From the Ashes

by erttheking

Even after seeing their world burned, Humanity was able to stand up again, and push beyond their pre-war status and reach the heavens. But how will a hardened Humanity handle life among the stars? And how will others react to this aggressive newcomer?

36. Hollow

Chapter 36

Hollow

Author's Note: The last chapter got rather good reception for the most part. Like I said before, the updates probably aren't going to come as fast as they used to. I'm in College, I have a part time job, I recently got a Playstation 2 and a copy of Persona 4 and that's going to eat up a LOT of time, and I recently got invited into a group of friends that is probably going to take up some time in my plans. It doesn't help that I occasionally get writer's block too. I do love writing though and I promise to get these chapters out as quickly and efficiently as possible.

XXXXX

Garrus typed viciously into the terminal in front of him, pausing temporarily to take a sip of water from a glass. He was sitting at a table in the room that had been given to him by Jane while he was on the Normandy. He squinted his eyes as he continued to type. Ever since Noveria, he couldn't get Norman's last name out of his head, he was certain that he had heard it somewhere. "Hawkins...Hawkins," he whispered, "I had no idea that it was such a common Human name."

He groaned slightly, rubbing his eyes. Simply going by last names wasn't a very effective way to find someone on the extranet. Even in putting in Norman's first name hadn't achieved any results so far. "Maybe I should give it a rest," he muttered to himself. "Then again, I never knew when to give up...where the Hell did I hear that name. Was...was it a scandal? A company?" He shook his head. "Well, it's worth giving it a shot," he said, typing into the terminal again.

As he hit the search button, a list of results appeared. As he read them, he smacked his forehead. "I remember now! Hawkins Industries! Major starship manufacturer, third biggest in the Coalition." He hastily clicked on a link, bringing up an extra-net page on the company. "CEO is Alexander Hawkins, involved in a major scandal ten years ago about being involved with taking bribes and the illegal narcotic trade...interesting." He glanced further down the page. "Oh lovely, he's a registered member of the Terra Firma party, goody, a man in power who belongs to a party literally dedicated to xenophobia."

He rolled his eyes slightly before continuing to read. "Been around since just after the First Contact War, got a lot of support to get the company up and going...they aren't allowed to make military ships, well that's good. Oh Spirits, this isn't what I'm looking...oh wait." He blinked as he scrolled down the page. "Ah here we go...had two kids, a son and a daughter...no names...great," he said dryly. "Why the Hell wouldn't it have names? I...he had them blocked to protect his privacy, oh nice. So I can't see if the name matches Norman's...wait a minute."

He started to scroll down the page again, his eyes widening as he continued to read. "The daughter was kidnapped and held for ransom, but she was never seen again. The son disappeared right after that...huh." Garrus leaned back into his chair, his mind racing. 'That could be him,' he thought, 'it makes sense when I think about it. A man from a rich family has his sister get kidnapped and he never sees her again. He runs away and joins the military to do what needs to be done. It would explain why he's gets his kicks from punching wounded Salarians in the chest."

Garrus frowned as he looked at the screen. The evidence certainly made that situation a possibility, but he didn't feel content just calling it a day and assuming that he had Norman analyzed. His inner C-Sec detective was shouting at him to continue his investigation and make sure that he had all of the evidence and not to jump to conclusions. If it had been involving chasing down a murderer or a drug lord, he probably would've have been able to be patient enough, he would have gone directly after them, but since this was simply to satisfy his curiosity, he felt that he could afford to wait.

"Doesn't look there there's a whole lot else here," he grumbled, looking at the rest of the extra-net page and seeing that there was nothing of interest, mostly statistical information involving Hawkins Industries. "I could ask him directly or just go to Jane about this and try and access those records, but the first would probably end with his fist in my face and I don't think the Coalition feels like giving private records on their personal to Council Spectres...I'm on my own here."

He jumped slightly as he heard a rapping on the door. Sighing, he clicked off of the extra-net page and deactivated the terminal. "Who is it?"

"It's me, John!" a voice called from the other side. Garrus reached forward and pressed a button, causing the door to slide open, revealing the Commander on the other side.

"Commander, how can I help...what are you wearing?"

"Leather jacket," he said. "Hey, we just docked and I hear that there's a pretty good bar on the station. You want to go get a drink? Just us guys? Well...guys for the most part, Tali is coming along too, along with a couple of the others."

"Who exactly?"

