From: CC
To: LTS

Only a few of these candidates are for hire. Are you ready to provide leverage should any be reluctant to join?

From: LTS
To: CC

You brought her back because she is a leader. She will get the people she needs, one way or the other.


The day had not started well. Apparently Cerberus' upgrades had failed to remove one of the less pleasurable aspects of the human condition: what was commonly referred to as "getting up on the wrong side of the bed". In an embarrassing display of ill grace, Shepard had managed to stub her toe, bruise her hip on her desk and slip in the shower in the space of less than ten minutes.

The chirpiness of her Yeoman had done little to improve her mood. The young redhead was particularly talkative that morning, and Shepard only tolerated her because she had the presence of mind to keep her mug of strong black coffee hot and full.

'So, Shepard, what's the plan for today?'

The team building was going well; she now had a nicely varied squad and though she still had several others she wanted to pick up, she was confident for the moment that they would perform well. Cerberus had also sent her several leads they thought would be useful for the mission; technology, rumours about Collector sightings, and so on.

Between Omega, Zorya, Korlus and Bekenstein she had fought every other day for two weeks now with no break, and her new body was holding up remarkably well to the stress. Shepard was loath to put the mission on hold, even for just a small time, but as she had said to Kelly several days before, she had concerns about the crew; particularly their integration with herself and her team of specialists. She had scheduled something of a rest day, bringing in some extra supplies from the Citadel for a decent meal and some drinks. They could not afford a full shore leave, but Shepard had told Miranda to allow as many people as possible have as much time off as possible on today's rota while they travelled back to the Terminus at "cruise", rather than "mission" pace.

'I want you to make sure everybody relaxes for at least a couple of hours at some point today. I'm going to welcome the guest in the cargo hold.'

'The Krogan?'

'Yes.'

They had picked the tank up as Okeer's final wish. The dossier was for a Krogan Warlord, but he had died before they could get him off the planet. His request for Shepard was to take his "prototype", his perfect soldier, and show him the way of battle.

'We don't know a thing about him, Shepard. The dossier and my psych report were for Okeer.'

'He's a Krogan, Kelly. I'm on a dangerous mission promising a whole lot of violence. I think we'll get along just fine.'

'Well, be careful. I'll be hiding in the lounge if you need anything.'

Shepard snorted as the redhead said her farewells and left. She finished her coffee, quickly wolfed down a breakfast bar and started for the elevator, mentally preparing herself.

Krogan appreciate overt displays of power and force.

She was armed. She did not armour herself; on board her ship, she did not expect to have her orders questioned.

Hierarchy is based on strength and ability, not compromise or diplomacy.

She had no fear in that regard. She knew she was a brilliant soldier, and had little interest in political bickering.

He is little more than a child; unlikely to show restraint or patience.

She had to prove herself quickly, or he would grow bored and attack.

She had already run over the data EDI had downloaded and summarised from Okeer's files.

The Krogan was at the beginning of his adult physical maturity. His plates were still not fused and his hump would continue to grow, but everything else, including musculature, was fully formed. He had what could only be described as an educational "package" imprinted to his brain, so he knew things; how to talk, history, and how to fight. He had no trace of technological implants; Okeer wanted his soldier to be pure Krogan. He was also infected with the Genophage, disproving Mordin's concerns about what the "perfect" Krogan might be.

Kelly was right, in her own way. The Krogan in the tank in front of her was completely unknown. She may know what Krogan, in general, respect, and what had been implanted in the brain of the one in front of her, but she did not know what he was like as a person.

'EDI, open the tank.'

'Shepard, Cerberus protocols are clear about-'

She felt an unwelcome fear swell up inside of her. She had just about come to accept the AI's presence on the ship, mostly by treating it as a VI. At the first sign of trouble, she was ready to have the thing removed. But this did not sound like trouble; it sounded like a recruit, fresh out of the academy, who only had the rulebook in their mind. The thought was ludicrous; this was a machine, not a kid, and she was not in the mood to deal with disobedience today.

'Are you questioning my orders, EDI?'

'I... no Commander. Draining the tank.'

Shepard would be damned if it did not sound like a chastised Private, but she would consider that later.

The fluid was quickly draining from the tank, splashing into the deck below her, to be collected, processed and purified by the onboard filters, ready for whatever use EDI could safely put it to the next day.

