As they approached the rendezvous point for meeting with Warlord Okeer on Korlus, Wednesday called the field team to the conference room. When everyone but Mordin arrived, Wednesday made the short trip to his lab to talk to him.
"Mordin, you in this meeting or what?" she asked as she found him manipulating two holo-screens independently and tracking both simultaneously with this eyes.
"Can't, exciting breakthrough on Collector problem. Theorise have found way to hide from seekers," he said, even faster than usual. Wednesday looked around and found a mug with a thin film of brown liquid in the bottom, then looked back up at Mordin, who seemed to be vibrating slightly.
"Uh Mordin, did you have coffee recently?" she asked carefully. She had been trying to avoid bringing the hyper-active salarian into contact with any kind of caffeine in case his head exploded.
"No, just tea from Lurch. But prospect of successful test has released endorphins, other chemicals, into brain, stimulating alertness."
"Alright then, I'll leave you to it," Wednesday said as she put down the mug. As high-strung as he was right now he'd be no use in the field, where cool heads were the ones who won.
Back in the conference room, Garrus and Zaeed were arguing over bounties.
"Look, we know that Okeer's shacked up with the Blue Suns, why not make some profit on the deal, that's all I'm sayin'," Zaeed said.
"I'm with ugly here, if we're going to be killing them anyway, might as well get paid for it," Jack added.
"Garrus, don't tell me you actually have a problem with these bounties?" Wednesday asked incredulously.
"Not on principle, but if we keep on collecting on the Blue Suns bounties, sooner or later someone is going to connect the dots and start coming after us," Garrus reasoned. "We have enough problems with the Collectors and Cerberus, without Blue Suns and the like gunning for us as well."
"Good point Garrus. We'll have to be more circumspect with that particular aspect in the future. However in the meantime, since we're here and likely killing Blue Suns anyway, we'll take on any bounties we can."
"Just wanted to let you know what I thought," he replied. Wednesday turned to the holographic scan of the area they would be going into, and cocked her head at the lack of clarity and detail.
"EDI, what's with the hologram? Is the projector malfunctioning?" she asked to the ceiling.
"The holoprojector is running optimally Commander," the AI replied. "The reason for the indistinct image is that the area has a high concentration of derelict ship debris. The concentration of metals is distorting the fine-scale scanning abilities of the Normandy."
"Thanks EDI. Alright then, look like we're doing this the hard way," Wednesday replied, turning back to the fuzzy hologram. "Alright, since we don't know about any anti-air defences they might have around the tower it looks like the best way to do this is to split into two teams. Garrus and Zaeed, we'll plant you two here, south of the area. Make your way towards the central spire," she pointed to the tallest, and fuzziest, point on the hologram to demonstrate. "Meanwhile, Jack, Lurch and myself will insert here and do the same. Remember, we are looking for Okeer, who looks like this," she said as she brought up the picture from the Cerberus dossier.
His green eyes burned the camera, and his features looked old. It was usually hard to tell with krogan, who looked much the same from age 100 to age 1000, but this one looked positively ancient. It was the first time Wednesday had seen a krogan with wrinkles, that was for sure. She could feel the hairs on the back of her neck rising of their own accord as she thought on how formidable he would be. Krogan were tough, but even the best of them could be killed. There was a reason you didn't find many krogan over 1000, they tended to kill each other first. For Okeer to have reached his advanced age must mean that he was hard as nails. Or if she were from a different century of Earth's history, she would have described him thus: bent as the Soviet sickle and hard as the hammer that crosses it. The bastard had a reputation for being impossible to kill.
"We want him alive," Wednesday added. "He's got a millennium of military knowledge and is reputed to have dealings with the Collectors, so he is to be considered a high-value target. Any questions?"
"Yeah, what's my cut?" Jack asked brusquely.
"You'll get the credits for any confirmed kills you make today, according to whatever bounty we collect on," Wednesday replied. "Aside from that, if you find anything you want to take, either for trophies or credits later, feel free, but you have to carry it back to the ship. We're not pirates, we're not on a pleasure cruise, and we're here to work. So let's get to it!" Wednesday said, finishing the briefing.
