Chapter number 9!

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Nicolas had always thought cleaning a weapon would be sporadic at best, but Garrus and Ashley were quick to pull him aside after dinner and walked him to the weapons bench in the cargo bay where his gun and his rifle were waiting, as well as Ashley's and Garrus'. Sending him his weapon's manuals, they supervised the maintenance while they did their own. Both his tutors liked to maintain silence during their ritual of sorts, so they flinched when Nicolas broke the silence,

"So, what do you think of Liara?" he turned to Ashley as he laid down a segment of collapsible barrel on the table and picked up another piece without looking.

"She's alright, I guess? I can't get over the fact that she speaks like a children's cartoon." Ashley shrugged as she slid a spring into the kinetic absorbers that held the Eezo in place.

"Ha. My translator did kind of the same thing." Garrus chuckled as his omnitool corrected bullet-flight correction algorithms.

"I was just thinking the Benezia thing must be shitty for her." Nicolas turned to Garrus, which had by now almost finished assembling his own rifle.

"Spirits, yes. I don't even want to think about having a traitor in the family." Garrus nodded as he inspected the finished rifle.

Ashley dropped the barrel in her hands, making a loud clanging noise as it bounced on the metallic surface. Nicolas and Garrus jumped, startled and stared at the barrel on the weapons bench, then at Ashley.

"You ok, there, Ash?" Nicolas picked up the eezo core and pluged it into the chassis.

"What? Yeah, yeah. I'm fine." Ashley resumed assembling the assault rifle.

Garrus clicked his mandibles in satisfaction as he finished inspecting his rifle and collapsed it into the portable form before walking over to his locker and storing it, "Well, I'll go check on Liara, it might be weird for her getting to know the Normandy's crew."

"Good idea, Big Bird, see you." Nicolas nodded at Garrus as he left for the cargo bay elevator, and when he had left the deck, Ashley let out a big sigh.

"Seriously, Ashley, are you alright?"

The gunnery sergeant took a deep breath before she answered, "You know I don't really trust aliens, right?"

"Yeah, I could kind of tell by how you look at them."

"I have a reason for that, Nicolas. Granted it's not a very good one but I really can't help it."

"I'm not judging, Ashley. As long as you acknowledge that they are good people, then there's really not much more anyone can ask of you. What's your reason anyway?"

Ashley shrugged, "I'd rather not talk about it just yet, if that's OK. I just had to get it out of my chest. And thanks."

"Don't mention it."

Once Nicolas was finished, they walked together to the mess hall for a late night snack and talked about the mission. It seemed like Ashley was just as amazed by the events as Nicolas. Working alongside a spectre was completely unheard of for humans, and asari Matriarchs were important figures. The mission they were on was of a kind few people would ever take part in.

"I mean geth, rogue spectres, millennium-old asari, it's so unreal."

"Don't forget doomsday machines that might destroy us all." Ashley looked at the floor.

Nicolas eyed the gunnery chief as he chewed on a protein bar, "Way to be the debby downer, chief. Anyway, don't you think these reapers could be a hoax made by Saren?"

"What, you think it's all fake?" Ashley seemed incredulous.

"Well, I've never seen the reaper thing, and it actually could be that Saren is just using it as a ploy to have the geth follow him."

"I think you're way too much into conspiracy theories, Nicolas. Anyway, I saw it myself"

"Hmmm. Well, fake or not, it helps a lot to have people who know their stuff around, like you."

Ashley chuckled and nudged him with her elbow, "I'm supposed to say you're welcome or something?"

Nicolas laughed, "Yeah that was a thank you."

Hal's voice woke Nicolas up while he was in the sleeping pod, "The commander's called the ground team for a briefing, a geth outpost have been spotted in the Skyllian Verge."

After a quick shower and an almost obsessed amount of touching on his bald patch, Nicolas jogged up to the comm. room in the CIC to find half the team waiting on the chairs that lined the walls. Liara came in rubbing her eyes, followed by Wrex that looked equally groggy. Finally Shepard entered and activated the vid screen in the far back, showing a blue planetoid.

"The alliance has given us intel regarding Solcrum, a moon in the Grissom system. Turns out the geth have taken over a research facility and are probably coordinating the construction of geth facilities within the system. Our job will be to land and take 'em out on foot."

Kaidan raised his hand, "Commander, wouldn't it just be easier to use the Normandy's turret and wipe them out?"

Garrus also raised his hand, "Or what about the Mako? It's got good firepower and, yeah, I don't think we'd need any more reasons to use it."

