Everyone who hasn't already should go back and re-read chapter 9. I redid the chapter to both spruce it up and extend several scenes. I hope that it helps to rectify some of issues that numerous reviewers noted, honestly I'm glad when I get such feedback as it makes me know what to avoid in the future.

This chapter was written, and rewritten for more times than I care to admit. Honestly I'm disinclined to ever want to do a chapter of this style again, but let me know what you guys think of it.

Song Themes:

Wrex: Dare by Stan Bush

S&S

NASA has announced that their probe, Scribe III, has managed to navigate the outer asteroid belt, and is currently projected to successfully enter Bellona's orbit in two weeks and three days. The previous two probes failed to pass through the belt successfully and so this will be the first up close glimpse of planet ten that the world has ever seen.

What is known is that Bellona is a massive terrestrial world that has an orbit that takes it far past the solar system's envelope. Scribe will also deploy a smaller drone unit to the surface which will take soil samples to compare with other celestial bodies of our solar system. There is great debate within the Astronomical community as to whether the planet is an extra-terrestrial visitor that was simply captured by Sol's gravity, or if it was simply hurled away from the inner core after it's formation.

CBC, 2063

S&S

The pair had retired to the small common area of Eva's quarters, though truthfully the human hadn't even used the space yet since she had technically taken up residence in the rooms.

Evalyn had spread herself across the room's sole couch, while Liara perched on the edge of one of the chairs that was positioned near where the Spectre's head lay. The asari's gaze was fixated on her entwined hands that sat in her lap, as though they were suddenly the most interesting things in the world. Her reverie only broken when Eva blew out a sigh of annoyance, "You can ask questions, Liara. You wouldn't be still here otherwise."

Blue eyes burned into her own for several moments, and Eva could practically see the gears turning inside the other woman's mind before Liara finally spoke, "Why Helen Danvers?"

A soft chuckle emerged from the human before she answered, "Danvers is something of a tribute to my Mother's memory. Helen though doesn't really mean anything, I just wanted a name that I could shorten to Hel."

Liara's unamused expression caused a smirk to break out on the human's face, though Eva did take the hint and continued her explanation, "Hel was a human Goddess in the Norse pantheon, she was often depicted as half-flesh and half-something else; usually a corpse, but originally her skin was just a different color. She was a child of the trickster god Loki, and ruled over Helheim where she accepted all the souls of those who died of old age or sickness."

"I liked the parallels to myself," she quietly added.

Liara simply watched her for a while as she digested that information, "So I take it you have other cybernetics?"

That earned a grin from the human, "Oh, a few. Though I suppose the biggest one other than my left eye would be this," she punctuated that by lifting her right leg into the air to highlight which one she was talking about.

Several moments of silence ruled before a whisper escaped the maiden, "How?"

"I was a soldier once," a dark laugh emerged from the spectre at that, "I suppose it wasn't that long ago in the grand scheme of things, but it feels like it happened so long ago. Like an old wound that never quite healed right."

She tilted her head to look at Liara, "My unit was attacked by native creatures, no one else made it out alive." The human's metallic limb gleamed in the light as she slowly examined it, "What family I have left probably would have preferred that I had died with my unit, and if they didn't right away they probably do now." A small smirk pulled at her lips, "Some days I think that the person I was died down there that day, and that I'm just a demon masquerading as her."

Liara tensed at the word demon, though Evalyn assumed it was because the asari as a woman of science took offense to such a fanciful notion, "Do you not believe in ghost stories, Liara?"

The asari still seemed on edge but a hint of a smile crossed those full lips, "One of my Mother's acolytes used to tell stories of ancient Thessia. Of heroes putting down villains, or of how the Night Wind was banished from Armali." Blue eyes seemed to dull as the memory continued, "Mother never cared for them, and when she found out that the Acolyte had been telling them to me she banished her from her service."

"My Grandfather probably has a lot in common with your Mother, used to lecture me if I listened to music for more than half an hour, 'When has anything productive ever been accomplished by listening to a bunch of claptrap.'" The human let out a huff of breath, "Fucking asshole."

"You were raised by your Grandfather? I realize that it must be common to a shorter-lived species but it is somewhat unheard of for an Asari barring your sires dying." As though she realized the implication she had ignored the maiden's head dipped toward the floor, "I'm sorry, I didn't realize."

Evalyn reached across the space between them and placed her metallic hand on Liara's knee, giving it a small squeeze, "Yes, both of my parents are dead, Liara. And despite some recent complications regarding my Mother, I'm actually at some measure of peace with that fact."

They stayed like that for a while, neither of them breaking the silence until Evalyn withdrew her arm, "I'll be leaving Illium in a few days, some business in human space is going to keep me occupied for several months." She shifted her position so that she was sitting on the couch rather than lying down, "When I'm back would you like to meet again sometime?"

She buried her face in her artificial hand, "I'll understand if you don't, but I figured that I may as well try."

A pair of hands that weren't her own wrapped around the back of her neck, as a firm, though chaste, kiss was planted on her lips, "I'd like that, Hel."

S&S

"Fuck!" The human spat out the curse as she angrily slammed down the tool in her hand when she accidentally cut too deep into the small part in her hand, the entire situation simply earned a laugh from Tela who was lounging on a nearby chair.

"I don't see why you are even doing that, I mean you can just buy a replica of the ship if you like it that much."

Eva glowered at the asari, "That isn't the point, I need to get used to this new arm." She idly rotated the artificial limb, once again covered in artificial flesh, which she swore felt off despite being physically identical to her previous limb, "Plus, this helps me to relax."

Another snicker came from Vasir, "Right, seems to be working like a charm then."

A small plastic wing bounced off the Asari's forehead, "Shut up, Tela." As the human stood up blue eyes traced the movements of the partially cybernetic woman until she paused in front of one of the numerous displays that she had hijacked on the asari's ship. The screen in question was now filled with streams of data coming in from the Alliance that Tela had no idea how Evalyn was getting access to.

"Why do you bother keeping track of all that? I mean do you really need to know how many times that skinny bitch takes in front of a camera?"

