Chapter Seven: Solace for Solus.


The lower habitation section was absolute hell.

Shepard frowned as he surveyed the damage to the area, his eyes sweeping across the courtyard and corridors with analytical precision. There were multiple weapon impacts covering the walls, projectile and phaser alike, as though everyone who could had picked up a weapon to fight the invaders. There were bodies strewn across the entire area, many of them Grigari, but many more belonging to turians, Batarians, Klingons and the occasional Asari.

"I thought their weapon disintegrated," Kasumi said, looking at these bodies.

"These are civilians," Reed replied grimly. "Necks and backs broken. They were almost killed for fun."

In addition to the alien dead, there were also a number of human bodies lying around. Shepard knelt by one.

"Unconscious," he said softly to himself, "not dead."

"Probably knocked out for transport," Reed theorised, the fingers of his right hand tapping the barrel of his phaser rifle, while the left hand gripped the trigger handle, almost nervously. It was strange that this was making him nervous - Shepard had thought the commando unshakeable.

"You alright, Reed?" he asked. The man frowned, then looked at his fingers.

"Sorry, sir," he said. "Nervous habit."

"Why would the Grigari want humans?" Kasumi asked, confusion in her tone. She was leaning by a pair of unconscious humans, looking them over for injuries. They looked peacefully asleep.

"It's not necessarily about what they want," the Sec 31 commando opined. "Maybe it's about what the Reapers want."

"So why would the Reapers want humans?" Kasumi said, looking at Reed with a raised eyebrow. The man had no answer.

Shepard thought hard about the question, trying to think of the various reasons why humans might have attracted such attention, but only one answer reached him.

"We beat Sovereign," he said softly, the horror of this thought numbing his mind. "Helped forge the Federation. We're a target. The big target."

"Great," Reed said, sounding less than enthusiastic about this suggestion. "Between the Dominion, the Borg and the Reapers, we're just the superpower's best fucking friend."

Shepard stood up, shaking the thoughts off as he considered their next move.

"This isn't important right now," he said grimly, looking around to get a better idea of the surrounding area. "Let's find Mordin and get the hell off this rock."

He strode forward, turning down another corridor. Kasumi and Reed followed.


There was shooting and shouting further on from the intersection, past a few corridors. There were more dead Grigari and unconscious humans - clearly the Grigari had fought their way tooth and nail through here, for whatever reason. Also clearly, they had left their dead to rot.

"I wonder what they look like under their armour," Kasumi pondered aloud as the squad of Starfleet officers advanced.

"Don't think it'd look very nice," Reed commented with a smirk.

"I'm sure it doesn't matter," Shepard pointed out. "What matters is that we get to Mordin before they do."

The shooting was getting louder. As they advanced, Shepard gestured for Reed to take point. The commando nodded tersely and advanced, phaser rifle aimed ahead.

After a moment, they reached a balcony above the courtyard where the entrance to the clinic lay, a little way down from which was a stairwell leading down to that same courtyard. Upon seeing what was down there, Shepard could have sworn out loud, if he weren't trying to keep himself calm and quiet for the benefit of his team.

The clinic itself was down a corridor. In front of this corridor were a handful of Batarian, Klingon and Turian fighters, hiding behind makeshift barricades. Against them were something like thirty Grigari.

"Plan?" Kasumi asked.

"I'm open to suggestions," Shepard admitted, watching the firefight continue - one of the Batarians took a Grigari shot to the face. Shepard saw the man start to disintegrate, though fortunately for both him and Shepard's stomach he was already dead.

"I think if we aimed a grenade, that might scatter the bastards," Reed reasoned, studying the field with a keen eye.

"You have one?" Shepard asked. In response, Reed extracted a compound grenade launcher from his transport buffer. He grinned.

"Preparedness is my middle name," he said softly.

"Ok," Shepard said, thinking on his feet. "So our plan is something like this: Kasumi and I will lay down a suppressing fire from this balcony. Reed, take the grenade launcher and cause some damage."

"Roger that," Reed said, his voice turning clipped, efficient and sharp. "Just say the word."

"Get into positions," Shepard ordered. Reed immediately moved out, while Kasumi and Shepard took up their firing positions. Shepard could just about see Reed from where he was, but a hand signal would be inefficient. Instead, he tapped his com badge twice.

A moment later, most of the Grigari were exploding. Grenade after grenade was being launched, the rolling kind, the magnetised kind, and after a few seconds, they were all being blown to hell.

