Chapter 10: All's Fair

Notanban hung in the sky over them, the large blue orb the only source of light on Solcrum, the planets largest moon. The large star however, pushed the surface temperature to well over two-hundred degrees Celsius, well beyond what their suits could compensate for, even in the planets shadow. The Normandy was positioned in a valley out of sight of the geth base, which had required some impressive low altitude flying from Joker to get there undetected. Most of the team were sat in the open cargo bay, in case a geth patrol stumbled across the Normandy while Shepard, Garrus and Tali waved their way towards the geth base, trying to make the most of the barren moon's terrain to avoid detection.

As they neared the perimeter, a large wall came into view between them and their goal. Three geth drop ships were visible from their position, although scans had shown four more on the opposite side of the base. These three however appeared to already be loaded with munitions and geth platforms, leaving only perimeter patrols in the area. After hiding the Mako at the base of a rock face, out of view of the geth camp, Shepard and Garrus turned to face Tali in the back of the vehicle.

"Did you see enough to find us a way into there?" She asked, picking her breather helmet up from the rack.

"I think so, it looked like there was an access point for patrols. If we can get past the units guarding it, we should be able to slip inside without any geth spotting us." Tali chirped. "Then, we need to get on board a ship as fast as we can before our suits fail."

"Nothing like a time limit to make things fun." Garrus smirked, sealing his helmet.

"For the record, I've only got about three and a half minutes out there." Shepard said pulling a large bag onto her back and moving towards the door.

"Don't worry, I'll make sure nothing happens to my sidekick," Garrus laughed following Shepard out onto the surface with his own bag.

The three quickly moved towards the end of the rock face, putting them just out of view of two geth standing guard at the gateway.

"Any suggestions on how to get past them without alerting the entire camp?" Shepard asked the two behind her.

"We could take them both out with a sniper shot each." Garrus offered pulling his rifle out.

"Their consensus would notice them going silent immediately, I can hack the two units and give us enough time to get past them." Tali countered to a nod of approval from Shepard. "Just give me a few minutes, normally I destabilise their power core to prevent them keeping me out, but they would detect that too."

Shepard and Garrus sat back against the rock, keeping watch to ensure no one spotted them while Tali worked. Shepard couldn't help but watch the temperature warning on her HUD slowly rise, getting worried as it approached one-hundred and fifty degrees. "Tali, we need to go now, or I need to get back to the Mako." Sweat was running down her forehead, unable to wipe it away from her eyes in the helmet.

"I got it Commander." Tali shouted in glee.

Garrus just poked his head out to look at the two geth. "They aren't doing anything... they're just standing there." he observed, his voice full of concern.

"They're playing back the last ten minutes of sensor data, as long as we don't touch them they won't know we're there." Tali said, slowly moving out from behind the rocky edge.

Shepard practically leapt out of cover, making her break towards the fortifications and cool air. "Pick up the pace, we need to get out of this heat."

The three of them rushed through the wall towards the nearest geth frigate. Thankfully the geth didn't notice them as they passed between the two units. Moving quickly, but as quietly as they could, they covered the hundred metres between the wall and the closest ship to fall into cover against the hull. As Tali reached it, she dropped to the ground, rolling a few metres beneath the hull before coming to a stop and looking up at the solid metal above her.

Shepard looked down below the ship at Tali, "We need a way in, before I fry in this thing." her eyes narrowed at the lack of a visible entrance. "Please tell me we have a way in Tali."

Tali just looked at her omni took as she shuffled about beneath the ship. "Come on you little Bosh'tet-"

"Tali, hurry." Shepard pleaded.

"Got it." Tali shouted gleefully as a hatch appeared in the hull of the ship, opening up to allow them access.

Shepard quickly followed Tali up through the short shaft into the hull, unable to see anything as the light reflected from the planet disappeared, leaving her sitting in darkness as Garrus climbed up somewhere behind her. Tali taped at her omni tool to close the hatch before turning on a torch and running it around the floor, looking for Shepard. Garrus followed Tali's lead, turning on his torch, before finding Shepard collapsed against the floor, struggling to reach for her helmet's seal.

Tali glanced over to where Garru's torch had stopped. "Wouldn't do that if I were you Shepard. There's no reason for the geth to maintain an atmosphere for any reason other than climate control, looks like it's almost pure nitrogen." she chirped quickly, before Shepard's arms fell to the ground beside her.

