AN: This was by far the most aggravating chapter thus far to write, just didn't want to work with me I guess.

Okay so I'm wondering if this story wouldn't benefit from me rolling it into ME 1, I'm fully up for finishing this story if people do want me to. But I was curious if you guys think I should jump to ME 1 and work these in as flashbacks. So I'm curious what you guys would prefer, finish this story up, which will probably be another 4-5 chapters by my current reckoning, or jump ahead?

The reason for me keeping this short is that I don't want to get bogged down in five years worth of stories, when I could integrate the good one's into the ME 1 plot line. Also I'm essentially writing one-shots at this moment, as with the exception of a few plot points I have planned out I just kind of do a monster of the week format right now.

Song: The Heart of the Void by Skylar Cahn

S&S

2179 CE

It amazed her how a little hair dye and a set of contacts could make a human nearly unrecognizable, she had found that most species tended to focus on a human's hair as an identifier, something which she used to her advantage here. She was currently investigating a string of odd robberies, all of them involving components that could potentially be used to produce a bluebox, which she believed to be linked to the target Valern had given her. Of course to be inconspicuous she couldn't go in as her Spectre persona, so she was incognito as Helen Smith a merc looking for new tech.

This was of course just an excuse to get inside the locations so that Tess could pull whatever she could from their networks. While C-Sec had of course responded to the thefts, these components were on their own rather benign in nature. Unless you were actually capable of creating an A.I, a list which Eva was on, it was not a jump that the layman would make. Especially given that her target had made sure to spread out his thefts across numerous precincts, and so here she was hacking the security feeds of these businesses to find out any clues that C-Sec had missed.

She struck gold with the fifth location, a depot that supplied "Morlan's 'Famous Shop." Morlan's was a small kiosk that supplied low level illegal mods near Chora's Den, while the depot itself was located in Bachjret ward. It was situated in an area that Fist used to cover for his smuggling operations, and it was Fist's feeds that she was hacking into, something that C-Sec couldn't do without a warrant, being scared of the Broker didn't help much either.

"Got anything yet Tess?"

It wasn't that she was worried that one of Fist's thugs would try to start something, she was after all wearing a light combat suit underneath her civvies, plus she had her ever present Carnifex in it's hiding spot. But it was always easier to not take unnecessary risks, plus it stank around here.

'Ma'am I have identified a vehicle that the culprit used, reported as stolen by C-Sec. I believe that he may be in the Kithoi ward.'

She made her way out of the district, chatting with Tess as she went.

"What makes you think that?"

'Given the location that this vehicle was stolen from, I have noticed a pattern that coincides with the robberies Ma'am. They have all been taken from the same relative area, an industrial zone used primarily for fabrication of station necessities. The reports have been mostly ignored given the high rate of crime in the area, but the pattern is there.'

"Alright good work, check to see if any buildings are currently not in use, or have had an unusual increase in power usage as of late. If he is trying to make a bluebox that takes a lot of specialized tools, all of them drawing a lot of power"

'Of course Ma'am.'

Shepard summoned a car to the nearest platform, it wouldn't hurt to swing by her place to grab some extra gear. Never knew when you needed to blow something up, especially when crazed Salarians are involved.

S&S

Saren scowled at the ship setting down, it had been hours since the scout had left to investigate the artifact he had spent years tracking down. However he was no fool, he had seen with his own eyes what this thing had done to that Human researcher, and so he had sent in scouts. They had gone dark the moment they got in the ship, and while he had hoped it was simply the ships shielding, they also hadn't responded to hails. So here he stood, fully armed, armored, and ready to blow all the atmosphere out of this room given a moments notice.

The ramp hissed as it opened in front of him, the form of his lead scout Vaarn walked in an almost dazed fashion. He was holding some form of strange device, almost waist high, and made of a metal that was familiar to the Spectre, it was the same material that the covered the device Desolas had dug up years ago.

"Vaarn, status report. What did you find." Vaarn just continued walking, setting his burden down in an unoccupied portion of the room. Saren stalked towards him, spinning his scout around. "Spirits Vaarn! What is wrong with you!"

