The supplies from the Wildcat had been distributed to Corinthus's people and as Amala watched, they had begun the trek back up to their camp. Each member of Saren's party had as much as they could carry as well. Amala had slung the Cain onto her back and Garrus had quickly picked up the spare ammo for it that the Alliance had kindly provided. Decian and another volunteer, one female turian named Eleva Vylls, had the QEC slung between them.

Amala was curious about this new addition, this being the first female adult turian she had the chance to meet. Her voice had been higher than the males' when she introduced herself and her head 'crest' was much smaller and closer to her skull. Her mandibles were also much smaller and less pronounced than the males'. But she was every bit as tall as the males and just as strong, a fact that Amala found rather unfair, compared to humans. Of their party, only Garrus seemed a bit uneasy around her. So she watched.

His initial greeting to her had been much like what the others had done, but it wasn't long before Garrus did everything in his power to avoid walking next to her. Finally, he had settled into walking next to Decian. Decian grinned at him one too many times, causing Garrus to growl a little at his friend, which only made Decian even more amused. Amala would have given anything to know what was going on. Whatever it was, it didn't seem to faze Vylls, but whenever she caught Garrus's eyes, her mandibles would flare in a small smile.

Saren had finally called a halt when the sun was high overhead. The tall grass was their only cover as they hunkered down. He drew a basic diagram in the dirt with one talon. He marked out where they needed to go along with the location of a nearby encampment of their enemy that they needed to avoid.

"General, let me go scout out their camp. At the very least, if they look like they are heading your way, I can divert attention away from you, buying you some time," Amala explained.

Saren nodded. It was a sound plan and the fact that she asked, well, he appreciated that.

"What about the QEC? I'm sure the directions are in her language," Nihlus said.

"The translation program on your tools also have a written language part; just scan the directions and it will translate them for you."

"General, let me go as well. Every sniper needs a spotter," Garrus said.

"Shepard?"

"Works for me."

"Alright, you two go scout and catch up to us when you can. We will try to make it to the edge of the woods before nightfall. It's not safe to stop out here on the plains."

"Understood. Come on Garrus, let's go see what they are up to."

"Right behind you."

Together they crept off, staying as low as they could in the tall grass. When she came to a stop, he gave her a questioning look.

"Your omni-tool - turn off the program," she said in a low voice.

"Crap. Right." His fingers were already busy shutting down the program.

It wasn't long before structures began to poke out above the tall grass. Amala stopped and Garrus crouched down beside her, waiting for her to move. She scanned the area, looking for any cover they might be able to use. A small outcropping of rocks, on the opposite side of where they currently were, seemed to be their best bet. She skirted the camp, making for the rocks and the little cover they might be able to provide. Once they were at the rocks, they lay down behind them.

A few guards stood listlessly in the heat of the mid-day sun, only straightening up when an officer came by. But behind them there was quite a bit of movement. Garrus tapped her on the arm.

"They are up to something. From what I've gathered while we were in the other camp, our enemies tend to avoid doing anything during the day. Instead, they prefer to hit us at night when they don't have to wear their helmets and the heat is less."

"Agreed. I'm going to go down there and see if I can get close enough to find out what. Wait up here and keep an eye on their guards."

"Be careful."

She stripped the Cain off her back and dropped her pack as well before she began making her way down to the camp. The final distance she had to activate her tactical cloak in order to make it to the side of one of the structures. Garrus scanned the camp; it was just a series of small buildings, and it was apparent that with the destruction of the turian communications they knew that the turians couldn't mount any concerted effort against them. No walls encased their outpost, just a series of elevated positions for guards that were obviously not worried about an attack. That they had reduced his people back to their nomadic ways in order to stay alive just further increased the anger boiling in his blood.

He didn't move, even as the minutes crept by. His single focus was on spotting the telltale shimmer of her tactical cloak or just her moving through the grass back to him. He finally spotted her heading back towards him, first as a shimmer and then from the slight wave of the grass.

She had barely made it back to his side when she began to prep the Cain.

"Are they going to move after the others?"

"No, they spotted Corinthus's people and are going to hit them. I heard them talking," she hissed low.

Garrus had never seen her so agitated before. She was always cool in combat situations. Whatever she had heard must have been bad.

"Tonight?"

"No, soon. And the fuckers were given orders to kill any and all except for a few that might look like they know something. They spotted them carrying the supplies, so they think they have a hidden cache and they are hoping that they might know something about the artifacts."

"Including the children," Garrus said softly.

"Yes. Well, the Cain says that won't be happening. Cover me, it takes about a minute to prime before it fires."

"Got you covered."

Garrus moved back into position watching through his scope for anyone who looked like they might see Amala where she knelt. She had more of her exposed as she had to line up the gun with the center of the camp. Garrus expected something more dramatic than the little pfft that came from the gun when she finally pulled the trigger. He was about to ask, 'Was that it?' when Amala tackled him and pulled him down onto the ground. The Cain was dropped in her haste to get them both into cover.

"Close your eyes and cover your ears," she ordered.

He ducked his head and covered his ear canals with both hands, and just in time. The ground rolled under them and a wave of air blasted over them. When the ground stopped shaking, he opened one eye and peeked over at where Amala was. She had her eyes open and gave him a grin.

