John Shepard, Aite, Typhon System

"Would you just….No...DAMMIT GRUNT," John finally just stood up, completely ignoring the plasma fire coming his way. "You put that geth trooper down! I mean it!"

Grunt paused mid swing and looked at the limp geth body on his arms. Then he looked back at John. Then he hit another drone out of the air with it.

"Don't make me come over there!" John quick drew his heavy pistol and fired three rounds into a geth trooper, then another three into a hopper, dropping both of them.

Once again Grunt looked at his geth 'bat' then looked John right in the eye and swatted down another drone.

"Alright! That's it!" John leapt over the small wall he had been using for cover, and stormed across the field at an angle away from his team and toward the krogan.

"Shepard!" Garrus yelled after him. "What the hell are you doing?!"

"Commander!" Miranda shouted.

Once he realized what John was doing, Grunt's blue eyes shot wide, and he dropped his geth 'weapon'. His head darted left, then right before he turned and began running around the small courtyard that was underneath the station's massive dish array.

"Don't you run from me!" John yelled as he fired a burst from his SMG into a rocket trooper that had popped up to fire. Then he jumped over the small wall it had been behind, firing into another pair of geth and dropping them.

Grunt skidded around a corner, nearly falling over, before ducking into a nearby hallway.

"Dammit Grunt!"

Zaeed Massani

"Zaeed."

"Not now."

"Zaeed!"

"Can it."

"ZAEED!"

"Oh come off it, Nancy boy!" Zaeed frowned looking over at the Cerberus operative. "You've been whining like a ponce since we left the crash site. You want to drive or somethin'?"

"NO! ZAEED! CLIFF!"

"What?" Zaeed blinked and turned back to the front. And there was, indeed a cliff in front of them. To the right, he could see what appeared to be a river of lava that flowed down and disappeared over the same cliff the Hammerhead was heading towards. "Oh, yeah, I got it."

As the Hammerhead hit the edge, Zaeed fired the turbo booster, accelerating the hover tank off the edge at a speed that pushed both men back in their chairs. And once Zaeed was able to see below the cliff fully he frowned slightly. "Hmm…"

"Why are you humming?" Jacob was half standing in his seat as he clutched the handle that was over the door on his side. The, so-called, Oh Shit handle. And yet, his voice had quieted to just a little over a whisper.

Truth be told, Zaeed hadn't planned on the lake of magma that turned out to be below the cliff. He had expected the river that he had seen going over, to continue to be a river. But, alas, that was not to be.

"Nah, nothing," Zaeed shrugged as he released the turbo. He kept a close eye on the heat gauge, and the moment it hit fully cool, he reignited both the turbo, and also, the jump jets. Then he nodded in satisfaction. "All good now."

Jacob's eyes were wide enough that Zaeed was a little worried they were going to pop straight out of the kid's head. Which he was also shaking quickly. "Nope, nope nope…." he chanted.

Releasing the two boosts to the Hammerhead, the front tipped forward slightly as it began its rapid descent.

Zaeed then turned halfway around, placing an arm over the edge of his char and leaning in toward the young man. "Jacob, seriously, listen to me. You need to calm down, son. You'll go grey far too early if you can't keep it together. I mean, honestly, we are on a suicide mission," Zaeed smiled in what he hooped was a reassuring smile. "You got me, Garrus, Shepard, even Tali, so you don't need to panic so much."

Jacob just turned to stare at him. His eyes still wide. But he made no more sounds.

"There! See!" Zaeed laughed as he turned back forward and blasted the jump jets at full force. The Hammerhead's sudden deceleration nearly throwing the men's bollocks' into their throats. Then, as the hover tank settled on a small island of stone in the middle of the lake, Zaeed winked at Jacob. "No problem!"

Garrus Vakarian

Garrus watched Shepard pinball off a wall and around a corner as he chased after Grunt, with wide uncomprehending eyes. His mandibles dropped a bit. They even twitched slightly. A low, confused hum, on a vocal range beyond human hearing, rolled out of him.