Shepard seemed prepared for these questions, as she answered immediately, "Since it's a research facility, there is a lot of expensive equipment inside which we would hate to damage, ruling out the orbital strike," Kaidan nodded as Shepard turned to Garrus, "regarding the Mako, Grissom is a blue giant, and it's blasting the surface with too much heat and radiation to make using the Mako's weaponry viable. Luckily, we have heavy firepower in the armoury that is made to withstand the conditions, which is why I'm bringing you, Nicolas and Wrex along for the initial strike. Once the outside of the facility has been cleared, I'll be taking Ashley, Tali and Kaidan. Liara, you're sitting this one out, I feel you need a bit more time to recover from Therum."

Liara nodded, "Yes, commander."

Wrex's voice filled the following silence, "What is this heavy firepower we'll be using?"

Shepard smiled mischievously, "You're gonna like this, Wrex."

The Normandy flew a couple of kilometres over Solcrum's surface, releasing the Mako into the almost non-existent atmosphere. Nicolas held on to the cabin's roof as his stomach felt like it had stayed on the Normandy while Shepard laughed with glee at the pilot's seat. When the car touched down on the surface, the suspension slid all the way to its limit and a hard clank resounded inside the cabin as everyone except Nicolas banged their heads on any hard surfaces near them.

Shepard turned around to glare at Garrus, "What the hell did you do to the suspension?"

Garrus turned so pale, you could see it through his helmet visor, "I- I- I- th- the calibrations-"

Nicolas poked his head around Garrus to look at the commander, "Commander, you have to consider that Wrex probably weighs around a ton, that's gotta be a surprise for anyone."

The crew of three looked at the krogan that sat in front of Nicolas. Wrex huffed and crossed his arms, "Who gave the pyjak permission to speak?"

"Take that into consideration next time, Vakarian." Shepard shook her head smiling as she hit the gas and the Mako sped towards high ground near the geth outpost.

Garrus straightened against the back of his seat, "Yes, ma'am!"

As the mako reached a peak on a mountain near the outpost, Nicolas and Garrus got off and dropped on the floor, covering themselves with insulating blankets as they got into sniping positions and the Mako sped away with Shepard and Wrex on board.

"Sure is hot out here." Nicolas tried to wipe his brow, but his gloved hand clacked against his visor so he expanded his rifle to scout the outpost instead.

"Yeah but these blankets will keep us alive, just try to move as little as possible." Garrus got his rifle out too, and they awaited for the commander to get into position.

On a peak opposite Garrus and Nicolas, the Mako had skidded to a halt on sodium and calcium carbonate dust. Shepard and Wrex jumped off the vehicle and pulled out a long structure the shape of a tuning fork. Propping it on a tripod, Shepard extended a power cable from the Mako to the two meter long gun and Wrex loaded a one kilogram iron rod onto it.

"Should've told me you had a railgun on the Normandy, Shepard. I would've been a lot happier to join." Wrex chuckled as he aimed the gun towards a geth armature that was patrolling the perimeter of the facility, its twin on the opposite side.

Shepard shrugged, "Woulda, shoulda, coulda. I wanted it to be a surprise."

"Those armatures are gonna get a surprise, alright." Wrex grumbled as he aimed down the sights.

The ground around the railgun started to vibrate as the electromagnets activated, making iron particles in the dust react to the magnetic field.

Nicolas and Garrus' headsets crackled to life as Shepard's voice came over the radio, "We're in position, are you ready to engage the snipers?"

Garrus brought a hand up to his helmet, "Affirmative, Shepard. Just keep those armatures off our fringes. Fire when ready."

Nicolas looked up from his scope momentarily towards the small speck on the other side of the valley that was the Mako, Shepard and Wrex. Just as he was about to look through the scope again, a soundless superheated rod of iron shot at a fraction of the speed of light towards one of the patrolling armatures, making a straight line of white light and blowing the armature to scrap. Looking back towards the facility, he shot a bullet through the head of a geth rocket trooper as Garrus did the same with another geth platform.

A minute later, Shepard raised her hand to her helmet, "All geth forces eliminated, guys. Stand by as we go get you."

"Ok, Shepard, we'll wait right here. Damn I just wanna stretch, my back's killing me." Nicolas collapsed his rifle and attached it to his back.

"Deactivate your shield if you're going to take the blanket off. If the sun flares or anything, it'll definitely fry them."

"Good call." Nicolas opened his omnitool to deactivate the shield generator from underneath the blanket and stood up, stretching his arms towards the stars and he looked around. Solcrum looked like a blue dessert. Sand and deep blue rocks stretching as far as the eye could see in every direction, and above them, the bright blue of Grissom was like a spotlight amidst the pitch black of the moon's sky.

Looking back down towards the outpost, he noticed a faint red glow coming from his chest and a split second later he was hit by a tungsten round which shattered his chest plate and send him flying two meters back, his blanket following him, tangled on his foot.