A scoff escaped from Evalyn's lips, "Yes in fact I do need to know that." The formerly blonde woman shot her a condescending glance, "Rachel Gates is a hero who happens to be attractive enough that the Alliance can parade in front of the cameras without needing her to do anything other than look good, and because she survived the Mindoir raid of 2170 they get a temporary surge of support in the colonies every time as well."

Eva let out an annoyed breath, "The woman is also obsessed with revenge and not the type of person I would be putting in front of cameras. She's one bad day from a fully psychiatric break by my last reckoning."

The look that graced Tela's face caused Eva to pause, "As much as you might think I'm oblivious to you looks, I'm not." The human sighed as she turned back to the screen in front of her, "Despite the recent, incident. I am in fact not consumed by thoughts of revenge."

Vasir's datapad was placed on the nearby table as she stood up from her chair, arms across her chest as her head was tilted as though the human was an idiot, "You blew off a direct order from the Council, and only failed at killing both targets because you didn't shoot the hostage first." The asari shook her head, "Look, I never knew either of my parents so this shit doesn't make much sense to me, but what does make sense is that working with you is dangerous."

Eva paused, obviously digesting the words, before replying, "I won't let that happen during a mission."

The asari just shook her head, mumbling as she walked away, "Right, like the fact you still might fly off the handle after the mission is supposed to put me at ease."

Evalyn though didn't care about putting the asari at ease, but she cared about the mission and so she called out at the retreating alien, "You mentioned that you had managed to get some extra muscle from the Broker, is he sending a squad or a ship?"

They were under strict orders to keep the conflict low intensity; the Council didn't want to wait years for Anhur to recover economically before they could start processing Eezo once more.

Though there was no guarantee that Eclipse felt the same way, they would be getting paid regardless of the state they left the planet in according to the contracts Eva had managed to get her hands on.

"Neither, he's sending some mercenary he keeps on the payroll. I think his name is Urdnot Wrex, one of the few Krogan I've met who isn't a braindead thug."

The human nodded as she turned back to the screen in front of her, though now she began the process of researching this new 'ally.'

S&S

She had learned quite a bit about the Battlemaster before she had been forced to head down to the ship's small hanger bay, her own personal craft took up most of the space forcing her to duck underneath a wing to get to the cockpit.

"You've scrambled any monitoring devices that Vasir has down here right?"

A grin formed on her lips as she watched Tess' code shift in response, the A.I equivalent of glaring at her for insulting the intelligence, "I'm just checking, no need to get offended."

She glanced back at the hanger door to ensure that Vasir wasn't about to explode on to the scene, satisfied that was unlikely to happen she reached inside the cockpit and withdrew a small injector. Adjusting it in her hands she checked to make sure the setting was at the appropriate level before pulling her shirt's collar back, exposing several small injector marks, and brought the injector down.

She let out a hiss of both pain and relief, and she felt her body relax as the new dose of nannites flooded her system.

It has been a disconcerting discovery to awaken one morning and suddenly have no connection to the microscopic machines in her body. She had quickly discovered that her nannite levels had dropped as her body attacked the foreign bodies in her system, and so she had been forced to keep topping up her nannites to keep her new abilities active.

Of course, she could also just flood her system with enough nannites that they would essentially take over for her immune system, but that was taking things a bit too far even for her.

Adjusting her shirt back into place she slipped the injector back into the cockpit, a small smile playing on her lips as she could visibly see Tess' worry for her in the synthetic's code.

Which was another side effect of the nannites, somehow the small machines had realized that the biotic node in her brain was a threat to her health and had slowly, but steadily, reducing its size. At their current pace they were going to take months if not years before the node was entirely removed, but she found that her previously fleeting moments of contentment were more regular; though still exceedingly brief.

Her mood though was quickly dampened by the appearance of Vasir on the upper catwalk, her blue face peering down at the human, "I sent a signal ahead, Wrex is going to meet us before we hit the relay. Then we'll travel together to the abolitionists' space elevator. Apparently, they are stuck in a ground war on the surface and the elevator is the only safe way down to the surface."

Normally a space elevator was seen as unnecessary technology in today's society, this was due mainly because of how readily available modern ships capable of easily escaping a planet's gravity were. The protection of Anhur's eezo stockpiles though had been the only thing that the various mining companies could agree on when the colony was founded, and so any ship attempting to land on the planet would be automatically targeted by the orbiting stations unmanned weapons.

She was pretty sure that with some effort she, or Eclipse for that matter, could override those controls, but each station wasn't linked so the benefit to such an action was limited at best.

"I suppose I should get dressed then," was all the human said as she began to pull on her armor for the Krogan's arrival.

S&S

They found the Krogan's battered freighter floating in the cover of a nearby asteroid field, and the two ships were soon docked allowing the reptile to transfer over to Vasir's larger vessel. Wrex stomped his way into the main living quarters, the mercenary's red eyes shifting around the area as his nostrils flared.

As one of those wideset eyes landed on Shepard's fully armored form the Krogan let out a bark of laughter, "You may as well take off the helmet, human, your smell is all over this place," a toothy grin emerged on the Krogan's face, "Unless, Vasir's got a new toy on board as well."

When that got no response from the human Wrex's grin grew even wider, "Well you've got a bigger quad than her last whelp. Turians, think they've seen combat but the moment they find themselves on their own you see who they truly are," rage swirled in the Krogan's eyes as he finished his statement, "Cowards."

Eva for her part just shrugged, as she hefted that case sitting next to him before depositing it in front of Wrex, "I believe it is customary to present a Battlemaster with a gift if you are to spill blood with them."

The Krogan looked at her oddly for several moments before throwing his head back in laughter, "It is a sad day when a human knows our ways better than most of the whelps I have met since I left Tchunka."

Popping the latches on the case the Krogan lifted out the Claymore, the same one that Shepard had appropriated from Miranda, and adjusted it in his hands, a gleam in his eyes as he examined the weapon. Though both Human and Krogan turned their heads at the sound of Vasir's laughter, "Nice to see you've learned that the fastest way to a Krogan's heart is through their gun rack."

Wrex for his part just shot the Asari a grin, "Which heart, Tela?"

That just earned a good-natured chuckle from Vasir, who quickly cleared a space in the middle of the room in order to lift a tactical display that had been sitting in the corner, "Okay, as most of the galaxy is aware of Anhur is engaged in a civil war. The planet is in a strange legal gray area, as it began as a Batarian colony but technically once they withdrew their embassy from the Citadel any colony not inside Batarian space as up for grabs."

