"Commander Shepard?" She saluted. He'd almost forgotten what it was like to have people on his ship who did that. "I'm Comm Specialist Samantha Traynor, with Alliance R&D." She shifted her weight from foot to foot awkwardly. "I was part of the team retrofitting the Normandy after you turned it over to the Alliance." She walked toward him, holding out a datapad, and her voice betrayed additional uncertainty. If she were any less at ease, she'd shatter all over the place. "There weren't many of us aboard when the Reapers hit..."

They were a skeleton crew at best. He needed to do a walkabout, figure out who all was here, what they could do, what they'd fixed, and perhaps more importantly, what they'd broken. "You're doing fine, Specialist Traynor."

"Thank you." She exhaled. "I worked in a lab. I never thought I'd be serving on a ship."

He gestured for her to follow him toward his small office. "Why don't you tell me about the retrofits?"

That seemed to calm her more than the reassurances had. She ran down everything quickly, assuring him they were back in line with the familiar Alliance regulations. "In any event, I'm honored to serve under you, Commander." She turned awkward again. "For as long as you need me, that is. They only sent me here to oversee the retrofits..."

Her usual office was probably buried in the rubble somewhere. If Anderson had trusted her to oversee what he'd intended to be a mobile command center, she obviously had skills. He was about to say as much when EDI spoke up. "Shepard, some of our systems require further testing, and Specialist Traynor has been extremely effective during installation." Traynor looked a bit confused. "I would prefer that she remain."

"Got it, EDI." If EDI wanted her, EDI was going to get her. He'd figure out what paperwork he needed later.

"Wait..." Traynor blinked. "Since when does a virtual intelligence make requests?"

"EDI's an AI." Who'd obviously been playing games. Wait... He knew he'd informed Hackett, but had he ever actually mentioned to Anderson that EDI was an AI? Oh. Oops. Oh well. "Fully self-aware." More so than him, apparently.

"Oh, I knew it." Traynor started shaking her head. "I knew Joker was lying."

"Jeff requested that I pretend to be a simple VI to protect myself. I apologize for the deception."

"Thanks, EDI." Traynor's cheeks reddened slightly. "And I apologize for all those times I talked about how..." She winced. "Attractive your voice was..." Traynor suddenly realized he was standing right there and coughed. "Anyway..." She held up the datapad. "Shall I give you a tour?"

Virtual for now, but since sleep was likely not going to return, he'd be taking a real one in a few minutes.

#

He found his way back to the vid comm. Hackett's form materialized in front of him. "Udina updated me on your meeting with the Council. Sounds like they're running scared."

"The Council has been a pain in my ass from day one." And since he apparently could go around them... "I'm done with them."

"Then what's your plan?" He was a little surprised Hackett didn't say anything about attitude problems.

"I'm trying to get the turian primarch for a summit meeting with the asari and salarians." He shrugged. "I'll bypass the Council and appeal directly to their leadership." Possibly at gun point.

"That's good." Hackett nodded. "I like it. This is where we start laying the groundwork for our counterattack."

"Unfortunately, we don't have a whole lot to back it up right now." He leaned on the railing. He'd need to reach out to Wrex at some point too.

"Then build alliances. Gather everything and everybody you can for the cause."

"What about the Prothean device?"

Hackett took a step forward. "Find me people who can help build it. And if you can't, I'll take ships, soldiers, supplies..." He lowered his arms. "Whatever you can get. Steal the damn silverware if you have to. We need to keep hitting the Reapers across every theater of war they open, buy us time to figure out the device."

"And when it's finished?" It was hard to think that far ahead right now. There were reasons he'd never wanted the geezer's job.

"Assuming it ever is, we pool all our resources. Think of it as a giant armada for delivering the device when the Reapers are most vulnerable. The stronger you can make that armada, the better its chances of punching through."

"You can count on it, sir." Michael nodded.

"It's not just me, son. It's everyone back on Earth." Hackett met his eyes across the light years. "Anderson - and what's left of the Alliance forces - have to hold out until we can deal with the enemy."

"I understand, Admiral."

"Good. Then make it happen. And son..." Hackett narrowed his eyes. "Actually try negotiation. Don't shoot any leadership in the head..." Hackett shrugged. "Unless absolutely necessary. I'll be expecting regular updates on your progress. Hackett out."

#

He decided to start his tour at the top. Joker offered to open a channel to the Council so he could hang up on them, for old time's sake. For the love of... He'd only done that... Michael frowned. Okay, yeah, he had done that a few times. Moving on.