"That would be our doing, Saren."

Saren whiled towards the device on the ground, an angry blazing hologram of the artifact hovered in front of him. The device, now apparently active, had numerous red screens hovering in front of it, casting an ominous crimson glow through the hanger bay.

"Spirits what is this thing. Nothing in the data mentioned a V.I."

"Virtual Intelligence, a rudimentary attempt to safeguard your species from the cycle. We are beyond your understanding Saren."

"Even better, an A.I with a god complex. Look, machine, The Citadel Council is decidedly against synthetics, so I will give you a choice. Tell me how to help Vaarn, and give me what I came here for, and perhaps, the Citadel Fleet doesn't need to get involved."

"The organic exists only due to a chance, it is insignificant, we have given it purpose towards something higher. But you, we have summoned for another reason."

"You didn't summon me, I tracked you down."

"We placed those tracks, we have watched you, we have evaluated you, to be certain that you could be of use to the cycle."

"And why would I help you machine? Unless you have something to offer me I'm not interested.."

"We do not ask for your assistance, we demand it. If you decline, then understand your entire race shall be but ash. We offer you the chance to earn your species a reprieve."

"If you think that I'm going to believe that you can destroy the Hierarchy you are mistaken. No fleet, let alone a single ship can stand up to the Turian fleet."

"Disappointing."Suddenly hundreds of images appeared were projected before him by the device, planets burning, races he had never seen lay dead everywhere, twisted hulks of synthetic and organic fused together, and everywhere he saw ships like the hologram in front of him. "Feel free to continue on your path to oblivion."

Saren could only stare dumbstruck at what he saw before him, if even the smallest portion of these images were true, then, how could any species hope to contend with this threat. Could he risk the chance that this, thing, was in fact not bluffing? Was he willing to risk Palaven as Desolas had?

"If I agree my people will be safe?"

"They will be allowed to survive this cycle."

Saren grimly nodded at the projection, "Then I accept."

S&S

Shepard was rummaging through her desk, grabbing a false identification card in case she ran into trouble. "Tess you set up that new identity through C-SEC right? I would like to avoid them having a dead woman pop up on the scans."

'I finished while you were grabbing your explosives Ma'am.'

Shepard patted the disguised charges on your belt, "What can I say, I like to be prepared."

'Ma'am, do you really expect to run into a tank?'

"As the only person in the conversation who has fought a Krogan, I know what I'm doing."

Shepard activated the retractable wall to let her into the workshop she had built into the apartment, several sets of armor lined the wall, some modifications of the model she wore as Varan, some were simply ideas she had in her head made real.

She grabbed a small discreet kinetic barrier generator from her storage, while such devices were not uncommon they all had the same design flaw, once the shields failed once, the device was fried. But it was better than having to rely on solely on her barriers.

She moved over to one of the light suits of armor on the wall, popping off various items, gauntlets, leg guards, and the like. Which she then installed on to the current suit she was wearing, unfortunately she didn't have the option of affix a power generator, so her omni's shield and sword protocols were not going to be an option.

Shepard slipped over to her desk, picking up the palm sized device that lay on the surface surrounded by numerous tools. She tapped a slot on her arm, ejecting the data chip that held Tess. She took the small chip, popping it into her prototype blackbox, a stepping stone on the way to a bluebox. While Tess wasn't an A.I, the box was designed to give her room to grow, so to speak. It was also equipped with numerous safeguards to protect her from being hacked, something that would be a boon when facing a potential hostile A.I.

'Ma'am, I believe I was offline for a moment there. It is, rather roomy in here.'

Shepard laughed at that. "It should keep you safe if we do end up dealing with an A.I. Now hold on a second, I have some new protocols to upload."

She tapped several icons on a nearby console to initiate the transfer process, uploading numerous cyberwarfare suites into her assistant. These protocols were the best work she had ever done to date, though she wasn't entirely sure how Tess' architecture would handle them truthfully. The V.I was such a hodgepodge of different protocols that the fact she functioned as well as she did amazed Eva.