She clicked on the display, which highlighted the planet in various colors, "Which is where a number of human mining concerns entered our little tale. They used this status to effectively have the planet declared a corporate world, like Noveria in practice, and pretty much thumbed their noses at both Citadel Space and the Systems Alliance."

Wrex let out a long yawn, "Vasir, just tell me who I'm shooting."

Tela glanced at Shepard, who just shrugged, "I've already looked over the reports, if he doesn't want the background information why bother."

Letting out a slight sigh Vasir nodded, "Anhur is dotted with space elevators connected to orbiting stations, now the stations are designed to target anything they deem as hostile to protect the Eezo deposits on the planet below. This has resulted in the campaign having to be fought as a ground war, with only low level air support like gunships being able to operate in the planet's atmosphere."

Evalyn tapped the station that they were going to dock with, "I want to see if I can override the safeties, if I can do that it would give us at the very least better tactical options in the area around abolitionist HQ."

Vasir frowned at that, "Do you really think they are just going to let you poke around in their systems? The only reason they accepted our help is because the Broker informed them that the Na'Hesit had paid for Eclipse through several Batarian banks."

"Did you think I was going to ask?" Eva tilted her head in confusion, causing Wrex to guffaw, "She's got a point, Vasir."

Eva glanced at the station, "There is a secondary security hub in the lower sections of the station, I'll travel alongside the outside of the station and enter through one of the maintenance hatches."

Vasir nodded at the plan, but her lips quirked into a frown as she realized something, "And how exactly are you supposed to join us on the surface? I can't see the abolitionists just letting you use the elevator after you snuck on to their station."

"We'll leave my ship outside of their scanner range, when everything is all set I'll signal it and then I'll just fly down and join you."

Wrex went to speak but Vasir cut him off, "Okay, that can work. The abolitionists have been pushed back to only a handful of urban centers, the Na'Hesit have a tentative hold on the rest of the planet."

Vasir pointed at the three abolitionist zones, all of the yellow area were cut off from the others by lines of red on the tactical display, "The abolitionists have more men than the Na'Hesit, but their supply lines are a mess along with the fact they have no idea what they are doing."

Wrex smirked at that, "I suppose that is why you wanted me here."

Blue lips quirked into a smirk, "Who better to teach them how to wage war, then a battlemaster?"

S&S

Vasir and Wrex both exited their ships and stepped into the stations primary hanger, only to be greeted by a less than enthusiastic crowd of what she would charitably call armed thugs.

Letting out a sigh the Asari approached the closest human, a man in slightly better armor than the rest of his group along with sporting a large amount of fur on his face, "I'm Spectre Vasir, and this is Urdnot Wrex, it is my understanding that we are supposed to meet with a Henry Mills?"

The human in front of her just growled, "We don't need any xeno help, despite what the boss says." All that earned him though was a sigh and a biotic kick directly to his groin, his men reacted too slow to be a threat but she summoned a barrier and let their civilian model weapons ping harmlessly off of it anyway.

"Okay, you can either bring me to wherever Mr. Mills is, or I can find him myself while Wrex here gets to find out how human tastes like."

The Krogan just snorted at that, "Like I don't already know."

Pointing at the two least moronic looking of the bunch Vasir began to bark orders, "You two idiots are going to bring us to the space elevator, the rest of you are going to go back to whatever the hell it is you are supposed to be doing."

Giving the still prone man one last kick, she added, "And someone take him to a med-bay."

Both Asari and Krogan trailed after their guides through the station, Vasir trying to mask the unease she was feeling. Wrex though caught on to it quite quickly, "Yep, I feel it too. Something is off."

Vasir nodded, muttering quietly as they came into view of the massive industrial device that would take them down to the planet below, "Here's hoping that Lady doesn't have any complications."

S&S

Eva let out a growl as she slowly maneuvered her way across the surface of the station. It would have been a simple matter of just moving to the nearest maintenance hatch had they not all turned out to have been sealed shut and powered down.

She was honestly impressed with that level of paranoia, but at the same time she was furious because it meant that she had to travel to a docking bay that was even further out of the way and infiltrate through there.

Or at least that had been the plan, but one that was altered as she quickly changed course when one of the nearby doors showed signs that it was in a low power state.

Frowning the human maneuvered closer to the door, and a quick glance at the schematics revealed that this hatchway would grant one of the swiftest routes to the security hub which was her target.

Drawing the simplest conclusion she drew her pistol into her left hand and entered the airlock, carefully disabling the monitoring systems so that whoever was in the security hub wouldn't be alerted to her approach. Once the room had pressurized she began to advance cautiously through a series of narrow metal corridors that were only lit by sporadic emergency lighting.

Just before she reached the hub she paused as she could hear a voice coming from up ahead, while a quickly glance around the final corner to her destination she found that the hub's security door had been forcibly opened.

Which meant that she likely wasn't dealing with a human hacker, as they would be more than familiar with how to override the station's security.

She moved as silently as she could until she was in position by the door, and began the process of listening in on her target, "Just tell Sederis to be calm, Jaroth, I'll be through the monkey's security systems in half an hour. I'll fire off a pulse through the emergency sensor relay to let the attack group know to move in."

An annoyed huff replied to that, though there was an electronic quality that meant that this 'Jaroth' was obviously talking on comm's, "Just get it done, Jaergan, you might be my brother but that won't stop Sederis from killing us both if you screw this up." There was a noticeable pause before the voice returned, "We're moving up to the forward artillery site, don't fuck this up for me, Jaergan!"

A scoff emerged from the Salarian in the room, who was oblivious to the armored form that had slipped into the space behind him. As Evalyn pushed her pistol to the back of his head, the Salarian stiffening like a board, she couldn't help but smirk, "Apes."

The Salarian could hardly stutter out a confused, "What?" Before Eva slammed the butt of her pistol on to the Salarian's skull, causing him to slump limply to the floor, "Humans share an ancestor with apes, not monkeys."

Glancing at what the Salarian had managed to accomplish she was pleased to see that he had been greatly overestimating his own skills, but she was confident that it was possible for her to meet the thirty-minute deadline he had mentioned.

