Note pertaining to this chapter

Background. While Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams accompanies the salarians in their diversionary frontal assault, Shepard has divided the rest of his team in two squads which are currently on their separate ways toward Saren's base. The Spectre's objective is to infiltrate the base and neutralize its AA defenses, thus allowing the Normandy to deliver a nuke.

Setting. His recent 'discussion' with Shepard still on his mind, Wrex leads his squad (Tali and Garrus) toward the enemy base.

Appended at the end of the chapter (author's note), are some considerations about this part of the game's scenario, speculations about geth communications, and a few other thingies.

My thanks once again to Vocarin for beta-reading this chapter.

Chapter 21: ...and into the Fire

Since they had split from Shepard's squad, a few kilometers back, they had progressed through a series of narrow interconnecting canyons that were almost uniform in appearance. Their steep, fifteen-meter-high rocky walls were all similarly lined by greenery, mostly up near the top, and their floor was almost uniformly covered by clear, ankle-deep water interspersed by patches of gray sand and boulders of various size. Looking up ahead, Wrex saw another fork in the canyon and shook his head. We'd be going in circles without the salarian's map. I just hope it's reliable. He looked at the map on his helmet's HUD and announced his decision on the squad's comm channel, "we're going left."

The turian replied first, "Copy that. Left it is."

This was followed by the quarian's answer, "Same here."

Without a word, Wrex moved on to the next piece of cover, a large boulder lying right in the middle of the canyon, just a few meters before the fork.

While Shepard and his squad had taken a more inland route which lead almost directly to Saren's base, Wrex and his followers had been assigned to a more meandering path closer to the seaside. It went by two small communication facilities that had to be disabled in order to help the salarians. He had nothing against sabotage - it was a good strategy, but he resented being slowed down while Shepard had a go at the main objective. I hope there's going to be something left for me to kill when I get there. The plan was for both squads to meet up at the base and enter together, but he knew from experience that plans had a habit of falling apart as soon as difficulties started to show up.

As they proceeded onward from one piece of cover to the next, he looked warily for enemies. The problem with personal combat scanners out in the open was their limited range - hostile contacts were more reliably identified visually. They already had encountered and destroyed a few geth troopers and recon drones since leaving the salarian camp, and Wrex made it a point to spot the enemy first.

Another problem in these canyons was the relative silence. Indeed, there was very little wind down here, and the water was still. Despite being only ankle deep, the latter tended to produce an annoying splashing sound when they walked, which could give them off. Wrex didn't know if the geth's hearing was good or not and the quarian - despite her supposed expertise - had not been able to help with that question. In any case, he didn't want to take any chances and made sure everyone walked on sand or stones whenever possible.

He glanced behind him. Fortunately, the quarian and the turian were silent and alert enough. They were weak and fragile by krogan standards, but he also knew how deadly they could be if used at the right time and in the right place. Having promised Shepard that he would see to their safety, he took point in most situations. He snorted. I'd be taking point even if they were krogan.

Thinking of Shepard reminded Wrex of his recent 'discussion' with him back at the salarian camp. It had been a long time since he had felt such anger, and he had lost control of his temper for a moment during the exchange. Anger was a good thing in general, and his had been completely justified; how else should any krogan worthy of the name have reacted at learning that Saren had a cure for the genophage, and that the salarians as well as Shepard wanted to destroy it. What was not so good however is that he had failed in keeping control of it.

When he had pointed his gun at the human Spectre, back there, he had been toying with the idea of killing him, then running over to Saren and gain his trust by selling out Shepard's crew and the salarians, all of this in order to gain access to the cure and eventually deliver it to Tuchanka. But Shepard had had too many allies around him. A few salarians had been nearby, apparently on a stroll, but he knew the sneaky little bastards had probably been there to keep an eye on him. And then he had also spotted Shepard's female soldier, hiding not far away with her sniper rifle pointed right at him. She wouldn't have taken much more than his shield with a single shot, but combined with Shepard, the salarians and Alenko, who was probably hiding nearby also, and maybe more that he hadn't spotted, his chances of getting out of there alive would have been low. These observations had been like water on his burning anger, and had prevented him from doing something stupid.

His mind had cleared quickly after that and, while Shepard had talked, he had realized how idiotic the plan had been, confirming the saying he had heard somewhere about anger being a bad counselor. The plan would never have worked, for the simple reason that Saren would have executed him on the spot like a rabid varren, right after he had sold everybody out. Of course, that was if he had first succeeded in escaping from the salarian camp.

He smirked as he glanced at his two followers again. My chances would be much better now - it wouldn't be too much trouble to kill a quarian and a single turian. He'd start with the nearest one, who would be taken by surprise, then the other would resist a bit, but wouldn't last more than a few seconds. All he'd have to do after that was to walk up to a geth patrol and ask to be brought to Saren and the rest would follow. Wrex grimaced - that idea was still rotten. Just as rotten as Saren himself, who was the real enemy, exactly as Shepard had said. The way Saren was using krogan as slaves to do his dirty work made that abundantly clear.

Wrex was fully resigned to his only realistic option, which was to go along with the salarian plan: kill Saren and lay waste to his base. If he was lucky, maybe he'd find some file along the way, containing details about the cure. He was sure his two squadmates would oppose him in such a situation, but he was in charge of the squad and would just tell them to take it up to Shepard. And if he couldn't find any useful information about it, then the simple knowledge that a cure was possible was valuable - if Saren had done it, others could too. In any case, it changed nothing to his long term plan to save his people, which was exactly the same plan he had come up with so long ago, before the events that had forced him to leave his homeworld.