"Just give me a few minutes for this suit to cool down." Shepard gasped, struggling to breath the heated air in her suit. "Make sure this room's secure, where are we anyway?"

Garrus's light passed over a geth unit, causing him to jump back, and the light move up to the inactive light on the head. Tali looked over to investigate the sudden noise. "Every platform on this ship should be inactive, the geth will all have uploaded into the ship."

"Wait, the geth can upload themselves? I though AI were integrated into a single quantum blue box." Garrus asked as his light passed over more geth, all stacked against the walls of the ship.

"No, the geth aren't true AI, they are only software. They can upload and transfer themselves between anything with sufficient processing power. At the minute, they're all in the ship since they are at their most effective in large numbers." Tali explained.

Shepard pushed herself to her feet, her suit finally having cooled down. "So, where exactly are we Tali?"

"The geth store their platforms somewhere, that hatch is how they deploy onto a planet, since they can survive long drops without damage. There's three more of these rooms on this ship, all on this deck, it lets them quickly download and then deploy."

"Makes sense they build their ships around their platform's abilities. So which way to the drive core?" Shepard asked, turning her own torch on.

Tali lit a doorway up beside the group, "Through there, we should be able to get to the drive core without alerting the geth." Tali walked over to the door lighting up her omni again and quickly hacked her way through the lock.

Shepard was the first through, heading quickly towards the drive core. Garrus kept pace with her, both scanning the passages they walked past. Tali kept pace behind them, shouting directions. After hacking through several more doors, the hum and pulse of a eezo core became audible. Hacking through the last door into the engine room, the glow of the eezo core gently lighting the room up.

Shepard looked round at Tali as she pulled the bag off her back. "I was expecting a few active units in here at least."

"The ship's ground side, and not in combat, so they'll do everything they can to saving power. My ancestors designed the geth to be an efficient work force, not something they'll ever change." Tali shrugged. "We should get these charges on the supports around the drive core. I'll start on accessing their database."

Shepard and Garrus quickly covered the ground to the core, pulling charges out of their backs, attaching them onto reachable supports. As Shepard strapped her last explosive onto what appeared to be a power conduit, she pulled a detonator out of her bag, slipping it into a pouch before throwing the bag to a side. "We good to go Garrus?"

Garrus jumped down off a console he had been standing on, grinning at them. "Not usually a fan for explosions, but this should put on a show."

"We should get moving before the geth have time to detect my hacks." Tali said urgently from the behind them as she closed down the terminal she had been using.

Half way across the room, Tali froze causing the other two to look back to investigate the loss of her footsteps, seeing her with her omni-tool still lit up. "We've got units activating to investigate the doors opening, every exit we can use is going to be full of them."

Shepard grabbed Tali's hand, pulling her on towards the hatch they had used to enter the ship, as her other hand pulled the shotgun off her back. As they approached the door tot he drop room, a single geth came into view working to secure the hacked controls. Shepard put a single blast of shrapnel into the head of geth before at least half a dozen lights turned to face them from inside the room. "Think they know we're here." she shouted, throwing several grenades into the room. Tali quickly hit several controls on her omni, sealing the door. A single loud series of chips came from the other side of the door before a loud explosion seemed to echo through the heavy metal, leaving silence. As the door opened a single, almost intact, platform fell though with it's light flickering as they stepped over it.

The three stood around the hatch in the floor, waiting for Tali to hack the lock again. Shepard couldn't help but keep looking around at the inactive geth platforms around them. Once Tali had opened the hatch, Garrus looked over to Shepard opposite him. "What is it you humans say... ladies first?"

Shepard dropped to the ground, instantly finding shots landing around her, with several flaring her shield as she landed. She quickly rolled tot he side before pulling out her assault rifle and fired back in the direction the shots had come from. Garrus landed beside her, closely followed by Tali as the intensity of the fire increased, pinning them under the ship as the doorway above them sealed it's self. Garrus landed a shot into the optics of a prime unit before he looked over to Tali, "Since they know we're here already, can you hack a few of them?"

"Their shields are blocking my signal, I can't get in. The best I can do it try to slow down their processes, put some random junk into their network."