'This feels, strange, Ma'am.'

"You okay Tess?"

'Yes, I, I think so Shep-Ma'am.'

Shepard decided to bring up the formalities again later, for now she slipped the small device into an armored port on her hip, it was rated to take a direct blast from a Widow so she was confident Tess would be safe.

"You up for taking on an A.I?"

'Yes, yes I think I would like that. Ma'am.'

S&S

The Illusive Man frowned as he saw the message hovering in front of him. An invitation from an old friend to talk, something he knew the Turian would only do if he had no other choice. It had happened before, but what troubled the man once known as Jack Harper was he had no idea what event could have pushed Saren to this course. Any other time it was due to events that Harper knew about, after all it was hard to keep something from his organization, regardless of the region of the galaxy it was occurring in.

But speculating further would get him nowhere, sometimes you simply had to play the game, and hope that you came out ahead. Tapping the control on his chair a holo-projector on the floor hummed, soon the figure of a silver Turian was standing before him.

"Saren."

"Jack." The image looked from left to right, "Is Eva not going to join us, it could have been just like old times."

The Illusive Man frowned at that, all of them had tried, and failed, to forget the events that Saren's brother, Desolas, had set in motion. Harper's own reminder was only a single reflection away after all, but it was unusual for Saren to mention him, especially to the man he held responsible.

"Unfortunately Eva is busy at the moment." He paused a moment, bringing the cigarette to his lips. He took his time, savoring both it, and the growing irritation of Saren. Exhaling the smoke he continued, "As much as I would love going down memory lane with you, we both know that you contacted me for a reason."

Saren nodded, "Yes, though in this case I could say our pasts are coming back to haunt us. I've come into possession of knowledge regarding the beings who created the device Desolas uncovered, and they are coming back Harper." Saren paused, talking to someone out of the projector's range. "I've instructed your people here to upload the data I found as soon as they have verified it is safe. I might hate you Jack, but I know you are willing to do whatever it takes to protect your people, I am willing to do the same. But the Council, they will bury this, and in the end it will be too late."

Jack set down the whiskey he had been sipping at while Saren had been talking, "So what exactly do you expect me to do Saren? Cerberus is not the Alliance, we may operate for the betterment of mankind but we can't fight mankind's wars for them."

Saren's mandibles flared slightly, "I only ask Jack that you look at the data before you decide your course of action, perhaps it is time for your organization to take a more proactive approach. I didn't come here to convince you though, I came here to give you the tools needed to be an asset and not be a hindrance in this fight, goodbye Jack."

The image soon cut off, but the data began to stream in. Jack spent hours analyzing it, and it was as if he had been trying to complete a puzzle with half the pieces missing from the box. Piece by piece the picture came together, and with it a plan, a means to ensure not only humanities survival, but their ascension to their rightful place in the cosmos.

No matter the cost.

S&S

The industrial district was sparsely populated, due mostly to the fact that there was little need for people to be on site to run these factories. As such it was difficult for her to approach the building undetected, but it also meant that she didn't have to worry to over civilians getting involved.

She smirked at the location her target had set up in, it was pure cliche. Abandoned warehouse, random power spikes, mood lighting, if she ran into a psychopathic clown she was going to start painting a bat on her armor. She did a last minute check of her gear, talking to Tess as she worked.

"Got anything juicy for me Tess?"

'In addition to the main power source there appears to be numerous charging stations Ma'am. Likely for drones, or small mechs.'

"Fun, I would hate to go a day without a firefight."

She could feel the steady anticipation of combat, he natural hand twitched lightly forming a slight steady beat. She drew her carnifex with her left, her right hand embedded in the orange glow of her omni.

The door she chose opened slowly, but quietly. If she was lucky then the could get the drop on the target, or maybe the Salarian hadn't finished creating the bluebox, hell she would be happy if he had yet to upload himself.

Suddenly a voice that she was very much not Salarian came across the loudspeakers in the room, "We see you human, you should not have attempted to interfere with the cycle."

Of course she had never been lucky.