As they got out of the shuttle and let it fly back to the Normandy-A under EDI's remote control, Wednesday pulled out her rifle, watching as Jack hefted her shotgun and Lurch held on to his two-handed cannon. She pressed a finger to her ear, activating the comm. channel to Zaeed and Garrus.
"Team Two, this is One, acknowledge."
"Two here," came Garrus' voice, slightly distorted. "Getting minor distortion on this channel."
"Same situation here. Maintain radio contact. Sabotage is encouraged."
"Understood. Two out." With that the channel closed, and Wednesday signalled to move forward. Jack rolled her eyes at the hand signals, but moved anyway.
As they rounded a corner, they heard a woman shouting over a PA system.
"I'm not paying you to lollygag, I'm paying you to put down these krogan. They are your example! As powerful as they are, they're expendable, and so are you!"
"She sounds like a real bitch," Jack muttered.
"That would probably be Jedore. The dossier mentioned that she was sponsoring whatever Okeer was doing here. There's a bounty on her as well," Wednesday said, catching the feral glint in Jack's eye that she understood.
They didn't get time to discuss it however, as the next corner revealed a Blue Suns patrol team. Both Jack and Wednesday used their biotics to charge into the enemy ranks, barriers sparking as the Blue Suns fired at them. Wednesday heard the characteristic roar of Lurch's weapon as it began firing, and she roughly tackled Jack and the Blue Suns merc she was about to shoot to the ground. Lurch sprayed the area with large-calibre rounds, obliterating any Blue Suns still standing. Once she heard the sound of the cannon stop, Jack punched Wednesday and threw her off with a biotic shove, ignoring the man who was now bleeding from a ricochet.
"What the hell, Shepard?!" Jack shouted. Wednesday just gestured at the dead bodies around them, all of which had large holes matching the deep impacts embedded at chest height in the structures around them. "Oh, right," she said lamely as she realised that Wednesday had just saved her life. The two of them turned back to the moaning and writhing human on the ground. Jack leaned in close to Wednesday after looking at the wound on his leg. "Superficial at best, it's not going to kill him. I can fix that," she said, holding up her shotgun with a grin.
"Not yet I think," Wednesday replied. She looked at the man's face, the poor guy was barely out of his teens, if that old. "Besides, he doesn't need to know that," she said with a smirk of her own. She walked over until her shadow fell over the young merc's face and he opened his eyes.
"I knew it wasn't the krogan, not at range. You're probably mercs, or the Alliance," he said. "I'm not telling you anything," he continued with more bravado than he probably actually had.
"I'm going to give you one chance to tell me what you know before I leave you to bleed out," Wednesday said in a chilling voice, and the man's pupils dilated involuntarily. "What the hell is going on here?" She squatted down so he could get a good look into her cold, emotionless eyes. He stared at them in horror for a few seconds before he broke.
"Jedore is having Okeer breed an army of krogan for her. But the ones he's giving her are insane, just like she is! We've been using them for live-fire training mostly. We were tracking a group of them heading east when you showed up," he blurted out in a terrified gibber.
"There, was that so hard?" Wednesday said condescendingly as she patted his shoulder. She was about to get up and continue when she heard a voice over a comm. channel, obviously meant for the patrol they'd just obliterated.
"Patrol Three this is Patrol Five. We're east of your position, requesting update on krogan, over."
"Aren't you going to answer that?" she asked dangerously.
"Patrol Five this is Patrol Three," he stammered, concentration breaking under Wednesday's stare. From the look in her eye, he knew that she wasn't someone to be messed with if he wanted to live. Patrol Five would have better chances of dealing with the krogan than the woman staring down at him with those cold, dead eyes. "Lost sight of the krogan two minutes ago, heading east."
"Damn it, Jedore's gonna be pissed."
"Look, you wanted a report, you got it!" he said sharply, his voice cracking slightly.
"Fine, Patrol Five out."
"They're going to walk right into krogan. I hope you're happy," he said as she stood.
"There are a lot of things that make me happy. Killing mercs is one of them. Now, why don't you run along and try and find a shady spot where you can bleed out in comfort?" With that she turned away, no longer caring about him and his pitiful life.
