Hello procrastinators! (I always wanted to say that... since monday). I'm awfully glad to announce that I passed all my exams! I even passed the math exam, by sheer miracle, but I still passed! Yay for me. I'm awesome like that. Haven't studied properly for 3 years... still pass the exams. Aye, that's me.

Now, I have to note that this is the longest chapter I wrote so far! Another yay for me. I also have to admit that according to my erratically chaotic updating schedule, I would've finished this chapter during the last weekend, but due to some unexpected issues, like having to format my pc, several diploma exam meetings and stuff, I did it only now. Not to mention that at first I planned to split this chapter in half but then decided that this arc has gone on long enough and a longer chapter will be a nice way of saying thank you.

So yeah, here is the newest chapter, enjoy it!


"Oh, come on! Would you stop complaining?" I finally snap at Garrus. "It's just a single, short job. The mercs are a much bigger threat anyway. Just imagine what they could do if we leave them alone!" Not to mention that he's going to be slaughtering them by the dozens somewhere around next year, but that's a different story. As Joker said, he still has that stick up his ass.

"Sure, I can understand that, but you're forgetting I'm a cop. I've probably arrested some of them once, or at least tried to. What's stopping them from getting even?" Garrus shoots back. I look at him as if he's stupid and point at Shepard, who looks more amused than concerned about the situation. Garrus rolls his eyes, rather dramatically at that. "There are just three of us and a warehouse full of people who would want me dead," he points out. I keep pointing at Shepard.

"I'm flattered that you think so highly of me, I really do, but I doubt I can handle a full warehouse," she says with a small smile. I turn to look at her, and keep pointing at her. This gets her to chuckle goodheartedly. "Let's just settle on hoping it won't come to testing your faith in me."

I chuckle at that too. I'm not really sure, but I guess that Shepard actually can handle a whole warehouse of mercs. In the Arrival DLC of the second she did... well, she will tear through a freaking base full of trained soldiers. Considering that most of the people in the warehouse, as far as I know at least, are just self-trained people, Shepard might have a chance!

So now we're approaching the warehouse after we took a skycar. We could've flown straight to the warehouse but I decided against it. What if they had sentries or something? Getting shot down from the sky would definitely suck. I'm not as scared of those things anymore, but I still have the worry that the thing might crash into a wall and kill everyone.

I have to admit that immensely enjoyed the looks on the C-Sec officer's face when our fully armed group passed through his checkpoint. Shepard just had to say the word 'Spectre' and they didn't even bother to stop us or ask why we brought so many weapons with us. I'm not surprised that Shepard had a very smug look on her face. I bet I had the same look on my face as well.

Garrus is still complaining and I'm pretty sure that if it could be physically possible – Garrus lacked lips – he would be pouting. While he did make some valid points, he was just being paranoid. I trust Jorrun and I'm sure he won't let anyone shoot Garrus or Shepard.

"Well... here we are," I say as we turn around the corner and the warehouse comes into view. It looks exactly the same, which included the usually feeling of solitude around the building. It was quiet and I couldn't see anyone around. For a second I think that I somehow got the wrong place but then I figure that everyone's probably inside. Placing sentries is kinda counterproductive. If there are sentries around a building, it must mean there's something worth guarding inside. We approach the door and I move over to the lock. "Okay... let's see if I still remember this..."

I place my helmet under my left armpit and punch in the password and the lock chimes pleasantly and the door slides open for us. I give them a glance before I lead them through the short corridor and into the warehouse. The door in the end of the corridor is unlocked so I just push the holographic button and enter inside.

And immediately upon doing so, I'm greeting by a very loud chorus of unfolding weapons and over twenty gun barrels pointed at me. I simply raise my hands up in panic. "Don't shoot!" I yelp in surprise.

"Easy there!" I hear a familiar voice cry over the large group in front of us. A few seconds later Jorrun breaks through the crowd to stand in front of us. "They're with us," he yells so everyone would hear him.

It takes a few seconds but soon enough everyone lowers their weapons. I try to make a quick headcount. There are around forty people in here and I don't recognize any of them so far, save for Jorrun. Speaking of Jorrun, I notice that he looks in a much better mood. Heck, he's practically glowing!

At that moment Garrus and Shepard step out from behind me into better view. I take notice that some of the people in front of us bristle nervously at their sight, but I'll bet that they're nervous about Shepard. "Shit... you weren't kidding," I hear someone say from the crowd, a human judging by the voice. "You really did get us a Spectre!" Ah, this explains why Jorrun looks so pleased and smug.

"And what a Spectre is is!" I hear another familiar voice say over the murmurs. I turn to see Johnson step out of the crowd, unsurprisingly followed by Tilben. "It's fucking Commander Shepard!" he exclaims, though there wasn't much animosity in his voice. In fact, he sounds happy and excited. "If we have her with us, this operation will be a walk in the park," he finishes with a chuckle.

Shepard looks slightly confused and surprised at that. "Uh, do I know you?" she asks awkwardly, ignoring the fact that everyone was paying attention to us.

"Nah, you probably don't remember me, but I sure as hell remember you! You save my ass back during the Skyllian Blitz!" he says with another chuckle as he walks closer to us. Wait, the Blitz? Johnson was there? "The damn pirates broke through our perimeter and took out almost everyone. I was lying on the floor, bleeding my guts out when out of nowhere, Shepard jumps out and tears through the whole freaking pirate platoon as if they were made out of soaked paper!" he barks out with a giant grin, loudly enough so everyone could hear him. "Hah, and then, after she killed every single pirate, she picks up one of the rifles and tosses it over to me, saying that if I still have my arms I should fucking use them!" he finishes and Shepard looks somewhat awkward at being put in the spotlight like this.

"You were there in the Blitz?" I find myself asking. Johnson turns to me and looks at me as if only now he noticed me.

"Yeah. I was one of the unlucky bastards stuck there on shore leave. I've got myself shot in the stomach a couple of times and went through the whole thing bleeding my fucking guts out," he says, grunting out the last part. "I retired after that. Too many damn holes in my body, as far as I'm concerned," he finishes and gives me a bright grin, extending his hand towards me. "Good to see you alive and kickin', kid."

I shake his hand with a grin of my own. "Likewise," I say. When Johnson was telling me he left after a batarian raid, I thought he meant a small, regular kind of raid, not the freaking Skyllian blitz! Damn, I'm impressed. I look at Tilben, who just looks at me impassively.