Shepard and Kasumi were almost irrelevant to the task of terminating the Grigari. Their fire was certainly reaping a fair few of the metal-armoured monsters, but the grenades were going off so quickly that they might as well not have bothered.

A moment later, it was done. There were no Grigari left. Shepard stood up, and jogged down the steps, Reed and Kasumi following behind.

The various surviving defenders seemed relieved to have survived, but they murmured softly amongst themselves as the three Starfleet officers approached.

"No sudden moves!" a harsh but surprisingly cultured female voice called out. A moment later, a Romulan woman stepped out from behind the barricade. "Who are you?"

"My name is Captain Shepard," Shepard said, holding out a hand to placate her. "We're here to speak with Mordin Solus."

The Romulan frowned deeply, clearly not overly pleased with that information.

"My name is T'Ran," she said. "The doctor is inside, studying the effects of the gas these things pumped into this station on some of the humans we managed to help."

"That's why the Grigari were attacking your clinic?" Reed theorised.

"I have no idea why they were attacking the clinic," T'Ran said scathingly. "Though if I'd known it had something to do with the unconscious humans, I'd have tried convincing Mordin to throw them out." She paused. "Wait - did you say Grigari?"

"Yes," Reed said shortly, obviously not impressed with the Romulan's attitude. "That's who these guys are."

T'Ran's eyes widened in shock.

"Is it possible for us to meet with Dr Solus?" Shepard asked, not particularly inclined to deal with the Romulan woman and her games.

"That," a new, fairly high pitched voice said, "can be arranged."

The voice belonged to an old Salarian, his face dotted with scars, who was walking out of the clinic with a look of determination on his face. He frowned slightly as he surveyed the Starfleet team, eyes scanning them, cataloging their appearance and analysing it.

"Starfleet," he said softly after a moment. "Interesting. Equipment suggests combat ready. Presence on Omega suggests this is not primary fleet mission. Starfleet Intelligence? No, too covert and yet too overt, too well armed. Section 31?"

"Clever sod, isn't he?" Reed muttered under his breath.

"You're familiar with Section 31?" Shepard asked, ignoring the Section 31 Commando.

"Have heard rumours," Solus replied airily. "Essentially Starfleet answer to STG and Spectres, optimised for counter intelligence against Romulan Tal Shiar, Cardassian Obsidian Order, etc..."

"Clever, clever sod," Reed murmured, eyes wide.

"Did work with STG, familiar with Section 31 through some encounters," Solus replied. He narrowed his eyes. "Begs question - why are you here?"

Shepard raised himself up slightly.

"Federation colonies are being attacked. The humans are being taken and anyone else killed." He studied Solus' reaction, the old scientist's eyes widening. "Hundreds of thousands have already been taken or killed. We need to stop them."

"By these enemies?" Solus said.

"They claimed that these things are Grigari, Doctor," T'Ran said to the Salarian. His eyes widened.

"Grigari?" he said, looking around as he thought aloud. "Explains cloud. Not gas, nanotechnology, highly programmed, highly selective. Also explains weapons - rapid nano technological disintegration of subject's cellular structure. Obvious in retrospect." He looked at Shepard. "Grigari behind these attacks?"

"That's the theory," Shepard confirmed with a nod, slightly bemused at the man's fast talking train of thought. "We need your scientific assistance to help combat them."

"Countermeasure to the nanocloud," Solus said softly, almost to himself. "Could be useful on frontline mission to deal with Grigari. Combat enemy at source."

"Does that mean you'll help us?" Shepard asked.

"Have one condition," Mordin said. "Have dealt too much death in my time. Would like to say I saved as many lives as I took."

Shepard could well understand the desire to want to save lives instead of merely ending them - in many ways, it was a desire he shared.

"Help us," he said, as assuredly as he could, "and you could save millions."

Nodding once, apparently satisfied with this, Solus turned to T'Ran.

"Grigari dealt with here. Assume you can handle clinic," he said to her.

"Yes, Doctor," T'Ran replied, narrowing her eyes at him. "But surely you're not thinking of going with them?"

"Have to," Solus said with a smile. "My work, valuable to their mission. Defeat of Grigari vital - could save many lives."

The Romulan woman leant forward and said something to Solus that Shepard couldn't catch. In reply, the old scientist smiled.

"No choice," he said softly, warmth in his tone. "Needs of many outweigh needs of few. Good proverb - someone you should have learned from distant Vulcan ancestry."

"I always hated Vulcan proverbs," T'Ran replied.

"Nonetheless, good lesson," Solus smiled.

T'Ran nodded grimly.

"Good luck then," she said.

Solus turned to Shepard.

