A/N: Before we hit Virmire we have one more stop to make.

Just as Shepard was ready to travel to Virmire, she was interrupted by Joker, "Commander, incoming signal from Fifth Fleet HQ on the Citadel."

"Commander Shepard. Something uncomfortable has just come up. In the First Contact War, we fired a lot of espionage probes into turian space. We've just received a 'mission complete' burst from one of them."

"Where's it been in the meantime?"

"No idea. Lost in transit. These probes were built in a hurry after first contact."

Shepard knew there was going to be a downside if it came from the First Contact War, "What makes this 'uncomfortable'?"

"When these probes were launched, we didn't have any idea who we were fighting. We didn't want to risk aliens examining our technology. The probe has a demo nuke built in. a twenty-kiloton tactical fusion warhead. About equal to the bomb dropped on Hiroshima back in the twentieth. If somebody finds that probe, tampers with it—you don't need me to finish, Commander."

"I understand this must be handled. But I don't have anyone trained to deal with this sort of thing, sir."

"I know. I wouldn't ask if it wasn't important. These probes have been classified for twenty-six years. The Council would call fusion bomb booby traps 'dangerous and irresponsible.' The Alliance would face censure if they find this probe. I'm asking you because the Normandy can get on site quickly and quietly. It's in the Voyager Cluster."

"It's in the Voyager Cluster? That's the opposite side of the Alliance from turian space. How did it get there?"

"I don't know. It's possible someone recovered it safely and brought it there. It's also possible it got very badly lost. It could have been wandering the relay network since the war."

"We'll get on it immediately, Admiral. And we'll be discreet."

"I appreciate that, Commander. Good luck. Fifth Fleet out."

With Admiral Hackett off, Shepard started thinking about Dot and Light. Shepard left the CIC to go look for Six. She found her and Light both in the mess hall. "Six can I have a word with you. Without Light…"

"Very well human, I will speak with the other Reclaimers for the time being."

After the elevator door shut, Shepard turned back to Six, "Say, can Dot disarm nuclear devices?"

"That would depend on the trigger mechanism and if I cannot interface with the device. I would only be able to provide technical support otherwise, if the timer permits."

Shepard nodded, "Alright. Then we need you to get ready. We have a twenty-kiloton bobby trap that we need to recover."

After claiming two mineral deposits on Agebinium, Shepard drove the Mako right to the signal of the probe to a manmade structure.

"Mineshaft?" Kaidan turned to Six, "That's the source of the signal?"

"Correct, Staff Lieutenant. The signal is being broadcasted deep within the shaft."

Garrus didn't like it either, "Suspicious."

"I agree. This thing didn't crash. Somebody moved it here."

Shepard knew the risk, but given the payload they were after, "There's a nuclear weapon down there. We can't abandon it. Just stay on guard."

The team readied their weapons as Six took point, "Affirmative."

Traveling into the shaft they found several crates and drilling equipment, enough to suggest recent activity, though the drills were cold to the touch. Six found a side shaft that lead to a small opening where the satellite was just lying there. Before the team could get closer explosions went off within the shaft, "That was a detonator, Commander."

Soon enough a hologram of a turian in combat armor appeared in front of the satellite. "Shepard. At last."

Six moved aside to allow Shepard to speak, "You have me at a disadvantage."

"You don't remember me. No matter. I remember you. I never forget anyone I've fought. My name is Elanos Haliat. I doubt you know it. Who do you think runs the Terminus Clans, Shepard? Hm? Thousands of pirates, slavers, criminals of every stripe?"

"In most criminal organizations, it's the one who's recognized as the most successful."

"That's correct. The one who kills the most men. Seizes the most ships. Pillages the most colonies. Seven years ago, I was the strongest. I used my influence to assemble a fleet. We would drive your kind out of the Verge."

Shepard looked at him with contempt, "You're the one behind the attack on Elysium!"

Elanos pointed his talons to himself, "I was the motivator. The instigator. The one who promised glory and riches for sacking the largest human colony in the cluster. The one blamed when it failed. Failed because of you. Your damnable holding action."

