Chapter 9: 'Merc' is a Four Letter Word

When TIMmy suggested a bunch of candidates for my new squad, my first thought was to reassemble my old one. My original band of courageous—or suicidal—misfits who I'd dragged along in my constant search for minerals and miscellaneous loot. My menagerie—myself included—that couldn't help but stick our noses in every single hornet's nest we could find. My party of brave souls who'd slogged through more firefights than I care to remember, all because we got swept up in something so much greater and mind-boggling.

Sure I'd eventually come to accept that too much time had passed, that everyone had scattered and now had new duties and responsibilities, for that dream to become a reality. But that didn't mean I couldn't make a wish every once in a while.

So when I saw that one of my new potential squad-mates was actually an old squad-mate—and a sniper to boot—all I could think was 'Wow. Universe is finally giving me a break here. Must wanna try something new for kicks.' (1)

"Garrus! What are you doing here?" I stepped forward, ready to drag him into a good ol' backslap. Then I stopped. Something didn't seem right.

"Just keeping my skills sharp. A little target practise."

Now I knew something was off. The way Garrus replied clinched it. He sounded tired—no, scratch that. He sounded exhausted. Physically, emotionally exhausted. Like he was this close to giving up. "You okay?" I asked worriedly.

"Been better, but it sure is good to see a friendly face," Garrus replied. "Killing mercs is hard work. Especially on my own."

"What are you doing out here on Omega in the first place?" I asked.

"I got fed up with all the bureaucratic crap on the Citadel," Garrus said bitterly. "Figured I could do more good on my own. At least it's not hard to find criminals here. All I have to do is point my gun and shoot."

"Yeah. About that," I raised an eyebrow. "How'd you managed to piss off every major merc organization in the Terminus Systems?"

"It wasn't easy," Garrus said with a mock groan, tilting his neck exaggeratedly as if to stretch a sore muscle. "I really had to work at it." More seriously, he went on: "I am amazed that they teamed up to fight me. They must really hate me."

"Yes," I said with a straight face. "They really hate Archangel—mild-mannered turian by day, ruthless vigilante by night. Since when did you start calling yourself that, anyway?"

Garrus shifted uncomfortably. "It's just a name the locals gave me. For, um, all my good deeds." He coughed in embarrassment. "I don't mind it, but please... it's, um, just 'Garrus' to you." (2)

"Yeah. Garrus," Zaeed drawled. "Nailed me good a couple times, by the way."

This was news to me. I hadn't seen him complain or anyone notice.

"Concussive rounds only. No harm done," Garrus explained. "Didn't want the mercs getting suspicious."

"Uh huh," Zaeed said dubiously.

"If I wanted to do more than take your shields down, I'd have done it," Garrus pointed out.

Zaeed considered this, then shrugged. "Good shot," he offered.

"Thanks," Garrus replied. He couldn't resist adding "Besides, you were taking your sweet time, guarding the rear and all. I needed to get you moving."

Now I remembered that Zaeed had taken the rear guard position to make sure no one tried sneaking up on us, which probably meant he took more time to get across than the rest of us. Fair enough. Zaeed seemed to accept Garrus's improvisation to protect our cover as well, so I moved onto other matters. "Well, we got here, but I don't think getting out will be as easy."

"No, it won't." Garrus stood up and clambered down the crates to the floor. "That bridge saved my life, funnelling all those witless idiots into scope. But it works both ways. They'll slaughter us if we try to get out that way."

Yeah. All those discussions I had with the merc leaders kinda led me to the same conclusion.

"So we just sit here and wait for them to take us out?" Miranda asked. "You must have a better plan than that."

"Our situation isn't all that bad," Garrus replied. "This place has held them off so far. And with the six of you now..." He looked us over, glanced out at the bridge, then looked at us again. "I suggest we hold this location, wait for a crack in their defences and take our chances. It's not a perfect plan, but it's a plan."

I had to agree. It seemed like the mercs were getting antsy. If they waited to rustle up another round of freelancer cannon fodder, they'd probably come to blows. They had to strike now if they didn't want to tear each other apart. And if they followed their plan and came at us one group at a time, we could whittle them down. Under the circumstances, Garrus's proposal was the best one.

Still, there was no denying that it was the best choice only because we were trapped with limited ammo and rations. "How'd you let yourself get into this position?"

"My feelings got in the way of my better judgement," Garrus replied cryptically. "It's a long story."

"I'll bet," I said.

"I'll make you a deal: you get me out of here alive, and I'll tell you the whole damn thing."

"Done," I agreed. "If we fight as a team, we'll hold the mercs off."

"Especially since that bridge provides a perfect bottleneck," Miranda added.

"You're both right," Garrus nodded. "Your reinforcements and that bridge does counter the mercs' numbers. Let's see what they're up to." He walked over to the ledge and peered through the scope on his sniper rifle. "Hmm..." he said after a moment. "Looks like they know their infiltration team failed."

He turned to me. "Take a look," he offered, holding out his rifle. "Scouts. Eclipse, I think."

I took his sniper rifle and squinted through the scope. Uh oh. Looked like Tarak and the other merc leaders had started phase two. With all the targets running around, and the sniper rifle in my hand, I couldn't resist centering on one, breathing out and letting a round off. The mech's head popped off like a balloon. Funniest headshot I've ever seen.

I returned Garrus's sniper rifle to him. "More than scouts," I said casually. "Mercs are sticking to their plan by sending in Eclipse's light mechs. One less now, though."

"Indeed," Garrus frowned. "We better get ready. I'll stay up here. I can do a lot of damage from this vantage point."

From what I'd seen, he wasn't kidding.

"You..." he paused, a knowing look in his eyes. "You can do what you do best," he said finally. "Just like old times, Shepard."

Before the mechs got too close, I had me and Zaeed placed on either side of Garrus. This would allow us to overlap the firing arcs of our sniper rifles to cover the greatest possible range. Following my cue, Miranda split up the rest of the squad between the snipers, so the biotic and tech experts of the squad would be similarly spread out.

At first, it was basically a free-for-all. I mean, once you've seen one light mech, you've seen them all. Get up, snipe, rinse, repeat. Then Eclipse ran out of mechs and started sending in their own mercs. And by send in, I mean point them at the base and send them in running, with the occasional pause to let off some covering fire. Guess they finally decided that our sniper rifles gave us a definite advantage. Rather than simply stroll across and have our snipers take them out one by one, they'd decided to get into close range as soon as possible.

As a result, it was a bit harder to deal with those guys. I mean, have you ever tried to snipe a fast-moving target? Not as easy as it looks, especially when you're under fire.

The only ones who weren't running were the Eclipse heavy support units, who were busy trying to find cover on the bridge so they could deploy their own weapons. I swear one of them tried to shoot a rocket at me. Not to be outdone, I fired off a reply and drilled a nice neat hole through his helmet.