These considerations reminded him of Shepard's comment during the fight against the batarians, on the asteroid that had almost crashed on Terra Nova, about not losing sight of the big picture. This was the kind of teachings for which he valued Shepard so much. For Wrex, the big picture was his plan to save his people from extinction. It was not ready yet to be put in motion, but he was working on it. Its realization required that he further improve his leadership skills, including his self-control, which had been found lacking back at the salarian camp. And now that he fully understood the extent of Saren's threat to the krogan, the realization of his plan also required Saren's elimination.

Wrex was there in his reflections when he reached a bend in the canyon and had to push all distracting thoughts aside to concentrate on more pressing matters. Slowly, he poked his helmeted head out of his current cover, just enough for one of his eyes to see what lay ahead. Past the bend, there was a widening of the canyon and, exactly as indicated on the map, there also was the first of the two facilities. It was a small one story concrete structure composed of a wall and a roof, built in the middle of a concrete platform that stood on three meter high piles, its back lying against the left wall of the canyon. A wide concrete ramp lead to the platform, which was surrounded by a low railing that partially hid whatever was on top. A tall straight antenna was sticking out from the far side of the small building.

On the other side of the facility, the canyon seemed to end abruptly, and a mound of boulders lay on its floor. The map indicated a continuation of the canyon in that direction, but he couldn't see it from his current vantage point. He wondered briefly if the boulders could be the result of a rock slide that had happened after the map had been drawn. But it didn't matter, as the map indicated another canyon branching on the left, between their current location and the building - it connected with the rest of their path toward Saren's base. Seeing a geth trooper patrolling at the foot of the ramp, he quickly scanned the floor of the canyon just around the bend in order to find a better piece of cover, then pulled back behind his.

Turning to his followers, he pointed over his shoulder. "The first of the two buildings on the map is just over there. I saw one geth, but there must be more. We have to get closer. Follow me."

Crouching to make his considerable bulk less visible, he turned the bend and moved slowly a few meters further, up to the boulder he had spotted before; it was high and wide enough to provide cover for his whole squad, and its location would offer an excellent view of their target. As he reached it, he noticed the other branching canyon indicated on the map, further on the left. Seeing no enemy in that direction, he concentrated his attention on the small facility just ahead.

Looking at the tactical display on his HUD, he was not surprised at seeing it jammed. This had happened in previous encounters with geth, and usually indicated the nearby presence of a large group of synthetics. Good - the more the better. Looking at Garrus, he grunted, "Time to scope, turian. Tell me how many there are."

But the turian had already been at it, the eyepiece of his helmet glued to the scope of his sniper rifle as he leaned just above the edge of the boulder. "I see two regular troopers on the bottom, in front of the ramp." After a short pause, he added, "On the facility, I see one geth sniper unit... and that seems to be all. There must be more, but I don't see them."

Wrex grimaced. Snipers were a pain - this one had to be dealt with first. Then, if other units did not appear from the back of the building or behind some rock, he'd just run up there and wipe out the two troopers in a satisfying orgy of close-quarter action. Considering the radar jamming however, he shared the turian's suspicion.

Wrex's train of thought was interrupted by the quarian. "Ideally, I should wait until there are three units or more close together, but I think the two that are on the ground are good enough for a first test of my experimental program."

The krogan turned to her. "I promised Shepard I'd let you try your thing. But I want that sniper gone first."

She pointed at the turian. "Not a problem. I can launch my program just after he takes it out."

Unable to come up with a good reason to oppose this plan, Wrex nodded almost imperceptibly. "Alright. The turian snipes first then you do your thing, and then we see what happens."

Leaning over the boulder, Garrus brought his rifle to bear again, muttering, "I like how everyone assumes I can take out that sniper..." After a couple of seconds, he added in a slightly louder voice, "Target locked. Whenever you're ready."

Wrex shook his head at the Garrus' attitude. The turian talked way too much, in his opinion. Fortunately, he was also a good shot, which went a long way to compensate for his other shortcomings. Reflexively, he checked his biotic charge and made sure his shotgun was ready for a heated carnage shot.

Tali also leaned over the top of the boulder, her activated omnitool pointed forward. "I'm ready."

Hearing the report of the turian's rifle, followed by his words, "Got it," Wrex looked over the boulder to assess the situation. The top of the platform was empty, and one of the two troopers on the ground was just standing there, seemingly paralysed while the other was moving behind a rock. Hum, looks like the quarian's experiment didn't do much. He wanted to advance toward the remaining enemy but reined in his urge, waiting to see what came next. Sure enough, after barely one second, he spotted the laser sight of another sniper unit that had apparently been hiding between the piles, underneath the facility.

Garrus called out, "Others are coming in from behind the building. I see one regular trooper, one shock trooper and... a destroyer."

Wrex felt a mixture of frustration and excitement. The battle would take more time, but he'd have the opportunity to kill more. Quickly, he stepped beside the boulder and launched a carnage shot toward the paralyzed geth in front of the ramp - the enemy went down nicely, emitting a single pitiful electronic chirp as it hit the ground. The geth sniper's laser sight brushed briefly past him, but had no time to get a lock as he retreated back behind cover. Turning to the turian, he enquired, "Can you take that other sniper out?"

"Shouldn't be a problem if one of you could draw it out."