The hum was a bad habit. His mother often scolded him for it. It was a bit like how Tali rolled her hands together, or when Shepard did that thing with his neck. And he was avoiding thinking about the situation.

"Did….did Shepard just leave us and go running after Grunt?" Miranda looked up at Garrus, an incredulous look on her face.

"Uh, yeah," Garrus shrugged. "Certainly looks that way. But...I think they took out the last of the geth here while they were at it."

"Oh, well, that's okay then," Miranda sighed as she set her SMG on the ground. She pulled her arms up and back, stretching out her shoulders and back. Her back arched just so, accentuating the slopes of her waist.

*smack*

"Um..Garrus?" Miranda blinked as she looked at him.

"Yes, Miranda?" Garrus looked out over the field. Not looking at Miranda. Not because he didn't want to. Or...well….not because he wanted to either. Really. That would have been weird.

"Did you just hit yourse-"

"Welp," Garrus nodded. "Shepard seems to have run off. Probably has his own mission to do and all. We should probably set up the charges and take out this dish, huh?"

Miranda was silent for a moment before she gave herself a small confused shake of the head, and standing up. "Might as well," she sighed. "Any idea where the two nitwits are going? It'll be hard to catch up with them later."

Tali walked up to the pair and shrugged. "He's that way," Tali pointed over her shoulder, a distinctly different angle than he had been running at when they lost sight of him. "He isn't too far ahead. I set the charges while you guys were dealing with the geth, so we can drop this thing and catch up pretty easy."

"Umm….well, Tali is right," Kasumi spoke up from the comms. "I got Shep and Grunt on the internal cameras. They are pretty much right where she said they would be."

"How could you possibly have known that?" Miranda frowned slightly as she looked back and forth between the direction Tali had indicated and the quarian herself.

"Oh….umm…" Tali's hands began to twist as she began to look around, as if she was looking for a place to hide. "I...just a good guess?"

Garrus frowned slightly as well, but for a different reason. There had been something off about Tali and Shepard since that little incident Edi had set up. They seemed to be closer...but also a bit more distant. He couldn't quite put a finger on what it was, and the C-Sec in him hated it.

But he wasn't about to push her about it.

"Forget it," Garrus sighed with a shrug. "Let's let Shepard and Grunt do whatever it is they are doing. We'll go finish the mission."

"Yes!" Tali exclaimed a little too forcefully. "Let's do that! Kasumi! How about you see what else you can get out of that Archer guy!"

"...Sure thing," the thief responded with a small laugh. "I'll mark the location, so you can meet me."

John

The base rumbled a bit as it shook. The lights above him and Grunt flickered a moment, but came back up. John looked around for a moment before turning to look back down at Grunt.

Chasing the bastard down had been enough of a work out. But then tackling him, and jabbing his fingers just under the edge of the headplate, right over the krogan ear, John had twisted, curling the krogan in on himself.

"Ow, ow, ow, ow, OW! OKAY" Grunt whined. "I'm sorry! I'll listen more! Just let go!"

With a *hmph* John nodded and stood up. It was a trick Wrex had show him once. It was apparently a way of subduing a krogan without pushing him into a bloodfrenzy or anything else that would cause property damage.

"Looks like the crew brought down the dish, so good work. You missed the explosions," John sniffed as he extended a hand to help Grunt back up.

"Aww…." Grunt sighed as he stood. He then twisted and punched the wall, denting the metal surface. "I wanted to push the button."

"Well, if you had listened to me, maybe you could have," with another shake of his head, John looked back the way they had come. "We dodged back and forth a lot. Don't suppose you know the way back?"

"Uh…" Grunt followed John's gaze for a moment. "Nope. Why don't you just guide us back?"

"Grunt...If I knew how to get back, I wouldn't have asked you."

"Hmm," Grunt shrugged, with a confused look. "Where's Tali?"

