There was one thing bothering me though, something distracting me from truly absorbing the info I was reading. Something about the debriefing earlier. Something I could not get off my mind. I checked to make sure the external speakers were off before speaking.

"Saria, I know AIs are illegal here, but do you have any idea why?"

"No. There isn't any explanation, other than the fact that the law mainly came about due to some action the Quarians took. No clue what it was though. Maybe it's time for some deeper intel gathering?"

All I gave was a noncommittal "Maybe," before I got up from the stack of crates that had quickly become my area of the bay. Seems like no one wants to mess with the armored, seven foot tall super soldier. I can't possibly imagine why. After a second of indecision, I decided to walk over to where Williams was working, see if she knew anything about why Tali had reacted how she did in the comm room.

I walked up behind Williams, who seemed to be cleaning or otherwise caring for the guns. Realizing that she still hadn't noticed me, I cleared my throat a little, to catch her attention.

"Wha- Whoa! But you were," she glanced over to where I was sitting before, then took a deep breath to calm herself. I heard both Wrex and Garrus give a quiet chuckle, probably not something Ashley could hear. "You sure can move quietly in that thing if you want to, huh? I thought it weighed half a ton?"

I shrugged. "I weigh half a ton in the armor. As for moving quietly, it takes about a week to get used to moving quietly after the augmentations, and a little longer than that for the armor. Helps having great balance and being able to process things faster. Anyways, I didn't walk over just to scare you. I wanted to ask you something."

"Sure. What is it?"

"Two things actually. First: do you know what was up with Tali up in the comm room. I know AIs are illegal here, but that didn't seem like a typical reaction."

"That is probably something you'll want to bring up with her. She's usually in the engine room, poking around with the drive core. What was the second thing?"

"I was wondering if you'd let me have one of those guns, to take apart and get an idea of how it works. I like knowing how most of my kit works, and if those guns can fold up, I can probably fit one in addition to my guns."

"Sure, I'll get one. You want anything specific, like an assault rifle, pistol, sniper rifle, or shotgun?"

"Shotgun sounds fine. I already have an assault rifle and a pistol, and if things get up close, hitting them is fine and all, but I want to have a longer effective range than my fist."

"Okay, I'll grab a shotgun for you. Just, you didn't say anything about long range. You sure you don't want a sniper too?"

"No, I'm good,with long range as well. Pistol has a smart link 2x smart scope. Besides, I can only fit one more gun. Might as well be the shotgun."

She eyed the pistol on my thigh with a critical eye. "If that thing has a scope, then I'm a Spectre."

"Well, I'll give you half credit. It has a scope, just probably not the kind you can use. The smart link scope is under the barrel, and connects to the armor, especially the HUD. While I can't physically look through the scope, I can trigger a 2x zoom through the HUD, linked to the camera in the scope. Means I don't actually have to bring the gun up to my face to look down the scope."

She gave a whistle. "I stand corrected. Anyways, here's your shotgun, and if you want to talk to Tali, she's in the engine room. Just through those doors behind the elevator."

I gave a small nod. "Thanks."

Stopping by my crates to drop off the gun, I made my way to the engine room. Once inside, I realized that this looked nothing like I expected. I had expected maybe something similar to a ship's reactor, or maybe a room housing something similar to a slipspace drive. Not a slightly lowered platform overlooking a spinning turbine surrounding a massive three pronged claw with some kind of glowing blue energy in the middle, with regular electric pulses down the turbine.

"That must be the Element Zero core. It's bigger than I expected."

I just gave a simple "Yeah" to Saria's comment, and looked around the room some more. There was probably 4 humans in the room, two of them having a conversation off to the side, and the other two working at glowing orange holographic consoles overlooking the drive core. Off to the left, somewhat away from everyone else, also monitoring a console, was the person I was looking for. Tali.

I walked up to her, but like Ashley, she didn't notice me. So instead of just clearing my throat, I spoke up. "Tali?"