Looking over the boulder, Wrex couldn't see one enemy in the open. They were digging in like cowards, taking pot shots from their hiding places. Turning to Tali, he said, "I'm moving out. You stay here and assist."

Taking her pistol out, she nodded at him. "You can count on me."

Wrex stepped in the open and ran forward as quickly as he could. Despite the shots coming from his squadmates, who were trying to keep the enemy pinned down, he got hit several times along the way and his shield was almost gone when he finally reached a suitably large rock on the right side of the canyon, ten meters or so ahead of his squadmates. Satisfied with his strategic relocation, Wrex was looking forward to confronting the destroyer after his shield had recharged, and after the enemy sniper had been dealt with.

On the squad's comm channel, Garrus called out another kill, "I got the other trooper at the foot of the ramp."

A few seconds later, his shield recharged, Wrex looked over his cover and was greeted at once by the laser sight from the geth sniper hidden behind one of the concrete piles underneath the facility. He dropped in hiding at once, avoiding the shot by a mere centimeter. Getting up again, he risked enemy fire as he ran toward the sniper's hiding place - it took time for these geth rifles to recharge, and he was confident in his ability to cover the distance before the enemy's next shot was ready.

Thanks to the covering fire from his allies, he reached the pile itself without damage and jumped past it, at the same time launching a biotic throw. The geth sniper hiding behind the pile was hit and violently thrown back against the rock wall of the canyon, underneath the back of the building. Wrex was the first on his feet and, moving with all his speed, reached the geth who was still struggling to get up. He pushed it down, raised his right foot and, with one powerful downward swing, crushed the its head on the sandy ground.

Garrus's voice came over the comm, "Wrex... Not to alarm you, but the destroyer has decided to pay you a visit."

Wrex turned around and, from his location under the building, saw the tall synthetic ponderously walk down the ramp, peppered by shots from his squadmates. When the thing turned toward him, at the foot of the ramp, its shield suddenly glowed, flashed and vanished, likely the consequence of an overload attack. Grabbing his shotgun, Wrex let go of a couple of shots which just made the enemy stagger a bit, without slowing its approach. The geth also shot at him, but his own shield was full and absorbed everything.

Realizing that gunfire would not be enough, the geth started to run in his direction. Wrex smiled at that - being charged by a geth destroyer was something he had never experienced before. The few times he had seen those units had always been in Shepard's company, and the Spectre had taken them down from a distance. Bracing for the impact, he crouched slightly and widened his stance in order to increase his stability.

The unusually tall geth unit had been too close when it started running, and its final speed was not that impressive. Still, at the last moment the geth seemed to stoop down somehow and brought forth the stock of its gun, obviously intending to use it as a battering ram. Wrex instantly realized he would not be able to topple the oncoming enemy as he had hoped at first, but had time to move aside slightly, in such a way that its gun hit the side of his chest armor, glancing off and leaving only a small dent in its wake. The geth was much taller than him, but Wrex was slightly heavier, and the impact resulted in the geth losing its balance more than him. Having gained the initiative, Wrex also used the stock of his shotgun, targeting the enemy's neck with a single precise and powerful strike. Almost decapitated, the geth fell on the ground, emitting an electronic wail. Turning the shotgun in his hands, Wrex finished it off with a single point blank shot to the head.

Looking at the destroyer's body, Wrex was disappointed by how easy it had been to put down. What a waste. But the day was young, and he was confident there would be other opportunities. On the squad's comm channel, he announced his victory: "Feels good to get up close and personal."

The turian replied, "Good. We took care of the shock trooper up there while you were having your little fun."

The quarian chipped in, "What do you mean, 'we'? I got the killing shot on that one - you know the rules!"

"OK. Right. For the record, Tali got the shock trooper."

Wrex shook his head at the banter. "OK whelps, that's enough." Struggling to keep his rising irritation in check, he glanced at his tactical display, and realized the radar jamming had ceased. A single red dot remained, corresponding to - according to what the turian had said earlier - a regular trooper which had to be hiding on the platform overhead. On the comm, he added, "There's only one geth left up there - come and take care of it while I scout ahead."

During his battle underneath the facility, he had realized this part of the canyon was not obstructed as he had thought at first. He didn't trust salarians, but their map seemed accurate enough, after all. There was a leftward turn in the canyon just behind the facility, as indicated by the map on his helmet's HUD, and it could be accessed by passing beneath the building. Having done so, he found himself out in the open again, in exactly the same type of canyon as before. He went ahead for several meters, moving carefully from one piece of cover to the next. The canyon made a 90 degree turn leftward, then came to a widened area with two other canyons branching off toward the right. According to the map, both canyons merged again a few hundred meters further, just before the next communication facility they were supposed to neutralize. Seeing no enemy, Wrex was satisfied with his short exploration and decided to get back to his squad.

Back at the facility, the red dot was not there anymore. Having gone up the ramp, Wrex saw the quarian fiddling with a console at the foot of the antenna while the turian was on the lookout. Approaching the female, he asked "What's the holdup? Can't we just shoot the thing to shut everything down?"

The quarian shook her head. "This seems to be a form of triangulation system. It's probably used to enhance geth communications. When groups of geth are too far apart, the speed of light induces delays that causes their exchanges to become desynchronized, and this results in inefficiencies as if they were all talking out of order or all at the same time, so to speak. This type of system -" She pointed at the console. "-is probably compensating for some of the drawbacks of physical separation, by putting their communications in the right order. Destroying it would help, but scrambling it would be even better - I'm currently trying to find a way to do that."

