In Love and War

Chapter Twenty-One – Creepy Krogans

Shepard stepped out of the elevator on the crew deck and called Joker on the comm. "Joker, I can't find Garrus. You know where he is?"

"Commander, Garrus is in Liara's quarters." Joker answered.

"What about Ashley?"

"She's also in Liara's quarters."

"Do you know what they're doing?" Shepard walked towards the med bay.

"I don't know. Probably having group sex. If we had a ship-wide VI, I'd send her to spy on them."

"Never mind, Joker. I'm in the med bay now." The med bay was completely deserted.

"Take pictures." Joker cut out his comm.

Shepard knocked on the door to the lab but nobody answered. She opened the door and heard several voices call out together, "Shut the door!" Shepard reflexively hit the button to close the door. "What's going on?" But her voice was lost in the shouting that had been going on before she came in.

Liara was standing in the middle of the room and looking up at the top of stacked crates. "Mimi T'Soni, you get down here this instant!" She sounded frustrated.

Shepard followed Liara's eyes and looked up, but there was nothing there. She looked at Ashley who was standing in the corner of the room by the door, both arms spreading out as she moved cautiously towards the crates as though she was herding a chicken. Shepard walked to the side of the crates, trying to figure out what was going on. Dr. Chakwas was bending over a lower crate. Her butt was in the air and her arms stretched out with her hands pushing off the floor. The doctor's head was hanging upside down as she was trying to look under the small sleeping cot.

"She's on your left, Pierce!" shouted Dr. Chakwas.

"Got her!" Pierce's voice came out from under the cot, also shouting. "No, I lost her again."

Shepard understood now what her crewmembers were trying to do and decided to be helpful. "Liara, why don't you use your biotics to trap her?"

"No!" everyone in the room answered. Ashley explained, "She tried. First she put Pierce in a stasis field and then the teacup." The Marine points at the desk where Garrus was working on the cat carrier with his tools.

Shepard walked over to Garrus but stopped before she got close to him. "Garrus, what's that smell?"

Garrus looked up with a smile and shouted over the others' voices. "The automated photon kitty litter cleaner in the case is malfunctioning. If Ashley had given me one more day to adjust it before giving Mimi to Liara, I would have gotten it right the first time."

Pierce crawled out from under the cot, her uniform in a twist. "She's too slippery. I almost had her, but she slipped out of my hand."

Dr. Chakwas appeared from behind the crates, her always impeccable hair was completely disheveled and it looked like a wild mushroom. "We need a better plan." The doctor offered.

Seeing Liara resting her forehead in her hand as she shook her head, Shepard let out a moan, "Why did I agree to this?"

Garrus walked over, "Oh, for spirits' sakes." He stood next to the tallest stack of crates and started to cluck his mandibles making a rapid tussling sound. Out of nowhere, the light orange kitten leapt out and jumped into Garrus' arms. The turian picked up the small animal carefully and handed her to Liara. Just like that, the chaos was over. Everyone was standing next to Liara and taking their turn petting the creature who was now licking Liara's fingers with her tiny pink tongue.

Shepard released a sigh of relief and signaled Garrus to follow her out of the lab. "What happened to the data I asked you to analyze?"

Garrus took a piece of medical cleaning pad and wiped his hands. "I've looked at it and I gave it to Wrex to double check on something that seemed odd in the data from both Lonar and Aleena. It looks like Saren is amassing an army of krogans on Virmire, and Wrex would know about any clan that size, but he has no idea where these krogans come from."

"What's the theory then?"

"Wrex thinks they might be from other krogan clans bred on remote planets in the fringe of the galaxy and Saren somehow found them." Garrus was leading Shepard to the elevator to go down and meet with Wrex.

"But you don't agree?" Shepard sensed the hesitation from the former C-Sec detective.

"I double checked the cryo tanks Saren ordered and delivered to Virmire. Guess what the tanks' size is?"

"Saren is breeding krogans. But that will take years." Shepard furrowed her brows. "Saren couldn't have been at this for that long. Someone would have discovered this."

As they reached the cargo bay, Wrex heard their conversation. He walked over to meet them, "That's why we need to go to Virmire. We need to find out where these krogans came from."

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Shepard's plea with the Council was fruitless as usual. The only thing useful that came out of the vidcall was that the salarian councilor informed her an STG team had already been on the ground and they suspected Saren's presence there. It baffled Shepard that the Council placed so little trust in their own people. After an STG team and a Spectre presented them with corroborative data, the councilors still chose to send one frigate to face Saren and his geth army with the possibility of thousands of krogans joining forces with them. And when she met the captain of the STG on Virmire, she found that he agreed with her.