John glanced at the and opened his mouth. He was about to say 'how would I know', but, instead he just pointed. "That way. Why do I know that?"

"Heh heh heh," Grunt chuckled. "Okeer was pretty old. She knew a lot of stuff. Like, a bunch about quarians."

"Riiight," John raised an eyebrow. "And that means….?"

Frowning now, Grunt looked at John with a slightly tilted head. "Wait, really? She hasn't told you?"

With an exasperated sigh, John slapped a had over his face. "No, Grunt, apparently she has not."

"Oh..well," Grunt's gaze shifted to his foot as he kinda kicked at the floor a bit. "Then I shouldn't say anything. Okeer had a lot of respect for what the quarians went through. I kinda understand why. She'll probably tell you when she's ready. Or...something. I don't know. Shut Up!"

For a moment John just looked at the krogan 'toddler', before bursting out with a short laugh. "Alright Grunt. Sounds fine. For some reason I have a 'Tali-dar' so we can get back to the others. Or...we could go that way," John's hand spun to point the direction that had been heading when John had caught up to Grunt. "I'm pretty sure there is a tram that runs to one of the secondary bases that way."

Grunt blinked once before a wide toothy grin spread across his face. "That's why you're my favorite Battlemaster!"

"Grunt, I'm your only Battlemaster."

"Doesn't mean you can't be my favorite."

Jacob Taylor

It had taken close to five minutes of leaning heavily against the wall of Dr Cacye's prefab units. They had been set up so that the Doctor's team could collect data, as well as go over the prothean artifacts they had discovered.

Once he successfully caught his breath, however, his thoughts turned to homicide. Like...it would probably pretty easy to explain away a tragic 'accident' on the planet made of lava. Just a push, maybe. Or a stab. Maybe shooting. Better yet, maybe he could run the old bastard over with the damned Hammerhead.

"How are we going to break this thing open, anyway?" Zaeed was asking as he examined the door to the prefab.

"I have a pass key," Jacob sighed as he walked up and casually input the code.. "When I got the notice about the Rosalie, i downloaded the data from the Cerberus Network."

"And if the doc changed it?" Zaeed asked a moment before the door flashed red. "Like that."

Blinking, Jacob tried the code again. Red. And once more. Red.

"Dammit, Zaeed," Jacob sighed as he thumped his head against the wall. "You aren't supposed to say those things! It's a cosmic law of the universe. Like, in horror vids, you don't have sex, go upstairs or be a female with overly large breasts."

Zaeed was silent for a moment. The way he crossed his arms as he thought. The way he seemed to look at his feet. It reminded him a lot of Shepard. Though, at the moment, he was pretty sure the Commander might be the better driver.

"Ah, fuck it," Zaeed shrugged before rearing back a leg and kicking the door.

"Man, that is not going to work. Those doors are reinforced. You can't just-" Jacob started, but looked up when he hear the crack that followed Zaeed's third kick. Then he blinked as the older man's fourth kick broke it open completely.

With a satisfied snort, Zaeed looked at Jacob. "These things were designed for desert worlds. So they may be good for the heat. For a bit. But this is a volcanic planet. Much hotter. After a bit of time it starts to break down the door jams."

"The hell?" Jacob looked at the merc disbelievingly.

With a shrug Zaeed stepped into the prefab. "You can reinforce the door all you want. Won't help if the parts that actually hold the door together are shit."

Tali'Zorah

"Shepard! Shepard, come in!" Tali could feel the twisting in her stomach. She knew he was moving away from them. Fairly quickly. But, for some reason, he wasn't answering her. "Please?" her voice dropped to a whisper.

"Hey, Tali," Kasumi stepped up next to Tali and wrapped an arm around the quarian suddenly, startling her. "Whoa there, didn't mean to surprise you."