Shepard frowned, looking for some cover, "Do as much as you can." With no available cover around them, she rolled to the edge of the ship. She quickly jumped to her feet, sprinting towards a geth prime that was still aiming for Tali and Garrus. As she managed to gain some momentum a large cluster of fire hit where she had just been laying just out of the hull. Shepard started firing rapidly at the large number of geth in front of her as she continued to charge, still not targeting her, quickly dropping their shield. Reacting quickly, Tali managed to hack several of the platforms as the shields failed, causing them to started to firing on the others around them as their shield returned. Leaving the cluster of geth to their infighting, Shepard jumped to the side at the noise of a rocket firing from behind her. She landed, going into a roll, as a rocket hit the grown where she had been standing sending shrapnel over her head and into her shields.

Tali continued watching her omni, waiting for more of the shields to stop. She looked as she heard an explosion to see Shepard land on the ground with her assault rifle out of each. Tali could only watch as the geth started towards the commander, raising their assault rifles to fire. A single shot went past her, hitting the geth with the rocket launcher in the chest, dropping it's shields, leaving the unit in tact. Shepard quickly hacked the geth, rounding the rocket launcher on another prime standing in the middle of the group. The rocket landed in its chest, blasting the platform apart, as well as the units around it. The other geth looked around at each other in confusion as Tali ran out from under the ship. Garrus continued to fire, hitting the geth in their optics. As Tali neared the geth, she fire her shotgun at each of the remaining platforms, leaving as many as she could inactive, until her weapon whined in protest.

With the exit in the wall now left open, more geth closed in from around the camp. Garrus quickly ran out from beneath the ship towards Tali and Shepard, who was struggling to keep up in the extreme heat. Supporting Shepard, the three of them quickly heading back tot he Mako, while Garrus and Tali fired randomly behind them. Shepard climbed in first, collapsing on the rear seats her skin matching her hair from the heat in her suit. Tali quickly climbed into the driver's seat, bringing the Mako to life, while Garrus sealed the door before he climbed into the gunner's seat. Once the Mako had pressurized, Shepard tore her helmet off, gasping for cool air while Garrus fired several large slugs from the mass driver cannon towards the geth that had pursued them out of the camp.

As they weren't worrying about not being seen by the geth, Tali drove in a direct line for the Normandy, bouncing about over the terrain, until they were safely in the Normandy's Cargo bay.

Shepard clambered to her feet, her voice raspy as she spoke into the comm. "Get us out of here Joker."

"Aye-Aye Commander." Joker replied as he lifted the Normandy off towards orbit.

Shepard stumbled out of the Mako, still bright red. Garrus caught her before she could collapse onto the floor. "We're getting you up to the medbay."

Shepard just put an arm around him while she slipped the detonator out of its pouch before pressing her thumb down on the button as the large form of Wrex approached them.

Joker made the Normandy climb rapidly, banking to dodge shots being fired at them with the Normandy's heat sinks needing to discharge. Two of the geth frigates powered up their engines, before they slowly lifted off from the planet's surface, until one seemed to slow before it was consumed by explosions across the hull. The ruined ship fell back towards the ground before the Eezo core erupted, sending waved of dark energy out from the ship. The remaining frigate, still heading towards them, appeared to slowed it's ascent as the energy passed over them before it's core detonated, ripping the ship apart with a single explosion. The Normandy continued towards orbit and safety, leaving the wrecked ship to fall back to the moon's surface.

Liara stepped into the medbay after hearing heavy footsteps that could only belong to Wrex next door. She found the krogan filling the space by the beds, holding a body clad in armour, a new set of black and red armour Shepard had bought on the Citadel. Wrex dropped the limp body rather roughly onto the bed before he turned to Doctor Chakwas. "She'd better be okay."

"She'll be fine Wrex, I assure you. You've seen how tough she is." Chakwas asserted, "Now, can you please get out of my medbay and let me work."

Wrex just huffed as he walked past the doctor and out of the medbay. Chakwas glanced over to Liara before she started running around her medbay.

With Shepard's armor discarded to the next bed, and the Commander wrapped in with a sheet while the bed and a drip carried out the treatment, Doctor Chakwas had disappeared from Liara's attention as she continued to watch the sleeping commander, at least until a voice from somewhere beside her made her jump.

"She'll be fine dear. It's just a fairly nasty case of heat exhaustion."

Liara nodded to the doctor now at her desk, before she continued to stare at the bed.

After Liara didn't answer her she walked over to the asari. "Are you okay dear. Is there anything you need?"

"If it's possible, could I have a few minutes alone to speak to her?" Liara asked quietly.

"Of course, but she is asleep at the minute. The bed's programmed for her care, I'll be in the mess hall until you're finished." Chakwas replied politely. "I can monitor her from there."

