I don't own Mass Effect, nor will I profit from this story.

Chapter 8: The Flank

Three days later I was buttoned up in my power armor, the computer systems compensating automatically for the movements of our shuttle. But even the uncomfortable sensation of the suit shifting my body randomly to maintain its balance was a small price to pay for finally being out on a mission.

And not a stake-out of some damn alleyway or a crappy bar, an actual bloody mission.

"You there ape?" Trena's voice echoed quietly from my speakers.

"I'm here scales." I kept my voice low so that my microphone wouldn't broadcast it. "You have sight?"

"Cameras are transmitting the inside of a shuttle filled with swearing batarians." there was a soft chuckle. "So yeah, I've got sight. Remember your job?"

I snorted. "Be a big, distracting target to keep fire off of our guys."

"And try to watch your damn aim. Remember we want whatever they're hauling intact."

"I'm not going to smash anything I don't have to." I reassured her, "I want my cut as much as anyone else here."

It had probably been one of Xerol's better ideas. The warehouses we were on our way towards we either stuffed with drugs, guns, or more slaves. In the advent it was the first two, he was offering what was basically a twenty percent cut, split between everyone there. Right now the main hope seemed to be that we were hitting red sand dens. While the cut wouldn't make any of us rich, it would definitely be a pretty tidy windfall of credits.

Part of me wasn't exactly thrilled to be making money off of that kind of thing, but the rest of me firmly told that part to shut up and accept it. At the end of the day, there wasn't much I could do about it. The drugs would go out whether or not I accepted my percent, a moral stand wouldn't do anyone any good.

"I'm keeping an eye on the other teams. Thanks for getting that new hack in. Looks like your girl is about to hit her target, Chom's about a minute away." There was a quiet pause. "Keep yourself alive ape. And bring Ghai back too."

"I'm pretty sure she can handle herself, but I'll keep an eye on her all the same." I promised, glancing at the mission clock. Still enough time to ask this.. "You trust these engineers that Aethyta found for us?"

Instead of relying on the automated jamming routines again, our Matriarch boss had pulled in some of her bartenders and waitresses who had training in that kind of thing. Of course, since she'd had to call them in from across the planet, most of them hadn't been exactly.. happy about showing up to help.

"They're not about to betray us to a gang of Asari hating bitches ape. I know you're paranoid with good reason, but damn. Throttle it down a bit."

I winced, "Sorry."

"Don't worry about it. Hey, you're getting close, I'm closing this link before Xerol or Marn picks up on it. Luck ape."

"Thanks scales." I blew out a long breath, glancing around at the assembled squad. Everyone but Re'hat and Ghai were buckled into their seats, their helmets already on. The former nodded to something that the latter said, then started to move around me before a bit of turbulence bounced his heavy frame off of me.

"I liked you better when you weren't taking up half the damn shuttle." Re'hat grumbled as he grabbed onto my long gun to stay upright.

I snorted, speaking loudly enough for my mics to transmit externally. "Sit your ass down then you damned idiot."

He muttered something uncouth about my parentage, staggered over towards the bulkhead to collapse into a fold out chair. The rest of his team snickered quietly, though most of them seemed about as happy as he was to have my bulky form occupying most of the shuttle's free space. Only Ghai seemed perfectly at ease, circling me as she inspected everyone's armor and weapons one last time.

"Two minutes!" The co-pilot, and our assigned engineer on loan from Aethyta, called back. She was less than thrilled about being pried out of her cozy bar in Nos Irrail to help an alien raid on another continent; she hadn't even bothered giving us her name when I'd asked. "Let's get this goddess damned thing over with."

Ghai gave the cockpit a severe glance and shook her head before moving up to stand next to me, her legs flexing by reflex as the old shuttle moved. "Kean?"

My eyes glanced over my new readouts. Barriers solid, no power drain. Visage is linked in. Modified tech mine launcher is in place and linked in. All actuators, motors, and the engine are responding green... "Good to go."