The other two formed up on her, following as she took them towards the central towering wreck, which also happened to be an eastward direction. Soon enough, they came upon the remains of what could be assumed to be Patrol Five, being taken down by a single krogan in ugly orange armour. They joined the fight as well, shooting the Blue Suns as Jedore came once again over the PA.
"Listen up everyone, we have confirmed that we have intruders. Kill them or be liquidated, financially and otherwise!" she shouted.
"So much for surprise," Jack muttered as she threw a warp at the last surviving Blue Sun, the unstable biotic field eating through his armour before the krogan ended his suffering with a shotgun blast. He turned on them, the barrel still smoking on his shotgun, when he did something surprising to everyone.
He put the shotgun away and then turned back to stare at the central tower, standing perfectly still. Wednesday approached cautiously, she had seen too many people die by underestimating a krogan, even one as peaceful-looking as this one. As she came into its vision arc she heard the krogan take a deep sniff, like he was smelling her, a predator evaluating prey.
"You are new... different. You don't smell like this world," he said, his voice deep and reverberating the air between them. Wednesday paused, uncertain about this development of an abstractly-thinking krogan so soon after a battle. Even Wrex, one of the oldest and most intelligent krogan she had ever met, was never this lucid immediately after a firefight. "Seven night cycles, and I felt only the need to kill. But you, something makes me speak."
"This thing's only a week old?" Jack asked in a disbelieving voice. "What kind of bullshit is that? Unless Okeer's skipping the whole childhood thing and pumping 'em out full grown, breeding them to kill."
"Good way to make an army quickly," Wednesday said in an agreeing tone.
"Bred... to kill?" the krogan said, turning his head towards them for the first time. "No, I kill because it is in my blood and bone. But that is not why I was rejected from Glass Mother."
"Rejected? You don't look wrong," Wednesday said.
"Survival is what I hear in my head, against the enemy that threatens all my kind. But I failed even before waking, and so was rejected. So now I wait here."
"Hmm, I'm guessing that voice was probably Okeer, and he taught you the basics like talking and combat," Wednesday mused. "But why reject you, you look perfectly healthy to me."
"I am not perfect, that is what the voice told me. I was raised to fight the genophage, but I was not perfect."
"Is Okeer trying to make a cure for the genophage?" Jack asked. "Wow, ballsy. Stupid and he ain't got a chance in hell it'll work, but ballsy."
"Cure? Cure was never whispered. Survive, resist, ignore, but not cure."
"Ok, now I got nothing," Jack said, throwing her hands up in defeat.
"Where can I find Okeer?" Wednesday asked.
"He is up, past many fleshy things and broken parts. You may go, but I will wait here. I will fight, but I will not run, nor follow. I will wait until called... released." With that, the enigmatic krogan returned his gaze to the tower, while Wednesday moved with Jack and Lurch towards a fallen piece of hull blocking the path.
There wasn't enough room for them to squeeze past, so Wednesday simply asked Lurch to move it. He rumbled as he placed two gigantic hands on the metal and heaved, creating a gap large enough to them all to go through. They turned a corner to find another group of mercenaries fighting a krogan. This time the krogan behaved as expected and turned on them, forcing Lurch to educate him on picking his enemies more wisely. Once they were at the base of the tower, Wednesday opened the channel to Garrus and Zaeed.
"Garrus, what's your position?"
"We crapped out Wednesday. We hit a dead end and can't make it to the tower. We did find a generator though, and we're in the process of sabotaging it. Then we'll double back and get picked up in the shuttle. Hopefully, taking out the generator will leave the tower open for us to insert there."
"Understood Garrus. Shepard out." She turned to Jack, the tattooed woman's eyes lighting up at the prospect of violence and credits coming her way instead of Garrus'. "Looks like it's just the three of us."
"Sounds like my kind of party!" Jack shouted.
The three of them entered the tower, finding the level they were on was little more than a giant hole with some slapped-together bridges made of old hull plates. The creators of the tower hadn't changed anything, just adapting an old wreck they'd found and appropriated. Wednesday's team came across more krogan, but between Jack and Wednesday's biotics, they created enough explosions to destabilise the charging reptilians and send them off the bridges to death far below.
