(A/N:Hello everyone and welcome to chapter 21, one of the three chapters I promised you all today as compensation for being late last time I posted a chapter. Hope you enjoy them, and just so you know things are going to slow down after these three chapters for a little bit so please lower your expectations for action for a little bit, alright let's get to it shall we.)

Chapter 21: Turning the tied

We helped spartan team out with repairing their outpost and fixed up some of the night shade tanks since they were reduced down to a very small number of marines and mercs and arlak company couldn't stay and help them either, they had to head to the shield generator to find out who shut it down and to try and get it back up and running again. After we'd helped fix some of the tanks we headed off to help our tank units, we had to be careful though, sense we weren't sure of how many more mecs the black hearts had left, or what types they still had, I'd hoped it wouldn't be any more titan mecs as they were harder to kill than the normal heavy mecs. Vicki seemed to still be shaken up about Trevor nearly getting killed as she never left his side for even a second, she seemed to be rather clingy out of her fear of losing her first true love forever which she'd almost come face to face with too. I told her that she might have to at some point during our long walk toward samurai team, she said she understood that it was a possibility as we kept on going.

I could tell that Trevor wasn't as shaken as Vicki was about it, especially when he pulled her to his side to try and reassure her. "Hey it's okay baby, you don't have to worry anymore remember? These shields will keep us safe from anything, isn't that right sarge?"

I just couldn't get used to people calling me that, I'd been known as private for so long that it's become a part of me almost. "Yeah I think so, but then again I'm not sure if they function on the same scale of the shield for the city, as far as I know Kyle never had a chance to test them like his prototype generator, and even then it was a gamble to see if it'd pay off."

"Well judging by how well it worked back there I think we're golden from here on out." Trevor backed up as he banged his fist on his chest plate, Vicki just wrapped her arms around him and kissed his cheek.

Then she said directly to her boyfriend with a serious voice. "Still though you'd better not get killed, you made a promise to me and I expect you to keep it."

Trevor smiled back at her and said. "Don't worry my little kitty cat, we'll get through this and you'll have everything you want from me, till death do we part."

I stopped and turned toward them as I took notice of what he'd just said. "Come again?" I asked puzzledly.

"Oh, I actually proposed to Vic last night in the bunker." He admitted to us all.

Then Vicki held up her left paw and showed off her engagement ring, and boy did it have a big rock on it. I'm not kidding this thing was like the size of a strawberry, I guess that's one of the benefits of being an auctioneer's son. "And I said yes, you're looking at the future Mr. and Mrs. Trevor Green."

Alice must've been listening in over our radio because she started gushing over their big announcement. "Oh my god I'm so happy for you guys, congratulations Vic."

"Thanks Alice…" Vicki replied with her mood suddenly much happier than before. "Oh by the way do you think you could get your sister to make us our cake? You know the one who owns the bakery in Gemini district?"

Alice had an older sister who owned a very popular bakery in the city, usually it took a while to get an order listed if you wanted something big like a wedding cake. But what Alice said next made it sound like she might have to wait a little longer than usual. "Sure, but I think your gonna have to wait for her to get the insurance claim because I just saw her bakery and…well it's not looking like it used to."

"Are you kidding me? Those black heart fuckers, oh when I get my paws on them I'm going to rip them a new asshole for screwing with my big day!" Vicki looked pissed, just as she did earlier when she kicked her dad's ass. I would have told her to calm down but I didn't think I'd survive the reprisal, so I just asked her something that might distract her.

"When is your big day gonna happen? Because if I know Alice well enough, which I'm pretty sure I do…"

Just then she cut in. "And you'd better say what I think you're going to say red."

Man do I know her or what? "Then she's probably going to want us to be there too, because she absolutely loves weddings."

I could sense the smile curling around Alice's face through the radio all the way from our current position. "Good boy, you might just get lucky tonight, assuming we can…" A loud explosion on her side of the radio cut her off.

"Alice? ALICE DO YOU READ ME?!" I cried out, but was given no response. "Track her last known location now!" I shouted to Parker, he was our radar mammal.