She nodded firmly, giving the sloped box that protected my head a short glance before checking over her heavy pistol and running a few commands on her omni-tool. "Squad?"

Re'hat quickly ran his five squad members through their own checks, reporting their status as ready to fight one after the other, finishing up with his own readiness.

"One minute!" There was a long pause, "That Shaaryak woman just hit the ground running. Someone tried to squawk but their engineer shut them down."

"Do the same." Ghai had to practically shout over the engines, and her lips twisted in irritation at having to do so. Or maybe because she'd had to speak an actual sentence, that always bothered her as well.

"Athame's tits it's my damn job isn't it?" Any other muttering vanished as the over-worked inertial compensator whined loudly, the city outside tilting as the shuttle began its final turn on the approach.

"Thirty seconds! Jamming the usual gang frequencies now. Thank me later."

Whatever you bloody tit.

I bit my lip, and not for the first time on this trip was glad that no one could see into the armor. For everything I'd told Nyn, Trena, or even myself about being ready for this.. I didn't know if I was. I was even more nervous now than I'd been before we'd hit the slave-holding warehouse. Back then, no one had expected much of anything of me. That I'd actually managed to be sort of useful, and had nearly gotten killed because of it, had been as much of a surprise to me as to everyone else. Hell, the only reason that Xerol and Aethyta had probably even let me go with, no combat training required, had been because they wanted to test my loyalty in a fairly direction fashion.

But now I wasn't running around in light armor with just a tiny SMG and some tech mines. Now I was in nearly a ton of moving metal, with enough shields for three of Re'hat's people, and between the targeting system and the suit's own ability to handle the recoil, pretty much no reason to miss with my Asari-built assault rifle so long as I kept my head.

Calm breaths. Remember what Trena's been teaching you. You have to move, react, and think all at the same time. Don't hesitate, hesitation gets you and other people killed. I let out a long sigh, half closing my eyes as both of my hands cradled the gun in their metal grip. Soon as we're down, head straight in. If they don't have heavy weapons, they can't hurt you. It'll be like playing a game.. just don't think about the people you're killing until afterwords this time.

"Hitting the ground... now!"

The shuttle door swung open, Ghai leaping out in a single, smooth motion. I lumbered after her, the engines working as the pilot compensated for my moving, and then vanishing, mass.

My legs flexed slightly, and my knee and ankle actuators briefly flashed yellow before shifting back to green when I impacted the ground, but I didn't really have time to focus on them. Apparently the True Sons here had heard the rising gunfire from the other sites, and had started to group up to go investigate.

"Kean! Up!" Ghai shouted, her body alight as she brought a barrier into place to cover Re'hat as his people leaped to the ground, erratic gunfire sending flickers through the glowing wall as rounds hit.

"On it!" I brought my gun up, the targeting reticle in my hud shifting as I advanced past the biotic cover.

The main hanger door on our side was fully open, enough to reveal the half a dozen air cars parked inside, as well as nearly twice as many massive cargo containers. Of course, that was far less relevant than the thirty odd gang members rapidly reversing direction, firing over their shoulders as they raced back to the promise of safety that the warehouse offered.

I adjusted my aim and started firing slow bursts. I'd upgraded the Visage's heat sinks, but I didn't want to take chances yet, not without knowing how many of them were actually present. Besides.. it didn't take more than a few rounds from a rifle to drop these poor morons.

How desperate do you have to be to not just bolt and run when this starts.. I winced with each pull of the trigger. How willfully stupid to believe whoever says you can take us with that crap gear? They might as well just go into battle naked with slingshots.

People started to tumble to the pavement as my fire hit them, blood of different hues puffing into mist as they fell. A few survived the initial hits to scream as they collapsed, and I had to grind my teeth and resist the urge to mute my external mics.

Ghai's biotics started flaring not long after, and more tracer rounds lit the air as our Batarian comrades joined the turkey shoot. Maybe eight or nine survived to scramble indoors, the rest were either dying or already dead.