The first shots pinged nearby, but she had already taken off. While she had the kinetic barrier generator, and she had her own barriers, it still was smarter to avoid being shot in the first place. She hurled herself from the open catwalk, down into a maze of halls made of shipping containers.

She glanced down the hall on her right, spotting several floating drones. The small integrated weapons on them flaring as they registered her, she pivoted back rolling behind the container on her left. Priming an overload for the drone that soon floated into view, the nice thing about drones, they were flimsy. As the overload struck the small mechanical it tumbled to the ground, a heap of useless scrap.

She caught another one unawares with her pistol, but was forced to retreat again when his friends arrived. Four drones were left if there were no more in reserve. Three, she corrected as she fried the circuits of yet another one. Ducking back behind another container, she noted the drones were refusing to chase her. Instead they appeared to be guarding the center of the room.

"Got you." She slipped a charge from her belt, sliding it along the floor until it detonated. Taking out the remaining drones, and a large section of the floor.

She ran towards the edge of the hole, if her hunch was right the Salarian should be down there. Instead she was greeted with the sight of a glowing, humming, fully powered, bluebox. But not only that but it looked like it was hooked up to a transmission beacon, she had to assume the A.I was trying to upload itself to something else, maybe even a ship.

"Oh shit."

A sound to her left caused her to turn, and she found herself being decked by the most cybered up Salarian she had ever seen.. She was knocked off her feet, slamming into a container behind her. She kept enough of her wits to dodge the next blow, rolling away from her opponent and to her feet.

"OH SHIT!"

She backed up, opening fire on her opponent. The rounds slammed into him, but if he noticed then his pain tolerance was off the charts. It charged, swinging clumsily at her, she ducked countering with a biotic charged punch from her right. And while she succeeded in knocking him back the deafening clang of metal on metal told her there wasn't much flesh for her to hit.

"There has to be some part of you that I can kill!" She hissed at the, thing, in front of her.

The same voice from earlier returned, "It had served its purpose, as such we have ascended it to the next stage. Despite your own efforts to do the same to yourself, you shall perish human."

'Ma'am, he is controlling the body directly. Engaging.'

There was no time to tell Tess to not engage, as the Salarian was in the process of picking up one of the shipping containers. She flared her body, multiplying the mass of the container several times over, unfortunately for her the Salarian still tossed the damn thing.

"A pitiful attempt to disrupt us. The cycle calls for your destruction as well synthetic."

Ignoring the voice she focused on the task of dodging, there was nothing she could do for Tess at this time. She of course did the sensible thing, and charged directly at the Salarian. Rolling under the container as it went overhead she grabbed a charge from her belt, slapping the magnetized section directly on to the Salarian's left shoulder. She activated the charge a second later as she slipped behind another container for protection. The dull rumble that shook the room told her it had gone off, but the fist the slammed into her midsection told her it had been less than adequate.

The taste of copper filled her mouth, and red filled her vision, as a followup blow slammed into her side, sending her reeling back against the crate she had used for cover. But now that she could see the Salarian, she could see that it had lost an arm to her attack. She yelled as her body flared enveloping the Salarian in a stasis field. As the Salarian was halted mid strike she grabbed the belt around her waist, tossing it, and the charges it contained at the Salarian's feet. She took off across the room, glancing to see the field dissipating.

"See you in hell you cybernetic bastard."

Despite knowing she was within the blast radius, she triggered them. The pressure wave alone knocked her off her feet, luckily these were shaped charged so they put most of their damage potential up, directly into her counterpart. Though that didn't stop her from getting a lovely piece of shrapnel into her right leg.

At first she didn't believe that it had worked until bits of Salarian began to thud about the room, she dragged herself to her feet, favoring her left as she stumbled over to the hole she had made at the start of this mess.

"Tess you alright."

Silence was all that greeted her, before she noticed a small message on her display.

'Shutting down to prevent catastrophic damage, good luck Shepard.'

She laughed, it hurt, but damn did it feel good. She limped slowly over to the hole, favoring her left leg heavily.

"Always has to be my fucking right."