As they crossed the bridge a Blue Suns merc came over an open channel, complaining about the krogan having taken out the generator and lamenting that Jedore and her personal guard were nowhere to be seen. Wednesday and Jack made their way up the tower, killing any Blue Suns that got in their way as they ascended. Finally, entered what could only be a lab, judging by the number of medical gurneys.
"Oh Goddess, you're supposed to be dead!" squeaked a vaguely familiar voice as Wednesday entered. Wednesday turned her head to the source, seeing an asari wearing a medical gown over her clothes.
"Do I know you?" Wednesday asked. She heard a strange beep from her omni-tool, and risked a quick glance to check the interface. She saw a small light flash purple, the signal from Fester's omni-tool indoctrination scanner.
"I'm Rana Thanoptis, we met on Virmire."
"Oh right, Saren's little pet neuroscientist. I wondered if you'd escaped the blast," Wednesday said. She smiled as she reached for a pocket in her armour, out of sight of the asari.
"Just barely! And even then, the radiation burns lasted for a month! Now, if you'll excuse me, I'd like to take this opportunity to escape before you nuke this place as well." She began to move past when Wednesday grabbed her roughly and injected her in the neck. The asari fell to her knees and cried out in pain as the substance quickly coursed through her veins. "What the hell did you just do to me?" she almost screamed.
"Just a little something to... clear your head," Wednesday said as she returned the injector to the armoured pocket before Rana saw it.
She didn't need to reveal to Jack or Rana that she had just injected the asari with Fester's improved anti-indoctrination gene mod injection. After visiting him, she decided to keep a dose for each species handy, just in case they ever came across more indoctrinated agents of the Reapers. It would still cause memory loss, but now it was only up to five years instead of the twenty it had cost Benezia, and with a much smaller dip in relative intelligence. Rana wouldn't feel the effects until she fell asleep, and then the next five years would be a massive blur. Wednesday figured that was probably the asari equivalent of a bad hangover, considering the respective lifespans, and resolved to have Chakwas synthesise more of the mods once she returned to the Normandy.
Wednesday watched detachedly as Rana got to her feet unsteadily and left, leaving them free to enter the lab further on. The doors opened automatically as Wednesday approached to reveal a pair of krogan. One who had to be Okeer, judging by the slight hunch in his posture and the lines visible on the side of his face. He was working away at a terminal linked to an incubation tank, which held the other krogan. Already clad in gleaming silver and blue armour, ice-blue eyes staring into nothing at the opposite wall, his hulking form gave Lurch a run for his money. The only krogan Wednesday had seen that had been more imposing was Wrex himself, and even then only just. As they stepped in, their footsteps ringing loudly, Okeer turned an eye to look at them.
"It's about time you got here. The batteries on this tank will not wait while you play with these idiotic mercs."
"At least we agree on something," Wednesday said. "I'm here to extract you Okeer."
"I thought as much," the old krogan grunted. "The formerly deceased Shepard is not a sign of gentle change. I'm sure Rana has already revisited your actions on Virmire."
"It is a good story," Wednesday confessed.
"Such a tale," Okeer said, arms wide as he told it, like a story of an ancient victory. "Saren the Traitorous threatens the return of the horde, undoing the genocide of the turians and salarians. Then in rides Shepard, who dashes his dreams with nuclear fire! I like that part in particular, it has weight."
"You know, not every krogan would approve of that part," Wednesday mused.
"But I do," Okeer replied quickly. "Saren's mistake, like so many others, is thinking of it as a simple numbers game. The mistake of an outsider. I do not want numbers, I want strength! I gave Jedore my rejects for her army, but methinks she begins to tire of them."
"If you know I'm here to extract you, you must have some idea why," Wednesday said.
"I suspect it has something to do with the Collectors targeting human colonies in the Terminus, and that you know of my dealings with them. Unfortunately, I can shed little light on that, my requests were focused elsewhere."
"Oh?"
"Yes, very strange beings, the Collectors. So isolated, yet so very available when your sacrifice is big enough. I have some information on them, but all the tech I bargained for was used up in the creation of this," he said, caressing the tank which held the monster krogan.
"What about the rejects and Jedore?" Jack asked.