A quick search of the area found the transmitter he had been talking about, and she couldn't help but grin at the plan that quickly formed in her mind. "Vasir, do you read me?"

She waited several moments but no response came, which mean that she and Wrex were probably down on the planet's surface.

Sighing she went to work on doing the job she had came to do in the first place, "Guess they'll just have to handle whatever Eclipse has planned down there."

S&S

Vasir blinked at the sudden flash of light as they exited the into the open streets surrounding the elevator, a deafening crack sounding in the air at the same time, "Athame's tits what was that?"

One of the men guiding them glanced up as though he hadn't noticed it, "Artillery barrage, they had tried to use accelerator cannons in the beginning but we just targeted them with the Cities point defense guns. So, they purchased these giant Krogan artillery guns and have been shelling us ever since," the man gave a loose shrug, "You just kind of get used to it after so long. I don't know why they bother as the city's kinetic barrier is too strong for them to break through."

Both Vasir and Wrex exchanged a worried glance at that, but they continued to follow the pair as they led them to a hardened bunker that was only a few blocks deeper into the city from where the elevator had deposited them.

Along the way Vasir had noticed a troubling fact, "There seems to be a lot of civilians here."

The same guide from before answered her, "Most people here were those effectively turned into slaves when they abolished the minimum wage, contracts to work suddenly turned into legally binding ownership overnight."

"All the raw labor in the Na'Hesit cities are being fueled by slave labour, some of them are brought in from Batarian space but most of them were just those who couldn't make it to our territory." Guide number two's grizzled voice supplied the additional commentary.

Another pair of armored humans approached them, a male and female in full armor, "These the visitors that Henry's been waiting for?"

"Yeah, her Spectre credentials passed inspection. There was a bit of an incident on the station, but aside for Jorm's ego everything is fine."

The helmed woman's head shifted, "And the Krogan?"

Wrex just barred his teeth in a grim mockery of a smile, "I handle public relations."

Vasir just shook her head in amusement as they continued into the facility, the inside of the building was a flurry of activity of maintenance and upkeep of the weapons of war, "Reminds me of my home on Tchunka, smells like it too."

Vasir ignored the Krogan's comment, instead focussing on what was going on around them. These people were too relaxed, which meant they had gotten complacent with the state of things.

Never a good sign when you are going to be fighting a war with them.

They passed out of the maintenance section and found themselves in what must be the hub of the abolitionist efforts, a trio of humans, two males and one female, were clustered around a tactical display though that was quickly shut off when the pair of aliens were spotted.

What she took to be the oldest human male stepped forward, she had been told that silver hair denoted age in humans, and extended his hand toward her, "I'm pleased to see that you arrived safe and sound, Spectre Vasir, my name is Henry Mills, and it is a pleasure to meet you."

The Asari didn't take the offered hand, instead she took a few moments to study the man. He, unlike most around him, had the raw edge that sustained panic brought out, but he was obviously forcing himself to appear to be in control for the sake of his people. She frowned as she realized that the entire room had stopped their duties to observe the exchange, "Mr. Mills, I think that it would be best if this exchange take place somewhere else."

As Mills took a quick glance around the room he realized that she was right, and with a quick gesture the other man who had been at the tactical table stepped forward, "Miles here will bring you to one of our briefing rooms, Josephine and I will join you shortly."

The Asari gave a short nod and she and Wrex fell in step behind the human, though as they moved deeper into the complex she noticed that the man seemed uncharacteristically nervous. Shooting Wrex a subtle glance, which he reciprocated with a gentle nod of his head, let her know that she wasn't imagining the human's nervousness.

"Miles, wasn't it?" The man practically jumped out of his skin, stopping his forward movement as he jerked around to look at the Asari, but he managed to bring back a semblance of composure soon enough, "Yes, Ma'am, is there, uh, something I can help you with?"

Vasir took a step closer, she wasn't overly tall for her species but she was tall enough in her armor to be firmly in a position of power, "Everyone here seems rather, relaxed, except for you, care to enlighten me as to why?"

The human, to his credit, seemed to fine some backbone, as his jaw tightened and he fixed his gaze with her own, "I'm in charge of our supply situation, Spectre, I need to ensure that not only do we have what we need to fight but also that we can keep our population fed." The man let out a snort, "You try telling a bunch of civilians who can't comprehend that we're fighting a war for their freedom that they have to ration water, or that they need to share living spaces."

The man pivoted on his heel, "So yes, I'm worried, Spectre, and unlike the others I don't simply get to live in the moment and be happy for it. I have to live thinking about how we are going to get to the next day, and the day after that, and then the day after that." Vasir didn't bother to respond to the man's statement, instead simply fell in line behind him again.

But she could tell that both she and Wrex were of a single mind here, that the man in front of them was nervous for very different reasons.

They entered a small conference room, though their guide was surprised to find that it wasn't empty, "Isabel, what are you doing in here?!"

A young human likely in the middle of her second decade by Vasir's reckoning, and dressed rather plainly aside for an ornate choker around her neck, was sitting at the conference table going over what looked to be logistics reports, "Father asked me to look over our inventory lists, he's worried about how we keep running into shortages unexpectedly."

Miles' eyes glanced around worriedly, "Yes, well we need this room for the meeting with the Spectre, so if you could leave." The man's voice suddenly became far more stern, "Now."

A flicker of confusion crossed the girl's face, "Weren't there supposed to be two Spectres?"

A reply never came as the sound of alarms began to fill the room while amber emergency lighting flicked to life, and, as if they had been laying in wait, small squad of armed humans charged into the room.

Of course, they had severely underestimated both Vasir and Wrex, as Vasir biotically charged into the largest concentration of them, while Wrex simply grabbed a device from his belt with a single toss destroyed one of the doors that the hostiles were issuing out of.

Tela's body glowed as she lashed out with biotically enhanced attacks, grinning slightly when she snapped one human's arm in two who was stupid enough to try and punch her.

"That's enough, Spectre!" Blue eyes turned to find that their guide had produced a gun, but instead of aiming at the asari it was instead aimed at the girl who seemed to be in an almost stupor.

"One more move and the girl dies!"

That threat though was met by a dark chuckle from Wrex, "And? She's not our kid."

