Wolf in Shepard's Clothing 2

by cmitts93

After losing some of the people dearest to me and cheating death so many times I've lost track, I've finally found a bit of peace working as a bounty hunter on the Citadel. However, when the man who inspired me to become what I am today asked me to jump back into the fire by his side, how could I possibly say no?

26. When the Pincer Hits the Bone

"Sure would be nice to have more people right about now!"

I side-stepped a claw aimed at my chest and took advantage of the opening the rachni soldier left, firing three shots from my suppressed pistol into it before finishing the job with a palm crush that left green blood sizzling against the cold white snow on the ground.

We had reached the roof via elevator without incident. All was seemingly well, at least besides the warnings my armor's VI was giving me about the rapidly dropping temperature potentially causing malfunction. Naturally, at that point our tech expert, Tali'Zorah nar Rayya went to work on…doing whatever it is that she does. As if they could sense that our already divided force was down one more person, the persistent fucks took that opportunity to strike. They were like that horror movie villain that no matter how many times you blast him with a fucking shotgun, somehow they keep coming. And it was tiring as all hell.

Although the initial fear of the unknown was starting to wear off, that didn't change the fact I wasn't too keen on getting acid on my nice new armor. Or a pincer through the middle of it for that matter.

Shepard chimed in. "I would have thought this would be right up your alley Wolf. You said something about being better solo or in pairs when it comes to fighting. Don't tell me after all that complaining back in Port Hanshan that the Butcher is tired of combat already?"

"Nathan…" A rising panic level came in over the comms from our currently very occupied engineer.

I didn't even crane my neck to see the situation with her, instead opting to spin on my heel and charge to her location. That was when I saw the corrosive liquid coming right at her way. "Bio-cade incoming!" Both hands jutted out and the noxious green ooze splashed against the wall I had created. In a split-second, an idea crossed my mind and I started to twist my hands, warping the shape in front of me.

"Nate what are you doing?" The young woman's bright eyes shone through her visor, emanating uncertainty at my actions.

"Just trust me on this." Finally, I turned my barricade inside-out and my plan was ready to put into action. "When have I ever done something reckless?"

The deafening silence was the only response I needed, but I didn't let that deter me. My biotics had formed an almost spherical hollow ball, purple biotics shining on the outside reflecting the glow of the lethal green toxins inside it.

With a scream of final effort, I hurled the ball and its contents back at the original owner. As the orb reached its destination, I let it dissipate and my exhale of exhaustion was only drowned out by the rachni fighter wailing as its own weapon was turned against it.

Now that she was free to operate again, I returned to Shepard. "God I wish I had gotten that on video. Would have been one to add to my highlight reel." I looked skyward even though I couldn't see the Normandy from here. "Joker, if you hear me right now then record that shit and save it. Wanna see that on Badass Weekly or something."

"You have a highlight reel?"

I cocked my head at Shepard's query. "Are you saying you don't?"

The tier six Adept had tucked all his weapons onto his belt in my absence, and was now positively ablaze with biotic fury. I could almost feel his fists crackling with energy as he picked up one rachni and with a sweeping gesture flung it into another, sending both off the roof and down into the icy depths below.

His grin, laced with audacity as if he was enjoying the chance to go full-bore against a seemingly innumerable foe, could be easily perceived through the see-through front of his helmet. I forget sometimes about just how terrifying he is when he really cuts loose. It's kinda like me most of the time, I just lack the decency or ability to give a shit to cover up my more violent tendencies. Which when it comes down to it, makes seeing Shepard's switch get flipped infinitely more intimidating than I could ever hope to be. Even though I definitely try my hardest whenever the need to make someone shit themselves pops up.

"Take care of the small ones and leave the big guys to me."

In response, I just pulled out my Lancer and started to take the crawlers out in short bursts causing them to fall apart with each trigger pulled. "You just hog all the fun, you know that Shep?"

"Considering I bought you at least a good fifteen minutes away from my sister's wrath, I think I've earned this."

As I watched out of the corner of my eye, he held up a fist and a biotic chain tethered itself to the closest rachni. Oh shit…I recognize this from back on Therum. When he did that to a krogan it didn't end well for the bastard. For either side actually now that I think about it, Shep seemed about to keel over afterward which wouldn't be great for our current situation.