He sniffed. "Glad to see you in physical health," he greeted, giving me a nod. He wasn't really into all the handshaking business so I just return the nod, since it would be more than enough.

"Alright, that's enough for now. Follow me. We can talk there," Jorrun interrupts and pulls us away towards one of the small rooms in the warehouse. Almost everyone gives us a wide berth, opting to move the hell out of our way. I'm not sure if it's really because of Shepard, or because of Jorrun because now that I can take a better look, I see that some equally nervous glances are directed at the turian from the crowd.

And what a crowd it is. Humans, some salarians, some turians, even five krogan or so are milling about, talking with each other or checking their weapons. I could hear some music in the background, quiet enough to be able to speak normally and loud enough to still be heard above the combined voices of the group. I didn't know any of these guys, though I did spot a familiar face here and there, but I wasn't sure whether they worked for Fist or were just people I saw on the streets. I glance at my team and see that Shepard looks utterly unconcerned, actually managing to look bored, while Garrus is sending suspicious looks to here and there. I wait until we're further away from the crowd of armed people before I speak. "Hey, Joe," I ask quietly, getting a glare from him, the special one he only uses when I call him Joe. "where are all our guys?"

He snorts at that. "Dead or hiding," he replies, blunt as always. "There are about twelve of us left in total," he supplies, with an unsure shrug. "After your Commander and the Blue Suns finished with us, a lot of our guys either ran away or were already dead. Fist's 'Empire'" he used air-quotes here and gave me a pointed look, "is officially gone."

I wince at that. Something in his tone of voice tells me he partially blames me, and that look he gave me just now... "So who is in charge now?" I ask. I figure I already know the answer, but I'd like to hear it from him, since it's still possible for me to be wrong.

"Well, since I'm the one with the highest rank, technically this makes me the 'new' Fist... not that I'll use that lame name, but you get the point. Not that there's much to be in charge of. We have a single squad, maybe a few contacts left and a club in ruins," he says, somewhat bitterly.

Yep, my guess was right. "Huh, I guess that explains the looks they were giving you," I remark but to my surprise Jorrun just barks out a laugh.

"Oh, no. Before you came no one really gave a shit about who I was. Fist was never one of the most likable people around, and unfortunately that passed on to his people. For the looks I'm getting now, I have to thank Shepard," here he sends her a glance. "I told them I'm bringing a Spectre as backup, they thought I was bullshitting them. Turns out it's true and now they're shitting their pants knowing that I have a Spectre at my back and call... and I'm not going to deny a thing, no offense," he quickly added.

"None taken," Shepard replies with a nonchalant shrug and a small smirk. "Say whatever you want, and I won't confirm anything."

"Giving them the benefit of the doubt, eh?" Jorrun remarks with a small turian smirk. "Heh, I like that. Either way, most of them won't do a thing about it. Most of them will shit their pants just at the idea of fighting a Spectre," at this point we stop in front of a door, a door that belongs to one of the side-rooms. I was never in one of them, pretty much because I was no allowed inside, since according to Jorrun, there was some classified stuff in there. "Okay, no offense to any of you, but don't say a word until you're spoken to. Shepard can do whatever she wants, but you two," he points a finger at me and then at Garrus, "keep your mouths shut."

Garrus looks like he's about to disagree but I give him a pointed look and thankfully he gets it. Jorrun never actually told me or anyone to keep quiet, or anything like that. He simply didn't care about our behavior so if now he suddenly started caring about it, he sure as hell had a good reason.

He opens the door and leads us inside. It's a small room and it's pretty obvious that it wasn't used often. There were a couple of boxes in the corner, a small bookshelf with a couple of honest to god books there, real, paper books. On the other side of the room was a small table with a computer terminal but the large, round, high-tech looking table in the middle of the room looked to be a new addition. Still, my attention was instantly brought to the six men who were standing there, looking more annoyed than anything else.

It was an odd bunch, in my opinion at least. A trio of humans, a turian and a krogan. Most of them sent us an interested glance but mostly they focused on Shepard and Jorrun. "Finally, I was tired of waiting," the krogan remarks. He was a big guy, not as big as Wrex but big nontheless, with a dark brown crest.

"Yeah, I had to meet our latest addition to the team," Jorrun replies, sending a glance at Shepard.

"Commander Shepard, first human Spectre," one of the humans, the tall and slim one with sandy colored hair says with a raised eyebrow. "When Jorrun said that he got us a Spectre, I assumed he was just boasting and lying, but I'm pleasantly surprised," he says. He has a bit of a nasal tone and the way he speaks just screams 'I'm higher than thou' to me.

Shepard just gives him a nod and Jorrun decides to take the lead from here. "Alright, quick introductions. This is Albert Faust," he points at the man who just spoke. "the current head of the Tayseri ward syndicate," he then moved to the second human in the group, a bald Asian guy with an intricate and colorful tattoo all over his head, disappearing down beneath his clothes. "this is Honda, one of the top lieutenants of the Bachjret Yazuka..." he got a glare from the man. "Yakuza," Jorrun quickly corrected himself, looking immensely embarrassed, and pointed at the last human. "this is Carlo Capriotti and his krogan bodyguard, Galern, representing Don Capriotti of the Kithoi ward mafia, who decided against gracing us with his presence."

"Ey, gramps is one-hundred and ten, not exactly the proper age to run around shooting people," the man, Carlo, remarks indignantly. He looked like the Average Joe in my opinion. Black hair, pretty average face, though the only thing that made him stand apart was his fancy suit, the kind I've seen some people wear on the presidium.

"Okay, moving on," Jorrun continued, ignoring Carlo's remark. "Darin Norvan, one of the top lieutenants of the Kithoi syndicate," he points at the turian, who I notice lacks the facial tattoos I've seen on most turians. Then Jorrun turns to the people he just introduced to us and started introducing us. "This is Commander Shepard, as you already know, Garrus Vakarian and one of my lieutenants, Alex."

I give them a respectful – in my opinion – nod, trying to hide my excitement. I'm standing in front the large majority of the Citadel's crime-lords, without getting shot at and I've been just introduced as one of Jorrun's lieutenants, as in, one of the newest crime-lord's lieutenant. I'm not sure if I should actually be proud of the fact, being almost-officially announced as part of a criminal organization, but I can't deny that it sounds more than a bit awesome. Lieutenant has an awfully nice ring to it.