"Ready when you are, Captain," he said, drawing himself up to his full height.

Shepard nodded, tapping his combadge.

"Zaeed, report," he said.

"These Grigari fight like wild dogs but we've driven them off," he said. Mordin walked up to Shepard, shaking his head as he did so.

"Unlikely handful of Starfleet officers made difference to battle," he said grimly. "More likely the Grigari took what they came for."

"The humans," Shepard said softly, the horror of a station full of humans being taken making him vaguely ill. "Dammit."

He tapped his combadge.

"Shepard to Cerberus, don't let any ships leave the station!" he practically yelled.

"Too late, sir," Miranda's voice said. "A ship left and entered the Omega 4 relay before we could stop it."

"It moved like a fighter!" Joker's voice butted in.

"Set a pursuit course," Shepard ordered sharply.

"That would be unwise," the voice of Edi spoke. "No ship has ever returned from the Omega 4 relay."

Shepard frowned. "They wouldn't have gone through if they didn't think they could survive it."

"Whether they can or not, I'm almost certain we can't," Miranda said softly. "I'm sorry, sir - it's not worth the risk."

Shepard swore loudly, cursing his luck, but he knew she was right.

"Right," he said. "We've got Mordin, and are returning to the ship. We need to figure out another plan."


"The Omega 4 relay," Admiral Harper said softly on the conference room screen. "That would explain quite a lot."

Shepard had returned to the ship. He, Miranda, Jacob, Reed and Mordin were sat around the conference table, facing the screen as Admiral Harper spoke. Shepard still didn't trust the man as far as he could throw him, but the thought of a relay that no one could go through was interesting enough to warrant his attention.

"What exactly do we know about the relay?" Shepard asked.

"That nothing ever survives going through it, or at least nothing we see," Harper replied thoughtfully, stroking what looked like a week's worth of stubble - clearly he was as tired and stressed as they were. "But if the Grigari are working with the Reapers, as I suspect..."

"The Reapers created Mass Effect technology," Miranda put in. "If the Grigari are working with them, they may have passed on a few secrets."

"My thoughts exactly," Harper nodded, a grim smile on his face. "The chances that the Grigari are in fact working with the Reapers just went up."

"It seems obvious that my primary objective should be to locate a means to go through the relay," Shepard commented grimly. "But there's no way of knowing what's through there."

"It's worrying," Harper agreed. "For now, your focus should be elsewhere - the nanotechnological cloud they deploy onto planets, for example."

"Have already begun working on studying the nanotechnology behind the cloud," Mordin put in. "Science labs more than adequate to task." He sniffed. "Bit cramped."

"The Cerberus is a warship, not a science vessel. Those cramped labs will have to do," Harper said, sounding dismissive. Mordin magnified again.

"What are my orders, sir?" Shepard asked, suppressing the desire to grimace. He was disliking the chain of command immensely, and it only got worse the more he spoke to Harper.

"You'll have to build up a solid core of reliable ground-team officers and soldiers," Harper said, leaning back in his chair. "I've located a list of mercenaries, soldiers and other sorts that might be of some use to you."

"And members of my old crew?" Shepard asked.

"Commander Alenko is unfortunately not available," Harper said. "He's currently the XO of the USS Vancouver, not a position he's likely to want to be shifted from."

"Agreed," Shepard said at once. He didn't want to ruin the life his friend had built in two years - and the guilt he felt for having been gone reared it's ugly head again.

"Dr T'Soni and Urdnot Wrex are not in the fleet and so I can't order them to join you," Harper continued, looking at a PADD as he did so. "But I'm looking into the transfer of Lieutenant Commander Zorah and Lieutenant Vakarian - I'm offering them the vacant posts of Chief of Security and Chief Engineer respectively."

Shepard's ears perked up at the familiar names. As Harper spoke, his eyes widened slightly.

"In fact," he said, smirking slightly, "Mr Vakarian just responded to the assignment offer with an affirmative."

Shepard almost grinned. Garrus by his side would certainly make his life a little bit easier, and perhaps - he did not dare to hope that he might feel a little bit more like himself.

"I assume I'm directed to pick him up from DS9?" he asked Harper.

"You are," Harper replied. "In the meantime, I'll forward a list of other candidates for your team."

Without another word, Harper signed off. Glad to see him go, Shepard turned to his team.

"Miranda," he said, "have Joker set a course for Deep Space Nine, maximum warp. Mordin, continue your study work. The rest of you, prepare to land. It may be that we have to fight the Grigari again, sooner than we think."

With a chorus of affirmatives, his crew got to work.