It only took him about five seconds to find her when he said. "She's eight clicks away from here over in south alpha district."

Oh thank god, that's not too far from our position. "Is her craft destroyed?"

"No sir but…oh no." He said with an almost deafening pause.

"What, what is it?" I was in a panic.

He looked up at me with a worried look on his face. "She's been shot down, and I can see enemy reinforcements converging on her."

I went from panicked to straight up fearful. "Everyone head for south alpha now, double time it people! I already lost her once I'm not losing her again!" We ran faster than I think any of us had ever ran in our lives, we got there in no time and not a second too soon as we'd found the black hearts had amassed a large enough force to take the gunship and the pilot who at this moment in time was my girlfriend, who was fighting for her life at this time, she had the wisdom to take a gun before we'd left the bunker, so much for her logic that guns cause more problems than…what am I talking about this right now for? I've got to save my bunny. "Move in, deadly force, but don't shoot Alice or I'm going to kick your ass when this is over!" We charged in guns blazing, our shields did just what we all assumed they'd do, they caused the enemy's fire to bounce off of us and sent them flying back at the enemy, which I thought was mildly amusing. "No quarter, show these fuckers what happens when they attack our home! OOH-RAH!" I shouted out to the squad as we slowly began to overcome the enemy, I guess they weren't counting on us having a prototype shielding hardware in our suits because they just kept shooting us and then catching their bullets in their own faces.

"CODY!" I heard Alice call out to me, I turned and saw a batarian holding her in a head lock with a gun to her head.

I Ran over to her and aimed my gun for his head. "Let her go four eyes!"

"Not gonna happen fox, first drop the gun then we'll AH!" A shot rang out behind me and hit the gun out of his hand, he cursed in his native tongue for a second, or at least I think he did because I couldn't understand what he said, even though I had a translator on my omni-tool, Alice then raised her leg up and quickly kicked him in the groin with her heel then when she landed and he'd started kneeling and holding his boys she booted up her omni-tool and froze him solid with her cryo blast weapon on her omni-tool.

I rushed over to her in the attempt to hug her. "Alice are you…?"

"Hold that thought." She picked up a metal rod from some shattered concrete and started to unleash her frustrations on the poor bastard she'd frozen. "GOD…DAMN…MOTHER…FUCKERS…SHOOTING…ME…DOWN…IN…MY…NEW…GUNSHIP!" She just reduced him to small pieces of ice while he was still frozen, and still alive of course, I didn't dare get close to her as I'd never seen her like this, it scared the living shit out of me to be honest. She took a quick breath and turned back to me and saw the look of fear on my face. "What? They had it coming." I just stood there with my jaw a gape. "Oh for god sake get over it, this is a war zone, and people die in a war zone." She just walked off like it never happened, I didn't know what to think of her at the moment, part of me was proud of her for kicking ass while another part was scared that she had just gotten a taste of killing and would soon grow to like it, either way I chose to get a tattoo of our anniversary on my arm after we were done with this fight. "God…DAMN it! Look what they did to Jessica."

Uhhhhhh…I'm sorry but who the hell is she talking about? "Uh…who's Jessica?"

"My gunship. Oh and by the way I've claimed this thing as my own and I don't care what the alliance says they can just buy a new one."

"Uh…okay." I didn't want to piss her off for any reason so I just went with it.

She started to inspect the damage of the downed aircraft and began to get even angrier. "Grr just look at the damage they've done to my baby, this is gonna take weeks to fix up I mean look what they did to the starboard engine, and look at the stabilizers, their all but destroyed, fuckers owe me a shit ton of credits for this."

Tell me she isn't serious. "Okay for real? You literally just got this thing calm down before you get all worked up. " She just glared at me. I just narrowed my eyes onto her and said. "Don't you give me that look we're still in the middle of a fight here and…do you hear whistling?" I looked up and saw…FUCK! "Missiles, RUN FOR IT!" I grabbed Alice and carried her off over my shoulder and got her behind cover.

