*This will be the last combat related chapter in this story, following chapters will focus more on Tali/Shepard will try to get this done as quickly as possible to focus on the pair, have received comments saying they want this over with so will do my bestHope all enjoy*

''For Tuchanka!'' Grunt roared stomping across the grass, spittle flying from his mouth as he raced towards the advancing enemy, his shotgun clenched between his hands anticipating the bloodshed.

Shepard knew it was pointless to try and restrain him, and he knew that Grunt would at least give him some breathing room to find the flower before Cerberus caught up with them. ''Zaeed!'' he said pointing at the mercenary who had already unclipped his rifle. ''I want you and Samara to go up and support Grunt, if he gets to far do what you have to to pull him back, lift him if you have to I just don't want him cut off.''

''Aye Shepard.'' Zaeed said sprinting forwards, Samara gave a small nod before she followed, her hands encased in a biotic glow.

''Rest of you spread out ,find this flower, and for gods sake keep your head down.''

With a chorus of agreements they scattered each person moving around the fields ,eyes stuck to the ground tip toeing so as to not accidentally crush anything useful. It made for a ridiculous sight and in any other circumstance Shepard would have laughed at the absurdity of it but currently he was to worried of the advancing Cerberus forces .

The sharp retorts of Grunts shotgun could be heard followed by the screams of the wounded and dying and the krogan's bellowing laughter, he could hear the return fire of the Cerberus personnel but it was sporadic and thankfully wasn't aimed at them.

''It seems that someone is enjoying themselves.'' Thane commented, his foot steps were light as always and he deftly sprung from flower patch to patch his eyes rapidly scanning the area for his prize in a way that only a lifetime of assassinations and training could give.

''I swear Shepard, you tell anyone I went damm flower picking I'll shove my boot up your ass.'' Jack said.

''I'll keep that in mind.'' he said not looking up.

For another minute the group searched without pause the area they covered growing larger and larger, Shepard's mind slowly filled with doubt at their lack of success and he cursed at their inability to find a damm flower.

''Samara, report!''

''We have stopped the Cerberus advance Shepard, Grunt has halted and we've dealt with around a third of their forces, soon the fires will reach our position and we will have to fall back. You have two minutes before it reaches you.''

''Can't your biotics stop them?

''I cannot contain the fire and deal with Cerberus I will be heavily exposed and the others may not be able to sufficiently cover me.''

''Ok, keep them off us at least.'' Shepard almost let out another curse, such a simple mission had quickly devolved into chaos as unpredicted setback after setback hit them.

''Double time it people, we've got a few minutes at best.''

''I'm looking Shepard, but this field is damm big.'' Jack replied.

''Shala?'' Dal'Varna repeated over the vid-comm. ''Did you get that?''

''Yes.'' Shala replied her eyes downcast and her voice full of worry. ''I'm just thinking, how could this thing spread so rapidly, I thought we had time.''

''So did I Shala, Keelah we haven't seen a case of this in centuries, we have little idea how it develops and acts, all I've got to off is a few scans and half corrupted data from the homeworld.''

''Are you prepared?'' she asked.

''I've got my team securing equipment and the necessary apparatus now, we will be able to forestall it but Shala, I honestly don't see how we can cure this.''

''Dammit Dal!'' Shala almost shouted and the doctor was shocked to see the admiral loose her composure, she must have picked up his reaction because she let out a heavy sigh and brought her hand to her visor. ''I'm sorry my friend, I haven't been sleeping well since Tali's return and I shouldn't have''

''No need to apologize Shala this has been taxing on us all.'' he cut off his voice comforting,

''So it has.'' Shala agreed then she briefly looked around her, although Dal couldn't see anything except her head it looked rather conspiratorial. ''Dal I've been talking to some of my colleagues, calling upon favours and I've managed to get some things that could help.'' she brought up her Omni-tool and forwarded Dal a message.