Traynor was nicely settled in where Kelly'd used to be. Kelly'd been a sweet girl, but Traynor, despite her nervousness, was clearly more competent. And probably not spying on him. Liara had taken over Miranda's old office and turned it into a functional workspace for her spying thing. Dr. Chakwas was back where she belonged. They didn't have a cook, which did not bode well, and should probably get some more food supplies soon. At least they had coffee -

Michael frowned, then picked up one of the containers. He peered at the container, sniffed it, then turned it one way before turning it back the other. "EDI..."

"Yes, Commander?"

"The fuck is this shit?"

"According to my records..." EDI paused for several seconds, and he swore there was a note of fear in her voice when she continued. "It is decaf, Commander."

"What the hell..." He could see other horrified looks from the nearby crew. "Is it doing..." He took a deep breath. "On an Alliance ship?"

#

"Lieutenant Steve Cortez, Shuttle Pilot. I've got news about our supply chains, Commander." The soldier stepped away from his console as soon as Michael entered the shuttle bay.

"Good work, Lieutenant." Okay. No need to airlock his shuttle pilot. Stay calm. "What have you got?"

"Dios!" He heard Vega's voice. "Straight to business without even a 'hello?'. You two need to chill out."

"So you do care, Mr. Vega." Cortez smiled as he rolled his eyes. "Or is that the Cerveza talking again?"

Coffee. They could give each other shit when the coffee situation was settled. "So, what's happening with our supply chains, Lieutenant?"

"Alliance procurement chains are in chaos, but the Citadel's economy is still running." That would explain the decaf. "I can network to Citadel retailers. You can view inventory and make purchases right from this console." Cortez gestured.

Michael stepped forward to look at it and noted that Cortez had apparently been in the process of placing a new coffee order when Michael had entered. Good sign. Guy was competent. On the ball. Knew his duty. He exhaled. "When I network to a new store, I'll let you know."

"It does cost more to coordinate delivery to the Normandy..." Cortez shrugged. "So it's cheaper to buy supplies when you're there."

"So, you're my shuttle pilot..." He looked Cortez over again. "But you're setting up procurement chains?"

Cortez shrugged before noting that he was actually overseeing the retrofit of the cargo hold, but since he was also qualified to be the shuttle pilot and procurement officer, he'd stepped up. Plus he seemed to enjoy giving Vega shit. Michael made a mental note to figure out who he needed to kill to keep the guy on his ship. "The first retrofit we did was move the armory down from deck two. I'm not sure what Cerberus engineers were thinking."

"Considering how most Cerberus projects turn out..." Michael exhaled. Things were back like they'd been on the original Normandy. Felt a bit like coming home.

"Welcome back to the Alliance, Commander..." Cortez grinned.

The Hammerhead was missing, and good riddance to the blasted thing. He wondered if they'd managed to get out the scorch marks from Legion trying to park it on the lava field? He kept up a bit of light conversation with the guy as he added a few things to the procurement order, then frowned when the mention of family brought up Ferris Fields.

"I'd rather not talk about it..." Cortez looked away.

Michael nodded. They didn't know each other well enough for him to pry, but he made a mental note to keep an eye on the guy. And maybe check in with Brekin. "Keep up the good work."

"Yes, Commander."

#

"Don't push your luck, Vega. With age comes wisdom..." A point Hackett made to him often enough. "And rank." He caught James with a light jab.

"Ha, you sound like my old CO." James sent a punch his way. Kid was strong, but there were advantages in being a quarter cybernetic.

"Oh yeah, and who was that?" He returned the punch.

James told him a bit about Toni, and Michael managed to get in a jab that caused Vega's nose to bleed slightly. "Nice." Vega grinned.

"What do you mean, 'was?'" James had definitely used past tense when speaking of his former commander.

"Died - with most of my squad - protecting a civilian colony from a Collector attack." James' attacks became slightly erratic as he spoke. Still strong, still trained, but no longer fully in control of himself. Kid could have used some training from Thane and Samara.

"And the colony?" He had a feeling he knew the answer.

"It was either them..." Another slightly wild swing. "Or the intel we had on the Collectors - intel we could have used to destroy them." He was starting to understand why Hackett always insisted on climbing into the ring with him once a year. James' fighting style changed as he spoke, revealing almost more than his words did. "I chose the intel."