"I'm pushing ahead," I called back, firmly keeping my eyes on the objective and not on what I was walking past. "We can't let them shut the doors."

"Confirmed." Ghai was already running, long loping strides leaving our squad behind her, "Re'hat, cover. Control?"

"This is Trena. Little Shaaryak and Chom report minimal resistance, no more than a dozen at each site. They're already cleaning up the last of them." There was a short pause, just long enough for her to have switched to a more limited channel. "Ghai, I'm watching through the ape's suit. There's a Turian who was shouting orders at everyone, wearing dark gray armor, no obvious logo. He ducked left."

"Kean. You."

Well. Shit. "Left, Turian in gray. Got it."

The gaping entryway came up a lot fast than I hoped it would, furtive forms barely visible as they darted from cover to cover as someone shouted commands. If Trena hadn't already spotted him, that much would have confirmed that there was someone present who knew what they were doing. From what I'd seen, and heard from the others after they returned from fights, the True Sons really weren't much into planned defenses. They were far more of an angry mob that ran at you screaming and shooting wildly.

Of course, if they'd shelled out the cash for better guns, they'd have had a good position of cover to let us have it as we moved up. So thank Athame for small mercies I suppose.

In and left. I didn't bother slowing down, my armored form barreling straight in before I started my turn... only to slam right into a woman wearing dark grey armor without any visible logos.

"Oof! What the fuck!?" she staggered back from the impact, trying to bring up her shotgun.

I didn't give her the chance, swinging my gun until the muzzle slammed into her stomach and pulling the trigger until red blood sprayed out over me. There was an extremely high pitched scream as she collapsed, reflexively curling into the fetal position as she fell.

"Tara's down!" Someone, it sounded like a Turian, bellowed nearby, "Take it down, it's blocking the door controls!"

Said controls were visible in the corner of my eye, and apparently had been what the fallen woman had been trying to use when I'd run right into her. I barely had time to notice that before disciplined fire, interspersed with chaotic pistol shots, began to batter me.

"Ghai! More of them!" I snapped my gun up, sending flecks of blood everywhere, and returned fire as I held my ground in front of the control panel. Besides the Turian Trena had seen, there were three more figures, all wearing armor similar to him and the woman bleeding out over my feet. Between them and the remaining True Sons, my barriers began to spark as the bar dropped rapidly. "Four!"

Prioritize, shotgun right there. For the most part everyone had ducked quite sensibly into cover, even the normally idiotic gang kids, but one figure had slid out from behind a container. The Batarian was snarling something as he hefted up a short-barreled shotgun, the weapon glowing with a loaded carnage round.

My shots him him before he could pull the trigger, and he tried to flinch back into cover. Not bothering with controlling my fire, I hosed him down at full auto. Whatever shields and armor he was packing were apparently worth every credit, because he'd barely collapsed in vicious sprays of red blood before my weapon clicked in protest as it overheated.

Even with the fucking incendiary rounds..

"Fuck! Ghai!" I flinched as my barrier indicator started flashing in alarm. "Need some help up here!"

"Incinerate right!" She probably tore something shouting that loudly, but a few heartbeats later a biotic barrier snapped into place between me and the three remaining professionals.

I turned to my right, only half noticing her glowing form sliding between me and the wall as she focused on keeping my flank safe. My left hand let go of my weapon, rising to point my arm directly towards where the remaining True Sons were using their cars as cover. Whoever was leading them had his head screwed on properly, because a voice was shouting at them to fire on Re'hat's people instead of wasting their shots on me. Fingers snapped into quick movements, and the back-up omni-tool I'd hot-wired to read the motions of the suit's fingers flickered to life, surrounding my metal forearm in an orange circle of light. It pulsed rapidly as it processed the command, and then the launcher stuck to the arm with omnigel spat out an incinerate mine.