"While that is a fair point, do you think using your terror thing right now is really the smartest-"

That was all I could get out before he ripped apart the creature using the link he had created with a reave-like technique. After that I could only watch as he pushed a warp through the bond he had created and wreaked havoc on the rachni's internals with rapidly shifting mass effect fields that tore it apart from the inside. It was really a sight to behold.

"Shep you alright?" I ran over to the man's side, still pelting the oncoming horde with numerous projectiles launched from my rifle. To my great surprise though, he still stood stock upright. "Oh, I guess you didn't really need my help after all…"

He just laughed me off, still dominating the field of battle like some biotic god, hellbent on destroying all before him. "Chelsea might be furious that I'm taking stims again but with everything that's going on I figured I could use the boost. Looks like I was right."

"Gonna be one hell of a crash afterwards."

"Eh." He shrugged it off while simultaneously pulling two rachni towards his clenched fist and then hurling them into another rachni warrior. "As long as we pull this mission off successfully I couldn't care less."

"Anything for the mission, huh?" I muttered more to myself than him. "Tali, how's that repair coming along?"

"Almost done. At least as long as you keep these bosh'tets off me, and I don't have to answer any more questions."

"So much sass….you'd think someone who just had their life saved would be a bit more thankful."

I fired four bursts from my N7 Piranha that shredded a rachni into a pile of sizzling goo only to be interrupted by a panicked shout from Tali. "Nathan!"

It took a half-second to register that she was not in fact complaining about my firing back but instead was warning about something. I didn't have the time to do anything other than throw myself to the ground and hope that my movement would be enough. When a searing pain ripped through my side, an involuntary scream of pain rattled my vocal chords. "Fucking hell I'm hit!"

From my position on the ground, I could see the culprit. One of the fucking monsters had crept around the side and decided putting its pincer-like claw through my chest was the best course of action. Thankfully, Tali had apparently been keeping an eye on us while she worked as instead of going straight through my torso, its blow glanced against my ribcage. I could already feel my built-in VI go into overtime to distribute the medi-gel to the affected spot and thanks to the combination of that and the stims I was riding high in, I was able to get to my feet.

"This is brand new you piece of shit."

It spit acid at my words and generating a barrier around my hand, I deflected the stream away from myself, taking care that neither the commander or Tali would be hit. With the mounting pain came rage and throwing caution to the wind as blood poured down the side of my armor, I closed the gap with a charge. It attempted to impale me immediately but I flipped my shotgun around, using it like a baseball bat to knock away the potentially lethal implements. Flipping the weapon around the right way, I fired over and over into the hard outer shell that protected it. When my weapon overheated, I tossed it to the ground and tossed a warp with my right hand that burned through its shell before using my other hand to blast a heavily-concentrated palm crush into the area I had just opened.

The sudden burst of activity brought me to a knee and for the first time, I studied the wound. With my enemy now dead and a second to breathe, the onslaught of pain made me inhale sharply. Thank god for the fact that my bloodstream was full of painkillers and whatever stims were made of because the sight wasn't pretty. There was a gash the size of an open palm marring the right side of my chest piece and through the gore and flesh, I could see a speckle of white. God I did not need to my ribcage like this.

"Wolf is down we need to move!" Caleb had regrouped with me and was slathering my open side in more medi-gel while firing with his pistol with the other. "Tali?"

"One second and…" A loud beeping came from the device and instantly she was back on her feet, shotgun in hand. "We're good, let's get out of here."

I jammed my open palm against my side, breathing heavily at the fresh wave of pain that somehow crested higher than the last one. I'm not sure I'm going to be able to stay conscious.

As if he was reading my thoughts, the commander pulled me to my feet and tossed my arm over his shoulder. With my free hand, I pulled my pistol off my hip and fired at a few of the tiny rachni that were still swarming us. "Wolfert look at me!" I shook my head from side to side to clear the fog and looked at the man. "We need to get to the elevator and get away from these things, once we get back down with the rest of the team we can regroup and make sure you're not going to die from blood loss."

The word, "die," registered in my brain as a bad thing for some reason but the actual meaning went over my head. As the three of us shambled our way to the way back to safety, I fought through the haze of drugs and pain, still firing my weapon. Thank God for combat programs because my vision was not to be trusted at this point. My targeting software however was still working just fine.

"Almost there Nate, hold it together." The quarian engineer took a moment to spray an icy blast from her omni-tool that froze a rachni soldier in an instant.