Dodging the next swing wasn't difficult, and it was probably best he had. James hadn't pulled that punch. "Sorry. That's a tough call."

"The best part was we didn't really need the intel in the end..." James managed to take a solid breath. "Because you were out saving the galaxy by taking down the entire Collector homeworld."

He didn't return the punches, just kept blocking them, letting the kid get it out. "You didn't know. You can't blame yourself, Vega."

"Who says I'm blaming myself?" Vega came in with what was essentially a haymaker.

Michael shifted, let it pass him, and caught Vega in the jaw with a left. "I do."

"You a shrink, too?" Vega narrowed his eyes.

"No, but I've had to deal with enough of them in my time." He started pushing Vega back. "That stunt back on Mars was reckless. You're lucky to be alive.

"So?" Vega sounded almost petulant.

"So..." This kid wasn't as angry as Jack, nor was he as angry as Michael himself had been when Hackett had taken him in. But Vega was angrier than he thought he was, and that was a problem that needed to be fixed. "Maybe you don't care if you live or die."

"Or maybe..." James glared. "I'm just willing to do whatever the fuck it takes to end this goddamn war."

"Maybe you are." He didn't have a stunner in his back pocket, so instead he just caught the next wild swing and tossed James back over his shoulder. He saw shock on the much larger man's face as he went down. Michael didn't follow up the attack, just looked down at the kid on the ground. "But if you're half as good as I think you are..." If the kid had been on his game, he'd have won the fight. He saw that realization starting to come to Vega's own eyes. Michael stepped back, gave the kid some room. "We need you alive."

Vega stood, then took a couple deep breaths. "Thanks for the pep talk."

Yeah. He definitely had a new understanding of why Hackett made a point of kicking his ass every year. "Anytime."

#

His engineering crew apparently consisted of only one familiar face. Adams smiled when Michael entered. "Commander. Welcome back to the Normandy, or maybe you should be saying that to me."

It was good to see him, and good to see he was getting along with EDI. Adams hadn't been fooled at all, but then, the man had always been smart. Except when he tried to apologize for not following Michael to Cerberus. "You're Alliance first. That's the way it should be."

"I'll get you some more hands down here."

"Or more coffee." Adams shook his head. "Somehow we ended up with a load of decaf."

"Cortez is on it." Michael rolled his eyes. "We can dump what we've got the next time we are near an asari world."

#

"Guessing you can't tell me where you are or what you're doing." Brekin shrugged.

"I've got an embedded reporter, so you'll hear about things soon enough." Michael rubbed the back of his neck. "I know I haven't been in touch -"

"Cause you went and got thrown in jail." Brekin leaned back. "Instead of turning pirate and picking Mikey up to be your second in command. I mean, damn, Shepard. You broke his heart. He had a new flag designed for you and everything."

"I..." Michael blinked, then smiled. EDI could use a bit of new decor. "My procurement officer is good. Send me a vid and I'll see what he can do." He hesitated. "Steve Cortez. He was on Ferris -"

Brekin's smile faded. "Robert's husband. Yeah. Only met him a couple times, but Robert was one of Sandy's regulars. She'd take off 10% for the Alliance discount and he'd put it right back on as an extra tip." Brekin swallowed. "Take care of him, okay." Brekin gave a small smile. "And yourself too. You're uh..." Brekin looked away, then back at him. "You're a better soldier when you're you, and not..." He made a frustrated noise. "You know what the hell I mean."

"Yeah." Michael nodded. "I think I do."

"Kaidan's mom said he got hurt." Brekin tilted his head.

"Pretty bad, but he's in good -" Michael blinked, then replayed the words in his mind. "You're in touch with Kaidan's mom?"

Brekin just laughed. "Fucking Shepard. You have so goddamn much catching up to do..."

#

Palaven was not looking in the best of shape. Garrus had a family down there. A little sister. "Oh no..." He heard Liara's voice. "No... Palaven."

Vega gave her a curious look. "We have an old friend there..." Michael exhaled as he looked out the window. No, not friend. Garrus was family.

"Holy hell..." Vega's eyes widened. "They're getting decimated."

"Strongest military in the galaxy and the Reapers are obliterating it." And if he knew Garrus, the man was right in the thick of things.

"Was it like this on Earth?" Liara glanced over at him.

"Yes." He didn't take his eyes off the view port. He hadn't been able to bring himself to look at the vids of New York.

"Shepard..." Liara touched his arm. "I'm so sorry."

"Yeah." There wasn't much of anything to say.