"Vakarian?" the turian asks suddenly. "He's C-Sec," he concludes and suddely everyone's attention is on poor Garrus, who looks like he would rather be anywhere else other than this place.

"He's with me," Shepard states with finality before anyone else could do anything about it. "He's part of my crew, so if you don't like it, we can leave," she says and looks at them through narrowed eyes. The stare back at her for several seconds before Faust gives her an acknowledging nod. As if it was a signal, everyone else quickly follows. Garrus visibly relaxes.

"Alright, we didn't come here chat. Show us what you've got," Carlo says, leaning on the round table. In response Jorrun reaches into his omni-tool and presses a few buttons. A second later, the table lights up and a holographic display of the Citadel pops up, hovering about thirty centimeters above the surface of the table. I have to say that this looks really cool in my opinion. It even slowly rotates like the real version.

"Alright, let's begin," Jorrun agrees. The display zooms in on a particular ward, the Tayseri ward if I'm not wrong, and fixated itself on a particular building on the edge of the arm. I'm not really sure, but it looks like a warehouse to me. A second later Jorrun confirms my idea. "This warehouse now belongs to the Blue Suns and it happens to be our main target. It's pretty much the Blue Suns' main base on the Citadel. The majority of their forces are in there, including all their weapons and vehicles. From what we got from scouts, they have about fifty to sixty guys in there. Going in unnoticed is going to be hard, especially when they start shooting. The place has sentries, cameras and what not. Basically, the security is tighter than a matriarch's..." he trailed off from there with an awkward cough, though I notice that some of crime-lord have a small smirk on their faces.

"Alright, if it's 'impenetrable' as you say, how do we take them out," Carlo asks, placing his hands on the table and leaning in.

A cough interrupts him and we all look at Faust. "They are expecting a weapon shipment today, in a few hours actually," he explained.

"And how does that help us?" the turian, Norvan, asks with a hint of annoyance. I don't think I'll be wrong if I'm going to assume there's no love between these two.

"The driver in charge of the shipment works for me," Faust says smugly with a large smile. "They're going to get their shipment, only instead of weapons, they're going to receive a shipment of our armed men," he states, pointing out the small hangar in the large warehouse. "We essentially bypass all their defenses and start the battle right in their midst."

The krogan chuckles at the plan. "Sounds good to me. They won't know what hit 'em," he says with a grin.

"Good," Jorrun says with a nod. "the majority of our force will attack their base, while..." he moves the display to a different location, so distance from the warehouse but still on the same ward. It's a relatively small building, by Citadel standards at least, about five stories high and a short distance from the edge of the ward. Jorrun continues once he highlighted the building. "... a small group will attack this building. For some reason, the Blue Suns use it as their command center, don't ask me why, but we know for sure that most of their officers are in there, including their Centurion."

"Hm, so we hit them at two locations and take out their main force and their leaders," Honda says thoughtfully before he nods. "sounds like a viable plan. What about C-Sec? Will they interfere?" he asks, sending a glance at Garrus.

Shepard speaks in his stead. "C-Sec don't know a thing about this. And if they do come, I'll just say that it's Spectre business. They can't do a thing about it," she says, ignoring Garrus scandalized look. "but if I'm not there, do try to avoid killing them," she added with a pointed look at the crime-lords. I think no one needs to be a genius to understand that this wasn't a request.

Jorrun clears his throat again and captures everyone's attention. "Alright, now that everyone knows the plan, we just need to distribute our forces. I'll be part of the warehouse assault and I think that I'll need Shepard there, since we'll encounter more difficulties there. Their command center has about ten men at best, so a small team should be enough there."

The krogan chuckles again. "You'd be out there, fighting with your own men?" he asks with evident amusement and gets a nod from Jorrun. "I'm starting to like you. At least more than I liked Fist. A damn coward, that's what he was. He won't be missed," the krogan says with a respectful nod. A bit odd, I have to say. Usually krogan hate turians and salarians but I guess that like humans, not everyone is exactly the same.

"Uh, thank you," Jorrun replies awkwardly, apparently not used to compliments for a krogan. "Well, since everyone knows the plan, we should explain it to our guys and... start the plan," he says, fighting to find proper words.

"That's reasonable," Faust agrees. "The Blue Suns expect the shipment sometime today, so we better not waste any time," and with that, he left the small room, probably to explain the whole thing to his forces. The others ones quickly follow him outside, leaving us in the room.

Jorrun stares at the door for a few seconds before he allows himself to sigh in relief. "That went better than I expected," he mutters.

"No kidding," Garrus says at my side. "I've been in the same room with several Citadel crime-lords and I haven't tried to arrest them and they didn't shoot me. It's amazing, as far as I'm concerned. The not shooting part, I mean."

"Well, I didn't expect them to acknowledge my crime-lord status just like that. Either bringing a Spectre helped, or I'm just that awesome," Jorrun concludes with a chuckle and looks at Shepard. "Thanks for coming by the way," he says.

"Thank him," she replies, pointing at me with her thumb. "Without him I wouldn't be here."

"Oh, in that case," he looks at me and gives me a light punch on the shoulder. "thanks mate," he says with a turian grin. "Let's go inform our guys about the plan," he says and leads us out of the room.

I catch up to walk beside him. "So how's Lucy doing?"

He shrugs. "I sent her back to Earth once this shit started," he replies. "Not safe for her."

"Really," I say, not really sure of what else I could say to that. "So did the meeting with her parents go? Since you're married now, I take it they approved."

He chuckles at that. "Her parents are quite... open minded I guess. After her father promised that I'll have a close encounter with his shotgun should I ever hurt her, we got along fine. Surprisingly, they accepted me as if I was a human. They're weird like that," he finishes with a shrug, though I can see the small smile he has on his face.

"Uh, you're married to a human?" Garrus asks with a hint of confusion.

Jorrun turns to him, surprisingly with a burning glare. "Yeah. I'm a human lover. You got a problem with it?" he demands more than asks.

Garrus raises a hand in a defensive gesture. "No. Not at all."

"Good. I already had to kill my own brother because he disagreed with my taste in women," he states with a shrug. "Just ask Alex, he can tell you everything about it."


"There's still one thing I don't get," Johnson asks as he inspects his weapon, having finished inspecting his armor. "How come you just dropped everything and joined the Commander?"