"NO MY BABY!" Alice cried, I was just annoyed, she was about to get blown up and all she cared about was a fucking gunship? I don't…you know what no. I'm not going to say it again because it would just be a waste of my breath. The missiles impacted the ground and destroyed the gunship, there was nothing left of it but scattered debris, we all peered up over our cover and just took a look at the wreckage of the fallen craft. "SON OF A…BITCH!" Alice took off her helmet and threw it at the wreck. "FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK!" She began to start kicking dead bodies of black heart troopers to try and vent.

I walked over to her in the attempt to calm her down. "Alice calm down it's just a…"

"SHUT THE HELL UP!" She blasted at me at full volume. "I WILL NOT…CALM DOWN FOR THIS! I JUST GOT THAT THING AND NOW IT'S GONE!"

Okay you know what I'm not dealing with her bullshit today. "IT'S…A…FUCKING…GUNSHIP!" I screamed in her face. "Just be happy you weren't in it when it blew up, otherwise we wouldn't be having this conversation." She started to pout a bit, seriously though how can you get so attached to something you'd just gotten to use for a few seconds? Everyone was staring at us for our little argument. "What are you staring at? Form a perimeter!" They all got back to their duties and started to do a shell count to see how much ammo we had left, we weren't taking any chances. "By the way Vic, thanks for the save with Alice and that batarian."

Vicki paused from counting her shells to look over to me and ask. "What are you talking about? That wasn't me." I was confused, she was the best sniper on my team and she wasn't the one who save my girlfriend.

"Well then who was it?" I asked back.

"Beats me, I was more focused on the black hearts in front of me, same for most of us." I was just confused, if none of my squad saved Alice then who did? We all heard a loud shrieking sound approaching us and growing louder as it got closer to us, it sounded like it was coming from the sky, I looked up and saw where it was coming from. Enemy gunships in attack formation.

"WATCH OUT!" I cried to warn the squad as the enemy crafts started firing rockets at us. We all took cover in the nearby buildings, we might have had new shields but we weren't stupid, we weren't just going to leave it to chance that we were going to survive a direct hit from a rocket. The rockets basically made a bunch of craters outside of our hiding places, we just needed a way to get rid of those things and fast. Vicki and the snipers had an idea to use their own rockets against them by shooting them with their rifles, before they did though Alice asked them to just kill the pilot of just one of them so she could have a new gunship all to herself, normally I'd object to that but there was no way we were going to save our tanks without air support so I told them to just go with it. Vicki took the first shot and fulfilled her request from Alice, killing the pilot of the first closest gunship and then continuing with the rest as she just took out one craft after the other, same could be said for the rest of the snipers in the unit, but it wasn't long until more gunships came to back them up.

"Second wave in coming." Parker cried as he looked at his radar to get an idea of how many black hearts were coming for us. The gunships then locked on to our hiding place and made themselves ready to fire when I heard someone over our radio.

"Hey kid can you hear me?" It was the familiar voice of a Krogan merc I'd sort of befriended on the other end of this line.

"Vohmeg? Is that you?" I asked hoping I wasn't imagining his voice.

Thankfully I found I wasn't when he replied to me. "Yeah, I got the com system up and running again, where do you need help at because it sounds like you could use a hand, or a paw? What do you guys…?"

Oh my god dude prioritize please. "VOHMEG!" I was getting impatient as the gunships began to fire on us, thankfully their rockets didn't destroy our hiding spot.

"Sorry, anyway where do you need help?" He asked fully ready to give us a hand.

"South alpha district, we need some air support." I replied to him, but that's when a different voice cracked over the radio, this one sounded feminine.

"Copy, this is hornet one with hornet squadron inbound now, hang tight kids we're on our way." It was Shakrimi's sister over the coms.

"Oh thank god your still alive." I said feeling relieved.

"Don't thank us just yet kid, we still have to get there." She was right I'm afraid, we still had to wait for back up and god only knew how long that would take. Luckily it wasn't as long as our enemies would've liked because out of nowhere hornet squadron came flying in to the rescue and took out at least three of the enemy crafts with their rockets before they even knew what was going on.