"I gave her strong, healthy krogan, useless to me. If she cannot command them, the fault is hers. My work is too important to waste on failures like them. Only this one is worthy, and he will be my legacy to spit upon the genophage."
"One soldier?" Jack scoffed. "I thought all krogan just wanted to pump 'em out like fucking rabbits again."
"Others maybe, but they do not see as I do. Curing the genophage would provoke a massive response. But a single soldier would not. And he would be perfect, and give the genophage the greatest insult: to ignore it. Contrary to what some think, the genophage does not produce strong krogan. The only thing it singles out is the ability to survive it. For every thousand stillborn, too many weaklings live. With a dozen of his kind, we would burn worlds. The galaxy bears the scars of the horde, but it will learn to fear the lance."
"How very interesting. I'm sure Uncle Fester would love to study him," Wednesday said, eyes roving over the krogan in the tank. "And I've been missing a krogan on my team. Tell you what, if you allow him to join my ground team, I'll take you and him off this planet."
"You have a deal Shepard. Now let's -" he began, before he was cut off by Jedore over the PA.
"I've traced the krogan release, Okeer of course," she said. Wednesday looked down at one of the krogan pod collections, all thankfully empty, where Jedore and her personal guard were pacing. "I'm calling blank slate on this project. Gas the commandos and Okeer, we'll start over from his data." Okeer looked down at her in shock.
"She's that spineless that she'd try to kill me with a damned valve!?" His comment was punctuated by the sound of hissing gas. He quickly turned to Wednesday, face set in determination.
"Kill her quickly. I have to stay here and ensure that the filters on the tank keep out the poisons. I have not come all this way to have my legacy, the future of the krogan, killed as ignominiously as this!" With that he rushed back to the terminal, thick digits pressing holographic keys quickly. Wednesday turned the rest of them to the door that would take them to face Jedore, which sealed itself behind her.
"EDI, I need you to try and stop whatever is going on in here!" Wednesday shouted over the comm.
"Understood Shepard," came the AI's jagged reply, the interference distorting the signal. Wednesday just gritted her teeth in a grimace, consoling herself that at least Jedore was going to die painfully for all the inconvenience she was putting her through.
"Shepard, we've reached the shuttle, heading to your location now," Zaeed said over the comm., just before Wednesday's team burst into the cargo bay to find Jedore with a pair of batarian mercs and an YMIR mech.
"Lurch, open fire!" Wednesday said as she rushed into cover behind an empty krogan tank. "Jack, the batarians are yours, deal with them however you like. Jedore's mine!" she shouted at the barely clothed woman. Her barriers glowed as they deflected incoming fire before she ducked into cover for a moment. Wednesday leaned out and threw an electrical attack from her omni-tool at the shielded mech, who was now trading large-calibre fire with Lurch. Seeing Lurch could handle himself, Wednesday decided to focus on Jedore. Aiming herself directly at the mercenary leader, she spread her hands and then clapped them together in front of her. She felt her entire body encase itself in a biotic field, before she was flung at an appreciable fraction of relativistic speed towards the unsuspecting woman. Wednesday slowed down just before hitting her target, the biotic energy of her charge coalescing before discharging in a powerful kinetic burst around her, sending Jedore flying into the nearest empty pod.
Wednesday barely had time to enjoy the exhilarating feeling before Jedore got back up and roughly punched her helmeted head. Wednesday returned with a blow enhanced by her biotics to Jedore's midsection, lifting the mercenary off the ground. Jedore grunted in pain as she landed again, doubling over to get her breath back. Wednesday grabbed Jedore's shoulders and gave her a knee to the face, sending the merc leader to the floor. Jedore wasn't done yet though, reaching for her shotgun and getting off a shot that almost overwhelmed Wednesday's barriers. Wednesday just laughed like she hadn't had this much fun in ages, forming a fist as she activated her biotics, sending Jedore's shotgun into Wednesday's waiting hand. Smiling triumphantly, Wednesday broke the weapon with her hands and threw the pieces down at her prone opponent, before pulling out her own shotgun and firing. The first two shots dealt with Jedore's shields, the third taking her in the leg and the fourth in the chest. Blood came spilling out of Jedore's mouth as she coughed wetly, Wednesday moving around so her boots were on either side of her opponent's head.