We're sitting on some crates at the back of the large truck. Tilben didn't join us for this mission, since as he said himself, his skills are unfit for fighting indoors. He's a sniper, so I'm not surprised he'd prefer being outside, instead of a hangar filled with mercs and I think he'd be more useful at the other objective anyway. Everyone already boarded the large truck and we're already on our way to their base. Jorrun went to the front of the truck, where the rest of the leaders are, and I stayed with Johnson, Shepard and Garrus in the back. I don't mind it, since it gives me a chance to catch up with Johnson.

Still, this question immediately started alarms in my head. I can barely remember what I said to Shepard and now I need to say something like that again. Okay... it's time to go with plan B. Bullshit at will. "Well, I didn't really want to work for Fist for the rest of my life. It's probably stupid, but I always wanted to do something important, something that actually mattered. And then, out of nowhere I get the opportunity to join Shepard and help her stop a rogue Spectre," I say with a shrug. Half-lies and half-truth. I didn't really lie, since I did want to do something big and awesome when I was younger, much like any other kid. "I'm doing something important and helping the Commander to save lots of people. Not to mention it's more exciting that running deliveries. I don't even mind the fact that I'm not paid to do it."

As soon as the last words left my mouth, I receive a weird look from Johnson. "Actually," Shepard pipes in with a frown. "you are getting paid."

I look at her with confusion. "I am?"

"Yes, you are," she replies with a raised eyebrow, visibly surprised that I don't know this. "I pulled some strings and listed you as a private contractor," she explains. "basically you're a mercenary working for the Systems Alliance."

She listen me as a merc? I'm actually getting paid for doing this? Whoa, talk about surprises. I'm willing to do this for free, but I'm definitely not going to refuse payment. Do Garrus and Wrex get paid too? What about Tali and Liara? This is definitely surprising.

Johnson hums in thought at that, scratching his chin. "Private contractor eh? What's the rate nowadays? Last time I checked it was a 250 credits a day."

"No, they raised it a several years ago. It's 310 credits now and 380 for Alliance approved contractors, with a nice little bonus of 4000 for combat missions," she supplies with a small grin, looking at me from the corner of her eye. "So since I approved you, you get

I feel my eyes widening – probably comically – as I quickly do the math. I honestly suck in math and I can't get an exact number, but I already know that it's not a small number. "That's a lot," I admit, slightly in shock.

"You should feel lucky," Johnson says with a chuckle. "The Alliance rarely hires mercs nowadays, and they hire only the ones they approve."

"What about everyone else?" I ask, looking at Garrus.

"I'm still in C-Sec," he replies with a shrug. Well, it makes sense. Since he still belongs to C-Sec, he can't be hired as a merc.

"I offered Wrex the same, but he refused," Shepard shrugs. "he said something about my battles being enough of a payment, or something like that," huh, that sounds like Wrex. "Tali gets the standard hired engineer wage, since she mostly works in engineering and Liara is a full volunteer," she lists off her fingers.

"Wow, this makes me feel like I was hired to do this job, instead of volunteering," I say with a frown. Damn, what a surprising day it is. Not only have I been officially become a member of a criminal organization, now I'm also an official mercenary. That's just great.

"It felt wrong taking advantage of your skills like that," Shepard replies with a shrug.

I try to resist snorting at the words, but utterly fail. "Skills? The only skills I had when I joined was my mediocre pistol skills. I didn't even have any armor other than my shitty shield module," I say with a short laugh.

"Maybe so, but it's not so true now, is it?" she counters with a victorious smirk. "You have extensive weapon training in more than one weapon, CQC training, a suit of armor, promising tech-skills with an above-average omni-tool and you're not half-bad in a firefight," she lists off my apparent 'talents'. "If you keep up this rate of improvement, give a year or two and you'll start kicking ass and taking names."

I'm am simply stunned. I'm not really the greatest member of the team. Shepard is an amazing soldier all around and is a Spectre for a damn good reason. Kaidan and Ashley are great soldiers with years of training and experience. Wrex has several human lifetimes of experience. Garrus has his – so far unseen – detective skills and uncanny accuracy with any firearm. Tali is a genius when it comes to tech and ship engines and is definitely not a slouch when it comes to combat. Liara, while not being a soldier or not having any notable training, has her amazing control of biotics, practically unmatched by either Shepard or Wrex.

Me? I'm just the random guy who volunteered for the mission, with no training and lack of knowledge in any available combat field. To say it simply, I was nearly useless. So to have Shepard suddenly acknowledge my skill as something more than 'okay' pretty much stuns me. I'm just... shocked. Shepard is most likely the best out of all of us, and I would've never expected to actually be considered as more than average by her. And her last words... well, she has officially made my day!

Johnson lets out an impressed whistle. "Damn kid, now that's a compliment. Now I'm really looking forward to get this started, just to see what the hell she's talking about!" he says with a loud laugh. "You should've seen him in our first firefight. This salarian took the money and the goods and decided to run. We sent him after the salarian but at the time, we were shot at! So he just ran out of cover like a headless chicken after the salarian and for a moment, I swear he screamed like a girl," he finishes with another roaring laugh.

I freeze and stare at Johnson with horror, and my excitement utterly vanishes. I hear a snicker form Garrus and send him a dirty look, but he just looks away, not even bothering to hide his grin. Shepard looks awfully amused too, visibly fighting the urge to smile. Oh, the motherfucker! I send Johnson the biggest glare I could manage and try to convey all my hate through it. Apparently, my glares suck since he just shrugs bemusedly. In that case, I guess I should have some payback. "Well, that's still better than having a cockblocking salarian following me all over the place," I remark offhandedly and this time I'm the one getting the glare, not that I mind. I just grin back.

Johnson is about to say something but we're interrupted by a loud yell from the front. "Alright, get your asses up and prepare yourselves!" someone yelled. I'm not sure, having only heard him speak once or twice, but I think its Carlo. "ETA to Blue Suns base is three minutes!"

As soon as the words are said, everyone bursts into action. It's all extremely frantic and confusing. People suddenly remember that they wanted to check their guns, make sure their shield modules or armors are in working condition. They all move around for whatever reason they have, some shout out to their friends, asking some random things. I pick out Honda from the large crowd, probably because he was the only one not moving around like a headless chicken. In fact… the guy looks like he's asleep. Or meditating, I'm not really sure. He just sits there, legs folded underneath him, eyes closed and completely ignoring everything else. I take a closer look and see that he wears a form-fitting black suit and as a single pistol holstered on his hip and… I blink and stare at the thing that's sticking out over his shoulder: A sword hilt.