The glass plate slid upwards, and the Krogan, hundreds of pounds of muscle, plating and power, fell forwards, catching himself and coughing his lungs out. He was completely bare; Shepard could see his heavy skin, a pale orange, slightly scaled, spotted with gunmetal grey that would one day fuse into the nearly impenetrable natural armour of a Krogan warrior.

He stopped coughing, raised his head and opened his eyes. They were a startling blue, and Shepard met his gaze, not backing down. She looked at him, demanding he obey her with nothing more than a glare.

They watched each other for several seconds, before the Krogan blinked. Shepard saw his muscles bunch, and was already moving to one side when he charged.

Still not fully upright, he could not alter his trajectory in time, and fell to the ground again as Shepard dug her elbow deep into a fleshy section of his back with all of the power she could muster, leaving one leg slightly askew so he tripped on it.

Without saying anything, she strode around to meet his eye again. Wary now, he stood to his full height.

'Commander Shepard. You are dead.'

She felt her muscles tighten, and narrowed her eyes.

'We can dance all day, Krogan, or you can accept my command and follow me against an enemy that threatens the Galaxy. If you are strong enough, you may even survive them. If not, you were never worth the effort of being grown.'

He stayed silent for several more seconds. Shepard could see him in his eyes; he wanted to attack her, but something was holding him back. There was intelligence there as well. It seemed Okeer realised that brute force was not all that was needed in the perfect Krogan.

Eventually he nodded.

'I will follow you.'

Easier than I was expecting…

'Good. How do you know who I am?'

'Okeer's tank imprints. They give me memories, I know things... I know you are dead. I know you are an enemy to the Krogan people. You destroyed the cure for the Genophage. But you also have the loyalty of one of our last Battlemasters, and the respect of Okeer.

'Okeer wants me to hate you. But I don't. His hate means nothing to me, it has no context, his imprint failed.' He snarled out the last word as if it were the greatest crime. 'You have proven yourself worthy, to me and those greater. I am a soldier, but have no clan, nothing to protect and nothing to hate. Until I find those things, I will fight for you.'

Shepard knew the Krogan were not unthinking brutes. Most, through desperation or hopelessness, just fought, because it was all they could do with their lives, the biological imperative of reproduction denied to them.

But the Krogan were warriors, not just brawlers. To offer a worthy cause to fight for was one of the greatest gifts that could be given to a Krogan. She had learned this, and much more, from Wrex.

She held out a hand.

'The Normandy will be your clan, my team your Krantt, and I your battlemaster, for as long as you can prove your value. What is your name?'

He grasped her forearm, a Galaxy-wide warrior's greeting.

'I have no name. Okeer called me prototype, perfect, legacy, soldier, grunt... Grunt will do.'

She gripped his forearm back, her hand barely reaching half way around his massive bulk.

'Welcome aboard, Grunt.'

He nodded and stepped back from her.

Shepard glanced down.

'EDI, tell Kelly to find something Grunt can wear until we get him some armour.'

'Acknowledged, Shepard.'

She looked again into the Krogan's piercing blue eyes.

'We'll be heading back into the Terminus Systems soon. I'll place an order to have some armour delivered for you from Omega when we get there. You can have a look around the armoury at your convenience.'

He gave a broad smile filled with more teeth than she could count.

'You got any shotguns?'

She returned the grin, her mood improving.

'Oh yes.'


Being asari, Liara considered, was a blessing.

She knew how the Galaxy saw her people. And when most Maidens spent the better part of a century gyrating, half naked in front of drooling customers, the reputation was certainly not ill-deserved. Asari embraced their sexuality, were educated in it, and were not afraid to use it. It was a weapon, just as much as a turian's claws or a salarian's quick wit.

'Asari slut!'

But insults could only hurt if the recipient considered herself insulted, and told her more about the one giving than the one receiving.

The human was furious, shamed, embarrassed that he had been lured by little more than a suggestive glance, captured by someone he thought weak.

Liara offered a small, endlessly patient smile. 'Come now Dorian, there is no need to make this any harder on yourself.'

'I'll kill you, bitch, I know people, they'll come after you-'

'I do not believe you quite understand the full extent of your predicament. You see, I have sent evidence to your "friends", who now know that you are cheating them. I have also erased any evidence you came to this planet at all.'

He scowled at her, but fell silent and stopped struggling as the implications sank in.

