"Commander, we're about to land on Erinie." Joker's voice called over the PA System, the day off had came and went as fast as it was announced for the majority of the crew and apart from Joker's arrest not much had happened save for Jacob's hangover and the teasing looks Marcus, Garrus and Dsrondo where getting from the female members of the crew, right now though they're priority was recruiting the SPECTRE Agent Tidosis Mirani.
"Thanks Joker, tell Dsrondo and Jenny to meet me at the hanger." Sheppard said.
"Commander there's something you should know." EDI chimed in. "I am detecting life signs on an otherwise uncharted world and there are ships down there that match the signatures of those used by the Eclipse and Blue Suns mercenary group." Sheppard frowned.
"What do they want with an uncharted world?" Sheppard asked.
"Good question though Purgatory was orbiting this planet, it's possible that the mercenary groups are looking for salvage." Joker suggested.
"It doesn't matter because either way the two groups are unknown variables and we don't know if we can trust them." Sheppard said with a frown.
"I agree with Joker's theory about wreckage from Purgatory." Sheppard turned around and saw Dsrondo and Jenny standing there. "The Blue Suns invested a lot of money into the space station and they lost a lot of money when it crashed."
"Alright, we're going in; see you when I get back Joker."
Minutes later Jenny and Dsrondo got off the shuttle and touched ground on Erinie, Sheppard looked around and saw wreckage from the Purgatory ship all around them.
"Careful, this is an uncharted world and god knows what we might find down here." Sheppard warned his companions.
"Not that that stopped the Blue Suns or the Eclipse." Jenny replied.
"FREEZE!" They turned around and saw a small squad of Blue Suns Mercs, the merc that had issued the order, a Batarian, stepped forward. "Identify yourselves.
"You identify yourself first." Sheppard answered.
"We don't answer to you human and you have five minutes to get back on that shuttle before my men gun you....." The Batarian never finished as he was killed by a Sniper Shot to the head.
"What the hell?" Another Blue Suns merc, a Human, yelled out but he was taken out by the same sniper, soon every merc in that band was dead.
"Sorry to interrupt the party Sheppard." A Female sounding Turian voice rang out and the mystery sniper revealed herself, it was a female Turian, tall and slender with greyish scales.
"Tidoses Mirani?" Sheppard asked.
"Yes, it is an honour to finally meet you Sheppard." Tidoses greeted shaking the Commander's hand. "Who are these two?" Tidoses asked motioning to Jenny and Dsrondo.
"This is Jenny McKansa and Dsrondo Batalic, they're members of my crew." Dsrondo nodded to Tidoses out of respect and Jenny tensed up.
"Is there something wrong child?" Tidoses asked.
"Her family doesn't exactly have the best history with the Turians." Sheppard explained.
"Ah, I thought I recognised the name from somewhere, your grandfather betrayed the Alliance to the Turians during the Relay 314 incident." Tidoses said.
"Yeah and it's because the Turians ratted him out that I'm not so quick to trust you." Jenny replied.
"I understand child, but I do hope to earn your trust." Tidoses said.
"So, what brings a SPECTRE here?" Dsrondo asked.
"The Blue Suns have rebuilt Purgatory on this planet, however due to the death of Warden Kurit and Vido Santiago no world is willing to pay for their criminals to be there so instead they use it as the headquarters for their slave raiding operations. Normally this wouldn't be worthy of the attention of the SPECTRES but....."
"Let me guess, they're using SPECTRE tech." Sheppard said.
"Yes, and whilst the operation has been shut down there are some lose ends we need to tie up, like the rebuilt Purgatory." Tidoses said. "My mission is to eliminate the Blue Suns, blow up the Purgatory prison and free all captured slaves and return them to their homes, unfortunately until you arrived the last part was going to be imposable."
"What do you mean?" Dsrondo asked.
"They shot down my ship and I barely made it out alive." Tidoses said motioning to the Wreckage with her sniper rifle.
"We can use the Normandy SR2 to return the Slaves to they're homes." Sheppard said. "But I also need you for a mission of Galactic Importance."
"The Reapers." Tidoses said. "No need to fill me in Commander, the council briefed me on the specifics before I came here."
"So you're willing to help?" Dsrondo said. "And you were expecting us?"
