Author's Note: Haestrom! Sunny Haestrom! Nameless gets a tan, and Tali finds out her magical mentor is missing.


The next two days on board the Normandy went as they had the days immediately before – Nameless stalking Jack and doing his best to creep out everyone else (except Shepard and Chakwas, who had taken to carrying around a hypo of sedatives mixed with LSD; one experience of hallucinations was enough that the immortal gave the doctor a wide a scrupulously polite berth). After robot miners had finished clearing another uninhabited system of several thousand tons of valuable minerals, EDI blanked out the galaxy map. "Commander, the Illusive Man has forwarded a new set of dossiers for you to review."

Sighing, she stepped down off the podium, glancing aside at Kelly's empty station. Holy crap, it's two in the morning, she thought. "Alright, EDI, I'll look them over in the morning."

"One of them is particularly time sensitive, Commander," the AI admonished her.

Shepard sighed, already turning towards the elevator. "Give me the short version, then."

"Tali'Zorah and a team of quarians have been trapped on the planet Haestrom by geth." She had already turned around, bounding back up to the galaxy map before the sentence had been finished. "Would you like me to plot a course?"

"Get us moving. How long until we arrive there?" She considered the transit times.

"It will take us three hours to travel to the nearest system with a mass relay. Approximately another hour and a half of sub-light travel to position ourselves with the relay, and half an hour to reach Haestrom based on the current estimated location of the planet and relay in relation to Dholen." The AI sounded unusually smug as Shepard stepped back down from the podium. "Cerberus has no records of why Tali'Zorah or her team is present on the former quarian colony."

Shepard groaned, rubbing her face with her hands. "Fine, EDI. I'm going to bed. Wake me up in four hours, along with Nameless, Zaeed, Mordin, and Garrus. We'll take out the geth and help the quarians to evacuate. Have them meet me in the shuttle bay fifteen minutes before we arrive at Haestrom." She hit the button for her quarters in the elevator.

"Understood, Commander." Despite her exhaustion, it took Shepard several minutes to get to sleep, thoughts whirling in her head of the quarian girl who seemed very nearly like a little sister to her.

The blaring alarm nearly had Shepard into the escape pod before her brain recognized it as the wake-up call and not the abandon ship alarm. She took a quick shower, donning her armor and swinging through the mess hall only long enough to grab a couple pieces of toast. Down in the shuttle bay, Mordin and Garrus were standing to one side, discussing some kind of weapon modifications, while Nameless entertained himself by juggling his knife handles, blades extended.

"Alright, EDI, what's so important about this planet that the Migrant Fleet sent Tali there?" She double-checked her weapons while she waited for the AI to explain.

"Apparently, the star Dholen has begun to die sooner than expected."

"How much sooner?" Mordin asked. One sentence, Shepard thought to herself, amused despite it. One sentence and he's already interrupting.

"By accepted standards of astronomy, approximately one hundred million years over the last five centuries." That was enough to get even Nameless to pay attention. "Haestrom was one of the quarians' first colonies before the geth rebellion. It is likely that Tali and her team were sent to try and gather data about the star's changing lifecycle."

Shepard nodded, putting away her weapons, all set with anti-synthetic mods. "What can we expect?" She climbed into the shuttle, the other three following her. "How many geth are there?"

"The sun's output has increased radiation and magnetic output by an order of magnitude, and light output has likewise increased sharply. I recommend maximum polarization on all visors and helmets." The ship rumbled slightly as the shuttle bay door opened, and Shepard piloted the shuttle out and downwards towards the surface. "I have locked onto a safe landing location close to the quarians' last known location."

"Thanks, EDI," she replied absently, following the holo-plotted course on the view screen. "Everyone prepared?"

"Shepard. Likely increased solar output will increase drain on shields," Mordin spoke up. "Will also hamper geth."

"So we must fight in the shade?" Nameless asked, unusually serious.

"Recommended."

The shuttle landed, and they all quickly stepped outside. In moments, geth platforms were heading towards their location, and she and Garrus covered Nameless while he charged in. Their first shock of the mission was watching him step out into the sunlight. His shields drained instantly, his skin smoking as he twirled mostly around a blast from a plasma shotgun to turn a geth into a pile of scrap. Stepping into the shade, his regeneration shed the plasma burns into a cloud of ash as his shields recharged.

"That looked nasty," Garrus commented, taking out a geth further away. "We're not their only target, they're assaulting a building over that way."