Six turned to Shepard, using the private comms Dot informed her, "Lieutenant Commander, the ore within this mine is laced with heavy metal. Our suit transmitters are not powerful enough to communicate to the Normandy."

She turned back to Elanos' hologram, "We'll find a way out of here."

"I rather doubt that. Goodbye, Shepard."

With Elanos' hologram deactivated, Garrus looked around, "Orders, Shepard?"

"We've got air and light, and the Normandy's still in orbit. Let's look for another way out."

Before she could do that, Dot quickly shouted, "Lieutenant, remote signal detected. The warhead has been armed. Please insert me so I may disarm it." Six quickly pulled Dot from her helmet and inserted her into the OSD slot on the satellite. The timer was already down to seven seconds when Dot was inserted. Now all they could do was wait and see. These were a rather intense few seconds with no clue on how Dot was progressing. The timer came to a sudden stop at two seconds as Dot's signature grid squares appeared on the surviving monitors. Six pulled Dot's chip and reinserted her into her helmet. "Medium Fusion Destructive Device successfully disarmed."

"Medium Fusion?"

"Yes, Staff Lieutenant. A UNSC tactical nuclear weapon with a yield of only sixty-three terajoules. Roughly equivalent to this nuclear device."

Before the question could be asked, Six started to walk back up the shaft as she replied to the unspoken question, "The most powerful is the NOVA. But if you want a measurable device, then we have HAVOK warheads, each with a yield of thirty megatons. Our war with the Covenant has always been one-sided, in their favor."

The tunnel they came through was completely caved in with no way to move all of the rocks blocking their path. As Six looked around she noticed the other door that was locked before was unlocked now. Following it she found a tunnel that led up.

The shaft led them back to the surface, and to a rather nicely elevated location where they had the perfect vantage point over Elanos Haliat and his men. They had moved the Mako to this campsite, probably expecting to use it as an ambush against the Normandy. Six threw her hand out to Kaidan, "Sniper rifle."

After Kaidan handed it to her, she had the sniper and her DMR placed into the sand for support. She was using her helmet's 'eye' and camera to target Elanos with both weapons. Shepard and Garrus grabbed their sniper rifles as they got ready for the shooting gallery to begin, both targeting snipers on the ground, "Fire at your discretion."

Six took a moment to make finally adjustments before she fired the sniper rifle first. The shot disrupted Elanos' kinetic barrier and everyone down there started grabbing their weapons trying to find where the shot came from. Six quickly fired a single shot from her DMR, piercing his skull and killing him before the turian realized his revenge had failed. With their leader dead, the mercenaries opened fire where they though the shots came from. Shepard, Garrus and Six took out the remaining mercs one by one, never giving them the chance to surrender.

Back on the Normandy, Shepard had Six talk with her privately in her quarters. "Since you told me about your past Hitomi, I guess I should tell you some of mine, seeing how some of it was flushed out today."

Six already had Dot pulled out of her helmet, and little Kameko dangling on her armor, "You don't have to ma'am. The turian was a pirate. His death ended that."

"I know. But with how much you've opened to me, I should at least do the same, or at least something." Shepard pulled over a picture she had on her desk, "I never grew up on a single planet. We were always shifting from ship to ship. My parents have been with the Alliance for as long as I can remember and I've followed their footsteps. Seven years ago, I was on shore leave on Elysium when the Blitz happened. Lead by the batarians, it was a full on invasion of pirates, slavers and other criminal organizations in an attempt to wipe out the colony. I got the civilians and surviving Alliance marines to hold out until Alliance reinforcements could arrive. It was a bloody battle, hell one of our flanks broke and I had to hold them off alone while I ordered the others to bolster other areas of our defense line that might have broken. I was regarded as a hero, but really I was just doing what anyone would have at the time. So I doubt I'll ever able to understand some of the pain you've been through." She placed the picture back down, showing that it was her when she was younger with both of her parents.

Six looked to the image, remembering the few happy memories she still had of her parents, then to the training she underwent. "As you said, you were only doing your duty as a soldier; protecting humanity at any cost."