"Hit those fuckers with our rocket launchers now!" I ordered to my squad mates. They prepped their launchers and fired on the unsuspecting crafts affectively reducing their numbers and ending the fight quicker. "Thanks for the assist uh…I'm sorry I'm afraid I've forgotten your name. I know your Shakrimi's sister…" I said feeling a bit awkward and also guilty when she interrupted me over the radio.

"No worries kid, names Tslonna, Tslonna Vonshah, ace and lead pilot of hornet squadron and for the moment one of your saviors." She replied as she and her squadron began to land their crafts on the ground, she hopped out of the craft and made her way over to me while I did the same. "But weren't you supposed to be…"

I cut her off before she could finish her sentence. "Yes-yes I know were not supposed to be out here, but it's a good thing we are otherwise this battle would be over by now."

"True enough, but just so you know I wouldn't want to be in your shoes when my sister finds out that you came out here." She Added plainly.

I knew Shakrimi was not one to be fucked with, but to be honest I wasn't really as scared of her as I was my dad. "I'm more worried about my old man than your sister to be honest."

"Either way your screwed, so where were you guys headed? I could give you a lift in my bird if you want." She offered as she pointed back to her gunship with her thumb.

Well naturally I wasn't going to pass up a free ride let alone a chance to help out samurai team quicker. "We were headed for team samurai's last position to rescue them and our tanks."

"Oh yeah, I heard that they were pinned down by a mortar crew in that area, I think they're using wraith shells on the alliance, or at least that's what my sister told me." She said casually.

"She's still alive?" I asked with shock.

She started to laugh at me. "Are you kidding me? She's a speacture and a damn powerful biotic to boot, and you're asking if she's still alive? Of course she is, if our dad taught her anything it's how to survive in a war zone on her own."

"Hey uh, I hate to interrupt but can you girls help me get that black heart gunship up and flying again? The one I had is…well…it's over there in a smoking heap." Alice said as she pointed in the direction of her now dead craft.

Tslonna looked over to where she was pointing and said. "Oh damn, lucky you weren't in it when it blew huh?"

"That's what I said, but she just cared more about the gunship than her own life." I scolded Alice as I glared over to her, she just flipped me off a bit.

To be honest I kinda thought that she'd be on my side, but I was surprised when Tslonna added. "Well I can't say I blame her to be fair. My gunship is like a baby to me, sure I've got like three kids back home but I still love this old thing as if it were my own child." I couldn't believe what I was hearing, not only did she sympathize with Alice in this regard but she felt the same way about her craft, you know what fuck it I give up trying to understand women, it's just an uphill battle and I am not gaining any ground from my efforts.

Not long after Alice asked yet again. "So, my new bird?"

Tslonna nodded then cried out. "Velshah, Stomfay…" A blue and a pink skinned asari came running up to her in their pilots uniforms. "See if that enemy bird is still flight worthy and if it's not fix it if you can and fit it with a friendly tracking beacon so we don't shoot her down by mistake."

They both saluted and said in unison. "MA'AM YES MA'AM!" They got to work on the downed gunship and pulled out the dead pilot.

"Okay everyone pile into miss Vonshah's gunship and be quick about it." Everyone but Alice piled into the gunship for obvious reasons of course. Velshah and Stomfay said it would take about five minutes to fix the damage to the black heart gunship and an extra ten minutes to apply a new friend foe beacon on it without sacrificing the old one for the black hearts, that way we'd be able to have someone get through any enemy automated defenses without being seen as an enemy pilot, plus we'd have an inside track on the enemy's movements through their own coms.

We were in the air for a good five minutes before we got a call from samurai team, and a certain someone who I wasn't expecting on the line. "This is samurai outpost, we need immediate assistance, is anyone out there who can help?"

She sounded panicked, Tslonna picked up her radio and answered her sister's frantic call. "This is hornet one, I read you samurai, hold on big sis I'm coming and I've got the militia on board my bird to help out."

Oh why? Why did she have to tell her that so soon? "WHAT?!" She didn't sound too happy to hear that as she started to shout even louder into the radio. "IS THE FOX KID WITH YOU?"