I lifted my head off the scope to get a better tactical view of the situation and immediately saw a pair of asari running towards us toting shotguns. I'd rather face some random trooper than those two, thank you very much. "Miranda," I called out. "Asari incoming."

"On it," she replied, taking out their barriers with a biotic attack a second later.

"Much obliged," I replied, my eye already back on the scope. I pulled the trigger, and one of the asari's heads exploded in a spray of blue-purple blood. A second later, someone took out the other one.

"Eclipse mercs have entered the base," Garrus abruptly warned us. Great, as if things weren't fun enough already.

"Miranda, Jacob; with me," I immediately ordered, absently admiring his tactical awareness. I later learned that he had set up sensors throughout the base, which were feeding their readouts to his HUD.

The three of us headed for the balcony and the stairs outside the room, leaving everyone else to deal with the rest of the mercs. Consulting my HUD, I quickly determined that one of the mercs was just about to enter the main room below us. Sure enough, the first guy to poke his head out was a lone trooper. He didn't leave it out for very long, but I didn't need much time to take him out with the last shot from my sniper rifle. I'd have to stock up on thermal clips later on.

As I switched over to my submachine gun, I noted that a couple more mercs were showing up. Both of them had shields... right until Miranda overloaded them. I set one of them on fire and watched him flail madly away before the flames overwhelmed him. The other guy, who only got splashed with some of the plasma, managed to slap it out. He finished in time to get a shotgun blast to the head, courtesy of Jacob.

By that point, though, some of the mercs had made it to the stairs, so I ran over to cover it. A quick spray of fire sent them diving for cover. Two troopers, fairly close together.

Before I could say anything, Miranda dropped an EMP on them. The mercs were close enough so that the blast knocked out both their shields, which allowed me to set them on fire. I needed a couple plasma rounds, but I eventually barbequed the lot of them.

Seeing that we were clear, I darted down to scoop up some thermal clips. As I grabbed a half dozen or so, I heard Jaroth call out over some kind of loudspeaker. "All right, let's see how you handle this, Archangel!"

A minute later, I heard Garrus curse. "Damn it! They're sending out a heavy mech."

I laughed, remembering the tinkering I'd done earlier. "That problem should take care of itself, Garrus."

"Shepard, what are you..." Garrus broke off at that point in a fit of laughter.

Pausing to grab another pair of thermal clips, I ran back to join the others. This was something I really wanted to see.

I arrived just in time to see three Eclipse troopers frantically firing away at their former heavy mech ally, who was busy tearing them apart with mass accelerator cannon fire or rockets. One of them frantically tried to dive for cover behind a chunk of debris, only to get blown to bits. (3) Another dropped his gun and ran back the way he came. He took about a dozen steps before he literally got carved in half.

"You know," I said casually, "it's really not fair of them to gang up on that poor mech like that."

"Only bullies would do that," Garrus said, having recovered from his bout of hilarity.

"We should do what we can to help that poor mech out," I decided.

"So long as we don't provide too much help," Miranda frowned. "That hacking job you did on it won't last forever."

"We'll only aid the YMIR until it has the advantage and the mercs are on the losing side," I reassured her. "At which point we'll be obligated to help them out by whittling down the heavy mech's defences."

"And once the poor mech gets overwhelmed by all the mean mercs, we really should switch sides again to help it out," Kasumi grinned.

"It wouldn't do to play favourites," I agreed with a mock sigh.

"This could be a long day," Miranda said with a straight face. Apparently, she'd come to accept the plan. "What a shame."

A half dozen troopers had surrounded the mech by that point, with another two snipers firing from the distance. Bracing my sniper rifle against my shoulder, I took out the enemy snipers one by one, then panned my view down a notch to drill a round through a salarian merc's helmet. By that point, there were only two mercs left, so we switched targets. Just long enough to drain the mech's shields and bring some more Eclipse mercs to join the party.

This went on for almost ten minutes. It probably would have lasted even longer had a rocket launcher-toting merc not taken cover and started sending volley after volley at the heavy mech. The merc had cleverly positioned himself so the mech was directly in our line of sight, preventing us from doing anything. After several minutes, the mech succumbed to the onslaught and exploded. A pyrrhic victory for the merc, though, since he was caught up in the blast.

A slightly deranged cry rang out. It was Jaroth. Accompanied by a pair of Eclipse mercs, he vaulted over the barricade onto the bridge and started to charge. Ignoring his companions, who were killed almost immediately, he ran towards us, firing his submachine gun the whole way. He made it halfway across before a combination of weapons fire and Miranda's EMP took out his shields. I sent a plasma round to partially melt his armour, which halted his momentum just long enough for Kasumi and Mordin to pop a few holes through the weakened armour plates.

Still determined to press the attack, Jaroth took a step forward, only to get knocked on his ass by a well-aimed shot by Zaeed. Garrus finished him off with one shot from his sniper rifle.

I peered through my sniper rifle again, but it looked like we were in the clear. So I quickly scrounged some credits from a locker and swiped a nearby medi-gel pack.

While I was busy, Zaeed picked up a fancy-looking assault rifle. "M-15 Vindicator," he identified. "Damn good weapon. Had one of these a while back, 'till a surprise attack from one of my bounties sent me hurtling out of my quarters with nothing but a pistol."

"I found a couple of those last month," Garrus explained. "If you want that one, it's yours."

Zaeed gave him a feral grin and promptly switched weapons. As he started fiddling with the settings, I went to talk to Garrus.

"You're kicking ass, Shepard," he complimented me. "They barely touched me." He glanced out at the bridge. "And we got Jaroth in the process. I've been hunting that little bastard for months now."

"Why were you after him?" I asked.

"He's been shipping tainted eezo all over Citadel space," Garrus replied. "Half the goods I seized back at C-Sec came from his team here on Omega. I took out a big shipment a while back and killed his top lieutenant in the process."

"And his brother," I added, remembering the conversation I had with the former Eclipse leader.

"That's right," Garrus confirmed. "Not surprised he decided to work with the other mercs after that."

"We've still got Blood Pack and Blue Suns left," I said, getting back to business. "You've been hitting and running their operations, so you must know what their forces are like."

"Yeah. They're pretty damn tough," Garrus said. "Let's see what they're up to."

He did a quick sweep of the bridge and pulled up the building sensor readings on his HUD. "They've reinforced the other side," he reported after a moment. "Heavily. But they're not coming over the bridge yet. What are they waiting for?"

For some reason, that tingling feeling at the back of my neck manifested itself. I had the strangest sense that I was forgetting something.

Just then, we heard a dull explosion. The whole building shook, and alarms started ringing.

"What the hell was that?" Jacob asked sharply.

Garrus accessed some more readouts on his omni-tool. He didn't like what they told him. "Damn it. They've breached the lower level, down in the basement."