"You're the help they sent? No fleet or more auxiliaries?" The salarian captain blinked his large eyes a few times. After devising a plan to distract the geth troops in the front of the facilities and set a nuclear bomb in the waterway at the base of the AA gun tower, Captain Kirrahe confessed, "Commander Shepard, we're sent here not to hunt Saren. I believe the Council gave you that job. We're here to eliminate the krogans Saren has managed to acquire."

Both Shepard and Wrex walked closer to the salarian. "What do you mean by 'acquire'?" Wrex let Shepard ask questions first.

"A salarian corporation was contracted by our leaders on Sur'Kesh to create a large army of krogans and keep them inactive until the need for war arises. My recon team has reliable intel that these krogans are now completely under Saren's control. The only thing we don't know is how Saren managed that." Captain Kirrahe tried to ignore Wrex's hard stare but failed miserably. He blinked again, his lips shaking, intimidated by the krogan's large snarling face and heavy breathing through gritted teeth. "I didn't make this decision. I'm just here to carry out an order."

Shepard answered, "I think we know how Saren is controlling them, but we need to go down there and check it out." She turned to Wrex's angry face, "We don't have much time."

The salarian captain hesitated and then gave Shepard a nod. "Good luck, Commander. I hope you find better news down there than what my people found. I will take your Marine teams and buy you enough time and set up the bomb. But I suggest you don't linger for too long."

Outside the breeding chamber, Tali scanned with her omni-tool. "My scan shows they're krogan life forms, though their vitals are weak and they all have significant implants that aren't usually seen in organic beings."

Wrex pushed forward. Shepard rushed to follow him. "Wrex, wait. We don't know if there're traps or what we'll run into. We can't just charge in unprepared."

Wrex stopped but kept his body facing the entrance of the cryo chamber. "Shepard, these could be my brothers. I have to rescue them from Saren and Sovereign if there's a slim chance. They're a large clan, we could use their help."

Wrex's face was unreadable, but his intensions were abundantly clear. Shepard stood in front of the krogan and looked him in the eye. "Wrex, we'll need you to have a clear head going in there. I will need you when things go south."

Wrex didn't hesitate. "Shepard, I follow you not because I can't be my own battlemaster. I follow you because I believe in what you're doing. Curing the genophage is also something I believe in. I trust you to do the right thing and you're just going have to trust me to do the same."

When Tali hacked the door open, everyone dropped their jaw. The enormous room seemed to go on forever. Large cryo chambers standing imposingly from floor to ceiling lined the walls on both sides. Wrex eagerly walked into the room as soon as the door opened, but he slowed his pace momentarily to take in the large number of tanks. "There has to be thousands of them!" He glanced from one side of the room to the other and then he moved quickly to the closest tank and looked up at the creature inside. It was undeniably a krogan, a large one too. His head pitched back and his eyes closed, and his body had perfect muscle tone. Wrex started to look around the cryo for an opening control. "We have to let them out, or at least one of them. I want to talk to him."

Shepard paused for a few moments and she nodded at Tali. Tali gave her a look and voiced everyone's unspoken concern. "Are you sure?" Shepard gave her a wave. Tali moved closer to the tank and tapped on the controls. The door of the cryo tank hissed and lifted upward while letting out a huff of steam when cryogen hit room temperature. The massive krogan fell out of the tank, still unconscious. Wrex stepped up and grabbed him by the two shoulder joints on his armor and lowered him to the floor.

Wrex bent down and checked his hearts, "He appears to be alive and healthy." His teammates had their weapons trained on the krogan sitting against the base of the cryo chamber. His armor was bright red and his head shell is large and brilliant blue. If this were another place and another time, Wrex would have been amused at the tribe or clan that produced such an intimating physique and he would have asked them to join forces. But he must be careful with this krogan who had no lineage and no clan. He learned a long time ago from his father to not easily give credence and respect to krogans who hadn't been baked under the Tuchanka sun.

The red armored krogan slowly opened his eyes; their color was iridescent blue. He took a few deep breaths and then looksed up. His glance landed on Wrex as he slowly picked himself up. He stretched his body wide and flexed muscles on his arms. He let out a deep frightening roar that made everyone take a step back, but Wrex stood his ground. The krogan focused his eyes on Wrex, "We are ready to serve our master. Where is Saren?"

Wrex's expression turned from curiosity to suspicion. "Do you know why you want to serve Saren?"