Garrus looked behind him as Nicolas landed and layed on his stomach, pulling his blanket on. Garrus raised his hand to his helmet, "Nicolas, are you alright?" receiving a grunt and a quick yes from the human, he spoke again, "Shepard, we have cloaked snipers on the facility's rooftop, Just keep driving. Nicolas and I've got this."

Nicolas crawled to Garrus' side as they both retrieved their rifles and searched the rooftop in the distance for any light distortions the geth's cloaking devices might cause.

"Yeah, deactivating the shield was a genius idea, Big Bird. God, I think I broke a rib." Nicolas groaned as he swept over the roof, looking for any target.

"Nobody forced you to stand up, Nicolas, quit whining." Garrus shot a round towards the facility and white coolant fluid splattered on the light blue roof as a geth sniper fizzled into existence, missing a head.

"Let me complain in peace, I just got shot." Nicolas fired and another geth sniper crumpled to the floor.

"This could've all been avoided if you'd just stayed down," Garrus took another shot and a third sniper appeared missing its head, "I think that's all of them. Why don't you stand up to make sure?"

"Ladies, quit your bickering. Joker, what do your scanners say?" Shepard spoke over the radio as Wrex laughed in the background. A few seconds of silence passed before Joker answered from the Normandy.

"No hostiles detected, commander. Now would be a good time for extraction."

Nicolas pulled the blanket towards his front and covered the place where the chest plate once was as he and Garrus piled into the Mako, which had just arrived.

Looking around the inside of the vehicle, Nicolas asked, "Hey where'd the railgun go?"

Wrex shook his head and looked at the floor, disappointment oozing from his voice, "It melted after the second shot. Damn sun had a micro-flare and the magnets didn't like it."

Garrus shot an I told you so look at Nicolas and they waited for the Normandy to come around for extraction. Aboard the frigate, they jumped off the Mako and Tali, Kaidan and Ashley piled in. Looking over his shoulder, Nicolas spotted Shepard smiling on her seat at the Mako's front before she sealed the hatch and revved the engine, waiting for the cargo bay to open and let the vehicle out.

Once the Mako had left and the cargo bay had been pressurized, Garrus, Nicolas and Wrex began cleaning their weapons. A vidscreen popped up in front of the weapons bench which showed the video feed from Shepard's helmet and Joker spoke over the intercom, "Thought you guys might wanna watch the strike team in action."

Shepard swiped her omnitool over a disk grenade she had pulled from her belt and a holo-display on the disk read BREACH in blue letters. Placing the grenade underneath the red 'locked' display on the facilities main entrance, she walked to the side of the door and leaned against the wall, rifle in hand and the rest of the strike team behind her. Raising an open hand, she lowered her fingers one by one and blew the door open at 'zero'. Running inside, she began laying suppressing fire as she spotted cover and ran for it, Tali, Ashley and Kaidan close behind.

"The research equipment is in the basement, all weapons allowed on this floor as long as it isn't explosive," Shepard reminded her squad as geth screeching echoed in the hall beyond the console desk they were huddled behind. Nodding, Kaidan popped out of cover and biotically lifted three enemies half way down the hall, blocking the line of fire for the rocket troopers at the very end. Ashley picked them off with a little help from Tali as Shepard revised the facility's blueprints before walking out of cover and raising a barrier in front of Kaidan just in time to block a rocket that was flying towards him.

Pointing to a room at their side, she shouted for them to go in and they ran along the walls of the new room towards the rocket troopers. Close quarters combat was their best option. As Shepard neared the door which would lead to the geth troopers, she silently instructed Ashley and Tali to wait at a door behind them, so as to engage the enemy at two different angles. With Kaidan behind her, she told him what to do next with hand signals the crew up on the Normandy didn't understand.

Once the strike team was in position, Kaidan emerged into the hallway as he used his biotics to freeze the geth in place at the same time Tali and Ashley shot down the hall at the frozen synthetic that was furthest form Shepard and Kaidan. As Kaidan concentrated on keeping the other two geth immobile, Shepard grabbed the rifle off the first and mowed down both robots while Nicolas and Garrus cheered from aboard the Normandy.

"Alright," Shepard crouched beside the dead geth and the rest of the squad stood beside her as she opened a map on her omnitool, "This is the lower level of the facility. We should be standing right here," she pointed at a part of the map and continued, "these are fragile points and here are the stairs which will lead us to the lower level, so the geth should be ready to focus firepower on this section."

Garrus and Nicolas resumed cleaning their guns and paid little attention to what the squad was doing, they could look when the action started.

A few minutes later they looked back to see Shepard and Tali halfway down the hall, Ashley and Kaidan at the end, near the stairs. The video feed showing Shepard's first person view showed her holding her rifle on her right hand, and her left came up counting down from three.