Now I remembered. "Some of the mercs said they had blasters working on clearing the tunnels in that area," I said.

"Well, they had to use their brains eventually," Garrus sighed. "You'd better get down there, Shepard. I'll keep the bridge clear."

"Miranda, Zaeed; come with me," I ordered. "Everyone else stays here. Back Garrus up and follow his orders."

"If you say so," Jacob agreed.

Kasumi pouted. "But I wanted to go down into the deep, dark hole," she whined. Then she winked. "Just kidding," she added.

"Thanks, Shepard," Garrus nodded gratefully. "You better get going."

"How do I get down to the basement?" I asked. "And what do I do once I'm there?"

"Go down a level," Garrus directed. "The basement door is on the west side of the main room, behind the stairs. There are emergency shutters in each of the tunnels, which you'll have to close manually before the mercs can get through. I'll radio directions if you need help... but you've got to get down there quick.

"Good luck."

Miranda, Zaeed and I followed Garrus's instructions. Sure enough, there was a door behind the stairs. Now that I saw it again, I vaguely remembered seeing it when I first entered the base. It was sealed at the time, though. Guess Garrus opened it for me. Very thoughtful of him.

The three of us ran through the door and down the stairs into a large room. We could see one of the tunnel entrances at the far end, with a control panel on one side—presumably to activate the shutters. I sprinted over, Miranda and Zaeed hot on my heels, and slapped the controls. An alarm started blaring as the shutters started to close.

"Commencing shutdown," a helpful automated voice announced. "Alert: shutters will be sealed in ten seconds."

Naturally a krogan and a trio of vorcha, all sporting Blood Pack colours came out at that point. I immediately sent a plasma round at them, hoping the fire would slow all of them down.

I had to settle for one out of four, as the other three ignored their burning comrade and just kept coming. Crap.

The Blood Pack was quick to open fire, and we returned the favour. Mostly cover fire, though. We didn't need to kill them, after all. Just slow them down until... yes! The shutters closed shut with a clang.

"Shutter secured," the automated voice told me.

One down...

Garrus must have been monitoring our progress while dealing with any mercs topside, because he contacted us over the comm. Guess someone must have told him which frequencies we were using. "There's two more shutters. Get them closed fast."

Looking around, I saw two more doors, one on each side of the tunnel we'd just sealed. The tunnels must be somewhere beyond them. "Which way?" Miranda asked.

"Does it matter?" Zaeed snorted.

"Not really," I shrugged, glancing around. Arbitrarily, I chose the one on the right. It opened into a large hangar with a tunnel at the end. Could've doubled as a cargo bay, what with all the crates and supplies lying around. Good cover. For us and the vorcha who immediately opened fire as soon as we stepped in.

As one, we leapt for the closest cover and returned fire. Miranda and I spammed our biotic and plasma attacks, respectively, with a healthy dose of submachine gun fire in between. Zaeed was content to thoroughly test out his new assault rifle, mixing in an occasional concussive round for good measure.

It didn't take long before we'd whittled our enemies down to a lone pair of targets. One of whom seemed intent on skirting around and attacking us from our flank. I kept one eye on my HUD and another on my surroundings. It wasn't long until a hungry varren came out. Before it got too close, Miranda crushed its hardened scales with her biotics. I finished the job by setting the mutt on fire.

I motioned Miranda and Zaeed to find new firing positions up front while I stayed behind to watch them. Classic leapfrog position. Worked too, as they immediately opened fire. Moving forward myself, I saw that the one lone target—a vorcha—had some company.

"Here they come. There aren't too many... yet."

That was Garrus. Wasn't sure if he was talking to us or just forgot to turn off the comm. I sent a plasma round to burn an injured vorcha who didn't have the sense to get out of cover. I regretted that action almost immediately, as the plasma illuminated a varren who was charging us.

No time to wait for my omni-tool to recharge. I just unloaded half a clip into the thing, thanking my foresight for activating my warp ammo mod a while back. Thankfully I brought it down before it started chewing—or pissing—on my leg. Not sure which would've been worse.

"Taking some fire, Shepard," Garrus warned again. "We can't hold out long on two fronts like this."

Unfortunately, there was still a stream of Blood Pack mercs coming in ones and twos. Guess we'd have to take a few chances, even if the latest batch included a krogan.

I charged out, sending a surge of plasma in front of me. Miranda helped me out with her biotics, which managed to penetrate the krogan's armour. Then the three of us unleashed a hail of fire on him. Undaunted, he lifted his shotgun, paused long enough to get a good shot, and fired.

There goes my shields, I thought to myself. Biting back an expletive or two, I ejected my gun's thermal clip, slotted in a new one and finished it off. I took a moment to see if there was anyone else coming. Naturally there was. I pressed myself against the wall to present as small a target as possible and hit the shutter controls.

The shutter started to close. Sensing that victory was about to be snatched away from them, the mercs charged. In such close quarters, I didn't have time to snipe anyone, but a healthy dose of fire and submachine gunfire seemed to suffice. I grinned to myself as another vorcha bit the dust.

"Shutter obstruction detected. Shutdown aborted."

What?

A growl answered my question. That and a large vise clamping on my leg.

Looking down, I saw that a varren had snuck by and was trying its darndest to take a bite out of me. I fired half a clip into it, but that didn't seem to dissuade it. In desperation, I resorted to pounding away at it. I generally try to avoid hand-to-hand combat as a rule. It's crude, it's beneath me, and I'm really, really bad at it. But when you've got someone trying to use your leg as a chew toy, you'll try just about anything.

Didn't hurt that the stupid mutt was too busy trying to bite through my hardsuit to fight back. Even when one good wallop finally snapped its neck.

I quickly reached up and slapped the shutter controls again. Looking around, I saw that there were at least half a dozen vorcha milling around and opened fire. For once, I held off on my plasma attacks, waiting for...

Yep, there we go. Another varren. I sent a bolt of plasma at it, setting the damn thing on fire. That didn't send it running away with its tail between its legs, but it did give it reason to pause, if only for a second.

That second was all I needed. The shutter slammed shut, just as the varren leapt at me. I heard a thud, followed by several rounds of pinging noises. Probably from the vorcha.

"Just one more shutter," Garrus said tensely. "Hurry!"

"We're on our way," I called back. "Just hang on."

"They're getting more aggressive, Shepard," Garrus replied. "We won't be able to keep this up for long."

By that point, we'd arrived at the door to the last shutter. We barrelled into a narrow corridor, one with barricades and pillars sprinkled down its length. And vorcha, naturally.

This time, the vorcha seemed more willing to stay behind the barricades and take pot shots at us. So, after a round or two of biotics/plasma goodness, I pulled out my sniper rifle and started taking headshots.

"Damn," Garrus hissed over the comm. "More trouble on the bridge. I can't keep up."