"Thank you Doctor." Liara smiled.

As Doctor Chakwas walked out of the medbay, leaving Liara to pull a chair over to besides Shepard's bed before she perched herself on the edge. She forced herself to look up at the commander's closed eyes, listening to the hollow breaths in the oxygen mask covering the Commander's mouth and nose. Overwhelmed as she felt tears threatening to break free, she shifted her gaze, staring at the foot of the bed in silence. Liara sat there chewing on her bottom lip, listening to Shepard breathing as her thoughts steadily wound themselves into knots, forcing the young asari to try to voice them, to try to make sense of them.

"Why am I putting myself through this Shepard? You're a soldier, I'm just and archaeologist. There's now way we could possibly work, and you just keep landing yourself in this medbay. We have nothing in common. We're not even the same species. I know the crew has been insisting that you have feeling for me and I want to believe them, but part some small rational part of me is refusing. I..." Liara sniffed, wiping tears from her eyes and cheeks on the back of her sleeve, "I saw why you shot that man, but... I can't help but question it, am I just fooling myself, do I really want to know you shot him because of me?" Liara paused again, trying to find anything in her head to put into words. "I can't even manage to say any of this to you while you're awake, I'm just sat here, talking to your unconscious body... I read about what you did on Elysium, the Alliances N7 program, even how you ended up becoming a spectre. You have to be the most recognisable soldier in the Alliance. I'm barely even noticed by any of my colleagues, there isn't anyone outside of this ship that I could call a friend... why would you even notice me?"

"I do notice you." Shepard wheezed as she reached up to pull the mask off. "I haven't been able to stop noticing you."

Liara squeaked in surprise as she looked up to see a pair of bright green eyes staring at her as she felt heat spreading across her cheeks. "How... how long have you been awake?"

"Well, the first thing I remember seeing if you sitting there, chewing on your bottom lip, looking adorable." Shepard smiled at the blushing asari.

Liara could feel the heat spreading across the rest of her face and neck, forcing her to look away from Shepard in embarrassment.

"Do you wish you hadn't said any of that?" Shepard asked, unable to find Liara blushing anything but cute.

Liara went back to chewing on her lip before she replied. "No, but... why didn't you stop me?"

"One of us needed to say something sooner or later, and you looked like something was going to drive you mad." Shepard offered smiling softly at her.

"Well, if someone could stop landing themselves in the medbay, I wouldn't have so much to worry about." Liara replied, giving Shepard a rather unamused look. "Just promise me you aren't going to do anything to put yourself in here again, please."

"No promises, but I have no intention of spending any more time in here than I have to, although it's far more interesting in here today than it is normally." Shepard laughed lightly, giving the asari a cheeky grin. "So what did you have in mind for us from now onwards?"

"Well, I hadn't planned on saying that, or on you hearing it. To be honest, I'd been waiting for you to do something since I had no idea how you felt. Ashley thought you were probably feeling rather conflicted, alliance regulations, and me being on your ship. Plus, you never seemed to notice me, and I was afraid you'd just turn me away if-"

"Liara."

She stopped dead as Shepard firmly spoke her name, once again looking back to her green eyes. "Yes, Shepard."

"You're rambling, and you are going to have to start calling me Jane when it's just us." Shepard laughed, trying to get Liara to calm down. "How about I take you out to lunch the next time we're docked at the Citadel, my treat?"

Liara looked at Jane for a moment before she moved to answer, unfortunately, Joker beat her to it. "Commander, I have Admiral Hackett on the line for you, if you can speak to him."

"God damn it." Shepard muttered under her breath, before giving Liara and apologetic look. "You have the worst timing in the galaxy Joker."

"Sorry Ma'am, Doctor Chakwas just informed me you were awake when I inquired, and I thought you would want to speak to the admiral." Joker replied.

"Put him through." Shepard responded begrudgingly.

"Shepard, I just wanted to thank you for your good work on Solcrum." The admiral boomed through the comm.

"I don't know what you're talking about Admiral." Shepard stated calmly as she watched Liara looking around the room absent-mindedly. "The Normandy has been patrolling the Dis System for the last few hours, Sir, I believe we were sighted on route?"

"Very well Shepard, then you should know that we have managed to reclaim our two lost research posts in the Armstrong Nebula, and that we have discovered a new crater on one of the moons in the Grissom System." Hackett replied calmly. "In fact, it seems the geth presence previously reported was greatly exaggerated."