"Norman isn't coming along and Adam doesn't drink so he's just going down to the planet. Volker is coming along though, and Roger isn't stuck in bed anymore so he's tagging along too, and I managed to get Wrex on board too."

"Eh...oh sure why not," Garrus said. "I was trying to get some work on something done, but I think I've hit a dead end. I might as well take a break."

"All right," John said, slapping Garrus on the back. "Come on, the others are waiting at the airlock." Garrus followed John out of the room and into the elevator. Within a minute, the had entered the elevator, it taking them up a deck to the airlock. The elevator slid open onto the galaxy map and walked out, heading towards the far end of the deck, were the four others were standing, Roger holding a crutch in each hand.

"No...no, no, no, no, you're lying," Volker said, looking at Roger with disbelieving eyes. "There's no way that that is possible."

"I'm telling you the truth," Roger said, grinning widely. "The dumbass tried to get more shots off so he pried the cooling lock off of his gun. The thing freaking melted in his hand, he almost had the damn thing amputated."

"I...how is that even possible?" Tali asked. "Can people really be so stupid that they play around with their guns like that?"

"You should see what the dumber Blood Pack mercs do," Wrex said. "One guy I met tried to weld two extra barrels onto his shotgun once, I couldn't make something like this up. I'm pretty sure he was the only one that was surprised when it blew up and took half of his face off. The Vorcha somehow managed to be bigger dumbasses though, at least the Krogan could figure out which end of the gun was which."

"I...how do people do this?" Volker asked, "how to handle your gun is supposed to be the most basic of military training. It's easy. I'm from 1945 and I know better."

Roger let out a laugh. "That's true, but there are some major grade dumbasses out there. Sometimes they're just really that stupid, but sometimes they're just lazy and want to take shortcuts. And some people honestly say that natural selection doesn't apply to intelligent lifeforms."

"Uh...Roger?" Garrus said, sounding rather confused. "Are you ok?"

"What?" he asked, turning to look at the Turian. "What the fu...I mean yeah, I feel fine. Why do you ask?"

"I...never mind," he said.

"Well, let's do this," John said, walking towards the airlock, the others following him. They passed through the airlock and into the station, the metal walls of the hallway widening as they moved forward.

"Amazing," Volker whispered as they reached the end of the hallway and stepped into a massive plaza, thousands of people wandering around at various stalls, screens and advertisements coating the walls and bright lights illuminating all of it. "All of this was built to stand by itself? In space?"

"Yeah," Roger said, chuckling slightly. "You know, I sometimes forget that you aren't used to this time period yet. Things like this are pretty mundane and ordinary. This is just a hub station a place were people dock their ships so that they can get refueled. A lot of merchants live inside these places, trying to sell stuff to the ships that are constantly docking."

"If you think that this is impressive, you should see the Migrant Fleet liveships," Tali said, looking at Volker. "Three massive ships that have to grow enough food to feed seventeen million people."

"I get the feeling you'll meet a lot of people just like that nomad that helped us rescue T'Soni here in addition to the merchants that live here," Roger continued. "We're here for something a little more basic though."

"Ah...are you ok?" Volker asked, looking at Roger, "you're acting...different. I...I don't mean to be rude, I've seen a lot of people loose limbs to artillery shells and I know how bad it must be but...is this because of your leg?"

"I...ugh, it's a long fucking story and I'm not in the mood right now," Roger groaned, "I'll tell you when I'm shitfaced." Volker looked like he was about to ask another question, but he spotted Tali shaking her head out of the corner of his eye and didn't say anything.

"Don't think that we should be going that far," Garrus said cautiously. "We don't want to do anything stupid while we're out in public, especially given the sensitive nature of our mission."

Roger let out a laugh. "You're going to be that one guy that's a 24/7 buzzkill aren't you? Still, you kind of have a point."

Garrus blinked before glancing at Volker, leaning towards him and whispering "What's a buzzkill?"

The German shrugged. "I have no idea."

"Ah, here we go," John said as they approached a bar that was shoved into the corner of the plaza, the six of them sitting down at the stools in front of it. "I'm paying," John said, "what do you guys want?"

"Hold on," the bartender, a Standard Human said, "we don't serve aliens here. Get lost."

"Lovely hospitality the Coalition has," Garrus said dryly. "I can't imagine why they have a hard time making friends with other races."

"I don't give a crap about that Turian, I'm not serving drinks to a genocidal fascist, now get lost!"

Tali groaned slightly. "Gee, this has never happened to me before. Wonder how long it's going to be until he accuses me of stealing something."