'I have photos that could destroy your marriage. I know that you lied about your credit history to take a loan for your home. I know where you plan to be every day for the next month, and exactly what lie I can provide that will convince your appointments that your absence is not suspicious. In short, Dorian, I own you.'

His eyes widened in recognition of the fact. That she could leave him to die, that she could kill him and nobody would find out, that, worst of all, she could take pity and release him, broken and shamed, back to live whatever he called a life.

'Fuck… what d'you want?'

'That is better.'

Liara finally sat down. They were in a dirty apartment in one of the run-down districts of Illium, where if one listened closely they could hear whores plying their trade in the room next door, or the police beating down a criminal in the street.

The man was tied to the bed, arms and legs splayed ludicrously, rendering him absolutely helpless. She had not even needed to touch him to lure him from a nearby bar to here, where one suggestive push, a stasis field and some quick rope work were enough to place him under her complete control.

Liara was sitting in a comfortable chair to the side of the bed, where the man, not unattractive by any means, was glaring at her through a mop of unruly blonde hair and pale blue eyes filled with fear and rage.

'What I want from you is rather simple. Three nights ago, you were approached romantically by a turian woman at Oceana.'

Oresis, it turned out, was with the asari in the car that ambushed her package. Liara's suspicion was sealed, and she had wasted no time in digging further into the pair's backgrounds. The asari was a run-of-the-mill dirty cop, who would take bribes for just about any deed, but never actually got involved in anything; she was a mother, doing what everybody else on Ilium did to get by.

The turian was far more interesting. She had a nearly spotless record, and had risen through the ranks very quickly. She had shown up on Ilium just two years ago and applied for the police without any necessary experience or training, but had been a constant surprise to her superiors ever since.

Liara had quickly found her references to be fake, and that she had in fact no history before arriving on Ilium. She was using a false identity, and a very good one. It would take her days of work to find anything out at all, and that information might be useless. So she had put surveillance on the woman, found she spent a lot of time at clubs, and had a fondness for human males.

'Yeah, I remember, bitch was crazy.'

'She will be there again tonight. I want you to go to the club, allow yourself to be seduced by her, and return with her to her apartment.'

'What? No way, I'm not into that alien shit!'

She raised a brow at him.

'You were swift enough to follow me home.'

'Yeah, but you're asari.'

She shook her head. Why her species was "acceptable" to lust over while others were not still did not make sense to her. She activated her omnitool, which projected an image of Dorian with another of her own race, in a very compromising position.

'I trust you remember where the rest of this night went? I have pictures, if you need a reminder.'

'Fuck, no, no. So, go back to the lizard's pad, then what?'

'Whilst she is sleeping, insert this OSD into her computer, and remove it when it indicates the program is complete. You will remain there until morning so she does not suspect anything. You will then drop the OSD at an agreed spot. I will know if you try to run.'

'Hell, you want me to have sex with her?'

'I suspect that will be necessary.'

'Fuck no! I've heard what turians do to people when they… I'm not going through with that shit, I don't care what you do to me!'

'Dorian, if you do this for me you can go back to your wife on Earth and live out the rest of your days in whatever manner you see fit; I promise that I will not compromise your personal life.'

He snorted.

'You expect me to believe that?'

'I do not see that you have anything of a choice in the matter. However, I want you to know that I do not take any pleasure in this.'

She stood, turned her back to him and thought of what she was fighting for. Who she was fighting for.

She turned back to him.

'But my desires are secondary to what needs to be done.'

He continued to look at her for several long seconds, and she allowed some of her sorrow to enter her otherwise cool expression. He was by no means an evil man; weak, inclined to criminal means and with a profession as a small-scale weapon trafficker that left a lot to be desired, but not evil. She had done far worse in her life than him, but right now she held the power, and she needed him. He must have seen something, perhaps her resolve, perhaps her regret.

He spoke again, his voice beaten.

'Fine, I'll do it.'


A/N: This is my first chapter with a beta: Jay8008. After helping me greatly improve Liara's section of my previous chapter (check it out!) he has given some excellent suggestions for this as well, please let me know what you think!

I also recommend you check out his work "Control That Which You Cannot Destroy" which has completely changed my mind about how awesome Jack is, and later on contains some wonderful Liara moments fans of my piece will love.

All feedback is welcome!