He opening it up and a large list appeared, he quickly scanned through it and his eyes widened, he kept flicking his gaze between Shala and his wrist, the admiral sat there a small seed of guilt in her eyes and her shoulders tense.

''Shala this is-''

''Yes I know Dal, I pulled these from some of the other medical ships across the fleet, as an admiral I can move a lot of things.''

''But Shala, the some of these things, Kelaah we could treat a whole platoon with the amount of equipment on this list, how did you manage to authorize this with the other admirals?''

An awkward silence followed as Shala didn't answer, she averted her eyes from Dal and he was sure she was toying with her hands.

''Shala? You did get authorisation for these?''

''Tali can't die!'' Shala burst out. ''I'm not going to loose her because of some admirals thinking my request is a 'misuse of fleet resources.'' it sounded like a thin excuse and they both new it and there was clearly desperation in Shala's eyes, for any Quarian to use such precious materials was completely alien to them and if people found out it was an admiral of all people who had done it there would be massive repercussions.

''Shala, I don't know…'' Dal trailed off unsure.

''You must! You promised that you would save Tali and dammit Dal she needs to live.''

''But Shala, this is borderline treason!''

''You think I don't know that?'' she replied fire in her voice, it strongly reminded him of a mother protecting her own child.

''Shala, are you sure you want to direct all these resources to one person?'' he knew it sounded cold but like the seventeen million other quarians ,the lives of the fleet must come before themselves. ''I'm not sure we'll be able to keep this a secret indefinitely.'' he let the implication hang in the air ,both of them knowing what would happen if word got out over what Shala had done.

''Yes Dal.'' Shala said desperation and fear in her eyes replaced by determination. ''And damn the consequences.''

Shepard dove to the ground as a string of shots flash nearby, one of them clipping his shields, he landed heavily on the ground crushing a cluster of flowers beneath his armour and causing a rainbow of pollen to shoot up around him and into his face.

Through stinging eyes Shepard glanced over and saw a trio of Cerberus soldiers advance forwads the raging inferno that licked at their backs didn't seem to phase them infact it seemed that they were deliberately going at that pace to make sure everything was destroyed.

Suddenly the three men were enveloped in a deep blue field and were yanked off the ground, dropping their weapons in surprise as they haplessly flailed around suspended in the air before a series of deep booms from a shotgun drilled shots into each of their chests.

''Nice one asari.'' Grunt rumbled. ''You okay battle master?'' though he didn't seem to concerned, a large grin across his face.

''Yeah, yeah.'' he replied picking himself up and trying to brush off the worst of the dirt.

''Shepard!'' Thane's voice called to him. ''I think I've spotted the flower, its roughly twenty metres away from me.''

''Great news!'' Shepard almost shouted. ''Grab the dam thing and lets get out of here.''

''That will be… problematic, there is currently a Cerberus squad thirty metres away.''

''Not for long, Grunt?'' Shepard said looking towards him

''Way ahead of you Battle master.'' came the eager response and Shepard saw the krogan pull back from the fighting before he started to stomp across their line towards Thane.

''Jack I want you with me, give me some cover to get the flower.''

''Great, promoted from flower picker to flower picker protector, I really am starting to miss my days in the cult.'' she responded flatly as she trotted up behind the commander.

Giving her a nod Shepard unclipped a pistol from his side and sprinted to where Thane was ,hoping that he could get their quick enough, he briefly looked to his left and he saw the fire was steadily moving towards them, by now the flames were a good 15 metres in the air and the smoke they spewed blotted out much of the sky.A large chunk of the Cerberus troops were lying dead on the field although enough of them were still shooting at them to cause problems and Thane was having a hard time evaded all the fire that was coming his way. Shepard was unsure if they were aware of the flowers presence or they just really wanted the drell dead but a dozen of them men were spread out in the area trying and failing to gun Thane down.

Grunt was nearing the squad now and with precision almost the entire squad shifted focus onto the charging krogan clearly learning from their previous mistakes and realised to allow the krogan to get into swinging range was to invite death.