The other krogan's eyes were glowing blue light, "We are programed to obey Saren, but our true master is Sovereign. We were bred to kill all organics. We must obey Saren." Before Wrex or anyone behind him could respond, the cryo-bred krogan raised his arms. A crackling blue energy engulfed him. Without a moment's hesitation, he sent a large glowing ball at the group. The biotic throw was so powerful that when Liara put up her barrier her feet slid on the floor backwards until she hit the wall at the end of the room.

Shepard shouted, "Cover!" and pushed Tali behind some stacked crates as she dove behind them herself. Garrus and Wrex who were standing in the middle of the room had nowhere to duck; their bodies tumbled backwards and their feet were lifted up in the air. If it weren't for Liara's biotic shield that slowed their flight, they'd been flattened when they hit the wall.

Liara had hunkered down on one knee with one arm raised to reinforce the energy throw that countered the krogan's, her brows were knit and she was grunting. Shepard had never seen Liara straining to hold her biotic energy this much before. She quickly looked over at Wrex as she took out a stun grenade. Wrex nodded and scrambled to his feet while Shepard tossed the grenade at the blue-eyed krogan. It only stunned him for a moment, but that was enough for Wrex to rush forward in a rage and head butted his target and dropped the dazed krogan on the floor. Wrex took the opportunity to jump on the other krogan's body, but the face of the enemy startled Wrex. Dark blue lines had spread from his eyes throughout his face and down to his neck and they pulsed a faint and eerie blue light. The husk-looking krogan spoke and his voice had changed.

"You are one of us." A metallic tone echoed so slightly behind the krogan's true voice. "Join us, brother. We can fight for Saren. We are brothers. We obey our master that's eternal. Join us. You can be eternal just like us. Together we serve Sovereign."

Wrex's face grew angry and he seized the husk's large shell and pushed his own face close to the phantom blue eyes.

"You are not my brother! My brothers face fire-breathing earthworms that can swallow a small mountain and call it a rite. My brothers walk among the oldest civilizations in the galaxy and call them weak and have beaten them in wars." He shook the dark faced krogan's head once, "You don't know the first thing about being my brother! My brothers honor our clan and fight for our people's survival. You! You're a husk creep. You know no honor and you know no freedom. Your mind doesn't belong to you therefore your body is an empty shell. You're an abomination to all krogans!" Wrex took out his Knife of Varren's Tooth and thrust it into five deadly spots precisely on the krogan husk and waited until the body stopped jerking under his weight. Wrex stood up and his red eyes burned like a hot sun.

"You are not my brother!" The krogan wiped his knife on the dead husk's body and sheathed it back to the side of his leg. He walked towards the door without looking at his comrades. "We need to blow this place sky high!"

Something stopped him in his tracks. A large booming sound went off in the distance. Shepard raised Joker on her comm, "Joker, what's going on?"

"Ah… What did you say at the beacon, Commander? Cause the black ship, you know Sovereign, just appeared from an underground launch bay. We have to stay low for a while."

Before Shepard had a moment to consider what she just heard on her comm, a thunder of cryo chamber locks popping open echoed in the room, and an army of krogans fell out of the tanks and dropped on the floor. Sovereign had unleashed his army.

Garrus shot first, and then everyone opened fire as they backed out of the room. Shepard shouted to Tali over the loud barking of several weapons, "Shut the door! Jam it so they can't get out!" Tali somehow heard her through the gunfire and she docked her shotgun and started tapping on the door panel.

To everyone's horror, the husk krogans started to get up on their feet one after another. As they flexed their muscles, a few of them raised their arms and their omni-tools turned into giant orange fists. As though their minds were connected, the husk krogans gave a collective hard growl and slammed down their omni fists on the floor at the same time, sending dead bodies flying in a powerful shockwave and clearing a path to the door. From the back of the room, a krogan with spikes on his head and back, larger than the rest, is pushing his way through his brethren, and charging towards the door in bursts. Garrus was the first to react again, this time shouting, "SHIT!"

Everyone else got behind Tali and shouted, "Hurry up!"

Tali was in her element, oblivious to everyone's shouting in her ears. Her fingers flying as she was muttering jamming procedures to herself.

As the large spiky krogan making his way to the door, several biotic krogans were charging up their energy. Liara's eyes widened. As her teammates continued to pour bullets into the room, the asari put up a barrier around the team. Several biotic throws collided with her shield and then a meteor shower of biotic waves followed, hitting her shield like fireworks. Liara bit down on her lip and ground out the words, "Hurry the fuck up!"