Shepard reached one and Tali activated her omnitool, detonating Thermite cord around them, melting the floor underneath herself and Shepard. The floor gave way evenly, and the two fell into the lower level behind a large computer processing unit. The geth that were standing ready at the stairs turned and headed for the intruders, and as Tali and Shepard peaked out of cover to fire at the geth, Kaidan and Ashley descended, guns blazing. Having been caught from two directions, the strike team made short work of the remaining geth forces.

Up in the Normandy, Nicolas and Garrus stood with their mouths agape staring at the vidscreen.

Wrex guffawed when he saw their faces, "They didn't make her a Spectre for nothing! The human sure knows how to make a good show."

"Spirits, you can say that again. It looked like it was pulled from a Blasto movie."

"It probably was, Garrus. It probably was."

It was an hour before the beginning of the next day shift. Nicolas stood at the mess hall's kitchen counter, brewing himself some coffee. The captain's cabin door swooshed open and a very groggy commander walked towards Nicolas.

"It's five in the morning, Nicolas," she yawned, "What are you doing up so early?"

"I could say the same to you, commander."

"I asked first, and call me Jane. Way too early in the morning for formalities."

"If you must know, I'm making coffee. I've got my own because yours is shit, but I make it early so no one takes mine."

"Smart… and frugal," Shepard yawned again as she looked at the boiler beginning to steam, "Now that I've seen it, you have to give me a cup, though."

Nicolas wasn't about to deny the commander a cup of coffee, so he chuckled and poured out two cups, handing one over to Jane, who was still fighting to keep her eyelids open. Holding the cup close to her lips, she was about to take a sip when Nicolas warned, "Careful. It's hot."

With a snort, Shepard took short sips from the cup, humming with delight at the taste of the coffee.

Nicolas leaned on the kitchen counter and looked at Jane, "So what happens from here on out?"

"Right now we have a lot on our plate, actually," Shepard's eyelids opened more with each word as wakefulness caught up with her, "We have to go to Noveria, where Matriarch Benezia was last seen, and to a colony in Feros, where a small scale geth invasion is going on. We're actually headed there now." Shepard frowned as she said that last bit, and sipped on her coffee in silence.

"Are you worried we might not get there in time?" Nicolas stopped drinking his own to gauge Shepard's reaction. Her brow furrowed a bit more for a split second and then returned to a slightly worried position.

"We're late as it is. The distress call was first sent when we went to get Liara, but I don't know why I felt I needed to go get her first. Good bit of help she's been, everything about the reapers is completely new to her."

"She'll probably be of use when we go get Benezia, maybe the matriarch still has some love for her daughter."

"Maybe… Doesn't take away the fact that civilians are in danger as we speak." Shepard bit her lower lip as she frowned, setting the coffee on the counter.

"Maybe you should stop beating yourself up, Jane," Nicolas spoke softly so as to not sound scolding. Jane looked at him and he continued, "Maybe we could've gone to Feros immediately, but we didn't, and now we're going anyway. I think it's better to think 100% about the civilians we're going to save than the ones we didn't."

Shepard smiled for a moment before her face changed to a more saddened one, "Easier said than done, Nicolas."

"Well I've been in the whole saving the galaxy business for like a week, and we've done quite a lot," Shepard chuckled at that and resumed drinking her coffee. Nicolas smiled and spoke again, "So right now I'm thinking anything that can be said, can be done."

"Amen to that, Nicolas. Thanks."

Nicolas raised his cup and drank the last of his coffee before turning around to get the brewer and took it to the dish washer. Shepard caught sight of his bald patch and leaned over to poke it, making Nicolas duck his head in surprise, "Your finger's super cold!"

Jane laughed, "I think we'd better get you shaved or something, that bald patch really sticks out."

"I'll ask Chakwas for her hair cut machine thing and make something decent."

"I don't think you'd be able to cut your hair alone and make something 'decent'," Shepard smiled as she made quotation marks with her fingers.

Nicolas tilted his head to the side, "What, you wanna help?"

"It's still a day to Feros, so there's time, if you trust me with your precious hair."

Nicolas touched the bald patch on the back of his head, considering the offer and then shrugged, "Ah, what the hell. If it turns out you fuck it up, then I'll just shave."


So, number 9, done!

I haven't been able to play much ME, so I haven't been to the thorian yet and I want to revise it before writing down, in case I mess it up! Again, if anyone has opinions, criticism, anything, PM or review! I'm always happy to get feedback!

Once more, I have to thank Blaze1992 for the idea of breaching charges and grenades with switchable types! I'd definitely say it made the geth outpost more fun to write!

So yeah, I hope you liked this under-canonical chapter, I needed a little break from the story and it gave me more time to flesh out the characters a bit.