A/N: Update time.

Garrus turned to Tali and Shepard after hearing the rather blatant mech's statement, "Sound's like Prudii already started the party. I think it's only courteous if we crash it."

Entering the area they found all of the Eclipse were focused on, what was believed to be, Prudii's position. Shepard was lining up a shot against one of the FERRIS mechs when four shot rang out in succession as the blue vapor trails found their way to four LOKI mech heads and destroyed them.

"There he is! Don't let him escape!" The Eclipse moved in and started to rush over to where the mechs were destroyed. As they did the mercs left their flank wide open.

Garrus to this golden opportunity and sniped the back of one of the mercs. Tali also used Prudii's distraction and took down one of the mercs with a close-quarters blast of her shotgun. Shepard gunned down one of the LOKI mechs before it could turn around and face them. The LOKI and FERRIS turned to the closer hostiles and tried to remove them.

Tali quickly hacked into one of the FERRIS mechs and all of the other mechs turned on it. Prudii hadn't stopped moving as he destroyed a pair of FERRIS mechs that tried to attack him, blasting one through its faceplate with a volley of pistol shots and luring the other into a charge leading to a very long drop down to the foundation of the building. Shepard and his team took position into an incomplete office as the Eclipse started to focusing on them. Prudii too used one of the unfinished offices as he surveyed the enemy. Basic combat tactics, a Vanguard was positioned near a deactivated elevator and two Eclipse grunts were taking cover behind some construction material as the mechs move in to try and flush Shepard's team out. It could have worked if the Mandalorian wasn't a problem.

As the mechs continued their push the mercs took cover. Prudii saw his chance; the commando activated the cloak as he started to run. He jumped a small gap between him and the last Vanguard. Prudii's cloak held its own during his jump and as the Vanguard tried to find the source of him landing, the Mandalorian grabbed the Vanguard's shotgun and pointed it toward the abyss as he pulled the merc into an extended vibroblade. The blade pierced part of the armor but the sonic emitters traveled through the blade, ruptured his stomach and several arteries. The Eclipse saw this and turned to attack the lone assailant. But from their positions they were only hitting the, now deceased, Vanguard. Prudii used this, turning the dead Vanguard around and aimed the shotgun at the other Eclipse mercs and mechs.

Prudii knew all too well the weapon would only do superficial damage at best from the distance the Eclipse mercs were at but it was only a distraction to give Shepard and the others an opening to flank them. And as expected they did, Tali hijacked a LOKI mech and used a Phalanx pistol and it's laser sight to gun down another LOKI. As the hacked LOKI occupied the attention of the other mechs Garrus lined up his scope on one of the Eclipse Troopers before pulling the trigger and putting a small hole into his helmet. Shepard riddled the last trooper with holes from his M-15 Vindicator. With the mechs gathered in one localized point, Prudii tossed the body aside and pulled out one of the grenades he showed Shepard back on the Normandy. Prudii activated the charged and used an underhand toss. The grenade bounced into the center of them before it detonated. Unlike a normal grenade, this one radiated a four meter pulse of blue energy that overloaded the mechs. After a few seconds of this strange electrocution, the mechs fell to the ground, completely disabled.

Garrus was the first to venture out as Prudii grabbed the used grenade shell and ripped the heads off the LOKI mechs. "Something the matter, Prudii?"

The commando then stomped his boot into the FERIS mechs, "Nope. Rule 17."

The group continued on to the point Prudii entered. It led to a small walkway up a level and a door. After the door open a banging sound echoed for a moment. An Eclipse merc that was in an upper level heard it and called it in. "Hey—I think he went in here."

His comm. was rather loud as the mercs could hear by the group. The woman over the comm. was telling him, "Well, go get him."

The Eclipse merc countered, "You go."

The woman seemed ticked at him as she told him, "Get your ass in there. Nassana's not paying you to stand around."

"Fine…but I…" he grunts as the echoes of punches stared to resound. The sound of air gasping out of the man was heard for a moment before sudden sounds of a falling object echoed down the pipe. The Eclipse merc came crashing down, falling into a slump, his body was limp, bones snapped, as the body fell into an unnatural position.