"That's good to hear Admiral, I'm glad that the assistance of my team wasn't required." Shepard replied as Liara curled up her chair, resting her head on Shepard's rather cold, bed. "Is there anything else you wanted to tell me, Sir?"

"Captain Anderson asked me to inform you that there has been a single geth ship sighted in the Pax System. It just dropped out of FTL, destroyed a single ship, and jumped back out again."

"Thankyou Sir, we'll look into it."

"Good luck Commander. I need to go smooth all of this over with the Alliance, although I do expect you to send a classified report to me though." The admiral stated.

"Will do Sir." Shepard managed to quickly respond before the channel beeped closed. "Now, about that lunch, if you want, we could-"

"Lunch would be lovely." Liara answered, not moving her head from the claimed section of the bed.

Shepard just smiled in response, even if Liara couldn't see, as she settled back down to sleep and recover. "Joker, could you set a course to the Pax System please?"

"Aye Commander, feel better soon." Joker replied patronisingly.

After a rather sound nights sleep, Shepard hadn't been surprised to find out Liara had moved to her bed at some point after Shepard had fallen asleep. Surprisingly, Chakwas had cleared her to return to duty immediately, only incising the Commander ate a sensible breakfast. Shepard sat herself opposite Ash, surprised she was up so early since the day shift didn't start for another two hours, with a large plate of eggs and a glass of orange juice, hot coffee just hadn't seemed like an appealing idea.

Ash couldn't help herself after Shepard had sat down opposite her. "Okay, what happened, I haven't seen you this happy since... ever actually, even when you got the spectre title. If I didn't know better, I'd swear you got laid last night." Ash quickly took a sip of coffee to hide her smirk at the look of surprise on Shepard face.

"Gunnery Chief! Am I to assume that you're engaging in gossip regarding an officer's personal life?" Shepard snapped.

"Ash jumped like a well traind soldier. "No Ma'am." She saluted the Commander on instinct.

"Good," Shepard replied, before giving Ash a cocking grin. "Because we just talked."

Ashley looked shocked. "That was cruel commander."

"I don't like skuttlebutt," Shepard stated."I know I don't exactly run a tight, by the book ship, but if I catch you gossiping, chief..."

"My lips are sealed Ma'am, so what happened!?" Ash answered, her eagerness betraying any hope of appearing professional.

"Well, by the time they got me to the medbay I was unconscious, next thing I know I'm in a bed with Liara perched next to me looking... I dunno, she's adorable when she's thinking." Shepard muttered, slowly drifting off.

"Okay, back to what we were actually talking about, what happened!" Ash urged.

"Well, she just started talking, from the sounds of it she just needed to sort her head out, and I couldn't help but say how I felt. Next thing I knew, I was asking her out to lunch." Shepard mumbled as she neared the end, feeling herself turn a bright shade of red.

"Aww, look at you. Anyone would think you're back in high school." Ash laughed, "Hard to believe the first human spectre can get embarrassed over asking a girl out."

"We've all got our weaknesses Chief, but this is hardly as simple as the last guy you grabbed on a layover." Shepard couldn't but chuckle to her self a little. "She's another species."

Ash wasn't going to bite, but she certainly wasn't going to let that pass by unnoticed. "If you're planning on just having some fun, and than dumping her by-"

"Stop right there Chief." Shepard snapped. "I have no intention of this being a fling, you should know that, you're the one that's been encouraging her."

"All the more reason for me to make sure-" Ash stopped mid sentence at the sight of Shepard grinning. "What is so funny!?"

"Well, the human marine that was giving Liara a hard time for being an alien, seems to have become her big sister." Shepard replied, stifling a laugh.

"So not true..." Ash stated defensively, "she's eighty years older than me."

"Then why am I getting the same warning I'm sure you give everyone your sisters go out with?"

"N-Not everyone." Ash stuttered before quickly going back to her breakfast.

"Well it's good to know you can see past someone's species, I just hope you're not kissing Garrus without orders." Shepard teased.

"No Ma'am" Ash laughed, "If you'll excuse me, I promised Liara a shooting lesson before my shift starts."

"Of course, how much is she improving?" Shepard asked curiously.

"She could rival Kaidan and me with a pistol, Ma'am." Ash replied before she walked off towards the elevator to the cargo bay.

Shepard looked down at her half-finished breakfast before looking after the the Chief, "Hold up Ash, you've got an observer."