"Oh goody, a motherfucker who thinks we give a shit about his opinion," Roger said, raising his cybernetic arm and flipping the bartender off. "Kindly go fuck yourself."

Volker sighed as he rubbed his temples. "Well, I guess this isn't going to work out very well." He looked at Roger. "I don't suppose that we have anything to drink back on the ship?"

"I think a saw a couple of crates of some good stuff in the cargo bay," Wrex said, glaring at the bartender. "You've got a quad you know. You're pretty damn stupid but you've got a quad. Count yourself lucky that I'm on a Coalition ship right now and I kind of want to stay on it, that's the only reason you're still standing."

"Let lost lizard," the bartender snapped.

"Fuck you too buddy," Roger said, grabbing his crutches and getting to his feet. "Well, I don't know about you guys but I'm getting a little tired of this bitch."

"Same here," Volker said, getting to his feet along with Garrus. "Let's get out of here."

"It's probably for the best," Tali said, following the others, "I doubt that someone like this would have any good Dextro drinks."

"Hold on," John said, holding up a hand, indicating for the others to stay. "Look, we're Coalition soldiers here, these three have been helping us on a damn important mission. I don't think that asking for a couple of drinks is being particularly unreasonable."

"I don't care. Loose those two and I'll be happy to serve the rest of you, until then, get lost."

"Is it really too much to pour them a couple glasses of booze? They've been help protecting the Coalition, they deserve it for free as far as I'm concerned!"

"I don't give a crap. If people see me selling to aliens I'm going to start loosing customers and money. I'm not about to do that just because you think that you and your little buddies are a bunch of special snowflakes."

"Shepard," Garrus said, "come on. He's not worth it. You can't let every last person who's less than pleasant get to you."

"He has a point," Roger said. "Don't get me wrong, I really want to grab this guy's head and smash it into a wall, but it'd probably end badly for me. He's a small fry."

"Is it too much to ask for a couple of fucking drinks?!" John swore, glaring at the bartender and causing a couple of the others to jump in surprise. "I really can't stand people like you you know."

"I'll try to contain my tears," he snarled, "if you don't leave now I'm calling security."

"Shepard, come on," Garrus said, grabbing the Commander by his shoulder and pulling him to his feet. "You're going to make a real mess if you keep this up."

"But-" John began, but Garrus cut him off.

"Also, I'm supposed to be keeping an eye on you to make sure that you deserve your honorary Spectre status and to make sure that you won't abuse it. I'm sending regular reports back to the Council, and what do you think they'll say if they realize they gave a free pass to someone who can't keep his temper when he meets one asshole bartender?" John opened his mouth before shutting it again. Slowly, he walked away, heading back to the airlock. Garrus and Wrex paused before following him.

"The Hell was that all about?" Roger asked, looking confused.

"I haven't the faintest clue," Volker said.

"Well this turned out just great," Tali grumbled. "Hey, while we're out here, Opifex wanted me to pick up some parts for him, he says that he's working on something big but he needs some more materials. Would you mind giving me a Volker? If that guy was anything to go by I wouldn't count on the other merchants treating a lone Quarian too kindly."

"Sure thing," Volker said. "Besides, it might be for the best if I tag along. I've been looking a lot of things up and I think I have how much credits are worth down, but I don't want to throw too much of them around just yet. I'm technically not a Coalition soldier so I don't have a stable income."

"I'll do what I can, heavy lifting is out of the question though," Roger said.

"Ok, I can't take this anymore," Volker said, turning to look at Roger. "What the Hell is going on with you?"

"What the fuck is that supposed to-" Roger started, his face narrowing in anger before stopping mid-sentence. "I...fuck I'm bad at this. Look, it's complicated, I'll tell you on the way."

"All right," Volker said, looking slightly confused.

"I heard what he's going to say already Volker, you really should listen to him," Tali said, activating her omni-tool and reading a small list. "Ok, let's start over here. I'm sending it to your omni-tools now."

"Right," Volker said, reaching down and tapping his arm. Nothing happened. "Uh..." he said slowly tapping his arm again. "I...I can figure out how this works," he said, tapping random spots all over his arms. "It can't be that hard, it-" Tali reached forward and gently touched a spot on the metal brace that he was wearing, causing his omni-tool to activate.

"Touch that spot when you want to turn it off too," Tali said kindly.

"Wow, I guess the stereotype is true, Salarians are good with technology."

"I'm a Quarian."