"Wrex," Tela's growled reply caused the Krogan to glance at her, before giving a loose shrug as he replied, "What, it's true."

The girl, Isabel, seemed to snap out of her trance, her mouth twisting in anger, "She bought you off, didn't she? You bastard!" As the girl fought in the man's grip Vasir realized that the man was more interested in keeping control of the girl, than he was in watching either her or Wrex.

Which meant that she was the most important element in the room to him, and it also meant she didn't think twice to pull her gun and shoot the human in his kneecap.

Wrex moved forward with a degree of speed that would surprise most given his bulk, kicking away the now prone human's weapon. Vasir in the meanwhile had approached the girl who was far more composed than the asari expected, "Are you alright, child?"

The human simply gave a curt nod, "This isn't the first time I've been kidnapped, or threatened." The room suddenly became bathed in a crimson glow, causing the girl to glance around in worry, "That means everyone is to evacuate the building, what's going on?"

Vasir pushed past the girl and dropped into a crouch near Miles, her eyes turning onyx as she forcibly linked her own mind with the terrified human. Normally she wouldn't do this with an audience, but quite frankly she was positive she didn't have the time to wait.

It wasn't hard to pull the information she wanted, as the man's terror and panic made him unable to effectively fight against her intrusion. Satisfied she had all she needed the asari pushed herself to her feet, turning to face the Krogan, "Wrex, I need you to head back to that command room and protect those people."

The battlemaster simply nodded, "And you're going where?"

Vasir pulled up a map Eva had managed to find from the colony records, "Eclipse is shelling the town. Apparently, they have an inside man over in the generator complex so that is where I'm heading."

Both broker agents began to head off, only to be halted as the human girl shouted, "Wait! What am I supposed to do!?"

"Hide." The Krogan's response just earned a scowl from the child, who picked up Miles' gun with a purpose, "I can help, and I know my way around here better than you." Vasir was about to argue when Wrex just shrugged, "Fine, if you get killed though it isn't my fault."

Tela opened her mouth to argue but a sudden quake shook the building, and the realized that was the likely just the first of many shells that would be on their way if she didn't hurry.

S&S

Eva was finishing up altering the station's targeting parameters when a groan signalled the awakening of her Salarian guest, the amphibian's eyes blinked several times before he recoiled at the sight of himself in her mirror like helmet.

Instead of reacting with fear though that Salarian puffed himself up, "Do you know who I am! Once my brother finds out that you've double crossed him you'll regret this!"

A smirk pulled at her lips, "So, the station's personnel were bought off. Nice of you to confirm that for me, I guess I won't be leaving you in their care like I had originally considered."

Turning away from the Salarian she finished her final alterations, "Tess, you ready?"

She had managed to piggyback through the station's systems to establish a link with Tess, the A.I herself was still in Eva's ship that was slowly drifting toward the station in low power mode to avoid attention.

"Yes, Ma'am, I've analyzed all available material I could find."

Her helmet bobbed as she nodded at the answer, before moving her hand over and triggering the beacon the Salarian had setup prior to her arrival. The Spectre had expected maybe either no response, or a professional reply, not the sudden tirade that erupted from the speakers, "That took you long enough Jaergan, we're already begun the assault."

The Salarian made to shout, but the sight of the Spectre's drawn weapon, along with the slight shake of her head, quieted the alien. It didn't surprise her that he valued his own life so highly, few mercenaries, and even fewer in Eclipse, were willing to put their own lives on the line for their fellows.

Even if they were family it seemed.

"You can't rush a job like this, Jaroth." Jaergan's eyes widened at the sound of his own voice issuing from the communications system, and Eva had to concede that Tess was doing a great job impersonating the Salarian.

A growl emerged from Jaroth on the other end of the line, "Whatever, just make sure that you lie low until we send up a squad to secure the station. We haven't bought off enough of the station's staff for you to just go strolling about, understood?"

"Yeah, I understand." With that the line went dead, and the blonde reached forward to pull the Salarian to his feet. It took her a moment to grab his helmet which she shoved into his hands, "I'd put that one if I were you."

The amphibian wordlessly complied, only to have his hands quickly cuffed together behind his back by the Spectre, "I hope you sealed that helmet properly, otherwise you aren't going to enjoy what comes next."

Eva marched the Salarian back through the route that both of them had taken to infiltrate the station, and as they waited for the airlock to cycle she let out a tutting noise when tried to move for the blade hidden in his armor, "Go for your blade, and you'll find out exactly how long it takes to suffocate in the void of space."

Reaching forward she plucked the weapon from the small of his back, and shoved him backwards out of the now open hatch and into the zero-gravity environment. As stealth was no longer her primary concern pushed herself out into the void, grabbing the Salarian as she went, and relying on her suit's retrothrusters to swiftly move about the station's exterior to the rendezvous that she and Tess had setup earlier.

Drifting up to the Shanxi, Eva shoved the Salarian into the passenger seat before activating the restraints that she had installed into the chair; just in case.

As she maneuvered herself into the pilot's seat she couldn't help but let a satisfied smirk form on her features, "We're just in time for the show, Jaergan."

The show in question was the small armada of fighters and bombers, that were all emblazoned with the Eclipse logo, making its way past the station and into the planets atmosphere. Or at least that had been the original plan, but as the opening salvos of the station's weapons ripped into the vulnerable ships the Eclipse pilots began to panic.

Content that that problem was handled satisfactorily Eva began the process of quickly booting up the Shanxi, and as the cockpit lit up to full power the ship darted forward; ignored by the station's guns as it did so.

The canopy automatically dimmed to counter the heat and brightness of atmospheric re-entry, while Tess handled closing the flaps and swinging the ships wings back to limit drag, "Ma'am, we're about four minutes from arrival at the combat zone."

Eva nodded lightly, "Any idea of what the situation is on the ground?"

"From what I've managed to glean from the station's long range cameras Eclipse has moved in with several mantis gunships that are flying below the station's range. As well it appears that the cities defensive systems are offline, along with large portions of the cities power grid."

Shaking her head, the human muttered, "Tela what the fuck are you doing down there." Seeing that they were nearly into the combat zone she took manual control of the ship, a handful of button presses shifting the wings into a forward delta formation as the ship's weapon systems warmed up.