I glanced at my HUD. Two more contacts within my sensors' detection range. Hopefully that would be it and we could double back to help Garrus.

Motioning to Miranda and Zaeed to follow me, I started vaulting barricade after barricade, exchanging my sniper rifle for my submachine gun as I went. Eventually I reached the end of the corridor, which took a sharp right. I didn't actually go around the corner, but I was close enough to see another vorcha.

And that guy saw me. Asshole managed to drain my shields, but not before I set him on fire and sent a few rounds to finish him off. I leaned forward just enough to see the last target...

...and hastily ducked back, jumping over the nearest barricade.

Miranda raised a questioning eyebrow at me.

"Vorcha with a flamethrower," I whispered. "Figured I'd let my shields recharge before facing the oven."

"If you can weaken its armour, I can detonate his fuel pack," Miranda said, looking at me.

"Funny how that plan has me walking headlong into the fire first," I muttered sourly. "Did you plan that, by any chance?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Miranda replied with a straight face. If I didn't know better, I'd say she was teasing me.

"You're all heart," I muttered sourly. Checking my HUD, I saw that my shields were back at full strength. "Here we go."

I grabbed my sniper rifle again, cloaked and darted out. Close range sniper shot. Should be an easy kill, right?

Nope. Took him down to a sliver of health, but it wasn't enough. Thankfully, Miranda had caught up and overloaded his fuel pack. Seeing the guy go up in flames was a very cheery sight.

After that, we went over, activated the shutter controls and held off the enemy long enough for the shutters to close. With nothing else to do, we headed back to Garrus and the rest of the squad.

We were about halfway back when Garrus contacted us again. "Get back here, Shepard," he said tensely. "They're coming in through the doors."

"Almost there," I replied. "Just hang on."

As we ran up the stairs, I heard someone—Garm, presumably—roar out. "Rip them to shreds," he howled. The muffled roar of a sniper rifle was the only reply he got.

The three of us ran into the main room. Garm, almost a dozen vorcha, and a varren or two were clustered near the stairs that led to the second floor, where Garrus and the others were hiding. "Watch my back," Garm was saying to his cronies. "I'll deal with Archangel."

Silently, I motioned for Miranda and Zaeed to get into firing positions. I gave them a couple seconds before sniping a vorcha.

To their credit, the Blood Pack responded quickly. They managed to return fire almost immediately, draining most of my shields before I could find some cover. While I waited for my shields to recover, Miranda and Zaeed teamed up, focusing on taking out one vorcha at a time. Smart move—normally, I'd recommend spreading their fire to suppress as many enemies as possible. With the vorcha's annoying ability to regenerate, though, that tactic would just be a waste of bullets.

I was about to lean out and join the fun when I felt a tingle on the back of my neck, accompanied by a depressingly familiar growl. Sure enough, it was another varren. I set it on fire, unloaded a full clip into the fast-moving bastard, then clubbed it to death for good measure.

With the immediate threat to my health and wellbeing dealt with, I engaged my cloak and poked my head out. That told me three things:

One, there was a vorcha taking cover behind a sofa. Or trying to, as my sniper rifle soon found.

Two, there was another vorcha hiding near the stairs, out of my immediate line of sight.

Three, everyone else was either dead or had already climbed the stairs. The latter was confirmed when Garrus reported, far too calmly, that Garm had him pinned down.

With quick hand motions, I got Miranda to join me by the stairs. With a quick gesture, Zaeed dove over the sofa. Miranda and I whipped out while Zaeed was rolling to his feet. Sure enough, the vorcha had been fooled into tracking Zaeed, so he was completely blindsided by our attack on his flank.

With that last guy out of the way, I quickly grabbed a few nearby clips. No time to do a thorough search, not with the rest of the squad in dire straits. I charged up the stairs, hero to the rescue and all that.

Unfortunately, Garm's flunkies had obeyed his orders to watch his back. On the upside, there was only one of them. On the other hand, it was a krogan. While our initial volley made short work of his armour, I had to exercise a 'tactical withdrawal' to buy us some time. (4)

The krogan must have been eager for blood or something, because he came after us. And since I was last in line, I was the first target he saw. Lucky me.

Thankfully my cloak had recharged by then, and I quickly activated it. A scowl spread over his face as I shimmered out of sight. "Quit hiding," he snapped.

"Fine," Zaeed called out, sending a high-yield round into him. As he staggered back, I sent a round from my sniper rifle through his visor and into his skull. Thankfully, that was enough to finish him off.

Without any bouncers to keep us out of the party, we ran into the second story room. Garrus and the others were definitely pinned down, while Garm stood out in plain sight, shooting anything that dared present itself. Red eyes, red armour—very scary. So you can imagine why I ducked behind cover as soon as I sent a sniper round into his hardsuit.

Letting out a roar of fury, Garm whirled around. I glimpsed Garrus and the others using the opportunity to dent his armour a bit more, but we were a far cry from finishing him off. On the bright side, at least his barrier was already down when we arrived, so we didn't have to tackle that level of protection. Looking at Miranda and Zaeed, I silently counted down from three. As one, we burst out and hurled everything—biotics, plasma and good ol' fashioned gunfire—at the krogan leader.

That was enough to destroy his armour. Now we could start whittling down his health.

I glanced at my HUD. Cloak was ready to engage, but my shields hadn't regenerated yet. If I cloaked now, I'd be stuck with only 33% shields. I decided to wait. Let someone else get in on the fun.

By the time I decided that I'd done enough sharing and popped back up, Garm was busy facing a lot of fire. I grabbed my sniper rifle and lifted it up. I activated my cloak in the process—partly to use the cloak's energy to boost the kinetic energy of my sniper rifle, partly so Garm couldn't see me, and partly because it was still so darn cool to be invisible. I aimed, breathed out, squeezed the trigger...

...and was pleasantly surprised when Garm swayed on the spot, then dropped to the ground with a floor-shaking thud.

Glancing around, I didn't see any more bad guys. I looked at Garrus. "I'm going to grab some thermal clips," I told him.

"Good idea," he nodded. "We'll do the same. Come find me when you're ready."

The search didn't take long. I was back in the room within a minute.

"Tough bastard," Garrus said. "But I've seen worse."

"Sorry I didn't get back sooner," I replied.

Garrus shook his head in disagreement. "You came back at the right time. We've just taken out Garm and his Blood Pack. This day just gets better and better. He was one tough son of a bitch."

Somehow, I didn't think he was talking about Jaroth. "Garm mentioned you tangled with him before."

"Yeah, I caught him alone once. None of his gang to help him. I still couldn't take him out. I've never seen a krogan regen that fast. He's a freak of nature. He just kept at it until his vorcha showed up. It was close, but I had to let him go. Not this time," he finished with a smile.

"Now we only have the Blue Suns to worry about," I observed.

"Yeah," Garrus agreed. "Maybe we oughta take our chances and fight our way out. Tarak's got the toughest group, but nothing we haven't faced before."