"Oh, right. Sorry," Volker said, looking a little uncomfortable. "I...God. I thought that I could handle this."

"Oh don't be such a pus-I mean lighten up man," Roger said, catching himself mid sentence. He paused before shaking his head. "Sorry," he said, "if this is too much for you you can always go back to the ship. Maybe throwing you out into the throng like this is a little too much."

"No...no I need to do this," Volker said softly. "I...I need to get used to this time period, the sooner the better, I need to get used to all of these weird powers, giant bugs and massive monsters. Once I do, I can get on with my life and going out in public should help so please...let's just do this."

"Don't push yourself too hard Volker," Tali said comfortingly. "Tell us if it gets to be too much."

"All right," Volker said, taking a deep breath and smiling slightly. "Ok."

"Ok, let's get this over with," Roger said, limping after Volker and Tali as they headed into the plaza. Volker noticeably looked over his shoulder at John in the distance, worry etched into his face.

XXXXX

"Ah...this is very relaxing," Adam said, stretching his arms over his head as he walked forward. He was walking through the center of a small town on Demeter, far away from any major cities. He didn't enjoy crowded urban settings that much, preferring more open areas, and after a little bit of research, he had found the town Ilih Tnelis, and had decided to visit it.

"Certainly is a rather odd name," he muttered to himself, "but it's a nice place nonetheless." He looked around, taking in the sight of the town. It looked rather small, the type of town where everyone knew each other and had little contact with the outside world. He could see a church at the far end, towering over the other buildings. "Perhaps I should pay a visit, the architecture and art of churches is always different on every planet," he remarked. As he did, his stomach growled loudly. He chuckled to himself. "Forgot to eat breakfast. Aw well, the building isn't going anywhere. Now then, there must be somewhere that I can get a nice meal...ah, here we go."

He spotted a small diner out of the corner of his eye and walked into it. It was a rather small building, with no more than a dozen tables and a counter, along with a door leading to what Adam assumed was the kitchen. A few people were sitting at the tables, poking at plates of food with forks, while a man in a plain brown robe stood in front of the counter, his hair graying and a silver cross hanging around his neck. "Thank you for your generous donation," he said to the woman standing behind the counter. "It is very kind of you, a delinquent broke our ornate windows and every credit helps. I trust that I will be seeing you at mass tomorrow?"

The woman smiled. "Of course father."

"I am glad to hear that child," the priest said, turning around. "Now then, I must-" he stopped in his tracks as he saw Adam, taking in his white armor and the golden crucifix painted across the chest. A smile spread across his face. "A Left Hand Commando...another man of the cloth I see? Pleased to meet you, I'm the head father of this town's church, and a bit of a spiritual leader. What brings you all the way from Earth to our sleepy little town?"

"I'm afraid I can't go into too much detail," Adam replied. "It's official Coalition business though...well sort of. I'm on leave right now, but I am on a rather important mission."

"Well, you should be proud of yourself, dedicating your life to removing blights from this world so that we may better prepare for the next. Perhaps I will see you at the church before you leave?"

"I'll do my best to make it, right now I'm just trying and to get something to eat."

"Ah, of course," the father said, turning around to face the woman behind the counter. "I'll be going now. Be a good host and give our guest the finest that you can." The father nodded his head and smiled as he walked out of the diner.

"He seemed rather pleasant," Adam said, "It seemed a little odd about how he said that I remove blights from the world though."

"Well don't you?" the woman asked.

Adam shrugged. "I suppose technically, but that's not the way I like to think about it. What I do is a very dirty and unpleasant thing that should only be used as a last resort. Violence should only ever be used as a means to an end, never for personal satisfaction. That is what was taught to me at the Vatican."

"Wow, you're from the Vatican!? What's it like?"

"It's rather hard to describe to someone who hasn't seen it, but needless to say it's quite a view. Is there any chance that I could look at a menu?"

"It's right up there," the woman said, pointing upward at a sign that was hanging over them.

"Oh...my mistake," Adam said, chuckling slightly before studying the menu. "Hm...I suppose that I'll have some scrambled eggs along with some bacon. And some water to drink. A little basic, but still satisfying. Ok, let me see, the bacon is four credits, the eggs are-"

"Oh you don't pay here," the woman said cheerfully. "You're a man of God, what kind of person would I be if I demanded money from you?" She craned her head and shouted over her shoulder. "I need some bacon and eggs!" She looked back at Adam, smiling widely. A small frown spread across the commando's face.