Wrex didn't care for the details, but got the gist of the explanation. "If other geth come here after we're gone, they could repair your-" He also pointed at the console. "-thing?"

After a moment of hesitation, the quarian nodded "I guess they could reboot the console..."

"Then we'd better just destroy it."

"Huh. I guess it may be more prudent that way-"

He interrupted her. "We need less guessing and more acting." He signaled for her to step back, pointed his shotgun at the console and pulled the trigger a few times. When he was happy with the amount of wreckage he had created, Wrex looked up at the antenna, wondering if it wouldn't be better to destroy it too. But the thing looked too sturdy - it would take too much time and too much explosives to do the job. Shaking his head, he said "Alright. Time to move to our next target."

As they walked down the ramp and passed underneath the facility, Wrex looked at the quarian and enquired "Is your experiment finished? It didn't seem to do much."

Tali was busy with her omnitool and did not look back at him as she replied, "It was just a first attempt. And it did work a little... I'm currently adjusting some of the parameters based on the data I collected." Turning to him, she added with more energy and in a somewhat defensive tone, "Look, it's an experiment. I can't guarantee significant results right away. The next attempt may or may not do more. If not, then it's going to provide more data for me to fine tune the parameters, and so on. That's how science works."

Having been around her for months, Wrex was not surprised by her reaction. She was defending her interests, something he understood perfectly. He replied, "Huh. Science is so frustrating. No wonder so few of us are interested in that line of work."

At that moment, the general comm channel activated and Shepard's voice came in. "Wrex, I just talked with Captain Kirrahe. He said the geth lost their accuracy and seem confused - I guess this was your work?"

Crouching behind a rock, Wrex signaled the two others to do the same. "Yeah. We just trashed the first building. The quarian said it was a triangulation something, so it figures. We're on our way to the other target."

"Good. We're almost at Saren's hideout already. We encountered a few geth patrols along the way, but nothing to slow us down. How is it on your side?"

"Just enough to keep things interesting. No issues up to now."

"Let's keep this up. The plan stays the same - we'll scout out the base, waiting for your team before initiating anything. Over."

"Over, Shepard." Switching back to the squad's comm channel, he looked at his two squadmates and signaled forward "OK. You heard the boss." Despite his trust in the human Spectre, Wrex had been reassured by the man's re-instated commitment to wait for him before entering the base.

They resumed their progress, moving from one piece of cover to the next along the bottom of the canyon. They passed the bend he had scouted before, went through the widened area and took the first of the two canyons that branched off toward the right. Not long after that, just as he was getting behind a boulder, he spotted a regular geth trooper thirty meters or so ahead. On the comm, he said, "We've got company. Turian, you're up." He could do the scoping too, but his bulk was just too visible and he'd rather stay hidden: if the enemy spotted the turian, they were likely to underestimate the situation and he could then choose the timing of his own appearance, easily turning the situation around if need be. It was just common sense to never expose your best assets at the start of a battle.

The turian's assessment came back in short order. "Two regular troopers on patrol. Nothing else."

The quarian asked, "How far apart are they?"

"Hmm. Three to four meters..."

Wrex turned back to watch his followers. The turian was still looking at the enemy through the scope of his rifle, and part of the quarian's helmet could also be seen above the cover both were sharing.

The quarian's voice came over the comm channel, "Wrex, let me try my experimental program again."

He had no problem with that. Having not seen what had happened when the program had been deployed the first time around, he was mildly curious. "Alright. But this time I want to see what it does. I'll tell you when to do it."

"Fine, but they need to be close together. I've already locked on the target. Just say the word."

Slowly, Wrex poked his head out from cover. He could see one of the geth walking in the open, but the second was partially hidden behind a rock - from his position, he could only see one arm and part of its chest. He waited for a bit and, when the second geth became fully visible too, he gave the signal. "Now!"

At once, the first geth's shield flashed and vanished, the geth itself shaking and seemingly paralyzed, exactly like back at the first facility. Meanwhile, the second trooper quickly moved to take shelter behind a rock - its shield had sparkled a bit, but that was all. Wrex grunted in disappointment. To him, the quarian's program looked like nothing more than a slightly improved overload attack. Coming out in the open, he launched a biotic throw toward the paralyzed geth, which was violently projected back and went down in the water. "OK. We wipe them out and move on."

Minutes later, as they continued their advance toward the second building, Wrex turned to Tali and asked, "Your experiment didn't do much more."

"Still, it gave me more data to work with. Like I said before, I can't guarantee results on an experiment like that. Maybe next time."

Wrex was getting tired of this experimental thing. "I'll let you try one more time, then it's over. It's a waste of time."

The quarian snapped back, "Shepard said you'd let me."

He chuckled at her response. "You had two shots already. I feel my promise to Shepard has been fulfilled. Count yourself lucky you get a third."

She muttered something, which he didn't understand, but he just shrugged - it didn't matter. According to the map, the second facility they were supposed to neutralize was just behind the next bend in the canyon. "We're almost there. Let me check first."

As with the previous facility, Wrex found a piece of cover just beyond the bend, allowing him to scan the area while exposing himself minimally. Ahead, the canyon widened enormously, becoming approximately ten times as large as the part they had just been in. It narrowed again seventy meters ahead, but was obstructed by a building of the same size and type as the previous facility. There was a mound of rocks at its base and, exactly like with the previous building, there was a ramp leading up to it. It was probably built on piles too, but he couldn't tell from his current vantage point. The antenna on its roof was different from that of the previous building however - it was shorter and wider, it's elongated dish-like shape pointing toward the sky, in keeping with the salarian 'satellite uplink' label on the map. According to the map again, the other rightward canyon they had seen after the first building also opened in the widened area, somewhere ahead and on the left, but Wrex couldn't see it from his current position. In any case, the way to Saren's base was through the building ahead, and he had to assume there would be another ramp at the back of it, allowing them to continue onward. Saren's base was just a couple of hundred meters further.