Grunt tried to wade through the fire his head down and his forearms protecting his face but the concentration of fire pouring at him was to much for even the krogan to handle and he staggered to a halt. Eventually a trio of shots struck his knee and brought him down.

''Jack, new plan I want a bubble around Grunt, keep him alive!''

Nodding her agreement Jack peeled off and sprinted towards Grunt her hands glowing and a snarl on her face. A shimmering field appeared around Grunts bleeding form and all of the shots that flew towards him pinged off the aura.

Shepard carried on and fired a few ineffectual shots at the squad in the hopes it would distract some of them from Grunt and Jack. Finally he reached Thane who nodded his thanks for the help and pointed his hand towards a small cluster of flowers not far away, at first glance they looked exactly the same as the hundreds of others that filled the field but then in the centre standing taller than the others a few deep purple petals could be spotted framing a flower that perfectly matched EDI's description.

''Good eyes Thane, now lets get that and pull back.''

''Right behind you!''

Shepard wasted no time holstering his pistol he then swung out his assault rifle and with his finger on the trigger sprinting forward a cry of his lips he started his mad dash forwards, he saw Thane running silently by his side a shuriken drawn and snapping off quick shots at Cerberus.

The squad reacted immediately and turned away from Grunt and aimed their weapons at Shepard although one of them dropped as a trio of Thanes bullets popped his head and a second crumpled down his torso a ruin from Shepard's spraying. Bracing their feet and propping stocks against their shoulders the soldiers opened fire and quickly Shepard and Thane were wading into a storm of fire.

Thane's superb reflex allowed him to roll and swerve out of the way of the majority of the bullets his shields easily absorbing the few that hit him, Shepard on the other hand wasn't blessed with such dexterity and he quickly felt his shields depleting before giving out in a final depressing pop. Immediately he felt several large impact striking his pauldrons and chest, he felt his armour withstanding the first few shots and was grateful that none of them had struck his vulnerable head.

His gratitude was short-lived when he felt a sharp sting at his side quickly followed by another at his left shoulder as his armour was finally punctured, glancing down he saw a small trickle of blood seeping out of the hole and cursed realising that this mad rush was going to get him killed.

He flopped to ground hoping it would buy him enough time for his shields to recover but he knew that it was a false hope, glancing up he saw the soldiers shift their rifles downwards and prepare to finish him. The mistake the soldiers made that in their haste to kill the pair in front of them they forgot about the small problem of the angry krogan at their flank.

Grunts heavy fist swung out pulverising a man's skull with a hard crunch before he continued forward and brought his shotgun round like a club and breaking a second mans spine, immediately the squad became confused and disorganised unsure as to what threat they should focus on, thankfully this gave Shepard the pause he needed for his shields to recharge and an application of medi-gel to stem the bleeding. Jumping to his feet Shepard continued with his charge seeing that Thane was a dozen yards in front of him and was almost on top of the flower.

Leaping out of the clumsy jab of a trooper he spun around and fired from his gun stitching a string of holes in the mans torso before he continued, in one fluid motion he leapt over the flowers location plucked it from the ground and tucked it into his pocket.

''Shepard, I have the flower, let us retreat.''

''Don't need to tell us twice Thane.'' Shepard agreed as he looked up, it seemed that the fire had risen to either greater heights and was only a dozen metres from Grunt who was busying trying to yank his foot out of the back of a Cerberus trooper.

''Everyone pull back! Objective is secured!''

''Doctor, we've got some surprising news.''

''Report.'' Dal said wondering if Tali's condition had somehow gotten even worse.

''We've got reports from some of the ensigns in the cargo hold, they are reporting a large shipment of materials coming in from across the fleet, sir a lot of this is medical equipment.''

''Really?'' Dal asked feigning shock, he knew that Shala was going through with her plan but the speed at which the items were arriving surprised him, as an afterthought he realised that such speed will undoubtedly mean that the equipments relocation will be noticed even sooner.