"I...I appreciate the gesture, but I would much rather prefer it if I paid for my meal."

The woman blinked. "But why would you do that? You're carrying out God's work, I can't just force you to pay for food from me."

"Yes young lady, yes you can," Adam said patiently. "Me being a priest doesn't make me above paying for breakfast, or waiting in line, or waiting in traffic, or just about anything in general. I'm a normal person just like you, it's just that I dedicated my life to preaching my religion and giving sermons, along with defending those that needed it. It doesn't make me better than you and I honestly would feel much more comfortable if I were to pay for my food. Taking it from you for free would feel like I'm abusing my position for my personal benefit, and I will be honest with you, I am terrified of doing that."

The woman sighed. "Fine, if you really insist."

"Thank you, Adam said, smiling as he activated his omni-tool, transferring some credits from his bank account to hers.

"Ok father you-"

"Please, call me Adam."

"...ok," the woman said, eyeing him as if he had something odd, "your food should be just about done."

"Thank you, I'll just-" Adam began, but was interrupted as the door to the dinner opened.

"Uh, is there anyone here who can help me?" a dark skinned woman in business clothing said, walking into the dinner with an active omni-tool, vicious typing into it. "I'm trying to find New Athens, I need to be there for a business meeting in two days, but something's wrong with my omni-tool. I was supposed to get it replaced but I didn't have the time to-"

"New Athens?" Adam said, raising an eyebrow, "that city is on the other side of the planet."

"I...oh son of a bitch," the woman swore. "I am scrapping this thing the second I get the chance," she hissed, deactivating her omni-tool. "Good thing I'm a couple of days early. Thanks by the way, my name is Aafreen."

"Adam. I'm glad to help. I could probably also find a shuttle that could get you there in time."

"I appreciate that, but I'm pretty sure I can arrange for them to get me out of here. It'll probably take awhile though, I'll have to stay in this town overnight."

"Oh, you can come to mass in the morning then!" the woman behind the counter exclaimed.

"Uh..." Aafreen said, looking at the woman. "I appreciate the offer, but I'm not Christian. In fact I'm Islamic. Besides, I need to get out of here first thing in the morning. I just need to find an inn or something where I can stay for the night. This is so frustrating."

"I...but...what!?" the woman said, looking absolutely flustered. "You don't believe in Jesus?"

"I believe that he was a prophet of God, but only a man," Aafreen said, "look, I really don't want to have this conversation, can you just tell me where I can stay for the night?"

"But he died for our sins on the cross, how can you not believe in that?" She turned to look at Adam, "how can someone be so cruel that they turn their back on their lord and savior? She should be ashamed of herself."

"Different people have different believe and views," Adam said calmly. "To say that those that think differently are foolish is the height of both ignorance and arrogance. I urge you to be neither."

"Well I'm sorry, I don't feel comfortable talking to a heathen like her!" the woman shouted.

Adam blinked as he continued to look at her. "Now that I think about it, I'm not particularly hungry." Turning, he walked out of the dinner, Aafreen leaving with him. "I'm sorry about that," he said to her.

"It's not your fault she was so stuck up," Aafreen said, looking at Adam. "Besides, after awhile you get used to someone thinking that everyone that doesn't think the exact same way as they do is a moron. Christians, Muslims, Atheists, Liberals, Conservatives, no one is exempt."

"True, but it is awfully frustrating," Adam sighed, looking up at the sky. "Still, I would like to help find you a place to stay.

Aafreen grinned. "That's nice of you. You're a lot nicer than the other infidels." Adam blinked. "I was joking because...it just...oh forget it." Adam laughed and Aafreen gave a sheepish smile.

"So, what do you do for a living?" Adam asked.

"Oh I'm an executive for a company that produces air cars, I doubt that you've heard of it, we only operate on a couple of planets. The whole reason we're coming out here is that we're thinking about setting up shop on this planet. My omni-tool got damaged though and apparently because of that I'm on the wrong side of the planet...perfect, just perfect, and the shuttle I took left an hour ago, so I don't think I'm getting a ride from that." Aafreen groaned in annoyance. "So what about you?"

"Just a soldier of the Coalition," Adam replied, "I'm on leave." As he spoke, he scanned the buildings that they were walking by. A smile broke across his face as he spotted a small inn. "I think that place should do."

"Looks nice enough," she said, the two of them walking through the front door to find a well dressed man standing in the parlor with his hand pressed to his ear.