She turned around, startled by my seemingly sudden appearance. "Keelah! Are you always so quiet?"

I gave a small chuckle. "That's the same reaction Ashley had when I went to talk to her."

"So, are you here to talk to me about something?"

"Yeah, actually. I wanted to know why you reacted how you did when I mentioned that the UNSC used AIs. It seemed beyond a normal reaction against something that's illegal."

She sighed. "You don't know? The Quarians created the Geth. Rouge AIs that rebelled against us and drove us from our homeworld. That's why we have to live on the Migrant Fleet. We were driven from our home, and because of our immune systems, we have to live in our suits, and can't even think about colonizing a planet. AIs are dangerous."

I thought about that for a second. "Valid point. I still have a few questions though. How are Geth created, how do they function?"

"The Geth are a community of programs working together. While individually, the Geth are not intelligent, when they network together with enough other Geth, they get smarter. Of course, that's a simplification of how they work, but you get the general idea."

"Okay, I think I get it. The Geth are programs working together to achieve intelligence. That's nowhere close to how UNSC AIs work."

"So how do they work?"

"I'm not an expert, but I have the basic principle. Our AI techs are not as advanced as yours were, they didn't know how to program a true AI, one that could adapt to any challenge. But the did know something that could: the human brain. AIs are created by releasing an electrical pulse through a relatively intact brain, and mapping the pattern. This is then used through some process to create an AI. Our AIs can be considered human, due to how they think. They are essentially digitalized human brains. Why would they want to betray what they view as their own species?"

"I suppose. But that doesn't prevent them from say, venting all the atmosphere from a ship."

"You ever hear of a human named Asimov? No? He was an ancient science fiction writer back in the 20th century, at least where I'm from. He created these ideas, ideas about what the central programming of a robot, or an AI, should be. He had three laws on how they should behave. Number 1 said that they can't harm human beings, or through inaction, allow one to be harmed. Number two said that it must always follow orders, as long as it doesn't conflict with the first law. The third one said that it must protect its own existence, as long as it doesn't conflict with the other laws."

"Asimov was a smart man. What does a dead man's ideas about governing robots have to do with your AIs?"

"UNSC AIs have Asimov's Laws of Robotics as part of their core programming. The only ones able to ignore the laws for a short time would be military AIs, to prevent issues with orders. But even then, they can only ignore the Laws if they are operating at full capacity. UNSC AIs would try everything they could to try to prevent humans being harmed, both because of the Laws, and because they think like humans. AIs have human holographic avatars because they think of themselves as human."

"Okay, I get it. Your AIs are safe because you took precautions. What's to stop the AIs from changing their base code?"

"Can you change your DNA? It the same idea. While you can change some features about yourself, like strength or endurance, by building it up, AIs can change parts of themselves, but not basic subroutines or commands installed in their core programming. It would be like you trying to change your need to breath."

"Okay, okay. Is there anything else you need, or did you just come here to brag about your AIs?"

"I wasn't trying to brag, just trying to make you understand. And yes, there may be something else. You seem like a fairly capable engineer, am I right?"

"All Quarians are, we have to be when we live on a home one hull breach away from death."

"Good. I have some special equipment with me that I can't fix or replace, and isn't reusable. Do you know how I might be able to get more?"

She seemed to be deep in thought, and paced back and forth a little while trying to come up with an answer. "There might be something. Omnitools come with a standard microfabricator, and if you have the right schematics, you might be able to use Omnigel to create what it is that you need. What is it that you need? Can I see it?"

"Yeah, sure. I need a reliable source of ammo for my assault rifle and the pistol." I pulled out a spare magazine for my pistol and handed it to her. She took a long look at it, and almost laughed.

"You have highly advanced AIs, ones that are theoretically safe, and your running around with bullets? Why not just use Eezo for your guns?"

"Your idea of using Eezo in our guns hinges on a critical detail: there has to actually be Eezo where I'm from for that to actually work."