Shepard turned to her, "Hitomi… I don't know how those guys trained you, but that's not a soldier's duty. Yes, a soldier protects humanity, but we are humans as well. We fight so that others don't have to. It's our choice to defend them, but not at the cost of our own humanity. Could you at least start believing that yourself?"

Six wasn't as confident in such a belief, having been trained to sacrifice herself if it meant achieving her objective and saving lives. "I'll try ma'am."

"Hitomi, you don't have to be so formal. You could call me Commander or Shepard, you know."

Six pulled out Dot's chip to reinsert, "I'll work on that as well, ma'am."

Reaching Hoc, Joker stopped the Normandy once the sensors picked up several unidentified crafts orbiting the planet. "Uh, Commander?"

Shepard had Six, Jorge, Cortez, O'Brien and Sork brought to the CIC to review this new development. Seeing the ships and their formations, O'Brien threw his arms into the air, "We're fucked."

Jorge started ID'ing the various ships, "A supercarrier, two destroyers and a battlecruiser!"

"Like I said, fucked."

Shepard was surprised at the scale of the vessels, though she noticed three smaller ships Jorge hadn't ID'ed, "What about these?"

Sork turned his head so his good eye could see where she was pointing. "Agricultural ships. They are likely using their sensors to help with patrols. Nothing more. This is the fleet in its entirety."

"We still have the stealth system. We should be able to get past them undetected."

Cortez turned to Pressly, "Wouldn't work. Your stealth system only masks your heat signature. Without a way to make the ship invisible as well, we'd be shot down the moment we were within visual range."

Shepard remembered the gun controls from the corvette as they were moving toward the bridge. "There has to be a way. Entering atmo on the other side of the planet and flying around?"

"We would only make ourselves a bigger target." Sork moved up and enlarged the planet as he placed markers on a few locations, "The geth have installed a number of anti-air towers around the facility. It's possible they have more since I last saw them."

Dot finally spoke after analyzing Covenant movement. "Lieutenant Commander, I have detected an anomaly in Covenant fleet movement." Six waited for Sork to move aside as she inserted Dot into the holographic interface. "Fleet movements seem to suggest a very limited window of opportunity for a vessel of our size to slip through."

Sork examined the pattern now. "I see…" He walked away, "The Fleet Master has prepared for our arrival and has given us our path to Saren and his geth. Humans, prepare for the most intense fight in your lives. The time to silence the heresy of Saren and Pity has come."

Expecting the worst, Shepard had Tali, Garrus, Six and O'Brien prepped to take out the AA guns. "Commander, I'm starting to pick up a faint signal. It looks like it might be our salarian infiltration team." The Normandy flew in low as the Mako rolled out, touching down in the shallow water. "We've got a clean drop, Commander."

"Stay out of range and continue evasive maneuvers until we bring those AA towers down."

"I know the drill. Meet you at the camp once those towers are offline. Joker out."

O'Brien looked at the serene scenery, "Nice beach. Too bad it's gonna get bloody."

Raja found Rayta overviewing a hologram of the planet on the bridge of Unending Resolve. Raja waited for Rayta to acknowledge his presence, saluting to him, "Fleet Master, I have received reports from the geth, they have engaged unknown foes on the southern perimeter of the facility. They are taking out the AA towers along the way to the wall."

Rayta magnified the hologram to the region Raja spoke of. "So it has begun. The confrontation."

"Fleet Master?"

"Have all of our forces on standby. And I want as many geth off of our ships to help 'defend' Saren's facility."

Raja bowed his head, "I will see to it all geth are off our ships." Rayta started to wonder if Pity will order forces to help defend the compound, or if he can avoid that.

After disabling the two AA towers, the Normandy was at the salarian base camp, and it seemed to only have bad news waiting for them. Williams and Alenko were already talking with the captain of the salarians when Shepard arrived. "So what are we supposed to do now?"

The green scaled salarian in white armor calmly told Williams, "Stay put until we can come up with a plan."

Shepard turned to the green scaled salarian, "Are you in charge here? What's the situation?"