A freaking sword hilt. A sword that strongly reminds me of a katana.

Holy. Fucking. Shit. We have a ninja in our team.

Okay, I might be exaggerating right now but it's easy to assume! He's Asian, wears black, has a sword and works for the Yakuza. If I'm going to see him start doing crazy backflips all over the place and stabbing people without them even noticing it, he's definitely a ninja. No other way to know.

Besides, even if I do ask, he's not going to confirm that he's a ninja. Ninja simply don't do that.

Why am I even thinking about this? Wow, now I feel all silly and stuff. I have about two minutes to get ready before shit hits the fan. Alright, let's do a speedy equipment check. Pistol here, rifle here, shotgun here… everything seems to be fine. I grab the helmet I've been carrying with me so far and finally put it on. The HUD pops on and I catch Johnson looking at me thoughtfully. "Nice helmet," he remarks.

Alright, I guess this thing is starting, since everyone starts moving to the doors. Shepard and Garrus both stand up and start moving there as well. A lot of people shoot Shepard a glance here and there and I catch a glance or two directed at me. Oh yeah, the helmet's definitely working.

Okay, I should get my head back into business. We're about to shoot a people and a shitload of people are about to get shot. I really hope that Jorrun was wrong about their numbers. Fifty to sixty Blue Suns in here, while we have around thirty people from random criminal organizations. Yeah, there is us, but considering I'm just a 'random thug', the only assets we have are Shepard and Garrus... and maybe Honda, but only because I suspect he's a ninja.

The large truck slowed down and everyone stopped talking or even whispering. Everything was quiet as a grave. Slowly everyone crept over to the doors, not daring to say a word and risk the plan failing. Within several seconds the truck jerks to a stop and the silence was starting to get unbearable. I hear someone whisper "Get ready!" from the crowd and some whisper and affirmative to that. Shit, this is awfully nerve wrecking. I can't hear a thing from the outside so I have no idea if they're coming to check out the truck. Not that it matters to me, since I'm not in the front of our group and I can't shoot anything without friendly fire. It's their job to secure us the landing zone and from there, the rest of us can go into the fray. Damn, I hope there's no machinegun waiting for us once the door opens, because that's what I'd do if I had a base.

Without a warning, the door slides open and through the crowd I manage to see five Blue Sun mercs staring at us with their mouths hanging open. The lead one, the one who opened the door, blinked at us in confusion before realization dawned on him. "Oh," he sighs out right before our guys opened fire.

The surprised mercs were torn to pieces by the combined fire of assault rifles, shotguns, pistols and whatever else we have. The mercs were dead before they even hit the floor. A few seconds later the front row of our group jumps down from the truck and the rest of us soon follow. "Move, move! Kill the fuckers!" I hear someone yell as I jump down, quickly followed by a few loud retorts of an assault rifle. I look around for Jorrun and spot him jumping out of the trucks... cockpit, I guess, and start walking over to us. Shepard, Garrus and Johnson hop down beside me and I move aside to let Jorrun lead the way. Shepard doesn't look like she minds, really. Probably because it's Jorrun's operation, or something.

The warehouse is not the biggest one I've seen so far. Slightly bigger than the one Jorrun uses but not by much. There were crates all over the place and much worse, mercs all over the place. I have to be glad that they wear their noticable blue armor, since I have no trouble distinguishing them from friendlies, so friendly fire is not one of my concerns.

The whole place is in utter chaos. Shots are being fired, people are running all over the place and more importantly, people die all over the place. One of the guys who was running in front of us suddenly falls down from a stray shot that got him in the neck, which turns our attention to a small group of mercs who by now managed to regroup behind some crates. and shake off the surprise of our attack. I'm going to assume that these are out first targets.

"Shockwave!" Shepard barks out and immediately everyone who was in front of her moves out of the way as she flares her biotics and flings a biotic shockwave at the group. Most of the mercs scramble out of the way but a couple of unlucky ones were too slow and get thrown out of their cover and soon after, crash into a large metal container with enough force to put a deep dent on the thing. They didn't get up after that.

The rest of the mercs open fire like maniacs at us, not really aiming but the fire is spread out enough that someone is going to get shot eventually. Sadly, that someone is me, as evident by the sudden decrease of my shields when several shots hit me. Without thinking about it, I jump over to the closest crate and land with a clumsy half-roll thing, managing to somehow hit my head on the crate. At least I'm wearing a helmet, otherwise I'd probably have a nice, painful bump on the head.

A second after I took my cover, Garrus dives behind my crate and I move over to give him some working space. Come on shields, recharge already! One second... two seconds... and... that's it! Finally. I carefully peek out of my cover to see how many mercs are left. Three mercs behind a particularly large crate. Okay, I can work with it. I load up an Overload and wait for the right moment. When one of the mercs comes out of his cover to shoot at us, I stand up and shoot the Overload at him. With a satisfying shower of bright sparks, the merc stumbles back, probably in surprise, which gives me ample time to take aim and fire. With his shields down, the short burst catches him in the chest and he drops down like a rock.

I quickly switch my aim to the other two, who just got out of cover to shoot me, but thankfully, everyone in my group decide to do it as well. Our combined fire pelts them before they could even react and soon after their shields collapse, leaving them utterly defenseless.

"Let's go!" Jorrun barks and runs out of cover. We quickly follow him as he leads us through the confusing maze of crates. We occasionally run into the lone merc, which we quickly dispose of, or small groups of our guys. Most often, we run into dead bodies, most of which are thankfully belonging to the Blue Suns.

By this time I'm starting to wonder where Jorrun is going. I hope he's not just randomly running around in search of mercs, since I personally think we already have enough people doing just that. Thankfully, I was proven wrong when Jorrun takes a sharp turn and leads us out of the crate-maze and into a corridor, which leads to places unknown as far as I'm concerned. I gotta wonder why everyone chooses freaking warehouses as their bases and why everyone just allows them to do it. I don't get it, C-Sec has an irrational fear of warehouses or something? Meh, doesn't matter at the moment.

We run into the corridor just in time to intercept another pair of mercs who were running to our door. Since we already had our weapons raised, and they didn't, I'm not really surprised at how quickly they went down. I barely managed to squeeze a shot out, and I didn't even land it.