Cortez interrupted his thoughts. "Commander. The LZ is getting swarmed."

Michael picked up his rifle. Shooting the shit out of reapers would exactly suit his current mood. "James, open that hatch."

#

Finding the commander of the local base wasn't difficult. Establishing communication and figuring out who the hell was in charge was another matter. The man he'd come to find was apparently dead, and with the comm tower down nobody knew who the Primarch was at the moment.

At least the Turian soldiers knew what they were about. Nobody was resting on their laurels or arguing. They were either fighting reapers or trying to keep critical hardware operational and their compatriots alive. "Well, I'm not leaving this moon until I know where the primarch is." Michael nodded to the turian general. "I'll fix your tower." Or blow things up in morse code.

#

He moved into a covering position as Liara went to work on the comm tower. It also served to let him see what Vega was really like in action. He was not disappointed. Michael put a round between another husk's eyes just as Liara reported she was done.

General Corinthus's voice came over. "Much appreciated, Commander. I'll contact Palaven Command."

"We'll help out your men in the meantime." He sniped another husk, then blinked as another round took out two husks in a line. Hmmm...

Michael was about to touch his comm when it crackled to life again. "I have information from Palaven Command. Please return ASAP."

#

A smile came to his face as he heard a familiar voice. "I'm on it, Shepard. We'll find you the primarch."

Michael was opening his mouth for a smart ass remark when he heard the general speak. "Vakarian, sir -" Sir? From a general? Maybe he wouldn't have to shoot that many people to put Garrus in charge after all. "I didn't see you arrive."

"At ease, General." Garrus shot Michael a look that suggested he knew what Michael was thinking.

"Good to see you again." He hesitated a moment, meeting Garrus's eyes. "I thought you'd be on Palaven."

Garrus nodded. "If we lose this moon, we lose Palaven. I'm the closest thing we have to an expert on Reaper forces so I'm..." Garrus shifted his rifle. "Advising."

"James, this is Garrus Vakarian. He helped me stop the Collectors. He's a hell of a soldier."

"Lieutenant." Garrus clicked his mandibles in a smile. "Good to see you too, Liara."

"Good to see you in one piece, Garrus." Liara smiled.

"General Corinthus filled me in. We know who we're after."

"Palaven Command tells me the next primarch is General Adrien Victus."

"Victus?" Liara raised her head. "His name's crossed my desk."

"Know him, Garrus?" Michael raised an eyebrow. If the guy didn't meet Garrus's approval, he could always shoot him and figure out who was next.

"I was fighting alongside him this morning." Garrus must have figured out where Michael's mind has gone, cause he gave a slight nod of approval when he spoke. "Lifelong military. Gets results, popular with his troops. Not so popular with military command - has a reputation for playing loose with accepted strategy." Sounded like exactly what they might need here.

Liara filled him in on a few more details. "Primarch Victus." Garrus clicked his mandibles. "That should be something to see."

"Unconventional thinking might be the only way to save Palaven. And Earth."

"He'll do whatever it takes. Reminds me of an old human Spectre I knew." Garrus smirked. Michael wasn't sure how, considering the man couldn't really move his jaw. But that was definitely a smirk.

"Who you calling old, Vakarian?" Michael narrowed his eyes. "Alright, let's get him on the shuttle and get out of here."

Of course, it wasn't that easy.

It never was.

#

"I'm not sure what that thing was." Michael looked down at the mutated krogan-turian monstrosity. "But I hate it."

General Corinthus came over the comm. "Still can't get a stable comm link."

They really didn't have the time or ammo for this. "Garrus, take me to the last place you saw Victus." Hopefully, Liara would have the ship sorted out by the time they found him.

"Should be pretty quick, unless we find trouble."

"That phrase is right up there with 'what's the worst that could happen'." Michael checked his ammo. "If we get dead, its your fault."

Garrus clicked his mandibles. "Just like old times."

#

"That blaze of orange - the big one - that's where I was born." Garrus didn't look in the direction he indicated. Shepard was here, back in the fight. Maybe they had a chance after all. He vaguely heard a question and answered it. "My dad, a sister." And no information on whether either was alive.

The other human kept talking, and Garrus answered. Seemed the new guy was also from that New York place. A good sign. "If only they'd listened to your warnings about the Reapers." And his. "We might have been ready."

He and Shepard almost simultaneously put rounds through the head of another of the turian-like husks. The new human, James, made a growling sound. "Leaving the fight just pisses me off."