My mind told me to do something but it was like being underwater and not knowing which way was up. "I should…shatter it?" I tried to focus as much as I could on generating a warp into my hand. It felt like it took a lot longer than usual but in this state I honestly couldn't say for sure, but eventually I managed to muster a weak orb and toss it at the ice-covered creature. Even though it wasn't up to my usual standards, it still managed to break it to pieces and clear the way for our escape.

The three of us piled into the elevator, Lieutenant Commander Shepard hurriedly putting me into a sitting position against the back wall before returning to the front-line with Tali. "I got it." Was all I managed to slur out before erecting a Bio-Cade in front of the entrance to our avenue of escape.

"Tali, keep him awake!"

Even though I had put up a wall, the doors were slow to close and while the girl on her Pilgrimage came over to help, he still stood there just waiting to make sure there would not be a last minute ambush. The rachni ran forward in a last-minute literal push, hissing and wailing as they beat against the last reserves of my energy in the form of the biotic barricade I had erected.

"Shep…can't." Was all I managed to croak out as my arms convulsed from the strain.

"Drop the shield Wolf. I only need to buy us a few seconds for this door to close." With a sigh of relief, my arms slumped to my side and I just lay there reclining against the wall, dead to the world for all intents and purposes.

On the plus side, as Tali attended to the slash on the side of my chest, I had a first row seat to the fireworks show. Shepard started it off by sweeping his open palm just inches from the ground, a pulsating shockwave following in tow and tossing rachni in all directions as it flew out from the mouth of the lift. Just as quickly though, more enemies filled the gap and he tossed a singularity into their center, just letting it hang there to suck more bugs into its gravitational pull. His right arm flared out followed by his left and orbs of pulsating blue light struck the oncoming horde, tossing them into the still swirling singularity. The last thing I saw as the door finally closed and that damn roof disappeared from sight was the resulting biotic detonation and the commander slumping against the wall for a split-second.

Just as quickly though, he shook his head fiercely and stood ramrod-stiff. "Wolf you alright?"

He now had rejoined Tali at my side, no outward sign of the strain on him. "He's lost a lot of blood but it appears the medi-gel's done its job." I just nodded in thanks, not really feeling up to doing much of anything at the moment. The mixture of shock, stims and painkillers was easing the pain somewhat but it was all I could do just to stay sitting upright and not screaming. "This undersuit of his somehow appears to be stitching itself closed as well so if I spread some omni-gel across the spot of the piercing, he should be protected from the extreme temperature."

Ah yes, the wonders of Cerberus tech. I had almost forgotten that in addition to enhancing your natural musculature, the bug-looking undersuit they had given me was self-repairing. Not that I could ever admit who I had gotten this from.

"Trade secret." Was all I managed to mumble out.

"Wolf." The commander shook his head before getting up and pacing the tiny box we were trapped in as we descended. Occasionally, a rachni yell could be heard but it didn't appear they had any way of getting in the elevator itself. Hooray for small miracles. "I hate to do this but you're going to have to come with. Don't even think about pulling some, 'you guys go on without me bullshit,' because it's not happening."

I smiled weakly. "I was actually going to say if you guys try to leave me I'll steal the Mako and abandon you all here." My own joke made me laugh and I instantly regretted it as the wound felt like someone had just stabbed it. "Fuckin' A...that hurts like a bitch. Not sure how much mobility I'll have in a fight like this but with the rachni, going close quarters isn't great anyway."

"That's what I was thinking." His toe tapped incessantly. "I'll switch the formation up so you'll be in the center. No offense but I don't want us depending on you in any way right now. Any help you can provide will be a bonus."

"I'm hurt bad Shep." I deftly opened a compartment on his armor and flooded my system with another stim, the adrenaline kicking in almost immediately. "But I ain't dead just yet. Takes more than a little stab wound to keep an N7 down."

"'Ain't,' isn't a word you oversized thug." It wasn't the best insult but I could appreciate Shep trying to communicate on my level as he pulled me back to my feet. "Just do what you can and if it gets to be too much," he hesitated, "we'll figure something out. The good news is, thanks to Tali I don't think anything pierced your ribcage."

"Yeah thanks Tali." I rubbed the top of her head before she swatted it away. "I owe you big time for that one. Although…I do wonder why you were watching me instead of trying to hack that thing."