Squinting, he saw two shapes moving on the building, behind its low railing: one was a regular geth trooper, but the other was a krogan. Seeing one of Saren's krogan slaves didn't faze him - it was just another enemy. He had stopped caring a long time ago for other krogans who were standing in his way, and the fact that this one was supposedly free of the genophage changed nothing. Ducking behind cover, Wrex asked for his squadmates to come over and for the turian to scan the area with his rifle's scope.

Moments later, Garrus reported,"There's a single trooper and a krogan. I see no other enemy, but who knows what's hiding behind the building."

Wrex nodded at that and added, "There's another canyon connecting up ahead, on the left. Enemies could come from there too." He paused a moment to collect his thoughts before continuing, "Here's the plan: we take out the krogan first. I want you to pour everything on the bastard - let's take him out of his misery. Then we take on the geth and see if anything else comes at us." Turning to the quarian, he asked, "You can use your last chance now if you want."

"Not for a single geth... that'd be useless."

Shrugging, Wrex stepped out in the open and gave the signal. "Go!"

He let the quarian open the show with an overload to the krogan's shield, then let go of a heated carnage shot, which hit fully and made it stagger. The turian then shot it with his sniper rifle and another carnage shot slammed into it, this time from the quarian's shotgun. This was just too much for the krogan, who fell on one knee. Wrex was about to launch a biotic warp but the turian was faster and finished it off with another shot from his rifle. On the comm, Wrex expressed his satisfaction, "Good. Regeneration won't help him anymore, genophage or not."

Meanwhile, the lone geth atop the platform was moving around, taking shots at them, but was not much more than an annoyance.

His shotgun fully recharged, Wrex let go of another precise carnage shot that took care of it. "OK. Let's wait and see. Maybe something else will come out."

After a few seconds, two geth recon drones flew in from the left at the other end of the large area, obviously coming from the other canyon. They were swiftly dealt with, causing no damage to the trio.

In the absence of any other incoming enemy, they moved to the building. There was no ramp on the other side of it, as Wrex had assumed, but a sort of concrete catwalk built on piles continued onward along a narrow canyon, a couple of meters above the water level. Unlike at the previous facility, there was no console to be seen.

Garrus was the first to talk. "Maybe the console is under the building?"

"We don't have time to waste looking for a console." Taking a few steps to the side, Wrex examined the antenna - the entire structure stood on a single slender metallic cylinder coming off the roof. Looking at the quarian, he indicated the antenna and ordered, "Take it down."

Everyone moved to a safe distance and, without a word, Tali discharged her shotgun once. This took out part of the target which turned out to be a tube with wires inside. The antenna had only swayed a little under the impact of the first shot, but came down noisily after the second, which completely severed the tube and the wiring.

Wrex pointed toward the catwalk. "That's the only way ahead. Let's catch up with Shepard."

Taking point, Wrex led the team forward. They had only covered ten meters or so when the general comm activated again. "Shepard here. Wrex, Captain Kirrahe just called in to thank us for having interrupted the orbital strikes - I have to assume you're responsible. Good job."

Having signaled for his team to stop and take cover, Wrex replied, "It was frustratingly easy, Shepard. We're almost to the base already."

"Right. Listen, I have another target for you. The Captain also told me his troops are being harassed by geth drones. According to him, their refueling station is close to your current location. It's probably one of those unidentified structures on the map, along the seaside. We've finished scouting the area here. There are a few enemies guarding the access to the base - we'll take them out while we wait for you. Over."

"Alright Shepard. We'll be there." Wrex was somewhat frustrated but not surprised by the turn of events. Weak salarians in need of krogan help once again - this is getting boring. Turning to his followers, he switched back to the squad's comm channel an said, "You heard the boss. We're going to the sea."

Without a word, they continued ahead carefully, wary of coming across more enemies. This happened soon enough however, as they reached an opening in the right side of the canyon. In that spot, a large smooth-surfaced rock was playing the role of a ramp leading down from the catwalk, through the opening, to the bottom of a wide area where several other canyons appeared to be connecting. Unfortunately, Wrex's squad was spotted by a pair of geth - a trooper and a destroyer - who were on a catwalk exactly like theirs on the other side of the opening. Both geth units were already on the move and started shooting right away, forcing Wrex and his two followers to retreat a few paces on their catwalk in order to get out of the line of fire.

Wrex was pissed at having been spotted first. The geth had been just out of range of his combat scanner and had just happened to be looking in the right direction at the right time when he and his team had reached the opening. On his tactical display, he observed a single red dot approaching and about to come at them through the opening on the right. This had to be the destroyer - this type of geth unit was the most suicidal, with its seemingly mindless tendency to rush ahead under most circumstances. As much as he'd like to have the destroyer all to himself, he had to think of his two squadmates' safety and he also felt pressed by time - Saren's base was very near and he definitely wanted to get there without undue delay.

On the squad's channel, he ordered, "Stay behind me and pour everything you have on that destroyer as soon as it comes into view."