Odds were they'd find plenty of fights. They always did. "But you're here asking Victus to do the same thing. Leave the fight to make nice in some boardroom."

"I think the last thing we need is for this Victus guy to be 'nice'." Shepard sniped another husk. "This summit is the only chance we've got. None of us is beating the Reapers alone. Drag them all there kicking and screaming if we have to."

James shook his head. "You really think this summit will work? I mean, asari? Salarians? Where's the krogan and batarians? Where's the meat?"

As a turian, he should be offended. As a realist, the kid had a point. It was going to take just a bit more than him and Shepard to kill all the Reapers. Shepard made a growling noise. "It's not that easy."

"The batarians took the first hit when the Reapers arrived. Not much left of them..." Garrus clicked his mandibles. "And the krogan have never forgiven us for the genophage." Though with Wrex on the throne...

"Right. Turians sterilized them."

"Salarians came up with it." The defensive comment came out before he could catch himself.

"And the krogan hate them both for it." Shepard rolled his eyes.

"So they won't be joining us." Garrus sighed.

"Meaning if head-butting is required at the summit, we'll have to handle it." Shepard sniped another husk.

"Joy." Garrus shot the other husk. "Almost there."

"Double time. Try to keep up, Vakarian." Shepard started moving faster. "No Reaper's taking this primarch from me."

He clicked his mandibles again before increasing his own speed. Shepard did remember which of them was almost a foot taller than the other, right?

#

"I am primarch of Palaven? Negotiating for the turian hierarchy?"

"Yes." Michael couldn't help but feel a bit of sympathy for General Victus as the man stared up at Palaven.

"I've spent my whole life in the military. I'm no diplomat." Victus shook his head. "I hate diplomats."

He was starting to like this guy. "What makes you think you're not qualified?"

"I'm not really a 'by the book' kind of guy." Victus clicked his mandibles. "And I piss people off. My family's been military since the Unification War. War is my life. It's in my bones. But that kind of passion is..." Victus took a deep breath. "Deceptive. Can make you seem reckless when you're anything but."

Sounded perfectly qualified in his book. This wasn't a damn garden party they were trying to organize. And he didn't have time for coddling. "This is crucial. I need you on top of your game. Are you in or out?"

"Watch your tone, Commander." Victus glared.

They'd sent him as the negotiator. How fucking diplomatic did Victus think this was going to get? "You've meet the Reapers head-on. You're overqualified." He gestured at the planet above them. "See this devastation, Primarch? Double that for Earth. I need an alliance. I need the turian fleet." He didn't add that he was willing to keep shooting primarchs in the head until he got what he needed. Seemed impolite.

And from the look on Victus's face, the man already knew. Victus nodded, then straightened to his full height. "Give me a moment to say goodbye to my men." He turned and walked away to give orders.

Next to Michael, Garrus shook his head. "Without him down here, there's a good chance we lose this moon."

"Without him up there, there's a good chance we lose everything." Michael glanced up at the blaze of orange. For a moment, it wasn't New York in his mind, but screaming horses in a burning barn.

"Look at that." Garrus's eyes went to one of the Reapers. "And they want my opinion on how to stop it?" He shook his head. "Failed C-Sec officer, vigilante..." He turned toward Michael. "And I'm their expert advisor?" He exhaled. "Think you can win this thing, Shepard?"

Horses wouldn't leave their stalls when the barn burned unless they trusted someone to lead them out. They'd burn to death, screaming all the while, with an open door just on the other side of the flames. "Yeah, I don't know, Garrus." He was almost surprised to hear the truth leave his mouth. "But I'm sure as hell gonna give it my best shot."

"I'm damn sure nobody else can do it." Garrus's hand came down on his shoulder. "For whatever it's worth, I'm with you."

Maybe they could pull this off after all. "Welcome aboard." He saw the general approaching them again. "Are you ready, Primarch Victus?"

"One thing." The new primarch nodded. One thing. Wasn't there always? "Commander, I appreciate your need for our fleets, but I can't spare them. Not while my world is burning. But if they pressure could be taken off Palaven..."

He hated it. He understood it, but he hated it. "That's a pretty tall order."

"We need the krogan. I can't see us winning this thing without them. Get them to help us, and then we can help you."

"The krogan..." Michael slowly nodded. Well, it wouldn't really be the Normandy without a krogan on board, would it? James was a big guy, but still...

"Looks like your summit just got a lot more interesting."

Yeah. That was one word for it.