Prudii looked over the dead man and as he did he found a mark on his neck. "Krios." Prudii turned to Shepard, "He's racing against us. Seeing who gets to Nassana first. Tempted to kill her before he gets there."

The Commander asked the clone, "How can you tell?"

Prudii pointed up, "The noise. He wants us to known. I've seen Krios' work, after the fact. He's a shadow. A true assassin. Doesn't like to go guns blazing. Prefers to kill his target without anyone realizing it." Prudii then looked around at the area ahead. "No other way. Going to have to fight through." Shepard and the others were taking positions behind pillars as they tried to find Eclipse mercs and the mechs.

Things were starting to get quiet once more on the Mandalorian ship. Rang was looking through their business email hoping to find any new jobs. "A basic bounty job from Eclipse…a hit job against the Blood Pack from the Blue Suns…a politician wants 'loose ends cut'…here's something."

Rang tend to check the mail near navigation. Tare turned to him as expected as he asked the clone, "What's something?"

"Here. We've got a job posting that wants us to investigate a lost mine out in the Minos Wastelands." Before he continued Aran and Aay'han had walked into the CIC. "Hey bosses, I got a job we might be interested in."

Aran told him, "Lay it out."

"Right the fun part, until I get to blow something up." Rang looked back at the email to find the bits of information he needed, "OK, we got a cooperation that wants discretion. Meaning they don't want official help or the press in on this. They lost contact with an operation in the Fortis system about a month and a half ago."

Aay'han turned to Aran as Rang continued with his wild speculations, "This the kind of job your team gets?"

"Sometimes we just stand around for security."

Rang got his brother's attention, "Oh and boss man, they're willing to pay us in advance as long as we can verify we're in the Fortis system. And I have to say this is a rather unusual sum. Five thousand, and that's the down payment."

Aran seemed bothered by something. "What company is it? I'm not working with ExoGeni again. Not after that last job."

Rang laughed, "It was only one job. But no, I don't think it's ExoGeni. Not their kind of shtick. It's a mining op. I'm thinking the jobs from Merida Industria or the EAE. We could always ask Bev or Ras to try and back hack the account."

Aran then asked his brother, "Still nothing from Prudii?"

"Come on bro, everyone on the ship would know about it if he did."

Aran looked over the CIC's galaxy map. "Alright, we'll send an investigation team to scout it out first." Aran turned to Aay'han, "We're going to be reversing rolls during this mission, think you can handle it?"

The former advisor chuckled at the notion, "I've had a lot of practice."

Having fought through a large wave of Eclipse and their mechs, Shepard and the others were searching the area. Prudii was rolling some of the Eclipse mercs down the abyss of the building as Tali deactivated the security system in the next area. Garrus had found a M-97 Viper sniper rifle in a back area near a terminal and medical supplies. Shepard found a locked closet near the elevator they needed to take up. He waited for the others to come to him before unlocking the door. Garrus readied his sniper rifle as Tali activated her omni-tool. Prudii climbed onto the crates placed curiously next to the door, he activated his cloak with weapon at the ready.

Shepard unlocked the door and pulled out his pistol. When the door finally opened completely the room was occupied by three salarian workers. The moment the doors unlocked the three salarians were cowering away. The one in yellow to the right started to beg, "Please…don't kill us! We'll go…we'll go…"

The salarian in the middle noticed they weren't dead yet, also, "Hey, look…they're not Eclipse. You're here to help us…right?"

Shepard replied to the scared workers as he and the other holstered their weapons, "It's one reason I'm here. Come on out. It's safe enough."

Prudii jumped down from the crates and kept an eye out for any other Eclipse merc they might have missed. As Shepard got information from the salarians, Prudii listened in but he didn't hear anything new from them then from the injured worker one floor down. Shepard peeked Prudii's interest to in listening when he asked the workers, "How many workers were in the tower? Are there many more of you?"