"Indeed, and whilst I wasn't expecting to be working with a Batarian I was also briefed on the current crew members." Tidoses said.
"What about the Eclipse? Do you have any idea why they're here?" Sheppard asked.
"I wasn't even aware that they were here but if they are here then I don't know if I can trust them." Tidoses replied.
"That's the same stance I'm taking but if they're fighting the Blue Suns maybe aligning with them will be in our best interests." Sheppard said.
"Indeed, for now we move towards Purgatory, follow me." Tidoses said and they headed north, they continued walking for a couple of hours before they came across a large band of Eclipse Mercs.
"Halt who goes there, friend or foe?" A Salarian said as the squad pointing their guns at Sheppard's crew.
"If you're fighting against the Blue Suns then we are your allies, if not then you're our enemies." Jenny said stepping forward but the Eclipse mercs didn't step down.
"Hold it." A Human male Mercenary with a Scottish accent said getting in between the two groups.
"Zach, what are you doing? I made it clear that I was running this operation." The Salarian said.
"Zach? Wait is he....." Jenny thought.
"We can trust these guys if there fighting The Blue Suns." Zach pointed out.
"Hmmm, I suppose that's true enough, stand down men." The Salarian said and the Eclipse holstered they're guns.
"Smart choice, otherwise you would've had to deal with two SPECTRE agents." The Salarian gulped.
"Long time no see sis." Zach said to Jenny removing his helmet as he did revealing short messy red hair and a matching goatee.
"You're her brother?" Sheppard asked surprised.
"Yeah, we just don't see each other that much due to our different lines of work." Zach said.
"That much is obvious but what are the Eclipse doing here Zach?" Jenny asked.
"The Blue Suns have captured a high ranking member of the Eclipse Mercenary group and are holding him in Purgatory; my squad's been given the task of getting him out alive." The Salarian answered.
"And I've been tasked with taking out the Blue Suns, blowing up Purgatory and rescuing any slaves inside, so yes we do have a common goal in mind." Tidoses said.
"Agreed, Purgatory is just a bit to the north of this position, problem is it's heavily fortified and the Blue Suns are armed to the teeth." The Salarian said.
"Not like that's ever stopped us in the past." Sheppard said.
"Yes, our plan is to have our resident tech specialist here disable the security systems remotely." The Salarian said motioning to another Salarian. "After that we go in and eliminate any resistance we encounter, extract the hostage and get the hell out of there."
"And that's where we come in; with the Blue Suns resistance gone it should be no trouble freeing the rest of the hostages." Dsrondo said and the Salarian chuckled. "What's so funny?"
"I apologize; I just never thought I'd see the day where a Batarian was against Slavery." That comment earned him a vicious punch from Dsrondo.
"Don't you dare stereotype me Salarian, you don't want to know how many ways I know how to kill people." Dsrondo growled.
"Stand down Dsrondo, they're our allies remember." Sheppard said and Dsrondo complied.
"You're lucky Sheppard's here." Dsrondo warned the Salarian.
"Yes well, I suppose we had better be on our way." The Salarian said quickly walking off with Zach and the rest of the Eclipse.
"Radio us when the cost is clear." Sheppard called after them.
"I'll make sure he does Sheppard." Zach replied.
"Can we trust them?" Dsrondo said once the mercs where out of earshot.
"I'm not sure; Jenny's brother seems pretty trust worthy but the Salarian that's leading the group on the other hand....." Sheppard said.
"Yeah, I don't trust him either." Tidoses confirmed. A few minutes later Sheppard got a call on his earpiece.
"Sheppard, its Jurdit, I'm the Salarian who's in charge of the Eclipse band, coast is clear you are free to free the slaves and blow this place sky high." The Salarian said.
"Roger that Jurdit, I'll see you at the Purgatory." Sheppard replied.
"Let's move out!" Tidoses said and they moved towards the Purgatory, the rebuilt Purgatory was a large, ominous looking building and out in front was a squad of Blue Suns mercs waiting for them with Jurdit standing out in front.
"What's the meaning of this?" Tidoses demanded.
"There was no high ranking official in this facility; this venture is a co op between the Blue Suns and The Eclipse."
"So why lead us to believe that there was?" Sheppard asked.