"The only thing stopping me from hitting you right now is that you'd probably bleed on me." She tersely fired back as I had to rein in the laughter to protect my side. "If I had known what I would have to put up with I would have just let that rachni sneak up on you without saying anything."

"That's cold. But I know you'd miss me too much so it takes away most of the sting."

She just gave a dismissive, "hmph," of annoyance before storming through the finally open doors in front of us. Shepard grabbed my arm on the non-wounded side, about to throw it over his shoulder when I stopped him. "It's all good Shep. You just do your thing and don't worry about me. I know you've got enough on your plate as is."

"Worrying about the team is part of my job so suck it up and let somebody else help you for once."

I stood still for a moment in stubborn defiance before sighing and relenting. "Fine. Have it your way."

"I will." A little smirk peeked out of his clear faceplate. "One of the perks of being in charge."

Thankfully, no rachni swarm greeted us as we returned to the room that held the VI core. Instead it was just the trio of Chelsea, Wrex and Liara who looked like they had gone through quite the fight themselves. Liara's shoulder pauldron appeared to sport a new scorch mark, one of Wrex's hands was bleeding profusely and Chelsea was unhurt but sweating heavily.

"Status report." Going into professional mode, Caleb nodded towards his sister.

"There's still some geth hanging around that managed to fight off the rachni apparently. Had to fight a Prime and a few Destroyers in addition to the regular shit so they seem to be holing up in defensible pockets. They're smart for buckets of bolts." The older of the twins nodded towards Liara. "Couple of geth tag-teamed Liara, one hacked her shields down and then they just caught her with a modded incinerate. Armor took the brunt of it thankfully though." She slapped Liara on the shoulder and the poor girl winced at the unexpected contact. "Which means Wolf survives to live another minute as his store's armor isn't complete ass apparently."

"Jack's Armory sells only the best." I wheezed out.

"Rest of us are fine, which is more than I can apparently say for our resident Butcher." The N7 stepped across the room and started to examine me closely, a slight sense of worry betraying the seeming lack of care in her words. "Fuck happened to you? Don't tell me you went and got yourself killed just to win that argument we had back at Port Hanshan?"

"Ha-ha-ha. I would laugh at the joke but…it hurts too much." She grabbed me by the chin without warning and stared at me intently. Even though the Recon Hood completely hid my facial expression, I couldn't help but avert my eyes from the stare as I clung to Caleb's side. "Yes Shepard?"

"I meant what I said about keeping everybody alive so if you pull some stupid shit and die on me I will beat you to death with your own skull."

"That doesn't seem physically possible."

A wicked grin crossed her face and she stole me from her fraternal twin's side, hitching me to hers. "It's never stopped me before. Now come on you big pansy, you're gonna help me provide whatever support you can from the front lines. Between me and the walking tank it's the safest spot for you."

"I was going to change the formation a bit and stick him in the-"

She whirled and faced her co-commanding officer, fixing him with a withering glare. "Usually I default to you since this is your lead but I'm putting my foot down on this one. Wolf stays up here with me and Wrex where I can keep a very close eye on him."

"You know." I shuffled my way over to the tram, still held partially aloft with the aid of the commander herself. "Usually when people say they're keeping an eye on me it's reassuring. In this case though…it's basically the opposite."

"Are you doubting Wrex's combat abilities?"

She raised an eyebrow and the krogan whirled to face me. "Of course not, Wrex is Wrex. I'd take having the big guy on the front lines with me any day of the week."

"Oh so you're doubting me then?"

As much as it pained me, I tried to be a voice of reason. "How about we stop before we start arguing and are at each other's throats again?"

Chelsea nodded to Caleb and with a lurch, the next elevator in our never-ending procession of the fucking things took us skyward. "Yeah that sounds like a good idea." Chelsea smirked. "Your side's already been cut open, I would hate for your mouth to get hurt too from the foot you have permanently lodged in there."

I muttered just loud enough to be heard. "Trust me, if my side didn't hurt so fucking much it'd be somewhere else right now." Liara cocked her head to the side and I decided to become the idiom translator of the day. "It's a human phrase that basically refers to sticking it in there so you can't say any more stupid shit."

"Oh I understand." She mused. "So the foot refers to a theoretical blocking of the mouth, hindering the subject's ability to speak then. Human culture has so many interesting expressions, I find it quite fascinating how many various colloquialisms you have. It is almost as if there is one for any situation you find yourself in."