She lowered herself slowly into the hole, glancing about the lair. Designs were scrawled about the place, random components were scattered throughout the room. Some she recognized, some she had no clue to their function and that worried her.

"Okay I've had enough of this place. Now how to blow you to hell."

"You have merely delayed your fate human, this action was already deemed a failure."

"You are really chatty for something that is about to be scrap."

"You have attracted the attention of something far beyond yourself human, this victory will spell doom for you and your species."

"Well aren't you petty."

She spotted the power source in the back, a core from a smaller Salarian ship, Salarian's tended to make their core's easily removable so they could be used as improvised generators, or explosives. She was going to use the latter option. Setting the device to go off from a command from her omni, she turned to the console in the middle of the room.

She frowned as she noted that what she thought was a transmitter was actually a receiver, that meant that whoever or whatever had been talking to her wasn't here. But why would it need a bluebox, unless it was a synthetic intelligence itself. She noticed that it seemed to have been trying to interface with the Citadel network itself, but it seemed that whatever it had been trying to do had failed.

"I don't know where you are, or what you are, but rest assured I'm going to get to the bottom of this."

Before a reply could be given she opened fire on the device before her, sparks flashed but soon the status lights on the device flickered and died.

"There better be some stairs down here."

She limped her way to a flight of stairs she soon discovered, and began to make her way out of the building. Though not before grabbed the mostly intact arm she had blown off earlier in the fight. She wasn't going to pass up studying something this advanced, plus it was always good to have blackmail on your bosses.

She wasn't ashamed to admit that she felt a great sense of satisfaction at the sight of the explosion blooming in the rear view of her stolen sky-car.

S&S

Saren had to suppress the smirk that constantly kept appearing on his face, the entity had promised him that it could manipulate Harper through the implants he had received years ago. It had stressed that it couldn't force him to do anything, but it could subtly effect him, all Saren had to do was give him a push. A task that he had been all too willing to assist in.

He once again brought his face back to a neutral state, Benezia and he were not on the best of terms, best not to antagonize her. He followed the commando in front of him, her name started with an S he thought, honestly he didn't care about them as individuals, but rather for the skills they possessed.

He entered a small indoor garden, the Matriarch was meditating near a fountain in the center of the room. As he approached he noted idly that the fountain was a stylized rendition of Athame, the commando still in front of him made a small noise to announce herself.

"Mistress, Spectre Arterius is here."

He resisted the urge to roll his eyes, everyone in this room knew she was aware of the fact, but it was protocol. If they were on better terms he was sure it would have been ignored, but she was still a little sore it seemed over that Arcturus incident.

As the biotic field around her dissipated she drew herself to her full height, her eyes held nothing but scorn for him.

"What brings you here Saren? I only entertained your request because you said it was of the utmost importance, and I would like to believe that even you would not waste my time on something trivial. Even if you were willing to deceive me."

His mandibles flared unconsciously, this again. "You know that I merely did as the Council ordered me Benezia, yet you don't appear to hold them in contempt as you do myself."

The distaste in her eyes only seemed to grow at that, "You not only used my connections to smuggle yourself on to Arcturus, you then lied about your intentions once we did arrive, but you also needlessly hurt an innocent."

Before Saren could retort she exploded at him, "She was fourteen! A Child! And you not only killed her own Sire in front of her, but you sentenced even her soul to death. The human doctors explained to me that her body rejects cloned tissues, it will only be a matter of time before the synthetics in her body will eat away her soul. And I hold you responsible!"

Souls, he had to restrain himself from scoffing. The Asari had convinced themselves that in replacing organic tissues with synthetic alternatives one lost a piece of their soul, there was in fact a large amount of Asari who if they could not get a cloned replacement refused to install an integrated prosthetic. He considered it superstition taken to the illogical extreme, but then again this was from the same race that gave wandering monks the right to execute people.

But instead of starting a needless fight he held up his talon's in a gesture meant to placate the Matriarch.

"I didn't come here to fight Benezia, I recently came in contact with a, being. This, entity, is unbelievably ancient, and powerful, enough that I believe it could threaten all of Citadel Space."