It took only a couple of seconds for the tall geth to appear, coming up the sloping rock leading to their catwalk. It was advancing relentlessly, oblivious to electronic attacks and gunfire. It even managed to launch a carnage shot at him, taking out all of his shield, part of his biotic barrier, and making him take a step back. Keeping his calm, Wrex launched a biotic throw at the geth, which was by now only two meters in front of him. The biotic attack made it fall on its back and it was finished off by a combination of shots from the quarian's shotgun and the turian's assault rifle.

Pointing in the direction where the geth had come from, Wrex ordered, "Finish the other off while I check my gear." Dealing with an ordinary trooper just wasn't worth his time. While his shield was recharging, he renewed his biotic barrier and gave his armor a quick examination. Satisfied with the absence of significant damage, he went down the rocky slope and through the opening to catch up with his squad.

On the other side, the scenery was somewhat different. Wrex didn't feel he was in a canyon anymore, but between a series of tall rocky islands sticking out from the sand and water, like the teeth of a giant creature made of stone. On top of the muffled noise of battle from the salarian's assault, he could also hear the rhythmic sound of waves breaking on a nearby shore, confirming the proximity of the seaside. The catwalk both geth had been on was connected to a circular concrete platform held two meters above the water by a few stylishly curved concrete piles. He climbed a ramp leading up to it and caught up with his followers, who were waiting for him beside the body of the geth trooper.

The turian was first to speak as he pointed toward the catwalk branching off the platform on the left, "Saren's base is right over there."

Indeed, at the far end of the catwalk, Wrex could make out part of a large building through an opening between rocks. It was a hundred or so meters away. He grunted in acknowledgement.

The quarian pointed at another catwalk branching off the platform toward the right and going through a narrow passage between two adjacent teeth-like islands. "The drone refueling station must be that way."

Wrex nodded to her and started walking in that direction. "Stay behind me. And let's try to spot the enemy first, next time around." He was still pissed at how the last battle had been engaged. It had gone relatively well, but only because they had been lucky. Only two geth had been involved - if there had been more, the squad could have been swarmed.

Past the narrow passage, the sound of waves crashing on the shore became much stronger. The catwalk was following closely the steep rocky wall of the left island as it went forward and, thus, was turning gradually toward the left also. Wrex kept an eye on his tactical display as he walked on, hugging the left railing in order to keep out of sight of potential enemies up ahead. A red dot soon appeared in the forward left corner of his HUD's display, then a couple more. He stopped completely and said, "Enemies ahead - just in range of the scanner." He turned to look at the turian. "You're up."

Slowly, the turian moved toward the railing on the right side of the catwalk in order to get a visual. After a few seconds, he stepped back behind Wrex and said, "This is it. There's a platform twenty meters ahead. I saw four flying drones, but I couldn't see the whole thing so there might be more. One of the drones was in the process of refueling at a large tank."

The quarian said. "At least four in the same location? This is the perfect setting to test my program."

Wrex was not too happy with that - If her program did the same thing as before, it would only paralyze one unit and waste a good surprise attack. But he had promised a third attempt, and if he let her do it now, then she would not bother him with her experiment for the rest of the mission, which was a definite plus in his mind. "Alright quarian, you get to try your thing. But it's your last shot."

She signaled the turian, "Get ready Garrus. I've adjusted the parameters of my program using the data from the two first attempts. If it works better this time, you may have to shoot several targets in quick succession."

At a prompt from the quarian, the turian extended his activated omnitool toward hers, and then read something on its diminutive holographic screen, "Backup successful." Looking back at her as he readied his assault rifle, he added, "Third time's the charm?"

"We'll see about that - and about your use of human idioms. Ready?"

At a nod from Garrus, the quarian stepped forward and to the right, in full view of what lay ahead. Without hesitation, she kneeled, extended her omnitool toward her target and pulled the electronic equivalent of a trigger.

The turian followed suit by kneeling on the quarian's right, pointing his weapon and opening up at once on the enemy. Wrex counted three long assault rifle bursts before his squadmates' shields started to shimmer as the opposite side replied in kind. Meanwhile, the quarian seemed to have difficulties with her omnitool, which was turned off for some reason. After a last burst from the turian's rifle, both rose to take cover along the railing behind him.

In his turn, Wrex stepped in the open to assess the situation and continue the offensive. He was surprised by the sight of three broken drones lying on the round platform at the end of the catwalk. Two more were hovering above the refueling station, one obviously damaged as it gave off sparks and flew erratically. He had not expected the combined quarian and turian attack to prove so effective. But he had no time for amazement. Grinning, he stepped closer, targeted one of the two large fuel tanks on the platform and let go of a carnage shot from his gun.

The two drones shot at him, but could only drain a few percent of his shield's charge before the heated shot reached the fuel tank, which exploded at once, in a huge ball of orange flames. The shock wave sent the damaged drone to its death as it crashed against the side of the nearby island. Staying in position, wrex launched a throw at the last drone - it didn't do much damage to the geth, but it kept it from shooting back at him for a moment, allowing his gun to recharge enough for another carnage shot. He directed it at the second fuel tank, which also erupted in a glorious chaos of flames. The shock wave pushed the drone closer, and Wrex finished it off with a single discharge from his shotgun.

To his two squadmates, who were only now coming out of cover, he called, "Ha! Did you see that?" He had a wide toothy grin, which of course they couldn't see because of his helmet.

Approaching, the turian shook his head and quipped, "Big explosions are still a thing for you Wrex? No wonder you and Shepard get along so well."

