The whole team started getting into the Mako. The Commander was driving, which gave Kira the urge to go at it on foot, but she held her tongue for now. Garrus sat next to the N7, assuming the navigator role. Kira and Wrex sat in the back.

"ETA over the drop zone 3 minutes." Jokers voice sounded in the Mako's intercom. Jane and Garrus did a quick pre-drop checklist and then Kira's mum tuned a little in her seat to speak with her daughter.

"You ready, kiddo?" She asked. Of course she's worried about me. My first ever mission. I'm terrified and excited and everything in between. But I can't let her see it.

"Yes, Commander." Kira decided that putting on the professional face would be best for this moment, but she also didn't want to overdo it. Her mother new that Kira got overly formal when she was scared and the whole point was to hide it. Thus, her next comment. "Are you sure you should be the one driving this thing? I remember you were barely able to park the skycar on the Citadel." She raised an eyebrow at her mother.

Both Garrus and Wrex started laughing uncontrollably. They were holding onto their sides, trying to hide it and failing spectacularly.

"So, making fun of your CO, Kira? Very professional, kiddo." Her mother sighed. Kira knew her mom wasn't angry, she had a slight smile on her face. "My driving isn't that bad." She murmured. With that she turned around to once again face the steering wheel.

The turian and krogan started to calm down, although their breathing wasn't back to normal yet.

"30 seconds to drop." Joker's voice sounded again.

"Roger that, Joker. Everyone ready?" Jane asked, and the rest of the team nodded. "Therum is basically an oven, with lava rivers running through its surface, so it will be a tight landing."

"Oh, great. So we might drown in lava before I have the opportunity to shoot something with my new shotgun?" Kira asked, pouring a mountain-sized amount of sarcasm into her question.

"We'll burn before drowning, I that helps." Garrus remarked over his shoulder.

"Yeah, not exactly the most consoling statement in the Galaxy, Garrus." Kira rolled her eyes at him.

"Don't worry, kiddo, I'm sure you'll have something to shoot in a bit." Her mother answered, putting the tank in first gear. At the same time the cargobay door opened, revealing a bright red planet.

Jane stepped on the accelerator and the Mako shot out of the Normandy. It's flight was short, but still gave Kira an amazing view. Jane fired the tank's boosters, softening their landing, a few meters above the ground.

They landed in a beautiful, but certainly deadly, lava field. Inside of the tank, Kira couldn't feel the heat, but she wasn't looking forward to stepping outside, even wearing the full suit of armor.

"Everybody in one piece?" The N7 asked her companions. They all murmured their affirmations.

The party started on their way through the field of molten rock. Along their path, there were huge pipes. They probably lead to a refinery of some sort.

"Maybe we should follow the pipes? The doctor might be based in the refinery." Kira proposed.

"Good catch." Her mother's approval was always important to Kira, so she smiled broadly. Only Wrex was able to see it.

After a few minutes, the team noticed a geth ship flying over them.

"This doesn't look suspicious at all." Kira said sarcastically. Let's be honest, I'm hardly ever not sarcastic. Part of my charm I guess.

"I guess we have our target." Wrex commented, chuckling at Kira's jab.

"They should lead us to wherever dr. T'Soni is." Garrus noted matter-of-factly.

"Let's go then." The Spectre made the tank take a sharp turn, frightening the shit out of her passengers.

"Umm… mum, I'm not a tech specialist, but I don't think Makos are supposed to make movements like that." Kira's head took a second to adjust, her vision blurring and the world seemingly started to go in circles around her.

"As someone who already fixed this pile of metal twice, I can say it definitely isn't." Garrus supported Kira. She chuckled. Her head finally started to realize where right and left were and her stomach got over the dizzy feeling.

"Focus people, we are here to find the doctor, not make fun of my driving!" Jane barked at them.

Oh mum, you still can't get over the fact that you're a horrible driver. Huh! "Alright, alright. Look," Kira pointed to a giant metal gate. "that seems like a good starting point. Those turrets don't look like any Citadel race made it."

"Correct, they're geth." Kira's mother said approvingly.

Wrex made a half-hearted gesture towards an opening in the rocks. "Let's flank them. Only a fool punches a nathak in the mouth. We should sneak around and pull its tail."

"Agreed. Whatever that nathak thing is." Jane said, as she maneuvered the Mako into the gap. As the geth camp came into view again Kira felt the hum of the tank's gun. She saw Garrus getting the cannon controls ready. "Let's take the big ones out with the canon, then we can get out and clear out the rest on foot." Her mother gave the order.