"Any last words?" she asked down at her dying opponent, hoping against hope for something original. After all, she'd heard a lot of them. From her position on the ground, Jedore grimaced in pain, before her body started convulsing in time to a rhythmic, gurgling sound. Wednesday recognised it as laughter just before it stopped, and the grenade that Jedore had been holding rolled onto the floor. Wednesday struck without thinking, kicking the grenade away from her as fast as she could. She watched as it sailed to the foot of the damaged YMIR and exploded, crippling its leg as it fell over, its chest area a mess of holes. Wednesday looked around, studying the battlefield and observing Jack breaking the neck and spine of the last of the batarians with a powerful biotic throw. Lurch's armour was blackened and dented from the YMIR's fire, but there didn't appear to be any damage to the zombie himself.
"Commander, I was not able to stop the leak of gas into Okeer's workspace. His vitals are fading quickly," EDI said over the comm., causing the three of them to race back to the lab. As Wednesday reached the door, EDI came over once more. "Shepard, I have been able to purge the area of contaminants, but the door is magnetically sealed. I cannot open it."
"Not a problem EDI. Lurch, do your thing."
With the sound of tearing metal, Lurch tore open the door, allowing Wednesday and Jack to get into the room. Lurch had to stop while he tore the metal more to fit in his larger frame, which Wednesday and Jack used to get closer to the prone form of Okeer next to his perfect krogan. Wednesday knelt down next to him as his eyes finally closed, and a recording began to play on the terminal.
"Shepard, if I knew what the Collectors wanted with humans, I would tell you. Everything is in him, my legacy. One soldier, this grunt... perfect..."
"Well shit," Jack summed up, capturing the mood almost perfectly. Wednesday stood up, looking over at the tank itself. It had been disconnected from anything in the lab, and there were buttons that would activate a small mass effect lifter to move it. Wednesday ignored that for now, walking back to the open landing outside the lab and opening the channel to Garrus.
"Garrus, this is Shepard, do you read?"
"Loud and clear Wednesday," Garrus replied.
"Good, I've got good news and bad news. Bad news, Okeer is dead. Good news, he left us a present. I'm sending up a biotic flare," she said, throwing up a showy purple light for effect.
"I see it, heading to you now." Wednesday headed back inside, where Lurch had opened the door enough for him to enter the lab as well. Wednesday looked over the terminal, before performing a swipe-and-wipe on Okeer's data with her omni-tool.
"Any particular reason you're doing that Shepard?" Jack asked, not really caring.
"Okeer may have been mad, but his methods weren't," Wednesday replied once it was done. "I don't want just anyone able to breed an army of only slightly defective krogan."
"Good point," Jack agreed as the sound of the shuttle coming in focused her attention.
A moment later, Zaeed strolled into the lab, before he was stopped by the sight of the massive krogan in the tank.
"What the hell is that?" he asked.
"This is my new paperweight," Wednesday replied with a grin. "Help me get him into the shuttle, we'll figure out what to do with him later. Jack, be a dear and fetch Jedore's body."
"Why the fuck should I?" the convict spat. "I'm not your fucking maid!"
"No, but I'll cut you in for a third of her bounty," Wednesday said, rolling her eyes at Jack's stubbornness. It was something she was obviously going to have to work on later. Zaeed was too shocked by the krogan's size to say anything, wordlessly helping Wednesday and Lurch move the tank into the shuttle, before they all returned to the Normandy.
Instead of moving up to the conference room for debrief, a much more informal one was held in the port cargo hold, where the tank was now residing. Wednesday began while connecting the tank to the Normandy's power supply.
"Alright, we've got ourselves a new paperweight. What's everyone thinking?" she asked.
"That I don't want to be in the same room when you wake him, but I definitely want to watch!" Jack said enthusiastically.
"Talk to me later then," Zaeed muttered quietly to her, before turning to Shepard. "You do realise that this thing is a fuckin' krogan right? He ain't gonna be easy to handle."
"That's why it's going to be fun!" Wednesday insisted. "Garrus, what about you?"
"I'm not sure Wednesday. I miss Wrex as much as the next person, but this isn't him. It isn't Okeer either, so we really don't have any reference. He's a complete unknown. Whatever you're going to do with him, I'd suggest doing it carefully."
