thanks a lot, guys, really helped motivate me to get off my lazy backside and do some writing!

So, see you next chapter!