Okay, I have to wonder where the hell we're going, and so I'm going to ask, which I do as soon we clear the pair of dead mercs. "Where are we going?"

Jorrun gives me a quick glance before replying. "They have a leader in this base, obviously. We need to take him out before he coordinates a proper defense," he explains.

"Yeah, so far it's been fucking easy. We got the completely by surprise," Johnsons adds.

"Exactly. We need to work quickly and not give them any time to recover. Now enough with the questions and lets go," Jorrun finishes and increases our speed.

We reach the end of the corridor and when we open the door we come face to face with another merc. Only this time, he's not even looking at us. In fact, he's preoccupied with someone else, judging by his frantic and blind shooting style. I look at what he's shooting and my eyes land on a familiar Asian running towards the merc, completely ignoring the shots being fired at him. Holy crap, what is Honda doing? He's running at the merc, pistol held in his left hand and his sword, already blood-stained, held in his right hand in a backhand grip.

Once Honda gers close enough for the merc to hit him easily, Honda does a sudden handless cartwheel to the right, shoots twice quickly, rolls to the left just when the merc corrects his aim and then with another two shots collapses the merc's shields and roll forward at the merc when the merc corrects his aim again, comes out of the roll with a wild spin, stopping with his back pressed to the merc... and his sword sticking into the man's gut. He stands like this for a few more seconds until he pulls his sword out of the merc with a flurry and with another quick spin, lops the merc's head off. There are two dull thuds, the sickening sound of blood pouring out of the large wound, the quiet sound of the head rolling away and then silence. He whips his sword with a short movement, flicking the blood off of it, and turns to us, giving us a quick nod before he runs away to continue his job.

By Kelemvor's brass balls. By the Red Knight's mighty tits. This was... fucking amazing. Honda is definitely a fucking ninja. I think my jaw is still somewhere on the floor and considering none of us moved from our spots since the whole spectacle began, I think I'm not the only one who is amazed.

"Holy shit," Jorrun mutters, pretty accurately voicing my thoughts.

"Damn, I blinked and missed half of the thing!" Johnson whistles in amazement. "One moment he's there, and the next he's stabbing the fuck out of him!"

Damn, if Honda is just a lieutenant... this means the Citadel has a whole freaking organization of ninja's! Note to self: Never, never ever mess with the Citadel Yakuza. They have fucking ninjas at the disposal. I look at Shepard, who's staring at the headless corpse with a noticeable amount of surprise. "Can you do anything like this?" I ask. I just gotta know.

Shepard blinks and looks at me. She scratches the back of her head as she thinks of an answer. "I can do the cartwheel thing. Give me a sword and I'll see if I can do the rest," she says, still looking slightly dazed.

Jorrun clears his throat loudly before I can say anything else. "Let's, uh, continue. We still have a job to do," he says with another glance at the headless merc.

Yeah... let's hope the Blue Suns don't have freaking ninja in their ranks. Fuck, this is bloody ridiculous! Ninja? Really?

We move on, going to the farthest end of this part of the warehouse. It's slightly smaller than the last part, and the number of crates definitely decreased and so far is suspiciously quiet, save for the distant and muffled sounds of battle going around us. It takes us a little while, but we reach the the end of the room without any confrontations and we slow down once we see what is ahead of us.

An open area, flaked by large crates and all the way ahead, something which looking like the crane controls for this place. We look around for any Blue Suns, but this place is pretty much empty. Jorrun leads us forward into the open and when we reach the center of the open area we spot movement up ahead. A merc steps out of the booth where the crane controls were located and looks at Shepard. "Shit. They weren't lying. We really do have a Spectre after us," he growls angrily and then puts a finger on his ear. "Alright, kill 'em all!" he orders.

Alright, this seems like a very good time to run like hell. I run to the left after Garrus and Johnson while Shepard and Jorrun run to the right. Halfway to cover I hear Jorrun loudly yell "Snipers!" Gee, thanks dude. Doesn't really help me if I'm still getting shot. Why the hell did we even go through the open middle? It was such an obvious trap! Damn, I feel like an idiot for not pointing that out.

I'm almost at the cover when suddenly I hear a loud zipping sound and a see a streak of something fly right in front of my face. Damn! Fuck, fuck fuck! I feel a dull impact on my side and my HUD blares in warning, telling me my shields are below ten percent. Shit! I increase my running speed because apparently, I'm targeted by every single fucking sniper in the building, judging by the ridiculous amount of shots being fire at me. I'm almost there now and when I had just a few more running steps left I dive to the cover. I feel a sudden and a slightly painful sensation on my right shoulder, as if someone shoved me there right before I land and my shield meter drops to zero. I half roll half crawl into the cover and much to my relief I'm not being shot anymore. I stand up and lean against the crate, trying to get my breath back under control and look at my shoulder to see what happened there. Hot damn! There's a slightly smoking scratch engraved on the shoulder pad. I'm assuming that's where the sniper round clipped me. Fuck. A few more centimeters to the left and I would've lost my throat.

I'm beginning to hate snipers.

Speaking of snipers, Garrus takes out his sniper rifle and slowly and carefully peeks out. "Give me a moment..." he mutters as he continues looking. I don't really mind. I'll just stare at my shield meter until it recharges. Things are much, much better when the shields are full. "Alright, I found him. On the catwalks near the ceiling. Forty-five degrees to my left. Give me some suppressive fire," Garrus calmly says, as if he's not bothered by the situation at all.

Okay, my shields are recharged and I guess I don't have any more time for a breather. Forty-five degrees? Uh... I'm not really sure where that is but I can guess... or follow Johnson's lead. I suck at math, simple as that.

Johnson and I step out of cover and blindly fire at the needed direction. As soon as we started shooting, Garrus drops down to a knee and takes aim. We fire for a few more seconds – I'm beginning to worry that my rifle's going to overheat any time now – until Garrus finally shoots and we all go back into cover.

"Target Shepard you morons! Target her!" I hear the merc, I'm assuming he's their leader, scream at his men.

I look at where Shepard is. Her biotics are flaring wildly as she shoots something at the catwalks above us, probably a Pull or a Warp. Jorrun helps her out with some suppressive fire, just like we help Garrus.

"Alright, one more time!" Garrus barks out, "Catwalks,sixty degrees to my left," he says and let's us do our thing. Garrus comes out of cover again, crouching on one knee and this time immediately lets out a single shot before we move back in.