Chelsea meanwhile had been inspecting my side. "Damn, that undersuit Daxy whipped up for you really is something. I almost wouldn't have believed my eyes if the outside of your armor wasn't caked in your own blood. It really is self-repairing…I thought there was some trick to the thing but you weren't shitting me."

"I'll make sure to let him know you're impressed but no, you still can't get one. Sorry."

"Had to try. What if I pick you up and drop you on your side? Would that do it?"

"I've gone through interrogation training at N school, I highly doubt that's going to work. Plus, you've already got one warp burn today. Let's not add to it." We were making our way through more tight hallways, the map almost unnecessary as we were now being herded on a direct line to the trams that would finally take us to our destination. "Besides, I doubt you could pick me up anyway."

"Wrex'll do it for m-…shit. That's not ominous at all."

Out mutual threatening was interrupted as we had come upon a sort of large class cylinder, about the same size as the hallway we had occupied that appeared to be broken out of from the inside judging from the glass covering the observation room floor next to it. A quick but thorough investigation revealed an audio log that didn't appear to have been recorded too long before the initial break-out.

"We didn't realize-"

Static cut the message into fragmented sentences that cut out the most important parts. As was protocol for this type of thing. "Just once I'd like to come across a scientist who leaves a doomsday log that's not either broken up or filled with unintelligible screaming. Just once."

"Shut up Wolf, we're trying to listen here!"

I sighed but gave in to my female boss' request, just shaking my head as the log of failure and death kept going. "Much more intelligent than…if Queen's unable to control…can't live with myself…unleashed on the galaxy...still suspect someone…"

Craning my neck, I noticed a dead scientist with a couple puncture wounds going straight through his torso. Two credits says this is the poor unlucky bastard who made the log. "Hey, found the guy. Checking his corpse for anything valuable." I thought for a moment about my reputation and decided to make an addendum to that statement. "As far as info goes I mean. I haven't stooped low enough to need to pick a dead guy's pockets quite yet."

"Roger that Wolf." Shepard gave a cursory glance my way and nodded. "Have Wrex watch your back and keep us updated."

"Thanks, I'd like to keep at least one side of me fully intact Shep."

Taking a few steps towards the corner of the room and checking for vents just to have an idea where I'd need to respond if a threat did appear, I gingerly crouched low over the cadaver. "Pretty safe to say he was probably one of the first if that cage was holding some live specimens."

As I spoke to no one in particular, I activated my omni-tool and subtly ran the Cerberus hacking module in the background of my device. Since I didn't have much time, I set it to brute force its way through whatever security the scientist's own hardware would have, rip it out and then clear everything else. It had all the subtlety of an explosives ordinance squad kicking down a door and then setting up an explosive to take down a target but considering the circumstances I didn't really have to worry about someone doing any kind of reverse search to try and determine just who did it. Plus, time was kind of crucial at this point and I didn't have enough of it to do something more subtle.

"Pyjak had it coming if he was playing around with stuff like this." Wrex sniffed unmercifully. "It took the krogan to stop these animals last time and that was before the bastards sterilized us. A rachni outbreak at the same time as a geth invasion would be a disaster."

"Let's just hope there's not too many." I rolled over the body so the man was now face-down and cursed loudly. While what had probably been a pristine white lab coat was now marred with blood and disfigured to the point it was mere tatters now, through the claw wounds, three small circular wounds that I recognized all too well were there as well. "Bullet holes. Considering I don't think anyone would take the time to plug a random scientist after he'd been ripped apart by rachni, I'm guessing the puncture wounds were post-mortem."

"Unless someone just really hated his guts. There's a few people I wouldn't hesitate to give a final shotgun blast to after they were dead."

"Surprisingly, I actually share that little sentiment." I shook my head and tried to fight the grin even though it wouldn't show thanks to the Recon Hood. My earpiece dinged quietly to let me know the hacking software had done its job and with it, I gingerly got back to my feet, trying my best to avoid putting unnecessary pressure on my wounded side. Still didn't stop me from inhaling sharply as a stab of pain shot through my body as I stood all the way up. "Guy's omni-tool was wiped too." Of course, that technically wasn't a lie. I'd just leave out that I did it. "Paints an even more interesting picture of what was going on here."