With most of the crew still asleep, Ash had completely taken over the cargo bay. Containers had been scattered around the room providing cover for various targets that had been set up. After Shepard had said she was joining, Ash had decided to give Liara and extra challenge in addition to the targets simply moving in and out of cover. Several of the simple drones were equipped with weapons to fire training round, incapable of penetrating a barrier or armour, but would prove effective in teaching Liara to effectively use cover.

With the last setting adjustments made to the drones and a kinetic barrier separating the lift and engineering access from the rest of the cargo bay, Ash walked over to Liara attaching the last of her armour plates. "The aim is simple, disable all the drones and don't get shot too much." Ash attacked a sensor to the back of Liara's armour, "That will track any shots that make contact with you or your barriers, one head shot or three to the torso and you're out. I'm also going to say you can use biotics if you want to, Shepard's watching, and I'm sure you'd appreciate the chance to show her what you can do."

Liara couldn't help but glance over to Shepard sat on the top of the Mako, grateful the helmet was hiding the blush in her cheeks. "Sounds simple enough, just wish it was that easy."

"You'll do fine." Ash offered, maneuvering Liara towards a pile of crates she'd set up for an initial position. "You've got five seconds, then I'll activate the drones."

Liara nodded, settling herself in behind the crates, pistol in hand. "These things are safe, right?"

"Perfectly. Just relax." Liara nodded to Ash at her statement, exhaling to relax. "Right, five seconds from now." Ash said quickly backing away.

Liara just sat against the crates, trying to look round towards the drones, currently hiding themselves. You can do this, it's just a few drones. The sensor on the back of her neck beeped, indicating the start of the session. Liara cautiously looked round the corner, as a single shot hit her shoulder. She quickly fell back into cover just before two more shots flew past into the barrier behind her. You can do this, they're just drones.

Liara pushed herself back out from behind cover, moving far quicker, firing shots towards the drones that had shot at her. One fell to the ground, sparking, as Liara reached the pile of crates she was running for. A volley of shots hit the area around her, impacting the crates and barrier again. The shots started coming in a steady stream, effectively pinning her in position. She quickly emptied the clip, firing blindly around the crates, leaving the pistol wining as it over heated.

She replaced the clip, before pulling back from cover. With a hand wreathed in blue energy, the crates she had hidden behind flew across the cargo bay, shattering against another cluster on the far side of the cargo bay, crushing two drones that had been behind them. Scrambling for some cover behind a single crate on the floor, she fired rapidly, taking out another drone, leaving only two, both out of view, both armed. No idea where the next attack would come from, she had no choice. Liara poked her head over the top of the crate in time to see a round being fired from behind the Mako, impacting on the crate right in front of her. She quickly dropped back to the ground before a second round fired through the air that her head had been occupying. Leaning around the crate, Liara threw a singularity to between and behind where the two shots had come from. She ducked back into cover to wait for it to form, before she rose out from behind the crate, bathed in blue light. She stepped around the obstacle as the two drone hung in the singularity field bumping into each other as they drifted. Liara swung her arms towards them as the biotic energy around her rushed towards her hands, releasing towards the drones in a warp field.

The singularity detonated as the warp passed over the drones, detonating to scatter the twisted components of the drones across the cargo bay. Shepard flinched as a fragment flew towards her head, grateful she'd picked up a shield generator as the barrier deflected the piece of twisted metal. She quickly slid down from the Mako's roof looking at the considerable mess Liara had managed to make within a few minutes, unable to do anything buy grin as she approached the asari. "You're just an adorable little bundle of destruction aren't you?"

Liara couldn't help but blush, grateful that the helmet hid most of her face, although a thin smile was clear. "Chief Williams is a good teacher."

"Yeah, but she's not a biotics, and I'm not sure she could destroy quite this much, as quickly, without grenades."

Liara glanced back over her shoulder towards Ash, finding the marine to be staring slack-jawed at the destroyed crates and scattered contents. "I should probably give her a hand clearing up."

"Probably, but I need to correct a mistake first. We're headed to a human research colony where there has been a geth sighting. The colony hasn't gone silent, so we aren't expecting any serious fighting, but I would like you on the ground team, if you want to come?" Shepard asked, looking a little unsure of herself after questioning her own decision.

"I'm not sure it was a mistake at the time, but I'd like to come now." Liara replied sweetly before running off towards Ash, throwing a couple of singularities out to help puck up the large mess on the floor.