"Hmph. I'll take that as a compliment." The turian's habit of poking fun at him had been most irritating at first, when he got on the Normandy. But he had found over the months that the best response was to just shrug the comments off and move on - they were just words, after all.

Coming over, the quarian pointed at the wrecked refueling station, where flames were slowly dying down. In a triumphant tone, she said, "You see? My program worked this time."

"I saw that. Maybe I can let you try again, now that it's worth something."

The quarian's tone became apologetic, "Ah... I'm afraid that won't be possible. It did work, but there was much more feedback than I expected and my omnitool has shorted because of that. Fortunately, Garrus has a copy of all the data until-"

Scowling, Wrex interrupted her, "That's not good. You'll have to stay behind. You're not so useful without an omnitool." Indeed, the quarian's main abilities came from her expertise with her electronic tool - without it, she was reduced to just using her weapons. Not that she was a bad fighter, but most of the advantages she brought to battle had disappeared.

She raised a hand to placate him. "I have a backup omnitool. In fact, I should replace it right now. Give me a couple of minutes." Without delay, she pulled the knife from the sheath strapped on the side of her right boot and cut the thin wires coming out of her burnt out omnitool. Then, with a few quick twisting movements of her left hand, the quarian pulled the thing off of her right forearm and stowed it away. Fishing out another omnitool from a pocket, she started to install it.

Wrex was reassured, but also impatient to catch up with Shepard. "Can't you do that while we move on to the base?"

"More prudent and faster if you leave me alone for just a couple minutes."

Unhappy with the delay, Wrex grumbled a little. But he was willing to give her two minutes - it usually took him more than five to set up his own omnitool. Ordering the turian to stay on the lookout, he moved toward the wrecked refueling station, hoping to find something to scavenge. Soon, a movement caught his eyes among the debris. Coming closer to investigate, he realized that one of the geth drones was not completely dead. He raised his right foot and crushed the thing in a swift downward swing, putting most of his considerable weight in it. The geth chirped plaintively as it died for good, making him feel better at the same time.

The rest of the wreckage was uninteresting, and his eyes soon wandered over to the horizon beyond the platform, where the open sea could be seen. It was surprisingly calm, despite the darkened sky that covered it, as if a thunderstorm was brewing. Looking around, he saw a beach at the foot of a nearby island, where small waves were crashing and producing the characteristic sound. With nothing else to see or do, he wandered back toward his squadmates.

The turian, who had also been taking in the sights, addressed him when he got closer, "You know, this world reminds me of where I grew up on Palaven." He looked briefly at the nearby remains of a drone before adding, "Minus the geth of course."

Wrex merely grunted in reply, not wanting to share any of his memories of where he had grown up. That was none of the turian's business. On the Normandy, he had let Shepard mess with his memories, and that was more than enough.

But the turian did not appear to get the message, continuing, "When this is over, it'd be nice to get some vacation in a place like this."

Wrex snorted at that. "Vacation?" Pointing at the wrecked tanks, the surrounding debris and the open sea on the horizon, he added, "This is my kind of vacation. Lots of scenery, and lots of killing." He glanced at the turian, and interpreted his absence of reply as a sign of confusion. Ha! It's my turn to mock you, turian!

Not wanting to give the turian the opportunity for a comeback, he turned around and ordered, "Let's get moving - We need to catch-up with Shepard." Despite the quarian's protestations, he continued toward the base, and the others just filed in behind him. He felt ready for more scenery and more killing. Saren, here I come.

Author's Note

The big reveal. I may have given the impression (in chapter 20) that the revelation of who (Ashley Williams or Kaidan Alenko) dies on Virmire was going to happen in the current chapter. My bad. In fact, the revelation will come in chapter 22. Meanwhile, I'd like to thank the reviewers for their interesting comments: I must say I seriously considered changing my personal choice and make the other die, but in the end I decided to persist. I've got my reasons, which are totally debatable (there's no 'right choice' in this situation). Anyway, You'll see in next chapter. ;)

The Assault on Saren's base. This part of the game's mission on Virmire is pretty long and a lot of stuff happens. It would be much too long to go into details, so here is a quick summary. The mission could be divided into multiple smaller parts: 1) traveling to Saren's base, 2) exploration of the base, including 2a) finding out about reaper indoctrination (by talking to a few captured salarians which were used as guinea pigs in Saren's experiments, and also talking to an asari scientist - Rana Thanoptis - who assisted Saren in said experiments), 2b) finding out about the reapers and their plans (by talking with Sovereign, just after Shepard finds and uses the prothean beacon located in Saren's quarters), 2c) securing the delivery point for the nuke. After that, 3) Shepard must choose between saving the Alliance teammate that was assigned to the salarian assault (Ashley in the current story), who is pinned down by geth near the AA defenses, or helping the other Alliance teammate (Kaidan in the current version) who has activated the nuke and is defending it from a geth counter-attack. Whatever choice Shepard makes, this is followed by 4) a direct confrontation with Saren, who turns out to be invincible (cannot be killed at that point in the game). However, Shepard uses his superpower (his incredible ability to convince anybody) which seems to cause Saren to doubt himself a little, but not enough make him surrender. Then 5) everybody (including Saren but not the Alliance teammate that could not be rescued) evacuates before the nuclear explosion. Note: in the game, Captain Kirrahe and some of his men can be saved (they are in the Normandy's cargo hold after leaving Virmire) if the 3 geth facilities are destroyed along the way to Saren's base, as described in the current chapter.