I was just thinking that such a plan wouldn't be the best way to keep my skin intact when that tingling sensation abruptly came back. Hard.

"Besides, he won't be expecting to meet us head-on—" Garrus added, just as a large shadow passed behind a nearby window.

"Get down!" I yelled, shoving Garrus towards a nearby sofa. Everyone scattered as the window exploded inwards.

It was the gunship. Tarak's pride and joy. And it was flying.

"Damn it! I thought I took that thing out already!" Garrus yelled.

"Tarak had one of his goons fixing it. I made sure he wouldn't be able to fix it completely!" I yelled back. I did a quick scan of the gunship before continuing. "If I'm reading this right, that thing is still at half-strength. Guess Tarak didn't want to wait."

"Even damaged, gunship adds force multiplier," Mordin said quietly. "Presence is problematic."

"They're unloading troops from the gunship!" Garrus warned. "Watch your back, Shepard!"

Sure enough, a half dozen Blue Suns rappelled down into the room, led by Tarak's second-in-command, Jentha. I quickly squeezed off a shot at her, but it only drained half of her shields.

Miranda and Kasumi tag-teamed one of the troopers, taking out his shields and a good chunk of his hardsuit. Zaeed saw this as well. "This'll put him down," he grunted, shooting a high-yield concussive round in his centre of mass. The merc clutched his chest, staggered, and then dropped to the ground.

Not to be outdone, I spotted another Blue Suns without shields. A perfect target to set on fire. So I did. It was then that I learned I wasn't the only one with that particular function in my omni-tool, as Mordin lit up another hapless merc. Poor guy broke cover and ran halfway across the room before he succumbed.

By that point, Jentha was the only one left. Miranda was quick to smash part of her armour. I followed up by cloaking and firing my sniper rifle. Jacob finished the poor woman off with a blast from his shotgun. At least he didn't blow her cute little head off.

Garrus had taken a break to access his building sensors. "They're rappelling down the side wall. Ground floor!"

The two of us ran over to the other side of the room. I should probably explain that there was no wall or window there, just a large half-wall that opens out into the main room. So it provided a nice vantage point for us to start sniping merrily away. Not that it was a contest.

Seriously—that kind of thing is very unprofessional. (5)

Unfortunately, there were a lot of Blue Suns milling around down there. It didn't take long until one or two made it to the stairs. "Keep firing, Garrus," I told him. "I'll head off anyone climbing the stairs."

Not waiting for his reply, I ran out. Just in the nick of time, as the closest Blue Sun was only a couple metres away. I fired a full clip from my submachine gun into him before shooting a plasma round at him, then ducked to avoid the return fire from his pal.

Pulling out my sniper rifle, I waited a moment, cloaked, and leaned out. Nothing, nothing, noth—there we are! One shot, one kill. I love being a sniper.

I headed over to the stairs, consulting my HUD on the way. There was one more Blue Suns, but he—or she—seemed to be hiding at the moment. I wouldn't be able to attack that merc without exposing myself to the pair of high-ranking Blue Suns taking cover at the bottom of the stairs.

Ducking behind a pillar, I waited until my cloak recharged and activated it again. By chance, one of the Blue Suns had gotten to his feet, about to vault over his cover and start up the stairs. He was just asking to get a headshot. So I gave him what he subconsciously asked for.

Very thoughtful of me, I know.

A second later, Garrus took out the other guy. That left one more Blue Suns hiding around on the second floor. So I cloaked and went merc hunting. I found her quivering in fear behind a sofa, cradling a rocket launcher in her lap. It was the easiest thing to centre on her helmet and fire. She stiffened for a nanosecond, then sagged against the sofa.

I paused just long enough to grab three or four thermal clips, then raced back to join the others. Most of them were under cover. The exception was Garrus, who was panning the room through his sniper rifle scope.

A brief whine, and that damn tingling sensation at the back of my neck, was all the warning we got before the gunship dropped into sight.

"Archangel!" Tarak roared.

Garrus whirled around, just in time to get several rounds slamming into his chest plate. He dropped to the ground with a grunt and started pulling himself to cover, using his sniper rifle as a makeshift crutch.

"You think you can screw with the Blue Suns?" Tarak yelled out over the gunship's loudspeakers.

Garrus forced himself to a sitting position. I could see him counting to himself, steeling himself for an attack.

"This ends now!" Tarak shouted.

I swear I saw the next few seconds unfold in slow motion. Garrus jumped out, sniper rifle at the ready, at the same time Tarak launched a mini-rocket. The rocket exploded in his face with a deafening boom, sending him flying head over heels to the corner.

Belatedly, I took cover myself before the same thing happened to me. "Garrus!" I yelled.

He didn't respond. He just... lay there.

Somehow, I maintained the presence of mind to cloak before firing my sniper rifle. Not much impact. The gunship hovered there, spraying the room with rounds. We returned fire as best we could, but it didn't seem to have much effect. I cloaked and scanned the gunship, looking for a weak spot. Nothing. The vehicle might have been at half-strength, but it looked like the vulnerable points had been reinforced. I let off a shot anyways, but it didn't seem to do much good.

Ducking back down, I exchanged my sniper rifle for something that I hadn't used for a while. Something that had a bit more weight to it. I waited for my cloak to recharge, engaged it and lobbed a grenade at Tarak's not-so-little toy.

To my delight, it took out a good chunk of its armour. Tarak had the presence of mind to move the gunship to another window, where Jentha and the others first rappelled in. Unfortunately for him, he was still within range of my grenade launcher. I fired a grenade, then another, then another. Not sure why I was suddenly so trigger-happy. Maybe because I didn't like the way he'd insulted me earlier. (6)

Tarak withdrew after yet another grenade exploded against his prize and joy, but not before he dropped off a half dozen Blue Suns to tangle with us.

"Engaging hostiles," one of them yelled out, jumping over a sofa. Or he tried to, before Miranda shorted out his shields and I plugged a hole in his helmet.

As he slumped over the sofa, the rest of us opened fire, pinning them down. I think Kasumi was going engage her cloak and sneak attack one of the mercs, but decided otherwise when a volley of fire from Zaeed came close to taking her out from behind. So she settled for zapping another merc's shields instead. Jacob used that opportunity to lift the guy into the air with his biotics, which had the unexpected benefit of sending him twirling into the line of sight of some of his buddies. By the time he was out of the way—and ablaze thanks to Mordin's plasma round—we were already lined up to unleash a withering hail of fire. Literally, in my case.

Consulting my HUD, I grabbed my grenade launcher again and got into position. I counted down, wanting to time things just right. Tarak's gunship dropped into view again, its shadow blanketing the room...