Signaling, Shepard let Zaeed lead the way down the ramp, snapping out short bursts from his assault rifle as they followed at his heels, blasting away with electrical overloads or bursts of plasma. Nameless dashed from shadow to shadow, often throwing one of his knives or chunks of damaged buildings, crumbling in the solar bombardment.

They reached a vantage point just in time to see two rocket geth blast apart one of the columns, sending it crumbling down to crush two quarians. "I daresay, why don't you clockwork monstrosities pick on someone your own size?" Nameless challenged them, one of his knives embedding itself perfectly in a flashlight-head as it turned towards him. The other fired a rocket, and as the other four scattered to take up better flanking positions, to all of their surprise, he ducked sideways, massive hands shooting out and catching the rocket mid-flight, whirling it around and sending it cart wheeling erratically back towards the rocket trooper.

Luckily for that particular rocket trooper, a juggernaut got in the way, taking the explosive right to a knee like an arrow, shields failing as it stumbled into the sunlight and a plasma burst from Mordin. Unluckily for that rocket trooper, its pause to evaluate the unorthodox (not to mention, freaking impossible) battle tactics, gave Garrus more than enough time to send a sniper shot right through the flashlight head.

They took out the geth fairly quickly, leaving Nameless to dash across the shadows while they moved up to the building. "Damn it, we need to get in here," Shepard complained.

"Why not just climb over the top?" Zaeed said. "The goddamn thing's not more than seven feet tall, we have scarface there drag over a box, jump over it."

The response was a wordless growl, as the immortal launched himself in a prodigious leap, landing atop the fallen column, rolling back behind it before his skin could start to smoke. "It's just an outpost," his voice carried over. "Several more dead suited folk in here. I believe their injuries are superficial, but I would be happy to open a few suits to confirm it."

"Don't you dare," Shepard said menacingly. "Zaeed, Garrus – grab that box." The two holstered their weapons long enough to grab the box and shuffle it, the outer layer of their armors already starting to darken from the charring light by the time they got it into place and back into the shade. "Mordin, then me, Garrus, Zaeed."

On her signal, the salarian dashed out, his shorter stature somewhat hindering his climbing, but he made it over before his armor could be impacted. Shepard was faster, and the other two were right on her heels. Inside, there were several dead quarians, surrounded by geth parts and pieces. "Alright, let's loot this place and move along. Something has to be important either in here or past here for the quarians to fight so hard to hold it."

They salvaged everything worth holding, finally stopping at a flickering computer panel. It took a few moments of fiddling with it before it finally gave a clear channel to Tali. "Shepard! And Garrus and Nameless! What are you all doing here?"

"We're here to rescue you, Tali," Shepard said. "Can you unlock this door from where you are?"

"Yes, but – what happened to the rest of the team?" Shepard said nothing, the expression on her face and the quiet dip of her head enough. "This building is secure enough for me to hold out for a while, Shepard. I know someone is still alive outside, because I can hear the gunfire."

"Don't worry, Tali, we'll get you out of there," Garrus said, holding his sniper rifle like he was auditioning for a Blasto movie. Shepard had to work very hard to withhold her snickers.

"Just – be careful." Tali's communication cut off, and they moved through the open door, Zaeed in the lead. Down just below them, they heard a rocket launcher fire, the projectile dashing off to impact something further away, and they rounded the corner to find a red-suited quarian, a rough field bandage around one leg.

"Garrus, medic him," Shepard said as she and Zaeed crept below the barricade, both of them taking quick shots with their sniper rifles. "I'm Commander Shepard. I'm guessing Tali's in there behind the colossus."

"Got it in one," he replied, firing the rocket launcher without bothering to aim. "Kal'Reegar vas Neema, Migrant Fleet Marines." He hissed as Garrus replaced the bandage with a fresh shot of dextro medigel. "She's trapped in there, and the rest of my squad out here is dead. If the colossus would stay up and fight fair, I'd have taken it out by now, but it keeps ducking down and repairing itself."

"How unfair of it," Nameless said, picking up a fallen chunk of rock, stepping out into the open and hurling it. A dozen shots slammed into him, downing his shields and spraying his blood out to blaze before they hit the sun-covered ground, but nearly decapitating a geth trooper in return. "It's stealing a page from my playbook. "Commander, may I have free rein?"

Still crouched behind the barricade, she jerked a thumb over her shoulder. "Feel free to kill as many geth as you want to, Nameless. Just no quarians." He shot her an annoyed look, then turned towards Reegar.