"Kasumi, no...it's fine," Tali's hands began to twist again. "Physical touch is just not normal for quarians, not the way it is for humans. Quarters are so close that intentional contact like that is just a bit more intimate. I know it isn't like that for humans, so I mostly can ignore it. I mean, I'm used to it now. But when I'm not paying attention…"

"Tali!" Kasumi held a hand while laughing, forestalling Tali's tirade. "I get it. It's all good. I was just going to say that Edi was saying that between the VI/Geth thing and the natural background radiation, it's messing up communication."

Stopping for a moment, Tali looked at the ground and took a deep breath. "Right, sorry. When I get nervous or uneasy I tend to babble."

A small grin spread across Kasumi's face as she leaned over and bumped her shoulder against Tali's. "How about that? Cross any quarian boundaries?"

Shifting slightly uncomfortably, Tali didn't pull away, but she also looked back at her feet. "Umm...sort of...that was kinda a way of demonstrating your wish to be more...intimate…."

"What?" Kasumi blinked for a moment. "R..really?"

Tali didn't say anything, but she looked away again and leaned back toward Kasumi, bumping the small human back.

"Wait..Tali," Kasumi swallowed as she looked back over her shoulder, making sure the others weren't paying attention. "I thought you...um...not that you aren't awesome…"

Tali began to shake a little. She tried to hold it in desperately, and she had done a pretty good job so far, but a *srk* slipped out. Then another. Then she slapped her hand over her indicator light.

"Oh...you bitch…" Kasumi slapped Tali's shoulder a couple of times as she stepped away. "Ohhh...I can't….How did I fall…"

That was when she broke like a dam. Laughter just came pouring out of her. She was laughing so hard she was having a problem pulling air. Then Kasumi started slapping at her again, and that just made it all worse.

Holding up her hands to ward off the crazed thief, Tali tipped over, fall right on her si'ratte. "Stop! Stop! I surrender!"

With a stomp of her foot, Kasumi growled something in that other Earth language that she used at times, then abruptly turned away, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Hee..hee…." Tali giggled a few more times before she poked the back of Kasumi's leg. "Sorry, I don't know where that came from. I must have been hanging out with Garrus and John too much!"

"Oh ho!" Kasumi spun on her heel and grinned down at Tali with a triumphant look. "Hanging out too much with John, are you?"

That hit Tali like a mass of spri'tio… "NO! No! You must have heard...I mean, I didn't...Oh Keelah…" Tali gave up and slapped her hands over her helmet. "Akee…."

Grunt

As the tram car came into the station, it was already being riddled with plasma and mass rounds. He and Shepard had ducked behind a small fort that they had made out of all the seats in the tram. Of course Shepard had also activated his tech armor, while he had used his armor's Fortification ability.

"Heh heh heh," Grunt couldn't help but chuckle as the tram slowled.

"You're enjoying this, aren't you?" Shepard raised and eyebrow as he projected disapproval in his voice. But he couldn't help the small savage smirk pulling at his lips, or the slight warble of excitement that he couldn't quite keep out.

"Maybe…" Grunt grinned. "You take me to the best places Shepard!"

And Grunt meant it! Right out of the tank, and Shepard took him to the Battle For Tali, then there were all those people on that prison ship that he got to shoot. Now all this! He was definitely the best Battlemaster ever!

"Okay, from what I gathered, this is the geo-thermal power station for the Overlord Project. So we blow this, it'll slow down the geth." Shepard brought up a diagram of the station he had downloaded earlier. "I didn't notice earlier that our comms had been jammed, but, hopefully, killing this place will lift the comm block."

"Shepard," Grunt frowned slightly as rounds sparked off his armor.

"Yeah, Grunt?" Shepard looked up, even as he was rocked lightly by a plasma bolt scattering off his shields.

"Not that I'm complaining, mind you," Grunt held up a hand. "But...why didn't we talk about this before we stopped at the station?"

"..." Shepard just stared at him darkly for a moment. "Shut up and let's go shoot things."

"Yes, sir, Battlemaster!" Grunt gave Shepard a small salute, like he had seen some of the other humans do.