We repeat this process two more times until apparently, they run out of snipers, judging my the enraged screams I can hear from the merc leader. Shit, he really has some anger management issues. "Goddammit! Screw this! Send in the mech!" he shouts to his radio.

Mech? I look up at the crane to see it bringing in something I definitely didn't expect to see. It landed on the floor with a loud thud and unfolded itself, glaring at us with two vertical glowing red eyes.

What the hell? A YMIR mech? How the fuck did it get here? They only showed up during Mass Effect 2! How the fuck did they get a mech! At that moment a trio of our allies run into the scene and spot the large mech. The mech looks back at the and raises it's arms. Oh shit... they should take some cover. Right now.

Sadly, they don't have enough time. They manage to turn around to run but by that time the mech already opened fire from it's arm-mounted miniguns. The poor fellas barely manage to make two steps before they are cut down by the hail of bullets. After several more seconds of needless fire, since they all died in the first barrage, the mech turns to look at us and raises its left arm. "Oh, shit," Johnson yells and pushes me down to the ground before he does the same. A second later the crate we were hiding behind exploded to pieces.

I blink dazedly as I try to get rid of the sudden ringing sound in my ears as I look around myself. Johnson brushes some crate parts off of himself while Garrus, who got out of the explosion unharmed by moving away in time, was already shooting at the thing with his assault rifle. Shepard and Jorrun are blasting the thing with everything they have too. I guess I should join them!

I'm about to get up when I notice some weight on my lap. I look at the object and I'm immensely surprised to see an assault rifle there. I look around and I see that it's not the only weapon here. There was weapons lying everywhere around our now-blown up crate. I'm trying to figure out where they came from and when I realize I feel like I should palm my face. Of course there will be stuff lying around here. Duh. Who would leave empty crates here?

Not to mention that these are crates filled with weapons. I quickly get up, letting the rifle clatter to the floor, and look into the remains of the crate while the mech was distracted by Shepard, who was flinging biotic warps at it... or whatever they were. I'm not familiar enough with biotics to know what she does with them.

Okay... let see... that's a lot of weapons. They're not in top condition, probably from the explosion but they're in working condition, and that's what's important. Assault rifles, pistols, several sniper rifles... damn, is there nothing useful here? Oh... what is this? I pull out the odd weapon. It has some tube-like parts and... oh my god.

It's a rocket launcher.

I quickly pull it out, and a good thing that is because at that moment the mech decides that our side was more threatening. I hear the digital voice announce that it acquired a target and when I look I see the mech looking straight at us. Oh, shit, nothing to do here!

I lift the rocket launcher over my shoulder and run like hell just as the chaingun starts firing. I move back behind the other crates and crouch there to figure out what the hell I'm doing with this heavy piece of explosion-maker. I have no idea how to use this thing. I guess I can just... lift it over my shoulder and pull the trigger. That always works in movies. Sadly, I know for a fact that movies lie, especially Hollywood movies from the 80-90's.

"How the fuck do I use this shit?" I yell over the roar of the chaingun.

Johnson looks at me, opens his mouth but pauses when he sees the rocket launcher. "Put it on your shoulder, aim it and pull the damn trigger!" he explains and turns back to the mech.

Okay, that's pretty straight forward. I like it so far. I heft it on my shoulder with a small grunt – this thing is heavier than it looks – and move over to a relatively safe spot to shoot from. Alright, this should be easy, especially now that the snipers are gone. I run behind a large mount of crates to circle around the mech and when I finally clear them, the mech happens to be facing Shepard... with it's back to me. This is just perfect! I fix my grip on the weapon and brace myself for a hellish recoil. I take aim and pull the trigger.

The recoil is surprisingly... not there. It's still there, but not as much as I expected it to be. Much less recoil than my shotgun, oddly enough. The missile cuts through the air and impacts the middle of the mech's back. The explosion is simply glorious. The loud boom drowns all other sound for a moment and the mech's back erupts in a ball of fire, sending the mech stumbling forward.

I don't know, but there's something very, very appealing about the fact that I caused this large explosion. It's just so big... and bright! Not to mention loud! Freaking awesome I say, freaking awesome.

Unfortunately, shooting a rocket into the thing's back pretty much classified me as the greater threat, since I was now slowly turning around to face me, smoke rising off it's back and several sparks shooting out of the holes in it's armor.

Oh shit. How the hell do I reload? Do I even have more ammo? Does this thing even use ammo? Crap, no time to think about it. I run back behind cover just as chaingun rounds start flying all around me. I crouch down behind one of the crates around and try to figure out this bloody weapon but I don't really have time for this. The mech might shoot a missile at me and blast me to pieces along with my crate. I peek out and see the mech still facing me, prepping its left arm in my direction. Goddammit!

Luckily, there's the fact that it now had it's back turned to Shepard, who easily capitalized on it's flaw. Right as the mech was about to shoot another rocket at me, it was suddenly wrapped in a biotic field and slowly floated off the ground. When it was about ten meters off the ground it was launched through the air right at the crane controls booth. With a loud cacophony of breaking metal, crashing things and all around destruction it crashes through the window and a few seconds later explodes, destroying whatever was left after the thing crashed everything.

Holy crap. Now that was awesome. I look over at Shepard and see her leaning against a crate, panting and looking slightly exhausted. Whoa, I guess lifting stuff like this is more tiring than I thought.

Now that our battle is over, I finally note that it's a lot quieter now. The sounds of combat all around us faded to some random shots fired once in a while but other than that, it's pretty silent. I let the rocket launcher fall to the floor with a clatter, since I won't be needed it anymore. Not that I know how to use the thing anyway. "Well," Shepard mutters. "that was fun," she finishes with a sigh.

"You can say that again," I say as I walk over to her and lean on the crate beside her. Man, I was a lot more tired than I first thought. Not that the adrenaline is wearing off I'm feeling freaking exhausted. I spot Johnson rummaging through one of the weapon crates, apparently picking a new toy for himself. Jorrun is talking through the radio with someone, looking quite preoccupied with his conversation. "Bloody mercs," I add as I let out a long, tired sigh.

"Should we be resting now? There might be some mercs left," Garrus asks, looking around us suspiciously.

"If we weren't shot at by now, it means we're alone," Shepard says with a short look around. "for now, at least."