When the door finally locked, everyone let out a very audible sigh of relief, and Liara dropped to her knees. Tali and Shepard helped Liara up, and Tali explained, "I'm sorry, Liara. The release program that triggered both the tanks and the door had 3 layers of anti-hacking codes. I've seen this before and knew where to look, otherwise it would have taken much longer…"

Wrex was already at the elevator, holding the door for everyone to get in. "Can we chat later? I want to kick some ass!"

As soon as Shepard's team came out of the AA gun tower, Wrex jumped into the waterway, ignoring the barricade that the Marines had set up and charged the geth machines in a full-blown blood rage. Someone from the Marine team shouted, "Check your fire", but nobody could hear it or slowed down their trigger fingers.

Rockets were flying from both directions. Shepard thought, 'Oh, good! Someone brought Tali's ML-77.' In the bedlam of gunfire, rocket explosions and Wrex's earth-shattering growls, Saren swooped down on a flying platform and caught Shepard by her neck and held a gun to her gut. "Shepard, your actions are frivolous against the fate of the galaxy." Saren taunted.

Liara and Garrus flanked them trying to get a clear shot at Saren. Shepard's feet were off the ground, but she struggled and tried to kick the turian. The Normandy boomed overhead, and Shepard felt her body quake as if something punched her side. Liara shot a biotic blast, but not at full strength as she didn't want to hurt Shepard accidentally. It caught Saren's attention, giving Shepard enough time to punch him in the face. He dropped the human, and everyone including the Marines behind the barricade opened fire on him. Saren hopped on his flying platform and escaped.

Shepard tried to catch her breath while coughing. Liara broke into a run toward her. Shepard pointed at Ashley, "Check on Ash and make sure the bomb is armed." Liara stopped in her tracks and turned to Ashley instead and started jamming medi-gel into Ashley's stomach wound. As the geth troops thinned out in the waterway, Shepard could finally hear the frantic chatter on her comm.

"Our position is overrun, Commander!" Kaidan shouted into the comm.

"Group 1 and Group 2, get to the pick up point. Cover the exit, don't let the geth cut us off!" Captain Kirrahe shouted to his men at the same time.

"I'm arming the bomb!" Ashley's voice also came on the comm.

Shepard looked in Ashley's direction, but coudn't see exactly what she was doing behind the barricade. She shouted into her comm, "Sound off!" Everyone goes silent. "Captain Kirrahe?"

"I've got group 1 and 2, or what's left of us onto the Normandy now!" The salarian captain responded.

Only a few moments later, the Normandy landed above the waterway. Shepard shouted into her comm again, "Kaidan, what's your status?"

"There are just too many of them. Our exit is compromised. Just get the bomb armed and leave, Commander! We will hold them!" Kaidan shouted in between firing.

"Kaidan, you hold as long as you can. I'm getting you out. You just focus on staying alive. That's an order!"

Shepard shouted at the Marines protecting the bomb, "Everybody get to the Normandy, now! The bomb is going off soon and we've got to hurry and get to Kaidan!" She swung Ashley over her shoulder and started running. She looked over at Wrex who was clubbing a Geth Destroyer with its own arm, "Wrex, grab everyone who can't walk, back to the Normandy!"

"Kaidan, come in!" Shepard was out of breath, carrying Ashley while running. "Kaidan, answer your goddamn comm!" Static was all that came through. "Captain Kirrahe, can you raise anyone on your team in group 3?"

"No, Commander. The area is completely overrun by geth troops." Kirrahe responded.

After everyone boarded the ship, Joker's voice came on, "Hold on to something, it's going to get bumpy."

Shepard, Liara and Wrex were carrying the wounded and running toward the med bay. Shepard called Joker, "Get to Kaidan, Joker!" With Pierce's help, Shepard put Ashley down on a bio bed, "Dr. Chakwas, Ashley needs immediate medical attention!" Dr. Chakwas was already in her surgical outfit and read to go.

As soon as the doctor and her two nurses closed the surgery curtain, Shepard walked toward the door with Liara following her closely. The med bay door swooshed open. Captain Kirrahe and another salarian STG member helped a wounded teammate walk into the med bay. "Commander Shepard, we need assistance. Our doctor can take care of the wounded, but we need your equipment."

Shepard turned around and called to Pierce who had just finished putting an IV in an injured Marine. "Pierce, show the Captain whatever his doctor needs." Pierce ran over to help.

"Thank you, Commander." The salarian captain said quickly. Shepard nodded and left the room. She walked into the mess, away from the chaos in the med bay. She hit her comm, "Joker, report!"

"Commander, no serious damage to the ship from the geth ground attacks. Adams and Tali are still checking everything out down in the Engineering, but initial scans didn't show anything we need to worry about."

