Shepard slammed her body against a crate, narrowly avoiding a singularity from the three adjutants in the cargo area. Aria was trapped by a console and Nyreen was off to her left - both of them firing at the unrelenting creatures.

A blue hue in front of Shepard caused the N7 some momentary panic, her brain automatically thinking it was one of the creatures, but she was calmed when she noticed it was Lauren, holding a barrier up to stop the singularities.

"SHEPARD!" The blonde shouted over her shoulder. "Got any grenades?!"

Shepard snatched a grenade from her belt and stood up, chucking the grenade at the creatures, who were clustered together just outside Lauren's barrier.

The resulting explosion was much larger than Shepard expected.

"Damn." Shepard peeked over the top of her cover. "What just happened?"

"Shockwave," Lauren grumbled as she picked herself off the floor. The force of the blast had knocked her off her feet - but her armor had taken most of the brunt - leaving her with just the wind knocked out of her lungs.

"Grenades plus shockwave equals high explosive." Shepard blinked. "Did you just come up with that?"

"Borrowed it," Lauren straightened herself up and jabbed a thumb at Aria. "Everyone okay?"

"We should keep moving." Nyreen's eyes darted around. "There might be more."

"Remind me to start carrying grenades." Aria commented to Lauren.

"Right - the reactor's this way." Lauren pointed towards a surface drill in the distance. "If we move our asses we can make it."

"Which one of us is taking down the barriers?" Shepard asked.

Lauren held out her Omni-tool. "I have the kill code. Or what I hope is the kill code."

Shepard stared at her. "That is not comforting."

"Do we have a back up plan if that doesn't work?" Nyreen asked skeptically.

Lauren looked at Shepard. "Deacon's still on call at the Normandy right?"

"Yeah...Oh." Shepard blinked. "Yeah. We can call him for help."

"Any noise from Shepard?" Deacon asked.

"No, nothing." Joker tapped on his controls. "It's quieter than when she-"

Deacon whacked Joker's chair. "Don't."

"What?"

"You'll jinx her." Garrus added from his spot in the cockpit.

Deacon looked at EDI. "How's Omega look?"

"Cerberus communications and mercenary communications stopped fifteen minutes ago and haven't started up again." EDI said. "I believe Petrovsky is attempting to keep new of Aria's insurrection from the Illusive Man."

Both Deacon and Garrus exchanged looks.

"What, like he's trying to prove he can keep control over Omega?" Garrus asked.

EDI shook her head. "The last transmission shed some light on it - the Illusive Man is thinking of...letting go of Petrovsky for failure to capture Miranda Lawson after she left the Normandy SR-2."

"So he's trying to prove he's still useful." Deacon narrowed his eyes. "Shepard should know about this."

"Shepard's probably busy shooting things." Garrus flicked his mandibles. "And I highly doubt that this changes the battlefield much."

"No, but it means Shepard can let Aria kill Petrovsky." Deacon looked at Joker. "Send her a message, tell her that Petrovsky does nothing for us. Aria can do what she wants."

"What?" Joker twisted around in his chair. "How do you figure that?"

"If the Illusive Man is close to killing him for incompetence, then he's already changed his organization to reflect that. Every base and every person he's spoken to about Cerberus is probably dead or moved, and every scrap of information he has is useless." Deacon held up three fingers. "Which means that we can only do three things with him."

"Which are?" Joker asked.

"Keep him in a cell, put him on trial, and wait for the Illusive Man to send an agent to kill him. It's better if Aria just kills him." Deacon turned to leave the cockpit. "I'll inform Hackett."

"I'll send a message to Shepard, then." Joker looked at Garrus. "Is he in a mood today or what?"

"He's worried." Garrus crossed his arms in front of him.

"So? We all are."

Interrupted by a trip to the ER. Back and doing much better now. Expect random updates. -I