"Alright," Jorrun says as he walks over to us, now finished with his conversation. "I can easily say that this mission is successful. We took out their Centurions and anyone else that might take command," he announces with a grin.

"Good to know," I say with a tired smile. "what now?"

"Now we run the fuck away," Jorrun replies. "C-Sec are on their way and I really don't want to be here when they get here."

Shepard sighs again and pushes herself off. "Fine. Let's get out of here."

I push myself off of the crate with a grunt and follow her. "Bloody mercs," I sigh out again. Damn them for making me run so much. And here I thought that I'll have a day off, filled with laziness and resting. Instead, I get this. Damn Blue Suns...


"Well, here we are," Jorrun says somberly as he climbs out of the car.

I do the same, getting out of the car to the front of C-Sec academy. After we left the warehouse we quickly got a skycare and made a beeline to the docks.

"It was nice meeting you," Shepard says with a small smile, offering him her hand.

Jorrun looks at it for a second before he takes it and gives it a firm shake, letting out a short chuckle. "Likewise. Didn't expect to meet a Spectre today. It turned out better than I expected it to."

Garrus gives Jorrun a pointed look, though I did notice the tiniest smirks on his face. "I'll be seeing you later," he says gruffly.

At this Jorrun barks out a laugh. "In that case, I'll be expecting you," he replies with the tiniest of a grins. Would you look at that. They're actually getting a long! Heh, this turned out way better than I thought it would.

Shepard and Garrus wordlessly leave, walking into the C-Sec academy and leaving us by ourselves. There's a really awkward moment of silence between us until Jorrun finally decides to break it. "You sure you know what you're doing? Saren deserves the reputation he has."

Do I know what I'm doing? Half of the time... not really. But the rest? Sure. This time I'm pretty sure that I know what I'm doing. Not to mention that I already know how events will unfold, so it's a big, juicy bonus for me. "Of course I do. Don't you trust me?"

He huffs humorlessly. "Hah, don't make me lie to you."

I chuckle at that, shaking my head at his antics. "Really. I do know what I'm doing. Don't worry about me. You should take care of yourself first. You got random mercs on the station of random thugs trying to take over, not to mention that you're suddenly the new Fist."

"Ugh, don't remind me. I preferred it when I was just a normal lieutenant. Less time spent on work, more time for myself. Now though... I have to handle the shit your friend there left us in."

"Don't hold it against her. She was just doing her job," I defend Shepard.

"I'm not... though that doesn't mean that I can't be pissed off about the crap I have to fix."

"Heh, true," I pause there, not sure what else I can say. "well, I should be going. I have synthetics to kill, A rogue Spectre to catch, a galaxy to save. You know how it goes," I say with a small grin.

He chuckles at that. "Yeah, good luck with that," he says and then he looks at me with utmost seriousness. "Don't die out there."

I'm slightly surprised by how serious he is right now. He's usually more laid back, but this time, there's not a drop of it in sight. It's nice to know that he cares. Sure, we insult each other as much as we can, but it's just playful banter. It's fun, simple as that. I give him a firm nod. "I'm not planning to. You take care of yourself, you hear me?" I say and then grin. "You wouldn't want to leave a widowed Lucy with me... trust me on that."

He gives me a weak glare at that. "Bastard," he mutters. "I'll be seeing you, I guess."

"Yep. That you will. We usually come here for shore leave, so I'll be sure to tell you when we're around. That's a promise."

"Good to know. By the way, now that you mention it, what took you so long to answer your mail?" he asks, eyes narrowed suspiciously.

Oh... by the nine hells. How am I supposed to answer that? I don't really have a viable excuse... damn, this sucks. I'll just have to live it down. "The omni-tool was... uh, muted so... well, I didnt hear the messages when I got them... so..." I trail off, looking away.

Jorrun sighs noisily. "Idiot," was his simple reply.

"Yeah..." I say, unable to deny that fact. "So I guess I'll be seeing you," I say with a grin, holding up my fist to him.

He looks at it for several seconds before he rolls his eyes with another sigh and bumps his own fist against mine. Yay! It took me half a year but I finally managed to get a fist bump from him! Sure, it's childish but I don't care! That's a cause for celebration, that's for sure. "Good luck saving the galaxy and all that."

"Thanks. Hopefully I won't need it," I say and with that, I walk through the gates of the academy, sending a glance back to Jorrun, who was walking back to the skycar.

Well, looks like I'm done here for now. I'm really glad that Jorrun and Johnson got along with Shepard and Garrus. It's always nice when two different groups of your friends actually get along. It's also nice to know that Joe approves of my 'unexpected' quest... at least partially. I'll make sure to send him a message the next time I'm on the Citadel. It'd be nice to have a drink or two, especially since I didn't get one today. Not to mention that I still have to somehow warn them about the battle against Sovereign. It would definitely suck to be crushed by random Reaper debris.

I make my further into the academy and spot Shepard and Garrus standing by the elevator. "You done?" Shepard asks once I get close enough.

"Yep. I'm done for now."

"You sure? No more unexpected business?" Garrus pipes in.

"Definitely. I'm ready to leave," I assure him with a roll of my eyes.

"Good. Now let's go. We have a rogue Spectre to catch," Shepard announces cheerily and with that we enter the elevator.


Yay, another chapter done! Next chapter is going to be a special one. It's the 30th chapter! Yeah, not really anything special, but shit, it's the longest story I've ever written in my life, so I'm allowed to celebrate a little. So yeah, finally updated... so rejoice!

Oh, about the story cover... yeah, I'm trying to vaguely hint that I'd like someone to make a story cover for me because my artistic skills are awfully lacking and disguise it with disguised hints and requests... so I'll skip ahead and just ask you if you won't mind making one for me... or something. Do it only if you're horrifically bored enough to do it. I might come up with something on paint at the meantime.

So yeah, I want to thank everyone who has been reading the story. It's awfully incredible to be getting around ten reviews every chapter and over a dozen favs and story alerts from various people. It makes me feel loved, it really does. It also makes me feel that my writing skills are good, so... thanks for boosting my ego every time I post a chapter! Yay. Feel free to leave a comment, or a constructive review or just tell me what you think (yes, I'm repeating myself). Also do feel free to point out any flaws you might find, I'd be glad if you did.

So yeah, hopefully I'll finish the next chapter soon, not really sure when though. Have final exam on the 27th and graduation on the 29th... so yeah, wish me luck. Until next time, Delvaro out!