"I understand father, I...yes she just arrived. I'll take care of it," he said, lowering his hand. "That was the head father," he said, looking at Adam and Aafreen. "The woman you just met at the diner called him about the...uh...incident with this young lady here. The father extends his deepest apologizes for this, he wants to make your stay here as pleasant as possible."

"She...called him?" Adam asked, sounding confused. "And you called him?" He couldn't put his hand on it, but something felt rather off about all of this.

"Oh yes, the father is like a mentor to us all," the man explained. "We have all gone through tough times in our life, and whenever we did he was always here for us. We always go to him whenever we need help and he guides us down the right path. If you met him, he probably described himself as the spiritual leader of this town, which is pretty much true."

"I understand," Adam said, still feeling a little uncomfortable. He turned to face Aafreen and was about to tell her that he would most likely check up on her in the morning, but stopped. For some reason, his gut was telling him not to say it in front of the man. "I...well, I'm glad I could help. I doubt that I'll be able to see you again." As he did, he mouthed the words "be careful" to her, his back to the man.

She blinked in confusion, but didn't say anything, giving a small nod that she had understood. "Ok, thank you for the help," she said. Adam nodded before walking out of the inn.

As he stepped outside, Adam couldn't help but realize that the pleasant feeling that he had had when he first entered the town had long since evaporated, being replaced with a sour taste in his mouth. Something simply felt wrong about the place, but he wasn't sure what. "I need to check up on her before she leaves," Adam said to himself. "Make sure that she's all right." He continued to walk, a horribly unpleasant feeling still in his stomach.

XXXXX

Saren nervous rubbed his forehead as he paced back and froth across Sovereign's bridge. He had ordered the ship along with a couple hundred Geth to head to one of the outposts that they had established to salvage Reaper technology. All of the other outposts had reported in after he had ordered them to, and for the most part they had all been fine. A few of them had teams that had been experiencing headaches and nightmares, but after the indoctrination devices had been removed and destroyed, they had faded.

It seemed like Saren had gotten to his teams just in time...for the most part. One of them, a team sent to examine a derelict Reaper orbiting a Brown Dwarf, had not reported in. Fearing the worst, Saren had taken Sovereign and immediately set a course for the outpost.

He stopped as Sovereign exited light speed, the Brown Dwarf and the Reaper orbiting it clearly visible. Had he been in any other ship, he would have been knocked about by howling winds as Sovereign closed on the other ship, but the powerful kinetic barriers of the capital ship easily negated their affect, causing the ship to smoothly head towards its destination.

"I want all units ready to deploy in five minutes!" Saren shouted into his COM unit as he exited the bridge, making his way down to Sovereign's hanger. "This is a search and rescue mission, get onboard that ship, find any survivors and get them off. Destroy any indoctrination technology that you can find too, I have no use for it and it poses a threat to me!"

The Turian fought back the urge to gulp as he entered an elevator, descending down into the lower sections of the ship. Several minutes passed as he continued to weave his way through Sovereign, before finally reaching the hanger. Several dozen Geth were standing there motionless, waiting for him in front of a handful of dropships.

"Well...move out," Saren said softly. The Geth responded with the reflexes one would expect from a machine race, marching into the dropships in an orderly fashion. Saren fought back the urge to swallow as he climbed onto one of them, the door closing behind him. His stomach lurched as the dropship took off. "What's wrong with me?" he whispered, "am I such a rookie that I can't handle a ship taking off?"

"Saren?" a voice said over his COM unit. "Are you there?"

"Yes Rana...are you ready?"

"Yes, I've got the feed set up. Anything your Geth can see, I can see."

"Good. The Geth aren't a very talkative bunch, so I need you to be my eyes and ears. Tell me if you see anything out of the ordinary. We can't completely rule out that the Coalition managed to find us here."

"Understood," Rana said, the COM line dying as Saren sighed and slid down into a sitting position, his back against the wall. He gently tapped his talon against the Spectre grade assault rifle in his hands, waiting as the dropship headed towards the derelict Reaper. The seconds slowly ticked by as he sat there, dragging by as he impatiently waited. He found himself clenching his mandibles in frustration, fighting down the urge to order the dropship to go faster.

'What is wrong with me!?' he thought angrily, 'I'm completely loosing my nerve!' He continued to wait, and after what seemed like an hour, the dropship finally docked. 'That must have take a while if...TWO MINUTES?' he thought, activating his omni-tool and realizing how short the trip had been. One of the Geth was staring in his direction, and Rana's voice crackled over the COM lines.