"Shall we see what sort of smoking hole that left?"

He laughed and pushed up to peer over the rocks. There was literally a smoking hole in the center of where the camp had been. Debris lay scattered all over, nothing moved as far as they could see.

"Now that is a gun!"

"Damn straight," she laughed. "I'll let you give a glowing report to the Alliance about it."

"How much extra ammo did they give us for it?"

"Four, bringing our grand total of shots up to six, well, five now. So we have to make them count."

"Oh, that one definitely counted," he said with a grin. "Should we watch to make sure no one is alive?"

"Good idea, but let's go down and survey the scene ourselves."

It didn't take long to verify that no one had survived the blast. Soon after, they were on their way once more. They jogged along, trying to make up time in order to catch up with the others.

They had stopped for a moment, taking a break amongst the tall grass. Amala had braved the sun, taking off her helmet so she could get a drink of water. She offered her container to Garrus as soon as she had gulped down some, hating having to put the damned helmet back on. Now though, maybe she could get to the bottom of what was going on between Garrus and Vylls.

"You don't seem to like Vylls much," she stated, watching him closely.

"Uh, it's not that. It's more I'm not interested in what she is offering," Garrus stuttered, his mandibles fluttering ever so slightly.

Amala laughed. "I don't think I heard her say anything about that."

"You can't hear it, it's, uh, crap, more in our sub-vocals. I mean, I appreciated the offer, but she didn't seem to take the hint."

"Not your type then?"

Garrus took another drink of water. He hadn't expected Amala to ask him about this, well, like this, but maybe he should just say it.

"Corinthus picked her out of the volunteers thinking that I might like a little bit of stress relief, you know, since I've been away from my people for some time."

Amala laughed even harder. "Wait, you're telling me that General Corinthus lined up a woman so you could get some action! Hell, sign me up for the turian military! I might be able to get some as well!"

"I would be happy to help you out, if you'd like," Garrus said, watching Amala intently.

The laugh died in Amala's throat. The heat must have addled her hearing. That was the only plausible reason she could think of as to why she had heard Garrus propositioning her.

"You're serious?"

"Very."

"I, uh, wouldn't expect you to find a human attractive, well, after everything you've been through."

"Most humans, no," he stated with a shrug of his shoulders. "But you, yes."

"Please tell me it's not because you feel you owe me or anything like that."

"No, not at all! I admire you. You've gone out of your way to help us when others wouldn't. You're an amazing soldier. Ever since I woke up next to you, all I can think about is, well, if all your skin is that soft, and I want to find out. And I really didn't expect to ever have this conversation with you. Crap, I'll just stop talking now." His shoulders drooped a little.

"Honestly, I'm flattered. I'll, uh, think about it. And I had no idea that your military would be so um, open about it all."

"Mmm well, high stress situations we tend to deal with by either violence or um, other activities. Corinthus wanted to make sure I had an outlet what with Arterius and Kryik paired up and Decian is with my sister."

"That's actually very nice of him. But why didn't you take her up on her offer? It sounds like it is just casual."

"Yes, well, I wasn't sure how your people handle such things and I was more interested in you anyway. You can tell me no, I mean I am probably quite ugly by your standards. I won't be offended. A little disappointed, but not offended."

"I don't think you are ugly," she said, shaking her head. "Maybe it's just me, maybe I'm a bit warped, but I find your features fascinating. I'm a bit envious of your height and natural armaments, hell, there have been situations where I could have used them to get myself out of trouble. And there I go, talking shop again."

She flopped back into the grass, her helmet pointed skyward. "Since I became a Spectre, being with someone else is something 'normal' people get to do."

"Really? Your position didn't improve your standing with your own kind?"

"Yes, but who could I trust? Did they want me? Or did they want the power I can wield? Or were they working for someone else and their job was to eliminate me?"

"Ah, I guess I can understand that. I hope you don't think that about me."

Amala grasped one of his hands in hers. "Oh! I hope you didn't think I was talking about you. Crap, I guess that came out wrong. As you can see, my social skills are rather rusty."

Garrus laughed. "I can't really judge you; Decian always said I was better at calibrating my guns than chatting up a woman."

"I'm just glad that what happened to you didn't sour you on all aliens. That's one thing I had to learn; just like my own kind, there are good and bad in every species out there. I appreciate that you trust me, even after all that happened to you. You know, most other species in your situation would have given up. If anything, I think you guys are more determined now than ever to win."

Garrus chuckled a little at that. "Well, 'Victory at any cost' has frequently been a rallying cry of turians. We'll keep fighting until there is no one left."

"I'll uh, definitely think about it. It could be horribly awkward or not. But we should get going; we don't want to be in the area when the asari come to find out why their outpost isn't checking in. Hopefully Saren and the others aren't too far ahead of us."

She made it to her feet first while he capped up the water. She offered him a hand up and he took it with his mandibles flared wide. It wasn't a resounding yes, but it wasn't a no either. And if she was thinking about it, well, that was definitely a step in the right direction.

~Thanks to Mordinette for all her help! And thank you to the readers for your continued support, I appreciate it!~