"Simple really, criminals understand one thing, respect, and imagine the respect that the Blue Suns and the Eclipse would get if word got out that we had been responsible for the deaths of two SPECTRE agents, including Commander Sheppard, off course there is also the issue of that bounty that the Blue Suns put on your head Dsrondo." Jurdit said before being suspended by Jenny's biotics.
"Where's my brother?" She growled.
"Inside, he refused to go along with the plan so we have imprisoned him with the other slaves." Jenny had heard enough and quickly put a bullet between Jurdit's eyes, the Blue Suns mercs were easily defeated.
"That takes care of him; we'd better go free Zach and the slaves." Sheppard said walking into the Purgatory, the living conditions in the cells made Omega look like a Paradise and Sheppard felt his skin crawl when he saw babies as being cared for by their parents in the cells. They quickly found Zach as he was in a cell with several slaves.
"I tried to get a message through to you guys but they took my earpiece." Zach admitted.
"Don't worry about it Zach, we're here to rescue you and the other slaves." Zach's cellmates looked up after hearing that.
"Guess that's the end of my career in the Eclipse." Zach said shaking his head. "I knew I should've stayed on Earth." He added as Tidoses opened the cell door.
"Don't beat yourself up over it, there's no way you could've known what Jurdit was planning." Tidoses reassured him as she opened the rest of the cells.
"What happened to the rest of the squad?" Dsrondo asked and Zach clenched his fists.
"That son of a bitch Jurdit lead them right into an ambush and let them die, if he isn't already dead I want a piece of him!" Zach said.
"Sorry bro, I beat you too it!" Jenny said with a grin.
"I should've known better." He grinned.
"What will you do now Zach?" Sheppard asked, before he could answer another squad of Blue Suns mercs burst through a nearby door.
"Gun down all the slaves, save Sheppard's squad for last!" A Turian commanded but Zach threw a singularity as the squad and nodded at Sheppard who gunned down the squad with ease.
"Impressive biotics, you'll be an asset to the squad." Dsrondo complemented. "That's if he joined of course."
"Well he's proven himself to be a good biotic but what other skills do you posses." Sheppard asked.
"He's a hell of a shot for one thing." Jenny chimed in.
"Ah great, know I've got my younger sister kissing my ass!" Zach joked and Jenny playfully stuck her tongue out at him in response.
"If Jenny vouches for him I don't see why not, Zach what do you know about The Reapers?" Sheppard asked.
"Not much Commander, all I've heard about them is isolated rumours." Zach answered.
"They're not rumours kid, and Sheppard needs the best of the best in order to combat them and based on what I've seen your skills are more than adequate." Dsrondo said.
"Ah hell, not every day that you get to work with a War Hero like Sheppard, I'm in." Zach said.
"Good, Tidoses, I believe you have a facility to blow up." Sheppard said as they left the building.
"Indeed, though I suggest we get the hell away from it first." Tidoses said, minutes later they saw the Purgatory building blow up from a nearby hill.
"Jenny, Zach, round up the surviving slaves and bring them here, and we'll have the Normandy pick them up." Sheppard said.
"You got it." Zach said walking off with Jenny following, two hours later and the slaves were all brought to Sheppard's location.
"Listen everyone, my name is Commander Sheppard and from this moment on you are all free!" The crowd cheered in response. "My ship will take you to your homeworlds but until then you will remain in the docking area.
"Sheppard, there's got to be at five hundred slaves here, how will we fit them all in?" Dsrondo pointed out.
"Let me worry about that Dsrondo." Sheppard said before putting a hand to his earpiece. "Joker, Tidoses has joined the crew alongside Jenny's older brother, be ready to pick up around five hundred slaves."
"Aye, aye Commander, landing on the planet......wait, slaves?!"
"Don't worry Joker, we rescued them from a Blue Suns facility and we are taking them to their homeworlds." Joker sighed with relief.
"That's a relief." Joker said,
"Wait, I thought the Normandy couldn't land on Planets?" Sheppard asked.
"Those upgrades you commissioned made it possible commander, we can now land on the planet's service for ten minutes at a time so it'll be best if the slaves and your crew enter at the same time." Joker said, and moments later the Normandy landed and everyone boarded.