"Yeah he's…" Before she could answer Shakrimi just growled into the radio.

"Put…him…on, NOW!" She had clear anger in her voice. I picked up the radio speaker and spoke to the now angry speacture.

"Hey Shakrimi, how are…" I tried to calm her down but she just started up again.

"I THOUGHT WE TOLD YOU TO STAY IN THAT BUNKER MISTER!" She shrilled at the top of her lungs, it kind of made my ears start to ring a little.

"Oh don't get your quads in a twist." I thought by using krogan slang she'd try to listen, didn't help.

"YOU DELIBERATELY DISOBEYED A DIRECT ORDER YOU LITTLE…"

Oh god I just know I'm gonna regret saying this to her later. "OH WILL YOU SHUT THE FUCK UP ALREADY? We have bigger problems remember?"

I could tell that she wasn't calm yet, but she did understand somethings were more important than chewing me out at the moment. "Grr fine, but when this is over I'm going to kick your…"

"Yeah-yeah get in line, what's the situation with the mortar crews?" I replied not exactly caring if she was mad anymore.

"They've got us dug in deep…" An explosion cut her off for a brief second. "Shit! We can't move and we can't get a fix on them without getting blown up."

I didn't expect it to be easy, but hey everything's gone to hell anyway so what difference does it make. "What's the status on the maikos we sent to you?"

"There still…wait those were your tanks? Where did…you know what never mind just give us a fix on the mortar crews and hit 'em with everything you got." She replied just before she was cut off by another explosion.

"You got it, oh and we got long range coms up and running again so do me a favor…" I was about to tell her what to do but she said it for me.

"Contact the first fleet and the ascension, yeah I figured, I'll get right on it." Our call was ended by an explosion on the port side of the craft.

Tslonna just growled as she looked out the window on her left. "Shit, we got company, hang on kids I'm about to do some evasive maneuvers." I looked out the side window of the cockpit and saw three enemy gunships coming for us, they all started to fire rockets in unison, Tslonna started to use serpentine to try and shake them off as best she could flying low through the city streets, she swung around each corner she could with such ease and each time she did she was able to get a little farther ahead of them, the black heart pilots weren't nearly as good at low flying through and between buildings as she was. "Hang on I'm gonna try something." She shouted as she pulled back on the stick and flipped her bird over the enemy crafts, they just flew past her and started to stop and turn around but she had already armed her rocket launchers. "How's about a little game of tag, YOUR IT!" She cried as she pushed the button releasing a barrage of rockets in their direction and as a result they went down each in a ball of fire. "Too easy." I'll bet anything that she's done this before.

"Nice flying there." I said praising her.

She looked over to me with a smirk. "Well I am an ace of my squadron after all, you should see me in a fighter I'm like way…" She was cut off as we took another hit from the rear, the gunship was spinning out of control. "Shit, the stabilizers are out, hang on kids!"

"Everyone buckle in!" I ordered and they obeyed, they were all quick to buckle up in their seats as we just kept spinning out of control.

"Mayday-mayday, this is hornet one we're hit, we're going down in south alpha district…" We hit the ground hard, we were all alive and unharmed, and I was pissed off that we'd been shot down.

"Damn it! We need to get to samurai team now…" Machine gun fire started to rip through the roof of the craft, thankfully our shields took most of the damage, so glad Kyle gave them to us before we'd left otherwise we'd all be dead by now. "FUCK, WE'RE PINNED!" Trevor shouted with obvious worry.

"Damn it, I must've missed seeing one from behind us, how could I have missed this play? I practically invented it." Tslonna criticized herself.

"QUIT BEING A BITCH AND LET'S FIND A WAY OUT OF HERE!" I heard more gun fire from behind us as the fire on our downed craft had just ceased, then I saw the gunship flying away as another one chased after it, the only thing was it was clearly a black heart gunship attacking it which lead me to believe that Alice had finally rejoined the fight. The enemy craft didn't have time to escape, it just went down and crashed into the street below and split in to about seven pieces, I then heard Alice cheering through our com system.