"Like I do anything less?" Wednesday said flippantly. "Alright, he's all connected now. EDI, have you had a chance to go over Okeer's data on this guy?"
"Affirmative, Shepard. The subject is an exceptional example of the krogan species, with fully formed primary, secondary and tertiary organs where applicable," EDI reported. "No defects of any kind, aside from the genetic markers of the genophage present in all krogan. I cannot judge mental functioning at this time."
Wednesday looked at him, his pale blue eyes staring back out at her.
"Is he aware in there, can he see me?"
"It would seem unlikely, his current neural patterns suggest minimal cognition, similar to a dream state."
"So he's asleep then. Any idea if he's dangerous?"
"He's a krogan, Shepard," the AI replied, managing to get across her disdain at such a patently ridiculous question. "If you are asking whether he is actively hostile, I don't have the necessary data to answer. Okeer's technology could impart data, not methods of thinking. The subject may know of Okeer's views, but would not necessarily share them."
"Then prepare to be amazed everyone, I'm opening the tank," Wednesday said with a smirk. Zaeed, Garrus and Jack beat a hasty retreat from the cargo hold as Wednesday started the awakening process. The nutrient fluid he had been floating in was drained and the glass walls opened as the tank tilted, the krogan following gravity's pull and falling to his knees. As he impacted he must have woken, as his first action was to spew out more of the fluid onto the floor. His second action was to look up at Wednesday and then charge. Wednesday, still in her armour and with reflexes still sharp, was ready for it though. She quickly sidestepped as he ran past before his head ran into the bulkhead. Wednesday followed up quickly, forcing a hand behind the krogan's head and ramming into the metal a second time. The krogan wasn't going to just let her dictate the fight though, and swung out an arm that caught her backhanded in her midsection, tossing her back a few meters and allowing him to stand up to his full, imposing height.
"Human, female," he said slowly. Then he was on the attack, his fist launched at her body with more speed than Wednesday was expecting, and still with plenty of power. Maybe she'd underestimated Okeer's perfect krogan. "Before you die, I need a name," he said between punches that Wednesday was having a hard time dodging and deflecting.
"I'm Commander Shepard," Wednesday said, seeing an opening in his raw, unpractised technique and seizing it, sending a biotically-enhanced kick to his sternum. The force of the kick caused him to take a step back, but something else stopped him attacking immediately: confusion.
"Not your name, mine," he growled. "I am trained, I know things. The tank... it couldn't implant a connection. Okeer's words are hollow, like his training. Warlord, legacy, grunt... that was the last, it'll do. I am Grunt, if you are worthy of command, try and destroy me."
"Not the most orthodox name I'll grant, but if you insist," Wednesday said, before taking the initiative he was offering her. Her body flared with a biotic corona as she began attacking him, rapidly altering the mass of her limbs between light to work up the speed and heavy to deliver the power to her punches, kicks, and even a head-butt at one point. For a while she had him on the defensive, before he pressed open an opening and the two of them were on even footing once more, talking even as they continued attacking.
"Seriously though, all the names and words in the galaxy, and you want Grunt?" she (appropriately) grunted as she took a hit to the ribs, her armour not cushioning the blow so much as merely transferring it.
"It's short," he growled back. "Matches the training in my blood. The other words are big things I don't feel. Maybe they fit your mouth better. I feel nothing for Okeer's clan or his enemies. I will do what I am bred to do—fight and determine the strongest—but the imprint has failed. Without a reason that's mine, one fight is as good as any other. Might as well start with you." Before he could land another punch, Wednesday hit him in the knee, forcing him to bow down. As he did she grabbed his head with both hands, biotics flaring as she twisted it almost enough to break his neck. He struggled for a moment, but Wednesday gave him nothing. Eventually, he sagged in submission, and Wednesday let him go.
"You want a reason, I'll give you one," she said, breathing hard, but smiling widely. Today had definitely been a good day for memorable fights. "I have a strong ship, a strong crew... a strong clan. You'll make it stronger still. Join us, and fight worthy enemies."