Her display lit up with the battleground ahead of her, "Tess, load up Sebastian Bach's sixth Brandenburg concerto," a grim smile pulled at her lips as she acquired a missile lock on one of the unaware Eclipse ships, "I like to have some music for the one dance I know."

And Eva had always been very skilled when it came to waging war.

S&S

Tela glanced skyward to see one of the hostile airships crash into a nearby skyscraper, quickly followed as a blur of blue and white streaked through the air signalling the arrival of Shepard, "Athame's tits it took you long enough."

The Spectre though didn't have time to waste on the human's tardiness, and instead continued her mad dash across the city as she biotically leapt from rooftop to rooftop to avoid the fighting below.

Certainly, the abolitionists could use her help, but getting to the generators was a far more pressing concern than saving a few scattered lives.

The asari came to a skidding halt as she found that she had run out of roof, as a wide plaza spread out before her that was absolutely crawling with soldiers adorned in Eclipse yellow, along with a gunship that was lazily hovering above them. Letting out a low curse the Spectre tried to raise Shepard on their comm net, "Lady, I'm stuck across from the generator plaza and I need in their as quickly as possible."

There was a delay of several seconds before Tela heard a muffled detonation in the distance, "Alright, I'm on my way but I don't have any air to ground munitions so I can't guarantee how effective this will be."

"I just need you to distract them." Tela's body rippled with biotic energy as she dropped to the ground below, one of the Eclipse troopers spotting her only for the gunship to lurch as it was struck by two large accelerator rounds from Shepard's ship. The troopers scattered to avoid being crushed by the falling vehicle, only to fail to notice the twin payloads that the passing human fighter had dropped as it cruised by.

Tela waited until the two missiles that Shepard had dropped in her attack run detonated before she took off. The Eclipse members in the plaza itself were still recovering and so they weren't a threat, but there were still some that were in front of the generator complex itself.

She pulled the shotgun from the small of her back, the 'legal' weapon in her hands was a human designed Eviscerator that technically broke several weapon treaties.

Luckily as a Spectre she didn't have to pay much attention to regulations.

As such the weapon in her hands dealt out precise death from a range far longer than other weapons in its class would deal. The asari grabbed an arc grenade from her belt and lobbed it at one collection of foes, while she reached deep into her reserves to engulf the rest of the troopers within a singularity.

After that it was a simple, but messy, task of eliminating the remaining hostiles.

Approaching the closest hatch, she frowned as she realized the doors were still sealed along with evidence that Eclipse had been trying to force the doors open, "That's odd."

"If you can interact with the panel I believe I can open the door for you, Spectre."

Vasir recoiled from the unfamiliar voice, her body flaring as she prepared to attack whomever had snuck up on her.

"Spectre, I'm talking to you over your comm implant. This is Tess, Lady's," there was a brief pause that caused Vasir to grin slightly, "assistant."

The asari let out a slight snort at that, it was an open secret at this point that Eva was using an A.I but it was fine by her if it helped the mission get done faster.

Tela placed an armored hand on the hatch's interface, and was quickly rewarded by it flashing green before swiftly opening to reveal an empty hall, "Well, I guess you are useful."

The asari pushed deeper into the complex, the A.I informing her of where the control room for this type of building would be. What put the Spectre on edge though was the lack of any Eclipse presence despite her finding the occasional body, all of them killed by low power civilian weapons.

Finding the door to the control room sealed shut Tela let the A.I do its thing again, and voices soon filled the air as the hatch opened, "I don't know what Mark did but this virus is like nothing I've ever seen."

Waltzing into the room Tela brought her weapon to bear on the two humans who were busy working at a pair of terminals in the room, "Alright you two, hands over your head and back up towards the rear of the room."

She was certain that one of them probably pissed himself, as they spun to face her only for them to halt when they saw the emblem on her shoulder, "A Spectre? Thank god."

One of the men began to walk forward his shoulders slumping in relief, only to be slammed into the ceiling with a lift field by an annoyed asari, "I don't know you two, I don't trust you either." Giving her weapon a slight shake she gestured to the back of the room again, before aiming at the still upright human, "Now, back of the room. And bring your friend with you."

Moving slowly forward as the human dragged his friend back to the indicated position the asari scowled as she realized she had no idea how she was supposed to get the generator back online, she had merely been hoping to clear a path and have Shepard fix this mess.

Assuming the A.I was still listening in the asari took a shot in dark, "Tess, do you think you can try and get things running from there?"

"Yes, though you will need to maintain physical contact with the terminal for me to interact with their systems. The portion of my programming that I copied into your suit's systems is limited in its capabilities."

Nodding as she placed her hand on the terminal in front of her, Vasir frowned as she realized what the intelligence had just said, "You did what to my suit?"

S&S

Isabella trailed behind the large alien, a Krogan if her textbooks had been correct. Most of the aliens she had encountered were Batarians and the occasional Asari, and while she knew what the other Council races looked like she had never met one of them before.

"Keep back," the alien's gruff voice caused her to instantly halt, and as he slipped around the corner a duo of retorts sounded off followed by a sickening crunch and the whine of metal warping. When no other sound came, the girl moved up to the corner and her eyes widened at the sight before her.

The Krogan's shoulder was stuck in the wall, covered in blood as he had seemingly decapitated the hostile human using only his bulk and speed. Grunting with effort the alien freed himself, and his hands mechanically replaced the thermal clip in the gun he was using. The urge to gag rose in the girl's throat, but that sensation went away as one of the red creature's reptilian eyes shifted to land squarely on her, "Better get used to the sight of blood, kid, you've already been marked by death."

With that cryptic sentence said the Krogan began to plod forward again, his head constantly shifting as he waited for threats to appear from every angle, "Junction up ahead, left, or right?"

Biting back the small gasp that wanted to escape the girl squeaked out, "Right," only to find her nerve and ask the Krogan another question, "What did you mean before, about being marked by death."

The Krogan, gave a loose shrug of his armored shoulders, "It means that your life is going to be dominated by death, same as that other Spectre that's with Vasir." The Krogan suddenly stopped, his nostrils flaring, "Hmm, I can smell a Salarian. Guess Eclipse is in the building now."

Isabella frowned at that, "Then that means they must have my Father, this hall ends right in front of the war room."