Zaeed

"Anytime now, sport," Zaeed sighed. He spun the turret in a three hundred-sixty degree circle. Then again. "Anytime."

"Zaeed, you realize there is a geth colossus just over that rise?" Jacob looked at the merc, frowning incredulously.

"Yeah, I'm aware."

"And you want me to just...drive on up?"

"Kinda."

"See, this is why I don't let you drive."

"Pff," Zaeed snorted. "What's the point of having a tank it you aren't going to blow shit up? The damn thing even has tracking rockets!"

"Yeah, we also don't have decent armor!" Jacob waved a hand at the Hammerhead in general. "This thing can't take firepower of that magnitude!"

"Alright," Zaeed crossed his arms again and sat back. "Then tell me how we are supposed to get this crate, as well as the vehicle we are using to move said crate, back to the shuttle?"

"I have a plan," Jacob grinned. "It's a pretty good plan too!"

"Ah, shit," Zaeed rubbed at the bridge of his nose for a moment. "That's like saying that things could be worse."

"Okay," Jacob said, ignoring him. "You get ready to shoot the geth!"

Zaeed's eyes narrowed slightly as he looked at the younger man. It was times like this that he envied Shepard's ability to raise an eyebrow. Unfortunately, that was a trait he had gotten from his mother. It had been kinda hot when she did it, though. "Alright...ready."

Grinning, Jacob brought up the Hammerheads controls. "Okay, Zaeed. You ready?"

Zaeed cracked his knuckles as he brought the turret around. "Ready."

"Okay!" Jacobs fingers flew over the controls as the tank took off. Straight up. Then dropped back down. "Hmm...not quite enough. Gonna try again."

This time the tank lifted just high enough that Zaeed could see the Colossus's head, before dropping back.

"How much more?" Jacob looked over.

Zaeed was about to say something, but then he saw the serious look the kid had. Then he sighed. "A bit more. Then try to hold it."

Jacob nodded and the tank jumped again. This time enough that the Colossus seemed to notice them before it dropped back down. Zaeed was pretty sure the Colossus was mildly startled.

One more jump and Zaeed was pretty sure the geth was laughing at them.

"Think I should move forward a bit more then try it?" Jacob looked over at Zaeed, a small frown creased his brow.

Zaeed, was leaning his head on his fist. "Sure. Ten feet or something."

"Good idea!" Jacob nodded enthusiastically. "We don't want to get too far!"

Miranda Lawson

The lights in the tram flickered once, then twice, before going out completely. It took the whine of the tram's electric motors, allowing the whole train to slowly grind to a stop. Halfway to the Prometheus Station.

"You have to be kidding me," the perfect human woman sighed as she let her forehead drop against the smooth cool metal if the pole she was holding onto.

"Hey!" Garrus spoke up behind her. "The lights have gone out!"

His declaration was met with mild applause from the quarian and the thief.

And, oddly, she realized she was smiling. With actual humor. Not that kind of cold smile she sometimes practiced in the mirror. Her usual reaction should have been to roll her eyes in disgust and make some kind of irritated *Ugh* sound.

"Hello? Can you guys hear me?" Shepard's voice came in over the com.

"Joh-er…" Tali excitedly started before gasping in and coughing. "I...mean...Yes..Shepard. We get you clearly.

Again, Miranda was smiling. When they had first met, she had been under the impression that Shepard had been in a relationship with the asari, Liara. But after seeing his reaction to meeting Tali at Freedom's Progress, then again during the Haestrom 'Battle for Tali', as the crew had taken to calling it, his heart truly belong to the quarian engineer. As much as her's was dedicated to him.

And Miranda was getting tired of them dancing around each other. She honestly didn't know how they could take it on the original Normandy. It took Edi's interference to get anything moving. But that was a subject that she decided she did not in fact know about.

"Great!" Shepard came back, his voice was sing song, like a cheerful schoolboy. "Grunt and I took care of the geo-thermal plant. Got a bit hairy, but we….ah crap…"

"What is it, Commander?" Miranda turned to look at the team, now back to all business.

