"I feel like I'm getting sidetracked," he said, stretching his arms and placing his hands behind his head and underneath his fringe. "We should probably have picked up Liara by now."

"How did Ms. T'Soni end up on the ship?" I asked. "The public record isn't exactly clear."

"I should expect not," he snorted.

"I don't understand."

"You will," he said, grinning wickedly. "It's up to me to set the record straight, after all." He dented his fingers and tapped them against each other in a sinister fashion.

"Liara was out on some remote planetoid digging up prothean ruins. Lots of volcanic activity, lots of lava, you know. A real vacation world. So the decision was made that Shepard, Wrex, and I should take the Mako down. It was our first real ground op together."

"You sure about those improvements you made, Vakarian?"

Garrus adjusted the sight on his rifle, rechecked that the cooling system was functioning, then slapped it onto his back. "I haven't done anything too drastic yet, Commander. Just realigned the targeting systems and tweaked the suspension."

"So, didn't adjust the handling or the thrusters or anything."

"Well, the suspension should give a little more, but no, it'll handle roughly the same."

"Okay. Good." She nodded, staring into the rear hatch of the tank. "Good."

He gave her a sidelong look. In profile, she was as calm and commanding as ever, but if he didn't know any better, he might have thought she was nervous. "Anything wrong, Commander?"

"No no," she replied a bit too quickly. "It's fine."

Shepard just stood there for a moment, immobile. Garrus glanced over at Wrex, who shrugged. Eventually she climbed in, a bit warily, and made her way to the front of the vehicle, levering herself into the driver's seat.

"Commander," Garrus reached up and leaned on the frame of the hatch as he ducked his head in, "you do know how to drive this thing, don't you?"

Shepard didn't look up from the controls - she was already beginning preparations for the airdrop. "Can't be that hard," she deadpanned. "I'm sure I'll figure it out."

Garrus stared at the back of her head. He began to laugh, voice flanging nervously. "That's, ah... that's a good one Commander."

She didn't laugh, and she didn't look back. "...Commander?"

"Just get in the damn tank, Vakarian."

Garrus didn't move. Wrex slowly sidled past him.

"All of a sudden," Wrex commented, levering himself into a rear passenger seat, "I'm glad I skipped breakfast."

He laughed, making a pleasantly thrumming noise. "Everyone on board just assumed she'd be the one driving. Never stopped to ask if she had actually driven any armored vehicles since basic."

"So," I ventured cautiously, "I'm guessing she figured it out?"

He turned his head and I knew that was a smirk on his face. "I don't think I'd go that far."

Garrus was profusely thanking every spirit that had ever inspired safety restraints, and simultaneously cursing the ones who inspired the Mako's design team.

The thing handled like a boat, skidded on every surface regardless of traction thanks to it's imbalanced mass effect fields, blew out most of it's thruster power to make the airdrop, and to top it all off, it's main gun couldn't point down. The sheer number of design issues fundamental in it's construction boggled his mind. That he hadn't noticed them before they hit active combat was an even greater source of consternation.

He was attempting to repair a coolant leak remotely via omnitool while Wrex manned the gun and Shepard attempted to pilot them safely to the dig site. He glanced over. Her jaw was clenched, her brow furrowed, steely determination ever present as she maneuvered the tank into position for Wrex to make his shot. Geth resistance had been higher than expected - after a minute or so of Shepard relearning which controls did what and how to move forward and back, they had been ambushed by flying sentry turrets and two armatures. Things had only gotten worse from there.

They'd nearly driven into the lava numerous times, Wrex could barely hit anything trying to compensate for Shepard's erratic driving and the visual distortion from the tremendous heat, and Garrus had been on repair duty ever since they took a direct hit from the second armature, but they were making progress. It was only a couple more clicks to the dig site and then they could get out of this six-wheeled deathtrap. How had he ever liked this thing? He couldn't remember.

Shepard gunned it, pushing eighty KPH as she made a mad dash between two groups of sentries, crushing a handful of geth mobile platforms as she did so. Wrex laid down suppressing fire with the secondary gun, having given up on precision with the main gun, and was having some success at shooting the sentries out of the air when a third armature made it's appearance directly ahead of them, across a small river of molten rock.

"Armature."

"I see it." She had to raise her voice to be heard, but she didn't sound alarmed or afraid. The tank started to go faster.

"Armature!" Faster.

"I SEE IT." Faster.

Garrus braced himself.

The armature fired a shot, the tank turned slightly and it glanced off the starboard armor plating. Before it could fire again, Shepard ignited the weakened thrusters, jumped the river, and crashed headlong into it. The impact rattled Garrus' teeth in his skull and nearly threw Wrex out of the gunner's seat. The spider-like armature twitched and writhed beneath them in a heap of twisted limbs.

Shepard reignited the thrusters, propelled the tank upwards, and came crashing down on it again. And again.

Once all movement had ceased, Garrus slumped in his chair. Shepard closed her eyes, took a deep breath and slowly blew it out. Then she turned to him, face as calm as it ever was, save for a light dancing in her eyes.

"That was fun."

Garrus heard Wrex start laughing behind him. Slowly, he and Shepard joined in.

He sighed, staring up the ceiling. "She really did love that stupid tank."

I waited a moment, but he was lost in a reverie. I cleared my throat. "Ms. T'Soni?"

He blinked, looked back at me, shook his head. "Yes yes, right, of course." He took a breath, opened his mouth, then just huffed and gave me a shrug. "Well, might as well skip to the good part."

"You did what?"

"I meant to trigger a barrier curtain, not a containment field! I didn't know that I wouldn't be able to deactivate it!" The asari protested.

"Typical," Wrex grumbled.

"How can we get you out?" Garrus asked while Shepard dug the palm of her hand into her forehead.