The tiny glowing device shot up in a short arc, whipping back down to explode directly above a Salarian firing a Predator that looked like it was barely holding together. He went down screaming, and both of his companions, also Salarian, leaped away from the blast. Which worked out rather well timing wise, because Re'hat barreled into the warehouse not a moment later.

"I've got 'em Kean!" And so he did. Green blood poured onto the floor as he dispatched both of them without even slowing down. The rest of his team raced in after him, their own guns up and at the ready.

That was apparently enough for the remaining True Sons. One pistol, then another, then the final pair, flew over the cars onto the floor.

"We're done! Stop shooting! We're done!" A woman practically sobbed as she shouted, apparently not daring to expose herself. Which was probably smart of her, come to think of it.

"Re'hat. Prisoners." Ghai snapped just as my speakers pinged to indicate my gun was ready to fire again. "Kean, lead."

Bringing myself back around, I brought my left hand back up to brace my gun. I managed to take a few steps as the biotic barrier faded as Ghai let it drop, before a voice called out.

"Batarians, we're out! Hear me?" The Turian shouted, "We want to negotiate this!"

Ghai, still in focus on my rear-view camera, rose a hand, and I quickly stopped. "Talk."

There was a long pause, "You answer that Shaaryak, right bluie? I want to offer him a deal. Our lives for my information."

The former commando visibly tensed at the racial epithet, but jerked her head towards Re'hat all the same.

"Right. Step it out nice and easy, guns on the ground." He growled out, stepping away to let his squad handle getting the regular gang members bound. "We'll hear you out, but if we don't like what we hear... you can guess the rest."

Guns clattered to the floor, followed shortly by three figures stepping out from behind the heavy crates. The Turian definitely seemed to be the leader, followed by a Salarian and a human female. Their gray armor was definitely of high quality, but they'd burned off whatever manufacturers marks had been on there.

I kept my gun on the Salarian, while Re'hat openly tracked the human. Ghai ducked out from behind me to level her pistol at the Turian before speaking, "Talk."

"We're True Sons. Actual True Sons." The Turian seemed to want to make that very clear, whatever the hell it meant. "Look, I hate the Blue Suns as much as you lot do, but those barefaced assholes didn't give us much of a choice."

Re'hat glanced at Ghai, as did I. Not that anyone could tell in my case. "Explain."

The Actual True Son actually seemed taken aback. "Wait.. you mean, you don't actually know?"

She didn't bother replying verbally, instead letting her biotics start to glow in warning.

"Right.. look, we weren't always their fucking varren, at their beck and call. They approached us last year after the Eclipse tried to tear us apart. There was money, resources, recruits.. everything we needed." Clawed hands flexed in anger, "But in the weeks after we accepted, they basically just started taking over. Killed every boss we had that didn't kowtow to the Shaaryaks. Took all of our best guns, gear, troubleshooters and shipped them all off to the Terminus for 'training'. Still haven't heard back from any-"

"History." Ghai interrupted him, an arm slashing impatiently. "Interesting, irrelevant. Present."

I felt my lip twitch. While she was probably right in it being largely irrelevant, that didn't mean that I didn't want to hear it. I liked history and back-story dammit. Especially if it provided context to what was going on.

There was a long pause before the Turian resumed talking. "I can give you the coordinates to where they let the slaves from Omega recover before putting them out on the market."

Jackpot. Everyone stopped moving and stared at him. Which was probably the wrong thing to do, because his posture became smug, even with his face hidden by his helmet. "I thought that would be worth something to you. Here's what I want, you walk the three of us to the back door. My two friends here leave, and get our car. When they get back, I'll give you the information, and we part ways."

"How do we know you won't go running back to Yi'ren ul Shaaryak?" Re'hat prodded.

"The ancestors can rip that bitch to pieces for all I care." Either he was seriously pissed, or the guy deserved a medal in acting. "I hope you lot make her suffer before you end her miserable life. If that's not enough for you, I've got paid for tickets to Omega. Follow us if you want, I don't care."