The salarian in the middle morbidly replied, "Not alive. We were lucky."

The salarian in the yellow garment was being hopeful, "Well, some got out before the dogs were sent in. Maybe a few are hiding somewhere."

Shepard then advised the three salarians to leave. "I wouldn't stay here too long. It should be safe down on the lower floors."

The salarian worker with the yellow clothing agreed, "I was just thinking the same thing. Let's go, everybody."

The salarian who with the morbid response from before stopped to tell Shepard a few things. "Thank you. And tell your assassin to aim for her head. …'cause she doesn't have a heart!"

The salarian who seemed to be the leader of the group turned around and yelled at his coworker, "Get moving."

As the two salarians past Prudii, he then told them, "There's an injured worker downstairs. We aided him. You should find him."

Returning to the main area, Shepard tried to activate the elevator. Garrus noted as the elevator started to come down, "We're a little exposed out here, especially if anyone's in that elevator."

Shepard agreed, "I was just thinking the same thing myself, Garrus."

"Well…there's no lack of cover."

As the squad moved to better cover, Prudii climbed up behind some crates, waiting for whatever was in the elevator. He steadied the bowcaster at the elevator entrance as he charged his first shot. The elevator VI soon announced before opening the door, "Mezzanine. Have a pleasant stay."

In no time a voice soon shouted before the elevator could open up, "Come out and fight!" The voice belonged to a krogan, odd seeing as Eclipse normal recruitment pools are from humans, asari and salarians. Once the doors opened it became clear, this krogan seemed to have been freelancing, either for Nassana directly or with the Eclipse. Shepard had pulled out a strange looking weapon Prudii had not seen before. The weapon charged for two seconds, as it charged the two Eclipse Engineers deployed combat drones. Before any of them could leave the elevator Shepard launching an electric jolt from the black weapon that jumped around the five targets and continually zapped the group, destroying the drones and draining the shields on all three targets all in a matter of seconds.

Prudii saw his opening and fired the charged quarrel at the closest Engineer. The quarrel flew true to its target, landing the exposed female's cranium, the charged shot pinned her head to the floor. The cocking mechanism automatically pulled a second quarrel into position and Prudii fired at the second Engineer, sending her to a fall with a small hole in the side of her head. Garrus fired his sniper rifle at the krogan, braking part of his armor plating. Tali fired a few rounds from the Phalanx aiding Garrus in his attack against the krogan. Shepard quickly switched his weapon for his Vindicator assault rifle. With this coordinated strike from three fronts, the krogan was almost finished. During the assault Prudii was charging his bowcaster. Prudii used the supercharged quarrel and pinned the krogan's left arm to a stack of crates. Prudii jumped down from his position and continued to move toward the krogan as he continued to fire quarrel after quarrel into it, not giving him time to aim his Carnifex heavy pistol or recover from the assault. Each shot found it way past the armor plating, using the breaks between the plates to his advantage. After eight shots into the krogan, Prudii extended both vibroblades and jabbed them into the krogan, one was aimed at his head, and the other landed in between both hearts. The vibration from the blades ruptured the organs, killing the brute from the inside. As Prudii pulled out the blades, the orange blood was covering his blade and part of his fist. The Commando promptly shock most of the blood onto the floor. The team now quickly moved into the elevator, making sure there were no Eclipse were following, Shepard activated the elevator and the doors closed. Now they had to wait until they reached the next area.

Reaching the planet, the Tervho detected several strange reading, including life signs, alien even to the aliens on board. The first ones down were Aay'han, Rasen, C3 and the gunship crew with the medical team on standby. On the way down, Araniik gave the team a pep talk, "Alright team, no one has heard a peep from this facility in over a month now, no supply request, no nothing. I don't know what you should expect down their but…"

Aay'han, Dagger and Swoop simultaneously said with Araniik, "Hope for the best, expect the worst." The trio remembered the precepts Vhonte taught the four clone commando who in turn taught them.

Flying through the rock canyon, Swoop couldn't help but note the natural defenses around the mine. "These rocks make flight paths rather predictable."