She looked like she was about to laugh again, until my words sunk in. "You don't have Eezo where your from?"

I shook my head. "Nope. We don't have Eezo, we don't have mass relays, nothing the people here take for granted."

"But you said that your people had over 800 colonies before the Covenant came. How did you get around? If you didn't use Eezo, how did you get out there?"

"Multiple reasons. First, we weren't limited with space like you are by the mass relays. We spread out from our homeworld along our lines, not anyone else's. Also, for faster than light travel, we have slipspace drives, which created micro black holes in front of the ship, then enlarged it, tearing a hole into another dimension. That other dimension, what we call Slipspace, follows different rules. You still have to travel under your own power, but the rules work a little differently. Still takes a long time to go from place to place, so we created cryotubes. They stop almost all aging on a cellular level, effectively putting you to sleep for the journey. What feels like a five minute nap can actually be a several month trip through slipspace. It's not as fast as the mass relays, but its faster than your normal FTL drives here."

"Keelah, a way to move faster without Eezo. Do you have any plans for this? This might be exactly what I need for my Pilgrimage!"

"Sorry, I don't have any plans for a slipspace drive. Maybe a few weapons, but no slipspace drive."

"Oh well, I suppose it's too much to ask."

"Not really, almost every ship uses slipspace drives. They're about as classified as a ship's Eezo core. Well, thanks for the help Tali, it was nice talking with you."

I walked back out of the engine room, and back to my usual stack of crates. With the shotgun laid out on a crate, I took a scan of it using the Forerunner scanner, both in its folded position, and extended. Satisfied that I had enough data to be able to put it back together again if I needed help, I took my helmet off, but put it in a position that would still allow it to record what I was doing. Having recorders built in to your helmet was a good thing.

The gun wasn't complicated, obviously designed to be simple for both maintenance and a general understanding of how the gun worked. From what I was able to tell, it didn't use magazine of bullets, instead simply shaving off a piece from an internal block, then, using a small Eezo core to lower the mass even further, shoot it out the barrel using magnetic accelerators. Similar in principle to the railgun that infantry used out on the field, but with a much smaller, nonexplosive, and more regular payload.

It was on the third cycle of taking it apart and rebuilding it that Shepard showed up. She seemed interested in what I was doing.

"So, what do you think? That gun up to your standards?"

"While the construction is interesting, and the speed of the bullets is impressive, it lacks armor piercing or stopping power capabilities. It might work here, but wouldn't put down, say, an Elite."

"That bad, huh?"

"It shoots fast, but the mass of the bullet, not to mention the size, tends to limit it. It might have been able to pierce my old ODST BDU, but not the MJOLNIR. At least, the plates. The undersuit could probably protect against a few shots, but not much more than that."

"Wait, your guns use bigger and heavier bullets? How?"

"No Eezo. Ask Tali if you want more info, I told her a lot. She seemed interested with the idea of a non Eezo way of moving through the stars."

Shepard looked impressed. "I can imagine. Now, I wanted to ask you something."

"What?"

"Back in the Mako, you said something about Orbital Drop Shock Troopers? What did you mean?"

"ODSTs are a special forces section of the UNSC marine corps. A couple divisions worth. Rapid deployment is the name of the game. Like I said, we get launched in pods from ships in orbit. Specifically, Single Occupant Exoatmoshperic Insertion Vehicles, or SOEIVs. Also called Human Entry Vehicles, or HEVs. Vehicle is pushing it though. They're little more than chairs in a metal pod built to survive re-entry."

"Atmospheric re-entry in a small metal pod? That must be dangerous. Especially with AA fire."

"Yeah, it can get dangerous some times. Picked off by a lucky AA gunner, or have your shoot break, and continue down without slowing down, digging your own grave. If you're really unlucky, the thermal coating could fail, and you get roasted in your pod."

"And command expects regular troops to just go along with this?"