A sound of heavy weapons fire, an explosion and Grunt laughing like a madman was the first thing they were able to hear before Shepard was able to answer.

"Grunt is riding a YMIR mech like a bronco," Shepard's voice was dry. "I'll give him a hand. I assume you are going to Prometheus?"

"We are, Commander," Miranda nodded, even though he couldn't actually see her.

"Great, you guys take care of that, and the kid and I will meet you at Atlas."

Kasumi Goto

She was sitting on top of one of the computer banks in the research room that Dr Archer had locked himself in. When Shepard and Grunt had taken off, Miranda, Garrus, Tali and her had figured the best bet would to be to have her go back to the Doctor and get some more answers from the weasel, while they went on to the next station.

And information. She got it. She wished she hadn't, but she did.

If there was any particular thing about Kasumi that the few people who knew her, would say, it was that she was patient. Unflappable. Cunning, even. Well. They would say that right after saying what a smart pain-in-the-ass she was. But those people were just jealous. The point was, she almost never got truly angry. Almost.

Kasumi glared down at the unconscious body of the doctor as she carefully wiped his blood from her gloves with the section of his lab coat she had ripped off.

When she had arrived, and pulled him out of the cleaning locker. She began to worm information out of the man with compliments and flattery. But the more he said, the faster her questioning became demands. Then threats. At the end she was just hitting him in the face and demanding to know who Number Two worked for. It was an inside joke she shared with Tali.

When Archer finally passed out, Kasumi was tempted to keep hitting him until he stopped breathing, but she was able to pull herself back from the edge by asking herself what Keji would do, but, honestly, she had no idea. But it probably wouldn't have involved beating a man to death with her bare hands.

This...monster. He wasn't even a man. He took his own brother, a handicapped individual and...plugged him into a computer. Literally.

David Archer was an autistic individual with amazing mathematical and rapid calculation skills. He even seemed to have an eidetic memory.

When it was noticed that he seemed to be able to communicate with geth by copying their verbal sounds, his brother, the Cerberus scientist, Doctor Gavin Archer, began working on a project that could use David's abilities to help Cerberus create a kind of Overlord, which the project ended up named for, to take control of the geth, placing them under Cerberus control.

But the project was met with failure after failure. And the Illusive Man was preparing to pull the project. Gavin Archer became desperate.

Archer took David and plugged him directly into the VI/geth interface.

It was when he began to describe what he did to make it work that Kasumi lost her control.

Finally, when she was cleaned up, and calmed down enough to be able to speak coherently again, Kasumi threw the bloody rag roughly in the direction of the Cerberus scientist and slipped back to the ground.

"Guys," Kasumi's voice was low and cold. "I found out what is going on. You aren't going to like it."

John

His vision flickered. Static began to flash, small computer like traces of code rolled here and there. Then pieces of people, of geth, of strange alien shapes moved and disappeared.

He stumbled forward. Faintly, he could hear his team behind him. They said...something. Words. Words? Maybe. But one voice. There was one voice he heard clearly.

"JOHN!" Tali cried clearly, as the door slammed shut behind him and separating him from his team.

The sparks and flares began to take more solid shapes. It was like the time with the tactical overlay, but more intense. It was some sort of virtual reality interface.

Fucking perfect, John thought. David just hacked my cybernetics. I was told that was impossible. Shit...I bet it has something to do with the geth architecture involved.

Around the corner a geth trooper stepped into view and raised a plasma rifle. A geth trooper made of code and light. But no less deadly, for being Virtual.

Jacob

The two men stood in front of the Cerberus shuttle they had used to get to the planet.

Behind them, the M-44 Hammerhead burned quietly. Or, at least the right turbo fan did. There were three holes in the front nose of the thing, almost into the cockpit. And they were pretty sure the eezo core was leaking a bit.