...and then illuminating the room with a fiery light as my grenade blew the damn thing out of the sky. (7)

Sparing a brief glance at my HUD to confirm that the coast was clear, I ran over to Garrus. He was just lying there in a pool of blue blood. (8) I crouched over to check his pulse. Then I realized that I wasn't sure where to check for a pulse on a turian.

To my relief, Garrus's eyes blinked over. He gasped for air, taking in breath after wheezing breath. "Garrus!" I said gratefully.

He didn't reply, his talons closing reflexively over the barrel of his sniper rifle. Behind me, I glimpsed someone scanning him with an omni-tool. "We're getting you out of here, Garrus," I told him. "Just hold on.

"Radio Joker," I snapped. "Make sure they're ready for us."

"Understood," Miranda replied, her fingers already on her comm.

Zaeed squatted beside me, the holographic display of his omni-tool hovering over his arm. He must have been the one I saw in my peripheral vision earlier. He looked at Garrus, looked at his omni-tool data, and then looked at me with an inscrutable expression on his face. "He's not gonna make it," he said softly.

"Zaeed?"

"Yeah?"

"Shut up."

Dr. Chakwas took the news that our latest recruit was an old shipmate without a blink, immediately guiding us through some emergency first aid on the field. I don't think I was ever as grateful for her cross-species medical training as I was at that time.

Somehow, we managed to stabilize him enough for transport, load him on an improvised stretcher and lug him to the speeders—without facing any more mechs. We made a straight bee-line for the Normandy, where Dr. Chakwas met us at the airlock. She immediately appointed Jacob and I to carry Garrus to the elevator and down to sickbay, and shanghaied Mordin to assist her before he could head back to the tech lab to continue his experiments. As soon as Garrus had been transferred to one of the beds, she booted me and Jacob out with strict orders to leave her and Mordin alone.

It was one of the hardest orders I'd ever had to follow, but I managed to obey like the good little soldier that I was. I went up to my cabin, changed out of my hardsuit into my shipboard uniform, fed my fish and proceeded to go through the same e-mail twenty times without actually reading it. After a few hours I gave up. So I went down to the armoury and started performing maintenance on my sniper rifle. And by maintenance I mean disassembling and reassembling it over and over again.

At some point, Jacob walked in. It took a couple tries before he got my attention.

"I was just finishing my meal when Dr. Chakwas came out of surgery," he said.

"And?" I pounced.

He looked at my sniper rifle, which had been taken apart again. "Maybe we should find a change of scenery before you start disassembling everything else here."

He motioned for me to follow him. We walked out of the armoury and into the comm room.

"We've done what we could for Garrus, but he took a bad hit," he said at last. "The docs stabilized his injuries and fixed him up with surgical procedures and some cybernetics. Best we can tell, he'll have full functionality, but—"

He broke off as the doors hissed open. Garrus strode in. "Shepard," he greeted me.

I just stared at him. There was a huge chunk that had been taken out of the collar of his hardsuit. A large patch of skin plate had been scraped off his right mandible, exposing raw dermis underneath. And his jaw was now covered in a circular patch that looked like a weird fusion between a cloth bandage and an artificial joint.

But Garrus was standing. He was moving. He was talking.

He was back.

Jacob let out a chuckle. "Tough son of a bitch. Didn't think you'd be up yet."

"Nobody would give me a mirror," Garrus complained, walking into the room. "How bad is it?"

At last, I recovered enough to swallow the lump that had mysteriously developed in my throat, crossed my arms and pasted a smirk on my face. "Hell, Garrus, you were always ugly. Slap some face-paint on there and no one will even notice."

"Ha-argh!" Garrus laughed briefly before clutching his jaw and wincing. "Don't make me laugh, damn it. My face is barely holding together as it is. Probably for the best, though. Everyone was always ignoring you and hitting on me. Time for you to get a fair shot at it."

I just shook my head in admiration. The guy had been taking on every merc he could find for months, almost got killed for his troubles, gained a few new scars in the process and still had time to crack jokes. Guess he'd taken some of my lessons to heart.

Jacob surmised that the two of us wanted to talk alone. He gave me a salute, nodded to Garrus, and left the room. Garrus waited until he left before he spoke again. "Frankly, I'm more worried about you," he said in a more serious tone. "Cerberus, Shepard? You remember those sick experiments they were doing?"

"Remember them?" I snorted. "I am one of those experiments. They spent two years and over four billion credits bringing me back, plus who knows how many building a new Normandy and stocking her with a full crew, so I could figure out why the Collectors are abducting human colonies."

"I'd heard about that," Garrus acknowledged, "though I didn't know the Collectors were behind it. Until I arrived on Omega, I'd always thought the Collectors were just myths and legends."

"Well they're not," I confirmed. "And for some reason, they've taken an unhealthy interest in humanity. At some point, I'm going to have to go after them and chastise them. That's why I'm glad you're here, Garrus. If I'm walking into hell, I want someone I trust at my side."

"You realize this plan has me walking into hell, too," Garrus pointed out.

I offered him a sheepish grin.

"Hah. Just like old times," Garrus snickered. "I'm fit for duty whenever you need me, Shepard," he added. "I hear you don't have a gunnery officer yet?"

"That's right," I nodded. "Which is why EDI sealed off gunnery control. That's our—"

"The AI," Garrus interrupted. "I know. It told me where to find you. Lucky for you, I served as gunnery officer during the fleet rotation of my military service. Why don't I settle in and see what I can do at the forward batteries?"

"Sounds good," I nodded. "Good to have you back, Garrus."

"Good to be back."

Not content to simply take Garrus's word for it, I waited long enough to research an upgrade or two in the tech lab before heading down to visit Dr. Chakwas in sickbay. That proved to be a short visit.

"Commander, I expect you're here about Garrus?" She went on before I could open my mouth. "While I'd prefer that he stay behind for overnight observation, technically he has recovered enough to move around. As long as you wait a day or so before dragging him into another fight, he should be fine. Physically, that is."

"Physically?" I echoed.

"I talked with him once he'd regained consciousness. To assess his alertness and cognitive status. He seems... troubled. Not that he'd admit it to most people, of course. But he might be willing to make an exception in your case."

"I'll go talk to him," I said.

"Good," Dr. Chakwas approved. "By the way, Shepard, did you get my e-mail?"

"Yeah. If I really need it and I have resources to spare, I'll look into it. Thanks."

"Of course, Commander."

I should explain that.

After Dr. Chakwas had recovered from our bout of drinking, she'd done some research into the effects of all my new implants on my physiology—specifically, my facial scarring. It seemed that aggressive actions and other activities consistent with a negative attitude would cause adverse reactions with my implants, exacerbating my scarring. Conversely, being a nice guy who's all zen and one with the universe would promote integration between the implants and my body, resulting in accelerated healing. Dr. Chakwas theorized that 'peaceful thoughts,' 'compassionate actions,' and maintaining a 'positive outlook' would ultimately cause my facial scars to heal and fade away on their own. If I didn't want to wait, though, she'd downloaded schematics for medical equipment that would insulate my cybernetic implants and remove my scars—regardless of how nice or mean a guy I was. (9)

Anyways, I took her cue and went straight to gunnery control. As I passed by, one of the crewmen—I think his name was Hawthorne—called out. "Rupert, there's something different with tonight's meal. Seems like you put in more food and less ass."