"No. Like I said, this was just a couple divisions of the marines. Not all of them. Most marines ride down to the surface in a nice, cushy dropship. And the Helljumpers is a voluntary outfit. Only volunteers. It takes a special kind of crazy to willingly sign up for a job that requires you to do that on a regular basis." I gave a slightly crazy grin to enforce the idea.

"Great. I've got a psychotic Krogan biotic, a Turian with a hatred of the red tape, a Quarian with a delicate immune system, and now a crazy supersoldier, all with free run of my ship. Nothing could possibly go wrong with that combination."

That got a chuckle from me. "Don't worry. I'm sane. Or at least, more sane than most ODSTs. The drops are a pure rush, but I know how dangerous they are. Probably the reason I never made it past Sargent. I wasn't crazy enough. And that's not the only reason to sign up. ODSTs get better training and the best equipment outside of the Spartans and ONI spooks. We sometimes even get some things before the Spartans, like the VISR system. That was introduced to the Spartans around the time the IVs first came into active duty. ODSTs had it in the later part of the war."

"VISR? What's that?"

"A mix between low-light vision and visual intelligence. It connected with the motion tracker and IFF reader to put an outline around anything in vision. As one of my old CO's once said, 'Its simple: If you see green, squad up. If you see red, shoot.' Really comes in handy. After the war, it was made part of standard programming for any unit with a helmet and HUD."

"Well, Nick, I have to say, this has certainly been ... Interesting. We'll be pulling into the Citadel in an hour. I want you to go with Tali, and she'll get you an Omnitool. Probably better than wearing your helmet all the time."

"Depends on who you ask, Commander. I'll be ready when we get there."

"Okay, just letting you know. Just try to keep your cool, the Citadel is the home of the ruling Council. Try not to piss them off."

The conversation finished, Shepard walked off. I finished putting the gun back together, then, with a lack of more things to do, and bored with taking the gun apart, I figured a quick check of the equipment that I brought with me was in order. First, the guns. With a quick strip down, looking for any problems, I quickly cleared the assault rifle and moved on to the pistol. No problems with either. I pulled my helmet back on and moved on to the Energy Sword. With no other way to perform diagnostics, I gripped the handle, checking the battery charge. 90%. With no way to charge it here, I figured that it would be best to save the charge. I might need it later. Next was the armor abilities I brought with me, currently in a bag next to the crates. Barring the ones that couldn't safely be used in a ship, I checked all that I could. Hardlight Shield, check. Hologram, check. Regen Field, check. Promethian Vision, check. The Autosentry, Jetpack, and Thrusters weren't exactly safe to test on the limited space of the deck. Times like this made me wish for the Holodeck back on the Infinity, even of it did usually have the effect of leaving me beat.

I could tell the others in the bay were watching me run through the tests, interested, but I could care less. Satisfied that they all worked, I put the ability modules back in the bag, and put the active camo back on my back. Never knew when that could come in handy, especially on what is most likely a civilian station. The hour before docking went by pretty quick. Before I knew it, we were pulling into dock at the Citadel.

Hey, sorry this is a few days late. Schoolwork, not enough time, laziness, you know, the usual? Anyways. about the posting. I decided to come up with a decent compromise. I'll upload the chapters once I finish them, but try to make them longer than they have been in the past, around or longer than this one. If a month goes by, I'll cut my losses and wrap up and upload what I have. Seems fair, right? Quick explanations about the future of this story. I will be breaking up the story between the games, roughly around the endings, maybe with some stuff afterwards. This, in addition to giving me a chance to take a small break between the games, allows for some time skips without having to explain everything happening between them, making my job easier. This also explains the no parings I added to the description. No pairings for the course of ME1, but we'll see what happens during the later stories. Those wondering about the overall ending though, don't. All I know is that right now, it will most likely not follow ME3's endings. How it will be different, I'm not exactly sure. I have some ideas about how they fit together, but I guess we'll all find out exactly how it goes when the story gets there. Next chapter, the Spartan meets some new people.