"Ghai," Trena's voice came over my helmet, "Xerol says to take the deal. Aethyta is swinging observers into place to make sure these punks actually fucking leave. I've got our moving team plus little Shaaryak's group on their way."

"Fine. Deal." She didn't sound happy about it. Then again, I could hardly blame her. Whatever history these guys had with Nynsi's mother and the Blue Suns, they were still obviously anti-Asari. "Walk. Re'hat, take three. Kean, prisoners, shuttle."

Re'hat quickly corralled his people, three of them accompanying him as he and Ghai escorted our newest fount of information towards the back entrance. I watched them go before turning to regard the four surviving gang members.

"Right you lot, get your asses up and moving." I gestured with my gun, "I'm sure you know what will happen if you try to run."

The human girl, a dark skinned teenager who would have been pretty with more meat on her bones, and less track marks on her arms, nodded fervently. "Come on guys. This isn't worth a few hundred credits."

"Fucking right.." a Batarian female who looked even younger rose up, licking her cracked lips as I towered over them. ".. no problems from us boss."

They, and the two Salarians flicking their eyes rapidly in every direction, marched out slowly, their hands bound awkwardly behind their backs. Thankfully none of them were stupid enough to try and bolt, and they were secured in the old shuttle in a matter of minutes. I made sure that our pilot and the bitch of an eingeer had their hatchway closed and locked, just in case, and then closed the main side door.

"Prisoners secure Ghai. Need me to help move those crates?"

"Negative. Watch. Chen will alert."

I sighed, "On it."

"Not bad ape, not bad at all." Trena hardly waited for me to finish responding before she cut in our private channel again. "Handled yourself pretty damn well this time."

I snorted. "Seriously scales? I shot ten or so people in the back, soaked up some bullets, and fired off an incinerate. A battle of epic proportions, this was not."

"Fair enough," she grunted, "Still, you didn't freeze up, and your aim was solid."

"I'm in my armor. You know, enough plating and barriers to shrug off small arms shit, and a targeting computer to help with my aim." Which I definitely needed. I was getting better with my little SMG on the shooting range, but I was still nowhere near most of Xerol's security people, never-mind people like Ghai or Re'hat.

"Take whatever advantages you can get ape, no such thing as a fair fight. Your girl is about there."

"I see her." Her aircar was whipping around the corner down the street, its overpriced engine's roar sliding down to a whine as she decelerated. "You think that True Son was telling the truth?"

"We'll find out. If he's not, being on Omega won't help him. Better than not having any leads at all, that's for damn sure."

"Good point." I blew out a long breath as Nyn's car glided to the ground beside the shuttle, "Talk to you when we get back scales."

"Right ape."

Nynsi, her armored form thankfully clear of any blood or bandages, emerged quickly as she opened her door. "Cieran, T'laria just brought me up to speed. Where are they?"

"Inside." I shifted slightly to block her as she started to head that way, "Nyn, they're letting them go for the intel."

There was a low growl, barely audible over the shuttle's idling engines. "Harath'krem, step aside."

"No." I let my gun swing free in my right hand as I brought my left around to grab her arm. "Tarath'shan, slow down and think. We can't just take this guy prisoner and hope he talks."

Her hands clenched into fists, but she stopped trying to get around me. "What if he's got a suicide capsule on him? Or he bites own tongue off?"

"And what if he doesn't?" She shot back, "I"m not about to let someone who might know where she is slip away."

"Yes you will niece." Xerol's voice made us both start slightly, "I've made the call, and you will accept it."

"But uncle!"

"No!" I'd never heard him snap like that at Nyn before. "Your human is right, we are taking their deal. If they have lied to us, I will handle the fall out. Until then, you will obey your Patriarch."

"Fine. I obey Uncle." She batted my arm away, and I let her go. Her legs carried her back towards her car, and she didn't even bother looking back at me before almost throwing herself back into it.

"Kean!" a voice called out from the warehouse, "You done with your lover's quarrel yet?"