Her head tilted slightly to the left, he could see the gears turning in her head. A small sigh escaped her lips before she asked the question he knew was coming.

"Then why bring this to me Saren? Would your masters not want this information brought to them."

He nodded, "Of course, but this being has nothing but contempt for the galaxy as it is. I was hoping that perhaps given your abilities both with melding, and negotiation, that you could perhaps show it the light. Convince it that perhaps the we as a people are worth taking a chance on, the technology it possesses alone is worth the risk."

Of course he had little faith that she could pull it off, but if anyone could he believed it was Benezia. And if she couldn't accomplish this task, well she was an excellent offering.

Benezia slowly nodded, "If I can assist I will. But know that I won't leave myself at your mercy, my commando's will accompany me for protection. You will lead us to this being, but my followers and I will take our own ship. I do not mean to offend but you have proven yourself untrustworthy in the past, are these terms agreeable?"

Saren gave a small smile, "I'd have it no other way Benezia."

S&S

She had waited a day to contact Valern, it gave her time to investigate the arm she had taken with her, and it looked less suspicious. Not that she expected anyone to link her to the explosion, but it was always better to be a little paranoid about such matters.

The screen before her flickered several times before Valern's image came into view. It looked like he was in his office in the tower, if the view behind him was any indication of his position.

"While it seems you accomplished your mission I was expecting a more subtle approach Spectre."

She smirked a little, tapping an icon to forward several reports to him. The Salarian's eyes scanned the documents while she talked. "I've had the explosion linked to the Scions of Rakhana, the warehouse and the surrounding district were owned by the a major player in the Primacy. Exactly the type of target they like to hit. I had several C-Sec reports to that effect leaked to the media, and the Scions themselves took responsibility for the attack three hours ago, if everyone is saying you did it I guess you may as well take credit."

"Good job then with the cover up, but this report is troubling."

Valern continued to read the documents before him, hands tapping on his display as he worked. He got to a page and stopped, a frown spreading across his face. "Succeeded in linking with unknown intelligence, I assume that you destroyed any evidence of this receiver?"

She nodded, "I checked the C-Sec database to see what their investigation turned up, nothing that could be linked to your people." She paused briefly, wondering whether she wanted to bring it up or not. Sighing she continued, "The, body, of the researcher. It was more advanced than nearly any other piece of cybernetic technology I have ever seen. I pride myself on being ahead of the curve, but this was beyond me. I just feel that perhaps there was something more to what was going on here? Then a simple STG agent gone rogue."

Valern stopped, his gave drilling holes into her. "You were given all the pertinent data needed to complete your task. You have my thanks for a job well done, but do not mistake that for encouragement to go beyond your boundaries."

"Of course sir, my apologies."

Valern nodded, seemingly mollified. "Then have a good day Spectre."

As the screen returned to her normal setup she sunk back in her chair, the arm was truly beyond anything that could be constructed with modern technology. It appeared that the organic tissues had been forcibly converted to a synthetic material by nannites she had found in the arm, they had been pumping through the body in the same manner that blood moves throughout an organic body.

She was currently experimenting on the nannites, if she could figure out how to replicate them in some manner, well the sky was the limit at that point. But every attempt thus far had been a failure, she sighed and buried her face in her hands.

'Are you all right Ma'am?'

A small smile crept across her face, "Yes Tess I'm alright, just a little tired of secrets at this moment." Tess had come out of the ordeal none the worse for wear, but the fact she hadn't been able to even slow down what they had fought against was troubling. Eva was one of the top programmers when it came to cyberwarfare, and while there were plenty of people better than her, the fact that Tess was essentially a non-factor in that fight was a troubling thought.

A yawn escaped her, even if she didn't want to her body demanded rest.

"I think I'm going to turn in for the night."

'Good night Ma'am.'

"Night Tess."

S&S

Hannah glanced at her screen, a small blinking icon indicated that she had received a secured missive from Jack. She frowned clicking the small icon.

'Make contact with Operations Chief Gates, determine potential for induction into Cerberus.'