"They're just painting us with a red target saying 'Shot them down!'."

Jak tried to ease the pilots' tension, "And that's why you have us. Ain't that right Rook?" Rook simply replied to his partner with a thumbs up.

Once on the ground, Aay'han investigated the area first while Dagger and the other clones each grabbed a DC-15S. As Aay'han looked he heard a strange screeching sound coming from the tunnel itself. This prompted the clone to aim his WESTAR down the opening. Aran checked on their status, "Away team report. What's the situation down there?"

Aay'han didn't respond immediately but he eventually calmed himself to answer. "Everything here's too quiet. Something's wrong." The others, now ready to move, followed Aay'han as he investigated the area around the tunnel entrance.

The group came across skeletal remains of someone. This prompted Jak to saying, "Poor sod. What do you think happened to him?"

Rook moved in to examine the body. "I don't see plasma burns. No visible bite marks or broken bones. The corpse is too clean, undamaged." Rook then picked up the skull. "Wait… Found it. A single shot in the head. From the entry wound it looks like he did himself in. Add the decay factor and that should be…"

"Thirty to fifty galactic standard days, minimum," IM-6 stated as she floated over to Rook's shoulder and examined the remains herself.

"The timeframes about rights…" Aay'han still couldn't shake off the feeling they were being watched. "IM-6, I don't think a medics services are required for this mission any longer. Go back to the gunship and keep us posted for any changes. Rook, watch our six."

The little medical droid didn't argue against him as it floated back to the gunship and awaited the clones to finish their mission. As the squad moved into the tunnel they saw a humanoid figure in the shadows of the flickering lights.

Swoop couldn't help but say what the others were thinking, "Think it's a friendly?"

"There's only one way to find out. Sir! Excuse me, sir!" As Aay'han tried to move closer C3 sped up and rolled up in front of him, blocking his path, whistling. Aay'han couldn't understand the little droid as she tried to stop him. "Hey, what's the matter?"

As C3 continued to beep and whistle when Dagger started to pick up what she was saying. Dagger took aim at the figure prompting Rasen to intervene, "What are you doing? We're here to help them!"

Dagger wasn't going to move her but he was going to explain. "Listen miss, C3 said she's detecting the same signature here as she did on that colony we helped. And they're not the bugs."

Aay'han steadied his rifle, "How certain are you, C3?"

The droid whistled. Dagger translated again, "One hundred percent, sir!"

"Troopers! Open fire!" With that order, Dagger, Swoop and Jak joined Aay'han as they gunned down the humanoid shadow from a distance. A flurry of blue bolts flew across the tunnel striking the body. The flashes of blue did not help reveal the identity of this individual but after twelve shots from the clones the humanoid finally fell over. Aay'han moved to take a closer look on the thing as Swoop moved up with him.

The squad was only using local channels, so Araniik had no clue as to what was happening yet. "Advisor, come in. Someone talk to me. What's going on down there?"

"Give us a few more seconds…" Aay'han flipped the body over into the light, and he saw the same thing he did on Horizon. "Blast. Araniik, this is Aay'han. We've got husks here. I don't know how many but we've already encountered and kill one."

Concerned, the commando then asked, "What about Collectors, or geth? Have you guys encountered anything else?"

"Negative. Just a corpse outside the tunnel. We're going to try and push in further."

"Not without reinforcements you're not." Aran started to call out his crew, "Rang, Kix, Bev, Vren, Nyona, Tare, Forta, we're going in."

A/N: First off, the EAE is Eldfell-Ashland Engery, Rang didn't say that part only because he and Aran were familiar enough with the company that he didn't need to say it. Second, yes I do think someone(not saying anyone high up though) might pay people like the Mandalorians to investigate the sudden loss of communication with one of their sites(though they need a lot of money to pay them). I skipped that one fight on Illium because it was straight forward and I wasn't willing to write it out(so sue me, sorry for the attitude if you think it is one).

Mando'a Translation: Man I need to start using Mando'a again.