"How do ya like that ya sons a bitches?" The pilot of the enemy craft was still alive, I saw her crawl out of the cockpit, she was a pink skinned asari in a black hearts pilot jump suit, it looked like her leg was broken.

"Let's go see if we can't get her to talk a bit." I said as I opened the rear exit door of the gunship in which we used to board it, Trevor and Tslonna accompanied me as we made our way to the injured pilot. She looked terrified as we got closer, she tried to crawl away as we advanced, she stopped once I got in front of her. "Who did your master send to mess with our shield?" I asked in an intimidating tone as I crouched down to see her face.

"Please don't do this, I beg you!" She pleaded, I guess she thought we were going to kill her.

"I asked you a question and I expect an answer, TALK!" She winced with fear, it seemed she was more afraid of me then the last guy I interrogated.

"I don't know, I'm just a pilot. I thought that being Maleyshee the black heart ace would make me cool but I didn't know what they were really like until I got to know them better." She spoke with honesty, she clearly didn't want to be one of them anymore, either that or she could smell that death was at her door in this moment.

I started to speak a little softer. "Well maybe we can help you escape them, but only if you help us."

I'd hoped that she would be a bit more cooperative with us, but sadly I was mistaken. "I don't know anything I swear, I'm new to this whole thing, if I'd known just how messed up the reaper was I'd never have joined them."

"Then why did you?" Trevor asked in a very aggressive tone to try and get her to talk.

"Same as anyone who joins, I didn't have a choice…" She replied as her voice started to crack and tears began to fall from her face.

"LIAR!" He shouted at her, she jumped a bit by his reaction. "You had a choice and you chose wrong!"

"You don't understand…" She lifted up her sleeve and revealed small cuts on her wrist, I was shocked at the sight.

"My god, did they do this to you?" I asked with shock and surprise.

She just shook her head as she confessed the truth to us. "No, this was all me. I did it to get attention from my parents, they didn't care though, I…I did somethings that I'm not proud of, drug trafficking and prostitution, when they found out I'd gotten arrested they were so mad at me that they kicked me out of the house, out of desperation I cut myself and put myself in the hospital to try and make them feel guilty for kicking me out, but they just ignored it, the only one who seemed to care was father reaper."

"How did he recruit you?" I asked plainly.

"He said that I was but a child who made a mistake, a mistake that only loving parents could forgive me for, he filled my head with the idea that they never cared about me, at first I didn't listen but as time went on I fell for it just like everyone else does." I began to see a pattern, Crystal said that her parents didn't care about her just like this girl said, I began to think maybe he recruits his troops when they're at their most vulnerable and brainwashes them into serving him and the black hearts cause.

"Is that how he gets all his new recruits? By making them think their parents don't care about them and never did?" I asked as I started to put the pieces together.

"No, some of them come to him seeking a new and better future from the one their currently on which for most is nothing, everyone he recruits believe he can give them that future but most of them die before he can deliver on that promise."

"There's a big shocker." Trevor said sarcastically.

I just shot Trevor a look, one that said to back off already. Then I turned my attention back to her. "Where is the reaper now?"

She started to shake in fear at that question just before she answered me with. "I…I can't tell you that…"

"He asked you a question!" Trevor shouted at her while aiming his gun at her as to intimidate her.

She flinched again and cried. "If I tell you he'll kill me."

I turned back to Trevor and pushed his gun down. "Will you stop that already, you're not helping." I ordered to him just before I turned back to her and said to her in a calm tone. "We can protect you, we can hide you from…" A shot rang out and a bullet pierced her forehead ending her life. I looked around and saw no signs of any snipers from behind us but I knew I wasn't making this up. "Did anyone of you fire a shot?" I called the squad thinking one of them might be responsible.

"Negative, none of us have left the gunship yet and none of us have a clear shot on your current stand point." This was the second time Vicki's told me that no one had fired a shot near me, who the hell was doing this? And why did they kill this girl? She clearly wasn't a threat.