"Heh. And people say places like Omega are terrifying. At least there you know everyone you meet will stab you in the back the minute you turn around. Rather have that than these corporate snakes who smile at you before they do it." He cradled his Claymore shotgun across his arms and tilted his head back, letting his advanced krogan senses go to work. "Don't smell any rachni nearby. The stench of death isn't as heavy here either so I can finally take advantage of my senses."

"Well I'm done here. Guess we can rejoin the team."

The four of them were still huddled around the display, Tali's three-fingered hands frantically manipulating the computer's holographic display. It was funny seeing the body language of the other three now that there was nothing going on. Liara appeared to be calm but at every noise, real or imagined, I could see her helmet subtly scanning this way and that. Not that I could blame her to be honest, the whole situation was a bit much even for me and she didn't have anywhere near the amount of combat experience I did. The commander was rigidly upright, not showing one sign of weakness or movement even in this moment of relative peace. Guess he'd gone back into, "mission mode," in this short timeframe. And Chelsea…was just Chelsea. Her entire essence just radiated, "don't fuck with me," and God help the person who does.

"Find anything cool on the dead guy?" And that would be my female CO.

"Depends on your definition of, 'cool,' but his omni-tool was completely wiped." The Shepards gave a collective, "huh," of interest in the statement so I continued. "Also, while he was definitely brutalized by the rachni. He had three bullet holes in his chest. Considering the size and placement I'd guess pistol but don't quote me on that. Not sure what exactly what any of that tells you but it definitely says something."

"It tells me we can talk as we take the tram." Tali interrupted. "From what checking I could do from here, it seems to still be functioning and I'd rather not get ambushed in this close of quarters."

Liara broke her silence. "I agree with Miss Zorah. The longer we take, the more chance the rachni have of running totally unchecked across this facility."

"Bah. Bring 'em on." Count on Wrex for wanting a good-old fashioned brawl.

"Let's move team." Chelsea took lead and I resumed my designated injury position smack dab in the front line, right next to her. Apparently she still counted on herself more than anybody else to keep me in the land of the living. "Trams should be around the corner if that map Wolf mysteriously got is still accurate."

"So you said he was shot?"

We had reached the railway without further incident and were now speeding along the never-ending tunnel. The short period of rest was actually doing the opposite of what it was meant to however, as with the din and chaos of combat gone nothing could distract me from the immense pain in my side that no combination of painkillers and stims could completely dull.

"Yeah. Three times if you wanna be exact commander." I winced as I tried my best to patch the hole in my armor with omni-gel. The self-repairing undersuit had reformed miraculously thanks to Cerberus schizo tech but the chest piece I had received them…not so much. "My running theory is someone orchestrated this breakout, but I'm still working out the why. That log the scientist made showed evidence they were extremely concerned about the ability to tame the rachni, but he made no mention of a breakout just yet. If he was killed before this shitshow went down then a mole or multiple moles could have been manipulating things from the inside, making sure that everything went tits up when the time was right." Coming out of my musing, I realized everyone was staring so I resorted to my natural defense mechanism and scratched the top of my Recon Hood as I chuckled sheepishly. "Of course, I'm no detective though. If Vakarian were here I'm sure he'd be able to put the puzzle pieces together much more easily and accurately."

"Right."

Liara added her two cents as Chelsea just gave me a skeptical look following her comment. "That does make logical sense as a chain of events. Although the reasoning behind it confuses me as well…I just wonder what part my m- Benezia has to play in all this."

Damn that's rough. Compartmentalizing what we do on a daily basis is already tough enough and none of us have had to go up against our own flesh and blood. "I agree but the why doesn't matter right now, that's for the higher-ups to work out after we fix things. What we need to concern ourselves with right now is stopping the matriarch and corralling the rachni."

"Which comes first?" Wrex rumbled, cocking his head from the relaxed position he had assumed. Lucky bastard and his fucking natural regenerative abilities. Sitting and having that pressure on my side was too much so I was now in the process of laying out on the floor of the moving vehicle, just staring at the ceiling.

The commander didn't hesitate for a second. "Our primary objective is still Matriarch Benezia but making sure the rachni are not able to leave this facility comes in at a very close second place. Understood?"

All five of us nodded in agreement as the ride came to an end. "Same formation bossman?"

He looked over to his sister who tersely nodded. "You're still up front with me tough guy." She motioned to punch me in the side and I cringed accordingly which got a chuckle from her. "And by the way, I order you as your superior officer to not charge in when we get into combat."