"He could have escaped; Eclipse would have taken that room over with or without your Father."

The human shook her head, "He would have detonated this whole section of the building first, this war room has limited control over the other independent cities."

Shaking his head the Krogan sighed, "That seems like a terrible plan," shifting his eyes skyward the Krogan nodded at one of the ducts, "You small enough to fit in that?"

"Yes," the girl's answer was cautious, as she could see where it was going, "But I can't do much with just a pistol."

Shaking his head the Krogan flared a small pulse of biotic energy in his hand, "I want you to use that power in your blood, I don't care if you actually hit anyone with it I just want you to give me a window to take out anyone in that room."

Before she could argue the girl found herself being hoisted into the small space, her personal omni tool quickly cutting a gap through the access panel. Once inside she glanced down at the Krogan, who tapped his omni-tool, "Signal me once you are in position, then I'll tell you when to start the diversion."

Nodding the human began to crawl through the duct, wondering how the Krogan had known about her biotic potential. Her hand trailed to the ornate choker at her neck, which was an asari designed non-invasive amp that her Mother had acquired for her. It turned out that getting pregnant and then raising a child on a planet that had an ambient level of eezo far beyond the national average can produce both powerful biotics and an incredibly high infant mortality rate.

Isabella had been one of the few lucky enough to develop stable biotic ability, but her Mother had always insisted that she keep her abilities hidden to present 'the best face' possible.

She halted her movements when voices began to drift from ahead, voices which only became more clear as the slowly edged her way closer to the war room.

"Team two still hasn't reported back, that's the third team we've lost contact with." There was an odd reverberation to the voice of whomever was talking, which made Isabella think that it might be a Turian who was talking, "I say we cut out losses, kill the old man, and take the Na'Hesit's bounty."

"We're not deciding anything until we find out what happened to the girl, she's worth triple the Hesit bounty and do you think that human bitch is going to pay us if we tell her we also shot her Husband?"

She edged to the access panel that looked down into the room below, triggering the beacon on her omni as she did. Glancing down through the metal slats she found a Salarian tapping away at a terminal below, while a turian and a pair of asari were standing near a group of prisoners. As her eyes tried to find her Father she had to supress a gasp as she spotted Josephine's glassy eyed body that had been tossed into a corner, tears pricked at her eyes as she remembered how the woman had tried to comfort her in the days right after everything had gone to hell.

And now she was dead, just like that.

"Come in, control, we just found team three. They're dead same as the rest, whoever did it looks to be moving towards you." An annoyed sigh emerged from the amphibian at the terminal, "Control here, all teams are to pull back to this position."

The shifty alien twisted to follow the Turian, who had begun to stomp to portion of the room that Isabella couldn't readily see, "I'm just saying, if we off the human now we've got a guaranteed pay-day. Even if we find the girl later do you really think the bitch won't pay if we threaten to sell her kid off to the Bats?"

"Even the dull knife occasionally can draw blood," one of the asari interjected from their position covering the room, causing a confused, "huh," to emerge from the Turian.

Letting out a huff the Salarian stood up, "She's saying you're an idiot, but that even idiots can be right on occasion." Making his way toward the Turian the amphibian pulled a pistol from his belt, "Get him on his feet, its more fun to watch them fall than slump."

The Turian bent over and quickly stood back up, but he had pulled her father up with him, causing a whispered, "No," to emerge from the girl.

She tried to dig into those biotic reserves that she had been taught to suppress, but the power was slippery and unwilling to come to the fore. So, she did the next thing that came to mind, and threw herself on to the access panel causing her to tumble into the room below. Any hope of mounting a rescue went out the window as her head struck one of the desks below, causing the room to spin and lights to blur across her vision.

Frowning the Salarian cocked his head at one of the Asari, who quickly crossed the room and had the girl slammed against a nearby wall. As a blue hand mercilessly moved her head to get a better look at her, the Asari's smile only widened, "Savat, it seems like our brave maiden here decided to save us the trouble of finding her."

The Turian and the Salarian began to speak animatedly, but Isabella's head was still too confused to make them out. Instead her world only came into focus when a single retort filled the room, followed by the sickening thud of a body collapsing to the ground.

She bit down on the Asari's hand and tried to charge across the room, only to be intercepted by a backhand from the Salarian which knocked her to the floor, "I'd behave girl, unless you want to end up like your sire."

His words though barely registered in her mind, as her entire vision, no her entire world, was taken up by the dull eyed vision of her father, "Daddy?"

When no response came, her world seemed to suddenly turn sideways. Colors no longer seemed to match up to what she could recall, and the power that had always lain dormant in her woke up.

The Salarian caught the first blow, nothing more than a hammer blow of biotic force that sent him careening through the room. The Turian was next, as she once again lashed out with an attack that was nothing but rage, and brute force, slamming him upwards and shattering his neck.

The pair of Asari had recovered by this point, and Isabella's attempt to use her biotics on them were brushed aside by their far more refined barriers. The alien that she had bit strutted up to the human girl, and with a pleased grin on her face smashed her bleeding hand into the human's face.

Isabella tumbled to the ground, but she looked up in time to see the large hole bloom in the middle of the asari's chest and the alien to collapse to the ground just in front of her.

She turned her head to see, and hear, Wrex bellow a challenge at the remaining blue woman, his crimson eyes alight with rage as he brushed aside the Asari's feeble attacks. It was at that point that she tried to run, but that only resulted in the Krogan blowing a hole in one of her legs, "I was going to offer you the chance to face the end with honor, but you would prefer to die like a coward."

Sliding a new clip into his gun the Krogan lowered it so that it was facing the still struggling asari, "Any last words, Sister of Eclipse?"

"Burn in hell you sterile, bastard!"

As a trigger pull ended her life the Krogan gave a slight shake of his shoulders, "Not bad as far as last words go." His head tilted to regard the human struggling to her feet, "You were supposed to wait for my signal," but the girl had simply walked past him, and with shaking hands she checked her father's body for a pulse.

"Please, Daddy."

A wheeze from the corner of the room drew her attention, and as she saw the struggling form of the Salarian her body began to move forward before her mind ever realized what was happening. The alien's body was badly broken from the sheer force of her attack, but even still he was more alive than her own father was.