The frown already on her face deepened, Gates had been already taken off the candidate list twice now. The woman hated Batarians, you didn't live through Mindoir, and not hate Batarians. But she was a decidedly pro-council officer, and routinely volunteered for joint-strike missions with other races. Not exactly a prime candidate for an organization like Cerberus.

Hannah sighed as she stood up, it was her regular time to do rounds anyway. Gates normally remained near the armory while on duty, of course if she was off duty she could be anywhere. Hannah chatted with a few members of the crew as she passed by them, small idle chatter but it helped to gauge morale, something that was important to keep an eye on when you were in a ship the size of a city.

As she entered the armory she was greeted with racks of weapons in secure storage, in the back was storage for non-standard weapons and armor, though some like Hannah kept their weapons secured in their own rooms. Glancing around she spotted the shorter woman doing maintenance on her weapons, Hannah approached her calling out to her, "Chief, do you have a moment?"

Rachel Gates spun around, a few tools clattering to the ground behind her. A wince formed at the clatter behind her, her short black hair was sticking about haphazardly as she saluted Hannah, which Hannah returned with a smirk on her face.

"Of course Ma'am, always have time for the XO. Especially one that could probably kick my ass."

Hannah grinned at her, "No need to stand on ceremony Gates, we're both new here so I decided I should get to know you. Not that there is all that much call for marines on a dreadnought, I'm sure the Hero of Elysium will get bored of it all soon enough."

Gates gave a small nod, "Not exactly sure who I pissed off to get this assignment Ma'am, I had been scheduled to do a tour with a tour near the edge of B-Space. Somehow one of the brass got it in their heads that I was going out there looking for a fight, not like I was hiding that fact." She muttered that last bit more to herself than to Hannah.

Seemingly remembering who she was talking to again she panicked. "Not that the Kilimanjaro isn't an impressive ship Ma'am, she's incredible. But, and I'm not griping mind you, this is a posting for someone interested in getting a notch in their belt while staying safe. Safe is not what I signed up for."

Hannah nodded, "I understand, though there is little I can personally do about it. You got assigned here by someone pretty far up the chain, who knows maybe they are just giving you a rest before they throw you into the fire again."

Gates groaned, "Leave is one thing, commanding a marine detachment is another. This isn't a rest, it's an avalanche of paperwork." The younger woman sighed, "I joined to make sure that our colonies were safe, not float around Alliance space in a damned fortress."

Gates shifted position, causing light to hit the small crucifix she was wearing on her neck. It was unusual for officers to openly wear religious iconography, not that there was anything against it in the regs, it was simply viewed as more accessible to not proclaim one's affiliation.

It reminded her of John though, the man wore his beliefs, all of them, on his sleeve. Evalyn had taken after him in that regard, though after his death she had lost her faith, in a lot of things she supposed. Hannah frowned as she felt tears prick her eyes, it had been eleven years ago and it still felt like she was walking around with a part of herself missing.

Gates frowned as she noticed her distress, "Ma'am, are you all right?"

Hannah gave a small nod, trying to form a reassuring smile on her face. "Yes Chief, your crucifix just made me remember my family I suppose."

"I am sorry Ma'am, I, I want you to know that I was inspired by your daughter. I only met her once but I couldn't help but think that she was an exceptional person, it, it's a shame what happened to her."

Hannah nodded, "Thank you Chief, but I've taken up enough of your time."

She turned and began to walk away, she could hear Gates mumbling to herself. She paused, glancing over her shoulder, "Gates, you didn't step over the line. And yes Eva was an exceptional woman, I've had the benefit of meeting several such people in my lifetime." She let a small smile play across her face, "As you were Chief."

S&S

AN: Hannah is a big fan of old comic book characters, that is why Eva likes Batman. Plus I can't see cultural icons like that disappearing entirely, I mean we still go to see plays that were produced hundreds of years ago.

I'd appreciate it if you guys let me know what you would prefer in regards to whether I should finish this story up, or jump ahead to ME 1. Aside from that leave a review if you want to let me know what you thought, or to criticize something, always open to either.

And thanks to all those who hit the buttons below.