"Damn, back at square one." I complained, my one chance to get information on our enemy and it's taken away from me in a single shot. "Okay gang let's get going, Alice our bird is down and yours is the only one around here so guess what?"

"All aboard the I just saved your ass again express." She cheered as she flew around us.

"Just land the gunship thank you very much."

"What's the magic word?" She asked in a sing song voice.

I groaned as I rolled my eyes. "Please."

Then she replied just to be a brat. "Nope, they changed it."

I'm not sure if it was because of her smart mouth, nearly getting killed for who knows how many times it's been sense I had to deal with the black hearts or losing a possible chance to take down the reaper but it didn't matter because in that moment I just blew the fuck up on her. "ALICE YOU STUPID LITTLE BITCH LAND THE DAMN GUNSHIP NOW BEFORE I SHOOT YOU IN YOUR CUNT!"

"Okay jeez I was just kidding around." She said with a somewhat apologetic voice.

"Well I'm sorry, I'm just a little on edge considering we just CHEATED DEATH! AGAIN!" I screamed back at her.

"Wait, again? How many times have you cheated death kid?" Tslonna asked with confusion.

I just sighed and said as I rubbed the stress from my eyes while saying. "More times than it should've been if you ask me."

Alice landed the gunship and the squad all ran over to her new craft, which she'd already named Jessica 2.0, I mean for real what the hell is up with her and naming her gunships? "Okay little bunny move over I'm flying this thing." Tslonna said as she tried to boot Alice out of the cockpit, but Alice was quick to object.

"Oh no you don't, this is my bird and no one drives my bird but me."

That's when Tslonna and Alice got into a little argument over who should be the pilot. "But I'm a more experienced pilot than you are and a fighter ace too." Tslonna replied sternly.

But Alice just said right back to her. "I don't care, I just got this thing right after I lost my last one and you're not taking the stick from me after…"

"Will you both just SHUT UP!" I shouted to try and get their attention. "I mean for fuck sake we're in the middle of a war zone and your both arguing about who should fly the damn gunship, just shut up and pile in so we can get going before more black hearts show up."

They both began to complain in unison. "But…"

"NOW GOD DAMN YOU!" I had already had enough of Alice today and I didn't need to take this crap from Shakrimi's sister too, they didn't say a word either of them, not even the rest of the squad said anything because they knew I was sick and tired of all of this bull shit already. Alice lifted the gunship off the ground and we made our way to finally help samurai team, and not a moment too soon as we found that our tanks were pinned down by the mortar crews and couldn't advance any further. "Get us in close and above them, we drop in on suspension cables and take them out, and with this bird flying their flag they'll never see it coming." I said as I began to load my gun. "Alright people you know the drill, let's rock-n-roll." The bay door opened up and the team began to hook up their cables and dropped to the unsuspecting mortar crews below.

They didn't even notice that we'd dropped down behind them until we started shooting them. "Oh shit how did they GAH!" I shot one as he was in mid-sentence, is it just me or do I pick these guys on purpose? We cleared out one mortar crew without being seen by the others, I managed to count three in number, not including this one, but since we'd already taken this one I saw no reason to just run up to the others let alone get back in the gunship and keep playing pop goes the weasel.

"I've got an idea, but we need to use this thing to do it." I pointed at the mortar launcher, some of them grinned with approval as we loaded up the first shell, I took the scope and called out launch coordinance. "Five degrees south east by thirty degrees west, twenty degrees up, six degrees to the right to compensate for wind resistance. Fire when loaded." They dropped a shell into the launch tube and it flew out of there like a frog in boiling water. The shell impacted the nearest target and destroyed the mortar crew before they even knew what hit them. But that's when the other crews took notice of what we'd done and they started shooting at us. "Reload next shell." I ordered as an enemy shell exploded next to us just a few feet from our standing point and the launcher. I picked out the next firing coordinance and gave the order to fire again, two down one to go.

"INCOMING!" Trevor shouted as he pointed at an incoming rocket.