She wasn't sure what she was going to do, before she felt a cold object being pushed against the side of her arm. Glancing down she saw that Wrex was offering her a pistol, a strange understanding glimmered behind his alien eyes, "He owes you a blood price."

And as her hand curled around the butt of the weapon, she realized how right that Krogan was.

S&S

Eva cursed as she let out picked off another Eclipse trooper who thought that getting in her way was a good idea.

Tess had discovered that Eclipse had not only planted a virus in the generator complex, but they had done the same thing to the defense emplacements. Which meant that if they turned the power on then, potentially, her ship might get blown out of the sky by the abolitionist's weapon systems.

Which would not be a win in her book.

Another trooper popped out in front of her, but he was eliminated swiftly by one of the multilegged drones that she had let loose when she had engaged in ground combat. These assault drones, unlike the quartet that hovered around her, weren't linked into her own internal network. Instead they were basically fire and forget weapons that roamed the battlefield, locking down any enemy combatants they encountered by hacking their armor's subsystems.

The Spectre was forced to throw herself backwards as a string of heavy accelerator rounds tore into the air she had previously occupied, "Damn it, Tess, get me another route to that secondary hub. They've bunkered down this junction!"

She would have considered an airstrike, but she had made the call to have the Shanxi go and perform a bombing run on the artillery site that the Na'Hesit were operating.

That might have been a mistake.

Further musing was interrupted when a sudden cry of panic rose out of the Eclipse formation, and a quick glance revealed that Wrex, trailed by a young human biotic, had essentially slammed into the rear of the yellow clad enemy.

"Serendipity at work." Hefting her sabre Eva took off at a run, direction her drones to split up and surround the enemy forces to maximize the enemy's confusion. A brief application of biotic power along with her cybernetic leg allowed her to easily clear the metal barricade that had been erected in the street, landing her just behind the soldiers who were still focussed on the attacking Krogan.

Several rounds later and she was the only soul on the raised platform, and with a wry grin she braced herself as she wrenched the heavy accelerator canon off its mount. Now these weapons were supposed to be used by battle suits, or at the very least a Krogan, but between her biotics and her cybernetics she could maneuver the weapon with minimal difficulty.

Plus, there was something incredibly satisfying as she unleashed hell upon the remaining Eclipse forces.

The rest of the fight was little more than a rout, and soon she found herself facing off with the Krogan who was now cradling the canon in his stubby arms, "Who's the kid?"

"Henry Mills' kid, he's dead." If the girl took offense to the Krogan's remark she was remarkably good at showing it, though Eva supposed she could still be in some form of shock. She recalled that she had been much the same way after her mother's 'death.' She had been so drugged out following her Father's death that she could hardly remember much, they hadn't even waited for her to recover before they held the funeral.

Harrison Shepard, galaxy's least empathetic grandfather.

"Alright, our objective is to get to the secondary security hub so I can get the cities defenses back up and running. Once that's done then Tela can get the power back on and this turns into a cleanup operation." Quickly updating both Wrex and the girl's displays with the updated destination she began to move, "Any questions?"

When none were forthcoming she nodded grimly, "Good."

S&S

"Are you out of your fucking mind!"

Eva didn't care that it would be obvious to anyone listening in that she was speaking in her native accent, as her rage was causing her to revert to her natural tongue. Tela for her part just sighed from her spot in the battered command center the two spectres had set up, "I understand your reservations about this plan."

"Plan? I don't think you mind fucking everyone is much of a plan." The human suddenly spun and slammed her fist into the wall, burying the steel several inches inside the wall as her chest heaved, "This is wrong, Tela."

A faint click signalled that Vasir had set down the datapad she had been browsing, "Maybe, but so is that A.I of yours, so is the fact that this planet doesn't have a minimum wage." A sigh filled the room, "Look, the galaxy is full of things that are wrong, and sometimes," another sadder sigh emerged from the asari, "a lot of the time, the only way we can fight against a larger wrong is by engaging in smaller wrongs ourselves."

Vasir placed a hand lightly on the human's shoulder, "I'll mark down your objection to this on my report, but as the senior Spectre this is my call." Moving back to the desk the alien shot another glance at her 'partner,' "Maybe you should go for a walk, clear your head."

Nodding mutely the human grabbed her helmet on the way out, her footsteps carrying through hallways of people who leapt to get out of her way.

Not so different from the last time she had been on Arcturus she supposed.

Eventually she found herself standing next to the grizzled old Krogan, who in turn was observing the human girl who was surrounding herself with a biotic aura in a cleared off area on the building's roof, "Wrex."

An amused huff emerged from the Battlemaster, "Lady." They stood in silence for another few moments before the Krogan broke it, "Does your species put much stock in blood, Spectre? Do you measure yourself by those who have preceded you?"

Tilting her head at the thought she had to concede that yes, humans still did put a great deal of faith in blood and legacy, "I suppose that we do."

Wrex's jaw moved as though he were chewing on the information, "I thought so. My people remember the warlords of old, for all of their folly they did once close those hands around the throat of the galaxy." His head tilted towards her, "I find it strange to meet a human with the blood of a warlord who hides it."

"What makes you think that I am what you say I am?"

That caused a bellow of laughter from the Krogan, "You can't hide blood like that behind a fancy helmet." A grin swept across his craggy features, "Tell me, do you ever get the urge to force others to bend to you simply because you know you can?"

Evalyn stilled, as though she was suddenly uncomfortable in her own skin, which only drew another low chuckle from Wrex, "I thought so."

He took a few plodding steps towards Isabella, his unofficial trainee it seemed, before he glanced back at her, "I might be here because of Vasir, but I think the blood is what brought the two of us together."

Eva didn't say anything as she turned away, striding through corridors as she sought to put distance between herself and the ideas that Wrex had just tossed around at her.

She hadn't left the Alliance just to turn into what she had never wanted to become in the first place.

She could only pray that that was still true, even as she sent hardened soldiers scampering from her path oblivious to the small smile on her lips as they did so.

S&S

Credit Song: Prelude to War by Bear McCreary

Apologies for the delay here, but quite frankly this chapter was beyond a chore to write. If I felt that I could reasonably skip this section I would have, but I couldn't so here it is.

My thanks to all those readers, reviewers, and followers out there.