"Yeah, yeah, keep talking," the mess sergeant replied.

Nice to see the crew was enjoying the new rations.

Garrus was hard at work, talons flying over the controls. "Garrus?"

"Shepard," he said, turning around. "Need me for something?"

"Just checking in," I shook my head. "Have the Cerberus crew given you any trouble?"

Garrus knew I was really asking whether any xenophobic bigots had been giving him grief. "I think being part of the team that took down Saren got me some points. Everyone I talk to has been polite, anyway. Don't worry, Commander. We're all working together."

"Have you got a minute?" I asked.

"Sure," he shrugged. "Just checking the weapons systems. You can never be too careful."

I walked over and leaned against the railing. "After spending all that time on Omega, I guess 'never being too careful' became something of a watchword, huh?"

"That's true," Garrus said. "I thought I'd seen every weapon in the galaxy in our fight against Saren. Especially with the way you went about searching for them."

Hey.

"But mercenary work showed me otherwise. And now Cerberus rebuilds the Normandy with a few upgrades to boot. I wish we'd joined up with them sooner."

"We haven't joined Cerberus," I replied immediately. "They're funding our mission. That's all."

"Relax, Shepard," Garrus said soothingly, raising his hand in a placating gesture. "Just a figure of speech. I can't exactly doubt your judgment. Not after I got my own squad killed."

"Tell me about your squad," I prompted.

"There were twelve of us, including me. Former military operatives, C-Sec agents, the usual. Had a salarian explosives expert. Pretty sure he'd spent time in the Special Tasks Group. My tech expert was a batarian, believe it or not. Not the friendliest guy, but he could hack any system ever built."

"What did your squad do?" I asked curiously. "It didn't sound like you were available for hire."

"You saw Omega—it was full of thugs kicking the helpless," Garrus responded. "I formed my team to kick back. We weren't mercenaries. At least, nobody was paying us. We made money by taking down slavers, pirates or gangs that went too far."

"That's it?"

"That's it. We didn't shake anyone down. No civilian casualties. That was our rule. Every member of my team had lost someone to Omega's gangs. We weren't out to get rich. We were out to make those bastards think twice before murdering someone in the street."

"Well it worked," I smiled. "It doesn't sound like you made any friends with the gangs."

"I got three separate merc bands to work together to take me down," Garrus agreed. "My manager at C-Sec would be impressed."

"How'd you organize your attacks?"

"It was simple. We'd hit their shipments, disrupt activities. Get under their skin. Make them angry. They'd come charging right into our well-prepared kill-zone. Crossfire and snipers, clean and surgical. They never stood a chance."

"It sounds like you did an excellent job on Omega," I commended him. "But I still don't understand why you were there in the first place. Weren't you going back to the Citadel?"

"I did," Garrus sighed. "I trained to become a Spectre after the Normandy was destroyed, but it didn't work out. Too much politicking at the Citadel. Nobody was willing to take risks. I even tried going back to C-Sec, but with all the rebuilding at the Citadel, there was too much chaos for me to really help. Omega was filled with criminals nobody else could touch, and there was no red tape to slow me down. It was a perfect fit. People here needed someone to believe in. Someone to stand up to the local thugs." (10)

"That explains how you started," I said. "How'd you end up with a squad?"

"Not too different from how you formed your squad to fight Saren, actually. You prove that you get things done, and people join up. Mercs who wanted to atone. Security consultants tired of playing by the rules. I gave them hope.

"And now they're dead," he finished quietly. "Shows what I know."

That was the second time he mentioned the fate of his squad. It didn't take a genius to figure out that was the little thing I'd sensed earlier and Dr. Chakwas picked up on. I remembered how guilty he'd felt when Ashley gave her life on Virmire, mainly because he was her team leader at the time. Multiply that by eleven... "How did those merc gangs take down your team?"

Garrus shook his head. "It was my own damn fault. One of my people betrayed me."

He walked away, stopping just outside gunnery control. I followed him from behind, so I could listen without crowding him. "A turian named Sidonis," he explained at last. "He drew me away just before the mercs attacked my squad, then he disappeared. Everyone except me is dead because of him. And because I didn't see it coming."

"I'm not sure I understand. What happened, exactly?"

"Sidonis asked for my help on a job. When I got to the meeting point, nobody was there. By the time I got back to our hideout, the mercs had killed all but two of my squad. And they didn't last long."

"Are you sure it was a betrayal?" I queried. "Maybe they took Sidonis out first."

He shook his head again. "No. I've put out feelers with some old contacts. He booked transport off Omega just before the attack. He also cleared out his private accounts before he left. He sold me out and ran."

Okay, maybe it was starting to look that way. "Do you know where Sidonis is now?"

"No. His trail vanishes after he leaves Omega," Garrus replied. "But I'll keep hunting. I lost my whole team, except for Sidonis. One day I'll find him... and correct that."

What did he mean by that, I wondered. And a better question: did I really want to know the answer? Even me, with my insatiable curiosity?

Before I could muster the will or courage to ask, Garrus abruptly ended the conversation. "Thanks for coming by, Shepard," he said hurriedly, striding back into gunnery control. "If you'll excuse me, I've got some things to take care of."

Garrus wasn't really interested in any further conversation other than business, so that's what we talked about. It seemed that the weapons had been given a slight upgrade from the SR-1 specs, but he wasn't convinced they would hold up against a Collector attack. He had some specs for a new 'Thanix Cannon' that might do the trick. (11) There were two problems: I didn't have enough platinum on hand, and it would require docking at a station to install the components. The first problem I could solve. Time to do some strip mining.

Back in the day, I'd just find resources, note their location and send the coordinates off to the Alliance Geological Service in exchange for credits. And I was too lazy to explore every nook and cranny, sticking instead to those systems that had a mass relay. This time, though, I actually needed those resources. So I'd have to do some more digging. Figuratively, that is.

First, I had to get to the systems where those planets were found. Sometimes, it was just a simple matter of hopping through a mass relay. Other times, I'd actually have to cross the vast expanse between systems. Then I had to get into a planet's orbit and use the Normandy's mineral scanner to examine it for mineral deposits. Once I found one, I could fire off a probe to mine the deposit and bring the minerals back to me.

Sounds easy, right? Actually, there was a catch. Figures, I know. Anyways, zipping between systems that had interconnecting mass relays was free. Cruising to and from systems that didn't have mass relays used up fuel—which I had to pay for. And I could only get fuel at fuel depots, which were sometimes—not always—in systems that held mass relays. Second: each probe cost 20 credits. And I could only get them in packets of up to five. Even if I only needed two, too bad—I'd still be charged 100 credits.