"What's wrong Saren? You look uncomfortable?"

"I...nothing," he said, grabbing his assault rifle and getting to his feet. "All right, move out, kill anything that posses a threat," he said as the door to the dropship slid open and he jumped out, the Geth following him. They disembarked in the hanger of the derelict Reaper, the other dropships having gone to other parts of the ship to spread out and maximize their search range.

"Something doesn't seem right here," Saren remarked, looking around the hanger. Several research terminals and work benches had been set up all over the hanger, with no life in sight, as if everyone had been killed. But at the same time it didn't look like there had been a struggle, all of the equipment looked undamaged, if a bit dusty. "Where did everyone go?" he said out loud.

"I can't tell, there's too much interference from the Brown Dwarf to run a thermal scan," Rana said. "You might want to try tapping into the Reaper's internal sensors."

"I'll keep that in mind," Saren said, walking towards one of the terminals and typing in commands, accessing the video logs.

"Goddess," an image of an Asari said, the screen coming to life. "Saren's data was good, there really is a ship here and it's enormous! I wish that we could start working on it right away but...he wants us to survey this ship and see how extensive the damage is before he sends any Geth to help us rebuild it. He says that he can't afford to spread his forces too thin and that the Geth that he has are already busy repairing other ships like this. I wanted to argue but...I know nothing about this ship or the geth, so what do I know? Still, it's going to take awhile to survey this entire thing, especially when it has such advanced technology. We better get started."

Saren frowned as he typed a command into the terminal, cycling through the entries to a later one. The same Asari appeared, looking much more disheveled this time. "Things aren't going very well, half of the scientists keep getting headaches and the ones that don't keep talking to themselves. I think the tight spaces are starting to get to us, and the inside design of this ship is something out of a nightmare. I'll be glad when all of this is over...maybe I should-" the recording was cut off as Saren cycled through the entries again, this time to the last one.

"I...what's going on?" the Asari said quietly. "A week ago I didn't know the first thing about this ship, but know every time I look at one of the parts I know what it is and what it does. Repairing this ship would be easy now if we had the manpower but...for some reason I feel like I should be searching for something in the cargo bay...I...I..." the Asari fell silent, staring with dead eyes at the camera. For a moment she just sat there before reaching forward, turning off the recording.

Saren's hand shook as he pulled it back. 'Is it possible?' he thought to himself. 'Did they get indoctrinated? I-' his line of thought was broken as a roar filled his ears. He whipped around to see a massive creature charging out of a doorway, several smaller figures carrying rifles right behind it. The creature swung a large clawed hand at the nearest Geth, nearly ripping it and half and sending it flying against the wall.

Saren raised his rifle and fired three bursts into the large creature's head, each one hitting it. The beast snapped its head in his direction and immediately charged, swiping its claws at him as the other figures opened fire on the Geth, who immediately began to return the favor. Saren fired two more bursts at the creature before throwing himself to the side, narrowing avoiding it's massive claws.

Spinning around, the creature swung again, Saren ducking it's long arms by the skin of his teeth. He fired another burst at its chest before the creature raised one of it's arms over its head and brought it smashing down, Saren jumping back just int time to avoid it. The claws buried themselves in the ground, not coming out, even as the creature pulled. Saren took advantage of this at once, running forward, up the creature's long arm and onto it's shoulder, pressing his rifle against its head and firing burst after burst at point blank range, causing sparks to fly out of the creature's head.

Through the sound of gunfire, Saren could faintly hear the sound of something heavy swinging through the air, and glanced to the side just in time to see the monster's other claw flying towards him. He cried out in agony as it slashed through his organic arm, leaving a deep gash. He fumbled his rifle and fell of the creature. Panicking, he reached out and grabbed it by the shoulder with his cybernetic arm and drawing his pistol with his burning organic arm. Let out a roar that was half fear half rage, he fired shot after shot into the monster's head.

The combined punishment finally took its toll on the creature and it fell forward, hitting the ground with a loud smash. Crawing forward, Saren continued to pump rounds into its head, continuing to roar as he did. Eventually, his pistol overheated and the bullets stopped, but he continued to pull the trigger nontheless. "SAREN!" Rana's voice caused a jolt to shoot through his body as he stopped pulling the trigger. He sat there for a second, his heart hammering in his chest as he looked at his pistol, which was shaking in his hand. "It's...it's dead Saren," Rana said softly.