"I'm not that hurt Chelsea, I mean sure I've got a little bit of a cut in my side but-"

She raised her hand again and when I sidestepped away, the commander just nodded. "Exactly. You're staying glued to my hip and providing only bio-support and cover fire so I can shoot stuff easier. Got it, Wolf?"

"Understood." As an attempt to keep myself from thinking about the pain, I tried to make a joke. "I am one-hundred and ten percent for sticking to your hips."

An almost inhuman growl came from somewhere behind me and I decided to stare straight ahead and not look anywhere else. "How about rephrasing that last sentence slightly Contractor Wolfert?"

"No time for that!" Chelsea broke out into a jog as the unmistakable sounds of gunfire could be heard echoing through the hallways. "I think it's through here!"

All six of us weaved our way through the halls, scanning three-hundred and sixty degrees the entire time just to make sure that we weren't going to be the next ones to be shot at. Or stabbed by giant rachni pincers. Once is enough for a lifetime.

The familiar screams of hissing rachni started to interlace its unmistakable sound into the heavy thuds of weapons fire. "Shore up the left side, Klaus is down! Repeat, Klaus is down!"

Chelsea held a single hand up in the classic, "stop," position. They were just on the other side of this door now if the increasingly deafening noise was any indication. Still though, with no way to tell just who was on the other side we could be walking into a potential three-way fight between ourselves, the rachni and Benezia's forces. Hell, the Binary Helix security members could even be wanting us dead as well, if any of them had survived the rachni onslaught that is.

"Move in now. If it's got two legs, don't fire at it unless ordered otherwise." The commander spoke in hushed tones over the comms channel and taking a deep breath, I followed Chelsea in, pistol at the ready.

I had no time to even take in the scene in front of me, although it was easily recognizable as we had just been in the same situation multiple times already. As I started to blast away at the green monsters, I watched the soldiers opposite us in bone-white armor, most of them stained with a combination of red and blue blood from both human and other species alike.

Now that we had them in an effective crossfire, the dozen or so rachni started to fall in short order. As they did, our leader started to yell out over the din of battle, the speakers on his helmet helping to establish his presence. "I'm Commander Shepard, a Council Spectre. We clean up these things and then talk afterward."

"Agreed!" A large human man with a closely-shaved head, almost to the point of baldness answered back.

I tossed a lift orb that caught a couple of the smaller rachni in its wake, sending them skyward. Instantly, my chest racked again with pain and it was all I could do to not keel over instantly.

Chelsea was actually the first to notice my struggle. From her position beside me, she tore a rachni apart with concentrated machine gun fire and then tossed a grenade into another group that had clustered together. "Grenade out!" In the momentary lapse she had bought, the Survivor of Akuze grabbed my arm and put it around her shoulder. "We've got this fight handled tough guy. Don't go getting yourself killed in a situation we've actually got under control."

"Relax, I'm fine alright."

I scoffed and tried to generate a warp but the stabbing stopped me short. Instead of admitting defeat though, I tracked a rachni skittering towards the group opposite us and started firing with my M11. Each shot jerked my hand more than I would have liked, but it was nothing compared to the total body workout that was a biotic attack. Thankfully, I was still able to focus enough to peg the rachni once and then a second time before it could attack anyone.

It gave a hissing screech as Chelsea spoke in a smug voice. "Finally taking my advice I see."

"Nah, I've just got a grenade launcher now and am waiting for the perfect opportunity to blow shit up."

Whipping my arm to the right, I acquired a new target and smoothly depressed the trigger, firing in controlled, even shots. Seemingly enraged by my daring to attack it, the monster came our way now. "Chels." I spoke calmly despite the chaos. It raised a claw to strike and I plugged it right in the upraised appendage, knocking it back to the ground. "Little help here."

"Jeez, take away your biotics and what good are you?" She pulled an N7 Eagle from each hip and left me hanging in mid-air. As quick as she had spoken, a stream of bullets flew from each machine pistol, visibly marking the encroaching enemy with each strike. Against the onslaught from the first human Spectre, well tied for first I guess, it could only stand for so long before it was too much.

"Eh you know, about this good." Deciding it was finally time, I snatched the M-100 from my back and fired a frag round into a cluster of rachni, sending them sideways in the blast. Shit, I'm only down to a single frag, incendiary and EMP now. Gotta make each one count.