I sighed, turning away even as she started up her vehicle again, "Shut the fuck up Chen. What in the deeps do you need?"

Re'hat sharpshooter waved for me, "Come on, help us move this crap. Haulers will be here in a few minutes."

"Right.." Well, this is going to be a fun fucking night.

It ended up taking us better than four hours to move all of the crates from the warehouse into Xerol's trucks, even with a good two dozen of his non-combatant employees along to help. Still, considering that Nynsi and Chom's teams hadn't really found much of worth at their targets, our haul was pretty damn impressive. For the most part it was just more of the crap weapons and gear, apparently sent ahead of the recruits, but Re'hat had ferreted out two full containers of red sand, plus a dozen or so others with 'lighter' drugs inside.

All in all, we could expect to rake in five or six thousand credits each, once Xerol got it to some of his contacts in Nos Astra. Not exactly a fortune, but nothing to sneeze at either. Of course, that news would have cheered me up a lot more if I wasn't busy dreading returning to Nynsi tonight. Xerol had confirmed that the coordinates that the Turian had given us matched up with a very private, very out of the way water treatment plant owned by the same shell group that controlled most of the True Son's assets. Which looked perfectly legitimate.. if not for the government owned plant not more than a mile away that serviced the entire district.

Even if it's not exactly what we're looking for, there's something definitely going on there. Which is going to put her in an even worse mood because it'll mean that Xerol was probably right to take the deal and not risk anything.

If living in his mansion, and being with Nynsi, had taught me anything in the last few months, it was that there were two constants when it came to Batarian behavior. They liked to be in control, and they didn't like to lose. Xerol, and by extension me, because I'd supported him, had knocked her on both. He'd been right, and she'd been wrong, and he'd directly ordered her to obey.

And so it was an hour or so after we'd returned that I found myself nervously opening her bedroom door. I'd made sure to lock the main entrance to her chambers behind me, I didn't need anyone else walking in on this.

"Nyn?" I peaked my head in.

My paramour was pacing furiously in her under-armor clothes, the normally alluring sight dampened a bit by her obvious anger. "Cieran. What do you want?"

I slipped in, but stayed near the door. "Nyn, you need to calm down."

"It was the wrong decision." she snapped at me, all of her dark eyes practically blazing. "I don't care if the information turns out to be correct, we still should have kept them. They might have known more!"

Spinning in place, she actually kicked her breast plate, the heavy armor plate flying into the wall in a clatter of metal. "And Ghai! What the hell was she doing, stopping them from spilling their guts!? How much information did we lose because she was impatient?"

"He'd just called her a bluie." I broke in, my own irritation at her attitude rising, "Would you have been patient and tolerant with someone who called you a squint?"

Her head snapped back as if I'd hit her, her mouth moving but no sound emerging.

"Sorry." One of my hands rose to run through my increasingly long hair. "I wasn't thrilled about her cutting them off either, but I can't really blame her for it. We should consider ourselves lucky she had the self control not to just shoot them both."

"I..you.." She seemed to deflate slightly, "All right. But my uncle-"

I interrupted her again, "It was his call to make. And if this information isn't right, he's going to have to deal with having let that asshole go. And you'll get to say I told you so in as many ways as you can think of."

Her lips twitched slightly, and a surge of triumph rose me.. which faded the moment I couldn't keep the self-satisfied smile off my face.

"You think that I'm calmed down now, do you?" all of her eyes narrowed, the momentary mirth gone from her face. "That a few words from my Harath'krem are all it takes to render me docile?"

"I.. no, of course not." I protested. "I was just glad you weren't kicking your armor around any more."

"Indeed.." She slowly stalked towards me, making sure to roll her hips slightly, just enough to make my eyes slip down to them. As much as I'd been learning about her, she'd been learning about me right back. It hadn't really taken her long to figure out which aspects of her body that I.. appreciated the most, and to take advantage of that whenever she could. "Is that true, or is that just want you believe I wish to hear?"