Bottom line, I had to be really efficient about cruising around, and I couldn't afford to strip mine every single planet. In the end, I restricted myself to mining from planets that had a lot of deposits. Even then, I only mined the richest and largest ones. And that still took a lot of time—I spent more hours than I care to remember at the CIC, staring at planet mineralogical data until my eyes dried out.

While I did that, I kept thinking about Garrus. What he had gone through. What he was still going through. I thought about him while I was scanning for minerals. I thought about him while researching all sorts of nifty upgrades for the ship and the squad. I thought about him when I dropped by Omega again to buy a disgustingly expensive sniper rifle upgrade. And I kept arriving at the same conclusion.

I broke the news to Miranda first. "How is Garrus?" she asked.

"That's actually why I came here," I replied. "The squad's large enough now to split into two fire-teams. I want Garrus to lead one of them."

"Interesting," she replied. "'Archangel' was originally brought to our attention because of his tactical and strategic expertise, and that was before we discovered that he was your old squad mate. Still, he seemed... distracted. And not just because he was mentally and physically exhausted."

"Yeah, there's a reason for that," I started before a thought occurred to me. "I'm surprised you don't know that. I mean, there are bugs all over the Normandy. Didn't some of them pick up my conversation with Garrus?"

"Probably," she shrugged. "But my duties don't allow enough time for me to peruse every single recording. EDI scans them and sends me any logs that are flagged with certain keywords. Otherwise, they're sent to Cerberus through burst transmissions for further analysis and storage."

Makes sense, I guess. Still don't like the reminder that virtually every move I make is being recorded in real-time.

I quickly gave her a brief synopsis of my talk with Garrus, and my concerns about his desire to track down Sidonis.

"In short, Garrus seems to feel that he's lost his mojo because he let his squad die," I concluded.

"It sounds like there were a few things that he could have done differently, but nothing that would have made a significant difference," Miranda frowned. "I'm more concerned with his obsession over this 'Sidonis.' This could prove a liability to the squad and the mission."

"That's another reason why I want him to lead," I pressed. I knew she was probably thinking that I just didn't want a Cerberus representative leading one of the teams. She was right, but that wasn't the point. "Look, you directed my resurrection back on Lazarus Station and you're doing an outstanding job fulfilling your responsibilities as XO. You've established your leadership credentials."

"And Garrus?" Miranda prompted.

"Garrus needs something to prove that he can still be an effective leader. To himself, if nothing else. Otherwise, he'll keep nursing his failures and go all 'Ahab' to Sidonis's 'Moby.'" (12)

Miranda apparently understood my obscure literary reference as well as my rationale. "And if that is not enough?"

"Leave that to me."

"Very well," she relented. "You'll still be squad leader, so you can gauge his level of distraction and address it if necessary. I'd recommend that you attach Jacob, Mordin and Kasumi to his command. That will provide a balanced skill set for both teams."

"Good to see we had the same plan," I approved.

Having worked that out, I headed back to my cabin. Remembering how my earlier talk with Miranda touched on all those bugs that are floating around, I checked the status of the lone bug that I left behind. Someone had figured out that I tampered with it and switched the feed back to my room. I redirected the signal to the hangar bay before scrolling through all the new e-mails I got. Cerberus wanted me to go do this and that. Yeah, yeah.

Emily Wong said hi and was wondering if she could have an exclusive interview with me at some point. Apparently she—like most people—was under the impression I'd been on a deep cover assignment for the past two years.

Next one came from Samesh Bhatia. His wife was one of the marines who died on Eden Prime and I helped him retrieve her body. He opened the restaurant that his wife had planned to open after her tour was over and implemented a little deal that allowed Alliance soldiers to eat for free—as a token of appreciation. Nice touch. What surprised me was that Udina was the one who offered to send the message on his behalf. Either he wasn't feeling well or the sour cranky-pants was willing to extend a nice gesture as long as I was out of sight.

I also got this e-mail:

From: Jonn Whitson

Hey, Aria gave me this address. I think I met you at Afterlife on Omega. You stopped me from joining up with those mercs who were trying to take out Archangel.

Man, I was pissed off at you. I got blind drunk that night, and it was a few days later before I got it together enough to check the news vids and saw that almost all those mercs had gotten killed by Archangel.

I don't know who you are or if you got out of there alive yourself, but thanks. I felt really stupid when I heard about the body count, and how I could have been part of it. I'll make the most with what you did for me.

Jonn Whitson

Will wonders never cease.

(1): The reports filed by the rest of Shepard's squad indicated that he also flashed a wide grin that spread from ear to ear and gave a slight jump that could have been a prelude to a dance of celebration.

(2): Several sources, including Shepard himself, noted how Garrus viewed him as something of a mentor. Therefore, it is quite interesting to see Garrus be embarrassed by his newfound reputation, much like Shepard is.

(3): This drawback was the primary reason why use of mechs were restricted to situations where there was no other alternative or there were enough mechs to compensate for one or two getting hacked.

(4): An old euphemism for 'retreat,' frequently used as it was less cumbersome to say than 'discretion is the better part of valour.' [He's cute when he's anal.]

(5): While Shepard made light of many things, he tended to take the professional behaviour of a sniper quite seriously.

(6): Or maybe it was the way Tarak dealt with Garrus, an old friend and comrade who he'd only been reunited with for a short time, so decisively.

(7): By this point, Shepard had used more grenades in the last month than he had during the entire duration of his mission to hunt down Saren Arterius.

(8): Turians possess hemocyanin in their blood, rather than the haemoglobin found in human blood, which explains why turian blood looks blue. This is consistent with the metallic exoskeleton and other aspects of their biology.

(9): This theory of 'mind over matter' may seem remarkably simplistic, but was ultimately accurate. By this point, most of Shepard's scars had healed. Within a few weeks, they were all gone.

(10): At the time of this conversation, the Normandy was still orbiting Omega.

(11): During a joint effort by human and turian volunteers to remove debris from the Citadel's orbit, the turian Office of Technological Reconnaissance secretly salvaged Sovereign's main weapon and large amounts of its element zero core. They discovered that this core powered an electromagnetic field that suspended an iron-uranium-tungsten alloy in molten liquid form and accelerated it to a fraction of light speed upon firing. Therefore, Sovereign's weapon was more akin to a mass-accelerator weapon that dealt damage through impact force and extreme heat than a directed energy weapon. Within eight months, the turians produced their own version, which they called the Thanix Magnetic-Hydrodynamic Weapon. This weapon was equal to a cruiser's firepower, but was small enough to mount on a frigate.

(12): A reference to 'Moby Dick,' a novel by human author Hermann Melville that was published in 1851.