Grunt hadn't looked up yet, still making sure his head was on straight. He noticed the hand Wednesday reached down to him. He looked up at her in contempt, before he saw the steel expression she wore and the pistol she had levelled at his face with her other hand.
"Smart Shepard," he said, taking her hand and standing. "Offer one hand and arm the other." The two of them stood, warriors regarding worthy foes. "If I find a clan, what I... what I want, I'll be glad to eventually pit them against you in battle."
"When that day comes, I'll welcome the challenge," she replied, holding out her hand in a warrior's grip, which Grunt took up enthusiastically.
She looked up at the opening door to the cargo hold, at the disbelieving expressions on Jack and Zaeed's faces, and at Garrus' amused smirk.
"What, didn't think I could do it?"
"Oh I knew you'd do it, Wednesday," Garrus said brightly. "It's these two who owe me a case of beer next time we hit a decently civilised planet. Decently civilised in this case meaning a planet with a bar that stocks my favourite beer."
"Well, we'll have to work on that then. In the meantime, someone needs to get a mop. I'm thinking you, Mr Zaeed Doubting Massani."
Before Zaeed could grumble, EDI came over the intercom, concern evident in her artificial voice.
"Commander, there is an urgent situation you should be aware of."
"Talk to me EDI," Wednesday said, already heading to the elevator to the CIC and trusting Garrus to keep her newest recruit in line. As the doors closed, EDI continued.
"Shepard, I have been monitoring galactic communications in an attempt to determine when the Collectors will next attack. I believe this has now occurred." The doors opened and Wednesday jumped onto the command podium, activating the galaxy map. EDI zoomed out from their current position and moved it to the Iera system. "The colony on Horizon has just experienced a communications blackout, similar to the ones that have occurred with previously abducted colonies like Freedom's Progress."
"Then we're going there, full speed," Wednesday replied, entering the command codes while EDI began running the navigation software. "Joker, we're heading to Horizon, priority speed!" she shouted down the CIC.
"Understood Shepard, navigation data received. ETA one hour, but we're going to be stuck in the system after that to discharge the core."
"Don't care, just get us there," Wednesday said, before hitting the intercom. "Attention everyone, we're heading to Horizon. The Collectors have just hit, and we're going to take the fight to them. You have 30 minutes to have all your arms and armour locked and loaded, ready to insert in the shuttle. That means you too Grunt." She turned away from the podium, marching towards Mordin's lab and hoping his recent breakthrough on the Collector seekers had been for real.
Otherwise, this was going to be a very short mission.
A/N: It's Wednesday again, so you all know what that means!
So, a few things. Firstly, a big thank you to everyone who continues to read and review this story. I know I write it for myself mostly, but your ideas, comments, suggestions and praise really do make me smile every time.
Secondly, I'm in need of a secondary beta-reader. Mostly just to check spelling, word usage and grammar. The reason for this is though my wonderful fiancee and proofer extraordinaire has done a fantastic job in fixing some of the errors that I keep missing after going over it several times, she is unable to provide the same clinical, detached frame of mind when it comes to Wednesday and Liara having sex. Take that as you will.
So I'm looking for volunteers to beta-read multiple sex scenes involving Wednesday and Liara. The deal is you'll be emailed a word document that contains the scene and only the scene (trying to avoid major spoilers!). After you've reviewed it to your heart's content, send it back with the track changes option engaged so I can see what you've changed. You'll get plenty of credit, plus first look at the next piece of art I've comissioned of Wednesday. If you don't think you can do it yourself, but want to recommend a friend who might want to, please let me know. Though why your friend isn't also reading this story is something I'd like to know...
Leave a comment or send me a PM letting me know if you'd like to volunteer. Otherwise, I hope you've enjoyed another chapter of Wednesday.
PS: Stop complaining about how Wednesday isn't on Illium yet. She'll get there soon, I promise, then you'll all be able to enjoy what I've cooked up for Wednesday and Liara's reunion. I can promise you all, it will be worth the wait!
PPS: Also, check out my profile for links to some new pictures. Hugo, I have you to thank for the inspiration to take the little model Normandy SR2 I got a while ago and repaint it into the Normandy-A, as described in Chapter 9. Also, more pictures of Wednesday (in armour this time!). Hope you all enjoy!