"I.." Her long legs closed the distance quickly, strong hands reaching up to push me back against the door. "Nyn?"

"Your nobility.. is it true?" Her teeth brushed against my neck as she leaned down, "Did you intend to calm me for my sake.. or yours?"

I growled slightly as her firm body pressed against mine, "For yours, Tarath'shan. And I do not like what you're insinuating."

"You do not?" Sharp teeth made me gasp as they nipped slightly. "What if I had become.. calmed.. docile, even?"

"Then you would not be you." My hands found her waist, pushing her shirt up as I grasped at her flexing muscles. "And I very much adore you."

A chuckle blew warm air across my skin, "Yes.. that would be difficult to fake, would it not?"

"It would." I agreed, my voice growing lower as her hands began to pull at my shirt. "Bed?"

She pulled back, half-glancing in that direction before quickly returning to me, a hand wrapping around my neck to pull my lips towards hers. "Too far."

And so it was.

Next up is Chapter 9: The Adversary

So.. this took longer than normal. Not because it took longer to write, but because, well, Adepticon happened, and it was a thing. And it was very much a needed thing to get me away from work for a while. Hopefully everyone is still around and is enjoying this fic. It was actually a bit hard to jump back in after nearly a week off, I ended up rereading the entire thing twice, and making a ton of minor edits along the way (updates to already posted chapters will come later).

This is also the second version of this chapter. I actually wrote the entire thing, read it, hated it, and rewrote it. There was originally a briefing scene beforehand, but I didn't think it really provided anything that couldn't be mentioned during the fight, short as it was. This chapter still comes off as a bit fast paced in comparison to the others, but I'm hoping it works all right as a lead in to what's about to happen.

For those of you also pissed at Ghai for cutting the Turian off about the True Son's backstory, more will be explained during the attack on the facility.

So here we have them clearing out a warehouse, and some mostly empty drug dens off screen, before making a big break in terms of information. The next chapter will be a preparation setup for the main event of going after Nynsi's mother, Yi'ren ul Shaarayk. That fight is going to be a triple chapter monster unlike any of the other fight's I've done, so hopefully everyone is going to enjoy it.

Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."

Thanks, Kat

Author's Fun Fact: Cieran's Military Skill

Cieran Kean is hardly a military expert. His previous engagements have sort of illustrated that, while he knows military theory from studying history and playing games, he's never actually had to do anything like that in real life before. Now, in a fight against gang kids, he can get away with that because of his upgraded weapons and armor (light as it is). But in an actual fight against real soldiers, he's pretty much a rear-line engineer, tossing out overloads and incinerates but more of a hindrance than an asset in any other role.

His power armor helps balance that out a bit. As he says, when he has computer-assisted targeting and massively thick armor and barriers he's quite a bit more of a help. Still, his duties largely consist of "go in that direction and be a distracting bullet magnet." That will change as the story moves on, and he actually picks up some useful abilities.

Review Responses:

Ari989 → The Blue Suns are a human founded mercenary group that later allowed Turians, and then Batarians to join. In the canon, Vito Santiago betrayed Zaeed Masani and seized full control of the group before appointing a Batarian as a figurehead leader to keep the spotlight off of himself. In the AR series, the leadership is a bit different, as was mentioned (it's more of a Troika, but with Santiago still holding the most power). More info on the Blue Suns will be upcoming as the story progresses, particularly Nynsi's parents role(s).

Lfan8 → "The Chaos" was the runner up for the name of Act 3.

MEEKVERSEFAN2.0 → Sabotage is such a strong word.. (j/k :P )their relationship will be explored a lot more in the future, when their lives aren't under daily threat of attack.

Ranger Station Charlie → Assume he got them during the time-skip, after Doc V'rae mentioned that he didn't have the usual gene work that most humans got and recommended supplements for him.

Lord Oja → That old merc will probably be making an appearance sooner or later, but I'll tease you by saying that the person who calls him in: Isn't an OC, and Cieran has not yet met them.