I spun to the left and right but the only enemy left had just received a shotgun butt to the head from Wrex. With a meaty thump, it crashed to the ground before two booming blasts ended its existence. "Heh. Hundreds of years later and you still need a krogan around to clean up rachni. Guess some things never change huh Shepard?"

The man just nodded tersely. All the rachni were now gone but that didn't mean the hostilities were at an end. Chelsea rejoined me, tenderly maneuvering me to a position she could help again despite my insistence that I was fine. An armored boot striking my own put an end to any other complaints I had and with that settled, I opted to join my commander in raising my weapon towards the force opposite us.

Silence reigned for a few seconds as both sides simply pointed weapons at each other before Caleb broke the silence with a stern voice. "As I said before, my name is Caleb Shepard. I'm a Council-appointed Spectre and this is my team. We need to speak with Matriarch Benezia immediately, it's a matter of galactic security."

The closely-shaven man paused for a moment more before sighing loudly as he raised his rifle skyward, resting it against his shoulder. "We already have enough enemies on this station without getting on a Spectre's bad side too. Weapons down men." His troops did just that and with the threat seemingly gone, he nodded for us to follow him, leaving his men behind as guards. "Right through here's where you wanna go."

"My name's Ventralis. I'm what goes for a captain around here, the first strike caught us unprepared and a lot of our upper management were wiped out." He led us around the hallway and pointed towards a large room that from the mishmash of people gathered seemed to be a central gathering spot for those displaced by the rachni horde. "I've been running a skeleton crew of stimmed-up soldiers just to keep those damn things at bay. Thankfully that door's the only place they can come in so we've got them funneled into a kill-zone but eventually the sheer numbers will be too much. There's always a breaking point."

"You've been doing a hell of a job protecting these civilians." Shepard nodded firmly. "For being forced into such a crucial role, your performance has been admirable."

"Well thanks." He scratched the top of his head caught off guard from the compliment, and looked away suddenly. "I'd uh, better get back to my men. Who knows when those animals will try sticking their nose in here again. We'll need to be ready to slam the door shut at a moment's notice."

He gave an informal salute that the commander returned and as he left our team alone, the commander strode up to the front lines. "Keep your eyes peeled." His kindly professionalism was gone, replaced by an observing eye that critically scanned the room in front of us. "Don't trust anyone here and make sure someone's watching your back at all times. Saren is a fairly big player for Binary Helix which means he could have agents everywhere and anywhere. Be on your guard."

"Roger that bossman."

With that sobering thought firmly in mind, I waddled in beside the commander's sister who was still not letting me out of her grasp. "I don't know if we can effectively cover each other if you're holding me like this…just throwing that out there."

"Shut up, keep moving and watch everyone."

"In that order?" Her head jerked my way and one evil eye could be seen through her visor. Exasperated, I gave a sarcastic salute with my free hand. "Roger that bosslady. Less talking, more watching your ass."

"Wolf what did you just say?" Caleb yelled over the comm.

A/N: Hey, sorry about the long absence guys. Got swamped by Finals and then headed out to California for a much-needed vacation but I'm finally back to my normal schedule so the every other week postings will return going forward. Hope you all are enjoying your summer so far!

Thanks once again goes to Ranger Station Charlie for his continued beta services. Also, keep an eye out soon because there'll be a large chunk (probably about half a chapter's worth) that he actually wrote with me taking a turn being the beta/editor which was actually a lot of fun.

Review answering portion:

Dekuton: Yeah with everything else Joker does, him keeping tabs on helmet cams and audio feeds didn't seem out of character and it just worked really well for that bit so I ran with it. Glad you enjoyed it!

Coduss: Wolf's never really gotten involved with a non-human beyond casual flirting/teasing so anything less than a punch in the face is going to be missed…at least at the beginning ;)

TIP: Thanks! I wanted to go with a more suspenseful route and hopefully it landed. And yeah, Chelsea's been kind of explored already with some of her faults but M!Shep's going to be much more of a slow burn so keep watch for little hints here and there like the stims thing.

Jim: Thanks for the compliment!

Tartarus208: Hahaha, I'm not quite vain enough to think this story has been seen by anyone in the company but I definitely got a little prideful seeing something that I came up with in my own story was a good enough idea that they would come up with something similar for the actual game itself.