"I know...I...thank you," Saren whispered, holstering his pistol and grabbing a tube of medi-gel, hastily applying it to his gash. As he did, he looked up just in time to see the Geth finish off the last of the figures with rifles, albeit with their own numbers significantly thinned. "What are these things?" Saren said, looking down at the creature that he had just killed. It seemed to be made out of metal and had a rather pointed head with multiple eyes.

"I don't know. I'm ordering one of the Geths to examine the things with the rifles," Rana said, one of the Geth indeed stepping forward with an omni-tool, scanning the figure with the rifle. "I'm getting the results now I...oh Goddess. Saren this thing...it's a Turian."

"What?!" Saren shouted, looking back down at the larger creature that he had killed. As he did, he realized, with a pang of nausea, that the creature's head was in fact a Turian's skull.

"Oh Spirits," he whispered, realized that the extra eyes that it had must be cybernetic implants. "What happened here?" Before Rana replied, a noise filled his ears again. This time however, it was not an animalistic roar like the creature had let out. It was a high pitched screech.

CODEX UPDATED

ENTRIES ADDED

Hawkins Industries: Hawkins Industries was formed a year after the First Contact War by Alexander Hawkins and his wife. Both of them were angered by the Turian attack on the Coalition, and founded the company to bolster the starship industry of their government. Anti-alien resentment was at an all time high, in the Coalition, and they received massive support from government officials and wealthy businessmen, causing the company to take off. Within months, a board of executives had been formed and dozens of shipyards were built, producing civilian ships. As of today, the Hawkins Industries produces 42% of the civilian ships used in Coalition territory, although it has notably not received a license to produce military ships from the government.

Ten years go, Alexander Hawkins was involved in a massive scandal. Many accused him of taking bribes and having a hand in trafficking Jet. Trails and investigations lasted for months and the value of the company's stock took a significant drop, but Hawkins was never convicted of anything. For the most part, Hawkins Industries' stocks have recovered and they continue to make ships to this day, even though the CEO regularly speaks out against aliens and identifies himself as anti-Council and a member of the Terra Firma party.

Hub Station: Hub stations are a type of orbital station that is universal among all races of the galaxy. They can be found orbiting most heavily colonized planets, usually in large numbers. Hub stations are cheaply but effectively designed to accommodate the basic needs of all space-ward travelers. Many ships can dock with a hub station at the same time, to be repaired, refueled and resupplied. What is more, the interior of the station has more to it than simple services dedicated to the maintenance of ships.

Much like the Citadel and Omega, hub stations are centers of trade and culture, albeit on a much smaller scale, to the point where they can be considered small towns. These stations contain stores that sell a variety of merchandise, rooms that can be rented, bars and other such accommodations. Thousands of people can be found on a hub station at any given time, many of them permanently living on the station. However it also worth noting that sometimes hub stations have an underbelly of crime.

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Author's Note: People are probably going to complain about Norman's backstory is too blunt and too generic. For the moment, that is understandable but remember the Assassin's Creed. Nothing is true, everything is permitted. Also Aafreen isn't going to be around for too long, so don't worry about that...she is going to play a rather important role in the near future though.

Also a recently made a friend who is a fellow writer like me, he's working on a Skyrim fanfiction. He hasn't gotten too many views though, so give him a little support. The fic is on his Deviant Art account. His user name is VagabondMike Also, I want to find a way to spice things up, so here's a little thing that I'm going to be doing now at the end of chapters when I can come up with something.

VERSUS!

This is where I take two people, settings, factions etc, and pit them against each other. The readers (you) will vote and by the time I post the next chapter I will decide the winner. For our first time, we will have "Who is the best Dragon?" In TV Tropes, the Dragon is the second in command, the guy that does all of the dirty work for the Big Bad and is usually a force to be reckoned with. For this Versus, we have

KAI LENG:

+ Heavy cybernetic augmentations

+ Killed a Krogan with a knife

+ Held his own against David Anderson

+ Killed Thane Krios (who was admittedly very sick)

Fought against Commander Shepard on several occasions

Is rather arrogant

Has plot armor

VS

LEGATE LANIUS

+ Single handily killed his tribe when he was not even an adult

+ Killed two NCR rangers with his sword with little effort

+ Killed 10 men in the Legion's arena, barehanded

+ Can survived being shot in the face with a .50 cal anti-tank round

Has mythic status among the Legion

Is very proud

Lacks a ranged weapon, aside from a few grenades

Vote and decide, WHO IS BETTER!?