The current chapter describes an alternate version of the travel (on foot) from the salarian camp up to Saren's base, at the very start of the assault. In my perpetual quest to improve on the game's scenario (without significantly changing the storyline), I thought it would make more sense for the salarians to have pretty extensively mapped the area between their camp and the base, hence the map that Wrex is using along the way (after all, Captain Kirrahe does say in the game that he has lost half of his men in his effort to get intel on Saren's base). In the game, the two geth communication facilities as well as the drone refueling station are presented as targets of opportunity. In my version however, considering the salarian mapping of the area, I thought it would make more sense for these facilities to have been identified right from the start as strategically important secondary targets. It is very speculative of course, but the drone refueling station is the one piece of geth infrastructure that may have been overlooked by the salarian infiltrators (because it's out of the way, and its function may not have appeared so important before the assault) and which could still be presented as a target of opportunity.

Wrex's character. In chapter 9 ('The Hard Way'), I explored the question of Wrex's reason(s) to stick with Shepard and his mission, the problem being that the krogan's motivation is really not obvious in the game. The answer I came up with is his profound desire to save his people from extinction because of the genophage, and his realization that Shepard could teach him to become a better leader. This would fit into Wrex's long term plan, which is go back to Tuchanka, become leader of the Urdnot clan, then unite other clans in order to reduce the infighting and improve reproduction. This fits very well with the intensity of Wrex's reaction (in the salarian camp) to the news that Saren has a cure and that Shepard and the salarians want to destroy it. However, while Wrex's reaction is perfectly understandable, it still is irrational and counterproductive. In the current chapter, I wanted to explore how Wrex would make sense of this.
Something that I realized while writing the current chapter is that Virmire is the place where Wrex's dislike for Saren becomes personal. Before Virmire, Wrex didn't like Saren mostly because the turian had given him 'bad vibes' in a previous encounter. On Virmire however, he realizes that Saren is playing 'puppet master' with his people, using them as tools/slaves. For Wrex, Saren is not just a vague threat to the galaxy anymore, but has become a clear and present danger to his people.

Speculation on geth communications. In the game, it is said that when geth are close together, they become smarter as they can share computing resources used for low level processes, thereby liberating more CPU for more advanced functions. But they apparently do not share sensory data and do not have a 'hive mind.'
I did some very basic calculations to explore the idea of sharing processes among nearby geth units. There is a bit of maths & physics, so bear with me. These are just off-the-cuff considerations, so please be lenient - it's just an exercise to get a grasp of the effect of distance between geth units on their 'sharing.' First, let's suppose that the speed of the clock in geth electronic circuits is of the order of 1 GHz (note: this would be slightly slower than the clock in current computers), meaning that one clock cycle has a duration of 1 nanosecond (1 ns). Considering the speed of light (3 x 10exp8 m/s), an electromagnetic communication signal can travel only 0.3 m (one foot) in 1 ns. That means that two geth separated by 3 m will experience a communication delay of 10 ns, which represents 10 cycles of each geth's internal clock. Note that if a geth internal clock runs at 10 GHz, then the same distance of 3 m would represent a delay of 100 clock cycles. It is reasonable to assume that shared processes (like moving a limb) require a fair amount of data exchange between geth units (basically, it's a loop involving sensor data and commands to actuators). Beyond a certain distance, depending on the amount of feedback required, the delay due to the time it takes for the information to reach each geth unit will become the limiting factor in the speed of the shared processing (meaning that it may take more time for the data to travel the distance between geth units than for all the rest of the computations in the process). That means that there must be a distance beyond which the sharing of processes becomes inefficient and disadvantageous for the geth. This precise distance would depend on the specific process (the amount of feedback that the process requires), and on the actual speed of the geth's internal clock (faster is the clock, shorter would be the distance).

Tali's experiment. I always wondered why Tali is called a 'geth expert' in the Mass Effect game. She seems to have a good grasp of what geth are, but that could be common knowledge among quarians. In the game, we never see Tali do anything clearly showing that her knowledge of the geth is so much greater than that of most people on the Flotilla. Of course, one could say that she is an expert at fighting the geth since she killed so many in Shepard's company, but that does not mean she's a 'geth expert' in general (analogy: I may have eaten a lot of broccoli in my life, but that doesn't make me an 'expert on broccoli' in the sense that eating it doesn't give me any knowledge on how to grow or even how to cook it). Tali did obtain a geth memory core (which is the starting point of the whole Mass Effect saga), which means that she's bold and a competent tech specialist, but doesn't mean much more. This is why I introduced the idea in the current story that she would be studying geth parts on the Normandy, and coming up with an experiment that would show that she has learned something new about them. These story elements form a basis to support the idea that she really is (or would become) a 'geth expert.' BTW, her experimental program is a kind of 'chain overload' which is available in ME3, where it works on everything (not just geth). Tali's version works only with geth, and is a one-off since it has a fatal flaw (her omnitool is destroyed by uncontrollable feedback when the program finally works). Also, I arranged for her discovery to be rather small: it is significant for her, on a scale that is consistent with her character in ME1, but not big enough to risk changing the game's storyline.

Character-specific lines in the text. I always try to use some of the game's lines of dialogue when I write this story. In the current chapter, I could not abstain from using Garrus line about Virmire reminding him of the place he grew up on Palaven. Wrex's incredible line about vacations ("This is my kind of vacation. Lots of scenery, and lots of killing") is also directly from the game: Wrex really says that if Shepard brings him along in the canyons leading to Saren's base. :)