"I'm Captain Kirrahe, Third Infiltration Regiment STG. You and your crew have just landed in the middle of a hotzone. Every AA gun within ten miles has been alerted to your presence."

"What are we supposed to do in the meantime?"

Kirrahe looked around, "We stay put until the Council sends the reinforcements we requested."

Alenko looked to him with some unfortunate facts, "We are the reinforcements."

"What? You're all they sent? I told the Council to send a dozen fleets."

"We couldn't understand your transmission. They sent me to investigate."

Kirrahe was slightly annoyed by such incompetence, "That is a repetition of our task. I lost more than half of my men investigating this place."

Before Kaidan could ask for more information, one of the salarian soldiers started shouting, "We've got a cloaker!"

Six walked over, disarming one of the salarians, "He's not here to fight you."

Kirrahe grabbed a pistol, "Commander, tell your people to stand down and let us kill it!"

Jorge grabbed one of the salarians, forcing him to drop his weapon, "I wouldn't point a gun at her."

Shepard turned back to Kirrahe, "I'm sorry Captain, but your people will need to stand down." Sork deactivated his active camo, presenting himself to the salarians as he lowered himself to his knee. "He's not with them anymore."

"A defector?"

Shepard looked to Sork, "Something like that."

Kirrahe slowly put away the pistol as he signaled his men to stand down, "Do you know anything about them?"

O'Brien walked over, "What? You mean about the split-lips, or the Covies?"

"Nicknames? So you had intel on them already?"

Cortez interrupted, "Enough. So what else have you found about the facility?"

Kirrahe was uneasy about having lost men to learn about them for nothing, but he knew they had gathered valuable information. "Saren's base of operation. He's set up a research facility here, but it's crawling with geth and very well fortified."

Shepard was concerned by the amount of fortification the have both on and above the planet. "What's Saren researching?"

"He's using the facility to breed an army of krogan."

"How is that possible?" Wrex overheard Kirrahe and walked to them.

"Apparently, Saren has discovered a cure for the genophage."

Shepard started to shake her head, "The geth are bad enough. But a krogan army…he'd be almost unstoppable."

Kirrahe nodded, "Exactly my thoughts. We must ensure that this facility and its secrets are destroyed."

"Destroyed?" Wrex stopped that train of thought, "I don't think so. Our people are dying. This cure can save them."

Kirrahe wasn't going to allow it. "If that cure leaves this planet, the krogan will become unstoppable. We can't make the same mistake again."

Wrex walked up to the salarian, forcing Kirrahe to lean back to accommodate Wrex's advance, "We are not a mistake!"

With Wrex stomping away in anger, Kirrahe continued to keep an eye on him, "Is he going to be a problem? We already have enough angry krogan to deal with."

Shepard nodded, "He'll be fine. I'll talk to him."

"I'd appreciate that, Commander. My men and I need to rethink our plan of attack. Can you give us some time?"

Cortez looked around the campsite, "With what little we have, I think you'll need some help with planning the attack."

Kirrahe knew the value of intel, "The more information the better." Before he and Cortez walked into the tent, Kirrahe turned back to Shepard, "We won't be long, Commander. In the meantime, if you need any supplies you can talk to Commander Rentola. He's in one of the tents nearby."

With Cortez and Kirrahe gone, Kaidan crossed his arms, "Looks like things are a bit of a mess."

"I wouldn't be so worried if it wasn't for Wrex. He looks like he's going to blow a gasket."

Shepard turned to Williams, "Just drop it. He'll be fine."

"If you say so. But I'm gonna keep my eye on him, if it's all the same to you."

Sork walked to Tali, ensure her safety and keeping his eye on the salarians around them, Jorge was making sure his HMG was ready for all of the saltwater and wasn't going to jam on him. Six grabbed O'Brien to barrow his sniper rifle, she didn't like the look on Wrex either, uncertain if his concern for his people might blind him to their goals. Six wasn't going to take any chances with him though. She found a rather secluded spot, not easily seen unless one was trying to look, and even when Shepard should engage in a conversation with the krogan battlemaster, she won't be any danger of getting hit.

A/N: Too bad no one kept Kirrahe in the loop about him.