The huge gun did a quick work of the geth, they melted under its heat, some even exploded. In barely half a minute, most of the geth were done with. Left were only some stragglers and those that hid in the buildings.

"Let's get out there." Jane said unbuckling her seatbelt. "First, we take out the ones outside. Then we clear out the gatehouse where we came from, only then we'll go open the other gate to move forward. I don't want them sneaking behind out back."

"Finally, some action." Wrex grumbled.

All of them got out of their seats and pulled their hhelmets over their heads, sealing them in. The heat outside was deadly even to krogans, so they couldn't take their chances. They checked their comms and luckily the geth weren't jamming them.

The team exited the Mako. Jane and Garrus took out their sniper rifles and took cover behind opposite sides of the tank. Kira and Wrex immediately charged forward, shotguns in their hands, each picking out a different geth to target.

When Kira got close enough to the geth she chose, she used her biotic charge to stun the pile of junk in front of her. After that, two quick shots to its flashlight face made sure it was dead, or deactivated or… something.

Next, Kira saw a pair of geth running toward her. She did another biotic charge, aiming between the two of them. When she hit them, she knew had a couple of seconds of confusion on the geth's part, so she turned to the left one and shot it with her shotgun. Before she had a chance to take care of the other one, its head exploded, presumably from a sniper shot.

The younger Shepard looked around the base, all the geth were down on the ground.

"Let's get to the first gatehouse." Jane ordered over their comms.

They moved into the steel building, Kira and Wrex in front, with Garrus and Jane covering their backs. Kira noticed they fell into this formation almost seamlessly, it easily matched their fighting styles.

I thought mum would be giving more orders, but it looks like as long as shit is going good she leaves us a bit of room to choose our tactics. Risky, but for now it seems to be working.

There was a single geth inside the control room, which she and Wrex took out quickly.

"Come on," The Spectre announced again. "we need to get the other gate open."

"Are they always this easy to kill?" Kira asked jokingly as they walked outside.

"When you have a giant canon for the big ones, sure." Garrus answered.

"Pff…" Their krogan team member scoffed. "Killing shit from the Mako is boring. Real fun is when you can smash their little glowing heads."

"Yes well, getting them from the tank is also less likely to get you killed."

"But it's way more interesting, Garrus." Kira agreed with Wrex and turned towards the turian, who was shaking his head. "And going on foot requires more strategy, right? You don't just ride into a group of flashlights and start shooting."

"Sniping them sure requires careful thought, but running up to them with a shotgun? How is that different?" Is he joking? Kira wasn't sure. The comms didn't carry over subharmonics well enough for her to tell and she couldn't see Garrus through his helmet.

She chose to believe he was indeed using humor. Here it goes. Hope I don't make him hate me during the first goddamned mission.

"You're just hiding behind a wall while I get in between machines that want to kill me. Who needs more thinking done?" She replied, no venom behind her voice, just a light touch of humor.

"Maybe you should re-think that strategy then." Alright, he's definitely joking now. Phew. At least I didn't piss him off.

"Hey, guys, play nice." Kira's mother apparently didn't get the joking behind their quips. Or she just wanted them to zip it. "We have a mission to complete."

The group moved to the opposite gatehouse. It had the exact same set up as the previous one, again with a single geth blocking their path. They took care of it quickly and Jane opened the gate that blocked their way forward.

All four of them got back into the Mako and they started driving through the lava fields again. On their way they killed a couple dozen more geth, including a couple of really big ones, but it was all done with the tank's canon.

After a while, they arrived at a stone wall, blocking their way. It was too thick to blow through with the canon, so they decided to continue on foot.

"Finally, we can smash some geth ourselves." Wrex was overjoyed. For an old krogan he gets excited really easily. Kira also couldn't wait to do some more fighting, but she kept her thoughts to herself.

"The dig site is showing close to here. Let's hope T'Soni is over there." Jane was in full mission mode.

"Judging by the increasing amount of geth," Kira started. "there is definitely something there." It got a couple of chuckles.

The group continued up a hill. After a few hundred meters, their radars got jammed. That's when the real fighting begun.

A/N: I'm so grateful to all of you who read and review this piece of work. Sadly, since I'm starting a move in a couple of days, the chapters will have to slow down to a bi-weekly schedule for a while. There is simply no way I'll be able to write and edit 1 chapter a week, and my Internet connection will be spotty. Sorry :(