"Do you have a couple of extra power cells?" The quarian's faceplate stared at him blankly for a moment before he reached into a pocket and handed over two cells. The immortal fiddled with his knives for a moment, draining each cell into a knife, and finally nodding in satisfaction. "Very well. Commander, if you would be so kind as to provide me some covering fire against the rocket troopers?"

Before she could respond, he took a flying leap off their walkway, launching himself twenty feet to kick the head off a regular trooper, and aim his blade at a prime as it stepped out from behind cover. His blade flashed, and a mass-effect field holding a molecule-thick blade of diamond ripped outward at just under the speed of sound, plunging into the heart of the prime before the field failed and it shattered. Another followed it a moment later, taking the prime in the head and sending it crashing to the ground.

Up on the walkway, the rest of the squad was busy, three of them taking sniper shots at whatever targets presented themselves, as Mordin sent a continuous stream of hacks, overloads, and spurious data at the colossus, and Reegar fired off the occasional rocket at juggernauts. The shots from the colossus all missed the immortal, blasting wide gouges out of the landscape and shattering the weathered metal containers.

"Shields are down," the salarian announced, and without needing a command, all three centered their scopes on the colossus' head. It was just preparing for a shot at Nameless, as all three shots rang out, completely shattering one of the armor plates and skewing the flashlight to one side. "Perfect shot! Repairs initiated."

Shepard glanced around the field, noting that the only things moving now were her squad and Reegar. She motioned to the others, and they split up, Garrus and herself dashing up the ramp to the sniper walkway and into new cover, Zaeed and Mordin ducking into shadows on the left side where they could continue hitting the colossus.

Right as the repairs finished, Nameless had reached the colossus, and he raised his blades just in time for the gargantuan machine to step on him and crush him into the pavement like a cockroach. Nonetheless, he managed to fire two more blades into the underbelly of the machine, and it didn't take the squad too long to finish it off once Shepard moved close enough to activate the arc projector.

With the colossus down, they moved into the building, gathering the rest of the geth salvage Tali had accumulated while protecting herself. "It's good to see you again, Tali," Shepard said, stepping forward and extending a hand.

To her surprise, Tali gave her a quick hug. "It's good to see you too. Your choice of companions gives me hope for your future too. Well, some hope," she said, catching sight of the tattoo on Zaeed's neck as he took off his helmet.

"Kal'Reegar's still alive, but I'm afraid the rest of the quarians here are dead," Garrus said. "I made sure he was patched up, so we can get him back to the Migrant Fleet."

"Thank you, Garrus. But as far as I'm concerned, the bosh'tet admirals can have the data without me." She moved over to a limping Kal'Reegar as he stepped inside the room with them. "Will you be able to get back on your own?"

"Not a problem, ma'am," he responded, snapping off a quick salute. "After this mission, I can understand why you don't want to take any more orders from them." He reached out a hand, taking the data disk from her and tucking it into a pocket on his suit. "I, ah, would appreciate a hand getting back to my ship though."

Shepard smiled at that. "Zaeed, Mordin, help him get back to his ship, we'll pick you up in the shuttle." She started for the door. "Along the way, we can introduce Tali to Nameless."

The confusion was obvious in the quarian girl's posture. "But, I know Nameless. I wasn't his best magical student or anything, but I do remember some of what he taught me." A slight glow, nearly imperceptible in the sunlight, enveloped both hands in an orange shade.

Nameless simply cocked an eyebrow curiously. "Isn't that an interesting trick. But as it stands, I've been told I have some … memory issues," he responded, taking one glowing hand in his own and bowing over it, managing to convey both respect and an earnest desire to discover the texture of her entrails. "Pleased to meet you."

Tali jerked her hand away, omni-tool already powered up before he finished speaking. "Shepard?" she asked, the rest of the question obvious in one word.

She sighed. "He's pledged not to harm anyone who is part of my crew, or anyone else I forbid him from harming." She looked at the immortal with flat menace herself. "So far, he's kept to that pledge."

"Without his word, a man is nothing," Nameless said, almost pompously. "As part of the team, you have nothing to fear from me, Tali'Zorah." He glanced off in the direction the quarian marine had headed with assistance. "Your admiralty, however …"

"That's enough, Nameless," Shepard said wearily. "We have enough to deal with with mercenaries, Collectors, geth, and who knows what else on our tails."

Shrugging broad tattooed shoulders, he fell silent, flipping his knife handles over and over as they made the short dash to the shuttle.