"So," Jacob said, staring at the shuttle. He looked over at the older mercenary. "You look like shit." And it was true. Zaeed had a pressure cut over his left eye that was still oozing blood a bit. A little more blood showed at the corner of his mouth, and a little more from one nostril.

"You aren't any better," Zaeed pointed out. It was also, true. Jacob's right eye was swollen almost to the point that he was unable to see out of it. He was pretty sure his nose was broken and he definitely lost a couple of teeth.

"I was thinking," Jacob said. His voice was low and almost devoid of emotion.

"Oh yeah?" Zaeed glanced over for a moment.

"Think we could clamp the Hammerhead to the bottom of the shuttle?" Jacob tilted his head slightly as he regarded the shuttle. "It's a combat drop shuttle. It has a good amount of juice."

Zaeed paused to look behind them at the Hammerhead. "Would be interesting hitting FTL. Might break us apart."

Jacob shrugged. "It could."

"Alright," Zaeed nodded. "Fuck it. Let's go."

Both men slowly looked at each other. Their eyes narrowed. Then, suddenly, they both turned and sprinted toward the shuttle. "I'LL DRIVE!" they shouted in unison.

John

The final VI node finally exploded in a shower of sparks, but John stayed wary. It was the moment he relaxed, assuming it was finally over, that some sort of back up back guy popped up. It was kinda like a bad action cartoon.

"Shepard, hacking attempts have ceased," Edi's cool voice reported. "None of the final firewalls were reached, nor breached."

"Oh, well. That's good," John nodded, letting himself drop to the ground on his ass.

"I agree," an odd note came into Edi's voice. "Thank you, Shepard. You saved me from being rewritten or erased. I was not….comfortable with that idea."

For a moment, John frowned at his shoe. He rolled what Edi had just said around in his mind for a moment.

"You...were afraid of death," John said finally. It was not a question.

"I am not programed to feel fear," Edi said, confused. Which was a step itself. "Nor would I die. For I am not truly alive."

"Edi," John spat a mouthful of blood. "You are a member of my crew. We have worked together long enough that I trust you, and your judgement. I am not about to let some two bit Cerberus villain kill one of my best girls."

"..." Edi was silent for a moment. "Technically speaking, I may have a female sounding moniker, but it is really only a convenient way of speaking the initials. And while ships are generally referred to as female, I do not truly have a gender."

"True enough," John nodded as he eased his left gauntlet off with a hiss of pain. "But you just feel female to me. Not sure why, really. The first Normandy felt male. Joker called it 'she' as well, though. So, I dunno. You be you, I suppose."

"I...thank you Shepard. I will think on it."

"Great, I...oh my Goddess," John's eyes widened as he finally saw what was inside the VI node. "Edi, get those doors open! Now! I need a medical team in here!"

David Archer hung from what looked like a metal X. His arms and legs spread. Some sort of metal collar, or clamp was...stapled? To his chest. The top of the collar held David's head up, so that the long wires could hold his eyes wide open. Long black tubes snaked around the man and then into his mouth, to purposes unknown.

"They are on their way Shepard."

Mordin Solus

"I've memorized – eidetic – all my patients' anamnesises.

I've written papers, scores and scores, and that's not counting thesises!

I'll toxify my enemies with nary an apology

Then spend my weekends brushing up on elcor enzymology!" The tenor sang.

"He spends his weekends brushing up on elcor enzymology!

He spends his weekends brushing up on elcor enzymology!

He spends his weekends brushing up on elcor enzymolomology!" The soprano answered.

Quarian Lexicon

Si'ratte: Slang term for a quarian's rear. Used the like humans use butt.

Spri'tio: A refrigerant used in the core of some of the older quarian ships. Used like 'getting hit with a bucket of cold water'.

Akee: Quarian expression of mental and/or emotional pain. Like saying 'Ow' but for one's feeling or thoughts. Ie: expression of extreme embarrassment

AN: My beta reader is out for a bit, so more grammar and spelling may slip through. Feel free to point it out and I'll fix it.