"I don't know," she replied, voice distorted by multiple layers of force fields. "There's no other tunnels that lead back here! You'll have to find a way past the barrier curtain, and then disable this field. And hurry - they've got a krogan with them!"

Garrus started to twist his head around, looking for something, anything that might help. They didn't have much time, the geth could be on them again at any moment. He felt Shepard lightly punch him in the shoulder. When he turned, found her pointing at something. "I've got an idea."

"So... she trapped herself?"

He nodded.

"And she couldn't get out? For days?"

He nodded again. "The great Liara T'Soni, prodigous biotic and brilliant archaeologist, hit the wrong button and locked herself in a closet." He grinned, big and wide, mandibles flaring outward. "Make sure you get all that down."

I did.

The asari plopped down on the floor after Shepard, through with fiddling with the console to find the right combination, simply shot it to pieces. The barrier curtain fell as well.

"Dr. Liara T'Soni, I presume," Shepard said, offering a hand up.

"Thank you," she said, taking it and standing. "How did you find a way past the barrier?"

"Giant mining laser."

"Oh." Liara blinked and dusted herself off. "I... suppose that would do it."

"We need to move, Commander," Garrus said, keying his visor with a finger. "I've got faint heat signatures coming this way."

"What's the quickest way out of here?" Shepard asked, drawing her rifle with practiced ease.

"An elevator, through here," Liara said, leading the way. "At least, I think it's an elevator."

"Wonderful." Wrex loaded up his shotgun with a concussive round. "Some prothean expert you found, Shepard."

As they reached the elevator, there came a thunderous rumbling from deeper in the ruins.

"Oh no." Liara ran over to the console, fingers flying over holographic interface. "That mining laser must have destabilized the entire ruin. We need to get out of here."

Shepard brought two fingers up to her ear and triggered the subcutaneous comm relay embedded just beneath the skin. "Joker, lock on my signal and get the Normandy down here, double time!"

"Aye aye, Commander," came the reply piping through their comms. "ETA, eight minutes!"

"Not a lot of margin for error," Garrus noted.

"No it's not," Shepard shot back. The large round platform rose fast, jostling everyone nearly off their feet. Once they reached the top, the shaking had become more severe, rubble started falling from the ceiling, and a krogan accompanied by several geth were waiting for them.

"Surrender," he said, "or don't. I'd like a little fun."

"There a reason you're in my way?" Shepard shouted, gun raised. Liara moved back, biotic blue flaring around her, as did Garrus, keeping his rifle trained on the krogan. Wrex moved alongside Shepard, shotgun held low and easy.

"Saren wants the doctor, and Saren gets what he wants."

"The goddamn ruin is coming down!" She yelled, stating the obvious.

The krogan just grinned. "Exhilarating, isn't it?"

"I've got this one, Shepard." Wrex twisted his head and worked a kink out of his neck.

"Do you?" Suddenly, the krogan had a gun in his hand, and the geth raised their rifles and fired.

It was a hellish couple of minutes, ground shaking, rock falling from the ceiling, lights flickering on and off, weapons fire everywhere in the relatively confined quarters of the platform. Shepard ran from cover to cover, drawing fire, while Liara yanked the geth into the air and Garrus shot them down one by one. Wrex had engaged the krogan, and managed to get close enough to disarm him. They wrestled briefly, evenly matched as Wrex bared his teeth and tried to get his shotgun clear to end the fight, but the other krogan managed to wrestle it free and throw it away. Then it came to blows, back and forth, vicious haymakers and headbutts.

Shepard lept - actually lept - onto the back of the krogan, climbing atop it's hump and unloading her rifle until the barrel glowed red. But the heavy shields he had, plus the natural regenerative abilities of the krogan meant that even this wasn't enough to finish the fight, and he bucked, sending Shepard flying backward hard onto the stairs. Garrus couldn't line up a shot with Wrex so close, and while he tried to reposition himself, Liara did the same.

But by the time they had a clear shot, it was over - Wrex worked his hands underneath his opponent's arms, then, glowing a mighty blue, threw him fully twenty feet up into the air. Liara caught him, biotic combining with biotic, and the explosion all but vaporized the helpless krogan.

That had been a surprise. Wrex's biotics faded, and Shepard looked genuinely shocked for the first time Garrus had seen.

Wrex stomped up and helped Shepard to her feet. "What are you staring at? Place is still coming down."

"Wrex is a biotic?"

"It's not something he advertises," the Primarch replied, "but yeah. He is."

"I thought that took - I mean -"

"Self-control? Discipline?" He barked out a laugh. "Yeah, Wrex is a great big bundle of krogan contradictions."

I wanted to ask more, but I figured that would come later. "So you made it out okay?"

He waved a hand dismissively. "Oh yes, just in time, skin of our teeth, all the cliches you'd expect. Joker even brought the Normandy down so we didn't have to drive the damn Mako back to the LZ. All in all, a complete success."

He tilted his head and gave me a significant look. "And as for the Mako..."

Garrus and Shepard stood side by side, gazing at the pitted, burned, battered armor of the tank. Scorch marks ran up and down it's length, the places where the metal actually began to melt from the tremendous heat of leaping over volcanic lava floes were a stark reminder of how close they had come to a very unpleasant death.

Shepard's arms were crossed, her expression pensive, thoughtful. Eventually, she spoke.

"I think it could go faster."

He turned, ever so slowly, and gave her his best 'are-you-crazy' look. She either didn't notice, or didn't care. She was still staring at the tank, and he could still see that gleam in her eye.

"I think I can do that."

She didn't look at him, but she did smile, big and wide, then slapped him on the chest. "Don't stay up too late, Garrus," she said in a singsong tone of voice as she headed back to the elevator.

Garrus just sighed and went to get his toolchest. First step was removing the speed governors...