"The bomb?" Shepard asked weakly, her heart was now racing and she felt a little lightheaded.

"It went off. The whole area is flattened, nothing left there...nobody survived." Joker's voice slowed down, "I've been scanning since you all came back onboard, though I didn't know what I'd find, I don't know, something..." His voice trailed off.

"Thank you, Joker." Shepard's voice was just a little more than a whisper.

Liara had been standing in the shadows outside of the med bay after following Shepard out, giving her space to talk to Joker. Now she saw Shepard standing alone in the middle of the mess hall, the asari walked behind her and pulled Shepard's arm so that she could face her. Shepard didn't hear Liara's footsteps, as her ears were pounding from her racing heart. When Liara grabbed her arm, Shepard's body jolted a little as if she'd been startled, but a wave of shooting pain told her there was a gunshot wound on her right side. She quickly gripped the back of a chair and stood against it to stop the slight shaking of her body that was reacting to the pain.

Liara's eyes widened as she saw Shepard's face turning sheet white, and she suddenly remembered Saren's pistol against Shepard's chest. She couldn't see if Saren had pulled the trigger and had wanted to check on Shepard after Saren took off. But Shepard ordered her to help Ashley and the other Marines. She was berating herself for not remembering to check on the Commander until now. She put her hands out to help steady Shepard, but her hand touched the gunshot entry point and Shepard's body shuddered. The pain had radiated to the lower part of her body. "Shepard, we need to get you into the infirmary now!" Liara was in full panic mode now.

"No! Ash needs Dr. Chakwas!" Shepard ground her teeth as she let out the words. "I'm not losing Ashley!" Not after Jenkins, and now Kaidan. Her eyes looked like they could almost spit fire. She waited for a few moments to calm her body down and then she looked at Liara. "Help me get out of my armor."

Liara's heart was breaking as she saw Shepard's face, full of guilt and pain, and her voice almost begging. She immediately looked for clasps on Shepard's armor, keeping her touch delicate and hands steady. Once all the clasps were undone, Liara pulled the armor off of Shepard's upper body. A piece of metal on the armor had dug into the flesh when the bullet hit at close range, and as the armor was pulled away, it pulled the flesh with it. Shepard let out a cry, dropped to her knees with her eyes tightly shut. She fought waves of dizziness and nausea as she tightens the grip on the back of the chair, willing her body to calm down. Tears seeped through her tightly shut eyes and her breaths short.

"I am so sorry, Shepard!" Liara dropped down to hold Shepard's shoulders, feeling her own eyes tearing. The asari pushed all the fallen armor pieces aside and lifted Shepard's undershirt. She gasped, "Goddess!" The bullet hole was larger than normal, as Saren had pulled the trigger with his weapon against Shepard's armor. Several layers of blood had dried and now looked more black than red. A small but steady stream of blood was still coming out from the wound and a piece of flesh caught by the broken armor was now dangling with more blood seeping out through the exposed muscle.

Liara's face turned ashen, "Goddess!" She exclaimed once more before sliding her arm under Shepard's, "I am taking you to Dr. Chakwas!"

"No, am not…losing…Ashley." Shepard felt she couldn't catch enough air in her lungs and she begun panting in short breaths.

"I am not losing you, Shepard!" Without waiting for a reply, Liara brought up glowing energy to both hands and lifted Shepard smoothly off the floor and started walking toward the med bay.

Shepard felt her weight disappear and the room spinning. She focused her vision on Liara's face instead. Her lips were so full...such a deep violet. She wanted to touch those lips with her own. As she tried to bend over to get closer to Liara's face, sharp pain shot through her spine, she arched her back while shutting her eyes tightly and biting down her jaw. Feeling Liara's warm touch through the biotic field intensifying, Shepard opened her eyes in search of the asari's face. Through the light biotic flares, Shepard saw Liara's freckles dancing on her face like stars sparkling in a deep blue sky. Wow, so beautiful! Shepard murmured as she lost her view of the beauty to the shapeless darkness.

Liara was trying to hurry while maintaining graceful steps so she didn't jar Shepard's body. Shepard struggled in her biotic hold as if she wanted to get off. Liara tightened her grip by adding more energy, 'I will not lose you!' she repeated the thought, reassuring herself that Shepard would be okay. She had to be. When Shepard stopped struggling, Liara looked down at her. "You are going to be fine." She tried to give Shepard a smile. Shepard smiled back before closing her eyes. As her head fell onto Liara's shoulder, Liara heard Shepard whispering, "You are so beautiful."

A/N: Thanks for the reviews and PMs. All comments, reviews, suggestions and PMs are welcome.