"Take cover!" I shouted to the rest of the squad and they all dodged out of the way of the blast. "Shit." The rocket took out the launcher leaving us without a way to take out the other one. "Alice we need some back up here!"

"What do you need from me?" She asked as she circled overhead.

"Take out the last mortar crew fast!" I cried just before another rocket exploded near us. She flew over the mortar crew and dropped off some bombs, they exploded on impact decimating the last crew. "Someone find out where that rocket came from!" I ordered to everyone around me, another rocket came right for us.

"Over there, down by that car!" Vicki shouted as she aimed her rifle at the rocket and fired, with deadly accuracy she destroyed the rocket with a single shot.

"God damn, glad you're on our side." I said as she fired another shot and killed the rocketeer with the same amount of accuracy as before.

"I bet he wishes that I was on his side right now." She cracked a smile as she reloaded her gun. We regrouped with our tanks and with the remaining soldiers of samurai team, thankfully Shakrimi was among the survivors.

"She-she, I'm so glad to see you're okay." Tslonna cried as she ran and embraced her sister as if she hadn't seen her in a thousand years, which is actually how long the average asari lives to be to be honest.

"Glad to see you're okay too, when I heard your bird went down I assumed the worst." Shakrimi said as she returned the hug.

"Tell me you got through to the first fleet and the destiny ascension." I asked with an obvious tone of desperation.

She look down at me with a half satisfied look. "You bet I did, their on their way now and should be here within the hour."

"How long for certain?" I asked again with desperation.

She rubbed the back of her neck then said. "Half an hour tops, I think."

Half an hour? It'll take that long? "That's not good enough, they'll never get here before the cannon gets to the bunker."

"Well then let's try to get rid of it before it does its job. Or at the very least get the shield back up and running." Shakrimi replied as she crossed her arms.

"Oh yeah that reminds me…" I booted up my omni-tool and called Chergg and arlak company to see how their progress was going with getting the shield back on line. "Chergg, this is Cody Blaze do you copy?" I heard only static. "Chergg this is Cody do you read me? Arlak company respond. Someone talk to me please." I began to worry, I know that krogan can take care of themselves usually but they're not invincible, no matter how tough they think they are. "This isn't good, they should've checked in by now."

"I agree, it's not like Chergg to not check in, sure I haven't really gotten to know him as a friend but he's still a soldier, he should've at least checked in by now." Shakrimi said in agreement.

"I'll keep trying, Chergg do you copy?" I just kept on trying hoping they were still alive.

"Sorry Cody but I'm afraid your little Krogan friends are a little tied up at the moment." A voice broke through the silence, a voice I hoped I'd never hear again, Crystal.

"How the HELL ARE YOU STILL ALIVE?!" I shouted angrily, perplexed that she was still alive after I'd just seen her meet her demise.

She began to chuckle over the radio then she said. "Oh believe me Cody, it's not too hard to escape death's icy grip, let alone deceiving you demon scum."

"What have you done with the krogan?" I demanded as I clenched my fist in anger.

"Like I said, they're a little tied up at the moment, but if you want them back so bad here's what we'll do, you surrender to us you and your entire squad and I'll let the krogan go. How does that sound to you?" She said in a smug tone, she was really starting to piss me off.

"I swear to god if you hurt them I'm going to rip out every single vertebrae out of your spine ONE PIECE AT A TIME!" I blasted at full volume.

"Oh is that so?" I heard a gunshot from the other end of the com. "That was one of the krogan…still feel like making good on your promise?" She asked with a high level of confidence.

That's when I shouted at her again. "GO TO HELL YOU SNOW WHITE BITCH!"

"Ooh I'm so scared, just remember though…" She fired two more times. "I'm the one with all the power, now be at the generator in five minutes or else more of your little krogan will be as good as dead in that time…so DON'T keep me waiting?"

(A/N:Uh-oh this ain't good, Crystal's still kicking and Arlack company has been captured by the black hearts, how is Cody gonna win this one, you'll just have to wait and see in the next chapter, which I'm not going to spoil this time guys, sorry but I'm kinda pressed for time today so I have to cut this shorter than I'd like.)