''Yes doctor, seems to have been pulled from a dozen different medical ships sir. Is this is an error or something,? we could treat half the fleet with what we have packed down there from the reports I'm getting.''

''I don't know, I'll send a report to the admirals as soon as I can in the mean time it would be wrong to allow this to go to waste.''

''Doctor?'' the questioned hung over the comm.

''I want as much of the equipment assigned to the medical rooms as quickly as possible, specifically Tali'Zorah.''

There was a brief pause on the other end and Dal hoped that the assistant would not press further with anymore questions and the tension slowly mounted.

''Ok sir, just processed the request with the hold, they'll start bringing the equipment up within fifteen minutes.''

''How long will it take to get it all set up?''

''Hour and a half maybe Doctor, there is a lot of stuff.''

''I want it done in an hour.'' he replied before cutting the link.

Dal sighed, he knew that he wouldn't be getting any sleep soon and he quickly turned on his Omni-tool and injected a couple high power stims into his system, almost immediately he felt a rush of electricity jolt through his veins and the tiredness dissipated within a second.

''Keelah Tali, if you don't get well soon I'm afraid you won't be the only one joining the ancestor.'' he said warily as he sat up and left his room.

''Shep I'm hardly surprised that you're coming back from the place that is currently spewing a lot of smoke.'' Kasumi said leaning over the rock as the rest of the waiting team ambled to their feet, weapons held ready.

''Well you know me Kasumi, I like to leave an impression.''

''My face can attest to that.'' Garrus said his eyes stilled unfocused but no longer containing the blank expression they did not long ago.

''If anything it's an improvement.'' although Garrus couldn't see his face yet the relief that was coming over the comms told him what he wanted to know.

''You got the flower then? Or do you need me to do everything again?''

''Your face would prove useful as a shield , its done well so far.''

Shepard didn't respond instead he glanced towards one of the rear monitors of the Hammerhead, thankfully Cerberus has stopped any pursuit of them and trip back to the rest of the squad had been largely uneventful, it seemed that someone had the foresight to reposition the shuttle in the field in front of the rocks and thankfully Shepard only saw a few scorch marks and bullet holes on the side armour.

''We're going to ditch the hammerhead here, it's too damaged to manage a jump back onto the Normandy.''

''Damm..'' Jacob muttered. ''It was just two days from retirement.''

''Cut the chatter.'' Miranda snapped over the comms cutting off the small chuckles that came from the other humans. ''Everyone load onto the shuttle, get the wounded on first.''

The hammerhead came to a slow halt and Grunt and Thane who had to resort to cling to the tank's side armour because the interior was completely cramped with the addition of Jack as well, they released their death grips on the hover tanks handles and shakily stepped onto the ground.

''Shepard, I would appreciate if we never have to repeat that experience again.''

''Death from falling off a tank would be shameful.'' Grunt agreed already his wounds wear healing over and he looked no worse from the damage he took.

''Just be thankful Cerberus didn't pursue us, I wouldn't have been able to keep that slow pace otherwise.'' Shepard replied as he clambered out of the tanks side hatch.

''Hard to be thankful for that trip.'' Thane replied though a smile was on his face.

By the time the whole group pulled themselves out of the smoking tank Garrus and Jacob had been loaded onto the shuttle and the rest of them we're climbing aboard and taking their seats. Miranda stood hands braced behind her back as she waited for the last of them to get aboard as Shepard jogged up.

''Glad to see you made it back Shepard, you secured the flower?''

''Thane has it.'' he said jerking his thumb back.

''Good and Shepard.'' she whispered leaning forward. ''Do you mind if we have a, private conversation?''

''Not now.'' Shepard cut her off sharply. ''We've got a lot to do and we need to keep focused.''

''Of course Shepard, you're right.'' and without another word she turned around and climbed into the

shuttle.

*Hope you all enjoyed this part and I apologize for any mistakes that I've made, from here on I will be focusing on Tali and Shepard.*